by J C Gilbert
I concentrated on the fire and the flame and pictured the gargoyles of the Raven Keep. They didn't need to be perfect, they just needed to be good enough. Half a dozen of the creatures winked into existence around me, gently flapping on silent wings of flame.
"I got this," I yelled.
"Do you now," said Kuyr. He was now towering over me. "Well, I don't want your friend to leave. The beauty of friendship is one of the best." Kuyr jumped, his wings caught the wind, and he rocketed towards Lilly.
"No!"
I sent my gargoyles after him as fast as I could, but they were not fast enough. Lilly was going to be caught. Why wasn't she running? He was almost upon her now. I tried with all my spirit to will the gargoyles to fly faster, but Kuyr's lead was too great.
He landed in front of her and took a step forward. From this distance, I couldn't see the expressions on their faces, nor could I hear what Kuyr said when he landed. What I could see was that Kuyr wasn't ripping Lilly's arms off, which was a bonus.
I started to limp towards them, my gargoyles now almost upon them. My leg was weak where it had taken the full force of the graze. Kuyr threw me hard, and I was lucky that I could walk at all.
I watched as Kuyr looked back over his shoulder at me. What was it she had said to him? He looked utterly baffled, if that face could be baffled. Then he turned back to face her. I was too late, Lilly would be dead for sure.
But the blow didn't come.
Kuyr looked back at me again. He had waited too long. Six flaming gargoyles contacted with his face, biting and clawing. Kuyr screamed out in rage and took off into the sky, trying to rid his face of the things obstructing his vision.
At last Lilly was running away.
"Thank goodness for that," I said to myself. Then a thought crossed my mind, and my brow dropped into a frown. I realized that a part of me was sure I wasn't going to see Lilly again. I tried to shake the thought away and focus on the battle overhead.
Kuyr had now stopped uselessly flinging them from his face and was now concentrating in extinguishing each one. One of Kuyr's wings caught fire. There were now only two gargoyles left, and I could feel my grip on the flame power slipping.
I looked to see if Lilly was still nearby. She was now out of sight.
With Kuyr distracted, I started to run for the dock buildings. As long as we were out in the open Kuyr could fly away. At least if we were inside, I could... I could what?
I tried not to think of my powerlessness. The only real solutions I had was to fight him with fire, try and talk to Mary through the beast, or escape into The Library. While the fire magic was useful, I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep it up. After all, Kuyr was a god. Could I really defeat him? It didn't seem likely. I glanced over my shoulder to see Kuyr extinguish the last of the gargoyles. He looked down at me with a scowl. Both his wings were on fire now.
If I escaped into The Library, then there was the risk of Kuyr finding out about my secret. That was a trick that I could only use once. If he knew that I had a book of this nature, then there was a good chance that he would either try and seize it or destroy it. I shuddered to think what the God of Death would do with the power of The Library.
I pushed my shoulder against the wooden door of a tall stone building. It opened with a creak. It was dark inside with only a few small rays of light penetrating through boarded up upper buildings. The place was abandoned.
There was nothing for me to do but talk to Mary if I could. It hadn't worked before, but I had to try. If things went poorly, then I had my escape route. The Book of Martin was soggy now from the salty water of the harbor, but it would serve its purpose.
I took my position behind the ancient skeleton of some abandoned boat on its repair struts and waited.
Softly, the door to the building creaked open.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The light in the building changed almost imperceptibly as the door opened and then grew dark as it closed. I did not dare to step out. I needed to find the right moment to grab Mary's attention.
"I'm unhappy with you, little human. Those beasties were impressive, but they singed my wings, and I had to take a dip. I didn't like that."
I could hear him as he stepped slowly into the room. His taloned feet scraped the concrete floor hideously.
"Who are you, little human? I don't think that you are supposed to be here. You are no fun, and I want to stop your little beating heart. I can hear it, you know."
