Siege
Cardonea Tower
Evanshade held the unconscious boy in his arms. He swam with Venge and his other man, Feandal, following Meridia’s royal family through the halls of their tower. Why did I rescue you? He looked down to the boy and felt his warmth against his skin. There was no need to. It served no purpose in our plans. Yes, it makes the Meridians trust us, but we do not need their trust.
Yet something in him had made him want to save the boy, and he decided that in what was to come he would instruct his men to avoid injuring him. You remind me of how I longed to be as a youth. He decided while looking down at the boy’s serene face. You live in a world of peace. But there is no place for peace in these waters. And how did you come to be with Sift… I set him free from Sangfoul so long ago, after learning of his father’s death in the lava mines. Why has he come here?
“How do you come to us?” Nicholea looked over his shoulder at him, drawling him from his thoughts. There was leeriness in the man’s eyes. “What is your purpose?”
“My master learned of your kingdom from a group of Sangfoul’s food gatherers and has sent us to let you know you are not alone in these depths. He hopes to form a friendship between our peoples so that we may trade and help each other prosper.”
“And could he not have come himself? Why must he send armed men?”
“Do you not believe me?” Evanshade looked into Nicholea’s eyes, trying to instill trust in him. “We did not know you would accept us peacefully. We came prepared, but we do not wish to fight.”
Nicholea’s features relaxed and he slowed until he was beside Evanshade. “You are right. Pardon me, we did not expect to discover another race of men, or should I say, to have you discover us.”
“Nor did we, but this could be a great thing for both our peoples.”
“Thank you also for helping this boy. I do not know him, but any deed done to help one of my people is a goodness I feel as well. Come, the tower’s healer is this way. The boy can stay there until he is well enough to leave.”
Soon they had reached the chamber and Evanshade handed the youth over to a sophisticated looking man with a long beard. “Take care of him,” he said, and wondered if the boy would survive the night. There will be few who will, he thought, watching the large shale door shut behind the healer.
Nicholea put a massive hand on Evanshade’s shoulder. “We have rooms set aside for guests. Would you care to go there before feasting with us or would you prefer to come to our meeting chamber now?”
“We are anxious to speak with you and have not eaten well since leaving Sangfoul,” Evanshade lied, knowing his men had orders to invade as darkness came. He wanted to complete what he came to do before that time. “We would be honored to meet first and go to our chambers once we have spoken.”
Nicholea directed them down a hall where his wife and children were already headed.
For a moment Evanshade let himself take in the beauty of the place. Light from outside the tower shone through holes in the wall beside him, illuminating a calm blue glow in the hall. Gems imbedded in the walls caught the light and refracted it in beautiful colors. Sangfoul looks nothing like this. He watched Nicholea’s family before him. And I was born a man of Sangfoul.
__ __ __
Hours Later
Evanshade rested in a kelp net in the large chamber, listening to Nicholea talk of his people’s history. Images of Meridia’s previous rulers were carved into the walls surrounding them, helping the tales to take life in his mind. But he was only half listening, because he knew this moment could not last. He eyed Nicholea’s massive guards standing ominously behind the royal family. Nicholea, his wife, son and two daughters were all here. It was almost too easy.
Evanshade chewed a well spiced chunk of whale meat, the last of what Nicholea’s cooks had brought to replenish his strength after their travel, and began to search the minds of the guards, caging their consciousnesses and possessing their movements. As he did, the familiar darkness and cold crept through his body and his soul.
Nicholea’s words resonated in the back of his mind. “And it is rumored that we once lived above the water. My father and his father’s father have passed tales down from generation to generation about ways we once lived in the substance ‘air.’ There is a tale that says our ancestors had dark hearts and so Gelu banished us to the sea, allowing only a man named Noa to remain. But these stories are diluted over time, and how could that be? The pockets of air beneath the sea floor choke our people as they rise. Surely we could never have breathed it into our lungs. Have you such tales in Sangfoul?”
For a moment Nicholea’s words struck him. Could it be? He looked to the Zhar. It wasn’t spoken of often, but a similar tale existed surrounding the dark lord that ruled over Sangfoul, about how Evanshade’s ancestors had followed the dark lord down from the world above.
He cleared his mind. He could not concern himself with such things. He gave himself over fully to the act of possessing the Zhar’s guards as once more a cold sensation spread through him, slithering up his spine.
It was time.
With a thrust the guard behind the Zhar clutched Nicholea’s throat. Blood spewed from the ruler’s mouth as he was struck.
Crack! The sound of bone breaking came as the Zhar’s head went limp, though his eyes still moved. “…swim…” he managed to gurgle to his family.
Evanshade did not move, did not speak as the Zharista screamed for help and her children fled to her. The scene sickened him, but he steadied his mind and took deeper possession of the guard next to her. The man bashed an iron rod clutched in his fist against her back as her children turned and fled upward, away from them. The guard bent her in half with his fists, sending a crack through the hall as he severed her spine, leaving her writhing on the room’s floor. Blood sprawled like a web through the water from her torn body.
