by Megg Jensen
"I never did any such thing!" Nishta shouted.
"Then perhaps you have some growing up to do, too," Hilthe said, eyeing Nishta.
Nishta scowled, but kept her fists at her sides.
"Now we must continue on our way," Hilthe said. "Agitar needs Hugh's body." The old woman pointed to the wrapped-up bundle. "You two will need to carry him. I will walk ahead with Maysant. We will watch for more intruders."
"I can do that." Maysant pulled a bow from her back and clutched an arrow in the other hand. "I will protect you."
Nishta couldn't help herself. She laughed harder than she had for a very long time. "You," she said between gasps of breath, "are an archer?"
Maysant turned her back on Nishta and looked up at the sky. A bird darted out of a tree, and Maysant notched her arrow and let it fly. Before Nishta could take another breath, the arrow had punctured the bird's breast, bringing it to the ground. She'd killed a moving target without even taking the time to aim.
The elf trotted over to the bird, pulled her arrow from its chest, and wiped the blood off. She tossed the dead bird to Gashta. "Put it in your pack. It's lunch."
Nishta ignored her sister's smirk as she stuffed the dead bird into her bag. Without another word, the sisters lifted the dead human's body and began the trek back to Agitar.
Nishta hated humans. But maybe she hated elves even more.
Chapter 31
Sweat streamed down Brax's forehead, but he couldn't wipe it off. He was too focused on hanging on to the snake's scales, fearing he'd fall to his death in the burning sands, never to be seen again.
Frensia's insane idea had worked, he had to admit. Nothing traversed the desert sands so quickly and effortlessly as the snake the umgar had called with their whistle. Still, riding it wasn't easy. His knuckles ached from the strain of holding on so tightly. And even worse than the red fingers and his fatigued biceps was that he'd lost all feeling in his ass. It was as if his body had melded to the snake's, and he had no idea where it stopped and he began. He wasn't confident he'd be able to walk again once they stopped.
He looked ahead to Frensia, who stood on the snake's neck, confident and strong. They didn't seem to have a concern at all about falling off. Instead, they seemed to be truly enjoying the ride. Just in front of Brax, Ademar, holding on as tightly as Brax was, looked back over his shoulder to check on Tace, making sure she was okay. He did this regularly, and Brax couldn't help but laugh every time. Ademar's expressions told him Tace was just fine back there.
After a long day of riding with only stopping once to eat and take a piss off the side of the snake, night finally began to fall. The temperature went from scalding to freezing in what felt like a matter of moments. But the snake just kept on slithering forward. Brax shivered and pulled his cloak tight with one hand while hanging on for dear life with the other. Eventually, somehow, he fell asleep, his head bobbing and lolling all night long.
Brax opened his eyes. The sky was lightening, but the night's chill hadn't yet begun to dissipate. He shivered.
"You okay up there?" Tace called from behind him.
"I'm fine," Brax yelled back.
"I bet we'll stop soon. Let me ask Frensia."
"Do you want me to shout it up to Ademar and have him shout to Frensia?" Brax asked.
She laughed. "No."
Before he knew what was happening, Tace's hand was on his head. She stepped around him, both arms out at her sides to help her balance as she walked up the length of the snake. When she reached Ademar, she rested a hand on his surprised head, too, as she maneuvered around him. She moved slowly but confidently, setting one foot in front of the other, adjusting with every movement of the snake. When she reached Frensia, the umgar held out a hand, and Tace took it.
Brax could see their lips moving. Frensia pointed one of their long fingers to the south. Tace nodded, then headed back.
She stopped briefly beside Ademar and whispered in his ear, her lips brushing up against him. Ademar turned to her, his lips a breath from hers, but they did not meet. Brax still couldn't understand why. It's not like he didn't know the two of them were involved. They were a curious couple indeed.
Tace straightened up and moved back toward Brax. But as she approached, the snake suddenly shifted, and Tace fell.
With a shout, Brax reached out and caught her by the hand.
