The Beginnings Omnibus: Beginnings 1, 2, 3 & Legend of Ashenclaw novella (Realm of Ashenclaw Beginnings Saga) (95 page)

A bear stood before them, easily larger than the largest elephant he had ever seen. It was a dire bear. He’d heard legends of such beasts existing, but could not have imagined it being this massive.

Elec watched as Saeunn drove her greatsword into the back of the bear. It shook her violently in an attempt to throw her, yet she held on tight.

The Inquisitor approached and pushed forth a surge of something resembling dark magic which shrouded a large portion of the dire bear in its wake. The beast spun again, recoiling from this newest threat and managing to throw Saeunn from its back.

That was when Rose appeared.

Rose drove her magical daggers,
Avorna
and
Zaedra,
into the back of the dire bear. She removed one, stuck it in again, and then repeated the action with the other blade, climbing slowly toward its head as it thrashed in an attempt to dislodge her. She saw the bear swipe at Garius, sending his hammer down the side of the hill as it flew from his grasp in one mighty swipe. As the Inquisitor turned to watch its trajectory, he was met with another blow that sent him into the side of a burnt structure, collapsing its walls down upon him.

“No!” Rose noticed his foot twitch beneath the rubble, removed
Avorna
and then plunged it with significant force deeper into the bear’s back at a higher vantage. She saw Garius stir from his prone position and exhaled, not realizing that she was even holding her breath.

“Elec!” called Rose, hanging onto the back of the beast as best she could. “The hammer! Get the hammer!”

She watched as Elec paused and finally moved off to recover the Inquisitor’s weapon. He was moving at a ridiculous speed, she noted with some interest.

Something to revisit at a later time, if ever that time will come,
she thought, concerned for the elf.

“Rose!” cried a voice to her right. It was Saeunn, but what was she saying?

Gods
!

Orngoth came to and saw the carnage around him. He felt a significant pain in his side, but ignored it. Several of the buildings were destroyed completely under the duress of this encounter. Many men, orcs and dwarves lay dead upon the ground. They were all archers that had aided the demons, but there was no sign of the fiends anywhere.

He stood and heard sounds of a struggle to his far left and moved toward it in response. Through his fuzzy vision, he saw the dire bear, Rose clinging to its back. It had backed into a cave mouth. Suddenly it stood up and slammed its back against the hard surface of the walls.

Rose!

Orngoth charged toward the dire bear. Bloodlust overcame him. He did not fight it, instead letting it wash over him.

He had realized too, when he stood, that he had not recovered his greatclub. It did not matter as he slammed his shoulder into the belly of the animal, causing it to double over. He felt the massive weight of the beast fall over him, muscle and fur pinning him to the ground. He was under it for a moment, scratching, biting and clawing it until it finally shifted its weight.

He saw Saeunn hacking at its right flank as he finally made it to his feet. Blood flowed from his right side and he leapt through the air, landing upon its back. He began pounding the areas of matted fur where Rose had been working, which were stained dark with the dire bear’s own blood. It seemed to be so occupied with Saeunn that it barely noticed him. He grabbed fistfuls of fur and climbed its back until he found its neck.

Orngoth wrapped his massive arms around the dire bear’s head and began to twist. It fought him, biting and thrashing in an attempt to remove the half-ogre barbarian from its back, but Orngoth held on with strength born of anger at having lost his companion.

The bloodlust welled within the barbarian, aided by the thoughts of Rose, until there was a loud snap that echoed throughout the village, and possibly even the valley below.

The dire bear fell lifelessly to the ground with a crash, followed by Orngoth, who landed hard on his back.

“Nice…work…,” called a strained, soft voice from atop the cave mouth. There stood Rose, doubled over in pain, but unmistakably alive.

“Rose!” Orngoth shouted before coughing up a bit of blood himself. He rolled to his side in an attempt to stand. But before Orngoth could begin to rise, Garius stood over him, infusing him with regenerative power, speaking a prayer of healing. Orngoth noted through squinted vision that Garius’s eyes spilled forth a bright light as he spoke the incantation.

