by AC Cobble
“You never know,” responded Jasper. “I’ve made it as long as I have by being overly cautious. I stay under the trees. I travel during storms or at night. In the rare case I can travel underground, I do. I don’t travel on busy roads, and I avoid population centers. After what you said last night, you should consider doing the same as best you’re able. I know you’re dead set on getting to Irrefort, but even there, the mages will find you. Maybe you should reconsider.”
“We have to go,” replied Ben.
“Then my best advice to you is keep moving. Always keep moving. If a mage somehow catches your scent or spots you, they could still be days away. You keep moving, changing direction, and you’ve got a chance to get away.”
“You know a lot about this. What did you do to incur the wrath of the mages?” queried Amelie.
Jasper smiled at her. “I’m a mage, girl. The Veil has very specific instructions on how to handle practitioners of my sex.”
Amelie looked at him suspiciously. “Is that all?”
“You are mighty perceptive for an initiate,” jested Jasper
Amelie’s look turned into a glare.
The man coughed discretely then continued, “The Veil and I don’t see eye to eye on many things, not the least is that she wants me dead. Because of that, I tweak her when I can. Helping you two, for example. If it puts a burr under her skirt, I’m happy to do it. I’ve been doing that for a long time now. She’s grown tired of it.”
“How long?” asked Ben.
Jasper didn’t answer, confirming Ben’s suspicions. Since they left the City, he’d learned that a long time was sometimes a very, very long time. Ben let it drop. Jasper enjoyed mystery. That was clear. In time, Ben knew they’d find out more.
Ben lifted one sodden, snow-covered leg and stomped down, pressing the snow firmly to clear a path for Jasper and Amelie behind him. After two more days of this, he knew he’d be so exhausted he’d barely be able to move his legs, but the mage was carrying the log of anima-wood across his shoulders and Amelie was still weak from her broken collarbone. Hence, Ben’s job was to blaze the trail.
He scrambled over an icy rock and stared up the slope ahead of them. They were climbing steadily into the foothills of the mountains. It would be a rigorous climb in any circumstance, but in the knee-deep snow, it was a struggle to keep going. They left off talking, everyone focused on one foot in front of the other, trying to not slip on the icy patches and tumble back down the slope. A bell later, the sun was falling behind the trees. Ben started looking for a suitable campsite, something out of the wind, anything out of the wind.
“Hold,” cried Jasper.
Ben looked back at the man then glanced around them. Nothing nearby looked like a comfortable resting spot to him.
“What is it?” Ben asked.
“Do you know how to use that mage-wrought blade?” asked the mage.
“How did you know it was mage-wrought?” queried Ben.
A bestial shriek cut through the white noise of the wind in the trees. Ben swept out his longsword and turned to face the direction of the sound. Between the trees, still two-hundred paces away, he saw a squat black shape barreling through the snow. Amelie drew her rapier and dagger and took Ben’s side. Jasper laid the anima-wood down but didn’t draw the thin sword on his hip.
Ben raised an eyebrow, but the man simply gestured to the demon and said, “I want to see what you can do.”
The creature was fifty paces away and coming fast. Ben grunted and stepped forward, settling his footing in the deep powder. The beast headed straight for Ben, no thought of strategy, no thought of defense, no thought of how Ben might react.
He waited patiently until it was almost on him. Then he thrust with his longsword. He caught the creature in the chest and pierced it neat and deep. His blade found the demon’s heart. He twisted and let its momentum carry past him. His sword slid cleanly out of the demon as it crashed into the ground, motionless.
Jasper nodded appreciatively then knelt to pick up the log of anima-wood. “Well done.”
Ben cleaned his blade and dropped it back in his sheath.
Amelie sheathed her weapons as well and gave Ben a slight nod.
Ben resumed breaking a path for his companions, who followed closely behind.
They camped in the forest that night and the next.
Jasper proved to be even more capable at woodcraft than Ben. He was able to find them relatively comfortable campsites that were sheltered from the wind.
