The Shadow Realm

by James Galloway

  "You'd better not!" Kimmie shouted playfully, jumping into the bed and pinning him down beneath her, forcing Sapphire to scramble out of Tarrin's lap to avoid getting crushed. "I'd have to punish you," she told him with a grin. "And it wouldn't be the good kind of punishment, either."

  "I can live with that, as long as I get the good punishment afterwards."

  "Flirt," she teased, leaning down and kissing him on the tip of his nose. "Now behave yourself, and we'll drink this bottle of wine, have a nice long chat about all the things we love to talk about, and then get some sleep."

  "Hmm....behave, or misbehave. Behave, or misbehave," he said with mock seriousness, rolling his eyes from side to side as if choosing between two things he could see. "Can't I do both?"

  "No!" she laughed, slapping him playfully on the shoulder before letting him up.

  Tarrin did behave, and they drank the bottle of wine, talked about Sapphire, as well as how anxious everyone was and how tense things seemed with them being so close to their destination, and then about anything else that came to mind, like chess or what was happening in Suld or how Mist and Eron were doing, anything at all. Tarrin enjoyed the talks he had with Kimmie, because she was an engaging, intelligent woman who was patient enough to be able to do it and smart enough to always challenge his mind. They talked well into the night, as Sapphire laid in her bed with her eyes open, watching the two of them attentively, and then they went to bed. But the conversation didn't stop with that, as they continued to talk as Kimmie let Tarrin brush her hair, then brush her fur, and they continued to talk as Kimmie undid Tarrin's braid, brushed out the dust, and then rebraided it for him, and even continued on as they blew out the lantern and settled in for the night. They talked until the warm, inviting bed overwhelmed their desire to talk, causing both of them to drift off in the middle of a discussion about how strange Wikuni society had seemed to them for the short time they'd been there.

  The next morning, Tarrin was not quite as occupied as everyone else, because he had something to distract him from the seriousness of their position. He came up on deck with Sapphire and started teaching her Sulasian, showing her objects and telling her the words they represented. She paid careful attention to him throughout the morning, as Allia and Miranda stood on the roof of the sterncastle and continued to search for their unknown destination, seeming to absorb what he was trying to teach. He would teach her the words for various small objects, then test her by laying the objects out on the deck and speaking one of the words and having her identify the object. She began to get the hang of the instruction quickly, and by lunchtime, she had learned about two hundred words. She was learning at a very high rate of speed, so quickly that Tarrin was a little intimidated.

  What he was doing invariably attracted a crowd of his friends, and they were amazed that the drake was as smart as she was. Phandebrass especially seemed astounded by it, and he nearly got himself thrown overboard when he asked Tarrin if he could dissect Sapphire's brain to find out how it had changed. Tarrin treated his drake to a very sumptuous lunch for her hard work, and continued with her in the afternoon, this time with help. Azakar and Camara Tal, still dressed in their armor and breastplate, came over after lunch and helped out, actually getting in the way at first as they just threw words at the drake, but after Tarrin calmed them down and organized things, they did help out quite a bit. He did start riding them when Azakar started teaching Sapphire words in Arakite, and Camara Tal started teaching her Amazon. He didn't want to confuse the drake overly at first, and trying to teach her three languages at once would confuse her.

  By sunset, Sapphire had quite a vocabulary. She knew the words for almost everything one could see on the deck, and everything one could carry on his person. She had learned the names of all his friends, and had even come to understand the concept of racial groups. She could tell the difference between a Wikuni and a human, an Amazon and an Arakite, a Selani and a Were-cat. He knew that because he would tell her the word for a race, and the drake would fly over and land on the shoulder of a member of that race briefly, then fly back to him. Tarrin was very happy with the progress the drake had made that day, and as the sun set over the western horizon, he treated her again to a large plate of veal, one of her favorite meats.

