The Sword of Vengeance (The Chronicles of Bruk the Barbarian Book 4)
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Books by Philip John Bruch
The Chronicles of Bruk the Barbarian
The Sword of Death
The Sword of Blood
The Sword of Light
The Sword of Vengeance
Tales of Barston Series
Warrior of Barston
Princess of Barston
Warlord of Barston
The Night Hunter Series
Bite of the Beast
Mark of the Beast (Coming 2019)
Copyright © 2019 by Philip John Bruch
All rights reserved.
Reproduction of any kind is strictly prohibited unless written permission granted by the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or description.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s vivid imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
The Sword of Vengeance
The Chronicles of Bruk the Barbarian
Book Four
By Philip John Bruch
In the Tradition of Conan and Thongor
Cover Art by my son Eric Bruch
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 1
Bruk left Catan the capital city of the cat-people early in the morning just as the sun had arisen. The twin sorcerers had sent him on another quest. Sardgesha and Zardgesha wanted him to go into the far north to a land past the Thorstals Mountain Range and look for a supposedly lost and abandoned city in which he might find a magical crystal skull that they wanted. They had learned about this strange and powerful artifact from one of the scrolls that they had taken from Nightfall’s castle. They supplied him with a map of sorts and as much information as they could give him from the text of the ancient scroll.
Sardgesha and Zardgesha are identical twins. They are thin and frail looking with wispy white hair and a long grey neatly kept beard that reaches to their chests. Their lean pinkish faces and sparkling brown eyes show their vitality and power. Zardgesha always dressed in all black with a soft black hooded cloak that hides his face in shadows. His brother was always attired in the same way, in all of the purest white. They are the two most powerful wizards in the whole world and they even have all the knowledge of all of the old forgotten magic at their command.
Bruk is a barbarian from the Thorstals Mountain Range in the far north. He is a huge muscular man with long thick black hair and piercing blue eyes. He is still a youth of only twenty four winters now but he is a seasoned and fierce warrior and the leader of his band of fellow warriors.
His band of warriors consists of the twin sorcerers as mentors and sometimes fellow travelers and Taran his mate. Zaranna and Grey are still in Wingdom the capital city of the first race and they will probably be there for a long time yet if not for good.
Taran is Bruk’s woman and a warrior that isn’t afraid of anything. She is well trained in the use of the sword and other weapons of destruction. She stands almost as tall as Bruk does and she is a picture of grace and perfection. She has long blonde hair and the face and body of a goddess. She goes wherever Bruk goes and fights by his side.
Zaranna looks almost identical to Taran in face and in build but she is a couple of inches taller and she has long jet black hair instead of blonde. She is also a weapons master and she used to teach the art of the sword in Catan to all who wanted to learn. She is lightning fast and killing deadly in the way that she gracefully dances with the sword blurring through the air like it has a life of its own. She wields the Sword of Light, the blade that was forged by Adronis the High Lord of the Gods of Light.
Grey is a huge dog-man. Grey has a large muscular human-like body that is covered with short light grey fur. His head is like a wolf’s but with a much shorter snout. His hands have three fingers and a thumb and the fingers are extra wide. His feet have four toes and they are twice as wide as a normal toe is. He stands on leather sandals that have ties that reach up and wrap around his thick muscular calves. He always wears a warrior’s harness and a dark blue loincloth. He is armed with a sword on his right and a long deadly sharp dagger on his left, both in fancy dark brown leather scabbards. Behind his head would be seen a large double edged battle axe. He is very well armed and has the bearing of a seasoned warrior. He is a head taller than Bruk is and even heavier muscled.
Taran was really the only one left in Bruk’s band of warriors now. Sardgesha and his brother Zardgesha were hardly ever around anymore. They were busy studying the ancient scrolls and perfecting their magical arts. Zaranna and Grey were in Wingdom and they probably would never return. Grup and his whole family had moved to Pritant temporarily because Ranthon the king still needed Grup’s help. Grup didn’t want to be away from his mate and his children so he took them all with him and who knew if they would ever come back.
Grup is a cat-man and he stands about five feet tall like most cat-people do. He has a human-like body except for the hands and feet which end in flexible furry paws like a cat’s but only much larger. His body is covered with short reddish fur and he has a long tail like a cat. His head looks like a cat’s but only larger. He is responsible for the scar on Karl’s face.
Karl and his best friend Olnan had gone back to Ultim because that is where Karl calls home. Karl’s wife had become pregnant and the trader said that he would give up adventuring for good and stay home and help to raise his little son. Olnan opened up a stable on the south side of Ultim not too far away from the small house that he had purchased that was near to Karl’s house. He still had the unicorn that always gave him trouble and he still loved it and said that someday it would behave, Trin had other ideas.
