Ellas
Kane
'Kane, I have something that I need to tell you, something that perhaps I should have told you a long time ago,’ Carthia said, as she approached where I sat at the fire.
As she sat beside me, I said, ‘No doubt something to do with why you’re so cheerful of late?’
She beamed at me. ‘Yes, and I have been bursting to tell you of it, but always something stopped us from being alone.’
‘Yes, it has been difficult of late. The reunion and the constant Nargu attacks have left little time for us two.
Guilt filled my mind as I wondered if what I had finally decided to tell her would somehow spoil her newfound happiness.
‘I too need to tell you something important… something that I have long held back from you for reasons that I myself do not understand.’
Still she smiled. ‘Whatever it is, it is of no matter now, at this time. It can, and must wait until I have told you of my dreams—‘
‘Anna told you that your dreams are yours and yours alone. That you had no need to share them,’ I said, gently.
‘That was before… when my dreams showed only darkness and despair. Now that has changed, and my dreams fill me with a joy that I thought would never come again, and I wish to share that happiness with you, if you will listen. It is a long tale, for my dreams came to me long ago when I was but a child, and much you may wish to share with your friend, Jain, for perhaps his prophecies can give them meaning.’
Guilt filled me again, but this time at the relief I felt at being able to once again put off telling Carthia about Alex.
‘Of course I will listen,’ I said, as I took her hand in mine.
‘She smiled yet again as she began. ‘When I was a child, I had a friend, a best friend—‘
‘Riders approaching, coming fast!’ Tomas bellowed.
‘Where?’ Carthia shouted, as we both leapt to our feet.
‘From the west, about a mile out. They’ve just cleared the ridge and are riding hell for leather. Nargu are hard on their trail, about half a mile behind, but closing. You know how fast those bastards can run, there’s no way they can make it to us even if they know we we’re here. They might just get under arrow cover, if they keep riding hard and don’t take a tumble… that grounds real treacherous,’ Tomas answered.
‘How many riders?’ I asked.
‘Just the two, and about fifty Nargs, I reckon. Large party to be chasing just the two of them, most would normally have gotten bored by now and feathered them with arrows, or just fallen back.’ Tomas said, quickly.
‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘This is not just Nargu sport. He must want these two for some reason. Either that, or it is a trap for us, and they are the bait to lure us out. Get my horse, Tomas. I will go to them. Be ready with arrows… loose as soon as you see my signal – I’ll raise my sword overhead.
'Remember let fly with all you’ve got as soon as I raise my sword. And do not hesitate, no matter where I am or what you see.
'If all goes well I’ll slow the Nargu a little to let the riders get clear before the arrows fall. We must keep these two from him, and we must also ensure that none of the Nargu live to tell him that we have them. Keep the arrows coming until they’re all down. Carthia, lead a small party to intercept the riders as soon as they are clear. Don’t scare them off, but be wary… it could be a trap.’
‘You can’t be serious,’ Carthia said ‘You’ll be in there with the Nargu… there’s no way we can avoid hitting you.’
‘That’s why I’m the one that has to go. He obviously wants these two, and I’m going to make sure he doesn’t get them. Don’t worry, I will be fine. At the worst, I’ll be out a day or two. Don’t look like that, Carthia. I will be okay, I promise you. My wounds will heal… ask Jain and the others, they’ll tell you. They’ve seen it all before. It just hurts like hell that’s all.’
‘All ready,’ Tomas said, as he gingerly brought Bright forward.
‘Keep the men alert Tomas, watch all the approaches. This could easily be a diversion just to catch us unawares!’
‘Everyone is at their post and I’ve passed the word to be extra vigilant, not that they need telling mind you, not after the last few weeks.’
‘Good man, Tomas.’ I said, as I mounted.
Seconds later, I was at the bottom of the shallow incline whose rocky ridge hid our encampment, and galloping forward towards at least a good couple of days of pain and torment.
God, I hate this. Yes, it was great that I healed and that it was all but impossible for me to be killed. But the fear that came at times like this, was almost unbearable - his training, his conditioning, I knew. Yet even after all these years, it was all I could do to control the fear.
Once I got in there, amongst the Nargu, I would kill them as quickly as I could. Not because I hated them, or because they were his creatures, but because I feared the pain they would bring me. Worse still, would be when the arrows fell. Hit me or not, I would still want to turn and kill every one of my own archers.
I could see the riders, their heads down low over their horses as they pushed them hard. In less than a minute we would pass each other. They were already in longbow range but the Nargu were less than a hundred yards behind and were closing fast. Tomas was right, they would never have made it to our camp, even if they did somehow know that we were there. Where were they going? Were they just running blindly? Were they being herded?
