Of Dark Elves And Dragons

by Greg Curtis

  The lich however, was made of tougher undead stuff, and though the lightning bolt had hit it, perhaps even wounded it, it was far from finished, and with its powers of disease, corruption and walking death, a very dangerous enemy. To let it get too close was to suffer a plague of maladies but its touch was the real terror as the victim suffered the most unimaginably terrible death as his body literally decayed as he breathed, and there was no cure. He had to tell Dava the bad news. Then the lich decided to show them its survival and power as it broke through the last of the elementals and the forest and found the blue barrier, and he didn’t have to say anything. His friend could see the bad news for himself.

  Looking more or less like a complete zombie, but with no decay or flesh falling off and alabaster white skin stretched taught over its bones, it was an ugly thing, even more so than in the drawings and depictions he’d seen in the various books he’d read on the undead menace, but as long as it couldn’t touch or get near them, harmless. On the other hand if it did break through, they were in a lot of danger. Especially when a stone elemental gave chase and caught it in front of them, and then they watched as its stone fists could do the lich no damage. It was harder than stone.

  It was also stronger, and it quickly began chopping pieces of the elemental off with its own fists, pummelling the elemental which was more than twice its size, its fists making a sound like metal on the stone.

  A steel elemental Alan knew, might do better, but as to how much better he couldn’t be sure, and while a fire elemental would eventually destroy it, it would take time as such powerful undead didn’t burn easily. The spell of chained lightning had shown that the lich could take a blast, and water would probably be all but useless. That left only the exotic elementals he’d practised with but never used.

  Fog and light were useful sometimes but only if you wanted to hide things or perhaps blind enemies, neither of which would be much use against an undead creature which saw by magic. Cold was useless against anything which was already cold and dead, and a blizzard elemental would be a compromise but perhaps not of any great use. Knowing that it was the best that he could do, he started raising steel elementals hoping that their strength would at least be enough to slow the lich down while the fire elementals tore it to pieces. Dava had other ideas.

  “Might of the sun!” Even as he roared the words out in his native tongue, something that looked like a finger of the sun itself streamed down and enveloped the lich in a glowing furnace of yellow. The resultant explosion was too bright to look at even through an elemental’s eyes, and the entire sky which had slowly been darkening, suddenly turned bright pale blue as far as the eyes could see. Meanwhile the cool air suddenly warmed up as though it was a summer’s day in the middle of a desert and then it got hotter still, and even from thirty or forty yards away, Alan’s skin started burning. But no matter how hot it got, it had to be worse for the lich, and through an earth elemental’s eyes he could just make out the figure of the lich, deep within the sunbeam, flailing wildly. Whatever else it was doing, it was suffering and that had to be a good thing.

  Soon Alan and Dava both had to back away even further from the terrible magic he had wrought. By that time they couldn’t see the lich at all. But Alan could feel the shocking crater the sun beam was boring into the earth itself, as it burnt its way down, searing roots, setting fire to the dirt itself, even melting the bedrock underneath. The spell was beyond powerful he realized, and for the first time he knew that awakening the ancients had to be a clever idea when faced with such an enemy. No wizard of the present, neither elven nor human, not even dryad, could throw such power around. Least of all him. And they were all vulnerable to liches and some of the other terrible undead creatures that would soon walk the world. Sooner than should be.

  It was a humbling thought in many ways. Once Alan had considered himself one of the most powerful and versatile wizards in the land, and with his command of elementals, extremely well able to take care of himself. But Dava’s two strikes had shown him he was no match for their sheer power, and no more were any of the other elves. The ancients had the very power they needed to face the undead.

  Of course just because he wasn’t as strong, Alan didn’t intend to go down easily in a fight with the undead either. Thus far he’d been under prepared, not expecting to face the undead let alone a lich so early. It had only been a month and according to the histories it should have been several more before the necromancer was ready to send out raiding parties let alone liches. From now on Alan decided he would be accompanied by an army of elementals wherever he went he decided. Lightning, fire and air, the three that could fly and keep up with them. Each night when they camped he would summon steel and diamond elementals to reinforce their defences, and then in the morning when they made ready to leave, he wasn’t going to release them. There was no point. Instead he’d send them back to his cottage, to help with the defences there. It might take them a week or two to walk there, they weren’t fast even if they walked night and day which they would, but it was still a better option than releasing them and having to summon more to replace them later. And he realized, he’d have to start keeping a better watch.

  A minute or two later, just when it seemed he might never be able to see again, the sunbeam stopped its awful work and the lich was gone as if it had never been. Meanwhile the first of Alan’s steel elementals was taking up guard duty, and he was working on the next.

  “Five thousand years, and I thought I’d never have to see let alone fight something like that again!” Dava seemed angry rather than surprised even to Alan’s rather insensitive ears, still concentrating as he was on his summonings. But his words raised an obvious question.

  “Again? You’ve fought liches before?”

