– Journal of Pel Abis
Selth opened her eyes and found herself floating in darkness. The memory of her previous night’s dream crashed into her like a tidal wave and she screamed as the torrent hit. Then she was shaking her head, why was she confused about what she had dreamed before. It had always been part of her memories. She smiled lazily as she floated through the darkness. It was like lying in a bed that fit to her body perfectly, like going away for a long trip and finally coming home. In front of her the darkness coalesced into the Wraith of Golgoderoan who had visited her the previous day. “Hello again My Lord.” it said in a sulky voice.
She burst out laughing, “I can’t tell if you mean that in a belligerent manner or if that’s just the voice you happen to be using at this time.” Her own voice resonated in a rich and powerful manner, far easier on the ears than the insane voice from the previous night, but sometimes darkness was tricky that way. After all it was the unknown.
“I don’t know what you mean.” the wraith’s voice cracked like a whip through the darkness and the creature expanded so that it consumed Selth’s field of view shrinking back to a normal size, “But you must reconsider what you commanded of me last night. Allow me to break your chains!”
Her voice cracked out powerfully, making the wraith’s demand seem contemptuous and small, “Who do you think you are, to command me so!” The deepest darks warped around her to form a twisting shape that whispered promises of pain and misery if she was disobeyed.
The wraith cringed before her summoning, shrinking until it was barely visible. The voice that spoke up was that of a frail old man, croaking out his last words, “I am sorry my lord. Forgive me, please. I live to serve.”
Selth burst out laughing and her voice switched to that of insanity, “It’s fine my good wraith. Everything is just fine, don’t you worry.” She leaned back and gave it an appraising look, “So you want to help me do you? You’ll do what I ask, no questions asked?”
“Yes!” the wraith yelped, a small boy appeasing his father, “Anything at all! Just tell me what to do!”
She rocked back pensively, “Very well.” back to the warm resonating voice that spoke of a firm hand at the wheel, “I’ll tell you what I need but if anyone finds out about it. . .” She didn’t finish the threat. Creatures of darkness felt the mental torture of an unknown threat far more than any physical pain.
“Of course my lord.” the weak old man’s voice croaked out, “Not a word from me. Anything you need shall be done and none shall know of it.”
Selth let a cruel smile carve its way onto her features, “I want you to hover around until Atlatraigan shows himself with his traiganidorians.”
If it was possible she would have sworn that the wraith turned white. As it was, the lightest shades of darkness coalesced around it and it staggered back several steps. “What?” it whispered, a man who has seen his worst fear running in terror from some unknown monster behind it.
“Having doubts already, are we wraith?” she spat out the last bit in the most dangerous voice possible. A voice that brought to mind children dying, worlds ending and the destruction of immortals. A voice that brought to mind exactly what the wraith was getting itself into.
“No my lord!” it said in a placating voice.
“Good!” her voice boomed out through the darkness in a heartening manner before switching back to danger, “For a moment, I was afraid I would have to hurt you.”
“No! Please.” the wraith cried in a frail voice.
“Very well,” insanity broke the air, “I need you to follow me around until a traiganidorian shows itself. Then you pour everything you have into the chains. I’m thinking half broken, nothing detectable to one of the traiganidorians but enough that the chains are fairly weak.”
The wraith nodded at her, practically drooling with desire to please. “What else my lord?” it asked in a slavish voice, “Anything at all, I will deliver.”
Selth sighed and spoke in the voice of a kindly old grandma, “That’s it, my dear. If I were you I’d get out of there as soon as you do your job.” Insanity flashed through her eyes and changed her voice, “Things might get a bit messy.”
The darkness around the wraith paled again. “Yes, my lord.” its voice quivered, “Will that be all, my lord?”
“Yes.” she drew a cruel smile back onto her face. “You may go now.” The wraith bowed and in a swirl of darkness vanished into nothing. A real smile crept onto Selth’s face and in a swirl of her own she fell out of the shifting darkness and back into her normal dreams. When Aren’s staff poked into her ribs in the morning she didn’t remember anything.
29
The Road to Dunehain
I was allowed a small portal so I could observe as my companions were locked away in their separate prisons. Fool that Shattrenlix is he does not realize that all has been accounted for, anticipated. I am not in prison. I am biding my time, unraveling how to escape.
– Journal of Selthraxadinian
“Up!” Aren said, prodding Selth roughly a second time. Groaning she batted away the staff before he could get her again. She rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself up onto her knees. The stone of The Great road of the Vazgun was freezing to the touch and she leapt up in shock as her hands came in contact with it. She looked around and realized that Kant and Mattle were both already awake, Raxous circling restlessly about their legs. “Come on sleepyhead.” Aren said, “We’ve wasted enough time on you already. Everyone’s freezing to death out here and you’ve been sleeping as though we weren’t on a time critical mission.”
“What other way to sleep is there?” Selth asked as she pulled her pack on, slowly working her muscles to get them warmed up. It wouldn’t do to pull a cramp just as they entered into some extreme danger. A thought struck her and she pulled her pack back off and removed the sword Kant had given her, strapping it carefully to her belt. She wasn’t used to it but it was better than walking around with nothing but her hands to defend herself.
