The Secret of Azuron (The Sword Empire Book 1)

by J. R. Kearney

  "A Lich may appear fragile my barbarian friend, but weapons were of little use to his downfall, and they are immune to any disease or poison or fatigue that affect the living. His one weakness was his phylactery, for without it his power was useless, and in the end its destruction was coequal to Khasta Stuhl's undead form. Though the Empire destroyed the overlord and his army, it came at the loss to a thousand of their own. It was a shameful war, and the damage was beyond repair. The Empire deemed the casualties too great to purge from the mountain, so it was abandoned, and the death of those within were simply forgotten."

  "How can men act so cruelly?" Lyeanna could not fathom, and no man argued her opinion.

  "We've met no resistance so far," Stryka said in hope. "There is every chance we may go unnoticed."

  "We can only hope," said Vhalen. "This passage has remained dormant for all this time. It has festered with the evil of the Lich king for too long. We should not be so quick to dismiss caution from its tainted turf."

  Lyeanna idled beside the wizard, her attentive ears poised in the whispering darkness, for her eyes could discern little.

  "Do you not think the Lich king fully destroyed?" she said.

  "The Stronghold exists at the end of this path. We will know our fortune once we arrive there, for there is no way around," his tone exuded no optimism.

  Landau didn't feel all that eager to find out, and stared up at Jema who remained silent to comment. Perhaps he knew the tale already, though darker things stirred on his mind, and a constant need to look over his shoulder toward Stryka.

  Three days passed it seemed, though Landau was quick to lose track. Among the uncertainty of the danger their road presented, the length of it also remained unknown. Their shoulders ached from lumbering gear whilst Vhalen grew fatigued in the effort to maintain his light. Only Halwende had the sense in the midst of Bruna's carnage to gather their rations, yet with Stryka among them their portions were slight, enough to give them strength to continue.

  They proceeded through another corridor, forged by the mountain it stretched for miles, until upon an expanse of sparkling light they appeared. Beneath them a canyon of stalactites and stalagmites towered like mountain columns, and upon the ceiling a throng of glittering glowworms twinkled like starlight, their silken strands adorned the canopy, and bore a faint light across the gorge. Their path wound down to the floor, where it suddenly disappeared, faded into the earth. The road to them was lost.

  "Where do we go now I wonder?" Vhalen pondered, blaring his staff across the mountain terrain, but the scope of the room reached long, and the towers of drip stone cast long shadows to hinder his view.

  "This place must reach for miles in each direction," said Halwende.

  "Ye'll find more dwarves swimmin' the oceans than the fortune we find in our journey," Brom groaned.

  Jema scouted the canyon as if a road sign would present itself.

  "It could take us days to find the path through this jungle," he said.

  "Even the right path," Stryka added. "Who knows how many corridors stem from this place. We could find ourselves lost in here quickly."

  Jema took no irk in his statement, indeed it was naive to assume one path derived from this labyrinth of stone.

  "The path would be obvious I feel. In the early days there would have been braziers that lit the way," said Vhalen. "There would be evidence here somewhere to guide us, or the Imperials be ignorant."

  Where they stood suggested very little interaction of man was present.

  "Where should we start?" uttered Samson, though none chanced their luck to know the answer.

  Vhalen peered at the glowworms up high, dimming the light of his staff to witness their deep blue glow that scattered the canyon from their glistening bodies.

  "We have not the resources to chance ourselves through the depths of this place," Vhalen surmised. "We will need to split up in pairs to discover the path more quickly."

  "I would not think it wise friend," Jema said. "The chance for us to be separated is too great."

  "You said yourself this could take days, and I agree. Alas I sense no danger here other than the darkness, the faint light of these worms will suffice but we shall each bear a torch. These stones too - " Vhalen kicked the loose gravel beneath his shoes, "each group will take a sack full of these to trail their path, that way if we do find something we can manage our way back."

  "And what of Landau?" Jema asked.

