Guardians of the Light (Book One of The Nebril Riverland Chronicles)

by Leslie MacPherson

  Chapter 25

  "What the..." Vandalaharis was unable to finish his thought as he swerved back up into the air and away from the village. "Are those what I think they are?"

  "The whole place is covered with Orlogs!" I confirmed, while still shaking my head in disbelief. "Where are the Lumeai? I can't even see them."

  "I knew something was wrong; the glow was just too dim." Vandalaharis leveled his flight and followed Torchuk in an arc around the perimeter of the mountaintop village. "How could all of those Orlogs have gotten up here?"

  "I don't know...I mean they can barely even walk."

  Torchuk slowed down, allowing us to catch up. "Should we go down?" he asked Vandalaharis as we flew in next to him.

  "It would be no use, Torchuk. There's too many of them for us to handle. We'll have to call in the troops. Just keep circling the summit. I'll head back to the south side and give the signal."

  "Yes sir." Torchuk veered away from us as we turned in the direction of the Beyjerones caves. Just as they left I caught a glimpse of Jalya's terrified face. I was sure that she was now wishing that she'd stayed back at the caves with Oches.

  "I just have to get a little bit closer," Vandalaharis said, "just to make sure that they can hear me."

  "What's happening?" I asked, trying to keep my voice from trembling. "What are you going to do?"

  "You'll see," he said. I felt his sides expand drastically, pushing against my legs. He pulled his wings back, and as he drew them down again, he let out an ear splitting, bellowing cry. He held it until all the air had been pushed from his lungs and then took a deep breath and let out another long shriek. It crackled through the sky, bouncing off the clouds and echoing through the Beyjerones' caves below.

  Vandalaharis stopped to catch his breath. "They'll be here soon," he said.

  I stared at the caves, listening to the last remnants of his cry resonate through the rock walls. Certainly they must have heard that. Vandalaharis flew back and forth in a pacing motion, waiting to see if his signal would be answered.

  We didn't have to wait long. Within thirty seconds I could see Beyjerone soldiers amassing on the northern clearing where we had taken off not so long ago. They arranged themselves in perfectly formed lines, then stood still, as though waiting for instruction. One of them took off and flew up closer to where we were, and Vandalaharis hurled some shrieking sounds toward him. It seemed to be a kind of communication, because the other bat answered with the same sort of multi-toned cry. He then turned his back on us, and I could see by his markings that it was General Sanjarus. He faced his army and directed another sharp cry toward them.

  "Are they coming?" I asked.

  "Just watch and see," said Vandalaharis.

  He had barely uttered the sentence before the first line took off into the air in near perfect synchronicity. Then the next line moved forward and took off in response to another call by the General. They flew in perfect formation, coming toward us like a wall of impenetrable black. When the third row took off, Vandalaharis turned around and we flew back to reunite with Torchuk and Jalya.

  "I guess we can't go down and help out," Torchuk said. He looked forlornly into the village, apparently feeling deprived of his opportunity to thrash some Orlogs. I looked at Jalya and she smiled at me, the expression of fear having completely evaporated from her face.

  "No, we can't land down there with the girls," Vandalaharis said. "They'd be in too much danger. Besides we need to scout out the area and see if there's any more Orlogs or anything else suspicious lurking about."

  "Right....which way should I go?"

  "You go west as far as the woodlands, then circle back across the front of the caves. I'll head east, check out the river and the fields beyond. I'll meet you again at the south side of the mountain and we can report back to each other."

  "Yes, sir," Torchuk said and took off to the west toward the dark line of trees in the distance.

  Just as Vandalaharis was about to turn away from the mountain, the troops arrived. One by one, each formidable line dropped down into the Lumeai village. Hundreds of mutant Orlog heads looked skyward as the huge brown beasts descended upon them. Then the wailing ensued as hundreds of gnarled bodies writhed in panic.

  The Beyjerone soldiers landed in the midst of that sea of black, blocking off most of the remaining green glow. Powerful wings stretched out and I winced as Orlogs were slapped and battered against one other. The air was filled with the raw sound of bone grinding upon bone and I was relieved that we were flying away from it. As we moved down toward the river, I looked back and saw the first of the soldiers lifting an Orlog body from the mountain top. He flew past us as we dropped, carrying it off into the distance.

  "How far will he take it?" I asked.

  "Oh a several miles across those fields is probably enough," said Vandalaharis. "They couldn't possibly walk back that distance without someone to drain of energy. And no one lives out here, except possibly a few rodents." He stopped and thought for a second. "However, I didn't think they could make it across the fields to get to the mountain in the first place. If they had some kind of help to get there.....well, then they could be back. It wouldn't matter how far out we take them."

  "And there's no way at all to kill them?"

