Eluan Falls: A Whisper of Fate

by Dane G. Kroll

  The carriage was then enough to cause a commotion in the streets. Word began to spread that Nikali was out in the city and people began to flock in his direction.

  Moans and begs called out for the carriage to stop and relieve the people with more money. After no response several people tried to climb the carriage and claim the contents of the carriage for their own, but their attempts were always thwarted. No matter who tried to climb up the sides of the carriage the top was unattainable. Nikali danced at their fingertips as every man and woman fell back onto the cold unforgiving street.

  Finally, the carriage stopped at the town square. It parked in its usual place near what was left of the Emperor’s stage. But Nikali and Cassandra did not go to the stage. They stayed on his carriage. They remained higher and grander than ever on their platform.

  The town square grew packed. The lower level began to fill up quickly. The people pushed and forced their way in to be closer to Nikali and his generosity.

  The gardens were long destroyed by the Tcher army. The statues of former emperors were in shambles, some destroyed, some graffitied, and some gone completely. The only thing that still stood from the city center’s glory days was the iron guardrail that separated the upper deck from the ground level.

  The people smashed and pushed their way to the ground level like they had in days past. Every emperor of Eluan has given a speech at the city center. It used to be a day to celebrate. Today, it was a barren park with only one thing on people’s minds. Money.

  “I thought I would honor tradition today,” said Nikali. Nikali stood proudly on top of the carriage displaying the emperor’s crown on the top of his head.

  The crowd roared, demanding more money that Nikali had already given out to other people. Nikali waited for a few moments. He let the crowd yell their obscenities and their demands at him.

  On the upper deck, many members of the royal class came to watch the spectacle unfold. They had all heard about the carriage and its unusual actions earlier that day. It did not bother most of the royal class, but the curious few found themselves in their old seats on the upper level of the city center. Quaet was one of the few who thought it was important to check in on the actions of Nikali and his believers. He leaned against the railing to watch the crowd below him grow to unruly volumes. He believed they would soon topple over the carriage if nothing was done. Quaet was ready to run away at a moment’s notice. It would be easy from the upper deck. There weren’t as many people there as there were crowded down below.

  “I will give you better,” said Nikali, finally. The crowd replaced their boos with cheers. “But first I need a little bit of room.”

  Nikali never shouted, but his words carried through the entire city center. Every single person that surrounded him could hear his voice as clear as day. The first row of people that surrounded the carriage began to take a step back. They were met with the people directly behind them. The huddled crowd began to react and attempted to give Nikali and the carriage more room, but only a few feet were accomplished.

  Nikali looked down at the people on the ground. He shook his head with disappointment. “More.”

  The crowd listened to their Emperor’s words. They tried to push farther away from the carriage. People started to get crushed against other bodies. Some tripped and were slowly trampled by others stepping backward.

  Still, Nikali did not approve. “More.”

  The crowd pushed into the railings and the walls of the lower level of the city center. The stone walls were six feet high. The ramp that led down to the area was clogged with people unaware of the back stepping the crowd was attempting. The stairways leading to the upper deck and the exits were jam packed.

  Nikali dropped his head and let it dangle and swung back and forth several times. Then he swung his head backward with an arch in his spine. He rubbed his hands across his face and pulled his hair with frustration. “Get back. I want this area! Go to the upper deck! Go to the stage! I don’t care. Just leave me the floor. Or you will all get nothing!”

  Nikali’s rant put more haste into the people’s step. The mental boundaries were no more. Nikali had freed them. People began to climb up onto the stage that was once reserved for the Emperor and the Royal Council. More people flooded the upper deck. While they were never denied access to the upper deck it had become tradition over the generations that the upper deck was for the royal class and the lower level was for the commoners. Not anymore.

  Quaet held his ground at the railing as people swarmed in around him. They pushed and prodded past him, hoping to get him to move, but Quaet did not yield. He stood tall against their filth and their atrocious smell. He snarled back at Nikali for making these conditions. Then Nikali glanced over at the upper deck and bowed his head. For a split second, Quaet believed Nikali was acknowledging him and the uncomfortable circumstances that had developed.

  It took several minutes, but eventually the ground level was clear. Nikali twisted in a circle with his arms stretched out. He spun on one foot while on top of the carriage. Then he jumped down to the ground and barely caught himself. He teetered on his feet as he found his balance once again.

  “Good!” Nikali shouted. “From now on the floor is mine! You will be welcomed down only when I say you are welcomed!”

  Nikali paused. The area was silent.

  “Understood?” Nikali asked quietly.

  Then the crowd roared back with an affirmative.

  Nikali smiled. “Great! Then I’ll get started.”

  Nikali rushed to the back of his carriage. First, he dropped a ramp from the back end that reached all the way to the ground. Then he ran up the ramp and into the carriage. He rolled out one barrel and placed it on the ground. Then he rolled out a second. Then a third. Then a fourth.

  The barrels were as big as a child, and almost as wide. They moved with the sound of sloshing liquid. It made the mouths of every person in the area water.

