“I will order the troops to fortify the defenses of the Landen. Do you wish me to pass along your orders to General Yukio and General Lysander for you?”
“Yes, please relay the orders of regrouping to those armies for me. Tell them to gather their troops together in the eastern plains.” The guardian thought it was a gracious offer from King Angus to assist her. “I have matters that need attending to, so I am leaving you in charge of the defense of this country. I will explain this to King Leroy before I leave. He will agree with me that your people are best suited for the defense of the High Plains.”
“Thank you for your confidence in my troops. We will defend this land while there is breath in our lungs.” The king said this confidently as he bowed deeply before the elegant guardian. His eyes were fixed on a crack in the floor that had just recently appeared. He did not dare to look at the angelic lady again out of fear and respect.
“I will take leave of you now, Angus. Good luck to the both of us.” She then vanished into thin air right before the king’s eyes. A fine mist swirled for a few moments and then there was nothing.
King Angus stood up quickly and left the great hall at once. He sent messengers to the leaders of his army. He requested their presence in the little village of Haden for an emergency meeting. The village lay in the heart of the High Plains and would be the fastest way for them to gather for such an urgent meeting. As Angus journeyed toward the center of the land of Landen, the gravity of the situation became more apparent as time slipped away. He had an uneasy feeling about his leisurely pace and immediately kicked it up a notch. He needed to get to the meeting as fast as possible. He could not identify the source of these feelings, but he knew that they were real and that they served a purpose.
As the village of Haden came into view, he could see that Lord Marcello, General Lang, and the commanders had already arrived. They all had a look that made it clear that they were all feeling the same thing. He broke into a run so he could join the throng of giant leaders gathered in the square in the heart of the little town. As he entered the circle, the feeling of uneasiness left him and everyone relaxed a bit. The king did not waste any time in getting down to business. Giants were blunt and straightforward as a people, and King Angus epitomized this trait more than any other.
“There has been a slight change in our plans. I have met with none other than Mistress Khalida,” began the king raggedly as he tried to catch his breath.
“You met one of the Elementals?” asked Commander Boaz in surprise.
“Yes, she is actually one of the elder guardians,” the king replied impressively. “She has joined our side of this deadly conflict. She is leading the allied armies against the axis armies in their vain attempt for domination. She has asked us to take up all of the defenses of Landen.”
“That is not a problem. What of the army of Yukio and the army of Landen?” General Lang asked impatiently.
“They will regroup just east of here to gather all of their available strength. General Yukio will lead a campaign against the high elves in the north. His mission will require him to drive back these wicked fiends into the canyons of Nairi. The army of Landen will join forces with the army of Aran, which will arrive in a couple of days. They will make a push against the armies of orcs and the high elven army in the south. We will solely be responsible for the defense of this country,” explained the king.
“So, what is the plan for the defenses?” asked Lord Marcello.
“Marcello, you will take your siege warriors to the north cliff and the northeastern entrance right away. Inform General Yukio of Mistress Khalida’s orders and send him to the eastern plain straight away,” ordered the king. Lord Marcello bowed low and departed at once.
“What of the rest of us?” the general asked impetuously.
“General Lang, you will take the main body of our army to the southern cliff and the southeastern entrance. Your troops will be responsible for defending that vital area,” replied the king. “Commander Boaz, you will move to the shores of Lake Lachlan. There is a possibility that some of the high elves will try to attack from that direction.”
“Yes, sir!” saluted the general and the commander. They both departed to begin their new tasks.
“Commander Gerodi, you will come with me to defend the western wall. Once the army of Yukio begins their push, the high elves may try to traverse the western wall. We must be ready for them,” ordered the king.
“Is it true that all of the defenses on the southwestern wall have been destroyed?” asked the commander.
“Yes, it is partially true. You will need to help General Lang rebuild and retool those defenses. Let’s move out; time is our greatest enemy now,” said the king wisely. His face darkened with a fierce look of determination.
Within hours, the border defenses of Landen were under the giants’ control. The army of General Yukio had retreated to the eastern plains to regroup. The army of General Lysander had already gathered their strength in that region. There were some one hundred and fifty thousand horse riders of Landen all ready for war. Foot soldiers and archers filled out the rest of the ranks. The entire army of Landen totaled some two hundred and fifty thousand strong. General Yukio’s army was considerably smaller in numbers, but they had done the most fighting thus far. There were only fifty thousand now instead of the one hundred thousand plus he had before his bloody campaign. The army of General Sanjay arrived two days after the two armies had gathered together. They all waited for more instructions before they moved out.
Lord Marcello and his siege warriors settled into their new defensive positions quickly after Yukio’s army dispatched. There were troops stationed at the northeastern gateway where improved siege weapons were being constructed in the town of Baden some two miles south of where Marcello made his camp. The people of Baden offered to not only host the giant soldiers while they build new weapons; they gave them the supplies they needed to make the new siege weapons. While all of these preparations were being made, the army of Queen Kishi was preparing for a fresh assault. She had rallied her troops to make a push on the northeastern gate. Her movements did not go without notice however. Several of the giants along the northern wall noticed the army moving to the east.
