The Legacy (The Darkness Within Saga Book 1)

by JD Franx

  As the other guard released Lycori, she screamed. “Kael!” Snapping her elbow back into the guard’s chin, her vampyr-enhanced strength shattered the bottom jaw and knocked him to the ground. She raced into the cell and was at Kael’s side before the other guards could react. Again, N’Ikyah paid the price for the defiance. The guard that tossed Kael into the cell kicked the slave in her back with his armoured boot. It sent her sprawling into the cell, sliding along the floor until she crashed into the far side beside Kael. The silver burs and iron teeth of the bars cut into her side and back.

  The Orotaq guard spoke for the first time, his deep voice loud and exceptionally clear. “The slave can suffer this time. No other healer will come. Resist and she will pay for your actions every single time. Disobedience means pain. Learn it or you will live it every day.” Without another word, he turned and left. N’Ikyah crawled over and healed the deep cuts and bound the broken ribs that Kael had before she was dragged from the cell by her hair and forced to leave with the other guards.

  It was obvious that pain was becoming a very permanent part of their lives. Such tactics, which the Orotaq had invented and perfected after countless generations of using slaves in their obsidian mines, quickly devoured any small hope for escape. There was no worse place to be in all of Talohna than under the massive, pale blue hands of an Orotaq slave master.

  A few hours passed before Kael regained consciousness, again with his head in Lycori’s lap.

  “Guess I should have handled that a bit better, huh?” he said, by way of an apology.

  “It’s all right,” she said, smiling. “If we don’t try, then we never get out of here…” She stopped as a scowl formed on her face. “I’m pissed, Kael. Even my strength and speed means nothing here. The Orotaq are just as strong as I am, and that thing... Sythrnax? Whatever he is, he scares me. I can’t shake my fear when he’s around. It’s not normal, I haven’t felt fear in over two hundred years. Vampyrs aren’t capable of fear.” Kael sat up with a groan and sat shoulder to shoulder with her.

  “We’ll get out of here,” he said, doing his best to reassure her. “It might take some time, but we will. We have to. You agreed to take me to your clan, remember? How else will I ever know who or what I am?” He smiled over his shoulder at her. “I’m not dying down here. Are you?”

  She snorted and shook her head. As she stared back at him, she asked, “What will happen later, Kael? When they take you? Can they actually steal your magic, do you think?” Kael couldn’t help but chuckle. It turned out to be a mistake as the points buried in his neck scraped along the nerves inside. His laughter quickly became a groan.

  “I don’t know, Lycori. You’re asking the wrong person. They seem to think it’s possible. Why else would we be here?”

  “You’d better not die on me. Are you listening to me?” she said, as she pulled his chin towards her. He winced from the spikes, but covered it fast enough that she never noticed. “You go and die on me, you bastard, and I’ll hunt your ass through the afterlife once I get there. Got it?” she said. That snarky smile returned and he gave her a hug. It was more for him; her strength seemed to hold him together when he most expected to fall apart. It surprised him how quickly he’d come to care about her. Facing death every day seemed to do that.

  The thought of what they had planned for him left a cold ache in his stomach. He sighed and looked over to see that Lycori was fast asleep on his shoulder. Refusing to sleep since they had come in, he guessed that it had finally caught up to her. He smiled as she snored softly, her face hidden by her knotted, long, blond hair.

  As he sat there with his own thoughts, the guards returned and opened the cell, placing two more people inside. It hardly mattered to Kael, the first two hadn’t said a word since he and Lycori were thrown into the cell. They just lay in the corner, huddled together, in what appeared to be a near mentally comatose state. Exhausted, Lycori never even acknowledged the new arrivals, but Kael eyed the two men closely, it was a prison after all.

  “Well,” the older man said, as he looked them over. “You two are new. Just come in?”

  “Yeah, maybe a day. I’m not sure,” Kael replied.

  “That’s definitely understandable. Most people don’t even wake up to know when they were brought in.” The man’s comment spoke of the desperation in the prison.

  “My name is Kael,” he offered, “and this Lycori.”

  “Huh, isn’t that something,” the old man replied. The look on his face was of someone remembering something long forgotten. “Sorry Kael, ghost of the past. My friend here is Galen Vihr, and my name is Gabriel. We’ve been here a few days,” he said.

