The eagle kin moved his wings and glared at the legion.
“Legion commander!”
“Ancestor,” a wolf kin answered.
“Attacking fellow people of Dena when we are under attack by the forces of Drafeng!” The eagle kin glowered at the man.
“Drafeng?”
“They were out of contact from everyone else,” Claire said. “Clean their ranks. They will defend Shivernsin against the Drafeng and assist the scouts.”
The judges in the court all looked to Claire and nodded. She might not be a Guardian, but her previous position and all she had done had gained her an authority among the ancestors and judges that few other people could match.
Claire dismissed her massive mana barrier and stepped down onto the wall.
The Guardians moved to make room for her and then headed out onto the plains to corral the beast kin legion.
***
Aila sat behind her father, against the wall. The council of the dark elves had all gathered under his orders. He had taken up the post as king of the dark elves, sitting at a table filled with people, all with their own plans, and a few of them who had been part of the prosecution that had passed down a sentence of death upon him.
The people in the room were all subdued but that didn’t mean that they had lost their stubborn roots.
“The Underdark is our home and you are saying that we need to leave because of some unconfirmed reports,” High Chancellor Elrec said.
“We might not have confirmed them, but I trust my daughter,” Emmyth said.
“We must not rush this decision, or it could create chaos among our people,” High Chancellor Vaeta said. Others agreed with her.
Emmyth looked over to Aila, gathering his strength. He set his jaw.
Aila felt that something had changed within her father; there was a harder edge to him now.
“Very well.” Emmyth took off the metal circlet and tossed it into the middle of the table. “I will not force you. I will be leaving with my family by tomorrow morning. You decide what you want. I do not know when we will return. I hope that I will be able to see you and sit around this table and argue for our people. Instead, I fear that the Underdark will become your tombs.”
Emmyth stood.
“You can’t leave!” Chancellor Leena said.
“I can and I will. I will do what is best for my family and me—what is best for all of us. Maybe some others will listen to us and, through that, survive what is to come. You have all heard from the judges, from our elven ancestor, what the Drafeng are. We might live in the Underdark, but we always say that we wish to learn more. When did we start hiding down here from the rest of the world? This affects all of Dena.”
***
Seeing the lich standing in the air over Shivernsin, Nedo had felt as if a blade hung above his neck, waiting to claim his life.
His senses were incredibly sharp; it was how he had been able to survive this long, being in the legions.
One person could render us useless and stop our attack.
He thought of the people formed of purple power. The ancestor among them had to be much older and powerful to make all of the beast kin feel their bloodlines submitting to him.
Instead of a battle, they were all checked by different judges and courts. People’s deepest secrets and their inner darkness was revealed in front of all. They were removed from the legion. They were given different tasks to carry out as punishment for their actions. Hearing what they had done, Nedo was pleased that he had remained in the north; to the south, where the fighting was the most intense between the humans and the beast kin, sounded like hell. He was just doing his job but he saw how that could be twisted and turned to use him as a vehicle for evil instead of good.
He heard about the doorways and the creatures that were coming from an unknown land to attack the people of Dena. How they had twisted and confused the people of Dena, getting them to weaken one another and fight against one another. How the clan spirits had been suppressed by their fellows and that now the clan spirits, freed from their chains, were spreading across Dena to take on new champions.
Now he stood in front of that same lich who stood in front of a purple flame, using her dark magic. There was a gnome with her, as well as the leaders of Shivernsin. Seeing the inside of the stronghold, shivers ran down Nedo’s spine. He hadn’t known just how deep the stronghold’s strength had been buried, or the fact that they had not just dwarves but people from all races working within their halls.
Claire turned from the purple flames. “It will take too long to reorganize the legion forces. Commander Nedo, is it?” she said, taking command of the people in the room.
Nedo coughed and nodded, not sure what to say.
“You will lead your forces to assist the forces of Shivernsin. We are fighting here for Dena, not borders and lines in the sand. So, I will have your complete agreement and you will fight to the best of your ability. I do not need heroes or grand sacrifices—I need dead Drafeng. Can the legion do that?”
“Yes,” Nedo said.
“Prove it.” Her eyes bore into his.
He gritted his teeth and gripped his fist, feeling his fighting spirit flaring.
“Looks like you’re not all spineless,” Claire threw out.
The purple flames changed and resolved into a beast kin.
“Guardian Clem?”
“Ascen has been secured.”
“Time to put that army of idiots to use. Send them to clear doorways out,” Claire said, a coldness to her voice, as cutting as the frozen wind outside of Shivernsin.
Chapter: Army of Light’s Trial
Guardian Clem and the other Guardians looked at the camp a few hundred meters away.
“Are we sure about this?” Andrea, a human, asked as she looked at the army. She had grown up around the church and their army her whole life. She knew how brutal they could be.
