A Dragon's Ascension - Ed Greenwood [78]
Chapter Thirteen
Godly Favor and Handy Graves
There was a sudden rumbling in the distance.
The snake-headed man looked up sharply, shrugged off his cloak of scales, and strode naked to the nearest rocks. There were scales on his back and thighs, and a stump at the base of his spine that looked like the stubby beginnings of a snake's tail.
The Serpent-priest embraced a sloping rock taller than he was, flattening himself against it to feel what was causing that rock thunder. Here in these rocky, barren uplands, few tumults disturbed the endless sighing of the wind-and no eruption of a smoking mountain, such as sprouted in Sarinda and Harthlathan beyond, must be allowed to disturb the Sacred One!
The Serpent-priest threw back his head and tasted the air with a long, darting tongue-but it seemed almost needless, now, as the rumbling grew to an echoing roar, the ground started to shake under him, and the rock he was embracing thrummed under the goad of-something deep and titanic beneath Aglirta that was racing towards this place!
The priest sprang away from the rock, whirling to rouse the other holy guardians of the Great Serpent-but they were already darting out of the caves and watch posts and running aimlessly about, looking and shouting.
The rumbling grew even louder, and small stones came rolling down the rock slopes from above. The shaking was now strong enough to numb the feet and make teeth chatter, and the Serpent-priest saw with alarm that cracks were forming in the dirt and rocks beneath him-spreading with wild speed there, and there, and everywhere!
Then there were shouts-almost screams-of joy, and the Serpent-priest's head snapped around to see the cause. A moment later he was on his knees, throwing up his hands and shouting, too-using all his ready magic to make his voice trumpet-loud.
His words crashed across the dell, to roll back their own echoes to him, as he cried, " the of we all long at his Darsar shall soon tremble before the holy might of the Serpent, his Awful Wrath that only we faithful shall be spared! Aglirtans cower before wizards and regents and an iron-headed brute called Bloodblade, but soon they shall know what it is like to truly cower!"
Breath failed him at last, but the Serpent-priest seared his way on, empty lungs carried by magic into one final shout. "The Awesome One is freed at last! On your knees to make reverence! On your knees, and cry him forth fittingly! The Awakening comes-NOW!"
As the thunder of his voice died away, exultant shouts filled the dell, cries that soon settled into a ragged chant, "Arise Eroeha! Arise Eroeha! Jw EROEHA!"
Though the shaking of the ground had lessened-racing on, it seemed, to the mountains, leaving the cracks in its wake just as they were-the grassy earth in the center of the rocky dell, in the midst of the kneeling priests, was bulging upward. It was already higher than a man, and surging towards the sky more and more swiftly, shedding great clods of earth to tumble and roll aside from gigantic black coils beneath… coils that slithered but slowly, yet…
Yes! At long last! 'Twas true!
"The Serpent Awakens!" the naked Serpent-priest roared, springing to his feet as his fangs grew longer and his scales brighter. "The time has come at last! Eroeha, command us!"
As the scaled men and women danced in heartfelt exultation, a single red-gold eye opened amid those inky coils. A slitted pupil as tall as the roaring priest regarded the world with savage fury and glee, more earth fell away as the black coils bunched and heaved-
And then a mist of shadows stole across that blazing eye. The Rising Serpent came to a halt, frozen in midrise-as the scaled priests all stared in dismay, and silence fell.
Silence that was broken only by weeping, here and there, across the Place of the Serpent.
Of all the birds that wing the Vale, the