Of Liars and Thieves

by Gabriela Lavarello

  “What are you doing?” Finriel asked as she peered down to look at Krete’s quick movements with interest.

  The ground below his fingers began to glow orange with a light that seemed to come from the ground itself. Krete didn’t seem to notice that Finriel had spoken to him as he worked, and he stood up a few minutes later with a satisfied smile. The ground below him was a circle of intricate lines and symbols that were unfamiliar to Lorian, but he could only assume that it was some sort of gnomish scripture. Krete looked up at Finriel and Lorian, huffing.

  “They still have not come back?”

  Lorian shook his head, his hair falling into his eyes. He swept it back hastily and turned toward the sound of fighting not too far away.

  “Aeden, Tedric! The portal will close soon. You need to come now!” Krete yelled toward the clang of swords and snapping branches, his eyes shrouded with worry.

  Nora made a soft wailing noise as she looked toward the sound of the minotaur and the two companions fighting. Her body was taut, and it was clear she yearned to join them in the fight.

  The sound of fighting stopped abruptly as a pained roar echoed through the forest. Tedric and Aeden crashed through the trees toward them, and Krete beckoned Finriel and Lorian closer. Finriel stepped forward with Nora at her side. The sound of Tedric and Aeden nearing grew louder, but Lorian tensed as another sound crashed behind them. The minotaur was coming too.

  “Come on, or else we will have the minotaur coming through the portal with us.”

  Krete beckoned Finriel forward again, and Lorian tensed as she stepped toward the portal hesitantly. Nora was pressed against her master’s side, the hair upon her hackles standing on edge.

  “Now, step onto the portal with both feet at the same time. Keep your mind empty as it sucks you in and you should get through to where I want the portal to take us.”

  Both Lorian and Finriel shot Krete a look of alarm.

  “What do you mean I should get to where you want it to take us?” Finriel challenged.

  “No time now, just go!” Krete exclaimed, and he brought his hand up to shove Finriel forward. She stumbled into the portal and shimmered slightly as she was sucked into the ground, Nora leaping in behind her.

  “Well, I liked her the least out of all of us, so if she does not make it, I must admit I won’t cry as much,” Krete grumbled to himself.

  “What the Nether did you just say?” Lorian roared, anger briefly turning his vision red as he rounded on the gnome.

  Krete pursed his lips together and looked up at Lorian with apprehension before he reached up and shoved Lorian forward into the portal. Lorian looked up, and the last thing he saw was Tedric, Aeden, and the minotaur crashing toward him before darkness swallowed him whole.

  19

  Lorian

  Different shades of blue and grey swirled across Lorian’s vision as he fell downwards for what felt like eternity. He waved his hands out, reaching for something, anything, to break his fall, but to no avail. Lorian screwed his eyes shut against the myriad of colors flashing around him, the terrible sensation of falling combined with the visual overwhelm making him feel close to being sick.

  Lorian’s back slammed against something solid, and he flung eyes open in shock. The impact sent dark blotches across his vision and he groaned in pain, the strength of the collision forcing the air out of his lungs. After a moment, the blotches disappeared and Lorian found himself in a sand clearing surrounded by sleek brown rock. A pained wheeze tore through his chest and he forced himself up onto his elbows to better examine his surroundings. The smooth stone rose up far above his head and the sand was not very deep. The course grains that flecked his pants were light brown, which contrasted with the sand he had almost stepped upon in Crubia. There was a faint smell of dew in the air, though he could sense no rain coming from the overcast sky. The place felt oddly familiar somehow, though Lorian could not remember traveling to this place in his entire life.

  A yowl echoed through the clearing, and Lorian cursed at Nora’s ear-grating greeting. The mogwa bounded over to him and sniffed his face curiously, and Lorian scrunched his nose against the featherlight tickles of her whiskers brushing his face.

  “Lorian,” Finriel gasped, and he angled his head in the direction of her voice. She approached in four long strides, appearing to be in one piece and barely shaken as she knelt by his side. “Are you all right?”