  “Kael,” Galen said, offering his hand. Kael grasped his hand in a firm shake, making the younger wizard smile. “You’re not from the Bloods are you?” he asked.

  “Uh, no,” Kael answered, leaving it at that.

  “Here.” Galen grabbed Kael’s wrist gently and moved it up to his own forearm.

  “Southerners shake hands. Up here, in the Blood Kingdoms, we’re less formal. By grasping forearms it shows someone you just met that you stand as equals until you know or learn otherwise.” Kael nodded, filing yet more information away into his already overloaded mind. As Galen sat back, Kael noticed that both men were wearing a Gyhhura collar identical to his own.

  “You’re wizards?” he asked, as Gabriel nodded. “Is everyone here…”

  “No, not everyone, but most are. The more wizards they can get, the better,” he said, sitting cross-legged. “How about you? Are you from the Eye? Did they grab you from one of the other towns, or did they pick you up on one of their raids somewhere?” he asked.

  Kael didn’t think letting him know who or what he was would be that great of an idea, so he decided to lie, about everything.

  “I’ve had no formal training, I just discovered my powers a while back.” he replied, telling the truth. “They captured us pretty easily. We were on our way through the northern pass just up from Ipea when they found us. We didn’t stand much of a chance with just the two of us.” Intending to lie about everything had turned into lying about very little. Kael thought he managed quite well to deflect any questions about his new magic.

  Galen shook his head. “Ipea. There’s going to be no one left there if kidnappings keep taking place. Giddeon better act, Gabriel, before northern Yusat is barren of people.”

  “He will,” Gabriel said, smiling. “Our disappearance will prompt action. The Elder Council won’t stop King Bale from sending troops into Yusat now. They’ll find us. This Sythrnax creature and a handful of witches can’t hide our presence from an ArchWizard for long...”

  Taking a thread-bare blanket from what Kael hoped was a ragged-looking bed, Galen wrinkled his face in disgust. “Let’s hope so, Gabriel, let’s hope so.” Sighing, the younger wizard lay down on the cold floor in the corner to rest, pulling the dirty blanket over himself.

  Gabriel, noticing that Lycori was asleep, offered what was left of the makeshift bed of ragged blankets laid out on the stone floor. When Gabriel finished arranging the blankets, Kael stood with a painful groan and carried Lycori across the cell where he laid her gently on her side. Gabriel knelt behind her and covered her with an extra blanket. As Kael smoothed her tangled hair and carefully pushed it back off her face, he heard the man gasp.

  “By the holy High Brethren, I can’t believe it,” Gabriel said, reaching out to touch Lycori’s cheek. Like a viper strike, Kael snatched his hand, holding it tight, but released Gabriel the moment he saw his face. He could see tears running down both sides of the old man’s cheeks and into his beard.

  “Your last name is Alatar, isn’t it?” Kael asked.

  “Yes…” he said, too shocked to say much else.

  Kael nodded. “I suspected as much when I saw your reaction when I introduced ourselves. My apologies for grabbing you, I had to be sure. You’re her grandfather?” It took the man a few moments to answer, but Kael knew anyway.

  Ga
briel rubbed his face with both hands before answering. “I never thought she could still be alive. Her kind… They’re hunted you know. I had accepted a long time ago that she must be gone.” He whispered, so not to wake her. “We last spoke so many harsh words. I said things I never meant. I didn’t want her to go. We were all the family either of us had. It’s the one mistake I have spent centuries wishing I could fix. Gods. Now we’re both locked up here.”

  Kael didn’t know what to say to the old wizard. What could he say to someone who had spent hundreds of years regretting a mistake like that?

  “Where did you meet her? If you don’t mind? Are you a… ah?” Gabriel asked.

  “No, I’m not a vampyr, I believe the word your having trouble with is. I met her about three weeks ago. She saved my life when I was attacked by a darga.” Kael figured as long as he didn’t tell Gabriel that he was a DeathWizard, the rest of the truth didn’t really matter.

  “A darga? What in the Nine Hells of Perdition were the two of you doing in the Forsaken Lands? You must have a death wish, both of you, venturing up there,” he said, solemnly.

