Can't Look Back (War for Dominance Book 1)

by Chris Kennedy

  “Lux Diei!” said Father Telenor, casting a Daylight spell. Not only did it banish the darkness spell, but it turned night into day, taking away the orcs’ better night vision. The orc leader was the one on the right. Lady Ellyn cut him off with a swing of her sword. Momentarily blinded, the orc blocked her swing with his battle axe. Unable to look directly into the spell, the orc drew a dagger and threw it at her, hoping to gain some time to let his eyes adjust.

  Lady Ellyn advanced, not wanting to give up her advantage. She held up her left arm and the dagger bounced off the vambrace on her forearm. Pressing the attack, she used her Haste to swing several times at the orc. The patrol leader blocked her attacks with his axe as he continued to backpedal, reaching behind his back with his off hand.

  Coming to Lady Ellyn’s aid, Father Telenor saw the darkness envelope her and knew the orcs would come for him. He knew he wouldn’t last long against the fighter, so he went around to the left of the darkness to intercept the shaman as he cast the Daylight spell. Father Telenor saw the shaman gesture with his staff, and a thick mist surrounded the priest. Unable to see, Father Telenor held his mace in front of him as he tried to back away. He felt a presence to his left and heard the shaman say, “Vulnera Mediocria,” casting a Cause Wounds spell. He felt the shaman’s touch, and a large cut opened up on his side. As he spasmed in pain, he swung his mace in that direction and was rewarded with a solid crunch as it hit the shaman.

  Although Father Telenor gained a couple moments’ reprieve, he knew the shaman would be back, and that he couldn’t take many more wounds like the first one the shaman gave him. He could feel blood pouring down his leg and realized that he needed to even the odds. “Flagra!” he cast, calling down a flame strike. Although the mist caused him to almost completely miss the shaman, the divine flames were successful in burning away the mist that had been obscuring his vision. He caught the shaman circling around to his left, intent on hitting him from behind. The shaman’s left arm was hanging limp; Father Telenor’s mace had crushed his shoulder.

  As Lady Ellyn pressed in on the leader, trying to beat down his guard with a series of strikes, the orc’s left hand came out from behind his back holding a whip. He lashed out and wrapped it around one of Lady Ellyn’s ankles; pulling with all his might, he threw her off balance, and she went down.

  The orc took a step forward. Dropping the whip, he raised the massive battle axe with both hands. A giant of an orc, Lady Ellyn knew that if he hit her, the axe would split both armor and paladin, as well. “Caede Malum!” she said, casting her Smite Evil spell. A divine flame roared out of the heavens, hitting the orc on the head and blasting him with divine power. The orc was knocked backward, the axe falling from his suddenly numb hands.

  Lady Ellyn used the respite to roll to her stomach and get back to her feet. She picked up her sword in time to meet the renewed assault by the orc but realized that her reflexes were back to normal; she was no longer Hasted. She saw that the orc’s attacks were no longer as crisp; he’d been hurt by the Smite spell.

  Father Telenor could feel his strength leaving him and saw that the shaman was beginning another spell. “Consiste Hominem!” he said, casting his last offensive spell. The Hold Person spell was effective, and the orc shaman was held in place, unmoving. Laying his hand on his side, he said “Remedium Magnum,” channeling positive energy into his injury with a cure spell. The wound closed, and he felt better even if he was still a little physically weak from the blood loss he had incurred. Before the Hold spell could wear off, he stepped forward and finished the shaman with a well-placed strike.

  Lady Ellyn continued to trade blows with the orc leader. He had used a cleaving spell on her which had opened up a gaping wound; she had used her laying of hands ability to cure it and had continued on. The orc had been unable to recover completely from the Smite spell and was tiring fast. She began to beat his attacks back and came closer and closer to landing the blow that would finish him. She could see in the orc’s eyes he knew it was coming, and Lady Ellyn knew she needed to end the fight before the orc did something desperate. In previous fights she had seen orcs that knew they were going to lose do a variety of daring things to kill their opponent, even though they knew it would open themselves up to be killed, as well. They were happy just knowing they were taking their opponents into the next world with them.

