by Damon Alan
“A world away.”
He didn’t say anything. She was smarter than him and knew more about how things worked in this world for certain. She always talked circles around him.
“You think about it,” she told him, standing up. “A wizard is always more powerful with the emotions of a relationship to drive them. The stronger the bond, the stronger the wizard becomes. It’s why Hagirr and Elianna have each other, and it’s helped him grow very strong to have the love of an elf.” She grinned wickedly. “You loving me might save the world.”
“Why haven’t you found someone before now?”
“Fate. None were worthy. You’re a leader. A human mate will make me stronger. Plus, I respect you. I will follow you.”
“You don’t seem the sort to follow anyone.”
“As I said, none were worthy. And by follow you, I actually mean I will listen to what you have to say before I do what I want.”
He decided to change the topic; he felt his body responding in ways he didn’t like. He was certain his face was flushed, and he was involuntarily reacting to her in other more obvious ways that he hoped she didn’t notice.
When he’d met her, she’d scared him with her differences and her strange ways. Now there was something different when he looked at her, he had to admit. He didn’t see tattoos; he saw a trusted friend. He didn’t see the filed teeth; he saw a smile. He didn’t see a terrifying witch; he saw comfort and faith.
It was infuriating and confusing.
“Let’s get the men ready, we move toward this dwarven hold. Can we be there before darkness?”
“Yes, we can. The trip there will be the easy part, although still very hard. The hold itself will be potentially dangerous, as I said.” She rested her hand on his shoulder. “Miller and I could go there alone, and you and your men can follow this trail to the winter grounds.”
“A repugnant thought, that I’d abandon you. And that you think I would.”
She grinned her pointy-toothed grin and touched his face. “You do care.”
He shook his head. Now that she’d made her choices toward him, she was going to be very persistent. As if his life wasn’t hard enough. “Of course I care. About you and my men. Let’s get going.”
“Fine. You will break. Males always break when they’re meant to be a female’s konfrelt gai. I am fertile, if you’re wondering. And yes, I know the humans and dek are a sterile pairing. But I can use magic to give us a child, if that’s what you want, but you’ll be doing most of the raising. I’ve never been with anyone else because I can’t risk pregnancy. The last thing I need is to have a child to lead around by myself.”
“Cylethe, the topic is finished. I’m married.”
“Of course you are, Harry.” She started walking back toward camp, brushing up against his leg. “But to whom?”
He growled his frustration. She knew full well what she was doing. She was, when he met her, ugly as a goat. When he’d met her she smelled like one too. Now she was starting to smell like happiness. Her personality, her confidence, it was overwhelming. It was the most absurd thing that had ever happened to him.
And, to make it even worse, Dynamus liked her.
“You know she’s not human, right?” he whispered to the sword.
Smugness. Damned sword.
Chapter 30 - The Sacrifice of Men
July 23, 1940
He was young again! Ernst never felt so good in his life. At least not in his memory. That feeling alone made the challenge of whatever task Hagirr might have seem almost welcome.
The vigor of youth flowed within him like a freight train.
Herta was just as amazing, her body was tight, her skin flushed with vitality, and her passions expressed with wanton abandon rather than concern for a muscle strain.
Hagirr had given him three days to just enjoy the sensation. The sex was amazing, the gluttony, the exercise… it was all beyond belief. He hadn’t appreciated it the first time around. Now he savored every moment.
When the three days were up, Hagirr and Elianna took Ernst and his wife back to the Pyramid of Souls, and once again into the room where he and Herta had been reborn.
“I thought I’d bring you back here so you’d understand the monumental value of what is at stake should you decide not to work with me on the task I have for you.”
The task again. It had to be dealt with. “What task?” he asked the wizard directly.
“It’s more of a reward than a task, really. I want you and your lovely bride to rule Germany, and eventually Earth. If I understand the political situation there as described by Elianna, then that situation should serve both worlds well.”
Ernst realized that his jaw had dropped. Hagirr looked amused.
