Fate Rides Wicked: Volume I of the Lerilon Trilogy (26 page)

“Commander, do you realize the King has a standing
order to keep devil races and mountain trolls out of the
city?” The soldier flew backwards off of the man’s fist.

“I know the laws, lad, and you’ll know garbage duty for
a week. I have been stationed at this lowly post but I still
out rank you.” He turned to the expedition after giving the
other two a ‘don’t even think about it’ look. “Now,
identify yourselves, and explain how you managed to even
get this far. The king does not take kindly to other races.”

“Captain Contoro told us as much,” answered Tych.
“After we saved fifteen Efrenbont soldiers and the Captain
himself, he told us we would face the resistance of
prejudice. I do, however, see the glimmer of trust in your
eyes and perhaps you need the assurances of a knight.”

Taking this as an impromptu cue, Xalt emerged from
the group and rode forward. “I am a knight of Polentair,
servant of Frentera. I feel it would be in the king’s best
interest to listen to this man.”

The Commander turned to the three soldiers and
ordered, “Go meet the returning scouts.” The men
hesitated for a moment to ponder further action, but then
started off towards the center of the valley, where the
scouts the expedition had saved from ambush had reached
by this point. Once the soldiers could no longer hear them,
the man turned to Tych and said, “I am Commander Ecktor
of Efrenbont. Please dismount and leave your horses here,
since no horses are allowed in the city if not attached to a
wagon, and the merchants hate that because they also have
to clean up the resulting mess themselves.” With a low,
rolling laugh he added, “Follow me, I’ll take you to the
castle.”

The expedition dismounted, but before anybody could
take the horses, they sped off into the valley to rendezvous
with the pemilons. The humans surrounded the others as
much as they could and they followed Ecktor up the clean
cobblestone street to the castle at the top of the hill.
Several times Ecktor had to quell resistance to the
enchanted races, and each time he sent the soldiers on
minute missions as far away from the castle as possible.
Derisive comments rained down on them from the evergrowing
crowds out to watch them. The word of their
arrival traveled in front of them, until it beat them to the
castle.

They were met by a riled up mob at the majestic gates
to the castle. One man stood above the rest on an old crate,
leading them. When the expedition reached them, he
turned and pointed a long arm at them. “See, they have no
blood like you and I. Their faces are pale with absolutely
no color. And look at the mountain races,” he shouted,
“they cannot grow any taller and they always look like they
have just stepped out of a hole!”

The Commander burst out laughing and silence fell.
For a long moment the crowd stood quiet, for Commander
Ecktor held respect among the townspeople for the battles
he had won. Finally, a person in the crowd yelled, “Why
do you mock him, Ecktor, you old fool?”

Still laughing, Ecktor stuttered, “Because even though
you know absolutely nothing about any of these people
before you, or their races, you think you can stand there
and pour your derision upon them.” He had stopped
laughing and made his way to the crate. With a glare he
made the speaker step down and he climbed up himself.
“The daril races, or devil races as you bigots call them,
fight the same enemy we do, the forangen, and the neftir
live in the mountains and also fight the xadineft, creatures
so dangerous that no kingdoms try to claim the mountains.
Would you not say that beings that fight evil and are the
targets of evil are good?”

The mood in the crowd had calmed, but before the
Commander could continue, a dark shadow passed
overhead. Women began to scream as the crowd and
expedition turned to look up. A demon over twenty feet
tall and with wings a third again as wide circled over the
city. Soldiers came to the castle walls and readied bows.
The civilians scattered for cover. Tych and the others drew
weapons.

Suddenly, the demon spotted Tych and swooped down
into a dive. Ten missiles left the bows of the expedition
members. Nine hit but the demon kept coming. Reichet
rushed forward and swung his huge battle-axe. It cleaved
deep into the shoulder of the beast but it only veered off
into the sky for another run. After seeing the dark red skin
and long horns, the soldiers on the wall quaked in fear. A
cone of flame left the demon’s mouth as he rose and ten
humans fell from the wall, toasted to a crisp, though some
recipients of the flame suffered only minor burns.