  Lady Ellyn knew it wouldn’t be long before this orc tried something similar. She needed to end the fight now.

  On the orc’s next strike, she blocked it less well than she could have, allowing the head of the axe to glance off her leg armor as she parried it down to the side. Stepping back, she stumbled, as if the axe had numbed her leg. She could see in the orc’s eyes that he believed it. The orc followed her forward, putting all of its flagging energy into a swing that would decapitate her if it landed.

  She was no longer there, though, having used her leg to push off and dive forward. As the orc leader overextended himself with the roundhouse swing, she came up on his side and drove her dagger into his kidney. As she stepped back away, she chopped down with her sword, severing his Achilles tendon. Lamed and mortally wounded, the orc attacked as well as he could, trying to kill her before he died. With two good legs, she was able to stay out of his reach until he wore down and fell to his knees. She stepped in and drove her sword through his heart, killing him. The companions had won.

  Chapter 33

  “Sure’n I appreciated your assistance,” Fitzber said, putting his arms around the worg’s neck. The giant wolf was so big that the gnome’s arms could barely reach around it. Lady Ellyn saw that he held a sheathed dagger in one of them. “Sorry I am to have to do this.” As he drew the dagger, the worg’s eyes changed. Although the intelligence remained, the feral ferocity disappeared. The worg bounded out of Fitzber’s arms before he could slit its throat.

  In a couple of bounds, the worg was up to full speed and on a direct course to where Dantes, Ghorza and John were dispatching the wounded orcs. The worg appeared to be headed toward John, who had his back to it.

  “John, look out!” yelled Lady Ellyn as Fitzber picked up his bow and nocked an arrow. Knowing he would only get one shot, he focused as he drew the bow and fired. The arrow arced up and came back down to hit the worg as it leaped toward John, using an attack similar to the one it used to kill the orc. The arrow pierced the worg’s heart, and the dead animal crashed into John. The two went down in a heap and lay unmoving on the ground.

  “Nice shot,” complimented Lady Ellyn. “The spell picked a bad time to wear off.”

  “The spell didn’t wear off,” replied Fitzber. “It had a little longer to run. That was something else.” He looked angry and confused.

  “What was it?” asked Lady Ellyn.

  “The worg seemed like it was suddenly possessed,” said Fitzber, “but that would mean... beastmaster!” He ran toward the woods. “Beware any animals you see,” he called over his shoulder; “kill any that come close.” He began fading before he entered the tree line; once he was past it, Lady Ellyn couldn’t see him any longer.

  Chapter 34

  Within ten minutes, Fitzber was back, prodding a halfling along in front of him with his dagger. “Look what I found hiding in the woods,” he said. He brought the halfling to the fire and forced him to sit in front of it.

  “Hello, Rubic,” said Ghorza. “So it’s true. You were helping the enemy all along.”

  “No, I wasn’t helping the enemy,” replied Rubic, “well, not at first, anyway. I started out helping my brother. It wasn’t until much later that I found out he was working for the enemy. By then I knew too much. I could either continue what I was doing and lead a comfortable life, or tell everyone about my brother and lead a much shorter one. I chose the life of luxury.”

  “And how is that working out for you?” growled Dantes. He placed a clawed hand on Rubic’s shoulder.

  “It was going very well until the outlander showed up,” he said. “It has not gone so well for
me since.”

  “Why is he so important to you?” asked Lady Ellyn. “He can only cast low level mage spells and isn’t much of a warrior.” She looked at John and added, “No offense.”

  “That’s fine,” said John. “As that battle just showed, it’s true; I’m not much of a warrior. Not yet, anyway.”

  “You don’t know?” asked Rubic. “Well, I’m not going to tell; you’ll have to find someone else.”

  “Is this related to the Prophecy?” Lady Ellyn asked.

