Her legs felt like jelly as she ambled away, trying to walk naturally; feeling his eyes on her back as she went. Her heart was still hammering as she left the forest, the taste of his kiss lingering upon her lips.
Bray’s grin never faulted as he watched her disappear, leaving the memory of her behind. She hadn’t seemed real, the way she simply appeared. Yet the blistered handprint on his chest was proof it had. He placed his own hand over it, marked as hers, he let out a laugh - could it be that simple?
Sudden silence as animals quieted for an approaching predator, snapped Bray out his reverie and heightened his senses. He moved his head a split second before feeling a harsh blow glance off the back of his neck.
White stars exploded in the corners of his vision as he fell, tucking his body in low at the last point, using his momentum to propel him into a forward roll - hands wrenching the axe free as he went.
A black shape launched from the stump, a sword held over head, descending towards his face. Bray rolled onto his back, holding the axe in both hands and brought it up to meet his attacker’s blade. Steel bit deep into the wooden shaft as the swordsman put his full weight on it, a bristled face snarling as it leaned in close, one blue eye penetrating into his, the other a blind pearl that stared into his soul.
“I don’t want the same greeting you gave the girl,” said Diagus, applying more pressure.
Before the shaft snapped Bray brought his foot between them and thrust his leg up, throwing the Shadojak over him. The pressing weight suddenly released he flipped onto his feet, bringing his sword out of the smuggler’s pouch and adopted a defensive stance.
Steel met steel, Bray’s arms jarring as he parried blow after blow, the sharp ringing of swords echoing off the trees. Diagus came in high then low, feigning a leg swipe then driving an elbow into Bray’s gut and doubling him over. Another explosion of pain and white stars as the hilt slammed down onto the back of his head.
“You’re, sluggish boy,” spat the Shadojak, as he kicked Bray in the belly. “Your mind’s full of the girl, it’s blinding you to your surroundings.”
Bray caught the foot as it came in for a second kick and twisted. The Shadojak spun his body in the same direction so as not to sprain his ankle, then dropped his knee into Bray’s exposed ribs.
“Sloppy – pathetic.”
Scissor kicking his legs, Bray managed to turn his body away from a third kick and swiped Diagus’s legs from under him. With his body in motion he flipped back onto his feet, swinging his sword out in a chop to the Shadojak’s neck, but it met his sword and with a simple flick of his wrist sent Bray’s blade spinning end over end into a tree where it stuck, deep into the bark.
“You’ve not been practicing, boy,” said Diagus, spit flying from the corner of his mouth. “This girl will be the end of everything you’ve been training for, years of hell to get where you are now.”
Bray noticed the Shadojak’s knuckles tighten on his sword, was he going to cut him down, unarmed and defenceless? The glare the Pearly White gave him told him he was in the mood for it.
Bray relaxed when Diagus shoved his sword away and took a step back, folding his arms, thunder still chiselled into his face.
“You’re good, Bray. Better than good. You’re the best Shaigun that I’ve ever been sent. I’ve fought countless times, defended my sword and title against the best and nobody ever came close to killing me, not one.” He sat down on the tree stump, shaking his head. “I will grow old and die in my sleep before somebody takes my blade, but by then the best of your years will have past and you’re the only one who has the ability to take my place.”
Bray leaned against the cart as he listened to Diagus, who suddenly seemed as old and frail as his years and not the hardest bastard he had ever met.
“There’s a battle coming. One big hell of a battle, the likes of which haven’t been witnessed since the great rift. If I fall in that battle, I want you to be the one to take my blade, drive it through my black heart and take my legacy. There can be no other, only you. You’re to be the next Shadojak.”
“And if you don’t fall?”
“If I don’t fall then... I’ll take the Blade’s peace.”
‘Blade’s peace’, the words rattled around Bray’s head making him think that he misheard the Shadojak.
Diagus grinned. “What, you don’t think I’ve had enough, don’t think I might be getting too long in the tooth - too damned old? These bones speak otherwise.” He clenched his fingers, they clicked loudly, the knuckles seeming bigger than normal: misshapen. “On Earth they’d have shoved me in a home for the old and decrepit. Pills for the arthritis, pills for the pain and more pills to make me sleep. On Thea I’d have been left to rot and I don’t know which is better.” He rubbed his hands as if easing away a pain, yet his face gave away no signs of discomfort. “Given the choice I’d rather fall in battle, sword in hand, but if not, I’ll take the peace, I think I’ve earned that.”
