Primeval Origins: Light of Honor (Book 2 in the Primeval Origins Epic Saga)

by Brett Vonsik

  Armored hands clamped onto his shoulders. Rogaan grabbed the gauntleted hands of a Sake guard, then, without thinking what to do, he pulled the armored Baraan off balance, then rolled him through the trap door, but did not let go. With a growl, Rogaan strained holding the guard in air, his full weight suspended by Rogaan’s left arm. Despite his rage, Rogaan did not mean for the guard to fall to his death.

  A thundering roar from an unseen crowd vibrated the timbers and planks Rogaan lay across. Blinking to clear his vision in the bright sunlight proved unsuccessful. He was blinded. The weight on his arm and shoulder threatened to pull his arm from its socket, so Rogaan grunted the guard into a swinging motion in the hope he would grab the nearby rope. A scrape of metal and rhythmic footfalls on wood planks drew Rogaan’s now blurred vision to an approaching dark, blurry figure. A flash of sun off metal helm and blade alarmed Rogaan into heaving the swinging guard toward the spot he remembered the rope hanging. The weight on his shoulder lessened. He released the guard, then dismissed him from his thoughts as he rolled and slammed the trap door shut. He continued his roll to a kneeling position in front of another blurred form of a guard and the glint off a blade as its tip slammed into wood he lay on a moment ago.

  Why are you not helping me? Rogaan asked and cursed his strange abilities to slow the world. The Sake guard pulled his blade free from the planks, then slashed at Rogaan, cutting him at the shoulder. Rogaan rolled away to put space between them, then started to rise when he realized the blurry figure of the Sake was upon him again, with blade making a level cut for his neck. Rogaan arched back and turned his face, dodging the blade whisking through his short beard before falling back onto the wood platform. The Sake recovered, then attacked again, stepping forward as he raised his blade above his head with both hands in a maneuver meaning to drive the metal through Rogaan’s chest. Rogaan threw himself back against the timber as he drew his knees to his chest and anchored his hands on wood above his head. Everything instantly slowed around him. He rolled further onto his back with his legs in a tight ball, ready to spring at his foe. The Sake stepped and leaned forward as he started driving his blade point down at Rogaan. In that instant, Rogaan felt his muscles and tendons straining, wanting to be released. With all his strength and with a roaring growl, he drove his feet at the Sake’s chest while pushing off the wood timber platform with his shoulders and hands. His boots struck his target square and as solid as he hoped, in the chest, while driving his feet, legs, and body upward. Rogaan’s shoulders launched off the wood platform while extending himself fully before falling to the wood with a thud on his back. He watched the darkly armored Sake guard slowly arc through the air backward before landing in a heap almost eight strides away at the edge of the platform. The Sake lay unmoving under what looked to be a hangman’s timber crossbar. The Baraan’s body lay still. Rogaan’s rage cooled. For a brief moment, Rogaan feared he took the Light from the guard, something he wanted to avoid. I have enough troubles.

  A deep, rumbling roar jolted Rogaan into springing up to his hands and knees. He viewed the crowd for the first time. A field of bright and varying colors of cheering and jeering people filled most of the arena bench seats, all under streaming sky-blue pennants bearing the crossed spears and two towers of Farratum. Rogaan kneeled, dazed at the sight. The world quickened and the roar of the crowd turned higher-pitched, along with the vibrations Rogaan felt in the wood timbers below him. Never before had he seen so many people in one place as he took in the entire arena with awe, from the five-stride-high stone wall enclosing the massive oval-shaped dirt floor of the center grounds to the highest seats more than fifteen strides above the ground. The dirt floor of the arena spanned some seventy-five strides wide and twice that in length with a set of large timber double doors at each end of the arena. In the middle of the arena stood the elevated stone and wood stage platform Rogaan now kneeled upon. Four large wheels, one at each corner of the timber platform, supported large ropes and chains that were attached to the platform at one end and disappeared into an opening in the platform at the other end. Where the openings went to, Rogaan guessed somewhere below. A half-stride-tall stout wood rail ran the parameter of the stage except on two opposite sides where the railing had breaks allowing passage on stone steps to the arena’s dirt floor. The guard lying under the hangman’s crossbar at the other end of the stage stirred. Rogaan noted the stirring with a momentary flash of relief before looking about for his father as the crowd roared again, with more cheers and jeers.

  He found his father with the others in a gaggle some sixteen strides from the stage to his right. They were all bound at the wrists. Pax and Aren were frantically chewing at their hide bindings. Pax’s father was working at his wife’s bindings while Rogaan’s father stood yelling at the stage while waving his bound arms. His father’s words were lost to the crowd roars, but Rogaan thought he understood the meaning of his urgent waving . . . Leave this place. He motioned his father to come to the stage so they could escape together through the trap door near his feet. His father yelled to the others. Again, Rogaan was unable to hear his words over the crowd. The others looked to his father who seemed to understand what he was telling them. They all took a step toward the stage when a deafening bellow shook the air, stopping them in stride and silencing the crowd. Rogaan looked behind him where the bellow came from. His blood turned frigid and his skin crawled painfully with fear. Two bulky ravers, red with thick black stripes, stomped at the ground just inside the partially opened timber double doors. The ravers were almost eighty strides away, but Rogaan knew the distance meant little for these menaces. Worse, the stories he heard of these beasts as a youngling he confirmed with his own eyes in his journey here. These animals were fast and always acted as if they had a thorn stinging them. Rogaan’s skin rippled with a fearful chill.

  “Run!” Rogaan heard his father yell out.

  Looking to see who his father spoke to, Rogaan found chaos. Aren and Pax ran toward the stage while Rogaan’s father looked perplexed at Pax’s mother who ran in panic away from the beasts and stage with her husband chasing after her yelling to her to run his way. Rogaan’s heart sank seeing her frightened out of reason. Aren approached the stage ahead of Pax screaming for Rogaan to open the door. The Evendiir too was panicked, but clearheaded enough to know running to the opposite side of the arena meant death would come only after others died. Rogaan tried to open the trap door, but found it locked or jammed. He dug his fingers into the edge of the door’s wood frame, then braced himself to pull on it with all his might when another deafening bellow shook him. A second bellow joined the first, just as powerful and terrifying. Rogaan looked over his shoulder again to find the smaller of the two ravers readying a charge at the stage. Rogaan froze in fear and indecision. “Smaller” was a poor choice in thinking of the menace. This one was just as big as the golden ravers Im’Kas killed when he attempted to stop Kardul from delivering them into the hands of the Tusaa’Ner and Sakes. A fool I am.

  “Open the door, you half-wit!” Aren’s words bit into Rogaan’s sensibilities, angering him. Of all the accusations made against him, no one ever seriously accused him of being unintelligent. Rogaan looked at the Evendiir with smoldering eyes before standing tall and defiant.

  “It’s locked or jammed from the inside,” Rogaan barked back.

  “Then smash it with your foot!” Aren sneeringly directed Rogaan as he grasped the wood rail to the stage, then made to leap onto the platform.

  Another deafening roar shook the air, stopping Aren from jumping up and commanded the Evendiir’s full attention. Rogaan felt a rhythmic vibration growing stronger. No! He looked back toward the beasts. The smaller of the two pounded the ground in a full charge right at them. Aren let out a squeal, then tore off toward the opposite end of the stage where the hangman’s timbers stood. He kept to the dirt and crouched a little as if trying to hide behind the wood rail from the raver’s sight. Rogaan caught movement to his right.
Looking, he saw his father running as fast as he could toward him, somewhat bowlegged and plodding. Is that how I look running? It’s a wonder I am not slower.

  Rogaan realized with a shock Pax was not near the stage. He expected him to be at his side by now figuring out how to open this trap door. Rogaan found him running after his parents, who were almost at the other double-timbered doors opposite the ravers. He was thankful to the Ancients for the timber doors being closed and nothing else chasing after them all. Pax looked back at Rogaan, then veered hard left. Rogaan’s confusion lasted only a few rhythmic footfalls he felt through his feet, footfalls that grew in strength with each step. Looking back, he found the charging raver aiming to the right of the stage. Father! Rogaan feared for his father’s life. He was not running fast and was in the path of the closing menace, if not the sole focus of the bellowing beast. It roared again. No! That roar came from the bigger one. Glancing to the open timber doors, Rogaan found the bigger raver stomping its feet as it let out another bellow. The air shook, this time with deeper vibrations. Suddenly, the charging raver passed by the stage less than ten strides from Rogaan. The surprise to him was momentary as immense relief blew through him like a strong breeze that he was not the ravers’ choice meal of the moment. His relief immediately turned to terror as he watched helplessly the raver snap its jaws shut, taking a few of his father’s hairs as the stocky body of his father just slid behind the corner of the stage platform where the raver could not take a full bite at him. Instead of stopping, the raver continued its charge forward. Rogaan’s confusion cleared as he caught sight of Pax running toward the stage where Aren now stood, the opposite corner of the stage from Rogaan’s father near the hanging timbers. The raver paid him no attention. Instead, the beast kept straight toward Pax’s parents. Pax stopped and looked after the beast, yelling at the creature. Rogaan stood on the stage awed and stunned at everything happening—all at the same time. His head swirled.

