NexLord: Dark Prophecies (53 page)

Mara shrugged, "I don't know, though it is
likely.  Still, we must make a detour from the path for
now.  We will return and pick up the road again once we
are done."

Gandarel looked exasperated.  "I
don't think this is a good time for you to be cryptic, Mara."

"Then climb down from that nag, so I can talk
to you, I promise all will be explained."

Gandarel was muttering about strange stops in
the middle of ominous mountains, as he dismounted, but he followed
Mara and the other students away from the wagon toward a single
evergreen tree that towered above all others, and Niler came
along.  Once they were near the tree Mara stopped.

"Thank you all for being patient with me, it
was necessary, but we have reached the point where some of what is
hidden must be revealed."

Aerin broke in with a question, "Why are you
keeping things secret in the first place, Mara?"

Mara gave him a small
smile.  "Secrets are sometimes necessary,
Aerin.  I have many reasons, some of which I am not going
to tell you right now, but..." she said, holding up a hand to
forestall comments, "I will answer your question as to
this.  There were events listed in the Prophecy of Gold
that should you have known you may not have let them
happen.  These events were important in that they helped
to keep us on the best path."

"Prophecies aren't worth the paper they are
written on," Niler opinioned. 

"Please, keep your opinions to
yourself.  You can have your say when I am through," Mara
said in a pleasant voice.

Niler considered her tone, then nodded his
acceptance of the bargain.

"But you said we have departed from that
path, and are now in the Dark Prophecies," Aerin noted, getting
back to the discussion.

"Yes, we are charting a dangerous path
through a set of prophecies that describe doom in multiple
details.  Again, for reasons that I have discerned, it
has been important to keep certain details from you lest by knowing
them you make them happen."

Gandarel looked at her sourly. "But that is
the opposite of what you just said about the Prophecies of Gold,
you can't have it both ways."

"Actually, I can, you see I haven't kept
everything from you, just the parts that would hurt
you.  I've done this in different ways with both
prophecies.  
In the end,
I even tried telling Gandarel information from the Prophecies of
Gold in hopes that, against my better judgment, by knowing you,
would decide to listen to me.  That failed, but we have
not lost, yet, the future is not set.  It can still be
changed from its primary path of possibility, much as it did when
the Prophecies of Gold were changed to the Dark
Prophecies.  I still have hope."

"I bet this is where you are going to tell me
something I don't want to hear," Gandarel guessed.

Mara smiled.  "It is,
indeed.  If we continue up this pass to the capitol right
now, it is written in the Dark Prophecies that you will...
disappear.  I don't know how, or why, but you cannot go
to the
capital
until you have
passed through the Wall of the Chamber."

"Wall, Chamber... what is this about?"
Gandarel asked darkly.

Instead of answering his question directly,
Mara asked him a question.  "Gandarel, you know why I
came to Strakhelm, and why I have been teaching you, don't
you?"

"This NexLord business… you've mentioned it
more than once.  As I understand it, you have this idea
that I am to be this new wondrous NexLord, but I don't share your
belief.  I know everyone reveres the last NexLord, Ragol,
but I think he was just a good commander.  Calling me a
NexLord isn't going to change who I am."

"But that's where you are wrong,
Gandarel.  There is a power in the Nexus.  You
missed some of your training, but we can fix that.  This
power was put there in ages gone by to fight the power of the
Dreadmaster.  It is written, in more than one vision of
the future, that you will be the new NexLord."

Aerin spoke up, trying to help
Mara.  "It's true, Gandarel, you know my father was a
scholar, he was bringing us to Strakhelm to document your
story."

"You mentioned some Chamber, is it the
Chamber of Stone?" Gandarel asked.

Mara’s eyes tightened slightly, she didn't
know where he had heard that, but there were various popular
legends about it, so she ignored the nagging feeling tugging at her
mind.  "Yes, that is the heart of the Nexus."

