The Beginnings Omnibus: Beginnings 1, 2, 3 & Legend of Ashenclaw novella (Realm of Ashenclaw Beginnings Saga) (58 page)

“You may tell the Aspect Risa, all the other Aspects, and every single succubus in Ulthon, to obey the word of Aspect Nahemia as if the demon lords of Pandemonium were commanding them.” He let the words resonate for a moment, returning the extinguished weapon to its sheath. “Or they will have to answer to me,” Zabalas finally added after he had made sure that the cambion’s attention was on him. “Go now and do as you are bid before there are none of you left to carry my message back to Ulthon.”

The remaining succubus immediately turned her back on them and flew off into the dark corridors of the Subterrane. The group collectively watched until she disappeared.

“That was quite a display, Zabalas. And I hope you
meant
what you said,” Phaera remarked with a wry smile on her face, “because the Sine brood will no doubt be under attack from not only Aspect Risa, but all of the other Aspects as well. We should go back to her and warn them at leas—”

“I did,” be interjected mysteriously. After a brief pause and a glance at her, he continued, “I meant what I said, that is. I will ensure that nothing happens to your mother, dearest Phaera. Trust me.”

Phaera turned and walked back toward the entrance, following several slagfell warriors and Prishnack.

“There’ll be repercussions, ye know,” King Dolgrath spoke now to Zabalas. “The demon kin’ll be thinkin’ we killed ‘em! E’en if the Aspect didn’t send ‘em, more’ll be comin’ fer sure!”

“Perhaps,” Zabalas replied to the king. “I expect you will be able to handle such an attack if it happens? I
do
not and
will
not tolerate weakness.” Dolgrath frowned and mumbled something under his breath.

“You have poisons and well-trained guards and the demonesses have their influences. Every race has a skilled method of survival, King Dolgrath, lest you would not have endured or thrived as you have in this harsh environment,” Zabalas continued logically as if to offer the slagfell king a compliment to follow the thinly veiled challenge prior. King Dolgrath nodded, apparently accepting it for what it was.

“Get to cleanin’ that mess up,” Dolgrath instructed the several slagfell scouts who had wandered out to see the commotion while gesturing toward the remains of the succubus. “An’ double me watches fer the next two weeks!”

Megnus nodded at his father when he passed and stared at Zabalas, wondering what exactly this man was capable of doing. The death blow that removed the head of the half-demon was inhumanly brutal and accurate. He almost did not see it when it happened and he was looking right at them both. He wasn’t even sure if he could swing an axe that truly and he’d been wielding an axe for decades. Zabalas was more than human. That was the only thing he knew for sure.

He recognized too that betraying Zabalas would lead to a quick death and that the dark warlord controlled his father, the King of Shadowmere, and all of the slagfell, too. This meant that Megnus, the entire Bloodstone family, and the whole of Shadowmere was Zabalas’s to command.

And Megnus had to accept that.

As they traversed the winding caverns once more and re-entered the throne room, King Dolgrath called upon another, whom Phaera noticed was dressed in motley garments, nothing like the rest of the slagfell she had seen to this point. He was completely hairless except for a set of thin eyebrows and bore similar brandings about his neck. He certainly seemed out of place amongst the other slagfell.

“If ye be finished with the consult and I’m assuming ye are… I have a gift for ye.” Dolgrath gestured for them to follow this newest and uniquely clad slagfell. He made his way out of the throne room and into the greeting hall of the king, then up a set of stairs that ended in a balcony.

“This be the most powerful mage in all of Shadowmere, Dainn Gravelhand. He be a Wayfarer and he been workin’ hard at somethin’ to make things easier for gettin’ around,” King Dolgrath explained. The beardless slagfell approached them and spread everyone out for a moment before speaking.

“Imagine your home,” Dainn explained as he spoke an incantation. Phaera noted that when this one spoke, he strangely did not have the typical accent of the slagfell. He began another chant as soon as he finished the first one and drew a large circle in the floor, using a peculiar ink. Upon the circle he quickly traced runes and other symbols that the onlookers did not recognize. But, it seemed to Phaera that he was tracing over something that had already been worked earlier.

A long time passed before the mage finished and the circle was complete. It took on a sudden energy of its own and began to glow, faintly, but steadily.

“Step into the circle and prepare yourself,” Dainn uttered in a strained voice. “The first trip can be…unpleasant.” The Wayfarer continued chanting as they all followed him. Each of them cautiously stepped in, and one-by-one, they disappeared.

Phaera stepped into the circle and was transported to a section of the Bastion of Skulls directly outside of Zabalas’s main throne room. The runes that Dainn had scribed were ablaze as they transferred to the Bastion of Skulls before the fire went out again.

“Impressive,” Phaera uttered as she experienced a strange vertigo after emerging. She felt on the verge of vomiting. Even Prishnack uttered something of an agreement, she believed. Zabalas was the last to come through and Dainn appeared with them in the room for a moment. The runes remained scorched into the floor as they each stepped out of it.

