Fate Rides Wicked: Volume I of the Lerilon Trilogy (25 page)

In moments the soldiers had freed themselves
completely from the forangen and had formed into a group
of twelve. The experienced expedition soldiers, warriors
and magicians pulled together and drew the forangen into a
clump. Ten missiles filled the air, then another ten.
Already, more than half of the monsters had been killed,
and still they hadn’t regrouped. The magicians stepped
forward and released spells. When the smoke cleared from
these, the odds stood three to one in favor of the humans
and enchanted races. Ten more missiles sped down and the
battle ended.

Tych sheathed Gaylin, since it lit up the whole clearing
and betrayed their race, so excited was the blade about
tasting forangen blood. Aquendar crossed over the short
distance to the soldiers and asked, “Who is now in charge?”

A young man stepped forward from the group. “I was
the captain’s second in command but there is one among us
suited much better. Contoro, come forward.”

An aging man, gray-haired and scarred, stepped out of
the group. “I am Contoro, former sergeant of Efrenbont.
Who are you?”

“I am Commander Aquendar of Efrenak, Lieutenant
Commander of the Lian army and this is Prince Tych di
Corl, Commander of the army of Li. We come in peace to
talk with King Sey.”

“I have heard of you Aquendar, you are a great warrior.
What do you suggest we do now?”

“We should return to our camp where our knight and
magicians can treat your wounded. In which direction were
you headed?”

“The former leader of this group had orders to take me
to the border to be incarcerated. King Sey would not listen
to my urging to form relations with the neftir.”

Andri stepped out from behind the taller members.
“Say hello to the High Commander of the Andarin Neftir.
It seems you will be returning to Efrenak.”

“No. Though I am glad to hear of your journey, we will
continue on towards the border so that we may help there.
This forangen migration is very disturbing.”

Tendelbro had made himself visible. “Tendelbro, High
Commander of the Efre Neftir, assures you we will be well
represented.”

Tych laughed heartily, especially for a man that never
shows emotion. “Enough with the pompous ranks. We are
the soldiers of Li here, nothing more, nothing less, and we will
liberate the continent. Tired soldiers, however, are useless,
so let us return to camp and get some rest. This battle made
us all weary. Tendelbro, you’re in charge of getting the
wounded to the camp.”

After a few moments of preparation, the weary group
trudged back to the expedition’s camp. Soon everybody
slept and Tych and Lendril resumed their watch, Contoro
joining them to discuss their journey and its possible trials.

Rangdor hovered ominously in the center of his cavern.
Needing no sustenance but the energy from his dying
minions and the evil energies of death, he kept nothing
under the high, vaulted chambers but the remains of
minions that had displeased him in some way. The winged
demon hanging in the air waiting to be recognized knew
this well. Rangdor had brought almost three hundred of
them into this plane before the gods closed the gates to the
monster of darkness. Now only half of them remained,
having been killed by the planet’s mortals or by Rangdor
himself. Thus, the demon held no small measure of
discomfort at having to wait for recognition, since this
meant Rangdor’s mood was grim.

Finally, the darkness turned one of his eyes towards his
awaiting minion. “What do you bring me?”

“Only words, My Lord.” The demon shook slightly in
fear, a new experience for every demon to appear before
this god-like being.

“Find the endaril, kill him and bring him to me. Let it
be known among my other minions that I am not to be
disturbed again unless the endaril is with you, dead or alive.
My strength must build, for he will learn skills quickly.
GO! Do not return without the endaril!” The eye turned
back towards the back wall. The demon pumped his wings
once and sped up the tunnel to the bubbling, boiling
surface.

The riders pulled up. Flandroke turned his torso to
Tych who shielded his eyes against the sun as it broke
through a hole in the clouds. “There are tracks here,”
stated the pemilon.

Tych turned slightly in his saddle. “Ofeldar, we’ve
found tracks.” The scout dismounted and made her way to
the front. Reichet joined her as she reached the beginning
of the marks.

The neftir looked for a little while then turned to Tych.
“A lot of forangen passed by here, headed west. We had
best avoid them.”

