Ascension of the Whyte

by Karen Wrighton

keep up with her. Periodically she turned so quickly that she found herself stepping on the little Pukis, who would flap his tiny wings in a frantic attempt to get out from under her feet.

  “Where have they got to?” The irritation in her voice was apparent. “They should have been here by now. If we are to reach the Ice temple before dawn, we need to leave within the hour.”

  The Ice temple at Enisfrae was a majestic and iconic building, constructed almost entirely out of ice. It was less than a days ride once inside the wall, but the terrain was treacherous.  The Hydra pass lay between two mountain ranges, the Ice Mountains of Rhodium to the North, and to the South, the Mountains of Fyre, which were situated within the Hydrargyrum border region.  It had been in this inhospitable valley of fyre and ice, where the final battles of the Dragon Wars had raged.

  The land still bore the scars of this war, frozen in time, in stone, and in ice. The long petrified bodies of the Ophite rebels, struck down by Eldwyn the Whyte’s powerful enchantment, marked the route like grotesque milestones along the way.  The temple, initially taken by Lord Ka at the start of the war, became his last stronghold. It was from there he had attempted his final, and ultimately fatal, assault on Rhodium.

  El-on-ah turned at the sound of snow muffled horses’ hooves, approaching from the south. The two Bloods approached, galloping at speed and far too fast for the conditions.  As they pulled up, Tu-nek-ta’s mount’s rear legs slid under him as the horse struggled to stay upright.

  “My Lady, we apologise for our tardiness,” Che-vah-ra said breathlessly, as he swung out of his saddle and approached her on foot. “I bring crucial and terrible news from Cynnabar.”

  El-on-ah’s enquiring eyes held a glint of menace as she waited for him to explain. Hesitantly and with apparent reluctance he went on.

  “I fear, my Lady, that we may be the cause of a terrible catastrophe.” He could not keep the fear from his voice as it fell to a deathly whisper. “The Djinn of Erebus… are free…”

  The expression of shock and horror on El-on-ah’s face was followed swiftly by a look of guilt and confusion.

  “How?” she said, “It can’t be us. We sealed the tunnel under the gate, and the seal on Tollen’s Gate remained intact.”

  “On our way back we went to see if we could discover what had happened,” said Che. “It looked like Puk’s tunnel had undermined the gate, causing it to subside and then to crack. Ultimately this must have forced the gate from its seal.”

  The pukis hung his head and backed away into the hut.

  “The Djinn are walking the streets of the capital as we speak.” Said Che, his eyes steadily holding hers, “I saw it myself El-on-ah, there hundreds of them and they have an army of Afreet; ten thousand strong. Most of the population fled to the west, using the cover of the mountains to cross into Ferrum without being seen. A few tried to go east into Aurum, but there is no cover that way, either overland or across the loch and I don’t think any of them made it. It seems that few people took the north route past the gate, as we did, which is why I suspect, we were able to escape with our lives.”

  Stunned, El-oh-na’s eyes widened. What she knew of Afreet terrified her. They were enormous winged Djinn, creatures of fyre with speed and strength beyond imagination, there was no escaping them. Mortal natives could do them no harm and even ascendants had difficulty in limiting the destruction they bring.

  El-on-ah remained silent for some time, lost in her thoughts. Che shuffled uncomfortably on his feet, trying to keep himself warm and waiting for the explosion he was sure would soon occur. When she broke the silence, however, El-on-ah’s voice was unnervingly subdued.

  “They will make slaves of the natives and assimilate the ascendants.” Her voice betrayed her dismay.

  “We have but one option.” She said, looking north towards Rhodium’s Ice Mountains. “Only Lord Ka can help us now.  We have to bring him back. If we cannot, then the people of the Afterlands will be doomed to an eternity of enslavement…. or worse.”

  El-on-ah strode purposefully towards the hut and grabbed her mount from its tether. Picking up her occultus, she glanced inside. Traditionally an occultus is used to carry an Alchemist’s potions, herbs and equipment and this small leather pouch rarely left her side.  Checking again that the glass phial of mercurium was safely stored inside, she turned and looked up, confident that her servants had followed behind her.

  “Tu-nek-ta, did you bring the rest of the equipment?”

  “Here My Lady” he motioned to the two saddle bags. “Vapour flask, and syphon.”

