The Last Druid (8 page)

“How could this have happened?” she asked herself.

Over the noise of the crackling fires she heard a small whimper.  She stared wildly around, trying to figure out where it was.  Her eyes came to rest on one building in particular: an entire section of wall and part of the roof were missing, like something large had been hurled with tremendous through it.  The sound seemed to be coming from there.  She ran over and peered around what was left of the wall.

Crouched among the rubble was a young child.

He couldn’t have been older than ten years old.  His skin was slightly tanned, making his white hair seem even brighter.  His clothes were torn, he had several bleeding cuts, and he was covered with dust and soot.  He had heard her coming, and was in the process of backing away deeper into the wreckage when she rounded the corner.  As soon as he saw her though, the fearful expression on his face gave way to one of relief mixed with joy.  He ran towards her, throwing his arms around her neck when she knelt down to hold him.  They embraced each other for several moments until she pushed him back, leaving her hands on his shoulders.

“Did they hurt you?” she asked.

The boy shook his head.  “They did see me,” he said.  “But I was able to get away and hide here.  Is it over,
entha
?”

She was about to reassure him when her scalp prickled, and a shiver repeatedly went up and down her spine.  She turned back to look at the street—the air had become uneasily still, but the scent of death and decay seemed to seek her out over the flying ash and smoke.

Her heart immediately raced as fear took hold of her.  She knew that scent, and it could mean only one thing—He was here.

The boy was holding her hand and looking at her with questioning eyes. 
“Entha?”

She snatched up her sword from where she had dropped it,
then took his face in her other hand.  “Dearest, not yet,” she said.

“Why?  What happens now?”

She tried to keep her nerves steady and her fear at bay as she spoke.  “There is one more fight to be had, one that you cannot be near.  I need you to give me one favor: I need you to run, as far away as you can, as fast as you can. I will join you after.”

Tears were sliding down the sides of the boy’s face.  “No,” he said.  “I do not want to leave, entha! I do not want to lose you!”

She pulled him to her in a tighter embrace, feeling how warm he was, smelling the earthy scent that always seemed to cling to him.  “Hiran, my child, you will not.”  She tried to keep her voice from cracking.  “This will be the last fight, and after that we will be able to find some other place to call our home.  But I need you to do this for me first.  Do you understand me?”

She felt the boy’s head nod up and down against her chest.  “But I—“

“No ‘buts.’”  She pushed him away and stood up.  “Now go.”

“Entha—“

“Just go Hiran!”  She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.  “Now, before it is too late.”  She turned to face the road.  For some time she heard nothing, until at last she heard the boy’s feet against the pavement as he ran away from where she stood.

She turned to look back at him once more.  He had stopped at the far end of the alley between buildings, looking back at her.  There was no fooling him—he knew this was the end.

“Go,” she whispered.

Whether he heard her or not, he didn’t acknowledge it.  He turned and fled.

—How touching.—

She felt her blood suddenly turn to ice as a cold dread crept through her mind.  This sense of fear at so strong a level could only be generated by one
being.  She turned back to the street and brought her sword up in front of her.

Bralon had joined the fray.

Everything about him screamed death—his shadowy form, his ash-colored flesh, his black eyes that never reflected the light.  Everywhere he went he spread death and despair to everyone he passed.

She gripped the hilt even tighter with both hands, trying to ignore her pounding heart.  “You have no victory here,” she said, her voice shaking.

—You are like the other pests, never knowing when to quit.—

“Your campaign ends today.”

—Bold words, but empty.  You have lost—accept it and the end will be easier for you.—

“Your spawn took my honor—there is no forgiveness for him, or for you his master.”

—You let him, girl.—  He moved closer, his dark robes swirling around him like the smoke in the air.  —You have brought about your own death, and it will be at my hand.—

She let loose a wild yell and charged at him.  Images of friends and family flew by in her mind as she ran, spurring her on even more; she saw
Hiran’s young face and held on to it as she ran.

My child,
she thought,
I am sorry.

Something struck her in the chest, piercing through effortlessly to her heart.  There was no blocking it—she recoiled from the impact, the momentum from her running carrying her several feet before she landed with her back against the pavement.  She could do nothing but
lie there, her body growing cold, her senses growing dull, the world before her eyes dimming.

She could still feel Bralon hovering over her.

—I have won today.  Tomorrow I will start to take the world, and you will realize even in the afterlife how wrong you were to oppose me.—

Darkness swallowed her vision
.  She felt herself falling…

Calla awoke with a start, sitting bolt upright, breathing hard as her heart pounded inside her chest.  She looked around—she was still in the forest, Mai still slept on the ground, the air itself was quiet.  She took a deep breath to steady herself.  She had had nightmares in the past, but they were never like this.  She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on her knees.  She sat like that for several minutes, taking deep breaths, before lying back down on the ground.

What
in the world…?
she thought. She found herself replaying the dream in her head a few times before she finally drifted off to sleep again.

