Alastra smiled. “We are already preparing our troops as we speak of it.”
“Then Grundagg shall do the same,” lady Grundagg said. “Thank you for your graciousness in passing this information to us. Grundagg is thankful.”
“We do as the Shadow Queen demands,” Alastra said in reply, and the two faces of the lord and lady of Grundagg vanished with the orbs as the departed their Circle of Power.
“So that is where our family has gone, is it?” Nel’ead said contemptuously after the Grundagg’s had gone, “It would have been a respectful act, and therefore appreciated by me, if you had simply let me know of there going and whereabouts.”
“Indeed it would have been,” Alastra replied, turning to him, “though to know of their tasks in the wilderness outside you would have suggested otherwise, turning them from the necessity of this assignment.”
“What assignment?” Nel’ead demanded, “And who gave it?”
“The Shadow Queen, through the mouth of her obedient servant Gorroth, has ordered that all inhabitants of the Shadow Realm be informed of her coming into its domain,” Alastra said.
“And those who oppose her?” Nel’ead pressed, wanting further knowledge of his people’s doings.
“Those who oppose us, her people, dear brother, must face her retribution.” Alastra told him firmly, “In other words, to be cut off.”
“Alastra,” Nel’ead said to her, his tone earnest in its pleading, “you must see the danger in all of this. To have hands stained with the blood of all those who reject her rule in this land would put us first in line for their retribution. It could destroy us, Alastra, you must see that.”
She smiled encouragingly at him, saying in reply, “Treachery or loyalty, Nel’ead. Choose wisely, for as one will give life the other shall bring damnation. Which is better for your people, do you suppose?”
Nel’ead stood still as she left the chamber, leaving those words lingering for his mentality to contemplate over, though he did not want to see or understand her meaning. He looked at her as she left, and with a deep passion swelling within his chest he said, “You’re playing me. Well, I’ve had enough with your games.”
However, as Nel’ead was soon caught up in his own thoughts once again, a call came through the Circle of Power from Grundagg.
11
What Better Way to Die?
Coming hurriedly back into their city, leaving Dril’ead Vulzdagg to fight back the treacherous Swildagg’s for their escape, Juanna and Fustua came straightway to the citadel of their lord and lady. The doors opened as they approached, and the two wearied runners charged into the courtroom of Grundagg to see their lord and lady seated in their thrones as they spoke with the five captains of their forces. All turned to the newcomers as they came running forward, gasping to catch their lost breath.
Expressions of surprise and bewilderment met Juanna’s gaze as she looked to each face in the room, waiting to catch her breath before speaking, and she said, “My lord and lady, please forgive my sudden intrusion, but something dreadful has happened in your passages!”
She paused and waited for any response, but all just looked at her. So, after catching the rest of her breath, she continued. “Swildagg, my lord and lady, have struck out against me and my companion! They meant to slay us in your passage…”
“Let us not accuse Swildagg of anything unworthy of an accusation,” Hundarr said, cutting her off. “I and your lady have just finished a conference with them, and we can assure you that they mean us no harm.”
“But, my lord, they drew weapons against us in great numbers!” Juanna retorted.
“You must be mistaken,” Hundarr said, offhandedly waving her away. “I see no battle scars on you or your companion, so there is no proof to their assaulting either of you.”
“One of us remains in the passage fighting those fighters from Swildagg,” Fustua said from beside Juanna. “He keeps them from pursuing.”
“Who is he?” Hundarr demanded from him. “What is his name, and in what Branch does he belong?”
Fustua straightened before his overlord. “It is none other than lord Dril’ead Vulzdagg of the . . .”
“He is a traitor to us all!” Hundarr cried aloud, jumping from his seat. “Dril’ead, and the Branch of Vulzdagg, is no more subject to our overseer. The Urden’Dagg has commanded that they be destroyed for disobeying a direct order, refusing to submit to its commandment and follow the lead of a new deity.” he looked to his captains, an earnest light in his eyes as he said, “The Shadow Queen.”
