The Marenon Chronicles Collection

Chapter Nine





Silas had never seen the city in such a state. The people of Jekyll Rock were scrambling around each other so there had been no time to celebrate the return of the three captives. Dublin had come to greet them at the east tower where the sarians were normally kept and Nalani ordered the old man to warn Darius Umar of the coming army. Within the hour, the several thousand soldiers of the Dunarian Order began fortifying the city.

When Kaden, Alric, and Lorcan had come back, Kaden made an announcement to the regular citizens about the coming horde, though no formal warning had been needed. When the citizens saw the commotion of the soldiers, it became apparent that Jekyll Rock would soon be under attack.

Kaden ordered all the older citizens and small children to be housed within the castle, though after Nalani’s description of the army, he feared the soldiers wouldn’t be able to keep the enemy out for long.

After the address, Kaden and Silas stood together on one of the outer walls of the city, overlooking the grassy plains for any sign of the coming army. Silas remembered how the Stühoc soldiers had looked when he flew over them this morning. They had run as if they would never tire. They weren’t here yet, but they would be soon.

Silas gripped the staff of Uriah firmly. “I met the Possessor,” Silas told him. “Hroth.”

Kaden turned his head sharply when he heard this. “Scary, isn’t he? I met him too. He tried to get inside my mind. Almost succeeded too. It was good that you came and got me out of Mudavé when you did. I don’t know how much longer I could have resisted.”

“You mean you never heard him speak? In your mind, I mean.”

Kaden shook his head. “No. Why, did you?”

Silas took a deep breath. He knew this wasn’t good. Hroth had told Anithistor that Silas would be easy to turn. Access to his mind had been simple.

“Yes,” Silas said. “Almost without effort. I couldn’t block him.”

Kaden’s expression betrayed his thoughts, though he said nothing. There was just too much to be concerned over to worry about Hroth at the moment.

Silas reached into his cloak and pulled out the orange medallion. Kaden’s eyes went wide for a moment.

“I know it’s not much use to you now that we no longer have the other medallions, but I thought you might be interested in having this,” Silas told him.

Kaden reached out his hands, accepting the medallion graciously. “How did you find it?”

Silas shrugged. “Same way we escaped. Got lucky.”

“Things would be a lot different right now if Julian hadn’t acted so impetuously,” Kaden said.

“But we can’t let that stop us,” Silas told him. “We can get them back. I say we negotiate with the Erellens to get the green medallion and then we force Julian to give us the other ones.”

“It won’t be that easy,” Kaden said.

“I don’t see why we shouldn’t try. The Erellens will give us the green medallion. The Gatekeeper said it was necessary to obtain them all.”

The Gatekeeper had said that a lot of things were necessary. Silas sighed, looking off into the distance.

First, Silas had to get all of the medallions. He had been shocked to hear about what Julian had done to the council members. Dublin had told them all about the dreadful day earlier that morning. Nalani had taken the news pretty hard, but instantly recovered as she went into survival mode. She had said something about finding her stepparents in Jekyll Rock and making sure they were going to be safe.

Julian had made Silas’ job more difficult. Julian, as well as Kaden, thought that all they needed was to use the medallions to activate Marenon’s Map; to use it as a colossal weapon against the Stühocs. But only Silas and Inga knew the truth. Silas needed the medallions to obtain the Gatekeeper’s power for himself. The pedestal standing in front of Marenon’s Map would open up to Silas, and he would become the most powerful being in Marenon. He wished he knew what that even meant.

The Gatekeeper had said that Silas would need Inga to help him control the magical ability he would gain. Silas couldn’t even imagine what it must be like to have that kind of power. He knew people looked to him for leadership now – how much more would they expect from him when he had the magic to face Anithistor?

Kaden rubbed the orange jewel at the center of the medallion. “This wouldn’t save us even if we did have the other four medallions. We don’t have time to get help from the Erellens.”

“Do you think we stand a chance?” Silas asked.

Kaden shrugged. “You tell me. You saw the army. We’ll only have a few thousand fighters, so I guess we’ll be outnumbered about ten to one.”

More like thirty to one, Silas thought, but he didn’t voice this. It didn’t make much of a difference. Unless there was some sort of miracle, this would be the last day for the Dunarians. Jekyll Rock would fall.

“But we’ve got you today,” Kaden said. “The Meshulan. The Deliverer. The one that can’t die.”

Silas said nothing to this. Since his meeting with the Gatekeeper, Silas had so much more knowledge about his destiny than he had before. He knew about the misleading prophecy; he knew the Gatekeeper never claimed that he was invincible. The real prophecy simply stated the possibility that Silas could deliver the people of Marenon. The only reason the Gatekeeper had kept this information to himself was to give the people hope. Silas wasn’t about to take that from them. Especially not from Kaden now.

