by BJ Hanlon
The place was filled with old sorrows and death… and life.
Edin stared up into the sky when he woke. It was a clear cloudless morning and for some reason, a good feeling filled Edin.
Hope.
After eating, Edin stared at his sword. He hadn’t practiced with it in what felt like months. He hadn’t crossed the quarterstaff with it either in a long time. He had to train.
Edin didn’t know why. Edin’s mind was blank not concentrating on the movements as he worked through them. But every movement felt correct, perfect body mechanics. It was like a silent hand was manipulating the strings of the marionette that was Edin.
After he finished, exhausted and knowing he’d be sore the next day, Edin ran through the Oret Nakosu. His muscles screamed from the lack of use, but it was a good scream.
As Edin stopped, he found himself staring blankly to some point far off in the distance. A point to the southwest.
“Edin okay?” A voice said from behind him.
It startled him and Edin looked back to see Yechill in his bedroll with a pair of dogs cuddled up on either side. One of the dogs whined and rolled over.
Edin chuckled at the sight and nodded, though he didn’t know if he was okay.
As they moved on a gentle but cold breeze bristled small, leafless trees that began appearing scattered around the tortured landscape. They followed the land southeasterly still.
The snow and ice were barely a thin layer over the stony land. Their skis scrapped the ground jostling them every few moments causing a tense ride. Edin was just waiting for one to break and them to spill onto a much worse fall than the snowy landscape of their last tumble.
Slowly, the flat dead land began to break up. There were short cliffs and craggy hills as well as more and more cracks in the rock that dropped to dark rivers or lakes. The waterways below them were silent as if frozen but they were not.
After a while the wooden sled began to rattle on even a smooth surface so Edin stopped. They were near a small embankment to the south that hid the ocean from them.
“It break?” Yechill said making like he was snapping a stick.
“Not yet,” Edin said. “Soon.”
Edin picked his way up the embankment and found he was at the edge of a deep gorge with dark water below silently kissing the shore. Across was a much taller wall of steep rock. Edin could tell nothing about what was beyond it.
Edin pulled out the map and looked around.
It was worthless, Edin had no idea where he was. Did they pass the peninsula or was it still ahead? None of this was on the map. How would he even know?
“Where we?” Yechill said looking over Edin’s shoulder.
The silent appearance nearly made Edin jump. He hadn’t even heard footsteps. After he’d calmed slightly, Edin shrugged. He was tired and growing frustrated.
He remembered the diary stating it was on a cliff overlooking the sea. But he couldn’t see the sea. They had to be too far north but the only way forward was over rocky terrain with hills and gorges that dropped to icy black water. Would they ever be able to find this place? What if it was impossible to get to by land and this whole venture was a waste of time and probably people’s lives?
Edin had no idea what he was doing but there was no way for him to tell Yechill that. Did they press forward without the sled or try to find some other route further back?
Edin glanced up at the steep rock wall at the other side. They could move around the gorge, it was maybe a half mile to circle it to come up to the rock wall. The wall itself was at least fifty feet higher than him. Edin swallowed, he had to climb it for a better view.
“I hate heights…” Edin whispered.
This wasn’t something he was thrilled with. Edin turned toward Yechill. “I go see…” Edin said making gestures that he hoped Yechill would understand. “You stay with dogs.”
Yechill clearly was getting the language a bit more than Edin was understanding Foci. Well a lot more.
“Yes.”
Edin strapped his sword to his back and began the long hike around the gorge. After about an hour Edin found himself at a rock wall. It was almost straight up and like a city wall and there were few cracks and places for hands and feet.
Edin glanced back at Yechill who was watching intently. Maybe he should’ve had the Foci warrior come in case he fell.
Too late for that now, Edin thought and grabbed the cold stone.
It was a good start, hand over hand, foot above foot Edin climbed at least thirty feet without a problem. He paused at a small ledge just wide enough to let his shaky arms relax. He was gazing out toward the north when a sound floated on the wind. It was bird-like but it wasn’t.
Edin heard barking and howling and looked across the gorge at them.
They were suddenly all on their paws, staring and howling back west.
Edin felt his hackles rise but saw nothing. Edin glanced back at the rock wall. It grew steeper and Edin saw less hand and foot holds but he had to continue.
After stretching his arms and fingers, he started again. It was slower and the grips were shallower barely even his fingertips could hold on. Edin pulled himself up when he heard the birdlike call again.
It was louder now and it sent shivers up his spine as if the wind had penetrated his white cloak. The air grew colder. His heart raced but he didn’t look back.
The howling of the dogs continued echoing across the gorge. Then they turned to whimpers, fearful whimpers.
Edin saw the top and reached up. His hand took hold of some rock and he pulled himself up further. He found a place for his foot and pushed. Edin flopped his other hand over the edge and pulled with all of his strength.
At the top, he rolled over and saw he was on a thin rock shelf splitting the gorge with another giant drop straight down to black water.
He didn’t have time to look at anything else. Edin turned back across the gorge and saw Yechill and the dogs staring with his axe drawn. What were they looking at? At the top of his vision, something caught his attention. Edin glanced up and saw a black dot against the reddening sky.
