The Book of Ashe

Chapter 12

Chapter 12
Leprous: A Revealing

“In service to their gods, they once stood as guardians against those who would awaken the Old Ones”
~ Forbidden Tome of Geaz

A black armor clad figure stood silently before Shekara as she leaned over a large map of Tharamond. The figure clutched its helmet in its left hand. Old, faded white hair hung from the figures head. He was a deathly pale man of undeterminable age. His face was hollow and grimly set, yet betrayed no emotion. His eyes were a milky white and his stare seemed to pierce through to the soul. The Astral Rider some called him. A dark lord of undead and spiritual darkness. He was one of the Queen’s wizard generals. Compelled by magic that had rotted his soul, he became neither living nor dead, but a cursed shell of a human possessing all the terrible power he had in life. Beside him stood the shifting figure of Lycanthrope, assuming countless forms too quick for the eye to see, which made him look more like a shimmer than a man.
“My Queen, the druid city of Thorne no longer reeks of the Tomes. They must have moved them” Lycanthrope said.
Shekara considered her generals for a moment, then replied, “Make sure! Thorne will be the first of the Tri-Cities to fall. I want it razed to the ground!” She toyed with a figure city resembling Thorne. “Take no one alive! Let the smoke from their burning city rise for the world to see.” She crushed the city in her hand and allowed the dust to trickle from her fist.
“Yes my Queen!” The Astral Rider and Lycanthrope said in unison, bowing out of the room. As they left a small woman in blue shredded robes strode into the chamber.
“I have returned my lady!” She announced.
Shekara did not acknowledge her presence till minutes later, and only then did she look her over and then with a wave of her hand she dismissed her.
Below, at the gate of the Citadel, The Astral Rider mounted his phantom steed and rode out before his legions, leading the way back to the Tri-Cities. Lycanthrope, bearing the standard of the Hellbringers, mounted his steed, a large black pegasus with a horn of silver in it’s forehead. The beast breathed fire and kicked up lightning. With a running start it leapt into the air, circled the Citadel once and then took off after The Rider. Behind him rose a swarm of dark mages clad in swirling clouds of black cloth, each strode a Pegasus of smaller size than that of their leader. They were the Hellbringers. Once members of a lost temple, seduced by the power of the dark gods. Now they fought for their dark Mistress, whom had betrayed them to the powers of darkness.

The small northern party sat on the backs of their mounts before a huge crack in a glacier, debating with one another. The glacier was massive. Bigger than most mountains and the crack was wide enough for all of them to ride side by side, with room to spare, it was easily ninety feet wide.
“We are going through that thing?” Jayden’s fling, who I had come to know as Vander Ark, asked. He wasn’t too sure he had made the right decision by accompanying us. He certainly didn’t like the looks of the glacier. Not that I did myself, but I really could have cared less. I had an increasingly bad feeling that Raven was leading us into the jaws of something none of us knew how to control, but she had the Circles blessings and that was good enough for most of it.
“I see no way around it!” Raven said, almost disappointed. I got the feeling she was just as thrilled as everyone else about the situation.
“Don’t worry! I’ll protect you.” Jayden said to Vander with as much macho as he could muster. Crossbow and Raider both burst into laughter. It was getting odd with those two. A definite friendship had developed there, where once they were enemies as great as Stormweaver was. Yet, with her there seemed to also have been a cool allyship there. Someday when I have nothing else better to do than philosophize about the endless meaning of life, I’m going to figure out but perhaps it is hard to hate irrationally when you have to fight beside someone for so many years.
Raven started forward through the glacier, we all reluctantly followed. It was dark in there. Walls of dark ice rose up and shadowed over us. It was hard to restrain ones awe at the handiwork of the gods. Several times Raven halted, as if startled and then continued on. That more than the darkness of the ice unnerved me. Also Silverwolf and Raider seemed uneasy and Jayden was so nervous he rambled constantly. Even Crossbow and Muffins seemed to feel it.
