NexLord: Dark Prophecies (54 page)

"Yes," Aerin answered, drawing out the
word.

Gandarel shrugged, "I was waiting for her in
her room one time and glanced at one of her prophecy
papers.  It had a section in it that described me and
this Chamber of Stone."

"And what else did it say?"

Gandarel still couldn't look at
Aerin.  "It said I would kill my best friend."

"What?" Aerin said, releasing Gandarel's
shoulder.

"You heard me, and you are my best friend,
Aerin."

Aerin nodded.  "Yes, and I know you
would never hurt me, Gandarel."

"I know that, and you know that, but the
prophecy says
differently
."

"Then it is wrong."

Gandarel was quiet for a few moments.

Aerin told him of his own vision in which
Mara and Lor both
died
and
explained how it hadn't happened that way. 

"Still, that was something you saw, not this
great Prophecy that Mara believes in so much," Gandarel noted,
anguish evident in his voice.

"It won't happen; you and I will make
sure.  
In fact,
you can
be sure I'LL make sure," Aerin said with a short laugh.

Gandarel smiled at his joke, but he was still
scared.

Mara arrived and started to lead the way into
the cave.  Gandarel stopped her.  "Tell me the
truth, Mara; is this the opening to the Chamber of Stone, or is it
further inside?"

"The actual Chamber is further in; this is
just the beginning of the caves."

"Will you tell me before we enter the
Chamber?"

Mara looked into his eyes and wondered what
had him so scared.  "All right, I'll make sure you know
before you get inside."

"Fine, let's go," Gandarel exclaimed,
feigning bravado, but Mara knew his fear was barely under
control.

Mara gave him one last penetrating look, and
then lit her torch from the one Tocor held and led the way into the
cave.

As they walked Aerin noted that the ground
was perfectly smooth.  The cave was natural, but the
thousands of people that had once walked through had worn the
passages smooth.  He noticed torch marks on the walls
where past travelers had burned their names in
soot.  Soon the passage started to branch, but Mara knew
where she was headed, without hesitation.

"What happened to Yearl, Mara?" Aerin asked
as they traveled down a new passage.

He noted that his voice echoed strangely
through the cavern.

"I left him to watch back at the first
branching.  I don't want to be surprised by our
enemies."

Gandarel was still walking near Aerin and
Mara, and now he stopped.  "Isn't this far enough,
Mara?"

She called a halt, and handed her torch to
Aerin, before leaning both hands on her cane and contemplating the
nervous Gandarel.

"No, but let's rest for a time. We need to
get to the bottom of this fear you have of the Chamber of
Stone."

"I'm not afraid of the Chamber," Gandarel
defended.

Mara raised both eyebrows, "Aren't you?"

He frowned and paced a few feet over to one
wall, where he pretended to study one of the soot marks someone had
left.

"No, I just have my reasons for not wanting
to go there."

The two councilmen joined the
discussion.  Niler spoke first.  "If Gandarel
does not wish to enter this Chamber, then we will not go
there."

"Yes, he will," answered
Mara.  "Let me tell you a little of what was, and what
will be."

"We have no time for school lessons, woman,"
Niler growled.

Mara ignored his comment and
said.  "Perhaps you can help; you seem to be a scholarly
man.  Do you know the history of this
place?  Of how every free human left came to these
caverns to create a place where the power of their beliefs in
freedom, without fear, could
forge
a person into a weapon to stop the Dreadmaster?"

Niler waved his
hand
as if to dismiss her words.  "Those are
fairy tales, myths, all exaggerations of the truth, and I know the
stories as well as anyone."

"Obviously not so well as you think if you
believe them myths.  You stand near the Nexus now, all of
you.  This place is no myth and few, if anyone, have
traveled these halls since the first days of Ragol, the NexLord,
and that was over three hundred years ago."

"But why me?" Gandarel finally
asked.  "Why do I have to be the one to go into this
Nexus?  Isn't it enough that I am heir to the Seat of
Stone?  Isn't being Warlord of the Dragonback sacrifice
enough?"

