The Chaos Blade

"One of the demons followed us through the gate," Elvanshalee spoke up quickly before Alesha or Yamara had a chance to. "They tracked it down here and gave battle to it, destroying it utterly."

"You sure it's gone?" A man named Kal said, looking around anxiously. He had perfected his own unarmed methods of combat he had invented over the years in the pursuit of serving of Alto, the God of Justice and Loyalty, with great success against men, women, and beasts. These demons that had attacked them were a different sort of adversary though. He was not so sure about them, but with Alto's light to guide him, he would do his best to test them.

"Yes, it wounded our friends badly but while they distracted it, we killed it," Alesha said, picking up on Elvanshalee's train of thought quickly.

They all nodded and the conscripted guards around her looked relieved. Kal alone seemed disappointed. It seemed he wanted a chance to seek some vengeance and justice against the demons that had driven them from their homes.

"Do you need any help with him?" Igrid asked, noting the finality of Eric's position. Bill looked up at her, his face a mask of determination. Not trusting himself to speak he shook his head and went back to it.

"Let us at least post guards then, in case any other found their way here," she said, motioning to some of her followers to take up positions. Kal chose to remain behind as well, though he was not one of the "official" guards. Bill ignored them all. Alesha rose to her feet and cast about, finding her own stone to use to aid in the grave digging. Yamara followed suit and Elvanshalee, feeling uncomfortable and not knowing what else to do, joined in the task as well.

Less then an hour later a proper grave had been dug with their crude tools. Bill laid Eric within it and spent a quiet moment in respectful thought. He looked at each of the remaining people, searching for something. Finally he ended up with his eyes resting on Alesha. He nodded as he seemed to find something, then tossed in the first handful of dirt to the grave. One by one, starting with Yamara, they did the same. Then they fell to it using their stones, hands, and feet, not stopping until the dirt was a shallow mound.

Finally, thoroughly dirty and exhausted mentally, physically, and emotionally, they returned to the camp with Kal and the remaining soldiers.

Chapter 28

"Ssythanduras," Darakor called out, speaking into his magical bowl. The hooded form of the lizardman high priest appeared after a few seconds. He hissed a greeting and waited for Darakor to continue.

"Ready your demons, they have an old debt they need to repay," he ordered, smiling grimly.

"What do you ssspeak of, General?" Ssythanduras responded, curious as to the plans of the newly positioned Lord of the Light Elves.

"My foolish cousins have interfered with this world far too long," he said. "Banishment appears to not have taught them a lesson, it is long past time they were shown the error of their ways!"

"You know the location of Innowendyn?" Ssythanduras' surprise was obvious in his tone.

Darakor ignored the question, not feeling it was important that Ssythanduras know he had gleaned the information from Narellin's memories. Narellin had never been there himself, but he had found it shortly after the dark elves had been banished there.

"The war-wizards will have a gate constructed on the night of the new moon, 11 days hence. Have the demon ready to go by then, with whatever priests and soldiers you can spare as well."

"What armies will you be sending?" Ssythanduras asked lightly, not wanting Darakor to know he was gauging the strength he would need to send and to keep in Mezarbolle to defend his position and holdings. Allies they were, yes, but nowhere was trust a part of their relationship.

"Put your petty ambitions aside, snake-man!" Darakor berated. "I leave only 100 elves and 200 orcs here, the rest will go to destroy my father's people!"

Ssythanduras chuckled. Such emotions were, in his opinion, the downfall of soft-skinned races. His people were hatched from clutches of eggs, no foolish waste of emotion or thought was given to family. As each day passed Darakor became more and more obsessed with the legacy of his birth. He heard the prophecy, he know that Kelnozz would be slain by his son. By him. It could be no other, Kelnozz had no heirs but Darakor.

"Ssso be it, General," the scaly priest said, "I ssshall sssend my warriorsss with you."

Darakor snarled. The lizardman would not come himself but he would send others to die in his stead. He broke the connection angrily. So be it! He would not need the priest, so long as he had an army of demons at his call. The elves would pay for their foolishness. And Kelnozz. Kelnozz would pay for his denial of him!

