“Let’s go old man.”
Landon awoke with a slight start at being in such unfamiliar surroundings. A moment later it all came back to him as to what happened and where he currently was. The horrors of the night weren’t simply a bad dream, but had actually been a living nightmare. All of the death and destruction he’d been a witness to were all too real.
He slowly sat up, feeling the weight of life trying to hold him back. “Where are we going exactly?” he asked Garwin.
The mercenary finished opening the cage door and grabbed a torch back from one of his companions. “Rowan’s back in charge and he’s eager to see you.”
Landon started to exit, but then looked back at the armor he’d been wearing the previous night. The chainmail he’d once been so proud of, part of a symbol for who he was, now lying crumpled in a heap upon the ground. He decided to simply leave it there on the cold stone floor. Someone else could have it, and the responsibilities that come along with it as well.
One of the men, a royal guardsman, stepped forward with coils of rope in his hands. Landon simply waved him away and started up the steps on his own. He’d rather die than be bound up like some traitorous criminal and paraded through the streets. The very same streets that he had kept safe all those years.
“You seem rather eager,” Garwin said, catching up to him.
Landon gave him a quick and hateful glance. “That’s because I am. I think I deserve to know what in damnation is going on.”
The bigger man let out a low laugh, finding some humor in all of it. “I’m sure you will. By the way, that girl of yours killed the priest and two others last night. I saw their bodies myself.”
“Some good news at least,” Landon grumbled under his breath.
“Perhaps,” Garwin said, letting the word hang ominously. “We’re not sure where she is at the moment, but she can’t hide forever.”
Landon wondered if perhaps his captor was bringing it up in order to gather clues to her location. It didn’t matter anyways since he had no idea where she’d be. Even if he did know, he wasn’t going to divulge that kind of information without a good reason. Hopefully by now, Danica would be long gone from this city and heading somewhere safe.
He kept his mouth shut and walked out into the courtyard where a wagon was waiting there along with several men mounted upon horses. He recognized them immediately as some of Rowan’s personal military guardsmen. Apparently they didn’t want to take any chances at losing their esteemed prisoner along the way.
Over the horizon he could see the sun beginning to rise into the night sky. Thick columns of smoke still rose high into the air, blown gently by an uncaring sea breeze. The stench of the burning buildings still clung heavily to the air, but he’d almost become used to it by now. It seemed a miracle that any building had been left standing after the raging infernos he’d seen blazing out of control. The city still stood though, desp[ite the efforts of a misguided mob trying to raze it to the very ground.
Without any more hesitation, Landon jumped into the back of the wagon and sat down, waiting for the rest of them to get moving. Garwin directed the men to mount up before taking his position in the driver’s seat. Soon they exited the gates of the barracks and out into the city. It didn’t surprise Landon in the slightest that none of his men were visible anywhere nearby. He could only hope that they fared well wherever they were.
The city was in shambles everywhere he looked it seemed. Smoldering husks leaving behind little but charred framework as remnants of what they had been. The buildings that escaped the fire fared little better with their smashed windows and doors, looted of anything valuable by criminals hidden among the protesters. He couldn’t quite understand the mentality of destroying your own home in such a way, but there it was regardless.
He saw several bodies littering the side of the road, including the corpses of a few of his men. He wondered if Wellis and the others had managed to make it through with their message or if they were counted amongst the dead as well. He shook his head at the senseless loss of life scattered all around. Those weren’t just his guardsmen counted out there among the dead, but his own people he had been charged with protecting from harm.
They reached a clearing where the main market was located, and that was when Landon saw something that shocked him to the core. Several groups of Red Sun monks were busying themselves with tending to the wounded. There must have been well over a hundred of the black robed men and women scattered around, binding wounds or administering medicine to those in need.
He just sat there, staring blankly at the scene before him. He’d been right about it all along. The church of light wasn’t here for the people, but the monks had shown up in force to lend a hand when the Norport needed it most. This and the planned death of Sombec at the cathedral was all part of some grand scheme. The question of why though still eluded him.
He debated on pressing Garwin for more information, but changed his mind. He was already tired of dealing with the shifty brigand as it was. Rowan would probably know everything about all this tragedy and the reason for it. Would he be willing to part with that information though?
*****
Landon stepped quickly through the palace, leaving his captors trailing behind him. With every step, the anger was growing greater within him. He had no more time or patience for formalities and procedures. It was time for answers and he was bound and determined to have them one way or another. He had been brought here to speak with Rowan, and that’s exactly what he’d planned on doing.
They’d arrived at a well decorated sitting room when a servant tried standing in his way. The man lifted his nose into the air, a sign of distaste for what he perceived as the dirty, lower class people. “Lord Rowan isn’t ready for any visit…” Whatever he had been about to say was cut off by a well placed fist to the face, knocking the man immediately unconscious.
Rowan sat upon a luxurious couch, dressed in fine silks and lace, watching the commotion before him with a smile upon his face. “I see my captain of the guard has arrived.”
