Mighty Hammer Down (39 page)

"But how will he be able to kill
Rommus?"

He will need to find a
way. The armor cannot be pierced by any weapon made by man or god,
so he will be safe from the sword of Arius which Rommus carries. He
must kill him and retrieve the sword.

Uritus paused for a moment. "I must
admit that I am hesitant to grant any of my men such great power.
Is it possible for a man wearing that armor to do me
harm?"

I will grant you
immortality for your protection, but only while you wear these
robes. I will ensure that the man you choose does not have the same
power, but he will still have the protection of the armor of Arius.
You must choose the man carefully. It must be someone you
trust.

"Thank you for the gift of
immortality, master. It is truly an honor. But you never told me
how to find Rommus. He could be anywhere."

I do not know where he is
at this time. However the man who wears the armor will feel a pull
to the sword of Arius. Unfortunately Rommus will also feel the
armor in this way as soon as your follower wears it. But even
without these artifacts, it is not hard to guess where Rommus is
going. The gods call him to the Land of the Gods. Send your
follower directly to the Columns of Inshae so that he can meet him
there and kill him before he crosses into that land. Then you must
also kill his father, but I will not have you attempt to raise him
as the new god of war in place of his son. Just kill him. Once they
are both dead the balance of power will shift to the dark gods and
I can complete my plan in destroying Oderion.

"I will send a man at once. I have a
follower named Denura who is perfect for the task. He will not fail
us and I trust him completely."

The form of Inshae began
to fade as its tattered robes whipped in an unfelt wind.
Then send him at once and waste no more time. Do
not fail me.

Uritus smiled to himself as he watched
Inshae fade from the real world. When his ghostly form vanished he
immediately turned and left the room, the purple glow from the
floor turning to blackness as he left. He needed to find Denura and
send him on his mission right away if he was going to be able to
reach Rommus before he got to the Land of the Gods. Rommus was
already weeks ahead of him, but he hoped that he was confused by
the dreams and unsure of where the gods wanted him to go. If he was
in a hurry, he should have been there already, so he was most
likely not aware that there was any urgency. There was probably
still time to intercept him, but time was running out.

Chapter 27

"Something has changed."

"What do you mean Rommus?" Alana asked
as she watched him stare off to the west.

"I have no idea what I mean. I can
just feel something. It kind of feels like when you’re being
watched by someone. Do you know the feeling I mean?"

"Sure I do. Everyone has felt that
feeling. But why is it such a big deal right now?"

Rommus turned from the horizon that
called to him and looked down into her blue eyes. "I don’t know.
It’s a much bigger feeling than just that. Something calls to me,
and I can sense where it is. Maybe it’s a person or something. I
can’t tell."

"I think I have stumbled into the
lives of the world’s strangest men. Between you and Vohl, I think I
have heard just about every weird thing I can imagine."

Rommus smiled. "Well don’t get the
wrong idea. I think it’s weird too. I’m on your side." He pointed
to the city in the immense but shallow valley below them. "So
that’s Burnhamheade?"

"That’s right. Is it what you
expected?"

"You mean does it look like it did in
my dreams? I don’t know yet I’ll have to get closer. Vohl, was
there a city here when you were here last? Does it look the
same?"

"Certainly not, Master Rommus. I don’t
recognize anything here at all. The only things that will look
familiar to me will probably be those mountains to the north, for
they change at a much slower rate than the creations of
man."

Rommus mounted his horse. "Vohl, I
told you, I am not master of anything. You can just call me
Rommus."

"As you command, Rommus."

Rommus let out a short chuckle and
shook his head. It seemed that no matter how close they got to
Vohl, he refused to let go of his formalities. The man was as
proper as any man could be, but as formal as he seemed on the
surface, it was becoming more and more obvious how detached he had
become from the real world. Rommus was still very skeptical about
his so-called immortality, and Vohl had done little to prove his
claim, but Rommus was certain that he did indeed spend a lot of
time away from society. The man’s manners were very polished, but
it seemed that the man himself was tarnished much like silver that
had been ignored for too long.

The bright sun cast its rays on their
shoulders and lit the land around them in a brilliant display of
beauty. The Vindyri seemed to be fond of roses, and as they made
their way closer to the capital, they saw more and more. There were
rosebushes everywhere, mostly ones with red flowers dotting the
dark green foliage. Even the simple homes they passed had beautiful
gardens whose centerpiece was always a well-pruned rosebush. Rommus
could smell the soft scent as he passed them. He never understood
why people liked the smell so much. It was rather bland as far as
he was concerned.

The city finally filled their vision
as they came to its edge. The streets were as busy as any streets
in Medora, with people and carts and horses dodging each other. The
buildings were exactly as the dreams had showed him, even down to
the colors and the intricate designs carved in them. He looked past
the delicate columns and saw windows with thin iron scrollwork
between the panes of glass. Rommus quickly found a place where they
could leave their horses to eat while they found some food
themselves.

"That building over there," he
pointed, "that’s the one with the huge round window, we just can’t
see it from here. When we turn around this corner, it will come
into view and we’ll see the colored glass. It forms a picture of a
man on a horse and the seven gods are above him."

"I’m impressed Rommus. That is the
building. Maybe your dreams were right after all," Alana
said.

"For a man who does not believe in
magical powers, you certainly seem to place a lot of importance on
dreams that by all accounts are magical themselves," Vohl said as
they walked the stone streets.

