A Darkness Unleashed by J. T. Hartke

Author:J. T. Hartke [Hartke, J. T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Imagined Interprises, Inc.
Published: 2014-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

The Woodsingers tried to warn the mages. They knew the spell might save us from the Cataclysm, but it would kill Lond’s Lifetrees in doing so. Would that it had killed them all. – Leolan “Lastking” Calais in a letter to Aravath the Navigator

Darve Northtower spat a gobbet of greenish phlegm into the sharp blades of brown-gray switchgrass, right at the line where it ended. Beyond, only black and charcoal stones spread before him in a wide, descending valley. Pits of foul ooze speckled the dead landscape, a fetid stench and haze rising from their surfaces. A few bluish lichens grew on the very tops of the tallest boulders, clinging for some type of sustenance. Otherwise, nothing lived in the Haunted Vale.

“We’ll never make it across.” Silios Vonstrass shifted in the saddle he never left these days, unless it was to change horses. “Something kills everything out there, and the horses won’t set hoof beyond the grass line.”

Looking up at the human, Darve wrinkled his nose at the seeping yellow sore on his neck. The Bluecloak ranger was one of the few of his kind left among the Highspur survivors. There would be even less if we hadn’t found the herd.

He stroked the shoulder of the steed on which Silios sat. “To think how much I once hated these beasts. We would not have lived had we not found them and their herders after Highspur.”

A heaving cough broke from Silios’ chest, wet and hollow. Darve waited for Silios to catch his breath. It took several gasps before he continued. “But no…no number of horses will get us through this black valley alive.”

A hollow nervousness growing in his heart, Darve turned to walk back to their makeshift camp. The steady beat of waves rolling in from the Lone Sea pounded against the wide sandy beach. About a hundred dwarves, elves, and humans, and about five times as many horses, huddled between the ocean and the vale.

“Orc spears to our north and east, endless sea to the west, and death to our south.” He looked up at Silios, whose horse plodded alongside. “Which choice sounds best to you?”

The ranger pulled his ragged Fadecloak closer about his shoulders. “I’d pick the sea if only we had a boat.” He searched the barren landscape. “Or at least a tree to build one.”

Two figures broke from the main camp to meet them on their trek back. Ian Forstra still wore his healer’s cloak, blue trimmed in dirty yellow. Ravenna stood taller than most humans, her pointed ears peeking through a tight bun of white hair.

“We cannot stay here much longer,” the healer said, his tired eyes matching the tone in his voice. A yellow sore seeped pus on his left hand. “The effects of the Haunted Vale will begin killing us off within the next day or two.”

“Even my folk are beginning to feel the effects of this…” The elf leader frowned at her words. “…this valley. The horses, too.”

Darve looked at the black desolation to their south.

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