He turned over his forearm to contact Aaron. The wound where Zora had slashed him was healing nicely due to her talented care, and the thought of her caused his heart to long deeply. He didn’t want to leave her, but she had made it clear she didn’t want to come with him to Cerendova. At the same time, why should he expect her too? She wasn’t from his lands. She was born and raised a Commoner, despite the mystery of her bloodline. That’s all she knew. He’d just have to convince Captain Maddox to reassign him into Cara so he could be close to her again and keep his promises.
Liam prepared his message to Aaron and watched as his beautifully inked rosebud tattoo dismembered then reformed to create the words of his thoughts.
Location, Brother?
A few seconds later, Aaron responded with the coordinates for the group’s location. They appeared in garnet on his arm.
25.4° N, 80.9° W.
Liam sighed and pulled out his brass astrolabe to help him navigate through the dark, homogeneous Montanisto swamp forest. He nudged Brody into a canter then swung around to the east. He traveled for two hours in that direction, then redirected south when the mangled forest began to thin and he came across a slow current, low lying bayou. From there he would follow the crawling waterway for almost a whole day until he reached his Brothers.
Liam wandered along the bog-covered shoreline of the bayou with the orange southern sun blazing the right side of his body as it slowly sank into the watery horizon. Before him lay nothing but wetlands as far as the eye could see. The black stagnant water encompassing the land was covered by sharp pointy cladium that gave the illusion of river of grass. Here and there dark pools of brackish water dotted the landscape, mirroring the sun’s penetrating glare in shimmering reflections of the sky. Debilitating heat waves rolled off of the land bringing with it the putrid smell of sea salt and old standing water.
Liam continued along this direct path till twilight fell over the sky, watching the myriad of wildlife scamper through the dismal wetlands. Great blue herons with long elegant necks wadded through the green grasses feeding on small fish underneath their feet. Brown and white colored osprey flew above him, hunting the marshes below with keen golden eyes. Liam had to stop three times during his trek, both for himself and Brody. The Warden had to lead the stubborn horse carefully over wet grasses in order for him to drink from the swampy lakes and stay cool. Brody resisted at first when he tasted the unfamiliar murky water, but with a quick touch of his mind using the power of Ithillium, Brody complied.
As deep hues of blue and purple replaced the blazing sun, Liam scanned the emerging southern stars for Canopus, the brightest star of the constellation Carina, to help him pinpoint his location relative to his fellow Wardens. The celestial body was dangling over the sun kissed horizon eagerly waiting to take its place in the night sky. Liam slowed Brody down to a slow walk and brought forth his astrolabe so he could align it with the horizon. Once his approximate latitude was calculated, he readjusted his route, diverging back east from the bayou hoping he’d reach the other men before it was completely dark.
Liam had almost fallen asleep sitting upright in his saddle when he began to feel the overwhelming presence of his fellow Wardens nearby. His mind immediately instructed his body to wake up, and Liam told Brody to pick up his pace. Eventually he came upon a small, shallow lagoon broken off from the bayou. It was one that he and the others often camped at individually before crossing the Border. Liam could see the shapes of four Wardens huddled around a smokeless fire adjacent to the rippling water. Red cypress trees with their engorged roots, crimson trunks, and drooping rubicund leaves bordered the lagoon giving the cadre some sort of privacy from the openness of the wetlands.
He stopped just short of the lagoon where his cadre could not see him. The man watched for a moment while they talked and joked with each other, glad to finally have some company in a job that was prone to loneliness. Liam didn’t know why he had halted. Perhaps it was the fact that once he stepped into their midst, it meant he could no longer turn around and go back to Zora. Any other time he would have been chomping at the bit to visit with his Brothers, for they were the closest people in the world to him, but Zora occupied his thoughts now instead.
“Liam has arrived!” Aaron called out when he had finally nudged Brody to move forward into camp. “I’m glad you made it safely!”
The other Wardens looked to him as they quickly got to their feet to greet him and help him get settled. Liam quickly counted them: five out of the seven traveling Wardens were there, including him.
