Chapter 5

The Springer Bow was still in Sareth's pocket folded up. He made no move to remove it although a rational part of his mind told him quite sternly that trying something rash under the watch of so many armed men was a life threatening mistake.

Suddenly, a man stepped out from behind a set of rocks and he froze.

It was Douglas, Phenrig's hired bodyguard. He was glad in armour, similar to the crossbowmen only his tunic was green and reached down to his knees.

"You travelled further than we expected." He admitted, striding forward with sword in hand. "But this transgression of yours will not go unpunished, Menelag!" His tone was venomous and there was nothing the injured wizard could do to stop him approaching.

Leanna threw herself between her uncle and Douglas, spreading her arms out wide to block his path.

"Fortunately, its not you I'm after right now." The man sneered and then he turned to glare directly at Sareth.

"Idiot boy!" He added with a snap, his arm lashing out to slap the lad hard across the face. "I didn't spend a decade teaching you how to fight to have all our efforts wasted by your rash adolescent yearnings."

Sareth glared back, feeling the painful mark on his cheek yet his eyes held no tears only a fierce defiance.

"I don't care what you think." He hissed. "You're a murderer!"

"And you are a spoiled brat!" Douglas retorted and grabbed the front of Sareth's shirt. "I'm taking you back to Phenrig, we're going to complete the ritual and then you're going to fulfil the role you were raised for!" He took hold of the boys shoulder and shoved him forward. "And you're going to cooperate."

"Sareth…" Xana's voice warned him and glancing around, he was reminded of the many crossbows pointed at both at him and the friends he had only so recently earned.

He had no choice but to comply as he and they were forced out into the open. Menelag was pushed from his stretcher and told to move, despite his injury.

"He can't walk, he's hurt!" Leanna told them only to have them push her aside as they roughly kicked the old wizard forward while he was not able to defend himself.

When we were out in the open, Douglas signalled to the men down in the valley that their second ambush had been successful.

The sun had sunk below the horizon by the time the armoured men made it up the side of the valley to join them and now Sareth could see the Vindicator warriors in far greater detail.

Their long swords had jagged bards running down each side of their blades and even the hilt and pommel of their weapons looked designed to inflict pain with razor edges. Their shields were just the same, lined with spikes for painful impaling.

"Put the lad in chains." Douglas remarked to them when their leader arrived. "As for the others, do whatever you want with…"

He never finished the sentence.

A loud shriek erupted out of the darkness of the night that was settling over the land.

It was an inhuman wail, penetrating down into the soul with its cry of despair and anguish.

The Vindicators glared around, holding their swords at the ready and their Crossbowmen wielded their own weapons.

Leanna screamed and Sareth looked around as… something… came forth from the darkness.

It was moving so fast that it was only a blur but he was able to pick up the brief outline of a form vaguely humanoid before it leapt forth and grabbed one of the Vindicators with a massive clawed hand that looked as if it were made of pure darkness.

The man screamed in the things grip, first out of panic and then out of horror as the thing sank its other hand down into his chest. It past through armour and flesh like unsubstantial shadow and then…

Sareth went white. He could see it, he could actually see as the darkness tore the man's soul out, a bright blue light… brought to an invisible mouth and swallowed whole.

"Sylanna have mercy, a Wight!" Holillaa gasped, holding a hand to his mouth as the thing reared up. Its head and face were hidden by a cowl made from darkness and that was where the soul of its victim had disappeared. The body lay on the ground amongst the grass, lifeless.

"Kill it, kill it!" Douglas cried out and his crossbowmen loosed a dozen or so bolts directly at the thing. Its insubstantial form could not be struck and the projectiles flew right through its body and screeching, it loomed up and spread its arms out.

"You can't kill it!" Menelag hissed. "It's already dead!"

It was then that the screaming began.

The Wight, this ghost of darkness, set upon their captors and the screams were terrible.

"Run!" Wyngaal hissed at their group. "Run now!"

With no one to stop them, the elf's and those in their company fled for the trees as the screams continued echoing into the cold wind.

The Wight's feasted on the souls of five men before the moral of the armoured cultists broke and they ran themselves. Sareth looked back through the trees, seeing that Douglas and a few Vindicators were following them.

Right behind them, the Wight came forth, sliding through the trees back and forth like the wind itself. It continued to screech, not now in agony but in hunger instead.

Douglas suddenly tripped, falling to the ground. His vindicators ran past him, ignoring him as they fled for their own lives.

He struggled to get up off the forest floor but the Wight was on him before he could so much as get a food under him.

His eyes stared pleadingly up towards Sareth.

"Please… please help me!!" He cried out in a wail and for one instant, despite everything, Sareth wanted to go back.

Then those arms made from shadow reached down and grasped his soul.

Sareth tore his gaze away and continued running as the scream disturbed the forest birds.

