The Chosen by Kris Kramer (read the beginning after the end novel TXT) 📕

“Why in the Goddess's name would he poison himself?” Aiden wondered aloud.

"To keep his secrets," Finias said.

Riordan stood, and looked at the darkness around them with a resigned scowl.

"So now what?" Aiden asked.

"Now, you tell us everything," Finias said, staring at Riordan. "Everything."

Riordan nodded, then slowly started pacing around in the small clearing. "I'll start at the beginning, then."

Finias leaned against a nearby birch tree, watching the old man intently.

"I’m part of the Warhounds, a lance company in the Sotheran Army. At least I was. It seems there aren’t many of us left. About three months ago, we were part of a patrol group scouting Teekwood Forest. We'd heard rumors that King Darren was trying to hide an Anduain army in there, preparing for an attack to break the cease-fire. We spent days looking before we finally found them, but unfortunately, they found us, too. We fell back, but they sent out groups to cut us off in the woods, before we could escape and report back. So we took refuge in the Endless Caves. But some of the Anduains followed us down."

Aiden knew of the Caves but he'd never been inside. They'd been discovered many years ago after a violent earthquake, crude, underground tunnels, with entrances in Teekwood, the Red Hills, and even Astrovia. But only recently had any serious exploration been done. Two years ago, an explorer, braving the war, broke through a rubble wall in the Astrovian caves to discover even more tunnels, some of which connected to the Teekwood ones. Some now said all the tunnels were connected, and that they stretched even farther and deeper than anyone had realized.

“We went deep into the caves as those Anduains chased us, staying just far enough ahead of them to think we might have a chance. But, we ran into a dead end, and had no choice but to turn around and fight. And so we did. And against numbers greater than our own, we held our ground. Until..." he paused, then cleared his throat. "You see, the caves are unstable. There are constant tremors down there, and our fighting set one off. A bad one. Parts of the walls collapsed around us. And just as things started to turn bad for us, Tholstan," Riordan glanced over at Aiden as he said the name, and Aiden nodded back, remembering his friend fondly, "found a crack in the wall large enough for us to escape through. So we retreated through the crack, and found ourselves in a tunnel that sloped dangerously down into the depths of the world. Under normal circumstances we'd have thought twice about going down there, but we didn't have a choice this time. Another tremor came, threatening to crash the entire tunnel down around us, so we went down, for a long time we went down, and when we finally came to the end we found ourselves in a place so deep below the earth that even the Goddess doesn't know about it."

Riordan paused for a long moment, looking absently at his feet. The silence stretched uncomfortably, and Aiden noticed the tremor in Riordan's hand.

"And?" Finias asked, breaking the silence.

"We were in a large tunnel, with smooth walls that looked... deliberate. The Endless Caves are just tunnels, rough and dirty. But not this. This looked like the walls of a building, a structure. Perhaps," he paused, "an underground city. The walls are carved, with hard corners, like hallways, or rooms. All of them crafted like they were meant for someone to live within them. But it also felt primal, and dark, like it was connected to the bowels of the world. The air itself was heavy with some terrible magic. It felt like we were walking amongst the souls of the dead down there."

Riordan's hand made a flittering gesture while he talked, which caught Aiden off-guard. The priest had always been unflappable. No matter how desperate the battle or the stakes, Riordan kept everyone else calm and focused. Now, Aiden watched a man he'd known as the rock of the Warhounds seemingly lose his cool.

"There were some rooms along the side of the tunnel," he continued, glancing over at Finias for a moment, "and that's where we found the treasure. There were small mounds of gold and jewels packed into the corners of the rooms, swept over there like trash. There were also dead bodies. Most had been there for years, but there were some who couldn't have been dead more than a few weeks, maybe even days. We found rotted food, cases of ale and wine, little charms and mementos, like something you would carry around to remember your family or someone you loved.

"I remember examining one of the bodies, trying to figure out how long it had been down there, when we were attacked. There were only a few torches lit, so it was dark and confusing, but the first thing I saw was a firbolg. I naturally thought those same Anduains had caught up to us. But then I saw a havtrol next to him. Everyone started yelling that Bergsbor were here now, too, and we were fighting another group as well, but I realized that they weren't fighting each other. They were fighting together, against us. That, in itself, was strange, but then I saw Calderans amongst those ranks. And when I saw that, when I saw our own countrymen fighting with them..." he shook his head and gave a short laugh.

"We managed to move the fight back out into the main tunnel, thinking that our only option was to escape back the way we came, but when we got out into the open, we saw three strange-looking men in the back lines. They weren't fighters, though. They were short, hairless, with pale skin and eyes that seemed unnatural. They wore these heavy, dark red robes, and they stayed back, chanting in some old tongue I've never heard before. It took me a moment to realize their chanting was actually magic, a spell, like the kind a dominator would use, or even a sentinel, but I couldn't see yet what effect it was having."

