by Dawn Chapman
This was quite strange, but I smiled. The number of followers was climbing on one side and going down on the other.
I wondered why, and then I realised. The living Tromoal were dying. I let out a gasp.
You can see a lot inside your mind, no?
I tried to move to see him and couldn’t because of the screens. Yeah, I do. But I don’t understand all of it just yet.
The Tromoal dipped his wings again, and we were starting to lower toward the ground, toward a huge castle and its keep.
That’s when I could see the city landscape spreading beyond it. Then I noticed the creatures lining the streets by the thousands. Maybe not lining. They looked like they were storming the keep! I shuddered. Magic spells lit up the skies around us, and Jessica threw her hands out. A light blue shield encompassed us all as several spells blasted us from underneath.
Kamaal stiffened. “We’re going down!” he said.
“Fuck!” I shouted and clicked off my screens as the Tromoal prepared to ditch down. And it really was a bit of a dump.
I swallowed, and even though I was trying to hold on with my hands, I gripped tighter with my thighs too. In case I needed my daggers.
He landed roughly on top of a large structure. Kamaal hopped down and turned to me as Maroc’s Tromoal hit the deck too.
“Welcome to the DarkLands,” Kamaal said. “It seems we’re under attack.”
Maroc grunted and strode over to us, holding out a hand for Jessica, but she couldn’t see it.
“Am I the only one here who can see?” I asked.
“I think so,” Akillia said and waited. “Can someone help me down.”
I jumped off, landing slightly unsteady. Brushing myself and stretching before I looked to see Kamaal as he reached for her hand.
“Here, Akillia.”
Kamaal brought her before me with a spin of his hand, and I reached for her, holding on tightly. “I will find out what is going on here before I allow you to move to your next destination.”
There was a heat radiating from Akillia that I wasn’t sure should be there. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Not really. I’ve never been blind before. This is freaking me out.”
I gave her hand a squeeze. “Akillia, I know you don’t trust me. But I won’t let anything happen to you. I’m going to put your hand on my shoulder. Keep it there and move with me, okay?”
“Yes.” I turned around, and her hand settled on my shoulder. Her closeness was nice. At least it made me feel a little better.
Jessica came to my side then with Maroc in tow. Her eyes now bright, she also moved unaided. “How are you able to see?”
“I placed a couple of my Karma, so it enhanced certain abilities. It wasn’t easy to work out what would work, but it seemed to make a difference. I am not able to see everything though, and not for very far, but I can at least see to walk about.”
“Good, I need you to try to keep close to us, though. Can you do that?”
“Yes.” She looked at Maroc. “Don’t do anything stupid, or I will kick your ass.”
“I’d like to see you try. This is my domain.” He winked. Jessica shot him a glare that made me laugh inside. Maroc lowered his head.
“Yeah, you’d best not get any ideas of keeping me down here.”
“Of course, I would not disrespect you like that.”
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud this time. She might not have been able to see him blush because of the colour of his skin and how dark it was, but his whole aura shifted in tone. It was something else. He stared at me, and I grinned. “Problem?”
“No, everything is fine.”
Kamaal started to move away. “Please come with me. I will settle you in, get some refreshments, and get you up to speed with my command before I take you out to where the Tromoal rest. It is very dangerous out there, more so if we’re under attack.”
I liked the sound of a place to rest for a while.
“Are you all right?” I asked Akillia.
Akillia added, “I feel exposed, but I don’t feel bad. At least at the moment.”
I started to follow both Kamaal and Maroc, and as we moved to a grand doorway, we stepped through into a massive hallway and beautiful, stunning open room.
“Wait here,” Kamaal said, and he left us.
Chapter 29
Jessica pointed to the back wall as Kamaal moved away. A dark-skinned stocky yet powerful demon approached as Jessica noted. “Have you seen where we are. This place is massive.”
“Derr, blind here!” Akillia frowned.
Maroc and Jessica stood talking by the doorway with Akillia, but I was fascinated where we were and what I could see. I moved to the paintings. They were familiar, yet I’d never been here before.
“I’m Koth.” The new demon moved to my side. I had to take a closer look at these walls. There before me was the history of the Demon’s Kingdom, the wars and fights along the way. This was not something I’d seen depicted anywhere.
“The world was never a very split place,” Koth said. “There were many of us who ran alongside those aligned with good.”
“What changed?” I asked as I traced a finger over a dinted spot in the painting.
He looked down the wall and then walked to a part where there was a bloody battle. This was a tough thing to see. I recognised some of the lands as being those in Maicreol and that hurt.
Koth had an authority about him much like Kamaal. “What are you to Kamaal?” I asked.
“His second in command. He’s seeing to his wife and calling a meeting of the council right now. If Sekora wishes to take the keep, Kamaal is prepared to leave.”
“To just run out? Aren’t these his lands?”
“They are, but Kamaal’s been moving most from here to a new home for a while.” I wasn’t happy that the demon lord was abandoning his home. But I listened to Koth, interested in this part of our history.
