The Shrine of Kallen (The Tales of Zanoth Book 3)

by Aaron J. Ethridge

  “Actually, I didn't know that,” he pointed out.

  “Neither did I,” Paul nodded.

  “Sometimes it amazes me how little you two do know,” Nyssa pointed out from where she sat on Joey's shoulder.

  “How do you know he was a he?” the wizard asked.

  “His clothes,” Myra answered with a rising inflection.

  “Alright,” Joey nodded. “Next question; how were you able to stop his bolts of death and vice versa?”

  “It's kind of like a counter spell,” she replied, rocking her head back and forth. “But, it's more instinct and less training if you see what I mean.”

  “Maybe I do,” Paul chuckled. “You're saying that you can block dark power using dark power?”

  “Yes,” she nodded. “It's hard to explain if you can't do it, but it's fairly easy to do if you can.”

  “Why haven't we run into more people that could counter your power?” the wizard asked.

  “Being able to wield dark power isn't all that common,” she asserted.

  “How was Galfas able to take control of that skeletal knight?” Paul asked.

  “Like all undead, vampires are filled with the dark power,” she explained. “Although they don't have the level of control over it that I do, each of them can manifest it in different ways. It allows simple skeletons and zombies to move, makes the touch of wraiths and specters drain the life from their victims, and gives vampires the ability to control other undead.

  “This is especially true of the undead that serve them willingly. When I took control of that knight, it was my will against his. When Galfas ordered him to kill me – which you can be sure he wanted to do – it was their will against mine. Together they were able to overcome me.”

  “I suppose that makes sense,” he nodded. “Changing subjects; Does Umphar belong to Lord Cassius or Lord Ilfan?”

  “Both,” Alena replied. “Lord Ilfan serves Lord Cassius.”

  “I see,” he said. “Last question: Where are we going to move the fortress to next?”

  “That is a good question,” Alena replied.

  “This has gone really well,” Paul asserted. “Maybe we should move to a different middle of nowhere, wait a few days, and then capture another village.”

  “I think we need to be more ambitious,” the ogress said, shaking her head. “I was all for this because the opportunity was here. But, the more strongholds we can take, the weaker we'll make Grathis and the more equipment we'll end up with.”

  “And, the more men we'll lose,” Darek observed.

  “We're not going to defeat the undead without taking risks.”

  “I agree,” he nodded. “I was just pointing out a fact. We'll certainly need more weapons in the future, but we could use more men now. I'm pretty sure we've gotten a fair number of new volunteers today.”

  “That need to be trained,” Alena replied.

  “And, fed,” Darek said. “It's going to be some time before we harvest our first crop. We may want to turn our attention to sacking another storehouse before then.”

  “I can see that, as well,” Alena nodded.

  “General Halfar may already have a destination in mind,” Sarrac pointed out.

  “We should have discussed this while the runes were recharging,” Joey asserted.

  “Maybe,” Darek shrugged. “But, we've all been busy. Besides, wherever we move it to, we'll be able to move it again. For my part, I'd be happy with the fairy well. Those new recruits are going to need more than five days of training before they're ready to face the undead.”

  “You're right about that,” Alena agreed.

  As this conversation was brought to an end, their destination came into view. A young man had been sent to the gateway to inform Paul and his companions that the general wanted to see them as soon as they returned. Within minutes, they had the entire group safely within the walls of the Fortress of Donmar and were on their way to the shrine, where General Halfar was awaiting them. They found him sitting on the steps with a piece of parchment in his hand and an almost confused expression on his face.

  “Something... odd happened while you were gone,” he said, lifting his gaze as they approached.

  Chapter 16: The Prophecy

  “What happened, exactly?” Paul asked, stepping over and glancing at the paper in the old man's hand.

  “As soon as you left,” General Halfar said, “I made my way to the shrine, knelt at the altar, and prayed for your safety. After... I suppose it was several minutes... a voice spoke to me. I could hear it, but I could tell it wasn't in the room with me; it was in my head.”

