Curse of Water Page 2

  Lashing out, he blasted the stone nearest him with a filth of evil magic, yet his spell passed over it as smoothly as water off a Crastbill’s feathers. Again, and again, he called upon the foulest magic, but nothing he flung at the stones could taint the glistening last footprints of Elohim, eternally imprinted into the ground as he had walked out to the final battle with Moloch.

  Finally, sense overcame the rage, and Moloch ceased his vain struggle to wipe out every reminder of his enemy. He would not forget this insult from the past, one that cleaved into his heart and burned deep into his mind. Instead, he muttered another spell and created a host of depraved, violent, flesh-eating monsters that were to take the place of the creatures he had so recently annihilated. If he couldn’t remove every trace of Elohim from this place, he would make sure that nothing else that had a shred of light, goodness, or humanity in it would exist here.

  His task complete, he turned his face to the east and the distant peaks of the Glass Mountains where he knew Endar was hiding.

  I have wasted enough time on the reminders of the past. I need to create the future that is rightfully mine, beginning with the death of the wizard.

  It took a further five days without rest to reach the foothills of the great Glass Mountains. Moloch considered taking a detour to the south and the goblin capital city of Gorindar, but despite the lure of the opportunity to inflict further pain and death on another race of his enemy’s people, he decided to focus on the task in-hand.

  Gorindar can wait for another day, and, if my memory serves me, Goblin flesh is tough and doesn’t taste very nice anyway. I’m not that hungry.

  He didn’t care if the silent beasts that obediently tracked his footsteps needed food—they could find their own prey to feast on.

  Finally, he stood at the narrow entrance to the valley leading to the massive walls of stone that were the base of the impenetrable Glass Mountains. The Valley of Sorrows was the only way in and out of Endar’s bolthole; not even a bird could fly over the tops of the towering, snow-capped peaks; the air was too thin to breathe or sustain flight. The mountains had never been crossed from one side to the other, and only a few accessible paths existed around some of the foothills. These paths were only passable for a few weeks at the height of summer, and very few people travelled to the land of Chaylan that lay to the south side of the mountains.

  Moloch stopped and considered the track leading into the valley before him. Endar would never have left the only entrance to his mountain hideaway unprotected yet Moloch could sense no magic. Waving the Ushaz to a crouch on the ground behind him, he took a single step forward and sniffed the air; nothing. Puzzled, he stepped back to his original position and pondered this unexpected situation. Then he snapped his fingers at one of the crouching beasts and waved it forwards on the path.

  The beast hurled itself forward. Within five steps, it yelped, a high-pitched squeal of pain and fear, as its body burned in brilliant light.

  Nothing remained of it but a drifting cloud of dust. Not a ripple of magic indicated that any spell had been triggered, and Moloch momentarily appreciated the power that had created the magic.

  Deep down he realized that, whilst he wanted to destroy Endar in the most painful and drawn out way possible, he had, at the same time, relished the idea of a magical battle that would be both a physical and a mental test of his powers.

  Destroying the land and Elohim’s people is satisfying, but too easy. An opponent who matches my power and skill will be eminently more interesting, and my victory will be even more satisfying knowing that I have beaten the only person who could challenge me with anything that is worth my time and effort.

  Locking his clawed fingers together, Moloch stretched his hands out in front of him and cracked the knuckle joints, his eyes narrowing in concentration. Then he wove a spell and sent it out, a whispered tendril of darkness that sneaked towards the spot where the Ushaz had ceased to exist. The magic lasted as long as the unfortunate beast. Moloch cursed at the pain which coursed back along the length of his spell and pierced into his brain. He had made an amateur mistake; he had not disconnected the spell from his body.

  There will be no more such mistakes.

  The returning spell had given him a feel for the magic that blocked the path, and he quickly wove another stronger, darker spell and sent it out towards the valley, this time severing the link between him and his own magic. It went the same way as the Ushaz and his first spell, and Moloch frowned. He had created a spell that should have counteracted Endar’s magic and, at the very least, weakened it, but it had not worked.

  He tried again, this time making the spell as strong as he could, using every bit of knowledge he had but it, too, flared up in a burst of light and disappeared.

  Anger coursed through his blood, and he hurled bolt after bolt of the foulest magic at the spell protecting the entrance to the valley, but it was no use.

  Eventually, exhaustion cleared the fog of rage that clouded his mind. Defeat was not something he was willing to accept again, yet he had no idea what spell had been created that could withstand the full force of the darkest magic. Endar had somehow managed to find a way to protect himself, and finally Moloch admitted that this was time wasted.

  I am not going to give up without leaving something behind. If Endar has made sure no enemy can find a way into his hideaway, then I will make sure that no one will enter or leave the valley either. I will lock Endar in a prison of his own making.

  Moloch recognised that this would require considerable thought and the bringing back of something dark and powerful. He knew what he wanted that to be, but he would need to restrain it with something powerful enough to ensure that it could never be released. The monster he was going to awaken would destroy everything that existed in a heartbeat if it was ever given its freedom.