“You want me to rule Germany.” He shrugged. “How do I accomplish this — task? What should I do, just march into the Reichstag and announce that I am the Führer now?”
“You’d have Elianna at your side. And potentially a legion of my elvish troops if you need them. But I don’t think you will. Elianna has her own resources.”
It was hard to keep his sarcasm in check. “And they’d just say ‘sure, Ernst, it’s your turn now’ and I’d be Führer, just like that.”
“Ernst!” Herta said, scolding her husband. “Show some appreciation for the generosity of our hosts!”
“I do,” Ernst said. “But one does not simply walk into the Reichstag, or the Reichskanzlei, and take over.”
“It’s fine,” Hagirr said, waving to Herta in a gesture that suggested she should remain calm. “Ernst and I are cut from the same cloth. He isn’t a fool who rushes in.”
“No, he’s not,” Herta agreed.
“Ernst, I will be with you,” Elianna said, taking Ernst’s arm in hers. “Do you think that Hagirr would put me in danger?”
“Of course I don’t think that,” Ernst said, aware that the body chemistry of youth had removed most of his fear of Elianna from his thoughts. He should choose his words carefully. “But he doesn’t love me as he does you.”
“Not yet,” Hagirr laughed. “You’re growing on me, however.” The wizard motioned toward the exit. “I’d like to show you how this magic you’ve benefited from works.”
“Ooo, I’d like to see that,” Herta said.
“You need to be of stout constitution,” Elianna warned. “It’s not pretty. I know Ernst can handle it, Herta, but you’ve not seen what he’s seen.”
“I can deal with whatever it is,” Herta replied, indignant.
Hagirr took Herta’s arm and dragged her along. Elianna took Ernst’s, and the elf gave him a look that it was best Herta didn’t see. Hagirr led them down the hall toward the flight platform, then took a side path. This one wasn’t as decorated as the others, and what carvings were in the walls were much darker in nature.
Demons tearing at the bodies of humans and creatures. Monsters consuming the flesh of large numbers of people kept in confinement. Murder of all sorts. Torture on the order of Dante’s Inferno.
“We go down here,” Hagirr said, as a stone wall slid back and then to the side. A stairway circled downward, and a musty smell greeted them. The air whistled past them up from the descending staircase, seemingly eager to escape the depths of the pyramid.
They descended a good twenty stories. His new young body didn’t seem to care, and neither did Herta’s.
They reached another tunnel that moved into the pyramid in the direction of the room they’d regained their youth in. The hall was arched, the center was several meters high. The floor was at least four meters wide. Guttering sconces adorned the walls, no magical lighting illuminated their way. The smell of burning oil greeted their nostrils.
“Straight ahead,” Elianna said.
They walked a distance that Ernst guessed would put them directly under the revitalizing room. A golden door was, by far, the finest object in the hall. It stood on the left side. Closed.
“This is our destination,” Hagirr told them. “Open the
door, Ernst.”
Ernst looked at the wizard uncertainly, but what option was there? If he refused his host, he estimated his life would be measured in seconds. He pushed open the door, noticing that Hagirr seemed to enjoy his discomfort.
A stone room with a window on the top wall, a good fifty meters up or more. A stone pillar stood in the center of the room, floor to ceiling. Piles of dust lay around the room, on the floor. Articles of clothing lay in the dust.
“That is the Focus,” Hagirr told him, pointing at the column. “It is what gathers the energy that has made you young.” Hagirr walked into the room and a single patch of arcane writing lit up on the pillar. “Come in.”
As Ernst entered the room, another patch lit up. When Herta and Elianna followed one more patch lit up.
“It recognized us when we walked in the room, but not Elianna I’m guessing?” Ernst said. “It functions using humans… and humans only, somehow?”
“Very astute,” Hagirr replied, acting impressed. “You’re right about him, Elianna.”
Ernst walked to a pile of dust and picked up an article of clothing. A jacket. “This is a French uniform. This dust is what remains of a Frenchman you brought here?”