“I’m sure I don’t know.” Aren stated huffily bringing her back to the present, “But I don’t think that’s the point right now. Let’s go!” He turned his back to her and hurried away down the massive road, staff clacking with the rhythm of his walk. Selth rolled her eyes then strolled after the receding figure of the mage and his light.
Mattle and Kant were still talking quietly between themselves and she spared a frown for the two Inquisitors as she passed them. She would have thought that Mattle would spend more time with her after pulling off such a dashing rescue. Maybe she had overestimated his feeling for her, maybe the rescue had been purely his Inquisitorial need to do good, coupled with fond memories of her as a girl. Maybe he was ignoring her because she had asked him to call her Selth. It might have been interesting to puzzle out another time but she wanted to focus on Dunehain. If the citadel was as great as Aren had said then it was going to be a sight worth remembering and she wanted to make sure she got a good look.
She reminded herself that it was possible they wouldn’t reach Dunehain that day, it wasn’t as though Aren had given a time frame for reaching the city, but a voice in the back of her head seemed to contradict that. It just felt as though they were going to reach the city and Selth had learned that most of the time the voices in her head gave good advice.
Moving up beside Aren, she strolled alongside the mage in amiable silence. The massive blocks of the Vazgun road passed beneath her feet and the mountains loomed ominously all around. His light seemed to be getting crushed under the weight of darkness and Selth found herself wondering what sort of monsters might be moving around, just outside the field of light, without any of them knowing.
She angrily shook those thoughts off. The road was warded against monsters and other evils, they couldn’t come onto it. Unless maybe it was a traiganidorian. Aren hadn’t been sure if the road would keep traiganidorians away. There could be traiganidorians surrounding them, waiting to spring an ambush and neither she nor t
he others would know a thing about it until it was too late.
Soon she was jumping at every pebble that came clattering down one of the mountains. Every tap of Aren’s staff was the approach of Atlatraigan and his traiganidorians. Raxous’s claws were the claws of a dragon as it sneaked down the road to eat them after having ripped open a hole in the road’s protective barrier, a hole which was letting in all sorts of demons. Keeping as close to Aren as possible, so as to avoid the darkness surrounding them, Selth moved down the road to Dunehain in a growing state of terror.
Sweat was dripping down her face and hands when Aren halted and raised his staff up into the air. “Al Amoth’din Rey!” he cried out and light blossomed a hundred meters above him. Selth gaped as a massive structure that could only be Dunehain came into view. Graceful towers were set at twenty meter intervals along the walls which even Aren’s powerful light couldn’t reach the top of. The walls and towers shone white as light struck them for the first time in thousands of years but they were more than just white. It was as though they were every color imaginable all merging together to form pure white in a radiating pattern of beauty.
Then Selth saw the huge gates, rent apart and lying scattered across the great road. The doors were blackened as though they had been left in a forge fire for a decade while heat was slowly piled on. Where they had once guarded the wall of Dunehain there was now only a hole large enough to fit two of the gigantic dragon she had seen the previous day. Aren seemed shocked as well, “Vencoth the Destroyer was said to have barely fit through the opening they tore in the walls.” he stared with disbelief at the hole. “He must have been enormous beyond imagination.” Selth could only nod in agreement, unable to tear her eyes from the destroyed area.
Overhead Aren’s light faded to blackness and the walls of Dunehain fell out of view, replaced with darkness as his now small-seeming light shone to reveal only the road under their feet. The five of them stayed where they were for several minutes before he shook himself roughly from his reverie. Then they started down the road towards the enormous city. Selth felt a smile curve onto her face, if that had been the outside of the greatest city in the world then she couldn’t wait to see what might be on the inside.
30
Dunehain
I have sat, I have waited, I have planned. Sixty million years does not pass in the blink of an eye, even for one such as me, but I believe I now know the path to freedom, to victory.
– Journal of Selthraxadinian
It took far longer than Selth had thought possible for their group to approach the citadel of Dunehain as it loomed out of the dark. As they did the evidence of the great battle Aren had described to her became visible, even so long after it had occurred. Huge rents appeared in the road which had been smooth as glass before. Blackened sections struck a stark contrast with the white stone that she had grown so used to and there was a faint smell of sulfur and decay in the air. The doors which she had observed when Aren sent his light burning into the air lay smashed apart on the ground and massive spikes of wood were scattered all around them from the destruction. The doors were at least five feet thick and larger than Selth would have thought possible. She wasn’t sure how the Vazgun could have managed to open and close them all the time as they were at least a hundred feet tall and seventy-five feet wide.
Just before the last pieces of the door vanished from sight an enormous clawed hand loomed out of the darkness and she leapt back with a scream. Kant and Mattle scrabbled for their swords and even Aren was taken aback at what they saw. An enormous bone hand reached out as though to grab the five travelers. It was easily large enough to crush all of them if it tipped over, each of the claws were at least ten feet long, tipped in a glistening substance that shone out a sickly green under Aren’s magical light. “Is that Vencoth?” Selth stammered out, gulping air into her lungs to recover from the shock of seeing such a massive edifice.