“I must finish the ritual on this side as well,” Dain explained. “This will remain here until Zabalas or King Dolgrath instructs me to bring it down,” Dainn continued. “I will be placing more of these in strategic places as an extension of King Dolgrath’s loyalty to you. This will take some time.”

With that, the strange mage began the task of finishing his assignment on this end of the magical two-way portal.

“A teleportation circle,” Zabalas observed. “This is most satisfying.” He also pondered how advantageous several of the teleportation portals would be in key places.

He strode out of the room toward his private chamber where his wretched personal servant, Kaldar, awaited, along with another.

In the corner of his bed chamber stood a thing—an undead thing—a lich by the name of Sadreth.

The foursome headed away from the cavernous area where they’d encountered the goblinoids and continued their descent into the unknown passageways. They traipsed down a series of long corridors that wound back and forth but still funneled them on one direction—down.

As they proceeded, there was a turn, then a long straightaway. Every few paces, the passageway seemed less and less natural and more like it had been shaped that way purposely.

Rose and Elec scouted ahead, while Garius and Saeunn followed several paces behind, as not to betray their presence. Rose and Elec had split the duties evenly. Rose, using the shadows to maneuver, was looking for any fiends or critters that might be lurking within them. Elec, meanwhile, was looking specifically for mechanical or magical devices and traps, while paying closer attention to their environment and the ground upon which they tread, as well as the walls and ceilings.

“Hold!” Elec whispered to Rose. “Something is out of place there.” He pointed at a dagger that seemed opt be partially jammed into the cavern wall, approximately chest-high.

“I’ll warn the others,” Rose said from amidst the shadows. Her voice was as a whisper that echoed eerily off the stone walls.

The dagger appeared embedded in the stone wall, but Elec figured it to be more than that. The surrounding walls and floor appeared very solid, but something set off alarm bells in his mind. Rose returned quickly.

“What do you think it is?” Rose asked him.

“It looks like a lever…or a trigger. But to what, or for what, I could not begin to speculate.”

“Maybe it isn’t a trap,” Rose suggested. “Perhaps it simply opens something?”

“Quite possibly,” Elec agreed.

Saeunn and Garius came into view and slowly moved to their position after Rose signaled them. Garius mentioned a bit too loudly that there were icons and symbols along the corridors that indicated that this place was once a temple for cultists of the demon lord, Thanatos.

Rose and Elec both studied the dagger’s hilt for as long as it took Garius to explan a great deal about the demon lord in question, but neither of them could decipher its purpose. There was no other reason for it to be there other than as a trigger for something, and it was obvious to them both that it was not very well constructed. Neither of them could find a seam on any of the cave walls, either.

Rose was looking at it from many angles. Her scarlet hair dangled in front of her eyes and draped over the hilt of the embedded dagger while she studied it from above. Elec looked from underneath its position and then they exchanged places.

Finally, they both backed away from it.

“I think that we need to decide whether to leave it or use it,” Elec stated as he tied his black mane in a ponytail.

 “So… we leave it?” Rose asked.

“We don’t know where the priests are. And if that is so, we need to uncover every stone and explore every twist and turn of this place,” Garius reasoned, and then proceeded with a silent prayer. Once the ritual concluded, he nodded. “The priests are indeed nearer…But I cannot determine their location,” he admitted with more than a hint of frustration. “I sense the holy symbol’s aura within this wretched place still and it grows stronger as we progress.

“I probably should have asked this before, but what if the priests had their holy symbols removed from their person?” Rose asked with sarcasm evident in her tone.

“They are affixed by a spell that holds them in place. Only that spell can remove them. It does not guarantee they are alive….”

“Ah” she said, as she spun on him. “I was just—“

“I know,” he interjected, and then nodded toward the dagger again. “If the lever there opens a hidden chamber where they are being held, then we need to deactivate it.”

“Back up,” Elec instructed as he nodded to Garius in agreement, grasping the dagger hilt. He pulled, then tugged and then pushed up on it as the others sidled away from him. Suddenly he heard Rose call out, “Wait!”

The dagger hilt released in an upward fashion with a hissing sound, which was followed by the loud sound of gears cranking from somewhere nearby.

And nothing happened.

“Anything?!” Elec asked.

“I can see grooves in the stone below now,” Rose stated. “They were not there when last I looked!”

“It doesn’t seem—“ Elec began, but he was interrupted by the sounds of moving stonework. He heard the distinct sound of the ground dipping as he stood atop what he could only guess to be a pressure plate. He had not seen it there previously. He silently cursed his failure as he heard Rose yell.

“The walls!”

The once-firm walls of the corridor quickly slid back and forth along the grooves on the ground and Elec suddenly stared at a wall where once there had been an open corridor. It wasn’t a lever for a secret door as he had thought initially, but was instead a mechanism that evidently set a trap. More stonework moved, this time underneath him, as he attempted to ready himself for whatever was about to happen.

