Five hexes south, one southwest of Alakran.
She does not stand, does not bestride. She is not enthroned or crowned, holds no scepter or orb. She kneels, carved into the north face of this yellow outcrop at the northwestern corner of Zigmunus. Thirty feet tall even kneeling, she yet blends in so well that only from a few miles away, in the shimmering haze of the sand-blown desert, can she be clearly discerned as a human figure.
No inscriptions clarify her mystery. She is carved wearing the linen wrap of the simplest peasant mother. Her arms rest on her thighs, palms upward, ready to receive. Behind her a narrow but climbable path mounts upward, and when finally ascended after two miles or so, gives a breathtaking view of the rolling green scenery beyond, for the virtuous women who deserve Zigmunus. But surely any human male who ascends will suffer some terrible fate; that is the nature of the place. And surely the statue has been so enchanted to come to colossal life if an army should threaten the realm beyond; for in the Pod Caverns and in Nathrak, in the Tombs of the Serpent and in far- off Shasari's great temple, have not the magics of old been profusely deployed to bring artfully carved stone to the life it strives to depict?
No comments:
Post a Comment