Ellas Past
Kane
‘This is Marath, Kane,’ Anna said, as she smiled at the obvious leader of the latest Wise Ones to join us.
Marath was a tall man, lean and boney, and he was old for a Wise One, as old as Jain perhaps. But then, age was a deceptive thing for those with magical abilities – they aged very slowly compared to the norm, or so Jalholm had said, and such was my experience with the Anna I had met so long ago; she had only seemed ten years or so older than the girl, Anna, who had just spoken, and yet she was hundreds of years old.
Five Wise Ones today alone, and over thirty in the past month since we had agreed that the world should be told of Al’kar’s coming, of my coming.
To me it had seemed nonsense, but she had been right – the Wise Ones were flocking to our cause, and the giants were gathering more every day from remote villages and hamlets throughout the land.
Anna said that before his coming there had been many hundreds of magical practitioners. Every town of village had at least one, albeit many only healers or weather witches.
Of those that were powerful in magic, most had resided at the Citadel or in Falhar, and those he had either eradicated or enslaved to his will.
Some few remained, though, and to date three had joined our cause. This Marath, that stood before us now, would be the fourth if what Anna believed was true.
‘Kane? Then where is Al’kar? I do not mean to offend, but we made this journey at great risk because the prophesied one, Al’kar, was said to have come at last.’ Marath’s tone was haughty as he looked down on Anna, completely oblivious to the introduction he so rudely ignored.
Garath gently laid a bladed hand on Marath’s shoulder and, before the man could utter an objection, turned him back to face me.
‘This is Al’kar,’ he said. ‘Kane… is a familiarity used by those close to him, and there is none closer than my daughter. To you, for now at least, he is Al’kar.’
The man’s eyes moved away from the steel blades that rested so casually on his shoulder, to face me, and as he looked me up and down, his brow furrowed and his mouth turned down to form a scowl; he was disappointed, bitterly disappointed. The Al’kar, the one the world had waited on, the one he had come so far to aid, was just a man.
I smiled; it was all I could do. The others had all been the same, perhaps not as haughty and full of their own importance as Marath obviously was, but they had all found me lacking; not the great Al’kar that their prophecies had told of.
Even Anna, they had though a young girl. How they all had learnt, all the Wise Ones, the powerful and the weak, they had all learnt how very wrong their first thoughts had been.
‘You’re journey was not too arduous, I trust, Marath? It was good of you to travel so far to come to our aid… you and your companions are most welcome indeed.' I said, with my most winning smile.
Behind Marath, Anna covered her smile with a hand, her eyes bright with amusement – tact was not normally a trait that I exhibited.
‘I thank you for your welcome… Al’kar. And, no, the journey was not at all difficult… long, but better than if we had travelled overland. I do not think we could have evaded capture had not Garath, here,’ and his eyes, filled with loathing, looked down upon Garath’s blades as they resting on his shoulder, ‘brought us by way of his magical tunnels. His armies now scour the land in search of you and yours… they are everywhere.’
‘Not everywhere, Marath, not here… and not where we have struck at him. Not great victories, perhaps, but we make progress,’ Anna said.
‘Small steps,’ I interrupted, with a matching small smile.
‘Yes,’ Anna said. ‘Small steps… but steps forward, nonetheless. Would you be so kind as to introduce your companions, Marath? We have much to do this day, least of all is to get you all settled here, and then tomorrow, you can meet with the other Wise Ones who have joined us.’
‘You have fought him, then, truly? I gave scant credence to the rumours… I did not believe any could really stand against him.’ Marath’s haughtiness had given way to incredulity.
‘Why then did you join us, Marath? If you did not believe, why come here? To what end?’ I asked.
‘Because we wished to; we wanted the tales to be true… we prayed that they were,’ one of Marath’s companions said, as she stepped forward. We four may be weak in magic, not together could we overcome Marath, but we were all that he had. We were his only companions, and had he stayed, he would have been alone.’
