by Joshua King
The boiling emotion inside me was taking over and I couldn’t push it down. I hated the way it was making me feel, pushed and prodded until I was at the end of some unseen edge. But no matter how hard I tried to drag myself back and clear my mind, the anger kept creeping up into the back of my mind and soaking through all my thoughts.
“There’s a reason behind it,” Jaxxim told me, his voice steady and even as he seemed to try to keep me calm. “Remember, you aren’t just looking for him.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I spat.
“Your Sanctification, Hayden,” Stephana said. “It’s not an easy process. It’s not supposed to be. An ArchWarlock has to be not only powerful in his magic, but also strong in his character. The Sanctification isn’t just a ceremony leading up to you taking a role you were going to have anyway. It’s proving yourself. There have been warlocks who have been put through the process and not made it.”
“I’m not in my Sanctification,” I argued. “Malakan is supposed to be my guide through it. Doesn’t that mean I need to actually be in his general vicinity? It’s hard to guide someone through something when they don’t even know where you are. Somehow I doubt the big finale of all this is going to be on the top of a mountain he could have just led us to at the beginning.”
“We’re not at the top,” Lilly said.
I turned to her.
“What?”
“We’re not at the top. Of the mountain. This isn’t the top.”
Climbing up onto a nearby boulder, I looked out over our surroundings. It was immediately obvious she was telling the truth. Though it seemed like we were perched on the pinnacle of the mountain, now that I stared through the fog and out over the trees, it was obvious the portal hadn’t brought us nearly that far into the sky. Instead, only a short distance of the mountain was below us and a peek over my shoulder showed the dizzying distance it stretched above
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I cracked my neck to either side. “Fine. If he wants me to climb a mountain, I’m going to climb the damn mountain.”
I plunged ahead toward the mouth of a narrow path that led around the cave we walked out of and up through the jagged rocks. Loose pebbles slipped under my feet again, but I fought against it and stayed balanced, forcing myself up faster. The higher we climbed up the mountain, the more the rocks piled up on either side of us until we walked down a narrow path cut between two rock walls. The stone squeezed in around us and created a tight, claustrophobic feeling I wanted to escape. It was impossible to tell how much progress we'd made and how much more of the mountain there was for us to climb. Just like when I was underwater on the way to get Bugs, I waited for my lungs to start feeling the pressure of the air getting thinner. Without as much oxygen around us, it should have been more difficult to breathe, but my body didn't care. Not thinking about it meant I didn't gasp. I didn't struggle. My body kept drawing in and letting out the air out of force of habit, but it didn’t change what I felt as I climbed. The inexplicable anger and tension building inside me was quickly converting into determination and push, forcing me to climb faster and harder even as the pass became treacherously steep.
I stopped and turned around sharply to face the rest of the group trying to scramble up behind me. Their speed was no match for mine, and Jaxxim was struggling to fit his shoulders between the stone walls.
"How much farther?" I demanded.
Lilly’s head moved between Aurora and Ashe and her wide brown eyes met mine.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“How much farther until we’re at the top of the mountain?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“You said you know these mountains.”
“That doesn’t mean she can automatically calculate the distance of how far we’ve walked or how much longer it is until the top,” Ashe said. “What is wrong with you, Hayden?”
The only answer she got was a tense glare before I turned back around and continued up. My fingers stung where the stone had scraped my fingertips off as they dragged beside me, keeping me balanced as I forced my way through the tightest areas. The pain angered me even more. I wasn’t supposed to feel minor injuries like that, yet each time I reached out for more stability, the rough surface of the stone wall sent another shock of sharp pain through me. Finally, ahead of me the walls turned back into jagged rocks, opening up so I could see the sky and the mountain on either side of the path. It continued upward into the thick low-hanging clouds that obscured vision more than a few steps ahead, and I let out a roar of discouragement.
The sound of muffled voices behind me pricked at my ears. My heightened sense of hearing sharpened so I could focus in on the words as my group muttered to each other, forgetting I could hear far better than any of them, or not caring that I heard. Either way, it infuriated me.
“I’m worried about him,” Aurora said.
“I am, too,” Ashe said. “Something’s wrong.”
“Lilly, is there something about the mountain…”
Stephana hadn’t gotten the sentence out of her mouth when whirling around to face her stopped the words. Her eyes widened as I leaned toward her.
“So, now it’s the mountain? It’s the mountain’s fault we haven’t found Malakan yet? Or is the mountain coming after me now, too? All the other species, Darian, the Shade, the Dragon…they aren’t enough? Now you’re saying the entire fucking mountain has decided to be against me?”
“Hayden, stop,” Stephana said. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but…”
Her voice trailed off again, but this time it wasn’t because of me. The look on her face went from intense to confused as her eyes moved to focus over my shoulder.
“What was that?” Aurora asked.
“Did you see it?” Stephana said.
“What?” I demanded. “What did you see?”
“Something moved,” Aurora said.
My head snapped around to look where they were and I saw something shift and move around a bend just ahead. I advanced toward it and as I followed the curve of the path, I saw the shape of a person. The fog dissipated just enough for me to see his face, taking the breath from my lungs.
