by Ethan Spears
“Wait,” said Aoden. “We don’t know his name. We knew a Reggy and a Tommy, but we don’t know your name. What name should we give them?”
“Ah, of course. Give them the name Igorius. That’s my real, honest-to-goodness name. No tricks this time. Some call me Iggy.”
“Iggy, Tommy, Reggy; can’t you have one name that isn’t a nickname?"
He shrugged. “You can just call me Reggy. I always liked that name the best. Now go and tell them what I’ve said, Mergau. If their lives hang in the balance, I’d rather they be made aware as soon as possible.” Mergau turned and left, leaving Aoden and Reggy alone.
Aoden looked at Reggy again, shaking his head. “You’ve been a lizardman the whole time. I still can’t believe it. This changes a lot of things.”
“I’m sorry, Aoden. I hope it doesn’t change too much. Are you angry with me?”
“I don’t know. I suppose I’m just surprised.”
“People don’t start swinging swords at friends in ‘surprise.’”
“Alright, I was very surprised. It’s strange to look at you: I can’t read your expression and your face is all weird and I kind of thought lizardfolk would talk with a slight sibilance.”
Reggy started to laugh. “Aoden, we’re not snakes! Also, my face is not weird.”
Aoden laughed as well. “Shut up, you know what I mean.”
Reggy shrugged. “Well, now there are no secrets between us.” He offered his hand, “Are we still friends?”
Aoden sighed. “Gods, Reggy.” He ruffled a hand through his hair. “How else am I going to collect the debt you owe me for this one?” He could only offer a weak smile. “And it’s going to be a huge debt, I can promise you that.” Aoden grasped his hand. The scaly skin felt like leather.
“Here’s to hoping I can pay it off.”
Chapter 26
Illusion and Query
“Are we still being followed?”
“For the last time, yes.”
Mergau hoped they reached the gates at the isthmus soon. Between Reggy’s paranoia and the cramped halfling wagon, she was losing her patience.
The wall stood towering in the distance, stained white and green from its many years standing over the sea, stretching from one end of the isthmus to the other. It was perhaps twenty feet tall, not the tallest structure she had seen, but it was easily the largest, so long that she couldn’t fit the whole thing in her field of vision. She doubted she could see the entire thing even standing on the hills behind their wagon.
“It covers the whole length of the isthmus,” Reggy said. “Sixty-two point two three stretches all told.” Mergau looked at him blankly. “That would be about forty orcish miles, give or take.”
“Ooh,” she said appreciatively. Even if she ran steadily at her best pace, it would take her over four hours to traverse the whole length of the wall, though she doubted she had that much stamina. “How do they defend such a massive wall?”
“That’s not something I can talk about,” he said. “Maybe you’ll see when we go through.” He looked over his shoulder again toward the woods behind them.
“They’re still there,” Aoden said.
“I was just checking.”
“They’re not going to lose us in the open.”
The dozen halfling agents that had been stationed outside Reggy’s house were staggered along the path behind them in wagons. They didn’t bother with stealth or subterfuge but were occasionally lost in the distance or behind hills. They were far enough away to allow privacy but close enough to intercept should Reggy make a run for it, though Reggy was still downhearted from his discovery and didn’t have any such intentions.
Aoden looked back at his old friend, currently in the halfling guise the half-elf was so familiar with. There was no doubt that this was the Reggy he had known from his young adulthood—no one could mimic that delicate balance of annoying and charming—but he couldn’t stop picturing the alien lizard face with its emotionless yellow eyes. Aoden had always imagined their heads would be snakelike, but the gods had drawn more inspiration from the crocodile, though the long snout was broad and round rather than thin and sharp and, while the teeth were pointed, they were small and inconspicuous.
“What can we expect, Reggy?” Aoden asked as he turned back toward the front, the ponies’ reins firmly in hand. “Will you be able to get us in?”
