El-Vador's Travels (51 page)

He
shook his head. 'I have other plans that require you to remain
alive.'

She
raised a single eyebrow. 'Other plans?'

'I
shall reveal them after I have dealt with the Brotherhood.' he told
her.

'Brother
John was afraid you would take over the Brotherhood if you learnt
more.'

No,
not take over, he thought, but obliterate. The reclusive Brother John
may have been working against him behind the scenes through Manilus
to stifle El-Vador after learning of his power but ultimately he
would suffer the same fate as the others.

'Tonight
I shall kill them all.' he stated. 'Stay in your room and you shall
come to no harm.'

She
nodded wordlessly, knowing that she wouldn't get anything else out of
him.

'Then
I shall finish what I started.'

'E
nter!'
the voice of Brother Manilus shouted, clearly angered at being
disturbed.

'Have
you come to argue my decision?' Manilus said as El-Vador strode
through the entrance. 'You are not ready for the Brotherhood and that
is final.'

'No,
Brother.' El-Vador replied. 'I have come to kill you.'

Realizing
the look on the Elf's face, Manilus was quick to speak again, this
time it was righteous anger. 'You dare come into my very room and
threaten my life because you didn't get what you wanted? I could
destroy you in the blink of an eye for such insubordination.'

El-Vador
smiled. 'Chlodochar thought the same as you, he is now dead.'

The
words struck the man like a mortal blow, his eyes widened not in fury
but in fear, the transformation took seconds and the anger was
snuffed out. 'Now wait one moment, El-Vador. We all knew of your
potential, but there is an alternative to killing me.'

'An
alternative?'

'Allow
me to serve you,' Manilus said, dropping to one knee.

El-Vador
stared down at him, his expression a mixture of horror, amusement,
and contempt. 'Why would I want a man to serve me that has just
threatened my life?' he asked.

Manilus
rose slowly to his feet, a cunning smile on his lips. 'I am not
blind, El-Vador. I see your potential. I see how Brother John has
avoided going near you since the incident in the arena. I know you
have power enough to take over this entire Brotherhood.'

'What
exactly are you proposing?' he asked, a smile no longer touching his
lips.

'If
you can end Chlodochar. You can end Brother John,' he declared. 'I
will not stand in the way of your ascension. In fact, I want to help
you.'

'You
want to help me take over the Brotherhood?' El-Vador laughed; Manilus
was as blind and misguided as the rest of them. 'Replace one leader
with another, and you and the rest of the Brotherhood continue on as
before? That’s your brilliant plan?'

'I
can prove quite useful to you, El-Vador.' Manilus insisted. 'You need
infrastructure and guidance should you take control of this
Sanctuary, and who better than I?'

'And
therein lies the problem.' El-Vador lashed out with his power,
seizing Manilus in an immobilizing, crushing grip. His opponent tried
to protect himself, throwing up a field to deflect the incoming
assault, but El-Vador’s attack tore through the pitiful
defence, wiping it away as if it hadn’t even been there.

There
was a strangled cry of pain from Manilus as he was hurled into the
far wall and pinned there by the dark hand of power pressed to his
throat.

'I
do not seek to take control of your Brotherhood,' El-Vador explained
casually, watching as Manilus struggled helplessly above him. 'I see
to destroy it.'

'I
don’t understand,' Manilus gasped, barely able to speak as the
breath was squeezed inexorably from his lungs. 'If you wish to leave
then we can send for a ship, there is land not too far east of here!'

'It
is not only an exit I seek, fair Manilus. The Brotherhood must be
purged. You kept me in captivity like some animal upon this vast body
of water, kept me away from all that I had sought to destroy. Then
the only reason I had not to kill you all was removed out of your own
fear that I would take over. You stopped being useful to me, and now
you must be eliminated.'

Dawning
horror spread across Manilus’s long, drawn features, but the
snapping and crackling of his bones was the only response he had
left.

Brother
John froze as a knock came upon his door, cautiously he opened it and
found El-Vador there waiting for him, standing still as stone.

