Darkness Falls (Tales of the Wolf)

by A. E. McCullough

  Which, after all, was all part of Kralm’s plan.

  * * * * *

  Nilrem stood right beside his adopted daughter with his axe in his hand and waited. If this crazy plan went bad, he wanted to be close at hand to protect her. Not that she truly needed protection. After all, Amani was a Highlander and that meant she was first and foremost a warrior.

  They had located one of the Hok’ee wandering the lands near the ruins of Sitkya. Hok’ee meant ‘the Abandoned’ in their ancient language. The armies of the Dark Alliance had burned the former village to the ground but Gymir Greybear had claimed the area as his own. Gymir was a young warrior of the bear tribe that had gained a reputation as a solid warrior with a stout heart and level head. However, that was before he became stuck in his hybrid bear form. Now, he was a beast that only knew two things; it was hungry or it was tired. That was about it. The human mindset was completely subservient to the feral mind.

  Dancer, or Sun Dancer to be precise, had located the beast on his first venture out from Crannóg. Once Dancer had the shapeshifting ability to change into a huge horned owl but that was before the Day of Fire and Death, when all Highlanders had lost the ability to shapeshift. Many believed that someone they had sinned against Luna, the Moon Goddess, since this ability was commonly referred to as Luna’s Gift. The truth of the matter was simple. Every generation there were fewer and fewer Highlanders with the shapeshifting ability. On that fateful day, Tatianna’s spell somehow blocked the ability in every Highlander.

  Dancer had been training to be a shaman of the Owl tribe but after the decimation of their people, he had set aside his personal goals and assumed the mantle thrust on him by fate. This was the true sacrifice the Highlanders had to make; they had to stop thinking of themselves as a member of different packs or tribes but only as one people.

  Once Dancer had located a member of the Hok’ee, Nilrem had put together a small group to attempt this foolhardy mission.

  To assist him, he had brought along Dark Arrow, a scout of the Raven tribe and son of Corax Black Arrow the Raven Warlord who had died in the defense of Tatianna the Red Eagle and who had become a legend in doing so. It was Sun Dancer and Dark Arrow’s job to drive the Hok’ee towards the trap. Then there was Karin Fleetfoot, formerly of the Grey Wolf pack, and Derek Ironhand a solid dwarf and friend of Odovacar’s who was acting as the dwarven liaison to the Highlanders. Which left, Amani Stormrider and Nilrem Bluebear.

  It was a rather small group considering the task but a smaller group had a better chance to avoid the roving bands of Orcs and Trolls that had claimed the Highlands as their own.

  The plan was simple. First, they dug a large pit to act as a trap. Then they send out the beaters to drive the beast forward. Once the Hok’ee fell into the trap, Amani would cast her spell. Nilrem could see at least a dozen ways in which this plan could go wrong but then, it could just as easily go right.

  They heard the approaching werebear long before they saw him. He was barreling through the brush without regard. This was good news for the hunters; the more reckless the beast, the more likely that he would fall prey to their trap.

  Derek Ironhand readied his battleaxe and shield. “Steady lass, steady.”

  Amani swallowed hard and nodded. “Aye Ironhand, I have this.”

  Before the dwarf could respond, the werebear came into view. Gymir was haggard and under-nourished but still an impressive beast. He was probably seven feet tall, weighed over four-hundred stones with broad shoulders and brown fur matted with burrs and sticks.

  The dwarf took a slight step forward and readied his hammer and shield. The werebear paused when he reached the clearing of the ruined village. However, seeing the small group of hunters in his territory upset the feral beast and he roared and charged. Unfortunately for Gymir, the covered pit was right in his path.

  Any sane person would be scared having an enraged werebear charge right at them but not Amani. She was a Highlander. She had stood beside Nilrem Bluebear as they faced giant scorpions of shadow when they were trying to kill Red Eagle and the Chosen One, the child of legend, so she would be damned if she was going to flinch at anything less than a dragon.

