The Secret King

Theft

Prince Vasheron paced anxiously around the Abitar while his Deev busied themselves in securing the relic to a heavy stretcher shaped armature which would make carrying it manageable. The crystal nest, which measured about six feet long by four foot wide was heavy and unwieldy, but there were enough Deev to man the stretcher and move it out of the temple. Eight creatures, four to a side, began to slowly carry it to the main doors with Vasheron following behind.

"Where is Ceridac with the spider's head?" he asked aloud.

As soon as the Deev in the lead exited the temple, a shout echoed back to the Prince.

"Ceridac is dead!"

When Vasheron reached the exterior of the temple, the scene he saw was disturbing. A dried shell of a body resembling Ceridac lay brittle and sprawled on the mosaic which surrounded the temple. Where the body of Arisha had been, an immense cocoon lay.

The Deev patrol had put down the Abitar and stood staring at the body of their comrade. It had been centuries since a Deev had really died, even Deeb Shatus, the mink killed by Azmeritus, had been resurrected by the Brotherhood. There was no doubt that Ceridac was beyond resurrection, he was completely and irrevocably dead. Vasheron stared at the cocoon and fumed.

"Destroy that thing!" he shouted angrily.

The Deev drew their swords and began stabbing and slashing at the cocoon. It was to no avail, Arisha's silk was impervious to steel and sword. After seeing the futility of their attack, the Prince halted the assault.

"Enough!" he shouted, "This is pointless. No matter, even if Arisha is still alive, she is in the void between life and death and will remain there till she dies, a thousand years or more . She will die of starvation long before she can ever move again."

Even as Vasheron spoke, a Deev lookout came rushing up to him.
"My liege, a land boat approaches from the north."

"We will deal with that when we are off this mountain. For now, stop staring at your fallen brother and get on with the task at hand, we must get the Abitar to our boat, it is a three week journey from here to Seth-E-Raman."     

The Prince became sullen and spoke in an angry voice, almost to himself, "I wish Azmeritus had told us his plans or purpose. What is he planning with these magic rocks? Why does he need that blasted Book of Prophecy from the Assassins? We are warriors, not detectives." He sighed, "Ah well, no matter, we will do what we must to be free and immortal once more, then we will deal with that albino apostate. As for now, we have no time to waste. Is the basket ready?"

"Almost, a few more minutes, my lord," The lookout answered.

The basket to which Vasheron referred was the method in which Arisha welcomed guests to her lair. Sapphire mountain stood nearly a mile high and because of the sheer and mushrooming cliffs near its summit was almost impossible to climb. On the mountain's western face, the cliff dropped almost completely vertical from the summit to the ground, allowing for an elevator of sorts, a basket large enough for several creatures secured to a mile long piece of rope made from Arisha's web.

Though Arisha usually lowered and retrieved the basket herself, it was attached to a large ratcheted wheel, allowing its use to other creatures as well. Using the wheel, the basket could be lowered or raised in about two hours. The basket was presently on the summit and the Deev carried the Abitar to it and carefully put it in. They swung the basket out from the summit and began lowering it to the base, a mile below.

Prince Vasheron was bored and annoyed. Watching his Deev slowly lowering the Abitar to his waiting boat was tedious to him and not having been able to kill Arisha, infuriating. He walked back to the cocoon and began fruitlessly hacking at it his sword. After a time he summoned the six Deev not involved with the Abitar and had them gather wood and brush to set afire around the cocoon. He didn't really think it would do any good, but felt it was worth a try. When the fire was blazing, he walked back to the winch to discover that it would be another three quarters of an hour till his prize would be safely lowered.

He needed to do something, anything. He called for his lookout to find out the status of the boat they had seen in the distance earlier, approaching the mountain. The lookout informed Vasheron that a boat was approaching the far side of the mountain. This was all Vasheron needed to jump into action.

He chose three of his warriors and stood at the edge of the summit. On his command, they all transformed to Deev-smoke and very rapidly descended the mountain, moving like a racing fog, at least ten times the speed of the basket. Gliding down the mountain face in his smoke form, Vasheron itched at the prospect of finding some creatures to kill.

From the ground, the Deev's descent down Sapphire Mountain resembled a landslide of scree and dust cascading down the hillside like a tsunami. When the cloud of dirty smoke reached the base, it separated into four parts. In the blink of an eye, the smoke reconstituted into Prince Vasheron and his three subordinates. Vasheron dusted himself off and
faced his companions.

"That was invigorating!" he said loudly, "Now to work," he pointed to two of his creatures, "you two check the intruder's land boat, we will search the hillside. No prisoners, just kill them if you find them and report back to me. The Abitar will be on the ground in about twenty minutes. Meet back at our boat in half an hour, no later, we have much to do and far to travel."

The Deev split up and began their search. The Deev were unable to find any trace of the Evyans beyond the apparently abandoned land-boat The Golden Grub. They walked past the hidden entrance of the tunnel several times, but did not detect it. Their attention was focused upward, scouring the mountainside in the hopes of finding climbers. As the determined deadline for returning to the Deev boat approached, they begrudgingly gave up their search and returned to their own vessel.

The Abitar was being loaded aboard as they approached and the last of the Deev from the summit were flowing down the mountain in smoke form. The Deev captain, Kosuke, who was supervising the loading of the artifact, approached Vasheron to make his report.

"We'll be ready to leave once everyone is aboard, my Prince."

Vasheron managed a smile, though he felt inwardly frustrated at not finding the intruders. He walked onto the gangplank.
"Very good, Kosuke. Make ready for full sail all the way to the Lands of Man. I'll be in my cabin. I am in a hurry to leave this foul place."