Vision Voyage (The Weatherblight Saga Book 2)

by Edmund Hughes

  The enchantment patterns underneath were mostly intact, but he realized that a few of the lines needed to be retraced, which he carefully did using the tip of his greatsword. The weapon wasn’t really suited for such fine work, but it was all he had that was capable of making scratches in the hard metal of the sled.

  He worked through the afternoon and into the evening, fighting mesmers, depositing essence, and scraping off rust. It quickly became clear that getting all of the rust off the rune sled would take far longer than they had to spare, so Ari settled for cleaning only the circles of the four enchantment wards instead.

  The wards, much like the Essence Bracelet he’d found down in the chamber, seemed to have a vast amount of storage space for essence. Ari could only assume that the bracelet’s original purpose had been to serve as a well to use to refill the rune sled’s wards on the go, ensuring that the rider was never left in a situation where they’d exhausted the sled’s essence without some way of restoring it.

  He knew that he wouldn’t have time to completely fill each of the rune sled’s wards with essence, so he settled to bringing them each up to about half capacity. It was still a task that took him into the deep hours of the night. Kerys had briefly stopped by earlier in the evening to share dinner with him, though Ari continued working even as he ate.

  He was ready to collapse when he finally made it back to the tent a few hours after midnight but satisfied with his progress. The rune sled was ready, though he’d only taken the time to briefly activate the four wards for a couple of seconds and ensure that his repairs had been effective. He curled up on the sleeping pad inside the tent in between Kerys and Eva and fell into a deep, exhausted sleep.

  ***

  “Are you absolutely sure this is going to work?” asked Kerys.

  She stood with Ari and Eva next to the rune sled, frowning at it with open skepticism in the light of the morning sun.

  “I’m not absolutely sure of anything,” said Ari. “What I do know is that I put a ridiculous amount of essence into the wards, and they seem to be working, for now.”

  They’d dragged the rune sled down to the beach, next to their campsite. They were down to only a few cups of water left in the waterskin, and regardless of whether the test Ari was about to run was successful, they’d have to leave the island that day to have any hope of continued survival.

  “Lord Aristial,” said Eva. “Perhaps you should let me try riding it first? I may still have some latent muscle memory concerning the operation of rune sleds.”

  “Nice try.” Ari flashed a smile at her. “I found it, I restored it, I’m riding it. You should come along in your sword form, though, just in case I need advice.”

  Eva nodded and then obligingly shifted forms. Ari caught Azurelight, sheathed the sword, and then climbed onto the rune sled.

  He was impressed by the simplicity of its construction. In a basic sense, it was a simple sheet of metal, with the front section curved upward and equipped with an adjustable metal handle bar, though currently said handle was still too encrusted with rust to shift upward high enough for Ari to ride it while standing.

  He took a seat up front, grasping the handle bar and feeling the connection between it and the enchantments in the wards underneath. He’d be able to use his will to activate them, and he assumed that he’d be able to control the speed and angle of the sled through the same means. What he hadn’t determined yet was how he’d make the sled turn left or right, since the handle didn’t seem to have any elements that shifted from side to side.

  “Kerys?” said Ari. “Hop on.”

  “Oh no!” said Kerys. “I am not getting on the back of that thing!”

  “It’s how we’ll be traveling once we reach the mainland,” said Ari. “I need to practice with your weight now to get used to it.”

  “I barely weigh anything,” said Kerys. “It won’t make that much of a difference.”

  “Kerys, you weigh more than I think you…” He trailed off before finishing his sentence, fearing he’d already said too much. Kerys continued scowling at him, but after a few seconds, she sighed and took up a position sitting behind him, legs open and forward against his and her arms tightly wrapped around his waist.

  “Let’s see here,” said Ari, shifting his hands as he pushed his will outward into the rune sled’s wards “Whoa!”

