Malcor's Story

by Eric K. Barnum

  He tried to sound disconnected and dreamy, “Yes, with the help of my master and the other forge workers.”

  “Are you really from south Tania?”

  “I don’t remember for sure. I was orphaned like many Tanian children are. I was a war orphan and was eventually raised in Klenna at the forge. I’m not entirely sure who my father is and have no clue about my mother. So… yes? No? Not sure? It’s what I have been told my whole life.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “I heard that Ori had come under attack, that the attackers had taken the royal family hostage, and that a great reward is offered to any who can free the royals. I also heard that there is a lich leading the attackers. The prospect of fortune appeals to me. My family, I, can use gold. The prospect of fighting a lich, even if I lose – it is my mission. It would bring me fame far above and beyond my current status. Also…”

  “That is enough,” she said. “There were rumors that a group of Tanian knights had visited the royal family. Are you one of them?”

  “Really?! I would love to be with them! Surely Tanian knights would have already figured out how to best do…”

  “Thank you. That is enough. My name is Sako. You love me with all your heart. You would never lie to me. You will fight to protect me. You will answer my questions freely. We have been courting and in love since you came to Ori. You will not remember any of these questions. For the past five minutes, we have been talking about how worried you were about me during the ogre attack. Do you understand?”

  Malcor looked at her and tried to feign the dopey-faced expression Calvin always had when flirting. “I understand.” He noticed and had to suppress his eyes shifting, that one of the fighters – or is he thief? – seemed very unhappy about this turn of events.

  “When I snap my fingers, it will be as I said.” She snapped them.

  Malcor grinned at her and looked around. “I’m glad you’re okay. When the ogre breathed out that gas, I feared the worst.” He put his arm around her and kissed her head, and pretended to not notice the others laughing when she made a face. “C’mon, I have a sheltered camp up ahead with a fire ready and waiting.” He turned to the thief, “You’re not still mad that she chose me, are you?”

  The others had to grab that one and hold him back from attacking Malcor. He thought he heard them say, “It’s just magic. Calm down.”

  The rest of the night was filled with Sako enduring Malcor’s approximation of “being in love”. While she did not seem to mind, the others cracked jokes about everything: age, race, size, and on and on it went. At one point, someone said something offensive about Tanians and Malcor punched the speaker so hard it cracked armor and knocked him back into a tree several feet behind. After that, the jokes stopped and the group more carefully monitored their speech. “You really care about Morbatten,” Sako observed in the silence following that.

  While the others helped their fallen comrade stand back up, Malcor flexed his fists and arms and glared at him. “Yes, Tania is a great empire. In Tania, an Imperic like you would walk free and unmolested regardless of their gender, faith, race, or even creed. Honor and keeping one’s word is all that matters. I have been told that Ori is not much different, but maybe I was wrong.” He looked at her and added, “I love you with all my heart but I can’t remember, did we meet in Tania?”

  “No, we met for this grand adventure and fell in love.”

  “Oh, okay.” He walked away and punched another tree so hard its boughs shook. He heard Jaga whisper to the group to be more careful or they could risk breaking Sako’s charm. “I’ll take first watch,” Malcor called back to the group. Alone, he stood on a boulder overlooking the path and thought about the fight with the ogre.

  The ogre had worn fine clothing with a similar appearance to Malcor’s of being magically aged. Like him, the ogre also had fought with a certain reserve born from hard Temple training, and then it had used magic. For just a moment, Malcor slipped out of the River and saw hundreds of troops walking like ghosts along the trail. Across the way, he saw the ogre look up and regard him. In this ethereal place, the ogre appeared glorious and mighty. The symbol of the Queen gleamed brightly where the medallion hung from the ogre’s neck by heavy golden chain. “You did me honor great one,” Malcor said bowing.

  “To help the son of Kell, to serve the empire, and to please Dar Kendra,” the ogre said returning the bow. “I will ambush your group tomorrow at twilight with goblins. A single goblin bearing a golden earring will have information about the horde ahead and the main entry to the mountain. See that it survives to share that information.”

