The Elder's Path (22 page)

Her incredulity was soon interrupted as a vague shape in the mist brought her attention back to the task at hand. Alir circled around, trying to a
llow them a better view. The ambiguous figure had other ideas, however, and hid itself once more. The most likely case by far was that Umbra was the figure in question.

Lyn gently separated herself from her companion and slid back in to her own
consciousness. She opened her eyes, the smell of smoke filling her nostrils, and looked to the two giants standing over her. "It's here," she said.

--

Umbra evaded them for a while, attempting to draw them out, but Siege was staunchly refusing to be led anywhere else. Marcho agreed with him, and so the two stood like statues looking out into the mist and coming night. Lyn watched them both standing perfectly still, their eyes intent upon the hunt. They were not so different, apart from the belonging to different planes of existence; they were both individuals highly dedicated to their pursuit, knowing full well the dangers and the stakes therein. They both sought after it doggedly, despite the sorrows that had encountered them along the way. Lyn found she had great respect for both of them, and she held the moment deep in her heart so she'd never forget.

Marcho moved his head ever so slowly, and evidently seeing what he expected, he turned back to Siege with a significant glance. Siege nodded to him and drew his weapo
n. With a quick movement, Marcho leaped out of sight and disappeared in a whirl of shadow. Lyn shivered; his phantom-like behavior reminded her too much of Umbra's nightmare for comfort.

"Lyn," Siege said without looking back. He planted his huge sword in
the ground and pulled his hair back, tying it into a high tail. "I require your assistance."

Lyn stood eagerly, ready to participate. "Ask."

"Take Stygian, lead him over to Argos and make sure they are secure." He shrugged off his cloak, revealing the glinting black armor beneath. He handed it over to her and continued, "After you secure them, take your bow, find a high point, and wait. If Umbra...If Ren tries to escape, shoot them down."

Lyn began to protest, but Siege held up a hand quickly and said i
n a voice that broached no argument, "And I am not
asking
."

Lyn's shoulders dropped.
She had been ready to join Marcho and Siege on the front line, but realistically she knew this fight was not hers. That fact did little to soothe her wounded pride, but she knew arguing at this point would avail her nothing at best, and at worse further Umbra's agenda.

She made her way over to Stygian, who greeted her absently with a toss of his head. She took his reins and tried to lead him
hurriedly back over to where she had secured Argos. Stygian, however, made it very clear that he set his own pace and Lyn was fairly powerless to hurry him any more than he would allow himself to be hurried.

"I swear," Lyn said under her breath, "you two are in on this together to try
and keep me away from the action." Stygian made a noise Lyn thought sounded suspiciously like laughter. They finally made it to the tree Argos was secured to. Argos himself seemed glad of the company, and welcomed Stygian as Lyn secured the large warhorse to the trunk. "Alright you two, stay here where it's safe, I'll be back for you soon." She gave them both a quick rub on their necks and set off to find a vantage point.

"Alir,"
she called, and from above she heard him call a response. "Help me find a way up!" Another cry and a rustling of wings followed. Lyn took her bow and checked the tension; it seemed ready to go. Lyn had fashioned a harness to Argos' saddle where she slung the bow during travel, but truth be told she had been a little nervous about keeping it safe. "Well I guess that's one load off," she muttered, slinging the bow over her shoulder to free up her hands. The dark, supple wood held surprisingly good grip, and Lyn was impressed with it all over again. What a great treat Siege had given her; a bow and a horse! Two things she had always loved.

She realized belatedly that she was getting distracted again, so with a quick shake of her head to clear her thoughts she concentrated on finding a way to get herself a good view point. Alir flew ov
erhead and landed on a branch just in front of her. He let a cry and flew to another branch, leading her onward. "Good work, Alir." Lyn said, and followed her companion to her destination.

The ruins had held up well; Lyn and Alir found a spot that Lyn was
able to access and perch from. The wind was picking back up again, carrying the smoke and ash thankfully away from her. She pulled her bow and put an arrow to it, readying it in case of need.

Alir landed on her shoulder but she gently brushed him away. "N
o Alir," she said gently, "I need my arms free in case I've got to use this thing." Alir seemed to understand and chose a new perch on an exposed wooden beam while Lyn looked below into the open yard where Siege stood unmoving.

His hands sat atop the grip
of his large blade, looking out into the night where darkness had fallen in earnest. The light from the large fire cast just enough visibility in the open area to see the shadows dance and leap about in the flickering luminescence, but still there was no sign of Umbra.

Lyn found herself beginning to doze despite the wind. She caught herself as her head dropped to her chest, waking back up as the swirling fog reveal
ed an armored figure directly before Siege. She started and peered forward but it was difficult to make out details from where she knelt. Due to the direction of the wind she was also deprived of their words, but their body language told Lyn what she needed to know; the two approached one another as enemies.

The newcomer, who Lyn could only assu
me was Ren, drew a large sword that caught Lyn's breath the second she saw it. Even from further away, Lyn could see the majesty of the blade; the steel was a silvery blue that practically shone against the firelight. Its guard was silver and while Lyn could not make out the designs, it was clearly ornate. The edge glinted dangerously and the sword just seemed to emanate cold threat.

"So that's his father's sword," Lyn breathed to herself, gripping her bow tighter.

Like Siege, Ren appeared in steel armor, though it clearly lacked the craftsmanship of Siege's. Lyn scoffed to herself; it seemed simultaneously ridiculously clichéd and sadly poetic that the two sons should stand against each other, one each with a piece of their father before them. It was a sad clashing of a legacy and again Lyn had the feeling this was a scene directly out of the childhood stories. Perhaps the reality of the situation is what made it so sad.  She could not help but wonder which would break first, the sword or the shield?

