Authors: James Wolf
‘Guess not,’ Taem laughed.
‘New friends?’ Hirandar wearily gestured to Baek and Forgrun, who were following close behind.
‘Where are my manners?’ Taem chortled. ‘It’s the happy shock of seeing you! This is Baek Malaran, of Borleon,’ Taem put a hand on the Aborle’s shoulder, and Baek bowed.
‘This is Forgrun Krojan,’ Taem grasped the Rhungar’s shoulder, ‘son of Dugan, of Clan Ironstone.’
‘Me Lady Wizard,’ Forgrun bowed, and knuckled his right hand to his forehead, closing his eyes as he did so.
Baek and Taem looked at each other in bewilderment.
‘An’ Logan Fornor,’ Forgrun bowed even lower. ‘Even in ye citadels, we hear tale o’ thy legend.’
Taem was at a loss. He had never seen Forgrun be so respectful, and what was this legend?
‘Those stories grow taller with every year that passes,’ Logan smiled. ‘Come, the Wizard needs to rest.’
Logan and Taem left Baek and Forgrun in the common room, with Hirandar sleeping upstairs. They stepped out into the dusk, into the carnival of celebration in the town square. They managed to get through the throng of well-wishers, and headed out of town.
The dusk turned to twilight, and oil lanterns and candles lit up Gulren. Taem and Logan crossed the twilight fields, reached the crown of a hill, and turned to look over the town. They could hear the din of excitement and joy in the air, and could see the townspeople dancing and merrymaking in the town square. Taem thought how the homely town – full of warmth and light – was a welcome sight after weeks spent on the road and in the wilderness.
‘Look down on Gulren now,’ Logan said to Taem, ‘what do you see?’
Taem sensed a deep purpose in the way Logan spoke.
‘
Hope,
’ Taem murmured.
‘Yes,’ Logan said warmly. ‘Down there you have freedom, faith and courage. Everything these people need to live happy and free. Last week, freedom was barely a whisper on the wind to these people. A sound that, even if you strained to hear it, you couldn’t quite make it out. A misty dream, nothing more. Tonight, you can hear the joy in every voice.
Feel
the elation in their spirits.’ Logan paused so they both could listen to the song, and watch the celebrations from afar.
There was so much that was good in this world, Taem found himself thinking, as he looked down at all the free men, women and children. So much that needed protecting.
‘Do you see it, Taem?’ Logan turned to look at the young man he had raised. ‘What you are capable of? You can
lead
people,
inspire
them, give them strength. Where you walk, men will follow.’
‘How can
I
do this?’ Taem said incredulously. ‘I cannot lead people!’
‘You already are,’ Logan smiled, ‘just always remember, live by The Code.’
‘I will Master,’ Taem nodded.
‘Come on then,’ Logan touched Taem on the shoulder. ‘Let’s get back. Hirandar will be feeling restored by now, we have plans to make.’
Hirandar, Logan, Taem, Baek and Forgrun sat round the grand table in the inn’s wood-panelled dining room. The candles in the chandelier flickered overhead, a small fire burned in the grand fireplace, and they all had mugs of tea steaming in front of them. And of course, Forgrun had a beer too. The wall mounted lamps were alight, and Logan gestured for Taem to pull the curtains across, to keep out unwelcome guests.
‘We are being hunted,’ Hirandar said softly. ‘We are in great danger, and we head where few would dare.’
The Wizard looked at Baek and Forgrun, her eyes glinting like sapphires in the firelight.
‘Are you sure you’re ready to come with us?’ Hirandar said.
‘Aye,’ Forgrun whispered, with a faraway look in his eyes.
‘I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,’ Baek murmured.
Hirandar nodded, ‘So let us speak freely. Whether the free peoples of Hathlore want to believe it or not, the power of Malveous rises.’
Forgrun shuddered. The Rhungar hunched his massive shoulders as if he were defending against the cold, knotting his hands into a ball, his two index fingers joined point at a point, as did his two little fingers.
‘The Dark is coming,’ Logan said grimly, ‘there can be no doubt. Nargs invade the southlands, and the Shadowborder rises.’
The signs of His growing power are everywhere,’ Hirandar said, ‘Dark forces plot against our rightful kings and queens – and even the mighty Empress of Darnea is in danger. The Maliven spread their evil across Hathlore like a seeping murk.’
