Orion’s Birth Bound
The cavernous tunnel beneath Sangfoul’s mountain
With great speed Maanta and the others swam through the dark, chilled cavern that the darkness seemed to blur before their sight. They knew they would only have a short timeframe to meet up with Anna and her group, before the warriors of Sangfoul defeated Tao and came looking for them.
“Do you think we will reach them in time?” Maanta asked Sift quietly.
“Do not speak,” Sift replied. “We will soon reach the end of the cavern, and for all we know our enemies could be near.”
Slowly, a soft light spread in the darkness before them, and the lips of the crevice opening brought hope to Maanta’s heart. Soon they would be in open water, and could travel directly to where they thought Anna and the others would be.
They moved closer to the shining cavern opening on the ocean floor, and then a group of shadows moved in the light’s path. “Something moves down there,” one of the shadows said.
“It’s probably an eel. Let me see,” another shadow responded.
Sift halted Maanta, Millay, and the slaves behind him. Some of the slaves made sharp noises as they rammed into those in front of them in the darkness.
The first shadow entered the cave now. “That was no eel!”
Maanta’s heart pounded in his chest.
Sift led them forward once more. There would be no turning back. They had come too far to retreat back to Sangfoul’s inner city.
Maanta clutched his trident tight in his hands as he rode Archa’s back up through the darkness.
The second shadow called to another hidden companion. “Evanshade, come here! I think they’re hiding in this crevice-cave!”
Evanshade, Maanta thought. Are we saved? Or has he played us as fools all along? He wanted to say something to Sift but knew he would be heard.
They were close now and light began to fall on Sift and Maanta’s faces.
“It’s them!” the first shadow called out, before being skewered by Evanshade’s trident and tumbling into the crevice hole.
Evanshade quickly dispatched his other companion’s life as well.
Sift burst from the cave crevice’s opening, taking Evanshade by surprise and pinning him against the coral and kelp-covered ground with the bar of his trident. Maanta and Millay rose from the cave into the light blue water shortly after, followed by the enormous mass of Banealian slaves they had freed.
“Stay close to the coral and kelp so as not to be seen by others,” Sift told them as they emerged from the cavern. Evanshade lay motionless beneath his trident’s shaft.
“I am not your enemy, Sift,” Evanshade spoke slowly and cautiously. “Did Maanta not tell you I am realizing my wrongs, and no longer wish you ill? Why else would I have killed my fellow warriors?”
“You could be hatching a more sinister scheme.” Sift still pinned him hard against the ground. “We know you are not to be trusted.”
Maanta came quickly to Sift’s side, thankful that battle had been averted.
“It may be true,” Maanta said as Archa nudged Evanshade’s arm. “I hadn’t told you before but Evanshade was there when we rescued Illala from Sangfoul and Equilious is his son. He told us when they would be attacking Tao and suggested that we free the slaves when the people of Sangfoul and Tao’s group were locked in combat.”
Sift looked to Evanshade as if pondering his fate. “You will stay with us for now, but you will be unarmed.” He stripped the double-edged trident from Evanshade’s grasp and placed it in Maanta’s hands. “Give your own trident to one of the slaves and carry this one,” he instructed Maanta.
Maanta passed his trident along.
“Do not cross us, Evanshade.” Sift pressed the bar of his trident with a burst of force against Evanshade’s chest, causing him to choke before allowing Evanshade to rise. “You are lucky that we do not shackle you as you once did me. It is by Maanta’s honor that we allow you to survive.”
“You will not regret your forgiveness.” Evanshade turned to Maanta as he finished his sentence. “Your people will arrive safely to Orion’s Birth.”
They traveled quickly then, assisted by Evanshade’s knowledge of the seafloor beyond Sangfoul. They hugged to patches of vegetation so as not to be seen, traveling as closely as they could to the sand beneath.
But the feeling of being followed returned to Maanta’s mind, only in a different way this time.
They passed their original camp when they had arrived on the outskirts of Sangfoul, and Maanta noticed a small group of tailfinned warriors skimming the area and talking back and forth.
They passed unnoticed.
Thank Gelu Anna was wise enough to start heading for Orion’s Birth, Maanta thought, realizing that since she was not here, she must have left with the others.
