by C S Vass
Godwin made for the keep and opened it. He proceeded down a spiral flight of stairs that descended deep into the earth. It was the most likely place to start his search. The Sages would have surely went where they would have been safest.
The inner sanctuary was that place. Stones were reinforced with steel and guarded by spells that only one in possession of a thrygta could hope to open. With any luck they would be sealed safely within, and Godwin could usher them away to Meno before any Imperial soldiers were alerted to the escape.
At last he arrived. A massive door of thick steel and silver marked by a giant dragon-in-chains that protruded from its center loomed before him. Godwin placed his hand on his own tattooed thrygta on his chest and said, “Open!”
The silver eyes of the dragon-in-chains glowed a hot white. A great creak indicated that a lock had been unturned, and the door swung open.
Inside was a lone man standing in the middle of a circular chamber. The man turned around. Godwin felt relief flood throughout his body. “Torin!” he shouted, overjoyed.
Torin grinned merrily as Godwin approached and embraced him. “Good to see you, my friend.”
“How did you…where are the Sages?”
“Safe,” Torin said. “Safe and far from here, which is all that matters for now.”
“You trying to upstage me or something?” Godwin laughed. “Well come, let’s go. We have to get out of here. There are Imperial soldiers everywhere. What are you standing around waiting for?”
“Something very important,” Torin said seriously. His silver eyes twinkled with anticipation.
“It’ll have to wait,” Godwin said. “We need to get Logun, Yaura, and our friend Robert. We need to get the hell out of here. Where are the Sages off to? Meno? It doesn’t matter. Let’s get going!”
“Wait,” Torin said, firmly. “I was waiting here for you, Godwin. There’s something very important that you need to see.”
“Oh?” Godwin frowned. “I hope you’re not needlessly wasting my time, Torin. The situation up there is dire.”
“It will only get worse,” Torin said gravely. “But come. Let me show you.”
Torin stepped aside to reveal a long mahogany coffin laced with silver and inscribed with runes. The runes glowed and pulsated with mysterious blue light. Inside the open casket was the corpse of a very old man. He was naked with a flowing white beard that fell to his knees.
“Torin, what the hell is this?” Godwin asked.
“Shh, just watch,” Torin said. “We can talk after.”
Torin reached into his shirt and pulled out a small leather pouch that fit in the palm of his hand. He pulled the drawstring and reached inside for a pinch of what appeared to be fine white sand. Godwin found his heart beating faster as Torin positioned his hand above the corpse’s eyes and let the sand fall.
Death-yellow eyes shot open.
Godwin nearly yelled as he took a step backwards. Torin grabbed his arm firmly. “Watch,” he said.
The corpse opened and closed its mouth, gaping like an infant searching for a nipple. Swollen purple veins choked its thin neck while black hands and black feet swatted at the air. But nothing about the sight before them disturbed Godwin as much as those empty, yellow eyes.
Abruptly, horrifically, it spoke.
“The time of prophecy draws nigh. A time of flames and terror. Of cold biting ice. The stars will not tell you until it is too late. You will know…when enemies become lovers. When brother slaughters brother. When kings kneel to wash the feet of peasants. When the stars are swallowed by the void and vanish from the sky. This is the time of doom. Of the end of all things, when the Gaellean Prophecy will rip the bowels of destiny from eternity. The time of nightmares draws nigh.”
A rasping, choking sound came from the corpse. The noise made Godwin’s hair stand on its end. Shortly after, the light left the dead body’s eyes and it returned to sleep.
Godwin found himself at a loss for words as their shadows flickered across stone walls in the torchlight.
“That…that was no necromancy, was it?” he finally managed.
“No,” Torin said. “No it was not. It was something else altogether. But this being spoke truly. The Gaellean Prophecy is upon is. The time of nightmares draws nigh. The question is, what will we do?”
“Great,” Godwin said. “How about we answer that question after we get the hell out of here? We need to find Yaura and Logun and Robert. We need to get to the Sages.”
