Destiny (33 page)

Gerart raised his sword. “Keep calm! You are heroes of Rogdon, and heroes are forged on days like this, fighting against the greatest adversity, achieving the impossible against all odds! Today our victory will be set down in the annals of history, bards will sing our deeds, and future generations will remember the Heroes of Rilentor!” he urged them ardently, trying to put the men at their ease and raise their spirits.

Komir gestured to them to be quiet. “Easy… stay behind us and stay calm,” he told them. He was trying to protect them, although he doubted he could. He gave Hartz a warning glance, then nodded at Kayti.
Make sure he doesn’t rush into an attack.
Kayti understood Komir’s concern at once. She seized the big Norriel’s arm and pulled him back.

The Dark Lady stepped forward.

All fell silent. A funereal silence.

Yuzumi looked at them defiantly. Her chin was held high, her attitude arrogant, like a goddess gazing down at her mortal servants. Slowly she raised her arm and pointed at them. Several soldiers let out a cry. She burst into loud, disdainful laughter.

“Pathetic,” she said in her cold, velvet voice, and shook her jet-black hair.

They all stared at her, hypnotized. Some even forgot to breathe. Her words reached them on a current of arcane air. The men shivered. Komir too, felt the glacial sensation and shivered as well. He shook his arms and realized it was not cold; what they were feeling was something else… it was the horror she transmitted.

“How dare you confront me, you wretches?”

Komir clenched his jaw and fists in a struggle against the fear he felt, swallowed his fear and took a step forward.

He did his best to keep his voice from trembling as he faced the Dark Lady. “Pathetic we may be,” he said, “but we’ve defeated your black army.”

“And you shall pay for that, in pain. I shall shed your blood, every drop of it, and drink it still warm from your corpses.”

Komir squared his shoulders. “Your army has already tried that and failed. You won’t be any luckier.”

The Dark Lady smiled condescendingly. “You have courage, I like that. I shall enjoy taking out your heart while you are still alive. I shall show it to you before I eat it. What has befallen my army cannot happen again, for the one who conjured its destruction is no longer among you.”

Komir looked back in surprise. How could she know that?

“Without the great Mage you will die. If it is any consolation, even with him present you would not survive.”

The Bearers glanced at each other uneasily. Without Haradin they felt helpless and vulnerable.

“I can feel the Gift in you five, a powerful one, but it is as a drop in the ocean compared to what you carry around your necks. The power the Mage used against my army. A power I want for myself, and what I want, I always get. Is that not so, Isuzeni?”

“Indeed, my Lady and Mistress. Always,” the High Priest said with a deep bow.

“We might negotiate…” Komir began in an attempt at diplomacy, but was immediately interrupted.

“The Dark Lady neither negotiates nor makes deals. She takes,” Isuzeni said dryly.

Komir tried to reply, but had no chance to.

“My time is precious, and I do not intend to waste it here today,” Yuzumi said.

Komir felt a knot in his stomach as she took another step forward.

“It is time to die, you insignificant worms,” she said. Her cold certainty froze the blood of everyone watching her.

She raised her hands and began to cast a spell. The Bearers’ spheres strengthened at once. The sky began to turn dark, with the light of day devoured by a sinister arcane night. In the blink of an eye the sun vanished, and clouds and sky followed as if swallowed by a void. A malevolent firmament formed over the heads of the defenders, whose hearts shrank at the unnatural phenomenon. They tensed in anticipation, and unease came over them in the wake of their fear. The Sorceress lowered her arms and pointed at them.

“Those who dare oppose me find only death. May your souls be devoured by the deepest agony and your bodies suffer terrible torment,” she cursed them, and the hearts of the defenders filled with despair and fear.

The bloody fog reappeared, following the commands of its mistress, emanating from her body as if from this woman of insane power came a bloody liquid, malevolent and corrupt, which devoured both earth and men. It moved, hovering densely above the ground and spreading everywhere like a gloomy tide of blood throughout the battlefield, covering everything it met in a dark red of death.