  “Of course. And the bone drakes and death shades that are surely coming. It's just that I didn’t expect to have to. Not even after what I read in the elders' tomes of the last undead wars. Seeing them though is a terrible sadness to me as it will be to my family.”

  “Why?” He had the feeling that there was something that Dava wasn’t telling him, something he wanted to keep private, and yet which he couldn’t any longer.

  “Because it confirms all that the three who came before us wrote. I know who the necromancer is.” Alan suddenly felt light headed as he heard the last. He knew who the necromancer was? No one knew that, and up until then, no one had cared. He was just the necromancer, the enemy. Yet Dava’s words could only mean one thing.

  “He’s an ancient?” It wasn’t even a question. Dava didn’t know many other people in the world let alone another necromancer.

  “Agrin.” The leader of the fallen, the one who had started the ancient wars in his lust for ultimate power. Alan knew the name only too well from what they had told him, and he knew what he had done, at least up until the point when they had taken their long sleep. He was a walking evil, but then so was the necromancer. What really mattered was that he was an ancient, and as such, someone perhaps even more powerful than they had thought. That was bad.

  “Your people have fought him before and survived. Twice. You can do so again.” It was time to try and encourage his friend, not let him give in to his doubts and shame.

  “According to the tomes left by Feylon, he was in the end defeated and killed in our time, after the world had been all but destroyed. Killed by mortal weapons as there was too little magic remaining. The survivors hunted him down, tore him apart limb from limb, and burnt his remains until they were sure nothing of him should ever survive. They knew the danger he posed.”

  “Yet even death was not the end for him, and somehow he returned to lay waste to the world again, three or four thousand years later. The second time he was defeated by a ward of death, as his undead body was linked to the spirit realm of the dead. It should have killed him, sent his soul back to the afterlife for eternity, but somehow he fought his way free even there and found a deathless state again.”

  “That they could not understa
nd. Their divinations revealed that he is not what they thought, that he is neither dead nor alive, nor even undead. He is something else. He exists somewhere beyond life and death, and as such he is immune to many magics. He can only be weakened, not destroyed. Ascollia, Feylon and Trista knew that when they defeated him the second time, and they knew that nothing they could do could ever truly destroy him. They knew he would be back, perhaps forever.”

  “For that reason they asked that all remains of all people killed should be burnt and the bones powdered, so that if and when he did return, he would not be able to recall such a massive army. For some reason that was not done, and he now has another fifteen hundred years of corpses to raise as his army.” Dava sighed heavily and Alan could understand why. He had no idea how many corpses were buried in fifteen hundred years, but he was certain it was an army of terrible size.

  “Feylon also told the elders that they would need to find more of our people, but not just a few. Though it is not plain in his writings, it is clear he wanted all of us to be there to face Agrin when he returned again.”

  “Now only fifteen hundred years after that, he is back again and stronger earlier than before and aware that others of our people have survived and will be coming for him. He will not be taken again so easily by a ward of death, and even if it was possible, I suspect he would fight his way back out of the afterlife even faster than before. He will return no matter what we do, and whatever he is, he is beyond our strength to destroy. But maybe some of our scholars will have an answer where the four of us do not.”

  “For the moment though, we can only weaken him, destroy his armies, and hope that a plan will be forthcoming from the others. It will not be easy and we must remain strong and alert until then. Wary for his attacks. He is even laying traps for us as we speak, sending out hunting parties as he knows or guesses our business.” It was the last that suddenly made Alan’s blood run cold again, as he realized who else they would be hunting.

  “He knows your plans? This is not good. You must tell this to your family tonight. They must be prepared.”

  “You think that they are in danger as well?” But of course they were, was Alan’s only thought. The enemy clearly knew about him and Dava, he even knew how to find them though how he couldn’t begin to guess, but if he knew that he surely knew about Dava’s family as well.

  “I think that this night I will spend summoning air, fire and lightning elementals, all of which can fly, while you will maintain the watch. Then I will send them to both my home and the mountains with Narinne for them to act as more guards. They will not be in danger long.” It was a promise born of need and desperation as he could suddenly see the women being attacked by hordes of the undead in his mind. The skeletons and zombies were bad enough, as they could tear people apart, but an undead sorcerer was far worse, as it slowly converted the living into zombies without ever granting them the mercy of death.

  Finding a comfortable seat once more on the grass, he began his work immediately, beginning with the easiest to call, the air elementals, and soon they were starting to populate the clearing while Dava was busy speaking to his family through the fire, telling them of what had happened, and warning them to be prepared.

  As he sent off his soldiers, a dozen at a time to each location, with instructions to protect and obey the women, Alan had time to wonder how the enemy had found them. Even if he knew their plans the only ones who knew exactly where they were going were himself, the ancients and the elders. Unless the enemy being an undead ancient had some special knowledge, which was always possible, or they had a gossip and possibly even a traitor? But who would ally himself with the undead? He could find no answers, and no more he suspected could Dava, whose thoughts were probably running in the same direction.

