Empress Aurora Trilogy Quest For the Kingdom Parts I, II, and III Revised With Index (Quest For the Kingdom Set) (13 page)

To say it was
hot was inadequate as far as Marcus was concerned. The blazing sun hit the sand
with the scorching effect of fire on dry leaves in the autumn. His very skin
felt as if it were on fire, and would steam if water were poured over him.

To hit the
barren desert after dwelling in the verdure of Gaudereaux was to feel the
sensation of walking into an oven after a refreshing walk in the woods. Marcus
felt the pores of his skin expand; his eyes felt dry and he struggled to
breathe. His very lungs seemed to sear in the intense heat. And the nights were
as cold as the days were hot. The coming of nightfall brought a chill to the
sand that was scorching by day. The cold was so intense that it seemed to
Marcus he could never get warm.

And they were
thirsty, always thirsty, careful not to use up their precious supply of water,
taking only enough to get them through the next march of their trek across the
desert. A five day journey, Lothair stated. How could anyone survive five days
in this hostile environment?

On the endless
horizon it stretched before them, a landscape of yellow-white sand interspersed
with occasional dunes and rocky outcrops. Were it not for the dunes and the
rocks, the monotony of the sand would have been unbearable, only adding to the
sense of dull dreariness as they viewed their course.

Indeed,
Lothair had warned them of the dangers of the desert. The intense heat of the
day could dry one out if there was a shortage of water. The bitter cold of
night could freeze the blood in one’s veins if one was not careful to provide
enough covering. And many of the creatures that lurked in wait for an unwary
traveler were venomous: one bite was sufficient to bring death, and a quick and
painful one it was, too.

He glanced at
the others to see how they fared. Felix plodded on, his head bent down, putting
one foot carefully before the other. Small Cort trudged bravely, but finally
succumbed and had to be carried by Dag. The stalwart man alone seemed
unaffected by the heat. He marched as erectly now as when they started crossing
the desert two days ago. The man must be made of iron, Marcus thought with
admiration. Or else he wanted to impress Fanchon and therefore kept any
complaints to himself.

For Fanchon
had accompanied them, much to the astonishment of Felix and the annoyance of
Marcus. When the time came to leave Gaudereaux, she and Dag could not be
parted. Their ardor was too intense, and Fanchon begged her parents to allow
her to journey on with Dag. They not only permitted it, incredible though it
seemed to the young Valerian aristocrats, but gave their consent and their
blessing to the betrothal of the giddy girl to the primitive Trekur Lender.

They reasoned
that Fanchon was bored in Gaudereaux and with the men who made it their home,
and that Dag was unusual enough to keep the interest of their flighty daughter.
And they genuinely respected Dag for his courage, honesty, and strength. As for
practical matters such as where and how to live upon the occasion of the
marriage, that would also be decided at the time, said her father, Pascal.
Matters have a way of resolving themselves, added her mother, Gaelle.

Pascal
reasoned that Fanchon traveling with the young men as Dag’s betrothed would
satisfy the conventions. It would do his daughter good to see a bit of the
world and might calm her restless spirit. Gaudereaux and its inhabitants had
long ceased to be of any interest to her, and she filled her idle time with
frivolous pursuits, Gaelle chimed in. A change of scene might be the very thing
she needed at this time, they agreed as one voice.

All of this
Marcus reflected on as they made their way across the hot, arid landscape. And
he had to confess that Fanchon was doing far better than he anticipated. He had
expected such a fragile creature to wilt in the heat. But the dainty girl
actually seemed to enjoy the novelty. Indeed, she never ceased talking about
it.

“Can you
believe this heat? I have never felt such heat in Gaudereaux! It is like an
oven when they fire the brick, no? Now that I mention oven, is anyone hungry? I
am! Grapes would be more than welcome at the moment! And grapes remind me of
wine. We have not had any of that since we left Gaudereaux, no? I suppose we
will have to settle for water to quench our thirst. Do we have any? Water, that
is, I know we have no wine.”

