Dark Horse

by Jay Swanson

  “Thanks,” Chakra said, dismissing them as he walked into his room and closed the door.

  He threw himself down on the hay mattress that was months past due for changing and blew out his light. But Chakra didn't sleep. He couldn't. The thought of Melina dying ate at him, burning away into his bowels until he thought he might scream. How could she leave him? The moonslight played against the wall. In the shadows he saw her walking, smiling. Her hair was down, swaying against her motion as she laughed.

  Come on, Chalk, we’ll be late!

  “Late for what?” He asked the specter of his love.

  For the rest of our lives. Gods, you’re thick sometimes.

  “Lina.” Thoughts of his mother struck him in force as he wept. “What’s it like to die?”

  It’s not so bad, Chalk. She shrugged. But I’m not dead yet. Let’s go.

  “I can’t,” he said. “I have to let you go. I have to…”

  But... She looked at her feet then raised her hands. You said you’d never let me go.

  “I know Lina…” His vision blurred with tears, and he rolled away from the wall. He couldn’t bear to look at her any longer. “I know.”

  He wept and raged into his mattress. Every outburst was separated by long moments of a peace laced with denial. This couldn’t be real, he told himself over and over. This couldn’t be happening. Eventually sleep found him before he realized how exhausted he was.

  Chakra dreamed. He rarely dreamed, but this one felt so real. He saw Melina's face, sorrowful and lost, enshrouded in the night. Then he was riding a dark horse, much like his father's, and as he came through the forest he stumbled upon an immense black castle. The structure was intact, but vines grew over its face. It had stood uninhabited for decades. At least by humans.

  He dismounted to approach over the moat on foot, carrying a solitary flame in his hand at the end of a torch. There was no color left in the world save the orange of its glow. Life, he realized. I’m carrying life.

  Melina was in that castle. He knew it with certainty. Trapped, dying, and alone. He drew his sword as he pressed on the massive doors to pass through the walls. He was wearing armor, he realized as he entered, but that realization faded quickly as his determination flared. I have to save her.

  He awoke with a start, knowing it was more than a dream. It was what he had to do. He couldn’t just let her die. He never had a chance to save his mother. He wouldn’t miss the chance to save his love.

  The moons rose a little farther in the sky before he moved to open his door. No lanterns burned in the house, and though he couldn't yet hear his father snoring, he knew he must be close to sleep. He stole through the house, grabbing a sack and filling it with bread and the last of the season's apples. He didn't want to leave them with nothing to eat, but he knew he would need whatever he could find here. Where he was going, he was uncertain he would find anything else.

  Chakra tied the bag off and then looped the rope over his left shoulder. He carried his boots so as to move silently to the stables where their one remaining horse, Cloud, stood waiting in his stall. They had been forced to sell the others to survive the last few months, and while he was loathe to take his father's last horse, he knew he had no choice.

  Cloud was a beautiful stallion, black in his coloring save the white star on his forehead and single cuff of white around his left foreleg. His father had named Cloud when they first got him for the thunder of his hooves and the billow of his mane. There wasn't another horse like him in the village. Chakra saddled the horse as quietly as he could, rubbing his nose regularly and giving him one of the apples to keep him silent. He threw as much hay down as he could over the stones that lay scattered among the dirt path leading from the stable, then returned to draw Cloud out.

  He put his boots on in the hay then swung up into the saddle, grabbing his father's old sword from the lintel as he passed silently out into the yard. He was bound to take it, one way or the other. He swung the belt over his right shoulder so that the sword rested on his back, then set out around the outskirts of the village as quietly as he could manage.

  Melina's cottage stood silent in the darkness, the lights long burned out and the chimney no longer smoking. Her parents could not be any less restless than he, and therein lay the most difficult part of what came next. He could only bring Cloud so close before they heard even the quietest of his movements. It only made it worse that in the chill of the night the stallion snorted more than usual, sending up clouds of steam that glowed white in the light of the converging moons.

