The Demon's Blade (19 page)

“Wow!” the excited student exclaimed. “That’s amazing!”

Darien sat dumbfounded by the response to what was actually a terribly unskilled and mostly useless parlor trick. “No, Jerris, it isn’t amazing at all. In order to use the light, you must be able to hold it for longer than that. Light energy naturally takes the form of a beam, or ray, so it is often used as a type of magical arrow that can pierce almost anything for several yards. The other advantage is that it becomes, effectively, a projectile spell that doesn’t require a combination of an element with kinesis. On the other hand, when focused on a single point and held there, it should be an explosion of power, not a flash. It should have a somewhat similar effect to my shadow voids. The principle difference is that the energy burns and radiates outwards rather than consuming and pulling inwards. What you saw there is just enough to blind an unprepared opponent. Now, you should have enough knowledge to try to create some sort of magic on your own with the aid of that stone. Take it in your hand like you did the night we met, focus on it, but clear your thoughts and try to focus the energy on a point and shape it as light, either a beam or a flashpoint like I showed you.”

“Alright, I still don’t entirely understand,” Jerris added. “But I guess I have enough knowledge to try.”

“You’re not supposed to entirely understand,” Darien said with a sly grin. “There is a reason it’s called magic. If it were entirely understood, there would be books of spells and schools where it was taught as if it were writing, history, or philosophy. Now let’s get moving again.”

“I don’t know, learning magic from books and schools doesn’t sound so bad to me,” Jerris said as Darien untethered the horses. “But I’d still be glad to have you as a teacher.”

“Don’t think of me as a teacher,” Darien said as he and his young companion climbed back up on their mounts. “Magic is not knowledge. It is art. I cannot teach it to you. I can only show you how to discover it yourself.”

“Alright,” Jerris acknowledged as the two men started off again, “and thank you. I’ll practice all I can. Perhaps when we stop for the night.”

“Perhaps, but do remember to get some sleep, and be careful where you aim. It’s very easy for novice mages to injure themselves or others unintentionally.”

Darien watched his young companion for several minutes after they started off again. The lad’s excitement was still plain upon his face, no doubt processing all that his unexpected teacher had told him. The Executioner doubted that the boy would be able to produce any useful spells for several months at least, but still, the conversation had raised the boy’s spirits.

Darien’s mind turned now to considering his tactical position. The appearance of the gloom crawler indicated quite clearly that his enemies expected him to come this way, or at least anticipated the possibility. The initial decision in Kantu to make for Vorog rather than Stalag had been made in part because he expected to misdirect his enemies. The appearance of the gloom crawler had raised serious doubts about his initial guess that Avirosa would expect him to take the western pass. If he had guessed wrong, he could already be walking to his own execution.

Chapter 16: Followed

The day dragged on in the dusty gloom. The uniform red gray walls appeared out of the darkness ahead, and disappeared behind. Here, there were no side passages, nor ruined dwellings, nor any suggestion there ever had been, only mile upon mile of tedious sameness.

The encounter with the gloom crawler had made the Executioner wary, so he watched the tunnel closely for any further surprises. He also watched the horses more closely, as their sharp ears and animal instincts would pick up danger long before he would. At first, there was no sign of anything, but sometime in what must have been the late afternoon, Darien noticed a subtle change in his horse, Cloud. The animal’s ears twitched, and turned backwards as if listening to something far behind them. A while later, Cloud increased his pace, without any prompting from his rider. It seemed something was behind them, but who or what was it? The Executioner quietly cursed himself for setting out so late that day, and pulled Cloud to a stop.

"What is it?" Jerris said. "What are we stopping for?"

"Quiet!" Darien whispered harshly There it was, far behind them, the faint but distinct clip clop of hooves upon the stone path. The sound continued for a minute or two, getting gradually louder, then suddenly stopped.

"Someone may be following us Jerris," Darien whispered. "I heard the sound of a horse's hooves behind us." They waited quietly for several minutes, but the hoof beats did not resume. It has to be a scout, the Executioner reasoned. He wants to follow us, but wants to avoid a confrontation.

"Do you hear it anymore? Should we keep waiting?" Jerris asked. "Maybe we could set up an ambush around the next turn."

"Whoever it is, they are waiting for us to move before they start again. Whatever the reason, they don't want to confront us here," Darien asserted. "Let’s go, but quickly." Sure enough, the sound of the hooves behind them resumed less than half a minute after they had started off again. They brought the horses to a trot, and the sound of the hooves behind matched the quickened pace, but did not overtake them. "Jerris, we’re not too far from the south door. When we’re there, I’ll decide what to do. Be prepared for anything."

Jerris nodded his acknowledgment, and the two half elves continued on. The horses gobbled up the miles at the faster pace, and soon enough, they could see the darkness thinning ahead of them. The door drew near.

