Saniel placed his hands over his ears as Jericho and Red Whiskers now pushed him towards the entrance hoping for an opportunity to escape the chamber. Karvu tried to crawl away as the Gorgon collapsed to the ground and began flailing about wildly, in its apparent death throws. Its uncontrollable body struck Karvu, thrusting him hard into the wall and then Taegan who tried to dodge around but was also struck violently and slammed into the ground senseless. The Talisman took hold of Saniel as he pushed past Jericho and walked boldly up to the Gorgon crushing Bragus. With Bragus still firmly in his coils, the Gorgon hissed in delight as it towered over Saniel to strike. It snatched its long whip tail into the air pulling the barb loose from one of the guards that had been attacking it moments ago. A deep hole with a trace of green venom was visible in the red fur on Bragus’s shoulder. The Gorgon with a wide-open mouth, struck down towards Saniel with ferocious intensity as Saniel placed his six-fingered hand almost gently on the creature’s body.
The Moonstone hummed loudly as the Gorgon involuntarily bit itself savagely, and then drove its whip tail and long curved barb into the back of its own head, causing it to go limp instantly. More guards rushed into the room and dragged their Shah out of the Gorgons loosening grip. A sleepy Barney ran in to investigate all the noise and paused in horror at the monsters in the chamber. He hugged the wall and ran to Princess Eylon, weakened from executing her killing curse. Together they kneeled beside an unconscious Taegan and looked towards Saniel. The Princess was astonished to see him entranced and saw a blue flicker of flame flash across his bewitched eyes and run down his arm and onto the lifeless Gorgon. Barney had only just seen where Saniel was and shouted to him. The body of the Gorgon immediately caught alight with an intense blue flame that ran its length and disintegrated it into ash. Saniel awoken from his trance stumbled backwards into Jericho and fainted. The princess looked around at the death and carnage in the chamber. She cried at the sight of Karvu crushed against the wall, Bragus and the two guards appeared dead and Taegan unconscious with a broken arm and ribs. If they could be attacked like this in the sanctuary of the Mountain, then there was little hope of saving Aledran.
At daylight, the news spread throughout the Vale that Gron and the Princess were now in charge of Aledran. The mighty Shah Bragus was not dead, but close to it. The Gorgon in killing the guards beforehand did not have enough poison left to deal a killing dose immediately to Bragus, though it would have undoubtedly crushed the mighty bear to death if the mancub had not intervened. The Shah lay at the foot of the Monolith in the Ring of Pines, his breathing shallow while the Princess and other elves rubbed the paste of healing shroom herbs into the wound. There was no known cure for the Gorgon venom as the elves had encountered these creatures before. All they could do was make him comfortable. Karvu the muntjac heavily battered, bruised and sore lay wounded and would be unable to move for days. With what available warriors they had left, the guards were doubled throughout the mountain. Saniel kneeled next to Bragus as a tear rolled down his cheek.
The princess put a hand on his back and patted him. ‘The venom of the Gorgon is a poison to which there is no cure. I’m afraid he will die in a matter of weeks. If we are all still alive by then, that is. We can only keep death away for so long.’ Saniel sniffed and wiped his nose on his shirt. A flutter of wings had everyone looking up as Ayah landed on the ground next to Bragus. He bowed his head in respect for his Shah then faced the Princess and spoke in his whispery voice. ‘Princess, it will only be another day or two before the witch army thrusts its way through the neck and pushes what left of our forces back to the Vale. What are your commands?’ The princess, quiet in thought, looked at Gron who nodded. She replied, ‘give the order for our forces to hold them as long as they can, then retreat back to the Vale where we will prepare our final defence.’ Gron spoke tiredly at that point. ‘Have we received any response from the bovine Lords?’ Ayah dropped his head and sighed. ‘No, I’m sorry Captain, our second envoy has not yet returned.’ Gron muttered under his breath the words ‘Fickle, bargain breakers and dishonourable.’ After some further brief conversation, Ayah walked around in a circle, winked at Saniel and flew up and out of sight through the dark cavern to the daylight beyond.
