“We thought you were dead, lord,” one among the others said. “Lady Gefiny was about to gather us to fight against Swildagg before the beast came, and she defeated it once…”
“Now you are here,” continued another. “You have come back to us and gathered us into a band of poor fighters; almost as poor as those whom you detest, though not as wretched I should think.”
“Nay, not as wretched,” Naomi agreed, “Poor fools, but not wretched fools.”
“Us unlucky few,” the first said thoughtfully. “That’s what you call us, lord.”
“A band of a few unlucky, poor fools,” Dril’ead said with a nod. “But as such we will fight and die fighting, believing that in the end we will be held in high esteem by our ancient glories!”
A few of them cheered, and the sound of that pitiful cheer rocked Dril’ead back into an unbearable shame. “I am sorry, my brothers and sisters, that we must stand side by side as such poor unlucky fools,” he said to them. “Believe me when I say it, that if there were another way for us to thrive in greatness I would see you all to it. But I cannot see one beyond this abyss of misery!”
“Silence, my lord,” Naomi said to him suddenly, her voice drawn to a harsh whisper. “Something approaches from above.”
Dril’ead looked up as a shadow descended toward them, and his troops raised their weapons in readiness. But the winged drake did not strike them as they supposed. It fell to alight silently on the road before them; a Follower sitting in its saddle with cowl drawn over his face then lifted a hand as a gesture of peace.
Weapons still were lifted toward the newcomer, darts clicking into place on crossbows as the rangers awaited their captain’s orders, and Dril’ead and Naomi stood beside one another in bewildered surprise. Was it all over?
“Pardon my coming, Vulzdagg’s, but I could not resist the right in coming,” the stranger said.
“You are from Swildagg,” Dril said in a grave tone, recognizing the armor and the mount of The Follower. “What is your name, and why have you come?”
“I am from Swildagg, but I will not speak my name,” the Swildagg replied. “My coming, though, is to warn you of my Branches approach. They come in greater numbers than this – far greater than this here – and they have come to destroy every one of you. Neither of your swords will repel them, for they are enhanced by the power of the Shadow Queen and her mages. But you can escape into the dungeons below us, following the path that winds through these realms, and come to safety far from my people.
“I tell you this because I take pity on you,” the stranger continued. “I am sorry we have done so much wrong to you.”
Dril looked down at the broken bridge, his thoughts growing hot within him. This door was supposed to stand. Nothing should have been able to break it. And yet here I stand on top of its ruin. He looked up at the Swildagg, his eyes narrowing as he came to recognize the voice of the specter before him, though the sincerity in it through him off at first hearing.
“I know who you are,” Dril’ead said. “But to me – and to these here with me – It does not matter any more. You have wronged us, have seen a fault upon us and slain our friends falsely, and now have come to beg forgiveness and lead us to another escape. Well, Nel’ead Swildagg, it does not matter.”
The stranger hesitated for a moment, and then slowly he pulled back his cowl to reveal himself as the lord of Swildagg. Nel’ead frowned as he looked down on the ruin of the gate. “I understand,” he said slowly. “But at least I may rest knowing I have allowed you a chance of escape from my sister’s wrath, if it even be wrath that she uses as an excuse to do this.”
“Nay, it is not,” Dril’ead replied. “It is treachery alone.”
“Treachery or not, the Urden’Dagg has sold the Branches of its Tree to the likeness of a Shadow Queen,” Nel’ead said to them all. “It will not uphold you or defend you from this coming storm. All that you have is your own strength and wit, little though it may be. I would fight with you, but the safety of my people must come before my friends… Perhaps we will meet again, on friendlier terms, if you escape.”
“I would like to see you as a friend, Nel’ead Swildagg,” Dril’ead said. “But for now we are parted by one another’s differences. You accused me of murder where I was innocent, you summoned a monster that has killed my family and friends; I cannot hope to see Gefiny again in this world because of you. But, I must say, I will not forget this day.”
