The Lengthening Shadow
Chapter 22: “Blood money is worth nothing

“I said, I offer you a chance to repent.” called Samuel. He knew he was in a dangerous position, trapped between the pass and Glinger’s army. The jackal looked at him quizzically. “What did you say?”

“I said, I offer you a chance. Glinger, friend jackal, honored Nova, repent! There is a choice between darkness and light, offered to the highest and lowest of all beings. I have chosen the light, the goodness. Light is the compassion, kindness, friendship, love in the world. Dark is black and evil, signifying nothing but death and malice. No sane animal would sacrifice the light that is in all of us for money. Being paid to kill someone is evil, the very thing that Dark thrives on. Turn to the light, Glinger, do not shun it. As long as there are some who choose the Dark, it will survive forever. The more who turn to Light, the less power the Dark has over existence. Jealousy, is that not why you chose to take the path down the road of evil? Jealousy, anger, hate, greed, that is what caused the Dark in the beginning of time. Evil began with jealous murder. It must end with the Light prevailing over all, goodness sweeping the world. Money is not the point of existence. Embracing the light is the goal of life. Life, the world, everything began in the light of goodness. If you turn Light, the Dark will have suffered a terrible blow. You must! Just listen to me, Glinger! Do not destroy me, your only chance for redemption. That is the reason I stayed behind. Sometimes we must all make sacrifices, risking our lives in service of the Light. My friend, you can make a difference. We all can! Everybeast is granted this choice. As long as there is one Dark one, the Dark will continue. But it will not prevail, as long as there are Light ones. We must upset the balance in favor of Light. Money is the source of greed. Greed is one of the Dark’s most evil arms. Have you ever read the old story, The Three Children of Leafhand? That tells of how evil started, if any have read the entire lay. Lendor the Dark, lord of evil, was once Light. All started as Light. Glinger, you have the very qualities of the best of us Light ones! It is your choices that define you, not how you were born, or what you were told to believe. If you choose Light or Dark, it shows what qualities in you have the upper hand. Let your inner Light shine, Glinger! The blood of Leafhand flows in me. It flows in all who are the Light. Even if you are a Maow, a lizard, or a vermin, Crow’s blood flows in you, the blood of Leafhand’s beloved equal and sister. We are all kin, whether we decide to believe that or not. Please listen! The repentance and redemption is what happens to us all. All of us who choose the Dark over the Light. Thazanc, Anarok, Thrakö Dûrkatûl, they are all embodiments of the Dark, as are the beasts that rule and have ruled them. Dark is in all the three worlds. But we can stop it. Change can begin with one beast’s choice, and it could be yours, Glinger! Choose the good and the kindness in the world. I know that the Dark can offer power. I know that it can give you all you could think of. But only what you could think of as a Dark one. But being able to choose the Light is the greatest power of all. By the Light gods Alé and Promethia, and even the Dark gods Lark and Dimrein, give up your allegiance to Thazanc. Blood money is worth nothing.”

Glinger spat on the ground in front of the barricade. Pushing back his red cloak to reveal black armor, he whipped out a pistol and shot. Samuel ducked just in time as the bullet nicked his ear and exploded on the rock wall of the pass. “Glinger! I offered you redemption, and you spat at me. I offered you a chance to change your ways, and you shot at me. You left me no choice but to do what I am about to do now.” With that, he unslung his rifle Leafshot. Seventeen Thazancians had fallen before the jackal realized what was happening. “Kill him! Kill the mouse! He must not escape!”

The battle began in earnest. Several battalions in turtle formation, shields protecting their front, top, and sides, marched up to the barricade and put up small ladders. Samuel ran along the wall, somehow dodging all the crossbow bolts until he reached the attackers. The swinging broadsword cleaved through iron and vermin alike, bashing ladders off the barricade. About a dozen fang-helmed Elites got up and hacked at the mouse with their huge, bludgeoning swords. Samuel ducked one nasty swing, only to have one of the Elite’s weapons slash into his left arm. Samuel took out the stoat, killed another rat, then retreated to a corner and bandaged his arm. Samuel got up and stumbled when a crossbow bolt hit him in the leg. Wounded in two places, the mouse got up and impaled the Elite standing above him with sword raised.

Glinger was amazed at the mouse’s fighting skills. He had lost fifty-seven, no, now fifty-eight Thazancians, and Samuel showed no signs of weakening. The jackal urged his forces on. “Come on, buckoes, we can take him! He’s only a mouse!” However, the mouse in question had upped his total to sixty-three and counting. It was getting evening, and the Thazancians were encouraged by the darkness. Kicking the final ladder off the wall. Samuel drew Leafshot again, swinging the elegant rifle into position. He fired again and again, the bullets illuminating the now-dark scene. Captain Belan, one of Glinger’s officers, led another charge. His polecat ears picked up a sound. It was like a high whistling, coming closer. Belan turned just in time to see one of Leafshot’s bullets whizzing towards his head. That was the last thing he ever saw. Samuel’s shot wiped out the polecat’s life.

An troop hauled several ballistas into the action, priming the giant crossbows for maximum power. Giant spear-like arrows flew just over Samuel’s head, missing him by a few inches. The mouse grabbed a bullet out of his pouch and fired. Captain Taktor the water rat ducked and let the bullet slay an Elite behind him. Several more Thazancian troops with ladders and crossbows mounted the wall again, only to meet the mouse who had already killed so many of them. Samuel shot and shot and shot, holding the line of Thazancians back. A troop of Elites came up the ladders to reinforce the attackers, aiming long, black guns at the lone defender.