They must have all run for half an hour without stopping when fatigue finally forced them to gather behind a thicket of trees, out of breath and sweating hard.

Menelag was first to collapse. The necessary running had exhausted him and reopened the wound that Leanna had had to stitch during their journey.

For a moment there was silence, broken only by their loud breathing and the distant hooting of an owl.

"I don't see it." Holillaa remarked, looking out from behind his tree the way they had just come. Wyngaal checked himself, his sharp eyes studying the shadow between the tall trees where they might be some spectre lurking in ambush.

"Neither so I." He admitted after a moment. "Maybe it's still feeding on…" He broke off and shuddered.

The act of tearing out a soul and swallowing it filled Sareth with revulsion so absolute it shook his very fundamental belief about right and wrong.

And those screams! The sound of death he might be able to handle but that scream of absolute horror that came from that would haunt him perhaps until the end of days.

"We… we can not stay here." Menelag wheezed. "We must move on…aggh!" He clutched at his side again.

"I think it might be wiser to wait for dawn." Wyngaal ventured his opinion.

"No, you don't understand." The wizard insisted as his niece helped him to sit up. "Wight's… they aren't native to this land. Their dark kind resides only in the vaults of Heresh. They can only be here if they are summoned by a Necromancer."

Phenrig's manor had not been so removed from the mainstream of society for Sareth not to have heard the stories.

During the last war, a Necromancer named Markal had gained the confidence of Queen Isabel and used that to gain power within the empire and launch his own wars of conquest against the Silver Cities and Irollan.

He had been killed during the crescendo of the fighting but it had taken years to rid the empire of all the undead that he summoned during his stay.

"And I do not think that this creature is acting alone." Menelag continued managing to get back to his feet. "Necromancer's always back Wight's up with lesser spirits. Weaker but deadly in large numbers."

He tried to walk forward but he was still too weak. His injury bled once more and he was instantly back on his knees.

Leanna tried to help him back up but he brushed off her attempt.

"For Elrath's sake girl, I'm slowing you down!" He snapped. "This is precisely the kind of situation I warned you about, now you MUST leave me!"

"No." The reply came not from her but from Sareth. "We won't." He was instantly by their side, helping Leanna get her uncle back to his shaky feet. "I owe both of you my life and I intend to repay that favour."

Leanna looked at him, her eyes filled with intense gratitude.

"Thank you." She sniffed with a wavering voice, genuinely touched by his compassion.

"Must you do that?" Xana asked irritably. Sareth chose not to reply.

Wyngaal took point while the rest of his Elves covered the side and rear, each of them watching intently for the Wight or anything else that might crawl out of the darkness.

They saw no more men in the woods, not even those Vindicators who had fled from the Wight. It was eerily silent and the call of birds of the night did little to banish the fear that held them all.

Without even thinking about it, Sareth reached into his pocket and took out his Spring Bow. He let it unfold to its true form and held it at the ready, like those around him. He could not draw arrows as quickly as an elf but he needed reassurance of being ready anyway.

"Don't worry, I'll be able to tell if anything's coming." Xana assured him.

"Like the Wight I suppose?" He asked in reply. "Or Douglas' ambush?"

"I can only detect supernatural creatures, not the mortal races." She sounded annoyed, more that Sareth's snippiness than her own inability yet a small amount of self loathing was definitely there. "As for the Wight, it snuck up on me. I wasn't expecting it. It won't do that again."

"How far to the Labyrinth's entrance?" Leanna asked Wyngaal, leaning forward to see past him to the trail ahead.

"Another two days." He replied sounding sour. "If we made regular time that is. If we have to keep watching our backs for undead and evil spirits then it'll probably take considerably longer."

"At least they'll keep the cultists off our backs." Holillaa's attempt at lightening the mood was poor.

"Personally I think I'd prefer to take my chances with the cultists." Wyngaal said.

They continued on for some distance but then they had to stop. It was late, they were all tired and they had to set up camp for the night.

Eventually they came across a clearing in the trees where caps in the dark canopy allowed a shaft of moonlight to cascade down and illuminate the ground.

"No fire." Wyngaal advised. "I don't want to attract attention."

Tents were erected and they went to sleep cold. The elves took watch and knowing they were there was the only thing giving Sareth confidence enough to rest.

Despite how tired he was he would not sleep. He forced himself to remain awake. He knew that if he fell asleep those screams would echo through his mind all to the dawn and add themselves to the deepening horror of the ritual he had only just escaped.

He honestly feared that if he did not have some safe haven where he might find some degree of normalcy that his mind would become unhinged.

It was nearing midnight and still he hadn't managed a moment of sleep.

"Sareth…" He opened his eyes and leaning before him was Leanna. "Ah you're awake."

"Couldn't sleep." He replied truthfully. "I'm surprised you're uncle can." The girl shrugged.

