Beyond the Crags - 18. Chapter 18

Adga blinked out spots in her eyes and gasped as her hand went up to her cheek. The deep scratches were gone. She shook her head to fully clear it, then glared at the squealing bull-headed harpy kid wrapped in bands of fire. She moved up and looked down. The squealing got worse. “Shut UP! You’re killing my ears!”

She took a deep breath, and snarled, “The blazing bands don’t seem to be burning you and your squealing is mind-killing! Last warning!”

The pitch only increased as she glared down.

She kicked the bull-head with a full force punt. The figure hit the wall and fell unconscious. As this happened one of the gems scattered across the floor flared with a bright inner light.

She let out a low growl as she blinked and rubbed her forehead. There was no remorse in her voice as she added, “I warned you.”

With the kid’s shrieks suppressed, Adga found herself in total silence. She looked around. From one end of the room to the other and extended out into the hall she had helped to clear of the undead, those with her reached for formerly injured areas and fought to shake off the truly godly powers that had rolled over them. Vendra was awake but was still down on all fours as if still overwhelmed.

“Royal guardsman, pull Ven back along with those we rescued! We need to… I think we are supposed to kill those left standing, but I do not understand…”

Tez took a couple of deep breaths as he scratched at his arm. “We just met a god!”

“Ah, yeah…” Taglon responded with an awed whisper as he picked up Vendra, put her on her feet, and steadied her. “And saw several others… And clearly felt the healing touch of the great goddess of healing and forests, Vindayin! However, it sounds like Vendra will be needed. Thus, I will protect her…”

Gordech tried to speak, gagged, coughed, and shook his head. When words came out they were in Drylander, the native tongue of the Combined Desert Realms, “Hold just hold… I…” He cleared his throat and shuddered. “Rovnar asked me what I wanted as a gift since we haven’t seen each other in thousands of years… I told him I needed to be able to speak to you…” He rubbed his throat, “Rovnar answered in his own way. I no longer know Falconeze, the language of the commoners who inhabit the lands of the Falconlings, my homeland. He said it was no longer used. Instead, I now know this tongue… the writings and even words are shifting in my thoughts. I try to say the words in Falconeze, but they come out as this and I somehow know them as I speak. My… head… ears… and throat all hurt…” he coughed again as he stumbled over to the weapon and items dropped by the undead and spilled from the large shadowy pouches and looked down. “And yes, I clearly saw both Vaneuben and Lunara, both of whom I have met… but while near gods, they have certainly become… more… So much more… And they haven’t aged much… But… I… We need to stay focused… More undead is clearly coming… But there must be something important here… what am I seeing?”

Nuk, who couldn’t help but look down, over to Adga, and down again with wide eyes and bright red cheeks. “Lots of coin, including GOLD and diamond-looking stones, several of which look to have twinkling light in them… one got real bright after our patrol leader fed a boot to the fire banded thing over there… Um, rings, a fancy bracelet that goes up an arm that looks a whole lot like a dragon… a necklet, and a few broaches… And…”

“Commander,” Tur spoke with a tightly clenched jaw while rubbing the heel of his left hand with his right. “He is right. I hear more coming in the distance. We have little time: What do you order with regards to the firebird touched, and stunned creatures?”

“Push them up into this room and hope they stay… stupefied or whatever was done to them for a few seconds.” She reached over to the crank in an attempt to shut the gate. It didn’t budge. She pulled both directions and even smacked it with a mace. “Dammit, it’s jammed!”

Tez scratched at his freshly healed arm, frowned, made a bow-firing motion, scowled deeply, and then moved into the downward-sloping passage. “Patrol leader, there is a channel in the ceiling with a chain... I bet, much like the gatehouse to the Shunral main palace, it leads to a counterweight! We need to follow and see where it is stuck!”

Adga rubbed her head with both hands… “I… I’m…”

“You’re in command, and we need orders!” Taglon reminded her.

“Yeah,” she snarled. “I know, but I have no clue what… to do, let alone say!”

Behind her Vyrax spoke, “Do what you always do, Ad! Go with your gut!”

“It’d be a hell of a lot easier if it didn’t feel like my insides were in a knot!” Adga snapped but looked around again. “Tur, Nuk, Tez, push all those stunned, or whatever, up into this room!”

As the three reacted, Adga turned sharply, “Guardsman… What about our pilfering food-bountied prisoners?”

“Out, all of them. The two young nobles are watching. “However, they all slumped over when a red blur seemed to appear and slap and shake Nuklem, Son-Tez, and Rin which woke them up out of the dreams they were having. I.. think whatever… whoever… probably the god Rovnar slapped them so hard he sent the dreams into your captives!”

