The Bane of Karrak_Ascension II of III

by Robert J Marsters

  Poom backed away. Re-joining Lawton, the two began to whisper.

  “Well?” asked Lawton.

  “I know who it is, I just don’t know what it is,” Poom replied.

  “I don’t follow,” said the puzzled Lawton.

  “He actually introduced himself to them,” Poom continued. “Said his name’s Ramah, but I couldn’t get a clear look at his face. I could only see his legs. Green slimy skin, but it’s not a snake like the hissthaar. Shall we just go and kill them all? We can always figure out what they are later.”

  “On any other day, Poom, old friend, we’d already be in the thick of battle, but we have given our word, and that is something we must always keep. We have to get King Tamor safely to the meeting point with Yello. It’s for Jared, remember? Even you can’t deny the fact that you like him.”

  “Do you realise how difficult it is to be as nice as me? It’s a curse, you know, Lawton, everyone looking up to you, knowing that they’d be lost without you.”

  “And do you realise what a shame it is that we Gerrowliens don’t like water? If we did, Poom, we could move to the coast and you could be worshipped by the villagers out there as well.”

  “I’m a legendary warrior who uses a spear, how could I be of any use in water?”

  “They could use your fat head as a flotation device!” replied Lawton, still focussing on the ridge.

  They crept away, Lawton gently patting Tamor’s cheek over his shoulder. “Let’s get you back to your son, old man,” he mouthed. After what they believed to be a safe distance, they once more began to sprint and before long were re-united with Yello.

  “You chaps really can get a wiggle on, can’t you? When you don’t have an old wizard slowing you down, that is,” he called as they approached.

  “Get a wiggle on?” asked Poom, having never heard the phrase before.

  “I think he means we’re fast,” suggested Lawton, covering his mouth with the back of his hand.

  “Well, if that’s his idea of a compliment, he can keep it,” snorted Poom.

  “No problems then?” asked Yello.

  “Not as such…” replied Lawton, “… but I need to ask you a question. Have you ever come across the name Ramah before?”

  Yello shook his head, wracking his brains for any distant memory or overheard conversation, “No, doesn’t ring any bells I’m afraid. Why, should I have heard of him?”

  Lawton and Poom informed Yello of their brief encounter with the hissthaar and the mysterious being who, it seemed, was attempting to befriend them.

  “How very odd,” said Yello. “The hissthaar never ally with anyone. I’ll speak with Emnor, see if he knows of our mystery man. When I say man, I obviously mean… oh never mind, you know what I mean.”

  “I wouldn’t bother if I were you. Whoever he is will be dead by the time you come back. If you come back here that is,” said Poom, calmly.

  “Why? Did you see something? Were they about to be attacked?” asked Yello, suddenly intrigued.

  “No, but they will be when we get back there,” laughed Lawton.

  “I don’t think that would be wise, my friends. Maybe you could wait a while until I have consulted with Emnor, just a couple of hours. It wouldn’t do to draw too much attention to ourselves unnecessarily.”

  “There won’t be any of them left alive to gossip about it, Yello, on that you have my word,” said Lawton, showing his claws.

  “Of that I have no doubt, my dear sir. However, what if others are awaiting their arrival? If they are missed, a small war band could soon be replaced with an entire tribe, searching for their whereabouts.”

  “What is this world coming to!” exclaimed Poom. “We’re not even allowed to kill the nasty ones for fear of bringing even more. It’s ridiculous. I say we go back, kill them as we planned, then kill the ones that come looking for them as well, problem solved.”

  “Mmm…” said Lawton, “… and if there’s a couple of hundred? We could escape easily, but if Emnor or the companions have to come through here again, it’s going to make it terribly difficult for them.”

  Poom drove his spear into the ground. “I might as well trade this in for a fishing rod,” he grumbled.

  “So, my idea of moving to the coast sounding appealing, is it?” asked Lawton with a big grin.

  Yello, again, stepped between them, “Can we be serious for a moment? How’s King Tamor doing?”

  Lawton, once again, patted Tamor’s cheek. “Sleeping like a baby,” he replied.

  Leaning forward, Yello folded Tamor’s arms across his chest and pulled his majestic robes tight about his shoulders. “Stay here you two, I shan’t be long.” Placing the palm of his hand on the king’s forehead, he quietly chanted a few words and vanished.

