Sons of Ironstorm - Book 3: New Alliance

Chapter 10: Wraith's Revenge

"They were monstrous creatures, delighting in bloodshed

Sowing chaos throughout the kingdoms of Humanity.

A plague upon the unwary and a trial for the prepared.

They were the harbingers of the Shadow's Return,

bringing a message of death too heavy to bear."

- from an account of chaos in the Hammer kingdoms before the War of Shadow

Almost convulsively Lawrence grabbed the hilt of the sword and swung it up to guard as the archive echoed with the scream.

"Burn me, what was that??" Will asked, turning to look at Lawrence. He felt his jaw drop in astonishment to find his friend holding the sword, its blade glowing bright blue.

"And how did you get your sword?"

Then both men were shivering as another scream ripped through the air, more terrified than the first. So urgent was its plea that the two friends bolted down the aisle towards what sounded like the screams' source.

As they skidded around a corner and into the broad avenue that ran through the heart of the archive, they found its far end filled with shifting shadows. And, their blood going cold at the discovery, in their midst struggled Janis, her clothing torn as they dragged her towards an open door. Behind them the broken bodies of several druidic keepers lay heaped on the ground.

"Wraiths," Lawrence breathed, naming the creatures he had first faced in the Market Quarter seemingly forever ago in Tal Morun.

Somehow hearing his voice over the hiss and snarl of the wraiths all around her, Janis twisted wildly towards them. As her eyes found the two young lords racing towards her, her face panic stricken, she screamed.

"LAAAAAAAWREEEEENCE!"

The desperate plea served to further galvanize the anxious prince and, quicksilver filling his veins, Lawrence felt Time itself slow as his Wielder abilities spun into full motion. The sword humming softly in his hand, he hurled himself forward even though he knew he didn't have the power of the Tree Staff to help him uncloak the wraiths this time. It didn't matter; he had to save Janis, at any cost.

Then Will, working desperately to keep up to the abruptly accelerating prince, went down heavily behind him, wrapped in a number of invisible bodies. The impact drove the wind from the young lord's lungs with a whoosh and for a moment he fought against the stars dancing in his eyes and the weight on his chest to draw breath. A heartbeat later Will was fighting for his life as the wraiths, partially solidifying to continue their attack, drew daggers and attempted to pierce him.

Catching Will's fall at the edge of his hearing, Lawrence half turned to see what had happened to his friend. And, in doing so, he nearly missed the blurs of motion coming in from the side announcing an attack on him, the wraiths solidifying at the last possible moment before lashing out with their weapons. As it were, only the sword in his hand saved him, jerking his hand up and bringing his attention to the attack just in time to spit the closest wraith through the center of its chest, a wraith still cloaked in its magical insubstantiality.

'The sword could strike at the wraiths while they were yet cloaked!' Lawrence realized as, with a death's rattle, the wraith coalesced around his glowing blade. Then the blade was jerking itself free and Lawrence found himself whirling about in a tight circle, the sword a blue blur that whistled through the air to slice through three wraiths in short order just as they were about to pounce. Each shrieked in pain and mortal dismay as the blade passed through them, then they were fading into sight to drop to the floor, dead.