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Chapter 7
"Yer pipe's smokin'!" Avi declared indignantly, fixing Kole with a glare. "I wanna `elp."
"Absolutely not." Kole stated emphatically. "You're going to stay here and wait for us to come back. And I won't hear any argument on that." He pushed the map into Avi's hands. "Wait a full day, then use that to get yourself home."
Avi opened his mouth to protest again but the look on Kole's face stopped him in his tracks. Elias thought it was noble of Avi to want to follow them into danger, but he didn't think the young boy fully understood just how important and deadly this mission was.
They had walked for most of the morning, following Kole's unwavering sense of direction. But Kole had abruptly stopped to inform them that the hedge of thorns he had mentioned was only about a mile ahead. That was when he informed Avi that he would be accompanying them no further.
Kole was right, Elias could feel that sense of dread and darkness growing. The feeling was almost a sound; a long droning dirge of fear and evil that hung thick over the land. Even the sounds of nature seemed muted, as if the frogs and crickets were afraid as well.
After helping Avi build a small camp and warning him against starting a fire, Kole turned to Elias with a look of determined finality. "Shall we go?"
Swallowing his fear, Elias met the tall man's eyes and gave a single resolute nod.
It felt strange traveling without Avi. Elias found that he had become used to the boy's antics. Although he could be frustrating at times, Avi provided a levity that was sorely missed as the two walked closer and closer to what could be their end.
It was early afternoon when they came in sight of the hedge of thorns. It was even more intimidating than Kole had described. It rose about seven feet high and was constructed of thick living vines that twined around one another to make a solid mass. The thorns ranged in size from small serrated ridges along the vines to long dagger-like spines. No flowering blooms or seed pods could be seen. This was a plant that had no need to reproduce and was sustained entirely by magic.
Even more noticeable than the thorn wall though were the two trees that stood just outside of it; not for any reason of their own but because from each tree hung two bodies, little more than skeletons with scraps of clothing clinging to them. Looking up at the gruesome sight, Elias had a terrible thought. Turning his head to Kole he saw that he was examining the corpses as well.
"Is it...?" Elias couldn't bring himself to voice the question.
Kole was quiet for a moment but then shook his head. "Not him. Unlucky travelers I'd guess."
It was small relief. The display was obviously meant as a warning. A warning the two of them were bound to ignore.
"There must be an entrance or a gate of some kind." Kole reasoned.
Peering curiously at the vines, Elias eventually shook his head. "I don't think so. If they're enchanted and can move, then he can probably rearrange them at will. He doesn't need a gate because he can create one on a whim."
Kole obviously had not considered that. He looked down the seemingly unending wall. "Do you have some magic that will get us through then? I don't think my sword will be much use."
Already Elias was nodding. "I could try and discover the spell he uses to control them and recreate it, but that could take quite some time. Let's try this way first."
Closing his eyes, Elias called on the teachings of his Master Sato. With precision he quickly executed several of the full-body spell-forms of force magic, the specialty of the eastern lands. Finishing his motions, Elias abruptly pushed his hands apart in opposite directions. There was a great snapping and creaking sound as vines separated and were pulled away from one another. The whole wall shuddered like a living thing as a gap appeared and continued to widen.
"Not many people practice force magic." Elias said quietly with a touch of pride. "Most spells are not set up to defend against it."
With Elias holding the two edges of the wall at bay, they cautiously walked through. Elias had been half expecting to be attacked the moment they stepped over the boundary, but nothing happened. Once they were a safe distance away from the thorny vines Elias let his hands drop and very slowly the tangled barrier began to weave itself back together.
Within and only about a hundred yards from where they stood was a small and very simple hut. It was bordering on primitive. Certainly not the kind of place where Elias expected a powerful evil wizard to live. He knew very well however that appearances could be deceiving.
"Be ready." He warned Kole. "There's no telling what kind of traps may have been set."
Kole nodded wordlessly and drew his sword. His face clearly displayed the determination to have his revenge. The evil feeling was thick around them now, testing their resolve with each step they took. The little hut did not look like much, but the aura it emanated left no doubt that this was their target.
