by J. R. Ford
Farrukh zigged and zagged erratically as he ran, and I did my best to emulate, though I was less nimble with Heather on my shoulder. The mud pulled at my boots and threatened to swallow me. Arrows whizzed past, then lightning streaked beside my head, startling me. I tripped and hit a mound of dirt, Heather rolling away from me into the mud.
Pradeep was still down but had recovered enough to aim one hand our way. Evidently, those newbie Lancers couldn’t even hit an electrocuted target.
I scampered over to Heather, who was wriggling toward me. The mound gave us some cover. “Get these ropes off,” she said. “Hurry! I can’t transform with them on!”
“I’ll carry you,” I panted. The dirt leeched the strength from me.
“You don’t look like you can stand! Just get these ropes off!”
Perhaps I would never rise again, but I’d as good as tied those ropes myself. I could set her free.
I sawed at the ropes around her wrists with my dagger, but the edge was nothing special, and the threads were barely fraying. In response, Heather pulled her hands as far apart as she could and said, “Stab it.”
I tried lining it up, but my hand was unsteady. I was so tired, and everything hurt so badly. The dagger wavered.
“Do it!” she shouted, and I drove the dagger down. It sliced into the side of her wrist with a spurt of blood, but it also severed the rope.
“Heather,” I groaned. “I’m sorry, I’m so —”
She bit back a cry of pain and said through gritted teeth, “Pavel, I need you with me right now,” shaking the ropes free and spinning to present her bound ankles. She had more leeway with her feet, and the thrust was easy.
It had hurt her, and it had hurt me to hurt her. But she was free. “Go,” I moaned.
I’d done my best. She was free, at least of those ropes, and of me. Time for her to get out of here.
“Get on my back!”
“I’ll slow you down.”
“I’m not leaving without you. So if you want me to live, you’ll get on my back!” She glowed fiery yellow, then a stocky black bear lay in her place.
Why would she do this to me? I wrapped my arms around her neck, and she bounded off.
Arrows thunked into her flesh. The Javelin of Impaling tore a chunk of meat from her flank. She roared but barely stumbled. It took all my strength just to hold on.
The gate neared. Emily was watching from over the battlements.
“Open up!” Farrukh shouted.
Emily eyed the orcs in pursuit, then us, then the blood on my shirt.
My stomach dropped a moment before she said, “No.” Then she turned to her cronies. “Open fire on the orcs!”
Two orcs dropped. Small consolation. Pradeep and the others were getting to their feet behind the mob.
No way back over the walls. Even with the ranged support, we were doomed. I could barely move, Heather was already injured, and Ana and Farrukh, while good, were not two-war-parties-of-orcs good.
Heather made for the river. Over her shoulder, I spotted the canoes tied to the docks. Lightning crashed past us.
We dived into a boat, Farrukh’s ax severing the rope on his way in. The river’s current swept us away. We sheltered low in the canoe, Heather morphing back to human.
“That traitor!” Ana seethed.
“We made it out. We can deal with the Lance later,” Heather said.
“Nice going, getting Pavel out of there,” Farrukh told her. “I saw what that javelin did. You’re a tank.”
She grinned, but her expression dropped when the orcs boarded the second canoe. Farrukh rose to one knee, let fly, and hit the deck before any response could find him. But the orcs had chainmail and steel helmets and weren’t afraid to use the oars. Pradeep at their head weaved an electric fireball into existence.
“No chance any of you grabbed the Javelin?” I asked. No reply.
Heather, wincing at the pain in her still-bleeding hand, leaned over the side and stuck one finger into our wake. A cube of water glowed yellow, then solidified to gray rock, but it sank before posing any obstacle to our pursuers. “Out of mana,” she breathed.
I signaled nullify spell, and when the fireball hurtled toward us, I caught it. Mana 80/100, time almost up.
We’d come so close. But there was nothing left to do except be run down and executed.
The closeness of success made failure more bitter. We’d rescued her, almost. Emily’s knife in my back ached.
