The Undying Champions (The Eternal War Book 1)

by Brennan C. Adams

  Eledis seemed frustrated by his inability to land a direct hit, shown by his increasing eagerness to seize on Raimie’s feints. He pulled back after a vicious series of strikes left red marks on his bared chest.

  “How did your meeting with the Audish natives go?” he asked when he dove back in.

  Raimie easily blocked the jab.

  “Poorly,” he said, following up with his own sweep. “In fact, it’s safe to say it was an unmitigated disaster.”

  “What did you do?” Eledis asked accusingly.

  “I didn’t do anything,” Raimie replied, twirling against Marcuset’s thrust with more force than he’d intended. The commander nearly lost his weapon. “Their leader found me personally distasteful. They hate us here, Eledis.”

  The old man silently cut at Raimie’s exposed thigh, forcing him to skip backward in the sand. He almost tripped in the process.

  The move backward put him in the perfect position to duck under Marcuset’s swing and punch him in the gut with the end of his staff. The commander doubled over and raised a hand, surrendering from the fight.

  “You’re sure there was nothing else you might have done to upset them?” Eledis asked.

  “I’m sure!” Raimie grunted.

  He unleashed a flurry of blows, forcing his grandfather to retreat, and once the old man was moving backward, he dropped low and swept the staff behind Eledis’ feet. The old man stumbled over the impediment, and as he was going down, Raimie used the staff to leap to the side, twirling his weapon over his head and then down with force on his grandfather’s neck. The wood stopped short of crushing Eledis’ windpipe.

  Panting, Raimie planted his staff’s end to the side and offered his grandfather a hand up.

  “Where did you learn to do something like that?” Eledis asked with an admiring laugh. “I’ve observed Kheled’s lessons, and he hasn’t taught you anything remotely similar to that.”

  “I must have picked it up from a book somewhere.”

  Movement in the audience drew Raimie’s eye. Once he’d caught the young man’s attention, Oswin waved frantically.

  “It takes more than reading about it in a book to master such skill,” his grandfather said with disbelief.

  “I don’t know, Eledis. Maybe Nyl’s been practicing the forms in our mind. It’s not like he has anything better to do,” Raimie responded distractedly.

  “Nyl?” Eledis asked, horrified.

  Realizing what he’d said unintentionally, Raimie backpedaled as quickly as he could.

  “You know, nil as in nothing? As in there’s nothing in my brain?”

  He forced a laugh, but it was obvious that Eledis wasn’t buying the joke. It was also obvious that he knew something about Nylion. Had his grandfather been involved in whatever had torn him in two?

  Raimie found the idea unlikely. Eledis had never intentionally harmed him in the past and present, and separating him from his other half had caused deliberate damage to his soul.

  Oswin’s antics in the crowd increased in intensity, and Raimie rolled his eyes.

  “Excuse me, Eledis. I’d better see what my bodyguard wants.”

  He trudged off the beach and retrieved Silverblade and his armor.

  “What?” he demanded irritably of the spy.

  “Something requires your attention, sir,” Oswin whispered, eyeing the curious soldiers around them. “I thought you might want to deal with it before anyone else hears.”

  “What type of something?”

  Oswin shook his head.

  “I shouldn’t say with so many eyes watching, sir. If you come with me, I can show you.”

  “This had better be good, Oswin.”

  “Oh it is, sir. It is.”

  * * *

  Aramar watched Eledis pace the small confines of the command tent. He hated being summoned on principle, but when he was forced to attend to someone, moving about camp proved difficult on this uneven terrain.

  Every bump and jostle terrified him with phantoms of axle breaks. The idea of losing his chair and becoming reliant on others for mobility built a panicked buzz in his head. Add to that the fact that he’d been busy with a little surprise for his son…

  “Nylion has returned,” Eledis said, finally giving the reason for the summons.

  Aramar turned cold. It wasn’t possible.

  “I find that hard to believe,” he scoffed. “The spell was supposed to last years-”

  “Are you blind?” Eledis stopped pacing in front of him, lifting frustrated hands. “Your son is doing the impossible again. He jumped a distance he physically isn’t capable of, snuck past ‘desa’s palace guards multiple times undetected, and beat death in the swamps!”

  “So the magic’s back,” Aramar shrugged. “That doesn’t mean Nylion is.”

  “He admitted it to me, Aramar. He tried to pass the slip of the tongue off as a pun, but it was a weak excuse. No, Nylion is back.”

  The tent dropped into silence at the pronouncement, neither man wishing to speak because doing so would confirm the fact.

  “What do we do?” Aramar asked quietly.

  “There’s not much we can do except hope he doesn’t surface frequently. We can’t cast the spell on him again. Sam-”

  “Don’t speak my wife’s name,” Aramar interrupted, murder in his voice.

  Eledis raised his hands calmingly.

  “Alouin, this couldn’t happen at a worse time,” he said to himself. “The troops are beginning to trust us. We can’t survive erraticism now-”

  Aramar’s hand shot up and took hold of Eledis’ collar. He dragged the old man down to his level.

  “You’re worried about TIMING?! This is my SON’S WELLBEING, and you’re thinking about timing?”