The two crept closer, all the while Elias kept his defensive spells on the tip of his tongue to deploy at a moment's notice. Kole's shoulders were tensed and he moved like a great cat ready to pounce.
They neared the building and still nothing happened. Elias thought that surely this powerful wizard must know they were there. Was he toying with them? Trying to lure them into a trap perhaps? They were close now and Elias motioned for Kole to stop.
"Something doesn't seem right." He spoke quietly.
"Nothing about this place seems right." Kole pointed out but then frowned. "True though. Maybe... he's not in?"
Elias pointed to the gentle curl of smoke that emanated from the top of the hut. It certainly appeared that someone was home.
Without thinking to discuss his plan, Elias abruptly cleared his throat. "We are seeking the dark sorcerer that holds sway over these marshes!" He called loudly, breaking the silence. "Show yourself, if you are not afraid." Even as he spoke the words Elias could hear his heart thudding in his ears. He was the one that was afraid, his adrenaline was coursing through him like never before. But he was determined not to show it.
Suddenly the door banged open and a cloud of smoke billowed forth. Elias jumped and Kole moved his sword to a ready stance.
The smoke dissipated quickly though, and a man stumbled out the door and down the three rough steps that took him to the ground, slamming the door behind him. He was a strange looking thing, clad in a ragged dirty robe and very skinny. Tottering uncertainly when he reached the ground, the man finally steadied himself enough to glare at the two of them.
After his initial startled reaction, Elias frowned suspiciously. The man was obviously old and hunched by his age, making him seem quite diminutive. He was entirely bald on top with a ragged unkempt beard and appeared to be covered almost head to toe in dark tattoos.
When finally the odd little man's dark sunken and bloodshot eyes focused on the intruders, he cracked a brown-toothed grin and balanced on one foot then the other.
"We..." He coughed violently. "We knew you were coming!" Suddenly he doubled over in a fit of cackling giggles as if he had made some raucous joke.
Neither of them moved aside from to glance at one another. All the while during their journey Elias had conjured up images in his mind of a dark brooding sorcerer, clad in a robe of black with a menacing and terrifying presence. Maybe even some horns or an army of spirits and ghosts.
If this slight man had ever been that kind of towering pillar of darkness, then those days seemed to be long behind him. Still Elias knew that appearances could be deceiving.
"If you knew we were coming then you must know why we're here!" Elias challenged. The appearance of the sorcerer had boosted his confidence somewhat and his voice was stronger for it.
The old man giggled maniacally before nodding his head, his dirty beard waving around wildly.
"He's completely mad..." Kole spoke what Elias had been thinking.
Hearing this, the man broke down into another loud fit of laughter. "Amarack is not mad! Amarack is first among the Master's servants."
Elias frowned. Amarack did not seem to be first among anything in his current state. First among fools maybe, he thought to himself with a twist of humor.
"We will take what we have come for." Elias declared, taking a step forward. "You would be wise not to hinder us."
Amarack once again hopped back and forth between his feet almost like a dance, swaying dangerously every time. He glared at Elliot, his crazed eyes narrowing. "You want the Darkblade. But you can't have it. The Master says no."
"If this Darkblade is the weapon you are guarding. The weapon to slay the beast in the mountains, your Master, then we will have it." Elias stated firmly. "Do not interfere."
The little man's brow furrowed darkly at Elias's words. Slowly the corners of his mouth turned upward in a grin so full of malice that Elias got his first glimpse of the evil that was harbored within. "You may try." He croaked.
Elias shivered at the sudden change in Amarack's demeanor but steeled himself against it. "Head for the house." He told Kole. "Find the weapon if you can. I can deal with him."
Kole gave an affirmative nod and took two steps toward the hut before freezing in place. "I... can't move..." He grunted with effort but could not take another step.
With a frown, Elias looked back up at Amarack who still watched them with the evil grin across his face. An immobility spell was a very simple thing. Using his own magic, Elias searched for the root of the spell and simply undid it as easily as one might lift the latch on a door. Kole stumbled forward a few steps, suddenly released.
