Chapter 308 - The Divided God part 2

I crossed the mountains through the southern passage, the same route the God King's forces had taken when they attacked us during the night. Those forces had overrun our outpost, killing every man there, but there was little sign of the battle that had taken place only hours before. The tents the guards had slept in still stood. The coals of their campfire were still warm. The grass was trampled, and I saw a few stray arrows imbedded in the earth, but those were the only signs that men had battled in this place, had given their lives for the sake of my cause. If their bodies remained intact after they perished, if they hadn't fallen to dust, consumed by the living blood inside them, then someone had come and taken them away. It was only right. It was respectful. It made me proud of the men and women I had allied myself with.

"Look after them in the Ghost World, fathers," I prayed quickly to my ancestors, and then I moved on.

Even traveling at top speed, it would take days to journey to Fen'Dagher. By nightfall I was clear of the mountains and hurrying across the vast steppes of the God King's Eastern Dominions.

The air was brisk-- cold actually-- but it felt pleasant to me. It felt pure and invigorating. I only wished the moon were brighter. It was but a dim and ruddy sliver riding low over the horizon.

I could see well enough, but there was no beauty in this nighted world. Moonshine can transform the dreariest of settings, especially to the keen eyesight of a vampire, glinting on the frost, limning the edges of the leaves and grass, shimmering on every body of water, but moonlight was in short supply that night. My journey would be a dark one, but that seemed fitting, too.

It was not long after nightfall when I felt Zenzele's Eye pass over me.

It was silent and invisible, yet I had a sense of it as if it were a fleeting shadow. I paused when I landed on the ground, and turned back in the direction of the Urals. There was no use in hiding from it, hiding from her, even if I could. I only hoped that I could send an impression back to her: that I was resolute, and that I did not wish for her to follow me.

I waited for the Eye to return, and when it did, when it passed again and then focused suddenly upon me, I thrust out my chin and concentrated on my thoughts.

I am sorry, my love, I said to her in my mind. Do not try to stop me. I do this because I must.

I felt a flush of warmth, and it seemed for a moment I could smell her skin, feel her fingers trace lightly over my face, a thing she sometimes did when we were making love, and then the Eye, and her presence, was gone, as if I had only imagined it.

She will come, I thought.

I turned and raced on.