Chapter 30

Valkron reflected, as he pulled himself out of Emeth's grasp, that he should be grateful he was much stronger than most of the others because of his profession and what it could lead to. Especially being able to pull himself out of people's grasp when they wanted to stop him.

There was a mighty hubbub as they tried to dissuade him from going. Iruna was hanging on to his cloak, which made it particularly difficult for him.

'You are NOT going in there,' said Emeth, as Valkron tried to pry her fingers off. 'I absolutely forbid you from entering that place.'

'You're mad, I admit that,' said Samaroh, 'but do you think we're just going to let you walk into the jaws of death all by yourself? No thank you, I'd like us all to live and not die by rash decisions.'

'That wasn't a rash decision, okay? Iruna, get your fingers off--'

'Valkron, think of what you're doing,' said Khan solemnly. 'Don't you think that's going a bit far already? We've been putting up with your antics but this is the last straw. You can't just--'

'I know what I'm doing, it's not like I don't know,' retorted the knight distractedly as he tried to get Iruna to loosen her grip on his cloak. 'I don't do things without a good reason, as you know. And this isn't an antic I'm carrying out here, this is necessary to our mission.'

'How necessary is it, then?' said Eni.

'It's extremely necessary, so stop bugging me-- by Gungnir, will you stop dragging me back, Iruna? You're not making matters any better, I've already made up my mind, now, once and for all, let go of me!'

Iruna let go. Valkron stumbled but regained his balance fairly quickly. He coughed and smoothed out his cloak. 'And I thought you'd let me do this peacefully.'

'Oh, like I'd let you commit suicide so freely!' said Iruna.

'Wh-- Commit suicide? I never said I was going to do that!'

'Your actions speak louder than your words, Valkron! Own up!' said the crusader heatedly. 'Stop lying to us and at least just say that you just want to get rid of us!'

Valkron blinked in the silence. 'No, I don't want to.'

Iruna threw her hands into the air.

'No, I really meant that. You...you've been the best party I've been with. We just needed to fight together and we've been doing that recently. Now, just let me do this.'

'How necessary can this get?' said Iruna.

'It's necessary if you want me to have a bit more of an advantage over Argath Iruvedla!'

No one said anything to this. Valkron glared at them before continuing, 'Baphomet has what I want, and so I'm challenging him for it.'

'Valkron, this is not the time to try and gain some fame for yourself,' said Khan. 'There won't be anyone to remember you if you do this now--'

'Don't you get it?' cried the knight desperately. 'I'm not doing it for fame! All I want is his crescent scythe!'

The silence was a lot deeper. Valkron knew, by the looks of some of them, that he was being considered under the 'insane' category. He sighed.

'I know you don't want me to put myself into danger,' he said patiently, 'but you've been doing that to yourselves. By agreeing to work together you're putting your lives on the line for the world. This errand is exactly like that, except that I'm doing this alone. Understand? I'm doing this so that we can prevent our world from being destroyed completely.'

He met their steady gaze with an equally steady look.

'And that's what I've decided to do,' he said firmly. 'You're not going to stop me.'

Emeth was the first one to speak. 'Well, I don't think any more persuading will work,' he said. 'Just...just come out of it alive, will you?'

Samaroh shook his head. 'I don't know. Fighting Baphomet on your own...I can't believe you'd go to those lengths to save us all.'

'It's your decision,' said Khan, shrugging. 'There's nothing we can do about it now.'

'That took a long time to realise,' said Valkron.

'It just doesn't seem right to go alone into the cave without us,' said Nocturne. 'I mean, what if you die? No one's going to heal you or back you up.'

'I swear by Thor's hammer that I am not going to allow myself to die whatever the circumstances,' said the knight.

'But still...ahh, count me out of this. I give up.'

'You know it's really dangerous to fight him alone,' said Eni.

'Yeah, I know. Might as well get this over with then.'

Everyone looked at Iruna. She coloured.

'You had better come back, Valkron,' she said, waving a finger at him. 'I will sue you in Valhalla if you don't.'

'Very funny, Iruna.' Valkron turned to face the cave. 'But I promise. I will come back. We will take back this world and restore it. We will.'

He stepped forth. They watched as he entered the cave, and did not take their eyes off him until he had completely disappeared into the gloom of the cave. Then there they were, just staring at the cave.

'Pretty confident there, I must say,' said Emeth.

Iruna stared at the cave, where Valkron had gone through. She felt worried and afraid - afraid that she would never see the knight again. She wanted him to come back in one piece and alive, so that she could hear his voice again and know that he would make everything turn out to be all right--

'Iruna?'

