The mist has begun to burn away from the forest, revealing the deep woods all about. The shrine of Ardis has been hidden here for decades, and is overgrown with vines and vegetation. Once, simple country priestesses grew their gardens here, worshipping and practicing their healing ways.
Kane picks his way carefully across the angled roof, careful not to dislodge any of the loose, moss-covered stone tiles. He makes his way to the man-sized hole in the roof of the shrine.
As Kane approaches the hole, he goes down to his belly and edges his way to the closer to peer into the interior of the temple. The hole gapes before him. Morning sunlight lances down through it, brightly illuminating the cracked tile floor about ten feet below. The rest of the interior is shrouded in sharp shadow.
Tendrils of morning mist hover within the shrine. You see shadowed shapes; one table-shaped one is perhaps an altar, the other, a tall humanoid figure lying face down, immobile, near it.
Khom-Bei makes his way slowly toward the disused shrine, careful to keep Kane in sight while trying to keep from being spotted himself.
Kane makes an attempt to spot the boys below and to count the number of advesaries, but darkness hides his view.
Thragga crouches beside Khom-Bei. "Why do we wait?" he hisses.
Kane waits for a minute to see if there are any sounds or movement below.
Khom-Bei shrugs and gestures at Kane atop the shrine.
The shrine is quite still, and, aside from where the sunlight shines on the tiles, dark and shadowed within.
Thragga explains, soberly, "Here is my plan. We go in and kill the Vorghol." He presents this like it's an original idea.
Kane looks over to where Khom-Bei and Thragga wait and signals with his hand.
At Kane's signal, Khom-bei rises to a crouch and sprints for the oaken door of the shrine.
Thragga rises, gripping his axe with both hands. He races forward besides Khom-Bei, axe drawn back for a mighty blow at the portal.
Reaching the door, Khom-bei gestures for Thragga to wait while he tries the handle first. The front door is barred from within. He indicates that Thragga should bash away at the door.
Kane swings himself over the ledge of the hole then drops down. He then immediately draws his broad Urag sword.
As Kane drops into the hole, landing on the illuminated tiles, several things happen at once. A boyish voice shrieks, "Kane!" and then is immediately muffled. Two crossbow bolts fire through the air at Kane from the altar. And three stout shapes leap out from behind the fallen figure, sprinting for Kane. They will be on him in a heartbeat. Steel flashes in their hands.
Thragga hacks at the door, and the aged wood splinters inward from a single immense chop of his axe. With a grunt, he dives through the opening.
Khom-Bei shoulders aside the remnants of the door and follows Thragga into the building.
The two bolts catch Kane as he tumbles to the stone tiles, drawing his sword. One impales his left leg, the other grazes his shoulder. They came from the direction of the altar, a heavily shadowed area.
The two Vorghol warriors behind the altar swear and reload their crossbows to fire at the man in the light. Kane is highly visible in this circle of sunlight.
Khom-Bei turns to face the altar and raises his hands, "Ancestors, grant me the power of the summer skies." As Khom-bei finishes speaking, a bolt of blue-white electricity jumps from his hands
An order comes from the shadowed altar. "Two more, in the front door!" One of the shapes racing for Kane turns and spins, facing Khom-Bei and Thragga. It's Zagam, one of the Vulkah mercenaries. He grins as he hefts his axe. Zagam is a pudgy Vulkah with pig-like eyes and an upturned nose.
From a cloudless sky, an arc of lightning lances down through the shattered roof and catches the surprised Zagam. His beard poofs out with the static shock and he shakes his head to clear it as he confronts Khom-Bei and Thragga.
Zand and Zamab gleefully race forward, axes in hand, to deal with Kane. Zand is skinny for a Vulkah, but muscular, and Zamab is swarthy, and wearing shoddy armor.
Kane steps into the path of the Vulkah and strikes with the mighty Urag blade. The Urag cleaver slices open Zand's shoulder, but he comes on, furious.
Thragga roars and charges forward to meet Zagam. He sprints across the cracked tile floor.
Zagam chuckles and races forward to battle the Urag.
Zand and Zamab flank Kane, hacking at him front and side with their axes.
Zand's blow goes wide, as the pain of Kane's blow ruins his aim. But Zamab's vicious chop takes Kane behind the leg, slicing at the ligaments. Kane as his leg gives way and he slips on his back, blood pooling at his feet.. Zamab grins, showing his filed teeth. He makes a vulgar jest in Vulkon.
One Vorghol behind the altar reloads his crossbow. The other leaps over the altar and draws Lightbringer, as he advances. The dragonfire flames up, casting an orange glow over Kane, the Vulkah and some struggling shapes in the corner.
