by Jeff Inlo
Epilogue
Several days after his army was annihilated by the dwarves of Dunop, Sazar skulked through a dark tunnel under Burbon with one thing on his mind; revenge. The delver had defeated his plans on more than one occasion and the serp was now tired of losing to this Ryson Acumen. It was the delver that helped save Dunop and brought a premature end to Sazar’s raid of the underground dwarf city, and it was Ryson Acumen that had thwarted the serp at Pinesway. Losing Connel, however, was the last straw. He knew Ryson was the first to enter the caverns under the city. Sazar saw what the rock beetles saw before the dwarves killed them off. He knew Ryson led the way, and when the dwarves followed the delver into Connel, Sazar’s dreams of conquering the eastern lands died as well.
The more he considered what he lost, the angrier Sazar became. He had taken Connel without losing a single minion. He removed the most trained soldiers and had the humans ready to knuckle under to his will. The human Consprite was taking care of supplying Tabris with test subjects for her spells. He had everything under control until that delver appeared in the caves below Connel.
The serp could only guess what happened to Consprite and the vampire that protected him, but for some reason he knew that Tabris was dead. He felt the power she gave him being ripped away, and when it was gone, he somehow knew the sorceress had ceased to exist. There was no point in returning to the desert to reaffirm his bargain with the witch. At the moment, there was very little point in anything.
He no longer commanded an army. The horde of goblins he controlled was decimated by the dwarves, the hook hawks shot out of the sky by the human cavalry. Only the one giant shag that served as his body guard remained under his will, that and a small number of razor crows. His riches were gone, his supplies hastily left behind in Connel. His augmented power to control creatures at far distances died with the sorceress. Everything he had obtained since coming to this cursed land was lost, and he placed the blame for that squarely on Ryson Acumen.
There was little point in returning to what he was, a meager raider of outposts scratching for survival. What point was there to gain control over a half dozen goblins when he tasted the power of controlling a horde? Everything before him appeared tarnished and this too fueled his hate for the delver.
With little incentive to do anything else, Sazar focused on this hate and vowed to gain his revenge. He knew which town the delver called home—Burbon. When the dwarves attacked Burbon back at the onset of the dormant season, they created several tunnels under this town. He had discovered one that he hoped would prove useful one day. Today, he decided upon a purpose for it. He walked within this tunnel now with a focus on obtaining his vengeance.
Sazar used those few remaining razor crows under his power to scout out the streets of Burbon and find where Ryson lived. He now knew of that location, and once they reached the proper point, the shag would dig to the surface very close to that spot.
The shag could dig quickly, that was the only thing that saved Sazar in Connel. When the dwarves flooded the interior of the city, the serp knew all was lost. His self-preservation remained strong and he took to the dark streets with his large shag guard. The rock beetles gave him a great understanding of the tunnels below the city before they fell to the might of the dwarves. With that understanding, he ordered the shag to dig. They reached the caves before the dwarves or the humans could find them and Sazar escaped down a southern access tunnel.
Escape, however, was no longer on his mind. This time Sazar would use the shag to reach the delver and then kill him. He didn’t care how fast the delver was or how nimble. The shag would catch Acumen in his home where he lived with his mate. Sazar would use the human female to distract the delver, and in the close confines of the house, the delver would die. It would be a painful death. Sazar almost smiled at this thought, but any delight ended there.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” Sy said as he stepped out into the center of the dark passage. He lit a torch so that they could all see equally well. “I’m sure you remember me. I’m the captain of the guard here. You once threatened this town with destruction if we didn’t give you what you wanted. Do you remember that?”
Sazar hissed but said nothing.
“That always left me with a bad taste in my mouth,” Sy continued. “You went on to plunder a great deal of treasure from the dwarves because I didn’t want to risk stopping you. I guess I have my chance now.”
Before Sazar could answer, another figure stepped into the new light of the torch.
“Hello Sazar,” Ryson offered with no true emotion beyond disgust for the creature. “What is it you’re planning now?”
Sazar’s eyes burned red with hate as they fell upon the delver. He found his voice quickly this time. “I plan to have you killed! So nice of you to accommodate me by showing up here. You will not be able to outmaneuver my shag in such close quarters.”
“Are you sure your shag can defeat all three of us?” Ryson asked.
“Three?” the serp stammered aloud.
A third member of Burbon’s protectors moved out of the shadows behind Sy and Ryson. Sazar recognized her as the elf guard.
“I can see you know me as well,” Holli offered, “but did you know that I am no longer an elf guard? I now protect another and I do not leave his presence often. I am usually wherever he is and that includes now.”
Sazar was not given even a moment to fully understand what that meant. The true meaning was spelled out to him immediately as the fourth and final member of the group stepped forward.
Enin walked past the other three directly up to Sazar. “You are an evil creature,” the wizard said with both contempt and sadness. “You are responsible for much suffering and that ends tonight. Did you really think I would be so naïve to leave this tunnel unguarded? We knew you were here the moment you entered.”
Even standing beside the great shag, Sazar now feared for his life. He understood the power of this wizard and even the shag’s physical strength was no match for that kind of magical force. What Sazar did not notice was the shag showed no sign of agitation whatsoever. It stood there with an empty stare simply waiting for the serp to order him onward.
While Sazar seemed oblivious to this, Enin decided to make him more aware of the situation. “Instead of worrying what I might do to you, you should be wondering why your large friend hasn’t shown any alarm to our presence. Take a look at him. The truth is he doesn’t know we are here. I am blinding him to us. He can’t see, hear, or smell us. The only one he thinks is here is you.”
