The Keystaff Chronicles - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Much to their relief (and suspicion), the companions did not encounter any more ghouls as they made their way to the Sentinel Grove. And, despite the urgency of their mission, they could not help but marvel at the ancient trees whose boughs seemed to touch the sky. It was with almost reverential awe that they gazed upon this ancient wonder, thought to have been destroyed long ago.

“Blessed Abihayil!” Ofeera gasped in high elven, eyes wide with amazement. “These trees dwarf the mighty giants of Azturoth!”

“Azturoth?” Hazuriel, the leader of the high elves arched an eyebrow. “New Aztur?”

“It was founded by the grandson of your last ruler,” Luthien replied. The young knight might have continued if he hadn’t noticed the frown on Azarielle’s face. She faced the trees with her hands extended and her eyebrows drawn together.

“What is it?”

“There was a shield protecting this grove, but not anymore,” the mage replied.

Hazuriel stared at Azarielle with an ashen complexion, “What are you saying mage?”

“Exactly what you think I am saying,” Azarielle’s expression was uncharacteristically grim. “You had better pray that the ghouls hadn’t gotten in there already.”

Hazuriel cursed under his breath and then gestured with his hand at his invisible comrades. With her Mage Sight, Azarielle was able to see the high elves spread out and move into the forest.

“Hazuriel, remember what we said earlier. Someone had been working the Dark Art and animating the dead,” the mage cautioned. The elf gave a brisk nod of his head, and then, like the rest of his companions, faded from sight.

“I don’t think that disappearing act of theirs is particularly helpful right now. Azarielle, can you still see them?” Luthien asked.

“I’ll walk in front,” the mage responded.

The knight nodded, “Lady Ofeera, can you surround us in a shield? The… servants are in that forest. I can feel it.”

With Azarielle walking at the front, followed by Luthien, Ofeera, and then Breaker, the companions trailed the high elves into the forest. It was dimly lit, like walking through a forest at dusk, but smelled of leaves and fresh air. Exotic vines curled around the thick trunks of the tall trees and strange flowers bloomed in patches. Beneath them, the ground was soft and moist, unlike the dried, cracked earth outside the forest. Under any other circumstances, the companions would have marveled at this wondrous oasis. But, with the threat of confrontation looming, none of them could focus on their surroundings.

Ofeera walked with her fingers clenched so tightly that she left crescent moon imprints of her nails into the palm of her hand. She had surrounded the companions within a softly glowing bubble to protect them from sudden attacks, but she her concentration was wavering. She could sense residual arcane power hanging in the air, and she recognized all too well two of the Signatures left behind. Theredoniel was here, and, so was Lucien.

Luthien had drawn his sword, and stared intently into the gloom, looking for anything out of the ordinary, and wishing that he had Breaker’s Azarielle’s Mage Sight or Breaker’s elven vision. They were the only two people who could actually see anything, and though Luthien trusted them to give ample warning, he wished that he could see.

All of a sudden, he found Breaker moving up beside him, “More of them just came. There are three up ahead to the left and five to the right.”

“And… I am almost positive they are animated corpses,” Azarielle added as she dropped back to walk beside Luthien. The knight almost did a double take when he spotted the mage’s eyes. A strange dark light was swirling hypnotically in them, reminding him of a whirlpool.

“I am going to mark them,” the mage said, and then raising her voice, she shouted. “Hazuriel, three to the left and five to the right! They are the walking dead.”

Green flames lined the elf ghoul just as the first arrow flew towards Azarielle. It stopped in midair and dropped to the ground before it could reach its target while the mage retaliated with areal flames that burst from the ground like a pillar and consumed the dead archer.

Breaker and Luthien leaped into action, the gray elf headed to the left and the knight headed for the right side.

“What are you doing?! Stop!” Hazuriel shouted at Azarielle. The leader of the elves blurred into view, staring at the mage aghast.

“They are the enemy, I told you!” Gubriel appeared beside his leader, an arrow directed at the mage.

