Gemini Warrior

by J D Cowan

  At first, Jason objected to Matthew’s decision to stay and help the prisoners escape. He only thought of escape from this insane world. But then he remembered all those bones in that chamber. How long had Marguerite been doing this? Never before had another being imbued him with such disgust. He would stop her.

  “There’s nothing greater about this hell,” he said.

  The floor trembled. Stone shook, and the bars rattled. A quake rocked the very foundations of the fortress. Marguerite and the cadre of guards tumbled to the floor. Jason watched as they gathered their wits.

  “What was that noise?” she asked. Two of the lizard men ran down the hall shouting for others. “Did the frogs get in?”

  “No,” Jason answered. He stood up and faced her. “That would be the prisoners.”

  “Impossible!”

  Jason showed her the bracelet on his formerly hidden left wrist. It flashed against the torches. She paled as she realized what it meant: Matthew was not fused with him. The remaining four lizard men raised their spears and swords.

  “Nothing is,” he said with a smile.

  The fourteen prisoners surrounded Matthew by the cell door when Castor trembled. An unbridled rage beat through him like a pumping heart. Where did this come from? It had to be the boy. Jason’s anger boiled over inside Matthew. Their emotions, as well as their minds, were linked. The boy had to be talking with Marguerite.

  He scanned the empty hallways. No guards, just as Alain and Ordopha said.

  “Can you do it?” the bulky man named Case asked.

  “I can.”

  “Keep your wits about you. The lizards are fierce opponents.”

  Other than Ordopha and Alain, the other twelve shared similar platinum blonde hair but had little else in common. Some were short, some had long faces or their hair cut short, but they were all lined up behind him and ready. Only two other women aside from Ordopha were among their number. After years of waiting they had to act now.

  Matthew took a hard breath and concentrated. The bars gripped before him, he closed his eyes. Flesh rippled and broke as the wind rushed between skin cells and disintegrated blood and bone. His new form splashed to the floor in a puddle. His watery figure flowed through the tunnel.

  The winding paths splintered off around him. Pairs of large lizard men clutching spears marched side by side everywhere. They blocked the paths, their beefy frames nearly touching the arched ceilings. He slid underneath and followed the directions Alain had given him.

  An untold number of large wooden doors blocked off every room, but he remembered the directions. When he turned down the proper hall, he made a right and emerged in the cold gust of the yellow early morning daylight.

  The mountainside blew around him. The hall led outside.

  A lone pathway connected the castle between this side and the other. Harsh wind whistled through the silence. The carved path lined with ramparts extended over the void below. No wonder Alain had wanted him to come this way. No one would expect him.

  Low sunlight cast harsh beams through serrated mountain peaks and against the grey stone archways dangling above him. The castle hanging above the fog shone brighter than anything inside its dreary interior or the muted brown of the mountains. He slid along the floor toward the jutting walkway that led to the next section of the castle and hid in the shadow of the ramparts, his form quivering in the cold. Now, to wait for his targets.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time. Marguerite would soon catch on that they were separated.

  His form began to tremble. He wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever. An intangible muscle would give at any moment, and he would be thrown back into his normal body. He clenched himself.

  Up ahead, a pair of lizard men marched out from the inner hall of the castle. Tongues lashed against the breeze. The cold wind blew across their slouched forms, but they did not even flinch, their jerkin and armor rattling in the breeze. They stomped side by side in lockstep, their short tails swaying with timed steps. They each had spare swords around their waists on top of the spears they carried. A rusty key hung around the left one’s neck.

  Matthew moved along the shadow of the ramparts. Heavy, bare claws slapped against the stone and passed him. He carefully flowed after them.

  Matthew formed up between the pair, becoming whole. Skin solidified as he advanced. He drew both swords from each lizard’s scabbards. They turned at the sudden interruption.

