Fairfax

by Jared Ravens

  Dani beat the chain of one of Bautomet’s bound arms with his sword. With each thrust came more yells. Dani focused on the effort and drove the sword as powerfully as he could into the chain with his untrained body. Two of the guards had released the hand they had hold of and ran towards him. It was too late. The sword thrust through the chain. Bautomet squealed and pulled the soldiers hanging from his neck off like ticks and flicked them away. With his other hand he cut at the chains constraining his other limbs.

  It was too late for the guards. The Beast was at the bars and all his arms and legs were now free. He bent at the metal with a frothing mouth. All the guards fell back while Dani sat dumbfounded on the ground. Bautomet plowed through the bent cage bars. Dani was terrified that he would come rushing for him first, toss him into his mouth and eat him. But Bautomet didn’t even notice him. He was a being possessed, and he ran through a line of soldiers as if knocking teacups off a table. He had squeezed through the door and gone before anyone had a chance to react.

  All that was left was the smell.

  The face was recognizable. He hadn't thought of it at all until it was that close. He couldn't put a name to it but he had a personality to match.

  "You..." said Felix. His arms were bound to the table but he felt like reaching out and grabbing the face.

  Theo came close enough that he could whisper to him.

  "Tell them that's it's not my fault," he said. "Just, before you go, say something."

  "Theo!" came a voice. Theo shuttered at the sound of his name and jerked his head around, asking for forgiveness.

  "What are you doing?" it asked.

  "I want his penitence is all, I believe he feels sorry for what he did."

  “How do you know anything? Did you give us your word on this boy?” Celia asked, stepping forward.

  "It wasn't supposed... " He paused, judging the situation. The titans had gone from fighting Felix to placing blame on each other. Their own fight of words had extended longer than the fight with Felix. Each one of them cast blame on the other. Genesee on Celia, Martel on Genesee, Spaulding on both of them, Curson on Martel and Wilcox, Vivian on Genesee, and Celia on all of them. The one thing they could all agree on is that Theo had brought them a an awful specimen.

  “This isn’t his fault,” Vivan argued, nearly crying. “Look what you did to him!”

  “It was a normal…” Genesee began.

  “Nothing about it was normal! This is insanity!”

  “Agreed!” Theo called out. When Genesee glared at him Theo backtracked.

  “Don’t make excuses for your lover,” Celia scoffed at Vivian. “You’re the root of all of this.”

  The arguments had continued as Felix was lashed to the huge Table of Eternity with the intent to execute. Genesee was not convinced this was wise and Spaulding was not in favor of it at all, despite his bloodied face. Harper tried to bring their arguments down from a fever pitch.

  None this kept the argumentative ones from issuing a beating on Felix. He could barely feel their fists when they hit him. He had rage and confusion fused with the pain he already felt. There was little room for anything else. He was bloodied and crooked but his body did not allow him to break. He felt pulses of energy jutting up through him and he used it to test the ropes that held him. The bindings did not give. The arguments continued. Spaulding, Genesee, Martel and Vivian held back Celia and Atrios from extracting the ultimate vengeance.

  "One more chance?" Celia protested. "Is this the wisdom I should get from the idiots that brought this curse upon us? It is failed! Let me through!"

  Her face was still bloody and she refused any attempts to clean herself. The argument refocused from whether Felix should die to whether they should just try again the experiment again. This was a sly change in tone on the part of Martel, and it seemed to appeal to everyone, bringing them from the heated tone of argument to a more mellow discussion.

  Theo again crawled up on the table and again appealed to him. Felix struggled, gritting his teeth against each other, but spit out some words.

  "I have something to say..."

  Theo yelled, jumping up and down on the large table, exclaiming that Felix was about to say something. Theo turned to Felix, waiting for the words that would release him from the larger judgement. Celia sighed heavily and the room quieted.

  "I don't think I'm Felix anymore," he said heavily.

  "What do you mean? " Celia said.

  "It doesn't feel right."

