Escana

by J. R. Karlsson

  'That creature can summon illusions at will, it can warp the minds around it and delve into your own. It will then use those thoughts against you until you conform to what it decides. It's unlikely that there was anyone else in that dungeon, everything it displayed to you was smoke and mirrors.'

  It hit him with a sickening jolt. The one incongruity in the entire conversation with the creature had been the final words of Falarus. He had called him his friend, he had forgiven him for what he was about to do. There had been no anger or fear at his exposition of character, simply sadness in that final moment.

  He had murdered his oldest friend in cold blood.

  84

  Ella

  She screamed wildly as they fell through the clouds, then abruptly ran out of breath. El-Vador's hand was still clamped firmly to her own and he clearly knew what he was doing.

  She stared down at the vast city sprawling beneath them.

  'This is lower Levanin, it differs little from any other large city in history for the most part.' He pointed to her right. 'Except for this.'

  She managed to turn her head as it was buffeted by winds, then thought that her eyes were playing tricks on her.

  A massive column jetted upward into the clouds, luminous without being blinding. The glowing light it exuded seemed to pulse as if it were alive.

  'What is that?' Ella asked, so aghast at the sight that she'd almost forgotten she was falling.

  'It is a beam of pure energy that keeps Upper Levanin afloat in the clouds. It is what separates the upper caste from the lower caste and the gifted from the mortal.'

  She blinked and they had stopped falling, instead she found herself being steadied in a large bright room with a domed ceiling. There was a roaring noise in her ears that wasn't the passing wind, it came from the column of light directly in front of them.

  'The humans here attribute this being to the divine will of a God they call Lektus. This focal point is the main hub of the Church Of Lektus, whose followers preach that to submit yourself to the divine energy is to be healed.'

  Ella stared up at the light in wonder, she couldn't fathom such a thing keeping an entire city aloft in the clouds. 'Is this the work of a God?'

  El-Vador snorted derisively. 'Of course not, it's the crowning feat of engineering from the old world but no more divine than I am. Simply beyond human understanding, which makes it enough to build a religion around.'

  'The book said you appeared here once to the followers and became a Godhead, what if the church were to see you now?'

  He walked closer to the beam, apparently unconcerned by the blazing heat. 'That was not the current incarnation of faith in this energy source. No, they were an earlier faith and an earlier people that inhabited the area around the beam. Long have they turned to dust and ash, good riddance.'

  She thought he seemed callous in his disregard for human life. 'If they were willing to treat you as a God, why do you look back on them with such disdain?'

  He turned to look at her, his back illuminated by the flowing energy. 'When one has great power initially it is amusing to exercise that power on the weak. If one is recognised as a God then such exhibitions of power are expected by your followers and when something is expected by your target the novelty is lost. Instead of having an infinite number of people to be stimulated by, I was bogged down by a simpering crowd of idiots.'

  'So why not go somewhere else? There must have been places that didn't see you as a God.'

  El-Vador shook his head. 'It was a very dark time for the world, all the old races were gone and what was left of humanity was but a fledgling thing growing out of catastrophe. I would have been greeted with superstition and fear anywhere I went. In those days I also lacked my glamour, I'd have been seen for the invader that I was.'

  'So you stayed in Levanin all that time? What happened to your followers?' Ella asked.

  'A plague took them,' El-Vador said quietly. 'They pleaded with me that I save them, then when I did not, they begged me to rescind my punishment. They thought I had brought this upon them, and they did not know what they had done to displease me. After a time all that was left living in the city was me.'

  Ella didn't know what to say to that. Apparently El-Vador wasn't done talking.

  'After that I sank into a deep melancholy for an unmarked number of years. That was when I decided to aid this fledgling people. I took the war to the plague that was wiping out all human life.'

  'How can you fight that which you cannot see?' Ella asked, hopelessly out of her depth.

  The air started to glow around her, making the domed room even brighter than before.

