The Contention (21 page)
Frowning, Garret surveyed his army knowing the soldiers were little more than sheep being led to the slaughter. No matter how well they were trained, no matter how perfectly they performed, they would be crushed by the blessed soldiers under Sigrant’s command. Without more champions of his own, Garret knew Valdadore stood little chance even of survival. Battle mages had come out of retirement to help in the impending war, as well as several clerics and even a man nicknamed Thousand Hole Tommy. He was quite old, blessed by Vikstol, and said to have been shot by arrows more than a thousand times in his career of serving the Valdadorian army. Garret had met the man personally, and saw for himself the withered man’s body covered in scars nearly to entirety. None, however, had come blessed by Gorandor. All that was left of the fabled knights of Valdadore were Horace, Malik, Zorbin and Garret himself. Of those Zorbin was gone, sent to beg aid from the dwarves, and Malik and Zorbin both retained their normal sizes when blessed. This battle, it seemed, would be one for the mages.
Reports came in several times daily from Seth’s troops. Though they worked ceaselessly to slow the invading army, they had little effect on the massive campaign led by King Sigrant. They managed to keep Sigrant’s supply lines at a standstill, making his troops hungry and restless, but even so, within days the enemy army would reach the new shores of the manmade lake Garret had placed in their path. This would slow their progress by several days, and Garret planned to meet the invaders upon the shore nearest the city of Valdadore. Seeing the opposing army, Garret hoped Sigrant would turn his troops north to skirt the lake, buying them even more time, rather than try and fight from a bridge or rafts. Only time would tell on this account however.
Regardless of where the battle happened, it would happen, and when it did, without direct intervention from the gods, or reinforcements from the dwarves, Garret knew the battle could not be won. Even with Seth on their side, Garret was sure the battle would be short. If Vladmere had informed King Sigrant about Seth, then the entire invading army would target the Death Mage and make it their first priority to bring him down. Even Seth could not single-handedly take on an army of twenty-five thousand. Though determined, Garret saw little hope for the future.
Looking to the sun to estimate the time, Garret strode back down the many flights of stairs to the base of the wall that surrounded the city. Mounting a great white war horse, he rode the beast as quickly as the crowded streets allowed him back towards the palace for yet another council meeting. Tomorrow he would lead out his army to ensure they were in place upon the eastern shore of the new lake before the enemy arrived. At this afternoon’s meeting, final plans were to be made, final orders to be given, and Seth had stated days prior that before they marched from the city, he would have a surprise of his own to share with the council. Garret hoped his brother had something very special in store.
*****
For more than a week Seth worked throughout the day and night, apart from a few hours each morning that he would share with Sara. He had studied every blessed champion of the gods he came across, and found many patterns within them he recognized and many more he did not. He memorized them and performed experiments upon inanimate objects such as weapons and armor, working out the details of each pattern that he translated into a symbol. Seth managed to glean a vast amount of information in this manner, and besides destroying several pieces of armor, and the vault within the Temple to Ishanya, no serious harm was done in the process. Seth collected key items of armor and weapons from various people he personally selected, and worked to enchant the objects as he saw fit. Through his studies he had worked out much of what was needed to create people with the ability to perform magic, but it was while they performed their art that really interesting things were discovered.
Seth first realized this while watching the young father who was a battle mage lending his ability to help a blacksmith. Looking within the man Seth had discovered the pattern that made him able to control magic, but as he performed, more patterns within the first distinguished themselves from the others. The pattern that allowed a person the ability to control magic was complex, having within it thousands of miniscule patterns that were so small they were indistinguishable from one another, even with Seth’s increased mental capacity. However, when a person called upon their god to invoke their abilities, the power coursed through them swelling these patterns, causing them to interlock with one another. It also made them become large enough to study as well. Seth studied battle mages, healers, a druid and each Knight of Valdadore within the city, including his brother. Seth had unlocked the secrets to each of their blessings, but looking into himself, his own patterns matched no one else’s. Though he thought this important, it would have to wait for another time. Instead Seth focused on those patterns that worked to create abilities that he could mimic with symbols upon weapons and armor. These enchantments were limited and each of them needed to be charged with precious life energy in order to work.
