Realm at the Edge of the multiverse

by B G Mitchell

  He bowed slightly and said in a rather mousy voice, “I have been told that you are coming, so I welcome you to my small library.”

  She smiled and nodded. He sat back down, and she headed down the rows of large shelves. A little while later she had found an interesting tome, and sat down at one of the reading desks. As she was halfway through the introduction, a figure darkened her page. She looked up to see one of the dark elves she had met before. It was Nataylia, if she remembered her name correctly. She put another tome down at the desk, and Lathenia picked it up and had a look as Natalyia helped herself to a seat.

  She then spoke as Lathenia looked at the scroll. “You know that human that rescued me? According to this ancient document I found, we can bring him back.”

  Lathenia studied Natalyia for a moment then turned back to the spell in front of her. “This would require a lot of magic. We would need a powerful magical artefact to make this possible.”

  “But it is possible,” replied Natalyia in the tone of voice that had a faint edge of hope in it.

  She smiled slightly and nodded. “Yep, but as I am sure you heard it will require powerful magic.”

  Natalyia cautiously took a seat before speaking again in a rather soft tone. “I know, and I am sure we can dig up some dark artefact still left behind. I am pretty sure an enchanted statue of Zateria lying in her old temple.”

  Lathenia steepled her fingers and lay back in her chair and said in a tone that sounded like her mind was formulating plans within plans, so was rather far away, “Interesting idea.”

  Unease was in the air. Shareriza felt it in the city streets. There had been rumours of strange goings on in the untamed wastes, the increase in messengers not just from the elven front also worried her. What was even worse was the lack of business. The place was quiet and even the wizards were too wrapped up in business to pay a quick visit. She sighed as she picked up another glass to clean. After she had given it a wipe, she studied the glass to see if any more dirt had decided to remain. She then heard a loud bang and dropped the glass on the floor in fright.

  Standing at the door which he just slammed was a soldier of the city guard who looked like he had just run a marathon. He then shouted in a voice which conveyed his fear, “The enemy is coming. We need are able bodied men to the walls now!”

  One of her serving girls looked at him for a second as he realised that there was no one about who could wield a sword. He then made a turn to leave as the serving girl shouted, “Are the elves coming then?”

  “No,” he replied as he started to make a move. “It's the skeletons. They have turned on us.”

  Shareriza grabbed a sword down below the bar. It was slightly rusty but still good enough in a fight. She then turned to her serving girls. “Get water and a lot of towels and grab any healing spells you can find. We are close enough to the walls to take wounded.”

  The girls nodded and went about their orders as they knew their business and this was not the first time the tavern had been a makeshift hospital, but that was normally after a heavy night and local rioting, nothing as serious as an invading army. She looked out her door and could see the street quickly beginning to empty with the odd group of guards marching towards the wall followed by normal men carrying swords, seethes, or even pitch forks, and some even managed to get on suits of ill-fitting armour. It was the wizards’ way when magic did not work, throw men at it. The only problem was some of those men were someone’s son, brother, or even some one’s father, not that it seemed to matter to those wizards. They were just arrow fodder.

  Zateria would of course disagree. She knew that a male life was of no consequence, especially a human male. Now she stood in the centre of Murahim. The town itself had been the largest she had captured, and instead of turning the surviving inhabits into war slaves and putting them to death, any priest they had come across, she decided to follow a different tact with this town. Already a couple of priests had been beheaded in front of the crowd but what followed them were two priestess. Both had been stripped naked and wore nothing besides heavy ankle chains. One was young, Zateria would guess she was in her late twenties. She had more firm breasts and a rather flat stomach. The other one was older, had a bit more weight on her, but not much.

  They also were natural brunettes, and the younger one had a ponytail, while the other one had short hair that did not reach her neck. They both had their hands tied behind their backs, and a couple of strong orc warriors had marched them up the stage and forced them to kneel in front of a block of wood whose top was now slick with blood from the previous occupants.