Tace dangled underneath him, her body smacking into the side of the snake, which hadn't slowed or altered its movements. It continued to shift from side to side, slithering across the blistering sand below.
"Hold on!" Brax yelled.
The snake jerked again, and Brax lost his grip on its scales—though he held on to Tace more tightly than ever. He started to slip down the side of the snake, with Tace swinging from side to side below him. The little dragon flew off her shoulders, flapping frantically. His shoulder strained as he dug his fingers into the snake's scales, desperate to find a solid purchase, but the best he could do was slow his descent. With Tace's weight pulling him, he was gradually accelerating toward the sands.
A hand grabbed his arm, and he felt himself yanked upward. He landed on his stomach on the snake's back, Tace next to him, both of them breathing heavily. Raseri flew back to Tace, curling up in the crook of her arm.
"You could have broken your necks," Frensia said, calm as ever. "Don't do that again."
"I'll keep that in mind," Brax said.
Frensia turned away and walked casually back to the snake's head.
"Thank you," Tace said without hesitation. "I don't know what would have happened if I'd fallen."
"You would have done the same for me," Brax said. "We may not always get along, but I have no desire to see you die."
"That doesn't sound wholly comforting," Tace replied, a smile on her face. "But I'll take it."
Ademar scooted along the snake's back toward them. "Maybe we should all sit a little closer.” He rested a hand on the small of Tace's back. "There's safety in numbers."
"That's fine," Tace said between gasps. "Frensia says we're almost to our destination anyway." She looked at Brax. "That's what I was about to tell you before I lost my balance."
"Good," said Brax. "I can't wait to get off this thing. My thighs are killing me."
"And we made it through the desert," Ademar said. "That's something I never thought I'd say."
Brax looked ahead into the swirling sand. Ademar was right: they had made it through the desert. He just hoped he'd be able to say later that he'd made it into the desert and back out again.
A loud, angry call sounded in the distance. The snake altered course, heading directly toward the noise, which grew louder by the moment. Ahead of them, a large swirling mass of sand came into view, larger than any waterspout Brax had ever seen off the coast of Soleth. He pulled his cloak over his face, so only his eyes were exposed to the elements. Ademar and Tace quickly followed suit, but Frensia remained standing ahead, staring directly into the funnel.
Sand pelted them from all directions, and soon Brax could handle it no longer. He retreated fully into his cape, covering even his eyes, careful to breathe only the air trapped in there with him. He stayed like that until he felt the sand stop its assault. Then he peeked out with one eye.
The swirling sandstorm had dissipated. Just ahead of them stood a great castle, so tall it reached into the clouds, so wide that Brax could not see the end of it.
Before Brax could say a word, the snake's head dug into the ground, and its body began to follow, disappearing back into the sand from which it had emerged. Frensia slid off the snake's neck to the ground, then waved to the three of them. Ademar and Tace dismounted, and Brax quickly followed, his pack securely on his back. In moments the snake was gone, and the sand settled next to them as if the snake had never existed.
Brax's hood fell back on his shoulders as he walked to Frensia's side. "How is this castle out here in the farthest reaches of the desert?" he asked.
"This is the Fifth Sanctum," Fre
nsia said matter-of-factly. "The answers you seek lie within its walls."
"So we just enter and get the information?" Tace asked. "It can't be that simple."
Frensia turned to her, their black eyes wide. "Of course it is not that simple. If it were, the secrets would not remain hidden. The castle would have been overrun long ago. The Fifth Sanctum is protected by both magic and weapons. Anyone who is lucky enough to make it through the Ciera Desert to the castle must know they have barely begun their journey. This is why no human has ever returned from the desert before. They die."
"Lovely," Tace muttered under her breath. "Well then, how do we survive?"
"You must face the challenges the Fifth Sanctum presents to us. Only then will you be judged worthy to approach the answers we seek." Frensia shrugged. "You will probably die, though."
