by Philip Blood
"I know about your belief that I am the reason the Togroths are here, but I cannot, and will not, hide behind the skirts of midwives back in my rooms while my city falls!"
Mara sighed. "Gandarel, there is more to this, and I'm willing to explain, if you will but come and hear my reasons. I promise you will not be disappointed."
"Perhaps, but much depends on my councilors, I will try," Gandarel promised.
Aerin suddenly looked around. "Where are Tocor and Yearl?"
Mara looked troubled. "Yearl is around somewhere, but Tocor is chasing the Dreadbeast."
"Dreadbeast?" Lor said in puzzlement.
"I had no idea that another had been raised or brought to the battle. It was one of the Risen, or as some call it, a Dreadbeast," she explained.
"Tocor is chasing that thing?" Aerin said in disbelief.
"Yes, it is wounded, but still dangerous. We couldn't allow it to get to Gandarel. I just hope..." she paused, as if noting she was speaking aloud, "Tocor will be all right," she finished, but Aerin knew that wasn't what she was about to say. Mara looked worried, and that was something Aerin had never seen on her face before.
Mara helped Dono tend to Katek's wound. She frowned at the boy but said nothing further about his entry into the battle. When the blood flow was stopped, Mara stood and Dono helped their friend to his feet.
"The excitement is over now, so let's head back to the Villa. There is much we must discuss and do tomorrow. It is time you all learned about what is to come and more of what your part will be. I have kept too much from you, and tonight it hurt us. It is time you all learned, but you will not thank me for this knowledge, nor the learning of it,” Mara explained as she led them away from the bloody battleground.
Chapter Twelve
"I saw a man, but his face was a blank slate. He stood with his hand on the shoulder of the future and he stained it with blood."
- From the Dark Prophecies
The next day found Gandarel before the council at an early hour. They, for once, agreed with Mara completely. They were furious when they found that he had left the Seat in command of his personal Guard and entered the battle in the city. They lectured him for two hours on his foolishness, his lack of respect, his overstepping of authority and his childish behavior. Gandarel sat silently through it all. Even his friend Enolive was angry with him. The council was finally getting around to a plan when someone started pounding on the council room door.
"Now who, in Gedin's ship, is interrupting the council?" Niler demanded.
Again the person pounded on the door.
"Come in, damn you!" Niler yelled in an undignified voice.
The door opened and a Guardsman stepped into the chamber.
"What is so impor…" Niler started to yell when the Guardsman interrupted him.
"The Togroths have left!"
"…tant that you would... left?" Niler finally said when the man's words got through.
"Every last one of them, even the dead ones are gone!"
"Eaten, you mean," Gandarel noted in a quiet voice.
The Guardsman shrugged, "I don't know, Milord, but there ain't no sign of them other than the marks on the ground… it's a miracle."
"One that Mara predicted," Gandarel noted.
"She didn't predict it, Gandarel," Enolive noted, "the Prophecy she subscribes to did, she just got lucky this time."
Gandarel nodded, but he decided to go see Mara, as she had requested the night before.
"Thank you Guardsman, but NEXT time, don't come pounding on the door as if the Togroths had…" Niler thought about what he was saying and changed it to, "just don't pound so hard on the council door."
The Guardsman gave a minimal bow of acknowledgment and turned to go.
"Well, the woman was right about the Togroths leaving, but she was wrong about the dire consequences of you staying. It seems that your attack last night even ended the siege," Enolive noted to Gandarel.
It was the first bit of praise that Gandarel had heard, and his heart warmed.
Niler scowled at Enolive, "Regardless of the outcome, this time, Gandarel, when you foolishly risk yourself without consulting..."
Gandarel sighed heavily as the lectures started again.
The next morning, Aerin waited some time for Mara to come down from her room. Eventually, he got up the courage to go looking for his teacher, only to find her gone.
He was puzzled and a little concerned. He checked the stables and found her wagon gone as well. Mara never took her wagon out.
Her student’s concern grew over the next three days when Mara did not return. They were just discussing an expedition outside the city to find her when Yearl opened the gates and Mara's wagon trundled in with their teacher at the reins.
"Mara!" Aerin exclaimed as relief washed over the young man.
"That is what I call myself," she noted.
"We've been worried! What happened?"
Mara got down from the driver's bench and went to the back of her wagon. "Many things and none of them are good. Tocor was hurt and I went to find him. It took longer than I thought, or I would have left you a message before I left. You have my apologies. Now help me get Tocor to his room."
"Tocor?" Aerin asked.
"He's wounded."
"Tocor!" Aerin asked in a surprised voice. "Is he..."
Tocor's deep rumble came from inside the wagon, "I'm fine, my young friend, I am just a little worse for the wear."
Relief flowed through Aerin.
"Fetch those crutches that we made for Dono when he sprained his ankle," Mara commanded.
Aerin ran to get them and nearly flattened Lor who came out of her room at that moment.
"Mara's back and Tocor was wounded," Aerin yelled.
Lor's eyes widened, they all thought Tocor was made out of steel.
When Tocor finally emerged from the back of the covered wagon, they saw that his right leg was bandaged below the knee. He had to hunch over to use the short crutches, but they helped him get to his room.
