by Philip Blood
Suddenly a Togroth leaped out of the dark and into the chamber. Its mouth was open in a snarl and it carried a curved sword with scalloped edges in its hand. It bellowed its unintelligible war cry to terrify its enemies.
The Bluecoats leaped from either side, and cut it down with sheer numbers, but three more Togs leaped in and the battle was engaged.
Half the Guardsmen went to their aid while the remaining six stayed in reserve.
Katek, Dono, and Lor prepared their weapons. Behind the youths, Niler Corbin cowered against the wall to the left of the entrance. Enolive stood near the Guardsmen, seemingly calm.
The fight was brief and vicious. When it was over, the four Togs were dead, but six Bluecoats and two Guardsmen were also dead and three men wounded.
"What's happening in there?" Lor demanded while staring at the smooth wall that had swallowed her friends, but it gave back no answers.
Ten screaming Togs were suddenly charging out of the dark, and battle was engaged throughout the chamber. Lor, Dono, and Katek fought as a unit, keeping their backs to the wall. A Strakhelm Guardsmen fell from a sword thrust through his chest, and one of the screaming beasts leaped through the gap. The Tog, brandishing the gore-splashed blade, ran at Dono, with spittle flying from its black teeth.
Behind it, another Tog followed through the gap, and the young warriors engaged them in battle.
Dono parried a crushing blow from the first Tog, but the power of the thick arm and the weight of the heavy blade drove him to his knees.
Katek jumped forward to engage the second beast, with skill and speed. He got the first blow in, before dancing under the Tog's return strike.
Lor stepped in front of Dono, with her quarterstaff spinning in a windmill move that whipped the end around to crack the Tog on the right side of its squat head. The thick bone broke, as its skull caved in from the strike of her staff, but even dying the Tog swept its massive sword downwards. With incredible agility, Lor leaped back, but Dono was behind her and they collided. That impact kept her from completely escaping the inevitable descent of the wicked blade. The sword's tip cut down into Lor's chest and she collapsed in a torrent of blood.
Dono was horrified, he regained his feet and leaped forward with a massive cry, and cut deeply into the neck of the Tog that was pressing Katek. It clouted Dono with its free hand, but the cut to its neck was fatal, and it fell to the chamber floor, thrashing around and flinging its yellow blood all over the chamber.
Behind them all, no one noticed when Enolive stepped in front of Niler and locked gazes with the leader of the council. Niler looked into the dark eyes of his long time colleague and fell into the evil pools of pure hatred that he saw in the depths of those dark pits. Enolive grinned and then thrust a blade deep into Niler’s gut, angling up to pierce his heart. The look of betrayal in Niler’s face was like applause to a performer, and Enolive smiled as he gave the blade a last twist, and then yanked it out. Blood drained from the councilman's face as the life drained from his soul, and he fell dead to the Chamber floor.
Moments later the battle was over, five Bluecoats were still alive and three of Gandarel's Guardsmen. Niler was presumed killed by the Togs.
Dono crawled from where he had fallen toward Lor's bloody red body.
Aerin was momentarily disoriented as his head went into the stone wall, but almost immediately he found himself in a dark passage. It felt like he had stepped through a sheet of thin ice. He didn't know how, or when, he lost Gandarel's hand, but his friend was there in the dark hallway a few steps ahead.
"Aerin!" Gandarel called. He was up against the wall as if the solid rock would give Gandarel sanctuary.
"I'm here, are you all right?" Aerin answered.
Gandarel swallowed. "For the moment, but where are we? I thought we were going into solid stone, but this is some sort of passage."
Aerin moved over near his friend. "It's strange, we don't have a torch, but we can see."
Gandarel shrugged, "The place seems to glow."
Aerin moved over to the wall, where they had entered at the end of the hall; it was rough and solid to the touch.
"What now?" Gandarel asked, "It doesn't seem like we can get out and I don't know where we're supposed to go. Do you have any ideas?"
Aerin shook his head. "I'm not even supposed to be here."
