The Longsword Chronicles: Book 05 - Light and Shadow

by GJ Kelly

  “There! Thirty yards east of where it was!” Prester whispered urgently, clutching his shortbow firmly, holding its arrow in place while he pointed with his right hand.

  There, indeed, it was. In the blink of an eye, the creature had travelled fully thirty yards, and remained, rippling and pulsing as before, but otherwise motionless in the misty gloom of the tree line.

  “Allazar, your opinion of the thing?”

  “I know it not, your Majesty. That thing is not of nature’s making, nor Morloch’s.”

  “It has the look of aquamire,” Gawain whispered, “Shimmering thus as the cloud beyond the Teeth once did.”

  “The look, perhaps, but not the substance.”

  “Mist’s thickenin’, melord, and is it me or did that thing just move forward a little?”

  “Aye, it moved all right,” Farayan confirmed in answer to Ognorm’s question.

  “One of your candles, Allazar, not too big though. Just enough to push it back.”

  Allazar planted the staff, his lips moved in a silent chant, and a small ball of orange sped into the air, bursting bright white and hovering a hundred feet above the water and fifty feet short of the dockside.

  In an instant, the shadow-creature was gone.

  “Did it flee back into the trees?” Jerryn asked no-one in particular.

  “Into the trees, or beneath the ground, we know not,” Berek asserted, “When a bright light appears, it moves too quickly to know for certain.”

  “Watch well,” Gawain commanded, “In all directions.”

  Slowly, Allazar’s aerial candle began to dim. The men aboard took positions about the barge to give them a view all around the docks, and they waited.

  “I’m starting to think we made an error of judgement, Imperator Berek,” Gawain whispered confidentially.

  “How so?”

  “We should have put the casket aboard one of the other barges. Keeping it in our midst as we have has imperilled us all.”

  Berek groaned. “You’re right. Mutual suspicion doubtless clouded our thinking. We need to be sharper than this if we’re to survive the night.”

  “Has anyone seen that thing move over water, in the days and nights you’ve been here?”

  Berek shook his head. “No. But, I’ve formed an opinion that it cannot move through stone or metal. It is only an opinion though, based on the simplest of observations.”

  “Then we may indeed be safe out here, if it can’t rise up through the stone lining of the pond and the steel of the hull beneath and around us…”

  The Aaron’s Candle faltered, and winked out, plunging them all back into a gloom lit only by the dull red embers in the brazier.

  “Lamps,” Gawain ordered, “Shutters wide!” And he twisted open the miner’s lamp hanging from his belt, giving it a firm shake to brighten the glowstones within.

  Four more lamps were promptly lit, and then Ognorm moved among the Gorians, showing them how to activate the three spares he’d brought with him all the way from the Ruttmark.

  “Your observations, Berek, what were they? The wizard Allazar might find them useful,” and Gawain signalled Allazar to join them before ordering another candle launched into the sky directly overhead.

  When the light blossomed and the barge was brightly lit, Gawain gave a brief nod to Berek.

  “It seems to have no awareness of trees or bushes, as you’ve seen for yourselves now. They don’t seem to be obstacles to its progress. Stone is a different matter though. We were stalking the ironmask and his scum, late in the night, and while they were scurrying through the ruins like rats, we saw the shadow-creature head straight for the one carrying the box.

  “There was a low wall, broken and covered in suckerweed, gable end of a house long gone I thought, between the creature and the enemy. The shadow moved swiftly, directly towards the casket, then slammed to a dead halt when it hit the wall. We should’ve harried the enemy there and then, but the spectacle held us all in a kind of trance. The creature seemed to… squash itself, as though it were trying to move down into the earth, but I think its progress was barred by stones, either fallen masonry or a flagstone floor buried beneath the leaf-fall.

  “Failing to descend, it moved sideways, slowly, touching the wall as it went, as if seeking the wall’s end. One of the ironmask’s men looked back as they moved on, and saw it, and cried out a warning. The darkweasel lit a light, which sent the creature shooting away into the night, and that’s when the spell was broken and we loosed upon them.