I tried to keep my breathing slow and my mind clear, but it was no use, I was starting to panic. Hank had crawled up my brain stem and was clawing about. My thoughts were racing. I shifted my weight slightly, unconsciously moving my hand down to my bag at my side, down towards safety and escape.
Kuyr sighed. "I don't really like to play, hide and seek. Why don't I just bring this whole building down and go and find your annoying friend? Gods, she was annoying. Killing her would be a relief on my conscience." Kuyr let out a terrible laugh, "Mary wants to kill her even more than I do."
"Stop," I said. It was strange, like I was hearing myself say it. I stepped out into the dimly lit room.
"That's just weird," said Kuyr. "Why anyone would give up a perfectly good hiding place after barely five minutes of taunting. You do realize I'm going to kill you now, right. And then I'm going to kill them all. Well, to put it more precisely, I'm going to have everyone kill each other."
"I know something that you don't," I said carefully.
"Oh, yes? Come on little mouse. I have heard it all, you know, but I'm always willing to hear another pathetic explanation as to why I shouldn't end a life."
"Don't be dull," I heard myself say. "I don't care if you kill me. Well, please don't, but I mean, it's not the most important thing."
"Dull?" asked Kuyr, puzzled. "I don't think of myself as boring."
"Well you are, and you will be dull and dead along with everyone else if you don't listen to me."
"Death is dull," conceded Kuyr, "I can vouch for that. But you don't really think I can die, do you?"
"A world can die," I said. My heart was racing, my head was spinning, but I knew I had him. Mary was somewhere deep down inside, but it was Kuyr who I could make afraid.
Kuyr hesitated. "This world isn't going to die," he said, but he didn't seem sure.
"I have seen it," I said.
Kuyr laughed. He took two great strides and towered over me. "So you are a fortune teller now, are you? Here to read my stars? I was wondering where you were going with this. I wonder if you know about the Grathnon Clan of the Black Salt Planes."
"Never heard of them," I said.
"They collect the corpses of fortune tellers and feed them to their dogs. They believe, erroneously I must add, that this will give their dogs precognitive abilities. I mean, I'm just going to throw you in the river, but I thought the fact was relevant." He shrugged, "who knows? Maybe Kanboor's fishing industry will collapse due to clairvoyant fish? Now that would be an ending."
"I have seen the Aeoran, the World Snake, coil in the sky," I said.
Kuyr froze. "You know about him?"
"I have seen him devouring world after world as chaos cracks the fabric of reality," I said, "and this world is next."
"It won't work," said Mary's voice from somewhere within Kuyr.
"Aeoran is scary," said Kuyr.
"Kill her!" screamed Mary.
Kuyr shook his head. "Could you keep it down in there. I have to think. The World Snake changes everything."
"She is lying," said Mary.
Kuyr looked down at me, his eyes searching mine, trying to read if what I had said was truth or deceit. I had gambled. I had made my move.
"What are you going to do?" I asked.
Kuyr didn't move, his eyes just continued to search. "You have given me a lot to think about," he said. "And now you can die."
Kuyr took two leaps back. He thrust his hands upward towards the sky. I looked about, trying to see what he was doing. Kuyr sta
rted chanting something low and guttural. The ceiling above began to crack. I took out the book, ready to read. Kuyr looked at me, locking eyes, then with a smile, he swung his arms downward. The whole structure was collapsing. I frantically searched out for the first page of the first chapter, but the light was gone.
With a tremendous crash, all the world turned to darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Everything was black, and then there was a flash of light. It was a warm light, the light of The Library. I had just enough time to puzzle over where I was when there was another flash, and I was back in darkness.
But this was the darkness of night. Somewhere in the distant recesses of my mind, I felt something crack. Something in this world had changed. I could sense it. I could almost see it, it's great silvery white body slithering below in the belly of the world. I could sense its hunger.
I was in the dockyard again. Dust was rising up from the collapsed building. I was outside of it now, regarding the scene from a short distance. By the light of the moon, I could see the shape of Kuyr hovering over the destruction.