  Zateria smiled. Of the two priestesses, the younger one did not cry out at all but had tears dripping down her cheeks. The two strong orc warriors raised their axes in preparation to carry out their grisly task.

  She then cleared he throat. “To show my merciful spirit, I give those two a chance. If they renounce their false gods, I shall grant them their lives.”

  The younger priestess cried out in a teary voice, “I renounce all gods but Zateria.”

  The other older priestess looked shocked but kept her mouth firmly shut. Zateria smiled. She grabbed the naked girl by her arm and dragged her up then said in a loud voice, “I grant such mercy to all people in this town who accept me as your goddess, and you will saved if not.” She then raised her other hand and dropped it down. This was quickly followed by the sound of a heavy axe raising and then being dropped down, hitting the block of wood with a loud thud. She smiled as she heard some of the townsfolk gasp in shock. She then dragged the still bound priestess to one of her stronger orc warriors who had served well in battle.

  “Here, I give this girl to you. Treat my new convent well, but do let me know if she causes any trouble.” The priestess looked shocked but kept quiet. She knew that she had no choice. Zateria then turned back to the townsfolk and shouted, “Now bow before your goddess.” As they did, she took note of those that did not bow fast enough. Soon the wheat would be sorted from the chafe.

  As Bloodhammer stared at the sacred tome, he idly wondered if Gary would want to come back. He did not know what life was like in his world, but by the looks of such beautiful gadgets, no doubt it would be more interesting and had better machines than it had here. The amazing thing was the message. He had been able to talk to him, which was going to help. The last thing anyone wanted was for him to be zapped into another war zone unprepared. He had been given the task of warning Gary. He opened the OPEN THIS notepad with a heavy heart and, seeing the text before him, he then began to slowly type out a message. It said, in five days the wizard will arrive and we will summon you during the battle. Must have a weapon and armour and be ready by mid-morning.

  He saved the document then stood up and waited anxiously. He gave it five minutes then checked the document. No response. He gave it another five minutes. Still nothing. He left the scarred tome for a while and went back to his new design. He was drawing an even hotter and more fuel efficient furnace helped by the elven square coal and some writing he had discovered on the sacred tome. Eventually, once he got bored of that he went back to the laptop and opened up the document. It said simply, Okay. A line down, it said, I have a plan.

  Bloodhammer smiled.

  Gary sat back in his chair and thought to himself. He was going back and in only ten days. He had so much to do. He knew from Bloodhammer whatever he happened to be holding with him happened to go back with him. He smiled. There was quite a lot he wanted to take with him, a lot of stuff more useful than a simple backpack full of computer equipment. Luckily he still had his life savings and sick pay in his bank account. He was going to need it. He stood up and grabbed his stuff and decided to head home. It was a shame he did not have enough time to hand in his notice, but he was going to have to leave the country and headed off to somewhere with more lax gun laws.

  As the lookouts started shouting, Shareriza felt the unease build up inside her as she tried to put it to one side without much luck. She triple checked
all the healing spells, hoping to distract herself from that unease, but it still did not help as she heard the sound of the archers line up and fire, then the sound of swords.

  Soon a couple of wounded soldiers were dragged into the makeshift infirmary, and she was too focused on the sounds of the wounded men to worry about the sounds of battle going on outside her shop. At least not until she heard the phrase that any citizen in a city that had been under siege wanted to hear there had been a breech. When she heard that, she took a break from her nursing duties and peeked out the door. The scene that greeted her was like some religious prophecy on the end of days. Two guard towers were on fire along with a good collection of houses close to the wall. Civilians were streaming past, heading to the safety of the other wall. Groups of Gaurdsmen, mostly composed of just conscripted boys old enough to hold a sword, were pushing past the civilians as they rushed towards the ever growing breach. Suddenly a group of civilians broke into a run, causing the rest of the group to do the same. She tried to look past the growing throng of rushing bodies to see a small group of guardsmen seem to attack something. She ducked back into her tavern and carried on attending the wounded. Part of her wanted to move and get as far away from the battle as possible, but she knew that there were men here too hurt to move. It do not take long for her to hear the tavern doors slam open as a group of three men, wearing chain mail armour and helms consistent with the city guard, rushed in. Two grabbed a large unoccupied table and propped it across the door.

