by BJ Hanlon
The Echoes of Destiny
BJ Hanlon
Contents
Book Offer
1. The March South
2. The Time to Go
3. The Permission Slip
4. The Second Time Around Is Easier
5. The Target is Back on His Back
6. The Escape Plan
7. The Seer’s Last Sight
8. Skipping Town
9. Jont’s Pass
10. A Fearful, Uneasy Feeling
11. A God Blessed It…
12. Raising the Swamps of Old
13. Losing to Gain
A book or two for you
About the Author
A little favor to ask
Book Offer
Want a free book? Of course you do, though you can’t get it at this moment. Sorry.
I really hope you enjoy this book but after it, I have an offer for you. A trade as it were. The aforementioned free book is my part of the bargain and yours is to join my emailing list. This list gives you access to upcoming news about my newest books and possibly other little tidbits of info. I don’t email much so you can be sure your mailbox won’t get overcrowded. Of course if you don’t like the books and wish not to be on said list, you can always unsubscribe.
But I sincerely hope you stay on and are entertained by Edin in his quest to do… quest to sav… I’d better not tell you since spoilers are no fun.
Thanks and enjoy!
BJ
1
The March South
Leaving directly to find the elves did not happen. Edin saw that as soon as he said elves the rest of the brain trust believed he’d gone crazy.
“Elves are all gone from this land,” said Sinndilo aghast, despite having just battled a dematian army. He tried during the Convocation, the term someone had come up with for their little council.
Edin felt they needed to be found sooner rather than later though he didn’t tell the others in the leadership where to look. He’d promised the woman elf he would not. And he’d keep that promise as long as he could.
What he wanted to do was find Arianne. He needed to do that, but with the army around and him not being ‘dismissed’ he stayed. It was painful every day.
All two of the days and during their stay were in the lee of the mountain. They buried their dead and burned the dematian bodies. The smell from the burning pit was as wretched and noxious as anything he’d ever dared to smell.
Some of the generals and higher ups began talking of a wall that was to be built. A great wall to stop the dematians invading from the north.
But not here, this battlefield was tainted according to a Vestion Priest who glared with all the righteous hate he could muster at Edin and Rihkar.
They slowly marched south along a winding dirt road between a forest, the sea, and hillocks. Edin felt the tension in the air as he marched behind Merik and between Rihkar and Berka. Theirs was a small group and he constantly saw the evil and angry looks from the other soldiers. Despite slaying the wyrm and saving them, they hated him.
The caravan supposedly wound back ten miles, thousands of troops as well as their attendants, servants and help. Then there was also the taggers-on. They usually took up the back.
The road cut through a dense forest with thick undergrowth that held gave to Edin, a haunted feeling.
The first night after they left, they’d camped on the road. Edin had an army-issue tent that he could’ve slept in, however, it was issued to a man who’d fallen in battle days before. Edin didn’t want to sleep in that. Above him, through the barren trees, the late winter moon floated across the sky.
Fires and watches were set as Edin sat down around the fire with Elva, Rihkar, and Berka. The Por Fen were near, as was the young duke and his retinue. His guards kept a wary eye on Edin and Rihkar. No one was too excited to have magi in their midst. Even if the magi had slayed the wyrm and probably saved all of their lives.
“Anyone have whiskey or ale?” Edin asked as he finished the salted pork. It was a decent enough dish for a group of army cooks, especially ones that had thousands of troops to feed. The one who’d served Edin, a thin man with spectacles and an awkwardly trimmed beard wasn’t thrilled about sloshing food on Edin’s plate.
His friends shook their heads. No one else answered. Edin glanced back at a group of soldiers huddled around a different fire ten feet away. They were quiet, and half of them were staring at Edin as if he were a meal. Then, as he looked over, they decided to take a more detailed interest in their meals.
“Hey,” Edin called, “anyone have some whiskey, ale, or wine? I’m not picky.”
Someone snorted and people whispered. A thick man with a bushy beard turned and glared. “I’d share, but not wanting to get your taint on my drink is a high priority” then he muttered, “ya evil blotard.”
Edin felt a slight twang of anger as he locked eyes with the man. Then he noticed more people glaring at him, waiting for him to do something. Despite Sinndilo’s proclamation that he was to be unhurt, Edin had the uneasy idea that one or two would try something against him or one of his mates soon.
Very soon.
Edin didn’t want that, and he certainly didn’t want to start a fight in the middle of the road with hundreds mundane soldiers on either side of him ready to take up arms and slay the abomination.
He knew they were just waiting for him to do something stupid. Something that would give them the go ahead to kill him. Or they could try.
Something stupid, Edin thought, he remembered back to his early childhood and what he’d do when Dexal or one of the bully’s cronies would insult him. Edin let a grin rise on his face.
“I know you are, but what am I.”
Berka roared to laughter as others snorted trying hard not to join in. Thick beard seemed to grow red in the firelight.