'May
I come in, Brother?' he asked. 'There are some matters we must
discuss.'

Wordlessly
and with more than a hint of suspicion, the Brother allowed him
entrance into his domain.

'I
have killed Brothers Chlodochar and Manilus,' El-Vador said, his
words casual and uncaring.

Brother
John's face transformed into one of shock and anger. 'But …
why?'

'They
were holding me back.' El-Vador replied.

'Damn
you for a fool!' Brother John shouted, waving his arms madly as if
they were gripped by uncontrollable spasms. 'Chlodochar and Manilus
were two of the greatest Brothers the Sanctuary ever witnessed! Their
loss will be a massive blow to the war effort!'

'That
matters not to me, nor does your petty invisible war.'

Brother
John pointed an accusing finger at him, jabbing the air violently.
'We all know what prize you seek, El-Vador! You’re here to take
over the Brotherhood and usurp my place!'

El-Vador
shook his head sadly, as if schooling a small child. 'No, Brother
John. You're wrong. I have not come here to claim the Brotherhood, I
have come to destroy it.'

Brother
John crossed the room and slumped wearily into a chair. 'I still
don't understand why.'

El-Vador
laughed, a high and musical chuckle that seemed no less sinister for
its pitch. 'You lied to me, Brother John. You told me that the
Brotherhood would nurture my potential. When you realised just how
much potential I had, you feared for your own position. I was
entertaining the thought of fighting in your stupid war for a time
and then going back to the Orcs. Your refusal to induct me into the
Brotherhood through your puppet Manilus was what doomed you.'

'So
now you mean to kill us all for not supporting you.'

'I
will.' El-Vador vowed.

Brother
John sat up straighter in his chair. 'Then have done with it Elf,' he
snapped, 'know this though, you will never find a way to escape this
Sanctuary!'

El-Vador
shrugged, and with a twist of power he snapped the man's spine.

He
settled himself upon the ground of Brother John's room beside the
man's corpse and closed his eyes, willing his body out into the
darkness as the lights came twinkling faintly toward him. Yes, it was
much like that of the burrow, if anything it was easier than before
to concentrate upon the energies that illuminated those fragile lives
as they slept. One by one he slowly snuffed them out until every
living soul save Aliana's had departed this existence.

He
sensed the wave of dark energy pass over him as he opened his eyes,
strong enough to leave him shivering even at this distance. Once it
was gone he reached out once more to seek any who might have escaped.
As he expected, he felt nothing. They were all gone.

The
Brotherhood had been purged, and El-Vador intended to keep it that
way.

He
and Aliana were the last ones remaining, possibly the only save these
invisible others who could generate such power.

All
that remained was to journey to the Sanctum and meet the others.

T
hey
made their way deeper into the abandoned Sanctuary in silence, Aliana
did not ask how El-Vador had accomplished the total destruction of
the brotherhood and he did not provide her with an explanation. The
reality of their departure was the only thing that mattered.

All
the recruits had been warned by the Brothers not to stray beyond the
crimson door, for therein was the key to their war efforts against
the others and they could not afford a recruit to undo the
concentration required to wage war against their bitter foes.
El-Vador and Aliana stood before this door now and pondered
wordlessly as to the contents beyond.

Dark
tendrils of power reached out and clawed at the faint gap between the
two doors, causing a creak of ancient hinges as the locking mechanism
slowly broke and the entrance was torn asunder.

El-Vador
then stepped through the dust and remnants that the broken doors had
unsettled and gazed into the chamber beyond.

On
assorted meditation mats sat the cloaked forms of Brothers he had
never seen, they seemed slumped in repose when in truth he knew they
were dead. Before them lay a giant pulsing rock encrusted with
strange gems of many hues that seemed to glow intermittently with
light.

'What
is it?' Aliana asked, eyeing the thing with the same suspicion that
El-Vador felt.

The
Elf approached it, to which there was no response. 'I am uncertain,
but this appears to be the key to the war effort that Brothers
Manilus and John were so keen to foster.'

