The Legend of Jay-Troi. The Immortal. Book Two

By Daniel Menéndez Cuervo

The incredible life of Jay-troi a sagra warrior trying to find where he belongs in a savage world where danger can come from any place and at any time, strange alliances, long wars and deadly battles...

"The Legend of Jay-Troi. The Immortal" became best-selling fantasy novel in the Spanish-speaking world.

"The legend of Jay-Troi brings together all the ingredients of the best literature of epic adventures"

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Apr 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781547522019

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BOOK II

1

The cruel summer sun advanced towards noon devastating the south lands of the forest of Onge. Those places that the stubborn ilios farmers, after years of efforts, took away from the bushes to turn them into a part of the Plains. It pushed them, in faraway times, the hope of fertile lands. Their intrepid tenacity did not discover but sterile lands and there were not many that found a place to accommodate in those forgotten parts of the kingdom of Iliath. In the last days of the reign of Sial Aon only a handful of ilios suffered in those regions in lost villages.

Some tens of men, women, and children, fatigued and ragged, plowed the dry land round the small village of Ota, with the constant watch of some dark rian riders. They strolled fierce and arrogant showing their cruel whips to the fearful and exhausted farmers. They did not hesitate on using them on the backs of all those who dared interrupt the work even for a moment.

One of the riders saw a giant of red hair that was handling the hoe with evident indifference. He got close to him. The disgusting paleness of his face shown the disdain towards these people. His intriguing eyes of undefined color shine furiously.

The ilio, without raising his head started plowing with more energy while he was saying:

Damn stone! Luckily, I got rid of it and then continue with my work not being afraid of breaking my hoe!

The rian made a gesture to beat the ilio with the whip when some voices that came from the village called his attention. A wagon pulled by two skinny oxen was getting close to the farming lands. The rider forgot about his prey and went to the wagon. When he was far away, the ilio raised his head and looking with hatred to the back of the rian, whispered to himself:

Damn dog! By the abyss that, if fortune smiled at me for one instant and in this wretched land I could find a stone and smash it in your hideous head and would irrigate this dry floor with your filthy blood.

He said this and left the hoe fall with indifference, and just like his comrades, abandoned his place and walked to the wagon. The oxen had stopped at the beginning of the farm land. The man driving it released the reins and climbed to the box of the wagon. There a big smoking pot waited. With the liquid boiling in inside he started filling some bow dirty and warmed bowls. Every now and then he interrupted his task and delivered some bowls to the ilios that were gathering next to the wagon.

When the turn of the red giant arrived, he looked at his disgusting ration and asked:

Is this filthy water enough food for someone forced to work restless from sun to sun?

The man in the wagon continued with the delivery as if he had not listened to any complain. The giant stayed in front of him for a moment, then made a gesture of boredom and retired in search for a place where he could eat his limited food.

He sat as he could under the boney shadow of a dry little tree. He took the bowl to his mouth and slurped until he finished it. When he finished, he discovered a child skinny and pale in front of him, with big eyes that was looking at him astonished.

¿What do you want?

The kid smiled and with a fearful voice asked:

Are you Marpei?

The giant scrutinized the kid with distrust and surprise.

By all the demons in the abyss! What are you talking about?

Is your name Marpei?

Marpei? I have never heard that word. Marpei? My name is Lafto. That is how my mother called me the day she threw me from her womb. Never, in the long days of my life, have I responded to another name than this one. And I would gamble both of my arms that it would be like this until the last day, because at my age it is difficult to change the costume of responding to your own name. Don’t you think, young man?

Have you been a partner with Jay-Troi?

Me! Where did you come up with that crazy idea? I have never held any type of weapon. I have always been a hardworking farmer. Partner with Jay-Troi! Tell me, why did you think something like that?

I heard it from the elders of the village last night. They said that the man that got here before the rians ones that one day accompanied Jay-Troi.

Nonsense. The heads of those old men are hollow pumpkins that have no use other than imagine lies. I have always been a man of peace, not related to adventures. For years I did not know another place than the village where I was born. Amt, it was called, and still call it, nothing makes me believe that it is not still called like that. A couple of moons ago I abandoned those lands, the rian dogs had arrived. I decided to go in search of a forgotten place, so those damn dogs could not find in any way. How big is my misfortune that it seemed as if they were after me! Who could have imagined that they would want something from such a miserable village like this one? But this is what we have; here I am, away from my own, and in company of those rian dogs. There is nothing to tell, my history is no other than of a vulgar farmer called Lafto, of scarce understanding, that as you can see, fortune has never favored.

Sorry to bother you, said the kid.

He turned and started to walk away dragging himself with huge disappointment.

Hold on for a moment, the giant told him. Come here and tell me: what do you know of that Jay-Troi?

