Portals of Infinity: Book Three: Of Temples and Trials

by John Van Stry

  Looking at them gave me an idea.

  “Tare?” I said walking up to Tareassa, “Can you use these?”

  She looked at the stones in my hands, “For what?”

  “I want to stake out a church here.”

  “Why would you want to do that?”

  “Just humor me; can you do it with these?”

  She nodded. “As long as they’re no farther apart then twenty six strides, sure.”

  That was about eighty feet, more than I needed. I nodded to her. “Fine, I’ll get Jacob to help me mark it out; you can consecrate the site then bless these.”

  “We don’t have an altar you can use Will. We only have the one for Stongshold.”

  “I’ll make one.”

  She shrugged, “Okay.”

  I went and found Jacob, and I told him what I wanted to do. Marking out a square was fairly easy, it took maybe an hour to get it marked and the holes dug.

  Then while Tareassa started in on all the blessings and such I went looking to see what I could find to use as an altar. All an altar really is, is a table. But it has to be something sturdy and long lasting. Stone was pretty popular, so were thick slabs of wood. In the largest tent there, I found a decent table with a heavy top. The legs weren’t exactly what I would have liked however, so I found two barrels and filled them with rocks I picked up around the base of the canyon’s cliff walls, and I secreted Laurie’s holy symbol within one of the barrels before nailing the top to them. Altars needed some sort of holy object when they were made, and I felt it was only right to use Laurie’s.

  I set it all up, in the midst of the area we had marked out, after moving the largest tent to the insides of the area. By nightfall we were finished and I could feel Fel’s power as Tareassa finished blessing the altar.

  “Whew, am I tired,” she said sitting down.

  I looked around the tent; it wasn’t all that big, say ten feet by twenty. But the rules had been followed, and it counted.

  “So why did you want to build this?” she asked looking at me.

  “I don’t know,” I said giving a shrug, “I just did. Seemed like the thing to do, it’s a nice, well hidden place.”

  “We’ll call it the ‘Champion’s Temple’ then,” she said with a smile.

  “Tomorrow you can do a mass here, then we’ll leave for Stongshold.”

  “What about the others?”

  “Jacob can walk, Dani can ride in the cart, the Geoff and Harson can stay here with Cass taking care of them. There are a lot of supplies here, and we’ll leave most of ours behind as well.”

  She nodded. “Well I’m exhausted. I’m going to see what Jacob has made us for dinner and then go to sleep.”

  I nodded and followed her out of the tent.

  “It needs a pub,” Fel said looking at me from across the table.

  I smiled and shook my head. “I think there is a barrel of ale around someplace, I’ll set a tent up across from it with that in it.”

  Fel laughed, “Better.”

  “So you don’t mind?”

  He shook his head, “Actually I like it. Nice hidden location, few people know where it is, and the ones other than you and Tareasse will forget soon enough.”

  “Whose holy symbol was that I found on that cleric I killed?”

  “You’d have to ask Tareassa, I can’t tell you that.”

  “Rules?” I asked.

  He nodded, “Yup.”

  “Can you show me a list of all the holy symbols of all the gods and goddesses on this sphere?”

  Fel smiled, “Of course I can!” and a chart suddenly appeared on the table. I looked it over, I’d have to try and memorize it.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve just put it in your memory,” Fel said.

  “I hate when you do that,” I grumbled.

  “Well I figured you weren’t going to ask.”

  I sighed, “Good point. And yup, what I suspected. Tantrus, Barassa’s main god.”

  Fel nodded and looked a bit grim, “They’d been in there about a week, you were the first group that they attacked. They were figuring on setting up a small slaving operation while scouting out the land for future attacks.”

  I nodded, “Does that mean I’ll have to get someone to guard the place?”

  “No, they hadn’t told anyone else yet about the location, and of course will no longer have the opportunity to. I will send a couple of priests with some carpentry skills to see about something a little better than the tent, but not right now.

  “Can I go out and talk to the ones who died last night? I want to thank them for their fighting, without them we probably would have all died.”

  Fel smiled, “Of course you can.”

  I got up and left the bar, I’d never really done this before in a dream, usually I was here recuperating from a death when I went outside. But I still felt bad about Laurie’s getting caught up in the fight, and wished I could have done more to save the others as well. So I thought it only right that I thank them personally for their service, and apologize for my having failed them.

  Eight

  (Saladin - Stongshold)

  “So, are you going to let us in, or not?” I sighed looking up at the man on the city wall. The gates to Stongshold had been closed when we got here; somehow, I wasn’t surprised by that.

  “How do I know you’re who you say you are?” He said eyeing me from on top.

  “If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t think you’d be so terrified of me and my three companions that you’d lock the gate and sit up there pissing yourself,” I growled.

  “I’m not afraid of the likes of you!” He growled back.

  “Then why are the gates locked, and why won’t you let us in?”

  “Because I have my orders, that’s why.”

  “Ah, so you’ve been ordered to intentionally be rude to the representatives Queen Rachel of the Hilanders then?”