  ***

  He appeared moments later in the main courtyard of Reiggan Fortress. The air around him pulsed, the background rippling like the surface of a pond that had been disturbed by a discarded pebble. Absent for five days and unable to get word to his colleagues in all that time, he was still a little surprised when a ball of flame flew past his head within seconds of his arrival. “It’s me, you blasted fools!” he bellowed. Three wands disappeared beneath robes. The culprit, it seemed, wished to remain anonymous. Yello immediately turned away to check on Tamor.

  “Tarrock old boy, where have you been? Who’s that you’ve got there? Come on man, speak up,” urged Emnor.

  “Do be quiet, Emmy,” sighed the exhausted Yello. “One thing at a time. Fetch Jared. Now.”

  Harley, realising that this was no normal request, turned and ran as fast as he could to fetch the prince. “Yello’s back, he wants to see you,” he panted as he barged into Jared’s quarters.

  “Alright Harley, calm down. What does he want me for?” asked Jared, rising quickly.

  “No idea, but he’s brought someone back with him,” replied Harley.

  “Who?” asked Jared.

  “Not a clue, sorry, but whoever he is, he’s out cold and floating in mid-air.”

  Jared shot a look at Hannock, who shrugged his shoulders, then instinctively grabbed his sword and followed the prince.

  Jared marched briskly into the courtyard. Glancing across, he could see the body floating and at first was simply intrigued by it, but his intrigue turned to horror as he recognised his father’s face. Running to his side, he grabbed Tamor’s hand. “Father, what happened to you? Father!” he called. It was pointless.

  Yello took Jared’s arm and steered him away slightly, “He cannot hear you, Jared.”

  “Why? What has happened to him? Will he live?” pleaded the prince.

  “Physically, he is unharmed. Mentally, however, I am unsure. He seems tormented, as if in a perpetual nightmare. Emnor and I shall endeavour to recover his mind, but I am afraid there is little hope that he will again be the man he once was.”

  “Who did this, Yello? Was it Karrak?” growled Jared.

  “I suspect it was, but I have no proof. There was no one left in Borell to question. Soldiers, courtiers, servants, all had disappeared without trace. Not even the slightest damage to any buildings and no bodies of any who may have been murdered.”

  “He emptied the entire kingdom? Thousands of people just… gone. Why would he want so many prisoners… unless?”

  “Unless what, Jared?” asked Emnor.

  “Could they have faced the same fate as the villagers in Cheadleford? Could he have turned them all into beasts?”

  “Impossible!” scoffed Emnor. “Far too many for a start. He may have somehow enslaved them, but transforming them would serve no purpose, even to a mind as twisted as his.”

  “He’s using them as slave labour to repair Merrsdan. He must have damaged it far worse than he had intended, it’s obvious now I come to think of it,” said Yello slowly, a strange disbelief in his voice.

  “I don’t care what he’s using them for, we’ve got to stop him!” roared Jared. “We need to find him now, today, and when we do, I’ll s
ever his head from his neck for this. He has done harm to the king and that is blatant treason, the sentence for which is death!”

  King Tamor was taken to a secluded room within Reiggan and Alex quickly volunteered to keep an eye on him, lest he wake. Yello assured him that this wouldn’t happen, tapping his hand against his bag as if trying to tell Alex something. Alex was far too naïve to realise what that was and even missed the point when Yello winked at him.

  “Were you at least successful in finding one of Karrak’s possessions, Yello?” asked Jared.

  “I’m not entirely sure. I was expecting to encounter someone who could guide me in Borell, but as it was deserted, I could only hazard a guess, I’m afraid.” Reaching into his bag, Yello produced the piece of cloth he suspected of being used to gag Karrak. “I thought perhaps this might be of some use.”

  Jared snatched it from his hand. “You had an entire castle full of belongings and you bring this!” he snapped, “An old piece of rag. How in the name of thunder did you actually come to the conclusion that a scrap of cloth would somehow lead us to my brother?”

