Ellas Past

Kane

We crouched in the grass, mere feet from where the leading Nargu passed.

‘Not good scouts,’ Gremok said, his voice an almost silent growl.

‘Lazy,’ I said. ‘They do not yet expect to encounter us.’

Ten passed, and then the bearer approached, flanked on either side by Nargu almost as large as their leader who took up the rear.

Suddenly, a thought came to me. ‘You have no weapon, Gremok. Here take these,’ I said, as a knife materialised in each of my hands.

Gremok showed no surprise at what I did, if anything, disdain was in his voice as he said, ‘I need no weapon to kill.’

His leering grin and his protruding fangs together with his words made me shudder. Then they were alongside us, and I leapt forward.

Incredibly, Gremok was ahead of me, and in less than seconds he snap the neck of the Larthak bearer.

The leader fell to my knife as did the one guard, and Gremok finished the other as I set out after the lead party, who as yet were completely unaware of what had befallen the their companions.

That did not last long though, as Gremok let out a blood curdling shriek, ‘I kill, I kill,’ chanted over and over as he ran past me to fall upon the Nargu, who now fled in terror in all directions.

Mere moments later it was over; three died by the knife, and Gremok killed seven with his bare hands.

He was a terrifying opponent. It was well that we had deprived Dar'cen of such a weapon; with an army of creatures like Gremok, all would be lost.

Gremok sat, the blood of his kills covering his hands and face. A strange noise emanated from him, and I thought that he laughed – a thought that sent a chill though me.

Then he said, ‘What am I, Kane? What has he made of me?’ His voice was choked, and I knew then that he cried.

I sat with him, the carnage of torn and broken Nargu all around us. ‘He tried to make you as I was, Gremok. But he failed… you feel remorse and revulsion at what you did. When I was his, I was devoid of any such emotions until… until Anna saved me. You are already free… what you did today was necessary to remain free. The creatures you killed—’

‘I did not just kill them!’ Gremok screamed. ‘I tore them apart. That is what he taught me…’ As his words trailed off he took his head in his so very bloody hands and began to wail.

Slowly, he gathered himself and took control again. Looking at me as I sat before him, he said, ‘If I am to fight him and his, I cannot do it like this,’ and he swept his eyes over the carnage before us. ‘You must teach me the sword… or any weapon. If I must kill, I will not do it with my hands… I will not be as he taught me. Will you do this? Will you teach me?’

‘Yes, I will. You have my word. But the now, we must go. Those behind will be here soon… and we must be long gone when they do.’ I stood and held out my hand to Gremok to help him up.

He took my hand but not as an aid. ‘We have our bargain, then, you and I. Teach me as I have asked, and I am yours in this war.’

On we ran, at a ground eating pace.

‘We must clear these fields and keep to stony ground. Our trail is far too easy to follow,’ I said.

‘The Wise Mother said that he knows where I am… so why does he not just come and take us?’ Gremok asked, just as we finally cleared the long grass and spied a stream that we could follow for a little while.

‘Into the water,’ I commanded.

A few seconds later as we ran just ankle-deep in the pebble strewn, slow-moving stream, I said, ‘I do not know the answer, Gremok. Perhaps he toys with us. Or perhaps his knowing is only a general thing… you were not with him as long as I, and so his hold may be weak. The magic Anna placed upon you will break his hold, perhaps it has already weakened. I pray that it is so.’

Gremok looked at at me as we splashed on, confusion on his face.

‘The Wise Mother,’ I said. ‘Her name is Anna.’

‘Ah,’ Gremok said, with a nod.

‘Why do you call her so, Gremok? The other Ella'ren also named her Wise Mother… and they were very deferential when they spoke with her.’

‘She is a Wise Mother,’ Gremok said, as if that answered my question.

‘I do not understand,’ I said. ‘Can you explain further?’

Gremok started as a wild boar raced through the stream, directly across our path.

I had known it was there, I had felt it's life force, another gift of my master. But obviously Gremok did not have such skills. ‘Be calm, Gremok. I will know when danger is near… a little gift that the evil one bestowed upon me.’

Gremok shrugged. ‘I would have killed it had it been a danger. That was his only gift to me.’

‘Wise Mother?’ I prompted, before despair again took him.

‘You are persistent,’ Gremok growled. ‘Very well, I will tell you what little I know, the little that all Ella'ren… the children, know of the Wise Ones. We do not keep books, we do not write. Our history is passed down in tale, word-of-mouth from father to son, from mother to daughter. Long, long ago, we were persecuted by your people, the Ellathia, as you name yourselves.’

‘Persecuted, but how?’ I interrupted. ‘No one is able to catch any of you!’

‘Patience, friend of the Wise Mother. We were persecuted. Hunted for our skins… fine leather, I believe. And we were hunted for our flesh, too,’ Gremok said, his voice and face filled with revulsion. ‘But then, the Wise Ones came, those strong with magic. They saw us for what we were… in a sense.

'They said that we were as children, and so took us as their family. They protected us, gave us the Avoiding... the magic that allowed us to be free of our persecutors. Over time, we have changed from the complete innocents that we were then to the creatures we are now.

