Trials of a Champion

by Thomas O'Gorman

  “That wasn’t the right answer,” Reva said. “The next time you lie I will stick that rod up his ass and blind his other eye. Now tell me Rackam’s tendencies.”

  “He fights from the front. He tries to overwhelm and break the enemy formation by heavily attacking at a weak point in the front.”

  “Much better Kide. Now tell me where Aggenburg is.”

  “I don’t know, I swear.”

  Reva looked at him a moment. “You know what? I believe you. Consider this your one pass. Where will the Avish northern army go, to Alexandra or to engage the forces in Skal.”

  Winn hung his head. “I don’t know. I have been out of Aviel for three months and I haven’t exactly been part of the planning committee.”

  “You are full of goose shit,” said Reva. “You must like to cause your friend pain.” She stomped on Jaunty’s foot with her heavy boot. Winn heard the bones in Jaunty’s foot snap like twigs.

  “How many of the ten thousand troops are cavalry as opposed to infantry?”

  Winn stiffened at that question. He thought it would be egregiously traitorous to answer it. He struggled with his dilemma, should he choose his country or his friend. What made up his mind is that he knew Jaunty would rather die than help the Menegars. If his position and Jaunty’s were reversed, he would hope Jaunty hold out despite his suffering. He would die for Aviel.

  “I refuse to answer.”

  “You have one chance to answer or I will put his other eye out.”

  “Kill him if you so desire, he would not want me to answer, even if it meant an excruciatingly painful death. He would die to protect his country, and I would not deny him that right.”

  Reva growled at Winn. She pulled the steel rod out of Jaunty’s chest and rushed at Winn with it held high. Just as she got to Winn one of the guards tackled her to the ground.

  “Get off of me you lout,” Reva said.

  “I think you have had enough,” Grel said. “You got almost nothing from them and you nearly attacked Kide, against the strict orders of the King. You are finished here.”

  The guards drug Reva out of the cell kicking and screaming.

  “No more answers! Just kill us and be done with it!” Winn yelled after them.

  Except for the guard that fed them, no one else visited them that day. Jaunty’s chest looked like it had a thousand holes in it with blood seeping from each one. His nether regions continued to bleed, and Winn couldn’t tell about his eye because Jaunty’s eyes were closed because he was out the rest of the day and into the night.

  Deep into the night Jaunty woke. Winn could tell because Jaunty’s groaning was more intense.

  “Jaunty, are you awake? There is water on the floor by you. Take a drink.”

  “I have never been in so much pain, Winn,” Jaunty said in a strained whisper. “You didn’t tell them anything to spare me, did you?”

  “No brother, as much as I hated it, I didn’t tell them a thing.”

  “Good. Let them kill me Winn, and it will put me out of my misery. Every part of me hurts like I am on fire. The bandaged parts still hurt as much as the new wounds. I just want to quit feeling anything.”

  “Jaunty, I know it is easy for me to say, but you have to hold on. Cling to life. You can endure almost anything. You are the toughest man I know.”

  “I never imagined I could be in this much pain. I’m sorry, I can’t bear this.”

  “I order you to survive Jaunty, and as my best friend I plead with you to hold on. I can’t lose you.”

  Jaunty didn’t respond, he passed out again. Winn was filled with despair at Jaunty’s condition and his losing the will to live. He had to get them out of the prison and Menegar.

  Winn wracked his brain thinking of possible ways to escape, but nothing was coming to him. Where are my so-called friends, Ippili, Vanya, Samir, and Allesca? Especially Allesca for Jaunty. Where are the angels, Mikel and Gabius?

  “Help friends!” Winn yelled out into the night. “Help heavenly creatures! Why have you forsaken me at my darkest hour? Almighty please help, they are killing my friend. Heal him, save us! I am supposed to be the Champion of Aviel, how is this part of that plan? Are you all so weak you can’t save us from Menegar? If so, we are all doomed.”

  Winn didn’t hear an answer to his prayer.

  Chapter 4: Devilry

  June 4, 850 A.A.

