by Kyle West
Protect your neck.
The warning entered my mind, and I obeyed it instantly, holding the wolf’s snapping jaws at bay with my left hand. Its teeth found some of my fingers, and I held on stubbornly, knowing I couldn’t let go, despite the searing, and almost blinding, pain. I had to get out of this pin before the other wolves set on me.
Still holding my blade in my right hand, I adjusted my grip, until I wielded it underhanded, as I would a knife. I screamed as I stabbed with all my strength, ramming the long blade into the side of the wolf’s belly. It yipped, its muscles loosening above me. I wormed from under it, grabbing the hilt of my blade while trying to ignore the bloody gashes on my left hand.
Three dead, four more to go. And all four of them were directly in front of me, though the black, red-eyed alpha hung back calmly, content to let his lackeys do the work. The three smaller, white wolves stalked forward, even as my blade shook in my hands from the pain. I had to survive these four, somehow. The two outside wolves fanned out, to come at me from the sides.
Don’t survive. Win.
In a single breath, the noose closed in, both wolves on the sides charging forward while the center one leaped right for my throat. I stepped widely left to dodge the center wolf at the last possible moment and swept around with my blade to cut down the leftmost one, running forward a few steps to gain some distance. I held my blade backward, without looking, feeling the presence of the rightmost wolf behind me, catching it right below the jaw. But it was already in the air, even as it gave its dying scream. Its body crashed against me as I felt something hot stain the back of my cloak.
Blood.
I tried to keep my feet, but my body hit the snow under its weight, and I dropped my sword in the process. I reached to grab it, but was pinned by the third wolf, which began to tear into my exposed back, its sharp teeth cutting right through my clothes.
Such pain. I screamed, forcing myself to grip the hilt of the blade, which was barely in reach. I summoned whatever strength I had left to slip out from under his paws, and then to face upward, with blade in hand. The wolf, recognizing the threat, danced lightly away, giving me the chance to get up. My back was wet with blood, and burned with such terrible pain that not even Silence could keep it at bay. The white wolf licked its chops, wet with my blood.
I stumbled to the left, barely avoiding the wolf’s next attack, the only thing saving me being my training. From the side of my vision, I could see the black alpha circling around, still content to watch and not join the fray.
I stood shaking, my hands a bleeding mess. I glanced at my hands quickly, noticing for the first time I was missing half a finger. Tears streamed down my face, but they were more from anger than fear or pain.
I will not die here, I thought.
I used Silence to block out the pain as best I could, and to focus on the white wolf now stalking toward me.
I would meet it head on, projecting strength where I had none. I screamed as I swung my sword, but the wolf was quick, dancing like the wind out of harm’s way. It circled around to attack me from the rear. I feinted as if I weren’t quick enough to defend against it, to commit him to the attack. At the last moment, I pivoted and held my sword out, to find the wolf impaling himself on the point of my blade. I withdrew it harshly, with a forceful grunt, and, stood again assuming the starting stance of Treeform as if I hadn’t been beaten bloody by this point.
The alpha stared at me with glowing red eyes, taking the measure of me for at least half a minute. As each moment passed, I felt myself weaken, felt the blood further soaking my cloak. My hands by this point were numb, and given a few more minutes, would stop working altogether. With horror, I realized that the alpha didn’t even need to attack me. It could just watch me bleed out.
But his pride was wounded, his pack destroyed. If I were to die in this place, it would be between his teeth.
It can end, Elekim, he said. Say the word and the pain goes away. Say the word, and you and your friends will be spared a most cruel fate. This promise is guaranteed by the Nameless One, vouchsafed and sure. Or, fight me, Shredder the Terrible, and die and join the others on the Tree for an eternity of pain. The bargain is for you to accept, or to reject.
The Nameless One? I could barely think straight, such was my state, but I would not give up, even if I intrinsically knew the words were true. If I gave up now, all hope was lost for Earth. But the pain was horrible, and I felt so weak. I had barely managed to kill the other wolves. How could I hope to stand against this big one in my weakened state?
I reject the bargain, I said. I’ll fight to my last breath.
* * *
Shredder pulled back his lips, revealing long, yellow teeth in something of a smile, if a creature like him could smile. Slobber dribbled from his chops.
I knew I had to end this quickly. The longer things drew on, the weaker I became. The cold was seeping into my bones, now, and Shredder could win this fight simply by doing nothing.
But both he and I knew that that wasn’t how it was going to end.
He snarled and charged forward. I wouldn’t be fast enough to dodge him, as I had done with the others. I took a step back and braced myself for the impact, only moving my blade to meet him when he leapt into the air. He swerved his body adroitly in midair, belying his heft, but the edge of my blade still cut him deep.
But not deep enough to mortally wound him. Shredder landed right on top of me and there was nothing I could do as his weight pressed me into the snow. I felt several ribs crack under his weight, while agony ripped through my left lung. I fought for breath as my vision darkened, as his teeth pressed close to my neck. I turned my neck away, the only thing I knew to do in that moment. My blade was gone, far away from me.
