Pendulum Heroes

by James Beamon

  Before Rew could protest or ask what his plans were, Rich cast illusionary fire on himself. He looked like he was burning, but it was a harmless trick for novices.

  He ran out from cover, screaming and flailing his arms.

  “Help me! Auugh!! It burns!” he cried, running into the adjacent waterfall garden.

  Four of the guards set off after him, the fifth stayed at the Overwatch ramp, but even he got near the end of the ramp so he could see some hint of the action.

  Rew and the warrior girl moved with the opportunity. They snuck past the remaining guard, who was looking at the other four hard at work putting out the fire blazing in the garden.

  The two of them were now safely in the Overwatch, but how was Rich going to make it to them?

  Just as soon as Rew asked the question to herself did Rich come running into view behind them.

  “I knew it would work,” he said with heavy breaths as he tried to recover from the run.

  “How?” Rew asked.

  “A guy on fire’s bound to get people’s attention,” Rich said. “Once I had that, I killed the fire spell on me and lit up some of the shrubs. Aian eyes aren’t too keen at night. I figured they’d think the fire blazing in the garden was me. You know, the old bait and switch.”

  “Clever,” Rew said smiling.

  They rounded the corner and an armsguard from House Nadi sprang into action. Rew sent her sleeves at him, but the guard easily dodged them with his cat-like agility. The guard ran up the wall and jumped over Rich’s bent sleeves. He ran fast at them, sword raised and voice yelling alarm.

  Rew began speaking a creation spell, a passageway through solid rock.

  Rich was trying vainly to hit the nimble cat with his sleeves.

  Rew focused on creating the passageway. She needed to build a tunnel from this room to the one below.

  The armsguard lunged at Rew, his sword’s edge wicked and close.

  The building material for the tunnel was her robe.

  The aian’s sword met Rew’s robe as the robe collapsed, taking Rew and the armsguard with it as it reshaped itself into the floor. Rew, wearing the robe, was safely anchored. The armsguard wasn’t and found himself falling through. The temple’s high ceilings did not lend themselves to the aian’s plight as he landed with a crunch on the level below.

  Killing her will to maintain the passageway, it closed, causing the floor to push Rew and her robe back up. Rich and the warrior girl looked at her with new eyes.

  “Sweet!” Rich said.

  “The alarm is raised,” Rew said. “We must be quick.”

  The three of them ran through the Overwatch. The only factor to guide Rew to Jason was guard density. Between her and Rich, they were able to robe bend and alter through two packs of guards. Their large numbers in such a small space allowed the mages to grab the guards with their sleeves and use them as blunt clubs on the others.

  They turned a corner to a ramp that ran upwards for several spans. A solitary iron door stood at the end of the ramp. Around that door stood five aians of the House of Demir, included the house’s Elevated. They made no move toward them, but rather stood their ground, waiting.

  Jason must be in there.

  “Hold trespassers,” a voice called behind them.

  Rew turned and saw Ananna with a legion of guards. The last time she had seen the goddess was ten years ago at a nasran-aian peace agreement. Tonight the Queen of Spiders had a wrathful countenance.

  “You humans think to overturn the will of Immortals? There will be no quarter for those who seek to profane this sacred hall with violence.”

  One moment Ananna was aian, the next she was a monstrously massive spider. She was fearsome, with a bloated green, purple, and black body and venom dripping from her mandibles. The spider leapt.

  Rich spoke. The look on his face was of sheer terror yet the words came fast, smooth, eloquent. Rew could only pick up parts of the spell, it was so intricately layered.

  A destruction spell for stone, a creation spell for wind, altering spells for rock, all tied together throughout with binding spells and bending spells that hinted at length and height, density and distance.

  At the end of his incantation, Rich pushed out with his hands and the walls of the High Fane in front of him literally broke apart. Rew watched in mute disbelief as Rich pushed the part of the fortress containing Ananna and her guardsmen off the mountain. The huge block of temple fell, disappearing into the darkness below.

