Crimson Light - Chapter 1 Preview

Maddie charged forward with her husband Gras. Sweat and the blood of drilockk stained their leather breeches and jackets. Brilliant white light flashed at the top of the towering edifice of stark white stone before them, its trinity of spires piercing the night sky to touch above the tower summit. The light pulsed a second, a third time, falling across the valley and forested mountains, illuminating each leaf with a vibrant green glow.

“Abigail must have done it!” Gras shouted, the din of battle between his Forest Fugitives and the drilockk raging behind them. “She opened the door!”

Still running, her breathing labored, Maddie scanned the tower. The platform at its summit was invisible at that staggering height, except for the spires. A small group of drilockk stood at the tower’s base, snarling beneath red hoods. She hoped she and Gras could manage them.

The illuminas had secured the advantage they’d hoped for when the hundred-strong battalion of Forest Fugitives had attacked the drilockk base at the ruins of Undertree to create a diversion for Abigail, Jak and Ella to take the tower and open the door. The red-cloaked beasts had fought fiercely in the initial charge, and although several Fugitives perished at the tip of a spear or arrow, soon the brilliance of Immaru's light threw havoc into the enemy ranks. Forced to shield their eyes against the despised radiance, the drilockk struggled to fend off their attackers.

The Fugitives had moved swiftly through Undertree, slaying scores of drilockk and sending others fleeing into the forest. But as the Fugitives entered the tower valley, a group of the stoutest creatures outflanked them, launching an assault from the southeast gap that opened into the valley below.

An arrow sped past Maddie’s head, and she wished that her husband and battalion had proper armor instead of feathered caps and leather outerwear. Another burst of light lit up the sky above the tower—the flash of a cloudless thunderstorm raging above them. Gras stopped and pointed. “Look! I see Jak and Ella!”

Two small silhouettes stood halfway up the stairs angling upward against the four corners of the tower’s exterior. One shot an arrow straight down at a drilockk at the tower’s base. It missed. Some of the beasts began to ascend the stairs, hissing in fury.

“Hurry!” Gras shouted. He rushed toward the tower.

Maddie charged after him, rage and fear rising within her. They had little time to save their friends. Her eyes raced upward to the tower spires. Was Abigail the reason for the symphony of light? Had she managed to bring the warrior, Tarin, back from the other world?

About a hundred feet from the platform, Gras halted. Beside him, Maddie worked to catch her breath. Fifteen drilockk stood shoulder to shoulder and lifted their swords in front of their hooded faces. They were ready to fight. Dozens more stood beyond, crowded against the stairs. Maddie could see little past the hoods but knew scaly, snarling mouths full of jagged teeth lurked beneath.

The drilockk advanced. Maddie shifted to a battle stance, one foot forward and one back. The fingers of her right hand tightened around her bow. Behind her came the shouts of her people—about fifty remained, assuming none had been killed since their rush into the valley. Whether those were shouts triumph or defeat, she couldn’t tell.

In her left hand, her illumina flared hotter. She lifted the glass object, finding encouragement as its light danced against the edges of her bow. Gras took a similar posture, holding his illumina against the hilt of his sword. He glanced at Maddie, nodded, and pointed the weapon at the approaching drilockk. “Taka du ra!” he shouted—a battle cry from the ancient language. Thief the loremaster had claimed the command would cast fear into anyone who opposed the light of Immaru.

Together, the beasts halted, slowly lowering their swords.

Gras and Maddie looked at each other. Although Maddie had seen a command like that press a small group of enemies to back away, she’d never seen such instant obedience from a group this size in the heat of battle.

Then she felt it—an odd energy reverberating from the top of the tower, one that contrasted with her illumina’s glow. The energy stilled her heart even as the drilockk in front of her began to hiss in an eerie excitement.

“The masssster. The masssster.”

Gras tensed, and Maddie scanned the tower for the source of the dark feeling. The forms of Jak and Ella still crouched halfway up the stairs. Light glimmered from their hands, illuminating a dagger, a bow, an empty quiver of arrows. The drilockk pursuing them had stopped partway up the stairs, looking up.

