After stepping past the pillars and into the circle of stones, the smoke inexplicably cleared. It was as if the smoke could not pass beyond the glowing ring. Stiger took a deep breath of fresh air and found himself staring at the back of what could only be another abomination. The creature was so misshapen that Stiger’s mind had difficulty processing it. There was another present, and this one was human. He wore a maroon robe and carried a staff with a crystal similar to the one Ogg carried. Both were facing the two enormous central pillars, which were throbbing rapidly with an intense blue light. The two pillars emitted a high-pitched hum. Lightning flashed and crackled between them in what seemed to be a rapidly increasing series of discharges.
The crystal on the wizard’s staff flared with light, and he stepped back and away from the abomination. Where the lightning had been flashing back and forth between the two pillars, a patch of white light now stretched evenly out between them. The light was intense, though it faded to blackness a half second later. Stiger found himself looking at what he could only describe as a dark hole slowly coalescing in the air. For reasons that he could not explain, the hole felt bottomless, like looking down into a very deep well. With a shock, he realized he was gazing upon a portal to another time.
Father Thomas, Ogg, and Braddock stepped through the ring of stones. Ogg coughed and sucked in a deep breath of fresh air. The human wizard turned around. Recognition flickered in the strange wizard’s eyes as they fixated upon Ogg, and for a moment no one moved. Stiger thought he detected fear in the human wizard’s eyes, but it was gone in a flash. Then the wizard struck, holding forth his staff. A beam of brilliant yellow light shot forth. Ogg held up his own staff, and the beam of light shot past them, deflected as if by some invisible force. Its passage through the air left the hairs on Stiger’s arms quivering. The beam hit the ceiling and exploded, raining small rocks down to the floor behind them.
Without being told, Stiger knew what he had to do, and advanced. At the same time, the abomination turned around, saw them, and smiled, a disfigured mouth full of mismatched and crooked teeth. The minion was humanoid in shape, but a horribly twisted thing. Its face looked as if it had been mashed so many times that everything was in the wrong place. It met Stiger’s eyes before turning dismissively away and back to the still-coalescing portal. The minion held out a gnarled hand in the direction of the portal, and the ever-present, high-pitched hum of the World Gate intensified. The floor itself seemed to vibrate with power.
The human wizard’s attention was fixed solely upon Ogg. He said something that seemed to make no sense, and even though Stiger clearly heard the words, the memory of them immediately slid from his mind. A blue globe flashed from the wizard’s staff directly toward Ogg, who batted it away seemingly without any effort. A green globe flew from Ogg’s staff to the human wizard, who deflected it toward Stiger. Instinctively, he raised his sword to block it. The globe hit the sword with the sound of a thunder crack. Stiger was staggered by the force of the blow, and his fingers went numb as agony beyond measure tore through him.
POWER, the sword hissed with what seemed to be exultation. The agony faded, replaced by a feeling of incredible strength and ability. Stiger’s tired mind felt sharper than it had been in days. Strike the wizard down! Take the wizard’s life force for our own!
He moved toward the wizard, who took a step back, but it was not far enough. As if Stiger were a bystander, he saw his blade reach out and punch effortlessly into the wizard’s chest. The wizard’s face contorted in agony, astonishment, and then incredible fear. The sword hissed and sizzled as it went in. The light in the wizard’s eyes that spoke of life seemed to flicker before going out, extinguished forever. Stiger felt the sword hilt grow warm and then hot in his hand before suddenly cooling. The body fell backward, landing in a heap amongst the fallen stones and stalactites from the ceiling.
Stiger turned to face the abomination. It was moving toward the portal, and before Stiger could react, it stepped between the two pillars and, incredibly, vanished. Simultaneously, from behind, Ogg said something in the same language the other wizard had used moments ago. Like before, though Stiger clearly heard the words, they slipped out of his mind as if they had never been spoken. The floor shook, and Stiger had the feeling of immense power being released behind him. His hair stood on end. Then everything went incredibly still.
Stiger turned around and saw Ogg standing there weakly, supported by his staff. The wizard was clearly exhausted. Stiger blinked. The wizard’s face was now creased by age and he looked to have grown much older, elderly. Stiger’s surprise in this change lasted only a moment, for his attention was drawn away from Ogg. Beyond the circle of stones was complete darkness. Nothing, not even the devastation, the dragon’s body, nor the smoke, could be seen. Stiger looked back to the portal. It was still there. The two pillars hummed with power. He glanced back to find Ogg’s eyes upon him. Stiger had a bad feeling about what was to come.
