by Ben Wolf
Magnus stared at him. “Had you left that soldier alive, we could have asked him again.”
Axel folded his arms. “Yeah, well, it was either him or Calum, like I said. I didn’t exactly have time to think it through.”
“Evidently.”
Axel rolled his eyes. In the short time Axel had known him, Magnus had already killed like a dozen people. Why did he keep trying to make Axel feel bad about what he’d done?
Sure, some small part of Axel regretted that he’d had to do it, but the soldier had condemned himself by attacking Calum. Even before that, when he’d joined the King’s army. Anyone clad in the black armor of the tyrannical King deserved the same fate, and Axel would happily disburse it to any who dared challenge him.
“The commander’s room is next door,” Calum said. “There’s a big chest inside. Did you check there?”
“Not yet. First, I want each of you to select a couple of weapons from that table. Once we get out of here, I will teach you how to fight. Only take what you can carry along with a bag of food and a pack of supplies.”
Axel walked over to the table and perused the assortment. “I think I did pretty well just now with my sword.”
Magnus snorted. “I have no intention of arguing with you. If you do not wish to learn anything, I will not waste time teaching you.”
Calum picked up a spear. “You know how to use all of these?”
Magnus nodded. “Yes, of course.”
“What about this?” Grinning, Axel picked up an axe.
“You will be too slow with that. It is too heavy.”
“Doesn’t seem too bad.” Axel hefted it up and down. It did have some good weight to it, but Axel hadn’t worked on a farm all his life to be a weakling. “And you said I could pick whatever I wanted.”
“You will both learn the sword either way, so pick a second weapon, and I will teach you that. If there is another spear, I would recommend that. Eventually, you can learn to throw it, and then our hunting problem is solved.”
“Alright. Fine.” Axel tossed the axe back onto the table, and it clattered to a stop. “Ruin all of my fun.”
Calum peered out the window. “Whatever we do, we need to do it quickly. Looks like they’re coming back.”
Magnus growled and stormed toward the door. “Make your choices now. Find some armor that fits, and load up the bags with food.”
Axel scooped up a padded shirt, leather armor, a pair of greaves, some steel-studded gauntlet-style gloves, and corresponding armor for his legs. He put it all on as quickly as he could then tucked a length of rope into the bag. Calum did the same, and then they gathered up what spilled food they could.
As they finished packing, Magnus returned to the kitchen, and despite his feelings toward the Saurian, Axel couldn’t help but marvel at the sight.
Magnus wore bright blue armor from his legs up to his neck, plus a helmet clearly designed to fit a Saurian’s head. Even his tail had armor, and it was tipped with a long blade. In his right hand he held a sword so large that a strong man would have to wield it with two hands. Its silver hilt gleamed, stark against its iridescent blue blade.
The closer Magnus drew to them, the more detail Axel could see in the armor. Up close, the metal, which matched that of Magnus’s blade, had an opalescent sheen to it, and it gleamed with hues of pink and green, depending on how the light hit it. The effect was beautiful, but its application in the armor now covering Magnus’s body sent chills through Axel.
“Whoa.” Axel gawked at him. “Nice armor.”
“It is made from Blood Ore, a rare metal found only in the mountains near my home. Much harder and lighter than steel, but supremely difficult to forge.”
“Where’d you get it?” Calum asked.
Magnus clacked his talons on his breastplate and looked past Calum and Axel into the ether. “It was a gift.”
Axel blinked. “A gift from...?”
“My father.” A low growl rumbled from Magnus’s throat. “But he is gone now.”
Calum glanced between the two of them. “The breastplate is a work of art.”
“And supremely necessary,” Magnus said. “Saurians are somewhat naturally armored because of our scales. As we advance in age, they grow stronger and more durable, but even so, our underbellies are weak, hence the utilization of this specific piece of armor.”
Axel asked, “If it’s made from Blood Ore, then why is it blue?”
