The Destroyer

by Michael-Scott Earle

  It was the same conversation they had every night for the last three weeks. Of course, now the O'Baarni was awake and had killed eight Vanlourn warriors with ease. So I understood why Greykin brought up the danger of this mission again. The legends said the O’Baarni had slaughtered thousands of the Ancient people.

  "He is coming with us. I was ordered by the king to find him and bring him back to the castle. Jessmei was not supposed to come and neither were you." Nadea shot an angry glance at her cousin.

  "I'm sorry Nay. The castle is so boring and I figured we would only be gone for a few weeks." Jessmei's voice sounded like the beautiful bells at the temple. Sometimes I couldn't even look at her, every time she spoke to me I got nervous and stuttered.

  "The Vanlourn soldiers must have found out you left Nia and tracked you," the tall woman glared at Greykin, "or your pompous bodyguard."

  "I'm about as pompous as you are, girl. I've completed more sorties in this country than you've had bedtime stories. I am experienced with--"

  "Your experience means naught to me. Jessmei slipped out of the castle on your watch and traveled a month before you caught up to her." Nadea took her hand off of her sword hilt and pointed at the massive man. "I'd take your advice if I wanted to find a tavern."

  "Are you inferring that I am a drunkard who failed his duty?" Greykin's face turned a whole new shade of red and his hand clutched the haft of his axe so hard that his massive knuckles turned white.

  "You just said it. But I would agree." Nadea's thin leather gloves rubbed against the hilt of her sword with a squeak. The tension seemed to rise to a boil and I wondered if they would come to blows this time.

  "Hey, hey, hey." Iarin bravely thrust his body between them and raised his hands. "Can we calm down a bit? Half a minute ago we faced violent murder and now we are alive. It's a great day, no?" Nadea took her hand off of her sword and crossed her arms over her chest.

  "We must escape Vanlourn and get back to Nia. It's a four week trip back, even if we make good time." Iarin nodded to the duchess's words. "I will finish my mission, even if I have to leave your old, cranky ass here." She glared at Greykin.

  I shuffled my feet after she made her ultimatum. My mouth still tasted foul from the vomit and I wished I had not been so frightened. We had all been nervous after the twenty hired excavators disappeared a few nights ago. The workers had not wanted the job, they claimed that the area was cursed by demons and not fit to be visited by the living. Nadea's gold had won out though, and they had agreed to work for two weeks clearing the ruins.

  After a week of work, they had all vanished overnight. When I first emerged from the tunnel and saw the Vanlourn soldiers, I guessed that the workers fled because we were traveling with the princess and duchess of Nia. I reasoned that the soldiers must have communicated with the natives, or perhaps the excavators just guessed that sooner or later we would be captured.

  Now I considered the native jungle peoples’ belief that the land was home to demons. Maybe we had done a horrible thing by waking the O’Baarni. Perhaps he was more dangerous than we could ever imagine.

  The threat of the Ancients was real though, not imagination. They had already conquered the Northern tribal lands and were pressing on our allies. From what Nadea said, the war was not going favorably. Our military was unable to stop the Ancients’ magic or stand against them on the battlefield. Our enemies would be at Nia's borders by next spring. The O'Baarni was thought to be a fable to scare children, but Nadea had managed to convince the king and my grandfather that he was real, and that she could find and revive him.

  "He is not coming with us. Did you see what he just did? He killed seven trained Vanlourn soldiers before I got to my feet. We should have never woken him. The legends were right, he is a curse, a blight on this planet that could not be killed. They had to imprison him. You may be the person ‘in charge' of this expedition, but you are also the king's niece, and you cannot be put at risk either. I'm taking you and Jess back to your father." Greykin's skin lightened to a normal shade, but his voice still sounded like an angry bear's.

  "Are you going to carry me over your shoulder kicking and screaming back to Nia? I am not a child; you can't manhandle me like you do with your lackey soldier boys. Besides, I don't need you. I am in charge of this mission. You and Jessmei can go on alone. Paug, Iarin, the man, and I will be heading back to Nia." She turned her back on Greykin and she walked back to the pile of belongings.

