Chapter 1.11

Karson

A bigger picture of the enemy’s campaign against this region of Hellas became a little clearer the next morning. We got back on the road after morning drills. Danae, Latona and Lacedaemon had taken to carrying the rucksacks loaded with whatever heavy material they could find, in addition to the full kit. This came at Ax’s encouragement, as he was a big believer in endurance training. However, it wasn’t long before we spotted a column of smoke in the distance.

Ax motioned for his recruits, for really that was what they were, to dump their sacks onto the wagon. Xene and Hegesandra began stitching double-time on the jerkin they were working on. Latona, Danae, and Ax were wearing jerkins by now. Lacedaemon had his big wooden shield, while the rest of us were using the smaller, twenty-four inch round shields, strapped to our left arms. He had been working on helmets, but hadn’t yet been able to figure out the proper shape.

In the distance, we saw an orthrus with a jackal-headed cynocephali on its back. Around it was a pack of its brethren. When we were spotted, we could hear excited yips and howls from the crowd.

“Xene, Hegesandra, get behind the crates like we practiced,” said Ax. “Alector, be ready to shield yourself from arrows. Karsos, your on the front row with me. Lacedaemon, take the left, and be ready to help the wagon. Latona, take the middle rearguard, Danae take the right. Spears down!”

I held my spear in my left hand with my shield, because I needed my right hand free. I noticed Ax had done the same thing. Three spears protruded past us, from the rest of the group. I wasn’t about to ready the spear when I had a few new tricks that I’d been dreaming up. By the time we were all prepared for the attack, the enemy had closed to about two dozen yards.

I drew heavily on my mana ring and cast my first spell at one of the cynos that had a bow. My spell reached through my target’s soul and corrupted its shadow. The shadow grew swiftly and contorted, taking shape and grabbing the jackal-headed beast by the wrist. A shadow limb grew and tripped its victim, and the panicking cyno fell to the stone road face first.

Meanwhile, Ax aimed his own spell at the road in front of the charging orthrus rider. A series of holes opened up in the stone. One of the holes appeared right where the two-headed hound was about to step, giving it no chance to find alternate footing. The hound’s leg sank nearly to its elbow joint, arresting it’s forward movement, but not stopping its momentum. The creature tumbled then rolled, crushing its rider.

My second spell went off at the same time the hound began its tumble. This spell was more of a curse, and flew through the air like a tangled, wispy ball. It struck a spear-carrying cyno, sinking into the creature’s skin. I didn’t get a chance to see if the curse did as I expected it would. I expected it to drain the beast of its strength, perhaps even to the point of not being able to hold up its weapons. But an arrow flew past my shield and struck my shoulder, distracting me from the result. I whipped my shield up in front of my face, and dropped my spear. There was no more time for spells. The cynos were right in front of us.

Or maybe I had no more time for spells, but Ax had one more ready. A column of fire burst out from his right palm, looking for all the world like a flame thrower. The flames widened as they moved away from him, catching four of the cynos in their merciless flames, and lighting the orthrus on fire.

Panicked, the two-headed hound bounded away with its fur and crumpled rider on fire. But even with all the ones we’d disabled or killed already, there were still eight left. Four were busy shooting arrows, but shields and their own friends were preventing them from taking good shots. I thrust forward with my spear, catching one of the jackals in the belly. The beast fell, but he grabbed onto my spear as he went. Latona’s spear flashed next to me, catching another that tried to skewer me while my own weapon was bound up.

I dropped the spear and drew my sword, slashing at a spear heading towards Danae. I drove the blow down towards the road, then stepped forward and slashed at the wielder’s head. The little beast was too swift for me, stepping to his left to avoid my blow. Unfortunately for him, this put him right in front of Danae and her spear thrust. She caught him right in the neck, and he fell with a gushing hole in his throat.

Then the fight was over. There were two of the bowmen cynos left, both running. Danae took a step forward, her spear held like a javelin. A moment later, she flung it with a practiced motion. The spear flew true, striking the creature in the back and puncturing all the way through its torso. It fell writhing to the road.

The last one didn’t get far either. Ax threw a fire missile at it. The explosion knocked it from its feet and set it on fire. It screamed pathetically for a minute, before it died. Danae walked around to all the bodies, making certain they were finished off. The cyno that had grabbed my spear was laying on the ground, its breath rattling and wet. I reached out and grabbed its soul, ripping it away.

Instead of consuming it immediately, I examined the soul with my magic. Intuitively, I knew I only had a few seconds. The soul had lost its anchor, and my spell couldn’t hold it to this plane for long. I saw in the soul the various metaphysical organs that housed things like mana and essence, and more importantly, I spotted what anchored them to the body. The soul slipped from my grasp, fading from the world.