A thunderous roar echoed from the top of the tower. Maddie dropped her dagger and clutched her ringing ears as a winged figure, possibly a woman, shot over the tower’s edge toward the nearby mountains. Surely, that sound hadn’t been her?

The woman spun and lifted a fiercely glowing object just as something else, something massive, burst toward her from the tower’s lip.

“Bostt!” someone shouted from behind Maddie. Screams erupted as Maddie, ears aching, turned to see Fugitives fall to their knees, holding their ears as another roar cut the night air. Those few drilockk remaining—her battalion seemed to have vanquished most!—stood in reverent awe, also gazing at the hairy, bear-like monster adorned with leathery wings like that of a great bat. The beast swung its mighty arms and thick claws at the winged woman while she dodged blow after blow.

“Stand your ground!” Gras yelled to the troops, though he was still wincing from the monster’s last roar. He grabbed Maddie’s arm. “We need to charge! Morale is fading!”

Maddie nodded, returning to an attack stance despite the weakness in her knees at the sight of the monster. Memories of the creature flooded back to her, from when she was a girl, when it—or another of its kind—had attacked Northlake and killed many a villager. She pushed the memory away and looked behind her. The sight stirred her heart. Her people had regrouped. They were ready for a final charge.

Above Maddie, the winged woman threw beams of light at the Bostt. Undeterred, it thrust the black-veined expanses of its wings in relentless pursuit. A rising hiss of jubilation echoed from the group of drilockk at the tower’s base. Some again began charging up the structure.

“Jak and Ella, they’re trapped!” Maddie yelled.

Gras lifted his sword. “To the tower!” He rushed at the waiting drilockk.

Maddie glanced behind her. The Fugitives gripped illuminas in cut and bruised hands—and in one unified cry, charged.

Maddie sprinted after Gras. Above, Jak and Ella held daggers, ready for their attackers. Maddie pocketed her illumina and reached for an arrow. Her heart pounded. These would be the final moments of this battle, whatever direction it took.

Slowing, she traced the tower steps with her eyes to the highest drilockk. She released an arrow. It zipped skyward. The arrow shaft embedded between the drilockk’s scales at its neck. The beast spun, convulsed, then fell. It struck face-first onto the platform at the tower’s base. Dark blood pooled onto the white stones beneath its motionless body.

Gras raised his sword, setting his feet as three drilockk snarled and charged toward him. Maddie nocked another arrow. Behind her, metal rang against metal. Her people were fighting, and fighting hard.

In the corner of her eye, Maddie caught another battalion of red swarming in from the mountains to the east. There were at least fifty. Her heart sank. That would be too many for the already tired Fugitives. A hiss drew her attention back to the moment. She pulled back on the string of her bow, took a deep breath, and focused on the chest of a nearby enemy. She was just about to fire when a wave of nausea washed over her. She forced back a gag as her bow slipped in her hand.

Gras’s sword met with that of the first approaching drilockk.

Overwhelmed by dread, Maddie searched the distant tree line. There, she spotted two yellow, orblike eyes. They blinked twice as if studying her. Her arm trembled. Other eyes appeared around those as if some group of wicked wild animals were studying her, taunting her. She could almost hear them, a collective of malevolent voices whispering silent curses as one in her direction.

“Gras,” she whispered, but all she heard was the sound of metal meeting metal, mixed with hissing and labored breathing. A mist seemed to envelop her mind, fading the rest of the world into haziness and darkness. All sounds around her grew muffled.

The eyes vanished, and the tower valley came back into focus.

A man screamed, then groaned. A wild hiss followed. A blood-soaked sword glinted above her husband.

“No,” she sputtered.

She drew her bow, pulled back the string, and fired.

The drilockk attacking her husband convulsed, hissed, then collapsed, taking its still-lifted sword down with it.

“Gras!” Maddie shouted as she ran to him.