“We have to place our faith in something—is it not the oath that we took?” Clem asked, looking at the army ahead of him. He was scared as well.
His clan spirit from the snake clan appeared behind him and looked to the Guardians.
“A Guardian is made not of his strength but of his perseverance.”
His words reassured them and they held onto their weapons tighter.
“Today, the Army of Light will be the one judged. Fan out and circle them.” Clem looked to a group of four.
They nodded and everyone started to move, quickly stealing through the forest and around the army.
Clem remained hunched over as he moved forward.
They don’t have sentries out—they don’t even have a proper sanitary system. I heard that the army wasn’t organized—a plague to the people as much as the enemy. I didn’t think that it was all true. I thought it was slaves making it up.
Clem got within a hundred meters of the camp, looking at the half-made tents or the opulent tents. There were people at fires, playing games; others were drinking, or talking and joking.
Clem crouched there with his fellow Guardians. He could feel the power running through him. His oath stayed firm in his mind.
He felt as though this was right where he needed to be, where he was supposed to be. It was a strange feeling as he trusted the people behind him.
He saw a purple light appear on the opposite side of the camp.
Clem let out a yell as he reached out and a purple hammer appeared in his hand.
The other Guardians with him were only a second behind as their hammers rang out across the camp.
Courts started to appear, merging together and using the combined power of the Guardians to become stronger.
Chains reached out, clamping down on the soldiers who were starting to run around.
Clem and the Guardians fanned out, watching the growing panic as courts appeared at the edges of the army’s camp and judges started to form, taking their seats with stiff expressions on their faces. They knew of the trials that lay ahead of them.
***
Father Bryce got up from his bed, pushing the women there out of his way as his guard rushed in.
“What is happening?”
“That purple light, Father—it followed us! There are chains catching people!” the guard yelled.
“Get the horses!” Bryce yelled.
The guard nodded and left. Bryce pulled on some clothes, staggering around as he tried to pull on his pants.
A different guard returned.
“Pack up my belongings! Hurry! Else I’ll have you flogged for dereliction of duty!”
The guard had a white face as he started to gather up the valuable items in the tent, “donated” to or “requisitioned” by Bryce over the years.
He got outside, seeing the horses were prepared.
He saw the purple courts in the sky. People lay before them in chains, spilling their guts to them.
“Get my belongings! We must continue on to fight these demons!”
The guards ran into his tent to help the guard in there already as Bryce got up onto his horse.
There was a noise behind him as the tent was ripped apart. The women screamed from inside as chains dragged out the guards.
“No, no, no!” Bryce shook his head as if what was happening before him couldn’t be.
He dug his heels into his horse. It let out a neigh and took off. His remaining guards followed him. He saw those who had been gathering his goods ran out of the tent, only to be grabbed by those chains.
Looking around, there were people being snatched out of their tents and off the ground with ease.
His horse ran between tents.
Someone snatched from the ground tried to break the chain with a torch, only to lose their grip. It landed on a tent, setting it alight.
Bryce’s blood ran hot. He would return this indignity tenfold. He was a man of the church! No one was allowed to do this to him!
He heard a scream behind him as a man was snatched off his mount.
Bryce ducked down and kicked his heels into his steed mercilessly, just looking to escape. He heard others crying out.
He was near the edge of camp when something wrapped around him. He was torn off his mount.
“I am a high father of the Church of Light! You demons will never win over me! You will regret this as the holy fires of the Church of Light will cleanse you from these lands. You mixed beasts! Humans are the purity of the land and are the custodians of Dena!”
He landed with a group of people who were before a courtroom.
“I killed those people, all of them,” the man said with a dazed look.
“Why?”
“It was the right thing to do. I was ordered to do so. They would have come for my family and for my people if I didn’t.”
“They were humans.” A dwarf in the courtroom hit his hand on the table.
“They were cursed,” the man said.
“And so shall you be,” the elven woman said. “I suggest that he will live out the lives of the people he has killed, as well as the true history of the Knights of Light every night and wake every morning, unable to speak, unable to communicate, and to serve others who require his help.”
“Agreed!” The court agreed as the man seemed to regain his spirit and start fighting against the bonds that held him.
Bryce wanted to yell out but he couldn’t.
One by one, people were brought before the court and they revealed any and all crimes that they had committed in their lives. Based upon their crimes and severity, they were given different sentences. Most of them got similar sentences as the first man, having to live the lives of those he killed before working for others and not accepting anything for himself.
“Ah, Father Bryce Woods,” the gnome of the court said as Bryce was brought before the court.
They all gave him cold looks.
He sneered at them in response.
“You have committed grave sins upon the people of Dena for most of your adult life. The crimes that you have possibly committed is extensive.” The gnome shook his head as he sighed. “Show him the truth of the Drafeng and the Knights of Light.”