Nel’ead nodded slowly, painfully almost. “I must be gone from here,” he said. The drake then spread out its wings and leaped into the air, climbing its way up and then rushing off into the darkness above them.
“Are we to escape, then?” Naomi asked Dril’ead’s silent expression.
“We are ready for battle,” Dril’ead said. “The decision belongs to the soldier around us. Will they fight today, or will they escape to fight another day?”
“My lord,” one of them said suddenly, his voice sounding as if released after a breath held for a long time, and Dril’ead turned to hear what he had to say. “My lord, I have never fought another of any Branch of the Urden’Dagg Tree, whether or not they have been placed in the orders of another deity – I have never slain any of my kin. I stood still when we invaded Zurdagg, not daring lift my sword against another of my same race, and they seemed to pass me by without noticing my exposure.”
Dril’ead nodded several times, considering the soldiers words. “You will not fight Swildagg, then?”
“Nay lord, I will not.”
Again Dril’ead nodded, this time looking round at the others. “Will the rest of you fight?”
They exchanged glances before one of them answered, saying, “If it be your will, lord, we will fight.”
“But you will not?” he asked the other of them, and he replied with a hesitant shake of his head. “Well, then, we will follow the example of the stubborn fighter! Come, we shall escape to fight another day. We are, after all, ready for battle.”
*****
“There is a passage that I know of,” Skandil said to his lord as they were about to depart to whatever destination he set out for them, and Dril’ead turned to hear what he had to say. “It is in the direction of Swildagg, but its passing is said to wind throughout the entirety of the Shadow Realms. Besides that, though, I don’t know much about it. My friend, Shela, could tell you more.”
“The Passage through the Shadow Realms,” said Dril’ead, the name having been mentioned several times in the tome of his father. “I would not take that road through the endless passages of this world had I but no other choice, but even than it would be in regret that I take you there. The shadows beyond its reach are unknown and therefore unpredictable. It would be an error that we take that forbidding road.”
“But empty caverns and tunnels are all that’s said to be down there by those who’ve explored them,” Skandil protested in its defense.
“Yes, and what of those adventurers who have dared travel beyond those empty caverns?” said Dril’ead, and Skandil did not answer. “Again, I must say, I would not take that road.”
Naomi came suddenly between them, and looking down upon Skandil she said pointedly; “Put your trust in your captain. We have no other choice but to heed his councils and wisdom. His knowledge, if any of us dare compare ourselves to him, is beyond our own. His experiences will save us, you will soon see.”
“I was only trying to make a suggestion,” said Skandil in defense.
“Yes, and I have heard it,” Dril’ead replied firmly.
“But you will not heed it.”
“No,” said Dril, shaking his head, “I will not lead this company on such a road as what you suggest.”
“Then where will you take us?”
Dril’ead lifted an arm and pointed the way he had returned from the lower level of the Shadow Realms, and all those around him looked to where his thin finger indicated the tunnel beyond the forested area of mushrooms and stalagmites. “If the Urden’Dagg wil
l not come to our aid,” Dril began in a solemn, confident tone, “then we shall go to it for security.”
“But passage through the Greater Realms is forbidden of all Followers without its consent,” Naomi interjected immediately, thinking the idea irreverent in and of itself. “We might as well be putting ourselves further out of its favor by seeking out its hidden kingdom.”
“But, Naomi, its kingdom is not hidden,” Dril’ead replied. “Although the Greater Realms may be distant and beyond our reckoning, it is still accessible. My father, lord Vaknorbond, took the road to the door of the Urden’Dagg with his son and my brother, Neth’tek.”
After a moment of silent thought, one of the sullen Vulzdagg’s spoke, saying, “So we will flee to the safety of the all great and powerful Urden’Dagg, then? I thought we were to fight for our glory, not flee from it.”
“Yes, but the lord of Vulzdagg has been given a better option,” another of them replied to him.
“We will escape, then, and cast aside our fated end?”