  He’d managed to activate two out of the four wards, both on the left side of the rune sled. The resulting force tipped it sideways at a steep angle, and Ari had to cling to the handle bar, and Kerys to him, in order for them to stay on.

  “You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?” asked Kerys.

  “Of course I do,” said Ari. “I have a few memories from the vision I had of Eva’s old master about this sort of thing.”

  He purposely neglected to mention that the memories he’d viewed had mostly skimmed over the experience of Lord Mythril traveling by rune sled, probably due to how routine of an activity it must have been during the time period in which they were common.

  “I just need to trigger all four wards at once,” said Ari.

  He focused his will again, this time pushing it simultaneously forward, back, left, and right. The rune sled immediately evened out, hovering a few inches off the sand. It began to turn in slow circles, like piece of buoyant wood swirling on the surface of a pond.

  “You need to visualize as you focus,” said Eva.

  “Right,” said Ari. “Here we go.”

  He focused his will, picturing the rune sled moving forward in his mind’s eye. The rusty metal sled lurched forward underneath him, almost knocking him and Kerys off at the suddenness of it.

  “I’m getting off,” said Kerys.

  “Hold on!” said Ari. “I’ll get it, just be patient.”

  He visualized them moving forward at a more even pace, backing the thought up with the strength of his will. The rune sled finally began to start forward at an even pace, traveling along the beach at about walking speed.

  “Huh…” said Kerys. “This is actually pretty amazing. It’s so smooth compared to what I was expecting.”

  “Right?” said Ari. “Let’s speed this thing up a little.”

  He visualized them moving faster, and the rune sled obliged. It was a slow acceleration at first, and Ari laughed as the wind began to whip against his face, still picturing their speed increasing further.

  He pulled his attention back to the stretch of shore in front of them just as they began to approach the bend in the island’s small coast. It was only then the fact that Ari wasn’t completely certain about how to coax the rune sled into a turn became a pressing detail. He tried to picture the turn in his head, much in the same way he’d sped the sled along in the first place. Nothing happened.

  “Aristial,” said Kerys. “We’re going to hit the water if you don’t do something.”

  “I’m aware!” snapped Ari.

  “Lean, milord,” said Eva.

  “What?”

  “Lean to the side while keeping your hands tightly gripped on the steering handle,” she said.

  Ari gave it a try, and not a moment too soon. Sand sprayed upward through the air as the leaning motion lifted the enchantment wards on one side while pushing the ones on the other side downward. Kerys let out a surprised squeak and clenched her arms around him tighter, her blonde hair streaking in wild locks to the back and to the side.

  He had the sort of grin on his face that he hadn’t felt himself wear since he’d been a child. Diving off some of the higher cliffs into the lake in the waterfall cavern had been the last time he’d had so much fun.

  He did a complete lap around the island in less than three minutes and then a second in less than two. He had to remind himself that his goal was to test the rune sled’s capabilities, rather than indulge in the sheer exhilaration of speeding around on it.

  Bringing the sled to a stop next to the boat, he pulled his will back, deactivating the magic of the wards. The sled fell flat onto th
e sand, bringing the test run to a rather anticlimactic end.

  “It works,” said Kerys. “What now?”

  “Now,” said Ari. “We load it onto the boat, get off this island, and find our way to Cliffhaven.”

  CHAPTER 42

  Ari, Kerys and Eva set about loading their supplies into the small boat, saving the rune sled for last. With the wards activated, it was easier to get it up and over the side than it had been to move it previously, and Ari made sure that it was in a secure spot in between two benches, just in case the sea grew choppy.

  It took the strength of both Ari and Eva to push the boat out into the water. Kerys helped them both aboard, and they turned their attention up to the sky as they set their course.

  “We want to head west,” said Ari. “So if the sun is rising over there, our goal is to head… that way.”

  He pointed his hand off into the distance. Eva cleared her throat, pulled in close behind him, and readjusted the angle of his arm.

  “Closer to here,” said Eva.

