Golden Age (The Shifting Tides Book 1) (12 page)

19

The bireme left Cinder Fen as soon as there was enough light to see by, speeding across the water as the men of the crew did their utmost to leave danger behind.

Kargan ordered the pounding drum to set a pace twice the usual rate, and even as Chloe’s heart went out to the slaves below decks, she felt relief as the mountains and the black clouds crowning them disappeared under the horizon.

Hasha came up to the top deck and bowed when he reached Kargan, whose hand was on the mast as he scanned the sea.

‘Slow the pace, lord? Two slaves are not moving. Even the whip will not raise them.’

‘Keep it up,’ Kargan growled, never ceasing his exploration of the water. ‘We are skirting the Sea of Serpents. Even the
Nexotardis
is not safe from a leviathan.’

‘Lord, we will lose more slaves, and we have no replacements.’

Kargan finally turned his gaze on the master of the oars. ‘Right now my eyes are on you, when they should be on the sea. Do you need to hear your orders again?’

‘No, lord.’ Hasha bowed, leaving Kargan to his work and returning below decks.

Her fears now heightened, Chloe moved back to the ship’s stern, finding a place near the helmsman where she could be alone, her hands gripping the rail tightly as she inspected the dark blue water. Every darker patch caused her heart to skip a beat; every piece of flotsam made her jump. She took comfort in the fact that she wasn’t the only one: every man on deck not fully occupied searched the water with anxious eyes. They were out in the open ocean now, so dark and deep that the sailors muttered among themselves and prayed to Silex for protection. The waves were half the height of the ship. Chloe realized she was so afraid of wildren that she had forgotten about the ship’s sickening motion.

Kargan left the mast and traveled to the stern to speak with the helmsman, his booming voice loud enough that she easily heard his words.

‘Take her three points to starboard. This is the longest run of our journey, and we need to get to Athos by nightfall, for if we miss the island altogether there’s no land for leagues.’

The day passed with interminable slowness, the sun climbing the cloudless sky and hanging directly overhead as the slave Kufi gave Chloe some bread and dried figs. She tried to engage him in conversation again but he shook his head and moved away without a word.

Kargan finally allowed the drum to slow, and every man on the open deck sighed with relief, knowing they were past the greatest danger. As the dazzling orb of the sun fell toward the west Chloe moved her place to stay within the shade of the sail. Her chiton was thick and white, good for warding off the bright rays, but it left her arms bare and her pale skin was already burned pink. She hadn’t changed her clothing since the banquet; the hem was dirty and the rest was sweat-stained.

She wondered what her father would be doing to free her. There were over a dozen powerful war galleys in Phalesia’s navy – none strong enough to challenge the
Nexotardis
alone, but as a group they would make short work of the Ilean ship. The problem would be speed. Unless winds were exceptionally favorable, no Phalesian vessel could hope to catch the swift bireme.

Unless, Chloe thought, Kargan planned on spending a long time on the isle of Athos.

Her heart sank. It was unlikely. Although Kargan might have plans to make an offering to the Oracle, he would be anxious to return to Lamara after his long voyage and the delays caused by the repairs to his ship.

Thinking of the Oracle made Chloe consider the future, and she pondered her own fate as the day passed. The sun reached the low horizon, sending angular rays across the ocean in long shimmering tapers, and still they had yet to sight land. She thought about Lamara, a city she knew almost nothing about, only that it was the capital of Ilea and home of the sun king. From this city he ruled his empire, which now encompassed most of the Salesian continent. The names of these lands were all strange to her: Shadria, Ilea, Sarina, Haria . . .

Despite Kargan saying that Solon would want to know about Chloe’s home, it was obvious that he had taken her on his own initiative.

What if Solon had no use for her? What if he tortured her in order to glean information? Chloe swallowed. She could be married off, beheaded, imprisoned, or given as a gift to the sun king’s soldiers.

She fought down panic. She couldn’t think like this. She had to escape.

As if on cue, Kargan came to stand beside her at the rail. ‘We will stop tonight to make an offering to the Oracle at Athos and rest. Tomorrow night we will beach at Koulis, and we will have crossed the Maltherean Sea.’

