Shadow Lands Trilogy

by Simon Lister

  Ceinwen reached the stone gateway and slid through to the more open space within the walls. The waiting warriors watched the entrance and listened intently for any indication that something was wrong but they heard nothing other than the wind-ruffled trees.

  Morgund watched the empty gateway while beside him Balor was quietly urging Ceinwen to return. Suddenly she slipped back around the side of the archway and beckoned them forwards. At a crouching run the warriors left their cover and lined up against the side of the wall.

  ‘Any signs of life?’ Arthur asked as he joined Ceinwen.

  ‘No. None.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Arthur?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s completely wrecked. Everything’s been torn down – there’s only one of the trees still standing.’

  Arthur stared at her. They were both thinking the same thing; clearly the Cithol would not destroy their own Winter Garden which could only mean that the Adren had, but Vosper and the other Cithol had betrayed the Britons to the Adren and that in turn could only mean that the Cithol were in league with the Adren. So why would the Adren destroy the Winter Garden?

  Arthur smiled.

  ‘What?’ Ceinwen asked.

  ‘Perhaps the Cithol’s new allies haven’t turned out to be such welcome guests.’

  ‘But this means the Adren are in the Veiled City already,’ Ceinwen said, gesturing to the destruction through the gateway.

  ‘Indeed it does,’ Arthur replied and signalled the warriors to follow him.

  As he ran to the centre of the garden and the domed entrance to the city he cast his eyes around at the ruins of the Winter Garden. He thought he spotted the rubble of the bower where he had slept with Seren in his arms. The thought of being so close to her now and the thought that the Adren were already in the city hurried his pace.

  With the others following behind him he ran down the spiralling stone stairway that led into the Veiled City. When he reached the bottom he looked wildly around at the corridors that radiated out to different locations within the city and then set off down the one that Merdynn had taken so many months ago.

  Their feet echoed dully on the pine-strewn floor and the warriors bunched together feeling out of their natural element so far underground and surrounded by stone. They passed the huddled shapes of four Cithol who had been hacked down by Adren swords but they saw no signs of life until they burst out into the Great Hall.

  Arthur had always felt the Veiled City to be an alien place of cold stone, a place that contrasted too sharply with the homes of the Britons, nonetheless there had been no denying its magnificence or grandeur but the scene that greeted them as they ran into the hall stopped them dead. It looked more like a vision of hell with scattered stacks of burning wooden tables that filled the hall with wreathing smoke and cast a flickering red glow against the walls so that it looked like even the stone was burning. Everywhere lay the hacked and mutilated bodies of the Cithol who had been in the hall when the Adren had swept through. Here and there they could see the crawling form of someone they had left alive for later entertainment but the Adren had clearly moved on to slaughter elsewhere leaving only ruin behind them.

  Arthur led them running across the hall and ordered them to ignore any cries for help. As they passed the raised dais he saw a grotesque heap of blood-drenched naked bodies piled around the High Table but they were mutilated beyond recognition and he knew there would be no point in stopping and searching among them.

  They left the Great Hall and suddenly they were looking out over the sloping stone houses that led down to the lake. It seemed like fires were burning inside every house and the whole cavern that contained the city seemed to be twisting in fire. The normally dark lake was now alive with reflected flames and its wide waters carried and echoed the screams of the dying and tortured.

  Every stone path and walkway seemed to have sporadic huddles of fleeing people too panicked to pay heed to anything other than what they fled from. Arthur scanned the valley side looking for Lord Venning’s Palace. He saw it and it seemed to be one of the few buildings that was not lit from the inside by flames.

  He led them towards the Palace and the Cithol who saw them coming fled down side paths thinking they were more of the dreaded attackers. Even some of the Adren they came across shouted their approval at them thinking they must be allies to be so boldly striding through the burning city. Arthur’s warriors soon learned not to attack such groups and to pass them by as quickly as possible.

  When they neared the Palace they saw a band of twenty to thirty Adren gathered outside the main gateway. The warriors thought at first that they were attacking the Palace but as they drew closer it became obvious that they were guarding it from other marauding bands.

  The Adren saw them approach and waved them angrily away as they had others. They only realised their mistake when the warriors rushed at them with swords drawn. The brief battle at the gates only lasted a matter of minutes and seemed to have gone unnoticed amidst the slaughtering of the Cithol elsewhere in the city.

  Arthur started dragging the Adren corpses into the courtyard and the others joined him then he left Hengest to command the defence of the Palace should it become necessary. He told them to wreck the courtyard and start a fire or two so that it looked much as any other house in the cavern and hoped that other Adren would just pass it by as having already been ransacked. Then he took Morgund and Ceinwen with him and made his way to the council room.

  He found the double doors barred from the inside and sent Ceinwen back to fetch Balor who took one look at the doors and swung his axe down into the centre join. The wood splintered and he struck again cleaving straight through the bar on the inside. He stepped back and Arthur kicked the doors open.

  There were five Cithol in the room and they had jumped to their feet at the first axe stroke. One of them called out his name and he found himself looking at Seren.

