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

by Donald Wigboldy

  "In other words," Dante interrupted, "you can guess, but not necessarily be right."

  The enigmatic man shrugged.

  "Well, maybe this quest that you want to put us on is the wrong thing to do. Have you thought of that, Gannon?" Valenia retorted unhappily.

  Again the seer smiled, but this time he refused to answer and turned his face away.

  Two days passed and on the third, the Valosians passed on the information to their Certen brethren that this day they would lay eyes upon a true marvel. Today they would come to the Taltan River, the Great Divide. It was the mightiest river of any continent, they vowed adamantly, though they had been to no other lands save their own.

  The city that Gannon had picked to cross from was called Kalmer. It was the second biggest city of Valos and perhaps the richest, though the capitol Valkeyrta would probably dispute the fact. A trade center for all types of materials, the city was perhaps best known for its handling of rare gems and metals. The diamond and emerald mines of the Dragon's Spine Mountains as well as the numerous metals found there all seemed to pass through the city. Assayers of the highest caliber, and perhaps the lowest as well, resided within Kalmer. A grading of the metals from the city meant its overall value all over the world. Most miners forced themselves to march for days in the hopes that the assayers would approve their hard earned commodities.

  Special companies took care to protect the metals and jewels before the financial trades conducted there began. The trade was what most of the population of the city was almost entirely dedicated to and nearly only that.

  The warriors of Valenia that had been there before told of the wonders of art and architecture found there as well. Dante and his men were perhaps less than enthused with such studies, but they tried to listen attentively to their companions.

  Dante had noticed that more than a few of his men had developed special relations with some of the women in the past couple of days. A long time of campaigning and training had left both groups feeling the need for companionship. It was as he had guessed and the two officers let the matter lie as long as nothing occurred to cause problems with the others.

  "There!" Volin shouted interrupting his thoughts. The man was pointing to the faintest of gray tendrils appearing just at the tip of a hill still a ways off. Dante thought that the smoke would have been noticed by all in a matter of moments either way. The plume was quickly growing and whatever else they could guess they knew that it had to be a large blaze.

  "That is the direction of Kalmer," Calla stated worriedly.

  "Gannon?" Dante asked with the faintest of hopes for an answer.

  The Seer didn't even acknowledge him and Dante turned back to Valenia. "We'd better check it out. Don't you think?"

  She nodded and waved for the others to speed up their pace. They pushed their mounts hard past hills and valleys. The smoke cloud was still building as they continued their race against time. All feared the same thing. The enemy was attacking Kalmer.

  Such audacity made Dante fear the worst. Had the enemy brought forth its sorcerers again? Even Kalmer could fare no better than the fortress city of Peleth, if they had.

  Early afternoon brought them to the final hill blocking them from Kalmer. The sight of the great walls surrounding the city with several fires trying to root themselves and the grasses outside the city ablaze as well led to both happiness and more worry. The enemy stood around three of the walls though those to the southeast had fallen back an extra cautionary distance because of the breeze pushing the flames towards the prairie.

  The army brought here was huge in number, but Dante noticed no special ring of sorcerers this time. The enemy was numerous, but he doubted that even their numbers could easily take the city. The lieutenant wondered why they would bother to try when so many smaller villages and cities would lead to more chaos. The Valosians’ army would be spread thin and would be forced to pull reserves out of the cities to protect the lands around them making their conquests easier. At least, that was what he had learned from tactics in Certe.

  Valenia seemed to be of the same opinion as she stated, "They don't seem to be truly attacking. Are they planning a siege this deep into Valos?"

  A thought occurred to Dante, "Gannon."

  The wizard turned with a raised eyebrow at his addresser.

  "Tell me if this sounds right. From what I have heard in Trea, the enemy enters a portal and then exits the same portal where it bends back. Is this correct?"

  The seer shrugged, "I believe that it is so. Our sect has access to much of the magic that the wizard's guild uses. I am not one of the more skilled at such things, but I believe they have verified this at both schools."