‘You worship the Oracle also?’

‘Of course. The sun king honors the Seer. She is the most powerful of all the magi. For what is more powerful than foretelling the future?’

The sun had now completely set, leaving an afterglow that would soon give way to starlight. Kargan’s voice was calm, but his ceaseless scan of the horizon as he searched for Athos betrayed his anxiety.

He suddenly breathed softly, a nearly inaudible sigh of relief. Peering ahead, Chloe saw a dark island rising out of the open sea as Kargan went to give further orders to the helmsmen.

‘Land!’ a sailor cried.

Athos was one of the most isolated islands in the Maltherean Sea, but it was also large and self-sufficient, beholden to no other nation. As the ship approached Chloe saw a dim blanket of pine trees covering the low ground – it wasn’t a mountainous place – interspersed with the occasional patch of oak or cedar. Given the island’s reputation as home to the Oracle, she was almost surprised to see that it was so wild; in her mind the isle and the temple were one and the same. Instead it was the sort of environment where one would expect to find deer.

Night descended as they skirted a headland and traveled along Athos’s coastline, heading south, passing tiny coves and long sandy beaches, barely discernible in the starlight. Continuing to follow a long stretch of white shoreline with curling breakers pounding on the sand, Kargan took the ship closer to the shallow water, so that she lifted and fell with every line of waves traveling underneath her. Hearing the roar of the crashing surf, mesmerized by the white spray, Chloe hoped Kargan wouldn’t attempt a landing, for the waves would throw the ship heavily forward, and she couldn’t see how it could be managed without the bireme breaking up.

Then they rounded another headland and came still closer to shore, but the water here was calmer, and Chloe saw that they were heading into a narrow cove. The sudden calm filled her with relief as she realized they must be close to their destination.

The drum pounded as the oars crashed into the water, pulled the ship forward, lifted out, and plunged in once more. Kargan ordered the sail to be lowered.

Peering ahead, to where they would be landing on a strip of white sand, Chloe gasped, gazing for the first time at the sacred site.

The land here was treeless, devoid of any plants at all. Structures of fitted stone melded with the shape of rock and crag to create a place where the manmade and the natural collided. But there was also a third force present, something strange and ethereal, for there were flames everywhere, burning fires erupting out of the rock, the flames all different colors: blue, emerald, crimson, and gold.

Above the beach was a domed hill, shaped like a horseshoe that had been bent out of shape. It rose out of the ground a mile from shore, dominating the area around.

Tall monoliths were erected at various places along the top of the hill, facing the water, a spiked crown of smooth white stones. Each the height of five men, the one thing binding them all together was their precarious position. Chloe couldn’t see how they could have been placed at such heights.

Stone temples were set snugly into clefts in the rock and crowned two of the tallest cliffs, but Chloe’s eye was drawn to one place above all.

Set into the hill was a cave.

The black entrance, huge and craggy, formed a gaping maw that beckoned as much as it filled her with foreboding. Revealed in the flames, a snaking path of brilliant blue stone led down from the cave, between the fires, ending at a gap in a long stone wall that followed the shore. The message was clear: this path led to one place only.

Chloe tore her eyes away from the cave with difficulty.

Soon the ship was once more beached, the ramp pushed out, and a camp on the sand swiftly made. After eating by the fire, Chloe saw Kargan stand and look up at the wall.

Following his gaze she saw the silhouettes of two robed men standing by the path, just inside the gap in the waist-high stone. Kargan hefted a heavy chest in his arms and began to walk up.

Chloe followed.

She sensed the watching eyes of the soldiers but she hugged close to the tall Ilean as if following instructions, and with a wall cutting the shoreline off from any escape route no one moved to stop her. She fell in just behind the big man and with his attention on the priests he didn’t notice her.

After climbing up the beach she soon felt grass beneath her feet, soft and pleasant. Kargan came to a halt just in front of the gap in the wall.

‘Kargan, overlord of the
Nexotardis
, master of the sun king’s navy and adviser to the ruler of the Ilean Empire,’ one of the magi intoned. ‘We see you, as does the Seer.’

