'I see neither the Elf nor the woman in your company, assassin.'
The lack of any given name was a distressing turn of events, Sarvacts was dehumanising him in preparation for a swift kill perhaps.
'The boy is in the village beyond and will soon make his way to the fortress, my lord.' how he hated calling him that.
'He is no boy,' the Orc snarled, causing the heckles to rise on Anacletus' flesh. 'No mere child could do this to me, it needs to be perfect and pure for it to become undone.'
The assassin had no idea what Sarvacts was raving about but he knew that acquiescing to his every whim was probably the best way of staying alive.
'Why did you not bring him directly to me?'
He froze, had he not already told him why? 'The b... Elf, did not need to be coaxed any further, my lord. He is on his way to your fortress as we speak.'
The grin had vanished, that could only bode ill for his well-being.
'When you set off from this place I tasked you with finding the Elf and bringing him to me, those were the terms of our agreement.' The cup splintered under his grasp, spilling a black liquid over his shaking hand. 'Yet here you are in my presence, choosing to renege on your assignment and expecting payment for doing so.'
He needed to get out of here, to go back and secure the Elf. Take his chances with incapacitating his target before killing the others that followed, it was the only way he was making his way out of the fortress without a fight.
'I shall return with the boy slung over my shoulder.' he asserted, cursing himself for calling El-Vador a boy in front of Sarvacts yet again, his tongue slipping under the pressure of dealing with a maddening creature.
Sarvacts extended his idle arm and Anacletus found himself paralysed, the grin had returned to his features in causing this. 'Perhaps, but if you do it shall be as my vessel, and this time you will not fail me.'
El-Vador and Phaedra dashed through the village in search of their missing companion. Though he felt no great warmth for Eihblin, it was the principle of the matter that irked him as much as the heinousness of the capture. The rain had started to fall heavily now, making their search all the more difficult and soaking through their clothing in short order.
'That house up ahead looks to have been vandalised.' Phaedra said, her keener sight piercing through the damp and offering them a potential target. 'It looks like you were right and they didn't leave the village.'
It had taken her far less time to adjust to the idea of El-Vador crushing a man's throat with his will alone than he had expected. It only made him more concerned as to what Sarvacts was capable of when surrounded by all his forces. That in turn had been pushed to the back of his mind by the looming reality that the winged beast still had some measure of control over his actions that his previous slaughter in the stronghold hadn't shaken.
'How do you wish to proceed?' Phaedra asked, jogging him out of his thoughts.
'Head on,' El-Vador replied. 'There doesn't seem to be any other entrance.'
'And if they decide to end Eihblin then and there?'
He shrugged. 'Then she dies. I see no other way to aid her.'
Setting his foot to the door he launched a kick at it, sending it inward and plunging into the gloom inside.
A slim man stood with a bow drawn and his sights firmly El-Vador, there was no way he could miss at this range. The Elf froze as the man's fingers let go of the string and the arrow came racing toward him.
Phaedra flung herself through the doorway, knocking El-Vador off-balance and receiving the arrow directly in the sternum with a faint grunt. He knew the wound was not fatal to her but it was certainly incapacitating, he would have to finish this fight alone before his would-be assassin could ready another arrow.
In spite of out-numbering him three to one, the two associates that flanked the spy dropped their weapons and made their way to the door with their arms raised in defeat. El-Vador kept his blade high and watched them carefully, dragging Phaedra clear of their path and shutting the door behind them.
The spy was trying to get another arrow knocked but it kept slipping from the string, clearly the man was not a woodsman or a warrior. Finally he let out a shriek of panic and swung at El-Vador's head with the body of the bow. El-Vador met him with his sword, sinking it deep into the man's guts with a grin of satisfaction. At last he had dispatched the last niggling foe that would have quarrel with him before he reached Sarvacts.
They found Eihblin tied up and unresponsive in the corner of the room, her clothes torn and shredded and blood caking several open wounds.
The Elf stood after a time, watching as Phaedra did her best with the medical ministration. She turned around to him, a questioning look in her eyes. 'Where are you going?'
But El-Vador would not answer, his silence was soon passed on to two bodies that were found some time later outside the village.
Sarvacts stared at the spike once more, fixated upon the crusty blood whose stillness seemed to usher in the waning of his power. It had taken a great deal out of him to control Anacletus in the manner required, a necessary evil given the man's incompetence. Now he could do little but rest and wait patiently for his more servile assassin to acquire the Elf.
He would have opened his gates and sent his minions forth to subdue his foe but he could not count on one of them not getting overly zealous and delivering a killing blow. If the Elf were to perish before being planted upon the spike then it would have been all for naught. In his weakened state that was something he simply could not afford.
Anacletus was trapped inside his own head, straining with every fibre of his being against a strange fogginess that obscured his commands from his own limbs. Never had he been subjected to such a degree of humiliation and lack of control, he would make Sarvacts pay for this indignity. Assuming that the Orc ever released him that is.
