The Godlost Land

by Curtis, Greg

  That was as much as she knew of what had happened in the world until she had been taken on this journey before the angry soldier had freed her. She guessed that Lion's Crest had been captured by these false priests. But the pain she had felt as she had been brought her, seemed greater than that of just one city. And the journey had been far longer.

  “These false priests came with their armies of twisted creatures and conquered the five kingdoms,” Nyma told her. “But they did not conquer them as soldiers would. They killed everyone. They spread across the five kingdoms like a plague and murdered people indiscriminately. The blood shed has continued to this day without let up.”

  “Lion's Crest was utterly destroyed. Of over a hundred thousand souls who called it home at best a few thousand survived. Maybe not even that. The other cities suffered terribly, but none so terribly as that. And from Lion's Crest the chimera as they are known have spread out and hunted. And all the while these false priests and their soldiers, have simply taken town after town.”

  “In each town they have taken, the story has been the same. All the temples and shrines have been burnt. The priests and anyone with magic has been killed. Those of mixed blood or those who do not bow to the false temple have also been killed. And then the remaining people have been enslaved. Forced to work to raise food and mine precious metals, and then watch as the fruits of their labours are stolen from them, taken back to the cities.”

  “But why?”

  Erislee felt compelled to ask though she suspected there would be no good answer to such questions. People did terrible things to others for any number of reasons. But they were never good reasons.

  “We don't know. When my people learned of what was happening we sent envoys to ask. They did not return. Inel Ison and Pariton have both accepted tens of thousands of refugees, but for the most part those who have come to us know nothing. Nothing save that the temple of the Huntress is killing everyone. We have sent custodians to seek out knowledge throughout all the five kingdoms, but little has been learned.”

  “However we were lucky six months ago when one of our people rode further south, well out of the five kingdoms, and saw you in your prison. Ever since then we have been trying to find a way to free you. But you have been well guarded. More than that we believe that the manticore placed by your cage was there to kill you should you ever escape.”

  “We do not know why they did not kill you and kept you locked away. But we thought it must be because they feared that you were a danger to them. Then we received word that you were being moved to Lion's Crest where we thought you would be sacrificed. We thought that if these false priests do worship some dark god, that the sacrifice of the last High Priestess in the five kingdoms might be important to them.”

  Nyma's voice had faded away to a whisper by then and she stopped speaking. Probably because she had been living in fear that Erislee was finally to die. And that Erislee understood. For five long years she had lived in fear of finding out that her family had been killed. The thought was not an easy one to bear.

  “But why did Artemis not stop this sacrilege? Where are the others? I am only the High Priestess in Lion's Crest. There are more in each of the cities of the five kingdoms. And the other gods and goddesses also have priests and priestesses who could have called out for aid.”

  “Surely the priests of Ares and Dike Astraea at least should have spoken?” After all this was a matter of war and justice. It was their bailiwick. And they were well capable of defending themselves.

  “Dead”, replied Nyma, bleakly. They were all killed at the same time Lion's Crest fell. Assassinated by the followers of Est. The assassins were everywhere. They were waiting even before the great temple fell. And as the invasion continued, more of the temple priests were killed. For a while it seemed that to be a high priest was a sentence for a quick and brutal death, no matter which of the gods one followed. Many priests ran when their temples and shrines were burnt. But still, they were hunted. Then, when the cities were seized and the great temples destroyed, no more high priests could even be consecrated. The only one who has put up any resistance are the followers of the Goddess of Fury. But even Lyssa's followers cannot stand against limitless numbers. And they have fallen one by one.”

  “As far as I know you are the last High Priestess to Artemis remaining. Certainly within the five kingdoms you are. And you may be the only high priestess to any of the gods anywhere.”

  “The last!”

  The thought horrified her. It shocked her in a way that until then she could never have understood. Surely it wasn't possible! She couldn't be the last. There had been hundreds of priests and priestesses of Artemis throughout the five kingdoms. Thousands of other priests. And all of the great temples – destroyed? That just could not be!

  And yet in a terrible way she also understood why it had happened. For a new High Priest or Priestess of Artemis could only be brought before the Goddess as such by another of their ilk and the ceremony could only ever be held in the Great Temple. She was sure the same was true for the other priesthoods.

  Of course there was one other method of doing so, though it had seldom been used. It involved a congregation of priests coming together to appoint a new High Priest or Priestess in a sacred grove. But there were few such groves in the five kingdoms and by the sounds of things nearly all the priests were dead and the others had fled. If someone truly wanted to destroy Artemis' Temple than that was the way to do it. She assumed the same was true for the other temples.

  It was a long time before Erislee could think of something to say, and when she did it wasn't anything of import. Not when there was clearly so much that needed to be done.

