The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (83 page)

“But we do not know he is dead, we are not…” Liogan hung his head, he had heard, like they all did, upon leaving Valhirst in the night. Victory cheers for Johnas Valhera could only mean one thing.
“I wish Lavress was here.”

“Lavres
s Tilaniun has his own path, laid out by
the Hedim Anah and Seirena. Wishing for things to not be as they are, goes against the will of the Mother, young Liogan.” Niastae, the sphinx and priestess of the temple, smiled as she re
sted by sacred vines and ivory flowers next to
the throne.

“Still, he always knows what to do next, what to say, where to…”
Liogan quieted
as Bryant sobbed more and buried his head in the leaves and vines that grew from the temple walls.

“
Lavress is not here, Liogan. And there are no words that will comfort Bryant. He has lost his kingdom, his future, and his father. He is far away from his home, and in great pain.” Ramaya-nun stroked Bryant’s hair.

The young knight of Southwind sighed. He was refreshed, the bolt gone from his ribs, and he had survived where he should not have. He knew it, even at his few seasons of life, he knew
that
him
even
breathing now, either
of them, was miraculous. “Where are we, anyway?”

“I have never been here before, never seen those golden minotaurs nor the kithian. So, we must be either outside of the ruined kingdom of the Crescent Moon, or on another continent. I have been to six of the seven Temples of the Whitemoon on Agara,
all held by my sisters. Y
et the one outside of Mooncrest is forbidden. It is protected fiercely, as the ruins around it are cursed.” The fairy princess tried to feel
for something around the temple, she sensed no curse, and her mind wandered to where they could be.

“So we are lost then?” Liogan stated as much as asked.

“No, we will find where Lavress took us. It is unknown for any other than one of my sisters or myself to have the heart to close the doors and move a temple to another sacred site. Whatever he was feeling, that will hold the key to where we are now. Lavress Tilaniun should be dead, for the force of such love needed is beyond what---“ Ramaya-nun looked up as the savage wood elf hunter stepped inside and bowed.

“I should have been dead many times, princess, yet Seirena must greatly wish me to remain in the Hedim Anah.” Lavress lifted up his eyes to hers, then to Bryant Salganat, and then to Liogan Andellis. “Liogan, we must go.”

“Where are we, brave hunter that can move temples with his love for another?” Ramaya-nun had not thought much of Lavress, feeling him too quiet and too bold for her tastes, but now she held him in great esteem.
Something in her stirred.

“Near Shinayne T’Sarrin, I can feel it. A kithian, named Ihros Seeing-owl, says we are indeed outside of the ruins of Mooncrest and Tintasarn.
I met him just now.
Yet, something has changed.” Lavress took his bow, Bede
sh’s bow, and then the quiver of
green striped hawk flights.
He tried to remain calm. “He says he hunts the bans
hee, dangerous dead spirits, but
now they are gone. He told me th
e storm of the dark gods is no more
, the curse that holds this place has vanished.”

“Those things you say, they sound wonderful indeed. So why are you feeling that stress and fear, Lavress?” She felt it, he was leaving to go to her, and she was indeed close.
Ramaya-nun wanted him more now, that devotion, the purity in him.

“The kithian said he met Shinayne, my princess, not five days past. She…she was headed..into..I hear her song now, I must go.” Lavress felt and heard his beloved, in great pain, and the song she sang was not pleasant. By sound and words, yes, but it was the Vytha Vahann. She was placing memory to song, in ancient elven words, the memory of someone who had died.

“
I hear nothing, are you sure?
” The fairy looked with one eyebrow raised toward the hunter from Gualidura.

“
I
am
certain
blessed grandchild of the Mother, I am. I must go, with your blessing, or without. Liogan, come quick.” Lavress had not the time for her questions. Something else was not right, he had heard a name in Shinayne’s song,
Gwenneth
. Yet, Shinayne was still singing, he could feel it more than hear it, yet she should have stopped
with the mention of the name
.
Something was not right.

“Liogan, perhaps you would stay with your prince?” Ramaya-nun felt it in her heart, the beating pulse of Lavress. Her emotions took over, her hair twirled in the air, from breezes that did not exist.

“I..uhh..perhaps Lavress, I …uhhhmmm…I mean…” His mind was confused, he saw dancing lights, small ones, everywhere.

“Stop, princess of the fey. He comes with me, by order of the Hedim Anah. I do not warrant your tricks.” Lavress stared at her, unmoved by the glamers, and met her ever-changing eyes. Ramaya-nun grew taller, nearly twice her size, and her beauty grew even more.

“If you wish to see your future king, Bryant here, again…I would ask that you stay, Liogan.” She smiled, creatures of all sorts of flitting size fell in love as they neared her, and fell to torment when they passed by.

“Do not do this, not now. I need him, and I must go. Play your games another time, princess. My heart belongs to Shinayne, and you may threaten all you like, but what she and
I have cannot be stolen or held hostage
.” Lavress grabbed Liogan by the shoulder and walked him up and out of the cavern.

“Where…where are we…but I need to…wha? She wants me to stay, she needs me, Lavress…” Liogan stumbled along, unable to take his eyes from the beautiful radiance of fair skin and crimson hair that the fairy princess had changed into.

“No. She
wants me
, my heart that moved the temple, my heart that loves another. She is jealousy
, the embodiment of envy
and truth
, and she wants to soothe her eternal loneliness with others. We go.” Lavress bowed as he stalked out, feeling time was short, but for what he did not know.

“Should you return, I will not be here, and nor will the prince you saved.” Ramaya-nun stood, tears of gold washing down her perfect face as she shrunk back to her petit frame.

