Azra of the Burning Sands (Genesis Project) (5 page)

VOLUME II:

‘Fear a gentle, soft-spoken evil more than a loud thunderstorm... It is the quiet, hidden, evils that are hardest to fight, hardest to see, and hardest to survive...’

-The Wisdom of Zug Twill

THE WESTERN WASTES – BAZRA DESERT – HALLI

W
hen night came, the Raiders settled camp under a great, white, moon, out in the arid wastes of the desert. They settled camp at the foot of a tall dune that was wrapped around a pillar of red rock.

Kia was shocked at how cold the desert had gotten after the sun went down. Her legs were tired, burning, from walking all day, hands bound to a chain, chain held in the firm grip of the hooded, snake-man, Sorcerer. More than once in the long trek, Kia had stumbled. The Sorcerer, astride his great, black, lizard, had just continued forward, dragging Kia behind.

She’d had no choice but to get up again and keep moving.

She’d shed most of her armour in the long walk, so she could keep up, and survive in the searing heat, but now, in a grey tunic and dark slacks, she was shivering, teeth chattering in the freezing air of the evening.

The Sorcerer guided the setting of camp from the back of his lizard mount and Kia stood beside the beast, shivering away, hands ever bound tightly in front of her. When a large tent had been erected in the middle of the camp, the Sorcerer bellowed out a call, and all the Raiders had encircled him, the lizard mount, and Kia.

The Sorcerer looked down on the grubby, tired, men and beckoned a tall man, with striking blue eyes. The man bowed and pulled the hood off his head and the wrappings from his face. He had a neatly trimmed beard, sharp features, and an unexpectedly smooth face. It stood apart from the scarred and marred faces of most of the other Raiders Kia had seen.

‘Amahl, leader of these people, General of my forcesss... witnessss,’ the Sorcerer said, glaring down on the man with his snake-eyes. Then he looked out at the hordes of Raiders. ‘All give ear! No harm isss to come to thisss girl!’

The Sorcerer pointed at Kia.

‘Spoils of war!’ one man bellowed out from the crowd. ‘Let us have some fun with her, Lord Shakla! She is Nobility! Our sworn foes!’

The man had pulled down the wrappings from his face and Kia could see he was a hard-looking individual with a scraggly beard that was quite patchy in places. There were scars and sores on his face, and he had a cleft lip.

It was not a face that was easy to forget.

‘No, Captain Rathet!’ Shakla said with finality, but he didn’t shout. ‘Ssshe will
not
be touched.’

Rathet barked something vicious.

The bearded, Amahl, who was staring Kia’s way, turned to Rathet and made a slashing motioning through the air with one of his arms. Then he turned, as Rathet quieted down, and stepped toward the Sorcerer.

Amahl stared up at the snake-man.

‘Lord Shakla,’ he growled, ‘we do not suffer the nobles lightly. These men will
not
tolerate her presence here easily...’ He turned back to Kia, adding, ‘And she is
most
fair.’

Kia recoiled, taking a step back.

‘I
will
have her!’ Rathet growled loudly, his eyes locked on Kia.

A loud cheer rose up from the horde, and some men surged forward.

‘NO!’ Shakla roared, and his voice seemed to shake the desert.

All the Raiders stopped.

There were murmurs and curses through their ranks.

‘Asssra will be of no use to us if any harm comes to the
fair
Princessss Kia,’ Shakla growled out at his Raiders. ‘Anyone who touchesss her, or violatesss her in
any
way will be dealt with, mossst harssshly, asss soon asss the offence is known... Isss that clear?’

Shakla looked straight at Rathet and then at the General Amahl.

‘Isss. It.
Clear.
General?’

‘Yes, Lord,’ Amahl responded coldly.

‘Sssee that it is, General, for
you
will sssuffer too, if any of your men fall out of line.’

Shakla’s eyes flicked Rathet’s way.

Amahl stood stalk straight and he bowed his head. Then he stormed into the ranks of Raiders, speaking to the men in a language Kia didn’t understand. Rathet hurried alongside Amahl, growling and gesturing.

Shakla dismounted from his lizard mount and he dragged Kia with him through the hordes, toward the tent in the centre of the camp. He hauled Kia behind the tent, to a small, round, insignificant, tent behind the big one. There was a stake in the ground outside the small tent. Shakla attached the chain holding Kia to the stake, and he let out a hissing call.

Two Raiders hurried toward him.

‘Watch her,’ he ordered the men, ‘make sssure ssshe is sssecure.’

The soldiers bowed.

Shakla looked at Kia once with his soulless snake eyes, and then turned and marched back around the large tent.

Kia looked at the Raiders. They leered at her.

Kia crawled into her tent and moved to the back wall, hugging her knees to her chest and feeling warm tears burning down her dirty face.

Kia didn’t know how much time passed after that. It was long enough for the soldiers to bring her some foul-smelling gruel. She was so hungry she at it all, but everything tasted of sand. She had just pushed her platter away and was thinking about if she should try getting sleep or not, when she heard a gruff voice outside her tent.

‘Captain Rathet,’ one of the soldiers said, surprised.