  Before Shareriza even had a chance to protest, she heard a loud banging on the doors. She turned to her girls and said in a loud and somewhat shaky voice, “Right, carry who you can and head to the city gates. I will be along shortly.”

  As the girls grabbed who or what they could carry, she turned and grabbed her sword as the banging on the door got even louder. It sounded to her like there was an entire horde about to smash in, a couple of guards were trying to brace the table as another one tried to move a bench into place, but with a sickening crack the door gave way. Two skeletons entered. One was, she suspected, an orc skeleton, as it had the flat forehead and the sharp tusks in place. It was wearing a rusted chest plate on its breast and a rusted metal helmet, and in its hand was an ancient and chipped sword .The other skeleton seemed to be human, but its face was obscured by an ancient helm. It also wore a breast plate and even had armour leggings as well. Its weapon was an ancient pike staff.

  One of the guards picked up his mace and swung it hard towards the orc skeleton’s head, while another one swung his heavy looking broadsword towards the human remains. The third guardsmen also swung his sword towards the human skeleton. Shareriza was torn. Part of her wanted to leave, but this tavern had been her home for many years. Also if that first guardsmen did not get any help, the orc skeleton was bound to tear him apart. She picked up her sword and rushed towards the orc skeleton who had just parried the blow from the guard’s mace, and while his head was turned, she struck him in the skull, causing the hollow structure to collapse in on itself.

  Now if that had been a normal orc, the blow would have most likely knocked him out and possibly even caused brain damage, but the skeleton still stood, seeming not to mind the fact that half its skull was not in the proper place. She heard a scream of pain and turned to find that the human skeleton had found a weak spot in the guardsmen’s chain mail shirt and managed to impale him in the abdomen. While the skeleton was distracted with his kill, the other guardsmen swung his sword down on the skeleton’s neck, striking the spinal card hard and impeding his sword into the bone. Before he had any chance to react, the human skeleton picked up the pick with the now screaming guardsmen attached and swung it around hard, hitting the other guardsmen with his comrade. The orc skeleton by now had managed to knock the hand mace out of one of the guardsmen and had just finished him off with a sharp hard strike to the side of the guardsmen’s neck.

  He then turned to Shareriza who released as she heard the scream of the alive but incapacitated. Now was the time to leave. She turned and ran to her backdoor, pushing over a barrel in the hopes of slowing the creatures down. As she stepped outside, she slammed the door shut and wedged it with a nearby plank and fled towards the walls. She ducked into a side ally and made her way following the side streets avoiding piles of foul smelling refuse, hoping to make it towards one of the main roads.

  The march that Arderan and has men had performed had not been easy, especially with all their equipment. The skeleton horde had no such worries, and they did not need to stop for food or rest. The villages that they passed seemed too quiet, most of the villagers no doubt had fled. The odd corpse they passed had shown them the reason for leaving. They saw the smoke long before they reached Merdith, already thick columns rising up into the air, and once they reached the sun was starting to go down, and it seemed most of the horde had managed to breach the city walls, although there were a few left marching in. He thought for a moment as he steadied his horse, then shouted orders to his officer and lined up an infantry division and a couple of Tarian cannons to take care of skeletons still left out of the city.

  As he heard Hisoruth give an order to fire, he went with the rest of the army around the ever expanding city walls. As they reached the gates on the other side of the city, he was greeted by a crowd of humans all leaving the city and most had the look of defeat on their faces. A few gave him worried looks as he had behind him a large elven army. He turned to the city gates and heard shouting. He looked down and saw that the humans were stopping the refugees leaving the city and were in the process of closing the gates. He put his hand out to stop anyone from following him and rode right up to the city gates alone.

