“Which he did,” Kaya drearily noted, her eyes closed already.
“I don't like it,” Audelia said, crossing her arms. “I refuse.”
“Well, I refuse to take you with me, then,” Billy said, and he immediately regretted that choice of words as Audelia suddenly looked betrayed. “Look,” he tried to dig himself out of his freshly dug hole, “Don't misunderstand me. I just think you need rest, and maybe it's a good idea for me to get out there alone for once. We've been with each other, nonstop, for a week. Don't you think it's time we separate for a couple of hours?”
Audelia still looked wounded, but she relented. “Fine,” she said. “I'll watch Kaya. You go on your own.”
“Feel free to go out and get food and stuff,” Billy said. “I'll be back here by sunset at the latest.”
Audelia looked puzzled. “Do you really think it'll take that long?”
Billy just shrugged. “I said at the latest. No matter what happens, no matter how long she wants to keep me occupied, no force on this world will keep me from you longer than that,” he said with a smile.
In spite of herself, the gorgeous warrior woman grinned back. “Alright, Billy. Be safe. Keep your wits about you. Ask many questions.”
“Will do,” he said, and he shut the door behind him and headed into the town plaza where the streets were starting to fill with vendors, preparing to peddle their wares to whatever customers the day brought them.
Billy decided to find the woman from who he'd ordered his new loin covering. To his relief, she was already setting up her stall.
“Do you have my order ready?” Billy asked. “Do you remember me?”
“How could I forget a beast like you,” the woman scoffed. “Of course. Here it is.”
Billy took the garment from her. “Thank you. There's another copper piece in it for you if you can tell me where the temple of Amar'nak is.”
The woman didn't even look up as she held out her hand and took the coin from him. “About twenty minutes’ walk from here down the wide central road. It's a white temple with great columns framing the doorway. You can't miss it. The city practically curves around it.”
“Thanks, ma'am,” Billy replied, and he headed off in that direction. It took him only fifteen minutes to get there, but then his legs were much longer than the squat old woman’s, and arriving sooner rather than later was certainly a good thing as he was already tardy.
The building was wide, and it sat in the middle of the road, splitting it into a fork that curved around the structure. It was immediately clear that it was a temple from the ornate design of the building; whereas all the other buildings were a sandstone hue, made of cheap adobe brick or even worse materials, this structure was clearly made of finer stuff. It was alabaster white and the tallest building he'd seen so far; it was perhaps as many as four stories tall. Each of the corners of the building housed palatial minarets, and at the center was a taller tower from which white smoke plumed outward.
The building was carved with an ancient script that looked like an ancestral version of the text he'd seen on the doorway to the apothecary. Statues of bulky cobras with arms and legs were posed wickedly in front of the structure. The snake motif of Amar’nak’s followers was very unnerving to the young outlander.
Billy shuddered a bit as he walked keenly toward the entrance of the temple. He was greeted by an older woman in a flowing diaphanous gown. She had a beauty to her, though she was wrinkled and her skin leathery from many years of exposure to an oppressive sun. Her silver hair was pulled up in a tight bun, and she walked toward the barbarian with open palms.
“Welcome,” she said. “I believe you are Billy.”
“That's me,” he said. “Are you Iskar's sister?”
She laughed, “Oh, I'm afraid not. I'm Morgain, a lowly acolyte here.”
“Oh,” Billy said, slightly embarrassed. She'd been so old that he immediately assumed she must be some authority figure.
“Please come with me,” Morgain continued, and he followed her cautiously inside the structure.
The interior was even more breathtaking than the outside, with strange statues depicting nightmare figures resting atop daises. Even the ceiling was painted in a dark mural depicting a snakelike entity wrapped around something that looked to be the world.
“Lovely decor,” Billy remarked.
“Thank you,” she replied, pivoting with a bow. “She is in here.”
