The Beginnings Omnibus: Beginnings 1, 2, 3 & Legend of Ashenclaw novella (Realm of Ashenclaw Beginnings Saga)

by Gary F. Vanucci

  “She accepted, I take it?” Dainn asked.

  “Of course. It is—and always was— her destiny!”

  “And she will rule by your side?” asked Phaera incredulously, crossing her arms over her bosom.

  “Ask her yourself.” Zabalas never even turned around, but instead proceeded directly toward the hunched figure that sat unmoving at his writing desk in the far corner.

  “Greetings, daughter,” called a voice from the shadows. Emerging as quietly as death itself was the Aspect Nahemia—Phaera’s mother. She was pure demon, the offspring of Asmodai, the demon lord of lust, and Lilith the queen of all demons. Behind her stood Hasna, Saamea and Hazelle, Phaera’s blood sisters.

  “How is our eldest sister?” Hasna asked, going to stand by her mother’s side, followed by the others. Nahemia stood quietly, her huge bat-wings curled around her body.

  As the sisters of Phaera surrounded their mother, several more succubi, new sisters she figured, made their way from the shadows to join them.

  “So, ye will be joinin’ me and me kin after all,” Megnus phrased as a statement rather than a question. The Aspect demon, who stood taller than any of the other succubi, held the gaze of the slagfell prince and spoke not a word, but rather glowered at him.

  “We’ll see who’ll be claimin’ the glory, demon,” Megnus declared with a toothy grin beneath his gray, braided beard.

  “I am most certain that my brood will be doing more than their fair share of the task, Prince of Shadowmere,” Nahemia said in a mocking tone.

  Phaera glanced to Zabalas, who seemed as if he were not listening to the banter between them, but instead was intent on his conversation with the undead mage, and so she moved closer to listen.

  “I have something for you,” Zabalas mentioned, directing his words to Sadreth. “I have the key to your power.” He leaned in close, dangling the amulet before Sadreth, whose red orbs flashed brightly from deep within the eye sockets. With slow and unsteady skeletal hands, Sadreth grasped the amulet, which shone brightly as soon as his bony fingers closed around it.

  “Yesss…,” Sadreth managed to articulate as he wilted back into the chair, his robes billowing with the sudden onrush of air.

  “How long, me lord, ‘til yer ‘guest’ will be of use to ye?” Megnus voiced, wondering aloud what they had all been thinking.

  “I am uncertain,” Zabalas responded. “But, that is no matter just yet. We have plans in motion and many things to accomplish before we will need Sadreth in his true glory again.”

  Zabalas gathered all of the succubi around him and led them out of his chamber into the hall, bidding the rest to follow with a wave. Phaera fell quietly into line with her kin and Megnus and Prishnack followed suit.

  They approached Dainn, who was in the corridor next to the antechamber chanting something around the teleportation ring.

  “The circle to Norgeld is complete, my lord,” Dainn announced as another Wayfarer that bore a strong resemblance to him stepped through and out of the circle from somewhere beyond.

  “This is my son, Dailurn,” said Dainn, giving a nod. “He and the others have successfully implemented the teleportation circle deep below the castle within the dungeons as requested.”

  “Well done,” Zabalas congratulated him. “Move things along there as I have another trip to take northwest to visit with Kelgarek before anything else can be done. You all know your roles.” He began to walk away from them, before adding, “I trust that you will be able to handle things?”

  Megnus, Phaera and Nahemia all offered nods of affirmation, the latter bowing deeply before Zabalas.

  “We shall certainly play nice,” whispered the succubus into the empty space.

  Zabalas stopped at that very moment and turned back to stare with intent at Nahemia before proceeding back to his chambers, where he entered the iron doors and joined the undead creatures therein.

  Phaera stood by the door and listened again quietly.

  “Father, you should be so proud of me,” Zabalas said as he disappeared into the shadows and behind another portal, leaving his zombified father Kaldar gurgling something unintelligible. The remnants of its tongue tried to reach deeply into the recesses of its consciousness, attempting to form words, but failing to do so. Instead, strange liquids spilled from its mouth, dripping down the side of its putrefied cheek.

