Moonlight Pandemonium

Aaron realizes that he is being rescued, while Lysa and Bruce try to escape with Aaron.

16.

Moonlight Pandemonium

 

He had rested, the first period in many, many days without the cascade of terrible nightmares and dreams.     But when Aaron had regained consciousness, he found himself tied to a stone altar with a strangely familiar Hutcaiah woman dressed in a skimpy blue costume cutting his bonds.   

Days of intense mental anguish had left him completely unsure what was real and what was just another nightmare.     He could not even clearly remember who he was, or what had happened to him, for he had dreamed countless variants of events.    He no longer knew what the truth was, and this terrified him more than anything.

So he did not dare move at first when the blue-eyed Hutcaiah woman cut him free.     When she spoke, her voice roared like thunder.   He did not know the language she spoke, but the scene he awoke to, had to be a resumption of the horrid nightmares.   

He could not struggle against them anymore, not even after a time of rest.    Instead, he’d just passively let them occur, for they would eventually end; only to be followed by another nightmare that might be worse.

Yet something had been different about this one - everything seemed so real, in a way he could not define.   He had struggled to clear his mind, to force himself to try to find the truth and maybe a clue to what was happening to him as well.

He had heard a familiar male voice shouting nearby, and he could tell it was a shout of alarm and discovery.   There was an abrupt roar of sound from somewhere nearby, as if a huge crowd was suddenly in panic or enraged.

 

So Aaron had turned his head to look.

Knowledge hit him like a club - the angry man advancing toward the strange Hutcaiah woman and him was Saret-Buyue-Serdi!   The man who had done this to him.    The man who was responsible for all the pain and madness.    He came forward menacingly, a snarl on his face and his sword held out in front of him.

But he had passed Aaron without a pause, for he was obviously irate at the blue-eyed woman.    She had pushed herself backwards, against the edge of the platform and the Emperor drew back his arm to strike her with his sword.

Fury exploded inside of Aaron.    With unbelievable speed, he swung his hand out and grabbed the wrist of the Hutcaiah ruler.    Fuelled by the strength of one wildly out of his mind, Aaron squeezed the man’s wrist so tightly that the sword fell from his hand.    But the weapon did not fall to the ground, for Aaron’s other hand shot out and grabbed it in mid-air.  

He did not recognize the growl that he heard as coming from his own mouth, for Aaron was fully focused on his prey.   

Saret-Buyue-Serdi frantically clawed for a sheathed dagger in his belt as Aaron forced him to his knees.    The blue-eyed Hutcaiah woman screamed something, but Aaron couldn’t stop himself.    His eyes were blind in rage, as flashes of horrible mental anguish replayed in his mind.    

Roaring like a lion, he savagely brought the Emperor’s sword down against the point where Saret’s jaw and neck met.    Once, twice, three times, the crazed Half-Elf slashed and chopped, flinging blood across the altar.     As he prepared to strike again, the Hutcaiah woman’s hand grabbed his wrist.

Aaron tore free with a howl, slashing at her.     She gracefully ducked under his slash, wide-eyed in terror.    She pointed desperately toward the Emperor, as if trying to get him to see something.

Confused, he spun around, gripping the bloody sword tight.    Then he saw what she wanted him to see.    Saret-Buyue-Serdi’s head rolled back and forth on the platform, free of the rest of his body.

The sword fell from Aaron’s hand as hysterical laughter bubbled up inside of him.   But he only laughed madly for a few seconds before a sharp slap from the Hutcaiah woman restored some degree of sanity to him.

His eyes flashed fiercely at her, but she gave him such a pleading look that he let her take his hand and pull him after her.

Then Aaron saw why:  rushing across the courtyard was a mass of people, rushing to the scene of their ruler’s death.    In the lead were perhaps ten Imperial guards, dressed in their odd, yet very protective armor with swords and pick-axes at the ready.

But there was no way they could outrun so many people, and where could they possibly go?

The blue-eyed Hutcaiah girl seemed to know, for she pulled him after her, toward the stairs of the pyramid.  

Still dazed and half-out of his mind, Aaron dumbly let her lead him as shouts and screams echoed behind them.

“We’ll never make it!”   He yelled over the roar of the crowd.   Two of the Imperial guards had outrun their fellows and were closing in upon them.    They would intercept them before they reached the steps of the pyramid.

Suddenly a figure popped out of mid-air, directly in front of the two guards.    A large Orc materialized with his sword drawn and swinging.    The surprised guards had no time to defend themselves and both fell dead.

The Orc seemed familiar to Aaron, but his rattled brain could not identify him.    The Orc ran after them, yelling as he did, “Go up the steps of the pyramid!”

The Hutcaiah woman paused and now she spoke the common language, “Bruce, come with us!”

“I’ll hold them off!”

“No!   You’ll be killed!”   The girl yelled back.

“There’s no time!   Hurry!”

The Hutcaiah girl paused, then suddenly released Aaron’s hand and ran to the Orc.

