Across the Face of the World by Russell Kirkpatrick

mission? Who was my king? I think rhey already knew the answers because they were gentle by Bhrudwan standards. When I didn't tell them, they tied my hands behind my back. Again they asked me questions, and whenever I answered they did things to my hands. I couldn't see what they were doing, and it drove me wild. It didn't seem to matter whether 1 gave them a good answer or just babbled nonsense; they burned or pierced or crushed my hands and asked me again. I can't remember much about it, thankfully. Just pain. I don't know what I told them in the end.'
    The fire flickered in the grate as Hal placed another log on the embers.

    'I came to in a wooden case with three small airholes in it. I was taken on a long journey -
    probably three or four weeks, I lost track of time - and was let out once a day to relieve myself. They gave me just enough food and water to stay alive. I used to sob with the pain from the cramps in my arms and legs. It was worse than being beaten with sticks. I think they were trying to break me down, softening me for what was ahead.
    'I know I spent the last two days of my journey at sea. I had no idea where I was going. But when I was finally freed from my tiny prison I found myself on the island called Andratan.'
    The silence around them deepened at the mention of that name, as though a dark spell had been invoked. Outside, the falling snow deadened any sound there might have been; inside, the four people sat absolutely still. A name of power, a name of fear. Andratan.
    Andratan? Leith shook his head disbelievingly. Andratan was the legendary island home of the Destroyer, the lair of the ancient Enemy of Faltha, the Cruel One, wielder of the blue fire.
    From Andratan he would emerge like a fat black spider to ensnare the careless, the lazy, the disobedient, and feed on their souls... No, those were just children's tales to be repeated in the dark, a deli¬cious horror to be savoured as families sat safely around a fire.
    But was the Destroyer just a children's tale? Leith tried to remember the Haufuth's teaching. It was written in Domaz Skreud, the Scroll of Doom, that the Destroyer was named Kannwar at his birth, one of the First Men, born at the dawn of history. Like all the First Men, Kannwar was raised in the city of Dona Mihst, the jewelled city of the Vale of Youth. Like them, Kannwar was granted intimate knowledge of and contact with the Most High, who had given the First Men the Fire of Life and separated them from the animals, dedicated to His service.
    Like them, Kannwar's gift and his fate was not to die but to be translated, to disappear from the Vale of Youth, to be with the Most High. But unlike other First Men Kannwar rejected the gift, seeking instead immortality on earth and thus control of his own destiny. He used his knowledge of the Way of the Fire, the Fuirfad, to further his own interests. Eventually his scheming led to factions within the First Men, rebel¬lion against the Most High and bloodshed before the Rock of the Fountain in the centre of Dona Mihst.
    The Scroll of Doom recounted how the Most High judged the First Men for this bloodshed, banishing them from His city and scattering them throughout Faltha. He then covered the Vale in a vast flood, putting an end to all its glory, and the forsaken land was renamed Dhauria, the Drowned Land. To Kannwar the Most High gave a severe punishment. The curse of immortality was laid upon him, and he would never be translated into the presence of the Most High. He was renamed the Destroyer, and was banished from the west. From his island of Andratan in the eastern sea, so the legends said, the Destroyer is ever occupied plotting revenge against the Most High and the Falthans, direct descendants of the First Men.
    Legends, Leith reminded himself. Only legends.
    Mahnum drew a deep breath, then continued slowly, as though unwilling for the words to leave his lips. 'For some days I was imprisoned in a dungeon somewhere under the island