Nero sighed, outwardly irritated, and said, “The Crown sent me to find you and ...”
“No, I mean why in the seven hells did the Crown send you to find us now?! In case you were out on assignment or something, my brother and I were banished from Armena by the puppet King because our father died sacrificing himself for the Crown. King Jalid, whom I played with since I was a little boy, didn’t have the spine to stand up to Shane. So now we are out here in the middle of nowhere, fighting for our lives, because he found it politically convenient to throw away two of his best friends.”
Nero had not done anything wrong, in fact he had just saved his life, but Evisar couldn’t help but lash out at the insanity of it all.
Nero looked completely comfortable taking the brunt of his wrath and replied, “I wasn’t there personally when you were exiled, but I was fully briefed before venturing out on this assignment.”
Evisar turned to Mestel and asked, “Do you believe what you’re hearing?”
Mestel answered in a controlled voice that masked the anger underneath. “I believe Nero is telling the truth as he sees it, but I can’t believe King Jalid, or Shane, to put it more precisely, would send anyone to help us.”
Evisar turned to face Nero but was still talking to Mestel. “Hmmm, I agree.” He raised his voice and yelled down the hallway, “Valihorn, Xander, get out here.” Evisar began walking forward with Neverlost still in his hand. He heard his brother nock an arrow behind him as he brought his sword up in a ready stance. “I’m only going to say this once, Nero. Turn around and get out of here before the four of us cut you down. We don’t need the Crown’s help; we don’t want the Crown’s help. The four of us are managing just fine on our own.”
Evisar’s confidence rose even further as he saw Valihorn and Xander step out of the room and into the hallway. For his part, Nero stood absolutely still and said with a bit of malice in his voice, “The Crown feels you are making progress. That’s why I was sent. You would be foolish to ...”
In the middle of Nero’s sentence the ground began to shake violently all around them. The companions and Nero braced themselves and tried to keep their footing, hoping the earthquake would pass in a few moments, but the earth continued to shake with the same intensity.
Xander screamed at Valihorn over the rumbling, “The shaking didn’t start until you took the ring out of the room. It must be making the ground shake. Put it back.”
Valihorn nodded his head in agreement and grabbed the ring with his other hand and tugged with all of his strength, but the ring would not come off his finger. “I cannot get it off.”
Without warning, Xander grabbed hold of Valihorn and was about to throw him forcibly back into the Witch’s room when the companions and Nero disappeared.
Chapter 74: A Dragon’s Revenge
In the fortress courtyard, Gram stood beside Arun as the colossal dragon ran across the ground like a thousand charging bulls. He considered running, but it was so undignified, and where could he go that Malachite could not reach? He flung a fireball and magic missiles at the dragon that more or less bounced harmlessly off his scales. Suddenly, the earth began to shake horribly as a large column of blue light shot up from the ground and into the sky directly in the path between Gram and the acid breathing dragon. The column of light started out only a few feet wide and quickly expanded to take up a quarter of the courtyard. Malachite stopped his charge abruptly so as not to go barreling into the newly created blue portal. As the dragon came to a stop, the earth continued shaking.
Gram struggled to keep his footing and was at a loss as to what to do next. Things were happening faster than even he could comprehend. A few moments ago he was about to be mauled by a dragon, and now there was some portal of incredible power unbalancing the very earth around him. Whole sections of the outer stone wall toppled over as the fortress began to come apart under the onslaught of the earthquake. Soldiers fell off the walls and the barracks building collapsed in on itself.
Gram looked across the field at Malachite, and the dragon seemed unconcerned by the sudden appearance of the blue portal. Malachite stared calmly at the raw power being displayed for a moment along with everyone else. Then he turned and headed in the opposite direction, away from the fortress. Gram looked on as the earth around the portal came loose and fell into the blue gateway that was now more than a hundred feet wide and stretched into the sky as high as he could see. Anyone lucky enough to still be alive inside the fortress dropped the pretense of defense and sprinted from his post into Darkwood Forest as the earth continued to shake.