When we reached the other side of the glacier we expected some form of ambush, but got nothing but a look across miles and miles of windswept, snow covered plains. They seemed to go on forever, with not so much as a tree to be seen.
“I want to stop here.” Raven said looking around like she expected something to pounce on her.
“But my lady it is still light, we have a few more hours of travel time.” Silverwolf said.
“Bed down here!” She snapped and dismounted.
Normally we would be happy to have a little extra time to rest, but the nervousness we all held showed. Once a clumsy solider knocked over a stack of Muffin’s pans. Everyone jumped and cursed the man. Why were we all so shaken? We had yet to see anything living up here. It’s too damn cold, yet the place seemed to be alive in its own way. As if spirits were swirling around us. Once, as we were all turning in, I could have sworn I heard mocking laughter on the wind. Dark,vindictive laughter.
The next morning held horrors for us all and our worst fears were confirmed. We were not alone. I was awakened by Raider, who claimed we had had a visitor during the night. He looked pale in the feeble dawn light. Upon leaving my tent I got the first look at the “Visitor’s” handiwork. One of the soldiers hung from a rope by his left leg. His right ankle was tied to his left knee. The rope hung from a rocky point jaunting from the glacier’s face. A message had been written in the man’s blood, some of which still dripped from the wound at his neck. The wound seemed only vaguely familiar to me. The message was in a language I did not know.
“What does it say?” Raider asked me.
“I have no idea; it’s in no language I know.” I said.
“It’s Arcane, the language of the High Mages. It hasn’t been used for a thousand years. It reads: “Druids Of Tharamond! Be Ye Warned.” Raven said. Her eyes glistened with something dark. She was angry.
“How did this happen! Did anyone hear anything?” She asked. No one said anything.
“No one heard anything?” She asked again and again no one said anything.
“Get this cleaned up and let’s get moving.” She snarled. I was shaken. How could something sneak into our camp, kill and hang a person without ever making a sound. I feared there was dark magic afoot.
We were moving out within the hour. No one said anything for the two days it took to cross the plains of snow. We left each other to thier own fears. Finally in the distance rose three rock spires of unnaturally red stone that seemed to burn in the setting sun. I sat on my mount on the edge of the breaking camp and stared at those great earthen pillars. We had come so far, and had yet to see anything but snow and ice. If we traveled much farther we would be at the very roof of the world.
“Those the pillars in your vision?” Silverwolf asked from behind.
“They look like it.” I responded. Then there was a long silence.
“I’m getting worried about our supplies. Muffins says we are starting to run dangerously low on food. Soon we will reach the point where we can’t turn around even if we wanted to. Yet Raven has become more and more obsessed with this quest.” Sliverwolf looked trouble as he spoke.
“And you don’t agree with her?” I asked.
“It isn’t so much as I don’t agree with her. There is a power here that Shekara seems to be aware of, but I do not think that we as mortals can control such power. I think that trying to control it will prove disastrous on the larger scale. I do not agree that there is no price too high to save our homeland. Our souls are tied to this land, if we lose them then we will lose the powers the earth gives us.” He seemed withdrawn now, maybe even said.
“Is the power we seek evil?” I asked. I had been debating with myself about whether or not to ask, but it seemed only fair for me to know since my life was being put on the line to help find it.” At first Silverwolf didn’t respond, then in a low voice he said. “Ashe I must ask you never to repeat what I am about to say to you to anyone else. You must pledge on your life.”
I nodded and swore to remain silent.
He sucked in a deep breathe and told me the dark tale of the Old Ones.