Princess Eylon and Gron talked in private for some time and then came back to the group. The princess addressed them, as Barney, Saniel, Jericho and Red Whiskers listened to what her instructions were. ‘We have decided on the course of action we must all take if we are to have any of us a chance to survive. Barney, you must return to your village by the Moaning Sea and warn your elders of all you have seen and prepare. I have sent a messenger to the neck to bring Shalia back. She will take you through the Arch to a cairn not far from your village. It will bring you to a place I think mankind calls Blackmire Castle.’ Barney nearly choked at hearing this. ‘Blackmire!’ He exclaimed. ‘Its a few days walk back to Saltwood from there. I have heard that it is inhabited by vile creatures.’ ‘I’m sorry’ replied the Princess, ‘It’s the best we can do. Can these creatures be any viler than what you have encountered to get here?’ Barney lowered his head and sighed. ‘I suppose not, and I’ll have Shalia with me.’ He had grown quite fond of the kind she-elf.
The Princess turned to Saniel. He bit his lip in anticipation. ‘Saniel we cannot spare any warriors to accompany you on a quest I would send you. Also, I have no right to ask this, but we need you.’ Jericho and Red Whiskers stepped up next to Saniel. The Princess smiled for the first time in days. ‘I guess I couldn’t keep you three apart anyway?’ The young wolf and the fox looked at each other and nodded. ‘Good’ added the Princess, ‘Gron and I believe that you may learn the power to cure the Gorgon’s poisonous hold over Bragus, but it will be a hard road and the only chance we have.’ Saniel’s eyes welled with tears as he swallowed and looked at his friends. ‘I have no choice really, I have to help, or we all die. Besides the Moonstone has already saved me plenty of times, and I know I have to learn more.’ Gron gave Saniel a playful slap on the shoulder, nearly sending him to the floor. ‘Good brave cub.’ He said in his gruff voice. ‘Should I not stay here and fight?’ Queried Saniel with a worried look on his face. ‘No.’ Answered the Princess and Gron in unison. ‘The Talisman could be so much more than what you have experienced. You need guidance and training from another Druid, or the Talisman will eventually consume you. None of us here maintain the skills to teach you Druid training.’
Saniel nodded and rubbed his feet through the sand. Gron addressed Jericho. ‘You will travel east out of the Vale and enter the canyons to continue through the rift for several days. You should come to a place where the old stories tell of the last Druid in exile. This Druid was once known by the name. Gron paused slightly as though he feared to mention the name, and then continued. ‘Erhan of the Mountain’, though some called him the ‘The Dead Sorcerer.’ If he still lives and doesn’t destroy you, he may be able to help us. The last time this Druid had been in Aledran was during my great grandfather’s life. But for reasons unknown, this Druid had left Aledran and chose to live in solitude. Use caution when you leave the Vale to enter the Great Rift to the east. We guard those borders carefully as our kind rarely ventures past there. Those that have in the past, never return. We can spare one from the Falcon order to also be your eyes in the sky. You must leave immediately.’ Gron led them outside the mountain and down into the vale. They had all expected a warm morning, but instead, they met a glittering silver frost that covered everything with a noticeable chill that hung in the air. Saniel shivered and Red Whiskers sneezed, as they looked up at Gron. The captain of the bears was looking around and seemed more surprised than the others. He commented, ‘This witch army must have great power for their enchantments to influence this far into the Vale.’ His voice trailed off as some cubs lumbered playfully past, they had no sense of the dangers approaching. The group stayed together for a few moments in a sombre mood and then said their goodbyes as a guard with a bandage around one hairy arm and a limp came
to show them the forest path to the east.
66.
THE CHAOS LEGION
An immense horde of creatures sprawled through the burnt forest below the neck. They numbered in their thousands. They walked, crawled, slithered and flew to join the legion as they had been promised greatness by the witches’ or death. Grunts, squeals, yells and barks intermingled creating a bedlam of anguish that echoed up through the neck where many listening defenders shivered in fear. Several witches had managed to produce a small company of Nematoads, drawn from the deep muddy depths of the Great Southern Marsh. These odd-looking creatures moved in great bounds, propelled by heavy set long legs. With broad gnarly heads, a wide mouth and a brownish-green hide as tough as a warthog’s, they had come forth to do the witches’ bidding. About the size of a small hound, they continually leapt around unable to keep still. The Nematoads grunted to one another in deep guttural sounds causing much anxiety and horror to a nearby encampment of goblins.
