Aphanasian Stories

by Rhonda Parrish

Marked by some big white stones. It only opens when you stand by it and say the word of command to activate it. It doesn't stay active long either, so when I open it, don't hesitate before stepping through.

  I'll be right there with you."

  Their steady pace brought them to the edge of the swamp long

  before the sun reached its zenith, and with their feet following a packed road rather than wading through stagnant water or dodging plants and roots, the going was easier. The road would take them to the outskirts of Haven, then they would leave it and climb up into the hills to the portal. They should be in Terricina helping Colby's brother before nightfall.

  Then Xavier saw something that filled him with dread. Up

  ahead, on the road, a small cloud of dust obscured the horizon. He stopped, still as a statue, as Colby kept walking. After a few steps she paused and turned to look at him. Curiosity quickly turned to anxiety on her face and she rushed back to his side. "Xavier, what is it?"

  "Other people—I can't—I'm a freak."

  - 121 -

  Rhonda Parrish

  Colby looked up at him, her face filled with sympathy. "You're not—" She stopped and then started again, lacing her fingers through his as much as the webbing between them would allow. "You're a wonderful man Xavier and you have nothing to be ashamed of."

  A curl of desire, like smoke, drifted through his body at

  Colby's touch, but was quickly dissipated by the dread of being seen by strangers. He swallowed hard, trying to moisten his suddenly dry throat, and said nothing, but watched the dust cloud grow larger.

  "We can stay off the road if you want, Xavier."

  He heard a snort of derision from his feet and faked a cough to try to cover it up, but Colby's eyes fell to his shadow just the same.

  Staying off the road would allow him to remain unseen, but it would slow their progress and increase the danger Bayne was in. He could just imagine what his shadow would have to say about that…

  "No," he shook his head. "No, we'll stay on the road."

  Colby gave his hand an encouraging squeeze. She looked like

  she wanted to say something, but then didn't. Xavier was glad, the less said about his appearance the better.

  They passed the first wagon soon after. It was driven by a man no older than Xavier himself, and a young woman shared the seat with him. As they passed the girl covered her mouth with her hand and stared openly. The man, however, met Xavier's eyes and nodded a greeting in passing. Perhaps, Xavier thought, to make up for his wife's reaction.

  The encounter gave him hope that his fears had been

  exaggerated, but as they drew nearer to Haven and the road became more and more crowded that hope was quickly strangled. Most of the travelers were human with a smattering of dwarves and at least one Mountain Elf. Still, he was the most unusual being on the road by far.

  He felt eyes on him all the time, though sometimes when he

  turned around no one was looking in his direction. Groups of

  travelers would fall silent as they passed and he heard one child ask

  'What is it mother?' His stomach roiled, and his knees felt weak.

  Colby's hand in his helped him swallow his pain and humiliation and keep putting one foot in front of another but every step was agony and their pace had never felt so slow.

  Then they passed a small group heading toward the swamp,

  and Xavier gasped as he recognized one of them. Jaliena, a beautiful woman with an eye patch over her left eye. He dropped his gaze to

  - 122 -

  Aphanasian Stories

  the ground as soon as he saw her, and picked up the pace, pulling Colby behind him.

  "What is it Xavier?" she asked.

  "That woman, I know her from Scholar's." She was one of his cruelest guards, always ready with a sharp kick, or a sharper word.

  He kept those details to himself.

  Colby looked up, while Xavier kept his head down and kept

  moving. He could see the gates of Haven now, so the portal couldn't be far away, just up into the hills.

  "She saw you. She's talking to the people she's with," Colby reported, and Xavier felt as though he'd been punched in the

  stomach.

  "Hurry, we need to hurry," he grasped her wrist instead of holding her hand, and pulled her urgently toward the hills.

  "Ouch!" Colby cried in surprise and pain, then, as strangers stopped to look at them, she dropped her voice. "Careful, my back still hurts anytime I move too much."