"He needed rest so I have him one of the elve's sedatives. It'll numb the pain and it makes him drowsy so he'll be fine."

Sareth sighed and leaned back against the rock he was trying to get comfortable against.

"Sareth…" She began again and she relaxed beside him. "I wanted to thank you."

"I thought you already did."

"Not just for that, for everything." She continued. "You don't know us, we only met a few days ago and yet you've stayed loyal." Her eyes rolled up to the gap in the trees above. The stars were out and their presence was reassuring. "You could have run off and left us, gone off your own way."

"I suppose." Sareth mused. He could have, that was certain but if he was honest this was the first time that the idea even came into his head. "I supposed I stayed because I have nowhere else to go."

Surprisingly, Leanna shook her head.

"No." She disagreed. "That doesn't explain everything. You helped us because we needed help, not because we hadn't any choice. That was compassion that drove you even when you wee being chased by…" She didn't finish the sentence and Sareth was glad she didn't.

"If you say so." He breathed. "I've never thought of myself as particularly compassionate though."

"You might surprise yourself with what you might be capable of." Her tone was empathic. "You're a good person you know. What do you say… friends?"

"I thought we already where?"

"Sareth!" Xana's voice suddenly yelled into his mind. "They're coming." Almost forgetting Leanna was there, he stumbled to his feet with his bow in hand, glaring around at the darkness surrounding their camp.

"Where?" He asked out load.

"All around!" Xana sounded a little frantic. "Ghouls!"

"Ghouls?"

"The living dogs of the Necromancers!"

Wyngaal looked back with a confused look on his face.

"Sareth, what's the matter?" He asked.

"Ghouls!" He repeated and the elves started, looking around in alarm holding their bows up.

"What? Where?" One of them asked, glancing around. "I can't see…" Then they didn't say anything.

A sound, soft and low at first, began to pulse from somewhere out in amongst the trees.

It a scuttling noise, like dozens of high pitched voice muttering and chuckling all together. It was by no means as horrible as the hungry scream of the Wight but it was enough to fray at their already tested nerves.

"There!" Xana stated and some mental probing directed Sareth's attention directly up. Glancing at the trees, he gapped at the sight of dozens of small creatures amongst the branches.

They were small, probably no taller than a child but with long limbs that enabled them to climb from branch to branch like a spider. Their skin was pure white, indicating a creature that had never so much as looked at the sun. Their eyes glowing yellow, they were descending down towards their camp like crawling insects.

"Above!" Sareth cried out, taking hold of an arrow from the quiver on his back and loosing it at one of the Ghouls.

The arrow struck the creature in the head and it fell down to the ground, convulsing before it died. In the light its true hideous features could be observed. Its head was oval shaped and its mouth seemed to be permanently fixed open as if it had screamed and then never stopped. Its teeth were jagged and yellow and there was no tongue behind them.

The Elves responded immediately, loosing their own arrows up as the swarm and more bodies fell dead to the ground yet the numbers of the Ghouls did not seem to diminish.

Leanna instantly rushed to her uncle's side and tried to wake him up and as she did so, one of the creatures leapt from the branches directly at her. Its arms outstretched, black claws on the end of each finger it screeched loudly as it flew directly at her.

Before its lunge could connect, Menelag sat directly up and with a simple gesture of one hand he loosed a spell directly at the Ghoul.

A fire ball rocketed forth and the impact connected with the creature and sent it flying away, trailing black smoke as it went.

Menelag got to his knees, plain anger clear on his face as he gazed up at the ghouls around them.

"Sareth, come here, I need your help!" He called and Sareth obeyed even without thinking.

"Do something, there's too many of them!" Wyngaal cried out, loosing another three arrows at once. By now, bodies of the Ghouls were dropping like flies to the ground yet more seemed to be scurrying out of the darkness.

Several leapt out, using their superior numbers to overwhelm one of the elves and as they dragged him down they began to eat him. He screamed as their razor teeth sank into his flesh and began ripping lumps out to swallow whole.

His fellows came to his aid instantly, firing a barrage of arrows at the Ghouls forcing enough of them off him so that he could kick the rest of them away so he could scurry to safety.

Menelag grasping Sareth's hand when he came near.

"Lightning boy…think lightning!"

It was possible for two mages to combine their mana into one spell yet this was the first time Sareth had ever attempted it. He knew the theory behind it yet the reality of it seemed intimidating and daunting under the circumstances.

Elemental lightning gathered between his fingers and Menelag did the same. Then combining their spells into one orb between them, their bodies seemed to tremble at the sheer force they were attempting to wield.

Sareth was finding it hard not to collapse to his knees underneath the weight of all this mana.

Following Menelag's lead, he threw his palms forward as the spell discharged.