“I expect so, though it may take a bit of convincing. The mere fact that you’re looking for what you’re looking for should be enough, but I doubt the guards at the gates will be fluent in Krik. Not that they’re likely to take you at your word, but here I am acting as the middleman in all this. Isn’t that supposed to be your job?”
Aoden smirked. “The gods have a sense of humor.”
“They should stick to doing whatever it is gods do. Unless what they do is humor, then they should find a new hobby. Also, if what they do is humor, I know many a temple that will be very disappointed.” He looked back again.
“If you keep looking back, I’m going to tie you to the wagon bed,” Mergau said.
“Not being able to see them will just make me ask if they’re back there more often. Go away,” he said, shooing the wagons behind them, though the halflings rudely ignored the order.
They rumbled along and turned down the road running parallel to the wall. Aoden and Mergau scanned the top expecting to see someone up there, anyone at all, but the wall seemed utterly empty. Granted, they couldn’t see the entire top of the wall, but the occasional head of a sentry on patrol should have been visible on occasion. There were no calls down to them, no stamp of feet, no voices, nothing to indicate the wall was anything but abandoned.
Though the gate was still distant, there was no sign of a guard out front or above. Reggy didn’t seem at all perturbed by the lack of life, merely tapping a finger on his arm and occasionally checking over his shoulder even as it drew further ire from Mergau.
“It’s every ten seconds with you,” she grumbled, resting her head in her hand and following his gaze. There was nothing else worth her attention anyway. She let her eyes rest on the road behind and let her mind wander.
After a moment of silence, Reggy hummed appreciatively. “Well, would you look at that,” he said.
“What is it?” Aoden asked.
“Over there, towards the halflings.”
Aoden looked back. He wasn’t sure what Reggy was talking about; the area behind them was empty aside from the halflings and the hills, bereft even of trees. He shifted to face forward again but found there was something about watching the road seemingly spat out from underneath the wagon and slowly sinking away into the distance that was oddly soothing. Even as they trundled forward, he no longer looked to see where they were going, content instead to watch behind them.
Reggy saw Aoden slacken. He lifted his head from his hand and looked between the half-elf and the orc, both transfixed on the area behind. He waved his hand in front of Mergau’s face, but she didn’t respond. He stood up in the churning wagon and moved from the bed to the front seat, sitting next to the elf. Aoden didn’t object as Reggy took the reins from his grip and pulled back, commanding the ponies to stop. As the wagon came to a halt, he hopped down. The other two sat statue-still, ignoring his actions. He turned and waved his hand towards the halfling guards following them, and they slumped in their seats, having been put under his control one by one over the past hour.
“Wait here,” he said with a laugh. He dispelled his illusion, returning to his original lizard form, then walked over to a seemingly arbitrary stretch of wall and walked into it.
The surface of the wall rippled like water as he passed through, but it offered no resistance. In the shade of the hidden gatehouse were three walls with no clear exit to the far side. There were two doors without handles of any sort, one on either side. He went to the one on the left and knocked twice, then to the door on the right and knocked three times, then back to the door on the left to knock once. The two doors
vanished, and a third door appeared on the far wall. He knocked on this door as well, then waited.
The door opened. A lizardman appeared, stepped through, and closed the door behind him. He stopped before Reggy, supporting himself on a long staff. “Business?” he said in Sishi.
“Well, gee, good to see you too, Paramus. Is that all you have to say after all these years?” The lizardman blinked and waited. Reggy sighed, deciding it wasn’t worth the time. “I was caught,” he said with a shrug, indicating the others, still sitting in the wagon on the other side of the illusory gate. “I found from these two that a huge portion of our network in the halfling country is compromised, maybe the whole thing.”
The lizardman remained still, only his eyes flicking between Reggy and the elves in the wagon. “And you’re here?”
Reggy nodded. “It’s a long story and we don’t have much time; I’ve mesmerized fourteen people, so my power is stretched a bit thin. I likely only have minutes before they recover their senses, so let’s get this wagon through the gate before that happens.”
“They are coming?”
“Again, a long story. Short answer: it’s a geas.”