  When Gymir hit the dry branches, he disappeared into the deep pit and landed hard. All five of the hunters rushed to the edge and peered inside. The werebear was dazed but not completely out, which gave Amani plenty of time to cast her spell. Blue-green fire leapt from her fingertips to totally engulf the enraged werebear. Gymir howled with pain but Amani kept up her spell. She could feel the power that was stored in her Eagle-headed staff flow from the magical device into her hand, up her arm and out through her other hand.

  Gymir grunted through the pain and began crawling up the sidewalls of the pit.

  Derek stated the obvious. “It’s not working lass.”

  Even with her clenched jaw and furrowed brow, Amani growled. “It will. It has to!”

  Foot by foot, step by step, the werebear ignored the pain and climbed his way closer to the top.

  At no time, did any of the hunters notice any sort of change in Gymir’s condition. Whatever curse was holding him in this form it was stronger than Amani’s magic.

  When Amani felt her staff run dry, she dropped the spell and stepped back. There was no use pumping any more of her limited energy into a failed spell. “I can’t do it. I’ve failed.”

  Nilrem stepped forward. “Move girl. Time to leave.”

  The hunters began to back away. The plan was to escape to the river, cross a fallen log and drop it in the fast moving water. By the time Gymir climbed out of the pit and got to the river, the hunters would be gone. At least that was the plan. They never guessed that the werebear would be able to climb out of the pit so quickly. Gymir had crested the rim before they were ten steps away.

  As much as Nilrem hated to do it, he stepped forward and brought his axe down hard on the center of Gymir’s back. The werebear screamed and died where he lay.

  Pulling his axe free, Nilrem shook his head. “It was necessary.”

  Amani nodded. “Aye, at least his torturous half-life is now over. I just wish my spell had worked. I was so sure…” She stopped in mid-sentence and pointed at the corpse.

  Everyone looked and gasped in amazement as the hair all over Gymir’s body retracted, his bones shortened on themselves until the werebear corpse was nothing more than that of another dead Highlander. In death, he had returned to his natural form.

  “But…but…how?” asked Amani.

  Dancer knelt down and rolled his body over. Placing his hands in a more dignified position he said, “With his death Luna has recalled her gift. He is now one with the Spirits of the Wild.”

  Nilrem nodded. “Aye…that he is. Let us give him a proper burial.”

  “But…but….” Amani stammered, “But it’s impossible. Other Highlanders have died in their alternate forms and they don’t change back. Why did Gymir? What is special about the Hok’ee?”

  Nilrem placed a reassuring hand on his adopted daughter’s shoulder. “You will figure it out, eventually. But right now is not the time. Let us return honor to Gymir and give him the burial he deserves.”

  She nodded and the hunters began the somber process of a building a burial mound for Gymir.

  Chapter 24

  The rest of that first year, the students spent three hours a day training with each Döcent. This was not counting the extra time the Primus spent with their instructors.

  Chikk Forlorn instructed them in the fine art of burglary. These skills ranged from basic lockpicking, to safe cracking, to breaking and entering a residence, to how to climb sheer walls, to the safest and quickest way to move across roofs, to how to evade sentries, among many other skills. It was tedious work but very interesting. Especially since Chikk always gave examples from her own years as a cat burglar to give relevance to the lessons.

  Espen taught them about potions and poisons. These toxins ranged from the basic potions distilled from easily obtainable in
gredients found in nearly every hamlet on Terreth, to the more rare and deadly poisons that had to be collected from strange beasts; and of course, every toxin had an antidote, which they also learned. In addition, Espen spent time teaching them the most effective means of delivering the deadly poisons. This meant learning how to properly throw a variety of knives, use a blowgun and different styles of crossbows.

