Just Before Dawn

by Joshua Hernandez

  Fadhe walked over to her and took a good look at her face. Sayala's eyes rolled in her head, but they stared out blankly as if they had no idea where she was or what was happening. Grabbing her still kicking leg Fadhe held it down with his foot. Then he pulled his sword free. Sayala shrieked in pain as he did so and the rest of the world went unnaturally quiet. Fadhe stood over his fallen foe with no joy in his heart. This was not a victory he could bask in. Too many had died for nothing but the mad ravings of a demon. He raised the sword over his head for the killing blow. Sayala was lost in madness from her pain, and Fadhe could almost understand it. She had lived for thousands of years and her defeat came at the hand of a god she held in disdain.

  No, came a voice inside Fadhe's head, she lost to a man, blessed by a god. Never forget.

  “I won't forget,” Fadhe said quietly, and his sword came down.

  Immediately the rain ceased and the clouds began to dissipate. Down on the hillside men of the Valgara threw down their arms and surrendered. Others blinked as if a veil had been pulled from their eyes, and when they saw where they were they cried out, or stepped back in shock. Slowly things began to calm. Men of both the Salgara and the Valgara looked up to where Fadhe stood, covered in mud and the blood of demi-god, holding a sword that could only be a god's. The men fell to their knees before him while the warriors of the Salgara cried out, “Hail to Kral Fadhe, Sword of Adun! Hail to Kral Fadhe, Bear of Adhe!”

  On it went until, weary from his battle, Fadhe fell to the ground, lost to the blackness of unconsciousness.

  Dreams came to him in wisps of prophetic images. Fadhe saw himself fighting Sayala, but this time she won and the world fell into darkness. In another Fadhe won, but lost himself to pride and strength. Down that road, as well, the world fell into darkness. In his dreams Fadhe lived life after life, and no matter what, the world fell into shadow. More terrifying still was that Fadhe could feel something in the shadow, something that burned with hunger and a lust for power. Something evil. Yet no matter what he did, he could not halt the advance of that shadow.

  Then a voice came to him floating on the cold winds of a dead world. You will fail if you do not accept those who are yet to come, the Godslayers, the voice told him. Then the world faded once more, and Fadhe slept.

  Fadhe woke atop a sturdy bed in a room he had never seen before. He felt tired still and weak from hunger, but as he sat up he began to feel better. He looked about and saw new clothes laying out over a great chair, and atop them, the sword that had been given to him by Adun. Fadhe stood and dressed, strapping his sword to his belt, hoping to discover what had passed. He opened the door and stepped out to find himself in a gathering of warriors from all the Salgara. Before he could even open his mouth Stahl was at his side, gripping his shoulder with a grin. Men cheered their leader and Fadhe was dumbstruck. Fadhe look at his karl and smiled. The man had a bandage around his head and another on his cheek, but otherwise looked as healthy as a horse.

  “Where am I? How long as it been since I was last awake?” Fadhe asked his servant. Stahl lead Fadhe to a great chair but Fadhe did not sit. Not yet.

  “It has been five days, my lord. You are here, in your father's house, as is your right.” Stahl replied. Fadhe nearly blanched at the reply, for it spoke volumes more than what was actually said. If he was here, in his father's house, then his father was dead. Fadhe would also have had to been installed as Kral, as his father expected, but even so, the other krals...

  “Who survived?”

  Stahl swallowed and said stoically, “The elders and the krals, along with two hundred warriors working the siege engines fell to the goddess' rampage. Of the men at the Thorn Wall, only one in four still live. Of those, one in three was injured almost beyond saving. We are a weakened people, but we are not yet defeated.” Fadhe nodded at hearing it, though he had not expected numbers so drastic. “Why are the numbers so low? Not all of our warriors were at the gap?”

  “The Valgara struck all along the wall at multiple places. They took heavy losses, but hurt us just as bad.” Fadhe shook his head and said, “For what, my friend, for what? A road? Some baubles and coin we rarely use? For what was all of this for?”

  Stahl, as if knowing he had already spoken more than he should have for days, simply shrugged. When Fadhe's gaze told him that a shrug was not enough the man tried to answer. “We are but men,” he said, “we live and die as Adun wills it.”

  “But this was not Adun's will,” spat Fadhe. “No, I think for countless years we have been manipulated by evil, whether in the guise of apathy, Geghti or even that beast that claimed immortality, Sayala.” Fadhe shook his head at the futility of it all, but when he looked up he saw a hunger in Stahl's gaze. “Yes?” questioned Fadhe.

  “What happened on the hill?” Stahl asked. “We saw the battle between you and...something, but we could not tell what. You moved to fast and about you both shone light so bright as to be painful.” Fadhe looked around and realized the room had gone quiet. Eyes were turned to their new leader in wonder and expectation and Fadhe realized that he had transcended being a simple leader long ago. He would have to tell them all what had occurred, and his legend would build.

  Fadhe motioned for Stahl to step aside, took a deep breath, and told his tale of the events atop the hill. No one said a word as Fadhe spoke, though more than once Fadhe saw his warriors flinch or move in shock and awe. When he finished Fadhe spread his arms wide and said, “This last battle, where powers beyond man came to take what is ours, marks the end of an age! We have battled amongst our cousins to the north for so long we forgot that there is a world beyond Etkaldra, a world beyond the mountains. We must change our world if we are to make our way in the world beyond us! If not now then never, for the road we are on now does nothing but lead us farther and farther into death. Gone are the times where we could be content to serve the sons of Adun as we pleased, as separate peoples under the name Salgara. We have been weakened by pride and apathy! No more!” The warriors looked stunned, but Fadhe spoke on, prodded on by divine inspiration. “We are simply the Gara, the people, and we will be as brothers as Adun intended! We will march north and retake our valley from our lost cousins to the north and we will make our land strong and united. In the years to come we will be a mighty people, strong enough to rival Ran and to remind the eastern cities that we are not barbarians, but a chosen people!”

  Stahl spoke up, for only he dared interrupt Fadhe. “My lord, you speak of change like it is easy. But it is not. We are a people set in our ways. To go against tradition, against what always has been, it is madness.”

  “Is it any more mad than what we already do? Like spilling blood for The Road? Like hobbling our people for tradition's sake? No more! The weeks to come will be the last of the battles for The Road, for we will make it ours! We will not die for something so simple and our children will thank us for it. Adun has touched me and though I am not worthy I will never cease working to bring about what he has shown me. What could be. Behold, Tyrnog, the sword of Balance, given to me by Adun atop the hill!” Fadhe shouted and drew the celestial blade. Spectral fire of starlight blazed forth along the blade and every man and woman in the chamber fell to their knees before Fadhe. Holding the blade high Fadhe continued on. “The time has come. We will follow the road before us, and we will not fall into the shadows!”

  The chamber erupted with cheers and warriors leapt to their feet like giddy children. Tears streamed down their cheeks, through their beards, and down to the floor. Fadhe watched them and knew that he had to move fast. He had to change things now, while the stories were fresh and the victories still recent. He had a chance to do things right, before the shadows came. Many Valgara had fallen in the battle, and more still had probably succumbed to Sayala's power and were now hiding in the north, licking their wounds. But if not now, then when? He would have to marry, but that Bride had been so...Fadhe began to think. Adun would find him a way, he knew it, and his faith would be rewarded.

&
nbsp; “When they come,” Fadhe said to himself while the cheering continued, “I'll be ready, and the darkness will tremble.”