The Record of the Saints Caliber (8 page)

“You Saints sure have funny names for dog collars, you know that?” chirped Celacia. “But to answer your question, yes. These are yours and four others who’ve agreed to work for me.”

Isley quickly approached Celacia, even reaching for one of the orbs, but she scooped them into her fists and turned. “Ah-ah-ah,” she said. “I might one day give these to you but for now they’re my insurance that you’re loyal to me.”

Isley was in awe. He smiled large and uncharacteristicly wide. His eyes were alight now with that fervor that often made Nuriel feel uneasy about him. It was the same fanatic light in his face that day he first told her about Celacia. “Nuriel,” said Isley, looking at her with eyes wide. “It’s true! These are our Bloodstars!”

“I thought you might like knowing I held yours now,” said Celacia. There was a small case upon her hip that was part of her armor, and she placed them into it. “But Nuriel, you don’t seem too happy. Why the long face?”

“Nuriel,” said Isley. “This is a good thing! We don’t have to worry any longer about being found out! We don’t need to worry about Sanctuary knowing! We don’t need to worry about Gatima looking for us! We can now fully devote ourselves to Celacia!”

Nuriel bit her lip and looked down. It was true that if Celacia held their Sanguinastrums they would no longer need to worry about being found out since Sanctuary could no longer have them recalled. However, Nuriel couldn’t help but feel that she’d rather have Holy Father Admael holding her Sanguinastrum than Celacia. She sniffled and tucked her golden hair behind her ear. She looked down and bit her lip, trying to prevent her eyes from tearing up. Now there was no way she could go back to Sanctuary; no way she could ever leave Celacia’s servitude.

Isley wrapped his arms around her, laughing in her ear. “This is a good thing, Nuriel!” he said again, shaking her by the shoulders in his ecstatic glee. He grabbed her chin and raised her head to him. “This is good, Nuriel. This is very good!” He turned to Celacia. “How?”

“Erygion got them for me,” said Celacia. “So you really owe him your thanks.”

“But…won’t Sanctuary know?” asked Nuriel softly. “They’ll know they’re missing.”

“Don’t you see?” said Isley, grabbing Nuriel by the shoulders and peering into her eyes. “It no longer matters! Nuriel, it no longer matters if they find out we have abandoned Sanctuary!”

“If it helps put your mind at ease, Nuriel, Erygion says he’s taken these things before,” piped Celacia. “He says he’s replaced them with fakes, so you have nothing to worry about. Still, I’d rather you two keep a low profile about this. I don’t want Sanctuary knowing exactly who’s working for me. At least not right now. Loose lips sink ships…or something like that I guess.”

“Milady,” interrupted Lord Briarthorn. “I do not mean to interrupt, but we do have the matter of the approaching army.”

“Oh right!” chirped Celacia. “I almost forgot. We have that Saint Ramiel guy and his deity friend…” she snapped her fingers at Lord Briarthorn.

“The Golden Cockerel,” reminded Lord Briarthorn.

“Ah, yes, the
Exalted
Golden Cockerel who claims to be the Lord of Dawn’s Sun,” said Celacia. “Alrighty then,” she said, clapping her hands excitedly. “This is going to be so much fun!”

Nuriel couldn’t help but notice the ground beneath Celacia’s feet was starting to crack and crumble more than usual. She took a couple tiny steps back to avoid the spreading death of the stone.

“Lord Briarthorn, have your men start building the cart to haul this thing away.” said Celacia. “We’ll have to roll it out of here on some logs or something, unless maybe Nuriel has anymore tricks up her sleeve?” Celacia looked at Nuriel with those gleaming emerald eyes of hers.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Nuriel. She forced a little smile before averting her eyes.

“Well, in that case, you and Isley come with me.” said Celacia. “It’s always so exciting meeting new Saints. Tell me Isley,” said Celacia as she began walking toward the end of the cavern. “Do you know this Saint Ramiel?”

“Yes,” said Isley as he and Nuriel followed behind. “Me and Ramiel spent our youths in Sanctuary together. We both received our Call to Guard around the same time, almost ten years ago.”

“Do you think he’d join us?” asked Celacia.

“Probably not,” said Isley.