Less than thirty yards, and we were closing fast. I frantically waved and pointed behind me, trying to tell them to ride on past, hoping that they would understand that help lay that way. Then, we passed, their heads still down, but both turning to glance my way from under their hoods.
Then, they were gone from my mind. I drew my sword, my knives already in the air on their way to their already dead Nargu targets. Yet again, I mentally thanked my master for all the gifts that he had bestowed upon me. The knives will take the fastest of the pursuit, and those following will stumble and slow just as I fall upon them. But even as the thought left my mind, a shriek from behind told me that it would not be so – one at least had taken a fall.
I reined Bright, and turned in a tight circle, and the urged him into a gallop. ‘Christ, can it get any worse?’ I asked myself, as the fallen horse scrabbled to its feet and bolted, leaving its rider lying face down on the hard ground. Then, I watched in disbelief as the second rider dismounted and ran back to where the first was lying. No hope of getting them clear now, not without a horse between them.
A Nargu loped passed me, ignoring me completely. So great was his drive to capture them that he did not even try to cut me down as he passed. The Nargu have been ordered to take them alive, I thought. They must have, otherwise they would have used arrows long since, and cut them down as they ran. But can I gamble that belief against their lives?
I urged Bright to even greater speed, knowing that he alone of all the mounts I have ridden, has it in him. Then, I raised my sword high, knowing that the arrows will be in flight as soon as they see my sword.
They will take the far Nargu with their first volley, and I need to cut down those in front and protect the riders before the second falls.
Ten yards from the two figures, I leapt from my horse, hacking through the lead Nargu’s skull as I cleared the saddle, whilst shouting to the riders to get down low, to lie down.
Grabbing hold of the Nargu corpse, I dragged it to them, and against the one’s protests, pushed them down, heaving the body on top, just as two more Nargu reach me. They, too, quickly became part of the makeshift shield.
But then, there was no more time – the Nargu were upon me, and the arrows were raining down amongst us.
My conscious mind was filled with fear and terror at the pain that must come, and yet my body dealt death – knives flying and sword a blur.
Arrows fell everywhere, and those before me are pincushions, but still they come. ‘What drives them?’ I ask myself. The arrows should have broken them, the first flight should have seen them run. Yet they still come, even the wounded struggle forward. The sight blanketed my conscious mind with a dread, a dread that I have not felt in hundreds of years.
Then, an arrow pierced my shoulder and, as I stifled a scream, another embedded itself in my calf, and the hatred and the need to kill my own archers increased exponentially with the pain. I decapitated a Nargu, and dropped to the floor, pulling his body over myself as the arrows continued to fall. I could finish those that remained, but I knew that to stand in that deadly rain would be sheer folly.
The bodies fell around me, in front of me, on top of me, their screams mingled with the sound of arrows of piercing armour and naked flesh.
Mere moments had passed since the first arrow fell, but now the only sound was that of the dying. I pushed bodies aside and stood to survey the scene. My wounds were agonising, but the fear of further pain to come and the need to deny him, outweighed all else.
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Tomas was wrong, on the numbers at least. Before me, around me lay a hundred or more dead and dying – not one had turned to run. At the sight, my fear of pain to come slowly ebbed away, but the dread remained. What drove them? But I knew that it can only have been him, and that means that he is stronger now, much stronger if he can drive Nargu to their deaths from afar.
I turned back to where my mysterious riders still lay beneath their Nargu shield, so many arrows pierced the bodies that lay atop them that the sight was almost that of a huge hedgehog or porcupine. I rushed forward and dragged a corpse off them, and then another, praying that they were unharmed. In the distance riders had already descended the slopes, and were on their way toward us, mere moments away.
‘Are you both okay?’ I asked, as I took hold of the final Nargu.
Before they could answer, before I could hoist the body free, before the voice came even, a fear took me, a fear I had long forgotten. A fear I had once believed gone forever.
‘So it is you, my foolish and so very treacherous servant. I did wonder who they ran to.’ The voice said.
It cannot be him, he cannot be here. Yet his voice is so strong, how? I ask myself, as I turned to face the speaker.
A single Nargu stood before me, an arrow deep in its chest and another through its shoulder. It was dead, I knew, and even as I considered how this could be, a flight of arrows fell upon the creature. Three more arrows embedded themselves in the Nargu and yet it did not cry out, did not even flinch. Instead, the Nargu laughed, a harsh and bitter laugh. Then the voice came again, a Nargu’s voice yet my master’s words.
‘No matter, they are mine, and you, too, will once again be mine.’
Through my fear and despair, the voice spoke to me, that familiar voice from so deep within, that has long been my conscience and my friend. ‘He does not know you, does not know who you truly are. He sees you to be Kanteth still. He knows you not as Al'kar. The magic left you when she passed, there is still hope.’