The two magi were twins, identical in every way. Both had shaved heads and wore white robes belted with black ropes. They were so thin as to be emaciated, giving their features an angular sharpness, all bones and tightly drawn skin. They had sunken cheeks and deep-set eyes.

‘I bring an offering from Solon, the sun king of Ilea,’ Kargan said.

It was the first time that Chloe had seen him appear anything close to afraid. He bent down and placed the chest on the ground, unwilling to take a single step further.

‘Your offering will ensure your night on Athos passes without danger,’ the other magus said. ‘We will pray to the gods for Solon.’

Kargan bowed.

‘Tell your men that none may approach who does not have an offering for the Oracle.’

‘I will.’

‘And none may step onto the path who does not wish to consult the Seer. Will you step onto the path, Kargan of Lamara?’

Kargan bowed and took a step back. ‘No—’ He noticed Chloe for the first time. ‘Girl, what are you—?’

Chloe had been thinking about her own uncertain future all day. Before she thought too hard about what she was doing, she had pushed past Kargan, made her way through the gap in the wall, and stepped onto the path.

Kargan grunted as he reached out, but his fingers clasped empty air. One of the magi turned his sunken eyes on Chloe.

‘You have an offering?’

Chloe unclasped her copper chain. She removed the heavy amulet before returning the bare necklace to its place around her neck.

‘I do,’ she said, displaying the amulet.

‘She must stay with me!’ Kargan growled.

The magus closest to Kargan fixed his dark eyes on the bigger man. ‘You have made your offering, and so we will ensure she is returned to you. But she has stepped onto the path, and now we will take her to the Seer.’

‘I cannot—’ he began.

‘Do you wish to know the manner of your death?’ the magus said. ‘For I can tell it to you, Kargan of Lamara. There is no curse greater.’

Kargan shook his head. Relenting, he scowled at Chloe. ‘I will wait here.’

‘Come,’ both of the magi said in unison.

Chloe’s heart raced as she followed them up the winding path. She passed flames the color of sapphire that lit the surrounding rock blue, and crimson fire as red as blood. The path was wide and the two magi flanked her on both sides. Thinking about the threat they had made to Kargan, she suddenly felt terrified about what the Oracle would say.

The path continued for an eternity, and then the magi stopped in front of the cave.

‘Enter,’ the man on her left said.

Chloe walked inside.

The ground was now unpaved but nonetheless she felt smooth stone beneath her feet, sloping deeper into the passage. Water dripped down the rock walls of the passage at both sides, yet the floor was dry and the rivulets followed channels where the walls met the stone, trickling into the shadowed depths. The tunnel curved around sharp promontories but she could see by a fiery glow coming from somewhere ahead.

Taking turn after turn, Chloe saw the light growing brighter and brighter, and then after a final bend she put a hand to her eyes, blinded by whiteness.

Squinting against the glare her vision cleared, and she saw a pure white flame burning in the center of a high-ceilinged cavern. The fire burned without tinder. Chloe smelled a scent she had encountered only once before, when she had slept beside the rumbling Mount Oden.

A woman sat staring into the flame. Her back was to Chloe and all she could see was a hunched figure with pure white hair cascading down her back, stretching all the way to the ground. The woman wore a black robe with long sleeves that covered every part of her skin.

‘Come, Chloe of Phalesia.’ A sibilant voice bounced around the cavern, coming from everywhere at once. ‘Place your offering beside me and then sit with the fire of the gods between us.’

Swallowing, Chloe stepped hesitantly forward and placed the copper amulet next to the woman. Without looking down, she circled the white flame and sat on the hard stone, across from the Oracle.

Chloe looked up.

The flame danced between them, rippling across the Seer’s features so that they were hard to make out. Chloe gained an impression of surprising beauty: with startlingly green eyes, the Seer had the delicate features and noble cast to her face that Chloe had only seen before on the statues of Edra, goddess of love, fertility, and children.

‘You offer the materia of copper,’ the Oracle murmured. Reaching down without looking, she picked up the amulet and tossed it into the fire.

Chloe waited for the copper to melt, but it didn’t change at all.

‘Stare into the flame,’ the Oracle said. ‘Open your soul to the fire. Gaze and do not blink.’