Beastborne

by James T Callum

  Nobody had seen it since. Nor had any of the Rangers.

  “I just mean,” Mira began animatedly, “like that’s always the thing with ‘cool people’ right? They don’t even seem aware that they are cool. That aloofness seems... I dunno, baked in or something. Like walking away from an explosion without looking back at it. That’s just cool.”

  “You have walked away from many explosions,” Ashera pointed out. She turned back to Noth and pointed at a pair of dried violet blossoms with symmetrical oval leaves and gray roots. “What is this?”

  Noth pursed her lips. “Aadarna?”

  “Very good,” Ashera replied with a smile. “And what does it do?”

  “It… gives people visions.”

  “Visions about what?” Ashera coaxed.

  Squinting, Noth was clearly trying to remember and getting frustrated. “I don’t know! All of my memories are all… jumbled up. How do you people deal with being mortal? I had a catalog of memories, thoughts, and experiences when I was a Reaper. Now everything is… tainted with emotion and warped perception.

  “How come I can remember the way the starlight looked when I was out walking with Hal, but I can’t remember what you told me about that plant five minutes ago?”

  Ashera looked away, a flush of pink highlighting her cheeks. Even Mira coughed and cleared her throat, trying to look away.

  Noth looked around the interior of the wagon at everybody. Pouring another cup of hot tea, Hal did his best to keep his focus on his tea mug.

  “What is it?” Noth asked, suddenly clued in to the awkward vibe in the room.

  “Nothing,” Ashera said placidly. She reached out and gently touched Noth’s forearm. “This,” she indicated the [Aadarna], “is a tough plant that grows on the edges of swamps. Its large roots can be ground into a powder. And that powder is the main ingredient in a potion that allows people to see into other realms for about an hour. While they are viewing that other realm they are blind to their current one.”

  62

  “Like Farseeing,” Noth said with a nod.

  Ashera tilted her head curiously. “I do not know the name.”

  “It is an ability that the Reapers have to see through the realms.” When everybody looked at her curiously, Noth’s expression turned incredulous. “You don’t think a Reaper just jumps into the world of the stubbornly departed without scouting out beforehand do you?” She shook her head, a banner of raven-black hair fanning out behind her chair.

  “Are they watching us all the time?” Hal asked, taking a sip of his tea.

  “Only when somebody dies and refuses to move on,” Noth said, pinning her golden stare to him. “You were particularly difficult you know.” Despite her words, a faint smile tugged at her lips. “I’ve crossed-over kings and queens in the middle of battle who were easier to deal with.”

  Hal shrugged innocently. “I’m stubborn.”

  “That is putting it mildly,” Ashera said, packing up some of her herbs.

  “I’m surprised you’re not a Paladin,” Mira said, getting to her feet and reaching toward the ceiling as she stretched.

  That caught Ashera’s attention, Hal noticed. Ashera’s eyes were wide on Mira, but the lean elf wasn’t paying her any attention as she continued addressing Hal, “With that thick head of yours, you’d make an awesome tank.”

  That’s an odd reaction, Hal thought, watching Ashera over the lip of his tea mug. Was that because she was interested in being a Paladin or because of Thirty-seven?

  Komachi lounged on the table between Noth and Ashera. Sometimes her tail would twitch or a paw would grab at some of Ashera’s herbs. Every so often her sleek fur would ripple with a green aura as she kept up the buff that allowed them all to make the trip in a quarter less time.

  As it was, they were already coming upon the narrow pass that would lead them into the western edge of the Shiverglades. It was Hal’s intention to camp just within the pass, without going into the Shiverglades themselves.

  If they were as deadly and dangerous as Elora tried to impress upon him all that time ago, he wanted to limit the amount of time they would need to be there during the night.

  Not to mention, from what he understood they were swampy and uneven underfoot. Just the sort of thing that would swallow a wagon’s wheels as it rested on the soft peat overnight.

  Hal was working with Durvin and a few of the dwarven crafters to come up with a solution to that.