Ben watched the man closely as they settled in for the first night. The mage bent and searched under a large boulder they would camp next to and under fallen logs near the campsite. He uncovered some reasonably dry fuel which he quickly lit with flint and steel. Next, he unpacked a frying pan, a slab of bacon from Ben’s hog, a handful of potatoes, and a cabbage he’d brought with him.
Amelie frowned at the mix.
“A dish from back home,” explained Jasper. “It used to be popular long ago. Bubble and squeak. Trust me. You’ll like it.”
“Bubble and squeak?” she asked skeptically.
“Listen while it cooks,” replied Jasper with a grin.
Amelie didn’t appear convinced, but she didn’t comment. She was huddled close to the growing fire, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
Jasper efficiently cooked the simple meal. Ben was impressed. The man exuded a sense of competency in his every movement. Despite his close-cropped white hair and weather-beaten skin, the mage moved with the vitality of a younger man. A woodsman, a mage, and possibly a warrior, given how comfortably he wore his sword.
“You said on the way to Coalition territory we are stopping by your home?” inquired Ben.
Jasper nodded in assent, not looking up from the boiled potatoes he was mashing in the pan. He rapidly chopped the head of cabbage and cut off bites of the bacon as well, dropping it all in.
“What do you do there aside from sleep and hide from the Sanctuary?” pressed Ben.
Jasper sighed. “You two are certainly persistent.”
“We are,” agreed Ben.
“Very well,” replied Jasper with a dramatic sigh. “My line of business, so to speak, is making. I collect materials like the anima-wood and create artifacts that I sell. I do that to keep food on the table. I also run a bit of a hostel for those in the community who need a place to rest out of sight.”
“The community?” asked Amelie.
“Mages, both male and female, who don’t march to the Veil’s tune,” explained the man. “There are a number of us residing in Alcott and a number more who pass through from the southern continent from time to time. I say community, but there’s no organization to speak of, just a handful of like-minded individuals who find it is occasionally best to work together. My home is a meeting place for these folks. They pass through, do a little business with myself or the others, and then go off in their own way. If they’re able, they leave me something to pay for their stay.”
Jasper flipped the bubble and squeak. It popped and whistled as it cooked.
He continued, “To be honest, I also do it because I’m a nosy bastard. I like to hear what everyone is up to. The community, they’re a strange bunch. Loners and weirdos, but those are the most interesting people, don’t you agree?”
Ben shrugged.
“These folk, they keep life interesting,” added Jasper. “Makes the risk worth it.”
“Risk. You mean the Sanctuary?” asked Amelie.
Jasper nodded. “Indeed. Providing a safe haven for the continent’s rogue mages is a dangerous enterprise. I’ve had to move several times. It just takes one of the community to be taken alive and the Veil will have my location. Luckily, I have friends in the City who keep abreast of these things. They take care of it for me, or if nothing else, give me warning.”
Jasper slid some bubble and squeak into bowls which he passed to Ben and Amelie. Ben tried it and raised an eyebrow. Not a combination he was used to, but not bad, eith
er.
They finished eating and built up the fire to combat the cold night. Outdoors again, and after the demon attack earlier that day, they set at watch. Jasper took the first one and Ben the last. When Amelie placed a hand on his shoulder to wake him, he got up gratefully. His entire body felt frozen. Moving about to get warm was worth the missing sleep.
Two days later, they arrived at a frozen waterfall. Rising ten man-heights above them, the ice commanded their attention. Late afternoon sun sparkled like a rainbow as it reflected through the frozen tower.
“Beautiful,” breathed Amelie.
“Wait until we get inside,” responded Jasper with a grin. “There’s a real light show below. The world is a wonderful place, both above and below the surface.”
“Inside where?” wondered Ben, glancing around the area.
The waterfall cascaded down the side of a steep cliff and crashed into the forest floor. At its base, a pool of ice spread forty paces across. Ben frowned. The water was frozen so it didn’t need anywhere to go, but in the spring, when it thawed, there was no gully, ravine, or dry creek bed for it to run off in. Water had to go somewhere. Ben circled around the pool of ice, peering behind the waterfall.