  He stabbed both blades forward. The lizard on the right pivoted. He pierced the other through its chest. The left lizard fell sideways against the ramparts, gasping its last. The remaining lizard man hissed and lunged at Matthew.

  The spear prodded him as he fell back. Matthew’s legs wobbled. Was it because he had just reformed? One slash cut his right arm, drawing blood. Matthew cried out, and the weapon thrust forward. The bladed tip glided along his side. A thin line of blood formed under his slit shirt. The lizard licked its lips and dove for him.

  Matthew only had one option left: mist. As the lizard came down on him, he moved in.

  The blade flew to his neck. Air sliced apart as the weapon met his skin . . . and flew through his mist form! The lizard man hissed and tripped forward.

  Matthew reformed behind the creature and ran the sword through its back. The lizard let out a horrid cry before joining its compatriot in death.

  A wave of emotion consumed him, and he kneeled to it. It wasn’t just his fading energy—he also hadn’t used a sword before. He managed to survive against two opponents. They were only felled by his powers, not his skill. He was lucky, and his trembling bones knew it.

  Yet their deaths shook him. His stare refused to leave the corpses he had just made. They might not have been human, but they were living things.

  “When you have slain them,” Alain had said, “throw them to the mountain mist. Can you do that much, Matthew?”

  It would be simple. He just had to move past this. Matthew hoisted the first slain foe up on the ramparts. He left it propped up as he regained his breath. The heat from the bracelet cooled. His fingers shook. He took deep breaths to calm his nerves and his power.

  A raspy voice cut the mountain air. “Break out!”

  A lizard man screeched from the opposite end of the bridge. Its partner ran off, most likely to sound an alarm.

  Matthew cursed and abandoned the plan. He had wasted too much time here.

  He put the key around his neck and ran back toward the fortress with both swords in his hands.

  He rounded the corner into the dark of the castle halls again. This shade allowed him to turn back into water undetected. The swords came with him, proving his theory that his power spread to what he directly touched. Matthew glided back along the rock floors toward to the cells.

  Alarms sounded, and lizard men ran past him toward the bridge.

  Now for the flight crystals and the explosives.

  The tremor shook the entire hall. Stones kicked spores into the air when the jail bars hit the wall across from Jason, nailing the lizard men and sending them prone and unconscious. Pebbles crumbled from the dented rock wall and onto their bodies. Only Marguerite Stohl remained standing, staring at him with unchecked rage. She had been smart enough to duck.

  Jason held one of the guard’s swords to her throat. Blood dripped in a thin streak down her neck.

  “What did Mr. White do?” She asked.

  “They got into one of your flight crystal storage area—whatever that is. I heard they can’t stop gathering heat from the atmosphere if their shells are cracked too deeply.”

  “As if the prisoners could get in there.”

  “I know one of them could, and I think you know who, too.”

  She bit her lip, and her glare narrowed. After a pause, she let a smile show.

  “I did not take Mr. White as brave. Wandering off into an unknown place and finding new allies does not suit his temperament.”

  “I agree.” He watched his back. Several of the lizard
s groaned and sat up. “Tell your pets to back off. The two of us are going for a walk.”

  “Are we?”

  “Yes. You’re going to see something really cool.”

  After a pause, she finally waved the guards aside. That smile remained.

  “As you wish,” she replied. “You all! Stand down.”

  The lizard men that weren’t unconscious froze. They watched Jason with sideway glances and flailing tongues. They backed against the wall.

  A horn blared through the dark halls. The prisoners moved toward the skydeck. Now it was Jason’s turn.

  He brought the woman by the arm, the sword still at her throat. None of the lizard men budged.

  The pair arrived at a set of stairs and Jason took her up, just as Ordopha had suggested. Winding steps carried them up in a cradle of stone and dusty air.

  “Now how did you know about this way, I wonder?” Marguerite said.

  “Quiet,” he whispered.

  “You were far more polite in Serenity City, Jason. Did coming here turn you rotten? You had nothing on Earth. That was why you came with us. Why do you wish to return?”

