The Destiny of Amalah (69 page)

‘We came across a leader,’ Zinzi said. ‘A sorcerer, he was hell bent on killing us but Zach saved us.’

‘What did he look like?’ asked Garrick.

‘He was tall with jet black hair that flowed behind his shoulders, he had piercing blue eyes. He looked like...like you,’ Zach said, pointing at Kalon.

Kalon and Garrick looked at each other and held each others gaze for a few moments and the room remained silent as the two men continued to stare.

‘How did you stop him?’ asked Amara.

‘Sorcery,’ Zach replied.

‘Then you must be very powerful,’ said Thaddeus.

‘He is,’ answered Zinzi.

‘There were six of us,’ said Hannah, beginning another conversation.

‘Where are the rest of you then?’ asked Ellora.

‘We came here and the other three went to Filine, to warn the people there.’ said Zinzi. ‘Mantor will fall within days.’ She finished.

‘What do we do now?’ asked Hannah.

‘There is no way we can fight them in Filine,’ said Garrick. ‘We are seriously outnumbered and Filine is nothing but forests, a fight there would surely be our end.’

There was another silence before Amara answered everyone.

‘We meet Rakan and the others at Basimine and defeat his army there.’ Amara said decisively. ‘In the meantime; Thaddeus ride to Lansten and bring all the sorcerers you can back to Amalah?’

‘Yes Empress.’

‘Häkan, you and some of the guard head to Parades and Lansten. We need to raise an army of at least five thousand strong.’

Häkan nodded his head: ‘Yes Empress.’

‘Garrick, Michael and Kalon will you come with me to Aradene and Santeb to see what has been done?’

‘Yes.’ replied all three men.

‘Also Garrick, send some of the guard to Filine to evacuate the people from there. Take them to Amalah or to Mantor but make sure that you evacuate as many as possible, before Rakan and the others arrive. We cannot fight them yet.’

‘It will be done,’ replied Garrick.

‘What do I do?’ asked Ellora.

‘Take my place while I am in Aradene.’

‘But Amara I cannot.’

‘Yes you can and you must.’

‘Amara…’

‘I have every faith in you Ellora.’

‘Zach, Zinzi, and Hannah: thank you for bringing this to our attention we owe you a debt, but I must ask of your help again. You know what is happening in Mantor and what will happen in Filine. To defeat that army we are going to need all the help we can get, so I ask if all three of you will you stay here in Amalah and help us?’

‘The nation of Mantor is going to fall,’ Zinzi said. ‘I know this, it is my home, where I grew up with family and friends and many more loved ones – all gone now. I do not want another nation to suffer the same fate so I will stay and help here for as long as is needed.’

‘Thank you.’

‘I will help,’ said Hannah. ‘I don’t know how but I will.’

‘Thank you,’ Amara said.

‘As will I,’ replied Zach.

‘Garrick and Häkan before we leave, organise some of the guard to start raising the army from Amalah. Right here in this nation, many men and women have flocked here – give them the chance to join us.’

‘Yes Empress.’

‘When do we leave?’ asked Michael.

‘In one hour,’ replied Amara.

When Amara had finished speaking everyone began to move and go about doing what they had to do. Garrick, Häkan and Kalon went about organising the guard and then preparing themselves and their horses for the journey. Amara and Michael also went and prepared for their journey, while Ellora dealt with Zinzi, Hannah and Zach; when she had dealt with them, she went to her room and seconds later, Kalon knocked and entered.

‘I am about to leave Ellora.’

‘Oh Kalon,’ she said, running over to him and hugging him, before she buried her head in his chest. He enveloped her in his arms and kissed her on the forehead.

‘Ellora, I will return,’ he said gently.

‘Please do,’ she said tearfully. ‘Kalon I’m scared, I can’t believe what is happening and it is all happening so fast and I can’t believe that the four of them have done what they have done – your brother and our closest friends.’

‘Nor can I,’ Kalon said bitterly.

‘Promise me you will be careful.’

‘I promise.’

‘Something must have happened to them.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘What else could it be? I have known them my entire life; there was no evil in any of them.’

‘Well there is evil in them now.’

‘Yes but Kalon...’

‘Ellora it matters not how or when they became evil; what matters is what they have done.’

‘I know but Kalon, this is Rakan and Rufus, and Waldon and Kenaz.’

‘I know my love and it pains me dearly to see what they have become.’

‘Me too.’

‘They are turning the world upside down and throwing us into darkness.’

‘I’m afraid Kalon,’ Ellora whispered, as she fought back her tears.

‘Do not be Ellora, I am here for you and you will be safe in the palace,’ he said holding her even tighter.

‘The palace that Amara has left in my care, along with the people; I don’t know what I can do.’

‘I know that you can do this, I know you and the woman that you are and I know that Amara was right to leave you in charge.’

‘I hope the gods help us through this.’

‘So do I.’

‘I love you Kalon,’ she said, looking up at him and staring into his sparkling blue eyes.

‘And I love you,’ he said, touching her face gently. ‘I love you with all of my heart and I always will.’

The two of them remained holding onto each other and gazing at each other before Kalon kissed Ellora. The two of them kissed with such passion and intensity and when the kiss came to an end they returned to their tight embrace for a while longer before Kalon broke the silence.

‘I must go,’ he said softly.

‘I will walk with you.’

The two of them let go of each other and left Ellora’s room; they walked along the corridor and to the front entrance where their horses were waiting. Garrick and Häkan were already there and Michael and Amara arrived shortly afterwards and soon, they were getting ready to leave. Michael, Garrick and Häkan said their goodbyes to Ellora and then mounted their horses and Amara took hold of her sister and looked at her.