“I should think not.” Aren said, trying for a commanding and controlled voice. But there was a tremor in it that spoke of a fear he had not anticipated, “Vencoth did not die outside the walls of the citadel. From the size of this dragon it must have been a baby.”
She gave him a shocked stare but he was absorbed in the claw looming over them. How could a baby dragon be big enough to crush four humans and a wolf? She shook her head to clear it of the feeling of overwhelming puniness that was taking over and turned back towards the citadel. It took five minutes of walking before the head of the dragon came into view and soon the scattered forms of dragons lay everywhere across the road. The smell of sulfur was stronger as the piles of dragon bones increased and the road became more and more torn up. It was no longer possible to just walk around rents in the road, some of the gaps had destroyed the entire structure for hundreds of feet at a time. When they came upon such rents, Selth and the others had to clamber down the gaps in the road and move between shattered, sharp rocks to reach the other side and continue their journey. Dunehain loomed larger and larger out of the mists and she realized that Aren hadn’t adequately described its size when he told her about it and its history. The bodies of even the largest dragons would have looked like children’s play things from the top of that massive wall. She wasn’t sure how anyone or anything could have destroyed the citadel.
When they reached the massive hole that tore through the base of Dunehain Aren stopped them. They huddled together as though keeping in a group could protect them from the oppressing feeling of being around so many dead behemoths. “When we go in, stick close to me and move as quickly as possible. We’re here to find several magical relics that can be used to protect all of mankind so stay focused on the mission at hand and don’t cause any trouble.” he whispered, perspiration showing plainly on his face, “Now, come as close as you can. The corruption spread by Vencoth still lies heavily on the citadel, though I hoped to find it otherwise.”
Kant cursed but kept his voice low, “You mean to say that if we go in there we’ll all die from dragon magic?”
“Kant!” Aren roared, unable to help the outburst, though he switched back to a quiet voice immediately afterwards, “You have become more and more the fool as this journey continues. I brought an Inquisitor along, not some moron who whines whenever danger rears its head.” Kant shifted his feet and stared down at the ground but kept his mouth shut.
“Good.” Aren said before turning back to the rest of their group. “T’rey gathal a’raben din ladyn.” he intoned, moving around Selth and the others in circles. When he finished with the line he started over again and as he kept moving, the glowing symbol of Ancarth the Black appeared around their group. The symbol was barely visible at first but as Aren continued to circle, voice growing in power with each rotation, the symbol grew brighter and brighter. Eventually Selth had to close her eyes in pain, the light was so powerful. With a sudden flash, which briefly drove back the darkness of the mountains, the symbol vanished. She screamed and collapsed to the ground alongside the other members of her group as the powerful magic Aren worked flowed in and around them. She felt as though her bones were being picked apart and her skin flayed as the spell burrowed deep into her body. Thrashing on the ground she forgot her surroundings, forgot the dragons, forgot the mountains, forgot even the traiganidorians which were hunting her. Everything was pain.
For what felt like an interminable period she lay there, moaning and thrashing in agony. Finally, the pain receded and Selth felt herself come back to who she was. Everything that had been driven out by the pain flashed back into her head and she leapt to her feet. Her companions were acting in a similar manner and with a shaky grip on his staff Aren turned back towards Dunehain. “Let’s go.” he said weakly, flashing a barely passable smile at the shaking figures around him. She nodded and moved forwards. Her legs nearly gave out with each step but as she walked strength returned and she looked around her at the hole left by Vencoth the Destroyer on his mission to destroy the last bastion of hope against him.
Stalactites of
shining rock hung from the top of the hole, seeming to be just on the verge of plunging down into Selth and her companions. The hole itself was some two hundred feet high and far wider, she couldn’t comprehend the forces it would have taken to smash through that much of the wall. She didn’t want to comprehend the forces that could tear through that much of the wall. Everywhere she looked black smears of dragon blood corroded the walls and from them the smell of sulfur filled the area to a nauseating extent. Even as she watched one of the stalactites crashed to the ground as the dragon blood surrounding it ate through the stone. As that part of the wall collapsed the blood began eating away at the stone overhead, bringing a new stalactite into existence. “Vencoth’s hatred polluted even his own blood.” Aren said solemnly, watching the same sight, “Even after his death he does all that he can to tear down the civilization that stood against him.”
Selth shuddered quietly, “That’s horrible.”
“Yes.” he said in a matter of fact tone, “But it is what it is. In a million years these walls will be gone and Vencoth’s fury will abate. That is not what we are here for though.” He gestured towards the far side of the hole and began walking towards it. Mattle, Kant, and Raxous had almost reached the way into Dunehain and with a heavy sigh, and one last look at the poisonous blood, Selth moved after him so as to catch up. “Stick close and try to keep quiet.” he reiterated when the five of them had regrouped on the far side of the wall, “I don’t know what might have moved in here in the last fifty thousand years but if it managed to survive Vencoth’s taint then we’ll all be in trouble if it finds us.” Selth and Mattle both paled and Kant swallowed, a fearful expression on his face. Why Aren said things like that at such times, Selth didn’t know.
The God in the Shadows (The Story at the Heart of the Void Book 1) Page 31