  I need rest and time to work on the magic it will take to create what I have in mind. And I will need to be very, very careful. Even the tiniest error would lead to his own destruction, for the monster he intended to find would bear no allegiance to any side; it was the only way that would allow him to create something as powerful as he needed. He balked at the idea of something existing that was not under his control, but he knew that it was what he had to do if the rest of his plan was to succeed.

  The end always justifies the means.

  The following morning, he began his task. He knew what he was looking for. The Gorgola had lived only once, long before either light or dark had been created, even before the Fabric of Time had existed. It came from when there had been nothing but Energy, pure boundless Energy that was the only force powerful enough to create anything of this magnitude. Everything that had ever existed was because of Energy. It ebbed and flowed with an unbreakable rhythm, an entity that could not be seen but could be felt; an entity that was light and dark, beginning and end, life and death.

  Indescribable, without shape or form, it was the power that created everything and that could destroy everything, and he was going to use it to call back the only thing that the Energy had created, and then instantly imprisoned. The strength of the monster it had birthed was too much of a threat to the existence of everything, even the very Energy that had formed it.

  I am going to bring back the Gorgola.

  Even as he thought of what he intended to do, Moloch quailed at his own audacity and the danger involved. For a moment he doubted his own sanity, but his lust for power quickly doused that small flame of doubt, and he began his task.

  First, he had to create the chains that would keep the Gorgola imprisoned. If the monster was released, everything that existed would be destroyed in its fury. The Energy that it was created from would be too powerful for anything to control, and he knew that his timing had to be split-second perfect.

  I will have to bind the daemon at the same time as it is brought back, or nothing will contain it.

  The skin on his arms crawled and he swallowed hard at the thought of the destruction that would follow.

  The only thing that could keep the Gorgola constrained was the Chains of Damnation, the very thing that Energy had created to capture the daemon to then imprison it. If he was going to re-create the chains, Moloch needed to harness both the light and dark sides of Energy and keep them under control long enough to weave the spell he needed. If he were simply to use the energy he required, it would destroy him in an instant. He had to first build something that would protect him both physically and magically.

  Drawing on years of knowledge and experience, he began to weave a protection spell, gathering energy from the land, air, and everything around him to build a barrier of magical power that would effectively make him invisible to the forces of the Energy he would utilize to forge the Chains of Damnation. In effect, the Energy would see him as part of it and, hopefully, it would not destroy him.

  He would only know if he had succeeded if he survived the encounter he was about to create.

  Chapter 3 GORGOLA.

  It took two days for Moloch to make his protective armour and by the end of it he was exhausted. Slumping to the ground he sank into a deep sleep, his body warmed by the protective body of the remaining faithful Ushaz as it curled around him.

  He slept for a further two days, and then woke ravenously hungry and with an intense thirst. He quenched both by slaughtering the beast that had protected him as he slept, before starting on the next phase of his creation, The Chains of Damnation.

  There was only one way to do what he needed to do; he needed to open himself up to the energy and become a part of it without allowing it to consume him.

  Taking a deep breath, he drew the armour of energy that he had created in the days before and wrapped it around his body, weaving its protection deep into the soul that had been Gerain
t. He checked and re-checked every aspect, until he was as sure as he could ever be that there was not a single chink in his energetic armour.

  Then he stood up and muttered a few quiet words, his face turned upwards as the clouds parted and allowed the rays of morning sunlight to filter through to the ground. Moloch shuddered as the light touched his upturned face and he closed his eyes as he sent tendrils of magic upwards like a net, capturing the energy of the sun and drawing it to him.

  As he sent the magic out further, he felt the strength of the energy he was drawing in grow, and a deep vibrating pulse began to resonate through the ground and up into his body. He slowly linked the energy of the sun with that of the core of the earth beneath his feet and became a channel through which both energies flowed.

  Great waves of power crashed over him as the force ebbed and flowed, attempting to drag his body upwards towards the sun and, at the same time, back down into the depths of the earth. Even with the protection he had fashioned, his body screamed as it was pulled in two directions by the enormous channel of energy he had created.

  Gritting his teeth against the pain, he began to pull the energy into a shape, forming links which he forged together into a long chain that hummed and pulsated with unimaginable power. Even through his pain, he marvelled at the strength that was coursing through him, and he momentarily regretted that he could never harness it for his dark purposes. Energy held no allegiance to light or dark, good or evil. It simply existed as everything, and to try and isolate one part of it would simply lead to the destruction of whatever, or whoever, was trying to use it.

  Moloch was having to use all aspects of the energy to create the Chains of Damnation, and the light that was coursing through his body would have obliterated him in an instance had it not been for the magical armour he wore. Even the dark would have swallowed him up and he knew that this power was too much for anyone, or anything, to ever contain and use.

  Still he held on to a short moment of regret and wishful thinking, as he used the energy and created the chains that would hold the Gorgola prisoner for eternity. Finally, he finished and with a deep sense of loss, he slowly released his hold on the power, making sure that he let go of both light and dark energy in equal measures, until neither coursed through his body any longer.