  “As I said…” began Yello, his tone becoming much sterner, “… I had no idea which chambers were Karrak’s or yours or your jelly-brained father’s, so don’t start bellowing at me, boy. Have I spent time in your castle in the past? No. Have I even met a Borellian before being introduced to you? No. So how would I have the slightest idea of where to begin searching said entire castle for a random object belonging to someone I’ve never met? Nice to know you have such gratitude for my endeavours, Your Highness. Now, prince or no prince, I suggest you back off before I do something you’ll regret. Your king would be dead by now, if not for me. I shall, however, not take all the credit. Our friends, the Gerrowliens, also played a part in extricating your father from peril.”

  Although his main intent was to inform his friends of the events that had taken place, Yello made no attempt to veil his threat toward Jared. His fatigue had made him a little more irascible than he realised and before he could continue with his insults or threats Emnor, wanting to save Yello from himself, spoke quickly, “Do you mean Poom and Lawton?”

  Yello smiled. “The very same,” he replied, shaking his head. “God, they’re infuriating at times.”

  “What were they doing in Borell?” asked Emnor, slightly confused.

  “They weren’t in Borell. I met up with them in Cheadleford on the way back. And before you ask, they were investigating rumours of large groups of hissthaar returning to the area.”

  “Hang on,” said Hannock, “I thought they’d all scarpered. Why would they return when Jendilomin and the forest nymphs were still around?”

  “That’s the problem, they’re not, they’ve disappeared. Poom and Lawton have searched high and low, but can find no trace of them. No signs of battle or anything untoward, they’re just… gone,” replied Yello, holding up his hands.

  “Have Poom and Lawton gone back to Shaleford Forest now?” asked Harley, suddenly.

  “No, not yet. They’re waiting for my go-ahead actually,” replied Yello.

  “They’re waiting for you to tell them it’s alright for them to go home?” asked Harley, screwing up his face in confusion.

  “Not exactly. They’re waiting for me to tell them whether or not to attack a band of hissthaar, well, them and a new mystery… ‘man’. Well, it may not be a man.”

  “We could do with a little more clarity, Yello, old chap. Is it a man or not?” asked Emnor.

  “Not unless you know any men who have luminous green legs. Poom was spying on them and couldn’t get a look at the creature’s face, but he did overhear his name. What was it now?” Yello began gently tapping his brow with his fingertips. “Roger? No, that wasn’t it. Remus? No, not that either. Ramah!” he suddenly exclaimed. “That was it, Ramah. Ring any bells with anyone?”

  “Not the name, no, but the green skin could mean… Hannock, do you remember those things that ambushed us just before we met Faylore for the first time?” asked Jared. “The ones that attacked the local villages? The ones father almost wiped out, the Dergon?”

  “Of course, I remember them,” replied Hannock. “But King Tamor said there were only a handful left. Surely, they could never pose a threat again?”

  “Not alone, no, but if they had allies… And father did say that they had a leader, and was convinced that that leader was not amongst the bodies they cremated.”

  “If he’s there and he has other Dergon with him, Poom and Lawton may be biting off more than they can chew. If they have to face the hissthaar as well, I doubt they’ll survive. We need to get them out of there, fast.” Turning to Emnor, Jared began giving orders. Ordinarily, no wizard would have accepted an order given by any other than a member of the Administration, but this was the beginning of a new age. There was the uncertainty as to whether the present company was indeed the sum of the wizarding world, and if this was the case, all friendships now had to be cherished far more than they had been for countless millennia.

  “Take the boys, Emnor, and bring the Gerrowliens back here. Yello, you should rest, but not until you have given Emnor the precise location in which you left our friends. Boys, if you should encounter either the Dergon or the hissthaar, lay low and let them pass. Do not, under any circumstances, engage them. Is that clear?” The young men nodded in understanding. “Hannock, lay out weapons in case any of our enemies manage to get in here, we don’t know for sure if they have a mage, necromancer, sorcerer or the like in tow. I know it’s unlikely, but we shall not be caught off guard, let’s move.”

  There was suddenly a lot of hustle and bustle as each member of the ‘rescue party’ took their positions. After a few minutes, Emnor and the boys stood in a circle, watched by Yello, Jared and Hannock. Emnor nodded toward them and as they became transparent, Hannock glimpsed Drake, who winked at him, looked at Jared whilst shaking his head and mouthed, what a prat, before disappearing completely.

