Chapter 23 – The Siege of Silence
The morning didn't bring sunlight. It brought the drums.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Uzo woke with a start. The warmth of the furs was gone, replaced by a tension so thick it tasted like copper.
Beside him, Ronnie was already up, buckling her chain-dagger to her waist. Her hands were shaking, just slightly.
"Do you hear that?" she asked.
Uzo nodded. He grabbed his spear, using it as a crutch to stand. His splinted arm throbbed, a dull reminder of his fragility. But deep in his chest, something else was throbbing.
The Wax Seal.
The invisible mark he had absorbed in the city the "Missing Letter" was burning hot against his ribs. It knew something was coming.
They stepped out of the alcove.
The cavern was in chaos. The carnal atmosphere of the night before was gone. Now, it was a hive of war.
Barbarians were strapping on heavy furs and sharpening massive iron cleavers.
Warlord Kaelen stood by the fire, holding his black iron club. He looked at Uzo, his eyes hard.
"Lazarus," Kaelen grunted. "He knocks."
Caw.
Uzo looked up. The Crow was perched on the leviathan-bone throne. It wasn't agitated. It was still. It watched Uzo with that single, intelligent black eye, as if waiting for him to make a move.
It knew, Uzo realized. It led us here for this.
Uzo followed Kaelen to the mouth of the cave. They looked out over the Weeping Pass.
The white snow was stained with patches of color. Banners. Hundreds of them.
It wasn't a hunting party. It was an invasion.
Uzo scanned the ranks.
He saw the heavy plate armor of the House of The Brute the frontline infantry.
Behind them, floating on discs of shimmering light, were robes of blue and gold, The House of Magic.
And commanding them, riding black horses with burning hooves, were the executioners in gray cloaks.
The House of Judgement.
"A Mixed Coalition," Uzo whispered. "He sent three Houses to crush one mountain."
Kaelen spat on the ground.
"Cowards. They bring words to a knife fight."
The Warlord raised his club. He didn't give a speech.
He simply pointed at the enemy and slammed his club into the rock.
CRACK.
The Barbarians surged forward. A tidal wave of muscle and rage pouring down the mountain.
"They're going to get slaughtered," Ronnie said, watching them charge. "They have no shields against magic."
"We fight," Uzo said.
The battle was a massacre.
The Barbarians were strong.
In close quarters, they were unstoppable. Uzo saw a Barbarian woman catch a Brute soldier's sword with her bare hand, snap the blade, and headbutt him so hard his helmet caved in.
But they couldn't reach the mages.
"Fire Volley!" a commander from the House of Magic shouted.
Fifty staves glowed red. Fireballs, massive and roaring, rained down on the charging Barbarians.
The "Null Zone" of the mountain weakened the magic, but it didn't stop it. The fireballs tore through the ranks. Bodies flew. The smell of burning flesh overwhelmed the cold air.
Kaelen was in the thick of it. He was a monster of war. He swung his club, knocking Brute soldiers thirty feet into the air. He ignored the arrows sticking out of his shoulder.
But then, a figure in gray rode forward.
Arbiter Xal. A High Executioner of the House of Judgement.
Xal raised a hand. He didn't use fire. He used The Word.
"Kneel."
The magic hit Kaelen like a physical hammer.
The Warlord's knees buckled. He roared, fighting the command, veins bulging in his neck. His will was iron, but the magic was absolute law.
Kaelen fell to one knee, panting, blood dripping from his nose.
Xal dismounted, drawing a long, silver blade.
"You filth," the Arbiter sneered. "You thought silence would protect you from the King's Justice?"
Ronnie lunged forward to help, but a wall of force from the mages knocked her back. She slid in the snow, gasping.
Uzo looked at Kaelen. The Warlord was going to die. And with him, the entire tribe.
The Wax Seal in Uzo's chest flared. It burned so hot he gasped.
The Crow, perched on a rock above the battlefield, let out a single, piercing cry.
Now, the bird seemed to say.
Use the Gift.
Uzo realized then that the Wax Seal wasn't just a key to a prison. It was a reservoir.
He carried the Unword. The 27th Letter of the alphabet. The letter that represented the Void.
He didn't run to Kaelen. He stopped ten feet away.
"Kaelen!" Uzo screamed.
The Warlord looked at him, eyes filled with shame. He was pinned. Helpless.
"Do you want to die on your knees?" Uzo shouted. "Or do you want to stand as a King?"
"I... cannot... move!" Kaelen roared.
"Because you are fighting his Words with your silence!" Uzo yelled.
"Silence isn't enough! You need to Devour the words!"
Uzo reached into his chest not physically, but spiritually. He grabbed the burning sensation of the Wax Seal. He pulled on the thread of the Missing Letter.
He extended his hand toward Kaelen.
Darkness pure, inky void erupted from Uzo's palm. It looked like liquid smoke.
"Accept it!" Uzo commanded. "I offer you a new Debt! Not a chain, but an armor! Become the Silence that eats the World!"
Kaelen saw the darkness coming.
He didn't see a threat.
He saw a weapon.
He opened his arms.
The darkness hit him.
It didn't hurt him. It coated him.
It soaked into his skin, turning his pale blue flesh into a deep, abyssal black. It swirled around his bone armor, hardening it into a jagged, obsidian plate.
The magical command "Kneel" shattered.
Not because Kaelen broke it.
But because the magic simply ceased to exist upon touching him.
Kaelen stood up.
He was a foot taller now. Shadows dripped from his shoulders like a cape. His eyes were gone replaced by two pools of white light.
Arbiter Xal stepped back, his silver blade trembling.
"What... what is this heresy?"
Kaelen didn't speak.
He moved.
But there was no sound. No footsteps. Just a glitch in reality.
He appeared in front of Xal.
Xal panicked.
"Burn!"
He fired a point-blank blast of holy fire.
Kaelen caught the fire with his bare hand.
The black void on his skin ate the flames. They vanished instantly.
Kaelen grabbed Xal by the face.
The Arbiter screamed, but the sound was muted, swallowed by the void surrounding the Warlord.
Kaelen squeezed.
CRUNCH.
He dropped the lifeless Arbiter into the snow.
The battlefield went quiet.
The Mages stopped casting. The Brutes lowered their shields.
Everyone stared at the monstrosity standing over the dead executioner.
High on the rock, the Crow fluffed its feathers and watched.
Kaelen turned slowly to look at Uzo.
He knelt.
It wasn't forced by magic. It was a choice.
The first Void Knight had risen.