Book Two: The Spear of Calling - Chapter Seven: The Road to Velious
The journey back through the Emerald Jungle was quieter than the journey into the City of Mist.
Perhaps it was because they were tired.
Perhaps it was because they had nothing left to prove.
Or perhaps it was because, for the first time since they had entered Kunark, Caradawc could feel the spirits again.
They did not speak.
They did not guide him.
They simply watched.
Waiting.
Phephe walked beside him.
"You feel them?"
Caradawc nodded.
"They're back."
Phephe smiled.
"Then we're close."
Behind them, Kabuki walked slowly.
She was alive.
That was enough for Izzy.
The Cleric had refused to leave her side since the final battle in the City of Mist.
Every few minutes she glanced across to make sure Kabuki was still moving.
Eventually Kabuki noticed.
"You know I'm not going to disappear."
Izzy frowned.
"I know."
"You keep checking."
"I am checking that you're not about to fall over."
"I'm not."
Izzy gave her a look.
Kabuki smiled.
"Probably."
Izzy sighed.
"You're impossible."
"So I've been told."
Molasar walked behind them, unusually quiet.
Cristy and Break led the way.
None of them knew exactly what waited at the lake.
But all of them knew that something had changed.
The lake appeared shortly before sunset.
The water was perfectly still.
No wind disturbed its surface.
No insects moved above it.
Even the jungle seemed reluctant to approach the shore.
Caradawc stopped.
Phephe stopped beside him.
The others gathered behind them.
Break looked across the water.
"This is where the spirit sent you?"
Caradawc nodded.
"The first time, we didn't understand why."
"And now?"
Caradawc looked at the lake.
"Now I think we do."
They stepped forward.
The water remained motionless.
Then something appeared beneath the surface.
A faint light.
It grew brighter.
The lake began to glow.
A figure rose from the water.
The same spirit.
Yet somehow different.
Before, it had seemed distant.
Mysterious.
Uncertain.
Now it appeared almost familiar.
The spirit looked first at Caradawc.
Then at Phephe.
Then at the others.
"You have walked the path."
Its voice seemed to come from the water itself.
"You have endured."
The spirit raised one hand.
"You have learned."
Caradawc felt something tighten within his chest.
Phephe stepped beside him.
"What was the purpose of the trials?"
The spirit smiled.
"To discover whether you would walk together."
Caradawc looked at Phephe.
"We did."
"You did more than walk."
The spirit looked towards the entire group.
"You learned to stand together."
For a moment Caradawc thought of the City of Mist.
Cristy's music controlling the battlefield.
Izzy standing over Kabuki.
Molasar facing the dead.
Break directing them through danger.
Phephe beside him.
Seven people who had entered the city as an expedition.
Seven who had left it as a fellowship.
The spirit extended both hands.
Two objects appeared.
Long shafts.
Ancient metal.
Beautifully crafted.
Each was crowned with a spearhead that seemed to contain a faint inner light.
Caradawc stared.
Phephe did not speak.
She didn't need to.
The spirits had finally answered them.
The Calling had a form.
A weapon.
A symbol.
A responsibility.
The spirit held the first spear towards Caradawc.
"Take it."
He stepped forward.
His fingers closed around the shaft.
The moment he touched it, the jungle disappeared.
He stood once more upon the black shore from his first dream.
Waves crashed against the rocks.
The spirits surrounded him.
Not as distant shapes.
As companions.
He understood.
The path had never been about finding them.
It had been about learning to hear them.
The vision vanished.
Caradawc stood beside the lake again.
The spear rested in his hands.
Phephe received the second.
Her eyes widened as her own vision came.
For a moment she stood beneath a sky filled with stars.
The spirits watched her.
Then one by one they disappeared.
Not because they were leaving.
Because she no longer needed them to stand before her.
She opened her eyes.
The spirit was smiling.
"You are called."
Then it began to fade.
Caradawc stepped forward.
"Will we see you again?"
The spirit's expression softened.
"You will always see us."
The lake became still.
The spirit vanished.
For a long time nobody spoke.
Then Kabuki looked at the two spears.
"So..."
Caradawc turned.
"What?"
"Do they come with instructions?"
Phephe laughed.
Caradawc smiled.
"I don't think so."
"Typical."
They returned to the Frostraider camp the following day.
The settlement was already busy.
Adventurers moved between tents.
Supply wagons came and went.
Messages were being exchanged.
Weapons were being repaired.
The fellowship had not waited for them.
It had continued its work.
As they approached the main camp, Cymru appeared.
He was not alone.
Woonz and Minot were with him.
Cymru smiled when he saw the spears.
"So you found what you were looking for."
Caradawc nodded.
"We did."
Woonz looked towards the weapons.
"Then the spirits finally decided to stop making you work for it."
Phephe laughed.
"Something like that."
Minot looked at the rest of the group.