Marath scowled at the woman a moment, and then his face softened, and a smile lit his eyes. ‘You, I would have missed, wife, these others… well, yes, they too I would have missed. But you most of all... after all did you not stay at my side when the ageing came upon me?’ Marath’s voice was full of tenderness and love as he spoke to the woman, his wife.
‘How could I do otherwise, my husband? If not for your so very untrusting nature we would have been murdered with all the others at Falhar. Besides, you are not so unhandsome even with the burden of age that you now carry,’ the woman said, as she laughed.
Marath, too, laughed as he took her hand. ‘This harridan is my wife, Belis. Take no notice of her words… I would have come to you of my own accord… eventually.’
‘You are welcome here among us, Belis,’ I said. ‘With your aid, we will at least be able to keep rein on your husband, I think.’
Garath snorted, as he lifted his hand from Marath’s shoulder. ‘She alone, me thinks,’ he said, with a groaning sound I had come to interpret as a chuckle.
Marath looked indignant for a moment, but again his face softened, as he said, ‘You are right of course, both of you. She alone, harridan though she be, can turn my course, and…’ he smiled before continuing, ‘bring a smile to my lips.’
Belis smiled back, her eyes shining bright. Then, she turned to the three behind her, a man of middling years, and a boy and girl who, given their unruly bright-red hair, had to be brother and sister.
‘My husband is ever remiss in his duties as our leader and I, as his harridan, must make up for his so very many faults. This good man here is Brixa, and his so very deceptively youthful companions are Jakar and Hewan, twins as is plain for all to see.’
‘Welcome Brixa, Jakar and Hewan. We are grateful for your coming,’ I said. ‘All are welcome in this fight, but those with magic more so than most… regardless of the strength of your abilities.’
‘And these two,’ Anna said, as she indicated the twins, ‘are strong indeed, far more so than those Wise Ones that have joined us so far… more so than yourself, Marath.’
The twins blushed and looked sheepishly at Marath, almost as if awaiting his permission to speak.
‘What you say is true, Anna. They are young, not so young as they seem, but they are strong indeed. Unschooled as Wise Ones, but they both have many and varied abilities, and a strength I have not seen since his coming.’
‘Yes, he has taken much from our world, Marath,’ Anna said, sadly. ‘But that is why we are here, why we fight him. But your fight will wait a day or two while you recover from your journey.’
Turning to Garath, she said, ‘Father, would you be so kind as to escort our new guests to their loggings before you yourself retire.’
Though Garath had named Anna daughter, her reciprocation of the salutation brought questioning looks to three of the five before us, the twins seemed to have taken no notice or were not concerned.
‘Adopted,’ Anna said, as answer to the unasked question. Then, smiling, she added, ‘But father in all things but blood.’
‘Come,’ Garath said, ‘New rooms must be constructed, for the little ones have claimed all that were free for the distant kin they have summoned.’
‘More Ella’ren come?’ I said, just as Marath said, ‘Constructed?’
‘Yes, more Ella’ren,’ Anna said, with wry grin. ‘It would seem that they have played their jests far wider afield than the Great Greys of Lwycoed. And as to the creation of your loggings, Marath, please follow my father; it is a wondrous sight to behold.’
Garath gave his daughter bashful smile, and then beckoning to Marath, he led the five away.
‘The children, they are strong, Anna?’
‘Not children, Kane. They have many years behind them… it is their strength that keeps them so. And yes, they are very strong; it radiates from them as heat from the sun. It is a wonder that he did not find them before my father. Marath did well to hide them from him.’
‘How is it that he does not seem to feel your strength, Anna? He was quite dismissive of you, both of us actually.’
‘What is mine, I keep to myself, Kane. Much as Marath does not see the real you because of the mask I placed upon you, in me he sees only the woman. It is how I have eluded him thus far, Kane… how, as a child, I escaped from Falhar. It is a thing I wear always… since the day she first came to me.’ Her words at the last were almost too quiet for hearing.
‘She?’ I said, knowing that her words were not for me, and that I would get no answer.
