Apollo’s Chariot & The Age Of The Herons — Prologue
General Zohm slid down the embankment into the moondune river tugging on the leash around his prize. Sirens wailed in the distance but he’d be history by the time anyone figured out what he stole.
His prize whimpered beneath her mask.
“Quiet. Consider this a blessing you’ll never experience the folly the Eye places at your feet.” General Zohm pushed his prize forward making way for the cliff side opposite them.
The water was ice cold but it mattered none to him. It had been ages since he felt the prickling daggers of ice that froze a body. It had been ages since he felt anything other than chaos, the only intoxicating illusion of feeling that mattered to him. Though the same could not be said of his prize whose teeth clattered and body shivered with every step taken.
Her soft cries for help sickened him. What happened to the great prophecies of the Galaxy? Had he killed every last empowered being the Eye of the Universe placed in his masters way?
No, Stone is still out there. General Zohm muttered rubbing the scar above his lip. It ran from his left eyebrow down across the thin slits he called a nose to his upper lip. A gift from his nemesis, Mason Stone. The most fearsome prophecy left in the Galaxies. Zohm had stitched the wound himself though it never healed properly and he refused every advance from the Goddess of Beauty to fix it herself. He wanted the reminder not only for himself but to every prophecy that tried to do what Mason Stone failed to do.
Kill him.
The river receded as they made their way onto the grassy knoll of the cliff side. Tiny iridescent bugs fluttered away as they kicked through the lush vegetation. As they approached the edge Zohm kicked at his prizes heels forcing her to her knees. He took one last look at the mountain behind him. The camp on full alert. No doubt searching every last tomb and hut for signs of treasure taken. The fools would never even stop to consider the prize would be of flesh and blood.
“You might want to hold your breath. This part can be quiet painful.”
General Zohm grabbed hold of his prize and with one swoosh of his cape, they vanished from the land leaving behind only their charred footprints etched in the rock.
The trip to Dawncove was instantaneous and yet never-ending. A sea of cosmic light that stretched and contorted their bodies in ungodly shapes; stretched out like cooked spaghetti. His bones broke, his mind melted, he was nothing but atoms coursing through the stars. It was eternity and yet it was instant as the cosmic light melted into the void as the blackness of nothing took shape. They floated through the it aimlessly adrift in the black cosmic sea. For only that which is nothing can be transported to the land outside of time and space.
A rip in the void pulled them in. Encompassing white light filled their every pore as it put them back together again. Resetting bones and restoring minds. Sight returned to General Zohm as he stood upon the ruined steps leading to the ancient castle Dawncove.
His prize gagged.
He removed her mask just in time for her to vomit. She was a queer little thing. No more than ten and five with translucent skin that revealed neurons, arteries, and stimuli that comprised the innards of her exoskeleton. She had one eye like a cyclops in the middle of her face with a slight slit for a mouth.
“Deep breaths,” General Zohm said handing her his wine skin. “The first time is always the hardest.”
Zohm observed the horror around him. The castle sat upon a chunk of destroyed planetoid floating drift-less in the void. Black smog drifted off the castle like heat waves dancing along the desert. The windows were barred yet whole pieces of the castle were missing, exposing the decrepit interior. The steps leading to the door were thick slabs of cracked limestone the length of his legs. The doors towered above him. Black ivory with the engravings of a black hole, the sign of the wrathful titan.
His prize squealed at the sight of it. She knew her days were numbered.
She stood at the precipice of doom.
General Zohm lifted her to her feet pushing her up the steps. The sooner he got this over with the better. Dawncove was no place for any creature. A long forgotten castle built by the Eye to hold the most despicable creatures known to the Universe. The foul stench of death haunted every nook and cranny from the rotted wood in the floorboards to the chipped bricks lining the spires. Hundreds, if not thousands of men and women were put to the sword in its hallowed halls.
Many, by his own hand.
Their skulls lined the walls of the run down castle while their bones were used as decorative knickknacks to spruce up the place. Even for a man as perturbed as Zohm it was devilishly macabre.
Off in the distance, a solitary planet spun in place. To pull a planet from reality into the void. The ultimate test of the wrathful titans growing powers. A cosmic battlefield where soon his prize would do battle and prove its worth or commend itself to the ashes of its fallen brethren. Too many prophecies to count laid buried on that planet, most of whom delivered by Zohm himself.
A duty he did willingly.
To him, there was only one true prophecy, only one solitary man that had the might to face Axeus. All others were pretenders and he had no problem putting them to the sword.
“What is that place?” His prize asked.
“Hell.”
“I’m just a wet nurse. What use can I be to power such as this?”
“It brings me no joy to be the one to tell you of your masters deceptions against you. They thought shielding you from your path would best keep you safe but before you die know that their narrowness and refusal to let you be who you were destined to be led you here.”
General Zohm pushed open the door leading her inside. There was not a candle lit, nor fire burning. The vast chamber was as lifeless and void of energy as the world it inhabited, but Zohm knew he was there.
Darkness was Axeus’ best friend. In the black abyss of nothing he could be nowhere or he could be everywhere. A phantom of the night, a dark soul. An odious being strong enough to turn Dawncove to his whim. Zohm often wondered if the Eye, in all its cosmic might, foresaw the events unfolding in its own prison or, if like all the Gods it had risen, was too pig headed and full of itself to think such ruin could be laid upon its creation.
Either way, it all led to the same ending.
A love like he’d never known had taught him a long time ago that this destination was inevitable. Whether the Eye knew of the self proclaimed God of Gods’ plan or not, we were all headed to the same place. It was how we got there that was up to us to decide. Unfortunately for his love, her path ended long ago, slain on the battlefield by the evil hands of minions. Alone and afraid. Crying out his name. Zohm vowed to spend the rest of his life in service of her principles. To strike down the very soul responsible for her demise. Which led him here, to Dawncove, in service of the God of Gods. For only he could show Zohm the path to redemption.
