Read Online The Tower of Endless Worlds by Jonathan Moeller - Free Book Online Page A

was still too early for dawn.
    Liam reined up, squinting into the gloom. He smelled smoke on the air. Had he come too late?
    He rubbed the horse’s mane. “Just a bit farther.”  Only a mile and a half lay between him and Castle Bastion. He put the horse to a quick trot. The woods thinned and vanished, changing to grassy hills. The smell of smoke grew stronger, and a faint red glow illuminated the sky ahead. A fire, then, and a large one, and his alarm grew. He tried to coax a bit more speed from his exhausted mount. 
    At last Liam rounded a hill and reined up.
    The sight that greeted him made him freeze for a moment.
    “Gods,” he mumbled at last. “Gods, no.”
    Castle Bastion sat on a broad hill, its towers and turrets outlined against the pale sky. Smoke billowed from the windows, and raging flames danced within its courtyard. Its massive outer curtain wall had been blasted to heaps of broken rubble. Even from this distance, Liam smelled the stink of burning flesh. 
    The High Kingdoms and the Wizards had planned to strike at Marugon, but Marugon had struck first. 
    Liam spurred his horse, and the weary charger stumbled up the road to the castle. Liam could ask no more of the exhausted animal. He slid from the saddle and ran forward, his armor clattering. 
    The castle’s gates lay in ruins. Bodies in the armor and tabards of the Council Guard, the Wizards’ defenders, lay strewn about the rubble. Liam looked over the corpses as he picked his way through the debris. Bullets had killed the guards, reducing their armor to metal shreds, and bullet holes riddled the stones of the wall. Marugon’s soldiers must have used the lead-spraying machine guns, the guns they called Kalashnikovs, the dreadful weapons that had annihilated the army of Narramore. 
    An explosion shook the castle, stone falling from the damaged towers and crashing against the pavement of the courtyard. Liam reeled and grabbed at the broken wall for support. He heard screams ringing from inside the keep, and he drew his Sacred Blades. The swords flash with blue fire, and he felt a thrum of power from the weapons. Creatures of black magic were near. He ran towards the doors of the keep, swords in hand.
    It seemed the battle was not over yet. 
    He dashed through the keep’s open doors and entered a long hall with a vaulted ceiling. The only light came from the occasional torch in a wall sconce. The corpses of Wizards in white robes lay strewn along the floor, their blood staining the stone. Another explosion rang out, followed by a deep-throated howl of fury. Liam hurried forward, his boots clicking against the polished stone floor. He turned another corner and stopped.
    A huge figure in sooty black armor stood at the base of a broad marble staircase, massive leathery wings resting on its back. Burning red eyes watched the corridor, stark against its pale face, and yellowed fangs curled down from its mouth. A gleaming Kalashnikov rested its hands. It was a winged demon from the hills of the Wastes. Even a Wizard would find a winged demon a deadly foe. If Marugon had made an alliance with the winged demons, had given them guns...
    His Sacred Blades thrummed in his hands. The winged demon growled and looked his way.
    Liam bellowed a battle cry and leaped forward, swords raised. The winged demon flinched and raised its weapon. Liam dodged to the side as the demon fired. The spray of bullets ripped through his cloak and shoulder plates, but missed his flesh. Liam swung his right-hand sword in a wide slash, the blade shearing through the Kalashnikov’s barrel. The winged demon roared and swung the ruined gun like a club. Liam parried with his left-hand sword and stabbed with his remaining weapon. The Sacred Blade slashed down the winged demon’s arm, chewed through its armor, and sank into its pale flesh. The creature roared and jumped back, drawing a black scimitar from its belt. Liam raced up the stairs after it. The demon’s wings unfurled and it