The lizardman nodded understanding. “A geas.” He lifted the staff and knocked it on the stones above his head, then again on the stones at his feet. “The barrier falls. Enter.” He turned back to the door, opened it, and slipped through. The door closed and vanished; shortly after, a chunk of the wall melted away into mist, leaving the path before him clear.
“Still not much of a talker, that one,” Reggy said to the air. He returned to the wagon and hopped into the driver’s seat, flicking the reins and setting the ponies to a trot. With the illusory wall gone, there was a wide path for the ponies as they pulled the wagon through the gatehouse and into the lands of Verka. Reggy looked back in time to see the entrance vanish behind them, replaced once more by false stone. He then stuffed the reins into Aoden’s hands and jumped back into the wagon bed, sitting across from Mergau and trying his hardest to suppress his giggling.
He clapped his hands. “Welcome to Verka, friends.”
Aoden and Mergau both jumped in their seats and looked around. “What?” said Mergau, staring at the great wall, now falling away behind them. “How did we get here?”
“Are we really…?” Aoden peered ahead as if expecting to see the three halfling wagons coming towards them, but the landscape was entirely different and there were, of course, no halflings ahead. “I’m not even going to ask,” he said, jerking the reins irritably. “You probably wouldn’t tell me anyway.”
“I can’t tell you. It’s an important distinction.”
They continued following the road. Another wall and gate were visible as a speck in the distance. The path sloped gently upward towards it, and the isthmus quickly narrowed over the course of many stretches. They were rising steadily higher above the sea, which sat much too far below for their liking as it was, and the edges of their path grew closer and closer. At the second gate, which looked to be the narrowest point, it was still easily three fields across, but it felt like a much smaller distance when smack in the middle of it.
Aoden looked around. “A second wall back here? And much easier to hold than that huge wall at the border. Why even bother with the first at all when this wall is better suited for defense?” He looked over at Reggy. “And if you’re going to say you can’t tell me, you may as well not say anything.”
Reggy followed his advice. Aoden frowned and faced forward again.
“These walls look manned,” Mergau said. “This feels like the real entrance.”
“Pay attention this time and maybe you’ll notice when we go through,” Reggy said. When Mergau looked over at him, he was failing to hide a grin.
“Maybe I’ll tie you to the wagon anyway.”
“You’ll need me untied for this next bit,” the lizardman laughed. “I’m afraid you’ve missed your chance to make that threat a reality.”
“I’m tempted to prove you wrong,” she said, though it was impossible to make the threat seriously.
Aoden looked again over his shoulder at the wall they had passed through. “Oh,” said Reggy, “now you get to look back all you want and expect me to say nothing, eh?”
Aoden ignored the comment. “It just baffles me why the lizardfolk would choose the widest point of the isthmus to build that wall when up ahead, barely eight stretches on, is a much more defensible position. With the natural rise, any invading army will be exhausted by the time they reach the wall, and the height advantage favors the defending archers. Roll some burning logs or boulders down this incline and this place turns into a killing field. Compare that with the gargantuan size of the other, the impossibility of being able to man it all, and the surrounding hills providing good cover and firing positions, and it seems like such a senseless waste of material.”
“Ooh, so many secrets,” said Reggy with a laugh.
“And I’m done asking you questions.”
“Good, because I’m done telling you that I can’t tell you anything.”
As they approached the wall, they could see two lizardfolk on the top, watching the wagon and waiting. “They can see we aren’t lizardfolk,” said Mergau. “You’d think they’d react somehow, but they’re just standing there.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just bring this wagon right up to the gate, and I’ll speak with them.” Reggy stood on the wagon bed and waved. Though they didn’t visibly acknowledge him, Reggy turned and said, “That’s practically waving back for lizardfolk.” Aoden and Mergau exchanged a baffled look at this.
Their wagon slowed to a halt in front of the gate, their ponies lathered from the long climb. Reggy leaped down from the back and motioned for the others to stay in their seats. He called up the wall in Sishi. His companions found the alien language to be surprisingly melodious, a fair mismatch for the crocodilian face that uttered the words. One of the guards responded tersely and vanished from sight.
