Shadows
Chapter Twenty Two: Betrayal

Part Four: Alderbay

The impact had been felt all the way throughout the Orb. There had been a slight flare of energy shortly preceding it as another unfortunate human had placed their hands upon the Orb, but there was no hiding from the shockwaves that resounded through the Orb when Ambriel’s daughter placed her hands upon it. Ambriel looked round nervously as cracks appeared across the sky. Varkun braced himself. Marielle licked her lips hungrily. All Fortis did was smile.

“At last we return to the world,” he breathed, raising his arms proudly. Blinding red rays bathed them in crimson, and whilst Ambriel, Varkun and even Marielle had to avert their gaze, Fortis stayed staring directly into the light, grinning with insane confidence. Ambriel closed his eyes, and felt as the world seemed to rush away around him. There was a roar as loud as a raging ocean, and then calm washed over him again. Cautiously, Ambriel opened his eyes.

The intense red light was gone, fading into the corners of his eyes, replaced instead by the gentle amber light of sunset. Looking around he realised he was standing in a forest not dissimilar to the one he had disappeared from all those years ago. In fact, it could even be the same one…

“Ah, to feel the sun on my skin again,” grinned Fortis, basking in the fading light of day. “How magnificent!”

Marielle gave a gasp of glee and spun round on the spot, her robes floating out around her. Ambriel saw Varkun kneel down and grasp a handful of soil, running the dirt through his fingers. Ambriel took a deep breath of fresh, cool air and even he could appreciate the joy of escaping their hellish prison inside the Orb.

“It is done, my King!” declared Marielle happily, and Fortis smiled once more. “Your plan worked. We have returned to the world!”

“We have indeed, Marielle. We have indeed. It seems your spawn was good for something after all, Ambriel,” sneered Fortis. “Where is she, anyway?”

It was then that the four Olossa began to properly take in their surroundings, and noticed just how many people were watching them. There were a host of scruffy looking men and women armed with swords and bows, all peering round trees at the newcomers with shock and confusion. Varkun readied himself in case of attack, Ambriel, however, found his eyes drawn to a trio of figures by a tree trunk – a gangly looking boy and a redheaded girl, both kneeling over –

“Keliashyrr!” Ambriel cried, and ran over towards the unconscious girl lying on the forest floor. There was no doubt in his mind the girl was his daughter – she was the spitting image of her mother. As he neared the boy and girl turned defensively to face him, the girl waving what looked like a rudimentary farmer’s crook in his direction.

“Keep back!” warned the girl. “Who are you? How do you know Kel’s name?”

“My name is Ambriel Apastron,” Ambriel explained, switching to Old Elthric. “Lord of the Air Spire… and Keliashyrr’s father. Please – is my daughter alright?”

“Well, I can tell where Kel gets her renaissance faire style of speech from,” replied the girl, relaxing slightly and lowering the crook. “She’s… been better. She’s not a pile of ash, at least, but touching the Orb certainly seems to have taken it out of her. Her breathing’s alright but her pulse is very faint.”

“But… alive?” smiled Ambriel incredulously. He’d never thought he’d be able to see his daughter again, and even though it pained him to see her so worse for wear, he felt tears swelling in his eyes at the sight of his dear Keliashyrr.

“Yes,” nodded the girl.

“Thank you,” breathed Ambriel. “If I may, who are you two?”

“I’m Angie, and this is Robert,” replied Angie, gesturing towards the boy, who waved sheepishly. “We’ve been travelling with your daughter for a few days.”

“N-nice to finally meet you, Lord Ambriel,” Robert said. “Kel’s told us a lot about you.”

“But how-?” began Ambriel, but stopped himself. “Oh yes, the spell – I placed a likeness of myself inside her mind to guide her. That worked then, did it? Good, good...”

“If you’re quite done making friends with the locals, Ambriel?” called Fortis snidely. “That’s your daughter then, is it? She survived?”

“Yes, Fortis – this is her.” Ambriel replied.

“‘King’ Fortis, Ambriel, don’t forget the ‘King’…” sighed Fortis, but he seemed in too good a mood to be derailed by that now. “Fair enough. Bring her with us.”

“Where are we going, my King?” asked Marielle eagerly from his side.

“Well, that is the question, isn’t it?” grinned Fortis. “We have the whole world at our fingertips, and a whole civilisation of humans to wipe out. Where’s the nearest town, do we think? Ambriel!”

“Yes, King Fortis?” Ambriel replied reluctantly.

“You fled to this island in your exile – you know it better than I. Where is the nearest settlement likely to be?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know,” said Ambriel genuinely. “There were few settlements around back when I was last here, and I have no idea how that will have changed over the time we’ve been gone.

“Well, ask those two human brats beside you and replace out! Or if they don’t know kill them and ask one of these humans cowering behind the trees. Don’t make me impatient.”