‘I love you Ellora and I trust in you – trust in yourself.’

‘I love you too,’ Ellora said. ‘And I will try my best.’

The sisters hugged and kissed and then, Amara mounted her horse, leaving Kalon and Ellora on the ground. Kalon took hold of Ellora’s hand and pulled her to him and they hugged each other again.

‘Remember I love you,’ he said. ‘We will be back five days from now and I will think of you every single day and know that you are with me always.’

‘And soon I will be back in your arms.’

‘Yes, how I wish it was – always.’

The young couple kissed and for both of them, it ended all too suddenly and then Kalon was on his horse. He blew her a kiss before he turned with the others to ride from Amalah to Aradene. Ellora hugged herself and remembered Kalon’s last touch before she turned and went back inside the palace.

Ellora felt lost at first but when she managed to calm herself down, she threw herself into her responsibilities and carried them out diligently. She decided to hold a meeting with the remaining council members and those who had been left in charge of the guard every morning. Each morning they would go through what had happened and what needed to happen and organise the day from there.

When she was free she spent time with Zinzi, Zach and Hannah and found things for them to do. Zinzi and Hannah went to work with Dariel in the makeshift infirmary, while Zach spent his time practising his sorcery. Those in the palace and Amalah were in good hands and soon, the feelings of fear and despair that had plagued many – especially the displaced from the three devastated nations – began to dissipate and turn into hope.

Amara, Michael, Garrick and Kalon rode hard to Aradene, while Häkan rode north to Parades. The four of them arrived after a day and half and when they arrived, they were struck at just how quiet Aradene had become. Nothing on earth could have prepared them for what they saw and when they came to the first village, they felt immense grief at what they were seeing.

Everywhere, there were dead bodies strewn across the green grass, alongside huts and alongside homes, which were either charred ruins or only half remaining of what they had been. They dismounted their horses and walked among the dead bodies. At first, they walked together and then they split up and walked alone.

Michael walked aimlessly through the fields; grief stricken and mortified at the sight before him and memories of old came flooding back. Garrick fell to his knees with a mixture of grief and pain.

‘Oh god, it cannot be!’ Garrick cried. ‘Please do not let this have been the work of my son,’ he begged. Garrick’s grief was for the people there and their loved ones, and pain at seeing the grotesque sight before them. ‘Please, I beg you,’ he said once again.

‘Father,’ Kalon began, as he ran to his father’s side. ‘Father…’ he began again but he could say no more.

Garrick and Michael were heartbroken at the sight of the dead; the sight of war and the sight that they had all fought a war to prevent from happening in their children’s’ lifetime; in any lifetime and it struck them then, that it had all been in vain and at that moment, the two older men felt damned.

Amara and Kalon wept openly as they looked around them, they looked on the broken and lifeless bodies and mourned for them. It struck them that the dead on the ground would never find out what life had to offer and most of those on the ground were tragically young. Amara and Kalon could not speak and the four stayed in the village a while longer, before they mounted their horses and rode to the next village only to find the same thing over again.

They did not want to go in but they did, through the forests and then north to the outskirts of Santeb, to see the same thing over and over again and it haunted them so badly. That smell, the one that no human should have to smell; I am not talking of the dead corpses that lay there rotting in the fields, because people fled with no time to bury them; I’m talking about the smell of death. Yes death has its own smell and when there is so much of it, it permeates everything. Those four, they could smell corpses but they could smell the death even more, and that made their heartbreak even more potent.

They had seen more than enough; they had travelled through Santeb and Aradene and they then rode back to Amalah with heavy hearts. Garrick’s suffering was immense; he could not reconcile his son’s actions with the bodies and the villages he had seen.

‘Why son? why?’ he asked himself repeatedly. For as long as he lived, he knew he would never understand why and he knew that deep down inside that Rakan was no longer the son he had raised.

The four arrived back in Amalah to find that Ellora was managing well, they relayed what they had seen to her and her knees buckled and she put herself in a chair, before she fell to the ground.

‘No!’ she said as she gasped in horror. ‘I cannot believe that. Something or someone must have done this to them.’

‘Believe it,’ said Garrick.

‘Something has happened to them,’ she insisted. ‘I know them and they would never do that.’

‘They did do that,’ Kalon said sharply. ‘They did it to people in village after village and nation after nation. They did it and I do not believe that someone or something is making them do anything. I think they are evil and drunk on their own power.’

‘Kalon how can you say that?’ Ellora asked.

‘Because you did not see what we saw,’ he said raising his voice.

‘Kalon wait.’

‘Ellora No! Do not defend them – you cannot. They are evil and they are murderers and they must be captured and brought back here to answer for what they have done and pay.’

‘Kalon is right,’ said Amara. ‘Ellora if you had seen, you would understand.’

‘I am sure that what you have seen was awful but let us not forget who we are talking about: Rakan – son of Garrick and brother of Kalon. Rufus, Waldon and Kenaz – I know you don’t want to hear it but someone or something has done something to them.’

‘Ellora I know you see the good in everyone and that is what I love about you, but now you are blinded and you fail to see the evil that they have done – or that they have become.’

‘Perhaps if we met with them…’ she began.

‘No!’ snapped Kalon.

‘But…’ Ellora said beginning to object.

‘No.’ said Kalon firmly and by his tone, Ellora knew that his decision was final.

‘No,’ Amara said, agreeing with Kalon. ‘We will raise an army and capture them in Basimine.’

‘If I could speak with them, then perhaps I could reach them,’ Ellora said hopefully.

‘They are beyond reach,’ Michael said.