Quickly casting a spell, Anakari’s fists lit with blue flames as she scanned the forest around them for any movement. Yuski’s arrow was already drawn by the time Kari looked her way, shaking her shoulders in frustration.
They both jumped in shock when the sound of women laughing escaped from the forests all around them.
A woman stepped out from the darkness and paced amongst the shadows. “A demon hunter has come to find me? How honoured I must be!”
She was an odd sight under the moonlight and looked like a regular woman in what appeared to be almost translucent armour with long silver nails and red hair. The armour she wore shone in the light and left nothing to the imagination. She stood with her eyes closed, facing them.
“She’s one of the Triplets of Orkon, be ready,” whispered Yuski.
“But shouldn’t there be three of them? Are they blind?” asked Anakari, staring at the demon’s closed eyelids.
Her question was answered by the rustling of leaves to their sides and the remaining two stepped out of the shadows.
“Do you know that we can hear you? We are not blind, but tell me… what is it that you can really see? Is it reality or is it only what we show you?” laughed one of the triplets, opening her eyelids.
Anakari gasped in shock at the realisation that there were no eyes in their sockets, only sparkling light.
“It is a shame that you came all the way here to die… and all it took was letting a little boy live and you walked straight into our trap. To kill a demon hunter is a joyous occasion and we will be celebrating tonight. Prepare to meet Shindar, little rabbits,” said one of the triplets, all of them cackling in unison.
The triplets nodded their heads and vanished before their eyes.
Anakari took a defensive stance and her voice was strained with nerves as she cried, “What in the name? You didn’t tell me they could do that!”
“They are using the power of cloaking? That wasn’t in the books! Is there anything you can do?” asked Yuski, running to stand back to back with Anakari.
“I… I don’t know… I’m thinking,” said Anakari, breathing heavily.
Footsteps ran at them in the dirt path and Yuski released an arrow. It tore through the air to land in a nearby tree with a heavy thud.
“Damn!” growled Yuski, pulling out two daggers and throwing them in the air before her. A harsh ripping sound was heard as a triplet’s claws tore through Yuski’s arm, blood spilling from her flesh.
Anakari turned to look at her injured friend, readying for another attack, she surrounded herself and Yuski with blue flames.
“Kari! No!” screamed Yuski.
The flames connected with one of the triplets, engulfing the demon in flames. Another demon tackled her to the ground to extinguish the flames. The fire quickly died out on the dirt, leaving an imprint where the demons fell.
Yuski used all her strength to throw another two daggers at the imprints and a blood curdling cry filled the air as one of them landed deep in a demon’s flesh. The blade was quickly torn from the flesh and dangled in the air before being thrown back at Yuski. Despite her injury, the demon hunter dodged the dagger with relative ease.
Anakari felt a solid blow to her ribs that took the breath out of her lungs, followed by a strike to her chin. She felt her legs swept out below her before pounding into the ground. Shaking off the impact, she rolled out of the way of an invisible heel grinding into the ground where she fell and leapt to her feet.
“Did you think we would be that easy to kill? You don’t live up to your legend,” taunted Yuski.
“Yuski, I don’t think that we should be making them angry,” panted Anakari, running to her side.
Blood dripped continually to the ground from Yuski’s open wounds.
“Listen to your friend Yuski, you don’t want to make us any angrier,” said a voice to their right.
“Pulsus terra ut divum,” snapped Anakari, pointing to the ground in the direction of the voice.
A circle of dirt exploded, sending a triplet skyward and exposing her position under a layer of earth. Yuski drew an arrow and grunted loudly with the pain of stretching her torn muscles.
“Oh no you don’t!” said a triplet, knocking her weapon to the ground and scratching Yuski deep across her chest. Blood splattered to the ground as she dropped to her knees in agony.
“Yuski! You spineless wenches, damn you all to the fires of Mount Wayrin,” cried Anakari.