In response, Azarielle waved her hand and murmured something underneath her breath. Arrows that had been aimed at the two high elves the moment they became visible dropped to the ground, much to their shock.

“And I told, they are ghouls,” the mage replied. “Instead of trying to shoot me, you better shoot them instead.”

“What…” Hazuriel wasn’t given the chance to formulate an intelligible response before one of his archers that had become visible toppled over with a gurgle, clutching an arrow that had pierced his throat.
“Don’t become visible!” Azarielle shouted in high elven. “They can’t see you!”

“Behind you!” Breaker, who had dispatched three elven ghouls looked up and shouted, shouted at Azarielle and Ofeera when he looked up to see something running towards them through the forest.

Acting purely on reflexes, the young mage surrounded herself, the healer, and the two high elves in a shield. Something struck her shield with such power that spider cracks of light ran along its surface.

“Blessed Abihayil!” Ofeera turned around and beheld such a terrifying vision that she felt her body go cold.

The monstrous creature that loomed over her was a creature that was never meant to have been. It was ten times the height of a man and ten times his girth, and formed from a jumble of body parts haphazardly mashed together by some unholy force. It had eyes all over its head, and a gaping hole filled with decayed, yellow teeth. In one of hands, it held a giant axe. The other arm ended in a metal mallet that had somehow been attached to the creature’s body.

How had such a creature come upon them without any of them noticing? It was so heavy that the earth would surely shake with each step that it took! The creature let out low groan, an utterly hopeless sound that rolled through the air, and lifted its great axe. It brought it down towards them.

“Ofeera, get back!” Azarielle shouted as she jumped in front of her friend and raised both hands as if to fend of the attack. The giant axe struck a glowing red-gold shield, sending up a shower of sparks. Azarielle’s legs buckled under the force of this unexpectedly powerful blow, and she fell to one knee as she struggled to hold up the shield. Seeing her friend struggle, Ofeera forced her quaking limbs into action, holding her hands out and calling upon the Eternal Father to fortify the mage’s barrier.

Their combined powers withheld a second powerful blow as the abomination brought its mallet down to bare, but just barely. And then, suddenly, a black figure streaked passed them and launched itself into the air. They beheld a silver flash, followed by an arc of sickly black liquid spraying outward. The monster let out another groan and swatted at its axe. The dark figure gracefully leaped out of the way, landing a few feet away in a crouched position.

“Breaker!” Ofeera breathed a sigh of relief as she felt the pressure lift off of her.

“I guess you are somewhat useful after all,” Azarielle had regained her footing. Then, without waiting for a response from the elf, the young mage formed a fist with her hand and made as if to hit the monster. A mass of swirling blue light struck the monster with a loud bang, pushing the creature back and blowing open a wound in its malformed body. Roarining so loudly that it made Azarielle’s ears ring, the monster swung its mallet-hand down to squash the offending mage.

This time, the young mage did not try to block the blow. Instead, she jumped nimbly away and threw another blast of swirling blue energy at the monster. At the same time, the ever-so-deft Breaker had hopped light as a cat, onto the monster’s mallet-hand and ran up the creature’s arm as if it was an oversized tree branch. Knowing that the creature’s skin was too thick for him to do more than a shallow cut, and not knowing whether a blow to the neck would kill such a thing, Breaker went for the eyes. Before the creature could react and shake him off, the gray elf dug sank of one of his arcane breakers into the largest of the creature’s many eyes.

The monster howled horribly, a sound as sharp and piercing as knives. It was too much for Breaker’s sensitive elf ears, and disoriented, the gray elf lost his balance and fell.

“Breaker!” Ofeera gasped and rushed over to her fallen friend.

The injured monster swung its axe at the elf and the healer, and might have gotten them if Azarielle’s blast hand’t struck it in one of its legs, tearing another hole in its body. The monster twirled to face the mage, its axe sweeping wildly at the mage. Azarielle dove to the ground, narrowly missing having her head cleaved off her shoulders. Spitting mud from her mouth and blinking debris from her eyes, she held both of her hands up at the creature’s head without bothering to try and get up.