  “Che, have you news about the other matter?”

  Che-vah-ra’s face lengthened, his expression darkening “It will be done, before noon tomorrow.”

  “Aureus Ophites?” she asked, frowning.

  “Yes my Lady” then noticing her look of discontent. “Is that not what you intended?”

  “It is” she sounded hesitant, “ but if we are unsuccessful in our attempt to resurrect Lord Ka, then the fulfilment of Eldwyn’s prophecy may be our only hope.  We may yet have need of this young Whyte. Where are the nearest skeps? Have I time to rescind the order?”

   “The closest Blood apis are in Treymaneor, My Lady,” said Che-vah-ra, as he re-mounted his silver mare. “At least three days ride in these conditions and we would have to pass the gate again, so would risk being captured. We could go through the pass and cross into Ferrum. Geldholm is the closest town, but it’s still a days ride and in the opposite direction to Enisfrae.”

  She looked up at him frowning, her jaw tightened as she pulled on her gloves.

  “Then we must ensure that not only do we attempt the resurrection,” she said, “but we are successful. Ka is our only hope now.”

  Grasping the reins of her black stallion she pulled him around and effortlessly swung herself up into the saddle. 

  “Enisfrae” she shouted as she dug her heels into her horse’s flanks and galloped recklessly down the steep mountain path towards the great Ice Wall, the others following closely behind.

  After riding hard throughout the night, it was approaching dawn when they entered the city of Enisfrae. It was so cold that each exhaled breath sparkled as it froze in the air, instantly transforming into a cloud of tiny ice crystals. They had slowed their exhausted horses to a steady walk. Now, the hollow thud of their hooves was all that broke the silence, a silence which was as suffocating as the freezing mist itself. Nervously they watched the eerie, petrified bodies of Ophites as they rode past them. Each of them was secretly afraid that these once living statues would suddenly awaken from their thousand-year slumber, and challenge their rite of passage.

  El-on-ah pulled her thick cloak around herself and the little Pukis. She had never felt so cold. Up ahead, the five spires of the Ice temple came into view above the mist. The building was elevated, resting on a four-sided pyramid structure with stepped sides and a flat top.  They tethered their horses to a post at the foot of the pyramid, leaving Puk behind to mind them. Then they began to climb the steps of the pyramid, on its south side.

  At the top of the pyramid, in front of the great Ice Temple and looking out over the city like a divine effigy, was Ka’s petrified body. The sight of him standing there unchanged for over a thousand years, took El-on-ah’s breath away. His right arm was outstretched, pointing towards the snow-covered horizon, and his lips were frozen in mid-incantation. He looked terrifyingly magnificent. 

  El-on-ah realised now, why native Ophites made regular pilgrimages to this place from childhood. Parents brought their children here to see the great Lord Ka. They told stories of his exploits, told them how one day he would return to free the Afterlands from tyranny and to unify their people under one great and powerful leader. Later as adults they would come alone, as pilgrims or to ask Ka for his magical protection and they would leave an adder stone, in tribute or in payment, at his feet. There were thousands of these glassy stones, all of them pierced by a perfectly round hole at their c
entre. They had been formed naturally by the elements as the stone was carried on its ancient geographical journey carried by the movement of the fyre, wind, earth, water and ice.

  One of them caught El-on-ah’s eye.  The stone was flattened, oval in shape and of a size that could just be contained within her clenched fist. Faintly luminous, it emitted a soft green glimmer, which reminded El-on-ah of the glow worms that used to dance outside her window on summer evenings. The stones diffuse radiance, together with its hole being slightly off centre, gave the stone appearance of a crescent moon.   On impulse, she picked it up and slipped it into a pocket inside her occultus.  Then she took out the phial of mercurium, another containing a mixture of iodine and arsenic, and a small round boiling flask.

  “Tu-nek-ta,” she said, “pass me the vapour flask.”

  El-on-ah took the cone-shaped, flat-bottomed flask from him and placed it down on a large stone at Ka’s feet. Removing its stopper she motioned to them to move backwards.

  “You’re standing too close,” she said, “If this works, the amount of energy contained in the vacuum bubble will be immense.”

  Then, shrugging her shoulders, she added “On the other hand ignore what I just said. If the bubble collapses, it won’t matter where we’re standing.”

  The two bloods looked at each other nervously.