Free Phoenix Ascendant - eARC by Ryk E Spoor Page A

and illuminate your souls and the blessings of Kaizatenzei follow you always. Good luck,” and Shae’s face suddenly acquired a fierce grin, “and good hunting .”
    The crowd rose and parted, and the four companions turned, walking towards the risen sun, from the steps of the Temple of Myrionar.

Chapter 8
    With a slight groan of effort, Aran heaved himself over the sharp edge of the black-glass scar across the land. Ahead, he could see that the Necklace continued down a gentle slope a short distance away. If he’d been willing to walk down the dark-polished miniature canyon for another quarter mile, it would have ended due to that downward slope. But the slope rose again in the distance, and Aran Condor could see the smooth-crescent bite that had been carved out of the hill, directly in line with the glass valley.
    Looking back, he could not repress another shiver of awe. The Elderwyrm’s rage had carved the land like a sword straight from the forge, in lines from the battleground that cut irresistibly through everything in their path for incredible distances. This glassy ebony mark on the land ran past Syratenzei and, he thought, had even left a mark on the far-distant mountains ringing Kaizatenzei itself; depending on how the ground rose and the curve of the earth had presented itself, it had reached depths of hundreds of feet at points along the way, at one point boring straight through the earth as a vast black tunnel that was slowly flooding from both without and within.
    And the Phoenix—and her companions— defeated this thing, surely, or the Dragon would reign supreme here…if he had not simply leveled everything for a hundred miles.
    The thought was beyond merely daunting—it was sometimes almost enough to make him reconsider his mission. Even the Demonshard Blade had hesitated at the thought of facing the Elderwyrm, and it was really the Demonshard that offered Aran his only hope to overcome the Phoenix and, finally, get his vengeance for Phoenix’s murder of his friend and adoptive father, Shrike.
    He shook his head and took a grip of his courage. It’s a little late now. You asked the King of All Hells for his help hunting the Phoenix down; you’d been serving his son Viedraverion for the years before. Do you think there is any other way out of this?
    Morbidly he mused that the best outcome might be his own death following immediately after striking down the Phoenix Justiciar.
    Then he shoved that thought, too, away. I’ve done good since then. I have! Maybe I can’t ever make up for what I’ve done…or what I will do…but I can make the cost less. I can be remembered for something other than evil. There’s people here who won’t hear my name and spit, even when the truth comes out. At least I hope so.
    As he got farther from that vile dead wound in the earth, the shining peace of Kaizatenzei returned, and with it some of his own spirit. He’d held off the Demonshard’s influence in this place, forced it to serve his ends, helped rebuild Sha Kuratenzei and Syratenzei after the disasters, rescued others along his way. He smiled wryly. “And I’ve been calling myself the Condor Justiciar of Myrionar. Who knows, there may even be a believer now somewhere along my route.”
    Which would in its own way be quite a blow against his so-called master. Aran felt the smile tighten to a near-snarl. That was the real reason he couldn’t afford to die even after taking down the Phoenix. Phoenix was a personal issue. But the “Patron” of the false Justiciars? He—or to be more accurate, it —was the cause of the whole issue, and wouldn’t it be just indeed for the creature to meet its downfall at the hands, not of its greatest known enemy, but someone it thought was its puppet?
    Aran reached the crest of the hill and looked down upon Sha Kaizatenzei Valatar.
    The legendary Valatar Tower was fallen; most of the floating bridges that had crossed the town in lines of crystal and dream were shattered.