A Warrior's Legacy (28 page)

She was silent for a while, as she lay with
her cheek against my chest.

“He will be surprised by your army. He knows
there were survivors, but I don’t think he thinks that we number as
many as we do. He no doubt will think his flanks are secure because
of the treachery of the Northern King refusing to support you,
which he will know about by now. In any case his forces will not be
with the attacking Western army. He will use the West as an
expendable dishrag. He cares nothing for them. He cares only for
himself. His army will be close by, but perhaps we will be able to
destroy the West before he can send aid to them, I don’t know. His
troops aren’t normal though. There experiments. He creates people
to do his bidding that have no consciousness or sense of humanity.
They are very strong like the Lanorians and he may have created
other things too by now.”

Softly I asked, “Did he experiment on
you?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not right now.”

“Okay we won’t, but Raya can you tell me of
anything that can be used against him? Any weakness anything we
could take advantage of?”

She was silent, but I felt there was
something she hadn’t told me, “Raya?”

“The tannin! He is afraid of the tannin. I
think he thinks there all dead.” She choked out.

“Take me to them tonight!”

Her tone was pleading, “Don’t make me do
this please! You don’t understand what you’re asking of me!”

“Raya as I see it we have no chance at
complete victory on our own, with these guardians maybe we have a
chance. Take me to them now!”

We glided through the dark quietly. It was
comforting to know that the two big wolves followed along close
beside us.

Even making fast progress it took us nearly
two hours to reach the molten waterfall. We continued past it
following the seething river of molten rock. The river eventually
disappeared beneath us, but we could see where it had flowed in the
past.

Raya was in front and she had not spoken
once since she had pleaded with me back in the home caverns and now
she appeared to be becoming highly agitated. She would jerk now and
then and her fists were clamped shut, as if she was concentrating
on something very hard.

She passed a chunk of trinial in the wall
and I saw it dim down until it barely glimmered. After she had
passed by a ways I saw its usual glow return. Both wolves hung back
around me, watching her suspiciously.

Just what was it that I didn’t know about my
lovely bride?

I began to wonder at what sort of
experimentation had been done on her by her father. The long cavern
came to an end, when it opened up into a gigantic cavern the likes
of which I had never seen yet in terms of massive size.

A large underground lake dominated the
ground plane of the cavern. The habitat seemed sparse and there was
little light to illuminate the cavern.

A voice spoke out of the darkness, “My my!
How long has it been Raya? Seventy five years? No it’s been close
to a century since last we met. A long time in the life of a human
to be sure, but not so long in the life of tannin.”

A huge rock that was just offshore moved and
I saw that it was no rock at all, but a monster of huge
proportions!

This was a guardian!

Huge green eyes fully opened and studied us
thoughtfully, even as traces of green and purple light started to
trace up and down the massively scaled body illuminating the
beast’s features as it went. Massive jaws were lined with thick
sharply studded teeth. Forelegs, which were tipped off in savagely
curled talons, looked as sharp as a swords edge.

What I suspected were wings folded against
the massive body were outlined in colored light threads. Powerful
scale like armor led down to powerfully built rear legs that
featured a long heavy scaled and barbed tail trailing out
beyond.

I could well see how the sorcerer or anyone
for that matter would be afraid of such a beast. It had certainly
won my respect. I had the suspicion that the beast was a
female.

It spoke again its intense mesmerizing gaze
upon Raya, “Your control is impressive my dear, but it’s
slipping!”

The massive head swiveled to me, “Do
something quick or there will be another mess to be cleaned up in
here and I’m not sure the place has recovered since the last
time!”

There was a compelling urgency in the
beast’s tone, but also seemingly an out of place wry sense of
humor. My eyes went back to Raya and I gazed at her in shock. She
was jerking repeatedly and whole areas of her skin would briefly
flash with a trinial blue color. I reached out to touch her.

Snap!

Searing pain coursed through me as I jolted
back from Raya. Somehow she was absorbing the power of the
trinial!

