The Pass by Zion Kistler (books to read romance TXT) 📖

“Well ever thought that I'm never the one that goes out and tries to fight one person.” he sighed. “I don't have eyes as sharp as you sometimes... I try to kill all the enemy rather than looking for one person.” Treaf nodded realizing the truth of what Mildo was saying. But this, again, was nothing to brood over, so he kicked his horse a little harder and rode on a little ahead of Mildo. He was particularly glad when Mildo did not follow, but he was not exactly sure why; he decided that he just exasperated him. Not that it matters one damn little bit, and he made another one of his wry smiles.

A little later that day they had a small break in which they had some food that tasted particularly bad, and Treaf was glad that they would be getting more supplies, for he was tired, ( who wouldn't!) of stale food with maggots in it. But he was not going to get excited over nothing, and expected the twelve lords to be about the same as any other group or movements. He did, however, hope that there was not some aggravating king that he would be tempted to yell at.
As he was saddling his horse he felt another one of those annoying little touches on his shoulder, so small that he hardly noticed it. Suddenly he turned around in a flash and, wonders of wonders, beheld Malock, which he had expected from the start.
“Will you stop damn touchin' me like that ya' thick-skinned oaf!” He said quite loudly, and Malock looked aggravated too.
“I need to tell you something quite important, Treaf,” he said, and Treaf was obliged to listen.
“The Jaragon is a warring country, and unlike your knowledge suggests, it has a few societies that are anti-war. The most known one is the Twelve Lords, though there is one much more powerful.” Treaf was partially mystified.
“And what the hell does this have to do with anything?” he replied. Malock sighed in an exasperated sort of way.
“We are now in a part of the land where there are more enemies than we expected at first. We must be more cautious and only travel by night from now on.” And why the hell would we do that? Treaf thought, but remained silent. If Malock was actually telling the truth than he was concerned for the moment about listening to him.
“The Blackwolf Spirits that we were attacked by the other day--” “Who I defeated--” Treaf interrupted. “Anyway, I am very sure that you saw that t6hey were extra powerful.” Treaf nodded.
“I am talking about them. They are extra large, and they have more wards and capabilities that even defeated the Magical beings.” Becoming more serious now, Treaf said, “Yes, yes... but what is the Elder thinking of doing then?” Malock looked partially glad that Treaf was actually paying attention now, so he continued at once. “I would think that he has about two choices: either he creates his Magical beings with more power, or...” at this Malock paused, “He creates his own Blackwolf Spirits.” Treaf's eyes widened momentarily. For a second he was slightly hopeful in the Elder... if he was that powerful than he had definitely underestimated him. But then realization struck him and he thought, no. I have already read how to create a Spirit and it is almost impossible, especially for someone like him that is not very experienced. If he could do it than we would have already won that war. “No,” he replied, “He will not be able to, unless my judgment is wrong. To make a Spirit will take a long time.... plus the fact that it's almost impossible. If ya' want ta' read the instructions and find out for yourself you are welcome to.”
“I believe you yet even one that has the same capabilities would be able to destroy a city,” Malock said, and there was a moment of silence. Then Treaf looked over at all the others and saw that they were about to leave.
“Yeah, we're gonna travel during the day today right? Since we're right by the Twelve Lords?” Malock nodded and then said, “There will most likely be a meeting when we arrive there. We will continue this then. For now we need to go.” Treaf nodded and got onto his horse with a huff. Malock walked over to his own black horse, and soon he had moved to the front of the group with Hibned, and Treaf started walking with little consideration, but then he thought with a jolt, oh yeah! We never got ta' the subject of who the Second Society is, and with that he smiled and began looking a little more forward to arriving at the countenance of the Twelve Lords.


Chapter Nine
The Second Society
“I think we should be arriving in about five minutes,” Hibned announced at the head of the group. You could tell that this message had a considerable effect on the crew, for a shock went through all of them and some began grinning. Yeah, all fine and dandy, but how come nobody's thinkin' about the fact that we only have twenty men to fight an enemy that's obviously much larger? Treaf thought as he looked at this reaction. He was not trying to be negative, but the fact was a little over powering in itself. He sighed and then smiled. It was going to be interesting in a few minutes.
Actually that last part of the journey from the city of The Jaragon had proved to be the most challenging, which Treaf could see no reason for but bad luck. The road winded and turned up the steepest slope that one could imagine, and several of the horses seemed to want to sleep, but they pushed them on anyway, for most of them decided that they were just being stubborn. Treaf, of course found it very funny to imagine all of them walking up the slope, and he secretly scoffed. What a sight that would have been!
Mildo came to Treaf, (probably accidentally: it seemed right that he would have wanted to be at the front of the group,) and then passed him to finally rest bye Malock and Hibned at the front. Treaf was content at his own position however.
It had now been one minute now, four remaining, and Treaf found anticipation growing slowly but surely within him. His horse of course did not since this, for the beast just kept walking on, and its hooves clanked against the stone, sounding like a clock steadily counting the time until something big was going to happen.
Two minutes. Now there seemed for some reason to be less excitement; it became another mood of them traveling in silence with nothing happening in particular going on. They were in a balance between getting somewhere, which they were thinking, but they were in the confluence of actually getting there. This seemed to bring the mood a little down, but still there was not a single hint of boredom. Only completing the task.
One more minute had passed until they reached an even steeper part of the woods, in which there were deep ruts in the road that some of the horses stumbled on, which were reinforced with roots and sticks; in some places there were even large boulders that blocked the road. This forced them to go slightly in the forest, but this seemed not to continue long until there was only one minute left.
Suddenly there was a rather large change in the road. It leveled out and there was a thin layer of gravel placed upon it, and it crunched under all of the horse's hooves. And in the near distance Treaf saw a large wall.
They were not close enough to be sure, but one could see many guards who were holding what looked like crossbows. They had hoods, and there seemed to be no more to the area than them but the wall which they were standing on. It was as gray as the sky outside, though Treaf noted everything seemed to be. Treaf had not expected it to be so professional and impressive, but he was suddenly proved wrong, and very wrong also.
The wall was very large, larger than the one around the city that they had left from. One could not see anything inside it, for the only way to do that would be to enter through the gates, or to fly clear over it. That could be the reason that it was particularly intimidating.
In several minutes they arrived at the gates, which were large and dark before them. It looked like not even a spell could destroy it, for it was braced with many metal chains, bars...and there were too handles on the outside, as if taunting someone to dare and open them.
When they were about twenty feet from it the head guard affirmed that they were in fact from The Jaragon and what business they had.
“We are here,” Malock said with a wry smile, “To meet with the Twelve Lords.” Immediately, to Treaf's surprise there came a look of understanding among the guards and they allowed them in with no more hassle. There came a clinking and booming sound as all the locks and braces were removed. There also came a very loud rattle when the huge chain was removed from the inside and seemed to fall upon the ground with a great and mighty tinkling. Then there came a great groaning and creaking as the tall gates began to open slowly, and in several seconds a three foot crack of open space had emerged and inside was not noticeable quite yet. Then it opened more and inside was a city of tall buildings, which had smaller shops beside them, but everything seemed to be more military and uniform. There were a few guards here and there, and they all had crossbows and dark hoods which Treaf decided was probably a disguise to prevent them from being attacked by some kind of sorcery that needed someone's face.
They entered the contents of the city slowly but surely, and after a few seconds they were in a small, narrow road that was paved with individual stones. They seemed to be beaten down by much time