The fearful muttering of the defenders reached Komir’s ears. He turned and saw that they were moving back, undecided and uneasy. He heard nervous comments. The defenders were shuddering at the vision of blood and death. He could not blame them. That accursed fog was coming for them, to swallow their bodies and souls.

“We must protect ourselves!” Komir warned the Bearers.

“How?” Iruki asked. “Haradin is unconscious, we can’t count on his help.”

“That blasphemy mustn’t be allowed to reach us,” Aliana said. She was bent almost double. “I can feel its power.”

“I have an idea!” Sonea cried. She held her hands out to Komir and Asti. They took them. Komir in turn held his other hand out to Iruki, who took it and did the same with Aliana. The five Bearers, united, closed their eyes and concentrated. “Trust me!” cried the little librarian.

The fog kept coming.

“Concentrate on protecting ourselves!”

The fog advanced undiminished, covering everything. When it was within ten paces of the five Bearers, the Norriel began to curse and step back.

“Nobody move!” Gerart ordered, aware that the Bearers were trying to create a protection. “Hurry up, it’s almost on us!”

“The Light will protect us with its grace!” Lindaro cried. “Stand firm, defenders of Good, we shall fight evil until the end!”

The fog stopped a few paces from Komir. The medallions of the five Bearers shone simultaneously, and a protective blue ring rose around defenders, Bearers, Norriel and Rogdonians. The fog tried to reach Komir, but hit the ring once, then a second time, like a sentient being trying to penetrate the defensive barrier in order to feed on the living beings behind it. Failing in its attempt, it tried to find a way around it, looking for new prey. Behind the Bearers, the Norriel and the Rogdonian soldiers withdrew in terror as they saw the sea of blood approaching them.

“Everybody stay where they are!” Komir shouted. “No one must leave the ring!”

But the frightened soldiers did not seem to understand what he was saying.

“They can’t see the ring, Komir, they don’t have the Gift!” Sonea cried.

Then he understood. “Come back, all of you!” he shouted. He pointed to the center of the protective ring. “Quick! Here!”

Gudin pointed to the same spot. “Do what he says!” he ordered them.

The fog circled the ring, expanding around it. Komir saw despairingly that several men, confused by what was happening, had not followed his instructions. The blood-fog reached them. The cries of pain and suffering were heartbreaking. Their bodies were enveloped and devoured alive; all flesh and muscle vanished from their bodies and the skeletons of the unfortunate men tumbled to the ground, to disappear under the cloak of death which kept on its way.

“Damned magic!” Hartz cried at the top of his voice.

At this horrible sight everybody pushed their way to the center, while the fog surrounded them completely. They were an island in the middle of a bloody sea which was seeking to eat them alive.

Komir was looking around him uneasily.
What does this Sorceress want to do? She has us surrounded, we can’t escape. I don’t know what she’s up to, but I must stop her any way I can or else she’ll kill us all.
He watched her for a moment: haughty, cold, lethal.
She killed my parents, and she’ll do the same to all of us and the innocents hiding in the upper part of the city. I have to stop her, I have to stop this sea of death around us.

His eyes turned to the Bearers, his friends and companions; he would not let her harm them.

No.

He would stop her.

As if she could read his mind, the Dark Lady turned to him.

“Your magic can do nothing against me. You will all die. I shall take your guts out and eat your hearts while they are still beating.”

And she began to work magic.

Komir could feel the power of the Sorceress. It was so strong that the dark sky fell on them like the greatest of all curses, while at the same time the ground shook under their feet, corrupted by the red essence of death. They held fast to each other as best they could, while heaven and earth fell upon them and engulfed everything in a gloom of death and abandonment.

The fog began to change color. The blood began to rot, turning brown, darker and gloomier with every moment. Before their eyes it turned completely black, a black as dark as a bottomless pit. A viscous, corrosive black, a black of pure emptiness.