  Kael chuckled at how accurate Gabriel’s words were. “Lycori was hiding up there. She just wanted to be left alone. Didn’t want anyone hunting her just because of who she was,” Kael told him.

  Gabriel struggled to ask, “Are you two together then? A couple?”

  “No, we’re not. I was married until recently. I found out four days ago that she is dead. We were separated a while ago during an accident, and her death was my fault,” Kael said, quietly. Desperate to change the subject, he continued talking. “Your granddaughter is an amazing woman, though, and if my wife hadn’t just passed, then... She is my friend, one of the best I’ve ever had. I haven’t known her that long, but I care about her, a lot. We’ve been through some… trials,” he said.

  At some time during their conversation Lycori woke, and took the opportunity to let them know she was listening. “I love you too, Kael, but you already know that.” She smiled and blew him a kiss as she sat up from the makeshift bed. He couldn’t tell if she was even bothered by their situation.

  “Grandfather. It’s good to see you,” she said, still hiding what she was feeling. But when he grabbed her arm and gently pulled her to his embrace she lost any control she had and started crying. It was the first time Kael had seen her cry.

  “I am so sorry, my dear. I never meant those things I said. I wish you hadn’t left. Please forgive a stupid old man. I know what happened wasn’t your fault,” Gabriel said.

  “Me too, grandfather. I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her eyes. Kael gave them as much privacy as he could and went to lay down in the make shift bed. Only planning to rest, he was quickly asleep.

  Kael woke to find himself being dragged to his feet and hauled from the cell by an Orotaq guard. Every other person in the cell had been pinned down or held by more of the Orotaq warriors that kept watch over them. As Kael tried frantically to clear the sleep fog from his mind, he heard Lycori scream as she fought.

  “You leave him alone, you bastards! He’s done nothing to you. Don’t hurt him. Kael! You come back, Kael. Don’t you dare die.” He could hear the depth of her worry and hoped that wherever they were taking him, he would return alive. Gabriel, in desperation, tried to calm Lycori down but nothing he did worked. Kael felt for her, but there was nothing he could do either, except survive what was coming.

  The guards led Kael past the cells in the opposite direction they had come from upon their arrival. Beyond the farthest hall of the prison area was a wide bedrock terrace that stretched out over a yawning, underground chasm. With the ceiling hundreds of feet overhead, Kael wondered exactly how far underground they were.

  Standing on the right side of the terrace, he could see the breath-taking crevice was separated by a stone wall that at one time must have been a walkway to the far side, but it had caved in at the far end many years ago. To the right of the walkway was a much smaller opening down into the earth, similar in appearance to a vertical mineshaft. Bending over, he looked down the yawning pit. It was about a tenth the size of the chasm on the walkway’s left side. He couldn’t begin to guess at the depth, but a stomach-churning stench drifted up from the black depths of the subterranean shaft on currents of gentle air. Covering his nose and mouth with his hands, he gagged. “God, what is that smell?”

  The giant Orotaq guard moved so fast that Kael had no time to think about reacting. He grabbed Kael by the back of the neck and laughed as he pushed his body over the railing, suspending him above the nauseous smelling pit.

  “That’s where your kind end up when Sythrnax and his acquaintances have no further use for you, Human. It takes thirteen seconds to hit the bottom, or at least to stop screaming.” He howled with laughter as he dragged Kael back up over the edge. “Now move. It’s not time for your carcass to be thrown into the pit. At least not yet,” he finished, still laughing as the other guards joined in the merriment caused by Kael’s terror and shaking legs.

  As ordered, Kael continued to head for the stone stairs at the balcony’s far side. He couldn’t help but admire the size of the profoundly deep abyss to his right. The bottom wasn’t visible to the naked eye and without the use of his esoteric sight, he couldn’t tell how deep the crack was.

  The Orotaq guards escorted him to the stairs at the edge of the landing’s left hand side and kept a watchful eye on him at all times. Besides the marble pedestal railing around the balcony, the catwalk heading down was the only other noticeable feature. The pathway itself was carved directly into the bedrock of the chasm wall, while the steps led down a hundred feet to a small landing where they turned and continued heading down in the opposite direction for another hundred feet, giving the trail a zigzag design. Kael couldn’t see to the bottom of the stone steps no matter how hard he stared and squinted.