He collapsed onto his back, and just as she reached him, he looked up at her. His face contorted in agony as he clutched his abdomen. Then his eyes widened, and he sputtered, “Behind you!”

Maddie spun. A drilockk with a dagger lunged at her. Its blade missed, but its body smashed into her. The creature rolled on top of her, again brandished its dagger, and with its free hand, tore off its hood.

Two wild eyes, both snakelike and human, bored into her and flashed with the fury of battle. She nearly vomited at both its sight and terrible, rotten odor. Its scaled face was a grotesque blend of frog, snake, and human, and its breath reeked of rotting flesh. She squeezed her eyes shut with a shudder, waiting for the sting of its dagger. This would be the last image she’d ever see in this life.

Behind her eyelids, something flashed, and a woman shouted. Her body was wrenched free from the terrible, crushing weight, and a hand grabbed her, hoisting her up. She blinked. A glowing woman in shimmering armor stood before her, with outstretched wings like an eagle, gazing into her eyes.

“Hurry!” the woman commanded. “You still have arrows.” She pointed to the tower where drilockk advanced on Jak and Ella.

The woman darted to where the rest of the Forest Fugitives—perhaps thirty—fought the greater force of remaining drilockk. The additional battalion stopped, and began retreating. Nearby, Gras lay wounded—Maddie was unsure how badly. On the tower stairs, furious drilockk rushed toward Jak and Ella. Further up, the tower summit shone in an eerie contrast of brilliant red and white light. That sight sent her mind back to those eyes in the forest.

She looked back in that direction. Nothing was there.

Remembering Jak and Ella, moments from death, she retrieved a fresh arrow. Again she saw her husband on the ground. He clutched his abdomen over a growing, dark spot on his leather jacket. Fear gripped her heart. He winced and pointed at the tower.

“Help them!” he gasped. Blood trickled from his lips.

All things but him disappeared as she threw herself over his body.

“Maddie, leave me…help them!”

She fought back tears as two arrows flicked past her head. She crouched over him, found where she thought the wound was, and pressed down hard. He screamed in pain, but she kept pressing.

“I’ll slow the bleeding!” she cried. Blood gushed between her dirty fingers. She cursed. “No, no, no—” She drew her dagger and cut away at the leather jacket. A gaping wound ran deep into Gras’s belly. Her stomach churned, not at the blood but at how terrible the wound was. “Gras…no, Gras…” Tears splashed and mixed into the pool of red.

A shout of triumph erupted from somewhere behind them. Maddie paid it no mind.

“I can fix this,” she said, continuing to press hard on the wound. She leaned in and kissed Gras on the lips, tasting blood as she pulled away. “You’re going to be okay.” She rested her forehead against his. “You’re going to live.”

“Maddie,” Gras coughed.

“No,” Maddie said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Maddie!” Gras demanded.

“Stop!” Maddie screamed. Gras raised a hand and placed it on her now-soaked cheeks. “They’re—they’re going to need you,” he said.

“No!” she wailed.

Gras grimaced, coughed, and then refocused his eyes on her. She saw a growing peace in them, even as the light within seemed to dim. “Maddie, they need you.” More blood covered his lips. “Daisy needs you.”

“Stop it!” Maddie screamed, pressing harder on the wound. This time he didn’t shout in pain. The light in his eyes continued to fade. “Tell Daisy I love her,” he sputtered, “and that…and that…”

“Stop it!” Maddie yelled again.

Gras forced a smile as he gently stroked his wife’s face. His eyes widened, sparking with a moment of sudden realization. “I see…I…”

“Gras!” Maddie screamed.

The pool of blood thickened around them as Maddie sobbed. Somewhere amidst her turmoil, a hand touched her shoulder, and a light flickered. Maddie managed to look up. The woman who had saved her from the drilockk stood above her, wings pressed straight against her back, her illumina glowing softly. But in this woman’s eyes, Maddie recognized the same hopelessness she felt. Neither Glorion nor illumina could save her husband now.

The scream that followed from her lips echoed through the valley, even as other shouts rose of “Warrior! The warrior has returned!”