“I too recall the feeling,” Gelande added.
Just then there was a clicking and scurrying sound up ahead. Gelande swung his arm around to illuminate the path in front of us. His light beamed back at us in several reflections, as if shined upon a dozen small mirrors at once. There was a screeching sound as the light hit these surfaces, and my eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness to see that a creature of some kind had retreated from the light.
“Who goes there?” Felsson demanded.
“More like what goes there,” Gelande corrected. He had seen it as well, having eyes for darkness.
It was still close by. I could hear its stillness in an occasional click or rustle. It was trying to silently stalk us from the darkness. My eyes continued to adjust to soon see that the reflections we saw were bouncing off of its eyes. The outline of a giant spider, the size of a man, came into focus. Its legs were spiked with sharp hairs and bent beneath its body as if ready to leap forward and spring upon us.
“Gelande,” I whispered. “Do you see?”
“Stand back,” he commanded. “Slowly, step backward.”
Felsson and I backpedaled, but my foot twisted in a crevice on the floor, and I lost my balance. My arms went up and my wings stretched outward to regain my composure. In that instant the giant spider lunged forward. But Gelande’s reactions were as fast as lightning. He ignited into a fireball and blazed a stream of fire that rivaled dragons’ breath. The spider was met with it in the air, and it dropped to the ground with a high pitched squeal and hiss. I pulled my blade and plunged it down into the body of the flaming beast before it could move at us again. Its legs twitched and then went still in death.
“This was Scievah’s doing,” Gelande observed. “No creature that touches the stones is altered in the way the Haareti are, unless it is by the hand of Haareti.”
“Like the scorpfang I faced in our journey through the desert. An ogre nurtured it with the waters from the forbidden fountain,” I added.
“Precisely,” said Gelande.
“That means Scievah was here. The stone could be gone!” Felsson ran forward. We followed behind him and soon reached the end of the cavern. There was no stone. Felsson let out a ravenous scream that shook the walls of the cave and likely caused more avalanches in the mountains. “How could it be? How did he find it?” Felsson pondered in anger.
“He uses the language of the stones to find them. It takes many, many cycles for him to even gain clues to their whereabouts. After handling the Firestone, he too must sense the presence of the stones as we did. He has been searching for this stone since he found the last. I pray the Waterstone of Aqos is safe from treachery. As we know, even the mermen have become corrupted despite their long history of purity,” Gelande explained.
“The war was just a diversion, as he had done in the ancient days. How did we not see it?” I asked.
“The war is not over yet my boy,” Gelande corrected me. “That was but a battle.”
“We must warn the others. Scievah’s power could destroy all of Haaret if we do not stop him right away,” Felsson urged.
“The lands of Ahaareta could collapse onto Uhaaretu, with the remainder of Alapis crashing down atop it, crushing everything beneath,” I added.
“We will rest lightly and leave before first light tomorrow. I know a place along the southern rise of Blood Mountain where we can go down into Uhaaretu; an emptied magma vein that runs all the way into the deep. It is a dangerous path, but it would save us much travel time in reaching the others.”
#
We camped in the warmth of the cave and set out early the next morning. We scaled back down Felss Peak on the rocks Felsson summoned and began to cross the valley north toward Blood Mountain. The winds were still favorable but the weather stirred. The ash plume began to flow upward instead of north and out to sea. We quickened our pace in hopes of avoiding problems.
Gelande let his flames dim as we approached the base of Blood Mountain. Having burned through his clothes once again, he limited the flames to his legs only. It looked as though he wore pants made of fire and smoke. We passed the deep snow that settled in the valley, and set to the task of scaling the mountain. Steam rose up from the ground as the residual heat of the peak melted the ice in the cool morning air. We proceeded with great caution, as lava flows coursed through the area. The climb was much easier than the spire. Blood Mountain was the tallest peak, but was less challenging to climb than Felss Peak.