Heather turned to look at me. Her hair hung lank with sweat and grime. Her hands were still blistered raw from the dragon-fire, and now one bled profusely where I had sliced the skin. Still she gave me a smile. I choked back a sob.
“We’ll be okay,” she said.
“You have a plan?” Farrukh asked, and she shook her head, her hair swaying a bit.
So she knew it too. Her courage in the face of death would’ve been inspiring, had I been in any state to receive inspiration. Instead, my soul sank into death’s shadow. I’d never expected a longboat funeral pyre, but the crackling behind us made it inevitable.
I didn’t believe her. Things wouldn’t be okay. I knew, deep in my bones, we’d never see each other again. But she probably knew that too.
I floundered for last words, not that words were worth anything. I held her close.
“We have one hope left,” Farrukh said, drawing an arrow. “He’s still half-naked, for whatever reason.”
The river was turbulent, both our canoe and Pradeep’s bobbing erratically. “No way,” I muttered.
“It’s worth a shot,” he said, then groaned, though Ana smiled. He turned to her. “But if I make it, you owe me some of that New York pizza I’ve heard so much about.”
“That’s not fair,” she said. “If you’re wrong, we’re toast. You’re assuming no risk.”
“It’s a date.”
“You’re insufferable! You can’t order me to do something I was going to do anyway! And when did it become a date?”
Farrukh grinned and nocked his arrow. He looked at me, still hugging Heather. “Now, are you going to nullify our momentum or what?”
I’d never tried nullifying a boat when we were in it. It was a facet of the possession mechanic I hadn’t explored. It might send us all tumbling, and even if it didn’t, Pradeep’s canoe would still be in motion.
But there was something else I could nullify. I had no idea if it would work, but I was willing to try anything.
I symbolled nullify momentum, leaned over the side of the boat, and pressed my palm to the water. The sensation was dizzying, almost like when I stopped myself mid-fall. Only, instead of stopping, we stabilized. Our canoe drifted forward without turning or bobbing, slowing as it cut the waters of the mirror-still river.
Farrukh rose, one foot on a bench, and sighted down his shaft. I looked up in time to catch the arrow plunging into Pradeep’s exposed shoulder, toppling him into the frozen waters.
Then the river broke free of the spell, and we surged forward. How much of the river had been stilled? I glanced at my palm glowing violet, wondering at the power coursing in my veins.
The orcish canoe slowed, paddling against the current, two orcs stripping their chainmail to retrieve their fallen commander. Ana and Farrukh took the oars at the bottom of our canoe and steered us toward the docks.
“Allah is great, but I’m a damn good shot,” Farrukh said, smiling wide. “That pizza better be good.”
Ana laughed. “Hold your horses ‘til we’ve stolen the Knucklebones, cowboy.”
I sat up with some difficulty and clapped him on the shoulder. Then I fell back to Heather and wiped my eyes. I could barely believe it.
“You did it,” she said.
23
I’d done it, for once. A promise kept. Weird.
The dread had lifted from my shoulders, but the fatigue of carrying it over days of marching and fighting still weighed me down. All I wanted to do was lie down and cuddle Heather for the next eternity. But there was
still work to be done.
More opportunities for failure. Doubt tickled my ankles.
We came ashore close to where the two rivers met. There were no Lancers on the city wall, and the Citadel loomed high behind it. My mana was still mostly full from the fight. I redirect-jumped over and tied a rope around a crenellation for my companions. A few alleyways later, we were at the base of the Citadel wall, directly in the shadow of the red tower. I held my breath.
Jeremiah’s head popped over the edge. “Ah!” He lowered a rope.
I symbolled sluggishly, fifteen pings of nullifying my own momentum up to full mana, then another fifteen to redirect it. I cleared the parapet and alighted among a scattering of Lancer corpses.
“You okay?” Jeremiah asked. “Your shirt’s bloody.”
“Old blood.”
“You sure you didn’t get hurt?” Ana asked, clambering up.
“I just need to sleep.” Please.
