Blood of the Lost: The Darkness Within Saga: Book 2

by JD Franx

  As hard as it was to ignore, it was a score he would settle at a later time. Now, more important things mattered.

  ROAD TO CAIRNWOOD

  Three days of travel passed slowly as Giddeon and his group continued to close the distance to Cairnwood. Just before noon on the third day, Giddeon, Saleece, and Yrlissa all sensed a large body of people coming their way from the north. Not knowing whether they were hostile or not, Max and Kasik entered the forest to the side of the trail and headed out to try and track the large group. Max found them first and he was appalled at what he saw. Men, women, and children were all fleeing at the best speed they could and the few armed guards were too close to the group to save anybody during an attack. He approached them with his bow across his back and his hands in the air.

  As soon as the armed guards saw him, they all ran to make sure he was secured, leaving the entire group completely exposed at their rear and sides.

  “I mean you no harm,” he said, raising his voice. “I am with others and we are after a friend, you may have met him. We should only be a couple days behind.”

  A short man emerged from the crowd and walked up to Max.

  “We know who you are. You’re hunting Kael. He left our village days ago, headed west. My name is Cornelius Redding. I am the mayor of Cairnwood. We’ve had to flee our town because of an Orotaq raid on our village.”

  Max knew Cornelius was lying the moment he spoke. Years as a Ranger sniper, sheriff’s deputy, and eventually a sheriff had taught him how to spot liars long ago.

  “Why would you lie about where Kael went? Unless you don’t want us to find him, or more correctly, you don’t want Giddeon to find him, do you?” Max asked.

  “I do not know what you mean,” Cornelius said, clearly trying to keep the charade going.

  Looking around and still not seeing any sign of Kasik or the others, Max tried again. “I know why you are trying to protect Kael, but if you really want to protect him, then tell the ArchWizard when he gets here how Kael helped you. Not all of us are chasing him to kill him. I promise you,” Max pleaded.

  Before either could say any more, Giddeon and the others came around the bend and Kasik exited the forest on the far side of the travelling townsfolk. Cornelius went to speak with Giddeon. Max followed.

  Cornelius stood before Giddeon and offered a quick bow.

  “We know why you are here, ArchWizard. Kael headed north from our town two days ago after liberating us from Orotaq control. Kael and Kyah helped free us and asked for nothing in return, so please keep that in mind. Also, if you please, a young girl from our town, she was my ward. She disappeared our first day out here away from the village. Her name is Cassie. Please keep her safe if you find her. You should only be a day or so behind her. Maybe two behind Kael,” he replied.

  “Thank you,” Max said. “And Cornelius?”

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “Keep your guards further out so they can return with enough warning for you to prepare a defence. And tell them to work in pairs and never leave their position like they did with me. Had we meant you harm, there was nobody behind you to protect your people from the back or sides. You’ll be safer like that, all right?”

  He nodded. “Thank you, young man, for the advice, and good luck,” Cornelius said as he looked at Giddeon. “We’re both going to need it.”

  Deciding to walk their horses for a bit, Ember came up to walk beside Giddeon.

  “Another group of people Kael helped. You didn’t want to question them?”

  “There’s no sense,” Giddeon replied, smiling. “They’d only tell us how he helped them.”

  Ember scoffed. “That’s what everyone who has encountered him have said. Every single one. Are you starting to see now? You can’t deny his behaviour. It’s not what you thought it would be, right?”

  “I will give you that much. But you do not understand how his power works. I cannot even begin to guess how it works, and I have studied magic for almost two hundred years. The last thirty of those years I have studied everything I could find about Kael’s kind. All I do know is that bonded wizards have a connection to the earth and to their power. It...” He stopped talking for a minute while tapping his lips with his thumb, as if thinking about how to explain his point.