“You must go after it,” the wizard told him.
Twenty-Two
“What do you mean go after it?” Stiger asked incredulously.
“Precisely that,” Ogg replied. “You must follow it, and kill it, before it changes history.”
“You want me to go through that?” Stiger asked incredulously. “Where does it go?”
Ogg shuffled up to him, leaning heavily upon his staff. The metal guard clicked against the stone floor, and besides the humming of the World Gate, Stiger became conscious of no other sounds. Ogg cast a tired look toward where the minion had gone through, and then his eyes tracked to Stiger’s.
“I sense it has gone back to the past,” Ogg explained. “I suspect you know where.”
“That was the minion that Delvaris fought,” Stiger said as a statement, suddenly knowing it to be true. He glanced down in wonder at the sword in his hand.
“Did Rarokan show you that?” Ogg asked curiously. “The sword, did it show you?”
“During the fight against the abomination back at Castle Vrell,” Stiger explained. “It showed me Delvaris and the minion confronting each other on a field of battle. I saw my ancestor kill it.”
“Perhaps not.”
“What do you mean?”
“It has gone back to change our timeline.” Ogg gestured toward the blackness beyond the ring of stones. “In fact, it has already done so. You need to go back, find Delvaris, help him confront it, and kill it. In short, fix things.”
“You can’t be serious,” Stiger said, aghast. “Me? Why not you?”
“I am weakening,” Ogg said with a sudden shudder. “The magic I just loosed was powerful. I had been storing it for this moment. I cannot hold the portal open for much longer. You must go through the World Gate, and soon. If you do not, I will weaken, and the spell will fail. In that moment, all will be lost.”
Stiger looked at the wizard in disbelief and then glanced back toward the Gate. Ogg was proposing to send him back in time, over three hundred years to be exact. It was so fantastic, he was having difficulty wrapping his head around the concept.
Then he stilled, and a hand went to his cloak pocket. He pulled out Delvaris’s scroll, hands shaking as he did so. The scroll was damp and smudged. He glanced at the Gate. Delvaris had known . . . it was so clear now.
Ogg coughed and seemed to shrink in upon himself. The wizard looked to be aging before Stiger’s eyes, growing older and more frail with every passing moment.
“You must hurry.” The words came out as if the wizard were struggling to breathe.
“If I go, will I be able to come back?” Stiger looked up hopefully at Ogg.
The wizard looked him level in the eyes and for a moment did not answer.
“As long as there is a wizard of great power holding the Gate open, travel between both sides is possible. You know what our time holds. I am not exactly sure what you will need to do, but you must help Delvaris kill the crea
ture. Set things right. You cannot tell any, including the dragons, of the future, for it would change things more should they know. You may only confide in Thoggle, my master, teacher, and mentor. Do you understand me? Only Thoggle.”
Stiger nodded and turned toward the Gate. The great dark hole in the world beckoned. It called to him. He had never felt so alone in his life. A hand came to rest upon his shoulder.
“I will go with you, my son,” Father Thomas said. “You shall not have to walk this path alone.”
Stiger felt an immense wave of relief wash over him. He looked back at the paladin, and then at Ogg, who nodded, encouraging him to go.
“I will go also,” Braddock announced and stepped forward.
“No,” Ogg said with force before being consumed by a wracking cough. “You must not. Only the two of them go back.”
“You’ve known this?” Braddock asked in an accusing tone.
“From the moment my master took me on as an apprentice,” the wizard answered. “I have been preparing for this my entire life.”
“Thoggle knew also?” Braddock asked.
“Thoggle waits on the other side,” Ogg told him, coughing. Blood flecked his lips, which twisted into a sneer. “As does Brogan, your father.”
“My father,” Braddock said with longing, looking at the Gate.
“You must remain,” Ogg implored. “Stiger must go. It is his destiny, his fate. He is the Tiger that the Oracle has spoken of.”
“The Tiger’s Fate?” Braddock whispered in awe. “No . . . ”
“Now you understand, Braddock,” Ogg spoke over his thane. “The sword has always been meant for him, forged for his hand alone. He was not simply the restorer of the Compact, but also the direct instrument of prophecy, an important game piece of the gods.”