  Rew stared at the chasm that now existed between them and the remaining Overwatch. It was as if Rich had been a giant with a hot knife. He had carved out a section of the Temple of Houses like a piece of cake.

  “Blessed Onesource,” she said.

  Rich looked at her like he was an errant boy caught without an excuse.

  “Get your heads back in the game,” the warrior girl said. “We still got the flyboys at the door.”

  They closed the distance to the door, but none of the guards pulled their weapons. Instead, they bowed, led by the Elevated of Demir. Rew remembered him as Targhos.

  “We prayed to the Onesource you would come,” Targhos said. “We stand ready to fly you all and the Chosen One to safety.”

  “What of the decree of the Council of Thrones?” Rew asked.

  “Their decree is that Cephrin be executed. If he is truly the one of prophecy, his premature death would be impossible,” Targhos said. “But the House of Demir believes ordinary people are the agents of miraculous works. You are here, are you not? Ready to bring the Temple of Houses down around us to rescue Cephrin. Your very arrival here is the work of miracles; the House of Demir is at your disposal.”

  The warrior girl rushed past the aians and opened the door. Jason was there, in a room without roof or walls overlooking a severe drop to the ground below. A look of relief played across Jason’s features.

  “God, I’m glad you guys are here,” he said. “We gotta bail, these jerks want to kill me.”

  Rew and Rich entered the room, followed by Targhos and his guard. Rew looked at Targhos.

  “Please, fly us to the Mage Delegation Tower.”

  “At once, Hierophant,” Targhos said with a slight bow.

  Rew instinctively felt the folds of robe covering her nose and mouth.

  “Your cover is intact,” Targhos said. “But a novice robe doesn’t give directives when a mage of gray is present. Worry not; your secret is safe with House Demir.”

  Rew nodded her thanks. She would have to trust Targhos, as she had little alternative.

  Targhos raised his head to the night sky and he and the guards of House Demir unfurled their wings in unison. The feathery span of them all made the guardsmen seem bigger than the room.

  “Epic,” Jason said in awe.

  It was a quick, uninterrupted flight to the tower. Targhos and the guards set them down at the entrance.

  “Safe travels, Chosen One,” Targhos said before he and his contingent flew away into the night.

  Rew took down her hood and led the others into the tower. Inside, she created a bowl of water and held it out to Jason. Without any other prompting, Jason pulled off a bone finger and dropped it in.

  “Northeast,” he said before the finger settled to reveal the direction. He had called it true.

  “The Hierophane has only one portal northeast of Nasreddin,” Rew said, “the mountain pass town of Nev Shahir.”

  She looked at the Breunan, the tower keeper. “Bring him a brown robe,” she said, pointing to Jason. The brown robe nodded and disappeared down a corridor.

  “Nev Shahir sits at the only pass through the Eural Mountains,” Rew said. “It is trade lands, full of many different races.”

  Breunan returned promptly, offering the brown robe in his hands to Jason.

  “Put it on,” Rew said. “Keep your head down and your arm covered. Word of what transpired here will follow you to Nev Shahir through the House of Yol.”

  Rew opened the portal to Nev Shah
ir. A fully robed Jason was the first to enter, followed by the warrior girl. Rich looked at Rew.

  “You should come with us,” Rich said. “It’s not safe for you here.”

  “I have portal waiting to take me back to the Hierophane,” Rew said. “Where I’ll be standing ready to apologize to the High Fane for a rogue gray robe and his apprentice.”

  Rich hesitated as if he was searching for the right thing to say. He looked at the portal and back to Rew like he wasn’t sure how long the magic would last.

  “Screw it,” he said.

  He stepped forward. He grabbed her and gently, strongly, surely pulled her close.

  His lips found hers.

  Rew felt her body melt in his arms, his kiss weaving powerful magic in its own right. It turned a moment into something timeless.

  Then Rich was saying goodbye and disappearing into the portal, taking with him something indefinable from Rew but leaving her with so much more.

