Journey of Darkness

by Samantha Jacobey

  “These guys look so different,” Rey whispered, drawing the same conclusions.

  “Shh, don’t be rude,” Piers instructed, holding his grin.

  “Far enough, mortal of the rim,” a decorated male called when only ten feet lay between them.

  “I’m Piers Massheby,” the Mate announced, wearing his wide fake smile. “My friends call me The Mate.”

  “I am aware of you and your friends,” a large troll in front replied, scowling at his use of their tongue. “I am Yaodus, king of these lands, and your words are of no use to me.”

  “Oh,” Piers clipped. “We’ve come to speak to you. We found your…” His voice trailed away, unsure what to call the sacrificed animals.

  “They were a warning, one you do not heed,” Yaodus groaned. “Now you die.”

  “No, wait!” the Mate shouted, dropping his sword to hold up his palms. The blade landed, tip first, so that the handle rocked back and forth in the air. His eyes drawn to the shiny metal, he stared at it for a moment, his mind trapped in the night he had faced the dragon on the Sea Serpent before he swam to the raft and escaped with the others.

  “Please,” he said more calmly, returning to the present. “We are here in peace, as we mean you no harm.”

  “Harm is of no meaning,” came the burly reply.

  Perplexed, Rey stepped forward, stabbing his weapon into the ground to his left. “No meaning,” he repeated. “Sure, it has meaning. You recognize that we are men, you know we are trapped here. All we want is to leave.”

  “Then leave,” Yaodus bellowed, “back the way you came.”

  “We can’t go back,” Piers replied weakly, his brow furrowed. “We came here to build a ship, that we may sail from these shores and return to the rim.”

  Laughter rippled through the forty or so trolls who had joined their sovereign. “Such fools,” he informed them, hoisting his spear and throwing it across the narrow gap between them.

  Caught in the chest, on the right side, Piers gasped. The blade cut cleanly between his ribs, and shoots of pain took him to his knees as he grasped at the handle. Falling onto his back, he lay flat, staring at the sky above him.

  “No!” Rey screamed, grabbing his sword and waving it at them wildly. Laughter rumbled again, louder this time.

  Realizing he could not take them all, he dropped to his knees next to his friend. Tossing the weapon aside, his hands hung in the air as he considered his options. Seizing the wooden shaft, he huffed, “Should I pull it out?”

  “No,” Piers grunted, rocking his skull side to side against the wet earth. Reaching up, his fingers wormed through the dark ringlets to find the back of his comrade’s neck. Pulling him down, closer, his lips whispered, “Tell Meena I’m sorry and that I have loved her as no other.”

  “Shit,” Reynard spat, his eyes filled with tears. “This isn’t happening,” he gasped.

  “Please,” the Mate begged, knowing his end was near. “Tell Amicia that I did my best to be the man she needed me to be… ” His voice trailed away, and his eyes stared at the sky above. In the distance, to the east, he could see three shapes, like small points in the sky. “The dragons,” he gasped.

  “Piers,” Rey sobbed. “Don’t talk, ok. Let me think. There has to be a way to stop this.”

  Standing behind them, the trolls seemed to be enjoying the display. “The weakness of mortals,” the king spat.

  “You’ve just stabbed my best friend in the chest,” Rey declared through gritted teeth. “You are savages. Let us build our vessel and be gone from this wretched place. You could have allowed us that!” he screamed, getting to his feet to face them. “He didn’t have to die!”

  “You wish to be shown sympathy?” Yaodus snarled.

  “We wish to be shown something! Decency would have sufficed. We’ve done nothing to you. Given you no cause to be treated as such. Is there no healer among you?”

  “A healer,” the decorated troll to the king’s left chortled. “I am all the healer we have need of. I see the dead to the next life. Shall I escort your friend?” he offered, a crooked grin on his pale lips.

  His vision swimming, Rey wiped his snot on his arm, below his sleeve, tears of anguish and rage filling his eyes. “You bastards,” he said quietly, settling to his knees once again and laying his head next to Piers’s as he cried.