  'It took me many long years to extend my power outward into the source of the plague, I could try and explain such a thing to you but unless you were to experience it yourself it would be entirely beyond your comprehension. I mean that not as a criticism of your own powers of deduction, it's simply not demonstrable.'

  The air faded back into transparency, he took a step closer to her.

  'I saved all of humanity, I took them from their dirt huts and their plague-ravaged lands and helped forge the very Empire you now see before you. To this day I still travel to every corner of the land to keep the peace and prevent terrifying things befalling those that reside there.'

  Once again, Ella thought of Jakob. 'What of Sah'kel, Jakob and Jimmy? Why did you not help them?'

  He shook his head sadly, as if she had missed some fundamental point and he was loathe to correct her. 'The orders to take them into the desert were given for a reason, they are not for me to contradict.'

  'You're capable of such power though, why take orders from anyone?' she asked.

  'The orders come from the Emperor himself, the pinnacle of the society that I helped shape, what kind of person would I be if I were to fly in the face of my own ideals simply because the construction as a result exhibits free will that isn't in line with my own choices?'

  He had a point, she conceded. El-Vador did not desire the role of supreme dictator to the people and to commandeer the Emperor's power by refusing orders and enacting his own would be to become so.

  'The Emperor didn't give specific orders to send them to the desert, that was Kelgrimm's command alone. Could you not have spared them in your mercy?'

  He shook his head. 'The Emperor specifically demands that anyone who attempts to usurp a Justice be sent to Sah'kel. Kelgrimm spared them a more painful death by sending them to Greyhawk as opposed to what he did with his two misguided associates who will soon be butchered on the front line.'

  Ella couldn't believe what she was hearing. 'If you fight for the good of humanity why do you allow the butchery of war to continue? Do you not have the power to stop such things once and for all?'

  'Sah'kel is the final frontier of the great expansion, the last wild bastion uncolonised, the Emperor has his reasons for doing so. There would be no endeavour if I was sent to negate all the problems they would encounter. The Empire may be regulated by my presence but it has been built on the backs of humanity. The losses incurred there are regrettable but necessary in the greater scheme of things.'

  Ella backed away from him, the light was playing strangely on his face as he spoke these words of endeavour and regret. 'What do you mean by the greater scheme of things?' She asked.

  'The expansive plans of the Emperor, how he foresees humanity living in peace everywhere through their own efforts.'

  It sounded dangerously like the totalitarian forces El-Vador himself claimed to have opposed in her book. 'You would ally yourself with a man that would send thousands to their deaths based upon an ideal?'

  El-Vador sighed. 'Every human sent to Sah'kel is either a volunteer or a criminal that would otherwise have been sentenced to death. The Emperor is offering these soldiers an opportunity for redemption even if they are slain and potentially a new home should they succeed. You would gainsay this?'

  She stopped edging toward the exit, once again the reality that she couldn't run fr
om him had imposed itself and furthermore, she discovered that his words rung true. Would she rather the Emperor mandate mass imprisonment instead of hope? If El-Vador were to sweep in and clear Sah'kel of any opposition, assuming he could, what would the Emperor then do with the criminal element of his subjects?

  'Every moment you sleep, I am out there in the great expanse beyond. Righting wrongs and settling disputes and administering justice in places that previously had never known the word. It is my duty to the people I have helped nurture and it is something I feel obligated to do while humanity grows into fruition as a race. I am the silent watcher that executes justice throughout the land, that maintains the balance amidst the threat of chaos and protects man for their own betterment.'

  It was upon those words, staring back at him as he stood in front of a curtain of light, that she saw El-Vador entirely for who he was. He was the hero from her book, the deathless champion from her dreams become flesh before her very eyes.

  85

  Jimmy

  He yelped as the guard prodded him forward, demanding that he pick up the pace yet again. He was the only new addition to what Tub derisively called C-Company, the other potential entrant having died at the ugly man's brutal hands.

  The sandy stone walls flew by in a blur as he leapt forward, hoping that his speed was enough to convince the guard not to punish him any further out of amusement. He had no idea where he was going.