  Rubic’s eyes glanced aside for the briefest of instants before coming back to Lady Ellyn. Rubic continued to remain silent, and Dantes squeezed a little harder. A red stain appeared on Rubic’s shoulder, but he did not say anything else.

  “Easy,” said Lady Ellyn. “I have no intention of torturing the information out of him.” Dantes looked annoyed, but he eased his grip. Rubic breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Let’s try something different,” said Lady Ellyn. “How much does Solim know about our mission?”

  Rubic began laughing. “How much does he know?” Rubic asked. “He knows everything. When I don’t come back, he’ll send out something bigger and stronger to kill you all. He knows where you’re going, and he won’t underestimate you again.” He looked at John. “He will come for you, and he will take the spell book from you. Then he will have two of the Items of Power. With them, he’ll go to the Mountain of Frost and get the Scepter. With all three of the Items, he will rule Tasidar, and then he will overthrow the Overlord and rule the world!”

  “No delusions of grandeur there, are there?” Father Telenor asked Lady Ellyn.

  “It’s not a delusion,” said Rubic. “My brother already controls the two most powerful nations on this continent. Who is going to stop him from ruling all of it? You? Ha!”

  “There are plenty of free folk that will band together, once they see what he is up to,” replied Ghorza. “There is no way he’ll get away with this.”

  “Oh, but he will,” said Rubic. “He will take the spell book, he will get the scepter and he will rule this world. It is preordained in the Prophecy. Say what you will and do what you want, it won’t matter. Evil will win in the end.”

  “That’s what my father always said when I was young,” Dantes said. “He always said that an evil victory was inevitable.”

  “Did he give you a reason why?” asked Ghorza. In all her time with Dantes, this was the first time he had ever spoken about either of his parents.

  “No, he didn’t,” replied Dantes. “He said that he wasn’t allowed to talk about it...although if that was a rule and he obeyed it, it was the only one he ever followed in his life. He was a liar, and everything he did or said was always full of deceit. Most times, there wouldn’t even be a reason for lying, other than the fact that he could.”

  “So you don’t know why he thought that evil would be triumphant in the end?” asked John.

  “No, I don’t,” answered Dantes, “although he always said that evil had the greatest number of forces, and the ones that were most committed to the fight. Look at the intelligent races on this planet, for example. There are no races that are inherently good. The closest to a ‘good’ race are the elves, but even the elves have their evil Dark Elf cousins.”

  “Humans, like most of the races, are mixed in their allegiance,” Dantes continued. “Some are good, while others are bad. There are, however, entire races that are evil, like trolls, goblins and orcs, just to name a few. Some of the half-breeds, like Ghorza and me, are committed to stopping them, but we are vastly outnumbered by the purebloods.”

  “So, they will win because there are more of them?” asked Lady Ellyn. “Wars are not always won by the side with the greatest number of troops.”

  “That’s what bothers me,” replied Dantes. “He lied about everything; the fact that he always mentioned this reason leads me to believe that he was being deceptive about the real reason he thought that evil would win. One time when he was drunk, he mentioned some plan that the evil forces had. It was something he said had been decades in the making, with people and forces prepositioned where they would do the most harm when they were needed. He used to make up some of his biggest lies when he was drunk, and I thought this was just one of them. Now I’m afraid that there really is a master plan, and what we are seeing is the result of this plan.”

  “Now you finally see,” said Rubic. “The Overlord has been planning this strategy for centuries. Nothing you can do will stop it. Join us, or flee to a far off land. Maybe you can live out your days there in peace before our horde gets there...but probably not.”

  “Okay, I think we’ve heard about enough of this,” said Lady Ellyn. “This is getting us nowhere.”

  “Do you want me to kill him?” asked Dantes.

  “No,” said Lady Ellyn. “That would not be an honorable thing, even for him. You can’t kill a prisoner. I said earlier that we won’t torture him, and we will not. We don’t need to anyway, as Father Telenor has a Truth spell. Once he casts it, Rubic will tell us anything we want to know.”