  Kerys giggled, and Ari flashed an exaggerated scowl at them both.

  “I meant approximately,” he said. “Anyway. Eva? Do you want to take rowing duty across from me first?”

  It was hard work, both in the physicality of it and how subtle the effects of their efforts were. The boat moved slowly, and it took more than an hour for the island to completely fade out of visibility behind them, still with no coast in sight.

  Eva rotated off with Kerys, and then Ari with Eva. He frowned at the numerous intact oars the boat had that were currently going unused, and then had a thought.

  “Aristial?” said Kerys, her voice strained from rowing. “What in the world are you doing?”

  “Making a sail.”

  Ari had lifted one of the extra oars upright, pinning it to a spot near the center of the boat with the supply pack and the rune sled. He took off his Feathercloak and pulled the hood over the top of the oar, using some of the rope that they still had to secure the bottom two edges in a fashion that encouraged the drakescale fabric to flutter open.

  “It’s too small to provide…” Kerys trailed off as the cloak billowed, and the boat began to move noticeably faster.

  “It would be, if not for the enchantment I put on it,” said Ari.

  “Very clever,” said Eva, flashing him a smile.

  “Genius, some might say,” said Ari.

  “Arrogant, others would correct,” said Kerys. “But it is a cool idea.”

  If nothing else, it saved them a significant amount of work. The Feathercloak generated enough wind-based momentum to make rowing counterproductive, outside of doing it for course correction. They drifted along relatively smoothly for the next couple of hours and were rewarded with the sight of a long, greenish smudge on the horizon early in the afternoon.

  “Dormiar’s name,” whispered Kerys. “That’s land.”

  “We made good time, too,” said Ari. “Now to look for a spot to head ashore.”

  He examined the coast in more detail as they drew closer. A thin beach stretched out as far as the eye could see in either direction, and behind it lay a long expanse of grassy hills interspersed with patches of trees. The wind had shifted to the north, obliging Ari to take down the sail and appreciate how it made the tall grass and foliage sway back and forth in perfect unison.

  He was surprised how shaky his legs were as he stepped off the boat and into the shallow water. Ari and Eva went through the effort of pulling the vessel onto the shore, more to make it easier to take the rune sled off than out of any illusions that they’d be coming back to sail it again.

  “Should we rest for a while?” asked Kerys. “Maybe camp for the afternoon and get a feel for a land.”

  “No,” said Ari. “It’s nice out today, and we’re basically racing against the weather.”

  “We’re also dangerously low on fresh water,” added Eva. “Our first goal should be finding a river or stream to refill the waterskin.”

  Kerys nodded, and Eva shifted into her sword form to allow all three of them to travel on the rune sled while only burdening it with the weight of two. With the supply pack nestled under the sled’s curved front and Kerys hanging on tight behind him, he still felt as though he was asking a lot from the magical steed.

  He took it slowly at first, using his will to set a pace that was faster than a long march but far slower than what he was aware that the sled could do. The hilly countryside made for far easier terrain to traverse than Ari had been expecting.

  He could see the trees coming at a distance and had no trouble angling the sled around them. Kerys picked up on the movement and followed his lead, leaning to the side as he did or occasionally opposite when they needed to balance out.

  The hills were almost too much fun. The rune sled barely slowed down on even the steepest of them, but gained a very noticeable amount of extra acceleration on the way down. Ari felt Kerys’ arms tightening around him as he took advantage of it, and in one particularly speedy instance, her shouting his full name in reprimand.

  They didn’t find a river or stream, but a small, teardrop shaped-lake eventually appeared in the distance, nestled between two larger hills. Ari brought the rune sled to a stop next to it and climbed off, stretching tired legs.

  “We should make camp here,” he said. “That way, we can start tomorrow with the waterskin topped up.”

  “I agree,” said Eva.

