Bound To Eternity: Book 2

The Dark Star Shatters

By Robert Smith
 Chapter One

Captured

“Gregor, who is this Hermit anyway?” Jack asked. He shifted

the pack on his shoulders trying unsuccessfully to get it to sit more

comfortably.

“He’s a seer,” the burly man called back. The narrow trail

they were using to cross the border into Narsa was barely wide

enough to accommodate one person in spots so they were walking

single-file. There was a sheer drop-off to once side going down to a

river that appeared very small from their vantage point. On the

other side, the cliff continued up joining with the main body of the

mountain rising into the sky. It was a completely vertical climb and

the trip through the mountains would have been impossible if it

hadn’t been for the trail. Gregor led the way with Shadowfang and

Ariana right behind him. Kai was bringing up the rear trailing a

short distance behind Jack.

 “I met him once when I was much younger,” Gregor

continued, “And still hunting dragons. If anyone can find our

missing demon it’ll be him. The problem is, the Hermit can’t always

be found in the same place, so we may have to search a bit once we

get to the swamps.”

“But you have an idea of where to find him, right?” Ariana

asked, not liking the thought of tramping through the swamps. Her

mind conjured up a very vivid image of her sinking in quicksand

surrounded by hungry snakes.

“I have an idea,” Gregor stopped and turned to look back at

them, “But you have to understand. This isn’t going to be easy and

it isn’t going to be fun. The swamps are dangerous and we may have

to search for quite a while. And there’s no guarantee that the

Hermit will still be alive. There’s a small village on the edge of the

swamps, we’ll be able to get some more information there.”

“I just don’t really like snakes,” Ariana muttered, “Or

quicksand. There’s quicksand, right?”

 Gregor laughed at her and slapped his thigh. “Don’t worry,

Princess, we’ll keep you safe from the scary snakes and the evil

quicksand. It’s not like you’ll be stepping in the stuff every other

step, you know? The bogs are pretty easy to avoid if you know what

to look for.” The old bear turned back to the trail, still laughing

softly and led the companions up a gradual incline and around a

sharp bend. The trail widened considerably up ahead before

wrapping around again.

“Everybody get down!” Kai yelled suddenly, swords appearing

in his hands. He gazed around warily, with his back to his

companions, trying to catch a glimpse of the threat he knew was

near.

“What is it?” Jack asked, coming up behind the Wind-dancer

and crouching low to make himself less of a target.

“Something’s coming up behind us,” Kai answered.

Without warning his swords flashed, the broken wood of an

arrow dropped to the ground and then the air suddenly filled with

the hiss of more arrows. Kai’s swords whirled in front of him,

shielding the others, but a cry from Gregor at the front of the line

signaled more problems.

“They’re ahead of us too!” Gregor yelled, pulling his axe off of

his back. Shadowfang growled beside him and set his paws, ready to

charge. Ariana already had her bow out with an arrow notched. The

trail widened out ahead of Gregor allowing six men to stand

shoulder-to-shoulder. About a dozen more stood behind them and

all had bows with arrows drawn.

Two men appeared standing side-by-side on the narrow trail

facing Kai with arrows pulled to their cheeks. They had stepped

around the bend that the companions had just passed. The ground

at Kai’s feet was littered with dozens of other arrows so the Wind-

dancer figured there must be several more men further down the

trail or possibly above them. He braced himself, waiting for an

opportunity to rush the men. He heard Jack’s sword rasp out of its

sheath behind him.

“This isn’t good,” Kai whispered to Jack. “They’ve got us

surrounded.” He glanced over to his right where the cliff dropped

away to the river far below. To his left the sheer face of the cliff

made escape to either side impossible.

“Look out!” Gregor yelled as a barrage of arrows rained down

on them. The old dragonslayer had nowhere to go and no chance of

reaching the men before he got filled with arrows but he dove

forward anyway, determined to face death fighting. Shadowfang

had other ideas. The wolf pounced on Gregor’s back before he could

take more than two steps and the two of them vanished in a black

swirl, arrows thunking into the ground where they’d been.

Jack grabbed Ariana and pushed her against the cliff wall

shielding her with his own body. Two arrows struck him on his left

arm and he cried out. Fiery pain shot through his body and then he

felt very lightheaded. His sword fell from his hands and he dropped

to the ground, unconscious.

“Jack!” Ariana screamed crouching over Jack protectively and

firing an arrow back at the group ahead of them. One of the men fell

screaming, her arrow lodged in his chest. “Kai, the arrows are

poisoned!”
 “Great!” the Wind-dancer muttered distastefully. He spun

across the ground, swords weaving through the air and knocking

arrows left and right. He stopped suddenly with a jerk and his arms

dropped to his sides. Ariana’s eyes widened in disbelief when she

saw the arrow. One of the men behind him had shot him in the back.

Kai’s eyes locked with Ariana’s for an instant and then, with a

savage growl, he turned and launched himself at the two men down

the trail. The men held their ground, even managed to fire another

arrow each, both hitting Kai in either shoulder, but the enraged

Wind-dancer never slowed. He thrusts his swords deeply into the

stomachs of both men, twisting cruelly and then wrenched them

back out.

Ariana dared to hope that maybe they could still escape, that

Kai’s incredible will had been stronger than the poison on the

arrows but then Kai fell to a knee. He struggled to rise but his

muscles were no longer under his control. Ariana pulled Jack’s limp

body up over her shoulder and started dragging him back towards

Kai.
 “Come on, Jack!” she yelled desperately, tears streaking

through the dirt on her face. “Wake up!” But he was completely out.

An evil laugh drew Ariana up short and she clung to Jack

more tightly.

“These are the Champions of Windain?” a loud, deep voice

asked disdainfully. Down the trail, past where the two men Kai had

just killed had stood approached what looked like the monstrous

demon they’d faced in the clock tower in the Graveyard of Time.

Except this one was smaller, more like a very large man than the

gargantuan beast they’d faced before. But it was still at least twice

as tall as Kai and it approached him casually, with no fear.

“You are the ones who defeated King Jarken?” it asked

mockingly. “You don’t seem that powerful to me.”

Kai forced himself up on both feet to face the monster, but he

lacked the strength to lift his swords. They dropped from his hands

and the creature lifted him into the air by his throat.

“You are the Wind-dancer then, yes?” it asked. “I’d like to see

how well you dance little man.” The creature smirked into Kai’s
face apparently quite satisfied with itself. It roared in pain though

an instant later when Kai flipped a knife into his hand and stabbed

the creature in the arm. It did not drop the dangling Wind-dancer,

however. Instead, the infuriated creature twisted and heaved Kai

out over the cliff. Ariana screamed futilely as he flew out into the air

and then dropped from sight.

The behemoth laughed like rolling thunder at Ariana’s shriek

of dismay and closed the distance between them in two long strides.

Ariana released her grip on Jack and darted forward, drawing her

own sword with a snarl. The creature lazily slapped the blade from

her hand and punched her square in the face. The force threw her

back several feet and she landed in a heap, eyes closed and blood

flowing freely from her nose.

“Take them!” the creature ordered, gesturing to the other

men. “Tie their arms and legs and get them back to the camp.”

Jack and Ariana were securely tied and the men carried them

off, back down the trail in the direction that they had come. The

creature gazed around the cliff trail and glanced over the edge at the
river below. Two had escaped but they’d caught two and killed one.

The creature snorted, disappointed that the fight had been over so

quickly, and turned to follow the men and their prisoners.

*****