*****

The destruction of Loralost came far easier then Darakor had anticipated. Easier then any of them had expected it to. The city was all but abandoned, only a fraction of the reported elven population still resided in it, and of those most were children and women.

With his greatest obstacle being crushed under the wheels of his war machine Darakor should have been quite pleased. Instead, he was furious.

"Where have the elves gone?" He hissed into the face of a captured dark elven warrior. She grimaced in pain, arrows had her pinned her naked body to the side of a wooden barn through her upper arms and thighs. "Tell me and it will be over for you quickly!"

Darakor glanced away then back at her, a sadistic smile on his face. "Do not and you will linger."

To accentuate his point he took a dagger and pushed none to gently below her ribcage, piercing skin and muscle but not the organs beneath. She hissed in pain. He sawed down briefly, beginning the cut that on a game animal would have resulted in field dressing the animal. He removed the dagger and poked his fingers into the two inch long slit in her belly. Fishing around for a moment he caught on to some internal organ or other and tugged on it.

The prisoner felt the forced rearrangement of her intestine. She glanced down and saw that a small coil of it now hung from her body through the cut he had just made. Tears made their way down her face as she knew her fate was sealed.

"Oh yes, you will die here," Darakor said to her, grinning again. He spun about to face the rest of Loralost and shouted, "You will all die here!" His armies nearby that heard him raised up their weapons or trophies of war and shouted in victory. Never mind that pocket of resistance still existed in the city, it was a foregone conclusion that they would be overcome.

Darakor turned back to the dark elven women. "So tell me where Kelnozz has taken the elves. Tell me and you will find peace."

The elven women, a weaver named Calasia who had stayed behind to tend her two children and help in the warding of other children left behind, let the tears run down her face but kept her jaw firmly shut. She would not give the bastard light elf the satisfaction of seeing her break. Life was precious to dark elves, far more then wealth, power, or fame. The lives of the rest of the dark elven nation would not be given up by her, no matter the cost to herself.

"If not for your own well being," Darakor said, his voice dripping with angst again, "then how about theirs?"

Two light elves carried struggling bags over their shoulders. They threw the bags to the ground and carelessly cut into the sacks with their daggers, tearing great slits in them so that their contents could be seen. Calasia gasped as she realized she was looking at her two children, one only three years old while the other had seen nine summers. To have two children so closely together was a rarity amongst elves, and up until this very moment, Calasia had felt she had been blessed by it.

"Will you tell me for their sake? Or would you have them watch you slowly gutted? Or perhaps instead I will cut them up before your eyes? I am told it is much more painful to watch your children die then it is to watch a parent."

*****

"Loralost burns!"

Garandiir, the elven flagships captain, looked up to the lookouts nest in surprise. He turned quickly and scanned the skies in the direction of their distant home. Sure enough, though only eyes as keen as those of an elf could see it, the shadow of great columns of smoke rose from the earth.

"Stand fast and stay the ship!" Garandiir called out, echoed by several echoing cries from lesser officers. He moved hurriedly across the deck and towards the ships cabins. He reached for the handle to the door and had to snatch his hand away quickly to keep it from being cracked soundly by the rapidly opening door.

"My Lady, Loralost is afire," Garandiir said, snapping to attention. Admiral of the dark elven fleet and occasional friend and counselor to the Queen, he nevertheless felt awed in the presence of the Queen before him. Especially now that she was accompanying the elven host to Belurian.

Galinia looked off in distance behind the ship. They had left the harbor that very morning, the combined bulk of the dark elven nation. Only a scattering of elves remained behind, and of those few, even fewer were capable of defending themselves. If anything assaulted them it would be a wholesale slaughter.

And sure enough, the smoke told a story of attempted forced extinction. The Queen looked on in anguish at the smoke. Loralost was miles away from the harbor, in the middle of the large island the elves called Innowendyn. The fleet was nearly a dozen miles from Innowendyn by now as well, to boot.

"Have you any orders, my Queen?"