“We have little time. Walk with me, and I will explain.” Magnus slid his broadsword into a long sheath that ran the length of his back and snatched two of the bags from the table.
He led them to the staircase, and they ventured downstairs again, with Magnus leading the way. Calum followed him, and Axel brought up the rear. It made sense to protect the weakest member of their party in such a way.
“Names can be deceiving,” Magnus said to them. “The ore itself is a dark blue color, not red like its name suggests, but the rocks from which it is mined are a blood-red color. Once forged, Blood Ore brightens to the brilliant shade of blue you see here.”
“Wow,” Calum said as they entered the courtyard.
“We can discuss blacksmithing later,” Magnus said. “We have already lingered here too long. We need to reach the cover of the forest before it is too late.”
That night, Calum exhaled a long breath when they finally finished setting up the camp.
The three of them had made it back into the forest with their loot just in time to avoid the returning soldiers. Another substantial trek through the woods consumed almost the rest of the day, including a hike along the base of one of the Snake Mountains, which Calum could scarcely stop marveling up at.
Carrying all that extra weight had worked Calum’s sore legs more than even the toughest day’s work at the quarry. As Calum and Axel began unpacking food around the campfire, Magnus stood and started to walk into the woods, but he left his bag of food at the camp.
The sight surprised Calum, and he started to follow Magnus.
“Where are you going?” The thought that Magnus might leave them alone stirred worry in Calum’s chest. “You’re, uh… you’re coming back, right?”
Magnus stopped, turned back, and looked down at him. “I need some time to myself. Time to meditate.”
Calum blinked at him. “Meditate?”
“It means I will silence myself and listen. It is a relaxation technique and a means to connect to a deeper power than what any Saurian can achieve on his own.”
“Well, you have fun with that.” Axel’s scoff sounded all the way from back at the campsite, and Calum inwardly cringed.
Ignoring Axel, Magnus gave Calum a slight nod, then he disappeared into the trees.
About fifteen minutes after Magnus left, Axel said, “He’s so weird. He’s huge and dangerous, but now he’s going off to meditate?”
“He’s not like us, Axel. He’s a Saurian. I’m sure their ways are as different from ours as our appearances.”
“I don’t understand why he’s sticking around with us. Why doesn’t he just go?”
“Do you want him to go?” Calum countered.
“That’s not what I mean.” Axel leaned back against a tree and gnawed on an apple.
“Then what do you mean?”
“I don’t like him, but from what I can tell, he doesn’t like us much either. So why is he still here?”
Calum shrugged and reached for a piece of dried pork. He bit into it, and a tantalizing rush of smoky, meaty flavors teased his tongue. “I don’t know. If he wanted to leave, we couldn’t stop him.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. He could do whatever he wanted, and we couldn’t stop him.”
Calum just shook his head at that, but Axel hadn’t been there when Magnus saved him from the Gronyx’s pit, or when Calum had given Magnus the chicken leg, or when they’d taken down Jidon and his men together. He wouldn’t have the same perspective that Calum did.
Instead of trying to explain all of t
hat to Axel, he asked, “Don’t you think he’d have done it by now if he meant us harm?”
“No. He used us to help him get into the Rock Outpost, and now that we’ve done it, what reason does he have to keep us around? We’re some of the only people who know he’s on the loose. If he wanted to make sure we didn’t talk, he could just kill us.”
“But he won’t.”
Axel sat up. “You don’t know that.”
“I’m pretty sure, actually,” Calum said. “I think we’re safe. You have no idea how many times he could have killed me yesterday but didn’t. Why would he suddenly want to do it now?”
“Believe whatever you want, but I’m not gonna let my guard down while he’s around.” Axel folded his arms and leaned back against the tree again. “Not for an instant.”
A green foot emerged from behind Axel’s tree and stomped the dirt next to him.
Axel jolted forward, groping for his sword, but he couldn’t get it out of its sheath. When Magnus stepped into full view, his blue armor glimmering in the light from the campfire, Axel gave up his struggle.