  The small door to the driver’s bench opened and Elora stuck her head into the wagon. “We’re in sight of the Shiverglades. Hal, you might want to come see this. Wear a new face.”

  Hal looked over at Elora and set down his tea. “On my way.” Elora’s familiar left ahead of him, suddenly darting off the table with a loud chirp, bouncing off one of the bunks, then squeezing beneath the wagon’s door. Hal took the time to change into a new disguise with Shifting Mask. It was one of the spells he kept at the ready recently, because it always seemed useful when meeting new people.

  Even surrounded by his Guild and with a caravan full of fiery dwarves, the last thing he needed to do was draw more attention.

  The wagon came to a stop, allowing Hal to exit the rear and come around to see what Elora was talking about. As he hopped out, a prompt slipped across his vision.

  Fool’s Pass.

  Your Exploration Skill has risen to Level 8.

  +10% Faster drawing speed (+80%).

  +3% Discoverable range (+24%).

  Coming around the wagon Hal saw the lone figure standing there.

  The wagons had come to the mouth of a narrow pass that interrupted the mountain chain running north and south. The sun was setting at his back, casting the typically silver river that the caravan had kept to their right all throughout the day into molten gold.

  Mountains rose up to the left and right, leaving a grassy expanse with the occasional tumbled boulder. At the entrance to the pass were two large stacks of boulders covered with moss and weathered with age.

  The pass couldn’t have been wider than half a football field, and just at its mouth stood a man in black robes.

  Hal recognized him as soon as he pulled off his low cowl. The setting sun lit his refined features and that hawkish nose. Hirash. Hal tried hard not to grit his teeth or grimace as he came within ten feet of the man.

  Shifting Mask had worked on him before when Hal took the form of a dwarf. Now he looked like a rather plain, if somewhat dirtied accountant. Nothing at all like anything Hal ever changed into before.

  Several bows were already trained on Hirash as well as other, more subtle armaments. The man surely knew that, and so Hal looked around at the rising mountains. He sent his senses out wide, Splicing aberration and eldritch to see if he could feel anything else.

  Nothing.

  The questioning look he shot Hirash was met with a wry grin.

  “So you are farther along than I figured,” he drawled. His cold eyes flicked to the dwarves starting to pile out of the nearby wagons. “Interesting friends you keep.”

  Hal merely looked at him, nonplussed. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, friend.” His accents were terrible so he played it straight, hoping Hirash didn’t recognize his voice.

  The Archmage sneered and rolled his eyes. “Pray, dispense with the theatrics. I am here only to offer a warning and nothing more. I am not even fully here, so if it pleases you to stab-”

  More confused than anything, Hal stared at the Archmage paused mid-sentence.

  “Temper, temper, dear boy,” Hirash chided.

  “You’re not really here, are you mister?” Hal asked, trying to keep to the stupid act. Something was very wrong about all this. Scripted, even.

  Hirash’s dark brow climbed higher. “I have come to bid you to turn back your course. You will not find a Manaseed within the Shiverglades and even if you did, there will be no salvation for you there.”

  He motioned with one wide black sleeve to the caravan. But Hal noticed that the motio
n could have easily meant just a few people or an entire army.

  “Bid them turn back and the Founder will be lenient with them. If they recant their rebellious ways, they may go freely about with their old lives, that is a promise. Even the broken one.” Hirash said just as Ashera was getting out of the wagon. She was looking at the pair with worry written clearly on her face. Her horns glowed in the golden light of the sunset.

  “Beeble bopple, razamatazz?” Hal asked, testing his theory that this was nothing more than the magical equivalent of a pre-recorded message.

  “I will open a portal to your world or any of various Earths you wish to inhabit. Would you like to go to a world where you are rich and powerful already? I can do that. Would you like a world where the energy crisis is already solved? World hunger? There are countless worlds at my fingertips, Hal. The choice is yours.”

