The Fall Of Celene (The Prophecies of Zanufey Book 2)

by A. Evermore

  ‘We need to be on the west side of the island, there is a red brick castle with a single turret,’ Issa said.

  Coronos nodded and yelled what she had said to Asaph. But as they drew closer the joy in Issa’s heart was crushed by horror. Even from this great height it seemed that the whole island was blackened and charred. Plumes of smoke billowed up through broken trees where villages once stood. The fields where crops once grew were now blotched by fire, empty and barren. She looked for the temple but still couldn’t find it. She began to tremble with sorrow and a horrible anger.

  ‘They did this to Little Kammy, to my home. How long ago did this happen?’ Issa whispered, half to herself, half to Coronos.

  ‘At least a few days,’ Coronos' voice was low and sombre, ‘if there has been no rain some things can smoulder and burn for a week. Depending also on whether magic was involved.’

  ‘Keep going west, to Castle Elune’ she said, her voice hoarse and cracking.

  Asaph glanced back at her, a strange look in his reptilian eyes, and then looked away, scanning for enemies. They were long gone now though, Issa thought, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake.

  Seeing no danger Asaph angled his wings and they flew lower.

  More trails of smoke appeared above a section of still green forest. Any stupid hope she might have felt that the castle remained unscathed was quickly dashed as a ruin came into view. The red walls were now black and crumbling and most of the slate roofing was missing. Half the castle had collapsed and though the turret still remained it was on an angle and looked about to topple down at any moment. Freydel’s prized stargazing windows were all smashed and his room was now an empty blackened hole.

  Asaph circled down to land on the scorched grass in the castle grounds where they had celebrated Mid Summer, it seemed so long ago. Issa saw Rance’s face laughing before her as she looked upon where they had danced. He was dead because he tried to save her. She swallowed back the tears that began to well up.

  The raven landed messily and nearly rolled over from exhaustion. He righted himself and sat there ruffling his feathers. Asaph landed gently and as soon as he had Issa struggled out of her harness and slid down his scales to the ground. Turning swiftly she hurried as fast as she could on stiff legs towards the castle.

  ‘No wait,’ Asaph cried out after her in a human voice, but she did not stop. He was wobbly from flying for so long and standing up suddenly made him dizzy. He ran awkwardly to catch up with her. Coronos followed more cautiously, the Orb of Air already in his hand. The sun struggled to break through the grey clouds, but they only seemed to bunch closer together, making the air damp and sticky and uncomfortable.

  As they had seen in the air, half the castle still stood whilst the other half had crumbled away as if a giant had stamped upon it. All the windows were smashed and many still had tendrils of smoke wafting out from them. It was impossible to tell where any door might have been.

  Asaph caught up with Issa as she reached the castle wall. He grasped hold of her shoulders and turned her around to face him. She did not look at him and instead stared at the ground. His eyes followed hers to the blood-soaked flagstones, the blackened bloody linen and clothes, all that was left of someone who died horribly. Blood was splattered everywhere like some hideous painting.

  Asaph tore his eyes away and gently lifted her chin so her eyes looked at him. She did not see him at first and for a moment he was lost in her eyes. She looked very young just then and his heart lurched.

  ‘Issa, my love, the Maphraxies who did this terrible thing may still be here. We must go carefully and prepare ourselves for more horrors. We both know what the immortals are capable of. We must be strong.’

  Issa nodded dumbly, ‘I don’t think anything alive remains…’ her voice cracked.

  ‘Most of our enemies are not alive,’ he said smiling wanly, knowing that was not what she meant.

  ‘Oh Ely please tell me you are safe,’ she whispered, pulling away from him. She ran through a hole in the wall that may have once been a door into the castle.

  Asaph followed, watching and feeling Issa’s panic as she searched each room, whispering to herself like a mad woman, and wanting to keep her close. He had his hand to his sword hilt, ready.

  The place was a mess. Everything was broken and splintered, from the pictures on the wall to every ornament, table and chair - and those were just the things that had escaped the fire. Splashes of blood and chewed bones littered the floor. The stench of death dripped from the walls and mingled with it was the sickly smell of immortals that made both their stomachs heave.

