A Child of Two Worlds

by Mark Cole

  Caitlyn nodded and took the lead. Terra floated Alex in front of her while she walked.

  “Why is he still out? If he had just passed out, he should have come to by now,” Caitlyn said, looking at him over her shoulder with a concerned expression on her face.

  “I think it used all of his strength, just like trying to cast a spell that is too powerful. After a few hours sleep, he should wake feeling like he hasn’t eaten in days, eat his fill, and go back to sleep.”

  “What else do you know about the blade?” Caitlyn asked.

  Terra shook her head. “Not much,” she said holding the wooden sword up in front of her eyes. “I know of two other forms, and that he must discover them on his own. And it will drive him insane.” She continued, her voice becoming more bitter with each word. “It starts with the Guardian saying he hears others talk to him through the sword.” Which he has already done.

  “Then, he will begin to remember things that other Guardians did in the past as if he had done them. He will erratically shift between his personality and those of the previous wielders. Eventually, the memories of hundreds of past Guardians will begin to overload his mind, and he will burn out like a too-brilliant candle.”

  “I’m so sorry, Terra. I never knew,” Caitlyn said almost too softly to hear. She alternated studious looks into the surrounding trees on either side of the small stream and glances of pity to her and Alex.

  “Few do.” Why did it have to be Alex? Terra thought. What have I done that I deserve to be punished so? What higher power, what spinner of fate have I offended to watch the man I love go mad and die a wasting death?

  She felt a tightness in her middle. Alex, I pray you get to see your child before the end. Boy or girl, I hope the baby has your beautiful green eyes. Your eyes that are always ready to smile and laugh, and when you stand in the sun I can see flecks of yellow and gold in them. And your smile, I hope the baby has your smile. She continued her internal monologue of sadness and hope wishing desperately that she could find a way to save him from his fate.

  It was just past mid-day and was beginning to get dark in the north and south running valley. I will tell him when he’s recovered. It is past time.

  “We’re here,” Caitlyn said stopping at a cavernous opening that went east through the mountain. In the shade-induced half-twilight, it looked like the yawning maw of some great monster. “I can see in the dark when there is some small amount of light,” Caitlyn said. “But not in these lightless tunnels.”

  Terra cast the same spell that she had four nights ago on herself and Caitlyn. “I’m tying this spell to you. Just don’t rub your eyes, and you’ll be able to see.”

  Caitlyn hesitated before going underground. Terra remembered that Caitlyn had been terrified of going down in to the palace basements when they were younger.

  “Don’t worry,” Terra said. Caitlyn spun to face her.

  “I’m not worried,” she said quickly. “I’m just… waiting for you to say you are ready.”

  Terra tried to smile reassuringly. She didn’t think she was very convincing. “I’m ready. And don’t worry, if there was a cave-in I could literally lift the volcano to keep us safe.” Not for long, though, she didn’t say.

  Caitlyn nodded, and they entered the warren of tunnels that would lead them to Adorac Volcano.

  Chapter Eleven - The Truth

  “Captain o’ the Guard should no’ have to patrol the bloody tunnels,” Brahm Ironfist grumbled to himself. At a glance, the casual observer would have seen an aging gray bearded Dwarf of perhaps four-hundred years with nicked and dented platemail covering him from head to toe. The same observer would have seen a double bladed battleaxe with a very worn haft covered in scratches hanging along with two throwing hammers on the Dwarf’s belt.

  The educated observer would see a grizzled veteran as tough as the stone around him, covered head to toe in thorium plate. That observer would have noticed the scratches on the battleaxe’s haft were far too evenly spaced to be from use, but were used to record the hundreds of kills in combat the Dwarf had earned.

  The dwarven observer would have seen Brahm “The Hammer” Ironfist, Captain of the Guards of the Adorac Volcano, Leader of the Hammer Legion, and Hero of the Defense of Adorac. And, they wouldn’t have missed the clever mechanism in the Dwarf’s gauntlets that would have made a six-inch blade slide out and mount into a groove in the gauntlet.