A moment later Orngoth forced himself to his feet and placed a hand on the Inquisitor, interrupting his spell.

“What are y—”

“I’m fine,” he began, feeling as though his wounds would heal just fine, and gestured to the top of the cave mouth, where Rose knelt, clutching her stomach and abdomen. “Save it for her.”

Garius nodded.

“I missed it, then?” called a voice from behind them. Orngoth turned to see Elec, his weapons sheathed and dragging the huge two-handed hammer behind him.

“What sort of magic allows you to wield such a weapon, Inquisitor!?” Elec asked Garius incredulously. “It took me quite a long time to drag this thing back up the hill, despite my….” Elec stopped talking mid-sentence and stared at the Inquisitor’s warhammer.

“Your arm,” Garius said, ignoring the elf’s question. “You have a deep cut, Elec. It needs tending.”

Orngoth, Garius and now Saeunn, who appeared to have a few minor scrapes on her body as well, noticed that blood gushed from a deep wound set upon the high elf’s right shoulder.

Elec dropped the hammer and stared at them all, then back to his wounded shoulder as if noticing its severity for the first time.

He withdrew a salve from his belt pouch and smeared it on the wound, then downed another elixir. He withdrew a ring from his pouch and placed it on his finger, and spoke a short phrase.

“I shall return shortly,” claimed the high elf as a rift in the planes opened up before him and he disappeared inside.

“Wait!” the Inquisitor called after him as he retrieved his hammer and easily hoisted it.

Rose suddenly appeared behind them, and immediately doubled over in pain. Garius rushed to her with haste, strapping
The
Repentant
in place on his back, and dropping to his knees before the woman. He placed his hands on her chest, and then moved them around, feeling for something.

“This is…no time for you to…be getting…frisky, Inquisitor,” Rose said through a forced smile. She coughed and grabbed for her side, wincing. Orngoth could tell she was in quite a lot of pain still. As Garius sent a wave of healing energy into Rose, Orngoth found his greatclub lying on the ground and made for the cave to inspect the remains of the dire bear.

He was stunned to find, in place of the massive dire bear, the body of a frail forest elf with a shock of brown hair and a pair of dark, lifeless eyes staring back at him. He looked around and inside the cave were numerous blankets, furs, pots and pans and a holy symbol. He knew for some reason that it was the mark of The Watcher—an eye hanging from a chain, as he had seen it before—lying on a used bedroll. There were also many flasks, plants, leaves and some of the paste that looked much like the kind that Elec used to dress their wounds from time to time.

Within moments, the others had gathered around. They all stood staring at the body of the forest elf.

“I’d be able to commune with this druid if we had the time, but the ritual would take time,” Garius commented as he knelt beside the deceased elf. “Time we probably don’t have.”

Orngoth held up the chain he found inside the cave, dangling from one enormous forefinger.

“I do not understand why a druid that serves The Watcher would be working with demons,” Garius added, shaking his head.

“Are these men even associated with the highwaymen who assaulted Pendus and his family?” asked Saeunn, leaning on her greatsword. “Or is this something else?”

“I do not know,” responded Garius, looking at the ruins of the village all around them. “It seems that whoever lives here, or lived here, did not want anyone investigating.”

“I think I know another place where we can give a look-see,” said a fully recovered Rose, as she gestured toward an obscured mineshaft entrance, foliage and vines surrounding its ingress.

“Let’s take a quick look at the bodies of the dead here and see what else we can find out before heading inside. I do not want to leave any stone unturned,” suggested the Inquisitor. “Perhaps the amulet we seek is within these ruins somewhere. Search them all.”

The others began to sift through the bodies and within each of the derelict structures of the village.

