“Arise…Lord Zagros, arise.” Rikar continued chanting, louder now.
“Let me out of here,” Killian cried.
“Retreat and you’ll die. The way behind has changed now, a maze with traps leading to bottomless pits.” Rikar spoke four ancient words and the light in the room ceased. “Now follow my voice.”
They stumbled forward, stepping on things spongy and foul-smelling, like there were bodies beneath their feet. A light flickered ahead after they rounded a corner, and closer, Talis could see many golden lights arranged around a figure lying on the ground. The figure had wet, tar-like skin, with nails of gold. Its black eyes were opened, staring at the shadows leaping across the earthen ceiling. A finger twitched.
A rotten, moist wind blew and extinguished the candles. Absolute darkness. Talis could hear a groan, and the shuffling of feet against the earth. The candles flickered back to life, illuminating the now standing black figure. It gazed with dead eyes at Killian, pointing a golden nail at him. An inky-blackness bubbled out and over Killian’s body. The substance seemed to sicken the twin. He bent over and retched.
“You’ve brought me an offering,” the figure said in a muddy voice.
Killian’s skin turned a sickly pale green, sores bubbled out all over his face and hands and arms. He started screaming so shrill and loud, Talis had to cover his ears.
“This one is past ready for his journey to the Underworld…live offerings are best.“ Killian’s figured wavered and slowly faded then disappeared completely.
The black figure turned its eyes to Kolroy. “Ah, he has a brother? A twin? Who am I to keep brothers apart?” The figure stretched out a finger, pointing at Kolroy. Amid wails and twisting and slapping about, Kolroy too slowly vanished.
Celestia screamed, a raw, hysterical scream uttered over and over again. Nikulo pressed a finger against his temple, and whispered, “Sleep.” Celestia collapsed to the ground.
“A fine offering…power is due to your name, young?”
“Rikar.“
“Yes…yes, I remember now. You have visited my shrines…and Aurellia has spoken your name. Loyal servant, what is your wish?”
“For now, great Zagros, a way of escape from this city.”
“A simple request. Wait in the gardens until midnight, when my power is greatest, and travel north across the wall. Make your own way…use your wits and whatever else is at your disposal. I will aid in…a diversion.”
“Thank you, oh limitless and powerful lord.” Rikar bowed low, and the figure melted away.
5. BREAKING AWAY
The midnight gong sounded. Rikar lifted himself up and peered around a bush. He hefted some rope over his shoulder. After they had left the temple, they snuck out to the gardens, leaving Celestia outside to rest against a stone. Once safely hidden in the gardens, they heard warning gongs, soldiers stomping through the streets, shouts and orders and clacking of swords against shields. They were searching for them, searching for the beloved children of the Five Calazars. A futile search.
Talis couldn’t hold it in any longer. “How can you worship the Lord of the Underworld?”
Rikar grinned, and cleaned his teeth with his fingernail. “All for a purpose. Wouldn’t you do the same? If it was your father there in the Underworld?”
Talis shook his head. “What’s done is done. As Master Heldian wrote, ‘The rules of life and death command the living and dead each to their own realm. Let the dead be.’”
“Your father is cruel and ignores you…if it were you in my situation, I can understand why it would be so easy to let him go.”
Talis bristled, feeling his face flush with indignation. But he forced himself to remain quiet.
“I loved my father, he was the best father anyone could ask for. He doesn’t deserve the tortures of the Grim March. He was hunting…mother suspects treachery…I don’t know.” Rikar’s arms flopped by his sides.
Nikulo lifted himself up and stared at Rikar with cold, somber eyes. “What is more important, the fate of your father in the Underworld or the fate of the living in Naru? Including your mother and our families!”
Everyone went quiet for a long while, staring at the torches atop a nearby guardhouse.
“We have more important things to think about.” Rikar stared at the wall. “Like how to sneak out of this city.”
