The Gate - An Ancient Connection Read online

  The chanting grew louder.

  She went further up and kissed the soft skin above the woman’s belly button. Sylestra felt her own desire growing as the woman visibly shivered.

  The chanting grew louder to the point that the fine wooden stand shook, reverberating through the stone floor.

  Sylestra slid her hands up the woman’s body until they reached the sides of her firm breasts and slowly slid them around behind her back. The supreme mistress held the naked woman against her as she tenderly kissed the woman’s neck and was rewarded with a soft moan.

  The chanting intensified and shook the room.

  She released the woman from her grasp, took a step back and pulled a decorated dagger from behind her hip and swiftly sliced the woman’s throat. She instantly moved back in and sucked on the woman’s sliced neck as she held her head back. As the life fled from the naked woman, Sylestra felt herself becoming more rejuvenated. Her skin tingled and tightened as the woman’s life force restored her youth. Her lustful desire was almost uncontrollable.

  She stood back from the lifeless woman and slashed her all over to release as much blood as possible. The blood flowed freely down to the shallow golden basin imbedded in the floor below the hanging woman. From the basin, the blood was distributed among four small golden channels which led to each of the braziers.

  As the blood reached the braziers and trickled into the fire, the flames turned blue and intensified. The fires on the narrow edges of the diamond were first to explode in this way, followed soon after by the other two.

  The black puffs of smoke emanating from the fires resembled snakes as they swirled towards Sylestra. As the smoke snakes neared her lips Sylestra breathed in deeply and inhaled them. With each one inhaled, she felt herself grow younger. She felt her energy increase and her sexual desire grow.

  The chanting continued but began to reduce in volume and intensity. Sylestra barely even noticed the chanting as she focused on inhaling this woman’s life essence.

  As she inhaled the last of the life essence the chanting stopped. Two of the four necrolytes walked over to a wooden drum on their respective sides of the hall, unlatched the locking mechanism and began lowering the dead woman as the other two unshackled her. They removed the body from the room on the opposite side to where Sylestra entered. A few moments later they carried in the next woman.

  Four more sacrifices should be enough to keep her young and beautiful for a few months. Then she could see about having some women sent to her room tonight to satisfy her intense sexual desires.

  Runaways

  The bedroom door silently opened and Jaz walked in. The street lamps illuminated the room just enough for Vik to make out her cheeky expression. After giving him and Trent a small nod in greeting she walked to the corner of the room and picked up her bag which she had packed earlier.

  Vik led the way silently tiptoeing out of the room, followed closely by Trent, leaving Jaz to close the door behind them. They carefully stepped down the stairs. Vik cringed and paused whenever he heard the creak of a floorboard.

  They made it to the front door without waking Master Pilk or Cressida. Vik’s heart started pounding hard in his chest as he opened the front door and walked outside, realisation striking him hard that he was about to embark on a very dangerous adventure with his friends. He embraced the feeling and walked on down the empty street, trying to stay in the shadows as much as possible.

  It was perhaps an hour til midnight so the streets were quiet but not entirely deserted. Three teenage kids would soon get the attention of any patrolman so Vik led them through back alleys and more deserted sections of the city.

  They had all agreed that the eastern city wall would be the least watched and therefore their greatest chance of leaving the city without being noticed. It would make their trip a lot longer but would increase its chance of success.

  A number of times they had to back track and seek alternate routes as they noticed people about but finally the eastern wall loomed before them. This was a critical part to their mission Vik knew. Three young teenagers caught walking the city walls or fleeing the city from them would be soon returned home or possibly even to a prison cell.

  They found a dark deserted alley near the northern corner of Arthea which had a good view of both the northern and eastern walls. They huddled close together behind some empty crates and observed the activity above.

  The top of the walls were lightly lit with torches spaced evenly along their lengths. From their position they could see one guard pacing the eastern wall and one pacing the northern one. They would march to the corner tower before turning and marching back in the opposite direction until they reached the first tower. They staggered their marches so that one was always walking to corner and they kept a constant eye on the outside of the wall.

  Vik knew the easy part would be the approach to the wall as the soldiers rarely looked inward. His main concern was getting away from the walls without being spotted.

  They quietly confirmed their plan. Vik reached into his bag and pulled out a length of thin but strong rope. After waiting for the soldier to reach the halfway point, Vik quickly ran to stairs leading up to the corner tower with his two friends hot on his heels. They climbed the stairs as quietly as possible and turned right when they reached the top, keeping low and out of view of the soldier walking the northern wall.

  Vik approached the first merlon of the parapet, dropped one end of the rope down and wrapped it around the high section and let the other end fall. He climbed over the parapet and gripped both lengths of rope and scurried down the outside of the wall.

  Jaz did likewise as soon as he reached the ground, followed soon after by Trent. When Trent reached the ground he let go of one end of the rope and pulled the other until the entire rope dropped. The three of them huddled in close to the wall, pulled their black hoods over their heads and waited.

