The Greater Challenge Beyond (The Southern Continent Series Book 3)

by Jeffrey Quyle

  Men and women screamed, shrieked, and fainted, as the room was filled with a whiff of sulfurous air, and the goddess of punishment slowly stepped in a tight circle, letting her gaze fall upon everyone who was in the room.

  “You are not placed on this earth to interfere with the work of the champion of the gods,” her voice was a seductive rumble, as she finished her survey and faced Baron Holmgren. The man’s white face had turned gray with fear.

  “The boy and how he plays with his women is none of your concern,” she lectured him.

  Grange felt anger building in his veins. He had an active dislike for the goddess, for her very nature, for her practices, for her temples, and especially for how she had treated him personally. He eyed her carefully, anticipating seeing her whip around and try to dole out more punishment to him.

  “For interfering with the champion, I am here to punish you,” she pointed a finger at the nobleman, and a jet of fire shot forth, enveloping the man in flame. More people in the room screamed.

  “No!” Grange shouted, horrified by the sight. He pulled his wand free and pointed it at Holmgren. “Water!” he commanded, and a jet of pure water shot forth striking the fiery man with such force that it knocked him over as it extinguished the flames.

  Those who were in the room gasped at the sight of the sudden encounter, and at the temerity of Grange to reverse the punishment doled out by the goddess.

  “You impudent, undeserving, arrogant, overvalued piece of dirt!” Shaine screamed at Grange as she whirled to look at him.

  “Maybe we don’t need to keep you as champion. I’m sure that somewhere out there we can find one other person with your peculiar talents,” she growled as she started to stalk towards him.

  Grange stepped back, and drew his sword. It was a futile gesture, he knew, but he had to have something in his hand, something that felt like protection as he suddenly faced the vengeful hatred of a hateful goddess. He held his sword in one hand and his wand in the other, and he slowly backed away, crouching down and looking up.

  “Take this!” she hurled a bolt of lightning at him.

  Cross the sword and the wand, Ariana’s voice sounded in his mind as his hands raised up. By the time he reacted to the instruction, the bolt was on its way towards him.

  The brilliant burst of energy struck the crosspoint of the two items he held, and splayed outward in all directions, without harming Grange.

  Shaine looked down at him, and her eyes blazed twice as brightly.

  “You think you can withstand my wraith?” she screamed.

  “Energy, lift me to the ceiling!” Grange shrieked in fear, and he felt himself blasted upward, as another bolt of lightning struck the spot where he had stood. He reached the ceiling, bounced off it and came down to a hard landing next to where Holmgren lay whimpering on the floor.

  “Goddess!” Grange shouted, as Shaine whirled to face him. “Leave! Just leave! We’ll handle things here without your interference! I’m fulfilling Acton’s orders – now take your punishments somewhere else and stop interrupting us!” he shook his sword at her in a puny gesture of defiance.

  Shaine looked over at him, then stepped towards him, ponderously, one slow step at a time, until she was directly in front of him, making him crane his neck to look up at him.

  “You will be my plaything for eternity, boy, when this is done, Campeaodeuses,” she hissed.

  There was a whirl of darkness, like a small cyclone suddenly, and then the goddess was gone.

  There was a terrific release of explosive voices in the sudden absence of the goddess, as more screams and shouts let loose.

  Grange dropped his weapons and knelt down to look at the man on the floor behind him, Baron Holmgren. The man was only singed lightly, Grange was glad to see – his eyebrows were ashy and his clothes were barely darkened, as if the fire had hardly done him any damage at all, other than to strike mortal fear in the man’s heart.

  He suddenly felt warmth pressing against him, and discovered that Hope and Jenniline had leapt down from the row of princess’s seats to come hug him tightly.

  “Oh heavens! By all the glaciers at the southern pole! You fought a god!” Hope cried. “Grange, you’re the most courageous man I’ve ever known.”

  “You are the stupidest man I’ve ever known!” Jenniline thundered.