Mara's voice was very soft and kind as she
answered the pain in Gandarel's voice.  "I'm sorry,
Gandarel, but no.  The world demands a larger price from
you, though it is your choice whether you give it or
not.  I can bring you to the Chamber, but I cannot make
you take the test.  However, if you value your friend's
lives, if you value the freedom that we have enjoyed since the
Dreadmaster was last defeated, if you would not have the world fall
back into the darkness of fear, you must enter the Wall of the
Chamber. Once within you must pass the test and become a
NexLord."

Enolive
answered
though it had not been him whom Mara had
spoken.  "I know some of the
histories
of this place. You are not telling him the full
story, tell him the rest, woman, tell him of the test and of
failure."

Mara looked at Enolive for a
moment
but returned her attention to
Gandarel.  "The test is of your character and commitment,
and of your bond to your fellow man in friendship.  You
must face it without fear for yourself.  You must enter
the Wall alone, and face this test alone.  But if your
heart is true, Gandarel, if you do not go into this test with
thought to gain personal power, then you will prevail and come out
a NexLord with all the powers that
entails
.  I am here to teach you how to use
these powers."

"You say I cannot go
inside to
gain powers, but that having done so I will
gain them, this is confusing," Gandarel muttered.

"Yes, in a way, but look at it like this, the
test is to find out if you will abuse the powers you would gain,
and place yourself above your friends and the other free humans of
this world.  It is designed to stop the creation of
another Dreadmaster."

"All right, but you still have not answered
my first question: why me, why not Katek?"

Mara’s face was grim.  "It has to
be you; you are the one that has been foretold as the savior of the
world.  If Katek became a NexLord it might help to fight
the Dreadmaster, but we would not defeat him.  You are
the one foretold to defeat the Dreadmaster. And, Gandarel, if you
fail, this
time,
there will be no
return from the darkness, it will claim you, and then all of your
friends, until the world is under the Dreadmaster’s grip of terror
for all time."

"If this Ragol was so strong, and he was a
NexLord, how come he didn't destroy the Dreadmaster?" demanded
Gandarel.

"I don't know.  I'm sorry, it isn't
a very satisfying answer, but that is the truth.  No one
knows how or why you can do something that Ragol could not, but so
it is written.  You have been predicted right to this
moment, Gandarel; we know you are the one."

"What do you mean, right to this moment?"

"Depending on which prophecy you read you
will find different details, but one verse from the Dark Prophecies
mentions this very moment," Mara explained.

"Let me hear it," Gandarel demanded.

Mara considered Gandarel for a
moment.  Then she motioned to Tocor, who brought out the
wooden box from his pack.  It was the one Gandarel had
seen in her room a long time ago.

Mara looked through some pages and finally
lifted one out, Aerin stood behind her holding a torch so she could
read aloud. 

Mara cleared her voice, and then read out in
a loud voice, "I saw darkness surrounding the heir to the Seat of
Stone.  They stood in a place where passages split, and
so did the future.  He argued against his destiny, and in
the end, though his friends needed him, though the world's fate
rode in the balance, he refused to complete his
destiny.  All was lost as their enemies found them
unprepared.   The walls shook with the power of the
Dreadmaster in the hallowed halls of the Nexus. For the first time
in the history of the
world,
a
viper had slipped within and called to them the terror of the
earth, a Dreadbeast.  Death came, and their group was
sundered, and destruction rained down upon
them.”   

"This is ridiculous," Niler complained.

Gandarel eyes were large and fearful, "It
says I didn't go..."

"Yes, Gandarel, this is one of the Dark
Prophecies.  They tell of the horrors that will come, not
of the ways to avoid them.  
In
essence,
I try to read how to change from this path and
avoid these dark visions.  You MUST go into the Chamber
of Stone and take the test," Mara said, taking him by the shoulders
and looking into his face.

Gandarel looked at Aerin over Mara's
shoulder.  "I can't, Mara," and his voice held true
anguish.

The walls shook and
dust
settled, falling down from the ceiling of the cave
above.

"It starts," Mara said, simply.

Niler looked suddenly afraid.  "You
can't expect us to believe some document written years ago..."

"Some three hundred years ago," Mara
noted.

