Gods in the Lianreida - Part 13 of 15

The soldier shook his head.

“No, my lord.”

Tanalir glanced back towards the smoke. The clearing was empty, devoid of anything except the smoke. Shaking his head and hiding his disappointment as best he could, Tanalir rose to his feet and signalled for his men to follow him.

When he had found a space large enough for them to gather, he was able to note the losses they had sustained.

“Saran’s Watch has fallen,” he stated the obvious, and ignored the wryness his words brought to their expressions. They knew the fortress had fallen. “I saw the goddess Fianrei walking in the smoke of the clearing.”

This brought soft snorts of disbelief. Again, he ignored them.

“She was with another. He was accompanied by a many-legged serpent.”

“A … dragon?”

The words were carefully spoken, almost devoid of the mockery they usually brought. Dragons had not been seen in the Lianreida since shortly after the elemental gods had withdrawn their magic from the world. The commander shook his head.

“Not a dragon,” he said, “just a many-legged serpent slightly taller than the one he walked beside.”

“The fortress is gone.” Another speaker, one of his older veterans, repeating the fact with disillusion and disbelief.

“Yes, Sularn, it is gone. We will rebuild it once—” Again the subtle perfume of the goddess reached him. Tanalir stopped, aware his soldiers were no longer paying him any attention. They stared past him at someone else and moving, as though trapped in a dream, sinking slowly to their knees.