Shadow Cry Read online

  Contents

  Shadow Cry

  For news, books, and bonus content

  Part One: Requiem's Awakening

  Part Two: Citadel of Fire and Ash

  Part Three: The Crypt

  Part Four: Rite of Rukrunro

  Part Five: Lonesome Death

  Part Six: The Dragon King

  Part Seven: A Mother's Love

  Part Eight: Of Spears and Coffee

  Part Nine: Nexus

  Part Ten: The Last Song of Aieclo

  Part Eleven: Bloodlust

  Part Twelve: Sea-Captain

  Author's Note

  For news, books, and bonus content

  Copyright

  Shadow Cry

  (Clockmaster’s Shroud #3)

  Stormborn Saga Book Nine

  J.T. Williams

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  Official Mailing List

  STORMBORN SAGA

  Stormborn

  Mage Soul

  Elf Bane

  Stormborn Saga Trilogy

  Ranger’s Fury (Ranger Trilogy #1)

  Black Moon (Ranger Trilogy #2)

  Aieclo (Ranger Trilogy #3)

  Epochs (Clockmaster’s Shroud #1)

  Shards of Etha (Clockmaster’s Shroud #2)

  Shadow Cry (Clockmaster’s Shroud #3)

  HALF-ELF CHRONICLES

  Half-Bloods Rising

  Seer of Lost Sands

  Shadow of the Orc Star

  Necromancer’s Curse

  Wrath of the Half-Elves

  The Last Dwemhar

  ROGUES OF MAGIC

  Rogues of Magic Trilogy

  LOST TALES OF THE REALMS

  Ranger’s Folly (Ranger Trilogy Prequel)

  The Dwarven Guardian

  A Stranger’s Quest

  Wizard Trials

  All books listed here are within the same world. For further information, please head to my website!

  www.authorjtwilliams.com

  Part One: Requiem’s Awakening

  It was not the cold stench of the crypts of Aieclo. It was not the gloomy statues of Vankou that guarded the doorway they passed through. It was a coldness within him, a distinct dread Valrin felt as he looked at Elera, Evurn, and Braei.

  The doorway into the Dwemhar crypts of Aieclo was as easy to open as a cloth over a void in a hallway. It was like this place, built by the Clockmaster as a prison for those he wished to keep in isolation forever, wished for them to be here. Desired for the company of the living.

  They looked ahead down the wide halls with purple fire glowing in several torch basins at random along their path. It was like this place was not within an island that was erupting above them.

  Valrin shivered at the cold, and cold air normally did not bother him.

  Why is there wind here?

  He looked to the others, not sure if they noticed it. Braei was passively watching the ceiling above them, and Evurn scanned either sides of the hallway. Elera caught him looking back and smirked before something caused her to jump and look behind them.

  He kept his hand on the hilt of his Dwemhar blade. There was a harmonious ring to this place. A feeling on the edge of his skin, like they had entered another realm, and at this point in their journey, nothing of that nature would surprise him.

  Coming to the end of the path and a single gateway of twisted black metal, Valrin placed his hand on one of the two handles before them. As he did, the entire door glowed with white light, runes appeared above the doorway, and he swore he heard a laugh, distant and deep.

  “Am I the only one who heard that?” Valrin asked them.

  Evurn stared at him. “Places of death can drive one mad if one is sensitive to the energies of departed souls.”

  “Are we sure they are all departed?” Braei asked. “Eliue mentioned sealing those within here; he never claimed them dead. He simply said they were in a crypt.”

  Valrin’s grip tightened on his sword, and he pulled open the door.

  As they stepped through and into a chamber with a narrow walkway, they emerged into a new area. This chamber was expansive, reaching many times taller than the hallway before, with massive columns that extended high above them and low, down into the depths of darkness where it looked like one could drop a torch and never see it go out. A series of ramps twisted around hanging torch basins with the same purple fire as was in the room before. Beneath them, palely lit in the twisting fogs rushing from somewhere else in the caverns in which they found themselves, there were more structures and a central circular temple with white stone that came to a point and a large crystal spinning slowly at its top.