A
familiar insistence took El-Vador then, in response he tugged away
one of the mats from underneath a robed corpse and lay it squarely in
front of the lights. Uncertain as to how to proceed, he sank down and
ignored Aliana's presence entirely, instead focusing upon the beaming
warmth of the pulsing rock before him.

'It
is done,' he heard the voice say, and what followed was an exchange
of words that seemed more like a torrent rushing through him unbidden
than any means of communication. He caught brief glimpses of concepts
and visions but for the most part it was incomprehensible to his
mind. When he finally opened his eyes he expected Aliana to be
shaking him, instead she remained where she had stood previously, a
curious expression upon her face.

There
was no mistaking the insistence of the voice now, even if it did not
express it directly. He needed to get out of the Sanctuary before
these others arrived.

Aliana
was baffled at his communing with the object but did not argue the
point, she was a survivor in the same sense that the Elf was and as a
result could act immediately in order to escape danger.

Together
they raced through the Sanctuary, El-Vador occasionally batting doors
away from them with blasts of dark power. The urgency of the voice
grew with each passing step, whatever was happening here they needed
to escape it now.

As
they made it out onto the familiar cropped grass of the inescapable
island, El-Vador's hand reached out and tore the robe off Aliana.
'Fly, damn you, fly!'

She
unfurled her previously hidden wings without trepidation and took off
into the air, El-Vador clinging to her in much the same way as he had
all that time ago in the mountains. He chanced a brief look back in
time to see the slowly shrinking island erupt in a conflagration of
blinding light, leaving nothing but water surrounding them as it
faded.

'In
what direction do we fly?' Aliana shouted over her shoulder as the
air hissed past them.

'Head
in the direction of the rising sun, Brother Manilus said that there
was land to the east so we must make for it and trust to your
endurance.'

Aliana
nodded acknowledgement but did not make any quip about saving the
Elf's life once more. They would have lapsed into silence once again
but for a sudden intrusion inside El-Vador's head.

'You
have done well, Elf. At first you were but a vessel for me to throw
power through ineffectively, now you are a sharpened tool ready to
strike. We shall make our move against the Orcs soon, then your
vengeance shall be at hand.'

El-Vador
said nothing.

'No
comment from you this time? Why back in the mountains you had any
number of things to say! Care you not why the Brotherhood was doomed
to fail?'

But
El-Vador still remained silent, and the voice lost interest and faded
in time. He was tired of being a pawn to this thing, knowing that
wherever he went he remained enslaved. He knew he had no choice
though, the power did not come from him but instead from it. He
needed it in order to destroy the Orcs, he could only hope that the
thing would uphold its end of the bargain and depart once that final
task had been completed.

On
the wings of an uncertain ally, El-Vador greeted the dawn of the day
with a troubled heart.

The
Scarlet Brotherhood had fallen, and into the world had been unleashed
something of which I had no understanding. My actions had pleased the
voice in my head, but with that had come a feeling that warned
against its celebratory nature. These had not been Orcs that I had
slain, it was not a path of vengeance I had taken. I was but a pawn
in much larger events to come, and that feeling and distraction from
my task infuriated me.

'
O
n
the wings of an uncertain ally, I greeted the dawn of the day with a
troubled heart.'
the
Elf said, then was silent.

The room fell deathly silent with his secession, as if
every mind present considered it prudent not to speak any further to
such a dangerous creature. If the details of what the Elf had just
laid out were true, then the confinement that the magi had prepared
for him may not be enough.

Sykes realised now that he had been chosen as a
spokesperson for the group until the Arch-Inquisitor arrived. This
was largely due to his lack of initial reticence when speaking to the
creature, an action he hoped he wouldn't regret until the end of his
days.

He hadn't become the Captain of the guard through
indecision and regret, and he knew in his gut that something needed
to be done with regards to the Elf. Better to have him talking and
not attempting to escape than making a break for freedom and
potentially succeeding. Sykes knew nothing of magical matters and was
loathe to trust them with the captivity of any prisoner. It filled
him with an unease, knowing that he had no choice but to rely upon
what looked to him an insubstantial field of light encasing the Elf.