And the children, Evanshade thought, watching them swim away. If they escape… it will be too soon. His body burned as he controlled the two remaining guards, forcing them to swim upwards, clutching the children’s legs in their hands. I will make it quick, Evanshade mentally promised them.
The horrible sound of screams and ripping flesh echoed around him as he closed his eyes, listening to the guards tear the children’s limbs from their bodies. Something inside him found pleasure in that… the darkness… as if the dark lord were experiencing things through him.
…pain… cold… darkness consumed him and time seemed to pass infinitely. It felt as though cracks ripped open his mind, and his thoughts screamed to be released from the dark clutches of his master. The sight of bloodshed around him stung his eyes like acid, and he hovered in an empty place devoid of truth. A horrible chill possessed and controlled his body until…
…until Evanshade broke through the cold and opened his eyes. He was no longer in the tower. He was near one of Meridia’s vast dwelling walls. A dying man was impaled on the end of his trident, blood flowing out of his body. A boy’s mutilated body drifted beneath him toward the ocean floor.
The water all about Meridia was red with blood and his army swarmed over the city. How did I get here? What have I done? In that moment he knew the dark lord had fully possessed him, even more easily than Evanshade had possessed the guards.
“There are a woman and girl inside yet,” Feandal’s voice called to him out of the nearby dwelling.
Evanshade forced himself forward, unsure of who controlled his destiny any longer. Until now he was not sure he liked who he was, but at least believed he controlled himself.
As he entered the main room he watched as Venge repeatedly pierced the body of a dying woman with a trident. Her body convulsed. She opened her mouth, but no voice came out, her hands clawing at the dwelling’s wall.
“Stop,” Evanshade reprimanded the boy. “She is as good as dead. Siege the city and take prisoners to enslave. Enough of this senseless death.”
“It was you who led us, who commanded us to kill them,” Feandal said
while approaching him.
And it was me who began this, although the royal family had to die for us to take Meridia. Evanshade put his free hand on Venge’s trident and forced the boy to withdraw it from the woman’s flesh. She no longer moved.
“And what of this woman’s daughter?” Feandal questioned. Was he looking for weakness in his leader? “Surely at least she should perish with her parents?”
“I will take care of her myself.” Evanshade looked around to his men. “Remain here and I will return.”
As he entered the far back room of the dwelling cove, Evanshade was struck by the beauty of the girl he had come for. The light of a malta shell reflected over her beautiful form and her curly hair swayed in the currents. He looked to her eyes, expecting beauty within them, but instead saw her horrible fear.
We have murdered her family, her people, he realized. What have I done? It was far from the first time he’d killed, but somehow this was different. He felt something pulling at him, trying to control him now.
Evanshade let his trident go slack in his hands. I will never possess anyone again, he thought, as he tried to reject the lingering effects of whatever had been done to him. I cannot give up control of myself again, if that is what will happen each time I control another. And I cannot allow this much blood to be shed because of me. I must serve my master in Sangfoul, but I will do what I can to not shed blood.
“Do not fear me. I will not harm you,” he found himself speaking in a hushed tone. Something in her eyes changed. She was still leery, but something in her eyes showed more depth. She sees me now as a person, as I see her. He took his trident and laid it on her kelp bed.
She swam backwards. “You killed my family. Why would you spare me?”
“I… I don’t know. This madness must stop.”
“I heard you in the other room. You lead them. Why? Why have you attacked my people like this?”
He wanted to reach out to her, to comfort her, but knew that was a madness of its own. “I cannot explain why I would do that and then save you, but you must trust me. Someday I may have the chance, but not now. I must serve my master.”
With daring that made Evanshade flinch, the girl reached out and touched his bloodstained hand. Her father’s blood, he thought, and a chill ran through him.
“If you…” The girl looked nervously at him. “If your heart has truly changed, then you should fight for my people, for me. Is your life truly worth our deaths?”
He hardened his soul, though the girl’s soft hand tried to warm him from those depths. “I cannot change. You don’t understand. But I meant what I said, I will spare you.”
“How can you? Why would you spare me but not my people?”
“What is your name?” He held her beautiful eyes.
“…Illala.”
“Illala, I am Evanshade. Save yourself, and remember me. I cannot escape this now.”
There was silence between them for a moment as she backed away. “After what you’ve done,” Illala spoke coldly, “I will remember you.”
Evanshade’s heart dropped. “There is no time. They will wonder why you are not dead. When I say so, scream as if you are dying. I will keep them away from your room until you can flee.” He picked up his trident and crashed it into the wall. BOOM! The echo rang about them as he crashed his weapon into glass containers holding her perfumes. “Now,” he spoke to her and Illala let out a scream filled with all the terror and emotion that was inside of her.
He turned to the door and opened it, then shot a glace behind him, only to realize Illala had already hidden herself somewhere in the room. “Remember me… remember me for more than the death I’ve caused.” I will remember you, he thought.
Venge and Feandal waited him outside. “It is done,” he told them. With Illala’s father’s blood still on the tips of his weapon, they had no reason to doubt him and took him at his word.
As Evanshade pumped his tailfin and swam into the open waters of Meridia he smelled the heavy stench of death and heard the screams of dying men and women hauntingly echoing throughout the depths.
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