WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0124 0124
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the king saw Rasham protecting his two worst enemies,
he met his brother with blade and hatred. The Many
Hands and the king’s honor guards formed a circle
amid Chatoon’s ruins, and the two brothers did battle
at its heart. All watched the melee from many perches as
the more experienced warrior cut loose with unblinking rage. In an instant, King Urias blackened his soul by
putting his sword through his brother’s chest.
Legends say that Dalia’s eerie, mournful scream drew the
temple’s lingering spirits to add their ethereal voices to
hers. Dalia’s Wail halted all surrounding battles immediately and its echoes carried away the spirit of her now-dead
love. King Urias wept, ashamed yet still enraged. As his silent army watched, he gouged his brother’s heart free from
his chest and marched into the temple. He met wide-eyed
Dalia on its steps, offered her that fistful of dripping flesh,
and said, “You wanted his heart. Hold it now before I send
you and your fiendish mother to the Abyss!”
Myths claim the Priestess Radana embraced King
Urias and impaled herself on his sword. A dark purple
flame consumed both quickly, leaving only ashes on the
temple steps. Dalia fell to her knees and screamed, this
one more deafening than the first, still enjoined with
the temple spirits. Dalia’s Scream threw back the nearby
soldiers, cracked the Temple’s foundation, and leveled
many remaining city walls. A hellish storm brewed in
minutes, its lightning cracking still more of Chatoon’s
stones. Terrified, all survivors fled, Patnuans and Chatoonians alike cursing Dalia as a foul witch. The half-ruined city fell to abandon save for the lone Dalia, now inexorably transformed, weeping beside Prince Rasham’s
heartless corpse.
The creature that was Dalia searched for her lover’s
heart for years, decades, centuries, but it was nowhere to
be found. Dalia delved deep into dark arts as a powerful
sorceress and adopted the form of a massive dragon, taking the new name of Shagnathrix. Under her direction,
Chatoon was rebuilt, more powerful than ever but tinged
with darkness. She created the Black Knights of Chatoon,
a new order of warriors, slavers, assassins, and military
minds (like her father) loyal only to her.
To this day, Shagnathrix obsessively seeks Rasham’s
missing heart and a means to resurrect him just as he was
when they parted. Over the centuries, she has discovered
three things critical to that all-consuming quest:
• First, she learned one of the Many Hands took Rasham’s
heart away from Chatoon and hid it in the savannah lands
for years. It was lost for a time before it came into the possession of Tharcluun, a Dragon King of the Red Peaks. He
and his entire fortress have apparently disappeared from
the face of Khitus, though mountain men swear it occasionally reappears in Sisklas Pass for brief periods.
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• Second, a commoners’ prophecy says a child will
one day be born bearing Rasham’s heart. The child
will bear a strong resemblance to Prince Rasham
when he comes of age. That child’s heart suffices
for her purposes, so Shagnathrix’s Black Knights
vigilantly scour Khitus for that man. Many such
have been dragged to her dungeons over the years,
never to be seen again.
• Third, Shagnathrix has researched an apparently
infallible spell that she believes will revive her lover
Rasham in perfect form. It requires his still-missing
heart and a large, pure quantity of the rare metal
ganshyer. She must forge a sarcophagus, any imperfection in which will foul the sorcery. She cannot
smelt alloyed steel-and-ganshyer items (which grant
weapons and items immunity to the iron virus) for her
purposes. Instead, she and her loyalists trawl Khitus,
searching for pure ganshyer deposits. They know the
best source of it is the Megha Stone, a meteor of pure
ganshyer, but it lies deep inside the Krikish Hivelands,
staunchly guarded by their powerful priests.
Her Doomed Offspring
Dalia bore King Urias three children in nine years.
Gadam, their first-born, immediately became the king’s
pride and joy. He spoiled the boy, dressed him in royal
garb, and let him sit by his side at all state functions.
But he suffered a tragic accident at age eight and an
unruly trisaur trampled him while he played in his father’s heavy chariot. King Urias was devastated and had
the trisaur and Gadam’s minders slain before initiating
a month-long period of mourning.
Gadam’s death drove a wedge between the king and
his wife, which widened as rumors whispered throughout the realm of her affair with his brother Rasham.
Urias closed his heart from Dalia and their twin daughters, Vana and Tedra, whom he now presumed were not
his children anyway. The king withdrew, displaying his
animosity openly toward all, his wife most often. In his
darkest moment, he ordered his court wizards to test
the queen’s loyalties and the truth of the rumors. After
learning of her infidelities, Urias drank himself into a
stupor, remaining so for days before storming into his
daughters’ nursery, scattering maids in his rage. Before
anyone could be summoned to calm the monarch, the
deed was done. Their mother arrived to find the girls’
skulls smashed, the gore still fresh on King Urias’s hands
as he lay passed out on the floor. Dalia never held her
daughters again, the king’s soldiers arresting her immediately and dragging her screaming from their rooms.
