At least she had been able to get permission to accompany the next set of shipments to the outskirts of the forest. She would honor her promise and not set foot outside the trees, but she could still be as close to the front as possible. They weren’t too informed about the progress of the war, but from what she had been able to determine, the Death Lord had hidden in his castle preparing an army and the king’s men had walked into a trap. The army was losing ground every day, but destroying a substantial part of the Dark One’s forces. She supposed it was only a matter of time before the king’s men won.
While she only stayed back because Tarthur had asked her, as long as she was staying, she had agreed to a favor from Derlin. Even after Valena had revealed that she was betrothed to Hano, he still cared very much for her. She had a brother, fiancé, and father all out in the front lines leading their people. Yvonne had grown up without any of these, but she knew what it would be like for Valena to lose them. The elf princess’s life would be shattered. Of course, Yvonne reflected sadly, if they lost the war and their army was all killed, everyone’s life would be shattered, and all life as they knew it would be destroyed. So Derlin had asked Yvonne to check in on Valena periodically and make sure the stress of having so many people who were so close to her in constant and grave danger wasn’t more than she could bear.
Valena for her part was handling her duties well, but the fatigue showed on her face. Elven society did not permit women to be rulers, and consequently Valena had never received the training in the arts of organization and commanding others that were required of a leader. The head of the elven nation in Breshen was an elf named Geriyo, but Valena was soon taking over many of his duties. He was only too willing to let her, as he had more than enough to do. Even though she had never received any formal training, always being around the leaders of her people had taught Valena more than a few things.
So it was that Yvonne found Valena in her favorite spot. She was sitting on a log and watching a small stream that wound its way through the forest. The hideaway was a little apart from the main section of Breshen where most of the elves lived, and was very secluded and very pretty. As Yvonne felt the calm that permeated the place, she knew why Valena went there. Yvonne knew the elf princess walked there almost every day, but Valena had never seen her follow her.
Yvonne felt a little awkward, but then went to sit next to her. Valena did not act startled as Yvonne had expected, and almost seemed to not to notice Yvonne’s presence. Valena knelt gazing into the river.
Suddenly, she spoke. “Why do we do it?”
Now Yvonne was a little startled, thought for a minute, and realized she didn’t have the foggiest idea. “Why do we do what?”
Valena turned to look at her. Yvonne could tell that she was indeed beautiful. “Live. It’s like this stream here. Look at it. We’re leaves in the stream. We start out up there,” she pointed to a pool that formed the beginning of the stream. “Then we fall, and we keep going down steadily. But we never go according to ourselves. The river is always driving us. Sometimes, we go slowly for a long time and we think that is normal. Then,” she said, as she to a place where the water was beginning to pick up speed. “We get hurled along faster and faster, unaware of even where we are going, let alone why. And it only leads to that, where we all fall and everything ends up in a mess and those that we love who were around us before are scattered forever, and some not even floating anymore.” She finished by pointing to a little five foot waterfall. “And nothing is ever the same again.”
Yvonne took a deep breath and shrugged. “Perhaps we do it for the ride. I mean, we may be going fast, but the sights and the scenery are worth it. And we do it because we don’t know what’s ahead. Perhaps a shake up can even be good. For those of us at the bottom half of society, if God decided to repartition everything, we might make out better after the fall.”
“Not me,” Valena sighed softly. “I have everything I could want—money, power, a loving family, a faithful husband-to-be…” She trailed off slowly.
“Then maybe we do it for the uncertainty,” Yvonne countered. “Maybe because we don’t know what is coming up around the river bend.”
“But we do,” Valena said sadly. “The end is always the same for all of us. We all live, eat, breathe, sleep, and then we die. We all know what the end is going to be.”
“We may know the end, but we don’t know the journey. We don’t know which way we will go. If my leaf brushes up against someone else way back there and he floats away, how will I know if I will meet him again or not? Maybe our paths will cross again later in life, and maybe not. But that is one thing I don’t know.”
Valena thought about it for a moment. “And what if your leaves cross, and you don’t want to chance meeting again somewhere down the stream?”
“Ahh,” Yvonne said, understanding. “Then you must catch the other leaf, and bind them together. That way, you float as one entity. That’s really the only way.”
“You brought some strange friends with you,” Valena changed the subject. “How did you meet them, anyway?”
“Well, you see, there I was one day standing at the fountain, and this boy came up to me talking about how pretty I was. So, I was a little bit flattered, but then I decided to try to steal some money from him. Believe it or not, I stole ten thousand gold pieces off of him! Then, my twin sister and I fooled him into thinking he was chasing only one thief and he never got me back for that. Well, that’s almost the way it happened. Or rather, that’s the way that Tarthur would tell it. It was a good plan, though. Yvette and I are like this.” Yvonne finished by crossing her fingers.
Valena chuckled. Of course, Derlin had told her the real story before, but she liked to hear Yvonne tell it. She could see a lot of Tarthur in her. “Yes, I know what it’s like to be so close to someone that you can feel them, even though they are far away. I know my family is okay; I can sense their life-forces burning strong, but I’m still worried.”
