Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian

by Jeffrey Quyle

  He walked towards the stables, and as he reached them, a number of horses came into the stable yard. Alec ran into a nearby barn, and climbed up into the loft, where he found a knothole in the wall and peered out at the torch lit yard. A great many imperial guards were on horses, and some other non-guards were with them. A wagon was pulling up behind them bearing more guards and several sacks of freight.

  Alec noticed a smell, and he lifted his head away from the wall. It was the peculiar odor of the restorers, a crisp, spicy odor that immediately registered. The restorers were somewhere very close by. He climbed slowly back down out of the loft, keeping a cautious eye on the barn door as he descended. He walked through a half door to the other side of the barn, where he could just barely tell there were several stout wooden stalls lining the walls and in the center. Stumbling over a bucket in the middle of the floor he froze in monetary panic. There were sounds outside, as people apparently walked around the building. He reached into a stall and a dark shape snorted and rose from the deep shadows in the back. It was a restorer! He had found their home.

  Reaching into his bag, he pulled out one of the bunches of leaves he had bought at the market, and also the sugar. He heard the large animal snuffle as it stepped closer. He opened the bag of sugar, and poured some on one of the dockleaf vine leaves, then held it out under the snout of the restorer. The animal’s delicate nose sniffed, and then its lips grasped the food and drew it into its mouth. Alec felt its tongue lick his fingers and search for more snack, but he withdrew his hand and moved to the next stall. He repeated the process with that animal as well in just a few seconds. The sounds of the first two animals’ enjoyment of their food had aroused the other animals, and as Alec went from stall to stall, he had no problem giving each one a dose of the special plant he had selected.

  While examining the emperor’s animal at the arena during the prior day, he had noticed the strange organs, the ones that apparently created the ability to transport themselves and people from place to place. The delicate chemistry of those organs could be disrupted by consumption of the wrong foods. The dockleaf vine leaves were the most disruptive food Alec had found. Their chemistry would play havoc with the animals’ ability to transport, for months, or even permanently. The sugar had made the otherwise unappetizing leaves irresistible to the restorers, and as he moved around the barn, Alec was putting an end to their unique ability to deliver supplies and the next wave of invaders to the Dominion.

  A loud creak froze Alec in his tracks. He heard footsteps inside the barn, and continued to feed the animals, moving around the corner out of sight of the door. A dim light appeared, as a lantern entered the stall section of the barn, and Alec hopped into a pen with an animal, crouching down in the corner, as the animal came to him to be fed, hiding him from view.

  “The animals are all up. That’s unusual,” a voice commented

  “But they’re all alive. That’s what matters,” another voice responded.

  The light grew brighter as the lantern bearer turned the corner, walking down the aisle to inspect the animals where Alec was hidden. He watched the light pass directly in front of his pen, and move on, then dim as it went around the corner.

  “They’re all safe and sound. We’re going to post guards on all sides of the building. If I were you, I’d stay out of the eastern side courtyard,” one voice said in a confidential tone.

  “What’s going to happen?” the other asked.

  “A sorceress is going to perform her rites there, and call forth a servant to kill Tarnum when he arrives,” the first speaker said, his voice fading as they moved out of ear shot.

  Alec relaxed, exuberant at what he had heard. They were going to guard the building while he stayed inside and tampered with their animals. There would be no knowledge or evidence that the restorers could not travel until the day the emperor tried to use them. And Alec would be long gone by then, safely back in a Dominion no longer under the threat of invasion.

  He pressed his animal out of the way, and hopped out of the stall. He resumed visiting the animals, feeding each one as he came to its stall, and within an hour he had disabled every restorer in the barn, twenty-two in all.

  There was a scream outside, and Alec felt a deep sense of dread fall over him. The sorceress was beginning her wicked service. He heard her too-near voice call “Mosha” and heard several voices responsively answer. There was a flittering, from the bat wings he remembered so vividly he was sure, and then a chill fell on his soul and his hand grew warm, and he knew that the sorceress had called forth her demon.

  “Tarnum!” A voice called. “We know you’re out there. We know you mean to kill our restorers! We have called forward a demon of Mosha to kill you if you persist in this effort.

  “If you surrender to us and allow us to imprison you, we will not serve you up to Mosha’s demon. If you do not surrender, the demon will be given a snack to play with, the same plaything you have enjoyed these past few days, and who we have enjoyed these past few hours,” the man continued. Alec felt his heart constrict as he dreaded to hear the next words. “Your personal extension has been our guest, and we have convinced her to tell us all about you and your plans, as you can tell by our being here. She will soon be the demon’s toy.”

  Alec felt his stomach heave with fear and pain. He knelt and heaved convulsively, his empty stomach not able to disgorge anything though his mind and body were trembling. He knew that he was going to go out into the courtyard to try to free Rief by battling a demon. And he knew that he expected to die trying.

  Chapter 30 – The Unwinnable Fight

  “No, Tarnum, No!” he heard a woman’s scream abruptly cut off. Rief was truly out there in the yard.

