by Ross Turner
Soon enough, Cole was awake and alert once more, though tired still. He ate a hasty meal and they readied their horses. Pike had been kind enough to check their mounts during the night and see to any of their more dire needs, though, thankfully, neither of them had picked up any injuries.
The four of them made haste to saddle their horses and bade Pike a fond, though rushed farewell. They were all too aware of their diminishing window of freedom, and they knew they had little option but to move now.
They quickly departed and headed, with a daunting familiarity to the south, and towards Compii Tower once more.
21
Rose’s heart raced and her breathing was heavy as the pounding in her chest matched almost perfectly the rhythm of her enormous strides across the cold, open and grassy-knolled common. Her Cole, sat on her broad back, had almost fully recovered his strength, and his parents, the legendary Isabella the Eternal and Timeless Zanriath, rode some way behind.
Cole’s recovery after each episode was shortening, and his control improving even with each passing hour. His development and recovery were unprecedented, as with each new challenge his parents set him, he excelled, his performance matched only by his power’s unbelievable expansion.
His tasks were mainly mundane ones, designed to help him build different elements of control and concentration, but also to keep him fatigued enough to hopefully avoid another episode, another loss of control. It seemed they did not have the luxury of any more time to waste.
As he rode, Cole began to wonder whether his parents had completed the challenges they were setting him themselves, during their own training, and if this was how all those with demonic or elemental potential were always trained. Something told him that wasn’t quite the case, and that his situation was indeed quite unique.
He wasn’t sure whether he was comforted by that inkling or not.
His father would request things such as he maintain a ring of flames around the four of them whilst they rode, and that those flames did not alter the landscape in any way, including from both a heat and light perspective.
The concentration required to focus on such a task, especially whilst moving at speed, was somewhat taxing. But, wanting to gain control over his abilities, Cole obediently obliged.
The challenges Cole’s mother set him were no less difficult. Isabel had at first cast her thoughts back to her own training in Land, but had come up relatively short, as much of her training had revolved around actually fighting demons and, as of yet, that was not an option.
So, instead, she instructed Cole to focus on Thorn’s movements, far out in the great ocean. She did not want Cole to alert Thorn to his presence; she simply wanted Cole to follow his actions through the water.
Her son soon discovered that focusing on such an intricate task, at such a great distance, was much more challenging than he had first anticipated, and required considerable effort and concentration.
They alternated their tasks by the hour and Cole found himself and his power suitably occupied and equally drained as they travelled further and further from home. He did not even have time to look back in apprehension as they reached the bridge jutting out from the land itself, cutting like a knife through the fog hanging forever low over the ocean.
It was Cole’s heart that was racing now and he rubbed Rose’s thick neck absently, as they both stared out at the disappearing stone bridge. After a few minutes Zanriath and Isabel pulled in their horses beside them, apprehension also painted clearly across their faces.
At first the horses were snorting and whinnying wildly at the sight of the ocean and the bridge and the fog. But after a brief glance from Cole, and the passing of something that he still did not yet fully understand, they calmed, and even began to lead the way into the hazy, damp mist.
The day had been wearing on slowly, as days inevitably always do, but as soon as they entered the fog, that gradual passage of time became totally indistinct, and the dim light ebbing through the thick air all around them gave nothing away.
Cole did not speak during the crossing to Compii Tower. He knew all the stories, as did everybody else, but now he was actually here, he felt as if he had no idea what to expect. In fact, no one in Tamarack would have known what to expect, save his parents, for they were the only ones still alive to have ever made the journey.
But even so, it had been many years since their last passing, and the eerie fog and the warning silence put them all on edge. The horses’ hooves clattered noisily against the perfect stone and Rose’s claws clinked delicately alongside them.
Once or twice Cole was tempted to expand his awareness to increase his ‘vision’ through the thick fog, but something stopped him. It was almost as if the sound from Rose and the horses, the only noise cutting out into the thick silence, echoing all around, acted as a warning, telling him to keep his ability on a taught leash.
It was only as Isabel felt that they were drawing close to the tower that she pulled her horse closely beside Zanriath’s and whispered over to him, almost afraid to break the gloomy silence that had fallen over them.
“Zan. Did the Gods replace the guards?” She hissed, though her voice still sounded terribly loud in the murk all about them.
“I can only presume so.” He replied in a hushed voice. “We’ll soon find out.” He indicated ahead with a slight glance, and Isabel turned to see the tall spike of Compii Tower materialising out of the mist far above them.
Hundreds of windows peered down upon them as they approached and, on instinct, probably based on memory more than anything else, Isabel cast a scanning thought ahead of them, only to find nothing. The ambush was one thing she would certainly never forget.
As the fog thinned and all but vanished, the hairs stood up on the back of Isabel’s neck and she heard Zan’s sharp intake of breath at her side, indicating that he had indeed felt the same thing. At least the guards were there, she thought.
She looked across to Cole, ready to comfort his fear and assure him that everything would be alright. But he and Rose both looked calm, almost bored in fact. He was not a child any longer. Isabel sighed deeply, almost sorrowfully, and they pushed forward.
