Undetected, they encircled the travelers. Gabriel signed for his unit to follow the plan thoroughly and to close in melee range only upon his command.
Five carriages moved through the woods at the western borders of Karelya, its path slowly narrowing.
Gabriel grabbed his oaken Maloy bow and reached for a Yanus arrow. He smiled at Ria, in the tree across the path from his own. Both of them grabbed the green ribbon, the symbol of their engagement, and wrapped it around their foreheads. Nocking his arrow, Gabriel turned his eyes to the convoy and she did the same.
In the northeast, one hundred feet up the flanks of the Goshean Bracelet facing Karelya, stood Aidus. In his flowing indigo robe, he was observing the vast woods of Karelya from a shelf shaded by the mountain. A huge vulture screeched and landed beside Aidus and he petted its head kindly. Then all of a sudden he grabbed its neck ignoring the bird’s razor sharp claws ineffectively slashing at his protected skin. He lifted it with one strong arm and held its head in front of his. Seconds later, his eye pupils morphed to the shape of the vulture’s as it continued with its useless struggle to break free and it didn’t go on for long. Aidus threw the dead bird off the cliff and turned to look south. He was able to pierce the distance that separated him and Gabriel with an unblinking gaze. Watching the assault on the convoy with his vulture-like eyes, he stood atop the shelf with total focus as if he’d turned to a lifeless statue.
Southwards, on the banks of the Gloor, the other half of the Galadus was running like the wind. Then Azurus jumped on a moored raft and started poling against the natural current of the river. The other elves followed him along the river bank.
In the east, Agathorn silently closed his eyes, listening to a sparrow landing on his shoulder, whispering in his ear. He turned to a large bear, more than eight feet high at the shoulders, standing still behind a tree. The bear was looking at him as silent as a tree bark.
Lenar was startled. “Why is it here? Whom did it come to punish?” asked the younger brother in fear. He added turning his eyes to the bear, “We are not sure of what is happening.”
Agathorn shook his head to the bear in firm refusal, dismissing the punisher –for the moment.
The bear fixated his eyes on him and slowly faded back into Karelya.
“It sensed something we didn’t and came on its own. The Punisher is never wrong.” Said Agathorn. He closed his eyes and whispered in ancient elvish, slowly floating in the air. He flapped his hands once turning them into huge eagle wings. In a matter of seconds, he was soaring.
In the west, all members of Gabriel’s Galadus were stretching their Maloy bows. Each marked his or her target amongst the guards of the convoy. The skin of the elves was transparent, and they easily blended with the tree trunks. Eagles soared above, and through them, they had excellent sight –a power bestowed upon them by their deity: Thar, The Watchful.
The wind lulled, and the leader of the convoy, a high ranking Neligan, stopped.
Bodies fell like flies under the hail of the Yanus arrows, and the remaining mercenaries drew their swords, shouting for the others to take cover. More fell under the flawless marksmanship of the Galadus. Ten out of the fifty Neligans reached the nature cover they sought but to their surprise, what they thought to be trees, were actually elven warriors with readied blades.
As mercifully as possible, elves inflicted swift punishment on the Neligans and victory seemed near. Jeda, one of the dozen elves present, waved for them to close in for the final kill. Against Gabriel’s orders, the elves joined Jeda, Aidus’s son, who waved as he climbed down from his spot.
Gabriel’s skin shone with anger towards his unit. “Back to your positions! Stick to the battle drill!”
Seeing that many had abandoned their posts and gone to melee range for the kill, Gabriel nodded to Ria, and both jumped down. They approached the last carriage, warily crying out to the others to watch their flanks and not get overconfident. They reached a spot where a small brawl was taking place between the elven warriors and the last couple of Neligans.
“Which part of the plan is this? We will have a small chat when we return home, Galad’Era. You follow my orders, not Jeda’s.” Gabriel said to his men in a firm, angry voice.
The elves scintillated with different colors each as per his or her power. Gabriel stepped forward to be in the lead. The colors of the elves paled while retreating, giving him space to fight the two remaining Neligan officers.
