Mars Underneath The Sceptre of Eternity

Horse-Dragon

Trial of the Soul was nothing but taming horse-dragons in pit cave; King Ergonn declared at the end of the first trial. Amerik was declared first among all contestants because he collected the torch from the grave of the Eagle Guards within shortest time; no other contestants surpassed him. King Ergonn offered him hundred gold Martes coins as the award of his bravery and efficiency. Other winners were D'eimeonn, Arold and Emereon from his group; the second team had only two winners who finished torch collection and offering tributes in time; they were Cazol Berhem of Tarkina province and Ignacio Hall from Ileba province. Both of them were Warlords' sons. The third team produced five winners; Parmeen from Quenseilzue Port province; Cosmo Calmer from Oselt Island jointly occupied first position. Ethen Seimer from Zavrom Hill occupied the second rank; Trevor Billand and Jaylon Sain occupied the third and fourth ranks. Among them; Parmeen and Billand were Warlords' sons and the rest were from a common background. The fourth team was an utter disappointment; no one finished the task in time. Therefore, only ten people were selected for the next two rounds.

For the first time in his life, Amerik earned coins in Mars. He looked at those round shaped coins with great surprise; those coins were just like earthly coins; but had the Eagle emblem of Karzond dynasty engraved on the one side and the King's sceptre at the other side. Those coins did not contain any king's personal name, pictorial representation or period; they did not bear any numeric value as well. When he showed them to Alavaira; he laughed and said that all gold coins had the same value. In Terra Aquillaan four types of coins were found; gold ones with highest value known as Martes coins; copper coins with the second highest value; iron coins with third highest value and iron coins with holes in the middle was least valuable ones. Amerik knew that in Mars silver or white metals were rarely found.

With his prize money, Amerik thought to have good food from the village eateries, but when he asked Alavaira to accompany him; the boy refused politely; "We are aspiring seers; cannot enjoy materialistic pleasure. Moreover; I have to help my brethren to rearrange the House of Knowledge."

Suddenly, Amerik remembered that his first night in the Dei Maneret was not a peaceful one. On that fateful night some intruders entered the temple premises and set the library on fire. It was really an unfortunate event; many valuable books were destroyed. When the fire was finally extinguished; it was found that the section of oldest and rarest books was completely destroyed.

No one knew who were the intruders; how did they enter and why they wanted to destroy old books only; but the Grand Seer assumed something; he only said; "Dark days are coming; creatures of Tophette are rising again with unknown power and strength; only the True King of Mars can save the planet."

Amerik asked Alavaira about the meaning of his word; the young boy looked scared and said in a weak voice, "Grand Seer can see the future clearly. He is predicting about the rise of the Firephenys."

"Firephenys means those who live in volcanic vents?" He asked.

"Yes, they know many spells and possess unknown power." Alavaira was so scared that he did not like to utter the name also. Next morning Amerik found that fear spread among others too. One week had passed after that; but still people living in the temple could not feel free to utter the word 'Firephenys'; they were trying hard to forget that night's incident. A section of people placed their hopes on Ergonn and his future Eagle Guards to suppress the Firephenys forever. They started treating him as a future hero; but the last day's announcement had confused him. Though he rode earlier on a pegadron; but it was a decade ago; that time he was much younger and more desperate. However, he had no idea, how to tame a wild pegadron.

Alavaira promised to help him. He brought many books on Pegadrons but Amerik could not read their writings. It was another surprising thing that the people of Terra Aquillaan knew earthly languages and used them in daily life, but they did not follow the alphabets. All books were written in some pictographic alphabets unknown to him. Alavaira probably read his minds; he assured Amerik to tell about Pegadrons. After all it was the King's command to help the Earthian. Again Amerik felt thankful to Ergonn; he was no doubt an exceptional man who sincerely wanted to help him.