  “Who are you, Zabalas? Phaera wondered with delight as a smile slowly dominated her features.

  CHAPTER 26

  “Take the princess home,” Tiyarnon instructed last evening, recalled Garius, as he pondered recent events quietly in his own room. “Escort her yourselves,” he had said.

  The Inquisitor stood and sipped water from a mug and replaced it on the desk, his thoughts rolling over what they could have done differently to retrieve the artifact and return it safely to Oakhaven. He considered briefly the abominable phylactery that harbored the soul of Sadreth, among other souls, and his lip curled in annoyance. He adjusted his linens and straightened the braids of his beard thoughtfully.

  The sages of the Faceless Knights agreed in both written and spoken word on behalf of the entire sect and that was that, he knew. No arguments would be forthcoming from him. He began to don his armor methodically, and reverently, as he always did, and gave some consideration as to what exactly his mission had become.

  He was used to dispatching demons and devils or any entity of malevolent origin, undead and the like. Escorting royalty, however, was not something he’d felt was deserving of his talents, despite offering to do so with his very lips only one night prior.

  So he had sent Elec and Saeunn to gather Rose and Orngoth to find out if they were willing to see this thing through to the end, though none of them were bound by law, oath or duty any longer. The covenant of the Faceless Knights, in its original decree, was concluded honorably. Tiyarnon had offered Elec and Saeunn both their just rewards as promised, though neither of them accepted as of yet. They offered to remain with Garius until it was finished. He smiled, recalling their unconditional loyalty. Garius believed that Rose and Orngoth would also accompany them to Norgeld.

  He understood the motivations of Saeunn, wanting to engage her enemies and to carry on her father’s legacy as well as to sate the never-ending desires of the god of war. Garius respected her answering her deity so justly.

  He was surprised that Elec was coming along, though, after initially showing unwillingness initially. But he had noted a distinct change in the elf and wondered where that had come from. He seemed driven to hone his swordplay to a finer degree and he happily agreed to accompany them again. That and the fact that he could bring along his giant eagle made him even more receptive to the idea.

  Orngoth would probably accompany them as he was a true outcast—a drifter with no real place to call home. Besides, he felt that at least with Saeunn, another barbarian, there was some semblance of kinship within the half-man. It would be trouble for any other society to accept him, except for perhaps the people of Archinon, who would most likely toss him into the gladiatorial arenas of the Pit. Either way, his choices were limited by both blood and heritage.

  Then his mind’s eye captured Rose, but not in the way that he was accustomed, but rather in a way that tempted him—as a man was prone to do with a woman. Her face was occupying his thoughts more and more of late. He’d never, in the centuries of civilization recorded on Wothlondia, ever believed that there were two more divergent dispositions. And yet, there was a very real, tangible attraction he felt for her, and that he believed she felt for him. Her furtive glances had not gone unnoticed.

  Perhaps it was something to do with him saving her life on the hills of Heartwood Valley that fateful day when an orc’s arrows almost quieted that tongue forever, he considered.

  He hoped that she would come along, he admitted to himself, which became less surprising this time. He was coming to grips with his feelings, though he did not intend on acting upon those emotions, for he had a higher calling.


  “Do I?” he asked himself, as he stared into his reflection in the windowpane.

  “What happened here, Rose?” Elec asked. At least she was pretty sure it was Elec. Her vision was blurry and her mouth was dry. She looked around and noted signs of a struggle and hopped to her feet, rather unsteadily, though, as Elec had to right her as she stood.

  “I…I don’t know,” Rose admitted, not remembering much after her first bottle of wine. She brushed the crop of matted red hair from her view and rubbed her eyes methodically. She smelled her own breath, the taste of bile still in her mouth and winced.

  “Can you not handle your wine?” Saeunn asked chidingly, pointing to something in the basin.

  At least I made it there, Rose thought. She’d been stone drunk last night and must have passed out on her sofa. It was all so fuzzy.

  “The half-orc was in your house, Rose. Did you know?” Elec asked, staring deep into her eyes and holding her out at arm’s length. She gazed back with a blank stare, unsure as to what he was asking.

