3 | | "Finale & Dénouement" By Barry Blair, assistance Pat McEown nd Eiwin Mark.Overlord zaps the Cardinal's zeppelin just as Cardinal was calling for archers to kill Falcon and Purebreeze, who make for a window. Carstairs explains that the Major and he are from London. Greylone visited there and did some business with an enemy of theirs. The elf wizard, a tall elf, helped them chase him through the mists of Avalon. Through their adventures they contacted the elf captain Binky and Garth. The Wizard tells Hawk the Overlord is Greylone. Hawk strips to the waist: it is the villains or him this time. Overlord senses the Cardinal is still alive but his use of magic is taking its toll. Greylone strikes but Overlord puts the Packrat in front of the energy bolt and the boy is zapped and left for dead. Overlord will not attack himself in the past or he might cease to exist. Dove pulls Cardinal up and tells him the soldiers are no longer to be trusted. Derryman and his pal go back to his tavern to sit this one out with the rest of the sane populace. At the main gate, Windy is following as Turo gets on top of a Shade and uses his knife down on him, Garth uses a cutlass, and Hawk is slicing a Shade down the middle, the Shade's face is in pain and his eyes closed as he is backed to a wall. Others Shades are on the ground, some dead, some struggling to escape. Binky blows off a bomb. The guards of the Cardinal want to help Hawk now, who mistrusts them at first. Windy believes they want to help. Hawk takes them to his side. Greylone absorbs Ichi—Dao's magic and Dao—Ichi falls, Bran telling Greylone he's killed Dao—Ichi. Mad, Bran won't attack Greylone for fear of him. Greylone runs away from other arriving elves. Falcon is there and Bran hugs him, "Oh Falcon, he killed Dao." He sniffs. Cardinal tells Dove he is doomed. Dove wants to escape. Overlord arrives. Cardinal hugs Dove close to him. As Overlord yells at them both and they fall, he mocks Cardinal's attempt at making friends with him. Greylone arrives and attacks him. Overlord fights back this time and a blaze goes between them. Not far below the Palace, Hawk is cutting his way through Shades, one of whom stares horrified at Elflord's bloody sword. Behind him, Shades fight guards, their scimitars bloody. The guards also have bloody short swords and knives. Lots of bloody Shade bodies are beneath Elflord. McTutt is carrying the Elflord flag (?). Hawk chokes another Shade while fighting another. Falcon and Purebreeze show up. Carstairs and Garth continue fighting Shades, enjoying it. Binky agrees with Garth that the Shades are cannon fodder as he chokes two with a piece of wood. Hawk tells Windblade and Turo (who holds a bloody sword) to stay close to Falcon and Purebreeze. He wants the bastards: Overlord, the Cardinal, and Dove. Greylone in the battle has his eyes injured, one shut and the other opened wide——just like Overlord. Overlord loses and is zapped, apparently dead. Greylone goes running, looking more like the Overlord, frightening Dove and Cardinal. Greylone jumps out a very high window. Cardinal can't take much more of this. Dove says, "I know." He takes his short sword and thrusts it into the Cardinal's stomach and into the wallbehind the skinny man. Cardinal says, "Oh shit...ggakk.." Dove calls him a dolt and pulls it out———and we see a bloody mark on the wall behind the Cardinal. His stomach leaks out blood from a hole. He falls dead just as Hawk arrives. He and Hawk say hello to each other. Dove tells him, "We seem to always be facing each other across a room with swords in our hands." Hawk tells him, "That was never my choice." Dove claims to be as good as Elflord. He asks him if he ever wondered or thought about what it would be like to die. Hawk says, "Every day." After a rip roaring fight across five pages, Hawk kills Dove. Dove tried kicking him but Hawk blocked with his fist. Hawk kicked Dove in the face by jumping up. Dove grabbed at Hawk's ankle and tripped him, plunging his sword into Hawk's left arm. Hawk kneed Dove in the cheek, pulled the word out of his arm, and caught the sword of Dove between his two feet, holding it. With his left arm, he held Dove's shirt so that with his right hand he could plunge the long sword deep into Dove's lower chest—upper stomach and out Dove's back, red with blood! After the Queen's parents passed away, the Queen (from a very unstable family) sold her little brother to Packrats so nothing could threaten her crown (why not just have him killed!?!). He grew up in Shadowmarket, though the Wizard and Gentlemen's Club kept an eye on him. Bran is King of Elfheim. EPILOGUE: a few days later: Binky gives Windy and Hawk a ship and crew to go find the Isle of White Haired Elves. Bran tells Hawk it won't be the same without him here. Hawk holds his chin and face in his hand, "We'll see each other again. All of us...don't worry." Hawk hugs Falcon and Purebreeze, "Goodbye, all of you." McTutt hugs Purebreeze's leg. Hawk, Turo, and Windy, with McTutt walk off toward the ships. |