“Elec!”

He heard the muffled calls of his name from behind the wall.

 Then there was a gust of wind whipping in his ears as he no longer stood upon solid ground.

Thaurion came across an interesting item of value and began formulating a plan based on the snoring he’d heard earlier.

“I found something,” Thaurion announced as he raised his hand, holding up a rather large stone with a reflective and shiny coating. “We will need to draw at least one of the guards into the room….”

He explained his idea in great detail to Alana. She nodded her agreement and then moved slowly to the door. Looking back for confirmation, she knocked and waited for the peephole to slide open.

 “We have found a valuable piece of treasure in here amongst the bodies…if that interests you,” Alana informed the orc sentries behind the door, trying to stir their interest. “Perhaps we can buy our way out?”

The peephole slowly opened, revealing a pair of dark, intrusive eyes within the opening, staring back at Alana. The intense stare of the orc seemed to bore right through her.

“Quiet,” whispered an angry voice outside the door. “Gob sleeps. Do not wake him.”

“Gob sleeps…but you do not. You can have it all to yourself
,”
whispered Alana in response.

After a long bout of silence in which the two acolytes believed their plan foiled, they heard him speak again. “What is it?” the voice whispered through the door.

“We have a gem,” Thaurion said quietly as he held the large, shining gem up to the peephole.

“Pass it through,” commanded the voice on the other side of the door, this time a bit more determined.

“It is too big to pass through such a tiny slot,” Thaurion reasoned, in an attempt to persuade the creature on the other side of the barred door to enter.

Another bout of lengthy silence followed and finally, the sound of wood sliding against wood was heard on the other side of the door, followed by the click of a lock. The door quietly opened and a rather large orc appeared in the doorway, brandishing a spiked club and shield.

“Make no move or you will die,” warned the hairy goblinoid creature. “Toss me the gem!”

Thaurion tossed the gem in the air and rushed in after it, knocking the creature prone.

“Halt!” Alana commanded as she uttered a prayer, invoking a paralyzing effect upon the creature. Upon command, the orc simply remained frozen in place where he lay.

“Gob!” yelled the orc from the ground. It was a muffled call due to the position the orc was in currently when he landed, with his face firmly against the ground. He could not move his limbs, but he could move his mouth somewhat.

“Quickly now, bind his hands, Alana!” Thaurion cried, following their plan exactly as they had laid it out so far, knowing that the orc outside the cell would be awake at any point. Alana quickly bound the orc’s hands and feet with strips of fabric they fashioned from the debris in the room before the enchantment wore off.

“Gob!” the orc yelled again, drawing a smack on the head from Thaurion.

“This’ll shut you up!” Thaurion threatened as he shoved a balled up portion of animal hide he’d found on the ground into the orc’s mouth. Then they heard a groan from outside the door and realized they had to act quickly in order to maintain the element of surprise.

Rolf’s symptoms were worsening…they were trapped in an evil temple and hadn’t known how they arrived here or where they were. Thaurion was frustrated and knew he only had one chance to get his fellow acolytes out of here alive. He seized the opportunity.

“Patron, forgive me,” Thaurion implored his deity as he quickly grabbed the spiked club of the first orc and ran with it into the corridor. The other orc, Gob, had been stirring but hadn’t quite opened his eyes yet.

Thaurion thanked his luck and desperately swung the spiked club as hard as he could in a downward arc with both hands, spiked side out, onto the orc’s exposed skull. He turned his head and averted his eyes from the gruesome sight he expected next. He felt the warm and sickening splash of the creature’s blood splatter him as the blow landed.

Thaurion was not a violent man and felt shameful at having to perform such a heinous act. He fell to his knees in resignation, ashamed at what he had done, as Alana rushed to his side in an attempt to comfort him.

“You did what had to be done, Thaurion,” Alana reassured him sympathetically, feeling horrified for him. She wiped the blood and sweat from his blonde locks and face as best as possible and then doused him with the remaining water from her water-skin to help cleanse him.

Finally, Thaurion stood and straightened himself.

“I will go and see what I can find out,” he told Alana. He pointed to Rolf and the orc. “Take care of them and I will be back as soon as I figure a way out of wherever we are. I will close but not lock the door from the outside in case anyone comes looking for you.”

“Ye’ll be cut down in no time!” the orc threatened, after spitting the gag from his mouth and struggling against his ties. A loud crack followed that threat and then silence.

Thaurion stared at Alana in disbelief and stunned surprise. She hovered menacingly over the orc, having struck him hard with the blunt end of the spiked club.

“That’ll keep him quiet…” Alana said with a certain satisfaction, a hint of a smile on her face. “What?! He deserved it!”

“Remind me not to cross you,” he quipped as he smiled back at her, truly finding irony in that scenario.