Chapter 24
Lizzy darted away from the monstrosity and ran for cover, yet some of the Lijissa soldiers standing close by were not so fortunate. The thing came to life and it struck out at them, sending them tumbling backwards, one with a shattered skull! Vekao sensing that it might attack Davkas, leaped out in front of it swinging his huge battleaxe! It bounced of the creature’s hard skin and it took a swing at him next! Vekao danced back out of the arc of the blow and decided it might be best to back off a bit. Taithmar yelled at the men next to her “Get back away from it! Stand clear!”
Captain Hammerstone and his now few remaining dwarven warriors came running up to the elemental, they motioned for the party members to stay clear, in the meantime Davkas turned his attention back to the dark mage, trying desperately to strike him! But he would soon get some help for Argha stepped forward and engaged the evil mage himself, he was armed with a magical war hammer and intended to use it on his head! He swung at him and connected! Drawing a sharp yelp of pain from the mage catching him on his shoulder, the dark mage turned and pulled out his only remaining weapon, another wand! Argha was not to get a chance for a killing blow for the dark mage took aim with his newly produced wand and triggered it sending the mind mage, Argha, flailing backwards with a wave of force like a hammer to his chest!
Taithmar had turned away from the Dhag’arii mage and turned her attention to the earth elemental, she pointed at it and spoke a word, and a blast of bitter cold air came forth and struck the thing! It howled in pain and rage, for that seemed to have had some effect on it, with layers of frost and frozen dirt hanging from it now. It turned its attention away from Vekao and turned towards the mage, it took a step forward to close the distance between them, shaking the ground in the process. The remaining Lijissa warriors had regrouped by this time, there were just a scant handful left, and they launched an attack at the thing, arrows flew into it and clattered off it, falling to the ground, no normal weapon could harm an earth elemental after all. So they tuned their attention away from the earth giant and aimed their weapons at the Dhag’arii mage instead.
“Stop this madness and we will spare your life!” Davkas shouted at the dark dwarven mage.
Tin’ther just laughed and then responded by saying “You will be the ones dying this day!” With that he pointed his wand at Davkas and sent the elf tumbling backwards and into a nearby tree with a thud.. Tin’ther just laughed again. Davkas rolled on the ground, in obvious pain, the soldiers came running to his aid!
“You will pay for that!” Sergeant Blackrock shouted at the dark mage and ran towards him swinging his battleaxe as he went. He came up to the mage and attempted to strike him, but this proved difficult, and he ended up missing him terribly! The mage stepped back slightly and pointed the wand in his hand at the dwarven sergeant. Just like that the magical force in the wand struck the sergeant full in his chest! He too was flung backwards and landed in a heap and he was not moving at all! The remaining contingent of dwarves, lead by their brave Captain leaped to his aid, but when they reached him they knew that he was dead, the life blasted from him by the wand in the hand of the evil Tin’ther! Then they were engaged by the remaining skeleton warriors, there were not many left, but there were enough to keep them occupied and out of the fight against the elemental and the evil mage, Tin’ther.
Captain Hammerstone ordered his remaining warriors to fall back away from the skeletons and to drag their comrades with them, and so they did, pulling the dead body of Sergeant Blackrock and the injured Argha with them. While this was happening Davkas had recovered his footing, Lizzy and Vekao where busy harassing the Dhag’arii wizard, while the earth elemental was attempting to reach the mage Taithmar who was once again unleashing a blast of freezing, cold ray at the thing…
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Back in Castitrona, King Lonthonis Brightwater was getting some good news finally from his forces along the northern border. Queen Yoheda had heeded his call for help and had sent a portion of her army to the border skirmishes. With her forces combined now with Lijissa’s army they were making progress at pushing back the invading horde of dark dwarves and goblins. It wasn’t long before they had boxed them in a canyon and were in the process of drafting plans to force their surrender, so riders were rushing back and forth, along with court mages to relay the news from the front lines. To his surprise and delight, even King Undor Battledragon had sent a detachment of his army to help, for this added a very welcome addition to the forces pushing back the invaders.
“What news from the borders?” the King asked his steward who had just come from the courtyard and had taken the latest report from the rider who had been sent to the castle.
“There is very good news Your Royal highness!” the steward replied to his King “The goblins seem to be getting cold feet and their forces are dwindling during the night, soon we believe the dwarves will also begin to retreat.”
The King smiled for the first time in weeks, he felt as if a great weight was lifted from his shoulders. Yet he couldn’t help but wonder about the fate of his daughter, he was also wondering if Captain Silverstar had any success in picking up a clue as to her whereabouts. He could only wonder, yet he was tired of wondering and decided he would call his remaining court mages to him to see if they could once again determine what had happened to her.
“Send for the remaining court mages. I wish to speak with them as soon as possible.” King Brightwater said to his steward who was standing by.
