The Guardian Chronicles: Book 03 - The Dark Tide by Steven R. Burke Read Free Book Online Page A

in such an accursed place.  They believed that the elves had twisted the forest to attack anyone who was not of their own race.  Not a single soldier paid any attention to the commander who had returned to the buildings again.  Commander Nolan was determined to discover what had happened in this place.  He also wanted to rid himself of the owl who kept on hooting at him.
    “Nolan!  Why are you wasting time in there?” bellowed General Tomo in his deep, ruddy voice.  The general was also sensing some kind of disturbance; however, he was more concerned with getting the base established.  What are you doing in there?  We do not have time to waste with trying to figure out what happened here!
    “Do you see something moving in the shadows?” asked the commander unabashed by his general’s rebuke.  His mind was quickly slipping from his control as though he was mesmerized.
    “What the bloody hell are you talking about?” asked the general with a hint of concern in his voice.  He had seen something moving in the shadows and did not feel like admitting it.  One of them had to hold themselves together.  An unnatural chill sent shivers down his spine as he watched his commander.  Is this one of those cursed elven tricks?
    “Look at the walls…they are covered in blood.  How is that possible?  This place has not had a living soul in it for centuries.”  Nolan was the most accomplished orc tracker and was able to determine the age of something without much difficulty.  He was bewildered by the scene in front of him because the blood was clearly not elven and was likely a thousand years old.  The really strange part was that the blood had not been removed by the elements or the passage of time.  These two facts made his hide crawl.
    “This place reeks of elven magic and treachery!  Let’s get out of here” urged the general with great intensity.  His eyes shifted about quickly as he scanned the shadows for an unseen enemy.  He reached toward his commander to urge him to leave the damnable place.  The blood on the walls started to run!
    “There!  Did you see that?  There are spirits or something in the shadows.  This place has been marked with a dark curse.  Something truly evil occurred here many centuries ago.”  The commander had completely lost his composure and spoke at a feverish pace before going silent.  He just noticed the blood that was running down the walls.
    “You are a cheerful one.  If this place is cursed like you say then why don’t we leave?  I will order the troops to stay away from this place.”  The general began to back away slowly as he scanned the shadows for unseen demons.  His muscles tensed as looked for that which could not be seen.  The blood on the walls started to flow like water from a fountain.  He had tried to sound dismissive and unconcerned.
    The two leaders did not notice the Seda that were encircling the massive orc army while they had been distracted by the cursed village of Kylrilion.  They did not realize that this was one of the villages of the long extinct Eldar.  Commander Nolan knew that the place had never been inhabited by elves, but he could not determine who had actually lived there.  While the Eldar were not exactly elves, they were the forerunners of the elves who inhabited the Black Forest.  This was partly why the commander could not positively identify the blood.  The other reason was the new blood that was flowing over the old blood…which was clearly not the same type.
    The orcs had stumbled upon the threshold of the most cursed dwelling in any land in Tuwa.  An unbelievable act of barbarism had taken place here and had marked the entire village with a curse.  Anyone or anything that entered the city would suffer an excruciating death.  If the two orc leaders had been paying attention, they would have noticed that even the Seda avoided the dwellings.  The curse was not from the lands of Tuwa and was from a time long