He couldn’t tell what it was but it was growing larger and it seemed to be coming directly toward them. The cry came again and Edin remembered it. He’d heard it before.
His heart began to pound in his chest. It was the cry that incapacitated him in Coldwater. Incapacitated everyone.
He couldn’t let that happen again. Edin saw the dogs were now all on the ground. A few of them had their paws over their ears. Yechill stood in front of them with his axe some fifty yards away.
Edin glanced down at the rock ledge he was on. It was all rock and nearly barren. He needed something to cover his ears. A few feet to the right, he saw a grayish plant with thin leaves. A moss or ground cover of some sort.
Edin bent over and pulled it. He tore off stems and leaves and began to shove them in his ears. As he pulled up the plant, small bits of mud appeared at the roots.
Glancing back west, he saw the dot had grown in size. He could make out thin wings flapping with a tree trunk-like body. A giant bird was coming right for them.
Edin pushed more of the ground cover into his ears then added a little more mud.
The cry pierced the plugs he’d made but it was muted. Edin wasn’t sure what it was but he was covered in gooseflesh and shivering now.
Below, he saw Yechill and the dogs all on the ground. Yechill was holding his hands over his ears and rocking back and forth. Edin pulled his sword off and looked for a better place to fight than the tiny bridge with death to either side.
The thin ridge ran southwest toward the sunset then disappeared into nothing. Behind him, darkness was descending and he could make out little across the open water.
Edin looked back as the bird grew larger. It was flying above the dogs and Yechill without making a move toward them. Edin reached out a hand and felt the talent flowing through his body. He felt the water in the air, the electricity, and wind.
&n
bsp; Whatever that was, it was coming for him.
Edin let out a bolt of lightning toward the thing. The bolt cracked the sky and blasted over the expanse in an instant.
It exploded in midair. A giant bright yellow light that blinded him.
Edin tried to blink the great dot from his eyes. Another cry echoed from the beast and Edin’s legs shook. Edin pushed the earplugs in further and only heard the soft peals ringing in his ears.
It took a moment to locate it again. Coming right for him. Edin whipped out a hand with ethereal blades. They flew straight at the sky beast as quick as the lightning had.
The beast banked hard to the right and they missed.
But he saw it. Whatever it was. The thing was long, very long, with a tail that looked almost like a club. He saw two feet and a thick underbelly. The wings were like a bat’s and the light of the setting sun passed through it like a thin film.
Edin felt the wind and sent a huge gust but the beast just floated on it as it continued its turn south. The beast turned back east and banked north near a tall but thin peak and over the great canyon-like fjord.
Then it came directly toward Edin. His legs shook with another cry. Edin tried another bolt of electricity. It exploded again but on the beast. He sent more ethereal knives, and felt the wind blazing toward it. It dodged and floated again. As it banked, he saw a sheen of light on the wings, water, as if it were sweating.
He began to feel the power of the thing; his heart was almost seizing but Edin reached out with his senses and felt for that sheen. He heard the roar and could see glowing eyes. The power of the animal shook his very soul and the beast grew larger and larger. It was at least twenty feet long and serpentine.
The thought of a dragon came to his head… but that wasn’t right. Dragons had four legs. This was the mythical wyrm.
Suddenly, it was very close and he saw the huge jaws open. Something sparkled in the beast’s throat and he felt the hair on his arms standing. Edin held his sword in front of him and waved it around hoping Mirage worked on this thing…
Then a yellow beam of light burst from its mouth and hit the ground a few feet in front of Edin. The rocks exploded as Edin summoned an ethereal shield and ducked. The explosion shattered the bridge before him and for an instant, the ground rose like a bubble.
Then he was flung backward. Edin landed hard on his back and then flipped over his head. Then he was airborne again. Edin could barely tell which way was up. He glanced something thin and brown almost like a rope and snatched at it.
His movement was halted but Edin’s body swung forward and he slammed into the side of the cliff.
Edin glanced down and saw a couple hundred-foot drop to the placid water below. Or it was placid before the boulders and rocks from above him began dropping in.
Fear wracked his brain as he heard the cry of the wyrm. The sound pounded his brain nearly causing him to lose all control of his body.
It didn’t. Edin sheathed the sword and pressed the muck deeper into his ears. He glanced up at the break in the wall. It was a giant U and he was about ten feet below it.
Then he heard a ripping sound from above and he fell a few feet. The root he’d grabbed stopped him, but only for a moment. It was breaking. Edin quickly flung his other arm to the stone wall, searching for some hand hold. It cracked more and it jerked down a few inches.
The wood cracked and splinters dug into his palms like needles. Edin’s chest slammed against the stone again. He tasted blood in his mouth as he tried to reach for something to hold onto. Edin’s foot found a small ledge.
At that moment, the root snapped and for a moment, he was balanced on basically one toe. Then he heard the screeching cry of the wyrm. It came from directly behind him.
Edin dropped and a moment later, the place where he had been exploded.
