The Destiny of Amalah

by Thandi Ryan

  ‘Also Garrick, send some of the guard to Filine to evacuate the people from there. Take them to Amalah or to Mantor but make sure that you evacuate as many as possible, before Rakan and the others arrive. We cannot fight them yet.’

  ‘It will be done,’ replied Garrick.

  ‘What do I do?’ asked Ellora.

  ‘Take my place while I am in Aradene.’

  ‘But Amara I cannot.’

  ‘Yes you can and you must.’

  ‘Amara…’

  ‘I have every faith in you Ellora.’

  ‘Zach, Zinzi, and Hannah: thank you for bringing this to our attention we owe you a debt, but I must ask of your help again. You know what is happening in Mantor and what will happen in Filine. To defeat that army we are going to need all the help we can get, so I ask if all three of you will you stay here in Amalah and help us?’

  ‘The nation of Mantor is going to fall,’ Zinzi said. ‘I know this, it is my home, where I grew up with family and friends and many more loved ones – all gone now. I do not want another nation to suffer the same fate so I will stay and help here for as long as is needed.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘I will help,’ said Hannah. ‘I don’t know how but I will.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Amara said.

  ‘As will I,’ replied Zach.

  ‘Garrick and Häkan before we leave, organise some of the guard to start raising the army from Amalah. Right here in this nation, many men and women have flocked here – give them the chance to join us.’

  ‘Yes Empress.’

  ‘When do we leave?’ asked Michael.

  ‘In one hour,’ replied Amara.

  When Amara had finished speaking everyone began to move and go about doing what they had to do. Garrick, Häkan and Kalon went about organising the guard and then preparing themselves and their horses for the journey. Amara and Michael also went and prepared for their journey, while Ellora dealt with Zinzi, Hannah and Zach; when she had dealt with them, she went to her room and seconds later, Kalon knocked and entered.

  ‘I am about to leave Ellora.’

  ‘Oh Kalon,’ she said, running over to him and hugging him, before she buried her head in his chest. He enveloped her in his arms and kissed her on the forehead.

  ‘Ellora, I will return,’ he said gently.

  ‘Please do,’ she said tearfully. ‘Kalon I’m scared, I can’t believe what is happening and it is all happening so fast and I can’t believe that the four of them have done what they have done – your brother and our closest friends.’

  ‘Nor can I,’ Kalon said bitterly.

  ‘Promise me you will be careful.’

  ‘I promise.’

  ‘Something must have happened to them.’

  ‘Why do you say that?’

  ‘What else could it be? I have known them my entire life; there was no evil in any of them.’

  ‘Well there is evil in them now.’

  ‘Yes but Kalon...’

  ‘Ellora it matters not how or when they became evil; what matters is what they have done.’

  ‘I know but Kalon, this is Rakan and Rufus, and Waldon and Kenaz.’

  ‘I know my love and it pains me dearly to see what they have become.’

  ‘Me too.’

  ‘They are turning the world upside down and throwing us into darkness.’

  ‘I’m afraid Kalon,’ Ellora whispered, as she fought back her tears.

  ‘Do not be Ellora, I am here for you and you will be safe in the palace,’ he said holding her even tighter.

  ‘The palace that Amara has left in my care, along with the people; I don’t know what I can do.’

  ‘I know that you can do this, I know you and the woman that you are and I know that Amara was right to leave you in charge.’

  ‘I hope the gods help us through this.’

  ‘So do I.’

  ‘I love you Kalon,’ she said, looking up at him and staring into his sparkling blue eyes.

  ‘And I love you,’ he said, touching her face gently. ‘I love you with all of my heart and I always will.’

  The two of them remained holding onto each other and gazing at each other before Kalon kissed Ellora. The two of them kissed with such passion and intensity and when the kiss came to an end they returned to their tight embrace for a while longer before Kalon broke the silence.

  ‘I must go,’ he said softly.

  ‘I will walk with you.’

