A Frozen Destiny

by Alan Mundle

  'Forin, help me, stop that thing, please!'

  But Forin said nothing and turned to follow the Griftin. The creature squawked to the boy. Forin raced to the door and raised both arms towards it. The ice around the door blew away instantly, taking the massive door with it. Subzero air filled the entrance corridor. The creature and the Griftin walked out into the open air. Torbin struggled. Whatever Forin had done, he had made sure he was unable to go anywhere. There was only one way to follow them. He risked exposure to his people, but he had no choice. With difficulty, he reached over with both hands to unclasp a seal in his armour. A moment later, the emergency mechanism in his armour activated and he burst out of his chest and leg plates onto the frozen ground. Torbin should have been frozen solid on impact with the air, but he remained active. He realised he had nothing more to lose by taking his helmet off too. When the wind hit his face, he was overwhelmed for a moment as to how it all felt completely natural.

  But he got his focus back and ran outside in pursuit. The light of the sun blinded him for a moment without a visor filter to help him. Once his eyes had focused, he found his quarry and, to his great relief, he saw them meeting trouble. The guards in the towers had got their messages. The weapons they fired were similar to

  those used by the First. But much bigger. On huge platforms, the massive constructs swivelled to aim at the Griftin by guards sat in seats mounted on top of the new weapons themselves, controlling them with leavers and holding the target in their sights. The deafening sound that they made when fired was intense but effective. The Griftin had spread its wings wide to take off, but the guards scored some direct hits, keeping the creature from leaving the ground with Forin. After it fell and hit the ice for a second time, the new weapons fired harpoons with large wide nets attached to them. Their speed was incredible. They enveloped both the young Dwarf and the creature, pinning them to the ice. Torbin used the only useful parts of his armour left, his gauntlets and brought his blades to bear, running to close the gap between him and his target Ice had formed on the parts of his head that were wet with sweat. Torbin didn't feel a thing. Just as he caught up with his targets, the net exploded into pieces, knocking Torbin off guard. Forin stood up from the debris. Barely aware of his leader, the young Dwarf pulsated with energy again, this time raising his body off the ground, high into the air. All the Dwarves on the towers and the bridges in-between stopped what they were doing, all in shock of the spectacle that was being performed before them.

  Forin stopped a hundred meters from the ground. After a few seconds, two great arks of energy shot from Forin's arms in opposite directions towards the towers and their walls. They shook violently, Dwarves falling off them on either side. Then the whole prison structure began to sink. The walls, the towers, all were slowly falling into the snow and ice. Dwarves from the battlements and towers screamed as they all plummeted down from their great heights to be swallowed up forever.

  Torbin couldn't believe what was happening. His best friend, the innocent, kind and simple boy was using Magic, levelling the facility, killing fellow Dwarves to aid a creature he didn't even believe existed weeks ago. 'Forin! Forin you have to stop! You're going to kill us all!'

  But he didn't stop. He made it worse. He sent another ark of energy down to the Griftin. The creature glowed with power, freeing itself from the remaining nets, its body now full of colour. It took off from the ground, intercepted Forin in midair and flew away into the sky.

  'NO!'

  Torbin turned round to see Regent Canara close behind, looking up into the distant sky, her gauntlets clutching her helmet in disbelief in what had happened. She then spun around and looked at Torbin. She eyed him from head to toe, taking in this impossible vision of a Dwarf standing outside in the extreme cold without armour. Then she pointed a projectile weapon at him.

  'You helped the thing escape!'

  'You're mad, I never wanted-'

  'You've been in league with the thing since you found it, you have its Magic running through you even now, protecting you from the cold and death! But I swear by the Great Rock and all the Gods, no amount of Magic will protect you from me now!'