  "I'm sorry Colby but I—" Xavier lifted his eyes to look at her, but instead saw Jaliena over Colby's shoulder, her friends at her side.

  "He's getting away. Get him!"

  "Drek!" he swore. "Run, Colby, run."

  She turned to look behind her, then looked back toward him

  and broke into a run. "Good idea."

  Adrenaline sped their flight, and the ground flew by beneath

  their feet, then they began to climb the hills and their pace lessened.

  When he dared a glance behind him he saw that many in the crowd had turned to observe what was going on, but only Jaliena and three of her cronies were pursuing them. He could hear their pursuers feet pounding the ground behind them, hear them pant for breath, and with each step they sounded closer.

  Then he saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye, the blur of Colby's hand as she was pulled backward by her ponytail.

  He tried to stop but his momentum was such that even going uphill it took him a few moments to stop and turn around, and by then it was too late. Jaliena was behind Colby, one hand wrapped in Colby's hair, the other around her chest, holding her fast.

  "I've got you now girl," Jaliena said, her voice dripping with venom and Xavier could see the malicious gleam in her eye. He cringed at the way she pulled Colby's head up by her hair.

  - 123 -

  Rhonda Parrish

  Colby twisted and struggled in Jaliena's grasp, but her strength couldn't hope to compete with the trained fighter's, especially with her injuries. Xavier grabbed a stone from his feet. It was twice the size of his fist and heavy; more than enough to do some damage. He pulled it back as though to throw it.

  Jaliena pulled back on Colby's hair once more and Colby cried out. " Izart!" The sound echoed off the hills around them, and resounded in Xavier's skull. Her struggles lessened and Xavier had no doubt it was due, at least in part, to the burns on her back.

  "Let her go!" Xavier shouted.

  "You think we're afraid of a little rock? Drop it and I won't hurt her."

  "Let her go. This rock is more than enough to crush one skull before you overtake me," he looked at Jaliena and the three men with her one at a time before continuing. "I wonder whose it will be."

  "Not mine. You'd have to go through your friend," Jaliena scoffed. "Scholar may have invested a lot of time in you, but I'm sure she could keep him entertained for a time..."

  Colby kicked at the woman who held her again, but it was

  ineffective. Jaliena merely tightened her grip and Colby cursed again as her back was rubbed up against the other woman's chest.

  "Xavier," Colby shouted, locking her gaze with his. "Run!

  Save my brother. Save Bayne!"

  "I—"

  "Go! Run!"

  He understood Colby's position. If he didn't get to Bayne soon he would be turned. Colby had gone through so much to ensure that didn't happen, to be so close now of course she would sacrifice herself and hope for rescue, but he knew the hands she was placing herself into, and couldn't abide it. To the nine hells with it then.

  Scholar had tried to make him into a soldier, so he'd do like a soldier and fight.

  He feinted left, then threw the rock with all his might at the shin of the mercenary furthest to the right of Jaliena and Colby. His left broke with a resounding crack that made Xavier wince, and with a sharp cry of pain the man crumpled to the ground.

  "So much fer crushin' skulls," his s
hadow said, his voice too quiet to be audible to anyone but Xavier, especially in all the yelling that followed his attack.

  - 124 -

  Aphanasian Stories

  "Get him," Jaliena said, gesturing to the two thugs remaining at her side.

  Xavier took a step backward as the two men, staying low and

  moving in a way that reminded him of nothing more than snakes about to strike, began to inch toward him. They each drew daggers that rested comfortably in their hands and reflected the fading sunlight up at Xavier as they cut through the air menacingly. His eyes darted back and forth, but no tree branches or rocks were in the immediate vicinity to aid him.

  He looked from one to the other, then for lack of a better plan of action, threw himself at the one nearest him, the blond. Xavier caught him around the waist and drove him to the ground. His

  tentacles wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides and rendering his weapon useless. Behind him he heard the brunette approaching at speed, curses flying from his lips.