A few minutes later, the laughter died, but Edin was still want of a drink.
“What are we, five again?” Berka asked.
“I was going for seven…” Edin answered. Rihkar and Elva were grinning over their small fire. “But I’ll take five.”
They grew quiet again. “Where’s El?” Edin asked. He’d been so busy he forgot about their group and about the family.
“They went with Baron Tolson down to Carrow… along with the Foci.”
“How’d that work out?” Edin asked hesitantly.
“I hope it went well.” Berka shifted and looked slightly uncomfortable. “Those are some good people, despite what these northern blotards say.”
“And El? Is she good people?” Said Edin. He was quite curious about their relationship.
Berka grinned and grew redder. His ginger hair and stubble began to blend into his face.
“Is that why you left the Por Fen?”
Berka nodded. “She’s a good person, Edin. She’s beautiful and funny and—”
“Just as ginger as you are,” Edin interrupted. “So, she wouldn’t be shocked by the fire in your pants.”
Berka slugged him in the bicep, but he was grinning. “She wasn’t shocked…” Berka said sheepishly.
Edin laughed and patted Berka on the back. “I get it, birds of a feather, right?”
Then his mind went to Arianne, as it did so often. The respite from thinking about her was gone. The night before he couldn’t sleep. He saw her in that dark place, in the dark river, and tonight he doubted he’d be able to sleep unless he could somehow swipe a bit of booze.
“Edin? Are you ok
ay?” Rihkar said from across the fire.
Edin blinked and looked up. There was concern on his old man’s face. Edin nodded because he didn’t trust his voice to say anything.
“Let’s get some sleep. We need to be at the pass the day after tomorrow.”
Edin nodded and laid on his cloak. He wasn’t going to use a dead man’s bedroll either. Though Rihkar had thoughtfully pointed out that he’d basically lived in a dead dwarven city for a week or so in the not so distant past. Edin grunted at that thought as he stared up at the stars. He closed his eyes as visions of Arianne came to him. He thought of the fake world in which they got engaged and wondered if that dream, that devilishly good nightmare, was the only time they’d ever do it.
Edin rolled over and buried his head in the crook of his arm and tried to sleep.
There were no dreams. Nothing that said she was alive and well somewhere and when he woke, he was worried. Panicked almost. Edin closed his eyes and tried to somehow—no real idea how—to summon her, to connect with her.
Nothing happened and it was worse than not sleeping.
They moved on in the morning, his legs dragged down the road as he stared off into the distance keeping her in his mind’s eye. He thought of their mission and the current plan they were following. The continent was too large, and to try and move armies to meet the dematians who moved and attacked at night would give the enemy the advantage. They needed a way, at the very least, to stem the flow of these demonic beasts of the underworld from running wild over the lands and slaughtering everyone.
The duke and his general had their plan: If they could cut off the eastern flank of the dematian’s attack, they could focus attention to the west and maybe even send aid to Galara. There’d never been a wall like this planned before, one from the Crady Mountains to the Crimson Ocean, and the task was enormous.
In the army, much of whom were drafted for the assault on the Isle of Mists, Duke Sinndilo was able to find lumberjacks, architects and builders to begin the job. They had begun planning by looking at the best locations. Shortest and flattest distance as well as the most material. After a day of arguing, they decided.
A location a couple hours north of the seaside town of Intelians. The ridge of a wide mountain ran within five miles of the rocky coast.
Edin had briefed the duke and General Oporius about the dematian king on the inland sea and about the dwarven tunnels beneath the earth. The duke listened but said there was nothing much he could do except close off the tunnel from Olangia.
Rihkar did that.
Then when it was completed, they marched toward planned location for the wall.
Edin stared at the tall trees that would soon become part of the massive wooden barrier. He had a general idea of building the wall, sort of just lining up sticks really, but he wasn’t in construction and wasn’t about to help them with that job.
And he couldn’t guard the workers. Not when there was something much more urgent that was needed. Something that mattered to him more than anything else.
Finding Arianne.
While he knew he needed to find the elves, the prophecy said so in not so many words, his attempt to convince the rest of this uneasy alliance to leave and search for the elves was more of a way to get out of this place and find Arianne. Edin knew if he just walked off, it’d break the already tenuous relationship that he now had with Sinndilo and Merik. He also didn’t know where she was, but his gut said southwest.
He was staring in that direction now, feeling that he was looking in the area where she was at that precise moment and the tears began to well. “Don’t,” he whispered as he looked away and tried to push his mind off the thought of her.
Someone bumped him and Edin looked over. Berka raised an eyebrow. “What was that?”
“Nothing,” Edin said and looked at the back of Inquisitor Merik, the first Por Fen he’d ever seen and one he’d wanted dead for so long.