  Dante gave him an extra hard look at the man's sudden talkativeness, but quickly summed up his thoughts, "I am wondering, if we are looking at the true reason for these intrusions. Could the enemy be entering long enough to clear a path just to return to their world?"

  "Why would they do that?" Calla's voice revealed her disbelief. "If they didn't want to conquer our world, what would be the point of the attacks?"

  "I'm not sure just yet," he replied without feeling any annoyance at the woman's dispute of his theory. It was just that after all. "My guess is that they are using the portals to move to different areas of their own world. Think about it. The ability to move entire armies through one world to come out in a totally different spot back in their own, you could outflank another army swiftly and unseen. You could leave tracks to the portal and leave no way for scouts to anticipate you from there. Entire armies could appear out of thin air to attack cities like they've done here or ambush armies about to attack them. The possibilities are overwhelming."

  Gannon looked at him with surprise showing on his face. The man was too slow to avoid Dante's notice this time and the soldier realized that he was close, if not completely on track. Now all he needed to know was, why had the Dark Emperor gone to such great lengths? What enemy was the creature fighting that he needed such deceptions to win or was Alus just the next victim for after the other world's conquest? If that were true, then perhaps these were the softening blows before the true test.

  The band stood upon the hill and watched in curiosity while the officers considered their options.

  Darkness was full upon them by the time Dante and Corporal Warik had snuck to the edges of the enemy encampment. They were quiet as they hid nearly beneath the noses of the few sentries that were posted at the perimeter. The tall grasses had hid their approach perfectly in the night's dim light. Their shadows could easily be confused for the various bushes and shadows cast by solitary trees upon the gently rolling lands just to the southeast of Kalmer.

  They had come to a conclusion that someone had best try and spy out the enemy camp and it was well that they had. His suspicions were quickly confirmed by the activities of the camp. It was not preparing tents as a siege force would, though cook fires could be seen dotting the enemy's dark mass. Dante gave a brief glance to the corporal beside him and hand signaled slowly. The other man nodded. He too believed that the enemy was preparing to move out.

  Once again, Dante came to ask the same question, why? Why had they bothered to lay such a brief siege when they could just as easily have bypassed Kalmer with nearly no notice of themselves. But then an idea dawned upon him in the darkness of the late hour.

  Perhaps the portal would appear here? Perhaps they only waited for their return at Kalmer's gates to prevent the population from getting in the way of their retreat back into the other world?

  A perimeter guard started to step forward towards them in the dark. The two men held their breath in anticipation. They worried that perhaps they had underrated these creatures in thinking their abilities that of a normal human's. The creature came forward and forward still. It was nearly on top of Warik and still no cry of alarm had been given.

  Then they heard a shout from nearer the camp. The goblin guard turned immediately and returned the shout. A second gruff call and the gobli
n ran back the way it had come.

  Both men let out the breaths that they had been collectively holding. Their position remained unnoticed. Dante pointed with his head to move inward. Warik gave the briefest of nods and they began their forward progress again. They continued ever closer until the grass gave out. There was a wagon close by and both men moved to crawl beneath it. There they waited with swords drawn and a pair of bows lain between them. Each lay a set of arrows between them as well. The heads of these arrows were unusual. Wrapped with material soaked with oil, they would not be used to kill directly. The two men were a diversion as well as spies.

  The company had already been in touch with the defenders of Kalmer. An arrow shot into a rampart wall had held a message of their presence and cautioned the population not to worry. They were also to prepare to attack the enemy on a signal of fire in the enemy's midst.

  Dante and Warik waited. They were not to be the first attack. To have planned such, would have been suicide for the two men. They didn't wait long before a cry of several voices from all around the enemy was heard. Arrows began to fall unseen into the masses of the enemy. Dante knew that the nearest sentries would be among the first targeted by the band.