  Alec crouched and took a deep breath, trying to evaluate the situation. He did not believe he could kill this thing from some hellish dimension. He could only hope to find Rief and free her, then make his escape using John Mark’s jar of enchanted dust. He felt his heart rate slowing down, and his trembles diminished; he remembered the tomb in John Mark’s cave, and the victory over fear and darkness that he now understood Jesus provided. Whatever the outcome here, he had already taken care of the restorers, and he would try his best to rescue his friend. He climbed back up into the hay loft so that he could look out over the court yard and get a better perspective of where Rief might be.

  He returned to the knothole and peered out. He could see the demon, pacing and snarling, revolting in its ugliness and evil. And farther from where he was observing, not twenty feet away from the monster, surrounded by a half dozen unhappy looking guards, lay Rief on the ground. It was evident to Alec that she had been horribly mistreated, and his heart flared up in anger.

  He looked at the scene. The monster was unpleasantly close to him, but neither it nor anyone else was looking up at his hiding place, he was thankful to see. The sorceress was to the right with a handful of guards around her, and Reast and Cander as well, he was shocked to see. On the left were three men clothed in black, apparently additional sorcerers who could help salvage the situation if it turned in the wrong direction. And across from him was the one he cared about, Rief, with the monster between him and her. His hand felt painfully warm, aware of the presence of the evil being so near by.

  There was no good way for him to get to Rief, run with her, and flee back to John Mark. “Tarnum,” one of the guards called, turning in all directions and repeating the name. “You have one minute until your pet become’s Mosha’s pet’s pet,” the man laughed sullenly. He motioned to the guards around her, and they roughly raised her, holding her upright to push towards where the demon paced

  Alec rapidly moved over to where a door opened from the loft. He quietly pulled the latch and cracked it open slightly. He pulled his sword from his sheath to prepare himself for whatever he was about to do. “Tarnum, it’s your fault now. You had a chance to save her,” the guard leader called, and he motioned for the other guards to push Rief towards the demon. The monster was focused o
n her, its back to Alec.

  Rief began screaming uncontrollably, and all eyes were on her. Alec said a prayer. He believed, he had to believe, that God and John Mark would not have sent him to this place, nor let him enter such a situation if he could not survive, no matter how long the odds or how bleak the situation. With that, Alec took the bag off his shoulder and laid it safely aside, then kicked the door open and sprang out into the air. He had his warrior powers engaged to the greatest degree he could manage, thankful for not having wasted any energy earlier in the day. He flew through the air and began to descend, landing squarely on the back of the demon, and plunging his sword into its back, burying the blade to the hilt.

  All the observers screamed in terror at the unexpected event in the tense situation, and the demon roared in anger and pain at this inexplicable attack. The monster reacted with unbelievable quickness, shaking itself and reaching around to grab its attacker. Alec pulled his sword out immediately, and as the monster shook, he slid down its back to the ground. He stabbed its foot, the sword running through the flesh and into the ground, then he quickly removed it and rolled off to the right, near where the sorceress stood, appalled by this eruption of the unexpected violence at her demonic rite.

  The monster turned to its left, but didn’t find Alec, then turned right and saw him standing in defiance. It gave a roar that deafened those present, and turned towards Alec, then dove with incredible speed at him. He jumped up in the air, avoiding capture, and as he flew over he swung his blade down across the skull of the demon, cutting off an ear. He landed on its back and jumped again, landing next to Rief. He pulled out his dagger, sliced the bindings on her hands, then dropped the knife beside her and ran further to the left, near the three sorcerers who stood waiting to act if needed.

  The demon was bawling with fury at Alec’s strikes against it. It stared at him with profound malignance. For long moments it didn’t move, and Alec caught his breath. Then the creature, took a deep breath, and spit out a cloud of bats, that all flew straight at Alec’s head. He swung his sword in rapid motions around his head, slicing the flying creatures apart as they circled him. Seeing that its attack was being thwarted, the demon ran at Alec again, and he backed up, almost stepping among the sorcerers. They scattered, and one of them became the new target of the remaining bats.

  Alec held his sword low, and swung at the claws of the demon, striking each attempt to grab or hit him, and inflicting injuries that further angered the ugly creature, though they did no lasting damage. The creature paused, and stepped back, and Alec could tell another frightful attack was about to happen. He ran forward and poked his sword at its thigh to distract it, but as he skipped back, his warrior powers suffered one of their mysterious Michian disruptions and quit on him. The demon swiped a paw at him as he realized he was without his energy, and he stumbled on the ground momentarily, allowing the monster to rake his shirt and chest, ripping the fabric and drawing blood from, deep, burningly painful gouges.

  “Tarnum, healer!” Rief called out, and Alec’s spirits rose slightly at the tone of compassion in her voice, even as he faced now certain doom without his energies. He circled slowly to his right, striking at any threat from the demon, then stopped, and darted back to his left, trying to keep the creature off balance. It suddenly moved towards him with greater speed than he had seen before, just as his warrior energies ignited again, and he dove away, but not before it bit into his left foot, then clamped down to get a firm grip. It lifted and started to shake its head wildly, and Alec felt himself pulled upward and whipped painfully back and forth. He threw his sword into its chest, then swung himself forward so that he rose up, and as the demon opened its mouth to scream in pain from his sword, his momentum carried him up over its head and onto its back.