It would be at least the same distance they had already traveled again before they would finally rejoin Anna.
Darkness had begun to settle over day as Maanta noticed movement along the barely visible sand and kelp in the ocean before him. “That’s them,” he spoke to Sift, who was close to his side. They appeared to be moving slowly, and would be easy to catch up to now.
“Be cautious,” Sift warned Maanta. “They could be warriors of Sangfoul sent to cut us off.” Sift turned a wary look back to Evanshade.
As they came nearer, Maanta noticed legs moving in the group as they swam. It had to be them.
“Anna!” Maanta called to the group moving in the aquatic foliage before them.
The group stopped its movements. Maanta could barely make out a female form rising on her riding-fish, out of the kelp pocket they had been traveling in.
“Maanta?” Anna’s beautiful voice called back to him. “Is that you? We saw the people of Sangfoul dip over the mountain to attack Tao and decided it was time to begin heading for Orion’s Birth! I’m so happy to have you safe and back with us again!”
Another voice called out from the group hidden by the kelp in the darkness. “They’ve freed our people!”
Several of the Banealians hidden in the kelp rose out of it quickly, swimming to greet the freed slaves.
Anna rode her riding-fish quickly to Maanta’s side, touched his cheek with her hand and kissed him. It was good to feel her touch again, even if he had only missed it for a short while.
Soon they had come together as one group again in the darkness and had welcomed the freed Banealian slaves warmly. Evanshade had also found Illala and embraced her and baby Equilious in his arms. He kissed the soft head of his baby boy as he held them both.
They couldn’t rest though, Sift insisted. The longer they stayed in one place the sooner the warriors of Sangfoul would discover them.
“It’s true,” Evanshade assured them. “The warriors of Sangfoul are searching for us.”
The entire group seemed to look upon Evanshade with fear and disdain. Illala assured them Evanshade was not the murderous man they knew him to be, but no one in the group, except Maanta and Anna, wanted anything to do with him. They insisted he continue traveling unarmed and far behind them in the water.
Soon they were off again, traveling low amongst the kelp, coral and pits of the ocean floor with a soft sheen of aquatic moonlight glistening upon the world about them. Far in the distance, Evanshade followed with Illala by his side. She cradled Equilious in her arms, the baby cooing softly against her chest.
They traveled through the night toward Orion’s Birth. It took five days to reach Sangfoul from Meridia, but Orion’s Birth was closer to Sangfoul, and now they traveled at a faster pace. If they were able to keep up this pace and travel through the nights, then they would be able to reach Orion’s Birth around the time when the sun rose for the second time.
Night gave way to day as they pressed on, with no sign of their enemies. The sun emerged like a beacon over the ocean’s horizon above.
Instead of meals, which they would have had to stop for, they caught whatever small fish they could find swimming in and out of
the nearby kelp. They relied on these small morsels to keep their energy up as they traveled on.
Early morning passed to noon and then to sunset. The sounds of whales calling to each other in the distance danced through their ears.
As the sun spread a crimson glow across the water in its setting, Evanshade heard a low booming noise coming from far behind him. He couldn’t make out what it was but he recognized the noise’s pitch. He would know it anywhere.
“Malistour!” he said, as he spun around and saw a large mass of movement approaching. “Someone must have discovered us and alerted him of our location. They will be upon us soon.”
Illala stopped, giving him a worried look. “What do we do?”
Evanshade kissed her tenderly. “You rejoin the main group with our child and continue on with the others. I will remain here and attempt to stall them.”
The worry in Illala’s eyes beamed. “But they will kill you! Surely they know you have betrayed them?”
Evanshade stared at the approaching mass. “It’s true. I will probably die, but I could have no life in a world of land and air anyway.”
“And what of our child? He needs a father and he too has no legs! We need you, Evanshade!” Illala hugged him.
“There is no other way. Go to them and warn them to move faster. I will meet you at Orion’s Birth if I survive.” For a moment more he hugged her, then kissed her with desperate passion.
“You will always be my Love,” she told him before swimming toward the rest of their group.