"Good. Because we've been busy."
Caradawc frowned.
"With what?"
Cymru's expression became serious.
"Ganak."
They found the emperor waiting.
The ancient chamber was just as they had left it.
The crimson throne.
The ruined columns.
The darkness.
Yet something had changed.
There were more people now.
Cymru, Woonz and Minot had brought with them several carefully wrapped bundles.
They placed them before Ganak.
The emperor regarded them silently.
"The other pieces?"
Cymru nodded.
"All of them."
One by one the fragments were uncovered.
Ancient metal.
Broken medallions.
Pieces recovered from across Kunark.
The remnants of three histories that had been scattered for centuries.
Ganak reached down.
His claws moved carefully over the fragments.
For the first time Caradawc saw something like satisfaction in the ancient emperor's face.
"You have done well."
Cymru smiled.
"We had help."
"The fellowship always does."
Ganak looked around the chamber.
His eyes rested upon Caradawc.
Then Phephe.
Then the spears.
"You have completed your own journey."
Caradawc nodded.
"We have."
Ganak turned towards the medallions.
"But the fellowship's journey is not complete."
He lifted one of the ancient medallions.
"Two medallions will grant you entry to Old Sebilis."
Caradawc looked at the ancient city ruler.
"And the others?"
"They must be made whole."
Cymru stepped forward.
"They are."
Ganak studied him.
"Then the work of generations has been restored."
For a moment nobody spoke.
Then Ganak reached beneath his robes.
He produced a small object.
A key.
Ancient.
Dark.
Carved with symbols Caradawc did not recognise.
He held it towards Caradawc.
"This will open the way into Sebilis."
Caradawc accepted it.
The weight of it surprised him.
Not physically.
Spiritually.
It felt like a door waiting to be opened.
"There is one final thing."
Ganak's voice had changed.
The warmth had disappeared.
"Trakanon."
The name seemed to darken the chamber.
Caradawc looked towards him.
"You want us to kill him."
"No."
Ganak's eyes hardened.
"I want you to enter Sebilis."
He paused.
"Find the dragon."
Another pause.
"And bring me one of his teeth."
Molasar smiled faintly.
"That sounds considerably more like killing him."
Ganak almost smiled.
"Perhaps."
Caradawc looked down at the key.
"And if we succeed?"
The emperor stared at him.
"Then I will give you the key to Veeshan's Peak."
The words hung in the chamber.
For the first time Caradawc understood the scale of what lay ahead.
Veeshan's Peak.
The place that had appeared only as a distant possibility.
A place tied to the ancient history of Kunark.
A place the Frostraiders had been moving towards without fully understanding it.
Now there was a path.
Old Sebilis.
Trakanon.
His tooth.
Veeshan's Peak.
But Caradawc felt something else.
A certainty.
This was not his next step.
He turned towards Break.
The Frostraider leader had been silent throughout the conversation.
Caradawc waited.
Break looked at him.
Then at Phephe.
Then at the spears.
He smiled.
"No."
Caradawc frowned.
"No?"
"You're not going to Sebilis."
Caradawc looked towards Ganak.
"But—"
"That's no longer your quest."
The words were gentle.
But firm.
Caradawc was silent.
Break stepped closer.
"When I sent you and Phephe away, you were two new Shamans who had barely begun to understand what the Frostraiders were asking of you."
He looked at the spear in Caradawc's hands.
"That's changed."
Caradawc glanced at Phephe.
She nodded.
Break continued.
"The fellowship has a task."
He gestured towards Cymru, Woonz and Minot.
"They will have their part."
He looked towards the others.
"So will everyone else."
Then his eyes returned to Caradawc.
"But you have finished yours."
Caradawc looked down at the spear.
For the first time he understood.
The Calling had not been a road leading towards Sebilis.
It had been a road leading towards himself.
He had followed it.
He had learned.
He had endured.
And now it was time to leave it behind.
"Then where do we go?"
Break smiled.
"I have another destination for you."
Phephe looked at him.
"Where?"
Break turned towards the distant horizon.
"Velious."
The word seemed almost impossible.
A continent of ice.
Mountains.
Ancient dragons.
Cold beyond anything Caradawc had ever known.
A new land.
A new journey.
A new chapter.
Caradawc looked at Phephe.
She was smiling.
He realised that he was too.
Behind them, Ganak remained upon his throne.
Cymru, Woonz and Minot were already discussing the road ahead.
The Frostraiders would return to Old Sebilis.
They would face Trakanon.
They would recover the tooth.
And perhaps, one day, they would stand beneath the shadow of Veeshan's Peak.
But Caradawc would not be there yet.
His road led elsewhere.
He tightened his grip upon the Spear of Calling.
Phephe did the same.
Then the two Shamans turned towards Break.
And together, they began preparing for the journey north.
Towards Velious.
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