Infiltrators
Mozenrath had just returned to his citadel after a journey that lasted two days. A mound of black sand formed together out of thin air in his complexion, and then took on his color and physical appearance. He walked over to the book shelf and put on to an empty space the book he had brought with him. His last journey had proven to be a waste of time and now with all other leads exhausted, it was time for him to do what he dreaded… scour through his former master's journals for any information on his mother. Mozenrath took a seat at his desk, and began reading. Xerxes swam through the air to his perch above the door, ready to go to sleep.
Kamali and Zania were two young and intelligent fighters. Long since the death of their parents at the hands of the evil sorcerer Destane, they had taken up the art of the Scimitar to learn how to protect others from the evils of magik. Kamali was the eldest; he had long black hair, brown eyes, the typical tanned skin of the desert people, and a scar on the left side of his face from the infernal fires of Destane. Ever since that fateful day, he had been studying the way of the sword as well as how to defeat and resist magik and its users. Zania was his younger sister, and very pretty. She also had the same hair and eyes of brother, but her skill did not extend much into resistance, but in mobility and the use of her two scimitars.
After five years of training and other random jobs that kept them alive, they had finally found a lead to the location of Destane's fortress, the citadel of black sand. They prepared for their journey with desert horses, food and water, as well as a few potions that were said to heal the user. They were not aware of Destane's guardians, but the knew that he was a caster of the dark arts of Cimeria, and so they decided to pick up a few potions that would make them unseen to any unliving that they might encounter.
On the way to the dreaded place, they avoided as many patrols of the Mamluks as they could, to help keep their cover. Nobody ever entered into the land of the black sand for any reason, there was no need because there was no life there. As the proceeded in, Zania began to have second thoughts.
"Kamali" She began as they were eating a meal of cold dried fruit just before retiring for the evening, "This man Destane, what do we know about him? How horrible is he?" Kamali looked to her with an odd look in his face.
"You're not having second thoughts are you?" He asked.
"But, what if he is as powerful as they claim, you saw those unliving soldiers of his."
"Zania, you worry too much, those monster are no match for us. Besides we have been looking for this day for 6 years, do you remember what that old man did to our parents?" There was a moment of silence.
"You know that they were smugglers." Zania began again, "What if they were trying to steal from this man?"
"There is no need for what if's!" Kamali's voice was strong and harsh, "There is no excuse for what he did to our parents, no what so ever." There was another moment of silence as Zania recalled only vividly the horrors that she had seen that night. She was only 9 year old, and Kamali was 12.
"We have been thinking about this day for so long." Kamali said breaking the silence, "We are properly equipped, and we have the skills to do this. We will sneak in, and repay him for all the pain he has caused us." Zania nodded in agreement, and then the two finished the rest of their meal in silence. They both knew that there was very little good in what they were doing, their mission was for revenge for their parent's deaths, and hopefully relief for what they had to suffer through for the teenage years of their life. The rode into the zombie infested land prepared for the worse.
Upon entering the land of black sand, they discovered it was called that for good reason. The sand on the ground was indeed black, and glistened in the moonlight. Strange that his had been but morning a couple of hours ago, but as they began to get closer to their destination, the desert sun began to dissipate away, leaving a unnatural night behind. They could see in the distance the citadel, the upper lights of it lit, proving that somebody was home. They knew that the Mamluks did not need light to see, and there for the top room of the citadel, that must be where Destane was.
"Zania, remember that when we get into the citadel, we must stay together," Kamali said in a hushed whisper. "Else one of us might get lost in the labyrinth."
"Kamali, you worry too much!" The young girl protested.
"I'm serious; this man is one of the highest in the seven deserts." He used his right hand to gently move away the hair covering the right side of his sister's face. "The last thing I want to see is you getting hurt." He said softly as she looked at his scarred face.
"You protected me last time." She said, "I am sure you will there for this time as well if it is needed." The two then embraced for a moment and then continued onward.
The streets were crawling with Mamluks, animate corpses of the dead that Destane had killed. Kimir had also studied the arcane arts in his search for the weaknesses of spellcasters, and knew that these creatures were neither alive nor dead. They now existed for one purpose, to serve the one who created them, which in this case, was Destane. Some of the Mamluks were pieced together from parts of different bodies, making grotesques parodies of human life. Luckily for them, what remained of this city was nothing but mere ruins, in with the outer edges of the establishment had long ago crumpled away. With so much of the city in ruins, their path to citadel was clear, and if they ran, they could get there in enough time to take advantage of the potency of their hiding potions.