“Malakan!” I shouted.
The old warlock didn’t respond to me or even seem to hear my shout. He turned and continued up the mountain, quickly disappearing into the fog again. Ignoring everyone behind me, I took off after him. The path widened as the angle of the climb became brutally steeper. Soon I was only using my hands, clawing my way up the mountain as I shouted for Malakan. The few times I lifted my head, he appeared ahead of me, staying just beyond me. No matter how hard I tried to force myself, my speed kept slowing. It felt like my body was starting to give out. Energy drained out of me and my muscles screamed with every movement. A sudden blinding pain exploded in my hip and knee. The sensation immediately brought me back, the memories so intensely sensory I could feel the rain-damp ground and smell the grass of the football field. The pain was as deep and stunning as the night the injury happened. In that split second, my ability to play football was gone, and with it went my place on the team, my scholarship, my career, and the only future I’d ever seen for myself. That single wrong move took away my entire identity and left me with nothing but emptiness where my self-worth had been. I was nothing without football. There had been nothing else in my life that meant anything or that gave me any sense of importance or belief in a future for myself.
That night I went to the game with the same sheer cockiness I always did. Nerves were totally unfamiliar to me. There was no reason they shouldn’t be. Everyone always said I played like I was born with a football in my hands. Joke’s on them. Turned out I was born to do magic. Maybe if I’d known that the night I walked onto the field I could have done something that would prevent the bones breaking and tendons tearing. Rather than lying on the ground and feeling all the hope for the life ahead of me disappear, I could have avoided the other player, taken the ball, and finish
ed the play. No such luck.
The pain increased as I continued to climb. I growled against it and kept going, digging my fingertips and the toes of my boots into the ground to drag me up the side of the mountain. Malakan wasn’t visible anymore. I didn’t understand how he had gotten so far away from me. He didn’t have the speed I did and his body was old and worn. There was no way he should have been able to get away from me so easily, even with the aches and exhaustion that were pulling down on my body. It felt like I couldn’t go any further when my hand finally grabbed onto a ledge. Looking up, I saw a plateau. Relief washed through me and the front of my body scraped across the stone as I dragged myself up and over the ledge onto the smooth, flat surface.
Rolling onto my back, I squeezed my eyes closed and willed the pain coursing through me to go away. The touch of something smooth and warm but heavy against the side of my face snapped my eyes open and brought me to my feet. My stomach turned as I watched the thick body of a massive orange snake slither its way out of a hole in the rock in front of me, surrounding me as it filled the plateau.
14
Turning around, I tried to find the creature’s head. The gray stone had given way to clay and red rocks, and the impossibly long creature moving across them blended as it moved in and out of the terrain. The longer I looked at it, the more it blended into the surroundings. It faded into the blazing sun and shades of orange and brown of the ground and rocks, making it impossible to follow as I tried to track its movements around me. The sound of its body dragging across the ground and the disgusted chills that rippled along my skin were the only confirmation the monster snake was still there. That wasn’t comforting. Not being able to see it meant I couldn’t fight it, and if I wanted to keep going up the mountain I’d have to get past it and up the next segment of the mountain to find Malakan.
My eyes scoured the rocks and dug into the crevices and dips between them, trying to find the creature. It wasn’t going to be that easy. I dropped my bags from the shoulders and dug through them to find my sword. Drawing it, I plunged the glimmering tip of the blade into the air in front of me. It hit nothing and I slashed to one side. There was no resistance, no indication it had found its target. No longer being able to see the snake that had so clearly slithered toward me was disorienting. It was even more frightening than the feeling of the grotesque body against me before I opened my eyes. I was turning around to examine the space behind me when movement caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Nothing was there when I looked sharply in that direction, but the same shimmer of movement appeared to the other side. Forcing myself to stay calm, I kept my eyes trained ahead of me but focused my attention on my periphery. The thick orange body of the snake appeared against the rocks, moving in and out of crevices in the stone and curling through the coarse plants that had managed to come up through the dirt.
Looking directly at it again tested and immediately proved my theory. The instant I focused directly on where the creature was, I couldn’t see it. It was like one of those damn books with the weird multicolored geometric patterns. If you cross your eyes just right, hold it to the tip of your nose, and gradually pull the book back, all the squiggles turn into the image of Elvis riding a unicorn or some shit, but the second you actually try to look at the picture, it disappears. I wasn’t about to drop down and try to stick my nose against the creature, but I could manage not looking directly at it. The bitter feelings were still building up inside me, taking away my concentration, but I forced them away. Drawing my thoughts inside myself, I closed my eyes and called on my heightened hearing to pay close attention to the shift and drag of the monstrous snake against the ground. Focusing only on that sound, I pushed away any other thoughts or feelings. When my eyes opened, I was steady.
