The Emperor's Shadow War (Tales of Alus Book 2)

by Donald Wigboldy

  The man had just decided on his best option when a flapping of wings disrupted his thoughts. Misery suddenly flew downward to land on the lowest limb of the tree above him. The woman had not shifted her main focus on him, though Dante easily took his gaze from the stalemate to look at the bird. He trusted that she would not attack him without more reason than an innocent accident. It was then that the vision hit him.

  He could see the woman directly below as well as the face of his upward staring form. Dante watched as the raven looked dispassionately upon the two humans and this time he could not help but take in the woman's assets in their entirety.

  Dante took in the muscular perfection of the woman's arms. The full breasts hung above a slim waist and the curve of her hips sheltered the silver hair between her legs. He scanned her tanned shapely legs as they tapered into the water of the lake. It was the quickest of looks, but, as he stared down through the bird's eyes, he found himself suddenly dizzy. The raven's vision continued to watch as he began to tumble backwards in a daze.

  The vision faded as the feel of cold water rushing over him shocked away the sight. Dante didn't recover his senses even then as he could feel water entering both his mouth and nose. The man was unable to regain control of his body this time and feared that he would drown.

  It was then that he felt strong arms grab hold of him distantly as if both they and his body had separated from his mind. Dante was once again within Misery's mind as he took in the sight of the silver haired woman, who disregarding the possibility of a deceit, had sheathed her knife long enough to pull his head above water. She struggled to draw him through the water and mud of the lake into the bushes surrounding the water front. Misery took flight to land above them. He watched her as she pulled his leather jerkin from his still chest. Even from the bird's vantage point, Dante could see that he was not breathing.

  The woman turned his head and pushed on his chest. A small splash of water exited his mouth, but still he did not breathe. The woman then laid her lips over his in an effort to put air back into his lungs. As he resided in the raven's head, Dante wished that he could feel the softness of her lips. As she sat up and pushed on his chest once more, the man finally felt his consciousness ripped back down to his body.

  Dante came to himself as her lips pressed themselves again to his. As he had been able to watch from outside his body, the man knew what had happened and started to smile which instantly alerted her to his reawakening. The woman leapt back into a crouch from him warily. This gave him an even more impressive view of her lower body and the hang of her breasts as they bounced with her actions. He couldn't help admiring her.

  Coughing the last of the water from his lungs, the man turned away from her again trying not to stare. His chest hurt and his ears were ringing. It was the ringing that prevented him from noticing that she had spoken to him. "Huh?" he coughed and turned to face the woman again.

  "I said this had better not have been a trick, sir. I had hoped that your country would not be filled with such lecherous men. Explain yourself," she demanded.

  "It's a little hard to explain actually," Dante started before being interrupted by a fit of coughing once again. When the spasms had subsided for the moment, he stuck his hand out, "My name is Dante Betrice. I believe that you asked as to who I was before my sudden dizziness."

  The woman refused the offering, but replied, "I am Captain Kartiyan in the Valosian army. You say that it would be hard to explain yourself, perhaps you should try anyway." The captain took hold of a brown tunic that had lain beneath the golden armor. Without taking her eyes from him, the woman put first one arm through the sleeveless wrap and then the other. The knife shifted from one free hand to the other as she navigated the cloth.

  "Is Kartiyan your family name?" he asked without rising and watched her movements. Dante doubted that she would try to kill him now that she had just saved his life, but he would still remain careful.

  "Of course, it is, sir. My first is Valenia, but you can address me as Captain Kartiyan." Valenia had no belt to cinch her shirt. Dante's eyes could not resist the lure of her cleavage and traced the line to her belly and its navel. He caught himself there and chose to look to the ground as he rolled and came to his feet.

  "Hey, don't move!" the captain ordered. "You still have to explain your presence here so deep within the Valian Woods. I have received no word of such a mission being allowed through here. Are you alone or are there others?"

  Dante stood nearly a head taller than the officer before him. She was slender, though not exactly petite. Her threat seemed minimal, but he had come to the conclusion long ago to never underestimate any opponent despite their size. The lieutenant figured that, even here in Valos, most officers earned their rank in battle.

  Choosing a truth that he felt she could be allowed to know, Dante answered, "I led a small band that was driven across the border by a dark horde. These same creatures destroyed Castle Peleth only days ago. Has your country witnessed any such attacks lately?"

  "Not that I know of," Valenia answered as if she did not believe his story. Her expression continued to be that of a wary foe, which did help Dante in the least.

  "Captain!" a voice called from behind him. He turned to see three women dressed in nearly the same style of armor that Valenia would soon don, though theirs were of copper. Dante noticed that the strips that hung from the bottom of the carapace formed much like a skirt rather than as the simple adornment that he had originally thought. With the metal only coming to just below their hips, Dante considered their lack of leg protection very odd for soldiers.

  The women of the captain's command took him in quickly. Swords flashed from sheaths and his with them this time. They looked like they would attack without provocation and Dante was now outnumbered, so he could no longer afford to play around.

