Six

Chapter Six

Zen’dik emerged, greeting Lia with a grim expression on his face.  “We have very little time,” he said quietly.  “We have to find my sister and stop her.”

“Well,” Lia said quietly, “She should be easy enough to find, being the empress.  All we have to do is go to the Great City unrecognized, which requires some sort of way to mask who we are.  I can do that, but it will take many hours.”

Zen’dik explained to Lia that whatever could be done had to be done as quickly as possible; the very fate of the world depended upon it.  The two of them leaped through the opened portal just as it was beginning to close.  

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Brandis lay on his back in the sand.  “Ugh,” he whispered.  “Not again.”  He looked about himself, seeing the charred bodies of the militia men lying there.  His armor was scorched and blackened, his crossbow burnt to a crisp.  The sword in its sheath had been undamaged, but the scabbard itself was in such terrible condition that the mercenary was sure it would fall apart at any moment.

Brandis stood up slowly, an agonizing process for one who had been dead only moments before.  A horse lay dead on the ground nearby; Zen’dik’s horse, before it had died.  Brandis walked over to it slowly.  He felt the pain being lifted from him, and looked down at his breastplate.  It was beginning to be restored, the blackened bits receding.  Within a few moments, it was as good as new.  The scabbard of Brandis’s sword knitted itself back together, and as the mercenary neared the horse, something even stranger began to happen.

Light gathered around the mercenary’s hands, seeming to be cast upon the horse that lay on the ground.  Brandis then felt compelled to lay his palms on its flank.  Some voice was speaking to him from within his own head, telling him not to panic, to stay sane.  Brandis trudged a few more steps toward the horse and kneeled down.  His hands slapped onto the flank of the great beast as he did so.

Suddenly the slain creature gave a shout and rose from the ground in a sudden maneuver that sent Brandis flying backwards almost twenty meters.  The horse started to prance about in a circle, letting off the same light that Brandis found was collecting around him.

The voice spoke to Brandis again.

You are mine.

Normally if somebody said that to Brandis, he was instantly suspicious, but this voice did not sound at all malevolent.  Instead, the kind voice spoke to him of how he was to become its champion.  Brandis felt the light around him moving to form a vaguely human shape.

The light faded, and standing in front of the mercenary was a man, breathing deeply.  “Greetings, my champion,” he said.  “You have something to do.”

Brandis walked forward.  “My friend, Zen’dik... he is in grave danger.  That’s my priority.  I don’t care who you are - or what you are - but I’m not going to let him die.”

“I do not intend to let you let him die - though nor do I intend to let you make this decision.  Such power that you have just gained requires loyalty.”

“Then take it back!” Brandis retorted.  “Take this power back, then!”

“You wish to return to the land of the dead?  It is only the power that sustains you now.  You cannot die as long as you have it, but if you lose it, you will immediately re-experience every wound you would have taken, no doubt tearing you asunder.”

“Is this power enough to kill Zen’dik’s sister?”

“Yes,” the figure whispered quietly, fading into the pale light once more.  “Yes, and in fact, it is the only thing that can defeat her now.  The arrow of light is simply an outlet of your own power.  Though Zen’dik must fire it, you must channel your power into it or the evil one will survive.”

“Then kill me!” Brandis shouted.  “I’ve already died twice; I shouldn’t be here.  I should not be among the living.”

“You have no choice.”

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Zen’dik and Lia stood in a small room within the tower.  Lia had sprinkled spices around Zen’dik in a perfect circle, while the tiefling stood there, holding his bow tightly.  “You realize,” Lia said quietly, “That you must be the one who enters?  Your sister will recognize the magic surrounding me, but as the arcane does not flow through your veins, you will not emit such an aura.”

Zen’dik nodded.  “I have to kill her,” he told himself.  “I have to lift the curse.”

He wasn’t so sure he could.  The arrow glowed dimly, hardly enough to fight off the encroaching shadows that were lengthening across the land.  There was very little chance of defeating her, but still, Zen’dik had to try.

