Alutar: The Great Demon (73 page)

* * * *

The Resurgence shuddered, and Seiko bolted upright in his bunk. The shuddering lasted only moments before ending, but in its place was a steady vibration of the ship that was abnormal. The leader of the black-cloaks onboard the Resurgence raced out of his cabin and up the steps to the deck. His eyes grew wide and his mouth gaped as he stared towards the stern of the ship. A whirling wall of red sand rose vertically and the black-cloak had to tilt his head upward to see the top of it. It towered higher than the masts of the ship.

“It is destroying the ship!” shouted Jong as he raced towards Seiko. “Nothing can stop it!”

Seiko lowered his eyes as a roar suddenly emanated from the stern. As he watched, the whirling wall touched the stern rail, and the wood and metal making up the rail started disappearing as if being whittled by some large knife.

“I ordered a constant watch on the sand wall,” growled Seiko. “How has it caught up to us?”

“The men on watch are gone,” reported Jong. “I awoke just before dawn and was told that the sentries had left the ship during the night because they could not see the wall in the darkness. They never returned. Perhaps they stumbled or fell, and the wall swallowed them before they could recover.”

Seiko glanced at the helm and saw it unmanned. “Where is Captain Imatin?” he asked.

“He is forward,” answered Jong. “The sand has already eaten through the rudder. The helm is useless now.”

The roaring wall of red sand continued to grind through the ship, the stern rail completely gone. Seiko felt a knot of fear forming in his gut, and he clenched his teeth to fight its spread, but it did not help.

“Get every mage on deck now,” commanded Seiko. “This ship has to gain speed, and I do not care how that is accomplished. If we have to levitate the entire ship off of the sands of the desert, so be it, but we will move faster. It is our only chance.”

Jong raced below deck to waken all of the sleeping mages. Seiko walked towards the wall of red sand and watched as it continued to devour the stern portion of the deck. He stood mere paces away from the terrifying sand wall, as if daring it to come and challenge him. His mind raced through his mental list of spells, trying to find something that could alter the path or destroy the magical wall. As he pondered a way to destroy the wall, he glanced along it and frowned. He quickly turned and glanced in the other direction. The roaring suddenly stopped, and Seiko noticed the ship pulling away from the wall. He walked to the very edge of the ship and stared downward. The ends of the floorboards looked finely polished and smooth. He shook his head in wonder.

“It’s working,” announced Jong as he ran towards Seiko. “I’ve got everyone working on moving the ship, but I am not sure if the masts will bear up under the strain. What are you looking at?”

“Glance along the wall in both directions,” ordered Seiko. “Tell me what you see.”

Jong’s brow creased with puzzlement, but he obeyed the command. Seconds later, he gasped.

“The wall is not straight,” he declared. “It is curving as if it intends to attack us from more than one side. Without a rudder to steer, we may end up heading towards it.”

“We will survive without the rudder,” stated Seiko, “but the curvature bothers me. Maintain the speed of the ship. I am going up for a look at our enemy’s creation.”

Without another word, Seiko transformed into a bird. He leaped into the sky and shot upward. Rising to a dizzying height, the bird leveled off and began gliding. It looked down, and the danger of the sand wall became all too clear. It was not actually a straight wall at all. It was a circle, and the Resurgence was inside of it with no escape. If the circle continued to get smaller, eventually the Resurgence would be attacked from all sides. Nothing inside the circle would survive. As the bird glided over the desert, its eyes were drawn to the very center of the circle. Far below the bird, a black hole appeared in the midst of the red sand. The bird dived towards it. When it got close enough to understand what it was seeing, the bird turned and raced back to the Resurgence. There it transformed back into human form.

“We are in great trouble, Jong,” Seiko said anxiously. “The wall is actually a circle, and it is closing in on us from all sides. Worse, there is a black maw in the very center of the circle, and it is swallowing the desert and everything in it. A ways beyond the circle, there is no longer any sand. The whole desert is moving towards the hole.”

“I don’t understand,” frowned Jong. “Who is doing this and for what purpose?”

“The purpose is to destroy Alutar,” declared Seiko. “That should be obvious.”

