by Garry Spoor
Dropping her weapon, she clutched her head and fell to the ground, but the screaming didn’t stop, until she realized she was the one screaming.
“Kile what’s wrong? What’s the matter?” Alex kept shouting. It wasn’t doing much for her head, but at least she could understand him now.
There was a war being waged and she was caught in the middle. On one side there was the darkness, and the feral creature that stood at the very edge of that darkness, on the other side something even older and more powerful. It penetrated her mind through the shattered wall and was trying to keep her feral side down. She knew which side needed to win. If she chooses the darkness, if she goes feral, she would be no use to Alex, and might even try to harm him, or worse. This left only one option.
Howling, from deep within the mines, filled the chamber.
Alex grabbed her by the arm again and tried to pull her to her feet.
“Come on Kile. I can hear them. They’re coming,” he shouted.
She didn’t care, her mind had been shattered and fragments of it were drifting around in her head. It had finally happened. She had finally gone mad.
One brunrik was more than a match for any squad, four were three too many, but there was no turning back now. They were out in the open, and they were spotted.
“Scatter,” Sandson shouted as he drew his sword.
Anurr took the right flank, firing off three arrows on the dead run. Two found their mark in the thigh of a brunrik, but it did little to slow it down. He stopped to fire off another four arrows with less success. The arrows struck their marks, but the brunrik brushed them aside with little regard. He might as well as have been throwing twigs at them.
Browne wasn’t having any more success on the left flank. The brunrik met his attack and knocked the soldier aside with ease. He rolled with the blow, quickly regaining his footing and found himself on the defensive.
Sandson ran down the center and charged the remaining two, but he never reached them. Taugh and Ertgoth thundered past him on either side before he could close the distance. Taugh was by far the fastest, and reached his target first. Before the brunrik had a chance to swing his weapon, the Ogre wrapped his arms around his midsection and drove him into the ground. Ertgoth fought with a little more finesse. The Ogre parried the brunrik’s attack and counter with as weeping arch which nearly cleaved it in two. He turned and quickly dispatched the second brunrik before it could reach Anurr.
Sandson came to Browne’s assistance, and between the two of them were able to put the final one down.
“We’re not out of the woods yet.” he shouted, looking toward the mouth of the cave. The valrik had gathered, but made no attempt to join in the battle. Instead, they watched from afar.
The Ogre advanced forward, Anurr retrieved his bow. He nocked an arrow, but before he could release it, Daniel came running down the hill with the two dogs close behind him.
“Wait! Stop!” He shouted, waving his hands in the air.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Sandson asked. His first thought was that the valrik had somehow gotten around behind them, that they had possibly walked into a trap.
It took Daniel a few minutes to catch his breath. “Look,” he said, pointing to the cave. “Kile was right, they don’t want to be here anymore than we do.”
“What are you saying?” Browne asked.
“After the fall of Moran, Kile told me she thought the valrik didn’t really want this war. They are being forced to fight.”
“You can’t be serious.” Browne replied. “We’ve been fighting the Uhyre for the past year. How can you stand there and tell us, they don’t want to fight?”
“Well, look at them.” Daniel shouted, pointed to the cave. “They clearly out-number us. If they were really as bloodthirsty as you think they are, we should be dead by now. Without the brunrik leading them, they have no desire, no reason to fight.”
The valrik stood at the mouth of the cave looking rather confused. They shuffled about, turning to one another as if waiting for one of them to step forward and make a decision, but none of them moved.
Daniel pushed past Browne and walked toward the cave, Lore and Nova followed. Sandson caught up to him, grabbing him by the arm, he spun him around.
“You’re not seriously going to just go walking up there, are you?” he asked.
“What choice do we have?” Daniel replied. “As I said, they clearly out-number us. We can’t very well fight all of them and hope to win. We might be able to just… talk to them.”
“I lost two thirds of my squad to those creatures at Moran, and you say they don’t want to fight.”
“Hey, did you want to fight? They were only following orders, just like you were. Didn’t they break and run after Kile killed their chief?”
“I think the arrival of the King’s Command had more to do with that than the loss of one officer.”
“I’m not so sure,” Daniel said, pulling away from Sandson. “I think they lost their reason to fight and their only desire at that moment was to return home.”
“You really believe that?” Sandson asked.
“There’s only one way to find out.” Daniel replied. He turned away from Sandson and continued walking toward the mouth of the cave. His only hope now was that Kile was right, and that the valrik had no desire to continue the fight. Of course, if she was wrong, he wouldn’t get the chance to tell her.
It was surprising how far away the cave was, it seemed so much closer a moment before. Now, with nearly a hundred or so valrik staring down at him, he was beginning to have his doubts. Sandson quickly caught up with him and started to walk alongside him.
“You don’t have to do this,” he told him.
“Are you kidding,” Sandson replied. “You heard what Anurr said, if anything happens to you, Kile will skin me alive. I think I’m safer with the valrik.”