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Brandis set out on his horse, letting the light fade so that he would not stand out among the crowd.  He made his way to the great city, slowly.  Eventually he found himself at the gates.

Brandis was met by several guards who demanded to know his name.  He explained exactly who he was, and that he was a mercenary offering his services to the Queen.  The guards nodded slightly.  One of the guards pointed his spear at another and said, “Open that gate.”  The other one dutifully walked over to a winch in the corner and turned it.

The gate raised slowly.

Brandis got off of his horse and walked into the city, leaving it to sit there.  As he was halfway through the door, he decided he couldn’t let the guards report that he had come.  He looked around, seeing that none other than the gate-guards were looking at him.  He walked up behind one of them with his sword clenched in his hand.  “Die,” he whispered, and, as the man spun around in speechless shock, he cleaved his head from his shoulders.

The other guard shouted weakly and sent his spear sailing forward, letting it strike Brandis’s shoulder.  The divinely chosen warrior, however, felt no pain as he tore it off and threw it back, surrounding it with a radiant glow as it buried itself in the man’s head.

Brandis’s mind was filled with a calm ferocity as he left the two dead men lying there and entered the city.  

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Zen’dik turned around.  He could have sworn he had just heard a shout, however faint, coming from near the city gates.  It had been in a familiar voice, one of a close friend.  A close friend who had died only days before.

The tiefling looked around, so shocked that if it was him casting the spell, his disguise would have dropped and he would have been revealed for the many guards stationed around the area to kill.

Zen’dik slipped into the crowd and disappeared from obvious view, so surrounded by people he was.  He climbed up a low wall, and only then would he have been visible - if the guards were looking at him.  But they had other things to worry about.

Zen’dik slowly made his way toward the city gates, drawing out a knife slowly as he did so.  He didn’t know what his sister could have done to Brandis.  Perhaps turned him into a skeleton?  He crept along the stone walls, keeping his weight low so that he didn’t fall off.  Zen’dik looked around and placed his foot lightly on the ground as he hopped down near the gates.

No guards were around, and an armored man with a nimbus of light surrounding him walked forward slowly, sword in hand.  Several arrows protruded from his flesh, but he paid no mind to them, simply kept walking.  It was Brandis.  Somehow he’d survived Lia’s mis-aimed fireball!

“Brandis!” Zen’dik whispered, though it was quite loud for a whisper.  “How did you survive?”

Brandis groaned slightly and looked at Zen’dik oddly.  “Zen’dik?” he asked.

“Yes, friend, it’s me.”

“I... I’m not sure how I survived, but still I am, and that’s what matters.”  He yanked one of the arrow shafts out of his shoulder and threw it aside, the wound shrinking away into nothingness.  “I have to save your life, Zen’dik.  You know you can’t do this alone.”

Lia’s voice said something in Zen’dik’s head.  You should trust him, it said.  He’s right.  Brandis flipped his sword around idly in his right hand, letting it fall into his left hand gauntlet and stomping his boot on the ground.  “Come on,” he said, “We haven’t got all day.”

Zen’dik shook his had.  “No, we haven’t.  But I can kill her.  So stay out of it.  I must face my sister alone.”  Brandis shouted a protest.

“You can’t!” he said.  “I have seen it!  You will die if you go alone!”  The light that surrounded Brandis flared brightly, and Zen’dik shielded his eyes.  

“Please,” he said, “Whatever it is that has done this to you, reject it.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have no choice.”

The conversation ended here, because a guard finally spotted the two.  Zen’dik had not even realized his disguise was still working, as Brandis had known who he was, so he turned around and drew out his knife, steadying it to throw.  The guard drew his spear and shouted that none other than the guards and the empress herself were allowed to carry weapons within the walls of the city.

Zen’dik casually nodded and flicked his wrist, ending the guard’s life in an instant.

Brandis nodded in Zen’dik’s direction.  “We have to get in,” he said, “Now.”

Zen’dik and Brandis slowly made their way for the palace, hoping against hope that Zen’dik’s disguise and the fact that Brandis could easily pass for a member of the guard would help them to survive at least as far as the entrance to the palace.