When I think back to the caves and tunnels, only one word comes to mind: confined. The cave-in sealed one end of the tunnel, as well as the outside. Thanks to our efforts, all the rock around the cliff was unstable. And the Isusi has over four hundred pounds of dried grains and flour.
I stood still in the room and exhaled a cloud of smoke, staring as the wisps swirling in the low light from the hall. My vision bloomed, and horrifying clarity swept over me as the idea sounded less and less stupid.
As I stared at the fading smoke cloud, I understood how a dust cloud exploded. Just five things are needed: ignition, fuel, oxygen, confinement, and dispersion. Fire was in easy reach; the Isusi had the fuel; air was everywhere; the tunnel was mostly confined; the flour was very fine, so it would take much to stir up a cloud that had the surface area needed for rapid ignition.
Am I a genius, or was this what insanity is?
“Oliver?” Meriel called from behind.
I whirled around and stared at the elf and fox-woman standing in the entranceway. They were dressed in cleaned clothes and made faces like I was standing over a dead body. Fell went to one of the scones and magiced some light.
“Why are you standing in the dark alone?” Fell took a step closer, her brows coming down harder. “We came looking for you and met the others. They said you were helping with cooking when you started acting weird, then suddenly jerked to your feet and left like a man possessed.”
Meriel approached and took my free hand. “We thought they were exaggerating, but… Oliver, you’re trembling.”
I looked down and saw that she was right.
Fell flanked my other side, the freckles across her face scrunching as she sniffed the air, then narrowed her brassy eyes to my still burning cigar. “Are you smoking hallucinogenic plants?”
“Hallucina— What? No, it’s just tobacco. Haven’t you guys heard of it?”
“It smells like tobacco, but your behavior fosters my doubt.”
Meriel cupped my cheek. “Times are stressful, and we won’t judge you for that. We’ve partaken of some things like that on special occasions; just be honest with us.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but I hit a roadblock as I tried to imagine the girls with joints between their lips.
A vigorous shake of my head got me straight, and then I held up my hands. “I’m not high! I think I have a—”
Should I tell them? My first idea almost got them killed and got the hopes of the Isusi up. Then again, going off Meriel’s assurance, I decided to confide in them.
I deflated with a sigh, then went over to my mattress to take a seat with my back to the wall. The girls followed suit and patiently waited as I took a calming puff.
“I have another idea on how to drop the cliff.”
As expected, there was a long pause and a look that bordered between disbelief and apprehension.
Meriel looked down, then to Fell, and then to me. Her olive-toned cheeks swelled with a grin, and she said, “Let’s hear it.”
Fell’s puffy tail swished as she bore a smile of her own. “Agreed.”
I stared mutely for five seconds then asked, “You guys don’t think I’m crazy for thinking of something so soon?”
“Oliver,” Fell uttered sternly, “You’d have to run naked down a crowded street shrieking at the top of your lungs for me to think you’re crazy.”
Meriel scratched at her scar. “Well…”
“Ah, right,” the fox-woman murmured, remembering how my first idea came to being. “You know what I mean.”
There was a sudden tightness in my throat, and I felt heat swell in my chest. Their faith had moved me.
Wiping the stupid smile off my face, I started going into details. They stopped me at several points and I had to reword things to get the point across, but they were fully engaged and listened to me rant. By the end, the looks of disbelief were gone, and they bore focused and determined faces.
“By The One,” Fell awed.
“We have to tell Nolala!” Meriel cried. “If it works, then the cliff will fall, destroy the Marker, and give everyone fighting at Elesrora more time.”
“Not so fast.” I took a draw from my cigar and blew away from the girls. “There are two glaring issues.
“One: the tunnel isn’t perfectly sealed. To get the boom necessary to encourage the rest of the cliff to fall would need the other end of the tunnel to be sealed, too. All the fine rocks and dirt plugged up the one end and the way outside from the cave-in, but the rest of the cave network is open. Even if we get rapid ignition, it’ll all just make a big fireball and make a harmless whoosh.