My sword was obedient and responsive in my hand. The movements of the snake out of the corner of my eye guided my weapon as I moved around the plateau. A loud hiss and violent thrash in response to the first plunge of my blade into the creature nearly made me turn to look at it, but I kept my focus on the stone wall in front of me. When the monster moved, I turned, finding another focal point so I could continue to monitor the movements of the slithering beast at the edges of my awareness. Behind me, I heard another hiss and kicked back at it. I didn’t know how far away the snake was, but the sole of my boot made contact and a sharp, puncturing pain told me a fang had caught my leg. The sensation only joined the pain and achiness still gripping my body. It slowed me down, but I refused to let it stop me. My sword slashed and dug at the snake. Each thrash only seemed to anger the creature rather than stopping it or sending it back into the rocks. It wound closer to me and I didn’t want to know what would happen if it got to me. The puncture from its fang was deeply painful, and I could only imagine the strength of the huge coils if they wrapped around my body.
Hand-to-snake combat wasn’t going to be enough. The fight was inexplicably draining my energy and I couldn’t keep doing it. This needed to end as fast as possible so I could get to Malakan and figure out what was happening to me. Crouching down next to my bags, I dug through until I found a flint. Tearing a piece of paper from the pad inside, I used the flint to spark a flame that caught the corner of the paper. As soon as it was glowing, I harnessed the power I’d found in the sanctuary when rescuing Ashe before I even knew what I was doing and rediscovered on the train. Taking control of the fire, I grew the ball of flame in between my palms and swirled around to create a circle of flame around me. The heat touched my skin, searing into me, but the snake hissed on the other side, telling me the flames were doing what I wanted. The creature couldn’t get closer to me as long as the fire was there, giving me the time to take a long swig of water to soothe a throat that felt suddenly parched. Shoving the canteen back in my bag, I put it back over my shoulders, tightening the straps to bring them as close to my body as I could to make it easier to maneuver with them. Gathering the fire back into my hands, I swept away the wall of flame. Focusing ahead of me, I let my vision explore to either side and my hearing focus in, trying to find the snake. It was no longer slithering in and out of the crevices of the rocks and seemed to have gone still.
Moving slowly and carefully, I turned my body in a tight circle. Finally, I caught sight of the creature, coiled several feet from me. For the first time, I saw its head. It lifted up slowly, massive dark eyes zeroed in on me. The shiver of fear that rolled along my skin made me want to turn toward it and face the creature, but I resisted the urge. Instead, I concentrated the fire and tossed it to the side so it obscured the creature, then pivoted toward it and made the fire grow to either side. The flames licked the creature’s face and traveled rapidly along its body. Hissing and letting out a sound like a wounded bird, it flailed against the rocks. Bits of flames rained down on the ground, igniting some of the small plants. I raced past it and up onto a rock just above the plateau. From that vantage point, I could see beyond the plateau to the steep path where the rest of my group still struggled. Only Bex, Brielle, and Aurora were visible. I could only imagine the others were under them, trying to create a chain that would help them up. Aurora looked up as if she could feel me looking at her. Words started to move through her mind, but I knew they would be discouraging me, trying to stop me from continuing, and I didn’t want to hear it.
As the creature’s twitching stopped and the flames reduced to ashes, I headed up the path again. The exhaustion was stronger now and my body ached and creaked as I climbed. I could hear the voices of the people in my group shouting for me, but I didn’t pay attention to the words. The compulsion to continue up the mountain was too strong. Somewhere above me was Malakan and I was going to find him. The further I climbed, the more painful it became. Every joint and muscle throughout my body cried out for me to stop. It felt like I was dismantling, clawing myself up with nothing more than my sheer will rather than any physical ability. I hadn’t felt like this since drinking Aurora’s blood completed my transformation to a vampire, giving me the strength and r
esilience I’d gotten accustomed to. Now it was like I’d been thrown back into my human form, but I felt even worse than I had the night I walked away from my reunion, unwilling to let anyone from my past see what I’d become in the years since my injury.
The thought flickered through my mind that this never would have been a challenge for me when I was younger. During the years before my injury, I could have taken the mountain without any problem. It seemed like that thought only made me feel worse. My body responded to it by feeling even heavier and more exhausted. Each movement made my joints creak and it was like my muscles had been stretched to the point when they were shredding. The voices of the women behind me had become white noise occasionally punctuated by the deeper sound of one of the men. I didn’t care what they were trying to say to me. It didn’t matter to me in that moment if any of them caught up to me. I could go on by myself.
At last, I looked up and saw Malakan standing with his back to me on another plateau a few yards above me. His robe whipped around him in the wind and I kept my eyes locked on it as I dragged my body toward it. My voice was as dry and cracked as the ground beneath me as it tried to form his name. I kept saying it, pushing it out of me, but he didn’t turn toward me. My fingertips dug into the ground to pull me on my stomach across the rock. The shaking of my legs was almost too much to bear, but I forced myself to stand and reach for the warlock.
“Malakan. I found you.”
My hand touched his shoulder and he looked toward me. Vomit rose in my throat and I scrambled away from the figure, nearly toppling back off the edge of the plateau. It stepped toward me, its face clearly visible now in sunlight that had burned away all the fog and highlighted every deep crag and wrinkle on grayed, sickly skin. The figure wasn’t Malakan. It wasn’t the wise, kindly warlock’s face looking back at me.
It was me.