  Chapter Forty - The Next Day

  Malcor stood guard all night. The group, battered and smashed and poisoned as they were, missed their watch changes. Malcor woke Sako with a hot stew and Tanian energy tea. The aroma woke the others who expressed frustration that Malcor had not allowed them to take watch.

  “Turn by turn, I approached each of you. Given last night’s events, and that I am not tired at all, when not a single one of you stirred, I retained the watch. The night was uneventful though I suspected at one point we were being watched. Also I found the blood trail of the ogre across the way there.”

  They broke camp and returned to the path. Very quickly, Malcor felt a rising sense of confidence. This group of adventurers could barely keep up with him. Even their supposed scout seemed slow and clumsy. Freed of his heavy armor, Malcor moved with grace and speed and without tiring, without even getting winded. At one point, Sako slipped almost turning her ankle and he took her gear. Within an hour, he also carried her weapons and several of the ration packs carried by other members. When they rested for lunch, Jaga asked him. “Are all Tanians like you? You’re strong as an ox!”

  “Our training, especially in the infantry, is intense. We are expected to keep pace with chargers and, if needed, fight alongside dragons. As you might imagine, a religion dedicated to dragons might expect torturous physical ability. That I worked in a forge, helps too.” He shrugged.

  “But you were only in the infantry a few months right?”

  “Yes, but martial training starts early in Tania. I don’t know how Ori does it, but the Temple begins screening children as young as three years and directing education for those with any level of natural talent. It focusses on things the empire considers important as well as combat.”

  Sako sat down next to him. “And what is important to the Temple? Memorizing prayers.” She poked him in the arm.

  “Sako my love, the Queen does not need memorized prayers. We are children of the dragons. They do not require that we repeat canned verse. They require loyalty and respect. But, you might be surprised. All Tanian youth go through basic education that includes reading in both Common and the Draconian, what you might call TempleVerse or templescript. Some are taught to write if they have a knack for calligraphy. Swimming. Orienteering. Knot tying. Map reading. Counting. And of course the empire and the Isles’ history as recorded by the dragons and the Temple.”

  One of the others piped up, “So, in Tania, everyone learns how to swim?! That’s crazy!”

  Malcor just shrugged. “At the age of six, we are all required to pass a basic swimming test.” He looked around. “You do know how to swim right?” Everyone shook their heads no with only Jaga indicating that he knew how to swim. “The dragon emperor observed in the Book of Fire that humans are too two-dimensional, and it makes us weak. He ordered swimming and other survival type skills taught to everyone. It’s a requirement to even enter the coming of age ceremony.”

  One of the party spat on the ground, “Your doctrine is so twisted and warped. How can you take a religion seriously when it is full of “observations” about swimming? Haha.”

  Malcor tensed up but then countered, “Your god Imperius supposedly was one of you, here on Khasra. So, at what point does your doctrine begin to matter for the lives of your people? It’s just a bunch of empty platitudes that pre-existed your god.”

&n
bsp; “Are you saying the holy lord Imperius is EMPTY?!”

  “Yes, I am!” Malcor stood and cracked his knuckles. “Because of my goddess, I know how to swim. How about you?” He was enjoying himself.

  The fighter stood and took a defensive posture. “Because of my lord Imperius, I know that I serve a god of Good.”

  “Your god allowed a lich to besiege your city and steal away your wealth and your royal family.”

  The fighter attacked. Malcor noted how rough and slow his movements seemed and saw in that moment that the man would spin and aim a kick at his head and then sweep around with his dagger. Malcor held his ground and then stepped into the kick. He grabbed the man’s knife through the kick and slammed him down, the knife pressing into the man’s crotch. Malcor spit on the ground next to his face, “Your god cannot teach you even simple martial combat.” Malcor raised his fist and then slammed it down next to the fighter’s head. “Do not challenge me again.”

  Sako and Jaga stepped forward. Jaga grabbed Malcor’s shoulder and pulled him back. “Imperius is young compared to your goddess, true. But, the path of Imperius is one of quiet distinction, honor, and glory. Surely, we can share in these common beliefs and set our differences aside.”

