Legends of Marithia: Book 2 - Darkness Rising (10 page)

“
I agree with their terms,
please send my agreement to the Valdorians. They will have their
Jade,” said the dragon king.

Chapter 7 : Changing
faces

“
How long does it take for
us to realise the consequences of our mistakes?

It has been too many years since that
day, shortly after She’Ma’Ryn had just been completed. We were
tricked; unaware of the infestation we had allowed into
Marithia.

The council never forgets their errors,
and it was through their foolishness that the vampire king and
queen entered Marithia.”

(King Karven of Dragons)

The sound of thunder filled the sky as
if the gods repeatedly struck divine drums beyond the thick grey
clouds. Small droplets of rain descended from far above the forest
canopy. Greenhaven’s silhouette on the horizon gradually blurred
through the falling water.

The droplets continued their fated
path a leaf at a time, until they finally fell free. Below them lay
the body of a man, spread out on his back within long blades of
green grass. Near the body were patches of scorched grass and
abandoned clothes. The droplets fell heavily on his cold skin,
waking him from his involuntary slumber.

By the gods, where am
I?
Tusdar thought. He sat up slowly,
attempting to clear his vision with the course palms of his hands,
but his view remained foggy and blurred.

Confused, he tried to remember his
most recent memory. The last thing he recalled was he and Vartan
riding on the back of the dragon queen, Nymira. They landed at
Vartan’s family farm and Tusdar was tasked with searching the area
surrounding them.

He shuddered when he remembered what
happened next. They were so fast, those creatures of the night.
Vampires had snatched him before he had the chance to defend
himself, but he did get the opportunity to scream for help before
he was roughly muffled with a bloody rag. Instinctively, he reached
for his throat in a fit of panic as he remembered the sharp, cold
steal sliding across his neck, slicing it open as if he were cattle
for slaughter.

Feeling nothing but closed flesh, his
nerves calmed and the confusion returned.

How could that be? The
vampire slit my throat and I choked on my own blood,
he thought.

Unsteadily rising to his feet, Tusdar
was further confused by what surrounded him under the dark shade of
the forest canopy. His body felt weaker than it ever had before and
he staggered toward the forest edge. He barely made out a shining
dim light in the distance.

A soft voice far above his ears said,
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Tusdar fumbled around his hip for his
sword, but there was only an empty sheath there.

He tried looking into the swaying
branches above him, but everything was a mix of blurry colours.
Shaking his head, he growled, “Damn the gods, who said
that?”

The woman laughed and
Tusdar heard a thud and crunching of dead leaves as someone,
or
something
,
landed behind him. Tusdar made a feeble attempt to spin around and
throw a useless blow at whatever awaited him.

A woman caught Tusdar’s fist in the
palm of her hand with ease and returned with a hard shove to
Tusdar’s chest. He collided with a tree trunk some distance away,
and fell to his rear in pain.

“
Never try that again, even
if you are sick and weak, I don’t take kindly to
anyone
attempting to
take a hand to me,” she snapped.

“
And… it’s not very nice
for you to attack the woman who saved your life.” she
continued.

“
Saved my life?” began
Tusdar, “Why can’t I see anything? I can barely make out your
face.”

The woman spoke firmly, “Your vision
will return to you, once you feed.”

Tusdar laughed and said
cheerfully, “Feed?
Feed
is a word only used to describe animals
and…”

His face turned serious as he reached
to his neck with trembling hands, feeling around until he found the
marks of a vampire bite near his spine.

“
Yes, you are now one of
us,” said the woman.

His face turned pale as the moon as he
realised and exclaimed, “By the gods, no!”

Her next words were furiously spat
out, “No? Without our powers, your wounds would have never healed!
Would you have preferred that I let you die?”

Drawing the sword from her hip, she
pointed it at his chest and pressed in hard.

“
If death is truly what
your heart wishes for, then I would be willing to take away what I
have given you and grant you your request,” she growled.

“
No,
no
, of course not… please, I am just
. . . surprised by this,” he replied. “Thank you, for saving my
life… I—I appreciate it.”

Sheathing her sword, she helped Tusdar
to his feet and dusted off his clothes.

“
Now, that is more like it.
Showing gratitude to your master is a far more appropriate
response,” she said, smiling gleefully.

Sliding up her sleeve, she pulled out
a dagger from her vest and moaned sensually as she sliced her own
wrist open. Putting one hand on his head, she forced her wrist into
his mouth and vampire blood poured over his tongue.

Tusdar thought he was going to be
sick, but instead, the taste excited him and his hunger overcame
his disgust. Swallowing her thick blood, he groaned with
pleasure.

She stroked his head like a
pet as he continued to feed and spoke affectionately, “Take only as
much as I let you, but it will be as much as you need. I am Mestal,
a master of our kind and you are now mine. I will look after you.
You
will
learn to
feed and how to use your new powers.”

During his feeding, Tusdar’s vision
cleared. He looked up to see Mestal’s face before him. Her body was
muscular and had strong features, but her face was feminine and
seductive.

Reading his eyes and licking her lips,
Mestal smiled to reveal her fangs.

