The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (22 page)

“Who
is it, brother?” Vermillion of the South drew both of his shortblades and gestured
with a nod
toward the dozens with crossbows aimed at the throne in the sanctum of the White Spider.

“He looks like hell.” Johnas leaned over the ragged man with torn clothing and no boots upon his dirty feet. The dagger and longblade were sheathed and filthy, his nails on toes and fingers were long and smattered with dirt, and his smell was something atrocious. His black curls of beard sported long shots of thick hair around his nose, his skin was darker, and he still had a patch over his left eye.
Johnas tapped his shoulder.
“
Farrigus
, Farrigus
Narminson, is that you in there
?”

His yawn went wide and sounded more of a purr or growl than that of a human man. Crossbows went back on point quick as Johnas backed up and dr
ew his kris blade. There was no
attempt to hide it, everyone saw that this man had three sets of sharp canine teeth instead of one
set
, and they were a bit longer than normal. As he stretched his legs and arms out, he lunged into the air and landed on all fours, then stood tall and his eye opened wide. Feline green with a shifting and widening sliver of black for a pupil it was, and Farrigus smiled.

“I see I was missed, what a splendid
cerrremony
you have
forrr
me, my
patrrriarch
.” His words trailed like a feline, his ears perked as he spoke, and Farrigus took a knee before his regal once-master.

“I have room in the pit for you, should you ever sit on my throne again or arrive unannounced. So tell me, where have you been?” Johnas paced left while Jehrale went right
, blades drawn
.

“Stranded, tortured, forced into servitude most undesirable.
I would rather not speak of it.
Wherrre
is Prince Bryant? Whispers I hear say you have him hostage, and I owe him for
brrreaching
the hull on the Queen Sapphire
, paybacks and all
.” Farrigus could smell uncertainty on the men here that once knew him, he could hear
them
floors a
bove and down the corridors, yet
he knew his reflexes were now beyond a mortal man. He sensed the Patriarch and one of his Emerald Eight
ready to strike
, even with his eye closed.

“
Stranded where? And why have you returned in such fashion?” Jehrale questioned the odd former agent with the strange behavior.

“Cat’s Eye Island, lives up to its name. The
trrrailing
vessel
of your entourage
came close enough for us to hail, my men and I
waited
, and l
ike the Harlian fools they were
they
rrrescued
us. They were
focking
delicious
.” Farrigus licked the back of his hand and wiped his face.
“You two have the same scent, related
are we
?”

“You killed over three hundred men alone? Besides your unexplained changes of a feline nature, you must also have gone insane.” Johnas slowed his steps as Farrigus opened his eye and smiled at him with his head turned to the side.

“No, no, no, my prince. A
board your empty Harlian vessel
are my men,
nearrrly
two hundred, all loyal to me.”

“You return to me with gifts then, why?” Johnas nodded to Jehrale, ever so slightly.

“Let me say the journey over the water was most
terrrifying
, and I remember saying a few words when I received
this
.”
Farrigus ripped his ragged tunic off and turned his shoulder. Despite a mess of curly black hair, the brand of the White Spider was visible on his flesh, as were other scars of blades and claws, too many to count.

“
You seem,
how would I say this
, a bit odd and inefficient for my tastes, Farrigus. You also failed me twice which resulted in the loss of those that carried the Scroll of Annar, my fastest galleon, and ten expensive doppelgangers. I admire loyalty, but failure does have its consequences, old friend. Once, you were one of the best blades in Valhirst, but now you are but a cursed rag of a man.”

“Then kill me, you and your
brrrother
, go ahead
and try
.”

Crash

Crash

The sounds echoed far above with yells of soldiers, the drumming impact of castle walls being bombarded rang into the underground.

Farrigus drew his blade and dagger in a flash, Johnas feinted to lunge, and Jehrale weaved his twin shortswords toward the growling feline man before him. Steel sparked for a few rapid parries then Farrigus leapt backward and landed on a table twenty feet away. He crouched, heard each and every one of the crossbows aimed at him, and sprung toward the pit by the main doors to the sanctum. Before anyone was close in the dark underground, he scampered into a hallway and was gone.

Johnas looked to Jehrale, then the brothers Valhera glanced at the fifty crossbow bolts in the table, and then back to each other.

Crash

Crash

Crash

“My prince, we have no time for this. We need to get above ground and---“

“
I can be of grrreat assistance, and with two hundred of me,
our organization would be stronger.
I would think Jade of the West a fitting title
,
since I hear Kaya T’Vellon is no more
.” Farrigus
whispered as he
strode in the corridor from the other side,
on all fours, covered in black shining fur and sporting a tail.

All agents looked to the massive black panther with a patch over its eye that silently appeared over the stairs, impossible it had gotten all the way around that fast and unchecked.

Crash

“That position has been filled, Farrigus. If I were to offer you a rank of that esteemed nature, where would your vengeance take you?” Always dealing, Johnas watched as the oversized panther stood upright and painfully shifted back to Farrigus Narminson. He smiled, gold could not buy things like this, he was impressed.

“I will leave Balric to you, matters of the heart and all. But, besides Prince Bryant, there is a
cerrrtain
elven woman that left her marks upon me, they still sting my fur. Shinayne T’Sarrin, if you have been tracking them, I would like to know.” Farrigus gestured to a wicked scar on his stomach, then two on his thighs, and another on his forearm.

