The Gods' War

Chapter 18

           ARIK AND FIFTEEN of his men had accompanied them to the edge of the kingdom of Dynnlel. Then they had returned, and had said that Adrian, Damien and Lucas were the saviours of the kingdom and that the men would soon be raising their own army and free the other cities and towns in Dynnlel that they had not passed. It had taken them ten days to reach the edge of Dynnlel as the skirmishes with the New Order slowed them greatly.

           As the sun descended lower and lower, the mountains on the horizon – taller by far than any other mountains Lucas had ever seen – grew even higher in the sky.

          “Do you know what we can expect when we cross those mountains?” Lucas gestured toward the horizon.

           “You cannot imagine what is beyond,” Druiden said, “It is beyond the wonder of men. I have been there only once – when Arnone was still being built. My brother had not been here then. But others were.”

           “I think we should set up camp,” Adrian said when they reached the top of a hill, “It’s getting dark. I’ll go fetch some firewood.”

           Lucas and Druiden set up camp. Adrian returned after some time, his arms loaded with wood. Then they started a fire. They roasted a rabbit that Adrian had also caught while collecting fire wood. While they were waiting for the rabbit to cook the only noise was the crackling of the fire.

          Two women suddenly seemed to burst out of the thin air behind Druiden and everyone scrambled backwards. One of the women spoke, “Well? Aren’t you going to greet us?”

           “Sister?” Druiden spoke as they stepped toward the fire and their features became clearer, they had come through the viewing spelled to enable teleportation, “You're late!” he said and then jumped to his feet, “We could have used you here a week ago!”

           Sarah ran toward Lucas and hugged him, Lucas awkwardly hugged her back and then they quickly separated, after they realized they were hugging. Sarah blushed and then to make the hug seem like a greeting did the same to Adrian and the god of magic and knowledge. She had just missed Lucas so much.  

          “The Great Magess proved to be quite... difficult,” Danae said, “But luckily I had Sarah there or I never would have managed.”

           “Danae, Erebus is already on the move. He has been trying to take control of the Kingdoms. Every city, every town we’ve come across has been captured by a force under the name, the ‘New Order,’ their wizards all used Corruptive Magic. It is the army of our brother.”

           “Then we must do something about this,” Danae said, “We cannot let Erebus take control of the world of the living. We must attack their headquarters in the Splitting Forest.”

           “We already have been doing something about it. We’ve been ridding Dynnlel of the New Order, and some men who helped us will be raising an army to fight back. Dynnlel, at least, is safe. I think Arnone and the Witch Kingdom are too - it would cost them too many men. But the Non-Kingdom is in peril.”

           “What can we do?” Sarah asked.

          “First, we have to cross the Unbreachable Mountains – we'll take it from there.”

          “But how do cross over the Unbreachable Mountains?” Adrian asked, “The mountain range is not called that for nothing. It would be foolish to pass over it. There aren’t even any trails.”

           “We will not pass over it, boy. We’ll pass under it.”

          Lucas frowned, “How?”