The Secrets of Starpoint Mountain by Bill Albert

Author:Bill Albert [Albert, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781975817053
Publisher: Bill Albert
Published: 2008-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

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Being located on the side of a mountain city, where dark fell early, all of the temples were usually lighted just as the shadows started to crawl across the streets. On this night, out of respect for the dead, all the temples remained dark except for the dwarven temple at the base. There were various torches and tributes lit along the streets to keep the path clear for those coming to pay their respects.

Though the dwarves were small in nature, their loyalty to each other was gigantic. Gallif and Maura took their places with nearly three hundred dwarves in front of them with just as many behind. They wore brown robes, the mourning color for dwarves, but each had their weapons hidden underneath.

The crowd moved slowly and respectfully with barely a word being spoken and after two hours they were near the temple. There were several from the dwarven community giving blessings and prayers to those who came in. Just inside the stone wall was a table with strips of parchment and coal of various colors. They looked at one of the attendants who quietly explained to them that this particular dwarven practice ended with cremation. As mourners entered the temple they were to draw on the paper any gifts that they wanted, in private, to give the departed. The papers were left beneath the coffin and, at one point, would be set on fire. As they burned each gift was taken with the departed to their next destination.

Maura grabbed some paper and yellow coal to draw her gift of flowers. Gallif, completely healed, chose white coal. Though her handwriting needed much improvement she was quite good at art and as they approached the small steps she had a finely crafted image of a pure white horse on the paper.

As they reached the top platform they found ten people ahead of them meeting with Arca and Jakobus. In the center of the platform was a small yet beautifully crafted coffin. Beneath it were hundreds of pieces of paper. People were dropping their gifts into the pile and then slowly exiting on the other side.

They waited without saying anything until finally Arca took their hands and hugged and kissed each of them. He whispered his heartfelt thanks to them, even wiped a single tear off of Gallif’s cheek.

“You are going to find the people who caused this?” Jakobus said flatly when he looked in to Gallif’s eyes.

“Yes,” she said. “I promise.”

“I’ll be ready whenever you want to leave,” he said.

Gallif looked at him and saw there was no way to talk him out of it. She wasn’t sure that she would try to do so. He was strong and intelligent, and she knew they could use all the help they could get for the fights that were ahead of them. She nodded and said, “Dawn.”

He nodded and thanked her and then moved to the next people in line. They passed the coffin and respectfully placed their gifts with the others. They reached the exit stairs and saw how everyone was going down in an odd way.

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