Khom-Bei points his finger at Zand and looses another bolt. Zand whirls as a lightning bolt catches him now. He curses at the shaman across the shrine floor, in broken Marreith. "Nancy boy Northerling muddafugga! Fix you good!"
Kane leaps to his feet and stabs at Zamab, but Zamab parries Kane's Urag sword with a laugh and he moves in for the kill.
Thragga whirls his blade and hacks savagely at Zagam. The blow slices open the Vulkah's belly and he staggers back under the Urag assault. Then Thragga's backswing opens up the Vulkah's jugular. Blood sprays over the Urag warrior as he kicks the limp body of Zagam to the tiles and comes on to aid Kane.
Zand tries a vicious swipe at Kane, while Zamab turns to deal with the new threat. Zand's thrust catches Kane across the ribs as the Tol Nedran spins aside. Kane grunts as warm blood flows down his side.
Behind the altar, one Vorghol takes aim with his crossbow. The second lunges for Kane, as Light Bringer trails flames. The bolt goes wide, but as the second Vorghol strikes, Kane's own sword catches him under the armpit, searing and scarring him.
The Vorghol grins in the dragonfire light, showing his fangs. The warrior is arrogant, as are all his kind. He is very tall, thin, with long blond hair, almost white. "Tut tut...it will be over soon, Kane. The Vulkah swore we would need the boys as hostages, but I suppose I will be able to drink them dry after all..."
Kane swipes at the Vorghol's throat with his blade and says, "I will kill you or die trying, you dog of a Vorghol!" Then he steps back towards the circle of light.
Khom-Bei calls out, "Foul being, leave this place." The Vorghol's eyes glint red as he feels the holy fire of Khom-Bei's imprecation. He staggers back, aflame, as Kane's blow catches him in the throat, and he topples. The burning shape crackles, hisses, and explodes in a dusty cloud.
Light Bringer falls to the tiles with a metallic clang at Kane's feet.
Thragga whirls his axe in a chop straight down at Zamab's pointed helmet. The axe crushes the helmet and the skull beneath it, and then continues through the Vulkah's armored torso. He's split like a melon clear down to his crotch. He tries to scream but can't, and he sags limply. Thragga pulls the axe free and kicks the lifeless Vulkah aside.
Zand, overwhelmed, goes quite pale. He sprints to the altar, where a Reith deputy from Idris is holding down the two boys in the shadowed darkness.
The other Vorghol, desperate, scrambles over the altar, and with a predator's speed, lunges for Lightbringer where it sits at Kane's feet.
Khom-Bei spots the Vorghol and focuses his attention, "Begone, vermin." A wave of force from Khom-Bei's hand washes over the Vorghol like a blast of heat. He shrieks as he catches fire, and falls at Kane's feet in the circle of sunlight, pitifully grasping at Kane's feet in utter agony as he is consumed.
Kane pauses not one second as he scoops Light Bringer off the floor and heads for where the children are being held captive. Thragga comes on like a storm. He's right beside Kane now, and the two launch themselves towards the side of the altar, near the fallen statue of Ardis, where Zand, the deputy, and the boys are.
Zand kicks the deputy aside, seizes Ronan by his dark hair and hauls him upright. He's bound hand and foot. The Vulkah pulls a jagged dagger from his belt and pricks the boy's throat. "No move!" he cries at Kane and Thragga.
Tyrin, on the floor, is crying and weeping in terror.
Ronan is stoic. He doesn't make a sound, nor struggle. A droplet of blood slowly trickles down the boy's neck.
Khom-Bei watches the scene carefully, waiting to see how Kane proceeds.
Kane comes to a halt and says, "Leave the boy out of this and fight me man to man."
Thragga hisses, panting heavily, "Let me kill the little bastard, Kane."
Beside Zand, the deputy, a young Reith, rolls to his feet, dazed by the Zand's blow. He stands unsteadily, unsure what to do.
Khom-Bei points at the young deputy, "Step away or you may get spattered when I fry him in his boots."
The deputy looks at Zand, then to Khom-Bei across the shrine, and steps back.
Zand says, "Ha! I got me hosteej now! Fight you? What, so Urag can cut me in the back! No, no. Take hosteej, go back to Idris, they want to hear where is bandits and where is Kane and where is big ugly Urag and Northerling. They so interested in your mighty fire sword, too! Ha!" He shakes Ronan roughly by the hair, savagely, holding the knife to the boy's throat.
Kane says, "No one is leaving here with these children, let the boy go and you can walk out of here."
Khom-Bei mutters under his breath, "Ancestors, help me save this child."
Zand says, "Wrong! Zand is leavingk! Now! One side, big ugly Urag!" He steps forward, gripping Ronan firmly.
Khom-Bei edges closer to the Vulkah.
