Richard Tuttle - Web of Deceit

“Perhaps,” murmured Lord Marak as he wondered what god the Chula worshipped.

Very few people knew that Lord Marak was actually half Chula, and none of them were in the room. As he rolled the riddle around in his mind, Marak was struck by the fact that Lyra was only half Sakovan and had never heard of Kaltara before entering the Sakova. He had recently been told that Rejji was half Qubari and also had never heard of Kaltara. He mentally nodded at the strange parallels developing.

“Gunta,” ordered Marak, “check out this entire building for exits and I don’t mean street level doors. Halman, search for rope, lots of it. We will be leaving tonight via an unorthodox exit and then sneaking out of the city, hopefully undetected. The rest of us will be in the library. Join us when you are done.”

The two Khadoran shadows left the room and Lord Marak nodded to Rejji that he was ready to leave. Rejji led the way back to the entrance hall and turned left towards the library. The volume of books and scrolls present in the library stunned Lord Marak. He walked around the room, inspecting the shelves of books and settled on the floor near the only shelf that was not entirely filled, figuring that the shelf would be the most current works.

“I will start here,” announced Marak. “If you find anything about Sakova, or Star of Sakova, or Torak, or Astor, shout.”

Rejji and Mobi split up and started going through the books. After a while, Gunta and Halman arrived and Lord Marak instructed them on what to search for. They searched for hours and hours and grew tired and frustrated, as they could find no mention of any of the terms. The search extended into the night and finally Mobi called them all together.

“I have found a scroll that mentions you,” Mobi stated.

“Read it to us,” requested Rejji.

Mobi nodded, “The great evil, having been cast out of the land, shall seek to return and destroy all that is good. Persistently, it will seek out the weak and the strong until it finds the perfect host. It will devour this host and empower it to deceive and destroy. This host will rise in the form of a man and seek to take power from those Kaltara has appointed. The good and the holy will renounce this man and throw him out of the kingdom and consider the matter completed, but that will be the beginning of turmoil. For this great evil will rise and deceive allies to wage war on one another. He will raise himself above men and declare that he is god. Great multitudes will waver in their faith and follow the evil, and they shall build a great temple unto this false god and they shall declare the evil the highest god of all.”

Seeing the Mobi was having a hard time reading and holding the torch, Gunta took the torch from Mobi’s hand and held it aloft for him.

“Kaltara will become angered and strike out at the multitudes. He will rent the earth and cause the sea to swallow the faithless. Kaltara will scatter the survivors to the far shores of the world and rebuke them to return to the faith, but the great evil will resist. He will find a new home and flourish once again. The people of this new home will flee in desperation and burn their ships and sear their minds to eliminate their return and their fears. The great evil will devour all that exists in his home and yearn for more. Eventually, the magics used to sear the minds will fail because of intermarriage and the evil will be summoned once again. This will be known as the Time of Calling.”

“Time of Calling?” interrupted Rejji.

Mobi nodded and continued, “In the Time of Calling, Kaltara will send forth the Torak and the Star and the Astor and they shall gather the faithful and the faithless as one to stand against the evil. When the evil arrives, the Time of Cleansing begins. The great evil will battle Kaltara’s trio unto the death. Ask me not of the outcome, for this was the end of my vision.”

“So this was the recording of somebody’s vision,” concluded Lord Marak. “And the mural was probably a depiction of what he saw, but what is this great evil?”

“From the reading, I suspect the great evil was embodied in Vand,” responded Mobi. “He was a man who declared himself god thousands of years ago in the time when Angragar was a great city. He built Vandegar Temple as a monument to himself. Legend says that the plains of Vandegar were split in two and one half was swallowed by the sea when he defied God.”

“And what Dumo calls the invaders,” interjected Rejji, “were really the people fleeing from wherever Vand went?”

“I believe so,” nodded Mobi.

“What of the searing of their minds?” asked Marak. “And the part about intermarriage calling the evil?”

“I can only guess,” offered Mobi. “Yltar may be able to decipher it better, but I think they may have used magic to forget where they came from, and the magic might be countered by intermarriage.”

“So the invaders tried to kill all of the indigenous peoples,” added Lord Marak. “No intermarriages and they would be safe, but does that mean someone like Rejji being a half-breed would call this evil?”

“I do not think Rejji is at fault for this,” Mobi said. “Grulak may be though. He is also a half-breed and has made Vandegar Temple his home. He is rumored to be crazy as well. Also, the vision showed the three of you coming during the Time of Calling, which means the one to start it had to come before you.”

“Sounds to me like this Grulak must die quickly,” interjected Halman. “Perhaps the Time of Calling will end with his death.”

“With a Jiadin army of tens of thousands,” frowned Mobi, “I think keeping the Astor alive is a more immediate task than killing Grulak. We need time to prepare for this evil whatever it is.”

“And time is something we are always short on,” nodded Marak. “Take the scroll and let us get out of this city while it is still dark. Have you found our exit, Gunta?”

“Second story at the back is another balcony,” Gunta declared. “We will be two blocks away from where they think we are. Hundreds were gathered in the square when I last looked so there cannot be many in the other parts of the city. If we are stealthy, we will reach the gates undetected.”

“Let’s go then,” decided Lord Marak.

Mistake whistled as she skipped across the dew-laden grass. She scrambled up the tree, pausing to look at the large orb of the sun as it crept over the horizon. She squinted as the red flare reflected off the ocean swells. Grinning mischievously, she scampered higher to where Bakhai had stored the large sack of gold. She untied the drawstring of the large sack and thrust her hand into the gold, luxuriating in its feel. She scooped a large handful of the gold and let it slide into her small, empty pouch. Her mind lingered on an image of the quilt she had seen one of the villagers selling yesterday and her hand scooped into the gold again. She started whistling again as she drew the drawstring tight and tied the small pouch to her belt. A bird darted towards the branch she was on and Mistake’s eyes followed it as it flew away.

Her whistling stopped abruptly and she held her breath as she saw the approaching army in the distance. She peered at the army for a moment and then swiftly scampered down the tree. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her as she darted through the gate in the stockade wall. She shouted an alarm as she entered Ghala and then slammed the gate shut. Two villagers appeared by her side and hoisted the bar into position to lock the gates.

“Get everyone into the boats,” she yelled. “Do it now.”

Her warning was echoed through the town all the way to the beach as others spread the word. The villagers began running. Tools were dropped on the ground and tables were overturned as families rushed towards the boats along the river. Bakhai raced to the corral and threw open the gate. Inhuman sounds emanated from his throat as he instructed the horses to seek safety in the clova pens. He turned and raced to the river dock and untied the stern line of the ship docked there. He ran to the bowline and waited impatiently as women lifted their children aboard Lord Marak’s ship.