Soldier Scarred

by D. K. Holmberg

  Endric held the light up over the motionless form of the figure.

  “A woman?” he gasped.

  The person who had attacked Urik had fine features, including a sharp angle to her jaw and shoulder-length black hair. Her skin was pale, almost white, though that could be the reflection from the torchlight.

  He searched her robe, now that he could better see, and found that she carried no weapon. Inside one of her pockets was a slender metal rod. Endric brought it up to his face and realized that it was made of teralin.

  “That’s likely so that she can trigger the door to open,” Urik said.

  “Then we need to see if we can find how to use it,” he said.

  Endric grabbed one of the strips of fabric and started wrapping it back around the torch, keeping it from burning out. He continued to wrap fabric around it and then proceeded to cut multiple strips from the woman’s robe, wanting to be prepared for the possibility that they might need the torchlight as they tried to figure out how to get out of this chamber.

  As he worked, he shifted her robe and noticed a marking on her shoulder. He brought the torch closer so that he could examine it. The marking was similar to those that he’d seen on the walls, but there was something about it that reminded him of the Deshmahne priests that he had come across. Could they be related? Could the Deshmahne be older than he had realized? Maybe they were tied to these Salvat priests.

  “Endric?”

  He waved Urik over. “What do you make of this marking?”

  Urik leaned toward it. “I know what you’re thinking but I don’t think it has anything to do with the Deshmahne.”

  “How can you be certain?”

  “I can’t, but the Deshmahne had a different set of symbols. There was no writing to it.”

  “I don’t think that’s entirely true.”

  “Did you see something that would tell you otherwise?”

  “I saw that the Deshmahne had heavy tattoos along their arms. It might not be writing to us, but even if it was symbolic, it meant something to the Deshmahne.”

  Urik nodded. “Possibly, but I don’t think this is the same. For one, I’ve seen this symbol on the walls. It’s a letter—or maybe a word. It’s hard to know what it might be to these people.”

  “She wouldn’t have been here alone,” Endric said.

  “If there is a marking like this on her arm, someone would have placed it there. So no, I don’t think she was here alone.”

  “We need to figure out how we’re going to get out of here,” he said.

  As he did, the ground rumbled again. The confined woman started to stir and Endric backed away, keeping the torch held out in front of him. He had torn away much of her robe, leaving a layer of thin clothing all that covered her.

  “Keep searching for a way out,” he told Urik.

  “I could probably search for a long time without finding exactly where to trigger the door. That’s the entire point of having something like this. Only those who know will be able to make it work.”

  Endric looked back at the fallen woman. They would need her help if they were to get out of here. Somehow, he would have to encourage her to help them whether that was through fear or whether that was through finding some way to coax her to help, he wasn’t certain.

  “Keep looking,” he said.

  Urik turned away and Endric waited for the woman to come around.

  He didn’t have to wait long. She jerked her head up and glanced from the flame to Endric, her eyes widening.

  “Who are you?” Endric asked.

  She thrashed, trying to fight through her bindings, but Endric had plenty of experience at tying them securely.

  “Nod if you understand me.”

  That wasn’t a given that she would. He was possible that she spoke some language native to Salvat and not the common tongue, though everyone else in Salvat spoke the same language. More likely was that she was able to read the inscriptions on the walls and could speak the common tongue.

  She nodded slowly.

  “Good. I am Endric, a soldier in the Denraen. Do you recognize that term?”

  She studied his face. It was then that Endric realized her eyes were pale, almost as pale as her skin. Was that some way she had of seeing in the dark? Maybe she didn’t need a lantern the same way that he did.

  She nodded again.

  “Good. Now. All I want is to get out of the temple.”

  Her eyes flickered from Endric and over to the door before darting back to Endric.

  “You will need to open it for us.”

  She shook her head.

  “If we’re stuck here, then so are you.”

  She glared at him. There was heat in her gaze and Endric found himself impressed by the fact that she managed to glare with such intensity. He hadn’t expected that from her. She was unarmed and confined, trapped with bindings covering her arms and legs, yet still she struggled against him. Still she resisted.

  “As I said, all I want is to get out. I don’t want to damage your temple.”

  “It is not my temple.”

  She had a harsh accent, and it was one that Endric had never heard before. He smiled tightly. “You do speak. Good. Whose temple is it, if not yours?”

  “It is the gods’ temple.”

  “Fine. It might be the gods’ temple, but I want nothing more than to escape from it before the volcano erupts.”

  Her eyes narrowed slightly. “No erupt.”

  “You might not think that it’s not going to erupt, but how do you know?”

  “No erupt.”

  The ground rumbled, another tremor settling through the stone. “So those tremors aren’t a sign of the volcano readying to erupt?”

  “The gods are angry.”

  “Why would the gods be angry?”

  “Their home has been defiled.”

  “We haven’t done anything to defile the temple.”