“Good man,” called Jasper.
Behind the waterfall, Ben found a dark cave with a stream of ice leading into its mouth.
“An underground river,” muttered Ben, staring into the darkness.
“Exactly,” replied Jasper. “This waterfall, when it isn’t frozen, follows a tunnel deep into the ground. There, it empties into an underground lake. Across the lake is an ancient tunnel left by miners of a more industrious age. They found the lake but couldn’t take what they were looking for. That tunnel leads toward my home.”
“And you say we’ll be down there for a week?” asked Amelie with a raised eyebrow.
Jasper nodded.
“Tonight, we’ll camp at the mouth of the tunnel,” he declared. “Tomorrow, we go in.”
Ben slept restlessly. Beside the cliff, the wind was tame compared to the rest of the forest. They were able to find enough dry wood to build a substantial fire. The flickering of the flames reflected in the soaring ice was gorgeous and unworldly, but the yawning mouth of the tunnel haunted Ben. He didn’t enjoy heights. It was perfectly rational, he told himself. Any reasonable person should be aware of the danger a fall presented. Unfortunately, he also didn’t enjoy dark, cramped spaces.
Ben didn’t have some despicable older brother who’d locked him in a cupboard as a child or even a previous career in mining where he saw the dangers of the depths of the world. What he did have though, was a profound dislike of entering a space he couldn’t easily leave. In recent memory, the cell the Fabrizo thieves’ guild locked him in and the tiny confines of the ship crossing the Blood Bay were his only experiences with such spaces. He thought that was enough.
The next morning, he stalked impatiently back and forth in front of the yawning entry to the mountain. Jasper and Amelie sat, eating breakfast.
“You should enjoy the last few moments of sunlight,” suggested Amelie. “It will be a week before we see it again.”
Ben grumbled to himself.
“Afraid of the dark?” asked Jasper.
Ben snorted then finally walked over to eat. “The sooner we go in, the sooner we’ll get out. Not wanting to be confined underground is a rational thing to feel.”
Jasper smiled, “I agree. Listening to your body’s natural reactions is almost always wise for someone training to be a blademaster, but in this case, it’s safer underground than above.”
“Training to be a blademaster, what do you mean?” questioned Ben. “I’m no blademaster.”
“Are you not trying to become one?” replied Jasper.
Ben scratched his ear.
“He’s not wrong, Ben,” said Amelie. “You’re getting quite good with that sword. Even Rh… even our friend from the City said you were getting there.”
“Come on,” said Jasper, after finishing his breakfast and standing from his position near the fire. “You were right. The sooner we get started, the sooner we finish.”
The mage produced a palm-sized rock and handed it to Amelie. He then hefted his log of anima-wood and gestured to the cave.
“Since I’m carrying the wood, you can do the honors with the light.”
Amelie turned the rock over in her hands. It was smooth, Ben saw, like it had been at the bottom of a creek for the last decade.
Amelie’s brows knit and she looked to Jasper. “How do I activate it?”
Jasper, standing tall with the log resting comfortably on his shoulder, smiled. “I thought you’d be familiar with these devices. In years past, they were common in the Sanctuary. Let me explain. Light is simply a form of visible energy called a photon. This energy is released by the movement of tiny particles we can’t see with our naked eye. As the particles move, they emit…” Jasper trailed off when he saw Ben and Amelie’s blank expressions. “Run your fingers on the small runes carved along the edge. When you do, exert your will. You have to want it to produce light.”
Amelie followed his instructions and a warm, yellow glow emitted from the rock.
“Very good,” complemented the mage. “The more will you exert into it, the brighter the light. Now, I believe it will work best if you bring up the rear and shine the light where Ben and I are walking. I’ll go first since I’m familiar with the tunnel.”
Jasper entered the cave, and Ben, swallowing a lump in his throat, followed close behind. The steady yellow glow from the rock Amelie was holding lit the way. Ten paces in front of them though, the world faded to darkness.