Bray nodded slowly. The Blade’s peace was a rare thing and only claimed by the oldest of Shadojaks. Old was also a rarity amongst their kind. The Blade’s peace hadn’t been performed in a long time. It meant that the Shadojak would give his sword to his Shaigun and allow him to drive the blade into his heart, the final beat releasing all the Shadojak’s skills, powers and memories into the sword – into the soul reaver.
Every Shadojak, since the falling of Solarius, had passed their experience on, the next Shaigun becoming the master and taking on their own apprentice. It’s why the swords were so precious, not only taking on the previous owner’s powers but that of any other whose heart it had struck.
Diagus was the most skilled, the most feared and no other could beat him in swordplay, the next Shadojak would be equally as powerful.
“I had no idea,” was all Bray could say. Diagus was the meanest person he knew, harder than coffin nails, tough as a tomb gollum. He had seen the legendary Pearly White walk into an illegal troll tavern; two gangs of heavily armed rock trolls following him in, and he’d be the only one to walk out, a layer of rock dust coating his cloak. Was this power truly meant to be his, would he be the Shadojak? Why tell him now though? Bray got the distinct impression that the timing had something to do with Elora and the fact that a Shadojak’s path was a lonely one.
“Diagus, I... I love Elora.” There, he had said it. Told the big man himself, displayed it right out there on the slab for the world to see. I love Elora.
The Shadojak’s face grew darker, losing its vulnerable touch from a moment ago, returning to the cold hard granite that Bray was used to.
“Love. Love is it? An emotion triggered by the brain, nothing more than a chemical reaction. You’ve had the training, you know how to control your emotions, boy. Love?” he hissed through his teeth. “The girl is the daughter of Solarius, the spawn of Chaos. She will live long enough to serve her purpose, unless she joins the ranks of her father’s dark army, which I’m expecting.”
“You judged her, you let her live,” Bray almost pleaded.
“She lives because she maybe the only chance we have, and a gnat’s whisker of a chance at that. But if she turns, she will be re-judged. And if she doesn’t, if by some incredible chance, almost impossible chance that we make it to Aslania and make this thing work and if we succeed - she will still be re-judged. Don’t you see, boy? No matter the outcome, even if Solarius dies, his dark army destroyed, even then the daughter of Chaos cannot live. The lives of everyone, everything on both worlds is at risk as long as she breaths. And if I fall, maybe the Shadojak that will deliver her soul through the final door, will be you, returning her to dust.”
An intense pressure crushed Bray’s heart. After days torturing himself over Elora’s death, hating himself for losing the girl he loved, then the shock of seeing her alive; holding her, kissing her and realising that she felt the same love for him. And now knowing that she would die, no matter the outcome, no matter what happened her life was already forfeit.
Bray could control his emotions, that much was true, but he didn’t want to, he wanted to feel the hurt, the pain. It was what he deserved. He knew that Diagus was right. Elora had no future on either Earth or Thea. Death would be her only reward for giving life to those that survived.
The Shadojak rose and stepped closer to him, placing a hand firmly on his shoulder.
“Hell is rising, Bray, and I need you to be my Shaigun. You need to do the right thing, choose the right path, find the right balance. Earth and Thea, the lives of everyone on both worlds or the girl, Elora?” He applied a touch of pressure before releasing his grip. “Make your choice, judge, balance and see it through. Do the right thing.”
Bray watched the Shadojak walk away, leaving him alone with his thoughts, with the choices, with the hurt and the pain.
Darkness had fallen on the forest by the time Bray had come to a decision. His bare skin was cold, muscles stiff and jaw aching he rose from the log he was sat upon and pulled his sword from the tree. He headed back to the inn, determination leading him where his body lacked the strength, willpower driving him, focus guiding his actions as he followed the right path, the only path.
Chapter 16
Daughter of Chaos
The afternoon passed quickly, Elora occupied herself by helping Ejan and Norgie prepare the evening’s meal but her mind was elsewhere - her thoughts belonging to Bray and that kiss. By the evening everyone was sat at the table and helping themselves to roasted venison, seasoned with sage, onion and apple. Elora’s mouth was watering as the aroma hit her nostrils, her stomach grumbled yet she forced herself to wait until Bray arrived, unlike the rest who had already filled plates with the rare meat along with vegetables and were busy eating.
