Chapter 5 SWEET REVELATION, BITTER REVELATION

Zeranah then placed her other hand on the hands of the man who was essaying a fairly consolatory approach in the persuasion to get the insight into his odious future.

She was consumed with the hunch that Lord Golrus would procure the means of averting the fatal black spots that could befall the islanders through the black arts and thus was no longer unwilling to make him have a suitable listen to the grisly prognostication.

The words that Lord Golrus had only just made seemed to have erased her trepidation, hence she thought that she could trust in him. Lord Golrus was busy lingering on Zeranah's eyes as if the eyes were showing him everything that was in their possessor's spirit.

"I did foresee a vast army that bowed to you. The army was dark and abounded with rebels, zombies, giants and flying beasts," said Zeranah. "You commanded the evil forces, making them destroy many places. Agron abounded with captives and corpses by your deeds. Your desire was supreme power, one that never was on this island. Besides, the army that was under your command was an outcome of extreme sorcery.

"The divinities did not dare to stop you, for you made them see nothing but the vanity of their might beside the magnitude of your despicable ambition. Alas, people died like flies. The cries of panic and grief filled my head-things that are difficult to believe. This prophecy can come true if nothing effective is done to avert the calamities, yet I have doubt about it."

"What on this island could bring such doubt?" Lord Golrus queried.

"How you can become a sorcerer that powerful," Zeranah answered.

Lord Golrus gave a deep sigh and then slowly separated his hands from Zeranah's. Now the maiden's eyes were downcast again, and Zeranah was too woeful to even glance at Lord Golrus' countenance.

As a sibyl, Zeranah had known a lot of portents and pleasant omens, moreover, portents and portents existed, but she had just experienced an unprecedentedly calamitous maelstrom in her spirit.

Lord Golrus arose seemingly reluctantly as though he was sorrowing deeply, hereupon Zeranah heard a snigger from Lord Golrus. She looked at the man's face and noticed that his eyes were gleeful as they were busy staring down at her. Anon Lord Golrus stopped sniggering.

"You did not believe me, did you?" Zeranah breathed. Her eyes readily fell downcast once again, and she was disconsolate. "You still have to do something about it. Do not be used by Arzalon to intensify war against Rezos."

The portent was nought that Lord Golrus had doubted, and he had not taken the prophecy amiss, nor had he e'en mildly misconstrued the uncommon presage as a melodrama; he was about to evince megalomania and show Zeranah that he had been nourishing a craving to reign over the entire island with tyranny and sorcery. He was about to show Zeranah that he would wittingly become a tool in the hands of Arzalon.

"I shall do something about it-what I must do-what I'm craving to do," said Lord Golrus, making his eyes roam the basement room. Before long his eyes rested upon Zeranah. "You seem uninterested in what I desire to do."

"What might that be?" Zeranah asked.

"Your foreknowledge isn't so good!" Lord Golrus jeered.

"I shall not let you mock me for your amusement's sake," Zeranah flared, stiffening her visage.

"Agron shall bow! Every Agronite shall fall down beneath my heel!" Lord Golrus stormed. "I shall take every treasure house and province! This entire island shall fall to me! It will become my empire!"

Lord Golrus had spoken with towering malice and pride. The occult power in his singular malignant words had made the walls, pillars, floor and ceiling quiver awhile sans any damage. Zeranah frowned disgustedly, repressing the premonition of the unpleasantness that was about to begin betwixt her and Lord Golrus.

Since she was the clairvoyant who had apprised him of his future victories and infamy, she was running dejected lest she thought that she had only just become similar to a fiend who had fallen to succouring a sorcerer who was yearning to wreak brutality on his fellow Agronites. She had only just awakened to the sham veracity, realizing that she had just dealt with a very good nobleman.

If Zeranah had known that Lord Golrus was desirous of an achievement that even the greatest powers in Kyrogid could ne'er secure, she would have been unforthcoming about the ill omen. Zeranah had thought that the portent would be a forewarning to Lord Golrus, only to realize that she had seasoned a hearty meal of spite to the delectation of a puckish pillar of carnage and devastation.

It was through good spirits in Saz Draal, regarding necromancy, that the eldritch augury had been shown to her. Here it seemed as though nought could ever be done to avert the disaster, even if her utmost charge was the anticipation of such parlous situations.

As it was, in the depth of her mind, the man who was standing in front of her, and whose voice had supernaturally shaken the huge basement, was not that same man who had sorely required her services as a seer.

She would not have bothered to journey from Darlia to Zedzka, barring her willingness to obviate the occult darkness that lay in the shores of the Zedzkans like quiet toxic winds, if she had supernaturally realized Lord Golrus' baneful aim like a well defined herald that had been worded on a scroll. It was Lord Golrus, a gilded spirit who seemed bounteous, cheerful, courteous and gentle, that had summoned her eagerly.

Zeranah possessed psychic skill set inasmuch as she was a genuine seer. A dexterous and pertinacious resister of creatures that deployed dark magic, she was. She was a maiden who had dedicated herself to celibacy, clairvoyance and the bloody war against lethal detriments.

She was e'en a valorous swordsman whose effort could be vainly ridiculed in the midst of the fray. Much as she possessed preternatural resilience as a creature whose fractures and cuts and such were able to completely disappear in a short time, she was a mortal creature. The lass had only just noticed Lord Golrus' bogus rectitude.

As yet she had dealt with Lord Golrus, a hugely murderous and perfidious wight, for not e'en a bagatelle of his towering venom had shrieked at her before she set forth from Darlia. The nobleman, whom Zeranah had believed was in serious need of succour, was an awfully venomous serpent that was cheek by jowl with one's bare heel.

A patrician with puissance, the potentate over the barracks in Zedzka, commander of a large army, a captain over mariners across the Zedzkan waters, a merchant, a middle-aged man, a pimp over many prostitutes that dwelt in the Zedzkan brothels, a heartily gallant soldier and more besides, Lord Golrus was, moreover, a sorcerer who had inveigled a valiant force of Rezos into journeying from Darlia to Zedzka

Zeranah had not expected that she would have a deal with an exemplar of the foulest power. It was Lord Golrus' snigger, elation and black utterances that had enabled her to detect that Lord Golrus was overly cold-hearted and unmannerly, and the shaking movement of the basement had made her believe that Lord Golrus was supernaturally out of the ordinary.