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The wooden carriage raced along the old mountain road, its remarkable speed causing the wheels to shake violently. Behind it, lightning strokes cast white demonic shadows upon billowing dark clouds. An enormous serpentine bank of fog rushed, improbably, against the wind. Alrich knew they'd been made, and there wouldn't be much time before Tharciss, Last Necromancer of Kaledon, was upon them.
"You think he knows we have the Shard? Gareth shouted, rolling his eyes.
"Drive!" Alrich replied, glaring at his partner.
Alrich had the foresight to place a minor incantation upon the carriage horses before they left Tharciss's keep, lending great speed and endurance to their strides. Unfortunately, he had no such witchcraft to assist the trembling carriage. He was tempted to utter a prayer to the last gods, not that any still listened.
"How much farther? I don't think this wain will hold together much longer!" Gareth said, trying desperately to he heard over the unnatural thunder claps that buffeted the wagon as well as his ears.
"Not far! Just focus on the road. I'll deal with the rest."
"Wonderful. Here, this might help. Was saving it for an emergency.” Gareth pulled a small stone from his pocket and did his best to carefully hand it to his friend. The markings along the stone denoted a fire rune, much to Alrich's surprise. He thought they'd used the last of their arsenal at the keep. Perhaps luck was with them this time. Alrich took the rune and uttered a few quick eldritch words.
Looking back at the amorphous aerial beast closing quickly, Alrich saw the sky explode with a white flash as a bolt of lighting loosed from the clouds and struck an embankment just a few feet east of the carriage. Rock and charred earth flung about the two men and the horses. It was all Gareth could do to keep the startled beasts from pulling the wagon over the open cliffs into the Farstone Valley. Struggling to calm himself atop their rickety ride, Alrich began casting a spell. The air around the carriage shimmered and hardened like a giant glass bowl, and not a moment too soon. Another jagged arc of lighting fell from the serpent. It would have struck the carriage directly if not for the arcane protection.
We definitely have his attention now.
The transparent shield around the carriage shattered under the power of the blow, its broken shards falling to the ground and melting back into the nether from which it was summoned. Alrich had bought them a few seconds, but he didn't have the stamina to cast another spell, and they were still some distance from their destination.
"Just get us to the Iron Pass," he yelled to Gareth.
"Where are we going? Gareth replied, trying to delicately dodge the occasional rubble that fell from the squat hills cropping up on either side of the road.
"Thalend."
"Thalend?" Gareth shot back. "What in Zeglin's Vortex do you mean, 'Thalend'?"
"Best the Shard could do without more preparation," Alrich called back against a shifting wind.
"But Thalend is where..."
"I know, I know! Shut up and drive!"
Alrich turned to face the maelstrom that moved ever closer, gaining speed. Now he could see fully their pursuer's corrupt visage. As the ancient necromancer raised his hand to rain death upon the two companions, Alrich quickly whispered the last of the fire rune's mystic command words and pointed the stone directly at its target. The pebble crumbled in his hand as a blast of heat and reddish light erupted within the serpent cloud. The resulting explosion nearly knocked Alrich from the carriage, and the horrible screech that ensued echoed across the entire valley. Gareth glanced back, his eyes wide as he glimpsed the black cloud serpent and its diabolical rider twist and spin in the night air. The blast slowed its pursuit, if only temporarily.
"There," Alrich cried out, "The opening to the Pass. Drive the wagon directly into that rock wall."
Gareth hated this part. Something about two objects inhabiting the same space at the same time...magicked or otherwise. He'd grown to trust Alrich, though, and he knew they wouldn't stand a chance against Tharciss on the open road. He steered the carriage directly toward the east wall of the Pass, not more than 100 yards away. His partner put his hand on Gareth's shoulder and held the Shard out toward the wall. As they roared perilously closer, they could see its stone face shimmer and morph, forming a perfect hole in the rock. Alrich quickly looked back at their pursuers, the scourge of Kaledon and his horrific steed. They had regained their composure and were again closing on the carriage. Bright energy crackled in every direction from the necromancer's outstretched arm. This, Alrich knew, would be the end. Just then he heard a loud shout, a combination of fear and wonderment, coming from Gareth. Instantly, the entire world changed around them.
A terrible bolt of purple and white lighting struck what used to be a massive hole in the rock wall, sending a shower of stone tumbling down onto the Pass where the carriage had once been. Boulders the size of ogres littered the only land passage into the Farstone Valley. It would take days for his slaves to clear the way. No matter. Only the Shard had any meaning for the necromancer, and it was gone; stolen by a bumbling mage and his half-wit bodyguard.
In the nearby town of Soladun families huddled together in their homes, listening to the enraged shrieks of Tharciss the Last on the wind.
Someone would suffer tonight.
READ Riding the Dim - Chapter 2
Cover Art - Mashable.com
Wagon Art - PickPik
Fireball - IllustAC