  Winn finally drifted off to sleep during the early morning hours. It felt like mere minutes later when the door to the cell slammed open and in walked six huge, even for Menegar, guards and following them walked in an averaged sized but regally dressed Menegar. He was wearing black shiny leather boots, green felt pantaloons, and a red tunic with golden buttons. On his head was a gold headband that sat between his horns.

  This must be King Ajani. I wonder why he is choosing to visit us.

  “I am Ajani,” the King of Menegar said. “I am told you refuse to answer any more questions, is this true?”

  “It is,” Winn said.

  “Very well, it’s a pity about your friend. All that abuse and we barely got anything useful out of him or you. Don’t worry, I am going to keep him alive, just to keep you in check. Though if you try to escape again, I will give him to Reva to play with.”

  “What do you want with me?” Winn asked. “I will never help you.”

  “You would be surprised what you are capable of once you are freed of certain…inhibitions.”

  Winn felt a pressure in his ears then a being apparated in the room.

  “Ures,” Winn hissed. “I am not surprised you are mixed up in this. You are a coward. Face me, I will take you down.”

  “You can’t even free yourself from this prison. What makes you think you can face me? The real cowards are your friends. My brothers and sisters are so afraid they won’t come to you in your hour of need. I heard you crying to them last night, begging them to help you. Turns out you are all alone. Jezel lives here, I live here. No god or angel dares to face us.” He turned to Ajani. “More information can be wrung out of Kide. It is too soon for the next step. Torture him if you have to.”

  “Most high Ures,” Ajani said. “I respectfully disagree. If he won’t talk to save his friend, he won’t talk to save his own skin. Torturing him would be ineffective and might hurt his capabilities.”

  “I will let you proceed as you wish,” Ures said. “Just know that I hold you personally responsible for succeeding in this endeavor. Don’t fail me.” With that said, Ures disappeared.

  “You have to have Ures to do your heavy lifting don’t you?” Winn said. “You can’t defeat us on your own.”

  “Say what you will human,” Ajani said. “Ures helps us, your gods help you. All is fair in war. Nevertheless, believe it or not you will become my subject. You will become my greatest general, and you will wipe your own people off the face of Arath.”

  Winn laughed. “That is ludicrous. Are you drunk?”

  “Let’s just say I know some people who can change minds, in fact, the best mind bender on Arath is here now, and she is ready to meet you. Eksela, please come meet your new charge.

  A tall female Vestuan with long dark blue hair and blue eyes walked in. Winn had never seen the kind of outfit she wore before. The pantaloons were skintight as was her bodice, which a slender but curvy torso. She looked young, but Winn couldn’t tell the age of Vestuans very well. She smiled at Winn and despite her many teeth it was a nice smile. Her face was fair. She looked like a normal Vestuan, less menacing than most he had seen. Certainly not intimidating. He was shocked when he heard her voice in his mind.

  “So, you are admiring the body of a different species. Wouldn’t Sarah be unhappy with you right now? Just so you know Vestuans and humans have been known to mate. Something to keep in mind later.”

  “I have been in your presence for ten seconds and I already know your whole life story. Tiga, Torvee, Thora, your pedophile father Sevand, Svae with her hot ass, Hooch who you lost at Roma, and Wind, the fastest
horse on Arath. Hold on to those memories as tightly as you can, because I am going to take them away. You won’t remember Sarah, your cousins, your friends, your soldiers, or your family. You will remember how to fight. You will remember how to lead an army. You will still be a champion, but not the champion of Aviel, rather the champion of Menegar, and of my master, Jezel.”

  Eksela left the cell without saying a word.

  “I take it that Eksela spoke with you about what is coming,” Ajani said. “It is creepy when she talks inside your head. I had to keep her from doing so with me. Ures blocked her out of my head. You see, your mind will be changed. You will be my champion. Isn’t that fantastic?”

  “I don’t care what kind of black magic she can do,” Winn said. “I will never serve you.”

  “We shall see little human, we shall see.”

  Ajani walked out of the room followed by his guards. The cell door slammed behind them.

