The Heroes Fall -1- When War Calls

by Zy Rykoa

  Without turning, Jaden made a dash for the second giant courtyard he had seen from the entrance to the city. Between the two were poles sticking out from the wall. They had once had flags attached, but now harboured masses of the thick-stemmed vine that was growing throughout the city. Using a stone bench, he was able to jump up and off the railing and into the mass of vines. He thought if he could use them to swing, he would be able to get to the other courtyard and make his escape. But the vines did not swing, and he landed hard against them, almost losing his grip as he came to a sudden halt. He braced himself for the pain of being attacked by the beast, as it would surely catch up to him now and claw at him with its black wiry limbs.

  He heard it moving about at the side of the courtyard, its breathing laboured and footsteps heavy, and he turned to look at it when the attack failed to come. He now saw the beast in full light. It was hunched over with its long arm-like limbs dragging along the ground, and was still easily six feet high. Fully upright, it might have been ten feet tall. Its hide was like charred flesh; black, bubbled and sickly, and its bones stuck out so far it almost seemed its skin would tear away as it moved. Its face was similar to human form, but with a snakelike curve from nose to forehead before it branched out to either side with the wide plate on top. Its jaw boasted sharp teeth the size of Jaden’s fingers while its claws were the size of his head. Its legs resembled its arms but were not quite as long, while its torso was wide and flat. If not for fearing what it may do, Jaden would have turned away from it in disgust. Everything about it seemed vulgar and nauseating. It was a crime against nature in every aspect.

  Jaden wondered if it was partly blind in the light, noticing the glazed yellow eyes. It no longer seemed to be aware of him, pacing up and down along the railing for a while, twice bumping into it before sitting down and shaking its head. After sometime, it crawled away, leaving Jaden hanging on the vines without anything below to soften his fall.

  The beast was gone. It didn’t make sense, but it was gone.

  As Jaden relaxed, the bizarre sounds he had heard on the stone road returned in the silence, and he began to search for a way off the vines. Rain was beginning to fall lightly. He breathed in the fragrance of the vine’s flower next to him, allowing it to settle his nerves. It had started to have a toxic effect over him, as if the very reminder that it was there was enough to put him at peace. He picked another and again put it inside the Daijuarn belt, and then he began to climb toward the wall. It was too far to jump to either of the courtyards, but the grooves in the wall would be deep enough for him to use as footholds and handles. The smoothness of the stones worried him, as the rain began to make them slippery. He hurried across with as much caution as possible, trying to outrun the rain as well as make sure he didn’t miss his grip. As it began to pour, he had made it to the other courtyard and quickly ran for cover inside the palace.

  Pointed arches marked a series of entrances all along the inner chamber, and he walked into what appeared to be the throne room. Its ceiling was high and there was a central discolouration of the stones along the ground, where a carpet may have once been, which led to the throne at its end. There were golden torch holders on the walls between the arches, burned out long ago but making Jaden wish for fire as the cold set in. The Daijuar garments were dry, but his skin was wet and subject to the chill, but he would not dare lighting anything now, in fear that it may draw the attention of the beasts. Thankfully, he found this room to be empty, and he made his way to the throne, where he sat and waited, recovering as he contemplated what he could do next.

  Absent-mindedly he sat staring for a long time, listening to the peaceful patter of rain on the stones outside and catching his eyes on something new every time there was a lightning strike.

  A loud bang followed a clap of thunder, alerting him that he was no longer alone in the palace. The dark figure of a beast lurched past the door at the other end of the room, seemingly ignorant of anything around it.

  It hadn’t sensed him. It didn’t know he was there.

  Jaden refused to breathe until he was sure the beast was no longer near, and then he stood up and made his way outside into the courtyard. He wanted to get away from this place, even if it meant braving the cold outside. He found another opening at the end of the courtyard and checked both ways to make sure it was safe. When he judged it clear, he made his way through the corridors, past the many rooms and through the seemingly never-ending maze of the palace walls. Too dark to see, he was forced to use the endobraces for light, but sustained their energy for no longer than a few seconds at a time. He had decided the beasts’ senses were not as powerful as they seemed, and could perhaps be easily tricked into believing the light of the endobraces were flashes of lightning, even if there was no way for the lightning to reach where he was. He walked by many more rooms, all of which were empty or with their contents spread over the floor. Few instruments or pieces of furniture were intact, but he saw that they had belonged to a primitive people, nowhere near the advancement of Waikor.

  There was a decayed, moist smell, sometimes of dead flesh, in the air as he moved on, and his ears were soon met with the low growl of one of the beasts. There was something happening in the next room, but before he could turn and flee, one of the beasts roared and another screamed out in pain before being propelled out of the door and into the wall next to where Jaden was standing. The stone wall cracked with the impact, and the beast shook its head before noticing Jaden standing there. With its long gnarled fingers, it almost appeared to point at Jaden before screaming out again. The other beasts inside the room made their way out from the door, running into one another and becoming stuck as they did. Jaden turned and fled and the beasts gave chase.