All I could do was shield my neck, causing him to tear into my shoulder instead, which he grabbed with his teeth to toss me aside. A scream tore from me as I arced through the air, choked on my own blood. By sheer happenstance, I had been tossed close to my dropped weapon, my hand resting next to its hilt.
It was now or never.
I grabbed hold of it with both hands and twisted my torso toward Shredder, screaming in pain as I did so. How much blood did I have left? Silence alone powered me, guided my movements. I began slicing the air, and Shredder hopped back away from my blade.
My blade will find you, beast, I thought. Even if I die trying.
Shredder snarled while his hackles raised. He gave a snap, and I let his teeth sink into me. It had to be done – my certain death in exchange for his certain death. With the last bit of my strength, I brought Katan forward in a stabbing motion and pierced him through his chest.
He gave a high, piercing howl, that turned into a pitiful whimper. The baleful red eyes met mine one last time, full of fire and loathing, as I sunk the blade deeper with every ounce of strength I had left. His whines were at last silenced as his hot life’s blood poured forth, reddening the snow beneath us.
I collapsed on the snow, hardly able to keep conscious. I didn’t have the strength to even sheathe my blade. The snowstorm became more intense, falling thickly. I looked at a nearby tree, wondering if I could make it there to die in relative comfort.
No, there wasn’t strength even for that. I felt the coldness of the snow beneath seeping in.
“Shanti?”
My eyes lifted, and I forced them to focus. Isa stood before me, more dream than reality.
“Oh, Shanti. We’ve got to get out of this place,” she said.
I couldn’t respond, or much more, walk. I tried to say something, but only blood poured forth from my lips. I smiled, for some strange reason.
As my vision darkened, I felt Isa pulling me.
“There,” she said, her voice seeming to come from another world. “The wall of this place.”
I felt myself dragged through the snow.
Hold on, someone seemed to say. Don’t let go, Shanti. Don’t die on me now.
“Anna,” I muttered. “I . . . I won�
��t let go . . .”
After a long moment where I felt as if I were floating, the coldness of the forest was replaced by darkness.
Chapter 66
When I came to, the snow and the forest were both gone, along with my pain. I opened my eyes to see Isa sitting on a rock, watching me. We were surrounded by a desert that I would have recognized anywhere. The light red sand. The mesas and buttes. The flowering stands of cacti, the sharp rocks, the baking sun.
It was the Barrens, north of Colonia.
I looked down at my hands, perfectly healthy. My cloak was the same as I had been wearing in the forest but was fresh and new. There were no broken ribs, no gaping wounds in my back. Every part of me seemed to be in perfect working order.
“What . . . what happened?” I asked.
“You’re still inside the Radaskim Xenofold,” Isa said, “but you’ve passed the first trial.”
That had been a trial? “And where did you come from?”
“I walked through a door, and found you covered in blood. When I looked back at the door, it was showing a new place on the other side, so I pulled you through. When I did, your wounds were healed.”
I sat up and looked around at our new environment. “And I suppose this is the second trial, if you want to call it that.”
And then there was the Nameless One, offering his bargain which I’d refused. Was he the one at the center of all this? Was he the one putting on these trials? If so, why? I shared my misgivings with Isa, and she listened, a frown etched on her face.
“I don’t know what he has to do with this,” she said. “I think the Aberration – whatever that is – is at the center of it. But the Nameless One, too, must be involved somehow. Seems he holds some sway here, if he’s able to offer you a way out like that.”
“That’s what I don’t understand,” I said. “He’s supposed to be balanced. Impartial. It’s in his nature to offer deals.” I shook my head in frustration. “This is all beyond me.”
“Whatever the case,” she said, “I was the thing at stake in that first trial. If you hadn’t been able to defeat Shredder . . . let’s just say things would have gotten very bad.” She shuddered. “I saw myself, Shanti, screaming on the Tree. In terrible, terrible pain.” Her face was haunted, tears forming in her blue eyes. “That would have been my fate had you failed.”
Then it hit me in a burst of realization. “That’s who those people on the Tree were. They came here. They tried to stop the Aberration, to stop Askalon.” I suppressed a shudder. “And . . . they failed.”
There had been so many of them. How many people, of all those different species, had made the journey here, the same as I had? Apparently, the trip wasn’t as impossible as I’d originally thought. Others had thought to do it, too. I knew the Radaskim had hundreds of worlds under their control, each of them the cradle of at least one form of sentient life. Perhaps some of them had managed to come even here.
Whatever the case, there was proof that the odds were not in our favor.
“Did you see them, then?” I finally asked. “The people on the Tree?”
Isa nodded slowly. “Yeah, I saw them. We all did. We were . . . pulled forward to the Tree. I could watch it happening, even if I couldn’t control my actions.”
I explained who I thought they were, and how they had come here. Isa’s face paled as she listened.
“That must be it,” she said, quietly. “What do we do if that’s true? How do we save them?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I think we must save ourselves, first. If that’s even possible.”
“It must be possible. You said the Nameless One was supposed to be fair, right?”