Minutes later, the gate creaked open just enough to allow another lizardman to slip through. When Reggy saw him, he spread his arms out wide, laughed aloud, and called out to him. The new lizardman nodded and said something shortly, at which point Reggy ran over and threw his arms around him, hugging him fiercely. He wrapped an arm around the lizardman’s neck and half-led, half-dragged him towards Aoden and Mergau. The look on the lizardman’s face transcended all cultural and racial boundaries; it clearly said, ‘you are way too close.’
“Guys!” Reggy said excitedly, shaking the lizardman around. “This is Cadalei! We were raised in the same crèche. We’re practically brothers!”
Aoden let his surprise show. “A brother? Reggy, we’ve known each other for sixty years! How could you have never told me you had a brother?” He removed his glove from his right hand and held it out, paused a moment, and looked to Reggy. “Do lizardfolk shake hands?”
Reggy laughed and turned to Cadalei, saying something in their flowing language. Cadalei looked at Aoden’s hand, then met Aoden’s eyes, then looked back to Reggy to say something. Reggy laughed again, looking both delighted and flustered as he searched for the right words, rambling out a lengthy explanation and pointing. Cadalei nodded understanding, reached out, grasped Aoden by the wrist, and pulled him forward with a powerful jerk of his arm, sending Aoden off-balance and sprawling to the ground. Cadalei looked over to Reggy to see if he had done it right, but both Reggy and Mergau were in the midst of a violent laughing fit.
Aoden stood and brushed himself off, looking annoyed. “A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed, Reggy.” His eyes met Cadalei’s, who tilted his head towards Reggy and shrugged. Aoden made an exasperated face, shook his head, and held up his hands. Cadalei dipped his head in a shallow bow, allowing himself a small smile. Aoden returned the bow.
“Well,” said Aoden, “your brother seems a likable enough fellow. Let him know I’m pleased to make his acquaintance.”
“I’m sure he knows already,” said Reggy. Cada
lei said something briefly and waved for them to follow. “Oop, let’s get a move on,” he said, trotting after.
“Just like that?” asked Mergau, as she and Aoden followed towards the gate. “I thought it would be more difficult. Questions, interrogations, something. Are they just going to let us in?”
“I’ve worked with Cadalei for many years. He’s come to trust my judgment, and I his. It might have been a bit tougher to explain were I anyone else, but he understands that I wouldn’t bring you here without good reason.”
Cadalei turned just before the gate and spoke to Reggy, then indicated Aoden and Mergau. “He says that we cannot place you under geas as we’ve done with myself and others since you must be willing,” said Reggy. “That being said, he does ask that you keep what you see here secret. If not for him, then for me. Please.”
“I don’t mind,” said Aoden.
“Nor do I,” said Mergau. “Unless keeping secrets prevents us from stopping the Fury, in which case I make no such promises.”
“Fair enough,” said Reggy. He nodded to Cadalei. Cadalei reached out and pushed the gate open wide, allowing their guests to see into the vast lizard lands.
They were immediately underwhelmed.
“Welcome to my homeland,” said Reggy, sweeping an arm across a modest collection of wooden huts and hovels. A dirt path led from the gate and passed between two rows of these crude dwellings. At the end of these rows, the road turned into a small cul-de-sac with a pillar of black stone in the center. The road ended there, continuing no further inland. Beyond the settlement was a vast wall of trees, a veritable forest that darkened quickly from all the close growth. In the entire vista, only two lizardfolk could be seen sitting out front of a hut and chatting.
“I’d think there’d be more soldiers stationed here,” Aoden observed. “You must be confident in your warriors if you think this small number can hold even this wall for any extended period of time.”
Reggy gave Aoden a patient smile. He looked at Cadalei, who seemed to understand what Reggy was asking and nodded for him to speak. “This isn’t a defensive camp,” said Reggy. “This is our home.”