The two of them then went quiet, as Manil began explaining Ciqala’s plan. Once the troll had finished telling them what they had to do, they all slid back down the slope and, after leaping to their feet, sprinted along the dusty track on the other side. After a short while, they came to where they had hidden the infantry and the supply wagons, so they halted.
Moving to the back of the short column, Manil snatched the key to Merihim’s cage from the Sentinel sentry and opened it; he then leant in and grabbed Merihim’s arm. The tiny yellow creature tried to pull away from him, but Manil growled and hauled it out of the cage, with as little effort as he would need to lift a puppy.
Manil held Merihim off the floor and waited while Muru manhandled Erion out of the rear wagon and pushed him towards the snarling troll. The fear in his eyes was more than evident, but he forced confidence onto his face and said, “You can’t kill me troll, I thought the great and mighty Bray wanted that pleasure.”
Omni immediately silenced the cocky Elf by cuffing him across the back of the head and saying, “Shut up Elf. Bray and the others may have a use for you, but I come from a culture where a traitor is the worst kind of criminal. I won’t hesitate in killing you here and now.”
This comment proved more than Erion could handle and he went pale; shutting his mouth firmly. Fear induced sweat was pouring down his face, as Muru tied a dark rag around his mouth to stop him talking. He then pulled a black hood firmly over his head, as Manil growled, “Yous be a good lickle boy now or Manil be eating you.”
Omni and Muru had to smother a laugh, as they watched the Elf nearly faint. Forcing a furious look over his face Omni glared at Merihim’s mortal form. The diminutive creature was still struggling feebly in Manil’s grip. The fragile yellow creature saw the Dwarf staring at it and whimpered, before going limp. Omni took a step towards it and then growled, “Any more trouble from you and I’ll just kill you.”
Manil then lowered the creature to the floor and wrapped a thick rope around its body, which pinned its arms to its side. He then gagged it and shoved a hood over its head, before throwing it back into the cage. Omni then took out his thick bladed dagger and leapt in beside Merihim. He then nicked the creature’s shoulder, drawing a thin line of blood and making it utter muffled screams of pain, before growling, “I meant what I said.” He then climbed out of the cage and winked at Manil. The troll glanced at him curiously and then whispered, “What is yous doin?”
Omni simply shrugged and with hardly any emotion in his voice, replied, “Making it seem more believable.”
Manil quite obviously did not understand what Omni was doing, but so that he did not appear too stupid, smiled, nodded and said, “Right.”
Omni then grabbed the key from Manil and placed it back in the thick padlock, which was hanging from the heavy bolt on the door. Once he had relocked the cage door, Muru grabbed Erion and shoved him roughly towards the wagon at the front of the column. Manil followed him, letting the odd occasional growl slip out, so that Erion would know that he was still there. Once they reached the cart, Muru lifted Erion and dropped him into it. He then leant forward and growled quietly, “You lie there, nice and still. If you give your guards any serious problems then I’ll give you to Manil.”
The shudder that went through Erion was evident for all to see. Content that he had made his point, Muru nodded to Manil and then moved back to the cage. He gestured for the driver to move across to him and then waited for the thin, dark-furred Sentinel to join him.
When he did, he said, “Take the cage to the front and then harness the wagon with the Elf in it to the back of it.”
The Sentinel driver nodded and then clambered back into his seat. He then flicked his reins and guided his team of six horses to do as Muru had commanded. The sense of Muru’s plan suddenly sunk in and Manil grinned before saying, “That is brill Muru, me gonna do somefing that will make things much easier.”
Tipping their heads curiously, Omni and Muru watched as Manil lumbered towards the front of the column. The muscular troll then leapt into the wagon, which the driver was hitching to the cage and grasped two of the cage’s bars. With all his might, he pulled the metal rods apart, creating a gap wide enough to push a body through. He then leant forward and grabbed Merihim. Pulling the creature towards him, he took a short rope from the floor of the wagon and tied it to the bars.
As he finished, he turned to leap out of the wagon, but Erion tried to sit up, so Manil stamped down on the Elf’s chest, forcing a muffled groan from him and then, after leaning down, growled, “Manil means what he said. Yous not behaves youselves then me will hurt you so bad you will wish me is eating you.”
