Knight: Tracks of Darkness Read online

put elves at variance with men.

  Master On Darai, the faceless one, asked for nothing. Riches, lands and titles were nothing to a man who cared not for the perishable things of this world. Virtuous notions such as honor were alien to him; the forgiveness that Kalaitos desired meant nothing to a man who saw no wrong in his doing. When the Vizier promised him lands in Nür, the faceless one shook the Vizier’s hand. Master On Darai said, “This offer will I accept, most assuredly and without complaint.” The voice of the faceless one caused the King to shudder in his throne.

  Day 24

  How the Heroes and Villains made ready for the hunt, and the King harbored doubts concerning these so-called saviors.

  At first light on the twenty fourth day of the King’s impending doom, the heroes and villains set out together to prepare for the spider and her horde. After a lengthy debate, the four companions settled on a bold plan: infiltrate and re-take the dream city, then rally the dream born against the spider. With the city secured and the horde on the run, the four would enter the spider’s lair and drive her back into the pit of unbeginning. They spent the rest of the day sparring while the King and his Vizier watched from above. In spite of their tremendous display of skill, the King could not be comforted; he was weary and sore afraid.

  The Vizier said, “Do not be troubled, my King. These are the mightiest warriors of our age. Mav’ric alone is worth tens of thousands. What power under the heavens can oppose these men? What force can possibly tear these men asunder?”

  But the King remembered his nightmare vividly. He remembered how easily the spider struck down the great Evendara. He remembered how swift and cunning the monster was. She fought both gracefully and brutally. And above all else, there were none who could hide from the glare of her many eyes. If the King and Evendara could not defeat the spider, how did the Vizier expect these heroes and villains to prevail? They would likely betray one another before covering the long distance to the city.

  The King bowed his head and sighed. “Prepare the nation for my funeral, Vizier,” he said. “Those men down there will not succeed.”

  Day 23

  How the Vizier transported the Heroes and Villains into the King’s nightmare.

  The King charged them therefore, saying, “These are the last days of my life, and with the Vizier’s counsel I have entrusted them to you.” The King turned to Mav’ric and Horace. “She cannot be defeated by virtuous men alone.” He turned to Kalaitos and Master On Darai. “Neither can she be defeated solely by those who share her lust for treachery and deceit.”

  The Vizier prepared the King’s resting place in the royal chambers. Four beds were made for the others to sleep on the four corners of the King’s bed. The King admonished them, saying “I humbly beseech you, brothers, to resist Nür’s allure and set about the task given unto you without wavering. You must work together lest you all fall prey to her whims. Slay this spider and you will gain far more than the petty things you have asked.”

  After the King was laid to rest, the Vizier held his hand and noticed with alarm that the number on his hand changed to twenty-three days remaining until his inevitable demise. The heroes and villains went each into his own bed and rested with their weapons in their hands. The Vizier handed them a vial for them to drink. “Go, then, and return to us victorious,” the Vizier said, and he kept vigil there with his eyes closed and a hand on the king’s head.

  Day 22

  Of a great battle against the spider’s deathless horde, and how our companions won the field.

  The companions awoke in the very midst of the King’s enemies, beset on all sides by a host of seven hundred thousand horrid nightmares. The land of the dreaming was corrupted by their foul presence, and all that was good and pleasant in Nür was ruined. On that day, Mav’ric the Riverblade was filled with a holy righteous anger and his sword burned a bright blue. He stood boldly before them, raising his sword and crying out to his king and country.

  The horde descended upon him and died. Though Mav’ric was godly and devout, the man fought as though he were possessed by a demon. The others followed in his wake, and great deeds were wrought on the battlefield. Kalaitos drew his sword Swazinder and a splendid white light issued forth from the blade. With every broad swath of the first sword, the enemy was erased from the memory of existence. Horace leapt far across the field and loosed his arrows from above, raining death upon the king’s enemies.

