by Mark McCabe
When All the Leaves Have Fallen
Chronicles of the Ilaroi
Book Two
Mark McCabe
Copyright © 2018 Mark McCabe
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Serotine Press Australia
www.sereotinepress.com.au
ISBN: 978-0-6484918-2-8
Cover artwork and design by Jeff Brown Graphics
www.jeffbrowngraphics.com
Maps by Fictive Maps
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Author website: https://markmccabeauthor.com
To my wonderful partner, Deborah, who advised, supported and encouraged me at every turn and without whom I could never have finished.
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When All the Leaves Have Fallen, the second and final book in the Chronicles of the Ilaroi series, continues the story which began in Book One: As Fire is to Gold.
Chapter 1
The forest outside the small hut was unusually quiet for a Spring day. It is as if, thought Kell, the whole of Ilythia is holding its breath in dread anticipation of what unspeakable crime Golkar will descend to next. He knew, of course, it was his mood that had engendered such a dark thought, just as he knew that any attempt to shake off his depression would be pointless.
His hopes lay in tatters. He could see no way now to stop Golkar from running rampant with whatever mad plan he had hatched. It had been three days since Tarak had passed and still Kell mourned the loss of his colleague as if it had just happened.
He had known of it the instant it occurred. Kell couldn’t explain how, or why. It was an event without precedent, so he could liken it to no previous experience. But he knew, nonetheless, and without a shadow of a doubt. Suddenly, and without any warning, he had sensed that Tarak was gone, either dead or forced in some way to leave Ilythia. It didn’t matter which, the result was the same. His colleague was no longer a living force within this plane of existence. Kell was on his own, and he sensed that now, he alone was the last bulwark that stood between Golkar and his total dominion of Ilythia.
That had to be what the madman wanted, why no longer mattered, and it seemed as if it would only be a matter of time before he achieved his goal. If Tarak could be disposed of so quickly, then what hope did Kell have? Whether it was Golkar or his ally who had disposed of his fellow Guardian seemed equally inconsequential now. Kell knew that he hadn’t the faintest idea how to oppose either of them.
At least he wouldn’t just sit and wait for them to come to him. He owed it to the people of Ilythia to not go down without a fight. The vows he had taken couldn’t be denied simply because he himself was in mortal danger. If anything, he was needed now more than ever. He had thought long and hard about what he should now do and had made his decision.
His first concern was for Nim. He had told the quickling to meet him and Tarak at the hut and, by his reckoning, his friend was overdue. Kell knew there was no reason to be overly concerned at this stage, however. Although he’d expected to see Nim the previous evening, any one of a thousand things could have delayed him given the distance he had been asked to cover. Unfortunately, Kell couldn’t afford to wait much longer. If the quickling didn’t show up soon he would have to go without him, as much as it would pain him to do so.
They had agreed on a way the wizard could leave a message if he did need to leave without his aide, so that wouldn’t be a problem, but he would rather not go without knowing his friend was safe. He had already lost Tarak without being able to lift a finger in his defence and what he was about to do would soon imperil another. To lose Nim as well would be too much to bear.
But he also knew he couldn’t afford to tarry. The loss of Tarak had made him realise that to sit and wait would only allow Golkar to keep the initiative he had already seized. For all Kell knew, Nim’s failure to show up when expected might be a sign that he too had fallen victim to either Golkar or his helpers. Kell could wait, but not for long. If he was to do anything to hinder his renegade colleague then he would have to start becoming unpredictable. Remaining idle wouldn’t achieve that.
It only took him a short time to prepare to leave the hut. He would need to move quickly and stealthily to achieve his goal, and that meant travelling lightly. Hastily gathering his few precious supplies together, he picked out the essential items and discarded the rest. Then, once he had packed and was secure in the knowledge that he was ready to move at a moment’s notice, he spent the remainder of the day combing through his books again, searching for something to help him against his fellow wizard, all the while keeping one eye on the pathway down which he hoped to see Nim appear.
The books that drew most of his attention were his oldest and most precious ones. He had kept copies of his notes from his time as a student under the tutelage of Tanis and something told him that if anything could help him it would come from there. Although Kell had no recollection of the mage mentioning such an eventuality, his mentor must have considered what might happen if the Guardians ever fell out with one another. Given that it had been several centuries since he had left, Kell felt that if he scoured through his old notes he might find something there that he hadn’t understood the importance of at the time he’d recorded them.
And so it was that he spent his day. To no avail, however. Although he hadn’t looked at these records in many a year, and although they brought back many pleasant memories of those early years, ultimately he found himself no closer to an answer than when he had begun. The closest he came were some oblique references Tanis had made to the existence of other worlds.
The Ilaroi, it seems, had not always been here. They had come to Ilythia from some other world, for what reason Tanis either didn’t know or chose not to reveal.
