Anchorite and the The Heart of Effie. Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE. BIRTH OF THE ARMY

Perhaps this was one of the biggest misconceptions, but Roch, Dan and Aus had never seen Taurentius so angry before. To put it mildly, he was furious. The escape of a fairy from the dungeon, which no guard could clearly explain, then the mysterious escape of a human boy right from under the noses of three hunters. Someone had to be held accountable for such grandiose blunders.
All three stood with downcast eyes, not daring even to utter a word, realizing what any of their acts in response to the angry words of Taurentius could be fraught with. The magician paced from side to side like a clockwork, shaking with indignation. And for all three hunters it was a great surprise why the enraged master still did not allow himself to kill the guilty servants in a fit of anger, because this is how it happened before in situations that were even less serious than the one that happened today.
'All I asked was to put the boy in a dungeon. Just that's it!' he thundered, causing those standing aside and the hunters to flinch again and again. 'And what is the result?'
The cry of Taurentius also expressed desperation. Of course, he never figured out the true value of that boy, so the loss for Taurentius did not feel like something fateful. But the fact that some weak child had slipped out of the hands of his three strong and experienced hunters - that definitely did not fit into his head. The magician quickly approached the servants, who recoiled back. They were prepared for the worst.
'You let a valuable prisoner slip away overnight from your inept little hands! How?! How did a weak, underdeveloped child manage to outsmart the three hunters?! How?!'
Almost crying, Aus answered in a trembling voice. He slightly raised his head, still not daring to look the master straight in the eye. His comrades-in-arms looked at each other in horror: Aus, having entered into a dialogue with Taurentius, as if he himself had signed a death sentence.
'You said there was nothing magical about him, master. We didn't expect the boy to be so strong. He burned a hole in the stonewall with his hands. I've never seen this before. He fell into the abyss behind the wall, and that's where we lost him...'
Swinging, Taurentius hit the hunter with all his might, causing him to fly to the side and, hitting a column, collapsed to the floor. He remained conscious, although he was breathing heavily. Certainly, a hit like that on the firmament broke some of his ribs. The hunters, of course, were strong, but remained human beings and all human things was not alien to them. Roch and Dan recoiled, taking a couple of steps back, not wanting to get under a hot hand.
'What's the use of him vanishing into the abyss, you stupid, brainless cretins!' shouted Taurentius, glaring at the servants. 'This boy could be more valuable than all of you put together! And you missed it! How can I now trust the servants who let me down like that?!'
“\'We have served you faithfully, sir, for many years,' Aus said, getting to his feet and limping over to his comrades-in-arms, who now did not even dare to look up, let alone say something. They understood that it was necessary to immediately flee from Evangard, and not to turn themselves in. Taurentius was capable of killing servants in a rage, but due to their stupidity, Aus, Roch and Dan only remembered this now.
'Yes, and only for this reason I still have not deprived you of your miserable, worthless lives!' Taurentius admitted, making it clear that he had not written these three servants off after all.
'Let us find the boy,' Aus wheezed, inspired by the pardon and holding his bruised side. 'We know what he looks like. We can…'
'For me to be deeply disappointed in your devotion again!?' snapped Taurentius, coming close to the hunters and looking directly at their lowered heads. 'I, the greatest magician of our time, allowed you, three miserable nonentities, to serve for the good of the Evangard, for the good of all Abbaddon! I put my trust on you! Oh, I truly live in hope!'
The hunters were silent. They were like dead in a water. None of them dared to say another word. Taurentius, after waiting for a tense pause, continued in a more calm but assertive tone.
'This child, I am sure, has something very valuable and important in his nature. I need him. Outside of the Evangard, he couldn't escape so easily, alone, without protection. Find him and bring him here. This is the only way for you to gain my forgiveness. Bring me this prisoner and I will forget about your betrayal. But if you return without him, I will no longer be so merciful.'
'We'll find the boy, master. We promise,' said Aus, proudly raising his head, in contrast to the cowardly silent Dan and Roch. 'And we won't let you down again.'
'I readily believe,' Taurentius replied, rubbing his palms. 'Even if you fail, you can’t go wrong because the dead don’t make mistakes.'
