Chapter 14: Stone Knight

  They did not immediately enter the boss door.

  Cole and Faelen stared at it. It was nothing special, as doors went. Big, yes, two double doors with the image of a Knight riding a horse emblazoned on it. The carving was worn at the edges from the countless hands that had touched it over time. The metal looked dull, almost thirsty.

  “This is it, then,” Cole said slowly.

  Faelen nodded.

  “It is. Beyond this door is the dungeon boss. If we beat it, the Ethereal will reward us.” The elf swallowed, then exhaled. “Cole Rourke you should know…”

  “Yes?”

  Faelen rubbed his face, looking suddenly haggard and worried.

  “Bosses are difficult, and this is a tier two dungeon meant for a party of 4. My party was wiped out at the first elite we encountered. The only reason we have gotten this far is whatever magic you’ve been using. This could very well be the end of us. What’s more, dungeon bosses are like a trial in of themselves. That is to say, the Ethereal sometimes adds more than just a boss fight.”

  The elf looked down at his shovel.

  “All I have is a shovel for this.”

  He stared at the makeshift weapon for a moment, then nodded decisively,

  “Whatever happens,” Faelen said, voice quieter now, “I am happy to have met you. You saved my life. If we survive this, I will never forget it. Should an opportunity ever arise for you to come to Alastaria, come and find me.”

  Cole held out a hand.

  Faelen stared at it.

  “You take it with yours and we shake. It’s a thing in my world,” Cole said.

  Faelen smiled and took his hand in a firm grip. They shook.

  Cole released Faelen’s hand and turned his attention to the door. He padded his pockets, feeling the vials in his jacket, feeling the thin curtain sack tied to his ruined pants, the knot digging into his hip. Mend potions. Purge tonics. A little insurance, as if anything in this place could be insured.

  “Alright,” Cole said. “No more waiting. No more delays. It’s do or die.”

  He reached out to push the doors open.

  The moment his hand touched them, they rumbled. The vibration traveled up his arm and into his teeth. Slowly, they opened inward, sliding over stone with a grinding sound that felt ancient.

  Cold air rolled out.

  Beyond the doors was a vast chamber, almost an ancient arena, a forgotten colosseum. Tiered stone rose in a wide curve, disappearing into darkness. Torches burned high in alcoves, steady and unnatural. The floor was a circle of scarred stone, cracked and pitted.

  Cole and Faelen walked into it.

  Their steps echoed.

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  From the far end, another door opened, and Cole caught the glimpse of some kind of item, long and dark and metallic, but it was gone as the massive trotting of hooves echoed through the chamber.

  Plodding to the center was an armored Knight on a horse, similar to the knight Cole had faced what felt like weeks ago at this point.

  Similar, and yet not.

  This one moved like a person.

  In its right hand, it held a massive spear, longer than Cole was tall. The shaft was a dark metal carved with runes. The spearhead glinted with green sheen that did not belong to any steel Cole had ever seen.

  The horse was huge, made of dark stone. Runes spiraled over it. With every step dust lifted in tiny puffs and hovered for a heartbeat before settling again.

  A dark red-yellow glow came from within the Knight’s visor.

  It whirled the spear once, smooth and practiced.

  The doors behind them slid shut with a hollow boom.

  Cole’s stomach dropped.

  There was a single moment that hung in the air between them. A moment that felt stretched thin.

  There were little moments like that you often missed, Cole knew. The types of moments that were hard to describe to people that hadn’t experienced them.

  Marrying your spouse.

  The birth of a child.

  Subtle shifts in the world that made you stop and go “I’m different now. Something has changed.”

  Cole faced that massive Knight. A monstrosity that he would have never thought existed if you had asked him before…before all of this.

  He faced him, and knew, knew that here is where things changed. Because this was where he either escaped this dungeon, or he died here, forgotten.

  Nathan would never see him again. If he were alive. Either way, Cole would never know if he died here.

  Just like that the moment was gone.

  With a roaring grind and a twirl of his spear, the knight galloped toward them.

  The stone horse moved faster than it should have. Hooves hammered the arena floor, and the sound swelled until it was the only rhythm in Cole’s skull.

  Green light played over the point of the spear, crawling along the edge.

  “Edict:Null Hymn!” Cole shouted.

  His spell did its work, invoking a song of erasure, of forgotten knowledge that would stay forgotten. The hymn touched the green light and it stuttered, flickered, then died as if it had never been there.

  Cole did not wait to see what happened next. He already knew.

  “Choir of Verdict.”

  Shadow wings flared behind Cole’s back.

  A black halo formed over his head.

  The knight was suddenly brought up short.

  The horse skidded, stone scraping stone. The charge hesitated.

  Faelen moved instantly.

  His shovel smashed into the Knight’s head with a boom of metal on stone. The sound rang out across the arena.

  It did very little.

  The Knight barely felt it. Its head turned a fraction.

  “Edict: Disarm!” Cole said.

  The spear hummed, shaking. For a split second, Cole felt that pull in reality, Authority pressing in, the world leaning toward his command.

  The spear fell from the Knight’s grasp.

  Cole thought this might be easy for a brief second.

  He was soon disabused of that notion.

  Runes flared on the haft of the spear and just as it hit the ground, it snapped back into the Knight’s hand. The boss did not even look down. It simply reclaimed what it believed was allowed.

  Runes over the horse flared, and in a bright light, the knight and horse vanished.

  Authority rang in Cole’s mind, and he rolled out of the way on instinct. Faelen also dived away as the Knight galloped from behind them, spear piercing the ground where they were just at.

  Stone exploded. Chips flew upward. Dust burst in a ring.

  Cole came up hard and whirled around.

  “Ashen Aegis,” he called out just as the Knight wheeled around, the spear lashing outward.

  It hit that subtle area of no that Cole’s spell had formed around him. The spear slowed, piercing forward anyway.

  Cole felt pressure in his chest as if the spear was pushing on him through the spell. The Aegis held, but he could feel it giving.

  Still, he had time.

  Cole threw himself aside, rolling. The spear finally punched through and dug into the ground, sending more stone chips into the air. If the weapon had not slowed, Cole would have been cut in half.

  The Knight ripped the spear free and backed the horse a half step. Runes shifted over the armor as light began to gather around the whole weapon. The glow thickened and then swelled into a growing ball above the spearhead.

  Cole’s gut went cold.

  It hefted the spear and the light gathered faster, brighter, denser.

  “Edict: Null Hymn!” Cole called.

  His hymn slammed into the forming magic, that subtle song of forgotten things humming as it tried to erase the spell before it could be born.

  Only this time, his hymn didn’t seem to work.

  The light rippled, and then it kept building. Kept growing. Kept insisting.

  Dread built in Cole’s stomach.

  He wouldn’t be able to stop it.