  “You just never stop, do you?”

  She giggled. “I suppose I do not.”

  The pair pulled out of the stairs and out into a new set of ramparts. The castle loomed down on the mist-masked mountain where stone structures, hovels, spires, and keeps, lay far below, just above the fog. There were clearly hundreds of homes across the range. How many lizard men were there, anyway?

  Airships cut above the mist. None of them appeared to notice the pair as they kept a steady pattern across to the city like a ferry service.

  Jason led his captive across the ramparts, occasionally glancing back for potential pursuers. No one was on their tail. That didn’t alleviate his fears. Why weren’t they coming for her?

  “Is there a problem, Jason?”

  “You feel strangely warm for someone out in the cold like this. Did he use his magic on you like he did the lizard men?”

  “No,” she said with another laugh. “I’m just a naturally warm woman. There is much about me you wouldn’t understand. Why don’t we go back and I will explain it to you?”

  He ignored her and moved into the castle hall ahead of them. Stairs led back down into another narrow walkway over a high drop. They entered a large cavernous room where darkness reigned. Boxes and bladed weapons littered the floor. Torches hung on wet walls and the skydeck poked out through the walkway ahead. He had made it.

  Lizard men flooded out from the archway before him. Jason turned back to see them also lining the other side.

  They’d trapped him.

  “Oh, this is unexpected,” she said with a chuckle.

  “I’m sure. Was this your whole plan to stop me?”

  “Where did you think you were going, Jason? I planned to lead you two here from your cell. If you had just taken me straight to the Mirror Gate, I might have just brought you back to Earth out of respect. Why did you come here on your own? For prisoners you don’t even know? I would really like understand.”

  “So would I.”

  She was supposed to be their hostage, a bargaining chip to help the prisoners board a ship while the two of them took her back to the Mirror Gate, but he never bet on the lizards not caring if she lived or died. Nor did he imagine she would be fine with being thrown away. Did that Sorcerer King really care so little for his underlings?

  Jason watched his surroundings. He could charge through and reach the docked ships, or turn back and find another way around to the skydeck. He could also take the forty-foot drop down. Would Pollux hold out after a fall that far?

  Voices clamoured below. At the bottom of the drop waited fifteen figures bathed in torchlight, all brandishing swords, round shields, spears, and axes. He instantly recognized the one at the front.

  “Matthew!” he called out.

  The man in the lead looked from left to right, and then up. He tried to project his thoughts into Matthew, but it wouldn’t take. They were too far apart.

  “What’s the holdup, Jason?” he shouted back.

  “Surrounded. Move back!”

  The guards on either side of the walkway swooped in. There remained only one option for escape.

  “What?” Matthew called back.

  “I said move out of the way.”

  Marguerite paled. “You’re not—”

  He lifted her into his arms. Without waiting, Jason ran forward and jumped over the side.

  Gravity forced him downward. The breeze slashed through his thin clothing. All the figures at the bottom backed out of the way as he rocketed toward the floor. A nasty landing awaited his bones at the bottom.

  Pollux changed that. Jason put all his energy and concentration into the bracelet. Unlike how he held back against the cell door to avoid killing Marguerite, Jason let Pollux loose. Warm heat cut through his muscles and marrow while he tucked his body for impact.

  Wind cut around him, he could hardly hear the woman’s screams as he held her tight. When he was twenty feet away from touching down, he focused his power. White heat filled his vision. Then he hit the ground.

  The floor quaked and shattered under his weight. Stone splintered and shifted with the impact.

  But he was fine. He looked up and saw the several floors of dead space above him. The bracelet allowed him to do all that. He tried to find the words to say, but only one thought broke through: he was alive!

  Jason looked up, still clutching Marguerite tight. Matthew stood amidst a crowd of platinum-haired prisoners, all of whom watched the event with stunned expressions. Jason uselessly shuffled his feet against the stone. The broken slabs sunk deeper into the floor with every movement he made.

