Chapter 5

Irnoc

Ugh, my head was pounding. I felt something tugging on the legs of my pants. “Bugger off Fingers, I’m not getting up yet, too tired and my head hurts.” I mumbled as I turned away. My cheek rested in the cool soft sand… sand? There was no sand in my cubby. I opened my eyes a crack, a long expanse of sandy beach stretched out in front of me light by the light of the full moon, and a vast expanse of the starry night sky. The river flowed along quietly, barely rippling as it flowed past. I felt something tugging on my pants leg again. I slowly lifted my head out of the wet sand, bits of it clinging to my face. There, tugging on my pants leg with its little pincer was a fresh water crab. I kicked it away with my other foot and sat upright.

My head swam once I was sitting up. I felt the back of my head, where the worst of my pain seemed to be. Two large lumps decorated my scalp, and a fresh sharp pain lanced through my right hand as it brushed the lumps. I looked at it; there were several large splinters of wood sticking out of my palm and some small cuts. I stared blankly at my lacerated palm for what felt like a long time, not thinking or really doing anything, just stared at it.

My hand started to tremor, the shaking seemed to travel from my hand up my arm and into my chest. Once it reached my chest my whole body started to shake. Images of a wall being torn away, a giant dark blue scaled monstrosity destroying a ship, water swirling around me, being unable to breath and darkness flashed through my mind as I remembered.

Gradually my shaking started to lessen, and my mind began to clear allowing me to start actually thinking about my situation “Ok, I survived the beast attack. Did anybody else?” I spoke quietly to myself, trying to force my thoughts into a coherent whole. I plucked the splinters out of my hand, fresh droplets of blood falling darkly into the already wet sand. I closed my hand into a painful fist then I stood up on my shaky legs, I was facing up stream when I woke, and hadn’t seen anything, so I looked down stream towards Hasna’Farid. All along both banks were dark rigid lumps, I was pretty sure they were pieces of wood from the hull of the ship. I staggered downstream to take a closer look at the debris and see if there was anything worth salvaging.

Searching through the debris I managed to salvage some rope, canvas, and a rather gruesome discovery of a cutlass in the grip of a dismembered arm. After some more searching I came to a busted barrel with some apples. I folded and tied the scrap of canvas into a sling to put the apples and rope into it and continued my search, hoping for an intact water skin or something similar.

Continuing downstream, I searched through the bits washed on shore, avoiding the more grisly remains of torn flesh, the carrion eaters getting their feast. As I approached the bend in the river I heard something new, beyond the local scavengers eating their gruesome dinner. I paused and ducked down next to a particularly large pile of planks tangled in some shrubs listening carefully. I heard the sound of men cursing, I couldn’t quite make out the words but the tone came through well enough. They were not happy. I peered through the darkness and saw a few lights in the distance, looked like a camp fire and some torches. The light these gave off showed me a terrible scene.

The ship was beached, huge holes torn in its sides, the mast busted and the sails and rigging torn up and a tangled mess. Crates and bundles lined the beach, what the survivors managed to salvage from the wreck. Bandages adorned most of the surviving crew; the captain had his head wrapped up, and making it look like he was wearing a turban.

“Shit” I cursed under my breath. If they found me, they would tie me up and use me to try to recoup some of their losses in this failed venture. They would likely be sticking close to the river, like I had planned. I’m going to have to leave the river and go into the desert, to do that I need a water container, otherwise I’m carrion food. If I waited until they fell asleep, I might be able to sneak in and gather a few supplies and escape into the desert with none the wiser.

Looking at the planks and shrubs tangled together, I noticed a small gap at the base of the planks where they tangled in the branches. If I wriggled in carefully I should remain out of sight and still be able to see when the surviving sailors fell asleep. Suiting thought to deed I hid myself, and settled in for the possibly long wait.

After what felt like hours of boredom, watching these men tending their wounds, talking around their campfire and collecting what they could from the wreckage, most of the men had finally fallen asleep, the only one left awake seemed to be on watch. If I can get past him, I can get the water skin I need.

I quietly crept out of my hiding space, watching the sentry carefully. He stood, leaning against the hull of the damaged ship. As I got closer I could see his head nodding a bit before he jerked his head up and looked around with bleary eyes. What a fool, I thought with a shake of my head, ruining his night vision, he should have kept the fire to his back instead of between him and the night. Keeping the fire between me and the sentry, I slowly and quietly crept in close. I came across several mounds, sailors covered in blankets at the edge of the firelight as I looked about for a simple water skin. One mound had a cutlass lying next to it, the sailor’s hand lightly resting on its handle. That is too good to just leave lying there. Carefully and very slowly I lifted the hand off the cutlass and slid the blade away and sheathed it in my sash.

Looking closely about, I searched for the water skin. As my eyes played over the camp, keeping myself from looking too closely to the fire, I noticed at the edge of the fire light lay a full skin. I licked my lips from nerves and crept close. As I approached the edge of the light I heard a grunting snore and froze. The snores settled back down and all was still, in that stillness I heard the crunching of sand close by.

I looked up and looked around, looking for the man on watch. I saw him moving around; damn he must be trying to stay awake by making rounds I thought. Shit he is coming my way. I crouched down next to one of the sleeping men and just hoped and prayed that I wouldn’t be found.