In the beginning, before the gods created man or magic, the Cosmos were ruled by two different powers. The Monarchs of Light and the Monarchs of Shadow. Each had equal rule over the universe, until the day came when the Monarchs of Shadow lusted for ultimate control and launched a war upon their counterparts. A war of unimaginable power and length ensued. Redderick, King of Light, crafted from the Eternal Spring, the noble High Elves to keep control of the prime realm of Earth. The High Elves were given immortality and powers over the four elements of life. In response to this, Felblack Lord of Shadow created the elegant, yet sinister Vampires and gave power over the night and all it’s creatures to them. The High Elves and Vampires warred with one another as did their masters. To aid them in their struggle, the Dark Lord Leprous, Prince of Plagues, gave unto the newly formed race of humans the dark knowledge of Necromancy in exchange for their souls. With these evil spellcasters, Darkness soon took the upper hand. It wasn’t until Lightbringer, Duke of Peace gave the great knowledge of Earthen magic to a select number of men, who called themselves Druids. With the balance of power back in place the war continued to rage, soon engulfing all realms of existence. Outraged by the Monarchs of Light, Felblack and Leprous poured their powers into one and so birthed the Matriarch of Shadow. A Demon terrible and mad whom they called Shekara, Queen of War or as she later became known The Queen of Blades. Horrified by this, the Monarchs of Light set out to destroy the abomination that was Shekara, but Shekara proved to be every bit as powerful as her creators. An equal in all things. So for eons the war between light and dark raged. Shekara took control of the prime plane and so founded the Necromantic Orders of Twelve, a sect of men who, longing for power, traded their souls and life for the chaotic magics of the Twisting Nether. They sealed their pact with Shekara and in so doing damned all of humanity for eternity. Forever would there be a stain on the souls of men. Forever would they be at least part shadow.
In a stroke of luck the Monarchs of Light were able to defeat the Nobles of Shadow, but were unable to destroy them, so instead they imprisoned them in large crystals and cast the crystals to earth, and there the Old Ones remained. Once their masters were gone the Vampires disappeared into the night and the High Elves destroyed the Necromantic Order of Twelve and killed all the followers. And so the Prison-Crystals lay undisturbed.

That was a lot to take in. Shekara was not just some powerful, power hungry sorceress, she was a dark goddess from ancient times, newly risen and we were journeying north in search of something just as dark I suspected. Silverwolf stared down at the ground for a long time, then he quietly walked away, leaving me with my fears.
Later that next evening we reached the three rock pillars. They were odd formations but natural none the less. They were perfectly aligned and each of equal height and width. The wizards spent a while studying them, but then got bored. Raven decided it was a good place to set camp up, and yours truly got first watch duty when the sun went down, along with Crossbow. Together we sat beside a feeble fire chatting. The moon was little passed half full, but gave off enough light to see by. Around the first hour after midnight Crossbow looked passed me into the night.
“Did you see that?” He asked.
“See what?”
He rubbed his eyes and said, “Damn my eyes must be going. I thought I saw a speck of light out there.” He pointed out onto the planes. I turned to look, but saw nothing at first, then slowly an orb of light floated up and moved along the dark horizon.
“What the hell is that?” I asked.
“Two more.” Crossbow said, now pointing North. Sure enough two more danced about. They seemed to be almost circling us. They never got closer than a mile from us and sometimes they seemed to flicker. Crossbow jumped up and slowly slinked off towards them.
“Where the hell are you going!?” I asked in a whisper.
“I’m sick of whatever this is following us. I’ve been on pins and needles for long enough! I’m going to go find out what this is once and for all.”
I stood up and, cursing, followed him. I tried calling him back, but he ignored me. As we stalked across the snow, keeping low, the orbs seemed to gather at one point, directly ahead of us. When we were halfway there they suddenly scattered and then promptly vanished. Crossbow launched into a full tilt run, with me only a step behind him. We reached the point were the orbs vanished and saw nothing. I bent over, trying to catch my breath.
“God damnit!” Crossbow yelled and kicked a mound of snow, then stopped and pointed at the ground.
“Look!”
Sets of foot prints lay fresh on the snow. My guess was maybe four or five sets. They looked human and led off to both our right and left, running the length of the camp.
“Someone is out here with us.” I said, stating the obvious. Yes, someone was out here with us and we were a mile from the others.