“Oh goody,” chirped Celacia.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The tunnel cut through the east side of the volcano and exited upon a large plateau overlooking the volcanic slopes some fifty feet up. This would, no doubt, make an excellent staging area to get the enormous skull down from the mountainside once the men could get it out of the tunnel. Nuriel didn’t know exactly how they had cut the tunnel in the first place, but the decayed stone of the tunnel walls gave her all the clues she needed.

Standing beside Isley and Celacia upon the plateau, Nuriel squinted against the stinging light of day. The sky was a milky blue, barren of clouds, and the desolate, rocky terrain of the Firerims seemed to reflect most of the hot summer sun right back in her face. Nuriel didn’t really like blue, empty skies. Somehow it made her feel small and vulnerable, like she could feel the very vastness of the world around her. She much preferred gray skies. They made her feel more secure, like she was back in the confines of Sanctuary. However, the air out here was much fresher and Nuriel breathed deeply, trying to get the remaining sulfurous fumes out of her lungs.

From this vantage point Nuriel could see a sparkling, moving sea of knights on horseback approaching from the north. Nuriel bit her lip. She was still exhausted from helping move the skull, and she had never seen so many potential enemies gathered in one place before. And these were not untrained, starving peasants from Jerusa. These were skilled knights of Dimethica, accompanied by an Exalted. No mortal man was a match for any member of the Saints Caliber, but with such numbers Nuriel knew the odds were against them.

More disconcerting than the knights, however, was the fact that they were accompanied by Saint Ramiel of the Hammer. Nuriel had never met Saint Ramiel, but she knew that his honorific had not been earned just because he fought with a warhammer. It was earned for his ability to quickly crush his opponents. Powerful Saints were a source of great pride to Kings and their kingdoms and Sanctuary often gifted them to the Exalteds. Nuriel remembered there had been much jealousy amongst the Exalteds of the realms when Sanctuary assigned Ramiel to Dimethica and the Golden Cockerel.

Already Nuriel could pick Ramiel out at the head of the army. His pitch black Star-Armor amongst a sea of shining chrome gave him away. Upon his black horse he flew a red banner bearing his stellaglyph, a broad and powerful looking symbol that Nuriel thought would likely compliment his battle skills.

But then things got worse.

Nuriel’s heart skipped a beat and she could sense Isley tense up as well. Riding alongside Ramiel was a shrouded black figure upon a pale horse, the unmistakable gleam of a mirror-mask from its cloaked face. It was an Oracle.

Nuriel inhaled deeply and bit her lip. She gently tapped Isley on the elbow. He looked at her but all Nuriel could do was look at the ground. “There’s an Oracle with them,” she said.

“It’s ok,” Isley whispered into her ear. He gently stroked her golden hair. “Celacia now holds our Sanguinastrums. It won’t matter if it sees us.”

Nuriel looked up at Isley and she could feel an unbidden tear in her golden eye. “I don’t want it to see me.”

“What are you two whispering about?” chirped Celacia.

Isley looked at Celacia. “Ramiel is accompanied by an Oracle,” he said. “If it sees—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” squawked Celacia. “I find it odd that Admael keeps such tight tabs on you Saints.” Here she turned and looked at them with a smirk.

Nuriel didn’t find anything humorous about the situation. If it saw her, there would be no chance that she could ever go back to Sanctuary.

“Oh lighten up you two,” said Celacia, waving a dismissive hand. “So what if he sees you. Soon it’ll all be out in the open anyway. Might as well come clean now.”

Nuriel looked at Isley, hoping he might protest, but her mentor remained silent with his silver eyes fixed on the approaching army. The Oracles had a way of knowing everything, and it was a small miracle Isley and Nuriel hadn’t been found out yet. Back in Jerusa they could be gone and go off on their own for short times, claiming to be on missions. Here in Dimethica, however, they had nobody to cover for them; no good reason to even be here.

“I…I don’t want to be seen.” said Nuriel more assertively. Being seen by the Oracle would dash any hope of getting out of her current predicament. She’d be labeled a fallen Saint and be hunted down and killed. She hadn’t even wanted to be here. She hadn’t agreed to pledge her allegiance to Celacia. In fact, she was only here because of Isley. If she truly had it her way, she would have remained back in Jerusa to gladly carry out any assignments given to her by the King or Sanctuary. That’s what the Saints Caliber were supposed to do.