It was well into the night as Lady Strala and Lady Ravyne sat comfortably in their newly constructed bear skin tent with an assortment of fierce sentries on guard. A half-naked unconscious goblin slumped tethered to an upright pole under a flame torch to one side. The cost he paid for his treachery had been torture and a beating to within an inch of his life. Lieutenant Falix from the house of the Danes left the witches’ tent with fresh orders and to re-join his comrades reporting to Warlord Shum directing the assault at the neck. He was thankful to be alive after giving the message that the neck had not yet been breached. The witches’ did not seem pleased to hear that the elves, wolves and bears still had a considerable number of warriors left and were strengthening their defence.
Shum and King Boorag had initially sent some forward scouting parties of Shepherds and reavers to find a way to fight through the neck. However, they were stopped by a sentinel rock giant commanded by the elves who stood planted firmly on the path just inside the entrance to the gorge. He used his colossal sized boulder shaped fists to beat and crush anything trying to get past him. Boorag’s goblin mages had sent an assortment of magic creatures and minor Daemons against the rock giant, but all had failed. They could not invoke the Hydrox enchantment as Princess Eylon’s water sprite Aquiraa still seemed to have a lingering sway over this area and would not permit any further arcane influence over the river. The witches’ could have possibly conjured a greater being than Aquiraa, but chose to reserve their magical energies for the conquest of the mountain. Ravens and nightbirds could not progress as the Owls and Falcons still held sway in the skies. Shum looked with distaste through the distant burnt woods towards the nearby goblin encampment. He had earlier sighted the wilted head of his friend Crovar carried around by the disgusting fat red goblin king as a trophy. Shum shook his head and looked away, vowing revenge.
The night sky became darker as a torrential downpour of rain fell over Aledran Forest. As the heavy raindrops hit the earth, they turned into pieces of ice similar to a blanket of hail. The purple streaks of light in the broiling clouds above continued and concentrated above the witches’. Ravyne and Strala invoked their patron Daemons for council. Dalgaith the Wretched materialized in the form of a handsome middle-aged mankind animal and stood studying the two witches with black shaded eyes. Suddenly he yawned and his face was overcome by a bored expression. A small dark circle suddenly appeared in the ground that widened and pulsated with black energy. The flickering glow of nearby fire torches could not penetrate this strange anomaly, the orange light bending around as if to avoid it. A long black claw followed by another reached out of the hole as a narrow black head with round yellow bloodshot eyes and pointed ears appeared. Yellow curved fangs protruded from under a thin top lip as it raised its torso out of the circle. Ribs were visible through the delicate black flesh as Ravyne’s patron Daemon Brakad Wrathblood grinned at the two witches’. The Daemon glanced around hungrily, then after a slight pause, long skinny legs ending in claws took one long stride towards the goblin prisoner Reek.
Brakad’s teeth chattered hungrily as his yellow eyes rolled back in his skull to reveal the colour of blood red. He looked at Dalgaith and gave an obscene wink before falling upon the goblin and sating his thirst. Dalgaith sighed loudly and commented, ‘Oh Brakad, always such theatrics.’ Both Daemons laughed, and then the witches’ chuckled as the guards outside shivered. Brakad stood upright and stretched his bony frame. He licked some blood from the bottom of his pointy chin with a long forked tongue. He gave a burp of satisfaction and looked at the witches’. ‘Now, this other army we promised you. It marches here as we speak. Let’s eradicate Aledran and its memory from this realm once and for all.’