Gandarel looked away from his friend in anguish, he suddenly remembered the piece of the Dark Prophecy he had read in Mara's room. Now he knew what it meant. He had doomed his friend, by dragging him into the Wall. His thoughts leaped to various possibilities. What if only he could leave? What if Aerin was doomed to stay in the Wall for eternity? In anguish, and fear for his friend, Gandarel turned and said, "I'm sorry, I... I was terrified, Aerin... forgive me!"
"It will be all right, I think," Aerin answered," but Mara's going to tan my hide for this," he noted, not understanding the base or depth of Gandarel's fear. He thought his friend was just scared of the situation, he had no idea Gandarel was afraid he had doomed his best friend to oblivion, trapped forever in a dim hallway under a mountain of rock.
Gandarel tried pounding on the rough stone, but it seemed solid rock now. "What do you know about this place, Aerin? I've heard you say you studied this stuff with your father."
"Not much, I'm afraid. The actual testing of a NexLord is a well-kept secret. I have only read about the exploits of NexLords, Ragol in particular, but as to how he became one… you got me. Can you remember what those words said on the door?"
"Yeah, something about facing the sacrifice of your life for the good of others, I think."
Aerin sighed, "We're a fine pair, all I keep seeing is that bit about, 'can not and will not survive.'"
"Yeah, that part stuck with me too," Gandarel admitted.
Aerin started down the hallway, "Come on, we're never going to get out by standing around. This hallway has to lead us somewhere, probably to this 'test'."
"I don't like this," Gandarel said, and he was trembling in fear, but he followed his friend.
Aerin looked back, "How bad can it be?"
Out of the dark ahead, an evil chuckle echoed softly in the hall.
Gandarel shook in terror as he answered Aerin's question, "It could be pretty bad."
Aerin advanced slowly, with Gandarel shadowing his steps. They had only gone about ten feet when the voice spoke, "Two have come, yet only one can leave."
Gandarel grabbed Aerin's shoulder with his hand from behind.
"Yah," Aerin yelped, jumping from the touch, "don't DO that!"
"Gedin, only one of us can leave!" Gandarel choked out, through a fear-laden voice.
Aerin's heart was beating from being startled by Gandarel right after the creepy voice spoke, but he gathered his emotions using Mara's teachings in the ways of controlling fear. "Relax, Gandarel, don't let fear rule you. This is a test, maybe that voice is lying to us."
Instead of Gandarel answering Aerin's question the voice spoke, though this time it seemed closer and off to their right slightly. "Oh no, my boy, you changed things when you so foolishly ignored the warning. Only one may enter, only one can leave."
"Who are you?" Aerin called out into the dark. Aerin could feel Gandarel's hand shaking where he was still holding onto his shoulder.
"Don't you know me, boy?” the voice rasped and then laughed.
Aerin recognized the laugh; it was the same one that had come out of the dark in the Chamber of Stone, the one Yearl named 'Death'.
"Death," Gandarel said fatally, as he too recognized the voice.
"And I've come for one of you, but who will it be?"
Gandarel knew, he had known since the day he read that prophecy. He had betrayed his friend and Death would take him. He shook with more fear.
Aerin advanced again, and Gandarel had no choice but to follow or lose contact with his shoulder. The passage suddenly widened out, and they could see that they had exited the caverns and had come out onto a ledge overlooking a vast drop-off
. The sky was jet black, without a single star, and the cliff seemed to fall into nothingness below. There was only the opening back into the hall, the cliff edge, and nothingness.
Aerin and Gandarel moved carefully to the edge and looked down. The craggy cliff fell forever into darkness.
"Welcome to death, I am your guide," the voice said from behind them. Both boys spun around, putting their backs to the cliff. Somehow it had gotten behind them now.
A dark shape stood in the entrance to the hallway. It was cloaked and hooded, and where there should have been a face there was only blackness.
"It is so rare that I get to come here, only once before," Death noted, chuckling in some fond remembrance. "He was weak, and gave into his fears, so I came and took him. This time, I get one of you, because only..."
"One may leave," Aerin finished for him, "We've heard it."
"Don't piss him off, Aerin," Gandarel hissed in a whisper.
"I'm not afraid of him," Aerin answered aloud. "Show yourself Mr. Death, I'll look you in the eye."