  The two of them let go of each other and left Ellora’s room; they walked along the corridor and to the front entrance where their horses were waiting. Garrick and Häkan were already there and Michael and Amara arrived shortly afterwards and soon, they were getting ready to leave. Michael, Garrick and Häkan said their goodbyes to Ellora and then mounted their horses and Amara took hold of her sister and looked at her.

  ‘I love you Ellora and I trust in you – trust in yourself.’

  ‘I love you too,’ Ellora said. ‘And I will try my best.’

  The sisters hugged and kissed and then, Amara mounted her horse, leaving Kalon and Ellora on the ground. Kalon took hold of Ellora’s hand and pulled her to him and they hugged each other again.

  ‘Remember I love you,’ he said. ‘We will be back five days from now and I will think of you every single day and know that you are with me always.’

  ‘And soon I will be back in your arms.’

  ‘Yes, how I wish it was – always.’

  The young couple kissed and for both of them, it ended all too suddenly and then Kalon was on his horse. He blew her a kiss before he turned with the others to ride from Amalah to Aradene. Ellora hugged herself and remembered Kalon’s last touch before she turned and went back inside the palace.

  Ellora felt lost at first but when she managed to calm herself down, she threw herself into her responsibilities and carried them out diligently. She decided to hold a meeting with the remaining council members and those who had been left in charge of the guard every morning. Each morning they would go through what had happened and what needed to happen and organise the day from there.

  When she was free she spent time with Zinzi, Zach and Hannah and found things for them to do. Zinzi and Hannah went to work with Dariel in the makeshift infirmary, while Zach spent his time practising his sorcery. Those in the palace and Amalah were in good hands and soon, the feelings of fear and despair that had plagued many – especially the displaced from the three devastated nations – began to dissipate and turn into hope.

  Amara, Michael, Garrick and Kalon rode hard to Aradene, while Häkan rode north to Parades. The four of them arrived after a day and half and when they arrived, they were struck at just how quiet Aradene had become. Nothing on earth could have prepared them for what they saw and when they came to the first village, they felt immense grief at what they were seeing.

  Everywhere, there were dead bodies strewn across the green grass, alongside huts and alongside homes, which were either charred ruins or only half remaining of what they had been. They dismounted their horses and walked among the dead bodies. At first, they walked together and then they split up and walked alone.

  Michael walked aimlessly through the fields; grief stricken and mortified at the sight before him and memories of old came flooding back. Garrick fell to his knees with a mixture of grief and pain.

  ‘Oh god, it cannot be!’ Garrick cried. ‘Please do not let this have been the work of my son,’ he begged. Garrick’s grief was for the people there and their loved ones, and pain at seeing the grotesque sight before them. ‘Please, I beg you,’ he said once again.

  ‘Father,’ Kalon began, as he ran to his father’s side. ‘Father…’ he began again but he could say no more.

  Garrick and Michael were heartbroken at the sight of the dead; the sight of war and the sight that they had all fought a war to prevent from happening in their children’s’ lifetime; in any lifetime and it struck them then, that it had all been in vain and at that moment, the two older men
felt damned.

  Amara and Kalon wept openly as they looked around them, they looked on the broken and lifeless bodies and mourned for them. It struck them that the dead on the ground would never find out what life had to offer and most of those on the ground were tragically young. Amara and Kalon could not speak and the four stayed in the village a while longer, before they mounted their horses and rode to the next village only to find the same thing over again.

  They did not want to go in but they did, through the forests and then north to the outskirts of Santeb, to see the same thing over and over again and it haunted them so badly. That smell, the one that no human should have to smell; I am not talking of the dead corpses that lay there rotting in the fields, because people fled with no time to bury them; I’m talking about the smell of death. Yes death has its own smell and when there is so much of it, it permeates everything. Those four, they could smell corpses but they could smell the death even more, and that made their heartbreak even more potent.

  They had seen more than enough; they had travelled through Santeb and Aradene and they then rode back to Amalah with heavy hearts. Garrick’s suffering was immense; he could not reconcile his son’s actions with the bodies and the villages he had seen.