“I . . . ” Braddock turned to Stiger, shaken, clearly unsure what to say. He cleared his throat, then nodded, straightening. “At first I thought I would dislike you, but I’ve since learned you are a man of great Legend. For that, you have my respect. Upon my own personal Legend, I will be here when you return through the World Gate. I will wait for you.”
“The sword,” Stiger turned to Ogg, alarmed at what the wizard had just revealed. “What of it?”
“You must master it . . . before it masters you,” Ogg said, and broke into coughing fit, which wracked his body terribly. The wizard sucked in a ragged breath and almost fell to his knees. “I cannot hold the gate open for much longer . . . You . . . have to . . . go!”
Stiger gazed at the wizard a moment more before he stepped forward toward the Gate. He wished Eli were with him and at that moment realized how much he truly valued and relied upon his friend. Stiger took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Eli was not here, and this was something that had to be done. He shared a brief glance with Father Thomas and then looked back toward the World Gate.
The portal seemed to call him forward. It hummed with power, and he felt mesmerized the closer he got to it. His legs, of their own accord, seemed to carry him forward, and then he stepped through. The world went white, and he felt as if he were falling from a height of some distance. The feeling lasted for only a fraction of a second before he felt solid ground beneath his feet.
Stiger’s vision returned, and he blinked in surprise as Father Thomas stepped out of the Gate behind him. They were in the same gate room that they had been in just moments before, but this room was intact, without the destruction that had been visited upon the one in the future. The ring of stones glowed, throbbing brilliantly with purple light, and beyond them Stiger could see both dwarves and humans. Surprisingly, no dragons were present. Stiger took one of the dwarves to be a wizard, based upon the staff he was holding, and another who stood next to him to be thane, likely Braddock’s father. The thane wore nearly identical armor to his son, along with a rich purple cape . . . or Braddock will one day wear, Stiger corrected himself, remembering where he was. He had traveled back in time.
Stiger recognized one of the men a heartbeat later as Centurion Sabinus. The centurion was kneeling over a body, a grief-stricken look upon his face. Stiger walked up to both of them. All eyes in the room were upon him and Father Thomas. The body was that of Delvaris. Of that Stiger was sure. With his throat ripped out, Delvaris was very dead. There could be no doubt of the man’s identity, as the general was wearing the very same kit that Stiger had on even now.
“This is certainly not what I had expected to find,” Father Thomas said quietly to him.
Stiger felt his heart plummet. He had failed. Castor had won.
A thunderclap behind him caused Stiger, and everyone else in the room, to jump. He looked around, and with horror saw that the Gate had closed. The two crystal columns had stilled to a dull glow and soft hum.
“Oh shit,” Stiger said and realized Ogg had let the World Gate close. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. There was no going back now.
End of Book 3
About the Author
Marc Alan Edelheit has a Bachelor’s Degree in Science and obtained a Master’s in Education as a Reading and Writing Specialist. He is currently an executive in the healthcare industry, staying up late at night to work on his novels. Marc has traveled the world, from Asia to Europe, even at one point crossing the border at Check Point Charlie in Berlin toward the end of the Cold War. Marc is the ultimate history fan and incorporates much of that passion into his work to bring greater realism to his fans. He is also an avid reader, devouring several books a week, ranging from history to science fiction and fantasy. Marc currently resides in New Hope, Pennsylvania, just miles from where Washington crossed the Delaware.
A Note from the Author
I hope you enjoyed The Tiger’s Fate and continue to read my books. Stiger and Eli’s adventures will continue.
A positive review would be awesome and greatly appreciated, as it affords me the opportunity to focus more time and energy on my writing and helps to persuade others to read my work. I read each and every review.
Grammar suggestions and any spelling corrections are most welcome. Please contact me through email, Facebook or Amazon.
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Thank you . . .
Marc Alan Edelheit
Coming Soon
Stiger and Eli’s Adventures Continue in:
Chronicles of an Imperial Legionary Officer
Book 4
The Tiger’s Time
Also Coming Soon
Tales of the Seventh
Stiger
(A Prequel Novella)
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The Tiger's Fate (Chronicles of An Imperial Legionary Officer Book 3) Page 35