The closer they got to the cave entrance, the more agitated the valrik appeared. Daniel held up his hands to show he wasn’t armed.
“I come in peace,” he shouted.
The pulsing in Kile’s head was starting to diminish. Although the war was far from over, one side did come out on top, and she could finally hear the voice calling out to her from beyond the shattered wall in her mind.
- Get up you fool, they’re coming.-
“Grim?”
-Do I sound like your damn horse?-
“Yeah, kind of,” she replied.
“Kile, what is it?” Alex asked.
“We have to go,” she told him.
“That’s what I’ve been telling you.”
Alex grabbed the lantern from off the ground and, placing an arm around Kile, helped her to her feet.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I think something’s broken inside my head.”
“Can you walk?”
“I think so.” She said as she stumbled forward. “Douse the lantern, will yah, it’s too bright.”
“Without it, we’re not going to be able to see much.”
“I can see fine, trust me,” She told him.
Alex snuffed the lantern’s flame, casting the cavern into total darkness, but it was only dark for him. Kile had no problem seeing. She retrieved her blade from where she had dropped it, and guided Alex by the arm to exit.
They moved as quickly as they could over the uneven ground. Every step they took brought them deeper into the mountains, with the Valgar right behind them. She couldn’t see them, but she could hear them, they were getting closer.
“Kile, where are we going?” Alex asked. He had stumbled twice, but she wouldn’t slow down.
“Just keep moving,” she told him. “We’re almost there.”
That was when the floor dropped out from under them. She led them right off the edge of a cliff, but fortunately it was only a two foot drop that ended in an incline. They rolled the rest of the way, only stopping when they hit a wall.
Kile rested with her head against the stone. She was seei
ng stars, but she wasn’t sure if they were real or not. She was having that problem a lot lately. Alex was moaning somewhere off to her right.
“Alex? Alex, are you all right?” she called out.
“I think so,” he replied slowly. “But Sandson’s not going to be happy. I think I landed on his lantern.”
As the stars began to fade and her eyes, once again, adjusted to the darkness, she could see Alex trying to get to his feet, as well as the Valgar which was slowly approaching toward him.
“Alex, don’t move.” She whispered, reaching for her Lann, but the blade wasn’t there. She must have dropped it before hitting the wall and quickly scanned the ground for it.
Alex drew his sword, but he didn’t know which way to turn. He knew something was there, but could see nothing in the darkness.
“Where is it?” he asked. There was no hiding the panic in his voice.
Kile spotted her own weapon, it had landed a few feet away from her, but it was still out of reach. It was a matter of her getting to it, before the Valgar could reach Alex. She held her breath as the Valgar crouched, ready to pounce. When Kile lunged for the Lann, it was as if she set everything into motion. The Valgar jumped, Alex fell and the wall shifted. There was a sickening crunch when, what could only be described as a foot the size of a horse, stomped the Valgar into the cavern floor. Grabbing her blade, Kile shifted in mid stride to avoid the large foot. When she reached Alex, she pulled him behind her.
-Never liked those damn vermin.-
The foot said, and every word reverberated in Kile’s skull. She covered her ears with her hands, but since the voice was in her head, it did little to ease the volume.
Something large struck the cavern wall with a loud crack, seeming to shake the mountain to its core. Their only means of escape was gone. The tunnel had collapsed.
-That should keep them out for a while.-
There was no malice or anger in the voice, only an overwhelming sense of calmness, as if everything which had happened was expected.
“Who are you?” she asked.
Even though she was able to see in the dark, her sight was limited, and his size made it difficult. Whoever, or whatever it was, it easily filled the subterranean room. It shifted its weight and she could hear the sounds of metal dragged along the cavern floor.
-Don’t you know?-
He asked, and Kile cringed with each word.
“Are you Zaheeg?” she asked.
-I am Umingoth.-
He replied.
“Fine, but do you think you can turn down the volume a bit? I think my head is about to explode.”
-So, you really are Orceen.-
He laughed. His voice was still loud, but at least it wasn’t earth-shattering.
“So they keep telling me,” she replied.
“Kile, who are you talking to?” Alex asked. He knew there was something in the room with them, but he was blind in the darkness. The lantern was in his hands, but it wouldn’t light.
“There’s nothing to worry about.” She assured him, although she wasn’t feeling very confident at the moment. “It would appear we found Zaheeg.”
“Zaheeg?” Alex shouted, almost dropping the battered lantern. He quickly glanced around the cavern, but could see nothing, not even the lantern he was holding.
-I am not Zaheeg.-
Kile turned to where she thought the voice was coming from, but in truth if seemed to be coming from everywhere.
“It is what the Ogre call you,” she said.
-It is what the Ogre call me because they are imbeciles.-
He replied.
“But you’re their god, they worship you.”
-They worship their god, Zaheeg, but I am not their god. Their minds are small, it is like trying to talk to the stone. Unlike you, Orceen, the Ogre’s understanding is limited. I felt their minds awaken and I tried to communicate, but they could not understand me. They believed me to be Zaheeg, so, I figured, it was the best I could hope for, and it serves my purposes, for the time being.-
“And what were those?” she asked.
