Gods Of Blood And Fire (Book 1)

by A. J. STRICKLER

  “Kill me and you will never find out what happened to you family,” he croaked out.

  “Lies won’t save you now, bastard.” Malice rose to strike.

  “Your mother was taken by Sidian slavers,” the wizard blurted out.

  Kian slowly lowered his sword. “Tell me and if I think you’re lying I will kill you.”

  The Dark One struggled back to his feet. “I want your word you won’t kill me, until I finish the tale or what I know of it.”

  “You will live until I hear it all, I swear it on my sword arm. After that I make no promises.”

  Kian began to bind his wounds as best as he could and still keep an eye on the wizard. He was no Rhys, but he thought he could stop the bleeding. The wizard walked over and put his back to what was left of the tower’s battlements. He closed his eyes a moment, then sighed. “As you know it started in Thieves Port.”

  ***

  Isabella picked the little girl up out of an old wooden crib. Raygan thought she looked to be about two years old. The child had black curly hair and lovely dark eyes. The little girl was very pretty, Raygan thought. “Whose baby is it?” She asked.

  Isabella shrugged. “I don’t know, but the master of the tower was very protective of her, he always reminded Siro not to harm the child.”

  The Queen grimaced in pain, she hoped she could get out of here before it became too much for her to bear. “Well we have to take her with us. I won’t leave any child in the hands of these mad men.”

  Isabella wrapped the child in a heavy blanket she knew it would be cold outside. “Follow me, milady.”

  She led the Queen to a tunnel far in the bowels of the tower.

  Raygan could see the tunnel was made of natural rock. Isabella stopped at a barrel that sat before the tunnel’s entrance and pulled an unlit torch from it. She handed the child to the Queen who sat the little girl down on the cold stone floor of the tunnel and then sat down beside her, holding her own baby close.

  “Hurry, Bella, this place scares me.” Raygan looked down the dark tunnel. She wished she didn’t have to go down there. It frightened her just to look into the darkness.

  Within a few minutes, the young woman had the torch lit. “Follow me, Majesty.” Isabella picked up the small girl and headed down the tunnel, holding the torch in front of her.

  Raygan grabbed her abdomen as she stood and followed Isabella. Her own tiny baby felt as if it weighed a hundred pounds. She wanted to stay and sit for a while, but there was no way she would stay inside the tunnel any longer than she had to, the place just felt wrong.

  Isabella was moving much faster than she was and it was hard for Raygan to keep up. From the light of the flicking torch, she could see runes carved on the walls of the tunnel. They were strange and made her feel odd just to look at them. Who would have spent so long cutting those into the solid rock and why?

  She was getting tired and hurting worse and was just about at the end of her endurance when they stopped.

  Raygan saw Isabella was pulling on a lever that jutted out of the rock wall. “I followed Siro down here once and found this place,” the girl said.

  Raygan saw a sliver of light, the blonde girl pushed a door open, and they stepped out into the daylight.

  Raygan realized that they had come out of a huge old tree. She could see the tower only a short distance away. That was not all she saw. There was a woman stand just off to their right.

  She was dressed in a simple white dress. Her beauty was undeniable, even Raygan was captivated by the woman. Long hair, black as a crow’s wing, fell in beautiful waves well past her shoulders. The white dress she wore was modest but showed the remarkable shape of her body. Raygan noticed the woman was also barefoot, but it was her dark eyes that caught the Queen’s attention. They were a bottomless pit that seemed to swallow her with their intense beauty. She smiled at them and Raygan thought if she were a man she would have just fallen in love.

  “I’m glad to see you ladies have escaped the tower. My name is Octavia, and I have a favor to ask.”

  ***

  “A ship call the Witches’ Song sailed into Grey Harbor; it was captained by a man named Nasir Sana, a Sidian. He had come far to the north looking for exotic slaves. Captain and crew came to the Heavenly Hole for a night of drinking and whoring. When this Nasir saw your mother, he had to have her. He ordered her taken aboard his ship. When the other whores tried to stop him, he and his men killed them all. Then the slavers sailed out of Thieves Port under the cover of night.”

