The older man turned his head to face Gadtor then. 'We need to get to the canyon wall as fast as we can, this attack is beyond us.'
'The wall? Why are we going there?'
Thom snarled at him. 'That's a fucking order, soldier. We go to the wall or I knock you out here and now and drag us there, understand?'
Gadtor knew that even if Thom could make good on his threat he still lacked the strength to carry both his dead weight and the large block fastening their legs together. That would leave them both prone targets for whatever was approaching and he didn't want to die at the hands of another man's temper.
'Fine by me,' he said, initiating a limp in the direction of the canyon wall.
His heart rose into his mouth as the screaming increased in volume and proximity, it was as if it was playing a ghastly duet with the thunder in an attempt to burst his eardrums.
All their limping around together through the camp hadn't prepared them for a crisis moment, Thom was pushing at too fast a pace for Gadtor and try as he might to keep up his leg wasn't complying.
'Come on you fucker, we're almost there. Just one more push toward the wall and we'll make it in time.'
In time for what? Gadtor wondered, once again he had been left completely in the dark about everything and was beginning to resent his new position as the most unfortunate able-bodied soldier in the camp.
He imitated Thom as they pressed their backs flat against the canyon wall and watched the massacre unfold before their eyes.
It was a green wave of sound and fury, ploughing through everything it came into contact with as it grew closer. Tents were uprooted and flattened, the coals of the fire pits were kicked about and various parts of the camp followed the stampede as if in an avalanche of their own, carried forward by the relentless momentum. Occasionally they spotted what was left of a human body surface and clatter around uselessly in armour that did nothing to protect it.
It was strange, in the midst of all this horror Gadtor felt anger toward Thom. After all his talk of dying on their feet the man was undoubtedly saving his own skin and Gadtor's life by proxy. It wasn't in Gadtor's nature to sit here as a spectator over human destruction and in forcing him to remain against the wall Thom had made him do just that.
'We should be out there helping them. Telling them all to get to the canyon wall,' he said more to himself than Thom.
The man laughed at him. 'To what end? You'd have us hobble out into that impending shitstorm and sacrifice our own lives on the assumption that anyone would listen? Perhaps next we'll ask the lizards to kindly stop trampling our army? There's fuck all we can do.'
Gadtor balled his fists. 'I know that... I just...'
It was a strange response, Thom clapped him on the shoulder reassuringly, his voice pitched normally so it was almost lost in the cacophony. 'You want to save them all, I know. You can't save anyone by dying out there with them.'
The stream of lizards seemed without end as they wordlessly watched the destruction close in on their position. Gadtor heard a shout from the opposite side of the canyon and a few rallying responses from the remaining force.
'No you fucking idiot, get out of there, no!' Thom roared, nearly deafening Gadtor, who turned to see what he was looking at.
A huge man in plate with a vast war axe charged into the fray, bellowing instructions at every man in sight to join him for the counter. It was General Garth, Thom's friend. He was charging the front line of the lizards on a collision course.
'Get out of there! No!' Thom's voice had become a rasping scream, Gadtor felt himself being pulled relentlessly forward into the conflict.
'Thom, stop!' he shouted at him, gripping the man's shoulders and pinning him to the wall. 'You can't save him.'
He saw the powerless look in the man's eyes and knew it all too well, then the fight went out of him, extinguished as if he had accepted the inevitability of the General's foolish charge.
When Gadtor felt certain that Thom had given up his struggle, he released him and turned back to watch events unfold.
They swarmed over them in a cloud of sand and all sight of the General was lost, Gadtor was blinded by a flash of scale and sinew as they pushed themselves against the wall, frantically trying not to get caught in the flow. He could feel the air pulsating around him and whipping against his face, he could smell the animal reek from their hides and he felt sickened. Had the Empire really thought to withstand such a force of nature? This was a predator in full flow, destroying everything in its sight with a pack mentality.
Then he noticed something strange, the ranks of the lizards were visibly thinning, gaps opening up in the previously packed stampede. It continued to gush forward but without the intensity and sheer volume of numbers as before, these lizards were slower than the others and seemed laboured in their movements.
'No!' Thom screamed, as they finally laid their eyes on the attacking force once again.
It was a pile of bodies, those that were not torn apart were well on their way to death's door. At the forefront lay the General, who had avoided being carried off in the collision like so many others that had charged. His crumpled form lay on the desert floor surrounded by embers and splintered wood. They'd killed him.
Then Gadtor noticed a young cadet pull himself groggily out of the pile of bodies and stagger toward the General's prone form. He lurched to the side to avoid collision with one of the lizards, who oddly seemed to be ignoring his advances. Perhaps they saw such small prey as beneath their notice, either way he was making his way toward Garth.
'That's it kid, go on.' He heard Thom muttering to himself in a frenzied state, the hope rekindled on his face as he watched this youth make his way towards his friend.
Somehow the boy continued to avoid incoming lizards, who had become increasingly slow and infrequent as the minutes had dragged on.