  Chapter 27

  Murderous Trip

  Rich looked at the nighttime Hierophane library, with its ornate wood furniture and silver trinkets gleaming softly in the lamplight, and breathed a quiet sigh of comfort. He looked at his space, beyond the dividing line of the scry, to the dark, rocky expanse that came with being in the foothills of the Eural Mountains. Once again, he wasn’t putting up his fair share.

  He looked at Rew. Lovely in her green nightgown, her smile told him she didn’t mind at all. Dark curls framed her face. Sexy.

  “You,” Rich said, “this... it’s the best part of being on the road.”

  Truth be told, the scry was the only good thing to being on the road. They had left Nev Shahir as quickly as they had arrived, using the cover of night to make a clean break with Jason huddled under his brown robe. Once clear of the city, they traveled along the foothills of the Eural Mountains, to some unknown destination Jason felt in his bones.

  After only one day of walking over rock-strewn ground with wind gusts blasting dirt and small gravel in their faces, he already missed Rew and their time together in Nasreddin.

  “You feel this is the best part of our separation?” Rew asked, her smile sly. “Because I was planning to make it much better.”

  Her hand reached out to him. Rich looked on in shock when her fingers kept going past the dividing line of the scry to touch his face. All this time, he had just assumed they couldn’t go past the line. He had never bothered to test the boundary. He thought about this new discovery and the needing a bowl of water to scry thing and came to the conclusion that he needed to stop guessing at the rules.

  He welcomed the surprise as eagerly as he welcomed Rew into his arms. Her kisses were hot, passionate. He met them with equal ardor.

  She pulled away. Her look was one of absolute horror.

  “What?” he asked in alarm. “What is it?”

  Rich saw his reflection in the library’s full mirror. He looked down at his hands, gnarled and covered with liver spots. Then he looked back up in the mirror and his trembling, wrinkled hands touched his face, a face now decrepit and withered with age. His eyes were sunken into bony cheeks. Thin strands of gray hair clung to his liver spotted skull.

  Rew laughed at him. She was still young, still beautiful.

  “How did you think this was going to end?” she asked. “Rew Majora is virtually immortal and you—you already have one foot in the grave.”

  Rich felt his teeth falling out, one by one. The nature of all this unnatural horror made it clear what this was. He pointed a bony finger at Rew, his voice husky with age.

  “Richard Bates,” he said.

  Rew smiled. “Richard Bates, Rew Majora, I am both of these and neither. I’m the cost, Razzleblad, here to remind you that power comes at a price.”

  Rich’s horror turned to anger. Using Rew to get under his skin felt like a low blow, nothing short of a mental kick in his balls.

  “That the best you got?” Rich asked, his geezer voice cracking as he spoke. He shook his fist, “I’ll get you, you young hooligan!”

  “You think this is funny?” Rew asked, her face turning serious. “This isn’t some random villager up in flames, mage. What you’re looking at is your heart’s reality.”

  Now Rew laughed, a sharp, derisive knife in Rich’s ears.

  “You stupid kid,” she said. “You’re not looking at some theoretical future of what happens if you go mad. You’re looking at fact. You will see Rew Majora forever as this, while you become that ancient, decrepit bag of skin and bones you see in the mirror. This is your future together. And that is unchangeable, no matter what you do, no matter how sane you are.”

  Rew circled him, talking in a taunting whisper.

  “How funny do you think it’ll be for her? A woman locked in the prime of her life watching you waste away; cleaning the shit and piss you soil yourself in, wiping the dribbles of slobber from your wrinkled lips.”

  Rew got in his face, close enough to smell the sweetness in her breath as she whispered venom.

  “She’s lived for over three hundred years. What makes you think she has it in her to suffer through burying another lover? What makes you think she’ll want to put her heart into you, Razzleblad? You’re just a kid with most of his life already eaten away. Gone,” Rew said, snapping her fingers, “just like that.”

  Rich roared, enraged. He pushed at Rew, wanting to push away the reality she presented.

  Instead of pushing, his hands came up wielding fire. The fire spread to Rew’s face. She screamed in pain.