All those standing before their nobility gasped in amazement, some of them even stumbling back a step to take it in. However, Gregarr stood motionless in the middle of the other captains as they turned to one another in bewilderment, and he kept about him a firm visage as he looked his lord straight in the eye. Gregarr had fought alongside Vulzdagg during their time of absolute destruction, and had played a large role in their deliverance. He did not believe that the Urden’Dagg had forsook Vulzdagg as Hundarr said, nor could he turn on those he had helped out of the chaotic foray those weeks ago.
Gregarr of Grundagg stepped forward and stood before his lord and lady, and reaching to his side he unsheathed his broad sword to hold it before them, saying in a stern voice, “Here is the weapon that delivered Vulzdagg from the awful monsters that came upon them, and here is the weapon that served to protect you lands and the lands of the Urden’Dagg. If it is your will to put such a tool to use against such a people as Vulzdagg, than I must beg your pardon and ask you to take it from me. Another may serve you better.”
The lady of Grundagg rose onto her feet and looked at Gregarr with the same expression Hundarr now turned upon his captain, their visages suspicious of his actions. “Would you resign, then, from your duty as a commanding officer of our name?” she asked.
Gregarr straightened and turned the blade over in his hand, holding the hilt of it out toward them. “I would,” he said evenly.
“Then you are a traitor like the rest,” Hundarr said to him, his eyes narrowing with anger and distrust toward his captain. “You shall be given to Swildagg to be brought before the judgments of the Shadow Queen, ever her justices be just.”
“You speak as though you have followed her for some decades now,” said Gregarr, but Hundarr only took the sword from his grasp and handed it toward Juanna.
Juanna looked at her lord for a moment, not yet realizing what he was offering her, and then looked down upon the handle of the sword awaiting her grasp. If it were under other circumstances she would have taken the weapon, but since the strangeness of it all, and the peculiar loyalty Gregarr had with Vulzdagg, she could not will herself to take the weapon. Fustua, looking at the weapon beside her, looked up into the face of his lord and lady and frowned sorrowfully at them.
“Would you shame my captain so by offering to her the sword of another, who willingly gave it up for the love he bares for another Branch?” Fustua asked the two of them. “Would you disrespect her in this way?”
Hundarr, frustrated enough with the disloyalty of his captain, raised the weapon and struck Fustua in the face with its hilt, and the soldier fell with a cry as he held his bleeding face. Juanna turned and caught her comrade before he hit the stones, and holding him in her arms as she had done before she turned a glare on Hundarr.
“Witness the stubbornness of these fools!” Hundarr cried to his remaining captains. “See them, and remember the retribution for the cause of justice that the Shadow Queen enacts upon such fools as these!”
“My lord,” Gregarr said as he stepped between him and Juanna, who still held Fustua, “see your own foolishness! See how you treat these, your loyal people, with injustice! I beg you to see!”
“Be silent!” cried Hundarr, now gripping the sword in his hand as he turned its edge toward Gregarr. “Must I deliver the punishment myself against you, or can you wait until facing the wrath of the Shadow Queen?”
“I will not wait,” Gregarr said to
him, “nor shall I allow you to do any such thing to me or these!”
“Seize him!” commanded lady Grundagg, rising up from her throne to point a finger directly into Gregarr’s chest. “He is a traitor to our nation, and would see the downfall of Grundagg before the feet of the Shadow Queen! He would betray us all! Prove your loyalty to us and seize him!”
Gregarr jerked his arm from the grasp of one of the captains, and turning he punched the elf in the mouth so that he stumbled into the others. Juanna took hold of one her scimitars and called to Gregarr as she tossed it, and catching it in both hands Gregarr faced the captains as they moved to surround him. Juanna, however, did not stay to see what would follow. She pulled Fustua onto his feet and led him toward the citadel doors, glancing over her shoulder once to see two of the captains charge Gregarr with drawn swords.