"What?" Brax said. "You brought us all the way out here, and you don't even think we can survive? This is madness!"
Ademar placed a hand on Brax's arm. "We have to try. You know that."
Brax shrugged him off. "I'm not ready to die."
"Then you are not worthy." Tace glared at him. "None of us want to die, but we must always be ready. We must be willing to risk everything to achieve our goals. The stakes are too high. If we don't try, many more will die."
Brax wanted to reply, Let them. Instead, he steeled himself. The orc was right. The umgar was right. His fellow human was right. He'd always questioned his mettle. It had so rarely been tested. He'd followed his queen, taking the war to the orcs, not because he wanted to, but because he'd felt he had to. He'd come with Tace and Ademar on this quest, not because he'd wanted to, but because he'd felt it was the right thing to do.
Who was he now? Was he the same man who just went along with the tide? Or would he finally stand up and be the man others thought he was?
Brax looked up at the castle. Then he looked at his companions. "Fine. We will do this. And damn it, we'd better survive."
Chapter 32
Ademar gaped at the castle, unable to contain his surprise. The Fifth Sanctum was real. He could almost reach out and touch it. Since he was a boy, he'd heard whispers of this place. It was the birthplace of the human god, Solnar. It was a place of myth and legend, not an actual castle hiding in the Ciera Desert.
He turned to Frensia. "Are you sure—"
"Yes. It is the Fifth Sanctum. I've been studying it for many years in the library. An umgar needs something to do in their spare time, after all. I always found the human religion fascinating. It made for light reading." Frensia pointed to Ademar's pack. "Can I have the book you stole?"
Ademar pulled the book from the bottom of his bag. Luckily, the cinch had stayed tight during the journey. There was only a thin coating of sand on his belongings. He shook the book out as he handed it to Frensia.
"The human and orc religions are very different," Frensia said. "You worship different gods with different legends. But what if there were a string connecting the two? Something you didn't know before today?" Frensia flipped to the chapter on the second relic and tapped on the drawing. "This speaks of 'uniting the two.' I think that is what the phrase refers to. And within these walls, we will find out. Follow me. We shouldn't dally."
Frensia started toward the castle.
Ademar grabbed Tace's elbow and pulled her to the side. "I don't know if this is wise. We just met Frensia. What if they don't know what they're doing. What if we're walking into a trap?"
"A trap?" Tace said. "Why bring us all the way into the desert to kill us? Why not do it before? There have certainly been plenty of opportunities. The damn snake could have swallowed us without a second thought."
"But the Fifth Sanctum…" Ademar trailed off as Brax walked past them. The other man should be just as concerned as he was, but it appeared he'd made up his mind to forge ahead. "It's not a place for mortals to traverse," Ademar said to Tace. "It's for the gods alone."
"Ademar, I know you're nervous about this. I didn't particularly like stealing a staff from a statue representing a wise old orc from the time of my god. But that staff saved our lives. It trapped the xarlug in its gem using magic I can't even begin to understand. If I hadn't taken it, we'd all be dead now. This place, this sanctum, gives us another chance to help the orcs."
Ademar looked up at the castle again. Hundreds of windows, many lit by torches, were carved into its stone walls. If the legends were true, if Solnar really did live in the Fifth Sanctum and rule the humans' lives…
"This is more than normal fear." Tace grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at her. "I know you don't worship your god as you have been directed to by your people. I've never seen you kneel at the sun. I've never heard you say so much as a prayer. Are you more worried about what lies inside, or how you might be judged when you face it?"
Ademar had spent his life studying his religion, much of it under Hugh. But Hugh hadn't followed the old ways. He had taught love and tolerance toward other races. He'd wanted to learn about the origins of their religion, not just blindly follow the edicts passed down over generations. And Ademar had joined Hugh in this quest, only to find that as he dug deeper, he lost his awe for the simplistic explanations he'd been given as a younger man.
Ademar swallowed hard and moved forward with Tace. They caught up with Brax and Frensia as they crossed a great drawbridge. It spanned a bramble-filled moat with thorns larger than Ademar's head.
