The Emperor's Shadow War (Tales of Alus Book 2) Read online

  The Emperor’s Shadow War: A Tale of Alus

  By

  Donald L Wigboldy Jr.

  Copyright 2011

  Update January 2014

  For World Maps and More Go To:

  https://www.facebook.com/BattleMageATaleOfAlus

  Other books by Donald L Wigboldy Jr.:

  From the Tales of Alus series:

  Battle Mage: A Tale of Alus

  Battle Mage: Winter’s Edge

  Battle Mage: The Lost King

  Battle Mage: Dragon Mage

  The High King: A Tale of Alus

  Modern Tales:

  Voran the Night Guardian

  The Mermaid’s Chest

  Chapter 1- Dante

  The smells of blood and death lay upon the plain. The orange light of a new day's sun added its color to the already crimson stained earth. The cries of crows and ravens broke the still air with their raucous calls of delight and the occasional squabble over a choice piece of meat. The fights ended quickly though. There was more than enough for even their great numbers, but the large ebony scavengers had their work cut out for them even still. Armor that had sought to protect the men of Certe in life resisted the strength of their beaks even though it had failed its responsibility so completely.

  A sudden movement from the center of the dead startled the scavengers from their fare. The air turned dark as the flock lifted angrily from their meals. A groan from the final surviving defender was drowned out by the squawks of the brazen birds. The warrior fought his way weakly to his knees. A hand brushed absently at the blood blinding his vision. Looking back to the ground in front of him, the man found his broken sword.

  The largest of the ravens swooped downwards to land before the man. It looked at him curiously. The man thought that he could see disbelief in the creature's eyes which mirrored that which he also felt. It squawked at him as if to ask him how it was that he still lived.

  A croak through his raw throat was his ineffectual retort. The soldier coughed and the effort nearly threw him back onto his face in the gore. He spied an unopened canteen on a body nearby and reached out for it. Lifting the container to his mouth, the fallen warrior poured the liquid between his lips. The silver haired man rinsed out his mouth and spit it back out. The water had turned red before it even touched the blood stained earth.

  Pouring the contents of the canteen back into his mouth, he forced his throat to swallow. Once started, the man couldn't stop until the vessel was drained.

  The raven hadn't moved throughout the whole of his efforts.

  The man stared at the creature in amazement. The thought of the scavenger drew him to look about him. The death surrounding him caused an unbidden gasp. He could tell that the hundreds of bodies mostly belonged to his comrades and allies. The army of King Druin lay about him in great unkempt piles.

  He forced himself to remember how the losses could possibly have happened. The sight of a dark misshapen body sent waves of memory flowing harshly back into his consciousness. Tears of bitterness and failure came unbidden as he remembered it all.

  Dante Betrice of the Certe Alliance Guard had come with his comrades when reports of the dark horde invading their lands had come to them. King Druin ruled in the south of the alliance and had sent the first battalion to meet the unknown intruders. General Batist had confidently led his men to the plain of Turo and there the army found that they faced the horror of creatures not born of their world.

  The creatures consisting of two main types wore black armor strangely discolored by a crimson gloss. The smaller creatures all had dark green skin, a green that resembled that of an evergreen in winter. Small and quick they darted in and out and around the humans with their long knives. If a man wasn't careful, the beasts would take swipes at his legs going for the tendons in particular. He had seen many a soldier fall to the tactic and the creatures were quick to pounce in small groups to finish off their victim as well. If they didn't get the kill, their larger cousins would use their axes and clubs instead. With rough skin the color of oak bark, the creatures were nearly the height of a full grown man and had chests wider than a man's shoulder width. The larger beasts had formed a core through which their smaller cousins operated.

  With power and speed, the dark warriors had quickly dismantled the entire command.

  Dante had fought valiantly. Even as the men around him fell, he had continued to hold his ground. Dark creatures could be found slain in the midst of the Certe Guardsmen, and some were the result of his work. Then the numbers had closed in on him. Their mass proved too strong for his blade and the shield he had carried was left in tatters.

  This brought him back the question of his continued existence. "How can I be here?" he questioned the raven still before him.

  Cocking its shiny black head at him curiously, the bird answered with a softer call. Dante looked at the creature before him in wonderment that it was still perched before him. Shaking his head slightly until he realized that the motion caused him dizziness, Dante then chose to try and stand. The raven retreated only slightly as it continued to watch.

  The soldier chose to ignore the bird and turned to the task of finding a suitable sword and shield to replace those that he had lost. He also found a pair of animal skin canteens and a couple of travel packs of food. Dante began eating ravenously. He had been famished. The hunger was greater than any he could ever remember.

  He tossed a few scraps towards the raven though there was more than enough left here to feed it. Its comrades had already started withdrawing now that even their great appetites had been sated. His own hunger was as well now from a less morbid version of dinner.

  The task before him had to be a return to Castle Trea and to find out if any of the others had made it back to warn the king. Having eaten, the man found his strength returning quickly. Dante began picking his way through the masses of dead. It was a disheartening experience. He found many a friend lying broken and often picked over by the scavengers. The body of General Batist was found near the rear of the battle surrounded by his personal guard.