“Skip the damn pleasantries Rowan.” Landon said, pointing an accusatory finger at the lord. “I want to know why several of my men are dead and my city is in shambles.”
“Fair, I suppose.” Rowan waved towards the unconscious servant. “Get him out of here and shut the door behind you.”
Not a single man, even Garwin, questioned their lord or his safety. They simply did as they were told, leaving the leader of Norport with a trained killer having a bad day. It was only the two of them in the posh room now, come what may.
Rowan walked over to a table and picked up a cup of wine, handing it to Landon. “I brought this back from Agrun. One of their specialties actually.”
Landon took a drink, thankful for anything at the moment to quench a parched throat. “This was all planned out, Rowan. Either you or the damn council is to blame for it all, and I want to know why.”
Rowan laughed at the demand. “I have always had a great amount of respect for you to be honest. You’re headstrong and stubborn, and that’s why I made you the captain of the city watch instead of executing you for murdering a superior officer. ”
Landon looked at him with some amount of confusion. “Have you already drank too much? It was your father that put me in my position.”
“But, I am my father. Well I controlled his body, much like I control this one.” Rowan took a long drink of his wine, letting that strange bit of information linger.
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During the Fae war, the humans were losing. The six great leaders among them gathered together and each sacrificed one of their children’s souls to the demons of the abyss. We each possessed a child’s body and brought new terrors to the battle such as the world had never seen. The leaders of men at the time convinced their people that it was the elven foul magics backfiring, and they believed it. The historians still do to this very day, which suits the narrative we need it to.
Bringing such demonic power into the world triggered Zaphel and Myrra to materialize in their physical form. When they did so, it allowed Morphis and Syncarra to do likewise. There was a great battle between them which rendered the earth asunder, creating the great divide to the west. Greatly weakening each other, a powerful cult took the opportunity to strike, capturing the four gods inside magical prisons.”
Landon looked at him for a moment before shaking his head. “That’s the biggest load of field manure I’ve ever heard.”
Rowan let out a small laugh and shrugged his shoulders. “It is a bit out there, I agree. Believe it or not, though.”
“I don’t, but let’s just say I did believe you,” Landon said while finishing off the wine. “You’re supposed to be some sort of ancient demon, and the gods are imprisoned. What’s the point of wrecking the city and framing the church, only to let the monks take over?”
“The gods rely on people worshipping them and that is the source of their power. If we suddenly banned outright worship after the war, the people would fight back against us and we’d lose all we’d gained. Even imprisoned, they still draw great power from their believers. By corrupting the church and exposing them as frauds, we can slowly turn the people against them, rendering them completely powerless.
To that end, we needed a revolution, but it had to be by the people, and it needed to seem genuine. I simply needled the peasants with various atrocities until they couldn’t take it anymore. My brothers and sisters, as well as myself, are currently ending uprisings of our own creations elsewhere in the world.”
Landon squeezed his empty cup hard, crushing the thin metal walls beneath his angry grip. “Are you saying that you’re responsible for unleashing that maniac upon our city?
Rowan gave him a cool glare and nodded his assent. “Galen? Indeed, I did. I found him rotting away in a dungeon and simply gave him a chance to do what he did best. That reminds me, I heard that the dark elf girl put him down. How’d she manage that if I forbid you from training her?”
A few different answers went through his head, but Landon simply settled on a half truth. “I trained her to defend herself after what that priest did to her. She’s pretty good with a blade now.”
“Yes, well I suppose she got her revenge on that fool priest after all.” Rowan swirled his drink around for a moment and shook his head. “I planned on having him executed myself, but a bit of miscommunication happened there. Still, I find it rather amusing the way he died. I wish I could have been there to see it.”
“Well maybe she’ll give you a demonstration of how good she is with that sword one day Rowan,” Landon said, a slight smile on his face at that thought.
Rowan threw his cup against the wall, sending the remnants of the wine all over an expensive white tapestry. The man seethed with a visible anger Landon had only once seen before. It was obvious that he’d touched a nerve somehow, and it was all connected back to Danica.
“What is she to you Rowan?” Landon asked, leaning forward in his chair. “If you hate her so much, why do you protect her?”
It took the lord a few moments to gain his composure back. “It’s wholly unwilling on my part, I assure you. Have a look at this letter Jorin brought to me recently. It’s from someone named Lorik, I believe.”
“No real surprise there. I never trusted Jorin from the very moment I met him.” Landon reached out and took the offered paper, reading it over. “I’ll be damned, she was on the right trail after all.” He looked back at Rowan. “So what’s it all about? Jilted lover has a child with a dark elf, so you kidnap the baby out of revenge.”
Rowan sneered. “You make it sound so basic, captain. Former captain now, I suppose.”
That comment stung Landon only slightly for some odd reason. Maybe it was because he was so tired of the position after all that had happened. “Well, perhaps you’d enlighten me then.”
