Ruby- Lost & Found

by M. D. Grimm

  "I just can't." Frustration was evident in his voice.

  "No deal then." I rolled over and curled up. "You're a stubborn fuck," he spat.

  I couldn't help but grin. "I'm glad you put my lessons to good use."

  "Fuck you."

  I chuckled even as my stomach flipped. If only. If only.

  ***

  I went off on my own in the early morning before Aishe woke up. I needed to meditate and search for a way to find the bastard sorcerer. I sat down in a small clearing, and the only noise was the occasional flap of a bird's wings and the chatter of a squirrel. I would be able to enter meditation quite easily. The air was clear and cool, and this forest held a different feel than Vorgoroth. The atmosphere was lighter and more open, like the forest where the revenai had attacked Aishe and me. The trees around me were white and brown with only a speckle of black. The leaves went from bright yellow to dark green with some orange thrown in. The forest was cheerful, welcoming, and I swear even the animals smiled. It made me miss my home, a lot. I crossed my legs and my hands rested on my knees before I closed my eyes and focused on breathing.

  I planned on tracking the ruby. I figured I could search for and latch onto Rambujek's unique magickical signature, and since I counted on Kayl to keep using the stone, now that he was drunk with the power, it wouldn't be too hard to find the trail. Any magick that was harnessed and used left a signature that could be identified and could be followed if the searcher was skilled enough and knew what to look for. It was similar to hunting, like a hunter would look for tell-tale signs of animals such as footprints, scat, rubbings on tree trunks, you know the deal. Well, I was looking for something like that, and since I'd seen the stone and felt its heady power, it wouldn't be too hard to find. I just needed uninterrupted concentration.

  I was able to enter a state of consciousness that had nothing to do with the dimension most of us lived in, the surface dimension. I dug deeper and searched, part of my being outside my body. The reality I was in shifted and churned and was like a shadow realm of the surface world that only part of my conscious could inhabit. In this world I could see trails of color left by immensely magickal beings. My own trail was there; it was a dark blue, which always puzzled me. I really thought it should be black, but you didn't get to choose what color you exuded.

  I looked around and followed different trails, quickly going back to where I had last encountered the sorcerer. But before I got there, I hit a block. It was like an invisible wall that brought me up short. Scowling, I tried to run around it and climb over it, but nothing worked. So, this bastard knew some tricks, or the stone did. I gave the credit to Rambujek.

  I brought myself back to my body and sucked in a breath as I opened my eyes. My vision was blurry for a heartbeat or two before it returned to normal. I rubbed the center of my forehead and tried to think of something else. My body still ached from the sorcerer's assault, and I pushed aside my jacket to check on my scars. They looked good, considering. I had gone through multiple healing sessions with Aishe which had been intimately uncomfortable. They had been for my stomach because not only had Kayl sliced open my innards, but it would seem he put some sort of flesh eating poison in there as well. I considered that a little overdramatic. Just in case I didn't bleed out and my guts didn't fall to the ground, my insides would be eaten away.

  This guy really needed to die.

  Aishe was a skilled healer, but he had struggled to keep me alive. I had a feeling the others in the tribe had helped him, but no one said anything. Thanks weren't needed. I was humbled yet again by their efforts to keep me breathing. Humbled mostly because I didn't think I was worth all that effort.

  I stood up and kicked a tree in anger, and it swung a branch down at my head. I ducked just in time and missed being beheaded.

  "Watch it!" I slapped at another tree branch and flame erupted from my hand. "Try that again, and I'll set you aflame."

  The tree quivered, and if trees had fingers, it would have been giving me the middle one. I extinguished the fire in my hand and walked back to the tribe, no closer to reaching my goal. ***

  Aishe wasn't talking to me. I found myself missing his voice, his company. His eyes. He spent all of his time with the other dialen, hunting or participating in archery competitions. He was honing his skills, and I realized I was brooding. I had always been good at that. I honed my own skills, which the few dialen children found wonderfully entertaining. I must have as well because I found myself performing for them. Their eager little faces were all smiles, and their eyes were bright with glee. I didn't have much experience with children, but I thought I was doing pretty damn good.

