by Davis Ashura
Hours later, with sunset approaching, Mr. Zeus said the words William had been dying to hear. “We’re almost there.”
“Thank God,” Daniel said.
“It’s up ahead, right past that speed limit sign,” Mr. Zeus said. “Take us off the highway there. The saha’asra should be about five miles north.”
William took the turnoff and followed Mr. Zeus’ directions. He drove slowly, not wanting to lose a wheel in the rugged terrain. The Jackaroo lurched and bounced as they inched their way toward the saha’asra.
A half hour later, an itch formed in the back of William’s mind. “I think I feel the saha’asra,” he said.
“Same here,” Jason said.
The sun had dipped below the horizon by the time they reached the saha’asra, several acres of broken stones in the middle of a line of red hills. William immediately felt better when they entered the saha’asra’s borders, less achy and tired. He pulled up next to a broken rack of towering, red rocks that leaned against one another like fond friends. Boulders littered the ground.
William burned with curiosity as he stepped out of the Jackaroo, and he braided to the lorasra of the oasis. He nearly retched. “Gah! It tastes like sewage,” he said.
The others made similar gagging noises of disgust.
“Now I remember what shit tastes like,” Daniel complained.
“Is the lorasra from Sinskrill?” Mr. Zeus asked with a grimace.
“It feels like it,” William answered. He spun in a slow circle, searching for the anchor line. An instant later, he found it. A thin line of lorasra puffed out of it in a continuous stream before dissipating into the oasis.
William told the others what he could see.
“Are you sure?” Mr. Zeus asked.
“Positive,” William said.
“And you’re not making this up?” Mr. Zeus pressed.
William shot him a glare.
“Fine. It’s real,” Mr. Zeus said with a sigh. “I was afraid of that.”
“I guess we’ve got our confirmation,” Jason said.
“Yes, we do,” Mr. Zeus agreed. “It looks like Sinskrill’s lorasra bleeds into other saha’asras.” He sighed again. “We’ll rest up tonight and head back in the morning.”
Shortly afterward, everyone hoisted their tents and lit a fire before settling in for the night.
William awoke with a start, unsure why. Grittiness filled his eyes, and he rubbed at them before sitting up to check his watch. He groaned. He’d been asleep for less than a half hour. Dammit! He flopped his head onto his pillow, wanting to go back to sleep.
But an alarm kept triggering in his mind. Understanding came in a rush. Oh, no.
William snapped upright and yanked on his boots. He darted out of the tent, sword at the ready. The fire still burned, and in its light, he saw Rukh and Jessira already awake and shouting for everyone to get up.
“The anchor line is opening,” Rukh yelled.
Jason stumbled out of his tent, his longsword at the ready. Mr. Zeus followed right behind him. Daniel poked his head from his tent and yawned.
Idiot!
“Get up!” William roared. “They’re coming!”
“We need more light!” Rukh shouted.
Jason sourced his lorethasra, and a crackling scent of sulfur filled the air as he created a braid of Fire and Spirit. Fiery lines rippled across his chest, and Jason thrust out his hands. Flames poured down his arms and off his fingertips. The braids of Fire smashed into several nearby boulders, igniting them with a whoosh. The saha’asra lit up to daylight brightness.
Daniel finally lurched from his tent. He tripped on a guy-line and fell on his face before making it to his feet.
A rainbow bridge split the air, and eight mahavans entered the saha’asra. At their head strode Adam Paradiso, Serena’s Isha. He smiled when he saw William. “Take them,” he ordered the other mahavans.
William acted before the mahavans could. He drained the lorasra around them. Their nascent braids of Fire, Air, and Earth petered out.
Rukh and Jessira surged forward, swords ready. They moved like a tidal wave to take on three mahavans.
William’s jaw dropped.
Swords clashed as Rukh parried a diagonal cut. He slipped a thrust. A thudding kick to the head, and a mahavan fell bonelessly to the ground.
Jessira slashed. Blood spurted, and a mahavan groaned. She’d cut deep into his bicep. A hilt to the chin put him out.
