Leodan the Son of Lion Chapters 1-7

— "Move, damned whore!" — The yellow-faced pushed her in back.

They climbed the twisted stone ladder which is hardly lit with dim oil lamps. Then Casta saw cells with trellised doors from wrought iron. Inhabitants of cells met her emergence with enthusiastic howling, shrieking and obscene jokes.

— "Hey, look, the maid!"

— "I swear by blood, a woman! Hey, chief, where do you conduct her? Put her to us though for day! Though for an hour, chief!"

— "What a beauty! Hey, the girl, I already want you! Look at me!"

— "Oh, brothers, my bollocks will burst soon! Gods, how she smells! Yes I feel a smell of her pussy even from here".

— "Give, let's look! Eh, if I could ..."

— "Chief, give us this whore! We will quickly re-educate her, I swear by Ygerabal's bum!"

— "Legs, what legs! Now I am dying ..."

Casta went, having hung the head. Nausea settled a little, but then she was broken by a fever just as before fight. There was a wish to howl with feeling of powerlessness. If she could, she would break off bare-handed all these bastards, would squeeze out eyes full of lusts, would cut their dirty tongues from stinking mouths. But behind the back two Aglamiths armed with heavy spears puffed, and Casta did not want to be influenced by sharpness of these spears. It is necessary to be more smart. All the same she will release from this rubbish pit. And then she will be considered with Kuvlad as the indignity suffered today. The thought of what she will make with Kuvlad once forced her to smile bloodthirstily.

She was led to the open cell, and the yellow-faced jailer pushed her inside.

— "The respectable judge is busy today so the court will take place tomorrow", — he said. — "You will spend night here. If you arrange hysterics, you will get acquainted with blocks. Or you will go to those punks which saw on the road here".

Casta looked around. All this reminded her a dreadful dream, and was hardly believed that everything happens with her, really happens. The cell was sp acious, but crude and cold, and Casta began to be shivering again— stones of walls seemed to drink heat from her. The yellow-faced slammed behind her a heavy trellised door, the bolt rang out. Then she stood and listened as the jailer and guardians removed along the corridor, stamping the legs put in the heavy sandals lined with bronze. And she was left alone.

There was a jug with water on a stone floor near an armful of the straw replacing a bed. Casta lifted it, smelled — water was fresh. She greedy drank all water, without thinking of the fact that she had no more water. Dizziness and nausea became less. Having got drunk, Casta laid down, curled up on straw, listening to feverish beat of the heart. Then she remembered a curl of Elea. All this time she clamped silky hair of the daughter in her left fist. Casta unclenched fist looked at the curl — and tears dropped from her eyes like stream. The second time for the expired days she cried hysterically, in a voice, absolutely in a feminine way. It did not happen to her several years. When the storm in soul settled and tears ran low, Casta kissed lock of Elea and tied it around the left wrist, wound on top with a strip of the burlap which torn off from a tunic in the manner of the handcuff. Now she was quiet.

Everything wasn`t so bad, she told herself. She will surely be selected from here. Even if she will need to battle against all Darnat for this purpose. She is not afraid of death. Three years she fought in the arena, and great Nekrian, the goddess of infinite rest, was near her all that time. Only forces should be kept. It is necessary to have a sleep. She worried too much in last two days.

Casta closed eyes and failed in drowsiness.

* * *

— Hey you, Seltonian whore! — The ugly face of the Aglamith guardian lit with a torch flame seemed Casta to be the continuation of those nightmares which tormented her in dreams. — Visitor to you!

Near the guardian there was a small puny figure wrapped up in a dark cover. A woman. Casta rose from the pathetic bed, stepped to an iron door.

— I want to see nobody, — she told, looking at the woman.

— But I wanted to see you, — the woman told, gave something to the policeman. — Go, my friend, let us talk alone.

— What do you want? — Casta asked when the gardian left. — Who are you?

— I am Dinche, — the woman told in clean Seltonic language. Casta shuddered.

— Do you speak Seltonic? — she asked.

— I speak. Do not worry, nobody will prevent us. I gave a silver mina to the gardian, for such payment he will allow us to talk all night long.

— Tulkan wanted me to find you.

— And you did not listen to him. So I had to find you myself. And I am glad that I`m not late. I thank you for your noble management with my son.

