The Beginnings Omnibus: Beginnings 1, 2, 3 & Legend of Ashenclaw novella (Realm of Ashenclaw Beginnings Saga) (94 page)

From somewhere deep below the cavern the sound came again and it grew louder in intensity as the source of the roar neared. Zabalas turned to see the head of an ancient venomous drake—a terrifying beast of legend, indeed, if ever there was one. It craned its neck around a corner of the shelter where its children stayed, bringing with it the remainder of its massive body. It paused briefly and witnessed the wyrmling offspring lying on the floor, dead and lifeless. The magnificent beast quickly moved its large bulk through the space heading toward Zabalas as its heavily scaled tail followed behind. Its considerable claws pulled its mass through the space at such a rapid pace, that it seemed surreal.

The dragon roared once more and then its black eyes seemed to roll over to white as it belched a noxious, acidic spray in his direction.

Zabalas was barely able to find cover behind a stalagmite before the toxic liquid enveloped him. He paused a moment and turned to see that the rock formation that had just provided him cover was melting, turned to liquid slag under the torrent of venomous fury.

He was truly impressed.

He turned to make his way toward a cave opening when he heard the sound of the drake’s breath as it belched forth from behind him. He made for the relative safety of the smaller passageways, thinking that it could not pursue him in those more confined tunnels, and ran off back toward the surface.

Rose lurched forward as the caravan came to an abrupt halt, falling into the arms of the Inquisitor, who was seated at the table. She stared up into his brown eyes and felt a sense of warmth within them that she had never perceived before. His stare was usually so callous and impassive.

He gently helped her up and set her straight before standing and moving toward the porthole to speak with the construct driving the caravan.

They had come to a stop at the base of the hill where the archers had been perched. Orngoth, Garius, Elec, Rose and Saeunn all emerged and stood on the solid ground, peering about. The driver remained motionless as Garius spoke, giving it commands to take the vehicle into a nearby copse of trees for cover.

“That is the remnants of Hollow Hill,” Elec announced, pointing to a ruined village at the crest of one of the many hills set back at least a mile or so from where they stood. He removed a vial from its casing on his bandolier and fiddled with the cork, saying nothing else.

Rose, chewing on a piece of tough jerky, looked in awe of the site, craning her neck to peer toward the top of the hill where the village was situated. It was certainly something to behold, charred and ruined, seeming to be swallowed up in a relatively unified blackness at the hill’s summit. It certainly wasn’t much to look at. “Looks cheery,” Rose mentioned as she swallowed the salted meat with a grimace.

“Aye, it is rumored to be haunted,” Garius enlightened them as he wiped the top of his head free of sweat. Rose noted the chill in the valley as the cold wind brushed by her cheeks. She had spoken to Garius a few times before at length about his armor and knew that the heavy plate was enchanted. He had also pointed out that it provided an uncomfortable warmth beneath its protective shell. She found herself again imagining what lay beneath all of that heavy armor before shaking the absurd thought from her mind.

“Shall we?” Rose suggested as she finished the last of the venison jerky and bade Elec to move forward with a gesture. He went and she followed. There was a clear path leading to the top of the hill, though it would take at least an hour or more to climb, it seemed. It also looked as though it were they only way up and so they marched ahead.

Rose bent low and nodded to Elec.

“It looked like there was movement upon the path recently, but the recent rainfall washed away any solid proof,” she mentioned to him. He nodded and moved off ahead of her.

For the next hour, the five of them traversed the winding path up the hill toward their destination, just as the sun began to sink behind the clouds to the west.

“There will be little in the way of sunlight to aid us in our exploration I fear,” Garius sighed as he climbed forward, referring to the encroachment of dusk just on the horizon.

“Do you really think we will find highwaymen all the way up here?” Rose called back disbelievingly as she came to a rest in a clearing. The others caught up to her and she turned to stare up and into the deep blue eyes of the half-ogre, who shrugged and returned his attention to the landscape below.

“I do not know for sure, but I am beginning to sense a presence nearby,” replied Garius as he began to move off again.

“
Demonic
presence?!” Rose asked, looking to him in the hopes that perhaps he wasn’t serious. Then she recalled that he was
always
serious.

“Aye,” he replied with a nod. “We have rested long enough—let us continue.”

Rose spun to observe Elec replacing a flask in his bandolier and wiping his lips. He looked back to regard her eyeing him, and moved off abruptly in front of the Inquisitor to take the lead.

“I think I saw something leaning over the edge—something not born of this world, if my eyes do not deceive me,” Saeunn suddenly said as she squeezed the pommel of her greatsword tightly in anticipation of combat. “Perhaps your thoughts are correct, Inquisitor.”

Rose looked at the excitement etched upon Saeunn’s face. There was no denying that she enjoyed the fight. Saeunn began eagerly shifting back and forth in anticipation.

“Perhaps there is some truth to the rumors of the haunting of Hollow Hill,” Elec added, climbing the path and outpacing Rose quickly. It seemed to her that he was not looking for tripwires or the like and that perhaps this newer, more reckless one replaced the previously alert and cautious elf she had come to know. She was not sure which she preferred, she admitted with a sigh.

And so, on they went.