“
Always stay under the
protection of the forest canopy as stepping out into the light,
even for a short moment, can kill you. After we hunt for a fresh
feed and are safe again, there will be plenty of time to enjoy each
other’s… company. I will show you pleasures that you have only
dreamed of,” she purred.

The underworld realm pulsed with
activity. Shindar’s army trained tirelessly and the air surrounding
their tower was filled with the sounds of skeleton warriors and
shadow demons training in the arts of combat.

To any Marithian who had seen the
underworld, it resembled a decayed mirror of Marithia as they knew
it; familiar to the eye, but it painted a dark picture of fear in
the heart of the beholder.

Kassina walked the grounds with
Shindar close to her side. In the past few weeks, she recovered her
strength and she felt stronger than ever. As her strength grew, so
grew her impatience.

The captured souls that were
reanimated in the underworld filled the prison towers. The poor
souls within were set to work with minimal rations, creating
weapons and armour. If anyone refused to work, they were brutally
tortured to set an example for others to not dare complain. If they
still refused to follow orders, they were reduced to blood slaves
to feed the vampires of the underworld. The worst dissentients
became target practice for Shindar’s army. Shindar figured that
letting those souls return to be reborn in Marithia posed as a way
to weaken his adversaries.

Surrounded by the thousands of
skeleton warriors and shadow demons, Kassina felt ready for a
chance to avenge her defeat at the Battle of the Elven
Woods.

Kassina pleaded desperately
to her master, “Shindar, let me back into Marithia now and I
will
never
disappoint you again.”

He touched her on the shoulder
reassuringly, taking great care not to belittle her in front of his
armies.

“
In due time my girl, in
due time. First, we have magic of the highest order to study
together, and our forces are not yet ready for an invasion,” he
answered.

Kassina let out a grunt of
disapproval.

Careful not to invoke his wrath for
challenging him, she quickly said, “As you wish,
Shindar.”

“
Are you bored my dear?
There are scriptures we haven’t even begun to explore yet. Our
monks have discovered new spells that will serve to strike terror
into the hearts of our enemies,” said Shindar proudly.

“
Oh really?” she asked,
cocking her eyebrow and speaking sarcastically, “Show me something
that I have not seen before that is
so
impressive.”

He smirked, stopping in his tracks and
retorted. “You challenge me?”

His voice then boomed over the land
and filled the ears of his army, “Clear the west grounds! Only
thirteen warriors are to remain.”

Shrieks filled the air as skeleton
warriors as far as the eye could see scattered from the training
grounds. The requested number of skeleton warriors remained in the
centre of the large dirt circle, their gaze darting from side to
side; fearful of what was to come.

Shindar closed his eyes and raised his
arms high, breathing deeply in concentration. Black smoke began to
spill from his glowing red eyes.

Suo lemma per pulvis
insquequo unus bestia somes
, Shindar
chanted.

The skeleton warriors looked at each
other, confused, until they began to screech in fear. They dropped
to their knees uncontrollably, swords and shields falling before
them as if they were discarded. One by one, their bones were ripped
from them and reduced to dust. Their dusty remains spun in the air
like a whirlwind.

Shindar’s chanting became louder and
more intense.

Beneath the spinning bone dust,
Kassina saw something materialising. Piece by piece, a great bone
scorpion formed. When the final piece of the tail was completed, it
turned and awaited its master’s instructions.

Shindar relayed his next command with
a dark smirk, “Release two prisoners into the arena, choose only
strong men that will give us a good show.”

In no time at all, two muscular humans
were thrown into the large circle to face the scorpion. Shindar
turned his gaze to the two men and spoke to them
directly.

“
If you defeat this
creature, I will grant you freedom to leave the underworld and
return to Marithia as you stand today. I may be the demon of
darkness, but I am no liar. I give you my word. Do you
understand?”

The two men looked at each other, fear
giving way to hope, then turned and nodded to the dark
lord.

Shindar’s voice echoed over the
underworld, “Let the battle begin!”

They picked up the fallen armour and
swords the desiccated skeleton warriors had left behind and circled
the horrifying bone scorpion; they slowly turned their blades in
front of them in anticipation.

Iuguolo lemma
utriusque
, said Shindar.

The scorpion sprung to life, shrieking
as it ran toward the man in front of it. Rolling to his left to
avoid the giant beast from crushing him, the man swung his sword
into one of the scorpion’s legs. The sword managed to dispatch one
of its eight legs, while the other man jumped on its
back.

Squealing with annoyance, the scorpion
shook viciously from side to side until the man lost balance,
falling on the ground near its front claws. With a swing of its
tail, the scorpion impaled the man through the chest and brought
him high into the air, as he cried out in pain. It brutally smashed
the man repeatedly into the ground until the cries were silenced
and his body broke into severed pieces.

The other man, realising that he had
no chance to defeat this beast, foolishly attempted to outrun it.
He sprinted toward the circle of Skeleton Warriors. The ground
below his feet shook violently with the force of the beast in
pursuit and a large cloud of dust built up behind the
scorpion.