  Lorian managed a nod, still quite unable to speak. Finriel exhaled with relief and helped him into a sitting position. Lorian winced against a new pain that bloomed at the back of his skull as he sat up.

  “I’ve been waiting here forever,” Finriel huffed, and the harsh mask of her usual glower returned. “I thought you had all been ripped to shreds by the minotaur.”

  “Krete shoved me into the portal not even two seconds after you,” Lorian grunted in reply.

  Gurgling in the sky made Lorian tilt his gaze upward to find the dark hole through which he had fallen still shimmering. The inside swirled with the colors of an angry sea during a storm, though the outer edges of the portal shimmered orange. The gurgling grew louder, and Lorian let out a yelp as Nora grabbed his cloak with her teeth and dragged him away from the spitting void.

  Three bodies dropped from the swirling darkness like rocks, falling to the ground in a tangle of limbs and curses. Krete’s head shot up and he quickly clambered over Tedric and Aeden’s bodies. They groaned and cursed in muffled voices as he scrambled none too gently over them, his grey eyes trained up toward the portal.

  He began chanting in gnomish, his face pulled into stony concentration as quick babbling words flew from his tongue. Lorian glanced down to find Krete’s left hand in a fist, and a faint shimmering light glowed around it, which was no doubt the portal stone. The shimmering orange light around the portal began to grow and pulse, appearing to swallow up the dark blue storm inside as the hole shrank.

  An angry roar sounded from the mouth of the portal, and Lorian watched in horror as the minotaur’s head emerged through the last of the blue swirling light. Krete began to yell the unfamiliar words, and with a loud sucking pop, the portal closed and the minotaur’s now severed head fell to the ground.

  Krete darted out of the way with surprising agility, and the beast’s head landed on top of Tedric and Aeden with a heavy plunk. Aeden dodged out of the way as best she could, and only the nose of the beast brushed over her leg as she moved. The head rolled from Aeden’s quick movement and tilted, falling directly on top of Tedric’s muscled chest. Its slimy nose pressed against the commander’s neck, and his face quickly changed from horror to disgust.

  “For the love of— oh, dear Adustio.”

  “I don’t think your witch goddess will help you now,” Lorian croaked with a grin, his bruised ribs still throbbing from his fall through the portal.

  Tedric reached up and grabbed the minotaur by its gnarled horns, groaning as he lifted it off his chest and shoved it to the side. The dead creature’s grey tongue lolled out of its mouth and flopped against Tedric’s face, making him roll to the other side and quickly scrub at the sheen of slobber with a loud curse.

  “Oh come now, the minotaur was simply trying to give you some love and affection,” Aeden offered with a playful grin.

  “Enough with the jokes. They aren’t helping the rest of us forget about the tension between you two.” Krete waved his hand in the air, his face slightly red from exertion.

  Aeden and Tedric’s faces turned pink at Krete’s comment, and Tedric scrambled to his feet and glanced at the fairy. She quickly looked away and turned in the opposite direction. What Krete had said was true, Lorian realized with some surprise. He had been so concentrated on mending his relationship with Finriel that he had not realized that there was perhaps a different sort of relationship blooming within the group.

  “That sounded like something I would say,” Lorian commented.

  Krete threw his hands up into the air with a grunt and turned away from the
minotaur’s unfortunate remains. Lorian threw a wink at Tedric, who scowled and gave him a rude hand gesture before striding over to stand at his side. Lorian reached up and took the commander’s outstretched hand, and Tedric hauled him up to his feet. Lorian took a steadying breath, the pain in his ribs slightly less than it had been minutes ago.

  “What is this place?” Finriel asked, her change in subject almost immediately easing the tension in the air.

  Lorian turned to face her, and his mouth fell open in awe at the sight of a black magnificent stone standing in the center of the clearing. It was the height of a fully grown dragon and as wide as a ship. The glossy black stone was as smooth as water, with not a single scratch or dent upon its surface.

  “Oh, thank the goddesses. It’s the naga,” Krete sighed in relief, and he nearly ran to the sheer face of black rock with his arms outstretched.

  “How is it that I don’t remember that being here just a few moments ago?” Finriel asked, and Lorian shook his head in wonder.

