Fearful that something might have happened to Ellese, Tallis pushed through the throng and headed for the door, emerging into the inner courtyard. Soldiers picked themselves up off the ground, helping their comrades and the few healers who had remained to tend them. Cracks ran along many walls, and windows gaped emptily, their glass shattered on the ground beneath them. The sound of women and children weeping came from the direction of the villagers' camp beyond the abbey's walls.
Tallis headed for the stairway that led to the room where Ellese scried with the temple's Elder Mothers, then spotted her coming down the steps, two women aiding her. Tallis hurried over to her and gripped her arm, dismayed by her tightly closed eyes that leaked tears down her cheeks. Ellese patted her hand as Martal trotted up.
"Are you all right, Elder Mother?"
"Yes, I am well, just blind," Ellese replied. "Take us out to the site of the battle, Martal. Hurry."
"Is it safe?"
"Yes, perfectly safe."
"There was a light, like a beacon. It lighted the whole world. Did you see it?"
Ellese forced a wan smile. "Indeed I did. It was the last thing I saw."
With a growl, he hurried off to shout orders at his men, rounding up a cart and two horses, along with a company of soldiers. Tallis scrambled onto the cart with Ellese, Martal and three healers, and it rattled out through the gates, heading in the direction whence the light had come. The soldiers followed on foot, trotting to keep up, their armour rattling.
Tallis eyed the dark folk as they passed them, wondering what they would do if the Demon Lord had perished in the battle. She had a nasty suspicion that they would attack and loot the abbey if they knew of his demise. Martal looked like he had the same thoughts, his mouth set in a grim line. For the moment, however, they milled in confusion, muttering.
The journey to the battleground seemed interminable. Ellese kept asking if they had arrived yet, always receiving a negative answer. The horses snorted as they crossed onto an area of blackened ground spotted with melted, glassy areas. Hundreds of mounds of earth covered the land, and deep gouges had been torn in it, edged by huge boulders that they had to detour around. Thousands of twisted iron spears protruded from the ground or lay upon it, and these had to be avoided too. Martal described it to Ellese at her request, and she nodded.
"Yes, this is the place."
As they travelled across the ravaged land, the slight queasiness they had all been experiencing for several days grew considerably worse, and their stomachs knotted. Some of the soldiers stopped to vomit, receiving a tongue lashing from Martal, even though he clearly fought to keep himself from bringing up his meagre breakfast over the side of the cart. Tallis knelt beside Ellese, pressing cool wet cloths to her eyes to soothe the burning under her lids. As they drew closer to the centre of the destruction, the horses shuddered with fear and tried to turn away, their eyes rolling.
Martal ordered a halt, and they left the driver to soothe the terrified animals, continuing on foot. Ellese stumbled between two healers, who guided her around the mounds of earth and glassy patches, some of which gave off heat and smoke. Martal gagged and held a wrinkled silk handkerchief to his lips. In places, the ground sizzled as if it still burnt, and the heat became oppressive. Shadows hung in the air like black smoke, wreathing about them in icy tendrils that turned the stomach if touched. Avoiding them slowed their progress, and only Ellese's urging kept them going.
Martal emptied his stomach next to a mound of earth, and, shortly afterwards, Ellese followed suit. Tallis gazed around at the devastation, wondering how anyone could have survived it, let alone caused it. Fissures crazed the ground, swallowing streams of silken ash, and smoke rose from their depths. It made her cough, and her eyes watered.
"All these mounds were demons, were they not?" Martal asked.
"Yes," Ellese replied. "Earth demons. Each of them was powerful enough to wipe out your entire army and many more like it."
"What is stopping them from rising now and wiping us out?"
"I do not know. Perhaps you should ask Bane when we find him."
"No one could have survived this."
Ellese stubbed her toe on a stone and stumbled, clinging to her helpers. "Goddess, I wish I could see."
Tallis, who had been scanning the area, gave a cry and pointed. "Over there!"
The group turned and headed towards a white shape in the distance, their sickness increasing as they neared it. Two soldiers refused to continue, complaining of terrible headaches as well as nausea. Tallis glanced at Ellese, who looked like her head pounded too, but that, she suspected, was partly because of her eyes. Some people were more sensitive to the dark power, and Tallis counted herself lucky that she was not one of them. The shadows thickened as they approached the white shape, brushing her skin with icy tendrils, making her shiver and retch. She ran ahead, and Martal trotted after her, two reluctant soldiers following. Tallis fell to her knees in the ash beside the huddled form with a cry of anguish.
"It is Mirra!"
Tallis gazed down at her friend, hardly daring to hope that she was alive. Mirra lay on her side, curled in a foetal position, her skin waxy and deathly pale, her lips bloodless.
Martal arrived beside her. "Is she alive?"
Tallis laid a trembling hand on Mirra's throat, found a weak pulse, and looked up with a broad smile. "Yes!"
Martal grunted in amazement, and Tallis leant closer to examine her friend. Dark red bruises mottled her throat, and she breathed in shallow, wheezing gasps. Numerous scrapes and bruises covered her arms and legs, and a cloth swaddled one arm from the elbow down. Filled with a nameless dread, she peeled back its edge and recoiled with a horrified cry. Black scales sheathed Mirra's forearm, mottled scabs forming the boundary between scales and skin.
Ellese shuffled up with her helpers, who stared at Mirra's arm with undisguised horror. Even Martal looked sickened by the sight of the scales, and Tallis pulled the cloth up, covering them.
"Thank the Lady she is alive," Ellese murmured. "Where is Bane?"
Tallis rose and looked around. A few paces away, acrid smoke rose from a huge crater that glowed deep red in its depths, emitting intense heat. At its edge, a black-clad form lay sprawled, the crimson lining of his cloak bright against the scorched ground around him. She went over to him, shielding her face from the crater's heat. He lay face down in an area of whitened ash that spread from him in a star-shaped pattern, as if he had been the source of intense heat.
Glossy hair covered his face, which was turned to the side. She knelt beside him and brushed it away, expecting to find a grinning, blackened skull. Instead, his pale skin almost glowed in the dim twilight. Only the streaks of fresh blood that ran from his eyes and oozed from his nose marred it. The dark power that emanated from him made her stomach heave, but she swallowed hard and reached out to touch his neck. His skin burnt her fingers, but she found a strong pulse, and turned to the expectant group around Mirra with a grin.
"He is alive!"
"Son of a bitch!" Martal swore, earning stern looks from the healers.
The crater's heat burnt Tallis' cheek, and she gripped Bane's cloak, trying to drag him away from it. "Martal, help me."
The Baron walked over to her, raising his hands to shield his face. He bent to grip Bane's arm, recoiling with a curse as his stomach heaved, making him gag.
"I am not touching him. Leave him here."
"No!" Ellese's command rang in the smoky air. "No one is being left here."
"Goddess!" Tallis squatted to stare at Bane's hands, which her efforts to tug him away from the crater had pulled from the ash. The skin was blackened and the tips of his fingers burnt away.
"What is it?" Ellese demanded.
"His hands are burnt."
"We will tend to them at the abbey. Martal, you bring Mirra then. We will carry Bane."
Martal scowled, clearly disliking the idea, and called over the two soldiers, ordering them to carry Bane. They tried to pic
k him up, but their first contact with him sent them staggering away, retching. The healer beside Elder Mother informed her of their actions, and Ellese snorted.
"It cannot be that bad if he is unconscious. The dark power is acquiescent when he is unconscious."
"Then he has sprung a leak," Martal muttered.
Tallis giggled, stifling it, and Ellese smiled. "Are the runes on his chest glowing?"
Tallis knelt beside Bane, her stomach heaving. After a brief struggle, she rolled him onto his back and pulled his shirt open. All seven runes glowed with dull yellow light.
"Yes."
"That is why then," Ellese said. "He must have lost control before he passed out. Even though he is unconscious, the power is flowing from him. So you are right, Martal, he has sprung a leak."
Tallis giggled again, then noticed that blood smeared her hands and examined Bane more closely. His shirt was soaked with it. "He is bleeding."
"How badly?"
Tallis pulled aside the rest of his sodden shirt, finding the cuts on his belly. "Not too bad, shallow cuts."
"Then it can wait until we get to the abbey, but we have no time to waste."
"Well I certainly have no wish to stay here any longer than I must," Martal said, glancing around with a frown.
Tallis sympathised. She too sensed the intense evil around them, not only in the drifting swathes of shadow, but the ground itself seemed to be steeped in it. Gripping Bane's wrist, she tried to drag him away from the crater, discovering that he was amazingly heavy. Her stomach heaved, forcing her to release him. Ellese tugged her helpers closer.
"We will carry Bane. Martal, bring Mirra."
This time he obeyed, shooting an angry look at the men who had failed the task. The healers guided Ellese to Bane, and she ran her hands over him, paling at the touch of the dark power, then gripped one of his legs. The two women took hold of his cloak, using it as a sling to avoid touching him, and lifted him. Tallis took his other leg, biting her lip as her stomach knotted further. They carried him towards the distant cart, puffing and grunting with effort. Martal followed, Mirra cradled in his arms. As they shuffled along, Tallis turned to Ellese.
"Why is the power not acquiescent this time, even though he is unconscious?"
Ellese shook her head. "Perhaps because he was using so much of it when he lost consciousness. It seems to obey his last command, but you should ask him. When he was purged, I think he was trying to leash it when he passed out, so it became dormant. Luckily for us. This time, it seems he was in the midst of using it when he lost consciousness, so it is still flowing out of him, but very little."
"Do you think he will be all right?"
"How does he look?"
Tallis' eyes flicked over Bane, but she could not see his face, for his head had fallen back. "He seems unhurt, apart from his hands and some cuts and bruises. He is very pale. His skin is almost glowing, and there is no ash or dirt on him, not even on his clothes. Only the blood."
Ellese nodded. "That is the dark power. He is carrying a lot of it."
"But, the white light... where did that come from?"
"I know of only one source of white fire, Tallis."
"The Goddess? She destroyed the Black Lord?"
"No, I do not think so, or she would have done it long before. But certainly she had a hand in it. We will know more when Bane wakes."
Tallis looked up, surprised to find that they had almost reached the cart, then realised that the driver had led the horses closer. They lifted Bane onto the back of it and laid Mirra beside him, then climbed aboard. The driver turned the animals, and they strained at their bits in their eagerness to quit the foul ground. They trotted back towards the abbey, the soldiers following. Martal frowned down at Bane.
"You should let me kill him, Elder Mother," he said. "Now, while he is helpless."
Ellese raised her head and squinted at him, then closed her eyes again. "Martal, you are a fool. Even if I allowed you to, which I will not, it would be a grave mistake."
He fingered his sword. "How so?"
"Because Bane is a living god. Have you not realised that yet?"
"He is evil! If he is a god, even more reason to kill him."
"No, he is not evil. Well not entirely." She sighed. "It is hard to explain, but aside from all that, we still need him."
"What for? Is the Black Lord not cast down?"
"Yes, but that is not the end of it. Who will clear the skies and restore the land?"
"The Lady."
Ellese shook her head. "She cannot. The evil that now blankets the world is too intense, and it will not simply go away because the Black Lord has gone below. Someone must send it back to the Underworld, Baron. Who do you think can do that?"
He looked down at Bane. "How do you know he will do it?"
"Perhaps you should be the one to ask him. Very politely."
"You jest! I would not give him the satisfaction. I would not ask him for the time of day. I curse his name!"
Ellese smiled, and Tallis realised that she was teasing Martal. "It is fortunate we do not have to rely on your diplomatic skills, Baron."
"You would leave him to run loose collecting worshippers, Elder Mother? He could become another Black Lord."
"But he will not. Bane would have no use for worshippers. He does not even like us. In fact, when this is all over, I fear for him."
"Why, Mother?" Tallis asked.
Ellese turned her head. "Because of everything that has been done to him, and everything he has done to others."
Martal said, "I have seen some of what he did to others, in a small town east of my estate. People gutted like animals, burnt to death on hot coals, their eyes pierced with pokers. Some were flayed alive, others -"
"Enough, Martal." Ellese looked nauseated. "We have no wish to hear this."
"But you should, since it is your decision to let him live. What if he does it again?"
"I have seen it, and I do not need to be reminded. But you have only seen one side of the story; you have no idea of what was done to him. I can also assure you that he will not do it again, and, in addition, if you kill him now, as you are so eager to do, who will restore the wards?"
"How do you know the Black Lord was not destroyed?"
"I do not, any more than you know he was."
Martal sat back, frowning, and Tallis quelled a smile. There had been a time when she had shared his sentiments, but she no longer did. She still hated what Bane had done to Mirra, but found that she could not hate him now that he had saved them from the Black Lord, and especially since the feat had clearly cost him dearly. Now that they had moved away from the crater's heat, steam rose from him, and sweat trickled down his face.
At the abbey, the dust had settled, and a bevy of healers waited to help Ellese down from the cart and carry Mirra and Bane to their rooms. Tallis went with Mirra, but found that she was not needed. The two healers who had carried Mirra to her room set about washing her cuts, and, after hovering for a few moments, Tallis went to Bane's room.
There she found Ellese supervising his care, which was progressing slowly, due to the reluctance of her helpers to touch the Demon Lord. The three women who had helped to carry him from the battleground were not in evidence, and those who now assisted her evidently lacked strong stomachs. They had removed his shirt, revealing bloody welts on his shoulders, neck, arms and chest, as well as the oozing cuts on his belly and bruises on his jaw, ribs and neck. Blood seeped from his eyes, nose and ears, staining the pillow. Sweat soaked his hair and the sheets upon which he lay.
A healer bent over him, rubbing green paste into the wounds on his belly, her face almost as green as her fingers. Tallis surprised herself by volunteering to do it, and the woman moved away with alacrity, handing Tallis the jar. She sat beside him, ignoring the unpleasant knotting of her stomach, and rubbed the paste into all the cuts she could find. His skin almost burnt her fingers, and wisps of steam still rose from it.
She glanced
up at Ellese. "He is burning up, Mother."
Ellese came to his side and groped for his brow, laying her hand on it with a frown, then felt for the pulse in his neck. "His heart is racing too, fast enough to kill a normal man. It must be from using so much power, but he must be able to withstand it, else he would be dead already." She turned her head towards the doorway, where a throng of healers stood. "Fetch cold water and cloths."
When Tallis had finished smearing green paste on Bane's wounds, she picked up one of his hands and examined it. The terrible burns that mutilated his fingers dismayed her. The wounds did not bleed, for the fire that had caused them had also cauterised them, and all she could do was smear them with a soothing salve and bandage them. The healers returned with a bucket of water and cloths, which they soaked and laid on his chest. Tallis took on the task of cooling the hot cloths and replacing them, and the rest of the women left. Ellese waited until Tallis reported that his temperature had almost returned to normal, then left as she removed his boots and pulled the sheet over him.
Chapter Thirteen
Aftermath
The next day, the soldiers buried their dead in the trench they had dug around the abbey, before the bodies started to decay. The dark army watched them with dull eyes, and the villagers seemed too apathetic to do anything but sit around their campfires. Nothing had changed. The clouds did not miraculously clear away, and the eternal flame in the chapel remained dim. The news of the Black Lord's downfall spread amongst the people in whispers, but no one seemed inclined to celebrate it; all were too concerned with their misery and hunger. When the news reached the dark folk, they stirred and muttered. Some groups vanished into the forest, but the rest remained.
Ellese started to regain her sight on the second day, but her eyes were still too painful to open. Tallis shared her time between Mirra's bedside and Bane's, as did Ellese. The blood stopped seeping from Bane's eyes, and the dark power burnt all trace of it away. Neither of them showed any signs of waking, however, and Mirra's arm worried Tallis. The cloth had been removed so the healers could examine it, revealing the horror of the transformation, then it was covered again. Ellese assured her that as soon as the sun returned and the healers regained their powers, it would be healed.
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