With this, he leapt out of the wagon and grinned at his two friends and chuckled, as Omni said, “You’re a cruel troll Manil.”
Manil shook his head and replied, “No me jus wants to makes sure that lickle Wuzzy thing’s plan works.”
Muru then had to ask, “Who is this Wuzzy thing you keep going on about?”
Manil peered at Muru as if he was stupid and then replied, “It be Ciqala, dummy. Whose you thing I is talking 'bout?”
Muru had only heard of Ciqala; he had never actually met him and all he knew was that the Wuzen was in a magical cage, which was supposed to stop him from using his powers. He shrugged and said, “I thought that he was in some kind of magical cage that stops him from using his powers.”
Manil shrugged in response and replied, “Me knows nothing about that me jus knows that the lickle furry Wuzzy spoke to I in me head.”
Muru thought of a wonderfully sarcastic reply, but remained silent when he spotted the dejected shape of Sam riding towards them. Seeing him, Omni, Manil and Muru rushed to meet him. As they drew near, Sam slid from his saddle and lumbered towards them. He then came to a stop and winked, before saying, “Has a friend contacted either of you, by means that we would not be able to.”
Manil drew himself up to his full height and grinned proudly, as he replied, “Yep, lickle Wuzzy spoke to me head.”
Sam grinned and then strolled back to his horse. He clambered onto the stallion and then rode up to the two of them, before saying, “Well let’s go and surprise our all-powerful enemy.”
With this, Omni, Manil and Muru ran back to the short column of wagons, which the infantry were guarding. As they reached the cage, Manil rushed back and leapt into the wagon behind it. Omni watched him go and then called up to the driver, “Follow Sam.” He then clambered into the cart beside Muru.
Once he was on board, the driver tugged his reins, forcing the team of horses to strain against the combined weight of the cage and the wagon. With one mighty heave, the horses began moving towards the enemy camp. Sam glanced back over his shoulder and when the cage was following him, kicked his horse into a gallop.
The huge burning shape of Merihim’s spirit spotted Sam riding towards it, so flew low, soaring close enough to the Sentinel commander to let him feel the intense heat coming off it. As it halted, hovering above the Sentinel commander, it growled, “Where is my body?”
Sam pointed to the small cloud of dust about half a mile behind him and called, “It is in a cage behind me.”
Hearing this, the sinister spirit lifted into the air and sped towards Omni, Manil and Muru’s column. It halted a few hundred yards away from them and sent Mogya towards the cage. When it was sure that its body was really in the cage, it sped back to where it was holding Sam’s troops. Once it had reached the camp, it floated above them, waiting for its mortal body to arrive.
As the column made its way towards the enemy camp, bumping over every pothole and large rock, Ciqala spoke to Manil. “Now, change them Manil,” he said
Manil immediately leant forward, untied Merihim’s mortal form, and dragged it through the hole he had made earlier. He then lifted Erion easily and shoved him into the cage. Reaching through the bars, he grabbed his arms and forced him into a sitting position. He then tied him tightly so that he could not move. Once this was done, Omn
i, Manil and Muru leapt from the cart and raced back to join the front of the infantry. They then broke into a loping jog, which they knew could eat up the miles, and moved to flank the cage.
They ran on for another few minutes, before they finally reached the outskirts of the camp. Moving past the two thick bushes, which marked the start of the enemy’s long line of tents, Manil spotted the Demons and Snakebears, who had stopped fighting one another but were now watching as events unfolded on the other side of the wall. Involuntarily, he growled and the urge to fight crept over him. Seeing this, Muru prodded him, drawing his gaze and hissed, “Calm down.”
Manil took a deep breath to calm himself, and then glanced up. Spotting the expansive, flickering shape of Merihim peering down through its deep red eyes, he shuddered; this time with fear not anger. However, Manil took confidence in the fact that although it may be powerful, it was not all seeing, because it was oblivious to the fact that the figure in the cage was Erion and not its body. Halting the cage as he entered the camp, the driver immediately leapt from his seat and sprinted to the rear to take relative safety amongst the Sentinel infantry.
