by Aderyn Wood
Zamug turned to Enlil and instructed him to prepare three of their best camels. The bard followed his orders without question. “Princess, we shall explain more as we travel.” Zamug spoke as he busied himself with his satchel. “I agree, your training has only just begun, but the gods have moved things along, and it is urgent we now return to Azzuri.”
Heduanna went to her tent and packed her satchel with the scant belongings. A small phial of rose and almond oil was the only comfort she’d brought from the palace. She placed it in her satchel along with the pouch of almonds and dates. Next she rolled her mat and went to the mountain stream near the encampment to fill her two waterskins with the icy water.
A loud squawk made her look up. Rhast the raven was perched on a branch of a dead tree. He seemed to be watching her. A shiver trembled down her spine. “Do you know me?” She felt a little foolish for talking to the bird, but when it squawked and took to the air she had the distinct feeling the bird had understood.
Heduanna handed Enlil her things to pack on a camel. The bard took them from her without eye contact, and without a word.
“I’m sorry, Enlil,” she whispered.
He nodded and walked away.
The guilt pained her still, but her meditations had told her what needed to be done. Nothing. This was the consequence for taking his love so thoughtlessly. Enlil was not like Ri, or Addu, or any other lover she’d taken to her bed. He was different. His heart was true, and she had broken it. The guilt was the least she could do for him now, and he needed time and respect to recover. Time to despise her. Gradually, her name would come to mean nothing to him.
Other members of the tribe were beginning to stir and come out of their tents. Zamug spoke a quick word to a few of them who nodded and blinked their way to the stream without question.
Then it was time for them to depart. The three camels stood ready. Enlil had already given Rayna a lesson in how to ride the beast, and she told him not to worry as she had a way with animals. She sat astride her camel now and Heduanna could see it was true. As though she’d ridden all her life.
Heduanna mounted her own ride and waited for Zamug to do the same.
“Thank you, Enlil. Make your way to Azzuri yourself as soon as you can. We will need your assistance in the days to come. The tribe will be safe enough here, leave Demra in charge. No one would dare to question her.” They parted and in another moment they were off, plodding slowly through the trees, along the goat trail, heading south and east toward Azzuri. Heduanna kept her eyes forward. She wouldn’t dishonor Enlil by turning to meet his gaze. The gaze she felt boring into her back.
The camels set a fair plodding pace. They rested only once, just after noon, to attend to their bladders and fill their waterskins from the streams. “We will collect water while we can,” Zamug had told them.
It seemed impossible that in two days they would once again be in the desert.
As they traveled, Rhast the raven would fly ahead and disappear for great stretches of time. When he returned, Rayna would mutter to him before reporting what lay ahead. “Nothing but a herd of goats,” she said the first time. “A small lake,” she said another, and that was where they’d stopped.
The third time she declared there was a pack of mountain wolves, and this made Heduanna’s hair stand on end with both curiosity and fear.
Finally, Heduanna had to ask the question that burned within. “You communicate with him, then? Your raven?”
The old woman gave her yet another enigmatic smirk. “What does your god tell you?”
Heduanna blinked and looked away. She should have known that would be her answer. Rayna was proving more slippery than Zamug, and she never got a straight answer.
But they did tell her of their purpose. Not long after the encampment was out of hearing range Zamug told her their plan in full.
“We return to Azzuri for Yana,” he’d said. “How do you feel about deceiving your father, Princess?”
Heduanna bit her lip. She’d deceived her father more times than she could count. Every time she’d slept with a servant, or escaped the palace with her guard-lover Addu in the darkness of night, she’d done so with the knowledge that her father would disapprove. “It would depend on the reason.,”
Zamug nodded. “What if I were to tell you Yana is part of a plan to defend Azzuri?”
Heduanna narrowed her eyes, first at Zamug then at Rayna. Yes, she’d believe it. Everything she knew of Yana made that suggestion a probable one. “Very well, how will we deceive him?"