  Greykin looked over to me and then to Iarin. The quiet woodsman shrugged and then turned to follow Nadea to gather their equipment. His loyalty lay with the one paying him, and Nadea had spared no expense in funding our quest.

  "Boy, you can't go with her. You'll be in danger. Help me talk some sense into her." Greykin looked at me. This was the first time he had spoken more than two words to me since catching up to Jessmei. Our lack of conversation may have been my fault as well. He didn’t like talking to soft, over-educated boys, and I didn’t like talking to people that could crush my head between their thumb and pinky fingers.

  "The letter the king sent my grandfather told me that I have to go with Nadea, sir," I managed to get the words out without stuttering.

  "Get your stuff Paug!" Nadea commanded from behind me. I dashed away from Greykin, tripped on a rock and almost fell, then got to my small, organized pile of books and clothes. Greykin let out a moan of disappointment from behind me as I scooped them up and stuffed them into my bag.

  It wasn't a good time to show Nadea the writing I had copied from the smooth stone pedestal. The duchess had already moved past the tree line, deeper into the jungle. We had all missed the markings; once the sleeping man had awoken he had caught all of our attention. I would show them to her once we found him.

  I had not known what to think when we first saw him lying cold and motionless on his stone table. The rite to awaken the O'Baarni had been easier than I expected. The words and motions that Nadea had found and Grandfather had taught me worked with surprising ease. After we had completed the rite, the sleeping man had awoken. He had seemed so confused and harmless, not at all like the monster we half-expected him to be. Now that he had killed all those men, the idea of traveling home with him made my palms sweat.

  Magic was a thing of mystery, and while real power had died with the O'Baarni's army, traveling magicians still performed minor feats such as lighting small fires, mending cloth, and moving little objects. These tricks were nothing like breaking an ancient spell that kept a legendary, powerful being imprisoned in sleep. I had done it though, Nadea had said the words with me, but my voice had awoken him.

  It took a few minutes to see that our magic had worked. His chest slowly began to move and then his eyes fluttered open. I feared that he would wake and destroy us all, like the legends said he had done to the Ancients. Nadea's certainty that he would help us calmed me, but I had found it hard to believe that he was the O'Baarni. He looked so frail and weak, like the starving beggar I had seen while Grandfather and I traveled to visit the king in Nia's capital three years ago. When he opened his eyes they were a shade of deep green, like the tropical forest where we had found his tomb.

  They were kind eyes. Peaceful and dreaming.

  Conversing with the newly awoken man had proven more difficult than I anticipated. Grandfather had taught me the Ancients’ language, which had been taught to him by his father, and his father, and so on. Our line had lost count of the years and generations, but the kingdom of Nia had always sponsored our work.

  I should have expected that our hereditary language would not match perfectly with the Ancient one. But Grandfather would be disappointed in how hard it had been to communicate with the O'Baarni. The countless generations of education without proper reference must have deteriorated our understanding of the language.

  At least the O'Baarni somewhat understood my words. He had seemed nice enough. In fact, while the man was unconscious, Greykin and Iarin both tried to convince Nadea that he wasn't a powerful de
ity. This was just some weak man, imprisoned and left alone for unknown reasons.

  I doubted that they thought that after witnessing the quick massacre of the Vanlourn soldiers.

  I once observed a small wolf spider stalk its prey. It was tiny, about the same size as the three ants it was attacking, yet the fierce arachnid made giant leaps, bringing the ants down with relative ease. The battle I just witnessed reminded me of that spider's ruthlessness.

  This man looked weak and starving, but had moved with inhuman speed and dexterity. He lifted the Vanlourn squad commander and spun him around as Greykin used his metal shield. The whole ordeal happened so quickly that I struggled now to remember what had actually occurred. It seemed that within mere moments our attackers were all dead, or screaming in the throes of an agonizing demise.

  As I remembered the crunching bone and screams of anguish, I felt my stomach flip again. I didn't want to be sick. I was already so embarrassed from earlier, and there was no reason to vomit again now that we were safe.

