Interlude 3

Sara

I stood there in the midst of a whirling storm as weapons and defences stood on the quavering brink of war. The tension was tangible in the air as men gripped the shaft of their spears, archers stood with bows taught and panic raced through my veins. I glanced to Cleo and saw the same fear present in her hands clutching at her hips and her trembling lip.

It had been hours since Aucus had crossed the threshold into that dark crypt. I couldn’t explain it, but the place seemed to reek of evil. It made me want to flee to the other end of the world, but with Aucus in there, I wouldn’t move anywhere but forwards. The silence was finally broken by the sound of footsteps crunching along the brush from behind us.

I turned around and saw Zarin in his white coat and pants, as though he thought the blood and filth of this world couldn’t touch him, couldn’t stain him. He wasn’t wrong I supposed, his station and power, for better or worse, had placed him above most others, no matter how much of the world’s grime was sprayed at him it just brushed off of him.

He was handsome, that couldn’t be denied, he had a strong jaw, piercing eyes, and a full head of dark hair. Yet despite his looks he was an ugly man, the sneer that was strewn across his mouth and the followers that he carried behind him like slaves, it was enough to turn my stomach.

His hands went to his hips and he leaned backwards in his stance, looking on into the dark chasm. “Ah, I suppose he’s dead by now” he said in that arrogant cadence of his. I wanted to punch him then, to knock that smirk from his lips and drown him in a puddle of mud. “He never was very smart, back when I new him in the village I could have sworn someone had dropped him on his head”

He got a few chuckles from his followers, though that girl that Aucus had pined over remained silent, as did the girl with the battered face. Korin’s hand moved to his axe, his teeth sounding like grindstones as he looked up to the man. “Ya little…” he seethed quietly.

Zarin looked down at the dwarf as though waiting for him to say something more, when he didn’t, Zarin continued. “Well, I think we all knew he would fail. I mean, a one-armed peasant boy” he chuckled to himself at that. “I suppose we need to start making other arrangements then, I think we should send these… _soldiers _in there next” he sneered the word, as though he believed none of them were worthy of the title.

I was about to say something, to stand up for these men and their right to not be thrown away for the spite of such a small man. I was silenced before I could say anything, a terrible shrieking echoed from the void before us. I spun back around as the sound cut through my eardrums like rusted blades, the inhuman chords more terrifying than any monster I had faced before.

The cacophony ceased for a short moment, and I thought, hoped beyond any reason that that was it. That nothing more would come of it, a vain hope. The great stone monoliths that were the doors were suddenly flung open and I stared into the dark heart of the shadow gates for a second, I don’t know how I remained sane from that short glimpse, before an intense gust of wind blew out.

The burst of air was so strong that I was knocked over, **** onto my back like all others at the gates. The wooden barricades and spikes were flung from the earth and knocked over us, caught in the storm. My eyes were **** shut to avoid the splinters and debris that sped over us. The siege machines were toppled and flung backwards, weapons were grabbed by the wind and dragged from the hands of their wielders, doing in the matter of seconds what it would take hours for an army to do.

Just as suddenly as it began, the wind ceased, and we were left in the field of its aftermath. I **** myself up from the ground, looking around at the carnage around us, some men were still on the ground, screaming and writhing in pain with enormous poles and cracked wood sticking through their bodies.

It was a terrible sight, though worst of all were the open gates that stood like an unnatural affront to the goddesses. It seemed like everyone just stared into it, caught in the horror, in the way that eyes were drawn to a crashed carriage on the road.

“You! Go inside!” I heard Zarin’s voice scream the order at one of the soldiers, taking command as naturally as breathing. The unfortunate soul trembled where he stood, not moving nor looking backwards, perhaps hoping that the order was being given to another man, or hoping Zarin would think he couldn’t hear.

“Now you worm, or I’ll have you flayed for your cowardice!” he roared in that practiced noble tone.

The poor man inched himself slowly forwards to the gaping wound in the tree, he moved slowly, hoping to spend as much of his time in the warmth of the goddesses light. The other soldiers crept slowly backwards, determined to evade the unnatural evil of the darkness. My eyes followed him as he stepped into the darkness, and he disappeared.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as we all waited for him to emerge. He couldn’t have been gone for more than fifteen minutes, the sun had barely moved in the sky, though still it felt an age and I was certain that he had been lost to whatever evil that laid within.

At last he remerged from the depths and rushed over towards where we stood with Zarin and the other adventurers. He carried himself with the same manner of a man that had seen the most gruesome ****, or worse still. He opened his mouth to address us, though before he could speak, he vomited onto the ground.