“The Sages are safe!” Torin roared, abruptly. “As are the rest of them.”
“Then let’s go,” Godwin urged.
Torin shook his head and sighed. “We’re right where we need to be, Godwin,” he said.
“What are you—”
“Godwin!” Yaura shouted.
Godwin turned and saw Yaura standing in the doorway with Robert and Logun. “He’s a traitor! He’s working for the Emperor! They’ve taken the Sages across the Dark Sea! This is Torin’s doing.”
Godwin felt the ground spin beneath his feet. “Torin…” His tongue felt heavy in his mouth. “It’s not true. Is it? Tell me you’re not responsible for this?”
For several horrible moments, seemingly suspended from the reality of time, Godwin twisted between Torin and Yaura, uncertain of everything he thought he knew. He thought of the Serpent with its hellish blue eye and trembled.
“Destiny is a forest with many paths, Godwin,” Torin said. “We cannot always understand the forest we wander until we stop and climb to see it from above. Gaellos faces something more terrible than you realize. Not the East, nor the West. All of Gaellos. The Gaellean Prophecy is upon us. Don’t you understand? What does a kingdom or an empire mean when placed next to the gods of eternity?”
“I don’t believe any of this, Torin. I refuse to. I know you. You’re no traitor. We’re closer than brothers. You’re Forsaken, just like me.”
“I’m not.”
The words struck Godwin’s stomach like Logun’s war hammer. “What?”
“I’m not like you. I’m not Forsaken. We all have our own talents and our own place in this universe, Godwin. I pray you’ll forgive me. You would have found out sooner or later anyway. No doubt your old master Reinko Assini realized the truth and is telling everyone who cares to listen.”
“Godwin!” Yaura yelled. “We have to get out of here!”
The room spun. Godwin felt like he was hearing their voices from underwater. Reinko Assini was wrapped up in this mess too?
“He’s a Serpent, Godwin! He tricked all of us. He’s been lying about his identity for years. He serves the Empire.”
“Enough!” Torin yelled. “Listen. This isn’t about who I serve. The Prophecy is not going to change depending on who our masters are, or who sits on a throne. The demons who rush from the bowels of Jagjaw and the Blood Wood won’t give the slightest damn. It’s not just those places either. It’s in the East. It’s the Dredjko Mountains. It’s north in the Frost Forest. We need unification across Gaellos. We need a strong Emperor who will prevent the worst of the coming disasters.”
“I can’t believe it,” Logun grunted. His eyes were a white rage. “I can’t believe I’ve broken bread with a rat like you all these years. I can’t believe I almost died last night because of your idiocy.”
Logun’s war hammer was in his hands. “I’ll crush you into dust, you piece of shit!”
Logun charged. Godwin watched, utterly horrified and completely frozen. Torin moved like a viper, dodging the heavy blow of the hammer and striking Logun in several places with his bare fists. The big man grunted and stumbled back, coughing.
“It doesn’t have to be this way you fools!” Torin shouted. “We can work together and prepare for the future. Don’t you understand the purpose of the Shigata!”
“Torin,” Godwin’s silver eyes glowed with murder. “I’m going to kill you.”
“You disappoint me, Godwin. Of all of them, you were the one I had the highest hopes for. But I se
e that this is not the time. There was no good way to tell you. I could have kept you all under my Serpent’s spell. I could have forced your hands and to hell with your will. But I didn’t want to do it that way. I wanted to win your hearts and have us work together. But you won’t even give that a chance.”
“A chance?” Godwin roared. “What choice did you give us when you attacked Unduyo? What the hell are we supposed to do?”
“I had no choice!” Torin shouted. “Julius Hercinium waits for nobody. He is coming, and we have a choice to fight the inevitable or to join the tide of history. King Boldfrost is an imbecile, and unworthy to sit a throne. You know it in your hearts!”
“I’ve heard enough of this snake,” Yaura said. “You had no right to force me to follow you last night. Even if you did release us, what you did was unforgivable Torin.”