  Every room Issa looked in was empty. Where on earth is Ely? The once happy vibrant castle was now nothing more than a giant tomb, empty of life, the domain of the dead. As much as she had been desperate to get in, now she was desperate to get out. She ran down the blackened halls desperate for air, desperate to be away from the death and corruption that reeked around her. If she listened she thought she could hear the wails of those that had been slain, the gnashing teeth of death hounds and the screams of Dread Dragons.

  She stumbled into the front courtyard gasping. The raven met her there, he had not wanted to go inside. Her head pounded. She clasped her hands over her ears willing the din in her mind to stop. She fought the madness and sorrow that threatened to consume her. She sought the stillness amongst the ancient row of stones and the sacred mound of the goddess. She hungered for the peace that lay upon the surface of the sacred pond. She sank to her knees clinging to that vision just for a moment but it would not stay.

  The raven’s caw forced her back to the present, her unwilling mind unable to ignore her companion’s call. She opened her eyes, the black bird filled her vision and suddenly she was looking back at herself. It turned and flew to a tree ahead and she looked back at herself from the raven’s perspective. She stood up reluctantly. Asaph came to her side and put his arm around her but she pushed it away.

  ‘You must wait here,’ she said coldly in a tone he had not heard her speak before. Something hard and frightening about her stilled the protest on his lips. ‘Stay with Coronos.’ She spoke without looking at him.

  Asaph watched her leave, helpless but to obey her command. This was the part of her he did not know, this was the part of her he feared. He went to find Coronos.

  Issa’s feet moved against the will of her protesting mind. She felt detached from her body as she walked towards where the raven had gone. She didn’t want to see but she could not turn away. There was something pale hanging from an old gnarled oak tree. It swayed slightly in the breeze. She walked in a silent timeless world to where that thing hung from the tree.

  Her soul drifted far away as she stood, unseeing at first, before the hanging thing. Dimly she recognised the face of her friend. Her friend had gone now. The bruised and bloodied body before her was not her friend but a lifeless corpse. The face was a mask of death, a face Issa had seen too many times before upon those dearest to her. It was the face she ran from, the face she denied. I have returned home only to see the face of death again.

  ‘I know you,’ Issa whispered. I know you, Death. She blinked the tears away and swallowed the lump in her throat. ‘Why?’ she demanded aloud. ‘Will all that I love be taken from me?’

  The question burned in the pit of her stomach demanding answers she could not provide. Her fists clenched so hard her nails dug into her flesh. Where was the goddess when Ely needed her? Was this what Zanufey wanted? What lesson is this that I am supposed to learn? Who of my friends is next to die?

  ‘How can you let this be?’ she cried shaking her fists up at the sky as tears coursed unchecked down her cheeks. It began to rain again but there came no answer to her questions, only silence beyond the cold pattering rain. No goddess is here, in this place of desecration and sorrow. Wind gusted through the trees and the drizzle soon turned the burnt and sooty earth beneath her feet to black sludge.

  She lifted a hand towards the body, hesitated, and the
n let it drop. Then the sobs came and she buried her head in her shaking hands.

  ‘Ely don’t leave me. I’m afraid, I’m lost in a world of chaos and loss,’ she choked. ‘I cannot do this. I cannot be who you all want me to be. I cannot be the Raven Queen. Zanufey, I’m afraid. So afraid,’ she shuddered, but there was no comfort, only the wind and the rain and the horrible sorrow deep within.

  She wished the world would end so she didn’t have to suffer it anymore. It was foolish to think she could fight the immortals, it was foolish to think even the Raven Queen could. The price of loss was too much, the pain was too great. Maybe she should give herself up to the Immortal Lord and end this whole sorry thing.

  As the tears sobbed themselves out a stillness began to settle in her churning emotions. Slowly she brought her eyes to look up at the face of her dead friend. She had to force herself to look at the grey flesh and those dead eyes that had once been blue and so full of life. It was then she saw something stuffed in her mouth. A gag or something. It was horrible, unnatural, and with a shaking hand Issa reached up to pull it out.

