by Davis Ashura
From William’s hands blazed another line of fire. This one couldn’t be extinguished. It left a corpse in its wake.
Three unformed to go.
Serena caused a small tremor and managed to knock a wolf off its feet. A blast of air from William hurled it into the forest.
The final two unformed closed ranks and attacked.
Serena set herself next to William.
An unformed wolf leapt for her throat, and Serena ducked. She barely evaded snapping teeth and spun about, desperately seeking to keep the animal in front of her.
It transformed into an eagle and flew at her face.
Serena ducked low. The eagle flew past. She sensed movement behind her. She rolled, and a gorilla smashed her sword aside.
The unformed creature had transformed shape too quickly for her to react. Serena pulled back, needing distance.
She faced a cape buffalo now. Serena called on earth and formed a tall, muddy shield. It barely blocked the goring horns. The pause gave her a chance to focus.
A snake slithered over the earthen wall, but this time Serena was ready.
A fist of air punched the snake into the sky. As expected, the unformed became a bird. Serena held the creature captive in a vice-grip of air and drowned it in a globe of water.
Serena spun about, ready to aid William. He didn’t require it. He finished his opponent, sliding a foot of steel into the heart of a lion.
It was over.
Serena offered William a relieved smile.
“Well, that’s that,” he said, his grin as self-satisfied as his tone.
From the corner of her eye, Serena glimpsed movement. A gray-muzzled wolf raced toward them. The one William had flung into the forest. Too fast to evade. Too close to avoid. Serena opened her mouth to cry warning.
A shadow passed overhead. Something huge and horned.
Travail.
The troll landed before them. He caught the wolf by the throat mid-leap and hammered the creature into the ground.
The unformed didn’t rise as its head flopped at an unnatural angle.
“You choose odd traveling companions for your return to Sinskrill,” Travail noted.
William sourced lorethasra and formed a block of Air right before his feet left the ground.
Travail lifted him into the air and into his embrace as he rumbled laughter. “It is good to see you again, my friend.”
William threw his arms around the troll’s neck. Travail’s wet fur tickled. William felt like a child with his feet dangling above the earth, but he didn’t care. “It’s good to see you, too.”
Travail set him down and William searched for any changes. None were apparent. Travail remained huge, ten feet tall at a minimum with curling ram’s horns and a massive frame. His short, coal-black fur shed the rain as easily as a seal’s while water dripped from his long braids. A goatee covered his lantern-like jaw, and his thick features were split into a grin.
“Hello, Travail,” Serena said with a formal dip of her head.
“Hello to you as well,” Travail said with an equally formal bow from the waist. His face had grown serious.
An instant later he grinned and drew her into a hug as well. Serena gave a startled yelp as Travail enveloped her in his arms.
“Seeing you gives me hope for the people of Sinskrill,” he said when he set her down. “I am proud to know you. I see courage and compassion when I look at the soul of who you are.”
Serena inhaled sharply. “Thank you,” she said, offering a brief smile.
William could tell the troll’s words touched her.
“It’s been a long journey getting to this place,” she added.
“Our journey isn’t over,” William said. “We need to get to Rock Hill.”
Travail inclined his head in thought. “Perhaps on the way you can tell me your intentions.”
As they traveled, William explained what they had planned.
“You truly believe these friends of yours, Rukh and Jessira, can free Fiona and your friend from the Servitor’s prison?” Travail asked.
“Once you meet them and see what they can do, you’ll know why I have such faith in them,” William said.
None of them had much to say after that. Their hasty journey through the woods, gorse, and the uneven trail took all their attention, and an hour later they reached Rock Hill. They’d gotten there first, and while they waited on Rukh and Jessira, William and Serena told Travail of Arylyn. He had many questions.
Several hours later, with the sun cresting the horizon and casting the world in a gloomy, gray light—a typical Sinskrill morning—an itch formed in the back of William’s mind.
Someone was coming.
He stared along the path leading to Rock Hill but frowned when he saw nothing untoward.
