by J. R. Ford
Heather walked before me, and I could smell the lilacs. I tried to commit that scent to memory, before it turned bitter as well.
Time trickled past. My legs ached. My ankles chafed. My jaw was locked shut. The caverns were discouraging enough without the complaints of a weakling echoing throughout.
Farrukh turned around. “We rest here, for a while. I’ll keep watch.” I collapsed onto the mossy stone and fell asleep in moments.
Farrukh woke me. I had the temporal confusion that came with a nap, compounded by the lack of sunlight. The darkness was taking a toll on my energy.
“You good?” he asked. He looked like I felt.
“Are you?”
“Let’s keep going.”
I rubbed my eyes, forced down a biscuit, and kept going. My body clock reckoned it was some time after nightfall, but before dawn.
I found myself behind Heather once again. She moved with purpose. Her arm had been rebandaged. The hem of her dress swayed with each step.
“Thanks for your help back there,” she was saying to Farrukh.
“Yeah,” he grunted. “Here, by the way. If you want it.” He handed her a canteen.
“I’m fine,” Heather said, rubbing her injured arm. “Give it to Ana. She’s had acid sprayed on her, nearly had her foot chomped off, and took two strokes of Edwin Casper’s whip, to boot.”
“Has she?” Farrukh asked. Then he shook his head. “Anyway, she says she doesn’t want it.”
“Then you keep it.”
“We agreed, remember? You help me hunt the trollbat, and I’d give you the potion. I won’t think less of you if you take it,” he added. “I saw you intercept that gastrolith back there. I don’t care how much pain you’re willing to stomach to appear tough, I care that in a fight, you have your friends’ backs.”
From behind, I couldn’t see their expressions. “I’ll save it for later, if that’s all right,” she said.
“It’ll lose its potency in about a day, so remember to take it before then.”
For a moment, the only sounds in the cavern were our echoing footfalls.
“What did you hear about the fire giant?” Heather asked.
“Not much. It’s imprisoned in the caves beneath Vedanth Durg and will cook anyone who tries to come through.”
“Is it humanoid?”
“I’d guess so.”
“How giant is it?”
“Giant giant. Like, fifty feet plus.” Farrukh raised his hand for emphasis.
“Did an employee tell you this? They’ll tell tales to get you to buy their wares.”
“If it weren’t for the grocer’s tales, I wouldn’t have known about the gastroliths’ weakness to salt.”
“He only told you that so you’d buy his salt.”
“I was going to buy it anyway. Salt is tasty, and I never had any intention to come down here. I find that if you’re friendly with shopkeepers, they’ll be friendly with you. Treat them like a vending machine, and all they care about is getting your money.”
Ana shot back from ahead, “Your money is all they ever care about. Acting friendly is just another way to get it.”
“Why?” Heather asked. “It’s only in-game currency.”
Ana stopped to ponder. “I’m not sure. But they always try to drive a hard bargain.”
“Maybe for balance reasons,” Farrukh offered, as he passed her.
She surged ahead again. “Yeah, maybe. Players get points for haggling. I wonder if the shopkeepers have their own leaderboard.”
Farrukh said, “Anyway, the herbalist who told me about the giant wasn’t selling anti-giant potions. Although maybe he was exaggerating so his customer wouldn’t go get himself killed.”
“I don’t think we can rely on that,” Heather said. “Our best chance is probably Ana’s sword, even if it didn’t work on that giant slug. And we’ll have to take out the Enlightened first.”
“The Enlightened, and this Edwin Casper,” Farrukh said. “Who is he?”
“Our nemesis!” Ana called.
“Just about the most terrible person in the game,” Heather said. “He’s the leader of the Enlightened, the Mage’s Guild of Bluehearth.”
“What did he do?”
Heather rubbed at the faint welt left on her cheek. “He tried to kill Pav.”
“And Ana, I assume?”
“When we tried to steal his electric whip to get back at him. Things got a bit sticky.”
“Their guild hall burned down,” Ana contributed.