Soon they were beneath the huge and daunting archway that marked the entrance to Compii Tower, engraved vines running up either side of its massive walls. It was only at this point did Isabel recall exactly why the tower was such a good place to set an ambush. She swallowed deeply and cast yet another searching thought up past the archway, high into the rafters of the spire, and was comforted, if only a little, as she found nothing.
Then Isabel’s breath caught in her throat, as she looked ahead, her eyes everywhere, scanning every possible crevice. She saw a figure on the opposite wall of the tower, stood atop one of the many small ledges below the windows, looking directly down at them.
The man was tall and muscular and wore a long, dark red robe that extended down to his feet. His arms hung motionlessly by his sides and his face was set in a bleak and almost unrecognising expression, all apart from the sheer intensity of his piercing gaze. He had short blonde hair, his blue eyes were hard as gems, and his thick, square jaw was set. He watched Isabel and her family’s every move with acute precision as they passed through the archway.
They entered the tower more fully and fear struck at Isabel’s stomach as if a bull had charged her. Looking around there were three other men, almost all identical, dressed in the same robes, watching them with similarly fierce expressions that verged almost on violent.
Each stood on one of the four walls and their facial features differed only slightly, along with their hair and eye colour, and they all looked, even without moving or showing any sign of it, hugely powerful.
Isabel could not escape their gaze quickly enough, and urged her horse toward the southern arch leading to Vak’Istor. The four guards’ gazes were set in stone and their heads turned laboriously slowly to follow the intruders’ path through from the western to the southern arch.
Fi
nally, Isabel felt the cold damp of the fog on her face and in her hair once again, and managed to calm her racing heart, breathing quickly and sharply.
“Are you ok Isabel?” Zanriath asked her, pulling his horse in close and putting his hand on her shoulder. Cole too came close with Rose, worried for his mother.
“That was horrible.” She said, her breathing gradually returning to normal, not knowing why she had been affected so badly by the crossing.
Then a fleeting thought crossed her mind. She caught her breath for a few more moments, steadying her still shaky voice before turning back to her husband.
“Why weren’t they disfigured Zan?” She asked her husband. “Like they were before?” He looked puzzled and for a moment thought to himself silently.
“I don’t know.” He finally admitted.
“I thought that too.” Cole said, speaking for the first time since leaving Rilako. “In all the stories I’ve heard, everyone has always said they’re ugly and terrifying.”
“They were terrifying.” Isabel attempted to laugh lightly, though her voice still shook tentatively.
“I think it was just something else to discourage people from crossing.” Zanriath suggested in response to Cole, eyeing his wife warily, still a little worried for her. “And the stories haven’t changed, because no one has crossed since your mother stopped Depozi. No one has needed to I suppose.” He continued.
They all thought for a moment, but, unable to come up with any further explanation, they pushed on south. It was only Isabel who received any notion as to why the guards had not been reinvented in such a hideous fashion.
She smiled secretly to herself, once she had fully calmed her nerves, as the thought of Ayva changing the other God’s past habits with her excessive cheerfulness made her smirk somewhat childishly, remembering all too well her sprightly, young, blonde friend’s insistence.
After a second unknown period of time crossing over the black waters, they finally reached the darkened shores of Vak’Istor, emerging from the murky fog into a yet another unknown blackness, only very vaguely familiar beneath the cold and clouded sky. Donning warmer clothes now, as for some reason they had not seemed to feel the cold so in the mist, they made their way up the shore and into the treeline to set up camp for the night.
Before long the horses were picketed and Isabel, Zanriath, Cole and Rose sat close together for warmth, not wanting to risk lighting a fire, eagerly satisfying their hunger with a cold supper of bread and cheese and fruit.
Isabel sat with Zanriath for some time, leaning back against his chest, enjoying the heat radiating from his body, and watched her son caringly as he rested against Rose’s colossal ribcage. Cole rose and fell with each of Rose’s breaths, and the steady rhythm, combined with the fatigue of the long day, soon cast him into a deep and rewarding sleep.
Isabel was soon to follow as Zanriath’s breathing had a similar effect on her and, warm and fed, she too drifted off to sleep, her dreams troubled by an array of people and beasts and events. Some of which were frightening, and some harmless, but nonetheless all troublesome - as had been the majority of her dreams of late.
Zanriath, returning to his old travelling habits, took much longer to drift off to sleep, and mentally planned their route for the following day, doing his best to reconstruct their path from almost twenty years ago. No mean feat, especially considering that, through the dense woodlands, everything looked virtually identical, and had probably changed considerably over time.
Eventually, he decided that there was no more use in worrying, and that they probably would not even be able follow the same route, as navigation through the woods was so difficult. Instead, he attempted to drift off to sleep, burying Isabel deeper into his arms as he did so, cocooning her with his warmth and what little mortal protection he could offer.
Morning dawned swiftly on the makeshift camp and after a quick breakfast they set off once more, following the coastline round through the trees, similarly to the way Isabel and Zanriath had done many years ago, moving with purposeful speed down towards Kazra, the island’s capital.