Then my adrenaline crashed, and I realized I had an arrow lodged in my shoulder. My health ring had staunched the bleeding, but it needed to be removed. I looked around to take stock. Ax looked unharmed, his brass knuckles now wrapped around his fingers like metal gloves. He was kneeling next to Lacedaemon, who was bleeding on the ground.

I rushed over to him, and saw he’d taken a spear in his left side. The spear had been a direct hit, slicing right through his leather jerkin. I cursed myself for playing with soul magic instead of making sure everyone was okay.

“Crazy bastard turned to cover me with his shield, left himself wide open,” said Ax, distraught.

I touched Lacedaemon, and could sense that the health ring was trying to help, but the damage was too severe for it. I immediately poured my own healing on top of it.

“Go ahead and pull the spear,” I said. Ax looked unsure, so I added, “Now!”

Ax yanked the spear out as gently as he could, and I put my own hand on top of the wound so that I could dump the healing directly on to where it was needed. The wound closed up under my fingers, the flesh stitching itself back together. Lacedaemon’s pain-stitched face eased.

“Alright, let’s get him up into the wagon.”

Lacedaemon was exhausted by the toll of his injury and healing, and leaned on us heavily. Xene and Hegesandra moved some cargo around so that he could lay down, with the feed bag of wheat as a pillow. He fell asleep almost immediately. Xene grabbed a hat and placed it so that it shaded his eyes.

“Are you going to pull that arrow?” asked Ax.

“Oh, right,” I said. “Yank it fast for me, would you?”

Ax looked at me askance. “Fast?”

“Yeah, fast. It’s gonna hurt, but I can heal it right away. Rip it out.”

Ax grabbed it, and without warning pulled it out. The arrow tore its way back out, and a lance of pain shot through me. My vision swam and blackened for a moment. I gritted my teeth and poured healing into my shoulder. The wound stitched right back up without a mark.

“That’s so freakin’ cool that you can do that,” said Ax in English.

We looted the bodies, collecting a handful more of electrum coins and a few actual drachmas. The bows were small, but I offered one to Danae. She tried it out and smiled. “Not as strong of a pull as my old hunting bow, but it will do for now. I’ll salvage the bowstrings from the rest of them. If we get some time, I can make a new one.”

She managed to collect about two dozen arrows, and a quiver that she immediately tied to her belt next to her sword. After taking the time to toss the bodies off to the side of the road and filling in Ax’s potholes, we were able to move on.

About thirty minutes later, we came to the burning wreckage of a village not much larger than the one we’d come from. The road was littered with dead bodies of men, women and children. A few fallen gigantes and cynos lay in the streets where the villagers had made a desperate last stand. I noticed the bodies of the villagers were emaciated from malnutrition.

“Put out the fires and look for survivors,” said Ax grimly. “Danae, keep your bow handy and guard the wagon.”

The enchantments on the bracers came in handy once again. But building after building, we found nothing, or worse, more bodies. In the last house we came to, we found a family huddled in a back room, trapped by the blaze. They were a husband and wife and small daughter, emaciated and suffering from smoke inhalation.

After a dose of healing and a little food, they described the attack. It was depressingly similar to the one at Latona’s village. By the time we had them fed and healed, it was late morning. We scrounged the smoldering ruins for food. In the back of the village, I found a stone building with a thick wooden door bound in iron and padlocked. It had a number of deep gouges in the door, but the gigante who tried to break in had given up in search of easier prey. I went to ask the villagers.

“It’s the basileus’ granary, milord,” said the man. “Only the village master had the key, and he went off to see the basileus a few days ago.”

“Ax, can you help?”

Ax easily broke the lock, pulling it off like it was playdough. Once inside, I was floored at the amount of food available. There were crates full of olive jars, baskets of fruits and dried fish. One corner of the big warehouse was piled with bags of grains. The villager who accompanied us didn’t look surprised; rather he looked defeated.

“He was coming round to collect soon,” he said. “We were barely going to meet the quota, else he’d have sold some of the little ones off into slavery to make the difference.”

I was livid with anger at the injustice. The villager flinched at the expression on my face, but before he could abase himself, I spoke.

“That bastard deserves a slow, painful death. We’re going to take what we can carry, and I promise you full measure of your share so that your family can start over.”

“What about the basileus? Ain’t he going to know we’s taken it?”

“He’ll think the gigantes did, don’t worry.”