Karl was a trader and a master swordsman. He is a large muscular man and he has a shaggy black beard and long black hair. He has a long scar on the left side of his face. Olnan is a tree-man. His thick tough black skin is made up of strong flexible wooden fibers that have a pattern of veins that make the skin look like the bark of a tree. He is heavily muscled and is almost a head taller than Karl is. He is also a master swordsman and a fearless warrior.
As Bruk traveled across the grassy prairie he thought about all of his friends. He missed them all and knew that they were happy now and under another call other than travelling the world and fighting against impossible odds and risking their lives. He thought that they were much better off and a hell of a lot safer than fighting demons and monsters.
It had been almost two and a half years since the Gods of Light had returned. It was strange how fast that the time had gone and how much that things had changed. Selene still couldn’t remember much if anything about her past or how she had been turned into that monster and perhaps she never would remember anything, maybe it was all for the best.
Selene is a beautiful young woman. She has l
ong silky blonde hair and a body of a goddess. She doesn’t remember anything about her past at all. She isn’t even sure if Selene is even her real name. She doesn’t know how old she is or if she has any family anywhere. All she does know is that she isn’t a monster anymore and now she is happy. Bruk had transformed her from a hideous monster back into a beautiful young woman using the Book of Undying Death. That magical and powerful ancient tome eliminates all magic around it and it caused the monster formed out of magic to turn back into what it was originally.
Selene works all day long helping Jaken at the Wet Glass and then she goes to the library and helps Gunvil doing whatever is needed. She has a room to call her own on the third floor of the library.
Taran has been trying to help her remember her past but so far nothing has worked. Taran couldn’t go with Bruk because lately Selene has been having nightmares about a man dressed in all black and she is afraid to be alone. She doesn’t know who that man is but she hates him and she doesn’t even know why. Taran thought that it would be best if she had stayed in Catan and was there for her.
Bruk was riding his unicorn at a slow pace letting it trek through the high grass at a speed that it could keep up all day long. Another unicorn loaded with supplies and equipment trailed behind. He was about four or five days away from Ultim. He was thinking about stopping there for a day and visiting with Olnan and Karl. He had never seen Karl’s son yet and he missed his friends.
Then Bruk thought that it would be better not to go and visit his friends because they might want to go along and help him on his quest. He thought that they would be safer where they were. He didn’t have any idea what he would be riding into or what dangers he might face. He didn’t want to expose his valued friends to anything that would endanger them especially since Karl was now a father. He thought that maybe he would stop at Ultim on the way back after his quest was completed.
Bruk was going into a land that he had never been in before and he didn’t know anyone else who had crossed the Thorstals Mountain Range and lived to tell about it.
Bruk came from a small village called Carthon. About a hundred families strong, it lays to the northwest in the Thorstal Mountains. Spirlith is one of the two mounts that protect a narrow pass leading to his village. Kirlith is the other one on the east side. He knew exactly how to get to his village but what he was seeking lay far beyond the valley where his village was and even far beyond the Thorstals Mountain Range. All of the elders of his village said that great evil was on the other side of the mountain range and no one ever crossed the mountain to see what it was. His people were a barbaric and primitive people who were also very superstitious.
He wasn’t planning on visiting his village. There was nothing for him in Carthon anymore. He planned on skirting on the eastern side of the valley and bypassing his village and then proceeding across the mountain range. He left his home years ago to seek his fame and fortune and there was no reason for him to return to what he had left.
Bruk was happy to get the opportunity to explore a land that no one else had been in before. He didn’t have any idea what lay ahead of him and he didn’t care. He just wished that Taran would have been able to come with him but she was needed where she was to watch over and care for Selene.
He was also worried about Selene. She recently had started having nightmares about a mysterious man dressed in all black. That man, by how she had described him made him think of Nightfall, that powerful evil man that Zaranna had sent to the No Land a few years ago using the Sword of Light and saying a few magical words that Zardgesha had taught her. He remembered that event like it was yesterday.
Nightfall was a very powerful man both in magic and in physical strength. He was also immortal and couldn’t die. Bruk knew that Nightfall could have killed Zaranna at the end but he chose to let her shove the enchanted blade into his chest and send him to a place where hopefully he couldn’t escape from.
He wondered what Nightfall could possibly have to do with Selene. He was incredibly evil and the only thing that he cared about was power. Selene was a sweet and innocent child who loved to help people and she always spent all of her time working and keeping busy. She loves working for Jaken at the Wet Glass and she also works for Gunvil at the library. What little time she had left in the day she spent reading quietly in her room.
