by Eric Vall
“Really?” Rana sniffed. “So it’s perfectly normal that you were sneaking around the ship and ducking around corners pretty much the whole time we were on board? Yeah, sounds logical.” Even though Rana’s back was to me, I had a strong feeling that her words had been accompanied by one of her exaggerated eye rolls.
“I must agree with Rana,” Morrigan spoke up. “Your behavior throughout the duration of our sea voyage was quite unusual. Furthermore, it is unlike you to be so secretive and... what was the word Rana used last week?... shady.”
“How would you know what is and isn’t like me?” Annalíse turned around in her seat and narrowed her eyes at the pale elf. “You talk as though you’ve known me for years.”
“Hey, hey now,” Rana interjected. “No need to get hostile. We’re worried about you, that’s why we’re asking.” The curly-haired woman smiled calmly. “Sure, we haven’t known you for years, but you’re still our friend, and it’s obvious something is going on with you. Look, I understand you want to keep your secrets. I did it too. I kept this whole thing with my family and the sorcerer from you all because I thought that was the best thing to do at the time.” Rana’s voice was tinged with sadness as she spoke, and I recalled how reluctant Rana had been to tell us her troubles. “I figured I caused this mess, so I should be the one to fix it, and I didn’t want any of you to get hurt trying to help me. But you know something, when I finally did tell you guys, I felt a lot better.” Rana released a breath slowly and looked up into the clear blue sky.
“And we thank you for telling us!” Carmedy said.
Rana laughed and then winked at Carmedy before continuing. “Has the situation with my family changed? No, but I feel, I don’t know, stronger and more at ease now knowing that you guys have my back. I guess what I’m trying to say is, whatever’s going on with you, it’s not so big that you can’t tell us. We’re here for you.” The fox-tailed woman reached over to pat Annalíse’s shoulder sympathetically.
I was touched by Rana’s unexpectedly heartfelt words. The witty fox lived and breathed sarcasm and wisecracks, but her words to Annalíse had not only been gentle and genuine, but wise. Even so, Annalíse remained silent. I couldn’t see the human woman’s face from where I sat, but Rana’s speech didn’t appear to have had any effect since Annalíse offered up no explanation for her strange behavior.
Rana turned in her seat and looked back at me. “Help me out here. I’m getting nowhere with this.” I silently nodded to Rana in agreement. Since she had asked for my assistance, I was happy to oblige. We all knew how stubborn Annalíse was, she wouldn’t give in so easily. I would have to finish what Rana had started.
“Annalíse, I understand that you must have a reason for wanting to keep your troubles to yourself,” I said calmly. “As Rana said, she too had reasons for keeping her secrets. You are an honorable woman by nature, I know this for certain. That is why it’s all the more concerning that you’ve lied to us over and over again. You went to extreme lengths to hide from someone at the second town we visited, and we all noticed that you were avoiding those soldiers from the glacial continents back on the ship. There’s no use in trying to steer away from the subject.”
Annalíse was quiet for a while, and for a moment, I thought that she was still refusing to comment on the matter.
“Back at that town, the people that I was trying to hide from were those same two soldiers from the ship,” Annalíse finally confirmed with a sigh.
“Why?” Morrigan asked as she raised a blonde eyebrow over her almond eyes.
Annalíse hesitated for a moment before she continued. “They’re looking for me. They must have asked around and figured out where I was.”
“Okay, so why are these guys looking for you?” Rana asked suspiciously. “What did you do? For these guys to be hopping from continent to continent trying to find you, it has to be something pretty serious.”
“Did you… kill someone?” Carmedy asked slowly.
“No, no, nothing like that.” Annalíse shook her head.
“What did you do then?” I asked. “Did you break some sort of law?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Annalíse said with bitterness in her voice. “All I’ll say is that I’m running away from something, I’m never going back, and it’s crucial that those soldiers don’t know my whereabouts.”