And we did just that. After a little judicious reloading, we were able pile the wagon quite heavily with food and grain. Lacedaemon rode on top of the load, recovered enough to sit. Xene and Hegesandra squeezed onto the driver’s bench with Alector, facing backwards into a small work area made in a gap between crates to finish the jerkins. The villager woman and daughter rode on a small lip on the back of the wagon, the husband walking behind them.

It was late afternoon before we got on the road once more, but no one wanted to stay in the village. We thought about burning the granary, but if there were other survivors hiding in the fields, it would be better for them to have something to salvage. As it was, we picked up another family and a few stragglers from the fields who trailed along behind us. By late evening, we made another camp just as the sun was setting.

This camp was different than what we’d done before. Ax recruited a few villagers to stand watch, while our original group took turns guarding the wagon through the night. In addition, our group slept in a circle around the wagon. The precaution was sensible, but unnecessary. The new refugees were exhausted but fed, and they basically collapsed and slept the night through, except for the sounds of soft crying every now and then.

The next morning took awhile to get everyone awake and moving. Once we did, we traveled at a decent walking pace. Children took turns sitting on the back of the wagon or riding on the shoulders of their parents. Ax worked is way through the crowd, learning names and faces, and talking about the future. He told me later that many just wanted a safe place to live, but a few were willing to join our crusade. Even more were willing once they learned we would be establishing our own fortifications.

So our little caravan kept growing. We learned from the refugees that we could reach Dodona in about a half day’s walk. Around mid-morning, we reached a fork in the road, where the stone-paved road continued in one direction, while a dirt track veered off to the east. We followed the dirt track, which was in decent condition. I could definitely see not wanting to be on this road in the rain, though.

The road twisted and wound through some hills, until reaching a final incline. The hills were covered in scrubby grass and low bushes, giving the area a wild feeling despite it being in a settled part of Hellas. Once we crested the hill, we found ourselves on a flat area with a large temple made of stone and wood dominating the peak. The temple was perhaps a hundred feet wide, lined with pillars atop a tall stone staircase. The pillars extended out and curved towards us like wings to flank a wide open courtyard. Everything was painted a rich blue, with orange banners hanging down from the middle of each pillar. In the center of the courtyard was a stone altar looked sort of like the Olympic dais that the winners stood on, except the highest part was about six feet wide.

This would have been beautiful and idyllic, except for the fact that a man lay bound and gagged on the altar, clearly ready for a sacrifice. Surrounding him on the lawn were a dozen bodies of women in blue robes. Ax signaled for everyone to stop where they were. The silence that followed was interrupted by the clash of metal against metal.

“There’s still fighting inside the temple!” I called out.

“Lacedaemon and Latona, protect the wagon. Danae, you’re with us. Move!”

We raced up the stone stairs, swords in hand. Spears would only be in the way inside. The temple opened into a wide hallway that headed both to the left and to the right. Straight ahead was a massive room with a square hole in the ceiling and a bunch of tables lined up just under the ceiling. It looked like a cross between a conference room and a dining hall. The room was empty.

Another clash of metal sounded to the right, followed by a scream of pain and a loud “Ha!” of victory. We took off to the right, passing a few bodies of men and women in the hall. Once around the turn, we spotted a cluster of men in rough leather armor at the end of the hall. I couldn’t see what they were trying to attack, but whatever they were fighting had their whole attention.

As we ran down the hall, I caught a glimpse of a tall woman clad in gleaming bronze armor and helmet, wielding a curved axe in one hand and a sword in the other. Beside her was a smaller woman, armored in polished leather, carrying a sword two-handed in a stance that made clear that she knew exactly what she was doing.

Just then, one of the men tried to lunge forward. The tall woman easily batted aside his blow, casually stepping forward to stab him in the neck before backing away again.

“Take that, you murdering swine! See how you like being on the other end of the blade!”

“Careful of friendly fire,” I said to Ax.

He nodded. “Gonna have to do this the hard way.”

I threw a shadow trap at a random target as we charged, hoping to sow some confusion to give cover to our arrival. I caught one of the attackers in the back just as he turned his head, slashing toward his neck. He flinched away, so the blow struck his shoulder, glancing off the leather armor he wore. He began to turn, but I followed up with a stab which caught him in his side below the ribcage. This time, the armor couldn’t turn my blow.

Then the chaos of battle surrounded me, and I hacked and slashed at whoever I could. I found myself squaring up against a swordsman who was far better with a blade than I was. He easily blocked or diverted my blows. I was a touch faster than he, which was the only thing that kept me in the fight. Even still, I was hard pressed to keep ahead of his return strikes. I dodged several, and ducked another.

Desperately, I threw the first spell that came to mind. He stopped for a minute, flailing wildly. The swordsman rubbed at his eyes as if trying to wipe something out of them. I didn’t hesitate. I stabbed him right in the throat, then snagged his soul and consumed it.