Tych sheathed Gaylin and ran to one of the buildings.
He ran inside and up the stairs, bumping into a man at the
top. “Is there a way to the roof?” he shouted.

The man paused for a moment then said, “This way,”
and led him down the hallway to the end. He reached up
and pulled a string. A telescoping ladder fell to the floor
from a trapdoor to the roof. Tych scrambled up and
searched the sky for the demon. As he had hoped, the beast
had committed to another run. Drawing Gaylin, the warrior
ran towards the edge of the roof. As the demon swooped
below the level of the roof, Tych caught a glimpse of
Aquendar and Reichet raising their huge blades and
jumped.

He drove Gaylin deep into the beast’s back and hung
onto the handle for life. This time the flame cone was
aimed at the expedition, but Nandel and Quez had already
put up a magical shield designed to resist breath weapons.
The blades of the expedition cut into the belly of the
demon, which screamed from the triple agony of Gaylin,
the ineffective breath weapon and being turned into a
pincushion. The evil creature veered up and took a barrage
of arrows from the soldiers on the wall.

Aquendar noticed Tych on the beast’s back first and
turned to look at Lendril. Her hand went up to her mouth
in surprise and fear. The demon rolled to try to shake his
tormentor but Tych had already placed a dagger under one
of the scales and held on. Confused and angry, the demon
decided to climb. Soon he left the vision of the expedition.

Tych wanted to smack himself for being stupid enough
to jump on the back of a flying creature four times his
height and ten times his weight. With the leverage of the
dagger, he strained and pushed Gaylin in to the hilt.
Holding onto this firmer stake, he pulled his dagger free
and pulled himself towards the demon’s head. Planting this
as deep as possible, he let go of Gaylin and took another
dagger from his belt. He climbed more towards the
demon’s head and drove this new one deep. He repeated
this several times until he hung just below the neck of the
beast, Gaylin’s hilt just below his feet.

In a desperate gamble, Tych plunged a dagger into each
side of the demon’s head, just behind the horns. Like
handles he used the hilts to steer the direction of the huge
creature. He pushed down and then turned sideways. The
demon reacted and for a moment he rejoiced that his
gambit had worked. He forced the demon into long
sweeping circles towards the ground and he realized that
they flew above the clouds.

When they plunged through the moisture, the topmost
spire of the castle seemed incredibly close. Tych forced the
demon towards the courtyard. He could see people
running, trying to get out of the way, but what caught his
eye was the tall, powerful man wearing a crown and royal
gowns. The endaril pushed down on the hilts and the beast
raced towards the cobblestone ground. At the last possible
moment, he yanked back on the daggers, both freeing them
and pulling the demon’s path back up.

The prince slid down to Gaylin, threw a dagger at the
wing of his prey and grabbed hold of his sword. As he had
hoped, the combined damage to the wing and the speed of
the descent made it impossible for the demon to avoid
slamming into the hard surface. The body of his opponent
eased Tych’s landing and he stood up as he drew his sword
from its back. The stunned demon tried to stand but
couldn’t, so it collapsed back to its belly and lay in the
courtyard.

Tych jumped off next to its head and turned to face it.
With a yell he charged and drove Gaylin between the eyes
of the demon. He held on as the beast tried momentarily to
struggle. Suddenly, somebody yelled they should run, that
the demon would surely explode. Nobody moved, but the
demon didn’t explode either. Instead, bright light
surrounded Tych and the visible part of his sword.

Loud singing bounced off the walls and soon the demon
began to fade from the vision of the watchers as it became
enveloped by the glow. At this moment Tych realized the
power of Gaylin and how it would serve him, because as it
drank the incredible amounts of evil energy present in the
demon, it converted it to good energy, which slowly ate at
the beast and prevented it from exploding. After a few
moments the glow grew smaller and smaller and then
vanished.