  "Might wanna—" his shadow began, and Xavier rolled to the side so he could see the attacker as he neared. The brunette's blade flashed up and then down, and Xavier felt a sharp pain in one of his tentacles.

  Curling his hand into a fist, and still holding the blond with his tentacles, Xavier punched him directly in the face. Again and again.

  At the same time, one of his tentacles grabbed his hand which held the knife and slammed it into the ground in time with the blows to his face.

  "Move!" his shadow snarled, and he rolled to the side again, just as the blond released his grip on consciousness along with his knife. The dark-haired man's blow missed him entirely, and releasing the man he held Xavier scrambled to his feet once more, this time armed with a dagger.

  Down the hill Xavier heard Jaliena's voice purr wickedly.

  "You'll come to us then."

  She began to speak softer then. Though Xavier didn't

  understand the words he recognized the cadence.

  "No!" he shouted and moved forward, but his dark-haired attacker intercepted him, charging forward and wrapping his arms around Xavier's knees. The stranger's momentum carried them both to the ground. Pulling the man up with his tentacles, Xavier leaned forward and smashed the top of his head into the thug's face. He went limp in his grip, and when Xavier dropped him, barely

  - 125 -

  Rhonda Parrish

  conscious, to the ground, he couldn't help but notice the man's nose was at a decidedly uncomfortable-looking angle.

  He looked up to see Jaliena, Colby and the thug with the

  broken leg huddled together in a tight pack. Colby looked terrified, her eyes were wide and every muscle in her body was tense. She wasn't moving at all except for her eyes and the slight movement of her chest as she breathed.

  "Bayne," she mouthed, and then before his eyes, the group vanished. There was no sound, no gradual fading away. They were there and then they weren't. He looked toward the forms of the companions they'd left behind, still breathing but unaware.

  "Drek!" he shouted up at the uncaring sky, and then turned and sprinted up the hill, eyes scouring the ground for the white rocks that marked the portal. He couldn't possibly save Colby alone, but who better to help him than her family.

  Ahead he could see a few scattered white stones. Had Colby

  not told him to look for them he wouldn't have thought them out of the ordinary, but forewarned he knew them at once for what they were. "Drek," he said, as he neared them. "I don't know the word to open it."

  "Ye moron," Shadow said as they reached the rocks. "She told ye. Izart!"

  The air in front of them began to shimmer with magic and

  Xavier stepped through the portal.

  - 126 -

  Aphanasian Stories

  Chapter Nine

  In one step Xavier went from running up a grassy hill to

  finding himself in a snow-filled grove. He skidded to a stop, plowing through snow up to his knees and barely managing to avoid running straight into a trunk so wide he couldn't possibly reach around it.

  Colby's pack jerked in his hands at his sudden stop, but didn't slip from his grip. The cold sucked his breath away when he first

  breathed it. Exhaling sharply, he cupped his face, running his hands up it, then over the contours of his horns while he stared up at the sky. "Drek."

  He turned around to see no sign of the portal or his pursuers.

  Looking about he saw that coniferous trees surrounded him, reaching many times his height toward the sky. Snow covered all the branches of the trees and stuck to the sides of their trunks where the wind had thrown it, like a child having a temper tantrum.

  Detaching Colby's sleeping roll from where it was strapped to the bottom of her bag he draped it over his shoulders. It wasn't much but it would help, and thankfully the adaptations to his skin made him less susceptible to cold.

  "So much fer that fresh start ye were talkin' about."

  "I can't worry about that right now, not yet. I need to focus on finding her family." But even as he said the words, Xavier's mind betrayed him. He imagined Jaliena killing her, right there on the hilltop and very nearly tried to re-open the portal and return immediately. But no, Jaliena wouldn't kill Colby right away, she would take her back to Scholar. They'd want to know how Xavier had managed to escape, and Scholar would need a new test subject.

  Images of his imprisonment flashed through his mind, but Colby's image replaced his in all of them.

