The Dark Lord

by Thomas Harlan

  Maxian snarled, lean face splitting with a furious grimace and leapt up himself. His blow cracked into the Persian's shields, splintering wards visible and invisible alike. Wreathed in lightning, his fist smashed across the serpent's temple. Stunned, the sorcerer flew into the first rank of seats, smashing through marble and brick and lava stone. His shields flickered and the prince bounded into the ruin. Lightning roared up from the earth, catching the Persian as he staggered to his feet.

  Howling, the creature writhed in torment. Maxian stabbed in, fingers stiff in a sharp, cutting sign. The Persian's chest dimpled with crushing, irresistible force. Another shriek of agony pealed from an inhuman throat. Ghosts blew away in a sparkling cloud, unable to resist the prince's advance. Haloed in whirling, incandescent fire, Maxian forced a burning hand towards the sorcerer's scaled neck.

  Squirming away, the Persian clawed at the prince's face with razor-sharp talons. Black fingernails bit into Maxian's neck, but the skin healed as fast as they tore, stiffening into dark hide-like armor. Maxian slammed his fist down, crushing the serpent's shoulder. Bones and scales popped, blood spattered on the marble seats and the Persian gasped, unable to breath, collarbone cracking.

  Floodwaters broke on the lower seats, fountaining back from the retaining wall. Across the oval, pillars tore loose from their moorings, vanishing in the foaming sea. Statues of the gods and heroes toppled from the upper deck and the entire edifice shivered, bricks splintering. The sea rushed back, cresting, and the eastern wall of the theater collapsed with a grumbling, sharp roar. Bricks, stone, timbers, marble, blocks of tufa larger than a wagon—everything was swallowed by the sea.

  Maxian's eyes blazed bright, the power of an entire Empire shining from his mouth, his skin, every pore. The Persian tried to turn away, seeing his destruction in the terrible brilliance. The prince pinned him, one knee cracking a weak arm against the stone floor. His fist opened, flames lashing the sorcerer's broken face and Maxian forced his fingers—spread wide—onto the Persian's forehead.

  "You," Maxian growled, savaged throat barely able to form the words, "will never threaten my city again!"

  Dahak screamed, a long, wailing, unending cry of torment, his body thrashing violently, every limb loose in abandoned, unhinged motion.

  —|—

  "Rome! Rome and victory!" Alexandros lunged forward, fighting his way through struggling men. The line of legionaries and Goths had broken open, letting the Persian Immortals pour into the gap. A giant of a man was in their midst, howling like a titan, laying about him with an impossibly huge sword. Even the ghostly centurions fell back before him and the Macedonian saw the heavily armored pushtigbahn widening the gap with brutal efficiency. "With me, men of Rome!"

  Alexandros loosened his grip on the shield in his left hand. Shouting wildly, he sprang in front of the giant, throwing a high cut at the man's head. The giant spun—so nimble for his great size!—and blocked effortlessly. The Macedonian tried to slip the blow, letting his sword bind on the longer, larger weapon, but so great was the other's strength the spatha was nearly torn from his hand. Alexandros scrambled back to avoid losing his head. The shield was held only by a single strap in his fingers.

  The Persian champion rushed in, his blade flickering in tight, controlled slashes. Alexandros blocked hard, swiping sideways to catch the blurring tip and felt his arm rock with the blow. He threw the shield at the man's feet, all of his strength in the motion. The giant hacked down, catching the Macedonian's sword and driving the blade into the sand. Alexandros rolled away, suddenly weaponless, and the man shouted in pain. The flung shield had smashed into his trailing foot and he toppled, going down to his knees.

  Heedless, Alexandros plowed into the Persian, slamming his armored hip into the man's face. The golden mask crunched, skewing to one side. The Macedonian followed with a kick to the giant's throat, then gasped, his own foot snatched from the air by a blurring hand. He slammed down on the sand, breath punched from his breast. Alexandros rolled, sand spraying, and a massive fist smacked into the ground. The Macedonian twisted, cracking his vambrace-encased arm across the dented mask. The giant grunted, his tree-like neck barely moving with the blow.

  Alexandros scrambled to his feet, sliding back. One of the Roman centurions pitched him another sword and the Macedonian caught the spinning blade from the air. In a single motion he grasped the hilt, flipped the scabbard away and fell into a guard stance.

