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Chapter Seven
The population of the capital city of Zanda neared half a million souls, and it was one of two dozen or so metropolises peppered here and there in a huge country that bore the same name. The approach to the Holy City itself crossed difficult terrain, but many creatures great and small made the trip to feel the blessing of Zandine (their god) even if the world at large regarded Zandine as evil and cruel. Alexi knew that perceptions (oftentimes) depended on a certain point of view.
Many checkpoints on the highways that crisscrossed the countryside were manned by the Blades Acuuarum, the official army of the church of Zandine. A wall of mountains more than a thousand leagues long and with peaks so high they stretched like white teeth toward the three suns protected the southern border. The western shoreline for thousands of leagues had no river outlet and looked shorn from the sea itself because of cliffs a mile high. And to the east lay the formidable Bone Wall, erected by the most powerful necromancer to have ever lived: Lianon Pard. It is said he created many wonders, and one of them lay at the heart of Slippery Squib.
In fact, the only reasonable way to enter Zanda was by ship that sailed in through the north where its many fjords joined the Sea of Winter. To guard against a threat from this direction, the powerful All Seeing Eye of Zandine faced forever in that direction, looking at every ship and vessel that dared approach the shores of Zanda to gain access to its magnificent municipalities. Despite widespread xenophobia, merchants risked much to find their way to the overflowing coffers of Zanda for its mines produced some of the most precious metals and gems in all the world.
Alexi had never been to Slippery Squib, but today changed all that as he navigated the decrepit warren's many crowded streets on a quest for the Obelisk of Quiet. But he didn't go alone. His companions to one of the most dangerous parts of the city walked to his right and left: Rowena and Daphne. Rowena brought along his boyfriend Dudley, who Alexi was sure had no idea that Rowena was a man. Dudley stood a tall five-foot ten, had coffee-colored skin, a neatly trimmed beard and mustache, and wore the cuirass of a Blades Acuuarum soldier. A shiny steel morion sat atop his brown hair, and he carried a rapier at his side.
"You've never been down to Slippery Squib, eh?" Dudley asked Alexi. He winked at Rowena who cooled herself using a silk fan. "If you've packed your quid," he said, "I might be able to score some Eros for you."
"I didn't bring any money," Alexi told him flatly. "I just wanted to come to see the obelisk, and I don't want to be in arrears with the academy...not this close to graduation. Besides, I don't do drugs."
Dudley looked disappointed.
No doubt he's testing the waters to see if I'd brought my money. He and Rowena probably planned to rob me at some point. Either that or he told his friends to jump us so that we'd remain none the wiser.
Dudley opened one of his belt pouches and took out a small tin. Then he opened it, scooped out a handful of black tobacco, and stuffed it in his lip. His teeth looked as yellow as urine. He handed the tin to Rowena who also filled her lip with the stuff.
"It's good, ain't it?" Dudley said, smacking Rowena's butt. "I told you I take care of you." Then he spat just to the left of Alexi's shoe. "Sorry," he said, the tone in his voice disingenuous at best.
"You're disgusting," Daphne stated, plucking the words right out of Alexi's mouth.
That made Dudley stop. "Shut your whore mouth," he threatened, "or I'll shut it for you." Dudley tightened his fist in warning.
Daphne looked at Alexi and slipped her hand into his. "It is disgusting," Alexi said, backing his friend up. "Your bullying us isn't going to change facts."
Dudley grinned, tobacco juice spilling out of his lips to streak down his chin. Then he spat again. "You hags are bitter 'cause you ain't had no cock yet. I'd give you some, but...it's spoken for."
A pair of pilgrims walked by in the street and bowed to Dudley before proceeding on their way.
Just over his shoulder, Alexi spotted crows flying from the distant belfry, which soared from the roof belonging to the colossal palace of the Dread Irtemara. Black smoke billowed up to the storm clouds, which seemed strangely devoid of rain this afternoon. In the air floated the scent of the local tannery, a foul-smelling concoction of chemicals so pungent, it overwhelmed everything in the vicinity.
