He spent hours moving carefully, dislodging pebbles occasionally that made seemingly loud sounds, so that he often froze his movements and held still, until he trusted it was safe to move on. As he descended, he heard a curious sound, and he stopped twice to listen to a roar that he couldn’t place. It came from further up the canyon behind him, making him nervous. He stopped before he climbed all the way down to the level of the road, then shrugged his way down among the rocks and bushes to hide himself while he waited for sunlight to begin to illuminate the scene around him.
The sky overhead began to turn gray, and then bright pink appeared in the sky behind him, behind the high mountain peak they were climbing, and as the light began to illuminate the landscape, Kestrel saw the extraordinary scene that was around him. The roaring sound he heard was a waterfall, a gushing outpouring of water that plunged over one hundred feet, pounding away with a noise that was consistent, and raising a low cloud of mist at its landing place that hid the stones receiving the unending flow of water at the bottom of the fall.
The waterfall was fed directly from a crystal clear lake, a large blue oval set between two arms of the mountain. The lake was a placid surface that perfectly reflected the mountain peak and the sky overhead. Only the far end of the lake was ruffled, its smoothness disturbed by the mighty gushing of a spring that poured water directly from a cavernous opening in the mountainside.
“There Kestrel; go to the spring, and raise the water skin of Decimindion above it so that its waters will pour into the lake,” a small rock beside him suddenly whispered. “Go now, before it is too late.”
“Corrant? Corrant, is that you?” Kestrel whispered. “Will this help free the gnomes?”
“Go Kestrel, hurry,” the rock urged him, then fell silent.
Kestrel took a deep breath, then exhaled.
Reaching the spring at the far end of the lake would be a daunting journey, one that seemed impossible to carry out without being seen, unless he began immediately, and managed to hide in shadows along the way. He hastily backed out of his hiding place, then crouched as he ran away from the encampment on the plaza.
He reached a large boulder and edged behind it, then turned to see if there was any reaction, any evidence among the Uniontown forces he had been spotted. The camp was calm and quiet, with few people moving. Only the heads of the gnomes were looking in his direction, he noted.
Kestrel took a long leap up into a patch of weeds, then ran for several easy strides to where a large bush offered the next hiding place, and he immediately crouched down there to hide. For the next half hour Kestrel moved southward towards the end of the lake, aiming for the spring that gushed above the lake, always looking over his shoulder to check on the Viathins and their forces.
When he reached the end of the lake he saw that the Uniontown guards had arisen, and were slowly walking along the road to the end of the lake, heading straight towards him. He started to turn to begin his climb among the rocks to reach the spot above the spring, but he froze in the middle of his turn and stared in horror.
As he watched the stream of spring water issue forth from the cavern, a dark shape blurred past him in the water stream, and splashed into the lake below. There was an immediate thrashing in the lake, and then he saw a monster lizard version of the Viathins swim across the surface of the lake and emerge from the water, climbing up a ramp that led to the start of the road surface.
Kestrel stared in horror. “Oh holy Kai,” he muttered softly, as he realized he was observing the second portal, the location at which Viathins emerged into the world of the Inner Seas as they were driven out of Albanu by Allgain and Reasion’s campaign to purge their world of the death-dealing Viathins. He understood why the Uniontown forces had purged the nearby lands of elves and men – they were protecting the secret of their arrival spot, ensuring an easy entrance into the Inner Seas for the Viathins who were leaving Albanu behind.
The cold weather of the high mountains had to be a terrible discomfort to the monsters, Kestrel suspected. He had seen them always seek to create warm environments for themselves in every human city they had occupied, building heated greenhouses over pools to protect themselves from chill.
“The water of Decimindion!” Kestrel quietly exclaimed, as he realized what Corrant had assigned him to do. The god was directing Kestrel to add the purifying water to the lake into which the Viathins dropped when they arrived from Albanu. Yet the water from the skin would provide only a few puny drops for every gallon of spring water that gushed forth, he realized with a deflating consideration.