  Matthew marched up to him. “Are you insane, Jason?”

  “If I’m going to die, I’m going to do it on my own terms. Take her.”

  Two prisoners took Marguerite from his arms, and Jason slid his legs free from the floor. Dizziness stirred his vision, and a bout of fatigue overwhelmed his mind. Pollux was already running dry.

  “There’s no time for this,” one of the men said. “The ships are just ahead.”

  The world spun under Jason’s feet.

  “Shut it, Alain,” Matthew snapped back. He caught Jason by the arm. “Not now, kid. We’re not done here.”

  Shouts called from above. The lizards on the walkway let arrows loose.

  Projectiles clattered against the floor around them. One bounced off Jason’s bicep. He winced. How much longer could he keep drawing his bracelet’s power?

  The group charged through the hallway ahead. Alain shouted directions. The shipyard waited just ahead. An ajar gate guarded the path. A crack of sunlight pried through. Alain led the charge through the opening.

  They arrived in a wide open shipyard skydeck with fleets of ships lined for miles down. Some vessels reminded him of cogs and hulks with their bulky and round size and sails that stretched dozens of feet high. Large wooden arms elevated all the ships, lifting them up to large stone docks that allowed easy entrance. The wide open air of the mountain lay to his left with its death drop below. In the city across the range was yet another shipyard. This one had about half as many ships as the one here, but it had also been built several thousand feet lower. This whole complex had been built to ship between the two sides.

  The prisoners ran onward toward one of the nearby cogs, and Jason followed behind.

  The cog was not all that different from the pictures he had seen on that museum field trip years ago. It was twenty-five meters long with sides of lapstrake planking and a big stern post with both the tall sail and mast traveling up tall. He couldn’t believe that these things flew.

  As the group of prisoners boarded the ship, arrows soared once more in their direction. Large clumps of lizards charged the docks towards their position. Wood creaked, and shouts erupted as they poured down the hard decks.

  “We have your mistress!” Jason called out. “Stop fir
ing!”

  A shot thumped into the mast beside his head. He swore.

  “You’re wasting your breath,” one of the women said from across the deck. “They don’t care.”

  Several of the prisoners ran down to the hatch and to the bulkhead and cabin. Two escapees took Marguerite with them. Matthew threw Jason a sword.

  “This one has blood on it!”

  “It’s about to collect a whole lot more.”

  More arrows flew towards their newly claimed ship. He caught a thrown spear and hurled it back, narrowly missing one of the pack members. Still, they scampered and bounded on.

  Objects ceased firing as the lizards came aboard. Jason took a shaky breath. Time to fight. At his side were five others including Matthew and Alain.

  “Ready to do this?” he asked them.

  “I have been waiting years for this moment!” Alain roared. “To arms!”

  The one called Case cheered, and the others followed suit.

  Lizards screeched, coming upon the quintet with swords, axes, and spears flashing. Grunts and clangs sang out as the prisoners danced and dodged through the strikes. Alain ran his blade through a scaly gut while he spoke to Jason.

  “Ordopha is readying the flight crystal right now. It needs time to gather air. The others are arming themselves. We will be taking off within moments.”

  “We need it to be seconds,” Matthew retorted.

  “She will get it,” a tall warrior said with a smirk. “Don’t worry, Alain. The others will watch your flank.”

  Alain laughed heartily. “Thank you, Bran. But be sure to aid Matthew. His experience is lacking. We can’t have him dying on us now.”

  “What about the child?”

  “Didn’t you see him crush stone earlier? He needs none of our help.”

  Jason played it off with a laugh. He would not be able to keep this up forever. Already his fatigue caused a sword to cleave into his blonde hair. Blood trickled down his earlobe.

  As he slashed back, he asked the other question on his mind. “Where’s the prisoner?”