‘My people say the same,’ Baek murmured.
‘It is time for action,’ Hirandar held up her fist, ‘or the war will be over before it has begun. Are you ready to fight? To do your duty, as warriors who walk in the Light?’ The Wizard looked to Baek and Forgrun.
‘Yes,’ Baek said quietly.
‘By Gromm, I be ready!’ Forgrun boomed.
The Wizard smiled at the Rhungar, ‘Good, we’ll need courage like that on the road, when the days are dark and home is a distant memory.’
‘We know Malveous is amassing his forces,’ Logan said darkly.
At mention of that name, Forgrun again interweaved his thick fingers.
‘Tis ye Shielding-Sign,’ Forgrun whispered to Taem, when he saw the man looking at his hands. ‘It protects yhee from attention o’ ye Malice King.’
‘Nargs gather in the shadows of the world,’ Logan said. ‘His Black Servants spread evil and corruption, unseen and unchallenged. But one disciple the Dark One needs above all others: the Baledemon, Gorzaemon.’
‘Ye Baledemon?’ Forgrun said fearfully. ‘Ye great enemy in ye Great War o’ Dark?’
‘Yes,’ Logan said, ‘the leader of the Shadow forces, highest of the demons.’
Forgrun was shivering, and Taem was surprised at how much terror that name evoked in the tough Rhungar.
‘But legend do say,’ Forgrun said desperately, ‘ye Baledemon be imprisoned! Fer all eternity?’
Hirandar shook her head, ‘Known only to a few, this prison can be opened with keys.’
‘By Odrin,’ Forgrun gasped.
Baek had gone pale, his eyes wide. Seeing his friends afraid, and Hirandar so serious, sent a chill down Taem’s spine. He felt cold in the pit of his stomach when he remember the terror of the Nightdemon. And this Baledemon had to be even worse than that.
‘These keys you speak of,’ Taem said to Hirandar, ‘they are well-guarded in safe places though – right?’
But to the horror of the others, Hirandar shook her head once more. ‘Even with the knowledge of the Golden Age, the monster Gorzaemon could not be destroyed. So the wizards of the time set about a desperate plan to create a vortex, a gateway, to transport the demon to a celestial prison. In order to hold the magic power of the vortex, those ancient wizards made five Key-Pieces to act as focal points.’
Hirandar closed her outstretched hand, drawing into her palms all the light in the room. Baek shuddered at this new darkness, glancing into the deep shadows. Six balls of pure light burst alive in the air above the oak table. Each globe was a different colour: grey, yellow, green, blue, white or red. Taem realised there was one colour to represent each of the strands of magic. Forgrun gaped in wonder as the balls began to spin round in a circle above the centre of the table.
‘These Key-Pieces were made of Gentian,’ Hirandar pointed to the spinning balls of light. ‘Gentian is the essence of magic converted to solid form. The only substance strong enough to withstand the magic forces that would be channelled through the keys, to hold the gateway open.’
Taem watched as the rotating spheres got faster and faster, the circle of their orbit becoming smaller and smaller. The balls of light blurred into a kaleidoscope of colour, converging over the centre, until one dense, glowing lump hovered above the teapot.
With a twirl of Hirandar’s fingers the floating, glowing lump split into five pieces that spread wide over the table – Taem supposed that these were the five Key-Pieces. A grey smoke erupted in the air above the teapot, billowing over and swirling round. In its midst, a pair of glowing orbs appeared, these yellow eyes held such malice that Baek was quaking and Forgrun had to look away. Taem shivered at those sinister glowing slits, they could only be a demon’s eyes.
‘In the same way that these five keys were used to close the vortex,’ Hirandar said, ‘they can also be used to create it. And the vortex is a bridge, from our world to the Baledemon’s prison.’
Just as the trembling watchers were sure a demon was going to burst free from the writhing smoke, beams of burning fire lanced through the haze from the five Key-Pieces. The lines of fire joined into a circle, trapping the smouldering malevolent eyes in its middle. Forgrun let out a great sigh of relief. The evil yellow eyes blazed with baleful rage, and from within the smoke a mouth bellowed in fury. But the evil grey cloud, and the demonic eyes within, dissipated to leave a blazing circle of light, hovering over the table.
