by Dan Wingreen
But it was already too late.
Seemingly out of nowhere a loud, thrumming sound kicked up. Eallair swore and grabbed Aidan by the wrist, but before he could drag him more than a few steps, several strange carriages sped out of the night and started to surround the village. They were battered looking and none of them had their headlights on, but even if they were in pristine condition, they wouldn't have looked like any carriage Aidan had ever seen. They were wider for one, and higher off the ground than carriages usually were, with about seven inches of space between the top of the wheels and the wheel well. They bounced slightly as they drove over uneven ground, as if they were on springs, and even the wheels were thicker and wider than normal. None of them seemed big enough to carry more than two people though, and there were even a few really weird looking ones that were little more than a saddle with a glowing engine attached to only two wheels that carried a single driver on the back. Instead of horseless carriages, they seemed more like horseless horses.
The carriages stopped when they had the village completely surrounded. The constant humming of so many magical engines was loud enough to drown out the crackling of the flames and Aidan's pounding heart. Then, almost as one, the sound dulled—presumably as they were put into idle mode—and all the headlights turned on, pointed directly at Aidan and Eallair.
"Shit," Eallair hissed under his breath. "Stay by me, but stay quiet. We might be able to get out of this without fightin’."
He sounded less than convincing, but Aidan nodded anyway. "Not going anywhere," he said. He'd glue himself to Eallair if he could.
Eallair nodded back, then squared his shoulders, stood up straight, plastered a big, friendly smile on his face and waved towards the nearest lights.
"Hello there! Nice to meet you fine—"
"Kill the necromancers!" one of the shaman yelled.
"Got farther than I thought I would," Eallair mumbled. He grabbed Aidan's wrist. "Run!"
Aidan stumbled behind him, almost falling before getting his footing and following Eallair. To Aidan's surprise, he was dragged deeper into the village. He gagged on the thick smoke, but when bolts of energy started hitting the ground by his feet, spraying his ankles with sand, he figured he could learn to deal with it. He looked back and saw the shaman pouring out of their carriages. They ran towards Aidan and Eallair, screaming war cries that chilled his blood.
"Nice to meet you? Really?" Aidan asked, ducking as another near miss showered him with sand.
"First thing what came to mind!" Eallair threw up a shield just in time to catch two dark blue bolts before firing back several of his own. He pulled Aidan between two cone shaped structures, then down a narrow passage between several more like them and one of the larger ones.
"It didn't exactly work!"
"You want a go then?"
They rounded the large structure and came face to face with two shaman. They stopped short, and Eallair roughly dragged Aidan behind him before throwing up another shield. This one was round and clear and perfect, a far cry from the shabby, nearly collapsing things he'd used when he rescued Aidan. The bolts from the shaman bounced off, the shield barely darkening where they hit.
Sometimes it was easy to forget how powerful Eallair actually was.
"No," Aidan said. "I'm good."
"Right then." The two shaman stopped firing and turned to talk with each other, probably trying to decide a better way to kill them. They were only distracted for a second, but that was all Eallair needed. The shield was down and they were both hit right in the center of the stomach with blue bolts before Aidan could blink. They doubled over and started violently throwing up.
"Why aren't you killing them?" Aidan asked as they started moving again.
"Bloodthirsty, are we?" Eallair asked with a smirk.
"No." Aidan scowled. "But doesn't it waste magic?"
"Aye," he answered. They came upon another shaman and Eallair dropped him with the same results as the other two. "But we're tryin’ to show we ain't a danger to them, right? Killin' 'em is—"
He blocked two bolts with a shield and dropped another shaman.
"—kind of a bit—"
He spun around and dropped to one knee, ducking a bolt that whizzed by Aidan's head and hit two more shaman dead center in the abdomen before gracefully flowing back to his feet and completing the spin so he was facing Aidan again.
"—counterproductive."
Aidan stared at him in dawning disbelief. "You're having fun, aren't you?"
