by Martin Ash
"Well, Jace," Ombo stared down at her. "You return from the dead and strike terror into the hearts of our enemies! You are a woman like none I’ve ever known."
Issul eyed him, unsure of what to make of the expression on his flushed face. "I saw no terror," she said. "But the day is ours, and you are free men again. For that I’m glad."
It was all over in the work-compound, but the cost had been high. Of the eleven workers, the Karai had killed four instantly. Three more had died fighting them. Four stood now staring expectantly at her and Shenwolf and the others. She saw with relief that all five of her companions had survived, though Herbin had been stabbed in the shoulder and one of the former soup-carriers was sitting clutching his side, which poured with blood.
Kol approached her. "Jace, Herbin, I believed you gone forever. Later you must tell me how you survived. First, though, you should know that there are three prisoners down there, with two guards."
He pointed to the stone steps which led into the underground building.
Issul sat down wearily as Shenwolf came and stood beside her. A welter of thoughts were rushing through her mind. The day was won, even if there remained something more to do. But her elation was tempered by other knowledge. She had killed. It was something she had never thought to do. Never wanted. It had begun when she was ambushed on the Crosswood road, but that she had somehow put from her mind. Then it had been blind reaction. But today had been slaughter, planned and achieved. With sword and arrow she had taken lives, and she was changed forever. Her world could never be quite the same again.
"Do you know the layout down there?" asked Shenwolf.
Kol nodded. "In part. There is a central chamber where no prisoner is allowed."
"We must go down," said Issul, getting to her feet.
"I will come with you," Kol said. "Just let me remove these shackles."
Phisusandra stood beside them. "I will come too. I sense something. . . something strange."
Issul turned to him. "What do you mean?"
"I don’t know, but I am Murinean and perhaps more sensitive than you humans to subtle auras or changes in the air."
"You refer to magic?" Shenwolf asked, his voice low.
Phisusandra shrugged. "I refer to something I have no words for."
Issul addressed the remainder of the group. "Free yourselves of your chains and go to the camp. It’s time to celebrate. Get food and drink from the Karai stores, and bandages and medicines for those that need them. Tend to your two companions who we have freed from the frames. Beware, there may be Karai still hidden in the camp. Take them alive if you can. We’ll join you presently."
Kol had found the release key for his shackles on one of the dead Karai.
"Are you ready?" asked Issul as the others shuffled back towards the main compound.
He nodded, taking weapons from the corpse. Swords drawn, they descended the steps. They entered a gloom relieved by a couple of torches set upon the walls, illuminating a short passageway. There was a strange, steely smell in the grim air, mingling with the dank odours of earth and stone.
"The passage turns to the left into another chamber," whispered Kol.
Around the corner they came upon the body of one of the prisoners, his blood soaking into the dark earth. Issul recognized him as one of the men from her hut.
Kol swore. "They have no souls."
Two more bodies lay close upon the threshold of the chamber they now entered. A doorway was set into the wall facing them, and another to the left.
"This one we are not permitted to enter," Kol said, indicating the door opposite. "After we had excavated it we were barred."
"And the other?" asked Issul.
"A long passage set with stalls of some kind."
Shenwolf turned to Phisusandra. "What do you feel?"
"Unease. Something is here. I can’t say what."
They moved towards the door on the left and Shenwolf pushed it cautiously open. The passage beyond was in darkness. They took torches from the walls of the chamber and entered. A central walkway stretched before them, flanked on each side with a row of small compartments, as if for domestic beasts or perhaps for storage of goods of some kind. All the stalls they passed were untenanted.
Further along a wider passage gave off to the right, leading upwards towards a source of light. Shenwolf crept towards the light, vanished for a moment, then returned. "It leads out directly into the forest."
"You said there were two Karai down here?" said Issul to Kol, who nodded. "It looks as though they have escaped through here."
Further down the long chamber they came upon a strange and eerie sight. Upon the floor of two of the stalls a pile of dry grass, leaves, twigs and mud had been arranged into a rough dish-shape, about two cubits in diameter. In the centre of each of these dishes rested a large mottled grey-brown sphere.
Phisusandra approached the last stall. Something moved, a dark shape rose before him. He leapt back as an ear-splitting shriek rent the air of the long chamber. A slooth hacked at him with its huge beak, flapping and leaping angrily in the limited space, swiping with its claws. Shenwolf and Issul rushed to the attack. Within moments the thing lay headless at their feet.
"Are you harmed?" asked Issul.