“We’d better head back, we are easy pickings out here alone.” I said. He nodded his agreement. We hustled back to the camp and there we faced a dilemma. Should we wake the others and tell them or wait till morning. After a quick debate we opted for the earlier of the two. Crossbow went to wake up Raider and I went to rouse Stormraven. I crept up to her tent quickly and tried to push the flap open only to find it was like pushing on two wooden doors. She had it magically locked, that had to be a bad sign.
“Raven!” I yelled. “Raven wake up!” I heard nothing until the flaps flew open and a grumpy looking priestess stood before me.
“This better be good Ashe!” She growled.
I relayed the events as best I could. She grabbed a heavy cloak and followed me back to the watch fire. Crossbow, Raider, and Silverwolf were waiting for us there.
“Where did you see them?” Raven asked.
Crossbow and I pointed in unison where we had found the foot prints.
“Did they look human?” Raven asked.
“As much as we could tell they did.” I responded.
The wizards thought a moment, then Raider slipped off into the night only to return a few minutes later.
“They were human. Looks like they came and circled the camp from a distance several times. They were traveling light and probably lightly armed. I’d say a scout party. The lights you saw were most likely torches. When they saw you guys coming they split up and headed into the plains.” He explained. How the hell he could tell all that I’ll never know.
“We will double the guard for the rest of the night. If you see them again wake me up immediately! I’m taking no chances on these people being hostile.
Two hours later the orbs returned again, there seemed to be twice as many as before. Silverwolf had stayed up with Crossbow and I. He saw them first and simply pointed North and East. He made a fluid gesture and moments later Raven appeared in her cloak. She studied the lights.
“How many do you think?” She asked.
“Maybe four for every torch.” Silverwolf responded.
“We gonna move to intercept them?” Crossbow asked. He didn’t like the idea of us just letting them prowl around while he would be trying to sleep.
“I’d like to see who they are and what they are doing, but I don’t want to make like an act of war by attacking them.
“We could invite them over for a drink.” I joked, no one laughed. I apologized.
“Could you cloak us long enough for us to ride over there?” Crossbow asked.
Raven liked that idea. All four of us mounted up (Raider stayed behind and began rousting the men) and the wizards cast a glamour over us. As quietly as we could we trotted up on a batch of torches. Feeling confident that we were no longer visible to the human eye, we crept up quickly as we dared. We had covered half the distance when the lights again, scattered and then disappeared. Raven let out a frustrated cry and spurred her mount forward out of the invisible dome that encircled us. We all followed her out. As she rode she pointed with her left hand into the darkness. A signal to split up? Silverwolf and I took it at that meaning. We broke off and went left, pushing our mounts as fast as they would go. We rambled past where the lights had been and farther into the darkness, looking for any sign of the mysterious stalkers. Silverwolf pulled in his mount ahead of me, and I did the same.
“I don’t understand it. There is no possible way they could have out run our mounts.” He said
“Maybe they used magic.” I suggested
“No, I would have sensed it if they had.”
We peered through the night, but saw nothing. A red flare flew up into the air off to our right. It exploded into a brilliant cloud of flashing color.
“Raven’s calling us back.” Silverwolf said.
We trotted our mounts over to where, still flashing, the cloud hung in the air. The others were there waiting for us.
“Find anything?” Raven asked.
We both shook our heads. She spat and cursed. She then produced several rods from her saddle bags. Each was dark red with white bands fastened to them. They were about the length of a man’s arm and each had a pointed tip. She flung one into the snow covered ground. It crackled when it struck the ground and the hair on my arms and neck stood on end, like it does before a big electrical storm. I wasn’t sure what the rods were, but I felt they were going to provide a rather nasty surprise for our little visitors if they returned.
“Return to the base, I’ll plant these two and be back shortly.” Raven said. She was getting crankier and crankier. We all rode back to the base, where we were greeted with questions about what the hell was going on. I, feeling on the verge of collapse, passed everyone with a question to the others and stumbled to my tent for some shut eye.
