* * *
The steaming pools of Mineral Lake were so refreshing to body and spirit, the trio lingered far into the day, only departing when the clock forced them.
The mile square Mineral Lake was located at the southern end of the Diamond Mountains, an area filled with countless natural geological wonders. A complex of baths and lodges were scattered around the lake, a gymnasium and amphitheater anchoring the north and south ends respectively. To the west and north of the lake stood a line of low limestone ridges that were dotted with countless natural coves, caves, and caverns. This area was often referred to as ‘Diamond Ridge’, although, officially, Diamond Ridge encompassed several hundreds of square miles more.
Zadar leaned back in the seat of the autocar, lazily watching the distant rail-stage as it snaked its way through the rocky hills toward Diamond Ridge. The twice-daily summer run was popular not only for its destination but for the delightful scenic ride it offered. A person could travel in silent, climate controlled comfort or feel the sun and breeze in one of the open-air cars. The ride was smooth due to antigravity rail systems and leisurely, with a ground speed of about thirty miles per hour. This was true of all the rail stages, they being built in long ago ages when life cared little for time.
Mihai’s motorcar was zipping south at over double the speed of the northbound rail-stage. Being a wheeled machine, the ride was not as smooth, and the older Kafter engine was rather noisy, it being of an internal combustion design. But the road was wide and more direct, cutting the time to get from the Ridge to Palace City by over half. The Ridge lorry out of the city was nearly as quick as the motorcar, but it ran only three times a day in the summer, once a day in spring and fall, and not at all in the winter, a daily rail-stage the only way in and out at that time of the year, seeing that the roads were not kept up.
Still, the motorcar was climate-controlled and spacious, with the two plush bench seats facing each other, and it afforded private conversation to the traveling companions. The trio had lingered long at the Eastern Baths, a rather mundane name for such a luxurious establishment. One could soak in the bubbling mineral waters while taking in the sights of the southeastern rocky foothills and, for a small fee, there was abundant food and drink to satisfy the palate. Too long they had dallied for a leisurely drive back to the city, the reason for their current speed.
It was not long before the conversation turned to the Prisoner Exchange. A debate ensued regarding Asotos’ argument that Lowenah was wrongfully hiding her true identity from the children in the Second Realm. Chasileah confessed, “It’s a confusing issue, a dividing one. I’ve heard whispers that Mother is out of line concerning this. Many feel that cloaking her true nature creates a false faith in the hearts of those who believe they are following a male leader. This only adds fuel to the fire for the people who accuse Mother of deceit by changing Mihai’s gender when sending her into that world.”
Crilen pondered Chesse’s remarks, then eyeing her, asked, “So how does our Chasileah feel? Has Mother stepped over the line on this matter?”
“Stepped over the line?” Chesse shook her head denying that. “I speak not against what Mother has chosen to do. I trust to her leadership, her wisdom, but I do puzzle over it. For the centuries before the global upheaval in Noah’s day, Mother was known in form and name as ‘Lowenah, the Mother Goddess’. All the faithful men of old from Seth to Lamech willingly bent a knee in worshiping her in her true form.”
Zadar spoke up. “All that may well be true, but the actions of Hormax and his demonic cohorts perverted such worship into debased and vile religions of filth. Why the men of those days even took the name of Noah’s wife, Aphrodite, and turned it into something repulsive and obscene.”
Chesse agreed, countering, “Yet those same men perverted the male gender by creating gods of evil and obscene character. Mother still chose to imply the masculine to her worshipers.”
Zadar disagreed. “The masculine over the feminine, not the masculine without the feminine... Mother spoke to her chosen people in womanly terms of endearment, even speaking with the feelings of a nursing mother. No, I think that she needed to emphasize her strength and power in a manly way to a race of men who had, because of Hormaxian machinations, subjugated women into stations of weakness and slavery. If the people of those Realms were ever to believe that hope in the vanquishing of evil existed, they needed a male god to put faith in.”
Chesse still feared Mother’s deception, though well-intended, might have negative consequences in the future when all truths must be revealed.
Crilen queried, “Do you feel that Mother had questionable motives for doing such a thing? That she may possibly fear - or have feared - a vast falling away of her loyal disciples in the Lower Realms should the facts have been revealed?”
Her voice carrying the tone of insult, Chesse curtly answered, “Never have I questioned Mother!”
Crilen sat back, grinning mischievously. “Whoa, there! No need to go to war here. I was only wondering what you think of Mother’s decisions concerning this.”
