by Iyanna Orr
“He’s coming around,” Chandler heard Leon mutter. He felt the air above him moving and forced his eyes to open and see him. When he could, it all rushed back to him, and he groaned, trying to push himself to his feet. Looking down, he saw that someone had dressed him and pushed the blatant discomfort away. It was dark outside, actually dark as they weren’t inside the Ring anymore, and there were barebacked horses grazing in a field of grass some yards away. “Chandler, are you all right?” Leon asked, bringing the attention back to him.
“I’m fine.” Chandler looked around, finding the twins, who stood back behind the knights. Like the first time he saw them, Chandler felt something in him that recognized their faces. The sharp angles of their jaw and the thinness of their lips said they were nervous. They looked at each other and then back to Chandler. He turned away from them. “Was there anything left of Thackory?” Silence answered his question better than their words could have. Chandler sighed. “Maybe you shouldn’t have killed him.”
He noticed they were in a place far more colorful than Death Ring; even more so than Legacy. All around them were green fields; tall, healthy stalks waving in the gentle warm breeze. Farther off, there was smoke rising, and when Chandler stood straighter on his feet, he could just barely make out the tops of cottages.
“A man who would pass off his burden to die is a man screaming for death himself,” a soft voice replied, and Chandler turned to Avan in surprise. The knight was watching him, and his hand was on the hilt of the sword at his hip. On the other side was Thackory’s. “I merely answered his call.”
Chandler’s eyes flickered to Leon and Yves. Leon had his eyes on Chandler, a smirk playing on his face, and Yves was looking in the direction of the cottages Chandler had seen. He faced Avan again.
“What’s on the other side of this meadow?”
“Rockbryr. You’ve been out for the last day’s ride of our journey. We’ve just come through the gates.” Sure enough, when Chandler looked back, there was a stone wall no less than fifty feet tall with iron gates about a half-mile away.
“It’s just supposed to be the manor. What are those cottages for?”
“Rockbryr has a population of less than forty. Each cottage houses a family.”
“Drake never mentioned that there were people here.” Chandler wondered if it was his job to look out for them. Even if it weren’t, he now lived in their manor, a place they had probably kept running for years.
“Drake hasn’t mentioned a lot of things,” Avan countered. “Are you okay to ride on your own?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
The manor wasn’t as grand as the castle, but it was larger than anything Chandler was used to. The lobby was large enough to fit three or four of the cottages alone, and the only item that took up space was a small ivory table with a small vase of flowers. The flowers were a strange color; a mix between a violet and maroon. If the flowers were strange, then the sounds that seemed to swarm around them were far stranger.
Chandler turned to the knights, who seemed just as confused, if not a bit more cautious.
“What is that?” Of course, no one had any answer. So, Chandler took off, moving quickly toward an opening that led to a large staircase. On inspection, there were eight staircases. It was a room, and on each wall, including the one he’d stepped through, there was a doorway leading to a staircase. The sounds seemed to echo from each of them, and it raised an octave as he stepped farther inside. It became so loud that Chandler fell to his knees, clenching his teeth and squeezing his eyes closed as he pressed his hands tightly over his ears. A hand touched his shoulder, and Chandler recoiled, falling away from it.
“What’s wrong?” a voice drifted through the noise. “Chandler?”
“Can’t you hear it?” He heard himself ask. There was a silent agony in the question, and Chandler’s fingers curled into claws, scratching at his ears. “Make it stop,” he moaned, but it continued to get louder, and he keeled over, his shoulder hitting the solid marble floor. He felt it crack underneath him.
“You… that way.” A vague voice drifted through the noise. “We… search… staircases. Get into… the rooms… everywhere.”
Then it started to recede. Chandler opened his eyes just as four of the doorways exploded, the thick wood splintering to pieces and scattering around the room. Footsteps, lighter than rain hitting the rooftop, emerged from them. Wide-eyed, Chandler stared at them from his fortress on the ground. His eyes followed the small feet moving rapidly in his direction, then followed the limbs up from the ground. He came face-to-face with someone who was staring back at him, arms folded in front of his body as he observed Chandler with muted excitement and curiosity. His gaze drifted from one to another to another. The large hall was filled with those excited faced, their eyes vividly orange or green.
His army was little more than children.
Chapter 13 – Swords
They showed him the rooms. It felt as if he were being dragged from one end of the manor to the other, and he probably was. The west wing, they’d told Chandler and the others, had been closed, and nobody had been there since they arrived. They usually stuck to the third floor of the east wing, where every room was a bedroom. Most of the rooms were clean, but the others, where beds were unmade and decorative accessories broken and scattered on the floors, were where they had taken to sleeping. Some of the rooms contained as many as four, but others preferred to have their own space.
Chandler stood in one of the doorways, watching the kids chatter among themselves, always keeping an eye on him as if waiting for him to vanish again. He didn’t miss the heads that poked from the other doorways and retreated when Leon approached him in the hall.
“We’re all meeting in the grand hall,” Leon said. He gestured with his head for Chandler to follow and started walking back the way he’d come. “Yves says he has something to tell us all before we head back.” Chandler nodded and followed.