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Mestel felt himself vanish in a magical blur and reappear a moment later inside the courtyard of the fortress one hundred feet away from a huge column of translucent blue energy stretching from earth to sky. Evisar, Valihorn, Xander, and even Nero materialized close by and looked around at the devastation. Mestel glanced behind the companions and nearly cowered in fear when he saw Malachite standing just outside the fortress wall, watching events unfold. The dragon was complacent for the moment, so Mestel turned back to the column of blue light and noticed Gram and Arun standing several hundred feet away, off to the side of the portal.
Through the disorientation of the violently shaking earth, Mestel watched Arun come up beside Gram and grab his shoulder. The wizard turned away from the portal to look at Arun as she said something Mestel didn’t understand. She then grabbed Gram’s hand and tried to lead him away from the portal. Gram tore his hand away from hers and spun around to focus on the column of light destroying his fortress.
As Gram turned toward the portal, he seemed to notice the companions standing several hundred feet away for the first time. Mestel had experienced the wizard’s power firsthand when he killed Jefon, and with the wizard’s recognition he fully expected Gram to attack the companions again in order to prevent their escape. Oddly enough, however, the wizard pointed his arm directly at Nero, the agent of the Crown who had just saved their lives, and out of his hand leapt five energy bolts. Nero rolled on the ground to the side and came up again with a small shield in his hand that had been lying in the dirt. The energy bolts changed course with Nero and slammed into him with full force. Nero managed to block three of the bolts, but the other two knocked him back a full ten feet where he landed unconscious on the ground. Mestel drew and released three arrows inside of a heartbeat and watched them leap to his command. The arrows were straight and true, but deflected once again off Gram’s magical shield and flew harmlessly into the sky. Valihorn said an incantation and pointed his hand at Gram. Three energy bolts raced across the courtyard and fizzled out of existence as they approached the wizard’s position. Gram looked at Valihorn and smiled.
Evisar and Xander ran over to Nero’s unconscious form and pulled him toward the dragon-sized hole in the fortress wall as Valihorn and Mestel continued harassing Gram without success. As Mestel and Valihorn moved back toward the relative safety of the outer stone wall, Gram lifted his arms out to the side and a great fireball launched from his body and crashed all around the companions. Mestel’s clothes and skin caught on fire. He flailed about in intense pain until Valihorn ran over and knocked him to the ground. The two rolled around in the dirt until the flames went out. Then they got up and ran for their lives. They made it outside the fortress and took shelter behind the shattered wall. Mestel saw that Nero, Evisar, and Xander had also been badly burned by Gram’s blast of fire.
Mestel looked up at the colossal dragon that was now only a few hundred feet away and felt his insides go numb. The beast was power and death reborn, but he sat there, leisurely watching the chaos in the same way he might watch a theater act. Mestel forced himself to turn away and look at the ruin that had once been the Shetley seat of power.
The final buildings and fortress walls were literally falling down and being sucked into the blue portal with unnatural force. In the sea of chaos, Mestel’s eyes gravitated to the only area of calm. Gram stood with Arun
not more than fifty feet from the edge of the blue portal, and the ground around them was completely stable. Gram threw his fists down to his sides, and his body went rigid with rage as he began walking forward toward the portal, leaving Mestel to wonder what in the name of Martel he was doing.
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Arun came up to Gram from behind and pleaded with him once again. “Gram, what are you doing? You’re going to get yourself killed! We have to get out of here!” She grabbed his arm and tried to lead him away from the portal, but Gram would not have it.
“No. This is my fortress and it is my spell that is going to destroy Armena. I will not leave when my triumph is so close at hand. Get out of here. Leave, if that is what you want to do.”
With his mind made up, Gram left Arun behind and continued walking toward the portal with his arms stretched wide. He felt, rather than saw, Arun give up on him and reluctantly run for her life into the woods.