The elf let out a primal scream as her entire body glowed with magic light pouring from the symbols. The light was as bright as the scorching sun and filled the air above them like a beacon to the gods.
Yuski watched in awe as Vartan landed near them with a frighteningly loud shudder and sent a cloud of dust skyward from the impact. His hulking figure breathed heavily inside his newly forged dragon scale armour. Karven landed a short distance from them and slowly changed his scales to reveal himself.
“By the gods! It’s a real dragon,” exclaimed Yuski.
Anakari stared through teary eyes in disbelief at the man before her and the immense creature of legend bearing down on their position. Vartan charged toward Yuski and felt the impact of two triplets sweeping his legs out from under him. He slid in the dirt and leapt off the ground to regain his footing beside the demon hunter.
“Quickly, what are they?” demanded Vartan.
“They are the Triplets of Orkon—demons with the power of cloaking,” said Yuski, wincing with the pain of her injuries.
Karven breathed in deep and unleashed dragon breath in the air around them, but the triplets saw the attack coming and evaded the flames with ease. Vartan looked down to the growing pool of Yuski’s blood and grimaced before the realisation of how to defeat the triplets dawned on him. He drew his sword and swung it hard into the pool of her blood, sending it splattering into the air around them.
It succeeded in staining the armour of the triplets and revealing their positions. Anakari quickly responded by sending blue fireballs to her nearest enemy, again engulfing her in flames. Yuski used her remaining strength to send her remaining daggers into another triplet and Vartan invoked the spirit of water, his eyes glowing blue from the power within.
Two triplets’ bodies flashed before them as they disintegrated into dust.
The last triplet screamed in fear and was attempting to flee from the battle, but her body was clear in Vartan’s vision. Reaching out with one hand and grasping his sword tightly with the other, he pulled back with his fist and the triplet’s body was snatched backwards out of the air with immense force to land harshly on his blade. His sword tore through the triplet’s body and she disintegrated before him.
Anakari stared with her mouth gaped wide and asked, “By the gods, who are you?”
Shaking his head, Vartan managed to clear the spirit’s power from his body and took a moment to refocus his senses before turning to face Karven.
“Great dragon king, please call for the dragon that is ridden by Trisa and bring her to us to tend to this woman’s wounds,” asked Vartan.
Karven nodded and looked skyward as he sent his message to the circle of dragons above.
“I am Sir Vartan of Veldrenn, and who are you?” asked Vartan, extending his hand.
The man of the Talonsphere prophecy is here before us? We are truly blessed by the gods on this day, thought Yuski.
“The name is Yuski, demon hunter” she said, bowing her head.
The ground shook as a dragon landed nearby and Trisa ran to Yuski’s side.
“I got your message and she needs help, now. I suggest we take her with us,” said Trisa, beginning to treat Yuski’s wounds.
Anakari shook his hand and bowed, “Thank you Sir Vartan for saving our lives today. If it wasn’t for you, we would likely be dead.”
“It is my duty to help anyone in need, but I wouldn’t have seen you if it weren’t for that almighty spell that lit up the sky. It was not hard to find your position, and that is what concerns
me. We were heading to Veldrenn when we decided to fly over Greenhaven in an attempt to find out if it was deserted. I heard a voice whisper ‘Jade Inn’ in my ear and Karven and I headed in your direction. Where did that light come from?” he asked.
Anakari said quietly, “It came from me.”
“What is your name, sorceress?” asked Vartan.
“I am Anakari and I would like to head to Veldrenn with you but we were about to meet a seer near here that is important to me.”
Vartan removed his helm, approached the elf’s side and put a friendly hand on her shoulder. He smiled and spoke as if he was greeting an old friend. “Anakari, I expected to meet you but did not expect for it to be so soon. I promise that I will take you to see your seer in time but your beacon would have alerted every demon in Marithia to our presence and I suggest that we leave here immediately, it is not yet time to face them.”
