The Exodus Sagas: Book III - Of Ghosts And Mountains (61 page)

“Hurry, all inside now! Zen, shut it!” The gray minotaur stood in front of them as they took the last of the sleeping scavenger animals and ran back in the cave.

Saberrak shoved James suddenly, just in time for a spear of bone to miss his head. The horned warrior’s greataxes slashed up twice, cutting the spear once and knocking it loose with the second strike. Zen was praying loud, sweating, chanting in the dwarven tongue and holding his hammer and moons as his hand pulled the softening rock back closed.

The Mogi warrior slid off the slope from above the entrance and made for the entrance. Saberrak stepped twice and rammed his horns into the chest of the snarling fifteen foot cannibal. They snarled, roared at one another, wrestled, then the Mogi picked Saberrak up. His axes cleaved into collarbone on each side of its neck, dropping it to its knees in growling pain. Saberrak saw shadows over his head, above the entrance, there were more.

Black blood poured over the body from the giant, then sprayed the entrance from another axe slash, then covered the floor with the consecutive hacks that took its head. Saberrak dove in the wedge that remained from the divine prayers that Zen evoked to close the mountain cave. His horns were grabbed by another Mogi cannibal that had reached through.

James took a two handed chop, then another, then a third, and the forearm attached to Saberrak’s horns was severed. The guttural roar of the stone crushing the shoulder of the Mogi outside was almost as horrid as the black blood that ran through the crack of stone Zen had left open. The severed arm twitched then released and fell to the ground.

The stomping of the slope and mountaintop went on for hours, the angered Mogi had missed their catch again.

No one spoke, there were no words. James had thought quick, acted fast, and likely saved them from certain death from starvation. They all smelled the whiskey and none approved. Still, no one said a word to him. Saberrak nodded, an unspoken thanks for the food and the timely swordstrokes.

Vulture and crow necks snapped, hyenas were bled out and skinned, and a fire was started with gathered bones and cloaks they no longer needed. Gwenneth kept the fire going with arcane energies from her staff and Zen prayed to Vundren for the smoke to funnel out the crack so they did not suffocate. Saberrak and James cleaned and cooked the scavenger meat while Shinayne kept watch out the small fissure over Deadman’s Pass.

With cool water, unpleasant meats, and a cave to keep them safe, the companions en route to the lost mines of Kakisteele survived another day. They heard the chants, listened to the footsteps and stomping to try and gauge numbers, and waited. James ate quietly, rested little, and tried not to think about when,
not if
, they would have to open the cave and fight their way out against the cannibal tribes of the Mogi.

Kendari III:IV

Ruins of Stillwood, Eastern Kivanis

Shiver
slashed wildly, barely even meeting resistance, but the heat seemed to make up for what the steel failed to do to the spirits of the dead. Kendari whipped the crossblade across immediately after, cutting through five elven ghosts as if they were paper. They faded quickly, angered facades upon the already perished, but the Nadderi paid no mind and kept moving.

His steps were perfect, blocking transparent blades with a blur of parries, and riposting a hundred times to the doom of those that sought their revenge from beyond the grave. His brothers and father were the first to fall, forever ago it seemed. The onslaught was never ending, now the next morning from whence he was surrounded. Kendari had pushed himself beyond the limits of any soldier, any elf, even past the famed swordmasters of his race.

He had killed thousands, thousands without armor, flesh, or real steel in their hands. His wounds were few, pinpoint bruises where bleeding cuts would have normally been. The cursed swordsman did not care, he was outnumbered, and against those that wished him dead like them. His longswords plunged through the charging elves, diminishing three at a time. Then he swept in masterful arcs that destroyed ten more of the gray spectres. Diving, rolling, and slashing more from atop ruined stones and dead tree roots, Kendari cut down the last of the haunts.