It seemed, at this moment in time, they weren’t fighting for much good. They were only after death and destruction, whereas the demons were fighting for family, lands, young ones. Something didn’t seem to add up, and I started to hate the history of my lands. They weren’t what I’d thought. They couldn’t be with this death and war on their hands.
Koth tucked into me, and he said quite simply, “You never knew, did you, how the Desert Plains were formed in the first place?”
“No,” I replied, “I didn’t.”
“Then let me show you.” He moved further up the timeline, and it became something simple. The lands were just a battlefield, a battlefield getting levelled with fighting and blood. The number of creatures being killed was too much, the blood. The blood drained down and through the green grasses, but it was tainted with so much energy, dark energy, and it started to kill and decay all the things around it. Most people at that time lived about the lands, and as it died, so did the hopes that everything could be fixed. The truth started to dawn more on me, and I knew. The lands were bad. They were bad because of the death, the deaths of creatures that shouldn’t have died because it was wrong.
I looked to Koth, and although his skin was pale, his eyes were dark, and I could see blood red tears there.
I could only utter two words. “I’m sorry.”
“You, my dear, do not need to be sorry for the blights of the past, but you do need to have seen the how and why people were frightened of us, and that we turned back too because of them. We just hid. We didn’t want any more pain or suffering, so we hid.”
“But you’re not necessarily bad?”
“No, we’re not bad. We’re just hunted. We take and give many different things to the world.”
I could see there were some things not accounted for or shared. Their life story and many others were now important to me.
I looked into his eyes, saw the dark globes of his eyes, and listened to more of that time of war with a sad yet curious heart.
“They were my great ancestors and yours too. They fough
t for all the right reasons, despite being wronged. They did not turn the world around and make it darker. They instead concentrated the war efforts and created this.”
What I saw in the next line of the story was something else. Where the blood ran, caves formed deep into the ground. Where death touched, there was decay and wrongdoing, but there was also much hope.
The demons didn’t win the war. They put their effort into retreating and retreating down into the caves of Maicreol. Digging and forming a vast network of spaces that could support all variety of life. They were the reason the Tromoal had a safe place for their young to hatch.
“But the others want to overthrow you… because?”
“Because they want revenge now. They want to hurt those who wronged them, and this fight would be for nothing but pain. We don’t need pain. We need more support.
“Kamaal brings that support, in his leadership, right?” I asked, glancing back to the demon lord. “The demon who would take over would not be interested in leading, just in destruction.”
Koth shook his head. “No, she would not lead, only kill.”
This made me sad how even in their world, death had consequences.
“Now that you know about the history of the desert, does it make things easier or harder for you?”
I thought about it for a while. “It makes my decisions easier because I trust my gut.” He smiled at me as Kamaal returned. “Please, come to the council room.”
When we entered this room, there was a large round table at the centre where there were several figures standing and sitting around. I looked out to them. I noticed their cloaks, their stances, their whole demeanour. Very powerful demons and I noted possibly a couple of necromancers too.
As we approached them, they turned to face me. I didn’t allow my real thoughts to surface as I noticed their different appearances. Then I also noticed a woman with riveting deep red skin.
“Please let me introduce my peers and my council,” Kamaal said. From the left, each of the demon men took a step forward and dipped their head toward me. “Volgrur, Koth, and Thog.” Then to his right, “Nagi, Miran, and Drol.”
I regarded each of them and quickly noted their vast and powerful auras. My eyes met the lady of the group. She had wonderful red skin, bright green eyes. It was her eyes that seemed familiar.
“Maddie,” she reached out and took my hand. “It is good to finally meet you.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know of you.”
“This is my wife, Patrise.”
Patrise moved to Akillia’s side, and she held out her hand. “My dear, please take this from me.”
“Patrise,” Akillia smiled, fumbled slightly, but took the offered hand and then the piece of jewellery which rested in it.
Akillia smiled as she turned and looked at me, her eyes much brighter. “I can see.”
“What is that?” I asked Patrise.
“It’s imbued with magic so those without dark sight can see into our world. We do get a few Visitors.”
I really did have a lot to figure out, and it kind of left me feeling like I was the outsider, but as I looked to them all, they weren’t worried. “Please, sit with us.”
I followed them over, and they all sat. Koth was the one who touched the table and brought up a view screen for us. Here he started to point and then to speak. “Sekora and her necromancers gathered at the walls of the keep a few days ago.”
“You think she has the numbers to break through?” Kamaal’s face was stoic, but I felt the emotion and worry from around the table as he looked to Patrise, who’s hands traced down and around her stomach. They stopped and rested almost protectively there. She caught my eyes, and I cocked my head in question. Then she patted her stomach lightly and nodded. She was pregnant.
Koth looked to his leader and then around the table. “She has decent numbers, yes. You weren’t here. Now that you are, she’s just called forth more of her allies, and this time, her force is tenfold. I suggest we get your family to safety. Her timing is awful.”