The two pulled them out and uncorked them, a foul smell of bitter herbs rose from the vials. The two siblings looked at each other with dread of drinking the potion, and with closed eyes the swallowed. There was no visible effect, the did not glow or anything.
"Did it work?" Zania asked. Kamali looked her over while defocusing his eyes, he could see a faint color of blue around her using his second sight.
"It did, we should hurry thought, but the aura is fading fast." The two of them ran as fast as they could through the streets, completely ignored by the countless Mamluks. In a little under five minutes, they made it to the gate of the citadel. Standing guard at the gate were two more Mamluks, they realized that these two needed to be dispatched, for if the gate of were to open, even these zombies were sure realize something was wrong. Both Kamali and Zania took a position by one of them, unsheathing their scimitars. In another minute, they broke the spell of magik that had kept them hidden by attacking and destroying the Mamluks. Zania struck one of the two three times with the swords, causing it to collapse and become motionless. Kamali took his scimitar with both hands and raised it high above his head striking it down with a single decapitating blow. The two looked silently towards one another, and then moved inside the inner
As the moved towards the main hall, Zania held up her he hand to her brother, motioning for him to stop. Surely it was not going to be this easy to get in, and so she began to look around the door for any traps that may be there, feeling the walls as she did. He thought was right, she found some sort of rune on the wall. There was nothing to special about the rune, just a simple marking on the wall there would have gone unnoticed by the untrained eye. She spent about two minutes removing the rune, figuring out how to remove parts of the rune from the wall without setting it off. When she was done, most of the rune had been removed from the wall, and they walked through unharmed into the citadel.
The citadel was pretty lifeless, with an occasional Mamluk here or there. Zania and Kamali were doing the best to sneak around unnoticed, carefully ducking behind furniture, look around walls into hallways, and sticking to the sides of the wall whenever possible. Finally they found a way up into one of the towers, and so the two of them started to make their way up, Zania checking the archway in case of another rune. There was none, and so they made the way up to a closed chamber after a long flight of stairs. Zania checked the door for another rune and after finding nothing, reached to open the door. It was looked, and so she pulled out some lock picks and quickly unlocked it as Kamali kept an eye out.
Mozenrath had been studying in his study for the last few hours, he searched for any clue that former master Destane may have had as too the whereabouts of his mother. With each page of useless information in Destane's journals, the foul mood of the sorcerer deepened. Xerxes lay wrapped around a pull above the doorway, patiently waiting for his master to finish; little did the poor familiar know that he had a long wait ahead of him. After nearly three hours of searching, Mozenrath sat back in his chair and used his left bare hand to cover his eyes for the surrounding light of the chamber.
"Didn't this old fool know anything about my mother!" he exclaimed in anger, "What type of person takes a woman's child under his care without find out a few things about her first!" He paused for a moment, "I guess I could have asked him, but after I changed him into a mamluk, he didn't have much of a mind anymore." Xerxes swam through the air to his master, a look of amusement on his face. It was just then that a mental alarm went off in Mozenrath's mind. Mozenrath turned to his familiar uncovering his violet eyes, "It seems Xerxes that there are some intruders in my citadel." A smile crossed his face, "They must be about to enter into my bed chambers, I think I will let Kurrisan deal with them." The young sorcerer then picked up the next journal, and returned to reading.
As Kamali and Zania entered into the next chamber, they found a sight that they were not expecting to see. Here was a bed chamber, large, and filled with obvious wealth. The chamber was adored with countless book shelves, most of which lined the walls. At the far end of the room was a large desk with a velvet tablecloth. The center of the room had a huge bed, made primarily of pillows with a bed frame, all of which were surrounded by black silk bed drapes. There was a table next to the bed holding a pitcher of some red liquid, probably wine. The window of this room however were very different than to be expected. Kamali detected some sort of magic over them, but peering out of the windows there were a verity of landscapes completely foreign to the two siblings, perhaps even unworldly. One showed a vast number of flames, while another showed endless water, and one was a black as the darkest of night. Closest to the window of fire, there was a large wardrobe, made of delicately carved ebony wood.
As the two stepped into the room, there was a sudden cold child as a pair yellow eyes peered out of the darkened by the wardrobe. They were low to the ground, as if it was some beast staring at them.
"Who dares enter the mater's chambers?" The voice called out to them in a very deep and raspy voice. The two siblings immediately drew their weapons not saying a single word. Suddenly the tip of the beast tale lit on fire providing light as it swished back and forth, indeed this beast was of the feline type. It had sharp wicked claws, a huge smile of narrow teeth. Its fur was jagged and faded from a dark red at its base to a dark green.
