The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (12 page)

Not two steps in, the black dead vines erupted into a swarm of fast moving tangles that whipped all around Shinayne. Her arms were constricted, her legs tied by more than three, even her waist was being crushed as the vines began to pull her off the bridge to whatever was underneath.

“
Hiviastre jureth!”
Gwenneth focused the staff toward her friend, forcing her up against the pull of the vines.

Saberrak dove in, swinging at the black plants and chopping them apart. Then more appeared and began to quickly wrap around the minotaur
from under the bridge
.
James slashed his blade through the searching foliage that was reaching for Saberrak, hundreds of black writhing vines now surrounding them
all
.

Zen lowered his shield, seeing Shinayne struggling to cut at her captors some twenty feet in the air, and ran down the ravine. More tentacle-like vegetation slapped at him, yet he kept low behind the Thalanaxe shield and charged into the darkness under the
old
bridge.
He peeked over his steel defense, and saw a twisting mass of black roots and a grinning maw of green fangs in the center of a trunk. Three green eyes opened in the bark and stared at him as the thing hissed in warning.

Shinayne got her left arm free with
Elicras
and began to slash at her restraining vines, barely able to breath in air from being squeezed. Saberrak cut away through more as his legs were now fully wrapped. James was swinging wildly now, being lifted off of the bridge
into the air
by a dozen or more.

Gwenne focused harder, holding her three friends in place against the pull of the vines. She was sweating, staff in hand
glowing bright yellow now
, matching the force of these things with arcane might and not letting them be taken to whatever was below. She backed up, as some of the vines began to slither closer to her
feet
, they could sense that something was interfering.

Azenairk slammed his blacksteel warhammer into an eye, hitting mostly bark, then again, dodging vines as he swung at the face in the wicked tree. He raised his shield just in time, then noticed the creature wince its green eyes as a shimmer of light reflected off his shield from Gwenneths staff above.

“Light! Give me light
, now!”
Zen yelled up to Gwenneth, seeing his friends over him on the bridge fighting while being held in midair. He did not wait.

“
Vundren eth edrith vun vast
!” He threw his hammer hard into the creatures face and grabbed his hammer and moons symbol as he pointed to the three eyes of the demonic tre
e writhing
in vines.

“
Tarrim tetha nuali
!” Gwenneth rose up in the air, still holding James, Shinayne and Saberrak from the pull below the bridge, and illuminated through the staff the entire ravine with blinding golden light.

“Reeettthhhsss! reeeethhhhsss!”

The vines shrunk and slithered by the hundreds, dropping their prey. The three eyes
closed as the creature roared in terror from the blinding white light the dwarven priest unleashed into its face. Its appendages withered and wi
thdrew having been burned by Gwenneth’s
light
above
and its roots scrambled quick as it shambled south down the ravine leaving an
echo of screams and hisses and
a green trail of sizzling slime.

James slowly floated down to the ground from the enchantments upon his ancient shield from Ansharr. Saberrak reached with one arm and caught the side of the bridge before he fell to the bottom of the ravine. Shinayne screamed, falling nearly forty feet, just as Zen ran and held out his arms to catch her. A foot above the dwarf, she stopped and hovered. They looked to each other, then to the minotaur hanging by one arm, then to James who drifted like a feather down to the bottom.

Gwenneth held her hand out, holding Shinayne from impacting ontop of Zen, and levitated to the ravine floor.

“Next time I say wait,
wait
.” She smiled, then snapped her fingers and let Shinayne fall the last foot into the arms of Azenairk.
She had sensed something below the bridge that was using a raw form of dark arcane to mask its presence.

“Well next time, be a
bit more specific
.” Shinayne dusted herself off, wiped the green blood from the vines off on her cloak, and sheathed her blades.

Saberrak dropped from his deadarm hang on the bridge and landed to his feet with a loud thud. He looked south to the trail of green, he thought of following, then thought otherwise as he and his companions saw what Gwenneth had found on the other side of the ravine.

“I smell something, a fire
.” Saberrak nodded to Gwenneth and Zen, then turned to the west. “We heading that way?”

“Aye, but watch out for three eyed tree trunks then.” Zen chuckled.

“There is a sign ahead,
let us
see what it says.” Gwenneth hovered ahead to where there was a large post of wood and a crossboard with writing upon it. She looked at the words in old Agarian written ages ago it would seem. She read it aloud.

City of Estivar

Temple Way

Kingdom of the Crescent Moon

They all looked to each other,
to
the sign, then t
o the ruined old buildings across the bridge
.
Despite the dark canopy overhead that cast the ruins in shadow, they knew they were on the right trail.
A small city of homes and structures without roofs nor life sat quietly in the overgrowth of dying trees. Once yellow walls, now covered in mold and vine, beckoned and warned with but a look into the dreary outer battlements of a place long abandoned.

“Cautiously this time, stick together, and stay ready.” James Andellis walked ahead, shield raised and sword drawn.

Shinayne drew her matching blades of the whitemoon, Saberrak his axes, Zen his warhammer, and Gwenneth floated behind with the staff of Imoch watching and glowing green which only added to the eeriness of Estivar.

Past a gate with an iron portcullis raised and rusting like its chains, beyond the outer sandstone walls speckled with browning molds in search of the sun, the ancient dwelling was no more inviting on the inside. The tallest building still standing was only two stories at best. The windows were bare, the doors lay face down in decay on the streets, and a single plume of smoke
from a small house
was all that moved anywhere in eyeshot.