Then they saw it, a large one had come lumbering in and taken interest in the boy. Gadtor ducked down and gripped a glowing lump of coal in his hands, he tried to ignore the searing pain that ran up his arm and hurled it with all his might at the beast.
It fell wide of his target, landing on the floor beside the beast's claws, it looked over and spotted them by the canyon wall. Abandoning the boy it approached them with a hungry look in its eyes, Gadtor was beginning to see the downside of his snap decision.
He heard the sound of metal scraping against a scabbard, Thom had brought his massive claymore to bear on the creature. He stepped away from the canyon wall towards it, giving Gadtor no choice but to follow or trip and send them both sprawling.
The lizard obviously recognised what a sword meant, it slowed in its advance as if it were having second thoughts.
It bounded forward and lashed out at them with its gaping maw, Gadtor didn't see what happened but there was a gout of blood and the beast came away moaning. Thom had stabbed it directly in the mouth, dislodging a tooth and raking the edge of his blade along the insides. Gadtor had no idea how he had held on to the blade.
It seemed to think better of approaching them again and started off down the canyon away from whence it came.
There seemed few lizards left now, Thom pushed forward once again and this time Gadtor drew his own sword, agreeing with the decision to press on. Let any lizard that came near them feel the wrath of both their blades.
They went straight toward the young man trying to drag Garth's body off the battlefield, Gadtor had never seen Thom look so concerned.
'Is he alive, kid?' the General asked.
The young boy nodded. 'Yes sir, badly banged up but still breathing, we need to get him off the field before he gets any worse.'
Thom nodded, then they heard the croaking voice coming from the dead weight they were trying to haul.
'They didn't attack us, we were swamped.'
'Save your breath you idiot,' Thom replied, but there was no malice in his frustration. 'You were beat up pretty bad.'
Garth's arm gripped Thom's hand with an insistence tha
t made them pause. 'No, you need to listen to me, they swamped us in numbers but they did not attack.'
The concern evaporated from Thom's features, in its place was fear. Of what, Gadtor had no idea.
'What is it? What's the General telling us?'
Thom would not answer him, he silently carried Garth away from the battlefield with the boy's help and seemed to be going pale in the process.
The young man looked no less confused than Gadtor. As if noticing this, Garth turned to him and whispered in his ear. His eyes went wide and he nearly dropped his General in surprise.
'Well? What is it?' Gadtor demanded. 'Why won't anyone tell me what's going on?'
The boy looked at him and obliged. 'The lizards that destroyed our camp weren't attacking us, they were fleeing.'
105
Ella
She walked through the white city of Levanin completely oblivious to its beauty now. The skies held no awe for her any more, it had all receded from her sight as she pondered over the meaning of his words endlessly.
She looked down at her hands, they looked as human as any other. Could he have been mistaken? No, she couldn't make that assumption, he'd have no reason to do so and no way of convincing her of the lie. If she were truly Elven then time itself would reveal her ageless features, El-Vador was powerful but even his glamour could not defy the ravages that struck the bodies of all that aged.
News had spread that Everalm had taken ill after a nasty fall, no one was particularly surprised at this turn of events and Ella's role in caring for him was seen as fitting for her position. No questions were asked about the bandages that she requested, the elderly population of Levanin were painfully aware of the fragile existence they led. In spite of the popularity of El-Vador's persona there had been no visitors either. It struck Ella as odd, she had spent her whole life living on a land where any number of people would knock on their gate.
Something else that surprised her was the complete lack of commerce in Upper Levanin. The privilege of living there allowed the citizens to request whatever was necessary to be brought up through some unseen means. In spite of this, decadence and luxury were frowned upon by the populace, a quiet life of study and contemplation appeared to be the preferred path for those who had ascended. Ella felt that if she could have anything she wanted there would be a long list of demands, then again did she not already have a means to acquire anything she wanted? Had El-Vador not offered her whatever she pleased?
Perhaps when he recovered she might take him up on that offer. If he recovered. She had never seen such recuperative powers before, the injuries melted away from him with little treatment. All except one, a dark gash to the left of his heart, it seemed to fester and boil with an odd puss. El-Vador claimed that the blade had been poisoned and it would take longer to heal, Ella was beginning to think otherwise.
Although she had no real conception of magic, there was something about that hole within him that seemed to scream out a sense of wrongness to her beyond all rationality. In spite of that she couldn't seem to attribute the feeling to her emotions, she cared for him greatly but the other wounds had not exuded this sense of wrongness and they had seemed no less worse when she had first inspected them.
'You're Ella.'
Startled, she looked down at where the voice had come from, a small boy was looking up at her with round eyes.
'Yes, that's right. How do you know my name?'
The boy shrugged, sucking on something inside his mouth. 'My mistress knows lots of things.'
He stuck out his arm rigidly and offered her his hand. 'I'm Eli.'
She shook it tentatively. 'Pleased to meet you Eli.'
His hand was sticky and smelt of pears, there was something decidedly off about this boy. Then Ella realised that it was the first one she'd seen in all of Upper Levanin.
'Do you like the city?' he asked her, dropping beside her and following where she walked.