Zarin’s boot struck him where he stood bent over, “Speak man, what’s in there?” he said.

The soldier looked up, his eyes moving over us in a furtive glance before he spoke his report. “It’s empty” he said, gasping for breath. “There was nothing in there…” tears streamed from his eyes, “Nothing” he whispered to himself.

*My stomach turned at his words. Aucus. I thought to myself. He had told us that he would be okay, and now he was gone, dead for all I knew. Had he lied to us? Had he known that he would die? My breath quickened, not knowing what this meant. Were the devils gone now? What did the future hold for us now?

The Devil in Disguise

“…and the elves are unlikely to offer much in the way of manpower. I always said that it was a bad idea to leave the west as unsupported as we did” Calendis prattled on as we walked. I was never sure if he was actually talking to me or himself. I remained silent as usual and allowed him to continue as I walked a few steps behind him down the crudely designed hallways of the citadel. Typically, I would much prefer to remain in the dark corners of the building where I couldn’t be discovered but with the recent troubles the man had been calling on me more and more.

That was when it happened. The faint sensation that the mother occupied in my mind suddenly grew a thousand-fold in its power. It struck me like the weight of a mountain, and I was **** to halt in my tracks, gasping for breath. It was a glorious sensation to feel her once more in all her power.

“Mother” I whispered softly, as though trying to make sure that the sensation was real. That boy had done it, he had really done it. She was free from those infernal shadow gates once more; he was truly a blessing to the world.

Calendis turned around with a curious expression on his features. “What was that? Did you say something?” he asked inquisitively.

I shook my head, not wanting to lose my disguise now after all these years. “I… felt something” I decided to say after a long pause. “I don’t know what, perhaps something at the shadow gates” I added. If this sensation was true, then he would undoubtedly hear something of it soon enough.

The man paused in thought, looking at me and then to the floor as he swallowed a lump in his throat. He was nervous, that much was easy to tell, his breath quickened and the scent of it emanated from him. Eventually, he nodded his head “Okay” he continued nodding as though trying to reassure himself. “Okay, I hope it’s good news. I expect a rider will arrive in a few days with the news” he looked around the empty hallway, “For now, I should inform Celeste “

I gave a subtle nod of my head, and he rushed down the remainder of the hallway, disappearing from sight when he turned a corner. That left me on my own, on my own with this joyous news.

Under my helm, the fleshy features of my disguise transformed into the shining scales of my true appearance. I smiled for the first time in centuries. My mouth tilted into that unfamiliar expression, my long tongue probing across the sharp spikes of my teeth, today was a good day.

Tentatively I reached out to that connection, grasping for a hold on the mother once more. I stroked it gently and received a warm touch in return, _her _warm touch. It was almost enough for me to break down, it was her. With the touch came a message, no words were exchanged, simply an intuitive knowledge that she sent my way. Remain vigilant, my son. I shall be with you soon.

I almost collapsed at the knowledge but before I could react in anyway one of the guards of the citadel walked past. He looked at me with intrigue and I reformed my features to that of the human flesh, it was fortunate that I was wearing my helm else my long-worn disguise would have been stripped from me in a moment. With that I walked past the guard and continued on through the citadel.

Sephenia

The morning was serenaded by the sounds of construction coming from beyond the walls of my cell. Hammers and chisels pounding against rock, men shouting orders and the clanging of steel; they were the same sounds that I had been waking and falling asleep to for months now. I never got used to it.

I rolled over on the filthy stone floor, covered in every type of fluid that could come from my body. A pain stabbed through me, and my hand instinctively went to the wound on one of my ribs that I had received from one of my beatings. I thought it might have been a cracked rib, but my body was so sore that it was hard to focus on a specific injury for too long.

As I moved, I heard a tear and looked down to see a fresh rip in the burlap sack that was now used to clothe me. It seemed that the powers above, Motten to be precise, had decided that even the worst clothes that the manor had were wasted on me. Since then I had been given the used sack with uneven holes hastily cut into it by some servant, only being given a new one, or at least a replacement one, when I made too many holes, or the smell was complained of by my jailors.

A clang came from my door; it was almost funny that I thought of it as that. My door, as though this cell was my room and not some cage that I was held hostage in, as though I had any power over the door at all. The hatch slid open, and my usual meal of gruel slid through, splattering on the floor in what seemed to be the most appeasing display I had ever seen. At least that was what the rumbling in my stomach told me.

I lurched over to the gruel and hungrily ate it up, every last scrap. I was always hungry, they fed me enough that I wouldn’t die but nowhere near enough to ever sate the growling beast within me. I had once been fit, I had had muscles on my arms and the stamina to run through the woods for hours. Now… now I was little more than the butcher’s scraps, skin and bones in an old burlap sack. The thing that I once was had disappeared.