  But all thoughts of the drake vanished when Allia's voice called out over the deck. "I see something!" she cried quickly, patting Miranda's shoulder and pointing her in the direction she was looking. Tarrin looked up at the pair quickly, then looked in the direction that Allia was pointing, almost directly off the starbord side, just a little angled towards the bow. All he could see was empty ocean, even after he rushed up to the rail and put his paws over his eyes to try to screen out the light of the setting sun. Tarrin wondered how she could see looking into the sunlight. He looked up at her again, and saw that she was wearing one of the Selani visors. Where did she get it? She said she'd broken hers! He saw that she had to hold it over her face to keep it from slipping off her nose, and when he took a better look at it, he realized that it was the one he used in the desert. She had taken his visor! No wonder he couldn't find it anywhere!

  In five steps and one bounding leap, Tarrin was on the roof of the sterncastle as an excited Allia pointed to what she saw. "Right there, Tarrin!" she said in Selani. "It's right there, but I have no idea what it is!"

  "What do you see, sister?"

  "Here, you look," she said, taking off the visor and handing it to him. "Miranda, give Tarrin the spyglass," she ordered the mink in Sulasian.

  Tarrin donned the visor and held the spyglass up to his eyes. At first he saw nothing but a blur, but Miranda showed him how to focus the image. He scanned the glass back and forth slowly, until he finally saw what Allia had seen. And it made little sense.

  It was a tiny spot of blackness on the horizon. There was no form or shape to the darkness, but it was very discernable with the red of the sky backlighting it. It was a tiny spot of black sandwiched between the red sky and the dark blue sea.

  And it was tiny looking through the spyglass! Tarrin felt very awed and impressed at his sister's vision, to see something so tiny at such a distance, with the sun in her face! No wonder the poem said they'd need Allia to find what they were looking for...only a Selani, or perhaps an Aeradalla, would ever have spotted that!

  "It's not much, sister, but it's definitely something," he told her in Selani. "I can't make anything out. Can you?"

  "No, just the darkness," Allia replied. "Almost as if night had taken over that one little patch of sea. If it wasn't sunset, I would never have seen it," she admitted. "The sky is highlighting the darkness."

  "It is at that, or I wouldn't have seen it either," he agreed. "Even with this thing," he added, handing the spyglass back to Miranda.

  "What did you see, Tarrin? I can't find it," Miranda asked.

  "It's a patch of black," he told her. "I can't make anything out, and neither can Allia. Maybe it's a mountain of black stone, like that volcano island that we passed a while ago." He handed Miranda the spyglass and the visor, then carefully pointed her in the direction she needed to look. "Move slowly, now," he told her. "It's very small."

  "I think--I see it!" she said happily. "You're right, it's like a black spot on the horizon."

  "What do you see?" Keritanima called from the deck.

  "It's not much, sister, but there's definitely something out there," Tarrin called down to her. "Just a speck on the horizon."

  "More like a smudge than a speck," Miranda agreed. "But even I can see it. Kikalli's winds, Allia, you have some eyes," Miranda told her with a smile. "I would never have seen that if it hadn't been pointed out to me. It's just too small."

  "Well then, that settles that," Keritanima said bluntly. "Jalis! We need to turn starbord! Allia, call out when the bow is pointing at what you see!"

  "Aye, your Majesty!" Jalis shouted from the steering deck. "Helm, come to starbord, but do it gently," Tarrin heard the bobcat order his steersman from under his fee
t. "Listen for the Selani's call,and when you hear it, call out the compass reading and set that course."

  "Aye, cap'n," the pilot acknowledged.

  The entire ship waited silently as the steamship slowly began to turn starbord. They all watched Allia as she slowly turned her body to keep herself facing what she saw on the horizon, and Keritanima began to pace nervously. Tarrin looked towards the horizon, but the sun was blinding him and he wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway, for Miranda had the spyglass and Allia had the visor. Tarrin did get a general sense of how close they were by watching Allia's body. He figured that when Allia's shoulders were set squarely with the bow, they were more or less there.

  She shufled more and more towards the bow of the ship, until her shoulders finally squared up. A moment later, she called out, a sound everyone on the ship, even the Tellurian engineers that had come up from the bowels of the engine room when word was passed down to them, heard. "Now!" she shouted.

