BwA: Chapter 7 - Zandria the Cruel

We set out East. I'm not sure as to the reason why. Only one village is east of Breckinridge and beyond them is the desert. No one dares go near the village for fear of enslavement or worse. For this reason Her reach is increasing. Soon She may swallow all of Kostya if given enough time. –From the journal of Severah ajal Binoch.

There had never been a road to Xandria's oasis. The road ended when the grass became cracked earth and eventually sand. The sandstorms covered any tracks left behind from her horses. To find her oasis, you had to have been there before. When the road from Breckinridge forked north and south, Zazael on his black mount of shadow and heavy cloth continued off the road, due east. Xandria had been given a horse of her own, it wasn't much, only a few horses had survived the undead attack. Xandria's old gray nag was probably too stubborn or too tough to have been eaten by the undead. Severah trailed behind them on a brown burro that was well behaved and from Xandria's understanding had belonged to Severah since birth.

Southern Kostya was rolling plains patterned with forests, deep south became a swamp, north became mountains, west was the Glades river that marked the border between great Adroitaca and smaller Kostya. Zazael seemed to have found a beaten path that went in their direction and they followed it east.

Sitting for a meal of apples, bread and wine so watered down that Xandria couldn't taste the wine anymore, she was certain it had only been added to the water for color, a dust cloud rose to the west. She could feel hoofbeats through the smooth stone she sat upon. Severah removed a spyglass from her burro's pack and gazed through it a moment before handing it to Xandria.

"It's a company of the Holy Order," Severah said as Xandria was able to see the white banners and their golden suns upon them. "Why would they be coming in our direction?"

"Zazael?" Xandria asked. She wasn't sure what she was feeling in the pit of her stomach, was she worried that the Holy Order might think Zazael one of them? Would they recognize him as the angel he was? Or were they coming for her? "Zazael?" Xandria lowered the spyglass. Zazael had sat and ate with them.

"Where is Zazael?" Severah asked, looking around. Zazael and his horse were gone. Xandria handed the spyglass to Severah and placed her hand on the hilt of Zazael's sword. "They are the Holy Order. What will you do?"

"I don't know, I doubt any of them are old enough to know who I am," Xandria answered. "I will fight them if I have to. If it comes to battle, run away."

"No."

"Dammit girl, do as I say!" Xandria snapped at her. Severah jumped at her tone. The riders slowed to a stop before the women. The company was perhaps a dozen men in all. They wore armor looking similar to Zazael's, but they were human, with faces, unshaven, dirty, sweaty, but not angels. Their armor was dented, chinked, cracked, worn, made of steel. They did not carry the angel swords like the one Xandria wore.

"Greetings," spoke the lead rider, he had a bit of blue to his armor that the others lacked. He was an older man, in his forties, gray had begun to sprout from his temples and his whiskers were nearly already white. "Are you lost? We can lead you back to the road. There is only a settlement between here and the desert and you do not want to be at either place."

"A settlement?" Xandria asked, almost daring herself to hope. "An oasis?"

"Nay, just a passel of miners who discovered silver in the hills over there," the lead rider pointed.

"We are headed to the settlement, to look for husbands," Xandria could not believe the words that were coming out of her mouth.

"The settlement is no place for a lady," the lead rider said and his gaze dropped to the sword on Xandria's hip. Xandria saw recognition in his face. "Come with us, we'll protect you. My name is Captain Qarrion."

"Fylfawen," Xandria held out her hand, not sure why she'd used her given name. She'd stopped being Fylfawen when her family had been taken away. The captain leaned down and raised her hand to his lips. Xandria felt uncomfortable at the gesture. "My companion, Severah." She said pulling her hand from the Captain's..

Within moments they had mounted their horses, Xandria's looking rather sad and thin next to the well fed stocky mounts of the paladins. The women rode behind Captain Qarrion surrounded by the paladins on all sides. Most of Zazael's men were young, under thirty.

"Excuse me, Captain, why are you going to this settlement?" Xandria asked moving her mare to ride even with the captain.

"Do you not know? The settlement is as close to Zandria as any have dared to live in the past 20 years. The prospect of getting rich is all that keeps those fool miners from leaving. We've been sent to protect them."

"Xandria?" She asked. "I've never heard of Xandria." The Captain gave her an incredulous stare.

"Are you from a convent?" He asked.

"No, we're from Adroitaca," Xandria ventured cautiously.

"I suppose that does explain your accent, you talk like my granny, and she was from there."

"Tell me about Xandria." She then tacked on, "Please."

"It's a city in the desert. No more than a hell hole populated by the scum of the land. Their leader is a woman named Zandria, calls herself queen and has proclaimed her city to be a sovereign nation apart from Kostya."

"And the Crown does nothing?"

"The Crown and the Holy Order have tried to eradicate her. About 40 years ago the Holy Order captured and imprisoned Xandria, or so they thought. Some years later Zandria returned, she's some sort of necromancer. We've left her alone because we tried to fight her demon army and we've lost. I'm surprised you've not heard of this."

"I've lived a sheltered life." Zazael nodded and reached into the saddlebag of his horse, rummaged a moment and held a folded piece of parchment out to her. Xandria unrolled it. It was a WANTED poster for Zandria the Cruel. The drawing of the woman had Xandria's nose and mouth correct but the eyes and forehead were all wrong. The woman on the poster could've been Xandria's daughter or sister. Xandria suddenly thought of Penelope, of course Penelope would be almost seventy if she was still alive. This person in the poster had to be Penelope's granddaughter.

“She does look a lot like you?" Zazael asked.

"Random coincidence?"

"We shall see."