I fell back asleep to the sound of the construction, my malnutrition making me too tired for anything more than a few hours awake.

The second time I woke that day was to a heavy boot slamming into the sore spot on my ribs. I grunted and clutched at it, curling up into a ball to protect myself. My eyes cracked open, and I looked up to see Motten scowling down at me, his foot pulled back to prepare for another kick.

I reactively moved into the submissive, meek position that I had learned to adopt whenever he entered. It was humiliating and gnawed at my soul, but it was worth it to avoid more pain from him. His smirk was audible, and I flinched as a glob of spit landed in my matted hair, congealing with the piss, shit and blood.

For a moment the cell was silent, the only sounds that could be heard were the construction from outside and the rumbling of my stomach. His low voice broke it at last, “I received some pleasant news this morning” I remained on the floor, my head bowed low, and my hands placed ahead of me on the ground. I had learned my lesson to not attack him after my fingers had been broken when I tried for the first time, still though he insisted on always being able to see them.

“My son has been responsible for vanquishing the threat of the devils from the shadow gates, not even their bodies remain to haunt these lands and there has been no sign of their menace since” he let out a low chuckle, “He did a much better job than your boy I hear”

My head darted upwards at those last words, he didn’t speak of Aucus often and whenever he did, I was **** for any scrap of news I could get of him. He was my boy. My sudden motion earned me a crack across my jaw from his boot. I spat a pool of blood onto the floor of my cell and returned my head to the bowed position that he demanded of me.

“Yes, the report I received said that your runt died. Should’ve listened to his betters I suppose, I only regret that I’ve lost the chance to kill him myself”

My stomach spun at the news. No, it couldn’t be true He couldn’t be dead, my boy couldn’t be dead. I refused to believe it, trying to rationalise what he was saying. He was trying to get under my skin, trying to **** me with the one thing I had always feared, I would have felt it if he had died. I would have felt something. I shook my head, whispering my denials aloud, “No…no,no,no…No”

That small act of defiance received another kick, this time in my stomach. He certainly knew how to shake things up. “The fool actually thought that he could defeat the devils himself, a one-armed brat hah!” my confusion must have been visible in my posture because he elaborated, torturing me with more news. “He lost his arms a few days before, trying to fight a hydra. I’m told it was a sight to behold, watching him get mauled and thrown around by the beast” he chuckled again, he was in the best mood I had seen him in because of the **** of Aucus. I hated him.

“Then he went into the shadow gates alone and perished with those devils. It’s fitting don’t you think? Dying with those monsters, his own kind” he sneered at me, and I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I opened my mouth and spewed the few contents of my stomach onto the floor, pooling with the other messes there. Fortunately none of it touched Motten’s shoes or his clothing.

His boot pressed down on my neck, forcing my face into the pool of vomit, “You should be more grateful for your food” he growled as I tasted the putrid mess that had just came from me.

To my relief he let me go without trying to drown me in it and let out a long sigh. “I don’t suppose I have any use for you now that he’s dead. I wonder should I let you go or just kill you?” he let the question linger for a long while. Long enough that I wondered if I should answer it. “No, I’m sure that I can find a better use for you, perhaps I’ll even get you to sign a **** contract. I can always find uses for adventurers whose loyalty is guaranteed.”

I gritted my teeth at the proposal, it wasn’t the first time he had floated that offer. Trading this cell for a larger one, bound to that brute of a man. No matter what forms of **** he tried on me, my freedom was one thing that I wouldn’t give up. He could hold me in a cell, he could bind me and beat me, but my freedom was a thing that only _I _could give away.

There was a clatter as he threw something to the floor and I looked to my side to see a metal collar, like that used on chattel. A chain was attached to it and my gaze followed it upwards to where Motten held the other end in his hand. “Put it on” he said carefully.

I fumed as I looked at the tool of bondage that was being thrust upon me. My hands slowly reached for it, careful not to move too quickly. I caressed it with my fingers and found the clasp, opening up the circlet and staring into the simple device that carried so much weight. With trembling hands I placed it around my neck and heard the snap as it shut.

“We’ll get a bolt put in there so that you’re not tempted to run off” he said as he pulled sharply on the chain, forcing me forward and falling flat on my face. “For now though, I think a bit of freedom is warranted so that you can see the progress we’ve made here. I don’t doubt you’ve heard it from your cage”

He pulled again, dragging me forwards and forcing me to get back to my feet so that I could follow behind him. The collar burning my neck, I didn’t know if I imagined the pain or not, but it made me feel something else.

