“By the nameless god!” Solim swore.
“What is it?” asked Rubic. He had seen his brother get mad many times before, but couldn’t remember ever hearing that level of vehemence.
“This is exactly the reason I have been trying to kill them,” replied Solim.
He stomped over to a suit of armor and kicked it. It fell over with a tremendous crash that brought the rest of the room to silence. “No,” he said in a quiet fury that Rubic had to strain to hear. “The Prophecy is mine to claim! I will not let them take it from me!” Solim kicked the suit’s helmet, sending it flying through the air. It clattered to the floor on the other side of the room. A troll picked it up and looked at it curiously before smashing it flat. Solim glared at the leaders that had stopped what they were doing to watch. All of them found something better to do than meet his gaze.
Solim returned to the throne, now totally focused; his anger tempered into purpose. He glared at Rubic, who shrank from the malignance of his gaze. “It looks like you will get a second chance to kill them,” he said. “They will be fleeing. Take a squad of orc trackers and go outside the city walls. Track them down and kill them. Bring me back their heads...or don’t come back at all.”
Chapter 25
“I think we should probably stop and decide what we are going to do,” said Lady Ellyn as the group came to a small clearing. They had been following the short archer through the woodlands for over an hour since escaping the city, as he seemed to know where he was going. Lady Ellyn nodded to the newest member of the group. “Why don’t you start by telling us who you are, and how you came to be fighting the trolls.”
“Aye, it’s pleased I am that you came along when you did,” replied the archer. “The name’s Fitzber, Captain Fitzber if you must, o’ the Earthen Gnome Rangers.” He performed the flourish with his hat again. “I am at your service.” He paused for a few moments. “Where to begin...where to begin...aye, at the beginning I s’pose. I was in charge o’ a group of rangers that was sent to the frontier to watch the border with Carpos. We knew they were coming, but didn’t know when or where. All o’ a sudden, they were upon us. They used goblin sappers to tunnel under our lines. We were quickly overrun when they burst forth from the ground behind our defenses. I sent all o’ my men to try and get the word back to Norlon, while I scouted behind their lines to find out what they were all about.” He shook his head. “I wish I hadn’t; the memories o’ that time will be givin’ me nightmares for the rest o’ me life.”
“Why is that?” asked Lady Ellyn.
“I saw their command element,” replied Fitzber, “and I knew the lads back at Norlon would be in trouble. Their troops were led by some sort o’ anti-paladin, astride a nightmare as dark as a witch’s heart. Every time it snorted, smoke came from its nostrils. As dark as its steed was, the anti-paladin was even blacker. He seemed to absorb all o’ the light around him, making it hard to see him in the darkness. He was hard to look at; he was evil personified.” He shuddered at the recollection.
“What did he look like?” asked Lady Ellyn, her voice empty of emotion.
“He was a big human,” replied Fitzber. “He had to be nearly seven feet tall, with armor black as the inside o’ a cave in an eclipse. He was totally black; even his helmet was black...all except for his blood red hands. At first I thought it was the blood o’ his foes still on him, but then I saw that his gauntlets had been painted red.”
“He does that to terrorize his enemies,” Lady Ellyn said. “When he pulls the hearts out of his enemies and holds them up, it makes them look bigger and him more ferocious by comparison.”
“Oh, so you be knowin’ that one, then?” asked the ranger.
“Aye, I do,” replied Lady Ellyn. “It is worse than we thought. That man is the Dark Lord Kazan. No wonder he didn’t show himself during the attack on Norlon; he would have wanted all of the paladins dead before he revealed himself, so that we couldn’t try to guess what he would do.”
“You said, ‘worse than we thought,’” interrupted Dantes. “Why did you think it was bad to start with?”
“I was at the battle fought before the gates of Norlon,” answered Lady Ellyn. “I saw the person I thought was leading their armies. There was a halfling riding on the shoulders of one of the leading giants...and he was wearing the queen’s crown. That was bad enough.”