  'We don't have time for this, Regent! We have to help those who survived inside and alert the Empire-'

  'Shut your foul mouth! You do not get to speak the name of our sacred and divine power. We could have contained this. We could have sent the thing back to whatever dark filth it came from. Now we have it flying away, probably to bring reinforcements to attack all of our good kin. We are now at war!' Torbin knew her every word was

  the truth. He had endangered everyone. But not knowingly. 'If we work together, we can stop all of this before we lose more Dwarves-'

  'The Empire will stop that thing, but not before I end you right here, demon! May your soul be lost forever in the Void!'

  She brought her weapon to bare at his head and fired. But the shot flew into the air. A blade had penetrated her armour from behind, sending her arms and weapon flying. The bloody weapon withdrew, and the Regent's body fell to the ground. Revealing Soraba behind her.

  Torbin's joy was unimaginable. But it quickly disappeared as his love fell to her knees. The Warrior's axe dropped from her hand, and Torbin saw the other pressing against the front of her armour, blood leaking through the fingers. Torbin ran beside her before the guard's head hit the snow. He started to drag her toward the facility entrance when her weak voice sounded.

  'Stop…'

  'I have to get you inside, you're going to be ok!'

  'Stop Torbin! By the Gods… please stop!' Torbin stopped pulling and settled her to the ground, realising that the injuries had become too great for her to be moved. Torbin knelt beside Soraba to hear her speak. 'Listen to me, love. You have to run. Get out of here, across the bridge before they close it.'

  Blood gushed from her wound as the Warrior went into a coughing fit. Her gauntlet fell off the front of her breastplate, and the blood from her chest began to flow freely before freezing in seconds. The blow had been hard and true, leaving a huge wound her attacker made for the kill. Torbin covered it with his own hands, trying to put all his weight behind them.

  'I'm not leaving you here. I can still save you!'

  'You already saved me. You took this shallow, good for nothing Dwarf and gave her everything. All my life, I have never known love until you. I have everything cause you gave it to me. My soul may not find the Great Rock, but I don't care.'

  'Please, Soraba, stop. You can't leave me here alone… you have to let me help you…'

  'No time. My soul is leaving me, and you have to go. Go back to the world. Save our people, your family. Don't let that vile thing w-'

  But Soraba gave out her last breath. Her eyes unfocused and her head fell back, her last sight that of the open sky. Nothing but the sound of the wind could be heard. Torbin wanted to die. He simply couldn't go on. He laid down beside her, the only thing in his mind the desire for whatever kept him from freezing would stop.

  'We were going to get out of here. With all the gold we could want. Glory beyond measure. We were going to find a husband to let us be together. I'm sure many would have lined up for the job when the world figured out what we'd done. We were going to establish a new House, Dwarves flocking to our side for work, to bring good deeds and honour to our names. Nothing or no one would touch us…'

  Torbin heard running in the distance. He got up and took the axe Soraba used to slay Canara and put it to his own throat.

  'TORBIN STOP!'

  Dalara had run up to Torbin.

  'Soraba's gone. I failed her. I failed everyone. My love, the team, my family, my best friend... my people. There is nothing. No reason to stay. Maybe I'll find her again in the Void.'

  Torbin made to slice his throat when Dalara kicked the weapon out of his grasp. She grabbed him with her gauntlets by the scruff of his neck and made him look at her. 'Listen to me. I deceived you when I came here, I won't deny it. But I was wrong. I understand why the Firs
t changed their allegiance to you, I know it now. You are more than anyone thought. You are blessed by Sapphire and can do anything. We were both wrong about the Griftin, which means it's our job to put things right. You can do it, Torbin. You can save us all. I believe in you! Soraba would not want this-'

  A fury exploded in Torbin. He swept her legs from under her, picked up the axe and held it to her throat. He wanted to end her, the filth that had betrayed him, his team. But he looked to the body of his love beside her. He couldn't do it. She was right, he had to run. And he needed Dalara’s help. 'If I get even a whiff of betrayal from you again, there won't be enough of you left for even the Gods to find. DO YOU HEAR ME?'

  'Yes... I obey.'