“That threat, to anyone else, may have results. But you do not know Shinayne and I, farewell.”

Ramaya-nun gave in, her charms had failed, his love was something of legend to be beyond her powers. She wanted it, craved it, yet to let it die would be worse than not having it for herself.

“Go then. I have seen it, she will perish by the blade. That song she sings,
it
is for herself.” All her tricks disappeared, her powers dwindled, and she looked to Lavress with the eyes of truth.

Without a word, just meeting the eyes of the princess on honest ground, sent him into a run out of the sacred temple.
Lavress felt fear, though he would not say, and he could not deny that he felt Shinayne was in mortal danger.
Her heart was beating fast, something struck her, and he winced. Her song started again, indeed telling her own life story in the ancient elven dialects, as if she was preparing to die. Lavress ran faster than he thought he could.

Liogan looked back once, to his prince and the princess of the fey that had saved them, and then he ran behind Lavress, behind his only friend.
As they cleared the temple, a unicorn ran past them in
to
the sparse forest. Then golden minotaurs stood up and bowed to Lavress and Liogan.
They did not stop to greet them, just kept their pace east and south.

Lavress ran faster still, seeing wolves
sit up, some
on four legs, and hiroon wolf lords t
hat stood on two. His mind went decades back now, realizing
he had trained with Mirash the sphinx not far from here, he recognized th
e air and the wolves in but a mo
ment.
They howled, and many more howled in the distance. Birds sang quick melodies to the gray sky from the trees, and Ihros Seeing-owl was now beside them. Suddenly the forest broke into an open rocky valley, and a bronze domed palace was before them not one mile ahead.

“What is this place?” Lavress asked Ihros. He gazed across
a city built into a crescent shape, between and into the peaks of sandstone mountains, a marvelous ruin it was to view from this western vantage.

The kithian knelt down next to the legendary hunter of the Hedim Anah, the one they said moved the temple. “It is Mooncrest, cursed for thousands of years, now open and alive. Look.”

Lavress and Liogan followed his finger, pointing to a faint trickle of green starting to bloom far to the south, on the trees in the city. “The mines of Kakisteele lie inside those mountains, and Tintasarn is on the other side of them.”

They all looked left, to the north, seeing thousands of soldiers near an outpost just outside the city. A single beam of light was shining through the gray into the east over the hills. Then Lavress heard it again, Shinayne’s song. He looked, it was coming from a ring of temples, and through the ruined walls of the palace and an auditorium, he could see people gathered. Without a word, he ran. The hunter ran into the valley, keeping to the shadows of the palace, over a bridge and into the city. He looked over his shoulder and his eyes went wide.

Behind him was not just Liogan Andellis and the one eyed cyclops guardian of the temple. There were a handful of wolves,
three
hiroon, birds, deer,
and
two
golden skinned mino
taurs
. They all huddled close, made no noise, and waited for Lavress Tilaniun.

He moved into the streets, quiet in the cover of tall old buildings. He heard her voice, faintly, and the voices of many men. Some were praying in a dark tongue, some chanting infernal songs, and some were quiet, but Lavress could sense them. He peered around a temple wall, and then pulled back with his eyes closed
hard and tight
.

“What..what is---“ Liogan felt a large kithian hand go over his mouth.

“
Ssshhhh.”
Lavress readied his bow and quiver, counted only nine arrows. He looked to Ihros, his quiver had but eight. He looked to the creatures of the forests and the Whitemoon, he saw no bows nor arrows at all. He had counted over one hundred men, surrounding a circle of flame. He had seen horns rising up through it, black horns in the fires. Lavress had also seen Shinayne, her head was down on a block, and an Armondi soldier stood over her with his scimitar ready. A tear fell to his cheek, then another, he knew there were too many
soldiers and not enough arrows
. The center of the temples was open, nowhere to hide, he would be running
three hundred feet in the open.

Liogan peered around Lavress, he waited one second, then two, then fell back quietly. He reached out his hand to Lavress, and took the bow and the quiver. “
That is her, your beloved
Shinayne
?”

“Yes.” Lavress took a breath, and drew his falcata and kukri.

“
She is beautiful beyond words, my friend.”
Liogan knocked an arrow, as did Ihros Seeing-owl. The two minotaurs drew great curved blades,
the three hiroon drew scimitars
, and t
he birds
and wolves all looked to Lavress.

“
Liogan
, Ihros
, you cannot miss. When I charge, they will see me
, and they will take her---“

“I never miss, hunter of the Hedim Anah
.” Ihros
blinked with his one eye.

“
I will not miss, master Lavress, I will not miss.”
Liogan nodded, made the sign of the feathered cross, then the sign of love to Seirena, heart to lips, to the sky. “
I vow to you, on my knighthood, my arrows will hit true.”

Lavress nodded to t
he forest creatures,
the silent minotaurs, and the hiroon. He heard Shinayne stop her song, the men stopped chanting, and the silence of but flames infernal was deafening. He closed his eyes to pray to Seirena, just for one moment, but it was broken by scream of terror. Shinayne’s scream. Lavress turned the corner and charged the hundred men, headed straight for his beloved.

Tower of the Scepter, Arnhast Fortress, Vin Armon

Eleven hours of kneeling prayer, eleven straight it had been. No food, no rest, not even a change in position. Kendari watched as the ceiling had turned to match the floor,
circling
flames from the netherworld summoned in dark sacrificial rites.
He had the chant nearly
perfect, memorized now, and the
mark upon his chest was burning hot and glowing. The Nadderi swordsman had not found a valid reason for interruption yet, not a word to edge in, nor the opportunity to create one.
He had kept his mind clear, waiting for the right moment.