  Her empty stomach heaved as she pulled it from Ely’s mouth. As the rag came free a piece of bloody sodden paper fell out. She reached to pick it up, her hands shaking so much she had trouble unfolding it. Through the bloody grime the words were clearly visible.

  “Those who do not serve the Immortal Lord are his enemies.”

  Fury surged within her, driving away the sorrow. The cold hard anger was enough to pull her forwards, enough to give her strength to go on, if only for a little while. She let the sodden rag and paper drop.

  ‘I will spend my life hunting down those bastards that did this to her, to mother, to us all. I will destroy the Maphraxies until either nothing remains of them or nothing remains of me,’ she said, her hands clenched tightly as she stared at the black mud. ‘Maioria must be cleansed of the immortals. Only then can we all be free.’

  Gusts of cold wind swept over the grounds and seemed to blow through her empty heart. This once beautiful isle that had become her home now lay black and smouldering, destroyed and infected by the Maphraxies. The goddess’s sacred isle had been ravaged, desecrated, annihilated. Issa stood alone save for the raven at her side. He sat silently, unmoving.

  ‘They say that the raven moves between two worlds, the living in the dead, then so must the Queen of Ravens be able to, though I don’t know how,’ she spoke softly to the raven, to Ely’s dead body, to Zanufey, to anything that might be listening. ‘Keteth passed on to me his ability to see the dead though I have not used it. If these things are so then of all my gifts show me, Ely, how you passed from the living into the dead.’

  Issa put her hands upon the dead woman’s stone cold face. She had no idea what she was doing but for all that had been said and done surely she could see those last moments of her friend’s life, those bastards that murdered her. She was not afraid of what she might see, she just had to know.

  She closed her eyes and saw the Flow, a vivid mass of swirling turquoise that hurt to look upon. She called it to her and was shocked at how little she could pull and control and how it made her dizzy. It would take weeks to restore herself. Show me what happened to my beautiful friend.

  the Flow began to fade and turn dark and hazy. The world around her dulled until she could no longer feel the wind and rain on her skin. She felt as if she had moved into a different time and space entirely. Then the last moments of Ely’s life formed before her, devoid of any colour, like black and white drawings. They were weak and faint, maybe because they happened some time ago, but she could still see them.

  It took all of her courage not to turn away from the terrible scenes that befell her friend as the Dread Dragon caught her, the dark dwarves ravaged her. But in the end only one face laid its imprint in her mind. A tall man with a gaunt face, his grey hair matched his cold grey eyes within which she saw a cruel intelligence. He had forced his way into Ely’s mind just as Keteth had into hers, taking, breaking, scouring. A ravaging of the soul. Ely was powerless to hide anything under that onslaught and through Ely’s mind he had found her, Issa, and discovered that she might be the Raven Queen of prophecy.

  They had known where to search. Did they send the foltoy and death hounds to Frayon? But that was something she could never be sure of. Before the end she felt Ely’s miserable sorrow of unwilling betrayal as her own and that stung like an open wound.

  ‘Oh Ely you did not betray me, you could never betray me,’ She breathed. ‘It is I that have betrayed you. I will find him, he will pay for what he has done!’

  Issa opened her eyes and breathed hard for a moment, shaken. She clung to the anger, it gave her strength to go on. She unsheathed her sword and in one stroke cut Ely’s body down from the tree. She took the rough blanket off her shoulders that she still had from the ride here and, though it was soaking through, she draped it over her friend’s body.

  Then she sat on her heels in the mud beside her. The anger and injustice she had felt earlier began to drain away and emptiness instead filled her mind and soul.

  ‘Zanufey, take my friend into the light,’ she whispered, closed her eyes and let the tears fall.

  Issa was surprised to see behind her sore and weary lids the desert plain stretching out under a night sky. She had not even intended it to be there. Zanufey cloaked in stars stood before her. Her face, as always, hidden. Issa looked at the robed goddess and immediately felt bad for her anger. Still, she wanted answers but looked away, feeling too sad to ask for any. Issa opened her eyes briefly but she sat alone, apart from the raven and Ely still beside her. She closed them again.

