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

by Donald Wigboldy

  "I've been wondering ever since I saw you, Darius, if that was the only thing different about you," Dante said without thinking.

  "How so?" Darius asked looking at the man intently.

  "I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend you," Dante started to apologize. "It was just that, with your hair and all, I thought that maybe you were immortal like the Grimnal and I. Valenia has silvery hair and is immortal as well. If you were born with white hair, apparently that marks you as one of us."

  Darius's stare shifted off him shakily, "I don't know if I was born that way, but I was wondering the same thing when I saw the two of you together. You’re telling me that you're an immortal makes me wonder."

  "Have you ever had anything happen to you that should have killed you, Darius?"

  The wizard shook his head, "No, I don't think so, though I have come close to dying a few times. Always my magic saved me before it could take me." Darius suddenly wrinkled his forehead thinking over his life, especially the past month or so. "Unless...

  "There is a test to see if you've attained immortality, one that doesn't mean that you stab yourself to death." The lieutenant took out his knife. It was sharp enough and he held it out to Darius. "Cut yourself somewhere. It can be small, if you want. If you heal unusually fast, then you know."

  "But that's absurd," Darius laughed nervously. "I'm not going to do that to myself, besides if I return all bloody, Bagheer and Electra will have a fit."

  Dante shrugged and started to put the blade away. "That's fine. I asked the Grimnal about his first death, and he said that it took stabbing himself in the heart several times along the way to convince other people of his claim as well. I've been stabbed to death about two or three times that should have killed me as well. I don't go around trying it if I don't have to either, of course. You never know when the next time it'll be for real, do you?"

  "No, you couldn't," Darius said quietly. The wizard took Dante's knife from his belt and slashed a cut into his forearm without fear. It was only about an inch long, but the pain was enough to make Darius gasp.

  "Why?" Dante asked in surprise as the knife was passed back to him.

  "I thought of a time that I should probably have died," Darius said as his eyes watered from the pain. Both watched as the wound became filled with blood and it soon overflowed the cut and began spreading along the arm. Neither man touched it just yet. Then the flow stopped.

  Dante took the rag that he had just used to clean off the knife and passed it across the wound. Looking on the wound, they found that it was nearly sealed with a scab already. Even as they watched, the men thought that they could almost see the cut healing. Dante chuckled to himself at the sight. It would heal quickly, but he sincerely doubted that the scab would be gone before the end of the day.

  "So what was it that made you believe?" he asked the wizard.

  Darius was pale, not so much from the pain or blood, but that he now knew himself to be one of the Grimnal's immortal race. What did that mean for him he wondered? Shaking his head with incredulity, the wizard took a moment before answering, "It was back when I first met Electra and Janus. They hurt a teacher of mine and I chased them through the woods all night. In the morning, I was tired and the use of woods magic had left me nothing to fight with at all. I tried a magic that I had theorized about, but never tried to embrace fully before because it was known to be potentially deadly to the user.

  "I was told later that wizards had tried this magic before, but the power was too much to hold onto without the trick that I discovered and no one had ever survived trying it. Before I discovered that I needed a staff to channel the energy back into the earth as a ground, I thought that the magic was going to kill me. I was too filled with magic just as the others had been, but I survived long enough to touch a tree and release the energy back into the earth.

  "I always wondered how I had managed to survive that day. As it was, I passed out after leaving the elves. I didn't even make it fifty feet before I dropped dead to the world. I always believed that I had simply fallen into a sleep of exhaustion, but I must have died for a time as you say happened to all of you."

  Dante held out his hand with a grin and said jokingly, "Welcome to a new world, brother."

  Darius looked at him soberly and grasped the forearm strongly as the elves did. "I know that you meant that in jest, but I tell you now, that I will remember you as a special brother, indeed. There are few enough of us in this world, after all. We are nearly unique in our being at all.

  "Should we survive this fight, I want you to know that if ever trouble falls your way, I will come to help you as would any brother. This I swear."

  The soldier looked at the passionate young man before him. Only about seven years his senior, Dante could feel that bond between them as he could the air in his lungs. "Born from different mothers, but brothers still. I can't imagine a time when a wizard would need a common swordsman like me, but I am there for you as well, brother. With this ring, I could truly be there with a single thought."

  Darius smiled sadly. "I don't think that you'll be able to keep the ring following the war, but if you do then I am glad to know that you will be there so quickly. Maybe I can have Janus teach me how to use the magic and then I can help you just as swiftly." Suddenly, Darius shook his head and pulled himself to his feet. Holding out a hand to Dante, he said, "Come, brother, we have better things to do than sitting here like a couple of old men gossiping. Let's go find your soldiers and return to the camp. I am sure that my Electra is worried sick about me."

  Dante nodded and checked to make sure that Misery was secure on his shoulder. The two men took hold of each other's hands once more and Dante thought of Valenia. He was right. This time was much smoother.