I had to stop it or she would destroy this
place and perhaps even herself. Suddenly I remembered an incident
that had happened on my first mission away from home, when I had
gone to Earth. We had thought it funny at the time that is everyone
other than Thannic, who’d got the brunt end of it.

I stepped in front of Raya.

Her eyes were wild and panicked and she was
barely just able to jerk out haltingly, “Don’t touch me!”

“Not happening honey!”

I drew my sword out and jammed the point
downward into the rock strata and then grasping the handle firmly
with one hand I grabbed hers with the other. There was no searing
pain, but wow what a jolt.

I felt energy flashing through me like a
tornado as it went through me and down the sword to disperse into
the rock strata of the cavern. The entire cavern lit up like it was
day, as the diffused energy permeated the rock strata reenergizing
the depleted energy of the trinial deposits. Raya stop jerking as
the flow of energy out of her stopped and then she was falling.

I caught her desperate to hear her say
something so I knew she was all right, “Raya? Raya can you hear
me?”

“Easy now young warrior she has but fainted,
nothing more. She will come around soon. See.”

Raya’s eyes opened and she gazed up into my
eyes as she lay in my arms. She appeared dazed for a moment and
then her eyes seemed to clear, “Thank you for stopping me.”

The voice of the monster behind me spoke
again in a jovial tone, “Yes indeed! Well done young man! A few
moments more and I’m afraid Kregridor was about to light you up in
an entirely different way. He is not as tolerant as I have learned
to become…… yet.” She finished pointedly.

A disgusted grunt sounded from and even
larger rock outcropping that uncoiled and began to glow red with
slight traces of purple and gold here and there. This new monster
was easily half the size again of the first one!

His eyes were a purplish hue shot through
with red and he glared balefully at us and I was certain that he
intended us harm. I reached for my sword. Where was my sword?

Alarm coursed through me as I didn’t see it
anywhere.

“Up here if you’re wondering.”

Dreading what I would see I looked up and
the green eyed one had it clutched in one taloned fist as she held
it up still glowing to be studied by her eyes.

“Tell me young warrior strange to these
lands how and where did you come by such a sword as this?”

Somewhat frostily I replied, “I did not come
upon it! My brother made it for me.”

She looked from the sword in her grasp to me
with an intense gaze, “You say your brother made it! How could such
a thing be done?”

Defensively I responded, “He is a master
blacksmith and through prayer and study of my father’s sword he was
able to make the one you hold, which I would like back now!”

She smiled, if you could call the opened
rows of teeth to be such a thing, “You don’t know much about these
swords do you? But of course not, else you would know that all you
have to do is concentrate and focus on how much you want the sword
in your hand and it will be yours. Why don’t you try it?”

I did try closing my eyes in the process. I
heard the bigger monster shift its weight and my concentration
doubled and the sword instantly slammed into my open palm.

I opened my eyes and stared at it
unbelieving.

The green eyed one chuckled, “Good, but you
could use a lot more practice.”

Her surly counterpart grunted disgustedly
once more and slipped off his rocky island into the dark waters of
the cavern and out of sight.

“You’ll have to forgive my mate. Being
cooped up underground is not easy on him, especially when someone
turns out all the lights!”

Her gaze shifted pointedly to Raya, who
ducked her head low. The monster’s eyes came back to me.

“There is little to do in the dark except
well….” She gestured with one taloned paw at something above
us.

I looked up and on previously unnoticed
ledges above us there were scores and scores of smaller younger
versions of their parents. They ranged from the size of a large
horse to that of a small forest elephant, but none of them were
even close to either of their parents in size.

“Kregridor and I were the last of the
tannin, but in our spare time down here we’ve managed to rectify
that problem somewhat.”

There was a murmur of short chortles on the
overhead ledges that she silenced with a single stern motherly
glance before offering her attention back to us, “Where were we, oh
yes, you said your father has such a sword also?”

“Yes he is the second of his family
honorable enough to bare it.”

She seemed to go still and then more
seriously than her former manner she said, “You have met my mate
Kregridor, my name is Elsantha Thora, you may call me just Thora
for short. I am well acquainted with the name of your mate as it is
emblazoned in my memory, but yours warrior? What is your name?”