  “Half-orc? What half-orc?”

  “The one I faced in combat within Hollow Hill and Heartwood Valley. He was in your home, Rose.”

  “Why?”

  “I do not know,” Elec said, releasing his grip on her. “Perhaps he was trying to kill you? Though he says different.”

  “If he wanted her dead she’d have been dead already,” Saeunn chastised, leaning upon her greatsword. “I believe that he happened upon her by chance, as he said. He had ample chances to hack her with that axe.”

  “You do not think it chance for him to be here?” Elec retorted, spinning back to stare at her.

  “I do. But I also think him a capable warrior, don’t you?”

  Elec nodded slightly.

  “And if that is the case, he was here for several moments alone with Rose. If he is the cutthroat you suggest, he would no doubt have put a blade through her heart.”

  “Then, you believe him? That he was here to aid her? Why is he in Oakhaven?”

  “Please. Keep your voices down,” Rose said, moving to stand by the cabinet that held the wine. “I drank so much wine that I threw up…that I remember.”

  “It looks like you were about to finish off another bottle,” Saeunn pointed out, holding up a bottle that was half-drunk. Elec peered intently at the bottle for a moment.

  “May I see that?” he asked, insistent to seize the bottle. Saeunn relinquished it to him and he positioned it on the counter beside the sink and began fumbling with his belt pouch. Retrieving a ring, he spoke the words that brought into being the shimmering portal to his ethereal lab and disappeared.

  He reappeared several moments later, holding the bottle, though the contents through the clear glass were not the fruity red she was accustomed to seeing, but instead was a cloudy shade of gray.

  “It was certainly good fortune that you did throw up,” Elec said, holding the bottle directly up to Rose’s face so she could not only see, but smell the wine, too. Whatever Elec had done to it, it clearly displayed the toxins inside, making them obvious to all of her senses.

  “Poison!” she whispered appallingly. “Who would—”

  She stopped in mid-sentence and an image of one person in particular who might want her dead popped into her mind’s eye.

  Who is it that would want to silence my tongue? she asked rhetorically, knowing full well whose coin paid for this murder attempt. And she was going to confront him…soon.

  “Tell Garius to go on without me,” she said. “I have something I need to take care of, and it won’t be quick.” There was a brief pause as she considered the Inquisitor and felt something within that she could not decide was a sense of loyalty, or something completely different. After a brief consideration she added, “I will make my way to Norgeld after my business here is settled.” She started toward her bedroom and then turned to face them again. “Elec, how did you know there was poison in the bottle?”

  “I have been working with plants, poisons and the like for decades now. I managed to spot the slightest hint of a reaction in the light. And it was slight. Also, I have kind of a sense that warns me of danger sometimes. It is difficult to—”

  “Fair enough,” Rose interjected, moving off toward her room. “Make sure to tell the Inquisitor that I will be along just as soon as I handle my business here.”

  Saeunn and Elec shrugged to one another and made their way out into the streets.

  Rose shut and locked her door, reset her traps and retrieved her hidden daggers—Avorna and Zaedra—from a hidden floorboard beneath the sofa. She began making preparations for a certain confrontation that was long overdue.

  Orngoth lumbered down the streets of Oakhaven’s Remedial District, his head swiveling back and forth to witness the morning crowd. Even with the huge barbarian woman and the unusual high elf beside him, the fingers were directed his way. He heard disparaging remarks and expressions ranging from hatred to fear from the masses of Oakhaven, but none stood before him or threatened him face to face. As a matter of fact, most parted ways to allow the trio to pass, including knights of the Watch.

  Orngoth followed the two of them back to the Hall of the High Council. Once there, he was supposed to tell the old men in brown robes, whom he’d met earlier, about the magic in his amulet. He did not like them or the way they looked at him, but Garius instructed him that they were there for research, so he did as he was asked. He had come to like the Inquisitor and the elf, and especially the barbarian woman. He respected her skills in combat and believed she fought well, even for a female.

  “So, The Red Rose is staying here?” Orngoth asked as they closed in on their destination.

  “The Red Rose?” Elec echoed with an inflection of curiosity.

