War of the Raven Queen: The Goddess Prophecies Fantasy Series Book 6

by Araya Evermore

  Marakon squinted over the wasteland, struggling to imagine it was ever fertile. ‘It’s all gone.’

  Issa floated in and out of a surreal dream.

  She knew she had been poisoned but the details were hazy. In parts of the dream she was being carried by strange lizard men. Thick, short trees spread their canopies above, and among the leaves shone beautiful lights in all shades of purples, yellows and oranges. She wondered if they were fairies but as she peered at a glowing pink one, it didn’t dance or disappear and instead remained still, like a light in a bottle.

  A lizard-man came into view and looked down at her. He was all hazy, then he looked away and the dream moved on.

  The trees were gone now and instead she saw buildings made of grey stones. Some were small, no larger than a cottage, and others large. All were covered in angular writing or images of animals and plants carved expertly into the stone.

  The houses faded away and a huge structure came into view, pushing up through the trees. A pyramid, but not like the ones on Aralansia. This one was a giant stepped pyramid, and whilst it was shorter, it was certainly wider. Steps led all the way up its steep sides, and there was a dark doorway at the top. There were statues up there too, but they were too far away to make out clearly with her hazy vision. She saw many Saurians walking at the pyramid’s base. They looked at her, paused for a moment, then carried on.

  The pyramid faded. It was dark now. She peered into the blackness waiting for her eyes to adjust, but they didn’t. She fell asleep.

  A terrible pain in her shoulder broke into her dream and then she was rushing back to consciousness. Whatever gripped her shoulder, released and with it went the pain, the fog, and the poison.

  She stared into the face of a green-scaled Saurian. It may be the one she had seen earlier, but they all looked alike. Beside him stood the sandy one, and beyond them, a large grey ceiling rose in steps to a distant central point. Every layer of stone had text or scenes. Orange light flickered, cast by a hearth or braziers she couldn’t see. She had to be inside the pyramid, or a pyramid.

  ‘Where am I?’ she asked, her voice weak.

  The two Saurians said nothing, looked at each other and then moved away. Ehka landed beside her, his presence comforting. So, they’d set him free unharmed, that was a relief. His soft feathers against her thigh told her her armour had been taken.

  She tried to move and found she couldn’t. Was the poison still in effect? She tried again and slowly strength tingled through her body. She looked around and found she was lying on a stone bed. With shaking arms, she pushed herself up.

  Two fires burned in sconces a short distance away offering some warmth. Beyond the fires, a large stone staircase led up to a wide central doorway which was pitch black beyond. Braziers on the walls also lit up the giant stone chamber.

  Apart from her underwear, she was naked—her armour, her weapons, her orb…gone. She looked around for the Saurians, but they had disappeared. Gingerly, she touched the two bloody bite marks on her shoulder.

  ‘They will heal fast and with no marksss, especially with that bracelet you wear.’ The female voice was too low and soothing to make her jump, but Issa looked around, heart-pounding, wondering where it had come from.

  ‘But you will be weak for a while. It was necessary, to ensure you cannot harm usss.’ The voice continued, ending every ’s’ in a long hiss, then added ponderously, ‘We have been waiting for one such as you.’

  ‘Where are you? Where are my clothes?’ demanded Issa. How dare they take the orb.

  ‘Illendri is safe. And you needn’t worry, we are not in league with Baelthrom.’

  Issa rubbed her wrist around Ely’s bracelet, surprised she still had it when everything else had been taken. ‘Then why has it been taken along with my stuff?’

  ‘To protect us from you,’ hissed the voice.

  ‘Then why not the bracelet?’ asked Issa. She pinpointed the voice to be coming from the pitch-black doorway at the top of the stone staircase.

  ‘We knew the one who forged it,’ the soothing voice echoed softly in the chamber. ‘And that might be why we let you live.’

  Issa was taken aback. They knew Ely’s mother, Harianna?

  As if reading her thoughts, the voice said. ‘The Tree of Life is sacred to us. The one who made it came to us in the same manner as the priestesses of old; seeking wisdom and healing powers. Priestess Harianna was the last to make the journey here to acquire such knowledge. We have seen no priestesses since.