“And two: to get the kind of cloud I have in mind, we’d need something like a hundred pounds of flour. That’s a lot of food. And I’m not even sure an ideal explosion would be enough.”
Meriel dragged her hands over her face and groaned. “I didn’t even think about that.”
“We should still try,” Fell said suddenly.
“You have no idea how much I appreciate the faith,” I told her earnestly, then frowned, “but I don’t want to piss off Nolala after everything the Isusi has done. I can’t stake their livelihood like that.”
“We should still try,” Fell affirmed with a flick of her ears. “Oliver, realize the only hope that exists is the forces of Elesrora prevailing. I don’t doubt them, but that could take months, even years. If at all.
“You are the only one crawling on your hands and knees for a different path. You are the only one who is willing to slap fate in the face and claim your future, all of our futures.”
Fell’s eyes glimmered and a melancholic wave crashed into her face. She reached over and cradled cracked Beacon Meriel wore around her neck as a memento for the late Jorn.
“We almost fell into despair, yet you pulled us out and rekindled our hope. I'll stand by you, Oliver.” Fell squeezed Meriel’s hand tightly, the elf squeezing back and gave a smile so sweet that it could cause diabetes. “Both of us will.”
“Damn right,” Meriel agreed, her silver-blue eyes twinkling like stars. “Anything that’ll hurt the Null and save our people is worth fighting for.” She looked down, the cheery expression she wore dulling slightly. “And we owe it to you for never abandoning us, even when you had every reason to.”
I stared back at the odd pair, admiring Fell’s vivid blonde-orange hair and vulpine appendages, then Meriel’s exotic tanned skin and sterling eyes. As I took them in, I tried to figure out what this feeling in my chest was. A thousand and one words could describe it, but I just couldn't narrow it down. Instead, I just laughed and enjoyed the mysterious feeling.
“Fuck it,” I announced and set my cigar aside on the floor to burn out. “Let’s tell Nolala. You two make it feel like the odds are in my favor.”
Chapter 19
“No.”
A pin dropping could’ve been heard in the silence following the Chieftain’s decree. The girls and I even took a few extra minutes to develop a proposal before we marched into the common area where the lamia had already gathered for breakfast. The announcement of the new plan had already earned me the attention of every single woman.
“B-b-but i-it could work!” Meriel stuttered as she gestured to me. “Oliver explained how possible it is.”
Nolala drew in a heavy breath through her nose and crossed her hands over her coiled tail. “An explosion? He does have a way with words, but no amount of fanciful rhetoric will make his already convoluted plan any more feasible in reality.”
Fell draped her arm over my back, and only then did I realize how tense my body was. I told myself beforehand to drop the matter as soon as the mature lamia gave her decision, but this urge to yell and argue pestered me like an itch that couldn’t be reached.
But then I saw the almost-empty bag of flour next to the other cooking implements.
“It’s convoluted,” I said while grabbing the sack and standing near the flames of the hearth, “but it’s based in reality, in science.”
&nb
sp; To demonstrate my point, I carefully shook the sack until a good amount of flour collected near the edge.
“Flour isn’t flammable on its own,” I said, giving Nolala a steady and determined look. “But if you disperse it over a small area with an ignition source…” I trailed off and shook some flour over the fire, the minuscule particles igniting with a hiss and a bright flash of fire.
The display earned several gasps from the other women listening in. Nuna zipped from her mother's side and snatched the flour sack with one hand, and began inspecting my arm with the other.
“You’ve had to have used magic,” she murmured while inspecting my palm.”
“I can’t even do any damn card tricks,” I answered while trying to get my arm back.
“Trick?” she murmured, then rolled up the sleeve of my coat.
“Damn it, Nuna,” I groused and jerked my arm away. “I’m not lying to you, to any of you.”