‘Go and eat something,’ Rathet’s voice said.
‘I’ll
watch the girl.’

‘Lord Shakla told us to-’

‘And
I’m
telling you to go!’ Rathet sneered, leaving no room for argument.

‘Yes, Captain,’ one of the soldiers said, and then Kia heard them hurrying away.

She backed closer to the far wall of her tent and the chain she was connected to made a small ringing sound as it jerked to its full length.

Nothing happened for a long moment, but then the flap of the tent parted and Rathet’s malicious face glared in at Kia.

Panic started to rise up in Kia’s chest as she watched Rathet duck into the tent and then start toward her.

‘You are
most
fair... Princess,’ Rathet growled as he stared at her. ‘I’ve never
had
a Princess before.’

‘The Sorcerer said you
weren’t
to hurt me,’ Kia told Rathet in a shaky voice.

A cruel smile curved on Rathet’s ugly lips. ‘Oh, don’t worry, Princess,’ he assured, ‘I’ll be...
gentle.
’

What happened next happened fast. As Rathet reached up to his grubby tunic, a midnight black snake, thicker than Kia’s arm, burst forth out of the ground and shot straight for Rathet’s thigh. The snake hissed and bit down. Rathet cried out and slapped down at the snake, which detached itself, and slithered over to Kia, placing itself between her and the Raider.

Rathet hissed a curse and tried to take a step forward, but his face had already gone quite pale and he dropped to his knees as he took the step. He was already convulsing as he fell sideways to the ground. Then he let out a loud, blood-curdling, shriek and Kia could hear voices and thundering footsteps as Rathet’s body stopped moving and black, tar-like, liquid streamed out of his mouth and eyes.

The two guards from before, and Amahl, arrived a moment later, bursting into the tent, and Shakla stepped in calmly behind them. Amahl and the other two Raiders stared in wide-eyed horror down at Rathet’s bone-still body.

‘Bring them,’ Shakla sneered. He turned and marched out of the tent.

Amahl nodded to the Raiders and the grabbed Rathet, dragging him out of the tent. Amahl went outside too, and Kia heard him unhooking her chain from the stake. He tugged on the chain and Kia stood up, hurrying out of the tent. The inky black snake slithered always near her ankles.

Amahl dragged Kia toward a large fire that was burning on the edge of the camp. There was a huge horde of Raiders around it. Amahl led Kia through the ranks, to the edge of the bonfire, and they stopped beside the grey, dead, form of Rathet. Shakla stepped on Rathet’s chest and glared out at the Raiders.

To Kia’s horror, Rathet made a whimpering sound and he started convulsing again.

‘Thisss!’ Shakla roared. ‘Thisss will be your fate, if you
touch
this girl!’

He pointed at Kia, and as he did the black snake reared up and hissed out at the Raiders. Some of the men fell back.

Kia didn’t see much, her eyes were locked on Rathet as he convulsed a little more and then fell still again.

Shakla stepped to Amahl and struck him across the face with tremendous force. The Raider fell to the ground in a heap, losing grip of Kia’s chain. When Amahl looked up, blood was streaming from his nose, and leaking from his mouth. There was a large gash in his cheek, which was bleeding across his face.

‘Keep them in line, General!’ Shakla snarled at Amahl.

The General bowed, but he shot a look at Kia that made her shudder.

Shakla took Kia’s chain again, led her back to her tent, and chained her back to the stake. The two soldiers seemed to appear out of nowhere, ready to guard Kia again. Shakla gave them both a withering look. Then he hissed something at his snake and marched back to his tent.

The snake hissed at Kia and she backed into her small tent.

The snake laid itself across the doorway.

Kia sat down on the ground again and stared at the serpent and the guards. Tears streamed down her cheeks again, and she desperately fought to keep despair at bay.

Uncle Azra would come for her.

She knew he would.

He
always
did.

‘The weave of Mahgic is vast, complicated, and can be used in many different forms... I’ve heard of some who weave Mahgic with song and poems... it is a complicated discipline, for a patient mind...’

-Azra, teaching Jahnyz of Mahgic

JARRIDON – BAZRA DESERT – HALLI CONTINENT

T
he next day saw the people of Jarridon back at their homes and shops, with life in the city returning to normal. The sound of hammers, saws, chisels, and such rang in the distance as clean up and repairs were in full swing. Aside from these sounds, a quietness penetrated everywhere as the people heard of the long list of slain city guards. Almost everyone knew at least one of them. The burial of their bodies was scheduled for the coming night.

Wyzards wearing the clothes of the Court Wyzards of Minna, clustered around the Archway. They talked to each other in hushed tones while Azra watched silently from across the room.

He had called them in the hopes they would be able to tell him what happened, or what he had missed. He wasn’t happy about it though, he knew that word of this would get back to the Council at the Fortress of Sallock, and he wasn’t particularly convinced that his fellow Wyzards didn’t have anything to do with the appearance of Shakla the Sorcerer.

The possibility of a traitor among their own ranks was
not
something that the council would be quick to consider, but how else would this Sorcerer have got past the heavily guarded Hyper-Wormhole-Cannon in orbit above the world, were it not for an inside contact to let him in.