“Agreed,” Logun said. “I hope it was worth it, little man. Because your foolishness has cost you your life.”
“Wait!” Torin shouted as they all stepped forward. As he did so his eyes glowed with silver power. “If you kill me now, you’ll never learn the truth about Kanjo!”
Godwin felt as though someone had dipped his head in hot water. “You bastard. Release us.” Still, Godwin knew it wasn’t only the Serpent’s power that stayed his hand. The whole reason he traveled across the continent was to learn why Kanjo’s death had been ordered. Now that he was here, he was more uncertain than ever. Had the Sages even made the contract, or was it just Torin manipulating them all?
“I will,” Torin said with his powerful, soothing voice. “You needn’t worry. But you will wait here and think upon my words after I do so.”
“Speak!” Godwin growled.
Torin sighed. “Very well.” Godwin felt the magic aura emitting from Torin surround him like a mist. It intoxicated him as he breathed it in.
“The Gaellean Prophecy will soon unfold,” Torin said. “It will be a time of chaos and terror. A time when demons fully break through into this world. But there is one last seal. A child of destiny. One who will determine if the ancient barriers between the demon and human realms will hold or fall.
“Kanjo is the child of destiny. He should have been killed. You failed, Godwin. It was your one job and you failed. But I failed too. I had not known what the Sages foresaw. I had not known that they made him a Shigata, and thus stayed your hand when you found him. But it matters not. I will hunt down Kanjo. I will kill him, and right the course of history. Now, we are done here. All of you will wait here as long as you can stand it. As for me, I will take our great Sages across the Dark Sea where they will be of far more use to the world.”
Godwin was not surprised to see the others simply sit down, obeying the spell that Torin had placed on them. He did the same, though he tried to fight it. They were too tired, too worn down to combat a Star-blessed while his constellation still hung in the morning sky.
They sat in silence for a long while. Godwin didn’t know why. He had trouble remembering what he was there for. The haze of the spell and the confusion of what they had heard prevented them from moving. Yaura was the first to rise, long after Torin had left. “We should go,” she said.
Godwin nodded. Standing, he wiped the tears from his eyes and walked out into the wreckage.
Chapter 29
The Imperial ships had been burned to nothing, along with half of the bay. The bagiennik oil was not a magic to be taken lightly. No sign of the soldiers remained. It seemed their mission had been accomplished, and they had either been frightened off after the damage to their ships or simply left of their own accord.
Godwin had no idea how long they had spent inside the castle. All of them felt like they had entered the same twisted nightmare. The sun was still high, but were they down there for an hour or an hour and a day? Nobody could say for certain. When they finally returned to the surface they were surrounded by dead bodies and injured fighters. Many of their Shigata allies slogged towards Meno to recover and to plan revenge.
Few words were exchanged.
The group treated their injuries as best they could, which was to say extremely poorly. Nobody seemed to care. Everyone was hurt severely and none of them were hurt fatally. It was good enough. They were tired. And sad.
“I can’t believe they’re really gone,” Logun said, staring longingly at the Dark Sea.
“Me neither,” Yaura said. “This is when we would go to them. They’re supposed to guide us through this. Tell us what to do. What does it mean that they’re not here?”
“Is it the end of the Shigata?” Logun asked.
“No,” Godwin said, though he had no idea why he sounded so confident. “I don’t think so. There’s more that binds us to our role as Shigata than orders from the Sages. Besides, they haven’t been killed. Merely kidnapped. We will have to find them, I suppose.”
“Across the Dark Sea?” Logun asked. “Into Imperial lands?”
“If that is where our path leads, then yes,” Godwin said. “But somehow I think not right away. We should search for some of our brothers and sisters first. We need to know what our strength actually is.”
“There’s going to be another war, isn’t there?” Yaura asked.
Godwin didn’t answer her.
They camped along the cold shores of one of Black Wolf’s beaches. A small fire crackled as they roasted the last of their supplies. Logun had suggested raiding the last of Unduyo’s stores, but nobody seemed able to muster up the strength to return to the castle.