Galinia found the title hollow and bitter, at best. It had been many years since she had felt like a true queen. Her people had once followed her out of adoration for her husband. Then when he was slain, they had followed her out of admiration for how she held up and put the welfare of the elves before her own grief. Now that all of that was done, now that her own beloved son had been slain centuries ago, she did not want it and tried to ignore it every time he heard it. Nevertheless, she understood her position as always.

She knew also that Kelnozz was her successor. He had little desire for it, but in her estimation, the very best of rulers never did. His manner was dark of late, but once he found his way through it the elves would be far better off for it.

Far better off if they survived, she amended her thoughts after coming out of her reverie and seeing anew the distant smoke.

"Turn the fleet around," She said through teeth clenched with anger, "and make your best speed."

Garandiir nodded. "Aye, My Lady!" He turned and began snapping out orders to the crew. The Dawnchaser had been his ship since he first joined the Elven Navy, hundreds of years past. He had worked his way up from scraping barnacles off the hull to captain of the ship. Given the position of admiral, he refused to release the Dawnchaser from his service, thus he served both as captain and commander. His crew had been with him nearly as long, they followed him without question.

*****

A band of light elves bashed asunder the door into one of the largest estates in all of Loralost. A deafening explosion greeted them, sending all of them sprawling. Only the elves furthest from the door survived the blast, and of those only a few survived more then a few moments to draw breath.

The explosion drew the interest of those nearby, however. Two small bands of lizardmen approached, as well as two more light elves and at nearly a score of nearby lesser demons. The demons fell on the dying or dead casualties of the first trap, feasting on them. The elves and lizardmen ignored them, already probing forward cautiously into the estate. If the magical trap on the entrance was any indication, it promised to be filled with wealth and magic. It was clearly the home of a high ranking dark elven noble.

Traps, both magical and mundane, claimed victim after victim as they explored the manor. Here a pit trap filled with what appeared to be a black substance from which there was no return, there a scything blade able to cut through steel. Illusions came at them as well, from brigades of dark elves charging into them and causing them to kill one another to great magical beasts barely able to fit through the corridors.

The defenders of Loralost had managed to hold off the evil invaders for perhaps 30 minutes at the most, and had accounted for a death toll of only 30 assorted light elves, lizardmen, and demons. The manor house through which they now sought to invade easily tripled those numbers, both in time spent fouling it and in bodies slain.

At long last a small band of invaders - 1 elf, 2 lizardmen, and 1 mid-sized demon - made it to a set of ornately wrought double doors surrounded by an archway of faintly luminescent rune. All of them showed signs of injury, from scratches and cuts to burns and even a patch of damage on the demons hide from a blast of magical frost. The lizardmen looked to one another and fell back, allowing the light elf to take the lead.

The light elf sneered at their cowardice and studied the door carefully. He examined the runes, trying to recall his limited knowledge of magical things. The demon, stupid but cunning, pushed forward and grabbed the back of the surprised elf. Before the light elf could react, the demon heaved him forward, sending him crashing into the door and knocking it wide open. The demon chortled in laughter, joined a few moments later by the lizardmen.

The light elf turned, his sword poised to strike at the demon. Before he could finish the swing he saw the stunned silence and surprised looks in their eyes. He spun back around and beheld what they saw, feeling shocked himself.

Alone in the wall to wall black room a dark elf lay upon a table made of flawless white marble. Fully dressed, all of them knew instantly who it was that they had found. More importantly in spite of the clamor of their invasion of the house, he was asleep. With the moments surprise overcome, they rushed forward, weapons out and ready to strike.

Being the closest, the light elf passed over the line of black powder on the equally black marble floor first. His foot broke the circle, causing Kelnozz to awake instantly. Somehow fully aware of what was happening, he rolled off the far side of the table and drew his blades in one motion. Just in time to avoid the descending light elf's sword, which clanged harmlessly off of the marble table top.

The lizardmen reigned in their advance and moved to surround the table. The demon leapt, sailing over the top of the light elf and reaching out for Kelnozz with long talons. Kelnozz easily avoided the demons lethal grasp, sending both blades up to eviscerate the unholy creature in a single pass.