Nuna and I watched each other for a long moment. Her intense purple eyes a mystery, but the usual edge they carried was absent. Doing a slow turn to take in all the other faces I’ve started knowing better, I ran my hands through my hair then fixed my eyes on the Chieftain.
“Look, there are a couple holes to my plan, but if we can start bouncing ideas then maybe—”
“No.”
“I talked to the others and did a little math with how much grain you use a day, and with all the extra fish—”
“I won’t repeat myself.”
My body went slack as I stared back at her. “Do you even care about your people?”
Nolala launched forward like a cobra and seized my throat with her hand, applying not enough force to choke me but to get my face red. For the first time, I saw her glare, and it could freeze hell over.
“Mother!” Nuna cried.
“Oliver!” Meriel and Fell screamed as they raced forward.
“Don’t,” Nolala warned in a quiet, malevolent voice, then began lifting me until my toes barely touched the ground.
The girls froze in place. The Chieftain closed her eyes and seemed to count backward in her head, the searing contempt cooling until her face adorned its usual cool demeanor.
“Oliver,” she said as she opened her twilight eyes, “look around you. This is all that is left of the Isusi. Thirty-nine souls out of three hundred, many of whom were kind elders and innocent children. I remember them. Every. Single. Soul. And scores of other lamia tribes have perished on the other side of the mountain, their histories forever lost. I love my people, Oliver. I love them with every ounce of my soul. Even our kind neighbors from the villages and cities we’ve visited have an equal measure of my love.
“Our fragile light is flickering. I will do everything to ensure the light of my people continues to shine to keep darkness from enveloping everything.”
“And.. how are you… going to do that… if the Marker is finished?” I asked, my Adam's apple fighting against the nape of her powerful hand.
“By being patient and hoping for the future. Not by putting my people’s livelihood at stake by wasting our precious food for the sake of your vengeance.”
“Wrong,” I managed with a choking grunt. “You’re… wrong.”
That was enough for her to set me on my feet and withdraw her vice-like hand. Freed, I rubbed my neck and did another look of all the faces watching on. Since when did they look so scared?
“You all had to be so damn kind,” I muttered to the floor. “Destroying anything remotely related to the Null would be the only thing to make up for what happened to home.” I stepped closer and met Nolala’s vehement visage. “But not at the cost of your people. It sounds backward, I know, but giving up a couple weeks of food could potentially drop the Marker.
“You yourself said that the Null is about a million strong. Assuming the best case, that could take longer than what your food stores can support. And if the Elesrora loses, or the Marker is completed, then what? Hide here as you watch everyone starve to death? I don’t want to see that Nolala, not after all your care.
“There’s no home for me. I’m a soldier without something to fight for. Well, the Isusi is it. Please. Nolala, please let me fight to help keep your home alive.”
Her icy expression fell away, replaced with a sad smile. Reaching over to hold my cheek, the mature lamia said, “Truly a way with words, Oliver. Your heart is in the right place. Even so, our present circumstances calls for patience, and we’ll need every last bit of sustenance for our waiting. Allied worlds don’t fall easily. Forces from other worlds may come to bolster Elesrora’s numbers, but I’m confident in all the souls fighting valiantly. This is their home, and they won’t part with it easily. I’m putting my faith in them. The entire tide of a battle can be pushed in our favor if the right action is enacted at the right moment.” She brushed her thumb affectionately over my cheek. “Hoping for a moment like that doesn’t sound so far-fetched, does it?”
The compulsion to tell her that hoping and doing nothing were the same thing, but I was the jackass pushing a half-baked after my last one ended in utter failure.
“No,” I conceded. Dropping the matter felt wrong, but what the hell else could be done? Continue to argue and throw a tantrum like a brat. Nolala warned me already that I got too close to her line.
I stepped back from her grasp, then looked at all the other lamia encircling us, doing a small turn that ended with my eyes on Nuna.
“Sorry for stepping out of line,” I apologized.
