“Before I kill you … pathetic Xeni,” growled
Rigmrr, his teeth locked in an iron hard clench. “What … did you
think of offering me, to avail our support? – I just ask because
I’m curious, that’s all …What could your side, which has demolished
mine so violently, possibly think of offering me in return to wipe
out your sins and the cruelty you showed us eight millennia back …
and to avail our support and loyalty?… ANSWER ME, MAN BEING!”
“Let me show you.” Dantox raised the small
black pouch he had been carrying all along. He opened the pouch and
tipped its contents to the ground below. The Eleegron fell to the
ground, small pebble like rocks painted in a bright blue colour.
They landed over the hard rough surface of the cavern, where they
sat still, leaving a shining blue glitter in the dullness of the
cavern.
Rigmrr’s beady red eyes widened, his jaw
falling wide. “It can’t be…”
His awed gaze was frozen over Eleegron for a
long second, before rising to meet Dantox’s.
“And in return,” said Dantox. “in return for
the Eleegron which you’ve yearned for so long, we want your loyalty
and the allegiance of your race. In this war, against the
Nyon.”
Rigmrr’s red eyes were frozen over Dantox,
gazing at him with a mixture of awe and startlement. His gaze then
turned thoughtful, his thick brow contracting in a frown.
“What of the demons that you shall unleash?”
asked Rigmrr, his gleaming red eyes filled with anger. “They will
not stand for us… They will try and destroy what remains of our
race.”
“The demons will do as we command.” said
Dantox sternly. “And if you join our side, you will have nothing to
fear from them. Forget the blood of your race that they shed in the
war eight millennia back. For that was an unintended outcome. It
shall not happen again. The Xeni and the demons will never touch
any of you again … If you join us and ally your forces with ours,
that is.”
Rigmrr’s eyes drilled into Dantox, studying
him deeply for seconds. And then, his lips twisted in a cold
smile.
“Very well… you have It.” he rasped. A new
vibrance was founded in his voice as he gazed down upon the
Eleegron, which would finally free him of his long dreaded illness.
“You have it … Our loyalty … and allegiance.”
Dantox nodded. “Welcome to your new
future.”
He smiled diabolically as something suddenly
occurred to him. He took a step forward towards the Ensys’s leader
and bent closer.
“There are a hundred members of the Xeni’s
most despised enemies …
your
most despised enemies now,
marching out of the cave.” His whisper grew chilly with menace. “We
wouldn’t want to miss such a good opportunity, when it comes
wandering right into our holds, do we? Consider this your first act
of loyalty to our cause: kill the watchmen heading out of this
cave. All of them.”
“With … pleasure.” Rigmrr’s thin lips
stretched in a slow, devious smile. “The watchmen … will not leave
this cavern
alive
.”
He turned to one of the Ensys and called out
in the tongue they spoke in, a shrill, hiss like noise. And as one,
the entire cluster of giant spider like beasts turned and scuttled
off out of the cavern … towards the hundred completely unsuspecting
watchmen. Who were by now heaving their last few breaths…
The present
Two of them sank into silence, so that the
gloominess of the cave seemed to have temporarily absorbed
everything.
Dantox let his mind drift over everything at
hand now. As Redgarn had said, they were close. There was nothing
left to stand in their way. The only drawback was that the watchmen
still stood … For they would be the only significant resistance to
the Xeni’s conquest now. Redgarn was standing as still as stone by
his right, appearing to silently contemplate something.
Dantox joined him in silence, relishing the
uplifting joy of triumph. A long awaited one.
A pair of footsteps shuffled from across the
cave. Dantox spun around to see another of their cloaked men
walking towards them from across the large gloomy chamber. Dantox
squinted through the darkness to see who it was. And by his side,
Redgarn came out of his trance like state and faced the third Xeni
walking upto them in the dark chamber. Zardin stopped a few feet
from both of them and dug his hand into his pocket. He drew out a
small object which Dantox recognised as … the Grael conch.
“What!” he breathed, feeling his thoughts jam
in shock. “The Grael conch!”
Zardin smiled. “Yes. I acquired it from your
beloved friend Mantra. Just a few minutes back.”
“But acquiring the conch alone would have
been a completely fruitless venture.” Redgarn explained. “The conch
can only be used by an initiated member of the brotherhood of
Nyon.” A sharp sense of thrill stole the air in the place as he
said it. “And what a surprise … we have one.”
Zardin was smiling, his pale features alive
with malice.
Redgarn gave a cackle of laughter, his voice
carrying about in echoes inside the dark cave. “Now, the final
obstacle that stands in our way are those wretched creatures, the
watchmen … and that obstacle is now to be cast out. Dantox, this
will be your final and most important task: you’re initiated in the
Nyon, which means that you have the power to use the conch to
summon the watchmen. This is what you will now do: using the conch,
summon them together … into a trap. And destroy them all.”
Dantox’s shock faded quickly, and a wide
smile broke upon his face. He nodded, looking from Zardin to
Redgarn. “The final, and most important of traps that we lure our
foes into.”
Far away, there was a room doused in utter
darkness. The cold metallic floor of the dark room had a large
black sack placed at its centre. A fidgeting movement ensued from
inside of the sack, along with faint muffled sounds.
Stuffed inside of the sack with their heads
left to emerge at the open, Mantra and Ion were chained up in heavy
irons and gagged.
Earlier, Zardin and the batch of Xeni had
caught up with them, and taken them both down in spite of the brave
fight they put up. But they didn’t kill them. Instead, they had
decided to take the two Nyon back alive, to be used as sacrifices
when they performed the spell to release the demons. They had
stuffed both of them in this sack and left them here, in a room
within that black ship that they’d seen earlier. But despite
everything, despite the overwhelmingly helpless nature of this
scenario, this wasn’t the worst…
Zardin had taken the Grael conch, after
defeating the two of them. Then he had left to deliver it to
Redgarn.
