Hall of Shadows [The Celestial Chronicles #2]

Chapter Thirty-Four: Legions of Doom

"By his dead smile I knew we knew we stood in Hell."

- Wilfrid Owen, "Strange Meeting"

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Soundtrack of the chapter: Legions of Doom by Audiomachine ( do play it!)

Media: Legions of Doom aka Army of the Undead ( exactly as how I picture them!)

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Chapter Thirty-Four: Legions of Doom

"They're here!"

Someone shouted from one of the battlements. Eli leaped to his feet, snatched a pair of binoculars from a nearby Oracle and went forward. His eyes adjusted to the magnifying lenses at once.

The thing he feared most had happened, Jasper had indeed brought war.

He lowered the binoculars. He recognized the first rider at once. His hood was thrown back, dark eyes drilling into the distance-Jasper Silverbird. His attention shifted and landed on the infantry and the banner bearing figures. His jaw dropped. Eli had assumed that the Iambicum Trimetrum would call up corpses, corpses with flesh and a consciousness. But the army that marched toward him was nothing but puppets, stripped bare to their gleaming bones clad in old armor.

What the Oracles had prepared was defense against the living, not an army of skeletons.

Eli handed the binoculars back to the grim-looking Oracle. Everyone in the battlements must have shared his thoughts. What luck did their small group of a few hundred Oracles, mostly militia had against a tide of undead?

I will not show them weakness. He whispered something into the Oracle's ears. "Go and send a dove to Firaun Strauss. Tell him we are in need of more reinforcement troops, and in mass numbers."

Firaun had replied a day ago, telling him that he would dispatch a small army from the Hall of Games. They had arrived this morning, all glittering swords and armor, joking with Eli that there would be no possible force to take down the Hall of Spirits, having won the Great War in the past. One of the Hall of Games' best Tinkers had located the Mandrakes using some advanced equipment Eli had never set eyes on before. The army's captain-Captain Morghan told Eli that the Hall was in no potential danger, not since the Mandrakes were found and subdued. But now, shock filled the eyes of the mother Hall's soldiers. Even the Warriors gripped their weapons tight, lips drawn tight.

A looming mass of cavalry followed the infantry, skeletons on ghostly horses, all with manes of white mists and eyes of swirling shadows. Howls and guttural shrieks filled the night sky, the unmistakable sounds of Decanates. Eli's blood ran cold.

Jasper must have called up all the dead in the Hall of Shadows, both dead Walkers and Oracles, as well as the dead from Erilou.

Eli cast a prayer up to the Stars, to Taurus especially, the Star of war and victory. He nodded at the Oracles at the gatehouse. The heavy portcullises fell down with resonating clangs. The heavy metal doors folded inward, sealing off the Hall from the undead army. A team of archers stood ready at the gatehouses, poised to strike. Another row of archers lined the battlements, backed up by cannons and Oracles with massive stones.

Jasper lifted a hand. His army halted, the skeletons tugging the reins of their ghostly steeds. The steady rhythm of bone against earth stopped, filling the air with nothing but his light breathing.

He lifted his head, dark curls wild in the angry breeze. "Oracles," he said, the wind somehow amplifying his voice, bringing it over to the Hall yard where it echoed. "You have prepared an army to fight me. But let me tell you something, you will not win. I bring with me the wrath of the Hall of Shadows. Every single warrior that stands behind me is thirsty for justice and revenge."