  “It only happened the once, Raheen, but when we were on the barge yonder, closer to shore last night, the creature did not cross the water, nor sink beneath the stone of the dock to emerge beneath us. Thinking back, there were other movements it made, erratic, as a man stumbling might make, or a man dodging obstacles underfoot. Maybe that too was caused by stone.”

  “And metal?”

  “Yes, well… bolts and arrows have been loosed at it, and those not lit by fire do seem to have struck it, and made it move sharply. And there’s Farayan’s arm to prove that metal opposes the creature’s free movement. It was passing us, in the dark, and could have done so without harm to us, bent as it was upon the box and its contents. It was Farayan who attacked the creature with his sword as it passed, not the other way around.

  “We all heard the blow, it seemed to crackle, like a bundle of twigs being snapped. Farayan said it felt like taking a swing at column of stone, such was the jolt that went through him. It ripped the blade from his grasp, as swinging a one-handed strike at a rock might do. Letting go of the blade probably spared his life, though not his hand nor half his forearm.”

  “Then,” Allazar nodded thoughtfully, “It has substance, of a kind. And we should be safe, here in the pool, for as long as there is light.”

  “And provided it can’t cross the water, we’ve no proof it can’t,” Gawain pointed out. “Unless Imperator Berek gainsays me on that account?”

  Berek shook his head. “No, I can’t do that, Raheen. But the stars were out last night, a good breeze sweeping the fog well clear of the pond and into the trees. Perhaps it was light, merely, that kept it from making the attempt on those of us who survived to take shelter in the barge.”

  “And tonight, what breeze there is, is light as a feather’s touch,” Allazar sighed, “And the moon is waning crescent, and will rise in the southeast but an hour or two before the sun. With the forest and the terrain, we may not see the moon at all.”

  “Then we’ll have to make our own moon, and our own sun if needs be,” Gawain announced. “How long can you continue producing these candles of yours?”

  Allazar shrugged. “In truth, I know not. All mystic efforts undertaken by a wizard take their toll, in one way or another. I have never been tried thus.”

  “Then we should try to conserve as much of your strength as possible. Whatever is decided for the Orb at dawn, neither it nor we can remain idle on this barge forever. There’s also the question to be considered of what might happen should that creature take possession of it.”

  “Yes,” Berek agreed softly. “I had wondered the same thing. It is why I planned to replace the device back in its tower, and send for aid. Whatever that creature-thing is, it seemed content to remain wherever it dwelled before the ironmask closed the casket and brought it out.”

  “Look to the west,” Iyan called, softly but urgently.

  “Seen,” Berek replied, acknowledging the alert.

  The shadow lurked near the very brambles Gawain had used for cover prior to rushing the praetorians that morning. It simply remained motionless there, as though it were standing gazing back at them while they stood rooted to the spot staring at the shadow.

  “A candle, your Majesty?”

  “No, Allazar, not yet. It can stand there all night if it wants to. I’ve an idea, Berek, if you’re agreeable?”

  “I’d need to hear the idea first, Raheen.”

  “We’ll move the casket up onto the roof of the d
eckhouse, there at the northern end of the barge. At least there, it’s less of a threat to us should the shadow manage to board the vessel, and it will still remain within plain sight of us all.”

  “Good idea.”

  “Ognorm, lift and shift the box onto the cabin roof, if you please.”

  “Arr, melord!” came the instant reply, the dwarf hurrying about the job.

  “Do you see the shadow moving?” Gawain gasped.

  “Yes, yes I do,” Berek agreed. “It moves parallel with the box.”

  “Thirty feet, or thereabouts,” Allazar mused. “Keeping within a direct line of the Orb…”

  “What are you thinking, wizard?” Gawain asked as Ognorm returned to his position, the Orb casket sitting gloomily on the metal roof of the deckhouse at the far end of the barge.

  “I recoil from the thought,” Allazar complained, “For it adds to the horror of this dread city and the treachery which took place here. And in truth, I have no proof to support my surmising of that creature’s unnatural origins.”