  “Bloody, stinkin’ undead spotted in the bloody mountains. Increasin’ the bloody patrols,” he continued to grumble as he walked through the unlit darkness by himself.

  When the other guards had tried to get Brahm to take another dwarf with him on the patrol, he had said, “I know these tunnels better than any o’ ye babes that’re hardly able to grow a flamin’ beard. Any o’ ye’d slow me down if I get in a scrape. I’ll be so busy pullin’ yer baby fat from the fire, I’ll get bloody killed.”

  Brahm kicked a stone as he walked down the unlit tunnel. “Flamin’ patchy bearded recruits,” he grumbled. He was about to move onto his favorite topic to grumble about, his sister still trying to marry him off ever since his wife, Mother cradle her, died, when something caught his attention.

  He felt the slight vibration of someone coming around the bend in the tunnel about a hundred feet away. He drew his heavy-bladed, razor-sharp battleaxe, Delly, named after his late wife, Mother cradle her, and held it loosely in his hands as he set himself in the middle of the twelve-foot-wide tunnel.

  Two walkin’, he thought when he felt a second set of footfalls. Women, human women. I’d bet me beard on it.

  Around the corner came an odd sight, far from the oddest he had seen on a patrol, but odd nonetheless. Two women, much brighter to his heat sensing eyes than the stone around them with what looked like a man floating between them.

  Even more odd, when he shifted his eyes to the light spectrum, he could see their eyes glowed red like a Dwarf that was looking in the heat spectrum.

  The one in front dropped to all four when she saw he was armed, and Brahm thought he saw her arch her back at him. Changeling o’ the Fang, he thought. Eh, close enough, the floatin’ one do no’ count.

  “What brings a sorceress an’ ‘er pet kitten to the tunnels o’ King Eagon Harbronn?” he asked. He heard the woman say something to the changeling, but he was too far away to make it out.

  “We seek refuge under the safety of your king,” the sorceress said. “And to meet with him on a matter of grave importance.”

  “Sanctuary ye can have,” Brahm said. “But, the King decides who to meet with.” He walked to them, still holding Delly loose in his hand.

  “Ye need to retract yer claws, kitten,” he told the changeling, still crouching on the floor in her human form. “Or, I can declaw ye.”

  The changeling stood and glared. “Like to see you try,” she growled.

  He looked at the sorceress and had the first good shock he had had in number of years. “Nexus! Ye’re back!”

  Terra sighed. “I told you I would be recognized, Caitlyn,” she told the changeling. “Master Ironfist, it is quite providential running into the Captain of the Guard in the tunnels. What brings you out here?”

  “Bloody large horde o’ undead brings me out to the flamin’ tunnels, Nexus. Bleedin’ things were spotted in the range. What’re ye doin’ here?”

  “We seek refuge and to speak with King Harbronn,” she repeated. “And for no one to know we are here.”

  “As ye wish, Nexus, but there’re many that’ll know ye on sight,” he said. “Many stood beside ye, meself included, during the first two days of the Defense of the Arcane City, before ye sent us to defend our home.”

  “That is why I would appreciate your assistance in facilitating our requests, Captain Ironfist.”

  Brahm ran his hand down his beard. “I’d like to, but the undead…” he started before the changeling cut him off.

  “Have been dealt with. They are completely destroyed,” Caitlyn said with iron in her vo
ice.

  “I’m no’ fer doubtin’ ye, but ye’re sure?” he asked with the sound of doubt clear in his voice, regardless of what he said.

  “I am,” Terra answered him with the same tone of authority she had used the entire encounter.

  “Then I must thank ye fer makin’ me job easier today. What about ‘im?” he asked, nodding to the floating man.

  “He is our guard. He was injured but has been treated and just needs to rest,” Terra said sharply.

  “Alrigh’,” Brahm said with his hands raised. “Ye three can stay in me rooms. I’ll say yer family guests come to wish me well on me fourth centennial. Me rooms’re close to the king’s, so ye won’t have to trek through the whole bloody fortress where any bloody person can lay eyes on ye. Follow me, an hour’s walk an’ we’ll be there.”