  He would have to approach on foot. He tied the bag of food to the saddle and tightened the belt so that the sword hugged him firmly as he approached the house from the side. There were no windows on the side with the stable, and the sheep that gathered both in and around it were huddled close together for warmth.

  As he drew near he realized that there was no way to get up against the cottage without going through the clusters of sheep. He picked his way as lightly as he could, hoping to keep from waking any of them. Then he stepped on a tail in the grass.

  The sheep the tail belonged to bleated the longest scream he had ever heard as it launched into the air and knocked the other sheep near it about. In an instant, every sheep in the immediate area, and soon the entire flock, were on their feet, baaing and crying and running away from Chakra.

  They careened around the cottage, fleeing into the pastureland beyond in a state of utter panic. Chakra ran to the wall of the stable, throwing his back against it as Melina's father came rushing out of the front of the cottage, cursing and shouting and chasing his sheep for fear that they were under attack from a predator. Chakra peered around the cottage, the shepherd dashing away from him with his crook in one hand and his knife in the other.

  Now's my chance, he thought as he slunk forward and stole into the cottage. No one was in the hearthroom, and no light burned to greet him. He swung the door to Melina's room open silently and crept up to her bed, pushing her blanket under her as he scooped her up into his arms. She felt so tiny, so frail as she coughed and mumbled something under her breath.

  “Chalk?” she asked weakly, the disease already claiming her ability to speak.

  He shushed her as he turned to leave. “It's ok, Lina. I'm going to make everything all right.”

  He glanced into the hearthroom, then made for the door. He looked outside quickly before committing, her father still nowhere in sight as the sheep had bound over the hill in the distance.

  “Chakra.”

  Chakra turned as his heart started racing anew, her mother standing behind him in the darkness.

  “I'm sorry,” he said as he backed through the door.

  She shook her head as he turned to go. “Gods forgive you.”

  - - -

  Leaves and branches ripped at Chakra’s face as he raced through the woods, seeking the ancient road that ran into the mountains and led to the woods doctor. The pain on his cheeks was overshadowed by that in his gut. He refused to notice either as much as he could help it.

  The old man lived in the ruins of some broken-down castle, wedged in between dark peaks that had once housed a city of their own. The city was long-abandoned and deteriorated into ruins, much like the castle where the woods doctor lived. But there he stayed, tending to the forest and practicing arts that everyone Chakra knew condemned as evil.

  He came upon the road so quickly that he almost ran straight over it without realizing. The broken stones left jagged shadows in the brilliant light of the moon. He leaned over Melina, holding her close and checking her fever.

  You're burning alive... Her breath came in shallow rasps. I have to hurry.

  He kicked Cloud into action, racing along the road as fast as the dark horse dared to run. The tears streamed to his ears now, his fear growing in direct relation to his hopes for his love. Melina couldn't die... she wouldn't, not so long as he lived to see her safe.

  “I'll take you where they'll never find us,” he whispe
red into the wind. “Where day and night dissolve.” And they had better not find us, because if they do they’ll kill me for this. He tore into the mountains, willing the horse to go faster, hours passing like minutes until suddenly he saw the castle come around a bend in the road.

  It rose dramatically over him, obscuring the stars as if eating them whole. Only one tower still stood against the half-dark sky. The left half of the structure looked to have crumbled some time ago. He slowed in his approach, holding Melina firmly with his left hand as he came to the moat and crossed the broken bridge to the outer wall. The mountains to either side of the castle soared overhead, dominating the night sky in a way that Chakra had never thought possible.

  Please be here.

  They entered the courtyard. The moons cast their double-shadows, drawing an ominous scene before them as the walls spread and opened beyond. Chakra dismounted as best he could while supporting Melina, then let her fall off of the horse into his arms before laying her down on a large slab of stone. She felt so light.

  “Hello?” He yelled into the echoing ruins. “Is anyone here?”

  Nothing answered save for silence, broken only by the distant song of a nightlark.