The elf used her magic and Bryce’s head dropped till his chin stopped at his chest.
He saw the Knights of Light coming together, most of them being healers and carers of some kind, how it had been twisted into its current state, a history of the fighting against the Drafeng.
He emerged from it all with wide eyes.
“I did it for the church! My personal power is the church’s power! The Father of Light will protect me!” he yelled, gripping onto his belief tighter than ever.
“Ah, because you are ordained by a higher power, that means that anything you do is placed at their feet? Is it their fault that you killed innocents, that you put towns to fire in his name because they slandered you? You did that, not a higher power. You said for those people to be killed. At some point, it was no longer what your Lord of Light wanted—it was what you wanted and then covered over by saying it was his will. Do you equate his will to yours?”
“All I have done is for him!”
“For a lord who is pure, who one might find salvation with, do you think that even he can look past the crimes that you have committed in his name?”
“Do not think that you can interpret his will!”
“His will—and you know what that is?”
“I am a mere instrument of his will!” Bryce said.
“And now we will go in logic circles, skipping from one to the other. That we might not know what your lord’s will is, that we are counteracting him. Though aren’t our actions the work of the almighty. Are you special?” the beast kin asked.
“I am an ordained father of the Church of Light!”
“A church that was created by a force attacking Dena. They didn’t have to do anything with you, did they?” the dwarf asked.
“Not even a hint of chaotic power. Left to his own devices, he was a better tool than they could ever make him,” the elf said in a tired and sad voice.
“Every day, you will serve the people of Dena. You will be unable to speak, or talk; you will rely on their kindness to survive. You will never be allowed to hurt someone from Dena again. Every night, you will live the life of someone from the Knights of Light order and you will live the lives of the people you killed. In time, you might succumb to madness, but you will not be allowed to purposely harm yourself. You will remain here, to make up the newly reclaimed army and serve during this war to help the people of Dena. You have the weapons and armor. Time you used them to defend Dena instead of using them to persecute and kill.”
The human of the court said, “Is the court agreed?”
“Agreed!” The others agreed and the chains entered Bryce’s skin and bound him.
He made to yell out but he couldn’t.
“Go and report to Guardian Clem for assignment.”
Bryce took off at a jog, his body moving against his will.
He screamed internally, cursing them all, but there was nothing that he could say. He was truly mute.
Chapter: Reinforce the North
Aila looked back over the snow-swept mountains to where the Underdark lay.
She pulled her cloak tighter against the wind and turned to look at the group of dark elves. Rangers could be seen here and there, watching over the long line of elves who snaked through the mountain passes toward Shivernsin.
I hope that they survive. Her eyes fell on her mother’s carriage. Her father drove the carriage, not looking like the elven king of the Underdark, just her father who had given up being in the warmer carriage so that some children and elderly could rest there.
Aila patted Ryan on the back. He wasn’t comfortable in the cold winds and he let out a displeased noise that vibrated through his body.
“Not far now.” Aila looked in the distance. A silhouette was revealed as the blizzard thinned for a few seconds.
***
In the cold skies above the Sto
ha Mountains, a lonely figure flew through the peaks. Red and gold wings appeared on his back, flapping occasionally as he flew against the wind.
Anthony dove lower; his wings flapped to cut his momentum as he came upon a cave. His wings stabilized him as he stepped into the cave.
There was a sadness in his motions as he walked into the cave.
He reached the traps, turning into a black fog that shot across them all, not disturbing any of them. He reached the repaired wall.
Anthony touched it and Bruce sent out his power. The wall cracked and turned, creating a doorway. Anthony passed through and walked through the hallway.
Reaching the end, he stood within the tomb of the Guardians. Row upon row rested men and women of all races who had stood together, who had given their lives for a better tomorrow. For those they had sworn to protect, they had laid down everything.
Anthony felt a pressure rest on him as he looked at them, something that gripped his very soul. These men and women deserved all of the respect he could conjure.
His eyes swept over them all, seeing the Guardian emblem upon their tombstones, seeing names he didn’t understand before, but now brought back memories of joy: When he had a beer with them in some tavern, when they had met up and ventured forward into the unknown, or shared a journey to the next town over. Training with them to defend Dena. Working to bring down criminal organizations and clear the lands. Eating hard food in unforgiving places and cracking a joke, laughing; despite it all—maybe even because of it all—they needed those moments.
Anthony took strength from those memories. He felt twisted inside. Others would see these stones, these names, and they would think of the sacrifice, but they didn’t know the person; they didn’t know the brightness they brought, their favorite jokes, the way they doted on their children, or were chased around by their other halves.
Knowing all of that, Anthony was nearly brought to his knees in grief.
He walked on, knowing that those here didn’t want his pity or his despair. They had stood for their watch; they had carried out their duty and so would he.
A Lich's Love (Death Knight Series Book 5) Page 9