PROLOGUE
"I'm cold," Brezia told her brother Graco in a whisper. She did not want the warrior that advanced a few paces ahead of them, to hear her and lash her with his whip, as it had happened to a fellow young prisoner who dared to ask for a drink of water.
"Sister," said her brother, who was walking hand in hand with her. "Let's not make things worse."
"What will happen to us?" The girl asked again. "I am very scared."
Dusk was falling rapidly and the persistent rain that had accompanied them during most of the journey contributed to increasing the inclement cold that went right through their bones. All prisoners, men, women, and children went almost naked, covered just by a loincloth, and walked side by side in a row of two, bounded by their wrists with hemp ropes. They had to endure that ordeal as part of their punishment before being to the God of the Oracle, in a ceremony of oblation that would take place as soon as they arrived at the place of the sacrifice.
The prisoners were part of the offering with which Runolf, Lord of the Northern Clan, expected to ingratiate himself with the supreme leader of the Fellowship of the Oracle and to increase the influence of his clan before the other three rival clans.
The party traveled along a narrow path through the middle of a dense forest, lit by maple torches that marked the way held by slaves belonging to some of the tribes this clan had subjugated.
Brezia and Graco were children of Theobald, leader of a clan of warriors who had opposed and fought The Fellowship that had subjugated and enslaved all the other tribes of the territory of Pelair. The rebel clan, which dwelt deep in the forests of the Misty Mountains, was the last that had remained independent of the yoke that gripped the rest of the clans. However, they had finally fallen prisoners of the feared Brotherhood.
"Halt!" yelled the captain of Runolf's guard. Theobald, his elder son Randal and two other warriors of the imprisoned rebel clan transported Runolf, in a litter made up of a pallet placed on four intertwined wooden rods with a small awning that shelter its passenger from the rain. The man got out of the litter to stretch his body. He approached the side of the path lit by a torch his lieutenant brought near him, to relieve his bladder. At opening his heavy bearskin coat, he uncovered a torso full of tattoos and a thick neck bearing an iron ring that had a small topaz embedded into it.
"Maybe about three leagues away, my lord," said Runolf aloud as if talking to someone else. "It is possible that about three hours by a hurried pace" he commented. "Yes sir. I take them, prisoners. I got their leader carrying my litter, sir," he answered again. "Yes, I keep an eye on him myself, sir."
There came a short silence before he spoke again. "Yes, Supreme Priest. I will do my best to get there as soon as possible."
Runolf voiced aloud the conversation he held in thoughts with the High Priest, only to boast and brag before his clan of the power he possessed.
That topaz was one of the gems that made up the Scepter of the Golden Serpent. This and four other topazes held by the other lords that formed the clans of The Brotherhood of the Oracle had the peculiarity of allowing their bearers to influence the thoughts and behavior of their peers and allowed them to speak to each other by thoughts regardless of the distance and to the Supreme Priest of the Brotherhood, who guarded the Scepter that housed the rest of the gems.
The power of the Fellowship resided in the gems embedded into that snake-shaped scepter. A large golden snake with a single eye on its forehead rolled on the scepter with its head pointing upward. It held with its mouth, a five-pointed golden star. Each spike had a receptacle where the five topazes fit.
The center of the star embedded four particular gems as well. Two crescent-shaped white quartz that fitted perfectly with each other with a circular opening at their center, which in turn fitted a pair of black opals, also crescent-shaped, forming a black circle inside the white one. The black opals had the ability to propitiate evil, while the white quartzes surrounding and framing them, interfered with that power. As long as those four stones remained together, there would be a balance between the forces of good and the forces of evil. The lack of any one of the quartzes liberated a power within the opals, which allowed their bearers to generate fear and propitiated malicious acts. Both opals in the absence of the two quartzes gave their possessors the ability to dominate the minds of others through terror.
The whole set of gems was dominated by an indescribable pure diamond that fitted the serpent's eye socket. This diamond completely nullified the power of all the other gems.
The caravan of the clan and its prisoners continued their journey through the dense forest surrounding an ancient volcano that emitted perennial fumaroles, which formed the Mountain of the Oracle. From time to time, small eruptions threw incandescent lava, which ran through a spillway that led to a large opening on the ground at the side of the mountain. The volcano in this way swallowed its own spills. This opening was likely to be part of the many secondary chimneys of that old volcano.