Before he fell, the third mahavan cried out. A front kick from Rukh had sent him soaring. The mahavan crashed into the ground. His head thumped, and he didn’t get up.
Three mahavans had fallen in less than three breaths.
The entirety of the Sinskrill warriors’ attention appeared focused on Rukh and Jessira, and William moved to stand beside Mr. Zeus and the others.
“Think they need our help?” Jason asked, sounding bemused.
“It doesn’t look like it,” William said. He felt like a spectator, watching the mahavans battle Rukh and Jessira.
“What do we do?” Daniel asked Mr. Zeus.
“We help if we’re needed,” Mr. Zeus answered. “Otherwise, I guess we watch the show.”
William caught Rukh smiling as he faced off against two more mahavans. A moment later, he blurred into motion.
“Good God,” Daniel whispered in awe.
Rukh blocked an overhand swing. He flowed, sliding aside, spinning, and hammering an elbow into the other mahavan’s face. The man groaned as his nose crunched flat and blood poured down his mouth and chin. Rukh parried the first opponent again. A snap-kick buckled the mahavan’s leg. A knee to the man’s chest cracked ribs. The mahavan crumbled to the ground, gasping for the breath. Meanwhile, the broken-nosed mahavan had stumbled back, tripped over his own feet, and landed on his butt.
Two breaths that time.
“He’s sourcing his lorethasra, but using it in a way I’ve never heard of,” Mr. Zeus said.
William’s eyes narrow in concentration, wanting to see what Mr. Zeus meant. Rukh and Jessira’s lorethasras pulsed more powerfully than any asrasin he’d ever met, but they only used thin fibers of Spirit, Air, and Fire.
How did they weave so tightly?
Rukh and Jessira swept toward Adam Paradiso and the two remaining mahavans.
Rukh slid aside a thrust. In a spin too fast to follow or counter, he landed a heel-kick to one mahavan’s head. The man dropped like a stone. At the same time, Jessira blocked a thrust, twisted at the wrists, and disarmed her opponent. She casually drove a brutal knee into the mahavan’s gut. The air whooshed out of her opponent’s lungs, and he fell, gasping.
Adam stood alone. His face had grown pale. He was probably terrified, but he still attacked.
William couldn’t help but silently applaud the man’s courage.
Adam’s sword rose in an upward arc. Rukh parried. Adam followed with a thrust. Rukh parried again. This time he stepped inside Adam’s guard and landed a punishing elbow to the jaw that set Serena’s Isha on his butt. The mahavan blinked, clearly struggling to maintain consciousness.
“Leave and you live,” Rukh said, leveling his sword at Adam’s throat. “Keep fighting, and I’ll kill you all.”
Adam scowled, but remained silent as he levered himself upright, leaning on his sword.
“Leave the blades,” Rukh ordered.
“And the saha’asra,” Jessira added. “Now.”
“This isn’t over,” Adam growled.
“It is unless you want to die,” Rukh said.
The mahavans who could still stand raised their injured brethren. Adam gestured, and a rainbow bridge opened. En masse, the mahavans stepped onto the anchor line to Sinskrill and departed.
The world held silent after they left, and William relaxed. It was over.
“We should leave,” Rukh said. “They might return with reinforcements.”
“The anchor line is opening again,” Mr. Zeus said.
A white-tipped spear pr
essed past the surface of the rainbow bridge.
William’s mouth went dry. The Servitor. “Run!”
His shout startled everyone but Rukh and Jessira. The two of them raced away from the anchor line.
William led them all at a sprint to the Jackaroo. He had to tug Daniel to get him moving. He felt around in his pockets and found the keys. Everyone piled into the Jackaroo.
William got the vehicle going. He glanced in the rearview mirror and wished he hadn’t. Silhouetted by the glowing rainbow bridge, and illuminated by Jason’s still burning rocks, stood the Servitor. His white cloak billowed about him as Sinskrill’s ruler scanned the area.
William whipped the Jackaroo through the gears.
“My errant raha’asra,” the Servitor said, his voice carrying. “And these others who dared abuse my hospitality. Why do you leave with such haste?”