I could immediately tell how best to use my sword, and what I’d been doing wrong in my fight against him. I reset my stance to correct my balance, and adjusted my grip. Another swordsman leapt at me, but I easily parried his blow. We traded strikes for a few rounds before I twisted my blade around his and sliced his fingers. He instinctively released the blade, leaving me free to slash at his face. When he backed up, Danae’s sword caught him in the chest from my right.

I looked at her, and she said, “What? You were wasting time.”

Then I looked around and realized all of our foes were down. The tall woman was grinning like a fool, the shorter woman looking cool and collected. There were more than a dozen dead men laying dead at our feet, and a half-dozen more on the other end of the hallway around the corner. Behind those dead men was an old woman in armor and two more men. It seemed we weren’t the only ones trying to help the two cornered women.

The battle seemed to be over, giving me a minute to catch my breath and take in the people we’d help rescue. The tall woman wore an odd helmet, one that was flat in the front and curved high over her head, before arching back to cover the rest of her skull. It was made of polished bronze, with leather flaps coming down to protect her cheeks and neck. She wore a long-sleeved garment with polished bronze armor on top. The armor looked like a leather jerkin with hundreds of small bronze rectangles overlapping and sewn onto the leather. The armor split at her waist, extending down to cover her thighs, tapering down to a triangle above each knee. Beneath the armor she wore long pants that tucked into leather boots that came up to just below her knees. A large curved metal armor piece adorned each shoulder, and a sheath dangled in front of her right thigh from a strip of leather, tied to a belt wrapped around her middle. As I inspected her, she removed her helmet to reveal raven black hair. Her triangular face was adorned by tattoos on each cheek, and a band of tattoos dipped from her hairline and across her forehead like a diadem.

The second woman was dressed similarly, except she wore a leather helmet that was more like a hat than a helmet. It came to a point at the back of her head, curving forward slightly, and edged with a thin strip of fur. The leather helmet wrapped around her ears, leaving them bare, hanging low to protect the neck and cheeks. Her armor was polished leather, hanging around her waist like a skirt. It was also split at the middle, and her bright green bants were also tucked into tall boots. Tufts of curly, dark red hair peeked out from under the helmet, her eyes green and gold. She slid her sword back into a massive sheath. Then I realized it was actually a quiver, and a half-dozen arrows protruded beneath the hilt. Above the sword and quiver, on the leather strap that tied it to her belt, was two small knives.

“None survived,” said the small woman sadly. “I had hoped they would heed my words.”

“Serves the fools right,” said the tall woman. “You’d think a bunch of people proclaiming to be oracles would listen to your Vision.”

“They were blinded by their fervor and hatred of outsiders,” came the reply.

“So who are you, anyway?” asked the tall woman, looking at us.

“I am Axiokarsos, this is Axerios and Danae. Ax and I are traveling magi, and have helped Danae and a number of other refugees fleeing from the gigantes raids happening to the north.”

“Oh, they’re raiding a lot more than the north,” said the tall woman with a dark laugh. “They landed an entire army in Laconia. Mycenae itself is under siege.”

“They can organize an army?” I said doubtfully. “The ones we ran across seemed little more organized than bandits.”

“Not all tribes are the same,” came the reply. The smaller woman cleared her throat and looked at the tall one pointedly. “Oh, yeah, right, I forgot. I’m Antiope of the Saka Skolotoi. This is Zahra of the Skula Skolotoi.”

“Are you Amazons?” asked Danae, her voice full of awe.

Zahra scowled, but Antiope gave a hearty laugh. “We have been called that before, yes,” she said. “Your silly stories are so funny. Why would we live without men and kill boy children?”

“You don’t?” said Danae in a confused tone.

“We are Skolotoi,” said Zahra, “not monsters.”

“Should we see to the survivors?” asked Ax, breaking in at last.

“There are none,” said Zahra again. “Antiope, these are the ones.”

“Are you sure?”

Zahra stepped forward, blazing with magic. Before I could do anything, she caressed Ax’s cheek, and gasped. She stepped back. “You blaze with intensity and glorious purpose. Like all men, you aspire to greatness. Yet I foresee death dogging your steps. Sad.”

She then turned to me, blazing once again. Her touch was gentle as she stroked my cheek. She looked up at me in surprise. “I can see nothing of your path. Oh, such a relief! All I know of your future is what I can see through your brother. No wonder the Fates steered me this way.”

I exchanged a look with Ax, but he only shrugged. “We can at least free the prisoner on the altar,” he said.