It was not long until midnight when the clan finally arrived at a great clearing in the middle of the forest. One of the boundaries of that clearing bordered with the openings through which the volcano recovered its own spills.
The rain had finally receded, allowing the moon in its waning quarter to light up the sky, studded as well with myriads of stars. In spite of that, a row of torches that reached all the way up to the edge of the opening of the volcano, illuminated around that large clearing.
A pyramid of three steps and four sides made of large crude stones rose at the center of that great clearing within the forest, with a large esplanade at its top. However, this esplanade was not a flat space. Most of it consisted of a rather shallow depression filled with innumerable snakes of all kinds and sizes. Some tried to climb up the walls of that receptacle; some others crawled along the floor, while others rolled up and entwined with each other to form a mesh of vipers.
A stone chapel surrounded by a pit from where hot smoke and ashes emanated rose at the very center of that depression. That pit was the mouth of the Oracle. A narrow hanging bridge made of wood logs tied up by hemp ropes allowed access to the chapel from the side of the esplanade. A pedestal of pink granite rose in front of the door of the chapel, upon which the Golden Serpent and its gems rested.
The other clans had already arrived, taking their places at the sides of the pyramid. Their lords handed their topazes to the Supreme Priest, who placed them at the tip of the scepter star's spikes.
Shortly afterward, Runolf's clan arrived taking its place at the gathering.
"Here you have my lord," Runolf said as he handed over his topaz to the High Priest, to set it in its proper place on the star. He took care not to get too close to the priest, who carried a great python wrapped around his neck.
Deaf drumming indicated the beginning of the ceremony. The Supreme Priest raised his arm and pointed a staff he held towards the group of prisoners. They were obliged to go all the way up the pyramid to the esplanade and surround the edge of the depression.
The High Priest walked up the pyramid right behind the prisoners. He reached the edge of the wooden bridge, crossing it towards the chapel. He made a bow before the Golden Serpent and with the aid of a warrior, took off the heavy hide that sheltered him from the cold. He went completely naked with his body painted in red ocher. A string of human teeth girthed his forehead just below his baldhead.
With premeditated parsimony, he unrolled the python he carried and proceeded to unbuckle a diamond that hung embedded in a golden chain from his neck. He placed it right over the center of the black circle within the opals on the Golden Serpent.
"Who's the leader? The Supreme Priest asked pointing with his staff to the captives.
"The blood of the innocent will fall upon you," declared Theobald proudly, taking a step forward.
Four warriors took Theobald by his arms and piercing his back with their spears, forced him to cross the bridge and kneel before the Golden Snake.
The gems on the Golden Serpent glittered illuminated by the torches and the brightness of the stars and the glare of the waning moon up in the sky. A warrior handed the High Priest an ax with a large blade of sharp metal.
The moment the priest took the weapon, the drum ceased its pattering. Only the croaking of the toads and the screeching of the crickets in the depths of the forest interrupted the silence that followed. Some light clouds swept by the wind covered the moon at times, and the shadow they cast made the night even more sinister.
An owl hooted somewhere in the dark frond. Another hoot and another followed as if presaging the imminence of what was about to happen.
The Supreme Priest raised with parsimony the ax he carried in his arm, upheld it for a short time over his head, not out of indecision but rather to create more tension. The punishment should be exemplary and serve as a warning to anyone who dared to rise against the Fellowship of The Oracle.
However, he should have executed his act more diligently, for when he was about to drop the ax on the neck of his victim, another howl was heard followed by the whisper of a sure arrow that pierced his heart.
At first, no one understood what had happened. Then, an uproar shook up the members of the four clans. However, they could do very little to defend themselves for they were suddenly surrounded by dozens of warriors, who black painted and covered scarcely with a loincloth, threw themselves with tomahawks against the unsuspecting worshippers. Very few clan warriors went armed, for, in order to avoid any betrayal, the Supreme Priest had ordered all weapons to remain at the entrance of that great enclosure.
The rebellious clan belonged to the only brotherhood that worshiped Noor, the Moon Goddess. All the other tribes subjugated by the Fellowship of The Oracle worshiped the Sun God. For their part, the clans of the guild that held the Golden Scepter worshiped the God of the Oracle.
Laria, the Supreme High Priestess of the Order of Noor, and Theobald's wife had orchestrated the capture of Theobald, their family, and some member of their clan, in order to deceive the unsuspecting Brotherhood and try to seize some of the stones of the Golden Serpent. Now, however, luck had presented them with the opportunity to seize The Golden Serpent with the full set of gems.