  “If all of the priests of Artemis are dead then why did that soldier hate me so? Why did he want to kill me? Why did he blame the Temple of the Huntress for his pain?”

  “Because for the last five years whoever has destroyed the Temple of Artemis has been pretending to be acting on behalf of the Goddess. They have burnt the temples of Artemis, destroyed the temples and the shrines of the other gods as well and murdered their priests. But they have built new temples which they claim to be to Artemis, but which are not. And they walk as the Goddess' priests while hiding the bodies of the true priests. In each town a new temple is raised. A temple to Artemis in name and appearance, but not her temple in truth. In fact they are not temples at all. There are no prayers spoken in them. There is nothing sacred about them. They are not consecrated to any of the gods. And all of the priests bear the markings of demons upon their wrists. Some have magic as well. But none are priests in truth.”

  “And from those false temples they have sent out their creatures to kill, and their soldiers to enslave the lands and steal everything the people have. They use the coin and the food to raise their armies, and their armies to enslave the people and gather more coin. They have become a plague upon the land. And all those who are forced to the will of these temples believe that it is Artemis who enslaves them.”

  “By the Goddess!”

  It was monstrous. Unthinkable. And yet suddenly she understood why the warrior had been so filled with fury at the sight of her. It was also shocking to hear how much destruction had been wrought in the name of Artemis. The warrior had been first person Erislee had seen and spoken to in five years, and he had hated her. It was wrong. But how many others were the same?

  “And our family?”

  It was selfish she supposed to even be thinking of them in such a time, but she couldn't help it. She had carried the hope of seeing them again in her heart for five long years, all the while knowing they might well be dead. Though it pained her to think of it she knew that her mother was certainly so. After all, she had lived in Lion's Crest where she'd played the pipes for the king as one of his royal entertainers. Her father should be fine she thought, since he lived in Inel Ison most of the time and acted as an envoy for the Great Assembly to the Kingdom of the Lion only when he had to.

  It was as part of his
duties as envoy that he had first met Erislee's mother and begun a scandalous affair while still wed to Nyma's mother. But from that affair she had been born and for that reason Erislee could never find it within herself to decry what had happened. And in time when she had met her sister, she had been glad of it. The relationship had been happy. Even her time with Rias, Nyma's mother had been good. Time had healed the pain.

  “Father lives. He is helping with the defence of our people as this new temple spreads east into the vale of Inel Ison. My mother lives too, though she is ill. A lot of our people sicken. Something in what has been done by these false priests has spread further than just the five kingdoms. In part it is simply that so many priests have been killed that there is not much faith left in the lands. And faith is needed to live. But in part we believe that more than just the demon Est wanders the land. And that whoever or whatever wanders it, he has come to the dryad realms.”

  “Your mother I fear is dead. Not many escaped Lion's Crest. It was the first city attacked and the creatures slaughtered all they could and hunted down those who fled. Yesterday I spoke with a wizard who escaped the city, and he claimed it was even worse than I feared. That almost all died.”

  Erislee gasped in horror even though she had feared that her mother had died. She had seen the beasts exit the temple and heard the screams outside. Still, was there no hope? Surely she had hoped, the civilians would have been unharmed. Nyma's words were like a cold fist clenching around her heart. Squeezing it tight, stopping it from beating. And yet even as she had feared it she had known it for the truth. She had seen at least a legion of those twisted beasts depart the temple and known them for savage killers. So she had feared it and at the same time known that there was nothing she could do.

  Save move forward.

  Somehow she found the strength within her to put her fear and pain aside. To remember her duty. This was not the time to cry. It was not the time to break down like a child and give up. Now was the time to fight back. For the first time in five years a High Priestess of Artemis was free in the five kingdoms. There was a reason for that.

  “Sister there must be a grove somewhere nearby. Take me there please.”

  It was time to call the unicorns back to the land. To bring the griffins back to the sky. It was time to bring the voice of the Goddess back to the world. It was time to throw these demon following charlatans out of Artemis' temples.

  It was time to start the hunt.

  Chapter Seven

  The grove was a good place for a High Priestess of Artemis to be. Especially the last one left in the five kingdoms. It was a place where Erislee could find peace within her and know once more the glory of the Goddess as she moved through the world and through her. It was also a place where she could find understanding. Understanding as to why she had been imprisoned for so long rather than simply killed. That had been a while in coming.

  But now she believed that it was because the enemy, whoever he truly was, feared the power of the Goddess. He feared the power that she as her High Priestess could release. And Erislee vowed quietly, he would soon have reason for that fear.