Rin appeared behind Adga, “Slap me bad fer sure, part a face hurt, but me think it be small hand… But hit like a hammer swung by god er whatever! But, Ad, all dem robber brat be out and dream… crazy Dream... them toss, turn and many act like dem be like happy er whatever. Dem got red mark on temple too. Sssso me think Royal Guardsman be right. Me check. All got dream knocked into ‘em… even da Halforc, but him cry. Bet it be real bad dream…”

His gaze fell on the strange, winged creature with blue and copper scales… “Female Dargon KIN!”

The creature shot Rin a glare, “Yeah, but now ain’t the time for you to drool because there happens to be a breedable Dragon kin in range of your nose!”

“But…”

Vyrax smacked Rin on the back of the head with the flat of his blade, “Rin, come on, man! We got lots of other stuff to worry about!”

His eyes stayed locked on the winged figure, “But…”

“Males,” The female growled as she grabbed the last of the kids the undead had been trying to get to when Adga first moved in. As she placed him with five others who had been badly hurt, she snarled, “Either fight by my side so we can protect those Lieutenant Komran brought in here, or leave me alone, Dragonling!”

“Awww,” Rin complained. “Disss not be right er fair! While me be Healthman to do robber brats, ya gets to find a female Dragon kin and it look like me misssss big fight ta boot!”

“Got another brawl coming,” Tur responded from down the passage as he shoved three nearly nude very old-looking figures with Elvin blood into the room along with a very young girl who appeared as Drow. All appeared to have scores of nasty wounds, many of which looked like bites by something with big teeth.

He was followed by Tez who pushed a very young totally nude Dragonling with sparkly scales, some missing, two near adults, and three ancient-looking ones with lots of scales missing up the passage. They all stumbled as if they were not aware of their surroundings. Like the others, they had wounds that looked like bites where the scales were missing. “Patrol leader, there is a sloping hall down. It leads to a room with lots of stuff in it including thousands of rodent bones. It smells wretched, most of the stuff in it is old and rotten including clothing. But the door to it was opened on purpose recently. The chips of rock and gouges from a pry bar around the frame are fresh and someone broke what I think was a magical seal. It is scattered on the ground. It looks a lot like the seal Lord Alagor Shunral told me was accidentally broken and had held back the great undead he had to slay!”

“Almost exactly what Lord Alagor Shunral told us about, but this one had the symbol of Warvon on it, not Lunara!” Nuk exclaimed loudly as used one hand to hold five pieces of a broken symbol with his left hand while he pushed a pair of Tigerlings with heavy graying fur and lots of wounds and patches of missing fur into the room with his other hand.

He looked back, “This is all the dumbfounded ones, but the slave is right, there are lots of dead walkers coming and the channel with the chain goes way down the passage, past the broken door with the destroyed symbol of Warvon! At the moment, they are being held back by flaming clouds, but the clouds are fading fast!”

Adga frowned and glanced around. “Is the passage down taller than this room?”

“Just down from the pried open and formerly sealed door is a spot that looks like an old sewer chamber,” Tur answered. “It is much larger with a domed ceiling, Commander.”

She pulled her blade, “Then we make a stand down there where I can fully fight! We see if we can find where the counterweight is, fight to it, see if we can free it, and fall back here. If we can, we’ll drop the gate and hope it holds! If not, we fall back to the dining room and seal and bar the door there!”

“What of these,” Nuk asked as he pointed to the horribly wounded and still stunned beings.

Adga turned sharply and looked over to wobbling forms then turned to Gordech, “Those must be what was… who I can only assume was Rovnar talking about? It sounds like you know what is going on!”

“Um… Know what’s going on… No… I don’t know where or even when I am at this point, but… Yeah, that was DEFINITELY Rovnar… and um, those diamond-looking stones are…” he took a closer look and shuddered hard enough to ruffle all of his feathers. “They must be Soul Stones. Do not touch. If they draw blood, they can pull who you are, your soul, out of your body leaving it open for something else to take it over. Or switch places with whoever or whatever is in the stone if it is not an empty one.

“The glowing ones have a soul held within. The one that flared when you knocked the thing over there out,” He pointed to the bull-headed harpy-like being, “Well… my best guess is the soul of the real owner of the body is now inhabited by what sounds like the great grandson of Electroroma! If I pick the brightly glowing stone up with a gauntlet and draw even a pinprick of blood it should… if what I have read and been taught… um, it should allow for a battle of wills of the original soul to try to reclaim his body, but with the other being out, it should be easy… or at least easier for it to do so…”

Gordech took a deep breath, “But even unconscious, a soul has power and a will… the test of wills is something not well understood, since Soul Stones came or come from the Realms of Cataclysm, the home of the original gods.

