by Timothy Ray
Armor and weapons were procured for the monstrous behemoth; from where she had no idea. It had been one of those trips where Merlin just took off, this time in the company of Kore, and returned weeks later with gear in hand.
He had gifts for her as well.
She had been reluctant to give up her bow, but the black composite long bow he’d handed over was a thing of beauty. It was more accurate, had longer range, and made a deadly addition to her arsenal.
Then there was the quiver.
He had personally placed an enchantment on it that would keep it stocked at all times. No matter how many she pulled or how fast she shot, every time she reached back there’d be an arrow for her to grab. The gifts were beyond priceless and tears had come to her eyes. Not since her Uncle, had anyone done something like that for her. She had tried to thank him, but he merely shook his head and smiled; patting her shoulder.
She still harbored her need for vengeance, a driving force in her life, but was no longer in the front seat. Merlin had secured her loyalty and trust. She knew he would keep his word and gave herself over to his mission completely.
There was a new threat in the world, one far more dangerous than the evil men in her past. She would not stand by and watch other farms burn, families slaughtered in front of their children. She’d sacrifice her life to ensure nothing like that ever happened again. After Kore, she thought nothing could surprise her anymore.
Then out of the shadows walked the blind boy and his sister.
She watched the waves hit the shore and thought of the last two days and how quickly their group was growing. Things were speeding up and it made her uneasy. She knew that the time for wandering was coming to an end and the real journey was about to begin.
She felt a flush of excitement, then realized it was her bond with Tuskar. He had just taken down a deer and was basking in the glory of his kill. She reached down and got a piece of jerky from a pouch. The smell and taste of venison, even raw, was making her stomach growl. Taking a quick bite, she turned her head east towards the forest they’d recently left behind and froze in place.
A large black cloud was stretching over the horizon and coming swiftly in their direction.
She could feel Tuskar become suddenly alert to what she was seeing and he was up and bounding her way; his kill forgotten. “Reyna, Kore,” she hollered, not bothering to look away from the darkness spreading across the sky.
“What the fuck is that?” came the voice of the bitter woman behind her.
Kore came to stand by her side, eyes following the movements across the sky. “Crows. Phoenix crows,” he muttered.
Her blood went cold.
She closed her eyes and called upon her magic. When her eyes opened, her vision was tinted red and black, making it easier to distinguish the individual lifeforms amongst the herd. She turned her gaze towards the heavens. Across the black sky were thousands of red dots, each signifying a lifeform. Kore was right, it was a murder of crows.
“Fuck me,” Reyna swore, suddenly standing on her other side.
Tuskar was driving himself hard across the grasslands and had almost reached them when the murder of crows suddenly pulsed and dove towards the ground. She reacted instantly, her arrows finding targets without consciously picking them out. She focused on the leaders of the flock, trying to divert them from her best friend.
Kore thundered past, but she was too busy picking out targets to mark his progress. Reyna had her helmet on and was hurriedly fastening her shield to her arm.
“Here they come,” she warned the others; fear for her unprotected companion driving her forward. He bore no natural armor and a flock that size would tear Tuskar to shreds.
Reyna barely had enough time to raise her shield before the first of the crows descended upon them; bodies thudding into her shield. Many of them fell dead upon impact; their necks broken from the strength of their assault.
She had nothing to cower behind, only her cloak to shield her body, and it would not protect her face. Her bow was useless at close range, so she tossed it and drew her long knives. With a snarl, she called upon her magic once more and flames burst from the blades’ hilts, slithering across their warming steel. The knives were her only illumination as the murder of crows filled her world with darkness.
Rage coursed through her, her adrenaline pumping swiftly through her veins, and the feral beast that resided within begged to be let loose. It was thrashing at the chains, hungry, and in a murderous rage. She knew that she might not survive; that this could be the end. So she buried her consciousness deep within the recesses of her mind and let the feral beast off its leash.
II
Jared was still fuming over having been sent away.
The blood flow had ceased and his head had begun to clear. His hand rested on the horn of the saddle, the texture beneath his fingers pitted and covered in his sweat. His blindfold was itching behind his ears, the fabric soaked in sweat as well. He reached for a pouch at his waist and withdrew a folded scarf from within. Sliding his blindfold off, he shoved it in the pouch with little ceremony. He’d wash and dry it later. With practiced skill, he tied the new one about his eyes, the dry fabric cooling to the touch.