William peered back. The spear—Shet’s Spear, it had to be—glowed white as the sun. William had to turn his eyes away from the brightness. He pushed the Jackaroo as fast as he dared in the rugged terrain. It wouldn’t do them any good to slam to a halt because of an unseen hole.
A blaze of light caused William to involuntarily glance in the rearview mirror. His eyes widened. A bar of pure Fire erupted toward them.
“Hold on!” he shouted.
The blast hit like a cannon, and the Jackaroo launched like a rocket before landing with a screech of metal. Something broke off the fender. A window shattered. William’s head whiplashed, and he shouted. He wasn’t the only one. A cut dripped blood into his eyes, and he wiped his vision clear. At least the tires hadn’t flattened and the axles hadn’t broken.
William kept the vehicle going.
What the hell! How were they still alive? When the Servitor’s fire had hit, he’d been sure they would have all died. But at the moment of impact, a protective green webbing had crackled like electricity all around them. It had blunted most of the fire’s force.
William had no time for thought. They exited the saha’asra, and immediately fatigue dragged at him. He didn’t care.
A brightness drew his attention again. The Spear glowed.
William spun the steering wheel, and the Jackaroo skidded to the right, toward a nearby hill. It might hide them from the Servitor.
Another line of Fire burst forth. It clipped the rear end of the Jackaroo. The green webbing crackled again and vanished. Rukh and Jessira cried out. The vehicle spun. Metal screamed.
William grunted as the seatbelt bit into him. He saw stars, and lost his sense of direction when his head banged the B pillar.
Another line of fire blazed. It flashed above the Jackaroo, missing by mere feet before detonating like a bomb into a distant hill.
William’s head rang. His vision blurred, and he groggily realized they’d come to a halt somewhere behind the hill. He could no longer see the Servitor.
Relief washed through him.
A line of fire burst through the hill, directly ahead of them. It burned a perfect circle five feet in diameter, and a thunder of rubble followed.
Oh, shit.
William hit the gas. The Jackaroo lurched forward, and passed in front of the hole in the hill. Through it he could see the Servitor. Sinskrill’s ruler still stood before the anchor line.
William kept his foot on the gas.
Another bar of fire punched through the hill and came within inches of clipping them.
William spun the wheel to the right. He evaded another bar of fire. He spun them to the left. Again, a bar of fire missed them by inches. William cut a zigzagging course to the distant road.
Thick lines of fire, hot as the sun, continued to erupt from the Spear. The attacks came without end. The sky lit from their fires. Another turn of the steering wheel darted them behind another hill, and a final blast missed them again before the attacks finally ceased.
we’re safe,” Rukh said. “You can slow down, William.”
William heard the words but he couldn’t make sense of them. Fear drove him and pushed out all other thoughts. The Servitor had almost recaptured him. That’s all he could think about.
William kept the Jackaroo going as fast as he could. He needed to get away. He couldn’t go back to Sinskrill. Not now. Not ever.
“Slow down,” Rukh repeated. “We’re fine.”
William’s fists tightened on the steering wheel until Rukh’s words finally penetrated. With a shudder, he relaxed his grip, let off the gas, and eased the Jackaroo to a stop. He flipped on the interior lights.
Everyone in the cabin held silent for a moment. William’s heart thudded as he tried to make sense of what had happened.
Daniel broke the quiet. “We almost died back there,” he said, sounding as shaken as William felt.
“If we’d stayed a second longer, we would have,” Jason replied from the back row, his face pale with terror. “I never thought anything could scare me more than Kohl Obsidian.”
“How’d they know we were there?” Daniel asked, his voice rising, still obviously fearful.
“They must have some kind of alarm,” Jessira replied, her tone cool and collected. “A nomasra of some sort.”
“We’ll figure that out later,” Mr. Zeus said. He sat next to Jason in the third row. “I want to get on the highway and put a couple hundred miles between us and that saha’asra.”
“What about our supplies?” Jason asked.
“They can be replaced,” Rukh said. “Mr. Zeus is right. We should drive on.”
