Midst of Evil

By Timothy W. O'Hara

Five young warriors set out to capture a dreaded invader and bring him home. Then, with the aid of an unusual twelve-year-old girl and a wise old man, they hope to find a fatal weakness within the soulless demon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781619279285

Book preview

9781619279285

CHAPTER 1

RETURN OF TERROR

Rubart Felch thin and grizzled gray walked out of his hut and into the bright sunlight. He turned down the dusty path that led away from the remains of our old village. I saw him clearly, even from this distance, bent stiff and purposeful. Looking straight ahead, he trudged on. This was the usual look of Felch, and it gave me no cause for alarm. Then, without breaking stride, he shaded his eyes from the sun and scanned the tops of the tall pine trees looking for me, his expression stern, his jaw set.

To make myself more visible, I opened my eagle wings wide and he saw me. Our eyes met and he sent a message: They are here.

I jerked at the news as if an invisible fist had struck me in the chest.

Felch’s door banged shut and my head snapped back to the cabin. I saw a man standing in shadow on the rickety porch. Turning my attention back to Felch, I watched as he began to walk more briskly. A black smudge of smoke came out of nowhere behind him. Like a malicious panther, it began silently pursuing him.

Looking back at the hut, I saw the man step off the porch and into the sunlight. I recognized the ruggedly handsome face and the sturdy body immediately. It was Radaul standing there, a wide toothy grin crossing his maw. Radaul? What would he have to do with this? He was just an honest, hardworking man of the village. Someone I had known all my life.

Felch made his way around a wooded bend and, when no longer in view of Radaul, began to run frantically, obviously not thinking of his age or his frailty.

I dropped from my perch in the tree and instantly opened my wings with the familiar soaring rush. Turning, I flew a circle within the forest, keeping Felch in sight. Cold fear enveloped me as I realized that I could do nothing for him. My presence there must not be revealed.

The smoke wrapped itself around the old man’s legs, tripping him. I watched helplessly as Felch fell headlong into the dirt. He began to struggle as dark tendrils stretched from the main body of smoke and encircled his legs tightly. Poor Felch wailed as it began to pull him by his ankles.

Within moments, the smoke dragged Felch mercilessly, on and off the trail, at the speed of a galloping horse. He screamed horribly for a time, then the screaming stopped. All was quiet except for the dreadful sound his body made when the smoke, now crouched low and strong, slammed him into some woodland obstacle. This creature wanted Felch as dead as dead can be.

Several villagers had heard the commotion and ventured outside of their homes to see Felch flutter by in a cloud of dust. Suddenly, the demon smoke turned off the path again, speeding directly into the woods with the lifeless body firmly in tow.

My heart sank. Felch was gone.

I landed in another tree, shocked and saddened by what I had seen. Existence in the village had turned very harsh once again.

Berric, my fellow sentinel, landed not far away. He had come to relieve me from my duties as lookout. I turned to him and blinked as I passed a thought: We have lost Felch to a smoke demon.

Berric stared at me in shock.

Stay here for a time, I sent, but come home before sunset.

Now that we knew the invaders had returned, everything would be changed for us.

He nodded gravely.

I glanced back at Radaul and he looked up inquisitively. Had he sensed my messages to Berric? I watched his grin turn to a hateful sneer. Something was terribly wrong with him.

I caught Berric’s eye for an instant, and then I soared off to the east. He would take over the vigil, keeping the village under his watchful gaze, as we had done for the past five years.

I flew low and fast for a short distance, over a meadow of green grass laced with berry tickets, and then rose into an outcropping of large boulders jutting out of a tree-covered hillside. I landed in an area where natural eagles lived. Many of them were sitting on well-worn nests. They paid no attention to me, for they were accustomed to my odd comings and goings. I mingled there for a few moments, to confuse anything that might be watching me, and then took off to the north. After a time, using one of my many evasive tactics when leaving the village, I turned east again. I had to be certain that nothing followed me to the secret place where my people were living in seclusion.