He led me outside of the dungeons, my legs trembling as I used them properly for the first time in months. Our path took us outside the walls of the manor, sunlight hitting my skin, making me feel the warmth that I hadn’t felt since I was dragged from my home and brought to this place. It blinded me, sending daggers into my eyes and forcing them shut.

I slowed down as we left the building and I felt another pull on the chain, giving me a nod of encouragement to continue walking. Guards were everywhere outside, most of them eyeing me with suspicion stood in their polished armour, hands on the hilt of weapons as the others watched the workers in what was once the courtyard.

I didn’t recognise the place, under Lord Beckront it had been beautiful and tranquil a spring of life in an otherwise bland landscape. That was all gone. The gardens had been dug up and large stone walls erected around us, a heavy iron portcullis blocking off any hope of escape. It was no manor; this was a fortress now.

“I felt that some improvements were called for. I’m having the place transformed into a castle” he shook his head gently, “I don’t understand why it wasn’t to begin with. As much of a sty as this place is, it is still a good location. Farmlands to supply it, far enough from the sea so that raiders are no concern, it would be the northernmost fort west of Alynthir so attackers would be limited.” He chuckled softly to himself, “And the people, they’re like cattle. They’re more than willing to man the defences, to die for me”

I looked around at the constructions, the walls were still being built but they looked strong, labourers were hammering with mallets at what looked to be the start of a ballista. He was right, this would be a powerful castle when it was finished. In the hands of a man like Motten, that would be a dangerous weapon.

“I was driven out of Alynthir to this backwater by that woman, now… now Eldria will have a new seat of power and it will be mine. With Zarin serving his purpose, I will seize the reins of power and right these lands, making them pure once more” he gloated as he told me of his plans, revelling in the pleasure of knowing that I knew what he would do with that kind of power.

The future, his future terrified me. If Motten could give himself the power of a king, his corruption would run rampant, his savagery would know no limits, and I did not doubt there would be changes. He would reinstitute slavery in a form far more prevalent than it currently was, he would seat himself above all laws, and the nobles… their cancer would feed on anything good this land had left.

There was nothing that I could do. Not on this end of the collar. If I ever broke free, escaped from his grasp I would do all that I could to stop him. To kill him.

Shana

The waves crashed around me, spraying its salty froth into my face and those of the men pulling the oars of our ship. The Grimhawks rowed, sailing us closer and closer to the clump of lights that shone on the distant island with the wind gusting into the sails to speed us along. The lights on the island were almost indistinguishable from the stars on the night sky, the warm colour being the only thing that set them apart from the cold stellar eyes.

A light blinked from one of the other ships in our fleet, then again, and again. That was the signal. I gestured for the rowers to slow their pace and fall alongside the other vessels. The flagship, commanded by my father sailed ahead of us and he stood atop the stern facing his army, the men and women who would fight and die for him and the cause. He used one of the few abilities he possessed as an adventurer and strengthened his voice to be heard over the onslaught of wind and the waves around us.

“Men, Women, Grimhawks” His voice intoned to all held in the safety of the wooden ships, “This is it. This is the moment that we have been waiting for, that we have been fighting for all of these years. The raider’s chieftains are meeting to decide upon a new leader, they are all gathered in one place, one island for us to attack and change the course of this war. Our allies on the islands are ready and waiting for our ****, we will not be alone in this. After all these years of attacks upon attacks, oceans of our blood being spilt, countless towns turned to ash and our people scarred forever…” he paused as nods and murmurs went up from the warriors on the boats. “We will get our ****. We will stop defending and finally go on the attack, we will cut off their head, end their savagery and let something new, something better take its place. The Shale Islands will get a new leadership, one that has no interest in raiding, one that can work as allies to the western folk and not as our enemy. But now… now we must fight”

Cheers and roars went up from everyone, my voice but a drop in its cacophony. This was everything that we had been fighting for, and now was the eve on which we would take back our safety, our homes, and our freedom.

I would have been worried about the roars of the Grimhawks being heard from the island were it not for the sound of waves crashing onto distant rocks and the howling night that could drown our any other sound.

Our ships sailed forth, cutting through the water, and jostling us as they landed on the beachhead. I dismounted, my hands inching towards my axes as my braid swing over my shoulder. My feet sank into the sand of the beach as the thud of heavy boots sounded behind me from my band of warriors.

I drew my axes, crouching low and sliding the blades through the sand. An excited grin forming on my face as we all silently crept forwards towards the stone fort that trapped our enemies within. Tonight there would be a reckoning.