  Smiling as if it finally came to him, he continued. “It is like being connected to all the power, grace, and peace that is the soul of the earth and nature. It fills us with its power and makes us feel younger, even extending our lives well beyond people from your plane of existence, even with your advanced technology. It is a bond that we create with magic when we are strong enough. If it is broken, then we die. Kael has this connection as well, but he was born with it, like you or I are born with an arm or a leg. It is a part of his very being. But Kael was also born with the exact same kind of bond to the underworld, to death. If my earth-bond fills me with everything I told you—the peace and grace of nature and this earth—what is Kael’s death-bond filling him with?” he asked. He stopped walking and turned to her.

  “I don’t know,” Ember said, “but it’s clearly not affecting him the way you thought, or if it is, then he’s obviously controlling it. Surely even you can’t deny that now?” she asked, wondering if he would actually try.

  “I don’t, and perhaps you’re right. My worry is how long it will last? And what will happen then?”

  “I don’t know, but if anyone in all of this multiverse can control this so-called corruption, Kael can. I know he can. I know his strength of will,” Ember said firmly.

  “I understand that you believe that, Ember, but I’m afraid for the people who will suffer or die if you are wrong. I was wrong about many things it seems. So, here is some free advice from an ArchWizard to the last of the Fae in our world. Being wrong carries a very heavy price for people who wield magic. It can create and destroy with equal ease. We are told in the university growing up to do no harm, even if it means doing nothing at all. That inaction is better than action that causes hurt. It is our most sacred covenant. But how do you do no harm when it is impossible to know everything that is happening around you and things may not be as they seem?”

  “I don’t know. You have to try and remember that Kael and I led a simple life. We worked, we danced, we enjoyed spending time with friends like Max, and we enjoyed that life. Concerns like these never entered our minds. We moved to the city from a rural town to get away from families who never wanted us. Kael, Max, and I have been here, what? Six months almost? I bet neither my family nor Kael’s even know we are missing,” she said, choking back tears. “And now... We are here. I am not even human, and Kael is a prophesied force of death. Can you even fathom how that is for us? If you actually think about that for moment, can you at least grasp a little bit of understanding?”

  “Yes, but all any of us can do is the best with what we have at this moment. You have adjusted well, and you have saved our lives time and again. I promise you that when we catch up with Kael, I will tell him who he is, and we’ll talk. As it stands now, we have to try to talk to him and hopefully avert this trigger event that Zaddyk has seen. As long as you are with us, Zaddyk says the critical turning point in Talohna’s future cannot happen. Will that work for you?”

  “It will have to,” she said and walked faster in order to rejoin Yrlissa and Max. Giddeon nodded to her and then called for them to get on their mounts and carry on riding. They were in Cairnwood an hour before sundown the next evening.

  CAIRNWOOD

  Though the last couple of days hadn’t been overly hot, Giddeon and Ember’s group could smell Cairnwood long before they got there. Giddeon recommended they leave their mounts tied to the horse rail by the southern gate’s watchtower. It was clear dozens of lives had been lost during the fighting. The putrid stench of rot permeated the entire town. Ember could only stare as they walked into the part of town where Kael had killed the novice shaman and Kyah the dogs.

  Ember’s eyes watered as she realized they were wide open
and she had not blinked in several minutes. Pointing at the remains of what could be black dogs, she took in the devastation around them caused by fire and death.

  “What in heaven’s name are those?” she asked, her hand trembling.

  “Bastard hollow dogs,” Kasik said, spitting towards the carcasses. “Wild dogs from Black Hollow that the Orotaq have tamed, if you could even call it that.”

  Saleece nodded in agreement. “And lots of them, too. Look,” she said, jogging over to a large humanoid body. She quickly covered her nose with her cowl and turned the body onto its back. A sickening squelch drifted up as the rotting body peeled from the cobblestone street.

  “Dammit,” Giddeon cursed as he shook his head and covered his nose. “I was hoping those townspeople were wrong.”

  Ember walked up and stared down at the dead Orotaq man. Glancing over at Yrlissa and holding her nose from the stench, she asked, “Orotaq, I presume?”

  “Yes, nahlla,” she answered. Bending over, the assassin ran her hand over the brands on its arm. “And a shaman as well. Right, Giddeon?”