When we were halfway up the face of the mountain, the winds began to shift. Fine dust and ash began to cloud the air around us. We covered our mouths with wet cloth and breathed through it, attempting to block any debris from choking us. Several times I had fits of coughing due to inhaling volcanic dust. We pressed onward, meandering our path around slow moving lava flows that crept down the face of the mountain in a red-black ooze that ignited anything it touched into flame, melting even the rocks themselves. I wondered if this kind of heat could destroy the Divinae. It was several scales hotter than any flame could be, even hotter than a blacksmith’s forge.
The ground shook on occasion, signaling that the mountain was still very much active with quakes and ejections of lava. We were quite possibly in the most dangerous place on all of Haaret, even more treacherous than the dungeons of Scievah’s prisons.
“We must hurry,” Gelande cautioned, pointing to the rim ahead as it bubbled with lava once again. “The wind has shifted against us, and Blood Mountain stirs with anger. It could blow again at any moment.”
We began to run. With the wind squarely in our faces, we were nearly blind and breathless. My hands shielded my eyes, my cloth was dirtied with soot and ash, and my feet were sweating as they touched upon the hot ground beneath my feet. The dangers here made the Sepulcre seem like a safe refuge. There it was only the Draugr that caused worry. Here, everything around us was a danger; even the air and earth.
Gelande finally uttered the words I longed to hear. “Come. It is here! Quickly!”
I looked up to see the mountain beginning to erupt. I wondered if we would be in more danger on the surface, or in the depths of the tunnel. But when the lava and rock shot upward from the rim of Blood Mountain, arcing its way toward us, I bolted into the black cave beside Gelande without second thought, hoping the exploded debris continued to sail out into the sky over our heads. I heard the debris pelting the ground as it fell from the sky, and the earth rumbled with fury.
“Move quickly now. A lava flow could be behind us and fill the passage,” Gelande instructed.
#
“How did you find this place?” I asked.
“It used to be filled with magma, but I found the rock to be soft when it cooled, unlike other types of rock in the nearby veins.” He scratched the wall, showing the softness of the black rock. “You see? But beneath it is the hard, sturdy stone of the mountain itself.” He slapped his hand upon it, demonstrating its strength and structural integrity. “A perfect passage, vulnerable only to more lava flow or quakes.”
“Then you are right; we must move quickly,” Felsson added as the ground shook, dropping loosened black dust and soot on us from above.
The passage was steep and winding, but easy to descend as the walls closed in on us. Soon the rumbling of the mountain became a distant sound, like a thunderstorm on the horizon. The passage became very tight at one point. Felsson’s body was barely able to fit through. But with some patience and persistence, he slipped by.
We were through the passage, and, from above, we came upon a wide cave that had a flat, level bottom. We dropped down into it.
“Welcome to Uhaaretu,” Gelande said with open arms and a grin.
CHAPTER 28
Gelande took a deep breath through his nose. “Ahh. Smell that fresh dusty air?” he joked. It was dry and sooty, like the air above on Blood Mountain, only much less pronounced.
“Is all of Uhaaretu like this?” I asked.
“No. But much of it has fallen on hard times.
You’ve seen the damage Scievah has caused above the ground in Ahaareta, yes?” he asked. I nodded. “Now, imagine it being several times worse down here. We’ve lost light that glowed from the rocks above, nearly all of our mountains have erupted like Blood Mountain above, our rivers dried out, the rains stopped, our air became tainted with ash, and our lands were scorched with drought, famine and wild fires.”
“Is there anything left of the way it was?” I asked.
“There are very few places that are still lush and livable, much less so than Ahaareta,” Gelande continued to explain. “Uhaaretu once looked very much like Ahaareta; the only difference was what we gazed upon up above. While you gazed upon the sun, the moons and the stars in the sky, we gazed upon glowing rocks that dimmed and brightened with each revolution of the world.”
What a strange and fascinating place this was indeed. The walls of the broad and winding cavern were embedded with crystals that dimly shined with a dull glimmer of a once vibrant radiance. The outcroppings served as a makeshift torchlight here in the deep. They were abundant in red and orange colors, and less frequent in hues of blue and purple. Gelande remarked that my powers, the powers of the Fifth Stone, had made them glow brighter than they had for many cycles. It was then that I noticed my white wings were covered in soot and ash, turned black from dirt. I shook them to no end. I needed a bath. My mind wandered to the comforts of the steam pool at the ruins of the Junction of the Four Realms. The journey had become tiresome, especially since the battle. There was little rest to be had, and a weight seemed to be hanging on my shoulders.
The ceiling rose higher and we gradually walked deeper. Soon, the walls rose up to an astonishing ceiling that was higher than many of the tall trees of Ahaareta. As the tunnel widened before us, massive columns as thick as tree trunks rose up connecting the floor to the ceiling. The columns were wider at the floor and ceiling, narrow in the middle, and carved from the same rock that made up the walls around us. Like the enormous trees of the Hem’l Canopy, they seemed to hold up the lands above.
“Did the Uhaareti build this?” I asked.
“No,” Gelande answered. “The Uhaareti can make burrows and large tunnels, but these lands were created by the king’s magic.”
It occurred to me how important Uhaaretu was to Haaret. If Uhaaretu were to crumble completely, then so too would Ahaareta, and then Alapis to follow. I imagined what would happen to the seas above if the columns beneath them were to fall. Whirlpools, violent currents, massive waves upon the shorelines, and the Aquidians would face disaster among their cities. The Great Eye, the storm that raged eternally upon the seas, was just a minor example of what Scievah’s misdeeds could do to Aqos. Gelande said that under Aqos there were magnificent waterfalls pouring down from above that fed rivers which ran through the fertile Valley of Farms in Uhaaretu. But the rivers dried up.
It seemed that the least was known about Aqos. The groundsmen and the Lapisians could not travel into the water for long periods of time like the gilled mermen. I longed to see it. I made a promise to myself that if I survived this war and somehow lived on, I would travel to their cities and create detailed records to better inform the other races of what they are experiencing. All that was known came from my grandmother Neira, Erdus, and the members of the council, who helped the groundsmen in their cause against Scievah.
#
“It is not much further. We are meeting the others in one of the few remaining areas that are lush and fertile; a secret place known only to my loyal Uhaareti men,” Gelande explained. “What you see here is the Deadlands. We are beneath the desert above. Generally speaking, when it is dry above, it is dry here as well. Not many Haareti are well traveled enough to know this.”
“Up in Ahaareta, what sits above this fertile area you speak of?” Felsson asked.
“The Fountain of Power,” Gelande responded. “The places beneath Patreus and Croyan’s farms are fertile too, as well as beneath the jungles of Tashik. Much of that area is controlled by the impure.”
“Is that where Scievah’s palace is?” I asked.
“Close. His palace is under the woods to the south of the Great Divide. It affords him easy access to the overground in the passages that connect Ahaareta to Uhaaretu near the old Earthstone altar,” said Gelande.
Felsson grunted. “It angers me to hear of such sacred ground twisted in purpose and bastardized in such a way.”
“Indeed,” Gelande responded.
“How could you face that every day for so long? I would have been driven to madness, or lashed out in violence!” Felsson growled.
“Patience is an acquired trait, Felsson old boy. I struggled much in the beginning, but I became calculating, cunning throughout my cycles. Such a life has provided me with an almost hindsight-like perspective on the events and actions of the Haareti. I understand them, relate to them as one of them, while yet being an outsider and foreign entity. As such I can detach from them and see things more clearly than they,” Gelande explained.
The rock and dust under our feet soon turned to dry grasses, and, eventually, there was moisture and strength in it. There were even some frail trees growing, their thin red and black trunks were topped with papery grey leaves. The air was much easier to breathe, and the ceiling above glowed a faint red-orange, like the colors of morning. It was like a dawn that struggled to break into day but never could.
“This area has widened since your birth, Valdren.” Gelande spoke of the growth around us. “It is further proof of the Fifth Stone’s powers within you.”