“Again, on the mark. At least I assume so. I don’t know what a Frenchman is. But you’re one hundred percent correct about the dust.”
“Elianna?”
“Yes, Ernst. This machine turns the souls of humans into life force for whoever stands in that room above,” she said, pointing up at the window. “That is the room where you were both rejuvenated. Thanks to the rabbit-like proclivities of the humans of Earth, there doesn’t appear to be a shortage of souls.”
This was the most monstrous thing Ernst had ever seen. He knew of the campaign against the Jews in Germany, but that was an unseen thing, out of his domain, and senseless since it wasted valuable manpower. This was the slaughter of the innocent to benefit others directly. Ernst himself had benefitted. What were his feelings on that? Normally he tried to ignore the complications of morality, but there was no choice now. He had to decide quickly where he stood on the matter.
Hagirr walked up to Ernst, face to face. The wizard put his hand on Ernst’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Ernst, my friend. You will rule Germany as you see fit. Your people, or whatever fraction of them you deem worthy of protection, will prosper. Those you deem unworthy you will send through the gate to Aerth.”
“Just like that?” Ernst said. “I will round up the fodder for your machine?”
Shrugging, Hagirr smirked. “If not you, then someone else will do it.”
“I bet that von Krosigk fellow wouldn’t blink an eye,” Elianna tossed into the conversation.
“Ernst, these were Frenchmen, not Germans. They were sacrificed for a greater good,” Herta said. Ernst thought she might be enjoying her tight young body a bit too much to be unbiased, but he understood that sentiment. He was enjoying his too.
“This is a horrible thing you’re asking me to do,” Ernst told Hagirr. “If I do this thing, this task, when I die my soul would be black as night and doomed to torment.”
“That’s the beauty of it.” Hagirr walked away from Ernst and kicked one of the dust piles on the floor. “There are so many of us humans on your world, you will effectively be immortal. You will have your heaven in this life.”
“Ernst, please,” Herta begged.
She was smart enough to figure out their situation, Ernst was sure. Either he agreed and their moments became without number, or he said no, and these would be their last moments.
“I agree,” Ernst said, quietly.
“Good,” Hagirr said, jubilant. “We must get you in power as soon as,” he laughed, “humanly possible. Then we find this Ark of the Covenant Elianna speaks of and we destroy it.”
“As you planned to use me for all along,” Ernst said to Elianna, more than slightly accusational in his tone.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t make this dramatic, Ernst. You’re a king among humans now.”
He felt more like a monster. But if there was to be a King of Earth, who better than him? He would decide who was fit to live in the greater glory of the human race, and who would die.
Then a thought of solace hit him. The Italians, he mused, would have to be marched through the gate. Insufferable people. He hated them. That Duke in Ethiopia would be among the first.
“I see you embracing it,” Hagirr said. “Come. A feast for the rest of this day, and a celebration across the city before you return to claim your throne.”
Führer Ernst Haufmann. It had a good ring to it.
Chapter 31 - Enemies are Legion
The dwarves were drawing near to the end of their first day of travel past the gnomish alcove. They’d fashioned hooks from wire, and cord from an old pair of pants that were packed on the lizards by the dwarves of Iron Mountain hold for some reason. The eclectic collection of goods on the pack lizards made Irsu wonder if they hadn’t just thrown everything onto the beast in a haste to reach their carrying capacity. That diverse selection would give Irsu’s squad every opportunity to use what they could.
Then he considered the circumstances of their departure. Of course that’s what they’d done. And they’d been right to do so. A pair of worn out pants that seemed useless were now catching fish.
Which wouldn’t be necessary if not for the gnomes.
“Are they following us, you think?” Irsu asked Coragg.
“I would,” Coragg said. “We’re not enemies, but we’re clearly not friends either. Stay on the river, or we camp on the trade road on the right side would be my advice.”
“They did say they didn’t claim the river, so the other side should be fine.”