Phisusandra shook his head. "My bowels are looser."
"These are brooding pens," said Shenwolf, gazing around him. "I believe we disturbed this one as she was laying her egg."
"Look here!" said Kol. He was at the stall opposite. The single egg in the nest there was broken. Struggling to break through the remaining membrane was a creature the size of a small cat, scrawny, hairless and slime-covered, but otherwise the perfect replica in miniature of the parent-slooth they had just slain.
"By the spirits," breathed Issul. She turned away, strangely saddened as Phisusandra raised his sword and ended the tiny creature's brief existence.
"We should inspect the other chamber," said Shenwolf when he had assured himself that nothing else lived in the stalls. They quickly destroyed the remaining slooth eggs and made their way back to the ante-chamber. Issul moved to the second door, the one which Kol had said the prisoners had been barred from entering. As she put her hand to it, the door swung slowly back. She looked into a glimmering chamber, lined with earth and shored with stout oak supports. A strange greenish light flickered within, but she could not see its source for much of the chamber was obscured by the door. She stepped cautiously in and peered around the door.
In the centre of the chamber was an object like nothing she had ever seen. An oval, hovering above the ground, not shaped by any frame or definite outline, but rather by a brilliant green mist which fluxed and whorled within it. Issul stepped forward, fascinated. The thing was truly quite beautiful to behold.
As she watched, the mist within the oval form became agitated. Its colour changed, to citron, deep orange, pearl, then blue. Quite suddenly a thick plume of vapour gouted forth and, before she could react, enveloped Issul. She experienced an unfamiliar sensation, nothing dramatic, almost a simple acceptance that things were not as they had been.
She was in another chamber, lined with stone walls. Three figures sat at a table before her. They were children, identical except that their ages differed by perhaps a year or two. She put them at eight, nine and ten. They were dressed identically in shining blue robes. Their skin was pure white, their hair also, which fell straight and long past their shoulders. Their eyes were the most brilliant piercing blue that Issul had ever seen. She could not tell whether they were male or female.
All three looked up at her, and one - the smallest - said, "Aha, a visitor. At last."
All three stood, together, their motion as well as their appearance identical, and they approached her. Issul was aware that the coloured mist still flowed around her, and that though her limbs were free she could not change her position. She seemed in fact to be floating, held in the changing mist like a fish in a globe of water. The three children inspected her, their eyes pas
sing up and down her body, back and forth, moving around her. Issul strove to look behind her for her companions. She found it impossible to turn right around, but as far as she could make out she was alone.
The younger child spoke again. "You have come from the Reach."
The other two smiled.
"She is confused," said one.
"A visitor from the Reach," said the other.
"She is beautiful," said the younger.
"But not ours," said the elder.
"Not perfectly," said the middle child. "Not yet."
The elder child nodded. "They are always confused."
Issul could see through a window in the wall beyond the three children. There were mountains and an impossibly blue sky. There were disturbances in the air. There were colours, changing and shifting. She felt an inexplicable urge to weep. "Where am I?"
"See," said the middle child. "Always so confused. They never understand."
"Think of this as a dream," said the younger child. "For that is what it is. But you are not the dreamer, and the dream is not yours. Do you understand?"
"I am in another's dream?" asked Issul. Her voice sounded distant and detached.
"The dream of many," said the child. "And they may not know that they dream. They may not even know that they are. And in many instances they are not. For nothing here has happened, and perhaps never will. Now, you are even more confused. And I can say nothing more except Welcome. Welcome to the true world, the many-named domain, where all things are possible. Yes, welcome. Welcome to Enchantment."
The tale unravels…
The mysteries deepen…
Intrigue, conflict, betrayal… mistrust, magic and the incomparably strange world of Enchantment are illuminated, even as Enchantment’s Reach struggles to survive against gathering enemies, known and unknown.
Read on, in:
Enchantment’s Reach 2: The Orb and the Spectre
Enchantment’s Reach 3: Orbelon’s World
Enchantment’s Reach 4: Into the Dark Flame
Enchantment’s Reach 5: What Lies Within
Enchantment’s Reach 6: OrbSoul
Author’s note: I sincerely hope you have enjoyed reading Enchantment’s Reach. If you have, please let others know. One great way to do this is to leave a review on Amazon. It really helps.
Click here to leave a comment or review.
Thank you.
Martin Ash
Table of Contents
Copyright
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TWO
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THREE
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FOUR
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FIVE
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SIX
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SEVEN
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EIGHT
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NINE
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Author’s note:
