Warheart

CHAPTER 14

Hannis Arc, standing in the well-used road, gazed with displeasure at the closed gates in the wall around the small city of Drendon Falls. With the heavy gates closing off the road, the sheer cliffs hard against the back of the city, and the forested mountains all around, the place was well protected from threat of conquest. The falls showering down from the cliffs at the back of the city, fed by mountain springs above, provided ample water flowing through waterways that eventually drained underground, so the people of Drendon Falls felt confident they could close the city gates and be able to endure a long siege.

Hannis Arc had no interest in conducting a siege.

Soldiers of their home guard, most armed with bows or spears, manned the tops of the walls ready to repel any assault. They all watched from a position they considered to be safe, and although obviously tense, didn’t look overly concerned. None of them had arrows nocked, or spears at the ready. Hannis Arc knew that Drendon Falls had withstood sieges in the past, and had never been conquered.

Of course, there was not much reason for an enemy to bother with putting a lot of effort into conquering Drendon Falls. The small city lay on a less important trade route in one of the less populated areas of D’Hara. There were bigger and more important conquests to be made elsewhere. That, in large part, and not the walls, was what had kept the place safe from conquest. It also meant that the defenses had never really been tested in the heat of battle.

For Hannis Arc, it was not a matter of conquest, but a matter of respect. He should not need to conquer people he already considered his subjects. They seemed to be unclear on that point. He intended to make it clear to them.

“You dare to close the gates to the city?” Hannis Arc called up to the man in simple robes standing with both hands resting on the edge of the wall.

“We mean you and your people no ill will,” the man called down, “but there have been rumors of terrible atrocities being visited on other places. As the mayor of Drendon Falls I must think first of the safety of the people of my city. We make no judgment against you, sir, and certainly intend no offense, but we must err on the side of safety and keep our gates closed.”

Hannis Arc glanced over at Emperor Sulachan, the glow of his spirit twisting the face of his long-dead worldly form into a grim smile.

Hannis Arc looked back up at the mayor on the wall. “I sent people on ahead from other cities with instructions that they speak to you of that very matter–the safety of your people. They were to inform you of your fate should you and the people of your city not bow down and show proper respect.”

The man on the wall spread his arms. “We deeply respect all people, and we respect them all equally. We do not want war.”

“War!” Hannis Arc exclaimed with a grunt of a laugh. “This is not a war.” He looked around, feigning incredulity. “There is no war. The war is long over. This is a matter of rule. It is a matter of allegiance to the D’Haran Empire.”

“We are loyal to the D’Haran Empire,” the man insisted.

“Well, I am Lord Arc, the ruler of the D’Haran Empire.”

The man paused, momentarily unsure what to say. “Lord Rahl is the ruler of the D’Haran Empire.”

“Not any longer.” Hannis Arc dismissed the distasteful notion of the long line of the House of Rahl with a wave of his hand. “I told you, the war is over.”

“We heard of no war for rule,” the mayor called down.

“Richard Rahl now resides in the world of the dead,” Emperor Sulachan said in a voice that caused the armed men on the wall to take a step back from the edge.

“Dead…?” the mayor asked. “Are you certain?”

“My servants in the underworld have taken his soul and carry it into a forever of darkness.”

Hannis Arc checked the silent, eager Shun-tuk nation waiting quietly behind. Only a portion of them were visible among the thick growth of trees. So vast were their numbers that their army extended far back into the forested valley, filling it from the mountains on one side to the mountains on the other.

“Do you really think this place worth the bother?” Sulachan asked in a low, gravelly voice. “Shouldn’t we be getting on to the People’s Palace? That is the seat of power you seek.”

Hannis Arc wasn’t worried about the seat of power for the D’Haran Empire going anywhere. “We will be there soon enough.”

Sulachan regarded him with a dark look. “We would be best served by securing the omen machine.”

Hannis Arc returned a look in kind. “I am the one who awakened it out of millennia of darkness. I alone awakened it to help me in bringing you back into the world of life. The only man besides me who could use the omen machine is Richard Rahl and he is dead.”

Sulachan gazed at him with dead eyes that were alive with the menace of his spirit. “Even so, it would be best–”

“It can’t cause us any trouble now that Richard Rahl is dead. I rule the D’Haran Empire, now.”

The spirit appraised him for a moment. “You will, but only once you take the seat of power for that empire and secure the omen machine. With the help of my army of half people, of course.”

“In good time.” Hannis Arc looked off toward the southwest, imagining that he could almost see the vast palace up on the heights of the plateau rising from the Azrith Plain. “Unlike these outposts along the way, the People’s Palace is not an easy place to take. You, better than anyone, should realize that. You, better than anyone, understand the importance of instilling terror in an enemy.

“This is all a necessary part of the plan to insure that we will have no opposition in taking the People’s Palace. Better to break their spirit before we get there. That will make our reception one of celebration.”

The spirit considered briefly before shrugging. “I am in no hurry. I have all of eternity. If that is what you want, so be it.”

“What I want is a palace from which I can rule.” His temper heating, Hannis Arc leaned toward the spirit king. “I don’t want to have to reduce the place to rubble.”

The unsettling spirit gaze returned. “As long as the omen machine is secured, that is all that matters.”