  Then Nikali returned back to the carriage. A minute passed and Nikali had not yet come out. His audience began to grow restless. Could they move forward and claim their drink? Should they wait for Nikali to return? But Nikali did not give them much more time to consider their options.

  Nikali came back out from the carriage with two men, hoods covering their heads and hands tied behind their backs. The people gasped at the sight. Whispers grew into full blown conjecture as everybody wanted to know who the two men were.

  “These men are the enemy!” Nikali shouted once again. “They are from Tcher! My men found them in the city. They attacked one of our most decorated officials, Francesco de Seres, and they had the audacity to attack my mother, your former empress.”

  The crowd yelled their displeasure at the two hostages Nikali presented to them. The two men were on their knees now, in front of Nikali. The men barely moved. The crowd was nothing to them.

  Quaet suddenly could feel a warm body come up from behind. Then he heard a soft whisper fight through the anger of the crowd. He glanced over to see Marais had joined the festivities of the day.

  “I thought the Tcher men were killed during the fight by Seres and Nikali,” asked Marais.

  “They were,” said Quaet.

  “Then who are they?” Marais asked, gesturing at the two men on the floor.

  “I don’t know,” said Quaet.

  Nikali raised his arms to quiet the crowd once again. “I hear you! I feel your anger. That is why I have brought them out here today before all of you. I want you to witness what I do to our enemies. There will be no compromise. There will be no remorse. If Eluan is to survive then we need to cut out the weak and the ones that mean us harm. Tcher has fallen, and now they wish nothing more than to destroy what good life we have left.

  “No! Eluan will remain strong. That is why any enemy of Eluan will be executed. Right here for people to see. Then and only then will everybody know the true power that Eluan holds.”

  Nikali skipped over to the barrels of Tamor Blood. He cracked
the top of a barrel open with one hand. The aroma lifted into the air and urged the people closest to the floor to lean in a little closer.

  “Not yet,” said Nikali. “Be patient.”

  Nikali sat on the barrel to the left of the opened one. He cupped his hand and dipped it into the Tamor Blood. With a loud sip he drank what he could grasp. Then he snapped his fingers.

  Out of the carriage came Nikali’s loyal fury arck. It scurried out into the open like an excited animal come to play. It rushed over to Nikali’s feet with its leathery tail wagging back and forth. It sniffed the air over and over again. The nasal sounds of the beast could be heard through the crowd.

  Nikali lied down across the barrel he was sitting on and a second one next to it. He dropped his hand so his fury arck could lick Nikali’s fingers.

  Then Nikali waved his hand in front of the fury arck’s face. He gestured toward the two men still down on their knees.

  The fury arck turned its attention to the two captives. Its tiny leathery ears were pulled back on its head. Its eyes narrowed as its face stretched back. Then it began to growl.

  “They are all yours,” said Nikali to the fury arck.

  Then the beast charged forward on its powerful four legs. It jumped into the air ten feet away from the two men. The fury arck pounced on the closest man. They collided with the second captive and the three bodies crashed to the ground. The fury arck did not stop. It bit into one man’s neck while it reached out with its claws and slashed at the other man.

  The sounds of muffled screams were drowned out by the cheering of the crowd. The people of Eluan were thrilled to see their enemies fall by the power of their new Emperor.

  The execution was fast. The fury arck made quick work of the tied up men. Their bodies were left on the ground as blood drained out of the lifeless bodies into puddles in the dirt.

  Quaet had to look away from the execution. There had not been an execution in the city center for over a hundred years. There were better, cleaner ways to do it.

  When the two men were dead the fury arck withdrew from the massacre. It calmly licked its bloody lips and returned to the carriage without a command from the lazily relaxing Nikali still on the barrels of Tamor Blood.

  Once the fury arck was gone, Nikali rolled over and slipped off the barrels. He landed on his feet, and dusted himself off. His walk back to the front of the carriage took him through the bloody ground and over the bodies left by his pet. He walked with no regard for the mess around him. His feet left bloody foot prints across the clean ground and on the bodies that he stepped on. Then Nikali returned to his perch by Cassandra's side on top of the carriage.

  He waved his hands out at the people. He could see the thirst in their eyes.

  “It’s all yours!” Nikali shouted. Then he cracked the whip several times. The horses charged to life and began to move forward toward the crowd on the exit ramp. The people moved gracefully out of the way; coordinated by the power of arcan.

  Quaet turned his back from the guardrail and the display below him. He could watch no more, and could not bear to see his people turn into the savages that Nikali was calling for. Quaet had worked hard to turn the Capitol into the greatest city in the world. He was able to keep the filth and decrepit in the Talons for years, but that was all being undone in just a few short months by one man. But it was still not too late, Quaet believed. He would get through to Nikali one way or the other.

  As the carriage disappeared the crowd rushed forward for their prize. The Tamor Blood was calling to them, and even the sight of two mauled bodies would not ruin their appetite.

  Tucked away in the back of the crowd the recently arrived Jordon had watched the entire display that Nikali had put on. His thoughts raced through plans of actions. Alexus had not prepared them for Nikali, but his will would still be done.