  I put my bag on and looked to the small hill where the soldiers' corpses lay. I didn't want to see their dead bodies, but the O'Baarni might need my assistance. It seemed like days ago I had practically carried him to the tunnel out of the ruins. How quickly the situation changed.

  I didn't see the strange man on the hill. He had been gathering the weapons into piles and doing something with their belts when I last looked. How many minutes had passed? I looked around the campsite. Nadea and Iarin were gathering their equipment and talking softly. Greykin stood fifty yards away near the entrance to the ruins. The big bearded man was pacing back and forth and shooting mean looks at Jessmei. She looked worried and glanced between Nadea and the Old Bear.

  The jungle was quiet. Small purple butterflies twirled through the rays of sun that filtered through the trees, incongruously serene and beautiful over the gruesome battle site. I tiptoed around a pile of swords and daggers placed between the corpses. The bodies lay twisted in the agony of death, their faces frozen forever in a grimace of horror and pain. It made my head spin and I choked back bile.

  "Nadea!" I called back and saw her adjusting the straps on Iarin's large backpack. "Where is he?"

  "What?" She looked back in surprise. Everyone stared at me.

  "Have you seen him?" I looked around the clearing and my stomach began to churn. If the O'Baarni had escaped, our entire journey would be for naught. We would have nothing to show for our efforts but dead Vanlourn soldiers and a handful of other brushes with danger.

  Nadea looked around the jungle and I imagined her thoughts matched mine.

  "Shit!" Iarin called out as he ran toward me. The man rarely spoke or revealed any anger, so it was surprising to hear him curse. He searched the surrounding ground before pointing to footprints in the mud. "It looks like he went south on this trail, where the soldiers came from." He turned back to look at Nadea.

  "We have to catch up to him. Let's go," she said as she slid into the thick straps of her large leather pack. "Are you coming?" she glanced over to Greykin and Jessmei. Greykin considered for a moment.

  "You are all stupider then Jess. He is dangerous. I've met men like him before, they don’t value human life," Greykin yelled back. Jessmei turned red with embarrassment, though she must have known it to be true. The princess had sneaked out of the castle two weeks after Nadea. Then she used a few dozen gold coins and naïve bargaining to secure transportation south in an effort to catch up to us, leaving an obvious trail that Greykin followed. She put herself, us, and her father's kingdom in danger. Nia had plenty of enemies, and they would all give large piles of gold to have her captured and used as priceless leverage. One of the many townsfolk we had passed, or perhaps one of the excavators had guessed her identity and given the information to the Vanlourns.

  "So are you coming?" Nadea said as she turned her back to him and walked up the hill toward us. "I don't really care about you, but Jessmei will be safer in a larger group."

  "Fine," he snorted.

  "Fine," she sneered back. "Get your shit and let's go. The O'Baarni might be halfway to Astical by now.

  Iarin turned and disappeared down the small trail that led deeper into the forest. It was the opposite direction of Nia, deeper into Vanlourn. I followed him as I struggled to fight back vomit.

  The path wound up and down green covered hills, across small streams, and would have required us to cut through layers of thick vines, had the Vanlourn soldiers not done the work for us already.

  "He is easy to follow," Iarin said after ten minutes of hot perspiration.

  "Looks like he is running, or perhaps jogging. His boots are making deep imprints in the mud," Nadea answered the question before I asked it. We tried to move down the trail as quickly as possible but the dense foliage and uneven ground made speed difficult. This looked like it was a large animal's path, but I couldn't guess at what type. I had only heard birds and monkeys, and seen the occasional lizard. I was grateful for the sparse fauna. Earlier in the week Iarin told me that more sinister creatures might be found in the depths of untouched wilderness.

  There were many forks in this trail, but even my untrained eye found the man's tracks as well as boot prints from the soldiers. He seemed to be following them back to their camp and I couldn't fathom why. There would be even more Vanlourn warriors there. Why would the O'Baarni leave our company and dive into the viper's nest?