X

The Watcher

The Elf-like creature sat up in the branches of a tree,
holding his balance on a limb as he sat on his heels.  He listened intently to the night air around him, sighing with relief when he couldn’t detect the sound of anyone pursuing.  He could sense the girl and the Nymph somewhere ahead of him, and hoped that neither would be able to sense him following.  He was just trying to make sure that nothing could sneak up on them from behind.

The girl had gone too far down this road now—there was no going back now for her.

But still he was worried.  The girl was still vulnerable—her true power had not yet begun to surface, remaining locked away out of her reach.  If anything were to happen to them, she would be incapable of protecting herself.  Mai was strong—he knew that, after so many years of knowing her—but by the standards of her people she was still quite young and too inexperienced.  She didn’t have the knowledge or the skill to actually defend her charge if they were attacked, especially by a large group; if that happened, she would most certainly fall.

He stood up on
his perch and looked out through the crisscrossing limbs before him.  For some reason, he knew he would soon end up stepping in to get the girl through.

XI

Mai

“And that’s how it ended,” said Calla as she carefully stepped over a root protruding a foot out of the ground.  “The weird thing about it is I don’t think I was me—I think I was seeing everything as someone else.”

Mai hopped up and grabbed an overhanging branch with both hands, slowly swinging on it for a moment as she thought on what Ca
lla had just told her.  Clearly the dream Calla had the night before had bothered her, so Mai had listened patiently as she did her best to describe what happened, never interrupting her.  By the time Calla had finished her tale Mai was quiet, thinking over every detail as she tried to come up with an explanation for her.

Ca
lla was growing anxious from the Nymph’s continued silence.  “What do you think about it Mai?” she asked nervously.

Mai dropped down from the branch
, kicking up dirt and leaves with her landing.  “It is strange,” she said at last.  “Somehow I think I know what it was you saw.  But it happened before your time, so how…?”

“I just find it a little unsettling that I seemed to know
exactly what was going on and who was around me.  But I’ve never been in battle before; I’ve never seen that kind of death, destruction and loss and I hope I never have to.”

“What is the phrase your people use? 
‘Never say never’?”

“That man that…killed ‘me’
—he was frightening, like something from my nightmares.  I don’t want to find out if he exists in the flesh.”

“
Unfortunately he does exist.  We can only hope you do not meet Bralon—if he does not corrupt all he encounters he kills them.  But the child you saw, the one ‘you’ called Hiran…”  Mai’s voice trailed off.

“I definitely don’t know anyone by that name.”  Ca
lla must have seen the concern growing on Mai’s face.  “Do you have an idea who the child was?”

“I suspect I might, though I am not completely
certain—I do know someone named Hiran.  He is from the same country I am.  He has kept mostly to himself, rarely visiting anyone, keeping very few friends.  In the entire time we have been friends, he has never talked about his past or why he prefers his solitude.  A few years ago he just disappeared, leaving no clues as to where he went or why; it has actually come to the point that my Lady wants him found, because she is afraid for him.  Yet I cannot help but think there is more to it than that.

“As for what
you say you saw, I think I have an idea of what that was: at least ten years ago we were not yet at war with the Lord of Death and the forces of the Dead Lands—there were only a few skirmishes in some of the surrounding villages at the time, only the start of the troubles to come.  It was the last of these that started the war we deal with now.”

“What happened?”

“Bralon and His minions obliterated one of our larger cities—He destroyed it down to its foundations.  A warrior woman was there at the time.  She was a bit older than you are now; she did not have the Druid’s gift like you, but she had superior skill in battle.  But even being the best warrior in the world was not enough to help her.  The Lord of Death was present at the battle and killed her Himself.”

Ca
lla pushed a small branch out of her way.  “But why would I have a dream about something that happened a long time ago?”

“Perhaps it is the Lady’s will.”  Mai hopped down from the root she was standing on into the fern-filled lane between trees.  “Perhaps it is
Her way of telling you about what you may find yourself up against.”

“
Terrific, I feel so much better about all of this now.”

For much of the afternoon
the two kept walking in silence.  On and on they trekked through the forest.  As much as she felt at home here in this wood Mai couldn’t ignore the uneasiness that was settling in her mind, a feeling she couldn’t ignore.  Why would Calla dream of an event that happened so long ago, a moment from someone else’s life no less?  That kind of thing could end up scaring her away and leave them to fend for themselves.  Dreams, she had been taught, were supposed to be messages from Fate.

But sometimes receiving messages
like that turned out to be omens of disaster.

Mai was still lost in thought when they came to the edge of the forest.  The trees ended in a sharp wall that opened out to a vast plain that was brightly lit with midday sunlight, giving the green grass a golden hue. 
It was dotted with the occasional clump of bushes or patch of brightly-colored flowers.  A warm breeze blew towards them, stirring the dead leaves at their feet and tickling at Mai’s face. 

The Plains of Kaltin—despite the danger that could be lurking nearby, Mai thought i
t would feel good to walk under an open sky again.

Ca
lla must not have been paying attention to where she was going, for she suddenly walked right into her.

“Ouch!”  Mai turned to look at her
.

“Sorry Mai.”  Ca
lla adjusted the pack sitting on her good shoulder.  “I was letting my mind wander.  I didn’t realize you stopped.”