"Yes, perfectly safe."
"There was a light, like a
beacon. It lighted the whole world. Did you see it?"
Ellese forced a wan smile.
"Indeed I did. It was the last thing I saw."
With a growl, he hurried off to
shout orders at his men, rounding up a cart and two horses, along
with a company of soldiers. Tallis scrambled onto the cart with
Ellese, Martal and three healers, and it rattled out through the
gates, heading in the direction whence the light had come. The
soldiers followed on foot, trotting to keep up, their armour
rattling.
Tallis eyed
the
dark folk as they passed
them, wondering what they would do if the Demon Lord had perished
in the battle. She had a nasty suspicion that they would attack and
loot the abbey if they knew of his demise. Martal looked like he
had the same thoughts, his mouth set in a grim line. For the
moment, however, they milled in confusion, muttering.
The journey to the battleground
seemed interminable. Ellese kept asking if they had arrived yet,
always receiving a negative answer. The horses snorted as they
crossed onto an area of blackened ground spotted with melted,
glassy areas. Hundreds of mounds of earth covered the land, and
deep gouges had been torn in it, edged by huge boulders that they
had to detour around. Thousands of twisted iron spears protruded
from the ground or lay upon it, and these had to be avoided too.
Martal described it to Ellese at her request, and she nodded.
"Yes, this is the place."
As they travelled across the
ravaged land, the slight queasiness they had all been experiencing
for several days grew considerably worse, and their stomachs
knotted. Some of the soldiers stopped to vomit, receiving a tongue
lashing from Martal, even though he clearly fought to keep himself
from bringing up his meagre breakfast over the side of the cart.
Tallis knelt beside Ellese, pressing cool wet cloths to her eyes to
soothe the burning under her lids. As they drew closer to the
centre of the destruction, the horses shuddered with fear and tried
to turn away, their eyes rolling.
Martal ordered a halt, and they
left the driver to soothe the terrified animals, continuing on
foot. Ellese stumbled between two healers, who guided her around
the mounds of earth and glassy patches, some of which gave off heat
and smoke. Martal gagged and held a wrinkled silk handkerchief to
his lips. In places, the ground sizzled as if it still burnt, and
the heat became oppressive. Shadows hung in the air like black
smoke, wreathing about them in icy tendrils that turned the stomach
if touched. Avoiding them slowed their progress, and only Ellese's
urging kept them going.
Martal emptied his stomach next
to a mound of earth, and, shortly afterwards, Ellese followed suit.
Tallis gazed around at the devastation, wondering how anyone could
have survived it, let alone caused it. Fissures crazed the ground,
swallowing streams of silken ash, and smoke rose from their depths.
It made her cough, and her eyes watered.
"All these mounds were demons,
were they not?" Martal asked.
"Yes," Ellese replied. "Earth
demons. Each of them was powerful enough to wipe out your entire
army and many more like it."
"What is stopping them from
rising now and wiping us out?"
"I do not know. Perhaps you
should ask Bane when we find him."
"No one could have survived
this."
Ellese stubbed her toe on a
stone and stumbled, clinging to her helpers. "Goddess, I wish I
could see."
Tallis, who had been scanning
the area, gave a cry and pointed. "Over there!"
The group turned and headed
towards a white shape in the distance, their sickness increasing as
they neared it. Two soldiers refused to continue, complaining of
terrible headaches as well as nausea. Tallis glanced at Ellese, who
looked like her head pounded too, but that, she suspected, was
partly because of her eyes. Some people were more sensitive to the
dark power, and Tallis counted herself lucky that she was not one
of them. The shadows thickened as they approached the white shape,
brushing her skin with icy tendrils, making her shiver and retch.
She ran ahead, and Martal trotted after her, two reluctant soldiers
following. Tallis fell to her knees in the ash beside the huddled
form with a cry of anguish.
"It is Mirra!"
Tallis gazed down at her friend,
hardly daring to hope that she was alive. Mirra lay on her side,
curled in a foetal position, her skin waxy and deathly pale, her
lips bloodless.
Martal arrived beside her. "Is
she alive?"
