The Inner Seas Kingdoms: 03 - Road of Shadows

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “Wear something that makes you look small,” Dewberry said with utmost seriousness. “You’ll be too large to sleep in his guest suite otherwise.”

  And at that moment a spear came crashing into the group’s gathering spot, thrown by a Parstole from higher up on the mountain.

  “Kestrel protector!” Dewberry leapt into Kestrel’s lap in shock from the unexpected attack.

  Kestrel quickly shooed her aside and grabbed for his knife. He looked up at the stony heights, and spotted the leader of a squad that was descending rapidly towards them. He threw his knife at the leader, then turned to pick up his bow and quiver of arrows. “Tableg, start leading everyone down the mountain as quickly as you can; try to at least get below the tree line and hide among the trees until I can catch up.

  “I’ll stay here and hold them off as long as I can,” he said urgently. “Lucretia, return,” he muttered, then he aimed his bow and shot at the first Parstole he saw who had assumed leadership of the attacking group following the death of the leader.

  Allgain and the sprites hurriedly pulled their small packs on and began following the gnome down the mountain path. Kestrel grabbed his knife as Lucretia returned to him, and he began to look for any Viathin that might be in sight. He began to flit from rock to rock, climbing closer to the patrol that was now crouched down protectively. When he drew even with them and off to their side, he finally established sight of two Viathins, undoubtedly controlling the squads of Parstoles he faced, one higher up at the campsite, standing outside the tent, while the other was in the rear of the patrol.

  “Lucretia,” he whispered as he kissed the blade for good luck, “go all the way up there my sweet,” he ordered, then released the knife, and picked up his bow. He stood up suddenly to take his shot at the closer Viathin, and as he did there was an immediate shout. He released his arrow, then saw a streaking shadow, and before he could react, a heavy spear crashed into his chest, shoving him backwards with tremendous force. His head hit a rock as he bounced off the ground, and he passed out.

  When Kestrel awoke, there were three Parstoles standing over him, their savage-looking pikes pointed at him. He blinked his eyes, and tried to focus, but then slipped back into unconsciousness. When he awoke again, his head aching tremendously, he looked up to see the fabric of a tent ceiling above him, and a Parstole sitting next to him.

  “Are you feeling better?” the Parstole asked.

  Kestrel slowly raised himself up, and looked around. There was no one else in the tent with the two of them.

  “My head hurts,” Kestrel answered as he raised his hand to his ear to translate his words.

  “More than that should hurt; you should be dead – that spear should have skewered you,” the Parstole replied. “The masters told us that we had to be careful, we were hunting for the demon of death. Since it turns out they meant their own death, we’re not upset.”

  “If you’re alright, and think you can take care of yourself, I’ll be leaving now. Are you able to go, or would you like for me to stay with you?” he added.

  “Where are you going?” Kestrel asked in befuddlement.

  “Home; I’m going home. The portal is right here, and the masters are dead. Most of the squad has already gone back. I said I’d stay to make sure our liberator was going to live,” the Parstole answered.

  “Go,” Kestrel answered. “Are you a member of the Platte tribe?”

  “I am,” the red figure answered in surprise as he stood.

  “Good. They need you. Tell Decimindion that your group is the first of many that I will try to send home,” Kestrel said. “And tell you god that he is a good divinity; he cares for all his people, I know,” Kestrel added.

  The Parstole gave Kestrel a puzzled look, then ducked out of the tent and was gone.

  Kestrel looked around the tent, and saw that his belongings were in a pile beside the wall; all of his belongings were there, even those he had left at his group’s gathering spot down the mountainside. He found the three water skins, and selected the lightest of the three, the last few mouthfuls of healing water he had left, and he took a sip from the skin, then plugged the stopper back into place.

  When he had all his things slung into place on his back, he went out of the tent, and realized the sun was far overhead. He must have been unconscious for some time, he realized, and his friends down the mountainside must be impatiently waiting for him. He saw the body of the dead Viathin he had killed with his knife in the camp; Lucretia was still sticking out of the monster’s chest.