  "Again!" squealed one little female, who wasn't any taller than my hip. Her hair was black, with dark green eyes like the leaves that fell to my forest's floor. She was a tiny little thing and probably weighed no more than a feather. There were ten children ringed around me, and instead of feeling suffocated, I felt pleased.

  I laughed. "What about the rest of you? Want me to do it again?"

  Their answer was a resounding yes.

  "But more this time," suggested one little male, who had big blue eyes and seemed to be the oldest of the bunch. He was at least taller than all the rest.

  I rolled my eyes. "I have such a demanding audience. How will I ever satisfy them?"

  I smiled, and small balls of light appeared above my palms. "Maybe like this."

  More light balls appeared, all different colors, and I began to juggle. I soon had twenty globes bouncing from hand to hand, and the children were clapping with delight. Their faces, young and innocent, were fixed to the globes, waiting for me to drop them, hoping I didn't. I was never that innocent, not at their age, not at any age. Innocence had always been just a word to me, synonymous with naïve and ignorant. But as I looked into their faces, observed their joy, I realized I was wrong. There was a big difference between innocence and ignorance.

  I suddenly stopped juggling, but the light balls didn't disappear. They floated in the air, and the children oohed and awed. With a few gestures of my hands and a word in my head, I had the globes floating towards the children, illuminating their faces. One female, the smallest, reached out and touched a globe. I knew it would be warm in her hands, but it wouldn't harm her. She cupped the small ball in her hands and gave me a huge grin, and I felt my heart suddenly melt when I noticed the gap between her teeth. She'd lost a tooth recently.

  I moved my hands, and ten balls floated back to me. They came to rest over my palm and hovered for a short moment before vanishing. The other ten were held in the hands of the children. With a word, the balls became solid, no longer just glowing colored lights. I smiled at the gasps.

  "A gift," I said. I'd never felt compelled to give a gift before, but at that moment, it felt right.

  The globes still had a faint glow and were transparent. I even made sure they bounced.

  "Enjoy," I said and was shocked and horrified when all ten children flooded toward me and hugged me. I froze, and I raised my arms far above their heads. I looked around frantically for a way to get away from them.

  "Okay, little ones," Aishe said as he walked up with an amused expression on his face. "Let the mage go. He and I have to talk."

  I swallowed my sigh of relief as the children let go and waved goodbye. I waved back, feeling shaky and a little lightheaded. Once they disappeared, Aishe remained silent.

  "Thanks," I said, rubbing my chest. "I'd rather handle a rampaging clan of truls than those things."

  Aishe raised an eyebrow; I was insanely happy he was acknowledging me again.

  "They're children, Morgorth. Not things. And you handled them very well."

  I narrowed my eyes. "You were spying?"

  He shrugged, unconcerned. "Perhaps. Thought I'd check where you were."

  "You talking to me again?"

  He fingered his bow and lowered his eyes. "It would seem I am. You're very difficult to get along with."

  "Yes, I am." I straig
htened the robes the children had wrinkled.

  "But what I can't understand is whether the difficulty is natural or fake."

  I frowned and was about to respond when a shadow fell over us, and I heard a loud flapping noise. Stirred wind ripped around us, and I looked up with a smile. Finally, this halt in our search was at its end.

  Enfernlo.

  Chapter Twelve

  Enfernlo landed in a clearing not far from the main camp. After introducing him to the tribe and then sending them away as politely as I could, I was finally able to greet my friend. Enfernlo stood about twelve feet off the ground from claw to shoulder, and from snout to tail he was about three times that. His body was serpentine, and his scales were dark blue and shimmered when the light hit them. Two silver horns curved over his eyes before striking out wickedly behind his head. His snout was long and filled with sharp, black teeth, and his eyes, big and a pale blue, could look right into your soul. Or, at least, I've always thought so.

  He had wings that were nearly double his body length, and I had to say he looked much more graceful flying than he did walking. The only thing that marred his beauty was a nasty burn that blackened his scales along his left shoulder. He had gotten it during his first mating season when he'd been arrogant enough to take on a much older and bigger male.