Amarack grumbled in annoyance then abruptly drew a horizontal line in the air with his hand. Vines like the ones that made up the wall they had passed through sprung forth from the ground, growing and expanding rapidly and twining around Kole's ankles. He slashed at them and jumped backwards as they continued to grow.
Elias on the other hand was not impressed. His force magic had served him well once, so he employed it again, using the momentum of his body movements to direct a wave of kinetic energy at the old wizard. The force connected but did not have as much of an effect as Elias had hopped. Amarack stumbled backward and cursed. Obviously, he had some kind of warding that had prevented him from being knocked back and possibly even killed. It was enough to stop the growth of the vines though.
Pressing his advantage, Elias expelled several spurts of bluish flame into the tangle of vines that ate away at them quickly. Amarack was quick for a man of his age though. He recovered his footing and released his own gout of flame directly towards Elias.
Thinking on his feet, Elias used a current of air to redirect the incoming projectile to crash harmlessly into the ground nearby. He had never been in a proper wizard duel before, only practice bouts with other apprentices. Here, the danger was real, and the stakes were his life.
A great rumbling sound began from underneath the little hut and the old wizard grinned and lifted his hands skyward. "Come forth and devour these intruders!" He called in a shrill scream.
The shapes of unfamiliar creatures began to appear crawling from underneath the hut. To Elias's horror, he realized that they were mismatched skeletons of different swamp creatures. Arms, legs, skulls all cobbled together from different animals to form Amarack's monsters. Elias also noticed that there seemed to be a fair amount of human bones there as well.
Each monstrous creature, four of them in total, was surrounded by a purplish haze that Elias knew must be the energy that held them together. If Dain bringing back Tibbs one last time had been the benevolent side of sorcery, then this was in every way its opposite. This was the sorcery that Elias had learned about.
"I'll handle these." Kole held his sword ready. "You take care of him."
Elias nodded. Surprisingly, having Kole at his side brought him much more comfort than he would have thought. Turning back to Amarack Elias decided the time for restraint had ended.
Focusing his mind upward, Elias began weaving the elements together. Creating a lightning strike was a complicated affair that required the exact right combination of elemental forces. Fortunately however, Elias knew what to look for and how to fold the components into one another. In a matter of seconds, Elias used his incantation while drawing one hand downward towards Amarack.
The benefit of taking those precious few seconds to conjure lightning was that it was more difficult to deflect or absorb than other types of elemental spell work. Amarack, who was in the middle of his own incantation, was struck square in the chest by this powerful bolt with a massive clap of thunder.
The old man shrieked and was thrown backward though Elias could tell that even now most of the effect had been dissipated by the sorcerer's wards. Elias heard the high-pitched whistling sound almost too late as three razor thin streams of air came flying towards him from the direction Amarack had been thrown. By sheer luck, Elias dodged the first two. The third ones struck on his shoulder and would have taken his arm off but instead Elias felt the pendant on his chest heating up as its energy drained away. A surge of weariness hit him as well, meaning that the ward pendent with its own reserve was depleted and he was now protected only by his own energy.
Surely however, if he was tiring then an old man like Amarack must be nearing his limit as well. Then again, the old man had been living here in the swamps for an untold amount of time and could have been storing up reserves for years. Elias had not considered that until now and he began to realize that, despite Amarack's non-threatening appearance, he might be outmatched simply by Amarack's ability to outlast him.
Shaking off this sense of dread, Elias spared a glance at Kole. The big swordsman was giving ground to the skeletal creatures, parrying claw swipes and dodging around their clunky attacks as fast as he could. There were three of them left, one pile of bones sat in the grass unmoving. That meant that at least they could be stopped, but would Kole last long enough to defeat them all?
The old sorcerer shouted a hysterical incantation and Elias realized what he was casting just a moment too late. He felt his feet sinking into the ground as the solid earth around him turned into a sludge and mud pit, quickly miring him in place. Looking over, Elias saw that Kole was similarly affected, sinking in almost to his knees. In one minor stroke of luck however, the monsters he was battling were also becoming bogged down in the mud.