— Son?

— Tulkan was my son.

— Your son — an orc?

— Half orc. His father Ebresh Aykhkho, the cousin of king Uday was an orc.

— Did you have the child from the orc?

— I loved him. Yes, he was an orc, but with clean, noble and brave heart. And he loved me. It is a long story, and I will not tell it to you. After the son's birth Ebresh took away the child: he wanted to make the real soldier of Tulkan, was afraid that the human nature could get the best in our child. I did not object.

— You gave your son?

— It was necessary. But I grieved for him all these years. Tulkan went to Darnat also to meet me. But was not in time. On the road slave traders took him by deception and sold to Abnun. You were generous to my son, though could not save him.

— I fought with him in the arena.

— It was not your choice.

— Forgive me. I really could not save him. — Casta removed Tulkan's amulet from neck, stretched to the woman. — Take, this thing belonged to your son.

— No, — Dinche softly took away the given hand of the Seltonian. — It belongs to you. It is Ayvari's stone, one of nine Relics left to the world by the Forgotten gods, which was belonging to orcs until recently. My son made that he had to make. There your time is coming, Casta. You should find for all other Relics to fulfill the purpose.

— I have no purpose. Tomorrow I will be judged and most likely sentenced to death. So find another little fool and tell her the fairy tales.

— No court will take place. In the morning you will leave this prison. And Darnat you will leave. A new life will begin for you. The life of the Warrior of Forgotten gods.

— I will leave this cage? — Casta mistrustfully laughed. — Will you, perhaps, release me?

— No matter, who will make it. Consider that such is the will of Forgotten gods.

— What Forgotten gods are you talking about?

— Once they owned the world. Then the evil came and destroyed everything that was created by these gods. And then there was a great flood which cleaned the world from filth. The time of other gods came, and people did not know that new idols whom they worship — only pale shadows of true creators of this world. Even names of the Forgotten are remembered today by very few devoted. But the Forgotten gods did not leave this world, they continue to live among us because their immemorial enemy has not been defeated finally yet. And now ancient opposition begins again. Far in the south, in lands of Sheran, magicians of the Bowl are going to return our world to the immemorial enemy of the Forgotten — the one who destroyed the Golden Age and doomed people to sufferings and death. The Father of Shadows.

— From where do you know it?

— Is it important? Think that the Forgotten gods told me about it.

— You are just mad old woman.

— You know nothing, Casta. Or I should call you Leyda?

— From where did you learn my name? — Casta grabbed an iron lattice of a door, dropped face to rods, seeking to make out the strange guest.

— Your name was told me by the lock of hair hidden under a bandage on your hand, — Dinche answered.

— I swear by Beris! Do not dare to torment me!

— I tell the truth. Do you know why Tulkan did not kill you? In lands of orcs there is a big war now. It was entrusted to Tulkan to come here, to this city to transfer Ayvari's stone to people. Exactly from here, from Darnat, the campaign against returning Evils of ancient has to begin. Tulkan was devoted. And he saw your soul hidden from all. He tested not only your strength, but also your mercy. Also understood that you are fated to rise in defense Forgotten in war against the Shoo demon forces. How did he call you? Shenay-eshgan-rokh-ammar-denna.

— Yes you are just a witch, let Nekrian take away you!

— The witch, — Dinche laughed. — Or one of the last attendants of the goddess Ayvari. Or the Forgotten goddess herself. Call as you wish.

— What the hell do you want from me?

— Too long to tell in details. But you have to know something now. Imagine, Casta, that gods need defenders too. Mere mortals people whom gods choose from many for the sake of the purposes. It is hard to find the worthy defender, but it is necessary. If gods begin to be at war with each other, the world will cease to exist. It will be destroyed by fire and water, storms and frost. All will die — right and wrong, kind and evil. Gods don`t want such exodus. They love people though people forgot them.

— I do not want to be a defender.

— Not your solution. You are a special woman, and your way was predetermined long ago, during an instant of your birth. Call it destiny, or will of gods — there is no difference. The warrior's soul lives in you. You got a female body and soul of the soldier, Elea Leyda nicknamed Casta. Gods chose the road of the hero for you. And you went this way all last years.