I already knew this was going to be a bad thing. Timing here was everything. And it was something I was running out of.
“Jessica, Akillia, and I can help hold the lines while you get away.”
He scowled as much as I thought a demon lord might be able to, and I scowled back.
“I’m not risking any more of this world, and you're very much needed in it.”
“So are you, Maddie.” I felt myself blush and his brows furrowed. “I know what you think, but I ask you to include Maroc in your plans and Koth.”
I looked to my left to his second in command. Koth lowered his head to me, and I grinned back at him too. “I can agree to those terms if you take the rest of your council and you leave.”
“How do you think we’re going to get out of here now?”
I looked to the door and reached out beyond it with my mind once more, to Oragor. You can get out of here without being detected, right?
I could, for the right reasons.
What would you need to make it the right reason?
I could almost see through the wall back out to the portal, and into his soul. You want to go home, I said. If I could get there another way now, I would. I see what I need to do. I will take you there.
It was as if something changed at that moment from within Oragor’s soul, and I felt something else—a sudden hope.
You would break that line for me?
You know I would, also for the right reasons. You need to get your master out of here, and somewhere safe where these walls can’t come down around him and where there’s nothing that can go wrong for him on the inside.
There would be consequences if he stayed.
I looked over to Kamaal and Patrise. She stood and moved to take my hands in hers. “I will get him out of here. Jessica and Akillia both protected Maroc and me with all their worth in the forest. I know you’ll do the same, and I appreciate that. I can already thank you for what you’ve just done without knowing the full extent of your bargain.”
“Yeah, I forgot you can see a little more than others.”
“My nature is just that.” She winked at me, and I saw a familiar green glow to her eyes. Her skin tone changed to, just for a brief second.
“Seriously?”
She didn’t need to say it. I knew it was true. “Wren?”
“I needed a new home, and this body needed someone else to watch over her family after losing her life in a previous battle. Zurath and Tibex helped bring me back.” Patrise glanced to Akillia, and her face softened.
I had known I’d see her again, and I knew she was in the right place. I also knew she was in a dangerous place, and I was essentially giving her an escape route yet again.
She made to pull something from her chest. “A gift from me to you. Thank you.”
When she held out her hand, I saw not one but several objects on her palm. She took hold of my hand and slapped hers on it.
KARMA - YOU’VE BEEN AWARDED A SUPER BONUS
Seven Karma filled my screen. I admit the buzz here was interesting.
“Why?” I asked her.
But she turned and glared to Kamaal and pointed to the doorway. “We are leaving now.”
She winked at me as she walked away, and I wanted to ask her many more questions, but there was no time. I had to let her leave. This was a great moment to understand what she was and to know she’d technically won against those she’d been fighting. For how long, though, I wasn’t sure. I wondered if they’d eventually get around to working out her location, and I hoped I wasn’t going to be around to find out.
If they had to take her out for real, then it would be a sad day.
I turned to Koth and then to Maroc. “So, you boys know more details about what we’re facing? I need everything laid out for us.”
Maroc indicated back to the table, and Koth moved to take up a position where there was nothing but flashing panels and lights now showing us the locations of
several obvious planned attacks.
No sooner had they left the room when someone else burst into the room, panting. “They’ve broken over the walls, sir.”
Koth looked to Maroc who instantly drew his swords. “We might have to defend the perimeter ourselves. While they escape.”
I looked to the two women who were with me, and Jessica’s eyes flashed in the strange lighting.
“We aren’t high level or anything, but we do and can fight together to make a difference.”
“We don’t need luck all the time.” Akillia drew her bow. “Point me to a place where I can get some good shots in, and I’ll do my best to take some out before they get to you.”
I motioned to Maroc. “You know where we’re best placed, lead the way.”
I pulled my daggers from their hilts, feeling their weight in my hands, and knowing I would be needed to take defence at some point. The creatures, I had no doubt, would get through and past the house’s main defences.
Maroc noted myself and Jessica. I could tell he wasn’t very happy to allow us out with them. But he also didn’t have a choice.
“We’ll be fine. We’re good at fighting and defence, just don’t let too many of them through, right?” I laughed at this and hoped it would be an easy fight. I also knew maybe it really wouldn’t.
As we approached the inside walls of the main building, the outer wall was easy to spot. I stared out, and shivers ran down my spine. And I was shocked, to say the least. This wasn’t just a little take over. This was a full-on invasion of the dead. Zombies, skeletons, creatures of all walks of the undead world.
Damn, I wish we’d all fled with Kamaal.
Chapter 30
Akillia was straight up on the wall, with her bow and arrows flying free in seconds. I watched her for a second before I saw Jessica move to stand with her, and I realised what they were actually doing together. Jessica’s magic sparked, and she powered Akillia’s bow with energy. This didn’t just give her more arrows but magical ones. Akillia nodded her thanks, and together, they started to take out the enemy as they attempted to scale over the walls.