“What are you doing?!”

“Take this!   Put it on your finger!”

“What?  What are you talking about?”

“Aaron’s Autocaster!   Hurry!   Put it on - we’ll do as you say, but put it on!”

“But-“

“Bruce, for Yesh’s sake, take it and put it on!”   She was yelling and her voice carried like thunder through the night air.

The crowd was nearly upon them, but the girl stood stubbornly, and finally the Orc snatched up the ring that she held up to him and slipped it over his gloved hand.   The ring magically grew in size just enough to fit over it.

“There!”   He shouted at her, “Now for God’s sake, RUN!”

She turned and did as he commanded, and Aaron began to have flickerings of confusing mental images, as he stared at them.

“Aaron, run!   Follow me, please!”   The girl screamed as she raced to him.   Though he was still struggling with making sense of everything, he sensed that he had to comply with her orders, so he joined her, and they ran as fast as they could to the steps.  

Up they went, taking two steps at a time as the angry mob swarmed around the lone Orc who was trying to delay them.

A loud trumpeting sound began to sound as soon as his feet touched the steps of the pyramid.    He had no idea what it was or where it came from, but it appeared to be some sort of warning siren.

 

Near the top of the pyramid, Aaron dared to pause and look down.

 

To his amazement, he saw the Orc still standing, blocking the steps from all those who swarmed around him, his sword swinging wildly in all directions.

“Come on, we must hurry!”   The Hutcaiah girl called back to him, and then ran down to where he was standing.   She started to say something, but then she saw what he was looking at and did not continue speaking.   He felt her at his side, watching the battle below.

She grabbed his arm when the Orc was suddenly knocked to the ground.   Those around him raised their weapons to kill him, which caused the girl’s grip to tighten on his arm.     But as they brought their weapons down upon him there was a flash of light and he suddenly disappeared.   Those around him jumped back in surprise.

The Hutcaiah girl relaxed her grip on his arm, and said with barely controlled emotion, “Come on, we’ve got to get to the top.”

“But-“ Aaron replied, yet the girl just pulled at him to follow her.

“They’ll be up here in no time, come on!”

“We’ll be trapped up there.”

“No, we have a way, please, trust me, lord.”

“Lord?”  He asked puzzled at the title.

“There’s no time!   Please!   Follow me or we’ll be killed.”

“But, the Orc-“

“He’s alive, thanks to your Autocaster.”

“Autocaster…” The word seemed familiar to him.

“Please, my lord, we’ve got to move now!   Look, they are already coming up the stairs!   Hurry, please!”

As she had told him, some of the mob below had abandoned searching for the disappearing Orc and were ascending toward them.

Aaron felt shame that he was running away from the battle, for the Orc had sacrificed himself to save them.     But until his mind cleared, he had no idea exactly what was going on, so reluctantly he turned and raced after the Hutcaiah girl, up the last few steps to the top of the pyramid.

Almost immediately there was a flash of light and a handsome Elf appeared on the platform.   

“Carn…”  Aaron spoke the Elf’s name, amazed that he even knew it.

“We had to jump down to the courtyard to help!”  He hurriedly told the two of them, “We’re scattered around, keeping most of them at bay, but we’ve got to get you two out of here!   The rendezvous spot is now likely overrun by soldiers; Zeatt will never be able to get you out with all the others swarming around.    Listen to me!    I’m going to use the Placement spell to get you as far away from the temple as I can.   There is a dense wood a few miles to the east of the city, Snoe tells me.     Flee to it and keep moving deeper into it and we’ll find you there.    Do you understand?”

Both of them nodded.

“They’re nearly upon us.    We’ll hold them in the Temple complex for as long as we can.   Hopefully they won’t know what we’ve done.    Stand close together, I’ve got to chant the spell immediately!”

The Hutcaiah girl hurried over next to Aaron as shouts came from behind them at the top of the stairs.   Carn quickly chanted the spell, ignoring the Hutcaiah guards racing toward him as he stared out across the city to the east, where a faint black shadow indicated the location of the forest.

Just as Hutcaiah weapons were being leveled against them, Carn finished his spell, sending Aaron and the blue-eyed Hutcaiah girl several miles away, outside of the city.

Aaron jumped in surprise to find that they were on the very edge of the forest.    The Imperial City loomed like a ghost in the moon-light to the west.     Though the sounds of a riot could be clearly heard from that direction, no-one stirred here.

“Come on, we’ve got to do what he told us to do!”   The girl pleaded with him and he didn’t pause, but followed her into the protection of the dark of the forest.

 

***

 

In Lu-Wadj, the others in Lysa and Aaron’s team were being systematically eliminated.    They had scattered in a circle around the pyramid after seeing the Emperor recognize Lysa’s form as that of his daughter-in-law.   Amala had skillfully used the Placement spell to spread them out and draw the Hutcaiah away from Lysa and Aaron.

