Tides of Blood and Steel (2 page)

“The pieces are in motion, Kodan Bak. The final game has begun. We must be quick to seize the advantage,” he paused, debating whether or not to speak the next thought. “I worry that the last Mage spawn is gathering strength. We must exhaust all possible resources in trying to stop him.”

“He should have been dealt with long ago,” Kodan sniped. “You leave too many windows open.
Your inaction will return to haunt us before this affair is ended. What of Pelthit Re? It has been too long since we last heard word from him.”

Amar tilted his head skyward, as if sniffing the cold wind. “He is…occupied in Chadra with the One Eye. All is moving according to schedule, but we cannot delay. I need you to travel to Gren. There are rumors of Gnaals roving the countryside. Find them and send them to Trennaron.”

“You think
he
is going to pose a threat?”

“Artiss Gran has been a threat from the moment he abandoned us. The Gnaals must find him and kill him.”

“A difficult task. He may not be a part of us but his powers remain,” Kodan countered.

“Break him. Expend every resource. He must not live if we are to stop the Mage spawn,” Amar snapped.

Kodan nodded agreement. “Where will you be?”

“I must return to Badron. His mind is yet hale and it will take more to break him enough to be usable for my purposes. The northern kingdoms are about to be torn asunder, Kodan Bak. Hatred and enmity will spread through the population like a plague. An unstoppable machine with one true intent.”

Amar didn’t bother watching as Kodan folded darkness around him and disappeared with no more than a wisp of black cloud.
Yes, my insubordinate friend. All of my problems will soon be dealt with appropriately
.

Thoughts of Revenge

Life seldom follows the path of dreams. Men spend years of their already limited time on Malweir thinking about tomorrow, waiting for the turn of the sun when they might find opportunity to make their move. Fate or destiny never asks for personal opinions, never cares what man wants next. The universe moves to the tune of pre-written plans without consideration of those involved. Each time the sun chases the moon away, a new opportunity arises filled with promise or despair. For as surely as the need for promise, to hope for better days, is vital to the continuation of existence, the utter dread of despair lurks just behind.

Delranan had become a dangerous place in the span of a few short weeks. With the main army gone to war in neighboring Rogscroft, Harnin One Eye assumed control and immediately began executing his will through ruthless aggression. The weak fell quickly, accepting the sudden change and direction in which the kingdom was ruled. Fear kept many others in line, yet it was fear that drove Harnin’s actions. He was a man used to standing behind the power, not being the power itself.

Most surprising to the entire kingdom was the rise of the rebellion. Under Badron there’d been no need to turn against the crown. While he was no saint, Badron ruled with enough wisdom to be perceived as fair. Harnin erased it all. Jails filled overnight. Still more disappeared and wound up in the Keep’s dungeons. He feared that the only way to hold power was through eliminating his opponents.

Bahr was the first. The forgotten brother of the king had been an ignored thorn in the kingdom’s side for far too long. Some residual of childhood feelings kept Badron from doing what needed to be done. Harnin lacked no such restrictions. His campaign against Bahr began the moment he convinced Badron to hire him to retrieve Maleela. The rest was too easy. Soon Bahr found himself locked in a dungeon cell awaiting torture and execution. The only complications arose when Argis showed his true colors and freed the prisoners.

The orange glow on the near horizon made Bahr sick to his stomach. Occasional tongues of flame licked hungrily over the trees and rooftops. Harnin’s first move had been to set Bahr’s ship on fire, reducing his capabilities as well as his preferred mode for escape. Bahr had spent so much time on the
Dragon’s Bane
that his life was inexorably tied to the aged timbers. It represented all that was good in him and offered him a sense of purpose. And now it was gone. His life would never be the same again. Heavy sorrow settled over his soul. Instincts screamed for him to hunt down Harnin and end this game. Justice could only be served by killing Harnin One Eye.

Rekka Jel, ever the wise counselor, saw his discomfort. “I know what your heart desires, Captain Bahr. I have felt your sorrow in my life as well. There will come a time when you get to play out your revenge. Now is simply not the time.”