  Dante shook his head. The man had refused to flee though his command was being torn apart before him. Dante considered such an act foolish. The General should have retreated to the castle to warn the king. There was nothing to be gained by losing such an important man. His pride had caused the superb soldier to die which was a shame since Batist had been a renowned strategist and tactician. In the face of such a loss, Dante guessed that he had been unwilling to admit defeat.

  Picking up his pace as he finally was clear of the main killing field, Dante rushed as quickly as he could manage. The castle was nearly twenty miles south. If he could get there soon enough, the soldier could prepare the king for what his troops would be facing.

  Walking all day, eventually Dante spotted smoke ahead of him. A dark flash and the soft rustle of wings, alerted him to the raven's presence again. It had followed him this far oddly enough. Perhaps it was still certain of Dante's death and had chosen him as its future meal, he thought wryly. But as the bird soared on ahead towards the smoke, Dante realized that the bird would have something else to feed on first.

  The bird had disappeared long ago, but Dante knew that the creature would be waiting ahead for him though he had no reason for such odd behavior. The warrior followed the road as best he could and before long he found the source of the smoke.

  A small village, through which the Certen army had passed only a day ago, was now a smoking ruin. As he entered the outskirts of the town, Dante could smell the death before him even as he had on the battlefield. Animals and scavenger birds were here as well. Most scattere
d at the approach of the man. The brazen raven appeared before him in the road and turned to him with a cry.

  "So nice of you to wait," he mumbled sarcastically.

  As he searched the village for any survivors, Dante began to wonder about something else. The invaders’ identity was entirely unknown to him. They had appeared out of virtually nowhere. Those that had alerted the king had not known from where they had come either. More than five hundred strong, a true army of odd creatures the likes of which had never been known to this region of the Taltan continent, if they had ever existed anywhere in all of the world of Alus, and they had just appeared out of nowhere to attack and destroy.

  Armies of man they knew. There were even dwarves rumored to be a true separate race up in the north, though he had never seen one. The myths of a race of gargoyles and the existence of dragons had made their way to Certe from North Continent as well. The source of old wives' tales to be told to naughty young children or around the campfire to try and spook the rawest of recruits, but now these aberrations were here. This slaughter was no wives’ tale.

  Dante could find no survivors left alive and so he proceeded south to warn the king, even as the man continued to ask the unanswerable questions.

  The raven continued to follow but revealed nothing to him.

  Chapter 2- Darius

  The courtyard garden was a place of quiet and soothing beauty for the students of Aerwold. The large purple petals of the meris plants mixed with the golden masses of dodera and the crimson splashes of tremara held intoxicating fragrances beneath the prapple trees. The stone walls surrounding the delicate garden were crisscrossed with the green of ivy vines twisted across its layered surface. The same ivy climbed the structure of the three story building along its entire south side where it formed the fourth wall of the court.

  Through this wonderland crossed Darius Eremia, hair of blond that appeared to be white but otherwise unremarkable in size or appearance, he hardly noticed the above average colors of the yard as he hurried towards the patioed south entrance. He was one of the students, a student of magic as were the others here. After having spent fifteen years of his life at Aerwold, he still felt as if he was just getting started with his education. After all, his teachers themselves often reminded him that even they continued to study and learn. Magic was a lifelong challenge and one had to keep questing if he was to continue growing. Darius’ goal was to become truly adept and thus he too followed that logic.

  "Darius!"

  The voice caused him to pause at the first of two steps leading onto the patio. It was familiar in its sound and Darius turned to greet yet another student and friend, “Palonius." It was an offhand greeting and blunt, but he had been preoccupied.

  "Did you get the message that Wizard Elias was looking for you?"

  Darius made a face at his friend, a plump fellow to be sure and, though he had a knack for magic that had led him to Aerwold, Palonius tended towards the slow side of reasoning. Darius, however, took his friend for what he was. A refreshing personality and mind in an otherwise over thought university of intellectual hopefuls and sorcerer wannabes.

  "Palonius, my friend, why else would I be rushing from the laboratories? Tate already brought word, but thanks for your concern. Perhaps we can talk afterwards, but I should probably be going don’t you think?"

  "Oh, I’m so sorry, Dar. I quite forgot myself. I have studies myself, of course, but mayhap at dinner?" the young man replied sounding as if he had been slapped.

  Darius barely contained a sigh. That was another problem that he found dealing with Palonius. The man’s ability to believe he had done wrong at the drop of a hat, and he’d probably believe that the hat was his fault as well. "No harm done, of course. If I don’t see you before then, Palonius, there’s always dinner. Until then?"

  "Yes, yes, until then!"

  Darius hurried inside. To stay in sight of Palonius too long, only invited more conversation and Darius didn’t have the time to give. When a wizard of Elias’ caliber called for you, you came and quickly.