Lightning struck illuminating brief flashes of the massive chamber. Walls stretched to kingdom come. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling, collecting cobwebs. Torn up paintings of a once great God adorned the hall. There was a tabled feast which no one attended to. The warm succulent smell of roasted boar juxtaposed against the rotted interior of the castle halls sent a shiver up Zohm’s spine.
This place was pure evil.
In these brief flashes of light, he became discernible. Situated lavishly in his throne. Everyone heard the stories but none thought them to be true. For what kind of man could withstand the force of space compounded into his body?
But there he sat.
Tall as an oak, as broad as a bull and as much a man as a fish was a reptile. The outline of his body remained but whatever resplendent features he once possessed had been washed away. Replaced with the vastness of space. Comets and asteroids danced around his pecs in confounding arcs meant to dazzle and confuse. He was a living tapestry.
He leaned into the light and the young girl shrieked. His face a beautiful monstrosity. The blackness of space ebbed and flowed through his every pore. Where his eyes should have been were two tiny planetoids that burned blinding orange light with three rings circling around them. They gazed upon the young girl.
Meteorites grouped together in two arcs to create the appearance of lips as Axeus smirked. “You return already. Daona was wise to pass on her gift to you, God of Chaos.”
“I live to serve, Master.” General Zohm bowed before Axeus.
“Is this her?”
General Zohm pushed the translucent being towards Axeus. “Another prophecy at your feet, my lord.”
Axeus rose from his throne approaching the wary young girl. He caressed her cheeks delighted to see the neurons exploding off beneath her skin at the cool touch of his fingers. “The Eye has grown brazen in his weakened state.”
A figure appeared behind the throne that caught Zohm’s eye.
The human.
Another one of Axeus’ Queens, though in name only. She was as much a slave as any other being forced to live in exile with Axeus. But this one had an air about her with a scent that he couldn’t place but was quite familiar. Draped in wolf skins with yellow eyes like a she-beast. She stepped into the light with a flagon of ale, malice in her steps. General Zohm made a note to keep a watchful eye on that one.
“I don’t remember calling for wine.” Axeus said with thunderous doom.
“Relax Axeus. There are but a handful of prophecies left to undo to be shown the way to the Eye of the Universe. Does that not call for celebratory wine?”
General Zohm lifted a cup from the table offering it to the human cupbearer to fill.
“You will refer to his excellency by his proper title. God of Gods.” The cupbearer said.
“Easy my Queen. Zohm is awarded a luxury most individuals will never enjoy.”
General Zohm slugged down the drink in one gulp before tossing the cup away.
“For I can do the one thing other Gods cannot,” General Zohm said, caressing the back of his prize. “To the Time Tombs with this one?”
“No, I have other plans for a creature of this ilk. LATERALUS.”
A frail old Theodin crept in. Hunched over from a century of his spine closing in on itself. His white staff held him upright best it could but the God was on his last legs. The God of Creation suffered much in his last few hundred years and it seemed the hurdle to his last years of power would be fraught with much pain and hardship. Though you’d never know looking the God in the face. He had the eyes of a babe with the determination of a man centuries younger. There was still purpose left in his eyes.
Purpose will keep you alive.
“Lateralus, I have another for you. This is the one we’ve been waiting for so I expect you to know the repercussions should you fail me again.” Axeus said.
“Of course, my lord,” Lateralus ran his spiny hands over the young girl’s face feeling the grooves of her skin. Little pinpricks of electricity nipped at the tips of his fingers. That seemed to please him very much. “She will make a fetching ally, sire.”
Lateralus snapped his fingers and two armored guards stepped into the room. General Zohm relinquished the leash and watched as they led her into the darkness of the catacombs.
“I can feel the Eyes power weakening. Soon there will be no prophecies left for the Eye to hide behind, freeing me from this prison and revealing the path to its station. Soon the whole of the multi-verse will be mine to control.” Axeus boasted.
General Zohm filled up a hearty plate of meats and protein. “And how soon is soon? Not that I don’t enjoy slipping from multi-verse to multi-verse killing chosen ones, it just seems like lately none of them have been worth the trouble.”
“None of them have been a match for your talents. It’s time.”
General Zohm tossed aside his plate. “Truly?”
“Every night I see visions of his victory in the stars. It’s time we end him once and for all.”
General Zohm stepped towards the dais and bent the knee. “I have waited four thousand days for him to show his face again. Speak his location and I will gladly bring you his head.”
The cupbearer winced spilling her vase of wine.
Axeus backhanded her for the infraction.
“The Mason Stone you have searched so brazenly for is still unaccounted. The Mason Stone I wish for you to find is but a boy searching for purpose.” Axeus said.
A door creaked open spilling light into the chamber room. Two demon guards dragged a figure in. He was tall with a green body and a bulbous shaved head who had been beaten within an inch of his life.
“For all of time, the location of the Earth upon which Mason Stone derides from has been a complete mystery known only to a select few, like our friend here. Keepers of Knowledge his species were.” Axeus said.
The guards dropped the poor, downtrodden creature at Zohm’s feet.
“Meet Altruin, the last Echayouan, and the only known living creature who knows which Earth Stone hails from.”
The cupbearer bowed her head.
“You can wipe the memories away but destiny comes for us all,” Axeus said, wiping the tears from her cheek. “Bring me my Queens son.”
— — — — — — — — -
And that’s the prologue. If you a more of an audio book follower then head over to my youtube channel to listen to the podcast!