Nuriel exhaled deeply and looked at Isley. “I don’t want to be seen. I don’t want Sanctuary to know.” she insisted.

Celacia turned around and grimaced. “What happened to the Nuriel who helped pull my friend Felvurn from the lava, huh? I want that Nuriel back.”

Nuriel swallowed hard and found it impossible to look Celacia in the face. She had to turn her head and wipe her nose with her hand. It was running again.

Celacia released a sigh of annoyance and her usually chirpy voice bubbled with sarcasm as she said, “Ok, fine. You two go hide in the shadows of the tunnel and I’ll just stand here on this ledge, by myself, with my cape flapping in the wind, waiting for them to show up, so I can kill them all by myself.”

Nuriel could feel Celacia’s emerald eyes piercing her but she couldn’t bring herself to look up at her.

“Celacia,” began Isley. “Perhaps—”

Celacia threw her arms up in annoyance. “Fine!” she snapped. She turned her back to them. “I’ll take care of it. Nuriel needs a good demonstration of my powers anyway. Besides, maybe it’s time Admael knows I’m awake. I’d like to see one of these Oracles you Saints are so afraid of.”

With her eyes already turned downward Nuriel couldn’t help but watch the decaying ground spread further from Celacia’s feet. Nuriel had become aware that the woman’s deathly aura seemed to grow the more annoyed or excited she became. She didn’t dare think what might happen should she ever lose her temper completely. Nuriel backed a few steps to avoid the spreading death of the earth. She had never supposed dirt and rock could die, but watching the stone and soil as it withered and decayed made her think that maybe everything had a lifeforce that could be taken from it.

“Come, Nuriel,” said Isley softly, breaking Nuriel from her reverie. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and walked her into the shadows of the tunnel.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

It wasn’t long before the thunder of four-hundred horses echoed deep into the cavern. Nuriel stood across the tunnel from Isley, her back propped up against the wall as she anxiously scraped the tip of her boot back and forth across the floor. They were just deep enough into the cavern that the shadows obscured them from view, and the outcroppings of stone provided further cover to hide behind. It was as good a place to hide as any, at least until the Oracle was dispatched of. Until that thing was gone Nuriel wouldn’t feel the slightest bit comfortable. In fact, until this whole ordeal was over and she was back in Jerusa she wouldn’t feel comfortable. But now that Celacia held her’s and Isley’s Sanguinastrums she wondered if going back to Jerusa would even be an option. Worse, she wondered if going back to being a Saints Caliber was even an option.

No, it
had
to be an option.

In her mind, Nuriel resolved to somehow get her Sanguinastrum back from Celacia and return it to Sanctuary. She didn’t know how she would do it yet, or how she would get it back to Sanctuary, but she would. Then she could go back to being a Saints Caliber. One day, maybe she would even be granted Eremiticy. She’d be a Saints Caliber, but she wouldn’t be bound to any King or Exalted. She’d be free to wander the world on her own, striking down the Unbound and Infernals as she found them.

Being an Eremitic. That would be her new dream, she thought. After she got her Sanguinastrum back, after she could put behind her all this nonsense that Isley had gotten her tangled up in, she would try to prove herself worthy of Eremiticy.

Nuriel sniffled and coughed. She chanced a look up at Isley who forced a gentle smile at her. She didn’t return it in kind, and instead craned her neck up and around the large boulder she stood behind to see outside.

On the plateau Celacia held her ground, looking down upon the approaching army with her lips screwed up as she appraised them. The majority were the rank and file knights of Dimethica in full plate armor riding atop their horses. Unlike Jerusan knights, King Armigon’s soldiers were armored in burnished steel of highest quality and the weapons they carried were all in good repair.

They were led by Golden Cockerel the Exalted, easily identified by his gaudy, golden, armor that was bejeweled with large diamonds throughout. His crested helmet flowed with plumes of exotic feathers and sported two large rubies on either side of it, giving him the appearance of an oversized rooster. He was draped in a cape of gold that bore the griffin crest of Dimethica, but it was so laden with jewels that it did not make the slightest flutter in the wind. His face, neck and hands were all painted in gold dust, making him look like an unnatural effigy. Even his horse was dusted mane to tail in gold.