The Ghosts of Herak Part 6

She stood there staring at us and then with a flick of her finger, the whole scene changed. The road was a sparkling silver stream that seemed to end into an opening that glittered like gold. From inside the cave flickered tongues of fire seeming to lick the opening like a hungry monster.

Desire stood there and bowed.

“Behold Orcus domain!”

“You lie!” Ameria snarled, “We were told that he lived a day walk to the north. It is not a day yet!”

Desire laughed her brittle laughter.

“Orcus is a god. He can be anywhere he wants to. As long as the ground is there, Hades too lives. Underneath the sod…” she said.

We looked at one another, puzzled, angry, frustrated and not trusting the dark woman, with fiery beauty.

The Guardian didn’t seem to react much, and I was glad and respected him for that. Three shivering women sufficed.

Even though we didn’t trust the woman Desire, we followed her as she led us towards the burning cave. We didn’t know what to expect, but we naively believed that we were strong enough to encounter the high priest of Romulus…Orcus, also a god, the punisher of broken oath.

We had expected the cave to be extremely hot, with the fire flickering on its sides. However, it was not as hot as we thought. In fact it was just comfortably warm.
We stood there looking around us curiously.

“What did you bring home this time, Desire?” a gentle voice sounded before us and we stared at a tall figure in a white robe. He was middle aged, very good looking and wore a smile on his handsome face.

“Strays, My Lord,” Desire laughed, caressing Pandora’s shoulder. I pulled my sister away from her, glaring at her at the same time.

“You are Orcus?” I asked as boldly as I could.

He laughed gently.

“Yes, child I am Orcus. Why do you seek me?” he asked.

I told him about our village and how the minions of Remus had descended on it. I told him that we forgot the ceremony of the black beans, as told by our grandmother.
He looked at us contemplatively, his hand caressing his clean shaven chin.

“ I don’t understand, what is so important about the beans? They are hardly worth sending ghosts and monsters for,” Pandora opined, looking at Orcus and then at me.

Orcus stared at her. He no longer looked friendly. His eyes seemed to burn with a strange fire. He pointed at the door.

“That is what the black beans are for,” he said.

We looked towards the door and gasped for we saw that it was a road again and not a silver stream. We saw beans falling on the road and instantly turned into caped men on black horses.

“They are my soldiers, my legions. What is given against Remus, becomes mine, to use them as I see fit. Your village has forgotten, and thus they are paying for it, for they did not contribute and thus I have no nocturnal soldiers to send and defeat the minions before they reach the portal to the offending village,” he said.

“Can you help us?”

“We can but with a price,” he said.

“Price? What is your price? We must save our village from the marauding ghosts and spectres at once.  We don’t know if they have already started to attack or destroyed our
village!” I yelled.

“Ahhh…so you agree!” he laughed, a long harsh laughter that grated in our ears. He began to change then, filling us with terror. We cringed together in utmost horror at what transpired before us.

To be continued…..