Legends from The Warlock's Chair - Book One - Ravengaard

Chapter Twenty-seven - The Battle Begins

THE SLAB OF ROCK SLID BACK NOISELESSLY revealing a circular opening. The thin murky light of early morning filtered into the cave accompanied by the pervasive smell of damp earth and vegetation.

The Dwarf soldiers doused extinguished the torches they carried and pressed forward, eager to catch their first glimpse of the surface world.

'Hold fast,' General Rythorn ordered. 'You will all get your chance.'

He motioned for the Elves and the children to step forward.

'We will venture forth and make sure the area is safe. Captain if you will lead.'

Malin Thrax nodded in resignation and stepped through the opening.

'Princess if you will...' he took Meriol firmly by the arm, a small dagger pressed into the centre of her back. 'I am sorry milady, just a small precaution.'

'I can assure you General, this is no trap,' she snapped, a touch of anger edged her voice.

The group followed Thrax out of the cave. Blinking, unused to the natural daylight, they found themselves high on the side of the Warlocks Chair, standing on a stretch of grass area nestled among some low boulders. A thin drizzle fell out of a leaden sky, blown on a blustery wind that swirled and spun across the bleak hillside. From somewhere below, a column of darkness seemed to rise from the valley, spreading outwards in a blanket of dark churning clouds.

The children pushed passed Thrax, ran to the edge of the incline and peered down into the valley.

'We're too late,' Danielle cried out in distress.

The Manor House no longer stood in the now desolate valley. In its stead, a vast stone edifice pushed through a layer of mist that billowed around its base. Rain swept battlements stretched skywards and strange lights pulsed and flickered from slits cut into the steep walls. It was from the top of the gaunt tower that the column of dark matter curled upwards.

Danielle turned to her brother and sister. 'It's gone, our house as gone.'

'What about Mum and Dad?' sobbed Jessica.

'I don't know,' Danielle replied, tears welling up in her eyes. It was possible they had got out somehow before the magic polluted the valley. But she knew deep down, they hadn't. She had drugged them to keep them asleep; they would have still been in the house when it disappeared.

She looked anxiously to Meriol for an answer.

'There must be some way to fix it?' George said worriedly.

'I am afraid...' the Elven Princess started to say.

'If I may...' interrupted Altard. 'The re-appearance of Ravengaard's Keep has displaced the manor house. For now, your parents should be safe. But we need to work on a way of sending Ravengaard back to The Dark Abode. If we can do it soon, everything should return to normal.'

Danielle looked anxiously at him. 'Can you be sure?' she asked.

Altard nodded slowly. 'As best I can be. Your parents and your home will be in a kind of limbo at the moment,' he pointed to the spinning vortex of darkness above. 'Ravengaard's magic is altering time, rewinding it to a point before Mankind came to these lands. From that point in time, he hopes to rewrite the histories of these lands to suit his own foul purpose. We must work fast to reverse it. The more time that is allowed to pass will make it increasingly difficult to return the world; and anything else that the Warlocks foul magic touches, back to normal.

'Look...'

They followed his gaze down into the valley. The River Coblyn still flowed out across the valley, but gone was the gently flowing stream the children knew. Now, it had become a raging torrent, its waters muddied and swollen with rain. On the far side, the fields and hedgerows they knew had all disappeared. In their place stood countless trees stretching away into the haze and gloom as far as they could see. A massive forest dragged back through time; wiping out all trace of the present as it spread its way across the countryside.