  The air was hot and sticky. I looked back and tried not to stare at the small stream of perspiration that ran down Nadea's neck, across her chest, and between her breasts. Greykin followed behind her, his face a mask of pain as he carried his large body, chain armor, shield, axe, and equipment through the sweltering heat. Jessmei brought up the rear, her small backpack didn't seem to weigh her down, but she almost tripped when she got distracted by the butterflies circling her head.

  "Keep moving Paug," Nadea hissed. I turned my attention back to Iarin's feet and tried to keep up with the lanky tracker.

  The day grew even more oppressive as we trudged along the trail. It felt like we might have been walking for at least four hours, but it had probably been no more than two. I found myself dreaming about home. Grandpa and I lived beneath the lighthouse in a small village on the south coast of Nia. The air there was cool and the soothing memory of the ocean's song helped me trudge through the mud and heat.

  "We'll find him," I tried to reassure Nadea when the path widened for us to walk next to each other. She had been setting an aggressive pace that I knew we wouldn't be able to keep up for much longer.

  "I hope so, or it's my ass. I wanted…ah, never mind," she said as she glanced back at Greykin.

  I was about to reassure her again, but Iarin sharply signaled for us to stop and be quiet.

  Ahead lay a Vanlourn soldier's lifeless body, his left eye a gaping hole the size of a dagger. He was tossed slightly off the trail and bent in half like a discarded rag doll. Down the path I saw a thick perimeter of trees and the impression of a small clearing. This must have been their campsite.

  Iarin sunk down low to the ground and took his long bow off his shoulder, loading an arrow in a smooth movement. He sneaked forward with the stealth of a cat, his head swaying back and forth as he looked into the trees. The air was humid and oppressive. The giant, wet leaves and dense foliage seemed to press down on us.

  He moved a few paces out of our view. My heart pounded louder in my chest than the rest of the jungle noises. By the Spirits, what were we doing here? The Vanlourns would capture us easily now. Nadea squeezed my left arm and I looked over to see her smiling at me. She had her slender sword drawn and her confidence almost made me relax.

  "If this turns bad, run behind Greykin and protect Jess," she whispered. I glanced down at the little travel knife Grandfather had given me. Fear turned into terror.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Iarin returned. He pointed at Nadea and beckoned, and then he gave the stay put command to Greykin, Jessmei, and me. Nadea crawled forward
across the path and through the trees after him.

  I used to be able to ignore girls. The thought of kissing one made me gag. I never understood why any man wanted to be joined for the rest of his life. Now, I couldn’t help but stare in wonder at Nadea’s leather clad backside as she shimmied through the dirt path and walls of green plants.

  After another eternity, they came back and motioned for us to follow. I found myself breathing a huge gasp of relief when I saw that they were both okay.

  "It looks like this is their main camp. He has killed them all. It's pretty gruesome." Nadea looked at me and then Jessmei. "If you want to wait here--"

  "No!" we both said at once. "I'm the only one who can speak to him," I finished.

  Nadea nodded and she turned to walk back down the path, through the trees, and into the clearing. I followed her and heard Greykin and Jessmei behind me. The jungle was dense for another ten paces, and then we emerged into the campsite.

  It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the glare and the brightness of the clearing. The sun was at its peak overhead and beat down on us mercilessly. The clearing was larger than I expected, a rough oval shape encompassing five big tents, a large fire pit, latrines, and a makeshift stable holding ten horses.

  In the middle of a group of horses, petting and cooing at them, was the strange man. The animals seemed completely at ease around him, despite the massive carnage in the camp. The man had a small dash of red over the chest of his robe, but appeared otherwise untouched by the slaughter he had wrought.

  Bodies decorated the campsite like broken toys in a playroom. I counted ten with a glance and guessed there were more behind or inside tents. Some were armed like the soldiers we encountered earlier. A few appeared to be mere servants and packers. They were all brutally slain, and I felt my stomach begin to roll and tumble as I took in the cleaved up bodies and pools of blood. I didn't know anything of combat besides what I had read in books or seen on the trip down here when we encountered a small group of highwaymen. I was surprised that the thin man didn’t have more blood on his body or clothing.