"What does it mean?" she asked.
"I suspect that Kroma may yet live," Dakar told her. "Perhaps you might offer him a prayer in the hope that he might yet prevail over Kenra and stop this madness."
Calexis gave the mage a skeptical look and he let the dust drop again to the floor.
"I would rather not wait for some god to sort things out," she said. "Now teach me how to separate a part of my mind. If Cerric or Kenra or whomever it is I am married to is planning on using the priesthood to enslave everyone, including me, then I will need to be able to protect myself from that magic if I am to be able to kill him."
Dakar raised an eyebrow at her.
"Her highness is ambitious as ever, I see," he said.
"I am a queen," Calexis reminded him. "I do not take orders from petty kings, or scheming gods for that matter."
*****
Cerric was pleased to find that the preparations for the tournament were well under way. The mages had been busily placing crystals throughout the city and connecting them to the star shaped structure in the temple that they had used to open the path from Etherium, allowing him to return to the world. In a few days everything would be in place and messengers were to ride out across the land, inviting every warrior to participate in the tournament and encouraging the people of the kingdom to attend the festivities. Gifts were promised to all those who came to the crown city and great feasts of food and drink were to be given freely.
The magistrates Cerric had appointed told him that the burden of supporting the army had been difficult for the people over the past year and many were going hungry, so it was very likely that many would make the journey to the city, even if it were just for the promise of something to eat. The cost of it was already mounting, but he did not care. The plunder that had been taken from Kandara would cover much of it and the rest would come from the Maramyrian treasury, which was full with coin and jewels he had confiscated from the many merchants and nobles who had failed to secure his favor.
"Berant," Cerric said, looking up from the stack of writs to which he was signing his name on the large table in the throne room. "What say we send invitations out to the neighboring lands as well?"
"As you wish, your highness," Berant replied. "It may take some time for them to get there. If you wish to hold this tournament in a matter of days then it might not be possible for word to reach those from foreign lands who might wish to compete and for them to travel all the way here."
"Talk to Dakar," Cerric told him. "I am sure he will know of a way for the mage priests to get the word out quickly."
"I will seek him out first thing in the morning," Berant said.
"No need." Cerric picked up the sheaf of signed papers and held them to the commander of his army. "Dakar is at the temple square discussing the Queen's plans to decorate the city. Apparently she wishes for it to be a surprise in the hope of winning my favor."
"Has the Queen fallen out of favor with the King?" Berant asked as he took the papers, then he immediately regretted the question, knowing it would likely provoke the god-king. Thankfully, Cerric laughed instead.
"No, Berant," he said. "But it is always important that she works to keep my favor, like everyone else. I am generous to those who show that they are unfailing in their loyalty."
"Of course, highness," Berant replied, breathing easier for the moment. "I will find Dakar at once, then if my king is amenable, I would like to get some rest. It is very late and I do not have his highness' godlike ability to remain awake for days on end."
Cerric smiled at the man.
"I forget such trivialities," he said and he glanced at the sword that hung at the man's waist. "If you would use that sword I gave you, then you might find yourself with the strength and endurance of a younger man. You might consider it if you wish to continue being useful to me."
"It is very tempting, my king."
"Power always is," Cerric said. "And for good reason."
"I will go directly to the mage," Berant said.
"Tell Dakar I expect that whatever he and my queen are planning will be fitting for a god."
"Of course," Berant said then he bowed his head stiffly and exited the room.
Cerric walked to one of the large windows that looked out over the city and he looked down on the silhouetted streets and buildings under the darkness of night. A few places glowed dimly with yellow lantern and candlelight and he saw the darker orange of torches moving through the city as guards patrolled the streets. It was a quiet night in the crown city but he could hear the distant rumblings of power in the distance. As powerful as he was, Cerric knew there were others out there who might challenge him, and one he had watched for years and whose power he very much hoped to capture.
Those who worked against him had made many efforts over the ages to prevent his ascendancy, but now that he had returned to the world, he was determined to make sure that there would be none left who could defeat him. He knew they would come, but he was eager to destroy them and take their power for himself so he looked forward to their challenge. Cerric glanced down at the jeweled sword at his belt and smiled bitterly. The others had thought to hide weapons such as these from him, but they were fools to think that he would not eventually find them, for he would always find what was secreted in the shadows. Nothing and no one could hide from him forever and, as eager as he was to take what he rightfully deserved, he remained patient, for he was a god, and thus, time was ever on his side, unlike the guest he had brought with him from Kandara, who was beginning to break down further with every passing day. Though it was late, Cerric found that he was not particularly tired so he left the throne room and made his way down the many flights of stone steps to the dungeons deep underneath the palace, where young Elric, the former king of Kandara hung in chains, awaiting further torment at Cerric's pleasure.