"See?" Dudley asked, pointing at the pilgrims. "I'm a holy warrior of Zanda! I serve the Israfil and protect the country. They knew what's up, and its time you did as well. I'm a big deal in these parts so let's have some thanks next time you address me."
Alexi glared at him a moment. "Big deals don't join the Blades Acuuarum. They join the Timeron knights."
"Is that so?" Dudley asked. "I could kill a Timeron knight with my bare hands."
"Really?" Daphne asked. "There's two over there by that tavern."
All of them took a look.
Alexi saw both Timeron knights, and he admired them for their icy beauty and strength. Sheathed from head to toe in spotless black corobidian armor, the young men looked barely twenty. Both had angular jaws, sharp aquiline noses, and dimpled chins. He suspected underneath those suggestive breastplates lay a torso that mirrored all the incredible muscular bumps and ridges. They looked slender, stood tall, and wore dashing leather boots and gloves over their gauntlets and feet. The shiny spurs adorning their heels had overly large spikes...necessary for riding blue dragons through the sky. Gorgeous blue cloaks fell from ornate black pauldrons carved with scenes depicting demons cavorting with humans under a black sun. Each of course had a weight near the hem so that they could be swung around in combat. The deadly "cape dance" of the Timeron knights was legendary, and had cost many a foe a limb or two.
Around them a crowd of peasant girls gathered, clucking like hens. The gallant knights signed autographs with paint brushes and one even wrote something on an exposed breast, smiling in glee the entire time.
"If you're such a badass, go challenge one of them," Daphne suggested.
Dudley swallowed hard and then turned his head and spat. "Shut up. Like I need to prove myself to you."
"What's the matter?" Alexi asked. "Afraid?"
Rowena kissed Dudley on the lips. "You have nothing to prove, unlike these l'il cunts. How about we move along, shall we?"
"I like the way you think," Dudley said to her, and then kissed Rowena back, fingers kneading her fake tits.
Alexi sighed, taking one more glance at the Timeron knights. He knew nothing so fine would ever show up at the Ball of Blood in their dilapidated academy of necromancy, but he could always dream.
They turned a corner, and the road before them had become a kaleidoscope of mud and horse scat. When Alexi took a step, he despaired that the strange colored mud immediately slid over the tops of his shoes. Stagnant pools of red, yellow, blue, and green intermingled here and there to form off-colored browns and purples. All of these hues came from the dyes used in the nearby cloth and textile shops. In fact, so much dye had filled the streets that brightly colored pigs darted amid the thick crowds, lending the road a kind of cheerfulness lacking in other areas of Zanda. Rowena took Dudley's hand and walked him through the mud to the entrance of a sex shop. Laughing, they both disappeared beyond a yellow door while Alexi and Daphne took their time, picking out a path through all the muck at their feet.
To the left, some old miners glared at them, skin so dark with soot that Alexi couldn't tell what race they were. The old men smiled, revealing several misplaced teeth. Each had a wiry head of hair with tufts poking out in every direction. Their clothes looked so dirty, Alexi suspected them of never having been washed.
"You girls lost?" One of the men asked, stepping forward. The stench of weeks of unwashed body swept over Alexi and Daphne.
"Yeah," the other one said, tongue hanging partially out. "You lost?"
Alexi grabbed Daphne's hand and pulled her along, barely dodging out of the way of a horse drawn carriage that passed inches from Alexi's face.
"Eeek!" Daphne screamed, spotting a rat the size of a dog lying dead in the street. Its intestines had spilled from inside its bloated body, crushed one too many times under the wheels of passing wagons.
Catcalls and whistles from the shadows of the road alerted Alexi to the danger of being in Slippery Squib without Dudley as escort.
"Maybe we should go back," he said, turning to look Daphne in the eye.
"Back where? The sex shop?" Daphne asked. "They fuckin' abandoned us and you just know she's going to give him a gobby in there." She tugged on her lower lip before shaking her head no. "Let's just keep going. It's not much further. We've come a long way, Alexi. It'd be a shame to turn back now."
He agreed and they picked up the pace, trudging through mud that at times sunk them to their ankles and tore the very shoes they wore from off their feet.
