To Save the World...

Chapter 10

"So, this is Duns Veloor," Ivorisa said quietly as they all paused at the gate to the city. No guards stood at the gates. The grey dust that permeated everything marred the walls of the buildings before them. Smoke rose from chimneys. Far off, voices could be heard. "Other than the pit of bodies of plague victims we had to pass to get here, looks like they're doing okay."

"If they don't need us, why are we here?" Darvin asked. "Maybe Messor Vitavi is here, and that's why they're better off."

"Messor Vitavi sent us here," Musara replied as she walked past her companions and through the gate, "so he must have a plan for us here."

"I don't think they're any better off than anywhere else," Jez said quietly. "That mass grave was nearly full... and judging by the dirt mounds, it's not their first one."

"No, but they seem to have been spared the worst effects of the volcano," Musara noted. "No lava flowing here. No blackened earth. No new mounds of rock."

"We are now over two weeks' travel from Karst," Tavin reasoned. "Duns Veloor is one of the farthest cities from the capital."

"So, you're saying the lava just hasn't got here yet?" Darvin asked.

Tavin shrugged. "Perhaps."

They walked farther into the city. The dusty streets were empty.

"Where is everyone?" Musara asked, pausing to stare at the dark windows of a pub.

"Follow the voices," Jez suggested, jerking her thumb down the road. The voices they could barely hear at the gates had grown moderately louder.

"Sound like they're on the other side of town," Ivorisa noted, shading her eyes as she peered in the direction of the voices. "Anyone ever been here before? What's over there? The marketplace?"

Tavin cocked his head toward the sounds as he replied, "The lordly houses, I believe."

"Why would everyone be gathering there?" Ivorisa asked.

Jez shrugged. "Let's go find out."

They continued to walk down the street, following the sound of the voices as the noises of a crowd gradually grew closer. Finally, they emerged from the street onto a wide thoroughfare.

People were gathered around the fenced yard of one of the wealthy merchants of the city. Children pressed their faces through the iron bars or peered forward from atop the shoulders of taller relatives. Adults, hands on the shoulders of children or around each others' waist as they stood, murmured and watched. A group of five men and women stood around a stone table in the yard, all of them wearing dark pants and purple shirts. Golden statues lined the edges of the shiny black stone.

"People of Duns Veloor, thank you for coming out again today!" one of the men shouted. "It is good to see you all faithfully gather here, even in the face of the sickness that haunts our streets."

"We know you are all desperate for hope," one of the women spoke. "For help. For relief! Long has Messor Vitavi ignored you! We are here to bring you to the truth! To the one who can truly save us! Let us all gather here to worship Kage Zani and implore her help!"

"What?" Musara gasped.

"Sshhh," a townsperson nearby replied. "I wanna hear what they're saying."

"What makes you think Messor Vitavi's ignored us?" a man shouted from the crowd. "He's always helped us before!"

"Has he?" one of the men by the black altar challenged. "What about that drought three years ago? Or when the seastorm sunk half the fishing fleet from Mar Chennel? Or the plague that is killing us all now?"