She snapped back to her senses. Samaroh was looking concernedly at her. The others seemed to be waiting.

'What?' she said.

'What do we do now?'

Iruna looked around at them and her usual self snapped back into place. 'Emeth, set up a fire here. We'll wait for Valkron outside the cave. Samaroh, get your pack ready just in case. Everyone stay alert, we might be attacked by Argath's wretched minions again.'

'But we want sleep,' said Eni.

Iruna sighed. 'Okay, what about a watch on a two-hour rota basis? Each one of us watch over the place for two hours. We all take turns. Is that fine with you?'

The party voiced their agreement. Iruna set about to assigning the others their time and was so busy she did not think twice about Valkron until she had finished arranging everything. She was taking the first watch.

As the others settled down, ready to sleep, the crusader sat down near the entrance of the cave and wished fervently for Valkron to return.

Argath strode down the empty hallways. After the defeat at the clearing he was not too happy with anything...but he had just received some good news. Something, he hoped, that would give him a chance to snatch away the world from the humans.

He came into the large hallway and looked up. 'Honourable one, I have some good news.'

There was the thin reedy voice again. Argath smiled. 'You don't need to worry. Everything is going as planned. I know you, high one, are desperate to see this world torn apart again like it has been before, but I promise you - when the spell I have set above the world reaches its saturation point and rips this world apart it will be yours once again, and I shall revel in the blood that is spilt at your pleasure.'

There was silence. Argath cleared his throat and continued, 'The candidate you have selected so carefully, alas, is of no use to us any longer. He has no value, no worth, nothing to warrant him the reward of your power and the Old Empire. He is a lost case, undoubtfully, at this point.

'However, we have found a new servant. He will be willing to harbour your soul within him, for unlike the others that are available he has no wish to trust people and absolutely no desire to be one of them.'

The thin voice spoke again. Argath listened intently to it and then laughed. 'Of course he will be worthy of you, my lord! He has the same qualities as you. You will not hesitate to be part of him, and he will not hesitate to be one with you. I assure you this, honourable one...I promise that when the moon is full in six days' time you will have him and the world in your power again.'

Sagna waited with the pecos outside the Prontera Library, tapping his foot from time to time. Edell had told him to wait there while he went and looked for something.

He stared dreamily at the spell in the air. Although sinister and repulsive he couldn't help thinking it was quite interesting. The sages of Juno would have loved to know what kind of magic could produce a spell that could control the world...but then again the kingdom would be heavily against such research. And besides it gave him the shivers to think that an individual could have so much power over the world with that single spell.

Sagna shook himself. This wasn't the time to think of things like that. He looked up at it again, and this time he frowned. He was sure he had just noticed something--

'Hm, odd,' said Edell, emerging from the doorway of the library. 'I was sure it was here some time ago - hey, Sagna, let's get moving.'

'Huh? Oh, yeah, sure.' Sagna mounted his peco and waited for Edell to do the same. When they were ready they rode off towards the open western gates.

'What were you looking for in there?' Sagna asked Edell.

'There was a banned book in there the last time I looked. It had been there for quite a long time, hidden between the pages of another tome. The problem is that now it's gone.' Edell looked worried. 'I think that book told the answer to solving this sort of problem.'

'What was it about?'

'A historical account of the Old Empire and the Blood Ages, really. I don't know why the Monastery banned it, that was what it was all about.' The crusader sighed. 'But I did manage to get a piece of information.'

Sagna was feeling bothered about what he had noticed earlier, but he was eager to know what Edell had been looking for. 'What's it about?'

'The spell above us.' Edell unclenched his fist. In it lay a crumpled piece of parchment. 'Someone tried to throw this away for some reason.'

'And what does it say?'

'It says that the spell above us is actually a spell designed to absorb energy from the world and give it to...something else. I'm not too sure what that something would be but it ranges from a dead person to an art of magic.' Edell scratched his head. 'Which brings me to this point - is this the spell maintaining the "portal" Valkron mentioned about while Argath goes around his business?'

'Is it?'

'I don't know, but I think that's the most likely explanation why nothing changes even when Argath is injured. It doesn't depend on him anymore.'

'I wonder what the spell does other than maintaining a portal,' Sagna wondered aloud. 'I mean, it doesn't need that much energy, does it? Portals are just...doorways.'

'Doorways in the space of time, Sagna,' said the crusader, as the jingling of peco armour filled the cold air. 'Those aren't easy to support.'

'Give me a break, Edell, I wasn't brought up to go with magic,' said the knight. 'Unless the portal was bringing something really powerful or old with it, so it needs to be maintained...'