Yvonne understood. Somehow, she knew Yvette was all right as well. Although, she was back in the capital, so she wasn’t in any more danger than usual.
Yvonne started as Valena suddenly cried out. She reached forward and grabbed the elven princess, whose eyes were full of fear, looking for a second like some wild animal. Yvonne followed the direction her shaky finger pointed, straight for the waterfall.
* * *
Back in the council, they were hurriedly debating whether to continue to fall back to Breshen or not. Sir Terin had suggested they stay and fight one more day, and Cilio was in agreement. The monsters would be expecting another hasty retreat and would not be fighting cautiously. It gave the allies a chance hold them on that day. The elven king, however, was suggesting that they hold out indefinitely, out of concern for his homeland. He did not want even the fringes of his beloved forest to be destroyed.
“We must fight today and then we will retreat,” Cilio was saying. “I don’t wish to see Breshen destroyed either, but it is better a few trees than lives. We need to give Tarthur time, and they are too strong for us.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” the elven king responded sadly, “but trees are lives.”
“Yes,” continued Hano, always quick to defend his revered leader. “And we can beat them here. Many will die, yes, but it is a sacrifice we must make. I myself will be the first to die to save our homeland.”
“I have an idea,” came the voice. Everyone was startled. The voice was coming from Warren but it had lost its annoying nasal tone. His eyes were flashing red.
Before anyone else reacted, Addyean had plunged a dagger into his back. Warren seemed unaffected. “I said, I have an idea, why don’t we all die?!”
Zelin shot a barrage of ice from his fingertips into Warren, who seemed to be struggling with his body. The ice hit him and his eyes flashed back normal again. “What are you doing?” he cried frantically. “This wasn’t part of our deal. Master, please!” He was breathing haggardly now, terrified of what was happeni
ng to him. “Please, no…NO!!!” Warren’s screaming was slowly being replaced as his eyes began to flash red again. Now, his body was beginning to melt and be replaced by leathery thick skin. Addyean’s dagger clanged uselessly on the ground. Warren’s skin began to stretch and stretch until it snapped, covering the emerging monster with a warm putrid ooze.
The council was staring at the figure in horror. It spoke with the Death Lord’s voice.
“So, you have come to defeat me??? I will destroy your army. I will destroy your boy. He has something I need and my minions will sweep over the land conquering wherever they go.”
With this, the monster who had taken over Warren’s body charged forward for General Cilio. Zelin threw himself in front and sent another barrage of ice into it. This barrage knocked him backwards but he stood up again and charged straight for the elven king. Hano stood in his way, defending his king. The monster swung a huge slimy paw at Hano, who sliced at it with his sword. The monster’s paw sent the elf sprawling, however. Unobstructed, he ambled forward and with a huge mouth full of razor sharp teeth bit the elven king in half.
Zelin had now had time to weave a powerful spell, and he stretched out his hands, sending a net that engulfed the monster who struggled wildly to break free. Zelin had designed the spell, however, so the net would take energy from its target, becoming stronger the more the captive struggled. Soon, the creature toppled to the ground where, enraged and tear-filled, Dalin and Hano jumped on it and began to destroy it. Sir Terin, Addyean, and King Garkin even helped get some blows in. By the time it was done, the monster crumpled into dust and then disappeared. The battle still raged on in the front.
“What was that?” Cilio hurriedly called out to Zelin.
“Darhyn took over Warren’s body and sent one of his monsters to kill us and throw our army into confusion,” the wizard replied. “This is horrible…”
The rest looked puzzled, then Zelin finished. “The spell to do this kind of transformation requires great power and a willing subject. It means…”
Sir Terin could finish from there. “It means, Darhyn is near the peak of his power, Warren has been a traitor for a long time, and he’s waiting for Tarthur.”
“And the worst part is,” Zelin had recovered from the initial shock. “Darhyn doesn’t even have the Water Orb spell. He can’t use the Orb now, but if he steals the spell from Tarthur he can. If they fail then the whole war is lost. All our hopes depend on them now.”
* * *
Yan surrounded the party with a cloaking spell but they still needed to move quickly. The lines of monsters were not thick and the diversionary charge had worked well. Most of the monsters were concentrating on the enemy in front of them and did not notice the tiny cloud of dust that was Tarthur and his escort. The other four had formed a ring around Tarthur. Once, a creature sensed the magic, and had turned to rush at them. As Tarthur was turning to look at it Gyeun had already taken out two long steel spikes and thrown them into the creature’s eyes. The monster slumped over dead. Being with these men, Tarthur almost felt safe. He knew he would feel secure against anyone, anything…except Darhyn. No one could make him feel that way.