Eallair grinned, the firelight from a nearby burning tent making shadows dance across his face. "Certainly ain't bored."
Aidan shook his head. He's completely crazy.
He was also kind of magnificent.
Aidan had never seen Eallair completely in his element before. He'd gotten glimpses of it that first night when Eallair fought off the two cops, but seeing him in a full-on battle, rested and with most of his magic, was something completely different. He almost seemed to swim through danger with inhuman grace, ducking and twisting and not even coming close to getting hit as he simultaneously took down his attackers and kept Aidan shielded. Aidan had wondered more than a little about where Eallair came from, where he was born, but watching him in the middle of a fight where he was outnumbered by a large group of powerful magic users, grinning and gliding through their attacks like they were nothing, Aidan had the sudden thought he was seeing Eallair more at home than he would be in any mere place.
It made Aidan feel somewhat sad for Eallair, even as he stared at the other man in complete awe. Even more awe-inspiring was the fact that Aidan was learning how to fit into the dance, too, staying close when they moved and ducking down when Eallair stopped.
And that was when the ground rose up around them and attacked.
Huge columns of sand and rock exploded out of the ground and surged towards them. Aidan jumped towards Eallair before the sorcerer could yank him close, and Eallair threw up a shield just before they were hit. The sound of rocks and sand hitting the shield was loud and rough, but also strangely musical, like rain and hail falling into an empty metal pan. The shield turned a deep blue as it held back the attack.
"Well. That's new." Eallair frowned thoughtfully.
And that's exactly what I wanna hear him say in the middle of a freaking fight.
"All right then," Eallair said when the crashing stopped. The shield slowly started to clear up and Aidan could see they were halfway buried, the rocky sand surrounding them like a wave that didn’t want to recede. "Let's give this a try."
He clapped his hands and the shield exploded outward.
Sand and rock flew everywhere, slamming into the shaman who had gotten close and flinging them back with small cuts and gashes on their skin. The few tents near them were shredded and torn off the group of sticks Aidan could now see had been supporting them. The shaman landed roughly, some groaning, others screaming and cradling arms bent at unnatural angles, or reaching towards legs that had bits of bone poking through the skin.
For the first time since they started running, Aidan was able to get a good look at the shaman. He'd often heard the shamans called savages and now, seeing them in person, he understood why. They definitely looked the part. Even curled up on the ground he could see they were almost uniformly tall, with long, wild black hair and smooth, deeply tanned skin. Feathers and little bits of what looked like polished bone were tied into their hair and gleamed in the nearby firelight. Their upper bodies were lean and bare except for necklaces made of more polished bone, and they wore open vests. The pants they wore looked like they were made of the same material as the smaller tents. Animal hide of some kind if it was supple enough to wear and definitely not paper for all it looked like thick vellum. Like Eallair's leather jacket, except not shiny, and more roughly made. They were every bit as wild and savage as the stories said.
"Did you see that?" Eallair asked in wonder. "They attacked us with the ground. The bloody ground!" He laughed. "Brilliant!"
"I was there," Aidan said weakly. "Maybe we should go before they do it again?"
"Oh. Right." Eallair seemed disappointed. "Probably a good idea."
The sound of feet, lots of feet, pounding across tightly packed sand was getting closer. Aidan looked around and saw the structures that had been somewhat hiding them were all completely blown apart.
They were exposed.
At least a dozen shaman were running towards them. He might not know much about tactics or combat magic, but being outnumbered and surrounded by enemies who could use the earth as a weapon seemed like a bad idea.
"Maybe right now?" Aidan asked, tugging on Eallair's jacket.
He looked at Aidan, then at the approaching shaman and shook himself out of it. "Definitely a good idea."
They took off for the nearest grouping of structures that weren't on fire.
"Head towards that yurt!" Eallair said.
Aidan was about to ask what in the ancient hells a yurt was, but since Eallair was shoving him towards one of the bigger structures, he figured it was pointless. As they ran, Aidan noticed they were reaching the edge of the village. Two carriages were parked right on the other side of the yurt. It was too bad they couldn't—
They were all gone when we got here!