“But it can’t,” argued Jong. “The demonstone is indestructible. All they can do is destroy the ship, but the demonstone will remain in the desert. We could flee and then come back for it later.”

“There are two problems with that plan,” retorted Seiko as he started walking forward. “One is the black maw in the center of the circle. It will swallow anything that remains in the Sands of Eternity. That would include the demonstone.”

Seiko stopped and picked up the bucket of red sand that had been gathered earlier. He continued walking in silence to the demonstone.

“You said two problems,” frowned Jong. “What is the other?”

“Use your knife,” ordered Seiko. “Slice me off a piece of the demonstone.”

“What?” balked Jong. “I will not. Besides, it is impossible. Why do you request such a folly?”

“Do it!” Seiko commanded threateningly.

Jong backed up a step, but he drew the knife from his belt. He ran the knife along the surface of the demonstone in a halfhearted attempt to please his superior, but Seiko was not amused.

“Do it or die,” demanded Seiko. “I will be obeyed.”

Jong inhaled sharply. He did not know if Alutar would be aware of his transgression, but he knew that Seiko was not a man to toy with. He forcefully put his knife to the surface of the demonstone and with both hands tried to slice off a piece of it. The blade of his knife snapped and sailed off to land noisily on the deck. Jong threw down the remaining portion of knife and backed away from the demonstone.

“I told you it was impossible to mar the demonstone,” he spat at Seiko. “It is indestructible.”

“Is it?” Seiko mused in a calm voice as he pulled a white rag from his pack and poured water over it.

The head black-cloak pushed the wet rag into the bucket of blood red sand and then pulled it out again. The rag was coated with sand particles, and Seiko stepped up to the demonstone. He rubbed the rag over the surface of the demonstone, and the whole ship shuddered in reaction. Black-cloaks fell to the deck, and the ship immediately slowed.

“Back to your stations,” Seiko shouted as he picked himself off the deck. “Get this ship moving again.”

Jong rose and stared at Seiko. “What did you do?” he asked.

Seiko looked down at the rag and sighed nervously. He held it out for Jong to see. Mixed in with the red sands were small flecks of black.

“The demonstone is not indestructible,” Seiko announced. “This red sand is enhanced for a particular reason, and that reason is the destruction of the demonstone. The whirling sand wall is meant to destroy the demonstone, and the maw is meant to mingle the particles with untold trillions of grains of sand. It would take eons for the followers of Alutar to find all of the particles so that they could be put back together. It is an ingenious plan, and we need to think of a way to defeat it.”

“How much time do we have?” asked Jong.

“I can only estimate,” answered Seiko. “If we do nothing other than keep this ship moving at its current pace, dawn tomorrow will see us sliding into the hole in the desert. We do not have time to spare.”

* * * *

Zack Nolan and Kalina sat in the black carriage while they waited for permission to enter the Sanctum. Garth Shado sat on the driver’s bench, his eyes scanning the defensive forces. After a few moments, a runner ran up to the gates and spoke softly to the commander of the private army. The commander waved for the gates to be opened and then stepped close to Garth.

“My men will escort the carriage,” stated the commander. “You will follow their instructions at all times or you will be killed.”

Garth nodded and started the carriage rolling. Two men mounted horses and moved in front of the carriage to lead the way. Garth calmly followed their lead, but he paid little attention to the riders. His eyes continued to scan the trees, noting the placement of the defensive forces. He had already penetrated the compound the previous night in an attempt to catch Lord Kommoron, but he had followed the path that Franco had used previously, and that trip had bypassed most of the soldiers. Thinking that the next visit to the Sanctum might be one to destroy it, he wanted more information about the defenses, and the carriage ride provided a chance to get that information.

There was a short pause in the journey as the carriage was ordered to stop at the gates of one of the estates. The carriage was admitted onto the estate and rolled to the entrance of the mansion. Lord Zachary and his wife were let out of the carriage and taken to a large sitting room. They were shown to a couch and sat down. Moments later, Lord Kimner was brought into the room. The old man was infirm and had to be moved in a special chair fitted with wheels. An attendant moved the chair so that it faced his guests.

“You have returned, Lord Zachary,” opened Lord Kimner as the old man waved for his guards and attendant to leave the room. “I am pleased, but also surprised. I never expected to see you again. Who have you brought to me?”