Gandarel was silent as he recalled the dark
words he had read that night he opened the box in Mara's room, he
could see them now as clearly as when he first read
them.
 “...and inside the Chamber of
Stone,
he will know that his failure
has killed his best friend..."

Gandarel stole a quick glance at Aerin; there
was no doubt in his mind that Aerin was his best friend in the
entire world.  He couldn't go into that Chamber if there
was any chance... he just couldn't.

"Mara, I understand, but tell me this, should
I have left Strakhelm with you when you asked?"

"There is no doubt of that, but that
is passed
and now we go on to make
the future better.  I understand your reasons for
staying, misguided as they were, you were thinking of your
people."

Gandarel nodded, "I'm glad you see it that
way
because I'm not going to this
'Chamber of Stone'.  We'll just have to figure a way to
get past it as well."

Mara became angry, "Gandarel Trelic, you
don't realize what you are doing.  Let me tell you about
the real power of a NexLord."

"I think it is my turn at this point," Niler
said, sensing victory from Gandarel's standing up to her on his
own.

"Milord, Bluecoats!" one of
Gandarel's Guardsmen called to them, interrupting Niler.

"Gedin save
me, why can't anything go right?" Mara growled.

Up the Eigen Pass they all saw a group of
about twenty Bluecoats coming at a full gallop.

"Why are they pushing those horses?" Mara
asked, more to herself than to the others.  "Yearl, we
move up the canyon, NOW!" Mara yelled.

Tocor and Yearl had been preparing some food
packs and warm clothes; at Mara's
yell,
they both sped up their preparations.

"You men," Mara yelled to the Guardsmen,
"quickly strap on those packs, your future Warlord's life depends
on it!"

The Guardsmen started picking up the packs,
and Gandarel and the other students crowded around
Mara.  "What's wrong?" Aerin asked.

"Those Bluecoats wouldn't be galloping those
horses up this steep pass if there wasn't a damn good
reason, Togroths, most likely."

"Togroths!" Lor exclaimed.

"Or worse," Mara muttered.

"What are we going to do?" Dono asked.

Mara shrugged, "Much depends on what they
tell us, but I want to be ready to move in case the news is
bad."

"Are we going to make a run up the pass?"
Katek asked.

Mara
shoo
k
her head as she said, “They would catch
us
if they are this close to the Bluecoats, and
it looks like their mounts are just about done in.  We'll
head up the secret canyon, its right up there, past the marker
tree."

Gandarel scowled and said, "Toward the
Chamber of Stone."

"Yes, but you can make your mind up about
going in when we survive this, all right?" Mara said

"I'm not going in there," Gandarel muttered
darkly.

Niler stood behind him and put a hand on his
shoulder to show his support.

Mara didn't have time to discuss it further;
the Bluecoats were galloping up to the wagon.

Gandarel went with Mara as she headed for the
group of dismounting riders and their heaving
mounts.  Because of the cold mountain air, each
exhalation the tired horse's breath showed as twin streams from
their snorting nostrils.

As they arrived at the group of riders,
Gandarel was surprised to see Enolive among them.

"What news?" Mara asked, getting right to the
point.

"A large group of those creatures is right
behind us," the Corporal answered, looking back over his shoulder
down their back trail.

"Pull yourself together, how many of them are
there and how far back are they?" Mara demanded.

For a second the arrogance of the officer
shown in his eyes, but the fear was too strong and his shoulders
drooped again, "I'm not positive, a thousand of them, at
least.  I think they will be here in less than an hour,
but I can't be sure."

"Tocor?" Mara asked, turning to consult with
the Quarian.  

He was leaning down on the ground and
pressing his ear to the earth.  "Thirty, maybe forty
minutes, no more.  His count may be correct; there are a
lot of them."

The soldier's started trying to remount their
tired horses, but Mara stopped them.  "Wait; there is no
need to panic.  Besides, your mounts are near
collapse.  If you ride them any further you will only
kill them and then you'll be caught and eaten by the Tog before
nightfall."

"Then what are we going to do?" a Bluecoat
soldier demanded, fear very evident to Aerin, who was watching with
interest.