  “HELLO?!” He screamed, desperation entering on the edge of his call.

  The tall stone walls surrounding them echoed back his cry. Chakra wandered to look around, but refused to stray far from Melina, who lay still on the slab behind him. He hollered and shouted but no response came save the steady growing fear in his stomach.

  Was Thruss wrong? He walked back to Melina and cradled her hand in his. Are all of the stories just lies, this place a hollow fairy tale to keep children from wandering into the mountains? Did I bring her up here for a story?

  He couldn't return to his village now, not after what he had done. Stealing Melina away in the night from her deathbed... from her family... it was unforgivable. Her father was certainly aware of what he had done by now. The veiled enmity between them would now be unbridled. Chakra would have to take her back if she died, he should allow her family to bury her, but he couldn't. Not now. And all because the old man in the woods had been nothing more than a myth.

  The thought made him rage anew. “Woods doctor!”

  The silence that followed struck like a death knell. There was no echo that reached back to him, no illusion of life from afar. Melina coughed as she struggled to breathe. Had he brought her here to die? Away from her family? They would never let him come home now. And he had taken the King’s silver… they would send Monks to find him, to punish and bring him back.

  What have I done?

  Chakra knelt next to her, pulling gently on her hair as he ran his fingers along her brow. Please don't go, Lina... please.

  Melina's lips quivered as if to speak, but as they drew back, the only noise they made was a rasp of dying breath. Her eyes stayed shut.

  “Please, Lina.” Chakra held her face still as a tear ran down his own. “Please.”

  The moons rose, the breeze stirred the grass, and Chakra's rage boiled. Rage from fear, from anger at the flux, and anger at himself. He grit his teeth and threw his head back one last time. “WOODS DOCTOR!”

  “Yes yes.” The crackling voice of an old man startled him. He turned to find a kindly smile framed in wrinkled skin staring down at him in the moonslight. “No need to shout, my boy. I may be old but I'm not deaf yet.” He looked past Chakra and pointed a short zigzag of a cane at Melina, who was alive but struggling to breathe. “What's wrong with her?”

  “Please.” Chakra turned back to her, relief stumbling over uncertainty. “She has the black flux.”

  “Oh,” the old man said with a stark tone of realization. “I see.”

  “Aren't you the woods doctor?”

  “Yes,” the old man drew the word out tentatively. His frame seemed to shrink in the light, gnarled fingers jutting out from a thick, ragged cloak to wrap around the head of his cane. He rested on it with a sigh. “There were those who called me that.”

  “I was told you can help her!”

  “Notice,” the old man said as he stepped closer to take a look. “It's 'woods' doctor. Not 'damsel' doctor.”

  “I was told...” Chakra looked down at Melina. Everything I was told is a lie…

  All his hope began to vanish with the passing breeze.

  “You were told the truth, in a way.” The old man touched her throat gently and turned her head. “But I've only ever cured the trees of the black flux. They get it too, you know?”

  “Trees?” Trees can get it… can he save trees? Maybe people? Chakra's tumultuous sense of hope and despair rolled through him like a wave.

  The old man paused to think, the frayed fabric of his cloak haloing his stooped figure in the moonslight. “Well, they don't get it in the lungs of course, but they do get it. Originally, it was meant for them. That blasted coal from the eastern mines is no good. Sabotaged by those filthy Mentalists so long ago. They should have stopped mining it a century ago. With trees, all you need is water, some sap, and a good wood drill. But humans, well, humans are a different story. Particularly when it comes to being drilled.”

  A gust of wind caught Melina's hair and laid it over her face. Chakra pushed it back with his thumb, feeling a fleeting rush of his own exhaustion in the moment. “Can you help her?”

  “Well...” The old man leaned slowly over his cane. “I can keep her alive while you help her.”

  “What?” Chakra blinked reddened eyes as he looked up at the man. “What do you mean?”

  “There is a way to do it, to save her, but the power required is greater than any I possess.”