  The giant rose as well, wrenching the golden mask and helmet from his head. Enormous mustaches, dripping with sweat, jutted into the air, and keen, bright eyes looked down upon Alexandros. A huge grin split the man's face.

  "A worthy foe, by Ormazd!" he shouted in a basso roar. "The very likeness of the Greek devil Iskender!"

  "I am the very Macedonian devil," Alexandros snarled, feeling his muscles waking to the task. "And you the greatest of the Persians, I wager?"

  "I am," Shahr-Baraz growled. One of his men threw him a spear, which smacked into his meaty palm. He spun the shaft end for end, settling the weapon's balance to his satisfaction. "Then let the gods judge!"

  —|—

  Maxian's fingers dug into the sorcerer's neck, crushing muscles, tendons and veins. His other hand burned white-hot on the creature's forehead and Dahak struggled anew. Blood sprayed across the seats, dripping smoking hot from the prince's face.

  Now I have you, Maxian raged, feeling the last of the Persian's defenses crumble. The world groaned around them, stone and brick shattering, the sky wavering with an aurora of brilliant, ghastly colors. Winds raged in the heavens, lashing the clouds into a maelstrom. The flesh on the inhuman face shriveled, burned down to a bony core. Fangs jutted from blackening gums, then splintered. You end, now!

  Dahak twisted, still trying to break free, and found annihilation only a heartbeat away. Every atom in his body was in torment, spiked with lightning, dissolving in acid. Such an enormous pressure weighed on him, encompassing half the world, focused by the shattered walls of the amphitheater like a lens, he could see nothing but destruction before him. "No!" he wailed, the last fragment of his power shredding in the energy storm whirling around the Roman prince. "If I die... the world dies!"

  Maxian's eyes darkened, hearing pure fear and terror in the creature's voice. "Show me," his voice boomed, ringing from the heavens, driving columns of smoke into twisting vortices. The fingers of his right hand, still burning white-hot, sank into the Persian's elongated skull. Dahak's scream soared beyond human hearing as bone and membrane parted.

  The prince looked, and saw a portal of stone, massive granite cut from the heart of a mountain, etched with a thousand lines of prayers, glittering with every seal and potent sign. The door was shaking, blazing with sullen yellow light, a force building beyond the portal beyond human comprehension. Flakes of stone and dust rained down from a distant ceiling, the living rock shaking in time to a colossal heartbeat.

  A fragile, frayed pattern bound the dying sorcerer to the stone door and Maxian perceived the slender thread arcing arrow-straight over the eastern horizon. His thoughts whirled to a halt, the light shuddering from his skin and face dying. The prince looked down on the dreadful, shattered face. "Show me what lies beyond." His voice was cold and emotionless.

  Dahak quailed, but Maxian's fingers were deep in the gelid mass of his brain, rippling with power, keeping life in his ancient limbs, while the Persian's secret thoughts and every plan and strategem were peeled away, the cracked shells of countless eggs.

  The prince looked, and saw a void of darkness, filled with bubbling chaos, a leviathan shape blotting out the stars, countless worlds rendered down to dust, the shrieking of nightgaunts haunting the black abyss, a lake of obsidian under a sky filled with so many stars it seemed day; a twisted, malefic tower looming over a city composed of a single, endless building.

  "They are waiting," Dahak croaked, torn lips fluttering, "beyond the threshold. If they enter..."

  Maxian rose up, looking down with a grim, implac
able face. His eyes were black pits reflecting the horrors he had seen in the creature's eyes. Tiny motes of light drifted around his head, some shining bright, some bare gleams. "You are the key in our deathless lock," the prince grated, venom and scorn dripping in his voice. "You stole from the gods and now they are rightly angry." Black, fathomless eyes narrowed and Maxian withdrew glowing fingers from the serpent's skull. "You will live."

  Dahak collapsed into the dust, shuddering with relief. He closed his eyes, translucent lids lowering one by one. The prince's face did not change, seeming cast from iron and plunged in blood to temper.

  "Instead, you will serve." His thumbs ground down on the fluted skull and Dahak stiffened, broken limbs taut, mouth gaping, eyes wild and open in horror. An intricate sign blazed on his forehead, among pebbled black scales, and then faded into the skin like the light dying on the sea at sunset.