Yuski and Anakari both nodded knowingly and Trisa helped the limping demon hunter to the dragon’s back.
Vartan replaced his helm and turned momentarily to take in the sight of the now ruined Jade Inn before mounting Karven’s back and focusing on their objective, Veldrenn.
“Come aboard Anakari, you are safe with us,” said Vartan, reaching down.
Anakari bowed to the dragon king before climbing up to sit behind Vartan. The dragons leapt from the ground to take flight and Karven gently picked up their horse before leaving the Jade Inn far below them.
Chapter 17 : Nowhere To Run
“Unforeseen changes have a way of taking everything we know and turning it upside down.
Nobody can truly predict the future, but through carefully planned acts of their own, masters of time can change the paths we take.”
(Talonsphere – Weapon of the ancients)
Mestal paced around her dining room, cussing under her breath and heaving with each step. Another of Tusdar’s high-pitched screams escaped the holding room in the centre of Zhendur and her body felt ablaze as the rage took over her.
“Kassina be damned! Why is she holding Tusdar and treating him like this? There must be something we can do!” she growled.
“My darling daughter, keep your voice down or we will both be executed for treason!” snapped Lord Aryun.
She let out another angry sigh and dropped to a dining chair as if she were dead weight.
Looking up at Aryun with quivering lips, her voice broke as she pleaded. “Father, is there really nothing that we can do?”
He looked her in the eyes and put a gentle hand on hers.
“Mestal… I know how hard this must be for you, but we must endure. If we dare to turn on Shindar and his queen, imagine the destruction of our kind that would follow.”
Nodding knowingly, she sighed loudly before speaking. “Father, I know that it may seem strange to you that I can feel this way, but he is my chosen. I don’t know how it is possible, but I feel connected with him in a way that I have never felt before. It is as if I… love him.”
The corner of his mouth lifted with a grin as he said, “I know, it was the same for your mother and I.”
She put her head in her hands and tried to ignore the sounds of Tusdar’s torture.
The icy cold of the almost empty room touching his skin made his body shiver as he struggled to stay awake. Only the pale blue light beaming through the small windows provided any solace. Piercing squeals of the chains above him felt louder in his head with every swing of his naked body.
Tusdar had withstood the continual torture for the many days that had passed since Kassina dragged him in there and got to work, but he was growing weaker and he was considering telling her anything she wanted to hear to make it all go away.
Each time he tried to give her wrong information to lead her astray or to make her stop, she looked into his eyes and somehow knew that he was lying. He relived the nightmare day after day and it felt like it would never end. Death was almost a welcome fate.
The door slammed as he faced his captor once more through weary eyes and a tear streamed down his face. “Great queen Kassina, I… I beg of you… I know not of what you ask of me…”
His words were silenced by her tight grip across his throat and a solid elbow to his ribs. He gasped for breath as she laughed mercilessly at him.
“Lies, lies, lies! Do you think me a fool? After you killed Derian at Greenhaven and you slipped through my grasp, I wanted nothing more than to find you; and here you are… you should never have been blessed with this life. The superior life of a vampire should never have been granted to you!”
She drew a dagger from her boot and pounded it into his right thigh, twisting the blade around his muscles. His scream was heard throughout all of Zhendur. Once his pain threshold increased and allowed him relief, she tore it back out and watched as the wound healed itself.
“I can do this for as long as it takes. You’re a vampire now, so I can cut you over and over again. That sharpness of the blade piercing through your skin will be felt tirelessly until you give up what you know!”
She drew a second blade and jammed both of them into each side of his ribs, one narrowly missing his heart as if to tease him with a true death.
Gritting his teeth, he yelled out. “What do you want from me?”
Kassina’s body blurred as she brought her face so close to his that he could feel her breath on his mouth and left the daggers embedded in his ribs. “I want to know everything you know. Is Vartan dead? Where are they hiding? What are their plans?”