As the horses began stamping and whinnying in panic, sensing Merihim above them, Sam slid from his saddle. He then peered up at the floating spirit, drew himself up to his full height and shouted, “Well we’ve done as you have asked, will you not let us go!”
At this Merihim’s spirit laughed loudly. Its eyes twinkled evilly and a blast of freezing air blew around the allied warriors below. Sam suddenly found that he could not move. He fought against his invisible bindings, but to no avail. Suddenly he found himself floating towards his troops, who were all now kneeling. He then thumped into the ground next to a raging fire, unable to move.
Helpless to do anything, Sam watched as Peg, Muru and Galivan floated towards the fire. He glanced across at the two cages with hope that Ciqala would do something, but the tiny Wuzen was merely sitting cross-legged, his small pointy ears flicking nervously.
Suddenly the cage doors swung open. New hope sprang into Sam’s heart, but Ciqala did not move. Sam tried to rise, but could not, so he did not see Bray and Gwion floating out of their prisons to join Peg, Muru and Galivan, who were still making their way towards the fire.
As he flew towards Sam, Bray tried to embrace his Mogya. At first, he could not feel it, but after a few seconds, he felt its familiar presence. He was about to let it flow through his body, but Ciqala’s voice in his head stopped him. “Let this happen. It is not time to strike yet.”
Bray relaxed and let Merihim’s power take him to the fire. As he landed, he noticed that the three Ancient ones were also floating towards the flames. He watched as they came down and then heard Merihim’s spirit call, theatrically, “You have caused me to fail many times, but you won’t stop me gaining my rightful place. You will now die and your power will be mine to use.”
Bray shuddered, as he heard this, but hiccupped with surprise, as he saw Evelon wink at him. He managed to turn his head, just in time to see Merihim’s spirit move across to where Sam was still lying, helpless. They all then heard it say, “You! The Commander of the Sentinels - show me my body.”
Sam quivered in fear, knowing that the figure in the cage was actually Erion. However, he had no choice, as he tried to fight, fruitlessly against the spirit’s power. Flying through the air, Sam crashed into the side of the cage and then tumbled to the floor. As he landed with a resounding thud, he managed to spurt, “I don’t have the key.”
As he said this, Merihim’s ghost loosened his grip, allowing Sam to walk free. Merihim then growled, “Get it then.”
Sam shook his head, the enormity of what was happening nearly overwhelming him, and then rushed across to Manil, who was holding out the key, using all of his immense strength to fight the power holding him. Sam took it and mouthed, “Thank you,” then he raced across to the cage door.
After taking a deep breath, he opened it. As the hinges opened, with a scraping noise, Sam found himself flying sideways. He put his arms across his head to protect it and then crashed into a lone tree stump a few yards away from the cage. As bright lights erupted behind his eyes and bone-breaking pain flooded his body, he glimpsed Merihim’s spirit rushing into the cage.
Ignoring his pain, he glanced through the cage’s bars and watched in horror as the flaming spirit lifted Erion’s hood from his head. As soon as Merihim’s ghost saw the Elf, it roared in anger, drowning out Erion’s squeals of terror.
Erion suddenly went quiet, as the spirit stopped its noise, and then went white, as his skin began to ripple. Merihim’s ghost then wrapped itself around the Elf and, using him as a target for its anger, began crushing him. Erion began to scream, but nothing came out.
He mouthed his silent cries, as a dark shadow crawled out of his mouth. Once this odd thing, which Sam knew was his soul, was out of his body, Merihim’s spirit opened its massive, yawning mouth, full of layers of tiny, sharp teeth and devoured it. As it did this, Erion’s tortured body crumpled, seemingly becoming nothing more than a bag of bones.
All of a sudden; Ciqala’s cage erupted in sparks, lightning tracing itself around the bars, as a column of flame raced from within it. As this happened, every living creature within ten miles, heard Ciqala’s voice boom, “Now it is time!”
