Pagewalker (40 page)

Dertrid was guessing it was something to do
with the great division of elves. Keldon turned to Dertrid who was
still reading the wall inscriptions and asked “What was the
division of the elves all about? Why did they give up their
strength in numbers for solitude in a large cliff cave?”

When Dertrid turned around to explain the old
story to Keldon the doors Crumbled open and a tall dark skinned
figure emerged from the darkness. He walked over toward the group
very slowly. He was not armed as far as Dertrid could see. He was
wearing a large silk robe that covered his entire naked body that
was concealed beneath. He had long white hair that stretched down
as far as his knees. He had a large tattoo that covered his whole
face and most of his right arm as well. He kept walking toward
Keldon but stopped before Dertrid and bowed. “Welcome to the city
of Xill master Dertrid.” He said. His voice was very low and very
calming; it had only one tone and no expression. The man himself
had no expression. As he talked his lips barely moved. His facial
expression had not even changed from when he had emerged from the
darkness and spoken to Dertrid. Dertrid bowed back to the elf and
introduced the rest of the party. The elf then walked over to
Keldon and looked him in the eye and said, “you would like to know
the history of the great division yes? Well let me tell you. Years
ago when the king of Sáann was killed in battle his wife Shannon
fled the city leaving Dertrid with the new queen. She came to the
great elven city of Ralvon seeking peace and help. When she arrived
she fell in love with an elfish prince named Broach. The two lived
in peace and tried to raise a family but then Broach was found
stealing from her and bringing the pieces back to his wife. Lady
Shannon developed a hatred for elves, which mixed with her love for
brosack she was transformed into a spirit of darkness that when she
touched someone she would act like a disease to some but a blessing
to others. We are called the children of the night. We were a
minority group for a short while but as lady Shannon touched more
elves they were turned into the dark elves. Then when the numbers
were even we fought the true elves and destroyed the city. The
survivors left the region of Northland and headed west with the
goblins. We took refuge here and awaited the arrival of the second
prophecy. The son of the king. Dertrid.” Dertrid spun around to
Gladwin who was standing at the entrance of Xill city doors.

“Is this true” Dertrid asked Gladwin. Gladwin
nodded to Dertrid “Why didn’t you tell me?” Gladwin walked over to
Dertrid and ruffled his hair then looked him in the eye and said,
“Because I was worried about your ego exploding my boy” The group
laughed then followed the elf into Xill. As the group entered they
saw a small room filled with people all sitting round some kind of
water fountain, AS they walked past it everyone followed the group
with eyes that could have pierced the strongest armour. As they
walked on they could see that they were walking toward a large
building shaped like a church. They walked inside the large metal
doors and looked around the building, it was the largest library
they had ever seen but they were not here to look at books they
were here to get the elemental weapon that would be used to destroy
the queen. The elf stopped in front of a large marble rock that was
sitting in the middle of the circular building. “Dertrid I know why
you are here and I know what you seek so I will not dawdle in
giving it to you.” The elf chanted the first line of the elfish
division prophecy; the marble rock glowed then started to melt.
After about two minuets of melting Dertrid could see a blue light
glowing from inside the rock. “Go and get your prize Dertrid. Only
you can touch it” announced the expressionless elf. Dertrid walked
over to the rock that was still melting and put his had through the
molten rock but there was no pain. Dertrid felt around a bit trying
to find the blade he came here to get. “Ah there it is” Dertrid
exclaimed as he pulled the blade from its resting place. Dertrid
took a step back after pulling the blade out and looked at it. It
was glowing more than ever now that Dertrid was holding it.
“Gladwin, its time to attack Sáann now, I think we are ready now
that I have the things that we need” Dertrid said as he

held the sword in the air and swung it about
a bit to get used to the weight. Gladwin turned to the elf and
said, “there is but one more thing that we still must do. We must
get the elves to form an alliance with the dwarfs so that we can
assist the rebellion that is taking place in the city as we speak.”
The elf walked forward toward Dertrid and knelt before him “we are
at your command Dertrid the chosen one” The elf then walked over to
Penla and shook his hand. “A friend of the prophecy is a friend of
ours. WE will set out toward the dwarf cave tomorrow but tonight
let us prepare and rest” The elf led the group to their rooms and
showed them around.