  Vik thought that his heart would jump out of his chest with the rate it was beating. He could barely keep himself from shaking and felt the others likewise trembling.

  No alarm had been sounded so they had made it to this point without being seen. The next part would really test his nerves though, Vik realised. They waited in their tight huddle while the guard marched overhead. Vik heard the slight pause in footsteps as the soldier turned around. The sound of footsteps began to fade as the guard marched away from them again. Vik was preparing to signal the mad sprint until he heard someone yell from above.

  * * *

  Master Pilk couldn’t sleep. He had talked to Grand Master Reibeck well into the night and he found the information he received quite disturbing. He was laying on his back staring at the ceiling deep in thought.

  Grand Master Reibeck had told him that wizards in Estermere, the capital of Lertia, were noticing dramatic increases to their powers. The Academy of Mystics was currently receiving a huge influx of applications for grand master training. Grand Master Reibeck had been surprised that Pilk was not among those applicants after he had heard the tales of his earthquake spell.

  Pilk had never been overly concerned with titles; he simply did what needed to be done. His old wizard friend had given him some food for thought on the matter though, reminding him that only grand master wizards were permitted access to the top floor of the academy library. Pilk always had a thirst for more knowledge and the books in that upper floor were rumoured to be ancient.

  It was amongst these books that Grand Master Reibeck found the information that really concerned Pilk and perhaps explained this surge in magical energy. His mentor had mentioned that these books were seldom read as they were widely considered as myth. They talked of creatures and races unheard of and unseen on this world. Grand Master Reibeck had shown him one of these books that made mention of a race that had Pilk thinking that these books weren’t simply myth.

  This book had made mention of a race of orcs that were larger than humans.

  * * *

  The yell had come from almost dire
ctly above them. In that instant Vik was certain they had been discovered but he soon realised what the yell had been about. He slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand for not thinking of it sooner.

  It was midnight. It was the changing of the guard.

  When he considered it, they had possibly timed it really well. Being the end of their shift, the soldiers on the wall were likely to be less alert. A fresh guard may well have noticed them on the wall.

  Vik heard the other soldier walk to the tower above them and they began to talk. He heard three distinct voices which were soon followed by a fourth as the soldier on the northern wall joined up with them.

  Vik’s legs began to ache and he felt a strong urge to shuffle about so that he could stretch them but he dared not make a sound and so he suffered in silence. He had his face to the wall so he couldn’t tell how his friends were faring but guessed they were as scared as him.

  He began to think that the soldiers were going to talk for the rest of the night and started imagining him and his friends being discovered in the morning, fast asleep in their little huddle. He could almost hear the loud scoffing laughs of the soldiers that discovered them.

  That scene didn’t eventuate though as the soldiers soon finished their conversation and the two replacement guards sorted out their rhythm. Vik decided to let the men do one complete circuit to make sure they were following the same system.

  Once he established that they were, he waited until the soldier on the eastern wall was halfway to the first tower before tapping his friends on the shoulder alerting them that it was time to go.

  His legs had stiffened more than he thought and he almost fell over in the first few strides of his mad dash. He managed to stay upright however and soon found his rhythm. Vik heard the footsteps of his friends behind him and was glad that neither of them had fallen over.

  Their target was a small cluster of rocks about three hundred running strides from the city walls. If any of the guards looked vaguely in their direction they would be spotted instantly.

  Vik reached the rocks first and quickly jumped in behind them and lay as low as he could. A few moments later Jaz threw herself down next to him with Trent falling in next to her right after. All three of them were puffing loudly. Vik tried to steady his breathing and listen for any alarm.

  None came.

  He managed to wriggle into a position where he could see the wall. He made out the silhouette of the pacing soldier and was relieved to see that he was maintaining his pattern.

  Once again they waited until the soldier was half way back and sprinted off. Vik was much more confident this time as the ground started to fall away and they were putting a great distance between themselves and the wall. The visibility for the soldiers was poor so he continued to run on.

  The larger of the dual moons was two days into its cycle while the smaller was in its last days and so the night was very dark. It was a cloudless sky, however, so once Vik’s eyes had fully adjusted to the darkness he was able to see well enough to keep his bearings. Once he deemed that they were far enough from the city to be safe, he slowed to a brisk walk and turned north. He figured that if they kept up a steady pace they could reach the orcs’ fort in four hours. He hoped this was the case because any longer and they would have very little time before the sun came up. With that thought in mind, he trudged on.

  The three teenagers said very little until they arrived at North Road. Vik was getting a little concerned that they had somehow missed the road. It was impossible as the road travelled north from Arthea to Kethlon and he had kept sight of the evergreen forest on his right so they had to be travelling west.

  They started talking in hushed tones and reliving the excitement they had all felt in their escape from the city. Vik was relieved to hear that the other two had been terrified of being discovered too. He was enjoying this lighter side to Jaz instead of the superior attitude she normally maintained, leaving him feel very confused.