As she spoke the words of command, tendrils of red gold light formed at the tips of each of her fingers. And then, like the tentacles of a jelly fish, these red gold light tentacles suddenly shot outwards, spreading just before it reached the monster’s head, and wrapping around it until it became a glowing red-gold bubble. Azarielle snapped her fingers, and the bubble exploded, taking with it the creature’s head and a portion of the creature’s torso.

Like a felled tree, the monster toppled forward towards where the mage still lay. Letting out a little yelp, shd scrambled sideways, crab-like, on her hands and knees to get out of the way. The monster’s crashed to the ground, lifting up a cloud of dust.

The body shook with spasms as if the nerves had not quite died, and Azarielle, getting a rather bad feeling about it, quickly got to her feet and peddaled backwards. The creature’s back suddenly bulged violently outwards, and then with a sound like parchment ripping, it was torn open from the inside.

Shadowy shapes poured out of the slain monster and flowed towards the mage. There were three separate shapes, though none of them seemed able to hold on to a distinct form. At times, they would take on an almost human shape only to disintegrate into smoky mass that spread outward like oil atop water.

“Look out!”

Luthien leaped in front of the mage and swung his sword in a wide arc. His blade passed through these smoky forms, tearing them in two, only to have them reform in a blink of the eye and continue advancing. A shadowy hand reached out for the knight’s throat, and he struck at it reflexively, only for it to part around his blade, reform and wrap around his neck like a noose.

The moment the shadowy hand touched his neck, it gained substance. Luthien found himself gasping for breath as a vice-like grip tried to crush his windpipe. Darkness ate at the corners of his vision, and as he scrabbled at the hand that was killing him, he fingers passed through thin air.

And then, as suddenly as the hand had grasped him, it vanished. The smoky creature that had attacked him was bathed in blue-white light of Ofeera’s holy power. And uable to withstand the presence of Eternal Father, the smoky creature dissipated into the thin air. Luthien fell to his knees and gasped for breath. However, the disciplined young knight knew that he could not yet rest. Calling upon the power of Abihayil, the young knight summoned the cleansing wrath of the Eternal Father in the form of holy flames and burned away the second shadowy creature.

“Priestly skills definitely come in handy right about now,” Azarielle remarked. Luthien turned to find that the young mage had confined the third of the smoky creatures in a glowing red-gold sphere. “I wonder what my chances are of being ordained as a healer or a knight or something of a priestly nature. Seems unlikely, I know. But the Eternal Father works in mysterious ways, besides which even Azariel is some sort of holy man. Can you believe that? If Azariel can be a holy man, than anyone can be a holy man! ”. As she spoke, she made a crushing gesture with her hands. The thing red-gold box imploded until it simply winked out of existence, taking the final smoky creature with it.

The companions did not have a chance to rest or celebrate though, because the forest was suddenly filled with the sound of flapping wings and terrifying shrieks. More than two dozen creatures that looked like the thing which had attacked Luthien when the companions had still been aboard Azarielle’s flying contraption, swooped through the branches towards them. The high elves, finally snapping out of their shock, greeted the flying fiends with a volley of arrows. Their weapons must have been imbued with Arcane power, because when they landed a head or heart shot, the flying fiends instantly disintegrated into dust.

“Without the shield to protect the grove, we will not be able to survive these constant attacks!” Hazuriel said as he took careful aim and blasted a flying creature out of the air. “Can one of you recreate the shield around the forest?”

“The shield that was in place was probably put in place by the Archamge Elucielle Gwenevar,” Azarielle replied. “I can’t create an impenetrable shield that will stand for a few thousand years, but, I will be able to create something that might hold for a while – enough time for us to think of something. But, I am going to need time, and it definitely helps with the concentration if nothing is trying to eat me.”

“We will head towards the Tower then. Pray to your Eternal Father that the servants you chase have not breached it yet.”