  He opened his eyes and looked up. Hope’s eyes were sparkling, bright with excitement and tears of relief. Jenniline’s eyes were squinted in a scowl. There was a circle of spectators standing around, but not too close to the incredible warrior.

  “Come,” Grange motioned with one hand, as he waved people in towards Holmgren. “Take him and undress him and put him to bed. Treat his burns – they don’t look bad.”

  He crawled backwards, away from Holmgren, giving others the space they needed to lift the man. Jenniline and Hope stayed with Grange, holding tightly to him as he backed up.

  He saw Halsten suddenly appear in his field of vision, squatting down in front of him to look him in the eye.

  “Are you okay?” the prince asked.

  Grange shook his head. He was in shock. The situation had taken an unexpected turn, and had carried him down a road he knew he could never reverse course on. He had impetuously acted to counter the fiery punishment of Shaine, and he had marked himself as her enemy for all eternity. He felt his stomach churning with fear.

  “I need fresh air,” he blurted out.

  “Here,” Halsten took Hope’s place at his side, and together with Jenniline, propelled him directly up to the stage the now-empty throne sat upon, then through a side door, a few steps down a corridor, and suddenly into a small, enclosed garden.

  Grange sat on a bench, breathing heavily, trying to understand what he had done.

  Do not fear, Ariana tried to comfort him.

  “Do not fear? She will torture my soul for a hundred centuries!” Grange replied out loud.

  She will not, Ariana answered. I’ve heard her say that before. It means that she respects you for your bravery and tenacity.

  “She may respect me, but she could still torment me,” Grange pointed out.

  “Who are you talking to?” Hope asked.

  “He’s talking to the spirit that lives in the jewel on his sword,” Jenniline answered for Grange. “She’s the one who protected him from Shaine’s first assault.”

  “How do you know?” Halsten asked.

  “She’s right,” Grange answered in his strained, gravelly voice. “It was Ariana I was talking to. She said Shaine won’t really punish me for all of eternity,” he explained.

  “How does Jenniline know?” Hope asked.

  “I heard her last night, during the, you know, the thing on the tower,” the elder princess explained.

  Grange took one more deep breath, then stood up, one hand holding on to the back of the bench. Halsten grabbed his shoulder to steady him.

  “Shall we walk you back to your tower?” he asked.

  “Probably,” Grange answered appreciatively. “There isn’t going to be much more of an audience, is there?” he managed to grin weakly.

  “You take it easy,” the prince said. He opened the door and led Grange back into the palace, with the others following closely. They walked thorough a labyrinth of passages to arrive at a small door, which was only a minute’s walk from the foot of the tower.

  “I can manage from here,” Grange assured the prince. “Thank you for your help.”

  “Let us know when you’re ready for a further conversation,” Halsten replied. “It won’t have to be such a large gathering. As a matter of fact, I’m almost sure we’d all prefer to have a quieter get-together – much quieter,” he said, drawing chuckles.

  Grange and Jenniline walked together, holding hands, their heads down, as Halsten and Hope watched the pair stroll to the tower entrance, and disappear within.

  “Whoever that boy marries is going to have an interesting life, I fear,” the prince told his sister. “Very interesting. A
re you ready for that?”

  “I hope to find out,” she said softly, and then turned and wandered back through the palace to her room in the residential wing.

  Chapter 27

  Grange found that all of the servants had returned to the tower when he and Jenniline entered their quarters. Listrid was downstairs, and Geric and Cecelia were upstairs.

  “It’s safe for us to return, isn’t it?” the man asked on behalf of all three, who were thinking of the wand ceremony on the rooftop a few nights before, unaware of the sacred visit and anger that had been unleashed in just the previous hour.

  “If it’s up to me, you’ll be safe,” Grange answered with a weak smile.

  “Your lord had a bit of a dust up today. The goddess Shaine came to the audience hall and the two of them, tangled,” Jenniline explained, as she walked Grange on up the second set of stairs towards the roof.

