Amulet of Souls (The Sentinels of Wizgrad Book 1) (5 page)

“I pray they do not know of this,” Mireylon said. He pushed the tip of the staff against the wall and it revealed a door like before. They entered the door to a long empty corridor that had nothing to light the way. Mireylon pushed open a door at the other end and ran towards the battle, this time on the other side.

“PLODE!” Mireylon yelled. Plode turned and looked surprised to see him.

“I’m so glad you’re here, did you not get the signals I sent?” Plode said.

“Nothing, what’s going on? What’s happened?” Mireylon questioned.

“The Yin, they just turned on us and started killing Gnomes. Eventually, they all started taking sides, and it led to this," Plode said.

With a rally of screams and bangs, several bodies landed in front of Mireylon. Everyone around him put their arms up to defend themselves from a large piece of loose rubble that was headed straight for them.

Just as the debris was about to land on Mireylon, Dakho, the Dwarf Commander, raised his hands into the air and the rubble hovered mid-air above Mireylon’s head. He then gestured his hands toward the enemy and the boulder hurtled through the air and hit their front line of attack.

“We can’t hold it for much longer,” Dakho shouted.

Iris glanced at the troops to see Dakho the Dwarf Commander, with six dwarves, five Elves, Liamar the Kijiar commander and her husband Koruko, a small band of eight men, along with Plode the Ogre. She was surprised to see that Dartis, The King fought amongst them also.

“We must fall back!” The King yelled under the noise of the battle. “What do you suggest Mireylon?”

Mireylon paused shortly and assessed the situation. “Dakho, get your dwarves and create an impenetrable barrier, use all the energy you’ve got” Mireylon shouted.

“Yes sir!” he replied and the dwarves instantly started to work on the barrier.

“Elves and Men, cover the dwarves while they prepare the barrier,” Mireylon commanded.

“Yes sir!” they all shouted and followed Mireylon’s orders without question. They all stepped forward and defended as many spells and attacks as they possibly could.

“Liamar and Koruko, you are with us” Mireylon ordered.

“Sir,” they said and ran over towards him.

“Once the barrier is up, everyone retreat to the Northern exit!” Mireylon shouted.

Iris, Zelkith, Mireylon, Plode, Liamar and Koruko all ran away from the battle and headed towards the northern exit. They were surprised to have no resistance on the way. It was not long until a black furred Kijiar ran towards them, bloodied and bruised. He stopped in front of the group and held his knees and panted out of breath.

“Get your breath back Puratt,” Liamar said but the black furred Kijiar shook his hand in the air.

“The Yin…their…killing… children…” Puratt said who struggled to breathe due to his injuries.

“Get yourself to the Elves at the training ground and get them to heal you,” Mireylon said. “Liamar and Koruko, take Iris and Zelkith with you and save as many children as you can and take them to the Northern exit. Plode and I will meet you there.”

Iris and Zelkith followed the two tall cat-like figures carefully. They started to hear haunting screams come from the nearby quarter. As they ran in they saw bodies of adults and children strewn across the floor, the blood still fresh.

It was a terrible and horrifying sight, but they had to press on to try and save any survivors. They continued through the crowded hallway of bodies, all with slashed throats. It was just like the scene from outside in the stables when Iris and Zelkith escaped.

They peered around the corner where the screams had come from, to see the Yin force the children into the corner like sheep. Koruko unsheathed his sword, ran in and swung it at the Yin.

The sword bounced off a magical barrier around the Yin, which pushed Koruko back. The Yin turned around and out of nowhere, a gust of wind pushed Koruko into the air, where he crashed into the adjacent wall. Another Yin then began to cast all sorts of spells, which Liamar deflected with her shield.

“Go, we will deal with these two” Koruko shouted to Iris and Zelkith. He stood up, shook off the attack and ran back into the room. Iris and Zelkith moved further along the hallway and went into another room. There was a single Yin, who rounded up the children like the others.

The Yin instantly noticed Iris and started to fire spells at her. Iris jumped out of the way, it barely missed her. She leapt around the corner and out of the Yin’s line of sight. Zelkith and Iris were hidden either side of the doorway and waited. They heard more screams from the children and wondered if the Yin had just ignored them. They peeked around to see a shadow cautiously approach them. The shadow moved closer and closer; the moment it appeared from the door, Iris swung her sword and she landed a hit.

She looked to see that her sword was stuck in a floating wooden chair, which then fell to the floor. With a bang, the floors and walls shook violently. Dust and small pieces of rock fell from the ceiling and a plume of dust emerged from the room. Iris squinted through the dust and the entire room had collapsed and the screams had stopped.

