Veneficus: Stones of the Chosen

by Chris Page

  Merlin’s eyes took on a deep, iridescent green, and the burial mound and small oak tree were no more.

  The men standing around the courtyard drew back and put their hands to their faces in surprise as the mound and tree disappeared.

  “What about the battle standards and heraldry adorning the walls of the great hall and the Round Table?”

  The long magus smiled down at the young knight. “Leave them. They will serve as a real reminder that she is not dealing with a novice when it comes to the art of warfare. Destroying birds is one thing, but it’s an altogether different matter when facing a tried and tested campaigner such as I. Also, you and your men. She will soon know all about your courageous lineage. Another little worry for the left-handed wolf-woman. If the sight of such trophies causes her and her king to fly into a rage and they are destroyed, then so be it. In truth they are but artifacts of the past, and we must set our eyes firmly on the present. Now, my young knight, it’s time for you to rise to the great heights achieved by your father and assist me and the boy in defeating this odious challenge to our Celtic heartland. It’s away to the Cheddar Catacombs for you and your men, and remember, adopt the tactics of the guerilla brigands. Penda will have to send raiding parties out from this castle, and my guess is they will be around five hundred strong with two or three wolf packs as outriders. Split your forces into lightly armed units of fifty or so men and ambush and attack swiftly. Withdraw before Penda’s men can organize themselves. Sniper bowmen hunting in twos and threes, picking off random soldiers and wolves, then melting into the ground. Loosened trees falling on supply wagons, sawn-through bridges collapsing under the feet of their columns, smokescreens, night marauding, burning tents, poisons, rock avalanches. Frustrate, harry, and panic them. Then they will make mistakes. And always remember the wolves circling on the outer margins, especially here at the castle, for she will keep them outside the walls as a first line of defense and warning system. In the meantime the boy and I and our birds will be doing likewise. In order that we are in full communication at all times I am assigning two of my best hawks to you. Should you wish to meet clandestinely, a note in one of their talons will be with me in no time at all for we will never be far away.”

  He paused as Twilight came alongside.

  “I have calmed them,” said the boy, his face still streaked with tears. “Now they are angry. Grief has been exchanged for revenge.”

  Merlin nodded, pleased at the maturity of his tyro. He turned to the son of his old friend.

  “You are also ready for the challenges that lie ahead?” he asked the son of Sir Gawain Godwinson quietly.

  The young knight squared his shoulders, nodded, and replied equally quietly.

  “I am. I was born for this.”

  The nine principal gods and goddesses lived the lives of bored, albeit immortal sybarites. Under the command of Zeus they were required to carry out some general maintenance tasks relating to their domain but nothing too onerous. The world was left pretty much to get on with it. Tiresias - the Seer of Thebes and god of the land of the Cowering Dead, really only had one annual task. Sure, he strode around his charnel domain casting an awesome shadow from time to time, ensuring total silence, but it was only posturing. Overseeing the Autumn Equinox and choosing the few cowering leaders to speak through the clinging mists to the resident veneficus was his specific annual duty. A task for which much of the time in recent history he had grown bored with, especially since Merlin had been conducting affairs. The trouble was the long magus had become very proficient at it, so no fun there.

  Until now and the near completion of his grand plan.

  To release every single one of the tortured souls on an unsuspecting world at the next Equinox.

  He could hardly wait.

  Chapter Eleven

  The heavily guarded carriage carrying Queen Phoebe and Princess Rawnie stopped some two hours before reaching Penda’s camp. They wanted time to look their best before meeting their all-conquering king, husband, and father. A huge tent was erected by some of the protecting group of northern soldiers in a shady clearing by a stream; a guarding circle was placed around it at a discreet distance, and they were left to their ministrations.