“We will not flee,” Dril’ead quickly told them, turning about to face each of them. “Though we may be running from those who seek our blood, we will not be fleeing this land in fear and destitute. We will gather those unlucky few of us, those who still believe in an ancient empire long lost and forgotten, and charge the brighter horizon. My dear friends, all of you who listen and follow me no matter the circumstances, we will see a brighter horizon at the end of this. That is my dying promise to you.”
Naomi was nodding beside Dril’ead, and to the host of Vulzdagg she said, “The fates change as decisions are made, and they are somehow and in someway for the better of our ending. This new destination that Dril’ead Vulzdagg sets before you, it is for the better of our ending. It is all, after all, about the end.”
“But, dear lord, how can we hope to gather those like us from another Branch when all are against us?” some desperate, tired and weakened warrior asked from among them. “How can we hope when there is none?”
“Hope is heavy,” Dril’ead replied. “It will drag us down with a weight beyond our own strength. But if we carry it to the end, we will come out all the more strong and hopeful. For some, if not for most, it is the weight of your glory.”
They nodded. Several of them looked down at their feet or toward the mountainous borders of Swildagg. All of them, brothers and sisters, friends and comrades, took in their homeland for the last time. It was over for Vulzdagg, and the inhabitants of the city would have to move on or be killed. They were exiled from the presence of their own kin; however they were given a better option for survival then fighting against insufferable odds.
Dril led them from the broken doors of Vulzdagg. The gate was supposed to hold. He believed and trusted in its strength against the might of their enemies, though Gorroth’s strength was empowered by the false power of his queen. But the demon was gone. Gefiny destroyed its everlasting essence with the last of her strength.
“You should know, lord Dril’ead, that we all wept when assuming you had fallen,” Naomi said softly at his side, and looking sidelong at him she saw that his face was ever stern and unreadable.
He was fatigued.
“I did fall,” Dril’ead replied evenly.
After he spoke Naomi thought she saw a flicker of shame in his eye. “But we thought you would never come again,” she said pointedly.
“As long as there are people left waiting for me, and there is strength enough in my limbs to carry my broken body back to them, I will always return,” said Dril. “Now come, we mustn’t speak of sorry times when our hopes were near useless. Today is a grand day! We will leave this land, we will fight our enemies, and we will pass unto the halls of our ancient glories. That is my hope, my dream, my destiny.”
They walked on through the eternal shadows of that world. The darkness crept about them, but the infrared vision of their heritage showed them the path that Dril’ead took to the passageway. He couldn’t hope for much, deep down inside he privately admitted that, but neither could he allow his followers to give up their hope when so close to the edge of failure. No, they couldn’t give up.
They passed into the tunnel through which Dril’ead had traveled from the borders of Grundagg, and down the slick shaft of flowing water the company of Vulzdagg went swiftly.
19
From one God to Another
Juanna and Yaldaa, a warrior and a ranger once standing among the fighters of Grundagg, stood solemnly beside the bioluminescent stream where Juanna last saw the noble Vulzdagg. It was the place where she and Fustua risked each others lives for the other against the attack of a Master Element. Now, though, the bodies of Swildagg warriors lay in pools of their own blood beside the stream. Dril’ead Vulzdagg had done his work fending them off while Juanna and Fustua made their escape back to Grundagg, a city that had betrayed them to Fustua’s death.
It seemed so long ago that it had happened; so much transpired in such short time. It was almost sickening to think about, and tears began to drip down her face as her thoughts drifted back to simpler times. It was clear, then, who the enemy was. When a monster entered the realm of Grundagg, it was the patrol captain’s duty to drive it out or kill it with his or her patrol. But what did you do when the monster turned out to be your own masters? Did you drive it out, or did you up and flee? She had fled while Gregarr attempted to drive it out, and Fustua had then died.
“I shouldn’t have left Gregarr to fight alone,” Juanna said where she stood looking into the rushing water at her feet. “Perhaps together we could have vanquished the corrupt aristocracy or our leaders, and therefore saved those who were forced to attack us as we fled… We left him behind to die a terrible death, I am sure.”
