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

by Donald Wigboldy

  The holy knight could see that all of them were composed once again, though the elves were still attentive to the unexpected guests. Warily, they watched for a dark act to follow their arrival. Janus ignored them and began to discuss what had happened while they were gone, "We have brought the second two waves of soldiers from Tolmona already and the messengers were sent to the remaining elf lords, though we have not received a return of those messages yet. Did your meeting go as well?"

  "Better I think, but let us talk of this in private. These men have better things to do this minute. You can tell them what you think is important later." Darius led the way out of the room. After exiting, he turned and asked, "Where can we go to talk?"

  Janus took over the lead and found a large room with a large wood table set in the center. Xarien and Matalchus caught up to them as they entered and closed the door. Electra and Tate took up chairs to one side of the table while the wizards took the opposite side. Janus stood near the table while Darius noted that Bagheer stood to one side of the door in a guarded stance.

  He was about to speak when a thud announced another visitor at the door. It was thrown open before Bagheer could open it, but the man was still quick enough to reach for the sword at his side. Romullee, with a pair of guards at his back, stormed into the room. "I will not be left out of this discussion if it pertains to the Dark

  One!" stated the elf king angrily. Ignoring Bagheer's presence as he replaced his partially pulled sword, Romullee took up a firm stance at the head of the table. The guardsmen all kept an eye on him though as they closed the door behind their entrance.

  Janus inclined his head slightly towards the king as he replied, "Of course, your majesty. I believe the wizard only sought to free you of his unannounced presence from your war room. He was just about to explain that to me, if you would like to hear him out?"

  Stubbornly, the king remained standing instead. Darius ignored the elf. He was not Darius' king and as a wizard he was not under any king anyway in fact. "The people revealed in the mirror are indeed important to us as I thought Janus. Lord Grimnal is an immortal much like yourself. The other is newly known to be so as well.

  "The second man is almost more important and is the reason that I was able to appear amongst you so quickly. He was sent on a mission by the sect of Visionaries in my world." He slapped his forehead remembering Gannon in the void. "Pardon me, but I need to tell you this as briefly as I can. I lost a seer on the way through the void this trip, so I need to return to find him as soon as possible."

  "The means of your arrival wizard," the king growled reminding him of his presence. "How have you entered my castle when it is guarded by dozens of spells to prevent such a thing from happening?"

  Darius nodded, "Yes, that. Well, the other man, Dante, was sent to find a talisman, just as I was sent to the elves and dwarves to find the Armor of Norn." He raised his hand to show the ring to Janus in particular, though Romullee could see from where he stood as well. Darius noticed a tensing in the young king as if he was preparing to spring at him. The wizard turned his watchful gaze full upon the elf. "This ring has the power to step through a void and place its wearer wherever he can think of or wish for at the time of his thinking it. Apparently, its magic is older and stronger than the wards of the castle.

  "Being that he had been sent by the Visionaries for such a device, I guessed that it must be the source that should stop the Dark Emperor. We just need to figure out how that can happen. I have a guess or two, but Janus knows more of this travel, so I brought it here for his advice."

  Janus ignored Romullee totally now and asked to see the ring. As Darius handed the ring to the knight, he thought that he heard the king release a deep sigh of relief. Looking closely at the ring, Janus said, "It has runes that I can not understand." With a question apparent in his eyes, he asked the wizard, "Can you read them?"

  "No, but the man that was lost may know their meaning. Perhaps we should go find him? I can use the ring to hopefully bring us to him. Are you up to such an adventure, Janus?"

  The elf showed little surprise and passed the ring back to Darius. "If you think that would be best, then I think that we should go. Pardon us, my lord."

  "Wait!" the king ordered. "You can not leave me behind when we do not understand this magic. This wizard could spirit you away and then only two holy knights would remain to protect the kingdom and you are the strongest of the three. I cannot allow it!"