  "Well then," Shadow said dryly, happily breaking Xavier's chain of thought. "Which way?"

  Shaking his head as though it would help him focus, Xavier

  took a closer look around the clearing. There was only one gap in the trees large enough to be used as a path, so it was toward this that he walked.

  The snow squeaked under his webbed feet, steadily increasing

  his frustration as he trudged through the blanketed forest. Each time he took a step the snow crunched, squawked and protested, and then he’d step again and be rewarded with similar sounds. A discordant

  - 127 -

  Rhonda Parrish

  chant began within his head, a sort of mindless melody comprised of the noises of his webbed feet in the snow and enhanced by the sound of his ragged breathing. It was not a pleasant chorus, in fact the constant strain of noise bouncing about in his brain was one of the reasons the snow's squeaking was driving him mad. Alas, until he reached Colby's family there would be no help for it.

  The cold hurt. It seared his lungs with each breath he drew

  through his chapped lips, or froze his nostrils together if he thought to breathe that way. His eyelids stuck shut for a split second each time he blinked and felt sore and dry whenever they were open, squinting against the glare of the sun upon the snow.

  The song in his mind began to change, the monotonous noises

  shifting into words. Just one step more, his feet chanted, just one step more. He was getting closer; each step took him that much closer to the cabin. One step more, he coached himself. One step more.

  He came across a road what could only be a road. The snow

  lay upon it in an unbroken blanket and the trees leaned over but didn't disturb it. He knew from Colby's description that their cabin wasn't far off the main road to the city, so he moved onto the road and continued.

  As he waded through the snow memories of wading through

  the swamps back home, back before his life became so complicated, came to him but the water was never as heavy as this snow and each step took a monumental effort of will. With each step he wanted to stop, to rest, to sleep, and with each step he had to remind himself that Colby needed him.

  Xavier's tentacles hung heavy at his sides, dragging through

  the snow, becoming burdens rather than the boons they usually were.

  His breath came hard, each gasp burning his insides with cold. He paused, exhaling sharply and looking around him.

>   "Doan even think 'bout it," Xavier heard his shadow growl. "I ain't dyin' in the snow. I ain't."

  "No one," Xavier gasped in the pause before his next, struggling, step forward. "No one is going to die."

  "Right. Not if ye keep goin'. Doan even thing 'bout resting.

  That's a nap ye woan wake up from."

  Part of Xavier appreciated his shadow's encouragement, for it was encouragement, wrapped it in the guise of self-preservation to protect his pride, however, it wasn't necessary. Colby needed him, he

  - 128 -

  Aphanasian Stories

  must reach her. He had to. And first he had to save her brother. That knowledge drove him, biting at his heels like a hungry dog, and he trudged on.

  There.

  There it was! He could see it now through the gaps in the

  trees. No mansion or ale house could be a more welcome sight for his tired eyes than the break in the tree line which he was sure must be the road branching off this one to Colby's cabin.

  His fingers ached and he balled them up, curling the fingers

  around his thumb to warm it. The snow, level with his thighs

  swished, no longer squeaking as it had, and still the chant continued in his mind.

  Just one step more.

  He stumbled onto the side road. The trees which surrounded

  the side road had sheltered it from the snow; it was still there, but far more shallow and the going was far easier. Relief swelled through him, relief and a heady sense of urgency.

  Colby needed him.

  Picking up his speed, he moved, stiff from cold, down the path trail Colby had described as one of her favorite places. While he walked he rehearsed in his mind what to say when he reached

  Colby's home.

  Then the cottage came into view. It was built in the

  Aphanasian style: rectangular and one story tall; not overly large but obviously containing more than one room. The door faced toward the path he approached on, and one large glass window took a place of honor along the wall beside it. Xavier couldn't see any other doors or windows on this side. Wading through the drifts against the walls he tried to look in the windows but the inside of the cabin was dark so he was mostly greeted by the distorted images of the snow-covered trees and his own image.