by David Wells
“The night-wisp dust stores the light of the sun,” he said with a sense of wonder. “Nether wolves don’t much like sunlight, if I remember correctly.”
Alexander made his decision quickly. He sheathed his sword and ordered everyone to break camp and make ready to move. He and Jack kept their light held high, and they started moving through the night. In the shadows beyond the light, they heard growling, snarling, and snapping as they moved carefully through the forest. It was slow going but they managed to cover some distance even while maintaining vigilance against the creatures in the shadows. Every once in a while, they caught a glimpse of hateful yellow eyes peering at them from the dark.
They pressed on for the next two hours through the black of the forest. It was tense and terrifying. They took great pains to keep everyone well within the confines of the light. Alexander didn’t want to risk a wolf darting in and killing someone before the light could drive it off. When dawn started to show through the gaps in the forest, Alexander felt a great sense of relief. A moment before the sun broke over the horizon, the nether wolves howled in fury and frustration and then turned to inky black smoke as they fled the light of day.
When they stopped to eat a quick breakfast, Alexander and Anatoly tried to diffuse the fear and anxiety of the Rangers by telling the story of their first encounter with the nether wolves. Hearing how Alexander had killed two of the beasts in battle helped boost the Rangers’ confidence.
“Do you think Phane summoned these nether wolves to hunt you?” Lieutenant Wyatt asked.
Alexander shook his head. “No, I think these nether wolves live here. I think they’ve been here on this island for a very long time.”
“I would venture that they’ve been here since the Reishi War,” Lucky said.
“How could they live for so long?” asked one of the Rangers.
“They’re not alive,” Lucky answered. “Nether wolves are creatures from the netherworld. They have no life and therefore cannot be killed in the way we think of it. Their physical forms can be destroyed but that merely sends their essence back to the darkness.”
“How did they get here?” asked another Ranger.
Alexander sighed before answering. “I think they came through the Nether Gate, an ancient constructed magical gate created by Malachi Reishi that has the power to open a portal to the netherworld. I suspect the Nether Gate is somewhere on this island, and I’m hoping it’s closed.”
“Why would anyone want a gate to the netherworld?” asked another Ranger.
Alexander shrugged, “I have no idea, but I suspect Malachi Reishi thought he could use it to his advantage somehow.”
“What if it’s open?” asked a Ranger.
“I doubt that it is,” Alexander answered. “Otherwise this island would be overrun with creatures from the netherworld. More than anything else, the beings that inhabit the netherworld want to return to the world of the living. They can only manifest in physical form here and they crave the power of action that we take for granted.”
“I mean no disrespect, Lord Alexander,” said another Ranger, “but how could you know that?”
Alexander stared off into the distance for a moment, remembering the limitless darkness of the netherworld before answering.
“Because I’ve been there,” he whispered.
The camp fell silent. All eyes were on him with a mixture of fear and awe.
“There is no time or substance there, only darkness and unrealized potential. The beings that inhabit the netherworld can only wish and imagine what they want but they can never actually experience anything because there’s no form or substance there. The pent-up frustration and anguish of being denied their desires for all time leaves them broken and twisted, but mostly it fills them with unmitigated hatred for those who live in the world of time and substance—we can have everything they can only imagine but are forever denied.”
When they started moving again, there were quiet murmurings among the Rangers. They looked at Alexander with more deference and even a tinge of fear. He didn’t want them to fear him, but he wasn’t about to lie to them either. They deserved the truth, even if it was hard to hear.
Chapter 43
By midmorning they came to an open prairie of rolling hills covered with tall grass and sage brush. It stretched on for as far as they could see. They pushed on into the grass, traveling due west toward the center of the Reishi Isle and the Keep.
In some ways, Alexander was grateful for the open range; it made for easier and faster travel. But it also left them exposed. There was nowhere to hide. He suspected the wyvern riders hadn’t given up and he worried about an attack from the sky.
A few hours into the rangeland, they crested a rise and saw a herd of giant buffalo. The animals stood eight feet tall at the shoulder and easily weighed two thousand pounds each. Alexander stopped for a moment to marvel at the size of the creatures. He remembered herding cattle back on Valentine ranch and imagined what his father could do with a herd of creatures like these.
The buffalo were a good distance off and didn’t seem to be aggressive, although the males did have horns. It looked like they behaved very much like cattle. Alexander knew they could easily avoid any trouble with the herd if they gave them a wide berth and didn’t do anything to provoke a stampede.
They adjusted their course and stayed in low places in the rolling range to keep from being seen, on the off chance that these creatures behaved differently than every other type of herd animal Alexander knew of. Once they were well past the herd, they found a place of relative high ground and took a look behind them.
That’s when Alexander saw the gorledons. There were three of the unnatural creatures stalking around the edge of the herd. The buffalo were facing the giant predators and stamping and huffing at the threat. As much as Alexander wanted to watch the standoff to see if the buffalo could defend themselves against the gorledons, he also wanted to avoid being seen by them. Chances were good that the terrifying cross between a giant lizard and a gorilla would choose to hunt a small group of people rather than face an angry herd of buffalo.