  Janus placed a hand on the young man's shoulder, "You cannot stop it, Romullee, and neither can you come with. You are the king of Faierden, and as such you are much too important to risk in studying magic."

  "Then I command you not to go. If I am so important, then surely you are equally so, knight."

  Janus sighed, "Darius brought this to me, because I know the most about this kind of travel, my lord. I must go and I do not want to point out that your rule does not apply to my kind. Please refrain from acting so foolishly now, Romullee. You are a king. Do not act like a child when matters of fate are involved with this." Turning back to Darius while the king turned red in anger and embarrassment, the holy knight asked. "How does this work then, Darius?"

  "Take my hands and hold tight. I don't want to lose you as well," he replied and closed his eyes to concentrate on Gannon's presence, even as Romullee shouted, "See, it is not safe!"

  The world blurred around them and the two of them disappeared in a silver flash.

  Chapter 48- Darius

  The silver light of the void engulfed them and made it their world. A wind that was only sound, and they could not truly feel it, seemed to push at them gently. Darius thought that they moved quickly through the light, though there was nothing to act as a marker to imply such a thing, until a dark dot finally appeared in the distance. He and Janus were closing in on the blemish in the silver void and quickly they were able to make out the seer's form.

  "Seer Gannon!" Darius shouted and heard his voice thinly in the strange vacant air.

  The other man seemed to have heard him even so, or perhaps, since they were the only other bodies of substance in the vacancy, he had simply spied them coming. Once again, Darius wondered at that strange feeling of movement in a void. He gave it up as their momentum slowly stalled to a halt within arms reach of their objective.

  "Nice of you to remember me, wizard," Gannon nodded with a quiet smile. Darius was not sure if it was sarcasm or a true greeting of his return the way the man said it.

  "I would not leave you here, seer, you should have guessed that. I returned as soon as I could, of course. Maybe half an hour has passed at the most."

  The seer shrugged casually and, unlike the clumsier attempts from the wizard and elf, he seemed balanced in the movement. "It seemed maybe slightly longer to me, but it is hard to tell in here, of course. While you were gone, I attempted several theories to try and escape from here. The experiments give me great hope that this dimension will indeed hold the Dark One securely."

  Janus questioned him with a frown, "What is it that you have tried, Gannon?"

  The seer smiled slightly, "And who is this with you, wizard?"

  "The holy knight Janus, of whom I mentioned earlier, Gannon. Now please answer the question?" Darius replied. He was already getting tired of the older man's testing of his patience.

  "I tried that which we have already seen successful with the ring. I wished to join you or any of the others that I know in the world of Alfar. I tried to think of those seers that I knew best from Alus and even my own family. I found nothing to work.

  "I then resorted to trying my meager magics at finding my release. Neither my precognitive abilities nor those learned from your order have availed me here. I could not even use my abilities to see if you would return for me or be able to use this place against the Dark One. My most basic magic and abilities fail me here." Looking more intently at Janus, he added with a gesture of his finger, "This is the one who can move between worlds without the ring's help, then?" At Darius' nod, t
he seer looked at the elf steadily. "Would you be willing to try your skills at removing us from here, sir? If you can break free, then so can the Dark One or one of his minions and my attempts would mean nothing."

  Janus looked uncertainly around him. "I don't know enough about this place. I may actually trap us here instead by trying."

  Gannon shrugged again. "One will never know if you do not at least try. You do wish to be rid of this Dark Emperor, don't you?"

  The elf's face darkened at what would be implied if he answered negatively. To any who knew him even slightly well, they knew that every fiber of the elf's being was given over to seeing this foe defeated. "I had better release you, Darius. Touching you might accidentally trigger the ring. We don't know enough about it yet, after all."

  Darius released the other man’s hand and wafted slightly towards Gannon. He wondered if they were still moving in the emptiness and if they would ever find a solid place to stand on here.