  Once they left the road again just north of the pass between the small mountain range and Evergreen Forest, their discussions became more serious. They threw some ideas around of what they might do when arriving at the orc fort as they stomped their way through the long dry grass.

  Last time Vik and Trent had been there it had been simply a small clearing, but Decker talked of the fort which had been hastily constructed. Vik hoped that this meant the fort would have a number of weak points they could exploit.

  All too soon Bilwarks Grove loomed eerily before them and all conversation ceased. Vik’s mind wandered back to the last time he was here. He had a family then and was certain of his security. His life had been turned on its head that day. Was that really just over a month ago? It seemed like a lifetime ago to him as so much had happened since.

  Vik led them silently into the dark grove, telling them to keep close so they didn’t lose each other. He was the youngest of the three but it had been his idea to take this trip so the other two seemed content in letting him take the lead. He took his short sword out of its scabbard and noticed Trent do the same. Jaz had a short metal pole which she had strapped to her bag which she now retrieved. Vik was under no illusion that if it came to a fight their chances of survival was slim, but they had to be ready.

  He led them on a north-westerly course, waving his sword around in front him to locate any hazards that his eyes didn’t pick up. He wanted to circle around the fort and approach its western wall as he figured the orcs would think that wall the least likely to be approached and therefore the least guarded. He also remembered that the Gate was located on the western edge of the clearing.

  As they walked deeper into the grove, Vik slowed their pace. He wanted to be sure of every step and be extra vigilant. He had asked Trent to hang back a few paces and keep a watch behind them as he kept his eyes in front. He asked Jaz to watch their flanks from the middle.

  A few minutes later he caught sight of the fort and held his breath. In the dim moonlight it looked as though the corner tower was made of stone. Further north of that tower a large area had been cleared and construction started on extending the fort. He may not be a soldier but he was Gerard Etkins’ son, who had been one of the greatest soldiers in the history of the Arthean army, and he knew that was a very bad sign.

  From the edge of the tree line where they were, to the walls of the fort, there were perhaps fifty paces of clearing. Vik knew this to be a kill zone. If it was a human fort he’d be sure that the clearance would be riddled with traps.

  The wooden walls weren’t high but they had sharpened log points angling out near the tops making it very hard to scale them. A platform was obviously constructed around the inside of the wall as the broad, dark figures walked around on them.

  Not wanting to waste too much time as the sun would be rising in an hour or two, he hurried back into the trees. He wanted to get a look at the western side to see if it looked as intimidating as the eastern wall.

  Taking a wide berth around the fort took some time but they made it without incident. Vik was looking at the western wall and it was nowhere near as complete as the east wall. A simple wooden tower was located on the northern corner and further down was a half constructed tower. The ‘kill zone’ was half the distance.

  One lone orc stood on the completed tower while another paced the full length of the wall. Vik could make out the other corner tower from his position and assumed that one orc stood guard there as well.

  It was enough. The moment they stepped into the clearing they’d be spotted and the whole fort would be alerted. What had he been thinking? Gaining entrance to the fort seemed impossible right now. He returned to the others and described what he had seen. Trent seemed to sag in defeat when he told him but a sly grin appeared on Jaz’s face.

  “Why are you smirking?” Vik asked.

  She simply reached into her bag and pulled out what appeared to be a small crossbow. It was very small and looked to be designed to use with one hand. Next she pulled out a small box
and opened it.

  “Darts,” she whispered as Vik stared at her. Then she pulled out a small heavily padded pouch and produced a tiny glass vial filled with liquid.

  “I thought this may come in handy. It’s a sleeping toxin — very potent. One drop of this injected into the body would knock out a small bear in short order.” She gave a chuckle and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. “I should know. I knocked out a small bear with one when I was hunting in the hills with my father.”

  Jaz was full of surprises. That was the first time Vik had heard her even mention her father. He had been meaning to ask her about him a few times but the moment never seemed right. She unplugged the end of a dart and delicately tipped in some of the toxin. She filled six darts in total and got Vik and Trent to hold two each.

  She explained how to use the darts. They had a tensioning spring on the plug which was to be unwound all the way and locked in place by a small pin. Once the pin had been released you had about ten seconds before that spring started to force the liquid slowly from the sharp end of the dart. She demonstrated with an empty dart how to load the single-handed crossbow.

  “It has a range of around thirty paces,” she explained in a whisper.

  “And its accuracy?” asked Vik

  “Not so good at that range. I am fairly accurate at twenty paces,” she answered.

  “Accurate enough to hit the neck of an orc standing on a tower?” asked Trent sceptically.

  “Perhaps. If you have a better idea I’d like to hear it.”

  Vik knew she was right. This was their only chance. They had discussed setting the grove on fire as a distraction then making their way into the fort in the chaos, but they knew the orcs would be well on guard seeing a fire.

  “We need to get you close to the wall so you get a better shot,” suggested Vik.