Rise of The Mortokai

by D G Palmer

  ‘But you’re wrong! If I was this destroyer of Ariest why would Gydion take me as his student?’

  ‘I cannot speak for the mind of Gydion. Not many can. Perhaps he hopes to guide you, to rewrite your destiny. Perhaps he believes it is best to keep the destroyer near to him. There are many reasons but only he can speak his mind.’

  ‘I’ve done good. Saved people’s lives. I’m the son of a hero for Christ’s sake! How can people think I’m evil?’

  ‘Good and evil are down to an individual’s perception. All of our actions have consequences. You stop a child from stealing a loaf of bread today, but because of that action the child’s starving sister dies of hunger tomorrow. What is the good and what is the bad?’

  Daniel thought for a moment. It was a small crime but a crime none the less. Could he let another child die because of his intervention though? ‘I would stop the child from stealing,’ Daniel started, ‘then I would buy two loaves for him and his sister.’

  ‘Interesting,’ Cernounos remarked. ‘A simple outcome for a simple dilemma. What will you do when the stakes are much higher though? The progeny of the champion shall bring death and destruction. The ghost of the dragon shall change Ariest forever. The Mortokai has come. Do you deny that this pertains to you?’

  ‘I accept that I am the Mortokai, but me bring death and destruction to Ariest? I love this place. I would never do anything to harm it.’

  It began with a single leaf. Suddenly, it came loose from the tree canopy and fluttered down, landing on the ground between Daniel and Cernounos. It immediately turned black and crumbled to dust.

  A whistling arrow was fired, out through the fog, high into the night air. Then another. And another, their sonic alert heard far and wide.

  ‘The druids... are being... attacked! You have... already... taken your... steps down this... path of... the prophecy, Daniel Welsh,’ said the Green Man, his speech became more laboured with each passing moment. A black tar-like substance erupted from his mouth and oozed from his eyes and nose. ‘You... have... brought... death... to the Druid Glade.’

  ‘What? No, I haven’t done anything.’

  The Green Man fell to his knees, which caused many more diseased leaves to fall to the ground. He fell onto Daniel as he tried to reach up for the young man’s goggles. ‘All... of our... actions... have... consequences,’ Cernounos said with his last breath.

  The dead body of the Green Man sprawled in Daniel’s arms as the last ounce of energy left the nature spirits body. It was understandable that the youngster would be shellshocked, he had come seeking help and only found suspicion and now death.

  His mind was a muddle. The last words of Cernounos resonated within him. You have brought death to the Druid Glade. Did he know he was going to die? Or did he mean someone else? All of our actions have consequences. Then Daniel remembered the fog he had conjured. That must be it! Someone was using the fog to attack the glade.

  ‘Damn it!’ Daniel fumbled in his bag until his hand found the shell. He pulled it out, blew it, and hoped that it wasn’t too late.

  ‘CAN YOU HEAR THAT NOISE?’ Tristan asked Trinity and Finn as they all continued to look out of their window. ‘That whistling sound? That’s a distress arrow.’

  ‘There’s more than one,’ Finn corrected. ‘Something’s going on out there.’

  ‘Whoa, look at that!’ Trinity suddenly saw the fog retreating like a blanket being pulled off of a bed.

  ‘It’s Daniel,’ explained Finn. ‘He’s blown the shell again, but it’s going the wrong way. He was supposed to do it when he was out of the Glade. The fog returns to the shell, the druids will know he’s here!’

  ‘I don’t think they’ll be too bothered about that right now,’ stated Tristan as he tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword.

  The receding fog uncovered a battle below between the druids and the Shadow Dancers. There were many dead on both sides of the conflict and yet it still continued unabated.

  ‘We need to get down there!’ Trinity said as she opened the window. ‘I’ll find Daniel, you two help the druids.’

  ‘What about Ch’tan?’ Tristan asked.

  ‘He must be somewhere down there too,’ replied Finn.

  ‘Find him!’ Trinity climbed onto the ledge and jumped out. As she was in free fall she transformed into a peregrine falcon and followed the direction the fog retreated to.

