The Chosen (27 page)
"Who of you today was the most valiant in battle?" Seth asked. He knew they shared some form of pack consciousness and as such knew of each other’s every deed. One amongst them stepped forward.
"Who of you fought most ferociously today?" Seth asked. Another stepped forward from his kin.
"Whom among you is most respected, second to Borrik in command?" Seth asked again. A third member of his servants separated himself from the rest.
Releasing Sara’s hand Seth approached the first of his distinguished followers, and placing one hand upon the half-man half-beast’s forearm, Seth reached out with his mind and stripped the first of the three orcs of its life force. He instantly channeled it into his loyal servant, leaving a pile of ash and armor upon the ground. The half-man's eyes rolled in their sockets as pure pleasure overtook him, and craning his neck back the beast let loose a blood-curdling howl before falling to his knees, undergoing yet another transformation. Seth stepped past his now mutating devout follower on to the next. Performing the ritual two more times, Seth and Sara watched as the three prior wolf men wriggled on the ground as they mutated into something more spectacular than what they had previously been. As they recovered, the men, now appearing much like Borrik, rose and kneeled to their living god and Seth offered each a nod of approval. Now these three, like Borrik, were magnificent creatures. Gone were the hideous patchwork skull and hunched backs, gone were the long matted fur and sunken chests, and once again the man side of each of these three of Seth’s creations had dominance over the wolf side.
"I'll require five more orcs to complete the rest of your transformations," Seth said.
Turning from his newly transformed troops back to Borrik, Seth gave the man orders to continue scouting ahead, as well as to collect whatever they could of value from the fallen orcs and goblins. Seth knew there was more than one way to gather followers. He also knew that this night they would be staying in Raven’s Keep, the southernmost castle in Valdadore’s kingdom. Being the farthest to the south, the people here would be those who had felt the sting of the goblin's raiding parties again and again. Here would be the people who had lost the most and had the least. Here loyalty could be bought, and Seth planned to use such circumstances to his advantage.
Seth and Sara watched as the wolf men turned and raced off through the woods at breakneck speeds. Seth was surprised as how Sara could so easily accept his abilities, and the transformations he had performed seemed to not affect her at all. After his troops were lost to sight, Sara approached once again, and taking Seth’s face in both her little hands, she kissed him passionately, reassuring him once again of her love and devotion.
Sara knew she loved Seth completely. She understood the cost of them being able to be together was his use of the powers bestowed upon him by Ishanya. She knew that through Seth many lives would be altered or ended. She knew the man she loved was torn between his own wants and desires, and his many newly acquired responsibilities. She knew of his distrust in the gods, his unwillingness to serve them, and she was aware that he burdened himself with such service on her behalf. He sacrificed himself for her now, just as he had done in the cave the first time they had encountered a goblin. Only now his sacrifice was constant. He had given himself unwillingly into the goddess's service in order to be with her, and to assure a future for them both. In giving himself to the goddess, he had been sworn to the service of the kingdom and the king’s court, more sacrifices of himself just to be with her. Seth had created a new race of soldier in service to the king, and the soldiers swearing themselves to Seth left him yet another burden he willingly bore in order to be with her. Sara did not feel worthy of such unyielding sacrifice, did not feel worthy of such immeasurable devotion, but swore to herself that she would support Seth in any and all ways she was able. She would be at his side no matter the danger, she would sacrifice for him anything in return for his love. Though she knew his sacrifice would always be greater than hers, she hoped that she would be able to minimize the effects of his sacrifices on his conscience, and hopefully save his soul from the goddess Ishanya.
Within an hour of the battle, the king's retinue was again mounted and racing south. Evening was approaching and they only had a few hours’ ride remaining until they reached Raven's Keep south of the ancient forest. Seth, Garret and Sara took up positions as rear guard once again, and after a brief congratulatory conversation about the fight, the three rode in silence, Seth using his time to plan for his brief stay in Raven's Keep. Borrik appeared once again that afternoon, and speaking to him briefly, Seth sent him back to his men. As they rode Seth issued out from himself tendrils of his power. Finding many a wild animal in the forest he left an unseen path of destruction, siphoning dry numerous animals as they traveled, storing their power for later use, until he felt he could contain no more.
