Can't Look Back (War for Dominance Book 1) (14 page)

“Sure’n I appreciated your assistance,” Fitzber said, putting his arms around the worg’s neck. The giant wolf was so big that the gnome’s arms could barely reach around it. Lady Ellyn saw that he held a sheathed dagger in one of them. “Sorry I am to have to do this.” As he drew the dagger, the worg’s eyes changed. Although the intelligence remained, the feral ferocity disappeared. The worg bounded out of Fitzber’s arms before he could slit its throat.

In a couple of bounds, the worg was up to full speed and on a direct course to where Dantes, Ghorza and John were dispatching the wounded orcs. The worg appeared to be headed toward John, who had his back to it.

“John, look out!” yelled Lady Ellyn as Fitzber picked up his bow and nocked an arrow. Knowing he would only get one shot, he focused as he drew the bow and fired. The arrow arced up and came back down to hit the worg as it leaped toward John, using an attack similar to the one it used to kill the orc. The arrow pierced the worg’s heart, and the dead animal crashed into John. The two went down in a heap and lay unmoving on the ground.

“Nice shot,” complimented Lady Ellyn. “The spell picked a bad time to wear off.”

“The spell didn’t wear off,” replied Fitzber. “It had a little longer to run. That was something else.” He looked angry and confused.

“What was it?” asked Lady Ellyn.

“The worg seemed like it was suddenly possessed,” said Fitzber, “but that would mean...
beastmaster!
” He ran toward the woods. “Beware any animals you see,” he called over his shoulder; “kill any that come close.” He began fading before he entered the tree line; once he was past it, Lady Ellyn couldn’t see him any longer.

Within ten minutes, Fitzber was back, prodding a halfling along in front of him with his dagger. “Look what I found hiding in the woods,” he said. He brought the halfling to the fire and forced him to sit in front of it.

“Hello, Rubic,” said Ghorza. “So it’s true. You
were
helping the enemy all along.”

“No, I wasn’t helping the enemy,” replied Rubic, “well, not at first, anyway. I started out helping my brother. It wasn’t until much later that I found out he was working for the enemy. By then I knew too much. I could either continue what I was doing and lead a comfortable life, or tell everyone about my brother and lead a much shorter one. I chose the life of luxury.”

“And how is that working out for you?” growled Dantes. He placed a clawed hand on Rubic’s shoulder.

“It was going very well until the outlander showed up,” he said. “It has not gone so well for me since.”

“Why is he so important to you?” asked Lady Ellyn. “He can only cast low level mage spells and isn’t much of a warrior.” She looked at John and added, “No offense.”

“That’s fine,” said John. “As that battle just showed, it’s true; I’m not much of a warrior. Not yet, anyway.”

“You don’t know?” asked Rubic. “Well, I’m not going to tell; you’ll have to find someone else.”

“Is this related to the Prophecy?” Lady Ellyn asked.

Rubic’s eyes glanced aside for the briefest of instants before coming back to Lady Ellyn. Rubic continued to remain silent, and Dantes squeezed a little harder. A red stain appeared on Rubic’s shoulder, but he did not say anything else.

“Easy,” said Lady Ellyn. “I have no intention of torturing the information out of him.” Dantes looked annoyed, but he eased his grip. Rubic breathed a sigh of relief.

“Let’s try something different,” said Lady Ellyn. “How much does Solim know about our mission?”

Rubic began laughing. “How much does he know?” Rubic asked. “He knows
everything
. When I don’t come back, he’ll send out something bigger and stronger to kill you all. He knows where you’re going, and he won’t underestimate you again.” He looked at John. “He will come for you, and he will take the spell book from you. Then he will have two of the Items of Power. With them, he’ll go to the Mountain of Frost and get the Scepter. With all three of the Items, he will rule Tasidar, and then he will overthrow the Overlord and rule the world!”

“No delusions of grandeur there, are there?” Father Telenor asked Lady Ellyn.

“It’s not a delusion,” said Rubic. “My brother already controls the two most powerful nations on this continent. Who is going to stop him from ruling all of it? You? Ha!”

“There are plenty of free folk that will band together, once they see what he is up to,” replied Ghorza. “There is no way he’ll get away with this.”

“Oh, but he will,” said Rubic. “He will take the spell book, he will get the scepter and he will rule this world. It is preordained in the Prophecy. Say what you will and do what you want, it won’t matter. Evil will win in the end.”

“That’s what my father always said when I was young,” Dantes said. “He always said that an evil victory was inevitable.”

“Did he give you a reason why?” asked Ghorza. In all her time with Dantes, this was the first time he had ever spoken about either of his parents.