A few minutes later, they rounded a bend, and a half moon of light came into view in front of them. The underpass was nearly behind them. It took several minutes to reach the light, which appeared much closer than it actually was, but finally, they stepped out of the mountain tunnel and beheld the Craglands.

The sun was setting in the west, just beginning to dip behind the Silver Mountains, and casting long shadows out across the broken gray Craglands. The underpass opened to the south onto a wide shelf of rock that was mostly flat, and extended around the mountain to the east and west. The Red Mountains towered above them to the north, while the path south proceeded gradually downhill. The south door to the underpass was carved into a sheer wall of gray granite, almost completely vertical, straight and smooth for at least a hundred meters on either side of the dark opening, an ideal location for an ambush, as there was no way for someone in the tunnel to see what was to the right or left hand side of the entrance. Seeing this, Darien decided his course of action immediately.

"So what’s your plan? Can you use your magic to block the entrance, like when you collapsed the wall at the Duke’s castle?”

“The dwarves enchant their tunnels to prevent mages from doing just that. I could probably overpower those, but applying so much force would risk bringing the entire cliff face down on our heads,” Darien explained. “When I collapsed the walls of the Duke’s castle, I chose a spot where the wall was weakest, and the ground was worn by water, making it vulnerable. A dwarven tunnel carved into solid rock is quite different.”

“So are we going to ride through the night?” Jerris asked.

“No. If it is one of Avirosa’s men, then he may know what our enemy is planning. If we could capture him, then we could discover our enemy’s plans.”

“What if he’s not alone?” Jerris asked skeptically.

Darien shook his head in response. “I don’t think that’s the case. He stopped when he realized we had stopped, then he matched our pace when we resumed, but didn’t try to overtake us. In close quarters, Avirosa would have an advantage, especially if he had more creatures like the gloom crawler. I couldn’t use earth magic, or my shadow voids, without risking bringing the tunnel down on top of us. Avirosa would certainly know this. It would make no sense for him to choose to fight me here instead of in the underpass.”

“So we ambush him then. What do I do?”

"You don't do anything," Darien admonished his eager young companion. "Just stay out of the way, and Jerris, this is very important, if it is Avirosa or if I’m wrong and this one is just a forward scout for a larger group, then you must run. Don't wait for me, and don't look back. Ride as fast as you can for as long as you can, and stay on the western path towards Galad."

"I can't just leave you here. I'm no cowa..."

"This isn't the time for that, Jerris," Darien interrupted with a harsh command. "You have no training or combat experience. Even if I’m right and there’s only one, they would kill you before you could draw your sword."

"I won't just sit here and do nothing." Jerris stomped his foot on the ground, more stridently registering his protest this time. "Maybe I can distract them or something?"

The Executioner thought to raise his voice and terrify the boy into compliance, but instead, an idea crossed his mind. "Hmm, you may be right, actually. I have an idea. Come here." Darien grabbed a short length of rope, and grabbed Jerris by the wrist. "Put your hands around behind your back." Darien commanded.

"What are you doing?" Jerris took a step away from Darien, wondering what exactly the shade had planned.

"You wanted to be a distraction, right?" the other said. "Well, I'm going to tie your hands and feet. Not well, mind you, but well enough to fool our pursuer. Then, you're going to lie there a few feet to the right of the entrance, while I go tie up the horses somewhere out of sight."

"How is that going to distract him?"

"Think about it," Darien said as he started loosely tying the hands of his young companion. "They will know from the sounds in the underpass that there are two of us. They may or may not know who you are, but either way, they'll expect me to think and act like a shade. So, I’m going to use that in order to trick them into believing I'm long gone. Once our pursuer comes into view, you're going to yell for help. You're going to say that you were a captive, but that I heard pursuit, and couldn't afford to have you slowing me down, so I tied you up and left you and ran off ahead. That’s exactly what a shade would expect me to do, so hopefully they'll move in to question you without looking around. Then you just have to distract him long enough for me to disable him."

Jerris gulped hard. "Um... Alright, I'll do my best."

Darien finished tying the knots, then put the end of the rope in the palm of Jerris tied hand. "Pull on this end, and the whole knot will come undone," Darien said. He then loosely tied Jerris' feet to complete the deception, and dragged him as gently as possible to the ground right of the entrance. "There's nothing to do but wait now. I'll be back just as soon as I've taken care of the horses. If he shows up before I come back, just try to stall him. I shouldn't be long." Jerris nodded his acknowledgment, and Darien led the horses off.

About thirty or so yards toward the setting sun, he found a small spot where the wall turned slightly inward, and the creeping shadow of some overhang far above created a shady spot a few feet wide. He tied the horses and moved back towards the entrance, finally taking position just to the left of the half-moon shaped opening. 