  “Good call,” he praised, and then pointed to where she had touched. “You can tell by the scarification on the chest, neck, and arms. He was a novice, roughly, or maybe our equivalent to an apprentice. The branding done on his arms is an easy way to identify him as a lesser mystic. As he gets stronger, more brands will be added. Right, Kasik?”

  “Yes,” the Northman replied. “We saw a grand shaman during one of the attacks on Kastalborg Island. My clan were one of several defending Ikstad during the necromancer rebellions.” Curious, Ember looked up at him. “Two dozen Northman ships sailed south to help the Blood Kingdoms during the rebellions. It left Kastalborg weakened so the Orotaq tried to invade—”

  “Kasik’s people have been fighting the Orotaq for centuries,” Giddeon added.

  “True,” the Northman nodded. “As for the grand shaman, every inch of his flesh was covered in brands like these. They represent a chronicle, a tale of their power, rank, and even their battlefield achievements. Their warriors have them too, but to a lesser degree and with none of the mystical designs.”

  “This must have been a large scale attack,” Giddeon said, returning everyone’s focus to the matter at hand. “At least for the Orotaq, anyway. Probably twenty or so warriors, three or four shamans. I imagine they were after the mines. I’m pretty sure that some obsidian glass was found in the mines here a few years ago. The Orotaq must have felt there was more to be found. Come on. Let’s see what else we can find.”

  They kept walking until they entered the town square at the north end of the village where the largest battle between the townsfolk and the Orotaq had taken place. Ember was horrified by what she saw.

  “Oh god, the smell,” she complained, gagging. Looking around, sheepishly, she apologized. “I’m sorry, but the smell is so bad. How can you handle it, Max?”

  “I was an overwatch sniper during the march on Baghdad, remember? This is nothing. Try breathing through your mouth, but only open it enough to breathe. No more or you might be tasting it as well. In Iraq, there so many flies from the dead bodies even that didn’t help. Breathe through your nose and smell the filth or breathe through your mouth and suck in filth-covered flies. Yeah, this is nothing,” he said, frowning. Ember turned a shade of green at his story, desperately fighting the urge to throw up.

  “Asshole,” she muttered.

  Saleece had been walking the outside perimeter of the battle, a habit taught to young wizards so they could observe and learn how a battle played out. She found two scorch marks on the ground.

  “Father, over here,” she called. He waved as he and the others came to see what she found.

  “What did you find?” he asked.

  Pointing at the scorch marks on the ground she asked, “Look. Are those what I think they are?”

  Bending over, he touched the ash with his fingers and then lifting it to his nose, he inhaled and caught a distinct smell.

  “They are. It smells like deep brimstone. Something materialized here from one of the lower planes of Hell. Look, there’s another one,” he pointed at the second mark close enough to the first that their outer rings of ash overlapped.

  “Well, that is disturbing,” Kasik said dryly. “I’ve never fought a lower denizen. Haven’t even heard of anyone trying to summon a demon, not since that necromancer attempted to pull Rajazeye out. What was it, fifteen years ago, Giddeon? You were there, if I remember the tale right.”

  “It was sixteen years ago, just before Princess Corleya was born,” he said, turning to Ember. “Rajazeye is the demon overlord of the first dimension of the Nine Hells, and it was hard enough stopping Azmerack from completing the spell. The demon never came fully across into our world. I would really rather not have to do such a thing again.”

  Ember had been listening, uneasy about what she was hearing, “‘Again’? You mean you didn’t kill it the first time?” she asked, clearly flabbergasted.

  “You can’t kill a demon overlord, nahlla,” Yrlissa explained. “You can only send them back, or if you have a Fae high priest with you, you can banish them back without having to fight it,” she smiled.

  Ember laughed at the ever-increasing absurdity of her situation. “All right then, Brain. We need a banish demon spell, quickly please. If I can jump people across the continent, then banishing a demon back to Hell should be a walk in the park, right?”

  “Afraid not,” Giddeon called over his shoulder.

  “Father’s right, Ember. Based on the few texts we’ve read, only Fae males were high priests. I do not think women could cast the banishment spell. Sorry,” Saleece said, shrugging her shoulders.

