The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (26 page)

LCMVXILCMVXILCMVXILCMVXIL

It was another world, another time it seemed, a place trapped in a storm and
under
gray skies for thousands of years. Nothing had changed, it appeared the ravages of war were still fresh scars upon the city of Mooncrest.
It was quiet, far too quiet for a city that must have held half a mi
llion or more people during its time
. There was no movement, no leaves on the trees, no grass to walk upon. They expected animals, birds, some life to have at least found a way in to nest and hide. Nothing was here.
Though full of golden structures and sandstone grandeur, a skeleton of an ancient civilization was before them, just a shell of lost greatness to see
and welcome
.

First steps were taken, finally after an hour of stares and awe had passed. The five walked hesitantly into the empty remains of a once holy city, a place of temples and hope, a short lived kingdom of dreams and myth.
Past the outer walls, then they went by the inner walls, all in crumbling decay.
Shin
ayne strode alongside Zen, palms
on her sacred blades of the white moon, Saberrak Agrannar
was
c
lose behind with his axes in hand
. James Andellis and Gwenneth stayed close to one another, still looking beyond the high rising metropolis and the mountains, taking it all in.

“Where to now,
King Thalanaxe
?” Shinayne grinned, not wanting to blink, as she toyed with her dwarven friend.

“Baah, don’t start that yet now, we have to get to Kakisteele first. Me guess is following that there
central
road, the one with the white markers of stone that leads up.” He thought of all the horrors he had heard over the years of this place. His mind recalled six-legged demons, devil women, ghosts of the dwarves, men, and soldiers of Altestan that still haunted this place. Zen saw none of that, though an ominous presence was here, somewhere.
He thought of the dust, remembering his vow.

“
I like the direct approach, no hiding or sneaking.” The gray minotaur huffed.

“Passes right by th
e tower and the temples, surely the best route
for us
.” Gwenneth smiled, looked to James, and then quickened her pace to match his.

“For
us
? You mean all of us, or
you and James
?”
Shinayne shot the
question back over her shoulder with a wide smile, one that was equally matched by Zen.

“
Hhrrmmmph
!
Good question.
” Saberrak snorted low and grinned.

“For all
…
of us,
and…me and James…that…Shinayne what are…
?
” Gwenne turned a shade of red as she stumbled over her retort.

“I believe your chosen
main
road is fine, for all of us.” James, just as red beneath his beard and brown locks, spoke up over his raven haired companion.

“Splendid save there brave knight, already rescuin’ yer’ maiden and such,
well done lad
.”

“I am no ones
maiden
, I will have you
all
know right---“

Gwenneth was cut off as both Shinayne and
S
aberrak raised their hands
, crouched,
and stopped not ten feet onto the road.
Zen knelt down to the white bricks, James drew his
griffon hilted
blade and surveyed for a reason for the sudden halt, and Gwenneth focused on the staff and stretched out her senses of the arcane.

“
Platinum
. Tis not white bricks at all, they lined the very road
to Kakisteele
with precious platinum they did.
Vundren’
s b
lessed boots!
” The dwarven priest rubbed his hand over the invaluable metal that dotted every ten bricks of the lining to the main road. He looked up to a bronze sign on a stone building and read it. “
Vulanri
Road
. It’s in dwarven, part o’ it anyway.”

“And what does
Vulanri
denote?” Shinayne sensed motion ahead, so she asked without looking to Zen.
Just as he touched and spoke, the elven swordswoman felt things change, many things, all across the ruins.

“It is the dwarven word for
hope
.” Gwenneth responded before the dwarf could, yet her senses were overwhelmed with things near and far that were radiating arcane glow in her eyes, mostly from the tower.

“Aye, Gwenne is right, in Agarian it’s hope. Cross street here is…odd…
Gimmor Way
, in Agarian this
time, named for the green moon
or the month I s’pose.” Zen looked out to the dozens of main streets, none as grand as Vulanri Road
or Temple Way
, yet they all went north to south, and were crossed by just as many from east to west. “Hells, we are gonna need a guide to find everything, ha!”

“
O
ne approaches
, ask
her
then.” Saberrak pointed
with an axe
and lowered his horns as an old woman shambled toward them. He had watched her come out of a ruined home, silently, and
she
was walking very slow.

“There is nothing there, what are you talking about?” Gwenneth looked with both her normal sight and the arcane, she saw just an empty street
, one of hundreds in every direction
.

“I sense her, she is sad
and wicked
, but I can only make out a glowing shadow, nothing more.” Shinayne drew her blades and watched the strange spirit float toward them.

“I see her
as well
, Zen can you?” James waited, watching the old woman limp with her head facing the road, it looked as though her crooked neck could not lift up had she wanted to.

“I see nothin’, ye’ all be seein’ illusions or visions or somethin’.” The dwarven priest looked ahead, nothing moved, not anywhere.
He pulled out his hammer and moons of finely crafted silver, and his eyes went wide. The
old
woman was right in front of him now, and he fell over onto his rump as he pulled his warhammer from his hip.
She was
not alone, he could see her plain as gray
, and hundreds m
ore behind her in the distance, just watching them.