The descent into the ground was both terrifying and boring. The tunnel had been cut over the centuries by rushing water from the waterfall. This time of year, it lay frozen in a narrow channel in the center of the floor and they were able to walk along the rock beside it.
“Don’t get overconfident,” warned Jasper from the front. “For the first day, you may find ice on the rock. It’s misty in here during the summer and that mist freezes when it gets cold. The deeper we go, the warmer the air. It shouldn’t be a problem for most of our journey.”
“Great,” responded Ben. “It’s not just dark and creepy. It’s also icy and dangerous.”
“It’s not that bad,” called Amelie from behind. “It could be worse. We haven’t seen a single bat, for example.”
Ben groaned. The sound echoed ahead of them, bouncing off the rock walls of the tunnel. Just seven days, thought Ben, just seven days.
At some point, they stopped for lunch. They didn’t know the time, but everyone was hungry so it seemed appropriate.
“With no sun, how will we know when it’s time for dinner or time to stop for the night?” Ben asked around a mouthful of cheese and ham.
Jasper responded, “When we get hungry, we stop to eat. When we’re tired, we stop to rest. Listen to your body. It will tell you what time it is. Think about a clock. How does the clock know when to strike a bell?”
Ben frowned. “A clock is mechanical. It knows when to strike because it has ticked through its gears.”
“In some ways, people are mechanical too,” replied Jasper. “Some folks only know what to do when the ticking of their gears tells them to do it, or worse, when someone else winds them up. I am glad you don’t want to be like that, mechanical and pre-determined, but it is okay to know when to stop to eat or sleep. Listen to your body.”
Ben looked at the man. It felt like they were being probed, tested.
“I wish we had some bread with this,” complained Amelie, staring down at the slices of ham and cheese in her hands. The yellow light from the rock lit her face from below, giving her a ghostly aspect.
After eating, they got up and kept hiking. As Jasper said, when they got tired, they stopped to sleep. The mage assured them there was nothing to fear in the tunnel, but Ben and Amelie had seen enough demons over the proceedings months to insist on setting a watch. A long,
lonely watch.
The light-emitting stone of Jasper’s kept the area around them lit, but they had no wood so no fire. The only thing that broke the silence of the tunnel was their breathing. During his watch, Ben tried to ignore the pressing darkness around him. In the morning, or at least when everyone woke, they ate quickly and started hiking again. As long as they were rested and fed, there was no reason to pause longer than necessary.
Ben took a drink from his water skin and grimaced. It was already half empty. “Jasper, should we have gotten more water?”
The mage turned, the log of anima-wood bobbing ahead of Ben as the man progressed down the tunnel. “We can refill at the lake. It’s clean water.”
Ben nodded but didn’t comment. Jasper clearly knew what he was doing, but Ben didn’t understand how water underground could be considered clean.
That evening when they stopped again, Amelie remarked, “My shoulder is feeling a lot better. Thank you, Jasper.”
The man smiled at her. “Glad I could help. When you feel able, you should begin exercising it. The inactivity of the sling will have led to atrophy of the muscles. If you feel up to it after expending your will on the stone all day, you should move around some.”
“I feel fine,” mumbled Amelie. “There’s hardly anything to using the stone.”
Jasper nodded in the dim light. “You’re a natural, and strong.”
She blushed and didn’t respond.
“Sword practice?” suggested Ben.
“No,” replied Amelie. “It’s too dark for one, and I think I had better to work up to that level of activity.”
“The Ohms then?”
Amelie shrugged. “Let’s give it a try.”
The floor of the tunnel wasn’t flat, but the rushing water had worn it smooth. A small adjustment to compensate for the slope, and they were able to begin the motions of the Ohms. Jasper prepared dinner then sat back and watched. Dinner preparation didn’t take long since they had no fuel for a fire. Cold meat, hard cheese, and biscuits would have to do until they resurfaced.
Ben stretched and balanced fluidly, working through each series with confidence. Amelie followed his motions, shadowing a half a breath behind. The only source of light was Jasper’s stone. Their movements created wild shadow monsters on the side of the nearby tunnel.