  ‘Arthur! I knew you would come!’ Seren cried out. At first she had not been sure if it was Arthur. The man before them holding the glistening and dripping sword could not have looked wilder; his clothes were torn and sweat stained, and covered in mud and fresh blood; his unshaven face was smoke-blackened and his hair was lank with sweat and clumped together in clots of dried blood. The other three who entered the room with him were no better and the stink of their sweat immediately filled the room.

  Arthur stared at Seren. He had not seen her for long months but her image had always been close to his memory. His memory seemed to have lied to him. The Cithol woman before him was no more than a girl and although her face still held a beauty it looked more like a face composed in a desperate dignity laid over the knowledge of a fatal illness, and she looked very ill indeed. Her cheekbones were more pronounced, dark circles sunk her green eyes and her bare arms looked emaciated. Then he saw she was pregnant and immediately he saw once more the girl he had known before. He looked back to her eyes which gave him the answer even before he had time to frame the thought.

  He tore his eyes from her and looked at the others in the room. Lord Venning was sitting back down heavily. Commander Kane was staring defiantly back at him. Terrill had moved to Seren’s side and in the background stood Vosper.

  Balor recognised the latter at the same time and surged forward with his axe.

  ‘Balor!’ Arthur’s voice cut across the room and it became completely still. Balor stopped abruptly and hated himself for doing so but there was absolutely no future in crossing Arthur at a time like this. He stepped aside as Arthur walked slowly towards the table.

  ‘Have you been mistreated in any way Seren?’ he asked her calmly.

  ‘No,’ she answered with a sidelong glance at her father. Everything about this first meeting with Arthur was wrong; nothing was as she had expected it to be. She suddenly realised she was scared of the man now standing on the other side of the long table.

  He turned his lifeless gray eyes to Terrill, ‘You and Seren brought word to u
s about the Adren tunnel?’

  Terrill nodded and Arthur considered this for a moment.

  ‘Seren, stand over there with Ceinwen,’ he said to the shaking girl.

  ‘Arthur?’

  ‘Do it!’ He roared at her and everyone started at the violence in his voice.

  Behind him Ceinwen groaned softly and Balor grinned. Seren took a faltering step around the table and then edged closer towards Ceinwen. Arthur watched her and then turned back to Captain Terrill.

  ‘And how did you know about the tunnel?’ Arthur’s voice had reverted back to a reasonable tone and Terrill’s eyes darted towards those still standing with him.

  ‘Come to judge us have you? Like a barbarian king dispensing justice?’ Commander Kane stared levelly at Arthur but a flicker of his upper lip betrayed his welling panic.

  ‘Yes,’ Arthur replied simply.

  ‘They heard me speak of it,’ Lord Venning said from his seat at the table.

  ‘And you broke with your orders and came to warn us?’ Arthur asked Terrill.

  ‘Yes,’ Terrill answered, looking at the floor as if he were shamed by the admission.

  Arthur indicated for him to join Seren and he too edged around the table.

  ‘How did you know about the tunnel?’

  ‘We have ancient maps. We have knowledge of many things beyond your understanding,’ Lord Venning answered wearily.

  ‘Had. You have nothing now.’

  ‘You can’t defeat Lazure’s Adren. No one can. We had to choose, Arthur.’

  ‘Not ‘we’ Venning, you. You were your people’s leader and you chose to side with the Adren. You chose to tell the Adren about the tunnel. These were the wrong choices.’

  ‘It was the only way to preserve the Veiled City!’ Kane defended himself automatically and Arthur turned his gaze upon him.

  ‘Have you seen your city?’ Arthur roared at him sending spittle flying across the table. In the next instant he stated in an even tone, ‘And you told Vosper to lead us into an Adren trap.’

  ‘You should be dead by now. You will be soon,’ Kane snarled at him.

  Arthur brought his sword crashing down on the table and it smashed in two. He stepped across the broken table and faced Commander Kane.

  ‘You sought to silence the only two people who would speak for the Veiled City and you betrayed Britain.’ Arthur spoke as if he were delivering a sentence and Kane took a step backward with his empty hands held out before him.

  ‘I have no weapon!’ he screeched in desperation.

  ‘You lived with an empty heart, you can die with empty hands.’ As he finished speaking Arthur thrust his sword into Kane’s stomach. Kane screamed and Arthur twisted the sword that was still embedded there. He fell to the floor still screaming and Arthur slowly withdrew the sword and left him flailing on the floor in his own blood.

  Vosper darted for the door but Balor grabbed him and threw him back towards Arthur with a laugh.

  ‘Time you stopped running, Vosper,’ Arthur said and swept his sword in a low arc. Vosper collapsed staring at his raised right leg that ended in a stump just below his knee. Arthur looked at him for a second then swung his sword down on the other leg. It clanged against the cold stone as it sliced straight through the muscle and bone. He too started to scream and behind Arthur Seren sank to her knees and retched. Terrill knelt between her and the bloodshed and held her face against his chest fearing what was going to come next.

  ‘What do you plan to do after murdering me?’ Lord Venning asked equably. It was difficult to hear him above the screams in the council room and Arthur signalled to Balor who stepped forward willingly and ended the screams with the unmistakable sound of an axe thudding into flesh.