  “Do you need help with this `man’, ma'am?" the lead soldier asked. He noted the distaste as the woman pronounced the word `man'. Dante wondered what he had done, if anything, to deserve such disgust.

  "I doubt it, Calla. This man fainted only moments ago. I hardly think that such a frail thing could match me in a fight. We had better take him prisoner though. I fear that there are others like him around here." Turning back to Dante, the silver haired beauty questioned sternly, "Where are your men hiding, lieutenant?"

  "I will not be your prisoner, Valenia," he replied making sure to use her first name without title. Even with the odds against him, Dante did not overly fear those about him.

  "You have little choice, lieutenant. Take him away, Calla, then we can go search for his men."

  "I told you, no," Dante answered and as the women behind him made to grab for him, he turned quickly to face the three. The soldier made sure to pull away from easy reach of the captain, even as he took hold of the nearest woman's armor at its arm hole.

  With more strength than the man realized that he possessed, Dante twisted and sent the soldier flying through the bush to land with a splash in the water near shore. Thus warned of his intent, the other women sought to push him back towards Valenia. His sword countered their stabs fiercely.

  With all his speed and strength, he attacked the two underlings and first one lost her sword and then the other. As one of them made to sacrifice herself by throwing herself upon him, Dante shifted the sword to make sure not to slay her, while he twisted to throw her desperate leap with its momentum. A crash and a small cry of pain as she hit the trunk behind him proved that he had unintentionally harmed the girl after all. That was the final mistake that sparked the captain's anger. The woman still only partially covered attacked with her recovered sword.

  Dante also heard the woman named Calla splashing back in from the lake now. He met Valenia's attack easily despite her exceptional strength. Worrying that he would have to hurt and possibly kill these women,

  Dante fought desperately to avoid the killing strikes he would have used against a true enemy. These were his nation’s neighbors and they were not at war
after all.

  A thought turned to action as an opening in the captain's attack, sent Dante barreling into the woman. Their bodies rolled over Calla who had just dragged herself back. A bush tore at their skin before the wetness of the lake engulfed them. Dante sat atop the woman pinning her arms into the water. The captain's nose struggled to remain just high enough to breathe in between splashes.

  Two of the women splashed into the shallows behind him. The frantic screams of their captain burst upwards with small sprays of water. "Stay back or she'll drown," Dante ordered though it hurt his soul to hold this beautiful woman so close to death. She had saved his life and this was how he was repaying her. It shamed him with his perversion of honor, but the man knew that he would kill Valenia, if he must. It was what the drastic maneuver was trying to avoid.

  The two soldiers dropped their weapons fearful of their captain's life. Cries of fear still rose as Valenia stared at him from beneath the thinnest layer of water. She was panicking and her eyes were manic as she saw the fragility of her existence in his hands. He was having trouble keeping her face above the waves caused from the splashing soldiers to breathe.

  "Step into the water and remove the armor and knives," he ordered the others. "Drop them in the water."

  The women obeyed quickly for Valenia's sake as their eyes never left him or their commander struggling beneath him. Left with the same brown cloth shirts to barely leave any mystery, Dante could see that they were no longer armed. The captain had dropped her sword as well in the roll into the lake and other than the knife still in her hip sheath she also was disarmed.

  Dante sat back still holding Valenia's arms. Knowing that he could easily drive the woman back under, the other two soldiers remained in the water up to their chests where they could hardly get any speed to leap for him. He looked into Valenia's eyes and found hatred smoldering beneath the beauty of her silver orbs. The look wounded him and he cringed. Dante could not figure out why he should care for this stranger despite her willingness to save him moments ago.

  "I'm sorry, Valenia, you gave me little choice," he begged with little more than a whisper. The soldier jumped off of her and retrieved his sword as he did so.

  The woman slowly rose from the water she sought to vacate after her near death experience. Dante eyed her warily. "I doubt that I could have killed you with things the way they are between us. You saved my life and of that I am grateful, but now the slate is clean. I am here to find someone in your country that will help end the attacks of the Dark Emperor’s army. If you try and stop me, I'll be forced to kill you after all, and I truly would prefer not to. Do you yield?"

  With a savage cry, Valenia struck him so swiftly that Dante had no way to stop her punch. The blow hit him harder than any man he could remember. He fell back through the air to crash into the bushes. Valenia was upon him quickly and all sanity had fled from her. The knife in her hand, Dante was too slow to stop its plunge deep into his heart.

  The blackness that swept over him felt vaguely familiar. As death threatened to engulf him, Dante found himself strangely unafraid .

  Chapter 13- Darius

  The night was dark beneath the canopy of the forest. Darius worried little over his footing though because the apprentice had once again allowed his magic to bind him to the nature around himself. After releasing the invisibility spell that was used to escape the camp unnoticed, the mage had formed his magic much the way he had the night that he had chased the elves. This was changed slightly in its usage though.