“No, he didn’t,” replied Dantes. “He said that he wasn’t allowed to talk about it...although if that was a rule and he obeyed it, it was the only one he ever followed in his life. He was a liar, and everything he did or said was always full of deceit. Most times, there wouldn’t even be a reason for lying, other than the fact that he could.”

“So you don’t know why he thought that evil would be triumphant in the end?” asked John.

“No, I don’t,” answered Dantes, “although he always said that evil had the greatest number of forces, and the ones that were most committed to the fight. Look at the intelligent races on this planet, for example. There are no races that are inherently good. The closest to a ‘good’ race are the elves, but even the elves have their evil Dark Elf cousins.”

“Humans, like most of the races, are mixed in their allegiance,” Dantes continued. “Some are good, while others are bad. There are, however, entire races that are evil, like trolls, goblins and orcs, just to name a few. Some of the half-breeds, like Ghorza and me, are committed to stopping them, but we are vastly outnumbered by the purebloods.”

“So, they will win because there are more of them?” asked Lady Ellyn. “Wars are not always won by the side with the greatest number of troops.”

“That’s what bothers me,” replied Dantes. “He lied about everything; the fact that he always mentioned this reason leads me to believe that he was being deceptive about the
real
reason he thought that evil would win. One time when he was drunk, he mentioned some plan that the evil forces had. It was something he said had been decades in the making, with people and forces prepositioned where they would do the most harm when they were needed. He used to make up some of his biggest lies when he was drunk, and I thought this was just one of them. Now I’m afraid that there really is a master plan, and what we are seeing is the result of this plan.”

“Now you finally see,” said Rubic. “The Overlord has been planning this strategy for
centuries
. Nothing you can do will stop it. Join us, or flee to a far off land. Maybe you can live out your days there in peace before our horde gets there...but probably not.”

“Okay, I think we’ve heard about enough of this,” said Lady Ellyn. “This is getting us nowhere.”

“Do you want me to kill him?” asked Dantes.

“No,” said Lady Ellyn. “That would not be an honorable thing, even for him. You can’t kill a prisoner. I said earlier that we won’t torture him, and we will not. We don’t need to anyway, as Father Telenor has a Truth spell. Once he casts it, Rubic will tell us anything we want to know.”

“Truth spell?” asked Rubic.

“Oh, yes,” replied Lady Ellyn. “With the force of a god behind it, the spell can’t be tricked. You will tell us the truth about anything we want to know.”

“Shall I cast it?” asked Father Telenor.

“No!” screamed Rubic. Turning around, he reached over the dagger and grabbed Fitzber’s hands. Tilting the dagger up so that it rested on his chest, Rubic pulled with all of his might, driving it through his heart. “Won’t tell...” he gasped, the light going out of his eyes.

“Bah,” said Dantes. “Coward.”

“Want me to raise him from the dead?” asked Father Telenor.

“No,” said Lady Ellyn, “then we’d just have to drag him along with us until we got to a city and could jail him. During that time we’d have to watch out for every animal we saw. No, we will dispose of him with the rest of his allies. We’ll travel faster without him.”

“But what about the Prophecy?” asked Ghorza. “He may know something more than we do.”

“I doubt it,” replied Lady Ellyn. “He’ll only know what his brother told him. Solim may have lied to him, too, in case he got caught. The only way we’ll find out what Solim knows is to capture him. Besides, I know what the Prophecy says. Our order long ago saved the original lines of the Prophecy as were spoken by Aran-Than at the time of the Sundering.”

“You do?” asked Dantes. “Why haven’t you shared them before?”

“Because the words of the Prophecy are ambiguous. Throughout the ages, people have interpreted them to mean whatever advanced their cause the most. No one knows exactly what they meant.” She paused. “And it was only recently that we recovered the information about what really happened at the Sundering. We’re still trying to figure it out.”

Lady Ellyn sighed and then continued. “I was sworn to secrecy, but if we make it to the Mountain of Frost, you’re going to find out anyway. What most people no longer remember is that the last war started when the one true god was overthrown by the evil elemental gods. The elemental gods are children of the one true god, four that chose the way of the light, and four that chose the darkness. Having overthrown the one true god, the four dark elemental gods decided to do away with the good elemental gods, as well; however, the dark gods realized that the only way they could conquer them was through a battle of such magnitude that the entire universe would be unmade in its fighting. Seeing this, they challenged the good elemental gods to a war by proxy. The elemental gods would give gifts of their power to those who worshiped them, and whichever side won in the world would be the winner in the heavens. The evil elemental gods thought that they could easily win a battle of numbers; they had many more.”

“But what about the one true god?” asked John. “What happened to her?”

