Ossendar: Book Two of the Resoration Series (13 page)

When the war between Dalar and Ontarin ended without any winner, both kingdoms were too tired of war to notice the threat that Telur now posed on their northern borders.

At this same time, two members of the Dragon Order renounced the order and left the northern kingdoms. Their names were Urselen and Ven-stanarion. The remaining two members of the dragon order immediately warned that a war was coming, but they were ignored.

Soon thereafter, the armies of Golteranth swept northward, easily burning and pillaging the few small kingdoms and city-states that laid to the south of Dalar and Ontarin.

Almost too late the human kingdoms realized their danger. A truce was quickly arranged, and then a meeting took place in the capital of Ontarin. In the meeting, an alliance was arranged between the four kingdoms of Telur, Dalar, Ontarin, and Molindor. Numerous smaller kingdoms also joined the alliance, and Flare noticed the kingdom of Entucca, which he knew was the homeland of Atock. The elves and the dwarves also joined the alliance in the fight against Golteranth. The armies of the four human kingdoms were quickly merged with the armies of the elves and the dwarves and placed under the command of the two remaining members of the dragon order, Osturlius and Kychant. In order to organize the armies into one new army, the alliance had to pull their troops northward to gain time to get the troops organized, this had a disastrous affect on the two kingdoms of Dalar and Ontarin. The southern half of the two kingdoms was laid waste by the advance of the troops of Golteranth. The battle was joined on the plains of Delteck just south of
Victory
Lake
. In the battle, Kychant killed Urselen, but in turn was dealt a mortal blow. Osturlius killed Ven-stanarion but was himself wounded in the battle. Osturlius had to be carried off the field of battle on a stretcher, but recovered quickly. The forces of Golteranth were soundly defeated, and fled the battle. The human forces pursued, butchering any and all that they caught.

After the battle, the alliance destroyed the
kingdom
of
Golteranth
and its allies, and salted the very ground where the capital had been so that nothing would ever grow there again.

The alliance had won, but only Osturlius was left alive of the Dragon Order. Dalar and Ontarin were heavily weakened, and Wyndon saw his opportunity. After the Telurian troops returned home, he launched a full scale invasion of Dalar. Dalar had been hurt badly by the war, and the Telurian troops met little resistance. The king of Dalar pleaded with Osturlius to help, and help he did. Osturlius called upon the
kingdom
of
Telur
to withdraw from Dalar or face the rest of the alliance. In disgust, Wyndon recalled his forces to Telur.

For almost five years, relative peace existed between the kingdoms. With the exception of Telur, the kingdoms were rebuilding and had no time for much else. Telur took the lead in creating the Guardians, a group of soldiers dedicated to preventing another war like the demon-lord war. The creation of the guardians had been the idea of Osturlius and he was pleased at how quickly the unit came together.

Then mysteriously Osturlius vanished without a trace. The rumor quickly spread that he had done some horrible evil, but no one knew exactly what it was he had done. Around this same time, the
church
of
Adel
organized in the city of
Telur
. The church blamed the destruction of the wars on the Dragon Order and promised to prevent the order from ever again causing such wide spread destruction. The church's numbers quickly swelled and spread to other lands. The elves and the dwarves abandoned the alliance and returned to their own lands.

Shortly after the disappearance of Osturlius, a minor noble of Telur was killed along the Dalarian border by brigands. It was just the excuse that Wyndon needed to invade Dalar. The armies of Telur swept through the relatively unprotected northern half of Dalar. The king of Dalar was left without any allies, and was forced to sue for peace. Telur gained a huge section of Dalar and made it part of the
kingdom
of
Telur
.

Several years went by, before Wyndon again made war. This time he invaded the
kingdom
of
Ontarin
, with similar results to the first war with Dalar. He invaded on the excuse that the plague that was currently damaging Telur had come from Ontarin. During the war, the Crown Prince Almon died of the plague. Shortly after the death of Prince Almon, some fifteen years after the disappearance of Osturlius, King Wyndon himself disappeared without a trace. He disappeared from his private study with two guards stationed right outside the door. Prince Hallon searched the castle from end to end, but could find no trace of him.

Prince Hallon was named king, and he continued the war with Ontarin, proving to be even more vicious than his father. He dealt brutally with Ontarin, almost completely obliterating the kingdom. At the end of the war, King Hallon executed the royal family of Ontarin and hung their bodies on the city gates. He annexed almost half of the former boundaries of Ontarin and placed his half-brother on the throne of what was left.

Servants and guards began to complain about noises coming from King Wyndon's private study, but nothing was ever found that could have caused the noises. Finally, King Hallon walled up the private study and several other surrounding rooms and built on top of them....

Flare snapped the book closed in disgust. The book had indeed discussed King Wyndon in detail, but the book had not even mentioned Captain Kelcer. He picked up the next book and proceeded to skim through the information looking for clues about the Kelcer prophecy. One of the books mentioned the king's guard being wiped out, but even that book didn't mention the one surviving member of the king's guard.

He set the last book aside and closed his eyes to think, almost instantly, he was asleep.

Flare found himself in the hallway that led to Dagan's chambers, standing in front of the door that led to the ancient deserted hallway. The door opened in front of him, and to his surprise, he realized that he had opened the door. He sighed and started down the hallway.

The hallway was as dark as the first time he traveled it. He didn't wait until it was too dark to see to use magic, instead he cast a simple spell and the darkness vanished as light sprang up all around him. With a start, he noticed one thing that had changed since his first visit, the dust on the floor had been disturbed. A trail of footprints led off into the distance in the direction he was walking. Were the footprints his?