“If not now, when? I am tired of being told this is not the right time. Harnin must be punished for all of it. For my boat. For what he did to my friends. And for what he is doing to my kingdom.” He wasn’t sure what made him add the last statement. Ignored by his father and brother, Bahr never held aspirations for the throne and seldom felt akin to his native land. Delranan was his kingdom by birthright, but it offered little comfort to the self-exile.

“He will be punished,” she quietly affirmed. “But we have risked much to save your niece and cannot allow ourselves to become distracted until the main task is accomplished. This war is just beginning.”

He tensed. “I don’t give a damn about the war. All I want is that man’s head.”

“I promise you shall have it. The way ahead is still dark, but make no mistake. It is filled with danger and will be long and arduous. If the Dae’shan are not stopped, all we know will come to an end. The dark gods will have dominance over Malweir. Stopping them must be our primary focus,” Anienam added.

Argis leaned close to Boen and whispered, “What are the Dae’shan?”

Anienam answered before the Gaimosian opened his mouth. “That is a difficult answer to give. Once they were the neutral guardians of the will of the gods. They became corrupt, much as the crystal of Tol Shere corrupted the Mages. The Dae’shan allowed an unnatural need for power to consume them until only a shell of what they had been remains. They are altogether evil now. Twisted and wicked. A shame, really, considering what they had once been.”

“I thought the gods abandoned Malweir long ago?” Argis suddenly had a bad feeling gnawing at his insides.

Anienam nodded politely. “To an extent. The gods of light abandoned their claim on Malweir, leaving it to us how best to rule and exist. The dark gods, exiled by the forces of good, have never stopped trying to return from their abyssal prison. They subverted the Dae’shan and use them to execute their will. Many great evils have existed over time, but none so powerful and dangerous as the Dae’shan.”

“Your words offer little encouragement, wizard,” Boen added from his seat a few meters away.

Anienam offered a sorrowful look. “Why should they? We are trapped in desperate times. I had hoped to beat the Dae’shan here, but I was too late.”

“What are they after? Why Delranan?” Argis asked.

A shrug. “Their only real purpose is to open the gateway between worlds to free the dark gods. How they plan on doing so remains hidden from me. There were only three nexuses on Malweir. Two are destroyed and the third is heavily guarded, or so I believe. Without one, the dark gods can’t return.”

Dorl winced and wiped his eyes. “You think that’s what this is all about? The war, Harnin, all of it?”

“It makes sense. Look at how much the north has changed in such a short period of time,” Anienam suggested and offered Bahr a knowing look.

Sitting across from them, Bahr reluctantly accepted the situation. He’d lived long enough to recognize when a battle needed to be postponed. Harnin could wait. Everything Bahr knew and loved was on the brink of destruction. He was confused, his sense of faith wounded. The orange glow darkened. Bahr closed his eyes and tried convincing himself that it was just a boat.

“You don’t think the crew was on board, do you?” Maleela asked.

Rekka cast a stern gaze on her for asking such an insensitive question. “No. I overheard Harnin say they’d been forced into a labor camp for the army. They may be mistreated, but they’re safe enough.”

For a time
. Her knowledge of northern customs was handicapped by their utter foreignness. So unlike were her people and these gruff northerners that she felt out of place. Rekka was groomed to be a fine warrior and strategist, but even that meant little when faced by the blunt force the northern warriors chose to employ. She used finesse and grace, almost a mockery of Dorl’s style. Yet the sell sword attracted her in ways she failed to understand. Confused, she sat back and brooded.

The conversation was too much for Argis. Already a traitor, he felt much worse. Bahr and his companions were involved in affairs that went far beyond Argis’s own actions. His misgivings would only grow as time went by. Whatever Bahr planned on doing, Argis made up his mind to stay embedded in the underground. Delranan had to come before the needs of any one man. He’d made his bed the moment he agreed to conspire with Prince Aurec of Rogscroft and let him sneak into Chadra Keep.
How wrong everything went after that. Killing Badron’s son wasn’t part of the plan, but then again, nothing that happened that night was. What a fool I’ve been.

