Aleira Brightleaf's Arc

Chapter 5 of 18

The dead spider still steamed under the fallen stone. Aleira turned from her new throne to the tower mouth. Out in the burning wastes, dark shapes moved. Necromancers. Morwenna's kind. They walked in a loose line, robed against the heat, and they were close. Aleira had promised to hide the girl. She had no plan and almost no time. "How many?" Aleira asked. Morwenna crept to the opening and looked. Her white eyes went wide. "Six. Maybe seven. They know I'm here. They can smell dead magic. They can smell it for miles." She backed away, staff shaking. "They'll take the tower. They'll take me. I can't hide. There's nowhere to hide." Hazel wrung her hands. "I could try a spell. Maybe a wall. Maybe a fog." She lifted her crooked wand. "But you know how my spells go." Before Aleira could answer, gears clanked behind the throne. A short brass robot stepped into the light. A tall copper hat sat on its round head. Blue lights burned where its eyes should be. It planted its feet and spread its metal arms wide. "Mortals," it announced. "You stand before Aurelius Prime. I have watched your struggle. I have decided to permit your survival." Morwenna shrieked and hid behind Aleira. "What is that? What is that thing?" "A friend, I hope," Aleira said, though she'd never seen it before. She faced the robot. "Those necromancers will kill us. Can you stop them?" Aurelius tilted its head. "Stop them? I could level this spire and everyone in it. But a god shows mercy." It clanked to the tower mouth and studied the approaching line. "The heat out there is lethal to the living. Their robes protect them. Remove the robes, remove the threat." Aleira looked at Hazel. "Your fog. Aim it at the ground where they walk." "Aim," Hazel said. "That's the part I'm bad at." "Then miss toward them," Aleira said. Hazel jabbed her wand at the sand. The spark curved wild, exactly wrong, and struck the rock beside the necromancers instead. Stone burst. A wave of grit and shards tore through the line. Their protective robes ripped open. The burning air hit bare skin. They screamed. The heat did the rest. The necromancers broke and ran, clutching torn cloth, fleeing back the way they came. Aleira let out her breath. "They're gone." Morwenna crept out from behind her. "Gone. They're really gone." Her voice cracked. "But they saw the tower. They know the throne is real. They'll come back with more. More than six." Aurelius Prime folded its arms. "They will. And when they do, you will need me." Aleira sat on the throne of her bloodline. She had won the tower again. But she had traded one danger for a worse one. The necromancers had fled with news to spread. And a robot that called itself a god now stood at her side, waiting to be worshipped.