The Dark Age Chronicles: The Fall of Night.
Sertesdroy

Ihlodenreturned from the public bath to replace his family packing away the clothes andtransforming the caravan into sleep quarters. “Is it late already?” he askedlooking at the sky. Shila tossed a bundle at him.

“How kind off you to leaveus to fix up alone,” she said sarcastically, “you know how quick Overed nightscome, so make yourself useful and help us get this caravan up.”

“You sure are cranky,” saidIhloden frowning, “Nobody liked your dresses today, I presume.” He quietlyslipped the feather into the bundle.

“They liked them just fine,”said Shila with a toss of her head.

“Children!” said theirmother exasperated, “Enough! Can’t you two stop arguing long enough to get thecaravan up?” Ihloden looked at Shila ashamed. She had a shamed look on her facetoo.

“Okay,” she said, “Just long enough to get itup.”

Ihloden took the firstwatch. Overed was a nice enough place at daytime but at night, it waspractically overrun with thieves. Ihloden sat on the high front seat of thecaravan and stared off into the darkness. Some of the stalls had also beenchanged to sleep quarters. Other richer merchants were in inns, with servantsprotecting their stalls. Ihloden leaned back on the hard wood and let his eyessearch out the constellations in the stars. His eyes had picked out the Dog,the Serpent, the Fishes and he was just forming the constellation of the twoMen, when a hand touched his shoulder. “Cripes!” he yelled and sat up straight.Shila laughed softly.

“Easy brother,” she said,“My turn now. Anything I need to know?”

“Nope,” said Ihloden slipping around her andsettling into the caravan, “tonight’s unfortunately boring.” Shila smiled.

“Get some sleep,” she said kindly.

Ihloden looked at her in mock surprise,“That’s what I was planning to do! How did you know?” Shila grinned, shook herhead, sighed and pulled the caravan cloth over his head. Ihloden grinned andclosed his eyes.

Ihloden woke to the sun shining directly inhis face. “Arggh,” he shouted shutting his eyes and getting up. Shila wasalready dressed and modeling clothes for passers-by. People were crowded aroundher and Ihloden grinned as she twirled and moved gracefully showing off thedresses to their maximum. His mother looked up and saw him, “Go bathe and comeback,” she said.

“Yes mother,” he said andtook off. When he got back his mother already had a suit laid out for him tomodel. Ihloden slipped into the clothes and joined Shila. Most of the day wasspent modeling. Ihloden hated doing it. It was like a livestock sale. But themoney was welcome to them and the look of pride on his mother’s face as heparaded in the attire and the smiles when they were sold were enough to makehim swallow his pride. It was long past noon when his mother decided to closeup shop so she and Shila could go shopping.

“Go and see if the horsesare okay, will you Ihloden?” she asked.

Ihloden nodded, “Sure.”

“And you can go and getanything you want also,” she said pressing some gold coins into his hand, “Youearned it today,” she said.

Ihloden looked at the coins and grinned,“Thanks mother,” he said and hugged her. His mother and Shila went off. Helooked around and slipped the Griffin feather out from the hidden place in thebundle and up his sleeve and then he turned to go check out the horses.

The stable part of the City was the same, if alittle worst than when he first came. He tried not to breathe too deeply. Thestench was enough to make anyone retch. He found the stables that he put thehorses and asked to stable boy if he could go inside. The stable boy a, littlemouse of a lad, nodded and let him inside. Inside was a lot better thanoutside. It was dark and lamps shone with a soft light, but most of all it wasclean. Ihloden found their horses. “How are you boys handling it all?” heasked, rubbing their noses. The horses looked him straight in the eye and hegot a distinct feeling that they were just waiting to get out of Overed.“What’s wrong boys?” he asked. They didn’t move but stared right at him. Hebegan to feel uncomfortable. He shook his head in an effort to chase thefeeling away. It didn’t go. “Just keep yourselves together till it’s time to gohome, okay?” he said to the horses. They both snorted and nodded. Ihloden gavethem both a last pat, nodded to the stable boy as he passed by and plunged outof the area as fast as he could.

As soon as he reached the vending areas, aloud fanfare pierced the air. He spun around to face the Northern Gates. “Who’scoming?” he asked.

“No one,” said a vendor as his elbow, “JustOvered soldiers.” Ihloden frowned at the man’s blatant disrespectful statement.

“You might want to have a bit of patriotism,”Ihloden said coldly. The man looked up surprised.