The t
wo men did not speak long; it appeared there was little to be said between them. Siege lifted his great sword with an aggressive stance which Ren mimicked, and the two squared off. Lyn suddenly realized that both men would have been trained in the same style. Combined with the fact that they both had the counter piece of equipment to the other, the gravity of the fight struck her like a blow; ultimately this test would come down to who made the first mistake.

The two men began to circle each other like con
testing predators, and Umbra's words echoed in the back of her mind, "Men revel in the hunt like beasts." She shivered at the accuracy of the statement and how relevant it had quickly become.

Sudden movement
caught her eye, and with a blink the two men began the fight in earnest. The sound of their large colliding swords carried to Lyn's post, and she found her heart pounding fiercely in her chest. She was amazed by their movements; for being armored and carrying such large swords they moved surprisingly fast. She had never seen Zhiva fight, but she wondered if he was as fast as these two brothers. Even had Lyn not known they were related, she would have guessed they had studied under the same mentor because their motions matched as though it had been practiced for a performance. It was all the more impressive since she knew they were not aiming for entertainment but rather lethality.

Secretly, Lyn envied them their skill and ability to defend themselves so. While she was indeed accustomed to use of her bow
and practiced it regularly, close quarters combat was something that had always unnerved her. But these two made it look so easy, Lyn thought.

After a particularly hard press from Siege, Ren did not share her sentiment; from her perch she could see that
he was beginning to tire and have to work harder to keep up with Siege's onslaught. His movements became less pronounced, his strikes more retaliatory. He was slowly being put on the defensive, and Siege knew it. She watched as the great blonde warrior swung his sword with fervor and precision she could not have guessed at. While she mourned the necessity of such violence, she found the very skilled practice of it beautiful.

The fight ended quickly, but not how Lyn had expected; with a furious roar, Ren le
t out a visible aura of darkness that knocked Siege to the ground and rang in Lyn's ears. She closed her eyes tight against the howl and when she no longer heard it she opened her eyes to see Ren standing over Siege, his sword held high and ready to strike. As she looked on, Ren began to shift dizzily. His shadow fluctuated and rippled before it morphed itself into Ren's silhouette, standing beside him with glowing red eyes and form black as pitch.

She vaguely saw Ren was speaking, but the words rumbled an
d met her ears as though she was right next to his moving lips. "I can smell your despair, human. I will consume you as I have consumed your kin, and let me assure you, it will hurt."

The shade emitted a high-pitched cackle and reached out its hand. There
was a sickening moment of hazy vision as Ren's physical hand and his live shadow both gripped Siege by the throat and lifted. With inhuman strength, Siege was lifted bodily from the ground and hung suspended in air like a child’s toy.

Lyn did not realize
she was screaming until she had stood, nocked the arrow, and fired it. She watched through straining eyes as her projectile whistled through the air and struck true, sliding through the smoky silhouette and embedding itself into Ren's armor. Ren turned very slowly to look at the shaft protruding from his shoulder and followed its path to rest his eyes on Lyn, standing atop the ruins alone.

With
purposeful movements, he let go of Siege, who slumped to the ground making choking sounds. Lyn's desperate fury turned quickly into cold fear, and she found herself taking a step back. Ren and his living shadow moved towards Lyn as though they had expected her; no rush, no charge. Somehow this unnerved Lyn even more, and she scrambled to nock another arrow. Once it sat appropriately on the bow she drew and fired but Ren saw the arrow coming, so he simply grinned and sidestepped with a strangely blurry motion as it whistled past. His red-eyed shadow mirrored every move he made, but Lyn was getting the impression that the shadow, rather than the man, was the one controlling the motions.

"I warned you," came the whisper to her ears as if from very close. "I warned you that you could not escape me. You should have joined me when you had the chance."

Though she assumed the voice belonged to Ren, it was somehow familiar; she could tell it was Umbra speaking to her. Her nightmares had indeed been horrifying experiences, but having Umbra stalk towards her in the waking world brought an intensely larger amount of terror to the young Druid.

Not wishing to be trapped in her lookout spot, Lyn quickly made her way down to the ground but once she had, there was a moment of panic as she realized she did not know where to go. From behind a crumbling stone wall, Ren and Umbra peered
out to look at Lyn. She froze in place like a scared rabbit, eyes wide and pulse pounding through her veins as the man and the shade stepped out from behind the wall, and the two blended together and separated in a dizzying display, almost as if they were a mirage.

Yet, it was not until Lyn saw Ren's eyes that she realized what Marcho had said was true; there was no longer a human person in Ren. Dead eyes stared back at her, and in them she saw the darkness that was Umbra.

Umbra chuckled, watching Lyn look on with fear written plainly on her face. "I'll admit, I have not treated this body particularly well. After centuries of slumber I had forgotten exactly how fragile you humans can be. It's seen some good use, though."

It moved Ren's arms and neck as th
ough stretching, the phantom behind moving like a puppet master and Ren's body mimicking the motions. "Though I would much prefer you as a host. That is why, you can imagine, it is incredibly frustrating that something is preventing me from making that happen. Most would have succumbed by now, and I admit I do not understand what is holding you so tightly. But it is no matter, I am growing fond of these muscular and able-bodied types; perhaps I will simply take the blonde one next, hmm? I can feel his stress already, and once I let him cut down this body he will no doubt be ready to break. That is when I will take him, and there is nothing you can do that will stop me." 

Umbra spun around, arms outstretched. "Only one last step, Lyn World-Walker. Only one t
hing left to do." It looked at her with Ren's dead eyes and she felt gooseflesh run up her arms. "Tell me, where is the Voidwolf?"

"I don't know."