  Atop one of the guards’ towers was a rather chubby balding human male in his forties wearing the long red robes of a wizard. He double checked. He still had his pistol with him, it was a new modern piece that was rather square. It’s barrel had also been rifled, and the cartridges were the same design for the rifles except a smaller calibre and only had five slots. The cartridge was loaded into the top of the handle and every time you pulled the trigger the spring would release the cartridge one shot before a catch would stop it. This had the unfortunate design flaw of meaning the gun was always armed, so a safety switch had been put in place, and also making it hard to aim with the emptying cartridge sitting in front of your sites.

  Standing next to the wizard was another human male, this time wearing the full armour of a guardsmen. He had short black hair and a square face that screamed soldier. “Well, elf,” shouted the wizard. “You have chosen an excellent time to attack, but we will not give up the city without a fight.”

  The Guardsmen just sneered. Arderan was not entirely sure who at. Arderan shouted, “Look, we are here to help. The last thing we need at the moment is an out of control undead horde.”

  The wizard then turned to the soldier. “Captain, summon the men to the gate.”

  The captain gave him a look and replied in an entirely sarcastic tone, “What men.”

  The wizard look slightly taken aback by the captain’s ruddiness. His face turned slightly red and he proceeded to shout, “Look, you idiot, we have an Elven army on our doorstep. Now get some men to defend the city from this... this menace, before I smite you.”

  The captain let out a short, sharp laugh then pointed towards the smoke. “In the name of the gooddam gods, they have this city. We are already defeated, and do you know who we have to blame? Bloody wizards.” Arderan had never seen any creature’s face turn so red in such a short amount of time, but the wizard had pulled off that amazing feat, as he shouted. “RIGHT, that’s it,” and raised his wand.

  Before he had even uttered a word, the captain had unsheathed his sword and stabbed the wizard in the neck. He then pushed the now mortally wounded and gurgling wizard away and over the edge of the guard tower. Leaving the wizard to fall hard onto the ground with a sickening smack a few observers in the crowd even cheered the wizard’s demise. The Guardsmen then shouted,
“Open the gates,” to a couple of men below who proceeded to turn the gears that allowed the heavy portcullis to rise up with a slow, metallic groan. He motioned his men to follow him into the city gates as some of the civilians moved off to the side as they slowly trudged out of the city, some grasping the only belongings they ever had and allowing the Elven troops into the city.

  He dismounted his horse by the city gates and walked up a narrow staircase next to the gates up to the captain who had just managed to perform his own coup and was now, he assumed, in sort of command. Once he reached the top of the stairs, the captain opened a door to a guard room and showed him in.

  Inside, he found a couple more soldiers standing around a table which had a crude map of the city on it, and they seemed to be arguing about how best to leave the city with what men and materials remained. Their entrance caused the argument to halt for a moment as the captain spoke in a deep voice.

  “Gentlemen, good news. Apparently we have reinforcements.”

  He pointed towards Arderan who decided to give them a quick nod as one of the guardsmen threw his hands in the air and said in a loud tone, “Great, first the wizards’ creation turns on us, and now we have to be saved by a bunch of elves. Truly we have fallen to a new low.”

  “Indeed,” replied the captain. “By the way, the name is Cardar.”

  Arderan grabbed and shook Cardar’s outstretched hand. Arderan decided there was no point in arguing and went straight down to business. He took a look at the map. “Right,” he said, looking at it as one of his aides appeared at the door. “Right, I assume we are here?” He looked up, and the captain simply nodded. “How far have the horde managed to get?” A guard pointed to a few buildings halfway across the city. “And your men?”

  The guard sighed and replied, “It's difficult to know where we are split up around the city. We are trying to regroup here.”