Death glided forward and there was no sound of footsteps, just utter silence.
"Look, then, upon your future," the dead voice said, and pulled down its hood. Aerin's face, rotted on one side and pasty white on the other with milky clouded eyes, looked at the two boys.
Gandarel moaned.
The face decomposed rapidly, before their eyes, to a white grinning skull, the milky white eyes still sitting in the sockets, without flesh to hold them.
"Pretty," Aerin noted.
The evil apparition lifted the long black-sleeved arm on his right side, and a skeletal hand emerged, reaching slowly for the two boys.
Gandarel yelled and shoved Aerin to the side while he dove in the other direction. "Don't let it touch you, Aerin, it means death."
Aerin turned his fall into a roll, and came back to his feet in a crouch, a dagger held low and to the side.
Death stopped and chuckled. "One may leave and one must stay, the way is open."
From the hallway, a brighter glow appeared.
"I'm not leaving without you, Aerin!" Gandarel yelled.
"Fine by me," Aerin said and took a side step toward the open hallway.
Death glided forward, and Aerin could not avoid him, so he thrust his dagger into its chest. Aerin felt only the resistance of the outer cloth and heard the edge of his blade scraping along the bone.
Death's fetid breath made Aerin choke, as it laughed right in his face. A hard knobby hand struck him and he was thrown to the edge of the cliff, where he slid over the precipice. Aerin caught himself just as he slipped over the edge, hanging above the endless drop.
Death came over and stood above him. Aerin's hold was precarious, and he was helpless before the horrid creature’s milky white gaze.
"I have not come for you, Aerin, but for your friend," it chuckled, and then turned just as Gandarel arrived from behind with a yell.
Gandarel was terrified, but he couldn't bear to live with the thought that he caused the death of his friend. Even his own death was preferable. He ran at Death, with the last of his strength.
The skeletal arm swung, and Death backhanded Gandarel across the mouth. Gandarel was thrown away to land in a crumpled heap. This time, the fight was out of Gandarel, and terror kept him shaking on the ground, he knew Death was coming for him.
Death turned toward Gandarel, and Aerin made a grab that cost him his hold on the edge of the cliff, but he got hold of the black robe, and as he fell back he pulled Death with him; together they fell over the edge.
Gandarel cried out with terrible loss and he crawled toward the edge where his friend had disappeared.
Aerin landed hard on a smaller ledge, ten feet below, and managed to keep from falling off. He scrambled to his feet and leaped for a handhold above. Quickly, he ascended and was only three feet from the top when he felt the icy touch of Death's skeletal hand around his ankle.
Death laughed, as he started pulling himself up Aerin's body, his sharp boney fingers gripping so hard he bruised Aerin with each grasp.
Gandarel looked over the edge and into Aerin's pain filled eyes.
Death was crawling up Aerin's body, with its large toothy maw grinning evilly at Gandarel, as it came to take his life.
Gandarel backed away from the edge in a half crawl, and terror ruled his heart. It was so great he could no longer even think and his mind was consumed with fear.
Aerin gritted his teeth and kicked Death in the chest with his free leg. The evil thing lost its grip and fell back to the ledge below.
Aerin climbed with all his strength for the top of the cliff. His head just crested the edge in time to see Gandarel fleeing for the glowing end of the hallway, and then Aerin felt the painful touch of Death latching onto his leg.
"He will not escape me," Death laughed.
And Aerin knew what he had to do, if Death got past him, it would go after his friend, and he could not allow that. Gandarel was afraid, and that fear tore at Aerin’s heart. So he calmly let loose of the cliff edge, so that Death could not climb up his body. As he did so he pushed off from the cliff, so that they passed the ledge and arched out over the endless drop. As Aerin fell into the abyss with Death, he wasn’t afraid, he had saved his friend.
Gandarel fled toward the light at the end of the hall to save his life, but as he neared the glowing stone at a dead run, he remembered his friend. Aerin had always been there for him. He knew beyond a doubt, in one flash, that Aerin would never leave him to die; he would face even a creature as horrible as Death. Gandarel remembered Death’s words, ‘one could leave, but one must stay’. Suddenly he knew what he had to do; he would give himself to Death, so Aerin could live. His decision made, he tried to stop running toward the glowing wall, but when he tried to reverse his course his feet slipped on the gravelly surface of the passage, and his momentum took him through the wall of light.