“Running away from what? And where won’t you go back to?” Rana asked, but Annalíse offered no more explanation. Evidently, she felt that she had revealed enough. Rana turned back to me and gestured to Annalíse in frustration. I shook my head to indicate that we would pursue the topic no further.
After all, I had granted Rana the same kindness to reveal the full nature of her problems over time. Annalíse would tell us the rest of her story in her own time, but she had opened up to us about some of what had been weighing upon her, and for now, this would do.
“Alright then,” Rana said slowly. The fox woman turned in the saddle to look at the rest of us. “I’ll change the subject since the current one is getting us nowhere. I heard that there’s supposed to be a sacred object in one of the dungeons on this continent.”
“Where did you obtain this information?” Morrigan questioned in her usual cool manner.
“I have my sources,” Rana answered with a wry grin. “I have absolute confidence that the information is good, I just don’t know which dungeon is the lucky winner.” The fox frowned.
“Well if it’s here, we’ll find it,” Carmedy said brightly before her voice dropped melodramatically. “For we are the mighty minions, and no dungeon shall go unconquered!”
“Loving the enthusiasm, pussycat,” Rana said with a chuckle. “I hope we’re able to find them all before…” The fox’s voice trailed off as she gazed sadly into the sky.
“We’ll find them,” I said reassuringly, my voice filled with the utmost confidence. “And once we do, we’ll combine them and obtain whatever power is summoned, we’ll put an end to that sorcerer and save your family.” The situation was indeed difficult, but together we would put everything right.
Under normal circumstances, I would have forgone the search for the sacred objects, sought out the sorcerer, and ripped the soul from his worthless body.
Fortunately for him, I had no clue as to his location, and the sorcerer had cast a spell that prevented Rana from finding him until she collected all the sacred objects. Only then would she be summoned to him.
“Thanks.” Rana gave me a soft smile and a nod. “I can’t wait to see that spell-casting freak’s face when we bust in there and use his precious sacred objects against him.”
“He will suffer for what he’s done,” I said darkly.
“Indeed,” Morrigan said with a slightly sinister tone as she petted the top of one of her raven’s heads. “He shall not live long enough to regret his actions. He shall spend his final moments pleading for his worthless life as his soul is stripped from his body.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Rana said with a wicked grin. “I’d also like to point out that when you say spooky things like that Morrigan, it makes me all the gladder that we’re on the same side.” The fox chuckled.
“I am indeed an invaluable ally.” The white-haired elf nodded. As usual, she had failed to see the amusement in Rana’s remarks.
Rana laughed and shook her head while Carmedy stifled a giggle. I too laughed at the verbal exchange, but then my mind drifted back to the quiet. While we had gotten closer to the truth, the warrior woman had once again become tight-lipped. I wondered if perhaps it would be easier if I talked to the freckled human privately about whatever was troubling her. That had been what happened with Rana. Then again, I wanted Annalíse to tell everyone when we were all together. Our journey in Valasara had only just begun, there would be time to discover Annalíse’s secret.
Chapter 7
Our party continued to travel through the seemingly endless desert. For hours, we saw hill after hill of sand. The air was silent save for
the sound of the wind blowing across the sand, and we came across no other travelers. We continued to stay on guard for a possible ambush from behind, and Morrigan sent her ravens out on half a dozen more scouting missions, but they always returned without seeing anything.
The silence and emptiness of the desert was both peaceful and eerie, so we eventually relaxed our guard and assumed that we would be attacked when we entered or exited the dungeon. Despite the void of life, the sand laden wasteland still felt alive somehow and held an air of foreboding. It was as if the desert itself was holding its breath, waiting to catch us unawares and swallow us whole.
Still, like every other place that I had visited since I had been freed from my dungeon, I found beauty in my surroundings. Yes, this place could be described as empty, but I also thought of it as raw nature, untouched and uncorrupted, or even a blank canvas. Yes, the silence was a bit strange since I had grown accustomed to hearing such a lively mixture of sounds, but the quiet is what made this golden sea of sand unique. I doubted that there were many places in the world that had this sort of silence.