He came closer as he circled around the sleeping men, my heart pounded in my chest, and sweat broke out on my forehead and ran into my eyes making them burn. I couldn’t wipe it away, he would notice the movement. I should have just taken my chances in desert, he is going to find me, and he will take me back and make me a slave again. I just got free. I won’t let him take me to the damn mines, I have to save Cat! Anger grew within me, the cold sweat dripped from my brow. I felt a hard knot of determination solidify in my gut and I slowly drew out my cutlass as he came closer. He paused and looked over in my area; I could see his bleary eyes narrow as he tried to see in the darkness. He must have noticed the movement. That’s it, if I’m to save Cat, this man must die. If he doesn’t he will find me, and I’ll never be able to save Cat from a fate worse than death. I dug down deep inside myself, stoking the fiery anger within to new heights. I let the anger build and fill me to the brim.

My body trembled with the force within, the trembling increased until I was shaking. I couldn’t contain it all. I jumped up with a scream of wrath, and at that moment I felt al that anger, all that energy built up within myself burst. The dying campfire exploded outward, coals and flames flew everywhere. I thought I saw some kind of bird shape within the fire, I could hear a shriek rend the air. Embers landed on the sleeping men, catching fire to their blankets and clothes, they sprang up and most bolted for the river, screaming and beating at the flames. Fires spread all over the supplies, the canvas and ropes caught fire and spread to the ship.

I felt weak and shaky, but I forced myself to move in the confusion. Somehow the water skin was untouched and hadn’t been trampled by the panicked men. I darted in among the screaming and panic and snatched up the water skin; as soon as it was in my hand I turned and ran straight into the desert night leaving the death and destruction in my wake.

I kept running until I could no longer hear the men’s screams or see the glow of the flaming ship. The crack riddled hardpan with its spiny brush and its varieties of cacti gave way to more sandy terrain. I started to stumble along over small sand dunes that gradually kept increasing in size. Eventually they grew taller than I was and I started sliding down the other side.

Once it was all out of sight and beyond hearing, I fell to my knees and gasped for breath. “What just happened?” I gasped between deep lungful’s of breath. “What, by Corana’s feathered ass, happened?” I pulled the stopper from the skin and went to take a drink to ease my parched throat. As I brought the skin to my lips I picked up a fishy odor. Brows furrowing, I stuck my finger into the skins opening and withdrew it. Rubbing the fluid between thumb and forefinger, I felt its oily texture. I brought my finger to my nose and sniffed it, it smelled strongly of fish. I tasted it, a salty fishy taste. I spat it out and swore loudly and with great feeling.

“All that, those men dead, me almost dying to get a damned water skin and its full of bloody oil” shaking my head I began to laugh. I kept on laughing; knowing I was being hysterical but this was too much, just too much. “The gods must be playing with me. First I get caught on what was supposed to be an easy score, then I get sold to slavery, then the ship I’m on gets attacked by a river monster, the campfire explodes, now this a bloody oil skin when I wanted a water skin. I almost died three times in just a couple days; barely manage to escape death only to nearly die again. What next, a group of priests comes for me like they did for my parents. It would fit.” I shook my head, and managed to slow my breathing and calm my hysterical rant. With a final deep breath I looked around and saw that the sky wasn’t as dark as it was. The stars were slowly beginning to disappear to what I presumed to be the east, the sun was coming up soon, I had maybe an hour before it reached the horizon, and the temperature would begin to rise. It was cool now but that wouldn’t last long once the Eye of Corana was watching over us.

* * *

On the Heights of Hasna’Farid, where all the palaces and manors were located a young boy, well fed and wearing high quality pastel red robes was hurrying down a marble corridor decorated with stylized flames in burnished red gold. He came to a stop in front of a tall set of double doors inlayed with ebony and red gold-leaf depicting the eternal phoenix Corana, the boy paused to catch his breath and knocked on the door.

A quiet female voice answered the knock “Come in”.

He opened the door and spoke to the assistant sitting behind the rich desk “message for the matriarch my lady, from the monitors”.

“You may give me the message, the matriarch does not wish to be disturbed”.

The Acolyte, for all acolytes of the order of eternal flame wore red of a pastel hue, hesitated glancing at the door further in.

The Aid to the Matriarch’s face hardened.

With a sigh the acolyte answered “the monitors report that they detected a disturbance ten leagues to the east of the city, a wild surge of power occurred. They said that they think it is a first calling of the untrained.

“Very well” the aid replied, “go back to your duties. I will see that the Matriarch is informed”.

Once the boy left the office the aid got out from behind her desk, she was a slight plump woman of average height in flowing rust red silken robes, and long flaming red hair. And if you looked closely there was a red glint in her almond shaped eyes. She walked over to the door leading to the Matriarch’s office and knocked once before opening the door and stepping inside.

The office was lavishly decorated with tapestries adorning the walls, red gold ornamented almost everything, from the vases holding dried flowers to the bookshelves containing hundreds of books and scrolls. Incense filled the air with their spicy perfume. A striking woman sat behind a highly polished black marble desk with rose gold leaf decorating its surface. She wore lived coal red silk robes, woven so that it looked like she was a burning coal, dark red hair that flowed past the middle of her back, almond shaped eyes shone with a deep red light. This was the Matriarch of the order of the Eternal flame, leader and embodiment of the phoenix Corana. Looking up from reading a scroll she asked in a rich melodic voice “What is it Samantha?”

“Sorry to disturb you my lady but a message from the monitors came in just now, they report that there was a power surge in the desert, ten leagues from the city. They say it signifies the emergence of a Rogue Caller” Samantha Replied in meek tones while looking down at her soft slippered feet.

“Very well, send out the Retrieval Squad, you may go now”.