  The command to halt finally came as they were passing a small wooden door to his left. There were few doors that he had seen in the fort so far, then again there was nowhere for a thief to go and precious little worth stealing.

  The guard rapped the door with the butt of his spear and fumbled in his belt for a set of keys. After unlocking the door he demanded that Jimmy push it open.

  Having little choice but to comply, Jimmy was prodded into a surprisingly well-lit room with a series of crude beds and a hole cut in the wall. Most of the occupants didn't bother looking up at him, they continued lying there as if dead.

  The door slammed shut and the sound of the lock sealed Jimmy in with the rest of these strange men. He cautiously looked around him, they were a desperate bunch even by the standards of the cage he had been brought here in. Those few that weren't white-haired either sported severe injuries or were bed-ridden. All except an emaciated-looking foreigner who sat in the corner of the room, staring at him.

  'Only one of them this time,' a weary voice croaked to his left. 'Either the scraps are getting better or Yalem and Tub are getting more ruthless.'

  If the comment had been directed at anyone else there was no acknowledgement, Jimmy was uncertain as to whether he should respond or not. There was something oddly intimidating about a few of these decrepit men.

  'I am Jimmy, is this C-Company?'

  The old man who had spoken nodded at him sadly. 'That it is boy, what is a hale young thing such as yourself doing in a shit hole like this?'

  The cursing sounded strange coming from such a friendly voice.

  'I am a political prisoner,' Jimmy finally ventured. 'My name is Jimmy,' he added as an afterthought.

  He got nodded at once again. 'You must have upset someone very powerful in order to be taken to Greyhawk. In spite of your journey you seem curiously intact, why have you been sent to C-Company if you survived the cage?'

  Jimmy figured that honesty was the best policy in these cramped circumstances. 'I did not travel unaided, my friends came to my defence on a number of occasions.'

  The sound of a throat cleared from the other side of the room. 'So you're a coward then? Letting others fight your battles for you. We have no time for cowards in Greyhawk.'

  Another old man with heavy-lidded eyes and a crooked nose had propped himself up on his elbows. He looked Jimmy up and down as if he were a piece of meat for inspection. 'You won't last the week, I can smell it.'

  'Now Darinnis,' the other man chided. 'Jimmy is feeling isolated enough as it is without his friends, no need for you to demand he become a warrior.'

  Darinnis scoffed. 'And no need for you to be all kind to him in the hopes he'll share your bed, Eigani.'

  Jimmy's new found friend showed no signs of denying it, there was a strange hunger in the old man's eyes. Darinnis let out a laugh that subsided into painful coughing. 'None of us are good men here, young Jimmy.' This received a faint chorus of agreement from everyone but Eigani. 'Get used to it, a coward like you'll be spending the rest of his life in this room.'

  The emaciated foreigner rose to his feet, the rest of the men in the room lost interest in goading and fell silent.

  He stared at Jimmy through strangely narrow eyes, as if noticing his arrival in the room for the first time. Stretching an arm out, he beckoned him to come closer.

  Jimmy looked at Eigani in askance but the man had fearfully averted his gaze, no longer wanting anything to do with the boy.

  He hesitantly walked the short distance of the room, utterly alone and without a friend in the world as this strange man with questionable intentions continued to look at him.

  The foreigner closed the distance and stretched out toward him, clamping his finger and thumb over Jimmy's cheek and giving it a squeeze. He nodded at him and silently smiled. Jimmy smiled back nervously, unsure of what to do.

  'You are still flush with youth, boy. Your appearance could be mistaken for that of a girl in my home city. Do you know how many girls there are in Greyhawk, Jimmy?'

  Jimmy didn't like where this conversation was going at all, he didn't answer the stranger.

  Releasing Jimmy's cheek, he shrugged as if the lack of response was not a matter of importance. 'There are no girls in Greyhawk, we are all men here. Though some of us look more like girls than others, do you understand?'

