by S L Gassick
Nayakax noticed the change in tone in his voice. “But you don’t believe this.”
“Well,” Lirilius closed his eyes and tilted his head, “we were obviously taught differently when I grew up with the Clans. But I don’t want you starting to sympathise with the enemy right now; this is what is taught in the Valhalla’s and is all I should say.”
Nayakax scratched his ankle, looked up and signalled Lirilius to continue.
“Well, the Dark Clans had become extremely powerful and a true threat to the people of Gaea. To their ideals. They had grown substantially. There was also suddenly talk of an ancient script found, written by none other than Gaea himself, about him returning in another host at the darkest hour. Though it is said that this one shall be born with even more power than Gaea ever had, and it will be that person’s choice whether or not they use it for good or evil.
The Dark Clans and the People of Gaea have been fighting for hundreds and hundreds of years now and the Valhallas that teach the young continue to uphold the word of Gaea. But many have turned to the Dark Clans, or some don’t even care about Gaea or the Dark Clans and live by their own rules.”
“Why would someone not care about Gaea?” asked Hemero.
“Well young one, not everyone believes he is real. Some don’t even care unless it affects their everyday lives. The Valhallas are more than just Gaea now, they are the capital for each country. The ruling Headmasters govern the entire planet, they no longer just look after the young Chosen. They hold the real power, an army of soldiers all with an abundance of kyu.” Lirilius shook his head. “Anyway, forget about all this, let’s get some sleep.”
The four children laid down and closed their eyes. But Hemero turned round and crawled towards Lirilius.
“What is it, Hemero?”
Hemero could see that Lirilius’s face had grown thin, taught and yet shallow; the struggle of this journey had rapidly taken its toll on the former knight.
“You believe in Gaea, right?” Hemero asked. He looked into Lirilius's eyes and saw them tighten as his face began to smile slightly.
“I do, yes,” he answered.
Hemero smiled and turned around and slowly fell to sleep as the noise drowned out the quiet sobs Lirilius was making in his dreams.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Shui was finding it exhausting work preparing for the battle ahead and he had not slept in days. In fact, when he did lie down he felt the Kalad embedded in his neck a real discomfort and was left often having to stay up and re-evaluate preparations. Tonight he thought he might continue his journal and sat down at his desk whilst he heard the last of the troops leaving for the war.
What a day it has been! I have just said farewell to my troops who will be battling with Norheath within days. This Kalad has interrupted my sleeping patterns and I have felt very strange since storing it within my body for safe keeping. I can feel my subconscious mixing with the waking hours and find myself drifting into some kind of limbo, it is here that the Kalad speaks to me and beckons for the portal to be opened. Though I have promised this ‘Lord’ that I will set him free upon Earth, I am not that much of a maniac that I will do so of my own accord (unless the situation arose when I might have to!). There’s no fun if everyone’s dead! What a bore that would be! And I still have to make preparations for the Queen.
I know I write this a lot, but every day the Queen looks more and more healthy. It has been years since I first discovered her and I never knew something of this world could exist with such overwhelming power, though it is her greatest strength, it is also her biggest downfall. The power having taken its toll on her body, it is hard trying to help her control it and at the same time rebuild her physical being so that she may truly be perfect and in such a state to present her to the world.
The Queen restores my faith in a higher being, whether it is Gaea or not I do not know. But the Valhallas are correct about a ‘Second Coming’ and The Queen is surely it. She is under my control and I will use her to finally unite the world under my rule, to finally rid the planet of the troublesome Valhallas and give the people their freedom.
Although I imagine there will be many casualties, I already have Norheath within my grasp and can exploit the secrets of the greatest Valhalla in the world. I will then be able start up the Dark Clans under a new name, keep no secrets from the people, none of this ‘Chosen’ nonsense and show the people their new leader – The Queen. I am giddy with excitement and soon, perhaps within as close as a week, all my ideas will come to fruition. I will be able to beckon in a New Age.
Shui took a sigh. All this talk of Undead and Hell made him wonder what would happen to him in the Afterlife. Surely by aggravating the Lord of the Underworld, his time would be spent being tortured forever, unless he could scheme his way out of it, which is always possible. He’d lived this long after all.
Had he been deemed evil enough for Hell, or was he a victim of circumstance? Wasn’t everything he had done a means to an end? What exactly happens in this Underworld? His eyes grew tired and soon he fell asleep at his chair.
In his dream he was falling from the sky, he fell and kept falling into darkness. The wind was rushing into his lungs and making him unable to breathe. He hit the ground and could hear screaming: “I’ve opened it,” he was saying, “I’ve opened it and let them out!”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Hemero dreamt he was up a tree overlooking the Valhalla; there was a man shouting in the distance but he could not hear what he was saying. The man was blindfolded and his mouth was bleeding, he was reaching out to grab something until the blindfold slipped and revealed he had no eyelids. His eyes shone out and suddenly started to crust over with a thick black substance until the man collapsed and died.