“Someone approaches,” Travail said.
“You sense it, too?” William asked.
“I sense something,” Travail answered.
“I don’t sense anything,” Serena said, sounding frustrated. Mint flavored the air as she sourced her lorethasra. “I don’t see anything, either.”
Rukh, Jessira, Fiona, and Mr. Zeus blinked into existence at no more than thirty yards away.
William smiled. They must have been Blended.
Fiona gave a glad shout and sprinted the last few yards up the trail. She hugged Serena and William with a surprising fierceness. After a moment, she pushed herself free, her eyes shiny. “I can die happy now.”
Mr. Zeus wore a broad grin, and he gave them brief hugs as well. “Rukh told me the plan’s changed,” he said, eyeing the troll in obvious fascination.
William made introductions.
“You two are beings I’ve never seen or read about,” Travail said to Rukh and Jessira. His voice rumbled in curiosity.
“I suppose that makes us interesting?” Jessira asked.
“Which isn’t something any of us should aspire to be,” Rukh noted.
“At least not to a physician or a troll,” Jessira said.
Travail barked laughter. “I think I’ll like you.”
Rukh cocked his head. “You remind of someone I knew.”
“Li-Choke,” Jessira said.
Rukh laughed. “Yes,” he agreed.
Travail’s brows lifted as he awaited a further explanation, but as usual with those two, none was forthcoming.
“You’ll get used to their mysterious pronouncements,” Serena said to Travail.
“I’ll call the others and let them know we’re ready,” William said. He pulled the satellite phone out of his satchel and dialed Jake. After a few seconds of conversation, he hung up. “We have half an hour to reach the anchor line,” he said.
“Mr. Zeus, Travail, and Serena will stay close to me,” Rukh said. “Fiona and William will go with Jessira.”
“Are you going to make us invisible?” Travail asked.
“It’s called a Blend,” Jessira said. “And yes, it will make us invisible, but it has its limits. It only extends a few yards around us, and I believe the unformed can see through a Blend to a certain extent.”
“A handy trick,” Travail mused.
Rukh sourced his lorethasra—a hint of iron—and he, Travail, and Serena momentarily disappeared from view.
Jessira sourced her lorethasra as well—a mountain stream in her case—and Rukh, Travail, and Serena reappeared. They set off, traveling along a narrow trail that followed the spiny edge of a rocky ridge before taking a steep descent into a valley. From there, they crossed a rushing stream, stepping from stone to stone and staying relatively dry. On the far side of the water, they ascended again, this time a gentle slope. Their path eventually joined with the trail William had taken when he’d first arrived to Sinskrill as a prisoner, and several minutes later, they reached the anchor line.
“There it is.” Serena pointed.
Atop a small rise, a waist-high ring of stones surrounded an empty meadow of grass about seventy-five yards in diameter. Sinskrill’s mo
untains rose to the north and east, while a dense, evergreen forest surrounded the field on all sides, except to the south. There, along the shores of Lake White Sun, a break amongst the stones, one wide enough for a wagon opened onto a trail that eventually led to the Servitor’s Palace.
William and the others huddled in the trees near the rugged path and waited. Minutes later, twenty or more mounted mahavans thundered toward the anchor line. The Servitor rode at their head. The moment they reached the field, the mahavans tumbled from their saddles, armed and ready.
“They’re likely trying to save the old man,” the Servitor called to his mahavans from no more than thirty feet away. “Save one of the magi for interrogation. I want to know how the old man got free.”
“Yes, my Lord,” the mahavans said in unison.
The Servitor motioned, and a line cut the air. It rotated, and a doorway thirty feet across, wider than any anchor line William had ever seen, split reality. A bell tolled, and a rainbow bridge opened.
As one, fifteen mahavans leapt onto the rainbow bridge. Their forms stretched for an instant before they snapped forward and disappeared from view.
The Servitor stood with only seven mahavans before the still-open anchor line.