“I have no desire to harm either of you.” Magnus eyed Axel. “Whether you are on your guard or not.”
Axel glared at him, and Calum stifled a chuckle.
“Did you save me any food?”
Calum nodded and tossed Magnus the rest of the chunk of pork he’d been gnawing on. Magnus popped the entire piece into his gaping jaws, chomped on it a few times, then swallowed it while Axel recovered his position by the tree, still scowling.
“We have endured a long couple of days,” Magnus said. “We will eat, then we will sleep. Tomorrow morning, we must continue our journey.”
Calum nodded, though Magnus’s words came as little consolation. That night, after the biggest dinner Calum had ever eaten, he fell asleep.
Blinding light shone everywhere. Just like the night before, Calum’s attempts to shield his eyes proved futile, and again, the light seemed to actually penetrate his body.
The same powerful figure emerged from the light. Same golden crown, same white armor, same silver sword, same gigantic white wings. As before, his eyes flickered like two balls of fire above the white armored mask that covered his nose and mouth.
Again, the sight left Calum dumbfounded.
The circular living map appeared again, first from a wide overhead view, and then much closer as it followed a path from one side of the lakes to the other. As before, it centered on the base of a range of red mountains.
A black hole opened among the red rocks.
“Go, Calum. Find the Arcanum. Set me free.” The voice resonated around Calum. Within him. “Go, Calum.”
Calum shook his head. He still held his hand up to shield his eyes from the light. It still didn’t do any good. “I don’t understand.”
“You will,” the voice said. “Go. I am with you. Always.”
“Who are you?” Calum asked.
“I am Lumen, General of Light.”
Calum blinked and the vision disappeared, except for the bright light. He held up his hand again, but this time he actually blocked the light from reaching his eyes. That didn’t make any sense.
He tilted his head and a shadow covered his face. It belonged to one of the many surrounding trees in the forest, and the light, he realized, came from the morning sun. A yawn escaped his throat as he sat up.
“Good morning,” said a quiet, but deep voice behind him.
Calum spun around and saw Magnus seated on a tree stump, still clad in his armor except for his helmet. In the morning sunlight, his armor glimmered in glorious shades of light-blue with tinges of pink, green, and even some purple undertones.
Magnus held a finger up to his scaly lips. “Axel is still sleeping.”
Calum nodded and rubbed his eyes.
“Sleep well?”
“Yes. No.”
Magnus eyed him. “Well, which is it?”
Calum stretched a kink in his neck. Should he tell Magnus about his dream? Or would Magnus think he was crazy?
“It is a simple question, Calum.”
“I—” Calum paused. He could tell Magnus. They’d saved each other’s lives more than a few times each now. Calum owed him an honest answer, if not much more. “I had a strange dream last night.”
“Do you dream often?”
Calum shook his head. “Never. Not since last night.”
“Two dreams in as many nights?”
“Yes.”
“Interesting.”
“It gets even stranger,” Calum said. “The dream was almost the same both nights.”
Magnus leaned forward. “What did you dream?”
Calum glanced at Axel, who still lay flat on his back, his eyes closed. “A figure appeared to me out of the brightest light I’ve ever seen. He showed me a map and told me to find some place called the Arcanum to set him free. At first he didn’t say who he was, but this time he said his name was Lumen, and he called himself the General of Light.”
Magnus straightened his back. His mouth opened, revealing his pointed teeth, but no sound came out.
“What?” Now Calum leaned forward. “Does that mean something to you?”
Magnus blinked at him. “Do you know who Lumen is?”
“Um…” Calum stared at his boots, but they didn’t give him an answer.
“Lumen, the General of Light. Do you not know your own race’s history? The history of Kanarah itself?”
Calum shook his head. “My parents were killed when I was eight, and I spent the rest of my life in that quarry. There’s not much outside of rocks, shovels, pickaxes, and hard work that I know.”