  High above the camp two Merlin falcons hovered. One of them was Phi, the lead bird and special favorite of the long magus, and the other was a young male called Hiz. They had been shadowing the convoy for some two hours and had already formed the opinion that this woman and young girl were Penda’s wife and daughter coming to join him. Phi indicated that before they set off to let Merlin know of the new arrivals, he would take a closer look to see if he could learn anything else that might be of interest. With Hiz still hovering high and unseen in the leaden afternoon sky, the alpha hawk rode the thermals in a zigzagging glide that brought him silently to a good vantage point high in a beech tree overlooking the tent where the excited voices of the queen and young princess could be heard giggling and discussing various dresses and hairstyles with their maids. Hopping from branch to branch Phi worked his way down until he alighted on a thin bough just above the top of the tent. With his streaked brown and yellow plumage Phi blended in perfectly with the autumn foliage.

  Until he exploded in an instantaneous cloud of feathers and splintered bone and sinew.

  Hiz, watching carefully from above, could hardly believe his eyes - eyes that were so keen that they could pick up the movements of a black beetle crawling under a leaf from this height. As the feathers of what had been, seconds ago, a full-condition alpha male Merlin hawk called Phi floated gently down to the ground - and shaken by the suddenness and violence of the destruction of his friend - Hiz was in turmoil for a moment. Should he try and get a closer look at whatever had suddenly destroyed his companion? Or would he meet the same fate? There was a menacing aura present; something wasn’t right. His hawk instinct took over and, heart beating furiously, he rolled on the wind and began to climb even higher before heading back toward the west as fast as his strong wings would take him.

  The long magus received the breathless, screeched report from Hiz with a bowed head. Besides being the leader of the Wessex hawks, the brave and intelligent Phi had been his constant companion throughout the years of solitude at his forest compound. He ran his long, bony fingers down the quivering back of Hiz, calming him, then waved him away with some comforting words of praise for his courageous deed, and turned to Twilight.

  “It is sometimes difficult, as you have discovered with the destruction of your blue-feathered Bell and the forty pairs of pica, to equate the sacrifice and sorrow of such trusted and loyal companions with the actual outcome of the conflict. What difference did their death make? Was it necessary? If it’s any comfort I am convinced that every little action - down to the crushing of the smallest blade of grass - makes a contribution to the outcome. Their contributions will never be forgotten, even if it means a veritable field of burial stones around the bases of our great and final resting stone at the rings of Ave-bury.”

  The boy nodded. “Something has happened. The news from your hawk was not good?”

  Merlin explained the message from Hiz. “Smell the rain and know the reasons,” said Twilight somberly, quoting again from the Song of the Veneficus. He continued. “Do you know the reason? Have you any idea what this ‘menacing aura’ was that was probably responsible for Phi’s sudden death?”

  “All too well, skirmisher, all too well,” replied the old wizard, stroking his long gray beard.

  “The wolf-woman has placed a ravening watcher as a dedicated guard to protect Penda’s wife and daughter. A ravening watcher is a particularly evil bit of invisible cruelty based on a number of mythological and commonplace beasts. It has the viciousness of the snark, the serpent-like speed of the wyvern, the strength of a bear, and the cunning of a weasel. It does not need anything to sustain it and never sleeps. Created and living only for the task, she will have programmed it t
o kill instantly anything that gets close to the women. She will have made certain exceptions to its killing classification, such as Penda, the maids, and a few handpicked soldiers who will act as human guards. Otherwise, everything else will be instantly smashed, crushed, decapitated, or somehow obliterated in the most violent manner possible.”

  “What about the wolves?”

  “I suspect that they, too, will be dispatched into a million pieces if they cross within the border she has set around the women.”

  The boy looked thoughtful.

  “This watcher cannot distinguish between friend and foe?”

  “No, only the exceptions.”

  “It follows, then, that it could just as easily kill Penda’s men and the wolves?”

  “It could, and you have immediately found one of the weaknesses of using such beasts. Selection is not an option.

  Anything and anyone that happens to stray within the immediate vicinity of its charges will be instantly dealt with.”

  The long magus patted Twilight on the shoulder to show his approval of the boy’s quick grasp of the situation before continuing.