The sun was reaching the horizon, staining the skies in shades of pink and orange as they left the canopy of the forest behind, thundering out of the ancient forest into the vast rolling plains of southern Valdadore. As far as Seth could see there was naught but rolling fields in all directions, from the horizon to the east, to the horizon to the west, nothing but hills and fields. But ahead of them was another story entirely. An hour’s ride away stood the castle of Raven’s Keep, in front of a backdrop of immense snow-capped mountains further to the south. The castle appeared black in the distance, and showed no signs of the same elegance that was found in the city of Valdadore. This castle was built with one purpose in mind, strategic defense.
Seth kept his eyes on the castle nearly the entire hour as they approached its massive walls. This castle was made from granite slabs several feet thick and several stories tall, each interlocking like a puzzle piece with the ones around it, fitting together so precisely that a knife blade scraped across the surface would find no purchase in any seam between the immense slabs. The outer castle walls were unbelievably high, soaring over a hundred feet into the sky. Upon closer inspection arrow slits and murder holes were everywhere upon the walls. Nothing could be seen atop them from ground level but Seth imagined that such immense walls would be guarded by hundreds of ballista and catapults, not to mention thousands of troops. Though Raven's Keep did not cover even a quarter of the land that Valdadore encompassed, this castle inspired a sense of impenetrability unlike that of the other city. The portcullis and gates upon the northern wall of the city were barely big enough to allow a horse-drawn cart through, and upon passing beneath these defenses Seth was amazed to find a bustling, if not overcrowded city inside. Stopping shortly before entering, Seth spoke hurriedly with one of the guards at the gate before again turning to enter the city proper.
The noise within the city was immense with blacksmiths hammering, merchants advertising their wares and people shouting over the constant noise, but that paled in comparison to the smell. The whole castle reeked of sweat and smoke and feces. All the livestock from surrounding farms had been brought within the city to keep them out of the hands of raiding parties, but so many animals defecating on the streets made it impossible to keep up with maintaining cleanliness. Mingled with that was the smell of tens of thousands of men, women and children who now slept in the streets with no place to properly bathe. With the kingdom in full swing preparing for war, many blacksmiths had come from around the kingdom and set up temporary forges here in the city where their fires burned day and night, producing high volumes of dark smoke that lazily, eventually, made its way out over the top of the high stone city walls. This place was in no way what Seth had expected. In fact, it offered much more opportunity than he ever could have wished. Speaking to the king briefly about their plans to leave in the morning, Seth dismissed himself and Sara from the retinue. Peeling off from the main force, instead of making for the center of the city where the rest of the king's men were headed, Seth led Sara down the outer street of the city, making his way parallel to the unmatched heights of the castle wall, and came to a large building marked as an inn. Tying the horses outside Seth took Sara into the building, and once inside, they looked about for the proprietor.
Sara listened as Seth had an odd conversation with the small weasel of an innkeeper, and watched as Seth paid the man with a golden crown. Having what he wanted, the innkeeper pointed to the door behind the bar and Seth then led Sara through the door into the blazing hot kitchen beyond. Passing quickly through the kitchen, Seth found another door and they went outside into a courtyard of sorts, closed in on all sides by neighboring buildings. It was a rather large courtyard for an inn, and chickens pecked lazily at the dry grass here and there. Seeing what it was he had come for, Seth led Sara into a large wooden storage building at the back of the property, where Seth struggled to pull the huge door open on its rusty hinges.
Once inside Seth was happy to find the building nearly empty, its only occupants being a few buckets filled with feed for the chickens, some rope and other implements for maintaining the lawn behind the inn. Satisfied with the building, Seth went about moving the few items out of the way to the back of the large room. Not quite comprehending what they were doing Sara joined in out of curiosity and wonder. Before long they had all but one back corner of the large room cleared. Finding a broom Sara began to sweep the cobblestone floor free of dust and dirt as Seth smiled in appreciation.
Seth knew Sara would be wondering what his intentions were for the room, so he chose to share one of those intentions with her, but keep the other a secret.