The lord and the lady Grundagg, though, left toward the Circle of Power in hurried strides. They did not wish to linger and risk Gregarr’s escape, but instead their intention was to call upon Swildagg and warn them of the treachery in their own Branch. Demanding the justice of the Shadow Queen to fall upon those who betrayed them could only be done through Swildagg, they thought.
The captains of Grundagg charged discretely, each using precautious maneuvers against their rebellious comrade as he stood with Juanna’s sword, ready tor receive them. He sidestepped out of the path of a swinging sword, and bringing his weapon up he dropped the hilt of it down onto the back of the captain, and the elf fell forward onto his face. Gregarr did not intend to kill any member of his Branch, but knew he would have to use strict actions if he were to keep himself alive. The next captains came, and Gregarr spun out of their reach or dived at them to strike a hard blow in their faces.
More than once he used the flat of his blade to smack the hands holding the swords, knocking the weapon aside or even out of their grips, and then would spin behind them to either drive an elbow into the back of their heads or kick them to the ground. Whoever attempted to rise back onto their feet would meet a swinging foot, and then would lay dazed upon their backs.
He threw down the captains of the Grundagg forces in such a way, and turned at last to face the last of them who stood between him and the Circle of Power. He had to stop Hundarr and lady Grundagg before they told Swildagg of his treachery against the city, and therefore cease the bloodshed of those who would remain loyal to their beliefs. If he did not stand against them now, no one could ever in days to come.
The captain, seeing how easily Gregarr had thrown down the others who moved to appose him, dropped his sword and bowed himself before him. Gregarr passed him by, knowing that the captain would not so soon turn against him without the aid of his fellow comrades, and went straightway into the Circle of Power. No guard was stationed at the doors to stop him, and so he threw aside the large iron doors of the chamber to stride with a determined air toward the lord and the lady of his city as they stood preparing to meet with the aristocracy of Swildagg.
Hundarr turned to him, still holding Gregarr’s sword, and raised the weapon up to strike The Follower coming swiftly upon him. Gregarr did not hesitate his charge, or even pause to contemplate what he was about to do, and easily swept the sword that came arcing toward him aside and drove Juanna’s blade through Hundarr’s abdomen. The lord of Grundagg slumped beneath the strike, grunting in surprise at the sudden and unexpected attack, and fell onto his knees in the circle even as Swildagg answered the summons.
Lady Grundagg stood numbly in her own circle, staring dumbfounded at Gregarr and the blade that protruded through the body of Hundarr, held firmly in Gregarr’s hand. She staggered backwards and out of her circle, raising a hand to her mouth in horrification as she edged toward the chambers exit.
Gregarr did not look to her, but stared up at the bewildered face of the lord of Swildagg as it floated in the orb in the enormous circle before him. He wrenched the blade free from Hundarr’s body, and taking the lord of Grundagg by the hair he dragged the corpse into the main circle of the Circle of Power.
He cast Juanna’s sword aside, and taking his own from Hundarr’s lifeless grasp he said beneath his breath, “On second thought, I think I shall keep you for just purposes?”
“Behold he who has betrayed us!” Gregarr said in a loud, bold tone, stopping to drop Hundarr’s body at his feet. “Behold the corpse of the lord of Grundagg, and behold his blood upon my hands! I do not forsake my people as he has, nor should I stand aside and allow such wretched fools make the decisions for an empire of innocent people! Behold the retribution of the people of Grundagg!”
“Citizen of Grundagg,” Nel’ead stammered in disbelief, “what have you done?”
*****
Juanna and Fustua fled out the citadel doors, looking back only once to see Gregarr defeat the captains of their lord and lady. Whatever fate would thereafter follow the actions of Gregarr, neither Juanna nor Fustua could guess or say. However, he had stood up when no one else dared go against the judgment of their lord and lady, and if standing he fell, then Gregarr of Grundagg would fall with the glory he won. He allowed Juanna and Fustua their escape from the clutches of an evil Shadow Queen enclosing them, and therefore gave his life for them.
They fled the citadel and went straightway into the streets of Grundagg, and soon after Juanna heard a commotion behind them as of someone shouting orders to those guards and soldiers standing about or patrolling the streets.