  "He will stay here with Sam. Lyeanna I would ask you to accompany him as well, for if danger lurks here your eyes and arrow will be most useful."

  The amazon agreed, before Stryka smashed his tattered wheel into wooden debris, the spokes they would use as torches, the rest of the wood they used to start a fire for Landau to take warmth, and act as a beacon for their return. Their packs were emptied and filled with as many stones as they could shoulder, each took a short rest and a generous meal before their arduous trek.

  "How will we know if the others have found the road?" said Stryka for them to consider.

  "Travel as far as your torchlight can take you. We will have to make use of the glowworms light to return, or else take a spare piece of cloth for your torch if you can spare it. We will meet back here in less than a few hours at most," said Vhalen. "Raminus will accompany me as we search the western walls," throwing him the arduous pack of stones.

  "Must I constantly be ensnared in your company?"

  "I fear others cannot bear your suffering as well as I."

  "I will go with Halwende, take the eastern road" Jema offered, diligent on separating himself from Stryka, who was left in the company of his barbarian opposite.

  "Brom and Stryka you search the northern fringes," Vhalen concluded, before the three pairs went their separate ways, leaving Landau and Sam in Lyeanna's company.

  Brom stared down at his mercenary companion, who he hardly regarded in their time within the mountain.

  "I s’pose I'd prefer ye to the Amazon," was all the welcome he gave.

  Stryka watched him heave the giant sack of stones with ease that he nor Lyeanna could carry so readily.

  "No argument here."

  Landau peered out across the canyon, an hour had passed and his company was lost to the maze of stalagmites that littered the ground. Sam grew disheartened that any task presented to the fellowship resulted in him staying behind to look after him, alas his company was less awkward than Lyeanna's, poised upon the rocks above to scout for the others return. It was the only time since Bruna that he found himself in the absence of his companions, and his thoughts weighed heavy on their new recruit.

  "Jema doesn't seem too happy with that mercenary," he said to Sam. "Do you know him?"

  "The name’s not familiar, I know Jema is weighing his trust in having him here, certainly around the sword. You must admit it's suspicious to find him in Bruna, after seeing him in Merchant's Wall. Mercenaries work for coin much like Hal, but not in the same dignified manner you could say, could've been paid to take the sword for all we know."

  "If it wasn't for him those bandits might've had my neck," Landau defended him. "I agree there's something foul about him, yet strangely familiar."

  "I've never known anyone to rile Jema so much is all I'm saying. I feel uncomfortable 'round him, once we're gone from here I'll be glad to be free of him, him and that assassin fellow."

  In the ambience of the blue canyon Landau welcomed the smell of burning timber, for the stale smell of the mountain sickened him. Another hour drew on and Sam took rest while it was quiet. Landau sat alone by the fire, while Lyeanna continued to perch against the rocks above. He desired to know her, but hesitated to bother her, for he feared her loathing of men was not limited to children.

  From behind him she coughed and abruptly so, Landau sifted through the pile of supplies scattered on the ground to find Sam's canteen, then ran to her side.

  "Here," he offered, Lyeanna was thankful if not surprised. "Do you see them yet?"

  "Not
for a while now," she said. "Though you shouldn't worry. Vhalen allowed them more time than has passed."

  Landau nodded, and felt compelled to leave, but instead conjured some bravery.

  "Do you mind if I sit with you for a while?" he asked shyly, to which Lyeanna gave an awkward stare.

  "Sure," she said, though he was perplexed to offer further conversation.

  Landau respected her strength, and among a company of brutes she maintained a sense of identity, but behind her bow and troubled brow she appeared a normal woman, yet so far removed from those back home.

  "It must be hard."

  "What?" she frowned.

  "Being stuck under this mountain. Vhalen tells me you live in the forest, must be hard to be in a place so…foreign I guess."

  Lyeanna paused to answer, for his question was considerate.

  "I must admit I grow restless. It is not something I have experienced, and for such a length of time. We are women of routine Landau, to be without it is much to get used to."

  "Why did you come with us, if you don't mind me asking?"