“Somehow the four evil gods captured her,” replied Lady Ellyn. “No one knows what became of her, and she hasn’t been heard from since.”

“How do you know she hasn’t been destroyed,” asked Dantes, “if no one has seen or heard from her since?”

“Every time I use a power or cast a spell, I know that she still exists,” replied Lady Ellyn with a smile. “I wouldn’t be able to do these things without her assistance.” She held Dantes’ gaze, and the smile faded. She sighed. “With that for perspective, we come to the end of the first War for Dominance.”

“What is the War for Dominance?” asked Ghorza. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“That name, like most of the knowledge from long ago, was lost in the Sundering,” said Lady Ellyn. “After the elemental gods ‘blest’ us with their powers, the worldly forces began the War for Dominance. Back then, there was only one continent, not two, as Tasidar and Salidar were joined as one. The war raged back and forth across the continent, with one side holding the edge, only to lose it to the other. With so much death and destruction, advancement in the service of your god was rapid, and heroes of great power were made and unmade on both sides. After many years of constant warfare, the forces of evil achieved the upper hand. They captured nearly the entire continent, trapping the forces of good on a plateau in the center of the continent. The city was the City of Silver, the home to the Paladin Training Academy. Its walls were stout, and the legends said that the city could never be taken.”

Father Telenor spoke for the first time. “The legends were wrong.”

“Indeed,” agreed Lady Ellyn. “They were wrong. The forces of evil were too strong. Their siege engines were more numerous than the stars in the night sky, and the plains surrounding the plateau were black with enemy forces. The war was sure to be lost. Most of the good forces gave up hope; they were so outnumbered they didn’t see how salvation was possible.”

“One man, however, didn’t give up hope—the wizard Aran-Than. He alone reached the level required to cast a Wish. Through research, he knew that the Wish spell was not only the most powerful spell ever conceived, but also the most dangerous, as it was tricky and might not work out the way he intended. Even if Aran-Than got what he wanted, it might not be in the manner he originally desired. What Aran-Than was contemplating was especially dangerous. Because of the power necessary, he knew the spell would be incredibly difficult to control, and that there could be massive unintended consequences. He knew the danger, but as the forces of evil breached the walls of the City of Silver, he cast the Wish.”

“Aran-Than knew that he was walking a thin line, as the War for Dominance was set in motion by the gods themselves. He suspected that wishing for victory wouldn’t be allowed, as one side had to physically beat the other, and he doubted that the gods would see such a wish as ‘fair.’ He was also aware that when the war started, the forces of evil started out with a large advantage in the number of troops they had, and he thought that was where he had an opportunity. He Wished for the war to be restarted at the beginning, with both sides having equal forces
that
were separated from each other
.”

“That Wish caused the Sundering. As he uttered it, an earthquake unlike anything ever imagined hit the world, and a rift cracked open the continent from east to west, breaking it in half. Where before there was just one land mass, Halidar, there were now two, Tasidar and Salidar, which were pushed away from each other in the devastation of the earthquake. The forces surrounding the plateau were destroyed, as were the majority of the forces in the City of Silver. The Sundering killed nearly all of the inhabitants of the planet; the only races that survived were some good ones living in the north of what is now Tasidar and some evil ones in the south of what is now Salidar. Some of the other races that lived at that time, like the cyclops and the unicorns, were lost for all time.”

“When he saw the outcome of the Wish, Aran-Than knew that he had only postponed the inevitable. Although the forces were now numerically equal, all of the evil races bred faster than the good ones, and it wouldn’t be long before the evil forces had a huge superiority in numbers again. With the two sides separated, the forces of good would be vastly outnumbered when the sides met once more. Good wouldn’t have a chance...again. Faced with a no-win situation, he cast another Wish. No one had ever cast one Wish spell before, much less two, and the energy that he expended in it killed him. Legend has it that, in his frustration, the Wish he cast was ‘I Wish I knew how to defeat the forces of evil the next time.’ He was given the Prophecy as his answer, just before he died.”

“Wait a minute,” said Ghorza, “you are telling this story as if you were there. How do you know all of this?”

“Someone from the City of Silver recently contacted us,” replied Lady Ellyn. “He gave us an ancient text with the knowledge we lost at the Sundering. We didn’t know that the current fighting was anything more than just civilized forces fighting to keep the evil races from our towns. We didn’t know that this is actually a war for control of the world and the heavens by proxy. After the Sundering, the good races forgot that this was the War for Dominance. The enemy, though, has never forgotten. They aren’t just fighting for loot or a little more land; they are fighting for the dominance of their gods, and the only way they can do that is to completely wipe us out. They are in this war with one goal and one goal only—to win it for their gods. They will stop at nothing short of our complete annihilation.”