“Might as well put this where it will be safe,” Kaden said. He motioned for Silas to follow. They walked through the halls of the stronghold until they came to the statue of the Human king, Harold. Kaden knelt to the ground and touched the feet of the king and muttered a small word that Silas had grown to know well. “Shelinsa.” The statue moved inward as the wall behind it opened on its hinges.

Silas knew the password because Kaden had brought him here before. The word Shelinsa was one Silas had heard very few times in his life, but it carried a personal significance. It was the name of his Erellen mother.

Of course Silas felt no longing sadness when he heard mention of her. There was nothing to miss, because he had never met her. He only wished that things had been different; that she had survived Silas’ birth.

Kaden must have noticed Silas’ contemplative expression. “Your father loved her very much,” Kaden said as they walked down the stairs to the underground bunker. “Their love had been a secret to most of us, but it eventually came out when your mother became pregnant.” Silas looked at Kaden after he said this, but the man averted his eyes as if to conceal his thoughts about it. “Your father was lost in battle before he could see you born, but I’m sure he would have been proud.”

Silas smiled thoughtfully as they walked forward.

They finally found themselves in front of Marenon’s Map. The pedestal stood in front of the stone wall, empty until Kaden placed the orange medallion in its designated slot. The gray wall lit up on the top right corner, revealing one sixth of the map. The desert land of the Northeast glowed orange and brown. Kaden used his thoughts to move the picture closer to the city of Voelif.

The two of them watched as Nestorians worked to clean up the aftermath of a large and bloody battle. Alric had told Kaden of the uprising and the creation of a new army. Silas had learned of it from Nalani and Coffman. The Pyramid that held the Sphere was nowhere in sight, however.

Bodies littered the ground and smoke filled the sky as the Nestorian soldiers piled the remains of the dead onto flaming mounds. Kaden searched east of the city but found little. He had hoped that some slaves might have escaped the battle to freedom, despite what Alric had told them.

“So, Nalani, Coffman, and Alric were the only ones to survive?” Silas asked.

“Actually no,” Kaden answered. “The Erellen prince Daewyn Florelle was there and got out. There was another couple. A man named Dink and his wife, Emma.”

The name sparked a memory. “Did you say Dink?”

“Yeah, why?”

Silas couldn’t help but smile. He had never known another Dink in his life. It had to be the same man.

“A man named Dink was with me in the gauntlet. He survived it too. Said something about going to find his wife.”

“Well, they’re here in Jekyll Rock,” Kaden said.

Silas couldn’t believe it. It didn’t seem fair for the man to have been reunited with his wife, only to face more hardship and war. Now they probably wouldn’t survive the battle to come.

“Kaden, why aren’t we evacuating the city, maybe to Canor?”

The man sighed, still watching the map as the light began to fade with the setting sun. “Well, for one thing, Jekyll Rock is more secure than Canor,” he said. “Also, by the time we got the people out of here, the Stühocs would be close enough to easily overtake us. There aren’t many soldiers in Canor, and even if there were, they wouldn’t move without the king’s orders.”

“Have you tried to contact Julian? I know what he did was terrible, but he probably doesn’t want the Dunarians to be wiped out.”

“I have tried,” Kaden said. “He’s not wearing his wristband anymore. I contacted King Jiaros of the Erellens, but they will not come. We don’t have time to wait for them anyway. If they did come, they would be able to fight the enemy that remains, but we would already be gone. Wiped out.” He turned his head to Silas. “We are alone.”

They both turned back to the map and Kaden moved the picture south of Voelif. He searched for something, but he didn’t know what. The map stopped the instant Kaden noticed a giant moving object.

“What is that?” Silas asked.

Kaden zoomed the map in closer to the ground until there was no mistaking what it was. Thousands upon thousands of Humans, Nestorians and Stühocs marched onward, and at the center of the massive army was the Pyramid. The structure was rolling somehow, possibly on wheels, but Silas couldn’t really tell.

“It’s their weapon,” Kaden said. “Looks like they’re headed to Mudavé. They’re almost to the edge of this part of the map. We’d need the red medallion to see them go much farther.”

“You don’t need the red medallion to see they are a force bigger than the rest of the Humans in Marenon,” Silas said. “This doesn’t even count the Stühocs in Mudavé, and the army that will attack us today.”

“Anithistor is assuring his victory,” Kaden said. “He’s made for himself the largest army Marenon has ever seen.”

Silas nodded absently. “Yeah,” he said. “And most of them will be here tonight.”