  "None that has been discovered."

  "Cut off their heads? Hack up their body parts? Burn them down to ashes?"

  "You certainly have a vicious streak, Emerin," Vandalaharis laughed. "But no, it's all been tried at some point or other. Their skin is impenetrable even by the sharpest blade, and they just won't burn; fire will blaze over their bodies without any effect. This is why finding those dead ones was so bizarre. Hopefully the Professor can find something out from her studies. My father, the General, was playing with the idea of gathering them all up and imprisoning them somewhere. That's the only way we can think to control the problem."

  We dropped down to the base of the mountain and I had to literally hold in a scream as my stomach leapt up into my throat. Vandalaharis raced along the inky black river water, so close to the edge of the mountain I was terrified that we would crash into it.

  "Let me know if you see anything, Emerin," he said. "Any Orlogs or strange creatures....in fact anything that moves or looks unusual at all."

  "Okay," I said and studied the landscape, though it was so dark I was sure that something could have been moving right in front of my face and I wouldn't have seen it. The side of the mountain raced by quickly, and I became increasingly cold as the nighttime air glided over my body. I chanced taking one hand off the handle for long enough to pull the hood of my long robe over my head. I pulled it low over my eyes, hoping that would increase its chances of staying there.

  We followed the river until well past the mountain then turned east to fly out over the fields. We went so far out that I wondered if I actually would get to see what was on the other side of them. But if there was something else there, we didn't go far enough to see it. The only thing we saw other than grass was the other soldier coming back after dumping the Orlog out in the field.

  "What's out there Vandalaharis?" I asked as we turned around to go back to the mountain. "If you keep going east....is there anything past these fields?"

  "Well, the fields go on for quite some time," he said. "But eventually the forest starts again, so I'm told. I haven't been that far east yet. I've even heard rumours that a great sea lies beyond the forest, but those are just stories from elders that may or may not be true."

  As we flew back toward the mountain, we passed many more soldiers bringing squirming, howling bodies down from the summit. Then a familiar shrieking sound pierced the air.

  "Somebody's found something," Vandalaharis said. I looked up to see Torchuk and Jalya circling around the south side of the mountain to meet us, but saw nothing else unusual, nothing that should warrant a shriek. When Torchuk saw us coming he flew around the side of the mountain to meet us.

  "We found two more dead ones,"
he said. "On the western side of the mountain."

  "You're kidding," Vandalaharis said.

  "Well, I couldn't be sure, but they sure seemed dead. Anyway, Ruskolus and Elmchuk are taking them back to the caves. Madal will be thrilled."

  "Well, good, now maybe we can find out some answers."

  "Absolutely. Where to now, boss?"

  "Well, I'm going to circle the mountain to the north, then head toward the city, then I'll turn and come back toward the northern side of the mountain. You go south and do a circle around the caves; make sure nothing's there. There's lots of places for them to hide in that rock. Then come around and meet me on the northeast face of the mountain."

  "Will do," Torchuk said and turned around in a large arc to head south.

  "Well, Emerin, it looks like you're going to get a closer look at those city lights." Vandalaharis swooped around the side of the mountain so quickly that I couldn't hold myself upright. I gripped the handles and leaned to the left, falling a little closer to the grassy edge than I would have liked. He then turned so that we were once again flying over a massive field of grass that stretched out into blackness, and beyond that blackness...the lights of Nebril City.

  "Doesn't seem to be anything out here," he said. "There's no logical place for them to have even come from. How could a bunch of hobbled creatures walk this far, with no apparent victim around from which to get their energy? And even if I assume that they could make it here, how in the world could they climb that mountain?"

  "I don't know." I was baffled by it as much as he was. "Do you think something could have flown them up there?"

  "I couldn't imagine it. We are the only flying creatures large enough to transport something of their size. And there's no way one of us would have done that. Not to mention, it would take many Beyjerones to fly all of those Orlogs to the top of the mountain. If that many had left for long enough to do something like this, well, someone would have noticed, wouldn't you think?"

  "I guess that's true," I mused. It certainly didn't make a lot of sense. I stared at the flickering lights as they grew closer. The city stretched out in front of me, filling my vision until the only thing I could see was lights. If it were daytime, I was sure that I would be able to see houses and pathways, and wondered what that would look like in a place of this size. I thought about my own village and how I could walk across the whole thing in less than twenty minutes. I knew everyone that lived there. There would be no way to know more than a small portion of the people that dwelt in this place.

  "Well, there seems to be nothing out of the ordinary this way," Vandalaharis said. "Best to go back and check in with Torchuk." He leaned his body to the left and we turned in a large circle to face the mountain once again. The green glow was getting stronger, as more Orlog bodies were removed from the village. It danced through the sky, showcasing the struggle that was going on below. One by one, Beyjerones soldiers lifted themselves from the Lumeai village, each carrying a badly beaten Orlog body.

