Into the Darkness

by Michael Clement

  Hers was a simple band with no large diamond.

  My mind woke up a bit.

  Someday, I was going to get her a ring that would make other women gasp in jealousy.

  I woke up further when we exited the church.

  Married.

  I had married Brynn.

  Justin’s ex-wife was now my wife.

  I nearly fell over.

  Brynn caught me, turning me on the top steps toward her. She looked up at me, beaming with happiness. Then, she grabbed my neck and kissed me deeply.

  Abigail fussed again, which made both of us laugh.

  --M--

  There was a colossal wagon being loaded in front of Brynn’s apartment when we returned.

  My wife smiled and talked to the foreman while I held Abigail. It felt strange, thinking of her as my daughter.

  Barrels full of water were strapped to either side of the Conestoga.

  And, harnessed on the front was a Chan Lizard, which was sometimes called a Kwon Dragon. The term dragon was really a stupid name for the creature. It had broad shoulders and was used to drag heavy loads. It had a temperament similar to an ox. Travelers used them because, like a goat, it could eat almost anything.

  Her name was Lillie.

  Brynn climbed up onto the driver’s seat and motioned for me to join her. Swallowing hard, I climbed up next to her with Abigail in my arms.

  Then, without an explanation, she cracked the reins, and we rocketed forward.

  “Brynn,” I hissed, trying valiantly to stay put on top of the wagon and hold Abigail. “Where are we going?”

  “Caravan grounds,” she answered with a grin.

  My new wife drove the wagon through the town, driving like a madwoman. She didn’t mind talking to me the whole time while I kept my eyes peeled to the road. Somehow, she didn’t hit anything, but I had no idea how.

  She barely even focused on the road.

  It was scarier than fighting a hundred warriors, barehanded.

  Finally, she pulled into the caravan grounds outside of Savannah.

  Brynn already knew where to park the wagon.

  Her ability to plan, and maneuver my life, and her own, astonished me.

  A tall man with an eyepatch walked up to the wagon with a big smile on his face. He had the whitest head of hair that I had ever seen. It almost glowed in the firelight.

  “Brynn,” he roared. “You made it!”

  “Of course I did, Gavin,” she laughed, as she jumped down from the driver’s seat. I watched her in shock. The Conestoga’s bench seat was at least seven feet up in the air.

  Gavin picked my wife up and hugged her, much to her delight.

  I climbed down, holding Abigail who was squirming like crazy.

  “And, you brought your new husband!” he shouted, thrusting out his hand for a handshake.

  He already knew we were getting married.

  I shook my head ruefully and gripped his hand.

  It was like shaking hands with a bear. Gavin’s hand dwarfed mine, and I was a big man. He was wearing a thick brown coat covered in fur. Under the jacket were rough travelers clothing, a holstered pistol, and two knives.

  I was happy when he let go of my fingers. I could still feel them throbbing.

  “So, you are a mage,” Gavin mused.

  Wow. She really set things up in advance.

  I glanced over at Brynn, who nodded furiously. It didn’t make me happy that she wanted me to lie. I understood that she wanted to start over, but I wasn’t good at or interested in lying.

  It bothered me that it didn’t bother her, though.

  Looking back at Gavin, I said, “I was very recently an apprentice. But, I am working towards becoming a journeyman mage.”

  Gavin laughed as Brynn groaned.

  “I like a man who is honest,” he announced. “We will be friends.”

  - 7 -

  That night, Brynn, Abigail, and I sat around a fire with a few hundred other folks, listening to Gavin talk about the excursion to Ashmouth.

  “It is three hundred miles to Ashmouth from Savannah on the old US roads,” he began.

  “How long will it take?” a nervous businessman asked. He was pencil thin with a receding hairline and expensive clothing. It shocked me that he was traveling by caravan. Usually, someone like him would fly to Ashmouth on an airship. It was a safer and a more relaxing ride.

  Gavin scowled at the man.

  Then, he answered, “The wagons can go about twenty miles a day, on a good day.”

  “Then, why did we have to bring supplies for a month?” the man complained.

  “Because, James, things go wrong in the Dark,” Gavin replied.

  “I’ve never been in the Dark before,” a nervous older woman mentioned. She had blonde hair with streaks of gray that fell in wisps at her shoulders. But, age had been kind to her. She was still healthy and beautiful. Even now, she turned several of the men’s heads when she spoke.

  And, she was holding my wife’s hand.

  Gavin turned to her.

  “It will be alright, Mary. It is like waking up in the middle of the night and walking around, except there are no stars. Everything is pitch black and cold, usually,” Gavin told her, as Brynn pulled Mary close to her.

