Seven
The lemur turned quickly, raising his spear with the arangma still transfixed upon it. The ladder at his feet had originally been connected to a walkway some four meters above and now he found the watcher perched upon it, peering down at him. The hunched figure was silhouetted by light pouring in through windows higher up the tower, bathed in rainbow hues and obfuscated by the cloud of dust in which he stood.
“Of the ten or of the homeland?” the voice repeated. It was deep yet hoarse, like a bale wind blowing from the depths of a burial well.
The lemur brandished his spear, unsure of his ability to hurl the weapon and hoping that the threat of it would suffice.
“What do you mean?” he demanded in as strong and as steady a voice as he could muster.
The dark figure raised a hand, extending it toward the lemur and causing him to flinch suspecting to be assailed by magic, and pointed at him.
“You are lemur. Is your line of the ten towns of Kadaikos, or of our homeland and birthplace?”
“Who are you?” he replied, knowing that the one to whom he spoke could be none other than the one who chased him out only hours before...and had feasted upon the bodies of corpses in the chamber below.
The figure shifted its position and he could see that it was clad in threadbare robes of a dark shade, the hood drawn up over its head. Finally it straightened as much as its twisted back would permit before answering, “I am the priest of this temple and savior of its people.”
The lemur could not help but step back. He had been sure that this indeed was Goia but had not expected the other to admit it so soon or so freely. As he stepped back the figure leaned forward once more to peer over the wooden banister at him.
“I shall ask once more: Of the ten or of the homeland?”
“Am I not garbed as a devotee of Laanx?” the young lemur retorted, “Do I not bear the image of the masked lord?” The lemur moved a hand from the spear to Lybethi`s platinum symbol at his neck, positioned atop the embroidered serpentine symbol on his robes. “What does it matter if I am of the ten or of the homeland?”
The silhouette lifted its head, giving the other a glimpse of the face the hood had shrouded in darkness. Goia was, like him, a lemur though of evidently advanced age. Most of his skin was as leather, pale and taut over the bones of his face like that of the older corpses below. Beneath his yellowed eyes hung wrinkled bags either side of a sharp, eagle-like nose. The head shook left and right. “Those of the ten followed our creator into the unknown. An act of pure faith and loyalty to the lord.”
The younger stared up at the elderly lemur. As had happened back in the tavern in confronting Nimra, he let his anger fuel him, let the fire within escape. “You are a disgrace to our faith! What you have done here...it goes against all we have been taught!”
The balustrade creaked and shook as Goia stepped forward with a speed defying his years and grasped it once more, yellowed nails digging into the dark wood.
“I did exactly as I was taught!” the old and twisted lemur bellowed, spittle flying from his wrinkled mouth. “My parents, the priests...Laanx himself!” The wooden railing rattled and strained as he raged.
“Tarbius was not the only to hear our master`s voice! Long has he whispered to me, urging me to save them from the corruption of lesser gods!”
He tore his bilious eyes from the young priest to stare at the rainbow windows of the tower and through to the village outside.
“I told them of the old days, of ancient Kadaikos. How our lord had called for the faithful to cast out the unworthy.” He then pitched something down from the height at which he stood to shatter as it struck the flagstones before the priest below.
The young devotee had jumped back again and now regarded the broken shards of bone: a skull, ragged remnants of gristle clinging to it where it had been gnawed at.
Goia studied the other as if preaching from a lectern to his long-perished congregation.
“Did they not do as I preached? Did they not cast out the unworthy? The criminal? The blasphemer? Too timourous for my preaching...but they saw the truth of it. Perhaps they are ready now.”
The young lemur shook his head in shock. “And my friend?” he said, touching the symbol of Laanx once more and motioning to the nave, “and the temple?”
“The desecration was all their doing, of that I swear! But they will learn...your friend? That man?” Goia released his iron grip on the balustrade as if it had stung him. “I shall forever repent his death. I could not have known.” He could see the genuine anguish in Goia`s face and wet tracks of tears streaked his ancient visage. “I knew not that he was one of the faithful, I thought him another unworthy sent for Laanx`s wrath. Yet also I see it as an omen...the time has come for me to leave my exile.”
The xanthous eyes left his once more to settle upon the ladder, battered from its mounting, and Goias` plan became clear to the young priest.
“No!” he blurted out as Goia moved toward the edge of the balcony, where the ladder had met it.