Theobald and Laria had put their family at risk to give credibility to the capture. The High Priestess received a message in a trance from the Goddess Noor demanding that such risk be taken. They had planned everything to make a fair attack in the middle of the ceremony, free the captives and get the gems.
Theobald only hoped that his warriors would be on time. Otherwise, everything would be lost.
He knew that he would be the first sacrificed to the Golden Serpent and he had trusted that such would be the case.
His plan had developed to perfection. At hearing the uproar and the beginning of the struggle, he rose from the ground and sprinted after the relic. He grabbed it and ran to the interior of the chapel, scurrying away through a small back door that led to a back bridge used by the Supreme Priest. He took advantage of the confusion to run down the pyramid and went right into the depths of the forest, while the bloody strife developed on the esplanade. He did not notice that in his haste to seize the relic, the diamond dislodged from its center and bounced to fall between an interstice of the walls of that chapel. The clans of The Oracle, having recovered from the surprise now defended themselves, and being by far more numerous than their attackers, were already beginning to take control of the fight.
However, the unthinkable had happened. The rebellious clan had been able get hold and get away with The Golden Serpent and its gems.
Runolf left at once with a party of warriors after the fugitive. The darkness helped Theobald, for it was very difficult to see where he had gone.
Brezia noticed the moment her father had taken a quick run to seize the Golden Scepter and ran as well through the bride after him. She entered the chapel just as the diamond came off the relic. Thinking it was important, she headed where she saw the gem fall, and guided by its brilliance managed to get it. Only that by the time she went after her father again, he had already disappeared into the forest. She was terrified and did not know where to go. Being alone and not knowing what to do, she put the brilliant into her tiny loincloth and hid in a small gap between two columns inside the chapel. That was the last time she saw her father.
***
"Where's Brezia?" Laria asked her son Randal.
"I don't know mother," replied the young man contrite. No one saw her after the struggle began.
"And Graco?" she inquired again for her other son.
"I saw him fleeing with some of our warriors," Randal replied more calmly. "He will be well protected."
"We must return to fetch Brezia," Laria said pleading with her husband Theobald.
"Yes. We will do it. But first, we must put the relic in safe shelter," he pointed out.
"Our daughter is first!" replied Laria. Her heart ached for her daughter. However, she knew that she had to deal with the gems. They should not fall again in the hand of The Clans of the Oracle.
The group had gathered in a small cave by the mountain, dug up perhaps by one of the many eruptions of that old volcano. Only that little Brezia did not know or did not remember how to get there.
"Sir," called one of the warriors who had managed to reach the agreed point interrupting them. "We are almost surrounded. We have to get out of here."
"Theobald," Laria called her husband's attention. "The gems must not fall again into the hands of the Brotherhood of the Oracle; or at least not all of them," she said. "We must distribute the gems and go separate ways," she said with tears running down her cheeks. "If the Goddess allows it, we will meet again."
"What do you suggest?" Theobald asked.
Being a priestess of the Fellowship of the Moon, Laria knew well the characteristics and the power emanating from each gem.
"I'll take one of the quartz with its opal and bring it to the heart of the order. There we will guard them. You take the other quartz and its opal, and head south towards Antair," she said to her eldest son Randal. "It is necessary that the opals remain as far apart as possible. Hear me; never ever separate the opal from its quartz."
While handling the gems to Randal, she noticed that the diamond was missing. "I just hope the Clan doesn't have it either," she thought bitterly. She knew the diamond could make the pieces to get back together.
"My lord," interrupted another warrior. "The hosts of one of the clans already discovered us. We have to leave."
"Hold them," said Laria to her son, handing him the quartz and its opal. "And take one of the topazes as well. In this way, we will always be in touch."
"How so mother?" asked Randal wondering.
"Just get it and you'll learn," said his mother. "Hurry up and the Goddess Noor protect you," she blessed him kissing his forehead.
Randal barely had had time to go into the forest when the warriors that pursued them approached yelling the mouth of the cave.
"Take these," said Theobald giving the other topazes to Dianna, a young warrior priestess who had accompanied them. "Do not let them catch you. Get away as far as possible. Head south too. Reencounter with Randal through the gems."
When he turned to say goodbye to his wife, she had already fled into the dark interior of the cave. He had had no time, however, to run away, for an arrow pierced his chest.