Light of Epertase 01: Legends Reborn (40 page)

It was almost dawn. Terik’s orders could come at any moment and he was ready. His men were ready.

Terik stood before a massive wall of stone and concrete that reached as high as two castles and stretched as far as he could see. Over the years, chunks of the concrete had cracked and fallen to the ground, leaving massive craters and looking like a piece of termite-infested wood.

“Unbelievable,” he whispered as he touched the wet, gray surface. Deep, foreboding cracks leaked water along the structure’s face.

“What’s that, sir?” his first-in-command asked.

“They were going to die, anyway,” he mumbled to himself.

“Sir?”

He stood quietly in thought.
A billion gallons of water being held back by this ramshackle wall. Their leaders never kept it up. They never kept it up.

“Don’t you see?” he shouted. “Their dam is crumbling. It’s about to give way as we speak. It’s not even safe for us to be here now. We must get back to higher ground right away.”

Before he could move, he was interrupted by a troubled, delicate voice from behind. “Mister?” the voice asked, startling him.

He spun around, surprised to find a woman standing before his steed. His first-in-command seemed stunned as well. They had been so immersed in their mission that they let a single stranger stroll up next to them. Terik might have been embarrassed if more of his men had seen. The woman was barefoot, wearing nothing more than a large fruit sack with holes cut out for her arms, head, and legs. She looked like she hadn’t eaten for days and her skin was reddened from the cold. Her bruised face indicated she had spoken defiantly to the wrong person.

“Who are you?” Terik asked. “How did you find us?”

“Mister,” she stared at his feet. “I followed your horses. I need help.”

“Go on.”

“I have escaped a Lowland prison.”

“Prison? Where?”

“In town. That way.” She pointed in the direction of a winding, dilapidated dirt path of a road. “Not far by horse. If you follow the road you can’t miss it.”

Terik’s top commander asked, “Why were you there? In prison, I mean? What crime did you commit?”

“No crime,” she said and for some reason Terik believed her. “Hundreds of us were gathered up and locked away. We didn’t do anything except fail to fall under the spell of our leaders. There are children and babies in there. My son is there.” She bit her lip in a clear attempt to fight a breakdown.

“If you weren’t guilty, why did your leaders do this?”

“I heard whispers while they led us to jail. They called us sacrifices to the approaching enemy.”

Terik glanced at his lieutenant who wore the same look of horror that he was sure was on his own face.

“How did you escape?” he asked.

Biting her lip no longer worked and she sobbed openly. “One of the drunken guards fell asleep on top of me and I snuck out.”

She dropped to her knees and grabbed his hand. “Please help. I’ll do anything to find my son.” She kept her gaze on the ground as though ashamed. “They’ve had their way with me many times.” She hesitated and sucked in an unstable breath. “If it would help, I guess you could as well. If you’d like, I mean.”

Terik gently lifted her by her arm. “Lieutenant, take this girl back to our camp. Get her aid and food and something warm to wear. I’m going to the prison.”

“What if the word comes while you’re gone?”

Terik curled his upper lip and crinkled his nose like he’d smelled something foul. “Then do what you’ve been ordered.”

He mounted his steed and clopped along the overgrown dirt path. He was alone in his quest and he’d probably die, but the outrage that boiled within his veins could never allow such an injustice to occur.

I
t was midday by the time Terik came to the first signs of a town. An old blacksmith’s shop, empty of course, sat beside a place to keep horses or asses or whatever one might ride in on. Filthy shops and saloons were at every turn. A general store, ransacked with smashed windows and shattered doors, stood next to a law enforcement house. One could only guess what these people considered law. At the far end of the strip he saw his destination – a stone, windowless structure, larger than the biggest castle he’d ever seen.

Any society that needs a place so large to keep miscreants doesn’t seem like a society worth saving
, he thought.

He chuckled to himself finding it sadly comical that in this miserable town the main road led not to a prominent ancient castle or bustling town square but to a prison.

As he crept closer, he saw slight activity at the fortress’s front gate and decided that the rest of his approach had best be taken on foot. An out-of-sight, rotted post next to an outhouse was perfect for leaving his horse. He reached into his saddle bag and withdrew a hunting knife as long as his forearm. Up-close-and-personal was the way to go, at least in the beginning. Besides, if he needed a sword, he figured there would be plenty lying around by the time he was finished.

A drunken guard sat at the entrance with his back to Terik’s approach. With hardly a sound, Terik opened the guard’s filthy throat, almost decapitating him with his adrenalinized exuberance. The guard fell from his chair in a gurgling seizure. Terik dug through his pockets until he found a key. A big key. A master key.

Disturbing moans and blistering screams filled the prison as he passed through the fortress door. But the screams and moans weren’t what disturbed him the most; it was the maniacal laughter from the heartless captors. This wasn’t a prison, it was a house of torture and the torturers enjoyed their jobs. The stink of dried blood and feces and death filled the dankness and was as close to unbearable as anything Terik had ever experienced.

These Lowlanders are monsters,
he thought with his hand over his nose.
As evil as the people we fight against, I believe.
His heart sunk with a realization.
And we’ve unleashed them onto Epertase.

A guard strolled into view from around a hallway. His eyes exploded wide. He drew in a lungful of air. Terik hurled his blade, landing it true before the guard could unleash his cries for help. The guard grunted and collapsed. Terik followed his knife, jerked it from the guard’s chest, and wiped the warm blood onto his sleeve. The dead man’s pocket yielded a second master key. Terik snatched it just in case.

He came to a thick steel-and-wood-framed door with a rusty padlock. The key fit perfectly. A quick turn and the lock clicked and clanked. The door groaned like an old war hero with achy bones, opening into another long hallway. Cell bars lined both walls. The fearful whimpers from behind the door grew louder.