  He let his momentum carry him, and he slid down its back to land in a heap on the ground by Rief, momentarily dazed. “Get up healer! Get up, please,” she said urgently, and she reached out a hand to shake him. The demon was still frantically bellowing, but was using its claws to pull the sword out of its chest.

  Alec sat up, grabbed the dagger he had left with Rief, and flung it at one of the imperial guards behind her. He sunk the weapon in the man’s chest, then rose up and hobbled over to the falling body. He could tell his energies were starting to ebb in a natural way, not the abrupt fashion he experienced and feared in Michian, and the injuries he was sustaining were painfully inhibiting his ability to fight.

  Alec grabbed the sword of the dead man, pulled the dagger from his chest and another from his belt sheath. He returned to Rief’s side, just as the demon freed the sword from its body and threw it aside. “Can you walk or run?” Alec asked Rief, angered by the many wounds he saw inflicted on her flesh.

  “Yes, healer, a little,” she answered.

  “As soon as I distract the demon to look at me over there,” he pointed towards the sorceress, “you run over into the barn and climb up into the hay loft. Wait for me there,” he told her, then limped out into the center of the yard, as the unstoppable creature began to stalk him again.

  Alec slowly gave way, backing up step by hurried step, while the demon walked towards him at a stately pace. Alec saw that it was now past Rief, and as she started to move towards the barn, he flung one of his daggers at the demon’s eye, then a fraction of a second later he threw the second. The monster focused on the first and knocked it aside, but was not able to recover in time to avoid the second, which cruelly pierced its left eye, blinding it on that side and causing it great pain.

  Alec moved to its right so it turned to see him, and removed Rief from its field of vision as she entered the barn. He picked up the dagger that had been blocked, and held it in his right hand while his borrowed sword remained in his left. The monster was watching him now from his one good eye and coming towards him fast. He braced himself on his still sound right foot, then threw the dagger at the demon’s good eye, and as it reacted to protect itself, he jumped in close and swung his captured sword with all his might at its right arm, severing the limb above the elbow. He absorbed some of the creature’s evilness and pain that was transmitted up through the metal to his sensitive hand, and he screamed at the diabolical nature that infected him momentarily.

  The demon too screamed in great pain, and the sorceress screamed as well, in some sympathetic connection he knew nothing about. The creature slumped to a sitting position, cradling its wound, giving Alec the opportunity to move as fast as he could into its blind spot.

  He reached back and threw his sword blade at the heavy neck. The blade pierced it like a spear, the point poking out the other side. With his success, Alec was now weaponless, he was injured, and the last vestige of his powers had faded away.

  The demon though seemed horribly injured, and the crowd was frozen in terror at seeing something that had never been considered remotely thinkable. With no one to immediately pursue him, Alec stumbled into the barn, and climbed up the rickety ladder to the hayloft. On his left the light from the torches came in through the open door he had jumped out through, and he could now only crawl over to it.

  “Rief? Rief, come here,” he called. He found his bag, and pulled out the sealed jar.

  “Here I am Tarnum,” she said as she crouched down beside him, placing her hand on his. “What is happening out there?” she asked. “Oh healer!” she cried, seeing the multiple injuries he carried.

  Alec broke the seal on the jar. “Rief, I am going back to my world now, and I am taking you with me. Don’t argue or ask questions. Just hold on to me as tightly as you can,” he directed her.

  He sprinkled the dust in a wide circle around the two of them, then dropped the jar, and placed the strap of his bag around both of them. There was a terrible scream from the demon outside, and it momentarily froze him with fear. He placed his arms in a wide hug around Rief, and wrapped a leg around as well. “Here we go, dear,” he told her. “John Mark, by the power of Jesus Christ our Lord, I need your help. Please take us away,”
he called.

  “Tarnum, what’s happening?” Rief cried out as the world began to spin, and then both the injured survivors of the horrific night passed out.

  Section 3

  The Dominion

  Chapter 31 – John Mark Explains

  Alec awoke at some point, unable to tell when or how much later. His limbs and Rief’s were tangled together, and they were in the chamber of the cave where he had first received his healer powers two years ago. He relaxed, and laid his head back, looking up at the ceiling, and crying tears of joy that welled up and could not roll away.

  “Would you like to talk?” John Mark asked him, and he lifted his head to see that the saint was now in the chamber with them.

  Alec tried to delicately disengage himself from Rief, who looked peaceful and content in her sleep. “She won’t wake up yet, don’t worry,” John Mark told him. “Not until it’s time for her to.” Alec removed himself, and stood up. His foot felt fine, as did his chest, but when he looked down he saw ugly scars from the wounds inflicted by the demon.

  “I cannot complete erase the traces of the attack you received in Michian, but the power of the cave has healed you better than anything else could. Likewise,” he motioned to Rief, “your friend is also completely healed by the cave’s great energy.