William beamed in triumph at Serena. That many they could easily evade, especially with Rukh’s and Jessira’s Blends.
Rukh made to rise but Jessira clutched his sleeve. “Hold. Look in the trees.”
Nine owls perched along a single branch. An odd grouping.
“Unformed,” Jessira said. “I don’t think they’ve seen us yet.”
William silently cursed. Seven mahavans and nine unformed against their seven. And the unformed could see through a Blend.
Damn it! Would this ever get easy?
“Time to find out if you’re as good with that sword as rumor states,” Mr. Zeus said to Rukh.
The other man’s features became flat and inscrutable. “Do your part and we’ll do ours.”
Mr. Karllson looked up from his watch. “It’s time,” he announced. He, Lien, and Mrs. Karllson climbed aboard the bus.
Jake exhaled heavily. “Here goes nothing,” he muttered as he climbed into the driver’s seat of the Jackaroo. He keyed the engine to life, and waited for Jason and Daniel to climb inside before shifting the vehicle into gear.
Jake drove a car-length behind Mr. Karllson’s bus. A quarter-mile later, he felt it when they entered the saha’asra. The vague sense of unease and general achiness he’d experienced in the Far Beyond lifted, and his breathing came easier.
“That’s better,” Jason said from the passenger seat.
“I’d forgotten how off I always felt in the Far Beyond,” Daniel said, leaning forward from his spot in the middle row.
“You guys felt like that the whole time you were waiting on William?” Jake asked.
“What we do for friendship,” Jason said with a sigh.
“You’ll never get me to do that again,” Daniel vowed.
“But you’ll risk your life for people you don’t know?” Jake asked.
Daniel shrugged. “Call me stupid.”
“Hey, Stupid, pass me the canteen. I’m thirsty,” Jason said.
Daniel smacked him in the back of the head.
“Hey!” Jason complained.
Jake smiled without real humor. He was too wound up to relax.
Seconds later they reached the saha’asra’s anchor line, an area before a semi-circular ring of broken, red-stone towers. Some of them slumped against one another as if they were tired friends, and the wind moaned amongst them, sounding like a groaning, old man.
The bus halted, and Jake parked the Jackaroo six feet behind it. The vehicles sat at a slight angle to the anchor line, forming a V-shape.
“You guys ready?” Jason asked.
“Guess we’ll find out,” Daniel answered.
The three of them climbed out of the Jackaroo and hid behind its bulk, on the side opposite from the anchor line. Lien and Mr. and Mrs. Karllson did the same behind the bus.
They waited. And waited.
Minutes crawled by, but nothing happened.
Jake’s fists unconsciously clenched and unclenched. His jaw tightened.
Jason nudged him. “Relax.”
Jake nodded. Staying edgy wouldn’t help. He exhaled and breathed out some of his tension as he shook out his hands.
“I guess the mahavans haven’t noticed us yet,” Daniel whispered.
“They have to ride all the way from the Servitor’s Palace,” Jake said. “It’ll probably take them half an hour.”
“In that case, anyone have a deck of cards?” Daniel asked.
Jake smiled briefly.
More time crept past, and still nothing.
Where were those damn mahavans?
Jake eased the cramping in his calves by sitting fully on the ground and settling his back against the Jackaroo.
The late afternoon sun hid behind a bank of clouds, and an intermittent breeze carried the scent of moisture.
They continued to wait.
“What’s taking them so long?” Lien asked. “Don’t they know we’re here?”
“Or perhaps they don’t care,” Mr. Karllson said.
“They care,” Jake said. “I—” He halted.
The air rippled. Jake sat up. The anchor line would open soon.
“Here they come,” Jason said.
All of them sourced lorethasra and braided to the saha’asra’s repulsive lorasra. Jake shoved down his nausea at the sewage taste. Everyone also drew their pistols. They wouldn’t work on Sinskrill, but maybe they would here.
For Jake, the cold steel in hand made the situation all the more real. He swallowed. He wasn’t sure he could actually shoot anyone. Fight them off, sure. But kill them? He didn’t know.