Gram did not care about such trifling concerns. He was above that now. He concentrated utterly on the blue portal in front of him. He could control it. He could harness its power. Gram walked forward, letting the magical energy of the cosmos flow through his body. He would not be denied his victory. He would have power beyond his wildest …
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Evisar watched with detachment from the edge of the woods as Gram walked toward the portal, muttering to himself as magical energy crackled all over his body. He seemed completely at peace with himself as he walked right into the blue portal with his arms raised at his sides, and disappeared. Without the wizard’s magic to partially control the portal, the island of ground on which Gram had stood crumbled and fell into the portal along with any remnants of the fortress. Eventually, the ground stopped shaking, but the portal remained. Everyone breathed heavy sighs of relief as the shaking subsided. Evisar and his companions had managed to cheat death once again. Gram was dead and that was good, but in his place the huge portal remained, like a nightmare that persisted long after waking.
Evisar walked as close as he dared to the edge of the huge crater the portal had created and looked down to see nothing but a bottomless, translucent, shimmering blue portal that had to be at least one hundred feet in diameter. Evisar took note that other than being many times larger, the portal before him looked exactly like the portal in Austen’s tower. The portal occasionally shimmered with power in the same fashion as Austen’s portal, and he could vaguely see through the portal to the other side. The view beyond the portal was a hazy blue obscured by the different sized land masses that floated independently of each other. This must be another portal leading to the Plane of Chaos. Evisar shook his head in despair and walked back over to where his brother stood.
Why did things continue to get worse wherever they went? No matter how hard they worked, no matter how much evil he destroyed, he couldn’t make things better. The Talon Guild almost surely knew by now that they were trying to rescue the First Heir, the companions finally found an entrance to the Underworld only to have it taken away from them shortly thereafter, an ancient dragon to whom he owed a favor was standing directly behind him, and Tristan’s body was forever entombed beneath the destroyed fortress, sucked into the portal for all he knew. And then there was Nero, the agent of the Crown, to consider. Evisar looked down at the unconscious elf at his feet. It was true that Nero had saved his life in the tunnels, but trading Tristan’s life, whom he trusted implicitly, for this stranger seemed a poor bargain. As Evisar looked at Nero, the Armenien agent began to stir and eventually stood up.
Evisar turned to Mestel and said, “What have we done here?”
“I’m not sure, but I know it was the will of Evona. I think it was Evona who kept me out of the room just as Valihorn put on the ring. The goddess must have animated the statues that tried to kill us.”
Evisar turned his attention to Valihorn and said, “Damn it, Valihorn, why did you put on the ring? What in the seven hells was going through your head?”
The young wizard lowered his head, flattened his robe with his hands, and looked at his shoes as he answered. “In exchange for Malachite’s help, I had to try and find this ring.” He stuck his hand in Evisar’s face as if the ring was grotesque and he wanted nothing more than to cut off his hand in order to get rid of it. “Once I saw the ring, it was all I could think about, and once I had it in my hand, slipping it on my finger was all I could think about. It was almost like watching myself from a distance.”
Evisar shook his head and cursed under his breath. Valihorn had only done what he thought was right, but still. “I knew the deal you made with Malachite would bring ruin down on us. He gave you help in exchange for you and me owing him another favor, and you had to find that idiotic ring for him as well?”
“Not exactly. By finding the ring, one of my debts is paid.”
“Tell me, do you know what this portal is?”
Valihorn said, “If I had to guess, I would say the portal leads to the Plane of Chaos. I will bet the Shetleys created the portal several hundred years ago, with a matching portal in the town of Wessex. They must have opened the portal while looking for treasures to keep their kingdom afloat after the gold mines ran out to the north of Dowden. I bet the portal attracted the power of the Krone Witch who took over the fortress and evicted the Shetleys. The Shetleys were forced to flee the fortress, running for their lives, and they built a smaller fortress into the Dragon Spine Mountains next to one of the few towns that remained loyal to them. The Witch must have created the room we found as an anti-magic room in an effort to control the ring. That is why the Krone left the room in such pristine condition, and why there was not any dust on the furniture. The ring was silent until I removed it from the room. If I had been smart enough to put the ring back in the room after the shaking started, maybe none of this would have happened.”