  Taking a few steps forward, Hal gently poked the man. His finger met only air and made the image fuzz a little. “Neat.”

  “If it were up to me, I would send you into a hellish landscape full of fire and brimstone. But Rinbast was explicit in his instructions. Allow me to show you.” With a wave of his hand, a window opened up to his right, Hal’s left.

  Several bowstrings tightened as the Rangers took aim and Hal quickly raised a hand to call it off. He looked to the window set at such an angle that most of the caravan wouldn’t be able to see what was within.

  He saw Earth. Namely, Seattle. His home.

  Cars rushed about, daily traffic clogged the streets. Everything seemed so perfectly… mundane. A month ago or more, Hal might have been tempted. Even now he was more than a little curious about it. Even if it was a scripted message.

  He wondered how long it had been there.

  No more daily death and dismemberment hanging over him. No great war to fight that was surely coming with Rinbast if he rejected the offer. He doubted the man would make another offer.

  And even the offer itself lent some credence to Hal’s course.

  Men like Rinbast didn’t willingly offer clemency. They didn’t offer a way out for an upstart rival. Even if Hal was much weaker than Rinbast, there was a logical reason that the man was offering this now.

  Likely, the other passage into the Shiverglades was filled with soldiers or worse. And as a precaution, Rinbast had Hirash set up this little message at the western end.

  Hal didn’t dismiss the threat that Hirash might be watching, so he maintained his confused expression. Hal repeatedly poked Hirash’s image, getting a certain juvenile joy out of it.

  Even if that wasn’t the case, and Hal thought it was because it was something he would do, the very offer meant that Rinbast feared him. Then again, Hal would have had Hirash be here physically. Or at least in real-time.

  The Archmage was seriously phoning it in. Did Rinbast even know? The effect was more comical than worrying.

  At the least, he was being taken seriously and not squashed out of hand. Which meant that either Rinbast lacked the ability or the reach to strike at him here - bolstering his belief that the Shiverglades was the perfect place for a Sanctum - or he was truly threatened by Hal in some way and wanted a more peaceful solution if Hal was willing to take it.

  Granted, the holographic pre-recorded message spoiled the offer considerably. Not to mention that there was no way Hirash could hear him unless he was also watching and listening.

  And if that was the case, why bother with the message?

  If Rinbast had caught him the first few days, he would have taken the offer. Before he came to know Elora, Ashera, and the Rangers. Before he came to love Aldim.

  Aldim was strange, terrible, but it was still beautiful in its own way.

  The image of the Archmage had stopped talking and elaborating on the various worlds and treasures Hal could have. He was clearly waiting for a reply so, fully confident that nobody was home Hal said, “Blue raspberry sprinkles.” Since his response didn’t actually matter and it was entertaining all the same.

  Hirash snorted and dismissed the portal with a wave of his hand. “I told him you would be ungrateful. Do not say that Rinbast never gave you a way out. Pray that you do die to the beasties and wretched peoples that call the Shiverglades home, such as it is.

  “Because Rinbast will soon come for you, and all of your friends will suffer a most exquisitely painful death. Only once all of your compatriots have been tortured to death will your end come. Enjoy what is left of your life.”

  With that, Hirash vanished.

  Hal wondered if they stayed there long enough, if the Archmage would appear again and start talking once more.

  63

  Hal stood there, breathing hard as the threat washed over him with a faint magical compulsion. He wasn’t expecting that. It wasn’t strong enough to fully capture Hal but he could see clearly enough the sorts of torture his friends would go through. The distant screams still hung in the air for a moment or two before they were just a chilling memory.

  Ashera was the first to Hal’s side. “Is everything okay? You look pale.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Hal said. “It was just a last-ditch attempt to lure me away and probably kill me. Aside from that magical compulsion at the end, it was pathetic.”

  “What did he offer?” Ashera asked, looking about as several Rangers slipped out of the wagons, some riding karaks, to go scout the surrounding area.