  Anger though could not guide her, even though it flowed through her like the ocean tides as she thought of all those she had lost. Of all she had suffered. But she was a High Priestess of Artemis and her duty always had to come first. Anger was not the Huntress' way. Her way was the glory and excitement of the hunt. The challenge involved. The provision of food to those who hunted and their families. The bounty of the land as it sustained the animals that could be hunted. And the cycle of life as both hunter and prey lived in harmony.

  Those were the wonders that Artemis glorified. And those were the things that had been lost when her temple had been overrun. They were also the things that had to be restored. These false demon worshipping priests had to be driven out of the temple.

  But not out of hatred. Never hatred. They had to be driven from the Goddess' temples because it was the right thing to do. It was divine law. Themis would demand it even if Artemis didn't.

  It would take time though to find that awareness within her. To let it flow through her and drive away the anger. And so she had been kneeling in prayer in the grove under the light of the moon for over an hour. She would be spending a great many more hours that way before she would once more feel worthy of carrying the title of High Priestess of Artemis.

  “Sister?”

  Nyma called to her softly in the night, worried by what she was doing. To her mind, they should be running, finding safety, not praying. She worried that it was taking so long. That they could be attacked by more of the beasts at any time. But Erislee knew that she didn't have reason to worry. Not here. Not in one of the Goddess' sacred groves. And not when they were guarded by a pair of unicorns. Few creatures would dare to risk the wrath of a unicorn. She did her best to explain that to her sister. And then to tell her the rest. The reason she'd been locked away for five years. She'd worked some of that out as Nyma had guided the wagon here, but more was becoming clear as she knelt before her Goddess.

  It was strangely simple in the end. The enemy feared the Goddess. He feared all the gods but it seemed he feared her most of all. Perhaps it was because he had insulted her most grievously. After all he had destroyed the temples and killed the priests of the other gods, but with Artemis he had gone that one step further. He had usurped her name. He surely feared her wrath. And he specifically feared what her High Priests would do if they were given the chance. Because Artemis' priests had been granted particular gifts that other priests weren't. And the most important of them was that they could call upon the aid of the Goddess' creatures. The unicorns and the griffins. For that reason Erislee believed the enemy had killed as many High Priests as he could. But he'd had to keep one alive. Because if there were no High Priests remaining the Goddess and the temple would return to the old way. The way that was followed before the temple had been formed and there had only been followers and the Goddess. The way that the Goddess was worshipped in the dryad realms. There would be no choice.

  Originally the unicorns and the griffins had come to the faithful when they needed them, but only as they chose. They were not called. The unicorn was the faithful steed when it was needed. The griffin was the hunter's honoured companion in the pursuit. But if and when they had come together it had always been an act of chance. The will of blind Tyche. They roamed wild for the most part. The glorious companions of the Huntress had only shown up when the Goddess had felt some sort of kinship with those who had called. But at least they still roamed the lands freely. And when the chimera were often sent out to do the same as they hunted down outcasts, that would mean the two would come into contact. And in a battle between a chimera and a unicorn or a griffin it would not be the Goddess' creatures that would lose.

  When the temple had been formed and the hierarchies of the priesthood created that blessing had been formalised. The Goddess had granted her High Priests the blessing to call upon her companions whenever they truly needed them. And because of it the sightings of the fabulous companions had become more common. But at the same time the unicorns and griffins had no longer come to her other followers.

  When the High Priests had been killed, the unicorns and the griffins had left the land. There had been no call for them. Now they were even less common than they were in the dryad realms where the worship of Artemis was done in the old way. And that had left the lands, the fields, the forests and the mountains of the five kingdoms, undefended.

  Maybe it had been a mistake formalising the arrangement. It had certainly been a weakness. When the unicorns no longer galloped the land freely and the griffins no longer flew across the skies as they should, the twisted chimera of these false priests had been able to roam the land freely. And there was some unexpected comfort in that. If she died in the struggle ahead – and reclaiming the five kingdoms for Artemis was going to be dangerous – then at least she would know that once again the Goddess' companions would roam the fi
ve kingdoms. And it was a hard thing to accept that by her very survival in that cage for all those years, she had helped the enemy to hurt the temple.

  But now, no more. She was free and the word of the Goddess would once more be heard in the five kingdoms. It would be cried from the mountain tops and it would echo throughout the valleys.

  It was already being heard. She had called upon the Goddess' sacred creatures and they were coming. Moreover they were coming back to the land in numbers. And when they arrived it would be time to start using them. It was time to start the fight back. To reclaim the temples and throw out these false priests. These demon worshippers. It was time to start hunting them.

  A heartbeat later she knew that her call had been answered.

  “Sister!” Nyma all but screamed as she heard a beast roaring behind her. A lion. But it wasn't a lion. Erislee knew that. It was a griffin. And it was the first of her Goddess' sacred creatures of the sky to arrive.