Evanshade admired her beautiful back as she swam away, then looked into the eyes of his son who gazed back at him over Illala’s shoulder. “We will all die,” Evanshade spoke to himself. “I will die here first, and then they all will be slain before they ever reach Orion’s Birth. What did I invoke on us all, Illala, by attacking Meridia?”
Dread filled his heart and clotted in his throat as he float in the currents, watching Illala and the others fade in the distance. The warriors of Sangfoul came closer and closer.
They were almost there now. Any minute they would be upon him.
Then something rustled in the kelp below. A pair of eyes flickered and glistened in the darkness and moonlight that filtered through the ocean depths. “…come for what it stakes to take does Malistour or so it thinks, but reckoning must us with it soon for such not will it fink our room…”
Evanshade stared into the shimmering eyes below. “Amaranth?” he asked. “Is that you?”
A cragged old body swam up from the kelp below. One of its legs seemed to flap contortedly at its side. Scars maimed its body. Its eyes flashed back and forth at what appeared to be nothing. “…amaranth of not I am but odyssey sir sam I am…”
How did he survive the fall of Meridia? Evanshade thought. “The people of Sangfoul are coming, Amaranth,” Evanshade spoke to him quickly as he watched Malistour and the others growing larger before him. Malistour had now recognized him in the distance and shouted something, just out of earshot. “Hide back in the kelp and coral, old man, and spare your own life before they arrive.”
The crinkled old Amaranth didn’t heed his advice and instead, came to his side. There was nothing Evanshade could say or do that would persuade him to leave.
“…in endings of Meridia was a soul did change and free this was and so I trek to by your side to save the souls thine came to prize…” Amaranth’s fingers popped as he curled them inward and stared ahead in determination. Small blue orbs glowed upon his palms.
Evanshade looked at Amaranth bizarrely. “I don’t know what you say or do, old man, but it’s good to have you by my side.”
Malistour was only a short distance away now, his ferociously angry eyes directed toward Evanshade. “You have betrayed us!” he bellowed. Within minutes he closed the distance between them, his massive army close behind. “What filth would betray his own people for the mire of the legged race?”
“A man who has learned the error of his ways,” Evanshade spoke to himself as he stared defiantly ahead. What was he doing, remaining here? He didn’t have a weapon to defend himself.
Malistour rushed forward, his arm outstretched to choke Evanshade.
Then, suddenly, a white shield of flickering light leapt forth from Amaranth’s hands and stretched for the length of the ocean, protecting them both from the coming army and Malistour’s outstretched hand.
Malistour’s hand bounced off the shield and seared over where it had touched.
“Blasphemy!” Malistour cursed. “What sorcery have you brought with you? Reveal your mage!”
Malistour sent his most muscular warriors careening into the wall of light, attempting to break its defensive shield. They curled over in pain.
Evanshade turned to Amaranth. They can’t see him, he suddenly realized. “Are you a ghost whom only I can see?” he whispered to the deformed old man but Amaranth didn’t answer, only glared ahead in the direction of their attackers. His eyes glowed transparent blue.
“Who are you speaking to, coward?” Malistour ranted. He struck the light field with his trident and spun back from electrocution.
Several more warriors charged into the wall, all to no avail.
Malistour pointed one of his massive fingers toward Evanshade’s eyes. His tail beat below him rapidly in agitation. “We will leave for now, Evanshade, but mark my words, we will discover a way around this wall and when we do, we will place your head upon a spear!”
Malistour and his army swam off down the wall’s side in one direction in search of its end.
“Thank you, Amaranth,” Evanshade said while watching the army of Sangfoul swim away. “I don’t know if you are a ghost or what your purpose is, but thank you for rescuing me and for stalling Malistour and his army.”
“…amaranth I am not instead am merely odyssey…” Amaranth said while still staring blankly ahead, the light shield flickering forth from his palms. “…for on this place your saving makes but yet of thus another waits and yours the life that place will take for thus this is nil your time…”
“Come with me to find Illala and the others once more.” Evanshade placed his strong hand on Amaranth’s bony, malnourished shoulder.
As he did so Amaranth faded and disappeared in the currents. Only his light shield remained to prove that he had been there.
Evanshade dove off in the currents with as much haste as he could muster to catch up with Illala and the rest of the group, heading for Orion’s Birth.
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