  ‘I’m going to destroy what has kept the Veiled City for so long.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘No! Arthur, you mustn’t!’

  Arthur turned at the second voice and saw the look of horror on Seren’s face as she tried to claw herself free from Terrill’s embrace.

  ‘You can’t Arthur! We can’t live here without it!’

  ‘And nor can the Adren Master.’

  ‘But we can never replace it! It’s the only relic of the old knowledge! You came to save the city, you can’t destroy it!’ Seren implored him in desperation.

  ‘I came to destroy it. What use is there in Cei and Merdynn destroying the Shadow Land City if the Adren Master simply takes this one?’

  Lord Venning laughed and Arthur turned back to him frowning. Lord Venning stood and stabbed a finger at Arthur, ‘You’re nothing but a blood-drenched barbarian. You only know about blood and how to spill it. You can’t even grasp what’s at stake here, can you? Kane was right all along! You’ve always meant to destroy the Veiled City! This is the knowledge from the old world – it’s far greater than you’re capable of understanding. All you can manage is to roll in blood, roll in muck and roll in bed!’ Lord Venning was standing and screaming at him as he added, ‘You’re nothing but blood-thirsty barbarians!’

  Arthur advanced on Lord Venning, ‘I know enough to know what is worth fighting for and what is worth dying for. Can you say what you did was worth dying for? You led your people and you betrayed them: that’s between you and your people. We offered you an alliance and you betrayed us: that’s a matter for you and I.’

  ‘Can you say what you’ve done was worth the deaths of Cei and Merdynn, and your sister too?’ The room was suddenly very still and very quiet. ‘That’s right. They’re dead and you sent them to their deaths!’

  ‘Who told this?’ Arthur asked coldly.

  ‘Lazure trapped them on the Breton coast and the Adren slaughtered them just as they’ll slaughter you.’

  ‘Lazure lied to you.’

  ‘They’re dead. Their quest failed. At least one city still holds the old knowledge safe from barbarians like you!’

  Ceinwen grabbed Seren and started to haul her from the room but she was too slow and Seren screamed soundlessly as Arthur cut her father down and hacked at his dead body.

  Arthur turned away from the smashed body of the Cithol leader and stopped dead when he saw Seren staring at him in horror. He looked at Ceinwen who was still clutching the girl and said, ‘Take her out of here to safety. You know where to go.’

  ‘Arthur, you can’t mean to destroy the old power? Everything we did was so that you could protect it!’ Terrill said taking a step forward.

  ‘I would have protected both the Cithol and the city but now it’s too late to save either. Lazure cannot have the power that lies here.’

  ‘But Arthur...’

  ‘Take them both to safety.’ Arthur stopped the entreaties and strode between the two stricken Cithol and back out to the courtyard.

  ‘Any sign of the Adren yet?’ he asked Hengest once he was outside.

  ‘Not in here but there’s plenty going on out there.’

  Arthur turned to Balor who had followed him out and said, ‘There’s a building to the left of the gates, about four houses along where you’ll find hammers and building tools. Take whatever you’ll need to knock down a bridge and bring it all back here.’

  Balor took five others with him and sidled out the main Palace gates. Arthur watched as Ceinwen selected three warriors and left, leading the two Cithol between them as they cautiously slipped through the gates.

  ‘He was lying about Cei and the others wasn’t he?’ Morgund asked quietly by his side. Arthur continued cleaning his sword of the blood he had spilled and did not answer.

  Balor returned shortly afterwards and Arthur strode out of the main gates and down towards the underground river that ran from the lake. As they neared the lake edge a group of fifty Adren raced wildly onto the roadway ahead of them. They stopped and stared at the warriors for a few seconds then Arthur just charged at them. The Britons raced to catch up with him. The Adren had met almost no resistance so far in the city and Arthur’s sudden attack caught them entirely by surprise. Most of them died by the Britons’ s
words and only a few escaped back up one of the side paths.

  Arthur raced on to the river.

  ‘There! Take that aqueduct down or block it up but stop the water entering that tunnel there!’ He pointed to the place he meant and Balor and the others jumped into the knee-high flow carrying sledgehammers and iron spikes. The rest of the warriors fanned out to form a protective ring around the bridge that carried the water down into the stone tunnel.

  The city still burnt. Whatever the Adren found to burn they set alight and the roof of the cavern was hidden in smoke. Dim light still emanated from various points but it was the flames that lit the underground city in a flickering red glow.

  The Adren came at them in sporadic bands and the warriors defended the bridge while Balor and his crew smashed at the stonework. Finally a large section of the walled bridge fell away and water cascaded over the edge. Balor went to work on the other side smashing a spike into the polished stone then driving it in like a wedge. The others joined him and all the time he was aware that the warriors were fighting increasingly frantic battles as more and more Adren realised that someone in the city was putting up a fight.

  The second section gave way quicker than the first had and Balor clambered back onto the roadway. He took one look at the fight going on around him and called together the others he had been working alongside him. With a shouted warning to the warriors in front of him he led a charge into the Adren ranks. The sledgehammers crashed through the Adren lines and the Britons all followed the charging Balor up one of the side paths.