Several messengers were sent to Lord Marcello to make him aware of these movements. They were not surprised to learn that the formidable wizard already knew of the high elven armies positioning. He had sent out a magical web to sense any movements by the army in the plains below. He knew that this move would require him to position himself at the gates to provide a magical support to the troops already stationed there. General Yukio had told him that there was a witch at their lead. She was their queen, and she was a very powerful sorceress. The general had given details of just how mighty Queen Kishi was. Lord Marcello had been pondering ways of defending his soldiers and himself from sound magical attacks.
He departed immediately for the northeastern gate, which was called North Gate by the residents living just south of it. He continued his musing while he walked briskly toward the gate. He knew that he needed to at least place an invisible wall between the high elves and his troops. The problem with this was that the wall was limited in height. When he could solely focus on creating the wall, he could probably make it reach some thirty feet in the air. However, he was not going to be able to do that in this situation. He could probably manage a fifteen-foot wall which should protect the giants, for the most part, from enemy projectiles. He needed to do something spectacular to fend off the high elves and make them think twice about their destructive plans.
By the time the giant wizard reached the gate, the high elven army was already positioning itself just out of reach of the siege warriors stationed at the North Gate. They were making no attempts at hiding what they were doing or even what they were planning. However, Lord Marcello knew better than to dismiss these tactics as foolish or misguided. He knew that their sorceress was about to do something to put the favor of the impending
conflict in their court. Marcello did not waste another minute. He quickly summoned his staff out of thin air and did several incantations all at once.
An icy blue wall formed suddenly between the high elven army and the giant soldiers at the gate. As the giant wizard twirled his staff faster, a green and purple cloud formed over the heads of the startled high elven army. Green and purple flashes of lightning began to fill the air over its prey. When the green lightning made contact with a person or the ground, a cloud of poison gas would fill the air with a small popping sound. The purple lightning would send out shock waves with every hit. If it made contact with a person, they were killed instantly and would continue to send out shock waves until their burnt corpses exploded. This ingenious attack killed a few hundred instantly and injured a little over a thousand. When there was no magical attack sent at the giants, Marcello realized that the witch queen must not be among the ranks. She must have remained in the Nairi Canyons. We might be able to send these fiends back to the canyon lands without the assistance of Yukio’s army.
After a few minutes of destruction, the cloud disappeared into the nothingness it was called from. No one move on either side of this impromptu battlefield. How could the reports about the presence of Queen Kishi been so wrong? Didn’t the information come from an Elemental? Lord Marcello was perplexed by the situation and reason seemed to be slipping from him as tension between the armies mounted. Then, all at once, the giant wizard’s quandaries were answered. A thin sheet of blue ice shot from the ranks of the high elven army. The icy sheet slipped through Marcello’s defensive shield and instantly froze a few dozen giant soldiers. It became clear at that moment that the little witch had disguised herself to blend into the ranks of the high elven army. Before anyone could react or do anything, a magically enhanced voice rang out through the now chilled air.
“Marcello, let the bloodshed begin!” called an eerie female voice.
“Who speaks thus?” queried the giant.
“I am Queen Kishi of the high elves, the future queen of Tuwa,” replied the sorceress queen darkly. An unnatural ease fell upon both sides of the line. It was as though evil was emanating from her.
“Queen Kishi, reveal your wicked self to me!” demanded Marcello in a loud, booming voice. His shout echoed through the silence that had settled over the two armies. His eyes narrowed as he searched out the vile witch.
A flash of light shot from the end of Marcello’s staff and illuminated a shocked soldier in the middle of the fifth row of archers. The magical light engulfed the now struggling high elf as he was lifted into the air. After a moment, the magical disguise Kishi had been using was undone, and she hung in midair revealed completely to everyone in both armies. Her stunned look did not stay long on her beautiful face. She quickly summoned her staff into her hands and swung it violently through the air. She burst the magical chains that had been holding her fast and screamed loudly in a fit of uncontrollable rage. She slammed to the ground hard and was up again without noticing her weakened appearance. Anger made her numb to the wounds she just incurred and her focus on the giant mage made her oblivious to her indecency.
“You will pay for that!” she blasted at the giant wizard. She pointed her staff at him and sent a powerful fireball at him. The fire quickly engulfed him, but there was no scream of pain or even discomfort. The giant snapped his fingers, and the flames went out at once.
“Is that the best you can do? Remember, I am a giant,” Marcello said smoothly. His calm demeanor did nothing to sooth his attacker. It had the opposite effect, which was exactly what he was hoping for. He could see that she was stomping her way toward the front of the army. She did not notice the looks her soldiers were giving her.
“So be it. There is more than one way to kill a giant. Even one as ugly as you!” retorted Kishi. She raised her staff high in the air, and a black cloud appeared out of nowhere. Panic began to appear on some of the giants’ faces. They had seen a cloud like this before. It was the one Marcello had used to send ice blocks crashing to the earth. They knew that this spell was not an easy one to defend against, so they braced for the worst.