Realization slammed into Aidan and he almost tripped, barely righting himself in time to keep it to a light stumble. There weren't any carriages in the village when they arrived, not a single one. Aidan hadn’t really thought about their absence at the time, he assumed they just didn't have any, but over half the village was dead. Even if they didn't all have carriages like regular people, the odds that everyone who survived just happened to be a carriage owner were pretty slim. Which meant some of those carriages had to be driven by people who didn't own them. Which meant they didn't need one person's specific magical signature to start.
Which meant anyone could drive them.
"Go for the carriages!" Aidan shouted.
"What?" Eallair asked. "But we can't—"
"There are too many carriages! Some of them have to belong to the dead people!"
Eallair started to frown, but before Aidan could take another breath to try and explain it his eyes widened in sudden understanding. "Fuck me." He shot Aidan a grin. "And you were thinkin’ you were useless."
Aidan grinned back, too excited to be embarrassed at the praise.
They both sped up, Eallair overtaking him and pulling ahead. As they neared the yurt, Aidan glanced behind them, expecting to see the shamans close on their heels. They weren't. They weren't even chasing them anymore. Instead, they were standing in a semi-circle around one shaman wearing a strange, heavy looking cloak. That shaman knelt and placed his hand on the ground, the ones surrounding him mirroring him a second later.
What are they…?
The ground under Aidan's feet began to rumble, then shake violently. He tripped, righted himself, then tripped again as the shaking increased.
"Lee!"
Eallair spun around, but then the shaking caught up to him and he tumbled to the ground as well. A loud, terrible tearing sound split the air as the ground between him and Aidan pulled apart, like a piece of paper being ripped in half by invisible hands. Eallair swore and pushed himself up. He sprinted towards Aidan as the tear reached for them both. Just before he would have run over the rapidly expanding edge, he jumped over it, pushing his hands out behind him. The sand below him was forcefully blown in all directions as a huge gust of wind propelled him quickly through the air. Eallair crashed into Aidan, knocking the breath from his lungs as he wrapped his arms around him.
Then the ground dropped out from under them.
Aidan screamed as they fell. The awful ripping sound surrounding them was deafening as the ground split deeper, just below them, always pulling apart right before they would have landed. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the fall, and the noise, abruptly stopped. Aidan grunted as he slammed into the bottom of the shield Eallair must have raised and cried out as Eallair landed on top of him.
They'd only fallen about twenty feet or so, but they were in a hole, completely surrounded by sheer walls of sand and rock.
"Ugh," Eallair grunted, pushing himself off of Aidan. "Are you okay?"
Before Aidan could answer, the walls collapsed onto them.
Aidan screamed again as the sand buried them.
Dark! So dark. I'm buried alive. I was so wrong; it wasn't a dark room I was buried in it was this I'm gonna die in the dark just like I always knew I would and oh Merlin I don't wanna die here—
"Let me out! Get me out, I don't wanna be buried! I don't wanna die!" he yelled and scrambled to get out from under Eallair and stood up.
"Hey," Eallair said. "Calm down."
He reached for Aidan, but Aidan slapped his hands away.
"No! Get me out of here! It's too dark! I can't—"
"Aidan!" Eallair yelled.
He grabbed Aidan and shook him hard. Aidan struggled to get free. Being grabbed was too much like being buried, too much like dirt holding him down and suffocating him as he tried to scream…
"Ow!" A small shock came from Eallair's palms. It was mild, but it was enough to hurt and make Aidan’s arms go numb before breaking out in pins and needles. He glared at Eallair. "What the fuck, that hurt!"
"They're not burying us alive," Eallair said calmly, ignoring Aidan's anger. The panic started to come back and Eallair's grip tightened. "Look," he said. "Just look up."
Aidan looked up.