Gently, Kuyr landed on the dock and walked forward toward the rubble. He bent down to one knee and then began to shrink. His great black wings withered away, and his talons retracted. Soon the figure was of a girl in a red cloak, sobbing over yet another death.
What he was doing to her, to her mind, was unforgivable. I wanted to go to her. I wanted to call out. But something stopped me. If she knew I was alive, then Kuyr could just wake her thirst for blood again. As I watched her sob, I couldn't bring myself to put her through that again. Who was to say how much was too much.
So, I watched as she cried.
The silence of the night was broken by a massive explosion from somewhere in the city. Mary spun around to face the sound, transforming again as she did so. Kuyr sniffed the night air, smiled, and then took flight, black wings beating in the night.
Kuyr was gone, and I was safe. My whole body ached. I was safe, but this world was doomed. There had to be another way to stop him, but how? Right now, I just had to find Lilly and get back to The Library. There was always the chance that the Librarian had come up with some new information which could help. We had to try. And if she had nothing?
An image of the Aeoran, the World Snake, flashed before my eyes once more. I couldn't let that happen.
A figure emerged from the darkness. It walked haltingly towards the place where Mary had knelt. It paused for a moment and then sprang into action, searching about the rubble. "Alex!" cried Lilly, "no, no, no, no!"
"Lilly!" I called, but she didn't hear me.
"You can't be dead, Alex. No, you can't be. Oh, god, no. Don't be dead."
I cleared my throat. "Lilly!" I called again, this time much louder.
She paused and looked my way.
"I'm OK!" I said, "I think. Just stay where you are!"
I stumbled forward, trying to find my way in the darkness. My leg was weak but had not been harmed in any meaningful way. There would be a bruise that would take some explaining though.
Then I remembered that I had a light. I pointed upwards with my index finger. The tip ignited, creating a small circle of comfort in the darkness. Lilly tripped as she stumbled this way.
"Just wait there," I said.
"Nah-ah, I'm not going to do that," she said through tear soaked sobs.
"Lilly, It's OK," I said as I reached her. "I'm OK."
"It's not OK, OK? You can't just go dying like that. It is very distressing. If you ever die like that again, that's it, you know. That's the end of the road. I'm going to have to have a talk to your line manager about this one."
That was Lilly, couldn't be serious for five seconds.
"Put that flame out and give a guy a hug," she said. The fire winked out, and she wrapped her arms around me, holding me tight. Too tight.
"You gonna kill me," I squeaked.
She released me and regarded what she saw. "But how? I saw the building come down on you. How did you get over there so quickly?"
I shrugged. "I don't really know," I said. "Library magic?"
"Alright then, keep your secrets," said Lilly. "What do we do now? I take it that you didn't get through to Mary?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. I might have gotten through to Kuyr though."
"Kuyr? How?"
"I appealed to his self-interest," I said.
"Why? Does he have an interest in being locked in a cabinet in The Library for all eternity?"
"Maybe."
"Gnorts, Alex. You are so devious."
There was another explosion in the distance. Purple light filled the sky for a moment, and then the world went dark. Lilly and I exchanged glances.
"You are not seriously thinking we should check that out are you?" she asked.
"No one else can stop this," I said.
"You almost died just now. I think it's time we cut our losses and went home. Other worlds could use our help. Other worlds that we can actually save. If you die here, Alex, you doom them all."
I hadn't thought about it like that before. Doubt crept into my heart. But then I remembered seeing Mary, crying as she was when she thought I was dead. What Kuyr had done to her was unforgivable.
"We can leave at the first sign of trouble," I said.
"As in, like, right now?"
"You know what I mean."
I formed a ball of fire in my palm and bid it fly above us to light the way. The wharves created a sort of a maze back to the central city. It's just as well I had the light, or we would have fallen into the water for sure.