Enin paused for a moment to allow the serp to take a good long look at his protector. “Go ahead, order him to attack us,” the wizard finally continued. “You’ll just confuse him. There’s nothing you can do that would remove the block I have on his meager mind. You might send him into a rage, but who knows what he might do. In his mind, there’s no one here for him to attack, no one except you. In fact, I would start to worry about that if I were you.”
With that, Sazar suddenly found a new fear tearing at his twisted soul. “What do you mean?”
Enin found no true pleasure in this moment, but he wanted to make the situation clear. “The shag can not see, smell or hear anyone else here but you. We are in a very narrow tunnel with no real path of escape. What do you think this shag would do right now if you suddenly lost the ability to control him? He looks hungry to me and I think serp is a meal he would accept.”
“You would not…” Sazar began but fear ended his sentence.
“I would and I will. I will, however, give you a very small chance. You have a few moments to get out of this tunnel before I convince this shag he no longer has to listen to you.”
Sazar did not waste any time arguing or begging for mercy. He turned and attempted to move off back toward the tunnel exit. Serps, however, are not agile creatures. His run was more of a shuffle and he made little progress.
Enin gave him more time than he first intended. As the serp moved beyond his sight down the sloping tunne
l, Enin waved his hands in front of the shag. Two pure white circles appeared at the wizard’s fingertips and then dissolved in front of the monster’s face.
At first, the shag appeared dazed, as if waking from a long sleep. It peered about the tunnel trying to get its bearings. Finally, it sniffed the air. It caught a scent and turned about. Without delay, it bounded after the serp.
Enin watched the departing monster with a heavy sigh. This signified the true end for everything that had happened. All those that had played a part in the attack on Connel would face the consequences of their actions. It seemed almost as if each and every matter of importance had found a suitable conclusion—from Baannat’s destruction to the dwarves restoring of their own honor. Everything appeared to be as it should, until he thought of the delver and Ryson’s own deliberations regarding what was right and what was wrong. Ryson always seemed to have such a definitive measure of things and the wizard wondered what the delver was thinking at this very moment. Enin turned to his friend and asked the question outright.
“I need to ask you this, Ryson. Do you think I just did the right thing?”
Ryson looked down the tunnel. He knew the shag would catch Sazar, knew that the serp would die. He then looked down at the ground and thought of Lief. He believed the elf would have approved without hesitation, but the question was did he approve.
“Sazar came here on his own,” Ryson offered. “He brought the shag with him. He put himself in this situation, and I think we can all agree he didn’t come here planning to do anyone any favors. No one twisted his arm. All you did was remove Sazar’s control of the shag. You once told me that you can’t keep people from their fate. I’m not entirely sure about destiny and all that, at least not the way you talk about it, but I do understand that you can’t always escape responsibility. Eventually, it catches up to you. And in truth, I think that’s the way it should be. Sazar pushed the limits, and tonight it caught up with him. The only one that gets blamed for that is him. I don’t think it’s a matter of approving or disapproving of what happened here. I just accept it.”
With that, Ryson thought of Lief again. He also thought of Reader Matthew, the old man in Pinesway, and even Edward Consprite. None of them asked for the situation they were placed in. Lief didn’t want to be banished from his camp. Reader Matthew certainly didn’t ask to be sent to the Lacobian desert. The old man in Pinesway didn’t want goblins to attack what was once his home. Even Edward Consprite didn’t ask for the events that led to his removal as mayor—the return of magic to the land.
These were events beyond their control, but their actions to deal with these events were not dictated to them. Each and every one of them made choices. Lief turned his anger outward to the land and on to its inhabitants. He died fighting valiantly against an evil sorceress, but Ryson wondered how much Lief had lost of himself before his own end. Matthew courageously gave his life to save Ryson, and in the process reforged his faith. The old man in Pinesway might be dead or alive, Ryson had no idea. He was living in a dangerous place and that was his decision, but it was a decision based as much on honoring his deceased wife as it was an unwillingness to accept other alternatives, other paths to travel.
Finally, there was Edward Consprite. He died when Lief’s arrow pierced his heart, but there was little left to save by that point. He had moved beyond a bitter and angry man and became a deviant dealing death for those he blamed for his misfortune. Ryson always found it difficult to believe that any creature deserved to die, but it was just as difficult for him to believe Consprite didn’t deserve his fate.
In the end, Ryson found it impossible to judge any of them. It was not his place. Everyone can’t determine the circumstances they face. To Ryson, most of it always seemed like nothing more than blind chance. He never understood why one person was forced to face so much adversity while another simply could glide through life without having to face a single challenge. That never made any sense. He knew good people that faced constant misfortune and people of lesser character that somehow found wealth wherever they looked. It didn’t seem fair and that always bothered him, it always would.
He then considered what Enin tried to tell them all, how everyone had a choice. Maybe they couldn’t determine the fortune of their circumstances, but they could decide how to deal with it. He thought of his very own words and how often things came down to simple matters of responsibility and acceptance. He told Enin he would just accept what happened here this night and that is what he was determined to do.
A Final Note from the Author
Thank you for reading my work. I have tried to make these ebooks available in as many formats as possible. If you encounter any difficulty with the formatting, please let me know. Contact information can be found on my web site at www.sitelane.com. If you enjoyed this book, please consider my other novels, including When Do I See God? and Soul View.
Jeff Inlo lives in New Jersey, USA with his wife, Joan, and their dog, Jilly.