“Back home… like in my time or whatever, the worst of the worst criminals were pulled into Soul Stones. The problem was, the Mythlings managed to capture many of them and released those horrible beings into the world to fight for them… And some of the worst of the Mythlings, like Pyrothermal, had huge stashes of empty stones and would launch them with a special sling at powerful guards and beings to try to get them sucked out of their bodies. It was said, maybe still is, that the pouches of Pyrothermal had some of the greatest heroes of the Mythling wars in them.

Gordech pointed to the other stones scattered across the floor, “And, has anyone else noticed several of the other glowing stones which have gotten brighter since all those who came in here?”

“Twelve of them,” Tur answered. “Same number as the burning bird stunned…”

“And we have a dozen eggs in the nest,” Cuson added. “Something tells me it ain’t a coincidence…”

“Same thing I guess…” Gordech answered with clear bewilderment in his voice. “But Rovnar was very clear, which is exceedingly rare. We need to kill them… with compassion… And you are correct. It must have something to do with the nest with the hot eggs… I don’t understand. Hell, I barely understand this language as it comes out of me!”

Adga eyed the twelve staggering figures for a few seconds, “It looks like they have all been bitten repeatedly, even the young ones…” She spun and looked at the figure held by fiery bands. She moved up and dumped water on it. As it sputtered and cried she waved a gauntleted fist in front of its face. “What is going on with them?”

It tried to pull on the flaming bands but let out a cry of pain as it caused the skin to start to smoke. Finally, it gave up and looked up at Adga. It surprised her when it responded in Drylander. “You killed my mom, brothers, and sisters! I tell you nothing!”

Gordech carefully picked up the brightest glowing stone after putting on fine chain-link gloves from a side pouch on his weapon belt. He stared at the bull-headed figure. His voice was full of fury as he approached. “A Lamassulet would never voluntarily become a shade of any kind. Which means you took its body unwillingly. My guess is the boy the body belongs to is held in this stone. What is your name, and what is the name of the body you inhabit?”

“I am Evanstatic! Great grandson of Electroroma!’ The bullheaded shouted then screamed as it once again tried to break out and its skin started to smoke. “She will…”

“She’s dead, been dead for eons,” Vendra managed to speak with venom in her voice. “Killed by Frexla when she stole something from her. Utterly destroyed, her hardened heart shattered in immoral fire by the Witch of Flames!”

Vendra managed to stand a little straighter, “Probably the only decent thing Frexla ever did!”

Gordech smirked, “The alleged theft was a trick, sleight of hand, set up by the one I serve! Rovnar himself told and showed me of Electroroma’s demise as he inhabited me moments ago! She was quartered by Frexa and most of her followers slaughtered because she allowed the crown prince of the sands to escape. It seems the Mythlings and Brown Dragons failed in their quests to wipe out the Sands!” He approached the bull-headed kid with the glowing gem. It got brighter with each step he took.

The figure thrashed and screamed in agony as the flaming bands started to burn as he tried to break free. “Get it away from me bird brain!”

“No, you will give back what you stole, but… and I give you this one chance, you tell me... Us… what those beings are or were and I will eventually find a body to put you into since it seems your mother turned yours into some form of undead shade.”

“I know little about those we tried to kill by feeding on them!” The bull-headed lad shouted in desperation. “They were grabbed by our mother as we fled Ziv’mona! But the bitch locked us up with the power of her father! We couldn’t get out of the chamber. The magic was too strong until it was broken only a handful of bell chimes ago by a follower of Havloc!”

“So you fed on these twelve?” Gordech asked with revulsion.

“Yeah! It’s what Mom took them for! Those brats were supposed to be our food, and path to immortality, but they wouldn’t die! So we are always hungry since we cannot finish them. Thousands of years I have been constantly hungry!”

“Thousands of years?” Adga asked with disdain. “A couple of them are little kids!”

The bull-headed figure snarled and went into a long rant. “They are all little kids! But they grow, and eat what they can, mostly rats and bugs, and we feed. However, an instant before they should have died they burst into flame and returned to being little kids again! We have tried everything to get them to just die when we take a final bite.” It spoke with both vehemence and frustration. “Mom condemned us to this, made us quazi-shades so we could feed on living, make a few kills, and venture to the outer realms and take our places as greater spirits for our great grandfather and great grandmother.

“But Mom lied to us when she said those kids would be what we needed to move on and escape the trap Ziv’mona set for her… And she fell right into it, taking us with her as she did so!