Three new Togs leaped into the Chamber of Stone, and the weary defenders fought for their lives. Wounded from the previous battles, the remaining Bluecoats tried to run but were pulled down by one of the Togs. They tried to stab at the creature, as it hacked them to pieces. The three remaining Guardsmen jumped to their aid and fought the Togs bravely. They killed two before the last man succumbed to a vicious blow that nearly cleaved him in two. The snarling Tog yanked its sword free of the Guardsman’s corpse and then leaped toward Dono, where he knelt at Lor's side.
Katek had picked up Lor's quarterstaff and met the hurling beast head on. He jabbed the longer reach staff forward with all his strength, right into the throat of the screaming monster. The impact crushed its windpipe.
Choking, the beast tried to cleave Katek in two, but the young warrior danced away, his quarterstaff blurring around into a defensive position, that Temmen would have been proud to see.
At that moment, Gandarel flew out of the stone wall and into the room. He fell to the ground and immediately leaped back to his feet. He turned with a sob of Aerin’s name and launched himself at the smooth stone of the Wall of testing only to crash into solid stone. He landed hard on the ground at the base of the wall.
Katek and the wheezing Tog circled and then crashed together, for three quick blows, none of which landed. Katek again retreated and the Tog went after him.
Gandarel looked up with tear-stained cheeks and beheld the carnage in the room. Almost everyone was dead. Only Enolive, Katek, and his Tog opponent still stood, and all around them, the floor was littered with bodies. Dono knelt by a bloody Lor, and Gandarel crawled over quickly to see to his friend.
He looked down into Lor's pain-filled face, and she mouthed the word, "Aerin?"
Gandarel's eyes diverted from her gaze and he sobbed.
"What happened to Aerin?" Dono demanded and grabbed Gandarel's arm with a hand covered in Lor’s red blood.
"I left him to die, within the wall, I failed him," Gandarel admitted.
"Go back," Lor whispered, blood bubbling from her mouth.
They all saw the bright golden chain marks that ran around both of his wrists.
"I'm not worthy of these, I failed my friend!" Gandarel cried. He released Lor’s hand, but her blood was on his hands, and without thought he began smearing it across his wrist in an effort to hide the golden marks of a NexLord.
Gandarel backed away from Lor and Dono, his loathing for himself too great to withstand their looks of concern.
He backed up to the wall and sobbed in self-loathing, he had left Aerin to die… left him to Death.
It was Enolive that placed a consoling hand on his shoulder.
"It's not your fault, Gandarel."
"It IS my fault, I hate this place, and I hate myself!"
"You never wanted to be a NexLord; they forced you into this, all of them. They made you kill your only friend," as the Dreadbeast, called Betrayer, spoke to the boy, he used his dark powers stoke the hate already within Gandarel's soul.
Gandarel was panting; the all-consuming hate he felt for his actions was starting to spread outwards. He suddenly understood what Enolive was telling him, everyone he knew had pushed him to do this, even Aerin. His body overflowed with hatred for all the people that had pushed and controlled him, all the people that had made him fail and come to this point in life.
"Use the hate; turn it into power, Gandarel! Feel it flowing into your bones and muscles, you can make them pay," the Dreadbeast, in the guise of the councilmen, hissed in his ear, both hands now kneading his shoulders.
Gandarel's heart pounded and he felt his muscles swell, he suddenly saw red, and with a bellow of pure hatred, he leaped off the floor. He scooped up a fallen sword in his bloody hand. He wanted to kill something, anything.
Katek ducked under a blow from the Tog's sword and swung his quarterstaff into the Tog’s left knee, the joint broke with a snap, and the beast went down. It was still choking out its life from its crushed throat, but right then two new Togs appeared in the opening of the Chamber. Katek had barely been able to handle one, and he knew he now faced his death, but the young warrior lifted his weapon, calmly, ready for battle.