  ‘I guess we’re taking the long way down,’ shrugged Finn.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  It wasn’t possible to envisage a worse tableau than the one Daniel currently found himself in. Not only was he caught by archdruid Tavisum with the Horn of Fog at his lips, but he was also standing over the lifeless body of Cernounos, the Green Man, the physical embodiment of the spirit of nature.

  ‘It was you that did this! You brought the Shadow Dancers here!’

  ‘What? No, I didn’t do anything.’

  ‘So, it is just coincidence that those abominations used the fog that you created to attack the glade?’

  Daniel had to admit that it was a damning coincidence, but it was coincidence all the same. He was about to tell the Archdruid so when she suddenly let out a scream of anguish.

  ‘What have you done?’ She looked up at the once strong and powerful tree that stood in the centre of the Green Man’s sacred grove. Now blackened and withered with barely a leaf remaining intact. Daniel could see the eyes of the Archdruid glisten with tears as her gaze fell upon the lifeless form of Cernounos. ‘You poisoned him!’

  ‘It wasn’t me. We were talking then the leaves began to fall and crumble before he took sick himself. It happened so quickly. I didn’t know what was happening.’

  ‘You killed him, that is what happened! Look at the black poison coursing through the veins of the tree!’ Tavisum pointed at its trunk. The only place the poison hadn’t touched was an area the rough shape of a hand. ‘The divine tree and Cernounos are linked; kill one and the other shall fall also.’

  ‘I’m telling you, I didn’t do this!’ Daniel was desperate now. He could tell by the look on the Archdruid’s face that discussions were over.

  Tavisum stared at the boy with distrust and more than a hint of disgust. She hated the way that most other races of Ariest had a distinct disregard for nature. How they failed to realise that all life must coexist harmoniously. That contrary to what humanoids might think they were beholden to nature and not the other way around. Nature and its bounty should be respected and a swift death meted out for those whose acts are anathema to nature. And what bigger affront could there be than to bring unnatural death to the sacred grove and the warden of wilderness.

  ‘I should have let the sproutlings finish you once I knew who you were. I could have saved the Druid Glade and the rest of Ariest from your atrocities, but with your sacrifice I can begin to atone.’

  ‘What sacrifice?’

  ‘Your life, of course. You have committed the most heinous of crimes against nature. You must be stopped.’

  Tavisum began to weave a spell, green leaf shaped Essence surrounding her hands as she did so. Daniel didn’t know what he should do. Fight back or accept his fate. By sneaking into the sacred grove maybe he did bring something with him from the outside. Maybe it was the fog itself, the shell did belong to a criminal after all, but surely Finn would have told him if it were poisonous.

  Daniel braced himself for the end, but it never came. Before Tavisum could finish casting the spell that she intended to strike him down with, vines and roots suddenly burst out of the ground and wrapped themselves around her wrists pinning her arms to her sides. Try as she might, the Archdruid couldn’t release herself.

  A small bird then swooped down, transformed into Trinity and landed softly between Daniel and Tavisum. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Trinity demanded.

  ‘I could ask you the same thing,’ replied Tavisum.

  ‘I’m stopping you from making a grave mistake.’

  ‘And still you defend h
im! Look to the tree behind you, does it not resemble the ones from your vision?’

  ‘How did you know about that?’ Trinity looked at the tree and she was stunned. Sure enough, Tavisum had been right.

  ‘That was Cernounos you spoke with in your dream. You did not heed the warnings. Your friend has already begun his walk along the path of the prophesy and I intend to make sure he goes no further.’

  ‘Your people are in a battle, that is what should be your priority right now.’

  A look of concern momentarily crossed the Archdruid’s face as she turned to the sacred grove entrance. ‘It is a battle caused by the actions of Daniel Welsh! I have let his grievous act against the Green Man distract me from protecting the Glade with the other druids. Release me so that I might help my comrades. But rest assured,’ she continued, as Trinity did as she was asked, ‘I will be keeping a close eye on you Daniel and once your Shadow Dancers have been repelled, we will look into your crimes once more.’ The spot where Cernounos had fallen was now covered in budding flowers and the Archdruid sent up a silent prayer before heading out of the Sacred Grove.