But Corrant had directed him to carry out the mission, and the god had to know what could be accomplished, Kestrel decided. He watched the newly arrived Viathin crawl past, then he started to climb among the boulders on the southern wall of the valley, climbing up to the ledge that stuck out above the spring cavern.
There was no hidden route left for Kestrel to use, he realized when he was halfway towards his goal; the remaining cliff face that he had to cross was relatively open and would make him a visible and inviting target. He crouched behind the last stone that was available to use as protection. He might be about to expose himself to sure death, he realized soberly. He paused and thought about all that he wished was left ahead for him in life, the things that he was about to give up, and he shed a bitter tear.
“Help me please Kere and Kai. Help me protect and save my friends, and protect me if you can,” he prayed forlornly, then leaped out with all the strength he could drain from his elven legs and jumped high onto the ledge above the spring.
As he leaped through the air he felt an arrow strike his chest, while another flew past his head to strike the stones behind him, and another pair pinged off the cliff below him. Then another arrow struck his chest, and drove him back against the cliff, so that he bounced on the stones behind him and fell with a thud onto the top of the ledge he sought.
With a gasp, but without a moment’s pause, Kestrel wrenched the water skin from over his shoulder and pulled the plug from the spout, then tipped the bag forward over the ledge. As water began to trickle out in a steady stream, he wedged a pair of nearby stones against the skin to hold it in place. All the while he kept his head down as the Uniontown forces shot a steady barrage of arrows at his location from where they knelt on the road along the edge of the lake.
“All forces, cease fire!” a raspy Viathin voice bellowed, and the arrows stopped flying towards him.
There was silence, broken only by the sound of the water from the cave pouring into the lake, along with the faint whistle of the winds that blew across the mountain far overhead. Kestrel lay flat, knowing that there was no avenue of escape available, and he prayed desperately that the gods would intervene to save him, and that the skin of Decimindion’s water would somehow begin to miraculously stop the Viathins.
“Kestrel,” the Viathin called, and he raised his head in surprise that the creature knew his name, “Kestrel, you have fought well.
“Stand up. We will not harm you for the moment, Kestrel,” the Viathin said.
Kestrel looked around. The Uniontown soldiers had lowered their weapons. Hansen and Greta had been brought to the front, closer to Kestrel’s spot, so that he could see them clearly.
He wondered about the goal of the Garrant Spark; had he accomplished it? Was placing the water skin above the lake the end of the mission? No one had died, he reminded himself, and one was guaranteed to die, so the mission was not yet finished.
As he slowly stood up, there was movement on the mountainsides, and he saw a number of the human-like Viathins rise from where they had been hidden behind boulders all around him. A dozen or more were standing. He swiveled his head and saw them on all sides – above him, to his left and right. He was completely surrounded by the monsters; the encounter was an ambush, and he was caught.
“This is the end of the war, Kestrel,” the Viathin standing on the road, the one who had already spoken, announced. “You have fought a long war.
You have been a great opponent, and we salute you for the many victories you have won. Your gods chose well when they made you their champion.
“You may come down Kestrel. We’ll release your friends, and let them go back to their homes,” the Viathin shouted. “Your war is over now.
“I have the power to control this. I am the great high priest of Ashcrayss. It was my temple you so cleverly defiled in Uniontown, and my powers that you fought against,” the Viathin said. “I am the chosen one of my god, his champion in this land, the one he has chosen to finally defeat you so that we may finish our conquest here.”
Kestrel looked around at the many monsters that surrounded him, and the guards that backed them up, supporting them and threatening the two gnomes. It was a hopeless cause.
I’m sorry Kere, I tried,” he whispered as he looked around. “There is no hope here.”
Remember Kestrel. Remember the secrets that Corrant shared with you. There is hope my son and friend, he heard the elven goddess whisper, and he felt an invisible finger touch his forehead.