As soon as these Wyzards were done with the Archway, he intended to find out for himself. He would go to Sallock and get some answers, and some help, whether the councillors wanted to give either of those or not. He knew he could count on Ahaki, but one ally would
hardly
be enough.

The thought that maybe she had been able to get him some answers on her own since his last visit crossed his mind. He wouldn’t put his money on it, but he could
always
hope.

One of the Wyzards around the Archway detached from the group of noble-looking men and women. Most of the men had long beards, and their robes were fine and elegant. The leader of this group of Wyzards was Eldron Xur, a tall white-haired man, with a pointed hat and short white beard. His moustache hung long. Eldron stepped up to Azra, while the others went quiet and all turned to face him.

‘Baron Hemnoth, we’re ready to tell you our findings.’

Azra nodded.

Eldron cleared his throat and began, ‘We went over all the methods in the book we could think of to try to unravel this mystery, but we weren’t able to find much. As near as we can tell, a curse was placed on this particular Archway, set to trigger when it detected a certain level of Mahgical energy. Anyone without Mahgic would have stepped through without incident, and the curse wouldn’t have been triggered.

‘The curse itself was designed to temporarily change the energy of the focus crystal within the Archway. We can only assume, from what you told us, that this Sorcerer was able to redirect the destination of the Archway to a location of his choosing.’

‘But the destination wasn’t to an Archway; he brought her to the front almost immediately. It would have had to have been somewhere close,’ Azra said.

‘It didn’t have to be. Hyper-Wormhole-Cannon’s act on the same sort of principle as Archways – except we can aim the gate and just fling a void ship through it, without the need of a receiving gate. Granted the range is limited, as far as space is concerned, and the accuracy is dubious, but if the Sorcerer could create a similar effect in an Archway, he could conceivably just have caused her to appear somewhere in the desert nearby, and then captured her. On a short range such as this, the accuracy would be much less of a problem, but such a kind of Mahgic would have required an understanding of the Archways that we don’t possess. We didn’t even think such a thing was possible until now. It also would have needed a level of energy that is....
concerning
to say the least, if that's what really happened.’

Azra thought for a moment, then said, ‘That still leaves us the problem of the trigger. Kia has never demonstrated any ability with Mahgic. Why would it have triggered for
her?’

‘We think it was her Mark,’ Eldron offered.

‘Her Mark of the Protected?’

‘Yes, Baron.’

‘Why didn’t Cina’s Mark of the Guardian trigger it I wonder...’

‘I think I may have a theory, as it weighed on my mind too. The Mark of the Guardian is almost undetectable, Mahgically speaking, until it is active. So, since Lady Kia wasn’t in any mortal peril at the time, Cina’s mark would have been dormant. Whereas the Mark of the Protected is always giving off certain energies, so that those with the proper training and subsequent marks of their own, can always locate the protected ones with Mahgic.’

‘Is the Archway still in peril?’

‘We believe not,’ Eldron replied, stroking his long moustache. 'After all,
we’re
going to be travelling back through it, so we hope it’s clear.’

‘Safe travels to you, Eldron,’ Azra told the Wyzard and nodded.

‘Just so you know,’ Eldron said, with the slightest hint of warning, ‘the King will order an attack on the Zharin Raiders fortress if you’re meeting doesn't go well.’

‘Can he spare the men from the war?’

‘He’ll find men,’ Eldron said grimly.

‘I know he will. I just hope he and Cina don’t get it in their heads to act sooner.’

‘Mine is not the position to judge these things.’

‘I suppose not.’

‘With your leave, Baron?’

Azra nodded.

Eldron and the Wyzards all walked back to the Archway and one by one, stepped through it.

Azra walked up the stairs and back up to the lobby of the palace. He strode across its marble floor and out the front door. Two guards stood at either side of the main door, when he walked out, and they fell into step on either side of him.

Azra made his way down the steps and out into the plaza. He turned to the right and walked down the edge of the plaza, to the barracks for the city guard. The guards following him took up position with the other guards outside the barracks as he entered the front door.

Inside, he found John Fort sitting at a table with a large map spread out on it. Some of his Captains were standing around the table.

Azra walked up to them.

John stood up straight and so did the rest of the captains.

‘No need for ceremony right now, John. Any sign of Raiders in the desert watching us?’ Azra asked.

‘None that our scouts have spotted. We’ve searched the surrounding area, but any tracks they would have left have all been blown away by that Sorcerer’s winds.’

‘I wouldn’t have expected less.’

Azra reached into his robes and pulled out what looked to be a smooth white stone and set it on the table.

‘I’m going on a trip. If the Sorcerer or his men show themselves again, call me back with this. Just hold it in your hand and think my name. I’ll come as soon as I can.’

John picked up the stone and placed it in a pouch on his belt. ‘Where are you going?’ he asked.

‘Sallock.’

‘Are you going to be long?’

‘It’s not my intention to be.’

‘Heaven help the Wyzards there,’ John smirked at Azra.

‘Indeed,’ the Wyzard agreed.