Spears of Redriver

Part Forty-Three - Among Assassins

"We cannot stay here," the masked man said quietly. He raised a hand and waved to his people behind him. Carthus watched as three men rode forward, pulling extra mounts with them. The Ordethi leader nodded, "we have extra's, and you cannot move quickly enough in your state."

"What is going on here?" Carthus asked bitterly.

"We can speak once we are safe," the assassin replied, and once again motioned to the horses.

"Where is safe?" Tassos asked.

"And what happened to those people?" Enlief pitched in.

"All will be told, once we are out of the valley!" the assassin answered sternly. A few sudden shrieks in the ruins behind the Spears startled the riderless horses, and they shifted wildly, reins still in the tight grasp of the masked men.

"Let's go," the young Maad nodded to his men, and they mounted the free horses with haste.

"We ride...quickly," the leader of the masked men said, glaring at the ruined village a moment before driving his horse to move. The other riders circled where they were and then followed suit. Carthus sighed and urged his horse after the Ordethi. More wild screams followed after them as they rode south into the growing darkness of the valley.

The hoof beats of two dozen horsemen thundered on for a while, sometimes echoing against the cliff wall to their left. The shadows grew faster than Carthus hoped, and night was well upon them before they turned their course west up a steep slope. Each horse struggled to climb the wall-like hill. Several times, horses lost their footing and slid down a dozen feet or more. Eventually, however, all of the men were atop the canyon walls with a few torches lit, looking into the pit of darkness before them.

"Carthus," the Ordethi leader called as he reined his horse to the Maad's side. Carthus glared at him and then returned his gaze to the shadows below. In the distance, fires raged on, growing and dying down almost instantly. The assassin stroked his horse's neck, "do you know what that is?"

"No," Carthus replied.

"That is magic belonging to the Sorcerers of the Blue Army...burning the dead that walk" the man pulled his mask down, revealing his dark-skin and strange tattoo marking his face and down his neck. Carthus knew his eyes went wide, he remembered watching this man die in the catacombs under the city, the same day he found the dark pit and killed the scarred man.

"It can't be" Carthus shook his head. His horse shuffled in place, feeling his uneasiness.

"I died..." the man nodded, "and now I am back because my story is not yet over."

"But how?" the Maad asked.

"I cannot remember all of the details, this kind of thing shrouds your memories from you when it happens...I myself did not believe it until I had to go through it," the man replied.

"What did you swallow in the catacombs?" Carthus asked.

"It is an Ordethi secret...but that," the man waved his hand across the canyon and the fires raging beyond, "that is something that can no longer be kept from the world."

"So tell me what happened here" Carthus shook his head, fixing his eyes back on the bursts of fire on the opposite side of the valley.

"The king made a mistake tampering with powerful ancient magic...for whatever reason, he thought this valley would be a good place to experiment...and his failure to control the wild surges within the relic led to the death of everyone within the canyon...and their rebirth" the man replied.

"And instead of owning up to his mistake, he tried to hide it?" Carthus asked.

"Indeed," the assassin replied.

"What relic? What magic?" the Maad grew furious as the flourishes of fire continued on. Even through the distance, he could hear faint shrieks of pain and rage.

"The relic is something of the Great War...a remnant of the powers that were controlled then by the Brahda...the king found it buried beneath the city, beneath the catacombs, in that stone pit" the tattooed man frowned.

"What is that pit exactly?" Carthus asked. He had so many questions.

"There are depictions and carvings at the base of the pit, of a large Ferdag bound in chains. It seems that the Brahda and their allies were able to capture one of the demon lords, they held him captive with powerful magic in the pit until they found a way to banish him back to Veld," the man nodded, still frowning, "this tale has a dark history."

"And the city was built over this prison?" Carthus didn't know what to believe.

"The city was there long before the demon came and went, Morside is very old...and hopefully it will stand for much longer," the Ordethi sat up proud in his saddle, "come, we must move."

"What of the dead? Will they not follow up?" Carthus asked.

"They move quickly on flat ground, but cannot climb this wall...perhaps the king knew what would happen, and chose the valley appropriately," the assassin turned, pulling the reins with him, "we ride!"

"Where are we going?" Carthus turned after him.

"To Tharsand!" the man shouted back, disappearing to the front of the now readied horsemen.