  They looked pretty cozy, which bothered me.

  I knew that I jumped into this relationship without a lot of thought. But, I had known Brynn for three years now, and I thought that that was enough.

  My wife caught my look and smiled at me.

  Then, she pulled me close, as well.

  “Do you have guns?” the businessman asked.

  “Of course,” Gavin answered. “All of my guards are highly armed, and we have a fledgling wizard traveling with us as well.”

  “Who?” the man demanded.

  Gavin pointed at me, which made me feel uneasy as hell.

  “He doesn’t look like much,” the man scoffed.

  Lovely.

  “We leave tomorrow morning at six am,” Gavin said. “Be ready to go. Anyone who lags behind, gets left behind.”

  The group started to talk amongst themselves with several of its members, giving me questioning looks.

  “Bazal,” Brynn said to attract my attention. “This is Mary.”

  I turned and looked at both of them. Mary looked uneasy.

  “Mary will be your second wife.”

  Bam.

  Just like that.

  Brynn and I hadn’t even slept together yet, and already, she had picked out a second wife for me.

  I opened my mouth and then closed it.

  Fuck.

  How do I handle this?

  Mary had to be twenty years older than me, maybe older. She was thin with almost no cleavage. And, to make matters worse, she didn’t look any more happy about it than I was.

  “You never told me he was a stupid half-breed,” Mary complained.

  Turning away from me, she snapped her fingers imperiously.

  “I won’t go,” she announced, pleased with her own decision.

  “Then,” Brynn said, “you will pay me what you owe me… immediately.”

  Mary frowned, as she tried to figure a way out of her predicament. I looked at them both, trying to determine what Mary owed to Brynn.

  “Bah,” Mary cursed. “Even his name is… annoying.”

  Groaning, the older woman pointed at me. “Bazal is a name for a book-loving nerd, not a stupid, muscle-bound, hunk of meat. He’s no more a wizard than I’m a prom queen.”

  Everyone was turning toward us, as Mary began to grow even louder and more belligerent.

  “Plus, he’s a Goblin,” she growled at my wife. “I’m not fucking a filthy, dark-loving Hob and tying his soul to mine. My dead husband would turn over in his...”

  Brynn slapped her, hard.

  Mary’s head snapped back, revealing the tattoo of a cross on the left side of her neck. Nailed to its center was a large, demonic head with flames drifting up and around it. B
loody runes were etched over the skull in large letters spelling out PURITY.

  And flapping behind the whole mess was a Confederate flag.

  Church of the Flames.

  Path of the Martyr.

  Mary was a member, an Elder to be exact, of the most hateful and bigoted religion in the South. Her church believed in burning anyone and anything that wasn’t human, or pure enough, in their eyes.

  No one was safe.

  Not even pureblood humans.

  The Church hated every twist and turn of homosexual and bisexual sex that existed, not to mention crossdressers and mixed racial marriages. Muslims, Orientals, and Catholics were also in danger when the Church put on their black hoods and rode in the night.

  Why had Brynn chosen Mary?

  She knew that I was a half-blood.

  - 8 -

  “You bitch,” Mary cursed at my wife, as she covered the welt growing on her face.

  Then, Mary shouted for effect, “I thought he was a Pure Blood, like his brother.”

  The crowd began to murmur around us, unhappily. It was always easy to jump on the “I hate people who are different than me” bandwagon, especially when a hypocritical loud mouth was leading the way.

  Most of the people around us were already nervous and high-strung, just thinking about entering the Dark tomorrow was agitating them. Lynching or burning someone--namely me--sounded like a good idea to relieve their stress.

  “My family are hill folk on the edges of the Dark,” I shouted, deciding that I had enough of Mary attempting to lynch me. “They survive by breeding with the Fae that live in the Darkness. I’m not a Devil or a Goblin. I’m just a Man.”

  That was a complete lie.

  I was a Goblin, at least, on the inside. My outside looked like a man. Unlike many Goblins, I could easily pass as human. Somehow, Mary must be looking at my soul. Then, she would have been able to tell the difference.

  The murmuring grew to angry growls, and I heard someone, probably that pencil-necked businessman begin muttering about finding some rope.

  “Who better to help us survive than someone who comes from the Dark?” Gavin yelled as he slipped out of the crowd and put himself between them and us.

  “He’s nothing but a fucking warlock,” the nasty man businessman yelled.

  Then, a woman shouted, “He’s probably a cannibal, just waiting to eat our babies.”

  Then, she added, “Kill the Goblin!”

