Dark Lord's Commands 2, page 5
The knight frowned, “Dark Lord, we can still escape --”
“No!” The Dark Lord held up a palm. “I will not hear of it. Just as you have your duty, I have mine and I will see it carried out. The Luminark will not have the Eye, nor shall they take Nightbound.”
The knight clenched her fists as if to argue, but another blast rang out, closer than before. The building shook.
“I understand,” Augusta said, bowing her head. “What would you have me do?”
Reaching into her mantle, the Dark Lord produced a small amulet; a black stone set in a silver setting. She gave it to the knight, who trembled as she took it.
“They must not find the Eye of Night,” the Dark Lord said as she marched up towards the throne.
She looked at it, like a woman approaching the gallows, before taking a seat.
“You wish for me to take it out of the city?” the knight asked, tucking the amulet away.
“No, it must stay here,” the Dark Lord looked up. “Revina has decreed it.”
“The Goddess?” the knight gasped.
“By Her will, this will not be the end,” the Dark Lord smiled bitterly. “Who knows? Maybe cousin Priam was able to escape.” She gestured towards the doors at the far end of the hall. “I entrust the Eye of Night to you, Captain Augusta Vilewind, by the Goddess’s will you shall guard it. I bind you, body and soul, to this task.”
Cosmic power rippled through the room, the knight trembled as the geas was laid upon her.
The Dark Lord slumped in her seat. “Now go, quickly. Take the Eye to --”
Her next words were lost, the room exploding as a beam of light smashed through the wall.
I awoke with a gasp.
Ahkil was beside me, her hand upon my shoulder. “Dark Lord? Are you alright?”
Slowly, I came to my senses, seeing the temple once again in its familiar state; the statue of Revina was gone, and the window frames were empty.
“What was that?” Ahkil took a step back but continued to look around in wonder. “I felt the breath of the Goddess sweep through the room.”
I took a moment, then nodded, “She decided to share a vision with me.”
Ahkil knelt again, bowing towards the altar. “Praise be! Should I gather the people?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s late, and I have to reflect on what the goddess has shown me.” I looked towards the altar. “But if you were to offer praise and give her offerings in my name, I would be grateful.”
“It shall be done!” Ahkil got up and dashed off, likely to rouse her fellow acolytes.
I knew that word of that night’s events would be the buzz of Gloomglow in the morning. Before that happened, I wanted to speak to my queens and come up with a plan.
The goddess had provided a clear clue on what we needed to do next. We need to go to Nightbound and find the Eye of Night.
Returning to the Royal Quarters, I roused Vexile and Nichessa from their beds.
Vexile was ecstatic to hear my news. She was half a mind to go to the temple and join Ahkil and her acolytes; Nichessa on the other hand just looked grumpy to be woken up.
“Are you sure you saw what you think you saw?” she asked, running a hand through her smoldering hair. “It could have just been a dream.”
Vexile hissed in annoyance, but I placed a calming hand upon her scales. We were seated around the small table in my room, speaking in quiet voices.
“I’m positive it wasn’t a dream,” I told her, doing what I could to convey the sense of reality I had sensed during the vision. “The stones under my feet felt just as real as the ones below us right now.”
She grimaced and then nodded, before apologizing to Vexile. “It’s not that I doubt you, or Revina, it’s just so hard to believe that the Eye is still in Nightbound, hidden all these years.”
To my surprise, Vexile responded. “Maybe that’s why Revina granted this vision, to prove that the treasure seekers and thieves had failed to find it.”
“Thieves?” I asked.
Nichessa looked up at me. “Yeah, even I’ve heard the stories about Nightbound; the camp’s guards used to talk about it when I was a kid. They made it sound like some terrible tomb city, full of monsters.”
“People used to speak about it in the Slave Pens,” Vexile agreed. “There were stories about famous expeditions, led by Luminark adventurers, that ran in their newspapers, describing their attempts to search the ruins.”
I was confused. “So the city still stands?”
“Sort of,” Nichessa shrugged. “Legends has it that the last Dark Lord, seeing the city was about to fall, cast a deadly curse, shrouding it in eternal darkness. The spell killed everyone in the city, defenders and invaders alike. Their bodies rose as terrible monsters, zombies, or ghosts, doomed to guard the old capital till the end of time.”
I glanced at Vexile, “And you were deadset to just go there right away?”
She chuckled, “There are a thousand stories about Nightbound. The Luminark tell their children that if they’re not good, the ghosts of Duskhaven will drag them to their crypt city. It’s impossible to know what is true and what is false; even the newspaper stories of the few brave enough to enter the city were embellished to the point of absurdity.”
I tapped my chin, “Have these Luminark adventurers found anything of value?”
“A few forgotten treasures, picked from the edge of the city,” Nichessa replied. “But anyone who’s tried to break into the heart of the city and the Dark Lords’ palace has never come back, supposedly.”
I scowled, “And our odds are any better?”
Vexile laughed again, “Of course! We are blessed by Revina; she has granted us a vision of what we must accomplish. Even if the last Dark Lord’s spell cursed the city, do you think that would bar our path?”
“If we run into a zombie, I’m turning around and going home,” Nichessa said.
