by Ramy Vance
Stew shook his head and leaned against Sandy’s back. “No, we usually just clock out for the night.” He yawned.
Sandy leaned over and kissed Stew’s cheek before tucking her amulet beneath her shirt. “We’ve never been this close to anyone before, though. I mean, I guess we could have been ambushed. I never really thought too much about it.”
José stoked the flames of the fire, the yellow light brightening his eyes. “That’s something you might want to get in the habit of thinking about. That’s how people end up dead. First shift will be Diana and Sandy. Second, Chip and Stew. Suzuki and I will close it out. How does that sound?”
There were no disagreements.
Suzuki thought to thank José for giving him two shifts to sleep but decided not to. He didn’t want it to seem like he thought José was playing favorites. although he was excited that José had picked him for the overnight shift. The inner fanboy within Suzuki hadn’t died. He was still going to get to spend the night talking with someone he respected and looked up to.
Suzuki retired to his tent and watched Diana and Sandy set themselves up for the night. He wanted to sit and talk with them for a bit, but he was overwhelmed with how tired he had gotten all of a sudden. Instead, he nestled into his sleeping bag and pulled out a book that he had bought in an elvish shop on an errand to persuade José to help out with their current mission. At the time, he had thought the idea was stupid, but here he was with José and the rest of the Horsemen, curling up to read an enchanted book.
Despite his pessimism, even Suzuki had to admit that some things were working out well.
The pages of the book were empty. Suzuki heard a voice, warm and inviting, bubble up from the pages and spread through his mind. What kind of story do you want to hear tonight? the voice asked.
Something light. Maybe a bedtime story. Something like that, Suzuki thought.
The pages of the book started to fill with images, slowly tracing themselves over the worn and yellowed pages. Suzuki saw the outlines of a massive dragon and an eagle, both intertwined with each other as the pages filled up with color. Suzuki heard the tale of the dragon wooed by the eagle and how they had met riding the summer winds over the Floating Palaces of the Pure Elves. How time had stood still when they were next to each other and how they could think of nothing else than each other when they were falling from the sky, their wings held close to their bodies, death rushing toward them, yet so quickly averted.
Suzuki tried to pay close attention, but something about the voice of the storybook was lulling him to sleep. He drifted off before he realized he was sleeping.
Suzuki’s dreams were black.
If he had been awake, he would have said they were nightmarish. He found himself in a hole, and he didn’t know how he had gotten there. Someone was screaming for help. He wanted to go to help, but he couldn’t find the way out. His fingers scratched at the soft dirt of his prison.
After a while, he realized that he was the one screaming.
Above, there was a large light that was not the sun.
It had the texture of a lightbulb, something large and glassy. Suzuki reached for it, and he felt himself floating upward. If only he could touch the light…
He felt its warmth and knew that he wanted to be within it, to become one with the light.
The light was just out of his grasp. Suzuki could feel his arms straining to get to its glow. If only he could get a little closer. Then he heard the voice. Someone was calling to him. He wanted to look and see who it was, but he felt that if he looked away from the light, it would disappear. He would never get close enough to it. Maybe it was worth ignoring the voice calling to him if he could just get his hands on that light.
Then it was all gone.
Suzuki could feel himself being shaken awake, the dream fading as he tried to grasp it. The light was gone. He had been so close, but now it was gone. Anger bubbled up in Suzuki’s chest, and his throat tightened. Whoever pulled him away from that light was going to pay. He was going to drive his ax through the interferer and go back to sleep.
Suzuki grabbed his ax and raised it as he stood, not caring who it was. He was going to bring the ax down as hard as he could and then go back to sleep. Nothing sounded as good as sleeping right now. It felt like he hadn’t slept a day in his life.
He’d just kill the intruder and go back to sleep.
A hand touched Suzuki’s shoulder.
Suzuki batted his eyes, trying to make sense of the world around him. Everything was out of focus. He couldn’t make sense of where he was. The world was a collection of blurs and shapes that held no meaning. Then he heard a voice, soft and confused. “It’s me, Suzy…what are you doing?”