  Jaden let the light of the endobraces shine freely, allowing him to find passages that he had not seen on his way in. He jumped down staircases, sprinted through hallways and found his way through large dining halls before coming to two stairways leading to either side, a double iron door thrice his height at the bottom. Jaden jumped on the railing and slid down it, winding around a half circle before hopping off at the bottom. He ran to the doors, knowing the beasts were right behind him, and attempted to open them.

  They were stuck, jammed shut. He tried to use all of his force, pushing and then pulling, but it was no use. The endobraces lit up as he used as much energy as he had left on the doors, but he was losing strength, and no matter which or how much energy he used, nothing made the doors budge.

  The beasts entered the room slowly, stalking down the stairways. Jaden turned, the endobraces alight, and watched them come forward. He counted eight in total, all gradually easing forward. They knew he was trapped. But they did not seem to think him at all powerful.

  With all of his fear, he managed to ignite and sustain a wall of energy that glowed like fire. He pushed it outward, forcing the beasts back. They retreated as he had planned, but they did not leave the room. He was losing concentration as quickly as he was losing energy, and with a final burst, he unleashed a wave of energy that passed over the beasts, burning some as others ran out of the room. He fell to one knee and needed to rest his hand on the floor to stay upright. He struggled to breathe. His lungs seemed to burn with the energy, as if the endobraces no longer gave any protection and the energy had come back at him. He looked up as he heard the beasts coming forward again, but then closed his eyes, knowing that anything he tried to do now would be pointless. He could perhaps hinder them for a few more moments, but it was only delaying the inevitability of his death. All there was left to do now was accept his fate.

  He thought of the irony, laughing madly to himself at how his death would come when he had finally found purpose again. It was not long ago that he would have embraced this chance for escape. But as he thought of Alyssa, it only made him want to fight, to show the beasts his rage and to make them know that he was not one that they could simply devour. He would either make them meet their own deaths or fatally wound them so that they would d
ie later.

  He kept his eyes shut tight, gathering his concentration again, but then suddenly the beasts became silent. The sound of their steps had gone along with their low growls. White light was shining as if he were no longer inside the palace, as if daylight was hitting his eyelids from the sun at noon. There was a strange humming sound in the chamber, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that translucent white shields were holding the beasts at bay. The beasts were confused, one trying to break through the shield before being repelled quickly and slamming into the wall. It fell unconscious to the ground, and when the others had decided the risk not worth the feast, they left the chamber.

  Jaden looked at the one responsible for their departure.

  ‘Raquel,’ he whispered, noticing the woman standing between him and where the beasts had been. One of her arms was raised and still seemingly maintaining a single shield around the fallen beast.

  Raquel turned to him and offered him her free hand. He took it and stood.

  ‘How are you doing that?’ he asked, checking again to make sure there were no endobraces on her arms.

  ‘There is power here,’ she said.

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  Raquel turned to him, her expression stern. ‘It’s what keeps them alive without food.’ She turned back to the beast and began to move it toward them, making it float through the air. The beast struggled in her levitating field, but could not break free. ‘More surfaces each day.’

  ‘What power?’ asked Jaden.

  ‘The power,’ said Raquel, as if expecting Jaden to now understand.

  Jaden shook his head. ‘What are they?’ he asked, pointing to the beast.

  ‘Hybrids of a war long passed,’ said Raquel.

  ‘The Forgotten Years,’ offered Jaden.

  Raquel nodded.

  ‘How are they still here?’

  ‘They have been brought back.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘For wealth, there are those that would return us to those years. They don’t understand what they are doing.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Those in Waikor,’ said Raquel, allowing the beast to drop and then pushing it away gently with soft bursts of energy.

  ‘What did they do?’

  ‘The Medatassai lived here in peace centuries ago. They had little to call their own. Their wealth was in their land, their resources. Then the Waikorians came and took it away.’

  ‘They killed them,’ said Jaden.

  ‘They left their mark,’ agreed Raquel, nodding toward the beast now running out of the door and up the stairs.

  ‘How could they use them?’ asked Jaden. ‘The beasts would kill them, too.’

  ‘They had a weapon.’

  ‘What weapon?’

  Raquel faced him, and then looked down below his chest. Jaden saw where she was looking and picked up the flower from inside the Daijuarn belt.

  ‘This?’ he asked, putting it to his nose. ‘It’s just a flower.’

  Suddenly the bizarre sounds intensified again and he was able to hear them clearly for the first time since entering the chamber.

  ‘What are these sounds?’ he asked. ‘Can you hear them?’

  ‘The pollen plays with your mind while it subdues another’s.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Jaden.

  ‘You hear a sound. They,’ she indicated the beasts by glancing up to the door, ‘will no longer have the energy to go on. They become disorientated, as if they are no longer awake. They forget. They don’t know what they are doing.’

  Jaden took in another breath of the flower’s fragrance, thinking back to first waking on the old stone road, unharmed for the hours he had been unconscious, escaping from the first two beasts he had seen and then later landing on the vines between the courtyards.

  ‘It saved my life,’ he said, and Raquel seemed to agree, saying nothing as she turned to face the doors.

