The Legend Ch. 3

Chapter Three
Magic Astir
         Far to the south, beyond the scorching sands of the Barren Desert and the lurking stillness of the Swamp of Echoes, the black hump of Mount Seniya arched its back to the sky like a giant beast that toppled years ago and now lay in its on putrefaction.  Anyone who possessed the slightest bit of magical talent could see the evil haze surrounding its peak.  A dark storm that brewed and threatened constantly.  But the true evil of Mount Seniya lay far below its peak or surface.  A twisted maze of tunnels and caves led down, past mutated creatures of the night, into a dark abyss hundreds of feet below the surface.  Underground rivers carved most of this place and dark Elvin magic finished the job.  At the very bottom of this pit, the dark elf realm, Ever Dark, stood in a dim haze.  Gigantic magical crystals, which composed most of the outer walls, gave off an eerie glow, perpetually making the kingdom appear to be at dusky dark.  These same crystals hung from the ceiling, giving the impression of twinkling stars in a midnight sky.  Dark elf guards stood at every entrance to the city, while their comrades patrolled the city streets.  Tiny hovels, for the lower class of Ever Dark, aligned ledges surrounding the great city.  Great houses circled a moat at the bottom of the city.  Within the moat stood a great castle, composed entirely of crystal with spires reaching to the crystals above.  A great waterfall plummeted to the ground behind the castle, feeding the moat.  The crystals of the castle constantly shifted colors from black to green to purple to gold.  A large archway, always guarded, led to the inner walls of the crystal castle.  Within these walls lived Queen Santayani, the leader of Ever Dark.
         She stood by a great lavender pool in her throne room with a young, human boy at her side.  Her hair, softer than silk and blacker than a moonless night, hung like a death shroud over her slender shoulders to her petite waist.  The long, flowing pine green gown she wore set off the glowing emerald of her eyes.  Her pale blue skin set her apart from most dark elves.  Most of her people had a dark blue to almost black complexion.  She held a gnarled staff in her right hand, with a shard of green crystal at the tip.  She waved this over the pool, and the water started to ripple.
         The young boy at her side took a step back.  She quickly grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back to his spot at her side.  She held him there, burying her long, slender fingers into his boney shoulder.
         “Watch, Adrian,” she said, her voice was sharp enough to cut like a whip.
         The young human boy trembled but gazed into the pool.  His lip quivered.  Clumps of black, greasy hair fell across his forehead.  He brushed them back with a pale, emaciated hand.  A vertical scar, the color of a bruised plum, ran from half way up his forehead, over his left eye, and down to the top of his left cheek.  The eye behind it sparkled with a green glow, like the queen’s.  His right eye, although blue, was covered with a hazy cloud, as though he had a cataract.  As he hunched over the pool, the blades of his shoulders protruded through the black, silken tunic he wore.
         “Gruk, do you hear me?” Queen Santayani said.
         The waters of the pool became still, revealing smoke from camp fires and huge thatched huts clustered randomly around each other.  Within moments, the body of an enormous orc stepped into view.
         “What do you want, Witch?” Gruk said.
         Adrian wanted to step back again, but the queen’s hold on him was too great.  He could feel his strength draining in her grasp.  Helplessly, he stared at the orc. 
         Gruk stood well over nine feet tall with well muscled arms the size of small trees.  His skin was almost black with flecks of green poking through.  Yellowed tusks, at least two inches long, jutted from each side of the bottom of his mouth and pointed upward.  Horizontal stripes of blood red war paint were smeared across his wide face under each eye.  His plate armor glistened in the sunlight.  The helm he wore on his head revealed the entire front of his face but kept the sides and back safe.  Two shiny horns extended from each side of his helm.
         “Nice to see you again too, Gruk,” Santayani said.  “My armor looks nice on you.”  Santayani didn’t wait for a reply.  “I need your assistance.”
         Gruk grunted.  “I am done with you.  I have paid my debt.”
         Santayani leaned closer to the pool.  “You will have paid your debt when I say you have paid it.  I gave you leadership of your people.”
         Gruk growled and the sound echoed off the walls of the crystal castle.  “I got what you wanted.”
         “You got part of what I wanted.  Now you will get the rest of it,” Santayani hissed.  “Either that or your berserker rages that allowed you to take over your kingdom will fade away.”
         “It was your harpies that failed you, not me,” Gruk grunted.
         “That is partially true, but you were the one who called retreat before they could finish their job.  You owe me.”
         “Very well,” Gruk said, “one last thing.  What would you have me do?”
         “The boy has returned near the Kera ruins.  Bring him to me in one piece.”
         Gruk started to say something else, but before he could, Santayani waved her staff over the pool, and he faded away.  She shoved Adrian back from her.
         “Go to your chambers,” she said.  “I’m done with you for now.”