  “I’ll ask you to go to the dining hall and fetch food for all of us, but you’ll be sure to hear about today’s happenings, not that anything else is expected to happen,” the princess said.

  “I’ll go to the servants hall, where there won’t be so many questions asked, and the food’ll be better anyway,” Geric offered. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  “Just take a basket with you,” Jenniline suggested, as she and Grange disappeared up onto the roof.

  The sun was starting to set in the west, and the moon was rising in the east as the two reached the bed on the roof.

  “You just lie down,” Jenniline told Grange gently. As he obeyed, she knelt at the side of the bed and wrestled his boots off his feet.

  “You need to get up,” Grange protested. “You’re going to ruin that beautiful gown you’re wearing,” he commented.

  “I’ll go downstairs and change in a minute. Are you feeling okay?” she asked. “You’ll be okay while I’m gone? You’re not going to pick fights with any other gods or goddesses?”

  “No,” Grange said in exhaustion. The mere fact that he had faced a deity in hostile circumstances truly drained him of energy at the moment, as he tried to recover from the shock.

  “I’ll be back up when dinner comes,” Jenniline told him. She rose, lifted the bedraggled hem of her skirt, then left the roof, leaving Grange alone.

  He knew he had done the right thing. Shaine had done a terrible thing, setting Holmgren on fire, and it had felt right to stop the terrible sight. But he had perhaps been secretly seeking some excuse to oppose the goddess, and he had jumped on the opportunity with perhaps too much zest.

  “Grange, this is Brieed speaking to you this evening. The skies are finally clear, and I can speak to you again. I hope you are well. I have not heard from you in a few days, although one of your messages did come through to our new location here.”

  Grange lay on his bed, happy to hear the voice of the wizard, and felt a slight twinge of guilt that he had not tried harder to send a message in recent days.

  “I felt the energy take great delight three nights ago, just at sunset in our part of the world, and I knew it had to be you. I wish you well, my boy. Let me know how you are doing,” Brieed said. “We are safe in our fortress now. I expect Grace to arrive any day, which will help me immensely; there is much for a wizard to do to help out in trying circumstances,” he reported. It was as much as an admission of exhaustion as Grange was likely to hear. “Take care, Grange.”

  Grange sat up and called on the energy to assist his words in traveling to the moon. “Thank you Master for your message. I did bring my wand to its fullness, and it feels wonderful now, like it truly belongs to me and works with me. And I had a confrontation with Shaine today, but survived, by a little. She called me something, the word you said you found in the scrolls,” the memory of Shaine’s salutation, and of Brieed’s earlier mention of the title both came to him. “She called me the Campeaodeuses.

  “I’m glad you are safe in the mountains. I hope this message reaches you, and I hope that Grace reaches you soon too. Tell her I wish her and Lady Selene all the best,” he paused, wondering why he had singled the noblewoman out for a greeting at that moment. “I will let you know what my next move is.”

  He ceased the commentary, then laid back, closed his eyes, and relaxed.

  “Here’s your dinner,” Jenniline startled him by saying, some little time later.

  He opened his eyes and saw that the sky had turned red from the setting sun, while the waning moon was higher above the horizon. Jenniline was dressed casually and was pulling one of the chairs from its location, bringing it over next to the side of his bed, where the basket of dinner food sat, releasing tantalizing aromas. They sat and ate quietly, as Grange sat up in his bed, then fell immediately asleep afterwards.

  When Grange awoke in the morning, Jenniline was curled in the chair, still at his bedside, a blanket spread over her. He heard a scuffling sound on the stairs, and looked over to see Geric’s head rise from the opening in the floor.

  “My lord,” the servant spoke. “There’s a visitor who’s come to the tower and wishes to see you, my lord.

  “It’s Prince Inge,” he added. “He’s waiting down on the lady’s floor,” Geric nodded towards Jenniline.

  “Thank you Geric; send him up,” Grange replied.

  “Jenniline,” Grange poked his companion’s shoulder. Jenniline, your brother is here,” he warned.