I almost laughed at that. “Fair means something different to him than it does to us. He has his own rules we don’t know about. And something tells me he has a stake in this, that as horrible as all this is, with the Tree and all, he has something to gain by it.” I stood up. “This is all speculation, though. We should get moving for whatever this next trial is.”
Isa looked around at the vast expanse surrounding us. “Where to start?”
That was a good question. I reached out, seeing if I could find the source of the Radaskim Xenofold. I felt its pull, closer than I had in the forest. It was progress, at least.
“This way,” I said.
“How do you know that?” Isa asked.
“I can feel it. Can you not?”
She shook her head. “I feel nothing.”
“I’ll lead the way, then. It seems to be pulling me toward that mesa in the distance.”
“I see,” she said. “After you, then.”
* * *
We’d been walking a few minutes with the hot sun beating down on us, when Isa broke the silence.
“This looks very familiar, doesn’t it?”
I assumed she’d noticed why it was familiar, because to me it was a foregone conclusion. “It’s the desert north of Colonia. A place called the Barrens.”
“Why would this place be inside the Radaskim Xenofold?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “I don’t like that it is, though. It probably has access to my memories.”
Isa nodded. “That place we were in before. The stars were different, but it reminded me of the forests around Northold. In fact . . .”
She trailed off, seeming to be lost in thought.
“What?” I asked.
“I just remembered this. When I was young, my mother and I had to travel from our village to my grandmother’s village. My grandmother was sick, and my mother had made medicine for her. It was a harsh winter, but my father wasn’t there anymore, but we had to make the journey all the same.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“We heard them one night. The wolves. We built the fire up large and my mom held her bow all night. I was still too young to draw myself, then. We heard them fighting. She waited all night while I faded in and out of sleep. But those wolves never came. I had never been so scared. Next day, we packed up and walked the remaining distance to Grandma’s village. On our way, we passed the biggest wolf I’d ever seen. It was cut deep on its side. It was human work, and not a fight between animals.”
“And the person who had killed it?”
She shook her head. “We never found them. That was the only wolf we found, but last night, the scene seemed so similar. I remember how big and ugly that thing was. Its fur was black, too.”
“What are you saying?” I asked. “That I was the one who killed the wolf in your past?”
She shook her head. “No. I just think the Xenofold here pulled the memory from my head and put you in the shoes of the person who killed it.”
“I see,” I said. “If this trial is something similar, then it would make sense this is from Shara’s memories. Besides me, she’s the only one who grew up in Colonia.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Isa said.
We continued walking toward the mesa.
“I see something up ahead,” Isa said.
I saw it, too. A group of people had congregated in the shade on one of the mesas. As we made our way there, I saw that there were three men and a woman. Once closer, I could see that the woman was Shara, and all of them wore the same, gray robe.
A Hunter’s robe.
The men had spied us by now, so there was no opportunity to go another way, though I felt the strong urge to do so.
“What now?” Isa asked.
“This must be the test,” I said. “Whatever test that is.”
“Trust your instincts,” Isa said.
As we neared, I could see a fire burning low with a cook pot hanging over it. The men watched as we approached. Two of them had graying hair and strangely empty eyes. The other had his back turned to me, though his hair was long, greasy, and dark. Shara watched the flames, seeming to have no interest in looking at us. Her eyes glowed brightly.
Once we were a few paces away from the group, the man with his back toward us turned. I shouldn’t
have been surprised at who it was.
“You seem to keep popping up, don’t you?” I asked.
He gave a cruel smirk, his cold blue eyes watching me in his calculating way. “Come join us, Elekai. We were just discussing you.”
Isa looked at me questioningly, and I nodded that we should approach. The other two men vacated the rocks they had been sitting on, giving them up for Isa and me. We sat, with Shara on my left, still staring into the flames.
“She won’t respond to you,” Valance said, taking a sip of coffee out of a ceramic mug. “She’s still undergoing the process.”
“What process?” I asked.
Valance placed the coffee back in his lap. “The Aether is waking her senses. We come out here to do it. Our role is to ensure the process is carried out safely.”
I looked back at Shara, whose eyes were still glowing with an ethereal light.
“Nothing about this looks safe,” I said.
“You’re right,” Valance said. “We all go through it, of course. Some fare better than others.” Valance nodded toward his compatriots, who stood stoically just a few feet away. “It’s a crucible only the strong survive. But one must be strong to root out heresy. To root out bad blood.”
“That’s not how it is, you know,” I said. “This hatred you hold for the Elekai serves no purpose.”
“On the contrary,” Valance said. “It defines me. It defines our people. We took back our city from your ilk long ago.”
“You traded one tyranny for another,” I said. “But all this is besides the point. None of this is real, and I know there is some sort of trial you have for me. I just want Shara back.”
Valance smiled. “No. She has the gift, and that is not something to be taken lightly. You couldn’t have her, not for all the gold in the world.”
“She’s my friend. She’s one of us, now.”
Valance frowned, confused. “I’m afraid not.”
“Whatever Shara’s going through, you must put a stop to it.”