I tried paying attention to Jeremiah’s debriefing. Luis would lower a rope from a window in the red tower “any minute.” Jeremiah looked worried, which was an improvement over morose, I guess. As for Luis, either he had been captured, and “any minute” would never come, or else he truly was only minutes away, and then I’d have to get up. The backup plan seemed to be Heather transmuting a way in at the base of the tower, but no one wanted to break through the extensive fortifications both guilds had erected. Jeremiah said something about a battle inside, but whether between Edwin, Absame, us, or all three, I missed.
Heather began chatting to Ana. I eyed the closed window wearily. It was too high for me to redirect momentum up, and climbing one-handed was grueling when I was hale. With tendrils still dragging me earthbound, such an ascent was insurmountable. A nap seemed like a much better way to spend my morning. Maybe when I woke, everything would be all right.
But the only way everything would be all right was if we did something about it. And I owed Heather too much to give up now. She may deserve better than me, but Ana had been right — that was no excuse.
I had come this far, hadn’t I? Endured so much pain? What was a little more?
Instead of resolve, I only felt exhausted. I’d done it. Didn’t I deserve a break?
No rest for the wicked. And I was too tired to pretend I was anything but.
“You don’t have to go,” Farrukh said. “We can handle it.”
What a cruel thing to say. They’d suffered as much as I had. He shuffled off as Heather approached.
She put a hand on my face. I stared up at her. “Thank you,” she said. “You kept your promise. You got me back.”
Tears rolled down my face. I didn’t deserve her thanks. It was all my fault in the first place. The dragon, captivity, getting stabbed and shot and javelined, all because of me. Was I supposed to feel better because she was here now?
I should’ve ended it on the ledge. Perhaps then she wouldn’t have been subjected to such misery.
She saw it in the way I wouldn’t meet her gaze. She said softly, “You mean everything to me.”
Could she not see that by binding herself to me, she’d clipped her own wings? Doomed herself to be buried beside me?
“I talked to Ana,” she said. Her voice was still quiet, a harbinger of words I didn’t want to hear. Her hand took mine. “I’m not going with you. If there’s a chance my mana can power the defenses, I have to try. I’m going to the blue tower.”
“Yao’s in there. You’ll get yourself killed,” I sputtered, without thinking. He’d led the charge. He might be in there still, sharpening his cleaver.
“Thanks for letting me know my fears are valid.” She let out a shuddering breath.
Images flashed on my television: bits of wolf skull embedded in brain and gore, a headless bear fountaining blood. But it wouldn’t be just animal form, not if she didn’t have me or Ana to defend her. My imagination wouldn’t turn off.
“I’ll go with you,” I insisted. “There are a hundred Enlightened between you and that device, and you can’t fight Yao, not on your own.”
“There’s a hundred Enlightened between you and that device,” she corrected. She pointed at a turret with a steep conical roof, next to the blue-bannered tower. It was too steep for me to climb, even with redirect momentum, but for a mountain goat… “I can get up and transmute my way in.”
“And if Yao is at the top, waiting for you? If there was a second Hourglass of Dust in the green tower, he might be a level 2 Hexer now! Who knows what he could be capable of?”
“He’s level 2 — I checked his points. But I’m not going there to fight him. I’m going to talk to him. He doesn’t want the orcs to destroy the city any more than we do.”
“He can’t talk, and even if he could, he wouldn’t say anything worth hearing! He’s just a mute thug!”
“He has ears. I have to try.”
“And if he doesn’t listen? You’re not invincible. Trying will just get you killed.” Twice I’d watched that cleaver end her. I couldn’t tell if it would be worse not watching it.
“You think I don’t know that?” She rubbed her wrists, still swollen from the binding. The cut I’d dealt her would leave an ugly scar. “It hurts, it all hurts so bad…”
The pain in her voice broke my heart. “Don’t leave me,” I pleaded. “I’ll make sure you’re never hurt again.”
“Stop with the empty promises, Pav!” She looked at me hotly. “Yes, it’s been painful, but if this pain is the cost of being able to protect the people who need it, I can endure it.”
