The Demon's Blade (32 page)

Together they shall unite the races against the new evil.

Armies shall be called from all corners of the world.

Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind shall crash against the ocean of shadows.

The rats shall be driven from the Golden Land to the arms of their masters.

The fire demon shall fall, and beneath the earth, the light shall be retaken.

The one handed king shall rise from the forgotten land, and his army shall turn the tide.

Fire shall fall from the sky to deliver the final stroke to the demon legion.

The four as one shall face the pretender king, and strike him down with the power of light and darkness.

But the cost shall be great, each must sacrifice to restore the children of light to glory.

The Executioner shall lay down his life.

The King shall lay down his most treasured possession.

The Crusader shall give her blood.

The Fallen Star shall give her very spirit.

By their sacrifice, all that is lost shall be reclaimed

All the shadows shall be lifted.

And all the sins of the children of light shall be redeemed.

The valley was silent, but for the far away whistling of the wind through the high peaks above. Lucca did not speak further, waiting patiently for a response. Jerris ceased his fidgeting, while Rana only stood open mouthed. Darien also said nothing, lowering his head and contemplating the words that had been spoken. Several minutes passed, until finally Jerris broke the oppressing silence.

“I don’t understand. What does it all mean? Who are the children of light and children of wind? What does any of this have to do with us?”

“It will take time to consider what has been revealed here,” Lucca said. “This prophecy was first spoken on the eve of a great battle with the formless ones. The high mages of the elves sought the council of the faerie queen regarding the battle to come. With the danger so near, Lady Saria used all her power to seek for answers far into the future. The strain upon her was so great that she died shortly afterwards. Only two scribes were allowed to write the prophecy down, and once defeat in battle was foretold, the copies were hidden. One copy was given to the youngest heir of House Tolmirran, who took it with him, into hiding. The other was broken into over a dozen pieces, separated, and hidden, in sanctuaries such as this. The piece entrusted to us here at Kadanar spoke of the pretender king. When Varias rose to power in the east and began seeking starstones, we believed our piece referred to him. We also attempted to find the heir of Tolmirran. However, we were too late. We found the village destroyed. We assumed the heir was gone and the prophecy lost, so we attempted to gather all the pieces together. We found many, one of which referred to the Executioner. When Darien joined the Order of the Shade, and took that name, we believed that the time of the prophecy might be drawing close.”

“Children of the light refers to the elves, for so we called ourselves once,” Galen added. “Elves were children of light, men were children of wind, dwarves were children of earth, faeries were children of water, and dragons were children of fire. Those were the first names given to the great races, and many old prophecies used these words.”

“So, the last part of the prophecy is talking about us, then. Darien is the Executioner, and I’m the King?” Jerris asked.

“That is what I believe,” Lucca nodded solemnly.

“So what should we do now?” Jerris asked. “Are we supposed to fight the Demon King?”

Darien laughed grimly at the notion. He knew the armies of the Demon King firsthand, and he knew how ridiculous it would be to actively pursue a strategy of open war. The others all stared at him, awaiting an explanation for his sudden laughter. “It can’t be done, His armies are ten times the size of what the Golden Shield could muster. Even if all the races joined together, it would be an even battle at best. The only thing that keeps him in check are the enchantments upon the Saldean. Without those, he would have conquered all the world many centuries ago. Besides, even if you managed to defeat his armies, you’d still have to find a way to kill him, and I’m not certain it can be done. Even using the power of the sword, I couldn’t even touch him. I was, and still am, one of the world’s most skilled mages, wielding a weapon of incredible power, and he barely had to exert himself to beat me.”

“I cannot say what you should do,” Lucca said solemnly, turning to each of the three in turn, then also to Galen and Ceres. “I have only told you what is written in the prophecy. I can do no more. You all must make your own choices. You may seek me here again if you wish. Call my name to the water and I shall come if I can. Farewell for now.” Then she floated back out over the water and disappeared in a flash of light.

“We have much to consider,” Galen added. “Ceres has seen that rooms have been prepared for you. Do you have any more questions about the prophecy?”

“Was I the holy knight the prophecy talked about?” Rana asked. “And what does ‘impure’ blood mean?”

“Prophecies can be interpreted many ways,” Galen answered thoughtfully, running his hands through his silver hair. “It may be that you are the one the prophecy spoke of, and it may be that it is not related to you at all. As for impure blood, it most likely means that those mentioned will not be pure blooded elves, but rather half-elves like Darien and Jerris, but that is certainly not the only possible interpretation.”

“So, then it isn’t me. I’m no elf at all.”

“As I said, we can’t tell for certain. Many lines of men have elf blood and are not even aware of it,” Galen said. “Some of the ancient lore even suggests that all those who carry the gift of magic possess elven blood, but I am not certain I believe that. With time to study, I may be able to tell you more, or at least give more educated guesses. I must see what the ancient lore can tell me.”

“I would like to see this lore for myself,” Darien added.

“Of course,” Galen replied. “There is much that I would teach you, if you will stay with us.”

“Someone said something about food and sleep,” Jerris said. “I think I need some of both before I do any more thinking.” Rana nodded in agreement, still flustered from her earlier experience with the faerie queen.

They headed back to the Ivory Hall. The halls were now lit by clear glass orbs held in baskets of thin chain which hung from the ceiling in the center of the hall at regular intervals. Tiny balls of light, like white blazing fireflies, bounced around the clear glass orbs chaotically, some sort of magic to be certain, but not one that Darien had ever seen before. They headed down a long hall, up two flights of stairs, and down another hallway, where Galen showed them to their rooms, three dark brown wooden doors. “I have much to do. Rest for today, and we will speak more tomorrow. You will find food already prepared in your room. If you should require anything, tell the guard at the end of the hallway.”