  ‘The Order of the Goddess is corrupted. They have given in to greed for power, with many now turning to Baelthrom and the powers he can offer.’

  Eyes flashed in the darkness of the doorway, large and pale blue. ‘We have seen it and watched many things come to pass. I am what you humans call the Oracle.’

  ‘You know many things yet remain hidden. Why don’t you show yourself?’ Issa challenged.

  Her breath caught in her throat as a massive white snake appeared in the doorway, then its huge coiling body unfolded rapidly out from the entrance. Ehka squawked and flew up to a safe ledge as the great white snake flowed down the steps like liquid. It slowed as it approached Issa, its red forked tongue darted out of its muzzle and a hood flared out from its neck. Blue eye slits narrowed, it opened its mouth and hissed, two huge fangs protruding.

  Issa pressed herself back against the wall, her heart pounding and cold sweat running down her back. The snake closed its mouth, blessedly hiding its fangs, but pushed its smooth head barely a foot from Issa. She swallowed as the snake glared at the raven mark on her chest then back up at her face.

  The snake turned away abruptly then lifted itself impossibly high into the air to inspect the strange inscriptions halfway up the wall.

  ‘Who are you?’ Issa asked, her voice trembling.

  ‘I am Hallanstaryx, Queen and Oracle. All Oracles of the Saurians are called this, the name itself means ‘Oracle’. And you are she, the Raven Queen, there can be no doubt. But will you remain as she?’ The snake whispered the last as if to herself.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Issa frowned. ‘If you’re the Oracle, have you seen an end to this war? Have you seen us win?’ She suddenly found a hundred questions.

  The snake’s tongue flicked in and out. ‘The future is dark concerning the survival of Maioria, this you know from your wizards and witches. You have come here to find something lost to you, and you will find it. But you will also discover things you do not want to know but must.’

  Everything the Snake Queen said felt loaded with mystery. Issa shook her head for all the questions she wanted to ask.

  ‘If I fail, then there is no more Maioria,’ Issa spoke quietly her greatest fear, her greatest, crushing burden.

  ‘If you fail, and that time is close, there can be another,’ the Snake Queen lowered herself and looked at Issa, her whole body motionless apart from her flickering tongue.

  Issa frowned. ‘I don’t understand. There is only one Raven Queen, and she cannot fail.’

  ‘There are three potential Raven Queens. The one that came through the human Oracle died, and the other is far away and unaware, just as you were unaware.’

  Issa felt sick. She knew there could be three but had always thought they had all failed or died. In truth, she didn’t want to know about the other Raven Queens or the prophecies and all they meant. A part of her still wished to be free of the whole thing. But now another still lives?

  Breathing heavily, she placed her hands upon the altar. She knew and accepted she was the Raven Queen, but what if she failed? She could finish it all right now. Find the other Raven Queen and divulge herself of the responsibility and this awful war. She would be free.

  ‘I know you’ve seen the White Raven in your dreams,’ the Snake Queen’s voice cut through her thoughts. When Issa didn’t say anything, the Oracle continued. ‘It signals death and danger. The end is unfolding quickly now, as surely it must. There is always chaos at the end. The time of your failin
g is near, but this other Raven Queen can pick up the mantle. However, she will not be as strong, she will not have experienced all the things that has made you hard as iron—for now.’

  Issa stared at the enormous snake, her heart in her throat. Deep within she knew the Oracle was not lying.

  The Snake Queen continued. ‘There are others who have come to know of the Prophecies of Zanufey, beings who have no place on this planet. Beings who reach out to us through time and space through the Dark Rift.’

  ‘Lona… The Yurgha,’ Issa breathed.

  The Snake Queen blinked, her second eyelids sliding swiftly back after the first. ‘They are hunting for this third Raven Queen even as they try to destroy you. They will rise her to power—power that comes from within the Dark Rift, I have seen it, I am the Oracle.’

  ‘What can I do? What can be done?’ Issa stepped around the altar towards the snake. The snake remained motionless for a long moment, silently regarding her.