Hemero climbed down the tree and went over to him, to find that the body was no longer there, but instead there was a huge hole in the ground. He could hear something calling from it - it was a voice, was it Rose? He bent down and put his head next to the darkness; suddenly his heart stopped with fear. The voice was not Rose, it was his own.
“This is where we belong.”
The voice repeated again in stifled cries, and then out of the hole a hand grabbed him by the throat…
Hemero woke up clutching at his throat to see the others stare back at him. He was drenched in sweat.
“Bad dream?” Nayakax asked
“Yeah, I’ve been getting a lot of them lately. How long have I been asleep?” He started rubbing his head.
“For quite a while,” answered Lirilius. “I dared not wake any of you for we will all need our full strength should we run into Shui. The sky is starting to grow dark again; nightfall should be upon us in the next couple of hours; we should find Shui’s tent and with haste.”
Lirilius noticed the noise around them had almost disappeared; they went back up and took a look to see that the battalion was a safe distance away before beginning to head towards the camp.
“Now we move. Be careful, for it’s very possible Shui might be expecting us.”
They crept quietly around the perimeter making sure that even if anyone had stayed behind down there, that they would not have been spotted. All they needed was the coin and to get out.
“This is his tent. No question.” Lirilius pointed to a large white tent guarded by what looked like two standing corpses, but they were moving strangely and letting out terrible moans. “We must strike them hard and fast. Naya and Hemero - defeat the two slaves, they will not put up much of a fight. Phin and Rose - fight off any advancing units. I will rush in and get the coin.”
“This doesn’t sound like a foolproof plan,” Phin said.
“Neither is it. But time is short and my patience shorter. [DG41]Let’s go.”
Nayakax and Hemero rushed up and before the two guards knew it, their throats had been slit. By that point Lirilius had rushed inside, but just as Naya and Hemero were about to join him, he shot back out through the tent flaps with the force of a cannonball. Lir
ilius got up slowly, clutching his stomach.
“Hello children,” came a rasping, slithering voice. They turned around to see Shui dressed in some sort of battle gear. His long hair shone brightly, catching the light from the fire that burned at the side of the tent. He wore tight fitting steel body armour with patches of chain mail and a white fur cape that hung from his shoulders. “And who might you two be?” Shui got close to the two boys and suddenly looked shocked when he saw Hemero.
“My God. Your eyes! You …!”
Suddenly Shui flew back in a burst of blue flame that Lirilius had spun out while Shui was distracted. Hemero and Nayakax joined Lirilius, standing with Rose and Phin.
“What a cute little family you have, Lirilius,” Shui spoke as he got back up from the ground, “though I didn’t think you’d ever find replacements for the one you lost.”
Lirilius flew at Shui in a fit of rage, he flung fist and foot but Shui was able to dodge and counter attack without much effort. Then Shui concentrated kyu into just one of his fingers and flicked Lirilius away like he was nothing but a fly.
“My, haven’t you got weak since leaving us?”
“No, I have merely got weaker since entering your lands again. Now be at you!”
Lirilius flew at him again, this time with blue kyu emanating from his hands; Shui made two swords of dark purple kyu appear from his fists to return blows. Their fighting was so fast, that it became nothing but a blur. They began to rise into the air and suddenly they were fighting in the clouds, flying at each other with all their might, Lirilius blocking every attack, but only just.
“I’m going to find the Kalad!” Nayakax shouted and before anyone could stop him he had rushed inside Shui’s tent. They ran to follow him and almost bumped into the back of him as he stood blocking the entrance inside.
“What is it?” asked Rose. But Hemero had already seen it. There were a number of dismembered heads lying on the floor.
“Don’t look Rose, the Kalad is not here in any case.” Nayakax answered and held her to his chest, his heart thumping as he led her outside. Hemero watched Rose as she left with Nayakax and turned back inside the tent to the heads, some seeming to have their own small smile, laughing at him in their bloody, frenzied sneers of death. They walked out and looked up to see Shui and Lirilius fighting like two small insects buzzing around in the approaching night sky, their colourful kyu like a beautiful storm in the clouds.
“You’re getting tired,” Shui shouted into the wind rushing between them, the sun setting behind him turning the sky a deep blood red.
“Only of you, Shui,” Lirilius answered and flew a kyu bomb at the Dark Clan leader. It struck him square in the face and he flew back to earth with a bang right in front of the others. A cloud of dust hundreds of meters long arose from where he lay, but as the dust settled Shui was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, there was a large black hole in the ground. Laughter suddenly rose as they got nearer to inspect it, but it was a large booming voice and did not sound like Shui. Lirilius flew back down; he was already clearly exhausted. He wandered to the black hole as it began to expand, they all moved back and Hemero watched as Lirilius looked upon the hole in sheer terror.
“He’s done it. He’s used the final power of the coin.”
“What’s that?” asked Phin.
“He’s opened up the doorway. The doorway which the Lord of the Underworld can rise up from. This is bad, we haven’t got long, otherwise…”
“Otherwise what?” came a shrill voice from the hole.
Just then three winged men stained black with what looked like patches of oil or paint on their pale skins suddenly flew up and stood atop the dark hole – Heralds of the Underworld. They were hard to make out as the dirt, mud and whatever else that was on them covered their features. The heat from the black hole was stifling and made them a blurry mirage.