"And then suddenly one of them let out a scream, and these people, these tenebrous as I've come to call them, they backed away. We thought that was our opening, our chance to escape, so we started falling back." He paused again for a moment, remembering. "Some of us started falling back."

"I remember looking behind us as we ran, and I saw two of our own, Leesin and Henry, just standing there, like they'd forgotten where they were. I stopped to go back, to get them, and that's when I saw that those men had started chanting again, and staring right at those two. And I knew, at that moment I knew they were doing something to them."

Riordan sighed. "Then it started happening to the others. One by one I saw men I'd fought alongside for years just drop to their knees. Or stare at nothing. It was like their souls had been pierced by this magic, and it was..." he trailed off again, and Aiden thought he almost saw a smile on the old priest’s face before he blinked and started talking. "I grabbed one of them, a woman named Haylin, and she just looked at me like she'd never seen me before. I thought she'd been dazed somehow, that maybe the magic was disorienting them, so I grabbed her arm and tried to drag her back with us, but she pulled away from me. And then she turned her sword on me. Whatever magic these people were using, they'd turned our own people on us in moments, making them think we were the enemy.

"I don't remember much detail after that. I was hit by something, and everything went black. I only remember waking up back in that passageway, the long sloping one, with Andreas and Tholstan dragging me along behind them. We'd escaped in the confusion somehow, just the three of us. No one else made it out. We spent a day trying to navigate those tunnels and escape the caves without being seen. And then it took another five days after that to get back to Corendar, where we reported what we found to the King's Chamberlain, and some of his councilors. We spent hours with them, describing everything we saw down there in as much detail as we could remember. And later that night, we were sent to an inn in town." He glanced over at Finias. "And that's where the fadeblades captured me, and I spent the next three months in a dungeon under the city."

"You were imprisoned?" Aiden asked. "What for?"

Riordan frowned. "My guess is they want the treasure, to help pay for this war. The King and his men want to keep this a secret, so they can find it, before everyone else learns what we saw. And in the meantime, people will be hurt, killed, or captured by these things. All because of greed. Someone is down there, and they are dabbling in very dark magic, and creating an army to protect them. The King either knows about this, and he's letting people die because of his greed, or he doesn't know and it's his ignorance letting this happen. You two found that Warshield outside Alvarton. That means these tenebrous are starting to spread out into the world. Their numbers are growing, and it will only get worse."

Aiden suspected he already knew Riordan's plan, but he asked anyway. "You want to go back to the caves?"

"I have to, Aiden. I need to find out what happened to my friends down there. Our friends. I need to save them."

"But what about Tholstan? And Andreas? They could still be down in that dungeon."

Riordan let out a long, heavy sigh. "They weren't in that dungeon. I don't know where they are, but I suspect that Andreas isn't spending his time in shackles right now."

"What do you mean?"

"The King's men need someone to show them how to get back to where we were. Andreas is a shrewd man, Aiden. If he sensed that things were about to go bad, he'd be the first to ensure his own survival."

Aiden’s jaw nearly dropped. Andreas was an arrogant, self-serving bastard, and a glory hound of the worst kind, but even he had some sense of honor, especially to his men. The Warhounds were successful because Andreas had been smart in his recruiting, and even if his personality was ice cold, he was loyal to those he trusted, like Riordan, who'd been with him since the beginning. Aiden may have hated the man, but he could at least admit to himself that there was no way Andreas would betray Riordan. At least not willingly.

"Then we better get moving," Finias said, and both men turned to look at him, surprised. Finias just shrugged back at them. "We either go out there and take our chances, or we stay here and hide for the rest of our lives." Finias looked at Aiden. "I know some of us are good at that. But I'm not. I want to fight."

"You think I don't?" Aiden replied, harshly.

"I know this is sudden, but I came to you, Aiden, because I know you will always do what's right," Riordan said. "I don't know what's happened to you lately, and I'm sorry I wasn't around to help, but I do know you would never do anything to hurt or abandon your friends. Andreas was not fair to you, I know, but I have to believe you still have some compassion left for the others."

Aiden looked down at the ground, shook his head and just laughed.

"After everything that's happened tonight, you think I'm just going to sit around here and wait for more of them to show up?" He gestured toward one of the mercenaries lying lifeless on the ground nearby. "No. Something more important than we realize is happening here. The Goddess brought us together, my friend, and She did it for a reason. And I, for one, can't wait to see what happens next."

"Good." Riordan smiled, a look of relief on his face. "Then let's not waste any time. It’s about five days to the caves. We should leave tonight."

The Honorless

Chapter 18

Gruesome clawed the earth. The cold ground did not give itself easily, but he did not need a big hole. The shaman would do the rest. The necromancer stood nearby, as silent as the abomination that followed him. The havtrol