Sentinels: Forsaken Knight (18 page)

“Glenn…”

The roar of the dragons boomed, echoing all around with such ferocity that they shook everything on the ground. Anye's eyes quickly opened in shock from the sound, but unlike the sandy bed she remembered passing out in, she found herself in a hammock set up in a dark tent. Amadi was nowhere to be seen. The tent was strangely decorated, with plants and burning incense hanging on ropes, filling the room with a particularly strong odor. If she was being held prisoner it didn't feel like it, but the mystery of her location and companion placed her in an immediate state of panic.

She swung her feet from the hammock and placed them on the dusty floor. The feeling of cool sand between her toes opened her eyes to the fact that she had been completely undressed and garbed in a light robe that felt like silk. She had no idea where her weapons were, and being unarmed heightened her fear. The panic started to subside as she realized that she should at least be grateful she was alive. If someone had taken her prisoner, she doubted she would be anywhere but chained in a cellar.

Anye walked through the opening of the tent to the sight of a village nestled at the foot of the rocks, which she assumed to be the mountains she saw before. People all around her stopped as they saw the woman emerge from the tent to stare.

Being a knight, or at the very least a warrior, caused her to notice that every single person she could see was armed with an oddly fashioned curved blade. None of them had any armor on, but rather light cloths and wraps around their heads, along with sacks of what she presumed was water tied to their waists. Who they were, she had no idea; people weren't supposed to be living in the Sun's Bed.

"Ah, the desert princess wakes!" a light womanly voice yelled through the crowds. "We had feared the sands had taken you. It is fortunate you have returned!"

Anye looked to see a woman, similarly dressed but different enough to be identified as a leader of some kind, walk through the crowd in Anye's direction with Amadi beside her still holding his staff. The woman looked older than Anye, possibly at least ten years her senior, and had long black hair. Her skin had been tinted the color of the sand, and she had large medallion hanging from her neck.

"Who are you?" Anye asked. "Where am I? What's going on, Amadi?"

"Anye, we owe our lives to these people," Amadi answered.

"We are the watchers of the desert," the woman answered.

"You found us? How?" Anye was confused, unarmed, and while she tried to keep her composure she was afraid. "Where are my weapons? Why have I been undressed?"

"When our scouts saw you and your friend collapse in the wastes, they brought you here," the woman explained. "Your clothing was not helping your condition, so I had my maidens change you. Your weapons and attire are safely stored in my quarters." The woman paused and extended a hand towards Anye. "Please, come with me and I will return them to you."

Anye didn't feel like she had much choice, but at least it didn't seem like a bad one. She agreed and stepped forward to walk with Amadi and the strange woman.

When the trio started their pace, the rest of the people in the tent city began to go about their usual business, making the area sound more like a common market than a desert wasteland. The mountains Anye and Amadi had been trekking towards now loomed overhead, casting a long shadow across the sands. The length of the shadows indicated that either Anye had not been unconscious for long or she had been out for at least an entire day.

"There is not much time for introductions, I'm afraid," the woman began to say. "Since the arrival of the invaders, the mountain has been under constant siege, and our defending of the sacred ground has forced the invaders to begin attacking with more force."

"Invaders?" Anye asked, but she quickly knew what she meant. "You mean the dragons?"

"It seems the man you mentioned is indeed here," Amadi explained. "He arrived with his men shortly before we did, claiming the temple in the name of Delrich."

"The mountain temple is a sacred place. We cannot allow it to be disturbed by any except the ones destined to entire its hallowed ground," the woman continued. "To allow that man passage is sacrilege, and we denied him access. He answered with the fiery breath of the beasts he rode here on, but we are people of the desert. We have been holding them back with the unexpected help of another. But this Amador is powerful, and we cannot hold him off for much longer."

"Amadi, did you tell her why we are here?" Anye asked.

"I did, and she has granted us passage to the temple," he answered.

Anye seemed surprised at the quick answer. After the trouble they had been given on the islands only a day or two prior, she expected to have to fight her way there.

"You are the ones we have been waiting for to allow into the temple," the woman said before Anye could comment.

The trio finally reached the woman's tent as she began to explain how they had defended the temple for generations in secret, waiting for the day foretold in ancient prophecy when the youths destined to claim the artifact of the past would appear.

The tent was larger than all the others, made of a brighter colored fabric and decorated with symbols similar to what she saw in the research Lord Taggart had done on Del'Mond.

"Anye, before you become skeptical I proved to them that we fit the description of the youths in their prophecy," Amadi said.

"Amadi..."

"There is a chant among my people, the people of Qul’rah, which we use in times of anguish," Amadi explained. "That saying is in a language unlike mine, yours, or any other known language. It is the same saying these people recite in prayer, it is the words of Del'Mond.”

Anye saw the neatly folded pile of her clothes and weapons at the foot of the village leader's bed and walked towards it quickly. "Amadi, I don't care about these ancient legends, or prophecies, or demon armies. Amador is
here
, and I need to stop him! That’s what I need to do!"

"What about your duty as a knight?” Amadi asked. "What about preventing any more innocent lives from being lost? What about your honor?"

Anye spun angrily the moment Amadi said that. “My honor? My
honor
was stripped from me by a man who conspired against the crown and kingdom I swore to serve! That man is here,
now
, and you want me to forget about him for some quest to save the world from a
legend
because you had a
bad feeling
? I entered that tournament so somebody,
anybody
, would hire me as a sell sword! Not because it was my destiny or some rubbish you think it was!” Anye blurted out. “I took the job your uncle offered me because he paid me well and gave me the information I wanted!”

