Caldera

By Tom Dillon

Caden gave the best years of his life serving in the Kalmarian Dragoons only to return home to find his wife dead of the plague. Offered a chance to see her one last time by the god Arkos, he traveled to the far end of the continent only to find that he was being asked to lead a war of extermination. When he refused, he was cast aside and left to die. Now he has come to confront the god once more.

Caldera received an honorable mention in the Writers of the Future Contest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tom Dillon
• Release date: Jul 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301287321

Tom Dillon

Tom Dillon lives in Olympia, Washington with his awesome wife and an assortment of cats, ducks, and dogs. When he isn’t busy writing or reading, you can find him riding his bike, working wood, or rock climbing.

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Caldera

by Tom Dillon

Copyright 2013 Tom Dillon

Smashwords Edition

Discover other stories by Tom Dillon at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/pawnstorm

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1 - Crest Island

Caden felt his age in his legs as he climbed the steps carved into the vertical sides of Crest Island. Twenty years prior he would have ran up the steps, and the awareness of his spent youth rekindled the doubts that had been smoldering since the beginning of his quest.

The essence of swordsmanship is composure, he muttered to himself, between breaths. The fight sometimes went to the strongest, fastest, or toughest, but it almost always went to the one who didn‘t flinch. It was the first thing he had told recruits during training, and it was something that he shouldn‘t have needed to hear again, but the words reminded him that he had a chance, so long as he kept his composure.

The place had lost its glamour since he had made the journey three years past. The steps were now mere steps, carved into the granite walls of the island, and the mist that shrouded the barnacle-like town below was no more meaningful than steam from a kettle. Arkos, who he had once believed to be a god, was in fact a man. The true magic of his last visit had been hope, hope to make peace with his wife who had died while he was away on campaign, hope that had been met only by betrayal. This time his only companions were determination and its tools: a sword that had cost a hundred men their lives to forge and could cut through stone, gauntlets could grasp the sun, and a ring that showed the truth of what was rather than what others desired it to be.

After his last encounter, Caden had ended up at the far side of the world. It had taken him three years to walk and sail back. The thousands of steps that led to the Sanctuary of Arkos wore on him, and as he climbed a certainty grew in him: he would succeed or die. If he failed, he didn't know what waited for him. If Arkos wasn't a god, then who was to say that the other religions were any more valid. He continued on, step after step. It would be better to die in uncertainty than to live in falsehood.

At the end of the steps, the top of Crest Island was completely flat, as though it been sliced off by a giant. The rock had been polished smooth and was inlaid with green stone in the shape of a compass rose. Although there was no roof or walls, the wind did not enter and the rain did not fall. Arkos may have been just a man, but he was also more than that, he had absorbed so much power that no enclosed space could contain his swollen essence.

In the middle of the floor was Arkos, white and still as marble. If Caden didn't know better he might have thought that he was looking at a statue, but in his time walking the world he had learned that Arkos now used his body as a mere anchor. There was no saying where his spirit or mind was at any given