  Sako added, “Malcor you promised me you would not do this.” He felt that tingle of magic and almost attacked her.

  At the last second, he relaxed his tension and turned to her with a smile. “Sako, you should have told me your friend,” he kicked the fighter still lying stunned on the ground, “would be so brutish.”

  Sako could not hide the relief from her face and then renewed her magic and said again, “You promise you will not attack my friends?”

  Malcor stared back at her, met her gaze, and pushed his will against her until he felt it almost snap. “I will not attack your friends, but I will also not allow my goddess to be mocked. Mock Tania all you want. Sako, Jaga, you would be welcomed there as new citizens. This one,” he kicked the stunned man again, “would not be fit for even street cleaning. He is nothing.” He met the gaze of those there. “I’m going to walk the camp perimeter.”

  They made fast progress throughout the rest of the day with Malcor enjoying how great he felt in spite of not sleeping the prior night. As the sun began to set, he looked around and saw a large cluster of boulders ahead around which the path wove. Though they would reach it before twilight, that location seemed ideal for an ambush. Jaga saw it too. They drew weapons and approached the boulder cautiously, reaching it just as the sun set. An hour of searching and they had found nothing amiss. Jaga ordered camp to be set and Malcor to take the last watch so he could catch up on his sleep after dinner.

  As the sun set horizon faded and their camp fire lit the boulders around them, Malcor asked Sako to go for a walk with him. She refused looking very uncomfortable when he flirted with her and let her know they needed some time alone. Against the quiet chuckles of her party, she refused. “Your loss,” Malcor said and sat down with his back against one of the boulders.

  Across the fire, the fighter he had stunned glared hatred at him. Without even thinking, Malcor gave a hand sign targeting that one for a concentrated attack. He did it without thinking and the man furrowed his eyebrows and called out, “Hey Sako, your boyfriend is trying to cast a spell at me or something.”

  He had done so without thinking and being caught like that pulled him back into the moment. He laughed and did more hand signs imitating Sako when she cast spells. At last, the warrior stood up and walked away with a look of disgust.

  Chapter Forty One - Ambush

  Seconds later, his startled cry alerted everyone that had come under attack. Malcor stood and took his time rushing to the fighter’s aid. When he reached the area, just as Jaga and the priest did, the fighter had his back to a large boulder and seven goblins held him there. An eighth goblin had climbed over the rock and held a boulder ready to drop on the warrior’s head.

  Jaga called out but it was too late. The large boulder slipped down and though he tried to dodge, it crushed his leg and rained debris down all over him, effectively blinding his eyes with dust. Malcor noted that the goblin up top wore a golden earring. “I’ll circle around and make sure there aren’t any others!”

  Jaga and the priest attacked as the rest of the party closed on the ambush site. Malcor came around the back side and found two goblins who had probably helped the third get up top. They were trying to hand up another large rock and Malcor’s sword cut them down, stranding the one up top. That goblin looked down and shrieked in fright, but seeing his more numerous friends cut down, it chose its chances of escape and leapt down in a hail of small stones and dirt at Malcor.

  Malcor turned his sword flat and tried to club the goblin, but it slipped on the stone’s edge and fell by Malcor’s feet. Somewhat blinded still, Mal felt the goblin land and so dropped his sword and tackled the beast. He felt several cuts from a knife, but his armor took most of it and then his hands closed on its throat and he squeezed until the goblin fell slack. Keeping it pinned, he tied it up and assessed his own wounds. They were not bad. When Jaga came over, he found Malcor wiping dust from his eyes, two dead goblins, and a terrified and utterly bound third goblin.

  “None of them had anything worth taking,” Jaga complained. “Why did you spare that one?”

  “I thought we might learn about the path ahead of us.”

  “Ah. Lets hope it speaks the common tongue.”

