The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (54 page)

“
Althuz gulfierus todrotos Yjaros ethes Gimmor camfiers altavas de uthgeas zirr. Ethes mowierre ogast jre
, Thalanaxe
.”

“What did, why is, who said that and what in the hells did it mean?!” Zen scrambled to put away the box, carefully but quick, then grabbed his shield and hammer. He was not afraid of it, h
e was ang
ry it was in his mines and did not speak dwarven.
He walked a few feet inside and stared at the darkness.

“I have never heard that language, but it was creepy indeed, and it looks like we have company.” Shinayne pointed with Carice and Elicras as something, many things, were dropping out of those black clouds into the ruins
, perhaps a mile or two north
.

“I know what it said, but I am not going to tell you.” Saberrak looked to the strange winged black things that were drifting down, the ones the elf was pointing at.

“I would argue that you do not, as I speak nearly every known tongue, but, you are the
chosen
one. Another reason I do not worship, their judgement up there is a bit,
off
.” Gwenne patted Saberrak on the shoulder with her dry remarks
. “So, horned one, what language and what did it say?”

“It was Gimmorian, the language of the green moon. How I understand it, I do not know.” Saberrak huffed, he was used to Gwenne’s taunts and jealously guarded intelligence. She hated it if anyone knew something she did not, so he tolerated her comments easily.

“What did it say, Saberrak?” James drew his blade and watched the winged forms start to circle low through the ruins, as if they were hawks on the hunt. Many hawks.

“It said
,
you have dared betray the immortal laws of God and Gimmor, now you will be judged and burned alive for your b
lasphemy. I sentence you to die. T
hat’s all.” Saberrak huffed, and walked in .

“It said me name, minotaur. It said
Thalanaxe
at the end. Ye’ forgot that part.” He corrected.

“Yes she did, it seems she knows who is coming to kill her
.
” Saberrak stared down past his tattooes and nose, right at Zen.
“Scared?”

“
Aye,
s
he had better be
scare
d,
scared
o’ me
that is.
”
Azenairk chuckled, and waved his warhammer for the rest fo follow him.

“That’s what a minotaur likes to hear.” Saberrak huffed, smiling wide, and sniffing the empty air of this forgotten place.
He slapped Zen on the back and followed him
in
.

“Before we go in though, let’s agree to meet down there, the secret door to that water temple place. In case we get separated then.” Zen turned and nodded to the others.

“Agreed. Shall we?” Gwenneth smiled and gestured toward the dark passage.

“Better hurry, those things are getting closer.” James glanced behind them as Shinayne and Gwenne entered. He squinted, just about to sheath his blade, and suddenly they disappeared below the ledge
an out of sight
, into the ruins. The knight of Southwind peered over the edge of the plateau. “No time, they’re here!”

“Where?” Shinayne was on guard, both blades ready, her stance low.

“Coming up the rock face, flying fast!”

“What are they?!” Gwenneth focused her arcane energies, making her skin hard as iron.

James went to say it, just as they rose over the edge. Flapping wings beat with their shrieks and howls, their black skin and ruby eyes gave their nature away, as did their barbed tails. Standing as tall as Saberrak, covered in black dripping blood over their emaciated tight flesh, the horde of fanged creatures pointed their smoldering claws at the five th
at dared enter the cursed mines and screamed in unison.

“
Demons,
Alden save us
, there are hundreds of them.” James saluted with his blade and readied his ancient shield.

“Tandorial demons, to be precise.
I have never seen one so big, but they are f
rom the infernal realms of Nirakas, I have dealt---“ Gwenneth was cut off.

“Then button it and send them back to where they came from, wizard!” Saberrak passed by Gwenneth, axes in hand as the mass of black winged and curly horned avians landed on the plateau.

“This be my set o’ doors, demons! Time for dwarven justice!” Zen ran ahead of Gwenne, slammed his hammer to the stone, and chanted loud as golden light ripped from his presented shield and into a screeching demon.
“Vastri uth um davunda
!”

Shinayne rolled under the beam of holy light incinerating one
after another of the
demon
s
and came up between three more
.
She felt the heat from their claws, their hot breath foul with rot, and crimson flaming eyes with no pupils glared at her. Carice gla
red back as it cut through its
flesh as if it were parchment. Elicras answered to her right, two quick thrusts into another, then she spun. Carice went high, her shortblade low, each cleaving through demonic flesh as ash
es
erupted and bloody screams echoed off the edge they fell from.
Five Tandorial demons felt the swords of the whitemoon take their unholy lives.
She cast a quick look to her
now shimmering
blades, amazed at how easily they cut through these enemies, then continued her grinning dance of steel.

James led with his shield, he felt the claws rake across it, then cut
fast
horizontal across the top
. His hand was ignited with silent blue flame, it inched up the length of his broadsword, and the head of the demon over him fell clea
n off. Blood of hot black
and ash erupted from the neck, showering him and turning his stomach with the smell.
James turned to his right, plunging
into
another, then left and cleaved the arm from a screeching fiend. He spun, blocking the
snapping barbed tail of the
beast with his shield, and landing his blue glowing steel into its ribs. The demon exploded all over him, forcing him
to
back up and stifle his rising vomit. Still, the knight of Chazzrynn slashed at his swarm of fiends, his blade taking heads and appendages as more landed on the plateau than they were killing.