He looked around and saw nothing. Sweat rolled in big drips from his soaked hair, down his marked face, and his breaths came in gasps of pure exhaustion. Shiver and the crossblade sheathed, free from blood despite all his enemies vanquished. He had taken their blood four hundred years past. Now, he had taken their revenge and spat it back at them from the still lands they resided in. The grove was quiet, the Nadderi tree with the sword of suicide called to him, and Kendari paced.

“Bravo, bravo, Kendari the kinslayer revisits his past and is victorious! We are all amused, yet those bodies do not fulfill our bargain. They were already dead for the counting once, my marked assassin.”

Her voice would enrage him, terrify him here and now, had he the energy or care left. He smelled the sulphur, saw the shadows move outside the circle of elven sacred ground to his left, Nareene was here but Kendari could not see where.

"Show yourself, demon. And bring me water while you ramble, I have a thirst.”

“No water where I am at, none at all. But not to worry, I will be out soon, twas but a wound of the flesh that takes days to heal in hell. A month or two here in your time and you will see me Kendari. Be patient.” Her voice echoed in the grove, laughter of a hundred cackling whores, and the foulest creatures all in one.

“I am most anxious indeed.” He looked, a small rabbit by a banyan tree, sitting quiet, her voice came from it for certain.

“So why did you come here? To ask forgiveness?”

Kendari stabbed the rabbit with one fluid stroke that unleashed Shiver, killed the animal, and sheathed it all in one blink of an eye. The rabbit bled then black shadow rose into the air from its blood.

“No, to end it all.” Kendari tried to watch the shadows but they blended into the air and then to nothing.

“That was rude, so rude. I thought I had taught you better manners?” Nareene took a small blackbird high in the trees and out of his reach this time.

“Does it hurt? When I kill you, is their agony? I surely hope so.” Kendari could not reach the bird, so he sheathed his blades and sat against the banyan tree, letting the sun warm his face and the breeze cool his hair.

“No, it is rather pleasurable. However, keeping this form of communication in a place such as this is quite taxing on my spirit.”

“You have no spirit, no soul, you are a demon. You take from this world and give to your masters. You are but a tool of a sick carpenter bent on forging evil instruments and spreading death. I care not what may tax you, Nareene.”

“How very complimentary of you, I will inform Cancuru of your flattery. You will see him soon enough, that flattery may buy you a few centuries less of intolerable torment in Lake Holavis at the end of Tartralam. My master enjoys the exiles that drown in the dead, they go quite mad in their---“

“
Silence!
” A woman’s ear piercing voice shredded the near quiet of Stillwood.

The trees moved, the clouds thickened and stood still, and the ground shook. The blackbird possessed by Nareene looked, as did Kendari, as green light radiated through a crack in the earth and shot into the air. The Nadderi tree moaned, the sword in it crackled with black sparks, and Kendari vomited as his stomach churned uncontrollably. Nareene flew fast to another tree further away.

“
You both are most unwelcome here! What daring audacity would bring you to Stillwood? Either of you?!”
Seirena hovered above the crevice in the soil, surrounded by green illumination, her blonde white hair thrashing in winds that were not there, and her green glowing eyes fixed upon Kendari.

Her voice held a power that was beyond mortal scope. Kendari quivered, he could not talk, he was in the circle of the grove near the Nadderi tree which only amplified the terror and blasphemy that he felt for being alive and here. He reached up to shield his eyes but his hand only got a foot off the ground before the tremors were too much.

“Kendari was coming to end his life, so it would seem, great mother. I was simply urging him to do so and foretelling---“

“I hear a temptress speaking, my sons’ voice from one of my birds, Cancuru is it? My second born child, does he enjoy Tartralam? Does he enjoy the exiled purgatory of the dead and the insane?
Send him his mothers’ love!”
Seirena’s green eyes flared, the bird exploded with shadow and screams of a thousand women and demons in unison. Then, as if nothing happened, the bird flew off.

“Now, Kendari, surely you came here for something other than disturbing the dead. Speak.” Seirena looked to the sky as if something may be watching her.