“Richard Rahl is dead, so for all practical purposes it is secure since there is no one else who could use it. You see to it that the dark ones take him into oblivion and I will see to the omen machine.”

“You had better know what you are doing. You have a history of taking chances with that man and letting him slip through your fingers.”

Hannis Arc jabbed an angry finger against his own chest. “I’m the one who figured out how to use Richard Rahl and the omen machine–blood and prophecy–to bring you back. I’m not the one who is dealing with him this time. You are the one who is seeing that his fate is sealed.

“Richard Rahl has proven in the past to have many people willing to help him. This time he is in your hands, so to speak. He is in your realm. It is you who needs to worry about seeing to it that he can’t interfere.”

“He is dead.”

“So were you.”

Hannis Arc didn’t like being lectured to by the man he had rescued from the oblivion of the underworld and brought back to the world of the living. Without Hannis Arc, Emperor Sulachan would forever be banished to the eternity of darkness. The man might have laid out careful plans and taken extraordinary precautions to have everything in place for his return, but without Hannis Arc and his talents, without him going to the trouble of having the symbols he needed tattooed on every patch of flesh as he studied and collected forgotten prophecy, all of those plans would have come to nothing and there would have been no return.

The spirit king glanced to the city wall, his gaze following the men on top.

“I think it unnecessary,” he said at last, “but if this is your wish as the new ruler of the D’Haran Empire, then it shall be as you say. My army of Shun-tuk will be only too happy to satisfy your desire to send a clear and terrifying message for those still before us.”

“Good.” Hannis Arc smiled, happy that the spirit king understood his place. “It is settled, then. We make an example of these people for daring to resist obedience to their ruler. I have, after all, been generous to give a clear offer of peace. It will be useful to let others know what happens to those who do not accept the offer of peaceful obedience. The consequences must be both swift and painful so that others will know that I do not permit disrespect.

“Just be sure to have your people let some of the witnesses escape with word of what happened here. They must race on ahead of us to carry that word to the People’s Palace.”

At last the emperor smiled. “A small taste, then, of what is to come for this world.”

Hannis Arc smiled as he turned to Vika. When he gave her a nod the Mord-Sith stepped forward. Dressed in her red leather, she made quite a contrast to the sea of Shun-tuk behind, half naked, their bodies and faces all smeared with crusty white ash.

“Have them bring the captives forward.”

Vika bowed her head. “As you wish, Lord Arc.”

She ran back to the Shun-tuk and spoke briefly. Soon the captives were dragged forward out of the trees. They were bound and gagged, their spirits broken. Some seemed almost in a trance from the constant terror. The eyes of others were wide with that terror.

Hannis Arc turned back to the man on the wall. “These are some people from the last city that did not bow down in respect to their Lord Arc.”

With that he flung out an arm tattooed completely over with ancient symbols. Some of those symbols lit from within as he invoked his power.

Most of the group of nearly a hundred prisoners were snatched into the air by that power, lifted from their feet and sent flying over the wall screaming the whole way until they crashed down inside.

Some didn’t make it over, their bones breaking as they crashed into the stone wall. Those who didn’t make it over fell to heaps before the wall, most still alive but in no condition to run. Beyond the wall, those who had come falling from the sky cried out in pain from their injuries.

Hannis Arc turned back to the several dozen remaining prisoners. They were the ones with wide eyes, the ones who would do anything they were told.

Before the man on the wall could ask what he was doing, Emperor Sulachan lifted a hand powered by the bluish glow of his spirit.

The power of that gesture blew the gates apart. Splinters of the beams spiraled through the air. Hot shards of iron from the shattered hinges and straps bounced along the ground. Dust boiled up into the still-falling bits and pieces. Through that cloud people beyond were already running. They had nowhere to run, really. The walls held them prisoner for what was to come.

Sulachan turned to his army of Shun-tuk.

“Feed.”

With a howl that vibrated the air, the masses of half people, all desperately hungry for a soul of their own, saw the souls inside and charged for them.

The people inside screamed and shrieked as they ran, trying to find a place to hide. Shun-tuk were skilled at finding hiding souls. Trapped inside the city walls, they were run down by the flood of half-naked Shun-tuk racing in through the gaping hole in the wall. The half people, now in a frenzy to have a soul for themselves, fell on the people of Drendon Falls and started ripping into them with their teeth.

For those who now thought to change allegiance and tried to bow down to Lord Arc, it was too late. They had been given a chance to bow down and they had not taken it. Now, even as they fell to their knees, crying out for mercy, they would serve him in a different manner. They would serve as examples.

Hannis Arc turned to the tattered group of prisoners, both men and women, all filthy with dust and dirt. He gestured with a finger and the rope binding their wrists parted. Their gags fell away.

“Go on to the People’s Palace and the places along the way. Tell them what is coming, and that their only hope of salvation is to bow down and swear allegiance to Lord Arc.”

The group fell to their knees, wailing with relief. They all crowded in around him, taking his robes in trembling fingers, kissing the cloth, thanking him for his mercy. They all swore undying loyalty to him.

Hannis Arc was gratified to have such a show of respect.

“All right. That’s enough. Be on your way.”

They all scrambled to their feet and ran to do his bidding.