After he had calmed down a bit, King Katthike sat brooding in his library, which was crammed with a seemingly confused mixture of books and maps from different corners of the continent. But everything was in its exact order, and for Katthike the books were what he simply called the source of knowledge. They were a window into the head of the other peoples and that is why he went to great lengths to have many of the works he had acquired translated into Askharic. He looked at the rows of spines. Some were unadorned, but some were also embossed or even adorned with golden patterns. He inhaled the smell of parchment and dust. It was here in this inspiring place that he forged his plans and planned his cruelties; Here, many years ago, he had the ambitious idea of creating a memorial for himself, which would raise him above all previous kings of Askhar and make him immortal. His insatiable hunger for power and recognition has long been limited to that of his descendants as well as to his
Just why did he do that?" Katthike looked at his advisor now, and Lata listened up. Now his opinion was asked again."I suppose the white man from Tulga acted on behalf of the oracle.""How do you come to that?""Only the oracle could know that you areholding the Hy warrior prisoner." Katthike remained silent and considered. What did Soghul of Tulga do in wishing Hy's death? What did the highly respected oracle have to do with this matter? And who was this oracle anyway? Nobody knew that exactly. It was only said that Soghul was old as a rock and lived in seclusion with a few faithful novices. And his blind eyes would be the same color as his skin: namely, pure, brilliant white! For this reason, he allegedly lived in a cave, protected from the light of the sun, deep inside the silent mountain of Tulghan, which could be reached via a single steep path known only to his novices. The reputation of the oracle in all the surrounding countries was almost that
The Setna struggled for breath for an answer and uttered the words in a dragging voice:" M-my name is Raeson. Please call me Raeson. I am not worthy of you calling me Setna because I ... I failed! I didn't see it and couldn't protect my people, as it would have been my job! ”Tears ran uncontrollably down his face and his hands began to shake violently again. Sorgha wondered again, concerned, whether the prince would even manage to kill himself. The oracle had prepared him to lend a hand if necessary, but he still dreaded it."Dear Setna, you didn't fail!" He tried to calm Raeson. “Al Nor, the exalted guardian of the future, decides what we should and should not see. Even my great Lord and Master Soghul could not see it. But this time it has been fate itself that has kept the door to the future tightly closed, and against the will of the higher powers even our gods are powerless. But the will of the universe must happen so that other elements can bereborn f
Only two days later the ship entered the port of Salapolis in Graçe. Sorgha disembarked unrecognized and carefully looked around the harbor. The news of the search for a novice from Tulga had probably not got this far. But that reassured him little, because the captors of the King of Askhar could already sit on the next ship that crossed there off the coast! He had to leave Salapolis as soon as possible. Without much detours he went to the cattle market and bought a good horse there. He left the city unobtrusively and headed north. There was a very long way ahead of him, many days of riding. To be on the safe side, he kept a good distance from the border in the east, behind which the New Askhar lay.He rode for two days and nights and only then took a break. In a little wood he changed his clothes again, washed his face and turned back into a white-skinned novice from Tulga. That would bring him more advantages from now on, since the oracle's emissaries had free right
Red was the color of triumph, the blood of the enemy soaked the earth red, and the sky shone red on the evening of battle. Victory was celebrated by the fires, the warriors sang of courage. Afterwards, later in the night, the generals discussed the embers.The great mountains were not easy. It was sharp and toothed: the catch of a wolf. The apron of his rocky dress was gray and insurmountable, and the gullies and ravines for no reason. But in one place it opens its arms invitingly and lets people through, and over its back. A broad pass behind which it opens up, the Hyaun heartland, unprotected like the womb of a virgin.But like mad rats on the threshold of the dungeon, the enemy fought back. He scratched and spat, bit and spat, stubbornly held himself under the shelter of the rocks. Didn't the big, gray wolf finally want to shake these vermin out of its fur?Once again the generals conferred with bright red heads, but the King of the Askharers in his cunning o
The vision seemed to repeat itself. The raven flew and flew. Suddenly the Setna felt that he was being pulled there, and suddenly the eyes of the raven were his own eyes and his wings were his arms. Slowly he slid across the landscape. The cold tips of the Junghal rose from beneath him, and like a thin trickle of blood, Askhar's army wound its way through the deep snow, man behind man. He could see the soldiers in their red armor line up at the foot of the pass, and the warriors of Hys lurking behind their makeshift barricades. The raven, with which the Setna had become one, sank lower, and as it circled between the steep, snow-laden slopes, it accidentally grazed one of the virginally glittering surfaces with its wing tip. At first there was only a small cut in the otherwise untouched, white blanket, but then there was a deep rumble and the cut tore open. After that everything was white. The sky, the air, the earth, everything.The Setna opened its eyes. The meaning of the v
The general spat the bitter taste from his mouth and prevented further thoughts of what was going on in the palace. Everything would change anyway once he returned home triumphant.He raised his gaze to the two peaks that flanked the pass to Hy. Then he turned in the saddle and looked back at a sea of red armor above which a forest of lances protruded. The army was big and strong, and Kasai was confident. He let his gaze wander over the pass one last time, where a black band slowly began to move: the defenders of the pass were in position!"Then let's go," he said quietly to himself, and little clouds rose from his mouth. His splendid, gold-trimmed armor shone in the sun.The day the general deployed his army was made for it by the gods. Knee-deep powder snow, which would make the Hyaun warriors lose the advantage of their speed, and behind the attackers bright sunshine in a prophetically blue sky - as if the deep celestial body were an unearthly ally of the Roy
'The snow!' Was all he understood. 'The snow is alive!' He hastily turned his horse and drove it as fast as he could out of the side of the funnel entrance. Now it was only a matter of saving your own skin! The part of the standard bearers who had stayed with him and the back rows of soldiers followed him in panic. The horses stumbled through the snow-covered scree and some of the riders fell. Behind them, two roaring walls of snow thundered down into the valley like angry monsters, chasing cold fear into the neck of Kasai and burying the confused army of the king among their masses. A white cloud swept up into the blue sky and then slowly descended in a deadly silence.When Kasai felt himself out of danger, he reined in his horse. He too was powdered white from head to toe. Snow stuck to his beard, eyes and ears. Blinking violently, he looked back. Disbelief and anger mingled in a grimace on his face.A heavy slurry of snow and shattered bodies of people and animals c
After the clans, who had fled over the Nori in the deepest snowstorm, were able to return to their homeland in the shadow of the now safe Junghal Mountains, all the chorten in the central country took in refugees from the lost areas on the other side of the mountains, which of course did not improve the situation . How was all the extra people going to get through the winter? Nobody knewwhat to do , and a gloomy, fateful stupor settled over the whole country. The people prayed to Hyaun in silent swoon and tried to feed their little flame of life from the rations that were getting thinner and thinner every day. It was a fight against time. Before the snow melted and the first nutritious green would sprout in the fields and meadows, there were at least two hard months to survive.The warriors who had returned from the border to join their families were in charge of the clan's supplies. The allocation for each individual was also her job. But as meager as the rations wer