Anna slowly turned her face to me, her eyes distant, looking at some far away place or time. Then, an enigmatic smile crept across her face. ‘I have no answer to give you, Kane. She is perhaps a part of me, a part buried deep that comes only in times of dire need, or she may be another being that possesses me at such times. I know not. You saw her once, not so long ago, when you toyed with that foul flame as we waited upon Gremok, do you remember?’
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I shivered at her words. ‘Yes, I recall, such a thing is not easily forgotten… though I would give much to do so, Anna.’
‘As would I, Kane, as would I… But let us not now dwell upon such things. We have much now to be thankful for, we have achieved much this last week. His mines are all now worthless to him, we now have a force capable of withstanding his hordes, and we have more strength in magic than I dreamt possible… and more wise ones found every day…’ Her words trailed off, as her eyes again left the here and now.
I waited, knowing that she was deep in thought. But suddenly she snapped back to herself, and for an instant before she turned to walk away, I saw tears in her eyes.
‘Anna? What is it, Anna?’ I called at her receding figure, as she walked on ignoring my plea. As she reached the door, I caught up to her and gently but firmly, placed a restraining hand on her shoulder and turned her to face me. I was shocked to see her face awash with tears.
‘What is it?’ I repeated, as I held het at arms length, not understanding what thoughts could have taken her from exuberance to such despair.
‘Tell me, Anna. I will not let this be. I will not let you hide what troubles you so in prophecy or dreams that you cannot talk of. You must tell me.’
She stared up at me through her tears, and it was as if she had not even heard my words – her eyes were wide and silent sobs wracked her body.
‘Oh, Kane, my friend, I am so very sorry for what is to come. Truly, I am… but I can see no other way.’
Her words chilled me. I did not understand what they meant, but the tone of her voice, and how her thoughts had made her so very distraught, filled me with dread. I pulled her close, and held her tight.
‘You must tell me, Anna,’ I whispered,’ as I gently stroked her hair. ‘Whatever it is, you must tell me… and together we will make it right. We will win, Anna… we will win, and we will both survive. I know it to be so. Truthfully, I do.’
Anna had stiffened at my words but no reprimand came, as it had so very many times when I had tried to tell of what I knew was to come. Instead, she broke away from my arms, her face all business once again despite the wet tears that glistened on her cheeks.
‘Then I must tell you, as you have asked. And together we will take what I know must be, and somehow change the outcome that saddens me so. Come, we will closet ourselves away to talk where we will not be disturbed, somewhere bright and airy, somewhere under the morning sun where all creatures should abide. Take my arm. We go now… before my resolve fails me again.’
I looked at her blankly for an instant, and then saw the travelling rod that was now somehow in her hands. ‘Is it safe to use, Anna? Will he detect its use?’ I asked, as I grasped her wrist.
No reply came as the bare stone walls of the giant’s realm gave to blue sky and verdant green. After the somber grey tones of the giant’s realm, it was almost blinding. I shielded my eyes and glanced around, not expecting trouble but checking anyway, such was my training.
Some way off, a shallow stream cut through the lush meadow we had travelled to, and a ramshackle stone cottage leaned precariously toward it from its footings at the streams edge.
‘We are safe here, Kane. Many a time I have visited this place when I have needed solitude. My parents summered here when I was but a babe… a retreat from their busy lives at Falhar. No one lives here now. All fled or were taken as slaves for the mines by his Nargu. So we are quite safe… and alone. Come, there are provisions below in the cottage. You can make tea, while I think on how I am to tell you this thing.’
Inside the cottage was surprisingly whole, clean and tidy, given its far from sturdy outer shell. Some shingles were missing in one section of the roof but even below that the floor was swept clean. The only furniture was a worn and battered wooden rocking-chair tucked away in the far corner in front of a broken window that overlooked the stream that undercut the cottage foundations.
‘My mother used to sit in that chair and rock me to sleep. I don’t really remember it, I was very young then, a baby, I suppose. My memories of this place are of running in the field, father chasing me pretending to be an ogre, and of splashing in the stream, sitting in it even.