         Adrian skulked out of the throne room down a long corridor toward his sleeping chambers.  Something strange had happened during the queen’s communication, but he wasn’t quite sure what.  It felt as though she were drawing energy from him, but that wasn’t what felt so strange.  He had sensed a presence.  One he’d never felt before.
         Come, boy, echoed inside his mind.  Come to me.
         Adrian shook his head and looked around.  There was no one in the long corridor but him.  He took another couple of steps.
         Down.  Down to the dungeons.
         Adrian had no idea where the dungeons were.  He hadn’t been aware there were even dungeons in the castle, but he could sense from where the voice came.  Instead of going straight on to his sleeping chambers, he made a right and followed the long hallway.  Crystal steps led down to another level.  He quickly climbed down those steps and listened.  No voice.  He didn’t need it.  He knew he was getting closer.  He made another right and went down another level and then another.  He walked out into a circular room with corridors leading off from it on many angles. 
         “Hello,” he called out.
         “Down here,” a weak voice said.  “Hurry before they return.”
         Adrian walked, feeling his way, down the corridor from which the voice came.  He could feel energy in the air that made his skin tingle.  After a few seconds, his left eye adjusted to the darkness, and he could make out rows of cells on each side of the hallway.  The palace did contain a dungeon. 
Half way down the hallway, he saw the old woman who had cried out to him in his mind.  She was chained to the wall.  A tattered robe hung around her frail body.  Clumps of her long, silver hair had fallen out or had been pulled out.  Adrian couldn’t tell for sure.  Her face resembled a skull covered with dark blue skin.
“Who are you?” Adrian asked.
The old woman let loose a shrill, echoing laugh.  Adrian stepped back.  She had gone mad.
“The question is whom are you?” she said.  “Get out of here while you still can.  Go find your destiny.”
“What do you mean?  This is my home.”
“Stupid, boy, don’t believe those lies.  Flee while you still can.  Bring her down before hate consumes you.”
An arc of white light streaked down the corridor, illuminating the skeletons in the other cells and striking Adrian in the middle of the chest before he could dodge.  He flew down the corridor, slammed into the stone wall at the other end, and collapsed on the floor.
“Shame on you, Mother,” Queen Santayani said, as she walked down the hall to where her mother sat in the cell, “trying to turn my own apprentice against me and making me hurt him.  Did you not think I’d hear your telepathic call to him?”
“It was worth the risk,” the old woman said.  “He will know your lies one day and turn against you.  The magic is strong within him.”
“Oh, yes, it is,” said Santayani, “but by the time the sniveling little coward learns to harness it, it will be mine.  And then all of Norwind will be mine.”  Santayani laughed.  “I can see the hate in your eyes that it’s going to be me instead of you, Mother.  Such a shame that you feel that way about your daughter.”
“You are no daughter of mine,” the old woman spat.
“I’m so hurt,” Santayani laughed again.  “I kept you alive for my pleasure.  Torturing you has been an excellent past time during my long wait for Adrian to reach his potential.  But, Mother, I really can’t have you talking to him anymore with your vile tongue.  I’m afraid this is where it all has to end.”
The old woman let loose another shrill cackle.  “Do you think your threats frighten me, Santayani?  Kill me!  Do me a favor.”
“Oh, no, Mother,” Santayani said.  “That would be far too merciful and easy to release your spirit to the after world.”  Santayani waved her staff, and Adrian’s unconscious body skidded across the floor to her feet.  She squatted down and placed her hand on the side of his face.  “I want to show you another trick I’ve learned.”
She began chanting and the hand on Adrian’s face started to glow as she pulled his energy from him.  The emerald tip of her staff grew brighter and brighter until it lit the entire dungeon.  A black smoke oozed its way from the tip of her staff and coiled out toward the old woman like a viper.
“No,” the old woman screamed, as the smoke entered her eyes and open mouth.
The old woman jerked upright from her sitting position and hit the back of the cell wall.  Her arms flew up forming the shape of a cross.  Her screams of anguish and pain filled the dungeon until the skin melted from her bones and turned to shadow.  Her skeleton flaked away into the blackness of the smoke that surrounded her, leaving nothing but a black cloud.
Santayani, breathing hard and covered with a thin layer of perspiration, released her hold on Adrian.  She grabbed the cell bars and pulled herself erect, maintaining her hold for support.
The black cloud of smoke faded away, leaving a shadow wraith of her mother behind.  The shadow form of her mother stood there for a moment lost in the darkness that entrapped her soul for eternity, and then let out an agonizing shrill and rushed toward Santayani.
Santayani struggled to lift her staff but managed to do so.  The emerald in it glowed.
“Stop,” she commanded.  The wraith reluctantly held its position behind the bars.  Santayani exhaled.  “You’ll serve me much better in death than you ever did life, Mother.  Now go until I call you.”
The wraith dissipated into the crevices and shadows.  The radiance in Santayani’s staff faded, leaving the dungeon darker than ever before.