The Shadow of All Worlds

by Shane Porteous

  Chapter 15

  Regent Jenner strode over to the second entry point, his head still reeling. He’d expected some captains not to take warmly to his plan of getting Malik to rally the refugees. Yet it was a good plan, as good as any, for something had to be done. As it was now all the refugees would be doing is sitting targets to be absorbed into this Red Army. While Jenner didn’t enjoy Malik’s company at all, he knew the man was most effective in getting untrained masses to fight like a decent army, hopefully one strong enough to defend itself.

  Jenner climbed to the top of the wall and shaded his eyes to scan the horizon. A lone rider, wearing black crested the horizon not long after. Could it be Malik? Jenner hadn’t expected him so soon, but this could be a sign things were finally starting to look up.

  The rider approached at a breakneck speed, and within minutes he was close enough to hail. Jenner raised his hand, the words, “Malik, welcome!” already formed on his lips. But they died before he uttered them. It wasn’t Malik, but a stranger, wearing a tight fitting black uniform, the hood of his cloak pulled low over his eyes. The mistake was easy to make, this man was dressed similar to how he remembered Malik.

  Jenner hurried down to the courtyard and to the gate. The rider had almost reached it, so Jenner sent the guard away and opened the looking window in the door.

  The rider stopped at the gate and pulled off his hood. He looked hardly older than twenty, if that. Yet there was a fire in his deep green eyes that revealed knowledge beyond any human lifespan. “I have urgent news for King Yadi. Please let me in.”

  “Who are you?” Jenner asked. “Are you part of the Camden Guard?”

  He hoped that this man may have come from the same place as Malik, and that Malik might even have sent him in his stead. It would mean he would know how to rally people, but hopefully without Malik’s menace.

  The stranger shook his head. “My name is Kae, and I’m not from your world. I’ve been here before, when you called us to help you defend this city against the orcs. Now I’ve come to warn you of an even more dire attack.”

  Jenner felt his head spin. This stranger could only be talking about the Red Army, and hopefully he knew more about them. He waved the guards to open the door, and stood back to let Kae ride in.

  “I’ll take you to the King at once,” he said once Kae dismounted. “You can leave your horse here.”

  Kae followed Jenner across the courtyard, his separated self already standing next to Yadi in a large stone walled meeting hall, where many men and women sat around a large table with the king at its head. All around him, the aftermath of the battle of Ebulon was still very much in evidence. Crumbled walls, large boulders blocking the path, homes and workshops destroyed. Brown stains covered the stone ground here and there, old blood that had not yet been washed away, and perhaps never would be. Families huddled in houses with no walls, sitting around fires, wrapped in cloaks and blankets. How long has it been since the battle? Clearly not very long, these people didn’t even have time to rebuild yet.

  Once they reached the tower where the king was, Jenner took the stairs two at a time. Kae could feel the glances of the tower guards bore into him and the servants walked past him with their heads lowered, filled with doubt and concern.

  The hall fell to silence as Kae and Jenner entered. The emotions of every man and woman present flooded Kea’s mind through his separated self. Anger, confusion, concern, fear and doubt, mingled with his own feelings until he could hardly tell where his mind ended and the others’ began. He held on tightly to the guilt that still predominated in his own mind, guilt over defying his orders, going against the Head Priest openly and breaking his oaths as a Protector. But he was doing the right thing coming to warn King Yadi, he had no doubt about that.

  “What is it, Jenner?” the king asked, clearly struggling not to yawn.

  “This is Kae of the Protectors. Apparently you have met him before, during the siege of Ebulon,” Jenner explained. “He comes bearing some dire news.”

  By the look in the weary eyes of the king, Kae could tell that Yadi remembered the Protectors just not him specifically. Not surprising, they hadn’t even spoken then. Yadi seemed to have aged twenty years since Kae last saw him. He seemed vulnerable, almost frail, and Yadi wasn’t the only one. Everyone gathered at the table seemed weary like they had been cursed by some dark magic that had robbed them of strength.

  “Welcome again to my city, Kae, did you get lost in the mountains on your way back to your own world? I apologize for not thinking that far ahead, the winters of this world can be harsh, I should have organized escorts for you.”

  Kae could feel the sincerity in the King’s voice, and some small bursts of animosity coming from some of the others around the table. Some of that was his own though. He resented the king’s accusation that he might have gotten lost. Such a thing would never happen to him.