“Don’t speak so quickly, Reichet.” The human smiled
a bit as the neftir turned to look at her. “I estimate thirty,
no more, led by a very cunning human. A lot of these
tracks double back on themselves and are exactly alike.
The tracks are also fresh, so I think we should keep an eye
out. A group this small has obviously been through some
combat, and they probably are looking for humans to
ambush for supplies.” Ofeldar stood and walked to Tych’s
horse. “We could probably ride them down with little
effort.”

“Mount up then. We’ll begin our ride again.” The two
warriors exchanged smiles and went back to their horses.
The ride began anew.

They traveled road number two in the Kingdom of
Efrenbont, which led straight to the capital. For two miles
they went up and down low, rolling hills covered with leafy
trees and grass. A village rose up in the distance and they
diverted momentarily to go around it then found their way
back to the road. A few hills later, a light rain began to fall.
By the time they crossed two more little valleys, it had
stopped.

Suddenly, at the top of a hill, Lendril yelled, “Whoa!”
and the pemilons slowed the horses down so the others
could stop them. “There, in the rocks.”

Tych said, “Yes, I see them. Good work, Lendril. It’s
your call.”

“I’ll take the archers around behind the rocks and get
them from above.” The warrior dismounted. “You ride
down to make them rise up enough to be good targets.”

Buynar, Findra’s choice of soldier cleared his throat
and rode forward. “See the soldiers on their way here.” A
small group of soldiers could be seen making their way
across the large valley. “The ambush is for them. We
should ride down to bring them to readiness, but not until
we hear the first bow twang.”

“Good, carry it out, Lendril. The rest of you be ready
to ride into battle. There’s a lot of fog down there so be
careful you don’t chase too far.” Tych drew Gaylin and
turned his attention to the approaching soldiers.

Lendril slung her crossbow over her back and waited
for the other archers to join her. Once gathered, they
headed off the road to come around above and behind the
rocks. The endaril turned to Aquendar as they came to the
top of the rock formation. “Use one of those arrows of
yours and fire one to the road. That should direct the
attention of the soldiers to the right place.”

Aquendar pulled out one of his magic arrows and let
loose from his big bow. It planted itself just on the other
side of the road. Lendril led the rest farther into the rocks
until they could see the waiting forangen.

Suddenly, Ofeldar fell into the group, tackled by a
human. Her attacker wore all red, with a black patch
bearing a horn on his shoulder. He had a dagger drawn
and, if not for the warrior’s reflexes, it would have been in
her neck. In the ensuing confusion, she struggled against
the large man alone. Her left hand held the wrist of the evil
leader and her right tried to deflect the blows of his fist.
She became aware of the fact that her right leg lay between
his legs and pushed against his assault to get him to rise up.

With vicious force, she brought her knee into his groin
and he would have screamed if not for the right cross from
Ofeldar across his jaw. Her opponent off balance, she
flipped him over onto his back and used the momentum to
drive his dagger into his chest. “Get rid of him,” she
snarled in a low whisper as she stood.

Aquendar and Xalt each took an end. “Load up, the
soldiers are almost in range and the forangen are about to
get a surprise.” The two warriors began to swing the man
back and forth. Once they had gained enough momentum,
they threw him down into the rocks. He bounced a couple
of times, then landed at the feet of three forangen who were
taking aim at the soldiers. The forangen rose up and turned
towards the archers. Four bows fired and the enemy fell.

Startled by the assault from above, the forangen began
their ambush. As they climbed out from behind the rocks
to jump to the road, missiles caught many of them. Tych
and his group sandwiched the ones that made it to the road
with the soldiers and most died instantly. In a matter of
minutes the expedition’s archers had close-combat weapons
drawn and were making their way through the rocks to get
stragglers.

At this moment, fierce gusts of wind kicked up from the
south and raced through the valley. The fog began to roll
off with hasty speed. By the time the archers reached the
road, having killed three forangen on the way down, the
sun shone on the glistening capital of Efrenbont. The city
sat on the side of the hill, beginning several yards before
the hill and covering it to the castle at the top. The hill
really had no north and south sides, making the city very
defensible. The sight captivated the expedition, for the
walls of the city bore precious, sparkling metals and the
castle’s pointed spires seemed to scrape the sky.

