Chapter Ten

The unusually bright day left dark shadows, even in the woods; we played throwing games with dry coconut husks that my four-foot giant brother lied had been plucked by him. He smashed our faces with each throw, causing swell and red marks around the eyes.

“What was that?” I said. A hound howled far away, followed by a wheeze of a giant star that fell through the sky in the east.

“Stay back,” he blocked us.

I stood there, staring at the star until I realised it led to our house. I shoved his hands and plunged through the woods. I ran through the overgrown trees, jumped above its roots and slid through the slopes; even after getting close to the house, I couldn’t run fast enough, horrible thoughts and frightening visions flooded through my head. I stumbled into the entrance, hitting the door.

Blood dripped down the entrance, my foot stuck on the wet floor as I took my first step in. To my left was a knight laid dead. He wore colossal armour, his hand extended towards the long blade which was much taller than his whole size, his jaw shivered like a wet cat caught in winter, his eyes sank in blood, and his body under the waist was missing except for blood.

There were other men lying, men without limbs, men with heads half chopped like busted fruits, men who had been completely beheaded; in the middle of all was my orc-elf father, kneeling with his hands on the giant axe covered in blood. His head faced down, hidden under the spilling blood, sneered like a wild beast.

I blew back through the door, into the woods, crossing a huge metal orb, past the valley, past the riverbed; the wind struck against me as I finally reached the top of the hill, betrayed by my legs I jumped through the red sky that eventually turned dark, taking me into the deepest pit. I kicked my legs and fought the burning aura, pulling me back by my shoulders when I hit the surface. I found myself sitting in my room, it was empty as always, save the wrapped cotton bed and the oak desk against the window. My ears caught the distinct voices of orcs, I realised the pain on my shoulders, I was alive, I thought. I made it but I could feel the blood flowing to my paw. I felt the dizziness hit my head and fell back on the floor. I woke up inside a dark chamber.

“Master Clinten,” a voice echoed.

I felt my heart thumping back and forth, and a dark figure appeared above me, with a glint of sadness in his eyes.

“Where am I?”

“Where you were,” Ellmut said in his sudden bright tone.

“It flies.”

“All Condors do.”

The closed chamber was filled with liquor bottles, tied to the walls. I was on a rugged cot made of hay that occupied more than half of the narrow floor. Ellmut stood before it, his voice or stance didn't change a bit. I wondered why he was sad, and then I remembered Edwin, is he dead? Whatever happened, I didn’t want to know nor need to; I knew it wouldn’t take me out of Condor. Then I realised I was already out.

“How did I survive?” I heard my thoughts spoken aloud.

“Like how everyone did.”

“Everyone?”

He pushed open the door behind him, without moving his eyes off me and extended his hands to welcome me. I stretched up and threw my heavy legs down, I felt something was missing, I wouldn’t have realised if there wasn’t a tight patch around my shoulder. It was dry and clean, so I stood up, carefully walked and stepped out of the chamber.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The metal platform where we stood spanned across the edges connecting a series of chambers with stairs. Under us extended the worn-out refugees of gnomes and dwarfs, occupied the whole storey, clustered around a line of finely pruned trees that divided the storey into two.

“This way,” Ellmut led me as he walked through the platform, he took momentary glances behind to make sure I was following.

While we were walking, I had a chance to peek into the chambers. It was the same size as the one I lay in, but instead of one, it was occupied by six to seven gnomes and dwarfs. I took a turn from the edge and followed Ellmut down the metal stairs. It was like walking into the old orcs’ market, everyone stared at me, and everyone recognised me, but I knew none. Most of them were severely wounded, and some of them even had their limbs and skin missing. Ellmut stepped near the pole that connected the floor with the ceiling, near a square bump with a metal door that slowly opened out. Under was another stair that spiralled down like a hillside road.

“Didn’t the knights find this place?”

“Not yet, only a few walk in here unaware, we have watchers, we immediately jam their signals and capture them.”

“How didn’t they notice the missing count?” I said.

“We throw them along with yours.”

“Indeed.”

I started to hear a hard blowing of wind as we walked down. An elemental aroma hit heavily from the wide plantation. Bright crops stood out glowing like elemental flowers, it seemed like it would be extended throughout the storey. We kept walking, climbing down without pausing to take a deep look or to discuss it.

The storey was blocked by a solid stone wall with few windows almost in size of a massive door, behind that, the space was filled with scraps and broken machines. The wind blew through a funnel-like well in the middle of the storey, fragments and junk kept blowing from it, forming a dense pile around it.

“What’s that?”

“A disposal,” he said. “We used it to dispose of the waste, but now it’s working in reverse as we are in motion. It’s intentionally left open, sucks everything below in a particular range like a mammal’s nose.”

Did I come through this? I wondered.

“Most of us did,” he said like he heard my thoughts, glancing at a huge truck that rode on the pile.

We walked into a wide chamber filled with machines, levers, large drivers and of course dwarfs.

“Another control…”

“The backup control,” he corrected.

“Can we open the gate with this?” I asked the first question that rushed into my head.

“No,” he said. “ We can do nothing with it, it works only if the primary fails.”

Disappointed, I followed him into a cave-like opening inside the chamber where the dwarfs worked against one large machine that spanned in size of a truck. We passed them all and walked into another opening where another dwarf was sitting alone wrapped with tight tape around his shoulder, just like mine.

“Armdan!!!”

He turned like a sloth, trying extremely hard to make a smile. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay with you Clint,” he said as if he left me for urgent work. The concern that had existed in his eyes was turned into sorrow, still, he managed to talk like he had.

He explained briefly, how they ended up there, about the backup control and how they broke into it to take the communication line. They had overheard everything that was communicated within Condor, He openly explained how they formed the rebellion right under the knight commander’s nose, their edges, their limits, and what stopped them.

“So, you cannot power the gate?” I wondered one last time after he completed everything.

“This is a backup control,” he explained, something Ellmut already did. In the end, he added the dumbest solution. “It works, but to work completely, the primary control should be destroyed.”

“So, can you open the gate after that?”

“We won’t need a gate if we get the control.”

“It’s waging a war against the knights.”

“Ahhh. Now you get it…”

It’s madness, I thought as I rose, flexing my elbow that got jammed due to the tight bandages. “I wish you success then.”

“I wish Orzaghmen was here instead,” he said in the most offensive tone. We all would have made it now. We all, including Edwin Wilburt.”