  Mortharona spent his time instructing the students in unarmed combat and bladeweaving, which was the art of spell casting while wielding a blade in your off-hand. Bladeweaving was a form of magic that the light elves had perfected. To Gray, this was the most difficult subject. Not because he could not grasp the information but because he did not want to draw too much attention to himself. He had been told too many times in his past how much he looked like his mother and if his uncle recognized him that could really complicate his life. Therefore, he would purposely miscast spells to appear average and made sure that even in the unarmed combat segment, he did not flourish. On the other hand, Galvorn, Tamina and a redhead named Ursula shined in the spell weaving.

  Gray did notice that the he seemed to have a knack for elemental and shadow magic. He played off the elemental part to his Highlander heritage but the affinity he was displaying toward the darkness worried him. However, Gray refused to talk to anyone about his concerns.

  Then there was the time they spent with Darnac. The Blademaster introduced a new weapon or two each month. For the time being, he concentrated on knives and daggers. Gray had never considered how many different styles and unique blades there actually were. Although many of them shared the same fighting techniques, each blade had its own strengths and weaknesses, and the students were expected to master each and every weapon.

  Darnac used hyeongs to help the students memorize the attack and defense strategies of each weapon.

  A hyeong was an ancient Elven term for form or pattern. Which was a systematic prearranged sequence of combat techniques with that particular weapon. Darnac used the hyeongs as one of his primary forms of interval training to help develop the warrior’s mindset in his students, along with gaining a high degree of aptitude with the weapon and to understand proper body mechanics in battle. Mortharona had a similar way of teaching his unarmed combat but he tended to refer to them as katas but Gray quickly realized that they were basically the same thing.

  By the time the next Cërtatüs rolled around, Kralm had decided that he wanted to test his elite students and the Primus were pitted against the rest of the students.

  It was twelve against two hundred and could have been a complete disaster for Gray and his companions if the other students had worked together. Nevertheless, they did not and Gray capitalized on their disarray. He placed Jardan and Nergüi in charge of the ambushes and went hunting. But not alone, he took Galvorn and Tamina with him. Of all the elite students in the Primus, they seemed to have the greatest knack in blending into shadows. Of course, neither Tamina nor Gray had the skill of Galvorn. He was the Shadow. It was as if the darkness swallowed him whole until only his violet eyes were visible. But then, none had Gray’s skill at tracking. No one suspected it was due to the enhanced senses granted to him by the Spirits of the Wild but he knew the truth. And Tamina was surprisingly nimble and had an unrivaled ferocity when in combat. These two qualities tended to catch her opponents off guard and many had begun to refer to her as Mouse. Not to mention, that over the last year she had begun to blossom and everyone could see a brief hint of the beautiful woman she was destined to become.

  Another change about this Cërtatüs was the fact that the students were able to use a wider variety of weapons. They were still fitted with the cantatis lapis but Gray had chosen the kukris, of all the weapons the Blademaster had introduced them to over the last year they felt the most comfortable to him. Tamina was using a katar, also known as a punch dagger, which was a perfect weapon for a smaller or weaker attacker. Galvorn had selected twin kalis as his weapons. The wavy pattern of the dagger was designed to enhance the slashing aspect of the blade in battle since a straightedge tends to get stuck in the opponent’s bones. The theory was that the wavy portion allows the wielder to more easily pull the blade out of his opponent’s body.

  Personally, Gray believed that his half-brother just enjoyed how wicked the blades looked. Although he had to admit that Galvorn seemed very proficient with the very distinctive looking daggers.

  The contest went as expected.

  The Primus made short work of any students that stumbled into their trap. This time, Jardan and Nergüi moved the dead aside and waited for the next hapless victims. As effective as they were, they were not near as deadly as the trio of hunters lead by Gray.

  Stalker and Shadow were tied for the most with twenty-three ‘kills’ each, Mouse with seventeen and Jardan with sixteen kills. The rest of the Primus accounted for at least ten kills each except for one, Václav, who fell in the first attack and did not make a single kill.

  The Dôminus was so pleased with their performance that he granted the entire student base a day off from training and placed Chikk Forlorn in charge of the festivities.