Chapter 5
Given a clear goal, I felt refreshed. With the dawn’s light, we called our people into the temple.
“Revina chose to bless us last night,” I told the crowd, bolstering my words with magic. “We were granted a vision of the ancient past, witnessing the bravery of our ancestors as they faced down the Luminark invasion.”
At this, I gestured towards Ahkil, who led a small procession of acolytes into the temple, each of them carrying offerings of wheat. They laid them on the altar, and Vexile came forward to bless them in the name of the goddess.
The people bowed their heads as Vexile recited a prayer of thanks.
Once she was done, I raised both my arms. “This vision revealed the presence of a great artifact, preserved by the goddess, in the ruins of the old capital. Her command was clear, we must go there and retrieve the boon left for us.”
Nichessa, looking uncomfortable, came forward and spoke, her words thrumming with power. “We shall go to Nightbound, the ancient home of our people, and we shall retrieve the gift left for us by the Dark Lords of old. With it, we will have the strength to stand against the Luminark, to turn them away from our lands.”
The crowd cheered at this. The fear that had been building over the previous days was dispersed by Revina’s will.
I waited for their voices to die down before I continued. “Though we must leave, to fulfill Revina’s will, know that our thoughts will be dedicated to you and your safety. Our best and most trusted followers will stay here with you. Obey their words as you would obey our own, and know that when we return, we shall secure this land for our people forevermore!”
“Well done,” I said, placing a hand on Nichessa’s elbow.
“I was afraid I’d throw up,” she admitted. “I didn’t use too much power in my voice, did I? I was afraid I’d deafen the people in the front of the crowd.”
“You were great,” Vexile reassured her, “very regal.”
“Damnit, why did I ever agree to do all of this?” she sighed, sinking into her seat.
“Because you love me?” I ventured.
She laughed, waving her four hands. “Stop it, I don’t think I can take any more embarrassment.”
We were alone, back in our headquarters. After our speech we sat through a ceremony conducted by Vexile, the high priestess of Revina, blessing our endeavor and calling for the goddess’s protection over Gloomglow while the Dark Lord and his queens were away.
I didn’t know if the goddess would actually do anything while we were gone, but it brought comfort to the people who would be waiting for our return.
We had a ton of planning to do; we needed to figure out exactly how to get to Nightbound, what kind of supplies we would need, and what contingency plans to leave for those that would be defending Gloomglow in our stead.
But even as we sent word to Captain Dougherty and began drafting up our plans, all I could think about was the vision I had seen, and the sad resigned expression on my ancestor’s face.
In the end, I deferred to protecting Gloomglow over bringing a large number of soldiers on our expedition, as opposed to the large force we had used when we had liberated Sanderson’s camp. Moving quickly and quietly seems best.
Dougherty had little information about the northern end of the continent, but he at least had a salvaged Luminark map that told us which way to go.
The northern continent was shaped like an inverted triangle, narrow towards the bottom before flaring wider as it went northward. A range of mountains dominated the middle of the continent, forming a long, sweeping barrier that went from Gloomglow to the south and up the western coast. Dougherty warned us they were nearly impassable and that we’d need to find an indirect route to the old capitol.
If we were going to reach Nightbound, located in a mountain valley to our north, we’d have to go along the eastern coast.
An area dominated by the Luminark and their naval base.
The seaport was the Luminark’s largest presence on the continent. The mines, quarries, and other extraction operations that stole from our lands shipped their pillaged goods through there. It also served as the primary method adventurers, drawn by the whispers of treasure and wealth hidden in old Duskhaven, came to our kingdom.
“There’s a handful of them every year,” Dougherty explained, pointing to the map. “They follow the coastal roads northward. We’ve never scouted that way ourselves, but from what we understand there are several mines and quarries that way, as well as a checkpoint manned by the Luminark military. Past this final checkpoint,” he indicated a small pass, hemmed in by the mountains on one side and the sea on the other, “it’s a no man’s land according to the empire.”
“And we’ll have to cross it to reach Nightbound,” Nichessa said, studying the map.
“There are rumors that some refugees, fearful of staying in the south and desiring even greater distance between themselves and the Luminark, live out there in scattered communities,” Vexile added.
“Fools and deadmen,” Nichessa said under her breath.
Based on all of this, we decided to go with only a small crew; myself, Vexile, Nichessa, along with Lita and Marl, our faithful crawlclaw wrangler.
At first, I was against bringing Lita, she was still a kid in my eyes, but Riggs pointed out that she was the most skillful hunter and tracker we had, outside himself. And we needed him in Gloomglow.
“You should bring some soldiers,” Dougherty said. We were standing outside while on a short break from the meeting.
I thought about it but shook my head. “If the worse happens while we're gone, and Gloomglow is discovered by the Luminark, you’ll need every soldier you have to keep the people safe and evacuate the keep.”
I glanced at Garnet who stood nearby, “I’m trusting both of you with the lives of everyone in this kingdom.”
She gave a smart salute, “Dark Lord!”
The old soldier grumbled, but nodded. “Make sure that you bring that crossbow with you. If all goes according to plan, you might not need it, but I’d feel better if you kept it by your side.”