Reality snapped back into focus.
Suzuki was standing over Sandy and Stew. He was in their tent. His ax was raised above his head and Sandy was staring at him. “I…I don’t know,” he muttered.
Sandy grasped her amulet and her body exploded in a flash of ash. Suzuki felt a strong gust of wind as he was blown out of the tent, Sandy’s body swarming around his as he hit the ground with a heavy thud.
Sandy’s spectral body reformed and she was holding her wand, pointing it at Suzuki’s head.
Suzuki threw down his ax and stood up, his hands raised. “Wait, hold on,” he said. “Hold on! I don’t know what I was doing in there.”
“Were you dreaming?” Sandy asked.
Suzuki shook his head. “I mean, I was asleep. The last thing I remember is falling asleep.”
Sandy lowered her wand and looked around the camp. “I was having fucked-up dreams, and I woke up,” she whispered. “I dreamed I killed you and everyone else in the camp. When I woke up, I was on top of Stew.” Sandy stopped when she saw Suzuki’s eyebrows raised. “Not like that,” she said. “I had his sword in my hand.”
“What the fuck is going on?”
Sandy pursed her lips as she considered his question. “It’s got to be the necromancer. He’s fucking with our dreams. A curse, maybe. Sleeping is pretty close to being dead. Anyway, he’s still around here somewhere.”
Suzuki looked around. The campfire had gone out. No one was on watch.
“Who's supposed to be out here right now?” he asked.
“Should be Chip and Stew, but Stew’s in there, so you and José?”
“Check the tents. Be quiet.”
Suzuki and Sandy went to Diana’s and Chip’s tents. They were both sleeping soundly. Then they walked over to José’s and peeled back the opening. José was inside. He was sweating as he twisted and turned in his sleeping bag. His hand was wrapped tightly around his sword.
Sandy closed the opening of the tent as she said, “That’s not a normal way to be sleeping. We should wake him up.”
Suzuki shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Remember what happened when you were awakened? And we know each other pretty well. What if he flips out when we wake him up? You’ve seen that guy in a fight. He could probably kill both of us before we even touched him.”
“So what the hell are we going to do? Are we on guard duty now?” Sandy asked.
Suzuki considered this. “Guard duty isn’t enough. Even if we’re out here, that necromancer is probably in their dreams, fucking things up. We gotta find him and take care of this shit.”
“How are we going to find him? He fucking vanished. What about Clairvoyance?” Sandy asked.
“I don’t know where he’s at. I can’t just pick a place randomly and hope it’s him.”
“We can spell-split,” Sandy said.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The upgrade I got. I can cast two spells together, interweaving them so they work like one. You can cast Find Your Target and Clairvoyance through me, then we can rip out the fucker’s heart and get a good night’s sleep.”
“I can cast spells through you?” Suzuki asked.
Sandy nodded. “Sort of. It’s still our familiars doing all the heavy lifting, but it
’ll work. I’ve been practicing it with Stew.”
Suzuki gave her a wry smile. “So that’s what you two have been up to all night.”
Ignoring this, she said, “All right, give me your hands.”
Suzuki took Sandy’s skeletal hands. They were cold. “What does it feel like?” he asked.
“At first, it was like I was coming apart at the seams, until I got used to it. Now I feel okay. Still a little…unsure at times, but there’s so much magic. I can feel it all around me. I guess this is why humans forgot how to use it. The whole experience has been…eye-opening. I don’t know how the other races deal with it, feeling this much magic in the world.”
“Maybe humans would be different if they did too. Maybe Earth would be different.”
“Yeah. Maybe. Come on, let’s finish up this spell.”
Suzuki shut his eyes and focused on the two spells. He was surprised at how difficult it was to concentrate on two different spells at once. It was like trying to sing two songs at the same time. He felt them jumbling together and almost spilling out of his mouth. Then the world around him went dark.