“Where is the coin?” asked one of them. It was hard to distinguish one from the other through all the heat, dust and smoke.
“We don’t have it,” Lirilius answered, “it’s back down there. Another must have taken it with him.”
“Then we must prepare here. Master will be able to retrieve the Kalad.”
“Have we time to fight these mortals that have opened the gateway? I haven’t fought in so long,” asked one in a low deep bass tone.
“Not really,” rasped the other, “we must get going. He will want everything to be ready before he arrives.”
They all nodded and suddenly flew off in different directions. Lirilius ran forward then looked back at the children.
“Damn! Phin, Naya, Rose - you three have to stop them! You’re going to have to split up. Hemero and I must jump down to…”
“What?!” screamed Hemero, “I’m not entering there! Didn’t you just say that was Hell or something?!”
“You have to,” Lirilius replied, “for I cannot go alone, I am too weak and you have something inside you, Hemero. I noticed it. If you go down there with me, you will understand a side of yourself that you didn’t even know existed. Now help me. And help the ones you love. Help them.”
Hemero thought back to Theus whom had always stood by him; he didn’t want to let him down. He thought of Milius back home and how his family had cared for him like one of their own. He looked at the other three and saw Rose with a pleading look on her face. How could he let her down? Even if he did not survive, he prayed to Gaea that Nayakax would look after her. He was clearly besotted with her, the same as him, though he knew Nayakax would dare not say it. Hemero looked down and nodded and then jumped straight inside the black hole.
“Now go, the rest of you!” shouted Lirilius, “before it’s too late!”
Lirilius jumped down and the other three looked at each other. Nayakax nodded his head and jumped to run after one of the Heralds. Rose and Phin understood what was needed of them and started running after the other two. The Heralds looked more powerful and terrifying than anything they’d ever seen, and Phin and Rose knew that unless Hemero and Lirilius succeeded, they would probably not see the sun rise tomorrow.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Milius sat in his tent quietly using a knife to eat an apple. His head thumped and his body felt strained, but he was too nervous to sleep. The march had gone well and they had set up camp ready for the impending battle the next day. Riders had said that the first wave were all creatures of the Undead as anticipated, who like a flock of birds were moving towards their position. The Riders estimated that by the afternoon, the battle would begin.
Milius was also pre-occupied with Theus. Would the old master let his guard slip and fall to his alter-ego? Milius had even considered killing the old man, but he tried to dismiss it from his thoughts.
He looked around his tent. He was always a high-ranking knight, but it seemed now that he had acquired a unique position whereby rank wasn’t even important; he never dreamed through school he would be here. Everyone knew his skills at tactical warfare were outstanding, but outstanding enough to have the weight of the Valhalla on his shoulders?
Milius counted himself lucky he hadn’t had time to really doubt himself until now. He remembered an old saying he had heard while training, ‘There are no such things as heroes in war, there are just those who do and those who don’t’. Had he remembered it correctly? Either way it made sense. He was merely doing what was needed. But out of all the esteemed knights, even the entire army, there were those more capable and with more experience than he that could have done the job. He had been set-up for a fall, but he was going to make sure they didn’t fail. Theus might be the mole, he might have had an evil side controlling all his strange decisions, but underneath it all he was still Theus, and he couldn’t let him down. Milius might just be able to pull this together. Just then, the man himself came into Milius’s tent like a ghost passing through, as if to settle his doubts.
“Can’t sleep either?” the old man sighed as he sat down. The armour he had been carrying on the way
had obviously tired him; fortunately he was now in his normal attire.
“I’ve been thinking Theus, I know your … other self asked me to lead the forces, but…”
“What do you mean?”
“Asking me to lead the troops. That must have been your other self. The battle nears now and I worry if I made the right choices."
“There are no other choices,” Theus quietly said, “Milius, I asked specifically for you. It wasn’t him, it was me.”
“But why, Sir? Surely there are others more experienced?”
“Yes. There are. Which is why I chose you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Neither should you. Listen Milius, when you cannot even trust yourself, it is hard to trust others. Initially yes, I wanted you to advise as you had the most experience with these Undead creatures. But remember, you are also one of our most promising young knights, and I went over the results of your tactical warfare and saw that you had created ideas no-one had seen before.
Normally, we would have fortified the Valhalla and waited for them to come, but we both know now this would no longer have worked. Colum was also an unexpected surprise and made me re-evaluate my judgement, I am old and weak, Milius, and I no longer know what the future holds for me. I trust you. You figured out the traitors and had you not been otherwise detained, could have saved a whole fleet of our best knights from slaughter.
This has all happened so quickly and the nights have been getting darker. I no longer have hold of my alter-ego like I once did and what with the Second Coming approaching, it could not come at a worse time.”
Theus’s speech had almost turned to a whisper. His face looked haggard and drawn and his eyes were closing.
“Theus!” Milius shouted, “you are almost asleep. What of this Second Coming? Is it true then? Gaea will return?!”