KINGDOM OF THE STONE -- a Wattpad featured novel

Chapter Thirty Four

"What's the name of this place?" Ctonos asked as he led his soreav past the fields of withered wheat.

"Korion-Pthora," a spearman named Kaelis said. He had a large wine colored birthmark on his face and he normally led the soreav.

"Hmf. Looks like the last one we visited," Ctonos said.

"Yes," Kaelis agreed. "They are all much alike."

Ctonos spat. "You'd think they'd be glad to leave this place."

"I was born in a place like this and I was glad to get out," Kaelis shrugged.

"Well, let's go round up all the workers we can get for the oracle of Nur."

The group of fifty reavers tramped into the village leading a train of donkeys. The villagers gathered around them, eyeing the large bundles strapped to their animals with curious expressions.

Ctonos, spying a trestle table nearby, nodded at a couple of his men. "Go set that table up." He caught another man's eye and pointed at some baskets strapped to one of the donkeys. "Fill up a couple of those with grain." He smirked at Kaelis, "I like to dangle a little hope in front of them before we round them up. It makes the sheep more cooperative."

Kaelis chuckled as the reavers opened a bag, poured the grain out and watched the people rush forward hungrily. The reavers stepped up to guard the baskets and the villagers recoiled uncertainly.

"Good day, people of Korion-Pthora," Ctonos began. "The oracle of Nur sends you his greetings and gifts of food." The guards stepped back and the people's faces took on hopeful expressions.

"Thank you for coming!" a skinny snaggle-toothed elder said. "We desperately need your help."

"The Lord of the Mountain has sent visions to the oracle of Nur warning him of the blight. He has been able to put aside food so that the people will not starve. If you would share in his blessings, you must come with us to Nur."

"Nur?" A heavy middle-aged woman turned to her husband. "I ain't never been to Nur. Isn't that far away?"

"You must leave behind just enough men to work the fields; the rest of you will come with us. Your young men will learn the ways of the spear. The rest of you will do your part to help the community by laboring for the oracle." This comment brought a few frowns, but Ctonos noticed that no one left. He stepped aside with a gesture to the food. "Join us and eat."

The villagers surged forwards.

-=====|==

Charissa held the two-year-old boy on her lap cooing over him and laughing with him as she gently tickled him. Motherhood had transformed her far more than the mere two years since Karux had seen her. She had left him little more than a child on the edge of adulthood, but now she was a woman in her breathtakingly beautiful prime. Karux felt a stabbing pang of loneliness and a longing so intense he felt his heart had seized up. He gasped, clutching his chest. He longed to reach out and touch her, but whether or not he saw a true vision, it was all still just a dream.

I will find you, he thought, you and the child. I will take you both back to Korion-Garanth and we will rebuild it and fill it with our children.

"A beautiful sight, no?"

Recognizing Amantis' voice, Karux turned around. Amantis stood on the top edge of a pyramid of stones looking down on a city that, Karux knew with a dream-like certainty, was Nur—though he'd never been there. Below him, the city's streets were filled with the too familiar horror of acres of dead. Their mutilated corpses, wearing only tattered shrouds of dried blood, lay in twisted patterns forming a giant city-wide schema.