The Arkanist

The Sun King

The plates of shattered crimson rock rumbled from beneath like a drum as the bannermen rode out. They rode on massive almond steeds, rippling with muscle. Long ebony manes danced along their thick necks, glimmering in the sunlight. There were five bannermen in all, each clad in blood red plate armor, thin and lustrous, embedded with shards of ruby and gilded beads. Underneath the enameled steel, skinned leather breastcoats wrapped tightly around their torso’s, smooth and textured. The two bannermen in the front dashed ahead and began to circle Visir and Arstain, their long black spears arced down at them, the rippling red banners licking the steel lance.

         A heavy cloud of billowing red dust palled around Visir and Arstain as the horses circled, their hooves clopping hard against the shattered plates of rock floor. The banermen slowed and the dust drifted away with the steamy, dry wind, three more knights clopping through the puffing mist. They were garbed in the same armor as the bannermen, heir steeds rearing their heads as they halted. In the center of the three, the knight spoke in the Hhadiri behind a black and red helm of arcing steel and curving horns. “Herri reago annoe maerhh hae?” 

         Visir calculated the words in his head, for he knew the speech of the South. He translated the words over, and apparently Arstain had too, for he replied in the Hhadiri, “We are no men from O'ean. We are from the North.”

         The Dreadeen knight slid his long silver blade from its ruby incrusted sheathe, the point glinting at Arstain, “I will not be so easily swayed.” He spat, turning to his remaining two men, “Bind them. We shall take them back to the Pyramid to hear the Hhass’ council.”

         Before Visir or Arstain could act, they were seized by metal hand and their arms were thrust back and bound them with fraying string, heavy and thick. Arstain tried to plea, “We are no spies, we are not your enemies!” But the Dreadeen would not listen. Instead, they grew harsher and led them onwards, pushing at their backs with long steel fingers.

         The Dreadeen led them across the flat plain of rock and sand, the three astride their horses clopping alongside them like iron bars in a cell. The protection provided blades of cool shadow from the tormenting sun, reliving Arstain and Visir of their overheated limbs. Before them, the Mountains of Hhad rose in jagged shelves, the brown and tan stone weaving like the bands of color in the sky at sunset. The serrated layers of slated rock shifted upwards in stark and irregular steps, until the piercing teeth of grey stone punctured the atmosphere like a needle, slicing through cloud. Visir watched the rivers of misty sand trickled down the wending slopes, dropping in massive cascades and hissing as if clattered against the unyielding rock shelves until it settled in great heaps like hay.

         The Dreadeen took them around the great rock formations that struck into the sky like spears until they had bent around the giant feet of the mountains, revealing their city of Dreados. The sun beamed directly before it, watching as Alleh down on his worshippers. The vast city of sandstone was built onto the sheer tan faces of the mountain, the rock smooth and laden with lacerations etched into the streaked face. The sandstone jutted off the face in great balconies and levels of halls and bridges. The buildings cascaded down the face and the rest of the giant city in the sand was built behind massive walls of aged sandstone, high and strong with many towers sprouting from behind like arms reaching into the sky.

         In the center of the wall, the Gates of Alleh were shut to all; the ancient gilded wood glinted like molten gold in the powerful sunlight, as if melting. Behind the immense walls, Visir could scarcely see the piercing tip of the Great Pyramid of Alleh in the center of the city, where the great Hhass sat upon his throne. Dotting the ramparts, black silhouettes of guards and knights stood like stone statues, stiff and clad in armor, some with banners and some with spears.