"Can you believe it, Tocor, wounded," Dono said to Katek a few minutes later.
"I'll bet it took hundreds of them, all at once!" Aerin noted.
"It only took one," Mara stated, as she came up behind the group of friends who were sitting on the practice yard ground.
The kids looked up at her in disbelief.
"You will understand why in a few minutes when we talk about what happened during the siege," she explained.
Aerin followed his teacher to the side of the courtyard. "Gandarel has been by, three times, looking for you."
Mara nodded, "I'm sorry I missed him, but it couldn't be helped." She settled herself onto the bench that sat by one of the large support columns for the upstairs balcony. Her students arranged themselves around her feet in a semi-circle.
They waited as she gathered her thoughts. Her eyes were fixed on the top of her cane that she clenched with both hands, but her mind was far off. Then she looked up at her expectant students and spoke. Her words were not what they expected.
"It was a dark time in the history of our world, darker than you can imagine. It was the time of the Dreadmaster Maugh. The siege you just went through was nothing in comparison to the terror and anguish that had become life for the people. The Dreadmaster reigned supreme and no one could stand up to his power. Every person alive was kept in a constant state of fear, and the more they feared the greater his power became.
“But there were those who resisted, and they began to meet in secret, to search for a way to end the fear. They kept their groups small. Each person knew only the names within their own group, though they knew many other groups existed. This kept any one group from betraying the whole when captured, or possessed, and tortured by the Dreadmaster, or his minions. In these tight-knit groups, they discovered the strength to resist the fear of the Dreadmaster. They discovered that the power to resist grew stronger with the bond of friendship. The closer they became, the greater was their
resistance to the Dreadmaster's fear and thus, his ability to enter their minds.
“This power to resist the fear soon began to infuse the very meeting places of these bonded groups and became havens from the daily fear. Eventually, they discovered this fact and came up with the idea of pooling all this power of resistance into one place. They searched for a secret place to accomplish this dream and found it deep within the mountains of the Dragonback. There they discovered a cave network, a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers with many entrances. A place was chosen at the roots of the mountains, and only a few knew the way. Blindfolded, they would guide in the other's, so that the secret could be kept, and those that knew the way never left so that they could not be captured or possessed. It took many years, but eventually a place of such strong power was created, that it was proof against the power of the Dreadmaster.
“They gathered there one day, all of them; the majority of all free humans left on the face of the planet. For the first, and last time, they met, and the Dreadmaster learned of it, but he was too late to stop the meeting. Together, in this place infused with the strength of friendship, they were too powerful for him to get into their minds, and he writhed in anger and hatred, sending his creatures hunting in the maze, or waiting outside the caverns to exact punishment.
“The people had created a place of raw power, but they did not know how to use it to defeat the Dreadmaster. It was not mobile since the power was infused into the very rock. Eventually, the people knew they would have to leave the protection of the caves or starve. Then they came up with the idea of infusing the power into a human. Oddly, it was the example of the Dreadmaster's power that sparked the idea. The accumulation of all fear was infused into his body and became a power he could use.
“And so they decided to enable their power to inhabit the body of a human who would then do battle against the Dreadmaster. But they were worried, what if they created another Dreadmaster? What if once they bestowed this awesome power into a man, it was abused? So, as one, they used their combined wills to create a test within the caverns. It is a test where only compassion, friendship, and sacrifice will suffice to pass.
"To help identify and honor those who passed the test, a mark was created as part of the ceremony in the form of golden chains on their wrists. These represented the link between the person and their promise to protect the people of the land from the oppression of the Dreadmaster. Those few who wore the chain marks were named NexLords, for they were the connection point of many lines of power, as you will learn presently.
“Then each and every human within the caverns used their combined emotional power to will the vision of this test into the very stone of the mountain roots. Their need, purpose, and combined emotion have never been equaled, and they were successful. They created the Chamber and the Wall.
“When a person true of heart is willing to enter the stone, and can pass the test, they will emerge with the power of the Nexus within them, but if they fail, they will die locked within the stone forever.
“This is the power of the Nexus, and over time, eight brave souls have entered the Wall to take the NexLord test. Seven of them emerged from the Wall, with the golden chain marks of a NexLord engraved into their wrists; one was never seen alive again.
“Upon learning of their deed, the Dreadmaster was furious. He was the master of all races and these people had defied him. For days he had been cut off from the nectar of their fear, and as they emerged from the cavern he viciously attacked their minds. Many tried to escape, but he captured nearly ten thousand and locked them in the vast dungeons below his fortress so that he could torture them for their insolence. He kept them in fear for many years but kept their hopes of rescue alive just enough that they feared death. Then he tortured them until they feared to live. Finally, he gathered all this power and sought within their tortured minds for their deepest fears. Using the accumulated power of their fear, he raised nine of their worst nightmares. These were named the Dreadbeasts, though they are still often referred to as the Risen. Each was different, each was powerful, and each was infused with the fear of thousands of tortured souls.
“These abominations rose from the corpses of the people whose fear had created them. The Dreadmaster converted the tortured prisoner’s bodies into their own visions of horror, and then he loosed these deadly beings upon the world, as punishment for all those who had resisted his rule.