The light of the four moon sisters spilled through the trees. The courtyard beside the gardens was bare and grey and lonely. Talis could see the wall to the north, the temple off to the east, and the tall, looming castle and tower with its many turrets to the west. He took a step towards the wall. From what he remembered on their sea voyage to Seraka, the castle was closer to the northern edge of the city. Presumably most of the guards and fortification would take place to the south, where the slaves and warehouses and docks were. But now things were different.
Rikar hesitantly strode off north. The layers of flowers, bushes, and camphor trees rose up to touch a wall around fifty feet high. The wall was oddly made of stone and brick, quite inadequate in a siege, and seemingly of little use for keeping people inside.
They snuck past the courtyard, Mara scouting ahead and signaling when the way was clear. No guards, no patrols, only the sound of a cat yowling at them from a tree limb. Farther inside the garden was denser than it looked. They avoided any main walkways, instead sneaking along side paths, always keeping an eye out for patrols.
Mara grunted, and sighed in disgust as she ran her hands over the smoothed-out wall. Up a distance of fifteen feet, the brick and stone surface had been covered over with mortar. It was impossible to climb.
“Clever,” Nikulo said, prodding the wall with a stick. “Solid enough too. Ideas?”
Talis glanced left and right along the wall, until he spotted a tree limb rising up and towards the wall, just close enough they might be able to jump and get a grip-hold. “Tree climbing anyone?”
Mara smiled, and nodded her head as if he were offering cake.
Nikulo, however, frowned. “You expect me to climb that tree, over to the wall, then climb another twenty feet?”
“Fancy torture and a slow, hideous death instead?”
“We’re a team, but I’m not carrying you.” Rikar shrugged, and made his way towards the tree.
Mara of course was the first to climb the tree, and the first to show them how to jump onto the wall and not fall down in the process. The impish expression on her face as she glanced back at them infuriated Nikulo. He clung to a branch near the main tree trunk.
“Okay miss sticky-paws-cat, how am I supposed to do that?”
“Luckily, unlike my non-planning, non-thinking companions, I thought that a rope would come in handy.” Rikar unslung the rope and proceeded to tie a lasso. “Catch.” He tossed Mara the rope. She caught it, looped it around her arm, and started the climb up.
“Are you sure it’s long enough?” Talis said, watching the rope loop out from Rikar’s hands.
“Twenty feet?”
“Not good enough.” Talis climbed further up the limb towards the wall. “Mara,” he hissed, “we don’t have enough rope. Can you loop it around a rock?”
She glanced back, nodded, then scanned the wall. “Maybe this one.” She climbed over a few feet.
“No, then we’ll swing over…it might slip. Try something inline with the branch.”
“The rocks are all too flat.”
“I have an idea.” Rikar skirted past Talis. “Throw the rope back. I’ll climb higher up…closer to the wall...”
It was a tight squeeze with all the thick branches, and Talis worried the limb might break, but the idea was sound. Rikar shimmied steadily up the limb until he neared the wall. The limb sagged as he quickly tied the rope around a branch, and tossed it back to Talis.
“Should be high enough to swing over…it supported my weight.” Rikar chuckled at Nikulo. “Not sure about you.”
Nikulo grunted, as if dismissing his words. He grabbed the rope, and swung over and
bounced off the wall, spinning around. “What do I do now?”
“Don’t let go!” Rikar whispered. “Put your foot out…that’s right…now get a foothold and grab...”
“You did it!” Mara stared down at Nikulo. “Now follow me up to the top. If Talis or Rikar falls I’m going to laugh so hard.”
Soon Nikulo and Mara disappeared behind the tree leaves. Talis gestured to Rikar. “You’re next.” Rikar untied the rope from the branch, shouldered it, and jumped over to the wall.
After Rikar had climbed high enough, Talis climbed as close to the wall as he could, and readied himself for the jump. He made the mistake of looking down. It was easily twenty-five feet to the ground. His heartbeat started pounding in his chest. He took a quick breath through his nose and steadied himself. With one quick jump he tried grabbing two larger stones, but slipped. One hand caught. He dangled, feeling his muscles burn. Quickly his other hand found a hold, then his feet. He exhaled in relief.