'You see, when we were first gifted the Avoiding, we began to taunt and jeer, plague even, those that had hunted us… but over time, we learnt that we liked such games, even to play on each other… but much better with the other races, but better still with the Ellathia.’

‘So these Wise Ones, those with strong magic… they came from the Citadel?’

‘The history I tell of was long before the place you speak of… we are an old race, born with the first. But yes, their auras were strong, much as the one that came with you… Anna’

‘What is this aura?’ I asked. ‘What you mean by that?’

Gremok looked at me blankly.

‘The aura you spoke of… is it something that you feel? Did you feel the magic in Anna?’

‘Not feel. See! Can you not see it? She glows like the sun. All around her brightness extends to all she touches.’

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I was speechless, and Gremok could see my confusion, because he continued without my prompting. ‘You do not see it? It is how those that saved us were, and so the histories tell, how all those that came later were known for what they were… as it was with your friend.’

‘I see nothing,’ I finally said. ‘She is strong in magic, but I see nothing like you describe. I only see the woman. But what you have said explains much of how your people treated Anna… and how they were with me.’

Gremok laughed. ‘I am sorry to have missed that. It is not often now that my people have fun with one of yours.’

We both fell silent then.

A mile or so later, we left the stream as it became deeper, and clambering out onto boulder strewn, rocky ground that gently rose up before us to Bakar – a treacherous land of sand dune ridged desert and rocky peaks, devoid of life, even before his coming.

‘Dar’cen, or at least his, will expect us to avoid this place and to go east or west, rather than across the wasteland.’

‘So we carry on north,’ Gremok said, a statement of fact, not a question.

I smiled as I said, ‘Exactly.’

So on we went, even as the ground began to bake beneath our feet. Northward we headed, following the trough of the great sand dunes where we could, staying well below the skyline. When that wasn't possible, and we had to pass over one of the dunes, we did so carefully, constantly looking back the way we had come for signs of those that we knew would eventually follow.

It was a blessing that we both could move stealthily, being almost unseen when we did not wish to be noticed – my abilities a gift from him, and Gremok's a skill that came with the Avoiding placed upon all his people long ago by the Wise Ones.

Such a strange pairing we made – both destined to fight against him, and yet both of his very own creation.

Slipping over the crest of a dune, we lay flat to peer over back the way that we had come.

Until this dune we had been lucky enough to follow the path of a hard stone ravine that had run generally northward for almost an hour. And then this colossal dune, long seen in the distance, had cut across our path, leaving no option but to climb up and over it if we were to keep on our course.

‘Do you see anything?’ Gremok hissed.

It was strange, sometimes he spoke rationally and calmly as though untouched by what he had endured, and then at others he seemed to lapse into the creature we had first encountered in his cell – anger filling his voice and hatred in the his eyes.

‘There is nothing in the ravine for as far as I can see. The top of the last dune, too, is clear.’

‘For the moment,’ Gremok replied, his voice almost a growl. ‘They will come and then I will…’ he trailed off as he almost buried his head in the coarse sand we lay upon.

Moments past, Gremok face still down in the sand, and I wondering how he could possibly breathe. Then slowly, he raised his head and turned to stare at me. ‘When we next encounter his creatures, you must fight alone until I have a weapon… and you have shown me at least the basics of its use. I cannot kill again as I have… I am becoming a beast. He made an animal of me, and each kill was how he thought to feed me. I will not be as he wished!’

I put a hand on his shoulder; his hard leathery skin was cool to the touch. ‘I will not let you become what he wanted… I promise you, Gremok. You will be free to fight him. And we will win… we will defeat him. But for now, we must keep going. We must evade his forces until Anna's magic does its work, and you are completely free of him.’

As I spoke, movement caught my eye, and as I turned to look, shapes crested a dune in the far distance; shapes that I knew to be Nargu, hundreds of them.

But that was not what had caught my eye, the Nargu I had expected, if not now, they would eventually come.

Huge creatures were dotted throughout the Nargu ranks as they streamed down the side of the dune towards the ravine floor. They dwarfed the Nargu, and were creatures that I had never encountered before, creatures that even at this distance I could see were abominations. They had arms that seem to hang almost to the floor despite their great height, and their chest and shoulders were far too wide for the legs that supported them.

But from where we lay, that was all I could see. I could make out no features that would allow me to tell what they had once been, but I did know that nothing like them existed in nature. He had created those that followed.

‘What are they?’ Gremok asked, as his eyes followed my gaze.

‘That, I do not know. But whatever they are, we must be gone.’

Gremok rolled away from the summit and was off at a sprint without another word.

I followed, rage suddenly filling me. What were they? What abominations had he created, and why did we not know of them?

Three more times we crested sand dunes that crossed our path, and looking back from each we saw no sign of our pursuers.

Finally we reached another almost northward passage between the slopes of two mountainous sand dunes. On into the far distance the passage ran with hardly any divergences in its line. Through the mist that seemed to shroud the horizon at its end, the peaks of Elgar could just be seen – the end of the wasteland, Bakar.