As the group rounded the last corner that would put them in sight of the village proper, dusk claimed the sky and the sun dipped behind the clouds. There was a massive iron fence, as high as two men tall, which surrounded the village. This was affixed with a pair of iron gates that repeatedly rang with the sound of metal on metal. It sounded in unison with the breeze that escalated in intensity the higher they trod toward the summit of the hill. That clamoring added a sense of foreboding and lent credibility to the rumors of hauntings.

With the passing of the sun, the breeze at the top of the hill caused Rose to shiver. She pulled her cowl tightly about her body, and then looked back to Garius who nodded for her to move forward. She stepped into a shadow and disappeared.

A moment passed as Rose traversed the plane of shadow, moving hurriedly along. She exited the shadow realm and immediately stopped her momentum as something dark and sinister moved toward her.

It sees me
! she realized in fear.
It sees me in the shadow plane!

She ran back toward her companions and emerged from the shadows only to feel a cold hand cover her mouth as she made to voice what she had seen. Her voice was muffled as she witnessed that Garius had caught her and gagged her, holding her gently in his arms.

“What is it?” Elec asked, his eyes completely glossed over white, entirely barren of the outline of his pupils. Rose stared at him and thought it looked as if he were the one possessed.

“
Demons!”
she whispered. “In all shapes and sizes around the outskirts of the village!”

Garius turned a concerned look upon her and stared hard toward the gloomy village.

“So, it is true,” he said, steadying Rose before releasing his grip on her.

As if in answer to her mention of them, a horde of demons came crashing through the ruins of the buildings toward the gated entrance where the five of them stood. An abundance of tails, wings, fangs and claws rushed toward the group. They collectively braced themselves as the demons came at them.

Except, of course, for the two barbarians.

Orngoth, club held high, and Saeunn, her greatsword at the ready, countercharged the demonic horde. Elec heard Orngoth’s first swing connect as a loud crack reverberated, followed by a squishy sound as he drove one of the demons into the dirt, dark liquid spraying everywhere.

He watched Saeunn follow suit as her greatsword cleaved one and then slashed another demon in half with one swing just as easily as if she had sliced through a piece of freshly-baked bread.

Garius began uttering the words of a spell and his body shone with a bright light, the runes on the
The Repentant
followed suit, one after the other, infused with divine energy. He strode onto the battlefield and was immediately overrun by several demons that knocked him to the ground.

Elec found himself wondering if the demons sensed his devotion to the gods, responding in kind and treating him as the most dangerous threat to their survival. Garius disappeared momentarily beneath a swarm of demonic flesh and fangs.

Elec backed toward Rose, thinking that they would fight together as they had before. But, she had disappeared though, moving through the shadows again. He winced just then as he felt a stabbing pain in his right shoulder. He looked across in horror to see an arrow protruding from it. He yelped in response and
Wyrm’s Fang
fell limply to the ground.

His arm throbbed with newfound discomfort and he uncorked another vial. It was one that he’d been tweaking recently that worked to dull the sensation of pain enough to ignore it—at least temporarily. A second and a third arrow shot past him and he dove to the ground in response.

The demons are not alone!

A dozen men stood behind the horde of demons and through his dazed vision, he thought he caught sight of a massive animal, lumbering on all fours behind the archers.

He looked back and saw Rose disappear into the darkness once again. As he retrieved his dagger, he watched while the two barbarians cleaved through man and demon alike, superficial wounds blending with their musculature, but never slowing their strikes. They were engines of war, he thought, hoping to one day be as accomplished as them in battle.

He felt another effect of his potions kick in and time seemed to slow down all around him. He reached down and retrieved his fallen dagger.

Elec made it to his feet and fended off another arrow, launching the steel of
Daegnar Giruth
up to deflect it aside as easily as if it were lobbed at him.

How!?

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and before he could ponder the effect of his elixir, something approached from behind. He whipped
Wyrm’s Fang
around and caught an imp in mid-flight, a barbed tail poised to deliver a lethal dose of venom. He watched as the poison dripped from its tail.

The dagger sliced through its abdomen area, opening it up. Dark fluid spilled forth to stain the ground.

A burst of brilliant light suddenly filled his peripheral vision and the Inquisitor emerged from it, demons melting to ash before Elec’s eyes as the divine magic enveloped the Inquisitor’s form.

Elec moved forward at breakneck speed, passing the remains of a demon and intercepting a man who lunged for Saeunn, a dagger tip intended for her exposed back. He tackled the man and took him to the ground, jolting his neck to the side with a loud cracking of bone.

As Elec hit the ground, he just missed the greatsword of the mighty barbarian as it passed above his head.

She knew the enemy was there!

The man beneath him was unconscious or worse and when he looked back, Saeunn was off again. Elec stared at the unconscious man and felt his neck for a pulse, but there was none. He’d hit the man with such force and speed that the initial impact killed him, snapping his neck. He shuddered as he looked back into the eyes of the dead man and took in a deep breath. No matter how many times he had been involved in these battles recently, he was not comfortable with the death that it brought along with it. He downed yet another elixir—one that dulled his sense of pain. Perhaps it would dull his sense of guilt as well, he hoped.

A loud roar pulled him from his thoughts as he regained his footing. He watched as Orngoth was sent sprawling to the ground by a huge swipe of a very large paw. He could not make it out quite yet, but whatever it was, its claws were the size of a dagger. The half-ogre hit the ground with such force that Elec thought him done for. He lay there unmoving.