*****
Calthas waited in the shadows by the entrance to the temple of Mara and watched as Lord Berant spoke with the mage priest, Dakar. The young mage priest had been about to make his way into the new temple of the one god with the false copy of the book when the Cerric's general had appeared, forcing him to wait even longer. It was already very late into the night and Calthas had hoped to make his foray inside to switch the books when the mage priests finished their work. He had visited the temple for a number of nights, using a variety of excuses to be there, running errands for those who worked within the temple, every night observing their movements, keeping track of routines and patterns in their activities, looking for the best time to steal the book.
Every night, around the same time, a final shift of mage priests would arrive after dark and begin pouring their power into the large crystal structure that had been used in the ceremony during which the god had appeared and become one with Cerric, while a number of of them would do the same with additional crystals, which were then placed at various points around the city, for a purpose that Calthas and Stroma had theorized about at length. Once the mages were completely drained, they would then file out together, leaving only a few mage priests behind to keep watch on the temple.
Calthas waited patiently, hoping that his chance had not been ruined, and frustrated that Dakar was still at the temple, since he should have already left with the other mages. The mage priest spoke to Berant then disappeared inside the temple, leaving the army commander waiting outside for a short while then reemerged with a group of mages. Dakar and the others accompanied Berant away from the temple and looked to be heading in the direction of the city gates and Calthas thanked his good fortune. With the temple square now quiet, the mage stepped out of the shadows and walked briskly toward the temple entrance.
With Stroma's help, Calthas had created a magical field around himself that was so subtle it would be almost completely undetectable, even to someone looking for magic. The god had told him that it was very similar to a magical trap he had fallen into, that had the effect of making a person not so much invisible as completely unnoticeable and enti
rely forgettable. It was an interesting distinction and, as Stroma had explained, the benefit of using such a spell was that it required so little magic and barely disrupted the natural flows of energy, which made it even more difficult to detect, even if a person were very close in proximity to anyone who was searching for them. Even though he understood the principles involved and even the magic itself, Calthas still felt strange walking in the front door of the temple while hidden in plain sight.
Shortly after the ceremony that had brought the god forth and fused his energy with Cerric, the mage priests had moved the crystal away from the altar and it now hung overhead in the center of the large, open chamber. As he walked inside the temple and was amazed at how brightly the crystal structure glowed, bathing the interior of the chamber with a purple tinted light, far brighter than it had when he had visited on one of his false errands the night before. From what Calthas knew about imbuing objects and crystals in particular with power, it was a sign that the energy that the countless black robed mages had been pouring into it was reaching the point where the power would become useable for whatever purpose Cerric and his priesthood intended. Calthas hoped that whatever it was they planned to do would also require the book, which sat open on a pillar in the center of the temple, underneath the glowing, pulsing crystal.
Despite the fact that Dakar had departed with a number of the mage priests, a few still remained, several of them resting in alcoves, and a few others continuing to feed their energy into additional crystals that lay upon stone tables at the sides of the chamber. Thankfully, none of them noticed Calthas when he entered the temple, which he hoped meant that the spell he had placed upon himself was doing what it was supposed to do. He felt the copy of the book that was tucked into his robes then walked forward toward the pillar where the original copy of the book lay. He was half way there when a mage priest he recognized walked out of one of the alcoves, and began making her way to the center of the chamber. She was one of Dakar's inner circle, a higher up in the ranks of the mage priests, named Yanick, who had been in charge of the construction of the temple and the creation of the crystal stucture from the start. Calthas cursed his bad luck that she would choose the same moment as he did to venture toward the book, and all he could do now was to continue on his course and hope the spell he and Stroma had created, continued to work.
Calthas walked to the center of the chamber, keeping his footsteps steady and even, treading gently across the stone floor. The mage priest, Yanick, reached the pillar before him and Calthas groaned inwardly as she leaned over the book and began to turn its pages. While the spell that obscured him from being noticed seemed to be effective, it worked with the natural flows of energy, only bending them slightly in the sight and consciousness of those within its sphere, and Stroma had warned him that it would only be effective if he kept his movements natural and subtle. Picking the book right out from under the nose of a mage priest who was focusing on it would be the sort of thing that would abruptly disrupt the natural flows of energy.
Calthas slowed his steps and stared up at the crystalline structure that hung overhead, stopping just short of the pedestal where the mage, Yanick, continued to examine the book. He marveled at the amount of power he could see flowing through the crystals, which were connected to one another by energy in an elongated shape that resembled a star glowing in the night sky. Whatever Cerric and Dakar were planning, they had gathered a substantial amount of power from the mage priests and Calthas had no doubt that its effect would be very large and most likely something terrible.
"It is beautiful," he heard Yanick say and he looked down to see that the black robed mage was no longer at the book but now stood directly in front of him. Calthas' heart pounded loudly in his chest and he fought to maintain his composure though he was quite startled by her catching him unawares.
"It is," he said, wondering how long he had been staring at the glowing crystals. "I feel as though I could stare at it forever."