  “Tell me, Imperator, do the wizards of Goria use forty words when one would suffice?”

  “Alas, Raheen, I don’t know. I’ve never spoken to one. They are counted among the Emperor’s wealth and thus are as unapproachable as the Imperial harem.”

  “An interesting arrangement, perhaps we’ll discuss it another time. Allazar, your thoughts, whether you recoil from them or not. It may mean our survival, and aid the dawn’s decision.”

  “Very well, your Majesty, though you must understand, I am merely surmising…”

  “Guessing, he means,” Gawain mumbled.

  “It is my belief,” Allazar continued unabashed, “That the shadow creature was born of the treachery of the ToorsenViell. When they corrupted the Orb and caused it to unleash the foul emanations which fired the city of Calhaneth and razed its wonders to the ground, those emanations in turn created that foul and unnatural creature.

  “Whether directly in the same instant that the people of Calhaneth were destroyed, or whether through a long gestation over hundreds of years, it was the Orb’s ceaseless emanations which created the shadow-creature. I believe that this thing is bound to the Orb in the same way that we are bound to air, or water, or sunlight. I believe it depends for its very survival upon the Orb’s emanations, and without them will shrivel and die, as a plant withers and decays in the absence of light.”

  “But, the Morgmetal casket was designed to seal the Orb…” Gawain frowned.

  “True, but the original design was intended to prevent sunlight falling on the device, and to contain the Light of Arristanas, not the evil emanations of a deformed and mutilated Orb!” Allazar became more animated as he followed his suppositions to a conclusion. “We saw, just now, when master Ognorm carried the casket to the cabin, the shadow-creature move, remaining in a direct line, a straight line, the shortest possible distance from the Orb. It is feeding, Longsword, feeding on whatever weakly emanations are able to penetrate the walls of the casket!”

  “Yet for a thousand years, the Orb was completely exposed to the world in its resting-place in the tower…”

  “And thus its emanations, powerful and direct, fed the creature, which was content to lurk in whatever lair witnessed its birth, or to roam within direct sight of it! For all these centuries it has had no need to stray beyond the boundaries of the city, thriving in the corrupt and unseen light from the mutilated Orb!”

  “And the lack of natural life about the place?”

  “Destroyed either by the Orb’s emanations, or accidental contact with the shadow-creature while it roamed, perhaps testing the extent of its domain. It is possible that larger animals sensed either the emanations or the creature itself, or, having no prey themselves on which to thrive, simply departed, never to return.”

  “Your wizard would seem to speak sense, Raheen,” Berek acknowledged. “Nothing we’ve witnessed can gainsay his theory.”

  “Don’t look so pleased with yourself, Allazar, if your guess is true it aids us not, and means trouble for us all.”

  Allazar’s eyebrows arched in the light of the lamps, reflecting from the lustrous pearl white of his staff. “Trouble?”

  “If it needs to feed on the Orb’s emanations, then it must be growing weaker and more desperate the longer it is parted from them. Desperate enemies are dangerous. Worse, it’s not going to abandon its only source of food.”

  “All the more reason to return the device to the tower, and open the casket while we send for aid,” Berek announced softly.

  “And give the creature back its full strength? We have no idea whether it reasons or not. It may not have knowingly destroyed all the unfortunates it’s come into contact with, we cannot say. But if it reasons, it may not thank us for starving it after a glut lasting more than ten centuries. Besides, what friendly forces do you expect to find in Pellarn to aid your cause? If, as you suspect, the Goth-lord Maraciss means to destroy Pellarn Castletown with the Orb, I doubt you’ll find many noble warriors waiting there to aid you. They too will have understood the significance of the portents you saw there before your own departure.”

  “Hmm. Yet if you attempt to take the casket overland to the east, you’ll have that thing dogging your heels every step of the way. Worse, once you’re out of the city limits, there’ll be no stones to bar its progress. It’ll sink into the ground, track you from beneath, and rise up to swallow the box, day or night, in the gloom of the forest.”

  “If we take the casket overland to the east, you mean. I don’t expect you take my word concerning its destruction in the Sea of Hope. I would expect you to witness it yourself.”