  ‘Why son? why?’ he asked himself repeatedly. For as long as he lived, he knew he would never understand why and he knew that deep down inside that Rakan was no longer the son he had raised.

  The four arrived back in Amalah to find that Ellora was managing well, they relayed what they had seen to her and her knees buckled and she put herself in a chair, before she fell to the ground.

  ‘No!’ she said as she gasped in horror. ‘I cannot believe that. Something or someone must have done this to them.’

  ‘Believe it,’ said Garrick.

  ‘Something has happened to them,’ she insisted. ‘I know them and they would never do that.’

  ‘They did do that,’ Kalon said sharply. ‘They did it to people in village after village and nation after nation. They did it and I do not believe that someone or something is making them do anything. I think they are evil and drunk on their own power.’

  ‘Kalon how can you say that?’ Ellora asked.

  ‘Because you did not see what we saw,’ he said raising his voice.

  ‘Kalon wait.’

  ‘Ellora No! Do not defend them – you cannot. They are evil and they are murderers and they must be captured and brought back here to answer for what they have done and pay.’

  ‘Kalon is right,’ said Amara. ‘Ellora if you had seen, you would understand.’

  ‘I am sure that what you have seen was awful but let us not forget who we are talking about: Rakan – son of Garrick and brother of Kalon. Rufus, Waldon and Kenaz – I know you don’t want to hear it but someone or something has done something to them.’

  ‘Ellora I know you see the good in everyone and that is what I love about you, but now you are blinded and you fail to see the evil that they have done – or that they have become.’

  ‘Perhaps if we met with them…’ she began.

  ‘No!’ snapped Kalon.

  ‘But…’ Ellora said beginning to object.

  ‘No.’ said Kalon firmly and by his tone, Ellora knew that his decision was final.

  ‘No,’ Amara said, agreeing with Kalon. ‘We will raise an army and capture them in Basimine.’

  ‘If I could speak with them, then perhaps I could reach them,’ Ellora said hopefully.

  ‘They are beyond reach,’ Michael said.

  ‘We don’t know that unless we try,’ Ellora protested.

  ‘Ellora my answer is no,’ Amara said firmly. ‘From now on we will concentrate on Basimine.’

  Ellora looked around her and she knew she would not be able to convince anyone in the room that the four were being made to do what they were doing; nor would she ever get permission to go and meet them. She knew she had to reach them somehow, and she ran to her room to be alone.

  A few hours later, Kalon knocked and entered her room, when he came in he went straight to her and knelt by her side. He took her hands in his and looked at her intently.

  ‘Ellora, I am truly sorry if I upset you in anyway but I meant what I said.’

  ‘And so did I,’ she replied.

  ‘Ellora – princess, understand – I do not want to fight with you but you are wrong when you say you can reach them, or that something is making them do this. They all have minds of their own. You did not see what I saw and I am so glad that you did not. What I saw will haunt me for the rest of my life. Rakan, Rufus, Waldon and Kenaz they are a disgrace to us and to humanity and they have lost all knowledge of what it is to be human and good.’

  ‘Kalon…’ she began, but Kalon continued.

  ‘Ellora please, I am begging you; I do not want to fight. I just want to be with you, to be next to you and the two of us – to be holding each other. Please, after what I saw, I cannot tell you how much I need you right now,’ he said softly.

  He continued looking up to her with his intense blue eyes, and he continued to hold her gaze as a single tear rolled down his cheek and when it spilt – he rested his head on her lap.

  Ellora leant forward and kissed him on the forehead and stroked his hair. He lifted his head once again and looked at her and she held his face with her hands and looked back at him.

  ‘Oh Kalon,’ she said, as she reached forward and kissed him.

