Free The Crimson Vault (The Traveler's Gate Trilogy) by Will Wight Page B

blow would probably prove fatal. Even though Benson’s steel provided Kai with some defense, making his body resilient enough to withstand its own increased strength, it did very little to prevent him from being cut. So, without his stone-shield to defend him, a single flying shard of the tile could be enough to open Kai’s throat.
    The golem sent a series of heavy, crushing attacks that Kai only narrowly dodged.
    This would be a perfect time for a magical, wind-reading doll , Kai thought.
    Kai slipped to one side, avoiding a kick. He used the hammer to deflect another blow, then sidestepped the next. As the golem recovered, he walked backwards several steps.
    He needed a running start.
    Kai ran forward and launched himself into the air, steel-powered legs sending him up and over the golem’s head. Kai lifted his hammer. It raised two stone arms, crossing them over its forehead, protecting the heartstone.
    Exactly as Kai had predicted. He didn’t need to defeat the golem. He just needed to get past it.
    Kai landed on the golem’s crossed arms and pushed off, behind the golem, landing on the pedestal holding Mithra.
    The golem turned and roared as it realized its mistake, amethyst eye gleaming.  
    Too late now, Kai thought. He banished the hammer, sending it back to Valinhall. Then he closed a hand around Mithra’s hilt.
    There were only two ways to dismantle an Ornheim golem: the first, and usually the easiest, was to take out the golem’s heartstone. Each golem was animated and controlled by a carved gems located somewhere in its body. If you found the right gem and destroyed it, the golem would fall to pieces.
    The wolves earlier had each had three heartstones on their faces, serving them as eyes. Kai hadn’t been sure which heartstone was the controlling one, and he hadn’t cared to find out. So he had opted for the second method of destroying a golem: brute force.
    If the golem’s body was broken, the heartstone had nothing to animate.
    Kai drew on the rest of his steel, drinking it all up in a burst. As long as he won in the next few seconds, he’d be fine. Any longer than that, and he would be facing a fifteen-foot stone golem with no superhuman strength.
    Well, then. He’d just have to win.
    The golem swept an arm at him, trying to knock him off the pedestal. Mithra sliced through the solid rock of its arm. The second arm swept down at him, trying to crush him, and he jumped. He was stronger than he had expected; his enhanced jump actually took him into the ceiling. He had to flip around in midair and catch himself with his feet. For an instant, he was looking down at the golem from above.
    Then he pushed off the ceiling and launched himself down, flashing out with Mithra as he did.
    He spun around again just before he hit the floor, landing in a crouch with such force that the tile around him cracked. He held Mithra off and to one side, so that it didn’t drive down into the ground so far that he couldn’t retrieve it.
    His steel ran out, and Kai almost collapsed from the sudden surge of weakness. It didn’t matter, though.
    He had sliced through the middle of the golem’s heartstone.
    The golem collapsed in a rockslide, and Kai had to hurry away to avoid the falling stones. The Eldest Nye, standing on the far end of the room, bowed and slowly clapped.
    “Welcome back, Kai,” the Eldest said. “You’re just in time.”
    Kai ignored him, already drawing Mithra down in the beginnings of a Valinhall Gate. He thought about inviting the Eldest inside, but decided against it. The Nye had gotten himself here without a Gate; he could get himself back.
    After about a minute, Kai had sliced open a tear in reality, which widened to show Valinhall’s entry hall: a large, carpeted room, filled with comfortably padded chairs and couches. Wooden tables were scattered here and there, covered with old, yellowed paper. Gilt-edged stand mirrors hung every few feet, and from the walls hung wooden sword racks,