  At first the goblin was too terrified to do anything except shriek. But gradually, with some help from Sako’s spellcraft, it relaxed and described the road ahead. “Everything is waiting for you. The master has set many traps. And the ogres, they are hungry for human flesh.” It giggled and went on to describe how the cut path eventually enters a valley before climbing up into the mountain foothills. “Tall towers watch for groups like you, to tell the master. To see how far you can make it.” When asked about the traps, the goblin only said that they were all created by walking dead ones and he only knew that the first part of the traps involved a large chamber full of water.

  Jaga seemed to know something about the water area and said, “Yes yes, I think that sounds about right,” but dodged any follow up questions by Malcor.

  They dispatched the last goblin and moved their camp to a more secure location. From there, they continued on. It would be another day or so before they reached the valley.

  When they at last reached the valley, the party gaped at the ring of towers guarding a yawning cave mouth about a fifth of the way up the mountainside. From their current watch, they would have to make their way down a gentle and coverless slope, across a raging river via a very rough looking bridge, and back up a gentle slope to that ring. The towers stood like needles with bright firelight and smoke drifting above them. No doubt there would be sharp-eyed creatures stationed there. "It's impossible," Sako declared. "We'll be seen and intercepted, even with magic."

  Jaga nodded and they pulled back. "What about charging it at sunrise? Goblinoids have weakest eyesight then."

  "Even if, we'd be exhausted before we reached the entrance," someone else chimed in.

  It had been like this since that tense first day and the subsequent ambush. Growing negativity and being on edge did that to people. Malcor went along with it, but found it ironic that this first group seemed so green and untested. "I can do it," Malcor said. And again, all eyes turned to him. "I can run that far. If we charge and if we are intercepted, I can either fight or try to slow them down so the rest of you make it. I'm not scared of goblins. And..."

  Sako stroked his hair, reminding him again that they were supposed to be in love. He had enjoyed testing that during these rough days and more difficult nights. He felt that tingle of magic but this time did not go along with it. "Malcor, you are very brave but you alone cannot take the mountain."

  He sucked air through his teeth, a habit he had picked up from these Imperics. "Yes, I can. I was ready before I met you. Besides, think about it. The lich
wants us to get there. What good is the lich's challenge if every group is intercepted before they even reach the mountain? I think this is for show. They will watch us. They will let us in. We don't need to run. We accept the challenge and walk," he pointed his hand like a spear, "right into the cave."

  Jaga and several others sat back and looked at Sako with mixed alarm and dismay. He said something in their strange vowel-based language and she shrugged. "Jaga, our love is strong but Malcor really wants to get into the cave."

  "Jaga," Mal added, "think about it. The lich could have taken the city that one day the walls and gate melted. The lich wants us to play this game. The worst that will happen is we get intercepted and retreat. We'll take stories back to Ori that will result in better prepared parties and plans. But, if we make it, we will be the first. And there is glory in that. If you won't go with me, I will go by myself. Watch."

  "Sako," Jaga growled. "I think we need your boyfriend to calm down. He is impetuous."

  Her fingers tentatively touched his arm and the singsong tingle of magic touched him again. He turned, grabbed her hand, and squeezed it to the point of almost breaking her fingers. "You know," Mal said, "I don't think we are lovers. You are all cowards."

  Weapons jumped into the hands of those around them but Mal kept his focus on Sako. "Tell you friends to put their weapons away or your spell casting days end right now." He squeezed just enough for her to cry out with pain.

  "Stop, stop! Mal, what do you want?"

  "Why have you all been lying to me? I fought by your side against an enemy that almost destroyed you. I have endured your slow pace and only offered you my good will. You. Are. All. Liars. And Cowards."

  Jaga put his weapon down and held his hands up, wanting for the others to do the same. "Malcor, you insult..."

  "You sir are the worst. Do not talk to me about honor or insults. You do your own god a disservice by lecturing me about such when you have been taking advantage of my good intentions. Why are you lying to me? And, why do you care if I go alone? Fight me now and be done with it, or let me go to my own chosen death." He gave Sako's hand slightly more pressure and smiled as she screamed trying to twist out of his grip.