Hail to the Queen (Sage Trilogy, Book 3) by Julius St. Clair Page A

me. Every time I tried talking about it, my words would gain a life of their own and I began to mumble nonsense. It just got worse over the past few years and once that creature arrived, I completely lost my mind.”
    “You have Catherine to thank,” Nadia replied. “She’s the one tha t healed you, with the stone of Allay.”
    “Allay?” Lex said in awe. “After our history together, you would come to Quietus? And heal a stranger like me?”
    “Lex, please,” Catherine said. “Tell us more.”
    “Well, I was with a group of young warriors who decided to go against reason and throw away their lives by traveling to Zen-echelon. It’s only the young that take on such a foolish challenge. But I had grown weary of the village life and I needed some excitement , so…I decided to be a guide of sorts. From bits of information thrown around the Kingdom here and there, we have a general sense of where Zen-echelon is located. Especially since all who attempt to uncover its secrets announce where their headed so should they return, they will receive all the glory and prestige…anyways, I was ready to die as a Quietus should. Getting past the Prattlian patrols were simple enough as we headed northwest, past the swamps and the volcanoes, past the rocky terrain known as THE END. As impressive as some of the indigenous creatures we encountered were, we were no match for them. And so we traveled, and traveled, thinking that soon there would be no more land left, until…we reached it.
    “It wasn’t the kingdom of legend I expected. It didn’t sit atop a n unclimbable mountain. It wasn’t engulfed in a shield of fog. It wasn’t surrounded by monsters taken from the depths of our nightmares. It was just…there. Just a castle or a big house, if you will, simply looking worn and unkept, sitting on the edge of a cliff and staring out over the ocean. I didn’t know what to make of it at first, and to be honest, I was still trying to decide whether it was Zen-echelon or not, but I couldn’t deny the feeling it was giving me: Fear. Now don’t misunderstand me, Princess. I see the skeptical look in your eyes. I see your thoughts playing with distant memories of fear like you actually know what it is. Like you’ve been friends all this time, indulging every little secret about yourselves. No, you have not felt what I have. As a Quietus, we pride ourselves on being fearless, but this…I could not deny. It felt like I was standing before a god…now, I don’t believe in the Maker, but I imagine if he did exist, it would feel very close to what I experienced that day. There are few words that can describe it. It’s like you’re a newborn infant with the awareness of an adult. All you can do is lay there in your own filth and cry, hoping someone will come to save you from your horrible ordeal.
    “There were eight of us in the beginning. As soon as we arrived, one ran away, headed home. The shock of seeing a Quietus running from something made us all nervous, and we remained frozen in fear. I’m thankful I did, because he only made it a few yards when the dirt reached up, in the shape of a claw with teeth, and crashed down on him. He died instantly, and his remains ran along the outline of the dirt-claw freely as it sank back to whence it came. Only a puddle of entrails remained where he once stood. The others lost their mind and began running. I watched as they all died in different manners. One just disintegrated. One was shredded by a swarm of small thorns that flew at him from a passing breeze. Another was decapitated by an invisible force. It was…horrible. I’m not ashamed to say that I defecated on myself. And I do not say this to be vulgar. I just want to tell you, Princess, that if you are contemplating going there, you mustn’t. There is nothing but death.”
    “You survived,” Catherine stated. “Perhaps I will too.”
    “No,” he shook his head. “No, I was allowed to live. When I became the last, a voice