Final Outpost of the Dire Planet by Joel Jenkins

Author:Joel Jenkins [Jenkins, Joel]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2020-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7:

The Secret Temple of Cothra Bodd

Fedrik Khan led the way through the densely populated streets of the Warrens which stretched to the edge of the rippling pools of the great falls near the Terraces. He wore his regalia of war, which consisted of steel epaulets and a gem-encrusted gorget that protected his throat. His cuirass consisted of the dusty brown scales of a lizard, which was once worn by Chengra Khan[20], and his bracers were of beaten brass. All these were signs of his wealth and position, for few Verm warriors went into battle armored, considering it a sign of their bravery to go bare-chested against the enemy, and wearing nothing but a leather girding about their loins and the belt or harness that held their weapons.

At the head of twenty Verm warriors, the shaman apprentices Hiet and Dratas, the Muvari envoys Naegrick and Tredia, who were not native citizens of the Muvari Tribe, and Fedrik Khan led the way through the swirling mists cast up from the falls. They ascended water-slick steps and narrow trails, climbing higher until he stood forty feet above the turbulent pool that threw back the phosphorescent light of the lichens growing in thick profusion at the awesome heights of the cavern’s ceiling.

The spray of the waterfall dampened his face and the droplets glistened on his armor as he attempted to peer through the churning falls and see any sign of a continuation of the path which so abruptly ended at the fall’s edge. He could see none and he had only the word of a traitorous wine merchant that if he leaped he would not plunge down the falls and be drowned in the boiling waters.

The female shaman, Dratas, seemed to divine her khan’s thoughts and spoke from his shoulder. “Yndyno confirmed that the words of the wine merchant were true. There is nothing to fear.”

“I do not fear that there will be no footing, but that assassins of Cothra Bodd await beyond,” said Fedrik Khan. “Nevertheless, I will not be deterred from throwing down every last vestige of the Sect of Cothra Bodd!”

Before he could finish speaking these words, Naegrick and Tredia slipped by, leaping from the path’s edge, through the veil of water. The wine merchant had not lied for they found footing in a sandy cavern that was completely lit by encrustations of glowing bryophyte. They blinked the water out of their eyes and found that within this cavern of twenty paces width and twice that deep were a pair of Verm whose vigilance had been diverted by a handful of bone dice which they rattled and cast from a human skull.

They heard the foot treads and looked up from their dice game, scattering piles of coin as they reached for their spiked clubs, in order to arm themselves against the drenched yellow-skinned warrior who ran toward them, braided black hair whipping behind like an angry snake, and his companion—a red-haired woman whose skin had turned a speckled brown from exposure to the sun.

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