  Terra and Caitlyn, with Alex in tow, followed behind the aged Dwarf. True to his word, an hour later, they arrived in Adorac Volcano Proper.

  “Die, Die, DIE!” he heard his other self, scream as he attacked the woman. He had truly lost himself.

  Terra, the bundle of thought and emotion that was his true self, yelled over and over. Stop! You’ll kill her, the part that was him had yelled in his own head. But, he couldn’t stop. He craved her blood. Demanded it. Would have it.

  Alex sat up suddenly, gasping for breath, trying to escape the nightmare that had overtaken him. The insatiable bloodlust had overwhelmed him, had scoured his sense of self like a flame through dry brush. He grunted as the pain of sore muscles hit him like a truck.

  He collapsed back onto the bed and took a slow appraisal of his surroundings. Everything seemed to be carved from the same stone the room was made of, bed, stands, even the holders for the two lanterns flanking the door past the foot of the bed. The ceiling seemed lower than what was comfortable. The low ceiling made the it all seem oppressively small.

  The large bed took up most of the floor space, and it was a bit too small for his height. His feet hung off of the end. He saw two packs in the corner with the Guardian’s Blade propped between them. He snapped his eyes away from it as soon as he realized what it was.

  He heard the clink of plates and someone laughing softly from outside the bedroom. The smell of food wafted in through the door, which was cracked open a few inches. Sounded like Terra. What am I supposed to say to her?

  Alex rolled out of the small bed and took inventory. He had a white shirt and green shorts on over his boxers. The air was warm, and the floor was also on his bare feet. He didn’t see his boots anywhere. He shrugged and listened at the door for a moment.

  “This roasted boar is delicious, Magda,” he heard Terra say.

  “Thank ye,” he heard a woman say in what sounded like a Scottish brogue. “Jessica, if I may ask, yer guard, is he alrigh’? He’s slept since ye arrived.”

  “Marshall will be fine. He should be waking up soon, as a matter of fact,” Terra said. I’m Marshall now? And she’s Jessica. His legs started shaking from standing, and the smell of food was making his mouth water.

  With considerable willpower, he took a step away from the door and delicious smells and sat on the foot of the bed. “Jessica?” he called. “Where are you?

  A murmur from the other room and a couple seconds later, the door opened. How do you apologize for trying to kill someone? he thought bleakly as Terra stepped in. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it with her eyes downcast. She wore a light blue shirt with a skirt that hung to her knees. She was barefoot also, he noticed.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but she beat him to it. “I’m sorry, Alex.”

  He had been about to apologize but swallowed it down. “For what?”

  “There are things you don’t know about the Guardian’s Blade. That I haven’t told you,” Terra said, her eyes still fixed on the floor.

  His face went blank and his voice void of emotion like it always did when he was angry with her. “I thought we agreed, Terra. No more secrets. What haven’t you told me?”

  She swallowed. “There are…” she paused trying to think of the right way to phrase it, “drawbacks to using the blade.”

  “Drawbacks.” He glared at her. “Hmm… Let me see if I can think of an example of a drawback,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Oh, how about, ‘Side effects may include: Nausea, vomiting, uncontrollable bouts of rage, and trying to kill the person you love.’ You are straining the limits of my trust and patience.”

  She looked up at him, a pleading look on her face. “I’m sorry. But, that’s not the worst of it.” She took a deep breath and started talking, everything coming out in a rush. “Alex, the sword will drive you mad. It is going to slowly overload you with all of the memories of the previous Guardians, and you will go insane and die.”

  Alex stared at her, stunned. “Can it be stopped? I can never touch the damned thing again.”

  Terra shook her head. “That won’t work. Once you unleashed one of the blades, it might as well have become a part of you, like another arm. There’s no stopping it.” She closed her eyes and tears began to roll down her cheeks.

  Stunned disbelief gave way to anger. His fists balled so tight that his knuckles cracked. She flinched at the sound, and her red, puffy eyes opened to look at him. It took a moment to loosen his jaw enough to talk. When he did, his voice came out sounding like a growl.