Tanis had talked of what Kell at the time had believed to be no more than a theory, that there were, in fact, many other worlds that existed, separate in time and space from Ilythia, not just the one that had been the Ilaroi’s original home. He had suggested that it might be possible to either establish or locate intersection points where a crossover between such worlds was feasible.
When pressed on the point, however, he had emphasised that the concept was nothing more than speculation and he had moved on to another subject. At the time, Kell had thought it just an idle idea he hadn’t been interested in pursuing. Now, with Norvig’s news, he wondered if interaction between such worlds might indeed be possible. After all, the Ilaroi had done it, or at least had claimed to.
Admittedly, they were gods, or the closest things to gods that Ilythia had ever seen, not counting mythical beings such as Zar, the ‘god’ the sligs were convinced look down upon them. Nonetheless, the Ilaroi’s feat proved that it was possible. Even if that were so, however, how Golkar could have achieved such a thing remained unknown.
As the day wore on, his concern for Nim mounted and he began to more seriously consider the prospect that he too had fallen victim to Golkar. Then, just before dusk, with his hopes fading as fast as the setting sun, the quickling turned up.
Their meeting was a joyous one, with both obviously relieved to find the other safe. For the first night in many days they both ate heartily and Kell found his spirits lifting. Throwing off the lethargy that had dogged him following the loss of Tarak, he allowed himself to hope that he might yet prevail over his colleague. He knew now what he had to do.
He couldn’t hope to resist his colleague alone.
It was time to call on his own unexpected ally. As hard a choice as that was, it had to be done. Everyone would be at risk should Golkar achieve his aim of becoming the sole living Guardian. Better to imperil yet another of his friends in this deadly game than to allow that to happen. Whatever the cost, Golkar had to be defeated.
In contrast to Kell’s new-found sense of purpose, however, Nim took the news of Tarak’s demise very hard. Although he knew Kell well enough to know the wizard wouldn’t have spoken of it had he not been certain, he found the news hard to reconcile with what he had recently seen. It was only a matter of days since he had left Tarak in the Vale and he’d been sure the herb-master had intended to join them in Annwn as quickly as he was able. He told Kell he had expected to find the two engrossed in plans to combat their colleague. He could only assume that Tarak had unexpectedly run into either Golkar or his mysterious human champion somewhere between the Vale and Annwn.
Most of all, Nim’s heart went out to Jekira. Having seen her love for Tarak grow over the years, it saddened the quickling that something so pure could be brought to such an abrupt and unnecessary end, for no other reason than to feed one man’s desire for power. Kell could only agree.
At least they had the comfort of knowing that Jekira herself would be safe, for the moment at least. Nim told Kell of Tarak’s plan to send her off to her family in Keerêt before he himself departed from the Vale. If he had been true to his word, then by now she should have reached the city. Of all places in Ilythia, there she would be safest. The city was all but impregnable and Nim had seen that work had begun to strengthen its already formidable defences.
For his part, Kell was heartened to hear of the Algarian reaction to his message. He knew how important it was that they know they couldn’t count on the aid of the Guardians in what would most likely now become a full-scale war with the sligs. He was pleased to hear of the preparations that Elissa had immediately initiated. Kell knew that she was as fine a leader as Algaria had seen in many generations. For the first time in days, he went to sleep with hope in his heart once more.
The next morning, they were up early and away before the dawn. Nim obviously relished the opportunity to be riding for a change. He might be fleet of foot, but even he needed to rest after the enormous distance he’d had to cover in the past week.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” he asked Kell as their horses plodded along the forest track silently in the dim light.
“Mmmm. What?” Kell had been leagues away. He’d been thinking back to the time before he had become a Guardian, to the very day in fact that his mentor, Tanis, had taken him as a young lad back to Ral Partha to begin his training. They had ridden right through the night on that occasion. Tanis had been like that. Day and night had meant little to him. It was as if he had operated on some different timescale to the rest of Ilythia.
Kell remembered how on that night the great mage had been so close, barely speaking a word, while he himself had been brim full of excitement, overflowing with anticipation and wonder. In particular, he remembered the next morning, when they had ridden through the forested foothills with the fresh face of dawn just beginning to soften the gloom of the eastern sky at their backs.
He had grown up on the streets of a large town and had never seen a forest like that before that day. Since then he had come to love that time, that brief, and to him magical, interval that separated the night from the day, the pre-dawn, with its soft light, its stillness and its tranquillity. The forest was never quieter than it was then. That’s where he had been, remembering another morning long ago, when Nim’s voice had disturbed his thoughts.
“I’m sorry,” said Nim. “I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“It’s all right, my friend,” replied Kell, smiling softly and sitting up straighter in the saddle in an attempt to shake off his reverie. “I was thinking of happier times. Let it be Mishra’s will that we see some more of those when this is over. What was it you said?”
“I asked you if you’re sure you’re ready for this?”
“Sure? No. I’m not sure. But a better question would be, ‘Is there a better option than this at this point in time?’ The answer to that, I think, is also no.”