“Good to see you finally made it,” Captain Maddox said in his husky voice as Liam brought Brody to a halt and dismounted. He grasped the Captain’s hand in a firm embrace then began stretching his saddle sore legs and back.
“And you Captain,” Liam replied as he went to retrieve his saddlebags from Brody. Suddenly another hand grabbed hold of his head and began jerking it around in all directions.
“Three years in the Commoner Realm sure does age a man! Look at all the wrinkles he’s got now!” A falsetto voice laughed sarcastically behind him as he began pulling on Liam’s cheeks and hair.
“Hey! Hey!” Liam replied playfully, pushing Isaac Casey away with a strong arm. “I’m still better looking than you, you double chinned buffoon!” Isaac just laughed and wrapped his arm around Liam’s shoulders. “It’s good to see you Brother! Everyone at home has been asking about you.”
“When he says everyone he means everyone,” Jerome Ramsey added in with a playful wink. He had appeared behind Isaac and grabbed Liam’s hand, shaking it enthusiastically.
“Are you hungry?” Jerome asked. “Isaac and I were able to trap and kill a six foot gator last night. As big as Maddox he was! And we’ve been feasting on him ever since.” He grinned mischievously.
“Let the man breathe, Brothers!” Aaron suddenly broke in, pushing Isaac and Jerome aside. “He’s been traveling for hours. Isaac! Go tend to his horse. Jerome! Get the man something to eat without boasting about it!” Liam smiled gratefully at Aaron as the other two men immediately obeyed and left him alone for the moment.
“Come on. You’re probably tired,” Aaron said as he directed him over to the fire pit where Captain Merlin Maddox had reclaimed his seat and was cleaning his sword with palm oil and a cloth.
Maddox was an unusually muscular man for his mediocre size. His eyes were a dull grey color and strangely large, like those on the face of a hand painted baby doll. He didn’t talk much, which meant that when he did say something, you better have the smarts to listen up. Liam had had to learn that the hard way while training under him as a child.
Maddox was the most skilled swordsman in Cerendova and the best one Liam had ever seen or had the honor of sparring with. Because he was strict, fair, and a natural born leader, Maddox had been granted the responsibility to train and command Cerendova’s cadre of Wardens. Korbin Black, one of the other Wardens not present, was Maddox’s second in command.
As Liam sat down on one of the logs next to the fire, he felt Maddox regarding him closely yet remaining silent. Aaron occupied the space neutrally between them and immediately pulled out his flint rock and hammer stone to work on making some new arrowheads. The chipping of the rock was the only thing to be heard for a couple of minutes.
“Are Korbin and the newbie still out?” Liam asked, trying to diffuse the air of tension coming from Maddox. Korbin had been charged to take the newest member, Avery Morris, on an assignment with him to train.
“They should be here soon,” Maddox answered hoarsely. “In fact I believe they were following the same route as you. You passed through Montanisto on the way here, correct?”
“I passed by there, not through there,” Liam corrected. “But yes, I was in the area.” He frowned to himself. “If they were close I would have sensed it and made a point to meet up with them.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t,” Maddox said casually. He ran his fingernail over the point of his sword to dig out so
me of the caked dirt. “What route did you take coming from Samaria?”
“My usual one, Captain. I followed the Argent River south all the way to Cara, then headed west around Lake Nekoti past Montanisto until I intersected with the bayou.”
Maddox flipped his sword over and poured some more oil on the blade from a glass vial pendant. The sword’s lustrous silver face reflected the orange fire blazing in the pit before them. The Captain looked up at him from underneath greying eyebrows.
“If that’s the case you should have arrived two days ago. What caused your delay, Brother? Did you come across something on your journey home that I need to know about?”
Liam glanced over at Aaron to see if he had said something to the Captain about Zora, but his eyes were darting unsurely between the two of them, as if a physical brawl was about to break out at any moment. Liam chewed on a hangnail nervously, listening to the cheerful sounds of Isaac and Jerome messing around in the background.
