The Beginnings Omnibus: Beginnings 1, 2, 3 & Legend of Ashenclaw novella (Realm of Ashenclaw Beginnings Saga) (98 page)

“So many had to suffer so that we might regain you,” she told the demon in the amulet. She spun and began to walk out the open door into the passage outside. “I hope you are worth it,” she commented in a whisper, then stopped and stood within the rune-covered circle painted on the floor. Dainn, Megnus and Prishnack all stood within the ring of runes, too, waiting.

She waved a hand and concentrated, releasing the muscular dwarf from her command. He stood and shook his head back and forth as if trying to clear his head from the after effects of her influence. He was looking perplexedly at the one named Xorgram and she smiled at that.

“It was a pleasure bartering with you, Xorgram. You’ve made a wise choice today and you may yet live to regret it,” she said with a threatening laugh.

With that, Dainn tapped his staff upon the ground and the runes that made up the circle burst into flames. They figures faded from sight, leaving behind a flabbergasted group of diminutive men. For several heartbeats after, they could still hear the laughter of the succubus.

Xorgram and his fellow coven watched as the foursome entered the strange runic circle. They stood staring as it burst into flames and collectively watched as they faded from sight. He hurried out into the corridor to get a closer look and observed as the runes that were painted so plainly upon the crusty surface just a heartbeat ago, disappeared into nothingness right before him. He stared with his one good eye back at Kilkutt who was right behind him.

“Ain’t ne’er seen nothin’ like that,” Kilkutt declared, rubbing his singed beard. “She told me ta sit still in me own head an’ I did it! Like she was me own mind, tellin’ me body ta do it.”

“Where’d they even come from?” Fuddle wondered aloud, moving forward on his mechanical legs, as the whir of the motor hummed beneath his words.

“I just came from the upper levels, so I be thinkin’ it weren’t from there,” Skilgo mentioned with a cough.

“Then they musta come up from below,” Xorgram reasoned.

“What about the princess?” Fuddle mentioned to Xorgram, whose eyes widened and he hurried toward the elevator.

“I’m aimin’ ta find out now,” he said as he waited on the platform for the rest of them. Fuddle followed, but Skilgo and Kilkutt remained behind, waving him on. The two of them passed level after level until they finally reached the bottom floor.

Amara heard footsteps approaching, pulling her from her meditation. It was the only way that she seemed to be granted a reprieve from the visions lately. They were inundating her thoughts and she needed relief from their constant return.

“Are ye in there, my lady?” called a familiar dwarven voice from the outskirts of the shadows that surrounded her cell.

“Where else would I be?” she asked derisively, remaining in her meditative posture, legs folded over one another and sitting on a bundle of straw.

“Did ye happen ta see any…bodies pass by?”

“No. I have been meditating for hours,” she replied in a succinct tone, closing her eyes again and trying to force his voice away. She drifted for a short time before hearing his voice once more.

“Are ye even listenin’, princess?”

It was then that she felt the presence of the demon that had been there. It was a voice that she had been pushing away and ignoring for the past few weeks. It overwhelmed her with visions and disturbing images, and then simply disappeared, but she knew its name.

Cyrza
.

Then she saw a succubus demon, both beautiful and deadly. There were two slagfell, one a vicious-looking warrior, and the other a mage dressed in robes of motley, but both cruel and filled with thoughts of ill intent. Then another creature that floated in between realms filled her visions, red eyes buried deeply within robes of a murky black.

Her eyes opened wide at that revelation. Just as quickly, another vision consumed her thoughts. It was of the same people she’d seen recently in her visions. Except this time, they were coming for her. It was unsettling as her heart thundered in her chest briefly.

As she came out of her dream state, she was sweating and her heart was still racing.

She witnessed the head miner she knew as Skilgo speaking with Xorgram, telling him that they were under attack.

“Cassia, Skuros and others made to intercept ‘em,” he wheezed to Xorgram as they all hurried off, no longer interested in her.