“It was Edwin’s own spell,” Heather clarified.
Farrukh laughed. “You three are quite something, aren’t you?” Then he fell quiet, and again our footsteps were the last bastion against silence.
The hours stretched on. Dark cavern led to yet more dark cavern. The air was thick with humidity.
Man, fuck walking.
My mind flicked on the television, a retreat from the grim monotony. I was lying in a soft down bed, with a loaf of bread to rival any in either world and heaps of burek besides. It was warm and smelled of lilacs.
But every time I found peace, Heather’s voice would ring through my speakers, “Are you trying to die?” She wouldn’t shut up. Couldn’t she understand that the point of the television was to avoid reflection?
We trudged forward. Even Ana was limp in her fatigue. As the ground rose beneath us, so too did hope in the gait of my companions. I had to speed up, curse them.
“Hey!” Ana finally said. “Light!” She edged forward, trying to reveal more with her lantern, looking back impatiently at me still shuffling along. She squinted. “Up there!”
“Yes!” Farrukh shouted. He made scrambling up the cliff face look easier than walking, and a few moments later, he let down a rope. Ana climbed up, and Heather gestured to me. The climb was easyish, with the rock face to brace my legs against. I hauled myself up and looked back down at Heather, beginning the climb. Ana and Farrukh had gone ahead, up the sloping hole, squeezing through as the passage tightened. Heather reached the top unscathed and untied the rope. Together we shimmied through the tunnel and through the gap in the rock. Ana and Farrukh pulled me up on the other side.
The sky over the mountains to the east was purple in anticipation of dawn. Before us, illuminated in black and white by cold moonlight, a valley stretched, rimmed on all sides by a mountainous barrier. A river flowed through the middle, white tumbling over black, fed from springs and waterfalls.
And squatting above a torrent plunging over the northern cliffs, three towers stood stark in the moonlight. The topmost glimmered blue. Vedanth Durg.
We had come to Tyrant’s Vale.
16
I nestled into my cloak on the stony hilltop and was gone as soon as my eyes closed.
I woke to a scene out of a dream. Sunlight bathed the valley, cascading over rocky hills, glittering on the waters of the river, waterfalls, and spring pools.
When I went to enable my feed, I noticed that I hadn’t turned it off. I also noticed I had 500,000 viewers. When had that happened?
I hadn’t thought about my family in a while. Would they be proud of what I’d done?
What had I done, exactly, besides follow Ana? Botch a burglary? Constantly ogle my companions? Nearly get myself killed about ten times over?
I couldn’t get Heather’s words out of my head, “Are you trying to die?” I suppressed the thought, focusing instead on the trepidation gripping my chest. I’d never disappointed half a million people at once before. And I’d have to keep my eyes from wandering. At least there would be some revenue from the ads they slapped on my stream, when I did finally drown.
Based on shuffling sounds behind me, Heather was awake as well. But as long as I didn’t turn to see her, she wasn’t. I feigned ignorance and watched the sun climb over the valley.
We’d made it.
Farrukh stepped past me and sat on a boulder at the edge of the slope, taking in the valley. He looked smaller than he had yesterday, drawn into his
mantle. He laid out his tarp and prostrated himself. When he rose, I walked over and settled beside him.
“Storm coming in,” he said quietly. True enough, black clouds roiled over the Durg. Entire forests on either side of the mountain pass swayed in the wind. “Someone will claim the Storm’s Breath today.”
“What makes you think that?”
“They’ll want a spectacle,” then he shook his head. “You look horrible.”
“A lot better than I’d look without your potions,” I said. “Get much sleep?”
“Some. I’m glad to be out of that cave. Something about enclosed spaces…but heavy thoughts kept me up.”
“What about?”
He sighed. “Ana.”
“How she got hit by that slug? She seems fine.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. “Yeah.”
“What’s up? This about your beef? You two need to squash that if we’re going to make an effective party.”