The streets were
suddenly
filled with people, people dragging bodies and burying other people, none of them were there moments before.
They looked real, though their colors were dark and dampened, and they cast not so much as shadow nor sound. Walking the sunless streets, wailing over their dead brethren, thousands mourned thousands in silence. Some hung from trees, others were nailed to crossed beams of wood, several hundred were in burning piles, many more lay impaled by spears. Dwarves there were, and elves,
men, women, and children.
Even infants were carried by their elders, all mouths open in terrible pain and suffering.

The fires cast no smoke nor smell, the wailing was not heard by their ears, only thie
r
eyes took in the horror of the aftermath of war. Buildings fell without the expected crash to follow. Priests with symbols they had never seen, and some they had, presided over masses of graying figures that wept and held one another. Flags rippled from the temples, ones that could not be seen by Gwenneth nor Shinayne, but by the men for certain. Flags of white wit
h a golden triangle behind
three
long
identi
cal dragons of black, and none of the ghostly citizens
dared take them down.

“By Vundren, look at the clouds.” Zen pointed
a half mile
up, directly at three black spheres like eyes that looked through the gray at the temple district. They were immense
, two on the bottom and one above and centered
,
and as they glared down the
people fled out the temples, gray folk long dead.

“Altestan, I see the three dragoned flag
s
and triangle of Altestan. Same flags that were on the Headhunter warship in Harlaheim. They did this.” James looked past the old woman in ragged dresses to the forgotten carnage reenacting before him.

“The men may see for they are touched, they see what I remember, they do.
What
she
makes us see
,
forever.
For why have thou come to our graves eternal then, treasures or answers?” The old woman of gray hair amess and wrinkles uncounted looked with hollow black eyes to the five visitor
s, her voice a strange
whis
pering song that all could hear, yet Gwenne and Shinayne could not see
her
.

“What goes on here, old ghost?” Saberrak huffed, now seeing the massive three black eyes from the sky widen, shadows pouring from their gaze into the t
emples. Black winged beings glided
from the air
, and landed behind the holy towers, and more people screamed.
Many more.

“It is the judgement of Gimmor, of God, and kept for all eternity by Arabashiel. You see
, and so you must be blessed by the fallen ones.” The old gray spectre snapped her bony fingers and the vision was gone, all of it disappeared. She turned her neck toward the again empty ruins, then back to the five in front of her and smiled. “No mor
e, you should be here not, the Knights of the C
rescent
must be told.”

“We come to end it, to give ye’ freedom old spirit. This
Arabashiel
, she got six legs then I s’pose?
Where she be then?
”
Azenairk stood, seeing only the lost city and this ancient ghost of a woman before him.

Her laughter was as if a thousand elderly women and men cackled through her. “
Ha ha ha ha, he he he, ho ha oh oooh
…a
warrior
, a
slayer
of
immortals, is it the cursed archmage of the ember tower, the warlock of night
I see before me? No, nay, tis not
he.
You be but a dwarf that follows a lesser being and seeks the mines.
You will die
.”

She passed through Zen, giving him raised hairs on his arms, and walked to Shinayne. “Blessed blades of the conquered moon, but survive you will not, elf.
You will die
.”

After passing through Shinayne, she hovered now to Gwenneth. “You can see me not, faithless one. I see you though, old archmage in the emerald, and you will not save her.
You will die
.”

The old ghost hovered before Saberrak. Two axes cut right through her as if she were air, and her grin met that of the gray minotaur. “Just checking.” He snorted.

“Foolish one, I know what you are and what you were. It matters not, your brothers have abandoned you to exile.
You will die,
spirit of Annar.
” She hovered through him, and floated up to James.

James Andellis saw the empty stares from his friends, as if hope had been taken from them when the ghost spoke and passed them by. They moved little, as if a black cloud was over them that none could see. No one argued the spirit, no one asked her anything, they just stared. Something was happening.

“What curses does your mouth spit, old ghost?” The knight presented his blade and paced in circles while his friends eyes saddened and their heads looked to the ground. He would not let her touch him or pass through his body.

“Curses? No curses, let us talk of you then, failed one of---“

“No! Saberrak, Shinayne, get up!” Jame
s focused on his faith and hand,
glowing a faint blue aura now, though no one was injured. He backed up more, seeing through this ghost of a woman
, and
his friends now relaxed and sat down on the road, oblivious to anything.

“They know now that hope is lost, let me tell you of it. Perhaps in this tavern
over
here, there is wine---“

“No! Silence! You servant of demons, your tricks hold no power over me!” The blue aura flickered and rose up the hilt of his blade from his hands, it had never done that before.

“Tricks? No tricks, tis judgment and truth I speak, she sees you all, inside and out. Let me show you.” The ghastly hag smiled, her black eyes radiating shadow, and she reached for James.

“Tell her to find another messenger then!” He slashed his sword across her outstretched ethereal arm, hoping something happened. It did.

The transparent woman screamed a howl of pain, like a child that had never felt it before, and her arm vanished. She looked in horror as dust scattered to the city street, then up to the knight with blue flames licking the blade he wielded. “Who dares bring such power here, whom do you serve?”