The crowd gasped in amazement. Only Tych remained,
standing in front of the dent from the demon, holding
Gaylin out in front of himself. With patient confidence, he
slowly slid the sword back into its scabbard. Ecktor strode
into the gates, leading the rest of the expedition. Lendril
came to stand next to her lover and the rest of the group
took places on either side of him.

The crowned man stepped out from among his guards
as Ecktor came forward. “What is this, Ecktor?”

In apparent brash disregard for his place, the
Commander responded, “Just as you saw, Sey, this endaril
singlehandedly defeated a demon with bravery, cunning
and incredible power. Now can you regard them as evil.”

“Not since our days as children have you spoken to me
like this and expressed your opinion.” The crowd had
stopped breathing. “I am glad you have done so, for I have
longed to have your counsel again. Come, stand beside me
and advise me as to how to respond to this warrior.”

The crowd stifled a cheer, but some slipped off and left
the city for the north. Ecktor walked up to stand next to his
king, and his best childhood friend. “Speak your mind,
endaril, for what purpose do you call this audience?”

“As you have seen, I possess some special skills.”

“Get to the point. I have seen that you are a great
warrior and I respect that. Don’t ruin it by speaking too
much. That I do not hold in high regard.”

“I am assembling an army made up of all the armies of
the continent of Li. I want to add yours to it.” At first, the
king turned red with fury, but Ecktor whispered in his ear
for a moment and he seemed to calm.

When the counseling ended, the King turned to Tych.
“They are yours, but they will not join your army until I
deem it is time. I also assume this means the armies of
Unlo and Rambestar will be using my kingdom as a road?”

“Most likely, but I can accept your terms. The army
marches on Rangdor’s hordes one week after the feast of
growth next year. I must have them by then. The army
gathers in the field of scars which lies just southeast of the
main pass to the valley of darkness. Thank you for your
patience, Your Majesty. May you live a long life.” The
king nodded, turned and entered the door to the castle.

Tych spun and headed out the castle gates. About fifty
feet down the street, he stopped. “Where is Aquendar?”
Everybody looked around, but the man would have been
hard to miss. “He slipped off somewhere.”

Lendril said, “We were in the midst of battle with him,
then you jumped the demon and I don’t remember seeing
him since. I wonder where he went.”

“We’ll walk to the gates, then maybe he’ll join us.”

They did just that, but still, Aquendar had not appeared.
Tych frowned. “We can’t stay here. There is too much
hostility towards us. He will have to find the group.”

“We can’t leave him behind,” protested Ofeldar.

“The safety and reputation of this expedition is more
important than one man. I have a feeling he will find us, if
not soon, then tonight.” Tych stepped through the gates
and the others followed. They began walking southeast
towards the border of Unlo. As they neared the middle of
the valley, Tych let out a shrill whistle and stopped. In a
few moments the horses appeared, led by Ubilitare and
Flandroke. The expedition mounted, sent one horse
towards the city, and took off at their usual breakneck
speed. By night they could see the edge of the great forest
that marked Unlo’s border with Efrenbont and they stopped
to set up camp.

With a thunderous roar, Fear charged into the camp.
The humans leapt to their feet, wearing only robes and
wielding only staves. They stood ready for his visit,
meditating on it moments before. The rest of the thirteen
followed close behind. Battle began and much to the
chagrin of the evil demigods, the monks resisted very well.
Their spells rarely worked and the emotions they projected
never helped, so well disciplined were the minds of these
men.

Several of the monks did die horrible deaths, but the
humans more often hit the thirteen with various destructive
powers reserved to their teaching. So badly did the combat
go for the thirteen that they slunk off in careful retreat after
only a short time. They could not get used to fighting
without the use of the fear and prejudice they spread. Still,
they would be back to kill a few more. If the mental
strength of these monks spread too far, they knew their
powers would serve them little.

The mountain monks on the other hand, knew that a
day of revenge would come. Patience had always proved
to be a strong suit for them, and they waited for the perfect
time, knowing it would come. They would bury their dead
and go back to their training, grief dealt with in private and
with control.