Portals of Infinity: Book Three: Of Temples and Trials

by John Van Stry

  “Annoyed that I’m having to deal with a petty thief,” I said looking him over. He was done up all in black clothing, he even had a hood over his face. The only weapons on him were a couple of daggers. “What are you doing here?”

  “Well, umm, I...” He said looking side to side, for an escape route I was sure.

  “Your hand is still nailed to the cart and I’m a lot faster than you are,” I growled. “Now if you want to actually go home tonight, instead of being the first person interred here, I suggest you tell me what you’re doing.”

  “Well, ahh,”

  “And take that silly hood off of your face.”

  He looked at me, and just about then two other guards showed up and he sighed, his shoulders drooping.

  “I was looking for the gold.”

  I blinked and looked at the others who were looking at me.

  “What gold?” One of them asked.

  “Yes, exactly, what gold?” I said as well.

  “The gold paying for all of this!” He said motioning with his free hand. “Word among me mates is that you have a cart load of it. Just sitting here.”

  I sighed. “Take the hood off.”

  He did and I got a good look at him. He looked kind of weasely, quite a feat for a felinoid actually. I handed the bow to one of the guards and walked over to him.

  “The gold, which you are looking for, has mostly been spent paying the worker’s wages and buying all materials you see stacked around you.” I grabbed the pinned arm with one hand and yanked out the arrow out of the cart and his hand with the other.

  “AHHH!” He cried out.

  I grabbed his wrist and applied a little pressure to cut down on the bleeding and twisted his arm behind his back, grabbing his other shoulder with my other hand.

  “Go fetch Mother Kayryn please,” I said to one of the guards.

  He nodded and ran off.

  “As for the little bit of gold that’s left,” I said softly in his ear. “We keep it in a small locked metal box. Under my bed. You make sure all of your mates understand that, okay?”

  He nodded his head quickly.

  “Now, you wouldn’t know who’s been harassing us the last few days, would you?” I growled.

  He shook his head no.

  “You sure? Information like that would definitely encourage me to not hand you over to the guard.”

  “No! I don’t know! I swear it. I didn’t even know someone was harassing you! If I had I never would have come here tonight!”

  I nodded; it made a certain amount of sense.

  I asked a few random questions about the city next, and then after he answered them I asked if he knew where the musicians gathered and met.

  “No,” He said and shook his head.

  “What?” I said acting surprised, “You know where the guardsmen meet for drinks when they’re ducking their duties, where the best fence in the city is, plus the best whorehouse and you don’t know where a bunch of singers hang out?”

  He opened his mouth, then closed it, and thought a moment. “Ya’ know, that is pretty strange now that I think about it.”

  Priestess Kayryn showed up just about then. She took a look at the man I was holding and shook her head. “Allston, does your wife know you’re here?”

  Allston gave a soft groan and shook his head.

  “Really Allston, I’m surprised at you! I think it’s time me and her had a little talk about you.”

  “Priestess, Mother, please. Don’t do that,” He said shaking his head. “She’d leave me for sure.”

  “Tell you what, Allston,” I said with a slight growl. “You come to church every week with your wife, and do a little something for me, and perhaps I can convince the good Mother Kayryn not to have that talk with your wife.”

  He turned his head and looked over his shoulder at me. I could see the desperation in his eyes.

  “Anything,” He said.

  “You find out where the musicians and singers all meet, and you tell me or Mother Kayryn. That and show up for services every week, and we can keep this little indiscretion all too ourselves, right?”

  “Yes!” He said and nodded quickly.

  “Good.” I turned to Kayryn who was looking at me curiously. “Could you please heal his hand for me?”

  She nodded, “Of course William.”

  I let him go and gave him a little push towards Kayryn.

  “Thank you, thank you Sir William!” He said bowing to me as I turned and walked away.

  “You just best do as he asked and stay out of trouble,” I heard Kayryn tell him as I left. “William the Godslayer is not a man you want mad at you!”