“Then protect me.”
“You can protect yourself, and you’ll have Ana and Farrukh.”
I squeezed her hand. “I can’t leave you.” Not again. Even if I’d just drag her down. I couldn’t think of anything that would make her stay, so I started blabbing. “While you were gone, I was obsessed with you. Some combination of weakness and horniness.”
“It’s normal to be horny, Pav.”
“I’ve been taking birth control meds.”
Her gaze turned instantly scalding. “Why didn’t you tell me? You don’t trust me!”
“I didn’t want to pressure you…”
“Number one, you’re an idiot. Didn’t you notice when, after a month, neither me nor Ana had had our periods?”
My jaw hung open. “Have you been on birth control too?”
“Women don’t ovulate here! Didn’t you read the EULA?”
“I skimmed it… Guess I didn’t pay attention to that bit. And that herbalist lied to me!”
“Since when do you trust employees trying to sell you something?”
I looked down, face burning.
“Number two, you don’t trust me to make my own choices. You can be obsessed with me, you can want to have sex with me — maybe I want you to! You don’t have to be ashamed of it. But I had to learn to trust myself, and for me to be an effective member of this party, you have to trust me too! I trust you, don’t I?”
She pulled away, but I couldn’t let go, not until this was resolved. As I spoke, earthly tendrils, the same that bound me, writhed from my hand and encircled hers. “How? How can you still trust me after all the lies I’ve told? How am I supposed to trust you when you’re obviously still so naïve?”
She tugged at my grip, but my fingers were firm. Her words were as weak as her efforts to free herself. “You failed to rescue me twice. If you hadn’t kept trying, I’d still be his prisoner. I don’t trust your words, and I know you don’t either. But I trust that, when I need you, you’ll try.”
I shook my head. “Bad idea. I don’t care about failing in front of my viewers anymore, but I can’t fail you, not again. Don’t you see? Being friends with me is dangerous! I’ll hold you back, I’ll pull you into the grave with me, I’ll break your heart! Just leave!” My fingers wriggled like vines straining to disentangle themselves. I wanted her to rip them from her flesh and fly away. Even if I never saw her again, she’d be free of me.
She didn’t move, o
nly shuddered with sobs. “Please, Pavel. Just…just believe I should trust you.”
I couldn’t. I couldn’t even let her hand go. It hurt to even try.
Her yellow eyes were too bright to look at, but her words were warm. “I know you’re scared you’ll fail. But that’s just proof you care about me. You’ve put down roots here.”
Her words struck me. I’d put down roots. Were these grave tendrils I’d felt dragging me toward the inevitable, or growths of my own, planting me in a land where I’d found the warmth of two yellow suns?
If those roots — my fears of failure and death and separation — were part of growing closer to that warmth, I’d grow as tall as I could anyway. And even if I didn’t deserve such hospitable climes, well, I hadn’t been felled yet.
My fingers withdrew before they were scorched. But suns always rise. As I released her, I said, “I’ll see you once you’ve saved the city, okay?”
Her expression was fiery, and before I knew it, my lips were burning.
“It’s time to go,” Ana said. “Quickly. We don’t know who’ll be waiting for us at the top.” I noticed the rope. Guess Luis had pulled through.
“Be safe,” Heather said, and departed.
24
I shimmied up, clamping the rope between my heels for purchase. My arm began burning a third of the way up, and my whole body was aflame by two thirds. Eventually everyone teamed up to reel me in. How humiliating. Farrukh took my aching hand as I clambered through the open window.
The wide spiral staircase rang with sounds of fighting. The stairs were littered with casualties: Lancers, Enlightened, and even some smashed stone warriors inlaid with dull red circuitry — the original guardians of the Citadel? No sign of Luis. Reeking blood cascaded down the stairs.
“Let’s move!” Ana said.
I hustled up beside her.
“You’re energetic,” she said. “Heather flash you her tits or something?”
It was hard to tell, but I think she’d said she wanted to have sex. Not that I’d tell Ana. “You aren’t as funny as you think you are.”