The Beginnings Omnibus: Beginnings 1, 2, 3 & Legend of Ashenclaw novella (Realm of Ashenclaw Beginnings Saga) (86 page)

Orngoth barreled into a section of the room with a half dozen of the mutant humanoids moving to intercept him. This is exactly how he wanted it. Saeunn watched him ram several of the humanoids with a shoulder, using his massive body as a weapon. He then began swinging his huge club, just as a group of three rushed toward her.

The barbarian woman from Chansuk dove straight at them, sword swinging in a wide left to right arc as she landed. The wide and forceful swing ran a deep gash into the first mutant’s flesh and beheaded a second. Saeunn dove forward again, hit the ground, tucked and came steadily to her feet. She advanced with another swing of her mighty greatsword and connected with a two handed pommel strike to the face of the third mutant. Its face caved in and the thing fell to the floor in a heap.

Then she felt pain in her left shoulder as the remaining creature took a small bit of flesh from her with a clawed hand. Saeunn remained in the same position, reversed her grip on the sword and shoved the blade past her rib cage to plunge the lengthy blade deep into the creature’s gullet. She removed it, letting it slump to the floor, its blood filling tiny crevices and depressions in the stony cavern floor.

She turned to see that Orngoth had defeated all of his foes, sending them to the afterlife and she could not help but admire his own brute strength. He was certainly a force to be reckoned with and she found herself wondering what it would be like if the two of them clashed in combat.

Orngoth joined her and the two of them made it where Elec, Rose and Garius had all gathered.

“Does anyone require attention?” asked the Inquisitor.

Saeunn went to one knee, leaned on her sword and waited.

 “I am fine,” Rose answered. “But, what is this unsettling green light and where is it coming from?”

“I don’t know but I’d say we keep looking until we find some answers.”

They continued on for what had to be a half-day’s cycle, moving onward and through the passages that seemed endless. The group encountered more of the mutated humans, elves, orcs and other species that must have wandered in here, but never uncovering the source of the jade glow.

As Rose stopped to retrieve some rations from her pouch, more salted venison, which she enjoyed thoroughly, Garius and the others rested with her.

“These creatures,” he began to say, kneeling to inspect one of them, “were once like us. Something changed them—transformed them into things just as dreadful as the undead, I’d say.”

“Well, they sure weren’t here to welcome us and show us around,” Rose said with her usual dry wit. She glanced about and inspected the ceiling of the chamber, shaking her head in wonder if they would ever appreciate her wit.

Too solemn or too stupid,
she thought, looking over her audience.

“Something is not right and I would like to uncover the mysteries within these walls,” Garius began but then held his words, a pensive expression crossing his features.

“And?” Rose asked, picking up on his suddenly silent tongue. “Don’t keep us waiting on your insightful explanations.”

“Firstly, I suddenly understand that if we remain here, bathed in this green glow for much longer, I fear that we may become like our attackers,” he suggested and they all nodded their agreement. “Secondly, the visions I had reeked of a cunning beyond…this. These creatures here, though not undead, resemble their mental capacity,” continued the Inquisitor as he tugged on his braided beard. “The author of these attacks scribed well-coordinated attacks. These mutated creatures are certainly not sellswords or highwaymen.”

“So, we are looking in the wrong place?” Elec presumed, running a hand through his dark locks.

“It would seem so,” Garius answered with a look of concern.

“I found Elec on the southern side of the ridge,” Rose explained, tapping her daggers together absently. “I did not think much of it, really. But if our adversaries are organized, then they might be somewhere on the southern side of the valley.” Sudden realization came over her at that moment and she smacked her forehead lightly with her palm in a mock gesture of folly. “Elec, did you mention a tripwire on the other side of the valley?!”

“Aye,” Elec said, swinging his sword to and fro. “What of it?”

“There are
traps
in that part of the valley,” she said, letting it sink in. Elec stopped his activity and nodded.

“They are hiding there you are suggesting?” he asked plainly. “It makes sense. Although there is no way to know how long that tripwire has been there, or who put it there. Either way….”

“The south side it is, then,” Garius agreed as he removed his helm and wiped sweat from his brow, stemming a comment from Rose. “Unless there is another reason to remain here?”