  Stepping forwards, the king reached his victim to reclaim his spear. “Return to your women,” he commanded. “We come for the rest in three days. You should be gone before we get there.”

  The blade yanked from his chest, scorching pain filled the Mate’s lungs, as the blood poured into the cavity of his chest. He knew he only had a few minutes and that no medicine could save him. “Ami,” he reached out, searching for the girl he would never hold.

  “Piers,” she replied, her voice trembling.

  “I was wrong, love,” he informed her. “Prepare what you can and be ready to leave. Rey will be there in a few minutes, and you must flee this very night. The trolls are coming for you… They will kill you all if you cannot get away.”

  Aloud, he gasped, “Go, my friend. Return to the others and lead them from this place.”

  “I’m not leaving you here,” Rey cried, his hand covering the gurgling wound. “Dear God, please help us. Please don’t let it end like this.”

  No Long Goodbyes

  “NO!” Amicia screamed, flying out the door and tearing into the woods.

  Limbs of trees smacked her in the face as she ran. Ignoring the sting of the cuts and scrapes, she pushed on, sliding and falling over the rocks and remaining snow that spotted the forest floor.

  Hot tears burned her cheeks as she called, “You can’t have him!” as loudly as she could. In that moment, she wished she were a dragon, able to fly, able to reach him in time.

  Her lungs on fire, her side ached, but she pushed for every step, oblivious to any other thing around her. I must reach him. They cannot take him from me. The realization that she was not his tickled the back of her mind. They cannot take him from HER. It would destroy Meena to lose him.

  Panting, fresh drops of sadness formed. Meena. This woman had known great sorrow. Suffered great loss. No, they cannot have our Piers, she inwardly fumed, her teeth grinding as she seethed.

  Behind her, staff in hand, the wan ran hard to keep up, watching the flaxen waves flying behind the girl as she ran. Slipping a few times, her skirt snagging on some of the spring sprouts, she wanted desperately to catch her. She didn’t know what the girl had seen; Amicia had neglected to tell her before she ran from the cabin. Whatever it was, she had to get there.

  Her arms pumping, Amicia reached an open field. Across on the other side, she could see Rey hunched over, the Mate lying flat upon the ground. Nearby stood a gathering of large pitiful creatures. Their blue-tinted bodies grotesque, she knew who they were. The trolls.

  Instantly, anger replaced her tears. She wanted to kill them. To hurt them and torture them for what they had done. “No!” she shouted, alerting them to her approach, and a ripple of murmurs passed through the collection of onlookers.

  Arriving next to Piers, she sank to her knees, digging them into the soft soil.

  “Ami,” he breathed, coughing slightly, with blood oozing from his mouth.

  “Stop it,” she spat. “You aren’t going to die here. You can’t die here!” she declared. Fury coursed through her, and she fought to control the rage. Pulling her hamar gem from her pocket, it glowed brightly as she closed her eyes, imagining the wound beneath her hand as his thick blood coated her fingers.

  She watched it through her spirit, the layers of his flesh, and the wound within, focusing all that she was upon it. She willed it to close. To be healed. To be gone, as if the blade had never pierced his flesh, she panted. The light from the magical stone spread, glowing around them, intensely white and pure.

  His eyes wide, Rey got to his feet, backing away, as did the gathering of trolls. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, the bl
ood on his fingers caked with dirt smeared mud upon his cheek.

  Reaching them, Meena’s staff fell from her trembling fingers and landed with a thud. Collapsing next to the couple as Ami worked to close his wounds. Tears streaming in an instant, she waited. “Please, no!” she wailed. He drew no breath, and she could see no life in his wide, empty eyes.

  Anger seized her, and she grabbed the wooden shaft, fighting the material around her legs to stand in the thick mud of the field. Facing the trolls, she stomped towards them. “You animals!” she screamed, knocking them back with a wave of energy, sending them reeling, many of them to the ground.

  Their king raised his arm against the blast, laughing at her attempt to shake him. “Puny wizard,” he mocked.

  Rising abruptly, Amicia faced them as well. “What of me? Am I puny as well?”