  THE BATTLE HAD CONTINUED unabated in their absence. The druids changed into various animals to combat the Shadow Dancers who used their weapons of death with deadly efficiency. Casualties mounted on both sides and as soon as she could, Tavisum transformed into an armoured bear and charged into the fray.

  ‘Come on,’ Trinity said as she took Daniel by the hand and started to lead the way back to where she had left Finn and Tristan. ‘Hopefully they would have found Ch’tan by now and we can all regroup and make our next plan.’

  The pair had to fight their way through, taking down several Shadow Dancers as they did. They worked well as a team. Trinity restrained them while Daniel took them out with his frost magic. Other times it would be Daniel holding them and Trinity finishing them with her nature’s wrath spell.

  Daniel felt that he was becoming more and more proficient with the frost spells he had learnt. He still couldn’t cast whilst on the move but he had more success than failures with his spells now. He put it down to the old adage; practice makes perfect. And he had been getting a lot of practice recently, at the bank, against the Shade on Earth and whilst fighting the Shadow Dancer that tried to steal the Book of Azul at Almedia Palace.

  That’s when he thought he saw her again, the same Shadow Dancer. He wasn’t sure until he saw her suddenly move strangely, as if she were fighting herself. ‘It is her!’ Daniel shouted to Trinity over the sound of the combat. ‘That’s the elf that tried to steal the spellbook at the tavern and again from the palace. I think she’s still under some sort of control.’

  Trinity watched the female in question and was struck by how she held herself back at times. ‘You might be right. If she is, who’s to say that the others aren’t as well, they just might not be as strong willed as her to try and fight against it. We have to find the Archdruid and tell her, she might be able to dispel it.’

  They look around trying to spot Tavisum realising in their heart that it was almost like looking for a needle in a haystack since she could be in any animal form at that moment. ‘I see her! She’s over there! Not far from Finn.’ The Archdruid was in a somewhat feral form, sharp claws and teeth but still recognisable as Tavisum.

  Trinity began to lead the way through the crowds of fighting elves, pushing and shoving as she went. When all of a sudden, much to her surprise, the Shadow Dancers pulled back and retreated. The battle was over as quickly as it had begun.

  The druid elves had captured many of the assassin elves but there had been many losses on both sides testament to the ferocity of the battle. ‘Round up the prisoners,’ Tavisum commanded, ‘we will deal with them soon.’

  ‘Wait!’ Trinity called out. ‘I think you might want to reconsider, Archdruid. It’s possible that they might be under a spell or something. We saw one of them acting very strangely.’ Trinity saw the elf amongst the prisoners and pointed her out. ‘It was that one, in fact.’

  ‘Bring her to me,’ Tavisum said to the guards. She looked closely at the Shadow Dancer, barely able to hide her disdain for the other elf. Then she cast a spell which showed a green viscous substance coursing through the Shadow Dancer’s veins. ‘She has indeed been poisoned.’

  Archdruid Tavisum took a dark brown pellet from her pouch and, not too gently, forced it down the throat of the Shadow Dancer. Within seconds she doubling over wracked in pain. She fell to her knees and retched up the green substance that the Druid spell had revealed. The poison was thick and seemed to melt the ground it rested upon. Tavisum cast a spell and the poison dissolved into nothing then she ordered the guards to give the rest of the prisoners antidotes.

  ‘You were right, Daniel, she was fighting against something.’ Trinity turned to congratulate him on his assumptions but her friend was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘Is this another coincidence, Trinity?’ Tavisum asked.

  ‘No, of course not. He was right behind me when we came looking for you.’

  ‘We couldn’t find Ch’tan either,’ Finn added.

  Archdruid Tavisum had already made up her mind on what to do. To her Daniel Welsh was still the destroyer that he had proved himself to be by killing the Green Man. ‘Find the boy and bring him to me. I don’t care what condition, just bring him.’ Four druid elves immediately despatched from the glade.