His head snapped up, and he blinked his eyes, as he suddenly remembered the hidden secrets the god of the gnomes had shared with him so many months before, on a lonely evening in the Water Mountains. The god had told him that the water skin of Decimindion was the weapon that could destroy the influence of the Viathins throughout the world.
By placing the skin where its waters could pour into the lake, Kestrel was positioned to empower those waters to flow forth and cleanse every body of water they touched, making all the waters of the world like the water of Decimindion, letting every drop of water in the world be capable of setting the minds of humans and elves and imps free from the influence of the Viathins, and even making the waters poisonous to the Viathins themselves.
He only needed to do one thing to set off the chain-reaction that would conflate the stream of water from the skin into the waters throughout the world. Kestrel needed to use the spark of divine energy that Kai had bequeathed to him, the spark that now rested locked away within him, unavailable to him through the protection of the Garrant Spark, and further trapped by the evil energy of the Viathin temple to the evil god Ashcrayss, an awareness that now purred with contentment and anticipation inside his soul.
“Come down now Kestrel. Come down here to us, or the gnomes will die,” the Viathin called to him.
Kestrel came out of his reverie, stunned by the revelation, and shocked by the irony of what he needed. He was at a loss to know how to reach the power within him, bounded as it was by the Garrant Spark and the temple energy.
“Let the gnomes go, and I will come down,” he shouted back, trying to gain extra time, trying to find some way to come up with a solution, and trying to make sure that if the Garrant Spark was successful, if he achieved his goal, and if only one member of the team were to die, it would be him, while the two young lovers would go free.
“Very well. We will make this gesture to show you our honor,” the Viathin replied. He motioned to the guards holding the gnomes. They pulled out knives and cut the ropes that bound the hands and the feet of the gnomes.
“Kestrel, what are you doing?” Hansen called loudly, as he and Greta hold hands.
Kestrel began to descend from the stony ledge. “Go,” he shouted to the pair. “Go home. Go back to the village and live your lives.”
‘No, Kestrel, no!” Greta called out.
“One of us has to die if this is going to work – that is the bargain. It shouldn’t be either of you. Now go, please,” Kestrel responded, as he slid on a patch of gravel that brought him down to the level of the road, so that he landed heavily on his bare feet. He began to walk towards the Viathin and the gnomes and the guards.
“You are right; someone is going to die,” the Viathin agreed. “And it will be you Kestrel.
“But it will be these foolish young friends of yours as well, you naive elf,” the Viathin shouted, and he pulled his sword as he began to turn towards them.
His action was not fast enough though, as Kestrel’s fingers flipped the knife off his hip, and Lucretia flew through the air to kill the head priest before he could finish his treacherous murder of the gnomes.
“Lucretia, return!” Kestrel called, knowing that fatal moments were approaching, and he still had no way to unleash the power that he needed.
The Viathins and the Uniontown guards stood in stunned silence for only a moment, and then there was a roaring outcry.
“Silence!” one Viathin screamed.
“You have killed the priest!” one of the other Viathins screamed. “Ashcrayss, come take revenge for the murder of your champion!” the monster shouted. He held his hands in the air, and waved them, then grabbed an amulet on a chain around his neck and kissed it, before he yanked the jeweled disk away, breaking the chain.
He threw the disk down on the ground, then pulled out a sword and stabbed the center of the disk.
There was a blinding flash of light that burst forth from the disk. The light spread instantly, then inexplicably re-coalesced into a ball of blinding brightness that hovered in the air.
All eyes were on the light as it hung over the lake. It began to slowly float towards the uncomprehending Kestrel, and stopped when it was directly overhead.
“I will take back the energy you stole from my temple,” a voice spoke from the light, and suddenly a beam of ruby red light dropped down and struck Kestrel, freezing him in place. He felt a horrible pain, a turbulent wrench that felt as though his organs were being pulled out of him.
His eyes burned with agonizing pain, and then he felt the evil power from the temple leave him through his eyes, and he fell to his knees, screaming, his hands covering his eyes. And then, suddenly, he felt energized; the evil energy was gone, and his soul felt lighter, more buoyant than it had in weeks, as he realized he had not understood the weight and pain he had carried due to the parasitic entity that had lived within him.