  He waited only a few seconds to let the shouts of twenty and the blasts of a pair of horns attempt to sound like hundreds. Surprisingly in the dark, they actually sounded like a small army. The mass of the enemy began to rise and prepare for the threat to manifest itself fully. A few fallen goblins or orcs would hardly cause such vicious creatures to go running scared into the night.

  Dante nodded to Warik. The two of them moved behind the wagon and fired a pair of arrows lit at the edges by their tinder and sent them in separate directions. They were beautiful in their flaming glory, but the two men ignored the sight as they launched another pair and then another. The first of the arrows had landed as the second were being launched. That was when Gannon's gift to their arrows made itself known.

  An explosion quickly followed by a second could be heard in the distance. The explosive powder that had been hidden within the canvas heads could cause little more than noise, but that was their intent. More explosions were heard as the dozen arrows that the others carried were launched as well. The cries of the enemy at this strange attack were getting louder and more frantic with each passing second.

  "Now," Dante stated quietly to Warik. The corporal aimed his next arrow higher than the others. This one mattered little where it landed. The signal arrow was launched. "All right, Warik, get back to the safety of the others."

  "What?" the man exclaimed surprised. "Aren't you coming with me, sir?"

  "Don't worry about me. I'll be all right here. Trust me. Now go! That's an order."

  The corporal looked at him as if he was crazy, but backed away into the darkness. Dante turned back to the camp and took hold of his sword and drew out his long knife. He couldn't believe that he was about to do something so suicidal but, according to Gannon, he was supposed to be immortal. Dante hoped that the seer was right, because the soldier knew as he shouted a battle cry and charged deeper into the enemy that he would probably not make it back out again alive otherwise.

  Chapter 24- Darius

  By the end of the walk to the tavern, known as the Sunken Marsh, Darius was feeling much more energetic. After eating three of the prapple fruits and sitting down for a few moments, the wizard had recovered to the point where he was no longer exhausted. Tate had even mentioned that he looked much more fit and ready. It was a good thing, since they had very little time to rescue the elves.

  Unfortunately, when the two men had seen the tavern's outer appearance, flashbacks of the trouble at the Dark Mane Inn came to mind. The flaking white paint upon slowly rotting planking on the side of the building went well with the faded green blob that must have meant a marsh on the tavern's sign. As if the washed out look of the building itself weren't enough, the slumped forms of a half dozen drunks outside helped to finish off the idea that the two wizards did not belong there.

  Darius bravely led the way into a darkened room where a piano clanked out of tune unnoticed by the loud patrons of the Sunken Marsh. A bar lay along one side of the large room and Darius stepped towards it to speak with the bartender. "Excuse me, sir..." he started.

  "Well, lookit we `ave `ere," a large smelly old drunk hollered to the bartender before the question could be asked. "You, boys, t'ink yuir man enough to drink at the Sunken Marsh? No yuir too small, I t'ink, eh, Bairdley?"

  The bartender grinned showing several teeth missing. "As long as they got money, they can drink, Nirshk."

  The drunken old man laughed as if it was the funniest thing that he had ever heard and slapped Tate across the shoulder sending him a step forward. Darius ignored the old man and asked, "Is Tavin Marich here? I have business to speak with him."

  The bartender shrugged, "Who wants to know?"

  "Wizard Darius of Aerwold's council," he stated his title hoping for effect.

  Sudden laughter from all the men nearest him was not the desired result unfortunately it was the answer none the less.

  "This pup’s a wizard?" Nirshk laughed. "Now that is funny!" the man guffawed until he coughed from so much laughter.

  "Whether you believe it or not, does not concern me," Darius replied undaunted in his appearance though on the inside he felt a bit disappointed. "I still have business with Marich, so if you would be so kind as to tell me where he is..."

  "Hey, Tavin!" Nirshk hollered towards those sitting at the tables behind them. "Ya gotta come an' see this kid! He'll `ave ya rolling!"

