Tales of Vyscher Book 2

Chapter 22

The jet black eyes of Sowyan surveyed the giant cavern, filled with his undead army, marching back and forth with the rocks and dirt from the tunnel that would unite the continent. No longer would Vyscher stand between Ordence and Marendia, and his undead army would rule over all. Did Brellior really think that he could rule over him? No. That wouldn't happen. The continent would be his, with each battle adding more bodies to his army. Win or lose, he would always get more soldiers. And with his secret weapon, other mages would have no chance against him.

"What is the progress?" he asked a grimy miner who stayed bowed low before him.

"We're out from under the last mountain sir. The tunnel is sloping upwards to come out in the foothills. We'll be done digging in under a moon."

"Excellent! Before the season is out, we'll own the whole continent!" Sowyan's black eyes glittered excitedly. He'd worked for almost two years under the orders of Brellior, but the final victory would be his. Power was worth more than a prince's position. Perhaps he'd just kill the prince and have him join his little army! "Get back to work!"

His zombies were slow, but they were tireless, and they were guided by the kidnapped gnomes and dwarves that Brellior had given him. They had helped to navigate some of the trickier places, where a tunnel collapse could easily wipe out his zombies, or where gas pockets could have killed his living miners. But now it was all coming together. The zombies would be going from pickaxes to battle axes, and the war would commence!

Fehrys and Alia sat in the corner of a tiny tavern that was frequented by the many gnomes and dwarves of the craftsman district. A platter of sausages and roasted potatoes sat between them, and they happily speared them with their forks while they chatted. Kyrian sat on the table next to Fehrys, sausage after sausage disappearing into her mouth.

"Do you think you'll be back?" Fehrys asked her.

Alia gave a shrug. "I don't know. It depends on what I want to do. I have a feeling Carys would want me to go visit her, but at the same time she has Serev, so I wouldn't want to intrude there. I could also just take Maltia and fly, make my own adventures elsewhere. But the dragons also gave me a last option, I just don't know if I want to take it."

"That sounds ominous already!" Fehrys replied. "Where is the last option?"

She looked across the table with a worried frown. "They said I could follow the elves."

Now Fehrys matched her frown with one of his own. "I thought the elves were all gone? Didn't they die out after the goblin invasion? I guess nobody really knows."

She just shook her head. "The dragons knew. They gave the elves the way out of here. The dragons opened a portal for them, to another world. There weren't many elves left alive, but those that were went through it, were never to be seen again."

For a moment, Fehrys just sat there contemplating that. Another world? What would that be like? But his whole family was here, and while the pain of losing Luce was, at times, unbearable, he was now raising Kyrian too. He couldn't go. But did she want to?

"Why would you do that?"

She sighed before reaching across the table and petting Kyrian on the head. "I told you I got taken, like Cerys. But later, as I got older, I wanted to learn to be a sorceress. When my parents said I could try to learn with the dragons I was happy, but it killed my parents. Literally. Slavers had been expecting me to go back down to the city, and had staked out the road to try and capture me again. When I didn't come, they assumed I was still at home. They went looking for me, and then killed my parents in hopes they would give up my location, while I was off getting trained by Hrushmia and Czanther. I was training there for years, and when I went home I found my home being lived in by a new family. They'd found my parents' bodies, and assumed I was either dead or kidnapped again, and moved right in. I couldn't blame them, it was a nice house, but my abilities doomed my parents."