The Dark Lady made a series of gestures with her arms, infusing the black tide which surrounded them with power. Nobody spoke, or even dared to breathe. They were trapped, and the situation was growing worse.

All of a sudden the Dark Lady stopped conjuring and lowered her arms. She smiled sardonically, and her eyes shone.

The hair on the back of Komir’s neck stood on end. He knew that something truly terrifying was about to happen.

And from the fog.

The dead arose.

Before the astonished eyes of all, the thousands of soldiers who lay dead beneath the fog began to rise, infused with a corrupt life-in-death.

“By the Light!” Lindaro cried.

“It’s… impossible…” Aliana said.

“The dead… coming back to life…” Iruki muttered.

Asti was shaking her head, trying to reject what she was seeing. “Dead!” she cried. “They be dead!”

“It’s Necromancy,” Sonea explained. “It’s the most powerful death magic. Mages who are capable of raising the dead to fight for them and commit unspeakable horrors.”

“You damned Sorceress!” Hartz roared.

The corpses were rising, marked with tremendous burns and deformities. Many were no more than bones with rags of flesh hanging from them.

Asti covered her mouth to hold back her nausea. Aliana shivered and put her arms round her shoulders.

Komir shook his head. “That woman’s power is awesome. How was she able to do something like that?”

Gerart was turning from side to side with the look of someone in the midst of a nightmare. “What can we do?” he asked.

“There are thousands of them,” Gudin said. “She’s raised the whole black army!”

“Let them come!” Hartz cried. He drew his sword and joined the Warrior Master. “We’ll finish them off, all of them. Won’t we, warriors? Who’s with me? Who?” shouted the big Norriel, seeking to cheer his fellow countrymen.

A brief silence followed his words. Gudin was the first to break it.

“I’m with you, warrior. We’ll finish them off!”

Hartz smiled at his master, and all the Norriel roared their war-cries.

“Norriel we are, and Norriel we shall die!” Hartz cried.

The Norriel responded as one: “Norriel we are, and Norriel we shall die!”

Komir felt goose-flesh all over him. And his heart filled with pride at his countrymen’s courage.

Gerart looked at his downhearted men. “Never will it be said of this day that the Rogdonians abandoned the Norriel at the last moment! Isn’t that so?” The King looked at them again and repeated the question. “Isn’t that so?” And the Rogdonians burst into shouts.

“Never!”

“For Rogdon!” cried the King.

“For Rogdon!” came the answer from his men.

Komir’s eyes were on the brave survivors, but he knew they would not survive that host of living-dead which was already upon them. There were thousands of them, mindless empty-eyed brutes, marching clumsily forwards, driven by a hunger for living flesh.

And they themselves were so few…

“Form into a circle!” Gudin ordered.

Gerart went to stand beside him. “They’d better not break it, or else we’re doomed!” shouted the King.

Rogdonians and Norriel followed the order and formed a defensive circle as unbreakable as they could. The first living-dead reached them a moment later. The swords struck and cut the fleshless bodies, while the charred faces grunted horribly and searched avidly for the defenders’ flesh. They felt no pain, nor did cuts and thrusts affect them. Several defenders fell in vain, their own flesh torn off in gobbets.

“Their heads!” Lindaro cried. “Cut their heads off!”

Hartz heard the man of faith and spun his great Ilenian sword. He decapitated several monsters, which immediately fell to the ground.

“Now this is more like it!” he cried exultantly.

“Hack them to pieces! Norriel we are!” Gudin cried as he hacked several of the monsters to pieces.

But the avalanche of revived corpses was too great for them to hold back, and Komir knew it.
I must do something now or we’ll all perish! They won’t be able to hold for long,
he thought, and looked towards the Dark Lady. The fog emanated from her body as if she were a goddess from beyond, from a bottomless abyss of death and degradation, and her body an inexhaustible source. With arms outspread, she infused a corrupt death into the black fog which sustained the army of living-dead.