Marcus rolled
his eyes. Would this girl never stop her inane babbling? Her habit of tacking
“no” onto the end of a question that already returned a negative answer was
almost as exasperating as Dag’s “yah” when giving an affirmative reply. Between
the two of them they had a response for any question that might be put to them.
Perhaps it was a perfect match after all. Fanchon could do all of the talking
in a conversation. All that would be required of Dag was to listen adoringly
and say yah.

Marcus was not
alone in his feelings of irritation that Fanchon invariably aroused in him.
Cort openly resented the girl’s monopolization of Dag.

“I know that
Dag has to wed someone,” he explained to Marcus. “But why could he not choose a
girl with a greater mind and a smaller mouth?”

Marcus puzzled
in this matter also. Dag was so sober and practical that his attraction to the
frivolous and fun-loving Fanchon was a mystery to Marcus. Felix, however, found
Fanchon’s incessant chatter amusing. Even more amusing to him was the thought
of Fanchon and the silent Trekur Lender as man and wife.

“Do not be too
hard on Fanchon, Marcus,” Felix chuckled. “At least someone in the family will
keep the conversation going!”

Now as they
traveled the desert Marcus pondered what lay ahead. Would the Pearl be found in
Koohyaram? Marcus had never heard Valerius mention it. And if Lothair were to
be believed, it was not under Valeriun control. Perhaps that was why his father
had never spoken of the city. For it must surely be an unimportant little
place, if it were not part of the vast Valeriun Empire. For surely no lands
could compare to the ones contained in her great domain.

But Marcus was
about to learn otherwise, and to have all that he had believed all of his life
turned upside down.

The morning of
the fifth day had dawned. They had kept to an arduous pace, only pausing to
rest, never for more than a half an hour every four hours during the daylight
hours. At night they slept about seven hours, so eager were they to leave this
barren region behind them that they willingly sacrificed sleep to do so.

They divided
the night into watches, with Marcus, Felix, and Dag each taking two hours on
guard while the others slept. In this manner they each managed to sleep about
five hours, but refreshed themselves during their daytime breaks. Exhausted
though they were, Marcus did not feel at ease with the thought of everyone
sleeping through the night. There were night creatures that came out in the
desert, and they needed to be alert for danger.

This vigilance
was rewarded on their third night when Dag woke everyone up from a sound sleep.

“Wake up!” he
whispered as he shook everyone from their slumbers. “There is no time to waste!
Look!”

Marcus peered
into the distance and spotted a troupe of bandits traveling under cover of
darkness. They were five in number, and they were upon them almost as soon as
Dag gave the alert.

“Bandits!”
Felix exclaimed. “Of all the scourges of the desert, we had to run into them!”

“Quiet!”
Marcus warned him. “We must protect Fanchon and Cort! Do not draw attention to
us before they reach our encampment.”

Marcus quickly
thrust Fanchon and Cort behind a dune for safety, while he and Felix and Dag
stood ready in defense. The bandits descended upon them with shouts and drawn
daggers, but Dag grabbed two of them by the neck and cracked their heads
together, rendering them unconscious.

Marcus found
himself pitted against a swarthy man who was no match for his own expertise
with a dagger. He stabbed the bandit in the thigh, making it difficult for him
to arise, then through the shoulder, making it impossible for him to raise his
arm to fight. Felix proved to be as agile in a fight as he was in his quick
thinking, and eluded his attacker with the swiftness of a fox, then whirled
around on him and stabbed him through the hand. The man dropped the dagger and
cried out in pain.

The remaining
bandit was surprised by Fanchon, who, to the astonishment of Marcus and Felix,
popped out from behind the dune with a cooking pan she had pulled from Dag’s
pack and hit him on the head with a mighty whack. He fell to the ground and lay
insensible.

“Well done, my
love!” Dag beamed at her.

Fanchon merely
giggled, but Marcus, Felix, and Cort laughed and clapped their approval and
applause at her daring feat.

“Well, we must
be near to the City of Gold if we are encountering scum like those bandits,”
Felix remarked. “It would stand to reason that they would be alert for
travelers who might be carrying gold and other luxuries out of the City if it
truly is as wealthy as we have been told.”

“I believe you
are right, Felix,” Marcus nodded. “Let’s double our caution the closer we get
to the City, if this is the case.”