He then left them to go and ready the troops
as they had a long walk and a hard battle ahead of them. Dertrid
sat down on his bed and looked out of the large oval shaped window.
The shutters were held back with a strong thick twine that seemed
to be made out of horsehair that had been very tightly wound
together along with some string and waxed to give it extra
strength. As Dertrid looked out the window he noticed that on the
other side of it there was not rock or cave like the rest of the
city but there were green fields and green trees, deep valleys and
large mountains. Dertrid realised that his room was built on the
front of the cliff edge. The sat and wondered why was he the one
that got the best room in the city? Why is he treated like a god?
Why was he the only one out of the three that was not able to
retrieve an elemental sword out of the three towers of the
brotherhood? It then dawned on him that he was not as strong as his
two companions he was the weakest of the three and he had no hope
of defeating Samuel and the queen. He might as well just stay here
and let the queen poison the lands with her evil and cruelty. As
Dertrid laid his head on the pillow he heard a voice in his head
that sounded just like the voice he had heard in the burning
village when they had first met Keldon. The voice said “stay strong
my boy, if you were not the strongest then why would I have you
bear this burden?” Then it slowly and softly drifted away from
Dertrid’s ears the same way that Dertrid drifted off to the world
of dreams.

The whole dark elven city of Xill was bustling with
the sounds of shouting, cheering, laughing, women crying, black
smiths working and hammering, priests teaching and chanting,
sergeants ordering and armour and metal clanging. Dertrid walked
out of his room with his full adventure gear on his back and his
newly found blade on his side sheathed in a golden elven made
sheath. He walked over to the rest of the group who were rallying
troops and inspecting armour. Dertrid stood on a large wooden crate
and called over to Keldon who was rallying the troops into platoons
of 500 men each.

“Keldon, we will take a large platoon each
which will later be split into four groups when the dwarves are
combined with us, from then we will march the next morning to Sáann
and take back what is rightfully mine!” As Dertrid said this he
realised that it was rightfully his and he would fight with his
life to claim it back for him and his people. Keldon was joining
the small groups of 500 into larger groups of 2000. Elessa was
doing the same on the other side of the city. Dertrid walked
outside of the main doors and sat down on a large fallen statue
outside. It seemed like decades before Gladwin came out to tell him
that the troops were now ready to depart, but they need some
inspiration or a reason to fight. Dertrid decided to go back in and
make his final speech before the battle that would decide the fate
of the whole of Northland. As Dertrid stood on the large stone
altar, there he was able to see most of the city of Xill but the
thing that stood out was the army of troops with at least 5000 dark
elven warriors waiting to die at his very command.

Dertrid opened his mouth but nothing came
out. Everything that was in his head was going to be a waste as he
could not speak it. But one small trooper shouted out of the crowd
toward Dertrid saying “Do not fear chosen one we know what you are
trying to say and we treasure the thought that we were alive in the
same era as you and will fight and die to fulfil the prophecy.”
Dertrid stood back in amazement as the whole cave and city seemed
to cheer as Dertrid bowed toward that young soldier who could not
be much older that 16 in elven years. Dertrid stood back up upon
the stone altar and said one sentence which would later be engraved
onto a large stone slab in Xill’s temple. It would go on to be
framed in every house and written in every story book and told by
every explorer to their young to give them hope and strength when
they are left to defend themselves. The very words of this sentence
gave hope and strength to the elven troops. The sentence was “Alone
the world is nothing, but as we stand together with our hope we
will never be defeated. Even if the devil himself rose from the
underworld we would drive him back with not only our blades but our
love for life and the things it brings to us.” As Dertrid said this
he stood back to see and hear the loudest and most spectacular
display of brave men walking out of the main doors singing an old
elven hymn of hope. As they left, the sky seemed as if it was
raining flower petals. The whole cave was filled with colours of
yellow and red petals that fell from the tallest buildings thrown
by the women of the city that can only wait and hope. Dertrid was
the last to leave the city on his black horse that the dark elves
had given to him. The horse was no ordinary horse, though. It
possessed the power of everlasting strength. They said that if the
horse has the right rider then it will never grow tired from
ruminating or it will never fail its rider in combat even if it has
been wounded by a thousand arrows or stabbed by one hundred spears
.It will keep on running until the rider dismounts at his destiny.
Only then will the horse be vulnerable to death.