“
Just to…end it…is all…unforgiving Goddess…of---“

“Silence, your quivering annoys me and I cannot stay long. Did you come to die? Because I cannot kill, nor shed blood, not of a living creature on the earth. You, like it or not, are still mine while you live.”

“
No…I want…to---“

“End the suffering? Find a reason to live? Not from me, Kendari the kinslayer, not from me. How many did you kill, have you killed?” Seirena watched the trees, the clouds, she was nervous out here without any protection.

“
Thousands…I am…not---“
His tremors would not stop, his words were cut off, she was reading his thoughts as fast as they came. He had second thoughts on returning now, her presence caused a pain no one could endure, let alone him.

“Today does not count, they were already dead. So, you have taken the lives of just over two thousand one hundred by your blades alone in just over six hundred years of life. That is directly, I hold you accountable for only that, though your justice of the curse was due to your assisted leadership in killing nearly ten thousand in one battle. So, am I to forgive you for that? I think no. What have you ever done to deserve any redemption?”

“
The queen…of Harlaheim…I---“

“Ahhh, yes. You saved one woman, roughly saved mind you, but yes. One adulteress queen, There is one. Do you wish forgiveness? I am forgiving, my son
Cancuru
, you will not escape that, not ever. But I, yes, I can forgive you.” Seirena smiled.

“
Yes?...then..I am…---“

“No, not yet. You will retain those marks and your curse until you have redeemed yourself in my eyes. I want one hundred lives saved for every one you killed. That would be two hundred ten thousand three hundred. I would guess you to be in your last century of life, give or take a few decades. You best get busy, Kendari.”

“
Go…to…hell…you---“

“I know my father sent many of my children there already as they deserved, now they rule there and send their flock to ones like you. Get your mind off of anything I see in your recent past. Take that sword, end it, I have offered my terms of redemption.” Seirena started to fade, back into the crevice, she called to her sanctum in Soujan Mountain.

“
I will…do as..I wish…and I will…see your..words---“

“Oh, I remember. You cursed me and my son Siril, and all of the Whitemoon, I never forget Kendari. Keep your mind off of
Shinayne T’Sarrin
, I see your thoughts. My son Siril will strike you dead should you even think to act upon what I just saw. If I had not come, Siril
would have
, and you would be no more.”

“
I will…go west…and follow…them…and you will…regret…this moment…more…You know..I can…kill her easily.
” Kendari, tremors or not, knew when someone showed interest and threatened, it meant they cared enough to mention it. Goddess or not, he knew that Seirena did not like him thinking of that highborne elven woman he met in Chazzrynn. He smiled.

“You want to be of use, is that your threat? Travel to Armondeen, to Vin Armon then, you will know what to do. Do that, and I will hold the Hedim Anah off of you for three days. Do it not, and I will have my granddaughters summon them now from their temples. Then I will send the guardians of the Temples of the Whitemoon and my Knights Soujan. I will be watching Kendari, my eyes are everywhere. You will be followed by one you will
never
trick again….” Seirena, Goddess of the earth and life, faded into the green light. The crevice closed as if it never were.

Kendari stood, his trembling stopped, the pain was sharp in his abdomen. He looked to the sword. He heard a crunch in the leaves of Stillwood and turned. There was a deer, young, nubs for horns, eating grass not five feet away. It stared at him, growled as if it were a dog, and continued eating.

The Nadderi elf gripped the sword, a curved elven longblade he would never use, and pulled it from the tree. The tree moaned and whispered in anger. Kendari strapped the blade to his back and looked to the deer. He thought he imagined the whole thing, wished he had, but he knew it was his mind trying to rationalize the trauma. He smiled, having defied the Gods once more, and even having something to possibly keep him occupied a month or so. Hopefully, it involved some killing.

“And who are you then, something I ate long ago? Reborn to follow and torment me for enjoying a meal of you or your family? I hope you can keep up.”

The deer growled its best growl again as it chewed.

“You do not frighten me, tell her that. You best hope I do not get hungry in the long journey to Armondeen.”