One of the soldiers grabbed their attention by placing
the point of his sword on Tych’s chest. “Who are you,
devil man?”

With a mere thought by Tych, to everybody’s surprise,
the sword flew from the man’s hand and into the rocks
above them. “I am Prince Tych di Corl. If not for my wife,
that ambush would have wiped you out. You have a
strange way of showing gratitude.” Tych left it at this,
surprised by his sudden show of telekinetic power.

For a moment, the peaceful quiet of the valley hung
about them. Then, for no apparent reason, all of the
soldiers dropped their weapons and dropped to one knee.
Now the members of the expedition looked at each other in
dismay, unsure of what they saw. One of the soldiers held
out his arms and raised his head, saying, “Say something,
god-being. Grant us forgiveness.”

Unsure of what to do next, Tych said, “Cover your ears
and bow your heads so that I may speak in privacy with my
entourage.” The soldiers did as they had been ordered.
Tych turned to Aquendar and beckoned him with a crook of
his finger. “I have an idea about what is happening here,
but I have no idea what to do next.” Ofeldar and Xalt
joined them and the other humans came forward too.

The horse master paused in thought for a moment.
Finally, he responded, “Let them know you are not a god,
but that you possess great powers. Tell them you have
been chosen by Frentera for a special mission and he has
bestowed this power for the success of your quest.”

At first it looked as if Sir Xalt had an objection, then an
idea seemed to spread across his face. “Yes, but I must
present myself as the liaison, since they will recognize me
as a knight of Frentera by the burns on my hands. Mind
you, I cannot lie, for it is impossible for me to do so and
stay in holy graces. We should dismount, Tych.”

Tych and the knight dismounted. With solemn gaits,
they approached the soldiers until the humans raised their
heads. Sir Xalt extended his arm and turned his palm
towards the men, and Tych yielded the first words to him.
“Frentera, God of all gods, Master of the Seasons, chose
me to join this mission and provide this powerful man with
assistance. He is no mere mortal, but he is not a god. He
can, however, bring down god-like wrath if he chooses. Do
not bow to him, but pay him his due credit for his rank.”

Tych took two steps forward and said, “I have never
before been honored in this way. Yet, I do not wish to
rebuke it. Therefore, all I ask of you is your allegiance to
me as the Commander of the Army of Li. Stand, and
continue on your way. You will hear when it is time to
serve me.”

The soldiers stood, crossed their arms across their
chests in salute, and started back down the road towards the
capital. Tych and Xalt strode back to their horses. When
the men had left hearing range, Tych turned to the rest of
the group. “I do not want any more declaration of rank
unless I feel it is necessary to the success of the
negotiations.”

Each man nodded until Tych turned to Aquendar. “I
am not liked much by King Sey. The man at the border and
I go way back, but the king has ideas about his employees
staying on for life and I’ve never worked anywhere for
more than a year.”

“This isn’t an order, but I’d like you to stay with the
group through all of this. I don’t want to lose a man.
We’ve seen how each member of the expedition is
important to the whole.”

Strangely, Aquendar didn’t respond. Tych dismissed it
as thought and turned his white horse towards the city.
“How does King Sey feel about being properly dressed?”

“He was once a warrior and appreciates the combat
look. All of us are wearing relatively new armor
nonetheless and will still put up a fairly good appearance,”
responded the horse master.

“Let us visit this sparkling city then.” The endaril
spurred his horse forward and they overtook the soldiers in
seconds. The wind in the valley tugged at their capes and
cloaks but it brought the fresh scent of washed air with it.
The thinning of the clouds continued and the sun reflected
off the city’s walls more often, amazing them each time.

They pulled up near the gates and walked their horses
towards them. Three young soldiers and an older man
wearing the ribbons of a Commander stepped from the door
inside the gate and cut them off. The soldiers took one
look and drew their blades, but the wizened warrior stayed
them by stepping in front and holding up his hand to them.