  Drawing his gaze back to the knight's actions, Darius watched intently as Janus seemed to be performing an intricate dance. He spiraled in the windless air, even as a glow seemed to attempt to separate itself from the silver around it. The aura clung tightly to the elf. For several long moments, (perhaps it took hours, Darius still wondered how time worked here) Janus struggled with numerous movements. Several times he would open his eyes and sigh just to continue with yet another set of motions.

  While they waited, Darius quested with his own magic. All the rituals that he had learned for all the magics were cycled through and just like Janus, the wizard found himself opening his eyes to yet another failure. No power that he knew seemed to be present or conjurable within the void.

  Darius gave up long before Janus, but eventually even the elf seemed to have run out of ideas to try against the silver light holding them in its cool embrace. Sweat beaded the elf's forehead from his long exertion.

  He confessed exhaustedly, "I can not find a way to win free. None of the magics I know even seem to exist on this plane."

  Gannon smiled widely for the first time since Darius had met him. "Good, good!" he crowed happily. "If we cannot even summon magic here, maybe something like the Emperor will not be able to either. Perhaps if the Dark One is too linked to magic, he might even be destroyed by its non-existence."

  Janus suddenly smiled as well, "Yes, and a happy day that would be should it happen." He turned with a fire in his eyes that Darius had not seen in days. Focusing that gaze on the wizard and the elf asked, "How quickly can we take the fight to him, Darius? Will you be the one to bring it to him and defeat him?"

  "Not to kill your exuberance, knight," Gannon interrupted suddenly, "but we have two important matters to consider in dealing with this beast. One, do we have the power to draw such a being into this void and, second, can we get the ring free of him to trap him here?"

  A dark look from Janus signaled that the thoughts had not escaped him either. "You sound as if you had a thought on that, seer," Janus stated coldly.

  The man ignored the tone and answered simply, "I do in fact. Would you care to hear my plans?"

  With a golden scepter that he had held at his side he gestured towards each of them and began, "I think that I have seen enough of the future to formulate a plan. It is always risky for a Visionary in the midst of a struggle to make such decisions, however." At Janus' confused look, he changed the name," A seer, that is, attempting to meet the future and sculpt it to what he believes should occur, can actually risk changing the future for the better or worse. For one Seer, may interpret a dream as one thing, while a second may conclude an entirely different reading of the same dream."

  "We need to risk that chance," Janus scolded at the man's tangent. "What is your plan?"

  With a nod, Gannon proceeded to explain his ideas.

  Preparations for a war on an unheard of scale were swiftly pushed forward. It was a pace that surprised them all, since no one could have expected so much in so little time though they also wished that everything could come to completion even sooner still.

  The ring helped matters greatly, of course. Darius and Janus could use it to appear to elves and dwarves in moments in far off kingdoms that would normally have taken days or even weeks to contact by messenger and the same amount of time to await the response of their rulers. Those that may have been a little slow to respond to their efforts usually responded quickly and favorably to Grimnal's messengers. Though slower than the ring's speed of travel, the gargoyles were none the less quite efficient in their delivery and their presence alone seemed to give the elves and dwarves new hope that they could succeed where they had lived in the fear that all was lost for so long.

  Gargoyles were creatures never witnessed before in the world of Litsors. Trolls and armored viles were powerful, of course. Fire urchins and kiriaks were legendary for their great powers as well, but the winged gargoyles presented the races with an army that could stand up to the strongest of the Dark One's beasts and not only survive the encounter but thrive in it.

  At least that was the impression that Lord Grimnal urged the messengers to perpetuate with each meeting. Janus and Darius fanned such ideas into the most grandiose imagery possible and the lords of all the races believed them easily, for their strength was self evident and they would prove worthy against equal numbers of the dark creatures.

  What everyone avoided mentioning was that there were only a little more than a thousand available for this struggle, while the dark masses were many times that. The slack would have to be taken up by elven knights and archers, dwarven axmen and crossbows, and the soldiers of man that had been ferried over by the thousands when they had realized the need. The need was great and the races sent all that they could spare for the conflict.