Apologizing for her rude response, Chesse went on to explain what she meant. “Mother has given to all her children the freedom of choice, to choose to decide which road or course to take. It is also a freedom she gives to herself. I have lived ages longer than either of you, have witnessed other decisions Mother has made, as well as the consequences of those decisions.” She leaned forward, shaking a finger. “By Mother’s own volition, she has regretted some of her decisions made. That takes not away one bit from who Mother is, but it does reveal that even wise decisions may not always produce the hoped for results. Should all of Mother’s decisions prove foolhardy, I’d rather die a fool following her than to live eternal a slave to my brother scum!”
Zadar cautioned. “What you say may have some merit of truth to it, but dangerous speech it could be, none the less. If it fell upon the wrong ears, especially coming from an Ancient like you… well… weak hearts are easily swaged, and I feel there are many weak-hearted ones still among us.”
Chesse did not argue, replying, “I only speak my opinions among trusted confidants for sake of presenting a clearer picture of the way I see matters.”
Crilen slowly nodded as though considering Chesse’s comments and Zadar’s admonition. He finally spoke up. “Well, whether Mother’s decisions were either wise or foolish, that girl of ours, Darla, sure kicked some ass at the Prisoner Exchange! No man has anything on her when it comes to being tough!”
It was Zadar’s turn to sit forward, surprised, asking, “What of Darla? Was she harmed in some way?”
“Have you been in a tomb?” Chesse asked, incredulous. “The gossip has been rife regarding the girl’s exploits. You were at the Prisoner Exchange, weren’t you?”
Zadar stammered his confessions. “Well… er… yes, I was, er… but my party left soon after the prisoners were released.”
Crilen did not allow Zadar to escape with such an empty excuse. “Maybe so, maybe so, but that was some time ago. Where have you been since, working on some secret plans for coming conquests?”
Squirming a bit, fearing that he might ‘let the cat out of the bag’ if he said too much, Zadar offered a lame excuse and quickly changed the subject back to Darla. “Nothing secret, just busy...busy. You know, do this, get that, errand, errand, errand... Besides, you were at the Prisoner Exchange, too, Crilen… heard some stories about that. You know the Dogie left early, told you we were going, myself. I just thought you might know some details that hadn’t reached the gossip. What of Darla?”
“All right. All right. Seeing you’re not giving anything up…” Crilen surrendered. He related stories he overheard from others who had witnessed Darla’s encounter with Asotos. Zadar’s ears tingled with excitement at the things disclosed. As the details of events unfolded, an idea began to percolate in his mind - that is, until Crilen came to the part where Darla and Euroaquilo went
off on one of Mother’s trade ships to celebrate a new coming of age.
Zadar groaned, “So she’s gone off with Euroaquilo? You got me thinking about something, but I needed to talk with her about what I have in mind.”
Chesse piped up, “The girl’s not far away. Why, I saw Euroaquilo just yesterday morning at the spaceport, preparing his escort ship, the Griffon, for its return to the Third Fleet. He told me that Darla was off on an adventure to meet with our latest arrival, a certain Ishtar, if I recall, out at the village, as we speak, I suppose.”
Zadar beamed. “That is good news! I’ll see if Mihai will allow me to take her carriage out for another spin tonight, after dinner.”
Chesse frowned, cautioning, “I don’t know if Darla will take to your intrusion. She’s been waiting a long time to be together with that child...goes way back with her. It might be wiser to wait a day or two. Give ‘em time to get reacquainted before busting in on them.”
“I don’t have a day or two!” Zadar exclaimed. “We’ve got business coming up soon, and I need to find out answers to my questions before then. Darla will understand.”
Crilen leaned forward, eyeing Zadar. “Your face reveals more than your words. Tell us, what is so important that you should go off on a run to find your sister when a mourning dove waits for you in her nest? This isn’t the Zadar I know, willing to forego an evening tryst for the sake of uncertain consequences. What’s up? Why can’t things wait at least until tomorrow?”
Not wishing to reveal his full intentions, Zadar explained, “From what you say, Asotos got really close to Darla, possibly into her head. She may have learned something important, a tidbit of information revealing his motives or future plans.”
Crilen laughed. “You put a lot of stock in the idea that Asotos would share pertinent information with a horse maiden - at least that’s what Mother dressed our girl up to be that day.”
Zadar disagreed. “It was a ruse to draw the Worm out. ‘Least that was the gossip I heard tell regarding it - gossip from a dependable source. Mother set Asotos up, tricksing with him the way she sometimes does, to get him off his guard so he might do something foolish.”
Rubbing his bearded chin in thought, Crilen mused, “So it was a setup? Hmm....” He then asked, “You’ve got some special meeting where you’re planning to share all this with the big brass? If you do find something worthwhile, do you think they will buy it, especially coming from Darla?”