— Gods? — Casta contracted in a lump, precisely like furious cat. — And you dare to speak to me about gods? They took away my darlings from me. They forced me to test captivity and slavery. They turned me from the happy wife, mother, from the loving daughter into the murderer. I was beaten, forced, sold in the market as a thing, sent to the arena to kill slaves same as I was. A way of the hero about which you speak is a way of blood and sufferings. Do you imagine what does it mean to kill the person? To stick a sword into him, to cut out his skull with the axe or mace? I have been engaged in this insanity for three years. Three years I leave the arena with the hands sticky from human blood. I got used to its smell the same as another woman gets used to a smell of the grindings. Such is there was a will of gods, Dinche? To make destitute the happy person so that this person began to kill? That he dreamed of death? I do not want!

— I understand you, daughter. All these years gloom and blood surrounded you. But it was only beginning of your long road. Do not abuse gods — they do that have to. They need your help. There hard times are coming — times of steel and fire, black sorcery and the power of demons. The ancient evil of Shoo is already here and it will return the world to those damned centuries when the demons of the Shady Side who found flesh governed it. Many decades the orcs inhabiting Plateau of Orsiana constrained an impact of the Sheran hordes alone. But not so long ago there was what should not to happen — the Sheranits occupied Meru the sacred city of orcs. The Word of the Chasm fell into clutches of Sheran black magicians, and now they know how to awaken invincible power of Shoo.

— I don`t care all this.

— It is difficult for me to speak about it, Casta, but I have to. Whether you want that the Father of Shadow found the power over the world again, and both your unforgettable Elea and Aylor returned to you — now as blood-thirsty vampires how spiteful to indulge?

— Do not dare! — Casta struck with a palm an iron door in rage. If she could reach Dinche's throat, then would strangle the old woman without hesitation. — Do not say names which are unworthy to be called!

— I understand your anger. But everything that I tell now is an honest truth. I understand you are sorry to hear it. But you have to know what awaits for you, me, all of us if Sheran magicians finish their impious intention. Shoo's time, an era of the demon forces empery on the earth will return. Tulkan went to Darnat also because leaders of orcs try to find allies today. People do not know that for many years they could sleep peacefully only due to orcs. But today everything has changed. That help which was rendered to orcs by us who were once operating the worlds and forgotten, is not enough now. Orcs alone will not be able to cope with Sheran's power. However people hate orcs, consider them spiteful creatures, dirty and furious. Appearance — alas! — often is deceptive.

— Well, and what do I have to make? To serve you?

— No, but simply going your way. It has already begun, this way.

— Words, words. Empty, meaningless. How can I protect gods if I cannot protect even myself? I have nothing, except this stone and a lock of hair of my daughter.

— And unless it is not enough? After Tulkan gave you a Relic of the Forgotten, the blessing of the goddess Ayvari is on you. A choice is made. My son made it. The Forgotten received the Warrior. Now your place in the future war is defined. And hair ... The memory of those whom you loved still did not allow you to become cruel and ruthless murderer though you shed a lot of blood. You passed the last test — test by rage. Three years in the circus ring you cruelly revenged for those misfortunes which fell upon you. But you spared Tulkan, and the Forgotten saw it.

— I am tired, — Casta grabbed ears with palms, rolled up the head. — Leave, me alone, mother. I do not want to hear more.

— Well. Only some more words finally. Your destiny is closely connected with the fate of one young man whom you will meet soon. It will be not absolutely usual union, but it will allow you to make what the Forgotten wait from you. And now farewell. Protect a stone, he will serve to you kind service more than once. It possesses the great force to cure wounds, diseases and to neutralize poisons. And still, accept from me this ring. Do not look at its simplicity. It is the second Relic of the Forgotten. Ring of Mommek, god of wisdom. It is also called the Ring of Languages. It will help you to find the way to heart of the one who will be met on your way.

— Dinche! Ayvari! — Casta shouted, but already was nobody behind the door of her cell. Dinche disappeared in the dark of corridor. The Seltonian looked at the right hand — the shabby copper ringlet inexplicably appeared at her ring finger. And then removed an amulet from neck, and saw that the ordinary-looking stone of Tulkan changed. Now it was the polished piece of amber which had the faultless hexagonal form — a form of bee cells.

— Oh Beris! — Casta sighed. — What`s going on?

But she could not answer this question.