  “I'll do anything.” Chakra stood as his determination struck out against his desperation. “I will do anything.”

  “Good.” The old man motioned for him to carry her. “Because your dedication will certainly be put to the test.”

  - - -

  “She is well advanced with the disease.” The woods doctor placed his ear to her mouth to listen to her breathe. Chakra couldn't even see her chest rise or fall as she lay still beneath the old man's searching eyes. The woods doctor took a step back from the slab of granite they had lain her on at the center of the castle's ruined keep. “She doesn't have much time.”

  “What do we need to do?”

  “I need to give her something to keep her alive as long as possible. That is about all I can do for her for now. You need to go fetch the items that we need to save her.”

  “Items?” Chakra continued to hold Melina's hand as he watched the old man gather herbs and potions from a hidden enclave against the wall. “What items could you need that you don't already have?”

  “Oh.” The woods doctor gave him a knowing look before continuing to gather vials. “Plenty.”

  He shuffled over to a low bowl and began to sprinkle bits of leaves and strange dusts into it before he began adding liquids that glowed dimly as he poured.

  “What I need from you is beyond me to gather.” The woods doctor patted his crooked leg through his cloak. “I'm old, you see? You're young, and fit to fight. You even brought your own sword, which puts you ahead of the game. That's good because you will need every second you can buy.”

  He ground his potion in the bowl with a short nub of blackened wood and brought it over to Melina. “This will only keep her alive until the second sunset from now. Once the sun rises on the second day, she will be gone from you forever.”

  Two sunrises? Chakra swallowed hard. That’s so soon.

  The thick teal liquid ran over her lips and slid down her throat. She didn't cough or choke, even as the woods doctor finished draining the bowl into her mouth. “It binds itself to the flux, and gives the air a pathway through.”

  “Couldn't we give it to her every couple of days then?” Chakra asked as the woods doctor returned the bowl to its place near the wall. The room they were in still had the faint appearance of an elaborate home, but looked like it had been struck by a comet somewhere along t
he line.

  “The cost of the potion is that it burns the lungs. Without the proper power, there is no healing them and it becomes as lethal as the flux.” He beckoned Chakra over with his hand. “Follow me. She'll be alright without you, don't worry. It is you who must begin the task at hand, the first sunrise is only hours away.”

  Chakra followed him up a flight of broken stairs into a room that was filled with ancient, rusted sets of armor and weapons. At its center stood a platform upon which rested the most beautifully crafted piece of armor Chakra had ever seen. It was a band that came to long points on both ends of one side and narrowed down to half that length on the other. In the center of the longer side rested what appeared to be a blue topaz.

  At first Chakra thought it was catching the moonslight that filtered in through the broken ceiling and hanging mosses above. Then he realized it glowed gently of its own accord.

  “This is the first of eight pieces of armor you are to collect.” The woods doctor held it up to him, clasping it around his left forearm when Chakra finally offered it up. “It contains a magic from the old world that will guide you to the rest of the set.”

  “What am I looking for?” Chakra studied his armored arm as he drew his finger along the delicate lines that decorated the vambrace.

  “What you would expect a set of armor to contain.” The old man began walking back towards the hearthroom where Melina slept. “A helmet, pauldrons, cuirass, rerebraces to match that vambrace I gave you, cuisses, greaves, and boots. You'll look a bit patchy without any mail underneath or the vambrace for your right forearm, but it isn't about how you look in any case.”

  The old man turned to face him as they returned to the central room. “There are two things you must know before I send you out to gather these items. The first is that each is guarded by some monster or another that has been drawn to its power and will not let it go without a fight, probably even at the cost of its own life. These monsters will be strange to you; they will not look like anything of which you have ever heard. The second is that the topaz in this vambrace has brothers in each and every piece of armor. These are what you are really after. The greaves and cuisses are in one piece for each leg, for example, and the boots may be separated as well. You must bring back only armor which contains a blue topaz that responds to this one. That is your guarantee that you have the correct armor.”