  Endric glanced back at Urik, hoping that was true. He didn’t think that Urik had done anything, but with Urik, it was often difficult to know exactly what he had done. He had been wandering the mountainside before he came across Endric. Could he have done something that would have defiled the temple and angered this woman—and the others like her?

  “Who defiled the temple?” Endric asked.

  The woman continued to stare at him. There was an iciness to her gaze and she looked at him without blinking.

  “Is it related to why there have been more tremors?”

  “The gods are angry,” she said.

  “I understand that you believe the gods to be angry, but help me understand why. What happened that would have angered the gods?”

  “Endric?” Urik said. When Endric glanced over, he shook his head. “I can’t find any way to trigger the door.”

  Endric turned his attention back to the woman. “Tell us how to get out of here. We will leave the temple.”

  “You have defiled the temple.”

  “I’ve defiled nothing. I only was searching for a way to help my friend. I came across the temple accidentally.”

  “Not you. Him.”

  Endric glanced over to Urik. “Why would she say that about you?”

  “I haven’t done anything,” Urik said.

  “Did the Conclave really instruct you to come here?”

  Urik stared at Endric. “I told you what happened,” he said.

  “You told me that you took Tresten away. You told me that you were forced to come this way.” Endric should have given it more thought before, but it didn’t make a lot of sense. The Conclave didn’t strike him as the kind of organization that would force someone to serve them. Those who had served the Conclave had done so on behalf of others. Endric thought of Novan and Brohmin and even Tresten, and all of them had served almost selflessly, believing there to be a greater purpose.

  “Endric, I’ve told you what happened.”

  “You told me what you wanted to happen.” Endric stood and wrapped another strip of
fabric around the torch, trying to make it brighter. “Why are you here, really? Is it about the Conclave, or is there another purpose to it?”

  “Endric—”

  Endric approached Urik. He gripped the torch in one hand and his sword in the other. “I’ve had about enough of your deception. Just when I thought that I could begin to trust you, are you attempting to deceive me again? Are you going to be the reason that we end up trapped here within the temple as it erupts?”

  Urik looked past Endric to the woman lying on the ground. “She’s quite clever. She is using your natural inclination to dislike me against us. Can’t you see that’s what’s happening?”

  “What I can see is that I suspect you have been deceiving me.”

  “Endric, I have been working with you ever since Tresten brought us together.”

  Endric shook his head. “You have appeared to work with me. How much of that has actually been you working with me remains to be seen.”

  He glanced back at the woman. “Is he responsible for defiling the temple? Is there something that he did that has angered the gods?”

  “I thought you didn’t believe in the gods?” Urik said.

  Endric glanced at him. “I’ve told you that it’s not a matter of belief in the gods. I’ve seen plenty of evidence of their existence. It’s a matter of questioning which faith has the right. As far as I can tell, the Urmahne do not. Who’s to say whether the priests of Salvat have a better understanding of the gods intentions?”

  “Not only him who defiles the temple. Not only him who angers the gods.”

  Endric turned his attention back to Urik. “Who have you been working with? If it’s not the Conclave, who is it?”

  “I’ve told you all that I know. I’ve told you that the Conclave promised to help Tresten.”

  “They promised to help Tresten in exchange for your service in some way, but that doesn’t strike me as the Conclave that I’ve had interaction with,” Endric said. He should have given it more thought before. He should have listened to his natural inclination to distrust Urik. He should have trusted the fact that Urik had done nothing other than betray him time and again, yet he had made the mistake of attempting to give him the benefit of the doubt. And for what reason?

  Wasn’t that what Senda had warned him about?

  “Why did they want to have you find the temple?” Endric asked.

  Urik met his gaze. The torch flickered and Endric hurriedly added another strip of fabric around it, keeping it burning. He very much didn’t want to be trapped in here with only Urik and the woman and no way of seeing which of them might attack.

  “They didn’t say.”

  Endric sighed. “This isn’t about the Conclave it all,” he said. “This is about something else. This is about another pathway to power. And apparently, this is about you continuing to betray those who have attempted to extend a measure of trust in your direction.”

  22

  Endric helped the woman to her feet, severing the bindings that held her legs together. He kept her arms confined, still not certain how much he could trust her, not wanting to risk an attack. Standing close to her, he noticed that she came barely to his shoulder. There was an energy within her, almost a heat that sizzled. She smelled of the heat as well, a strange sense that filled the air, radiating with it. Why should she smell of heat? More importantly, how could she smell of heat?

  “I need to get out of here in order to know how to find what he’s after,” he said.

  The woman stared at Urik, but she didn’t say anything.

  “I don’t intend to harm your temple. I will do what I can to prevent him from damaging it. I serve the Denraen. Do you understand what that is?”

  Urik shot Endric an angry look. “You’re making a mistake. All I wanted was to help Tresten.”

  “I think you’re letting your desire for information and knowledge cloud your judgment yet again.”

  “The only thing that’s clouded was my decision to allow you to accompany me.”