"So, tell me, what is your religion like?" Brax ask Frensia.
"The umgar have no religion." Frensia flipped through the book while walking.
"If the umgar have no religion, then why are we here? Why would you even bother with a human god's mythology?" Brax pressed.
It was a good question. Ademar wondered as well.
Frensia stopped in their tracks, calmly closing the book. "Do you see the castle ahead?"
"Yes," Brax said.
"And what is supposed to be hidden in the Ciera Desert?"
"The Fifth Sanctum," Brax said with a roll of his eyes.
"What do you presume is ahead?"
"The Fifth Sanctum. So you admit the human religion is real!"
"No," Frensia said. "I can admit that the Fifth Sanctum exists. I'm even willing to bet Solnar existed a long time ago. But I don't subscribe to the theory that humans must worship something from their past simply because they don't understand it within the context of its original existence."
"You're saying religion is like orcs in later generations worshipping Tace because she defeated the xarlug, when, really, she's a normal orc." Brax looked pleased with himself.
"Shut up." Tace didn't appreciate the analogy.
"Yes, it would be exactly like that," Frensia said. "Now, can we continue?"
"We're just going to walk up to the front door and knock?" Ademar asked, anxiety flittering in his chest.
"I think that's a perfectly fine way to get a god's attention," Frensia said. "It's what people do when they come to my door."
"You're not a god," Brax said.
Frensia shrugged. "You never know. If the role I play in this little adventure exceeds my expectations, I could be someday."
Ademar couldn't help but chuckle. Frensia's lack of emotion in declaring themselves to be a future god was beyond amusing. It took some of the edge off his worry. But when he looked up at the soaring spires of the castle again, he swallowed hard. No, his concern hadn't eased.
He simply couldn't conceive of a way in which this would end well. There was a reason no one ever returned from the Ciera Desert: their god didn't take kindly to humans trespassing on his land. He had promised to vanquish anyone who dared to look upon the glory of his face. Humans did not take this lightly.
In recent years, as Ademar delved into the orc faith, he had wondered how one god could rule the humans while another could rule the orcs. Did the gods own the very land they dwelled on? Did every race spring forth from their own god's bosom? It was too much to wrap his mind around, so he'd focused on the things he could
understand.
Perhaps that had been unwise, given his current circumstances.
Frensia strode right up to the gate. They formed a fist with their free hand and knocked solidly on the wooden door.
Ademar waited, his heart pounding louder and harder than it ever had.
Brax's forehead shone with perspiration. "No one's there. I think we should go."
So Ademar wasn't the only one who was nervous. He looked to Tace, who stood with her arms crossed over her chest and a hip cocked to the side. She did not appear impressed.
"Oh, for Drothu's sake." Tace stalked past Ademar and Brax, nudged Frensia aside, and rammed her elbow into the door. The hinge broke and the door creaked open, a small light shining from within. "I say we just go on in. There's a light on. Someone's home." Without waiting for agreement, she walked through the doorway, leaving the other three stunned outside.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Frensia followed Tace.
Brax looked at Ademar. "Are we going to die?"
"Probably," Ademar said without irony. "Let's go."
Chapter 33
Tace pushed past the door that now hung askew on its hinges. If this was the home of the human god, he stunk at construction. No orc building would have had doors that weak. If that was all the human god was capable of, he was as pathetic as the humans who worshipped him.
She crept slowly on slick marble floors, down an expansive hall, careful to keep an eye out for movement in the shadows of the flickering torches mounted on the walls in iron sconces. Something lived here. Whether it was a god or something else, she wouldn't be caught unaware. Frensia followed more casually, as if they were taking an afternoon stroll through a field of flowers.
The two men behind Frensia were another story. Brax and Ademar were clearly frightened, their eyes wide, their steps cautious. Tace held back a laugh at the ridiculousness of it. Two grown men terrified of nothing.