Shroud of Eternity

CHAPTER 45

Two large ships set sail from Tanimura and headed south out of Grafan Harbor. The brisk breeze made the sea choppy, although the sun was bright.

Verna went to the bow of the foremost ship and stood with the wind blowing her graying hair back. The salty spray moistened her cheeks. She realized she was smiling, and her heart was full of possibilities again as she thought of their journey to Cliffwall. It was a strange feeling, and she welcomed it.

“I have a purpose now,” she said to herself.

The young novice Amber came up to join her, her dark blond hair pinned back and her loose dress clinging to her willowy form with the bodice tied tight across her small breasts. “We all have a purpose, Prelate. This is my first great journey. I’m very happy you let me accompany you.”

All of the Sisters had insisted on coming along, and Verna could not turn them away. Those who had returned to Tanimura looking for some small spark of hope in the ashes of the Palace of the Prophets had been disappointed. They had looked to Verna for leadership, but she hadn’t known what to tell them. Now that Nicci and Nathan had blazed a trail across the Old World and sent messages back, Verna clung to the new possibility.

After the camouflage shroud had fallen years ago, the Cliffwall caretakers had sent out a call for gifted scholars to help sort through the immense archive. In retrospect, that had been a dangerous decision, but the isolated people hadn’t been aware of the powerful knowledge in all those volumes. One outside scholar had been Roland, who became the Lifedrinker. Another had unleashed a spell that made the stone walls flow like wet clay, melting an entire tower of prophecy writings.

Verna knew those people needed careful guidance from her and the other Sisters.

A sailor shouted from the lookout, and the crew members paused in their chores, going to the side rails to look, along with many members of the D’Haran army. Amber pointed excitedly. “What are they? Sharks?”

Verna saw the sleek bullet shapes rising up and diving down, like a vanguard to lead the ships along. “Not sharks, child—dolphins. They are considered a good sign among sailors, and it’s a good sign for us, too.”

Amber grinned. “I can’t wait to tell my brother.” Captain Norcross was on the second ship with the other half of the soldiers and six of the Sisters. “What an adventure!”

“Not just an adventure. This is our mission. We have work to do as Sisters of the Light.”

Oliver and Peretta had also come out on deck. They were inseparable now, relieved to have accomplished what they were sent to do. Oliver squinted to make out the dolphins. “I long to see the canyons again, and all the books in the great library.” He sighed. “I guess I am homesick.”

Peretta’s tight ringlets glistened with diamonds of spray. She and Oliver wore clean traveling clothes, replaced in Tanimura. The girl’s dark eyes looked just as eager as Oliver’s. “I wish you were a memmer. If you had the gift of perfect memory, you could remember every day and every place down to the tiniest detail.”

He gave her a skeptical look. “Does that mean you don’t miss home?”

Peretta looked embarrassed. “I still miss it.”

Verna knew in her heart that her Sisters had to study that great archive of lost lore. Cliffwall was likely one of the central sites Nathan had talked about. She remembered when she and the Mord-Sith Berdine had pored through immense libraries in the People’s Palace, when they had discovered the first hints of the Chainfire spell. After hearing the descriptions from Oliver and Peretta, Verna thought the wealth of information inside Cliffwall might be an even greater treasure trove.

Even though prophecy was gone, there would be so much to learn, so much to study. All of the untrained scholars needed to be guided and taught. If the Sisters could do as they had done for so many centuries in the Palace of the Prophets, those scholars could well become an army of wizards, ready to aid Lord Rahl in bringing about his golden age. As she stood on deck, Verna took out the glazed clay toad figurine she had found in the ruins, holding it in her palm, a symbol and a memory of what had once been.

Maybe she would find some other good place to put it, once they reached Cliffwall. The continuity pleased her.

* * *

They sailed onward for days, the two ships side by side. General Zimmer had handpicked one hundred fifty soldiers from the garrison, the best trained among his men. They had packed their armor, weapons, and traveling clothes, written letters of farewell to send back to their families. The rest of the soldiers remained behind in Tanimura, maintaining the foothold there and expanding the strength and security of the D’Haran Empire. Lord Rahl would be dispatching thousands more men in the coming month, to move down the coast and establish other outposts as well.

But this mission to Cliffwall would be the first and the farthest. One hundred fifty soldiers was not a sufficient military force to do any conquering, but they would be enough to establish the presence of D’Hara and to make sure the name of Lord Rahl was known.

With so many soldiers crowded aboard two sailing ships, their expedition had the potential for a miserable voyage, but they were well provisioned. “Soldiers of the D’Haran army do not need to be pampered,” Zimmer had told her. “Think of the terrible enemies they’ve already fought. They won’t be afraid of a sea voyage.”

By the fourth day, however, the enemy they could not fight was seasickness, and many of the men were miserable, clutching their stomachs, retching into buckets or leaning over the side of the ship. They were foot soldiers, most of whom had lived their lives on dry land.

Verna and her Sisters tended to the miserable soldiers. The prelate herself used a damp rag to comfort General Zimmer, who huddled in his small cabin with the shutters drawn over his porthole. He refused to step outside in the fresh air so that his soldiers would not see his weakness.

“I doubt they’re in any condition to watch much of anything,” Verna said. “How do you expect to conquer the Old World if you can’t even get out of bed?”

“I’ll conquer the Old World once we dock,” Zimmer groaned.

By the time the two ships reached Kherimus, the first port of call south of Tanimura, most of the seasickness had passed, and the men happily disembarked for a day. Verna and Zimmer went into the town to buy maps of the lands farther south so they had some idea of where they were going. Oliver and Peretta joined them to look at the charts. The two young scholars pointed far beyond the boundary of the largest map. “That’s where we need to go.”

The two ships sailed to Larrikan Shores two days farther down the coast, and then, after a fierce and frightening squall that nearly swamped them, they reached the large city of Serrimundi. They sailed into the harbor guarded by the enormous stone statue of the Sea Mother. General Zimmer shaded his eyes and stared up at the statue that emerged from the high cliff. “Can you imagine what it took to carve that, Prelate?”

Verna tried to picture crews of sculptors dangling from ropes or standing on platforms, chiseling away to create the lovely female figure. Seabirds flew around the sculpture, nesting among the carved tresses of her hair. She didn’t have any answer for him.

Zimmer nodded to himself as he gazed around the harbor, assessing the other ships. “We’ll get what we need here and move onward.”

“And what exactly do we need, General?” Verna asked.

“More room, for one thing. I have a writ from Lord Rahl, and I intend to use it to commandeer a third ship and more supplies.”

Peretta said, “Renda Bay is just down the coast. I recall all the contours of the shore between here and there. I can guide you without any charts.”

“She is a memmer,” Oliver said, with a hint of sarcasm.

“I believe she mentioned that once or twice,” Zimmer said. “But the captain and I would rather have detailed charts. More importantly, I must talk with the harborlord to finish outfitting this operation. We’re an expeditionary force and we have a long journey inland. Unless I intend to waste months marching over the mountains on foot, I’ll need horses, many horses.” He grinned at the idea. “We’ll have a real military expedition.”