"I never said I didn’t believe in
magic. I simply don’t know anything about the truth of the subject.
As far as I know, magic might just be trickery. It’s a difficult
thing to prove."

"Very true Rommus, but isn’t that
building over there with the window proof itself?"

Rommus laughed. "I don’t know Vohl. I
guess it is. Tell me, what makes you believe in magic?"

"I don’t think I see the world in the
same way you do. For me, it is more difficult to imagine a world
without magic than a world with it. Magic is the fabric that
connects all things. Without it the world would not
function."

"But Vohl, those are your beliefs.
Beliefs to not make things true. There is only one truth about
magic, and it is either that it does exist, or it doesn’t. No
matter how hard we believe in one of those answers, it doesn’t
change the truth."

"Yes I understand what you mean
Rommus. We had a similar discussion about the gods on the day we
met. I understand the difference between belief and fact, but like
I said, I just cannot imagine a world without magic. Besides, how
do you account for my cape, sword, rings and pendant?"

"Well Alana and I have not seen those
things do anything extraordinary."

"That’s not true," Alana said. "I saw
only a shadow when he saved us that day. His cape worked exactly as
he claims it does. He also killed almost all those men by himself.
I think his sword has shown its power as well."

Rommus sighed. "I guess it’s possible.
Like I said I didn’t say that magic is not real. I said I didn’t
know anything about it."

"Well dreamer, how’s that for proof?"
Alana asked as she pointed.

Rommus raised his head and found what
she was pointing at. Rising up in front of them was a great
building, larger than the rest in the city. It had tall, thin
columns and pointed archways everywhere; almost too many from an
aesthetic viewpoint. The design was somehow overdone and simple at
the same time; catching one’s attention at once with its power, and
making one wonder why he was staring. As they slowly looked higher,
the focus of the building jumped out at them. A huge circular
window was positioned at the center of the building high above the
streets. Rommus could not imagine how anyone could create such a
window, for it seemed that the weight of the glass alone would send
it crashing to the streets, shattering the colored glass in a
heartbreaking spectacle of beautiful disaster.

"It’s much bigger than I thought, but
it looks exactly like it did in the dream."

"You dream beautiful dreams, Master
Rommus. I am truly struck by the sight," Vohl said as he
stared.

Rommus kept his eyes on the window for
a while and took in the artistic genius of the glasswork. The
depictions of the figures seemed too realistic to be executed in
nothing but pieces of glass. It wasn’t really his style, but he
could not deny its commanding beauty.

"I thought he told you to stop calling
him that. How come you never call me Master Alana?" she asked as
she poked Vohl in his ribs. He jumped back and smiled at the
prod.

"My lady, we do not call women Master
where I come from. Is it custom to do so here?"

Alana laughed. "No, Master Vohl, I am
just playing with you."

Rommus found himself staring off to
the west again. He couldn’t ignore the strange feeling he had deep
in the pit of his stomach. It was as if the world around him got
very quiet and the only thing he could hear was a voice in the
distance. Although he heard no actual words, he could feel
something; a connection that he could not comprehend. He snapped
out of his trance when Alana grabbed his wrist.

"Well are you?" she asked.

"Huh? Am I what?"

"Are you coming with us or are you
going to just stand there all day? Haven’t you been listening to
us?"

"What are you talking about? Of course
I have been listening. Where are we going?"

Alana rolled her eyes. "To eat
something and to get some supplies. That’s what we came to the city
for. Don’t you remember?"

"Yes I remember."

Vohl cocked his head and stared into
Rommus’s eyes. "Rommus are you feeling well? You seem as if
something is bothering you."

"There is always something bothering
me my friend. Right now I can’t seem to break free of this feeling
that something is over there, back towards Brinn
somewhere."

"Perhaps you miss your home where the
sun sets on a familiar horizon."

"Oh Rommus, that reminds me!" Alana
interrupted. "I think I might have discovered how the sun and moon
stay up by falling."

He grinned. "Is that right? Let’s hear
it."

"Is it because they get heavier at
some times, and lighter at others? That has to be the way it works
if you say they stay in the sky because they are
falling."

He felt sorry for having to tell her
she was wrong, but he had to do it. "No, I’m afraid that’s not
it."

"Well how does it work? I can’t sleep
at night because I can’t get the stupid thought out of my head.
This is all I could come up with."

"All right, I’ll tell you." He cleared
his throat. "If you were to stand on a mountain, and shoot an arrow
at great speed, what would happen?"

Vohl answered. "Well, it would fall a
long way until it reached the earth."

"Right. Now what if you could fire it
at an even greater speed?"

"It would go farther before it hit the
ground," Alana said.

"Right, it would still fall, but it
would travel a greater distance before it fell. Now what if I told
you that it was possible to fire the arrow at such a speed that it
would never touch the ground?"

"Then I would tell you that you’re
crazy. Things don’t just stay in the sky. Even birds have to land
eventually."

Vohl rubbed a finger on his chin in
thought. "But if things could stay in motion in the air, what keeps
them moving? Everything must fall to the earth at some
point."

"The moon does indeed fall to the
earth, Vohl. That’s the point I am trying to make. Haven’t you ever
noticed that we see the sun creep up over the horizon in the
morning, and noticed that we see the top of the sun before the rest
of it comes into view? Or haven’t you noticed that the sails of a
ship can be seen out on the horizon before the boat
itself?"

"I suppose I have noticed that, but I
don’t understand the relevance."

"And I have never seen a ship on the
horizon at all. I am from Vindyrion, remember?" Alana
said.