  By the time he’d finished with his first force, at least three hundred air elementals had been summoned and sent off to protect the women and many hours had passed. By then he was almost ready to discard the theory, but he couldn’t. If some dark elves had once been foolish enough to ally themselves with the Everliving, he could not reject anything. And instead he turned his thoughts to the calling of fire elementals which was at least useful.

  Seventy or eighty fire elementals later, and just as the long night was finally coming to an end, he switched to lightning elementals, the most powerful of his creations, and the hardest to make. By then the tiredness was becoming a problem. He’d drawn loads of strength from the forest all around him, drinking in its vitality to help keep him going, but the magical demands of his work were sucking it from him as fast as he could take it in. But he wasn’t willing to stop. Not until he knew the others would be safe, and Dava he noticed was still maintaining his blue barrier, just in case. Neither of them had said anything at all in ages, concentrating instead on what they were doing.

  The sun was rising over the mountains, a glorious sight, by the time another two dozen lightning elementals had been created and sent off, and Alan was all but exhausted. He’d never spent so much time and effort simply summoning, and it took a lot out of him. Especially the higher order creations. But Dava, knowing his weakness, already had a hot breakfast of eggs and some bacon and tomatoes ready for him, as well as a pot of tea and that helped to sustain him, as he prepared himself for the last.

  By then he knew that the women would soon be well protected. As well protected as he could make them. The lightning elementals would arrive with them within a few hours, the fire elementals might take a day, and the air elementals were subject to the whims of the winds, but shouldn’t be more than a few days at most. Finally it was time to protect themselves. For its surprising speed, incredible strength and sheer toughness, Alan had decided to go with the king of earth elementals, diamond, and a few fire elementals for back up. No lich could stand against such a force. He told that to Dava who simply nodded, and told him to eat.

  By the time the morning sun had risen almost half way to midday, half a dozen diamond elementals were prowling the lands around them like gigantic glass sculptures that moved, with the sunlight and the fire from the dozen fire elementals reflecting off them and through them in glorious rainbows of colour. Had he had the time and the inclination the diamonds would have been invisible as well, but he wasn’t sure that the undead would be affected by such a spell. They were as well protected as they could be, and despite Dava’s protests, he suggested that they be on their way. He might have to be tied into the saddle to keep from falling, but the sooner they got to their destination and released the sleepers, the happier he would be.

  It was strange, but as they set off on their journey once more, surrounded by their new defenders, Alan realized that he was looking forward to having neighbours. It wasn’t just the relative security that they offered in the dangerous times ahead, or the hope that they might soon defeat the undead and the necromancer both. It was the understanding that they were living, intelligent, caring people, who had a right and a need to live, and that as a druidic wizard as Dava called him, it was his duty to protect and help them. Just like the trees and the animals, the rivers and the very land under his feet, they would be a part of his forest.

  He didn’t tell Dava that though, suspecting that the ancient might not have seen things quite the same way.

  Chapter Seven.

  “What’s that?” Telor caught him by surprise with the question as he pointed to the sky behind him, and for a moment Alan thought he was making another strange and unfathomable point, something many of the ancients liked doing, especially when they thought he was saying something foolish, like pointing out that they’d been asleep for thousands of years. He wondered if he was going to have to explain everything about the war ahead with the necromancer and the undead all over again. These older ancients tended to ask all sorts of distracting questions as he was trying to explain things, and in the process made him repeat himself so many times it wasn’t funny. But then again he couldn’t exactly blame them when they’d only just woken up into a world five thous
and years removed from their own.

  The younger ones had their own vices, one of which was a complete lack of tact, and many chose to stare and whisper about him as if he was some sort of strange giant animal, forgetting the fact that he could hear every word. They had lived in a time when there had been no other mortal races, no humans, no dwarves, no elves and no dark elves, and there was little doubt that he was very different to them. The children of course, were less circumspect still, and many of them chose to poke and prod at him, just to make sure he was real. But he let them do so happily enough, pleased to see children among the ancients, although he was still trying to come to grips with the idea that they could be both children and thousands of years old. If nothing else it left him with the question of how to address them. Honoured Ancients just didn’t seem right somehow.

  Already this family had made him tell them everything twice as they waited for their carpet and their ride to New Huron as the new village was being called. They’d been told everything, but for some reason they simply didn’t seem to be able to take it in. And the children were busy calling him a giant and poking him repeatedly, as if he wouldn’t notice. But then Dava was having no better time of it with those he was guiding. None had expected to sleep for thousands of years, and as they were only just being awakened, it was understandable that they should have trouble taking everything in, and that they should turn their anger to the closest thing they had to an elder. There had been many arguments and much blaming over the previous days, and at least he didn’t have to bear that. It was then though that Alan realized that the man’s hand was pointing to the sky, and his eyes finally followed its direction.