A shower of stone flew in all directions as the air rushed past him. Then he was at a deadly freefall. Then he spotted the it.
The beast swooped in and then turned onto Edin.
It was dark but the eyes glowed yellow as thick wings buffeted the air. It was diving on Edin. Its jaws opened as if to bite into him. Then he spotted the wetness on the beast. He didn’t look down, how long till he crashed against the stone-like water?
Edin stared at bright yellow eyes as the beast began to open his mouth again. Edin concentrated on the sweat and the water in the air. He felt it in his body and his mind. He let the talent roll through him.
Then he saw the particles of the water slowing down and freezing on the beast’s body. He felt more water latching itself and turning to ice.
There was a different type of cry and suddenly it was a bit muffled.
Edin looked and saw the beast struggling to fly. It was dropping, though the same speed as Edin only twenty feet behind. The wings weren’t beating as easily. There was an angry deadly stare in the beast’s glowing yellow eyes.
Edin felt the wind rushing by as the ice on its mouth shattered. Then he saw the beam forming in its mouth again.
It can’t control itself anymore, Edin thought, but Edin could.
He reached out and felt for a wind. It was gentle, but usable.
The beast’s yellow blast formed in its mouth and aimed directly at Edin’s chest.
Edin sent the gust into the beast.
The animal shrieked as it and the beam were thrown into the cliff face. The beast letting loose a wicked cry of pain. The light shredded the wall and sent more and more rocks into the air above him. The beast flapped again and its wings worked, though slowly.
He glanced over his shoulder. The dark water was barely a thirty feet below him now. He had little time to buffet his decent and even so the falling rocks could crush him.
Edin screamed as he twisted over and pointed a hand toward the rumbling water. Hopefully he could control it here. Edin felt it. He needed something soft, a way to slow his body. Edin reached out with the talent and took the water in his grasp. The water broke and a small circle appeared below him. A cry from above nearly seized his mind.
Then he dropped beneath the waterline into a tunnel of swirling water. Behind him, he felt the tunnel close. He angled the tunnel like a slide and the descent slowed as he skidded along the freezing water. Then the water was gone and Edin landed on a wet ocean floor.
Edin’s knees buckled and his concentration dropped.
Freezing water crashed around him. Edin gasped, water flooded his mouth. He coughed for air but couldn’t find any. Edin tumbled forward, slowly bouncing off the ocean floor. Then he was floating in pitch darkness and for a moment didn’t know which way was up.
Then bubbles floated up his right cheek. He was running out of air but now he knew which way to turn. Edin adjusted and found the way up. He began to swim. Something brushed his leg and a moment later, the dark water was lit by a glowing yellow light.
Edin turned to see a glowing yellow beam erupt. It blasted beneath his feet and into the murk somewhere beyond. Edin kicked harder as the icy water threatened to turn him into a frozen corpse. The water flowed around as his brain grew sluggish. His fingers were tingling and he’d loose feeling in a few moments.
All he had was the talent. The water had grown warmer a bit around him and then a bubble of pressure erupted below him and sent him rushing through the water.
Then, he saw a wavy moon and a moment later, Edin burst out of the formerly placid lake and gulped freezing air. A frozen breeze hit him and he splashed back under.
The water shocked him again but he was able to get back to the surface. His teeth chattered and he shivered. He tried to see but everything seemed blurry. A small rock, at least he thought it was, appeared twenty, maybe thirty yards away. He began paddling like a dog. His body barely up to the task.
His hands were frozen when he reached the stone and began pulling himself up. It was a few yards wide and rose like a small hill over the flat water. Edin collapsed into a heap on the edge of the small island and breathed for a moment.
Suddenly, a crashing wave flew up and a loud earsplitting shriek erupted through the gorge. Edin’s mind went blank. He was frozen and his head split. The last coherent thought he had was he would freeze to death here.
12
The world below
He sneezed and it woke him. The sun was out and beaming what little heat it could on Edin. Everything above and below his fur felt frozen, even his hair. It felt like needles poking out from his head like a porcupine ready to strike.
The cloak was dry somehow and inside it was warm.
Edin sneezed as he looked around slowly. The cliff he’d fallen from was straight up and for a moment, he thought he could see a dark figure atop it.
Edin wanted to wave but as he raised a hand, he shivered and recoiled. Too cold. Edin snatched his legs and hands into the cloak and used it to cover his head.
Edin sat there for an hour or more until it felt as if he were thawed out. His clothes were wet, but not cold and he could wiggle his toes… at least for the most part.
After the thaw, it still took him twenty minutes to get up the courage to pull his head out and look around the chasm.
To the east, there was a long low cliff with a softer slope than the western wall he’d fallen from. Edin followed it up to see a weird, cone shape at the top. Edin blinked. It looked to be natural rock set back from the cliff face.
To the south the gorge narrowed and there was a soft current flowing from an invisible source. Maybe the sea? He still tasted the salt on his lips from the freezing swim the night before.
As Edin looked back toward the east and the easiest climb, he noticed a small dark cave. With the sun glittering off small waves it was hard to see. It reminded him of half an egg laid on its side.