'Hmm, that's a good idea there,' said the crusader thoughtfully. 'It's possible...the thought of having a portal containing something within it...it might have to be something really precious, or old, or powerful, or even...'

'Evil?' suggested Sagna.

There was a silence. Then Edell punched his palm.

'That's it!" he exclaimed, ignoring Sagna's stare. 'Argath was renowned for his loyalty to Ilham Vedlavin, so now he must be trying to revive his master! But Vedlavin's been dead for so long his body is gone by now, so they must be looking for a body for him to possess! And while they search for one they have to sustain him, so the portal carries him within it! It all fits!'

'And I thought for a second you were going mad there,' said Sagna.

'Well, only a person who wasn't in the right frame of mind would think it,' admitted the crusader, 'but then again you can't blame me for it.'

'I wouldn't think we were in the right frame of mind anyway,' said Sagna. 'By the way, Edell - haven't you noticed something about the spell?'

'What?'

'It's been moving.'

'Yes, it does rotate,' observed Edell. 'I guess this is a much more advanced stage for the spell now--'

'No, I don't mean the rotation - okay, well, yes, it rotates, but it's moved. The last time it was above Payon, remember? Now it's over there, just after Geffen and moving up north.'

There was a silence for some time. Then Edell said, 'Blimey, you're right.'

'So what do you think of it?'

'I think...the spell is starting to reach its saturation point. It has to move closer to the thing it's granting energy to - in this case the emperor - so that it can give energy faster and not let it build up inside the spell. If it does the spell will eventually explode and lose the energy it collected.'

'Whoever designed this entire plan has a sick mind,' remarked Sagna disgustedly.

'Clever, even if it was sick,' said Edell, giving the knight a look. 'Well, we should be moving on. The spell is heading northwest. Everything's falling into place now. I just wish I knew what Argath would be up to with finding a new body for his master.'

'We'll know, eventually,' said Sagna, rolling his eyes. 'Unless you suggest Valkron.'

There was a pause as they thought. Then Edell said, 'You just said Argath lost interest in the Raulus. What the heck are you trying to tell me?'

'What do you think I'm trying to tell you?' said the knight irritably. 'I've already had enough with your talk on magic because I don't understand half of what you're saying and also I'm getting sick of talking about Argath Iruvedla. That man needs to go to Niflheim well and proper.'

'That won't be happening unless we can find Valkron and provide him with some backup with the Payon batch,' said Edell calmly.

'They can't get here that fast, Edell,' retorted Sagna. 'But we can send the message about the spell, how's that?'

'You write it then, my hands are freezing. Blasted Blood Judge and his plans.'

Time had never passed slower for the Raulus party. It was now well over fifteen hours.

To counter the boredom that had invited itself the members of the party had invented ways of passing time as they kept watch. Samaroh, for instance, had already watched. Pacing up and down had been one of his activities, as well as reading up on his spells. Khan had made poisons several times already, each one efficiently deadly. Amaru had spent time cleaning out his cart, which had been accumulating snow on a daily basis. Eni ended up memorising her various potion manuals.

Now it was Nocturne's turn. He was after Iruna, who had gone to sleep near the cave. As the witchfire burned he sat next to it for warmth and light as he picked thin but tough twigs lined out neatly in front of him.

He examined a twig and then picked up his dagger. Very carefully he peeled away the bark to reveal the sinewy layer underneath. After bending the arrow and watching it snap back to its original position he whittled it until it was thin enough to fit the metal arrowhead he had picked from his tools. He squeezed it on tightly and made swift cuts to the end so that he could fit the feathery shaft in.

Nocturne held up the finished arrow and scrutinised it before placing it with a small pile of already finished arrows. Then he picked up another twig.

He tilted his head to one side. He was sure he had heard something. But maybe it had been his imagination.

Nocturne turned his eyes back down to his work. Then his head snapped up again. There had been a sound. It had been clear enough.

The hunter put down his twig carefully. Then he got up and moved a little way away from the fire and knelt down. It was amazing that even with his large boots he could move so silently.

He placed an ear to the ground and listened carefully.

Clompk. Clompk.

Nocturne lifted his head a little and looked towards the cave. It seemed to be coming from there. He put his ear onto the ground again.

Clompk. Clompk.

It was heading straight towards the entrance. He could hear it coming closer. Whatever it was it sounded very heavy and very slow. There was only one thing that could possibly sound like that.

Baphomet.

Nocturne sprang to his feet noiselessly and cursed under his breath. Valkron must have either been killed or too exhausted to fight any longer. And Baphomet must have known that Valkron had been with other people. The great monster was known for his rage at being fought with and being waited for outside his lair. They were in danger now.