  The first time he had divined nature to peer through it, this time the wizard became more a piece of nature. To become one with the forest meant that Darius could blend now in to the point that he was virtually invisible to those who would invariably attempt to track him. Leaving nearly no trace of himself to follow, the apprentice hoped that the elven hunters would give up any chase that they might use to recapture him.

  The man knew that he had been told that he could go any time, but Darius sensed the hidden feelings lying beneath the seeming civility. The largest cause for concern was his relationship with Janus Orfrost. The knight always seemed to say one thing to Darius while meaning something darker than he let on.

  The apprentice mulled these thoughts over as he fled as quickly and stealthily as he could through the darkness of night. Darius arrived in the village of Tamaya well before dawn and already there were people running about the main street. Traders were up early to begin their long trek through the forest or the potentially longer trips to the western cities. Others were the night crowd of the tavern and inn just moving for home. The village was small but it still had a night life that lasted and began the morning often without any break.

  Through that mix of drunks and traders, Darius navigated his way to the Black Oak. The inn keeper was asleep now, but a barkeeper remembered him well enough to let the apprentice know that Elias and Tate had already returned home to the school.

  "The old man was lying in the back while the other drove. He took both horses as well as the team attached to the wagon front. I can probably find someone to sell you a donkey or maybe even a decent horse after sunrise, if you'd like," the man offered as he dried out a mug newly washed from the kitchen.

  Darius listened attentively making sure that he had picked out all the important information since he was still focused on other things. At the barkeeper's suggestion of finding a horse in town, he just shook his head. The apprentice had little money on him. Wizards seldom had need for such things and that which they had carried with them was almost entirely left with Elias and Tate. He wouldn't bring himself to use his leverage as a wizard guild member to force an animal from someone either.

  After a brief meal, Darius had set out with a walking stick in hand and a sigh of resignation to his long trip afoot. The walking stick he had picked up from the edge of the woods before leaving Tamaya. Looking back at the buildings, he figured that with the elves here, the apprentice would probably wind up seeing this village again someday soon.

  Without a horse to carry him, Darius used the one advantage of being afoot. He took short cuts through fields and over steeper hills that most roads wound around. It would still take him a couple of days to reach Aerwold, but the apprentice figured that he had put the matter of the elves behind him at least for now.

  He was lucky enough to find a farm to lay up for that night. Darius hadn't slept much since he had left the elves new village. That was already more than two days without sleep or even much rest and he had used his magic which left him even more drained still.

  The farmer awoke him early in the morning as he prepared to feed his animals and do the milking of cows. The man was also kind enough to share a breakfast and even leave a gift of another day's worth of food for the road. Darius helped the farmer with a few chores in the early morn to thank him before pressing onward once again. His help had surprised the farmer. The man had never expected a return for his good hearted gestures, especially not from a wizard. Darius had smiled at the other's earnest attempts at refusal to be paid back and amiably helped anyway.

  The farmer had waved appreciatively to his guest when Darius had left. It made the apprentice feel good to know that he had set a good example for the kind of treatment that he felt all wizards should abide by. Humming a quiet tune as he strode along, Darius had quickly put the farmer and his home behind him. On refreshed and rejuvenated legs, the man made better time for home.

  Darius walked through the night this time finding that his strength hadn’t faded as much as he thought it might. By doing so he cut the time needed to travel to the point that as the sun rose in the east, the sight of Aerwold was directly below him as the mage stood upon the last hill of his journey.

  He was looking much like the walking dead though as the tired young man wearily entered the gate to the dorm rooms. Finding his bed made as he had left it, Darius didn't even waste the strength to pull aside the covers or remove his travel clothes before collapsing onto its comfortable surface. H
e was asleep by the time his head was laying on the pillow.

  It had seemed like Darius had just lain down when Tate came to wake him up at noon. He was still drained, but with nearly five hours rest, the young man could at least face the world.

  "Hello, Tate, how's Master Elias doing?" Darius asked when he realized who was waking him.

  The other man seemed subdued though his news was good enough. "Elias is doing fine under the other wizards' care. They think he'll be all right in a few weeks' time or less."

  As Darius shed his travel cloak to go before the council, which had been the reason for Tate's arrival, the two men stared at each other. It was almost as if they were strangers rather than lifelong friends. He could not figure out the reasons for such a feeling since the separation had only been a matter of days.

  They weren't strangers and Tate quickly noticed the tension as well. He broke the silence, "What happened out there, Dar? I can't put my finger on the change, but you seem so different. What happened to you?"

  "I don't know why I seem different, but I can tell you that what I found out there was very interesting. I met a whole new race of people from a whole new dimension. Can you imagine the possibilities, Tate? We may be able to learn of a whole new view on magic or how about a new take on life itself."

  "Did you find out who had attacked Elias at the inn? Did you find the girl?"

  "Well, I definitely found the people that the attackers belonged to, but I never did meet the actual men involved. Their lord or knight, or whatever his real role in their society is, explained it as an accident and I'm inclined to believe him. The woman was safe enough, but definitely too weak to have attacked the master that night.