In Search of Auria (24 page)

I only had one question, “What is thy name,
demon?”

Over the sound of the rain and with a hoarse
tone, I heard it say, “Blood Marauder”.

The sun at noon was at its worst. Vallias'
men were uncomfortable with the heat as waves of sweat ran down
their foreheads. Vallias stood patiently, wearing his noticeable
horned helmet. Beside him was the cage covered with the black tarp.
This place was not around the capital, rather far from it. They had
changed their course and gone west, where the weather was hotter
than usual. The area was surrounded by hills. Rocks pried out of
the earth and thin dry trees struggled to grow. Suddenly, Vallias
and his men looked toward the hill to their left. Down came walking
a man wearing a blue sorcerer's gown, handling a blue wooden staff.
His face was chalky and tattooed with symbols. His breath could be
seen like if he were in chilly weather. He reached the bottom of
the hill and met with Vallias.

"Where is your head mistress?" Vallias
asked.

"Near," answered the man with a pushy, deep
voice.

"Tell her to come."

"The creature; I need to see."

Vallias stared at him until finally
complying, removing the tarp. There, Auria laid on her knees, one
of the few positions she could manage because of the shackles. Even
though she was a daystar, the shine of the sun hurt her eyes. She
had spent too much time in darkness. The man tried to move closer,
but Vallias’ blonde bodyguard stood in his way.

"Very well," the man stopped and smirked. He
turned back and shouted, "Bring our Matron!”

From where the man had come from, a cool
breeze blew down. Everything in the way of the breeze turned to
frost. The rocks were covered by blue sheet of ice, the plants
froze on the spot, and the grass would break by its own cold
stiffness. A thick brume formed in the sky, the rays of the sun
barely shining through. Down the hill came walking five people; two
men in front and two women behind. They walked with staffs, their
faces were also tattooed, and had the same visible breath as the
other one. The one at the middle did not have a staff. However, she
was dressed in white with a purple mask made from crow beaks.
She was the Matron. Each step she took made a blanket of snow in
the ground. Calmly they walked down and reached Vallias.

"At last you are here," he said. "The
witches and witch men of the frontier north. And it is an
absolute pleasure to be in the presence of the Matron, Lorana
Enchantress"

"Save the formalities, Vallias" she sternly
addressed him. "If it were not for our arrangement, I would be just
another beast for you to kill."

Vallias chuckled and lowered his head.
Lorana saw Auria and went to her cage. Vallias' men felt the sudden
chill as she passed by. She grasped the bars, covering them with
frost upon contact. She eyed her from top to bottom.

"She does not look too healthy."

"She's had one or two emotional problems,"
Vallias simpered, "But other than that, she's good."

Lorana smiled at her, "Your blood shall make
for a fine potion, my dainty, fairy friend." Auria closed her eyes
and turned away.

"Enough, witch," Vallias deepened his voice.
"If you want the fairy, you have to honor your part of the
agreement."

Lorana turned and went toward her witches.
Each one gave her a crystal vial; one was round containing red
liquid, and the other was square containing blue liquid. She then
walked to Vallias and showed him the vials.

"This red potion is of Might. It provides
inhuman strength and ambition. The blue one is of Wellness. It
brings healing and vitality. When both are consumed equally at the
same time, it will give the consumer 'milae enie vih'."

"Milan any vih?" Vallias replied, trying to
repeat the twisted witch language.

"A thousand years of life," she softly
whispered near his face.

He steered away from her and her mask, "Only
a thousand? I thought it would be more... permanent."

"Judging by your abilities, Vallias, if you
take more than a thousand years to create your kingdom, then you
don't deserve the potions. Anyway, if you want to live more than
that, you can always see me again in a thousand years."

Vallias stared at her, pensive, until he
finally cracked a smile, "I'll take it. A thousand is better than
sixty, anyhow."

Vallias and Lorana were about to be very
happy. He would have his potions; and she, Auria for her blood. It
was about to become a done deal. But, I wasn’t going to simply stay
hidden and let it all go down. It was then that I made my presence
known.