  Kian looked away from the wizard. “Then my brother must have been killed by these slavers as well?”

  The Dark One shook his head. “No, who do you think told me the story?” Kian’s head whipped around.

  “You knew my brother?”

  “Yes, I will get to that, do you wish me to finish or not?”

  Kian nodded eagerly. He so very much needed to know what happened to his family, he almost forgot who was telling the tale.

  “Well, from what I understand, your brother followed the slavers. It took him several years to reach Sidia; apparently he had several misadventures along the way, some nasty business with pirates, and he mentioned a brief encounter with the Circle of Thirteen, but that is another matter and not important. Your brother was very long-winded in telling his tale and a bit on the dramatic side for my taste. Anyway, he reached Sidia and began to search for your mother and Nasir Sana.

  “Late one night while drinking at a tavern in the Sidian city of Bosic, he heard that Nasir had taken a special slave to the city beyond the black gate. Your fool of a brother followed the information he had overheard and passed through the black gate into that dreaded city.

  “If you have never been there, you cannot understand what kind of place it is. There are no words to describe what goes on there. The only one that comes close is evil. The very ground of that city stinks of it.

  “To his credit, your brother survived the dangers of the Beast’s domain. He searched through the place for months. Finally, your brother made the place his home, finding a vocation and settling into a daily routine.

  “He never stopped looking for her though. He hounded the residents of the city for information, he even got under the skin of some of the local wizards that make the city their home.

  “That is when I first learned of him. I was an assassin. I had just become a member of Kabash Sar, the heartless ones. I was instructed to become your brother’s friend and gain his trust. You see, he had found out that his mother was in the temple of the Beast, who the King of Sidia serves. Nasir had taken her there as an offering to the dreaded Lord of Evil. I know not why. Perhaps Nasir wanted to gain favor with the Beast? They say the loathsome God truly dwells there inside his ghastly temple.

  “The temple itself is inside the palace. So I was hired by the King when he found out about the rescue attempt. I was to stop your brother from ever gaining entrance to the palace. I failed.

  “He got inside and attempted to rescue his mother. From what I understand, your brother was captured before he ever even laid eyes on her.”

  Kian swallowed hard. “What of my mother? Tell me now, you bastard.”

  “Your mother was sacrificed to the Beast.”

  Kian clutched the battlements, trying to steady himself. His mother was dead and she had died horribly. It was a blow that his heart could never fully recover from. “Finish, wizard, I must know the rest.”

  ***

  Beautiful or not, Isabella started to draw the blade the Dark One had given her. The woman raised her hand and spread her fingers. She spoke a word, and Isabella found despite her best efforts she could not pull the sword from its sheath.

  “I mean you no harm. I just wish to see the child. You have my word,” the woman said.

  Isabella looked at Raygan and shrugged. “I don’t think we have much choice, milady.”

  Isabella hand the girl child to the woman who called herself Octavia. The woman looked at the girl with sadness.
She whispered into the little girl’s ear. Tears spilled down the woman’s cheeks as she handed the child back to Isabella. “Find the girl a good mother, I beg you. She deserves that at least, and never speak of me to her or anyone else. What happened here would put the child at great risk as well as those who would raise her. It must remain a secret. Wait for the swordsman on the tower, it would be the safest thing for all of you, farewell.”

  Raygan stepped forward shifting her baby in her arms. “Wait, who you are?”

  The woman smiled weakly at the young Queen. “I was once all you see around you. Now I’m only a sister to death.” She vanished leaving the Queen and Isabella wondering who she was and what she meant.