  "It is a favor to the Queen, she saved our people many years ago and we are forever in her debt. It is a great privilege that I am tasked to requite her services, she and the Amazon are not so different, her regard for our traditions is honorable. I must bear this discomfort, regardless of its company and where it leads me." Landau understood, though knew little of her people's customs.

  "Thank you," he said, "I don't know if the others said it, but I'm grateful to have you here." It was the closest to a smile he had seen on her.

  "That pendant, around your neck, what does it mean?" he asked.

  Lyeanna pulled free the pendant from her bosom, etched in its silver was the symbol of a tree within a full moon.

  "It would be hard for you to understand Landau, perhaps a fable in your eyes, but the moon is very sacred to us. It is the huntress light, the spirit and purity of our ancestors lies within it, and illuminates our path, and shapes the stars to guide us when we are lost. Silver is our most reflective surface, and the moon's reflection from this pendant brings us blessings from those we have lost."

  "That's beautiful," Landau said in honesty. "So all the women have one?"

  "Yes, once we leave maidenhood it is our gift among other things. Yet here in the mountain I am without their gaze. I can only rely on Vhalen to guide us the way."

  "You seem to respect Vhalen…for a man I mean."

  "Vhalen is respected for his arcane abilities, it is perhaps an Amazon's one weakness that we cannot wield such magic, for we are unmatched in armed combat."

  Landau couldn't tell if she spoke in jest, but it appeared she didn't.

  Sam beneath them suddenly awoke, startled and distressed that Landau was absent before he found him beside the amazon. Landau was humored in his reaction.

  "You should join your friend," Lyeanna suggested. "It is best I keep my focus on our company's return."

  "What if they don't return?" he offered the scenario, and such a thought bore her much concern.

  All three groups wandered a twisted path through the stone forest, their task was to find the wall and then travel it along to an opening, though finding the fringes of the canyon proved exhausting. Jema and Halwende were not optimistic, for the east brought many tight paths and sharp crags that were barely suitable to be labeled a path. Still a path existed, yet they refrained from dropping stones to trail them, for the ground was littered with them, and instead they shuffled a clear line between them with their boots.

  In the north Brom carried the pack of stones whilst Stryka led with his torch, their path was wider, though as an hour passed it descended further downward, and seemed an improbable road. It was hard to know how high in the mountain they were, for they had been constantly climbing.

  In the west Vhalen found fortune in braziers that had been scattered among the crumbling stone, yet further in many had been buried, lost in the rubble of the mountain floor. Their pace was slow for Raminus lagged, still he dropped their stones to leave a trail, for even he was not intent on being trapped beneath the mountain.

  "Hurry on Raminus."

  "You are welcome to help me old man," he replied in a hidden pant. "Do not suggest your magic can't help alleviate some of this weight."

  "Magic is not whatever the imagination wills it to be," said Vhalen. "If that were true I would carve a hole in the very mountain wall and be done with it."

  "But your pointless quest would still endeavor. Mine would be done with and not soon enough. If we leave this mountain it will be in Asmaria and our deal fulfilled, regardless of how we get there."

  "I know you are aware of our purpose here Raminus. Despite all that you have learned do you still think only of yourself? Would you walk away from this, knowing its fate if it fails?"

  "Yes wizard, and gladly so," he said. "I'm not entertained in this false hope you have of that boy. You seem to think that just by getting him to his destination safely that all will fall into place thereon out. I have no knowledge of what this Ancient looks like wizard, but I wager he is more intimidating than a fisherman's child, and if he could laugh he would do so, for your arrogance will only bring him his prize."

  "You of all people should not criticize people on their arrogance. As long as Landau remains safe there is still a chance, and I will not shower doubt upon his already troubled path."

  The light of his staff pressed forward and in its glow revealed shadows of a peculiar structure, Vhalen moved closer to make clearer his discovery, and his smile was of relief.