  “You’ve killed me, Terra. You may not have pulled the trigger, but you sure as hell provided the gun. And the bullet. My blood is on your hands.”

  Anger flashed across her face. Her voice grew heated. “What would you have done, Alex? One man’s life on the scales against everyone else, everything else. All of existence. I didn’t mean,” she started to trail off, “to fall in love with you.”

  Alex bent over and put his head in his hands. He stared at his bare feet as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Get out,” he muttered. “I need to think.” A few seconds passed, but he didn’t hear her move or the door open. He looked up at her. “There’s something else,” he said flatly.

  She nodded as she chewed on her lower lip. He had never seen her this anxious before. “What is it?” he asked, concern edging its way into his voice. She said something so softly he couldn’t hear.

  “What? You are going to have to speak up, Terra.” She said it again, only slightly louder. He thought he misheard her, because what he thought he heard didn’t make sense.

  “What?” Alex asked a third time.

  “I’m pregnant!” she shouted from less than three feet away.

  Alex felt his brain stop as every thought ground to a halt. He didn’t blink or breathe while he tried to process those two simple words.

  Terra stepped forward and got to her knees in front of him. She grabbed his hands and put her face close to his. She looks concerned for some reason, Alex thought placidly. I wonder why…

  “Alex,” she said. She sat back on her heels when he suddenly blinked and took a deep breath. Everything seemed to slow down and take on a surreal quality.

  “Did you say you were pregnant?” he heard himself ask in a voice that seemed to come from a thousand miles away. Terra nodded, a guarded and confused look on her face. He felt as if everything was happening to someone else.

  “How far along are you?” he heard that other man ask.

  “Eight weeks.”

  “How long have you known?” the other man’s voice grew hard with the question.

  “A week. I wasn’t sure how to tell you, or even if I should tell you yet.”

  Everything seemed to crash in around him in a riot of sensation as his mind caught back up. He felt the warmth of her, could feel the pulse of her heart in their lightly clasped hands. He thought he could count every one of the hairs on her head, could see how each red hair caught the light of the two lanterns on either side of the door. He breathed in the smell of her rose scented soap.

  “I’m going to be a father?” he asked, a slow smile spreading across his lips. Terra beame
d as she nodded. He sprang up from the foot of the bed and lifted her gently in his arms. He spun slowly, being careful of the close walls and low ceiling. The weakness and soreness caught up with him, and he collapsed onto the bed with her atop him.

  They lay there laughing for a moment. Terra’s hair made a thin tent of red around their heads. She leaned down and kissed him. “We are going to be parents,” she said with a smile.

  “Marry me,” he said suddenly.

  The unexpected statement caught her off guard. Before she could answer, the clang of bells stole their attention.

  The door was slung open. “Demons,” Caitlyn gasped.

  Chapter Twelve - I am Your Shield. I am Your Sword.

  “Alex, you can hardly stand,” Terra protested. She stood next to him, arms crossed beneath her breast in consternation. “You can’t really be considering this.”

  Alex shook his head as he shoveled food into his mouth. He felt strength and vitality return with each bite.

  “I’m not going to stand by while the people sheltering us are attacked.” He took another bite of the roasted boar. It was delicious, but he only partially noticed in his haste. “And, I can stand just fine.”

  She looked pointedly at the arm he had across one of the stone chairs in the dining room in Brahm’s room but didn’t say anything. He had been surprised when Brahm walked into the bedroom right behind Caitlyn. The Dwarf had waited for Terra to get down from the bed before talking.

  “Nexus,” the stout, gray-bearded Dwarf said. “The Groundin’ Field kept the flamin’ demons from openin’ a blasted portal on top o’ our heads, but they’re comin’ quick. Three hours, the clerics say.” Something caught the Dwarf’s eye, and he looked at the packs in the corner. His eyes widened. He looked to Alex, who had sat up on the edge of the bed. “Ye’re the Guardian,” Brahm said, pointing at Alex.