  They were no longer standing, but sitting next to each other as they had been when the scry first started. Only now the magic fire was burning Rew. She screamed at Rich and reached for him, but was unable to touch him through the dividing line of the scry.

  “Why?” she screamed through the fire. “You’re hallucinating! Stop the spell, please!”

  He didn’t know how to stop it. The cost had come in the middle of the scry and—

  “No!” Rich cried, “God, no! I can’t! I don’t know how!” he yelled. But his words didn’t help Rew, who had opened her mind to him and received uncontrolled mage fire as result.

  Rich yelled again, this scream following him into the waking world. The sun was just beginning its climb above the foothills. Melvin and Jason stopped stowing their gear to look at him.

  “Glad to see you’re violently awake,” Jason said.

  Rich grabbed his chest, where his heart was thudding in panic. He didn’t know for sure, he just didn’t know.

  Was what just happened all cost, or part cost? Did he leave a real scry with Rew burning?

  He looked around for something, anything to think it through. The sun’s light answered his question. It was night in the scry, even near the end. It had been all cost.

  Only now did he let out his bated breath. Melvin and Jason had begun packing again. Melvin spared a moment to look at Rich.

  “You OK?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’m OK.”

  “Those must be some seriously twisted dreams.”

  Rich swallowed and nodded. He didn’t bother to explain or elaborate. He got out of his bedroll and began to stow his gear.

  This is how day two started in the foothills of the Eural Mountains.

  Time passed slow and uneventful. The only sound between conversation was the click of their boots against loose rocks and the occasional howl of wind gusts. Conversation could only last so long. The dead space of silence seemed like a heavy burden they all shouldered as they made their way down one hill and up another.

  “Anybody else got that going to Mordor feeling?” Jason asked.

  They all laughed. And the mood lightened. The next round of conversation lasted a while, relieving them of the burden of silence until dusk approached.

  Rich cast a fire. They all settled down around it, watching the remaining day seep away as they ate pack rations. When Rich was done, he took out the Song of Ardor Swain and his spellbook.

  He had always liked p
uzzles, ciphers, and cryptograms. Trying to translate Kaftar Friese’s spell page was a welcome diversion. He kept his spellbook open to the transcribed page, and placed the Song of Ardor Swain between the spell book pages, looking for words that matched.

  By the time his eyes lifted from the pages, he had made serious headway. He had found a few words for most of the spells, including one of the words for the spell he had to cast. The spell was called “Something Something Chain”.

  Rich looked past the campfire to Jason and Melvin, both sound asleep in the dark of night. He hadn’t realized how much time had passed since dusk.

  Apparently, Jason and Melvin had nominated Rich for first watch. Jason had left out his hourglass, one of his rewards from the Sentry Triptoe fiasco. All the sand had settled to the bottom for who knew how long.

  He woke Jason for watch before settling into his bedroll. But Rich didn’t want sleep. The thought was there, hovering. He knew what he wanted, and ignoring the thought only made it buzz louder.

  Rich gave into it. He created a bowl of water and set it down next to his bedroll. The he cast the spell for a scry.

  He turned and saw Rew’s bedroom. She was sitting on a bed of soft looking white blankets, wearing the green nightgown he had recently set her on fire in.

  “Rich,” she said, smiling. “I was hoping you would scry with me tonight.”

  Rich thought of their kiss in Nasreddin. “You were?”

  “Of course,” she said, brushing loose strands of hair from her cheek. “Portaling you all to the base of the Eural Mountains with no resupply or transportation was far from the perfect way to enable your quest. How do you all fare?”

  “Not bad,” Rich said, a little let down her hopes were business-oriented. “Jason feels we’re really close to the monster, maybe a couple of days walk.”

  “Excellent,” Rew said. Silence prevailed between them for a moment before Rew smiled and spoke.

  “I know your customs are as foreign to me as my customs must be to you, but here you’re supposed to say ‘thank you’ when a girl invites you to her bedroom at night.”