This was no mere bolt of lightning however. When it struck its first target, the spell rebounded and then struck another and then another, bouncing from Ghoul to Ghoul until well over a dozen of them were being electrocuted.

They twitched there up in the trees, smoke rising from their convulsing bodies before they fell to the ground in smouldering heaps.

"Chain lightning." Xana explained to him with a kind of smug pride that seemed completely inappropriate for the situation. "Quick, do it again! They're coming at you from behind!"

"Behind!" Sareth echoed and he and Menelag spun as one, combining their mana again with renewed bolts of elemental energy.

Some of the Ghouls that leapt at them were too close but coming to their defence, Leanna weaved her hands about in the air and constructed a barrier between them and the creatures. It was a hastily made shield and it didn't last beyond a single blow yet the buffer had given the two of them enough time to charge and then fire their spell.

Again the Chain lightning shot forward with an echoing boom and the ghouls in its path staggered, swaying spasmodically before they fried.

Just when it seemed like they might be able to weather this attack, a horrible screech cut through to their very souls.

It was a familiar screech that Sareth had heard before.

"The Wight!!" Wyngaal cried out.

The darkness between the trees seemed to surge up, becoming solid and once more they beheld the terrible figure of the soul devouring shade. The Ghouls all screeched and got out of its way, backing off into the relative safety of the trees as the monstrous shadow glided past them towards its intended victims.

It was still hungry. The souls it had already slurped down were not enough to appease it and now it had come for its second course.

"Ah, no choice." Menelag wheezed and Sareth looked at him. The old man was sweating hard and he looked tired… too tired.

"Together Sareth! One last time!" He added, looking at him in turn. "Wight's are immune to the weapons of mortal man but they can be harmed by magic."

"But the amount of power needed for…"

"It's not important."

"But…"

"Don't argue just…" His face softened. "Just protect my niece for me."

So it was, with tears stinging his eyes that Sareth combined his mana again with Menelag's.

The Wight's huge arms reached forward in their hideous intent to share and snatch at that which is so precious.

The lightning bolt discharged directly at the hideous beast, not Chain lightning this time but rather a concentrate burst of elemental power that struck with an echoing boom.

The Wight shuddered, trembling as the blow had been physical. The energy crackled around it and its dark form flew off in places as if it couldn't hold itself together.

Its hideous screech grew incredibly loud and it backed off, swaying back and forth quickly in the air and holding its hands to its head.

"Begone!" Leanna cried out, loosing a spell of her own. It was an average fireball spell but the Wight was not able to withstand it now and it dissipated, fading away with its screech echoing high into the night.

Its darkness was gone but the Ghouls were not and they gathered, undeterred by the destruction of the shade and fully intent to resume their hunt where they left off.

The Elves had readied their bows, arrows held prepared to loose.

There was a dreadful moment of silence.

Then that silence was broken when suddenly, new shapes began to stampede out of the undergrowth.

There were about six riders, all in tight arrowhead formation. Lances with jagged ends lowered as they charged.

The Ghouls were caught by surprise and unable to move quickly enough they were caught up.

Some were trampled, others were impaled. Few of their number survived to flee, shrieking into the night.

"Dark Elves?" Wyngaal asked, looking up in confusion.

The riders were indeed Dark Elves, glad in black riding armour with blue cowls hiding their faces. Their mounts were not horses but rather lizards; tall creatures about the size of a horse but it stood on two legs and were covered in green scales. Their legs were long and a jagged claw stood out on one of the toes on each foot.

When the Ghouls had been routed, the leader of these Dark Elven riders dropped out of her saddle to face them.

She was quite small, strangely petite for an elf with very long white hair that reached to her calves. She wore black clothing that did little to hide her very well developed figure. Around her neck she wore a collar with a row of white spikes.

"I am Ylaya." She said, introducing herself. Her eyes were a deep violet and her face had an archaic tattoo across its right hand side around the eye, cryptic patterns in laid in purple. "Keeper of the Law of Clan ShadowBrand. My Lord, Clan-chief Raelag sent me to escort you to the Labyrinth."

She smiled and then glanced off towards the direction the remaining Ghouls had fled from.

"It appears I arrived at a convenient moment."

Leanna bowed low to her.

"You're assistance is appreciated, my lady." She began polite and then straightened up. "My uncle will be glad to see you." She half turned. "Uncle, we have…" But the words froze in her mouth.

Sareth was kneeling down behind Menelag.

The old man was lying on the ground and he wasn't moving.

"Uncle?" Leanna began again, her voice almost dying into a hushed whisper as horror began to creep into her eyes.

"Leanna… I'm so sorry." Sareth choked through clenched teeth, tears running freely down his cheeks. "He gave everything he had. Everything to help protect us and he didn't have anything left."

Slowly and with the utmost regret and despair, he reached up and pulled Menelag's eyelids shut to give him the deceptive visage of sleep.