  He was much wiser now and at the peak of his strength. He would grow larger and had recently learned the ability to shrink his size. But the shrinkage was only temporary, and the bigger he grew, the bigger his smaller size had to be.

  "You made good time," I said.

  "I was going to Geheimnis when the querian found me. Others are not far behind." His voice seemed to echo out of his chest, deep and strong. It knocked against my bones, like the pounding of a large bass drum. But it didn't hurt my ears, not in the least.

  "Others will help?" I asked, touching his snout when he leaned his massive head down. His scales were smooth and warm, and it felt so good to look into his friendly face again. My muscles loosened, my anxiety fading. His presence soothed me.

  "Yes. Many are eager to." He rolled one of those magnificent eyes to Aishe and tilted his head towards the dialen.

  "You have my sympathies for what was done to your tribe. May the Mother guide their spirits to rest."

  Aishe had said nothing since En's arrival, but now he bowed his head, his face slightly paler than usual.

  "You honor me, my lord. I thank you for your assistance."

  "As you should thank me," Enfernlo acknowledged. Then, in my head, "I like him. He smells nice."

  I scowled. "You're supposed to not like him and tell me why being with him is a bad idea."

  If a creature got the stamp of approval from a payshtha, then it was idiotic not to put your trust (and in my case, my heart) in them. I'd always wondered why Enfernlo had approved of me all those years ago and why he had become my closest friend.

  "Is that what I should do?" I heard the laughter in his mental voice. "I'm afraid I will be forced to disappoint you. I see what is in your heart."

  "I have a plan to stop Kayl," I said immediately, putting an end to that mental probing. "I have a good idea what he will do when we catch up to him. He's a thug and not very imaginative."

  "I don't know," Aishe said, stepping closer, his eyes fixed on Enfernlo. "I thought the revenai was imaginative."

  I shrugged. "He doesn't change up his routine much. I've fought him twice; I know his techniques. I could take him in a fair fight."

  "That is why he won't fight fair," Enfernlo pointed out. "Which is why you have need of my brethren. You fear he will raise more revenai."

  "I guarantee he will," I said. "This is going to be a war."

  Enfernlo nodded his head. "But there is one thing about Rambujek you should know. The stones are not loyal to the one who wields them."

  I frowned. "What do you mean?"

  "Rambujek wants Kayl to fail. The stones delight in destruction, even the ones who would seem to help. They not only addict the user, they are directly responsible for the user's death. Once the user unlocks all the power and has the ability to change the cosmos, the stone will betray them. But only after the user has done much damage to the world around him."

  "Too bad," I said. "Otherwise, we might have just waited until Rambujek decided it was done playing with Kayl."

  "That would be unwise," Enfernlo said, his voice serious.

  "Why would the first mages create such horrible stones?" Aishe asked. "Why would they take the chance of someone dreadfully inexperienced to harness such powerful magick?"

  "The road to tragedy is paved with good intentions," Enfernlo said sadly. "We cannot really know their true intentions, because none of us were alive then. Not even the oldest payshtha I know was alive then. All we have are legends and myth to instruct us."

  "I wish we had more," I said, and I thought hard on the myth as I had learned it, as my mentor had told it to me. It just never made sense to me, that the mages would put all that magick into the stones without any set purpose. And the fact that the stones destroyed their wielders made me suspicious, in my gut, that the mages did that on purpose. But why?

  "When will the other payshthas arrive, Lord Enfernlo?" Aishe asked.

  I smiled slightly at his formal title. I could tell my payshtha friend was both amused and intrigued.

  "My friends call me En," the payshtha said. Aishe's face lit up, and he looked like he'd been given the greatest gift of his life. I had a vision of what he must have looked like before his tribe was slaughtered.

  "They will arrive tomorrow."

  "How many?" I asked.

  "Ten, maybe more."

  Nice. Really nice. I patted Enfernlo's snout and just stared at him. "It's really nice to have you back, my friend."

  He closed his eyes when I scratched his snout, and I gestured for Aishe to come closer. He did with hesitation, and I grabbed his hand and set it on Enfernlo's nose. Aishe trembled but began to scratch as I did, and we both chuckled when En gave a growly purr.