  "Bearing two-five-three! Setting course, two hundred fifty three degrees, cap'n!" the Wikuni pilot reported.

  "Very good, son," the captain said in a calm voice. "Let's steam for as long as we can, then set the sea anchor and wait out the night."

  "Aye, Cap'n," the junior officer with him on the steering deck acknowledged.

  "Well, brother, we're almost there," Allia told him as she took off the visor. "Now we know where we're going. We just have to reach it."

  "I know," he said soberly. "We're another step closer. The only question is how big the hole is going to be we'll have to step over to get there. Remember, the poem said we still have one more step to go."

  "Then we'll conquer that obstacle when we reach it," she said simply. "I've come to find out that when we are together, there is almost nothing we can't do."

  "I hope you're right, Allia," he said fervently. "Goddess, I hope you're right."

  Nobody slept well that night. Now that their destination was no longer an unknown, everyone was antsy and restless, Tarrin the worst of them. They were almost there. Almost there! Tarrin paced back and forth on the deck, constantly looking over the bow, unable to sleep, unable to even sit still for more than a few moments. The night was crisp, cool, and clear, but Tarrin hardly noticed it. Everything they had been working towards for two years had almost reached its conclusion. Everything Tarrin had done, everything he had gained, everything he had sacrificed, it was all leading up to this.

  Nobody knew what to expect. They had all sat down and had a long talk after dinner, discussing what the next day may bring. The only absolutes they had were that there was one more obstacle to overcome, and there was a guardian that would be defending the Firestaff once they reached where they were going. Outside of that, nobody could offer much more than imagined problems. The problem was, though they knew where they were going, they had no idea what they would find once they got there. They didn't know if it was a small speck of an island, or a huge semi-continent. They didn't know if they would immediatley find the Firestaff, or if they would have to spend days, rides, maybe even months searching the land for it. If the Firestaff was even on land. Miranda brought up that rather chilling scenario, that the Firestaff was indeed hidden under the ocean, and it would force them to find some way to counter the killing water to get it. They didn't know if the Firestaff rested within the void, or if the void would end before they got there. That was the one thing they all fervently hoped would come to pass. None of them wanted to have to face down the guardian without the power of magic to aid them. As it was, Tarrin was the only member of the group with access to magic, and it was his Druidic magic, the weaker of his two magical abilities.

  The night passed for Tarrin in an almost feverish whirlwind of mental supposition, as he tried to imagine every possible thing that may stand in their way, imagine every kind of guardian he could think up, and think of ways to defeat them both with and without his Sorcery. The not knowing was what aggravated him the most, he realized after half a night of thinking about what may be. If he only knew what to expect! But that was the one thing that he didn't have, the one thing the poem didn't reveal.

  But it could have been worse. They could have not found the poem, and if that were the case, there was no telling where they'd be. They may be searching old ruins in Sharadar, or scouring the inner regions of Wikuna. They may be invading Zakkar, or attempting to find the stronghold of the ki'zadun to take the information they had amassed about the Firestaff by force. They didn't know what was coming, but he could only thank the Goddess that they had gotten the information that they did have. Without that poem, the Zakkites may very well be in the lead in this most important of all races. They may have been able to figure out a way to get around the obstacles the Ancients had set down to deter people from doing exactly what they were doing, and with a little luck, they very well may have gotten to the Firestaff first.

  That would have been a disaster of monumental proportions. Tarrin didn't know when it would activate, but he wasn't going to take any chances. It could be tomorrow, it could be next ride, it could be next month, it could be next year. Whenever it was, he was going to make sure nobody else had it when that day came.