“I could torture them if they refuse to speak?” asked Marielle. “I could use a blood boiling curse, or perhaps alter the pressure in their lungs and cause them to-”

“Patience, Marielle, patience,” interrupted Fortis. “I am all for bloodlust and destruction, but we cannot be foolish here – if we mutilate them too badly they won’t be able to tell us where the nearest settlement is and we’ll have to wander the wilderness looking for it. Hardly the glorious start of our vengeance now, is it?” Fortis sighed. “Hurry up, Ambriel! Or I might have to take your sister up on her offer.”

Ambriel turned back to Angie and Robert, hastily trying to think of a way in which he could preserve as much human life as possible. He wouldn’t be able to talk with the humans in secret - whilst Fortis hated Old Elthric, or any human dialect, he knew he understood it well enough to listen to and speak it. Varkun knew the human dialect too, having needed to learn it to communicate effectively with human slaves during building. Marielle had never bothered to learn the human language, but that didn’t help him now.

“Where’s the nearest settlement from here?” asked Ambriel in hushed tones.

“Why?” asked Angie in response, cutting off Robert’s reply. “What was that man dressed in red saying?”

“That man is the King of the Olossa, Fortis… and he wants to know where the nearest settlement is so we can raze it to the ground and kill all the humans there,” Ambriel sighed sadly.

“What? Why?!” gasped Angie. “I know Kel said her race were bloodthirsty and despised humans, but there’s only four of you left! I thought you were supposed to like humans, too – you married one!”

“Shhh!” hushed Ambriel nervously. “You might not be able to understand what Fortis is saying, but he can understand us. Yes, I like humans, but if I don’t follow Fortis’ commands he’ll harm Keliashyrr, and I couldn’t bear to lose her after I’ve only just got to see her again. Now please, where is the nearest settlement?”

“I don’t believe this. I thought you were on our side!”

“I am, but-”

“But you’ll sacrifice the entire human race to protect your daughter from potential harm?”

“Wouldn’t you?!” replied Ambriel in anguish. “Wouldn’t you sacrifice anything; do anything to protect the ones you love?”

“D-do you think you’ll still be the one she loves if you abandon your principles and let them kill all humans?” asked Robert, and Ambriel and Angie turned to look at him with open mouths.

“Where did that come from?” asked Angie in surprise.

“That doesn’t sound like replaceing out the location of a settlement!” growled Fortis, striding over towards them. “Please tell me you’re not trying to concoct some sort of deception here, Ambriel. Your sister told me you’d try something, not that I needed telling – it’s painfully obvious how much you still care for humans. Need I remind you what will happen to your daughter and yourself if you betray me? You, girl!” barked Fortis in Old Elthric, looking at Angie with his manic red eyes. “Where is the nearest settlement?”

“I’m not saying,” replied Angie, shaking her head.

“Look, girl, we’re going to end up killing every last dreg of humanity anyway so you might as well tell us now and save us time.”

“If you’re g-going to kill us all anyway,” chimed in Robert, “then why would we bother helping you at all?”

“Because in return I’ll grant you as quick and painless a death as possible. Refuse me again and I guarantee you your death will be agonisingly slow and painful,” Fortis growled, his eyes flaring.

“Fortis please, they’re just children,” Ambriel began. “We’re all stubborn at that age, perhaps we could ask some of the older humans still hiding behind the trees?” At his gesture several of the faces ducked behind tree trunks and he swore he could hear rapid footfalls as the bandits turned tail and fled.

“Just children?” Fortis scoffed. “Ambriel, they’re humans. I do so hope you don’t think I just want to kill all the adult humans. I want to wipe them all off the face of the world! The men, the women, the children, the mewling babes – they’re all going to die, as vengeance for the death of our race! If you can’t support that, then maybe I should just kill you and your half-breed daughter now.”

Ambriel hung his head in shame. He would have bravely accepted his death, if it wasn’t for the fact that his death also meant the death of his beloved daughter. Still, he couldn’t let the humans all die, could he? What the boy called Robert had said resounded in his mind – if he abandoned his principles, if he let the humans die, then who was he? And did the death of his identity – his honour, his dignity; his beliefs – did that matter if it saved his daughter’s life?

“Tell me now, girl,” snarled Fortis, rounding back on Angie, “Where is the nearest settlement? Tell me now, or I’ll kill this boy.” Fortis grabbed Robert by his collar and lifted him off the ground. Ambriel saw Angie’s face drop.

“What?” she said, panicked.

“I said, tell me where the nearest settlement is or I kill this boy. You are close to him, no? Threatening Ambriel’s mongrel manages to keep him in line, so it’s not a vast leap of the imagination to think threatening the boy will work better than threatening you. Now tell me quickly – I grow tired and annoyed speaking your pig language. You have to the count of three.”