The situation was slightly relieved by a hunter who had fallen into the round hall of the tower, who was supposed to patrol the dungeons today. Without a word, Taurentius gestured for Roch, Dan, and Aus to leave immediately, and then gave the hunter, Glacius, an indignant and questioning look.
'My lord,’ gasping for breath the hunter said because he ran up the stairs of the tower very fast. 'It's time. The half-breed is ready for the ceremony. You can't delay. She seems to be too weak...'
Taurentius, without asking further questions, simply nodded and, once again throwing a menacing look at the three delinquent servants who were still standing aside for some reason, the wizard left the round hall, following the servant leading him down the stairs to the foot of the tower.
In the dungeon, in which, as usual, only the echoes of the hunters' conversations and the growls of the ogres could be heard, where only a weak, lifeless groan could be heard from the captives, today it was quite noisy. And this noise had only one source. The girl screamed. The scream was so thin and impetuous that even the most stupid ogre could understand that the desperate screams belonged to a child.
A very young girl was chained to a round stone surface located vertically and located in the middle of a huge space, around which there were countless hanging ladders, along which, like in an anthill, a huge number of servants and minions of Taurentius moved, working for the benefit of their master. The dungeon was a vast cavern, just a city underground.
'The half-breed royal heir has passed out a couple of times already. We bring her back to her senses with great difficulty ...' the hunter, standing behind Taurentius, said quietly, leaning slightly towards his ear. 'If you want to start, now is the time.'
'No news? Did you find the runaway fairy?' without a shadow of concern asked the magician, without taking his eyes off the captive girl.
'No. But your son knows what happened. He wanted to inform you personally, but did not wait for your arrival, sir. He went looking for her this afternoon. And we sent Henerion to find the fugitive boy.'
'Oh, very interesting...' Taurentius drawled, folding his arms on his chest and grinning slightly. 'Henerion will find the fugitive faster, and let these numskulls roam the wasteland until their last days... And what about Troy....'
No one could look directly into the magician's eyes at that moment, so no one could witness that the smirk was filled with disappointment. Taurentius understood that this was a turning point in his history as a conquering magician and he had no right to make a mistake. Having fallen into thought for a while, Taurentius became completely distracted. The hunter's voice brought him back to reality.
'My Lord. Would you like to start? Need to start now... Time is running out.'
'The link of the great chain is rotten…' Taurentius whispered, furrowing his brows, then turned his gaze to the servant and unequivocally nodded in agreement.
Taurentius walked quickly to the place of sacrifice, coming closer to the thin and naked girl hanging on chains. She was so thin that the bones showed through under the skin, as if ready to cut through her thin pale matter. Big eyes exuded such fear, which would be enough for hundreds of people. The prisoner was clearly out of her mind with panic: she jerked her little hands entwined with iron chains, shook her head and her unclean hair stuck together in sweat and moisture, and, screaming heart-rendingly something inarticulate, tried in vain to to break free.'
'Royal offspring,' Taurentius said solemnly and even somehow pathetically, ignoring the cries of the captive. 'Bastard of King Primus and a high born she-elf from the domain of Taurebeleg. Truly, a valuable stone in the form of a dirty silly puppy. Parnasida has tormented you gloriously for all these years, here we must pay tribute to the usurper queen. But don't worry, poor child...'
Taurentius stepped even closer to the captive and touched her face with the tip of a long finger. And at that moment, the girl suddenly abruptly stopped screaming, and the sudden absence of noise, of course, attracted the attention of many who were in this underground cave. Breathing heavily, the captive stared at the magician, as if suddenly had comprehended who he was and what he was going to do with her. Her gaze was as insane as it was consciously deep. Her chest rose and fell heavily, nostrils flared, and through his clenched teeth words tried to sound.
'Poor, poor child. I want you to know, daughter of the king, that your miserable life and great death will not be in vain. You will serve well. For my army, and all of Abbaddon as a whole.'
The girl gave the magician a completely mad look, and her mouth, clenched through her teeth and splashing drool, tried to say something indistinguishable and indistinct. Only two words could be discerned in the speech of the distraught prisoner.
-Ef-f-f-f-ie...' the girl squeezed out with a terrible heaviness. - H-h-heart... Eff-f-f-f-ie...'