We rode on as the sun continued to climb into the sky. As the hours crawled by, one by one the rest of us gave in to the heat and used the cooling powders that Carmedy had given us. Rana’s description had been spot on. The cool sensation did indeed feel like pure bliss, it was a shame that we could each only use one per day. At the same time, we had to count ourselves lucky. How many groups of travelers had someone like Carmedy with them that could craft such a concoction?
“If you look straight ahead across the scorching sand ladies and gentlemen, you will see our destination coming into view.” Rana’s voice shook me from my thoughts. “And a welcome sight it is if I do say so myself. I don’t even care if that dungeon is crawling with demons, it’s gotta be cooler in there than it is out here.” The fox fanned herself with her paw.
I glanced around Carmedy to get a better look, and sure enough, a massive rocky structure rose out of the distant sands.
“We’re almost there,” Carmedy said gleefully. “We made it!”
“Well, of course,” Rana said with a self-satisfied smile. “Was there ever any doubt? I mean you only have the greatest navigator of all-time leading the way.”
“Where would we be without you Rana?” I chuckled.
“Ah, probably lost and lying face down in a pile of sand,” Rana said with a devious grin.
“Do you truly think we would do that poorly?” I raised an eyebrow in amusement.
“Oh yeah, definitely,” the fox continued. “You guys wouldn’t last ten minutes without me. You’d be wandering around out here chasing mirages. You need me.” Rana let out a self-satisfied sigh.
“We certainly do.” I laughed and shook my head at the fox’s boastful words.
As we neared our destination, the details of the dungeon began to become clearer. What lay ahead of us truly was an impressive and enormous stone structure. It was essentially a mountain of rock that jutted out of the sand. A wide path cut through the sand to the dungeon, lined by a row of towering statues on either side. There were ten of them on each side of the path, and all the carvings seemed to be of men. This was certainly the most ornate dungeon that we’d visited thus far, and I was even more curious as to what waited for us inside.
As we made our way down the path, we looked up at the stone figures in awe. The carved figures stood straight and tall were roughly twenty feet in height and had been grossly disfigured by time and the elements. Each had a different physique and facial features, what was left of them anyway, and they all had different manners of dress. A few wore long robes while others were outfitted with armor from times long past.
Some statues were merely missing a hand while others had been robbed of an arm, leg, or had even been decapitated. The facial features of most of the figurines had been worn away, but those that I could make out seemed to wear a gruesome expression. Most likely these were previous monarchs or perhaps even fellow deities.
“This place is creepy,” Carmedy shivered as we rode by, and her ears pressed flat against her head as she looked up at the statues.
“That’s putting it mildly.” Rana wrinkled her nose at the monuments. “It’s like some freaky statue graveyard.” There was indeed something unsettling about this place. I could sense the darkness that loomed over this dungeon. Whatever awaited us inside was surely something sinister.
As we reached the entrance of the dungeon, the five of us dismounted. On either side of the entrance was another statue carved into the dungeon itself, but unlike the others, these were seated and carried weapons. The figure to our right was a man wearing an intricate headpiece and a spear in one hand. The figure to our left was a woman with a similar but smaller headpiece, and in her clutches was a great axe.
“Who are these people?” Carmedy breathed in awe as she stared up at the fearsome carvings.
“They are King Varakesh and Queen Saldarii,” Annalíse answered almost immediately. “They were Valasara’s first rulers.”
“You certainly know your Valasarian history,” I said as I raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, y-yes, I have a knack for those sorts of things, and history is one of my favorite subjects,” Annalíse said awkwardly.