"The master has commanded that I destroy any intruders that he has not told me about, and so your names mean little to me. However is there anything you wish to say before I rip the bones from your body?" The beast began to lick it's lips as it said this.
Zania was the first to speak up, "The master as asked to come here and pick up a clean set of clothing." She lied in hopes of avoided this creature.
"If that were true, then why did he send you, one of his guests in place instead of one of the mamluks?" The tail of the beast swished back and forth more vigorously now. Zania was stumped on what she could say, she did not want to give away to much information so that the creature could pin her.
"The Mamluks are color blind, and so he needed us to grab his red robes." Kamali had spoken up, drawing from the vided description memories of Destane on the faithful day long ago. However this is where the beast ha caught them.
"Foolish humans, you cannot lie to me. The master despises the color of red due to the connection it has to his mother! Now you will die!" The beast let out a horrid roar from its gapping maw, which echoed down the halls. Kamali and Zania immediately knew that any hope of them avoiding being seen were over, for in a few moments a flood of Mamluks would be rushing up to the bed chambers. It was however at this point that the creature pounced at Kamali pinning him to the ground. The claws of the creature sunk in deep into his chest causing him to let out a scream of pain. Zania was ready though as she brought he scimitars to bear on the creature, using it's moment of vulnerability due to the pin to her advantage.
She sank her scimitars into its tough hide with little effort, striking at it's neck and belly. The creature's wounds however showed incredible resistance to the wounds, for as she pulled her swords away only a few drops of blood had fallen. Kamali attempted to pull the creature's claws out of him so that he could squirm free from the hold, but the creature was strong and held him there. The creature then sank it's teeth into the boys upper shoulder, causing him to let out another scream. There was a deep rumble in its throat as though it was laughing, and then it brought up it's hind legs and began to rake it's claws into Kamali's stomach. More struggling, and more screaming, but then Zania brought he scimitars to bear further on the creature. This time as she struck it, her scimitar's keen edges managed to slice cleanly through the creature's back, causing it to arch in pain momentarily. The creature's eyes shifted towards her and it's mouth let loose from her brother's shoulder.
"I could kill him in a moment if you continue to attack me, leave now and you might still get away." It growled at her. Just then the creature let out a sudden scream as Kamali plunged a dagger into the creature's stomach.
"Strike it now!" Kamali screamed at his sister, and with that she let out with another couple of slashes from her blades. The creature let out a horrid scream, as it then fell to the ground, but as it did the hind claws of the creature pulled out of Kamali's body causing a flow of blood to follow it. After a moment of the creature writhing on the ground it stopped moving, then began to break apart into black sand.
Zania helped her brother up, and yet despite his wounds he was still able to move on his own. The two looked around as they now started to hear foot steps coming up that stairs, and quickly found that unless there were to go through the windows into who know what landscapes, they were trapped. The Mamluks came into the room, their scimitars at the ready, and the two siblings readied to do battle.
Mozenrath had finally found a journal that mentioned something of his mother, though they were only scattered pieces. A smirk crossed his face as he finally came across the information. Suddenly there was a horrid catlike scream the came echoing throughout the halls.
"It seems that Kurrisan had failed to exterminate my guest Xerxes." Mozenrath said to his familiar, "They must be better than I thought." Xerxes peered up at his master since he was wrapped around Mozenraths neck attempting to fool his master into thinking that he had actually learned to read. Let's wait for them in the throne room, where I do not have to worry about any collateral damage to Destane's journals. Mozenrath then brought up his gloved hand and whirled it around in a circular manner as him, his familiar, and the journal he was holding broke apart into black sand.
Kamali and Zania had dispatched the zombies, which had been much easier to fight that Kurrisan. They took a moment to recover from their fight, and Kamali consumed the potions that they had purchased for healing. The wounds the creature had dealt to him were severe, but after the potions all that remained were a few scratches. They heard the sounds of more Mamluks coming their way, and so they made their way down the stairs in a hurry.
As they reached the bottom of the stairs, they were confronted by a half dozen Mamluks, and took up a defensive formation by sticking back to back. Kamali detected the brief sound of magik in the nearby chamber; he identified it as some sort of teleportation spell.
"Sis, I think Destane just arrived or left that chamber there." He whispered to her. The two began to attack the zombies using. The zombies were fragile, with a slash or two from their blades, the creature fell to the ground in a pile of still animated pieces. Kamali then launched the last ones upper torso past the entrance to the next chamber as he cut its body in half.