After a couple of blocks, Daphne said, "My clothes are positively ruined."
But Alexi didn't respond. Up ahead, and materializing out of the gloom, rose the Obelisk of Quiet. The dreadful spire soared into the black sky. Alexi marveled at its height, which probably came in around eighty feet. The whole of it was constructed of blocks of meticulously shaped and carved stone blocks, piled one atop another, in eight huge segments. Each face bore a different inscription, and the even sections of stone all bore bas-relief carvings of various demons and undead in alternating stages of revelry and quiet. Around its base, a small park had been erected. Grass on the other side of a low-lying stone wall looked yellowed, and there were several patches of animal turds positively buzzing with flies. A pathway of small paving stones made its way up to the edge of the needle.
Alexi crossed the busy street that skirted around the structure, which dominated a town square squatting pretty much at the exact center of Slippery Squib. Once he got to the wall, he waited for Daphne who took much more caution in crossing to the park's entrance. In the shadows of a nearby carpet shop, a black man in a turban sat in threadbare red and gold robes sucking smoke through a hookah. Across the street to the north, a slave auction finished, and a ten-year-old girl was handed to five men who'd pooled their money into a bowl to buy her. They looked like sailors and each grinned from ear to ear as they grabbed the screaming girl by the rope attached to her collar.
A great commotion to the south drew Alexi's eye as Daphne joined him. Towering above hundreds of frightened men and women, an eight-foot tall horned demon waded through the crowd, kicking men and women aside, its leathery wings flapping behind it, and carrying six huge scimitars in each of its many hands. Alexi reasoned that the demon—a rather commonplace thing in Zanda these days—probably got away from its summoner and would now wreak havoc on the locals until the militia brought it down. Such are the many perils of dealing in hell spawn. Occasionally, the hulking monstrosity cut innocent men and women in half with its sword, and swallowed their fresh carcasses by seizing the remains of their quivering flesh in its enormous hands. It always made sure to behead them, choosing victims with long manes because of the ease these grisly trophies could be hung from its gruesome belt.
Daphne screamed when she saw it.
"Shhh," Alexi said. "They're drawn to screams. We're safe as long as we don't call attention to ourselves."
"What is it?" Daphne asked him. It's like she instinctively knew he could give her an answer.
Alexi swallowed and led her to the lee of the obelisk. The black stone monument blocked the wind and even dampened some of the roar that came from the slave market as another choice piece of meat got auctioned on the block.
"It's an Abaddon. The name means "destroyer" in the infernal tongue. They are the workhorses of the armies of Hell." Alexi peered around the corner of the obelisk and saw that the huge demon had disappeared down a side street. "It's gone...for now. Hopefully the Blades will deal with it before it becomes a problem."
"You mean Dudley?" she asked.
"I mean men that are like Dudley," Alexi said. "He couldn't face an Abaddon. Very few mortal men could stand toe-to-toe with one. A Timeron knight could, but few others."
Daphne smiled. "You admire them, don't you?" she asked.
"Who? The Timerons we saw on the street back there?"
She nodded yes.
"Who wouldn't?" he asked. "They were so beautiful. There's a lot of ugliness in Zanda. It's nice to be able to look on beauty once in a while."
"So why are we here, Alexi?" Daphne asked. "Why are we in the middle of Slippery Squib?"
Alexi stared up at all the engravings and marks covering the monument, wishing that he had the knowledge to comprehend everything. High above the obelisk's sharp point, lightning played along the belly of furious storm clouds.
"We are here because I have questions, and this thing can give me answers," Alexi said. About a third of the way up, he noticed some motifs that had been scratched out. Having taken a particular interest in ancient Zandan hieroglyphs, he recognized the ones here as having been made around the Fourth Age. That would make this landmark at least a thousand years older than the surrounding city.
That can't be right, Alexi thought. All the legends say this was built by Lianon Pard after Zanda was founded.
"What is it?" Daphne asked. "You see something, don't you?"
He nodded. "That damaged stonework there," he pointed with his index finger. "The hieroglyphs are in ancient Zandan."