  As they began downward, Valrin swore he spotted something moving, but after blinking a few times, he saw nothing.

  Evurn ignited his staff, moving beside Valrin. “You did not imagine that. I saw your delay. Something is within the fog.”

  There was a cackle, several of them. Then came a squeal and the sound of rapid tapping on the stone.

  They were nearly down to the area with the temple.

  Valrin drew his sword, and he heard Elera do the same.

  Suddenly, several darts flew into them. One hit Valrin in the hand. Evurn cast a ward, bringing up a shield of shimmering blue as several arrows struck, bouncing off the elf’s magic.

  Braei and Elera dropped to the ground. They, too, had been struck with the darts. As Valrin pulled it from his skin, Elera took it and smelled it.

  “Good,” she said, “just like my own.” She had already pulled several out. “They’re not poisonous.”

  Evurn brought down his ward, casting fire into the fog. Braei moved to their left, advancing to a large flat stone and sending several bolts of lightning at random into the fog. Elera and Valrin followed her.

  Valrin suddenly saw several small creatures moving to their left. They were ugly, imp-like. They had crooked noses and long ears, ears not too unlike Evurn’s, but with gray hair that twirled down and had golden adornments.

  The creatures did not notice they were against the rock, seemingly moving to flank Evurn.

  Valrin lurched, stabbing into the creature’s head, spilling green blood upon the ground. Three others were with this one, and instead of immediately attacking, they screamed, throwing up their hands and scurrying away. Easily spooked away.

  “Imps!” Evurn shouted. "More annoying than anything.”

  Evurn pushed into the fogs, moving out of Valrin's sight.

  Valrin noticed several more imps now moving through the same path the others had taken. They had small jagged spears, and he saw that this group had two with blowpipes. These imps wore necklaces with their darts on them and had headdresses of bone.

  Valrin directed them around the other side to follow Evurn, when in the fogs, they saw a spell of fire. A few moments later, the area around the temple was clear and a large red fire glowed in a previously unlit torch basin.

  There was more of the cackling, but the only imp Valrin saw scurried into the darkness around them.

  “I do not know when such a vile creature infested this place, but they are not a threat in smaller numbers,” Evurn told them. “If only we could be so lucky to only face imps from now on.”

  Braei had found a small altar off to the side just under the circular columned structure they had seen from above.

  “One does not come the way of death without cost. As Vankou has prescribed, this place remains a place of contradiction, for to have life, others have died. To have love, others have fallen to hate. For any to exist and still breathe here, they are kept alive only, with their hope and love, to one age leave, but those who were sealed are never to escape.”

  Evurn walked up behind her. “It’s written in almost every language in the living realm.”

  “Aieclo was meant to be a place of refuge,” Valrin said. “Refuge for those Eliue chose.”

  “Stormborn, looking at all we have been given, I do think that the good Eliue intended for just that, but like a sickness within him, the evil parts of his soul worked almost as hard as he did to create something of its own design. While I do not believe Eliue started out to create a weapon, I believe his logical side was convinced that the Dwemhar needed something. Taking, for example, what powered this Dwemhar structure and funneling it into a weapon worthy of bringing the greatest ally to his people’s war."

  “Much like the Akann were meant to be weapons of war, the realm ships of the sea peoples are something much different.”

  “I’d still say it’s a weapon," Elera said. “And the sea peoples of legend were real?”

  “They were Dwemhar who resisted ascension. I wonder if Eliue had more of an effect on them than we know. He hasn't explicitly said it.”

  “He has not, and still, what he said would not detract from the chance he worked in the shadows, inferring information to them. That, Stormborn, is not an origin I feel we may truly learn. Though, some form of him assisted them in installing the crystal magic into the normal ships, seeing that a flood was to come and inundate the lands. Yet, at Rikernala, it was not until we had arrived that we fully grasped what he needed to finish his work.”