“There is nothing for it,” Bahr finally said. “They were a good crew but, like Harnin, they too must wait until we’re in a position that will allow us to help.”

“What is our next move then?” Boen asked. He was glad to move on. There was no point on dwelling on affairs they were powerless to change. Gaimosians lacked the sense of place inherent in most others. Boen had already been stagnant for too long and, without a proper enemy to fight, felt restricted. The desire to move on and find new adventure in warmer climes beckoned.

Bahr drank deeply from one of the canteens they’d confiscated. The water was good, but it was not food. Argis promised them food, water, and enough mounts to see them about their task as soon as they linked up with the underground.

Anienam smiled darkly and answered before Bahr could. “We must find the Blud Hamr.”

“The what?” Bahr asked.

“The Blood Hammer. It is an ancient weapon that will destroy the Dae’shan and end this rising tide of darkness.”

The Sea Wolf didn’t know whether to laugh or shake his head in futility. “That’s nice, but where are we supposed to find this hammer of yours? I doubt they sell one in the Merchant’s Circle.”

“We never got to that part,” Dorl added from the opposite side of the fire.

Anienam sighed. The smallness of some minds was exceedingly frustrating. He never understood why some people refused to accept concepts that did not originate through them. The world was filled with magical beings and instruments. Malweir was an ancient world and held many secrets, most of which would never be seen.

He leveled his gaze back on the group. “Delranan was once an important land. The king of Averon once used this very port to launch a raid on distant shores. Then came the horrors of the Mage wars and all that was civilized fell into chaos. There was once a large temple in the center of Chadra. This temple held the knowledge of most of the northern magic. It is here that we will find reference to the hammer.”

“There is only one small problem,” Bahr said dryly. “Chadra has no standing temples.”

“True, but it is not the actual temple that we need. The majority of knowledge was stored underground in massive vaults.”

His hopes slipped with the sudden possibility that it might all be gone. The wealth of the old days was destroyed forever. Until this point, Anienam had been so sure of himself. The winds had blown him into Delranan for reasons he hadn’t understood. Raw power was gathering beneath the frozen northern kingdom in unprecedented quantities. He might have laughed if the tides were not shifting against them.

“There are tunnels that run beneath Fareth’s Mill,” Skuld offered. “That’s close to the center of town.”

The wizard smiled. “Have you been in them?”

Skuld was more than happy to finally be of worth to this group. “That’s where I’d go if people, uh…chased me.”

Anienam turned to Bahr. “We must go there.”

The Sea Wolf scratched the stubble of his beard. “We should split our forces. I’ll take Boen, Rekka, and Ionascu, and head to my estate. We need money and supplies and I have them. You take the others and find this temple. You have until dawn, after that it won’t be safe for any of us. We must escape before Harnin has the chance to mobilize his forces against us.”

Argis looked around.
They are all crazy. And now I am one of them
. He was left with little choice. It was too late to go back, despite the grim dawn of the future. Argis saw but one way.

“I will lead your people to the mill. Good luck to you all.”

Bahr fought his reservations and gave a brisk nod. It was time to move, lest the enemy gain on them. Argis waited for the others to rise before leading his group back to the city. The moment left Bahr with an uneasy feeling. A day ago, Argis had been one of Badron’s most trusted advisors. Now he was more than willing to betray a lifetime of trust. Part of that didn’t sit well with Bahr. Still, so long as Argis didn’t cross them. Bahr let the thought fade. There was no point in searching for hidden conspiracies.

His thoughts turned towards his own task. It was entirely possible that his estate had fallen under Harnin’s thumb as much as his beloved
Bane
had. Material possessions never mattered much to him, none except for the
Bane
. He focused on salvaging what goods he could. Winter was right around the corner and they were going to need as much cold weather equipment as they could lay their hands on. Besides, he had a sinking feeling that this was the last time he was ever going to return to his home.