“But I… I…” Angie stammered, her eyes flicking between Fortis and Robert. Ambriel watched on in horror, trying desperately to think of a way to escape this situation without anyone dying.

“One.”

“D-don’t tell him, Angie,” said Robert, resting a hand on Angie’s arm. “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not okay!” cried Angie as they watched Fortis ignite a blade of magical energy and point it towards Robert. “I’ve already lost Verne, Polo, and possibly Kel… I can’t lose you too.”

“Two,” continued Fortis, raising the blade, an evil smirk on his lips.

“P-please don’t tell him Angie. It was lovely to k-know you, b-but I’d rather die than let him replace out how to kill others faster.”

“Three,” grinned Fortis, and began to bring the blade down menacingly.

“It’s Alderbay!” cried Angie. “Alderbay!”

Fortis halted the blade’s descent and raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

“And where is Alderbay?”

“It’s that way,” sighed Angie, pointing west. Ambriel saw her shoulders drop in defeat and her eyes followed, too ashamed to meet anyone else’s. Ambriel knew that feeling all too well. “I’m sorry, Robert. I couldn’t lose you…”

“You should be sorry,” nodded Fortis smugly. “You’re a fool, girl. All you’ve accomplished is, as your friend here says, telling me how I can kill others faster. I won’t kill you though, not yet – I want you to see the consequences of your cowardice. I want you to see what will happen to this settlement of Alderbay. I want you to see it become a barren, lifeless husk littered with the burning corpses of your race. The whole world will become like it in time, as vengeance for what your race did to ours.”

“You w-were the ones who enslaved us! Who t-tortured us!” shouted Robert angrily.

“That doesn’t matter now. Nothing matters now. There is only death and destruction.”

Fortis lunged forwards and drove the magical blade deep into Robert’s abdomen. Angie screamed in outrage and anguish. Ambriel’s jaw dropped and his heart fell. Robert gasped airlessly in shock as the blade ran him through, then slumped awkwardly to the ground as Fortis withdrew the sword and cast him aside.

“But you said-!” cried Angie in shock.

“I said nothing matters now!” roared Fortis. “I said I would bring death to all humans! Are you really so dense that you thought you could save the boy? There is no hope for you or your race, human filth!”

Marielle tittered heartlessly in the background as Angie fell upon Robert, her cries of heartbreak and loss filling the clearing. Ambriel’s heart wrenched and tugged with the sound, and knew it would be the symphony that would accompany the Olossa as they rampaged across the world, bringing death and destruction to all.

No. He couldn’t stand for this.

“Fortis!” Ambriel barked, and the King of the Olossa turned to face him. Ambriel unleashed a blast of magic in his direction which caught Fortis square in the chest and lifted him off his feet, sending him flying backwards through the air.

“Traitor!” screeched Marielle, firing off a barrage of magical ice shards in his direction. Ambriel whipped the air up around him into a protective cyclone that flung the shards aside where they shattered against nearby trees.

“Get out of here! Go!” Ambriel cried to Angie behind him. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can, just get to safety!”

“What?” wept Angie, lifting her head from Robert’s body and looking up at Ambriel.

“Get out of here! I’m sorry I didn’t act sooner, but I’ll do what I can now. Now get out of here – I don’t know how long I can hold out against them!” Ambriel instructed. He hoped Varkun would side with him, but otherwise he’d be fighting a three on one battle and he didn’t think he’d last long in that situation.

The girl nodded, tears still falling from her eyes, and with great effort lifted Robert up onto her shoulder. The boy groaned in pain and clutched a pale, shaking hand to his stomach wound weakly. Ambriel’s attention was drawn away as Fortis rose to his feet, swatting away sparks of residual magic dancing across his chest. Ambriel had poured all his strength into that blast and he was aghast to see it had hardly damaged Fortis at all. Fortis roared and breathed fire towards the heavens, igniting several tree branches that lit the dusk sky with dark oranges and red.

“You will pay for this treachery, Ambriel!” Fortis boomed, launching a red, crackling ball of fire towards him. Ambriel dodged to the right and lashed out with a whip of concentrated air back at Fortis, who batted it away with his hand. Marielle leapt towards Ambriel, and unleashed a torrent of water towards him, catching him in the body and knocking him backwards. Marielle’s face fixed in deadly concentration as she froze the water into ice, trapping Ambriel inside, before launching herself into the air and coming down towards him, her arm a dagger of ice.

Ambriel closed his eyes and spoke softly under his breath, runes appearing in the air above him before fading into the ice imprisoning him. Seconds before Marielle drove her arm through his heart the ice shattered with a resounding crunch and Ambriel fell to the ground, cushioning his fall with a gust of air. Still Marielle descended towards him but Ambriel quickly conjured up the leaves beneath his feet to buffet his sister, making her flail in anger and fall backwards.