“What is so special about the crown?” asked John. “I mean, I saw it, and it was pretty, but it’s just a crown, right?”
“No,” replied Lady Ellyn, “it’s much more than a crown. It’s a magical artifact. In fact, it’s one of the three artifacts that will be brought together at the end of the world. It’s all part of the Prophecy.”
“The Prophecy?” asked Dantes. “The Magistra said something about a prophecy. What do you know about this prophecy?”
“I don’t know a lot about it,” she replied. “No one knows much about it for sure, as most of the details were lost after the Sundering. What knowledge remains didn’t make much sense until recently. The one piece of information we have is a scrap of parchment that remains from before the Sundering. It says that at the end of times, a man will come from another world, he will gather the Three Items of Power and then...something will happen.” She stopped.
“Something will happen?” asked Dantes. “Could you be any vaguer? What is supposed to happen? What kind of Prophecy is that?”
“No one knows,” said Lady Ellyn with a shrug. “The parchment is torn at that point. It is hoped that this person will come and save the world from the darkness that is approaching. Half the people believe this. There are, however, cynics that perpetuate a rumor that the conclusion of the sentence is that the one that comes from another world will gather the items and thrust the world into a pit of darkness, from which it will never recover.”
“What do you believe?” asked John. He tried to keep the quaver out of his voice, but wasn’t entirely successful.
“Me?” asked Lady Ellyn. “I don’t believe that either of these endings are what was originally intended, as the one true god would never preordain our lives for us. What would be the point if everything happened according to destiny and not free will? The point of living is the constant striving. Without free will, there is no good or evil. We can only achieve purity through struggle; it cannot be given.” She looked intently at John. “You asked what I believe, and I will tell you. I believe that it is up to us. Whether this world rises or falls is dependent solely on our actions.”
“Great,” grumbled Father Telenor. “No pressure there.”
Chapter 26
“We are ready, brother of the overlord,” grunted Khazatch, the orc platoon leader, in its language. Growing up on Salidar, Rubic had the misfortune of spending enough time with orcs that he spoke their language. While Rubic couldn’t emulate all of the grunts that they made perfectly, he could understand their language without any problems.
“Lead on, then,” replied Rubic, and the platoon leader barked out the command to advance. A giant of an orc, Khazatch was almost seven feet tall and 300 pounds, with a mix of features both ape-like and pig-like. Pig-like won out in the end, as tusks stuck out several inches from both his top and bottom jaws. His skin was a grayish green, indicating that he came from the southern part of Salidar. Immensely strong, he carried a double-headed great axe on his back and a whip at his side. Rubic also caught flashes of metal from all over his body as the giant orc turned and left at a jog, and he guessed the platoon leader had many hidden knives as well.
A squad of six large orcs followed Khazatch, each restraining a large worg. Although the orcs were six and a half feet tall and over 250 pounds, it took all of their strength to control the animals. Three feet high at the shoulder and weighing over 300 pounds, the worgs’ eyes were right at Rubic’s eye level. Rubic knew from experience not to look into the worgs’ red eyes; the worgs were extremely intelligent and some of the most evil creatures he had ever met. Like the orcs holding them, they liked t
o kill for fun, often leaving their victims not-quite-dead for long periods of time, just so they could watch them suffer.
The six orcs of the second squad were normal-sized orcs, standing just over six feet tall, with the black hair, pointed ears and reddish eyes characteristic of their race. Like their leader, they were grayish green in color, and all wore mustard yellow pants and tunics that clashed garishly with their skin tone. Each of the normal orcs was just over 200 pounds and either carried an axe or a sword, as well as some sort of knife.
The last orc to jog past him was shorter and slighter than the rest of the orcs, and it was dressed in a variety of animal skins, bones and trophies. Armed with a staff and a bandolier of ceremonial knives across its chest, the orc shaman didn’t look at Rubic as he ran by. He was focused on praying to his gods, which was quite all right with Rubic. He’d take all the help he could get.