  Eledis calmly peeled Aramar’s shaking fingers away from his clothing. He resumed pacing as if nothing had happened.

  “Regardless, I’ll have to start taking a more prominent role. Too many of the men look only to Raimie for guidance. That needs to change.”

  “Are you worried that he’s winning your precious army away from you?” Aramar asked proudly.

  “Not particularly. You know that I could take control back with a single statement any time I desired.”

  “You think too highly of yourself!” Aramar scoffed.

  “And you forget your place!” Eledis roared, finally losing his temper.

  Aramar hoped the old man could see the hate and contempt in his eyes, but that wasn’t likely. Eledis was immune to caring about what others thought of him after all.

  “You’re to watch your son,” the old man curtly commanded. “You’re to control Nylion if he takes over, and you’re to report to me. Now get out of my tent.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  I beg you, for the friendship we once shared, do what must be done. End my life. Stop the misery that I may, in my insanity, wreak upon the world.

  The signs had stopped. Kheled had returned to the last one and followed the tracks to where they culminated at a crevasse in the mountain side, and now, he was flummoxed. His quarry couldn’t have slipped through the narrow crack, and the ivy nearby showed none of the wear and tear typical of climbing hands and feet. He stepped back and crossed his arms, mentally commanding the mountain to give him answers.

  A snap sounded out above him, and instinctively, he ducked. The twang of a bow string immediately rewarded those instincts, and he sprinted for the safety of the trees, arrows chasing him away. He huddled behind the first trunk he reached and tried to figure out what had happened.

  Raimie and Ren could have been captured here. Their captors may have left a man behind to watch for stragglers, but he found that scenario unlikely. Ren had learned well the lessons of Auden if their reunion was any indication. Which meant…

  “Ren! If you’re up there, can you please tell your gods damn friends to stop shooting at me?” he called out.

  The arrows stopped which was a good sign, but no one answered his call. He waited tensely, wonder
ing when he should give up on his theory and make a break for it.

  Just when he was beginning to think there would be no answer, a crack rang into the night air. Kheled cautiously stuck his head out.

  The cliff face was a door! He laughed with delight at the ingenuity. It made perfect cover for a group of desperate people doing their best to hide in the mountains.

  Someone dressed all in black with head wrapped in cloth in much the same way as Ren’s had been when they’d first met stalked into the forest from between the widening gap. The figure carried a bow with an arrow nocked but held it relaxed in front of the hips.

  “Come out slowly, and keep your hands where I can see them,” a muffled voice commanded.

  Kheled left the protection of the trees, hands extended to either side. Thankfully, the vine he’d used to crudely tie his cloak together held. Bad enough that he was at this person’s mercy, there was no need to add the humiliation of revealing naked skin to the mix.

  “That’s close enough. If you don’t stay perfectly still, an arrow goes through your eye.”

  The figure twitched his head, and a boy carrying a lantern hurried out from the safety waiting behind the doors. The boy raised his lantern to illuminate Kheled’s face, his eyes tracing over every piece of the healer’s exposed flesh until they landed on his hands. He immediately backpedaled, screeching “Corruption!”, and the concealed figure raised the bow and drew.

  “Wait!” Kheled yelled.

  He raised his black vine covered hands which made the boy flinch and the sentry release the bow string.

  The healer stepped to the side in a blur, using up the last of Ele’s energy that he’d held. The arrow whizzed by, nicking his upper arm and drawing blood. He couldn’t hope to conceal the white light flooding to the wound this time, but luckily both potential witnesses were preoccupied. The boy ran back to the crack in the cliff, and the concealed figure was in the process of drawing and nocking another arrow.

  “It’s not real!” Kheled yelled. “A disguise I affected to infiltrate some fort to the north. If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice the lack of motion, and look! It doesn’t go past the wrist!”

  Five more swathed individuals sprinted forward to join their brother in aiming arrows at Kheled. He slowly reached for the cloak’s cuff.

  “Don’t move!” the order was barked from multiple throats.

  “You have me pretty well at your mercy, gentlemen,” the healer soothingly replied, clutching the cuff tightly. “Although I’m curious what good you think arrows will do if I’m Kiraak like you think.”

  “They’ll slow you down long enough for me to catch up and cut off your head.”

  “Clever strategy,” Kheled commented, and he yanked up his sleeve.

  The firing squad flinched at the quick movement, but they possessed the discipline not to loose at an action that was so clearly harmless.

  “See? A disguise. Obviously, I’m not Kiraak,” Kheled said.

  None of the bows lowered.

  “Alouin, you’re all human, aren’t you? You can’t see in this deep dark,” Kheled sighed and then muttered to himself. “Fine. There’s no point in hiding anymore anyway.”

  After all, Teron knew there was a primeancer within the ranks of Raimie’s army. The news would spread through Doldimar’s forces until it reached the Dark Lord himself, and after that, the hunt would be on.

  Better that he step into the spotlight and reveal his powers. He’d more years of experience slipping from enemies’ clutches and a greater grasp of the extent of Ele’s power than Raimie did. He’d survive the hunt much longer than his friend could hope to.