Amazingly, he dodged every flying bit of metal. The silvery broadsword clove one weasel’s head and ran through a stoat. The ladders were knocked down over and over, crushing many soldiers with the heavy wooden rungs. Glinger pushed his way through to Killcat. “How many have we lost?”

“I don’t know, sir. He’s slain too many to count!”

“I don’t care how many that ’e killed! I want that mouse dead! All of the mouses!”

“Sir, isn’t mouses not a word?”

Glinger smacked the officer in the face. “Shut up!” The jackal drew two pistols from his belt. “Killcat! Get someone to replace Captain Belan! Emergency promotion!” The fisher cat obeyed, grabbing the weasel who had wounded Samuel with a crossbow. “What’s yer name?”

“Deadtooth, sir.”

“Yer promoted.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The new Captain Deadtooth ordered several ballistas to fire grappling hooks. One cut Samuel’s foot as it hooked over the barricade. Ladders were starting to be pulled up when the mouse warrior made his move. As a ferret, grinning, was at the top of a ladder preparing to jump off onto the wall, the Fernwood sword cut the rope with a discordant twang! The ladders plummeted downwards, killing even more. Glinger saw that he had significantly less soldiers, though how that was possible against one lone mouse he did not know. The dark Nova called to his engineer. “Rendwire! Get the Wyrms and the grendana into position! Kill the mouse or I’ll have you executed!” The cat did the only thing he could do: he got the huge double catapult into range of the defense.

The jackal’s cry split the relative silence. “Prepare to fire!” Rendwire flipped switches and adjusted wires until all he needed to do was set the range. Samuel, knowing that even he could do nothing against flaming boulders, prepared Leafshot. The bullet, for some reason red-hot, flew straight and true into the tank of grendana fuel. The fiery explosion snuffed out the lives of Rendwire, Killcat, the Wyrms, and half the remaining Thazancians. The rest, led by Glinger, ran up the blazing hill towards the barricade. Many were blasted by the rifle, but Glinger still mounted the slope and he climbed, followed by his soldiers, over the wall. Samuel faced them without even blinking. “So, jackal, you have chosen death.”

“Aye, but it will be your death, mouse.”

“I give you one last chance. Light or Dark?”

“I hold no stake with your philosophy. All I need is power, and a lot of it.”

“You have fallen farther than I imagined.”

Glinger did not answer. Instead, he called Deadtooth and Taktor forwards. The pair of captains drew maces. Samuel laid Leafshot by his side, taking up the sword that he had owned from birth. The weasel and rat rushed forwards, pitting heavy Thazancian metal against Fernwood steel.

“Vi’lleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Both vermin were driven back by the ferocity of the mouse. So surprised were they that, before the pair could do anything, the blade had slid through them. Taktor and and the weasel simultaneously fell dead. Glinger had prepared for this. That mouse cannot stand much longer. He must not! I must kill him, whether I die or not. It is my duty as a true Thazancian.

However, Glinger’s prediction did not prove true. When he turned to face the soldiers he found that they were dead, with Samuel standing over them. The jackal knew he had to make a last stand. He drew a thin rapier and swung it menacingly. “Your time has come, mouse. Prepare to die!”

“It is you who shall die, jackal.”

The swords met and were swung in many different moves; parries and strikes and thrusts. The two duelers shifted position until Samuel was driven to the edge of the barricade, above the inferno of flames and smoke. Glinger raised up his blade. Samuel had to conquer or die. He lunged to the side, away from the edge, but was pushed up against the mountain wall, his paws slipping on the bloodstained Barricade of Shadow Pass. The centuries-old stone was heating, sucking in thermal energy from the fire in the valley.

“I will never give in to the Dark, Glinger. Stop trying.”

“You really expect me to give in to your demands, puny weakling? I have more power than you can imagine.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha. Power comes from worth, not slaying your way to the top.”

“Please, you’re joking. The only way to become at the top is to get there any way you can.”

Several sparks flew up and popped in the dark silence. The two rivals faced each other and said nothing. However, Glinger was slowly raising his rapier. He brought it up suddenly and swung down. But, the thin blade was no match for the broad cutting edge of a broadsword. With a metallic snapping noise, the jackal’s weapon broke in half. He knew that his reign of terror was over. Kneeling down, he spat at Samuel’s feet as the mouse brought the weapon down on his neck. It ended with head rolling off the wall into the fire. Samuel kicked the body after it and realized something. He had saved the company from death by slaying three hundred Thazancians by himself. It was a mind-boggling concept.

The mouse jumped off the wall on the Shadow Pass side and ran up the path to the ancient mountain of Hallowspike. He reached the company at roughly midnight. They continued up the mountain and rested only occasionally to apply the Nanduvar to Aidan and Malcolm. The company had lost no beasts on the entire mission, save a few lizards who had fallen in the Wolfrider attack at Cavern Valley.

The fifty journeyed up and up until they had nearly reached the Light Altar at the summit. Samuel and Grace scouted ahead until they found a cave decorated with carvings. The squirrel called back to the group, “I think I’ve found a place where we can rest!” They went in and explored until everyone was settling down for the night. Samuel was about to go to sleep when a voice boomed out “What are you doing in my cave?”