The Powterosian War (Book 5) (37 page)

The general lay down on a cot for a short rest while waiting for the scouts to return. He’d hardly closed his eyes when the flat flew open and the emperor stormed in.

“We told you to begin the march up the slopes to the pass. Why haven’t you obeyed me?” The emperor’s piercing eyes were bloodshot; he spit when raving.

The general got up, his age and exhaustion slowing his movements. “Majesty, I’ve sent scouts with the farmer to locate the pass and determine if it’s occupied or not, so we are not marching into a trap. I’ll begin the march up the mountains as soon as the scouts return, as you command.”

“Why wait for the scouts to return? Occupied or not you will take the pass in either case. Now get dressed and get those men moving.”

The emperor turned and disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. The general’s aide entered the tent, apologizing for not having warned of the intrusion. He assisted the old general in putting on his boots. The old man buttoned his uniform and grumbled as he snatched his helmet and started from the tent to meet with the other generals.

“Sound the signal for the army to assemble for the march up the slopes,” the general ordered a trumpeter stationed outside his tent. The soldier’s face went askew at the order. He looked over the field of soldiers, sitting in the sun in full dress, loaded with packs, their heads downcast.

“Sound the signal, son.”

The young soldier blew the trumpet and a groan rose across the field.

The emperor abruptly appeared again under a large fringed umbrella carried by a jittery servant. “Select a dozen of those slackers that groaned. Have them whipped in front of the army formed up to watch so they understand military discipline and orders. Too long, we’ve allowed our army to lounge around and do nothing at the expense of the treasury.” The emperor withdrew but watched the gruesome exercise from his tent flap.

Even the other generals protested the brutality, considering the circumstances. “You want to be whipped to death yourselves?” the commanding general asked his subordinates. They backed off, shaking their heads. Men were selected and whipped severely before the entire army standing in the sun.

“Now march!” the emperor screamed at the general.

The order passed down the chain of command and exhausted legions took their appointed positions in the line. They started up the mountain, following the trail left by the scouts behind the farmer.

“Leave those that collapse pretending sunstroke. We’ll deal with them after the pass is in our hands,” the emperor said. The senior general just kept climbing without responding.

*

Almost at the Helgenstat, the farmer leading the scouts took them through a particularly thick stand of fir trees. He whispered for the scouts to remain there while he investigated the gorge. He slipped away and never returned.

“Where do you suppose he went?” one scout asked the other.

“How should I know?” the other responded.

“Do you think something got him? He should have been back by now. It will be night soon and we’ll have to climb back down this mountain in the dark.”

“Well, let’s get back down while we can. We’ll tell the general the man ran away, but the way looks clear.”

“Should we go check out the pass ourselves?”

“We don’t have that long. We’ll lose visibility soon under these trees. Who knows how far beyond those dark ruins the pass is.”

“We’ll tell them the pass is clear. If the enemy is there, we’ll claim later they must have come up after we checked it out.”

“Done!” The two scouts scrambled back through the dark forest and down the rocky slopes, making the last part of the journey in the murky undergrowth. They had to feel their way in some places.

*

The farmer broke out of the woods, startling the sentry on guard. He took the farmer to Saxthor, grinning as he went. Saxthor had just come out of his tent and was relieved to see the man approach.

“Thank you for your services. What’s the position of the imperial army?” the king asked.

“The emperor is furious at his losses on the plain. He wants revenge and screams at his generals all the time. The army hates him. They weren’t in shape for such a campaign and they’re worn out.”

“When will they come up the mountain?”

“The emperor ordered them to march behind the scouts and me, but I think they’ll wait out the night. They’ll be coming with the dawn. I lost the scouts not far down the mountain. They could see them ruins but not close enough to spot any of your men.”

“Bodrin, take this man to the cooks and have them fix him whatever we have that he wants.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,”

“Thank you, sir,” Saxthor said. “If we survive this war, you will be richly rewarded.”

“What I did, I did for my people just as you do, Majesty.” The farmer bowed and followed Bodrin to food and shelter.

“Will we win this war, Memlatec?”

“I don’t know, Saxthor, but we have the best man to lead the fight.” The wizard squeezed the king’s shoulder and walked off into the forest shadows.

*

In the morning before dawn, Saxthor rose to prepare for the imminent battle. He noticed a light in Memlatec’s tent when he went outside to relieve himself.

“Are you up early or have you been up all night?” Saxthor asked the ancient wizard. When he looked up, Memlatec’s drained face and dark eyes answered the question. He turned to Saxthor but did not get up.

“What a dark castilyernov Helgenstat was even as they built it.”

“We knew it was an evil.”

“No, not the place, Saxthor. It seems the last Occintoc emperors degenerated more and more. The last emperor went totally mad. With no foreign threats, he started to imagine internal rivals for his power. He wanted to demonstrate that power as no one before. Helgenstat wasn’t just built to guard the pass. It was built to so demonstrate his superiority over everyone and everything such that none would challenge him. They built it over the confluence of the planetary energy gradients deliberately. They built it to tap into that power!”

“The planetary energy?” Saxthor gasped, stumbling back as if hit.

“The mad fool had learned magic from his wizards but in his arrogance, he thought he could control that energy. He unleashed an unknown force that protected the energy junction. It destroyed the Helgenstat. The destruction of that most massive castilyernov ultimately toppled the Occintoc Empire.”

“This sounds a lot like,” Saxthor started to say. Memlatec stood up, his eyes all but flaring. “The evil that drove the emperor mad and inhabited him… it sounds like the Dark Lord of Dreaddrac!”

“Do not attempt to release that thing in the Helgenstat abyss, Saxthor.”

“I’ve no means to defeat Emperor Engwan without it. My four legions against his dozen, I can’t hold them off indefinitely while Dreaddrac overruns Neuyokkasin behind me.”