  “Lucretia, come,” he called, and then he started running down the hillside, towards his return to his friends. They hailed him as he ran into the scrubby trees an hour later, and after a brief explanation, the whole group set out in motion, led by Allgain, who began to lead them towards the fire pit of the gods, traveling through the mountains where no Viathins or Parstoles were seen.

  On the third day of their journey into the wilderness, they were confronted by a large number of Albanuns, the first of the native race that Kestrel had seen other than Allgain. In that meeting Kestrel realized the truth of Allgain’s self-deprecating description of himself as he had given it to Kestrel on the journey towards Albanu. The other members of the Albanuns were larger than Allgain, slightly larger than the sprites even. They were not as darkly hued as Allgain, and they appeared more muscular in build. And they were pleased to see Allgain. The small figure was welcomed joyously, in a manner that left no doubt in Kestrel’s mind that the story of being the last known member of the royal family must have been true.

  With an accompanying parade of dozens of the Albanuns, Kestrel’s band travelled for another week through a land of rolling hills, then stopped at the crest of one hill at midday.

  “This is the valley of the fire pit of the gods,” Allgain swept his arm across the vista before them. Kestrel looked out and saw steamy, foggy clouds that hugged the ground below them in a wide bowl of a valley, ringed with hills on all sides, circling around a circumference of many miles.

  An archway cast a shadow over the trail that descended down into the valley. They began to descend, and Kestrel felt a sense of some ominous event awaiting them as he passed under the arch with his companions.

  “There is a stony platform in the center of the valley, where the old gods used to receive sacrifices,” Allgain explained as the pathway dropped down the hillside. It fell into the fog, and the red sky overhead disappeared into the mists that surrounded them. The paved stone path became the only way they could judge their progress, as the view grew more claustrophobically-restricted, and the sounds of their footsteps seemed to be shushed up in the fog.

  Kestrel heard a hissing noise, and then a prolonged splashing sound, followed by a gentle, warm rain for several seconds. “One of the fountains has announced our arrival,” Allgain whispered to Kestrel. “If the gods were still here, we would be directed to proceed, or told to leave,” he explained.

  There was a sudden flaring of flames that erupted from the ground, literally at their feet, causing the members of their group to scream and shout in surprise, and to jump away from the flames. Kestrel skittered forward after Allgain, grabbing Reasion to protect the blue sprite, carrying his small friend forward with him. The flames continued to erupt, and moved to new locations, seemingly at random, but always driving the trio of Allgain, Reasion, and Kestrel forward, deeper into the misty valley, isolated from the others.

  They found themselves out of earshot of the shouts of the others, separated and alone on the pathway as the flames finally diminished.

  “Where are we? Have we gone too far?” Kestrel asked.

  “No,” an eerie voice answered his question, a loud whisper that came from all directions at once.

  “Who said that?” Kestrel asked.

  “It is Robaske, our goddess,” Allgain answered. “She still lives.”

  “Just barely,” the voice told them. “I have conserved my energy and waited for you to come, so that I could he
lp when the opportunity came.

  “Now the opportunity is here.”

  “But we need a female member of a royal family,” Allgain protested. “Have you kept one here in the valley, hidden in the mists, all these years?”

  “I have kept one hidden away, but not here in the valley. You have brought the key to what we need, both keys as a matter of fact,” Robaske told them.

  “Come to me Kestrel,” A female figure appeared in the fog in front of them, a figure that was Kestrel’s size, but an Albanun in form, and a shadowy, insubstantial form at that.

  Kestrel sloughed off all the cargo he carried, the weapons and bags, then stepped forward into the mist, and knelt in front of the goddess. “Will you make a sacrifice to me? Will you willingly give me something that I need in order to be strong enough to carry out the revelation of the new queen of the land?” the goddess extended her hand to Kestrel, and gently raised him to his feet.