  With a wry smile, Hal turned to Ashera. “Something that I realized I have not wanted for a long time.”

  Ashera Reputation: +880 (Secretkeeper).

  Your continued actions have further endeared yourself to Ashera. More than a confidant, she looks to you to keep her secrets. To be worthy and strong enough to bear the burden of her deepest confessions.

  Later that night, wagons circled tight, the caravan had their nightly meal. Even with the rocky mountains to either side of them, the dwarves did not go out and mine that night.

  Everybody was on edge after the appearance of Hirash and the guard was tripled. Nearly every available person was guarding the camp or acting as a scout for the night.

  More than a few people would be bleary-eyed and tired the next morning but Durvin would hear none of Hal’s arguments about that.

  “If the lads’re tired then that’s good news to me ears!” Durvin barked. “They’ll be rested up and rarin’ to go don’t ye doubt. I’ll break out the holy water and dangle the sweet brew in front o’ their hairy noses. No way any dwarf worth his beard’ll turn down such a prize.”

  Hal shrugged and accepted that Durvin knew his dwarves best.

  Something he intended to amend in the coming months. The dwarves were part of the Bravers Guild, his Guild. And Hal should know each of their names and their stories. Where they fit in best with what skillsets they had.

  Of course, that was difficult on the road when the only time to talk to other wagons was in the morning or night. When many dwarves were off mining anyway. But once they found a settlement, that would be Hal’s first priority.

  Nobody slept well that night. The few people that did sleep, that is. When Hal woke up after his customary two-and-a-half hours of sleep, he found the camp was still ringed with more marching sentries than he had ever seen.

  Even under the boughs of the Glitterwood, they weren’t so vigilant. Then again, nobody knew the Glitterwood was dangerous.

  Now, every sentry saw a shadow as a potential enemy coming at them. After Hal finished talking to Hirash, there wasn’t much time to press deeper into the Shiverglades. They chose - as was the original plan - to camp in the middle of Fool’s Pass a bit closer to the Shiverglades just in case Hirash or Rinbast had a nasty trick up their sleeve.

  The dwarves placed down pyramid shaped [Shardite] every thirty or forty feet. Dwarven runes were carved deeply into their sides. They were a new protection the dwarves were working on.

  Seeing that the sentries had nothing to do, and truly believing that Hirash’s only power had been to tempt him, Hal walked up to one of
the [Shardite] pyramids.

  A nearby dwarf looked at him. “Fancy a gander at our newest thing thanks t’ yer venture into the Mirrorlands?”

  “What is it?” Hal asked, crouching to get a better look. The pyramid was barely a foot tall.

  “That there’s a new-fangled thing one o’ the inventor sorts worked out.” The dwarf scratched his blonde beard - a rarity among the Bouldergut Clan - and shrugged after adjusting his helm. “Can’t rightly remember the old geezer’s name! Ye see, if that ol’ wizard-bones that ye was yammerin’ with decides to call down a bunch o’ stones upon our heads, them things’ll stop it.”

  “How?”

  The blonde dwarf scratched his beard again. “Dunno! But Durvin telled us to put ‘em out and we put ‘em out. Every forty feet, another thingamajig.”

  With a smile and a nod of thanks, Hal went back to the tightly circled wagons. He didn’t know much about dwarven runes, or how those pyramids could possibly protect them but he had a few ideas.

  Noth was waiting for him at his usual spot. She was spending more time with him in the late hours of the night. Whether she couldn’t sleep either, or just enjoyed his company, Hal didn’t know.

  And truthfully, he’d rather not think too much about that at the moment. He had enough on his mind lately.

  “Why didn’t you leave?” Noth asked after Hal sat down.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “The portal,” Noth explained. “I saw what Hirash was offering you. He was offering you a way home.”

  Hal looked away to the flickering campfire. With no sight of the dragon recently and the concern of attack, they had opted to light as many watchfires as possible.

  “Maybe the price was too high,” Hal answered finally.

  “And what was the price?”