  Raising her stone, the light glowed brightly, and Yaodus glared at it, then dropped his gaze to stare at her, as if seeing her for the first time.

  “Death cannot have him!” she screamed. “You will leave this place. We have as much right to be here as you do. Any of you!”

  Above them, Lamwen screamed, as Jarrowan and Putwyn joined him, slowly circling the gathering at only a few hundred feet. Staring up at them Yaodus gasped. “Dragon’s fire,” he challenged.

  “That’s right!” the girl bellowed, her fist clenched around the stone. “I bring the dragon’s fire,” she snapped, shaking her stone at him. “All I have to do is say the word, and they will burn your forest to the ground.”

  Staring at her, the troll did not doubt, as he could see the flame within her. Taking a step forward, he dropped the spear that he carried, Piers’s blood still coating the tip. “Forgive us, my queen,” he begged, kneeling on one knee before her. “We did not know,” he whispered.

  Shaken, Ami stared at him, dimly aware that the rest of their group had joined them and stood on the far side of the field, watching from the edge of the woods. The wind catching her wild hair, blowing it around her, the magnitude of their loss slammed into her.

  “NO!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, her fists clenched. Spinning, she fell across his lifeless body. Slamming him in the chest with the side of her fist, she cried, “You can’t leave us. You can’t!”

  Her jaw clamped shut, she sucked and pushed the air over her teeth, which bubbled with her saliva. Forcing herself up, she focused once more, cupping the stone and exhaling a deep breath slowly. From within, she willed the life force to be returned to him. “Come back to us,” she whispered. “Come and take Meena to be your wife. Lead us and protect us on our journey of darkness, through this wretched land that knows no humanity,” she begged.

  The light in her hands grew dim, and she stared at it, focusing. “It’s coming,” she whispered. “I feel it!”

  “Ami,” Meena called to her softly, fear twisting her gut. Stepping towards her, she laid a hand upon her shoulder, but the moment she did so, the gem lit up brightly, as if it were a flash from the sun.

  Blasted away, Amicia and Meena both sprawled upon the ground. Piers inhaled a deep breath, his chest expanding and his back arching as his life returned to him within the burst of illumination. Coughing, he rolled over onto his knees, bent over on all fours, sputtering. His hair pulled loose, it hung down, wild around his head and face as the wind swept against them.

  The dragons above them squawked, their screams echoing through the valley. Sitting back on his haunches, he looked up at the creatures, then lowered his gaze to find the two women had regained their feet before him. “I’m not dead,” he croaked, taking in their muddy appearance, as if they had rolled in it.

  “No,” Meena sniffed, on her knees once more beside him, her hand holding his face as the other dropped over his back and pulled him against her.

  Spinning, Amicia faced the trolls, glaring at the king. “You will not harm one of us again.” Cutting her eyes over, she glared at the decorated version next to him. “Which of you officiates?”

  “Officiates?” Yaodus asked, perplexed.

  “Yes. Surely you have weddings. Husbands, wives… families?” she probed.

  “Me,” his decorated comrade professed. “You wish to be married?”

  “Not me, them. You will marry them in three days. You will come to our cabin and bless their union. You,” she turned to their leader, pointing a stiff digit in his face as he still knelt before her. “You will attend and extend to us your welcome to the forest of Yilaric. If you fail to do this, or if any of your kind brings harm to one of us again, I will see to it that no troll draws breath in the Kingdom of Eriden again.”

  Her threat could have been empty, but it could have been exactly as she promised. Getting to his feet, the man before them bore testament to her strength, the sheer depths of her power, and the old troll king knew which he would believe.

  Making a final circle, the dragons flew south, landing within the same valley but well away from the proceedings. His friends gathered near, Lamwen growled, “She has yet again demonstrated her talent. No wonder it took our twisted king so many to bind her into human form.”

  “Tis true,” Jarrowan replied. “Mine eyes have seen, and my heart believes. But we are yet three, how shall we stand against our king when so many has he?” The dragon had been a witness, a hidden shadow as he watched the dreadful event the night the Supreme Dragon had been caged and his heiress imprisoned in her flimsy human form. “I can bear testament, but few would listen,” he moaned.