  "Let him talk," said Genesee. "He has a right to say something."

  "I think he does not!" said Atrios.

  "Quiet!" yelled Curson.

  "I want another name,” Felix continued.

  The room was quiet at this odd request.

  "You won't be here long enough to use it, "quipped Celia.

  "You can have a different name," Genesee said. "What is it you want?"

  Felix thought about this a moment. The name floated up from his gut like a revelation from the deep and ran out of his mouth before he had time to understand of the words.

  "Fairfax."

  Celia looked over him from her nose. Theo looked up at her and tried to explain that Felix must have something else to say.

  "I think that is what he wanted to say," said Celia, picking up her spear. She pushed the small body of Theo to the side and off the table, into a huge chair. Genesee yelled at her, calling on her to stop. She ignored him, and as she raised the spear Harper grabbed her by the waist and tried to subdue her. She threw him off quite easily and lifted her spear again. Spaulding was moving to tackle her at Genesee’s order when the boom interrupted it all.

  It was a deep, throaty boom, something that jiggled the ground beneath them. It wasn't something that could be confused as an arbitrary noise. At the feel of it Celia knew something was wrong. They looked to the yard, its greenery blushing through rose and yellow tinted windows. In the middle of it was a round chimney that ventilated the underground. There was another boom and the chimney swayed. A third shook it.

  “Go over there," Celia said to the guards, “Now!” But before the sentence was done the chimney had exploded. A hole was punched in the ground, surrounded by brick and metal shrapnel. From the gap in the ground four hands and arms pulled up the bloodied black body of The Beast. Attached to it was a manic yellow grin and wild eyes that focused directly onto its target through the wall and glass in front of it.

  Their attention and words were upon it, and it was upon them. It thrust itself through the window, sending glass and bits of the metal frame across the room. Curson and Waring grabbed Bautomet but he grabbed them at the same time, throwing Waring against the wall with one set of hands and throttling Curson with the other while dragged him across the floor.

  Celia thrust her spear into his chest. It pushed just to the side of his breast bone and sent him stumbling back. He released Curson but grabbed anything that he could grasp hold of. In his wake he brought down pillar after pillar and fell back into the wall between them and the yard. The entire wing collapsed, piling debris on top of everyone in it. Genesee ran backwards, finding shelter under the table.

  Fairfax watched as the rubble poured down on the others in their room, flowing like a wave towards him. It crumbled down as a hard rain, coming closer to him with a quickness that was nearly instantaneous. The stones fell on the table and flowed up towards him like a wave. He jimmied the ropes but was unable to pull away. The roof fell in thunderous clumps until it reached his his feet. A heavy dust flew up on him and he coughed. Opening his eyes slowly he saw the sky above him, the hole in the roof stopping just before the middle fo the table.

  He looked down. Over mountains of ruble was an opening at the end of the room. The hole was a doorway into the vast green lawn and the sky beyond. A shadow cast itself across it, blocking out he escape. He knew what the darkness was even if it didn't remember the name.

  "Bautomet," it growled. Even with the light at its back Fairfax could see its yellow teeth
It limped closer. "Bautomet meets you too," it said, amusing itself. "Bautomet comes for you..."

  Fairfax couldn't speak. He heard a thump to his side and someone spoke for him.

  "You said you would just come for them, not him!"

  Felix looked to his side and saw two boots standing at his head. He looked up to see a guard’s uniform. Some poor soul stood beside him with a flimsy sword. Bautomet laughed and approached.

  "No promise, all gone anyways. Come for all of you. What is the difference?"

  Bautomet reached out towards them as Dani screamed at him. As two of its hands came close in Dani drew back his sword, ready to strike. Then the hand stopped moving forwards and Bautomet looked back. Something had its leg. A hand extended from the debris to his ankle. The white rock moved like a shaking mountain and Curson drew up, covered in white dust, pushing Bautomet’s leg upward with him.