“But she kept those kids even as she took us into the sewers of Scorpion Falls and eventually into an area of sewers, all with dead ends. By the time we figured it out and got back to where we first entered the section, Ziv’mona used the power of her father, Warvon to block the section with some powerful magic which prevented non-living from getting past. The kids could flee, but we needed them to at least try to sate our hunger. It did little good, the more we fed the weaker they got and the less nourishment they provided. Then, just before they died, they were consumed by fire, and the little kids they were when Mom first grabbed them reappeared. Three of my brothers and two of my sisters tried to feed on them as they burst into flames and were destroyed horribly. What little is left of them still haunts the passages we were trapped in, too weak to ever move on.

“The section was walled off thousands of years ago by followers of Warvon who strengthened the original spell. Mom forced us to continue to feed or she would feed on us. And she did so when me and Othmoz refused her demands. It weakened us and made us terribly hungry, so we had to feed… but the feeding didn’t stop the hunger. Othmoz finally gave up and purposefully fed while one burst into flame. But he now haunts the passages of the dead end with my other siblings. He cries often, saying Devils chase him and torment him so he must always flee, but there is nowhere to run since he is trapped behind the spells of the Warvon followers.

“Maybe now he can finally escape! But it doesn’t matter. I was too afraid to do what my brother did. Besides, the whole time Mom promised us those twelve kids were the way to get out… but they just won’t die! Therefore, we couldn’t get a final kill and fully slide into the shadow realms. Without an alternate passage out to get past the spells of Warvon, we couldn’t join Great Grandmother where she told us to meet her after the Sands were destroyed.

“Instead, the Storm Realms of Motikeg remained out of Mom’s reach, and thus ours as well, not that I wanted to go there. I wanted to stay mortal and… If matters not. Mom killed and fed on my friends and made us steal these bodies so we could escape Rovnar, Warvon, and Quati forces who overran our lines and were hunting for Mom, and she said to us as well. She then turned us into quazi-shades to escape the undead that had taken over the lands of the Sands. Once we were turned, we had to do what she commanded or be fed on by Mom and our brothers and sisters, just like we were forced to do on those kids.

“Mom even fed on a few of us to see if it would let her escape this place, but since she made us quazi-shades, there was not enough mortal life left in us, even in the bodies she stole and pushed us into, for her to move on. She promised the kids would let us escape even as she fed on me and my brother over a hundred times. But no, the price of greater power remained out of her reach since we were forced to endure endless hunger in the prison Warvon’s daughter trapped us in!”

Tears of pain and anger dripped down its face. “But even though finally freed, I am once again trapped. This time in burning bands of Zerris! And with the death of my mother and the sundering of my ties to the shadow realms of death, you have condemned me to never get enough power to join my great grandfather, Motikeg! You, with the help of the damned demigods Rovnar and Zerris, have killed my entire family! I will tell you nothing more about me or of use!”

“You just told us everything we needed to know,” Gordech replied with narrowed eyes. “You are in the lines of two of the most detestable Mythlings to ever walk this realm of existence. And you have, possibly by force, fed on bodies whose souls were not what they seemed. Instead, the beings you have been attempting to sate your hunger on were replaced by Phoenix souls. My bet is willing Phoenix souls since Motikeg was known to have gotten at least some of his power by feeding on Phoenix and Dragon eggs. Getting your mother to grab bodies inhabited by Phoenix souls is a trick befitting Rovnar, for certain! Your tirade also explains everything we need to know!”

Without further words, Gordesh stepped up to the boy and used the glowing stone to scratch his arm just enough to draw blood. The stone flared. A tiny duplicate figure of the bull-headed boy appeared above the stone. At the same time, an equally small figure of a young teen human, but with small ram horns on his head and fingers with long pointed fingernails was ripped out of the bull-headed winged body. The gem held by Gordech stopped glowing.

The glowing bull-headed figure struck so fast that the see-through form of the clawed boy didn’t have a chance to do more than lift an arm to try to defend.

The fist of the glowing bull-headed figure crashed into the jaw of the clawed boy. This was followed up by a vicious headbutt into his throat and a knee to the groin. As the clawed figure dropped to his knees, the bull-headed figure shoved his fingers into the clawed boy’s nose and lifted him. The clawed boy screamed in agony which was both felt and heard. However, it didn’t last long. The bull-headed figure did an overhand swing, ripping the nose open as he did so, but tossed the clawed figure into the stone. The stone lit up brightly again as the clawed lad let out a final scream and was sucked into the stone with a slurping sound.

The glowing bull-headed figure then turned into a bright spark and shot up the nose of the fiery band-restrained bull-headed figure. The body jerked a few times then started snoring loudly.