Fortis was on him again, a great gout of blazing fire narrowly missing Ambriel’s head. As he spiralled away he caught sight of Varkun looking on, and willed his old friend to come to his aid. At least he’s not attacking me too, thought Ambriel, as he leapt to avoid a jet of boiling water from Marielle.

“How long do you think you can run and dodge, brother?” Marielle sneered, unleashing a second volley of ice shards that hurtled towards Ambriel. Once again he narrowly avoided them by whipping up the air around him, but as the tornado dispelled he was hit full on by a burst of magic from Fortis. Ambriel groaned as he was thrown back against a tree trunk, the wood sharply connecting with his back. Marielle came at him again and Ambriel dropped to the ground, a blade of ice neatly chopping through the wood where his neck had been.

Ambriel span back to his feet and leapt up into the air to avoid a wave of flames from Fortis, but grunted as Marielle grabbed his ankle with a whip of water and slammed him back to the ground. He coughed and spluttered as Fortis and Marielle closed in, and rose to his feet defiantly.

“Give up, Ambriel. You’ve lost,” Fortis spat.

“Hardly,” growled Ambriel in response. “I suppose it depends on how you define losing. I’ve stayed true to myself.”

“And in doing so doomed yourself and your daughter. I don’t count that as a victory,” scoffed Fortis.

“Stop talking then, and kill me. I will not follow you anymore.”

“Oh, you’ll die soon enough, Ambriel. But first, I want you to see the human race die. Once I’ve made you watch every last one of your beloved humans die, I’ll make you watch your daughter die, and then – and only then – will I kill you. Unless, of course, I get bored of you before then. And you are very boring.”

Fortis turned to walk over to the still unconscious body of Keliashyrr, and Ambriel stepped forwards to strike him once more. As he did so however he felt intense pain throughout his entire body and he dropped to his knees screaming in agony. Marielle stood over him, grinning manically.

“What are you doing?” Ambriel gasped as he writhed on the ground.

“How does it feel, having your blood literally boil, brother?” Marielle grinned as Ambriel felt his body erupt in prickly heat, his muscles twitching and his body burning. “It’s just one of the many spells I invented whilst we were sealed away within the Orb. I had planned on using them on human victims once we’d escaped, but oh how lucky I consider myself to be able to use them on you!” Marielle intensified the spell and making Ambriel yell in pain. “You should consider yourself lucky, too – you’re the first to experience such pain. If you survive, I’d dearly like to know your thoughts on it all.”

“That’s enough, Marielle!” barked Varkun, stepping into action. Ambriel felt the pain reduce, though his vision was starting to cloud.

“Enough?” hissed Marielle, rounding on Varkun. “He betrayed us. Unless you’re on his side, I see no reason you would wish anything but death on him. Are you, Varkun? On his side?”

“Yes, Lord Varkun,” added Fortis. “Do you sympathise with Ambriel?”

“Of course not, my king,” replied Varkun, and Ambriel felt his heart drop again. “I just think that if you wish to keep Ambriel alive long enough to make him watch the humans and his daughter die, letting Marielle cast her torturous spells on him is counter-intuitive to that.”

“Hmm…” pondered Fortis, gazing back at Ambriel. “I disagree. Marielle, try not to kill your brother, but feel free to test as many spells on him as you wish.”

Marielle’s eyes lit up as she turned back to Ambriel and he winced and squirmed as he felt his blood begin to boil once more. He watched as Fortis strode over to Keliashyrr, his vision fading by the second, and as the world faded to black he wondered if he’d done the right thing…

Angie stumbled through the dark forest, the sounds of magical combat fading behind her. She struggled under Robert’s weight as he drifted in and out of consciousness, and she kept forcing herself not to think of him as a ‘dead’ weight. Not now. Not him. Not after everything she’d been through, after everything she’d lost. She was not letting him die too.

She ignored the pain sparking through her leg as she dragged Robert through the woods. She had no idea where she was going. No plan, no strategy, just trying to get as far away from the clearing and the Olossa as possible. Angie knew this had meant abandoning Kel, but she hoped her father would be able to keep her safe. There was no way Angie would have been able to carry both Robert and Kel anyway, but however much she thought about it she couldn’t help but feel guilty for leaving Kel behind.

Maybe if she could get to Alderbay – if she could warn the townspeople about what was coming for them. From what she’d seen before she’d been able to flee the clearing however, she didn’t know how much of a difference it would make if they were ready for an attack. What if they didn’t believe her? At least they might have some medical supplies she could use to help stabilise Robert. She looked down and saw the dark red patch soaking into Robert’s shirt and grimaced. He couldn’t die, he just couldn’t… Not after Verne. Not after Polo.

Robert groaned and lurched forwards in her arms and Angie struggled to keep him upright. For a gangly mess of limbs he was surprisingly heavy. Not a dead weight though, thought Angie.

Please… not a dead weight.