  The Beast fell over, falling to the ground on his face. As Bautomet screamed and crawled to fight back, Dani looked at the ropes. He crawled to the edges of the table and worked to unravel the knots that tied it to the table legs. Fairfax watched Bautomet rise back up and push its body into Curson's face, making the titan fall over. Fairfax wondered how many times Curson could take a beating. Bautomet picked up a rock with his hands and smashed it against Curson’s helmet, knocking him out. When Bautomet turned back to the table he saw someone on it, but it wasn't Fairfax.

  "Where is he?" he yelled at Dani.

  "Here," came the reply at Bautomet's feet.

  He held Curson's axe, large as it was, in both hands, and he thrust it forward towards the lower leg of Bautomet. His bone was crushed in two, bringing him down like a table without a leg. His head fell down next to Fairfax. Its yellow eyes saw with one last glare the flash of the axe as it crushed into its neck.

  The glimmer died in the iris of its eyes and blood leaked out from the gash. Fairfax turned around and looked at Dani standing on the edge of the table, no hint of recognition in his glance. The questioning squint in Fairfax's eyes crushed Dani. He didn’t know who Dani was. Dani fell to his knees.

  "You have to go," Dani said meekly.

  "Don't," came the reply from under the table. Genesee stepped forwards, dirt smeared across his face and head. He climbed cautiously up onto the rocks to get a better look. ”I can protect you, but only if you stay."

  Genesee’s looked at him, blinking dust out of his eyes and feeling something between pride and disbelief. Another mountain of rubble moved just to his right. Celia’s hand appeared as she dugher way out. Fairfax threw the axe on his shoulder, barely able to hold its weight.

  “You said I wouldn’t feel pain, either” he replied. “You lied both times.”

  He jumped, disappearing behind the body of Bautomet and escaping out the vacuous hole in the wall.

  Fairfax

  Letters

  Bern Douglas sat on the edge of the canyon, looking out into the depths below. The vastness of the view moved him no matter how many times he had seen it. He breathed in the warm air and stepped forward a little more. The ground below him suddenly gave way. He lunged to the side and gripped a pine tree to keep himself from falling. He looked at his feet. The dirt that feel off his shoes and drifted slowly down, taking an eternity to reach the rocky depths at the bottom.

  He pulled himself back up to stable ground and leaned against the tree. He had just come from dense evergreens of Alby Woods. In front of him was a hole covered in sand that stretched eastward until it came to the foot of endless yellow and red hills. He looked to the south and north where the desert spread out beyond his vision.

  He spotted a wagon on the canyon floor moving closer, a distant speck moving nearer to the wall of rock that led up to where he was standing. When it reached the wall it made its slow journey up the steep trail that wound its way up to where Bern was standing.

  He sat down and opened the letter, the chipping the remaining bits of wax seal from the edge of the paper as he reread it.

  Genesee was ponderous and formal in his statements. He liked to read his own words and it showed. There were lengthy paragraphs promising that Fairfax would be taken care of if he would only give him a chance. All the prior fighting had been a reaction to Fairfax’s violence. Now they were taking a different path. All had been forgiven; now he simply needed to come back.

  Douglas found Genesee’s words convincing in their own way. Genesee knew how to turn an argument. But Bern couldn’t imagine Fairfax was willing to lay down his arms after Atrios had drawn a sword on him a second and third time. It was difficult for Bern to know what Fairfax actually thought as his responses were barely literate. Were Fairfax’s eclectic and slightly unhinged letters a strategy or if he was coming apart at the seams?

  He was out there, somewhere, in those hills on the other side of the desert, a band of soldiers protecting him. They did it well. Despite the attempts at censorships stories would leak into the public consciousness of victories over the Titans. Bern had no idea how much of these stories were true but he knew if they were entirely false he would not be standing here holding a letter from the head administrator of Holm.

  "I, alone, can protect you," Genesee wrote. He swore he would. Bern put the letter away and stood up again.

