by Ian Haywood
The two men fighting with Zephal were not exactly winning their battle, even though it was two against one.
Zephal’s demonstration of strength was breathtaking and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before the fight would come to an end as the two mysterious attackers met their demise, after which Zephal would turn his attention on the other two who were holding me back right now.
But in a few seconds, my hopes were dashed as the fight took an unexpected turn.
Zephal had one of the men pinned to the ground and as he was about to attack him further, the second man tackled him with such force that all three of the men lost their grips on the rock and I watched them bounce off the other rocks below until they finally hit the sand.
A couple of Alana’s soldiers had noticed this and called out to Lucius and Alana, who stopped their heated discussion concerning the disappearing woman and turned to see what all the fuss was about.
Three men had suddenly appeared on the sand and as Lucius and the other soldiers ran over to see who they were, Lucius couldn’t hold back the feeling of elation as one of the faces of the men became visible.
He immediately turned to Alana with a huge smile on his face and called across to her.
“Alana, it seems that Zephal has returned to us!”
It was at this point that I was dragged away from the rocks and out of view seconds before Lucius looked up.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lucius couldn’t hold back his happiness at the sudden reappearance of Zephal, whatever the circumstances were and he smiled as he watched some of his men lift him off the ground before disappearing into the tunnel in order to put Zephal ironically into the same cell that he had killed the guard in earlier when he had been spotted hiding out with Naomi.
The last time that Lucius had laid eyes on Zephal, his old enemy was certainly not as alive as he was right now and even though Zephal’s death was satisfying the first time round, then this time Lucius would make sure that he enjoyed every second of it this time round by making sure that Zephal’s death would be a slow torturous one.
But Naomi was still missing and both Alana and Lucius were adamant that she must have been with Zephal, but there was no visible sign of her whatsoever.
Lucius had already checked out the rocks and there was no sign of life on them, so it looked like Lucius’s instincts were incorrect and she must be hiding out somewhere else.
Lucius looked across at Alana as he suddenly heard her gasp.
“What’s wrong, Alana?” he asked.
Alana clutched her chest and then started swinging her arms violently, as if fighting someone off.
“Get off me!” she shouted loudly.
And with that, she stopped and stared directly at Lucius and spoke.
“She’s been taken against her will! Whoever has her right now is neither our friend nor Zephal’s!”
Zephal was not the only person to have suddenly appeared on the sand and Lucius turned his attention to the two men laying on the sand lifeless – surrounded by a few of his men.
He pushed past the soldiers and stood over the two bodies and instantly noticed that they were wearing normal clothing and nothing that identified them as any member of an army that Lucius recognized.
He dropped to his knees next to one of the dead men and started searching through his clothes to see if he could find anything that could shed some light on who these men were.
But nothing was to be found in any of the man’s pockets and as Lucius was about to turn his attention on the other man, he suddenly caught a glimpse of something on the man’s left arm.
It was a small part of a tattoo and as Lucius rolled up the man’s sleeve to take a better look, the sight that met him made him instantly turn to Alana.
Alana limped closer as she saw the concerned look on Lucius’s face.
“What is it?” she asked.
Lucius lifted the man’s arm in order for Alana to see what he had spotted and the look on her face turned to shock.
The tattoo that was on the man’s arm instantly identified him as a member of the Disciples of Draig and Alana stared in disbelief at the intricate dragon etched into the man’s skin, realizing that another side had now entered into her battle.
Her sudden outburst a few seconds ago did rightfully confirm that Naomi had been taken against her will – and clearly by the Disciples of Draig and if Zephal had indeed been with her at the time, then the Disciples had managed to fight him off and claim their prize all under the noses of Alana and her army.
Just as it looked like things were starting to turn into Alana’s favour, someone who Alana thought was an ally had suddenly turned against her without warning.
Alana ordered the soldiers to burn the two dead bodies where they lay and beckoned silently to Lucius to follow her to a more distant spot from the soldiers in order to talk privately.
As Lucius reached her, Alana wasted no time in expressing her anger at someone else trying to take away her prize.
“We have been double-crossed, Lucius! Those bastards have taken Naomi from us and they are going to use her for their own gain, leaving us with nothing!”
“I didn’t know any of them existed within this world, Alana. Obviously we were wrong.” Lucius replied.
“They had indeed been banished to the mortal world, Lucius – but it is now blatantly clear that some of them are amongst us. It’s the Realm Guardian’s duty to keep them confined from entering through the portal – there is no way that they could have just walked through without being stopped.” Alana said, trying to work out where they had come from.
