The Five: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (Airshan Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  They had an ancient scroll so old it almost fell apart in their hands. They brought it in secretly for the Godling to see. It was the way into the side of the mountain. He hadn’t seen it up close, but that was what they said it was.

  But the Godling didn’t want to use the Clifflings. They couldn’t be trusted. The priests said they had enough gold to keep them under control. And they were needed to lead them to the spot marked on the scroll. After that they wouldn’t be needed. After that the Devourer would end those human groundlings as he would all who stood against him.

  He didn’t know what the priests were talking about. He didn’t understand what this Devourer was. But he knew enough to fear it and these priests that served it. The Godling was in over his head. He should never have let the insane bastards in, or let them convince him their escape plan was best. His general had a better plan. It would just have taken longer.

  But the Godling was impatient and the promises of retribution these priests waved before him like a carrot to a beastling was more than the Godling could take. He wanted out as soon as he could, and he would listen to these insidious creatures spewing their venom if it would get him free and the vengeance he so desperately needed. The priests said it was the only way to defeat the Goddess and her bitch. The Godling was fool enough to believe them.

  And those priests were resourceful, he couldn’t argue that. Before he knew it, a plan was in action and he had his part to play. He played it too, though not with all his heart. He didn’t like where this was going. He didn’t want any part of it. But he was in too deep. And loyalty meant something. What would his dead father say? He died for the Godling. Surely his son couldn’t make that death meaningless by turning on him now?

  He’d fallen behind during the escape. Though he hadn’t intentionally let himself be caught, he hadn’t fought hard to avoid it. And he’d loyally withstood torture and interrogation until he could take no more.

  And still he’d held back the crucial detail. The wagoners who traversed the roads to Highlund. How they’d taken out one prisoner at a time. Just one at a time in wine barrels.

  Then the Clifflings would raid the wagons, as they often did. But instead of wine, they would claim a far more precious cargo, and take them into the mountain. Following the ancient map the blue-robed priests showed the Godling.

  I pulled away as his mind began to circle back to the different times those priests, dressed as ordinary men, came to visit the Godling. No new information here. I had all I was going to get. I felt sorry for this loyal soldier. He’d been unlucky to be on the wrong side of this war.

  I nodded at Rama, who’d been subtly keeping his eye on me throughout the long pauses between his demands.

  But he wasn’t finished. “Tell me what the Godling’s plans are for the Goddess Incarnate.”

  I felt smug satisfaction roll off the man. He’d been able to side-track them with that piece of false information. Aye, the upstart daughter would get her just deserts, but so would everyone who fought against the Godling. If the rebels were busy trying to keep their Chosen One safe they would not spend as much time looking for the Godling.”

  I nodded again, letting Rama know I was done. I looked down at the man and spoke for the first time.

  “I’m sorry you chose loyalty to your father over a life for yourself. Our parents are not always wise. The Devourer is a good name for the evil the Godling will unleash on the world. Everyone you know and love will die unless we can stop him. I wish...” I stopped, not sure what I wished. That he’d followed his own conscience. But he had, in his own way. Maybe I wished he’d followed it sooner. I didn’t know. All I did know was that I felt sad.

  “How do you know–” The man looked horrified and confused. He was going back over what he’d said. He didn’t remember saying anything about the Devourer.

  “You didn’t. I read your mind. Had we thought to use me earlier... you might have been saved some of your pain. You know the Goddess had you brought here for treatment as soon as she learned of your fate. Her father put her in just such a hole. She wouldn’t wish that on even the Godling himself. Follow your conscience, not loyalty to a dead man, next time. If there is a next time.”

  And while the man sputtered and swore, Rama and I walked from the Healing Centre and back to the Command Post.

  “What were his thoughts concerning Airsha? What do they plan to do to capture her?” Rama asked as we strode along. I knew this was uppermost in his mind. It amazed me he’d left the question until last.

  “They don’t. That was something he threw in to throw us off the real scent. They have no specific plans for Airsha. She is as safe as any of us are, I guess.”

  Rama appeared well pleased with this answer. A gruff looking general, who listened to my report a little later, was less pleased by my information.

  “Wagoners carrying wine, you say?” demanded a general I hadn’t seen since the war.

  Landor had joined the group and was already taking the new information in. The Devourers, a secret priestly order. It would need looking into, he thought.

  “Yes. From a vineyard in Sousealund. The owners are thick with these Devourer priests. Most of the workers there are priests of this order. I think it’s likely too late. But someone might be able to tell us where the Cliffling raids were planned to take place, and we might be able to follow them from there,” I suggested.

  “The name of the vineyard?” The general demanded impatiently.

  I tried to sort through the information I’d gleaned. Some had passed me by as irrelevant because the soldier had seen it as irrelevant. What mattered was the method of transport and the eventual location the Godling would reach.

  Then I saw it. A sun on a horizon. It was on the side of a wagon, stencilled there in white paint.

  “No name. Just a sun coming over the horizon. I think it might be their mark. What they put on their wine bottles to indicate their kind of wine.” I was no expert on such things. But it made sense that people would want to know where wine came from.