I awakened the next morning to the sound of booming and crackling. When I got outside, half dressed, I found Jayden casting tiny fireballs at the rods Raven had placed the night before. Apparently our visitors had not returned and Raven had ordered the rods disarmed. This seemed the safest way because when those things went off everything within thirty feet got the s*** shocked out of it from the fury of an awesome electrical cloud. The snow melted to reveal a muddy earth beneath. He seemed to be having a great deal of fun. As I sat watching him and eating my meek breakfast Raven and Silverwolf came trotting up to me holding a bundle. I shuddered at the thought of going through this again, although once again I was strangely drawn to the tomes and seemed to crave them.
“It’s time again.” Was all Raven said as she handed me the tomes. I reached in and grabbed the next volume in line. FLASH! The creature was half man and half wraith. His withered body hung limp in the stasis of a large crystal, but he was aware of everything around him. The land around his crystal seemed to pulsate with a cancer and for miles all forms of life suffered a horrible array of diseases. Advanced leprosy, black plague, cholera and sepsis. Trees sprouted massive tumors and water turned to a poisonous sludge. A blinding light tore the heavens apart and pierced the earth. All life energies simply ceased to be and the land turned to a dry, dead desert. Anger from the decaying figure radiated. Soon I stood before the massive crystal. The figure inside was calling me to it and my body responded without my will, as if It was controlling me. I melted into the crystal and stood only an inch away from the figure. Its skin was like dried leather and its eyes were closed, but it was aware of me. I fought against its pull but to no avail. Then its eyes flashed open and seemed to glow with the same bilious green that surrounded its crystal and mocking laughter ripped the air.
“Get him up and moving!” A voice cried as I returned to consciousness. I opened my eyes and saw Silverwolf and Muffins dragging me into the shelter of a near by tent. The wind was blowing at an insane rate. Several of the tents had been picked up and thrown about. That same mocking laughter that haunted my vision echoed on the wind, sometimes even turning into a wail of rage and anguish. Something dark was upon us. Dark and powerful.
Inside the tent the wind continued to thrash at us with its terrible might. It was almost deafening loud.
“What the hell happened?” I asked.
“We don’t know, but it started picking up when you went into seizures. We were afraid we had lost you. What did you see this time?” Silverwolf yelled over the wind.
“The Prison-Crystal of the Prince of Plagues. He called to me! I think I woke him up or at least made him aware that there are people coming to him. I think his Crystal is the Vigil that the tomes refer to.” I yelled back.
“Yes, we figured that much out already. Did he seem able to reach out beyond his prison?” Silverwolf asked.
They knew the Vigil was the god damn tomb of a dark god! Just when the f*** had they figured that out! Oh I was pissed.
“You mean you knew and you didn’t tell me!? You let me go poking around with a dark god!” I yelled back, anger flooding my voice. Sliverwolf knew he had opened a big can of worms with that comment.
“Ashe, it was better that you didn’t know! Now we need to know how powerful and how aware Leprous is at the moment. Is he causing this wind?”
I didn’t feel much like helping my beloved wizards at that moment. They had withheld information from me and put my life on the line, while assuring me that everything would be fine. I should have known something was up the night I over heard Raven and Silverwolf talking. I should have known they knew more than they pretended. I should have been more leery of their almost eagerness to get me near the tomes after they had fought so hard to break their hold over me the first time. Damn them!
“Ashe! Answer me!”
“I don’t know! He is aware that I’m around, but how much he knows is beyond me. I assume, being that he is a god that he knows something is going on.” I tried to keep my tone neutral. We spent the rest of the wind storm in silence. I had nothing I really wanted to say to Silverwolf and he didn’t seem to have much to say to me either. I felt betrayed by him and Raven. Raven who now it seemed nothing could stop from her goals, no matter how dark they might be. I wondered what she had in mind for Leprous. Did she think she could control him? Did she think she could loose the creator to destroy the creation? It was absurd. If the Five couldn’t control Shekara, how was a handful of wizards no where near the Five’s power going to control Shekara’s creator?
It was hours before the wind ceased its ruthless assault. When it did stop Silverwolf told me that he, Raven and I need to talk. I confirmed that for him. There were things I wanted to know and things I wanted answered. Together we walked to Raven’s tent.