Chapter Fourteen #2
When Donan opened his eyes, he was kneeling in the tunnel, covered in dirt, but not where he had been at the beginning of his vision.
He wiped his eyes and his cheeks, finding them dry as he staggered to his feet.
Sunlight had replaced moonlight through the gaps in the ceiling, and he had apparently somehow traveled the length of the passage.
He could see another iron door farther up the way, where the path came to its end.
He stumbled toward it, disoriented, still reeling from the images drawn from his memory by the Venom, still trying to find his way back fully to the present.
The door opened as he approached it, and on the other side stood a seer wearing the same style of veil and robes that the Keeper of the Fang had worn.
“I welcome you,” she said. “You have walked a harrowing path, and you may now rest. Come.”
She motioned him into a natural, cavernous chamber that had been expanded and shaped with such artistry and skill that Donan could not tell which features had come about through human effort and which had been produced by erosion and the strange weathering of time.
Torches and braziers cast a warm flickering light across the walls.
Columns carved to resemble serpents coiled and twisted, creating arched doorways and passages.
Mosaics adorned the cave walls, but their imagery differed from what he had seen on Temis.
The artwork in the palace and the rest of the city had seemed preoccupied with myth, heroic deeds, and the natural world of predator and prey.
The seers, on the other hand, seemed to be preoccupied with the contrast and balance between light and dark, angel and demon, as if they had embraced the Firstborn heritage of their island without falling to worship either lineage.
The gentle trickle of rivulets and fountains filled the cavern.
The seer guided him to a bench of stone carved into an alcove. “Please, sit.”
Donan did as she asked, still somewhat dazed.
The seer then brought him a cup of water from a nearby fountain. “You must be thirsty.”
He was parched, but still he looked carefully to make sure she had given him ordinary water before he drank it. “I would like to speak with your queen,” he said, handing back the empty vessel.
“Of course,” the seer said as she took the cup. “But there is no hurry. If you would prefer to rest—”
“Please, I mean no disrespect, but I am pressed for time. I wish to speak with her as soon as possible.”
“Very well,” the seer said. “Please, wait here.”
She left him alone, departing through one of the arches, and he lay back against the wall, pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes.
He could still hear his mother’s voice. He could still smell the perfumed oil she used in her hair.
He could still feel the calluses on her hands that never softened, even after she stopped working at the loom.
He could still see her severed head lying on the purple rug, staring up at him.
The Venom had wrenched him back to a night he never let himself remember, and that angered him.
He could not say the Keeper of the Fang had deceived him—he should have expected as much from something that promised to show him his past—but she could have forewarned him.
“The queen will see you now.”
Donan pulled his hands from his eyes to find the seer had returned.
He rose from the bench and followed her beneath a few arches, down a corridor that flowed through the rock like a snake through grass.
They passed a wall on which were hung a collection of masks fashioned from precious metals.
They glinted in the torchlight with hollow eyes, each unique in its design.
Some were adorned with elaborate headdresses, while others were more plain, but all possessed an intimidating presence.
Then they entered a throne room, and here the character of the cavern took on the qualities of Firstborn architecture that he had observed back on Temis, dark stone carved into severe facets and angles.
The writhing serpent motif had been inlaid into the floor, surrounding Donan as if preparing to wrap him in a scaly embrace and devour him.
At the end of the room, polished metal had been cleverly wrought into the shape of a great radiating eye, and at its center stood the Oracle Queen.
She wore a mask of silver, polished until it reflected like a mirror.
The black and white threads of her robes had been so finely woven, they seemed to shift back and forth in undulating shades of gray.
Braziers cast orange firelight onto several stoic seers, all waiting upon their ruler.
Donan approached the throne and bowed his head. “Your majesty.”
“I welcome you, Donan,” she said with a voice that sounded ancient, powerful, and perilous. “You have walked your path, and now you come before me with questions.”
“I do,” Donan said.
“What do you wish to ask?”
“I have come to Philios in search of…” He was about to lie and represent himself as a scholar once more but found himself unwilling to deceive the Oracle Queen; he sensed it would be foolish to even try. “I belong to an order,” he said.
“Yes, the Horadrim.”
He paused, not surprised but a little awed. “Yes, your majesty. Some years ago, an expedition of Horadrim journeyed to Skovos, and we have had no word from them. I come before you asking if you might know anything about them or where they might be.”
The queen was silent for some time, her mirror mask betraying no expression or reaction. “I had forgotten about them,” she finally said. “A mage led their party. What was her name?”
“Sho-Ren.”
“Yes. She hailed from Xiansai. She came before me, just as you have done.”
“What did she ask you?”
The queen shook her head. “When I receive a supplicant, I hold their question and its answer in sacred trust.”
“I meant no offense,” Donan hastened to say. “I only wish to find her. Do you have any knowledge of where the Horadrim may have gone?”
“I remember they wished to settle on Philios for a time, and I allowed them the use of an Amazon fortress that our sisters of the spear had forsaken. That was the last I heard of them.”
Donan thought it unlikely the expedition would still be living there after all this time without sending word, but it thrilled him to at least have a solid foundation on which to begin his search. The discovery was worth the terrible vision he had endured.
“May I go to this fortress to look for them?” he asked.
“Of course you may,” the queen said. “It is located some distance east of this sanctum.”
“You have our deepest gratitude, your majesty.”
“I am pleased to assist you how I may. The Horadrim serve a noble purpose. When you leave here, seek out my sister. She is an innkeeper near the Bridge of the Eye. She will aid you in your search.”
“I believe…I have already met her.” It surprised Donan to learn of the true connection between the innkeeper and the seers. Based on the conversation they had shared, he doubted she would be inclined to help him, but he thanked the queen and backed away from her to depart.
“Do you have no other question for me?” the queen asked.
He bowed his head again. “With respect, your majesty, I did not come here seeking divination or foresight.”
“That does not mean you have no question.”
Donan had little desire to ask her about his future, but he did wonder why he had been made to relive the worst night of his life. “The path I walked,” he said. “If I may ask, what was the purpose of the vision it showed me?”
“That is for you to answer,” the queen said. “The Venom of the Serpent shows you the memories of your past that define your present, for the past and the present together define your future. That is what some may call fate.”
“I see,” said Donan, even though his understanding remained incomplete.
“Would you know something of your fate?” the queen asked.
Donan was about to refuse once again but decided he did have a question he wanted to ask, after all. “Can you tell me, will we Horadrim achieve our purpose in Skovos?”
The Oracle Queen went still for several moments, head dipped low, almost as though she had fallen asleep.
Donan waited, unsure of what was happening.
Then the queen sat up straight, as if a charge of energy had raced up her spine, and when she spoke, she did so in a resonant tone that filled the entire chamber.
“One queen shall fall, and two shall rise! One queen shall throw the spear, and another queen shall retrieve it! One queen shall call the beast, and another queen shall free it. Thus, shall Skovos be saved.”