Tarthur was tired, but he knew he must press on. The hopes of the world were riding on him now. The lines of monsters thinned. They were pretty much out of Darhyn’s army. They would pass a few stragglers every now and again, but by walking a few hundred meters out of their way they could avoid them. At night when they started to rest, Tarthur could see that even the usually cool and relaxed Yan was showing signs of fatigue.
Gyeun, Youin, and Thon divided up the night into three watches, and let Tarthur and Yan sleep. Indeed, those three didn’t even seem tired at all. They let Tarthur sleep for eight hours; it was the best sleep he had had for a while, and then they started on their way again. They would travel all day and then sleep, that way they would be able to begin their attack in the morning.
The day was passing without problems, until they saw a company of monsters coming straight at them. They didn’t have time to evade them, so Yan turned into a monster and quickly tied up the other four. As he walked by Yan called out something about the master needing some captives for his personal use. The monsters snickered as they passed. Tarthur desperately hoped this was not some grim foreshadowing of their end.
The rest of the day passed quickly, and they were in sight of Castle Rathskellar by sunset. They ate, even though Tarthur felt like he would throw the food right back up. Gyeun gave him a pill that he said would help him regain strength when he got tired the next day. Tarthur hoped it would work.
They settled in for the night, and although Tarthur thought he would never sleep, soon he was snoring loudly. That was when Tustor came to speak with him…
“So,” the aged merwizard said after a pause. “We are finally here. You don’t know how my people have been waiting for this day for so long…” Tustor trailed off, and then seemed to regain his composure. “But for now we have work to do. I will explain to you what you must do tomorrow. I will try to be there with you when you are close to the Orb. Normally, Darhyn would be able to prevent me, but if you have the Orb in your control, I may be able to establish the connection. But to get it, there are a few things you must know.”
Tarthur nodded, looking up at the figure that he respected so much. He wished Tustor were there in person to help him.
“You will feel strong when you come upon it, but you must not try to control it. You must be like the water is. You must flow with it. Water is the most patient element. It can form gorges by running for millions of years. It can fit into any container. In that way you too must be flexible and patient with the Orb. It will come to your aid. I have put a marker on you that tells it you are our representative. It will seek you out. Yet, Darhyn is strong. You will need all your courage and wits.”
Tustor started to trail off, even as his image began to become more transparent.
“No! Don’t go,” Tarthur pleaded. “I need you here with me. I need your strength. I need your wisdom…”
Tustor was fading away quickly. “No, Tarthur, you must do it alone now, I can’t stay for long…remember…be flexible and…patient…show the Orb love…flow with it…” Tustor faded away completely, leaving Tarthur once again alone and cold in the night.
The five awoke to a frosty morning. The sun was already beginning to burn away the chill and turn it into blistering heat. They would have only about an hour of bearable temperatures, but they were only a mile away from Darhyn’s gates. They covered the distance quickly. Tarthur wondered if they were going to go through the front, but Youin led them around to the side, where she walked up to a seamless wall and found an imperceptible crack. She put her fingers into it, and flicked a switch. Tarthur heard a scraping as a slab of stone slid away to reveal a cobweb-filled stairway. Gyeun went in first followed by Thon, Tarthur, and Youin, while Yan brought up the rear. Tarthur was amazed. These guys even knew about secret passages in the heart of evil. It seemed like they knew everything.
Gyeun stopped to explain the situation to the rest in hushed tones. “It is as I had hoped. This keep is organized into twelve rings of defenses. Each is guarded by a door with magical protection. Darhyn himself is sure to be in the center. As for the Orb, it’s anyone’s guess. If we follow this path, it will take us up right inside of the tenth door. I suggest that we leave two here to guard Tarthur and the other two of us will see if the Orb is anywhere in the perimeter. It’s possible Darhyn has the Orb with him, and is waiting for us. We would do better to look around first in case he has just made a trap with himself in the center and the Orb is somewhere else. If this is the case even if we defeat him, we may die before reaching the Orb. Since we know the way, Youin and I will…”
“Stop,” Tarthur interrupted. “The Orb is that way. I can feel it calling me. I feel…so very certain. More certain than anything ever before in my life.”
Gyeun nodded sadly. “Okay, let’s go.”
Yan loo
ked puzzled. “Why, what’s wrong, Gyeun? Isn’t it good that Tarthur can sense it?”
Gyeun nodded softly with his iron face. “Yes, it’s just that Tarthur pointed straight in the direction of Darhyn. It’s time for a showdown.”
INTO THE HEART OF EVIL
As the companions wound their way through corridors of stone, Tarthur was more nervous than he had ever been before in his life. Like no other time, he wanted to run and run and never stop until he was back in Krendon. He wanted to hide there and let other people worry about themselves. He wanted to leave the world alone, and all he asked for in return was that the world leave him alone also. But then he thought of Yvonne, of Derlin, of Dalin, Yonathan, Yan, the people of Freeton, and all of the people all over the world that he had seen dying. All of these people were now counting on him. And do whatever he would, he could not let them down. He could not let himself down.
Lands of Daranor: Book 01 - DreamQuest Page 31