  “Great, just great,” Ember murmured as she sat down against a big oak tree on the north-western side of the square. She pulled her knees up and put her head on her arms, exhausted beyond words from nearly six months of stress, injuries, and worry. She dozed off in seconds. Yrlissa sat down beside her and rubbed her shoulders as Ember slowly woke up.

  “I’m so tired,” she said. “So much has happened, and I just can’t seem to get a hold of it. I’m tired, worried, and even sick about the idea of what might happen. I don’t like this place. It seems everyone is lying about this or that, and now there’s demons? Real fire and brimstone, hell-walking demons? Jesus Christ almighty. I sometimes have to wonder if I am back home lying in a hospital bed with a broken mind, and that is what brought me here. If Kael were here, I could deal with it, but... I can’t lose him, Lissa,” she said, putting her head on her friend’s shoulder.

  “I know you are scared, nahlla,” Yrlissa said, putting her arm around Ember. “So am I, but we are nearly there. You must remain as strong as you have been. I have seen what you are capable of, and you are strong enough to deal with this. I am proud to call you my friend. Now, come on. Let’s find a place to sleep for the night, and you can dream of having Kael in your arms in a matter of days. Maybe tonight he will allow you in when you dreamcast,” she said, attempting to cheer Ember up.

  “I doubt it. He thinks I’m those witches trying to get into his mind. The last time he shut me out, it hurt.”

  “I know, but years from now no one will be able to shut you out. It takes time, like everything else.”

  Giddeon called after them as Max and Kasik found a house in good condition with room for them all. They burned the bodies and got some rest. On the road early, Ember hoped they were closing the distance.

  ARGELA/ALEGRA NORTHERN GATES

  Ella the White and Desiree Star returned to Argela two full days behind Dominique and his crew. She sent Desiree to Alegra and immediately went to the house she had rented weeks ago. The run-down house was relatively inconspicuous, even if its tenants weren’t. Katarina was waiting for her.

  “Mistress,” she said, opening the door and stepping aside. “The last treatment worked shortly after you left. He’s awake and he’s coherent. He can even walk, but barely.” Ella stopped dead in her tr
acks. For eleven years, they’d been trying to help Cassel Morenax, Yrlissa Blackmist’s husband and the father of her dead child.

  “Of course, it did. Now I have to tell him his daughter died eleven years ago and Yrlissa almost six months ago. And that we’re hunting his old captain, Dominique Havarrow. Can this day get any worse?” A crash from the back bedroom rolled out into the main room of the house. Both women dashed to the room where Cassel had been unconscious until a week prior. Ella rushed to the smashed window and stared out, but Cassel was no where to be seen.

  “I thought you said he could barely walk?” Ella snapped.

  “He must have been faking, but even so, after eleven years he can’t have gone far.” Glancing behind her, Katarina gasped. “He took our journals. I’ll go after him, mistress. I...”

  “You don’t know Reavers very well, do you, dear? He’ll be long gone, vanished among hundreds of sailors who all look alike. We have more important things to worry about. When did Havarrow and his ships sail out?”

  “At dawn, yesterday. Five ships left, but two more joined him once they cleared the Lover’s Embrace.”

  “Seven ships,” Ella said, shaking her head. “Come. Hopefully Desiree has tracked down one of BlackSpawn’s men.”

  The two women left the working class neighbourhood and headed for the north-eastern gate that linked Argela to its sister city, Alegra. Passage into the Salzaran city was relatively simple. With the northern gates next to the entrance for the Dock of One, travel between the cities was much easier. The entry requirements from the docks kept most serious trouble out of the twin cities.

  Stepping foot into the Salzaran city was a far different experience. It was where the toughest sailors and pirates came for shore leave. Ella and Kat hadn’t walked twenty feet when the catcalls began. Hoots, whistles, and offers of night-long trips of pleasure drifted their way. Kat glanced at Ella and smiled, nodding to their left. A sailor, grabbing his crotch and thrusting his hips, stuck his tongue out at the White witch. Ella laughed and closed her right hand, making a fist to activate her magic.