  I smiled and headed back to bed. Maybe he’d be able to find that temple for me.

  The next week proved just as difficult as the previous one. Between having to help the building crews with the construction, and the odd harassments in the evenings, one night a bunch of rowdy drunks stumbled in thinking we were a new inn, I was pretty much chained to the temple grounds keeping an eye on things. Three more times at night there was an intrusion on the grounds, but they all scattered as soon as I came looking for them.

  Eventually an additional contingent of guards showed up from the main temple, so I could finally leave for Stongshold.

  “I’m sorry Fel,” I said to him across the table. We were sitting in his bar, it was late and I was asleep. “Now that the guards are here I can go look for it if you want, but we’re already a week behind schedule on the trip to Stongshold.”

  Fel nodded, “I know, it can’t be helped unfortunately. I knew there might be some resistance to this temple, but I didn’t think there would be as much as you encountered.”

  “I thought you were omnipotent?” I asked without smiling. I really thought he was, and finding out he wasn’t, was well, both surprising and maybe a little disturbing.

  Fel smiled at me, “Future events are hard to see, especially when there are a number of other Gods and Goddesses disturbing the flow of events. I’m not very good at seeing the future, when I really have a need of that gift I rely on Aryanna’s powers for help.

  “As for the present and the past? The more time goes by, the clearer things become as the influence of those events on the future wanes. But when it comes to the present, if another God is involved, well things become much more clouded.”

  “How is that?” I asked.

  “Champions and High Priests or Priestess are invisible to the other gods. They can’t see you; they can’t know where you are, unless one of their followers, one with significant faith, or a member of the clergy, sees you. The only exception to this is when you are actively exercising my will, doing something major, like leading my army in battle.”

  “And the High Priestess?”

  “Unless you’re physically holding one, I can’t see anything more than a mortal. Otherwise, we Gods would be targeting each other’s lead clergy constantly. Even regular clergy can be difficult or impossible to see if they take off their holy symbol.”

  “And everything on holy ground is invisible to the other gods as well, right?” I asked.

  “In most cases, yes. We can not see into each other’s temples and holy places”

  “So why did you want me to find their church?”

  “Because I wanted to know if there was one, and of course, keep track of it. A hidden temple is only a powerful advantage when no one else knows that it exists.”

  I nodded, “I guess I can see that.”

  “So as much as I’d like you to find it, I need you to move on. I’ve already told Tareassa that she’s going with you, as you wanted.”

  I perked up a bit at that, “I thought you couldn’t talk to anyone but the high priestess?”

  “Now that the basic religious functions of my temple have been completed, I can talk to any of my clerics inside the ground, or you for that matter, mentally. If things continue to plan I’ll be able to speak out loud in there in time as well.”

  I nodded,
I was still figuring out a lot of this myself.

  “Well, I’ll get us packed up and on the road in the morning. The sooner I can get this done, the sooner I can go home to Rachel.”

  Fel smiled at me and nodded, “Keep up the good work Will.”

  Seven

  (Saladin - Road to Stongshold)

  The trip to Saladin started out just fine; it was a long one however. We had to go due west from where we were, past Rivervail, and then up into the foothills, and finally the mountains. We were three days past Rivervail when we started up into the mountains, Stongshold was another two days trip from here.

  Our group was considerably smaller now; I had Tareassa with me, plus two acolytes, one of Jezza’s builders, a male by the name of Jacobs, and his helper. Plus a half dozen soldiers and one cart with all of our stuff in it. I was tempted to send the soldiers back once we got to Stongshold, they were a pretty paranoid lot from the accounts I had heard. Another day and we’d be in their territory and I’m sure they’d know we were there almost immediately.

  “This looks like a good place to make camp,” I said looking around. I could see the steep hills and cliffs in front of us, according to the rough map I had we’d start going up a number of switchbacks along the trail until we found ourselves up on the mountain trail. You could take that trail either to Hiland or Stongshold, but Hiland was a three or four day journey, while Stongshold was only a day’s from there.