"Yes," she said with a dreamy smile on her face. "Such power, gathered into one place, is so very beautiful."
During his previous visits to the temple, Calthas had not spent much time looking at the crystal and it had not glowed with as much power as it now did, but he now felt the perceptible pull of it, a seductive energy that drew his attention. Even though he had only spoken with Yanick a handful of times, he could tell that she was not the same as she had been when he had first met her. Her formerly sharp intensity was gone, now replaced with an almost docile expression that reminded him of a cow that would happily chew its cud, oblivious to the fact that it was being led to the butcher. Calthas made a point not to look at the crystal anymore and kept his focus on the task at hand.
"Praise the One," Calthas said, hoping it might prompt the mage priest to leave. She smiled at him then walked back to the alcove whence she came and began sorting through a number of crystals that had not yet been imbued with power, arranging them in different rows.
Calthas glanced around the temple and saw that none of the other mages were paying attention to him so he continued that last few paces toward the book that sat on the stone pedestal. Its pages were open to an image that depicted what looked to be a map of the city of Maramyr, with countless glowing marks on it, arranged in a configuration that resembled the large crystalline structure that hung overhead. Whatever the god was planning, it appeared that it would involve the entire city and Calthas was glad that once he had taken the book, he would be leaving Maramyr, hopefully not to return any time soon.
He pulled out his lesser copy of the book and flipped through its pages until he found the same two that were displayed on the original, the only difference between the two being the ability to capture mages, a power to which he was thankfully immune. Carefully, Calthas used his power to strengthen the obscuring spell that surrounded him and directed the flows of energy around the book on the pedestal and the one in his hand. Once the lines of power swirled around both books in an identical pattern, Calthas held his copy of the book next to the original and slowly slid it onto the pedestal while sliding the other one off. Keeping its pages tilted toward the glow of the crystal overhead, he gently closed the book. He paused for a moment almost holding his breath at the thought that somehow Cerric or the mage priests might notice the change, but nothing happened. With a sigh of relief, he tucked the book under his robes and, fighting the urge to run, Calthas calmly walked out of the temple and into the night.
*****
The night sky was beginning to grow light as the three women picked their way over the rocky hills that led back to the mountain path where they had left their horses. The side trip to the Kandaran city had confirmed the worst of Ariana's fears as she saw the devastation that Cerric's armies had visited upon the land and its people. As a Ranger of Kandara, Margo knew a variety of ways to slip in and out of the city undetected so, along with Keira, they were able to get a closer look at things.
It appeared that Cerric had left Duke Mirdel in charge of the city, along with several thousand of his dead soldiers. Margo checked several of the homes in the city of those who kept ties to the Rangers and found most of them empty, their inhabitants apparently dragged away and assigned to work in either the minds, the fields or in the city, serving the new master of Kandara. At one of the homes, a young girl with a lame leg, who walked with a crutch had answered, and only after Margo had knocked several times and scratched the wood on the door with her fingernails, which was a signal that it was a Ranger at the door. The girl was fearful at first but she let them in and told them what she knew about what had happened in the city. She explained how the people had been assigned to work crews and that the only reason she had not been dragged away like her parents was due to her being crippled and thus considered useless.
The three women were appalled to hear of the way the Kandaran people were being treated. Mirdel had even ordered his dead soldiers, men and women both, to take their pleasure with the Kandarans as they saw fit, and there was a
lready talk of disease spreading throughout the land, which was likely caused by the rotting flesh of their walking corpses. Margo appeared to take the news in stride though Ariana noticed the woman's knuckles turn white with her hand gripping the hilt of her sword as she listened to the things the girl told them. Keira seemed to almost turn an unhealthy shade of green when she heard about what it meant to be assigned as a servant and Ariana fought to keep her temper from getting the better of her, which she found was becoming more and more difficult with every passing day.
Though the girl had been allowed to stay in her family's home in the city, or more precisely ignored by those in charge of Kandara, she had not eaten in many days, so the three women each gave her a portion of their travel rations and encouraged her to leave the city and make her way out to the countryside, where she might at least be able to forage for food. The girl thanked them for their generosity and told them that she wished to wait for the return of the lords of Kandara, whom she truly believed would save her people, but she said that she would consider their advice if it took longer than she hoped.
In relative silence, Ariana and her two companions reached the mountain trail, mounted their horses and continued on along the thin, tree lined path that ran north along the western range above the city of Kandara. High in the mountains, the air was thankfully cleaner but the view of the vast valley, which was dark and choked with soot and smoke in the dim morning light was an ominous sight to behold. They rode briskly along the trail as the sky grew lighter and the sun began to peek over the mountains to the east, flooding beams of yellow light through dark clouds that hung from the sky. After a while the trail grew thin and uneven so they slowed their pace, glad at least to no longer have to look upon what had befallen the once proud and peaceful kingdom.
Book of One 04: A Child of Fire Page 17