FIND FAEGAN
Taking up Phoebe’s notes, Tristan walked to the other side of the room, then placed the parchments atop the meeting table.
“What in blazes are you doing?” Tyranny asked.
“Patience,” he answered.
Tristan took his gold medallion into his hands, then called forth one of his two forestallments. In his mind’s eye he pictured two medallions side by side. Soon they merged into one. Tristan opened his eyes to see the medallion hanging around his neck start glowing with the color of the craft. He then turned it over.
At first he saw only the shiny golden obverse. Then an image slowly started swimming to its surface to show Shailiha’s face smiling back at him. The scene’s outline was blurry, but it seemed that she was in the Archives of the Redoubt.
Reaching out, he took up the parchment asking her to go and fetch Faegan and he held it before the disk. But that wasn’t needed, for soon the crippled wizard’s face appeared alongside Shailiha’s. Wasting no time, Tristan dropped the first parchment, then took up the one with Phoebe’s notes and held it before the disk, knowing that if Faegan read them they would immediately be committed to his gift of Consummate Recollection and never be forgotten.
As the moments passed, Wigg’s quarters became deathly still, and the once happy expressions on Faegan’s and Shailiha’s faces slowly darkened.
CHAPTER XXXI
THOUSANDS OF LEAGUES SOUTH OF ELLISTIUM AND JUSTacross thePon Q’tar- controlled Borderlands lay a gently rolling plain. Stretching for many leagues, its grasses waved gracefully beneath the midday sun. The only sounds came from the passing wind and the black and yellow striped honeybees buzzing about in search of their daily nectar.
A lone oak tree stood broad and tall in the midst of the plain. Its gnarled trunk had struggled skyward thousands of years ago from a single acorn carried there by some meandering bird. The tree’s thick branches and deep green leaves cast an irregular shadow over the grass, the ever-moving umbra slowly tracing a path around the trunk as the sun chased it from east to west. Dark mountain ranges loomed to the east of the field, their tops capped with ice and snow that melted each year to replenish the fountainheads of the Six Rivers.
Under normal circumstances the idyllic scene might have granted a place where lovers might couple unseen amid the waves of tall grass. But this day the tree and the rolling grassland surrounding it would serve a far darker purpose than providing some secret trysting place. Instead, it would soon become the staging area of Vespasian’s campaign against Shashida.
Had those imaginary lovers truly been there they would have seen a strange pinprick of azure light form in the air near the tree trunk. Soon the mysterious star broadened into a whirling spiral, its outer edges gaining speed and size to form a circle many meters across. The azure spiral grew darker, then parted down the center to unleash the first of many horrors that would eventually mass in the quiet field.
While one rider led the way, ninety-nine more followed him out of the azure spiral. The one hundred mounted Blood Stalker scouts attached to the mighty Twenty-third Legion rode quickly across the grass to become the vanguard of Vespasian’s invasion force.
As their horses pawed and snorted, the riders formed one line. Each was eager to start the hunt, but first they would search the immediate area for right-leaning endowed blood. Only then would the main body of Vespasian’s forces start arriving by way of hundreds more vortices, each far larger than that which had just formed. The stalkers knew that their sweep of this place had to be thorough, for Vespasian’s forces must arrive unseen.
Unlike those that once served Failee, some Rustannican Blood Stalkers retained their intelligence and their powers of speech. But less than one in one thousand of them were high-functioning, because among their many other deformities, the vast majority always suffered irreparable brain damage and cleft palates during their forced conversions from captured Shashidan mystics to Blood Stalkers. Only those Shashidans mystics of great intelligence and inordinately highly endowed blood kept their ken and their vocal gifts fully intact. From the earliest days thePon Q’tar clerics had recognized the usefulness of such superior stalkers and used them for a higher purpose than that of their drooling, less sentient brothers.
Because the lesser stalkers could be rebellious, only the intelligent ones were allowed to command patrols without the aegis of an Imperial Order Tribune. Known in Old Eutracian as “carnefiis,” or “tormentors,” a famous carnifex commanded this first reconnoitering. Some of the regular stalkers here with him today-also known as “vulgarium,” or common-had proudly taken part in the recent coliseum massacres during which Vespasian offered phrygian status to one of the Shashidan captives. It would be the task of the carnefiis to take charge of the individual groups formed when the stalkers split up to start their far-ranging search.
Because of their rarity, carnefiis were valuable assets to the legions. On surviving the painful transformation with their intellects and vocal skills intact, all memories of their previous Shashidan lives were cleansed from their minds byPon Q’tar clerics. The forestallment allowing them to sense right-leaning blood was granted while all their other gifts save for the ability to launch azure bolts were wiped away. They were then given Rustannican names and indoctrinated body and soul into the empire’s war machine. Like the vulgarium, their devotion to the Vagaries was unshakable.
The carnifex commanding this mission was named Aegedes, and although he no longer remembered it, several centuries ago he had been an important Shashidan mystic. Like all carnefiis he had been granted the time enchantments that protected him from sickness and old age. If carnefiis served the empire well they were sometimes rewarded with gold, lands, and captured Shashidan women. Aegedes was many centuries old, his exploits and skills legendary among the legions. He enjoyed killing Shashidans and he was especially good at it.
Although his grotesque bodily appearance was the same as other stalkers’, Aegedes’ uniform resembled that of a tribune. He wore a gold breastplate and leather greaves and gauntlets. A golden helmet topped with a red horsehair comb sat on his head. Like all stalkers he wore a fringed warrior’s skirt and thick battle sandals laced up the calves. Around his neck hung a collection of desiccated eyeballs, grisly trophies he had taken over the centuries from Shashidan victims.
At his left hip hung the legionary sword, or gladius, and in one hand he held a traditional stalker’s axe, its bottom end resting in one stirrup, its shiny opposing blades topped with the skull taken from his first victim, a gold imperial eagle with outstretched wings bolted to its forehead. The eagle signified Aegedes’ rank of Carnifex Magnus, allowing him to command not only all common stalkers, but all other carnefiis as well. Aegedes was the only Carnifex Magnus in all Rustannica. It was a singular title that he bore proudly.
Sitting atop his war mount, Aegedes said nothing as he too employed the craft to search out Shashidan endowed blood. His gift revealed nothing. Spurring his horse, he rode down the long line of waiting stalkers, looking sternly at each vulgaris and carnifex in turn. Each stalker shook his head, indicating that he too sensed no right-leaning blood.
Satisfied for the moment, Aegedes ordered his most trusted carnifex from the line. The stalker obeyed instantly and spurred his mount forward.
The carnifex’sPon Q’tar- given name was Paganus, and he had served with Aegedes in many campaigns to capture and kill Vigors worshippers. Unlike Aegedes he wore no gold breastplate or helmet. Two shiny black leather belts crisscrossed his chest and attached to his warrior’s skirt at opposite hips. A shiny gold disk engraved with the imperial eagle lay where the belts crossed, showing Paganus’ rank as a carnifex. He too wore battle sandals and a warrior’s skirt and carried the traditional axe. Like all carnefiis, he wore a gladius at his hip. Pulling his horse to a skidding stop, Paganus looked into his master’s eyes.
“Yes, my lord?” he asked.
“Send them out,” Aegedes ordered simply. The Carnifex Magnus possessed a strong voice and its tone was always decisive, commanding deep respect from his underlings.
“Three leagues in every direction should suffice,” he added. “I want this done quickly, Paganus. My group and