Only a few moments after he was ready, he heard the clopping of a horse’s steps upon the stone. Jerris lay still but must have heard the pursuer as well, as he nodded to Darien. The Executioner nodded back, and Jerris started to yell. "Hello? Hello? Is someone coming? If you can hear me, please help." Jerris repeated his surprisingly convincing plea for help on and off for a couple of minutes, while the hoof beats drew closer, and then stopped. A loud thump followed, presumably the rider getting down to see what was going on.

The clinking of armored feet now replaced the sound of the horse's hooves. Very shortly, the figure appeared at the door, and turned immediately to look at the young man tied up and lying in the road. "Oh thank all the gods someone has come along," the boy cried. "I thought I would starve here. That madman left me here to die."

"Quiet," Darien heard a voice say, a woman’s voice. It had to be the one Tobin mentioned, but who was she?

"Who are you?" Jerris asked, "And where have you come from?"

"I said quiet," the unnamed woman replied. "He could still be around you know, setting a trap."

"What, no, this isn't a trap at all," Jerris quickly corrected, sounding suddenly very unconvincing. The figure suddenly froze, and put her hand upon the sword on her left hip.

Damn it Jerris, you don't say it isn't a trap, the Executioner mumbled to himself. It looks like this will be a fight. He moved swiftly, covering the distance quickly, but not quickly enough. The woman turned and drew her sword almost instantly, too fast for any ordinary man or woman. Whoever this woman was, she was a mage as well. She blocked the Executioner’s overhand blow, and held his sword a few inches above her shining helm. The two combatants stood a few moments locked in place.

"Your friend isn't very smart is he?" the woman taunted as she held her ground. "If he'd just kept his mouth shut, you might have slit my throat while I bent down to untie him."

"No, he isn't, but neither are you, whoever you are," The Executioner responded. "You are out of your depth. You do not understand who it is you're chasing."

"Oh, I know exactly who I'm chasing," the woman spoke fiercely through clenched teeth, then she summoned a burst of strength through her arms and pushed off her attacker. "I couldn't forget your face. I'll remember it as long as I live."

"Then you have me at a disadvantage, for I can't say I've ever seen you before," Darien said as he drew back several paces, preparing for the next move.

"Just shut up!" the woman yelled. "Prepare yourself, Darien the Executioner. You took the lives of my family, and now I shall take yours!" The woman hesitated no longer, swinging her sword skillfully, aiming a sweeping blow across Darien's chest. He leapt backwards, but the woman was upon him almost instantly. He blocked her next blow with his own sword, and used her momentum against her, shoving her forward and past him. She recovered quickly again, but just noticeably slower than before. She is skilled, but she won't be able to keep up this pace for long, the experienced shade reasoned. He focused on blocking and dodging her blows, waiting for her to tire.

Finally, after a few minutes, she screamed and rushed him with such suicidal fury and speed that he could not dodge, nor bring his own sword around to block. Instead, he fell backwards, freezing the ground around them as he did so. The woman’s strike sailed harmlessly over his falling body, and the speed and force of her strike combined with the icy ground to send her tumbling to the ground and nearly off the rock porch down into a ravine. Her sword, however, was not so fortunate, as it flew out of her hand and over the edge, clattering as it tumbled down a steep slope.

The Executioner quickly regained his feet, far quicker than his unprepared rival. He sheathed his sword and moved behind the woman just as she gained her feet. He wrapped her arms with his own, and clasped his hands behind her head, thinking the fight would be over. She wouldn’t have the strength to escape this hold.

A moment later, the Executioner felt a terrible shock. He let go his grip, and lurched backwards, his vision blurry and his ears ringing. He recognized the effects of a lightning spell, focused through the woman's armor. He had just enough time to collect himself before the next attack. She now wielded a silver spiked mace and with both hands aimed her next blow at her opponent’s skull. This has gone on long enough, Darien decided. He raised his right hand and grabbed the handle of the mace halfway between the spiked ball and the woman’s grip. In mere moments, it froze solid just as the ground had earlier. With his other hand, Darien shattered the frozen weapon. The woman, now weaponless, swung an armored fist towards the Executioner, but he grabbed it, then froze the armor, and her hand beneath it. She swung her other hand in a futile final attack, but the Executioner grabbed her hand and froze this one as he had the first.

"Now," the Executioner said as he forced the woman into a kneeling position. "I believe you're finished. I strongly advise that you keep still unless you want me to shatter your hands the same way I did that mace. I haven't done any permanent damage yet, but you'd better not give me a reason to change my mind. I admit that you have some skill, but not nearly enough. Consider yourself fortunate that I would prefer not to kill you." The woman's eyes welled up with tears and she wept, saying nothing.

"Jerris?" Darien yelled while still holding the woman by her freezing arms. "Jerris, what are you doing?"

"I just got these stupid ropes untied," Jerris said as he ran up to where the fight had ended, down the road from the entrance.