The two combatants hurtled toward each other, one blow aimed high, the other low, with no thought to defence given by either now.
Judicael's blade sliced across the Champion's belly, opening him from navel to hip, a greater strike with a dagger the Elf had never seen. Blood gushed from the Orc as his body divested itself of its insides. Yet before death could fully claim him, the trailing axe came clattering down upon the head of Judicael, splitting him open and felling him.
The Champion stepped triumphantly over his fallen foe, then with a look of confusion stared down at his ruined midriff. A hand reached toward his guts, as if to stuff them back inside. He took a doddering step toward the Elf, eyeing the blackened waters with a look of shock and hatred before slumping to his knees.
El-Vador readied his bow and put an arrow through the Orc's eye without mercy.
He knelt next to Judicael, expecting the thief's head to roll clear of his body as he attempted to rouse him, to his surprise the small man was still breathing.
'That axe stroke should have killed you.'
'My face won't ever be as pretty, but the nick I got him took his aim off course. My head caught most of the flat of the blade, I'm just a bit concussed.'
'What use to me is a thief who cannot walk stealthily?' El-Vador smirked, jesting at the man's near-death experience.
'What use is an Elf that cannot pick a single lock?' Judicael taunted, pointing at the door beneath them. 'Or can your dark powers blast open doors too?'
El-Vador conceded the point, facing the door as he spoke. 'Are you fit to carry on?'
'I'll manage, I just need a moment to get my bearings.'
They approached the door and Judicael was true to his word, quickly bypassing the obstruction. Together they continued deeper into the burrow, the thief always leading them down and to the left. The corridors blurred into one as they raced on, swiftly slaying any surprised Orc that they came into contact with.
Finally they reached the area that the Elf could feel the power emanating from, judging from Judicael's expression they both knew that beyond this final door lay Salvarius and whatever hideous machinations he was planning to unleash. They slowed their pace, slipping through the unlocked door undetected and staring down at the scene that unfolded below them.
A huge congregation of Orcish forces lay beneath, with what appeared to be a moving statue at its head. He spied the Pixie easily enough among them, her back straight, her head high.
Aliana was approaching the stone figure, he knew that this was what Anacletus had feared.
Judicael whispered at his sides. 'I do not have enough daggers for such a force below, Elf. The assassin wanted me to get you inside and save you from being slain in the process, he said nothing of extricating you after you wreck havoc upon the bodies below.'
El-Vador turned and nodded at the thief. 'That axe should have killed you before. Consider us even, and should you ever cross paths with me again I shall reward you.'
The thief chuckled. 'I may observe the carnage for a while longer, Elf. Or I may not, I am a free man. I simply do not want you to turn against me thinking me craven should I choose to depart.'
'You are a mercenary, Judicael. That you have served me this well is enough, and I shall not cross you for doing nothing more.'
'Good.' the thief muttered, cautious relief spreading upon his features.
'However...' the Elf began, causing the thief to ease his hand toward a blade.
'However?'
'Should you encounter any Orcs fleeing from what you are so loathe to witness.' El-Vador paused, a cold smile on his lips. 'Feel free to kill them for me.'
Judicael smiled. 'I shall do as you ask, El-Vador. I likely won't kill as many as you plan to, but I shall do my best to turn this burrow into a mausoleum during my departure.'
On that they parted, with clasped hands and wary smiles. Leaving El-Vador alone once more with death on his mind.
LXXIV
I tried my hardest to reach her, fuelled by something much greater than concern for my own life. I didn't realise that regardless of whether she lived or not, the damage had already been done.
Mina walked gracefully through the sea of faces, unperturbed by the hideous visage multiplied in the hundreds before her. The scene was perfect, the power must be transferred here. She only wished that she could remember just how she was meant to accomplish it.
The fear and uncertainty had multiplied within her since the bonding, she had yet to crush down the last remnants of the stubborn merge of personalities.
She felt a familiar thrill running through her body, the call that beckoned her onward and into the arms of this warrior hewed of living stone. The Orcs snapped to attention in unison, as if sensing the momentous portents of her final steps. They stood on either side of her, a green sea parting with deliberation to reveal Salvarius stood awaiting her.
She thought briefly of what would become of the Orcs surrounding her, the torments that they would be subjected to from across the ether in order to become suitable vessels. They would form the spine of the most powerful nation ever to walk the face of this land.
As she grew closer she gazed in wonder upon the stone armour that Salvarius somehow stood in. Intricate snake-like patterns seemed to play and grow upon the breastplate as if seeking her. She shivered at the thought of the rocky snakes crawling out and caressing her, pulling her into him and sucking the necessary power from her.
Salvarius to his credit paid them no heed, his steps were sure and his eyes were bright, every bit the part of kingly ruler over all in attendance. He stood upon high and surveyed his people with the countenance of a kindly ruler rather than of a dictator, and with every step Mina took toward him his confidence grew.
He opened his hands. 'Now is the time in which great wrongs are righted. Through this woman and her sacrifice of bonded power, we shall rent the veil that lies between mortal ken and the ether beyond. All of you, my most trusted of servants who have reinforced this burrow, you all have shared with me a secret. From you shall spring forth a new generation of the Brotherhood, one unfettered by the needs of mortal flesh. One of pure power and force unimaginable, guided by my hand alone.'