  “Yes. She has hair the color of a red rose, like the flower. So I think it a good name to call her,” Orngoth explained to them with a shrug. “Will she not like it?”

  “I do not know…perhaps,” Elec said as Saeunn shrugged. “You should try it,” the elf finished with a wide smile.

  “We are to go to Norgeld?” Orngoth asked them again. “I was born there.”

  “Aye,” Elec nodded. “We are to escort Princess Amara back home to her mother and her people. Tiyarnon and the Council believe that the roads grow more dangerous with the increasing number of goblinoid tribes turning their backs on our peaceful ways.”

  “All the more reason to split their skulls,” Saeunn said with no pity in her tone. Orngoth could relate to the anger she felt. He had been beaten mercilessly, and quite often. But after the physical pain subsided, the pain within remained. He wondered what other losses and pain the barbarian from Chansuk had endured to make her rage so boundless. Orngoth recalled on many occasions suppressing his own bloodlust after the beatings, but it was difficult.

  It seemed that Saeunn did not try to hold it back at all.

  When Orngoth, Saeunn and Elec arrived at the Hall of the High Council, they were greeted at the doors by a servant who bid them to enter. Once inside, they were met within the antechamber by Garius, adorned in his full regalia and magnificent armor. His black cloak was draped across his back. His icons and trinkets representing each of the gods, as well as the Faceless Knights, hung freely from his pauldrons and armor, and his tabard hung loosely from below his waist, proudly decorated with the skull symbol of his Order, matching the much smaller one on the left side of his chest.

  “We must take our leave,” Garius said firmly, his helm under the crook of his arm. As he spun, he noted the distinct absence of one person in particular. A hint of disappointment flashed upon his features for just a heartbeat before he quickly repressed it.

  “Amara must arrive safely within the walls of Citadel Pridemoon. And we must confer with Rolin once we arrive on a plan of attack against the ever-growing goblinoid threat to the south.” He glanced at Saeunn and noted her jaw tighten as she gritted her teeth.

  “Rose will not be joining us,” Elec mentioned to Garius.
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br />   He spun away from them so as to hide any further betrayals his expression may have shown. He quickly donned his helm and turned toward them again, his face veiled in the shadow beneath the red steel.

  “Did she say why not?”

  “She had business to attend,” Saeunn answered.

  “That is unfortunate…”

  “She mentioned joining us in Norgeld once her business was settled, though,” Elec added.

  “Gather the princess and we shall be on our way,” Garius called to a servant in the hall who nodded and scurried away. His peripheral vision caught a glimpse of Tiyarnon who stood in the doorway to an adjacent room.

  “May the light of the sun guide you and return you to us soon,” Tiyarnon declared as he leaned upon his staff.

  “And give the dwarf a kick for me,” called a light-hearted feminine voice from behind the priest.

  Garius smiled beneath his helm as he noted the beautiful Nimaira Silvershade walk past them and outside to finish the preparations with the construct that would be navigating the caravan east to Norgeld.

  He seemed to notice for the first time the true beauty of the half-elven woman—her shape, her lithe and sensuous gait, and her symmetrical face with eyes of the softest blue. She’d been given gifts from both her human and elven heritage, the two combining to make one extraordinarily stunning woman. But, she was not Rose, he lamented.

  “Are we ready, my lord?” called the voice of Amara who was more than eager to go home, drawing Garius from his current reverie. He was thankful for the interruption and set his mind back to the task at hand, as he retrieved The Repentant from his back and felt its reassuring weight once more. Things suddenly felt normal as he strode from the Hall of the High Council and into the courtyard. Orngoth, Saeunn, Elec and Amara followed.

  Servants were packing the caravan once more with provisions for the journey, which would take only a few weeks. This was due in part to the absence of snowfall as well as an improved spell that Nimaira claimed would speed the caravan’s progress. She’d mentioned having a spell that she could apply to a horse or a person to allow them to hasten their movement in short bursts, and was simply testing it out on the magical steeds responsible for hauling her wagon, as they were not of this plane. Only those able to manipulate the powers of Arcana could see them on the ethereal plane.