The Accidental Archmage - Book Five Edmund Batara (classic children's novels .TXT) 📖

to think of it, the strange magical eruptions had stopped, remembered Tyler.

He looked closely at the massed forces; more hosts were joining each massive army. Forces of the two groups merely faced each other along an irregular line dividing the two regions. The border, suspected the mage. The bulk of the creatures—giants, drakes, and a host of unfamiliar kinds—were being arrayed in great formations, all facing southward.

Is that what I think it is? thought the shaken Tyler.

“Come, there are more places to visit.”

“Does this mean what I suspect it is? Does Odin know?” exclaimed the mage.

“It’s not my place to say. As for the Norse deity, Asgard itself is now feeling probing attacks from both fire and ice jotnar, in addition to creatures from the southern lands. Kemet itself has marched against black kingdoms and empires. It has allies and vassals in that region, but those friendly and allied realms are also facing war with the enemies of Kemet. I am not telling you something new, knowledge about these events will come to you in a few days.”

“But what the hell is happening? It appears everything is unraveling across Adar!”

“Indeed, it is. That is why I risk my sister’s wrath.”

“The anger of Fate? We’re talking about a being?” remarked the astounded mage. “I thought we were talking about her in an allegorical sense.”

“You’re talking to me now. Things like that shouldn’t have surprised you.”

“Not much surprises me anymore. But Fate?”

“Why not?” remonstrated the being gently. “Mortals have deities who are but personifications of their basic fears and aspirations.”

“Yes, but Fate with a capital F is a totally different matter altogether! Does she also watch over the First World?” asked the intrigued Tyler.

“She does have many embodiments, avatars watching over worlds where sentient life had arisen. It appears your education still sorely lacks instruction.”

“Don’t blame me. You don’t see any teachers around me, do you?” he replied testily. Tyler had been hearing so much about his lack of formal training and education that it now sounded like a broken record. It was irritating. I survived, didn’t I? I’m still here.

“Then who, do you think, am I?” The voice of his companion now betrayed a touch of amusement.

“You are this world,” said Tyler emphatically. Well, it’s obvious.

“This form is but a simple avatar, a wisp of my might. At your level, anything stronger would burn you to a crisp where you stand, instantly freeze you solid, slice that fragile body with a cruel and biting wind, or transform flesh into solid earth. All happening at the same time. Luck, or more appropriately, misfortune, would determine which will get you first, an event resulting in your immediate demise, of course.”

The mage was unnerved for a second. “Well, remind me not to meet you in person then.”

Oh, God! I now sound like Tyndur! A petty version.

“Let’s see the human realms, before we delve into esoteric yet crucial struggles,” said the figure.

Tyler promptly found himself drifting at a steady pace above Skaney. He could see chaotic and desperate fighting below. Settlements were defending themselves. Towns and cities were being assaulted by hordes of undead and substantial numbers of the revenants from within the settlements. Here and there, he could see the glowing forms of einherjar and deities battling with drakes, ogres, trolls, and other monsters. Even the live versions of the creatures were in deadly conflict with their undead brethren. Magical explosions dotted the nauseating and bloody battlefields. Suddenly, he remembered something that was at the edge of his mind while above the lands of fire and ice.

“There are no undead in the realms of Sutr and Ymir.” The comment came out of Tyler in a whisper.

“Now, he finally remembers noticing it!” came the response, though the tone didn’t carry any implied insult or unvoiced exasperation.

Hellas was worse off than Skaney. In the Norse homeland, settlements were designed and built with defense in mind. Not so in the Greek homeland. Abandoned, burning, or wrecked villages and small towns marked the landscape of the land of the Greeks. Only the bigger towns and cities were holding out. Long lines of terrified and miserable evacuees were fleeing toward the cities, guarded sometimes by hoplites or cavalry troops. Some refugee columns were unfortunately unprotected, and Tyler had to bear the terrible and heartbreaking sight of men fighting for their families in a forlorn and lost struggle.

Roads were full of mangled and bloody bodies. The revenants made no distinction in their hatred of living things – men, women, children, and animals were indiscriminately slaughtered. Many were in unrecognizable pieces scattered among their belongings. The mage observed that the undead didn’t feed on the dead, nor did the newly deceased revive as revenants. What was obvious was the unnaturally high level of hate and malice characterizing the vicious actions of the creatures. It was displayed on a road below them.

What was revived were what the strange energy field or fields, if the spell-casting was made in sequence, first touched, he realized instantly.

“I can’t bear seeing this,” he desperately told his companion. Merciful God. At least she didn’t bring me down closer to that part of this senseless and outrageous atrocity.

The scene changed to a lush valley with several small rivers running through it. But it was empty of human life. There were villages, small military outposts, trading centers, but they were also in the same shape as those in Hellas. Surprisingly, he saw no bodies.

“It’s not as bad here?” he hopefully asked.

“It wasn’t. The inhabitants had ample warning, and the governor of the border region was quick to act. It’s but a temporary reprieve. Once done with Skaney and Hellas, the plague will sweep down ahead of the jotnar.”

The view again shifted. A large army of men came into view. From the gear, similar to those worn by the mercenaries at the temple of Viracocha, Tyler assumed he was watching the army of Kemet on its way to the southeastern lands. But he expected a desert region. Instead, a land with cultivated farms and