Right between twirling Shinayne and withdrawing James, came a hulking gray mass. Saberrak Ag
rannar lowered his horns, dove into four demons, and ended
his roll not ten feet from the edge of a five hundred foot drop to the ruins below. They swarmed him, his scalemail armor raked with claws, he was buried so deep his friends could not tell where he was.

Snap, pop, screech, crack, sploosh, hiss, shriek, clang, Oohrrooaaahrrr!

Six or more demons launched in every direction
with his savage roar
, most of them with arms and heads twisted into painful postitions. Saberrak stood in the middle, surrounded by at least ten more, and his greataxes spun round once. First into his right, a brutal chop into black flesh took off a horned head. Then his left swung ahead vertically and cleaved into the chest of another demon, it was impaled.
The gladiator cleaved it off below the waist, then used the upper torso on his axe as a club. He began smashing it into more demons until it fell off and disintegrated. More came, and he whipped his arms out at full length, killing two more as he marched to cover James.
Another pair charged, their bodies were cut from groin to neck, then beheaded.
Three more dove from above, and he jumped up and came down with two
more piles of smoldering demon on the edge of each greataxe
. The third grabbed hold of his horns, raked his
muscled
neck, and blood poured out as it burned its claws into gray flesh. Saberrak dropped an axe, grabbed it by the throat, and squeezed so hard the head burst with black gore and fiery blood.

Zen had four reach him, his warhammer was aglow with the same light he had unleashed with his shield. Blow after blow, while not killing them outright, he stunned them with his attacks and the light that seemed to burn their flesh. As he knocked on
e back, J
ames finished it with his blade. When one got close, the knight blocked its path and Zen took out its legs with his warhammer. One by one, the dwarf and the knight
fought back to back, and held their ground as the unholy bodies mounted around them.

Gwenneth was finally ready, she had chanted the incantation three times perfectly, and as quietly as she could. She had only done this once before, never in combat, and never empowered to affect so many. Thr
ee tandorial demons were flying straight
for her, having gotten past Shinayne and Saberrak, she had little time. She saw at least one hundred fifty more, swarming above, circling the plateau, trying to find room to land. She smiled wickedly, and her staff flashed green from the emerald.

“Othiortes de manthu vushra vin duarte sembren Nirakas deth tandorial estre!”

Screams of countless demons in excrutiating pain made everyone stop and cover their ears. The eyes of the fiends burst with black blood, their bodies eroding rapidly with ash, and a deep red swirling glow began to hum and emnate from ea
c
h of their chests. They fell from the sky, turned to flee, and crawled across the sandstone as fast as they could. It was too late. Their horrid faces showed fear, terror even. Gwenneth’s hair whipped in all directions, her arms raised, and she pointed with her hand as her eyes went white and flashed with her final words.

“
Uthartes mog mintarre
exilius
!”

Suddenly they burst, all of them, into the swirling fires that they had come from. Consumed with arcane banishment to the netherworlds, the demons screamed out at once, and were gone and silent the next moment. Nothing but ash remained, and even that blew away with the winds over Mooncrest.
She lowered back to the ground, a trickle of sweat rolling down from her forehead, and she smiled.

Saberrak turned to her, with no enemy to fight, and just stared. James and Zen did the same, in awe at what she had just done. Shinayne smiled back, sheathed her blades, and walked up to Gwenneth.

“I was just starting to have fun there. Nice work, lady of Lazlette. Most impressive.”

“Took you long enough.” Saberrak huffed, then knelt down to let James place
his healing hand on his blood pouring
neck.

“By Vundren’s left ear, that was…somethin’.” Azenairk walked past James and Saberrak, noting the blood covered scalemail of the minotaur, and also that it was more blood than any dwarf likely held inside. He shook his head. “Thank ye’
Vundren for giving me such
mighty friends.”

James held his hand in place until the cuts were but faint scratches, it took perhaps a minute. He remembered in his youth that something like this would take hours of concentration to heal. He looked up to Gwenneth, smiled, but he was still in mild shock over her powers compared to his own.
He shook
his head as Saberrak stood, and
turned to take one last look to the ruins before they went inside.

“Everyone, how fast can we get those doors shut?” James was walking backwards.

“Why, you see…
oh Siril
…” Shinayne turned to James and let a small gasp escape her lips. Countless, thousands for certain, more winged forms of black began falling from the black clouds over the ruins as laughter slowly rolled in whispers from deep inside the mines.

They all saw it, no one said anything, and they ran inside as the swarm of flying demons began to cloud the gray skies and block out even the black cloud they had come from. Saberrak and James pulled on the left handle, inching the two foot thick door shut. Zen, Gwenneth, and Shinayne pulled on the right. Grunting, struggling, the left door closed with a slam of golden metal.

Screeching and shrieks of hellborne creatures rose over the plateau, then all went dark. The light of the cursed place was blocked, and the five pulled together on the right door as nothing but countless red flaming eyes shone outside.

Slam!

The doors were closed, the handles on the inside pulled tight. Saberrak breathed out finally, in the black of this place, he could hear his friends breathing but saw nothing.

Scrape, smack, smack, shriek, hiss, smack…

“Light, we need light Gwenneth!”
Zen shouted.

The entry chamber glowed with bright green from her emerald atop the staff of Imoch. They backed up from the door, hearing the horde of Tandorial demons assault it. Then they looked to the ground.

Scrape, scrape..

Hair by hair, inch by inch, the doors were being pulled open. They all lurched ahead and grabbed the handles once more, pulling against the demons on the other side.