  Elves from the remaining nine kingdoms came in brigades of thousands to converge on the eastern kingdom of Bairhdia. Led by their generals and the remaining pair of holy knights, Egrevn and Zander, the elves set up camp and watched as thousands of dwarves stomped up from the south with Lord Grimnal's army showing them the way. After only three weeks' time, the soft hills of Bairhdia were dotted with a vast army that everyone viewed and began to believe that there would be nothing that the dark lord could summon to stop their combined might.

  When a final army of over ten thousand gnomes struggled past the mountains to the south to join them as well, every face looked to another and found pride and determination reflected in those eyes. These allies of five different races would never be defeated they insisted to each other and found it easy enough to believe that it would be so.

  It was at that time that Darius was gathered with the greatest of the leaders of the resistance. They were all gathered within the great castle of the elven lord of Bairhrell, King Odeaes. Every kingdom had its general or lord in the great hall. Darius looked out over the table that he sat behind with Janus and the holy knights, Dorvin, King Odeaes, King Romullee, Kar'Duik and the great Grimnal. He took in the table seating most of his people. Wizards Matalchus and Fioren with Tate and Xarien to either side and Meria hanging onto Tate's arm, Electra, who appeared to want to jump up and join him as much as Bagheer, who seemed to be eyeing everyone equally close. Ouria and Lieth had even managed to get squeezed in though they were not going to be a part of the conflict if he could have his say on the subject. At other tables, he noticed some that he knew from his trips with the ring with Janus. There was a table filled with dwarven nobles such as Durtan of Yimin, Borgous of the nearest of the dwarven city states Montteth, Yortan of Yushkden, one of the few dwarf lords that had joined the elves immediately in resisting the dark army, Eaelden of Cairhmont, another staunch ally of the elves, and General Mordek sent from Heathmon to lead the dwarves central army at old Daugersk's command.

  It was the final man who controlled the largest of the dwarven forces committed to the cause. King Daugersk was the highest king of the dwarves. Heathmon served as the center to the entire kingdom and it was his order that brought so many of his people to Alfar
this day. The dwarf king would have come himself in fact, if he hadn't been getting on in years. Over two hundred and forty of them he had confessed to the wizard at one point. Darius shook his head remembering perhaps the most charismatic king and easily the most content and happy of them too in his opinion.

  Darius fought his attention back to Janus, who had been speaking of the battle plans that had required two weeks of additions and refinements as more troops had appeared.

  "Lord Grimnal with kings Durtan and Eaelden will take the center with two companies of archers and another two squadrons of elven cavalry to back them. General Mordek will lead his dwarves with the elves of Gristrell and Ocren to add to his forces. The third army consisting of the men and dwarves from Tolmona will be guarded by the knights of Fairhsors and Faierden. Eilia's archers and infantry will guard their flank while the remaining troops serve as reserve and watch for a possible attack from the rear in case the dark army decides to use their magic to shift behind us. Any questions?" Janus looked out at those gathered there. No hands were raised. No questions were shouted. All these men had been a part of this plan for most of the two weeks. Everyone knew their place and if any complaints remained as to their position in the ranks it would remain unsaid now.

  Darius looked again at all those arranged before him. Mostly he saw confident soldiers and warriors. A few looked uncertain, but those had been talked with enough that Darius doubted that they would fail in their duties.

  Janus had brought himself to the final point. "I will remain with Lord Grimnal's center while Egrevn and Zander assist either wing. Wizard Darius will be with me along with those chosen to bring the final battle to the Dark One while his forces are engaged with ours. When we succeed, there will be nothing left of our enemy, gentlemen.

  "Remember as you fight, and even before as you prepare your men, that we fight not just to win, but to rid ourselves of the Dark Lord so that our lands might finally see peace. We fight for our families, wives, children, sisters, and mothers. Use their memories to draw strength to lift your weapon one more time against the evil foe.