Dawn of Twilights Past

Chapter X

Saeran was nearing the resupply point for the third time in as many days. Something was definitely different about the place since the last time she’d been here; she couldn’t decide what it was for the moment. Closing in on the first tent, she noticed a remarkable amount of activity for this late hour. Clan colors scattered throughout the small groups gathered, debate deafening in the remoteness. Animals milled around the corral and tents, half tied, half bustling around the food and water buckets; bony, undernourished, eating everything in a frenzy of commotion and noise. She approached cautiously; raucous harsh language misted on her.

“Damn,” she thought. She had to find out what happened over the last day. The boy from our previous trip, she exclaimed to herself, running around Paladine and paying no attention to the large horse standing in his way. The boy held several large bags in his grasp, almost certainly meant for someone rich and capable of paying for quick service. He handed over the bags to a well-dressed man, quietly debating with three others out of the way of the milling, mindless crowd waiting for their own supplies to be brought. He snatched the payment, turned and dashed back past her.

“Hold on, boy,” she said loudly, snagging his shirt as he ran past, lifting him completely off the ground. Alarmed expression on his face, he took note of Saeran and stopped struggling in her grasp.

“My lady, you must leave. There is danger in the deep of the desert.” He exhaled loudly, trying to land on his feet as the ground rushed up to join him on his way down.

“What is causing all this commotion,” she asked, hand rolling over the crowd growing more expansive as the minutes rolled by.

“An evil spirit has come, killing all, they say,” pointing to a couple of the groups whose discussions were reaching a new crescendo of panic. “They are leaving, finding safe refuge till the men come together from each of the clans to remove the danger.” He quickly patted Paladine’s nose, “I must go back to work. Sorry, my lady, that I cannot stay and talk longer, so many people need supplies.” Turning on his heel he sprinted back past Paladine and into the tent before she could get another question in.

She knew what was happening. The demons from the temple were escaping and killing everything in their path. They were traveling out into the desert, affecting the other clans in their destructiveness. She needed to move on before everything got out of hand.

Paladine pivoted, preparing to depart as unnoticed as they had arrived. Abruptly one hand shot up, grabbing her leg, and another Paladine’s harness, pulling sharply, trying to unsaddle her. A deft movement of her hand instructed Paladine to strike the man in the leg. Letting go with a loud harrumph, he departed hurriedly never looking back, hand clutching his thigh and limping painfully back out into the desert. She knew the man would spend the rest of his life with a limp. “Good for you,” she hissed. He had tried to steal her horse, probably to facilitate his flight out of the desert. He must have been desperate, because a thief caught in this society was a thief dead in this society.

The boy had said the men were trying to take care of the evil spirit. This was good, she just may have her distraction when the time came to retrieve the book. Planting her heels into Paladine’s sides, she lowered herself further into the saddle streamlining her body with his. She would reach the city before daybreak.

Pitch black of night flashed by, sand flying in every direction for hours. She was tired from the grueling non-stop ride. Paladine’s sweat mingled with her own, breath quick and deep as he continued to feed air into his lungs. Finally, slowed to a walk, the city became outlined in the distance by the crimson rays of the rising sun. Women with children, animals herded by boys and dogs, men pulling wagons in lieu of horses fled the desert all around, like ants scorched out of their home moving to another, knowing that if they didn’t find one soon they would die without food and water.

They looked at her oddly as she passed going the opposite direction. Some of the older women waved her away from the town, indicating that to go back that way would be suicide. She nodded and continued plodding on listlessly. She would need to sleep soon, she would be dangerous to herself if she didn’t, but the next question was where? She cut right, south of the town. She had a white cloth large enough to drape across Paladine’s back to utilize as shade while she slept and planned her next action. She just needed to get out of the way of all this traffic.

Before long she noted something in the distance, a deserted lean-to, a little out of her way but more suited to her purpose. Quickening the pace, she reached the lean-to, dismounted, checking it thoroughly. It was stable and large enough to supply shade for both her and Paladine. She laid down under the lean-to.

The heat of the day was building as the hours rolled desolately on. She fell asleep in moments, head resting on Paladine’s saddle. Hot blistering heat blew over her and sweat rolled down her body.

She had slept for several hours. Her undergarments were soaked through, indicating the heat of the day had arrived and was on its way out again. It could only become cooler, she hoped.

The day cooled somewhat as the evening arrived. The sun slowly crawled down the far side of the sky, departing through its own hidden door. They rose, grabbed food and drank a little. Rationing would be strict until she located a reliable water source, probably some poor farmer’s well. He wouldn’t be needing it now.

She was south of the city and the temple. The flow of people out of town had slowed almost to a stop while she slept. This was a good thing, she didn’t need to deal with another idiot trying to steal her horse, or better yet, kill her and then try to steal her horse.

She saddled Paladine, mounted and moved at a sharp clip towards the city. The dust blew the sand ahead of her then whipped it back to rain down like needles. Heat radiated from the sand, making the evening almost as miserable as the day. The city was quiet. Personal items were left scattered around in their haste to leave, a blanket here, a child’s shoe there. No other life was evident. This was disconcerting. One day filled with life, the next nothing, not even a trace of the army being built.