'The cottage was looked after then, though. My father paid old Devan and his wife, who lived over in the next valley, to maintain the place while he and my mother worked, so it was always in good repair and fully stocked with provisions when we came to visit. There was more furniture then, too. My parents had a huge bed in the room leading off to the left. My bedroom was next to theirs, my head against the wall between the two. I remember their whisperings late at night when they thought me asleep. Even here, it was always of Falhar and their works… I sometimes think that my conception was but an accident, an aberration in their day to day work schedule so engrossed were they in their work.‘
While Anna talked, rambled really, I walked over to her rocking chair, for I knew that it was now hers, and sat before it on the floor, and waited silently for her to sit.
‘It was probably the happiest time of my life. Oh, I loved Falhar, too, as I grew older but those memories have been driven out by what happened with his coming.’
Anna still stood at the threshold of what was the family room, and seemed completely unaware of how I sat on the floor before her chair, my head turned to watch her as she did all she could to delay telling what she must.
‘Come sit, Anna,’ I interrupted, just as she seemed to regain control of her thoughts and words.
‘Kane… I—‘
‘Come, Anna, sit and gather your thoughts that you may tell me of this thing that worries you so. And I will ponder on how we may make it less than the dire outcome you seem so very sure it must be. ‘ I attempted a smile and hoped that my dread did not shine through whiter than my so very perfect Dar’cen attributed teeth.
Anna wearily lowered herself into the rocking chair, gone the grace of movement that had seemed to characterise her very existence, and gone the self control that was always so evident in the features of her face.
I sat, my face a blank canvas as it looked up at her, and waited. What is it, Anna? What can be so bad that the fright you take terrifies me?
Seconds ticked by in my head, each one seeming an eternity as my mind reviewed all that had happened these last months, trying to identify the cause of Anna’s so very disturbing worry.
‘I will tell it simply and bluntly, Kane, for I do not know of words that can ease the horror of what we must do.’ As she spoke she sat upright and on her face I saw how she strove once again to be strong.
‘Anna—’
‘Hush, please Kane. Let me speak this now while I still have courage to do so.’ She paused a brief moment, shaking her head to and fro as if some internal struggle took place in her mind.
Finally, she said, ‘We have done much these last months to confront and confound him… We have ambushed and killed many of his Nargu, and others that follow him, and we have blocked his efforts to gather this mineral that he so craves. But those things will not defeat him… they do nothing to weaken him. All of us together, all our Wise Ones, the Roken and the Ella’ren, cannot confront him… even with you at our side.’
I knew that what she said was true. I did not know how we could vanquish him, but I did know that somehow we would – the future histories told of that. Again something that I could not tell Anna, and even if I could, my words would have no advice for what we now faced… they would only give hope. I held my tongue and waited on Anna.
‘You once said that he feeds on fear and suffering… that he gains sustenance from such. Were your words then simply metaphors for his indulgences, or do such things truly sustain him? Wait! Do not answer yet. Think on this first…Without the fear that we give him, will he weaken? What will he become if we take away his source of ‘food’?’
My fists clenched tight, and my pulse quickened as the ramifications of her words played though my minds eye. Could it really be that simple? Could it be that horrifically simple? ‘Anna, thousands would have to die. Die at our hand—’
‘Answer my question, Kane! Will he weaken?’ Her voice was as hard as granite, and yet her eyes were again full with tears, tears that I had seen far to many times these past weeks.
‘Yes… Yes, I believe that he will. When I have witnessed him… feed, he has grown in strength at such times. The greater the fear… and the pain suffered, the stronger he became. At times his strength could be seen as an aura surrounding him.
’An aura?’
‘An aura of darkness, a shadow almost that seemed to deepen and expand the more he fed. I did not always see this thing, this aura; it came later, when I was truly his.’
Anna fell silent, her hands griping the worn wooden arms of her chair so tightly that the bones of her knuckles seemed as though they would burst though the skin, and her blue eyes seemed incongruously bright in the face that was now completely drained of colour. For long moments she remained silent, her lips occasionally moving as though to speak, but but no words came forth. Throughout, her eyes stared at me, bored into me, as if she tried to understand who I truly was without having to listen to the words that she would not let me speak.