  Kestrel looked at her face, then realized what he had done, and hastily turned away, remembering the blindness that had overcome him when he had looked upon Kai’s face in the Estonian chapel. But the memory of Robaske’s face remained in his mind, and his vision remained intact.

  “You see how weak I am,” Robaske whispered to him. “You are able to look upon me and suffer no consequences. I so fervently wish to do my duty to help my people and my land rid themselves of this horror that infests us, but I will not have the strength to do it without your help.”

  There was an overpowering sense of sincerity, and sadness, in the gentle words the goddess shared with Kestrel. He knew in his heart that she wanted to carry out her divine duty, so that uncounted numbers would benefit.

  “I will make any sacrifice you need,” Kestrel said, “my lady.”

  “Your selflessness will be rewarded someday. Do not fear, this will only take a moment’s time,” she told him. The goddess reached out and surprised him by tugging at the bottom of his shirt with her filmy yet strong hands. Robaske pulled his shirt up over his head, then threw the garment aside. She shrugged the shoulder straps of her own gown so that they slid down and off her arms, exposing her own chest, and then she stepped forward, wrapped her arms around him, and embraced him in a tight hug, so that he felt their bodies press together, mortal skin touching divine skin.

  And then he felt searing pain. His eyes popped open, and he saw flames all around them, and there was a horrific pain in his chest. He imagined he heard his flesh sizzling away, and he felt the skin on his chest being ripped off.

  Kestrel attempted to scream in anguish, but no sound came forth; he could not breathe, and he was only aware of something leaving his body, being drawn away from him for second after second after second in an eternity of pain.

  The goddess’s arms that wrapped around his back rose up and soothed the back of his head, and he heard her softly shushing in his ear, and then the pain abruptly stopped, and he stood limply in Robaske’s embrace while the goddess held him up.

  “Kestrel, thank you. I will be able to carry on now, and you will be pleased with what you are about to witness,” Robaske whispered to him again, and then her arms gently slid around his back. She stepped away from him and his knees momentarily sagged before he caught himself, while she calmly pulled her gown back into place. He looked down at his chest, where the pain had been so great, then cried out in shock at the sight of the expanse of colorless skin that rested upon and below his shoulder. Only a handprint scar remained where Kai’s great, protective tattoo had been.

  “That handprint is the touch of your goddess’s love for you, and I could not take that from you. But I did take the energy your goddess stored within your skin, in the mighty shield she placed there,” Robaske referred to Kai’s gift. “Her energy was yours, used to protect you, and now it is mine, enabling me to do what I must do next. Please stand back,” she ordered him, as she casually restored her blouse to her torso.

  “My people are immune from the power of the Viathins, and so too are the small people of your land, the sprites and imps. You are immune as well, because you have the intercession and powers of so many of your own gods protecting you,” Robaske told Kestrel. “So we are faced now with the need to create a means to wrench the Parstoles out from under the influence of the Viathins. That is our duty today; that is why you all are here. Without the Parstoles to do evil on their behalf, the Viathins will be too few and too vulnerable to despoil our land any further.

  “Allgain and Reasion, step forward now,” she commanded. The goddess truly was a stronger, more regal, more divine figure now, Kestrel could see, as he tried to grasp the incomprehensible idea that divine power had rested within the tattoo upon his chest, then been taken from him. He noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, and saw Allgain and Reasion standing there. Robaske walked over to them, a solid and real presence now.

  “You two will be the mother and the father of the Albanese people, and you will lead our mutual subjects to strength and freedom and resurrection,” the Albanu goddess spoke, as she held a hand of each of the small figures.

  A glowing ball of light surrounded the three of them, beginning as a soft, fuzzy halo, then increasing to a blinding crescendo of white, before it rapidly faded back to nothing more than the mist in the air. When the light departed, Robaske stood holding the hands of two large and healthy looking Albanese figures, male and female.

