“I know that. We all do. But it doesn’t matter. We can’t live like this anymore. We can’t just stand by and watch as our world dies.”
“So you are aware of what Shinzan is doing to Lumnia?”
The boy looked confused for a moment, then said: “I’m not sure what you mean. But I can see the famine spreading. We’re getting sicker each year. The land is becoming less fertile. Half my village died from disease last winter…including my little brother.”
His expression grew hard. “Who else could be behind all this? Shinzan is the only one with such power. We've lived in fear of the emperor for as long as I can remember, and I’ve never understood why. Why do we let someone who cares nothing for his people to rule us? No. It’s time we made a stand and took back our land…and our lives.”
“And what would you do if I sent you away?”
“We would fight anyway,” he replied resolutely. “But you're not going to, are you? I know we’re not warriors. But we’re strong. We can help you win, I swear it.”
Halvar could see the conviction in his eyes and hear the determination in his voice. “How many of you are there?” he asked.
“Nearly one hundred and fifty. Many more would come, but they don’t own any weapons or armor.”
Halvar thought on this for a moment. Keira was right…blast her. He began chuckling softly. Then, realizing the boy was staring at him oddly, he cleared his throat and straightened his back. “What is your name?”
“Lyle, Your Highness. Lyle Polonson.”
“Lyle Polonson, you are to go see the elf quartermaster and have her provide you with a horse. Ride to every village and town within a hundred miles and tell anyone who wishes to fight that they will be made welcome here. If they have no weapons, we will provide them.”
Seeing Lyle hesitate, Halvar sharpened his tone. “
Now
, boy. The enemy comes and we must be ready. And while you are at it, have them give you a new sword. The one you carry is badly in need of repair.”
Beaming all over his face, the youth bowed low. “Thank you, Your Highness. I will go at once.” Without further ado, he spun around and raced headlong into the heart of the camp.
Halvar rubbed the back of his neck and gave a long groan. This was probably a mistake, he decided. But it felt right, all the same. He stopped a dwarf soldier passing by. “Round up the humans who have just arrived and see that they are properly equipped for battle,” he ordered.
There was no time to train them properly. But he would find a use somewhere for all those who volunteered. He strolled over in the direction of Keira’s tent, eager to tell her of his decision. While making his way, he considered the dilemma he was creating. Hopefully, the presence of his new recruits would help to reduce conflict with other humans when the inevitable need for more provisions arrived. But that was a bridge to be crossed later. For now, he had a battle looming. All his attention needed to be focused on attaining victory.
Martok stared down at Kat's sleeping form, a frown gradually developing. He understood infatuation well enough. It was a common condition he'd experienced quite a few times before. But the effect she was having on him was definitely something more than that. A far more profound emotion was plaguing his heart - one that he was finding deeply disturbing. It wasn't because he did not wish to have genuine feelings for this woman. In fact, how could he not? Had she been alive in his own time she would have been courted by all the richest suitors in Lumnia. Her combination of beauty and power would have set mage against fellow mage with murderous intent to win her heart.
Not that this was of any concern to him now. All of his present uneasiness was based entirely on practical matters. It was becoming increasingly obvious that, with the task he was set to embark on looming ominously closer, his ever-strengthening attachment to Kat could easily become a fatal distraction. Several options to remedy this had been tossing about his head for days, though none so far that came to mind were satisfactory.
“What to do with you,” he whispered.
The howls of the beasts roaming the Dragon Wastes carried on the wind. They'd been following Kat and himself for days now. Though they had kept their distance so far, he could tell by the way the creatures moved in and out of range of his senses that they were growing bolder. More than that, he could feel that they were somehow intelligent. At least to a small degree. It was an intelligence driven by never-ending hunger. They were undying, yet lived only a half-life that was filled with nothing but pain. The terrible magic Shinzan had unleashed here had changed them in ways he could never have foreseen.
But it was not the savage manner in which Shinzan had obliterated this once rich and fertile land that enraged Martok the most. It was the reason behind it. The six dying dragons, along with Maytra, were all that remained. And though Ethan had done well in protecting the eggs, there was no guarantee that they would ever actually hatch.
The first light of the new dawn was just creeping over the horizon, coloring the sky in orange and violet. The desolation it revealed was beyond healing. At least, it was beyond
his
power to heal. Perhaps if the dragons did come back then they might be able to gradually return the land to its former glorious state. But it would take many lifetimes. And though Ethan's body was now playing host to his consciousness, life would not last forever in this form. That was another problem he intended to solve.