Mozenrath had just appeared his throne as he witnessed his group of his mamluks go rushing by. He concluded that the intruders must be near by, and so he pulled out his black scimitar ready to do battle with whoever it was attacking. Mozenrath smiled in anticipation as to who he thought it might be.
A moment later, a severed body of a mamluk went flying by the archway to the chamber, and walking through the camber door were two young siblings not much younger than Mozenrath himself.
"So you are the rats that have been stirring up trouble in my humble home." Mozenrath said to them with a sneer. Upon seeing the young sorcerer the two siblings suddenly froze for a moment. Kamali was sure that this was not Destane, for Destane was an old man and this was a young sorcerer.
"You are Destane are you not?" Zania shouted at him more of a demand and not a question. Mozenrath's eyes narrowed as this question. They then loosened as he seemed to relax for a moment, realizing that these were not the people who he was expecting to see.
"I'm sorry, but Destane no longer lives here." Mozenrath said as he stood up from his throne, "Destane was never quite strong enough to control the power that lies in these lands."
"Then who are you if you are not Destane?" Zania asked aloud.
"I am Mozenrath, lord of the black sand." Mozenrath said simply, "and you two are trust passing in my lands." Mozenrath then proceed to make a swipe at them with his gloved hand as the sand of the chamber changed to darker, blacker color. The negatively charged sand no began to burn the feet of the two infiltrators. Kamali recognized part of the sand, drawing upon the power of unlife to fill the sand with necromantic power.
"Zania, I think he is telling the truth, Destane was much older than him." He said to his sister, making a gesture to the door.
"Oh, do you think you two are going somewhere?" Mozenrath said to the two as they glanced back as the door, "You see I am not quite ready to let you two out of here. You two now know the layout of my citadel. I instead invite you to stay, to replace the mamluks you have destroyed." The burning of the sand started to affect the two as they began to feel pain course up through their legs.
"I have trained to defeat your kind sorcerer!" Kamali made know to Mozenrath.
"That is fine, but just in case you are thinking of leaving." Mozenrath then
pointed to the entrance to the room and made fire erupt from the ground to form a wall. Xerxes began to laugh as he snuggled around the journal that lay by the throne. It was at this point that the two siblings took to the offensive, know that they were stuck in a fight they did not want to take part in. They rushed forward ready to draw blood, but as they did Moznerath then pointed at the two and a wave of green fire erupted from the two. The two however were very nimble about how they moved, and dodged out of the flame with professional grace.
Mozenrath moved down into the sand to meet them a few feet from his throne. Kamali and Zania then began to strike at Mozenrath with their scimitars, however they found as they struck that he seemed to be protected by some type of metal under his robes, as well as some magikal energies that seemed to flow around him. Mozenrath took a moment to case a spell upon himself, causing himself to visible speed up as he now displayed trailing afterimages as he moved. The two of them began to attack again, and although Zania failed to get past the magikal protection that surround Mozenrath's body, Kamali managed to pierce the protection, cutting into Mozenrath. It was clear that there was a cut from where Kamali slashed, but all that came out of the wound was black sand. However, as Kamali's scimitar finished slicing through magikal field of energy, there was a sudden breaking sound as the arcane energy that surrounded him broke away. Kamali smiled.
"Seems I have broken your magikal protections sorcerer!"
"You seem to be right." Mozenrath replied as he channeled his arcane power into his blade, and then took four attacks on Kamali. The black scimitar, now glowing with red energy, struck Kamali with the first strikes, slicing across his left arm and upper right cheek. As the blade pass through Kamali's flesh, the blood the flew from the wound carried by the blade changed into red sand as the fell to the floor.
Zania made a quick cart wheel around to the other side of the sorcerer, establishing a flank with he brother. As she did she started to perform the dessert dance she hand been perfecting, flashing her swords around as she did. The barrage of sword blades managed to penetrate the armor hidden under Mozenrath's robes, and reveal more black sand streaming out of the wounds.
"What a cute trick you have there!" Mozenrath said to Zania, "How about I make you cry!" Mozenrath then held up his sword in his left hand to guard his back as he used his right o start casting a spell. Kamali listened to the Infernal rhymes of the spell Mozenrath was casting, and saw that it was designed to overflow a person's nerves with intense and overwhelming pain. Luckily he Kamali had anticipated that Mozenrath would cast a spell next, and almost as a reflex, struck out at the sorcerer, striking past the raised up scimitar squarely into his back. The pain was searing hot, as though the blade struck not only into his body, but into something supernaturally deeper. Blood began to flow down the blade of Kamali's blade, and dripped onto the black sand. Mozenrath staggered for a moment, and the spell he was forming then faded. He backed away from the two as he took a second to regain his composure.