  Endric stepped aside and waited for the woman. “Help me get out of here,” he said. “I can help, but I need you to show me the way out. Trigger the door.”

  She stepped up to the door and Endric waited for Urik to hand over the slim teralin rod. When he did, the woman took it and brought it back as if to strike Urik. He flinched, ducking out of the way.

  “At least we know what she struck you with,” Endric said.

  The woman placed the rod into the center of the door in a small dimple in the floor. She did something, and the door clicked.

  Endric recognized the sense of what she had done. He had felt it before. It was the charging of teralin, though what she had done was temporary, not completely charging it.

  Endric smiled to himself. There wouldn’t have been many people who would’ve been able to open the door. Only those with the ability to charge teralin—and to use a positive charge—would have managed. Urik could charge teralin, but he had the ability to charge it in a negative fashion.

  “Did you see what she did?” Endric asked Urik.

  He shook his head.

  “No. I didn’t think that you would.”

  “And you did?” Urik asked.

  “I didn’t need to see it so much as I felt it,” Endric said. The woman glanced over at him and her eyes widened slightly.

  “You felt it?” she asked.

  Endric reached for the teralin rod, and when she withdrew it, he set his sword on the floor. It would serve much the same purpose. He sent a surge of positive charge through the sword, attempting to charge the polarity, though it already was charged. There was another click, and the woman’s eyes widened again.

  “See? I would not defile your temple.”

  “Just because you can unlock the door does not meet that you serve the gods.”

  “No. But just because I’ve come to your temple doesn’t mean I intend to defile it.”

  Endric pushed on the door, forcing it open, and stepped through. It was a relief to be out of the corridor, and a relief to no longer feel trapped the way that he had. Surprisingly, he’d had the means of escaping all along, though he hadn’t known beforehand.

  “Is there another way out of the temple?” Endric asked the woman.

  “You came in the only entrance.”

  “We came in halfway up the mountain.”

  “The others have disappeared.”

  “Disappeared?”

  She nodded. “The gods have claimed them over time, leaving only the stairway through fire as the way out of the temple.”

  It was an interesting description, and he could see how it would be considered a stairway through fire, though he didn’t quite know how—or why—it would be the only remaining way out. Could the gods have swallowed the other entrances, as she said? Could they have claimed them, through lava or time?

  Endric cut the bindings around her wrists. She looked at him, her eyes wide, before taking a few steps back as if he might attempt to capture her again. “I don’t intend to trap you,” he said. “However else you managed to sneak up on us, I have no ill will toward you. I understand that you are only protecting your temple.”

  “You must leave.”

  “I intend to leave,” Endric said. “And I’ll take him with me so that he can’t defile your temple anymore.”

  “Endric—”

  Endric turned on Urik, glaring at him. “We’ll go. And then we’ll find whatever it is that you intended to keep from me. We’ll find those who thought to have you attack the temple and see whatever we can find about who they are.”

  “You don’t understand,” Urik said.

  “I don’t understand what?”

  “They were going to follow.”

  “What?”

  Urik looked around the temple. His eyes had gone wide and a sheen of sweat had broken out on his forehead. Endric didn’t have any moisture to spare and was thankful that he wasn’t sweating as well. The heat from inside the temple was overwhelmi
ng, and it took his breath away.

  “They weren’t able to find the entrance before.”

  “They sent you?”

  “I volunteered to go. There was something that I had read in one of the guild journals that I thought might point me in the right direction.”

  “And so you did defile the temple.”

  “I did nothing other than find the temple. Have you seen me defile anything? If you know anything about me, Endric, you would know that I seek knowledge.”

  “You seek it for power.”

  “I seek it for understanding.”

  “No. I think Tresten made a mistake with you. I think he was willing to forgive your past transgressions on the possibility that you might have changed, but you haven’t changed, have you? You are still the same man who thought to use the Denraen so that you could get vengeance on the Deshmahne. You’re still the same man who wanted to use the Ravers, so that you could force an understanding of the Deshmahne. What manipulations are you doing now? What do you intend to do now that you have found the temple?

  “I intend only to understand the ancient religion of Salvat.”

  “That might be what you want, but what about those who you’re now helping?”

  “They are from the Conclave—”

  Endric shook his head, silencing Urik. “They’re not from the Conclave. I should have known that. I didn’t question when I should have. I think I was allowing myself to trust you when I didn’t need to. The Conclave serves a different purpose. I’m not entirely certain what it is, not yet, but all I know is that they would not violate a place like this.”

  “Then why would they have claimed Tresten?”

  “Likely the same reason that you did. They probably wanted to have access to him so that they could have access to the Conclave.”

  Urik’s face clouded. “They will have followed me here.”

  “Of course they would have.” Which meant that there might be others in the temple with them, and he had no idea what they might be after. All he knew was that they had Tresten and that whatever they intended meant that Tresten couldn’t return to the Conclave for his final rest and whatever help the Conclave might have been able to provide.