“The roads are worse for wear following the brutal rainstorms over the last couple years,” Liam answered. “A lot of the well traveled throughways have been entirely washed away leaving slower, more difficult paths as the only option.” What he told Maddox wasn’t a lie; it just wasn’t his truth. Sariel would have something to say about that.
Maddox continued to slide his polishing cloth along the blade of the sword carefully removing any grime that clung to its edges. Without looking up from his task Maddox replied with, “All the men say the same thing. I’m afraid it’s going to take this Realm some time before they recover from such damage.”
By now, Isaac and Jerome had rejoined the other men and taken a seat next to him. Jerome thrust a bowl of stew into Liam’s hands. Its steaming contents included gator meat, carrots, and potatoes. Liam spooned it eagerly into his mouth. The smokeless fire in the middle of their circle was slowly dwindling, and Liam watched as Maddox smoothly channeled Ithillium and shot a perfect orb of energy into the fire pit bringing the crackling blazes back to life.
All sat in silence for a couple of minutes as the constellations in the heavens slowly made their appearances, and a clear bright moon peaked over the edge of the Border. The swamplands of the south were a dark place to be at night, almost as heavy as the deepness of the Anion mines. The campfire was the only thing lighting the small red cypress enclosure. Its glow shown darkly on the Wardens’ faces and made oblong shadows across the murky ground. Liam had been gone so long from his Brothers and from his home that his mind went blank when he tried to think of something to talk to them about. Luckily, Isaac did it for him by asking him about Samaria.
“We’ve all been wondering, Liam, how the condition of the Samarian Zone was,” Isaac began. “Hopefully you’ve have had better luck than the rest of us since you’ve been on assignment for so long.”
Liam observed Isaac’s face for a moment. It was full of unexplained anticipation, as if any good news that Liam might carry would alter the current kismet of the cadre. He tried to deter the question by swallowing his last bit of stew and washing it down with a long swig of water. After wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he finally had to answer.
“Everything was functioning as it should,” Liam tried to emphasize, “and it was secure, like normal.” He felt the weight of his fellow Wardens’ stares press down on him as he explained himself. “Until the night before I left. The barrier…it had changed somehow.”
“Was the web weakened?” Isaac asked in a tight voice. “Did you observe any rifts?” Liam shook his head and then ran his hands through his mane of maple brown hair like he did when he was unsure of something.
“No, I didn’t observe any rifts, at least not at first. The web on the other hand…well…I don’t know how to explain it.” He sighed heavily. “The last time I went there…it had somehow…I don’t know… receded. In fact, it didn’t appear to be there at all.” Aaron and Jerome gasped in disbelief, and Isaac gave a small cry of outrage.
“That’s blasphemy, Brother! And not possible” Jerome argued angrily. “The five founding sorcerers eternally secured the rifts in Ithillium after The Deceiver was executed, right before the Border went up! In the thousands of years that Wardens have been surveying these lands, never has a secured web simply vanished! You must be mistaken.”
“Calm down, Jerome,” Maddox said gruffly. “Let Liam defend himself.” The Captain’s questioning grey eyes met his, and Liam could see firelight dancing in his black pupils. Liam gulped hard.
“I know for a fact the web was gone,” he answered slowly. “Because I entered the Forest of Mirth myself. I walked along its dirt paths and touched the diseased trees of death. There was no wall in place to hold me back.”
“You’re speaking a falsehood!” Jerome accused him again. “Everything you’re saying is impossible! Would you dare make such a declaration in front of the High Priests? Would you be so eager to contradict the history of Cerendova in front of the entire capitol!”
Liam felt ire ignite in his blood. No Warden would ever jest when it came to their duty in the Commoner Realm. He stood up heatedly and stalked over to Jerome to get right in his face.
“What I’m saying is entirely true! I swear on the holy name of the Creator and the goodness of the Guardians. I’m telling you that’s what I saw! Do you want me to call on Sariel? He was there with me and you can ask him yourself because all of us know that Guardians cannot lie!” Liam was breathing hard, and his deep voice resonated through the cypress walled lagoon.