  “Your brother was tortured beyond human understanding, but he had learned a few tricks and he escaped from the Black Palace. A feat no one else in the world can claim. He wandered the streets of the city for days, chased by bounty hunters, assassins, wizards, and the royal hounds. He knew that he would never leave the city alive. That’s when he found me. Imagine my surprise. The man the whole city was looking for had sought me out. And he asked me for a favor.”

  Kian looked at the Dark One with hope in his eyes. “What did he ask for?”

  “He asked me to kill him and I did.”

  A low growl came from Kian’s throat as he slowly drew Malice from its sheath. “Your story is finished, sorcerer. My family is dead and you killed my brother, it’s time for you to die.”

  The Dark One stood facing his creation. “If that is what you choose so be it, the story of your family is at an end. Your twin Tavantis died by my hand, that is true, but it was what he asked of me. I showed him mercy, if you want to kill me for that so be it.”

  The Dark One reached up and pulled off his mask. Kian’s eyes widened and his sword dropped from his hand to clatter on the stone roof. Half of the Dark One’s face was a ruined abomination, the other half was his very own. “Tavantis?” he whispered. “Hello, Brother.”

  Chapter 25

  Kian couldn’t find the words, so many things raced through his mind. This horribly scarred sorcerer was his brother. What had happened to make him this way? Why had he become this evil thing?

  “I know that this is a shock to you, Kian, but I had to keep who I was a secret. I had little choice in the matter.”

  Kian took a step towards his brother. “Why, you could have just come to me. By the Gods, Tavantis, why have you done these things? Are you mad?”

  The wizard’s jaw clenched. “You don’t know why I had to keep who I was a secret? Can’t you see what the world has done to me? There was a time, Brother, when my mind as well as my body was broken. Sometimes madness is the only way to survive in the city beyond the Black Gate.

  What I inflicted on you is mere child’s play to what that place did to me. Sanity is questionable to all who dwell there. I have suffered things the likes of which you cannot even imagine. I wanted revenge on the world, Kian, on the world and on you. Tavantis was too weak to do it, but the Dark One was more than capable.”

  Kian’s face twisted in confusion. “What did I do to you? You had no reason to want vengeance.”

  “You left me, Brother, none of it would have happened if you wouldn’t have left Thieves Port. I thought after I poisoned Elu that you might stay, but you could not be stopped you had to go play hero.”

  Kian was stunned and could only stare in disbelief, Tavantis had killed Elu too. Elu and Gildor had been the closest thing to a father the Half Elf had ever known; he had modeled himself after the two men, and his brother had killed them both. “Why did you kill Elu, he did nothing to you, he was kind to us and he loved Mother.”

  “No, he was kind to you,” the wizard spat. “He took you under his wing, it was you he wanted to save. Elu didn’t have time for me, remember? He didn’t see any potential in me, and I was not mother’s favorite. He cast me aside like a worthless cur. He trained you, Kian, and he made you want to leave. His lies are what made you forget your family.”

  “I was just a boy, Tavantis. It was what mother wanted me to do. She wanted me to get out of that loathsome city and find my place in the world.”

  “And have you, Brother? Have you found your place?” Tavantis pointed his finger at Kian. “What about me? I wanted a place in the world too. Because I was not so skilled, I got left behind to suffer the cruel fate Thieves Port brought down on me. Things happened to me after you were gone, Brother. Things you could never understand. It destroyed me and made me more of an outcast than I already was. I was alone, no one was there to help me. My brother deserted me, and Mother could only think of her favorite son who was so far away. You took our mother away with you when you left, Brother. She never stopped longing for your return. She just didn’t have enough love for both of us. You took it all with you when you left. It made me a monster, Kian, it made me hate you both.” He lowered his finger as if he just noticed he was pointing it. The wizard stumbled back against the battlements and hung his head.

  “Even after the years, I spent hating you, I could think of nothing but finding you. I just wanted my brother back, my other half. You are all I have, Kian. I thought if I made you a monster like me, you would stay with me and we could avenge ourselves on this hateful world.”