Once everything came back into focus, Suzuki saw that he was crouched in a tree. Sandy was still beside him, holding one of his hands. Straight ahead was the necromancer, crouched in another tree. His eyes were dull and glazed over, and a red aura was permeating the air around him. He was chanting softly in his sleep.
“Can you see us?” Sandy asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Where the camp is? Can you make anything out from here?”
Suzuki scanned beneath the trees. He could see a faint light, that of a campfire. “Yeah, I got it,” he whispered.
“Cool. Point me in the right direction when we get back. Unless you think you can hit him.”
“I could try to ax him. But if you can, like for sure, go for it.”
“I can. Let’s do it.”
Suzuki broke the illusion and they were both back in the clearing. He quickly got his bearings and pointed in the direction that he believed the necromancer to be. Sandy raised her wand and whipped it forward and then back as if she were casting a fishing line. A rush of wind went through the trees. It was powerful enough to knock Suzuki a little off-balance.
A body came flying out of the tree. It was the necromancer. He landed face-down in front of Sandy and Suzuki. Before Suzuki could say anything, Sandy waved her wand with vicious efficiency.
The necromancer’s neck burst open, spraying blood over Sandy’s mask. His head fell to the ground, and Sandy scooped it up. She stared into his eyes.
“Sweet,” she murmured. “Diana will know what to do with this.”
“Other than put it in the ground?”
“Nah, Suzy. Knowledge is in the brain. Gotta get the brains to get the knowledge.”
Sandy conjured a piece of string and wrapped it around the necromancer’s hair. She hung the head from her waist and pulled her amulet out of her chest. Muscle, tendon, and then flesh sprouted over her bone. Finally, hair forced itself out of her scalp. The sight was gruesome, to say the least. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to that.” Suzuki winced.
“Same here.” Sandy laughed. “The hair growing feels really weird. We should probably burn the body. Waking up to a dead orc in the middle of the camp is a little morbid even for me.”
Sandy rolled the necromancer’s body over. “What the fuck is that?” she asked as she knelt.
Something large and silver had been implanted into the orc’s neck. At first glance, it looked like a metal plate, but when Suzuki took a closer look, he could see that it was electronic in nature. It looked almost like a small CPU chip. The chip had been severed by the cut that Sandy had made.
Suzuki ran his finger over the chip. It was definitely technology. Nothing magical about it. “I don’t know,” Suzuki admitted. “A microchip.”
“What the hell would an orc be doing with a microchip?”
“I don’t know. Chip was telling me that the military used to do experiments with magic and technology. Maybe the Dark One is up to the same thing. Using tech to make the troops stronger. Something like that.”
“Maybe. Whatever it is, we’ll have to figure it out eventually. Come on, let’s get some sleep. We’re going to have to be up in a bit.”
“Actually, technically, I’m supposed to be up right now. You know, guard duty and shit?” Suzuki said.
“Suit yourself. I’m going to get some more sleep. And Suzy, thanks for not killing me in my sleep.”
Suzuki shrugged. “I can’t wait until we never have to say anything like that again.”
“Really? I think it’s keeping life spicy. I’ll make sure to leave the part about us holding hands out of the story when I tell Stew.”
“Why, would he get jealous about something that stupid?”
“Maybe jealous isn’t quite the word,” Sandy said with a wink. “Also, maybe let’s just keep the whole thing between us. No one really needs to know that they almost got killed in their sleep. ‘Sides, it’s nice to have our own adventures every once in a while. Guess it’s a good reminder that the Mundanes are able to take care of themselves. We can just tell ‘em we found the asshole and took care of it.”
Suzuki groaned as he sat down near the fire. The orc’s body was still next to the flames. Suzuki absentmindedly picked at the microchip implanted in the orc’s neck. Things just keep getting weirder and weirder, he thought.