“The bastard’s just had to destroy it,” Logun said. “A perfectly good castle, and now it’s ruined.”
“Hey look,” Robert said, pointing upwards. “The Dragon. That makes two nights in a row, doesn’t it?”
“How unusual,” Robert said. “I think it’s been years since the Dragon returned to the sky.”
Godwin kept his eyes down. He didn’t much feel like star-gazing. There was no constellation for him up there. Nothing but frustration and regret.
“Should we talk about what Torin told us?” Yaura said. “About the prophecy? About Kanjo?”
“It was probably a pack of lies,” Logun spat. “Everything else out of that bastard’s mouth amounted to as much.”
“Somehow I don’t think so,” Godwin said. “It’s strange. I thought I knew Torin better than anyone, and I know he was using the power of the Serpent to manipulate us, but still…I can’t help but feel he was telling us the truth. It felt as if he really wanted us to know. That he thought we might really understand and join him.”
“Join him?” Yaura scoffed. “Join him and what? Help the Empire take over the West?”
“We’re not soldiers, Yaura,” Godwin said. “There was a time when the Shigata served something greater than a king.”
“Now we don’t even do that,” Logun said forlornly. “Face it, our order has diminished. Nowadays, we’re little better than common cutthroats and killers. They just give us shiny silver badges to make us feel better about it.”
“I wish the Sages were here,” Yaura said. The fire crackled in her hazel eyes. “Now that I know I can’t reach out to them, there’s so much I want to ask them. About the Shigata. About our history, our purpose. The way Torin was speaking, it seems like the end of the world is upon us.”
“Lunatics have been saying that since the days of the Rainbow Wood,” Logun said. “Doesn’t make it true.”
Godwin frowned. Somehow, he wasn’t so sure. That corpse…something about it was different. It was no mere dead body brought about by necromancy. There was something far more sinister going on. He didn’t understand it.
“I am…afraid.”
Godwin hadn’t meant to say the words out loud, but they came tumbling out of him. Yaura looked utterly shocked, and Logun seemed certain he had misheard Godwin speak. Robert nodded sympathetically.
“There’s more to this than we understand,” Godwin said. “Logun, that person we fought. The one with the runes on his mask. I feel as though we may have m
ade a grave mistake in allowing him to slip away. I don’t know what that mask was hiding, but I don’t think that thing was human.”
Godwin wanted to keep going. He wanted to say what was really on his mind, but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to speak. It would make the offer real, and if the offer became real, it would mean he would have to reject it. But it couldn’t have been real, could it?
But the message of the stars is not always beautiful, is it Godwin? Who would know that better than you? Star-cursed. Forsaken. Marked by fate for a luckless existence destined only to cause chaos and confusion in the lives of those you care about. I wonder, what if it could all go away?
Memory of those twisted words sent a chill up Godwin’s spine. He would not speak of it.
Logun shivered. Perhaps a coincidence. “Something horrible has happened here,” Logun said. “Without the Sages I don’t know that we have much hope to find out what. But Torin kept mentioning The Gaellean Prophecy. I think we have to find out what that is.”
“Indeed,” Godwin agreed. “But where to start looking?”
“There’s also Kanjo,” Robert said. “We’ll have to find him as well.”
“We?” Yaura said with a smile. “My friend all you have to do is go to Meno and wait out the winter. Surely the Empire had a reason for disguising their ships and their army. They won’t start a true war before the spring. You’ll be able to get passage back home.”
Robert looked with longing towards the Dark Sea. “I would have really liked that,” he said sadly. “But it isn’t meant to be, I fear.”
“What? What are you talking about?” Godwin asked.
“When we were down in the keep with the corpse, I heard a voice. A strange whisper in my ear. It happened right after the corpse became animated. It told me…it told me I will never see Eastern Gaellos again.”
“Surely a fever dream,” Yaura said quickly. “We’re all tired. We’re all hurting. The situation was bizarre enough on top of being under Torin’s spell. You can’t truly put stock in that.”