  “For now, we walk in the shadow, as we are not ready for the light,” the third beast observed, his massive chin raised as he peered into the sky.

  “Yes,” Lamwen agreed. “Go. Return to the cliffs and search for others. Do it quietly, like a whisper upon the wind. Not all of Adiarwen is happy with our new sovereign. Some see the lacking he has and are displeased with his reign. Seek them out and woo them to our cause.”

  “We shall not speak of the girl. Should any hear, they should not know the source of his undoing. She is strong, but she could be taken if they were to find her,” Jarrowan warned.

  “Yes,” Lamwen hissed. “Keep her name guarded, do not let it fall from your tongues. Our princess we will protect as we champion her cause.”

  Wedding Trolls

  Piers awoke to bright light on the third day. A smile on his lips, he laid his arm across the bed, where he had slept alone. Meena’s people bore superstitions about such things, and he was not allowed to see her since the sun set the night before. No, he would not lay eyes on her again until he stood before their friends and took her as his bride.

  “Good morning,” Amicia sang, giving the door a firm knock before she sauntered inside, carrying a bowl of water for him. “And how is our groom?”

  “Alive,” he chuckled, running his hand over the healed wound on his chest. Catching her hand, he stood and pulled her to face him. “You know, at some point, we are going to talk about this.”

  He didn’t specify what, only placing his palm over the place a troll’s spear had formed a hole in his lung.

  “Aye,” she agreed. “Someday I want to hear all about it,” she grinned, pulling away as if to leave it at that.

  “That’s not what I’m talking about, Ami,” he replied, refusing to release her as she pulled as if to get away from him. Raising her arm, she struggled for a moment, then let the appendage fall limp.

  “We both did some things that day,” she sighed. “Yours was pretty stupid,” she spat turning to face him. “Let us not ruin your wedding day, shall we?”

  “You knew I never wanted to be married,” he quipped, raising his brow. “Why would you arrange for a troll, of all people, to marry us?”

  “Seemed like a good idea at the time,” she shrugged. “Besides, if you really wanted to get out of it, I gave you three days to say so.”

  “Aye,” he growled, studying her cool collected self. “And you’re not going to tell me anything. How you managed this?” He brushed the spot again, as if he could flick it a
way with the tips of his fingers.

  Staring at the scar, the crooked edges pink and puckered, she sighed. “I didn’t know I could do it. I only knew I had to try.”

  “And what about the dragon. Tell me about him.”

  “I’m not ready to talk about Lamwen,” she spat, taking a step back.

  “Oh, you’re not ready, are you?” Piers observed, his expression tense. “I thought I knew you, Amicia.”

  “I told you that you didn’t,” she laughed, shaking her golden hair at him. “When I said that I would stop harassing you to marry me.”

  “So, you arranged for it to be someone else,” he smirked, finally losing the scowl.

  “I didn’t pick her. You did. All I did was arrange the wedding. Wash and get outside so we can get her dressed and ready,” she commanded.

  “Is she really going through with this?” he asked, sounding skeptical as he dipped his digits in the liquid.

  “Of course she is. She’s in love with you. More than I ever have been,” she replied with a crooked grin as she made for the door, closing it behind her.

  Alone, the Mate washed his face and then more of his body, still thinking about what had happened the day he and Rey had stood up to the trolls. She’s right about that, he berated himself. It was a damn fool thing to do.

  Staring at the clothing Meena had sewn for him, he thought about their stop at the northern village, then sighed. Never had a woman loved him so much, and never had he felt less like he deserved it. Meena always saw the best in him and yet loved him as he was; every pitiful flaw.

  “I swear to you,” he whispered to himself, brushing the sleeve. “I’m going to live each day, from today to the end, doing my best to be the man you believe me to be.”

  Donning the clothes, he tied his hair up, then opened the door to have a peek. The rest of the house quiet, he assumed the girls were waiting for his exit. “Guess I shouldn’t disappoint them,” he chuckled, his step light when he passed through the front door. On the porch, the other men of the house were waiting for him. “What’s the plan?”