'It's a very pretty place.' Ella answered guardedly.
'My mistress doesn't like the city, she says it's like a tomb.'
'A tomb?'
Eli nodded. 'She says it has no warmth and that makes her sad. The walls are white and she doesn't feel anything from them.'
She didn't know why she was talking to this small child, there was something fascinating about his oddness, he seemed to trip over sentences as if he had found them by accident.
'Is your mistress your mummy?'
He went from continuously nodding to vigorously shaking in one movement. 'No. She is my mistress. I don't have a mummy.'
Ella made her way over to a bench, wondering why this child was still following her and how to get rid of him.
Eli looked out at the sky. 'She says that we are too far away from everything that happens. That people who are in charge of things should be able to see all about them. Our names are nice together. Ella and Eli, Eli and Ella.'
To her surprise the boy broke out into a song, skipping around her merrily and singing their names repeatedly.
She was relieved when he finally silenced himself upon reaching the bench, he hopped up onto it and started walking his way across it with his arms stretched wide out.
'My mistress would like to see you,' he said, teetering slightly as he spoke. 'She likes to see all the friends of Everalm, they're good friends.'
To her surprise, Ella felt a pang of jealousy course through her. Who was this other woman and why had El-Vador neglected to mention her if she was such a close confidant?
'Do you want to go and see my mistress now?'
The curiosity had crept up on Ella, she had been given free reign in the city for the day by El-Vador, he was not expecting her to come back until late. Would he know if she ventured out to visit this other woman? Then again, he was bed-ridden and not omniscient as she had previously suspected, how could he possibly know?
'Very well Eli, take me to see your mistress. I'd very much like to meet her.'
Eli clapped his hands together in delight and vaulted off the bench as she rose. He placed a sticky hand in hers and started to insistently lead the way across the plaza and toward the building that this mistress resided in.
Ella was tired of the vagueness, of the gaping holes in her knowledge. Of feeling trapped and isolated from everything she once knew. She was ready to learn more about this island in the sky that she lived on and meeting this woman was the first empowering step.
106
Alissandra
Alissandra began ascending the steps, Eli's innocent charm had accomplished its goal yet again. Now all she need do was return to her boudoir and ruminate on what she had seen prior to the girl's arrival.
There was little sense in wondering whether the girl had been informed of her heritage yet, she knew that El-Vador was a secretive soul even when he was beginning to open up. If he hadn't told her the next time they met she would take the pleasure of doing so and announcing herself to him.
She had heard from Belesdair that Everalm had returned to the city after his travels, full of tales of wonder and intrigue. The glamour that the man used didn't fool her, though she was not immune to its effects it was easy to deduce that this reclusive man was a masquerade, the coincidental timings of El-Vador's arrivals and departures were blatantly obvious to those few who knew he existed. To those that were unaware of his presence in the city, a strange mental working fell over them. They filled the gaps of time that this Everalm wasn't present with their own personal memories of him, all of them as fictional as the glamour itself.
Long had she thought into the night of his recent arrival, he had been gone for an extended period of time to deal with the Emperor's request to clear up a matter in some far-flung rural region. She hadn't divined the importance of the task that El-Vador himself need be sent there and that irritated her.
If it was one thing that Alissandra craved more than anything else it was control. Knowledge was the currency that could provide a gateway into control, she wanted to know everything tha
t everyone was doing in Upper Levanin and beyond so that she may exert influence to her own ends.
The Emperor's orders were largely transparent, that this errand was of such importance but eluding her in purpose was like a thorn jabbing the soft flesh under her nail. She needed to remove it with all haste before it drove her crazy.
She had been settled into her cushions for some time when the knock on the boudoir door finally arrived. She liked the false intimacy that this setting provided, as if she had invited her guests into the heart of her premises openly in a gesture of trust.
Upon bidding them enter, the door opened immediately in Eli's typical rushed fashion and in stepped the young lady that had become acquainted with El-Vador.
Yes, she could see the Elven features immediately, they were much more subtle than that of her old friend but present nonetheless. She offered the girl a welcoming smile and beckoned her to come closer.
'You must be El-Vador's newest, welcome to my home. Please make yourself comfortable.'
She watched her face constantly as she said the words, the manners were impeccable but the girl could not hide her feelings from Alissandra for long. There was the obvious surprise at her knowing who El-Vador was, then there was confusion over her description. It was the final emotion that her face settled into prior to her return to politely smiling. Was that jealousy? It was! The girl saw her as a threat, and so she should. That wasn't the order of the day though, she was here to build bridges rather than burn them. As tempting as it would be to destroy this girl, she needed her.
'Eli dearest, do be so kind as to fetch us some tea.'
Eli bobbed out of the room dutifully, shutting the door behind him and finally leaving them alone.
'So you are Eli's mistress then?'
Alissandra let out a measured laugh as if Ella had said something funny. 'That is what he calls me, he's a bit too young to have mistresses though, don't you think?'
The girl nodded curtly, waiting for her to speak.
'And what is your name, dear girl?'
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