The fear and tension that Isabel still remembered hanging amongst the trees had evaporated, and the almost bare branches all around swayed calmly in the now-icy breeze, oblivious to the danger that lay ahead. They did, however, seem a little wary of Rose, and to begin with bent their limbs away as she passed by, though, after several hours, they grew accustomed to her presence, and seemed eventually not to mind.
Isabel was unsure whether their rapid acceptance of a demon amongst their ranks was due to an overly forgiving nature, or perhaps to something Cole had done. Either way, neither Cole nor Rose seemed phased by what continued to startle and astound Isabel as their journey progressed.
After yet another few hours of a monotonous canter, the glorious capital city came into view over the treetops, and Cole’s eyes widened in amazement, having never before seen anything like it.
Isabel smiled for a moment at her son as she remembered her own discovery of towns and cities that did not consist of small wooden huts and stone houses, but instead of towering structures and walkways, built on both pride and order.
Just as Isabel remembered, the buildings were all almost identical and, as they reached the strip of grassy land signalling the boundary between the treeline and the city, the sun broke welcomingly through the clouds. It gave the cold late morning at least some warmth, even if they all still wore their cloaks to keep the harsh chill from draining their own heat from them.
Once again Isabel sighed and they began down towards the towering city extending far off into the distance.
Even without needing to discuss the matter, Isabel and Zanriath both knew automatically their destination. Cole and Rose followed, moving slowly, holding back from Isabel and Zanriath at first, braced, knowing Rose would not bring back good memories for the city-folk here.
Nevertheless, with no choice in the matter, they continued, and headed directly for the council chambers in the centre of the star-shaped capital city.
22
Zanriath’s keen memory and sense of direction soon found them on the right course for the council chambers they desired, although it was still little different to navigating his way through the woodlands, with all the buildings looking almost identical.
Rising up in vast, stone towers all around them, Kazra loomed somehow even more immeasurably over them than the Kalaren Peaks did over Kalaris. The sea of grey extended out in every direction, and the perfectly shaped and maintained walkways and carriageways were indeed clearly prized by the city’s inhabitants.
His successful navigation however, did nothing to change the fact that there was indeed a towering and fearsome demon in their company. Some passers-by turned completely white, dropped whatever they had been holding, and ran for their lives. Others screamed and simply crumpled to the floor in a wailing mess, attracting much more attention than was really necessary.
There were even a few who glanced back and forth several times at Rose, walking calmly between the two horses, did not believe what they were seeing, and simply continued with their daily tasks as if they had seen nothing.
Their only saving grace was the fact that Cole was sat atop Rose, and that made her vicious appearance somewhat less threatening, even if only ever so slightly.
It was not long before the on looking crowd doubled and tripled and quadrupled in size, attracted by the townspeople’s frightened cries at the sight of the demon. With a crowd of such numbers gathering, they were unable to advance any further to the council chambers, but before long it became apparent that there was no need. Soon enough, Isabel and Zanriath were recognised, and the Chairman of the council made his way through the throngs of people to the couple.
“King?” Zanriath questioned, thankful to see a familiar face at long last.
“Indeed Zanriath!” The silvery-haired man replied with a croaky voice that sounded tired and overused. “It has been quite some time.”
&n
bsp; “Are you still in council?” Zanriath asked quickly, jumping straight to the point, ignoring the still building crowd and speaking quickly to King.
“I am my boy.” He replied. “As a matter of fact, on the back of your success, I was elected Chairman, and Chairman I remain.”
“Excellent.” Zanriath heaved a sigh of relief. “Is there somewhere we can talk privately?”
“Of course, of course.” King replied before casting an apprehensive look in Rose’s direction. “Will…ermm…that be joining us? I’m sure there’s a perfectly sensible explanation?” Zanriath only laughed in response and looked helplessly at Isabel. She smiled at King and inclined her head.
“My dear King.” She greeted their old friend.
“Isabel.” He responded. “You look not a day older than when I last saw you.” He said with a sly wink.
“Why thank you.” She replied with a smirk. “And there is an explanation absolutely.” She assured him. “Whether it’s sensible or not, is for you to decide.”
King raised an eyebrow as if asking Isabel to continue, but the noise of the crowd was once again growing and Rose was becoming unsettled and frightened by the atmosphere, surrounded by now hundreds of strange faces, some angry and some terrified. She made several suggestively aggressive advances towards anybody who ventured too close, and was forced to bare her teeth more than a few times.
King nodded, confirming in that simple gesture that he both understood that this news was of the utmost importance, and that the people needed to hear it. But it was also clear that if they stayed in the open for much longer, they would achieve nothing more than causing something of a blind panic.
“Right this way.” He said raising his old, crinkled voice somehow above even the noise of the crowd, quietening their fright and stirring the throng of nervous spectators to silence, and even to reluctantly begin to disperse. A number still followed King and his guests to the centre of the city to the council chambers however, but that did not matter, for by now most of them many realised that Rose was no threat, or at least Isabel hoped they did.