As far as Bruk knew she still couldn’t remember anything of her past at all. It’s been well over two years now since he had transformed her back into being human again by using that ancient and powerful magical ancient tome. He often wondered who had transformed her from a beautiful young woman into a hideous monster and why.
He wondered if Nightfall could somehow be responsible for what had happened to her but he couldn’t figure out why he would do such a thing. Why would Nightfall even know someone like her? She wasn’t one that would want to even be around a person like Nightfall. She just seemed so innocent and naive.
Bruk thought that he would probably never know and it was probably better that he never did. Bruk hated it when a person that he liked got hurt. If he knew for sure that Nightfall was responsible then he would by honor have to figure out a way to make him pay. Bruk hated Nightfall!
Bruk rode steadily on all the rest of the day and he only stopped once when he wanted something to eat and to answer nature’s call. He didn’t stop for very long though because he was a little anxious to get on with the quest and explore a new land.
About an hour after night had fallen Bruk finally decided that he had covered enough ground for one day. He quickly took care of his two unicorns before he even thought about himself.
He groomed and brushed down the animals. Then he fed them a mixture of oats, barley, and chopped hay. Right by where he had chosen to stop was a small pond so they had plenty of water.
When Bruk had finished with the unicorns then he dug into the supplies and sat down and had a nice filling cold meal. He didn’t light a fire because he didn’t want to let anyone see where he was camping. A fire could be seen for miles in the darkness. He planned on eating and then getting some much needed rest.
He fell asleep looking at the stars in the sky and thinking about Taran. It was only a day and he already missed her. He smiled and soon he was soundly sleeping comfortably in the high green grass under the smiling and blinking constellations.
Chapter 2
Bruk woke up early in the morning feeling refreshed and very hungry. He fed and watered his unicorns first before he attended to his own needs.
Once they were taken care of he went over by the small pond. He looked at the calm crystal clear water and bent down and took a drink. The water was very cold and tasted sweet to his thirsty dry throat. He drank his fill and then he started to clean up.
Once he felt that he was clean enough he walked back to where he had set up camp. He quickly lit a small fire and heated up one of the meals that Jaken had provided. He ate some urth sausage and slices of bread. He washed it all down with icy cold water from the pond. Jaken was a very good cook and Bruk always enjoyed his food.
Once Bruk was all done eating he quickly got ready to leave. He put the fire out and triple checked it to make sure that it was truly out and completely dead and cold. Then he poured water over the charred wood a few times and then he covered the whole area with dirt. He didn’t want a fire on the prairie because that would be devastating. He had seen a prairie fire before and it was like a wall of flames destroying everything in its path.
Bruk then saddled his mount and put all of his supplies and equipment back on the other unicorn and secured everything. He quickly looked around to make sure that he didn’t forget anything. Once satisfied he mounted up and set off again towards the north.
Four days later and a few hours before it would get dark he stopped for the night. He quickly took care of the unicorns by brushing them down and giving them water. Then he fed them their usual meal of a mixture of oats, barley, and chopped hay. Once his unicorns were taken care of he set up camp and
then he opened a pack of meat jerky and sat down.
He sat in the high green grass and chewed on the tough flavorful flesh. He washed it down with water from one of the pouches from his supplies. It was pretty warm but it quenched his thirst.
He looked at the star filled sky and he thought about Taran. He was right about in the area where if he headed towards the east he would be heading towards Ultim.
He thought about Karl and Olnan. He missed them and he would like to see them again but he knew that if he went there they surely would want to accompany him on his quest. He didn’t want to expose them to any danger so he decided that in the morning he would continue traveling north towards the frozen wastes and look for that lost city. He had a very long way to go.
Bruk finished his meager meal and took another long and satisfying drink of the warm water. He lay down in the tall grass and got comfortable. He looked at the sky for a while and then he fell asleep.
The next day he woke up before the sun. It was early but the sun would be up in about another hour. He was anxious to get on the way. He chewed on some meat jerky as he fed his mounts. He gave them some water and then he attended to his own needs. He answered nature’s call and then he cleaned up and ate another piece of the jerky. He washed down his morning meal with warm water.
Then he went and saddled up his mount and put all of his provisions and equipment on the other one. Once everything was secure he mounted up and rode off straight north leaving Ultim and his friends behind.
Bruk traveled far that day and every day for the next week and a half. He didn’t see any sign of outlaws yet and for that he was thankful. He was now near to the area where if he went towards the east he would come to Zoria the city of outlaws.