  "Speaking of paths," he spoke to Raminus, who looked upon a large, square archway, guarded by two stone warrior dwarves chiseled into the mountain. Even in the dank must of the cave their presence withheld a prestige, though the corridor within was black as the darkness could manifest.

  "Come," said Vhalen, "we must return to our company."

  "How can you know this is the way?"

  "It was the dwarves who forged a path through this mountain, not man. It appears the most likely, though we will find out what the others have discovered."

  Landau sat idle by the fire when he noticed Lyeanna rise to her feet to observe Jema and Halwende return from their venture, their faces revealed no luck in their task.

  "I hope the others find greater fortune," said Jema. "This place could take days to canvas, even without sleep. I suggest when the others get back we head out together on the same road, wherever it may lead us."

  "It is hardly hope," Lyeanna worried.

  "As is much of our journey. Let us be thankful we have at least avoided danger."

  In the north Brommac had all but emptied his pack, their stone trail had ended, yet the walls of the north revealed no such corridor once walked by man, only pockets and tunnels penetrated the mountain surface, and in their shadow Stryka's torch found little light.

  "Well that's that then," Brom stated, shaking his pack void of anymore stones. "Even dwarves would find no comfort walkin’ these tunnels."

  Stryka's torch flickered in its dying gasp before it extinguished, and the ominous glitter of the glowworms shone upon their stone trail. He kicked the loose rocks beneath him in frustration, and their echo in the silence was chilling.

  "Is there no end to this accursed mountain," he vented.

  "We be fools to argue with it," said Brom. "Let's head back, hope that the others find more fortune."

  Suddenly the sound of wind charged from behind them, yet no breeze disturbed their skin, louder it grew until it became silent, and the pair stood alert to what stirred in the tunnels. Above them the light of the glowworms faded like a tide of darkness from one end to the other, and only their silken strands gave a vague glow that barely reached to the floor, before the wind picked up once more, and the tunnels themselves took a deep inhale as if to scream.

  Out of them charged a swarm of bats, their leathery wings pounded in a heavy chorus, and the pair plunged to the ground to escape their voluminous char
ge. Relentless they swooped, their silhouettes fluttered across the silken canopy to feed on the glowworms. Stryka and Brommac walked in a crouch back along the stone trail, as larvae carcasses from above spattered around them.

  The fellowship soon heard the thunderous thrashing of the bats, and like a wave through the stone jungle they crashed towards them. Jema grabbed Landau to safeguard him while the others took cover. The force of their surge wrestled with their fire, and the harshness of its flame brought a shrilling cry from any who flew near. The bombardment persisted and Landau cowered, despite Jema's assurances it was frightening indeed. Their numbers were plenty and soon riddled the canyon, all of them roamed towards the canopy to make their meal, before Vhalen's light emerged from the distance to join them.

  "Where did they come from?" shouted Jema to Vhalen.

  "It was not from us, but we found the path. Quickly, gather the supplies so we can head out. Is everyone back?"

  "No," Jema scowled, and it was evident who remained.

  Despite the fury of their winged harriers Stryka and Brom walked back along their stone trail. Carefully they tread so not to kick the stones, for the light of the glowworms had faded, and their path was almost unseen. The bats twitched among the silken ceiling and Stryka noticed Brommac jerk and fret in their resonant presence.

  "You're not afraid of bats are you?" Stryka asked.

  "Our men have battled mammoth and dragon," he said with another jolting shudder, "yet these creatures unsettle me so. I do not like an enemy that can't stand before me to be killed."

  They remained low, a rogue bat swooped upon them, and Brom lost his footing. "Curse these demon vermin," he said lying on his back before Stryka reached his hand to pull him up.

  "Don't tell the woman."

  "Come on. I cannot suffer this darkness for long, and I won't trust that Jema hasn't deserted me entirely," said Stryka.

  Brom returned to his feet when there came a strange noise, a hissing sound that reverberated through the canyon; the bats scurried in a flurry of panic and abandoned their feast to escape to any cleft or cavity they could find. The rasping echo tainted Landau's ears, his skin white in his breathless stance.