Dismounting, she left Paladine shadowed behind a low-lying wall at the edge of the city. There was no use profiling herself atop a huge war horse, stealth would be her friend for this particular job. She only needed to see the layout of the area and what was happening at the temple, if the door was open, closed, what was going in and out of the place; where Deiondre was hiding with that godforsaken book he was so desperate to find, and the list goes on.

Reaching the edge of the wall, she rounded the corner and continued walking towards the temple. There was little to hide behind from here till the temple maze. She continued walking, slow, cautious, towards the city center and the temple, performing a three-sixty to make sure nothing followed behind. It was just too quiet, she thought morbidly.

The sun became a forgotten memory. It cast long, low shadows across the ground. If she didn’t move a little faster, she would be depending on moonlight to see everything. She picked up her pace, leaving lightly indented marks in the sand with her passing. She could see the wall in the distance, shadows cast off the stone in a myriad of long brush strokes on a canvas of sand.

She cut across the sand, low to the ground. Dust puffed into the air behind each step. She needed to reach the far corner of the wall, tall and inconspicuous, a perfect spot for monitoring. Placing her back against the wall, she checked behind her once again. Still nothing, not a living soul to be seen, and it was not for a lack of looking. They were housed in the temple, she thought sharply. Maybe the creatures stayed in the temple during the day. If that was true, then she should be seeing something come out soon. The sun would be gone in another half hour at most.

She traversed the first low wall, snatching a quick look towards the temple. The guards were nowhere to be seen, about what she had expected. Nothing black and disgusting wondered the grounds either. So far so good, two more walls. She was halfway to the temple when movement flashed to her left. “What the --” she exclaimed under her breath, dropping to the ground behind a large slab of stone no longer a part of the wall anymore.

Body flat against the stone, she slid her shoulder and head over to the edge, peaking around warily, nothing. Turning to the other side, she peered around with the same curious result. Maybe she was seeing things. She had been a little anxious since she hit the ground. Listening a few moments longer, she continued around the far side of the stone, jumping the last two walls in quick succession.

The temple sat forbidden in front of her. She ran up the steps into the temple which looked exactly as it had the second time they visited, quiet, desolate and closed. She knew where the latch was, but something told her opening the door would be one of the biggest and last mistakes she would ever make. Turning sharply on her heel, she headed back out the way she had come. She would take up a position outside on the far wall and wait.

Black crept in, enfolding the city in its darkened hands, light creeping between lightly spread fingers. Taking up position just outside the far wall, she positioned herself to see the entrance to the temple completely, half of the maze, and the way in, without being seen herself. She would have to watch her rear. “Let’s not get caught off guard,” she thought humorously.

The night seemed too quiet, no sounds of chirping crickets, flying bugs or the scraping of sand out of burrows by large hairy spiders. Shadows danced across her vision, the needle-sharp sand making it difficult to see clearly. A quick, broken, black movement appeared near the entrance to the temple. “Crap,” she mumbled. Staring directly at the door, she could see no reason for the movement, yet again questioning the validity of her vision in the pitch black of night, the sand whipping up into the air and slashing at her face and eyes.

Moments later, as she slid from the shadow onto the stairs, Saeran’s heart stopped, jumping into her throat and quickening its pace. The form of hell stood before her and she knew what it was, a story out of a nightmare. Clutching the wall suddenly, almost sliding off the edge, she looked closer. The creature had an elongated mouth, abnormally long razor-sharp teeth, red flaming eyes and rough leathery black skin. It turned, looking back the way it had come, sliding in and out of shadow, visible, invisible, visible again, making its way up the steps soundlessly, unaware of Saeran.

Saeran kept low never moving, one move and it would chase her down and rend her flesh from her bones. She was downwind. At this moment it would not smell her, she just had to make sure it stayed that way. Slowing her heart, she watched the creature walk into the building. Without pause, it reared up on its large muscular back legs, placed its front claws on the latch and dropped back down to the ground, watching the door silently pull back. Once clear, it bound quickly down into the hole.

Saeran’s heart sank back into her chest, now pounding out of shear nervousness, mouth like so much cotton after too much mead. This was not possible, she thought quickly. That creature came out of legend, frequenting the Wild Wood. None have ever seen what it looked like without dying, till now.

Get out, her mind screamed, what did she think she was doing staying here? She would be dead before she ever saw the book, lest obtain possession of it. The creature was called Soklim, deadly in its ability to kill. She needed to know where this one came from. If this abomination came from the temple, she only needed to finish her mission and get back to warn the others. If it came from Wild Wood, she needed to finish her mission and warn Karish about her own impending danger, an impossible undertaking given the amount of time she had available, but she had to try.

Black smoke started to billow out the door of the temple, enveloping the steps one by one and wrapping the ground like black ink on paper. A black form appeared at the top of the steps. “Soklim,” Saeran mouthed silently, settling herself closer to the wall and watching for whatever came next.

