Shadow of the Arisen: An Epic Dark Fantasy Novel (Lands of Wanderlust Book 1)

by Paul Yoder

  Fin incredulously looked at Jadu, stooping down to the praven’s level to make sure Jadu saw how astonished he was by his crazed logic.

  Jadu stared Fin directly back in the eyes for a moment before blurting out, “Pon eht weya,” a hand slapping over the little mouth a moment too late, the short incantation already echoing through the room, the painting now reverberating on the wall.

  The old man’s cackle could be heard well at first, but the cacophony of the painting rattling on the wall quickly overtook the man’s crazed laughter.

  The frame rattled so violently that it popped right off the wall, slamming picture first on the floor, the frame breaking into splintered bits, leaving Jadu and Fin staring wordlessly slack-jawed at the spectacle. A mound began to push up the back of the canvas, standing up tall, and a robed man that had grown out from underneath the painting, feebly pitched the now-blank canvas off to the side.

  “Ah! It’s a cypher!” Jadu exclaimed, sounding quite pleased with himself, meriting only a very concerned look from Fin who turned back to worriedly observe the freed enchanter’s next move.

  “Ooohehehe! My, my. This one’s cleaver!” the bearded old man laughed, barely able to stand.

  Encouraged, Jadu continued. “Yes, uh, the sequence. Pon eht weya. Invert every other letter and invert letter-to-word count. The original message is, ‘open the way.’ I’m very good with patterns you see. You need a sharp eye as an alchemist. Unstable elements are not long kind to those who can’t see ten steps ahead in the process.”

  The old man stepped over the debris of his former prison and stood tall next to the small praven, inspecting him.

  Smiling, he patted Jadu on the head and said in a sincere tone, “Thank you. I don’t blame your companion’s hesitation to release me, but it’s a kind thing you’ve done for me.”

  Adjusting his robes and standing up straight, the old man introduced himself to the two.

  “The name’s Zaren. Zaren Zebulon. And who would be my liberators?”

  Fin was about to answer, but Jadu, chomping at the bit to speak to the man, said, “I’m Jadu, and he’s Fin. So Zaren, you’re an enchanter, are you not? I’d very much like to pick your brain over some of the content in this spellbook of yours if you don’t mind.”

  “No, not at all. Ask your questions. It’s the least I can do after you released me from that dreadful painting.”

  The two struck up conversation as they aimlessly strolled towards the staircase.

  The old enchanter was quick to ignore Fin’s presence, and Fin figured it was all for the better as he desperately wanted to inspect the tower privately rather than have the old man’s eyes on him during his perusing.

  Fin easily outpaced them, making his way up the stairwell, finding at the top an opened hatch that led into a large and open room. The ceiling stood perhaps just over twelve feet high, and he could see in the wooden rafters at the vaulted ceiling that there was perhaps another small attic room above that.

  Large, open archways leading out onto stubby balconies let in a refreshing cool breeze that blew thin, wispy curtains gently in and out of the threshold.

  Tables, chairs, bookcases, shelves, and couches were placed comfortably around the room. An exorbitant amount of scrolls and books lay open across all surfaces, oddly unaffected by the breeze that could have easily carried them away.

  Four light blue flames in black and gold braziers stood at the corners of the room, easily illuminating everything with a penetrating light that was noticeable even during the day.

  Cluttered around the edges of the rooms were stands holding robes, armor, staves and weapons. There were glass display cases, most empty, with some remaining filled with various items, be it jewelry, gloves, or fragments of different materials. On the floor were more than a few chests—some open and empty, some closed and locked—sending Fin’s imagination into overdrive.

  Fin rushed to the open stairwell and looked down it. Jadu and Zaren still seemed engrossed in conversation some fifteen floors down. He had plenty of time to search the room before their arrival.

  Sprinting back up into the room, he looked around, almost like a madman, the possibility of the greatest haul in his life rattling his composure.

  “Who’s first, who’s first…” Fin feverishly mumbled, looking around at the various objects that stood out to him, begging for him to stuff them in his pouches.

  Picking a closed, glass display case at random, he rushed over to it, inspecting its contents.

  “Hmm, a set of rings. Good risk there,” Fin whispered to himself. He had no way of knowing what items were magically enchanted and which were not, but he did at least know monetarily how much the physical properties of the items would go for at market, and with any luck, he’d score and get the items that had not just a good street value, but also were powerful relics, enriched with hexweave.

  About to touch the display case, he stopped last second, noticing a plaque at the base of the case which was engraved with a message in fine cursive.

  Stooping and squinting his eyes to read the fancy writing, he read the message that was engraved aloud.

  “Items still to be studied.”

  Scratching the stubble on his chin for a moment, he assessed each of the rings by worth and price point, trying to decide which to take first.

  “Rubies. Those always sell well in Tarigannie,” he said, gently lifting up the lid on the display case, apprehensively reaching his hand in to pluck the gold, twin-ruby ring.

  Holding his breath, his heart skipped a beat as his hand froze involuntarily as he was pulling the ring out of the case.

  Some unseen force tugged at the ring, and Fin felt the ring slipping from his trembling, moist fingers, but the faint sound of Jadu’s voice from the stairwell spurred Fin on to tug with all his might, ripping the ring from the invisible grasp of the display case, landing him on his back on the floor.

  Fin sat up, looking unflinchingly at the defiant display case that had tried to rob him of his rightly earned treasure.

  “Not keen on giving up those rings without a fight I see…,” Fin mumbled at the display stand. In response, it opened its glass door like a mouth, hinge creaking loudly, sounding like a belch, before abruptly closing again.

  Fin gave the animated display case an incredulous look a moment longer before tucking the ring in a pocket high on his pants—Jadu’s little voice coming clearer into focus with every passing second.

  The approaching duo spurred Fin to his feet, frantically sending him skittering about the room looking for another shiny object to snatch before the enchanter’s more than likely disapproving gaze entered the room. He was stealing from the enchanter’s people after all, and he made no illusions to himself about that.

  Halting at another display case, he found a bejeweled bracelet. A mixture of opals, alexandrite, onyx, and diamonds were socketed in a stunningly crafted white-gold bracelet.

  “That’s an odd mix of gems,” Fin said, admiring the expensive, albeit, clashing colors of gemstones that shown in the aqua-hued light.

  Noticing another engraved plaque down at the base of the case, Fin let out an exasperated sigh before stooping to hurriedly read through the warning message.

  “An opposition within our souls shall stir and reverse one’s roles.”

  Tapping his chin in thought for a moment to consider the vague message, Fin threw his hands up in defeat and went to open the case.

  He was met with no invisible resistance as he reached in, but his brow was furrowed and lightly perspiring, clearly not trusting the mysterious nature that seemed to linger amidst most of the room’s trinkets.

  Clenching the bracelet, he ripped it from its case as quick and forcefully as he could.

  It came out with no unseen opposition.

  He held the band in the air, staring intently, waiting for a response from the stand that now stood bare of its charge.

  No glass door opened and no squ
eaking burp sounded out.

  “Well then,” Fin said, loosening up, his confidence coming back to his voice. “That’s that I guess.”

  He could hear Jadu’s voice easily now and knew the two only to be a flight or so away from the room.

  Left with time enough to do not much other than make a gloating gesture to his good fortunes, he held the bracelet forward and took a bow at the empty stand, whispering a sincere Thank you to the display case.

  Before Fin rose from his bow, the case’s glass door swung open and jettisoned the cushioned interior that held the bracelet, nailing Fin right on the crown, causing him to startle so badly as to land him right on his rump.

  The glass door abruptly shut itself once more, leaving a very bewildered Fin, sitting, wondering what had just happened.

  With Jadu and Zaren only paces away from entering the room, Fin threw the case an ugly look, picked up the cushion, and tossed it over to the side of the room, out of the way, then tucked the bracelet into a satchel hanging from his side.

  “Well, here we are it seems,” Zaren said, cutting Jadu off from his continuous, one-sided conversation he had been having with the enchanter.

  “The Darendul’s highstudy. A place normally only the highest ranking enchanters here at the tower are able to regularly visit. A great many mysteries and relics reside here.”

  Jadu, taking a moment to look around at his surroundings, exclaimed, “Oh! How interesting! I hadn’t even heard of the highstudy! Oh do show us around a bit, Zaren. It’s the least we might hope to indulge in after infiltrating an occupied hostile city and climbing so many stairs.”

  “Hmm, yes, indeed,” Zaren thoughtfully replied, keeping an intrigued, steady eye on the eager little praven. “I suppose I could explained the room a bit.

  “As I said, its somewhat of a study, treasury, and meeting place for the uppers of my order. Most of the important relics, as you can see, were taken with my order into a rift realm created by powerful hexweave enchantment. This alternate plane of existence that they retreated into during the arisen army’s occupation however, does have its limits. It can only contain as much hexweave energy as was used to create it, so my order had to select with care what they took into the rift as they couldn’t bring everything.

  “This meant they had to leave either lesser enchanted items and relics, or items that had the least potential to do the most harm to the public if looters happened to obtain them during our absence.”

  Zaren closed his statement by casting an eye on Fin for the first time since he had entered the room, looking the man up and down before continuing.

  “Those that take from what is left up here, may be—” Zaren paused to consider the most appropriate word, “horribly vexed with what they thought would be a wonderful find.”

  After another suspicious glance at Fin, who sheepishly smiled at the old man, Zaren went on to ask, “Now, I’ve entertained your curious mind. Perhaps you could indulge me and answer me this. What are you two doing in this city and in this tower—honestly.”

  Jadu didn’t hesitate to jump to answer, and Fin was too worried now about the two items he had pocketed to stop the praven from divulging the summary of their mission in whole.

  Zaren listened to Jadu quietly, only interrupting to ask short, pointed questions occasionally, coming quickly to understand how they had gotten into the city, what they were trying to accomplish by doing so, and why the two had been headed for the top of the tower.

  “So, you’d like a view of the city from up here? Well there’s no nicer view of it than from these balconies,” Zaren said, waving towards one of the open doorways which Jadu excitedly skipped to, with Fin reluctantly following close behind under Zaren’s stern eye.

  “Wow!” Jadu couldn’t help but let out in astonishment, piquing Fin’s curiosity, shuffling over to get a good look out over the railing.

  Below, the city seemed magnified wherever they looked. It was as though all sight from the balcony passed through some telescopic lens, showing them fine details of streets that were far below.

  “Yes. It’s a way we enchanters keep an eye on local happenings. No one knows about this feature of the tower, not even the city leaders, and I shall have to kill you if you ever speak of anything you witness here in the highstudy,” Zaren said with a chuckle, to which Jadu joined in, honestly humored by the joke, with Fin making an uneasy attempt at a laugh, still horribly uncomfortable around the old enchanter.

  Zaren continued to speak as the two went back to viewing the many regiments marching or standing post throughout the city.

  “As you can tell, there’s quite a number of arisen occupying the city. Before I entered the painting, I counted an army just under a thousand. If they’ve raised more dead from that time, I have no idea of knowing, but the army seems to be ordered about by only a few sentient arisen—very dangerous and powerful, but it seems there’s maybe three or so of them.

  “The leader I only know as ‘the master.’ I haven’t seen him, or her, whatever it may be, but the second-in-command has mentioned his master once in talking to himself.”

  “Second-in-command? You’ve talked with the enemy?” Fin questioned, curious as to how Zaren obtained so much information of the commanders of the army.

  “Not talked to, but a few days ago, one named Lashik finally broke through this tower’s incantations and began ascending the tower. Before entering the painting, I myself oversaw many of the traps in this structure to keep out all but the most adept arcanists, diviners, and enchanters. As Lashik broke through the main entrance, he’s spent most of his time these last few days disassembling various enchantment traps throughout the tower. If he hadn’t have done that, well, you two probably would have been dead before you had entered the outer gates.”

  Both Fin and Jadu looked with raised eyebrows at each other over the news of the fortunate timing of events.

  “Through the painting, I was able to effectively slow time drastically for myself. The plan was for my order to enter the rift and wait out the invasion. Eventually, a liberating force would drive this army off, even if it took centuries to do so. Time in the rift is also slowed, so we could afford to wait out the occupation.

  “I was to stay and observe and intervene if needs be, as well as open the rift when all of this blew over; but, during Lashik’s ascension of the tower, he came to the room I monitored through the painting and found interest in and snatched up the object that was endowed with the enchantment’s unlock words that would release me from my spell. Without someone, or something, to say the unlock words, I was stuck until someone came along, like you two, whom I might be able to trust to say the unlock words for me.

  “To your point though, Fin, I came to know of Lashik a bit through observation as he cleared the room I was in. I have seen and heard another intelligent arisen pass by and report to Lashik. A cloaked skeleton that Lashik had called Dubix. He ordered him to organize troops and to send them to various areas of the city at the time, nothing important, but as far as I know, that’s who is leading the army. It seems it’s a relatively small chain of command. I have observed for many weeks the streets and city from this balcony before I hid away in the painting, and that’s my assessment of the situation.”

  After gazing a while longer down into the shadowy, abandoned streets, the evening sunlight beginning to stretch long over most of the city now, Fin nudged Jadu and said, “Well, I guess there’s our answer we came here looking for.”

  Turning to look back inside, walking past the drape-lined doorframe, he added, “The dead army’s number seems to be upwards of two thousand according to Zaren. I loosely counted maybe four hundred or so at their posts or on patrol. Many more hundreds could easily be hidden away in garrisons down below, scattered through the city, or out in the countryside on patrol. I don’t doubt Zaren’s estimate to be pretty accurate.”

  “I know barely anything about military subjects, so if you say so, then that’s good
enough for me. Objective complete then. That wasn’t so bad! I hope the others have fared well with their tasks,” Jadu said, turning to follow Fin back inside, adding in a sanguine tone, “I just hope we still get the chance to examine one of those arisen specimen. I’m curious as to their animation origins.”

  Zaren, leading them out of the highstudy, offered, “That is a subject I know a bit about. If you’re interested, I could discuss it further with you on the way down.”

  “Oh, that would be lovely!” Jadu said, jumping with excitement, asking, “If you have insight into the nature of this army, I’m sure that Reza would also be interested in learning more about these unnatural specimens. Would you mind visiting with others in our group to discuss the subject further?”

  Fin was about to suggest otherwise, not comfortable around the enchanter they knew so little about, but he knew that Jadu had a point. Reza would kill them if they passed this kind of information asset up and went their way without grilling Zaren for everything he knew about the situation. Such an intel score would probably pay off any debts he owed Reza, and perhaps even Sultan Metus would increase the reward for such a detailed report upon their return.

  The two waited for an answer as they started down the long flight of stairs. Zaren considered the invitation with a scrunched up brow before smiling wide, the exact kind of odd smile that caused Fin to worry, and said with a chuckle, “Ask for my help? The help of an enchanter always comes with an unseen price. I suppose I could visit with you and this Reza friend of yours to discuss what I know of the enemy you face. If it further aids a mounting resistance to expedite the purging of the city from this threat, then who am I to refuse to help? Lead the way, little one.”

  Thrilled that the learned enchanter had agreed to tarry with them a while longer, Jadu pinched Fin’s elbow with an unsuppressed smile and followed after the strange, tall robed figure.