Their
provisions of food and water skins held up, being carefully rationed. But a
steady diet of nuts, dried fruit and berries were all they carried; meat and
cheese would spoil in the boiling heat. Each yearned for a hearty meal and
thought longingly of the banquets they had savored in Gaudereaux. And their
tepid water was far from appealing; a cold, clear drink of icy water was never
more appealing than now. Oh, how they longed to leave this desolate tract
behind them and see civilization again!

For it had
been lonely and eerie in the desert. The only signs of life they saw other than
the robbers were strange creatures that appeared armored against the heat, and
hostile to any invaders in their domain. A small mammal that Cort wished to
befriend shied from his approach, while Marcus and Felix kept a wary out for
poisonous snakes known to inhabit arid regions. Dag kept his spear close by his
side, lest they happen upon a predator of a species as yet unknown to them, as
warned by Lothair the Bard.

Yes,
civilization would be welcome at this juncture in their journey! To be safely
ensconced once more behind protecting walls from the strange and terrible
beasts of the wild, and the marauding bandits, and mingling with humanity
again, albeit of a different kind of culture, Marcus thought to himself. He
yearned for a warm bath and a hearty meal, accompanied by ice-cold water,
enough to drink until he was sated. To engage in intelligent conversation with
men who were informed on the topics of the day. And he longed to hear the
beauty of music and song instead of the silent emptiness of the desert.

They did not
speak much, wishing to conserve their strength for the long trek across the
vast expanse. Indeed, merely walking expended so much energy that not much was
left for even polite conversation. In the first day or two they attempted to
talk, but soon found it too great an effort, and it also increased their
thirst. They were quickly reduced to communicating by hand gestures and weary
nods of their heads.

On the fourth
afternoon, they thought they had found the city. Felix saw on the horizon what
looked like water. He insisted he saw a pool of blue. But it proved to be only
a chimera, one of those false illusions produced by the sun on sand. And a
weary brain! All felt the plummeting of their spirits through the
disappointment, but as Felix reminded them, they should have only one more day
to trudge through the heat before coming to the City of Gold.

But now as
they plodded through the sand, they came to an elevation. Lothair had told them
to be on the lookout for it, because over that elevation they would descend to
a valley that marked the edge of the desert. Koohyaram was on a hilltop
directly opposite. They would see it from the crest of the rise.

Marcus found
himself recalling the words of Lothair: “Koohyaram rises from the hilltop like
a mound of gold. Her walls soar fifty feet high, and all about her on every
side, to protect her from any invader so foolish as to attempt to lay siege to
her. She is a vision of beauty that seems not quite real after the barren
landscape of the Desert of Dubar.”

Marcus felt he
could not take one more step, even after a few hours of sleep. He knew the
others were just as weary and resolved not to complain. But, oh how glad he
would be to be rid of this baking heat!

Up, up, up.
The sand beneath their feet shifted, making their footing treacherous. An
orange light appeared in the East as they crested the top of the rise. With a
sudden surge of strength Marcus hurled himself to the peak. He extended his
hand to Felix, who gave his to Dag. Dag caught Fanchon’s hand, and she grasped
Cort. Marcus pulled, and each did likewise, thereby creating a human chain that
allowed them to hoist each other up. At last they stood together on the summit.

With deep
breaths, they rested and looked to the East. The sun peeked over the horizon,
in a glow of light. Gradually the land around them was bathed in a warm
radiance, transforming the pale sands of the desert into a place of alien
loveliness as it took on a glitter that was absent during the scorching heat of
the day. Suddenly, the sun rose in earnest, rapidly ascending in a blazing
orange ball.

And there, on
the opposite hilltop across a valley lay Koohyaram, the City of Gold. Walls of
gold encompassed the city and soared to the sky. The sun kissed her ramparts
and bathed her in a dazzle of gilded glory. Like a jewel she appeared to grace
the emptiness of the landscape; opulent, luminous, and gleaming as the dawn
softly caressed her in its embrace.

Felix let out
a whoop of joy. Dag embraced first a weary Fanchon who smiled feebly in her
exhaustion, then small Cort, who jumped, then slid on the shifting sands.
Marcus simply let out a sigh of relief in thankfulness that they made it across
the desert.

Slowly,
carefully, they began their descent to the valley below.