She did not know what to make of the whole situation and took a few deep breaths to steady herself before hearing footsteps coming her way once more. She shrunk involuntarily at the sound. Again, it was Xorgram.

“Yer comin’ with me,” he said abruptly, unlocking her cell and grabbing her by the arm. “This ends now.”

The five of them had found nothing of consequence neither in the deceased druid’s cave nor within the ruins of any of the buildings. There was a mineshaft entrance here which would be the last place that they had yet to inspect.

Elec had joined them a few moments ago, the wound on his shoulder all but healed.

Garius suddenly whipped his head toward the entrance of the caves.

“I feel the presence of something evil deep within these mines,” he informed them as he stood at the mouth of the mineshaft entrance.

“That’s comforting,” quipped Rose as she waited for Elec to join her at the front of the group.

“It was hidden from me. Clever demon,” Garius said, turning to stare each of them in the eye. “It is the amulet we seek. It is below!”

Saeunn stood at the entrance to the mines and was thankful for the torches that lit the passageways within. She was a fierce combatant, but this did her no good if she could not see her enemy in the gloom of the cave. She peered inside and noticed Elec and Rose as they took the lead, Orngoth remaining far behind them all.

They made it into the mines and saw that the cavern walls were as black as those they had seen in the Blackstone Mountains to the north. The torchlight danced on the walls, elongating their shadows as they passed. Other than the five of them, there was no one else to be found anywhere in sight.

Suddenly Elec held up his hand, as did Rose, and then signaled to move back. Garius, Orngoth and the barbarian retreated toward the entrance once more, having made it only a hundred paces inside the tunnels, which widened and narrowed every dozen paces or so. Saeunn concluded that these sections of the walls had been chipped away by miners’ picks and axes as they had been attempting to harvest the mineral.

“Going somewhere, elf?” called a gruff voice that echoed in the barren cavern.

Saeunn managed to peek ahead and saw a grey-skinned half-orc with huge tusks staring down at Elec with an axe in his hand, its head made from a blackened material matching the very walls here. It looked unlike any weapon she’d ever seen before.

She realized a heartbeat later that the half-orc was not alone.

Behind him, emerging from the platform was a female form clad in the blackest of robes with skin of a pale white that juxtaposed her garb to great effect. She had a red-skinned, winged demon perched upon her shoulder, too, that seemed to somehow match the pigment of her lips flawlessly.

A blonde woman exited the platform next, staring directly toward Rose and sliding twin rapiers from scabbards on either hip. She uttered a warning or threat that she could not quite make out.

Saeunn’s eyes grew wide with anticipation as pair of furry, bull-headed creatures emerged from the platform next. She heard the steady breathing of Orngoth behind her, turned her head and peered up to see him set a firm jaw at witnessing the taur enter his line of sight. He snarled and his lip curled up to reveal one of his canines.

Garius walked forward casting an invocation to The Shimmering One that bathed the passageway in a radiant light. Saeunn immediately felt a strange sensation of power flow through her veins as the light washed over her. The Inquisitor walked right toward the pale-skinned woman and they exchanged words.

Then the pair of taur charged the two barbarians in unison.

Orngoth removed his club from his back as Saeunn withdrew her own greatsword from its scabbard and the two of them countercharged. She met the steel of the taur’s twin axes as sparks flew and the ringing of metal on metal deafened all within the confined area.

The taur’s attacks came on with intensity and were struck with vigor. She had to work extremely hard to maneuver her greatsword in such a way as to divert them. After a moment of futile exchanges, the taur paused, bent his head low and charged her again.

He collided with her shoulder and drove her back a few steps, creating an opening. His axes swung once more in rapid succession. She managed to block one with the pommel of her sword as the other bit deeply into her right shoulder. Pain overwhelmed her senses for a moment until the white-hot intensity of rage supplanted it.

It was the call of The Champion. She was lost to the bloodlust.

Orngoth met the charge of the taur, lowering his own head and meeting the bull-like skull with his own ram-horned helm. The resulting impact sent the two combatants reeling and stumbling backward.

