Soul Under the Mountain (Legend of Reason Series) (15 page)

Uritus threatened Song. It was masked in kindness, shining behind a smile, but it was a threat nonetheless.
Oddly enough it had become more and more veiled over time, as opposed to becoming a firmer warning as time went on. It was obvious that Uritus meant to soften the whole idea and make his intimidation seem more palatable. It was yet another attempt to manipulate and make it appear as if Song was "coming around" to his
ideas.

But Song remembered the threat well. It wasn't one that could easily be set aside in his mind. It was specific and tailored to him. It was the whole reason he was doing what he was doing, against his moral fabric. It was the one thing that frightened him more than even death ever could.

Uritus threatened to erase him.

Once fully contemplated, it was horror beyond horror. Every human that ever walked the earth dreamed to make a statement between his birth and death, and Uritus would see to it that that could never happen. Uritus would not
just
kill Song; he would send his soul to the void. He would send him to the great nothing, that terrible emptiness where nothing could ever matter. Even thought would be erased, and every
memory he ever had-and probably any memory anyone ever had of him—would be gone.

It was bad enough for Song to be forced to live with the idea of never achieving anything in his life. There were countless people who had walked the earth before him, and countless who could come after him, who would never amount to anything at all. This fear haunted Song for most of his life, and as hard as he tried to overcome it, it seemed that the gods tried to kick his feet out from under him. No matter how far he had come in life, it was never enough. He was paralyzed by his own ambition.

But the void was a whole different story. It was natural to believe that there was some mystifying realm beyond the normal world where a soul could reside after death. It was a comforting feeling that kept most people from going insane or from the depths of despondency. But to have that option nullified, to have all hope of an afterlife shredded and discarded was too much to bear. It was orders of
magnitude worse than simply failing to become a great man. The idea that a soul could literally be annihilated frightened Song to his core. In his nightmares he came close enough to that horror to fully understand its power. His dreams-and the empty blackness between them—were a good analogy for his fragile soul hovering between everything and nothing. It was truly terrifying.

And Uritus had the power to send him to that blackness—or at least he claimed to. Song dared not risk being wrong on the matter, and did as he was commanded to do. As far as he could tell, nothing he had done had caused Rommus, Alana or Vohl any harm or even brought them any closer to danger. He was just keeping an eye on them and reporting his findings back to Uritus. Most of the time he wasn't even close enough to hear their words. On a few occasions, when he did hear a few sentences, he didn't bother reporting it to Uritus, and Uritus never asked. In fact, he never asked for much at all. He only wanted to know where they were at certain times of day or night. Song assumed that Uritus was looking for patterns in movement so that he could intercept Rommus or the others. With this in mind, Song deliberately withheld or altered small details when he noticed any patterns himself. It frightened him to do so, but in his heart he knew that he could not endanger Rommus. It simply was not fair, and if offering Rommus a little protection would ignite the wrath of Uritus and earn him an eternal punishment in the void, then he would accept his sentence. He dreaded it, but he would accept it.

But this time, Song could not hide any information. Rommus had been surveying the areas to the northeast of Taburdum, where the long fields ended and turned into rolling hills and mountains. It had taken most of the day, and there was no way Song could hide the information of Rommus's whereabouts for that long of a time.

Song's major problem was that Rommus was escorted by about 30 soldiers, and they were patrolling the open areas around him. It was far too risky to get close enough to overhear anything, but he simply had to find a way. He was afraid that Uritus was getting suspicious, and he had been warned already. He needed to find out what Rommus was doing and report back to the Emperor that evening.

What Rommus was doing was obvious, according to Song. There was a war to plan, and the enemy occupied the city of Taburdum and the route from the city eastward. Beyond that, the massive army consisting of both Bhoors and Vindyri waited. It seemed that Rommus and his men were determining how they would use the terrain to their advantage to try to either end the bloodshed, or strike at the enemy. It seemed like a fairly simple operation, and Song could not figure out why Uritus put so much emphasis on spying on Rommus this time in particular.

Another thing he couldn't figure out was why Rommus and his men were so open about what they were doing. They made no real attempt to hide themselves, and surely the footprints of man and horse would clearly show what they had been doing in the area.
The snow would gradually fill in the footprints, but there would be obvious indentations and clues about what had happened there. Galloping hooves had kicked up dark mud onto the white snow. The fact that the horsemen patrolling the area were continually riding in their same tracks over and over was baffling.

While the patrolling horsemen were out of sight, Song risked inching in a bit closer. He used the trees and taller shrubs to hide behind, and he was careful to walk at the foots of hills where a passing rider could not see his footprints in the snow. Where he could, he jumped from tree bole to tree bole, disguising any straight lines of tracks a human would make. A scout scanning the area might see a few prints, but would probably mistake them for indentations made by squirrels or rabbits.

A wolf trotting through the snow caught his attention. It was a beautiful black wolf, with yellow eyes like Daphne but larger than she was. When the wolf saw him, it paused and stared for a moment, sniffed the air a bit, and went on its way. It wove through the trees, probably looking for a quick meal. Or perhaps it was just marking territory, as it did not seem to be in any hurry or seem to fear being seen. Mostly when a predator was looking to kill, it made sure to stay out of sight.

The wolf soon crested a hill and disappeared. Song sniffed the air like he saw the wolf do, just to see if maybe he could smell the animal. Daphne had a smell, but it was really only strong when she was asleep. It was a comforting smell to Song, and he was always pleased to get a whiff of it. The wolf, however, made no smell that Song could detect. He could only smell the flat, icy smell of winter, with the slightest hint of leaves still decaying from the fall.