“Where is Jeda?” one of the elves asked. “He was the one who told us that you gave the order to close in.”
Gabriel scanned the area, looking for Jeda. His skin color changed to a frightening dark gray as he turned his eyes to his targets and moved toward them. The two Neligans were retreating slowly toward the carriage at the end of the convoy.
Ria looked at Gabriel and shook her head. The carriage's interior was dark, too dark for that time of day.
In the northeast, a smile nervously danced on Aidus’ face. Using the eyes of the vulture, Aidus watched his son gallop through trees on a dark green Pishante along the Igna Moairae to his direction. He turned towards the battle, eyes popped as excitement totally overcame him.
Gabriel held his bow in front of his face in a shield-like position. The bow’s metal edge was strong enough to block weapon strikes. He swung forward, thrusting its metal blade, while parrying a blow from a Neligan’s sword. He tumbled to the ground, dodging an axe from the other Neligan. He swung his bladed bow at the knees of his attacker, who screamed in pain, falling to the ground. Gabriel rocketed upward, carving the falling foe from belly to neck. The latter’s internals fell to the ground and landed on the rim of the carriage. He aimed an arrow at the back of the remaining Neligan’s head who was too slow to react.
“Drop it,” he commanded the Neligan officer.
The officer dropped his sword. But he was not trembling as he should have been... he was smiling.
“Wrong move, brave elf.”
Gabriel slowly turned his head to the dark opening of the carriage behind him. He paused, then looked back at Ria, and closed his eyes.
She ran to him in terror, unsheathing her sword…
A faint devilish laughter issued from inside the carriage.
When Azurus reached the riverbank beside the combat, he landed with a huge wave, and the water dispersed with rapid, hissing anger. Gloor had turned red and the high currents rampaging across it issued a ghastly roar. The elf froze in place as he landed, listening. He closed his eyes and caressed the bushes beside him. Seconds later, he was nearly invisible against the trees. Then, silently, he approached the battleground. Their outfits gave them away and Azurus counted as many as ten elite Neligans scattered around the field. They stood over dead elven bodies, burnt in a mysterious black fire.
Neligans? What are they doing here? He wondered.
He picked a small, white, semi-transparent feather from his belt and breathed it into the air. A faint breeze blew at his face. He grabbed Dalin, his golden bow, and picked a special arrow from the quiver, a thick Yanus arrow with barbed exterior. Taking aim at the first Neligan to his right, he fired.
Each passing second, as the shooting went on, its speed increased. Radiating with anger the breeze he brought turned to a strong wind. As he fired Dalin again and again, a small cyclone swirled around him. None of those who tried to reach him managed to, nor did those who jumped for cover. The cyclone he turned into got darker and the strokes of lightning created deep within it were carried by his arrows and fried his targets.
He finally stopped in the middle of the space where the brawl happened few minutes before. He paused, bending on one knee and holding his bow with his other hand. The storm faded and the thundering sound of the storm he’d created gradually faded. Yet the pure light of his skin persisted. He saw Ria’s body lying on the ground behind a tree. She was still alive, breathing faintly. He slowly turned his head to a tall, slim, humanoid figure, some twelve feet tall, standing on top of a fallen body.
Azurus recognized the green ribbon on Gabriel’s hand and saw his black hair. He stood up, squeezing his golden bow which glinted with radiance. The hulking humanoid twitched his head, and sniffed the air.
In a very rough booming voice, he spoke...
“Another Galad’Era, a Vemast, if I may add. Only an Elder can kill ten elite Neligans in less than a minute. That was quite impressive. Yet, you smell differently, Vemast, different even from other Elders. Why are you so far from the Eyes of Gosh? Aren’t you afraid it may… wink?”
Then he issued the echoing rough laugh once more. “Before you act, think. Are you the match of Gezradoth? Will you finally give me the duel I deserve in this wretched world of yours? Or will you go down silently like your pathetic brother?” His eyes were small pits of darkness and his mouth was like a four lipped razor petal blossoming.
“Wherever you came from, you shall never return,” replied Azurus, his radiance brewing a storm once again.