The more I learned about the swordswoman, the more interesting the mystery surrounding her became. Previously she had displayed adept language skills. In fact, she had informed us that she was proficient in thirteen languages, and upon being asked as to how she had come to master so many she had been untruthful. Now I had come to find that she was also quite knowledgeable in the history of another continent. Then a thought struck me. This sort of academic prowess was common to people of means.
I didn’t know anything about Annalíse’s family for she had never spoken of them, but given what I knew now, it seemed logical to assume that the female warrior came from a wealthy family. This would also explain the manner in which she carried herself, and her constant need to maintain a pristine appearance. There was still the matter of the soldiers from the glacial continents Tintagal and Tamarisch. What did they want with her? What could Annalíse have done that they would pursue her so relentlessly and who had sent them?
“This place,” Morrigan mumbled as she walked forward and placed a palm on of the statue’s bases, “this place is sinister. Do you not feel the evil radiating from its very walls?”
“I do.” Rana raised a paw in the air. “Not that I can sense evil magic or anything, but something in there is making my fur stand on end.”
I nodded grimly. “I can sense it too. There is indeed dark magic at work here.” The dark energy I sensed flowed around me and made me feel alive, but this was no time to get carried away. Whatever was inside that dungeon had to be dealt with.
Then I would take its power.
“I’m not so sure about this,” Carmedy said fearfully as she stared into the dark entrance of the dungeon. “I don’t think I want to--”
Suddenly, Carmedy’s eyes widened with terror. The tunnel that we stood in front of had been dark only moments ago, but now a glow from within appeared and seemed to move toward us. As the light drew closer, I realized that there were torches fixed to either side of the tunnel’s walls, and one after another, they were lit by some unseen force.
Once the last two torches closest to the dungeon’s entrance had ignited, Annalíse cautiously stepped forward with her hand on her sword hilt and leaned close to one of the torches to examine it.
“Seems fine to me,” the swordswoman called out. “They’re just torches.”
“Just torches?” Rana said in disbelief. “Didn’t you just see those things light themselves? They aren’t just torches.”
“Be that as it may, we must enter this dungeon,” Morrigan said as she stepped forward. “What if this dungeon houses one of the sacred objects? Do you not wish to claim it?”
“Of course I do!” Rana narrowed her eyes. “All I’m saying is that I wish it didn’t feel like impending doom
was radiating from this place.”
“We also have our pursuers to worry about,” Morrigan pointed out, and then the three women looked at me.
“They will either attack us in the dungeon or when we exit with our treasure. Either way, they will not defeat us.” I shrugged casually when I finished speaking, and the relief was plain on their faces.
“Regardless, let us get going,” I said as I made my way into the tunnel. “The sooner we go in, the sooner we can get this over with.” Without another word, I trudged into the lit passageway. There was evil coming from this place, I could taste it, and that made me all the more eager to see what lay inside.
Annalíse silently followed behind me immediately. Carmedy hesitated for a moment, but took a deep breath and followed Annalíse as she nervously wrung her tail in her hands. Rana sighed and shook her head as she too entered the dungeon, followed by Morrigan.
“Well, whatever deity who lives here may be evil, but at least they’re considerate.” The fox nodded to the torches. “That little magic trick creeped me out but at least we can see easily.”
I turned to give the fox a wry grin. “That’s quite a positive attitude to have.”
“Yeah, I know I’m a ray of sunshine,” Rana said with a dry chuckle, but I could see the concern in her eyes. By now I was well aware that the fox often used her dry wit to relieve otherwise frightful situations. She felt fear just as any other mortal being, she just chose to deal with it differently.
As we continued to move through the passageway, the light from the torch flames flickered and sent quivering shadows across the rocky walls. My expression soured as an ungodly stench assaulted my nose. While it offended my avatar’s senses, to my godly self, it almost felt homely, for it was the stench of death. The further we moved, the more intense it became.
“Ugh, what is that?” Carmedy said in a nasal voice, and I glanced back to see the small black cat pinching her nose.