He found himself oddly rooting for the Elf, though he suspected that he would not live to see the outcome of that particular encounter.
He had underestimated Sarvacts and cursed himself for it, he should have known that an Orc with such abominable creatures at his beck and call would also yield significant power. It seemed foolish now to think that he could fight against such a force over some perceived slight. He doubt that given the chance he could kill the thing even now when his grievances were very real.
He knew not whether he would break free, but should the time arise his target was not going to be the Elf.
XXVII
I have been to lands beyond your imagination, often I have traversed lands beyond my own. The senses can only provide so much clarity in these given situations before they are overwhelmed. My attempts to detail such places seem woefully inadequate.
'So how are we going to get in?' Eihblin asked, a dangerous-looking light entering her eyes.
They had returned to the inn and the downtrodden populace of the village knew better than to ask any questions of their torn clothing and blood-soaked state. If anything they avoided them even more as a result, clearly not wanting to get involved in whatever trials these strangers had witnessed lest it be the death of them.
El-Vador tapped his closed fist against his temple as he sat near the warming hearth, there had to be a way into the fortress that they could discover without being detected. No major structure this size ever had one entrance, or so Phaedra had told him. He was beginning to wonder if it were true of this mountainous building.
Staring into the flames, he tried to jog some sort of answer from his tangled thoughts but came up empty, judging from the expressions of this companions they were in the same state. 'I cannot see a way, no matter how hard I think of all I had witnessed of the exterior of this place. We may well have to do as I was jesting earlier and rap upon the doors and demand passage.'
Phaedra shook her head. 'We both know that would be tantamount to suicide, at the very least we would be taken hostage. At worst his forces would simply kill us where we stood.'
'You've been inside, you ev
en escaped before. Are you telling me there's no way to recover my heirloom?' Eihblin asked in a cold and demanding voice.
The other woman shook her head again in response. 'Not that I am aware of.'
'Your companions are useless,' the booming voice echoed inside El-Vador.
Not again.
He gripped his temples as the shadows seemed to lengthen in the room, his companions stared at him obliviously.
'As you no doubt realise, they cannot hear me. Your inability to breach this fortress is most disappointing considering the talents you have available to you. It would seem that I am required to take matters into my own hands.'
El-Vador blinked away the pain. 'I do not understand.'
'I shall take you and your companions through the walls of this mountain and breach the sanctum within.'
The Elf's eyes watered as he stared at the concern on his companion's faces. They were speaking to him but he could not hear them, as if their voices had come from too great a distance to be audible. The rain hammering outside seemed muted like everything else, his attentions were forced to focus entirely upon the voice ringing about his head as it continued to speak.
'I will take you to a place beyond your feeble imagining, your companions may not have offered much thus far but they still have a role to play. They shall accompany you.'
The voice began to chant, a strange, resonant sound that didn't hurt nearly as much as when it spoke. Smoke passed over El-Vador's sight and judging from the panicked reactions of Phaedra and Eihblin something was happening to them too. He wanted to reach out and reassure him that he knew what was happening but he didn't feel any more knowledgeable about the situation than they did.
The smoke now seemed to fill the room, making everything seem hazy and insubstantial. It wavered in front of his watery eyes as if warped by a great heat and then faded into nothingness.
He found himself on a cliff face, observing the fortress in the distance. The sky was green and the air seemed thin, his companions were gazing out in wonder at his side. He moved with a lightness that he had never experienced before, and was startled when his jump sent him soaring into the air.
His foot touched the substantial and discoloured land lightly, probing it to see if it were real or but a figment of his imagination, to that end he could not tell.
The green sky grew darker as it came closer to the land, blanketing their sight and preventing them from seeing further in any direction but that of the fortress. It was clear which way they were supposed to be heading, El-Vador watched his companions test out the odd lightness that he had felt with mixtures of bemusement and suspicion. It was then that he realised they probably had no idea how they had arrived here, he owed them that much of an explanation at least.
The fortress lay south from the strange cliffs that they bounded off, without words it had become apparent to each of them that they needed to head in that direction.
Settling on one of the odd plateaus, El-Vador signalled to his friends as they were in mid air to come down and speak with him. They had made their way toward the fortress for some time, during which El-Vador had been deep in thought about how exactly to speak to them of this strange place they found themselves in. They had clearly seen that he was not as perturbed by the incident as they must have been and had followed him without question, which struck him as odd.
They stopped and stared at him silently as they came to rest on the cliff beside him, staring blankly without a word of protest or concern.
'Are you not going to ask what we are doing here in this realm?' El-Vador asked them, uneasy at their gaze upon him.
His companions remained ominously unresponsive even after the Elf's repeated attempts to rouse speech from them. There was nothing left to do but keep moving onward. With a leap, El-Vador took off once more, his mute companions again following in his wake.