They slipped away down the hill and Alexander quickly briefed his men about the gorledons. He told them about their soft underbellies and their bone-hard armor carapaces. He wanted them to know where to strike to do the most damage if they did have to fight the creatures.
They moved on, staying low to avoid being seen by anything that might want to eat them. The Reishi Isle was proving to be quite a bit more wild and dangerous than Alexander had imagined. He was wondering what else might be waiting, when a Ranger called out and pointed to the sky. Two wyverns flew over. His blood started to boil. The riders had taken his wife and sister. If they wanted a fight, he would be happy to oblige. He just hoped he could bring one of the riders down alive so he could get information about Isabel and Abigail.
The wyverns banked and lined up for an attack run.
“Fan out,” Alexander commanded. “Attack the first one in line with everything you’ve got.”
The Rangers nocked arrows. No one was within ten feet of another when the first wyvern made its pass. It didn’t attack with claws or tail but instead flew just twenty feet overhead. The rider picked Alexander out of the crowd and pointed her hand at him as she spoke a few words. A beam of bright, white-hot light struck him directly in the middle of the chest, scorching a hole through his tunic. The force of the blast knocked him over on his back, but his armor protected him from the heat of the spell.
The Rangers fired at just the right moment and the wyvern screamed in pain as nearly a dozen arrows tore into its chest and wings.
The next wyvern rider launched a javelin at Alexander as he lay stunned and dazzled on the ground.
His all around sight saved him. He could see the attack coming even though his eyes were blinded. He rolled to the side a moment before the javelin buried deep into the ground next to him. His armor probably would have saved his life, but the javelin would have broken his
ribs again and that was the last thing he wanted to endure at the moment.
The wyverns didn’t make a second pass. It looked like the first one was struggling to gain altitude with a wing torn through by several arrows. Instead they moved off toward the southwest, no doubt to report Alexander’s position and send reinforcements for another attack.
Anatoly offered Alexander his hand to help him up. He got to his feet and shook his head to clear away the stunned feeling. After a few moments of steadying himself by holding onto Anatoly’s shoulder, he started to get his vision and his balance back.
“I’m starting to get really tired of those things,” Anatoly growled.
Alexander nodded agreement. “I think maybe we need to pay them a visit. I’d like to see how well those riders would do on their own two feet against my sword.”
“Might take some thought to figure out how to get to that island fortress without being seen,” Anatoly mused.
“I think we should go take a look once we have the Stone,” Alexander said. “Isabel doesn’t have much time and I can’t stand the idea of leaving her and Abigail to the whim of those wyvern riders.”
Anatoly nodded, “Maybe a longboat at night could get us into that fortress. Getting out in one piece might be harder.”
“Not if they’re all dead by the time we leave,” Alexander said with an undercurrent of menace in his voice as he watched the two wyverns recede into the distance. He turned to the Rangers and said, “We have to pick up the pace. I don’t want to be caught out in the open when they come back in force.”
The rest of the day, they ran to the west as quickly as they could. It was exhausting but they covered a great distance. The range was far from empty of danger but most of the creatures were either herd animals or natural predators that wanted little to do with the group of men moving through their territory. A pride of lions trailed them for a while until Lieutenant Wyatt put an arrow into one that got too close. They even came across a herd of wild horses—beautiful animals but far too untamed to be of any use.
Toward late afternoon Alexander was relieved to see a wood line off in the distance. Once they were several hundred feet inside the cover of the thick brush and trees, Alexander ordered a halt. Everyone was tired and hurting. Lucky had lost a little weight over the past month and gained stamina, but he certainly wasn’t up to such a grueling pace. Everyone needed rest and food. It was early evening when they made camp. Dinner was served cold, but no one complained. They were all hungry and ate quickly. Once they’d eaten their fill, Alexander asked Chloe to stand guard and wake him if any threat came their way. They all went to sleep even though the sky was still light.
Alexander knew the nether wolves would howl at sundown. Everyone needed rest so they could move through the night. He knew it would be hard on them but he much preferred to stay ahead of the nether wolves rather than move in a tight cluster within the dubious protection of the night-wisp light.
He woke after four hours or so. Chloe was sitting cross-legged on his chest watching him sleep.
She smiled, “Did you rest well, My Love?”
Alexander was still tired and his muscles ached but the urgency he felt to get to the Reishi Keep overcame his physical discomfort. “Well enough. Thank you for watching over us, Little One. Was there any sign of the wyverns?”
“No. There were a few animals that wandered close to the camp but I scared them off.”
Alexander frowned in surprise. She was all of three inches tall and weighed maybe an ounce. “How did you do that?”
She smiled proudly and buzzed into a ball of scintillating white light for a moment before returning to her normal form. “Animals don’t like sudden bright light,” she said. “It startles them and they run away.”
Alexander nodded and sat up, smiling at her. She was beautiful and vibrant and full of life. In spite of her tiny size, she was larger than life in many ways. More than anything, he had learned the power of love without condition from her. She gave of herself freely and without limit, never thinking of what was in it for her or even entertaining the thought of love as currency in a bargain. She had sustained him since Isabel and Abigail were taken. Without her, he didn’t know if he would have had the strength to go on.