Kah-Roshakh (Third Person)

Kah-Roshakh, Second Warmaster of the Kah clan of the Mah-Atti empire, Cha of Blades, The Uncut, The Long-Rider, Breath of Dragons, Scourge of The Shain, greatest of his clan and the presumed successor to the Crystal Seat sat upon his Konat looking on to the endless stretches of green before him. He had many titles, all of them earned by his deeds and glory that he brought to the Mah-Atti; many more titles were given to him that he had not heard, spoke in whispers by the smallfolk he had been the salvation of and by the enemies who cowered in fear of his shadow.

Behind him in place of the verdant plains of these lands were the mottled mass of his army. They had travelled north for months, all for the glory of the Mah-Atti and the Kah clan. Since the first drops of the frosted gate had melted all those months ago, he had led the hammers that were the Kah warriors from the southern plains of the Mah-Atti empire. Beating the expectations of the other clans, they had been first to cross what had once been the impenetrable border in the northern-most region of the empire. They suffered for days in the harsh tundra, only the strict discipline engrained into each Kah warrior keeping their army together before their climate changed. Believing it would only get worse for them and that their expedition had been a foolish, reckless, quest to sate his own pride, they were all relieved when the white emptiness melted into grasslands.

The Kah clan, being the southern-most clan of the empire, were accustomed to a more temperate climate with warmer weather than other Mah-Atti clans. Those in the north would find snow and ice almost all year round with a brief window for crops to be grown. Some said that the northern clans were stronger, having to struggle simply to survive, however the Kah were all trained for war since birth. Those first six years in which a child was too small to carry a blade were not counted in their age and from then every day was spent learning the intricacies of every known weapon and other forms of fighting, their renown was so great that the simple utterance of the Kah name was enough to deter bandits.

Now, as the first to have passed the gate, Kah-Roshakh was by custom the leader of all Mah-Atti in these lands. Even if the head of a clan were to travel north to them, someone who would typically outrank him in any circumstance, he would still remain as the absolute power in these lands until such a time as the Mah relinquished his command in person, or his ****.

Since the green landscape had emerged from the snow, they had travelled for over two months. The steps of their army turning the grass into a churned-up stretch of mud and dirt with no sign of any natives. They had come to believe that this country would be a new and bountiful land for the Mah-Atti to settle, a land for the Kah clan to hold guardianship over, perhaps in time it could become a position that would even equal the Mah.

That belief was held until their provisions began to dwindle and the time for them to return to the empire with the news of their discovery came. The decision to return was about to be made when they came upon a road. Kah-Roshakh had hoped that perhaps it was the remnants of a people long gone but he doubted it. It was then that he had ordered a halt to the **** behind him and sent scouts forward to discover what awaited them.

After hours of anticipation they were at last returning. In the distance he could see the faint outline of their Konat’s bounding towards him at the speed that only they possessed. He jerked the reins of his own Konat and set out to meet the scouts coming his way.

“Report” he said in the guttural language of the Mah-Atti, all of the Konat’s coming to a sudden halt just apart from each other.

It was a young man that spoke, barely more than a boy “We found a settlement, Warmaster” he said with practiced discipline. “It is small, only a few buildings, perhaps more than dozen. They have arable land and no obvious defences or warriors. We did not see any Konat, just horses and livestock” he ended his report with a subtle nod of his head.

“Understood, dismissed” he said, allowing them to return to the camp of the army whilst he remained on his mount, looking out to the landscape the scouts had appeared from. This land would belong to the Mah-Atti empire, and if there was one settlement there would undoubtedly be many more beyond it. He would have to determine the strength of whoever inhabited these lands, and then crush them.

He turned back and rode behind his scouts to where he had left the army and his generals. They would capture this settlement, they would replenish what supplies they could, and learn all they could about these lands. They would get what information there was to be found, discovering what weapons they had at their disposal and finding a map of some kind to discover what should be attacked. He doubted that a small town would have much to tell them, but it was a start.

He nodded to his generals as he reached them and dismounted from his Konat, watching as they fell into line around him. “There is a settlement a few hours ride from here. They are weak and I do not expect that you will have any trouble. You will take three of the outrider divisions and encircle them. I do not want anyone to escape, our presence here should go unnoticed for as long as possible. You will subdue the town, if they resist you have permission to kill them, but it would be unwise to do so without reason. Do you understand?”

A short chorus of agreement went up from the generals gathered around him. He nodded his head to them, “Good, now go. Gather your men and bring glory to the Kah clan”

They all left him with that, choosing the men that they wanted for this first battle in the foreign land. Glory awaited them all.