The Pillaging of an Empire by Amanda Clover & Jay Aury

Author:Amanda Clover & Jay Aury [Clover, Amanda & Aury, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-22T04:00:00+00:00

The Old Mountain

Greta looked from the map and back to the towering cliffs with a swelling of pride.

She knew it!

In the shadow of the bluffs, the weather beaten features of an old man could be seen growing out of the cliffs. A landslide had fairly buried the rest of the body, but the head still poked out of the barren rocks, revealing a beard that reached the chin and a circlet on his head.

Of course, she could tell because she knew what she was looking for. Ages of wind and rain had worn down the features of the noble figure until only suggestions of those features remained, but it was enough for her to recognize her quarry. And with the way it had been ravaged by years, she likely would have completely missed it were it not for her guide.

Dinni stood miserably a few feet from her, the goblin rubbing his throat and the shadowy band that wrapped about it.

“Alright,” Greta said, rolling up the map and tucking it back in her pack. “Let’s go.”

“Me not want to,” Dinni whined. “Mountain cursed! It cursed, me tell you!”

“Ah, I see. Alright, so here’s a question. Which would you prefer? The possibility of dying in there. Or…” she said, lifting her hand. “The certainty of dying right here.”

Dinni gasped, choking as the dark collar around his throat tightened just enough to make things uncomfortable. He wheezed, pawing at his neck. “Me… me go. Me go!”

“Thought so,” Greta said, releasing the hold.

Dinni gasped, slumping as he panted. He glared up at her. “Wo-man mean,” he said miserably.

“Maybe now you’ll think twice before trying to rape someone,” Greta said sharply.

Dinni bit his lip miserably, kicking up dust as he followed her down the slope of the hill and into the valley below.

Even the ancient’s roads had not completely survived the years. Foliage closed tightly around them, shadowing their path with thick nettled branches. Grass sprang up between the crooked paving stones, nearly obscuring the path so it felt like she walked through a field. As she walked, the sounds of the forest slowly died away behind her, until they seemed surrounded in a bubble of silence and waiting expectancy.

She soon reached the end of the trail, and before her opened a great sundering in the cliffs. A fissure like the very mountain had been broken. Dinni whimpered as he scampered after her and between the tall cliffs. Cliffs which seemed, at any moment, as if they could close on them like the jaws of death.

Greta barely noticed. She felt alive! Light as if she were walking on air. She looked around herself in awe, daylight petering away until it just barely illuminated the dark passage. She halted at the end, and stared in wonder.

Before her, worked from the very stone of the mountain’s heart, lay a massive doorway. Pillars once lined the way, now toppled and askew. Statues of strange winged serpents crouched on pedestals beside the entrance, cracks marring their once fierce glory.

For a moment Greta could only stare in awe.

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