  “There is another, significant factor. They are power-hungry beasts to maintain on a full-time basis. She will have created a killing arc around the subjects. The wider the arc, the more power hungry. Phi stepped inside this arc and was destroyed. Her reserves will be depleted so long as she keeps the watcher fully operational. This leaves her vulnerable to a two-pronged assault, such as that we employed in destroying her white wolf. In order to repel us on one front she would probably have to switch the power from the watcher. That opens the way to the women, who are an obvious weakness.”

  “Sending for them was not a good move on Penda’s part, was it?”

  “It was not, but then again, my little spell-binder, you will learn that where women are involved, the most powerful and astute of men are easily disordered.”

  “What is the power difference in using a ravening watcher or the conspicuous apparitions you placed to direct my father and me to your compound?”

  “Very little. All such crinkum crankum is power hungry. The difference was that I had nothing else to do with my power other than to putter around the forest and study the ways of the ancient Greeks. I think you will agree that is not the case with the repellent, power-weakened, left-sided wolf-woman, eh?”

  Elelendise called her wolves to the side of a hill overlooking the vast camp of Penda’s army on the rolling chalk plain below. Cradling the small white wolf cub called Lupa, she began to address them, speaking of their arrival at Cadbury Castle the following morning. They would, along with approximately half of the soldiers, live outside the castle. As before they were to keep their distance from the soldiers and act as scouts and outriders until she had a specific task for them. Settlement raiding parties would soon be penetrating deeper into the Summer Land countryside. Some of these would consist entirely of wolf packs; some would involve a mixture of soldiers and wolves. They had performed heroically and well, but they were to remain vigilant at all times and continue to execute her commands with rapidity and loyalty.

  Her eye sought out Pad, the old pack leader with the white feet. She gestured that he was to come to her. As he arrived by her side she placed the white wolf cub on the floor and withdrew something from beneath the folds of her long white dress.

  “This,” she cried, holding the object aloft, “is a necklace made of the eighty black beaks of the dead pica dispatched by Pad and his pack in the nets earlier today. It is a symbol of wolf superiority and also of leadership. Whosoever wears this necklace shall be deemed leader of all Wessex wolves …”

  She bent down and put the necklace around the neck of Pad.

  “By my hand this day, Pad, I hereby crown you wolf king of Wessex.”

  She crooked her arm, and the old wolf stood proudly on his back legs with his forepaws resting on her arm, his necklace of office nestling securely around the gray fur of his neck.

  And three hundred and fifty wolves put their heads back and howled a joyous chorus into the Wessex evening sky in salutation of their new king.

  The next morning, with a smiling mounted Penda at its head, Elelendise alongside, and the carriage of Queen Phoebe and Princess Rawnie just behind them, the two-mile colonnade that was the northern army snaked slowly toward the imposing but empty Cadbury Castle high on the Summer Land hill.

  Elelendise had carefully checked the castle for traps. Even though the auras of both Merlin and his urchin were everywhere, she had not been able to find anything that presented a threat. In view of the emptiness of the castle and its links to the old man’s previous but long gone battles at the side of Arthur, she concluded that their presence there had been to warn the castle’s inhabitants of Penda’s imminent arrival. That they had departed in haste was obvious; warm pots on skillets, glowing logs in fires, animals still tied to feed posts, and bits of discarded armor and clothing lying all over the place. Such was the panic of the departure, they hadn’t even had the time to burn the mighty oaken drawbridge that afforded access over the deep moat surrounding the fortress.

  What she didn’t know was that high in one of the castle turrets watching their imminent arrival stood Merlin and Twilight. The long magus had wanted to see the queen and princess for himself and, if he could, learn something about the ravening watcher that protected them. He knew that she had already detected their previous auras on an inspection around the castle and would, therefore, confuse them with their current presence.

  Besides, he had an interesting little diversion in mind.

  As Penda approached the hill leading up to the castle, two young boys around Twilight’s age, dressed in the rough linens of a local settlement, suddenly appeared from behind a tree and threw what appeared to be a wet mud ball each. One was aimed at the coach carrying the queen and princess, and the other at Penda. With shrill cries of laughter the two boys skipped into the undergrowth.