  “Then how did he ever finish it?” Braei asked.

  “Knowledge is revealed as it is needed to a civilization. An awakening, as some would call it. Though, if it is true that there was something implanted in Eliue's bloodline, a darkness meant to convert his actions of good to
evil, it could have been divine inspiration that propelled the Dwemhar forward, a raw push to increase their power in the living realm, but divine not of the gods of the North, but of the Itsu, perhaps, well before the Itsu fully broke from the other gods.”

  Evurn used his staff to shine light in a focused beam toward the upper parts of the cave.

  There were dark structures and facades of stone that they couldn’t see before. Imps scurried into more of the dark places, hiding from his magic.

  “We are standing within the workings that were meant to plunge our world into a greater darkness, an original working of evil. Though all races and peoples have a chance to be great, to be good beyond what the gentlest of souls gives on a daily basis, evil is intrinsic. Selfishness, greed, lust—such things are present at the primal level of the mind. Malice, on the other hand, is a construct beyond that. We shadow elves are brutal by the standards of the world, but none of us rule with malice. I do believe the Scourge Siren and Marog are a creation of great malice. Perhaps even the creator of all things, the Great Poet, has a darkness that has not been revealed.” He paused. “We waste time.”

  Evurn motioned for them to continue, heading into the structure where the imps had tried to flank them. Here, there was a passage that went into the rock. As they proceeded into the darkness, the path ahead began to glow before more purple torches burst to life.

  Here, they passed statues of many grotesque creatures, like the imps, but taller. They had long tongues and fat bodies.

  “Demon guardians,” Evurn said, “meant to seal this place, but such a working seems strange in a Dwemhar construct.”

  They came to the end of a hall, and a single turn to their left brought them into a grand gallery of tall silver doors. Above them, glowing in a dazzling brilliance, was a massive crystal. Like a chandelier in a king’s hall.

  “A cave before this, and now we stand in a place that makes the halls of my home look like a mud structure.”

  “Your home is a mud structure,” Evurn said, "built into the rocks above the seas.”

  “It is not that bad, shadow elf. I do hope Ordak minds himself.”

  "I can agree with that,” Evurn said.

  As they proceeded into the chamber, Valrin noticed that two of the doors were cracked open. While the floors were sheer and bare, there was an area that had strange dust spread out in a random pile.

  Evurn pointed over to it, and Braei and Valrin investigated as he and Elera continued through the center of the chamber.

  “There is armor. A symbol of a sun,” Valrin said, "and a lake.”

  “Rusis armor,” Evurn said.

  Braei reached down, picking it up. The dust fell from the nearly perfect conditioned armor.

  “That Rusis met an untimely fate. Perhaps a leftover from before the way was sealed?” Evurn stated. “May as well take it, Braei.”

  She already had enchanted gauntlets. This was chest armor. As she held it with both her hands, the gauntlets she wore began to glow slightly, as did the ancient armor. She put it over her head, and she felt much lighter.

  “If only I’d had this before now,” she exclaimed. She then knelt, grasping some of the dust. “Brother or sister Rusis, I take this in your honor. May my fate be different from yours, and may the glory of our people channel through me in the darkness to come.”

  Valrin placed his hand on her back, and she stood.

  “I could have never guessed,” she said, “back when I was a crew with Captain Edanos, that I would drift so close to my own people, visit these places, and even meet other Rusis. I believed I was one of the last and we were but a broken people never to unite again in a meaningful way. But now, thanks to you, I have seen so much beyond my own understanding.”

  She embraced him with a kiss. “Now I truly wonder what our future holds.” She gripped his hand, as he was still in a bit of a slightly dizzy daze.

  Elera looked on from afar and smiled before catching up with Evurn, who was nearly through to the other side of the room.

  “Are you three coming?” he shouted back.

