A Way of Honor (Champions of the Crystal Book 2)

Chapter 5.1

Image: Baldaran and Shariara, by D. Denise Dianaty

Praxatillian monarchs were buried in a canyon on the northernmost continent, not far from a modest polar ice cap. The royal party traveled by flyer, part of a convoy of black-painted vehicles that flew without running lights out of respect for the dead they carried with them. Sabrina and Selémahs shared Mara's flyer; Imari and Rayland traveled separately for security reasons. It was a brief, uneventful trip, and soon they were landing on a windswept plain where a string of dark purple carriages awaited, drawn by creatures that Sabrina thought resembled a cross between Earth musk oxen and goats, with horns growing from their foreheads—one long one with two shorter, curled ones on either side. They were all black, and all the animals were draped in heavy purple with black trimming.

The closed carriages vaguely resembled those Sabrina had seen in movies of the nineteenth century; they must be a relic of Praxatillus' own past, she surmised as she followed Mara into the second carriage. The first, a sort of bier, was for the use of the Order of the Wardens, a sort of holy order that maintained the canyon of the tombs. They were the only members of the funeral party wearing white.

Everyone made the transfer to the carriages in silence. Several of the carriages were already filled; the royal party had been the last to arrive. When everyone was inside, the members of the Order carefully and quietly transferred the body of Baldaran in its transparent coffin to the purple-draped conveyance at the head of the procession. The members of the Order then took their stations around the bier-carriage, and the black tricorns started forward.

The procession wound its way down the road into the canyon in silence, save for the occasional cry of a bird high above. The sky, appropriately enough, was bleak and colorless, blending with the grey stone walls of the canyon. It was a vast place, its floor in perpetual shadow from the walls that shut out the sky, and Sabrina thought there was something eerie in the ordered, well-kept steps that formed its sides. Here and there, high in the wall, a heavily carved door testified to a tomb behind it, growing more frequent as they descended.

At last they reached their destination. Mara was the first to descend, stumbling over the carriage step; Sabrina caught her shoulder and helped her right herself. Mara kept a tight hold on Sabrina's hand as she looked up at the staircase, covered in deep purple carpet edged with black, leading to a platform with two torch columns burning brightly on either side of the carved doorway.

Shariara's tomb, Sabrina thought, and was moved almost to tears. She had known they were coming here, had known it since Khediva first began to educate her and Scotty about Miahn funerals, but she was unprepared for her own reaction as she looked up at the tomb and remembered a frail and dying woman whose last thoughts were for her husband and single remaining child, the woman in whose legacy she seemed inextricably caught up.

Tears streamed down Mara's face in silence. Sabrina squeezed her hand and led her to one side so the carriage could pass them. The vehicles would wait for them at a respectful distance.

Others began to gather around them as the members of the Order lifted Baldaran's coffin on their shoulders and carried it to the bier at the foot of the stairs. Sabrina and Mara watched for a glimpse of his face as he was carried past them. He looked tranquil, free of the crushing burden that he had carried through life, and Sabrina thought, He is going to Shariara at last.

She looked down at Mara, blinking back her tears, and whispered, "He's with her now. They're together again."

"They are all together now," Mara whispered back, scanning the carvings on the tomb door. "Papa and Mama and all my brothers and sisters. Everyone...except me."

Sabrina squeezed her hand. "You are with us."

Mara's violet eyes, awash with tears, locked onto Sabrina's. She seemed unable to speak.