  ***

  Enfernlo and I decided to go back to where Kayl was attacked by the helioon to see if there was anything of him I could use for a spell. I still had the crystal that the original hair had been tied to, and I had to hope I could find something else to tie to it.

  Riding on the back of payshtha was an experience. The sheer strength and age of Enfernlo made me feel small, and not a lot of creatures could do that. His wisdom far surpassed mine simply because he had lived so long. He was in his six-hundredth year of life and hadn't even reached middle age yet.

  I was a child, comparatively.

  The wind blew through my hair and whipped my jacket behind me. The land looked so strange from my safe perch, but I was still able to direct my friend back to where we needed to be. Enfernlo made the trip interesting by doing a few aerial dives and spins that made me laugh until my sides hurt. He always tried to scare me, but he had yet to succeed.

  Fire exploded out of Enfernlo's mouth, and I snorted and covered my eyes with my arms as we flew through it. The fire of payshthas was part of the very essence of creation, the stars, and the cosmos. It destroyed or created, depending on the payshtha's intent. It wasn't just fire from their insides, it was part of their spirit, their life source, their core. They continued to control it even when it left their bodies and was brought to the outside. I knew the fire would not burn me because Enfernlo would never hurt me. I trusted him implicitly.

  But I still felt the heat and smelled the smoke. I coughed. I blinked rapidly, leaned over his shoulder, and gazed at the ground. There was a possibility that I would find some usable hair or even some pieces of his clothes because of the helioon attack. I didn't go back earlier simply for safety reasons. I didn't want my guts spilled on the ground again.

  "There." I pointed, and Enfernlo dived. He circled the area before landing softly. I slipped off of him and scoured the area, my eyes locked on the ground.

  Enfernlo stayed where he was and moved his
head back and forth, his eyes sharper than my own.

  "Why did Aishe not come with us?" he asked after a few minutes of silence.

  I bent and moved my fingers through the grass. "He's safer with the dialen. I put a protective spell around the tribe. He can't protect himself against the stone's power."

  I felt the payshtha's eyes on my back, and I ignored him.

  "I must admit, this change in you is remarkable. I have never seen you so concerned with another's safety."

  I knew what he was fishing for, and I kept my mouth shut. Enfernlo shoved me with his nose. I stumbled and turned around with a scowl.

  "We're not talking about this now, En. Not now. We have to find Kayl, Aishe has to kill him, and I have to get the ruby. That's where my focus has to be."

  Enfernlo turned his head, and his big eye stared me down. "Tell me, Lazur. Why is he so important to you?"

  I could only stare at him. He saw the answer in my eyes. My friend nuzzled my cheek, and I patted his scales.

  "Don't be afraid."

  Easy for him to say. Payshthas were solitary creatures, though the older ones sometimes found companions among other species to live with them. They did bond, but only in later life. En wasn't old enough.

  I stepped back and turned around to continue my search, but my magick suddenly vibrated inside me and I gasped in shock.

  "What the fuck?" I looked in the direction of the Velorn tribe. "Something's wrong. We have to go back."

  "I feel it," Enfernlo said. I leapt on Enfernlo's back, and he launched into the sky. We sped back, and as we approached the forest, I could feel that the barrier was gone. Dread slithered like snakes inside my stomach, and I leaned forward, wishing En could go faster.

  "Look!" Enfernlo said. I saw it. Fire, smoke, and I began to hear the screams. Trees and buildings were aflame, and the fire ate like a hungry beast through the forest.

  Fear clenched my stomach as we sped through the air, diving and dodging trees and weaving around branches. I leapt off of Enfernlo before he landed and ran to the main camp, straight into the fire. My friend followed me, using his own fire to quell the sorcerer's flames. I got to the tribe in time to stop a rather nasty wall of fire from burning the tribe where they lay tied on the ground. I fought with the fire as the dialens screamed and fought against their bonds. I didn't know how the asshole did it, but I knew what this meant. The stone was nearly fully unlocked. The speed of his attack, the breaking of my barrier, and this fire... He was nearly all powerful. We were running out of time.