  ‘I only tell you what I have seen. Only one Raven Queen can rise, the others will fall. When the darkness comes into you—and come it must—then will begin your greatest trial. Fail, yes, you might.’

  ‘How do you know so much? Why hasn’t Zanufey said anything?’ Issa demanded. She needed answers, not more questions!

  The snake retreated towards the stone steps, her voice sounding ponderous. ‘We are not polluted by corruption like humans are. Our race is pure, kept apart from all the others. We hear our Great God Staryx as a clear voice in our minds, but it is not in the nature of our gods to tell us what to do. They only guide us.’

  Issa let out a long sigh.

  ‘You are not alone in this,’ said Hallanstaryx. ‘For many years we have awaited the coming of the Raven Queen, for she signals our end, too.’

  ‘It’s not my choosing.’ Issa shook her head, feeling very weary.

  ‘You bring war to us,’ the Snake Queen said simply. ‘Though we do not wish for it, we must comply. The war will come to us whether we fight alongside the Raven Queen or not. It cannot be undone. But by her side there is a chance. Without her, there is none. And after? Ancient prophecies tell us a vastly different world will come into being. The Raven Queen signals the end of endings.’

  The Snake Queen spoke in riddles. Issa rolled her words over and again in her mind. The end of endings. There is something important in this. Something I can’t quite grasp!

  ‘I don’t understand. How does the darkness come into me? There must be a way I can fight it. Why is everything unfolding quickly now?’ The questions weren’t good enough. She paced the cold stone floor as the Snake Queen spoke.

  ‘We do not know how. But you will enter the darkness so all else has a chance to reach the light. Things unfold rapidly now because our Great Goddess Woetala is dying. The life energy, the female magnetic energy of our world is draining into the Dark Rift. The Orb of Life that Baelthrom took ensured the enslavement of this planet to his will, and now the last female Ancient and true Keeper of the Orb of Life is in his chains.’ The Oracle spoke with sorrow, her head moving back and forth as she looked into the distance.

  Issa had for so long thought only of Zanufey, the guardian of Aralansia. Rarely had she considered the guardians of Maioria; Doon and Woetala. There was too much to consider, too many huge problems that she alone could not solve. She struggled to gain perspective on what had to be done. Unable to grasp a solution, she turned her attention on the reason why she had come here. ‘You, or the one before you, met my parents. You know where they are, don’t you?’

  The Snake Queen looked at her. ‘The seer and the bard came to us a long time ago, fore-warned were we by a raven. The musicman is not amongst us anymore, though he is near. But he is not the man he used to be, he was drained by our enemies and now grief has taken part of him.’

  Issa’s heart and hope rose and fell with the Oracle’s words, they had to be her parents. ‘He has to be my father, what’s happened to him? Where’s my mother, the seer?’

  The huge snake regarded her for a long time without moving apart from her tongue flicking in and out. Then she turned away with a hissing sigh. ‘After the musicman and his seer came to us, we were attacked by the entire brood of harpies, both from the East and the West. Then came Baelthrom’s Dread Dragons. It was too coordinated to be chance. Hallanstaryx nearly fell.’ The snake rolled a portion of her long body over to reveal an angry red scar slicing several feet along her side. Issa winced.

  ‘The musicman believed they were betrayed.’

  ‘What do you mean, betrayed? By whom?’ asked Issa, her mind whirring.

  ‘By the demon who helped them in the demon tunnels.’ The Oracle did not elaborate.

  Issa swallowed audibly. Never trust a demon! And yet, her friends were demons. Did Gedrock know about any of this? Surely he must!

  ‘When the enemy came, many Saurians were injured, including your mother and father, and many were killed,’ said Hallanstaryx. ‘Your father felt guilt and sought revenge. Much changed. The music left him and, unable to play for us as was the agreement for him to live amongst us, he left for fear of another attack, and went into the swamps. We saw little of him after that. But it is better you find out for yourself.’

  15

  Musicman

  Issa decided not to protest as the blindfold was pulled over her eyes.