I appeared from the dead trees opposite to
them. I was hooded, carrying a large sack. They all looked at me as
I walked. I sat on a fallen tree trunk and put down the sack.

“Is he one of yours?” Vallias asked
Lorana.

“He does not breathe our coldness,” she
replied.

I opened the sack and began to take out its
contents: severed hands. They were pale, and the blood around the
detached wrists was dry and crusty. I started taking them out, one
by one.

“I’ve seen enough, this man is insane,”
Vallias expressed. Lorana took a look at one of her witch men and
gave him an order, “Kill him.”

The witch man raised his staff and pointed
it at me, “Piato Dismam!”

A bluish, razor edge disc shot out of the
staff toward me. Vallias and his men watched anxiously to see what
the result of this magic would be. But as the disc reached me, I
bounced it away with a swing of my arm. The disc took to the trees
behind, cutting them in half.

Everyone was perplexed. The witch man looked
back toward his Matron.

“Impossible,” she blurted out, “The disc was
to cut him down. He should be dead now!”

I continued as I was, only this time I took
out a hand twice my size. This one had the middle and ring fingers
broken. I hurled it to Vallias’ feet.

“Sire,” said one of his men, “A hand that
big, it could only be of… the Beast.”

Vallias’ face fired up as he viciously
pointed at me, “You! Who are you? Show your face!”

There was no point continuing in anonymity.
I removed the hood and revealed myself, sporting my newly acquired
green glow on my forehead.

“It is I, Erik Belrose.”

Vallias stepped back by the enormous
surprise, Lorana and her witches looked confused since they knew
nothing of me. When I took sight of Auria, she was speechless to
see me alive. I gave her a small grin that made her lines gleam a
low tone of yellow.

“I killed you…” Vallias lashed out, “Why are
you still here!?”

“It’s quite simple, really,” I replied
jovially, “During my journey, before you killed me, of course, I
had saved a small Devita Butterfly. It’s a type of fairy in your
country. Unfortunately, she ended up dying, but not before giving
me a gift I did not quite understand at the time. Fast forward,
after you killed me and left my body to rot, the next thing I saw
was myself inside a luminescent cocoon; not what I expected from
Heaven or Hell. But, when I broke free from it, I found myself in a
Devita lair in a mossy and hidden part of the world. They were the
ones that revived me. The invisible mark the original Devita put in
my forehead lured them to my body, where they took me to their
lair. And with a little bit of magic dust, boom, I’m here.

“The claw-like glow on my forehead I’ll have
to get used to, I guess. But this is much better than being
dead.”

“Well, I liked you dead,” Vallias expressed,
pulling out his sword, “How about I go and fix that?”

“Wait a second there, horny man, I still
have something in the sack that I want to share with you.”

While I searched inside the sack, I told
him, “You know, I had an encounter with one of your guards the
other day, the bald one. Um, Angus, I think his name is. Anyway, I
had a nice little chat with him. He told me about a cute little
cave not too far from here, and what I would find inside it;
the
other half of the cargo
. That’s from where I brought all these
gifts for you.” I gestured at the severed hands.

“And here I have the most important one of
all,” I took out another pale hand, but this one had markings and
symbols above the knuckles.

“That hand,” the enchantress gasped. She
recognized it.

“She seems to know who this hand belongs to,
Vallias. You should recognize it, too.”

I swung the hand in front of me, waiting for
Vallias to tell me whose hand I held. I think he knew whose hand it
was, but he couldn’t utter any words out of the hatred he felt for
me. I lowered my sight and saw the other dead extremities resting
on the ground. Looking at them in their fetid state made me
remember what I went through to get them…

*

It was midnight. In the middle of the
darkness, a hooded Erik hid behind a wide boulder. The land was
covered by a blanket of shadows, but he could see a dim radiance
coming from a near cave. He prepared his sword and shield and went
forth.

At the entry there was nothing abnormal,
only rock and silt. But as Erik walked more to its innards, he
found lit torches on the walls. He saw crates and garbage thrown
around; dirty blankets, empty bottles and animal bones. He treaded
carefully so to not step on anything, and for the torchlight not to
cast his shadow. Then, around the bend he heard a voice.