Crash

Crash

“My prince we must---“

“And our war above, you can get your men ready from
squatting on my Harlian galleon
,
and ready soon?” Johnas sheathed his kris blade as Farrigus approached.

“Do I get to at least torture the heir prince a bit before you hang him from your walls, my
patrrriarch
?”

“Surely.”

“And my title?”

“Domenarch of Valhir---“

“Too small,
morrre
.”

“Crimson of the North, perhaps?
Vermillion of the South here could train you and that title is recently available.
” Johnas put out his hand to the panther
,
now
a
man again.
It was taken respectfully as Jehrale scoffed and sheathed his blades.

“
Perrrfect
. I am at your service my prince and
patrrriarch
, always.
Who is it you need me to kill?
” Farrigus knelt before
Johnas Valhera. H
e was home again, and his men would likely be very hungry
, for blood
and human flesh
.

Eastern Piers of
Valhirst, Chazzrynn

“Your taking of this Brotherhood and Order is no light matter, and it is for the length of your living days. Ensure the protection of those that follow the ways of Seirena, in secret. Hunt relentless those that would harm the Whitemoon and her children. While you will act alone after your training in the Hedim Anah, remember that you are righteous in any endeavor on Her sacred ground
.”---Words of Mirash, the Great Sphinx of the Whitemoon, upon honoring Jevendial
, the Hiroon Wolflord
of the Greenbanyan
Packs
into the
sacred Order of the
Hedi
m Anah. Circa 307
A.D.

Like floating ghosts from a shipwreck, two sets of eyes moved
below. The cr
ash of catapults alerted them war
had begun, sending them
in
to motion
w
ithout sound nor ripple of water. They weaved
under the wooden docks and between stone columns
, around seaweed and debris, and fought the currents and slick footing as if life depended upon it
. From time to time they would stop and listen. Every few minutes they would slowly submerge and search for an entrance to the underground. The Carisian Sea was frigid, even in late Shaltyn, the warm harvest month of the Agarian calendar. They rose just enough to breath through their noses and froze still, more boots passed overhead, the movements of armies of men had seemed neverending this morning.
A second time the eyes
and the tip of a longbow in front dipped
below the waters and returned moments later.
The amber eyes in the lead blinked
twice
upon surfacing, telling
the blue eyes behind
that a tunnel
had been found.

Nostrils flared wide, deep breaths were taken by both, and under the foaming filthy waters they went. Their hands grasped lodged driftwood beams, pushed off granite columns covered in centuries of barnacles, and pulled onto slimy chains. Their chests ached from the releasing of air and the inability to take more in. Up they swam and pulled, the light from outside unable to reach where they now headed. The darkness engulfed them in the tight corridor of sharp stone underwater. Just as second and third thoughts began to take hold, the moment panic for air began to tremble, the hand in the lead pulled his companion up and out over a ledge.

Lavress Tilaniun, savage elven hunter of the Hedim Anah, put his hand quick over
the mouth of his partner to silence the gasping for air he knew could alert anyone close.
Sir Liogan Andellis took rapid breaths
through fingers he felt
, rested his arms on the ledge in the dark, thankful they were alive and had found their way in. Neither spoke, the elf from Gualidura nor the young knight from Southwind, as they let their eyes and chests adjust to their new environ.

Like snakes slithering closer to their prey, Lavress and Liogan crept over the ledge and out of the bone chilling bay. The elven hunter could see, faintly, the outlines of the corridor around them. He knew his partner, the one who had volunteered them both for this mission, could see nothing.

“
Ssshhh
.” Lavress put his finger over his mouth, forgetting momentarily the blackness of the tunnel. He whispered in the sylvan tongue as he drew his curved kukri dagger, his enchanted gift from the Hedim Anah. It glowed
a faint yellow, flickering
as if a candle burned from inside the steel,
and then drew his falcata.

Liogan unsheathed his broadsword carefully, nodding to Lavress that he would be silent and was ready to move ahead. His white tabard dripped salty water, his heart was racing, yet all he could think of was finding the heir prince for his king, before it was too late.

Soft steps ahead revealed a twisting tunnel that even the shorter elf had to crouch to traverse. Snails of sizes up to that of small boulders retracted their
eye
stems as the faint light grew near. Moss that moved and had never known light curled tight to the walls. Besides the occasional slosh of a footstep, the two invaders made not a sound, yet the ever hidden life in the tunnel knew
that
strangers approached.

Lavress slowed and stopped, placing his back to the wall as the tunnel widened and raised in height. He saw a grate ahead in a chamber, and stairs leading up to it and beyond. Torchlight flickered ever so far away, but enough for him to know that somewhere ahead their would be someone that needed light to see.
He raised his chin to Liogan, then eyed his blades, getting his attention. The young knight of Chazzrynn watched and nodded.

First, Lavress mocked slashing his blades out to the sides, horizontal, diagonal, and wide cuts in slow motion. He tapped the stone, just barely, and furrowed his brow. Then he shook his head from side to side. Liogan nodded that he understood. The wood elf shot his kukri forward, then up and down, followed by the falcata, in vertical cuts and thrusts that did not come near the walls. He nodded to the young human knight. Liogan Andellis wiped the sweat and saltwater from his face, took his blade in two hands, one over the other. He cut upward slowly, then down diagonally, and thrust ahead with the point of his blade. He smiled, receiving the same nod and smile from his elven companion.