Gordech held up the stone which was glowing again and chirped in satisfaction, “The last of Electroroma’s lineage. You will remain with me until I figure out what Rovnar wants to be done with you!”

As this was said, Rin moved up and punched a small kid with bloody strips of oozing flesh covering its body and gooey globs in the eye sockets which had a red glow around them. As it fell, he stomped on the head to destroy it. Grey matter splattered out around his foot from the crushed skull.

Tez sent an arrow into a figure of a Dwarf who was in a similar state. As it fell back with a burning arrow in its chest, he shouted, “I bet these were recently killed and brought back by Dead Storm, and lots more are now in the hall going down!”

Gordech glanced over to Adga, “I know what needs to be done, but will need help and you need to find a way to secure this gate and block off what is below!”

Vendra managed to speak as Rin took down a bone walker and Nuk sliced into a Gobling who also appeared to have fallen victim to the Dead Storm raging above since most of its body was stripped of skin and the muscles oozed blood and foul-smelling juices. “I think I understand as well… I need to stay and help… But I am so weak…”

“I will stay with you,” Taglon stated. “And Tur, you do not look well…”

“The axehammer is part of me… it is powerful… and whatever the god Rovnar did to my hand still hurts quite bad… I am also probably the best to kill these other bodies. Killing quickly with as little pain as possible is something I know well. For Master didn’t like unneeded suffering by those beaten but condemned to die in the arena. It was a skill taught to me once he realized it would not be long before he would be forced to put me in more challenging and dangerous matches. Master wanted to make sure I could kill condemned beaten opponents with mercy. But I don’t understand what good it will do us or them.”

“I am pretty sure I do,” Gordech answered as he pulled out a small pouch made of tiny links of Dwarven Steel and dropped the glowing stone into it. He unfurled his wings, “Rovnar, I give of myself all within me to send everything you have through me. Use up all my channeling I have today to open us a path down to the gate counterweights!”

His wings flared again, and a powerful wave of red magic roared down the passage. Several dead walkers were destroyed, and half a dozen others were left stunned.

At the same time, Vendra held up her holy symbol of Zerris: prismatic beams of light added to the power of the wave of red energy.

As Gordech fell to his knees, he gasped out. “Thank you Rovnar… But I’ve got nothing left! The rest of you need to get down there and find a way to shut this gate!”

Vendra also went down to a knee, “Ad, go… hurry. There are more coming. Some out of the deep desert! I felt them… We MUST secure this area!”

Adga wasted no time. She moved down the passage with her blade out. She knocked three of the stunned ones down even as she called out, “Vyrax! Not even a god is getting between me and good food, so check on our captives! Rovnar, as we heard in his own words, is looked to and worshiped by slaves and those seeking freedom. It wouldn’t surprise me if he slipped their restraints or gave them ways to do so, especially as fast as he moved!

“Rin, Nuk, and Tez with me. Eliminate those I knocked down! And Cuson, if those others are your friends, let ‘em know we can talk about their status later! But right now, we need everyone capable of fighting down here to do so until we can find what is stopping the counterweight!”

Adga entered, exited the passage down, and stopped. A torrent of water cut through the center of the immense domed chamber. Three massive bridges which looked to be made of the same kinds of stones as those in the Gate Wall allowed for passage to the far side. There were over a dozen holes, and tubes, in the domed ceiling where she bet stormwater and sewage from the town of Scorpion Falls, far above, drained into this room and emptied into a rushing torrent of water cutting through the center of the room.

In fact, she bet the floor of the chamber all but flooded when it rained or the sewers were purged which pushed everything into the torrent and out the far wall. However, the floor around her was currently littered with those the flaming bird, Rovnar, through Gordech, and Zerris, through Vendra, had destroyed. However, as she looked up, it wasn’t water she saw coming out of the tubes. Instead, it was bodies. Scores of them… Many hit the floor and broke bones or did other damage to themselves, but others fared better. They tumbled, shook off the fall, and stood. Yet others, those with the brightest glow in their eyes, knocked back the lesser ones even as they searched for weapons or other items they dropped when they fell out of the tubes.

Regardless, all had a red glow in their eyes. The toughest rippled with powerful red flaming glows Adga guessed were evil to the core and ancient, probably some of those she saw running out of the Desert of the Dead. Many others looked recent, and their eyes barely flickered… but they were all deadwalkers.

“OH SHIT!” she shouted. “Nuk, Tez! You two need to find what’s blocking the counterweight! I have no idea what to look for and I’m gonna need to fight! Everyone else we hold them back here, now, or dead will flood the halls above and we’re all dead!”