“If this is the pep talk,” replied Nim sardonically, “then I’m not feeling very inspired. You were supposed to say, ‘Of course I’m sure. If I was Golkar, I’d be quaking in my boots right now.’” The quickling’s grin betrayed his good humour, though Kell had no need of such signs. He knew his friend well enough to suspect he would still be quipping jokes though the very jaws of death were about to close around him.
“No, my friend,” he answered, turning his mind back more fully to the task at hand. “Like all courses, this is a dangerous one. I must do what I can, though, to take the initiative back from Golkar. He must be kept busy trying to deal with me. While he’s doing that, the Algarians and the sligs will be left to sort themselves out, without a Guardian tipping the odds for either side.
“If I run from him, that will simply leave him free to go where he pleases when he pleases. The odds are already heavily in his favour without handing him that advantage as well. And if I go to aid the Algarians, then he will simply side with the sligs. Such a war would be a bloody one and my instincts tell me he would still win out in the end. No. I must put him off balance, and keep him so. I must do the unexpected. If he’s unsure of me, then he will have to neutralise me before he can deal with his other affairs.”
“But can the Algarians withhold the sligs on their own?”
Kell winced, then drew in his breath. “Frankly, I don’t know, Nim,” he eventually replied. “But I do know that they must. And I also know that I’ll need to do more than just put Golkar off balance. In the end, I must find a way to defeat him.”
The look of concern on Nim’s face made it clear he still wasn’t altogether comfortable with Kell’s plan.
“I’m decided upon it, Nim,” the wizard continued, forestalling any chance for his friend to voice an objection. “So don’t try to dissuade me. It’s my task now to prod the hornet’s nest. I have some tricks up my sleeve that even you don’t know of. Once we reach the edge of Annwn we must part. You must go to warn your own people, and the elves as well. Even if we achieve nothing else, it’s our duty to ensure that they are warned of the danger ahead. I don’t believe Golkar, or the sligs for that matter, will stop if they succeed in defeating the Algarians. Golkar’s actions alone suggest some grander plan than that.”
“I know better than to argue with you once your mind is set,” replied the quickling. “And I can’t deny I’ll be glad to know my people are forewarned. But prodding a hornet’s nest is a dangerous game. The trick is to get close enough without getting stung yourself. I still don’t see how you can do that, get near enough, that is. You’ve been very circumspect about all this. Golkar will surely know as soon as you enter his valley.”
Kell smiled. “That’s what he thinks, as well. Imagine his surprise when he finds that I can turn up on his doorstep without his knowing it. That will take the wind out of his sails, rest assured. As for the rest? He needs to know that he’s in for a fight. I have to declare my hand at some time and now is that time. As I said, Golkar is not the only one with allies.”
~~~
Mardur slipped back into her tent as quietly as she could, heaving a sigh of relief as the flap closed behind her. The interior might have been warm and stuffy compared to the cool evening breeze blowing outside, but its closeness offered Mardur a welcome sense of security. Although she felt sure no one had seen her return to the camp, she worried each night that this time she might be caught. She could never forget that the line she walked was a dangerous one.
As she slipped out of her clothes she wondered if the lad was being as cautious as she was. She had done all she could to impress on him the importance of discretion and she hoped that she had succeeded. If any of the others found out what they were up, to it could mean death for both of them. There w
as always someone seeking to improve their lot at the expense of others and there were few if any in the slig camp who would balk at using such knowledge in their own interests.
Although the risks were high, Mardur knew that it was a chance she had to take. It would have been one thing to strike out on her own and hope to be taken in by another tribe while they were still within sight of the land she was familiar with. With the tribe now deep within Algarian territory, that was no longer an option. Besides, she had to believe there was still a way out of her predicament. Her plan was a good one after all. Norag was in his prime. If his seed wouldn’t give her the child she needed then no one’s would.
By the Horns of Rika, she mused, the lad was passionate. Holding her clothes up to her face, she inhaled deeply, smiling contentedly as the strong smells flooded her senses. Well, thought Mardur, enough of that. This wasn’t supposed to be about pleasure. It was about survival.
The following day, Mardur went about her usual business around the campsite, doing the chores that normally filled her days, tending her babe, washing their clothes at the waterhole, caring for the older members of the tribe, those whose family were either dead or off with the warriors. Somehow, she managed to pretend that life was still normal when in reality fear and worry had become her constant companions.
Gratefully, Norag had the sense to keep his distance while the others were around. It wasn’t so easy to avoid Varna, however. It was the usual practice for the women to work in groups, helping each other with the chores and chatting idly to pass the time, and Varna and Drait were both members of the small group of women Mardur commonly worked with.
Thankfully, Drait gave no indication she was aware of Mardur’s late-night trysts with her son. If she did know what was going on, she either didn’t mind or she wasn’t prepared to interfere. Mardur thought it more likely she was unaware. Given the older woman’s experience, if she had even the slightest inkling as to what was going on she wouldn’t stand by while Norag played such a dangerous game.