“What am I going to do with then?” he asked after just a few steps. “I knew Drake was conniving, but this just goes above and beyond. They’re just kids.”
“I don’t know what you saw in them, Chandler, but you have to learn to stop seeing things here with your Earth perceptions.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about them and you. You came from Earth, right? And look at you. You’re not human, and you didn’t belong there. Out here, in the Downworlds, you and those kids are the strongest species to exist. What they are is in direct correlation to you. Now, I know Nephalem can’t have families and are as populous as the Earth is magical, but the Nephling are the closest thing your species has to family. So, you have to test them, trust them and see what they can do.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Then don’t think about it. Remember, there is nothing in the Downworlds as fragile as humans, not even the kids.”
They got to the grand hall a few minutes later, and Yves was standing behind a table in the middle of the room. His sword was resting atop it, and he was speaking with Avan, but both looked up as Chandler and Leon approached. Troy and Tyler sat at the far end, their heads together as they spoke. Leon and Chandler moved past them and came to a stop by Avan. Leon sat down, but Chandler stood, looking in question at Yves.
“I was given orders to translate once we arrived here. Once I’m finished, I’m to depart and report to the castle.” Yves looked at Avan and Leon significantly. Avan didn’t look the smallest bit surprised, but Leon leaned farther over the table, eyes bright.
“You said, ‘I.’”
“Exactly.” Yves nodded. “You, Avan and Thackory were to stay here and keep an eye on Chandler. Thackory, especially, was to help him keep an eye on the people and begin collecting the taxes since no one has been here in about three years. But that now falls on the three of you. Since none of you singularly have the experience to run it on your own, you will have to work together to figure i
t out. Now, everything they need is here already. They grow their own crops, a few of them practice magic but only for breeding the animals they have. I don’t have any instructions pertaining to the Nephling.”
“The what?” Chandler asked.
“Nephling.” Yves turned to him then, understanding crossing his eyes. “The Nephling are an extension of the Nephalem. No one knows how they came to exist or why, but they are birthed normally. They reproduce and have a nearly unlimited number of lives, just like you.”
“So, I can stay alive forever if Drake doesn’t kill me,” Chandler stated drily. “Tell me why that doesn’t sound as glamorous as humans make it out to be.” Yves ignored him.
“Drake has left it up to you to watch out for them. They are already well-trained and educated. He wasn’t sure what you were going to do with them, but they are at your disposal. And they cannot go farther than a hundred miles from here unless they visit another dimension. Then they have access to wherever they want. Lastly, I have temporarily been given the power to grant you Lordship over this manor and the people who live here.”
Chandler hated it, but he’d grown used to Drake and his whimsical decisions. He grunted in reply and crossed his arms. His eyes followed Yves’ movement as he reached down and slid a piece of paper in front of him. It was obviously old, with brown and yellow spots permeating most of the page, but the elegant script on it had not faded; in fact, it looked as if it had just been written. At the top, in the left corner, the word, “deed” was written in large letters. Chandler skimmed it, reading over it as Yves cited.
“Sign this, and you accept your role. You promise protection to everyone under your care, and in the event of war, you stand as Commander to whoever would volunteer themselves to your army.” Avan and Leon listened with rapt attention, eyes on Chandler. He sighed and stared at the clean quill sitting on the table. His eyes flickered to Yves, who seemed to understand. “It needs to be signed in blood.”
Leon pulled out a dagger and handed it to Chandler immediately. Chandler, in turn, glowered.
“I’d rather have you sacrifice a gram of blood than go back to where you’re under Drake’s nose.” Chandler shook his head and took the weapon. Taking a quick breath, he slipped the sharp blade over his palm quickly, then dropped it and pressed the quill into the pooling blood while the wound healed. Finally, he pressed the blood to the paper and signed his name carefully.
Yves rerolled the page once the blood had dried; then, deposited it into the bag he carried over his shoulder. He nodded and turned to Avan and Leon. “The two of you have been officially transferred to Rockbryr. Your new uniforms are waiting in the west wing on the third floor. There will be a third, for Thackory, but once I return to Legacy and inform Drake of his untimely demise, you never speak of what happened in the Ring again. As far as the rest of Legacy is concerned, he was captured and cannibalized. That’s it. I wish all of you good luck.”
He left within the next hour. Leon, Avan, and Chandler watched him go after Troy approached him, speaking quickly. Yves gave a nod and then started riding for the gate they’d all come through. On his way out, a woman stopped his horse, pressing a satchel into the saddlebag. Without further delay, he thanked her, moving the horse into a run. The woman turned to look at them in the doorway of the manor and waved before she disappeared back inside the cottage she’d come from.
Chandler turned away, catching Troy and Tyler lingering in the lobby behind them.
“Now, what are the two of you doing here?”
“I think a thank you would suffice,” they both replied at the same time.
“That’s just weird,” Leon commented, coming to stand beside Chandler. “Can you not do that?” Both men ignored him, identical smiles pulling their lips up.
“We’re here because we know who you are, and we want to help,” Tyler answered. “We know you’re not the same person, but if we can help stop whatever Drake’s doing… well, then, we’re going to.”