Kat stirred and then sat up, pulling the blanket tightly around her shoulders. “Have you been up all night?” she asked.
He stroked her hair gently. “No. I only woke up a few minutes ago.” This was a lie, of course. “I was just about to make us something to eat.”
“I’m too sleepy to eat yet,” she groaned.
Martok leaned down to kiss her lightly on the ear, then whispered: “No, not too sleepy. You’re just too lazy.” Quickly slipping his hands under the bottom of the blanket, he began tickling her ribs where he knew she was especially sensitive.
“Okay! Stop it. I’m up,” she begged, giggling loudly while squirming away from his reach. After scrambling to her feet, she yawned before asking: “How much further?”
“According to the map Martok gave us, we should arrive today.”
He noticed several small tears in Kat’s leather boots that were lying on the ground a few feet away. The soles of his own boots were nearly worn through as well. They were clearly not made for walking through rocky terrain that had got progressively more uneven and rough the further they moved away from Renald’s land.
After a quick breakfast, they gathered their packs and started out. But they had barely covered a mile when he saw Kat wincing almost every time she stepped onto her left foot.
He caught her by the arm. “Enough of this.” With a wide sweep of his arm, two black stallions appeared. She had already seen him cast this spell before while under the assumption he was Ethan, so it would not arouse her suspicions.
She smiled and touched his cheek. “It’s not that bad. I can walk.”
“Why walk when you can ride?”
“Because that spell is tiring as hell. It will take too much out of you.”
It was true that this was powerful magic. Creating a horse was easy enough. To keep it there so they could make use of it for any significant length of time was the hard part. This took a great deal of effort…for most mages. But of course, he was
not
most mages.
Martok leapt atop one of the stallions. “My feet are hurting too, you know, so I'm riding. You can keep walking if you want to.”
Kat shook her head. “You’re going to be exhausted in no time.” In spite of her objections, she mounted the other horse.
Martok was capable of maintaining this spell for many hours. But he knew that Kat had learned enough to know that Ethan certainly could not. After a time, he would need to appear as if he had reached the limits of his strength.
They had been riding for a little more than an hour when the pendant Renald had prepared for him began pulsing. He immediately dismounted. As soon as Kat was at his side, he allowed the horses to vanish.
“We’re close,” he said.
She eyed him cautiously. “Is…
he
coming?”
Martok's frown carried just a hint of uncertainty. “I don’t think so. There doesn’t seem to be any danger so far.”
He dearly wanted to speak to Kat as himself, but patience was essential to any effective plan. Planting the seed that Martok was the only one strong enough to face the dangers ahead was all part of his strategy. Even so, it was difficult to resist the urge.
The pendant directed them to a tall mound of massive boulders about a mile north of their position. On drawing closer, Martok could soon see a wide rift in the ground, preventing any further forward progress. This vertically sided valley extended for as far as the eye could see in either direction.
“It’s much too far to jump across,” Kat remarked rather needlessly. “We’ll need to find a way around it.”
Martok grunted. A fissure like this might easily stretch out for many miles. If so, precious time would be wasted. There was only one thing to do. Dropping to his knees, he squeezed his eyes shut. After a few seconds, he rose again.
As he looked across at Kat he saw displeasure clearly written on her face. She had witnessed him do this many times before and she knew what it meant. “We don’t need you,” she snapped.
“Ethan felt otherwise,” he retorted. “However, I will admit that your need of me this time is
my
fault. I should have taught you how to do this long ago.”
Before Kat could react, he threw an arm around her waist and pulled her close. She pushed hard against his chest, but he held her firmly in his grasp.
“Hold still, girl,” he commanded. “Lest I drop you.”
The words had barely escaped his lips when their feet left the ground. In no time at all they were twenty feet in the air and drifting slowly over the impossibly deep chasm. Kat gasped, no longer struggling, rather clutching desperately tightly to his shoulders. A few moments later they had spanned the void and were back on solid ground.
She stepped quickly away from him, stiff-backed and stern. “You warn me next time you're going to do something like that. Understand?”
“You are quite welcome,” Martok told her, presuming the thanks that wasn't forthcoming and ignoring her question. “Now let us see if we can find our way, shall we?”
“No! You've got us over that gap. I think you should go now.”
A look of displeasure that actually bordered on hurt splashed across his face. “Is nothing I do ever enough to please you? I saved your precious Ethan from certain death. I have found a way to defeat our enemy. And I have passed an incredible amount of knowledge on to you. I would think I have earned at least a modicum of civility in return.”