Mina descended a short set of stone stairs and approached her master's left side. She could not keep a smile from her face, but whether it arose from pride in her master, or because she knew that all of them would soon be on bended knee before her, she could not determine.
Salvarius stared openly upon her beauty now, transfixed as if a mad man in fervour. As she drew closer she felt the need bubbling up in her come into contact with her master's own frenzied passion. The last few steps were the most laborious, as she dragged herself within range of his grasping hands and eager smile. Why it was such a struggle to do so she could not tell.
'I know not how to continue, Mina,' the voice said, sounding less resonant and confident than she had ever heard it. 'I know this must be done, but I am lost.'
Mina reached out and touched the man, feeling the warmth of his cheek exposed from all the trappings of the artefact. There was something oddly vulnerable about his expression, as if for a moment the Salvarius she had initially met had appeared behind the mask of this blustering godhead sent to cast the Brotherhood back into the world.
'I will try and uncover what it is we must do, my love. For if it were love for each other that created the power then it surely would have washed over us both by now.'
As if the tender words ignited something within him, her master's eyes flashed and a toothy smile licked across his face. 'I feel it within me, Mina. The coils are unwinding and soon they will be ready to strike.'
Ecstasy in full possession of his expression, Salvarius lifted his face to the heavens and laughed aloud. 'Behold your new master! Behold and despair, those who would oppose me!'
The stone he had encased himself in, as if heeding his words, twisted in dizzying undulations that sickened Mina's sight. As he pressed closer to her, the coils reached ou
t and wrapped themselves about her form with their heated bodies. The tips of their stony fangs plunged into her skin, sinking deeper and deeper yet causing no blood to well forth from the wounds.
'We are one, my love.' Salvarius stared down at Mina, cradling her shaking form in his embrace.
A chill ran through Mina. She bowed her head, struggling to breathe. 'I am glad, my master.'
Salvarius's voice grew slightly distant. 'I am no master. I am simply a man of duty, and this is my last.'
He turned, extending his open hand toward the crowd as they gathered expectantly. 'Our joining has begun. Now is the time for our eternal rule to begin.'
As he stared upon the crowd he noticed their frozen expressions painted upon their faces, something was wrong.
Salvarius snarled. 'Why do none of you bow before me?'
Bit by bit, a darkness seemed to recede from the floor at the feet of the Orcs, and they collapsed not in worship but death. Clattering to the floor in a mass of weaponry and armour which had availed them not.
'Your worshippers are with their ancestors, Salvarius. Soon you shall follow them.'
The Elf rose from the back of the crowd, drawing his sword. 'I've come to take Aliana back, and artefact or not I shall kill you where you stand.'
Anacletus found himself in the darkness once more.
'You escaped last time, a valiant effort on your part. Sadly the expenditure of your power was enough to trigger the trap I had laid.'
'So you admit now that you are not an arbiter between sides, determined to restore parity?' Anacletus replied, testing his most obvious assumptions and finding himself paralysed once again.
'The deception served its purpose, allowing me time enough to perfect my defences and encasement of you.'
'Except that I've already broken free of the Brotherhood's defences once before. What is to stop me from doing so again?'
'You may feel free to test as you please, ultimately there is nothing you can do to escape.'
He cast tendrils of smoke out into the nothingness, and was rewarded with neither smoke nor effect. Again he pushed against the paralysis in the manner that had brought pain and eventual release before, this still brought nothing but laughter from the voice observing him.
'Do you see now, assassin? There is nothing that you can do to prevent the Brotherhood from slaying those that sought to destroy them utterly. From there we shall close the ether entirely, sealing you here with your benefactors forever.'
He knew then that there was no point in continuing this conversation, nothing further to be gained and no hope of reasoning with the voice that taunted him so. Instead he returned to his previous efforts, focusing entirely upon a means of escape.
His powers had somehow been nullified, that much was apparent. Perhaps in this darkness they were naturally inhibited, he could not tell. He quested out once more with smoke and found nothing, yet for reasons beyond his understanding it was not the absence of feeling, but rather a lack of apparent action. The power still coursed through him, it simply was not there when he tried to direct it outward. Unless...
'Very clever,' Anacletus ventured, hoping to get the attention of the voice.
'I am glad you can appreciate the complexity of your own downfall,' the voice replied, smug in its security.
'I was not referring to that.' the assassin replied, sending the shadows out to do his bidding.
A startled cry from beyond gave him enough to work with, he sent a wall of blackened smoke outward to smother the general direction of the voice, and was met with a resistance.
'I do not know what it is you hope to achieve,' his antagonist replied, but the tone in the voice had already betrayed the truth.
Anacletus cracked a smile, and rose from his prone position. 'We may be in the ether, but I know a glamour when I see one.'
The shadows choked out the voice and he felt the pain returning, the pulsating throb in his head that threatened to disrupt everything he endeavoured to achieve. He refused to let it, focusing entirely upon ending his tormentor before he lost control.