As I flew, my mind wandered. Felch gone, I thought, dragged away by dreaded smoke. I could not believe it. Then, memories of the horrific night invasion stormed into my mind as flashes of intense pain. Visions of the fires and the gruesome mutilations and abductions of my own family and friends bombarded me. I shook my head. I had to push the thoughts of that night away and get on with the job at hand. My people must be warned that the invaders of smoke had returned. They would be terrified. But, perhaps now they would be frightened into action, before it was too late.

I flew into rugged mountains of huge vertical granite walls studded with occasional pockets of stunted trees. The temperature cooled as I ascended and eventually, there were no more trees. Just the enormous gray cliff rose before me.

I climbed higher, following the craggy stone surface up. About two-thirds of the way to the top, I turned directly toward the face of solid rock. As I approached, I flared my wings to reduce speed and entered a dark hole several thousand feet up the cliff. Once inside, I handed on the sandy floor of the cave at a run. I had become the young man I truly am: big and hulking, with unruly black hair and patches of scraggly beard. I think I’m much better looking as an eagle.

This transformation had always amazed me, and I would never forget the first time I jumped out of that very portal. There had been no clear evidence that it would even work, and not one of us had tried it yet. All we had were some ancient writings that had been found in a room hidden deep within the caves. Brisfol, my mentor and longtime friend, had translated them and told me what they said. He even brought me to this place and showed it to me one day. And, as we stood at the opening and stared out at the vastness of the land far below us, he told me that in the writings it said that one would become a bird upon stepping out into space from here.

I remember turning from the view to gaze at Brisfol’s intelligent old face. I saw it blanch with realization, and as his mouth began to form the word no, I leapt out.

The frightful free fall should have killed me, but it didn’t, and now I made this transformation, from man to bird and back again, routinely, and without a second thought. We learned later that it might have been my lack of fear and my total faith in Bristol that had saved me from falling to my death. Brisfol had an opinion that fear didn’t work the same in Berric or me as it did in normal people. I supposed he was right. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have jumped in the first place. And, we wouldn’t have known the incredible joy of flight.

Osnelus appeared and threw a dark-blue robe over my naked shoulders. At twenty, he was a year younger than me, and my closest friend. He stood tall and strong with open good looks and a ready smile, but he presented a bit of a contradiction. I found him to be affable and humorous within our small circle of friends, yet dangerously formidable in the heat of battle. Even when we were youngsters, I wanted him at my back in a fight.

Osnelus’ mother died when he was an infant and his father had been killed fighting the smoke invaders. He and I were teenagers when the invasion occurred, but we fought and helped as much as possible. Our biggest contribution had been in helping evacuate several thousand of our people to the cave complex where we lived in hiding.

Once we had settled into our new cave home, Osnelus, Berric, and I had been assigned to be full-fledged warriors in what survived as our military. In the past, our fathers and grandfathers had fought many wars against human enemies who had come at us from the sea in boats. It lived in our blood to fight and defend and it suited us very well.

I tied the sash of the robe around my waist.

How is it with the village? he asked as he handed me a cup of water.

Felch has been killed by an invader. I drank deeply from the cup. Berric and I didn’t eat or drink when we were eagles, but when we were men again, we were exceedingly thirsty and hungry. This time the water tasted bitter to me. My friend Felch would not enjoy these simple things again.

The invaders made of smoke are back? Osnelus asked, bringing me back to the moment.

At least one that I saw, the one that killed him. But, and this is the strange part, I think Felch tried to get away from Radaul before the smoke attacked him. Radaul did nothing to help him.

Radaul was a friend to my family and to Felch. I can’t believe that he would turn on him.

Something has happened to him, but I don’t know what, I said.

How did they kill him?

They dragged him to death.

I hate the smoke monsters for the horrible ways they kill.

So do I. My heart grew so cold that I pulled the robe closer. Logic and hate were in precarious balance within me, at least for the moment. The hate told me to attack now, and reason kept me from it. That has to change, I thought. Now was the time for action. Come, we must inform the Council of this tragedy. With me, reason seldom prevailed.