"Eight brave men and women entered the Wall of testing and seven became NexLords ready to do battle with these new horrors. Over time, five of the seven NexLords were killed along with their bondsmen, but some of the Risen fell as well and it cost their Master dearly to raise them again.
“At the end of that great struggle, the remaining free people were led by the last surviving NexLords in a battle at the Kitrick wall. Many died, but at long last the Dreadmaster Maugh was killed."
"But he is still..." Aerin started to say, but Mara held up a finger to still his voice.
She started again: "Maugh's body was killed, and the people thought him gone forever, but the Dreadmaster's power, the fear that had infused Maugh, remained.
“Remember, Maugh was not the first Dreadmaster, before him there was Logan. Long ago, in all but forgotten times, the first Dreadmaster sought to conquer the world, but luckily the angel Gedin saved us. But as time went by, people forgot Logan's evil, and they grew careless until an evil man took up the power of the Dreadmaster and nearly destroyed the world. Even now, after the reign of the second Dreadmaster, they haven't learned, for the essence of fear, the very power of the Dreadmaster only waits to claim another person. Eventually, the Dreadmaster's power of fear will take a new host and the horror will return."
Mara stopped and there was a moment of silence. Her students had never heard the story told this way, though they had each heard bits and pieces of this tale through bards and song, as well as stories and poems.
Aerin knew more than the rest of them, from his father’s books, but this version told the story in a new light.
Aerin had a question: "Mara, is that what came over the wall the night of the battle, one of the Risen?"
Mara appraised him for a moment. "Yes, Aerin, you have indeed discovered the truth. That was the Dreadbeast known as Insanity; it has been brought back and has risen again. With the Dreadmaster's power crippled, I did not think it could achieve sufficient fear to raise one of the Dreadbeasts; at least not until it had found a new host body. I did not know that it could achieve such power in this state, so I did not anticipate a Dreadbeast. Not only has he brought at least one back, but the Dreadmaster has shown that he wants Gandarel, and was willing to reveal one of his most horrible powers to get him."
"But wait, what does he want with Gandarel? Does he want to kill him?"
Mara looked away for a moment. "Not all of this is clear; there are things that puzzle me, as well. I do know that the Dreadmaster cannot allow Gandarel to enter the Chamber of the Nexus, for he too must know of the Prophesies of Gold. However, I believe he has some other use for Gandarel, for he has not tried to kill the boy, only abduct him. This could change at any time, and perhaps it already has, since the attempts to abduct him have failed. The closer we get to Gandarel's test, the more likely the Dreadmaster will try to have him murdered."
"Wait a minute, what is this you said about Gandarel in the Chamber of the Nexus?" Lor demanded.
"Gandarel is to be the new NexLord. He is destined to battle the power of the Dreadmaster," Mara answered simply; "you should know that by now, Lor."
"Gandarel? He is going to take this 'test' you spoke of, that was created so long ago?" Lor demanded.
"Yes," Mara answered directly, looking Lor in the eye.
"And what of us? You have been training us as well. Are we to enter this test? ‘Cause if this is true, I think you should have told us that..."
"No," Mara interrupted. "You will not enter the Wall of the Chamber Lor; not you, Aerin, Katek or Dono. You will not enter, and nothing else
will be required of you against your will. Only Gandarel will go through the Wall."
"Oh," Lor said and her indignant expression faded. Then it was replaced with one of annoyance, "What's so important about him? I can take him in a fight."
"I think Gandarel would have something to say about that," Aerin noted with a smile for his friend.
Mara also smiled. "I see that you have gone from, 'I don't want it' to 'Why can't I have it' quite rapidly."
Lor looked unhappy.
"It's not a matter of fighting skill, Lor. It's more a matter of personality and strength of commitment. NexLords are the glue that holds their people together. Only those pure of purpose and clear of their role can enter and succeed. Gandarel has been prophesied as the new NexLord, and he will enter the Wall to take his test, of this I have little doubt."
"Then why are you teaching us?"
"Bondsmen," Aerin said, though the question had been to Mara.
"Bondsmen!" Lor declared with suspicion in her voice. "What does that entail?"
"I don't know that you can all become Bondsman, it isn’t clear who will and who will not. I do know that it is likely that some of you will. For that reason, I have been training you so that you will be ready if the time ever comes. As to what they are, there is time for you to learn your duties and powers as we progress."
The students chewed on that for a few moments in silence.
"Bondsman doesn't mean, 'servant', does it?" Lor demanded at last.
"No, Lor, it means 'friend' more than anything, but a closer friend than most people ever find. Bondsman give and receive, they share in the NexLord's power. Remember that I told you of the concern about giving the power to a human, and their fear of creating a new Dreadmaster, or worse? The creators of the nexus built in a check and balance to the NexLord's power. He is nothing without his friend's, and they have the power of life and death over the NexLord. Should a NexLord betray and break just one bond in his life, he will die, instantly. That is the power a Bondsman has over the NexLord. When the NexLord makes the bond he gives the power of his life into the hands of his friend, forever."