Now, the two of them knew, the Xeni would be
using the conch to summon the entire army of watchmen. Into an
ambush. It was quite possibly happening right now…
The watchmen were their most needed force,
their one true boon at this intensely grave hour. And if they ended
up losing them…
Everything would be lost. There would be no
hope left for them when the demon army was released. None at
all.
This couldn’t be happening…
A rage of emotions consumed Ion … fear,
panic, desperation. But on top of it all, there was the fury. Fury
directed at the one person whom he now hated most.
Vonayz…
Never before had he felt such raw hatred
towards another person his entire life. A wall of iron seemed to
have formed between the two of them now…
Ion wondered if the watchmen were still
alive, and if there still was a chance to stop the Xeni from
destroying them. But even if there was, the two of them were tied
up here, and helpless. There was nothing left at all. The batch of
Xeni were outside of this ship now, probably dragging a few more
innocent people from the village to use as sacrifices. And soon,
they would board the ship and fly them to the Xeni lair, to witness
the single most devastating event in history. And then to use them
as sacrifices along with it.
Ion fought back the helplessness smothering
him. He tried to keep himself steeled, but his resolve was fumbling
… there was nothing left.
The two of them lay there feeling the seconds
pass like aeons. And suddenly, Ion caught a distinct noise slitting
through the silence. He tried to crane his neck to see what was
going on, but the darkness was absolute, nothing visible through
it. It was a strange scraping noise, overlapped by a slight
hiss
, as though that of a snake.
What’s that?
He felt his pulse climb
as the noise drew on, but nothing showed through the darkness. By
his side, Mantra shifted as well, picking up the noise. A crisp,
metallic
cling
followed by a muffled thud came. For a
second, silence engulfed the room again. And then, a sudden orange
flare lit the place, erasing the darkness.
Vestra and Qyro stood over a large circular
hole on the floor. Both of them stood carrying ignited swords,
which they had apparently used to carve out the hole on the floor:
the hissing noise Ion had heard had been their ignited swords
cutting through it.
Their eyes flew over the room, halting at the
centre where Mantra and Ion lay stuffed in the sack. Without a
second’s hesitation, they bolted in. In a matter of seconds, they’d
cut the two of them free of the sack and the iron shackles.
“The Xeni…” breathed Ion, as they pulled
their gags off their mouths.
“They’re outside, don’t worry: they don’t
know about us.” said Qyro in a hurried tone. “We snuck past them to
get in here. They’re still outside.”
“What happened?” asked Mantra.
“The meeting with the Skrylis didn’t go so
well.” said Vestra, as the two of them rose and steadied
themselves. “So we decided to round back here, but you guys weren’t
showing up, so we got a little worried.”
“We made our way in here, to this village,”
took over Qyro. “to see what was happening, and we were shocked to
see
them
. The Xeni. The fiends were all outside the
ship.”
“And so, we guessed the worst.” said Vestra,
her tone growing grim. “The very worst. We knew they’d probably
have kept you in here, and took a chance with it. They might’ve
noticed us walk past, but probably let us pass as villagers.
Climbed into the ship from the back.”
“Well they’ll be boarding it anytime now!”
impressed Ion, looking around at the three of them. “We’ve gotta
get outta here.”
“So what in the world happened-”
But before Qyro could reach halfway through
his sentence, the four of them snapped around to face the door of
the room … where stood a black cloaked Xeni who had just frozen at
the door’s entrance while walking past it. His eyes zipped from one
person to the other among the four Nyon in the room. And then, as
the puzzled daze vaporised from his expression, it grew wild with
shock.
He turned and made to bolt off, apparently to
reach the rest of the Xeni with this new development. But before he
had even started to run, the four of them had pounced over him from
inside of the room.
The man tried to yell, but Qyro dug his fist
into his mouth, muffling him instantly.
Ion glanced down the corridor of the ship: it
was empty. The man had entered the ship alone. Luckily.
The man kicked and thrashed with all of his
might, creating all of the noise he could to draw the attention of
the other Xeni outside the ship. Mantra drew himself straight and
sent a kick right into the man’s face that knocked him out
instantly.
He heaved the man’s body, and called to the
other three:
“Start the ship. We’re leaving.”
__________
As the large black ship’s engine growled, Ion
felt his heart flutter: through the large window ahead, they could
see the Xeni standing spread outside turn and freeze their
attentions to their ship. The cloaked figures stood rigid on the
spot for a second, before rushing in towards them, to stop these
unknown intruders in their ship.
“Err, guys,” The forced calm in Vestra’s
voice trembled as she gazed out the window, at the Xeni who came
surging towards them. “We should be leaving right about …
now!
”
Qyro stood behind the desk, operating the
ship, while the other three stood behind, watching with widened
eyes as the black cloaked figures came dashing in towards them.
“Go, go!” Mantra hissed, placing a hand on
Qyro’s shoulder. “Take the ship off! Now or never!”
Sweating, Qyro toggled through the holo
screens rising over the desk with his hands flying. The pack of
Xeni, wielding drawn and ignited sabers, had almost reached
them…
But Qyro hit a final key on the holo digitpad
and with a dry shudder, the ship was airborne. They saw the ground
drop through the window. The cloaked figures clustered around where
the ship had been, their hands raised, their furious voices
reaching them even up here.
“Thanks for the lift, guys.” smirked Qyro. He
hit a final button on the desk, and the ship twisted about and
blasted into space, leaving endless black to fill the window.