  We set up the tents, hobbled the two oxen and let them graze, got a small fire pit going, and made dinner.

  Personally, I would have preferred sleeping out under the stars, but Tareassa didn’t want to, so we didn’t.

  It was late and I was awake. I wasn’t sure why I was awake, but something must have woken me up. I was untangling myself from Tareassa and the bedroll when I heard it, the sound of an arrow sinking into flesh, followed by the thud of a body to the ground.

  “Alert!” I yelled as I felt everything start to slow down around me. Grabbing one of my swords, I sliced through the back of the tent and ducked outside.

  “Alert!” I yelled again and looking around I could see several dark shapes running into the camp, we were being attacked!

  I ran forward, keeping my body slightly bent to try and present as little of a target as possible as I engaged the first attacker I came to. He looked surprised as I knocked his guard aside and ran him through, leaving him with a handful of guts as I ripped my sword out and attacked the one behind him next.

  I could hear others taking up the cry and I also felt the sting of an arrow hitting me in the right shoulder. Swearing I grabbed it with my left hand and pulled it out, healing the wound as I did so. I then stabbed the figure to my left with the arrow as I hacked at the man in front of me. He was able to block my first strike, but not my second, I was moving far too fast for him, but I was forced to back-peddle by the sheer numbers of attackers I was facing, I picked up three more wounds as I killed him, there were at least a dozen attackers, possibly more.

  Healing myself once again, I kicked myself mentally for being an idiot and cast a cantrip for light around me, momentarily blinding my opponents, and then cast the spell that gave me my Champion presence, the one that would inspire my allies and demoralize my foes.

  In the pause that followed, I killed two more of them, setting into them with a will I stepped forward into their ranks. I could hear fighting around me, but I couldn’t take the time to look. I took two more arrows, and was forced to switch the sword to my left hand so I could pull them out with my right. The only thing saving me from a killing shot was my constant dodging and weaving in the midst of the attackers, and my increased speed.

  As I maneuvered around them, I could see the camp, there were quite a few bodies surrounding it, and several were from my group. The men we were fighting were starting to look scared at this point. I had killed at least seven of them, and their numbers were thinning. I killed another one and suddenly they broke, turning and fleeing. I got one more in the back, then ducked and turned as an arrow flew overhead.

  I could see the archer now, and I flung my sword at him with all of my might as I charged.

  He deflected the sword with his bow, shattering his bow in the process, and before he finished drawing his own sword, I was on him. Using my claws, I made short work of him and then turned to look back at the camp.

  It was a disaster. I could see four of the soldiers were dead, with arrows through them, the other two were wounded and I headed quickly for them.

  “Tareassa! Are you okay?” I called out.

  “I’m fine,” She said poking her head out of the tent. She saw the two soldiers and ran over to them as well, healing the worst of their wounds.

  “Jacobs, Dani, Harson, Laurie?” I called.

  “Dani and Harson are wounded,” Jacobs told me walking up with a sword in his hand and a number of cuts on his own body. “Laurie is dead.”

  “They killed her?” Tareassa said looking shocked.

  “I think they panicked when they realized they had attacked a Champion,” Jacobs said as we followed him over to Dani and Harson where they lay on the ground. Dani was still conscious and was trying to stop Harson’s bleeding. I let Tareassa heal them both as well.

  “How many got away?” Cass, one of the soldiers asked from where he was sitting, still recovering from the effects of being healed.

  “Not many,” I said. I looked around at the bodies of our attackers. There were fifteen on the ground. I walked over to my tent and pulling out my gear I started to put my armor on.

  “What are you doing?” Tareassa asked looking at me in surprise.

  “I’m going to track them down and kill them. You stay here with the others and help them.”

  “Let me go with you Sir,” Cass said trying to stand up.