Tusdar winced at the pain and spat his words at her face. “How would I know if Vartan is dead? He left me for dead at the hands of your assassins. My last memory was choking on my own blood. Vartan didn’t even value my life. Why should I worry if he lives or dies? He could be buried under dirt for all I care!”
She looked deep into his eyes as if searching for something within.
“Here you are, torturing me for information that I do not have to give! The great Queen Kassina; I used to be afraid of you, but now I care not. My old life is lost to me and I have no regrets for killing Derian, he was a vile betrayer who got everything he deserved. Torture me more or kill me if that’s what you want. I have already died once and I do not fear dying again. But I want you to know that you would be killing a man who loves the vampire who turned me and would love nothing more than to serve you. You should stop wasting your time here…”
His words were cut short by a heavy backhand to his face.
“You dare lecture me boy? Silence!” she growled.
Placing her right boot to his chest, she grabbed hold of the embedded blades and yanked them out, wiping the blood on a nearby rag. Tusdar’s painful cries filled the room.
She walked over to a weapons rack and drew a shiny sword before approaching him. Tusdar closed his eyes as he prepared for the inevitable. Wielding it with both hands, she swung hard and Tusdar felt his body fall to the ground. The cold heavy chains crashed onto his back.
“So you were telling the truth. I need to know where your allegiance lies. If you truly love Mestal, want to serve Shindar and have left your old life behind, then I will let you live. You will need to prove this to me and if you do, then I will bless you as one of our chosen and forget our past. If you do not, then I will make sure that you will feel nothing but pain until the day I decide to end your life for good. Do you understand?”
Tusdar nodded his head and watched her throw the sword back into the rack. She shot bolts of lightning from her fingertips into the clasps around his wrists and they broke free.
“Stand up!” she ordered.
Tusdar’s legs felt weak and shook as he stood once again, facing the queen of the underworld. His vision wavered and his stomach growled in hunger.
She marched to the door and growled as she shoved it open. Slamming the door shut, her voice boomed, “Bring him some blood so he can regain his strength and give him some clothes. Once he is dressed, bring him to me!”
An elite skeleton warrior kicked op
en the door, snarled at him, then threw his clothes to the dirty floor and a flask of hot blood landed on top of them.
He staggered to the pile of clothes and drank the blood as if he was dying of thirst. Wiping the blood from his mouth and feeling his strength returning to him, he quickly got himself dressed and pressed his ear against the door. He could hear the swirling metallic sound of the portal opening again and Kassina’s distant voice giving orders.
His heart pounded as he stared at the weapons rack, unsure of whether to trust Kassina or if he was about to be executed. Before he had a chance to decide, two of her elite stormed into the room and prodded him toward the door with their bony fists.
When Tusdar walked outside, he noticed that all Zhendurians were assembled once again by the now open portal. Kassina stood with her arms crossed, tapping the ground with her left foot.
“Come now Tusdar, we don’t have all day!” she yelled.
Tusdar finally reached Kassina’s position and looked around to see everyone staring in his direction. Mestal was nearby and standing next to her father, her eyes revealing her concern.
Kassina raised her arms in the air, addressing the vampire city. “My loyal Zhendurians, this is a time of war and as such, certain measures have to be taken to protect ourselves from our enemies. Am I right?”
The crowd erupted in agreement and she waved them all down.
“It was many years ago that I pledged my own loyalty to our great lord, Shindar. I watched as humans butchered my mother and father simply because they loved each other and broke human sacred laws that would prevent any of you from experiencing freedom like they had. They think that we are not worthy of living amongst them. Today, I will show you all that Shindar and I are merciful and worthy of your loyalty.”
The crowd cheered and she nodded toward the portal.
Two elite skeleton warriors dragged a man out from the underworld. His skin was blistered and broken and he looked feeble in their grip. His long hair covered his face as he fell to the dirt on his hands and knees.
Legends of Marithia: Book 2 - Darkness Rising Page 14