  And so they set their course. Torbin covered Soraba with snow, knowing no one but he would find the body. He burned its location and his last words before his love into his mind, vowing that he would return, take her body back to the land and help her to find the way Home.

  Torbin finally found it within himself to walk away. While he was saying his goodbyes, Dalara had been busy stripping the gold armour of Canara. Torbin felt nothing. If stripping and wearing the armour of a First Warrior was a great crime, then taking that of a Regent was unfathomable, but he still didn't care. After what she had done, Canara could rot in the Void forever, and it still wouldn't be enough for him. Carrying the armour, they ran, knowing they had spent too much time arguing and hiding Soraba. They made for the train station. Dalara's passcodes would still work on the guards posted on the mainland side of the station. On approach, they saw black warriors and prison guards dead at the gates and all over the platform. Torbin thought they must have all fallen from the walls when the whole building shook. He thought that if the train station had survived that someone would have found refuge somewhere. But there was no one. He was more surprised that the station itself had survived. But in the end, it didn't matter.

  They boarded the train and headed to the front. Dalara took point with her sword drawn, expecting resistance. No one. They accessed the driver car, and both sat down at the controls. Torbin had driven land vehicles on the land and the crawler in the prison. It took a little time to figure out the basics, but they were soon on their way. They pulled out of the platform and found themselves propelled forward at high speed on the track, leaving all sight of the frozen landscape behind with nothing but the vast ocean before them.

  Neither one spoke during the journey. Torbin caught a brief sight of the facility that was home for so long in a mirror at the side of the car viewport. His work, his friends... his love. All gone. His family were probably all sitting in a dark cell in the Imperial City, and he didn't have a clue how he could help them, let alone where he was going to go when he got back to the land. But he had a vow to keep. Returning for Soraba meant finding a way to save his kind. He would find a way. As he watched the tracks hurtle beneath them, Torbin heard a noise in the back car, but he didn't care what Dalara was doing. He suddenly heard what sounded like a crash. He was about to get up from his seat when he heard the cabin door open.

  'What in Sapphire's name are you doing back…'

  A sword pressed against his neck. At the corner of his eye, he knew it was Dalaras. He couldn't believe she would kill him after what they had just gone through together. But the voice that followed was not hers.

  'Keep this metal heap moving scum and maybe, just maybe, you'll see the land.' Torbin didn't need to know the voice to tell who it was. How could he have been so stupid? he thought. He had completely forgotten! Of all the Dwarves to survive, Treygen now had him in his grasp.

  'What have you done with-'

  'I said, just drive!'

  Torbin felt the blade cut into his throat. It wasn't enough to kill him, just to make him understand that his captor wasn't fooling around. So he sat there and worked the controls, watching the mainland in the far distance getting bigger. Dalara could very well be dead, but there was nothing he could do. His fate was in the hands of the Gods. But after all that he had done, he couldn't help but think one thing. They don't care.

  EPILOGUE

  Empress Darina clutched the sword that had been presented to her. She ran her fingers down the flat of the blade while holding onto the hilt. Though it had seen many battles, there was no mistaking it from the well crafted engravings that flowed to the tip. This was Canara's sword. A Warrior's weapon, especially that of a Regent would not be discarded. Darina knew that her right hand was dead. Reports had reached her that three Dwarfs, two males and a female, returned to the mainland in the train from Void Prison. A gold plated female claimed to be her lost Regent, accompanied by her only surviving Warriors.

  'Where are they now?'

  The Empress's words sounded throughout her throne room. The heads of every Lord and Noble looked up at her. The fear was palpable. Though much loved by her people, all knew that any wrongdoing would met by their leader with swift retribution. But a disaster on this scale made everyone else in the room wish they had very different lives.

  It was Lord Zentin who spoke. 'Greatest Empress, they took Regent Canara's Imperial land craft and headed closer into the mainland, as the reports from the Station Master state. All of them believed it was the Regent and had no reason to stop her or her followers.'

