“Well, I think we’re on the same page about that, Elyse.”
Before I could get too excited and hop off into the bushes with her, though, Rami emerged from her tent, did a few impressive stretches, and then walked over to us.
“Ah, my personal enjarta,” I said as she approached. “Good morning to you.”
“Good morning, Vance,” she said “We are heading straight to Brakith now, aren’t we?”
“Once the soldiers are all up and ready to go, yes, that’s the plan.”
I knew how eager Rami was to find Xayon’s body, and I couldn’t blame her. She’d come a long way to become Fated, only to find that the goddess she’d been seeking in the hopes of becoming Fated was dead. Well, almost dead. If we could get to the rest of her body in time, I’d be able to resurrect her. I remembered what Xayon had said to me in the crypt beneath the fountain in Erst though; she was weak, and I knew that her spirit was nearly at the point of being beyond my power to resurrect. We needed to find her body soon.
“Good. I hope that getting into Brakith won’t take us too long,” she said, trying—and failing—to be subtle about how badly she wanted to get there.
“Hopefully, it won’t,” I said. “Look, don’t worry. I know why you’re anxious about this, and I’m going to do everything in my power to find Xayon’s body and resurrect her. You’ll become Fated, Rami. I’ll make sure you do.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
We got moving as the sun rose. Rollar, mounted on his dire bear, rode alongside me and Fang at the head of the column, while Isu, Elyse, and Rami rode behind us, along with my skeletal cavalrymen. We wanted to move at a good pace and rendezvous with my main contingent of skeletal infantry, then move straight on to Brakith.
I left Drok in charge of Rollar’s men, along with Rollar’s most trusted corporal because Drok was still drunk and someone needed to keep an eye on him. They would march behind us and join us outside Brakith in a couple of days. The horse that had carried Drok to Rollar’s camp was so exhausted after enduring his weight that I couldn’t justify forcing the poor creature to do it again. It would likely die on the way to Brakith, and Drok was happy enough walking anyway. He could ride again when I found him a suitable mount, like a mammoth or something.
I intended on getting to Brakith as quickly as I could with my mounted force, then reconnoitering the city and the castle to figure out the best way to get in and capture my uncle alive. In the meantime, there were a couple of things I wanted to ask Rollar, and the long journey to Brakith would be a perfect time to chat.
“So, Rollar,” I said as we rode side by side, “how did you come to possess this map of ancient temples all across Prand?”
He flashed a mischievous grin at me before replying. “I stole it from the Church of Light treasury in Luminescent Spires.”
I had to chuckle at the man’s audacity. Stealing from the most sacred treasury in Prand usually came with a very hefty punishment, after some very long, very painful torture sessions.
“You’ve got a pair on you, huh?” I laughed. “Stealing from the Church’s treasury in the holy city itself! I’m starting to like you more and more, Rollar. Yeah, uh, sorry for the whole, you know, trying to kill you and annihilate your army thing.”
He shrugged, still smiling. “It is the way of warriors, Lord Vance. We fight, we do battle, and then, if circumstances change, the men who had swords at each other’s throats one day are brothers the next. You had no way of knowing that those soldiers who deserted my forces and went off on sprees of looting, raping, pillaging, and killing were no longer affiliated with me. In your shoes, I would have done the same thing.”
“Well, now that we’re fighting on the same side, I’m hoping that you can help with a few things.”
“Anything within my power.”
“How did you know that the map was there in the Luminescent Spires treasury in the first place?”
“Oh, it took a lot of research, eavesdropping, bribes, and general sleuthing to find that out,” he answered. “Years of it, in fact. Before I joined the Splendorous Army, I’d heard rumors that many relics, books, scrolls, and other such things pertaining to the old gods were kept under lock and key by the Church of Light. As my allegiance had always been with the old gods, even though I pretended to be a faithful convert, I knew that I had to find out where these relics and things were and that I had to get my hands on them. I was one of my tribe’s best warriors, and it was easy enough to get into the Splendorous Army. It would be the best way to get myself close enough to what I really wanted, I thought. When I finally managed to establish for certain where these relics were secretly kept, I told my superiors that I wanted to go on a ‘pilgrimage’ to Luminescent Spires. Such devotion is looked upon with great favor in the Splendorous Army, and they had no problem letting me go. Once I got there, I had to do a great deal of bootlicking and bribing to get anywhere near the treasury vaults. And once I managed to get in, the map was about the only thing I could grab and hide in my tunic, but believe me, Vance, there are many more things in there than just this map, as useful as it is. If I’d been a better thief, I would have stolen some very powerful items.”
“I see,” I said, scratching my chin slowly as I processed this information.
“There are scrolls in there,” he continued, “records of the Purge that reveal an explosive truth about
