VICTORY FOR AMAROS

Please respect the rights of the author.

Now, it was in the fifth year of the reign of King Lemas that Tesall rode forth from his castle to ask for Lady Amaros in marriage. After he had ridden three days, he arrived at the gates of Lestac Vinar, the castle home of the Levonar family. There he was met by Jadon Levonar, father of Lady Amaros. He was not surprised by figure of the man who stood at the gates, for Tesall had sent a message on ahead of him saying that Tesall Half-face was coming. Jadon, however, was not willing to give up his daughter easily.

"I am pleased that a man has come at last to marry my daughter, but I wish to be certain that he is worthy in bravery and honour to have such a lady," he said.

"You indeed are one to follow tradition, just as your daughter said you would," replied Tesall. "Look at my half face. Does it not speak of my bravery?"

"It could speak of many things, foolhardiness and cowardice not the least among them," Jadon retorted. "They do not satisfy me. But I shall tell you this: for three days past a wind has blown from the marsh westward of here, a wind which chills the soul and heart as well as the body and land. A wind such as this is exceedingly rare, and when it blows for three days, it means only one thing. The Beast of the Marsh is active again, soon to spread terror among the peoples of the surrounding villages, of which I am lord. Before I give my daughter to you, you must kill the Beast."

Tesall considered for a moment, then said, "Tradition is one thing, but it is most rare for the father of the bride to require a blood trial. But I concede to your request. I ask one thing, however, before I go forth into battle: that I be allowed to see your daughter afore my departure. As you well know, I have yet to lay my eyes upon her, though I know and love her through our correspondence of the past five years, and she the same feelings to me returns. If I do not survive this battle, I shall at last carry with me to the other side the vision of the one I love."

After a short hesitation, Jadon replied, "By all means. I am not so cold-hearted to forbid a man a visit his love before he faces death. Come, tie your horse in the courtyard, and we shall proceed into the castle together to meet with my daughter."

The chambers of Lady Amaros turned out to be behind two sturdy iron doors set at either end of a long spiral staircase. The second door opened into a small sparse waiting room with a massive oak door at the far end. The room was furnished with a chair and a small table. From the ceiling hung a bell cord.

"Observe," said Jadon. He pointed out a stone that was slightly darker than the ones surrounding it. When he pressed on it, it swung upward, for it was a door into a small opening. Jadon extracted a large brass key and closed the door again.

"Remember where the key is stored," he instructed Tesall while handing him the key. "Use it to unlock the oak door after I have departed. When you wish to leave, lock the oak door, store the key away in its hiding place, then pull the bell cord. I shall come to let you out."

Tesall was rather taken aback at the security surrounding the Lady's chambers, but before he could inquire, Jadon had turned and departed via the iron door, locking it behind him. So he used the key to unlock the oak door and enter the chambers of Lady Amaros.

Amaros was writing a poem when Tesall entered the fine chambers, decorated with carpeting and fine wood furnishings. The two looked at each other for a few seconds, having never seen each other, then their expressions fell.

Amaros was the first to break the uneasy silence that followed. "Our appearance is worse than even our letters suggested," she said.

Amaros was not beautiful, nor was Tesall handsome. Amaros' skin looked as though it was originally intended for a woman twice her size and age. It hung in great grotesque wrinkles from her fine bones, hiding the lithe body that would have been accorded a lady only half as lucky. Tesall had only half a face that showed his relative youth and stature; the other half was smashed, battered, and fused into a lifeless mass that was capable of neither showing emotion nor inducing it.

Tesall spoke, his voice heavy with emotion. "Let me see the heart of the one I love, so that I may be certain that it is you."

Amaros smiled, grateful, perhaps, that Tesall had not departed the room as suddenly as he came in. "Close your eye, and listen," she said, then started to recite in a light voice.

    "Show me a winter without any snow,
    Or a summer without any rain.
    And I will show you a man with no woe,
    And a friendship devoid of pain.

    "No one can be a prefect dream,
    We all fall short of the stars.
    But together we can make a wonderful team,
    For I love you the way that you are.

    "I will be yours forever ...
    We will live in a house by the shore.
    Ours is a love that none can sever,
    And we will live in peace forever more."