And they told her. Heduanna still had trouble believing it, though she didn’t doubt every word was true.
Near dusk, Zamug called a halt to their travels and Heduanna thanked the goddess. She slowly dismounted and winced with the fire that extended from her fingers to her toes and everywhere in between. Her body was far from accustomed to being astride a camel for such long periods. Usually, when the tribe journeyed, they walked on foot, and only travelled camelback for short periods, taking turns to offer their legs a rest.
Heduanna set to work collecting wood for the fire. There was less of it around now, but still enough to keep them warm and cook a meal. Once in the desert, they would burn dried camel dung that Heduanna had helped to collect mere days before. One of the less pleasant tasks in the tribe, but a necessary one for their survival. The old Heduanna would have stomped a foot and refused to demean herself by touching such a disgusting object as camel shit. But the new Heduanna did her best to keep her face neutral and chat amiably to Jala, Urt, and Cassia as they collected the dung and placed it on hard rock along the trail for them to pack away in satchels on the return journey. They’d pressed the dung into cakes, and hoped the dung beetles didn’t take too much before their return journey.
By the time the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon, Zamug had a hearty fire going, and a pot already filled with water set to the side. Heduanna retrieved her mat and placed it next to the fire and sat for a moment to warm her hands.
With the sun gone, the night grew chilly. The desert was still a way off and the elevation of their current location meant colder nights. A light fog had already begun to descend from the north. Heduanna studied it for a moment. It seemed even thicker than other nights.
She stood. “Would you like me to attend to the camels, Zamug?” It was a job Enlil normally saw to, but he wasn’t here, and by rights she ought to be the one that did such tasks. It was the order of things in the tribe. The elders were given few physical tasks, it was the young who were expected to care for and provide for their old ones.
“No, Princess,” Zamug replied, glancing once again at Rayna. “Sit on your mat, and be warmed by the fire. We shall eat, and we shall talk.”
Heduanna frowned. She was about to protest. Enlil always hitched their tents with the remaining twilight. She cast a glance skyward. In less than a hand they would be forced to make their camp in the dark. Or did Zamug intend for them to sleep in the open under the stars? She shivered and sat next to the fire, hoping she was not expected to sleep out in the open. Especially if that wolf pack still loitered. They’d brought none of the tribe’s dogs with them whose job it was to protect them against such predators.
Rayna opened a large pouch and emptied the contents into the steaming pot Zamug had placed on the fire. They were little brown things, some kind of vegetable perhaps.
“What are they?” Heduanna asked.
“Mountain shrooms,” Rayna replied with a smile. “Delicious.” She then threw a handful of herbs in the pot too.
Heduanna had to force her nose from scrunching. Those shrooms may be delicious, but the earthy aroma that wafted from the pot didn’t support the claim. In truth, they smelled more like the camel dung cakes than any food she knew of.
But Heduanna’s eyes weren’t held on the pot long, for what Rayna pulled from her satchel next grabbed Heduanna’s gaze like nothing ever had, and set her heart to racing.
The old woman had unwrapped a parcel of linen,
and there in the centre of it, a mere’s arm’s length from her sat the black stone. Just like the one Zamug had revealed the other night.
“What is it?” Heduanna hissed her question and had to force her arms to be still, and to keep them from snatching the stone up to stroke it.
Rayna looked at her. No smile touched her eyes this time, rather a gleam of warning resided in her gaze. “You feel it?”
Heduanna returned Rayna’s stare, forcing her eyes from the stone. “Yes,” she responded with a heavy swallow.
Rayna’s attention snapped to Zamug. “Perhaps it is too soon.”
“Yes, I fear it is, but what choice do we have?”
Rayna shook her head. “This is a dangerous risk, Mook. Her essence is weak. You’ve only just cured her of one enlsavement, and we’re about to introduce another, the strongest of all.”