  “It’s because it was not here just a few minutes ago,” Krete answered, looking over his shoulder to throw the witch a broad smile. “And it is not just any stone. It is the naga, and it will get us out of here.”

  “What are you on about? There’s no way in the Nether that we can scale that thing,” Tedric said dubiously.

  Krete turned back to the black stone and shook his head with a high-pitched laugh. Finriel and Lorian exchanged a furtive glance and Lorian raised his brows, suddenly convinced that the gnome had gone mad.

  “We aren’t supposed to scale it; that would be ridiculous,” Krete replied after a moment.

  “Excuse me?” Tedric frowned.

  Krete took in a deep breath and sighed, gesturing toward the massive stone. “Some of the most powerful spells in the realm have been placed on the naga since the beginning of the thousand-year peace. It is a gateway that can take you across Crubia and transport you either to Creonid or Drolatis, whichever you choose.”

  Aeden took a step forward, examining the rock with curiosity. “And how is it that it only appeared now if it wasn’t here when we first arrived?”

  Krete shrugged. “No one truly knows. It appears when it wants to and cannot be summoned or forced to appear, not even by someone with the most powerful magic.”

  “Wait a moment,” Tedric said at Lorian’s side, “if we’re not in Farrador or in either of the northern kingdoms, then where are we exactly?”

  “We are in the In Between,” Krete answered simply.

  Confusion swam through Lorian’s brain, and he thought hard to remember if he had ever heard of such a place, but he knew he hadn’t. He glanced around at his other companions to find them staring at Krete as if he had completely lost his mind, and Krete returned their looks with one of his own.

  “What? Don’t you know of the In Between?”

  Lorian pressed his lips closed and shook his head, and Krete huffed and pursed his lips with disappointment.

  “Your rulers keep too much from you. The In Between is a place that doesn’t exist in time.”

  “That sounds as though it doesn’t exist at all,” Lorian said, but Krete ignored him.

  “It is a safe haven within the folds of the shimmering borders of each kingdom. No form of violence can occur here, and it is said that a fragment of this place lives within every creature of Raymara, which is why we’ve been able to live in peace for a millennia.”

  “So we are nowhere even though we are somewhere?” Tedric asked.

  “We are in the folds between Farrador and the fork between Drolatis and Creonid. We all must go through the naga now though, before it disappears again.”

  Tedric blinked and nodded at Krete. “That was probably the most useful information I have ever heard you say since our first meeting.”

  Krete chuckled and gestured for them to come forward. “There isn’t much time left. We must go.”

  Lorian took a tentative step toward the naga, finding his fingers trembling as he approached. There was a thrum of energy around the stone, something strange that sent his stomach lurching into his throat. Tedric walked at his side, his face impassive. Lorian wondered what feelings were being held behind the mask that Tedric wore, and he wondered if the facade had anything to do with Aeden.

  Krete waved Lorian closer and gave him an excited nod. “Just picture in your mind that you are walking through the stone, and keep your eyes on me the entire time.”

  Finriel let out a small sigh and Lorian glanced at her, his already thumping heart skipping a beat. Excitement was written clearly on her face, and she looked as if she might leap into the stone. Lorian took in a calming breath before he pushed his hand against the smooth black surface. A grunt of surprise slipped from his mouth as his hand passed into the stone instead of pressing against it as he assumed it would. The air against Lorian’s now invisible hand was cold and deathly still, and he clenched his fingers, fighting the urge to pull back.

  “Let’s go,” Krete said, and he walked straight into the stone, a small ripple passing across the black expanse where he entered.

  Lorian deepened his breath and exhaled as he stepped forward all the way into the naga. The world went black for a moment, and his stomach gave a flop as the ground tilted from under his feet. He took a blind step forward, blinking quickly to find Krete’s faint outline in front of him. Two more shuffling steps and Lorian found himself out of the darkness, emerging onto hard stone surrounded by staggering cliffs. He instantly recognized it as Drolatis, the dragon kingdom, and his stomach gave a terrible flop.