Edin had no idea how he became the Inquisitor. What the succession plan was for Inquisitors, all he knew was that the previous Inquisitor, Diophin, tried to summon Edin into their command ship and ended up getting himself killed by Ashtol’s wayward strike.
That was fine by Edin. Diophin was a monster both inside and out.
The second night they camped the same way. They ate the same food and looked at the same faces. Was this what being a soldier in the army was like?
Edin spoke little and when he laid down, he tried again to see Arianne, or look through her eyes at what she was seeing, but there was nothing. His heart sank and he tried to sleep but it barely worked. That night, he got two hours of sleep, maybe.
They continued on the next morning. Edin was dragging the entire trek. After about four hours the forest simply fell away and they stood on the precipice of a treeless vale that was open for at least a mile to the south. Off to the left, he saw the sparkling dark blue ocean and the white caps. It looked so calming and peaceful at this distance. To the right was a tall and wide mountain that rose like a fat blade thrust from the earth.
“Halt,” a voice came from ahead. It was General Oporius, the mage hater. Well, one of them.
Edin didn’t blame the man. Not really. Most mundane people would kill a mage if they got the chance and had the ability.
Beyond the general was a large dirt field that in a few months’ time would be someone’s corn or wheat field.
A cottage sat on a hill a few hundred yards to the south. From here, Edin could see a couple of folks standing on a small porch.
“Duke Sinndilo, General Oporius.” A voice called out. A soldier was coming from the direction of the cottage. He stopped before the army and bowed in the Dunbilstonian fashion. “The farmer has agreed to your request.” He said and then paused. “Though they do not wish to share their home.”
“Then the duke shall seize it!” Oporius shouted.
Even In the distance, the farmers heard it and flinched.
“General, we will not do that,” Sinndilo said. “Soldier, thank them for use of their land. We’ll start near the mountain and work toward the sea.” He turned toward one of his aides. “As the units arrive send them to their assignments. We head to Intelians.”
Edin followed the retinue of the Duke, his people, as well as the Inquisitor and general as they continued on the road. The forest started up again about a mile later and somewhere in there was the town.
It took another couple of hours before the group of nearly one hundred appeared at the edge of the town.
The sea to the east was calm and looked rather cold and after a few moments of gazing upon it, he realized that the place looked familiar.
They headed down a paved road to a two-story inn. The same inn he and Arianne had stayed in nearly nine months previous. To the south, barely visible from his vantage point, Edin saw the lighthouse they hid in. The duke entered the inn first and Edin wondered if that old innkeeper was still alive or if someone else was running the place.
He waited in the shadows of the building next door with Berka and Rihkar. Off in the distance, he saw the charred remains of a house. The one they destroyed to make their escape. He wondered about the soldier they’d met in the back garden, was he with this army? Would he recognize him?
After a few moments, Berka began walking down the road as if following some unknown trail.
“Where are ya headed?” Edin called out after his friend.
“Could use a walk.”
“We just finished walking…” Edin said as Berka turned the corner of some lane.
“Hey abominations, y’all gonna defile some kiddies later?” It was the bearded big man that told Edin he’d never share a drink with him. The man was in the uniform of the duke’s personal guard. They stood outside the door of the inn about twenty feet away.
“That’s what they call nighttime,” another said. They laughed, but through it was righteous anger and possibly fear.
“Well, armless would probably need to defile with force because no one
would want that, bloody cripple.” He said the last under his breath. “I’d rather be dead than a one-armed abomination.”
Edin glanced at Rihkar who just shrugged. “They’re morons.”
Rihkar chuckled and spoke loud enough for the jokers to hear. “You think I don’t know that? Fatty over there has the manhood of an ant. Not my aunt of course, she’s larger.” He pinched his thumb and forefinger close together.
Edin laughed.
“His lover would probably know,” Rihkar said pointing his one arm. “Hey you, carrot nose, how tiny is fatty next to you?” Rihkar turned back to Edin and smiled as the two chatty men and three more of their followers came stomping toward them like a gang of willy thugs.
Other soldiers, ones who weren’t part of this crew, looked on. Some seemed nervous, some didn’t care. Their eyes seemed to say ‘I don’t care if you die, I’m just not burying you.’
“What did you say about us?” the big man shouted in Edin’s face. “You dare insult us, you dirty abominations. I will—”
It was all he said, all he could get out. Edin was too fast. He felt the rage of not being able to search for Arianne, not being able to do what he wanted, and of being treated like a damned curse.
The world slowed for just a moment as he slugged the man across the jaw, kicked another in the gut, spun with an elbow to one’s cheek, and headbutted the fourth’s nose.
The world returned to normal and four of the five fell instantly. The fifth, a thin guy who seemed the most uncomfortable with the situation gaped looking at his friends.
Blood poured from one man’s nose while the others groaned and rolled around on the stone road.
“Do you have terrin blood too?” Rihkar asked. “If so, it’s not from my side.”