“No?” the older`s brow wrinkled questioningly. “For years the people of the village have driven out the unworthy, as I taught them. And now you stand here, before me, an auspice sent by our lord. It is all as I have been told...”
As the aged priest began to speak of signs and portents it became clear to the young lemur just how unshakeable Goia`s faith was. Something - perhaps his years in isolation and near starvation - had twisted him, perhaps driven him insane, until all that remained was his devotion. All else be damned. As a young devotee and student in the priesthood, he felt almost admiration for the strength of the other`s beliefs.
As Goia`s hoarse voice continued on, the young priest lowered his head respectfully.
“It is as you say,” he acquiesced as the other became silent.
A dry chuckle came from the other. “Now you too see the truth, yes? Have faith, young one. I will show you the way.” Withdrawing a glyph from a pouch at his belt the old priest muttered an incantation and a wind rose within the tower, sweeping the dust that had only just settled. The young lemur backed away, covering his eyes with his sleeve and only looked up again as the wind began to die down and he found Goia stood before him. He was hunched and lean, his skin of a particularly pale shade of azure though the young priest could also see that what meat still clung to the old frame was lean and taught muscle. Who knew what had sustained the lemur through the years. He could think of nothing natural.
A skeletal-thin hand, nails like talons, clapped him on his shoulder, “It will be over soon. Do our lord`s bidding and you will have nothing to regret.” The baleful eyes bore into his own and he averted his gaze for he did not want the other to see his thoughts.
Soon the two lemurs were making their way up the nave aisle, toward the narthex and the portal to the grounds beyond.
The young lemur`s mind raced.
Goia truly believed himself to be a servant of Laanx.
He had killed, and eaten Lybethi.
He had essentially been imprisoned within his own temple, to starve.
His twisted teachings matched little of what the young priest had ever learned.
Yet he had never encountered anyone with such intoxicating drive.
Had the villagers not simply abandoned their faith?
Hadn`t they forsaken the temple itself? Left it to ruin? If Goia was to believed it had been them who had defaced and desecrated it.
The outer doors groaned deeply as Goia`s taloned hands clasped the iron rings and drew them wide.
Goia stopped upon the threshold as the light of the Crystal lit him for the first time in decades. He raised his head, squinting against the brilliance of the evening sun, its light tinged the deep red of Laanx`s own eyes. He drew back the hood of this threadbare, stained robes, to reveal his thin sliver hair, the scalp blotted and scarred with scratches and burns.
At first even the young lemur could not make out the whisper that escaped his own lips, but it caused Goia to stiffen and begin to turn.
“They have no faith,” he repeated louder through gritted teeth, before thrusting the makeshift spear into the aged lemur`s side.
No sound but for a sharp intake of breath followed by a sigh escaped Goia`s lips as the steel point was driven into him and his strength fled his body. The young devotee helped lower him to the ground, amid the scattered mosaic chips.
His yellowed eyes rolled but settled on the remaining words of the priesthood`s valediction. He coughed deeply, his body shaking, and he ran a claw-like finger across the words as his read them, filling in the vandalized section, “`May Laanx frighten the shadows from thy path”. His body was wracked with coughs once more. “A path I devoted my life to following...but was blinded by my zeal,” and he looked to his killer, a remaining question in his eyes.
The young lemur swallowed, “Of the homeland.”
Eight
For the second time that day Nimra Redcairn swung the gate of the temple open. The lemur strode toward him, his hood up and his head bowed. Looking past him the dwarf could see a body lain across the threshold of the temple, unmoving. With a toothy grin he looked up and to his side at the menki bartender Esca.
“You- you did it!” the enkidukai cheered when their hero came to within a few paces.
Nimra lowered his head, extending his hand, “I beg your apologies, young sir and on behalf of the village, invite you to take over the tem-“ but the lemur had strode between them without stopping.
The two looked at each other in confusion.
“A temple is just a building,” the receding figure called out, “if those within have no faith...it is naught but a building.”
On the eighth day after Lybethi had set out for Nalvys, the young lemur finally delivered the ylian`s package to the priest of Laanx there. He was a wiry xacha man, cladin finely embroidered robes. With a deep bow he accepted the vellum scroll and gave the lemur his condolences on Lybethi`s passing.
“I will ensure this gets safely to the Iron Temple. You have done a great service to the faith.”
The young priest bowed in return, “May Laanx frighten the shadows from thy path.”
“And from yours, Giroum. And from yours.”
The End
