The Dragon's Tome, A Novel Options

[Zalphon]

Prologue

King Alu’kar looked at Dragon’s Moon. Hordes of orcs fell to the Knights of Valor in the North. He looked into the sky, the endless, blackness that let down droplets of chilled water. The High Elf walked away from the balcony to his quarters. The warmth of his room caressed him and he grinned weakly, but he saw something on his bed.

“Alu’kar,

I can’t take your torment any longer. Our child will simply become a slave to you, as I have. Or a ‘servant’ as you prefer. You won’t hurt him as you’ve hurt me. I won’t let you.

Saranna”

He looked at the note again in disbelief of what it said. “She dare run from me?” he screamed in rage. “I’ll find her and make her pay for this insolence.” He pulled up his hood and walked down the stairs from his quarters in Castle Everlight.
The Royal Guard kneeled, while the Guard Captain asked, “My lord, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Alu’kar spit in response. The High Elf walked out the door and looked into the city. Rain pelted the ground, and as soon as he took a step out his velvet robes become attacked by the falling water of the sky.

For minutes he walked through the streets scanning for Saranna. However, Alu’kar couldn’t spot his missing consort. “My lord,” a watchman said. “I saw a woman to the South, she appeared to be pregnant. She claimed to be one of your servants.”
The King nodded and started heading towards the Southern Gate. For what felt like an hour, he walked. Finally he reached the gate and found Saranna with her face in her knees. “Guards,” the High Elf ordered. “Take this wench to my dungeon.”
Chain-Mail clad men walked towards her and grabbed Saranna by her arms and legs and carried her towards the castle. The woman was too weak to say anything; her silver hair fell into the puddles on the ground.

When she finally arrived, shackles lined a rectangular wall. Alu’kar barked, “Leave us.” Obediently, they did. He pressed on a stone on the left wall and then three more adjacent to it. The wall rotated again and it allowed them into a dark hall that led to a dome-like building.
“Don’t do this, please,” Saranna begged. “Please, Alu’kar.”

He stared into her dark eyes and looked at the Royal Guards who had their swords drawn; they had appeared shortly after him. “Cut the child out of the treacherous woman,” the King ordered.
She shrieked as a dagger slid across her belly. They stuck their cold, plate-clad hands inside the wound and pulled out an infant. Ebon-black hair fell and his skin was dark gray. “A dark elf?” Alu’kar asked in rage. “My son is a dark elf?”

“Kill his mother and sell Zalphon to a slaver,” Alu’kar ordered as he stormed out.

[Zalphon]

Chapter Two

My eyes opened and I felt blood crusted on my lips. I was in my cell and across from me was Xarxan. “Y-you’re alive?” I asked in surprise. “And Trask is alive?” His tunic was red with dried blood.

“He missed, by a few inches whether it was divine intervention or simply a failed doesn’t matter, but I’m alive,” Xarxan sighed. “When you intervened, he was going to make the Coup de Grace, but it gave me time to get up. I had to surrender or else he’d have finished you.”

“You sacrifice the sweet savory revenge that you’ve awaited so long?”

“Child, for decades in Sunskar, I was a terror to settlers. I was known as ‘The Scourge of Sunskar’ with good reason. I led armies on the towns that had risen in the sands, leaving nothing, but corpses and flame behind,” the Elder reminisced. “It was a mistake. When I was captured and sold to Trask, he knew of my fighting prowess. I’ve been a friend to many slaves here, but a Cleric of Valorian taught me much when he lived amongst us.”

“’The Scourge of Sunskar’ that sounds as if you were a marauder or something, I always figured you were a pious warrior of Valorian,” I responded. “So, how did you earn that title?”

“I was the General of the Styr’Kay Empire, as it is called in my native tongue. In common, it is called the ‘War-Soul Empire’,” Xarxan sighed. “When I was captured by an ambush, Trask bought me.”

I thought about what he had said. My friend was a general of one of the most feared empires to ever rise. I heard footsteps and then I saw an elf standing in front of my cell. He was clad in a suit of black clothing. He had a cloak flowing behind him and an elegant sword with a matching dagger sat at his belt.

“Zalphon?” he asked. His voice was curious, yet it was cautious. The elf’s skin was pale, so I knew he was of high elven heritage, so I would most likely be a slave of his.
“Who’re you, Hye’Kal?” I snarled in response. Xarxan glared at me, in a sense that told me to silence myself. “I may be a prisoner to Trask, but I am no slave to your kind.”
“I am a representative of the K’Val Army. You’re both being bought so that we can have forces to send against the Disciples of Tyban at Sunskar,” the Hye’Kal informed us. “Tyban was an Orc Monk that wandered the deserts of Sunskar as a worshipper of the Elemental Lord of Flame.”

The Hye’Kal turned his head and shouted, “We’ve got two recruits for Sunskar, Sir.”

A High Elf looked at me with icy blue eyes. He was protected by a suit of black plate-mail. At his belt was a long-sword that had runes inscribed into the blade. His gaze changed to Xarxan. “Xarxan,” he spit. “How many years has it been since we fought at Pyron’s Gem?”
“It’s been at least three decades, Lorian,” the Elder replied. “You were the one man who my blade couldn’t best. I’ve always respected you for that.”
The Hye’Kal pulled out his blade and put the tip of it to Xarxan’s throat, “I should’ve killed you when I had the chance. Luckily for you, I was merciful because we worked together to kill the Chimera that would’ve surely killed us both.”

Xarxan shoved the High Elf. “Perhaps your right, Lorian, you might’ve actually killed me. We were both younger then, too. When do I leave for Sunskar?”

“Tomorrow at dawn.”

“Excellent,” the Orc growled.



This post has been edited by Zalphon: Jan 18 2011, 01:22 AM