Orngoth held the symbol of The Watcher, staring into its eye. “Always more questions. I want less talk and more action,” he muttered to himself as he continued rummaging through the cave of the peculiar elven druid.

“
Come to me, one-eyed dwarf
,” called a voice to Xorgram. He almost fell out of his chair, caught and steadied himself, and then looked about the room.

“Did ye hear that?!” Xorgram asked Fuddle. The gnome was staring into a device that magnified his vision, or so he said, as he studied the finished piece of shadowsteel armor.

“Hear that? Hear what?” Fuddle responded absently, turning to look at Xorgram through the lens that made his eye look ridiculously big.

“
They are coming for me,”
whispered the voice again. It was clearly in his mind, he realized, as he shifted once more uneasily.
“You must hide me
.”

“I’m thinkin’ that demon be chattin’ with me,” he finally admitted to the gnome, who looked up from his work, blinked several times, and then pushed the oversized goggles up onto his forehead. He stared at Xorgram concernedly and wrinkled his face at him.

“You are serious?”

“Aye,” Xorgram said as Fuddle’s mechanical chassis whirred to life and the gnome moved to stand before him.

“If you’re suggesting that there is a demon inside that gem,” declared Fuddle, rubbing his chin and gazing at the rocky ceiling, “then we’d better be getting rid of it…and soon.”

“Aye,” Xorgram concurred. “The elevator devices are working?”

Fuddle nodded, and then stood before the dwarf again, forcing him to meet his gaze. “Let’s not change the subject.”

“It be givin’ me a warnin’ of some kind, me thinks,” Xorgram guessed, trying to decipher the intentions of the words. “If that be the case, maybe we should see what the oracle’s got ta say ‘bout it.”

“Warning? It’s a demon! It lies! And what is Amara going to say?” asked Fuddle, questioning what the dwarf was suggesting. “If you are going down there, I’d like to accompany you when you speak to her again.”

Xorgram looked at his close friend and didn’t even nod. He gazed with his good eye back to his friend with an obvious sense of worry etched on his face.

“I was thinkin’ the elevators might make yer ride a bit easier,” Xorgram admitted, knowing that they had to go down several levels to the bottom. Fuddle smiled at that, perhaps appreciating his levity in spite of the threats that lurked within the mines.

“Just let me bring
Shrew
,” he added, grabbing his magically enhanced and mechanically altered repeating crossbow. He quickly attached the weapon to his chassis and the two of them moved out of Fuddle’s lab to speak with the Princess of Norgeld.

“Is that the place?” asked Dainn, pointing with his staff toward the base of a vast chain of hills. He was panting and obviously tired from having had to walk the rest of the way. Their horses had been destroyed by either the trolls or the subsequent conflagration that ensued.

“I’m ta guessin’,” answered Megnus, rubbing his smooth scalp and pushing forward without protest.

“Prishnack, see what you can find over there,” Phaera instructed, pointing to the foot of the hill. “There has to be a way in from the bottom.”

The familiar red eyes of the djinni flashed and the wind suddenly picked up around them, Phaera’s hair blowing in the breeze. All three of them stood and collectively watched as he was carried away on the wind.

“Can we at least rest a moment?” Dainn asked, leaning on his staff.

“We keep going,” Phaera denied, taking to the air and hovering along the ground behind the two slagfell on her leathery wings. Dainn frowned visibly at Phaera as she watched them negotiate the treacherously mounting landscape.

“We will be upon them by nightfall. There will be no more delays in regaining the artifact for Zabalas,” she said as the two slagfell stared back at her and nodded, moving a bit faster at the mention of their master.

Phaera smiled at their obedient response to the slightest release of her pheromones. She often used them to spur the others on, especially when Zabalas was not present, though she was unsure if they affected Prishnack or not.

The wind suddenly picked up once more and the djinni appeared before them again, his loose-fitting robes hiding any hint of what lay beneath them.