  “You sure it wasn't a ghost or something?” Joey replied, glancing this way and that. “This is Zanoth, after all. Stuff like that happens all the time.”

  “It might have been Cal Morrin,” Paul speculated. “He spoke to me right before that battle with the whatever-they-were we cleared out of here.”

  “What did the voice say?” Alena asked, her eyes locked on her foster father.

  “This,” he replied, handing her the parchment in his hand. “I'm not sure what it means – if it means anything at all. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure that it actually happened. I don't even remember writing that down.”

  “It's in your handwriting,” she replied, glancing over the paper before handing it to Sarrac.

  “Could have been low blood sugar,” the wizard suggested. “Sometimes, that will cause things like hearing voices or lapses in memory. Although, again, this is Zanoth. My bet is ghosts, or gods, or maybe Grathis trying to lure us into a trap.”

  “I don't know what low blood sugar is,” Sarrac replied, “but, I don't think it's a trap. It says:

  In Kallen Vale, seek ye the shrine,

  Long held by faith, but lost to might.

  There, life still grows and sun does shine,

  Though captive to eternal night,

  Long hidden from the truest sight.

  Still one there lives, greed did enslave,

  That lust for power did enthrall.

  Now trapped inside a living grave,

  That was the payment for his fall,

  To flee the kiss of funeral pall.

  A heart as black as deepest pitch,

  Both cruel and cold, the legend tells,

  Wrapped in the flesh of dracolich.

  So, sound the chimes and ring the bells,

  Then free his soul to feed the hells.

  This task complete, cleanse ye the shrine.

  Blessed then will be that fateful hour,

  As once again the sun will shine,

  When gods shall use their holy power,

  And on the just, their blessings shower.”

  “I don't like the sound of ‘dracolich’,” Paul said rubbing his hand across his chin. “In D&D, that's an undead dragon. If the past is any indicator, that means it's the same thing here.”

  “It is,” Myra nodded. “Fortunately, they're extremely rare. In some cases, they've been known to destroy entire armies.”

  “Not armies of people like us,” Alena asserted with a smile.

  “So, there are dragons in Zanoth?”

  “There were...”

  “I think it's a prophecy,” Sarrac observed.

  “Sounds like one to me,” Darek agreed, taking the paper from him.

  “It can't be,” the general said, shaking his head.

  “I agree,” Joey nodded. “For one thing, it doesn't say anything like: If you don't want to lie in loam, you're better off just stayin' home.”

  This statement caused Joey and Darek to laugh and Alena to glare at him disapprovingly.

  “It's obviously a prophecy,” she said.

  “I'm not a prophet,” General Halfar replied.

  “You may not have been,” Darek said, returning the parchment to him, “but, you seem to be one now.”

  “Where is Kallen Vale?” Paul asked, gazing at the prophecy over the general's shoulder.

  “I don't know,”
Sarrac replied.

  “Me, either,” Myra added.

  “Actually,” Joey said thoughtfully, “it seems like I've heard of it.”

  “Of course, you haven't,” Nyssa asserted. “Even I haven't heard of it. Or maybe I just don't remember hearing of it. On the other hand, maybe it's on Earth and you have heard of it and we haven't. But, I don't think that makes any sense since you don't have any dracoliches on Earth, do you? ….... Well, do you?”

  “No, we don't,” Joey replied, his musing momentarily interrupted. “But, I'm sure I know that name. It seems like I've read it somewhere recently.”

  “If we can find out where it is,” Alena said, “we should move the fortress there. If we have to fight a dracolich, we may as well do it with our entire army.”

  “Having an army wouldn't help,” Myra asserted. “Since they can fly, they can usually choose the battleground. Their teeth and talons can rip through armor as if it weren't there. With a single breath, they can kill a dozen men or more. They're even capable of feeding off the life energy of those they slay – both the living and the dead. Meaning that, the more they slaughter, the harder they are to kill – at least, for a time. If you're hunting a dracolich, it's much wiser to take a smaller, more powerful group with you.”