Tesall opened his one eye, certain now that the creature before him bore the golden heart of the Lady Amaros of the letters. She had included this poem at least twice over the past five years, the first time being when she sent her first letter to Tesall. She was replying to a letter that she thought Tesall had sent to her but which was, in fact, one forwarded to her by Lady Sheila of Fenorn Castle. Lady Sheila had just married another man and was spitefully sending Tesall's letters off to Lestac Vinar. The first few letters that passed between Amaros and Tesall were rather confused until they both figured out what had happened, and by that time each had begun to appreciate the other's writing and had started looking forward to the next letter. And so their love grew.

Amaros spoke again. "Shall we leave? We can go to our house by the shore, or to another land west of the Marsh. There we can settle down, two woeful people eking out an existence from the land that is only half as ugly as they."

Tesall replied, "I am afraid we cannot leave so soon. As you suspected in your last letter to me, I must perform a deed for your father before we can wed."

The light air in Amaros' voice evaporated and was replaced by a quaver of trepidation. "What is it?" she asked.

Tesall decided to break the news gently. "Your father spoke of a wind ..."

"NO!" wailed Amaros in fright and anger. "Not the Beast of the Marsh! My father did speak of the Black Wind, and this I know about it: it is an evil wind, for it blows good for no man or beast."

"You know of it?" asked Tesall.

"Know of it? Look at my body! This is a product of the Beast's magic! He came here once when I was seven and sprinkled a black powder on me. Then he promised to return when I was older to take me away, for none other could love me then. That is why the doors and locks are there, not to keep me in, but to keep it out! And now my father wants you to kill it! You do not know what you are up against. That Beast is more powerful than anything you have ever fought!"

But Tesall did not worry how powerful the Beast was. Not after the love they had pledged each other over the years, and certainly not after a three day ride for which he had spent weeks in preparation. He asked hotly, "What does this beast look like, so that I may know it to kill it!"

"Do not try! It is the last of a race of evil lizard men, and this beast is the cruelest and most evil of the lot. He does not need armor, for his scales are as strong as steel and black as the night. It is said that wherever he moves his darkness stays behind and sunlight never shines as bright again."

Now Tesall was moved to anger. "Craxtal! That is the name of the one who ruined my face when I was but fifteen. Now he has violated the body of the woman I love! For that he shall pay with his life!"

"Go not, Tesal! For if you die, what is left for me? There is no one in this land who could ever love me the way you do. The beast shall penetrate eventually the bars which are between him and me, and carry me off to his lair and make me bear his children! Oh, the pain of it! Your sacrifice will be for naught!"

"Never!" cried Tesall, drawing his sword. Its blade, made of a steel that never tarnished, blazed with light. "When I fought him at fifteen, I did not have this sword. The blade was forged and sharpened by the Dwarves of Nantum-Gom, its handle fashioned and balanced by the Elves of Narien-Sorav, and its light bestowed upon it by the magic of Faeries of the White Forest! These three forces of good can overcome the evil of the Marsh! I shall go forth to victory!"

"To death!" Amaros shouted. "The Elves were destroyed in the Battle of Lon-Rinaf, the Dwarves have departed southward to richer silver mines, and the Faeries have not been seen since the White Forest was corrupted into evil. Surely you know that what is now the Black Marsh of the Beast once was the last stand of the White Forest! All your good is no more, while the evil is still alive and stronger than ever!"

"To victory!" cried Tesall. "The Beast's black magic works only while he is alive, and when he dies your body will be restored to its youth. Then I shall return to marry the beautiful Lady Amaros Levonar of Lestac Vinar! Until we meet again, farewell !"

"Tesall!" cried Amaros, but she was too late to stop the angry knight. He had already sheathed his sword and bounded from the room, slamming the oak door behind him. Amaros heard his wild pull at the bell-cord, and as she listened to him depart, cried, "Tesall! My love goes to you! Fail me not! I am with you heart and soul, and if you fail, the Beast shall find only a body when he comes to claim his bride!"

Tesall went ahead of his horse, brushing the sweat out of his eyes and trying to ignore the swarm of tiny biting insects that accompanied them. They picked their way through fetid knee-deep bogs from one root clump to another, trying to find a half dry path into the centre of the marsh, which seemed to be the most logical place for the Beast to have his lair. A shrill wind screeched through the tangled kara trees, causing the dangling vines to tremble and sending chills up and down his spine. His horse objected loudly and Tesall moved to quiet it.