“Zevin Ta’lont.” I said curious to see her
reaction.

Kregridor’s head came back out of the water,
as he climbed back up onto his island as water from his recent dive
sheeted off the platelets of his heavy scale armor.

Thora looked at him, as if seeking further
direction, which was surprising given her independent nature so
far.

And then Kregridor’s deep voice spoke, “So a
Ta’lont has finally come. Tell me Zevin why have you come to
us?”

His gaze, while not so menacing as it had
been at first was no less dangerous now.

“I have come to seek help in destroying the
sorcerer and his allies, something you failed to do the first
time!”

Raya gasped and grabbed my arm in a panic
over my choice of words, but neither tannin seemed to react to my
choice of words negatively.

“A bold choice of words for a human, but
sadly I cannot dispute the truth of them. We did fail!” Kregridor
finished somberly.

Thora spoke up, “Tell me Zevin why have you
come seeking help from us when you possess a weapon greater than
any strength of ours and any remaining power that the sorcerer
has?”

I looked at the sword in my hand, but she
corrected me, “Not the sword, but rather she who stands beside you.
She is of the sorcerer’s own making and his greatest weapon. A
weapon never since equaled. There are none else like her, as her
mother made sure to remove any chance that her father would ever
have any more offspring before she died.”

I stared incredulously at her and then at
Raya, “How is she greater than you in strength?”

I exclaimed looking at the two tannins.
Kregridor’s rusty deep voice intoned, “Because she is. She was
created with only two purposes in mind. Firstly she was created to
destroy us the tannin. The sorcerer knew that some of us had
escaped and he sent her down here to finish the job that he had
failed to do. Secondly she was created in order to prolong his life
in just the same way that she is now prolonging yours. His plan
would have succeeded if it hadn’t been for one thing.”

Kregridor grew silent and I wanted to scream
the question at him of what he hadn’t said. I looked at Thora, who
was gazing at Raya almost tenderly.

I looked at Raya, who was crying as she
looked at the ground her body shaking with sobs. I looked back at
Thora not understanding.

Thora spoke softly, “The mistake the
sorcerer made was that his perfect weapon had a heart and a mind of
her own. Something he has been careful to eliminate from all his
creations since then.”

“I still don’t understand!” I exclaimed.

I looked at Raya and she raised her eyes
full of misery to me. “They weren’t alone when I found them! They
had just had a baby. I…… I killed it!”

She broke into deeper sobs and I looked at
her stunned.

“Raya.” Thora said softly.

Raya looked up still crying hard and Thora
continued, “You know I forgave you for that a long time ago. Be at
peace with yourself child.”

“I can’t!” Raya half screamed.

“I’m more of a monster than you are!”

And with that she ran from the cavern back
down the longer cave entrance, as the two wolves that had been
standing back followed after her. I started out after her too on
the run.

“No! Stay here a while she needs some time
alone.” Thora said quickly.

I stopped knowing it was good advice, but
everything in me wanted to chase after her anyway.

I turned back to the two guardians, “I don’t
understand Raya wouldn’t kill a baby anything! I know her!”

Thora looked sadly down the tunnel and then
back at me. “Raya the person wouldn’t you’re right, but her father
had programmed her to do otherwise. After she killed our oldest and
she saw what she had done her consciousness broke through and
stopped her or she would have killed all of us in her fury. I saw
and felt what the sorcerer had done to her and I took pity on her
and convinced Kregridor to do the same. She tried to kill herself,
but I stopped her and instead I focused her on how to overcome her
programming. It was hard let me tell you! She is very stubborn and
hard to work with at times, which I’m sure you’ve discovered by
now. Despite that it was going well until Kregridor said something
he shouldn’t of that sparked her anger and flared up her old
programming. She didn’t kill Kregridor, but she took from him the
only thing he cares for other than me and our hatchlings down here,
which is light. She drained the energy out of the trinial deposits
in this cavern in mere seconds thus plunging us into near
darkness.”