"There is a small canyon just over there by
that group of trees.  I've been through it
before.  It leads to a group of caves that can be
defended, if necessary, or we can possibly just lose them in the
maze.  It's pretty high up, so we'll have to lead the
horses and carry rations from the wagon.  Tocor will
divide up what we need and pass it out to you.  Now act
like soldiers, we leave here in fifteen minutes."

With someone obviously in charge, with a
plan, the soldier's fears settled down and they managed to get the
rations divided.  Tocor spent a few minutes unhitching
the team and tying items onto them as
pack horses
.  Then they all led their mounts
toward the trees.

On the other
side,
they found a narrow cave that allowed one horse to
pass at a time.  After a short
way,
it opened up to the sky again with steep cliffs to
either side.

The canyon path started climbing quickly,
headed upward toward the snow-coated heights.

Aerin was walking in line behind
Dono.  "Hey, this must be the part where you get to see
snow."

"Great, next time I think I'll pass on snow
if it means being chased by a thousand hungry Togroths up a narrow
canyon," Dono replied.

"Hey, nobody ever said Mara didn't know how
to have fun," Katek said, as he turned around to smirk at Dono.

As they followed the path it became evident
that it was mostly
man-made
.  What at first seemed like a natural
path eventually cut into the very rock and began climbing up the
sheer side of the granite cliff to their right.  It was
chiseled out wide enough for the horses to be led.  When
they reached a place where the path crested over the top of the
cliff they began entering patchy areas of snow.  They
crossed a meadow and then wound back down until they entered a
hidden valley.  The mouth of the valley was obscured by
fallen
rocks
until Mara led them
through a path through the large boulders that led into another
narrow canyon.  As Aerin walked through the boulders he
noticed that the sides of the boulders were worn smooth from the
passing of a lot of horses and people.  The stones on the
ground itself were also worn smooth from travel, yet moss covered
much of the stone now as if the once used path had not been
traveled in many years.

"Any sign of the Togroths?" Aerin asked when
they stopped at a widening in the path.

Tocor listened to the rock for a
time.  Aerin put his ear to it as well, but couldn't hear
anything.

"They're coming up the pass," Tocor
replied.

Niler whirled to face Mara and exclaimed.
"Gedin save
us
if they trap us in
here we’re finished!"

Mara shrugged, "You didn't listen very
well.  I never said they wouldn't follow us up
here.  I told you that there is a cave network where we
can hold them off, or possibly even lose them.  Much
depends on if it is just Togroths."

The Bluecoat Corporal stepped
forward.  "You say that like there is something worse
than these devil spawn."

"Oh, Corporal, there are.  The Togs
are just the dogs of the Dreadmaster, but his real killers come in
many other forms.  Wraiths, Dreadbeasts and others," Mara
noted.

"Dreadbeasts, those are just monsters made up
to scare children," the Corporal scoffed.

"Hey, we saw one, and you're right, they do
scare children… and just about everything else," Dono
added.  "You don't ever want to see one of those things,
trust me."

The officer ignored him.

"Well, let's get moving. I want to be inside
this cave before the Togroths kill us all," Niler said, getting his
horse ready to move.

Gandarel looked very troubled, but he
followed the rest further up the canyon.

Soon they came to a wall across the canyon;
at the base was a black opening.  Strange symbols were
carved into the rock around the opening, but nothing barred them
from entering.

"So this is the cave," Niler noted, stating
the obvious.

Gandarel was visibly sweating as he stood
looking at the dark opening. 

Aerin came over and put an arm
on
his friend's shoulders.  "Relax,
Gandarel; Mara says it’s all right.  Besides, I'll be
right there with you all the way."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Gandarel said
quietly.

The others were unpacking the torches Mara
had brought from the packhorses, and no one was paying attention to
the two boys standing before the opening of the cave. 

"What does that mean?" Aerin asked.

Gandarel dropped his eyes.  "You
know how I joked with you a long time ago about reading some of
Mara's prophecy papers?"