We planned to skirt along the coastal roads, moving along the plateau before following the foothills to the north. Once we’d reached the pass we’d slip through at night, then move through the northern wasteland till we reached Nightbound. We’d pack light, depending on Lita’s hunting and foraging skills to keep our larders stocked till we got to our destination.
It was the thinnest of plans, but we had so little information to go on that there wasn’t anything else we could do. We have to depend on our luck, and the powers the goddess gave us, to get through this in one piece.
I felt much better about the contingency plans we laid for Gloomglow. I trusted Riggs, Ahkil, Dougherty, and our other lieutenants to know their duties, and to improvise or adapt when called for.
Patrols would be maintained to watch for Luminark investigators, a shelter would be built in Vilewind in case it was needed, and evacuation drills would be staged so that everyone was prepared in case the worst came to pass while we were gone.
I did everything I could think of to ensure that when we returned, successful, we’d find our people happy and safe.
Ten days after my vision we were set to depart Gloomglow.
The morning was overcast, and it had been drizzling since before dawn. We gathered in the keep’s main courtyard, packing the single wagon we’d bring with us, loading it with supplies.
Marl was bringing two crawlclaws, so we’d have the option of riding when needed. We could also switch out which crustacean was pulling the wagon since it was likely the beasts would get tired hauling it over rough terrain.
Lita gathered with her family by the courtyard wall; I could almost hear Riggs lecturing his daughter, giving her advice and stern warnings, over the murmuring of the rain. Her brothers and sisters seemed mighty jealous of the adventure she was about to go on, and the young hunter seemed to be ready to burst with pride.
“We’ll be praying for you every day,” Ahkil told Vexile.
“Thank you,” the high priestess nodded. “We know we will succeed. Take good care of our people until we return victorious.”
“Revina be praised,” the young woman said.
I nodded over to Nichessa, “Got everything you need?”
“I think so,” she said.
She was bringing a small furnace, a new, blessed artifact of her devising. The little forge could whip up burning flames in an instant, allowing her to do field repairs and use her magic to improvise tools if needed.
She kept glancing towards the rear of the keep, towards her forge. “I gave my apprentices and workers a list of jobs that need to be done, so hopefully they won’t slack off too much while we’re gone.”
I shared her apprehension about leaving but I knew we’d done everything we could to prepare. We just need to trust in our people.
“Ready, Dark Lord,” Lita said, bounding over.
I nodded, “We’re entrusting you as our scout and hunter on this quest, with every belief that you will succeed.”
She became more somber, nodding, “I won’t fail you.”
I waved to Marl, “Then let’s go. The goddess has given us the key to securing our future, we must seize it while we can.”
Chapter 6
We stopped in Vilewind the first night, double-checking our shelter and the concealed supplies to ensure that our people would be able to hide there safely if needed. Satisfied, we left early the next morning, moving quickly overland.
Two days later and we reached the end of the plateau. Standing on a prominent ledge, I scanned the terrain.
Down below stretched the coastal lands, and in the far distance, I could see the flat, slate-grey expanse of the ocean.
Cutting through the coastal area was a series of well-rutted and muddy roads. I couldn’t see any wagons, patrols, or convoys at that moment, but I knew the roads were used by the Luminark to move materials, troops, and slave labor between their various holdfasts.
Vexile unrolled our map, copied from Dougherty’s, across a large, flat rock.
She pointed to a bit of the coastline. “I think we’re here.”
Lita squinted at the mountains, then at the sun, which hung plump overhead, before nodding, “I believe you are right, Your Majesty.”
“The Luminark naval base will be a few hours north of us then,” Vexile said, frowning. “I doubt they send anyone up onto the plateau, but we should be careful we don’t leave signs of our passing.”
“I can hide our tracks,” Nichessa said confidently.
She gestured towards the wheel-marks we’d left behind us, and a small tremble ran through the earth, completely erasing them.
“I’d like to be past the naval base before we camp for the night,” I said, thinking. I didn’t want to camp in the cold because it was too dangerous to light a campfire.
“Lita, scout out ahead for us. If you see any movement on the roadway or the plateau, let us know beforehand so we can hunker down,” I ordered.
She nodded, before darting off.
“That girl has infinite energy,” Nichessa drawled, watching the hunter running ahead.
“To be young again,” I sighed.
She growled, placing one of her arms around my shoulder, “Aren’t you at least a decade younger than me?”
“Age is a matter of maturity,” I told her.
She grinned, “Then I guess everyone here is a kid compared to me.”
“Except maybe Marl,” Vexiled laughed.
The crawlclaw driver, making no comment, urged his crustaceans onward.
It was late afternoon by the time the naval base came into view, appearing like a black inkblot against the horizon.
The plateau’s edge broke in a series of cliffs and ridges, which would make it difficult for anyone to climb up from below. Still, we were cautious, moving carefully as we approached.
I saw right away that it was more than just a military seaport; it was practically the size of a small city, considering the shantytown that spread out from the main walls. Hundreds of people were walking along its streets, and I could see wagons moving about everywhere. There were several depots, warehouses, farms, and trade yards set up along the city’s perimeter.