“What? You love me already?” said the demon, with a resonating chuckle.
Azurus waved Dalin in front of his chest as if drawing a symbol in the air. As the legendary bow moved, traces of lights were created in its path. Gradually, the symbol became clearer: it was a two-headed eagle.
The black-hooded creature moved his head with the bow’s motion and then shook his head, resisting the hypnotic effect. “This will be amusing.”
He suddenly fell to the ground, leaving behind him a black circle and a confused elf. Azurus stopped his motion while the symbol floated around his radiant form. He looked to the black circle, which seemed to be some kind of a living hole, moving toward him rapidly. He moved his bow to the floating symbol and drew an arrow from its light. He aimed his bow, pulling the light arrow which glowed and hummed, dropping golden fluid from its potency.
“Too bad I have my orders,” came the demon’s voice from beneath him. Azurus looked down and saw the demon as his own reflection across the hole on the ground. Below the creature, Azurus saw another realm. If Veil reflected the mysteries and secrets of Talor then what Azurus was gazing at was a world that projected Talor’s evils. Below, was a foul land of fumes and famine. Screeching winds that could either defeat you or drive you mad. Rivers boiled with blood and gore and cities were built with bones and pains. Down there, men did to each other what words dare not describe.
Azurus saw an enormous gray hand reaching out to him from below. He fired his arrow at the hand, but it simply burst into nothing the moment it passed to that other realm. Whatever light was carried by the arrow, it couldn’t survive the other realm. Azurus felt his feet sinking in the mass of flesh as the hand reached out for the rest of his body. Slowly he was pulled to the other realm and he felt his very soul giving in to the dark will of the other world. He looked around him, to the forest, and the trees there seemed to stretch their arms for him. When he mustered enough strength to reach for the branches, the hand pulled him all the way to the other realm. He fell from a dark red sky with burning clouds and soaring demons.
Then, he heard the screech.
As Azurus fell, he looked upward to find an enormous eagle diving, in the sky of his original world, toward the pit he fell into. The eagle looked at the fallen body of Gabriel, and rage thundered within his screech.
The demon Gezradoth stopped upon hearing the screech. The elf was unable to control any of his body functions in the new world he was falling into. Gezradoth let Azurus fall by him, plummeting towards the dark realm. The demon slowly turned up to look at the world through the opening in the red sky. He looked at the enormous eagle and spoke vile words, and the gray hand obeyed and retracted downwards.
The fumes of the other world were not for an elf to breath and life began to seep off Azurus. The intense white of his skin started to gray-out as he struggled to stay awake. Through his pain, he saw Agathorn’s eagle form reaching the ground above the pit. The eagle’s screech bellowed in anger. Demons flying close to the opening flew away as the screech thundered through the sky and across the dark realm.
Azurus’s vision began to blur. The last thing he saw was Agathorn’s form looking at him from above. Its wings were miles wide, stretching to the horizon. Its face, wings, body and eyes were ablaze. Azurus thought of only one thing before he lost consciousness… Phoenix.
“Your world is not that different from down here, Heart of Igna. Do not blame us, we answer the call of those who beg for our attention,” the demon said to Agathorn. The opening was shrinking rapidly as he continued, “And this time it was the call of envy, from your own brother. This is why I answered it myself. I wouldn’t miss this opportunity even if I would face eternity in torture. We will make an example of what is left of your Order, druid, and one by one I will rip the seeds of the Order of Eon out of the realm of mortality. Your youngest son, the crown jewel of your civilization, will never serve your world; Talor doesn’t deserve to have him.
“YOU ... don’t deserve to have him. As for your eldest, the one who was watching over the eyes… we have another use for him.”
The pit shrank to the size of a dot then disappeared altogether. The screech rose once more only to morph into Agathorn’s scream as he shifted back to his elven form.
“ Aidus!” he thundered as he held Gabriel’s broken body in his arms.