  Moments later they appeared where they had been directed by Yello, but the Gerrowliens, regrettably, were nowhere to be seen. Emnor steered the boys toward the nearest dense shrubs and gestured for them to crouch down.

  “Those bloody Gerrowliens can’t keep still for a minute, can they!” exclaimed Drake.

  “They can’t be far away. Probably just camouflaged somewhere,” said Emnor.

  “Or in the middle of a punch-up with anything that has green skin,” suggested Harley.

  “Yello asked them to wait until he returned. He wasn’t with us more than fifteen minutes. Where could they have gone?” wondered Emnor aloud.

  “Have you seen the speed they travel at, Master Emnor?” asked Xarran. “They can cover miles in fifteen minutes.”

  “Or they could be dead and in a hissthaar’s stomach,” suggested Alex.

  “That’s quite enough of that, Alex. They are not dead, they’re simply hidden. So well hidden that they don’t know we’re here. Stay where you are, I’m going to look for them.”

  “Master Emnor, you can’t go alone. Take one of us with you, it’ll be safer with two.”

  “And more noticeable. No, I’ll go alone. Don’t worry Drake, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Without another word, Emnor crept away.

  “I’m getting sick of this,” hissed Drake. “That silly old sod’s going to get himself killed and it’ll be our fault. You do realise that, don’t you?”

  “It is becoming a bit of a theme, isn’t it?” said Xarran. “They just see us as a bunch of little kids. What do you think, Drake, time to teach the teacher a lesson?” he asked, grinning.

  “If you do this, we all have to do it. Alex, what do you think?” asked Harley.

  Alex looked across at Harley, but his eyes were easily drawn away from his friend’s face to the one that was directly behind him. Alex was tired, completely exhausted. No one could see or hear what he saw, the ghost of his half-brother, mocking him and calling him a coward. “I’m in,” he replied. “Let’s go.”

 
; They edged through the bushes as silently as was possible, pausing occasionally to take in their surroundings and hoping to catch a glimpse of a familiar face or recognise the sound of a voice. Each time, however, they were disheartened, as neither scenario presented itself. They had now lost all track of time. Unsure of themselves, they quickened their pace slightly, forgetting that stealth was actually their greatest ally as they endeavoured to locate their friends. Drake, as always the adventurer, was leading the procession and seemed quite sure of his route when suddenly, stepping over a few fallen branches, he lost his footing and plunged down a shallow gorge that was hidden by the undergrowth. His friends gasped in horror as he disappeared. Rushing to the point where he had fallen, they could see him below, sitting on the ground with his elbows on his knees, looking totally embarrassed.

  “Did you enjoy that?” asked Xarran, in a whisper.

  “Very nice, thank you,” hissed Drake. “Why don’t you give it a try?”

  The four stifled their laughter, but their amusement was cut short as they heard twigs snapping nearby, snapping as if they were being trodden on. Drake shuffled to the side and hid beneath the shrubs as, likewise, his friends above sought shelter. As they watched, two figures appeared. Huge muscular figures with luminous green skin that blended into the lush background. So this was what a Dergon looked like.

  Eight-foot-tall, musculature that could crush a mule and a face that looked as if the mule had won the first round. The young wizards were out of options. They were in a direct line with the Dergon’s route and there was no way that they could move without being discovered. Should they attack and destroy this formidable foe without giving them the slightest chance to retaliate? The Dergon, thankfully, paused and the four wizards could see that there were no hissthaar with them. Drake’s eyes moved upward. What had he seen? Was there a hint of orange in the trees above the Dergon? Drake smiled… it was Poom.

  Amazingly, Poom was actually doing the splits between two trees and was holding his spear with two hands, its point directly above one of the green slimy heads. Poom raised his spear and was about to plunge it through the Dergon’s skull when a hand wrapped around his wrist from above. If it had been Lawton’s hand, it would have been no surprise, but it was Emnor’s. The old wizard was floating, cross-legged in mid-air, holding Poom by the wrist and wagging his finger in order to deter the Gerrowlien from his actions. The strangest part of the entire scene was that the Dergon were completely unaware of what was happening directly above them. Emnor, still looking directly into Poom’s eyes, pointed out Drake and the others, causing Poom to nod his head and give the ‘thumbs-up’.