He glanced at Jason and Daniel. They seemed equally unsure of themselves.
Jake closed his eyes and forced himself to focus on what was needed. Just like a football game. He imagined the moves playing out in his mind. The mahavans would come through the anchor line. He’d drain the lorasra around them. Next, he’d empty his pistol and hope to pick off at least one of the mahavans. After that, he’d see.
Jake opened his eyes. The doubts and fears remained, but he was ready.
The anchor line opened with a bell-tone of doom. Fifteen mahavans surged onto the saha’asra.
Jake froze. So many?
The roar of pistols snapped him out of his fear. Only Mr. and Mrs. Karllson had fired.
Jake shook off his shock. He drained the lorasra all around the mahavans. Adrenaline pumped. He shot wildly and within seconds he’d emptied his pistol’s magazine.
Jake peeked over the hood of the Jackaroo and cursed. The mahavans had thrown up earthen shields. None of them were down. His bullets had hit nothing but dirt. Magic alone would decide the outcome of today’s battle.
“Remember. We only have to hold,” Mr. Karllson yelled. “So hold!”
Jake took heart from Mr. Karllson’s words and roared a challenge at the mahavans. “Come on!”
The mahavans split into three groups of five and formed a perimeter of earthworks several yards in front of the still-open anchor line. From behind their bulwarks, they sent a hurricane-force wind at the Jackaroo. The vehicle threatened to tip over, and Jake braced it with a braid of Earth.
“I thought you drained the saha’asra,” Daniel shouted over the roar of fire and wind.
A series of explosions rippled the ground around and under the vehicles. Dirt blasted in all directions.
“I did,” Jake shouted back. “They’ve got nomasras.”
“Well, drain them, too,” Daniel said.
“I can’t. No one can.”
Daniel cursed, but Jake had no time to listen. The lorasra had slowly filled in near the earthworks, and he drained it again. Maybe if he kept at it, the mahavans’ nomasras would eventually fail.
“We need to flank them!” one of the mahavans shouted.
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Jake startled. He recognized that voice. Adam Paradiso. Serena’s Isha.
“Kill them all!” another mahavan said.
Jake recognized that voice, too. Dalton the Hunter. The mahavans who had captured him and William.
Jake snarled. He’d always vowed to pay those two back for what they’d done to him. Today, he’d finally get a chance to keep his promise. He peered around the front fender of the Jackaroo, trying to find Adam and Dalton.
He grew so caught up in searching for the two mahavans that he didn’t see the line of fire hurled at him until the last instant. It roared like a blast furnace as it skimmed along the ground. Jake dove out of the way. The fire nearly took his legs out at the ankles, and he quickly doused his smoking pants.
“Fall back!” Mr. Karllson said. “The vehicles aren’t enough cover.”
Jake hunched away from the Jackaroo. Dirt clouded the air. Cracks wide enough to swallow a person carved the earth.
Another series of blasts ripped the ground.
Oh shit!
Jake called up a shield of earth. Pellets of dirt from the explosions shot at him like bullets. He ducked low behind his barrier.
“We can’t stay here!” Jason said. “They’ll kill us.”
Jake glanced to where Daniel’s father, Mrs. Karllson, and Lien had called up a semicircular wall of earth that rippled as it followed their slow retreat.
“Fall back like Mr. Karllson,” Jake said.
He, Jason, and Daniel pulled up a similar wall of earth that kept pace with them. At a distance of twenty feet from the Jackaroo, they halted alongside Mr. and Mrs. Karllson. There, they formed a series of overlapping earthworks, similar to what the mahavans fought behind.
One of the mahavans flung the Jackaroo and the bus out of the way with fists of Air. Both vehicles barked as their wheels scraped across the ground. The bus tipped, but miraculously remained upright. Its stressed metal creaked and groaned as it crashed down onto all four tires.
The mahavans had a clear path forward.
Jake unraveled a pulsing wave of water that had curled around his earthwork.