"Easy now, boy," he said. "I may need you yet to carry me out of this place. Calm down, and remember every turn and stone and stump. We shall need all the help we can get to find our way back to Lestac Vinar."

His words had a soothing effect on the animal. It calmed quickly, and they continued their stumbling way through the moss and damp ground. Night was now approaching, and Tesall looked for a place to stop.

"I should have waited until the morning before departing," he thought. "Now I will have to spend the night in this desolate forsaken jungle that once was the great White Forest. I wonder if there are any remnants left of that great forest, even in the heart of the home of the Lizard Beast?"

But there was no such thing. As the gloom imperceptibly but incessantly slipped into total darkness, the weary Tesall and his horse could find no refuge. But just before the final glimmers of light disappeared from the marsh, they came upon a stone structure. Its walls were only half there, its roof long since collapsed and rotted away, but the floor, built of stone, was still there, and a minute's digging away of piled debris revealed at least a place for Tesall to lay his head. He was in the remains of a cottage that a stome mason had built in the White Forest upon his retirement. It had been preserved remarkably well throughout the four or five generations after the mason was forced to flee when Evil crept into his part of the Forest. Now it was the resting place of a lonely, wet, and tired man who was attempting to purge the evil from the Marsh.

Tesall's slept fitfully; his dreams were tortured. He saw the Beast visiting a beautiful girl of seven, sprinkling a hideous dust on her body so it would be corrupted and rendered loathsome for men to look at. He saw the Beast again, returning after years of waiting for his evil sorcery to fully complete itself, to claim his bride that no other would want or could love. Now a third time he saw the Beast, but this time back in his lair with the lady, as he prepared to perform the rite which would bring him children.

"NO!" cried Tesall, awaking from his sleep into the blackness of the night of the marsh. He looked about him wildly for the Beast and Amaros, but he saw nothing but inky black night. The wind had died and the feeling of the air was oppressive and stuffy. Then Tesall felt his heart and stomach turn over as he heard the sound of rasping breathing near him. A voice spoke, old and cracked and malevolent as it addressed him.

"Yes, Tesall," it said, mocking his terror. "Yes, the dream was true and it will be true. You think you can kill me, but how can you kill what you can't see? I have the advantage here in the night, and you cannot even defend yourself!"

"Show yourself!" Tesall cried. "Let me see you!"

"No," continued the voice, slow and deliberate. The Beast obviously was going to enjoy himself before he killed Tesall. "Come and find me. I'm around here somewhere - somewhere - somewhere!" The voice seemed to come from four different directions.

Tesall remembered his sword and reached for it. Nothing. Laughter from a dozen different places echoed and reverberated through the cottage.

"What kind of a fool do you think I am, to leave a man with a weapon like that? I am afraid of that sword, I am, for in the hands of a good knight like you it can do a bit of damage. I took it away while you slept. Look! I have it here!"

A faint glimmer of light appeared in one corner. It was not much, but it was enough for Tesall to see that it was his sword and that the Beast of the Marsh was holding it. A black cloth fell to the ground; Craxtal had used it to hide the sword's light until the appropriate moment. The taunting voice came again.

"Here is your sword. I'm afraid it doesn't glow as much as it should, but this place is too strong for the poor weak magic of the Light-Faeries of the old White Forest. It provides, however, just enough light for you to see me cut off your limbs before I drive it through your neck!"

"Craxtal!" called Tesall. "What manner of beast are you, that you corrupt and torture all around you? Is not living enough for you? Must you destroy all that others have put together?"

The taunting voice answered him. "We live in different worlds, Tesall. I prefer to have things the way I want them to be. You are foolish enough to take everything sitting down. I like what I do!"

Tesall was not trying to make conversation; he was using the time to reach down into the inside calf of his left boot and silently and stealthily pull out a small dagger. He had always kept one there, and never told anyone about it. It had helped him more than once.

He's made a mistake, letting me see where he is, Tesall thought, as he watched the light from his sword and carefully calculated the distance and trajectory. He slowly brought his arm back, then with deadly suddenness let go the dagger.

But Craxtal could see better than his opponent in the dark and knew exactly what had been happening. He made a smooth expert move with Tesall's sword and intercepted the projectile as it sliced through the air. Blue sparks flew and a clang resounded in the still night as the dagger was cut in half and the pieces fell to the ground. A bird loudly squawked and flew away from its nest in the gables of the cottage. Craxtal's hideous laughter rang through the cottage again.