  Kae swallowed his pride though. He stood before the king, hands clasped behind his back and took a moment to group his thoughts. “My leader, Head Priest Rhaldan, is here, as are whole armies of other villains. They have been summoned here by the Ulnath, to help them get something called the Shadow Stone.”

  There was an exchange of glances between those gathered, but the king didn’t look away from Kae. He leaned forward and the expression on his face made it seem like this was the most important thing he had ever heard.

  “Who issued the call? I am the only one with the ability,” Yadi said.

  “There was a man with the Ulnath about 20 years old. Morzu they called him.”

  The silence that filled the room felt like pure ice. Yadi slumped back in his chair, strength taken from him like something had been plucked out of his very soul. His hands were trembling, his eyes were darting back and forth frantically like they were trying to escape the sockets. He stood up suddenly, his labored breath suggesting something was suffocating him. “Give Kae whatever he wants, I must be alone.”

  Yadi walked out of the room like something was chasing him, something he couldn’t face. What could have startled the king enough to run from the room? He could have just ordered his subjects to leave instead.

  Though not liking the further bad news he was about to bring, Kae needed to kill the silence, for it was like a horrible shadow lurking over all of them.

  “More than just Rhaldan answered Morzu’s call, thousands of creatures have come as well” Kae said. “They have beasts too. Flying monsters, bigger than a house.”

  His warnings were only met with further silence. Everyone gathered here was staring downwards into nothingness, they seemed too shocked by the mention of Morzu to comprehend what he had just been said. Eventually one did raise his head. He was the most formidable looking man Kae had ever seen in Ebulon. His frame and features seemed specifically bred to belong to a warrior, even his blonde beard appeared like a kind of armor designed to protect his face. But even he seemed defeated by the revelation. Kae could tell by the engravings of his armor this man was a captain in the Ebulon army. His powerful blue eyes were the kind that could send fear into enemies and bravery into allies. But all that permeated this man’s emotions now were sorrow and shock.

  “The man you speak of...there is a chance that it might be the King’s son Viadi…” he took a long breath, like the growl of weary bear.

  “Why is he fighting with the Ulnath then?” Kae asked before thinking better of it. Morzu’s betrayal of his father was grave, but not unlike Kae’s own.

  “King Yadi had only just been crowned king, and he was eager to prove himself as a worthy ruler,” the captain continued. “His father, King Aldadi was considered the greatest king in Ebulon history and Yadi was determined to live up to his father’s legacy. To do so, he had vowed to rid the Harrow mountains of orcs,’ Juruz tightened his breath.

  “Initially, Yadi’s campaign was successful. Even the stubborn Foloa dwarves, who dwelt in the mountains, were impressed by his efforts, and they organized a special banq
uet in his honor. Yadi, knowing how important such an event was for his reputation took his wife and infant son along with him, as well as an escort of 500 highly trained men. However, the celebration proved far too early for the orcs hadn’t abandoned the Harrow Mountains. They were simply regrouping.”

  Captain Juruz visibly shuddered while delivering this story, a thing Kae would not have expected from such a seasoned warrior.

  “A force of 5,000 orcs ambushed the escort. The Queen, Yadi’s wife Evahaher was one of the first to die in the attack, which was a hectic, bloody thing that ended quickly with few survivors on Ebulon’s side. The orc numbers were simply too great to defeat.”

  The memory seemed to weigh down Juruz’s mind, for he lowered his head before continuing with soft, slow words. “Only the King and I escaped. We fled the scene upon a single horse. Until this moment…everyone in the whole kingdom was certain that it was only the King and I that had survived the ambush. Now it seems that Viadi, the King’s son lived too. The last time I saw him, he was lying in a puddle of blood still clutched by the queen, even in death.”

  Juruz’s stomach cramped in pain remembering Yadi’s wails when he saw them. It took all the strength Juruz possessed to drag the king away from battle that day.

  Yet Juruz now had little doubt that Viadi was indeed alive. Only, the reunion between father and son would likely prove as bloody as their separation all those years ago. With the captain’s last words, a sickening silence returned to the room. Pure, painful, crippling sorrow filled the hall.

  “Kae,” Regent Jenner finally broke the silence. “The journey from Za-xayek must’ve been long and tiring, let me escort you to get something to eat.”

  Kae couldn’t bring himself to speak in the sorrow and dread-filled silence of the hall, so he simply nodded and followed Regent Jenner’s lead.