The dwarves had made good time with their new rafts. Irsu had no way of knowing how far they’d traveled, but the pack lizards were moving faster pulling the weight instead of carrying it.
That night they camped as Coragg suggested, on the hard-worked stone of the trade road, which someone carved to a certain point then stopped. Probably to trade with the very gnomes that had taken their first fish stocks. A small sand bar jutted from the edge, providing a place for a fire and where they could cook. Whoever built this section of road might consider it vandalism to burn a fire on it, so Irsu was grateful for the sand.
The soldiers continue to fish, catching fat blind catfish to sear in their pans. If there was any sort of underground predator nearby, the smell of the fish would draw them. Irsu ordered one third on guard, two thirds asleep at any point during the night. He and Coragg would take middle watch with two others, as that was the most unpleasant watch.
His first sign of trouble was from the pack lizards. They began to dance uncomfortably on the flat of the road, ready to flee. They were hobbled, so that wasn’t going to happen, but Irsu knew to trust their senses.
“Wake the men,” he ordered Coragg.
Three minutes later fourteen dwarves stood in an arc around the lizards, crossbows at the ready, shields facing outward, axes within reach. Halstim, a younger member of the troop, spotted the enemy first.
“Eyes,” he hissed.
Sure enough, malevolent greenish eyes appeared out of the darkness on the road downriver, the remaining light from the dwarves’ campfire being just enough to reflect off retinas and alert them to the creatures.
Several sets of eyes bobbed up and down in the darkness.
“Shield wall,” Coragg ordered, and the dwarves reassembled within thirty seconds. Now the line of shields faced the eyes, with a taper toward the river to protect from a flank attack. Stone wall guarded their right.
One set of eyes drew closer. A snow-white dire wolf with a rider.
The rider stepped down and walked forward. Whatever it was, it was brave. It stepped enough into the light to let Irsu see what he needed to see.
An orc. An important one considering it wore metal armor and carried a metal weapon. Most orcs were barely more than animals who made do with what the
y had at hand. They followed their leaders because of fear, as far as Irsu knew.
“Singo pastinik sha-ambi,” the creature said.
Irsu had no way to understand it. There was no reason to bring a translation amulet on this trip. He’d planned to pick one up in Iron Mountain Hold before he left to conduct his investigation.
The orc didn’t seem upset that nobody answered him. Instead he stared at the dwarven line for a moment, then walked to the edge of the river and started gathering pebbles. Satisfied with his collection, he returned to the center of the trade road and looked at the dwarves once again, this time with crossed arms.
“It’s like he’s saying he’ll wait,” Coragg observed.
Irsu pulled his shield away from the wall. “Close ranks behind me. Be prepared to let me back in.”
“Bad idea,” Coragg said, but stepped aside to give Irsu more room.
“I’m full of them.”
Irsu stepped toward the orc, who grinned as he approached. Large canines told Irsu that this was a meat eater, and one with less than perfect care for his teeth. One canine, on the bottom, was larger than the others. It had a hole bored through it. A gold chain dangled from the tooth; the bottom end had the desiccated head of a rat on it.
“I’ll call you Mouse,” Irsu said.
“Imtushi na’ak sungonor,” Mouse replied. The orc knelt down and placed pebbles in a line on the ground. Fourteen pebbles. He pointed at the dwarven shield wall.
“Okay, that’s us,” Irsu nodded.
“Imtushi na’at sungonor,” Mouse said, almost repeating what he’d said before. He took one of the stones and held it in his hands. The rest he pointed at, then pointed downriver. The last rock, in his hand, he popped in his mouth and chewed on.
Fourteen traveled. Thirteen may travel on. Irsu got it. The toll for passage was one of them. As food.
Irsu held up a finger and walked back toward his line. Coragg opened a hole for him to rejoin.
“Shield wall strong, stand low, prepare for arrows,” Irsu shouted. “Advance on my order in two beats. We will kill these soulless dogs.”