Then Taurentius froze in confusion. For a moment, there was no solemnity of anticipation of the long-awaited rite. He removed his hand from the captive's face and took a step back. The two words spoken by the half-breed obviously came as a complete surprise to the wizard.
'What did you say?' Taurentius whispered, throwing a barely perceptible glance at the servant hunter next to him, who clearly did not understand anything.
The prisoner exhaled, as if she had caught a long-awaited moment of relief. The corners of her weathered blue lips stretched into a devilish smile, and her eyes popped out as if they were about to jump out of their sockets. Taurentius was unsettled. He expected the king’s bastard to say something else, but the girl was still staring at Taurentius with unnaturally large, crazy eyes, and her tightly clenched teeth only occasionally gave off a serpent hiss.
'My lord, shall we begin?' came a timid question from behind.
Taurentius was clearly scared. These two words, spoken by a mad prisoner, cast him back many years, set in his soul a foolish superstition. The wizard knew very well what "Effie’s heart" meant, he thought it was the folly of days long past. But the fact that this girl, who was no more than ten years old, knew such a thing as even the elders had forgotten, made Taurentius doubt whether he was doing the right thing now and here. He already set himself up that today should be fateful, decided to perform the ritual at all costs. Can these two words, cast by a half-breed, prevent the magician from achieving his dream?
'My Lord, we must begin...' repeated Glacius.
Taurentius turned his back on the captive, answering loudly and briefly:
'Begin...'
The magician stood with his back to the action that unfolded behind him, but he knew perfectly well the essence of what was happening: performing a rite of crossing species was not something new in this dark cave. After another couple of seconds, a new cry was heard, and it seemed to be many times louder and more desperate than before. When another wild roar was added to this scream, as if an angry Andalai wolf was released from a hungry captivity. Taurentius closed his eyes, took a deep breath and, opening his arms to the darkness, raising his palms at shoulder level, loudly, not quieter than all the din around, began to cast a spell. The same spell that had failed so many times, but should have worked this time. He repeated something difficult to pronounce over and over again, so insistently and confidently, as if he was expecting the apogee of something grandiose, ready for the moment of truth. And the scream of the captive and the almost animal growl behind the magician intensified and echoed through the cave, merging with the persistent spell.
It was as if an unseen force picked up a wave of air, giving off glimmers and forming a funnel around Taurentius. The spell certainly worked. The words stopped sounding like the cry of a captive and the roar of an orc did. The ugly creature collapsed at the foot of a round stone with chains.
The magician smiled, finally turning to the captive, blissfully realizing that here it was, the long-awaited moment of glory. But the emaciated thin child was no longer visible on the horizontal altar. Now it was just a human torso in a terrible, disgusting state. It swelled with many blisters that grew, as if breathing, as if ready to burst under the onslaught of what wanted to break free from within them. The prisoner's skin turned a sickly red-blue color and was already devoid of all human features, swelling with every second. A withered ogre lay by the stone. Obviously, both he and the prisoner were already dead. The final part of the rite was taking place, which Taurentius watched with impatient admiration.
Everything was going better than ever. He had been waiting for over a year for this moment. After all the failures now, everything should have been successful. The bang - and the captive's body, swollen so much that it became larger than the sacrificial altar stone itself, burst. A huge number of strange creatures tore it apart, very small, no bigger than a toad from a pond. These creatures writhed and emitted a terribly unpleasant squeak. Another moment - and it became noticeable how they grow right before all's eyes. Streams of radiant air continued to emanate from Taurentius, frozen in place and staring at what he thought was a delightful sight.
'Welcome to Evangard!!!' solemnly boomed Taurentius, lovingly looking at how small “tadpoles” grow and acquire almost human appearance: arms, legs, heads.
'It worked,' the mage whispered happily. 'Finally it worked!'
'Is everything successful?' the servant said uncertainly and even in barely hidden fear.
'Yes, my faithful, kind Glacius. That's the way it is, everything went well!'
Taurentius turned to the hunter, giving him and rather surprising him a look that was gleaming with moisture, simply radiating happiness. To say that a servant rarely saw his master in such a state would be an understatement. And tears appeared in the eyes of the magician, according to the memoirs of the hunter, for the first time in general.
