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He’d blinked and shaken his head to clear his vision and looked again, but the thick fur blurred the shape of the tail. He couldn’t tell, in the end, if the extra tails had been his imagination or just an illusion because of all the fur.
The fox had watched him steadily, its yellow eyes unblinking, glinting with an inner light. Slowly, the lines of its small mouth seemed to have curled up in a smile, and Ben was captivated.
He tried to get Zai to look as well, to tell him what kind of creature that was, for these lands were far from the Artic and alpine tundra, where the snow fox dwelled. If he wasn’t mistaken, this realm spanned the ancient Akkadian empire, which stretched through modern Asia Minor and the Arabian Peninsula, surrounded by the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Caspian Sea.
But the moment he looked away, then back, the fox was gone.
All things considered, it was a fantastical world, this ancient realm ruled by Dark Ones. He could hardly believe it was real.
The advanced technology, raw power and ingenuity that built the citadel, the roads and villages that surrounded it, seemed to be something out of a fantasy book.TheLord of the Rings,perhaps, orA Game of Thrones, a couple “classics” that Ben had read and reread countless times.
When Ere described his quests to Medieval Britain during the Dark Ages, then ancient Greece, and most recently to pre-recorded Viking era, he talked about sorceresses, dragon hunters and dragons, centaurs and harpies, gods, Valkyries, trolls and frost giants… Places, events, and magical beings that defied the history books.
Ben had experienced the surrealism himself during the last quest to the Victorian era, where princes, wallflowers, faeries and dragons coexisted in parallel realms. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised by the mind-boggling sights he witnessed in this lost Age.
After all, his own world was full of Immortals and unfathomable magic.
What had erased almost all of the evidence of this advanced civilization ruled by Immortals, he wondered?
Had the Dark and Pure Ones’ Great War destroyed everything? Enough to pave the way for the rise of humans, as they had to rebuild from scratch?
Ben tore into the succulent meat of the drumstick while he soaked in his surroundings, his mind restless, his curiosity in overdrive.
He and Zai sat in a darkened corner of the long house, while the few other occupants, all Dark Ones, congregated near a gigantic stone hearth. It was a sturdy building with a tall ceiling, the better to accommodate its Immortal-sized patrons. A couple of human servants catered to the soldiers’ needs.
Ben was picking up on a pattern here: Dark Ones never served; they were the masters served by others.
“If you know about the Beast Kings,” Ben said after washing down his meat with a couple gulps of beer (yes, beer! Ben wasn’t exactly fond of fermented grain-based beverages, but his irrepressible desire to try new things overruled his tastebuds).
“What can you tell me? Do you know the Tiger King, Eagle King and Serpent King? Are they alive?”
Zai speared Ben with a potent glare, clearly showing his displeasure.
“Keep your voice down,” he hissed low. “Immortals have heightened hearing.”
Duly chastised, Ben surreptitiously glanced around, hunching his shoulders.
None of the Dark soldiers were paying attention, thankfully. They were talking boisterously amongst themselves. Something about a recent battle from whence they just returned. From the celebratory bragging, they’d clearly stomped their enemies into the ground.
For a long time, Zai maintained his glowering silence. When Ben thought he wouldn’t answer, he mumbled beneath his breath:
“The Tiger King’s enclave could be anywhere across the Silver Mountains and the surrounding forests. But I have an idea where to look first. Some say that the Serpent King has retreated deep beneath the sea; others say he disappeared into hidden caverns within impenetrable mountains. And the Eagle King…”
“Yes?” Ben prompted when Zai trailed off.
“The Eagle King is mad.”
“What do you mean, ‘mad’?” Ben immediately pursued.
“His mind…his soul…”
Zai gave a brief shake of his head.
“Gone.”
That sounded…absolutely awful.
Ben couldn’t contain the pain-filled grimace that flickered across his face.