He felt both joy and triumph. He was free from the driving anger of the temple, and more importantly, he was free to use Kai’s divinely-given powers once again, untainted by the temple. The Garrant Spark unlocked its own blanket about his powers as the temple energy left him.
And he suddenly understood. He understood that the energy from Kai had lingered within him, waiting to be used by him, and waiting for him to grow and mature enough to comprehend what that power could do. He had the awareness to understand that he had served as a safe harbor within which Kai’s energy could grow, and prod him to grow as well.
There was an exploding sound overhead. Kestrel uncovered his eyes and looked up. The bolt of energy that had left his body had flown to the ball of lightening overhead, and upon reaching the ball the two had combined, exploding into a new larger shape, one that plunged down to earth and came to rest at the very end of the road, at the spot where Kestrel had landed after he had slid down from the water skin’s perch.
The ball of light had become Ashcrayss, the god incarnate in the body of a dragon. The monster’s eyes looked at Kestrel, then shifted to the gnomes, and Kestrel instinctively reacted. He waved his hand behind his back, and the energy from Kai leapt out to form a blue protective dome over the two lovers, just seconds before Ashcrayss breathed a bolt of red energy at them. The deadly shaft of light hit the dome and exploded spectacularly, loudly, but did no harm to the two occupants, other than to knock them off their feet as the ground shook.
“So you think you have the power to withstand me?” the dragon roared in a deep, gravelly voice. “We’ll find out what your puny strength can withstand.”
The dragon began to run at Kestrel, galloping at full speed with a dizzying acceleration that made Kestrel sprint to his left, out over the waters of the lake, allowing his elven speed and body weight to carry him to a stone that stood as a tiny island in the center of the water.
The dragon stopped at the shore line and looked at Kestrel. “A fine trick, I’ll grant you that,” he rumbled. He raised a clawed foot and po
inted it at Kestrel, then unleashed a fine, bright line of power, a continuous string of energy that poured forth from his outstretched digit and flew at Kestrel.
With a wave of his own hand, Kestrel created a blue bubble around himself for protection. As Ashcrayss’s energy struck the protective device it did not explode, nor bounce away, but instead slid along the surface of the bubble, remaining intact, and quickly weaving itself around every portion of the dome, becoming an inverted bird’s nest-like layer on top of the dome above the waterline, and sizzling with energy, crackling and whining everywhere it came into contact with Kestrel’s defense.
The dragon rose slowly into the air, its wings beating majestically as it lifted itself off the stone surface of the road, and it floated closer to Kestrel, angling so that it hung in the air directly between Kestrel and the location of the cavern where the spring water entered the lake.
“You cannot escape,” the god said. “Your doom is at hand, and you will drown right here in the very water where my people enter your world to begun our consumption of it.”
And with that statement, Kestrel realized that the time had come to take the ultimate step Corrant and Kai and Kere had prepared him for; he realized that the way to heal the world of the Viathin infection was within his grasp. He dove into the water and swam under the edge of the encircling cage of the evil god’s energy.
It was all about the water, he understood. Just as all of his adventures had begun with water – with Kai’s rain and with Kere’s Healing Spring – now it would end with water. Just as rain fell everywhere and just as the Healing Spring could cure even the worst pains, he could use the waters of the Lake in the Sky to create the cure that would go everywhere and cure the Viathin plague.
He rose to the surface directly below the god, and as soon as he did, he pointed his own hand and fired off a mighty bolt of the divine power he carried within himself, draining himself of the ability to do anymore; he knew that he had collapsed the blue dome over the gnomes by seizing the energy needed for their protection, and he felt his chest burning with pain as he grasped and then relinquished the power embedded in it as well. He screamed in pain and anger as he felt the entirety of the divine energy depart from his body.
The Inner Seas Kingdoms: 05 - Journey to Uniontown Page 31
