Run From South Park

Evil Voice

If anyone had been watching they would have made a very strange sight.  All six of them were completely shrouded in dark capes.  One girl surrounded by three of the biggest men most people would have ever seen and pursued by two dwarves.  The cloaks however shielded them from mortal eyes so they could pass unseen. 

 Sadly the cloaks did not offer so much protection from the evil eyes that scoured the land and skies for any signs of them, for that reason their passage was tortuously slow.  Scores of tatty black birds scoured the skies in squadrons, their hatefilled cries jabbered to each other.  Due to the birds the party had to remain under cover as much as possible, clinging to hedgerows and woodland.  To travel in a straight line was a luxury.

 They had all known when the Wizard Stone finally failed that morning.  An oppressive sense of doom enfolded them.  Sara felt it in her heart as a nervous, fluttery feeling of dawning panic, the immortals however suffered far worse.  To them it was a grinding pain in their hearts like a black cancer had invaded the world.  The light that the Wizard Stone gave was needed by all of them in some way.  Grendor lost his ability to travel unseen and Dorowin’s magic vanished with the wind.  The warriors who did not use physical magic fared slightly better than the dwarves but they still felt the loss of the stones power and battled to keep their focus through the pain.

 They had been hidden in a thick area of bushes that ran alongside a country road when the stone failed.  Sara watched helplessly as they all bravely tried to shoulder the obvious pain with as little visible effort as possible.  She entwined he fingers through Blaise’s and Aelthal’s as she tried to give them comfort.  At her touch she could see a little of the anguish leave their faces.  She lifted first Blaise’s hand then Aelthal’s to her lips and kissed the warriors knuckles which again seemed to calm them.  She let go after each kiss and repeated it with the dwarves who also seemed calmed by it.  She finally turned to Daeron and repeated the action.  She watched as the pain ebbed from his face.  He raised his eyes and looked at her, it was a face of pain and anguish that ran much deeper than the others.

 Just as she looked at Daeron, a feeling of sickness washed over them all.  A voice sounded in their minds.  “Feel that dwarves.  The stone is shattered there is no shelter for you now.  You will suffer the same fate as the Hîr Ohtacáro.  You will all lie at my feet begging for death before this day is out.  You princess, will watch every one of your dogs die, you will bathe in their blood.  Look to the east Blaise at nightfall, the Guruthossath are coming.”

 All eyes flew to Sara to watch the impact of the words the Sorcerer had spoken.  The nausea loosened on her stomach and she pulled her thoughts back together.  Giving herself a mental assessment she discovered she was ok.  She was much further into the change than she had let on as she did not want to give them false hope.  Linwe whispered in her mind as clearly now as the Sorcerer had.  Even as a mortal she was strong willed, if she was treated unfairly she would stand up for herself and even more so if the ones she loved were threatened.  This was just bullying on a grand scale.

 “I take it that was Gûldúath? Thinks a lot of himself doesn’t he?” She felt shaky but the laughter of the others helped all of them to pull themselves together again.

 Blaise leant forward and grabbed her hand pulling her to her feet so they could set off again towards the small copse they had been heading for.  “I love you princess.” His words filled her again with the joy the sorcerer's voice had stripped.

 “I love you too.” She kissed him lightly as they set off.

 They ducked low and followed the hedgerow as closely as they could as they approached the copse.  Luckily it had not been trimmed in a while and it curled over their heads giving quite good cover which allowed them to walk slightly more upright.