  After hours of climbing the cart was neared the top of the canyon. It was afternoon and the weather was near perfect. Bern had taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. The cart limped rolled over a last hump and ambled towards him. The road was in terrible condition but the cart also seemed to have a bad back wheel that caused the back end to thump down with every rotation, threatening to come off. The small man driving the cart didn't seem to notice. He grinned a smile littered with black spaces and when he jumped off the cart his spry little body seemed hardly affected by what would have been several days of hard riding.

  He said several thing in his clicking language and then mentioned "Fairfax letters" in between his ongoing stream of unknown words.

  “I’m Bern, your contact. Speak to me in a way I can understand you.”

  He hurried to the back of his cart and fished through a trunk. He was tanned and red from the brutally hot days of his journey, not to mention a lifetime in the desert. His skin was leathery despite a youthful exuberance. Bern wondered if he was Choholi and decided he was probably mixed.

  “This is my speaking," the little man mumbled. Bern thought he was getting the letters but I was surprised when he jumped down from the back of the wagon with a bow and arrow nearly as long as he was tall. Bern asked him what he was doing and where the letters were. He replied with a very garbled “one moment”.

  He took aim at the sky and pulled the bow string back, shaking from the pressure of the drawn bow. Bern asked if he was OK, as it seemed he would fall over if he didn't breathe. 'K' was all he said.

  He released the string and set the arrow sailing into the clear blue sky. As it disappeared into the distance Bern realized what he was doing.

  "He doesn't mean any harm, " Bern said. It seemed ridiculous that he could hit him but Bern was frightened at the thought that he might be able to.

  "Harm," he spit. "Harm, Harm, Harm. Me neither!"

  He sat the bow down and puled out a knife from the case. In his other other hand he held several yellowed papers. Bern heard a ruckus coming from the direction the arrow was shot. The little man moved towards it. When Marcus appeared, flying not far above the trees, he was moving so rapidly and unsteadily that I thought he must have been shot. He was cursing as he dropped to the ground. The messenger held his knife out in front of him as he cursed in his own language. Bern wondered if he was about to witness a fight of the smallest people.

  "Step back with that thing!" Marcus yelled. He clearly hadn't been threatened like this before. Bern called to the messenger to put the knife down. He scowled at Bern.

  "No!" he said, pointing to Marcus with the knife. "No!"

  "I think," Bern interpreted to Marcus, "That he's upset about you following hi
m here."

  "I came to get the letter!" He replied. "And if he'll hand it to me I'll go!"

  "He thinks you're going to follow him. I was supposed come alone.”

  Marcus gave Bern an agitated look. He shook his head and held his hands up.

  “I’m here, just give it to me,” he told the man. The small man pulled the letters back and motioned them to me.

  "I'm supposed to get them first," Bern explained.

  "Yes, him!" said the messenger, trying to sho Marcus away. Marcus dropped his hands.

  "Ridiculous," Marcus said. “I’m right here.”

  "That's true," Bern told the messenger. "He might as well stay."

  Bern said this slowly and the man seemed to understand this.

  "Gim," he said. Bern asked for clarification and he repeated the word.

  "I think his name is Gim," Bern said, breaking open the envelope of one of the letters. Marcus ran towards the two of them. Gim brandished his knife again. Marcus stopped in his tracks, a frustrated look on his face.

  "One for me and one for Genesee," Bern said to Marcus. "That was Fairfax's request."

  "Genesee didn’t like the last one you printed," he said.

  "I didn't either," Bern replied, looking at the new letter. “If it's any consolation, I doubt many people read it all the way through. It was very convoluted. That's what he wants, one printed without editing or he'll do something rash."

  'Rash'. That had been Fairfax's word. No one had yet tested what he meant by that word but it could mean an attack on an army outpost or the burning down of houses in a loyalist town. Both had been done already. Despite the threats, Bern could see that this letter would test Celia and Genesee's short term and narrow commitment to a free press. Bern put the letter away.

  "What's it say?" Marcus asked.