The boy filled his mouth with enthusiasm and said:

"That he was the greatest warrior that has never walked through the Known Lands.

The man with the red hair smiled and said:

Of that you can be pretty sure.

Then you knew him! he yelled.

The man made a rushed gesture ordering the boy to shut up. Then he looked around and, seeing that nobody was listening, he said in a low voice:

First of all, tell me your name.

Dico.

Does this name correspond to a man with a word; of those you can trust their lives with any fear of losing it?

The kid nodded with fervor.

Never tell anyone what I am about to tell you.

Dico said no with the same enthusiasm used when he said yes before.

My true name is Marpei and yes, as you have been told, I was Jay-Troi’s partner. And more than that, his right hand. Because I was the first ilio that knew what he was worth. Since our first encounter we were inseparable. I saved his life a hundred times! And a hundred times I owe him mine! There has never been a man like that before. I would have believed, from the very instant that we crossed paths, that he would rule the Known Lands.

It was not like that, said Dico with sadness.

No. Everyone knows how the story ended. But there is no demerit to put on Jay-Troi. By the abyss that it does not. His destiny would have been other if the number of traitors that set foot on this land was not bigger than the stars that cover the night sky. But there is nothing to be done now, what has happened ever changes, it matters less how awful it was. However, be sure that, if he had not gone unarmed into Iliath, today those dogs would have gone back to their damn desert leaving a trail of countless deaths.

Why did he go into Iliath if he knew they were waiting for him?

You are too young to understand. He clung onto the hope to save his loved one. For him, in that moment, nothing else mattered but princess Aglaya.

Marpei seemed willing to continue but he noticed that one of the rian riders was approaching them.

Here it comes the filthiest dog in the Known Lands. I have no more hope than to enjoy the crushing the head of that despicable Otor until I turn in into an irecognicible bloody pulp. Now go back to your work or that miserable that calls himself the leader of this flock of dogs uses his whip on your back. Find me at night and I will tell you what you want about Jay-Troi. You can be sure that you will not find a more suitable man to do this throughout the Known Lands.

They went back to their labor and continued working with no pause until sunset. Always being watched by the cruel rians.

2

That night, the weak light of the moon went in the tumbledown barn through the cracks on the damaged roof. In the lower part, on the ground, several ilios who were driven away their homes were sleeping. Marpei was snoring really loud over a good amount of hay. Suddenly, something interrupted the tranquility of his dream and he woke up startled. As fast as he could, he tried to get up to face the threat.

By the entire abyss, it is you! exclaimed in a whisper when he discovered that Dico was before him.·What are you doing here?

You promised me to tell me about Jay-Troi.

Yes, I did, but I never thought that you would come in the middle of the night. How long until the sun comes out?

I couldn’t come before. The rians were entertained more than usual in the tavern. As soon as they left, and making sure they could not see me, I left.

In the tavern! What attachment do these damned dogs have with wine! In front of a good jar they could pass for true ilios. What madness just escaped from my clumsy mouth! By all the abyss since I left my mother’s womb such nonsense had never left my lips! To take one of those filthy dogs for a true man! There is no doubt that this bad life that I am living is clouding my mind. My brains are drying under this relentless sun...

Marpei looked at the boy suspiciously to the boy and asked:

What the hell were you doing in the tavern?

Sometimes, the rians use me there as a servant and force me to serve them wine and food.

By the abyss that I don’t understand why you didn’t start there! Ja, ja, you and I will be great friends. You can be sure of it. We will share each night, I will tell you everything you want about the adventures of Jay-Troi and you will hide and bring a jar of good wine so that I can wet my dusty throat.

If I knew, I would have tried to bring some for this night.

But of course, you fool! You should have done that if you were a smart bright boy. No one smart enough would have forgotten that some liquor would make a man like me happy. Do not worry that you would have plenty of opportunities to correct your mistake of today. Ay, young friend, what I would not give for some wine!

Maybe in another time.

Yes, I would like that. Now let’s take advantage of what is left of the night. What do you want me to tell you?

The boy shrunk his shoulders while, in the dark of the barn he was watching at the giant with expectations.

"Take a sit on this pack of hay and I will tell you about Jay-Troi until you fall down to sleep. There are hundreds of stories to tell. How many good memories! And one that I do not want to remember. And there is only one that I do not want to remember. It was the moment of our goodbye in the Hill of the Sun... Oh, what a dark morning! There are few times in which I remember that Jay-Troi does not come back to my memory together with the image of his dead face then. He really knew what was waiting for him in Iliath and in his eyes, all the fear that this caused him. Never before have I seen him frightened this way. Despite this, he descended to the White City without hesitating and never looked back not more a moment. What happened then everybody knows it and do not wish to remember it.