The rest of the way up wasn’t nearly as hard as Talis had thought. The bricks and stones made easy handholds. He swung himself over the top of the wall, and immersed himself in the breathtaking view of the moonlit ocean, jungle, and city. Down below on the other side, bits of firelight rippled through the trees.
“Soldiers?” Mara whispered.
Talis nodded. He could see several campfires flickering below through the branches. He looked down. This side fell even farther, perhaps a hundred feet or more. And unlike the other side, the wall’s surface was completely smooth with barbs and spikes lining the top.
“We need to be careful.” Rikar bent low as he peered over the wall. “They’d have an easy time noticing us up here.”
Talis dropped in response. Luckily the wall was around ten feet wide, so he could stay to the side opposite the soldiers. “Head east,” he whispered.
Mara signaled forward, and crept along the wall. As they went along, they spotted more campfires down below. The soldiers must be there to trap any escaping slaves. And now they were searching for the Five Calazar’s children, and them. Farther ahead, the wall climbed up a steep bluff, then cut sharply down and to the right, back towards the city. They would have their best opportunity to descend the wall up by the bluff.
Talis could see clouds starting to condense farther off in the distance. Light flashed below the formations rolling low over the jungle. Faint rumblings that sounded like thunder. As they neared the bluff, a crisp wind blew in gusts, sending the smell of storm and fruit and flowers into their nostrils. The black clouds billowed higher. Talis felt goosebumps tingle along his arms.
A sudden burst of lightning illuminated the canopy trees in a blaze of blinding brilliance. Murmurs and rustling from the camps below. Thunder echoed closer and louder now. They didn’t have much longer. Staying exposed here at the top of the wall was madness in a storm.
A fat splash of water struck Talis on the forehead. He looked up. The clouds were rolling over them at blistering speed, as if a herd of bison charging over a prairie. The skies opened up, releasing a torrent of rain all at once, drenching them without a moment’s notice. The wall was slippery now, especially as it rose up the bluff. Nikulo cursed as his shoe slid backward. Talis steadied him and pushed him forward.
Only then did Talis notice the guard tower on the city side. It rose up fifty feet, to the height of the wall, commanding a clear view of the warehouses and slave quarters in the eastern part of Seraka. Talis’s heart pounded, sensing someone watching him.
An arrow tore past, just missing his shoulder. Talis dropped flat against the wall. “Get down!” he hissed. “Someone just shot at me…the guard tower.” Another arrow flew past, farther away this time.
A burst of lightning bolts flashed all around, instantly bringing the booming of thunder. Talis edged to the other side of the wall, close along the spikes and barbs. Another sudden crack of lightning and explosion of thunder struck the guardhouse, igniting a blaze that sent soldiers scurrying down. More bolts sizzled ahead on the wall, sending up clouds of smoke and rock dust.
When the dust cleared, Talis could see a chunk of wall at the top had been blasted away. Quickening their pace, they reached the damaged section. The air smelled like wet coals from a hot fire and sparks from a grinding wheel. The blast had opened a way down for them.
“Get your rope.” Talis motioned to Rikar. They tied the rope on an exposed iron bar farther down inside the blasted section of the wall. The drop from here was about thirty feet, with another fifty-foot drop off a bluff farther down from the ledge. If they were careful, they could shimmy down and land close to the wall without falling down.
Mara went first. In little time she was dangling from the bottom of the rope. She scurried left and right along the wall, then let go as she was swinging up towards the higher part of the ledge. She landed soft like a cat, and signaled everything was fine.
“Want me to go first and catch you?” Rikar smirked at Nikulo.
“Doesn’t any of you know a flying spell? Floating would be fine.” Nikulo grabbed the rope, and grunted as he inched his way down. Soon he too was swinging at the bottom of the rope, clumsily, banging against the wall. He let go, and Talis heard a heavy thud as he smacked onto the ground.
Talis and Rikar didn’t have any trouble getting down to the ledge. Nikulo had his back pressed hard against the wall, as if afraid of falling down the cliff.
