Mordauk looked out over the brown, still waters of the Lake of Doom, but he felt nothing special. The lake appeared to be just a stagnant body of water a couple of miles long and several hundred yards wide carved into the orange sandstone. Many Umpala made a pilgrimage here to this site where the human fiend had wreaked such havoc, but it happened several generations before Mordauk had been born. The fiend had destroyed so much, but in the end, the Umpala had proved victorious. As the Eighth Avatar had commanded.
With the coming of the Ninth Avatar, he preferred to look forward instead of backward. What little remained of the humans will become part of the great Umpala empire, or they will be annihilated.
"The data core," said Gardodadogaur as he stepped up to Mordauk's side, holding a long metallic cylinder in both hands.
Mordauk reached out and gently took the object from the Stormlord's hands. Payment for Mordauk's support of Shadow Clan's strike against Fire Clan. Gardodadogaur's prize was probably not as rewarding as he had hoped, having taken heavy casualties. Fire Clan apparently was very quick to embrace the new age, quicker perhaps even than Mordauk, sending attack ships down to strike against Shadow Clan’s legions. The warrior code would have to eventually be abandoned in warfare against other races as it had in the Human War, but Mordauk never expected it to be abandoned so easily and quickly in clan warfare. It truly was a new age.
Yet another concern for Mordauk. On top of that, too many starships had been destroyed, and a significant portion of Fire Clan had fled in their remaining starships.
Word had not spread yet, but enemies of the Ninth Avatar had destroyed one of the Umpala's two main shipyard stations. The Urgu, masters of science and technology, had built the shipyard stations, not the Umpala, and when the Seventh Avatar broke Symbiosis between Umpala and Urgu, the ability to replace the stations had been lost. Only one station remained that could supply the Umpala with new starships.
And after today, Mordauk was not too sure about the path towards unification. Nuadook and Fire Clan must have had the support of one of the other Kojo. They would not have so blatantly broken the warrior code unless they knew someone powerful would support them against charges of dishonor. Mordauk would have to rethink his strategy. He had thought he was ahead of the game, but now it appeared that he had rivals willing to embrace the new age even quicker than Mordauk had planned.
Looking now at the human data core, Mordauk hoped it was worth it. "The diviners did not resist?" asked Mordauk. A small cult of diviners watched over this place, proclaiming it sacred and hording the artifacts from the Human War.
Gardodadogaur stared him in the eyes. "The Kojo have decreed annihilation."
Mordauk stared back and tried to fathom what was going on behind the Stormlord's eyes. He hoped Gardodadogaur would not become a liability. Mordauk decided that he would need to invoke more visions later and try to determine if Gardodadogaur was really ready for the new age. Mordauk had apparently linked his fate to Shadow Clan for the time being, and he would have to find another Stormlord if Gardodadogaur was not prepared to embrace the future.
In the meantime, the deaths of the cult would not sit well with some. Many did see this place and the cult's purpose here as sacred. He would have to have good arguments ready to justify their deaths.
No time for the timid and weak, though, Mordauk thought as his mind already began working on the next steps of his plan.
Mordauk stroked the data core. He hoped it was worth all this trouble, but no matter what, a new age was dawning, an age of blood and fire.
END of Malaran – Storm Champion: Book 0
As a bonus, the first third of the next book in the series is included here.
Call to War – Storm Champion: Book 1 begins immediately on the next page.