“Who said we were a party?” he asked, not harshly. “But I shouldn’t have treated her the way I have. She doesn’t deserve it; she just makes it so easy.” He laughed. “Walking around like she owns the place. She reeks of ignorant luxury. But still, I admire her. It took grit, choosing to go last, and she cares for you and Heather, that much is plain. Despite everything, she’s a good person.”
“Why do you sound sad?”
“Remember Pavel, I have a lot riding on this. I’ve got to keep my self-interests—”
Our conference was interrupted by a huge, groaning yawn. We turned toward where Ana sat up, still enveloped up to her stomach in her bedroll.
“Not far to go, now,” she said. Tears rimmed her eyes, perhaps from sleep. “You should get going.”
Hold up. “What do you mean?” I asked. Farrukh drew up his hood and looked at the ground.
“This is where you leave me,” Ana said. “I can’t go any further. But the Storm’s Breath is just over there, maybe two hours’ walk.” Tears streamed down her face.
“Ana? What’s wrong?” Heather asked, panic in her voice.
Ana shook her head. “Just go.”
“We’re not leaving you,” I insisted.
“My legs don’t work,” she said. “It’s from touching the gastrolith. Some sort of poison.”
“Let me see,” I said. She’d been fine last night…
She shook her head. “Heather.”
Heather crawled over, and after some quick hand gestures to disable her live feed, peeked into Ana’s bedroll. Her face drained of color.
“They’re fused together,” Heather said. Then she turned to Farrukh. “You knew, didn’t you? Why didn’t you tell us?” Her voice wavered with anger, or fear, or both.
His words were flat. “I told her. The rest was her decision.”
Heather wheeled. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“No point,” Ana said.
“What about the Amulet of Reverse Transformation?” She took the pack from beside me, fished out the amulet we’d found in Riyaasat, and pressed it to Ana’s flesh, crying. Nothing happened. “What? I got a notification, ‘Target has been Hexed, and cannot be targeted by spells, magical items, or potions until the death of the Mollusking.’ That giant slug! We have to go back!”
“There’s no way we can kill that thing,” Ana breathed. “Not with me like this.”
“We have the Lightning Blade and salt arrows!” Heather said. “Don’t give up!”
But the Lightning Blade had barely affected it. Farrukh shook his head and said gruffly, “The salt’s gone, and either way, I’m not dying in that cave.”
“Is it the same curse that Pradeep’s wife had?” I asked. “What did the letter say?”
Heather already had it out. “There’s another way — if we can find a Nullifier, the amulet will work.”
I leaned over and scanned, frantic. “Vedanth said he had one in his castle. We’re so close!”
“Do you think it’s the Storm’s Breath?” Heather asked. “We could go get it, come back here…”
“Might be.”
“And what about the giant?” Farrukh asked.
“We can deal with it, somehow,” I insisted. I noticed a cluster of buildings at the base of the castle’s cliffs. “Or maybe Vedanth was referring to something sold in town. We can check the stores for antidotes.”
“Who’re they?” Farrukh asked. We followed his gaze to the mouth of the valley. Just rounding the mountains, a group marched, perhaps thirty strong. All wore yellow uniforms but for two at their head: one in orange, one in red.
Edwin Casper and the Enlightened had arrived.
The road veered toward us. They’d be here in minutes.
“What do we do?” Heather asked. She looked terrified.
When Ana spoke, her voice quavered. Her castle had been breached, her temple ransacked, by the slime of a cave slug. There was no trace of the strength I’d come to think of as unshakable within her. I suspect she’d thought it unshakable, too. “He’ll kill us.”
The army had picked up into a jog. “They’ve seen us,” I said. There was no way we could defend against them, not with Ana in her current state, or when Heather had lost her spear, or with me still so tired…
Ana began hyperventilating. “He can’t see me like this. I have to hide.”
There was still some good I could do. “Run. Grab Ana and disappear underground. I’ll hold them here.”
“Pavel, no!” Heather cried.
Farrukh scooped Ana up, bedroll and all. She yelped, “Put me down!” He dumped her in the hole we’d crawled out of.
