Ellas Past

Kane

We cleared the ruins an hour later, walking out onto the untouched green meadows on the northern approaches. The Alian road stretched off into the distance as straight as an arrow's flight.

Paved in stones as hard as granite and yet shining like polished marble. The road had been built long ago… before the gift of travelling, before the coming of Dar'cen, and yet the road was still as it was the day it had first been laid, they said.

But where it entered the circle of devastation that was Alfent, it abruptly ended – no sign of it at all existed within the circle.

We had only encountered one group of Nargu as we marched arrogantly through the ruins. And they had seen Elite and given us a wide berth, their heads lowered so as not to catch our gaze.

Gremok had growled in their direction until they finally left our sight. I could see that anger boiled within him, but he did no more than stare and growl.

Two hours later we reached the base of the Menine hills, a stretch of folded land that ran east-west for almost fifty leagues.

We slowed what had been a dead run across the plains, to a trot as we made our way to the summit of the hills, some hundred yards above the grasslands we had left moments earlier.

Almost as we reached the top, thunder erupted across the skies behind us. Turning, the sky above Alfent in the distance was black with cloud, cloud that seemed unnaturally uniform in shape. Lightning bolts flashed out in all directions from the cloud, blasting the already ruined city, sending huge gouts of rock, dirt and dust high into the sky.

Then, even as we watched, Nargu boiled from under the shadow cast by the cloud. Rank after rank came forth, spreading out in all directions.

They did not run, they were not terror-stricken Nargu fleeing for their lives; he controlled them all, sent them forth to do his bidding. And yet, hundreds died in throes of agony as they were blasted by his rage fuelled lightning.

‘Now, I can kill,’ Gremok said. Not a question, but a flat, emotionless statement of fact.

‘We must evade them if we can, Gremok. We must run, but yes you can kill if any come between us and flight.’

The smile he gave at my words was chilling. If not for all the horrors I had seen and committed, I would have quaked at its sight.

‘Now we run. Nargu are fast… especially when driven.’

We ran over the Menine hilltops and down to the grassy plains beyond. Mile after mile passed under our feet, neither one of us tiring. We did not extend our lead over the Nargu, but neither did they gain on us – they did not know where we were but simply fanned out in all directions.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

I suspected also that bands of the foul creatures would be ahead of us, scouring the land for Gremok and whoever it was that had aided him.

He would now be extending his gaze towards us. He would know we move northward, but I prayed that his link with Gremok was tenuous enough that he would not be able to send his troops directly towards us.

The link would weaken as Anna's magic took hold, but we could not rely on that, not yet. We needed to keep moving, and let none live to report should they sight us, for then he would come, and all would be lost.

I shivered at the thought. Somewhere inside me, I knew that we would not fail – I had seen Gremok, he lived on in a future life, a future life where Dar’cen had been defeated.

But as we ran, our pursuers fast behind us, what I knew of what was to come was a thing that grew smaller and less sure as doubt began eat into my thoughts.

‘Down,’ I hissed, as I grabbed Gremok's arm and pulled him low into the tall grass that we ran through.

Ahead was a troop of Nargu, ten I counted, trotting obliquely across our path. They would not see us, but they would cross the path that we had made in our run across the grasslands.

Then they would report, and he would have us. He would send all his forces here to intercept us.

‘Your chance to kill,’ I said. But we must be swift. None must be given the chance to link with him. One will carry a device, a rod of dark metal. With it he can signal, and then Dar’cen will take that one's mind, and he will see us through that creature. We must find that one before we show ourselves. He must die first… and swiftly.’

‘The big one, he is the leader?’ Gremok asked, as the troop drew near.

‘Yes, usually it is the biggest and strongest that lead, but—’

‘I will kill him first,’ Gremok snapped, as his whole body tensed as if ready to leap forward.

‘Wait, Gremok! He will not have the Larthak. He will not be the bearer.’

‘Larthak?’

‘That is what the Nargu name the device. It means ‘Foul death’. You see, when it is activated, Dar’cen will come. Not in body… but his essence will fill the mind of whoever holds the Larthak. And that creature, whoever it is, whatever it is, will be as good as dead when Dar’cen leaves… a drooling imbecile, close to death, will be all that remains.

'The rest of the Nargu will leave such a one whenever they fall, to become food for the carrion that seem to come in Dar’cen's wake.

'No, the leader will not carry the Larthak… he will have given that boon to the weakest. Look for the one most downtrodden, the one who all others taunt. He will carry the device.’

‘How do know this? You were as I am, that much you have said, but to know these things, you must have been his a lifetime.’

‘So it seemed,’ I answered, almost to myself. ‘But enough. I judge it to be the one herded before the leader; the carrier would not be a scout, for he would be in most danger, and if he falls, another must take the Larthak, and none want that. So, strange as it seems, they protect such a one from harm. Yes, he will be the one before the leader. There, see, the leader shouts at him now, hits him and laughs. He is the one.’

The two were close, only fifty yards or so in front of us. They would pass by where we hid by some thirty yards, I judged. We would take them then.

‘This way, Gremok, and make no noise, and do not disturb the grass that hides us.’

‘I am as you, Nameless One. They will not see me until it is too late.’

Nameless? Of course, he was too far gone when Anna named me. ‘Kane,’ I said, as I thrust my hand forward.

Gremok stared at my hand, even as he said, ‘So my saviour is named Kane. I am in your debt… I think.’

‘The hand is a token of regard, Gremok. Among the People and other races, friends clasp hands when they meet, and also to agree a bargain.’

Hesitantly, Gremok took my hand. ‘So what is this bargain that we agree here?’

‘That bargain was agreed long ago, Gremok. I will tell you of it later, after we have dealt with those before us… and we are free of his clutches.’