  Kheled reached for his source and found it intentionally blocked. The hands on those strings looked shaky. All it would take was one exhausted muscle, and he’d be a pincushion.

  “Creation, quit being a vindictive little bitch and release the block,” Kheled quietly hissed through his teeth.

  “You said to stay away until called,” Creation said coolly. “I wasn’t going to allow you access when I couldn’t monitor you.”

  “You’re going to follow that particular command to stay out of my business to the letter? Not the thousands of others you’ve broken ‘for my safety’?”

  “Are you going to take the time to reprimand me, getting riddled in the process, or are you going to finally throw off the disguise of anonymity?”

  “I can only do that if you remove the block you put on me, now can I?”

  Creation gestured dismissively, and growling irritably, Kheled pulled on his source and let Ele’s power light up the forest. The ink washed out of his hands, returning them to their natural state, and the healer wiggled his fingers to demonstrate their lack of black spider webs.

  It was impossible to read those who held him hostage. Without a face to judge, he had to rely on their actions and body language, neither of which was particularly helpful when no one moved a muscle. At least they hadn’t immediately peppered him with the projectiles.

  “Lindon!”

  The boy poked his head out.

  “Fetch Ren.”

  He disappeared, and Kheled groaned at these people’s suspicion.

  “May I at least sit?” he asked. “I’ve been running for a couple days now, and my feet would like a break if I’m forced to wait.”

  None of them said a word in response which he took to mean assent. He folded to the ground, carefully drawing his cloak tightly around his body. Now that he was comfortable, he held his hands in front of his face and strung a line of white light between each finger, pulsing energy along all of them at differentiating rates and times. Content with his little distraction, he addressed his splinter.

  “Raimie’s status?” he asked.

  “The same as it has been since Lighteater consumed his piece of Order: unknown.”

  “Which means you haven’t checked since then.”

  “I don’t see the point in confirming that I already know, nor the point in wasting our life force as you are now,” Creation said calmly.

  “The point in this,” Kheled lifted his hands, “is to ease the minds of those watching. The more a person observes the inexplicable and terrifying, the more acclimated to it he or she becomes, and since I don’t want these good people to be afraid of me or to see me as more than man, I’m playing with Ele.

  “Besides, there have to be some benefits to this role I’ve been forced into, and entertaining myself like this is not wasting our life force. I’m simply passing it between my hands. Now this-”

  He shot a beam of white light at one of the figures surrounding him and directed it to circle the body and disappear above the head. The swathed figure stiffened, but other than that, never moved.

  “-is wasting Ele’s energy.”

  Kheled fixed Creation with his eyes.

  “I’m not like Raimie. I know what I’m doing. Don’t try to manipulate or play with me, Creation.”

  The splinter cringed at the rebuke.

  “As to your other objection, it doesn’t matter if you see the point. Do as you’re told, and check on Raimie.”

  “You’ve become very bossy, you know,” Creation told his Eselan before he popped.

  Kheled let his string game fade away. He quietly set his hands in his lap, overcome with a sudden wash of melancholy. He hated this part of the cycle only slightly less than the loss of family. Beating off other’s fear and hate while working toward those same people’s own good was draining in a way most couldn’t imagine. As if summoned by thoughts of family, Ren’s voice carried loudly from the stone doors.

  “Lower your weapons, you silly men! That’s my brother you’re threatening.”

  The arrows angled downward only slightly as the concealed figures uncertainly wavered over following the command. Ren shoved through them, hauled Kheled to his feet, and pulled him into a tight hug. Once she was finished, she pushed him away and examined him critically.

  “What on earth are you wearing?” she asked, wr
inkling her nose.

  “A cloak?” he said as if it was obvious. “Look, I had to do a full body shift to avoid capture, and this was all I’d left behind before heading into the fortress.”

  Ren covered her mouth with a hand to contain laughter.

  “We’ll get you some clothes. Maybe some of Ky’s will fit you. You’ve grown quite a bit since we were kids.”

  “I know,” Kheled said distastefully. “The height’s ever a burden.”

  “His piece CAME BACK!” Creation shouted as he popped into existence.

  Both siblings turned at the interruption.

  “What are you talking about?” Kheled asked.

  “I mean that his Order piece was gone, wiped from existence as if it had never been. Yet when I went to the whole to retrieve what little I could about your ally, I was greeted by a wealth of information granted to the whole by the human’s eliminated piece! It’s beyond belief! Simply not po-” Creation cut off when he noticed the second pair of eyes on him.

  “Hello, asshole!” Ren greeted the splinter cheerfully.

  “Perhaps we should discuss this later,” Creation suggested, eyeing the half-Eselan woman with distaste.

  “Yes, let’s avoid a fight shall we?” Kheled dismissed the splinter without a second thought. “What were we talking about?”

  “Getting you clothes,” Ren said much more grimly than before. “Come with me, and I’ll- What are you all still doing here? Go back to your duties!”

  She shooed away the swathed sentries, and they reluctantly dispersed.

  “That’s my fault actually,” Kheled informed his sister. “I may have…”

  He drew Ele energy to his hand and held it up demonstratively.

  “We’re no longer hiding then?” she asked sadly.

  “That part’s over and done with.”