  “You don’t look like no representatives to me!”

  I sighed, “Have it your way then, I hereby declare this city under siege, and we will sit out here and await your surrender.”

  “What?” He shouted down at me.

  “Siege, you’re under siege. No one comes out or goes in.” I turned to the others. “Might as well set up camp here, it’s gonna be a while.”

  “Are you serious?” Jacob asked laughing, “There has to be thousands living in there.”

  “Well they can’t all be as stupid as he is, but we’re sort of stuck until someone else comes along.”

  “But a siege?”

  I shrugged, “Couldn’t think of anything better to say and I can’t kill him. People would probably get upset.”

  We settled down to wait then, blocking the road. After an hour or so, a group came up and stopped, looking at us.

  “What are you doing?” One of them asked me.

  “We’re besieging the city, sorry, you can’t go inside.”

  “You’re what?” He said looking me and the others over. I myself counted twelve of them total.

  “Conducting a siege.”

  “The four of you?”

  “Well they’re terribly frightened of us, apparently the guards pissed themselves in fear when we showed up and sealed the city gates.”

  He sighed and shook his head.

  “Farnesworth!” He yelled.

  “Yes?” the guard’s head popped up from behind the wall.

  “Open the damn gates.”

  “But sir, we don’t know who those people are!”

  He turned towards me, “I’m Stewart, I’m in charge of the northern patrols.”

  I nodded and touched palms, “I’m William, Feliogustus’ champion, sent here by Queen Rachel of the Hilanders to discuss a possible treaty.”

  His eyes widened slightly at that. “William the Godslayer?”

  I sighed, “I really hate that name.”

  “Farnesworth!” He yelled. “Consider yourself on report! Now open the damn gate!”

  “Oh hold on, a
lright already!” I heard him grumble and about five minutes later one side of the gate slowly ground open.

  “Allow me to welcome you and your group to Stongshold,” Stewart said to me. “Do you need a place to stay?”

  “Actually yes. Is there an inn or such available?”

  “Several, and as there is only a few of you, I doubt you’ll have any trouble securing rooms for the night.”

  “If you could show us to the one closest to wherever your Prince Wicks holds court, I would greatly appreciate it.”

  He nodded, “That shouldn’t be much of a problem” he said to me, as we walked through the gate, Jacob leading the cart.

  “I must say I am surprised you only brought three others with you,” Stewart said looking us over, apparently noticing the state that Dani was in as she rode in the cart.

  “We were attacked on the way here by a large group; I lost several men, and had to leave several more behind to take care of the wounded who were not yet able to travel.”

  “Brigands? In a large band you say?” he said looking very concerned.

  “Oh, they weren’t brigands, don’t worry about that,” I grumbled.

  “Then what were they?” he demanded, tail now lashing in anger.

  “Barassain slavers, and advance scouts for their army.”

  “What!? I’ll have to tell the Prince about this immediately! How many got away?”

  I looked at him and growled, “Do you really think I’d let any of them get away?”

  He stopped suddenly and looked at me, his men almost piling up behind him.

  “You’re sure?”

  I nodded, “Very sure. They hadn’t been here long enough to get established. Probably only settled in a few weeks ago. Snuck all the way up here on foot, not wanting to let anyone know they’re already taking an interest in us.”

  He swore. “I still must go talk to the Prince.” He turned to one of his men, “Harris, take them to the Rose. Come find me after that.”

  One of the men nodded and came over to us as Stewart ran off, with the rest of his men jogging behind him.

  “Follow me if you would please?” Harris said and we let him led us to the inn.

  As we walked through the streets, I looked around, interested. There was very little wood used in the construction here, almost all of it was stone. And the city, being on the side of a mountain, was anything but level, with the streets winding and turning as you went up the side of it. I also noticed that a number of buildings appeared to be hewn out of the rock.

  I asked Harris about it.

  “Oh, that’s how they get the rock to build the walls and the houses, just quarry it here, and often they’ll turn the quarry into a house, or a business when they’re done with it.”

  “What other things do you find when you’re quarrying the stone?” Jacobs asked, apparently he knew something I didn’t.

  “Oh, copper, some iron, a little gold,” he said and grinned. “That’s what we’ve been trading to your city for most of our food and supplies for years now, but I’m sure you knew that already.”

  I hadn’t known it! I silently thanked Jacob for asking the question.

  “Well, here we are,” He said a little while later when we finally came to a long one story building.

  “Where are the prince’s council chambers?” I asked.

  He pointed to a large fortress type structure built into the side of the mountain across an open area that looked like a small parade ground. “Right over there, in the original Keep.”

  “Thank you,” I said and touched palms, then went inside to see about getting us rooms.

  The taproom inside was fairly large, with wooden buttresses and columns supporting the stone roof; the place looked to be rather solidly built. I was a bit surprised to see few people in it, even if it wasn’t that late yet.

  “What do you need?” The man behind the bar asked as I walked up.

  “The two largest rooms you have.”