In the distance, the peace of the early evening was shattered by the otherworldly howl of nether wolves. The few Rangers who were still sleeping sat bolt upright and immediately started packing up their bedrolls. It was clear that no one wanted to face the beasts again. In the gloom of the forest under a darkening sky, they set out. Alexander and Jack tied their vials of night-wisp dust to sticks so they could use them like magical torches casting light out as far as possible. They made reasonably good time for several hours through the dense underbrush. Every now and then they could hear large creatures off in the trees but nothing tried to confront them.
An hour or so before dawn, they heard the howl of the nether wolves tear through the night. The dark beasts were close and gaining on them. The men clustered together within the confines of the night-wisp light and continued to move through the forest but more slowly and cautiously.
A Ranger called out when he saw the first gleam of a nether wolf’s faintly glowing yellow eyes in the darkness. They stopped and faced the beasts as they snarled and snapped in frustrated rage. For the rest of the night, they moved through the forest slowly in a huddled mass with the sounds of the nether wolves in the shadows. By the time dawn came, they were exhausted and the fear was so palpable that Alexander could almost smell it in the air. When the nether wolves went to ground to avoid the sunlight, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Alexander considered challenging the monsters. He knew he could kill one or two, but there were five, and he was pretty sure it would cost the lives of a few Rangers if they stood and fought. They were more of a nuisance than a hindrance to his ultimate goal, so he chose to simply avoid them. They moved on from the place where the dark auras of the nether wolves stained the forest floor and then made camp. The night and the previous day of running had taken its toll on everyone and they were badly in need of rest. After a cold breakfast, they slept until noon under the cover of the forest canopy. Lieutenant Wyatt assigned his Rangers to very brief stints at guard duty to allow everyone to get as much sleep as possible.
After a quick lunch, they moved out again. Alexander knew they had to be getting close to the Keep and he wanted to get there before nightfall. At least the Keep might afford some protection from the nether wolves and maybe even give them the opportunity to trap the creatures within it so they could avoid a fight altogether. Otherwise, they would be dealing with them all the way back to the coast.
After a couple of hours, they came to the edge of the forest and approached the wood line cautiously. The Keep was about a league away on top of a gently sloping hill. Grassland stretched away in all directions from the ominous-looking structure, providing a clear field of view for miles. The Keep itself was black and awe-inspiring with scores of towers, battlements, turrets, bridges, and buildings within.
Once, it housed tens of thousands of people, but now it was dark and foreboding. Scorch marks were etched into several towers and a few of the ancient spires were shattered, leaving nothing but ragged and broken edges reaching into the sky.
At its height, it would have been a magnificent thing to behold with gold leaf glinting from the conical roof caps atop many of the towers and brightly colored pinions flying in the wind over the enormous castle. While it had the look of a traditional keep, it was clearly not built or positioned to withstand any form of normal siege. There was no moat protecting the perimeter and there were no catapults or ballistae on the battlements, but then the Reishi Keep would have housed hundreds of wizards, so such mundane forms of weapons were unnecessary.
Even more than the Keep, the dozens of wyverns orbiting over it caught Alexander’s eye. They were clearly aware of his destination and they meant to stop him. He wondered for a moment at their motives. For centuries the
y had guarded this island, ensuring that no ship made landfall. Now they were out in force to prevent him from reaching the Keep.
The thought that Isabel or Abigail had been tortured to extract his destination made him sick to his stomach. He ruthlessly pushed the unspeakable horror of those thoughts aside and focused on the dilemma before him.
In the light of day, they would never make it the three miles up the gently sloping hill to the Keep, yet if they waited for the cover of night, they would have the nether wolves to deal with. They could keep the nether wolves at bay with the night-wisp dust, but that would reveal their location to the wyvern riders. Alexander motioned for the Rangers to withdraw under the thick forest canopy so they could discuss their options.
Chapter 44
The big wyvern rider unbound Isabel’s hands and shoved her roughly into a cell. She stumbled and fell to the cold floor as the door slammed shut behind her. When she removed her blindfold, she found she was locked in a small stone room just eight feet square.
One small window a foot in diameter looked out over the ocean. It was a hole cut through four feet of stone and barred with three stout steel rods. There was a pallet on the floor with a single blanket. There was also a bucket full of water and an empty bucket that looked unclean and smelled foul.
The door to the room was made of oak bound with heavy steel and had a small window with a cross grate. A metal plate in the middle looked like it could be opened from the outside to push food or water through to the prisoner within.
Isabel sat heavily on the pallet and put her head in her hands. The journey had been painful and frightening. The wyvern held her so tightly during the flight that she found it hard to breathe. A few times she felt like she was going to lose consciousness. The moment the wyvern had deposited her on the stone deck, she was seized by two big men wearing the same armor as the wyvern riders. They roughly bound her wrists behind her back and blindfolded her before half guiding, half dragging her to the cell she now found herself in.