  The hallway through which he rushed was as plain as the stairway he found at its middle. The wizards that had been the originators of Aerwold had chosen not to adorn the building’s interior overly much in an effort to eliminate distractions. The current faculty had continued the tradition. Darius knew that he would probably feel the same when he had someday attained such status at the school. In any event, he had lived long enough without the extras that he would probably truly be distracted if they were to change.

  Such thoughts flowed through his mind as he tried not to worry about the unscheduled meeting that he was about to join. It was strange that he would feel nervous about meeting with a man that he had known for fifteen years, even if that man was a wizard. But meetings like this never seemed to bring good things. The last time he had been called it had resulted in a month of punishment after he had mischievously turned a fellow student’s hair blue. He could think of nothing that he had done wrong, at least lately, and as the apprentice knocked on the dark stained door before him, Darius still wondered what the meeting could concern.

  "Come in," a thin raspy voice called from within.

  Darius entered as bidden and found himself in a small study. A wall of shelves holding scrolls and leather bound tomes set the back drop for a desk cluttered with maps and papers over which a small, hunched over, stick of a man clothed in a dark blue robe stood. A translucent globe sat on a small table off to the side. Occasionally, a light of blue or yellow would flutter into existence on its surface. Darius had never seen such a great amount of activity on the sphere before and would have asked about it if this were just a friendly visit. He doubted that it was and kept his mouth shut.

  "Have a seat," the old man suggested. Darius found a small beaten up wooden chair and drew it closer. "Darius, why are you so tense? If you were any stiffer, I could use you rather than my desk for this mess."

  Darius tried to appear looser though he doubted that the old man would fall for it. Tension was hard to lose until after the fact of what was causing the tension was laid to rest.

  "I’m sure that you’re wondering why you are here. I’m right, aren’t I?"

  "Uh, yes, sir," he replied lamely.

  "I know that look on your face and I assure you that you are not in trouble this time. Actually, I’ve called you here more in reference to what you have already achieved here." The old wizard stepped over to the glowing globe. "You know what this is, do you not?"

  Darius nodded obediently. "The Globe of Portalis shows an approximation of the flow of magic throughout Alus. It is tied into the essence of the world itself in such a way that any unusual use of magic will appear as either a blue or yellow light. In one lecture I recall, the exact phrase used in reference to its properties as `being more than just a novelty, but also a warning sign when abuse of the magic threatens.”

  The old wizard nodded, "Me being that wizard of course. Do you also remember the original reason for the device’s creation from your studies?"

  His face screwed up slightly as the apprentice thought back to a course that he had taken nearly seven years before. His memory had become exceptionally developed through special courses at the university, but this piece of information was lodged too deeply for him to retrieve. He shook his head as his answer.

  With a brief sigh and a look upward to the heavens, Elias mumbled something about youth being wasted on the young. He then answered, "Its name is its first calling, boy. The Globe of Portalis reveals, not only the use of magic, but the results of a disruption in the flow as well. The disruptions most often manifest themselves as portals to other dimensions.

  "It is said that more than five hundred years ago an evil king of the north continent used his sorcerers to break through the barriers of reality to call forth the gargoyles to do his bidding and with them their allies the dragons. When the gargoyles learned the rites of passage, their own sorcerers shattered the barrier on an even larger scale to free
their race from the death of their old world. Though they closed the barrier after the passage was accomplished, damage to the boundaries of the dimensions continued to manifest itself. Throughout the last five hundred years, sorcerers have learned of the breaks and learned to reseal them. Most are small, of course, and easily sealed. The larger ones are more dangerous for obvious reasons, the foremost being the ability of others to pass through into our world intentionally or unintentionally. We don’t know of any creatures to actually make it through before one of the wizards could close the portals, but the possibility has always remained."

  The old wizard paused a moment preparing his words. Before he was ready, Darius questioned him, "I’m guessing that another portal has opened, but what has that to do with me?"

  Elias shook his head in annoyance, "Don’t get ahead of me, boy. You are right, of course. There is another portal that has only just opened, but this one quickly closed of its own accord. Further south in the lands of the Certe Alliance, yet another one opened and closed quickly on itself. This one was enormous and through it poured an army."

  "An army was prepared for such an unusual opening, sir?" Darius blurted out already considering the potential crisis this could raise for the world of Alus.

  "Our question exactly, Darius, and we can guess that it was a planned entry. The large portal was our main concern. The brotherhood from the Enchwold School in Echeya was quick to respond to that one for us. They were still too late unfortunately. Many lives were lost in central Certe before the army returned through another portal further south. Once again that one closed of its own accord. Echeya was never able to catch up to their army."

  "If Enchwold has worked to find out the answers in Certe, how can I be of help? Am I to go to Certe to study?"

  The wizard gave him yet another look of annoyance. "Patience, boy, I was getting to that. I did say that there were two portals, didn’t I? The ones formed in Certe were actually a sliding tear that moved forward slowly south. The army of creatures that came through was able to find it exactly when it refolded into position to leave again. How could they have known unless they created the portal on their own? Our brother school has yet to determine the exact nature of the portal or its users. This knowledge I pass to you was for a reason. You are not going to Certe, at least not right away.