He followed the hallway, past the antique suit of armor and turned right into the first of the two rooms. With the exception of the dust on the floor, nothing had been disturbed in this room either. He paused, not sure he wanted to go into the next room. He seemed to be drawn, almost against his will. 'It's just a dream. It can't hurt me.' He thought, but that thought wasn't very comforting. 'Maybe if I don't enter the room, then nothing will happen.'
Hope sprang up within him at the thought. He turned to leave the room via the hallway, and stopped dead in his tracks. A skeletal figure stood in the doorway. His blood ran cold and goose pimples ran along his skin. It was a skeleton, but rotten, almost petrified flesh hung on the body. Clothes that had once been exquisite hung in tatters and clumps of ancient hair still clung to the skull. A thin circlet of gold rested on the skull.

They stood there, staring at each other, while Flare felt a scream building up within him. The figure was simply horrible, and Flare took a wobbly step backwards. His heart was beating wildly, and his breathing was ragged, like he had just run a mile.

All of a sudden, the skeleton charged him. Flare was taken completely by surprise; all he managed to do was to raise his arms in front of his face before the skeleton hit him and knocked him backwards onto the floor. Landing hard on his back, he felt his breath get knocked out of him. His eyes closed momentarily from the impact.

He opened his eyes and looked into the eye sockets of the skeleton. Some of the flesh had petrified, like the skeleton had been dead for centuries, but the rest of the flesh seemed to be wet and rotting. The smell of rotten meat hung in the air. For the first time he noticed the maggots crawling through the flesh, he almost gagged but he still had not caught his breath.

The skeleton moved his jaw in the parody of a human talking, and said, “Flare. Why do you make me wait for you? I have been waiting for so long.” The skeleton grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him off the ground and then roughly slammed back. “I am tired of waiting. Come to me.”

Flare hit the ground hard and saw stars floating before him. He opened his eyes and saw the skeleton lowering his rotten hand towards his face. He opened his mouth and screamed.

Flare fell out of his bed, scared half to death. He was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. 'It's not real.' He kept telling himself, over and over. Inside he wondered if it was just a dream, or if there was more to it.

Philip waited anxiously in the anteroom. His father, had summoned him earlier in the day and he had no idea why. The Duke of Atwell could be a very hard man to please, and Philip had always been intimidated.

The anteroom was a small waiting area, with a couple of chairs and a small table. A young man sat behind a desk to the left of the door, he was the Duke's secretary. A guard stood to the right of the door and always seemed to be watching Philip, even though his eyes were always straight ahead. Philip sat in the chair that was placed in the corner, so that he could watch the door. That was a trait he had picked up in the Guardian training.

The door opened, and Philip's father stood in the doorway. Gavin Connell always had the appearance of royalty. His hair was always brushed back, and somehow managed to stay in place. His clothes were always clean and fit him immaculately. Today he wore tan pants and a white shirt with long fluffy sleeves. Even his boots looked freshly polished.

Philip quickly stood to his feet.

“Philip. Being punctual is an excellent sign of a good soldier. I am pleased you were here waiting on me.” Philip nodded his head and smiled in response, but his father didn't even notice. Gavin turned his body and motioned Philip into the next room. “Come in, so that we can talk.”

Philip stepped past his father into the private study. His father's private study was plush, as befitted his station in life. It was a large room with a dark reddish-brown thick carpet. The walls were a golden stained oak, and hunting trophies hung at various points along the wall. Across the room from the door was a fireplace, and directly in front of the fireplace was Gavin's desk. The desk was set up so that the duke faced the door and had his back to the fireplace. Three small sofas were placed in front of the desk so that guests could face the duke as they talked. Dual windows were on the left side of the room, but the drapes were pulled over the windows, so the only light came from several candles placed around the room. Several doors were on the far wall, several feet from the sides of the fireplace.

Philip walked to the sofas with the intention of waiting on his father to be seated first; he heard the door close behind him. Reaching the sofa, he turned to his father.

Gavin joined Philip near the sofas. “Let's have a seat, shall we?” As he spoke, Gavin sat down on the middle sofa and looked expectantly at Philip. Philip sat down on the sofa on the left, and leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees.

Gavin leaned back and crossed his legs in a relaxed manner, quite the opposite of Philip. “Philip, we called you here today because there is something that you can do for us.” Gavin said.

Philip nodded, “Of course father. What is it that I can do?”

Gavin studied his son for a moment. “Are you a loyal follower of the church?”

Philip was shocked by the question. “Of course I am! What does that have to with anything?” He finally managed to get out.

Gavin uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, “The church has condemned the Dragon Order and has spent the last two thousand years making sure that that order is never restored.” Philip listened to his father's words wondering what that meant to him. “The Kelcer prophecy details the person who will try to restore the order, and the church is fighting to keep that from happening.”

Philip interrupted his father, “I know this, and I fully support the church's position.” Then as another thought occurred to him he quickly added, “Surely you don't think that I am the one from the prophecy.”

“Of course not! Don't be foolish boy, and don't interrupt me,” Gavin said.

Gavin waited a moment until Philip appeared properly chastened, before he continued, “There is some concern that Flaranthlas may be the one prophesied about. We would like for you to keep an eye on him. If you see something that seems suspect, just let me know.” Gavin said, smiling.

Philip didn't like the sound of this at all. “You want me to spy on a friend?” He asked, angered and surprised at the same time.

“Philip! You will...” Gavin stared to say, but then he thought better of it and stopped, calming himself. After a moment, he was calmer and said, “Philip, we don't expect you to spy on a friend, but if you noticed a friend doing things that they should not; then we would expect you to report him. All that we ask is to keep your eyes open, and if you see any warrior using magic or anything along those lines, let us know.” He said in the most fatherly, supportive tone that he could. “You can do that, can't you?”