  "What could they possibly want with the Lumeai, anyway?" I asked. "One of the Lumeai at the last village I visited said that they couldn't take energy from them. So why would they be up there?"

  "They can't take energy from them....but can they paralyze them?"

  "Yes, yes, he was paralyzed, but he said that it couldn't drain him."

  "Hmmm, maybe these Orlogs didn't know that. All they knew was that there was a village on a mountain with possible victims, when there's not much else out here. Except for our caves, of course, but they probably know by now that they can't get anywhere with us."

  "Maybe," I said.

  As I watched the action going on ahead of us, I noticed that one of the Beyjerones was flying in our direction. When I saw that he had a rider, I knew that it must have been Torchuk. He let out a soft call and swerved around behind Vandalaharis and came up beside us.

  "The soldiers have recovered the Lumeai," he said. "They had them corralled in one of their congregation areas....all unable to move of course, until we started beating Orlogs." He paused and shook his head. "They say that the remaining Lamorian rock is gone. It had been taken while they were paralyzed."

  "Damn," Vandalaharis said. "That was the reason they were up there. To paralyze them, rendering them unable to defend the rock. Everyone knows that they'd never give it up willingly. They had it hidden away...the Orlogs must have searched their thoughts to find out the location. Unbelievable."

  I felt like I couldn't breathe. The Lamorian Rock....gone? Didn't we have enough to do in this damned quest? It wasn't fair. I wanted to punch something, but the only thing that I was in contact with was Vandalaharis, so I held myself back.

  "General Sanjarus wants us to bring the girls back to the caves," Torchuk continued. "He doesn't think that it's safe to land with them until we've secured the area."

  "Alright, well, I guess it's back home we go. Are you ready, Emerin?" But I wasn't listening to Vandalaharis; my eyes were fixated on some movement on the side of the mountain. It looked like something was there, rolling in the thick grass.

  "Vandalaharis, look!" I said. "Is that one of them there on the side of the mountain?"

  Vandalaharis slowed his motions and concentrated on peering ahead. "I don't think that's an Orlog," he said. "I may be wrong, but I think it's a human."

  "A human?" I stared hard at the wiggling object in the grass, but my night vision just couldn't compare to the Beyjerones'.

  "Yeah, that's a human alright," said Torchuk. "What would one lone human be doing out here amongst a tribe of Orlogs?"

  "Better go in and have a closer look. Perhaps he has something to do with it."

  As we approached the mountain, I could see that they were right. It most definitely was not an Orlog, but a man. His motions had settled down somewhat, and he now lay fairly still, cocooned in a little nest of grass. Vandalaharis landed next to him and looked into his face, prodding him gently to see if he would wake up. When it seemed unlikely that he would, he gathered him up in his arms.

  "Best to take him back to the caves for questioning," he said. "And possibly some medical attention. He's alive, but he doesn't look so good."

  I leaned forward, stretching to peer over Vandalaharis' shoulder. I still couldn't make out his facial features, but he appeared to be a young man, perhaps similar in age to me. I wasn't sure whether he looked as bad as Vandalaharis had said; it was too dark to tell. However, he didn't even stir when we took off in flight, but hung there limp, unaware that he was in the air, cradled next to the body of a manbat.

  We were almost at the landing area of the caves when I looked over at Jalya. She stared at the young man with concern, never taking her eyes off of him, even as we landed. In fact, she was sliding off of Torchuk's back before his feet even touched the soft grass.

  "Jalya, what are you doing?" Torchuk roared at her. "Wait till I'm at least on the ground before you get off!"

  But Jalya didn't seem to care about his comment, or even hear what he said. She fell on her knees next to the man, just as Vandalaharis laid him on the ground.

  "Oh no," she cried. "Oh no..."

  "What Jalya, what?" I said as I climbed down from Vandalaharis. I made my way over as quickly as I could, but it felt weird and disorienting to walk after such a long time in flight.

  "Jalya, get away from him," Vandalaharis said. "He could be dangerous." He attempted to pull her up, but she batted his hands away. She grabbed the young man by the shoulders and shook him gently, as tears began to spill over her cheeks.

  I sat on the ground next to her, finally understanding her anguish. Vandalaharis again tried to intervene, but I looked at him and shook my head. He looked confused as he hesitated, as though trying to determine whether he should listen to me or insist on protecting us. When I saw Torchuk swagger up behind him with an angry look on his face, I figured I'd better explain.

  I looked down at the boy with the matted hair and the dirty, black streaked face. "This is Jalya's brother,"
I said. "This is the wu bei."