Lady of Poison_ The Priests - Bruce R. Cordell [3]
The Oslander offered, "Perhaps her attention is being drawn elsewhere."
Maybe so. Where before the cleric had felt the presence of Lurue in every prayer, observance, and divine ritual, the presence had become uncertain, spotty, and sometimes altogether absent. Marrec shrugged. The cleric had met other servants of the Unicorn Queen, and while most seemed unaffected, a few reported feeling similarly to Marrec. Those worst afflicted could no longer trust that the divine spells they cast in Lurue's name would return anew each day. Marrec suffered the same humiliation.
"Gunny, the vision was real. I didn't dream it, if that's what you're getting at."
The tattooed soldier raised both hands in a conciliatory gesture, said "I know, the 'Child of Light in Flemish's charge.'" My feet grow weary-I hope we find this Hemish in Fullpoint."
A vision had come to Marrec. From within the brilliance of a crescent moon, the silhouette of a unicorn spoke to him. The enchanting voice instructed him to seek the Child of Light and the child's guardian, Hemish. The voice indicated that finding the child would help both Marrec and one other in similar straits.
"I hope so, too," Marrec answered his friend.
Gunggari continued, "Even if it comes to nothing, I enjoyed our trip across the Sea of Fallen Stars. It nearly rivaled my trip across the Great Sea. I trust your last divination, the most recent one."
Marrec realized the Oslander was not needling him. Gunggari merely said what was on his mind, nothing more or less. As his friend said, his last pure divinatory contact with neglectful Larue pointed unerringly to the village of Fullpoint. Fullpoint lay several leagues west and somewhat south of a large city called Two Stars. They'd traveled along the trade road known as the Golden Way since debarking from their ship in Telf lamm. They had turned off southeast before reaching Two Stars, to Gunggari's disappointment. The visitors had been told that Two Stars was a city where Trade was coddled as if a favorite son, and nothing was forbidden.
Marrec said, "The closer we come to finding Hemish, and hopefully this mysterious Child of Light, the spottier becomes my contact. I doubt that Lurue does not want me to answer this riddle, and I don't think she is becoming neglectful… I think that she is somehow being prevented from making contact…"
Marrec stopped speaking and cocked his head.
"Did you hear that?"
Faint cries and the ring of metal on metal echoed from over the hill. A thick stream of smoke tumbled up from behind the rise ahead. Something was burning, and it didn't look like a chimney.
"Let's go!" shouted Marrec.
Racing to the top of the hill, Marrec and Gunggari saw the source of the cries and smoke: a small village in the forest clearing was'under attack. Creatures swarmed around the buildings, smiting villagers and setting fire to buildings. At first glance, the attackers seemed to be small animate trees.
"By the Ancestor," muttered Gunggari. The Oslander swept up his walking staff, ready for trouble, brandishing it like the warclub it actually was. He waited for Marrec's cue.
Marrec took a second to take stock.
The attacking creatures were not trees after all. In fact, they somewhat resembled humans, though their skin was the deep olive-green of a pine needle. Their flesh was woody and tough, but they all sported oozing sores from which a putrid slime seeped, as if they were slowly rotting. Their hair grew out in long, thick locks scaled like the bark of a young tree. Their eyes gleamed black with hatred. The creatures seemed somewhat familiar to Marrec, something he'd learned about in his training: they were similar to creatures called volodnis, but he didn't think true volodnis had such a sense of rot or decay about them as these oozing creatures had, but he was no expert.
Buildings continued to burn. Several humans and attackers lay wounded or dead in the village street. If the creatures had some goal, it wasn't apparent, unless it was simple mayhem.
A sickening realization occurred to Marrec.