Yaldaa looked up and at her captain. “Fustua’s death was not your fault, nor was Gregarr’s. The aristocracy or our people have ever been in the hands of the Urden’Dagg. It has betrayed us. The Branches of the Urden’Dagg Tree now betray each other, and soon the entire Tree itself will fall.”
“But why,” Juanna demanded of the rushing water, “How could they?”
“The end must come for all things, great and small,” Yaldaa replied for the stream.
Juanna looked sorrowfully up at the stalagmites shining in the light overhead. “Our ending must then be great,” she said, and Yaldaa nodded forlornly.
*****
A sound of splashing arising from up the stream pulled the attention of the two Followers away from their private thoughts, each unnerving in its own way, and they saw the Vulzdagg’s coming down the river in its flowing current. Dril’ead was at their front, and waving to Juanna he caught her attention before she thought to flee.
“Hello again, Grundagg’s” Dril’ead said, pulling himself out of the water before it could carry him further. He extended his hand to Juanna, and it was then that he noticed the sorrow in bother herself and her companion.
“I left too soon and now return too late,” Dril said solemnly.
“Nay, you have not left us, son of Vulzdagg,” Juanna said evenly. “Only the Urden’Dagg leaves us to the whim of a Shadow Queen and her slaves. Swildagg was first to be persuaded, and with its downfall another follows. The Branch of Grundagg has gone after them, the true slain by their brethren, and the cowards fleeing into the darkness.”
Dril’ead scowled. “A Shadow Queen,” he said in a low voice, his thoughts drifting away from the moment even as the others of Vulzdagg came sliding down into the passage after him.
A Shadow Queen, he repeated silently, ever have I dreaded the name of such a demonic being, and now here I stand faced by the very thought of one of such a kind. Sold into the hands of a god by a god, traded from one to the other, like objects in a swift stream passing from one tunnel to the next; it seems almost as if we have no choice but to follow… But nay, we have all the choice!
Naomi and two of the other Vulzdagg’s stood beside him, looking curiously on the Swildagg’s. Dril’ead looked at each of the Vulzdagg’
s coming down from the stream; the two Swildagg’s standing before them, and took pity on each of them in turn. They had barely escaped total despair, though it still hung over them like a cloud threatening stormy weather. No, he told himself, they have all the choice.
“Well, then,” Dril’ead began slowly, weighing each word as he spoke it, “it seems that we are left with no choice but to resist the urges of our fellow Branches, though Branches we now seem no longer. The Tree, it rather appears, has been cut down. We are alone as rogues in a desolate cavern, bones are our only allies now; the corpses of comrades who’ve given their lives to the strict belief that we are all free citizens of this realm. The Shadow Queen, great and powerful though she may be, is not our god. What has she done to deserve our subjection?”
Naomi shook her head solemnly at his side. “I feared the end would come to this.”
“Where fears come to pass,” Dril said to her, “our courage is our strongest shield.”
“Well said, Vulzdagg,” Juanna said, “though I fear there is nothing we can do to stand against such odds as what march upon us.”
“No, there is nothing,” Dril agreed. “We will retreat as far as these caverns reach, brighter horizons awaiting our passage on the other side, until the traitors of our race abandon the cause for which they pursue us. But, I must say, we will gather a host of the unlucky and faithful before it is over. None should be left behind.”
“They’d all be dead by now,” Juanna pointed out.
“Or fleeing, as you and your companion,” Dril replied, gesturing toward her and Yaldaa.
“So we march on the gates of Swildagg?” Naomi asked, shocked.
Dril turned to her. “No,” he said. “We march on the footsteps of doom, and defy it even as it sits before us in its terrible throne of awful woe.”
“Than what are we waiting for?” one of the Vulzdagg’s demanded, standing knee deep in the river.
Passage to Glory: Part Two of the Redemption Cycle Page 18