  “You’re too weak yet. Put your armor on and help Geoff with his. Stay here and protect the camp.” I looked over at where he was sitting; Geoff was still flat on his back panting. “That’s an order.”

  “Yessir!” They both said.

  “You can’t go!” Tareassa said running up to me and looking panicked. “There’s only one of you!”

  I looked up at her and growled, “This is what I do, like it or not I have to go after them. Go tend to the wounded.”

  She looked like she was going to say something else so I gave her my best scowl and her expression became one of shocked surprised as I guess she suddenly realized that right now, I was not a nice person. Turning away from me she went back to deal with the wounded.

  Finishing up with my armor, I buckled my weapon’s harness on and retrieving my sword from where it had landed I went and tracked our attackers back to their lair.

  They had a good fifteen-minute head start, but I was guessing they’d be making for their camp. If they were smart, they’d be packing up and leaving. If they weren’t smart, they’d be sitting there licking their wounds when I showed up.

  I almost missed the entrance to their camp when I came to it. If one of them hadn’t been bleeding I probably would have. Their trail led to one of the cliffs, and in the cliff was a narrow cleft, which wound back and forth. At it’s opening it was maybe two feet wide, a tight squeeze with my armor, but it opened up once inside and twenty or so feet down it opened up in to a tiny box canyon, a couple hundred yards wide and maybe half that deep.

  I stopped and drew my own bow out. There were a dozen of them; one looked like he might be a healer of some sort. I shot him in the head, and then put a second one in his neck before he fell to the ground.

  They all turned and charged me then, and I was able to drop another one before I had to toss my bow to the side and draw my swords.

  I roared at them as they drew near and welcomed the speed shift as I stepped out into their midst and went to work. I knew it would have been safer to stay at the opening and take them on one or two at a time, but I was pissed. They’d killed a woman, an acolyte, someone who had no weapons, no magic, and no fighting skills.
Just a person who worked hard because of their faith, who did the menial jobs and the hard tasks. She wasn’t invading anyone’s land, or sneaking about. She’d been out traveling openly and honestly and her death made me incredibly mad.

  I called upon the might of Fel, I called upon his vengeance, and I could actually feel it filling me as I went berserk in their midst.

  When it was all finally over, I had a dozen cuts on my body, two of them rather deep, which I used the last of my healing to fix. One of my swords was actually broken, the broken hilt stuck into one of the bodies, I wasn’t sure what I had broken it on even, I honestly couldn’t remember.

  The bandits, or enemy, or whatever, were all dead. They looked like they’d run into a turbine propeller, several of them were in more than two pieces; none of them were still in one piece.

  I walked over to the healer and tore off his holy symbol, and looked around. There was a small pool of water fed from a waterfall coming down from the rocks above. I guess it drained off somewhere, as it wasn’t getting any larger. The walls were steep enough that you probably couldn’t climb out. A rather nice place to hide something.

  I checked the tents to be sure there was no one left alive, and then headed back to camp.

  “How are they?” I asked Tareassa when I came back into camp. I’d remembered to use the cleaning cantrip, so at least I wasn’t covered in gore and blood anymore.

  Tareassa almost threw herself at me and gave me a tight hug.

  “Geoff and Harson won’t be able to travel at all for probably a week, Cass and Dani will need a day or two as well.”

  I nodded, “I found their camp, let’s move everyone there, it’s a lot safer than staying here.”

  Tareassa nodded and then letting go of me noticed I was now bleeding from a few wounds that her hug had reopened.

  “Oh! Let me fix that!” she said and putting her hands on me she blushed as she fixed the minor wounds I hadn’t had the power left to deal with.

  It took a couple of hours to get everyone moved, a few more to get things cleaned up, the bodies buried, and everyone comfortable, by then the sun had risen and it had been light out for a couple of hours. The oxen and the cart wouldn’t fit in through the narrow opening. I moved most of the food and other supplies inside and while doing so I came across the box with the four broken ward stones.