The old steward nodded and bowed to his King and went off to fetch the court mages as his King had commanded. Soon they started to arrive, there were only four mages left here at the castle now, for the rest had been sent to the battle lines to help fight off the invading armies. The King wasted no time in explaining what he wanted them to concentrate on now.
“As you all know the Princess has been missing now for some time. Taken from under our very noses!” the King began, and all the mages began to shift uncomfortably and look from one to another for support. For they felt that they had failed their King and his only daughter, Princess Lunansa, for allowing someone to steal her away as it seemed to be. The King continued, “We have been forced to concentrate all our attention on the battles at our borders, but now that we seem to be making great progress there I would ask that each of you now concentrate on helping to find the Princess!”
The court mages all agreed heartily with this new direction from their King and they all four rushed out to put their heads together so that they could formulate a plan in order to please their King. They soon were congregated within their main study developing their plans. The oldest among them, an old elven mage named Tasanal, made his suggestion. He suggested that they all would caste a spell of concentration on him and in so doing they would increase his ability to caste a scrying spell. This was their best option for seeking the Princess, of course in doing so it may endanger his own life, but Tasanal was willing to take this chance.
So they began, they formed a rough circle around him and the first of the other three mages spoke a word of power and focused on the mage Tasanal, as the others joined in he soon could feel his power growing and he caste his own spell, concentrating on the young Princess Lunansa…
As this was all taking place elsewhere in the castle the messenger from Ironhold, dispatched a few days ago by King Undor Battledragon, finally arrived to inform the King of his missing daughter. He relayed his message to the King of the news of the Princess and all that had happened to her up until the time that she was leaving Ironhold for her journey back to Castitrona. The King breathed a great sigh of relief and thanked the dwarven messenger for the good news. He then summoned the steward back to his side and sent him off in search of the mages.
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The battle with the Dhag’arii mage and the earth elemental wasn’t going very well, for the friends knew that they would have to do something to stop the Dhag’arii dwarf from escaping with the artifact. Then Taithmar had an idea, she had battled other elemental types in the past, but never an earth elemental such as this, yet she knew that they all had some weakness. So she spoke a word quickly and took to the air! Soon she was swooping and flying straight at the elemental thing, she pointed her staff at it and spoke another word of power, this time a sharp stream of magical water shot forth from her out stretched staff and struck the elemental full in its chest! It actually moaned, a pathetic sound issuing from its maw, and Taithmar knew that she had hurt it severely!
The mage Tin’ther howled in rage and stood shaking his fist at the now flying Taithmar then he aimed his wand at her, but just before he could begin his attack, Argha had jumped up from where the dwarves had laid him and launched his own war hammer at the dark mage, in it spun connecting with his head and knocking him to the ground! The mage looking up at the mind mage in pain and surprise “H-how?” was all he could manage to say to the dwarven mage, wondering how it had managed to hit him so squarely considering his defensive blurring spell he had enacted earlier.
Argha looked down at him and simply said “My hammer is magical and with my mental guidance is capable of hitting most anything that I aim it at.”
While he was yet speaking with the mage Tin’ther was feebly trying to raise his hand with his wand at Argha, the old dwarf simply kicked at his hand and the wand went flying. With that the old mage Tin’ther breathed his last, having taken to much damage to his old body, he was bleeding profusely around his head and died there on the ground, in the Kingdom of Lijissa. (To this day it is said of the area where Tin’ther died is barren of all vegetation and life)
As soon as he died the spell he invoked on the artifact came to an abrupt and complete halt! The earth elemental stood motionless and soon began to shrink back to its original form! It was done! It was now back to its original shape and size, the very statue that Lizzy had taken from the merchant’s home many weeks ago! Then just like that the skeletal warriors that Tin’ther had summoned started to pop out of existence, one by one they disappeared from the battle field, leaving all the combatants dazed and confused for a moment, they all stood, weapons raised search the field for the enemy!
Everyone stopped and stared at the now inanimate artifact. Taithmar quickly settled down to the ground and walked swiftly up to it and scooped it up off the ground. She looked down at it in her hands then she thrust it high up over her head and shouted out in joy! The rest of the party, including the soldiers of Lijissa all shouted with her and slapped each other on their backs. So relieved were they that they had defeated the evil mage and the creatures under his control. Then they looked around at the carnage that had resulted from their battle…
… Captain Silverstar was dead, and so were more than half of the force he had brought with him, a few of the survivors were injured, Vekao was hurt, and so was Lizzy. Argha was sorely hurt, yet he was busy looking after the still prone Princess Lunansa. The dwarves whom had returned to help were also decimated; of course they had already taken a terrible toll to their numbers from the earlier battles. But now the friends all huddled together around the Princess, their concern now was for her safety and well being. They knew they had to get her to her father’s castle and the city of Castitrona! But how were they to do this in time, for they feared if they didn’t hurry her health would fail altogether and she would die.