Swords of the Six Read Free

their species congregated around him. There had to be a thousand of them. Maybe more. In the darkness it was impossible to tell.
    The phosphorescent energy bubble plummeted toward the stony ground, radiating green on the ground and even reflecting off the cloud cover. It had swelled until it was large enough to house several men. Brian froze. What should he do? There was nowhere he could hide. Not in time at least.
    Just as the bubble struck the ground and exploded with stone-crushing force, Xavion leapt in the explosion's path and wrapped his body around the prince's. "Xavion! No!"
    But Brian could not shift the powerful warrior from the path of destruction. Xavion's arms held him with fierce resolve. "I will not lose you, too," he heard the old man say.
    Helpless to free himself the prince allowed himself to cry. Trembling, he felt the comfort of Xavion's arms draw him as a son into his father's bosom. A wave of heat screamed past him and his mentor. It built in its intensity. Stones exploded by and bodies lit up like matches all around him.
    Xavion's arms squeezed him without mercy until he ventured a look up at his martyr's face. Blood ran from the captain's lower lip as his teeth bit into it. Sweat beaded on his face and his skin turned beet red and his eyes squinted shut.
    The inferno raged around them and, when Xavion's pain reached its human limit, he opened his mouth in a scream more terrible than anything the prince had ever heard. The heat singed the graying hairs on his head and face. His skin blistered. Then, as a final tornado of heat whirled around them, the captain's strength failed. He collapsed in a faint over Brian's shoulder and the storm ceased.
    Winged men rained from the sky a couple hundred feet away, their eagle-brown feathers shivering. They landed crouching and then stood and ran barefooted toward Brian. The majority of the Art'en force landed a good distance away. Only a handful ended up close to the fallen captain and the weakened prince.
    Desperate and determined to escape the brutal death awaiting him and the captain, Brian grunted, half-dragging half-carrying the unconscious man. The stony ground impeded his progress and his armor weighed him down.
    He glanced over his shoulder to see two of the humanoid creatures closing the distance to him. The ground sloped upward ahead of him and he let Xavion's limp form roll off his back in order to catch his breath. A small stone mountain rose out of the slope a hundred yards ahead of him. And in its face the Creator had carved a perfectly spherical orifice not more than a few feet broad. It promised shelter.
    Spinning on his heel, Brian frowned. Keeping his eyes trained on the two winged figures bounding toward him, he loosed his breastplate. Casting the breastplate aside he took off his helmet and removed his chain mail shirt. He stretched his aching arms and exulted in his newfound freedom of movement. Carefully he picked up his helm and fitted it again over his head. A little protection was better than nothing.
    A gust of wind slapped his blond hair across his face. He tucked it under his helm. Sheathing his white-bladed scimitar, he unraveled a whip from his belt and wound it loosely around his wrist. Then he stood with legs spread wide and loosened the black, coiled leather, dropping its length on the ground.
    The nearest Art'en bounded nearer, dark wings folded on its back and sinewy arms flexing. Brian let it come no closer. With a flip of his arm and a flick of his wrist he sent the leather snaking through the air. It lashed the humanoid creature around its waist and in that moment the whip, through the power with which it had been crafted, rendered the Art'en weightless.
    The creature's gray skin paled a sickly green and it screeched like a wounded bird. Brian pulled back his arm, drawing the whip taut around his prisoner, then he spun on his heel and threw the weightless Art'en up the rocky slope. The whip released the creature in midair.
    The