"...to be a prediction of this moment, that
is ridiculous!"

Mara looked at the paper again.  “I
quote, "...and the walls shook with the power of the Dreadmaster in
the hallowed halls of the Nexus for the first time in the history
of the world, for a viper had slipped within and called to them the
terror of the earth, a Dreadbeast."

Yearl came running up to their group at that
moment
and pushed his way through
the soldiers to get to Mara.  "Mara, we must move, and
quickly, the Togs have arrived and there is something with
them."

"Speak plain, for all to understand, Yearl,
what comes?" Mara asked her friend.

Yearl looked around and found everyone
waiting for his statement.  "It is the soul eater."

"Tell them what that is," Mara requested.

Yearl took a deep breath, "It is the
Dreadbeast known as Death."

“
Death came and their group was sundered
and destruction rained down upon
them.”    
Mara quoted to the group, but
added quietly to herself, "and we have untrained people with us for
him to feed on.  Mara faced Gandarel again, "Choose, for
if you do not make your choice it will be made for you within
minutes.  Is it the path of the Dark Prophecy or do we
roll the dice, Gandarel?"

Sweat stood out on his brow and the others
heard him mutter, "Forgive me," but he straightened up and said:
"Lead me to the Nexus."

Mara gave him a grim smile and then
nodded.  She took her torch from Aerin’s hand to light
the darkness and led Gandarel to his destiny.

Chapter Fifteen

"...and inside the Chamber of
Stone,
he will know
that his failure has killed his best
friend.    From this day forth, the world will
shed tears of blood, for Logan's legacy will claim a new face and
Death will be his messenger."

-  From the Dark Prophecies

The final set of passages was truly a maze,
but Mara knew the way.  They came out of a thin passage,
that Aerin would have ignored in favor of two larger choices, and
entered an extremely large cavern.  Aerin remembered
Mara's story of the creation of the Nexus, if her story was
accurate, this chamber was where the multitudes had once gathered
and believed in freedom from fear, with one heart and
mind.  The ceiling arched high above and was only dimly
lit by their six torches.

Where Aerin had felt protected among his
companions in the small hallways, here in the dark reaches and
echoes of this massive chamber the entire group seemed
insignificant.  He remembered the horror of the
Dreadbeast that had come over the wall in Strakhelm and wondered
about the form of this Dreadbeast.

The darkness loomed menacingly because Aerin
knew that the Risen known as Death stalked them.

Across the
chamber,
their torchlight dimly lit a large arched
opening.  As they got closer they could see words carved
deep into the stone arching along the top edge.  The
group stopped and Mara read them aloud.

"This is the Chamber of the Nexus, where we
choose to live without hate or fear, bonded in the strength of
friendship."

The group was quiet for a moment, as Mara's
words echoed to silence in the vast entrance chamber. 

Gandarel broke the silence.  "So
this is it?"

"Yes, Gandarel, this is the Chamber of Stone,
also known as the Nexus.  There is nothing to fear," Mara
explained.

"Oh sure, that's easy for you to
say.  What of these Dark Prophecies?  You know
the one of which I speak," he said, finally voicing his fear.

"I may know of which you speak, but remember,
the prophecies are only one possible outcome, be forewarned and
forearmed.  All paths to your future lie through this
chamber, and both prophecies speak of this moment.  Be
strong and choose the wise path.  I will prepare you for
what you need to know within.  Once you feel comfortable,
you can enter and get passed this test," Mara assured the young
man.

"Well, let's get on with it then," Gandarel
decided, trying to bolster his own confidence.

Mara placed a hand on the young man’s
shoulder and led Gandarel into the chamber and the waiting
Nexus.

Compared to the vast entrance cavern the
Chamber of Stone was small.  It was about fifty feet
across and roughly round.  Once everyone was inside the
chamber the torches lit the area.  It was unremarkable,
except for one section of vertical wall at the back of the chamber,
where the stone was so smooth it was glossy.  The area
was approximately the size of a large doorway,
doublewide.  Smaller words, than the ones that graced the
arch at the entranceway, were inscribed to the side of the glossy
area.  
This time,
Aerin
read the inscribed words.