  A moment's pause and a man lurking beneath a dark hat spoke clearly though he seemed to not raise his voice. "If he's so funny, send him over. I could use a good laugh," he answered dourly.

  "There ya go, sir wizard," Nirshk gestured in a mocking flourish of his arm. "Yuir business awaits ya."

  "Thank you," Darius turned from the bar followed nervously by Tate. They moved over to the table taken by the man. He was alone and Darius hoped that was a good sign. "Mister Marich..." he started.

  "Don't call me mister. I'm Marich to most or Tavin to my few friends and drinking companions. If you're going to talk to me you'll have to be one or the other. I don't recognize you as friend, kid, so what'll you drink?"

  Darius and Tate took seats at the table and Darius shrugged. "I'll take an ale, I guess." Tate nodded.

  Marich spat insultingly, "Ale, bah! Piss is stronger than that stuff, boy. Weskila, now that's a drink or vodkey otherwise. Only children bother with ale. Join me and be a man, wizard."

  "Fine, weskila," Darius nodded though he had never heard of such a drink. "Can we get to business?" "Business? I know of no business with wizards and, if you are going to talk business, first you'll have to drink."

  Darius sighed quietly. He knew that was the way of the dark traders as they were often called. Forcing him to drink would only serve to give the trader extra power in bargaining. Or perhaps this man had designs on taking him to the slave pen? Darius wondered if a slave trader would have the guts to try enslaving a wizard.

  The bartender brought two glasses and a bottle of the liquor. Pouring the glasses himself, Marich toasted, "To business." The man poured the glass down with a swallow.

  Rubbing his finger in a slow circle around the rim first, Darius took his glass as well and threw it into his mouth. He hardly tasted the liquid as he used his magic to evaporate the weskila into thin air before it truly entered his lips. Tate looked at him and drank his more slowly and truly. The apprentice coughed at the power of the alcohol causing most of the patrons to start laughing.

  Marich refused to take his eyes from Darius. From beneath his rimmed hat, the man said quietly, "You're showing your friend up, wizard. This must not be your first time to drink, after all."

  Darius smiled grimly, "Business now or after the bottle is gone?"

  "Oh, now that is the spirit, Darius," the slaver answered with a slight grin of his own. "Do you think that your f
riend can handle it or should it just be you and me?"

  "I would hardly wish to deprive you of your share. Tate, no more. Marich and I will tend to this bottle."

  Still coughing and having tears in his eyes, Tate just nodded as best he could. Darius knew that his friend was probably as surprised as the slaver at his ease with the drink. Tate had known him virtually all his life and knew that he had never drank anything stronger than ale in truth. But the facade remained and the two men poured drinks again.

  Again the two men threw them back and Darius made sure to fake his gulp. Three more glasses later, and neither man showed any signs of drunkenness. Darius, of course, had not truly drank though he had breathed the fumes enough as they disappeared into nothingness to know of the liquid's potency.

  Marich poured the final dregs into the glasses and nodded, "Finish this last one, my friend and then we shall talk. I admit that you have surprised me as you have all those around you," he gestured to several of the patrons watching the match of shots. "One last drink to seal the deal and you may have your chance to speak what you will."

  Darius felt all the eyes on him, but this time he felt brazen and drank. The liquid ran warmly down his throat and he gulped it down with little trouble despite its sting. The alcohol brought a little redness to his cheeks with its power, but that served to give credence to his ruse. The fumes had prepared him and no tears betrayed him now. He sat the glass down before him and the other man did as well.

  Marich smiled. "That took balls," the man stated. "I don't know how you made it disappear so long, but I see you finally drank one. You are a clever man, Darius, but definitely a man. Talk to me," he stated with a small wave of his hand to begin.

  "I have questions concerning some of your merchandise. Perhaps we could discuss it at the pen? I want to make sure that you have the goods I desire."

  Marich shrugged, "You've earned your right to deal and I have a splendid selection to choose from today. Come on and we'll see what develops from there."