Kelnozz leapt upon the table then, kicking out with one foot in the process and sending the light elf stumbling back with a bloody nose, split lips, and broken teeth. He pivoted and decapitated one lizardman before it could even fully turn to bear on him, then kicked the falling head into the chest of the other lizardman. In a flash he was on him, driving both blades into the surviving lizardman's chest. He turned to face the stunned light elf, a furious look on his face.

The light elf, shaking his head to clear it of the pain, spat out his teeth and turned to flee. Kelnozz was after him, matching his frantic pace with ease and gaining on him with each nearly silent footfall. The last desperate gasps of life within the room ended within seconds, not even a minute had elapsed since the room had been breached, such was the speed and skill of the slaughter.

Chapter 29

Yamara awoke a few hours later. For a brief moment she lay there watching the stars far above her blink on and off, her mind empty of all thoughts. Then in a rush it all came back to her. Her lips parted and she gasped silently. In spite of it being the middle of the night everyone around her was talking, and none of them seemed to be doing it quietly.

She picked her head up and looked around, trying to figure out what was going on. The voices she heard were disjointed and no two things seemed connected, it was very confusing. As she looked her eyes widened. Hardly anyone was awake, only a few sentries at the edges. She shook her head and looked again. Nothing changed.

Yamara let her head rest back on the ground and stared up again. Still the stars blinked at here, though it seemed to be in a circular pattern. She paid it no mind and instead tried to focus in on the voices she heard. In a short time she realized that she recognized some of them. Listening closely she began to sense images and pictures, though they were fleeting. Her mouth fell slack as she realized what was going on. She was hearing people's thoughts.

She sat up, excited. Something had happened when Eric died. She had broke through some barrier inside of herself to reach out to him in his final moments. In doing so, she had also broken through the final wall that her mind had established to keep her from using her psychic powers. She felt the warmth on her chest then and glanced down in surprise.

Yamara reached into her shirt and pulled out the ruby that Brina had given her. It throbbed faintly with an inner light in the darkness, pulsing in a rhythm with her own heart. She stared at it in wonder and fought back the moisture that came to her eyes. Brina was with her after all. She tucked the ruby back into the valley between her breasts and arranged her shirt to cover it.

Uncertain of what to do next, Yamara felt no tiredness whatsoever. She experimentally tried to lower a shield over her head, or rather the image of a shield. The voices and images became muffled. She smiled and continued to experiment, tuning in and out the thoughts of those around her as well as learning how to focus on just one to the exclusion of others.

After a short time she lay back to get more comfortable as she tried to imagine what else she could do. It put a strain on her, the harder she focused and used her powers, but the excitement in it was to much to ignore. The strange blackness continued to circle above, though now it was bigger. It was so big, in fact, that it seemed to have an unfamiliar shape to it. Unfamiliar but instantly recognizable. It was a dragon.

"Dragon!" Yamara called out loudly, bringing those awake who were nearby to quick attention. They followed her gaze and soon everyone was scrambling, waking up others and trying to figure out what to do about it.

"How long till it gets here?" Someone asked nearby. Yamara glanced over and saw it was the human named Kal that had tried to attach himself to their group.

"15 minutes, maybe less," Elvanshalee said, staring up into the night sky.

Kal eyed it warily. He ground his teeth and turned to look around. "Get these people into the trees!"

The lieutenant took the order to heart and immediately started organizing the few makeshift guards so that they were shepherding the refugees into the cover of the forest. In a few minutes only a handful of people still stood upon the hilltop. Bill had his crossbow in hand, ready to lash out at whatever he could.

"Have any tricks up your sleeve?" Yamara asked, glancing over at Alesha. Alesha looked to her and Yamara noticed for the first time the look on her face. She looked haggard and grief stricken. Her eyes had a hollow look about them. Over the mental shield she had put in place she could sense a strong sense of loss coming from her.

"What's the matter?" Yamara asked, walking quickly over to where she stood.

Alesha looked at her, a haunted expression on her face. Her mouth opened and her lips moved, but no words came out. Finally she shut her eyes and shook her head, breathing raggedly.

Concerned for her, Yamara gently grabbed her by the shoulders and asked, "What is it, Alesha? What is wrong?"