Forest Kingdom Trilogy 1 - Blue Moon Rising

as clearly as if he was there in the room with those who spoke. Darius knew what had happened to his fellow rebels. More than once he'd been tempted to leave his tunnels and beg for exile too, but his pride wouldn't let him. He had to have his revenge, or all his time in the dark had been for nothing.
    He turned away from the side vent and set off down the tunnel, leaving the golden glow behind him.
    Darkness soon returned, as though it had never been away. Darius muttered constantly to himself as he scurried down the long, narrow tunnel, happily contemplating all the bloody revenges he planned for his many enemies.
    Soon, he promised himself. Soon.

    The High Warlock was bored. The Champion was in conference with the King and not to be disturbed, Rupert had disappeared, and everybody else was too busy or too tired to talk to him. The Warlock wandered back and forth through the endless Castle corridors, to see what there was to see, but he soon grew tired of that. He needed some fresh air and some open space. The Castle held too many memories.
    He found an empty corner, sat down and sank quickly into a trance. His astral spirit floated up out of his body and flew back down the corridors, through the entrance hall and out into the courtyard; an invisible presence, like a passing breeze.
    The square was packed solid with refugees, and even in the open courtyard the high stone walls were unbearably oppressive. The Warlock flew quickly over the bent heads of the apathetic refugees, up over the Castle wall, and out into the long night.
    The ice-bound Castle shimmered eerily in its own silver light, like a single huge snowflake. The light didn't travel far into the Darkwood. Once the Forest had been full of life, but now nothing moved save the demons, stalking silently through the endless night. And though the trees themselves were rotten and decaying, they were still, somehow, horribly alive. The Warlock could hear them screaming.
    All around him, the darkness beat on the air like a continuous roll of thunder, and high above, the Blue Moon howled ceaselessly. The Warlock's senses revealed much more of the world than most humans ever saw, and what would have seemed a static, motionless scene to any other observer was full of sound and fury to the High Warlock. To his left and to his right, the ghosts of yesterday retraced their movements again and again, moments caught in time like insects imprisoned in amber. Every now and again, a ghost would vanish from his sight like a bursting soap bubble, as the presence of today finally overcame that dim remainder of the past. Paths of power, old and potent, burned all around the Castle, their blinding light undiminished by the Darkwood. The Warlock frowned suddenly as he sensed something moving, deep in the earth. Ancient and inhuman, it stirred fitfully, and then returned to its long sleep. The Warlock relaxed a little. The Forest was far older than most people realised, and some traces still remained of creatures that rose and fell long before the coming of man. Too few realised how lightly such creatures slept.
    The Warlock looked up sharply as a demon stalked forward out of the Darkwood. It walked uneasily on two legs, and though its shape was vaguely human, an oily green fire dripped steadily from its jaws to spark and sputter on the ground. Its wide slash of a mouth was filled with huge slab-like teeth, and its eyes burned yellow in the dark. The Warlock's eyes narrowed, and the demon stopped its advance. The High Warlock raised one hand, and the demon snarled soundlessly and turned and loped back into the Darkwood. The Warlock smiled tightly.
    As the demon disappeared back into the endless night, something deep in the darkness roared its hunger, and the Warlock frowned thoughtfully. Towards the end of the last demon attack, he'd sensed something huge and awful making its way to the Castle. At the last moment it had held back rather than test his power, but already the Warlock could feel changes taking place in the Darkwood. The demons were massing for another attack, and with them . . . The High Warlock shivered, although he no longer had a real body. Under the Blue Moon's light, creatures that should have slept till the end of time now walked the world of men once more. Nightmares and horrors made flesh and bone stirred restlessly in the endless night, and waited impatiently for the order to move against the Castle.
    The Warlock shrugged, and took to the air again. Things