  “If you're hunting a dracolich,” Joey replied, “you're completely insane. At least, that's the way it sounds to me. I say we put this on the back burner for a while. The other prophecies waited hundreds of years. I'm sure this one will keep.”

  “Are you a coward?” Alena asked.

  “He's just not a fool,” Paul replied, gazing into her eyes. “Getting ourselves killed isn't likely to help Zanoth, is it?”

  “Once again,” Nyssa said with a bit of heat in her voice, “you two have managed to surprise me! I never would have imagined that the pair of you would be afraid of some little dracolich!”

  “It's not a matter of being afraid,” Joey replied defensively. “I just happen to think the future of Zanoth is important. I also don't want anything to happen to any of us – especially you. Am I wrong, or could any of us be killed at any time, prophecy or no prophecy?”

  “We certainly could be,” Sarrac nodded.

  “Well, then,” he said with a touch of annoyance, “it seems to me that we should be careful with our lives, considering how many people are depending on us to free this world.”

  “You're right,” she sighed. “I'm sorry. I just don't see how slaughtering this dracolich would be any different than slaughtering all the other things we slaughter constantly. You and I can catch it on fire and electrify it respectively. Then, Myra can take control of its mind and make it land on the ground. Once that's done, the battle will be practically over because Paul, Alena, Sarrac, and Darek will be able to hack it to pieces in no time at all.”

  “I don't know that it would be that simple,” the former lich smiled. “But, if we did manage to hunt it down, I think we would have a very real chance of defeating it.”

  “To what ends?” Joey asked. “I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm just not sure what the point of it would be. We all risk our lives on a regular basis, but we always know why we're doing it. What would be the point of hunting this thing down; even if we can find Kallen Vale?”

  “Fulfilling the prophecy,” Alena said, matter-of-fact-ly.

  “Until we do that,” Sarrac added, “we can't be sure exactly what it means. But, I think you'll agree that being showered in the blessings of the gods sounds good.”

  “Either way, bro,” Paul said, turning to his friend, “there won't be any harm in figuring out where it was you heard of the place.”

  “That's certainly true,” he replied with a sigh. “It may take me a while, though. What do we want to do with the fortress in the meantime?”

  “Leave it where it is,” Alena said. “For the moment, we don't seem to be in any danger.”

  “Nyssa may want to hide the doorway,” Paul pointed out. “The undead might not be on our scent yet, but we left a trail from Umphar to here that they couldn't fail to follow.”

  “I hid the gateway as soon as we got here,” the fairy replied with a smile.

  “Why could I see it, then?” the paladin asked.

  “I cast the spell so that anyone who stepped out of it could see it until they got back in,” she explained. “That way, no one could get out and not be able to find the door.”

  “You are almost as brilliant as you are beautiful,” Joey replied, smiling at her. “If you were just a little less attractive, your mind might be able to catch up. Of course, it's probably that there's just more beauty in the universe than intelligence, which would explain the gap – as small as it is.”

  “Thank you,” she said with a slight blush.

  “You're actually starting to sound like a fairy,” Paul chuckled.

  “I don't know if I'd go that far,” the flying maiden replied, shrugging her shoulders and raising her hands, “but, he's definitely sounding smarter and smarter.”

  After this observation had been made, the party broke up. Joey headed for the library, where he thought he had seen something on the subject of Kallen Vale, while the rest of his companions set out to attend to a number of different tasks. The least mundane of these was taken up by the fairy – who was escorted by Paul. The pair made their way a short distance back down the path that had led them to Umphar, where the maiden began hiding the trail they had left behind from prying eyes. After she had finished, the tracks seemed to stop in the middle of nowhere, nearly a quarter of a mile from the gateway.

  As soon as this was attended to, they made their way back into the fortress and, from there to the library.

  “Any luck?” Paul asked, stepping into the chamber to find his friend practically buried in tomes.

