by Tom Barczak
Al-Mariam seized Chaelus’ hands.
Chaelus drew away, awkward as Al-Mariam folded her own around them.
“My brother speaks only of you,” she said. “Will you speak with him? Will you help him? Please?”
Chaelus pulled his hands away and stepped back. He looked down into the broken slope of ruined promises below. Only silence answered him. “I don’t know that I can.”
Mariam grasped his hand again. She placed his fingers into the soft open palm of her own. The gentle scars there, of her own making, were fading. She moved his hand to rest just above her breast. He felt the soft tremor of her heart beneath her skin.
Al-Mariam whispered. Her voice was choked. “Then at least know that though you may not want my heart, still it is yours.”
The veil behind Al-Mariam’s eyes drifted away.
Chaelus tried, but he could not turn away from their depths.
“I will do what I can,” he said, his own voice now thickened.
The thud of his feet sounded like the beating of an anvil, only matched by the pounding of his heart. Al-Mariam walked beside him but continued past, a gentle whisper in her step as she descended the stairs beyond.
Chaelus lowered himself to his knees before Michalas and looked up at him, the unbidden words of prophecy coming from his lips.
“One who was, but could not be.
One who could not be, but was.”
“Which one are you?” Chaelus asked.
“I don’t know what I am,” Michalas said, shaking his head. “I see Angels, but only now do I know their suffering.”
Chaelus withdrew before the child who would save him, the child through whom he was supposed to save others. The suffering Michalas spoke of stared back at him. It surprised him but it relieved him as well, for it was not so different from his own.
“I don’t know how to serve you,” he said. “Or anyone without you.”
Chaelus stared at the tumbled litter of stones beneath them, down to the trail leading amidst the tombs of the Forgotten, the tombs of the Evarun, to the tomb of his mother. And, if what Al-Mariam said was true, to whatever truth it would hold for them both.
He swallowed hard.
Then he held out his hand.
“Walk with me. I’ll tell you my Story.”
Epilogue
Solace
Olivia rested her head against the frame of the open doorway. The small prayer stone given to her by her sister Bakassas more than a lifetime ago, slid easily between her fingers.
The fall of the night had deepened but few had yet to return to their chambers. The long night of mourning for the passing of Al-Thinneas, and so many others and so much else, had only just begun.
Her old friend stood alone in his chamber, his back towards her, a leather satchel open on the pallet before him.
“What counsel decieved you, Maedelous?” she asked. “Where will you go now to find solace from the things you’ve done?”
Maedelous’ thin hands hovered just within the open satchel.
“Would you go to the Theocracy, where the Dragon still finds refuge?” she continued. “Or would you go further east, to find solace amongst the Caliphates of the Khaalish, with whom you’ve wed?”
“You would do well to watch the words you speak,” Maedelous answered.
“I speak only truth,” Olivia said. “Al-Hoanar has already confessed to me of your treatise with the Khaalish, and of the trap you set for Chaelus.”
“I think your truth has fallen short of wisdom.”
“But it doesn’t lie.”
“Nor does it shy away from disparity,” Maedelous muttered. “But choose whatever truth you will.”
“It’s a long path we’ve taken together, Maedelous. You and I alone remember what truths have come to pass.”
Maedelous drew his satchel tight. “The watchtowers of the Twelve have fallen. Their passing hasn’t gone unnoticed. I travel south to seek what word there may be amongst the people there. I believe I will find the faith of the Goarnni to be far less fickle.”
Olivia absorbed the pain in her heart, staring away as Maedelous passed her in the doorway. She listened as his hurried footsteps faded.
She stepped into Maedelous’ chamber. His pallet was neatly made. The sparse utility of his chest marked the only other furniture on this side of the simple black curtain which had been drawn across the small room.
Olivia threw it aside.
Upon a stand in the corner, Maedelous had hung his lorica. Scarred and beaten from battles and age, it had still been cared for. For loyalty. For love. For faith. The thin candlelight flickered against its polished steel bands.
On the stand beneath it, Maedelous’ legion sword lay at rest. The same flicker of candlelight danced across it, the gossamer of its binding left folded beside it.
Glossary of the Pale
Bakassas
Marsh kindom of the Witch Queen.
Cenotaph
Tombs of black stone left empty since the time of by Gorondian Empire, they’re used now by the living to house the newly dead.
Col Durath
The watchtower of old at the center of the Garden of Rua.
The Dragon’s Sleep
A plague that consumes both the spirit and the flesh.
Evarun
The Forgotten Ones. Once holiest of the peoples of the Pale, they fled to their own exile in the lands of the east centuries ago with the rise of the Gorondian Empire. Some consider them to be Angels.
Expulsion
The defeat of the Dragon of legend and exile of it beyond the Line.
Fallen Ones
The Servian Lords after their fall from Grace.
Ghaardi
Savior
Giver
Chosen prophet of the Evarun.
Gorond
The evil dragon of prophecy and legend.
Gorondian empire
An empire of wizards that ruled the Pale a century ago.
Gossamer Blade
Sword and symbol of the Servian Knights, its edge bound by Gossamer to mark their oath never to shed the blood of man.
Hallas Barren
Southern Gateway to the Garden of Rua.
Hallas Farren
Northern Gateway to the Garden of Rua.
Happas
Ancient highways built by the Evarun.
House
The designation of property and relations of the Roan Kingdoms.
Line
Fortified wall built by the Servian Lords to watch for the Dragon’s return.
Lossos
Sanctuary of knowledge.
Madea
Ritual bath and gateway.
Magedos
Where the Dragon of legend was defeated.
Measure
The rule of honor, law and war of the Roan Kingdoms.
Nephelium
The three Angelic Messengers of Rua.
Northern March
Northern Roan kingdoms.
Pale
The known world.
Remnants
The Dragon’s minions.
Roan Kingdoms
Independent kingdoms of the west governed by the rule of the Measure.
Rua
The Creator. God of the Evarun and Sacred Sovereign of the Pale.
Sanseveria
Land of exile of the Servian Knights. Its center and heart is the Garden of Rua.
Schism
The splintering of the Servian Order from the Servian Lords who once ruled it.
Servian Knights
Order of Knights forbidden to shed the blood of man. Raised by the Servian Lords to defend the Line against the return of the Dragon.
Servian Lords
The first twelve raised by the Giver of old. They raised the pale from the Dragon’s Sleep, but in the end, fell themselves.
Shoa
Rua.
Spigot
Cruel double ended weapon of the gladiatorial pits of Goarnn.
/>
Theocratic Council
Secular Lords of the city states of the Pale.
Theocratic states
Also called the Theocracy, the united city states of the Pale, goverened by the Theocratic Council and the Taurate.
Tulon
City state with ties and treaties to the Roan Kingdoms.
Taurate
Priests who preside over the Theocratic Council
Void
Death.
White Towers
Twelve stone towers built by the Evarun to watch over the hearts of men.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
My background is an Artist, turned Architect, turned Author, who’s finally getting around to writing those stories I started on my front porch as a kid.
It’s a story I’ve been trying to tell all along, in my paintings, with my poetry, and even before that, just sitting around the table with my friends, slaying dragons.