They ran to the next room, but the entrance was mostly blocked by fallen rubble. Iris peered through a gap in the rubble to make out some more children inside the room. They were huddled in the corner panicked. Iris pressed her face against the rock to take a better look. Inside, not far from the children were three adults, who stood in a line next to each other and they slowly moved back to guard the children against something. There were two Elves and a Human. They all had wands pointed up towards something Iris could not see.

The heavy stomp and clank of heavy armour sounded louder as their enemy approached. The few fire lit torches in the room went darker and darker before they completely extinguished. A sudden feeling of dread and fear came over Iris, and everything fell silent.

The silence was interrupted when the three adults sent spells and attacks toward the enemy. The room illuminated in flashes of light from the spells, which eventually revealed what looked like a huge black armoured figure come towards them.

The figure got one step away from the adults and picked up an Elf with one hand, his armour shrugged off spells like they were flies.

“Please, spare the children” the Elf pleaded and tears poured from his eyes. The black figure moved his head to the side, crushed the Elf’s neck and dropped his body to the floor carelessly.

“Nooo!” yelled the other Elf. The scream alone was agony for Iris to hear, but the Elf relentlessly attacked with white flashes of magic, but it was useless. The figure raised his hand and hit the Elf against the wall, which shook the room, and she became lifeless. The black armoured man then plunged a large sword into the last man who fell to the floor instantly. There was nothing between him and the children.

Iris was so overcome with fear that she became paralysed. The black armoured figure put his sword away and pulled out a small curved dagger. Iris watched in horror as he started to kill the children one by one. Each time a strange blue aura emanated upon the death of each child, which seemed to be sucked into his dagger. Tears streamed down her face as she watched on helplessly. She knew that she could not do anything against such a powerful foe.

“I can’t watch anymore” Iris sobbed
‘We must warn the others,’
she thought to herself. She took another glance to see the last child in the room.

The child was calm and still, he did not cry or struggle, but focused on the gap where Iris watched. The black armoured figure picked him up and looked in the same direction the child did. Iris looked into two dark glowing red eyes beneath the black helmet.

Her heart raced and in a panic and she started to run back toward where Liamar and Koruko were. They were inside the first room knelt next to the two dead Yin and they clutched a young Kijiar in their hands and wept.

“We have to get out of here, now!” Iris said in a panic.

“I'll destroy whoever did this!” Liamar yelled.

“There's some huge monster and he knows we are here!” Iris shouted.

Liamar gave Koruko the young Kijiar to hold, Iris could see it was no longer alive. Liamar stormed out of the room to see the huge black armoured figure barge through the rubble and into the hallway. It turned to look straight at her. The moment she saw the huge figure, she told everyone to run.

The four of them ran back toward the northern exit as quickly as they could. The figure chased them down the hallways and corridors, the floor shuddered with each footstep, archways and doors were destroyed as the figure literally ran through them. It was not long until they got to the northern exit, most of the troops were already there with Mireylon and Plode.

Plode was now heavily armoured, he had what looked like his best armour on. It was near enough pure silver and had the symbol of the python on his chest piece, and two python heads came out from his shoulder pads in bright gold. On his back, Iris could see a massive hammer, which ran the entire height of his body.

“Everyone outside!” Liamar yelled as they ran toward the group of people at great speed.

“It’s him, Morgoth, He’s here!”

Without any hesitation the troops started to run out of the northern exit, it only took a few minutes for the troops to get outside. The commanders stayed inside, their weapons ready to fight. Iris and Zelkith stood behind the commanders. A boom of thunder echoed through the halls and the dark sky poured rain into the hall like an overflowing river.

The commanders waited for Morgoth to appear. He walked out from the corner slowly and his large figure filled the width of the hall with ease.

"This is my fight" Plode threatened and he pushed to the front of the commanders.

"We're in this together!" The King insisted.

"NO!" Plode bellowed "This is a fight you CANNOT win, he will kill you all".

Plode pulled a massive hammer from his back. The floor shuddered as the two figures charged towards each other.

"This ENDS here!" Plode shouted. With a huge smash, the two figures collided. Plode swung his hammer around like it was a small stick; Morgoth ducked, dodged and parried Plode’s attacks. Morgoth’s sword bounced off Plode’s armour, Plode then blocked the next attack with the handle of his hammer.

They battled for several minutes, each of them dodged and blocked the others attack. Morgoth went on the full attack and started to push Plode back toward the exit.

Most of the commanders were outside in the thunderstorm to help the wounded. Mireylon, Iris and Zelkith stayed inside as they watched Plode and Morgoth battle. They moved back when the two figures got close to them, they did not want to get in the way. Morgoth peered outside and glanced at the wounded outside.

A flash of lightning revealed Morgoth’s face. He had a similar look to Plode, but his skin was dark black with menacing looking red eyes. He had a thrilled expression on his face.

"Why do you help them, when they are so weak?" Morgoth taunted. His voice was deep and gravelled, it sounded like he had a damaged throat.