“Sit down, Liam,” Captain Maddox instructed with an accompanying hand gesture. “It’s not worth feuding about right now. Jerome, we must not allow anger to cause contention amongst us.” Liam bit the inside of his cheeks to keep from quarreling anymore with Jerome. He stomped back to his seat.
“I believe you, Liam,” Isaac admitted, glancing over at Jerome as he said it. He nudged Aaron next to him with his elbow. “Tell Liam what you experienced in the deserts of Wayanee. Perhaps there are parallels in both your stories that will help us make sense of what is happening.”
Aaron considered this for a moment then laced his hands together and leaned over his bent knees. His gaze lingered heavily on Liam.
“I was traveling through the Hamid Al’Teri desert a couple of months ago while trying to reach the Sombi Crater. If you all don’t know, the crater itself is about twenty miles across and twelve miles deep, so it takes me quite a while to traverse the extent of it. Once I arrived there, I spent a week in the small nomadic village of Jiharid on the northeastern border of the crater. Daily I walked the diameter and perimeter of my Zone checking for anything unusual, but it looked perfectly fine.” Aaron sat back and leaned his head against a tree trunk behind him. He closed his eyes as if trying to beckon a vital memory.
“I know some of you haven’t seen the crescent dunes of the Hamid Al’Teri, but all of you must venture there someday, because they truly are a sight to behold. During the summer, when the sun is closest to the earth and the days are long, their vibrant russet color shines like golden citrine gemstones. The desert sand itself is as soft as a phoenix feather and flows through your hands like water.” Aaron stopped and licked is lips, almost as if he could taste the dry heat of the treeless lands he frequently visited as a Warden.
“When I went there this time, however, the desert was somehow changed, and not for the better. The land was hard and cracked, as if the sand had been compacted together like brick stone and left out in the sun to dry. The magnificent tawny dunes had nearly blown away in continuous sand storms that now beat the lands, leaving nothing but insignificant hills of nothingness in its wake.”
“On the last night, as I was doing my rounds, the most peculiar thing happened. I noticed that the aridness surrounding me was overtaken with the most fetid odor that made me bilious to my stomach, although not enough tribes dwell near the crater that would be the cause of it. At the same time, the noxious air I was breathing became heavy against my body and burned in my chest causin
g me to become weak. Unsure of what was occurring, I mounted my beast, who was also experiencing the same symptoms, and fled to the nearby village to inquire if the locals knew what could be causing such a peculiarity.”
“The symptoms only got worse as I traveled away from the source, and the heavy feeling of the air increased no matter how far away from the crater I got. When I was two leagues away and climbing the encircling dunes, I stopped to rest. I turned back around to look over the Sombi Crater one last time before I reached the village. What I saw still leaves me flabbergasted to this day.” Aaron paused as if to build up anticipation among the group of Wardens who were intently listening to his tale.
“What I saw in the middle of the Hamid Al’Teri desert was a raging fire engulfing the entire Sombi crater. Miles deep into the earth it went and miles across it ran. It appeared as a bowl of evil flame ignited by an unseen force, in the middle of a dry wasteland. I’ve never seen anything like it just burst from the depths of the desert for no explicable reason.”
“How long ago was this?” Liam asked, thinking in his own mind about the abnormal changes he’d seen in Samaria’s environment as well. “Does the fire still burn? Could it not have been caused by human meddling?”
“This happened last summer. To this day it still burns with the same ferocity as it did that night, although it’s contained within the edges of the crater only. The land around it has remained unharmed.” Aaron threw a rock in the fire pit sending embers flying into the surrounding darkness. Liam looked around at the group again.
“And all of you have experienced such phenomena as of late?” he asked. All three Wardens nodded.
“Korbin was the last one to confirm a similar occurrence,” Maddox added forebodingly. “That’s why I called all of you back to Cerendova prematurely and with such urgency. I fear there are strange works at hand, Brothers. I felt as though it would be safer to travel through the Border as an armed squad rather than alone and exposed…”
Azurite (Daughter of the Mountain Book 1) Page 28