He suddenly found himself only a short distance from the muddy tracks left by the riders. Just over the hill in front of him
, out of sight, was where the soldiers were. On another hill a little farther east, Rommus and a few other soldiers could just barely be seen through the tall trees. Song could hear a few voices but they were muffled behind the snow-covered hill.

Going any closer to the path would almost certainly lead to him being spotted by a patrol, so h
e decided to focus on what he could see instead of what he was unable to hear. From where he stood, he was hidden by trees and through the branches he could make out the movement of human figures. Rommus was wearing his red armor. Not j
ust on his arms, but all of it,
including his helmet. In his hands he held a map or at least a large parchment. Several men around him pointed to it and nodded or shook their head as they discussed whatever it was they were discussing. It seemed just a little strange to Song that Rommus would not remove his helmet to read his map. Other soldiers had done so, and it was
odd
to see Rommus keep his on.

Rommus was a bright flickering flame in his red armor on top of that hill. Even with the sun hiding high above the clouds, the armor shimmered and sparkled as if touched by the rays of the setting sun. The gold accent threw streaks of amber light in all directions. Song had seen the armor before, and while it was a stunning work of art in its own right, he did not remember it looking like he saw it look on that snowy hill. He couldn't quite put a finger on what he was seeing, as the harder he focused on the armor, the less otherworldly it appeared. It was only truly stunning when he was not so intensely focused on it
, which made him focus even more. Song became lost in his fascination and began to feel a little dizzy.

"What are you doing here?" came voice from behind him.

Song froze with fear. He had somehow left the safety of the trees and wandered out right into the center of the path that the horsemen had been making for hours. His senses all flooded back to him as he turned around to face the voice.

Song tried to think up a quick answer. "I—I lost my dog up here. He's black. He looks like a wolf. Have you seen him?"

The soldier rolled his eyes. "Go home, boy. Your dog knows the way and will come find you. You can't be up here wandering around. It's not safe."

"I'll be on my way, sir. I just want to find my dog. I think he went over there."

"Look son, I told you I can't have you up here. Go follow your footprints back in the direction you came from and find where you and your dog—wait a minute, where are your footprints?"

Song began to panic. "Right here. See?"

"I see a few here on
the road. How did you get here? Have you been standing here since before the snow started? What is that there on your hand? Are you wearing armor?"

Now Song was in a full on panic. He had lost himself in th
e
magical armor that Rommus wore, and allowed himself to be seen. He was caught, and he could not come up with answers fast enough to confuse or placate the mounted soldier before him. The horseman was slowly determining that he was a threat, and Song heard the faint ring of a sword being pulled.

Song blurted out whatever answers and excuses came to his mind. "This here? This is a gauntlet. I use it for huntin
g. I use a bow and arrow and it kind of protects my arm from the string. My dog and I come up here for rabbits. I don't want any trouble, sir. I'll just go."

"You'll stand right there. What is your name?"

"Erratus."

"And where is your bow, Erratus?"

"The wood snapped when I shot at a rabbit. It can't be fixed so I threw it in the woods."

"And I suppose you threw away your quiver and all the arrows too?"

Song had no idea what to say. His lie was only getting worse and worse. There was no way to trick the soldier into believing his pathetic excuse, and he knew he could not outrun a horse. Instead of answering, he just stood and stared at the man. It was all he could do.

——————

Rommus looked down at the blank parchment in his hands. He nodded and pointed from time to time, trying to make his gestures a
s natural as possible.  S
oldiers joined in on the lie, offering nods or other gestures of their own.
Other soldiers buzzed about as if bringing reports or moving supplies.

"Lord Rommus, I found someone."

The sound of a real voice bringing real news was a surprise. For hours the soldiers had performed a play of sorts, trying to get the attention of any enemy scouts in the area. None had shown up yet, so the play went on, the same scene over and over. Until the enemy spotted them, they would remain there on that hill.

"What do you mean?" Rommus asked as he stared at his parchment.

"I found him while riding on patrol. He looked awfully suspicious to me standing there right in the middle of the path. He told me he was out bow hunting, but he has no bow and no arrows. He says he lost his hunting dog and he was out looking for it. When I found him he was staring over here at you."

Rommus didn't even look up from the blank paper. "Vindyri? Bhoor?"

"Medoran. H
e says his name is Erratus. He wears
a single gauntlet."

Rommus jerked his head toward the man and his prisoner. "Song?"

The soldier had no idea what he meant. "Song? No one is singing, Lord Rommus."

Rommus ignored the soldier and addressed Song directly. "What are you doing up here? Where have you been? We have been looking for you."

"Me? Why would you be looking for me?"

"I've got some things I need to tell you—important things. But they will have to wait for now. Have you lost Daphne? I can have a few soldiers help you look for her, but only for the next hour or so. I need them back here when the next patrol passes."

"No. I didn't lose Daphne. She's safe at home. I was lying about losing my dog."

"Lying? Why would you lie about that? What are you doing up here?"

Song fidgeted a bit. "I think I should talk to you alone, away from all these people."

"I don't have time for that, Song.
I'm
very busy here and I can't just walk away right now. Whatever you have to tell me, you can say in front of these men. They're on our side."

"Well, the truth is, I haven't been on your side, Rommus—not fully anyway. I mean, in my mind I was, but Uritus has been using me."