“Hey, Edgar, wake up. Your turn to stand
guard.”

Erik took a peek and saw two soldiers; one
laying on the ground with a quilt, and another sitting on a crate,
resting a halberd on his side. The tunnel was not wide enough to
pass by unnoticed. To continue deeper into the cave, Erik would
have to go through the pair. A confrontation was inevitable. He
jumped from hiding and pointed his sword at the one on the ground.
The other got spooked and fell back on the crate.

“Where is the kid?” Erik asked.

He asked as he normally would, but he forgot
about his appearance. What the guards saw was a sword wielding
creature, with a claw-like green glow coming from within its
hood.

“Demon!” cried the one on the ground. Erik
kicked his head unconscious. The other got on his feet and thrust
his halberd. Erik easily dodged and slashed him across the
face.

Now that blood had been spilled, there was
no need to be cautious. Erik advanced farther into the cavern,
where the torches became more abundant. Ahead, the way divided into
two separate tunnels. Both seemed the same and were well
illuminated. Erik chose to follow the right tunnel, and sure
enough, he heard more voices upfront.

“I know I heard something, damn it! We
should check on Edgar and Jon.”

Erik peered by the next bend and saw that
the cavern opened up to a great underground cavity. Bunches of
fires and torches pushed away most of the darkness. He saw three
soldiers arguing in front of a cage. Imprisoned inside the cage was
Auria’s nephew, Beam.

“You two are lazy bums, I’ll go and see,”
concluded the shortest of the guards and marched toward the tunnel.
Once past the bend, Erik smashed his shield unto the unsuspecting
guard. The other two got alarmed by the sudden bashing. Erik ran
into cavity, and as the soldiers saw the hooded figure advancing,
they instantly attacked. One had a spiked mace and the other a
pike. The one with the mace engaged first, but he was too erratic.
On every swerve he left himself open, and that gave Erik the chance
to get close and slice him through the stomach.  The other
yelled as he engaged with his pike. Erik stopped him by throwing
his sword at him. The soldier never expected the move, and received
the blade on the shoulder. He fell with a moan. Erik went beside
him and kicked him on the side of the head.

With the guards taken care of, Erik
retrieved his sword and went to the cage. Beam scurried to the
opposite corner when he neared.

"Will you kill me, too?" Beam asked,
clutching the bars behind him.

"What are you talking about, kid," Erik
removed his hood, "I'm here to save you."

Beam looked, but didn't recognize him, "Who
are you?"

"My name's Erik. Maybe you've heard of
me."

"You are the land dweller!" Beam blurted
out. Erik gestured him to lower his voice.

"Auria told me about you. But, she had not
told me about that glow on your forehead."

"Yeah, well, that's a bedtime story you'll
have to hear later. Anyway, why are you here? I thought they had
only taken Auria."

“They took us both,” Beam frowned. “That day
Auria was headed to the river. I saw she was sad, but she refused
to tell me why. She only told me that she was meeting Bri. Worried
about her, I tagged along. But, when we landed by the river, these
land dwellers attacked us. Auria fought them, but I was not strong
enough and got captured. They threatened her I would come to harm
if she did not surrender. They put her in shackles; and me, in a
bag.”

“I see,” Erik said. “Well, no more
imprisonment for you. I will free you.”

The cage door had a lock, but Erik did not
want to break it with his sword and make a loud racket. There could
still be more soldiers on other parts of the cave.

"If only I had the strength of a grown up
daystar,” Beam said, “I would try to bend these bars.” Erik got a
bit shocked by the statement. He knew daystars were strong, but not
that much that they could bend iron. He quickly dismissed the
thought and started searching the guards for the keys. His search
quickly stopped when a high pitched thud echoed from the tunnel. It
was the sound of chains and metal clashing with the ground. The
noise echoed closer and heavier,
until 
he
 appeared. Holding a great hammer with a
long handle, and an iron cast on his right foot, Sebastien "The
Beast" showed up.