Then the dogs did not keep their promise. They told us they would let us go if Jay-Troi agreed to their demands. However, as soon as they caught him the started chasing us. They are restless. There is nothing that decreases the strength of those beasts. They followed us day and night, without rest. With such rage that at the second day the urgency and the fatigue had separated us in small groups. We were nothing that a handful of fugitives that in nothing can remember the powerful army that they had formed. Despite this, they continued after us. Those dogs chase their prey with a heat that would make the wildest beast turn pale. Some of ours were falling exhausted with no energy to continue running away. After a week, that it could have been a whole moon or just two or three days, because nobody could with certainty count the sunrises in such circumstances, after that not accurate time, more than a dozen riders reached the Valley of the Kings. Have you ever heard of those places?

Never.

They are east, a few journeys from here. At the base of the Great Mountain Chain. Beautiful places, of the most beautiful that I have seen. They make a small number of small and twisted valleys roamed by furious streams where a thick vegetation grows everywhere. Today nobody lives in those lands, but in the time of the Only Kingdom they were the resting place of the Lords of the Ocean.

The Lords of the Ocean! exclaimed Dico.

Yes, I see that maybe you have heard of them.

They arrived at the Known Lands from the other side of the Great Ocean and thanks to their wisdom they founded the Only Kingdom, in which peace and prosperity lasted for more than a thousand years.

Marpei twisted his expression, fixed his eyes on his little partner, and said:

Do not believe all the nonsense that come to your ears. If the Only Kingdom had been so prospering and the Lords of the Ocean such good rules, there would still be at the throne of Iliath. I bet both of my arms that, if it wasn’t like that, the blame would be on some wrong steps given by those virtuous men. Remember the famous story of Adin’s Throat. Do you think it is right that such wise men take an entire army into that unfortunate place?

Marpei made a pause. The boy, with a scared gesture, said no with his head.

"Of course, no! Going through that dark pass is not at the reach of just anybody. That feat corresponds to the big ones.

Jay-Troi crossed Adin’s Throat! exclaimed Dico.

Of course! Do you know who was with him without fading for an instant throughout that long way? I did. By all the abyss that I did. Even Jay-Troi felt terrified in front of the entrance of that horrible place. If it wasn’t for my determination, he would have gone back, because in there, even the most intrepid feel how their courage disappears.

Did you get scared too?

Never! replied Marpei with an exaggerated conviction. I am a man that has seen too much to fear nothing. Jay-Troi was young and with no experience. In the entrance of the gorge his face turned as pale as the moon, and I told him: come on, boy, there is no other way, and nothing that may come out will resist the edge of our fierce and sharpened swords. We did it; we went through the gorge and came back the same way without stopping to rest for an instant. And after such an effort...they took us for liars! They laughed at our faces accusing us of deceitful. Ha! We didn’t give them much time to gloat on their mockery. Immediately we took the path again towards Adin’s Throat. By all the abyss, they forced us to go back and, so we did! Well shut their mouths were on our second return. Nobody dared make fun of us because...

How does Adin’s Throat look like?

What kind of question is that! Do you think wise to talk about a place like that in the middle of the night? No wise man would do it, and neither will I. what were we talking about?

Of your return from...

No, hell! I do not want to talk about that horrible gorge. What were we talking about before that?

"The Valley of the Kings.

Right! You are a really sharp kid. Yes, we were running away from the rians and we arrived at the Valley of the Kings. I already told you that the vegetation there grows everywhere. There are thousands and thousands of thick trees. Every now and then, amongst them some ruins appear of constructions of the Lords of the Ocean. That is all you can find in that impenetrable thickness. There we trusted we could lose the rians, and we did, at the expense of us getting lost too. We were not more that fifteen that arrived at the Valleys and before the first sunrise I got lost myself. And you could say that I am still lost because since that day I haven’t heard from my partners. In the long and dark three years that have passed since the fall of Iliath, I have not had any news from them, not even from my friend Deleben. I am afraid that fortune has not smiled at them like it did me, who knows what happened to them. After a few days I was able to leave that thickness. There was no trace of the rians and I went ahead to my home town. I thought that Amt was a place poor enough and far away enough to interest those damn dogs. Unfortunately, they ended up arriving and then I decided the change of scene.

Did this place seemed like a nice place?

By the abyss it did not. The village is a hundred times worse than Amt. far away, smaller, and miserable. That is why I choose it. Because I thought it was insignificant enough for the rians to try and find it.

Marpei placed his hand in his neck.

By the abyss that it could even be bad, of any kind would serve to tear the dust from my throat! I’ll tell you what we are going to do in the following days. You will come at night and I will tell you all the stories that you want, and in return, you will bring some wine. There is no doubt you won’t have any difficulty to swipe one or two jars to those stinky dog bastards. What do you think? I do not see any difficulty for such a smart kid.

Dico nodded smiling.

Of course not! exclaimed Marpei. What do you want me to tell you now?