He greeted the whiteness eagerly, passing beyond this darkened plane and to another entirely.
LXXV
Finality; the soaring conclusion to the piece where the antagonist and his miscreants are delivered surely and swiftly in a blaze of justice. That is what all the old tales would have you believe, wrapped up in their idle fantasies and self-perpetuation.
El-Vador cleared his sword from his sheath and walked steadily down the massive cave floor toward Salvarius and Aliana. All else was silence, and he blinked repeatedly to fight off the dizziness of unleashing so much power upon the unsuspecting former audience.
Salvarius slowly disentangled himself from Aliana, with an unsuspecting tenderness that almost came across as care. El-Vador came at him directly, not wishing to give him any time to ready himself. He did not feint or waver, he simply approached with a deadly grace. When Salvarius lunged, hoping to spit him, El-Vador battered aside the blade his master had made and struck. He caught Salvarius in the side, striking ineffectually at the stone armour.
A hissing noise came from the surface he struck, and a serpent snaked forth and snapped at his blade. He recoiled, keeping his guard up and wary of any further attacks from both his foe and this strange armour.
'El-Vador!'
His gaze met Aliana's for a heartbeat, then Salvarius was upon him, swinging great blows that sent the Elf staggering back on the defensive.
Salvarius straightened, breathing heavily, then stepped forward once more to engage his foe, his face an oddly conflicted mask. 'I don't want to do this Elf.'
El-Vador frowned, backing away from the man and keeping his guard up. 'Yet still you attack me? Why?'
'I have no choice, El-Vador of the mountains. I am sorry.'
'So am I.'
They circled each other cautiously, weapons occasionally sweeping out, El-Vador's like the coiled tongue of a serpent, Salvarius's mace like the crushing fist of a giant. Occasionally their weapons would touch, but the Elf would not allow himself to be disarmed by the hefty strikes that his foe metered out.
El-Vador knew that he had to keep goading the man into striking at him, he could hear the laboured breathing and eventually Salvarius would over-extend himself. He kept pushing forward, poking low with his blade in a goading fashion that had his foe continuously attempting to bat the sword aside and get within his guard. It was a dangerous strategy, one false slip and he was weaponless, and Salvarius may weary of the attempts and simply strike at him in hope that his superior armour would deflect any damaging cuts.
Salvarius's frustration grew visibly. 'Damn you, Elf!' he howled, his voice completely different from before. 'You have interfered in the plans of the Brotherhood for the last time.'
The man advanced with all the grace of a striking cobra, fainting to strike at El-Vador's head and instead cutting low with the arc and aiming for the legs. El-Vador retreated before him, his balance wavering at this endless assault. Salvarius quickening his pace and seized the advantage, lunging toward him with blows that would shatter his skull upon impact.
El-Vador threw up what little power he had left, diverting the lethal path of the mace and stepping inside the man's guard. He clamped down on Salvarius's wrist to prevent him swinging back, sending his head crunching into the man's face.
Salvarius reeled back and El-Vador knocked the mace clear from the man's hand, planting a kick against Salvarius's breastplate that sent him clear from any retribution.
'Curse you, Elf!' Salvarius wailed, a clenched fist emanating a familiar darkness. 'You will not defy the Brotherhood this time!'
The fist arced outward
El-Vador's sight exploded in pain.
Aliana stood amongst the desolated ruins of her own mind. To her right lay a fiery river upon which she could not gaze and a stony bridge that spanned it into nothingness. She wasn't certain how she knew, but she couldn't get back out that way, and was positive tha
t something would try to stop her if she made the attempt.
She saw footprints in the dust near her feet, so she slowly followed them with a growing trepidation. She peered through doorways, hoping to see the night sky through a crack, or perhaps catch a hint of a breeze from the sea. Something that moved and lived within this dark place she found herself in, instead there was nothing.
A panic rose in her then at being trapped here, and she broke out into a loping run along into the darker spaces of this place. Within them she caught the faintest flicker of light, but nothing more to suggest her heading that direction when all impulses claimed otherwise.
The room exploded with light. Aliana found herself in a forest of obscene images that cackled at her in glee, tearing at her face with their lashing words that she couldn't quite discern.
And down through the aisle between them strode Mina, her head held proudly high and a wicked grin upon her face. She spread her hands, and the voices silenced themselves. 'Welcome to my mind. Are you enjoying being trapped here?'
'I cannot say I am.' Aliana responded, waiting for the chorus of derision to begin anew. 'For one who claimed she would kill me entirely, it would appear that I am still in your head.'
The woman smiled coldly. 'The merging was not entirely successful. The final stage was interrupted by an unwelcome guest.'
'So El-Vador did come then.' Aliana smiled. 'If he had been destroyed I would not be here. That means he fights with Salvarius as you speak to me. Yet why would you speak with me unless you figured a distraction was necessary?'
Mina stared on at the Pixie, fear showing in her face. 'What makes you think I'm not here to finish the job?'
'If that was all you were doing you wouldn't be speaking to me to stall for time.' Aliana drifted forward quickly and lashed out a Mina, catching her with a fist to the jaw and sending her sprawling upon the darkened floor.
El-Vador's Travels Page 47
