Under the Shadow of Darkness: Book 1 of the Apprentice Series (18 page)

“Help me up!”

Kephas grabbed Bel’s arm and hoisted him up into a seated position. “I promised him I would look after you. You were unconscious. Do you think you are strong enough to go on?”

Bel could hear the calls for blood nearby. “I don’t know but—” Bel cut his words short; he was still very dizzy. He didn’t like the idea of going down there and now he had an excuse not to. And it wasn’t some lame, schoolboy excuse made up to get out of taking an exam; he passed out; it was a totally valid excuse to not go down into the valley and die. It was so very tempting to just lie back down and fall asleep but Bel knew he couldn’t do that. Nes’egrinon was
his
master; he had to go help him. “I think I can make it. Please, help me up. Which way did they go?”

“Bloo-da! Nee-da bloo-da! Hahahaha!” the one-arm boy shrieked loudly.

“Shut up over there!” Kephas yelled as he hoisted Bel up off the ground. He kept one hand on his arm, as he did not know if the boy could stand on his own. The dim torchlight flickered. “Listen, I don’t think that’s a good idea. You are too weak.”

“I’ll be fine. I promise. I need to go help them. They need me. They do. They need…” Bel teetered.

“Woah there. Okay, let’s sit back down.” The soldier eased Bel back to the ground and stared at his soft boyish face. “You know you look a bit like Petras. I image at his age he might look like you.”

Bel did not respond. He was finding it difficult to keep his eyes open at the moment.

“Tell you what. You can take some of my energy. Like your friend did to the dead boy over there. Just don’t take too much. I mean, don’t drain me dead; don’t kill me. Oh boy, am I really going to do this? Alright, listen. Are you in there? Hello? Wake up.” He shook Bel then shook him again.

He opened his eyes slowly, “Hey, Kephas, I need to go help—”

The guard placed his hand on Bel’s chest and said, “Take it. Take some of my energy.”

Bel didn’t do it consciously; he didn’t even know how it happened or why; he didn’t even know it was happening at all. Perhaps it was the thirst for life, the same thirst that the ghoul-kind had, that caused him to drink in Kephas’ life-force, draining the light out of him. Perhaps it was the desire that all living things have to live life, even if it is just for a few moments longer. Bel had once seen a cat catch a bird. Clearly the bird would die; it was in the mouth of the cat and its wings were broken. Even had the cat dropped it there on the ground, the bird would die soon. Yet it struggled on. Did it not know that it would soon die? Yet it struggled because a few more moments of life, even in the mouth of a cat, were better than the darkness of death. Bel unconsciously drank deeply.

Suddenly Bel felt strong, aware and awake, more alive than he had felt in days. He felt full of light, full of energy. He looked down at his arms and they almost glistened. There was a torch lying on the ground next to him so he picked it up and looked around. Next to him lay Kephas.
What’s this! What had he done?

Bel shook him and he did not move. A grim foreboding grabbed Bel in the pit of his stomach.
What. Had. He. Done?!
Bel shook Kephas harder this time.

“Nee-da bloo-da! Hahahaha!” rang out in the silent black.

“Shut up over there!” Bel screamed in a panic as he shook the soldier more and more vigorously. “Don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.”

“Bloo-da! Bloo-da!”

Bel tried to ignore the one-armed boy’s cries. Perhaps he would be quiet if no one paid him any attention. Bel shook Kephas harder then sat back and stared at his body lying prostrate on the dirt, Kephas’ arms and legs in a seemingly uncomfortable position draped over sharp rocks jutting out of the earth. The torch between them was almost out.

Bel choked back a sob.
What have I done?
he thought.

“Bloo-da!”

Bel stood quickly, grabbed the torch and ran over toward the sound. He looked down at the boy and kicked him square in the back. “This is all your fault!”

“Bloo-da! Nee-da bloo-da!”

“Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!” Bel hated hearing those cries for blood because he suddenly felt no better than him. He needed life so he drained Kephas; he drained him dry. He didn’t mean to do it. He didn’t even know that he was doing it, yet he did it just the same. He was no better than one of these dead ghouls crying out for blood. They were merely articulating their desire a little more obviously, a little more grotesquely, but they were all the same, predators, feeding on each other in one giant game of who can consume whom first. It was that stupid idea they taught the First Years, the great circle of life, but suddenly it didn’t seem so great and Bel was disgusted with himself. He felt like throwing up but he knew his belly had been too empty to do that for a long time now.

“Bloo-da!”

“Shut up, I said!” Bel kicked the boy again, harder this time.

“Hahahaha!”

“Shut it! Just shut it!” Bel kicked him a few more times but then stopped. It did no good. He retreated to Kephas’ prone body and sat next to him. “Why? Why’d you do it? You could have left me here. You could have lived.”

Then Bel saw the most amazing thing. Kephas little finger moved! It was a tiny move, the tiniest of moves, but still, it moved! Bel hunched over him, placing the side of his face just over Kephas mouth, trying to see if he could feel his breath on his cheek. He couldn’t feel anything.
I saw his finger move didn’t I? He must be still alive; he must be!
Bel put his hand on his chest and pushed a little life into him, saying the mage words of healing. He stopped and waited, hoping against hope that the soldier was still with the living.

Kephas said shallowly, “You’re still here?”

“I don’t want you to die. Please. I can’t be like them.”

The soldier pondered the words, not understanding what the boy meant by them. He was just a simple man, a guard of the Keep of the stonecutters and he did not grasp their meaning. “You must go on. You must help them to close the gateway.”

“I can’t go. Not until I know that you will be alright, not until I know that you aren’t going to die out here.”

“Please. Go. I’ll be fine. I am awake. See? Just go. Go now.”

Bel wiped his face, unsure whether or not there might be a trace of moisture on his cheek. He stood and looked down at the soldier and said, “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m fine. I feel better already.” But the soldier lied. The echoes of laughter coming from the one-armed boy rang in his ears as he lied. He was not fine. In fact, he was not even alive. He had joined the dead. He was one of the ghoul-kind. But for all his strength and fearlessness in battle he did not have the courage to tell the boy who so looked like his younger brother.

Bel wanted to believe him. He needed to believe him although in his spirit he knew his words were false. He turned his head and looked down at the breach then back once more. “Okay then. I am going to go help them. As long as you are alright.”

“I’m fine. Go, please go.”

It was then that Bel truly realized what had happened. He could not look at Kephas anymore, so he quickly turned, not saying another word, and started his journey down the mountain, down into the valley of death.

*****

Down in the valley, Nes’egrinon, Alexius and Kerlith were near the base of the mountain. The slope was leveling out and there were ghoul-kind milling about everywhere. Some asked them for blood but they were mostly the calm type and did not attack. Many wore clothing that Kerlith had never seen before. A few items reminded him of something that he had heard his history teacher describe, at least what he imagined that it would look like, the clothing of peoples from the forgotten times, many, many generations past. Most of them that asked for blood spoke in an unintelligible speech, some in languages that almost didn’t seem as if they could be languages, clicks, snaps and beeps. But they knew what the dead were saying; they knew what they were asking for. Up ahead the crowds thickened and the three quickly realized that they would have to wade through hundreds, if not thousands of the ghoul-kind to reach the entrance.

Nes’egrinon said, “Alexius, Kerlith, gather round.”

The old wizard grabbed their hands and slowly chanted in the old tongue, “” It was something Kerlith had never heard before. He did not know what would happen. Then, as he looked about, trying to understand what the magic would do, the old man began to fade. “” He was disappearing! Kerlith looked over at Alexius and Alexius was looking back except he was fading too.

Kerlith said, “You two are disappearing. What manner of magic is this?”

Alexius said, “You too. I can still feel your hand but I can’t see you anymore. You’re gone!”

“Quiet you two,” Nes’egrinon said. “Obviously it’s invisibility magic. Don’t have to be a genius to figure that out. Something you stone heads never seen before, ehh? That’s because it’s not stone magic. Anyway, stick close. Don’t get lost. They can’t see us but we can’t see each other either.”

The mage placed Alexius’ hand on his shoulder and Kerlith’s hand on Alexius’ shoulder and began wading through the sea of dead. He sometimes had to push them out of the way with his staff but they tended not to mind too much. The closer they came to the breach, the thicker the throng of ghoul-kind and the more they had to plow through, pushing the dead bodies out of the way more and more forcefully.