  He nodded, “Here to see the Prince I take it?”

  I nodded back.

  “Yeah, rumor has been floating around that the Hilander Queen wants us to join up with her. Guessin’ you’re the ones she sent.”

  I nodded again, “Think your Prince will be interested in it?”

  He shrugged, “Don’t honestly know. We be pretty safe up here, the Mulanders, yeah they were a bit of a pain, but we always killed a lot more of them, than they did of us, so it didn’t bother us all that much. Just gave the young lads something to do besides mining.”

  I nodded again. We haggled over the price next, and then he showed me the rooms. I got two, which surprised Dani and Jacob a little, but I didn’t want us being spread out too thinly, being as there was only four of us now. I told them if they didn’t like sharing the bed, one of them could sleep on the floor.

  I brought in the things from the cart I was most worried about being damaged, I would like to have carried the altar in as well, but it was too big to get down the hall, much less fit in one of our rooms. But they did have a storage room of sorts that I could store the cart in, and one of the youngsters working there took our Oxen down to the local stable for us.

  “Well now what?” Tareassa asked me as the four of us sat around a table eating our dinner.

  “Tomorrow I’ll go see Prince Wick, and present him with the agreement. You two,” I motioned to her and Jacob, “go look for a place to buy to set up a church in.”

  “I thought we were going to look for a place to build something?” Jacob said.

  I shook my head, “You saw how everything was laid out, this place is more of a fortress than a city. I doubt there’s all that much open space, and even if you were to find a place, I suspect getting anything built around here takes years. Might be better just to mine the temple out of the side of the mountain, but even that will take time.”

  Tareassa nodded in agreement, “We get the biggest building we can buy and set up in there, we could have a nice church set up and running in a week. Then we’ll spend a few months canvassing the locals, talking to the faithful, and figuring out where we want to build. I like the idea of something build into the side of the mountain, I just don’t know if Narasamman or Feliogustus would approve.

  “But in either case, we don’t know enough about things here, and there are only four of us. Besides, we only have six wardstones left.”

  Jacob and Dani nodded.

  “What do you want me to do?” Dani asked.

  “Until we find a place, nothing much,” Tareassa told her. “So just talk to the town’s people and see what you can learn about the place. We’re going to be here awhile after all.”

  Dani nodded.

  We were just finishing up our meal when Stewart came in, saw me and came over to the table.

  “William, if I might speak with you a moment?”

  I nodded and stood, “Sure, what can I do for you?”

  “The Prince would like to meet with you.”

  “Now?” I said surprised.

  He nodded.

  I smiled, “Well just let me get the agreement Queen Rachel gave me, and we can go.”

  He agreed and a few minutes later, he was leading me into the building across the small square.

  There were guards at the entrance, but none once we got inside. We turned to the right and he took me down a short hallway, then into a small room with two narrow windows on the wall facing outwards. They were more like arrow slits than windows I noticed.

  Sitting at a large desk with a guard on his left and a scribe on his right was a rather old looking male. He was rather big, almost as tall as I was, and looked to be rather fit as well.

  “So, you’re the one Queen Rachel sent to meet with me, are you?”

  I nodded, “Yes Prince Wicks, that would be me.”

  “So tell me, why should I join her kingdom?

  I dropped the document carrier on his desk, “It’s all in there, read the offer.” I said gesturing to it.

 
; “Oh I will, don’t doubt that, but I asked for your reason.”

  “Because if you don’t all hang together, you will all hang separately?” I said with an exaggerated sigh. “We all know there is going to be a war. Oh probably not this year, or next, but there’s going to be one. Unless we all unite and build ourselves up to be too tough a nut to crack. Barassa will come if they think they can win, and if you don’t join us, well, they’ll try and conquer you.”

  “I’d like to see them try,” Prince Wicks said with a smile. “We’re in a good position here, they’ll never take us.”

  “Oh? How many years worth of food do you have stashed in those mines of yours? Just how long a siege can you really withstand? How long do you think it would take them to build a bridge from one of those neighboring hills, using their slave labor, to be able to bypass your walls?”

  He looked at me as if I’d grown a new head, “Build a bridge?”

  I nodded, “Where I came from, a very large army tried to take a city, not much different than this one. They surrounded it, and prepared to besiege it for however long it took, decades if necessary. It took them a few years, but they built a huge dirt bridge all the way up to the city walls, and took the city.

  “We have a saying where I came from now, ‘Fixed defenses are a monument to man’s stupidity.’ You join with us, if they try anything you’ll have the entire Hilander army keeping them from ever having the luxury to just sit out there and take you at their ease.”

  “And why do you want to join with us?”

  “Because you’re here, you’ve got mines with materials we can use; you have an effective fighting force that would work well with ours. Our cultures are similar; we’ve been good neighbors for ages. I would think that you’d like to be able to spread out to the other hills and mountains around here as well. As the Hilander kingdom grows, you’d grow along with it; our strength would be your strength.”

  “Sounds like you’ve thought about this quite a bit.”