by Brian Murray
***
A month after the coronations, Ireen and Thade travelled with Zane and Rayth back to Teldor. With several thousand new Imperial Guards, the empress would visit Teldor again. Zane arrived back at his city to a hero’s welcome. Admiral Rendel had sailed home, arriving first, and told all of Zane’s triumph. The people prepared a welcome for their king.
Thousands of Rhaurns lined the streets to welcome their king home. At the steps of the palace, Aurillia waited with Queen Larene, Princess Sasha, Cara, and Emyra. Zane ran up the steps of his palace and stopped before his mother. He bowed and kissed her on the cheek. He then stepped to one side and touched the face of his wife-to-be. Tears rolled from Aurillia’s eyes and she gently touched his face. He had aged over the last couple of months. But then he smiled his crooked smile, and his youth shone out like a torch. The pair embraced.
Thade walked slowly up the steps, feeling all of the hurt again—it tightened around his heart. He stood before Cara.
The older woman looked past Thade and searched the crowd at the bottom of the steps, but she could not see him. “Dax,” she mouthed and looked up into Thade’s reddening eyes.
He shook his head. A tear seeped from one stormy-grey eye and trickled down his cheek. Cara reached up and cupped Thade’s face.
“I’m sorry, Cara. I miss him so much,” whispered Thade through his sobs.
Cara stepped in close and embraced the man. He hugged the woman he thought of as mother and cried unashamedly.
Two days later, Zane and Aurillia were married. Rayth led the celebrations, with Maldino who arrived for the wedding. Rayth would admit to not remembering much of the evening, but he was the proudest man in Teldor. It was a joyous night and the friends sat around talking of better times and of friends gone.
Thade and Ireen were present at the wedding of Megan and Tanas, who had married a day earlier in secret. Thade was Tanas’s best man and spoke to the warrior in private.
“We haven’t talked about Dax much since that day,” said Thade.
“Aye, I miss him more than . . . ” Tanas did not finish his sentence, only shook his head.
“Where are you and Megan going to live? You’re welcome to live with us in Kal-Pharina.”
“We want a quiet life away from people.”
“I thought so,” said Thade, handing Tanas a parchment.
“What’s this?” asked the blind warrior.
“Cara is coming to live with Ireen and me in Kal-Pharina. I want you to have my place. I know Dax would have wanted you to have it.”
For a moment, Tanas was lost for words. “Thank you,” he whispered finally, stepping in and hugging Thade. “If you ever need me, send word and I will come, brother.”
“And I you,” echoed Thade, choked with emotion as he embraced Tanas.
***
One year after their wedding, Aurillia and Zane had a son. After much light-hearted argument between them, they settled on a name that felt right. The future king of the Rhaurns was named Justin.
***
A few months later, Ireen gave birth to a daughter. They named her Rena. Thade was a doting father, but he found he had to constantly fight with Cara to hold his daughter.
***
Megan and Tanas lived happily in the home once owned by Thade. All of the people living on the lands respected their new landlord. The couple were blessed with twin boys. It was not hard for them to name their boys, calling them Dax and Xefth.
***
Gan-Goran had travelled with Tanas and found Geena, the child from Ubert. He spent much of his time teaching the children of the community and concentrated on developing Geena’s talents. She exceeded all of his expectations.
EPILOGUE
THE DARK ONE had been destroyed in the realm of the mortals, defeated again by his former champion. He had been slain with his own sword, by the only other man who could wield it—Death.
Two things happened in the realm of Yallaz’oom.
The first was within the Black Mountain of the Damned—Moranton. When the Dark One was killed, Moranton grew. The mountain heaved, groaned, and expanded. The tremors and tectonic activity was immense while the mountain rose into the grey sky. Within the mines, many of the tunnels collapsed, others were squashed closed. Vertical wooden beams and roof joists were compressed or cracked and buckled. The terrain of Yallaz’oom changed; new deep cracks and fissures ripped across the ground to form deep, bottomless abysses.
The second was the return of the Blade of Yallas. The sword materialised in the Dark One’s throne room, embedded in the black stone before the huge black chair.
***
Naats Flureic, the Darklord, had been sent cascading through the portal by his twin brother. His unconscious body lay hidden miles away from the site of the portal near the Black Palace. When he woke, he returned to the Black Palace and continued to study the three Tomes of the Damned in secret. So, engrossed in his studies, the man did not notice the reappearance of the Blade of Yallas. Within five Yallaz’oom years, he had completed his studies and concluded several points that held him back from completing his ambitions. He walked from the small antechamber and saw the black sword in the stone before the throne. He reached out for the blade and uttered a spell of power. He pulled at the sword, but nothing happened. He tried other spells, but it would not budge. The Darklord slumped onto the throne, his mind reeling.
The two facts the Darklord had learned were: Firstly, he could not rule the Realm of Yallaz’oom until the Dark One had been utterly destroyed. He had one problem; there was only one way to kill the Dark One. He had read it in the third Tome. The Dark One could only be utterly destroyed by the One. The Darklord had travelled the Paths of Time and seen many futures, some good, others bad. Secondly, he wanted to be a god. To achieve that feat, he had to find the fourth Tome. Within the pages of the fourth Tome were the spells to achieve immortality and visit the gods.
The Darklord sighed. In order to achieve his ambitions, he would have to resurrect the Dark One. This was not a problem, for the Dark One could be resurrected in the Realm of Yallaz’oom without the power of the Black Crystal. His major dilemma was finding the fourth Tome. He had no idea where the book was hidden. Only two persons knew where it was. One was the Divine One and She would never divulge the information he required. The second person was the Dark One’s own lost champion—Death. In life, before he was Death, Slayer as he was then known, had captured the Tome before the Matrox found it. The information regarding what happened to it was missing on the Paths of Time—erased from the past.
One problem at a time, thought the Darklord. He rose wearily from the throne and walked from the room. He left the Black Palace and noted the lack of creatures and Caynians roaming about. The creatures that had been in the realm of mortals when the Dark One was killed had turned to dust, their souls returning to Moranton. The Darklord made the journey to the Black Mountain of the Damned. When he closed on the mountain, he was amazed by how much it had grown. He found several surviving Keepers, and ordered them to start searching for the Dark One’s soul.
For many years, the Darklord waited while the Keepers, with new miners, kept searching for the lost soul. They dug and searched the mountain. New tunnels were created and they mined deeper and deeper within the bowels of Moranton. The Darklord had returned to the Black Palace many times, his hopes low and ebbing away. He would return to the mountain after reading from the Tomes made him feel stronger. The Darklord would send out stronger and stronger search spells into the mine, but they all came back unable to locate the Dark One.
Then when the Darklord was about to give up all hope, they found the soul and carefully extracted it from the surrounding rock. The Darklord personally escorted the ebony black soul to the Black Palace.
The Darklord had the Keepers place the soul in the throne room. The Darklord went to an antechamber and removed the third Tome. He halted in the room and again stared at the bust of the woman, wondering who she was. For the first ti
me, he carefully touched the bust. He recoiled instantly; the bust felt warm to the touch—almost real. Stunned, the Darklord returned to the throne room. He opened the book and felt the tingle of excitement. He instantly forgot about the bust and its strange touch. He started to chant from the page.
The temperature in the room began to drop. Words of mist formed as the Darklord continued to chant his spell. Ice crystals coated the wall, ceiling, and floor. He continued to chant. A light sparked in the centre of the soul. The light expanded outwards and grew with intensity. The temperature continued to fall. The Darklord finished his spell and uttered several words of power.
Suddenly, the light blazed and then the room was plunged into darkness. Silently, the Darklord returned the third Tome and replaced the spells on the door. When he shuffled back into the throne room, the Dark One lay curled up on the floor.
“Master,” whispered the Darklord.
Slowly, the Dark One looked up. His blazing red eyes fixed on the Darklord. Evil radiated from the man, concentrated in his eyes. “I have returned.”
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As ALWAYS, I must thank to several peeps, who help with this project, Kindra, Edd and Sheron of Burning Willow Press—I am forever grateful. To Lynn for the awesome cover, that fits in so well with the others and my editor, Donna-Marie (who would not allow Dax to replicate True Grit) thank you as always for your massive input as, again, you have helped me with a lot of polishing. To the other BWP staff and inmates—you people rock!!!
Finally, and again to those reading this, thank you for the chance to entertain you, I hope you enjoy this story.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born and educated in London, Brian now lives in Jersey (in the English Channel), with his family and a large collection of comics and books. By day an accountant, at night an author and his genre of choice is dark, heroic fantasy, but he loves testing his writing prowess by delving farther into his dark side. When he is not writing, he’s plotting, when he’s not plotting, he’s reading and when he’s not doing those—he’s a pain in the ass (so his wife tells us).
Brian has already had several short stories and anthology published. With Burning Willow Press, he has had novels, The Forgotten Hero and Dark Times, the first two parts of the Chronicles of Death trilogy published, and Death Rises, concluding the trilogy. He is also a proud contributor to the Burning Willow Press’ annual anthology, Crossroad in the Dark and he has another novel called the Soulless One that released mid-summer 2018.
There are still many more manuscripts, short stories, novellas, and novels ready to see the light of day.
Website—www.briangmurray.com
Facebook—https://www.facebook.com/briangmurrayauthor
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Burning Willow Press is an independent publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror, with genres blended into other formats as well. Located in South Carolina, in the US, BWP has published more than seventy dreams with the interests of the authors at heart since 2015, and that gentle reader will double by 2020.
Be sure to check us out on our Facebook page, Twitter: @Burning_willow, and on Instagram: @BWPLLC for updates and news on releases.
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With many more to come.