Merihim’s fear
With Ciqala’s voice, came huge, boiling, dark clouds, which stirred up the long awaited storm, increasing it tenfold. Lightning traced its way across the sky and struck the ground around the valley. A loud thunderclap echoed above, sounding as if it were announcing the rain, which was now began to fall. Torrents of water began hammering into the muddy landscape, driving the evil-feeling, orange mist away from the valley.
As all this was happening, static power began surging around Sam, Peg and Galivan’s troops. It scarred the floor, but did not touch them. Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck the invisible wall, which Merihim had erected, shattering it into millions of shards and Bray found that he could move again. He stood up and glanced around, peering at the raging flames, which were consuming the cage in which Ciqala was imprisoned. As he stood up, he raised an eyebrow in surprise and laughed, as relief swept over him.
The tiny Wuzen was striding from within the cage, blue static racing around his body. He glared across at the spirit of Merihim, which was speeding across the camp towards him and lifted a finger. The energy raging around his body shot from his hand and smashed into Merihim. The huge spirit tried to get out of the way, but it was not fast enough. The blue lightning crashed into it, bowling it over and making it scream in agony.
Bray did not have chance to watch any more of the battle, because, as soon as the enemy troops on the other side of the wall realised that it was no longer there, they charged, intent on killing everything in the camp. He pulled his sword from its scabbard, drew on his Mogya and sprinted towards two large wolf-shaped Demons.
He leapt high and spun nimbly, lashing out with his Sentinel forged blade. The sword sliced through the neck of the first Demon, but merely scraped across the shoulder of the second, as he reversed his swing and tried to stab it.
Landing gracefully, Bray rolled forward under the swinging, clawed arms of the massive Demon and then regained his feet. Spinning around, he feinted to his left, making the huge monster flinch and then sent a savage hacking blow into its stomach. Slicing upwards, he forced his blade to hack through the creature’s elemental skin. Howling in agony the beast tumbled backwards, allowing Bray to lift his blade and bring it stabbing down into the Demon’s forehead. Suddenly immense heat began burning his back. He quickly turned, his Mogya healing the blisters on his back, and scrambled back as quickly as possible to get away from the massive fire Demon that had eaten Donny.
Unfortunately, for Bray, although the rain was still pouring, it was having no effect on the Demon. Keeping his eyes on the horrific monster, he tried to run backwards, but he slipped on the mud underfoot and thudded into the ground. The air exploded out of hi
s lungs in a loud gasp, but his pain disappeared as he peered up at the mountain of flame lumbering towards him.
However, help was on hand, because as he tried to slide away from the Demon, the two Dragons swooped from on high and sped towards him. Being magical and having fire as a weapon, ensured that they were impervious to the Demon’s power, so, as their talons dug into the monster’s mountainous shoulders, its angry flames had no effect.
The two Dragons lifted the flaming monster into the sky and flew over the mountain to a lake that they had spotted. A mile above the choppy water, they dropped it into its blackened depths. The monster hit the water and the lake began to boil; the creature started shrinking, fighting against powerful tides as it died. Primero and Vif hovered long enough to watch the Demon perish and then flew back over the summit to help their friends.
As they flew back to the camp, Primero could see that the battle between Merihim and Ciqala was still raging. Many burning craters had formed between them, as Mogya flowed from them. Ciqala threw a spell at Merihim, designed to trap it, but the spirit merely put up a glimmering shield around itself and deflected it. Vif looked at Primero, as they swooped towards the titanic battle and called, “He is getting tired. We should help him.”
Primero did not answer; he knew that although Ciqala was stronger than Merihim, the spirit could not die, so the Wuzen would soon succumb to exhaustion. Therefore, he simply pushed back his wings to streamline himself and flew even faster. Vif did the same and very soon, the two of them were within range of Merihim.
Primero spread his wings to slow himself down and then sent forth a terrifying plume of magical fire, which roared around Merihim’s ghost, burning it, but not killing it. Vif flew lower, swooping in at the spirit, her claws twinkling as she released a spell. She reached out as she neared the now cowering spirit and raked her talons across it.
Again, the attack made no visible damage, but the magical creature howled in pain. Ciqala steadied himself and took a deep breath. He then called to Manil, “Manil bring the prisoner out and put it in the cage.”
Destruction of a God Page 21