"Borrik and a couple of the men will be joining us as soon as the sun sets," Seth said. "I have been gathering power nearly all day in an effort to properly arm them. Tomorrow we will reach the rest of the army, and I want to be sure that my men are adequately equipped for battle. I also thought it would be only right to make them easily recognizable by sight. After I am finished with their armor, I’ll equip you too."
"Are you planning to send me into battle with your wolf troops, my love?" Sara joked.
"No, but I assume you will want to be with me, and unfortunately I have sworn myself to fight," Seth answered.
Seth and Sara waited only an hour until the sun was lost to the horizon and the moons both rose outside their makeshift shelter. Seth sat leaning against the back wall facing the door, Sara resting in his lap, her head on his shoulder, a river of raven hair streaming down her back. Seth raised his head hearing the inn door swing closed with a bang across the courtyard. He listened as footsteps approached accompanied by clanking and clunking, and reaching out with his mind he assured himself it was simply Borrik and the three men he had earlier in the day perfected. The steps and various metallic clangs neared and stopped at the door to the building. A hard, overly loud knock sounded and Seth chuckled quietly to himself. Borrik knocked as if this building were some proper chamber, instead of a storage shed. Seth, helping Sara rise from his lap, welcomed his men to join them, and the large door swung back quickly and effortlessly, and Seth’s four completed troops ushered themselves in quickly.
"Did you have any problems finding us?" Seth asked.
"None we couldn’t handle, m'lord," Borrik replied. With his answer Borrik grinned, his many sharp canine and orc teeth producing more a threatening sneer than a proper smile.
"What do you mean ‘handle’?" Seth asked, hoping the men hadn’t inadvertently caused him any trouble.
"I don’t think the gate guard expected your troops to appear as we do, m'lord, and he was hesitant to permit us entrance, even though you had already spoken to him," Borrik replied.
"How then did you get in the city?" Seth asked, now a bit amused.
"I growled at the poor whelp," Borrik smiled. "I think the man lost his bowels." Tilting his head back slightly Borrik let loose a throaty bark-like chuckle.
Then it was down to business as each of Seth’s four wolf men un-slung from their backs large bundles and spread them out upon the floor. Each bundle contained numerous pieces of armor accompanied by coin pouches and even some pieces of jewelry in odd fashions. Seth sifted through the larger ones, and finding some items to his satisfaction, set them all aside. Scooping up all the coin pouches he handed them to Sara to inventory and sort, along with the jewelry. The remaining items Seth shoved into a large pile, casting them aside for later.
Looking at the pieces he had selected he was happy to find he had more than enough to equip his men. He separated four complete, large sets of armor which he assumed had belonged to the orcs of the raiding party. He was happy to find they would need little alteration to accommodate the large size of his men. Most of the changes he would have to perform he assumed would simply be in the styling of the armor, and the way in which the joints attached and moved. However, not wanting to waste his time and energy, he asked one of his soldiers to don a set of the armor so he could appraise its fit before he began. In short order the wolf man, known in his human days as Vork Steisser, was completely outfitted in the orc armor, and Seth was pleased to discover that his assumptions were correct.
Thinking it would be best to actually perform the changes to the armor while the men were wearing it in order to assure a perfect fit, Seth then had the remaining three adorn armor as well. Though orcs were not sticklers for detail, the blackened plate armor was effective as it was this very moment. However, Seth wanted more than adequate armor for his men. He wanted, like the highly polished Knights of Valdadore, armor that made a statement.
Seth first approached Borrik, and eyeing his armor from every possible angle, he was able to discern what changes he wanted to make, and how best to improve upon the simple design. Placing his hand first upon Borrik's breastplate Seth unleashed some of the power he had trapped, stirring inside him, seeking release. Focusing the power to do his will upon the armor, everyone in the room watched as the metal began to buck and roll, stretching here and twisting there. The roughly hammered surfaces smoothed and new lines and creases appeared. As the armor began to take shape, his troops nodded their approval though Seth was too busy to notice. After several minutes, Seth took a step back to admire his work. Then, retrieving a gold coin from Sara, he again laid his hand upon the breastplate, trapping the coin between his hand and the newly shaped armor. A moment later Seth again stepped back to appraise his work.