A New Evil Rises in Britannia

I stood at the top of the hill and watched them come. A veritable river of locust-like creatures, hell bent on nothing more than murder, destruction and theft. Their raggedy clothing flapped in the light wind which also carried their cries and excitement at the slaughter to come.

The small town which was their target seemed blissfully unaware of their approach. Then one of the guards saw the invaders and sounded the alarm. The town erupted, warriors ran to their posts, women grabbed little ones and made for, what they hoped were, safe houses. I saw mages casting spells of protection on the warriors and walls of the town. The defenders braced themselves for the oncoming horde.

The noise of the first clashes carried up to my vantage point on the hill. The defenders were vastly outnumbered and I watched as they were driven back into the town and the slaughter began. The attackers drove swiftly into the town, killing everything that moved, even the sheep and goats trying to flee to battle. Reinforcements started to arrive in the town but in small numbers, they too were mowed down quickly. And I watched as the attackers looted the corpses as quickly as they possibly could.

A small knot of defenders placed themselves in front of the building the womenfolk had taken the young ones, soon the attackers turned their attention to them. The defenders fought with a strength born of desperation and many of the attackers fell before their swords, axes and magic.

Then the attackers summoned their dragons. Six of the great beasts appeared and were set upon the defenders. A great wail came from the building they defended. Now it was time for me to intervene, I would not allow this slaughter to continue any longer.

I had spent the last year travelling across many lands, and across the void in pursuit of the evil which set its sights upon Trinsic. Now these murderers would see just what I had learned on my travels. I dug my heels into my faithful steed, Bandit, and raced towards the orc town. Allowing Bandit his head I stood in the stirrups and played furiously. The battle calmed instantly, leaving both sides wondering where their anger had gone.

Using the lull in the battle I set the dragons to fighting amongst each other, much to the consternation of their supposed owners who were effectively out of the battle while they struggled to control their 'pets'. One dragon decided that it had had enough of its pathetic master and promptly set upon anything within range.

I rode through the orc town to where the last defenders stood. An orc mage stepped forward and said "Yuh hulp orghs, humie?".

"For now I do, murder by any side will not be condoned."

"Ugh, gud wurds humie. Many humies spill lots orgh blud. Yu tak thus mask humie. Yuh be safe frae orghs what cum soon." and he handed me a green mask. I could feel the stronge power within it, and despite it hiding my stunning good looks I put it on. My new orcish friends looked at me and nodded.

Around us the killers started to regroup and move towards us. Time to put a stop to the battle once and for all. "Protect me while I cast this spell" I shouted.

"Yub, yuh be safe", replied the mage, organising his men.

On my travels I had learned some tricks which may not have been seen in Britannia for some time, if at all. Using the basic elements of the Protection spell I conjured a globe of force which expanded to cover myself, the orcs and the building they defended. As it expanded it pushed back the approaching warriors. They beat upon the globe with their swords, but to no avail. Their mages assaulted it, but its power was beyond their meagre talents. Then some tried the now calm dragons, but even their mighty strength was not enough to pierce the globe. This magic was beyond their world and their knowledge, and as long as I had strength I could keep the globe up.

"Why do you protect these creatures?", shouted one frustrated warrior, his call was echoed around the town.

"I protect all of Britannia from darkness. What you do here is evil, pure and simple. Where is your honour when you attack a small town of orcs with overwhelming odds? Call yourself warriors, I spit at your feet and call you craven. I see some of you who stood beside me in Trinsic, have you fallen so far as to commit nothing more than murder since I left this world?"

"The orcs threaten our towns, they deserve to be wiped out"

"And so you would commit genocide? Which of you wants the blood of an entire race on your hands? WHICH OF YOU? If they attack a town we will be there to stop them, just like we did during the Trinsic War, but this blind slaughter is evil beyond belief. If the orcs are attacking your towns then something is behind it, perhaps you would be better served seeking that out instead of committing mass murder."

I felt a tug on my cloak and looked down, the orc mage was pointing up the hill which I had rode down earlier. Orcs lined the top, come to offer aid to their comrades. The warrior horde saw them as well, the odds were almost even now, and the warriors had fought already and were tired, the orcs were fresh. Warriors started to head towards the forest again, others used their magic to recall away from the battle scene.

"We shall not forget this, bard. Your life will not be worth living from now on", yelled one warrior.

"You have seen my power, and you are welcome to test yourself against me whenever you like, but make sure you bring your friends...for you will need them. Spread the word around your colleagues, the Baird an Lochran has returned to Britannia and the evil behind this will be vanquished."

With a look at the orc warriors coming down the hill the last of the horde left the town. As they left I allowed the barrier to drop, removed the orc mask and tried to hand it back to the mage.

"Nuh, yuh keep mask, yuh show mask to orgh, orgh help yuh. Nuh blud on mask."

"My thanks. I will endeavour to find out who or what is behind these attacks. Although our two races have never been friends, this sort of slaughter is unknown between us. I sense something deeper behind all this. I will do all I can to aid your people, but know that if orcs attack the human towns I will defend them as I have defended yours."

"Yuh speak truh. We luk fur answers too. Yuh go now 'fore others come. They nuh see yuh help us.", and with that he headed out to meet the oncoming reinforcements.

Deciding that returning to a town would be too dangerous for now, I used an old rune to return me to my brothers home. I knew from my sources that he was away for now attending to his own seedy profession and I would have a day or two to plan a course of action.

Firstly I needed to speak to the one person in Britannia who could bring me up to date on happenings over the past year whilst I had been travelling. All my old colleagues were scattered across the land, where their old houses had been, new properties stood. Quickly looking through Wendars runebooks I, strangely, found what I was looking for.....Now why would Wendar have a rune to Castile's home? What would an assassin have in common with an old monk? Still, I couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth and cast the spell which would relocate me to Castile's home.

© 2001 John McGuigan