They busied themselves with their horses and gear as the rest of the village awoke with the sun. The desert air was crisp and the sandstone cliffs blazed orange in the bright morning sunlight.
The villagers watched the strangers with collective unease. A mysterious girl was one thing, but an Elf and two huge Earthlander males? The bonfire snapped and hissed as the women readied food that would last all day. Rabbits, boar, a bird or two, all cooked and served communally, saved their people from starvation.
“People of Stone Hold,” Emaranthe's firm voice cut through the clamor like an arrow. All froze, staring warily. “As you have most likely guessed, we are not here by chance.”
Gold flickered in the shadows of the cloak as they studied the villagers carefully. Those eyes saw everything, they realized.
“What has happened, Lady?” Igoras asked. She moved closer to the tiny girl. “We’ve lived in peace for so long, and now you say we are in trouble?”
“Not just any trouble,” Jaeger dropped the satchel he had been surreptitiously carrying. It hit the dusty ground with a clatter and the leather flap opened, spilling red tinged rocks. “I believe you know where these came from?”
Igoras stared at the pile of fist-sized rocks and sighed. Starstones...
“Yes,” she bent stiffly and picked one up. It was oddly heavy for its size and rough to her fingers. The red tinge was barely noticeable. “We’ve been mining it for years without problem until the Dro-Aconi came last year. Now we hide our mines and pray. Why now?”
Emaranthe moved past Jaeger to stand beside the worn bag of rocks. Jaeger backed away with a silent glance at Ivo, who noiselessly drew his weapon, and nodded. Ivo frowned as he readied the sword. Behind the men, Jadeth closed her eyes and inhaled deeply as she hefted a great two-handed hammer from her pile of belongings and swung it high. The hammer emitted an odd, iridescent, green glow.
“What is happening?” Aggie shouldered her way through the crowd and stopped at the sight.
“We must be careful with the Starstone. We can’t be caught off guard,” Jaeger sank into a wary crouch in front of the Elf, his axe singing as he pulled it free of its scabbard. “The demons will be watching and this may be the only way of flushing them out.”
“What is she doing?” Aggie watched Jadeth, fighting the urge to back away. Emaranthe's dark hood flicked around and her odd gaze pinned Aggie.
“She is going to save your life,” she said. Her words cut through the muttering villagers.
Without warning she jerked the staff from the shadows behind her and swung it high over the pile of rocks. Flames spiraled up the length of the staff and erupted from the charred crook. The ethereal radiance backed the villagers up several steps, their shocked cries echoing off the huts.
The rocks began to glow red, faint at first, then hotter and darker, until they were brighter than even the bonfire. Everyone but the Immortals shielded their eyes in fear.
Emaranthe studied the cowering crowd. “Behold the power of the Starstone. The rock of The Four, the first stones cast upon our world by the gods and used to create the first portals. If the enemy were to seize this they would be unstoppable. We know they seek it to recreate the ways of the gods and find a way to destroy us all.”
Aggie flinched. “But why now? Why us?”
“Your village holds the last of the known Starstone in Ein-Aral and it is up to us to convince the Dro-Aconi to let you live.” Emaranthe blinked. The swirl of fire edging her irises faded. Pain etched lines into skin at the corners of eyes that had seen hundreds of years of a war that had no end. It was all that The Immortals, the legions of warriors created to stop the enemy, could do to keep the tide of evil from gaining ground with each passing decade. The enemy, the Dro-Aconi, was an unseen foe that had infiltrated and stolen the minds and wills of many and then leveraged them as a brutal force to reckon with over the years.
Ivo ignored the villagers. His gaze moved past Emaranthe to the shadows clinging to the red cliff walls. The suns were at their midmorning arc and should have dragged shadows away from that end of the valley. He jerked his chin at the unnaturally darkened cliffs, to the west, and felt Jaeger tense beside him.
“There,” Jaeger hissed, casting the elder a sideways glance. “There they are. I’m guessing your mines are nearby.”
Igoras’ shoulders twitched in defeat, her pale eyes misting in the golden sunlight filtering through the sparse foliage of their desert village.
Emaranthe let her arm fall and the flames vanished. Her small frame sagged with weariness as she put away her staff. She dragged the ragged hood from her head and turned to face the villagers. Her pale blonde braids caught the stiff desert breeze and tangled across her mouth.
“The Starstones only react to raw energy, but once charged by coming into contact with it, they provide a power source unimaginable,” Emaranthe said quietly. There was no need to shout, everyone in the village was deathly silent. “The enemy want the stones to create more portals so that they can cross fully into our world. Right now they are trapped beyond the portals and only their shadows and influence can touch us. And that has been enough to decimate an entire race. So imagine if they were to gain full access to our world?”