"These are good people! Why did you betray us?" Plode argued.

Plode began to fight back. He swung the massive hammer in quick successive strikes, which pushed them further into the hall. They get their weapons interlocked and fiercely struggled against each other.

The two of them glared a look of hatred at each other. They battled more violently and took hits and blows from each other. Plode ducked an overhead slash and swung the huge hammer into Morgoth’s chest. The hammer barely dented the black armour, but it still knocked Morgoth to the floor. Plode stood unsteadily on his feet and deep black blood seeped through the gaps in his silver armour.

Morgoth raised his sword and uttered a spell under his breath. The darkness from the halls disappeared and the torches blazed brighter than should have been possible. Plode hurled the hammer in the air toward Morgoth, who ducked and the hammer smashed into the ground behind him.

Plode charged at Morgoth at full speed, he pushed out his shoulder and barged into Morgoth. Morgoth used Plode’s momentum against him and pushed Plode hard against the wall. Morgoth then thrust his sword through Plode’s arm, which pinned him to the wall.

The moment the sword went through, Plode’s eyes blackened, like the darkness of the night sky filled his eyes.

"You are weak, just like the rest of them, and you shall die as one of them," Morgoth said. He pulled a dagger from his side and got down ready to slice Plode’s throat.

"No!" yelled a voice. A wounded man nearby got up and stabbed the back of Morgoth’s leg. With a scream, more of anger than pain, Morgoth turned around and crushed the man with his shield, the repulsive sound of broken bones resonated down the hall.

"You monster," Plode struggled to speak.

"I congratulate you on being the first to be able to resist my spell! But it would seem that it is still not enough to save your life!" Morgoth said, with a sinister snicker in his voice. Morgoth took the knife to Plode’s neck and this time, there was nothing to stop him. He started to press deep against his neck.

With a flash of light, Mireylon reappeared on the other side of Plode and Morgoth, down the hall. In that instant, he had pulled the sword out which had pinned Plode to the wall and slashed it across Morgoth’s arm. With a thud Morgoth’s hand hit the floor, the dagger still clutched in its grasp. Morgoth merely hissed at the pain and black blood gushed from his arm.

Plode seized the opportunity to prise the dagger from the amputated hand and drove it through Morgoth’s armour into his chest. Mireylon held the sword up high and ran towards them. Morgoth grabbed Mireylon, took the sword from him and threw Mireylon back toward Iris and Zelkith.

Mireylon landed elegantly on his feet, and got ready to charge again, but it was too late. Morgoth thrust the sword at Plode. Plode kicked Morgoth’s leg and the sword pierced the wall beside Plode’s head.

Plode pushed Morgoth with his feet to the other side of the hall and held out his hands to cast a spell. The wall collapsed down on Morgoth. Plode stood up and started to stumble toward Mireylon.

"GO!" Plode shouted. The ceiling and walls had begun to cave in.

"I will have my revenge, brother!" Morgoth shouted from under the rubble.

The four of them stood outside in the storm, buffeted by the cold wind and rain. The storm raged on, lightning and thunder were frequent and the rain was heavy. The entire side of the Legion stronghold collapsed in a series of massive booms and quakes. The vast majority of the Elves and men still lived, but only three of the dwarves survived which included Dakho, the commander.

"We must not tarry," Plode said out loud so everyone could hear.

"There may be people alive in there!" Liamar yelled. She still clutched her deceased child in her arms.

"No, he's right!" The King yelled out, barely audible through the noisy storm. "We must keep moving."

"But where do we go?" Dakho shouted.

"Yardwick?" one of the Elves suggested.

"Oh surely not! I don't think the residents will like me there" Dakho retorted.

"What's Yardwick?" Iris asked Mireylon. Dakho and the Elves continued to bicker behind them.

"It's an ancient Elven ruin, it hasn't been used for many generations. Rumour has it that it's controlled by a powerful sorcerer" he replied.

"Will you two stop arguing!" The King shouted, "It's our only option, and we need to head out, now!"

The group got together and strode through the thick, wet mud and into the nearby forest. They travelled for the next day and did not stop until nightfall.

The storm gave no signs that it would cease anytime soon. The group found a large clearing in the forest, and The King signalled everyone to stop. He ordered his men to search for any dry tinder or firewood, the Elves went ahead to hunt any animals or forage for food nearby. Everyone else remained in the clearing to guard the area.

After a couple of hours, the two groups started to return just before dawn. Plode ordered everyone to huddle up close. He pressed his hands down on the wet ground and with a rumble the earth beneath them started to move. It suddenly became completely dark, but the rain had stopped.

One of the Elves used his wand to create a light, which illuminated a makeshift cave around them with a small vent at the top.