“You know about the prophecy, then.”
“No, we don’t know anything about that,” Troy denied. “We just know the last time we saw you, it was our older brother, Aidan. He went missing a few weeks before his eighteenth birthday when he was supposed to get his own crown.”
“I don’t know you two, and I don’t know who I was before this, but if you do want to help me, then I suggest you stay out of the way.”
“Actually, Leon already agreed to train us.” Troy looked over at the man in question for confirmation. Chandler’s eyes turning to him, he had the decency to look sheepish. He rolled his eyes and stuck Leon with a look.
“They’re your responsibility then,” he told him and headed for west wing staircase.
Chandler shrugged through the glass doorway and onto the balcony of his room. It was on the top floor of the west wing with double doors and a king-sized bed. One wall was a mirror, and the door that led to the balcony was made entirely of glass. He left the door stand open as he wandered over to the left of the balcony, staring down at the cottages. From up high, they looked as if they were barely big enough to fit a single horse, but from the sounds coming from inside them, Chandler knew that wasn’t the case.
This was what Legacy should have been like. This was why he was here; to make everyone else on the planet as content as the people down there were. But he had his own doubts about it. He was new to all of this, and he didn’t know what was best for them. Chandler could barely dictate his own life since it was already written for him and had apparently been lived for him already, hundreds of times. His destiny was to die or save them all and live forever. It made him wonder whether, in the past, he had given his life purposely just so he wouldn’t have to bear the burden. How many times had he just given it all up and how many times had he decided to actually fight the battle he was dropped in the middle of?
“I can tell this isn’t the life you would have chosen for yourself,” a voice said behind him. Chandler looked back at Avan standing on the other side of the balcony. He wasn’t wearing his armor anymore. Instead, he was dressed like the few men he’d seen down in the village. “Nobody wants to live up to a prophecy.” Avan came and leaned next to Chandler.
“You sound like you know the feeling.”
“I do. There was a time when I wasn’t on Legacy, believe it or not. I abjured the things Drake does to keep the people under his thumb, and I fought against it. The place I come from was never so conceited, and neither were the people or those we considered our leaders, so pretentious. We all lived in harmony, rarely clashing in the decisions we made to make our lives better.
“None of us had a purpose really,” he said with something bordering on a smile. “We lived just to do it, and we were often looked at as the peacekeepers of the universe though we had no communication with the other dimensions or planets. They simply attempted to adopt our laws, but after that, there was no word, and we were okay with it. My parents, in particular, had taken to living life without the uses of the technology we developed. I grew up in the trees, living off the land and learning to fight from a book that had been banned from civilization hundreds of years before. I never really wanted to know how to fight; I just wanted to see how the rest of the universe worked, but eventually, I took to using a branch I’d carved and beating the bark from the trees around us.
“When they found out, they were proud. My parents weren’t those who often tried to keep me from new things; they encouraged it too much in fact. I grew arrogant and used their approval to my advantage. I began terrorizing the towns we lived near. I pretended Drake was coming to get us; that he was murdering off the officials. It was the lowest point in my life, murdering them and spreading their blood. That is until the Monsilian people came and told us a prophecy had just been delivered, pertaining to a single man born on Rolland soil. My parents had been in town that day, but I’d stayed away under the impression I was above prophecies and fate. But the truth is that I wasn’t.
“I was sixteen a
t the time, and just like any teenager, I didn’t listen to the things my parents told me when they came back. I ignored the way they looked at me every time I left our home and ignored the fear in their eyes when I came back. There was never a moment when they weren’t waiting for me to go beyond. They didn’t know about the officials I’d murdered, or at least, they pretending they didn’t. They didn’t want to admit that I’d become a monster even as I didn’t want to admit it to myself.
“I didn’t find out what the prophecy was until later. As well as pointing out the men of our planet, the prophecy told us the man would destroy us. He would take over and rule just as Legacy had been taken. Immediately, Rolland, for the first time in history, was in a panic. Most disregarded the announcement of a Rolland-born destroying us and blamed it all on Drake. They believed it was he who would take us just as he’d taken Legacy, and they didn’t want that. Me, though, I was wild with no direction during my teenage years. When I heard the prophecy, I made it my personal mission to make the people as afraid as possible, simply because I enjoyed watching them squirm.
“I started rumors. I hired dimension ninety-nine witches to cast Drake’s crest in the skies and burn them into their fields. For months, they feared until I made the ultimate move. By then I’d only taken out a few of the Rolland officials, out of nearly a quarter of a hundred, but I finally took that last step and sent them all over the edge. I killed the entire group of officials and smeared their blood over everything. To the people, that was enough. They didn’t even consider that Drake would never kill the leaders; at least, not until he knew everything he needed to take over the planet.
“Everyone fled. All the best people left the planet to escape to Fethol, our only ally at the time. It was every man for himself, and the children, the elderly, they were all left behind.” Avan cleared his throat and shifted where he stood. Chandler had hopped up onto the rail of the balcony and was looking down at him. Avan’s eyes shifted up and then darted away.