Zadar hesitated, not liking Crilen’s negative implications about his close companion. He imagined that Ardon had filled his head about her while on the way to the Prisoner Exchange. Ardon was known to grab the ear of anyone who would listen when his pride was hurt. He shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, we have several meetings coming up. See, it’s this way: I’m an adjunct to the field marshal. It’s my job to provide whatever information to her that might prove beneficial. Time is always of the essence when it comes to matters such as making plans and preparing for things, war maybe. Everyone knows there’s a war coming. Field Marshal Trisha’s in the middle of what’s coming. It’s my job to assist her as much as may be.”
Crilen was not satisfied with Zadar’s coy answer, but saw it useless to probe for more. He turned to Chesse, asking, “What’s so outstanding about this Ishtar so as to make Darla run off and leave prince charming for her?”
“Girl’s special to her.” Chesse answered. “Goes back before the Gallic Wars... She helped save the girl and her uncle, Cephas, from Legion’s ruffians. Came close to dying. Was put up in a convalescent home for some time. Drorli told me that she made arrangements to come to the village as soon as she arrived, had to stop over to retrieve something from the vaults under Palace City first.”
“Cephas’ niece, huh?” Crilen glanced back and forth between Zadar and Chesse. “Doesn’t sound all that casual to me.” He looked a Chesse. “You seem to know a lot about what’s going on. What’s the big secret, anyway, Miss Tricksy?”
“No big secret...” Chesse confessed. “Just happened to be about my Postal duties when Drorli asked for a hand in the village.”
Zadar interrupted. “I think with Darla it’s more being that it was her first clandestine assignment with someone in the Lower Realms. She took a shine to Ishtar, something common in cases like that, what some call the ‘motherly affection syndrome’. But I feel there’s more to Ishtar, or to Ishtar’s arrival.”
“How so?” Crilen asked. Chesse chimed in, also, wondering.
Zadar explained, “I was at the last council meeting before we departed for the Prisoner Exchange. As you have heard, Mihai spoke of three swords - two being already here, Trisha being one, and another hiding in shadows. The third was yet to come and, when it arrived, the Three would be made complete. I got the impression that the arrival of all the Swords of Prophecy was a harbinger of future events. Then,” He waved his hands about gesturing. “when Eutychus told me what Sirion spoke to Legion during her rescue… well, I just think Ishtar might be our Third Sword of prophecy.”
Crilen and Chesse both asked excitedly, “How? What did Sirion say?”
Zadar leaned forward, speaking in a hush. “After Sirion retrieved the skin bag from Legion, Eutychus said she spoke some kind of a curse to the man. It went something like, ‘It has waked. It has waked. It smells the blood of the one murdering it. Daughter of the Gorgons it is.’ And as she hobbled away, she turned and hissed, ‘Pleasant dreams, brother.’”
Crilen could little contain himself. “So what do you think it means? How do you connect it with Ishtar?”
“Well…” Zadar leaned back in the seat. “Sirion said something had waked, and implied that Legion would be troubled over it. From what I’ve been told, Ishtar awoke about then, and she’s been the only one from the Lower Realms to arrive here for some time. There are no others.”
“And…” Zadar held the suspense until he felt the two were about to burst. “it was said that Mother warned Legion that day when Ishtar was murdered by his henchmen that the girl would return to haunt his dreams.”
“So!” He slapped his knees. “I just put the pieces together and concluded that Ishtar might just be the Third Sword we’ve all been waiting for. The Swords of Sharon may all be arrived as I speak.”
Crilen sat back, disappointed. “I thought there might be more to it than just some wild hunch. I have to admit it, though, you do weave a good tale.” He then offered a word of caution. “I doubt you’ll find our girl cooperative, seeing all she’s been through, and now the new toy she has to play with. You know Darla, all fuss, all fuss, when she’s got something like Ishtar on her mind. Sinks into that secret world of hers and doesn’t let anyone in.”
He wagged a finger. “And that’s what I think you’ll find if she does let you in - nothing. Locked up tighter than a drum she is, poorest… Well, I just don’t think she has much to share, and I don’t think Asotos would have found that much in her either – ‘least not enough to leave anything behind in her head.”
Zadar was displeased with Crilen’s insinuations concerning Darla, but he remained silent. After all, few who knew the woman felt differently. Even many of her close acquaintances viewed her the same way. He finally replied, “Try I must, even if it might be a long shot.”
Crilen leaned back, resting his head on the pillowed cushion, closing his eyes. “Let us know if you do find something important, which I doubt you will...”