The identity of the Realm Guardian remains a well-hidden secret and there are few who know his true identity, but for whatever reason, Alana had managed to discover who he was and even managed to get him to grant Lucius access to and from the mortal world.
And then it suddenly dawned on Lucius how the Disciples of Draig had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
The Realm Guardian was the vicar of the church near the cliffs and he had been killed by Zephal when he tried to stop him from getting to Naomi when she was inside the church.
Of course, if the Realm Guardian was now dead, then the portal remains unguarded and the Disciples of Draig must have taken this opportunity to enter and claim the prize they think they deserve – and that prize was Naomi.
Lucius had to tell Alana.
And as he began to explain what Zephal had done, Lucius could see Alana’s blood begin to boil and he knew that Zephal was not going to be spared in any way when she got her hands on him.
One thing was for sure - Lucius was not going to miss one second when Zephal’s punishment was dealt out.
And as the two bodies began to burn on the sand behind them, Alana and Lucius turned their attention to returning into the secret hideout to pay Zephal an incredibly unwelcoming visit.
CHAPTER TWELVE
If there was one thing that Alana hated more than anything else, it was being double-crossed by anyone and she always made a point to make sure that whoever dared to do so would pay the ultimate price.
But Alana’s revenge on the Disciples of Draig would have to wait for the moment because she was preoccupied making sure that the person responsible for making it possible for the Disciples to cause such mayhem by being able to enter through the unguarded portal suffer for what he had done.
Zephal was going to pay greatly.
Alana had already made sure that nobody would interfere with her plans concerning Naomi by meeting up with Mortus, the leader of the Dark Knights before sending Lucius on his mission.
She had Mortus’s word that he would not interfere whatsoever and even offered the services of the Disciples of Draig personally in order to locate Naomi in the mortal world.
They both shared a common hatred for Gereziac and Mortus was quite happy for Alana to remove Gereziac from his throne and eliminate the Great Council.
But there was one condition and Alana knew that she had to reluctant
ly agree to Mortus’s demands if she was going to succeed in her mission.
Mortus wanted Gereziac for himself so that he could inflict his own punishment upon the man who had killed his brother many years before.
Mortus’s brother who had died at the hands of Gereziac was the man who the Disciples still follow today – Draig.
And when he perished in the battle by Gereziac’s own sword, all of his followers were banished into the mortal world forever on Gereziac’s orders.
That was when Gereziac personally chose his Realm Guardians - someone to guard the portals that existed between the two worlds to ensure that no enemy ever returned to cause any more harm.
Next to being an Elder on the Great Council, a Realm Guardian had one of the most important positions in keeping order throughout the immortal world.
Mortus was quite a young man when his brother had perished in battle and just like Alana, he made it his personal mission to annihilate Gereziac and all that he stood for and over the years Mortus had even managed to build one of the greatest and feared armies ever to grace the Sumarian Valley.
There was no other word for them but barbarians and everyone who ever became a Dark Knight did so because of the pure evil that ran through their veins.
But whereas you could be guaranteed an epic battle against Mortus and his men, unfortunately getting Mortus to keep to his promises was a different story altogether.
The man was a diplomatic snake and nearly every promise that came from his mouth was never seen through and those who were foolish enough to take it up with him would be rewarded with death.
Alana knew that everything that was discussed between her and Mortus during their meeting meant nothing right now and she was more than certain that he was the mastermind behind the Disciples of Draig’s actions.
And that meant one thing – Mortus wanted to use Naomi to lure Gereziac towards him without Alana’s involvement and that would scupper her chance to claim Gereziac’s throne when Mortus had disposed of Gereziac and Naomi.
Mortus had stolen Alana’s plan from under her and she was fuming to say the least.
Especially as Alana had secretly made a personal sacrifice in order to make sure that Mortus was definitely on her side.
And if Mortus thought that he could claim the throne for himself, then he had better be prepared for one hell of a fight with Alana and her army.
If it hadn’t have been for Zephal, then Mortus wouldn’t have had the Disciples of Draig at his disposal, Naomi would have still been in Alana’s grasp and they could be well on their way to completing their mission by now.
The journey to the cell where Zephal was being held in was a slow and arduous journey as Alana’s injured leg was having a massive impact on their progress.
And as they got closer to the cell door which was being guarded by two soldiers, Lucius could feel himself becoming more and more excited as he knew that Zephal was about to face Alana’s wrath.
Very soon his enemy would face his demise and Lucius was not going to miss one moment of it.