  “Oh shit,” Winn said. “Jaunty, that bitch is going to mess with my mind.”

  Jaunty was still out cold from all his wounds.

  “What am I going to do now?”

  Shortly after the King’s visit the cell door opened again and ten guards came in the room. One unlocked all Jaunty’s chains and took him out of the room.

  “Where are you taking him?” Winn demanded.

  “The same place you are going, shut up,” one of the guards said.

  Two guards started unlocking Winn’s chains and as they finished freeing one limb, two guards would grab it. Soon Winn was free of the chains but was held tight by eight guards. They took him out of the cell and through a maze of halls and up several flights of stairs until they arrived at the main prison door. As the guards worked the locking mechanism to unlock the door and open it, Quszal Cavad walked up to Winn.

  “I hate that you are leaving so soon, though you did turn out to be a troublemaker. If the King would have allowed it, I would have tortured you myself. No, you can’t appreciate Purgatory Prison until you have been a guest for at least five years or so. I wouldn’t be surprised if after the King has used you for his purposes that he doesn’t put you back here. I do hope so, because if that day comes, I will torture you for sure. By the way, after you have experienced where you are going, you will be begging to come back here. I would say I pity you, but I don’t.”

  Winn didn’t reply to the warden. After a moment the main prison door was opened, and on the other side a cart, more like a rolling cage, was waiting for them. The guards threw Winn and Jaunty in the cart and they started moving out of the tunnel. It was dark and Winn could see hundreds of lights once they were free of the tunnel, but nothing clearly. It was a cloudy night so there was no moonlight. They traveled for about an hour when they reached a gate leading out of the city. Winn thought they were going south because there was no smell of the ocean in the air. Once they traveled thirty minutes away from the city Winn looked back and he could barely see any light at all. The twelve guards surrounding the cart each had a torch and the light from the torches was the only thing Winn could really see. He couldn’t tell if the road he was on was surrounded by trees, fields, structures or rocks. He could tell there was a slight rise in the grade of the road.

  After a few hours of traveling in the pitch-black night the guards pulled to the side of the road and made a camp. They built a fire and cooked an animal that was unrecognizable to Winn over the fire. They left Winn and Jaunty in the cart, but at least they were not tied up.

  “I’ve got to take a piss,” Winn said to the guard who brought them water and a small piece of the animal they cooked.

  “Piss out of the bars, you’re not getting out of that cart until we get where we are going,” said the guard.

  Winn woke Jaunty up to give him some of the food and water.

  “Where are we?” Jaunty asked in a pained voice.

  “I have no idea,” Winn said. “All I know is that the road slopes up and I think that we are heading south. How are you feeling?”

  “How do you think I am feeling?”

  “I was hoping you were feeling better.”

  “I still feel like I would love to die, does that answer your question?”

  “Yeah, it does.”

  Jaunty fell back to sleep in a few minutes, but Winn was so upset over Jaunty’s condition, the lack of help from his godly friends, and the real possibility of his brain being erased that he didn’t sleep a wink all night. Winn knew he needed to sleep sometime, but it wasn’t coming to him lately.

  As the sun rose the next morning Winn could see that they were in a forested and hilly area. There was no breakfast but a small cup of water, and right after Winn and Jaunty drank the guards started moving again. They traveled up and down the foothills and through a few tiny Menegar villages. The villagers would come out to the road and stare at Winn and Jaunty, but none of them threw things or yelled at them. Winn felt like a creature in a menagerie. Something to be stared at and not fully comprehended.

  The next day the hills became steeper and there was only one village. The temperature started dropping as they climbed the bigger hills. The following day Winn decided that the big hills were turning into small mountains. It became even colder and Winn and Jaunty were shivering all day and night. Winn asked for some blankets and a Menegar guard laughed at him. He went to sit by their fire while Winn and Jaunty were stuck in the cold wearing nothing but loin cloths.