  Ari pulled Azurelight loose from its sheath, allowing her to retake her incarnate form as they began unloading the needed supplies for the night. The lake’s water looked clear enough, with the tantalizing addition of having a number of nicely sized fish residing in its depths.

  Catching one would have normally been a pain, but Ari had the advantage of his enchantments. He pushed his will into the Ring of Insight, querying the best spot to attempt to catch one from and the best way to go about it.

  A small nook that correlated to the top tip of the teardrop shape of the lake was where it pointed him to. The underwater terrain created a natural trap for the fish in a shallow enough spot that Ari was literally able to splash one of them onto the shore. He instantly fell upon it with his whole body, knowing from experience that having a fish out of water was not the same as having it caught.

  Kerys had built a small fire by the time he returned, and Eva was in the process of pulling out the supplies to set up the tent. Ari grinned at them both and was about to make a quip about how he was glad he was the one who caught it, rather than the one who’d be deboning it, when thunder sounded in the distance.

  “A storm?” said Kerys. “I didn’t see any clouds.”

  They were becoming visible even as she spoke, pushing their way over the horizon at a remarkably fast clip. The sun was already on its way down, and it was almost as though the dark, menacing storm had been drawn out of its wake.

  “Pack everything up,” said Ari. “We’re moving camp.”

  “You think we can outrun it?” asked Eva.

  “I think we can try,” said Ari.

  They loaded back onto the rune sled and took off, traveling in a direction more determined by where the storm was arriving from, rather than where they were hoping to go. Speed was no longer a novelty but a survival strategy. Kerys didn’t complain as he pushed the rune sled to its limit, and wind whipped through his hair as he sped across the hills.

  He went over one with a steep, hidden embankment just over the crest. The rune sled rose several feet into the air, forcing Ari to grip the handle bar as tightly as he could and Kerys to grip him as tightly as she could. The sled briefly bottomed out as it landed on the grass, and for an instant, Ari worried that one of the wards might have been damaged.

  It quickly regained its equilibrium, though any relief that might have brought about was offset by the first few wet droplets he felt hitting his face. The sun had set completely now, and the thick storm clouds were quickly stealing the ambient illumination provided by the moons and stars. Ari was sp
eeding forward into the dark, trying find and escape a storm that already had them.

  “Don’t let yourself rush,” said Eva, through the bond. “Stay calm.”

  He appreciated the sentiment, but it was easier spoken than accomplished. Lightning struck a tree off to the side, briefly exposing a scene of an idyllic green landscape giving birth to terrifying monsters. The fishers were pulling themselves free from the soil, wriggling and shaking off clumps of earth from their disgusting tentacles in a manner that was both familiar and unsettling.

  They were like old friends to Ari at that point. They had to be friends, he figured. They seemed to stick around him regardless of what happened or what he might have done to offend them. He leaned hard to the side, steering the rune sled around one of the monsters in front of them as it turned their way.

  It was all he could do to focus on navigating the sled. The fishers didn’t seem to know what to make of them, exactly. They weren’t sprinting off in pursuit. The rune sled was faster than they were, but if the monsters coordinated and attacked from the front and sides, there was little that Ari or Kerys could do to stop them.

  Or so he thought. Ari had to make a hard turn between two fishers that inadvertently steered them within tentacle range of a third. The fisher grabbed for them with one of its appendages. Ari felt one of Kerys’ arms fall loose and sucked in a terrified breath, which he immediately released as he saw the fisher’s tentacle spinning loose from its body out of the corner of his eye.

  She’d let go of him with one arm to draw her trusty short sword and put it to good use. Ari had never wanted to kiss her so badly in his life, along with a spat of other less romantic but still pleasurable things.

  Kerys continued serving as the rune sled’s self-appointed cavalier as they raced through the storm. It seemed to take hours, though Ari knew the adrenaline was stretching out the minutes. The freezing, pounding rain eventually tapered off to a trickle and then to just a faint mist which hugged the grass.