“I’m aware of that,” Zamug snapped the words. “But we have little choice. In truth she’s barely over her first impediment, and I—”
“Would you please stop talking of me as though I weren’t here!” Heduanna’s breath quickened. “What are you talking of? What enslavement? What impediment?”
Zamug looked at Rayna before staring at the fire.
Rayna studied the black stone.
“Zamug!” Heduanna shouted. “Answer me!”
Zamug turned to her. “Your penchant for love-making, Princess. That is what I meant by your enslavement.”
Heduanna frowned. Zamug had already explained. She had used her passions as a way to connect with the goddess. It was a problem, he’d said, for a number of reasons, but mostly because the way in which the goddess came to her was too much for her physical self to bear, and that was why her convulsions grew worse with each vision. There were safer ways to access the goddess’s wisdom, and she was beginning to see that now.
Her gaze returned to the black stone and again her pulse quickened. “This stone, it provides access to the goddess, doesn’t it?”
Zamug nodded. “But it also enslaves. One needs great strength to use it safely.”
“And I am not ready. I am weak.”
Zamug’s eyes softened. “You have not been trained, Princess. That is all.”
“But you need me to use it. Why?”
“Let us eat as we explain it, lass.” Rayna collected their three bowls and shared the cooked shrooms between them. She placed a steaming bowl in front of Heduanna and this time Heduanna did scrunch her nose. The stench hadn’t disappeared with cooking.
“The problem is we have no time,” Rayna said with a mouthful of stew.
“Time?” Heduanna responded.
Zamug spoke, “Everything moves swiftly now. There are enemies to the west, enemies to the east. The war is coming to Azzuri. In Azzuri, the balance will be decided. For now.”
“You mean Gedjon-Brak?”
Zamug inclined his head. “Perhaps your famed prophecy aligns with this one.”
“Regardless,” Rayna said. “We have no time, and thus we must call on the black stone to quicken our travel to your city, Princess.”
Heduanna’s eyes went once more to the lump of shiny blackness that rested on the cloth by the fire. Its call was undeniable, and every part of her wanted to swoop it up and gaze into it.
“Dragonshade,” Zamug was saying and Heduanna forced her attention back to the desert seer. “That’s what it’s called, though it’s had other names too, and it’s as dangerous as it is powerful.”
“It’s the medicine you took before you left us,” Heduanna said.
Zamug gave her a nod.
“We need you to take some, lass,” Rayna spoke. “We have no choice in the matter. It will give you the energy you need to make the trip without further pause.”
Heduanna’s heart thumped in her chest. A giddy excitement filled her stomach and pulsed in her limbs. “But if it’s dangerous,” she forced herself to say, “will it harm me?”
Rayna shot Zamug a glance filled with foreboding.
“There may be some after-effects, Princess,” Zamug replied. “Some physical symptoms not unlike your convulsions, though they shouldn’t be so debilitating, and Rayna and I will help you face them once we’re back in Azzuri. We will only give you a little amount, just enough to help you with this journey and no more.”
“Will I see the goddess?”
“It’s possible,” Rayna said, “though unlikely. As Zamug said, we will only give you the barest amount.”
“There’s one other thing you should know,” Zamug said, his eyes filled with gravity. “It’s what gives me most pause, and you should know it, given your… past.”
“My past?”
Zamug pursed his lips. “Your tendency to readily acquiesce to life’s pleasures, no matter their consequences.”
Heduanna’s cheeks flushed. “You mean my passions.”
“Your lovemaking certainly, but there is another dependency you developed too much of a taste for, and it’s why you suffered so much that first quarter-moon with our tribe.”
Heduanna frowned. “You mean my sickness?” She recalled the nights of fever and the uncontrollable shaking, nausea and headaches so gripping she thought she may well die. “But, Enlil told me it was desert stroke, and that it happens to even hardened Cassites.”
“Your malady wasn’t helped by your low tolerance for desert heat, Princess. But I’m afraid it was more than that. Your body was readjusting from a lack of wine.”