“I’ve told you before. The Chowzenshwang is a force of the planet. No man can control it.”

“Energy is neither good nor evil, Memlatec. Like any power, how it’s used determines its outcome.”

The army was stirring, preparing for the campaign. The commanders moved through the camp, prodding the sleepy troops to eat quickly and prepare to move to stations along the pass. The rose tones of dawn gave way to rays of sunshine that shot through the forest below the canopy. Bodrin approached Saxthor, yawning as he returned to his tent, guarded by two sentries with droopy eyes.

“What do you have to report?” Saxthor asked.

“The imperial army is already advancing up the mountainside, Majesty.”

“Get some rest.” Saxthor said. The sentries left for their tent.

“I’m going to send Tonelia back,” Bodrin said. “We fought about it late into the night. I can’t risk having her here.”

“If we lose this battle, she’ll not be safe back in Konnotan either, Bodrin. We’ll all die. Emperor or Dark Lord, neither will allow Neuyokkasin nobility to survive. All others will be slaves. Let her remain with you.”

Bodrin nodded and dropped his head.

Saxthor gave last minute instructions to his commanders to pull the army back down the slopes to the plain. If he and Memlatec couldn’t stop the imperial army at the pass they were to fight on against whatever came down the mountain. Memlatec and Saxthor started up the slope toward Helgenstat.

Bodrin rushed up. “You’re not leaving me.”

“Bodrin go back with the army. You cannot help up there and we likely won’t be coming back.”

“I told you when we left Neuyokkasin as children on the adventure that you weren’t going anywhere without me. You should be used to that by now.”

Saxthor looked hard at his friend, their lives together passing quickly across his mind. He smiled.

Bodrin put his arm around Saxthor’s shoulder. “Onward and upward.” He grinned, pulling out a chunk of bread, offering it to Saxthor, and then Memlatec, who was shaking his head.

*

At the Helgenstat arch, the three men stood staring up at the runes. Memlatec chanted the incantation and stepped into the portal, disappearing before the others’ eyes. Saxthor looked at Bodrin who looked at him. The two men stepped into the archway and passed into the Helgenstat, reappearing in the matching archway inside. The three men walked along an old street thick with leaf litter. They went through a building and at its back to the edge of an abyss. Cautiously, Saxthor crept forward to look over the edge. He lay down on his stomach and inched his head over the rim, looking straight down the vertical drop still smooth after eons of time. The shaft was like a huge blow dart shaft, as if something massive had shot up through the earth. The sides were obsidian. There was no perceptible bottom. Saxthor tossed a rock into the chasm, but they never heard it strike the bottom. As he was about to slide back, he noted a sudden flash of blue light. It sparked, held its glow for a moment, but then disappeared. He instantly shuffled back and stood up breathing hard, his chest pounding.

“What did you see?” Bodrin asked.

“There was a sudden flash of blue light, but it disappeared.” Saxthor looked at Memlatec.

“The rock was inanimate,” the wizard said. “The Chowzenschwang lives, but felt no intrusion from the rock.”

“I must challenge it to bring it out,” Saxthor said.

“How long do you think it will take the imperial army to reach the Helgenstat?”

“They’ll begin to arrive within an hour, I should think,” Bodrin responded.

“What will awaken this thing, Memlatec?”

“It will destroy us all,” the wizard warned again.

“What will draw it out?” Saxthor reiterated. His voice was forceful, his look determined. “It’s our only hope, Memlatec.”

The great wizard’s face scrunched in defiance, but he took a deep breath. “You already know.”

“How can I know?” Saxthor said, spinning the ring on his finger.

Memlatec looked down at the glowing ring, a wild, vibrant blue. Blue rays shot from it.

“You two must leave now,” Saxthor said.

“Not me, you go Memlatec,” Bodrin said.

“I must stay to pronounce the incantation at the arch to get us out of here,” Memlatec said.

“Stubborn fools,” Saxthor mumbled. “If you’re killed, don’t blame me.”

“If I’m killed, I’ll not blame you,” Bodrin said, though his face didn’t smile as he looked over the edge of the abyss.

“Take Bodrin back through the arches, Memlatec. I need to know when the army approaches the walls of the Helgenstat. We need to be sure the Chowzenschwang goes for them and not our own.” Memlatec hesitated. Saxthor knew he suspected a trick. “Get going, we don’t have much time.”

As soon as they had left, Saxthor reached over the edge of the abyss and now felt the dragon ring grow suddenly hot but not burning his finger. He looked back to be sure the others had left and counted to a hundred to be sure they were by the arches. He felt an overwhelming sense it was time.

He took a deep breath and thrust his arm out over the darkness. Thinking back to his time in the rock-dwarf treasure chamber of the Highback Mountains, he remembered to concentrate and focus his emotional energy on the thing below. His body tensed as his thoughts and emotions raced through his desperation to save the kingdom. His thoughts ran to willing the thing out of the abyss, almost emotionally sucking it out. His ring suddenly shot out radiant energy, then the power focused, his hand pointed down. A burst of blue fire shot down the shaft.

A moment later, just as Saxthor heard the sound of footsteps racing up behind him, a powerful blue light filled the shaft. Blue lightning tendrils started to climb the shaft. The initial shock knocked him back into Bodrin behind him.

“Time to go!” Bodrin said. He grabbed Saxthor’s arm nearly jerking him away from the glowing pit. The two men raced through the ruins to the arch, as the blue light shot out over the ancient buildings, expanding quickly. A cloud of shimmering blue passed over and through the ruins. Bodrin pulled Saxthor toward Memlatec at the arch as Saxthor stared back at the light. It was a rapidly approaching, billowing blue cloud. Sparks crackling through the cloud vaporizing any organic matter it touched.