The wind carried Agathorn’s cry for his sons across Karelya. Beasts froze in solemn empathy and trees bowed in grief, as if patting Agathorn’s burdened shoulders. Branches and roots reached for Gabriel, taking him gently from his anguished father, who without any resistance, picked up Gabriel’s green ribbon and left him for the forest. Gloor rose silently and reached tenderly for Agathorn, and its kind waters caressed his legs, accepting his tears.
The tears of the Heart of Igna dissolved in the mystic river –to Igna they would return.
Looking at his son, taken by Karelya, he said, “Anam Cara, Gabriel. The last Heart of Igna will never beat in Talor.”
The Marias fawn appeared from behind a tree. It gazed silently at Agathorn's back. He felt her eyes but didn't turn.
“Leave!” he screamed. Cinder formed in the air and then faded into ashes, quickly swept off by the wind.
The fawn turned away, running.
Some distance away, on a gloomy path, Lenar and Aeron pulled the reins of their Pishantes, putting them to a halt. They observed the fawn running toward them on that long, dark forest road. When it had passed, Aeron said, "Something had frightened the Marias Gazelle.”
As if calculated something, Lenar said, “Hurry to your uncle, Aeron. Keep Agathorn company. Things are about to take a dangerous turn."
Aeron nodded to his father and pressed ahead. Lenar turned back, running after the fawn.
By the river, Agathorn bent a knee and caressed the spot where Azurus disappeared.
“Azurus. Do not forget,” he whispered.
From the forest, Lenar appeared galloping on his Pishante. Wind blew from the east and howled through the trees over land and river. Agathorn tightened his grip on his staff, and his palm radiated heat. Fire also answered his call, and on top of fire and air, Gloor carried Agathorn on his huge waves.
In the distance, where Agathorn was heading, Lenar saw the Punisher. The bear’s form was enormous, towering over the trees as it growled with anger. Before he disappeared from his sight, in a voice that resembled the hissing of a volcano, Agathorn gave his brother an order.
“Summon the Oaken Ring.”
Chapter Two
Lorken’s gift
Robyn Day Bringer
Shocked, I stared at the Ekran trying to calculate the magnitude of what I just heard. “Even the elves got their souls twisted?” I asked A’rak not expecting a reply. “Will you answer the call of the Oaken Ring?”
“I must. I am part of it. Very few of its members are still here, but its dominion is unscathed. Who knows? Maybe the Ring can salvage something.” He answered, doubt filling his words.
“You said ‘Maybe this is it,
’ what did you mean?” I asked.
“The moment when we unite. The moment when we give our last stand.” He answered.
“Last stand?” I laughed bitterly. “Haven’t you done that several times already? The Heart of Igna is probably going to avenge his sons, that is all. The wrath of the Tempest will not distinguish friends from foes. Now that it has been unleashed, it will destroy everything in its path. The men who killed his youngest son and kidnaped the other will have to answer to Igna’s wrath. War between men and elves is not unlikely.” I turned to leave. “Good luck with your last stand, my friend.”
“You know what, Genn?”
I stopped and turned back to him. He stared off the roof’s edge, not looking at me.
“What you took from Mergal one hundred years ago is perhaps the tip of the solution to all of this.”
“Without the Order of Eon, the Legacy of Mergal better remains forgotten.”
“They entrusted you with the Legacy of Mergal.” A’rak said more firmly. “You, a Genn, a creature of absolute and cruel neutrality. Didn’t you ever wonder why?”
“Yes,” I admitted. “I did.”
“Any conclusions?”
“Because I am a Genn. Because we are creatures of absolute and cruel neutrality.” I answered.
He nodded. “Correct. No one will expect you to interfere. No one can see you behind the veils. If any of them took the Rushk — the elves, the dwarves or even Trador, the whole world would implode around him, and he would never have a chance to make use of it. You saw it yourself. When Trador sent for the Order of Eon, the Chain of Cas moved faster. And when Agathorn returned, the Searing Summit moved even faster than they had before. Now Trador is sleeping, and Karelya’s future is gone with Gabriel. The Galad’Vemast is leaderless, and the dwarves are wiped from the south. Akavi, the last Trodon, is dead.”
The Dark Season Saga- the Final Harvest Page 21