Bane of Ashkarith

Chapter 1

The team worked over the rubble on Dubarin hill while Kaidan Tadegan, leader of their expedition, picked over the far side of the hill, nearest the Rithian side. He worked with fervor but with care, not wanting to damage anything. The sun glared down on him, roasting him alive, and he wiped the back of his neck with a cloth. Who knows what we might find! Perhaps we'll find some proof of the ancient lore about this place.

The hole he was digging had turned into an open-roofed tunnel that sloped gradually downward as he went. At around seven feet down into the side of the hill, his shovel struck something with a dull thud. He tested the soil with the tip of the shovel, trying to determine what it was. When he shifted some more dirt, he saw a flash of white under the sun. More bones? They'd found many bones on this site, an indication that the legends of the battle that occurred between the gods might have some merit. Still, so far, he hadn't found any bones on this side of the hill, and he'd begun to think the battle hadn't raged this far. Perhaps I just hadn't found any yet.

Minutes later, he'd cleared the remaining layer of soil off to find the bleach-white bones of a corpse glaring up at him in the harsh rays of the sun. Kneeling down on his knees, he brushed the dirt away and grabbed a trowel, gently clearing packed clods of dirt and loose soil away from the corpse. When he had, he backed further up the slope and sat on his heels, staring down at it.

Inside the tunnel, the bones of the corpse rested. Time and worms had rotted through the clothing of the deceased individual. The slender facial structure of the skull and the tiny stature indicated it was a woman. He frowned. Who is this? All the corpses we've found so far have been of men and boys, not women.

A book lay locked against the corpse's chest, her skeletal hands clutching it to her even in the rigor of death. He leaned down, seeking to pry it from the hands of the skeleton. The hands wouldn't move, and he didn't wish to snap the bones. Jumping down into the hole again, he tried to find a better angle so that he could slide it out of the corpse's grasp.

This time, the hands relinquished their prize, and he stared down at the book's unmarked leather cover, which was worn with age and crusted in dirt. He returned to the mouth of his tunnel and opened it with a frown. The book's pages were stuck together with time and a dark brown substance, though they yielded with some gentle prying. Upon closer examination, he realized it looked much like dried blood. What have I stumbled across here?

"Kaidan? Kaidan, what are you doing over here?"

Kaidan looked up to find his wife Zerua strolling down the hill toward him. "Zer, look what I found!" He pointed to the grave site and waved the book.

She rushed to see, a smile lighting up her gray eyes. "What is it?"

"I think it's some sort of burial site. It's the first woman we've found buried here."

"Any clues as to why she was buried here?"

He shook his head, hefting the book up onto the grass and clambering out of the hole where his ramp downward had begun. "Not yet. Let's take a look at this book though. She was holding it."

Zerua fingered the ancient leather. "This is in awfully fair condition for being buried thousands of years."

"Outside maybe. I opened it briefly a moment ago, and it looks like there's dried blood caked to it. It'll be a wonder if we can get pages apart to read any of it." He settled cross-legged on the ground beside his wife and pulled the book into his lap. "Let's see what we have here..."

He eased the cover open, minding the brittle crackling of the paper as he did. The scent of iron still lingered on the pages, and he frowned, flipping past the first empty page to look at the next. "There's writing on this one."