"Tesall, Tesall," Craxtal mocked. "Are you so desperate that you are reduced to throwing pins at me? Do you not remember that my scales are as hard as steel and better than the best armour that you have ever seen? Perhaps you should take your own life - it would save you a lot of pain."

But suicide was not part of Tesall's present strategy; he still had other ways of fighting before he resorted to that very final measure. As he searched quietly around the floor of the cottage, his hand landed on something hard and sharp - a rock. He picked it up, took careful aim at the dim light from the sword, and hurled it with all his strength. Although the stone had enough power behind it to flatten a horse if it had hit right, the Beast took the full force of it in the chest with little more than a dull thud.

Now Craxtal was losing patience. "Fool!" he cried. "Do you think you can defeat me with simple weapons like that? There is only one weapon in this world that can cut through my scales, but I have it in my hands, and I shall use it to cut your loathsome form to ribbons! Prepare to die a slow and painful death!"

He called out a curse in the black tongue of his native language. Tesall was picked up from the floor and hurled against the wall. But instead of falling again to the floor, he remained on the wall, pinned there by a thousand tiny nails that grew out of the flesh on his back and into the stone behind.

"Now what will Amaros think of her knight?" Craxtal demanded. "By the time morning comes he will be a mass of flesh and blood hanging on the wall for the scavengers of the swamp to eat! And Amaros will be mine! She will give me the children that I could not have because there were no females left of my species! She will be my servant, my slave to do my bidding and to carry out my least command. Think of that while your sword cuts your body to pieces!"

Craxtal slowly approached Tesall, holding the sword ahead of him. The nails in Tesall's back swelled slightly, making a thousand tiny and extremely painful tears in his skin. The sword of death, Tesall's sword yielded by an enemy, came nearer.

A small point of light uexpectedly flashed up the leading edge of the sword's blade. Tesall saw it, then wondederd at the flood of memories had suddenly sprung into his mind. The days of his youth in the forest glades of Lonar-Arnoth, playing with human and Elven children. A girl he had met when he was ten.

This memory lingered a while. Tesall marvelled that he still recalled from his childhood this single, chance encounter with a little girl. Another point of light suddenly blinked along the approaching blade, and other memories came up to join with the previous ones. Letters, long and full of love and joy, to and from Amaros. Secrets shared on paper.

Now there was brighter flash from his sword, and abruptly the disjointed memories came together. The girl. Amaros. The same person. The girl was six when they met; the Beast had visited Amaros when she was seven. Tesall saw now the girl, her years of promise and youth stolen from her by the same Beast who even now was about to steal his life from him. Anger welled up in Tesall as he thought of the cruel injustice perpetrated on the young girl. As another flash of light ran up the blade, Tesall's anger intensified as he thought of the suffering Amaros went through for many long years. It escalated into a rage and focused on the Beast in front of him.

"CRAXTAL!" Tesall roared in fury. "You shall pay! You shall pay for what you have done! Your crime against love - for your perversion of all that Amaros was meant to be!"

Now his sword picked up energy from his anger and blazed forth in light, illuminating the entire cottage area to a degree twice of what had been seen in the Marsh for four generations. Craxtal the Lizard Beast of the Black Marsh gave a hideous cry and fell back, dropping the sword as he clapped his hands to his face to protect his eyes. The sword clattered on the stone and pointed itself toward Tesall. The pins that had held him to the wall evaporated and Tesall dropped to the floor. His sword slid toward him of its on accord and he picked it up. Six swift steps and he was beside blinded Beast, the sword raised in both hands above him.

"Now die, and your evil with you! Your deceit has caught up with you and destroyed you! Amaros now is free from your sorcery and I can claim her for my wife, which she was meant to be before you raped her youth!"

Red fire flashed along the cutting edge of the sword as Tesall brought it down. It sliced through Craxtal's neck and cleaved through the stone of the cottage. Tesall pulled it from the floor and raised it in victory. It shone as a torch as he watched the body of the Beast shrink and collapse upon itself until it had wrinkled into a small brittle mass. Tesall brought down his foot and ground it into powder. As the light from his sword finally began to fade away, he pulled out his water skin and washed the powder into the floor of the cottage.