William nodded. It took a few more seconds to fully collect himself, but once he did, he got the Jackaroo moving. He drove slowly this time, careful not to further damage the vehicle, but once they hit the pavement, he opened up the throttle.
For the first few miles on the highway William listened carefully to the engine, hoping they hadn’t wrecked it in their wild ride from the Servitor. He didn’t hear any knocking or pinging, and other than a lot more squeaks in the cabin, the Jackaroo ran as smoothly as before.
Mr. Zeus chuckled then. “At least we know which anchor line we’ll want to use to get Travail and Fiona off Sinskrill.”
William scowled, not seeing the humor in Mr. Zeus’ pronouncement, and he remained silent as did everyone else.
Several hours later, the last of William’s adrenaline dump wore off and his eyes grew heavy. Mr. Zeus took the wheel then, but he only lasted an hour before his head started bobbing.
“We’ve gone far enough,” Rukh said. “Pull over.”
They parked on the side of the highway, and all of them dozed within the vehicle for a few hours, except for Rukh and Jessira, who split the time taking watch.
When William woke he wasn’t rested, but he felt alert enough to drive. He got them going again, and they stopped for a late breakfast in the same town where they’d bought the Jackaroo.
“Do we sell the truck?” William asked.
“No,” Mr. Zeus answered. “We’ll do what Rukh suggested and keep it parked near the saha’asra leading to Arylyn.”
“I can’t wait to get home,” Jason muttered.
The rest of the drive took another hour, and in the early afternoon, they reached the saha’asra to Arylyn. Everything seemed the same—the sheer cliffs, the lonely trees, the moaning wind—but everything had changed.
William parked the Jackaroo in a cave that Daniel and Jason cleared out with braids of Air and Earth. Afterward, they opened the anchor line, and exited to Arylyn. It was early evening.
Thank God! William wanted to kiss the ground.
Surprisingly, Serena stood waiting for them.
“Have you been here this whole time?” William asked.
“No. Only a couple of hours.” She took in their tired, disheveled appearances. “What happened?”
“Mahavans showed up, including Adam Paradiso and the Servitor,” William answered.
“Tell me everything,” Serena said.
William shifted uneasily. Serena’s regard, more intense than ever before, was
disconcerting.
He left it to Mr. Zeus to explain what they’d been through.
“No one got hurt?” Serena asked in surprise. “Against eight mahavans?”
William shook his head. “None of us even had to fight. Rukh and Jessira took care of them.”
“I could have slept through the whole thing for all the good I did,” Daniel muttered.
“You almost did sleep through it all,” William said.
“You beat eight mahavans?” Serena asked Rukh and Jessira in disbelief. “Including my Isha? How?”
“Through immaculate training at the House of Fire and Mirrors,” Rukh said.
“Or being taught by someone immaculately trained at the House of Fire and Mirrors,” Jessira said.
“But against the Servitor,” Rukh said, “we were as helpless as a gazelle against a Kesarin.”
William rolled his eyes. He was too tired to think, and certainly too tired to try and decipher Rukh and Jessira’s secrets. “If you’re going to reference things none of us recognize, how about keeping quiet next time,” he addressed Rukh.
Rukh dipped his head in acknowledgement. “Perhaps that would be best.” Irritation marred his voice. “But what we reference is sometimes the sum total of what we know.”
“What does that mean?” Jason asked.
“We’ll discuss it some other time,” Mr. Zeus interrupted before glaring at William. “If the mahavans had carried nomasras with them, things would have turned out very differently. Your sword would have been useless.”
“What did I do?” William asked in surprised confusion.
“Nothing,” Mr. Zeus said. “Which is the problem. I mean for you to master your abilities before I ever let you off Arylyn again.” He sounded angry for some reason. “You can’t braid well enough. In a fight, you’d have been a hindrance to yourself and everyone around you.”
Frustration at the seeming unfairness of Mr. Zeus’ accusations boiled over. “What happened back there wasn’t my fault!” William exclaimed
“I didn’t say it was,” Mr. Zeus replied.
William wasn’t listening. “In fact, if I hadn’t been driving, we’d have all died.”