Realm Raiders – Chapters 13, 14, and 15

Chapter Thirteen

Wherein our heroes make their way to the obsidian nexus of worlds 

Alex S Bradshaw

The portal closed. The clash of weapons and screams of the dying were abruptly silenced. All they could hear was their own pounding hearts and laboured breaths.

Rhen’s thoughts lingered with the dragon rider, Kael. He had taken them to the very edge of this world but could go no further. He had already risked everything to take them so far, he had said. And as he had explained what they needed to do in this dying world, where they needed to go and why, she was surprised at the depth of concern in his eyes and the tender way he had held her hands at the end, begging her to be safe.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. They had a job to do.

Rhen looked at her companions: an old man who looked like he couldn’t withstand a fart let alone a fight, and a woman who looked like she’d rather be at a concert than saving the world. Hell, Rhen would rather be anywhere else. Rhen took a breath and prayed to whatever gods were out there that they could do this.

They were in some kind of dead-end alley. Scraps and detritus collected in its corners. Flickering lantern light shone from the street ahead.

“There’s only one way to go now,” Rhen said, and edged forwards.

Morin Hast grunted, Myra muttered something about this plan being completely insane, but both followed.

The view from the street showed a city sprawling across a steep hillside that swept into the distant night below. Most of the buildings were timber-framed and roughly plastered but there were larger buildings sprinkled within the endless mess of streets. Fortified estates hunkered in the skyline and too many sharp church spires stabbed up like fingers clutching at the sky for salvation.

“The biggest spire, he said,” Rhen said, repeating the dragon rider’s instructions. She glared into the night. “Oh great. There it is. Right at the bloody top.”

“He didn’t say it was going to be so steep,” Myra grumbled.

“It’s easier for you with your young knees,” Morin Hast replied. “Can’t we go downhill? That spire there is big enough, surely. Or into a different damned dimension entirely?”

Rhen ignored him and edged onto the cobblestoned road, hands on weapons and alert for danger. Lanterns and braziers painted the empty street with a quivering amber glow. An excited murmur echoed between the buildings from somewhere ahead. Rhen gestured for the others to follow.

They passed dilapidated homes that had plaster tumbling from cracked walls and within a few hundred yards they’d passed four stone churches. Each one scrubbed clean. Its stone practically shone in the dim light.

A cheer from ahead.

Instantly, the group fled into a darkened doorway, pressing themselves against the thick wood of another church door.

“I’ve never known somewhere to need so many churches,” Morin Hast whispered as he craned his neck to look at the intricate iron hinges that curled into the centre of the doors like ghostly talons. He scowled as he studied them all. “So many different deities. What do they need them all for?”

The ground shook as another cheer went up and a crack echoed between the buildings. They shrank back into the door again until a second firework whistled above the buildings and popped in a burst of green light. Another cheer.

“It’s a festival,” Myra said. “That should make it easier to sneak by.”

They kept to the dark edges of the street and soon found themselves at the top of the hill. Morin Hast was red-cheeked and panting. Rhen and Myra both had sweat-stained faces but neither of them was willing to be the first to ask for a break.

The street opened into a plaza filled with people, all turned away and facing a cathedral with three enormous spires disappearing into the black sky.

Another firework. The crowd watched it as it exploded overhead and painted the cathedral in brief, brilliant purple.

“What the fuck is that?” Myra asked, pointing.

Rhen and Morin followed her gaze and gasped.

There, in front of the crowd, was a ten-foot-tall effigy with four arms. A figure that was seared into their nightmares.

Vouring.

A figure stepped onto some kind of platform in front of the effigy, raising their hands to silence the crowd. Morin Hast’s expression hardened.

“It’s one of those Magi,” he said.

“You’ve got to be fucking joking,” Rhen growled.

“Are you sure we need to listen to that strange dragon rider?” Morin asked. “It’s going to get us killed. Or worse.”

“Do you have a better plan?” Myra asked.

They stared at the crowd as it quietened. Many were mud-stained and their clothes tattered. Rhen, Morin, and Myra had equally dirty clothes, torn and covered in blood and dust, and as Rhen wondered whether they might be able to sneak through, the Magi began to speak.

“Brothers and sisters, tonight is a glorious night. From now on, you need not tend to your countless, fruitless places of worship. You are liberated from the tyranny of your old gods. They are nothing more than predators and you are saved.

“You see here a representation of the true God. Lord Vouring. He is returned to us and with it his strength can protect us once again.

“Let us light the flame of the new age and with it know that the laws of your old gods are burned away. Lord Vouring asks only that you give yourself to him. He has no decrees. Nothing is forbidden.” The Magi held up a burning torch in one hand and with the other pointed off to one side. They could just make out a table groaning with casks and food. “Drink deeply, eat heartily, and seek pleasure.”

The crowd cheered again and more fireworks screamed into the sky as the Magi turned to the effigy.

“They’re distracted. Maybe we can…”

Before Myra could finish the effigy was consumed in flames. Many of the crowd leapt towards the table and tore into the feast. The rest of them fell upon each other in a fit of desire.

“We’ll have to go around,” Morin said and pointed to a nearby alleyway. “I’m not heading through that madness and I’m certainly in no mood to be chased by a horde of those peasants.”

Myra and Morin began to move, but Rhen’s eyes were fixed on the scene before her.

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Before . . .