“Oh, of course,” said Zahra. “Antiope will ready our belongings for the trip. My retainers will help you free the prisoners caged out back. You will not be angry about the slaughter once you meet them. And Karson? You will want to collect what you find in the first room. It will be enlightening for you.”

Zahra turned and walked into the room behind her, with Antiope moving to follow. Ax and I exchanged another look, and Antiope gave another mirthful laugh. “Yeah, she does that. Might as well get used to it, looks like we’re going with you.”

The old woman and her two retainers stepped forward towards Ax. The old woman was dressed with an armored cuirass covering her chest, the cuirass covered in overlapping disks of steel, and a thick leather skirt extending down her thighs. Beneath the armor she wore leggings that covered her boots, and atop the whole ensemble was a silk robe tied at the waist. Her wrinkled face was distinctly asian, perhaps Chinese. Her two retainers were young men dressed in similar fashion. All wore three wore open-faced helmets with a spike on top.

“Lead the way,” said Ax, and they headed down the hallway. I turned to Danae. “Go search the rooms, see if you can find anything of value. Be wary, keep your sword handy. I’ll be in the first room.”

I headed back down the hallway to see what was in that first room. I found a room filled with scrolls and books, with a bed in one corner and a desk in the other. Laying in the bed was a dead man, his head nearly severed from his body. The man wore purple robes that looked more European than Greek. I shrugged to myself over his violent death. Only here for a week, and I was being desensitized to mindless violence already. Survival instincts are strong, I thought. I turned to the desk to see if there was anything useful. Most of the desk was covered in papyrus, written in a language very similar to Greek. The letters were slightly different, and there were a few characters I didn’t recognize sprinkled throughout. I puzzled over the notes for a few minutes, before realizing that the extra characters were numbers.

Many of the words on the papyrus were in Greek. I was halfway through the page when I realized that the man had been working on puzzling out an enchantment. Suddenly I was very interested in what he had to say. I gathered the papers into a neat pile. On a shelf above the desk was four books and three glass jars of ink, corked with an actual cork. Next to the ink was several fountain pens, of the sort that shouldn’t exist in Europe for several thousand years.

I opened the first book, filled with actual paper instead of papyrus, and puzzled out the title. Then I got excited. It read “A Listing of Definitions and Words of the Hellenes versus the Atlanteans.” It was a printed translation dictionary, and the dead man was from Atlantis. I set aside the fact that Atlantis didn’t exist in our world, because I was looking at proof that they existed in this one. More, it looked like they had some advancements that weren’t available to the rest of the continent, namely, some form of crude printing press, paper and fountain pens.

The second book appeared to be the man’s journal. I set it aside to read later. The third and fourth books were blank. All three had identical leather covers, designed to wrap around the pages completely to protect them from rain. It looked like he had planned on writing a lot of journals. When I went to close up the journal again, a key fell out. I looked around, and spotted a small chest under the bed. I pulled it out to find it was wrapped in heavy enchantments and locked. There were wards against banishment, lockpicking and physical blows. One resembled the reinforcement spell that Ax and I had come up with, but appeared to be far more complex and considerably superior to what we had done. But locks are meant to be opened, and I had a key. The chest popped open easily.

Inside was another journal, and another magically warded box. This one had no key, nor any seams that I could find. I set it back in the trunk for future inspection. I then loaded the chest with all the books, all of the ink bottles, and as many papyrus notes as I could fit.

A second, non-magical chest, much larger, was at the foot of the bed. In it I found a spare robe, a towel and sundries, and two long cloaks with actual hoods. None of them were magical, so I tossed them all onto the ground, and began to go through the scrolls on the walls. Many of them were of little interest. They were archaic observations of the natural world that I knew to be false, or medical treatises that were surprisingly sharp but also equally useless. But even ignoring most of the scrolls, I found dozens that offered glimpses of the arcane. These I carefully loaded into the second trunk, along with all the remaining papyrus notes. I did a last sweep of the room, before noticing a faint magic glow from one hand of the body.

I debated if I actually wanted to pry a ring off of a body. But in the end, my desire to get stronger and more capable won out. I pried the ring off his finger, and spotted a bag sticking out from under his robe which I pulled free, as well. In it was a bracelet that was also faintly enchanted. A quick glance didn’t really reveal what they did, only that they were really cheap and weak. The bag was a small money pouch, filled with gold and silver drachmas.

After one last glance around the room, I decided that it would have to be good enough. If he had more goodies left here, they were going to someone else. I wished the dead man luck in whatever afterlife Atlantean souls went to, then started to drag the chests from the room.

It was then that I noticed a trap door in the floor of the room, hidden beneath the large chest. There was more to this place than I had realized.