  Chapter 23

  Quaet struggled to get up the steps of the Capitol Palace. Traffic had increased around the palace ever since Nikali’s display at the town square. The palace workers were joined by even more people looking for a taste of Nikali’s Tamor Blood. The barrels Nikali had offered the people were not enough. They demanded more, and they would come to him if necessary. His abilities were beyond anything they had ever seen and they believed his Tamor Blood tasted better than anything else. They all wanted to feel as powerful as their newest Emperor.

  “Get out of my way,” Quaet grumbled to the crowd of peasants that surrounded him. “You have no business here.”

  Very few people moved for Quaet. Many were barely aware he was there. Their eyes were bloodshot. All of their attention was at the palace entrance. They were hoping for relief from their leader.

  Quaet kept his head down as he forced his way through the crowd. Hands reached out to pull at his clothes. He had to yank himself free on several occasions.

  “I am an official of the Emperor!” he screamed. “Unhand me! Let me go. This is outrageous. Go back to your holes in the wall!”

  One man came face to face with Quaet. His lips were stained dark red. He never blinked when he began to speak with Quaet.

  “Can you get me inside?” the man asked. He nodded his head several times in the blink of an eye like a nervous tick. “If you can get me inside I’ll hook you up. Whatever you want.”

  “Get out of my way,” said Quaet. He was getting angrier by the second. He had to get to a meeting with the Royal Council. There was much to discuss from the past few days.

  “What’s your problem, man?” the bum asked. “I’m just trying to help you. You help me. I help you. That’s how it works. Okay? Look, here’s a really great sonnet I wrote. You’ll enjoy it. Just get me inside. That’s all I need. I can go from there.”

  The man handed Quaet pieces of music sheets into Quaet’s hands as he spoke. Quaet shoved the man back. Then he tossed the papers aside. The music sheets scattered onto the ground and got trampled by the people around them.

  “Hey!” the man yelled at Quaet.

  Quaet did not stop to argue any further. He pushed and fought his way toward the Palace steps. Then he had to navigate through the people that were sitting all around the steps. Many were reading, some were eating, and others were just sleeping.

  It angered Quaet that all of these people were doing nothing but disrupting the everyday tasks of the palace workers. He had every right to order the guards to arrest them all.

  It looked like very little progress was being made on the restoration of the palace. Lumber and bricks were scattered all through the building. Walls were half constructed. Doors were knocked down and replaced. Several holes were now prominent in several hallways. Walking through the palace was becoming a hazard for those that worked and lived in it.

  Finally, Quaet made it to the palace entrance. The guards nodded their heads at Quaet. He was no stranger to the palace. They opened the doors for the Royal Council member, and Quaet was in peace once again.

  He took the time on his journey to the Council room to recollect himself. Nikali was turning the Capitol upside down with his antics. The Capitol’s army was mostly gone. Tcher soldiers were running rampant. Now, the blight of their society was spreading themselves deeper into their hallowed halls. Quaet could not live in a world of chaos. Something was going to have to be done.

  Quaet walked into the Council room. He looked to see the other members already present. They sat quietly at the table which was a surprise. Usually, there were plenty of conversations going on at once.

  Then Quaet looked up at the head of the table where Nikali should have been. Nikali was not there, as was becoming the norm. Nikali had missed the last several meetings. But today something else was present.

  “What is that beast doing here?” Quaet asked.

  Sitting on the throne of the Council table was Nikali’s fury arck. On its head was donned a small crown. It sat quietly looking back at the council members, and licked its lips every so often.

  “It just came in and sat at the throne,” said Marais.<
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  “Get it out of here!” Quaet demanded.

  The Council stared silently at Quaet. Nobody wanted to move.

  Quaet huffed then marched over to the fury arck. Once he was in reaching distance of the leathery beast, the fury arck hissed at him.

  Quaet tried to shoo the monster away, but the fury arck snapped back at him and swiped its claws in his direction.

  As the fury arck jostled around in the throne, Quaet noticed a piece of parchment attached to the fury arck’s collar. In big bold letters on the outside of the paper was written the name: Quaet.

  Against his better judgment, Quaet slowly moved his hand forward. He reached for the parchment. The fury arck stayed still. It eyed down the old man, but it did not attack. Once Quaet grabbed the paper he quickly shot backward away from the fury arck.

  He opened the note. It was a message addressed to the Council from Nikali.

  -Please continue on with your meetings. You will find my replacement is just as capable of participating in the future building of Eluan as you all are.

  Good day,

  Nikali

  “Nikali!” Quaet shouted. “Nikali!”

  All the shouting in the world was not going to do Quaet any good. Nikali was nowhere around.

  “This is enough,” said Quaet. “We cannot run Eluan in this fashion. Nikali is a hindrance. We have let this farce go on long enough. We need to do something about Nikali. He disrespects us by putting an animal on the Royal Council!”

  “It is his right,” said Irling.

  “Pigwash,” cursed Quaet. “For generations the Caning family has ruled Eluan with elegance and grace. They have shown respect to its people and especially to their Royal Council. If we let Nikali continue on this course then we have lost everything.”

  “We just need to work with him more,” defended Sharif.