  The guards pushed him towards the stairs, hard enough to make him trip head-first down the first flight. Pure luck saved him as his hand grasped a small crack in the bedrock wall at the top of the stairs, jarring him to a stop, but not before tearing two fingernails off his left hand. He pulled his fingers from the crack, pressed the two nails back onto his fingers, cradling his bleeding fingertips. Without looking back, he continued down the stairs, not willing to risk more of the guards ire.

  After walking for a couple more minutes they made it halfway down the second tier of steps when Kael noticed a large door-shaped entrance at the next landing that led to a hallway cut into the raw bedrock. Pushed from behind again, harder this time, he was sent sprawling down a dozen steps. Refusing to get up, Kael waited as the guard who threatened to throw him in the pit approached. Turning on to his knees, he groaned. The guard lunged at Kael, his patience at an end. Not bothering to look up, Kael rolled to his right until he felt a heavy boot thud into his ribs. The Orotaq guard tripped on Kael’s body and stumbled towards the three-foot-high guardrail lining the stone steps. Kael stood and rushed forward, shouldering the guard from behind. The added momentum was enough to send the guard flailing. His eight feet in height was no match for the short railing, and he plunged over the side into the abyss. Kael stared into the depths as the guard disappeared into the darkness. Anxiously awaiting a punch or a kick, he slowly turned when it didn’t come.

  “He screamed for 15 seconds,” Kael said smiling, as he stared down the other two Orotaq warriors. “What does that mean?”

  The two guards glared at Kael. “It means Orotaq don’t fly, Tarren especially,” the first said, looking over Kael’s shoulder.

  The second guard nodded. “Stupid usually can’t.” Pointing at Kael, he added, “No more stupid shit, Human. Stupid can’t fly. Can you?”

  “No,” Kael answered. Without looking back, he continued down the stairs. A heavy boot struck his back when he didn’t move fast enough and pain flared along his spine. Still he refused to look behind him, instead entering the man-made cave and heading into the tunnel. A half a minute passed before they came to a
bend. As they rounded the curve, he saw Sythrnax waiting for them. Uneasy, Kael approached as his captor spoke.

  “Ah, Kael, my newborn wizard. How was your rest? Get your required amount of beauty sleep, princess?” Sythrnax’s dry comment earned him a handful of laughter from the Orotaq escorts that brought Kael down. The hooded and masked creature paid them no attention and continued speaking. “I hear you were more interested in exercising than resting. I presume N’Ikyah managed to patch you up?” The being’s eyes danced with amusement.

  Kael’s voice dripped with anger. “She did fine.” The sight and sound of the masked man still managed to light Kael’s rage, but again it was greatly suppressed. Having a clearer head now, he guessed it had to do with the Gyhhura Torque buried in the nerves of his neck. It was the only difference from when they faced each other in the mountain pass.

  Sythrnax glared, nodding slightly. “Follow me. If you will?” he asked, but it was clearly an order. They headed down another set of hallway tunnels towards a wide metal door inscribed with cuneiform-type writing, none of which Kael recognized. Once there, one of the Orotaq guards moved his hand over the characters, sliding some together and others up or down. A lock opened with a loud clack, followed by a grinding from deep within the wall. It echoed out into the hall and down the tunnel as the door rolled to the right, revealing a room beyond it.

  Kael stood still, waiting to be told what to do next. The two guards picked him up by his arms and carried him into the room, his boots clear of the ground by two feet. With no other choice, he took in the room as quickly and as accurately as he could; his survival might well depend on it. His eyes immediately darted to the device in the centre of the floor. The apparatus consisted of a design that had to have been seared into the floor in two sections. It reminded him of the magical glyph Sythrnax had cast below Lycori back in the mountain pass. The circular, outer part of the glyph was inscribed along the outside border with symbols and lettering that had been painstakingly burnt into the stone floor. Try as he might, Kael failed to recognize the symbols or the writing depicted on the floor. It seemed important that he try. It felt like an instinctual need to know, but he didn’t understand it.