  “Truth spell?” asked Rubic.

  “Oh, yes,” replied Lady Ellyn. “With the force of a god behind it, the spell can’t be tricked. You will tell us the truth about anything we want to know.”

  “Shall I cast it?” asked Father Telenor.

  “No!” screamed Rubic. Turning around, he reached over the dagger and grabbed Fitzber’s hands. Tilting the dagger up so that it rested on his chest, Rubic pulled with all of his might, driving it through his heart. “Won’t tell...” he gasped, the light going out of his eyes.

  “Bah,” said Dantes. “Coward.”

  “Want me to raise him from the dead?” asked Father Telenor.

  “No,” said Lady Ellyn, “then we’d just have to drag him along with us until we got to a city and could jail him. During that time we’d have to watch out for every animal we saw. No, we will dispose of him with the rest of his allies. We’ll travel faster without him.”

  “But what about the Prophecy?” asked Ghorza. “He may know something more than we do.”

  “I doubt it,” replied Lady Ellyn. “He’ll only know what his brother told him. Solim may have lied to him, too, in case he got caught. The only way we’ll find out what Solim knows is to capture him. Besides, I know what the Prophecy says. Our order long ago saved the original lines of the Prophecy as were spoken by Aran-Than at the time of the Sundering.”

  “You do?” asked Dantes. “Why haven’t you shared them before?”

  “Because the words of the Prophecy are ambiguous. Throughout the ages, people have interpreted them to mean whatever advanced their cause the most. No one knows exactly what they meant.” She paused. “And it was only recently that we recovered the information about what really happened at the Sundering. We’re still trying to figure it out.”

  Lady Ellyn sighed and then continued. “I was sworn to secrecy, but if we make it to the Mountain of Frost, you’re going to find out anyway. What most people no longer remember is that the last war started when the one true god was overthrown by the evil elemental gods. The elemental gods are children of the one true god, four that chose the way of the light, and four that chose the darkness. Having overthrown the one true god, the four dark elemental gods decided to do away with the good elemental gods, as well; however, the dark gods realized that the only way they could conquer them was through a battle of such magnitude that the entire universe would be unmade in its fighting. Seeing this, they challenged the good elemental gods to a war by proxy. The elemental gods would give gifts of their power to those who worshiped them, and whichever side won in the world would be the winner in the heavens. The evil elemental gods thought that they could easily win a battle of numbers; they had many more.”

  “But what about the one true god?” asked John. “What happened to her?”

  “Somehow the four evil gods captured her,” replied Lady Ellyn. “No one knows what became of her, and she hasn’t been heard from since.
”

  “How do you know she hasn’t been destroyed,” asked Dantes, “if no one has seen or heard from her since?”

  “Every time I use a power or cast a spell, I know that she still exists,” replied Lady Ellyn with a smile. “I wouldn’t be able to do these things without her assistance.” She held Dantes’ gaze, and the smile faded. She sighed. “With that for perspective, we come to the end of the first War for Dominance.”

  “What is the War for Dominance?” asked Ghorza. “I’ve never heard of that.”

  “That name, like most of the knowledge from long ago, was lost in the Sundering,” said Lady Ellyn. “After the elemental gods ‘blest’ us with their powers, the worldly forces began the War for Dominance. Back then, there was only one continent, not two, as Tasidar and Salidar were joined as one. The war raged back and forth across the continent, with one side holding the edge, only to lose it to the other. With so much death and destruction, advancement in the service of your god was rapid, and heroes of great power were made and unmade on both sides. After many years of constant warfare, the forces of evil achieved the upper hand. They captured nearly the entire continent, trapping the forces of good on a plateau in the center of the continent. The city was the City of Silver, the home to the Paladin Training Academy. Its walls were stout, and the legends said that the city could never be taken.”

  Father Telenor spoke for the first time. “The legends were wrong.”