  “Open that door before we’re all lightless!” Aren yelled at Rogaan as he climbed up to the rail. Aren froze with eyes wide as Rogaan felt the vibrations in the stage, rhythmic, rapid, and growing in strength. Looking to his left, Rogaan found the bigger raver pounding its feet into the dirt at a fast run passing the opposite side of the stage from where the smaller raver passed.

  Aren dropped back to the dirt, then scrambled around the corner of the stage grumbling babblings as the big raver shortened its strides trying to turn with the agile Evendiir. Rogaan caught sight of Pax now running toward his parents. The smaller raver stood over the two mauling them. He thought he heard screams from Pax’s mother before the big raver surprised him, obscuring his sight in front of him as the beast stalked Aren. Rogaan momentarily struggled with his emotions. Pax’s parents and likely his friend were dying and there was little he could do about it. Rogaan’s father flushed from his no-longer-safe spot, now ran along the edge of the stage close to him. Rogaan decided to help the one he could.

  “Hide, Rogaan!” Was all his father could say as he ran past Rogaan, then stumbled when he tried to turn sharply around the corner of the stage. Rogaan feared for his father. The raver was almost on him.

  “This is madness!” Rogaan cursed at the whole situation and to himself as he ran at the corner where he intended to distract the big beast, hoping to give his father a moment to flee. Rogaan’s stunned indecision was gone. Replacing it was raw determination and a returning rage. The big black and red body turned at the corner of the stage sharper and quicker than Rogaan expected with its jaws gaping at his father. With a yell, Rogaan leapt from the stage landing on the raver’s hip and tail, further back than he intended. His chest painfully struck the solid muscular beast. Armored plates and stiff, slender black feathers running the spinal ridge of the raver cut into Rogaan’s chest and arms as he tried to grasp the beast. Before he could get a firm hold, the raver lurched, bucking Rogaan into the air before slamming him onto the ground. Pain rattled through him in a wave as he hit the dirt, but the air in his lungs he kept. Rogaan rolled to his stomach wanting to see if his father escaped the jaws of the raver. The beast turned to face Rogaan instead of pursuing his father. Spitting dirt from his bloodied mouth, Rogaan let out a growl in satisfaction which was immediately drowned out by a reverberating roar from the angry black and red hulking figure when it swiveled its head sideward and found Rogaan lying on the ground. The raver fixed its gaze on Rogaan as it narrowed its eyes with fury. Frightened beyond anything of Rogaan’s experience, he now realized his success likely meant his death. A strange chill sensation passed over him as he felt his hair stand on end. Unexpectedly, he felt somehow refreshed. He felt strong.

  The raver lunged at him with its jaws open and head tilting. Rogaan rolled sideways, narrowly avoiding the beast’s snapping bladelike teeth. The smell of the raver’s maw was foul, making Rogaan gag as he finished his roll before gaining his feet under him. Again, the raver lunged at him. Rogaan dove under the raging beast toward its three clawed toes. He felt the raver’s hot breath and heard the deafening snap of its maw catching the air less than a hand away as dirt and sand kicked up behind him. The beast snorted in frustration. Rogaan regained his footing under it before rising into a crouch. The raver bellowed with frustration as it spun about trying to find its prey. Rogaan danced erratically with the raver trying to keep from getting trampled. His wind felt good, allowing him to dodge the claws of the infuriated beast. Rogaan felt a great sense of satisfaction annoying the raver while giving his father time to flee. He did not know how he managed it and considered it somehow part of his “wild spirit.” He did not care at the moment. All that mattered was that he could dance with the beast without getting eaten.