Tallis laid a trembling hand on
Mirra's throat, found a weak pulse, and looked up with a broad
smile. "Yes!"
Martal grunted in amazement, and
Tallis leant closer to examine her friend. Dark red bruises mottled
her throat, and she breathed in shallow, wheezing gasps. Numerous
scrapes and bruises covered her arms and legs, and a cloth swaddled
one arm from the elbow down. Filled with a nameless dread, she
peeled back its edge and recoiled with a horrified cry. Black
scales sheathed Mirra's forearm, mottled scabs forming the boundary
between scales and skin.
Ellese shuffled up with her
helpers, who stared at Mirra's arm with undisguised horror. Even
Martal looked sickened by the sight of the scales, and Tallis
pulled the cloth up, covering them.
"Thank the Lady she is alive,"
Ellese murmured. "Where is Bane?"
Tallis rose and looked around. A
few paces away, acrid smoke rose from a huge crater that glowed
deep red in its depths, emitting intense heat. At its edge, a
black-clad form lay sprawled, the crimson lining of his cloak
bright against the scorched ground around him. She went over to
him, shielding her face from the crater's heat. He lay face down in
an area of whitened ash that spread from him in a star-shaped
pattern, as if he had been the source of intense heat.
Glossy hair covered his face,
which was turned to the side. She knelt beside him and brushed it
away, expecting to find a grinning, blackened skull. Instead, his
pale skin almost glowed in the dim twilight. Only the streaks of
fresh blood that ran from his eyes and oozed from his nose marred
it. The dark power that emanated from him made her stomach heave,
but she swallowed hard and reached out to touch his neck. His skin
burnt her fingers, but she found a strong pulse, and turned to the
expectant group around Mirra with a grin.
"He is alive!"
"Son of a bitch!" Martal swore,
earning stern looks from the healers.
The crater's heat burnt Tallis'
cheek, and she gripped Bane's cloak, trying to drag him away from
it. "Martal, help me."
The Baron walked over to her,
raising his hands to shield his face. He bent to grip Bane's arm,
recoiling with a curse as his stomach heaved, making him gag.
"I am not touching him. Leave
him here."
"No!" Ellese's command rang in
the smoky air. "No one is being left here."
"Goddess!" Tallis squatted to
stare at Bane's hands, which her efforts to tug him away from the
crater had pulled from the ash. The skin was blackened and the tips
of his fingers burnt away.
"What is it?" Ellese
demanded.
"His hands are burnt."
"We will tend to them at the
abbey. Martal, you bring Mirra then. We will carry Bane."
Martal scowled, clearly
disliking the idea, and called over the two soldiers, ordering them
to carry Bane. They tried to pick him up, but their first contact
with him sent them staggering away, retching. The healer beside
Elder Mother informed her of their actions, and Ellese snorted.
"It cannot be that bad if he is
unconscious. The dark power is acquiescent when he is
unconscious."
"Then he has sprung a leak,"
Martal muttered.
Tallis giggled, stifling it, and
Ellese smiled. "Are the runes on his chest glowing?"
Tallis knelt beside Bane, her
stomach heaving. After a brief struggle, she rolled him onto his
back and pulled his shirt open. All seven runes glowed with dull
yellow light.
"Yes."
"That is why then," Ellese said.
"He must have lost control before he passed out. Even though he is
unconscious, the power is flowing from him. So you are right,
Martal, he has sprung a leak."
Tallis giggled again, then
noticed that blood smeared her hands and examined Bane more
closely. His shirt was soaked with it. "He is bleeding."
"How badly?"
Tallis pulled aside the rest of
his sodden shirt, finding the cuts on his belly. "Not too bad,
shallow cuts."
"Then it can wait until we get
to the abbey, but we have no time to waste."
"Well I certainly have no wish
to stay here any longer than I must," Martal said, glancing around
with a frown.
Tallis sympathised. She too
sensed the intense evil around them, not only in the drifting
swathes of shadow, but the ground itself seemed to be steeped in
it. Gripping Bane's wrist, she tried to drag him away from the
crater, discovering that he was amazingly heavy. Her stomach
heaved, forcing her to release him. Ellese tugged her helpers
closer.
