The Paladins of Naretia

  *

  "Edwel," shouted Aria, panting hard with the effort of containing the half-man's fury. "You must kill the winged man."

  She had seen Ol?rin's advance and, in a last ditch effort to complete her task, relinquished her desire to kill Aramus herself. But the stone golem hesitated as Ol?rin touched his shoulder.

  "Release him, golem," Aria heard Ol?rin say between parries.

  "I cannot. My queen has ordered me to kill him," he replied flatly.

  "But you do not want to kill him, do you?"

  Edwel looked blankly between Ol?rin and Aria. His stone mouth turned down. Aria tried to command Edwel to kill Aramus now, but exhaustion had long set in. Every time she took in a deep breath, the dwarf's axe would be on top of her again.

  "I do not. But I have no choice," she heard him say.

  "Then you understand what I must do?"

  Aria's eyes widened. 'What, what must he do?'

  "I will be sad about it, but yes, I understand."

  "You may rest peacefully knowing that you have been a faithful servant," Ol?rin said, touching his staff against the golems head. "Reliqua."

  Without warning, Edwel fell apart. His head rolled backward, toppling to the ground. His arms and legs came away from his stone torso and they all followed his head. The two black stones, that were his eyes, rolled into the marshy bog, leaving only the turned down mouth-hole on his square head to show that it had ever been anything more than just a rock.

  Aramus fell to the ground, clutching at his neck and gasping for air. His black wings fell limply by his sides. From where he knelt, Aramus stared at Aria and she could see that the fire in his eyes was now gone. She was alone, surrounded by her enemies, who would surely kill her now. But she wasn't going to give up without a fight.

  "NOOO," she screamed.

  Butting the dwarf in his bulbous nose with the hilt of her sword, she took off in Aramus's direction. The dwarf was unperturbed by her assault, despite the blood gushing from his nostrils, and swung the back of his axe at her legs. Aria stumbled and fell onto the marshy wetland under her feet. Her sword flew into the air and landed a few feet away from her. She spun on her back and came face to face with the half-man whose axe was raised above his head, ready to strike.

  "Bernard, stay your weapon," Ol?rin shouted.

  Bernard didn't listen, he strained hard to bring down his axe. His eyes burned brightly with the desire for death and his muscles quivered with the effort. But no matter how hard he tried to complete the movement, he could not. Aria glanced over at Ol?rin. His staff was pointed at Bernard, somehow holding the furious dwarf's axe in place.

  "I willnae," the dwarf seethed, nearly foaming at the mouth with fury. "I will have her head. Do ya hear me, wizard?"

  "The battle is over, Bernard," Ol?rin said kindly. "I cannot allow you to murder an unarmed soldier, no matter how much you might want to."

  Ol?rin walked toward the two, keeping his staff pointed at the axe, and rested a hand on the dwarf's shoulder. As though the kind gesture opened a flood gate, Bernard suddenly dropped his axe by his side and sobbed deeply. Ol?rin too let his staff fall and Aria breathed a sigh of relief at being allowed to live.

  "Fine," Bernard said, wiping his eyes tersely with his beard. "I won't kill her, but I can at least hurt her."

  The last thing that Aria saw was the butt of Bernard's axe as it came down on the side of her head. Stars filled her vision until the blackness of oblivion came to take her.