Elias knew it must take a large amount of power to cover such a wide area with a spell like that. This only reinforced his fear that Amarack had large reserves of energy stashed up over the years. Frantically, Elias worked to counteract the spell on the ground, focusing only on the area around his feet and around Kole's to conserve his strength.
With another maniacal laugh, Amarack fired off two more deadly scythes of wind at Elias. The first one, even from his trapped position, Elias was able to duck under. The second he forced to one side, using still more of his precious reserves. Finally, however, he was able to solidify the ground around him just enough to step up out of the muck. Kole was able to do the same, stepping back from the thrashing skeleton monsters that were still trapped in Amarack's spell.
"Your bones will add to my collection!" Amarack cackled gleefully. Turning slowly in a surprisingly fluid dance-like motion, he abruptly thrust both hands toward Elias, executing the distinctive forms of force magic. Elias realized he had sorely underestimated his opponent. The rare practice of force magic had been something of an ace in the hole for him, but it seemed that Amarack was prepared to match him even in that.
He weathered Amarack's blast but dropped to one knee, feeling his head swimming. Drawing energy from the sparce plant life around him, he stood once more. "Get out of here!" He yelled to Kole. "I'll hold him as long as I can."
Elias saw the brief flash of surprise in Kole's eyes, but they immediately hardened to stubborn resolve. Moving closer, he clamped a big hand around Elias's wrist and gave him a single nod.
Understanding dawned on Elias and he accepted the wordless contract. Closing his eyes, he drew strength from the warrior beside him, feeling it revitalize him. With his face clenched in concentration, Elias called on the simplest and fastest spell he could muster.
Roughly fist-sized fireballs shot from one hand then the other, then again and again in a rapid-fire barrage intended to overwhelm and prevent retaliation. One after another, they burst on Amarack's wards or were redirected by the old wizard, but Elias did not give up. He continued throwing bolt after bolt. Smoke began to fill the air.
Elias could feel Kole's strength flagging as well now. Even the stalwart fighter had his limits. It appeared that after all, the evil sorcerer would resist the onslaught.
The door to the hut banged open and a blur of movement shot out from within. Elias was so shocked to see the tell-tale dirty blonde hair pulled back into a short tail that his spell casting ceased instantly. Avi had appeared somehow from within the wizard's hut and was now barreling out across the grass, paying no attention to where he was going.
"Wait!" The small boy cried out to someone. "I can't keep up!"
Elias, Kole, and Amarack were all equally surprised by the sudden intrusion. Even more so however when Avi, lost in his own world, sprinted headlong right into the frail old sorcerer.
Even as small as he was, running at full tilt he caused quite the collision. And to say that Amarack was not expecting this dirty and disheveled projectile would be an understatement. The old man stumbled heavily, his wild eyes widening in shock and anger.
A momentary flash of inspiration struck Elias as the sorcerer struggled to keep his feet. Pulling just a bit more energy from Kole he thrust out his hand quickly, sending a slender lance of condensed air racing towards the startled Amarack.
The thin blast found its target on Amarack's chest and the wizard shrieked as it pierced him through and through. The cry chilled Elias, who had never ended a man's life before. Even justified, the sound shook him from deep within.
Quickly, the bone creatures began to fall to pieces. The ground around them firmed up again. Avi stumbled backwards looking in shock and horror between Amarack and Elias and Kole. The old sorcerer sank to his knees then fell to his back on the ground, not immediately expired but with his life draining away into the earth.
Kole rushed over to pull Avi away and Elias followed more slowly still swaying unsteadily on his feet. Gasping for his last breaths Amarack's dark eyes bounced between the three of them. A sudden look of clarity came over them, as if facing his own death had finally penetrated the madness that had sunken in over the solitary years.
"Master!" He cried in a rasping voice. "Your enemies... are upon you!" With great effort he spat at Elias's feet. "Hasten your awakening! Devour them!" With this final curse, Amarack's breath rattled in his chest and his eyes went cold and sightless.