  Chapter 46- Valenia

  Valenia paced impatiently in the long corridor at Gilwen. She and the others had been allowed to stay in the barracks for the past few days. Although it had been built for Dwarves rather than those of human size, it was still better than wandering lost through the dwarves’ world and besides that, she still hoped to see Dante returned to her soon. The woman didn't know how that could possibly happen, but she hoped that it would be so anyway. If he didn't return to her, Valenia didn’t know what she would do and knowing that lent nothing to her already bad mood.

  Gannon had been of little help to her so far. He was not a true wizard, just a vision reader. His knowledge of magic was limited and the strange way that they had lost Dante was beyond anything that he had learned from either source. If Valenia was on the verge of panic, the Seer was nearly as much. He had lost the only way of stopping the Dark Emperor, even if it was still unknown as to how the ring could be used as such.

  Without Dante and the ring, they were all lost, according to Gannon, and the woman hated to admit that she had come to rely on him so much. With over seven years of legion service and almost as many years taken to learning of war, Valenia had become a self-sufficient captain who had seemed capable of dealing with any problem. She was one of the most competent leaders in her country's army and if she weren't a woman, the captain might have a chance of becoming a general one day.

  Then he had come into her life. Having few words to explain what had happened to her, Valenia simply knew the easiest term was that she had fallen in love. They were now a team, no longer two, but one. It was like her mother had once tried to explain to her when Valenia had told her parents of her decision to become a soldier. The youth and desire to become what she was had deafened her to the words that her mother had spoken of on being married, but the feeling was still there.

  Now the woman that had become Captain Kartiyan, a woman of stone will and a fire burning to lead her soldiers, a woman needing nothing but the respect of her troops to win through, now that woman stood with a feeling of complete uncertainty. Valenia paced with worry over a man. Worry had frozen her and incapacitated the captain as much as his loss halted everything concerning the mission to defeat the enemy.

  The king's
messengers had come to them over an hour ago with word that she was to go to the castle. Wondering if Dante had found some way to contact them from wherever he was now, the woman sighed and turned to pace back along her path as Gannon and Calla stood watching her with concerned eyes.

  Their caring looks almost made her angrier. Calla had always been strongly opposed to dealing with men while serving their duties, and now the sergeant was constantly working to console her that everything would be all right. Gannon's concern made her even more angry yet, as it was thrown on top of the overdose of worry from Calla and her own. She was most angry at him because she also still felt that he should have been able to warn them, and still wondered if perhaps the man had known that this would happen.

  With half a glare at the seer, Valenia wondered if he knew what was happening to her lover even now.

  The doors opened to admit them finally. What they spied as they entered stopped her in her tracks. Calla was likewise stunned into stone, even as Gannon, also showing surprise, continued within the chamber and motioned them to join him as well. Valenia walked slowly inside the great hall of Dwarf King Durtan. It was not the magnificence of the chamber that so stunned the women, though it was remarkably lavished with gold statues of extreme workmanship, along with lush paintings of various kinds marking the walls as well as many equally colorful and intricate tapestries to brighten the stone walls beyond the great columns of stone holding the ceiling aloft above them. They would have merited more attention, if not for the pair of great winged creatures standing to one side of the throne.

  Looking like stone come to life, Valenia did not know that they were gargoyles, and even if the captain had she would still have been forced to stare. The two winged warriors only cast mildly interested eyes in their direction as the trio entered the chamber. The dwarf king, however, seemed equally nervous as he and his soldiers guarding him all kept a wary eye on the giant creatures, which were easily four times their size.

  Valenia snapped her jaw shut when she realized that she had lost control of her lower jaw from surprise. It would never do to let an enemy know that you feared or were taken aback by them, though she could not say that these were truly the enemy before them.

  "Wondrous," she heard Gannon whisper from beside her. Half smiling with the knowledge that even the seer was taken by surprise for once, the woman felt a little better about her own reaction.

  When they had nearly drawn abreast of the gargoyles, Valenia and the others gave small bows politely acknowledging the king. He nodded slightly and spoke first, "Captain, seer, these creatures are said to be from an army sent by your world from a northern continent. They come as messengers and bring word of the one you seek."

  "You know what has happened to Dante!" she exclaimed forgetting the king's presence and the creatures' intimidating appearance. They could have been dragons bent on eating her, if they could just tell her where to find Dante. The king cleared his throat drawing her attention back to him and the captain blushed at her loss of control. "I am sorry for interrupting, your majesty," the woman apologized.

  "I understand your concerns, captain, and would probably have done the same in your place. However, it is important to allow me to let them know that they may tell you the information that they possess. It was sent to me that I might have you called here, after all. Gentlemen," the king gestured with a hand trying to play down his fears of the giants, as if there were only normal dwarves around him.

  One gargoyle bowed to the king ever so slightly and even that motion seemed hard for the beast to accomplish. It spoke with a strange voice that sounded made of the stone that they resembled, "Dante Betrice sends word of his love for Valenia Kartiyan," the gargoyle stated though he appeared uncomfortable saying such things. "He sends word that you might join him and the Lord Grimnal two days ride north of here. The lieutenant was impatient and wished that he could have come himself, but he works with the Grimnal himself to prepare to resist the Dark One."