Zania did not let up with her attack though; she circled around continuing her dance, striking at Mozenrath a few more times. More blood began to fall on the sand as Mozenrath staggered back some more. Mozenrath then decided that he needed to gain some distance, and so he stepped away from the two a little further, and cast a short range transportation spell. His body broke apart into black sand as he reappeared directly next to the wall of flame he had created moments ago. The flames were intense, but his magik absorbed the hear making it harmless to him.
Kamali and Zania looked at each for a moment, a little confused as to where Mozenrath had gone, the Kamali noticed his dark form by the flames. He made a gesture to his sister, and the two began to move in on Mozenrath again.
Mozenrath watched them do exactly as he wanted, he was going to use himself as bait and lore them to the flames, and then he would strike and let the flames do the work for him. The sorcerer then brought his glove hand up to his face and drew a sinister looking rune in mid air. Black sand from the ground began to flow around him, flowing into him and his wounds, fortifying his body once again.
The two siblings were still trapped in the room, but now they headed to the entrance of the room, towards the fire that stood in the way along with their enemy. Kamali suspected that Mozenrath would so something tricky, and so he held his scimitar up cautiously in case he needed to deflect some magik that could be thrown at him. Zania on the other hand had no such advantage; she simple was on guard there ready to dodge out of the way of any spells that might be thrown at her. Mozenrath however waited for the right moment, and just as they had reached a few feet from him, they began to feel the heat of the flames. Zania noticed now that the wounds they had scored on the sorcerer seemed to be healing, as a small amount of black energy from the sand on the ground seemed to be flowing into.
"The Sand is healing him brother, but it burns us!" She exclaimed as they moved up.
"That is because the sand is from Cimeria, and is filled with the energy of the dead. The living are harmed by it, and the dead are healed."
"But that means…" her sentence trailed off.
"That I am no longer as alive as you?" Mozenrath finished with a smirk on his face, "Don't worry, I'm still human for now." He finished. The two siblings looked at each other again and then with no further word charged at head at him. They had decided that whatever Mozenrath was, he was nothing less than a monster, and needed to be destroyed. At least Destane had been human, but this sorcerer appeared to be something beyond the normal mortal realm of living.
As they charged forward Mozenrath was ready. He quickly flashed his hand infront of them and behind the two he created another wall of fire, trapping them between the two. Mozenrath smiled that sick smile as first Zania impaled one of her scimitars in him followed by Kamali. Mozenrath let out a gasp as his recenetly fortified body expelled more black sand along with some blood. He looked up at the two and smiled.
"You fool, now you are trapped." He said as he took in a deep breath. The two of them were no feeling the flames all too well, and the feet ached from the jolts of negative energy from the sand. Kamali raised his scimitar high overhead and brought it down into the sorcerer and as he struck into Mozenrath's body, it broke apart into black sand. Both brother and sister were confused by this.
"Did you kill him?" Zania asked.
"I don't know, but let's just get out of here!" The two then jumped through the walls of flames, carefully rolling through as they did to avoid as much flames as they could. There were hurt bad, deep burns, some cuts, but most of all they felt as though their life force was being sapped away by the sand. They began to run as fast as they could out of the citadel, and into the open desert away from this horrid place. As soon as they left the citadel the sand returned to it's normal black composure, no longer draining their energy, but they did not look back. They had the information about Destane they wanted, and that was all they cared about.
Mozenrath appeared in a dark part of his citadel. He was hurt, but he would live. He was surprised that those two had managed to hurt him bad enough to trigger a protection spell he has always cast upon himself, to remove himself from danger to a safe place. The fire surly had killed the two; the temperature was well over three times the heat of a summer desert day. Mozenrath took a seat on a nearby chair, and began to consume some dates. He smiled as he ate, for he once again drew a rune in front of himself causing black sand to enter and fortify his body. In a moment he eased back content with himself, there were more important things to think about now. He turned to look a portrait of a dark yet beautiful woman in this room, the room he came to when he was a child hiding from Destane. "See you soon mother."
Copyright 2005 by Nelio Belmont. The characters from the Aladdin series which appear here are property of and copyrighted 1992-95 by The Walt Disney Company and used without permission. The others are mine. Some Characters were also used without permission by Wendy Welch Lee fanfiction. You may distribute this work provided this notice is included and distribution is not done for monetary gain. Please do not post this work to any newsgroups and/or sites without my permission. Disclaimer: Any typos/misspellings are the fault of my word processor and errant electrons that may have passed in the dark.