Elias jumped back in surprise when Amarack's body seemed to dissolve into a haze of purple. It did not decay or rot away but seemed to simply fade and disappear with a dark evil-looking glow. Some contracts, Elias reasoned, required payment after death. He shuddered at the thought.
They had no time for any self-congratulation, however. As soon as Amarack's body was gone, the entire hut seemed to catch fire at once. It must have been a failsafe meant to stop them even in victory.
"The weapon!" Elias shouted, dashing into the burning hut without a second thought. His panic provided a sudden surge of energy. He was not prepared to come this close only to have their goal snatched away at the last moment.
Even only seconds after catching fire, the hut was beginning to fill with smoke. Crouching low, he moved through the small building. Luckily it was not difficult to locate his prize. There was a glass case at the far end with a slim two-foot blade resting on a purple cushion. That had to be it. Elias knew that he did not dare risk casting a spell to break the glass and possibly end up passed out on the floor of this doomed structure. Tearing a piece of his shirt he wrapped his hand as best he could and smashed the glass with his fist. He felt it cut him but he did not care. He snatched the weapon up and then saw that there was a thin leather-bound tome resting underneath. Grabbing that as well, he stumbled back to the door just in time for Kole to come bursting through.
The big man grabbed Elias by the collar and hauled him out of the burning building into the fresh air where Elias collapsed onto the ground choking and coughing. Kole sank to his knees then lay down as well, both of them heaving with exhaustion.
As Elias lay there on the ground, he expected some profound sense of relief to wash over him. They had conquered the first challenge, defeating the sorcerer and saved the weapon they needed to continue their quest. The evil surrounding the swamps should be fading. Yet it did not seem to be. If anything, it seemed stronger now than ever before.
A dark thought struck Elias. Amarack's final words rang in his head. What if the monster in the mountains had heard them as well? What if it had sensed its servant's demise? This wickedness could be a sign that their time was running out. With a groan, he pushed himself to his feet again. The thorny barrier that had surrounded the area as a high wall before now lay in a disheveled heap around the perimeter. It would be easy to cut through now that the enchantment was dead.
"Where the hell did you come from?" Kole demanded of Avi when he finally was able to stand as well. The smoke from the burning hut behind them plumed high into the sky, providing an easy beacon for any that might be watching. Elias worried about that as well.
Avi balked at Kole's tone and looked down at the ground. "I was jus' followin' Tibbs..." He mumbled lamely. "I didn't even know you was `ere. Honest."
"Tibbs is gone, Avi." Kole answered quickly. His tone was more cutting than he had obviously intended. Avi gave him a sulky look and shook his head vigorously.
"No, she's not! Maybe you can't see er no more but I can." He pointed to the burning house. "We found the other door round back. Then we lifted this." Avi proudly produced a small book from under his shirt. It had a red cover with fancy golden inlay.
Elias recognized the book even before he peered at the title. "Tales of the Five Kingdoms: The Binding of Kordiith." It was a volume in a series on Five Kingdoms mythology that Elias had read when he was younger. They could be found all over and had little value but Avi's thieving eyes had been drawn to the shiny lettering and fancy designs.
"Avi, you can't read." Kole reminded, more gently this time.
Avi shrugged. "So? It's got pictures, innit?" He opened the book and flipped through several pages to show the beautiful illustrations that made the series so popular.
"It's an old myth about one of the old gods." Elias explained. "Kordiith was bound and imprisoned by the other gods so that he couldn't destroy the world."
As he spoke, another terrifying prospect occurred to him. Could the Master that Amarack spoke of be Kordiith himself? An ancient god of evil. It seemed preposterous. Elias thought he surely had to be grasping at straws. That volume was the last of the collection so Avi must have simply grabbed it off a shelf due to its convenient location.
It did not matter, Elias realized as he gathered his resolve. Even if their quest was to slay the most ancient of evils, one that was supposed to exist only in legend, he would not falter. He was chosen, and he was beginning to discover that it was a title he needed to live up to. The quest so far had tested his abilities but now they had the Darkblade. Now they had everything they needed, come what may.