Daphne stared up at them and then said, "How come no one has noticed those before? I can make out several. Would you like me to read them to you?"
"Yes," Alexi said excitedly. "My recall of ancient Zandan is fuzzy, and I can't quite make out the symbols because the stone's been damaged so much."
"I don't know why I can," Daphne said, "but there's this weird kind of light that's playing along the edges, making them easier to read."
"Light? What kind of light?" Alexi asked, squinting at the stone. But he definitely didn't see what his friend saw.
Daphne shrugged. "It's white and outlines the symbols, all of them in fact, as I stand here. Even the ones that are completely missing...like this one...it's been chipped away by a hammer or something. I can see that it's in the shape of a woman with an urn on her head."
"Go on," Alexi urged.
"It's a story. The figures here are making an offering to something in a great temple, and their offerings are contained in the urns that they carry. The great temple lies in a vast graveyard of dragon bones, and they stretch out underneath a black sun whose name is Helio...Hurlo...
"Hurlothrumbo," Alexi said.
"Yes," Daphne replied. "How did you know?"
He shrugged. "I recognized the cartouche there. It was in an old story of Lianon Pard's adventures called the Locket. In that story, Lianon Pard found the font of necromancy itself and called it Hurlothrumbo. He said it rose above a mythical placed called The Dragon's Graveyard. The rays of Hurlothrumbo slay the living. I think that's it up there," he gestured.
"The dark sun with its rays coming down on an army of undead and demons?" Daphne asked.
"Yes," Alexi said. "Lianon Pard created a powerful locket and hid it in a mythical place called the Machlen Nocturnis. The traps are said to be of such deadly design, that no one could retrieve the locket without Lianon Pard's blessing. It is also said that the Locket is the only way into and out of the Dragon's Graveyard and that whomever wears it will be rendered immune to the death rays hurled by Hurlothrumbo as it passes overhead."
"What lies in the Dragon's Graveyard?" Daphne asked.
"A great treasure of some sort?" Alexi asked. "Does it say on the stones because I'm not sure?"
Daphne started to read again. "This part is about the Queen of Demons," she said, circling around the obelisk. "It tells a story of how the Queen of Demons was the most powerful goddess in a pantheon that numbered seven and twenty. To prevent an apocalypse on Wynwrayth, a great being known as the Thread—father and overlord of the gods—bound them all to a thing called the Cycle of Faith. All of them save Thomas, god of war, were forced to abandon their bodies of flesh and take spirit form. As long as they no longer possessed a flesh and blood avatar to walk the earth, each god could only exert its will on Wynwrayth through its worshipers. Thomas was allowed to keep his body because he was born of Inzilbeth, Taleta's sister, who was slain by Deeping Lore. Out of respect and memory of Inzilbeth, her one and only child would be granted permissions denied to the other gods. The Thread reasoned that this should happen because the Thread believed them all culpable for Inzilbeth's death. Taleta, of course, disagreed with the Thread's ruling and declared war on her brothers and sisters. Eventually defeated, it says she was imprisoned in the lowest layer of Hell, and the key to her release was the Halo of Thomas, which existed as a ring of light that shone over the young godling's head. This is because most of Thomas' powers came from Taleta, who bequeathed them to him as a baby when he was born. She also promised that one day they would clash, and it would be the War to End All Wars and that when she triumphed, darkness and demons would consume the cosmos that the Thread created. Only then would Inzilbeth's death be avenged."
"So the other gods just willingly gave up their flesh and blood bodies and bound themselves to the Cycle of Faith?" Alexi asked.
Daphne squinted, reading further up the obelisk. "Yes, it happened after they imprisoned her in Hell. The other gods weren't as strong as Taleta, and they didn't have as much of a say in opposing the Thread's wishes." She paused, still reading. "This seems quite important. Thomas eventually gave up his halo for fear that it could be snatched from his head while he slept. He took it from his own head, and it became a circlet of fine white bone. Then he presented it to Sheila, goddess of dragonkind, who placed it in a temple within the sacred realm of the Dragon's Graveyard. There, she placed a fabulous beast to guard it so that none may ever steal away with the bone circlet and throw it into the Pool of Arcanos. If this were to happen, then the chains holding Taleta in Hell would break, and the Queen of Demons would be set free on the world once more. In other words, she would emerge in flesh and blood to lead her people in the War to End All Wars."
