Chapter 3: The Condemned One
Thayan Rommel wasn't ready to die. As he'd lain battered and bloody on the cold stone floor all night, he'd tried to convince himself death was an escape and should be welcomed. But he'd failed. His death was to come by worm bite, and that fact was too horrible for his mind to accept.
As the lock of his dungeon door clicked open, panic and rage gripped his heart. "Filthy wretches!" he yelled. "How can they do this to me?"
They could do it to him because he couldn't stop them. Thayan was beginning to understand that life was all about power, and everything else was just wishful thinking. Power was all that mattered, and at the moment, he had none of it. On the other hand, the seers were in command of his very existence.
The heavy iron door was wrenched open, and a seer and a Hetheope guard strode into the cell. The seer was a young, smug master of Ulden lore named Harranstod, and he gazed down at Thayan with concern and disdain.
"Thayan Rommel," Harranstod said. "Your death sentence is to be carried out immediately. You will not be allowed breakfast. Today you will go hungry."
"Go crawl into a furnace," Thayan muttered. His long black hair hung over his face, concealing the hatred burning in his eyes. He pushed that hair aside so Harranstod could see his expression, along with the cuts and bruises on his swollen face.
The seer ignored him. "I've been instructed to repeat our judgment against you, so you fully understand why you are being punished."
"I've heard it already," said Thayan. "Just shut up and get on with it."
"You've called upon the dreadful forces of Blue World," the seer went on. "You knowingly broke one of the most sacred laws of Valganleer Tower. You showed total disregard for all that Valganleer represents. Therefore, you must die in the worst way possible--by being fed to the worms and having your life-force...having your life-force...drained away." Harranstod lowered his gaze. "It wasn't my decision, Thayan. As lord of the high council, Vangoss decided your punishment."
"You're all in it together," Thayan said. "You seers are all the same. If you had any decency, you'd let me escape."
For a moment Harranstod seemed to be considering the notion, and Thayan's heart pounded harder. Was there a chance he'd be let go?
Then Harranstod stood up straighter and smoothed out his cloak. "I obey the tower laws, Thayan. That's why I'm a seer. I was sent here to carry out your punishment, and that's exactly what will happen."
"Look at my face," said Thayan. "Does any man deserve to be treated this way? You call this justice?"
Harranstod fidgeted uncomfortably. "I'm not sure whose order it was to have you beaten in such a barbaric fashion. But it certainly wasn't mine. While I don't agree with all the laws of Valganleer, I'm compelled to honor them. You were a good student, Thayan. You had a lot of promise. I'm pained to see it end so badly."
"I'll bet," said Thayan, rolling his eyes. "You have your whole life ahead you, indulging in the comforts of this tower. Meanwhile, I'll be dead and forgotten."
Harranstod sighed. "You won't be forgotten, Thayan." It was a ridiculous statement even for one as clueless as this young seer.
Thayan laughed bitterly. "Right, I'm sure everyone will remember the poor sod that screwed up and got fed to the worms. I'm sure the name Thayan will ring through the halls of Valganleer for decades to come."
Harranstod winced. "You're angry. I understand. But I assure you there is nothing I can do. I'm just here to escort you to the West Gate."
"Just following orders, huh?" said Thayan. "Great excuse. But if it allows you to sleep better at night, I guess it does the job."
Harranstod shook his head in pity and disgust. "This is all your fault, Thayan. You brought this doom upon yourself. You cannot guilt me into helping you escape a fate you created. I didn't come here for this. I came to carry out an order."
Thayan wracked his brain for some means of persuading the seer. The guilt trip was quickly failing. "You could be a hero, Harranstod!"
"No, I couldn't," said Harranstod. "Because were I to break tower law, the guilt would be far worse."
"Swine!" Thayan growled, losing all control. "I hope the worms find you and suck your tiny brain out of your skull!"
Harranstod sighed again, and nodded to the Hetheope guard. "I've heard more than enough. Bring him."
The Hetheope swiped up Thayan. As Thayan was bounced roughly along, every muscle in his body screamed in pain. He'd been locked up for three days here, in the Hall of Justice in stone caverns beneath Valganleer Tower, and every day he'd been beaten by the same guard who now carried him to his death. He closed his eyes, wishing he could teleport far away--to anywhere else. Dimly he thought of trying to escape, but he knew it was an absurd notion. The bull man was far too strong to break away from, and Thayan was too weak to possibly even walk, let alone run.
Nothing would stop this brutal act. He was going to die in the worst way known to humankind--the same way his sister had died. How could the seers be so cruel as to inflict such a terrible punishment on a human being? The thought of it made his hatred for them smolder white hot. Somehow, they had to pay dearly for this act. But since he would be dead and gone, his rage was useless.