Umingoth shifted his large bulk and she could hear the rattling of heavy chains again.
-My purpose is the purpose of all living things, the survival of my race.-
“Your race?”
-We are not of this world, Orceen. Our world lies beyond your reality. We were forced to flee it eons ago, when the Scree came. Like a plague it was, they destroyed our lands, corrupted our waters and devoured our young. It was no longer inhabitable. We fled into the void, seeking new worlds so our race would survive.-
“And you came here.”
-A few of us did. We brought our nests here to protect them, hoping to sustain our blood lines. But my brothers and sister are no more. Slain at the hands of the Alva, the Uhyre, and now the vir, I am the last of my kind here on your world, but I am too old to leave it now. The days of flying the void are over for me, and so I sit and wait until the end of my time when my eggs hatch.-
“But the eggs in the outer chamber were…”
-Destroyed, all but one, which was stolen from me by Ravenshadow.-
Kile could feel a sense of hopelessness in his words. A hopelessness which comes at the end of a very long existence.
“I am truly sorry.”
-I believe you are, Orceen, but I have not been beaten yet.-
And in those words she caught a glimpse of the Ogre digging out their tunnels, deep under the stone city, that’s when she realized what he had tried to do.
“You were using the Ogre to steal back your egg.”
-If only it was that easy-
He laughed.
-Do you know how long it took me to convey to the Ogre, what I wanted? They could not understand. Long did I speak to their priests and all they did was pray back to me, the fools. In the end, I had no choice but to play along with their superstitions. I convinced them it was a sacred artifact, stolen from my temple. Only then did they see the need to reclaim it. They reopened the old tunnels under the city, but I still could not direct them to where they would find it. I had almost given up hope until I heard you calling.
“Calling? What do you mean, calling?”
-Your voice. It is loud in the realm, as were the voices of the Orceen long gone. I could hear you, but you were having trouble hearing me.-
“But I can hear you now.”
-Yes, but you mind is no longer clouded by the darkness, I was forced to… break the barrier between our worlds, our realms. It was the only way to free your mind from the abyss which it was falling into.-
The darkness, she was losing herself to the darkness when something shattered in her mind.
“Freed my mind?”
-Our worlds are not the same, yours and mine. You are attuned to the natural realm of your world as I am to mine, and although they share the same level of existence, they are not the same. You were losing yourself to the abyss, which is slowly corrupting your world, so I was forced to bring you into mine.-
“But what does that mean? What’s going to happen to me?”
- It is difficult to say. I’ve never had to do it before, at least not with the Orceen. I did it to an Ogre priest… once… it drove him… a little mad.-
“How little?” she asked, although she really didn’t want to know.
-As far as I can recall, he ran screaming out into the desert.-
Umingoth replied, there was no regret or remorse in his words.
“Oh, wonderful.”
-If it means anything… you appear to be… sane.”
“You are going to fill me in on what’s going on.” Alex asked from where he was sitting in the darkness. Kile had almost forgotten about him. He had not said one word during her conversation with Umingoth. Since he was only able to hear one side of it, he was completely lost.
“I think we’re safe, for the moment,” she told him.
“Well, at least that’s something,” he replied. “Is it really… Zaheeg?”
he asked nervously.
“No, he is not Zaheeg,” Kile replied.
“Oh, well, that’s good, I guess.”
“His name is Umingoth.”
“Umingoth! As in Umingoth the mighty? Umingoth the destroyer? Umingoth the world eater? Umingoth the drake of the flatlands? The last of the class A open scripts-- that Umingoth?”
-Ah, it would seem the vir has heard of me.-
Umingoth said as he turned his attention to Alex.
“Alex, please, calm now. I don’t think he means us any harm.”
“That’s easy for you to say; you can see him.”
-Why do you travel with such creatures?-
Umingoth asked.
-They are dead inside. They have no life in the natural realm, and it’s hard to make a decent meal out of them. They’re really only good for snacking, you know. You just sit there and pop one after another into your mouth.-
“He is my friend, so please stop talking about him that way.”
“Why, what did he say?” Alex asked nervously.
“Nothing, Alex, just calm down.”
-As you wish. It makes no difference to me. But you can’t tell me you never thought of it.-
“Just drop it.” Kile replied. The idea of what he was saying made her nauseous, and yet, he wasn’t far from the truth, which was what really scared her. “This egg of yours…” she said, quickly changing the subject.
-You have it, don’t you?-
“Well, not exactly.”
Umingoth shifted his weight, and she could feel him staring down at her.
-Where is it?-
He asked, his voice growing dangerously louder.
“I gave it to the Ogre to hold onto.”
-You what?-
“I didn’t want Ravenshadow to get his hands on it again, so I gave it to the Ogre for safe keeping.”
-Wonderful. They’ll probably stick it on an altar and pray to it.-
“What does Ravenshadow want with your egg anyway?”