  The general huffed out impatiently. “It matters little if the Godling has made good his escape. Do we round up all these wagoners and leave them for you to sift through their brains like noodles?”

  I shrugged a little cockily. “It might have been good to bring me in earlier. Given I got information in less than a quarter turn that took you... how long, General? Days?”

  The man growled and Rama hastily removed me from the room. It was my turn to huff. “I gave them more than they had before, and yet they resent me for doing it?”

  “They resent you for showing them up. These men are old school. They have used torture for suns and know of no other way. You are known... of course, but it wouldn’t be their first reaction to call on you. It wasn’t mine, when I got all the details of the interrogation. I should have.”

  I shrugged. “It was likely too late anyway. They were remarkably well prepared. I just hope Landor can learn something more about these Devourers. They sound like a bad bunch, and that’s saying something when talking about the Godling’s priests.”

  It had been a very long day, and all I wanted was a bath and some time with Zem. Bedding him, exploring all he’d learned from his past women, had been the highlight of my nights. The highlight of my days remained my sparring sessions with Landor.

  If there were moments when I wished that Landor was with us as we explored, I kept that to myself. When we were ready we’d increase the members in our relationship.

  When Zem was ready...

  What I had discovered from the interrogation was information useful to The Five. We knew where the Godling was going and a little about how he was going to achieve his goal. And it wasn’t by leaving the known world.

  However, that didn’t mean the Goddess’ key was to be found under Highlund. Or that it was the old volcano spoken of in the myth. There may be other mountains where the Goddess’ elemental circle was to be found. Over the sea. Were we going to have to go there and f
ind this thing? What if we got it wrong? What if we fell off the end of the world?

  Where did the water go that poured from the sky? Into the rivers. The water from the rivers flowed into the sea. The sea never got any higher. It had to go somewhere, after all, surely. It made sense that the world was like a dam. And when water filled up the dam, it flowed over the side. How far did the world dam go?

  But a dam required earth to surround water, like in the case of a lake. How did that fit with the story Landor had told about the earth coming up from the fiery depths of the underworld. I tried to picture it in my head. Water everywhere. But underneath it, fire boiling up, trying to get past the water, to make land.

  What if the Goddess was always first and foremost fire? What if it wasn’t earth and water that created the world we knew—as one story said—but fire and water. Opposites. And only when the fiery Goddess exploded out into the water did life begin... and the earth or land came into being. I had heard people talk about the spark of life. What if that was literally true? What if all life sprang from the fires of the underworld, the Goddess’ original nature?

  I was no theologian. I only knew what Landor had told me today. But something in what I was saying rang true. I would have to share my thoughts with Zem and Landor to see what they thought.

  Not that it would make any difference, of course. But still...

  What of air? Air was the last element. My element. If there was a creative force of nature that was water and fire/earth, might there not be another energy that was air? Was the world like layers of a rainbow cake. Fire, earth where fire met water, water, and then air. The sky above was vast, as Landor had observed. Was the fire below just as vast. Did either have an end?

  I shivered and tried to shut off my mind.

  No more! I had had more than I could take.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The information had Darkin and the generals focusing the search even more tightly on the mountains around Highlund. Every piece of gossip or hearsay about tunnels deep into the mountainside started to be collected and sifted through.

  When the vineyard of the rising sun was raided they found the place deserted. Locals said the unfriendly owners and their workers kept to themselves and had for generations. And one day in the last quarter moon they all just packed up and moved away. First, the wagons all moved out, and then they did. Strangest thing they’d ever seen.

  So that possible source of information was a dead end.

  Meanwhile, Landor and Zem researched the Devourers with the clerics and discovered sporadic mention of the secret brotherhood that stretched back in time to the beginning of recorded history. Nothing was known of the cult except that it was opposed to the Goddess and fostered the belief in the male gods. It might well have spawned the false gods. Landor said the few lines of text they’d found written by the Devourers themselves were chilling. It condemned man as the greatest abomination of all creation, and the one that must be wiped from existence.

  I’d kept my own thoughts about the nature of existence to myself. In the end, it didn’t matter. We followed the Goddess, who gave us life and magic. What Her true nature might be was irrelevant.

  The airling scouts had taken to painstakingly scouring the cliffs beneath the plateau of old Highlund, exploring places it was hard to reach for men on foot. But Zem and me had been forbidden to participate. If anything were to happen to us, then the Goddess’ plan would not come to fruition. Of course, that plan was not going anywhere. Not only was I balking at deepening my relationship with Landor—though the friendship that was developing between the three of us was rewarding—but there was no sign of the other two points to our star.

  On the afternoon of the sixth day after Prior disappeared, he suddenly reappeared. When he arrived at the royal apartment door he was rumpled, bloody, his hands tied behind him, and had two guards at his sides.

  I was the one who opened the door to the loud banging, as I was the only one in the living space at the time. Zem had taken to studying the old tomes along with Landor. They were looking for maps of the sea beyond our world.

  The first sight of Prior had me taking a step back. He was furious, but I wasn’t sure who that anger was directed at.