Orngoth shook off the effects of the impact and refitted his helm just as the taur regained his footing. The taur began to swing a spiked ball and chain around wildly coinciding with the spewing of venomous curses in his native tongue.

Orngoth retrieved his own club from the floor and moved toward the bullheaded taur who launched the spiked ball and chain at his head. He brought his club up with a snarl and the spiked ball took a small piece of bark from the bough. Again, the taur swung his weapon and this time, it wrapped itself around the neck of the club. The taur and Orngoth stood unmoving as neither could wrest their weapon free from the other. Both combatants’ muscles quaked under the strain, but neither gave ground.

Garius held
The Repentant
in one hand, its head dipped toward the pale-skinned female as his words reached their crescendo. He hurled a wave of divine energy toward the woman, who countered it with a spell of her own.

“Warlock!” he claimed, hearing her speak the prayers to Hecate. “Your dark mistress shall not be your salvation today, as you so thought! Rather, she will give you false hope, casting death and deceit upon you until she is your undoing!”

“Unlikely, priest,” Helene replied calmly, meeting his spell with a blast of eldritch origins. The two energies met and fizzled to nothingness.

She quickly spoke a phrase and the tiny demon that sat upon her shoulder began to shift in size as the warlock’s own eyes rolled over white. The creature’s muscles grew, its wings spread and its teeth and fangs elongated.

“I am no priest, demon-worshipper!  I am the collective might of all priests from all divinities. And I wield their combined powers as an avatar to them all. I am the bane of all demons and the scourge of devils! I am an Inquisitor…and no demon shall pass before me without feeling the cleansing power of the Gods of Order!” roared Garius.

He sent another wave of holy energy forth, pushing it out from his very core and the demon shrieked in pain. For several heartbeats, the demon could not be seen, hidden and bathed in the white, radiant light until it dissipated, leaving naught but the stunned warlock behind, a look of dread upon her pale features.

“No!” she shrieked from behind crimson lips. “You shall pay for that with your misbegotten life!”

She whispered something again and blackened bands of unholy energy shot forth from everywhere on her body at once, surrounding Garius and wrapping themselves around him.

Before he could react, they were wrapped about him and his crimson armor was all but covered beneath the ebon bands. Over and again, she uttered prayers to her demon lady, as the bands tightened about him.

He felt his breath escape his lungs and found that he was unable to replace it, as his chest could not expand beneath the might of the magical restraints.

His vision began to dim.

“We meet again, elf,” claimed the familiar half-orc. Elec quickly consumed two potions back to back and withdrew his superbly crafted, magically enchanted weapons. “Hopefully, you will be able to keep your mind focused on me this time so that I might remove your head from your shoulders in a fair fight.”

A smile creased the half-orc’s face between his tusks as Elec felt the effects of the elixirs wash over him. He immediately made use of those effects, launching three attacks, one after the other, and with implausible speed.

The half-orc deflected the first with his sword, the second with his axe head and during the third, Elec deftly slashed his cheek with the fine edge of
Wyrm’s Fang
, truly faster than the eye could follow. Blood began to seep from the cut and the half-orc’s tongue made its way to taste the lifeblood. He smiled.

“Well struck, elf! I did not believe that you had it in you,” he said, repositioning the shield on his arm. “You are a truly worthy opponent then, despite the quivering in your hands and legs.”

Elec lunged forward again, ignoring the comments, and managing to keep the half-orc on the defensive, scoring minor cut after minor slash. The half-orc scoffed at the superficial flesh wounds, smiling still, seeming to enjoy the contest.

Then suddenly, he pressed the attack, countering Elec’s blows with invigorated counters of his own, putting Elec on the defensive. His smile broadened and finally he managed to catch Elec off balance, and buried his axe head into Elec’s right forearm, but the elf fought through the pain and retained his grip on
Wyrm’s Fang
.

As he removed the axe from Elec’s flesh, his face suddenly conveyed a look of shock,  for Elec’s elixirs had already gone to work, beginning to seal over the open wound. The bleeding slowed and eventually came to a stop all together.