  "Rise," snapped the prince, standing himself. His clothes—ripped and torn, burned by fires and scored by blasts of fury—shimmered, knitting anew around his lean body. Maxian looked to the south, ghosts whispering to him of battle and fury and men wading deep in slaughter.

  The prince ascended, rising into the troubled sky, and the withered, broken body of the sorcerer followed. Together, they sped along the shore, the wind bowing before them, columns of smoke bending away from their passage and those few men left alive in the wreckage below stared up in awe.

  —|—

  Alexandros darted in, slashing with his sword at the haft of the oaken spear. The giant danced away, grinning like a madman, and the leaf-bladed tip whipped round at the Macedonian's head. Alexandros leaned to the side, feeling the breeze of metal passing, then reversed his stroke, steel belling on steel. Shahr-Baraz grunted, the blow knocking him back.

  "Well struck!" he called, slashing at the Macedonian's legs. Alexandros leapt and spun, striking and parrying in a whirlwind of motion. They drew apart, panting, and the Macedonian began to grin himself. Here is a worthy opponent! He circled, blood singing, looking for an opening.

  The wind gusting among the dunes fluttered and then stopped.

  Alexandros looked up, gray eyes widening in surprise. He saw a lone figure—a woman in gleaming armor and a tattered white tunic—standing on the ridge above them. She was facing the north, her unbound hair fluttering in some distant breeze. The men of both armies had grown still, and everyone turned, even the giant, who slowly lowered his spear.

  A man approached in the turbulent air, shining like the sun, his raiment glowing with inner fire. A crippled thing followed at his heels like a dog, barely alive, leaking blood and dark fluid. As the shining figure passed over the top of the dunes, the woman bowed her head. Alexandros, standing below amid the armies of Rome and Persia alike, watched in awe. Golden light washed across the ground, shining on the fallen bodies, broken spears, cloven shields. Withered trees stirred and new growth sprang from charred limbs. Tiny blue flowers bloomed across the protected, landward face of the dune. Spring did not touch them, but the power radiating from the beneficent face did.

  The giant knelt and the remains of the Persian army bowed down, pressing foreheads to grounded weapons, averting their eyes.

  Alexandros felt a great sense of peace wash over him and he too collapsed to his knees. His spirit struggled, trying to force him to his feet, but every bone and sinew responded gladly to the silent command. The legionaries stiffened, raising their arms in the Imperial salute, and every eye blazed with proud delight.

  "I am Maxian," a stern voice rolled and crashed in the sky. "Put down these weapons. Let there be peace in the world."

  Alexandros, teeth gritted in a furious effort to control his hand, felt his fingers open and the sword fall to the sandy ground. Not more than a pace away, the giant king let his spear drop, though his neck bulged with effort.

  "This is ended." The prince settled to the ground, waves of silvery light shining in every face. Then the radiance faded, leaving only men and women—wounded, tired, exhausted from the day's struggle—standing in a darkened hollow between the turbulent sea and burning land. Alexandros slumped, falling onto his hands, and felt every muscle in his body trembling in reaction.

  Even I will be sore tomorrow, he thought. This Persian has Herakle's own strength in those arms!

  —|—

  Maxian stood on the crest of the dune ridge, his lean, dark face silhouetted against the distant glare of Catania. The city was burning fiercely, billowing clouds rolling up into the sky, obscuring the slopes of the great mountain. The stars had come out, shining down fitfully through drifting ash and a gritty, bitter-tasting haze. The prince faced a handful of men and one woman. His face was in shadow, though a single green ember burned where one eye would be. The distant voice of Gaius Julius faded from his thoughts.

  "My brother is dead and by the acclamation of the people and the Senate, I am Emperor of Rome." The young man's voice was flat, leached of every emotion. "I rule and within the reach of my hand there will be peace."

  No one spoke, a fugitive breeze tugging at their hair or hissing across scored and dented armor.

  Maxian placed his hand on the withered, broken shoulder of the creature crouched at his feet. "This is Dahak and he is the first of my servants. I have made him loyal, for in his flesh rides the life of the world."