Kat’s hard stare gradually softened. “Yes, you’re right. I'm sorry. I do appreciate what you’ve done for us. I really do. It’s just…”
“It’s just what?”
“I know you want to take over Ethan’s body and not give it back. That scares me. I almost lost him once before. The thought of losing him again is just too much.”
“And if I did succeed in possessing this form permanently? Would that be so horrible? Have I not shown how much I could help this troubled world? And you.”
She sighed. “I know you have feelings for me, Martok. But my heart belongs to Ethan. He is my soulmate, and no amount of magic or power can ever change that. So yes. To me, what you are suggesting would be horrible.”
He could tell that she was having difficulty in holding his gaze. With most people he would have taken this to be a sign of dishonesty or shame. But not Kat. With her it was regret.
“I do not deny that I long for you to be mine,” he began. “In fact, I say so freely. And if you dared to look deep within yourself, I think you would discover that although Ethan possesses your heart, I have won your affection…if only in a small way.”
Before Kat could reply he walked on past her, taking out the pendant while still on the move. She remained where she was for a few seconds before following, though not too closely.
The short distance to the boulders was covered in silence. Martok smiled inwardly. Kat could deny it all she wanted. She
was
beginning to yield to his charms.
Yet again the howls from the beasts of the Wastes echoed in the distance. Martok looked over his shoulder. “When this is over, I shall hunt down every single one of them. They have suffered enough.”
Kat nodded. “That would be merciful. Renald told me they were once wolf-like creatures that roamed the land in vast packs.”
“Yes. Harmless to humans…unless you were stupid enough to wander alone. They hunted the great Bull Mantos mostly.”
He could see that Kat was unfamiliar with this name, so continued: “Mantos were beasts of immense size and strength – twice as tall as a man at the shoulder, with a thick gray hide and three horns protruding from a massive head. I saw one once when I was young. It was a truly impressive sight, I must say.” His expression darkened. “But they only lived here, in what has since become these cursed Wastes. As did many other wonderful beasts, now all gone forever.”
“You really do love Lumnia, don’t you?” she remarked.
Martok gave her a sideways look. “Of course I do. This is my home. All I have ever wanted is the best for Lumnia and its people. Despite what you have heard about me, I was never like Shinzan. I never tried to enslave anyone. Nor did I kill without good cause. And not all of the mages were against me. Only those who could not look past their own bigotry and fears. To them, the idea of all three races coexisting seemed impossible, whereas I saw it as inevitable.”
“But you did try to conquer the world,” Kat pointed out.
“I was left with no other choice. Those who wanted to silence me began an aggressive campaign against the elves. When the dwarves joined with them, what else was I to do? Stand idly by and permit genocide? Would you?”
“No. Of course not. But even as a little girl I heard the tales of your conquests. Are you telling me that none of them were true?”
“What I am telling you is that you do not truly know me. You cannot possibly understand what motivated me to make war on my own kind. Nor can you understand the betrayal I suffered at the hands of the one person I loved the most. Yes, the stories you’ve heard are true. But only from the perspective of the people who eventually cast me down. They were told so that my name would become a curse.” His voice lowered to a mere whisper. “They turned me into a monster. A nightmare to plague the dreams of children.”
He paused for a moment to look directly into Kat’s eyes. “Tell me, Katyana. When you look at me, do you see a monster?”
Her face suddenly became etched with pity. “No. I see a man. Nothing more. Arrogant and flawed. But just a man.”
Martok smiled. “That is a start. Thank you.” He thought he spotted another subtle change in her expression. Was she now seeing him in a new light? “But come,” he continued, pointing to a wide crack in a particularly tall boulder. “We have work to do.”
After stepping through the opening, the small amount of light trickling in from outside was quickly consumed. In response to the pitch darkness now surrounding them, Martok created a small globe of white light that hovered in the air just a few feet ahead.
All was well for a few yards, but then the light abruptly disappeared. Martok cast it again, only to see the same thing happen once more. “That’s odd,” he muttered. “Very odd indeed.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Kat, doing her best to keep the anxiety from her voice.
“There are no wards that I can detect, and yet magic fails beyond where we are standing.”
“What do you mean,
fails
?”
Martok drew his sword. “It means exactly that. From here on, it seems we are forced to continue without the protection of magic. Don’t worry though. I was well trained in combat.”
It was almost possible for him to see her frowning in the darkness when she said: “Why would someone like you need to learn how to fight with a sword?”