Chapter Eight
Suzuki was still awake when the rest of the MERCs got out of bed. They washed the sleep from their eyes, had a brief breakfast, and started planning what was to come next. Chip and Diana reiterated what they had found from scouting the night before – the first ridge of the Dark One’s forces was not too far off, that it would be less than a two hours ride, and there were no other sentries along the way.
Suzuki and Sandy didn’t bother mentioning anything that had happened the night before even though the necromancer’s head hung from Sandy’s waist.
José stood and cleared his throat as he looked past the clearing. “So, we know how far we are,” he began. “We know where we’re going. But the how is obviously missing. There are way too many of these fuckers to be able to sneak past. It might have been possible with the sentries, but we’re gonna need a better plan than sneaking through trees and taking out whoever is in front of us. Fuck, I’m pretty sure there aren’t even trees around. So we’re fucked on that end of things.”
No one offered any ideas.
They all sat in silence, trying to figure out what the next course of action would be. Suzuki was blank on ideas. Just the two sets of sentries that they had had to deal with the night before had slowed them down considerably. That was the case with everything that had happened since they left the Shire. The Dark One’s forces didn’t seem to be particularly intelligent, but they were adept at slowing them down. That being said, the Dark One’s forces had no idea what Suzuki and the rest of the MERCs were up to. The obstacles had been merely circumstantial at this point. What the hell were they going to be in for when the Dark One had an idea of what was going on? It seemed like too much to think about at the moment.
Suzuki felt the familiar unwrapping of Fred from his consciousness. He was surprised to see Fred taking an interest in the conversation. For the most part, the other Mundanes’ familiars were fairly chatty, and most of them had built some kind of relationship.
Not Fred and Suzuki, though.
There were moments that it seemed like they were at least tolerant of each other’s existence, but that was the most that Suzuki seemed to be able to get out of him. Answering questions. Helping with magic. That was the extent of their relationship. That was why it was disorienting for Fred to suddenly speak up in the back of Suzuki’s mind.
Eyes closed, Suzuki reached out to Fred, trying to meet him halfway, to at least extend an olive branch. What’s up, Fred? Suzuki asked.
In Suzuki’s mind’s eye, he could see
Fred uncurling his long, forked tongue, leaning over, his lizard-like eyes narrowing. “I believe I have a solution to your infiltration problem, human,” Fred hissed.
You were actually paying attention to what we were talking about?
I am always paying attention. Usually, you’re having a conversation that is not worth my time. This, on the other hand, is different. You are in a particularly unfortunate situation that I believe I have an answer for.
So what are you thinking? Suzuki asked.
The Dark One’s forces are going to be on the lookout for humans. There are none currently enrolled in his army. If any of you were to be caught, you could not pretend to be anything other than transgressors. I, on the other hand, could pass between the Dark One’s defenses unnoticed. He has already amassed a collection of eldritch creatures performing his will. I could go unnoticed.
So you’re just going to waltz in there while we wait on the sidelines?
Fred uncurled further, taking up more room in Suzuki’s mind. Not exactly. You would accompany me.
How? You just said that humans would be caught if they were just walking around.
By possessing me, much the same way that I am in you. The role is reversible. If you wish, we could switch positions. You would exist within a pocket dimension of my body. I could listen to the inane things you will no doubt have to say. And together, we can find your friend.
How come you’ve never told me before that we can do this?” Suzuki asked.
Because the idea of you existing within me is disgusting. It’s already bad enough that I have to slink around behind your unconscious mind. I’d prefer it if you weren’t privy to all that makes me what I am, but this is a desperate situation.
What is so desperate for you about us getting Beth back? You’ve hardly given a shit before.
Do you want a solution, or would you prefer to keep asking questions? Fred asked.
All right, all right. Let me talk to them about it.
Suzuki pulled himself out of his head and reengaged with the conversation around him. Diana and José were debating something fiercely while the rest of the MERCs watched, slightly bored. Suzuki cleared his throat and, when all eyes were on him, scratched his head as he began to speak.