  Without even touching the iron, both doors swung open and Raquel walked through them, out onto a muddy road that led to a bridge away from the palace. Jaden checked behind both, finding no one there. It seemed she had opened the doors, almost as if simply daring them to stay closed.

  ‘How did you do that?’ he asked. ‘Wait, where are you going?’

  ‘North,’ said Raquel.

  ‘I’m coming with you,’ he said, and he quickly hopped into step with her.

  He didn’t know how long the road ahead was, or what Alyssa would think if he did not return soon, but somehow none of it seemed to matter in the presence of this strangely beautiful, powerful woman. All he could think of was what he could ask her, to make her reveal the secrets he so desperately wanted to know. A small part of him wished the journey would never end, for this was his chance to understand her, and even learn of her ways, but as much as he desired knowledge, he knew he had to get back to Alyssa, and soon.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Enjoy peace while training for war.

  February 21, 997 R.E.

  Jaden waited patiently as Raquel stood perfectly still on the dirt road. They were among another mountain range now, having travelled almost without rest for two weeks, leaving the beasts far behind in the palace. The sky had been gray ever since, with only slight hints of sunshine throughout the days. Raquel had seemed as reluctant to answer his questions as ever, and he was no closer to finding out who she was or why nothing about her seemed to make any sense. But now he felt he had a connection with her, an understanding that made it feel as if she were really a friend. It seemed she had been travelling alone for so long that she had forgotten what it was like to have company, and now he hoped she at least enjoyed having him with her.

  She had often stopped along the road like this, closing her eyes in deep thought before darting off to the side into a valley, or a cavern between the mountain peaks. He did not know why she did this, and she often came back with a confused look, as if she had not found what she had set out to find. He had learned to choose his questions wisely, so he did not ask why. He was thankful for the little knowledge she had given him on how to use the Daijuarn endobraces. She had said he had been infected when he joined with the Daijuar, and that the illness he suffered beforehand was natural. But she conceded that it would have led to his death if untreated, so she had helped train him a little more in their arts anyway. At times it almost seemed that she didn’t like the Daijuar.

  That she knew of their arts didn’t surprise Jaden anymore. The power she had used was very similar to what they used. The only difference was that she had used it without aid of the endobraces. He still relied heavily upon them. He could now complete all the tests that the Daijuar had given him, and with Raquel’s help, he had learned how to make his energy so strong that it was like a wall of steel, and whatever was thrown at it would stop instantly, often making a bang as it hit, accompanied by the reverberation of the shield resettling. But he still wanted to learn how she was able to do it without the endobraces.

  Suddenly Raquel raced ahead to the right, up into the mountain a little higher before running behind a large rock. Jaden decided to get a little bold and followed closely behind, hoping to find out what she was up to. She had never actually said that he couldn’t follow. Behind the rock, there was a cave entrance that they had to duck under, but the ceiling beyond the first few yards was at least four times their height. It was triangular in shape but definitely naturally formed, and it led down into the mountain where no light could find them. Jaden ignited the endobraces, but Raquel didn’t seem to need them. She was running blindly, able to see with some other sense that showed her exactly where she needed to go.

  They came to a stop shortly after as they entered a large cavern, and Jaden allowed the endobraces to go dim. The cavern was alight already, without need of his power. In the centre was the source of the light, glowing blue with silver sparks bouncing up and around from the floor, as if it were made of an icy lava. Jaden felt a shiver go down his spine even in the heat of the
strange pool of blue. There was something not right about it. There was a mist that was familiar, but the sound was of something bubbling over fire, and despite his better judgement, he suddenly had the urge to walk into it and bathe.

  Raquel knelt down and put her hands over the top of the substance, closing her eyes and it began to retract. It flowed back into the centre as if it were water, and then seeped into the ground until it was all gone, leaving the cavern in darkness.

  Jaden ignited the endobraces again to see Raquel now standing where she had knelt.

  ‘What was that?’ he asked.

  ‘Something I do not understand,’ said Raquel, biting her lower lip and closing her eyes a little. ‘There is more the further north I go.’

  ‘You are following it?’

  Raquel nodded slowly, and then asked herself, ‘Why is it coming back?’

  She paced the room, studying the walls, the roof, and then the floor, which showed no sign of the blue substance or where it had gone. There was no hole or mark, as if it had simply vanished beneath the rock.

  ‘That was the power,’ said Jaden, knowing she was not going to volunteer the answers. ‘I could feel it.’

  Raquel did not seem to hear him and she sat down where she was, in the same meditative pose she had first been in when they had met in the clearing. He joined her as the hours went by and noticed the rock had become freezing cold where it had been warm before. As he sat in silence, he wondered what Raquel was thinking. He had so far been unsuccessful in asking the right questions for her to tell him much about her. All that he thought he knew was that she was a woman who spent a lot of her time outdoors and did not seem to have a place she could call home. She had no friends or relatives, and she always seemed to be near him, no matter where he was, as if she were following him somehow, even though he couldn’t think how she knew where he would be.