The floor and walls were dry and the men moved all the firewood and timber into the centre of the cavern and then set it ablaze. The flames soon grew and illuminated the cave. The warmth was welcome to everyone, who spread themselves around the edges of the cave. Everyone was so exhausted, but the fear of being discovered and the nightmare of the battle kept them awake.

Iris awoke to the smell of cooked food. Liamar and her husband sobbed from the loss of their child, which was still held in Liamar’s arms.

The King decided that they were safer to travel in the cover of darkness, and would wait until nightfall.

By the end of the day, most of the group was well rested, the dwarves made a small remembrance stone for Liamar’s child. Liamar and Koruko placed their child’s body on the open fire and prayed for his soul to find peace. The Kijiar were a religious race, and their souls would only return to them if they were killed under no magical circumstances. This made them fierce and relentless in battle.

The entire group paid their respects to their fallen comrades and Plode removed the cavern. He cast another spell and revealed the night's sky and forest again. It still rained heavily and the sodden ground around them would be difficult to travel through.

It was a further two days until they got to their destination, which they hoped to make their new stronghold until they could rebuild. Mireylon and Iris bonded on the journey, they shared stories of their past and concerns for the future.

Despite the fact Mireylon was fifty years older than Iris, this was not much of an age gap for Elves. Elves often lived a long life and had been known to survive for almost two thousand years.

It was dark when they arrived, but the rain had stopped and the moon was bright that night. The ruins of Yardwick were situated in the middle of a massive green meadow, illuminated by the blue glow of the moon.

This was not the only thing that lit the old ruins. There was a small campfire, which meant that there were already people there.

They decided to let Mireylon go alone to try and scout out those camped there. One of the Elves, who had particularly good eyesight, mentioned that he could see two figures arise in front of the fire and another approached them, which they assumed was Mireylon.

A short while after, the fire went out and the three figures casually walked towards them, it was Mireylon and two small foxes.

"So, I hear that you wish to reside here in the ruins of Yardwick," one of the foxes said to the group. "I am afraid that will not be possible. But, we have a place here where you may stay for now until you resolve your issue. Follow me" the fox said. He spoke in a very polite manner and seemed very friendly.

The fox led them across the fields and past their camp, the embers still glowed within the bed of the fire. The group followed the two foxes into an opening of one of the ruins. The opening led down a steady ramp into an underground tunnel. One of the foxes picked up a torch with his mouth and carried it along the tunnel. The group followed them for several minutes, down a long, straight tunnel made from ancient stone.

They eventually reached a dead end, which was not made of stone, but of tree roots. The other Fox placed his paw on the wall of roots, and the roots started to move like they were alive. The roots revealed a small archway and the group made their way through the gap one by one.

"Welcome to Haven," one of the foxes said proudly. As each person went through, they stood in awe of the sight they could see.

Through the archway was the inside of an enormous hollowed out tree. It was easily big enough to fit an entire town in. They stood at the top of a ledge, made of elegantly carved wood which gracefully made its decent around the outside. What was most striking was the tree which stood in the centre of the entire place.

The tip of the tree touched the top of the ledge where the group now stood. It was like a great oak, but the leaves were blue and they emanated out a beautiful sky blue light.

All around the inside of the hollowed tree they stood in were hundreds of giant, house-sized acorns, all with doors. Each acorn was connected with the elegant woodwork walkways that weaved throughout. Every walkway bustled with the life of all different races.

The two foxes led the group down the walkways, which swirled their way down around the outside. Iris glanced inside one of the tiny windows of one of the acorn houses to see a Dwarf couple happily eat a strange fruit the size of a pig.

After half an hour they arrived at the bottom. To the right they could see the trunk of a huge magic tree, which gave off a gentle warmth. To the left was a large square archway that led out into more of the ancient Elven ruins.

Straight in front of the group was a single acorn house, much bigger than the others. The two foxes led them inside the large house, which was full of an assortment of strange objects and relics.

At the rear of the room was another fox sprawled out on a large cushion. He glanced up at the group and stood up hastily. His legs were much longer and thinner than the two smaller foxes that led the group inside and he walked with a slight limp.

"Welcome to Haven travellers, my name is Sir Beckton Pannett, but most here just call me Stilts. Is there a leader among you?" The tall fox asked in a very well-spoken and dignified manner.

"That would be me." Dartis said and he stepped forward in front of the group.

"And who might you be?" Mr Pannett said.

"I am Dartis, King of the Legion of the Silver Snake, and these are the loyal troops of the Legion," The King said. He walked through and named each and every person in the group.

"And what brings you here?" Mr Pannett asked.

"Our stronghold was attacked and overrun, we believed these ruins to be abandoned, so we made our way here for refuge" The King explained.

"You are all welcome to stay here for now, but let me say this..." Mr Pannett’s tone changed from calm to authoritative. "The residents here live in peace, should any of you threaten a single person here, you shall have to answer to me."