Erom poked his head out of a square window carved into the caretaker’s alcove, then he disappeared. A moment later he walked out of the alcove doorway and joined us. Erom, a lanky lad of fifteen, had long, flyaway, blond hair, pale gray eyes, and the healthy brown skin of an outlander. He got this from standing in the sunlight, waiting for his eagles to return. Will Berric be coming back today? he asked quietly.

One of Erom’s jobs was to close the outside doors that concealed this entrance before sunset. Should any light be allowed to escape into the night, it would be a beacon for the invaders to find us. We had managed to keep this place a secret all these years through this type of careful attention to detail. But now something menacing was afoot.

Yes, he’ll be here before dark. Please wait for him.

He looked puzzled.

Felch has been killed, I said.

Oh, he said and disappeared back into his little room.

Osnelus and I looked at each other and shrugged. We thought of Erom as a damaged child, and there wasn’t much to do for him. But we completely trusted him to do a perfect job at the landing-cave and that was all that mattered right now. We didn’t ever worry that Erom might accidentally expose our light to the outside world. He would never do that. Never.

CHAPTER 2

DESPARATE MEASURES

Osnelus and I passed through a heavy curtain, a secure wooden door, and into the connecting cavern. People were coming and going, talking and laughing as they went. I loved being back with them, but I wished that I didn’t have such bad news to deliver.

The cavern city we lived in consisted of miles of caves and hollowed rooms. Some were natural and free flowing but most were cut straight and orderly out of the solid-rock mountain by an ancient mysterious people.

Hundreds of pairs of glowing, orangesized orbs set in iron holders lit our way. Our long-departed benefactors had also left these amazing globes. They had no flames or fumes and yet they gave off a bright, pleasant light. There were three types in all: those that gave light, those that emitted heat, which were used in conventional hearths and stoves, and those that enabled plants to grow without the benefit of sunlight. Touching two spheres together activated them. Separating the globes, even with a thin strip of wood or metal, extinguished them.

We had found caves where thousands of these unused globes had been stored away, each in its own carved niche in the granite walls.

We paused in front of a large bronze door set in an ornately carved alcove, which two sentries guarded. One of the sentries opened the door and stepped to one side when he recognized us.

The Council chamber was a huge rectangular room, hollowed out of solid granite, complete with polished stone pillars stretching from the floor to the high ceiling. There were two great fireplaces carved into the walls at each end of the vast room. The pillars and the stone of the fireplaces were of contrasting blue colors that gave the room an authoritative look. In the hearths, large globe fires were burning, casting a warm, golden glow. The room had been constructed to hold hundreds of people with row upon row of dark wooden pews, but our Council took up only a very small part of it. They were in session, but fell silent when we entered. We were warriors, not statesmen, and would come only when we had an urgent matter that required the Council’s immediate attention.

Isaiah, how are you? asked Prontal, speaking from the main pulpit, his voice deep and resonant. And, what brings you to us? He rose to nearly seven feet tall, and although eighty years old, he stood straight, with long white hair and beard. His eyes, once piercing, were now a dull gray, and his skin glowed pale as bleached parchment. Still a commanding presence, we revered him as our supreme leader.

I apologize for this interruption, but the demon invaders are present in the village, I said. They have killed Felch. I thought I might as well get to the point of why we were there.

Felch killed? Prontal asked. A hush came over the large room, and then loud, pathetic groaning began. Prontal raised his hand and the noise stopped. Please tell us what happened.

I told of the shadow smoke and Felch’s horrible death. More of them must be coming, I said. This could be the beginning of another invasion.

What makes you think they are coming back in force? Reterina asked.

Reterina was my age, and yet she had been chosen to serve on the Council as a representative of our youth. Tall and slim and startlingly beautiful, with soft brown eyes and shiny black hair, she always managed to make my heart skip when she looked