  The following morning there were no more hills or little mountains. Winn saw that they were at the base of a huge mountain and that there were several mountains behind the huge one. The huge mountain was bigger than Mt. Edan. Winn got a sick feeling in his stomach. He knew where the Menegar were taking them. Vanya told him about this place once, the Black Veil Mountains. This was the home of the dark wizards. Eksela must be a dark wizard and they are taking us to her lair. This must be the most dangerous place on Arath. They breed the darguls here, they eat the flesh of man and vile beast here, they transform men and Dellosians into horrible and unnatural creations here, and they evidently destroy minds here.

  Winn had killed some dark wizards at Rama. He hoped they didn’t know about that. He didn’t want to be eaten as revenge. The guards moved out soon after sunset and trudged up the steep mountain road. They reached an altitude where it was cold enough for snow to be on the ground. As they went up the trail the snow got deeper. Snow began to fall. At noon they stopped for a brief lunch and they threw some warm meat in the wagon. Winn and Jaunty devoured the foul meat. Don’t think about the taste. Don’t think about what kind of meat it is.

  “I think I am hungrier for eating the meat,” Jaunty said in a strained voice.

  “I know if feels that way, but something is better than nothing,” Winn replied.

  “No talking,” one of the guards said. Winn glared at the huge female, but he didn’t say anything back to her. He knew he had to save his strength.

  They passed the tree line soon after they moved out after lunch. The icy wind picked up on the bare rockface and it was stabbing Winn and Jaunty like knives. The snow became thicker and Winn could barely see Jaunty because of it. They trudged slowly along until the sun, that they could barely see, was setting. By then the snowfall had slackened off considerably, and it was just a light dusting. They came to an opening into the mountain and stopped there. Above the entrance to the mountain, carved in the stone, was a wizard cutting the head off a human female. An inscription was carved in an ancient language that Winn could read but he had no idea what the language was. The inscription read “The blood of the innocent gives rise to the might of Jezel and his followers, the Dark Wizards. Arath is ours.”

  “What does it say Winn?” Jaunty asked.

  “Nothing good.”

  “You are mad at me because I want to die,” Jaunty said.

  “Actually, right now I am more worried about what is down in that hole.”

  Winn didn’t have to wait long to find out, because Eksela and two more women walked out o
f the mountain and up to the wagon. One of the women was a Slavesta and the other to Winn’s amazement and horror was human. The human woman was lovely to look at, she looked like she was either Fussien or a Sapon. She noticed Winn was looking at her, and she bared her teeth and they were all filed down into points. Winn almost vomited when he saw them.

  “You are free to go,” Eksela said to the guards. “They are in my charge now.”

  The guards started walking away.

  Eksela made a gesture with her hand, and the locked door to the wagon flew open.

  “Get out,” she said in Avish.

  Winn and Jaunty climbed out and stood shivering by the wagon. Winn felt an invisible prison surround him like the one the dargul used on him in Sapon. He desperately tried to see the barrier in his mind. She spoke to him in his mind once again.

  “Welcome to the Black Veil Mountains. This is Mt. Shadow. You are about to enter the domain of the dark wizards, my home. Your friend will probably be eaten after he has outlived his usefulness to me. You will leave here a changed man, one with loyalties to Jezel, Menegar, and most strongly, to me. There are no chains here, as you can tell none are necessary. There is great power here, the greatest concentration of power in Arath. Once the Menegar conquer Aviel, with you helping them, the dark wizards will emerge from the Black Veil and rule the world.”

  I bet Ajani doesn’t know that. What is to keep me from telling him when you release me back to his control.

  “Ha, you don’t understand. I will be with you for the rest of your life. You are my pet now. You will beg when I say beg, you will kill when I say kill, and you will pleasure me when I demand it. You certainly won’t have the free will to say anything to anyone, including Ajani, that I don’t want to be said. Your life is mine.”

  If you are in such control of me, and are so powerful, why do you need your friends by your side?

  “Do you like my friends? You will get to know them very well. I have other things that occupy my time and Hezza and Yhadi will help me with your conditioning when I am busy. Right now, they are going to deposit you in your new home.”