He ran quietly over to Iruna and shook her, whispering her name repeatedly.

'Fgfl...what?' She looked up sleepily.

'Something's coming out of the cave,' whispered Nocturne urgently. 'It's slow, but I have a feeling that it's Baphomet.'

In an instant Iruna was awake and on her feet. She drew her sword and picked up her shield. 'Get up to a higher point and snipe him when he comes out,' she whispered to him. 'Go! I'm strong enough to deal with him and anything else that comes my way, especially those lesser servants who accompany him.'

Nocturne nodded and ran over to the side of the cave. He leapt up onto the rocks and jumped lightly from rock to rock like a mountain goat until he had a clear, unblocked view of the cave entrance. He drew an arrow and fitted it into his bow.

Once Nocturne was ready Iruna advanced on the cave entrance. She stopped far from it, however. She wasn't too sure if she could defeat Baphomet on her own, but if she couldn't she could still make enough noise to arouse the other members of the party.

Deep in her heart she wept for Valkron. He had lost the battle. Sometimes, she thought, the world was not fair to those who were willing to readily live - and die - for it. Now they would be leaderless, but she would fight to the death to reclaim the world and restore it to its former glory. And then Valkron would be remembered then, forever the knight who gave his life for the world.

She would never forget him.

The clompk sound was getting louder and closer. Iruna raised her sword slightly. Nocturne aimed and pulled back his bowstring, focusing on where the creature would emerge. His fingers would be ready to release the arrow at the right time. Nothing could go wrong. Nothing must go wrong.

They waited...and waited...

Clompk. Clompk.

Iruna pulled up her blindfold. She must be focused on this. She would concentrate all her rage and all her sadness at Valkron's death into this battle. This was her responsibility, and she would do it.

Clompk. Clompk.

Iruna raised her sword. Nocturne tensed. Behind the crusader Emeth aimed his staff, having woken up to the sound of the footsteps.

Iruna tightened her grasp on her sword and crouched low. She looked into the cave to face of her most dreaded enemy.

And froze.

Nocturne was surprised when the crusader, still keeping her face towards the cave, signalled for him to come down. He hesitated at first and then gave up and leapt down.

'What is it?' he hissed at her, as he ran over to her.

She straightened up. When he was within arm's reach she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up to her face. 'Get Samaroh. Now.'

'What?'

'Get him awake now. I want him ready with his pack. And move back.'

Nocturne obeyed bewilderedly. Iruna glanced back and saw Emeth's expression. He was staring, too.

Although she had asked Nocturne to move back, she moved forward, pulling her blindfold down. She was afraid and yet hoping against hope. It couldn't be...Baphomet would never do such a thing...did he?

She stopped as a figure emerged from the cave. Her heart caught in her throat and she reached out to grab the limp hand.

But it never happened. The figure passed her, still walking heavily, breathing laboriously as if every step needed a great effort. She turned and watched as the figure came into the dim light of the witchfire - and shrieked, waking up the others.

There were exclamations all around the fire. Khan jerked back in shock and nearly tripped over Amaru's shoes. The blacksmith caught him and went on staring. Eni covered her hands with her mouth as her wide eyes followed the figure's every movements, and what it held in its arms.

Samaroh actually yelped at the sight of the figure and dropped his pack with a clunk. He hastily picked it up again and tried to edge around the fire without getting too close to the figure.

'Khan, stop gaping and get some water in a basin or...or something,' he spluttered. 'Amaru, I need more clean linen. Uh...Eni, get your potions out, we might need them. Nocturne, look for the herbs I told you about a few days ago, there should be plenty here. Iruna...um...never mind.'

The others fled. Emeth got to his feet. Samaroh nervously approached the figure. But it was Iruna who reached it first.

'Valkron...?' she whispered.

In the silence the knight lifted his head slowly. His eyes were glazed and his eyelids heavy. Blood ran down the side of his face and dripped from his chin. His gloved hands had numerous cuts, all bleeding in little trickles, as well as a couple of cuts on his lower lip, the lacerations on his face and the dried blood in his upper lip.

Iruna came closer. 'Valkron?'

The knight did not look at her, but straightened up a little and let go of what he was holding. Seconds later Emeth had jumped out of the way and a massive scythe crashed down on the ground where he had been standing. It was black, even the blade, and had blood encrusted on it.

The crusader didn't know why, but she reached out for him. Her fingers never reached his skin. His glazed irises moved to look at her sideways and she stopped in fear he might do something to her. His breathing was still heavy and irregular.

Very, very slowly, the knight's eyes closed and he fell forward.