Their slow falls and large leaps made descending from the plateaus an easy task, the mountainous region that had once been the location of the village gave way to rolling fields untouched by snow or ice. Aside from his companions there had been no trace of life to stand in their path, there flew no birds overhead and he saw no trees or discernible plant life. Although it filled him with an even greater unease than the condition of those who followed him, El-Vador would rather that he not encounter any potential obstacles from here to the fortress. Perhaps that was exactly the reason he had been cast into this strange land by the demon in the first place.
They drew near to the fortress now, its towering walls seemed to rise out of the plain rather than a mountainside, a most curious development. It also seemed to be much closer than it had seemed prior to entering this strange plain of existence. El-Vador suspected that may have been due to the leaps taking them far further than ordinary feet possibly could.
It wasn't until the wind picked up that he had noticed its absence, a gust that coursed past him as they walked over the plains toward the fortress. To his dismay it started to coalesce mere feet from his location, it would appear that they would not reach the fortress walls unimpeded after all.
The air compacted and solidified ahead of them, thickening into visible form as colours washed over it in dizzying fashion. The cornucopia of colour did not dissipate over time, as if the swirling patterns were the natural appearance of these mysterious creatures intent on blocking their path.
The closer they drew to these things, the more dizzying they became, no noise came from them and no attempt at communication was made. El-Vador was loathe to attack something simply for obstructing his path, and made to go around the odd beings that blocked the way.
The glowing coloured bodies followed his movement, refusing to let him be. Very well then, that left few options.
While there were no discernible eyes on the creatures, he had no doubt in his mind that their attention was entirely upon him. Their shimmering had intensified as they had moved out to block him, was it a warning gesture of some kind?
He drew his sword cautiously, waiting for them to strike in response to his own aggressive gesture. Nothing happened, they remained standing there and continued to pulse in an odd and mesmeric fashion. He took a meaningful step towards them and still they did nothing, were they just going to stand there until he was within striking range? Looking around at the green sky for a moment, El-Vador pondered as to whether they were figments of his own imagination. He shuddered, remembering the time he had imagined a whole army at his side.
'Stand aside or I shall strike you down.' he stated simply at them.
They pulsed at him in response, but if that shift in colour amidst all the rest had any inherent meaning it was entirely lost on El-Vador.
He sighed, muttering to himself, 'There is no reasoning with these creatures.'
They sprang at him then, their limbs blazing in an aura full of confusing patterns of light. Fortunately the nature of the land surrounding them gave El-Vador enough time to recover from the surprise and mount a counter, slashing out a riposte and wondering what effect his blade would have upon these strange lights in the shape of men.
A blazing brightness hit his eyes and blinded him, he then felt a knee sink past his defences and into his sternum. He rolled through the pain and his returning sight indicated that he had moved past the beings and evaded any other reprisal through luck alone.
The swirling colours seemed indistinct to his eyes now as they turned to strike at him once more.
Eihblin and Phaedra stood motionless and impassive, neither drawing their weapons or being attacked by the strange creatures in spite of their proximity. Something was very wrong here, but El-Vador had no time to think of that as he was assaulted by the coloured beings once more.
As they attempted to crowd him out he leapt high into the air and closed his eyes. This time the flashing lights did not blind him and as he came down he swung hard, cleaving into one of the things. There was no sound as the blade bit through it, it simply dissipated into the air as if it had never been there.
>
He laid into them then, angry now at being waylaid so pointlessly by these things. His sword sheared what looked to be limbs from their bodies, but only a direct hit seemed to make them vanish.
The remaining creatures regrew the appendages they had lost and began to increase the speed and frequency of their attacks, one came at his front to distract him as the other tried to strike at his rear.
El-Vador kicked out at the first one and reversed his blade, slamming it into the one that planned to attack from behind. Whatever these things were, they lacked any craft at warfare. The ease with which he had overcome them was worrying, was this really the only trial he would face on his way to the fortress?
Refusing to be distracted further, he leapt at the last creature and decapitated it with a swift and clean stroke, closing his eyes to avoid the light that characterised these strange and indistinct creatures.
They had offered little resistance in truth beyond their blinding powers, El-Vador wondered if they had truly been an obstacle at all. Or had he simply condemned a peaceful people within this realm to a senseless death?
His mind shut it out, he needed to get to Sarvacts' fortress and destroy the Orc before he could hurt any other people, if anything got in his way from here on in then he would simply kill them too.
XXVIII
In my profession, the snake-eating snake exists as a matter of course. Alliances are tenuous and infrequently remain an even partnership. Reprisals and retributions follow inevitably as one seeks to domineer the other, never knowing just when their own downfall will come from living this way.
Anacletus seethed as he stalked the fortress, he had no power to leave and could do nothing but wait for whatever the Elf would finally attempt. That was until the smoke he had seen in Caldalia started seeping in to the corridor, there was no escaping it this time.
Standing stock-still, he stared on at the billowing black cloud as it engulfed the walls and ceiling and rushed toward him. At least if he were to die now he would be free of this enslavement, a shame that he would never see the Elf's attempt at dethroning the monster that had captured him.
El-Vador's Travels Page 21