  Kian looked at his brother with pity. Sadness found its way into the swordsman’s heart. “You wanted to control me. Turn me into something I’m not.” Kian stepped close to his brother, his voice lowered. “You’re a monster and a murderer, Tavantis, and I won’t share that with you, I can’t. I can forgive you for what you have done to me, perhaps some of the things you have done are my fault. If I would have stayed in Thieves Port, you might not have become this evil thing.”

  Kian paused and looked at the wizard. He could no longer see the boy he had grown up with. “You are right. The Dark One killed my brother. Tavantis was good and I was proud to call him brother. He was nothing like you.”

  The wizard turned his face away from Kian, unable to look at him.

  “I want you to know this, wizard. I want my brother back. If I must fight for him I will. If you want to change and turn away from the hate that corrupts your soul, you can come with me as Tavantis, my twin. We can make a life for ourselves. I will help you any way I can.”

  Kian reached over and grabbed his brother by the shoulders. “If you wish to remain the Dark One know this, I will never join you in this evil and you will remain my enemy. I don’t hate the world because of who I am, and I seek no vengeance on it. If that is what you want, you will do it alone, wizard.”

  Tavantis hung his head. “You would truly take me with you? How could you ever get past what I have done to you and what of Elu and Gildor?”

  “I loved them both, that is true and if you were any other man I would avenge them, but you’re my brother and I will find a way to forgive you. Come, gather your things and we will leave this vile place. You are part of me, Tavantis, my twin, I will do whatever I can to purge you of this sickness that has poisoned your heart.”

  The wizard thought for a moment. “I will try Kian, we are family and I want us to be together, but I can make you no promises.”

  Kian nodded his approval. He so wanted his brother in his life, and he knew his mother would want him to do everything he could to save his tortured sibling. He had to try for her if nothing else.

  Tavantis touched his brother on the shoulder. “It will take several days to get things ready for me to leave. I have experiments and spells that must be finished or shut down.”

  Kian picked up his sword and put it back in its scabbard. “I will find the Queen and Isabella and have them wait here until you are ready.” Kian turned to leave.

  “Wait,” the sorcerer called out. “Would you have killed me, Kian?” The swordsman looked at his twin with the inhuman eyes the Dark One had given him, Tavantis had his answer.

  It took some talking for Kian to convince the Queen to wait at the tower. When she had inquired why they could not start for Turill,
he told her about Tavantis.

  She had one of her fits. He had expected no less. Isabella had aided him by telling the Queen that the Dark Wizard had not harmed her while she had been his guest. She told Raygan that Tavantis had been the one that saved her from Duke Blackthorn. That had even surprised Kian. In the end, Raygan agreed, after all she had little choice, she could not get back to Turill alone. If nothing else, the Queen was learning to be practical. The young monarch was much stronger than Kian had originally thought, sometimes he found himself liking her, in spite of her feelings toward him.

  Tavantis took almost a week to get things tied up. The twins spent time talking and getting to know each other again. It was awkward and painful, but Kian tried his best. It was hard to overlook the terrible things his brother had done, especially the murders of Elu and Gildor. Kian told himself it would all be worth it in the end. He would just have to find a way to get past it. He would have Tavantis back and they could go on together. He didn’t want to give up the chance of have his brother back in his life.

  Kian had asked Tavantis about what had happened through all the years they had been apart, but his brother had not been very forthcoming. The swordsman could tell Tavantis had faced some awful things in his life. It would take time for him to trust Kian enough to tell him everything that had befallen him. He would just have to allow his brother the time to adjust to having someone in his life other than the vile necromancer Siro.

  At the end of the week Tavantis told Kian he was ready to leave for Turill. “Is Siro coming?” Kian asked.

  “No, he will stay here, he has projects he wishes to finish and I told him he could keep the tower if he wished. I wouldn’t need it anymore.”

  “He plans to live alone out here?”

  “Oh, he won’t be alone, he has … friends,” Tavantis said with a sly grin.