  ‘You can’t do this,’ Trinity pleaded.

  ‘I can and I am. You seem to forget that your friend has committed the most heinous of crimes against nature. For that, he must pay.’

  ‘You won’t find him here,’ the Shadow Dancer said. ‘They’ve taken him to my lair. Release me and my comrades and I will take you there.’

  Trinity anxiously turned to Tavisum. ‘Well? What are you waiting for? We need her help.’

  ‘I will not accept the help of a Krez. You are new to this realm Trinity. None of you know about the betrayal of the Krez elf clan. You would be wise not to trust them or their words.’

  ‘I have no choice.’

  ‘Then you should know who you are getting into bed with. You know that the war amongst the Tuatha created the realms and their spilt blood, the primal races: elves, dwarfs, gnomes, undines, salamanders, sylphs and giants. There was a battle for supremacy in the early days of Ariest amongst these races. The giants were victors and enslaved the others. It was the High Bourne elves that knew that the only way to free themselves was for the other races to band together and overthrow their giant overlords. They did just that and the High Bourne elves were made supreme rulers of Ariest.

  ‘Some elves dispersed from the High Bourne and settled their own clans, mountain elves, forest elves, artic elves, cave elves, ocean elves etc. The ocean elves went further afield to set up their colony on Earth in your Atlantic Ocean. But seeing the path that humans were going down they decided to use the magic of the High Bourne and bring their Atlantis to Ariest.’

  ‘Atlantis is real? And it’s here?’ Trinity was flabbergasted.

  ‘It is an island off the northeast coast of Ariest. As I was saying, with most of the ordered minds of the High Bourne gone the more chaotic ones took control. Their reasoning was that elves had the right to rule and exert their dominance over others because they were the god’s perfect creation. This led to a war among elves. The cave elves who had become the Krez clan, never openly declared their allegiance to either the High Bourne or the Dark Fae but they helped the dark elves remain in power and betrayed other elf clans to them, leading many to their deaths.

  ‘Although the Krez shared the same “right to rule” belief as the Dark Fae, that commonality wasn’t enough to keep the Krez loyalty when the Dark Days were brought about. The Krez were against diluting the perfect blood of elves in the pursuit of what they believed to be folly; life after death, an everlasting soul. So, in order to bring about a swift end to the dark days of Dark Fae, the Krez betrayed them and the High Bourne expelled them from Ariest.

  ‘Even though
the Krez had done the right thing in the end they were still made to pay for their initial betrayal. The High Bourne seers cursed their clan for all eternity, with something called the Rising. Those tattoos they have hold the psyche of all those they have killed. After a time, those spirits will rise up and attack the mind of the host, turning them mad, eventually killing them. The only way to suppress it is in a ceremony called the Quelling. The thing is, the Krez need to kill in order to live. To kill gives them vitality, sustenance, which is shared among the clan during the Quelling.’

  Trinity looked at the female Krez elf taking particular note of the number of tattoos she had down her side. ‘So, they must kill to live but in so doing they run the risk of being driven mad and dying?’

  ‘Those that can survive are strong,’ the elf said when she saw Trinity eyeing her. The other Krez elves that had regained their own minds repeated the mantra.

  ‘What is your name?’ Trinity asked her.

  ‘I am Anjunel Lynsu’unara,’ she replied. ‘Many know me as Anju, the Mistress of Death.’

  ‘Given what I have just heard, why should I trust you to take me to Daniel unscathed?’

  ‘I must spend a lifetime atoning for the actions of ancestors long dead. Trust me or don’t, it matters not to me but I shall deal out revenge against the one that would think to use me and my military chapter against our will.’

  ‘Who was it that put you under a spell?’

  ‘That is obscured from my mind, but once we had obtained what they wanted they were to come to my lair for it.’

  ‘Daniel.’

  ‘No, the book.’

  ‘The Book of Azul? That’s what you were after?’ Finn asked. ‘But you could have taken it numerous times. The palace for instance.’

  ‘And I would have, had I not been controlled. I am the puppet of no one!’