And hope there was, for despite my fear, and despite his power, my body surged forward, sword high and with a single slash removed the creatures head.
But still the dread filled me, and even as the Nargu fell, another stood to take its place, another corpse, another container for my master’s will. The creature pushed past me to stand before the two that still lay beneath the Nargu body that covered them.
‘Fool! these are mine, mine to do with as I wish,’ he said, the voice shrill and filled with glee as he spread his arms wide and turned full circle to take in all of the Nargu bodies that lay at its feet, finally coming to rest facing the approaching riders. He laughed loud as he saw them.
‘And these pathetic creatures are yours? They, too, will be mine… It will please me to watch you take their lives.’
Even as he finished, the riders halted their approach, no more than fifty yards distant, and then the Nargu slumped to the floor, a lifeless corpse once more.
The silence was absolute for the briefest of instances, the only noise was that of my heart hammering and blood pulsing through my veins. Then, a horse broke the ranks of my people, and cantered forward until clear of the others. Its rider slowly dismounted, face turned to me filled with sneering pleasure, as he looked at me through the riders eyes, Carthia’s eyes.
I screamed, rage and frustration in equal measure. How can I stop him? How can I win when he can so easily take all those that I love, and use them against me? This was not his compulsion, I knew – Anna’s magic protected us all against that, this was something else.
Carthia was not there, her eyes showed it to be so. He possessed her completely, lived within her form; he had taken her body for his own. Slowly, almost hesitantly, she stepped forward towards me.
‘This magic is new to him. See, he is clumsy, not yet fully in control. You must act now, now while you can,’ my inner voice screamed at me. Yet what could I do, how could I win this fight without killing all those that I loved and named friend? Carthia stood not ten yards away, between us only the remnants of the Nargu shield and those that sheltered beneath.
The hatred in her eyes and the smug sneer her face held was at complete odds with the Carthia I knew.
He spoke then, his voice wavering, struggling to form the words as he slowly mastered this new female form.
‘Worm, you thought to escape me, defy me! You will be mine again, and all these,’ and he turned back to to those frozen in place behind him. Spreading out his arms, he laughed, a terrible, cruel laugh, made all the more cruel because it was Carthia’s voice, a voice whose laugh could not help but touch your soul, could not fail to make you laugh with her. I almost wept to hear that voice.
As the laughter faded, in the foreground the Nargu body moved, a shifting only, but whoever was beneath was trying to free themselves, drag themselves from under the body that concealed them.
No, keep still, stay, he may not know where you are, rang my thoughts, but they alone were futile, I knew.
The voice came again, more steady now, more in control. ‘All these, all your pathetic followers… they are mine now. And all will suffer immeasurably until you once again kneel to me, and you will—’
‘My pathetic followers, you say,’ I said, cutting him off. I spoke loud, and I would keep talking, talking over him and stopping his hateful words. It would anger him, I knew, and then perhaps, just perhaps, he would make some small mistake, something that would let me save Carthia and my companions. And as long as I argued with him, kept his attention, the two before me might escape his notice.
‘Each and every one of them is more than you. They are the children of the very ones who long ago rose up to defeat you, and almost ended you forever. And these, my pathetic followers…’
The shield moved again, an arm reached out for purchase, trying to move the Nargu aside. No, keep still. Listen to my words, hear what I am saying. He is before you stay hidden, screamed my thoughts, but my words carried on almost without interruption, and, if anything, louder than before, ‘will defeat you again, Dar’cen.’ The name I spat out, my voice filled with all the contempt and revulsion that the mere mention of his name filled me with.
Still the arm moved, straining for a grip on the rocky ground.
He screamed at me then, Carthia’s voice a wail of torment, but then her eyes, his eyes, saw the movement, and the scream became a laugh again, the cruel laugh of one who mocks another’s misfortune.
‘You sought to anger me, to distract me from the ones that hide before me,’ he said, as he stepped forward, took hold of the Nargu and flung it aside as if it were a mere toy. The Nargu rolled over and over, coming to rest tens of yards away. Then he looked down upon those that lay at his feet.
One still seemed unconscious, while the other slowly pushed himself to his feet to face Dar’cen. He was tall, his head still cloaked, but he held himself erect and still. It was almost as if he were not afraid, not terrified. Not in awe of the demon before him.
‘So, it is you! You have finally returned to me, as I knew you must.’ He laughed again, a laugh to chill your soul. Yet the man before him did not quake, did not cry out. It seemed to me that he stood even taller.
‘And who is the other? Speak now, speak quickly while my pleasure at your return still holds.’
I had somehow moved forward to stand alongside the man, the man who stood in the presence of Dar’cen and did not kneel, did not cringe, did not scream in terror.
‘Strange, very strange. There may be hope yet,’ said the voice, my companion of old.