Seth needed something more to bring to the table. The enchantments would be a great asset, he was sure, but he wanted to create champions, especially after speaking to his brother in the days after the Knights of Valdadore had been slaughtered. Valdadore was short on champions, and as sick and twisted as it was, Seth believed he had discovered more than one way to create such heroes of his own. So he toiled day in and day out testing his theories, assuring himself that he could recreate that which the gods had kept secret for all of time.
As he did his trials, some of his troops began returning, a few at a time, bringing him beasts they had captured. Seth now had a menagerie of life contained within him; an arsenal of abilities, both natural and unnatural, to bestow upon his chosen. All Seth needed now was more time, and a volunteer. One single person would serve Seth’s purpose three times over, though he would risk Ishanya’s wrath if he made any mistakes. Seth had to remind himself that he had to appear to serve Ishanya at all times, yet use that act to his own ends to serve his own purposes. It was a dangerous game with more moving pieces than Seth dared count, yet it was necessary. Seth ran through his plan once again within his mind, reassuring himself that he would not and could not fail. In mere hours the army would march to meet the enemy, and Seth planned to add to the arsenal of Valdadore champions unlike any the world had ever seen.
Leaving his current chamber within the temple, Seth closed the door behind him and nodded to Jonas. Jonas already had his own orders and as such rushed off to complete them. Seth walked through the temple into the main chamber. Here more than two hundred followers sat among the pews, and interrupting their sermon, Seth strode through the rooms and spoke just two words.
“Follow me.”
Without so much as a pause he continued out into the street where he turned and headed towards the city’s eastern gate. It was there that the army was gathered, and more arrived by the minute. It was there that Seth planned to perform a miracle unlike any that humankind had ever witnessed. They had seen those blessed by the gods in the heavens, and they were awed by the magnificence of such things, but even so, it was hard for a person to have faith in a being they could not see or touch. It was hard to have faith in a being to the extent of placing your life in their hands without being able to hold them responsible. That was the reason so few were blessed. It was hard for a person to give themselves wholly into any cause, let alone one they could not experience with their senses. Seth planned to change all that.
Even now as he strode through the streets, his men blocking intersections and clearing a path for him, more of his men were out among the army prepping them for what was to come. The word was spreading of a god who walked among mankind, a god who could be held accountable, a god that was coming to choose his champions from among those gathered outside the city. This was the gamble. Seth needed to create champions, and the more the merrier. However, he did not have the power to sustain them all in battle, at least not for long. The simpler their blessing, the easier they would be to sustain, and from there he could doctor up their appearance a bit to make them look more formidable. This was just a small portion of his plan, of course. He would need at least a few true champions, but those would come later. First he needed to inspire the people, then he needed them to feed him power.
Less than an hour later, just as Garret left the wall to fight through the crowds and make his way to the palace for another council meeting, Seth burst out from the city gates. Like a pack of wild dogs, those men of his that had already returned to the city rushed him from all directions and fell into even lines behind him. They marched at his back, a vision of power and ferociousness. Seth strode up to the acting commander of the army, now that both Garret and Sulvis were otherwise occupied, and looking through his dark cowl at the man gave him a single order.
“Call them to muster then stand aside,” Seth commanded, his voice cold and menacing.
“Yes, your majesty,” the sniveling general replied.
Seth waited as the command was given and a horn was blasted three times across the manicured lawn surrounding the immense castle. Men and women came streaming from every direction, many running as fast as their legs would carry them, and within the span of only a few minutes, over eleven thousand troops stood before Seth, and several hundred worshippers of Ishanya stood behind him. Seth peered at the vast army, though not with his eyes, and found that the vast majority had sworn allegiance to no god. Today he would do what he could to make believers out of those who were at present reluctant. Mimicking a portion of his own brother’s blessing, Seth unleashed a small amount of his power and poured it into the words he spoke in order to be heard clearly across the massive expanse of ground the troops stood upon.