Chink, chink, chink, chink!

Slam!

They all turned and jumped in surprise, as not five feet behind Gwenneth, the spiked iron portcullis that had obviously not moved in forever
,
fell shut.

“
Did you touch it
?” Shinayne whispered to Gwenneth.

She felt her heart pounding out of her robes, she glanced with the arcane sight, nothing. She closed her eye
s and focused, using her magical
blindsight to see if her eyes were tricking her. Nothing. Gwenne looked to Shinayne, and shook her head.

They waited a few more moments, yet nothing appeared. Saberrak huffed out his breath and turned. Everyone followed he and James further into the decrepit ruin
s. Hundreds of buildings lay in disarray, once temples and manors, some just homes and shops, yet the stairs and roads along Temple Way gave to nothing that would indicate anyone was still here. Only the rising smoke from the last structure on the right caught their eyes.

“The blackbirds are just staring as we pass.” James nodded to the minotaur.

“Watch the vines, keep quiet.” He huffed in return.

“No animals here, not a rat nor rabbit. I sense nothing close either, not even those birds.” Shinayne was concerned now, she could not feel the life of the birds she was looking at.

“Answers there i
n whoever started the fire
, keep goin’ then.” The dwarf was uneasy as well, feeling like everything was closing in around him.

The building was run down and ancient like the rest, yellow stone and disrepair, yet the doors were intact and shut. The roof had branches and bundled foilages that looked recent, the windows were boarded with wood that held no moss, and the smoke rising from the chimney smelled of charcoal and dinner. A wooden sign hung from old chains above the door, a sign with barely visible carved letters in some old tongue, but in had been repainted
blue
not too long back by the looks of it.

“What does it say, Lazlette?” Saberrak put his back to the wall of the small building, sniffing and listening.

“I cannot read it, ancient indeed or out of use, the language is not known to me.” She stared again, trying to decipher even one letter as recognizable.
She could not.

James went beside Saberrak, peering around the other corner next to the door, back to the outside wall. Shinayne crouched low, turned in careful circles, then looked up next to Gwenneth.

“Something looks familiar, that sign, the letters, I have seen them before.” She stood below it, turned, and looked at it upside down from underneath. “Looks dwarven.”

Saberrak reached , barely touching
it nearly ten feet up with the tips of his fingers, and turned the sign over as the rusty chains rattled.

"
Dah
Ole Brew Ha Ha
Pub
n’ Kitchen
. Its in dwarven allright, damned fool got his sign upside down is all.” He chuckled, then his face went pale and serious.

Creak!

The faded wooden doors opened, as if the wind had taken hold from a breeze, yet there was none. They opened full, letting the smell of cooked rabbit, potatoes, carrots, and other warm pleasant odors flood the outside. James smelled wine, as did Shinayne and Gwenneth. Saberrak smelled venison and Zen smelled thick meads. Besides the smells, the dwarven priest was staring at a room full of people,
human
men sitting at tables, all silently staring back at him
alone
as the others had taken cover to the corners out of sight. There were maybe twenty, not eating, not drinking, just men in armor
that made no noise
, all gray
and still
.

“
Come in travelers, and welcome to the Brew Ha Ha
.” A
calm
voice
, a mans voice,
from behind the bar by the kitchen echoed in the hollow stillness.

“I think yer full then, we will
just
go to the next one.” Zen turned and stepped to the side with James and Saberrak
as quick
as he could
, his heart beating fast
.

“
What’s in there
?” James whispered to his dwarven friend.

“
Dead. Ghosts be me guess, they ain’t breathin’, not moving much
, and they lackin’ some color too
.”

“You sure, priest?” Saberrak twirled his axes and stepped out.

“
That or the food and service be somethin’ terrible
, cuz’ they ain’t eatin’ or drinkin’
neither
.
”

“Then if they are ghosts, why would
someone
be cooking?” Shinayne stepped out with Saberrak.

“
Don’t know, you
can
go ask em if ye’ like
.”

Saberrak stared into the dingy room, seeing nothing but dust covered tables and chairs. They were empty, but arranged and orderly, as if the pub were still occupied. He smelled the air, the smells were gone save for burning wood from a fire. He saw a man walk out from behind the bar hidden in the shadows, a large man, larger than he was. He heard the others following in careful steps behind him.

“
Sssshhhh, they have gone, for now
.” The voice spoke, not the same voice that welcomed them, but this massive man holding his finger over his lips.

“Who has gone where, and who are you?” The gray gladiator huffed.

The man stepped from the shadows, his bald head covered in tattoos and scars, he stood over nine feet tall.
A dark tail of hair was tied behind his head, adorned with feathers, and his smooth face showed
the
wrinkles of age.
He looked down at the minotaur, his hands resting on a great curved blade at his side, ready to draw any moment
as he peered around the room
. He had a longbow over his back, hides and furs of browns and blacks, and his tan skin seemed to absorb the darkness. None of that was as curious as the one eye of blue that opened, in the center of his face.

“
I am Ihros Seeing-Owl
, guardian of the
Temple of the Whitemoon
to the north and west
of this ruin
. You are in much danger here.” He looked around with his one eye, waiting for something, for it to come again. He closed his eye and listened.
He could see the spirits when they appeared, a gift of his heritage.