  “Allgain? Is that you?” Kestrel asked the male, as Robaske disappeared, leaving the two figures somehow holding hands with one another.

  “This,” the male stuttered, “this is me, as the goddess has made me. Reasion are you you?” he turned to the glorious female Albanun.

  “This is who I am, who I was born to be,” the woman spoke with a melodic voice. “I was taken away from my family as a baby, as disaster befell our people, and through an enchantment I was transformed into a sprite, then taken to the land of the sprites and left to be raised there, hidden and safe until the day of prophecy came and I was restored to my natural self,” Reasion told the two slack-jawed men, as the goddess disappeared, “through you, the hero of the prophecy.”

  “Lend me your knife and the water skin, for the sake of our land, beloved Kestrel,” she released Allgain’s hand and stepped forth, her hands outstretched towards Kestrel.

  Kestrel stepped towards and looked at her closely. Then, instead of placing the items in her hands, he reached out his own hands and bent down to embrace her. They wrapped their arms around each other and Kestrel picked Reasion up. “You are beautiful, my friend,” he told her, “as well as brave.

  “Have you always known this was who you were?” he asked, then gently placed her back on the ground.

  “I always knew there was,” she paused, “something, but I didn’t know it was this until we were alone with the goddess. I always knew that you were a special champion though,” she smiled up at him.

  Kestrel handed over the water skin, then removed his knife. He knelt before Reasion, and presented the knife to her as though he was a knight presenting his sword to his sovereign, then rose.

  Reasion removed the plug from the water skin, and as she did they heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

  “Kestrel, is that you?” Jonson asked. “Who are these?”

  As the small gathering of new arrivals watched, Reasion pinked her fingertip with the point of Kestrel’s knife, then allowed a drop of her blood to shiver and quake on the end of her finger, before it detached itself and fell down into the water skin beneath.

  The bag began to shake, and steam vented out of the opening, as the bag took on a green glow for several seconds. Then the steam trailed off and the glow faded, and Reasion held the steady bag before her.

  “Behold the king and queen of all the lands of Albanu, Allgain and Reasion,” Robaske’s strong voice spoke in the air all around them. “They are the chosen ones who will lead our people and our land to freedom. I am pleased with them, and grateful to Kestrel, the prophesized intercessor who has made
this possible. All of you, please aid he and his people in their journey back to their own lands, to please me.

  “I will grow stronger as you grow stronger, and my blessing will extend across all the lands once again, someday soon. I am pleased to see that you are ready to go forth and reclaim the land that is yours to tend,” the goddess’s voice told them all.

  “Dewberry, thank you for your loving kindness since the day we first met as infants,” Reasion said, rushing forward to her friend and hugging her.

  “I never knew,” Dewberry said in a hushed tone. “Reasion-friend, hidden queen, I never knew that you would have such a glorious fate awaiting you. I only knew that I saw goodness and trust and love when I saw you – enough love for a whole nation, it appears.”

  Allgain stepped forward and took Reasion’s hand. “The goddess has surprised us all today. In her glory and her wisdom she has revealed the future of our land, and it is promising. When we are finished with the task of ridding our land of the Viathin plague, we will devote ourselves to raising new temples to her, and create a cult of goddess-worship throughout the land so that every Albanun knows our goddess.

  “But first, we must set Kestrel, our savior, on his path to finally be able to return to his own land and set his own people free from the same plague we have,” Allgain said. “Let us leave this holy place and undertake our journey,” he said.

  All the Albanuns knelt to the couple who stood before them, then rose and turned to follow the pathway out of the misty valley.

  The journey to the portal lasted ten days, and along the way Kestrel and Tableg killed a dozen Viathins, allowing the Albanuns to dose scores of Parstoles with the protective water, so that soon they had a small army. One Parstole understood the Albanese language, and became the interpreter when Kestrel was otherwise engaged. Allgain received pledges of support from the Parstoles in return for a promise to take them back to the portal to their own land, so that they could return to their homes, once the Viathins were scourged from the land.