“Patriotism?” he said, “Ha!I would have patriotism if our soldiers would have some too.”

Ihloden snorted in disgustand moved away. Anger seethed in his heart. He hated cowardice and hypocrisy.Just because someone does not have the strength to believe in something,doesn’t mean that you must give up too. But in the back of his mind the man’sword’s bothered him; he had to see what the man meant. He made his way towardthe procession of soldiers that was streaming though the gate. People were alsoheading in the same direction and Ihloden found that he could not get through themass of bodies. He was jostled and squashed against the wall of Overed’s MainSpire. He moved along the wall, till he was in line with a stone stall. With abit of swinging and leverage he clambered up to the roof of the stall andstood. He saw a long line of sliver helmets with long, black, pennant tied,lances. On the pennant was the symbol of Lyficen; the serpent star above theFortress symbol of Overed.

Suddenly it stuck him what the man had said.Overed had even forfeited it symbol for Lyficen. He felt sick. Then he realizedthat he did feel sick. A nasty wave of nausea was creeping up on him. Heclamped his teeth shut and held him stomach, and looked around for a place tovomit. Then the figure caught his eye. He was astride a magnificent black stallion,and black leather armor covered the broad chest. For a moment Ihloden forgotabout his nausea. The man sat comfortably in the saddle. Long white hair laylike a sheet behind him and covered the right side of his face. Ihloden lookedon with awe. Then the man turned and looked straight at him. The wave of nauseahit him hard and he stumbled to his knees. It kept getting worst as the mangazed at him. Ihloden swore that he saw a reddish glow from the behind the hairover the man’s face. Then the man turned and the sick feeling lessened. Thetruth didn’t make Ihloden feel any better; the man was the one that made himfeel sick. He stayed there till the procession passed out of view. Only thendid his stomach feel any better. Ihloden climbed down from the stall and beganto move toward the caravan. His body felt tired all over but his mind wastense. All he wanted to do was to get to the caravan and make sure Shila andhis mother was safe.

The night passed fitfully for Ihloden. Hisdreams were plagued by the man he saw in the parade. Shila and his mother hadseen the parade and the strange man, but they did not experience anything outof the ordinary. Ihloden wondered if this was due to his special abilities.Maybe the land did not like this man, but why? He woke up on a bad mood. Hegrumbled through the morning, thorough the modeling and through the packing up.This was their last day in Overed and his mother had decided to close up earlyand let them have a half day of freedom. Ihloden didn’t want a half day offreedom. He wanted to head home as soon as possible, away from the city, awayfrom the sadness, and away from scary men. But he set out to see Overed for thelast time anyway. As he walked along the stone paths, his mood began to improve.Many people only stayed three days in Overed also and they had set out thewares in all their glory. There were gold and precious gems, brightly dyedcloth, silk, and even weaponry. Ihloden was just passing by a stall of jewelryand had stopped to buy something for Shila and his mother, when a deep voicecalled out, “Hey there boy!” He turned and saw the strange man leaning againstthe outer wall of the city. He looked around hoping that the man was callingsomeone else, but his luck was out.

“Yes you, Come here.” the man said with alaugh. Ihloden sighed and went over to the man.

“Yes sir?” he asked. The man looked hard athim with his one eye then smiled a little.

“What is your name?” heasked.

“Ihloden,” said Ihloden.

“Ihloden,” the man said,“The people here call me Nargon, but my master calls me Sertesdroy. Do you knowwhat that means?” Ihloden shook his head; the wave of nausea was back.

Nargon leaned close to him,“It means Destroyer. Do you know why?”

Ihloden shook his headagain. The nausea was getting worst. He looked up at the man frantically, andhis heart went to his mouth. Behind the white hair, there was a red glow. Fearbegan to grip him; what did this man want? “It means Destroyer because my kinddestroys, not only land but the minds of men.”

Ihloden couldn’t concentrateon what the man was saying. His head was throbbing now, his stomach feltterrible but his eyes would not move from the man’s face. “You can see it,can’t you,” Nargon hissed, “the glow of my eye. Only those who have had contactwith Griffins can see it you know.” Nargon grabbed Ihloden‘s arm, the one thathad the griffin feather up the sleeve. Ihloden cried out. A searing hot painripped into his flesh. Nargon looked triumphant. “Griffin,” he growled, andtore the sleeve. Ihloden watched in horror as the large feather fluttered tothe ground. The Sertesdroy looked the feather then turned slowly to look athim. “My boy,” Nargon said, “You just wrote your death sentence.”