Deathsworn Vol. II

16 - The Hooded Man

It was far cooler inside the cave, the air thinner and the smooth tunnel walls glistening with glacial-like fluidity. Bard could distinguish patterns, carved and drawn, decorating the sides whenever Kana held the torch close. Human skulls kept their roost every few paces. "They are shars gone before," Kana explained, brandishing the torch at one that had been broken in half, "they watch us now and protect." 

Where were they when the Congana were coming? he almost asked, but he assumed Kana would like the answer not, and so kept his silence.

It wasn't until they were in what Bard took to be an antechamber that Kana spoke again. The sound of running water tickled Bard's ears, and they had walked far enough so as for Pot and Pan's excitable nattering to be but a distant memory. Ahead were another set of steps, hewn into the rock and leading down to a larger space. Bard took them carefully. When there were no more, he found himself standing in an underground cavern.

A small stream circled a rocky island, one lit by a ring of torches. In the centre of the island was a figure, knelt in prayer, his back turned to Bard and Kana as they crossed the stream and clambered up to join him.

Shar Uggo was smaller than Bard had been expecting. The bumps of his spine were distinctly visible, the hair on his head patchy and distressed. He turned slowly to regard them, as though energy was a coin he had spent too frivolously in the past. The eyes that then observed Bard were shot through with red and bordered by tired lines. A chest, inlaid with gold, sat on the rock beside him, while there was another pool at his feet, the fish swimming in it a deep red in colour. "Kana, I trust there is good reason you've brought a stranger to the place where our ancestors lie." The shar spoke softly, his very words cumbersome and fatigued.

Kana replied in Ooamanee. When she was done, Shar Uggo attended Bard curiously, a sigh breaching his lips. "Leave us, my child. We have things to talk of that are not for your ears." 

Kana didn't move. Bard felt her eyes on him, as though she were waiting to see if he might intervene. 

"Kana." 

After what seemed like an age, Kana began to back off, every step a minor battle she fought against losing. Bard kept his focus on the shar, but he listened as she reluctantly climbed back down to the stream, then as she shuffled from the cavern itself. Shar Uggo watched her all the way.

"You speak Empire Tongue?" Bard asked, when he could hear Kana's footsteps no more.

"Better than you speak Ooamanee, I would guess," the shar replied, a weary smile labouring to form on his face.

"I'm sorry for your loss. Truly, I am."

"Not half so sorry as I. Was it you who did that to Kana's eye? If you wanted an audience with me, you needed simply wait."

"We didn't have time to wait, but it wasn't me who hurt her."

"No?"

"It was the Congana."

Shar Uggo received the words with unperturbed calmness. His pupils, dark as the deepest recesses of the cave, broke contact with Bard's not once. "Alas, she remains her father's daughter. What did she do to antagonise them?" 

For a time, Bard pondered how best to answer. "She did nothing that warranted what was given." 

"But the Congana gave it anyway," the shar said. "As they ever have, and ever will." 

"The Congana will bother Ooama no more."

"They will bother us like the hound bothers the sheep. This is the way of things."