We followed the sounds of the battle as best as we could, not knowing what we would find when we got there. The sounds led us to Raven Keep. Purple light flashed every now and then on the rooftop. The calls of battle were punctuated by the distinct screams of people falling to their death. It sounded like Kuyr was having fun again.
We darted into the first entrance we found and up the stairs. No one stopped us, distracted as they were by the God of Death walking among them.
"Did you see that?" asked Lilly as we rushed up the stairs.
"See what?"
"Those soldiers back there were both Ravens and Rams."
"I guess death made them allies."
"Almost poetic," said Lilly.
When we were at the top of the stairs, we were stopped. "Why are you here?" said a familiar voice. "Get back, it's not safe,"
It was Trist. He seemed to be wearing a mix of the Ram armor and the Raven armor. Black wings hung at his back, and he wore the horned helmet.
"Hey, that was my thing," said Lilly, "that was totally my thing," she said, turning to me.
"What is happening out there?"
"We were trying to destroy the Rose of the Raven when Kuyr showed up."
"Destroy it? How do the raven's feel about that?" asked Lilly.
"It was the patriarch's idea," said Trist, "he said that if Kuyr got his hands on it, then there would be no hope for any of them. A prescient observation, as it turns out."
"Must have been hard, suggesting to his enemy that they destroy his source of power," I said.
"There has been a lot of that sort of thing going on. Where have you been? This would have gone a lot smoother with the shepherd around."
"Alex here wanted to try and talk Kuyr around," said Lilly.
"And?"
"He killed me," I said.
"Oh," said Trist, puzzled. "Well, I better get out there. They will be feeling that they are one Raven down without this," he said, thumping his chest plate.
"Just how did you get that?" asked Lilly, archly, "hanging from a wall?"
"Dead body," said Trist flatly.
"Well, you have fun out there," said Lilly in the tones of a mother talking to a terrible toddler.
Trist nodded and then disappeared up the stairs. "What exactly is our game plan here?" asked Lilly when he was gone. "It's not as though we have wing armor or, you know, any experience with w
eapons."
"We don't need to do any of that. We just need to get to the dais and steal the Rose. Once it is in The Library, Kuyr can't get to it. At least we can do that."
"So we just have to steal the one thing that the God of Death wants, and one thing that half the people out there ware trying to destroy?"
"Pretty much," I said.
"What could possibly go wrong?"
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The night sky was a constellation of light and shadow as all the forces of the Rams and the Ravens fought one manic god. The laughter of Kuyr echoed into the darkness, chilling my heart. The laughter of Kuryr? For all I knew it was Mary.
There was another explosion as another attempt was made to destroy the Rose. The battlefield was lit with a soft purple glow. Kuyr did not seem at all concerned at the attempts to destroy the object of power. Perhaps it couldn't be destroyed. All the more reason for us to get to it before he did.
We ran low along the ramparts, dodging marching soldiers armed with pistols or axes or spears. A stray shot fired from one of those half magic half mechanical devices took out a chunk of the path in front of us. We fell back behind some rubble, waited, and then plunged onwards.
The gargoyles were likewise doing their best to defend the tower, but they were even less of a match for Kuyr than my flame versions had been. I considered for a moment about lending the stone defenders my aid but then thought better of it. If Kuyr saw my magic, he would know I was here. I couldn't risk that. He didn't know about The Library, but he did know that there was something different about me. My references to the World Snake made sure of that.
We ran on.
"There," said Lilly as we approached the hatchery. We ran down the flight of stairs, and then the ground opened out to show the dais and the Rose of the Raven. For a moment, my mind recalled the image of what this place looked like when we were shown around the Keep by a friendly entrepreneurial local.
Before us was a very different landscape. All around the dais were signs of the attempts to destroy the Rose. It was amazing that any of the roof was still there. Small stone eggs were scattered everywhere. If anything there seemed to be even more of them than before. The ground was littered with holes. It would be almost impossible to get to the dais without considerable effort.