  It was either that or be bitten and poisoned again, and her shoulder was still sore from the previous bite. Helpless and at their mercy, they lifted and tied her on to the back of a Saurian.

  ‘I can walk,’ she said indignantly, but they ignored her, and so began a long jolting journey through the swamps.

  The Saurians didn’t speak much, not even amongst themselves, but with careful questioning, she learned a little about them and their history. Baelthrom hadn’t bothered invading the swamps, who would? He didn’t need to for his allies the harpies had grown more powerful and numerous. The Saurians now fought a war of resources, and their vitality dwindled in response to Maioria’s.

  It was with a certain amount of horror that she realised this race of lizard-people had resigned themselves to their fate, that one day there would be no Saurian on Maioria. ‘We shall leave this realm and go to our Pure Place. There is no going back, we look only forwards at what must be,’ they had said.

  She was about to ask how much further when they stopped and lifted her from the back of the Saurian she’d been riding. The blindfold was pulled from her eyes and she stood swaying and disorientated. Ehka cawed, letting her know he was there.

  The dark green Saurian she had first seen when captured, pointed a long, clawed finger into the distance. ‘That way,’ he said.

  Issa squinted over the flat swamp but could see nothing other than swarms of flies and flocks of long-necked birds. There weren’t even many trees in the area, just long swathes of water broken up by clumps of reeds and tall grasses.

  The Saurian passed her a bag. ‘Food and water. Enough to survive for a few days should you get lost.’ They turned to leave.

  ‘Wait!’ she said, afraid to be alone out here. ‘Er, what are your names?’

  ‘Ekem,’ said the dark green one.

  ‘And I, Ata,’ said the tan-coloured lizard-man, his voice was deeper. ‘Watch the skies for harpies.’

  ‘How will I return?’ Issa asked.

  ‘The musicman will know,’ said Ekem, and then they bounded away through the reeds leaving her at the mercy of the swamps.

  Skin-creeping magic moved, and something pressed on her leg.

  ‘Maggot!’ Issa watched the demon materialise from the gathering shadows, his yellow eyes wide and shining. ‘You’ve been watching all this time?’

  ‘Only when you left the pyramid, Saurian magic stopped me following. I waited to see if you were alive or dead.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Issa sourly.

  She thought about what the Snake Queen had said. Should she go to the Murk this very moment and ask Gedrock what the hell was going on? What
had happened to her parents at the hands of demons? But as she looked out over the swamp her heart called to her. Out there was her father.

  She started stomping through the water. As each step sunk into the mud and clung to her foot, her energy waned. It wasn’t long before she was soaked through and muddy.

  The journey was slow going but she pushed on. As she walked, she considered turning into a raven and flying over this muck. But I want to find my father with my own eyes, in my true form. Perhaps it was a silly thing, but it felt important that she be Issa, his long-lost daughter, and not the Raven Queen. She wished she didn’t even have her Dread Dragon armour on. And so she slogged onwards, hands hovering near sword and talisman in case any crocodile or harpy should suddenly appear.

  Heavy rain clouds clustered and the day turned overcast. Without any wind, it became close and muggy, and sweat stuck her clothes to her body in a most uncomfortable manner. Annoying flies slapped into her face and clung there with increasing frequency.

  Maggot, however, was having a great time, jumping into the air and gulping them down. Every now and then he’d release a huge belch that echoed across the swamp—shocking for his tiny size. But no matter how many he ate, there always seemed to be a hundred more. The sky began to darken as dusk fell and she hugged her arms. She certainly didn’t fancy wandering the swamps at night.

  ‘Over there, Issy.’ Maggot pointed a clawed finger to the horizon and rose into the air on flapping wings.

  Issa squinted and spied a thin plume of smoke rising in the still air. She took a deep breath, suddenly feeling overwhelmed, and quickened her pace.

  The house poking out of the swamp was tiny, little more than a small barn, and made entirely of wood that was old and warped in places. A wide roof made of planks hung over a porch, protecting it from the frequent rain. A chair stood on the porch beside the front door. The door itself was a rickety thing that clung on to its hinges at an odd angle. There was one small window and possibly light beyond, but a curtain was drawn across it.