  The cliff he stood on was a place that still clung to his mind every day, even in his dreams. The ground was rocky and coated in a dusting of snow. Feet away, the wide surface gave way into a chasm, the darkness seeping upward from it like a bleeding wound. On the other side of the chasm lay a large meadow and the giant jagged expanse of the Steel Mountains. He had escaped to this very place on his first mission, the mission that had torn him from Finriel for so long.

  Lorian shook the memories from his mind and took in a rattling breath of frigid air, which was an unwelcome change to the softer and warmer air in Farrador. Though he hated Farrador, he never had much of a taste for the thin, cold air of the mountainous regions.

  A sound similar to rippling water upon a smooth lake made Lorian turn, and he watched as Tedric, Aeden, Finriel, and Nora shimmered into existence. The naga was nowhere in sight, and Lorian shook his head in wonder at the intricacies of the magical world. Lorian suddenly remembered Krete, and spun around to look for the gnome. He had followed straight behind him through the naga, after all. After a few moments, Lorian spotted him near the mouth of the chasm, the muted tones of his tunic and dusty red pants nearly camouflaging him completely.

  “That was brilliant,” Finriel breathed, gazing at their surroundings in wary awe.

  Lorian tried his best to hide the smile that tugged at his lips as he watched her gaze at the stony alcove with growing excitement. As children, they’d frequently had long conversations about which kingdoms they wanted to visit, and Finriel had always said that she wanted to visit the mountains. Her eyes met Lorian’s, and a true smile bloomed on her full lips.

  “Do you remember?” she asked, and Lorian nodded, no longer caring to hide his own smile.

  “You finally came to the mountains.”

  Tedric stepped forward and glanced between Lorian and Finriel, and then grinned at Aeden. “I don’t know, the tension between these two might be worse.”

  Aeden pressed her lips into a grim line and started toward Krete without a word. Finriel seemed to notice what Tedric’s comment had implied and quickly turned away, following the fairy, with Nora at her heels.

  “You and Krete really must stop with the comments. There can only be room for one arrogant ass in this company,” Lorian said, forcing his galloping heart to hide behind his dry tone.

  Tedric lifted his arms in the air and raised his brows, grinning. “I am merely a messenger o
f the truth that so desperately wants to be told. I’m also finding how entertaining it is to watch people squirm with discomfort.”

  “I’ve taught you well.” Lorian grinned. “Sometimes I now wonder how we are not brothers by blood.”

  “We don’t have to share the same blood in order to be brothers, you know,” Tedric answered, his face slowly becoming serious as he lowered his hands.

  “How are we going to get across this chasm?” Finriel’s voice rang out through the alcove, interrupting Lorian and Tedric’s moment.

  He looked over to where she and Nora stood with Aeden and Krete, the witch’s head tilted over to look into the darkness below. Aeden was a few healthy feet away from the cliff’s edge, her angular features appearing more severe in the bleak grey light. Krete, however, seemed as nonplussed about the steep drop below as Finriel, and he peered over with a look of contentment.

  “I thought you hated heights,” Finriel muttered.

  Krete shrugged. “It depends on the location.”

  Tedric and Lorian approached the group and Krete placed a hand on Finriel’s elbow, gently pulling her a step back from the precarious ledge. Finriel let him lead her backwards, but her face turned slightly sour with obvious frustration.

  “I know this place,” Lorian said, breaking the silence. “The Guardian must come to us and reveal the bridge that crosses over the chasm.”

  “How do we summon this Guardian then?” Finriel asked, peering around as if expecting someone to appear out of thin air.

  Krete shook his head and chuckled softly. “You do not summon the Guardian. She comes to you.”

  Finriel huffed and crossed her arms. Nora stood a few yards behind the witch, eyeing the rocky darkness below before letting out a tentative meow.

  “So we simply wait?” Aeden asked, and Krete nodded.

  Lorian shivered as a sudden cold breeze drifted through the alcove. The air grew thick and mist quickly began to flood upwards through the chasm and spread around the small clearing. Lorian’s vision was completely obscured by mist now, and not even the dark rock at his feet was visible anymore.