‘These five Key-Pieces,’ the Wizard said, and the five points around the circle twinkled gold, ‘or Vokra they are called, were scattered throughout Hathlore for safekeeping. The first was kept in the vaults of Calledron in Marnion. To be guarded by the now failing line of Mage Kings. The second was hidden in the Temple of the Light, in Ruhr – kept secret by the monks there. The third’s location has never been known. All records of where it was hidden are lost – or were never written. The fourth lies in the tomb of Anaksum, The Nakramilis, far to the east beyond the Dredgen Mountains. The fifth was stolen and taken to the Shrine of Shados, an evil demi-god who is subservient to Malveous. That dark Shrine lies far to the north, beyond the realms of Men, deep in the Shadowlands of Zezometh.’
Baek shot Taem a troubled glance at mention of that evil land.
‘But the news is dark,’ Hirandar whispered, ‘Early this year the Temple of the Light was sacked by a horde of Narg marauders, coming from the Feral Lands. And six weeks ago, thieves broke into the treasure vaults of Calledron, and stole the Vokra held there.’
Baek and Forgrun gaped at the Wizard. Taem felt a sense of dread grow in his heart. ‘The work of the Dark One is everywhere,’ Baek murmured.
‘It is alarming beyond words,’ Logan said, ‘that the Temple of the Light was sacked. But with the theft in Calledron, and the third Vokra being unaccounted for, we can only assume that someone – or something – plans to raise the Baledemon.’
Taem felt a shiver run down his arms. He looked between Baek and Forgrun, and saw the dismay that lined their faces.
‘Of the remaining two Vokra,’ Logan said, ‘both are held in great danger and peril. But the tomb of Anaksum, is safer than venturing into the Shadowlands.’
‘We are going to get this Vokra?’ Baek said fearfully.
Hirandar nodded to the Aborle, ‘Over eight hundred years ago,’ the Wizard again drew all light into her hand. ‘When the fledgling states of man emerged from the destruction of the Great War of the Dark, Anaksum was an emperor of a nation of primitive Men. Cruel and terrible he was, and his people little more than slaves. Many generations of Anaksum’s people toiled to construct a palace of gargantuan proportions. He gathered as much treasure as possible in the many years of his long reign, including one of the Vokra. Using dark magics Anaksum extended his life for many centuries. He made a pact with a necromancer, to make him one of the undead. But the necromancer tricked the cruel emperor, for the necromancer coveted the emperor’s wife and kingdom. With Dark magic, the necromancer linked the emperor’s life force to the palace. In giving himself to undeath, Anaksum had unknowingly been bound there, to live out a half-life for all eternity.’
Hirandar’s words formed vivid pictures in Taem’s mind. When he was younger Taem had wondered if Hirandar used magic when she spoke, but now Taem knew it was just a natural ability to tell good stories.
‘With the emperor trapped,’ Hirandar said, ‘the necromancer seized the throne in a bloody coup, and the people swapped one tyrant for another. The necromancer forbade anyone to enter the new palace – the Nakramilis – anyone that did never returned, and it soon become known as the Tomb of Anaksum. The necromancer, however, did not have the military prowess of Anaksum, and he was killed by a slave uprising a few years later. Nothing now exists of that nation but the Tomb of Anaksum. The Kruns that now roam the Lost Realms fear to enter the tomb, and with good reason. The place itself is infused with the black magic of that dark pact, and the restless dead walk the catacombs and corridors of the Nakramilis. People now call it The City of Night. And that is where we now head.’
With her story finished, Hirandar allowed light to flood the room with a homely glow, causing the listeners to wake from their daydream of necromancers and cruel emperors.
‘Many adventurers go searching for The City of Night,’ Logan said. ‘Few return.’
‘Our road lies north through Aritas,’ Hirandar said. ‘To the city of Dolam, the fabled Gateway to the East. We will pass through The Gate, east into the Lost Realms and on for ten days, heading north-east until we come to the Nakramilis.’
‘Ye City o’ Night,’ Forgrun nodded. ‘Tales o’ tha’ place be well known ter Rhungars. My people do say tha’ place be full o’ treasure
beyond
imagination.’ The Rhungar’s eyes gleamed with the prospect of gold. ‘Legend do say nay only do ye dead walk tha’ curs’ed city, but ye Nakramilis be full o’ ingenious booby traps. Anaksum did nay wan’ anyone gettin’ his treasure! Nay!’