Zand shakes his head. "You keel Zagam, you keel Zamab, but you no keel Zand!" He spits, "Who you, anyway, Kane? Mighty killer of Vorghol? Why they want your sword so much, anyway? Hm? Tell Zand!"
Kane replies to the Vulka, "The Vorghol are my prey... as you will be if you don't let this boy go. As for Light Bringer, I swear to you you will feel its burn if you harm this boy."
Zand, wounded, desperate, afraid, is about to retort, with a sneer, when Ronan head butts him. The boy collapses, immediately, but it's enough to jar him loose from Zand's grip.
Tyrin shrieks as Ronan limply falls to the tiles.
As the boy falls, Khom-bei flings a blue-white bolt from his fingertips towrd the Vulkah.
Another electrical bolt arcs down from the clear morning sky, the wrath of the Great Father. Zand is hurled backwards behind the fallen statue, losing his dagger but rolling to his feet. He seizes up an old pole to use as a makeshift spear.
"No!!" the mercenary cries. "Zand will fight!"
Kane leaps forward, sword flashing. "You had your chance... now you die." Light Bringer's fiery blade enters Zand's forehead and emerges from the back of his skull. He makes a soft sound in his throat, and then collapses, dead, as Kane wrenches the blade free.
The dead Vulkah rolls onto face next to the face-down statue of the goddess Ardis.
Thragga turns to the deputy. A great green fist lashes out and catches the man on the side of the head, felling him.
Khom-Bei walks up to Kane and places his hands on the taller man's shoulders, "Be healed, my friend."
Tyrin wails, "I think Ronan's dead!"
As Kane rushes to Ronan he says, "Save it for the boy."
Khom-Bei turns his attention to Ronan, kneeling next to the boy. "I have enough power for you both, Kane."
Ronan is not dead, but sorely stunned. "Did you..get him?" he asks, shaking his head.
Kane kneels next to Ronan and says, "Good job boy, we got him but only with your help."
Ronan says, "Father...is he with you? He came to rescue us, but the Vorghol made us sleep. Is Father outside, Kane?"
Thragga squats and cuts the bonds on each boy. Tyrin throws his arms around the Urag, who looks mostly embarassed, but returns the embrace awkwardly.
Kane looks to Khom-Bei, then just shakes his head no.
Ronan asks, "But he's coming, right? He wouldn't just leave us. Not Father."
Khom-Bei rises and moves toward the door, whistling for his pony."We should be moving quickly, Kane, there could be more of them around."
Kane's voice cracks when he says, "Your father was a brave man, Ronan. He...will be mourned...a great man."
There are six frightened Tol Nedran horses tied up in a back alcove of the shrine. Cakilgan enters and approaches them, and the creatures exchange skittish cries and snorts.
Ronan blinks, but he doesn't show any emotion.
Tyrin asks, "What does he mean, mourned?"
Khom-Bei moves to calm the horses. Under Khom-Bei's calm ministrations, the animals grow placid. He ropes each one to the other for travel. There are two white mares, and four gray Idris ponies.
Thragga sets his hand on Tyrin's shoulder. "Come, we must go, boy." he rumbles.
Kane puts his arm on the boy's shoulder and says, "It is all right to feel the pain and to let it out."
Ronan shrugs off Kane's comforting touch. He tells Tyrin. "It means my father is dead..." He looks away.
Thragga looks towards the fallen statue of Ardis. She is depicted here as a beatific woman of serene expression. She wears Ress riding garb, so perhaps it was a band of Crusaders who set her here long ago.
Thragga bends down to lift it and set the statue right, but struggles with the heavy form. Khom-Bei bends his back to the task and helps Thragga. Together, the two wedge the old statue into place in a wall sconce beside the altar, where it leans to one side, jaggedly but with a certain dignity. The Healer looks out over her sad and ruined shrine once more.
Thragga regards the statue with respect. "She saved my life once," he explains to Khom-Bei.
Khom-Bei claps the dust from his hands and gathers the animals together, leading them outside.
Tyrin cries quietly to himself as Ronan guides him outside.
Thragga bows his head to the statue, then pulls his wineskin from his belt as he steps outside.
Ronan mounts one of the white Vorghol mares. His face is hard, his expression set. Tyrin climbs up behind him, still weeping.
Kane crouches down on the floor and lowers his head, his shoulders sagging. Then he rises and joins his companions outside.
Khom-Bei moves close to Thragga, "We take a different road back. The boys don't need to see what happened."
Thragga guzzles wine. "It is not easy to lose a father." he mutters, wiping his green lips. He glances back towards Kane, but says nothing.
Kane tells Khom-Bei and Thragga, "I will ride back to retrieve the body."
Thragga hangs his wineskin back on his belt. "This way, then!" The Urag is off at a sprint through the woods, leading you all away from the shrine.