Another black body walked silently forth, phasing between body parts. Its head was large and elongated; eyes, red and cat-like, flashed in the moonlight; teeth, body, legs, then head again. Two, Saeran counted mentally. She blinked several times consecutively, trying to clear her vision. Was that a woman, she thought, astounded, prepared to risk her own life trying to get her out of there. But something more astonishing happened. The woman placed her hand on the creature’s head that just exited, larger, blacker and even more muscular than the Soklim, gently stroking its head like a favorite pup, avoiding the overly sharp teeth and ears.

The woman stood at the top of the steps to the temple, a murderously beautiful smile on her face, as all the creatures from a nightmare poured forth from the temple into the liquid ink black of night. Saeran was engrossed in counting the tidal wave of creatures exiting and their interaction with the woman as she caressed each animal lovingly for a moment then watched as it turned and loped off into the dark, disappearing in seconds. Saeran had completely failed to note the book in the woman’s small hand. Almost falling off the wall a second time in her excitement, small shards of rock crumbled off the wall from under her and caught in a tidal wave of wind, blown away. “I bet you,” Saeran thought, that this is what Deiondre was looking for. Who is this woman and where is Deiondre and who in the hell opened the gates of Hell.

The woman had counted over a hundred strong and no stem to the flow, horrible looking creatures, none like another except in their long teeth, sharp claws and muscular corded black bodies, twisted and horrible. Hours rolled by, a black billowing haze rolled out of the entrance causing a thick black fog to form around the temple, slowly flowing outwards toward the city, slithering, menacingly advancing out.

Morning would crest in an hour. Saeran was chillingly tired, clinging to the wall precariously, grateful for the lack of attention from the creatures departing for the deep of the desert. The flow of creatures exiting slowing audibly in the distance, the woman in black evaluated her surroundings. A sly smile appeared again on her face. Turning to face outwards, raising her voice above the grinding of black bodies jostling around the temple, “We shall destroy all who have stolen our world from us, we shall create a world in your image and rule it with a terrible, beautiful hand.” She closed her fist and looked out over the landscape. “Right Loqu, Deiondre…” resting her hands on each silent form beside her.

Saeran crawled back into her skin, clammy from the cold black haze encompassing the temple and maze which licked upward toward her body. The woman in black peered through her like a flimsy silk curtain on a brightly lit window without ever seeing her. Terrified at what she had just heard, Loqu, Deiondre, Saeran questioned her own hearing. There was no way that could be Deiondre. He was quite human the last time she had seen him.

A crimson glow formed in the distance on the horizon. Saeran noticed a sudden absence of creatures around the temple. The woman turned once again to disappear back into the temple, her two guardians close behind. Soklim appeared out of the black haze at the base of the steps once again. Looking around, he bound up the steps in three quick lunges, stepped up to the far wall and proceeded to close the door. Dropping to all fours, turning, he departed like a shadow in the sun.

Saeran scanned the area. It seemed she was right in one aspect, they were not fond of the light, if they could handle it at all, except for Soklim. What made him so different from the rest, she thought as she slid down the wall and trekked back the way she had come, hoping Paladine was okay.

A thousand creatures had been released this night, all deadly hunters who might or might not fear sunlight. Saeran thought of Deiondre, turned into one of the creatures by a beautiful woman in black who held a book highly sought by Deiondre. A creature created before Dawn of Twilights Past who guards the entrance to the temple, a creature that has never been seen by the human eye and lived, not afraid of humans or light, it appears.

Twisting the facts into a cohesive braided unit, trying to make some semblance of reason from the information befuddled Saeran’s mind, scattering it like a prism. Now the million-coin question of the day, how was she going to get that book away from the obviously powerful woman who currently harbors it? She had no idea. She needed sleep. The night had been strenuously terrifying, draining her energy like a leach.

Rounding the corner of the wall where she had placed Paladine, she received a welcoming nicker, bowling her over in his zealousness for her attention. Laughing for the first time in days, “You beast,” she said conversationally, shoving him back and then waiting for him to return. He had been ground tied. If he had needed to depart, he would have. Obviously none of the creatures who had exited the temple departed this way or traveled close enough to cause the fight or flight reflex. But, she questioned that validity, what if they were not interested in horses and other animals, what if the woman had meant just the races that roamed this planet, the ones that walked on two legs, loved, hated, killed each other in battle? “This would be methodical genocide of all races on this planet,” Saeran moodily thought. “This is just plain bad, and right now I’m the only one to stop it from happening. Karish, good luck, I won’t have time to warn you of your impending danger but I know you are more than capable of taking care of yourself.”

She rode back to the lean-to, pulled out rations and quietly relaxed under the shade, nibbling dried fruit. Sleep was the farthest thing from her mind despite the night’s events. She would return just after the hottest part of the day when the sun was at its highest and try to enter the temple and retrieve the book. If this woman was even close to being human in any manner, she would have to sleep some time. A smile formed on her lips as she schemed her next move. Yawning loudly, looking around, the sand desolate and empty, safe for now, she curled up on her blanket, sleep claiming her, her internal clock ticking. Paladine stood in the shade next to his mistress and swatted flies from his face, sleeping in the midmorning heat.