  “This is the missing mage. He rode in half a turn ago with a crazy story and claiming he needed to see the Chosen One. We were going to throw him in the hole before checking his story, but one of the other mages vouched for him, so we brought him here. Is the Goddess here?” The bigger and older of the two did the talking, looking beyond me in the hopes of catching sight of the Goddess. I was used to the hero worship they showed Airsha. Just the sight of her could brighten the day of men like these.

  “She is with the childlings. But I can assure you that this man has every right to be here. We have been looking for him for days. Though he has done nothing wrong. Please release him,” I told him sweetly.

  Grumbling under his breath, the guard hurriedly removed the bindings. Prior looked on with a mix of fury and smugness. When they stomped off, I stepped out of the doorway to let him enter.

  “I thought never to see you again,” I said mildly. “Can I get you something to eat or drink?”

  Prior was letting go of his temper slowly, but I could see it was difficult for him. “A drink of watered wine would do me well enough. I have ridden hard to get here. Then to receive that reception... I was not aware I became a felon simply for rejecting your offer.”

  I kept busy pouring wine for both of us. My hands were shaking, but I had no idea why.

  “Rejecting my offer. You make it sound like I was trying to seduce you. It was not I who put that mark on your wrist. I am as reluctant to take part in the Goddess’ quest as you are, I assure you. But unless your mark miraculously vanished when you made your decision to reject the Goddess, then I have to assume you are not being given the opportunity to back out.

  “Anyway, what has brought you back in such a hurry? Have you suddenly seen the error of your ways?” I was being snippy, I knew, but he’d hurt my pride. No lass wants a man to turn tail and run when faced with the prospect of marrying her.

  “I found the fifth. I thought you would want to know. But you won’t be happy about it.”

  My mouth must have fallen open because he extended an impudent finger and closed it for me. A wide grin split his dark features. I realised for the first time how attractive he was. In the shadowy corridor the other night, all I was aware of was his darkness and his muscular strength. He’d exuded sexuality in a raw and savage way few men did. And that had frightened me then, even with Zem at my side. Now I saw past his blatant sexuality and saw a man with aquiline nose, deep set eyes, high cheekbones, almond shaped eyes that reminded me of Trace’s and full lips that I couldn’t help wanting to taste.

  His beaded hair jangled when he threw back his head and laughed, a deep rumble that was lower even than Landor’s baritone.

  “Do you always wear your thoughts so obviously on your face, tom-boy?”

  I felt the burn rush up my neck and into my cheeks, and I looked away, horrified. “I... I don’t know what you mean,” I stammered out.

  “I mean you wanted to kiss me. You like what you see. Which is a problem.” He lost his teasing tone then, as if suddenly coming back to himself. “I shouldn’t flirt with you. I cannot understand my reactions to you.”

  “Tell me what I’m not going to be happy about, other than seeing you again,” I snapped, getting myself under control.

  How dare he claim I wanted to kiss him? I wanted no such thing! I may have thought his lips were attractive, but I wasn’t so desperate for his kisses! Arrogant bastard!

  “The traitor Laric has the mark. The one who almost drove the Goddess mad with his magic.”

  “I know Laric,” I snarled, my heart racing in my chest. “He’s the top of the list of most wanted criminals in the world!” And he nearly killed Airsha and did kill Trace, because of me. Because I was showing off that day and Zem had pushed him down and ma
de a fool of him in front of his friends. Had I just shut up and done my job things could have gone so much better.

  “Exactly. And I saw him in a marketplace in Sousealund. Sorry Southairshan. I saw him completely by chance, and knowing he was a criminal I followed him, trying to get the drop on him. It wasn’t until I got close enough to see the mark that I knew he was one of us. I grappled him to the ground, keeping out of the reach of those hands of his, and he said something about the Soothsayer being a fraud. That he knew nothing of any key across the sea. It didn’t make any sense to me, and I was too busy staying out of reach of those hands to pay it much mind at the time. I might have burned him to get him under control but I don’t do that anymore. Not even to a traitor like him. And a dead fifth is no use to the Goddess.”

  “A missing fourth isn’t either. So where is he?”

  “He got away from me. So rather than waste time trying to find him again I rushed back here. I thought you might be grateful. Seems I was wrong.”

  “Grateful that you decided to do the right thing? Grateful that you aren’t as much of a coward as you seemed? I suppose I might be, if I wasn’t so furious at you. What pathetic excuse for a man runs away when the lives of millions are at risk? Is your beloved worth the lives of everyone you know?”

  “What are you talking about?” he demanded, his nostrils flaring.

  “The reason the Goddess wants us. We’re all that stands between the world as we know it and total destruction brought about by The Jayger.”

  “Jayger. That’s what that traitor was muttering about. What is a jayger?”

  “The Jayger. A primordial water energy that the Goddess stopped from destroying us millennia ago. That’s what the Godling is trying to release, to punish us all. And he’ll succeed. That’s what the Goddess told us. Once he does, we’ll be the only way The Jayger can be stopped”