"We will carry Bane. Martal,
bring Mirra."
This time he obeyed, shooting an
angry look at the men who had failed the task. The healers guided
Ellese to Bane, and she ran her hands over him, paling at the touch
of the dark power, then gripped one of his legs. The two women took
hold of his cloak, using it as a sling to avoid touching him, and
lifted him. Tallis took his other leg, biting her lip as her
stomach knotted further. They carried him towards the distant cart,
puffing and grunting with effort. Martal followed, Mirra cradled in
his arms. As they shuffled along, Tallis turned to Ellese.
"Why is the power not
acquiescent this time, even though he is unconscious?"
Ellese shook her head. "Perhaps
because he was using so much of it when he lost consciousness. It
seems to obey his last command, but you should ask him. When he was
purged, I think he was trying to leash it when he passed out, so it
became dormant. Luckily for us. This time, it seems he was in the
midst of using it when he lost consciousness, so it is still
flowing out of him, but very little."
"Do you think he will be all
right?"
"How does he look?"
Tallis' eyes flicked over Bane,
but she could not see his face, for his head had fallen back. "He
seems unhurt, apart from his hands and some cuts and bruises. He is
very pale. His skin is almost glowing, and there is no ash or dirt
on him, not even on his clothes. Only the blood."
Ellese nodded. "That is the dark
power. He is carrying a lot of it."
"But, the white light... where
did that come from?"
"I know of only one source of
white fire, Tallis."
"The Goddess? She destroyed the
Black Lord?"
"No, I do not think so, or she
would have done it long before. But certainly she had a hand in it.
We will know more when Bane wakes."
Tallis looked up, surprised to
find that they had almost reached the cart, then realised that the
driver had led the horses closer. They lifted Bane onto the back of
it and laid Mirra beside him, then climbed aboard. The driver
turned the animals, and they strained at their bits in their
eagerness to quit the foul ground. They trotted back towards the
abbey, the soldiers following. Martal frowned down at Bane.
"You should let me kill him,
Elder Mother," he said. "Now, while he is helpless."
Ellese raised her head and
squinted at him, then closed her eyes again. "Martal, you are a
fool. Even if I allowed you to, which I will not, it would be a
grave mistake."
He fingered his sword. "How
so?"
"Because Bane is a living god.
Have you not realised that yet?"
"He is evil! If he is a god,
even more reason to kill him."
"No, he is not evil. Well not
entirely." She sighed. "It is hard to explain, but aside from all
that, we still need him."
"What for? Is the Black Lord not
cast down?"
"Yes, but that is not the end of
it. Who will clear the skies and restore the land?"
"The Lady."
Ellese shook her head. "She
cannot. The evil that now blankets the world is too intense, and it
will not simply go away because the Black Lord has gone below.
Someone must send it back to the Underworld, Baron. Who do you
think can do that?"
He looked down at Bane. "How do
you know he will do it?"
"Perhaps you should be the one
to ask him. Very politely."
"You jest! I would not give him
the satisfaction. I would not ask him for the time of day. I curse
his name!"
Ellese smiled, and Tallis
realised that she was teasing Martal. "It is fortunate we do not
have to rely on your diplomatic skills, Baron."
"You would leave him to run
loose collecting worshippers, Elder Mother? He could become another
Black Lord."
"But he will not. Bane would
have no use for worshippers. He does not even like us. In fact,
when this is all over, I fear for him."
"Why, Mother?" Tallis asked.
Ellese turned her head. "Because
of everything that has been done to him, and everything he has done
to others."
Martal said, "I have seen some
of what he did to others, in a small town east of my estate. People
gutted like animals, burnt to death on hot coals, their eyes
pierced with pokers. Some were flayed alive, others -"
"Enough, Martal." Ellese looked
nauseated. "We have no wish to hear this."
"But you should, since it is
your decision to let him live. What if he does it again?"
"I have seen it, and I do not
need to be reminded. But you have only seen one side of the story;
you have no idea of what was done to him. I can also assure you
that he will not do it again, and, in addition, if you kill him
now, as you are so eager to do, who will restore the wards?"