“Many of you know me by name alone. You have heard rumors of my deeds. You have heard exaggerations of the miracles that I have performed…or have you?” Seth asked. “Were these merely stories you have heard about me or were they true? Can I kill with a thought? Can I make men more than what they were designed to be? Do I indeed perform miracles in the name of the goddess Ishanya? Yes I do. Though you may never see her face, you now shall see mine.” Pulling back his cowl Seth revealed himself to all those gathered. Though the sun shot pain through his head making standing in the open excruciating, Seth blinked his eyes often to reduce the pain, his sight temporarily lost. After standing there a few moments he then pulled his cowl over his face to restore his vision, and began to speak once more.
“Many of you are afraid of me, and many more fear the source of my power. Only my own troops know me as I really am, and today I wish to choose a few among you to join the ranks of my troops. Not as a werewolf like the men I have here, but as champions of my own making. I would make you equal to the champions you have seen or heard tales about, and beyond that I would make you more.” Seth paused to let his words settle. Already he could see the soldiers beginning to whisper and nod to one another.
“Today I shall choose one among you to be a champion,” Seth said putting suitable emphasis on the words. He meant ‘I shall choose, I shall create, I shall make, and not Ishanya’.
“Today one among you will become more than a man or woman, and through me you will be given strength to strike down our foes. Listen to what you have heard this day. Hear my words well, for now I must choose as time is growing short. Who among you would wish to join my troops and become my first champion upon Thurr?” Seth asked and watched as bodies began to extract themselves from the ranks of their peers. It began as a trickle of bodies, and sadly it ended as a trickle as well. With over eleven thousand in attendance, less than fifty men and woman stepped forth, willing to gamble their lives on the chance that the rumor of Seth being a god was true. Seth strode before the line of people prepared to take the risk and looked each of them over. The truth was he cared not for their physical appearance, but instead he looked inside each one to see if any of them had the ability to wield magic. Two among them did, and stepping back Seth pointed to them and told them to come forward.
One man and one woman, each with the ability to wield magic, each willing to sacrifice themselves to become something greater than what they were, stood before Seth. He only needed one, and seeing that they both were young, assumed neither of them had children. Having no way to choose, Seth asked them each a question.
“Are you willing to sacrifice your humanity to become a champion, and become part beast like my soldiers behind me?” he asked.
In response the young man nodded, and the young woman replied, “Yes, your majesty, I would be honored.”
The decision was made. Seth looked over the young woman as she was one last time, committing her image to memory before he began the alteration. She was perhaps sixteen with sandy-blonde hair and a face covered in freckles. She slumped her shoulders slightly in a stance that said she was not confident with who she was. All of that was about to change. Selecting pieces from the menagerie within him, Seth began to alter the girl’s appearance first, as this was the easy part. Wave after wave of power he sent into the woman, selecting individual portions of the auras he contained to alter specific traits. As she began to transform she screamed out in ecstasy as the power rushed through her body. A pair of Seth’s men quickly hurried in and ripped the woman’s clothing from her body leaving her completely exposed as she shrank to the ground to lie writhing in the pleasure coursing through her. She tossed and turned so much it made it difficult to see the entire transformation, though the skin upon her legs below the knee had obviously changed, and her hair had vanished momentarily only to be replaced with what appeared to be feathers. Again and again Seth poured power into the girl to get the desired effect he wanted, all the while saving the best for last. After several long moments Seth paused in his actions to allow the woman a moment to recover. When she did, she rose to her knees somewhat unsteadily, still panting for air. An audible gasp arose from the thousands gathered and Seth was not even finished yet.