El-Vador's Travels (49 page)

He
walked slowly up and down the rows, glancing at titles and authors,
hoping to find something useful. He was so intent on his search that
he failed to notice the dark, hooded figure that entered the archives
and stood silently in the doorway watching him.

El-Vador
carefully opened the pages of the ancient volume he had taken down
from the archive shelves.

He
had barely begun to read the first page when he heard someone
approaching. It was a woman, and she was smiling at him.

'You
are the one they call El-Vador.' she spoke softly, even though there
was no one else in the archives to be disturbed by their
conversation. 'Do you remember me?'

Her
statement caught him by surprise. 'Remember you?'

He
stared at her in earnest then, and the familiarity of her features
seemed to harken back to something that seemed ancient already to his
mind. 'You were in the mountains, I rescued you from Sarvacts.'

'I
in turn rescued you from the explosion of energy that would have
taken your life.' the Pixie reminded him.

'Why
are you here? What do you want with me?'

She
had leaned in closer, and he found himself staring right into her
eyes. 'I want to escape.'

He
closed the book and turned slightly in his chair to face her.

'I
am known as Aliana,' she began. 'I know what it is that this
Brotherhood fight, I know that we are nothing but slaves to their
cause. I want to break free.'

'Like
many of the others here, I saw what you did to Shimon. Unlike them I
have also seen what you did to the Orcs in the mountains that were
once your home, I have seen first hand the true extent of your power.
I know what it is that you are capable of and I have seen your
potential.' She paused. Her gaze was intense. 'I can sense the power
inside you. I can feel it. You can destroy them all, you can destroy
the Brotherhood.'

El-Vador
shook his head. 'The Brothers all have power, as does every recruit
in this Sanctuary, were I to strike against them they would take me
down through force of numbers.'

'I
don't believe that,' she said, her voice gentle in its hope. 'Do you
really believe it either?'

'All
my life I’ve been driven by my anger,' he explained, speaking
slowly and staring down at the surface of the table, unable to look
her in the eye. 'But if I cannot control the power and simply give in
to its whims it will be the power that controls me.'

'And
is that such a bad thing?' she asked.

'I
don’t know.' he replied, wrestling with the thought and
wondering why the voice offered him nothing. 'All I know is that if I
were to give in entirely I may never come back out, or I may lose all
perception of self-preservation and be swiftly dealt with.'

'Give
me your hand.' her voice was stern, and El-Vador hesitated only an
instant before reaching out. She clasped his palm with both her
hands. 'Close your eyes,' she ordered, even as she shut her own.

In
the darkness he became acutely aware of how tightly she had clenched
his hand, squeezing the flesh so hard he could feel the beating of
her heart through her palms.

He
felt a tingling in his fingers, something beyond mere physical
contact. She was reaching out to him somehow.

'I
will give you control, El-Vador,' she whispered to him.

Suddenly
he felt as if he were falling. Swooping down into a great abyss, the
black nothingness inside his very being where the voice once lived.
The chill darkness numbed his body; he lost all sensation in his
extremities. He could no longer feel Aliana’s hands wrapped
about his own.

'My
power will give you control, El-Vador.' her words came to him from a
great distance, resonating inside his head endlessly. 'You have
within you a greater potential than all this Sanctuary combined, use
your power and claim it.'

He
opened his eyes warily, like a man waking from a dream he was afraid
to forget. From the expression on Aliana’s face, he knew she
must have felt something, too.

'How
did you do that?' he asked, trying and failing to keep the
desperation out of his voice.

'The
Brotherhood have intentionally been withholding this information from
you out of fear that they could not control the result.' she replied.
'They fear you, they fear what you could do to them and yet they
covet your power also.'

El-Vador
nodded, remaining fervently silent so she could continue.

'You
will be able to control your power now, but you must attack them in a
way they cannot recover from, you must destroy them utterly rather
than simply kill them.'

'How
do I do that?'

'There
is a place within this Sanctuary that no recruits may enter.' Aliana
answered, as if it was obvious. 'Their source of power must lie
within there, destroy that and you will cripple them.'

'Why
should I trust that any of what you say is true?' he asked. 'You
could be here to test my loyalty.'

She
gave him a sly smile. 'A good question. I suggest you attempt to use
your power and truly let go and then you shall discover the truth in
my words.'

El-Vador
knew there was only one place he could do that.

He
knocked once softly, careful not to wake the others. Before he could
knock a second time, the door swung open to reveal the creature.

Before
El-Vador even realized what was happening, the door was closed and
locked behind him, sealing the two of them together in the small,
dark room. His host lit a small candle on a stand by the bed and
turned to glare at his uninvited guest.

'What
are you doing here?' he hissed, keeping his voice low.

'I
want you to train me again.' El-Vador whispered. 'I want you to teach
me all you know about power.'

Chlodochar
shook his head in response, but El-Vador thought he sensed a brief
hesitation before he did so.

'I
have wasted enough of my time on the likes of you. You held back just
as you were beginning to make progress. Why should I do this?'

'You
know my potential,' El-Vador pressed. 'I will not hold back any
further, give me one opportunity to show that.'

'And
if you hold back again, you will have wasted my time,' the other
replied.

'Then
prepare yourself,' he finally said, deciding that only desperate
measures would convince the brother.

Chlodochar
nodded. 'I stand ready. Do not hold back.'

El-Vador
knew this was the final test. Chlodochar's talent and skill were
reserved for those who would one day rise up and join the Brothers in
battle. He wanted practical proof that El-Vador was truly ready for
this. He wanted proof that El-Vador was worthy.

Without
further thought as to the consequences, he finally let go.

Death comes to all
men, be wary of those who seek it eagerly.

