The Stone Sorceress

Chapter 18-19

Chapter 18

Eros surveyed an ancient temple made of schist at the top of a cliff face, which was presently smashed by waves. It had four towers at each point of the quadrangle, and from each corner, the structure rose to a point at the centre. It was a pyramid. The back and sides were solid rock, while the surface that faced Eros and the others had a visible doorway at the centre base. The huge towers dwarfed it either side.

Typhon was more invested in the edifice than the rest because Kafka had been the centre of his studies in the academy. Kafka, more than any other mage, had helped shape and form Typhon's character. The mage's dark skinned complexion stood out from his habit-veste of dark green, with a red collar. "He's here."

"Kafka?"

"Yes."

"There was a story written about him," the princess turned her eyes upon the enormous structure that rested before a setting sun. "Though I don't know it."

Typhon obliged the princess, "Kafka was born in Cybele at a time when the Tiberian wars were at their most fierce. The emperor couldn't be stopped, but his army suffered much. Kafka was conscripted. The mage distinguished himself at Beroe and Demeter, at Raidne he set fire to the trebuchets besieging the city. He melted armour at Melinoe, and at Penia he punched a hole so large in the castle walls that he marched up to his commander and said, 'Through the breach that I have created, one can see the keep, and the enemy's retreat.'

The Emperor Tiberius made Kafka a king after that.

But the winds of political change swept in, they whispered in the people's ears 'republic.' The emperor was assassinated; those loyal to him were imprisoned, exiled, or otherwise ruined. Kafka naturally could not renounce his loyalty to the emperor, who he'd sworn an oath to.

His reputation and prospects ruined, his protector dead, Kafka came here in order to throw himself off the cliffs, and break open his skull on the rocks below. He was walking across where we are now when he tripped. Laughing at himself, he cast his eyes back over the ground that had deceived him, and saw a brilliant stone.

Kafka would return with that stone, overthrow the republic, and rebuild Tiberius's empire. The magic it posessed was formidable, and, when he at last grew old, Kafka had this temple built before he entered and sealed himself inside."

Skoll said, "It's the same as the mad king."

The latter remark sat uneasily with Eros.

Aurora looked at the temple, only the sound of crashing waves could be heard. "My father wishes you to encounter the man from the village, it doesn't appear as if he's here."

"If not the mage, the king wants the stone."

"Why?"

Eros was silent, he said, "I don't know."

The 85th galloped towards the temple that had lay untouched for an eternity. Eros anticipated it to have magical protections, and, when he drew closer, he discovered that he was right. Archers appeared on the steps of the pyramid; their arrows appeared to pause at the highest point of their parabola, before beginning their descent. "Don't stop, charge."

Amidst the barrage they rushed to the entrance, but Aurora's horse was struck. Eros leapt from his beast, and in one bound, came to her side. The clanging of metal arrowheads striking his sabre terrified the princess.

Sabriel had reared her horse, and was looking back after the pair. The gunslinger however, was lighter and faster than the other horsemen, and so had come closest to the temple. The archers were now focusing their fire upon her, and the tip of one particular arrow was perceived by her too late. It struck her in the abdomen, or at least it would have, had not a barrier protected her. She looked from the arrow to Aurora, who now stood amongst the hail with dishevelled hair and Eros, ricocheting arrows, beside her.