Thayan wasn't sure exactly how long he was carried through the tower--half an hour, maybe--because he kept his eyes closed while his mind desperately sought a means of escape. He went over everything that had led him to this point, but the only thing that could save him was intervention by Vangoss or another high council member--and he knew that wasn't going to happen.
At last he heard a loud grating of stone, and cold rain and wind pelted his face. He opened his eyes to a stormy day that was almost as dark as night. Lightning flashed off the cliffs that surrounded Valganleer Tower. The only sign of life was a few huge, crooked pines that grew at the base of the rocks. Otherwise, nothing greeted his vision but barren, craggy cliffs beneath the storm. It was the perfect place for a lonely death.
Thayan was carried to the huge West Gate and shoved against the thick iron bars, so that Harranstod could hold a final conversation with him and record his last words. He could feel the cold, wet metal pressed hard into his back, and he realized he would be feeling that sensation right up until his death.
"Any final thoughts?" Harranstod asked, his voice a near shout to be heard over the storm. He produced a small greenstone book, his hand shaking as he held it up. He activated it by touching symbols of sorcery inscribed on the cover. "I should have asked you back in the dungeon, but I was distracted by your pleas and I forgot. Whatever you say will be recorded in the greenstone records in keeping with our ancient laws. Any protest you utter to this punishment may be used as a reference for determining future punishments. I ask that you speak quickly, for the rain is cold."
"I have only one thing to say," Thayan groaned, seeing another chance at persuasion. "Let me go. No one will know. They'll think the worms took me. You can't do this to me. It was a mistake!"
"Perhaps," said Harranstod, looking away. "But some mistakes are unforgivable. You used a Blue World device to summon a spirit."
"I summoned my sister," Thayan pleaded. "She was killed by a worm. I thought it had taken her soul, and I wanted to make sure she still existed." He thought back how, when he activated the Blue World device called a grave mend, his sister's shade had appeared so swiftly to him. She'd spoken soothingly, letting him know that all was well with her. For several days after that, Thayan was as happy as he'd ever been--until his crime was discovered and he was given a quick trial in the Sky Chamber.
"You stole that grave mend from a forbidden chamber," said Harranstod, "and used it for personal gain."
"I heard rumors that worms destroy a person's soul," said Thayan. "I needed to make sure she lived on in the hereafter. You must understand! It was some type of obsession with me, something I couldn't control."
Harranstod seemed to falter and looked away. "I'm sorry," he said bitterly, rain dripping from his face. "I understand you
r reason, but our laws still must be obeyed. And it's not my decision. I already told you that!"
"What if the worms do devour souls?" Thayan yelled at him. "Is any crime worth such a punishment as being erased from existence?"
"There is no such proof that worms do that," said Harranstod, but his body was trembling visibly from more than just the cold rain and he refused to look Thayan in the eye.
"But the seers have debated it!" Thayan pushed on desperately.
"No conclusive proof was found that a soul can be absorbed that way," said Harranstod. "The seers concluded that souls and spiritual entities are indestructible. And besides, your sister's shade appeared to you, so there's your proof, of sorts. Now I refuse to stand here and argue about unknowns with a condemned prisoner!"
"But she wasn't completely devoured," said Thayan, his voice becoming shrill like the wind. "She was bitten deeply and died later." He knew it was a weak argument but it was all he had at that point.
"Enough!" Harranstod shouted. "You must be punished. What happens after death is beyond the knowledge of the living."
The seer motioned to the Hetheope and then turned away, clutching his head. Thayan thought that Harranstod might be weeping, but there was no way to tell. The monstrous guard again lifted Thayan, and clamped a smelly hand over his mouth. The gate opened to allow them out, with a loud groaning and creaking of iron, and then they were on the other side.
"This is the end for you, Thayan," Harranstod said. His face was hardened beneath his low-hanging hood. "May your soul find peace--even if it's in the belly of a worm!"
At the seer's signal, the Hetheope lifted Thayan up to where some leg and wrist cuffs were welded to the bars. The Hetheope snapped the cuffs closed around Thayan's wrists and ankles. Then the seer and the bull man passed back through the gate, while Thayan hung suspended and rode along like a puppet as the iron bars opened and closed by some unseen method. He was left alone in the storm.
Thayan gazed down at the road that vanished between the cliffs, barely seeing anything through the slashing rain. He still clung to life, but hope had seemingly escaped his grasp. The worms would come soon enough to devour his energy and memories and leave him a dried out husk. The storm would not conceal him from the predators. Every night, the worms swarmed into the area, destroying any animal life not hidden from them and seeking to pierce the magical barrier that protected Valganleer Tower. Thayan might last a day or two more if they somehow didn't catch sight of him--but they would eventually sniff him out.