  Light blazed from the sorcerer's eyes, mouth, seeping from myriad wounds. He shuddered, overcome, and then stood, body whole, skin rippling with scale, his elongated skull dipping in obedience. Obscure glyphs flared on his body, covering every inch of skin, even the darting black tongue. Then they faded. Maxian stepped to the next man.

  "You are C'hu-lo, yabghu of the T'u-chüeh, the Great People."

  The Hun nodded, swallowing convulsively. His high cheekbones were scored with ash, his arms lashed with wounds. He leaned against a broken spear, one leg lamed by fire. Maxian brushed back long, oily black hair, and the man's skin cleared, flesh knitting without blemish or scar. "You will rule in my name," the Emperor said, "khan of khans, in all the lands under the Rampart of Heaven. Your armies will be as leaves of grass, without number, your flocks plentiful and the strength of your race unbounded."

  Maxian stepped before two young men, each wounded, armor spattered with blood, faces gaunt with exhaustion, leaning on one another for support. They were alike as peas in a pod, fierce, noble faces turned to the Emperor with dread riding in their dark eyes.

  "You are Khalid al'Walid, the last son of the Makhzum," he said to the first. He set his hands to both men's cheeks, inclining his head towards them in greeting. "You are Odenathus, son of Zabda, prince of poor, dead Palmyra, like your friend, the last of a noble line."

  The Emperor smiled and both men straightened, weariness banished, their eyes brightening. "You will build anew," he said, "and your cities will grow great, radiant with learning and knowledge, filled with cool gardens and shining marble. Those lands, you will hold in my name, and guard wisely."

  The young Eagle knelt, pressing Maxian's hand to his lips. "In your name, great lord."

  "What is this," the Emperor said, raising a hand to beckon a dark shape from the shadow of the hill. "Which hides its face from those of living men?"

  A harsh, armored shape stirred unwillingly, then stepped before Maxian, cloak thrown back, a dented iron mask catching the gleam of the burning city. The Emperor looked upon the captain of the Shanzdah and his shadowed eyes took the measure of the thing and its purpose.

  "Even in an empire of light," Maxian said, his voice untroubled, "there will be work better done by night than by day." The shape stiffened, then knelt to the ground, making the proskynesis in the Persian style, forehead to the ground, hands outstretched. "You and your brothers please me," the Emperor said, touching the iron crown of the helmet with his fingertips. "With such devotion."

  A giant man loomed over Maxian, long mustache sweeping from a craggy, bloodied face. Arms like old roots crossed the chest of a titan or a god. A beard shot with silver covered a lam
inated steel breastplate. In Shahr-Baraz's eyes, there was nothing but defiance and ancient pride.

  "Have you drunk deep enough of war?" The Emperor's voice softened for the first time. "Is your thirst quenched? Where are your sons, the friends of youth, your brothers?"

  "Dead," growled the King of Kings, the word forced from his mouth against his will, face twisting in despair. "They are dead."

  "You are Shahr-Baraz, the Boar, shahanshah, lord of the Medes, master of the Persians." Maxian's voice cracked sharply. "You will rule Persia in my name and yours will be a realm at peace, where a wise king rules from a throne not drenched in blood, but founded on order." He lifted his hand and the middle-aged man tried to turn away, but sighed—a long, exhausted exhalation—when the Emperor smoothed back his wild, tangled hair. Years lifted from the man's face and his beard curled dark and lustrous again.

  "You, I know." Maxian looked upon Alexandros with a grim smile. "By your tread, I will measure the circumference of the world." The Macedonian flinched, his heart quailing away from the pressure in the shadowed eyes. Maxian grasped his shoulders and Alexandros felt weariness fade, spilling out on the ground in an invisible stream. "India is waiting and beyond her—who knows what wonders might lie?"

  The Macedonian pressed fingertips to his forehead, and bowed, as the others had done.

  Only the woman remained, standing a little apart, her face turned away to the east. Wind tugged at night-black hair, cascading in waves of curls down her back. The Emperor looked upon her and his mouth tightened. "Who are you?"

  The Queen turned, looking over her shoulder. Her face matched his for cold composure, showing neither fear nor despair. The glow of the burning city shone in sapphire eyes and her chin lifted. "I am Zenobia Septima," she said tonelessly. "My city is ruins, scattered bone and rock. I have no kingdom, no subjects, nothing save sand and wind."