  He nodded back at the stranger, his mouth feeling very dry.

  'Yes, you have the soft skin and pretty features, you will do perfectly.'

  The fear that had been creeping up on Jimmy throughout the conversation started to take control. He turned and sprinted desperately toward the hole in the wall, stumbling over a blanket and nearly braining himself on the wall. In his panic he had forgotten how small the hole was, far too small for anyone to escape through. He searched desperately around the room for a weapon or exit or anything to get him away from this ill-intentioned stranger that advanced at a measured pace, nothing presented itself. Finally he bolted for the door, knowing it was locked. He hammered on it and yelled for the guards at such a volume that it split his voice. Nobody came.

  A powerful hand pressed him face-first into the door, a chest pushed up against his back and he felt the man's breath in his ear.

  'Do you know who Corporal Dyson is, Jimmy?'

  Jimmy nodded. 'He's the man in charge of all of Greyhawk.' He hoped his brief answer would satisfy the man, he had no idea why he was being asked in the first place.

  'I want you to gain his confidence with your girlish features and demeanour. Then you will tell me everything he tells you. Will you do this for me, Jimmy?'

  Jimmy nodded swiftly, not knowing how he was going to accomplish this but knowing he wasn't in any position to argue.

  'Good.' The pressure on Jimmy's back eased. 'Rest yourself, you've had a long journey.'

  That was it? Was the stranger now expecting Jimmy to share a blanket with him? Jimmy shuddered, but the man gave no indication that he wanted to be followed. If anything it seemed as if he made his way back into the corner as if nothing had happened.

  He picked a spare blanket equal distance away from both the stranger and the perverted Eigani, who had gone back to staring at him now that the stranger was done with him.

  Jimmy curled up and shut his eyes tightly, the implications of what he'd just agreed to hit him, there was no way out no matter what he did now. He started to sob.

  Yalem walked away from the door, he had heard more than enough.

  86

  Dyson

  Corporal Dyson paced back and forth behind his desk, i
f what Yalem had alluded to was true then he had bigger problems on his hands than the strange-looking beast-tamer plotting against him to contend with.

  A familiar knock came on the door and he muttered that they may enter, seating himself he turned his gaze upward to Tub, who remained at resolute attention with salute firmly in place. 'Why do you think I've brought you here at such a late hour, Tub?'

  Unimaginative as always, Tub refused to take a guess. 'I don't know sir, why have you brought me here?'

  Dyson inspected a sheet of paper on his desk, letting the man sweat somewhat. He liked to instil a bit of fear into Tub as he found that was when the man worked best, and a most effective best it had been until now.

  'I have been informed by my capable bodyguard that while dividing the new acquisitions into companies you made a mistake. In all the years you have been tasked with this, not once has he accused you of such incompetence. Do you feel you have made a mistake, Tub?'

  The look of shock and puzzlement on the man's face made it clear he had no idea what Dyson was talking about, he opened his mouth to speak but was silenced by a raised hand.

  'Yalem claims that you placed a member of B-Company into A-Company without any suggestion on the prisoner's part as to why he'd merit that position.'

  Tub creased his brows, clearly unenlightened by the further explanation. 'I'm sorry sir, I have no idea what you're... what Yalem is talking about.'

  Dyson smiled dangerously, it wasn't often that Tub and Yalem were on a different page, this could prove interesting.

  The second knock on the door was immaculately timed, at Dyson's beckoning it opened to reveal Yalem returning with the prisoner in question.

  He was a scrawny youth with charcoal black hair and deep blue eyes that surveyed the room swiftly, the boy's gaze flashed over him briefly and then affixed itself firmly upon Tub.

  'This is the prisoner Yalem claims you elevated to A-Company without so much as a trial, what do you say to this?'

  Tub looked at the boy up and down, his eyes narrowing as if in fierce concentration or perhaps suspicion. Then his countenance cleared. 'This prisoner was selected to be in A-Company, yes. I remember it clearly.'