The two guards quickly moved aside as they caught sight of Alana and Lucius heading towards them and one of them opened the door so that they could both step inside.
The cell was pitch black and Lucius picked up a flaming torch from the wall outside and used it to illuminate the incredibly small damp room.
Lying on the floor towards the back of the cell was Zephal – and judging by the state of him, it didn’t look like he was going to be too much trouble.
But Zephal was a man who should never be underestimated.
This was a man who had even managed to come back to life and still manage to cause unbelievable chaos to his enemies.
Lucius wanted to lunge at the helpless Zephal and beat him to death where he lay, but he knew that he had to remain patient while Alana decided what his fate would be.
Whatever she decided, blood was undoubtedly going to be spilt in the cell before they left.
Alana moved towards Zephal slowly, all the time keeping her guard up just in case their newly established prisoner made a sudden move towards her.
But all that Zephal could muster right now was a pitiful groan and Lucius found it amusing to wave the flaming torch in front of his face to make him feel even more uncomfortable than he already did.
Alana began to speak to Zephal, who remained motionless.
“What has happened to the great fighter Zephal?” she mocked, “It seems that every time we meet, you’re lying somewhere either dead or dying from being beaten by someone you consider to be below yourself! Vermin like you deserve to be on the floor where you belong! You have no idea of the pain and chaos that you have caused. It seems that you have brought another side into our battle through your stupidity and instead of defending Gereziac and his daughter, you have single-handedly managed to bring more harm their way! Because of you, the portal between us and the mortal world remains unguarded.”
Zephal didn’t even respond to Alana’s speech and Lucius decided to prod him with the flaming torch to hopefully jolt some life – and pain into him.
“Show some respect to your future Queen, Zephal!” Lucius shouted.
But Zephal didn’t even move an inch.
Lucius moved forward and kicked Zephal in his left side incredibly hard that the sheer force of the blow forced Zephal to roll onto his back.
Lucius could see Zephal looking up at him and for some strange reason, Lucius recalled the time the roles were reversed when he was the one laying on the floor looking up towards Zephal many years before.
Zephal had nursed Lucius back to health when he had been seriously injured after his village had been attacked and the two men had become extremely good friends once.
During their friendship, Lucius had discovered that Zephal was a respected General and he begged Zephal to teach him how to defend himself if he was to ever come under attack again.
Zephal did and in doing so, turned Lucius into an extremely capable fighting machine and very soon he joined the ranks of men under Zephal’s command.
Lucius enjoyed the army life, but he was forever being mocked by some of the other soldiers because of the favouritism that seemed to be shown to him because of Zephal’s position.
Not only was Zephal an extremely respected General, but also the best friend of the very man the army was created to defend in the first place.
That man was Gereziac.
And even he had seen the potential in Lucius and it wasn’t long before promotion was heading his way.
But Zephal always felt that Lucius had something missing.
Sure, he was a well-trained fighter who could hold his own against any army that existed, but what Zephal had to offer could turn Lucius into one of the greatest fighting machines that ever existed.
And in accepting Zephal’s offer, Lucius’s life was to change forever.
But in the few moments that Lucius had let his mind wander in the cell, Zephal had taken the opportunity to swing out at the flaming torch that Lucius held in his hand, sending it flying out of his hand and onto the hard floor.
Lucius immediately kicked out at Zephal and caught him full force in the side of his head, sending him crashing down onto the hard floor where he remained unconscious.
But the spot that the torch landed on was exactly where Alana happened to be standing and the flames from it instantly set the bottom of her robe alight.
The fabric that the robe was made from seemed to light in seconds and very soon the flames grew higher and higher.
Alana tried to pat down the flames, but to no avail and Lucius instantly became aware of how dangerous the situation Alana was now in and the only thing that he could think of was to remove Alana’s robe before she got seriously hurt.
There wasn’t much room on the robe for him to grab hold of as more and more of it became ablaze, but he managed to get a firm grip around the shoulders and ripped the cloth off Alana’s body.
Unfortunately for Alana, her cho
ice of clothing underneath was not appropriate for a sudden removal of her outer robe and she tightly wrapped her arms around her breasts, not to reveal more than she should.
Lucius stood in disbelief at what he saw.
It wasn’t her virtual nakedness – it was the tattoo that was in full view on her right wrist.
The same dragon tattoo that the Disciples of Draig possessed.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Lucius was shocked that of all the people that existed around him, the last person that he would expect to possess a Disciples of Draig tattoo was Alana.