Rubic chased after them, the orcs’ jog translating into nearly a full run for the halfling’s shorter legs. He was sure that they had enough combat power to kill the outlander’s group; Rubic just hoped they would catch up with their quarry before his legs gave out.
Chapter 27
“What does the crown do?” asked Ghorza.
“It allows the wearer to control members of evil races,” replied Lady Ellyn. “Whoever wears it can control orcs, hill giants, ogres, trolls, or any other evil humanoid that you can name.”
“That’s how they were able to unite all of the races of Salidar,” said Dantes. He paused, deep in thought. “That also explains how they were able to make the teufling go with the ogres. It must have been under some kind of spell.”
“I understand that the crown is magic,” said the ranger, “but I canna’ imagine that it would let the wearer control more than just a few o’ the enemy at a time. How did it get them to storm the city? Commanding that big an army would not be easy.”
“I was there at the gates of the city,” replied Lady Ellyn. “The halfling did it by controlling a few of the leaders and making them do what he commanded.” She paused, and then said, “Even so, it was a battle for the ages, full of fury and majesty. The enemy forces called forth a huge cloud bank, allowing their troll forces to move up unhindered. Our air mages worked to blow the clouds away, but the trolls charged before they could do so.”
“I’ve been on the receiving end of a cavalry charge before, and it was horrific,” she continued, her eyes distant as she relived the battle. “This was worse. Far worse. Although the average troll stands about nine feet high, they hunched forward as they charged across the field, looking much shorter than they actually were. We weren’t even sure what they were until they were almost upon us. It was the king who first recognized them for the danger they were. The archers had been firing at them as they crossed the field, but as you saw earlier, trolls regenerate. Any that were hit simply pulled out the arrows or ballistae, and the wounds closed as they continued to run closer. Even the most grievous wounds had little effect on them.”
“The ground shook with their approach, and lesser men and women on the wall began to quail. Then the king realized what they were, and cast a Smite spell on their leader. I have never before seen a paladin of his rank in combat; the way the king Smote his foe was awe-inspiring. Sent from the heavens, the power descended on the troll from above, shattering the cloud cover. The power of the one true god came down like a ray of sunshine, and he blasted the troll to dust. Following his lead, all of the paladins on the wall began Smiting the hells-brood charging at us, and we broke their charge. Once we realized they were trolls, the fire mages threw fireball after fireball into their ranks, and the screams they made as they burned up in front of us were horrible to hear. We finally killed the last enemy-controlled troll, and the rest of them stopped right in front of the wall.”
“The trolls just stood there, almost within reach of us, but they were confused and without direction. With their leaders dead, they were not sure whether they were supposed to continue attacking or flee, and we threw everything fire-based we had at them. Fire arrows rained down by the hundreds, fireballs arced out and we dumped cauldron after cauldron of burning oil on them. It was a slaughter. We knew that if we could hold off the trolls, we could most likely fight off the giants we could see following them. The giants pushed forward, and the halfling riding the giant forced some of the trolls to continue the attack. The enemy began advancing again.”
“We would still have carried the day,” she said proudly, “were it not for the turncoats. The troops hired by the merchants’ guild opened the side gate to the city while our attention was focused on repulsing the trolls. Our first indication that something was wrong was when the ogres hit us from behind. Their leader struck without notice, striking down the king. The ogres, ten feet tall and over 700 pounds, used their clubs to sweep the defenders from the castle wall. Those that fell were run down by the mercenary cavalry in the courtyard. The slaughter continued, but now it was our forces being slaughtered.”
“Most of my squad of Silver Swords were killed defending the queen while the healers worked to save her life. When she heard that the Magistra had also been wounded, she sent Father Telenor to save her, with me to protect him. Unfortunately, we ran into several other pockets of fighting on the way to the Magisterium, and Father Telenor was forced to use the remainder of his healing spells on me as I fought through a band of hill giants. He had to use his last major cure spell on me when one of them broke my leg by throwing a donkey at me. Because of this, he arrived at the Magistra’s bedside out of mana, even though he was tasked to save her. He had to use all of it to save me.”