“There is a…large tyrantian worm beneath the base…of the hill,” the djinni said slowly, his voice carrying in the wind. As he spoke, his eyes flashed a bright red and then grew softer reminding Phaera of embers in a fire that flourished under slight gusts of wind.

“Can we bypass the creature?” Dainn asked quickly.

“Yes,” responded Prishnack, whose body melted into vapor and floated away on the breeze once more. “Come.”

Phaera watched as the two slagfell marched after the djinni. She hovered above and followed after them.

Xorgram and Fuddle bounced in unison as the elevator hit bottom. Xorgram exited and made his way quietly toward the cell, hearing the whirring of the mechanical legs from Fuddle behind him. They were surprisingly soft, Xorgram admired, as he marched toward the cell of the princess.

“I hope the raids come back with something of interest this time,” Fuddle mentioned absently, referring of course to the teams Xorgram had assigned to lay wait in areas further out than he had ever gone before.

“Aye. I ain’t ne’er seen the mines look so barren,” the dwarf said, referring to the fact that many of his highwaymen were away performing their duties.

“Indeed,” Fuddle acknowledged as they approached the cell that held the Princess of Norgeld.

“Is yer hero comin’ ta save ye?” Xorgram called, still a few paces from the cell. He could hear Amara talking out loud and realized as he approached that no one was within earshot.

“Are ye prayin’, me’ lady?”

“Losing her mind, more likely?” whispered Fuddle to Xorgram. They peered into the darkness of her cell and realized that she had none of her candles lit and the cell was bathed in widespread blackness. Xorgram walked to a sconce on the opposite wall, lifted the torch from its housing and brought it closer to the cell.

As he shone the light inside, stealing away the darkness, he saw Amara pacing back and forth in her cell, muttering quietly to herself. She glanced at them and the intrusion of light, staring blankly at them.

“It is not me they are coming for,” she said cryptically. Xorgram’s brow twisted at that declaration.

“Then what—”

“The artifact,” Fuddle interrupted. “Am I right, princess? Someone is coming for the artifact.”

“It tries to talk to me,” she said as she neared the bars of the cell and looked out into the passageway. “It tries to make me…do things.”

Xorgram recoiled as she reached a hand slowly out toward him through the bars of her cell.

“I’m thinkin’ it be a good time ta speak to Helene again about that thing.”

“I’m thinking you’re right,” Fuddle answered, staring at Amara.

But Xorgram had already started away, placed the torch back on its bracket, and started for the elevator before Fuddle had turned to regard him.

Moments later, Xorgram stood before the door to Helene’s quarters, one level above the bottom floor of the mines. He knocked on the door and leaped back as the door flung open.

Inside, Helene stood, her frail frame shaking, her eyes full of anger.

“We need to check—”

“My demons!” Helene interrupted Fuddle, her pale skin flushed red as she spoke.

“What?!” Xorgram managed before taking a step into the room. “I be needin’ more from ye about that artifact—the demon that be livin’ inside it. We can speak about yer demons in—.”

“I felt them die,” she interrupted, clearly not listening to the dwarf, falling to her knees. Xorgram rushed to her and grabbed her by the arms, forcing her to look at him.

“What are ye sayin’, warlock?”

“My demons…outside. Something horrible!”

Xorgram peered over his shoulder to Fuddle and the gnome shrugged his tiny shoulders at the exchange.

“I need ta know where the artifact be…the gem on the amulet,” Xorgram clarified, looking into the woman’s dark eyes. She looked up to regard him as his words finally registered.

“I…I have it here,” Helene finally said, sighing and removing the anger from her face for a brief instant. She moved to a sealed iron box, and handed the whole thing to him, along with a key.

“My thanks. But—”

“I must go …I have to tend to them,” she said cryptically again, moving past Xorgram toward the elevator. An imp followed after her as she exited the room.

“Gather Kilkutt and Skilgo an’ meet me in me quarters,” Xorgram instructed Fuddle, who nodded and shuffled out the door and out of sight.