The storm settled to a steady rain, with lightning strikes now sounding farther off to the west. They shuffled down the ledge along the wall. Talis scanned the forest below for any movement, mindful of soldiers. Maybe the storm had scared them into their tents. He couldn’t spot even a trace of campfire.
Then it hit him. Something else had come with the storm besides rain and lightning and thunder. Something that had blotted out the campfires and made the soldiers disappear. The forest was so quiet that Talis could feel the birds and insects and animals retreating to some protected place. Something had descended with the storm clouds, and that something was stalking them now. Talis felt it echoing under his skin.
There it was. A small shadow roaming across the pale, moonlit jungle. It stopped, sensing.
The shadow shivered, an inky cloud of malice bubbling towards them.
6. THE DESCENT OF SHADOWS
“Go!” Rikar said, and charged east along the bluff wall.
As Talis bolted after him, he could see a shadow turning towards them. It was moving at a steady pace, but as they ran, Talis hoped they could outpace it. Soon it turned towards the city, as if drawn by easier prey. Farther ahead, Talis noticed more shadows floating through the jungle towards the city. And hundreds more, to the right, drifting up the walls. Far too many to count.
As if Seraka was under attack, drums beat, horns blared, and braziers blazed atop the city walls. Talis could see archers firing useless arrows at the shadows. Then screams as the black masses overtook them. The smell of rain had changed to the sickly stench of spoiled flesh.
Talis cut into the jungle, away from the walls, trying to find a place free of the shadows. Before them a lay ruined campfire: discarded armor and swords, saddles and bits and reins, uneaten roast smoldering on failing embers. But not a body in sight. What kind of madness?
“Have you heard of anything like this?” Talis glanced at Rikar.
He smiled as if seeing things clearly now. “Lord Zagros called the shadows and the storm.” He kicked at a gleaming breastplate on the ground. “Some of this may prove useful. Swords…supplies and some packs.” He selected a longsword and backpack and stuffed it with a roasted chicken from the fire.
Talis chose a short sword, dull and unrefined, nothing in comparison with the fire sword his father had given him. How he missed it. He missed his home and family.
He lifted his head. The screams and sounds of battle inside Seraka rose to a frenzied pitch. Across the city, explosions burst out, with jets of fire rising to the clouds. Soon smoke billowed higher, drenching the sky with luminous clouds of re
d and gold and grey. Seraka was burning.
“Let’s get as much distance from the city as possible.” Rikar turned towards the jungle.
They strode on. Talis held Mara’s hand, squinting in the dark, trying to avoid branches and roots. After many hours, Seraka was far behind. Nikulo plopped on the ground, refusing to go on any further. They laid down and slept.
When Talis woke, he could see morning sun filtering through the canopy trees. Colorful toucans bellowed at spider monkeys leaping across trees, chattering and shouting as they approached. Mara woke, yawning and stretching, then rubbed her eyes.
“I had a nightmare…back in that vile temple…that figure kept staring at me, as if I was next.” Mara shook her head as if trying to shake the dream from her head.
“Scared of the Lord of the Underworld?” Rikar scoffed. “He’s the one that helped us escape from a life of slavery. Can’t you admit he’s looking out for us?”
Mara slapped her palms on her legs. “Are you crazy? You gave him those twins as a sacrifice! You got them killed, are you proud of that?”
“What I did was justified…it got us out of there.”
“I don’t know you anymore. You never would have done that before.“
“Before my father died? You’re right, that changed my outlook. It would have changed anyone…including you.” Rikar stood, and slung his backpack over his shoulder. “If you don’t open your eyes, you’ll just get stuck in the next trap that crosses our path. You claim to want to help Naru, but what good will you be dead or enslaved?”
“But to resort to killing someone,” Nikulo said, his eyes filled with disappointment. “There had to be another way of escaping Seraka. Is this now your way? Should we expect more of the same? If so, maybe we should part ways.”
Rikar frowned, and broke a stick in his hands. “You’re playing a dangerous game, old friend. Choose your sides carefully.”
“I think I have…and not your side, whatever your side represents. I’ve had enough.” Nikulo glanced at Talis. “Let’s go, we’ll do better on our own.”
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