  Berek looked stunned. “Are you serious, Raheen?”

  Gawain shrugged. “Of course. How else do you honestly expect to report your success to your Emperor unless all of you see that box sink below the waves thirty miles from the shores of Callodon?”

  “Moving again, melord, fog’s thicker, it’s getting closer.”

  “Candle, Allazar.”

  They could see the black hole shimmering in a shroud of fog, and it had indeed advanced from the tree line to the dockside, and though they couldn’t see the water’s edge, Gawain judged it to be some ten yards from the side of the pool when the brilliant white of Aaron’s Candle burst high overhead.

  “Unless there is a breeze soon, gentlemen,” Allazar whispered, “That creature will have a blanket of fog to walk upon as well as to enshroud it. The world about us is contracting quickly, visibility diminishing rapidly.”

  “Can your wizard make such a breeze, Raheen?” Berek asked, Gorian protocol seeming to prohibit him from speaking directly to Allazar.

  “Yes, if you feed him brassica sprouts with his roast rabbit,” Gawain muttered, and to his surprise, and no small delight, Berek chuckled, low and deep.

  “Alas,” Allazar announced solemnly, “The weather is beyond any wizard’s control.”

  Gawain suddenly turned to Berek. “Last night, during the attack, we heard a ripping sound, which we took to be the dark wizard loosing fire?”

  Berek nodded. “It was.”

  “Did he loose at your men, or at the creature?”

  “At both. Fireballs, and streamers. His lights illuminated the dockside all around, and he loosed upon any movement he or his men detected.”

  “Did any of that fire strike the creature?”

  “I cannot say, Raheen. We were somewhat busy at the time. The ironmask’s aim was poor, though. In the city, he loosed fire upon us from the top of the tower, and one of his small fireballs sped away over the treetops before he lowered his mace and found our range. Here, too, though we lost good men in the salvos.”

  “What are you thinking?” Allazar frowned, as Aaron’s Candle began to falter above them.

  “I don’t know… perhaps that if a demGoth’s black fire availed him not against the shadow-creature, your white fire might end the thing’s existence.”

  “We’re too far from the dockside,
I fear, your Majesty. The light from my staff’s discharge would likely alert the creature before I could guide the fire to its target.”

  The candle winked out, leaving just the fire in the brazier and hand-lamps providing light aboard the vessel. Fog continued to thicken, drifting gently over the lock gates to the north, spilling out from the woods around the dock, clinging to the water, shrinking the world around them.

  “Sou’west, my lord, moving slowly north.”

  “Thank you, Jerryn.”

  The shadow lurked in the mist, moving slowly along the dockside, inching its way along the blue-stone as if to reclaim its last position, the closest it could get to the Orb in its casket without leaving the shore.

  “It’s movement is not disturbing the mist in its wake, from what I can see,” Gawain muttered.

  “Agreed,” Berek nodded. “The passage of a man through that mist would leave it swirling.”

  “Then it has no substance, as we know it,” Allazar concurred. “Though against stone and metal it finds its way impeded.”

  “If it came up against the Morgmetal of the casket, Allazar, could it force upon the lid and expose the Orb?”

  Allazar frowned. “Possibly, by moving at it rapidly, the collision might force open the lid.”

  “What are those straps made of, Berek?”

  “They’re belts of leather, presumably put there by the ironmask or his men. The casket is as we found it, Raheen.”

  “I think I’d be happier if we added the strength of elven chains to that leather strapping. The thing is moving closer the thicker the fog becomes, and if it can move over water, I don’t want to risk a rush and a collision opening the box. Not while there’s lamplight and starlight about.”

  “An excellent precaution,” Allazar agreed. “There are chains and tools within the compartment beneath the bench seats in the cabin, Imperator, if you or your men would be so kind?”

  Berek gazed at the creature on the shore, and at the casket some sixty feet away at the far end of the barge, mist swirling ominously about it. He shivered, and nodded, and summoning Loryan, went into the cabin to rummage for the chains.