As Tesall rode his horse back on a path traced by the Light-Faeries, he marveled at the way the forest had rejuvenated so quickly after the death of Craxtal. Even now he could hear a breeze softly rustling through new leaves on what were once lifeless trees. It appeared the Beast had given much of his energies to keeping his Black Marsh from reverting into the White Forest. Now that he was dead all his evil power was extinct. The Light-Faeries, small as fireflies, had burst into shining, representatives of the entire forest that now celebrated the demise of the power that had kept it asleep.

Tesall reached the hinterland of the forest. Ahead of him the sun was rising over the plain, its huge red ball silhouetting the castle of Lestac Vinar off in the distance. Tesall looked back at the Marsh. It was marsh no longer, but a resurrected and mighty forest. Life was growing again in its groves and glades, and animals were returning to it, claiming it once again as their rightful home. Tesall saw birds already flocking toward it and a rabbit bounce from the plain into a new home in the living forest.

Then he heard a light-faerie whisper in his mind, "You are almost home now. We must return to the forest and continue to restore it by night, for the day is our time to rest. Go now to Amaros and see her as she was meant to look."

Tesall thundered his steed to the castle. He halted in front of the gates and waited for Jadon. He did not come, but a lady, smiling and beautiful, rushed to open them. It was Amaros, and it looked as though all the beauty she had lost over the years had restored itself in one night. He felt a tear roll down his cheek and involuntarily moved his hand to brush it away. Then he stopped, realizing that only the day before there had been neither an eye nor a cheek there. The Faeries had healed his face completely.

"Tesall! Tesall!" Amaros was crying with overflowing joy, and the tears washed her face, making it shine golden in the light of the dawn. "I am free! The pain, the worry, and the heaviness have left my body and soul! All because of you! I knew in a moment that you had killed the Beast, for the pain of your sword pierced through me even as it severed through him! And then I fell asleep, waking to feel my burden lifted and to see you riding to the castle with all the speed your horse could muster!"

Tesall dropped from his horse and Amaros rushed to him. They clung to one another for a long time, and then they separated and looked deeply at each other, their eyes reflecting to the other the love they had between them.

Tesall spoke. "The prize is greater than I ever expected. You, Amaros, are above any other maiden that has ever held my fancy. Even though in our letters we have pledged ourselves, one to the other, in marriage, I will ask you in person: Amaros, will you marry me?"

She looked at him and paused for the briefest of moments, and in a graceful flowing movement she took his hand, blood-stained though it was, in hers.

"I do," she said, softly and with great tenderness. Then she abandoned her graceful maiden mask and flung her arms around her knight, embracing him and sharing kisses.

The next day Amaros and Tesall sat on their horses at the gates of Lestac Vinar, bidding farewell to Lord and Lady Levonar. Jadon's wife had provided them with two pack horses laden with supplies. "You cannot go start a new life with nothing but a husband!" she had told her daughter.

"Tesall," said Jadon, "you have worked a deed the greatness of which you do not realize. Your name shall be among the highest of the heroes of the land and will be immortalized in stone and song. Miracles of healing have already resulted from your task: yourself, the restored White Forest, and, not least of all, my daughter."

Lady Levonar was not about to let her husband make all the speeches. "Amaros, be kind to your husband, for he is a hero," she said. "Tesall, be kind to your wife, for she has suffered much. Now, farewell to you both, and remember to write us!"

"We shall visit you once a year," called Amaros as she and Tesall turned their horses westward to the forest. "Farewell!"

"Farewell!" added Tesall. "You have raised a strong and patient daughter, and a well spoken and cultured one. Of all the women I have met in my journeys, only she could be my wife, for none other has her strength of character. May your lands and villages be blessed!"

As they rode westward, Tesall leaned toward Amaros. "I know a lovely little cottage in the White Forest," he said. "It needs some repair work, but I think it would make us a nice home."

Amaros laughed, blew him a kiss, and they rode on together, the sun giving a brilliant glow to the day and the life that lay ahead for them both.

"The Mall"

"A Friend Indeed"

Middle-Earth Role Playing Pages

Short Stories Pages

Brian Lowe's Home Page

Brian Lowe / Winnipeg PC User Group / blowe@wpcusrgrp.org
Last updated on September 14, 1996. Accesses since September 30, 1998: