by Marc Johnson
“Jastillian, once there you must change your clothes. Anyone wearing red is considered suspicious. Lay low, all of you, and try to find the answers you need. I wish I could have helped you more.”
“You’ve done enough already,” I said.
“I’ve only done what was right. You’ve reminded me what I’m supposed to do, Hellsfire. I’m the Seeker. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to be dragged into this war.”
“What are you going to do, Malik?” Rebekah asked, looking concerned.
“Buy you some time.”
Serena flew in between them. “You better be alive when I get back, you foolish wizard.”
“Take care of them, Serena.”
“Be careful,” Rebekah said.
Malik smiled at her. “You too.” He spurred his horse west to meet the centaurs, with Mr. Hoot-Hoot hovering above him.
“Be careful with him,” Serena said, flying to Rebekah’s face. “He has a fragile heart, that one, and if you break it, I will break you.” She jabbed her tiny finger at Rebekah. She flew to me and said, “Come on, cutie. We haven’t got all day.”
Serena was quick. She sped through the land like an erratic shooting star, keeping ahead of our horses.
From behind us, I felt Malik draw in mana. He called to the earth’s magic, gathering in tremendous amounts. I thought he would succeed and defeat them, but then I remembered the collar. They were bound to have other weapons to deal with wizards, and those were friends and allies he would have to fight. That would make things difficult.
The backlash of his magic faded the farther away we got. I prayed that he would only buy us time, and not get himself killed because of us.
Two hours later, we reached the forest.
We pushed hard as Serena led us along a trail which she said was the fastest way through the forest. We couldn’t deviate from it and still hide our tracks. None of us knew the terrain, and we couldn’t fight an army. The only place we were going to lose them was in this Dead Zone of theirs.
We pressed on, with only brief rests for the horses, until it got too dark to see. We couldn’t risk one of them breaking a leg. I gave the horses and Serena the rest of my rejuvenation potions.
We broke camp two hours before dawn and ran our horses ragged. I felt my mount’s labored breathing beneath my body. Serena couldn’t fly forever, and I was out of potions. She took short rests on our horses’ foreheads, rotating from horse to horse. She spoke encouraging words to them and rubbed their ears.
At the end of the second day, we burst out of the forest and slowed the horses. We dismounted and fed them oats and water. They wheezed, threatening to collapse. Serena darted up into the air until she vanished from our eyes. She flew back down and hovered in front of my nose.
“Whew…this is as far as I need to take you,” Serena said, pulling her little tunic’s collar up and wiping her head.
“Thank you, Serena,” I said. “We wouldn’t have made it without you.”
“Don’t thank me yet, cutie. You don’t have much time. In two, maybe three hours, the centaurs will have caught up to you.” She flew until she was two inches from my face. “Listen, if you ever want to visit my realm, I’ll take you. Malik has it all wrong. It’s not that bad of a place. It’s fun, and you look like you could use a little fun.”
My face turned red, and it wasn’t from the exhaustion of riding hard. I was tempted to visit that place, but I had had enough exploration of new lands. All I wanted to do was be with the princess.
“Perhaps another time.”
Serena folded her arms and pouted. Then she smiled, flew up, and kissed me on the nose. “I'll see you there, if you survive all this. Good luck!” She took off and headed back west. I stood there with a gaping mouth.
“What was that about, lad?” Jastillian asked.
I scratched my head. “I have no idea. I know very little about fairies. We haven’t time for that now. Let’s go.”
We interrupted the horses’ short break and galloped east to the swamp. I couldn’t get thoughts of Krystal out of my mind as we rode. Looming over those thoughts were their war, the council, Premier, and Renak’s threat. I spurred my horse to go faster, as if I were racing to reach Krystal and keep her safe from all of that.
My legs and butt were so numb I no longer felt the saddle. My vision blurred from the lack of sleep, but when we finally came into view of the swamp, I was shocked by what I saw with my wizard’s vision.
The closer we marched to the swamp, the more my power left me. The place sucked in my magic, and even the flame within started to waver and disappear. The swamp pulled in all the surrounding magic, entrapping it. I rubbed my neck, remembering the collar and how I hated to be without my magic. The Dead Zone was like one gigantic collar, but without a key. And it was the only way to get to Krystal.
A low haze smothered the swamp. Tall, leafless trees stuck out from the water, never rising above the mist. Dark shadows flew by through the trees.
“What was that?” Rebekah asked and pointed. “Something moved.”
Jastillian and I leaned forward and squinted.
“I didn’t see anything,” he said.
Rebekah gave the swamp a menacing look, but didn’t respond.
We had a hard time bringing the horses to the edge of the swamp. They whinnied and stomped until they wouldn’t budge anymore. We took the saddlebags and hid the saddles. We slapped the horses on their rumps and they trotted off west, well away from the swamp.
We ventured around the swamp, heading north to the alternate route Malik’s map gave us. We hunched over and jogged, stepping lightly on the grassy ground and veering away from the bog, lest we leave any tracks. Half an hour later we came upon the path we were looking for.
At the edge of a swamp were two bald cypress trees. The swamp was littered with them, but this pair formed an arch barely as wide as my shoulders, their bare branches aching to embrace. We shared one last look before stepping inside.
My magic evaporated like someone blowing out a candle’s flame. I gasped for air, trying to ignore the emptiness I felt. I couldn’t. It was as if a part of me no longer existed. I had learned to live with my magic over the past three years. It was a part of me, and I of it. But no longer. Unlike with the collar, my magic wasn’t even there to access but not use. The swamp simply devoured it.
My wizard’s senses weren’t as dulled as they were when I had the collar on. I still felt the swamp’s magic, but the magic was wrong. Its pulse was unnatural, as if it were a hole tearing through this world. That hole sucked in my magic.
I clutched my chest as if I could hang on to my magic. It was a worthless gesture. I had to remember that the swamp’s effect wasn’t permanent, and that I was trudging through it to get to Krystal and the others.
The thin trees closed around us, entrapping us. Even though they didn’t have many leaves, they, along with the low fog, felt like a cage. We couldn’t see more than twenty feet in any direction.
As we walked, I constantly turned my head back because of the noise my feet made as they squashed through the damp swamp. It sounded like we were being followed. My robes clung to my body like moss. No matter how often I plucked them away, the damp fabric stuck to me.
As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t take them off. The tall reeds we waded through cut and slashed at my exposed hands and face—to take off my robes would expose my entire body. The most I could do was pull my hood down.
We followed Malik’s map, but it didn’t show much of a path. There were landmarks that indicated where to go, but even then, we found ourselves occasionally wading in chest-high water. My arms grew sore from carrying supplies and equipment over my head. The only bright side was I didn’t have to carry a sword, axe or armor. With each step, our feet disturbed the murky water until it turned deep brown. Panic seized me when I felt a creature slither underneath my robes. I froze, thinking it might be a snake. The creature swam out—only a frog. I breathed a little easier, and we conti
nued onwards.
We ended the day at a safe spot marked on the map. The land was above the water and drier than any of the places we had traveled so far. We found a large, hollowed out tree big enough for the three of us to squeeze inside. We plopped our supplies and equipment on the ground.
Jastillian prepared camp while Rebekah hunted for food and I scrounged for dry firewood or kindling. The humid environment made it hard to find much in the way of firewood. I wished I had my powers. I could have easily lit a campfire and dried our clothes. Eventually, I found a handful of dead wood and made my way back.
It took a few tries, but Jastillian created a small, hot fire. Rebekah had brought back a snake and skinned it. We left it over the fire to cook and stripped off our clothes.
“What is that?” I asked Rebekah, staring at her pale skin. Between her breasts was a dark, finger-length mark that looked like a bruise or a lesion.
“What is what?” She narrowed her eyes, thinking I was staring at her chest. Then her gaze followed mine. “Leeches,” she said, plucking it from her skin. It stretched out and then let go with a tiny sucking sound. Blood trickled from where it had attached itself.
I gawked at her and Jastillian, realizing that they had dozens of the little black things clinging to them. Then I looked down at my own bare chest and jumped back. There were slimy leeches stuck to me as well. I hurried, prying as many of the things off me as I could. Their tiny mouths clung to my body. Blood ran down my skin. I shivered, but not from my lack of clothes. I reached into my trousers, my eyes widening as I found another leech.
We took turns, tearing off the leeches we couldn’t reach without help. When we were finished, we huddled around the fire, letting our clothes dry as they hung. I kept checking my skin, imagining the leeches still feeding on me. Jastillian and Rebekah couldn’t help but smile at my expense. My stomach growled from the rations I was on. They offered me a piece of their snake, but I wasn’t out of food yet.
After we ate, we put on our still-damp clothes and huddled together once more. We rotated watch, keeping an eye out for any troops roaming the area or any dangerous creatures lurking in the swamps.
I had a hard time sleeping, despite how tired I was. The swamp was more alive at night. Screeches, howls, and occasional growls surrounded us. I curled up in my robes with my dagger clutched in my hand. Normally, I would keep my fire ready, and it would also comfort me. But that option was gone. I squeezed the dagger’s handle even tighter as I remembered the collar. I never wanted to be without my magic again.
Time was agonizing in the mucky bog. Two days had passed and we were still stuck in it. The map said we still had two more days to go, but I was convinced there was never going to be an end to it. Every tree we passed looked like the one before. The alligator that watched us from the water had the same predatory glare as the previous one two miles ago. Even the mosquitoes I slapped seemed to keep regenerating themselves.
As the cuts, scratches, bites, and welts piled up and the pain racked my magic-less body, one thought fueled me to continue—Krystal.
CHAPTER 23
We trudged onward through the mushy terrain. I ducked a leafless branch and snapped a broken one. The three of us barely spoke anymore unless we had to.
In silence, my thoughts betrayed me. Was Krystal in danger in a war-torn land? What revenge was Premier after? Was this war just a small indication of the gods’ war Renak had warned me about? There were so many questions and I had not one answer.
“Do you hear that?” Rebekah asked, stopping in front of me, yanking me out of my thoughts.
I paused, cocking my head from side to side. “I don’t hear anything.”
She grumbled and pulled out her sword. “Exactly. Ever since we arrived in this swamp, there’s always some kind of noise going on.”
A finch took flight, and a basking turtle dove into the water. That worried me. Animals tended to leave when something was wrong.
Jastillian reached for his axe and stared at an alligator that splashed the water and swam away. I unsheathed my dagger.
“Has Romenia’s army finally caught up with us?” I asked in hushed tones.
“Possibly,” Rebekah asked, squinting her eyes back the way we had come. “I know you and other wizards like Malik can’t use your magic in here, but what if other people can?”
I shook my head. “That’s not the way it works.”
“If the centaurs almost caught up to us, they could also have sent something else—something more powerful. Isn’t that how you wizards work?”
I bit my tongue and said nothing.
“We don’t know much about this land or its magic, Hellsfire,” she said. “There are dangers we were unprepared for.”
“Then we’ll just have to keep an eye out,” I said.
We walked faster, but did our best to do so in silence. We paused every few steps, scanning the thick fog around us, but we couldn’t see past our misty prison. Soon, only our squishy footsteps could be heard.
We jogged by a large alligator skeleton. The gleaming white bones were picked clean. We shared a look, as we found no tracks to indicate what had killed it. We discovered more bones the farther we went. Hidden in the reeds to the right were small frogs, and to the left was a long snake. No meat was left on them either.
After a few long minutes, something pierced the dead silence.
“Do you hear that?” I asked. It was a faint buzzing noise.
“Aye,” Jastillian whispered.
We stared into the dense, enveloping fog. I slowly turned my head, but the buzz surrounded us.
The noise grew louder, and I put my hands to my ears. The sound burrowed itself into my head until I froze. It became a melodious note that hypnotized us, drawing us toward it.
“No,” Jastillian said. He saw the trance Rebekah and I were in and shook both our shoulders. “Snap out of it!”
I blinked several times, letting Jastillian’s frantic face come into view. “What is it?”
“I know what that noise is! They’re Will of the Wisps!” he said in softened tone.
He pointed as tiny bright, beautiful orbs floated into view. As I turned my head, more of the lights popped into view, and the sound inside my head grew louder.
“They look like big fireflies,” Rebekah said.
“No. They’re far more dangerous. They’re like tiny bugs whose noise freezes you until they can sting you. I’ve heard the pain’s so unbearable that you have no choice but to open your mouth, letting them in. They eat you from the inside out. I thought they were just a myth.”
“What are we going to do?” I asked, clutching my dagger tighter.
Jastillian lowered his axe. “Our weapons are useless. There are too many of them and they’re too small. Cover up and don’t move. They’ve already seen us. Whatever you do, don’t make any noise. Noise and movement attracts them.”
We put away our weapons, and I pulled my hood over my head and closed my eyes. I remembered my training as the wave of bright lights inched closer. Their buzzing grew louder until they washed over us.
The Will of the Wisps flowed under and around my robes and undergarments, picking, prodding, and probing my skin. I bit down on my tongue so I wouldn’t cry out. They were like millions of bee stings, each holding their own tiny, sharp sword. My legs buckled and wobbled from the blinding pain.
As the cuts sliced deep and I bled, I tried pushing out the pain and ignoring it. It didn’t work. The Will of the Wisps were relentless, tiny things. Yet their stings were like music, forming notes to go with their buzzing sound. I wanted to cry out and sing, but I remembered Jastillian’s warning.
I dropped to one knee as the pain racked my body and the music drove nails into my head. Their sharp stingers darted into my lips, daring me to open my mouth and scream. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter as the thin layers of my eyelids were attacked, feeling as if my eyeballs were going to explode. I feared the deadly things would fly up my nose. I almost took off and ran th
rough the swamp. There was one thought that saved me.
Krystal.
I remembered the first time I met her. How even though she was exhausted from running, she fought to free herself from the two men chasing her. My mind flashed forward to when we took back Alexandria from Premier. She was injured and in pain, but she led us through the tunnels and fought with us against the creatures of the Wastelands, killing as many of the beasts as she could.
Lastly, I thought about how she hadn’t feared even Premier, and fought on against his magic for her people and her kingdom. She was stronger than I and never gave up, no matter the odds.
I wasn’t going to die here in a strange land. There were still things I had to do. Thinking of Krystal dulled the pain of the Will of the Wisps.
But as the long minutes passed and the pain intensified, thoughts of Krystal became fragmented as the wisps yanked me back to the present. I wanted to scream and shout and run away. The wisps stripped away every defense. Just when I thought I was going to give in, their deadly touch lifted and the pain lessened.
I could barely keep myself from falling over. My legs were gelatin, and I put my blistered fingers to my eyelids, face, and lips. I felt open sores everywhere. Small drops of blood came from every part of my body. I opened my eyes and saw that Jastillian and Rebekah were alive and in just as bad a shape as I was.
The wisps left for much easier prey. The buzzing faded, but we didn’t talk, as dozens were still in view. They were drifting away, but if they heard us, they would come back. We crept away in dead silence and continued on the path out of this swamp.
I concentrated on the path in front of me, tiptoeing over the soft ground. I even held my breath as I avoided fallen branches and piles of bones, my movements slight and delicate. I didn’t want the Will of the Wisps to hear anything. I tried not to focus on the lights that surrounded us. There were still dozens in the area.
I stared at a group of a dozen or so from the corner of my eye. They hovered over a carcass that had been killed through other means. They made no move to attack it. That’s when I carelessly stepped on a fallen reed. The retreating wisps all paused. We stopped and I silently prayed to the gods that they didn’t come back.