This was justice? He licked rain from his lips. "It was just a mistake," he whispered. "A bad one. But...I don't deserve this." His words were shattered by the wind and a sudden burst of thunder as if the gods were silencing him.
"Help me, Lorelda!" he begged. But without the assistance of the grave mend, his sister's shade did not come this time. Thayan wondered if he would see her again when he was dead. She had meant everything to him, and when the worm took her essence and left her as a wasted shell, Thayan had spent months in a suicidal depression.
Now he would share her fate. The irony of it was sickening, considering that after her demise he had vowed that no worm would ever claim him.
Frantically he searched his mind for anything that could save him, but he'd already tried every possible thing there was to try. He'd thrown himself at the mercy of the seers, had begged to simply be ousted from Valganleer, or even tortured and imprisoned. But the seers were bound by their ancient laws, and when Vangoss ordered Thayan's death sentence, not a protest was uttered. Thayan requested a Garn Abbane, but that had done nothing to help him. He was guilty as charged. The Thelaran keepers had told him he would meet his destiny at the West Gate, that a journey into ruin lay ahead of him that would cost him his soul.
"So I'm going to end up in misery?" he'd asked Glendissa.
She answered calmly that he most definitely would. Misery beyond his imagination awaited him, and there was no way he could avoid it. He'd tinkered with the forces of Blue World, and his course in life had been forever changed.
"There is nothing I can do to change it?" Thayan pleaded.
"All you can do is flow with it," she answered, "and accept your fate. Remember these keys--trust, loyalty, and courage. That is all I can tell you." Then Glendissa had done something strange to him--grasping the flesh of his arms with her claw-like hands and burning them. He'd screamed in pain and passed out. He did not know what she'd done to him, and when he awoke he was in some cold dungeon in the depths of Valganleer.
"This is my journey into ruin," Thayan whispered into the wind. "It begins here at the West Gate, and it will lead me to misery. Undoubtedly, a misery found in the belly of a worm!" He shuddered, and hot pain flared through his muscles.
But as the hours wore on, Thayan's mind roamed back to his former life. He'd been a fine Ulden student, consistently earning praise over his four years at Valganleer. He'd not blended in well with his peers because they found him to be a bit on the dark side, but his teachers--the only ones that mattered in the long run--had loved his work ethic and talent. He'd been well on his way to becoming a great sorcerer and having a long, rewarding life.
But in the end, a single thoughtless act had undone everything. It partially comforted him to know that his sister's spirit lived on, and she'd seemed happy enough. However, the Thelaran keepers had made it clear that because he'd dabbled with the forces of Blue World he would not be going where his sister was--and he realized he would probably never see her again. His use of the grave mend had not, in the least, been worth it, and he regretted it to the deepest core of his being.
Thayan thought of his former friends, who were either studying at this time or joking around in the Goliat Hall--the space in Valganleer reserved for dining and recreation. Perhaps they were enjoying hot stew and biscuits--or some other delicious food. Only three days had passed since he'd been amongst them, but it all seemed so distant now, so far beyond his grasp.
Thayan had the urge to bite his lip, to pierce a growing numbness that was settling over him and make sure he was still alive. But he let it pass. The numbness didn't matter. It was perhaps even a good thing. He could only gaze into the storm now and wait for the worms. Somehow, he thought he could feel them drawing closer, their luminous bodies twisting as they soared amongst the cliffs in search of living energy.
Having nothing else left, Thayan whispered his promise into the storm--to gods that he wasn't sure existed or even cared. "Somehow," he promised, "I will live through this. I will walk a road that no one has imagined, and do deeds that will change the fate of Americk Dreeth. I will not find ruin, but triumph! Somehow, this will all come to pass and justice will be served. The seers will pay dearly for what they've done!"
As he spoke, Thayan felt a hidden strength swell within him. He faced the storm without flinching, daring the forces of the universe to dispute his words. It was in divine hands now whether those words would become truth.
And in that moment, Thayan could feel something change, as if the hands of fate were suddenly at work--as if his promise had been heard. The wind shifted, and the rustling of his tattered cloak filled his ears. Something seemed different for an instant, but he wasn't sure what. Chills flooded along his spine, like tiny fingers caressing his flesh.
Thayan tried to remain defiant, but as time wore on, his will weakened once again, and he bowed his head. The gods would not help him--whether they existed or not. He was nothing to them. His challenge to them was ridiculous and no doubt had provided them with a good laugh. It seemed there was only himself, the storm, and the approaching worms.
The Curse of Credesar, Part 1 Page 4