  He kissed her back and he stood up bringing her up with him, they kissed longingly and he picked her up and placed her back on the bed. He placed her gently on and then got on it himself. She sat up and sat astride him and the two of them began kissing again, slowly at first, and then hungrily and urgently as their need for each other intensified. Ellora removed Kalon’s top and she stroked and massaged his lean and muscular arms while he kissed her neck and stroked her back; he skilfully removed her dress and then, their bare skin was touching. It was soft and smooth and hot at the same time as they excited each other more as each second passed by.

  The two of them kissed and caressed each other and removed each others clothing until they were both naked and hot and wanting each other terribly. Kalon pulled Ellora towards him and held her tightly and then they rolled over until he was on top of her and the two of them began their lovemaking; madly, passionately and deeply and when it was over – they held onto each other so tightly; each not wanting to let go of the other. They lay tangled up in each other, lying in silence, just letting the intimacy grow between them and when they were ready, they made love again and again and all through the night until both of them were happily exhausted and fell into a deep and satisfying sleep.

  Ellora was the first to wake and she stretched out before she turned to look at Kalon, she looked on him and felt a surge of love when she watched him. He was so gorgeous when he slept, she thought to herself. She looked at his beautiful jet black hair and his face and then ran her eyes along his body, which she loved so much.

  “He is strong and gentle, even in his sleep,” she thought to herself.

  Ellora lay back down beside him and placed her hand on his arm and kissed his shoulder. He placed his arm around her waist and scooped her closer to him and let out a happy sigh while still in his sleep and she let out a soft laugh and covered his hand with hers and she was happy to lie next to him for a while longer. When he awoke Kalon was deliriously happy and he kissed Ellora on the neck.

  ‘Good morning Mr. Sleepy,’ she said smiling at him.

  ‘Good morning my love,’ he said smiling back at her.

  He ran his hand down her arms and then down the side of her body and she looked straight at him as he touched her and she let out a pleasurable sigh. She placed her hand on his chest and stroked it and then she put her arm around his neck and moved in closer to kiss him. Kalon kissed her back and continued to move his hand up and down the side of her body and then up and down her back. He moved from his side and rolled onto his back bringing Ellora with him until she was on top o
f him and the two of them began their love making once again.

  When they were done, they bathed together and took breakfast on the balcony with Amara, Garrick and Michael, before they went about their day and when the evening came; they took dinner and bathed together again. Ellora massaged Kalon’s back and shoulders and the two of them made love and went to sleep.

  This time Ellora woke in the dead of night and saw that Kalon was still fast asleep. She rose and got out of bed and went to her bathroom where she washed and dressed and picked up a bag that she had previously packed. She crept back to the bedroom and saw that Kalon was still asleep; she put a note on her pillow and slipped out of the room. She ran along the corridor and into another room. Once there, she lit some candles and incense and lay down on the floor and closed her eyes. She cleared her mind and then called to Rakan in her mind; she called him continually until he answered her.

  ‘I am here Ellora, what is that you want?’ he asked her.

  ‘To speak with you.’

  ‘About what?’

  ‘No! I must speak with you face to face.’

  ‘I am sure you must and I am sure that when I meet you – it would most certainly be a trap.’

  ‘No it would not, I would never...’ she said vehemently. ‘I will come to you Rakan if you agree.’

  Rakan remained silent for a few seconds and then replied. ‘Very well Ellora ride to us – this is where we are,’ he said, showing her through his mind.

  ‘I will leave now and will be there two nights from now.’

  ‘Very well,’ Rakan replied.

  Ellora remained with her eyes closed for a while and when she broke her link with Rakan, she opened them again. She collected her thoughts and then rose to her feet, she slipped out of the room and along the corridor, making sure that no one saw her; she slid out of the palace and found her horse and she led him to the end of the palace road before she mounted him. She then rode towards Filine to find Rakan, Rufus, Waldon and Kenaz. She rode hard and she rode fast until daybreak and then she dismounted to eat and rest.

  When Kalon awoke, he smiled to himself and reached for Ellora, he was surprised to see that she was not there and he wondered where she might be; he then noticed the folded paper on her pillow, which he then picked up, opened and read: