“It’s all over. You ended your game.”, The creature said in an authoritarian manner, in a voice that almost destroyed the ears of the sorcerer of the elementals, who still could not believe that Yllanys, the queen of the skeleton fairies, has found him.
Walking on the streets of the Hanneris’s city, very suspicious, Thelron felt increasingly confused by the recent events, which made him to abandon his hope, and therefore he thought it was best to abandon the path of justice of the clerics. An overwhelming desire to go back on the studies of the necromantic spells, seemed to invade his mind, in a even more intense way, confusing his goals, showing him once again that the real power was in the ancient and forbidden grimoires. When Thelron walked closer to a dark alley, he heard a familiar voice:
“My portals… are you taking good care of it?”
The former necromancer then realized that the man who walked in front of the Thornnak’s tabern, with two barbarians, was Gulinnar, the paladin of the Shannen’s city. The gates should have been created two weeks ago, but Thelron seemed not to mind, since he felt that he had more important things that should be done before. Edryon had warned him several times: “You have to decide, choose something that’s worthwhile in this world. Do not be a coward.” Between cowardice and loss of new experiences, Thelron rather was going on his own way.
He then remembered the beginning of the trainings: three yellow frogs, they should be teleported to the Northern Kingdom of the Barbarians, in just a single attempt to create the correct portal. Thelron carefully put the frogs in a small wooden box, then he said a few magic words, and when he least expected, a huge red light appeared in front of his unbelieving eyes. But when his vision began to return to normal after the great luminosity that affected his senses, he realized, he was not in the Kingdom of the Barbarians.
Scary figures wandered among the dark hills, and between all that morbid landscape, Thelron concluded with great disappointment that had entered the Kingdom of the Spectres. He pulled out a crystal ball from inside his leather bag, and after a few minutes, looked at the picture of Gulinnar walking anxiously around his banquet table. Thelron should return as quickly as possible and explain the paladin that he had failed.
“My portals… are you taking good care of them?”, Gulinnar asked again.
“No… I have more important things to do.”, the former necromancer walked a few yards, and then realized that Agmar approached with an angry expression on his face.
“It was you who have unbalanced the magic of the world, right? Because of you, the trees in the Forest of the Spirits are dying! And there’s nothing else to do to save them.”, Agmar said.
Thelron looked so suspicious to the druid shaman, and after thinking for a moment, replied:
“Old fool, do not give me more trouble. I already have many of them, and I see that you are not very well in the head. Go home.”
Upon hearing the words of the former necromancer, Agmar reddened even more, and when he prepared to do some magic ritual, Gulinnar came in front and held his right arm.
“You have no right to come here, bothering my disciple.”, said the paladin, “For centuries, the forest is not the same, and you know it very well, since when you decided to isolate in that hut, staying away from all living beings.”
“Gulinnar… as a paladin you should be ashamed of your past. I feel sorry for all of you, and I hope one day to understand the madness that seized your minds. If you really want me to go, remember one thing: you did not learn spells alone, you needed a master to look after your workouts.”, Agmar looked increasingly nervous, and then suddenly let out a big spit in the Gulinnar’s face. The shaman druid thrusted the paladin in the middle of the road and pulled out his magic sword, but Thelron shouted quickly:
“Wait! We do not need to reach this point! The world is being destroyed, and I don’t know what I’m doing here with a bunch of idiots!”
After a few minutes, Gulinnar kept his sword back on his sheath, and finally told Thelron:
“Where are you going? You can not go out without preparing the spells. We still have a lot of training, get back here now!”
Upon entering the Hanneris’s, the former necromancer quickly approached three stone slabs which seemed to be almost loose from the earth, and sat with his crossed legs, as he stared at the dark clouds that blotted out the stars. His hands trembled with anxiety,
because every time his eyes met with some of the tombstones, Thelron remembered when he was creating skeletons in his bedroom. He closed his eyes and tried to forget that time, but suddenly he felt something in his left shoulder, as if someone had laid a hand to him, then he turned back and saw Borogh, the gravedigger in the cemetery, looking at him, very scared.
“What are you looking, idiot?”, Thelron said, rising abruptly. “You can not stay here, sir.”, the gravedigger was sweating cold and his legs were shaking a lot.
“I’ll give you time to escape, if you want to stay alive. This is a cemetery, and everyone has the right to come here, whenever they want!”, the former necromancer then shouted, as he showed his war mace to Borogh.
The gravedigger went desperate amid the tombstones, and on his right, several green lights were floating on some violated graves. Thelron smiled, by seeing Borogh desperately trying to escape, he did not have felt a satisfaction so great for long. The green lights seemed to become in ever greater numbers, forming globes of light that fell off from the scattered skeletons throughout the gray land.
After having realized that the gravedigger had already left the cemetery, the former necromancer ran in the middle of the stone crosses and cracked tombstones, sniffing the air like a wild animal, searching for something different. Thelron should find fresh bodies that could serve him for another ritual, this time he was determined to return to the paths that brought him the real power. He did not wanted to be one more ordinary mortal, wandering aimlessly around the world, so Thelron should show everyone that he was the best and the most powerful necromancer ever.
Urentir withdrew into his backpack a piece of an old cable of sword as he looked distracted for a highway from Hanneris, then immediately he recalled with sadness the terrible battle against the mutant elves. It would not be easy to forget that day, but the elven former commander still had hopes that perhaps the time would heal all the suffering.
As he prepared to leave the road, wondering what could the best decision to help Hanneris, Agmar realized that his father started walking next to a temple, pulling a very slim brown horse by the reins.
“Father, you should not be here in this place. Go home!”, Urentir shouted as he tried to approach him.
Agmar paused for a second, looking around with an expression of discontent, then returned to pull the animal, walking to get into another road. Urentir knew his father could not answer him, but he did not want to continue talking to someone who did not recognize their combat skills and family values. The former commander was following his father for some time, until turning on the same road Agmar had passed, and Urentir got lost in a crowd of exalted elves, who shouted and applauded with enthusiasm. Urentir looked to his left, several people left their homes, and joined the cluster of elves. The former commander looked to his right and received a push that led to fall in the middle of two elves, who applauded and smiled, very excited.
Urentir looked surprised, still not understanding what was happening, then he asked the elves:
“Why are you here on the road? Special event in town?”
Then they turned away from him, running through the crowd, mingling with the other elves. Everyone seemed to be celebrating something very important that had happened in the city.
Urentir realized his father was facing the front door of the tabern of Thornak, the dwarf, and therefore he decided, he would try to convince him that it was not safe to continue on the roads at that time of night. When he followed another steps, Agmar entered the room, while pushing people who were on his way. The tabern was full, and more and more elves,
some infected humans also and the nobles, came into the place, causing it to be almost impossible to stay there. Urentir thought it was best to wait for some more time outside, even more than meeting his father that night, because he did not like to walk among the many strange people and patients. He remained standing beside two guards who appeared to be arguing about the safety of the walls of Hanneris.
“What is happening?”, Urentir asked them.
The guards looked so suspicious, and one of them answered:
“It seems that someone managed to destroy a dragon.”
When the elven former commander prepared to ask another question, he realized Multorgh, the ogre warrior, was leaving the tabern, laughing and showing his stained hatchet covered with blood for the curious who gathered around him.
“Multhorgh, was it hard to beat Tharonnak?”, asked an elf, as he tried to embrace the ogre.
“There is nothing that my ax can not destroy. Even Edryon or any other elf is able to beat me in combat.”
Urentir handled himself to not take any precipitous action, but upon hearing the words of the ogre, an intense anger took hold of his thoughts. Edryon would not like to know he had been overtaken by his biggest rival, so it would be difficult to explain the terrible situation for the gray elf. Urentir tried to hold on, but this time he could not stand there, waiting for the ogre once again to show all his arrogance and conceit.
“Listen! If you come here in this city once again, showing that ridiculous ax for a handful of idiots, I’ll show you how an ogre is divided in half. Can you hear me now, you bastard?”, the former commander shouted angrily.
Multorgh turned to answer Urentir and raised his ax into the air, being held firmly behind by four guards who prevented his attack. The ogre looked with a threatening way to the elf, who ignored him, walking back to near the tabern and keeping his steel broad sword in his scabbard. The guards kept trying to calm Multorgh, which seemed increasingly the will to confront Urentir in combat.
“Come back here, wimpy elf! Are you afraid of my ax, is not it?”
The former commander felt that it would not be good wasting his time with the ogre, then Urentir distanced himself from the crowd, an intense heat washed over his body when a giant fireball hitted three wooden houses, spreading a huge trail of destruction on the road. The elves ran desperately, looking to escape from the unknown threat that invaded the city, and many of them returned to their homes, taking valuables and saving their children. Amid the great movement of people, Urentir realized his father was still near the tabern, holding a bottle of wine, while eating a piece of dried meat.
“You can not stay here! The city is being invaded, father!”
Agmar looked at his son, and replied coldly: “Who are you? Is Urentir?”
“Come on, there’s no time for talk! We must get out of here!”
Urentir pulled his father’s arm as he looked up, searching for the causes of the attack.
As he showed with pride his hatchet to a group of five elven girls, Multorgh seemed quite drunk, walking with difficulty, and trying to balance and not falling in the middle of the road. One of the girls held the right arm of the ogre, and grabbed his weapon and said, smiling:
“Can you show me your attack?”
The ogre laughed aloud, and swung his ax, scaring the other girls, but at the same time he showed a great fighting ability.
“This is how I do when I cut off the ear of a gray elf! My blade is the most powerful!”
The ogre, very excited about the group of elven girls, took a great leap in the air, falling into a giant shadow that covered dozens of wooden houses. The road emptied quickly with the deafening noise of the wings of the red dragon, who was beating the wings, raising dust, shaking trees, the road then shuddered violently with the impact of his magnificent land. To his despair, Multorgh realized that he knew Kronak, the dragon, and this time he should consider a way to convince the dragon that he had not killed Tharonnak, his youngest son.
20
In Search Of Power
Arain drenched the headstones in the cemetery of
Hanneris, weak as the Sgnilliv’s will, as if the good times he spent next to Ellen now were even more distant. If the times he saw that Ellen seemed confused or irritated with a client of the tabern could be counted, being kept in a box of memories, they would be saved in his soul. They would make for a few seconds Sgnilliv to forget that never again he would have back his wife who both hoped to one day marrying and having children.
A day like that would be remembered forever, a rainy day and too sad to be ignored, rainy and implacable as the death, and dark enough to not being told in the taberns of the world of Fynge. Sgnilliv walked sadly, remembering the good times he spent next to Ellen. Two ladies passed him by holding red roses, and then they knelt down near one of the tombs, and laid the wreaths of flowers on top of a stone cross. The goblin increasingly felt that the world seemed bleak and hopeless. Salur came astride with his war horse, got down from the animal and placed his right hand on the shoulder of Sgnilliv, and said:
“Have faith, my friend. Ellen would not want to see you powerless.”
A white dog came near them and sat down while waving his tail. He stood beside the goblin for a while as if he could understand all the suffering.
“Salur… you know… sometimes I feel that all that happened, these days are all very strange. It sounds like a nightmare that will not end. Never again. I don’t have Ellen, I no longer feel comfortable living here in this world.”
“I understand, I also lost someone I loved. But that has not made me to give up everything. Sgnilliv, you should realize that nothing is forever in this land. The time passes very faster. And if something bad happened today, it’s because good things are yet to come.”
The goblin tried to wipe his face covered with tears, and then firmly stroked the white dog, who scratched himself enough with the right hind leg.
The rain seemed to be increasing its pace, soaking the tombs, stone crosses and flowers. Sgnilliv continued walking alongside Salur, then remembered when Ellen had told him that the two would be together forever. The white dog followed the goblin at all times, looking suspiciously at the sides, and then he stopped to sniff a tomb that seemed to be violated, and barked loudly, as if he was warning that something was not right. The goblin looked surprised for two destroyed tombstones. Salur withdrew from his sheat the large sword of steel, rolled in the moist soil with the tip of the blade and said:
“Something is wrong here. All these violated graves, this is not normal.”
A woman approached, holding a small wooden cross, and looking for a deep hole filled with bones, she was very frightened. Salur then came close to her and said:
“Do not be afraid. The undeads have not yet invaded the cemetery. But they still may appear at any time. Take care.”
She dropped the cross and ran out among the tombstones until to reach the exit gates of the local. Sgnilliv looked surprised to Salur, because no one expected such a strange attitude in a difficult time like that.
“What are you looking at? I just told the truth, these people can not stay here. Skeletons, or even zombies, should be walking aimlessly, trying to feed off from innocent peasants.”
The white dog came closer to Sgnilliv, with a large piece of bone in his mouth. When the goblin prepared to observe the animal again, he heard a large explosion that came from the direction of some wooden homes without roofs. Desperate elves ran in the road, looking for safer places. Sgnilliv then remembered the Mage Guild, because if it were still open, perhaps the apprentices could find some solution. Salur walked toward the goblin, while analyzing the gray land around the violated tombstones, and said:
“Sgnilliv, I want you to remember one very important thing. Ellen wanted you to become a great sorcerer. Do not disappoint her. You will still find a cure for your arm.”
The goblin put his right hand on the huge scar on his left shoulder, at the place of the lost arm, letting t
he tears to fall from his face. He still could not believe that one day there would have some solution for all of that. Shiiv his father was no longer alive, but the goblin felt that his death was not enough. Ellen would never be at his side, smiling and telling him words of support.
Deformed creatures came out from inside the houses of the elves, attacking those who tried to flee by the road. Salur looked increasingly worried, then leaned in one of the tombstones and said:
“These elves, they do not deserve to continue to lose their lives. Sgnilliv, I want you to help me to destroy these creatures.”
The goblin then remembered when he could do magic, and the time when he first started his trainings with Rasputin. The Island of the Gnomes had always been a region full of exotic places, and on its north side it was located the village of Smurinn. The rain was still wetting the gray land of the cemetery, and then the white dog stood near the grave of Ellen, which was completely trashed.
“Salur, do you remember of Smurinn? Those gnomes, they always helped us when we needed them. I thought about going back there someday and…”
When the goblin saw that Ellen’s body was not in her grave, his legs buckled and Sgnilliv began to shake uncontrollably. He could not understand why so many losses in his life, so every time he remembered Kordius, his desire to destroy him seemed to have reached its higher limit.
If he still were a magician, he could confront Kordius and avenge the death of many innocent people, but now he was only a cripple, and he felt powerless, with no hope of helping the world. Salur walked ahead, reaching the exit gate of the cemetery, and then suddenly stopped and looked out, with a concerned expression and said:
“Those green lights around the temple, they were not here in the city before. What do you think it can be?”
Sgnilliv, realizing that the lights were moving, floating through the air, he felt that it coulb be the elven spirits summoned by Kordius.
Edryon (Book 1 of Edryon Trilogy) Page 17