  ‘I deny death,’ she said defiantly, the anger making her want to turn away and run. But in the end she stayed there, calm and peace spreading to her from Zanufey.

  ‘Call to her,’ the soft gentle voice of Zanufey spoke in her mind.

  ‘What is the point, she is gone, her soul probably enslaved by the immortals,’ Issa said aloud, though kept her eyes closed, looking out hopelessly across the midnight dunes.

  ‘She is waiting to be set free.’

  ‘How is she still here?’ Issa asked in surprise.

  Zanufey lifted her hand and in the air before her Issa watched a blue green planet form. There seemed to be a black web-work or netting surrounding it. It looked unnatural and wrong. As she peered closer she saw little lights struggling in the web.

  ‘Are they souls?’ Issa breathed, ‘They are trapped. By Baelthrom’s magic?’

  Zanufey did not reply. Issa felt she was being guided to answer her own questions herself.

  ‘Is that why I am here? To set them free? Is that what the Raven Queen is supposed to do?’

  But again Zanufey remained silent, only that subtle smile on her smooth pale lips. Issa frowned, but she would do anything to help her friend.

  ‘Ely? Are you there? Zanufey is calling you.’

  Nothing happened at first but then there came a warm glow in the corners of her closed yes. It moved closer until she could feel her friend Ely beside her. She flicked her eyes open. There was nothing but the rain, the mud and the raven. She closed them again and the warm glow was there. Issa smiled, joy and sorrow catching in her throat. Ely, be free, go into the light.

  The soft glow grew brighter, as did Zanufey and the desert, until it was so bright that Issa had to open her eyes to avoid being blinded. She blinked and closed them again but Zanufey was gone, as was the soft glow of Ely and there was only darkness. She sat alone again in the mud.

  ‘Go home, my friend. One day I shall see you there,’ she said softly, the tears filling her eyes again. In the distance she glimpsed Coronos and Asaph pointing to her.

  Issa smoothed the blonde strands back from Ely’s tanned face and noticed now how serene she looked. A face of Feygriene. She noticed then the strange markings cut into her chest. Three triangles in a row, the outer two curved inwards to the first. The mountains of Maphrax, the symbol of the Maphraxies. She would recognise th
at symbol anywhere now, ever since Freydel had shown her it in one of his books.

  ‘Bastards,’ she growled. She pulled down her collar and placed her palms over the symbol of the raven on her own chest. Breathing in she pulled a little of the Flow and focused it on the raven symbol willing it forwards into her palms. Her hands tingled and she looked down, each palm glowed faintly with an imprint of the raven. She placed her hands on the cold lifeless skin of her friend, over the mark of Maphrax, and breathed out sending the Flow through her palms.

  The mark of Maphrax on Ely’s chest glowed dark blue and then grew to a brilliant azure. She pulled her hand away. The mark of Maphrax was gone. In it’s place now shone the symbol of the Zanufey’s raven, like that upon her own chest.

  Coronos and Asaph came to stand beside her but she didn’t look up. Dimly she heard Coronos gasp, felt him sink down beside her.

  ‘Fly, Ely, fly on the wings of the raven back to the One Source,’ she said, her attention fully absorbed upon her friend.

  Issa released her hold on the Flow. The raven symbol of Zanufey grew brighter and then flared into a pale blue fire. The fire spread rapidly consuming her friend’s body burning fast and bright. Issa stood up and looked at the others. Coronos' face was a mask of grief and Asaph was deathly pale.

  ‘Some time alone,’ she whispered.

  Asaph nodded. From the look upon his father’s face it seemed Coronos needed comforting the most right now. Coronos knew Freydel, so he probably knew many people on the Isle of Celene, Issa thought, people that were all dead now.

  Issa intended to go and sit somewhere alone but instead she turned and walked away from the castle grounds forever. The raven followed. She felt strange. Part of her was so upset and angry that she lusted after a bloody revenge. The other part was serene and calm and filled with a deeper understanding. She needed time alone to work through them both. Uncaring of her own safety she began the long walk east to the Temple of Celene.