Marcello reacted very quickly and gathered a strong wind behind him. When he saw the first signs of an ice block falling from the storm cloud, he shot forth a mighty gust of wind. The blocks were hurled away from the giants at the North Gate and landed on the back row of high elven foot soldiers, killing several of them instantly. Kishi sent bolts of blue lightning into the cloud, and icy darts shot down from the cloud instead of chunks of ice. Several giants were hit by these icy projectiles, but their thick skin deflected the weak attacks. The giants took heart by these feeble attempts by such a powerful sorceress. Feeling too frustrated to continue the fight, Kishi ordered General Jaali to call for the retreat. The high elven army turned tail and began to retreat. The departing army made rude gestures and shouted vile profanities at the defiant giants. They truly were not the gentle, dignified people they once were. Kishi’s personal downward spiral was bringing down her troops as well.
“Gentlemen, do not think that she will not return. Queen Kishi is much more powerful than I, so be prepared. She was caught off guard, which made her clumsy in her attacks. She will not make that mistake again,” Marcello warned the troops at the gate. “That being said, I am proud of the way you conducted yourselves.”
Forced Betrayal
As the air filled with a musty, dank smell once again, Lord Keb resigned himself to defeat. He was trapped inside this mountain of dark magic with no hope of escape. His brethren and sisters of the guardian council would be too busy by now to search for him. The evil creature that held him bound in this mountain prison seemed to grow stronger as the guardian’s despair grew. The small pool of murky water had steam rising from it as the ice melted. This created a greenish haze that not only blurred his vision, but it also caused the panic he was feeling to intensify. His thoughts became erratic and increasingly wild, like an animal that is cornered. Without realizing what he was allowing to happen, he began to lower his mental defenses to the secrets he had kept hidden from Kana. He felt weary from the confrontation with Kana and the giant serpent. He did not see any harm in allowing his defenses down for just a little bit.
Images began to call themselves forth in his mind as though someone was searching for something, some particular secret. Images of the other guardians flashed through his mind as he began to have a feeling of foreboding come over him. The image of the council of the guardians displayed itself for several minutes. Keb watched the meeting progress as he relived the events that took place during and immediately after the meeting. It was then that he finally realized that some foreign being had penetrated his defenses and was perusing his mind like it was an open book. He immediately tried to slam shut the door he had allowed to be opened. The intruder merely laughed at this vain attempt. The voice he heard did not come from a particular source and was not heard using his ears. The speaker spoke to him in his mind.
“Keb, how long has it been, old friend?” asked a gravelly deep voice.
“Who are you?” queried Keb sharply. He did not like this creature who apparently knew his name and who knew how to get past his defenses. The feeling of uneasiness welled up inside him once more.
“Come now…old friends like us should never forget one another. I certainly remember you. You are the puppet of that self-righteous-” began the gruff voice in chiding tones.
“You will not speak his name! I know who you are now; you are that filthy, good-for-nothing demon lord we banished centuries ago!” He realized with a sudden shock of horror that the dark lord was speaking to him. This was the very creature that the guardian council had banished after the last war for Tuwa for his crimes against all living creatures and more importantly for defiling all of the elements. They had imprisoned that old devil in the icy fortress located at the furthest northern point on the continent. How did he escape that heavily guarded prison?
“The particulars of my escape fro
m that pitiful prison are of no consequence. The reason why I am here with you now is of the utmost importance. I want to know what it is that you are hiding from your friend Kana. You will tell me; you know you will. I do not believe that you will have forgotten my ability to persuade people…especially an element that is as weak as you are.”
“If I remember correctly, your overconfidence was what landed you in that cozy prison we put you in.” Keb knew that this would irritate him and would potentially throw him off his mental intrusion. He knew full well that he had better regain control of his mind soon because of the secrets that he kept hidden in there. One in particular was of the utmost importance to keep hidden from this beast. There were only three people that knew about it, and he was probably the weakest out of the fellowship.
“Taunt me all you like; I do not mind. I have all the time in the world to play games with you. Believe me when I tell you that you will never leave this mountain again. I already have full access to your weak mind, and you and I both know that you do not have the power to block me out now that I am in.”
“That may be true, but that does not mean that I know anything of value to you or your new master.” He could not control the fear that was threatening to destroy his resolve.
“I serve no one but myself!” This shout was not heard in his head but in the empty cavern around him. A dark mist began to swirl about a dozen paces in front of him. A large, horned figure rose up out of the eerie-looking cloud. The dark lord was twice the height of Lord Keb and had reddish-black hide that had the look of blood mixed with mud. He had two massive horns that came out of the sides of his head and wrapped around his head in a way that provided some measure of protection. He had a thick muscular figure that did not appear to have an ounce of fat on it anywhere. His eyes were bright red with dark black pupils. He had surprisingly white teeth as he displayed them nastily for Keb.
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