  Meanwhile, Master On-Darai descended into his own shadow and took his enemy unaware. With subtlety and guile was he able to destroy the commander, her generals and other officers. Leaderless and confused, the horde scattered. Horace laughed, saying, “Clearly, they are not deathless!” The companions pursued the king’s enemies through hills, vales and forests, until there were few left to oppose them. A castle loomed before them, and the companions moved as one to sack the castle. From a distance, the spider watched Master On Darai with great fear and respect.

  Day 21

  How Kalaitos endured a horrific nightmare, slew the spider’s greatest champion, and made a castle free.

  On the seventh day since the quest began, the Vizier’s chosen companions pursued a small remnant of the spider’s army to a castle in a forest filled with skeletal trees. The place was heavily fortified, with sheer iron walls and spires, and a storm cloud overhead that rained blood. Horace sought to find a roundabout way, but the castle and her battlements were vast and terrible. Horace also discovered, at the risk of his own life, that not one but three of the spider’s daughters spun their webs within the castle walls. Mav’ric, undaunted by Horace’s report, purposed within his heart to liberate the entire land from the hand of the enemy, but Master On Darai believed that striking down the spider straightaway would, in turn, loose her hold upon the world. “There are only four of us,” Master On Darai reasoned. “We are better suited to carrying out our task secretly, employing the art of shadow and treachery.”

  “You would use the spider’s own tools against her?” Mav’ric replied. “Consider the nigh insurmountable odds we overcame! We were four against an entire host.”

  Horace cut them short, for he had more to report: the lord of the castle was a great champion of the spider, a wizard possessing an immense power. Sensing that the enemy was once elf kind, Kalaitos stepped forth and offered to meet the enemy in single combat. The companions dropped their debate and reluctantly agreed to let Kalaitos pass into the castle alone. He raced forward with his sword in hand to challenge the lord of the castle. The portcullis was raised and he was permitted to enter without so much as a hand lifted against him.

  The lord of the castle, girt with a spear as tall as a tree, revealed herself as none other than Evendara, chief artificer of the elves. She had a ghastly look on her face, as though she had already been kissed by the lips of death. Nevertheless, Kalaitos fought her throughout the castle. The spider’s daughters did not interfere; they simply watched the plot unfold as their mother commanded, and a report they published to her through strands of a web.

  Evendara threw an enchantment upon Kalaitos and he was lost in a terrible nightmare in which he was confronted with every man, woman and child he killed. “Kinslayer!” Evendara called him. “With the first sword ever forged you would kill the innocent and defenseless.”

  Madness sacked the walls of his mind as he was forced to kill his own kin a second time. Kalaitos cried out in grief. He stood, cancelling the nightmare altogether with a wave of his hand. Evendara found that she could no longer affect his mind with her power. He stalked the halls of the castle and slew everything in his path, including Evendara herself. The entire castle crumbled with her. Among those who died were the spider’s three daughters, who Kalaitos ripped apart with his bare hands.

  Amidst the chaos, Swazinder was lost, the castle was made free, and Kalaitos would never forgive himself for committing such a grave, unforgivable sin twice.

  Day 20

  How double minded Kalaitos abandoned the other
s for to recover his lost sword and take his own life.

  Thinking Kalaitos dead in the rubble, the companions pressed on through the skeletal forest. The spider’s presence in Nür was like a sickness on the land that could not be cured. The sky above and lands and seas below were all adversely affected by her touch. The companions encountered resistance, some of it spirited and blade worthy, but none would deter them from the king’s mission. They arrived at last along the shores of the sand-sea. Meanwhile, Kalaitos stalked them from a distance. He was at war within himself. He entertained, in his madness, thoughts of either reuniting with the others to fulfill the king’s mission or exacting justice upon himself with his own sword to avenge the grey elves. It was at that moment, while Kalaitos searched in vain for Swazinder among the rubble, that the spider found him and ensnared him in her web.

  Day 19

  How Jurel Forlorn agreed to guide the companions across the sand-sea.

  Mav’ric was astounded at the sight of the ocean in the dreaming made of sand. He watched the dunes rise and fall like waves. Horace waded in and felt the rush of the ocean’s power. He caught glimpses in the glittering sand-waters of old castle ruins and splintered ship masts. Master On-darai busied