The Bear is Born
Page 7
“Why not just have me put him down for you, my lord?” Zantz asked. “It would be my pleasure to do so.”
“No,” replied Xiphactinas in an unsettling softness. “It is I whom he is destined to kill, and I wish to put an end to such a life personally. It has been far too long since I have satiated my baser impulses. I’m looking forward to it.”
“The north is a far-off place, lord,” said the general. “It may take some time to reach those chill lands.”
“Time has no meaning for me, general. I am forever, so long as such a foe is dealt with.”
“Then how shall I know him, my lord?” asked General Zantz.
“There will be no mistaking him, general,” Xiphactinas replied. “Those in the darkness have shown me that he wears the visage of the great animal itself upon his shoulders, and that his fury in battle shall be unlike any man’s that you have ever faced before. He sleeps within himself for now, but to awaken the beast inside is to rouse the spirit of rage itself. Take one of the seeing stones and be swift about your task, Zantz, and offer mercy to none that stand in your path. Now go, you waste yourself here.”
“Your will shall be done as always, Lord Xiphactinas,” the general responded, bowing his bare scalped head once again. “The people of the north shall be put to a swift end, and the man you speak of shall be brought before you so that you may take satisfaction in his death personally. There is no power greater than yours, and all shall soon realize that. Until I return, my lord.”
With that, General Zantz turned on the spot, taking his leave of the celestial chamber of his master. He exited the same way that he had come, striding out with his cloak billowing behind as he passed into the endless halls of the obsidian tower. From somewhere outside, unseen horns trumpeted a deep tone, summoning his black clad warriors to make ready for the task that lay ahead of them.
Xiphactinas once again sat in the solitude of his inner sanctum, watching the cosmic bodies above follow along their age-old paths. The golden orbs that were his eyes rested upon the outline of the starry Ursa, narrowing as he stared up at the fierce constellation.
Are the heavens correct in their portent, his unfathomable mind thought, is this truly the form of my great destroyer?
“No,” Xiphactinas whispered to himself in the dark, scattering the image with a wave of his hand. “My power shall be challenged by none. I refuse to be brought low by a mere man such as this. Hear me fate, destiny or not, the Son of the Bear will die. So swears Xiphactinas!”
Asbjorn will return in
The Bear Awakened