Finally I could take no more of the silence and her unrelenting gaze.
‘You cannot truly mean to kill all those that he has gathered to himself, Anna? True, there are those that deserve death for what they themselves have done, but so too are there innocents… prisoners, slaves, those who with his compulsion he has bent to his will. Thousands, Anna. We would have to murder thousands… for that is what you talk of, the murder of thousands of our own.’
Anna didn’t reply, she just stared unflinchingly into my eyes.
‘I know you, Anna. You would not do such a thing. You could never—‘
‘The Anna you know is not here now, Kane,’ she said, her voice so cold that a shiver ran through me. ‘If we… if I do not do this thing, those that you seek to protect will die regardless… they will die horribly at his hand. And eventually, we will all die. Every man, woman and child will die, from every race, every nation. He will take us all, until none are left. So yes, Kane, I will do such a thing. I have no choice.’
I looked away from the ice that was Anna’s eyes, the eyes that did not belong to the woman I thought I knew. But she was right. If cold logic ruled the day, then all she said was true. And, like her, I could see no other way. But even if we did take such an horrific action, could we defeat him in a weakened state? And how could we kill all the thousands… all the ‘food’ he has gathered… we did not even know where he was.
The stones at Alfen were the only means to enter his abode as far as we were aware. So he could be anywhere.
‘There are too may unknowns, Anna. We do not know where he is, and if we did, how could we kill those he has gathered without ourselves being killed, or worse captured? And even if we succeeded and he grew weaker, would we be strong enough to defeat him? How weak does he need to be, and how do you intend to destroy him? Do you even know?’
For an instant, my Anna was with me, a mix of sadness and… what looked to be pity on her face, as she looked at me, then she was gone, replaced once more by the cold and hard woman that I knew not at all.
‘We know where he is… he is at Falhar. He has always been there.’
‘But… how can you know that? We were there mere months ago. It was where you and your people were when I joined you,’ I said, astonished at her revelation, and yet also remembering the future devastation I’d seen at Falhar and the Blasted Lands that surrounded where his last stand had been.
‘His domain exists deep below Falhar. He has built a city there, much as the new home of the Roken, but a poor and coarse imitation… you saw, you have been there. He must have grown strong indeed on the fear and pain of the thousands who died there in the dark excavating his tunnels. As to the how… a few survived the creation of his lair, and were put to work in his mines, as a reward they were mockingly told. One such was freed by Isal, and it is he who first told this tale. Others since have corroborated the location.’
‘But we were there. How can he not have known… did he know? Was it a game for him? And what of when we freed Gremok… surely his anger then would have been such that he would have destroyed all your followers at Falhar?’
‘Too many questions,’ Anna replied coldly. ‘We were at Falhar for months before you came, and I did not sense him, and I believe that he did not know of our presence, either. Always I have cloaked my magical strength to avoid his gaze, and that same magic has extended to those who were with me.
And the rod I have used sparingly since the first I sensed him drawn to it, and never close to where we hid from him. No, he did not know of us, I am certain. As to his ‘food’, the Roken will take us into his realm. Cloaked in magic we will get close enough to kill, murder as you say it to be, though I deem it a mercy, most that he holds there.
'We must also destroy the travelling ground that lies within, so that he cannot easily leave to capture more poor souls to feed upon. All must be a surprise, and done in unison, and then we flee and leave him to his hunger… and yet I fear that even if all goes well, we will loose many comrades that day, for those strongest in magic cannot be risked… those we will need when we two finally confront him.’
‘It’s clear that you have thought long on this, Anna, but what then of the last? How do we defeat him?’
‘That is what I most dread, friend Kane,’ she said, my Anna once more, her face full of sadness.
‘For unless you know of another way, an alternative, something that you have seen or learnt from the life you have lived that I must not know of… you must die. If we are to succeed in destroying the one that would be as father to you, you must give up your life.’