  The mud ball aimed at the carriage never had a chance of reaching its target and was smashed to an instant watery cloud by the tremendous invisible force of the ravening watcher. The other one sailed past the wolf-woman’s nose and caught Penda high on the breast guard of his shining armor.

  And splashed mud into the smiling, all-conquering northern king’s face.

  Which stopped him smiling and started him bellowing.

  Elelendise called instantly to her nearest wolves to tear the two boys apart, and the entire colonnade ground to a halt. After a great deal of snarling and yelping from the undergrowth, Pad emerged with his tongue lolling and pica beak necklace clicking as he loped up to his mistress. “There is no one,” the wolf said to her. “They have disappeared. There is no scent to follow.”

  Dismissing him, the wolf-woman turned to Penda, who had stopped bellowing and dismounted. Queen Phoebe and Princess Rawnie got out of the carriage and came to Penda’s side. The queen began to wipe the splattered mud from his armor.

  “Those two urchins were not real, my lord. They were a distraction sent by that old fool Merlin.”

  Penda glared at her over his wife’s head.

  “The mud was real,” he snarled. “Why would he bother with such a silly distraction, counselor?”

  Elelendise looked toward the castle with narrowed eyes before replying.

  “Minor irritations are all he can muster. This is the action of a desperate man clutching at straws. The urchins were mirror images of the boy he hopes will replace him. Believe me, my lord, that boy’s days are numbered, and the old magus will find himself under his destiny stone long before his allotted time.”

  A matter of days, she thought. It’s only twenty-one days until the long magus has to attend the annual Equinoctial Festival of the Dead, at which, one way or another, he will be introducing her as his replacement. The boy must be accounted for before then.

  Unseen and undetected
, Merlin and the boy watched all this from high in the castle turret. The long magus had learned some interesting facts from the episode about the width of the killing arc the ravening watcher covered around the two women by its destruction of the carriage-bound mud ball, and just how weakened Elelendise was by maintaining the watcher’s presence by her failure to immediately detect the auras that indicated the urchins were created by Merlin, and destroy the other ball before it hit Penda.

  “A couple of plain old mud balls.” Merlin chuckled. “Confounding all the runic earthshine of a holder of the enchantments. Nature-confounding phenomena through the simple acts of creativity and timing, eh, skirmisher?”

  The boy remained silent, his thoughts elsewhere.

  It had also been the first time that either of them had seen Penda in all his warlike glory. But for Twilight one thing eclipsed all the other sights and, strangely, set his heart beating furiously with an emotion he couldn’t explain.

  The sight of Penda’s daughter, the Princess Rawnie.

  When Zeus created the venefical system ten thousand years ago, he did so for two reasons. Firstly, the gods of the Presidium did not like their existence blighted by scenes of earthly death and suffering; therefore, the sarcophagal mists were created as a final but hidden resting place for cowerers - and having created the mists, someone had to maintain and police them - therefore the resident veneficus.

  Secondly, it was felt that having resident venefici with the benefit of the enchantments at their fingertips, the earth and its myriad, ever-present squabbles between good and evil would be counterbalanced by a little local do-good sorcery and evenhandedness.

  Saving the gods the bothersome task of continuous arbitration.

  Chapter Twelve

  “It is an absolute truth,” said Merlin, putting his arm around Twilight’s shoulder, “that the correct use of the enchantments changes the ways of the world for the better. The difficulty is that of perspective. The wolf mistress is convinced that her perspective - that of domination and suppression of others, both opposing soldiers in battle and innocent people - is the right way. We, on the other hand, are equally convinced that to repel her is correct. We are all prisoners of our own perspective. The difficulty I have is that it took me fifty years to move from her perspective to the one I hold now - albeit slaughter of innocents never played any part in my intentions. Nonetheless, domination of others by force of arms was certainly my intention with Arthur. Somehow, I have to get a perspective on life that took me fifty years to understand into your belief system immediately.”