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The Tower That Eats the Jungle
Tomes of Amaxathroth > Ink, Blood and Parchment |
Far beyond the tortures of sweltering Kresh, deeper into poisonous jungles that bear no one name, the four-tusked rathusk push down mighty trees to eat great blue worms that coil about the roots. When a rathusk's eyes burn orange, it will trample a man to pulp and blood upon the rotting vines, will run him down, will pull down the tree he climbs - unless that man makes the sign of three crossed branches. This ward is engraved upon an ancient temple of a past aeon, that stands broken upon a jungle hillside; it terrifies the great beasts, whose thick hide is otherwise proof to any curse or spear.
I have seen this ward twice more in all the ages. The once was upon a scorched and stolen tablet made by scribes of Lem, who print clay with sorcerous sigils as fast as any man might, lest they displease the grim, whispering demons who dig claws into their shoulders. The twice was upon The Tower That Eats the Jungle, an edifice to cast fear into the hearts of scarified MarMar hunters.
The MarMar look like other men of the great jungle, but are ants in thrall to their queens, the dark-skinned witches who chant and sing within huts forbidden to their men-slaves. They dance in circles about mud shaped to resemble The Tower and worship it as a God; the MarMar men crawl and shudder in fear before any witch's hut that contains such a hidden semblance.
I charmed the lithe witch Nukarum with a sorcery from the slave markets of Abekabar while she bathed alone beneath a waterfall. For ten crystal strands taken from the roots of far-off humra trees, she led me far through the vines and trees, to a cliff whereby I might see The Tower That Eats the Jungle. It stands within a great sinkhole floored by sands blown into desert dunes; nothing lives within, and even the crawling jungle vines wither upon the sinkhole cliffs. The Tower's black stone facade is broken by white signs, and the stench of demons carries upwards upon the wind.
I watched the Tower whilst Nakarum prostrated herself, but only the sands moved.
[ Posted by Reason on October 29, 2006 ]