"Now I know why the demons and undead up there are having a party under the dark sun," Alexi said.
Daphne nodded in agreement. A thunderclap sounded and it shook the ground around them. A bit of rain started to fall.
"Thomas is not the only god with a flesh and blood body anymore," Alexi said. "You know as well as I that things changed last year."
"Careful," Daphne said. "Gods can sometimes hear you when you speak their name."
"What does it mean?" Alexi asked. "With gods walking the earth once more? This can't be good, right?"
"I guess that depends," Daphne said. "Are you someone that wants a god to be able to just kill you outright for disagreeing with him? Or are you someone that would like some restrictions on that power? You know...like having to work through your followers. I think if you're part of the latter crowd, then having more flesh and blood gods on Wynwrayth threatens to unbalance everything. However, if you have one on your side, then you are powerful and every country in the world gives you respect. But as with all things, if they go out of kilter, it usually means lots of death. It's all just a game to them, Alexi. They're immortal and as old as the universe itself. They're all playing some cosmic game of chess that has rules to it us mortals are not privy to know. But if the Queen of Demons does emerge someday because some fool sets her free with the Halo of Thomas, I think we'd be smart to position ourselves on the winning side."
"Which is what our leadership is doing. Hence, the strong presence of Timeron knights just across the bay in the Keep of Anghul," Alexi said.
"And the Nykoran army that marched through our streets. The Noremarians and the Nykorans are allied with Zanda because for the first time in thousands of years, a flesh and blood god who represents our interests walks the land," Daphne said.
"Do you think we are evil, Daphne?" Alexi asked. "The Book of Thomas says—"
"You've read The Book of Thomas?" Daphne asked. "That book's forbidden."
Alexi broke out in a cold sweat, staring into the eyes of his friend. "Parts of it," he admitted.
She shook her finger. "I'll keep your secret, but you should stop sneaking into the forbidden section at school. You're going to get caught. Do I think Zandan life is evil?" Daphne considered this a moment. "There are things I don't like about it; things I would change. Demons running around without their masters is one. But our society has to be better than the rest of the world. The Valion knights are so cruel that they feed any child born with imperfections to the wolves. How barbaric. There is nothing wrong with things that are out of place, or malformed. Chagidiel, the god of flesh, teaches that ugliness is a lens through which the true nature of man may be revealed. Disease should be embraced for it strengthens the surviving population and culls the weak so that they may go on to live in paradise. And don't even get me started on backward views of female power. Noble women in our society are celebrated for having sex with lots of men. But would you believe that there are societies beyond our borders that consider our last Dreaded Irtemara disgusting for her birthday gift to the Blades Acuuarum?"
"You mean the time that she fucked the entire legion? It took three days and they reportedly wet her cunt repeatedly with wine to keep it lubricated?" Alexi asked. "That story?"
"The very same," Daphne said proudly. "Dreaded Irtemara Shalisa was a legend, and a hero to the people. Everyone loved her, and the thousands of men in the Blades Acuuarum wept when she died. I hear they're even erecting a statue of her near the palace."
"What of rapes and murders?" Alexi asked.
"Those exist in supposedly good societies as well, you know?" Daphne stated.
"But it happens here more often," Alexi argued.
Daphne put her hand on her hip. "According to whom? I'll have you know that I overheard a merchant who said that when the Valion knights...a supposed force for good in the world...conquered an army in Cassiterides that they executed them all. Twenty thousand men died before sundown. That's not murder, it's genocide. At least when we conquer our foes, they have an option to live comfortable lives in the households of Zandans everywhere."
"As slaves," Alexi said. "My father had four of them, and he raped them constantly and left them all starving."