“To save both of us, if the truth be known,” added Father Telenor. “Had the giants taken m’lady out of the fight, I wouldn’t have lasted much longer, and certainly wouldn’t have made it to the Magistra’s bedside. Curing Lady Ellyn saved both of us, so that we could make it there, but it caused me to arrive without any healing spells. The rest of our story, you already know.”
There was a momentary lull in the conversation, which was broken by John. “Hey,” he said to Ghorza. “Can I see the book that the Magistra gave me?”
“Sure,” she replied, handing him the large tome. Over five inches thick, John expected it to be heavy.
“That’s weird,” he said as Ghorza let go. “This book is really big, but it doesn’t weigh a thing. Why is that?”
“Magic,” said several voices around the group.
“What?” he asked, confused.
“The book is magic,” explained Ghorza. “It is about magic, and it is full of magic; it’s magic in every way. It’s light because its last owner wanted it that way. It is also thick with hard covers for the same reason. If you wanted it to shrink or grow heavy, it would. The shrinking part might help, but I can’t imagine why you’d want it to be heavy while you have to carry it around.”
John concentrated on the book becoming smaller, and it shrank down to just about an inch thick, with thinner covers. Its weight never changed.
“Cool!” he said, opening it. As he looked at the first page, though, he felt something change.
“I think we need to have another talk about magic,” John said to Ghorza.
“Why’s that?” she asked. “You shouldn’t be surprised that you can’t read it. Until you become a first rank mage, you won’t be able to read any of those spells. You can’t read what you cannot use.”
“Really?” John asked, flipping through the pages. “So I can use the Read Magic, Hold Portal and Invisibility spells? Cool!” He flipped to the red tab about a quarter of the way through it. “I can also use Flare, Burning Hands and Magic Missile? Oooh cool, Magic Missile!” He flipped to the blue tab. “Ray of Frost, Shocking Grasp and Fog Cloud?” He turned to the brown tab. “Summon Monster I and Summon Monster II?” He looked up. “Awesome! What do I have to do to use them?”
The rest of the group stood frozen in place, staring at him like he had just grown two more heads or sprouted wings. “What?” h
e asked. No one said anything for several seconds.
“That cannot be,” said Father Telenor finally, breaking the silence.
“What?” John asked again.
“Not only should you not be able to read them,” said Ghorza, “some of those spells are second level spells. You’d have to be a third rank mage in order to be able to cast them.”
“How is this possible?” asked Father Telenor.
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you,” said John, “but when I set the troll on fire, something happened. I don’t know how or why, but my head all of a sudden felt emptier. Not like when I cast a cantrip, but a whole lot emptier. The only way I can describe the feeling is to say that it felt like part of my mind that was solid rock turned to water and that there is now a giant lake in my head. It feels like my perception of life has expanded to encompass this new reality.” He shuddered. “I don’t know. It’s creepy.”
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t been there,” Dantes said, “but you leveled up. That is exactly what it feels like when you level up. It feels like your mind expands; that is your mana pool growing.”
“But that doesn’t explain why he can cast second level spells,” Lady Ellyn said. “How is that possible?”
“The thing that happened when I burned up the troll happened again when I opened the book and started looking at the pages,” said John. “What was it? Leveling up? Well, I think it actually happened a couple of times. It seemed like there was an expansion, and then there was another one that happened right after the first.”
“It’s the Spell Book of Aran-Than,” said Ghorza, with awe in her voice. “It has to be. This book was thought to have been lost thousands of years ago. It’s boosted you from first rank to third rank. While it is in your possession, you will function two levels higher than you actually are.”
Can't Look Back (War for Dominance Book 1) Page 10
