The Book of the Burning

NAVA

The ship had arrived on the shore of the Salt Sea days ago, and when the High Priest Phineas came off it, with him was the King, the Prince and the Prince Royal of Solahn. The people of Zahem told the story of traveling to the south to establish their own land, but usually ignored this land belonging to the crown of Solahn. They spoke of wars between enemies within and God sent victories against enemies without, but ignored the treaties that put their land under the mildly annoyed joint suzerainty of Solahn and Daumany. The Daumans and the Zahem had both settled in what was east Solahn. The Daumans offered wealth and their armies as allies, but the Zahem offered very little except not enough taxes and a people who served as a buffer between Solahn and the Ayl kingdoms.

The Zahem were too firmly entrenched in the east to get rid of, and Solahn was too disinterested in the east to make a great effort. The powers that be, back in the capital, would have loved to forget Zahem forever but that in it was that ancient temple with its ancient magic, with which they had entangled themselves, and though they might long for it, they could not rid themselves of Phineas, the sorcerer who had arrived with the King of Solahn on that royal ship, and who called himself High Priest.

A black palanquin surrounded by riders in black met a golden carriage outside the city walls of Nava. When the palanquin lowered, the curtain was opened, and sitting, facing the golden carriage like one on a throne was the High Priest Phineas.

The carriage doors opened, and first came a handsome man, black haired, with white streaks in his temples followed by a very similar man, and a boy who clearly the Prince Royal. Phineas, has dismounted from the palanquin and he and the man with the golden circlet on his head drew near each other.

`    “Your majesty, Phineas made an almost reverent bow.

“Who is that with you?”

“This,” Phineas nodded to the disheveled man, “is a thief who came to the Temple for the Jewel.”

“Then you’ve found him,” Bellamy, the brother of King Nestor began.

“No,” Phineas said. “This is not the one we wanted.”

“And no,” the man threw his dirty head up, “I am not a thief. I am Ethan. the son of Rovert of the High and Noble House of Chyr.”

While Phineas made a noise, Nestor’s eyes widened and he said, “Send him back!”

“Cerainly not,” Phineas said.

“This is an heir to the Throne of Chyr. The last thing we want is another war.”

“Their Queen is dying. She has no one to succeed her,” Phineas dismissed Ethan. “The man is a thief and should be treated as one. I have been holding him as my prisoner. Now I give him to you.”

The King of Solahn raised his eyebrow and frowned.

“Phineas.”

“This is a moment of joy,” Phineas said. “We meet and just in time. A new enemy is coming to take the Stone which your fathers gave to the Temple, and to Mozhudak in repayment for a victory. That enemy is for m to deal with, but,” he roughly shook Ethan by his bound wrist. “Take this one and do as you will.”

Nestor looked from Phineas to Ethan.

“Speaking of taking,” he began, “once we lost Zahem, it is surprising we never took it back even though you kept the Temple.”

Phineas smiled and shrugged.

“You cannot take from a God once you have given. And, at any road, you shall soon have your ancient lands again.”

“He is a demon, not a God,” a voice shouted from the golden carriage.

“Who speaks?” Phineas’s eyes narrowed, and a young man, green eyes laughing, with curly black hair, jumped from the carriage.

“I speak! Rendan!”

“Rendan,” his father chided.

Ethan, dirty faced, smiled up at the boy.

“Rendan of Baumand, son of Nestor King of Solahn, and your God,” he said frankly to Phineas, “is a demon.”

He said to his father, “The worst thing we ever did was make a pact with the priests of the Temple. The power of Mozhudak may have given us Zahem for a time, but it was the wrath of Banthra that set us back.”

All the while he spoke, Phineas’s eyes narrowed, and King Nestor said, “Peace, son. What is done is done, and now we will work to keep the Stone. Keon,” he called his tallest guard to him. “Set a guard around the Temple.”

“Lord King, you are welcome into my palace while you stay in the city.”

Rendan opened his mouth, but Nestor placed a diplomatic hand over it and said, “Phineas, though the people of Zahem disagree, this is a city of my kingdom, and I have a palace of my own.”

“Meet me tonight?” Phineas said. “Your Majesty?”

“You will meet us,” Rendan said, moving away from his father’s restraining hand, “and sup at our palace.”

Phineas cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow before saying, “But of course.”

At the little farm overlooking the white walls of the city, Ohean sold the vardo and the horses and then, jingling the coins into the little bag and handing them to Theone, he said, “Coming into the city in a shiny yellow vardo was the last thing we needed.

“Turn around,” he said, putting an arm over Austin’s shoulder. “There she is. The great city herself, stretched before the sea, all white walled and beautiful after the Solahni rebuilt her. The Solahni princes even built the fine palace in her, copper roved, glinting red once, now green, the Takarand. But they never stayed there. They preferred their own cities because, see her, like a sleeping dragon, incense green and grey pouring from her crown, the Temple, the resting place of Mozhudak. And hear those drums, that dull horn. That is the sound that tells you Phineas, the High Priest is here. He is watching for us. He is watching, perhaps, for me. Though he does not know it.

“So,” Ohean said, as they moved through the grasses, he parting them with his staff, and the companions came back onto the crowded road as they approached the Northeast Gate, “we will be quiet, as quiet as mice, and sneak in, and take the Jewel from the mouth of the Dragon!”

Though what Ohean had said scared him a bit, the truth was Anson was excited by Ohean’s excitement. There was no doubt Ohean felt as if he was marching toward a great meeting and here, in the basin of Zahem, surrounded by green hills, the weather was much warmer than it had been in the Borders. Even Theone bore a quietly triumphant smile and there was good will in the people on the road, some walking, but many riding on horses and wagons into the city.

“The ones riding out look a hell of a lot happier than the ones riding in,” Theone said. But she was happy all the same.

What Austin found amazing was that, though they had been traveling down toward the city for some time, they did not seem to be coming into it very quickly, and it was with shock that he realized they were now upon the Great Gate, its two large white towers carved with beings of dragon body and lion head, mouths opened toward each other. It was more crowded here, and suddenly Theone had stopped walking.

Theone had stopped before a wagon, and in the wagon, with a pretty auburn haired girl wearing copper bangles was the driver, a tall man with a wide brimmed hat, and a band was tied about his wrist. When he leapt from the cart and stood before Theone, she was shaking. Trembling, she looked up at him, and he was looking down at her, his mouth wide open, his eyes beginning to shine.

“Master Nelson, what is it?” Mehta began.

But he only whispered: “Theone?”

And then she nodded rapidly, tears falling from her eyes and Ohean touched her hand. She cried in the middle of the road for some time before looking up at the man in the cart who was also crying and calling him:

“Gimble.”