“Seize them!” lady Grundagg called after the backs of the two escapists, pointing at them as they went away. “Stop the traitors, for they have aided Gregarr in the slaying of lord Grundagg! Stop them both!”
Juanna stopped her flight as soldiers came pouring from the doorways or alleyways of the city barracks or houses, and Fustua reached over his shoulder to unsheathe a straight blade from its scabbard across his back. However, Juanna did not take up her weapons against these foes, but stood and looked here and there as the soldiers of Grundagg encompassed them.
How can I fight my own people? Juanna could only imagine dying side by side with her fellow people, but here they came upon her and her most trusted companion. They were surrounded, and turning back to back she couldn’t comprehend actually drawing weapons against these people.
From the rooftop of a nearby barracks, Yaldaa of Grundagg, another of Juanna’s close comrades, took up a crossbow and fired a poisoned dart into the breastplate of an officer approaching her friends with a raised spear. The officer stumbled back in surprise, and then fell onto his face. Another dart followed soon after the first, striking a soldier in the neck, and then another hit another here and there.
“We must fight our way out, Juanna!” Fustua growled at her side. “We must fight or we must die!”
“You will die fighting,” Juanna said to him, gripping her lone scimitar on her back but not drawing it.
“What better way to die,” Fustua said, “other than fighting to protect the captain I love?” He swung his sword to deflect a plunging spear, and then kicked the spearman in the fork of his legs.
Juanna drew her sword and engaged a charging Grundagg, catching the sword and throwing it aside. She punched the soldier in the cheek, sending him stumbling into the side of a companion, and then she turned to fight off another blow and then another. They were indeed surrounded in the street of Grundagg, fighting for their lives as well as the lives of their friends, but all seemed so hopeless of the soldiers just kept coming.
Yaldaa reloaded her crossbow and fired another dart into the host of Grundagg soldiers, and soon the darts were returned in her direction as some of the guardsmen of the city took up crossbows of their own. She lowered herself against the roof of the barracks, and turned her aim on the rangers.
Fustua struggled to keep his back against Juanna, hoping to keep their assailants before them and not behind, though as the fight went on it became more tiresome. His energy was all but spent; the blood trickling down his face from where Hundarr struck him distracted his weary mind from the
task at hand. Pain spread throughout his straining limbs, and remembering his and Juanna’s scuffle against the Master Element he wished he could have his shield on his arm again.
Fustua was incomplete without his shield.
A spear struck him in his side, plunging straight through the mesh armor protecting his gut from such ominous strikes as it, and he stumbled back behind the force of the blow. He roared in outrageous pain, swiping with his sword to sever the throat of a nearby attacker, and the pain exploded throughout his body and mind; his mentality all but dead with that throbbing sensation. He looked to the side and saw Juanna turning to answer his cry, and recognized the awful expression of fear in her face.
The spear forced him to the ground and the wielder pressed forward, and Fustua could even feel the weapon tearing through his back. He screamed a deep throated roar at those who surrounded him on all sides even as a sword was stabbed directly into his chest, and they beat him with their weapons before Juanna could fight them off.
The Grundagg who had brought Fustua down fell to the side as a dart struck him in the shoulder, and he fell dead, poisoned. Juanna, though, kept fighting until she stood over Fustua’s bloodied body, and then she kept fighting. Taking up another scimitar from a fallen Grundagg she pressed her attack and threw down all those who came upon her, their corpses lying all round her feet by the time they began to pull back.
When a hand grasped her by the ankle she looked down at Fustua’s swollen and bleeding face, and he fixed his unyielding eyes. In a dying voice he said, “Juanna, my captain, you must go now.”
“I will not leave you here to die alone!” Juanna said to him, realizing the awful truth. “I cannot!”
“What better way . . .” he began, and then coughed blood from his mouth. Tightening his grip round her ankle, Fustua struggled to speak as he wept and coughed with frustration. “Juanna . . . Captain!”
Passage to Glory: Part Two of the Redemption Cycle Page 12