Even though Kerlith had his hand on the archmage’s shoulder and he could feel Alexius’ hand on his, he felt like he needed to speak, if for no other reason to at least hear his own voice, to remind himself that he was actually there. It was too surreal. He had often imagined the dead as ghosts, that’s the way many of the stories went anyway. They called them shades or shadows, but here they were, in the middle of them, and the dead were more substantial than the living. Kerlith could not see himself and he felt more and more like a ghost and saw the dead more and more as the living.

“Master Archmage?”

“Sshhh.”

Kerlith whispered lower, “I’m sorry but I have to ask.”

“Can’t you keep quiet? What is it?”

The apprentice asked, “I thought we would have come across the other masters by now. Master Rylithnon and his companions.”

“And do you think I know something about that?”

“I don’t know. I just thought, yeah, I thought you might know something.”

“Well, I don’t. I guess we are on our own. Maybe they took a different route. Maybe we were lied to. Maybe they ran like chickens and hightailed it out of here and there’s not even the sign of their yellow tail feathers. I don’t know. Does it look like I got this all figured out?”

Kerlith was quiet. A few moments later Alexius spoke, “I saw them at the Keep. The Master Archmage Rylithnon. I lead him in to see King Luthgar, some number of days before you showed up.”

Nes’egrinon pushed another group of ghoul-kind out of the way and they found themselves in a small clearing. “Anything else you want to share now that we are here surrounded by a thousand blood thirsty ghouls?”

“I think our king told you that the wizard passed through, headed into this valley.”

“He did.”

“He traveled with a few companions but I am not sure whether they were magicians or not. I think they were porters that he may have hired. If they were mage-kind then I could not tell as they performed no magic and did not dress as one of the mage-kind does. Rylithnon was the only one who performed any magic at the Keep.”

Kerlith said, “So he had a few days head start?”

Alexius answered, “I don’t know how many days. It didn’t seem important at the time. He was just another courtly visitor at Protolith. We used to get many. It was before the sky went black, that much I am sure of.”

“What?” Nes’egrinon gasped.

“Sshhh,” Kerlith and Alexius hissed. Some of the ghoul-kind spun and began walking blindly in their direction. The archmage pulled the group to and fro in the small clearing, ensuring that the ghouls did not accidentally stumble into them.

The mage huffed, “The king did not tell me that. At least not to my understanding. I thought Rylithnon came here to stop this. Now it appears that he may have been involved in starting it.”

Kerlith and Alexius could not see the old man’s scarred face but if they could they would have seen a face crowned in worry. Kerlith began to wonder if nothing among the mage-kind was as it seemed.
No wonder Master Nes’egrinon always seemed so jaded and kept himself hid away in the forest and separate from the rest of the great wizards. He probably hated himself for what happened to his son, his own flesh and blood, but there was more to it than that. The way he disrespected the other wizards, even my own master, it was as if he thought their motives were impure, tainted and maybe even selfish. And maybe he has a right to think that way.

Kerlith said, “If it is true that Master Rylithnon started this, then why are not more wizards here to stop it? Why is it only us?” His voice sounded more and more ethereal to himself the longer he stayed invisible.

“This is the hard reality of things, young apprentice. Now you see magic for what it truly is. They probably taught you that we are all guardians of the truth and keepers of the peace, that we are somehow supposed to keep the world of men safe and good and right and normal. That’s what they sold you on, right?”

Kerlith nodded even though he knew the archmage could not see him.

“Well guess what? A mage is only a human that knows the ways of magic. There is nothing special or sacred about him at all. He is just as human as anyone else; he can make mistakes, fall on his face, lie, cheat, steal, any of it—and guess what else? —all of it. Listen. I’ve been around a long time. Some would say too long.”

The mage paused to move them around a block of wandering ghoul-kind then continued, “And I’ve seen a little too much. Maybe a lot too much. I can tell you right now that no one is coming. That’s just the way it is. Okay, I said it. We are on our own because the rest of them are cowering in their little empires of snow and desert and stone and wood and they’re there hiding. They are hiding in their beds with the covers pulled over their heads, hoping someone else takes care of this. How do I know this? Well let’s just say that it’s just the way people generally are. Let’s leave it at that.”