He did not answer, this fearless man, he merely stood and faced the evil before him. I could not see his face, the cowl of his hood covered most, and the little that was visible was in shadow. Yet it seemed to me that he was in turmoil, fighting with himself, on the brink of some decision.
‘Be ready,’ said the voice. ‘The world turns on what comes next.’
‘Speak!’ screamed Carthia, and she stepped forward, stooping toward the still prone figure on the ground.
Then, the air chilled and somehow thickened. It was so very sudden, it was almost as though the air was a liquid, a solid, even. I could not breath, the air in my lungs was heavy and thick, it would not obey my body and leave to allow fresh to enter and replenish my oxygen. My head swam and the world spun around me. I dropped to my knees as a voice boomed out, a familiar voice, a voice I once knew a very long time ago.
‘Begone!’ The voice said, just one word. But what a word, what power it held, the command of it, the obedience it demanded.
A moment passed as I gasped and tried to force the air from my lungs, and then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it was over, the air thinned, the world became steady and still, and the fear and terror was gone, Dar’cen was gone.
Carthia lay on the floor, like the Nargu when he had left them, she, too, had just crumpled to the ground. Please, please God, let her live, let her be unharmed.
The man still stood, almost erect still, but he held his hands to his face, and those hands shook uncontrollably. Slowly, he slumped to his knees and began to sob, the words ‘At last, at last...’ over and over quietly breaking through through his cries.
I rushed forward to Carthia – the man and his companion could wait. In the distance, men staggered as they slowly picked themselves up, horses whinnied, rolling over on the floor, as they, too, struggled to stand.
Kneeling, I could see that Carthia was breathing, shallow breathing, but she lived. ‘She is alive,’ I said, as I turned back to the man, the man with a voice I knew, but could not place.
‘What did you do?’ I asked. For I knew that he had done this, that he had saved us all. No one else here, not even Jain had such a power. But he ignored my words, as he knelt beside his companion, his hood thrown back, his long yellow hair now hanging unkempt to his shoulders.
Then his voice rang out. ‘Help me, David. Your friend will be well, but you must help me. She is injured.’
And I knew then, the voice and the face came together as I rushed to his side. Kneeling over his friend, I gasped as I looked upon Alex’s face, blood pooling from a wound to her head.
‘How Jalholm? How can you be here?’ I heard myself say, nothing else would come as my mind spun with all that had happened – the almost certain loss of all those I held dear, defeat at his hands, and then this, saved by one I had long ago thought to never see again, and with him, Alex, my friend, a friend I had lost forever.
‘Jain!’ I screamed, ‘You are needed, here now. Quickly!’ I would not loose her a second time.
Jalholm held her head in his lap, a hand over the wound trying to stanch the blood. His face now was white, all blood drained away, his eyes darting from Alex to me and back again. ‘Please help her, do not let her die. Please, not after all she has done, all she has given up.’
‘Jain!’ I shouted, again, but he was already at my side, his hands weaving their intricate dance through the air to focusing his mind on the healing magic he would use to help Alex. He smiled at me as he worked, and I knew then that Alex would live, and that she would be well.
Behind, I could hear Carthia stir, and turning, I could see her begin to stand. She, too, was pale, death like almost, but her eyes were alive now, Carthia’s eyes, bright and full of life.
‘What happened? How am I here? I was riding towards you… the battle is over?’ Her voice was confusion itself, the time he was with her not remembered it seemed. I prayed that it was so.
Then she stiffened, as she took a step toward me. ‘Who is that? Who is that woman?’ Her voice was shrill, a panic there, an excitement. I stood and helped her forward.
‘These are two very good friends from my distant past,’ I said, as I gave Jalholm a slight shake of my head.
His eyes said that he understood my meaning. It was too soon, too soon to tell who he was. They would learn his name later, after they had heard his story and understood what he had done today.
‘And this young woman is one that I have long wanted to speak to you of, she is…’ But I did not finish the sentence, as Alex’s eyes opened and stared up at Carthia, her face instantly filling with bewilderment and shock.
But it was not that look that stopped my words, it was Carthia. Her voice a whisper, almost beyond hearing, but the hope, happiness and joy there was unmistakable.
‘Sister?’ she said. ‘Alexandria, my sister. You are here… truly here, with me?’ And with those few words, Carthia dropped to Alex’s side, tears streaming down her faces.
Then, as they held each other, they were both crying, and both trying to speak at once as laughter, sobs and unintelligible words all flowed into one.
I took hold of Jalholm’s arm, gestured to a bewildered Jain, and led them back to the others. Carthia and Alex, or would she now be named Alexandria, would need time alone, time to make sense of what was happening, time to become sisters again.
I did not understand how this could be so, I doubted that they did, but what little explanation existed could wait.
For now they just needed each other.