  “Amazingly, yes,” Joey nodded. “I knew I had read something about it somewhere, but I figured it would take me days to track it down. As it turns out, it didn't. Kallen Vale is, in fact, the home of the dracolich Kallen. He rose to power hundreds of years before the great war. According to legend – at least, the legend in this book – he was born a rather powerful sorcerer who then decided to augment his power by studying the arcane and becoming a wizard, as well. Once he had done that, he became a lich.”

  “You can become a lich without being able to wield dark power?” Paul asked.

  “So, it would seem,” Joey nodded.

  “Of course, you can,” Nyssa giggled. “One has nothing to do with the other. Becoming a lich is the result of a very complex arcane ritual. It has nothing to do with dark power, whatsoever. Well, I suppose the ritual does fill your body with dark power, but that's true of all undead. Either way, you certainly don't need to be able to wield it to become a lich.”

  “I'll take your word for it,” the paladin nodded.

  “That's good of you,” she smiled. “Although, it's not like I've ever been anything but completely honest with you. So, taking my word just makes sense. Doesn't it?”

  “It does,” he agreed.

  “Thank you,” she replied. “But, that was actually a rhetorical question.”

  “After he became a lich,” Joey continued, ignoring this chatter, “with the help of the gods of darkness, he managed to hunt down and kill a powerful dragon named Yaelsfar – who they apparently wanted dead for some reason. As a reward for his efforts, he was given the dragon's body. Kallen then found a way to use the corpse as his phylactery. This done, he destroyed his own body, and was effectively reborn as an undead dragon.

  “The details of what he was up to for the next few hundred years are sketchy, but he showed up during the great war and killed a lot of the living – feeding off of their life energy. Before the war ended, he had corrupted and claimed a shrine in what is now called Kallen Vale. There, his worshipers...”

  “Worshipers?” Paul interjected.

  “He wants to become a god,” the wizard explained.

  “Most undead do,” Nyssa pointed out.

  �
�Anyway,” Joey continued, “it was at that shrine that his worshipers sacrificed people to him. Using incredibly powerful magic, he managed to seal the surrounding lands...”

  “What does that mean, exactly?” Paul interjected.

  “I'm not sure,” the wizard admitted. “I’ve got the feeling we may find out, though. After he did whatever-it-was, he cut himself off from the rest of Zanoth. As of the time this was written, the undead lords that rule the surrounding lands were sending him a tribute of maidens every year to keep him from attacking them.”

  “That seems like a good enough reason to kill him,” Paul replied.

  “To try to kill him,” Joey nodded, “yes. Still, his unfortunate victims weren't likely to die of old age in Zanoth, one way or the other, were they?”

  “Unfortunately, no,” the paladin admitted. “Does any of this get us closer to finding him?”

  “Actually, it does,” the wizard assured him, grabbing up a nearby atlas and beginning to flip through it before pointing at a page. “It's right here.”

  “We need to tell the others.”

  With a nod, Joey snapped the book shut and rose from the table he had been working at. Just minutes later, the trio had gathered the entire party in the general's office. The wizard quickly explained to the rest of his companions what he had discovered. Using the atlas, Myra managed to work out exactly where Kallen Vale was. It turned out to be nearly a thousand miles from the land of Mal’Creal.

  This being the case, General Halfar felt that a conventional journey was out of the question. If they wanted to reach it, they would need to use the power of the Fortress of Donmar. However, after a brief discussion, the band decided that taking the vault would be wiser than moving the entire fortress to such a distant – and completely unknown – land.

  As a result, the gateway was moved temporarily to the edge of the fairy well, where – even if Grathis found it – the defenders would be completely out of the reach of the undead. This done, Nyssa did her best to scry on the vale. Nothing but darkness filled the bowl, however. After a bit of searching, an image formed on the surface of the water. It was of dark lands that lay several miles beyond the boundaries of their proposed destination. It was to this location that they decided to move the vault.