E
l-Vador
made his way down the hall with careful, measured steps. But
though his pace was sombre and subdued, his mood was one of elated
triumph. Chlodochar had almost been forced to yield in private to the
relentless nature of his power, and more importantly he had been able
to stop when the Brother had finally called for secession. He had
control over the awesome force that the voice had provided him,
thanks to Aliana he need not fear letting go any more.

His
days were now filled with study and training. In the darkest hours
before morning’s first light he would meet Chlodochar early to
practice before the other recruits even woke. He would meet with
Aliana in the archives and pour over texts about the Sanctuary in the
hopes of determining an escape upon destroying the Brotherhood. In
addition to this they continued to search the tomes for information
about the area not permitted for recruits to enter, but without any
luck.

He
consumed knowledge of power as if it were his final meal, devouring
everything he got from Chlodochar. The Brother was amazed at his
progress, and even Aliana had begun to notice the change in him,
almost an aura of power glowing about him. Everything he learned from
the Brothers he supplemented with the wisdom of their ancient
predecessors in the archives. The knowledge contained in those
yellowed parchments and leather-bound manuscripts was timeless.

'Excellent!'
Chlodochar said as El-Vador blocked multiple limbs of oily darkness
and countered with strands of his own. 'You were able to anticipate
and defend my attack with near-perfect response. Few now could attack
you without your sensing and responding in time.'

It
was the praise he had been waiting to hear, and he longed to engage
another opponent in the duelling arena to test this theory before
putting it into practice. But it wasn't time. Not yet. His victory
had to be total and complete, he could not afford to deal in half
measures.

With
those words the Brother bid him depart, and El-Vador made his way to
the arena where they would soon be practising.

The
recruits cast him cold glances as each of them joined him. It was
tradition for the recruits to appear before the Brothers themselves
and each of them had seen what El-Vador was capable of and distrusted
him implicitly.

El-Vador
paid their looks little heed, concentrating entirely upon mastering
the power within him. Today he would make a statement, one that would
echo throughout the confines of this sanctuary and leave none
wondering as to his true potential.

He
briefly scanned the crowd for Aliana, she was sat attentively with
the rest of the recruits who did not know of her duplicity in this
forthcoming act.

As
he had done the last time when he challenged Shimon, he entered the
centre of the arena before anyone else had a chance to act, and few
were wont to stop him from doing so. There was a murmur of voices,
undoubtedly pondering as to who his next victim would be.

He
could feel the power coursing through him, a storm far fiercer than
any he had suffered in the mountains. It was time.

'I
challenge all of you.'

El-Vador’s
words hung in the air as a wave of confusion came flooding through
the crowd of recruits.

Chlodochar
grunted his approval at the request and none of the Brothers opposed
his decision. The challenge had been laid down and the onus was on
the recruits to accept.

They
seemed less than eager to do so in the face of such a bold
proclamation from a known killer, but then a rustling of robes and a
collective intake of breath produced a viable candidate.

The
long blonde hair was unmistakable, this was Arawn, Shimon's closest
friend and possibly the Brotherhood's best recruit. The man had been
tapped as joining the war effort soon, his skills would be
considerable to have such an honour bestowed upon him.

He
moved with a quiet confidence that underlined these thoughts.
El-Vador had hoped the unexpected challenge might have afforded him
an opportunity to strike out at all the recruits, but it would appear
that they had collectively volunteered Arawn for the task. If he
could humiliate Arawn, the Brothers would have no choice but to
recognise his power and let them join their ranks. The recruit
carefully rolled up the sleeves of his robes to the breathless
anticipation of those who watched, and El-Vador caught a glimpse of
the pulsing tattoos underneath that seemed to glow with energies
waiting to be unleashed.

There
was a measured efficiency in Arawn’s preparation-an economy and
precision of movement-that told El-Vador he was not going to go
lightly.

Arawn
exuded arrogance, but he was no fool. He was smart enough to
understand that El-Vador wouldn’t challenge all the recruits at
once if he didn't have a great measure of power. Until he understood
the degree of energy that the Elf could channel, he wasn’t
going to take his opponent for granted lest he beat him.

El-Vador
didn’t just want to beat him, however. He wanted to destroy
him, make an example of him just as he did to Shimon. To show the
assembled Brothers just what he was capable of.

Across
the arena Arawn assumed the ready position, El-Vador could feel the
energy shimmering off him like a wave of heat.

The
recruit began with a series of probing bursts of power, all of which
El-Vador shrugged off as Chlodochar had taught him. It was an opening
exchange, simply to ensure that the Elf was not bluffing in his
confident challenge and that his merciless assault of Shimon wasn't a
fluke.

El-Vador
offered a counter-attack of his own, sending streams of oily-black
energy tentacling out at the opponent and watching him fend them off
without difficulty.

The
battle continued in the familiar ebb and flow of attack and defence
as the opponents began to get a feel for each other.

With
the surge and swell of each exchange El-Vador measured his opponent
and was in turn measured, though Arawn knew not just how much power
the Elf could unleash should he desire it.

He
understood that the crushing victory he sought would only come
through patience-a steady grinding down of Arawn's energies until his
opponent was left with nothing.

He
watched on as Arawn became increasingly frustrated at his inability
to land any clear penetration of El-Vador's defences. The probing had
given way to great gouts of energy that were thrown about in a
haphazard fashion as his opponent slowly began to realise the
futility of his attacks.

When
his opponent's desperation turned to hopelessness, every impulse in
El-Vador screamed with the desire to take the initiative and end this
duel irrevocably. Instead he let the man continue to hurl everything
he had at him, knowing now that there wasn't a single assault this
would-be Brother could muster to harm him.