“None, I’d say. It appears that this one path takes us further into the company of these…mutants,” Saeunn proclaimed, gesturing to the creatures lying on the ground.

“I am also one for thinking that if they are cunning highwaymen, they would not be found in this cave with these things,” Rose added.

Orngoth simply stared at the carnage, inattentively picking bits of mutant flesh from the jagged edges of his club.

“I’ll take your silence as compliance?” Rose asked the behemoth, who still said nothing. Again, a look of frustration crossed up her features. “Never mind then. Let’s get out of here.”

Rose paused for a moment in consideration and then slowly followed the others as they began to backtrack out of the northern section of the Blackstone Mountain range and headed toward Heartwood Valley.

“We might want to hurry,” Rose suggested as she turned back and heard sounds of thundering footsteps behind them. “There are more of them coming. A
lot
more!”

With that, the group hastened their exodus.

Again, the voice penetrated his consciousness.

He fought hard to keep it out, but it did no good. He stood outside his home, a broken structure in the ruins of Hollow Hill, and tugged at his hair until a small clump came away, for the pain gave him a moment’s respite from the nagging voice.

“Go! Away!” whispered Rogoth in a moment of clarity. “You have made me do unspeakable things!”

“You have done nothing wrong,”
cooed the voice of Cyrza.
“I am only trying to have you understand that your place is not in following the orders of these fools. You should be leading them instead! You do not know the potential in you,”
the demon lied to Rogoth, still twisting the man’s will into his desires.

Cyrza cared nothing for this coward. In fact, he was merely passing the time until something better came along to take his attention from the man. He’d felt the presence of one earlier whose attention would be better suited, but he had not felt her company of late.

How is she hiding from me?
Cyrza wondered
.
He was unsure, but he decided, that as long as he dominated this one, he was going to amuse himself.

“You must take matters into your own hands,”
Cyrza continued, assaulting the man’s fragile psyche and sundering it with his indomitable assertion.
“Start by silencing your wife once and for all. She has done nothing but hinder your rise in the Blackstone Brotherhood!”

“I…will…do as you suggest,” Rogoth conceded in a hushed whisper, beads of sweat glistening upon his brow.

He stood before the threshold of his home, tugging the scorched and weathered handle, pulling the door wide. He seemed to hesitate one last time before the demon asserted his dominance fully.

The taste of your soul is so delicious
, Cyrza thought, coaxing the man into the room. He guided Rogoth to the kitchen of their modest home and compelled him to pick up a knife lying on the dining table surface. Rogoth heard his wife in the bedroom and proceeded quietly. Cyrza projected visions into Rogoth’s mind, visions of her stealing from him, laughing at him, and kissing another man.

She has no right!
Cyrza heard in Rogoth’s thoughts.

He swung the bedroom door wide and found his wife there, her back facing him. Her lengthy shock of jade hair was covering her bare back and she turned to face him with a smile.

Her tanned skin suddenly turned pale and her grin vanished beneath a wave of fear and confusion as she regarded him, holding a knife.  Cyrza felt her emotions too, feeding on the terror. Especially sweet was the rhythm of her thundering heartbeat as she clutched at her chest. 

Rogoth slowly moved toward her, the knife clenched tightly...so tightly in fact, that his fingers were white. He looked at his wife’s face and her honey-brown orbs stared back pleadingly.

“Do…not…,” was all that she could manage.

“My dear Meliana,” said Rogoth in a harsh, deliberate tone. “I only wish to put you out of
our
misery!”

He watched as the forest elf retreated until she ran out of space, backing into the vanity at which she often sat, pulling a brush through her hair…and talking to him.

Talking
down
to him!
he thought.

 
“Manipulating you!”
Cyrza echoed in his mind.

“Yes, you manipulate me, Meliana. But, no more!” Rogoth exclaimed wildly. As he closed the gap and stood a few paces from her, he noted her eyes growing wider, before closing them tightly in expectation of her imminent demise.

“The mirror!”
Cyrza barked to Rogoth in an urgent tone.
“Intruder!”

At first Rogoth was confused by the demon entering his mind at so untimely an instance.  “What?”

“Turn around fool!”
Cyrza shouted.

It was then that Rogoth finally caught sight of the reflection of a figure in the vanity mirror.