  “He’ll bring evil down upon us!” a third yelled.

  The crowd began to get ugly, and I saw the first knife slip out of its sheath.

  And… someone growled, “Lynch him.”

  The crowd surged forward, knocking over Gavin.

  That was enough.

  I touched a tattoo on my left arm and shouted, “Dagaḍa Tvacā.”

  The effect was instantaneous, just like my Master had desired. My skin changed from flesh to a dark grey marble, as I grew taller and stronger. Blister had been a drunk who always worried about some creature he had wronged in the past.

  Blister’s first--and only--concern was Blister. So, he had turned his apprentice into a killer.

  I just wish that he had taught me more magic. I hated being a “user” of magic and not a mage or a wizard.

  The crowd faltered. I was now easily two feet taller than them, and twice as wide and heavy. My arms were twice as thick and layered with muscles. If I wanted to, I could pick the Conestoga up and carry it.

  Roaring unhappily, I slammed my fists together, touching the tattoos that wound around my knuckles and the backs of my hands together.

  “Rākṣasī āga,” I shouted.

  It literally translated… Demon fire.

  Bluish-white flames erupted all around my fists. The tips of the fire crept up and around my upper arms, as I took a menacing step forward, placing myself between Brynn, Abigail, and the crowd.

  Blue white sparks filled my eyes. If these fools thought that they could kill me, they were idiots.

  “See!” Mary shouted. “He is a demon!”

  Bitch.

  “He is the Mage who I hired to protect you in the Dark,” Gavin yelled. “Look at him! He will scare the real monsters away from us!”

  The crowd looked unsure.

  “His magic will protect you!” Gavin added. “He won’t call the other Goblins down on us. They would eat his own child!”

  What a liar.

  Goblins ate human children. Their flesh was… tasty.

  I shook my head, trying to clear it of the memories from my childhood in the Goblin Caves of Bonesack. I hadn’t eaten human in decades.

  But, the flames burning on my hands always made my blood boil.

  And they made me hungry.

  I wanted to kill all the fools around me. And, God Help Me, I wanted to rip the flesh from their bones and gnaw on the marrow inside.

  Shivering in anticipation, I looked at them and smiled, as my Goblin nature tried to overwhelm my mother’s human morals.

  I think that’s what stopped them.

  My horrible grin.

  The knives slipped back in their sheaths… until Mary began to shriek at me. The foolish woman pushed her way through the crowd and got right in my face.

  And then, before I could even react, the foolish bitch drew a dagger and slammed it into my side.

  It should have bounced off. My skin was as strong as steel, and it resisted most magic. Blister was afraid of other mages, so had made me the perfect tool to protect himself from them.

  But, instead, her evil little blade slid into my side, sinking deep.

  Green blood poured out of my side.

  Mary yanked her knife out, splashing my blood everywhere.

  Screaming in agony, I backhanded the woman without thinking.

  - 9 -

  Mary’s body flew through the air, slamming through the canvas covering two wagons before she crashed to the ground behind them.

  I fell backward collapsing to the ground. My insides burned. Something had been on the blade, coating it.

  Fuck. The bitch had poisoned me.

  Dizziness assaulted my mind, and my muscles began to clench and unclench on their own. It felt like everything was too heavy. I turned onto my stomach as the mob screamed and scattered.

  The flames on the back of my hands snuffed out, as I began to crawl forward with no direction. I just wanted to get away from the pain. Then, my stone skin began to turn to flesh, and I lost mass and girth.

  I had crawled three feet, but I was no longer a fighting dynamo. Flames erupted around me. Mary’s body must have caught on fire when I hit her. When her corpse sailed through the wagon’s canvases, those started on fire as well.

  Pain radiated through my muscles, making them ache and burn.

  Turning onto my back, I touched both of my palms to my chest.

  “Upacāra hā viṣa,” I muttered, activating the healing symbols that Blister had tattooed on my skin, years ago. I hated using them because they leached their power from the world around me. Plants began to shrivel and die, as the hex marks stole their life force to heal me.

  “Dammit,” I growled, wishing that Blister had made the healing spells work like my other spells. Why did he have to make it kill things, in order to save me?

  Warmth spread through my chest as I fought to stay awake. If I fell asleep, the spells would stop, and the poison would kill me.

  Brynn suddenly pressed up against my arm, startling the warrior inside of me. How had she gotten so close, and I hadn’t noticed it?

  “Bazal,” she yelled. “Are you alright?”

  I ignored her, concentrating on sending the healing warmth out to the rest of my body. The grass all around my skin began to turn black. Then, it crumbled into dust.