'The royal bastard became for us a golden prize, the most valuable, as far as one could wish for!' without restraining his emotions, he spoke loudly to the entire cave. He even grabbed Glacius by the shoulders for a couple of moments, shaking him as if he was ready to hug and kiss the servant. The hunter closed his eyes and even covered his face, apparently, was not at all ready for this and, obviously, was waiting not for friendly gestures, but for a beating. Nevertheless, this time there was no violence.
'It means, Glacius, that now I have a real, invincible army. Yes, there are only a couple of hundred of them, but this is not just a herd of highly primal ogres! The hybrids will be smart, docile, and with them I will conquer any corner of the world at the snap of my fingers. What is the magic of the Enchanted Forests? What is the ancient Infinity Wall? We will expand the boundaries of our possession! My name will go down in history, not only as the greatest magician of Abbaddon, but also as a gatherer of lands! And there will be no more limits to my power!'
The servant listened to the master with such an expression as if he could not figure it out himself pleases this inference him or frightens.
'Look at them…' Turning pretentious, the magician pointed to the little creatures that had filled the cave and continued to grow. The outlines of their faces were now visible, as well as the crooked horns crowning slimy, throbbing heads.
'They're just perfect! Oh Glacius! A year of my life, hundreds of attempts, hours of wasted magic! For the sake of these beauties, the whole race of fairies has been extirpated! Now watch: here is the crown of my creation! The greatest masterpiece! Do you understand, Glacius? No one before me could create it! But I did! Creator! God…'
Taurentius did not expect support or words of admiration from the frightened servant. He would be in awe of his own superiority.
'What now, sir? What is our plan?' Glacius asked.
Taurentius reluctantly returned from heaven to earth. He allowed himself to drown for a few minutes in his sense of superiority, and the pictures of the quick and successful victorious wars flashed before the eyes of an enthusiastic magician like a carousel.
'Oh, we will not delay a day, my faithful servant,' continued Taurentius, full of confidence. 'They should form in a few hours. Then we will train them, see what these beauties are capable of. And as soon as possible we go to the assault. The enchanted forest will fall in the next few days, or I am not Taurentius, king of the Evangard and gatherer of the lands of Abbaddon.'
'So you don't need that runaway fairy anymore? We can find your son and take him off the mission if you wish...'
'Ohh no. No, no, no,' Taurentius squinted his eyes slyly, turning his gaze back to Glacius. 'No mission should be cancelled. Even more. While we storm the Enchanted Forest, my dear servant, you will take with you a couple of hunters, the most skilled, masters of their craft, and you will go in search of a runaway fairy and my son. When you find Troy, do everything to help him. And at the moment when the fugitive is found - listen carefully, Glacius, because this is the most important thing - you must send both the fairy and my son to the World of Shadows. Kill them both, destroy their souls and their bodies, wipe them from the land of our world. I promise you, my good servant, the moment you bring me the trophy, the heads of Troy and the fairy, I will give you such a reward as none of my servants have ever known. The King of the Evangard, Taurentius, does not throw words to the wind.
'But…' Glacius muttered in complete bewilderment. 'But… My lord, are you sure? Troy is your son. Heir…'
Usually the servants didn't contradict Taurentius orders, and he in turn became very angry because of any contradiction, but now the magician simply smiled and nodded.
'I'm sure Glacius. Kill both the fairy and my son. You got that absolutely right. I need the heads of a fugitive and a traitor. You can start this task right away,' he said, turning back to face the growing horned creatures, taking a few steps forward and leaving the servant behind him in complete dismay.
Glacius stood rooted to the spot for a few more minutes, and then, realizing that he would not receive more instructions, he turned around and quickly walked away from the underground cave, trying to plan such an unexpected journey with an equally unexpected goal.
'He thought I wouldn’t find out...' with a faint bitterness in his voice whispered Taurentius under his nose. No one here, of course, could hear this short monologue. 'Troy made his choice. And I made mine. From now on, I have no more son anymore. Here my children are. Hybrids...'
Taurentius' new army was born. The wizard comprehended that no further plots of traitors, lost escaped captives, or empty superstitions could stand in the way of the greatest ruler and his invincible force of enchanted hybrids. Changes are coming, and Taurentius was ready for them.