  Her eyes opened with a lost expression, as she spend a split second looking around at her surroundings. “You say who is here?” she asked, rubbing her face with her hands.

  “It is I, dear sister,” Inge said as he bounded energetically up the stairs. He stopped at the top of the stairs, breathing deeply.

  “You get some exercise on your way up here, don’t you?” he asked.

  Grange was sitting up, pulling on his boots.

  “Forgive us, your highness, we’re caught unprepared for visitors,” Grange apologized as he stood up and jammed his heel down into his boot, while Jenniline arranged her blanket around herself and stood as well.

  “I believe you’ll have more soon,” Inge said, “from the chatter I heard at breakfast.”

  “You’ve had breakfast this early?” Jenniline asked skeptically as the three of them came together, standing in the center of the roof.

  “Why don’t you go downstairs and get dressed before the others get here?” Inge responded. “I’m telling you for your own sake; I sense you’re a little sensitive about gossip, after your famous kiss,” he grinned.

  Jenniline colored faintly, then swung a fist at Inge, striking him a resounding blow on the shoulder. “I’ll be back soon, and you better be gone,” she warned, then went darting down the stairs.

  “You put your own life at risk by provoking her,” Grange warned, as the two of them moved Jenniline’s chair before they sat down.

  “What do you mean others will come up here too? What’s happening?” he asked.

  “I had a dream last night, or maybe a vision,” Inge spoke in a more serious tone for the first time. “I dreamed that I was traveling with you in the wilderness,” he said. “And we were riding away from some kind of battle – a fearsome one, I know. I felt the fear and the tension of it in my dream. I woke up, and never went back to sleep.

  “So I came here to tell you that I believe I have to go with you to see the Bloomingians. I’m sure that’s what the dream was telling me – to be your companion on your journey south,” he explained earnestly. “It’s a compulsion.”

  Grange felt a strange sense of relief. Having Inge along for the trip south wouldn’t be a great problem. He hadn’t begun to plan the details of his trip to the camp of the Bloomingians yet, so adding a companion would be simple; he had just assumed he would ride through the wilderness, and he had unconsciously come to assume that Jenniline would ride with him.

  “My lord, there’s another visitor here to see you,” Geric spoke.

  “I warned you,” Inge said.

  “Send him up,” Grange said absently. />
  “It’s one of the princesses, my lord,” the servant warned.

  Grange stared at the man, then stood. “Send her up as well,” he replied.

  “I’ll leave you to your company,” Inge also stood, and walked with Grange to the top of the stairwell, as Acco climbed up.

  “Inge? What are you doing here?” the young princess was surprised to see her brother on the tower roof with Grange.

  “Just chatting, sister,” Inge replied, and he passed her as he went down the stairs.

  “And what are you doing here, sister?” Jenniline asked as she came up the stairs a moment later.

  “I’m not poaching on your hunting range,” Acco said, her chin held high. “I came to see the Champion.

  “I hope you’re well,” she spoke to Grange. “You did the bravest thing I’ve ever seen before. I’ve never even seen a god before, and then to see Shaine – it was shocking, frightful! I hope she never comes to punish me!

  “But you stood up to her! You’re the greatest hero in the kingdom,” the princess said. She leaned forward towards Grange as she spoke with eagerness, and the angle of her posture thrust her bosom prominently into Grange’s view.

  “So you came to bump into the Champion?” Jenniline tartly asked.

  “No,” Acco snapped, as she straightened her posture. “I came to tell him that I had a vision last night, a vision that I would ride through the wilderness with him. I believe the gods want me to go into the wilderness as his companion.”

  “You had that dream?” Grange asked, astonished to have two people receive the same vision on the same night.

  “I did. And it came once before, less urgently, the night after I saw you; I’m sure that I must go with you,” Acco insisted.

  Grange glanced at Jenniline, who had edged behind Acco, and was vehemently shaking her head negatively, trying to put the kibosh on the notion of Acco accompanying him.

  “I’d like to think about it,” Grange said. “It may be dangerous, after all.”