“Turn your camera off, so he can’t look you up and see you’re recording,” he said, his voice monotone. “And thank you.” He turned to me. “Sorry, Pavel, but no way am I going back in that cave.”
“You’re with me, then?”
“Pavel, no, I won’t let you!” Heather said.
She was picking up Ana’s stubbornness. “I’ve been ready to die for you since that afternoon in the alley,” I said. “Now run, before everything we’ve done for you turns to nothing!”
The army reached the base of the hill, a steep slope of boulder and scree.
“Where’s the bitch?” Edwin shouted. “The other one, I mean.”
His apprentices laughed nervously. Among them, I noticed Guilherme, the little prick, Kim beside him.
“Dead,” Farrukh said. “Killed by a slug.”
“And who are you? Have these two weaklings found someone new to protect them?”
“They interrupted my hunt.”
“I’ll tell you now. If you stand with them, you’ll die.” The long sleeves of his red robe concealed any spell he could be preparing. I gritted my teeth.
“You on your way to defeat the giant?” Farrukh asked. “Claim the Storm’s Breath?”
“You can come along. You seem strong enough. You’ll soon have cantrips of your own, if you stick with us.”
Farrukh nodded. “This is where I leave you, Pavel, Heather.” He began to descend the slope, half-sliding on the gravel.
My jaw gaped. Just like that, he’d abandon us? My back ached with the sting of a knife unforeseen.
Edwin laughed, then sneered at Heather. “Do you regret denying me now? I’ll make sure your boyfriend dies first.”
No options left — why was Heather still here? “Run!” I pleaded. “Let me do something heroic, once and for all.”
She looked on the edge of tears. “You don’t have to die to be my hero, Pav. Let me save you, for once.” She turned to Edwin and called in a shaky voice, “I’ll go with you. Just leave him alone.”
A fracture cracked through my chest. “Don’t,” I muttered. “Just run. I’m not worth it.”
“What was that?” Edwin called.
“Don’t hurt him!” she said, and my heart shattered. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
Edwin actually recoiled. Then a mean smile broke across his face. “I see you’ve finally come to appreciate t
rue strength. Come on, then. I won’t hurt him. Look at him, you’ve already done worse than I ever could.”
Sobs racked me. I didn’t deserve this. I didn’t deserve to live, not at this cost. “Run,” I muttered. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end. A hero didn’t let his friends sacrifice themselves for him. Guess I’d finally shown my true colors, for all to see.
“Survive, Pav,” Heather said. Her eyes glistened. “As soon as we’re gone, get out of here and don’t look back. I’ll log off before he can hurt me.” And with that, she crawled down the slope, leaving me alone. Alone and alive.
17
I dragged Ana out of the tunnel. Her face was contorted with rage and fear.
“I couldn’t say anything,” she said, her voice choked. “The only thing I could do was stay silent and let her go. And now she’s gone.”
“We should go,” I said. “Don’t make her sacrifice vain.” Only, Ana’s legs had fused together. She could go nowhere.
“Get out of here,” she said. “I’ll log out. But I’ll be watching. You’d better get revenge on that bastard.”
I shook my head. I tried to speak, but no words came out. I couldn’t say that her logging out would break me. Though “break” was a relative term when Heather had already torn my heart to shreds and thrown the scraps to the winds.
She must have seen something on my face. “What else can we do?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Just for a little while. Let’s do nothing.”
I carried her down the slope, both of us whimpering. Slow going, but there was a spring pool not far. I turned my back to let her crawl into the water, taking the opportunity to turn off my feed.
“Nice and cool,” she said. “You can look.”
I set down the pack and started stripping, too tired to be self-conscious. Once I was down to my shorts, I jumped in.
The cool water enveloped me, and for a moment, I was comfortable. The water washed away my worries and fears until I was nothing. But when I broke the surface, everything returned.
Ana was floating lazily. “It’s soothing,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt as bad anymore.”