  The gargoyle seemed ready to say more when suddenly his attention shifted with a start to a place behind the three humans. The creature reached for his sword even as Valenia and the others noticed a burst of silvery light coming from nowhere in the middle of the great hall.

  Valenia and Calla stepped back drawing blades even as dozens of dwarves leapt into a defensive position before their king. The gargoyles strode closer prepared for battle, and then two figures were seemingly spat out by the light. Valenia nearly feinted as she recognized Dante and nearly missed the other man with him.

  Misery squawked from atop Dante's shoulder.

  "Dante!" she cried out in shock. Tossing her sword to Calla, Valenia rushed forward to lay her hands on him to see if he was real. The other man stepped back unnoticed as the raven crossed to the wizard's shoulder as if the perch were as much his home as the lieutenant’s. Valenia took no notice of either movement as she wrapped her arms around the lieutenant.

  Dante gasped at the strength of the embrace, and spoke even as he tried to hug her back, "Valenia! It worked finally."

  The woman continued to hug him and reached up with her lips to caress his longingly. "I thought that I had lost you forever," she whispered and tried to hold back her tears. It would not do to cry in front of the king, after all. "What are you doing here? These creatures just arrived to give word that you were with Lord Grimnal and no less. How did you get here?"

  Dante eyed all the weapons raised against his entry and said quietly, "Perhaps I can explain when everyone calms down a bit."

  The woman turned away from him though her hands would not let him go from her grip. "King Durtan, this is the man who sent the message. There is no need for alarm, I assure you."

  The king waved the soldiers back to their positions and stepped down from the throne. The whispering of the swords that the gargoyles replaced nearly unnerved the king, but he continued with only a portion of the fear showing in his eyes. "You have made quite an entrance, sir. Would you care to explain yourself?" it was an order not a true question.

  Dante and Darius bowed respectfully and Dante spoke first for them. "I am sorry to have surprised everyone so, but I have only just learned how to do this. It wasn't until this man came to our camp that I was even aware that I could do it."

  "And who is this man?" the king asked quietly.

  "King Durtan, allow me to introduce, Darius Eremia. He is a wizard from our world and a first class one, I would guess, since it only took him moments to figure out how to use this magic to find the captain here."

  The king's eyes narrowed as he continually heard the mention of magic from Dante. "I am sure he is," the dwarf answered quietly. "What is this magic that you have learned, sir? I do not appreciate any magic which works so quickly to breach my walls. Explain yourself to me, please." The final word sounded none too friendly despite its nature.

  Dante looked to Darius in concern. The wizard nodded and took over the conversation. "It is not necessarily Dante's magic, your majesty. It comes from the talisman that separated him from the others days ago. From what I gather, the ring possesses the ability to bring anyone to the destination that they think of at the time. That is what we have used to come here. I believe that this specific magic is one of a kind. You should not have to worry about the enemy finding such magic to use against you, I would guess.

  "It is one of the talismans that Dante and I were sent to find to use against the Dark Emperor to finally defeat him. In fact, one of the reasons we are here is to ask if you are willing to help us do so."

  The king's brow furrowed deeper as he looked for the deception in Darius' words that he feared lay buried beneath the speech. Unsure of their true intentions, the king said, "I stand against him, wizard, but I am still not sure that I stand alongside of you. Why should I commit myself and my armies to following you?"

  Darius smiled, though Dante guessed that the expression was being forced. The wizard spoke evenly, if not with complete warmth to the king, "There is more than one reason, of
course. Shall I pick just one? No, let us list them all instead, shall we? First, there is the fact that though you wish to oppose the Dark One, your forces are pathetically smaller than his." The king's frown deepened and Dante wondered if Darius knew what he was doing after all.

  "Secondly, I myself have brought over a force that will shortly number nearly ten thousand that will be joined with the elves of Feirhgenrell and soon others of the elf kingdoms remaining. With that might and any of the dwarven kings that will join us, we hope to push back his forces to his lair if possible.

  "I know that you realize that should we fail, you and all the other nations and races will fall soon enough to the Dark One. You should join with us. Failure to unite all our forces against his insane numbers will surely result in failure, though we will still try.

  "We also have joined with the men and gargoyles that have come from our world to fight and you can see what great warriors these gargoyles will be in battle. What troll can stand up to the might of these creatures, your highness? If all these points were not enough, perhaps a last one will convince you that it is time to drive the Dark One back with all those I have mentioned."

  "What are you getting at, wizard?" the king requested starting to lose patience. Dante was wondering the same thing himself as he listened to the speech. "How can you say that you believe that we will still overcome this shadowy monster when entire kingdoms fall to him daily? Even these gargoyles may not be able to stand before the full force of a legion of trolls and the enemy has many creatures worse than just trolls. This I assure you," he said stressing the last words sarcastically.