Nolala slithered over and set her hands on her daughter's shoulder, who still watched me with a face like a brick wall, and said, “You are forgiven, Oliver. Please, sit down and let’s enjoy breakfast.”
“I don’t have much of an appetite this morning.” During my scan of the immediate crowd, I noticed two absentees. “Why don’t you give my portion to Sanvi or Luppa.”
“If that is what you wish.”
I nodded to the Chieftain and her daughter once, then made my leave. Fell and Meriel flanked my sides, but I told them they should eat, and that I needed a minute to myself. Meriel looked like she was going to object, but Fell, thankfully, shut that down with a pinch to the elf’s ear. Meriel's care and affection was nice, but Fell could read my mood, which I was thankful for.
Alone, I made the long walk back to my room. I thought about moving to a room near common area, just to be closer to everyone, but the long walk back and forth became a routine. People are creatures of routine, and I was of the breed that craved it; any semblance of normality would help this world feel less contorted.
As I passed the empty cells, I imagined what this space would’ve been like full of lamia who made the pilgrimage to learn of their history and to become adults by braving the labyrinth. In the past, lamia around the age of ten or younger would make the journey, and it wasn’t uncommon for them to live in the temple for a month or more. The full extent of the labyrinth was a mystery to me, but from all the alternate routes I’ve seen from traveling to and from the mountain pass, it must be crazy, especially with all the grotesque monsters carved into the walls.
Half snake or not, no child could handle such a thing easily. Though, the others revealed that those days are long gone. Outside the Isusi, the common age was in the lamia’s late teens or early adulthood, if they upheld their orthodox tradition at all. The mask they make for braving the darkness was probably seen as a good luck charm or something to decorate a mantle.
Funny how the same people had such different views on the same idea. Though, it shouldn’t be surprising. After hearing about The One, The Null, and The Great Serpent, it was hard to decide what deserved any credence. Every bit of it sounded equally crazy.
Realizing that slipped into a dark mental space, I headed straight for the rucksack containing the spare M4 and meticulously began assembling it. The women from last night left the banged-up lower receiver next to my things. Swapping just the upper receiver was an option, but I’d rather have a complete rifle that was all tiptop. A
jam or a misfire would mean my ass.
Unfortunately, I got the M4 assembled and in working order far too fast, leaving me with idle hands. Deflating with a slow sigh, I crawled onto my bed and sat with my back to the chilly wall. At least there was still my cigar. While lighting up, I looked over to Judge’s Bible, still undisturbed. Hoping for wisdom, I started flipping through the pages. He said this or that when the time was appropriate, and it didn’t bother me none. Judge had his own interpretation, which he summed up as: be a decent person. Made no difference to me what people believed in, but I could always respect something like that.
A while passed, and I realized treating the Bible more like a Magic Eight Ball wasn’t going to do me any favors. Most of the random passages didn’t make a lick of sense, and reading over a thousand pages for context didn’t sound appealing.
The sound of company pulled my eyes away from the pages. Meriel and Fell returned, the elf cradling a wooden bowl and a disc of bread.
“It’s no good starving yourself,” Meriel said as she settled next to me. “And don’t make me force-feed you.”
“I’ll help,” Fell added playfully while sitting on my other side. She brushed a tangerine lock over her ear and leaned over. “If I may ask, what is that you’re reading?”
I closed the pages and handed it to the fox-woman, then set the food Meriel offered at my feet. “Holy scripture from my world, I guess.”
Fell started flipping through the pages, her brows furrowing as she squinted at the text. “I didn’t take you as the devote type.”
I leaned my head against the wall and took a draw of smoke. “I’m not. Judge left it for me along with this,” I said, pulling out the ball chain with my, his, and Heath’s tags. “It was his way of saying ‘good luck.’”
“What are they?” Meriel asked, leaning in to stare at the stamped pieces of metal.
Heart of the Resonant- the Soldier's Tale Page 26