“Lady Zachary,” smiled the Ranger.

The old man nodded at Kalina, but his eyes quickly returned to Zack.

“I have heard that Vinafor has broken away from the Federation,” stated Lord Kimner. “Is that what brings you back here?”

“In a way,” Lord Zachary said. “The Federation is ended, Lord Kimner. Its only member now is the Empire of Barouk.”

“And Spino,” interrupted Lord Kimner.

“No,” Zack shook his head. “King Samuel has withdrawn from the Federation. Only Barouk remains, and that is hardly a Federation, is it?”

“I had not heard,” frowned Lord Kimner, “but it does not surprise me. Have you come to gloat then?”

Lord Zachary smiled. “The death of the Federation as it was carried out is not something to cry over,” Zack said, “but the death of the Empire of Barouk would be lamentable. I have come to you to seek help in preventing that.”

Deep creases etched the old man’s brow, and he stared at the Vinaforan nobleman with suspicion.

“I did check you out after your last visit,” Lord Kimner said, “and your statements of wealth were validated, but I smell something rotten here. Why would a Vinaforan lord care what happens to the Empire of Barouk?”

“Why shouldn’t every man care about the destruction of a nation?” retorted Zack. “If you held within your hands the power to avoid a war in some country other than your own, would you not step forward and try to halt the bloodshed?”

“I probably would,” Lord Kimner said cautiously, “but I am an idealist. I do not think you are cut from the same cloth. Do you think you hold the power in your hands to make the elves disappear?”

“It is not just the elves who will descend upon Despair,” stated Lord Zachary. “The elves are merely in place to keep the armies of the Federation locked within the city walls. Before the week is out, Despair will be besieged by tens of thousands of warriors. The soldiers in Despair will be grossly outnumbered.”

“So you say,” retorted Lord Kimner, “but it will not take a week for the armies in Despair to be reinforced. No one is going to crush Despair.”

“Once again,” Zack shook his head, “I find you ill-informed. There are no armies of the Federation left except what is already inside the walls of the city. The 16
^th
Corps is now a Spinoan army, and the 35
^th
Corps no longer exists. It was destroyed by dwarves.”

“Dwarves?” scoffed Lord Kimner. “Now you stretch your credibility far beyond the breaking point. The dwarves all died over four hundred years ago.”

“The dwarves did not die,” stated Lady Zachary. “They escaped from the Isle of Despair over four hundred years ago and have been living in secret here in Zara, but even if they had gone extinct here, they flourish in Alcea. In fact, the dwarves that destroyed the 35
^th
Corps were a union of dwarves from both continents.”

Lord Kimner stared at Kalina and a deep frown grew over his face. His eyes returned to Zack as he said accusingly, “You are not what you seem to be. Who are you really?”

“I am Zack Nolan,” answered Lord Zachary. “I am an Alcean Ranger. My companion is Jenneva Tork, but she is known here in Zara as Kalina Shado. She is a Knight of Alcea.”

Zack and Kalina were ready to react forcefully when Lord Kimner called for his guards, but the old man said nothing. He stared at the couple on the couch and slowly nodded his head.

“What do you want from me?” the old man asked.

“We want you to help us avoid bloodshed in Despair,” answered Zack. “What we have told you about the armies descending on Despair is true. What we have not spoken of is far more important. On my last visit, we spoke of the political situation in Barouk and the ways that nobles plot to take the throne. That conversation was not mere idle chatter. It is happening in Despair right now. We believe that Emperor Jaar is dead, and that a mage is standing in his place. That mage is controlled by one of your fellow lords here in the Sanctum. We want your help in exposing the fraud that now poses as your emperor.”

“For what purpose?” asked Lord Kimner. “If you truly have the armies that you claim, you can kill the emperor and end his charade.”

“And kill twenty-five thousand of your young men in the process,” scowled Kalina. “Is that truly what you want, Lord Kimner?”

“You said that you would halt a war in a foreign country because you are idealistic,” Lord Zachary pointed out. “Would you not do the same for your own country?”

“I have no such power,” retorted Lord Kimner. “What do I bring to the solution of the problem?”