Each of them retired to their own room, and Darien was finally alone with his thoughts. A small magical light, like those in the hallway, sat atop a stand several feet high, resting in a metal ring. He went over to examine it, thinking there must be some practical way to dim the light, and quickly discovered that when the orb was removed from the iron stand, the light in the glass ball vanished. This certainly was a curious device to say the least, and one of several things that had piqued his curiosity here in Kadanar.

Some bread and water, along with a bowl of fresh fruit, had been placed on a round wooden table in the center of the room. Two polished wooden chairs sat next to it. An excessively soft looking bed, which Darien disliked on sight, was positioned in the right rear corner of the room. He considered all that had happened, the prophecy, the journey, and the startling revelation about his mother’s past. It would take time for him to work through it all, and, for now at least, he had the time. The Demon King would eventually look for him, knowing where he disappeared, but it would take months, perhaps years, to find this place, and launching any sort of attack would take longer still. The wound on his leg was healing well, and the pain was little more than a dulled soreness. The burns on his arm still radiated with an unpleasant warmth. The stiff skill still pulled and cracked whenever he moved his arm too quickly or too far. Even so, it too would heal in time. The shade’s thinking was finally interrupted by a knock at the door.

Darien opened it to find Jerris on the other side. “What is it Jerris?” he grumbled. “I’m actually quite tired and trying to think.”

“I just wanted to talk to you.”

“Alright, come in.” Jerris walked in and Darien closed the door. “What is it?”

“I just wanted to ask you, what will you do?”

“I haven’t decided.”

“I owe you my thanks, for everything.”

“Yes, you’ve said that before, and you’re welcome I suppose, though honestly, had you not intervened when I fought Avirosa, I might have been overcome by the Demon Sword. I owe you my thanks for that.”

“Well, um, you’re welcome,” Jerris said nervously. After a few more painful moments of furious fidgeting, Jerris finally spoke again. “What happened to suddenly make you lose control?”

Darien looked into the lad’s eyes, curious and yet caring, eyes of innocent compassion. For a moment, he thought to come up with some lie, or frighten the child with a stern refusal to answer, but something in him had softened over these past weeks, especially where Jerris was concerned, and he spoke quietly. “You asked me once why I took the Demon Sword, and I didn’t give you an answer. Well, here is your answer. When I was younger, much younger than you, the Order of the Shade conspired to have my mother killed. They knew she was powerful, and when she refused to serve them, they decided to eliminate her, and take me instead. I learned about this many years later, and took the sword in order to take vengeance. I take it you can understand that?” The boy nodded sadly. “Before I fought him, Avirosa revealed something else, something I did not know. It was him, Avirosa himself, who swung the axe that killed her.”

Jerris’ mouth hung open, and he almost cried, but he held it back. “I’m…sorry. I… so you and me are sort of the same. You lost your mother too, but for you it was even worse. I guess you wanted to rip him to pieces, sort of like I wanted to kill Duke Parham in Kantu.”

Darien shook his head. “No, not like you, much worse than that. I wouldn’t just have killed him. I would have killed him slowly, making him suffer for days, breaking both his mind and body in ways that you wouldn’t imagine in the worst of your nightmares. Death would not have been nearly enough.”

Jerris winced slightly, but quickly recovered, and then shook his head. “I think I still understand. If I had seen the things that you’ve seen, I think I would think like that too.” Darien only shrugged. After all, perhaps the boy was right. Perhaps his hatred for Duke Parham ran that deep. He did not think so, but he had gained enough respect for the lad that he did not argue the point.

Darien then sat down at the table, and began eating some of the bread. Jerris took a seat and a piece of fruit. After a few bites, Jerris spoke again. “Um…about the prophecy. Are you afraid?”

“You mean to ask if I’m worried about the prophecy foretelling my death?” Darien remarked, and the young half-elf nodded in acknowledgement. “No, a prophecy isn’t that useful when it tells me what I already knew.”

“What do you mean? I’d be terrified.”

“Everyone dies, Jerris,” Darien said grimly. “Me, you, Rana, everyone, eventually. I didn’t need a prophecy to tell me that.”

“Oh, well yeah, I guess, but…,” Jerris stammered. “I just guess I wouldn’t want to know about it.”

“No, I wouldn’t expect you to,” the older half-elf answered. “It’s not the sort of thing ordinary folk think about. In the Order of the Shade, I was taught to be aware of death at all times, to accept it and its inevitability. The Master believed that it made us stronger, or at least that’s what he told us. I don’t know if he actually believed that or not.”

“I don’t know,” Jerris said uncertainly. “It just seems… I don’t know… wrong somehow, to dwell on it like that. My mother always said we should cherish life, and live each day with hope in our hearts. Sometimes you talk as if it doesn’t matter whether you live or die, or even like you want to die.”

“Hmm. Interesting.”

“What’s so interesting?” Jerris asked.

“Zara said something similar to me the other day,” Darien answered. “What’s so awful about looking forward to death, when life is a nightmare? I live each day knowing that at any time, I could have my will stripped away and my mind consumed by the sword. I’m hunted like a beast, and will be as long as I live. Who knows how many others out there are like Rana, who would risk death to take vengeance on me? How many like her have I left in my wake?” Darien sighed and shook his head.

“I don’t think she hates you anymore.”

“You’re wrong Jerris. You don’t understand real hatred like I do, and I can tell you this, she will never completely forgive me. Not really. Nor should she.”

“I don’t know. I think some part of her already has,” Jerris said confidently. “I suppose it will take time, but at least she’s not trying to kill you anymore.”

“Yes, at least there’s that,” Darien said, and both shared a laugh for a few moments. Then they simply sat quietly for a while, munching on the bread and drinking the cool water.