  He released himself from his magical armour. Easing his stiff shoulders, he glanced down at the writhing chain that pulsed and glowed at his feet and smiled grimly.

  That was the easy part done. Finding the energetic print of the Gorgola and weaving it back into form was a seemingly impossible task, but Moloch had one final trick up his sleeve.

  I am going to call upon Ul’Rard, the hellhound who can track anything that is of the darkness. Nothing can escape from him once he has picked up its scent, and he can track an energy imprint as well as any other scent. The Gorgola will not escape him.

  Ul’Rard would demand the Qi of Dark energy as payment, but Moloch had carefully harnessed some of the energy that he had drawn on to create the Chains of Damnation. Though he revelled in the additional power he could feel coursing through his body, he knew that he would not be able to contain it in the long term. Unless it was released, it would eventually destroy him.

  Ul’Rard, on the other hand, was created from pure dark energy and needed it to stay alive. He lived deep beneath the earth’s surface, coming up only at night to feed on the dark Qi of fear generated by pain, death, and the tormented souls of those doomed to forever walk the paths of the Valley of Sorrows. That was where Moloch was going to find him.

  The Valley of Sorrows was an easy place for someone with dark magic to enter, and he had no fear that he would not find his way out but finding Ul’Rard would not be that easy. The hellhound could scent danger long before it came close enough to be of harm to him. Moloch had to find a way of enticing him into a trap. The Qi of Dark energy would be the payment he offered and once Ul’Rard had tasted what was coursing through Moloch, he would do anything to have more.

  The only difficulty will be allowing Ul’Rard access to the Dark energy within me whilst maintaining the strength to push him away once he has latched onto it. The jaws of the beast are said to be stronger than anything that has ever existed, and the speed with which he drains his victims of their Qi is, supposedly, breath-taking. I would love to watch him do that to a few of my more irritating enemies. He drew his lips back into a snigger then frowned. But I will need to be extremely careful and very, very quick if I am to succeed without losing my own life.

  Night quickly clawed its way through the grey fog of the skies above and smothered the weak sunlight as Moloch trod the last few steps of the long path that stretched from the Plain of Salvation to the Valley of Sorrows. He stepped into the wailing darkness that indicated the entrance to the valley, and immediately became aware of the dense, dark energy that was the hellhound. He wove a spell around his own Qi, leaving a small gap through which he allowed his dark energy to seep.

  Striding into the darkness, he ignored the moans and wails of the souls that gathered around him like iron filings drawn to a powerful magnet, hungry to feed off the darkness that seeped from his soul; a flick of energy from his hand and they fell into a silent numbness of loss as they melted back into their eternal torture, and the realisation that escape still eluded them.

  A deep howl rose above the moans and wails and Moloch knew that Ul’Rard had picked up his scent. Smiling grimly, he turned, checked his energetic protection, and waited for the beast to appear.

  It didn’t take long. A quiver of excitement shuddered through Ul’Rard’s body as he slid out from the shadows and stopped just a few feet away from him

  Moloch waited silently as he observed the creature in front of him, allowing a moment of admiration for the depravity that had created it.

  Ul’Rard crouched low on powerful hind legs, tendrils of dark energy coiling around his gaunt body as he lifted his huge head and sniffed the air in front of him. Long spikes quivered and rattled along his backbone which poked through the wiry fur covering his emaciated body. As he drooled with hunger, his forked tail lashed the ground into a cloud of ash. His eyes were dark pools of hollow emptiness that gleamed with greed as he salivated over the feast he smelled before him, and he ground his immense jaws together in anticipation.

  He is hungry—very, very hungry. That is perfect.

  Still Moloch waited, allowing more dark energy to seep into the dank air swirling around the them. Drooling gobs of yellow saliva slid from Ul’Rard’s tongue and hissed onto the ground at his feet as he slowly reared up onto his two hind legs and stared down at Moloch.

  As if savouring the moment, he hesitated, then lunged. Moloch dodged out of the way and grinned as Ul’Rard’s powerful jaws snapped shut on the empty space where he had been standing. Whirling around, the beast stared into the darkness, his nostrils flaring as he sniffed the air for Moloch’s location. Moloch let a tiny whiff of dark Qi slide into the air and Ul’Rard lunged once more, only to be deprived again of the longed-for meal as Moloch slid away into the darkness.

  Moloch chuckled under his breath.

  That’s it, you waste all your energy trying to find me. I can sense your every move even before you make it—you don’t stand a chance of catching me, and once you are exhausted you will have no choice but to agree to my demands.

  Snapping his huge teeth in anger, Ul’Rard whirled again and again, lunging at the dark energy that somehow eluded him at every twist and turn. His tail lashed, and anger growled deep in his throat and chest as Moloch played an endless game of cat and mouse.

  Finally, the hound stopped. His massive chest heaved as he gasped for breath and a foam of spit drooled from his open mouth as his energy dissipated and halted his frantic hunt. Moloch could see that the beast recognised the trap he had fallen into as, weakened almost to exhaustion, Ul’Rard sank to the ground and waited.

  Moloch emerged from the shadows until he stood just a few feet in front of the stricken hound.