  Chikk had actually suggested this party to Kralm earlier in the year and had been planning it for months, so she was ready. She was not really pleased with having to deal with the half-orc but her contract with Lalith meant that she had to follow his commands, up to a point. The Master Slaver had always treated her with respect, which she found odd considering his occupation and reputation. But as long as he did so, she would perform her duties to the best of her abilities. Now that she had his blessing, she just smiled and left the balcony. She had plenty to do before tonight’s gala.

  Kralm turned to face the remaining three instructors. “You have done well but…” The half-orc slaver gazed long and hard at the gnome, “you can do better. There are still eight years left on this phase. However, many things are coming together quickly and the Dark Lady’s timetable may be moved forward. It is your responsibility to train the deadliest assassins this world has ever seen and to have them ready whenever she needs them.”

  The Master Slaver handed a scroll to the dark-haired light elf. “At this point in the training, if I was going to cut students and ship them to other venues, here’s where they would’ve been made.” He once again made eye contact with the gnome. “This doesn’t reflect well on you Espen.”

  Without saying another word, the grey-skinned half-orc left the balcony.

  * * * * *

  Darnac did not even bother looking at the list. Personally, he did not care about the majority of his students. His primary concern was training Galvorn to be the deadliest warrior on Terreth. A few months ago, he would have discounted any of the other students but the Blademaster knew that would be a lie. Isengrim and Tamina had gained a soft spot in his heart as well as most of the other members of the Primus. He had put them through hell in training and not a single one of them complained. He might not want to admit it but their dedication to his craft meant a lot to him. From out of the past, he heard the voice of his instructor, ‘A person’s actions weigh more than their words,’ which reminded him of something he had been putting off for a long time.

  Darnac nodded his head to his fellow instructors and the Blademaster of Avaris left the balcony and went hunting. This time his prey was not a dangerous beast, in many ways he wished it was but it was not, his target tonight was the beautiful sea captain. Even though they had been working together for over a year, they had hardly spoken ten words to each other in that time. Darnac felt it was time to set things right, one way or the other his feud with Chikk Forlorn ended tonight.

  * * * * *

  Espen and Mortharona scanned the list.

  There were thirty names on it and the gnome recognized that twelve of them were his. No wonder the Dôminus was upset with him, not that he owed any allegiance to the damned half-orc. He was only serving him since he owed a debt to the Dark Lady and this was how she had decreed that he repaid his onus. As much as he ha
ted Kralm, he did not want him reporting his failures to Lalith; it would not bode well for his future. Therefore, the question became how to shift attention off him and onto one of the other Döcents.

  In his mind’s eye, Espen could see the pride Darnac felt in every victory of his favorite student that also seemed to fan the flames of praise from the Dôminus. It was just another way the Blademaster was out to get him and the spark of an idea rolled through his devious head.

  * * * * *

  Chikk had gone all out and had plenty of food and drink for everyone. She even had arranged for a band to play for the gathering. They were a mixed band of three gnomes, two humans and a hobgoblin that normally played in the bars around Otrar, a city of the underworld realm of the Subterrus. None of the children were music experts by any means but they all could recognize that the band had two stringed instruments, two horns and drums. The overly large human female with pasty white skin from too many days underground sang and played the tambourine. As unattractive and odd as the group looked, the band played a fast upbeat music that was uplifting and light-hearted.

  Darnac moved up beside the beautiful sea captain and lightly touched her arm. “The J-Wailers, my favorite band.”

  Chikk graced him with a smile. “I know.”

  “How did you ever get them away from Chalman’s Cabaret?”

  “I booked them after the last Cërtatüs. I’ve been nagging Kralm for the whole year to have this party.”

  “Impressive.”

  They both fell silent as the students began to file into the main hall with wide eye wonder. Not only was this the first ‘free’ day they had since being enslaved, it was their first celebration. However, it was more than that. It was the first time in over a year they were allowed out of their dens without their Tergums. Old friendships were renewed and plenty of wild stories were told.