Mestel looked at the portal and said, “Evona appears to have won this day. What she has in mind I can’t say, but look at the chaos she has sown. The First Heir is beyond our reach, a portal to another dimension has been created, Valihorn is cursed with the ring that created the portal, and the only entrance to the Underworld that was known to us has been destroyed.”
Xander shook his head and contradicted Mestel. “Some things just happen. Who knows what hand the gods have on events in Tellus? Some say they walk among us and talk to us, while some say their invisible hands nudge people in different directions. All I know is that the gods haven’t played a part in our history since the Year of Angels 400 years ago. They may answer our prayers and nudge us from time to time, but that’s all.”
Evisar felt the ground vibrate, and he turned to see the colossal dark green dragon lumber casually toward the companions. Everyone instinctively backed away except Valihorn, who walked up to the gargantuan monster and went down on one knee.
Malachite spoke smoothly in the elven tongue. “Ah, Valihorn, you are free of the fortress. I was worried you might have died and your promise to me would go unfulfilled.” His voice was elegant and cultured and easily carried over the trees to be heard for miles around. “The portal has stabilized after devouring the fortress, just as I foresaw.”
Valihorn lifted his head and looked positively insignificant as he raised his voice to be heard by the dragon who towered over him. “Mighty Malachite, we thank you for your assistance in helping us escape from our prison. We would not have escaped had it not been for your distraction.”
Malachite chuckled lightly. “Too true. Too true.”
Valihorn respectfully held out his right hand so the ring was clearly visible. “I took the ring off of the Krone Witch as you requested.”
“Yes I know. Removing the ring from the Witch’s chamber is what brought about the portal that destroyed the fortress.” Malachite cocked his head back and laughed a deep throated laugh that echoed off the trees. “At long last, the fortress is destroyed and Darkwood Forest is truly mine. You have no idea how long this fortress
has been a thorn in my side. I burned it out many times, but someone always came back and rebuilt it."
Evisar was afraid of the dragon, but his anger overpowered him as he stepped forward. “Are you telling me we were nothing more than pawns you used in order to destroy the fortress? Do you know how many people died because of your little game?”
Malachite ruffled his wings in anger and took one heavy step forward. “No one speaks to me so. I will give you one warning and no other. Do not test me, elf. Of course I used you and your little band to destroy the fortress. I could not get inside to get the ring myself, and you were the perfect group to carry out the task. Do not worry; Tristan is dead and one of Valihorn’s debts has been repaid to me.”
Evisar still wasn’t through. “And what about his other debt?”
“I will call on him later to fulfill his part of the bargain, just as I will call upon you as well.”
Before Evisar could throw his life away with another angry comment, Valihorn spoke up quickly. “Mighty Malachite, I have recovered the ring from the Krone Witch as part of our bargain, but I cannot take it off. If you wish the ring for your hoard once more, then you will have to remove the curse from me.”
Malachite shook his head from side to side. “I do not want the ring, and I see no reason to strike it from your hand. It is yours to keep, as is the curse that comes with it.”
Mestel stepped forward from the background and said, “You could remove the curse from Valihorn with hardly a thought, yet you refuse to help him after he has done so much for you.”
The dragon looked at Mestel carefully and studied him for a moment before answering, “Careful where you tread, elf. You may be touched by the gods, but I do not suffer insolence lightly, no matter how righteous your mission and how noble your calling. I have given my answer. Now step back and do not speak again.” Mestel was incensed that his friend was being mocked, but he clenched his jaw and said no more.
Do the Gods Despise Us? Page 27