Heduanna laughed. “Wine?”
Zamug’s face remained unsmiling, and he stared at her without blinking.
“You’re saying I was too fond of wine.”
The seer nodded. “Indeed, but more than simply ‘fond of’. Your body developed a dependence on it.” He glanced at the black stone still sitting by the fire. “This substance is like wine, only much stronger. I can see it already calls to you. It calls to those with the gift of magic. I worry that once you’ve tasted it, you will desire it more and more. That’s why you must never touch the stuff again once we’re back in Azzuri. You must make this promise to us, to Phadite, and most importantly, to yourself.”
Heduanna shook her head. “If it is so dangerous, why not leave me with the Cassite camp? Why must I return with you at all?”
Zamug’s dark lips drew together in a thin line. “Because you are part of this dance as much as Yana, and Rayna and myself. You are needed, Princess, to help us win the war in Azzuri.”
Heduanna shifted her gaze from the grim faces of Rayna and Zamug to the shiny blackness of the stone. “Tell me what to do.”
It was simple enough. Just as Zamug had done the night he left Heduanna and Enlil by the fire. He performed the little ritual, slicing a fraction of the stone with a bone knife, placing it into a bone pot and allowing it to simmer upon the fire. The bitter scent filled the space and made Heduanna’s heart race with longing.
They allowed her to drink of it first. Two mouthfuls they told her, not a drop more. It burnt her throat and stomach with fire, but soon, very soon, other effects took over. Her limbs tingled with a sensation she’d never before felt. The sun had set, but Heduanna’s vision was such that the light of the stars was more than enough, and the colours of the desert were no longer reduced to a monotony of gold, or brown, but came alive with vibrance. As though she could see the rainbows dancing in each grain of sand. She laughed at the discovery.
Rayna looked at Zamug. “It’s already taking effect.”
“We must leave. Come, Princess, to your camel.”
They left the fire to burn itself out as they returned to their camels and began the journey once more. But Heduanna wasn’t riding a camel. She was flying, like in her last vision. She flew amongst the starts that shimmered around her, bright and colourful as the grains of sand. She laughed again.
“Perhaps it was too much,” she heard Rayna whisper.
But then she was flying again, and it was no longer nighttime. She hovered above a city with buildings of blue, and a river that reflec
ted the yellow of the sunshine. War galleys lined it, and when Heduanna looked back from the river to the city, she noted the towers of black smoke billowing from the many buildings that were aflame with orange. No.
Heduanna.
Something roared above her and a streak of flame scorched the sky.
“Heduanna!”
She blinked and when she opened her eyes she was in the desert astride her camel who plodded ceaselessly forward. It was the middle of the day and hot, and she wore the white robes for day travel, her body, completely covered. Zamug sat astride his own camel beside her, and looked at her from beneath his robe with concern. “Are you with us? We’re almost there.”
Heduanna shook her head. It seemed only a few moments ago they were sitting around the fire. Then the realisation of her vision came to her. “The river,” she whispered. Her throat was dry and her voice rasped. She picked up her satchel, still full, and drank deeply, water gushing down her face. ‘The river,” she said again louder.
“The Uryphat? What of it?” Zamug asked her.
“It’s where they must fight the war. They must battle on the river alone. And the city, it must be evacuated. Every last citizen must leave. I have to see my father. He must be warned.”
Part XXV
Azzuri
Sommer
Ninth year of King Amar-Sin’s reign
5,846 years ago…
Rayna
Rayna kept shifting her gaze between the princess and her city. It was strange being here. She’d seen visions of Azzuri in her meditations, and Mook had described it innumerable times over the years, but to see it with her own eyes was altogether different. And to smell it. Like every village in Drakia, Azzuri had a strong smell, one that was bigger, and more complex than any Drakian village. A heady mix of sweet perfumes, charred meat and the worst stench of animal and human waste combined, wafted through every alley, and she envied Rhast the skies where he flew high above them.