Daphne frowned. "But he did feed them after they earned their keep I assume? And he clothed them and took care of their children. And if some of them died, I'm sure he hired a necromancer to make them undead so that their family would never know permanent loss. Imagine the comfort of always having your mother around, even if she has a craving for raw flesh. You could feed her livestock."
"Mindless undead?" Alexi asked. "And they stink, you know? The undead rot unless you don't make zombies, and that requires a powerful necromancer."
"Enough," Daphne said. "Alexi, honestly, if you can't see that we're the good guys then there's no arguing with you. But I'm warning you now that some of your ideas are dangerous and could be seen as heresy to the Israfil."
He nodded and stayed silent. A gust of wind stirred the leaves at their feet, and Alexi leaned upon the obelisk to steady himself. When his hand touched the stone, a doorway in Alexi's mind opened and revealed to him a vision.
He stood at the end of a road. In front of him rose an ironwork gate some twenty feet tall. Large stone pillars adorned with the faces of leering demons that swallowed children's heads stared down at him.
The tops of the fences had been filed into sharp points of rusted black steel and shaped to resemble human phalluses. They pointed toward a night sky filled with sparkling stars and beneath it spread colossal bones for as far as Alexi could see. Had it not been for something terrible rising above the graveyard at this very moment, Alexi might have taken a minute to stargaze.
But as things were, he stared at a bloated, misshapen and angry moon surrounded in an aura of darkness.
Alexi knew that it couldn't really be a moon because it hovered only a mile or so above him. But the thing looked the part. It floated like a Zandan "lantern for the dead." Slowly and purposefully, the thing drew a straight path toward the fence, beginning with some enormous structure on the horizon: a tower of gleaming white stone with many parapets and conical roofs, all of which shone like gold in the eerie light. The face of this moon was a leering, naked skull and he surmised that it was several hundred feet in diameter. Its eyes bubbled fire—pinpoints of blue formed the centers of those horrific sockets. From between its teeth emanated a beam of gray light that spread outward in a huge conical swath easily a thousand feet wide.
Alexi approached the gate and placed his hands on the iron rungs. They felt unnaturally cold on his flesh. Smoke billowed upward from his burning skin, but he didn't mind. He stared at the faraway structure and saw a ring of bone floating in a golden mote of light. He knew that he gazed upon the Halo of Thomas, but he didn't know why he could see it so clearly.
"The halo is the key to the power of Hurlothrumbo," a deep voice said in his mind.
"What do you mean?" Alexi asked. "Who's speaking to me?"
"Retrieve the circlet and you shall become the Master of Necromancy," the voice told him. "This is your destiny, Alexi. Find the locket in the Machlen Nocturnis, and you shall be Lianon Pard reborn."
"But where is the Machlen Nocturnis?" Alexi asked.
"Seek out Horigum Khaine in the Hollows on the Street of Perversions," the voice said. "He owns a shop called, `Agony.' You must go there and inquire within."
When Alexi fell to the ground, the vision and the voice fled his mind. He opened his eyes to a sting on his cheek and Daphne slapping him across the face. "Alexi!" she shouted. "Are you okay?"
He nodded, swallowing. He looked around but he saw only the familiar streets of Zanda. A torrent of rain had soaked both of them through to the quick, and he shivered in the cold wind.
"You were screaming," Daphne said. "What happened? Did the obelisk reveal something to you? The Obelisk of Quiet never shows anyone anything unless you're the reincarnation of Lianon Pard. Answer me! What did you see?"
"It's nothing," Alexi reassured her. "I-I saw nothing. The lightning scared me for some reason."
He let that sink in for a moment, and Daphne stared into his eyes probably trying to figure out if he was lying or not.
Only Lianon Pard can read minds, Daphne, he thought. Just let it go.
"Fine," she said. "Can we go home now?"
"Yes," he agreed, taking her hand in his. But as they left, he felt like unfriendly eyes followed him all the way back to the academy.
As usual, there's more on my website at http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/discussion-board-for.html under the label "Chapter Six" if you care to read ahead. Please comment on the forum. I'd love to hear about what you'd like to see in the story and maybe who your favorite character is thus far.