Magnus exhaled a long breath. “Then there is much you must learn.”
“About what?” Axel sat up and stretched his thick arms toward the sky.
“About the King and Lumen, and their battle a thousand years ago.”
Axel tilted his head. “Maybe I should go back to sleep.”
Calum could hardly comprehend what Magnus was claiming. “The King is… a thousand years old?”
“Some believe he uses a form of sorcery to prolong his life.” Magnus sat back on his stump. “According to legend, a thousand years ago, Lumen rebelled against the King to set humans and the other races free from his tyrannical reign.”
Calum looked at Axel, who shrugged.
“At the end of a long and arduous battle, Lumen was defeated. Instead of killing him, though, the King banished him to a secret place—the Arcanum—for a thousand years. Legend says he is still there, waiting to be set free.
“When he is released, he will lead an army to save the people once and for all. All people, not just humans.” Magnus eyed Calum. “And now, almost a thousand years later, Lumen visited you in a dream not once, but twice.”
Axel’s head swiveled toward Calum. “What?”
Calum repeated the dream to Axel in more detail than he’d given Magnus, including the locations the living maps had shown. “And he showed me a spot at the base of some red mountains across a huge valley with some lakes—”
“Red mountains?” Magnus extended his hand as if to stall the conversation. “You saw red mountains?”
Calum nodded. “A black hole opened, like the mouth of a cave or something, at the base of some mountains, and they were red. Very red, like blood.”
Magnus clacked his talons on his breastplate. “You are right to describe them as blood-red. That is their namesake. They are called the Blood Mountains for exactly that reason.”
Calum straightened his spine. The places in his dreams actually existed?
“That is where the name for Blood Ore comes from—the mountains are red, even though the ore itself is blue. The path you referenced is also real, as are the lakes.” Magnus waited a moment. When Calum didn’t say anything, Magnus asked, “Surely you have heard of the Tri-Lakes?”
Calum shook his head.
“I’ve heard of them,” Axel said. “Some of the King’s soldiers were talkin
g about them one night at the tavern. Said they’re massive, and they’re full of dangerous creatures, but the surrounding valley is dead. Nothing lives or grows there.”
Magnus nodded. “That much is true.”
“How do you know?” Calum asked.
“I have been there,” Magnus said.
Silence hovered between them.
“The Valley of the Tri-Lakes connects the eastern half of Kanarah, where we are now, to the western half.” Magnus stoked the campfire with a stick. “It is there you will find the Blood Mountains, home to my people. The city of Reptilius sits among the highest peaks in the mountain range. That is where the Saurians live.”
Axel glanced at Calum. “So why aren’t you there now?”
Magnus’s eyes narrowed, then he exhaled a long breath and looked away.
After a long pause, Calum leaned forward. “Magnus?”
“I do not believe your dreams are coincidental or meaningless,” Magnus said.
Axel rolled his eyes. “Or they’re just dreams.”
“Unlikely. The King himself foretold that Lumen would be released at the end of the thousand years.” Magnus looked at Calum. “Though no one knows how. No one knows where Lumen is locked away. No one has had any idea—until now.”
Calum’s eyes widened. “You mean…”
“Yes.” Magnus focused his gaze. “Calum, you may hold the key to setting Lumen free and saving all of Kanarah from the King’s oppression.”
Chapter Thirteen
Western Kanarah
Lilly had succeeded in keeping Sharion from harm, but doing so had cost her.
Roderick had personally assured her that the pair of rusty old shackles now clamped to her ankles would remain on not only while she rode in the wagon but also during trips to the woods to relieve herself. They would stay on her all the time, no exceptions.
What’s more, Roderick informed Lilly that he would now personally oversee her trips to the woods—to protect his “investment.” She didn’t like how he smirked when he told her, but it was worlds better than enduring the threat of his men every time she had to answer nature’s call.