  That wasn't Canara, she thought. The fact that she held her sword was proof of it. There were either two possibilities. The first is that a female guard had taken Canara's armour and fled in the hope of finding some hole to hide in that the Empire could not find. But she knew the second scenario was the most likely. Only Canara's Second, Dalara, could have had any hope of really passing herself as a Regent and would have been able to access the land vehicle and operate it. As for the mysterious Warriors, she knew in her heart that one of them was Commander Torbin. Reports of the Scholar's death had reached the city days before the mainland station reported the disturbance at the prison. It was said that when the report of the Scholar’s death had made its way to Lord Castin's House and that the First Father, Rafarin, had fallen very ill upon hearing the news, unable to stand or even speak with others, even members of his own family. Darina still couldn't comprehend the magnitude of what happened after she had sent word to Castin to deliver the family to the palace. An incursion into the Imperial courtyard and the theft of two Noble families was nothing short of a declaration of war. Darina was going to officially pardoned of any wrongdoing on Torbin's part and allow his family to return to BlueStone City, their honour and wealth returned and would receive the Empire's support while the Empress's best Smiths rebuilt their home.

  But not now. Had she managed to intercept the party before they were stolen, she would have immediately ordered them all thrown in the blackest, deepest cell in the dungeons until Torbin could join them and nothing would prevent her from making them all a public display of what happens to those who would dare defy her. She did not believe that those mysterious criminals happened upon Castin and the rest by accident. One of them had to be in communication with the enemy. But for now, she needed to know more. She had issued a decree, no one was allowed in or out of the capital. When news of the crisis had started, everyone and everything had been stopped. It was temporary at best, but there was little more she could do. One of the criminals had been captured by Zentin, along with the body of one of the strange Dwarves that had come to steal Castin and the family. She could only hope the young Warrior would provide some answers before there was nothing left him.

  She scanned the whole host of Lords before her. In front of her were the family members Castin that left behind. If Castin was the guilty party, the Lord had put his own position and family on the line for the sake for strangers. If his House were not one of the wealthiest in the world, she would have dealt with them in a heartbeat. She ordered them detained. They would keep for now, other matters demanded her attention.

  Darina handed the weapon to one of her other Regents beside her before turning her sharp gaze back to Zentin. 'There were no other survivors fr
om the prison?'

  'Not one, your Greatness. We searched and dug our way through all that was left of the prison. Not a soul was left alive.'

  Zentin's voice was strained, and his face was ashen. This did not go unnoticed by Darina. 'You have Our sympathy, Lord Zentin. Your son will be avenged. On this, We promise you.'

  Zentin bowed and walked back towards the other Lords. Darina sat in silence for a moment, considering her options. Finally, she stood from her throne. 'Regents, Lords and good people of Mordabinn, hear Us. A great tragedy has befallen our brothers and sisters. Our attempt to tame the frozen wasteland to our needs has resulted in the loss of good Dwarven souls of every kind, both common and Noble. We wish e had time to lament their deaths and pray that they somehow find their way back to the Great Rock, but this is not the time. Out of this tragedy, a greater horror that has plagued our thoughts over these many thousands of years has finally come back to haunt us.' Even Darina had to brace herself for what she was about to say. 'A sole member of one of the lost races has returned to the world. A Griftin.'

  The whole room roared with shouts murmurs and whispers. The Empress looked to her battalion of the First, who quickly drew their swords to halfway from their sheaths. Their collective sound resonated throughout the Imperial throne room, bringing complete silence. 'We understand your feelings,' Darina continued. 'Of all the races feared to return, theirs is the most troublesome. We will find those responsible, but Our biggest concern is the protection of the Four Nations. Alerts must be sent to every city, town and village across the world that security must be increased and communication stations protected. Only by standing together and can we hope to defeat this creature. The destruction of Void Prison shows it has hostile intentions. We will not stand by and let centuries of prosperity fall. So we will fight, we will hunt down the beast and send it back to the Void it came from! The Great Rock and the Gods, hear our prayer!'