Anye was fuming. If she could get Amador right then and there, she wouldn’t care about anything else anymore. She wouldn’t feel the need to hide anymore, she wouldn’t be afraid of returning home, she wouldn’t care about any of it.

“The one you seek, this Amador,” the woman started to say. “He pushes even now to try and reach the temple. If you go with this boy to retrieve the divine relic we will not prevent him from reaching the temple. You will then have your chance for vengeance.”

Anye stared at the woman for a moment trying to measure up her intentions. “Why? Why allow him to reach your sacred grounds just for me?” she asked. “You just said only the destined youths of prophecy may enter, yet now you seem so willing to let him trespass just for me. Why?”

The woman shrugged. “Call it a gesture of faith,” she said. “I allow him to reach the temple while you and the boy are there, and you kill him. The siege stops, my people are safe, and our laws are not broken. But do my reasons really matter to you?”

At that point Anye really didn’t care for the woman’s reasons. So long as she got to stick her sword through Amador’s gut, she would be happy. “No, I suppose they don’t.”

______

Anye and Amadi agreed, although through a fair amount of arguing, that they should continue to rest for the remainder of the day and depart for the temple in the morning after they had recovered enough from the incident in the desert. The boy was worried about her, claiming that she wasn’t thinking clearly because of Amador’s presence, a fact that Anye openly admitted and that she didn’t care about thinking clearly.

She did eventually calm down some over the course of the evening while she rested, but the occasional sound of a dragon’s shriek bouncing off of the rocky cliffs reminded her of what had happened to her, something she tried very hard over the past few weeks to try and not think about. There was also the possibility that Glenn was nearby somewhere, but he hadn’t made his presence fully known, at least not to her. She assumed, or rather hoped, that the one helping the tribe defend the temple was him, but she still knew that the chances of it were slim and that there was little reason for him to be there. Lord Taggart’s information suggested he was traveling south as well, not west.

When the sun started to peek again from across the sands to the east, Anye and Amadi were both led out of the village to a mountain path by a guide assigned to them. Amadi had noticed Anye’s significant change in attitude, but he kept his distance so he wouldn’t provoke another argument.

The path leading through the mountains to the temple was treacherous. Sudden drop offs, rock slides, and narrow edges they needed to traverse all hindered their trip, but none of the obstacles outright stopped them. Eventually the trio came to what seemed like the safest part they had seen in the mountain, where the guide suddenly stopped in his tracks and kneeled.

Before them on either side of the path were two worn down and practically shattered stone columns. If an arch had been placed at the top it was no longer present, likely reduced to the rubble and rock that lay around them from the elements. At the end of the path stood a tall round stone tower surrounded by the rocky edges of the desert mountain rising up.

“What’s the matter?” Anye said to the guide.

“We’ve arrived at the sacred ground, I assume,” Amadi commented. “Remember what their leader said? Only the chosen ones may enter.”

“That tower must be the temple then.” Anye stepped forward without a second thought, leaving the guide behind, knowing he wouldn’t follow and likely wouldn’t leave. Those people knew the mountains intimately, and if they had been defending that place from Amador there were probably others hiding in the rocks he would join up with.

Amadi followed Anye closely as they walked down the path. Based on the general landscape in front of the tower, it appeared that at one point in time the entire area was a well-kept garden with statues of monstrous creatures placed in decoration.

“Quite the demonic army,” Anye sarcastically commented.

Amadi was not amused by the joke. “You have no idea,” he muttered as they approached the tower.

The two continued in silence until they reached the massive doors at the tower’s base. As old as the area appeared, the tower itself was surprisingly well preserved. While simple in design, Anye hadn’t seen architecture quite like it anywhere before. The stone that comprised the tower’s main body had been visibly worn down by years of exposure to the wind and sun, but there wasn’t a single piece that had fractured and fallen away. There were no visible windows along the walls rising into the sky, so Anye questioned whether anything living actually waited inside for them.

“Well, let’s see about getting this door open then,” Anye commented as she walked towards the structure. She was interrupted before she reached it by another shriek of a dragon, this time much closer than before.

“Anye, get down!” Amadi yelled at her as he turned around and raised his staff in the air.

A blue light shone from the gem in his staff when he held it high, which spread wide to block the stream of fire that came down at them along with the cry the two had just heard. Anye didn’t waste any time and drew her swords.

When the fire stopped Amadi lowered his staff, and the two watched as a black scaled dragon landed on the ground with at least fifteen more of the creatures behind it. The ground shook slightly as each one landed, threatening to throw the pair off balance, but they remained upright while the dust settled.

“Now
this
is a surprise,” Anye heard from in front of her. “Lady Anye Everdyne, you were the last person I expected to see here.”

As soon as he was visible, Anye glared right at the man who had wronged her; Amador Astley, still riding his black dragon and now in command of Delrich’s Dragon Knights. Quick observation showed that he had also changed weapons, replacing the usual issued lance from the castle’s armory with a custom weapon crafted out of a black metal with a slightly warped shape. The bottom of the weapon’s main body was given two small blades forming a fork, likely for tactical reverse strikes, but the most drastic difference from the usual lances was the blade at the top. Instead of a cone shape, which the user would use to skewer their foes, this weapon had a blade shaped like a black dancing flame, sharply edged all around.