Tell me about everything that allows me to be as big and strong as Jay-Troi, I want to be like him so that I can ace the rians and throw them out of these lands forever.

Marpei smiled with sadness.

Do not let anyone deceive you ever. Jay-Troi was not a powerful giant. If we had faced with our bared hands, I would have torn him in half without too much effort. I have known hundreds of men that could have beaten him easily.

He was invincible! replied Dico.

Invincible? I also heard he was immortal. But that is not true. All of us, before or after, wait for death and our lives end there. Neither rich nor powerful, neither brave nor coward. Nobody escapes the last defeat. Not even Jay-Troi... By the abyss, he was not a great warrior! Just a hunter that had never held a sword in his life. I think he also never knew how to use a shield, did not handle the bow right and luck barely held him on his mount. Although the lack of skill as a rider ended up when he found Essar. That horse was born to be mounted by Jay-Troi and you have never seen such a beautiful image in the Known Lands that the gallop of that animal carrying Jay-Troi in his back. He was not a warrior, just a hunter. That is what he was educated for, to catch beasts in the merciless White Peaks. And it is true that they did a good job, his sight could reach further than any known man, he could climb smooth walls as mirrors with the agility of a squirrel and could handle the spear with an outstanding skill.

That is why no one could defeat him.

By the abyss, that has nothing to do with it, I am trying to explain to you! He was never invincible; he suffered wounds like any other men. I have seen him bleed exhausted and I also thought he was beaten. However, even in the worst times, he never showed the will to lose. We could say that he did not know fear. Or at least, that a rage possessed him capable of scaring all of his fears. Yes, that was his virtue, inside of him he kept all of the demons of the Known Lands, and when he unleashed his wrath there was no enemy willing to face him. Who would have considered with enough strength to stop the attack of such a storm that was Jay-Troi? No one in their right mind would dare to do it. No one.

The voice of Marpei had been losing strength while he was speaking; his last word was a whisper hard to hear. After that he stroke his beard slowly, he seemed sad and tired.

The dogs found a way to catch him, he whispered. And the shame of having abandoned him will chase us forever.

What can I do to be like him?

May fortune avoids you to be like him! I cannot imagine such a terrible ending. And there is nothing to envy from his life. He suffered a thousand tragedies, everyone despised him, even his own expelled him from his land. He was mistreated everywhere, and he was always an outcast, a bit less than a filthy worn. From the accumulated hatred of so many humiliations his wrath was born that turned him into the most powerful warrior of the Known Lands. And that did him no good. When everyone admired him, and crowds waited for hours to claim his passing, when he finally could be at peace, when the beautiful Aglaya was waiting for him with overwhelming impatience for his return...

The sound of the hoofs of horses that were approaching forced Marpei to remain quiet. Him and Dico quiet and in silence, heard them getting close. With relief they corroborated that the animal continued his way away until they couldn’t perceive its trout.

It is weird that those dogs pass so late by the village. Nothing good can come from this behavior.

I thought they were coming after us.

I would have bet my right arm that they were. And still I ask what they are looking for in this dark night.

I should go.

It is not a good time, you should stay, here where they will not find you and it will be a thousand times worst that they found you out there. Sleep tight, at dawn, when they gather us to go to the fields; they will not know where you came from. And remember, if these encounters should happen again, it would be good if you brought some wine, because summer will end, and the nights will be frozen.

3

Summer withdrew quickly, scared before the arrival of the fierce autumn. The warm journeys ended, and a frozen wind started to blow from the north bringing with it an unstoppable rain that lasted for weeks. Water ended up covering all the lands from the surroundings of the lands of Ota, turning those fields into swamps that were impossible to work in. despite that, the rians forced the ilios to continue with their tough labors. Men advanced with huge effort in the mud and painfully plowing the ground to dig brief burrows that the water erased without a pause. The rians got mad because of the lack of results and punished everybody with extreme cruelty that were trying to catch their breath. They killed some that declared they were uncapable to continue. One of the heads of the village dared to indicate the rians how useless these labors were. They opened their gut and tied his agonizing body to the log of an oak to rot under the rain. Day after day the ilios had to work on the macabre presence of that corpse being devoured by the crows.

He was a good man said Dico to Marpei.

After their first encounter, the boy had turned into the shadow of Marpei. Nobody else took care of the boy. His mother had of the pest ad his father consumed by grief a little time before the arrival of the rians.

He would still be a good man if he knew how to keep his tongue still, answered Marpei.

His claim was fair.

Marpei showed a gesture of desperation.

By the abyss that donkeys should own all of these lands, he sighed. "Even the most stubborn would understand in an instant that the rians do not know the word justice. They know nothing about compassion or mercy and do not understand other thing than force. If you want to get old, try not to follow the example of brave loudmouths like this