“Now the Dro-Aconi’s minions have found out where to get the last of the Starstone,” Jadeth added. She slipped past the men and glared into the crowd, her huge hammer draped over her shoulder as if it were a toy. “And they won’t stop until your mines are pillaged, your homes are burned, and your empty bodies are theirs to command. And then they will move to the next village, the next race of people, and never stop.”
“What do we do?” Igoras fell to her knees with a sob. Her stringy grey hair trailed in the breeze, her gaze fixed on the tiny girl with the haunted eyes that burned behind her wind-tossed braids.
Those eyes gleamed beneath a thick fan of black eyelashes like a flame; hardened, angry.
“We fight.”
“Fight? How? We have nothing.” Aggie asked. She moved to the old woman and held her shoulders. Her terrified gaze darted between the imposing men, the wraithlike Elf, and the tiny Mage. Igoras let Aggie help her to her feet and the two women huddled together and waited. Behind them, the crowd of villagers were muttering and stifling cries of fear.
“You have us,” Ivo hefted his sword and replaced it in the sheath at his side. From the piles of their belongings he pulled free a shield just as battered and ancient as the rest of his armor. He slung it over his shoulder and it vanished with a sharp gust of cold wind that seemed to disintegrate the heavy metal until nothingness remained in the shadows behind him.
“Madame, what lies on those cliffs?” Jaeger interrupted his brother, his breath frosting the sun-warmed air as he spoke. His axe vanished with a crystalline crack as he moved to stand beside Ivo. Standing side by side, helmless, both Aggie and Igoras could see the resemblance the two men shared.
“Why, you are brothers!” Aggie gasped. Two pairs of eyes pinned Aggie like arrows. Lethal arrows.
“Yes,” Ivo jammed his helm on and stalked away. “The Dro-Aconi cares nothing for life. We were brothers in life, and now we are brothers in eternity.”
Jaeger said nothing, his gaze remained fixed on Aggie, agony tightening his features into a mask.
“Aggie, what is over to the west?” Emaranthe moved between the women and Jaeger, breaking the spell. Jaeger blinked and moved away, unable to speak.
“Well, there is an abandoned mining town at the base. There used to be mines up there too, but no one’s worked them in years because of the demon threat.” Igoras called after Ivo, who hesitated a long moment, some distance off. Jaeger snarled.
Crack.
Everyone ducked, startled, and looked up at the sky as thunder echoed off the narrow ravine walls. The sky above them was blue, but to the west pitch-black thunderheads rolled and billowed over the cliffs, darkening the sky into an unnatural inky purple. The fair breeze turned stiff and cold as the wind changed di
rection.
Everyone watched the rolling clouds with horror. Aggie dropped her gaze, her mouth wide to ask what was happening, but noticed that the strangers hadn’t cringed with fear. They watched her and her people as if gauging their reactions.
“What is it?” Aggie asked. She swallowed.
“The minions of the Dro-Aconi have arrived as predicted by The Unknown City,” Jaeger jammed his helmet on. His eyes glinted like chips of ice within the depths of the eye slits. “Your mine is found.”
“I wonder which demons have been sent this time,” Ivo growled to no one in particular. He jammed on his helm and pulled his sword and shield from the shadows. He wielded them easily with his massive strength. A gust of wind eddied into a spiral across the face of the shield, visible only because of the reddish dust that coated everything. “Too long have we chased tales and not the shadows themselves. Too often do we drive back an enemy only for it to return.”
Jadeth hummed in agreement and swung the great hammer to the other shoulder. Her jewel-bright gaze reflected the still blue sky above them, but for a brief moment eerie green flickered in their depths. She moved easily, almost a glide, to stand beside the men. Her chain link dress swished like metallic water as she walked.
Emaranthe's lips twisted into a small, bittersweet smile as the villagers stepped back, silent and afraid. She covered her hair again and moved to stand beside Ivo.
“Wait, what demons?” Aggie stammered and shoved her way back to the front of the crowd, who had pushed and shoved to back away. “What is coming?”
“The demons are walking death. The undead. The mindjacked. Even those willingly casting themselves at the feet of the enemy willingly. You’d best pray to The Four that you find death before it finds you.” Ivo rumbled. He turned away and gestured with a gauntleted hand. Their stallions appeared at the edge of the clearing.
“The best we can hope for is to keep the invaders and battle away from the village. Stay here, stay on guard.” Emaranthe's voice rang out over the pawing, snorting horses and the whispering crowd. She studied the villagers, their reactions.
“We will return.” she added with one last pointed look at Aggie and Igoras. With a blur of movement, they mounted and vanished into the spreading darkness.
The Immortals Part One: Shadows & Starstone Page 3