Pandemonium raged in the courtyard of the Temple of the Moon.    They tried their best to keep the Hutcaiah at bay, but they were a warlike Elven race and quickly overwhelmed them.     When Carn (who had kept his eyes on the pyramid to monitor Lysa and Aaron’s escape) sent himself to them at the top, only Aedric, Snoe and Amala remained standing.     Amala did not see her husband fall, for she was skillfully battling two opponents with a long sword in each hand.     Yet she sensed him collapse and silently prayed that his Autocaster would bring him safely home.    

Minutes later, a Hutcaiah wizard chanted a spell in their odd language and an arcane silver ring appeared in his upheld right hand.     The ring was the width of a dinner plate and seemed to be some type of weapon.      He spun it around his finger for a few seconds, then, uttering a strange word, flung it at her.   She brought her sword up quickly, but the magic ring abruptly shifted direction at the last moment and cut deep into her neck, severing her main artery.   There was a terrible moment of pain and suddenly she was in the old ducal grand hall in Westmark, sitting on the floor.   

Next to her sat Carn, Mattleos, Mathlyn and, to her relief, Bruce.

“How did you get here?”  She asked the Orc, amazed.   He had a grim look on his face, obviously still worrying about his sister.

“Lysa gave me Aaron’s Autocaster ring.    She insisted, in fact.    Shamefully I took it, as she wouldn’t move until I agreed.    So neither one of them will gain its protection.”

At that moment Snoe suddenly appeared, holding her head until she realized where she was.

“Thank Yesh for those rings, but my God, what we have to go through to use them.    Who’s not died yet?”    She asked, looking around, “I’m glad none of us were captured instead… where is Aedric?”

As if in response to her question, there was a flash of light and Aedric appeared, lying on his back with his sword out in front of him.    He jumped, startled at his sudden removal, but upon seeing everyone around him, he lowered his sword and lay back on the floor for a long moment.

“Well we all ‘died’, I see, but what happened to Aaron and Lysa?”

“I used a Placement spell to put them out of the city.”

“Where?”   Snoe asked her brother-in-law.

“In the woods that you told me about, to the east of the city.   It was all I could think of.    I’m sure they would have been captured at the rendezvous spot.    We need to contact Zeatt back in Tarmard.”

“I’ll find a scrying ball.” Mathlyn volunteered, “Maybe she will be able to locate them in the woods.   It worries me, for that is not just an average forest.   It is the western end of the largest woods that I know of.   It stretches for thousands of miles and its eastern end terminates at the foothills of the mountains around the Vale of Helios.”

“That is all one forest?”   Snoe asked, surprised, “I didn’t read that in the tomes about the Hutcaiah!”

“Yes, and it is mostly uncharted, as far as I know.    Even my people avoided it, because it is said to be enchanted.”

“Enchanted?”   Aedric exclaimed, “Do you mean the entire forest is enchanted?   Is that possible?”

Mathlyn nodded at her grandson, “Yes, to both of your questions.    We have no idea who or what lives there.    Oh, there were some paths that go perhaps a few miles into it, but when the forest gets thicker, the paths ended.   No one knows what lives there, and some sort of magic is upon it.    It blankets it like a shield, preventing any magical scan of it.”

“What about teleporting into it?”   Carn asked, dreading her answer.

“Very unlikely, Carn.    No-one knows the paths there, and it is possible that magic won’t penetrate it at all.”

“The Hutcaiah do not go into it.”   Snoe told them, “They are afraid of it and don’t even send their slaves into it.   The tomes didn’t mention any horror stories or tales of the forest, but they did say that it was avoided.   I had no idea it was that large in size.   The books made it sound like just an average woods.”

“Oh, it isn’t average.    But we can’t assume it is dangerous either.   Perhaps it is, but very likely, it is just unknown.”   Mathlyn tried to reassure all of them.

“Well, at least Lysa and Aaron shouldn’t be followed, if they go deeper into it.” Mattleos commented, “But we’ve got to figure out a way to find them.    We’re in Westmark now, so perhaps we can see if the three Watchers are still here and ask for their advice.”

“Don’t count on it.”   Bruce mumbled, “Lady Deborah told me that they are very closely monitored by Yesh and restricted in what they are allowed to tell us.”

“Still, we can at least try.” Amala answered as she moved close to her husband.

“Yes, and I’d recommend that we pray earnestly for our two lost friends, for they are journeying into the unknown.”   Mattleos said, while mentally asking Yesh’s protection on them.

Reviews

[Elina]

"...grabbed it in of mid-air." I think you meant "...grabbed it in mid-air." ?
"...before they reached the steps of pyramid." Did you possibly mean, "...the [top] of the pyramid?"
"Those around him jumped back in surprise." Perhaps clarify for your readers that you are speaking about Bruce, and not Aaron, here.
"...restricted what they are allowed to tell..." Perhaps add "in" after "restricted." ?

I am really enjoying where this story is going.