“There, up ahead. The others make camp.” Felsson pointed out into the distance. Several campfires flickered, and the tops of tents could be seen.
“Blast! I thought we’d arrive first, having taken the passage under Blood Mountain,” Gelande protested. “What a laugh that would have been if we reached this place before the others.” He nudged me with his elbow.
I grinned, but not at Gelande’s humor. My thoughts were with Lunaris. There would be time for us now, I thought. My pace quickened, and the Divinae noticed.
“Eager to see your woman?” Felsson asked.
“Eager to make her my woman,” I corrected. It was time. If we had even a moment of time to spare together, I would marry her.
We made our way through the camp and delivered the news of the Earthstone to the others. There was much sorrow and anger, both at the Earthstone being stolen, and at the fact that some had lost their lives while descending from Ahaareta to Uhaaretu. The tunnel walls had collapsed from the earthquakes, and there were some trapped within, crushed, or suffocated.
But I longed for Lunaris. I could think of nothing else. Matters of Scievah and matters of grief did not concern me. All of those I held special concern for were safe, even my loyal lion. It was selfish of me to dismiss such tragedy, but I was running out of time. If I didn’t profess my love for Lunaris and take her as a wife, I may never. I found her with her family, and asked her to take a walk with me.
“Lunaris, there’s something I’ve given a lot of thought to since we parted ways in Alapis,” I began. Her eyes were fixed upon mine with excitement, as if she already knew what I was about to say. “Our time together is short and fleeting, and I may never see you again after all of this. I think we should cherish what time we have left together. I think we should be married.” I knelt before her, taking her hand in mine. “Will you bind yourself to me, and accept me as your husband for whatever amount of time we have left with each other?”
“Of course I will!” she cheered. “Now get up here and kiss me.” We held each other and kissed, and our joy was unmatched. “We should make preparations today and have a ceremony tomorrow. I want you to give me a son,” she said.
“But who will raise it if I die?” I asked. “And the war, what if…”
“That future has not yet come to pass,” she interrupted. “It will be alright.” She gently caressed my face with her hand. “Come, let’s tell the others this great news!”
&
nbsp; #
The next morning the high ceiling glowed a bit brighter than the previous day, and everyone began to gather food and wine for our wedding celebration feast. The supply carts held a great bounty of grains, wine, cured meats, breads and vegetables. Within this lush area beneath the Fountain of Power there was a pond. I washed the soot off of my body, and swam around to clean up for the ceremony. My wings were the purest of bright white again, and I felt refreshed and rested. My heart fluttered with excitement; it was my happiest day. I only wished my mother were there.
As I got out of the pond I noticed the dark shrouded figure again from the corner of my eyes. I quickly took up my sword and ran toward it, behind some bushes that lined the pond nearby. When I got there it was gone. I noticed some loose disturbed soil and what looked like a hole under the bush. Perhaps this figure was an Uhaareti that was burrowing. I went back to camp and warned my father, and a guard was stationed near the pond as a lookout. I turned my attention back to the wedding.
A long, makeshift table made from the supply carts was set up with cloth and decorations to serve and display the food, and Gerron stood beside Lunaris and I as we held each other's hands at the ceremony. Everyone looked upon us with happiness, and our most cherished loved ones were up in front to cheer for us. But it was all a blur. My eyes were locked upon Lunaris. I don’t even recall the words that Gerron spoke as he led the ceremony.
A sound slowly grew louder and louder as it approached in the distance. It was a familiar sound; the rhythmic beating of dragon wings in flight. I turned from my haze of joy, looking up into the orange Uhaareti sky, my brow furrowing with concern. My lion let out an angered roar, startling the others who had not yet heard the approaching dragon. Everyone soon saw me staring off, looking elsewhere with my eyes fixed upon something other than Lunaris. There were gasps, and panic soon ensued. Our wedding was interrupted, and anger began to boil up within me. We had not yet bound ourselves to each other.
The Return of the Fifth Stone Page 37