  They each jogged to join him, and he shook his head. “You’d think you younger ones would be running circles around me, but you’re truly slower than an elder elf with a limp. I figured out that this room is one of the holding places of Eliue. Perhaps when the Rusis came through, it was some point before he sealed this place and they went meddling. Clearly it didn’t work out for one of them.”

  “Do you think they killed whatever was here? Whatever they released?” Valrin asked.

  “Well, if they killed it, it only matters if we come upon it. Let us hope that either they did or we never find out otherwise.”

  They had come to the other side. Moving now into a narrower passage, they came to a large stairwell that led down into a deeper portion where the torches were no longer purple. Here, the halls and chambers they passed through were a much more cruelly lit place. The passages were red, and though Valrin could see some glowing stones, the ambience did not make sense.

  Evurn attempted to shine his own light on the passageway, but his magic seemed to be reduced. He stopped and began sniffing the air.

  “This place is cursed in a way I have not seen in some time.”

  “Cursed? I expect that considering where we are,” Valrin said.

  “It is more than that, Valrin. I have only seen this in another place, and that was when I was much younger. The Shadowlands once had a lake. It was an abysmal void, in a time in my people's history when we did not rule ourselves. There was a deity there, or so it was believed. The deity is with whom our sacrificial ways began. In some ways, we pay homage to that time with our own practices now, but it was no god.”

  “You think this place has one of those voids?” Braei asked.

  “I would wonder how, considering Aieclo is old but not as old as the land itself. The Void is an actual realm, a place set apart from other realms beyond simply being a realm. It is a place where everything and nothing exists in harmony."

  “That makes little sense,” Elera said.

  “It doesn't have to in order to be true. If the Void were opened within this place, we’d have more than a necromancer to worry about. It makes me wonder if the Rusis who came this way ever reached their destination.”

  Evurn began to walk again. “Stay close to me. Do not allow your mind to wander. If you see something, speak up but do not attack unless we are attacked.”

  Valrin motioned for Braei to follow Elera and Evurn, and he took the spot in the back. As they passed into the redness in the air, he could feel an increased warmth upon his skin. His mind began to formulate that it was but the lava flows of Aieclo and that he shouldn't worry of where they were. He pushed the thought away, trying to follow Evurn's advice, but even so, it felt like there was a constant ringing in his ear now.

  They came to a black door, and Valrin's foot kicked something. He jumped, drawing his blade. They were standing in dust of some kind. Valrin glanced around and noticed more pieces of Rusis armor. They had happened upon more of the dead.

  “Grace to the departed,” Braei said.

  “Save some for us,” Elera said, "or we're likely to join them.”

  Proceeding forward, they came to an open-air walkway where looking up, they noticed glowing pink crystals high above them. The air above had a deeper hue of red, like a smoke flowing overtop them.

  Evurn hastened his pace, leading them into another passageway. Here, they came to a stone door that had been broken open.

  “Our Rusis continued through here,” Evurn said.

  He pushed through a narrow opening, and they came upon an ascending stairwell.

  There were more dead Rusis here.

  Valrin pushed Braei along, as she had begun to slow in following Elera. They came to another hall. This one was much longer. The walls were bare. The glowing stone from before was now replaced with streaks of red lightning crawling around random stones as if they were insects.

  They continued down the hallway, moving with haste, as Valrin picked up on a breeze in the air coming from behind them and seemingly drawing them forward. Evurn sensed this, halting them all as he stared at the passageway ahead.

  “We must keep our own pace. The energies of the void are strong within this place. They seek to draw us into the sands of that realm like quicksand. That which you feel upon your backs is not wind, but like an enslaving curse, it draws upon us. Luckily, I grabbed what will give us an advantage. Marog may have created a cursed place in the model of a shadow elf temple upon that island before, but Eliue, in his time there, copied every type of potion that one would find in my homeland. It is almost as if he knew a shadow elf would be within that place,” he said with a wink to Valrin.