Terik peeked into the first cage. He was horrified to find it crammed full of scared women and children.

In the far corner, in a space purposely left open by the crowd, a mother rocked back and forth over a lifeless infant. Terik had seen enough atrocities to know that the baby was long gone and that the mother was in shock.

With his master key, Terik opened the cage. Most of the women pushed to the back, though two of them stepped heroically forward. Their aggressive stances said that they’d had enough.

“It is alright,” Terik whispered. “I am here to free you.” He swung the gate open and stepped to the side to show his intentions. “You two,” he pointed to the two bravest. “Are you strong enough to free the others?”

They nodded that they were; he wasn’t so sure. He handed them the key and pointed to the next steel door. “Unlock that door for me and then open the rest of these cages. Get southeast to higher ground as quickly as possible. Go to Epertase.”

Terik continued through to the next corridor. Behind the next massive door was another hall of cells and prisoners. He opened the first cage; it was full of men. Their faces were discolored and swollen. Blood-soaked rags slowed the bleeding on some of the wounded while others had obviously spilled their plasma until they could leak no more.

Terik started to speak but a noise from the opposite end of the hall froze him. The farthest door clunked and creaked with enemy laughter echoing from beyond.

Terik hid within the nearest cage and pulled the door, careful not to let it latch.

The footsteps marched through the hall toward the cell in which Terik waited. The voices told him there were three guards. One look at the frail men in the cell and he knew he was on his own.

He crouched with his back to the bars and his chin tucked to his chest. The footsteps stopped behind him.

“What is this?” one of the guards asked.

Terik slid his knife from his waistband.

“You! Where did you get those clothes?” The guard’s pocket jingled as he fished for his keys.

Terik spun toward him, flinging the cell door open against all three of the guards. He drove the gate along with the guards back against the neighboring cell, pinning them. They weakly pushed back as they stumbled to get their footing. He plunged his blade between the bars into one of their chests. That guard stopped pushing.

The other two guards heaved against the gate, pushing Terik backward. Terik ripped his knife free. Before the startled guards could completely regain their balance, a set of puny arms reached through the cold bars and grabbed one of them by his neck. Then another set of arms reached through, and another, until both flailing tormentors were held tight against the bars. The prisoners cheered while Terik ended the guards’ suffering with well-placed stabs of his blade.

Terik picked up the key from the floor, opened the rest of the packed cells, and shouted orders to flee to Epertase. One of the captives from the first cell handed him a fallen guard’s sword and Terik tied it around his waist. Two of the stronger-looking men picked up the other swords with vengeful grins. They led the others toward freedom.

Terik turned his attention toward the next door.

“Sir?” someone called out. “Sir?” Terik turned to find a teenage boy fighting against the rush of fleeing prisoners.

“What is it, boy? I’m in a hurry.”

“Was it my mom? I mean the one who sent you. Was it her who saved us?”

Terik nodded that it must have been.

“They didn’t hurt her, did they?” His face had innocence and hope behind its bruising. Terik hesitated, not sure how to answer.

“She is safe,” he finally said.

The kid sighed while trying to hide his smile in a failed attempt to appear tougher than he was. “She said she would free us.”

Terik patted his shoulder. “That she did. That she did. Now get to high ground, you haven’t much time.”

The kid turned to join the crowd but Terik halted him with a holler. “What’s your name, son?”

He spun around with a new sense of purpose on his face. “Dillon,” he said. “My name’s Dillon.”

“Nice to meet you, Dillon.”

The kid bounced, unable to control his excitement, and merged back into the crowd.

Terik headed down the hall. Though none of the guards he came across had actually wronged him personally, he continued to kill them with vengeance and glee. The prison was immense. When he circled back to the front he couldn’t help but fear he had missed some of the Lowlander victims, but he had done his best.

The brightness of the outside suns constricted his pupils, temporarily blinding him. His first step splashed water against his ankles, sending a rush of dread through his gut. He squinted.

Oh no. It has begun.

The trail of rescued prisoners was visible in the distance as they fled the town.
They’re not going to make it. I’m not going to make it.

He sloshed through the rising floodwaters until he came to his horse. Once upon his steed, he ripped the horse’s reins from the post and grunted, “Yah.”

With the Lowlanders moving away from the dam, he galloped northeast and toward it. He needed to get back to his men and hadn’t time to go around. The frigid water splashed his ankles, drenching his pants, and though shivering, he pushed faster.

Far in the distance, massive boulders soared through the air, obviously from the catapults in Terik’s brigade. They represented a brilliant plan taking shape, but they also represented Terik’s failure to make it to safety in time. He whipped his steed’s thick neck. “We’re out of time, boy. We have to move faster.” But the rising water touched his feet, slowing his steed greatly.

As he moved closer to the dam, he saw the boulders striking their marks. Water poured from fresh breaks in the dam’s face, telling him it wouldn’t be long before the tidal wave of the Infinite Sea swept him away. The cracks grew bigger with each boulder’s collision. He rode faster, more east than north, toward the miniature outlines of his elevated men.

He smacked his steed’s hindquarters. “Come on, boy.”

More boulders launched into the air and struck their targets true. The dam rumbled. Large chunks of concrete crashed to the ground, letting the roaring water of the sea break through.

Terik drove his heels into his steed’s sides. The tidal wave built speed and power and devastation, ravaging all in its path. He was closer to his men, close enough that he could make out their faces. They saw him as well but there was nothing they could do to stop the flood. They raced along the elevated edge, flailing their arms above their heads. “Hurry,” they seemed to shout, though he couldn’t hear them over the roar. He wanted to scream back that he was trying.