Faraway in the northwest side of the moorlands, the shallow surface of the North Marsh was broken by a myriad of running feet. Hundreds of Draugen witchlings tore and screamed at one another as they ran through the widespread heavy rain. The shallow water froze under their feet as they approached the breached entrance of the Grelen maze. Without pause, they dived headlong into the open cavity with teeth-gnashing and hands clawing at the darkness. King Cornelius, deep under the maze, looked up fearfully as the distant sound of Draugen howling came to his ears, reverberating through the rock. He had lost many of his rangers and clerics on the Glistening River in a recent battle with the Wildpack and the witches’. The elf king had also lost his brother, Deldrich the elder who had led that failed sortie. What remained of his clerics was sent to Duskfall to protect the wolves, but he had just heard that they were nearly all destroyed, with the survivors fleeing for Aledran. A scuffing noise from a small tunnel carved in a rock wall, caused half a dozen of the nearest rangers to spin and hold their weapons menacingly. A small fox with a vividly red tail and orange whiskers leapt to the floor and bowed to the king. ‘They number greatly Mr King, and I am not entirely sure if they are alive.’ ‘Thank you Red Tail.’ Replied the king.
He hoped the 100 remaining rangers of the maze guard would be enough to repel this assault and save their home. He wished his nieces Shalia and Dafina were here with their magic abilities to destroy this evil, but he was unsure if either of them still lived. The elf rangers stood in silence as they too listened to the screams of the dead witchlings come closer, an unusual cold now seeped down into the rock chambers to envelope them. Some shook with fear as they clutched their short swords and shields close to their bodies and waited.
Beneath Aledran Mountain and inside the chamber of weapons, the air was dark and still. Giant thick boulders were rolled across the entrance to prevent access to those not permitted. Long racks made from ancient timber and normally filled with an assortment of amour and weapons, now stood empty. All of the armaments had been removed along with the Druid weapons and were being carried by the elf and sleuth warriors defending the neck. However, this uninvited visitor to the chamber was not interested in those items. A small invisible tear in the fabric of the black air appeared as a slender elf arm reached out and unhooked the chain of the Serpentine Horn from the wall. The horn gave a peculiar hum as if pleased to be leaving its black prison.
The people of Saltwood were still in shock at the sudden appearance of the lad Ronald nearly three weeks after he had headed north to Brineburg with the village elder Barney Critchem. Four of their ponies devoid of any packs had arrived home ten days before Ronald. A week-long round of meetings and presentations on the theories of missing persons was then had by the elders in the council hall which still revealed no explanation. However, Ronald’s sudden return and the fanciful tale of his exploits were deemed to be ‘likely true’ as he also brought two elves with him. The elves didn’t say much but tended to agree with everything Ronald said and thus put the council in a conundrum.
The council didn’t believe in elves, yet here two stood in the village square with almond eyes, pointy ears, long blonde beards and everything else that attributed to their fanciful description from old village tales. The villagers constantly filed past them with goggled eyes and mouths wide open. Durlaan let o
ut an occasional growl when any of the mankind animals came to close to him. Ronald had to explain to the elves not to confuse curiosity with aggression and that the villagers meant them no harm. The elves also carried some wicked looking weapons that glowed strangely in the dark and were likely crafted by a more talented smith then any mankind currently had. The elves shadowed Ronald everywhere he went as if guarding him. Prior to Ronald’s surprising return to Saltwood, the village men had already done some quick training and armed most of the able-bodied men with crude swords of some sort. The elf rangers, who called themselves Kerythe and Durlaan offered their services to the council to train the mankind males in the basics of combat; however, this decision was suspended until the elders voted on it.
Two days to the east of Saltwood in the moorland Shalia said a hasty goodbye to Barney. He was still a little dizzy after travelling through the Arch from Aledran to the vine-covered cairn near Blackmire Castle. He stared to the distant west past Saltwood Marsh and saw a dark line rise into the horizon marking the beginning of Saltwood Forest near his village. Barney was saddened that Shalia would not come with him, but she had to return to help with Aledran’s defence. Before she left though she gave Barney a small object, advising him to cast it into the air and allowing it to strike the earth if he ever felt his life was threatened. He patted his trouser pocket frequently to ensure that Shalia’s gift was still there.
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