They stopped in front of a room directly behind an altar placed at the far center of the chamber. The room was open to him already, though strands of beaded thread hung at its doorway. From where he stood, Billy could see a curvaceous figure with long platinum blond hair looming behind the threshold, shrouded in shadow, rubbing fine oils on her skin.
“Oh no, she's hot,” he muttered under his breath.
A feminine but impressive voice sounded from the interior of that room. “Is that you, Morgain? Bring you news of this barbarian? Where is he?”
“He is here, my lady,” Morgain answered. “He has come to see you.”
“Does he come alone or in the company of his women?” she asked.
“Alone, my lady,” Morgain said, looking at me to confirm. I nodded nervously.
“Very well,” she said. “Barbarian Billy, please come in.”
Billy exuded droplets of liquid anxiety as he passed the beaded threshold and entered the room where he saw the alluring form of the high priestess for the first time. Her hair was braided and went down to her back, and a gold circlet with a green gem at its center rested atop her forehead. She wore only a thin strip of white silk with gold trim along its edges across her chest, obscuring her supple breasts, but just barely, as the fabric was sheer and her nipples plainly visible. A similar strip draped from her waist, covering the upper part of her buttocks and pubic region, but the translucent material left precious little to the barbarian's imagination.
“You have come here at the request of Iskar, my brother,” she said. She eyed him, waiting for an answer, though what she said wasn’t a question.
“Yes,” Billy nodded. His eyes scanned the woman's erotic figure as she continued to anoint on her skin with holy oils. Although Iskar was easily in his forties, this woman couldn't even be thirty by the look of her.
“And I understand you have a gift I should be aware of,” she asked. “A gift that he thought might make us friends.”
“Oh,” Billy said. “Sorry, miss, uh—”
“Isandra,” she said, “High Priestess of Amar'nak at the Turik Temple.”
“Isandra,” Billy said. The name rolled off his tongue in a way that made him lick his lips—or maybe it was just the effect her tempting body had on him. “Sorry, I'm not sure I can trust you with my, uh, power.”
“What are your reservations so that I may put them at ease?” she asked, stepping closer to him as she seductively swayed her hips. Her fingers brushed the side of his face, and he noticed a rather serpent-like look to her eyes.
“I was attacked by members of your temple before,” he said.
Isandra sighed, baring sharp teeth. “I see. How unfortunate. If you allow me to mark you, I can assure you that that will never happen again,” she said. “I owe you that much for Iskar's referral.”
“Mark me how?” Billy asked, scratching his abdomen absentmindedly.
“A mark that only followers of Amar'nak—and worshipers of lower gods of Thune’s pantheon—can see. It makes you untouchable to them. All friends and followers of Amar'nak receive this blessing.”
“I see,” he said. “Will it hurt?”
“All things worth possessing should hurt to receive,” she said, her lips curling into a seductive smile.
“Fair enough,” Billy said. “How does one get it? And are there any, uh, side effects?”
“None,” she said. “I swear it. Just a mark, nothing more. A guarantee of safety. Most people in the town have it.”
“And those that don't?” Billy asked.
; “Either too young to get one, or just fools passing through. The high priests and hierophants to the Thunian gods rule these lands, and Amar’nak is the chief entity, the Serpent Lord of Life and Death. These are the lands where our gods were birthed.”
“What are these lands called?” Billy asked.
The priestess eyed him curiously. “Thune,” she said. “You walk in the River Valley of Thune.”
He remembered the name being said in his presence before. He nodded. “So, the towns here are all under one ruler?”
She nodded. “In the north, yes. The First Apostle of Amar'nak in Yarnesh. How have you come here to Turik, knowing naught of this land?”
“It's a long story,” Billy said circumspectly.
“A mysterious warrior,” she smiled, her fingers stroking his chest. He suddenly noticed that she was much shorter than him, around Audelia’s height. Tall for a woman, perhaps, but tiny next to him. Just about everyone he’d met was shorter than him in this world, but the realization surprised him because this high priestess had such a imminent presence about her.
“If we are to work together, as my brother has wished, I must know what your power is,” she said. “If you are not willing to tell me, then you may go now.” She took a step back from him, but her gaze didn't leave his.
He hesitated for a moment, but he figured that he'd better just trust that Iskar knew what he was doing. “Wait,” he said.
“Yes?” the priestess spoke eagerly, taking a step toward him again and caressing his hand provocatively.
“I can absorb cores,” he said. “That's the power.”
Her eyes widened. “Is that so?” she said. “Then no wonder my brother has sent you here.”
“Why?” Billy asked. “Why did he send me here.”
“To gaze into the Mirror of Rasha,” she said. “And see what I cannot.”
Chapter 12
◆◆◆
Billy found himself escorted through the gardens outside the temple walls into the cloisters where the acolytes and clergy of Amar'nak lived in their own private dormitories, which they shared with several others. The grounds were not overly large, but they were impressive nonetheless for how maintained they were. Flowers and fruiting plants grew in the garden and exquisite statues, which would have been beautiful if they weren't so terrifying, littered the grounds. One of the residences was locked, however, and it was that one that the priestess took him to now.
She was even more beautiful in daylight. The rays danced on her smooth, olive-hued skin, and her blond braids could be appreciated in their full glory as they shimmered golden beneath the sun. Her voluptuous figure swayed captivatingly in front of him as she led the barbarian into the locked room and then through yet another door, this one hidden behind a shelf full of rolled scrolls which pushed itself aside as the woman uttered some ancient magic words.
The subchamber was small but already lit with torches that seemed never to burn out, and at the center of the room was a standing mirror with a thin white sheet draped atop it so that whatever the silvern mirror revealed could not be seen without deliberation.
“So, mind telling me about this mirror?” Billy prodded, even as he stepped forward and stood in front of it.
“This is the Mirror of Rasha, an ancient relic that reveals hidden truths of times past and ages to come, but it has been centuries since anyone has been able to gaze into it without going mad,” she explained. Her voice seemed to relish the prospect she spoke of.
“Uhh, so can I not look at it, then?” he asked. “I'm cool with my mental health where it is right now.”
“How certain are you that you can absorb cores?” she asked, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall.
“Very,” he replied. Of that, there was no doubt.
“Then you have naught to fear. Those who have the divine power of cores inside them may look upon the mirror without need of dread,” she said, her face twisting into a predatory but beautiful grin. “Or so I've been told.”
“Very reassuring,” Billy said. He lifted the cloth from the mirror and peered into the reflective surface. At first it was unspectacular, just a mirror. He saw himself reflected in the glass, but the longer he looked, the more he realized that the details were different. The version of himself in the mirror was a good several years older than he was now, and he wore impressive shoulder pauldrons, had a different, mightier looking ax, and he wore a crown upon his head and a regal cape draped over his shoulders. The Billy in the mirror smirked back at him and then disappeared.
What Billy saw now was a burning city. Flashes of screaming civilians burned into his retinas, as did the sights of an army of walking skeletons slashing and torching everything to the ground. He searched for some detail that this was a place he knew or could identify, but the only identifiable symbol he saw was a sign over a building that bore a picture of a burning sword with the blade facing downward and some words written which he couldn't understand. The script was decidedly not the pictographic writing system he had seen in Turik, though, that much he could ascertain.
Most peculiarly, there were two moons in the sky instead of the one that he had seen the last few nights. One of the moons in the vision was definitely the smooth yellow moon he recognized, but the other was a sinister blood-red crescent.
Abruptly, the vision ended, and he realized with a start that the priestess had thrown the cloth back on the mirror—and that he was a gaping, gibbering mess.
“What did you see?” she asked keenly, resting her hands on his shoulders. They were hot to the touch, like embers that had only been removed from a fire scant minutes before.
He shook his head as if to cast off a spell of dizziness, but it was far worse than that. “I saw... a burning city,” he said.
“Describe it,” she demanded. “More detail.”
“There were living skeletons torching the buildings and two moons in the sky—”
“Two moons?” she repeated questioningly. “Then this must be a vision of the past.”
“This world used to have two moons?” Billy asked, blinking in shock.
She nodded and tightened her grip on his shoulders. “Quickly, tell me more. What else did you see?”
“A sign on a door with a burning sword in front of a shield,” he said. “And I saw myself, but I looked... different.”
“A vision of your future, perhaps,” she said. “Perhaps all gazings into the mirror begin with such a sight.”
The barbarian straightened himself back up. “So, did I do good?” he asked.
She smiled, flashing a mouthful of alarmingly sharp teeth. “You did very well, outlander. I will work to interpret this vision of yours. Go to your women and await my acolyte. She will impart the mark upon each of you, and then you may walk freely in this kingdom without fear for Amar'nak.”
Billy sighed in relief at that. That was one less thing to worry about, at least. He followed the priestess's instructions and traced his steps back to the inn, returning to the room where the girls—his women, he chuckled at how the priestess referred to them—were supposed to be waiting for him. However, when he'd opened the door and emerged into the room, he realized that both of his lovely companions were gone. No note had been left behind—though that would have been useless anyway because he couldn't read their languages—but he hoped that they had simply stepped out and would be back shortly. As he went out back to relieve himself, he looked up at the sky and noted that the sun was still not that high up yet. It wasn't even noon.
He returned to the bed and moaned out loud at the godly feeling of his body collapsing against the mattress. He'd slept on nothing but the dirt and rock since his first day in this brutal world. It only took a few minutes for him to fall asleep.
When he'd awoken hours later, he was surprised at how hot he felt, and he quickly became conscious of the reason; both Kaya and Audelia were entangled with him, their legs tightly wrapped around his, their arms practically crushing his chest. He felt the pleasan
t pressure of their bosoms smashed against him, and he realized with a start that they were both naked.
Before he could react, though, a knock sounded at the door. The two women shot up, covering themselves in a hurry.
“Who is it, Billy?” Audelia said, hastily fastening the clasp of her chainmail top. Kaya grabbed the wand she found in the tower and pointed at the door defensively, though Billy doubted if she could actually do anything with it.
“It must be the acolyte,” Billy said, sitting up, but Kaya was already dressed and heading to the door. She opened it and gasped audibly.
“That's a sexy acolyte,” Kaya said softly, though loud enough for everyone in the small room to hear. Billy stood up and looked.
“She's no acolyte,” he said. “That's the high priestess herself.”
Isandra stood there, wearing the same outfit that Billy had seen her in before—the barely-there white diaphanous coverings over her breasts and nether regions. The only addition was a white hooded cloak that draped across her back and obscured most of her long blond hair, but her face—and her body—was not one that Billy would so soon forget.
“I thought you were going to send a servant or follower?” he queried.
“Things have changed,” the high priestess replied steadily. “Billy, after you looked into the mirror, I received my own vision.”
“Oh?” Billy said. “From who?”
“From Amar'nak himself.”
Billy blinked. “So, are you here to kill me or something?”
“Kill you?” She laughed. It was a haughty, deep laugh that managed to be sinister and sexy at the same time. “I'm meant to join you.”
“Join us?” Kaya echoed, confused.
“Yes,” she said. “As Amar'nak's humble servant, I must follow his Chosen wherever he goes.”
“Amar'nak's chosen?” Billy snorted. “Say what?”
The woman pushed past Kaya, into the room, closing the door behind her. “Now,” she began, “let us discuss the matter of your ascension, barbarian.”
Billy sat back down on the bed. He summoned the ax, and it flew into his hand with a mere thought. He looked at the bewildered expressions of Kaya and Audelia, and he realized they were looking to him for guidance. For a purpose.
Billy the Barbarian 1: The Heights of Dread: An Isekai Sword and Sorcery Harem Lit Adventure Fantasy! Page 11