Rowan looked outside to the new morning and shrugged. “I have some more time to pass, so I suppose I could tell you. It’s true, Lydia was the most beautiful human I’d ever laid eyes upon. I coveted her, but she spurned me. I hired a group of dark elf mercenaries to kidnap her, hoping their cultural distaste for copulating with humans would make them immune from her charms. Obviously, that didn’t work. I personally went and hunted them all down. By the time I discovered Lydia’s whereabouts, a group she’d taken up with had cremated the body and ran off with the child.”
Rowan grabbed his ruby tipped cane and held it out to Landon. “Peer into that gem and tell me what you see. Look closely inside of it.”
Landon peered into the large red facets, seeing nothing at first, but then it slowly started to appear. A ghostly figure, floating in the mist, her wavy dark hair spreading out as if floating in a stream. The longer he stared, the more details he could begin to make out. A beautiful woman, sad and forlorn, trapped in a misty prison. He wasn’t certain if she could see him on the outside, but he could almost swear that he felt her presence nearby.
“What in damnation is that?” Landon asked almost breathlessly. “Some sort of foul sorcery?”
Rowan snatched his cane away and set it upon a nearby table. “It is. I had Lydia’s soul trapped into that gem so that she could watch me sacrifice her daughter to eternal damnation.”
It was beginning to really set in now that maybe Rowan was actually telling the truth about all of this after all. “So why wait?”
“I can’t,” Rowan snapped. “Not out of compassion. Simply because I cannot physically harm her myself. I can’t even so much as order my men to kill her.”
He paused for a moment and sighed. “That I can even tell you this is something I’ve not been able to do. Most men would kill her just to be in my good graces. Not you Landon Marshall. You’d not harm the girl for anything in the world. I can respect that, though I do so begrudgingly.
In my earlier years upon this land, I met a soothsayer with an actual gift. Not one of those run of the mill charlatans that plague the countryside, but the real thing. I tortured that old woman near to death trying to trigger her visions for me. As she shuddered on that slab, dying from the multiple wounds, she called out a final warning.
“A child of night, eyes like ice. A final battle you both shall have, though who wins is uncertain.”
I was locked into a fate that I cannot change no matter how hard I try. If I’m lucky, someone else may kill the girl and sever the thread, but I cannot do it myself. It’s almost like something takes control of my mind and guides it so that she may live. I never willingly ordered that damned proclamation to keep her safe and I can’t rescind it just the same.”
Landon took a moment to let it sink in before speaking. “But yet, you allowed her to be raised in a cruel environment by Matron Stenouse. You allowed Sombec to take her against her will.”
Rowan nodded in assent. “I can’t kill her, but I can make her life miserable it seems. If I am to be her opponent in some great battle, then I should secure the advantage early. I’ll find her soon and lock her in a dungeon from which she will never escape until that time comes and we can resolve that battle.”
Landon began to chuckle, and soon the room filled with his laughter. It was quite unusual to see a man who was often so serious to be taken with such fits of mirth.
“And what is it that you find so funny?” Rowan sneered.
Landon finally calmed down enough to speak, though he was severely lacking in breath. “All of it. Even if any of what you say is true, Danica won’t be caged again after what that bastard did to her. She’d end her own life to avoid it, and I believe she really would too.”
Rowan was on him in an instant, grabbing the elder man by the jaw and staring him straight in the eyes. “Don’t you dare lie to me.”
Landon summoned every ounce of courage left within his body to return that cold stare. “You weren’t there for her when she came back. Angela and I were. Her mind’s been damaged so badly by what you people put her through, she’d have no problem leaving this world. Even now she barely wants to live, broken inside as she is.”
Rowan screamed and slammed Landon to the ground. A series of vicious kicks followed, breaking the old man's ribs as easy as one would snap a twig. The lord of Norport had lost all sense of control and raged maniacally against his former captain of the city watch. Perhaps the only thing that saved Landon was the timing of a guard coming through the door, distracting Rowan from his fit of anger.
“My lord, do you need assistance?” the young guardsman asked, seeing the scene before him.
Rowan stopped the assault and ran a hand through his hair, trying to reclaim some sense of normalcy. “I’m fine,” he snapped at the man. “Have my guest here bound and gagged, then drag him into a solitary cell. Spread the word that the dark elf girl is no longer wanted. Any man that tries to capture her will suffer a fate worse than death.”
Landon was too tired and pained now to even open his eyes anymore. Hands dragged him down the hallway, leading him roughly to what he suspected was the dungeon. Still, despite it all, inside he felt quite content with what he’d just accomplished. Maybe Rowan was telling the truth, and if that was the case, he’d managed to trick him. Danica had the will to survive, no matter the situation she found herself in.
Knowing she had a chance now put a smile upon his face, despite the immense pain. “It was the best I could do for you girl,” he whispered to himself. “The rest is up to you.”