Starlight poured into the hole above them. It wasn't very big, or really even a hole, now that Aidan looked at it. It was more like a cylindrical shaft that started at the top of the shield—which was only slightly taller than Eallair—and went all the way up to the surface. It felt a bit like being trapped in a dome under an unnecessarily long skylight. The dome/shield—apart from the small area under the skylight/shaft—was opaque with the strain of holding back the sand and rock, but it was still a strong and healthy blue.
"Someone's holding that open for us," Eallair said. "If they wanted us dead, they'd have just buried us. We're okay. Okay? We ain't buried alive."
Aidan swallowed heavily, his heart still pounding. He hated being buried at all. He took back everything he thought before about the desert night being too bright; the darkness of being underground was much worse. Way too close to the dark room in his nightmares. If he had to choose, he'd much rather be killed up there by something hidden in the odd desert night than slowly suffocate in the dark.
"Can you get us out of here?" Aidan asked, his voice still shaky.
Eallair shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said. "There's too much holdin’ us down. I don't think I can blow it all away and if I can't, I can't get the shield back up in time to keep us from truly being buried."
Aidan shuddered. "Let's not do that."
Eallair gave him a small smile. "Wasn't planning on it."
"Why…why didn't they kill us?" Aidan asked, a few seconds later. He licked his lips nervously as the other times he'd been captured flashed through his head. "It's never a good thing when people aren't trying to kill me."
Eallair laughed. "Really now?"
Aidan rolled his eyes, even though he wasn't really annoyed. Eallair being a smartass was a much better thing to focus on than being buried alive. "You know what I mean."
"Aye. I do." The soft crunching sound of someone walking over gravel echoed down the shaft. "And I think we're about to find out."
The footsteps approached the edge of the hole, then stopped. Aidan held his breath as he stared intently at the circle of stars, but not so much he didn't notice the way Eallair shifted so he was standing in front of Aidan. He didn't know whether to be annoyed or grateful, but before he could decide, the man standing above them leaned over the edge of the hole and looked down. The moon cast enough light to illuminate his face and the heavy cloak resting on his shoulders.
This was the shaman who had torn the ground out from under the
m.
He was older than Aidan would have expected. Not infirm though; from what Aidan could see of his bare chest under the cloak, he still looked fit and healthy. His face was all harsh angles carved out of unyielding stone, with deep lines around his mouth and down his darkly tanned cheeks. His skin looked like rough leather and his eyes were a dark color Aidan couldn't make out, like pools of shadow staring unblinkingly from some dark abyss. The shaman's hair was long and thick, tied back into a tight braid, mostly black with only a bit of gray at the temples and in faint, random streaks throughout the rest.
He looked down at them for the longest time, without moving or speaking, an odd expression on his face, like he was studying a particularly hard to read scroll. Aidan could hear more footsteps and restless shifting around the edge of the hole, the other shaman coming to see what they'd captured. None looked down or made any other noise though. Everyone seemed to be waiting for the older shaman to speak. Some kind of leader, then.
"It is not often a necromancer is captured alive," the shaman said. His voice was surprisingly light, considering his harsh appearance, the words lilting and musical, but also a bit awkward. He would drag out certain syllables and inflections. Almost like he was used to singing his words instead of speaking them. "To capture two at the same time is unheard of. Especially when there is much death for them to draw on."
He said it as a statement, but paused expectantly, as if waiting for an answer.
"Maybe it's because we're not necromancers," Eallair said.
He sounded cautious, but confident. Aidan tried to take comfort in his confidence, but he was way too aware that their lives depended on convincing this man they weren't necromancers and didn't mean him or the rest of the shaman any harm. Kind of hard to do, even if Eallair hadn't already hurt a bunch of them. Aidan hoped if they decided to kill them, they'd at least take them out of the ground first, but he wasn't that much of an optimist anymore.
"That is a possibility," the shaman said. Hope flared in Aidan's chest, but then he continued. "It is, however, not a likely one."
Eallair crossed his arms. "Then why haven't you killed us?"