‘How far?’

Gremok's question was vague, but its meaning clear. Could we make Elgar, the mountain range that separated this desert hell from Alvarin, before whatever followed sighted us, caught us even?

‘Run!’ I commanded. ‘Your question has no relevance. Whatever the distance, we must not be seen. So run, damn you!’

This was our third day in the waste. No rest, no sleep, no food or water. Only we two of his creatures could endure such. But even we had limits. I could not be killed, could not die, and I believed as much of Gremok. But exhaustion would take us at some point, and that point was fast approaching. Yet still we ran on.

An hour we ran before we were even a tenth of the way. And that was when I knew that they were gaining on us. I did not need to turn to know where they were – the thunderous noise now made by the Nargu and the monstrous creatures that ran with them was enough.

‘Is this how it ends?’ Gremok sneered. ‘Captured and then taken back to him? Even we cannot overcome all those that follow.’

‘Just run, Gremok. We will not be caught, I promise you.’ But my word sounded hollow even to me. We had met in the future, Gremok and I, so he did survived this day… but could what had gone before be changed? Or could it be that we would be caught, and then somehow escape again?

‘No!’ I said, aloud, rebutting my own thoughts.

Gremok looked up at me questioningly as we ran.

‘We will escape,’ I said, my voice now full of confidence. ‘Run!’

On we ran, the thunderous roar of our pursuers growing louder with each passing minute.

Gremok looked back, stared back a long moment, yet never once missed a stride. ‘What are those things? They are hideous beyond anything I could ever imagine. Even the most ugly of Nargu would seem a beauty.’ He laughed as he finished, and I, too, joined him.

‘You seem more at ease, Gremok. Perhaps Anna's magic takes hold. Perhaps there is hope yet,’ I said, as we somehow, in concert, managed an extra burst of speed.

Yet as the sound of pursuit grew, I could not help but glance back myself. Until then I had resisted by telling myself that if I did not see them then they were no danger.

What I saw almost chilled my heart. Hundreds of Nargu ran abreast, crowding the rocky ground between the sand dunes. Their ranks trailed away long into the distance where they still flowed down the sand dune that marked the start of the ravine.

At their head, and interspersed throughout, ran the huge creatures that I now knew for what they were, what they had been before he wrought such horrific changes upon them. Now, less than half a mile distant, their features, despite all he had done to them were plain to see.

Their bodies were distorted well beyond of that of the human like proportions of the giant I had known, but giants they were.

Their arms almost dragged upon the ground and they had huge, disproportionate, barrelled chests.

But that was not the worst – their faces were twisted as if in excruciating pain, huge fangs protruded from their mouths, and where the nose had been, a snout like protuberance extended inches from their faces. Worse again was that each of the vastly elongated arms ended in vicious claws that glistened in the boiling sun with the steel tips that seemed to be an extension of their living flesh.

‘Giants,’ I whispered, in despair. ‘He has the giants.’

‘Is that what they are?’ Gremok asked. ‘I have never seen a giant. I thought them to be legend. And in all the tales, they are said to be fair folk. “Large of body, kind of heart, and fair to behold,” so all the tales tell.’

‘That they are… but not these. These he has undone and remade. We must run faster, Gremok. It will not be long before arrows come. They gain with every step they take.’

‘Why does he not come?’ Gremok asked, even as he ran faster.

‘Perhaps he believes that he has us, and that we cannot escape.’

‘Perhaps he is right,’ Gremok said, with a laugh that, given the circumstances, seemed completely unforced, if not a little hysterical.

He is becoming free, I thought. It will not be long now. Perhaps Anna will come then. Yes, that must be it. She will travel us away from this place.

We ran on, somehow pushing harder than we had. I knew that I strained my body to its limits and from the way sweat now ran down Gremok's body and the sound of his ragged breathing, so did he. But even so, despite the fangs that almost covered his mouth, I was sure that he was grinning.

‘Arrows,’ Gremok said, as a flight thudded across the ground mere yards before us.

‘A warning to stop, before they rain down on top of us, ‘ I said. Where are you Anna? Where are you?

‘If they are to take me, I will kill all that I can first. Give me your sword. Now, I kill, but I will not do so as he has taught.’

We stopped and turned, and the horde, not more than four hundred yards behind, ground to a halt, too.

Then the Nargu in the front ranks began to jeer and shout as they saw that they finally had their quarry.

The abominations that were in those front ranks hung their heads as if somehow sullen or ashamed. They did not join in the clamour that the Nargu made.

Almost as one, Gremok holding my sword aloft and I with a knife in each hand, charged towards the line of death that now faced us. No, not death, something far worse than death if they take us.

We sprinted forward, Gremok somehow out-pacing me to run straight at the centre, where the Nargu shouted the loudest.

I aimed directly for the nearest giant – at least he would be mine. Anna, where are you? my mind screamed as we charged forward.

The Nargu stood their ground, waiting, but as we closed on them, those that Gremok targeted grew quiet, even as those to either side bellowed louder.