  The beast turned away from Rogaan without warning, forcing Rogaan to dash out from underneath the raver to keep from getting stomped. He found himself at the cut-stone corner of the stage looking at the big raver closing on his father and Pax. Both looked confused and desperate. Beyond them, still close to the stage, the smaller raver lunged at a terrified Aren who was scrambling on the ground before holding his arms up in a feeble defense against the beast. A flash of brilliant light erupted in the air between the predator and its prey, causing the raver to reel back in surprise and pain. Aren appeared shocked and confused as well, looking around for something Rogaan could not see. Pax stumbled backward into Rogaan’s sightline to Aren.

  “No . . . no be doin’ this!” Pax screamed desperately at his father as he fell back into the side of the stage. A quick glance found Pax’s father in the path of the big raver. He had pushed his son away from the charging jaws. Those jaws chomped down over Pax’s father’s right shoulder and chest with a sickening crunch. The Baraan yelled out in pain as the raver lifted him from his feet shaking him violently. Pax’s father screamed out in horrible pain as blood soaked most of his shirt, but he remained alive, striking at the raver’s snout with his left hand. His swings grew weak and feeble when the second raver clamped its jaws on his arm and tore it from him. Both Pax and his father let out horrific screams. Rogaan stood stunned.

  “No!” Pax’s attitude changed in a blink from shocked, confused, and helpless to desperate, angry, and ready to launch himself at the big raver. He yelled out with anger, “Let me father be.”

  Rogaan stepped and grabbed Pax just as he took his first step at the beasts. Pax looked at Rogaan with surprised and angry eyes. He then tried to pull free from his friend while yelling, “Let me be!”

  Rogaan had no intention of letting Pax go. Despite the Light still in Pax’s father, the ravers had already killed him. Blood soaked most of the self-sacrificing father’s clothing. More blood squirted from where his arm once connected to his shoulder as the big raver shook him again. The second raver had swallowed its trophy and made to strike again at Pax’s feebly yelling father.

  With tears streaming down his face and painful anger in his voice, Pax tried to pull free from Rogaan again, while watching the beasts tear his father a
part, each raver then holding half of him in their maws. Pax let out a blood chilling scream as he slumped to his knees, “Nooo!”

  “Rogaan, bring Pax to the platform door.” Mithraam spoke urgently with a commanding voice. “We must leave here before they finish.”

  A wave of relief filled Rogaan seeing his own father alive after watching Pax lose his in a manner nobody should ever witness. Pax’s slumped form was little trouble for Rogaan as he half-carried his friend to where his father stood. He stayed low along the cut stones and wood rail of the stage to keep from being seen by the ravers, morbidly hoping they were taking time eating his friend’s father. A wave of guilt and disgust washed over Rogaan at that last thought. He knew he was being pragmatic and hopeful that some of them could keep their Lights, but his heart ached terribly for his friend. Rogaan realized Pax’s mother was nowhere to be seen. A rush of panic struck him. No. I hope not. “Pax, where is your mother?”

  Rogaan felt no change in his friend’s semi-limp body having asked what he feared to hear the answer to. Concern filled him as he looked to see if Pax was conscious. His friend’s eyes were open, but glazed over and staring off to some distant place. He did not want to leave her if there was a chance she lived. Painful regrets filled him as he asked again, “Where is your mother, Pax?”

  His answer came swift as Pax exploded into a tense ball of anger, striking Rogaan just below his left eye. The stinging punch came as an unexpected surprise to him. Pax screamed with heated, tear-filled eyes and a fuming face. “She be dead! Just like me father. Ya should no hold me from him. Ya had no right. Ya had no right!”

  Rogaan and Pax now stood facing each other. Pax looked in shock and pain and near uncontrolled anger. Rogaan felt deep pain for his friend, but feared they did not have a moment to mourn. Rogaan did not know how to speak to Pax, to get him thinking forward, to get them to a safe place away from these beasts and the screaming crowd. A thought of caution rippled through him. What is the crowd screaming at? An air shattering roar gave Rogaan his answer and made his head ring in pain. Looking over Pax’s shoulder, Rogaan saw the smaller raver, if that mattered, staring right at them. Panic flushed through him, making his legs and arms momentarily unable to move.