After about three hours of travelling Penla
was seen standing on a large rock on top of the farthest hill. They
said he was holding a large double-sided axe and holding it up high
in the air. He held it here until the troops arrived at his
position. Even though his arm muscles were burning and tearing he
stood strong with his axe in the air and his beard and hair blowing
in the wind. Dertrid knew from his stance that he had fulfilled his
mission to get the dwarves to form an army and march with the elves
into Sáann. He left the city of Xill early this morning on a
mission to go the dwarf’ s city and rally the troops together into
an army and March toward Sáann to meet the dark elves before the
battle for Sáann commenced. Dertrid rode hard and fast over to the
hill Penla was standing on. while Dertrid was nearing the top of
the hill he could see the heads of hundreds of troops waiting on
the other side of the hill, but as he got higher up the hill he
noticed that there were not hundreds of troops but thousands of
them. By now he could not just see them he could hear them banging
their axes against their shields shouting SHALA KLACK! SHALA KLACK!
hear them banging their axes against their shields and shouting
Which is dwarf for battle hungry! Battle hungry! The higher Dertrid
rode up the hill the more of the troops he could see until he
reached the top and looked

down on the troops with Penla and marvelled
at the thousands upon thousands of dwarfs standing at the bottom of
the hill. “Where did they all come from?” Dertrid said as he got
off his horse to try and reach Penla’s eye line. “They are our
cousins from the east planes, they came as soon as they heard the
news about the troubles of Northland.” Penla replied as he tried to
clip his axe back into place on his back. “They are strong and
ready to give their lives for us Dertrid, and they have also agreed
to sign the alliance with the dark elves,” Penla commented then
patted Dertrid on the back and yelled '97 “Together we will win
back our freedom for life. As he ran back down to his cart Dertrid
could hear both races cheering at the brave words said by Penla.
Dertrid mounted himself back onto his horse, which he had now named
Remus, and rode out onto the middle of the planes until he could
see both races following him side by side. After a few days of
travelling and a few nights of games and drunken activities,
Dertrid looked back at his army and saw that both races seemed to
have formed into two large platoons but they were not a platoon per
race but in fact the two races had mixed into two platoons and were
walking laughing and telling jokes, rhymes and stories to each
other as if they had forgotten that in a few days time most likely
half of them would be passing into the underworld. Dertrid looked
to his left to see Keldon and Elessa riding beside him chatting and
laughing at each other’s childhood stories. He then looked to his
right where he saw Galdwin bored stiff as Penla told him how he was
related to each and every dwarf in the army behind him or her.
Dertrid felt stronger now than he did when he set out from Xill a
few days ago. He wondered why this was for a few more hours of
travelling until he finally realised what it was that made him feel
stronger. It was the feeling of accomplishment. It was a very
strange feeling because the battle of Sáann had not yet been
fought, but he knew why he felt this. He felt it because he had
brought two races together in peace and harmony. He talked to his
companions who were riding beside him about what he had been
thinking all this time Then after they had all finished talking
about this Dertrid said in the silence “We have already won this
battle, We may not have defeated the queens men yet, But we have
joined these great races together and that is more than a group of
five people have ever done.” Dertrid was interrupted by the call of
the elven scouts who were now sitting at the top of a large rock on
the top of the next mound. They called that they had seen Shari
just through that forest up ahead and that Sáann is at most a day’s
march away. Dertrid dismounted at an opening in the forest and gave
the order to set up the alliance’s final camp here for the night. A
few hours later after the camp had been made and the troops had
eaten their supper, Dertrid walked around the camp marvelling at
the troops who were going to give their lives for him. He later
rode to the edge of the wood and stopped beside an old cobo tree.
As he touched the old tree he realised that he had stopped here
about a month ago only he was facing the other direction. He was
trying to escape From Sáann, not knowing that in a month’s time he
would be attacking it. He walked over toward the large opening of
trees and looked upon Sáann. Gertrud’s eyes watered as he saw the
queen’s flags flying from the castle walls and not his father’s
ones. As he looked closer he could see that the statue of his
father had also been destroyed and replaced with a statue of the
queen instead. Dertrid muttered an old verse out of the book of war
then spat in the direction of Sáann. The verse was a curse on the
opposition and the act of spitting was showing bravery and
disrespect toward the opposition. Dertrid mounted his horse again
then rode back toward the camp to rest before the fate of Sáann and
Northland were to be decided by the gods and the races the next
morning.