  Tarrin was joined on deck by the others, one by one, well before dawn. Keritanima was the first to abandon the attempt to sleep, about two hours before dawn, coming up with a blanket wrapped around her, but she was wearing the same dress she'd had on the night before. Keritanima changed her dress every day, so it was clear to him she hadn't even tried to go to sleep. But instead of pacing on the open deck, she'd been pacing in the privacy of her cabin. Dolanna came up almost immediately after Keritanima, looking a little tired and drawn. Not a few minutes later, Allia came up with Miranda, Binter and Sisska, and Camara Tal. Dar came up with Azakar and Phandebrass about a half hour later, the three of them carrying large trays with hot pastries just out of the oven in the galley, and Kimmie joined them with Sapphire riding on her shoulder not long after that. They shared the slight meal, for nobody felt like eating much, and then waited in anxious, almost tense silence for the sun to rise and Jalis to give the command to get under way.

  It was the longest sunrise in Tarrin's life. They watched the false dawn come and go, then watched as the sky began to transition from the darkness to the pink hues of sunrise, until the very tip of the sun appeared on the eastern horizon. Tarrin wasn't the only one trying to will the sun to come up, but the resistant heavenly body almost seemed to be moving backwards to the Were-cat as he got more and more impatient.

  "Why isn't Jalis giving the order yet?" Dar demanded in irritation. "It's light!"

  "They have to wait until the sun comes all the way up, Dar," Keritanima told him. "There may be reefs around, so the lookouts need enough light to see into the water."

  "What is a reef?" Allia asked.

  "A shoal of rock just under the surface," Dolanna answered for the Wikuni. "Since these are uncharted waters, the captain is going to be careful. We do not want to hit a reef and founder this close to our destination. It would make the Goddess fairly angry with us."

  "Slightly," Keritanima agreed. "Just keep your pants on, Dar. We'll be moving in a little bit."

  After about a half an hour, they did get under way. Jalis intended to go at half speed at first, but Keritanima personally told him that he could put them under full steam or he could get out and swim. After a short and heated argument, where the captain actually backtalked his queen, Jalis knuckled under when Keritanima threatened to execute him on the spot if he didn't obey her commands immediately. Jalis reluctantly ordered full speed, and the smokestacks billowed smoke as the ship surged forward with two men looking out on the bow and three from the foremast, low enough to where the smoke of the engine didn't choke them to death.

  Though he'd stayed up all night, Tarrin didn't feel in the least bit tired or sleepy. He stood watch along with the others, with Allia standing on the sterncastle with the spyglass, watching. She wasn't the only one who could see, however. Tarrin sto
od at the bow and watched as the tiny black dot they'd seen last night grew larger and larger, becoming visible to Camara Tal not long after sunrise, and visible to the others as they moved towards it. It was still an utter black against the horizon, without feature or form or texture, a darkness that loomed ahead of them and grew inexorably larger as time flowed by.

  "I don't get it," Keritanima growled about an hour before noon. The blackness was visible to everyone now, a dark half-circle just inside the horizon, getting larger by the moment as they approached it, and it made all the sailors nervous. The most obvious thing about it was that it didn't look like land or any sort of natural feature. It looked ominously magical, and that was enough to unnerve the average superstitious sailor. "We're closer now. Why can't Allia make anything out yet?"

  "I'm not sure, Kerri," Tarrin replied, looking at the blackness before them. "Maybe it is magic, like some of the sailors have been whispering. I wouldn't discount anything at this point."

  The darkness got larger and larger, and as they approached it, it made the sailors more and more edgy. Tarrin was getting very anxious himself, but not because of the strangeness of what they were seeing. He was certain now that the blackness was magical, because it couldn't be very much further, and by now Allia should have been close enough to make out features. But she still saw nothing but featureless, empty black, and its lack of dimension made it hard to determine just how large it was or how far away they were. It was like a shadow looming before them, a shadow of inky black, the object casting it hidden from them.

  It grew and grew and grew as they steamed towards it. By lunch, it consumed a good portion of the sky before them, and it became apparent as they neared it that it had a definite shape. It was semi-circular, with defined edges, but nothing within that border was discernable through the inky blackness.

  "That just has to be magical," Tarrin growled to Camara Tal as they stood at the bow and stared at the blackness, which now extended out to the sides far enough to make Tarrin have to move his eyes to look from one edge to the other.