He had no real need for the blindfold, its only purpose to assuage the uneasiness of others, as his gray unseeing eyes could be a bit unnerving. Of course, it also served to give him a look of vulnerability, which came in handy when wanting to be dismissed or forgotten.
Taking the canteen clipped to his belt, he added water to the napkin Willow provided and went about cleaning his face. No use letting the caked blood draw unwanted attention. The moisture felt refreshing, and he allowed the breeze to air dry it; basking in the cooling effect it had. Satisfied, he pocketed the napkin as well.
He had a slight headache, brought on by the strenuous work of keeping hundreds of people blinded to their trek through the castle. He had been sure it was something he could do, as he had done so for him and his sister many times, yet he hadn’t counted on how taxing it’d be to hide four instead of two.
Sighing, he allowed his mind to settle down. He hated the darkness that came with being blind and with great restraint held back from pushing himself further.
He and his sister were orphans, the lone survivors of a raid on one the settlements to the north. They had been no more than four at the time and he held no memories of what his life had been before that. All he did recall, was that when the fighting started, he and his sister were playing in a barn, and quickly went up the ladder to hide in the loft above.
Bandits sacked their village and he had listened to the screams of his fellow countrymen as they were slaughtered to the last man.
He could remember laying there in the darkness, hearing their cries, tears flowing down his face; his sister’s comforting arms wrapped around him. The reason he could remember that so vividly was that it was the first time his powers had risen to the surface. The stress must have triggered them, and though he had no recollection of knowing so at the time, he could guess that he unwittingly diverted any of the bandits from finding the two of them cowering in that loft. It was the only explanation for their survival.
The rest of the village had been torched, but the lone barn remained untouched.
He remembered the first time he touched his sister’s thoughts and the welcoming of her mind as she became aware of his presence. They shared everything else in their lives, why not this?
The bond between them grew and he made a startling discovery that changed his life forever. While he was traversing the regions of her mind, he began to see flashes of images within his head. It startled him, it was the first time he’d seen anything other than occasional color or creative dreams.
Curious, he probed deeper, his sister grunting as he tried to recreate what had just happened. Finally, the world came into view and his heart had swelled, tears bursting from his soul. Concerned, Reyna had tried to pull away, but he didn’t want to let go and clung to her closely, u
nable to voice the joy he felt in his heart.
He had opened up his mind to her and let her see what he was going through. Understanding and joy had filled her as well. From that point on, he trained his mind to automatically find that part of a person’s brain, and use it to see without violating their inner thoughts in the process. It was a painstaking task, but the reward of sight was too much for him to just give up. It took time to train his mind to the new sense his powers provided, but with practice, he could do it without even thinking about it.
No one even knew what was going on. He could shield his intrusions and still use their eyes to see the world around him. The hard part was learning to navigate with the different perspectives provided. He spent a lot of time stumbling around, being nauseated, and he lost track of how often he vomited from vertigo. Yet his brain slowly adjusted, and it soon became second nature for him; his mind trained to the point of doing it without the intense concentration those early years required.
They had been taken in by a traveling merchant who happened upon their gutted village. A lonely man, he had long since given up any ideas of having a family of his own, and was more than willing to open himself up and allow them to stay. Jared spent most of his time in the back of the wagon, exploring his new abilities and testing his limits.
Several years passed and they were well taken care of and happy.
Then one night they had made camp north of Grendweir and got attacked by a band of goblin raiders. He found himself once more huddling in the arms of his sister, as the merchant they had taken to calling father, was cut down in front of them. He couldn’t understand their language, even their thoughts were alien, but he sensed their intent.
They were searching for someone.
He tried to use his growing power to shield them from view, but he was only seven and he wasn’t strong enough. The goblins dragged them apart, as they tried to figure out which child was the one they’d been sent to retrieve.
His blindness got him discarded as the candidate and his survival instincts had kicked in fast enough to make the goblin ordered to kill him think he had done so. He was left in a ditch, his sister’s screams echoing in his head as they tied her up and dragged her away.
He had been alone, blind, and should’ve died. But he had used his telepathy to find a group of dwarven sappers traveling through the area and got one of them to hear his pleas. They found him there huddled in the dark, the merchant’s wagon blazing, and the body discarded.
There were many questions to follow but he had been too torn up over the loss of his sister to answer. Bundling him up with blankets, they had thrown him on the back of one of their horses, and took him to Grendweir to see one of their clerics.
He was fifteen when he walked away from the Dwarven capitol, having been taken in by a dwarven family who took pity on the poor blind boy. They didn’t know about his powers, and he never answered any questions about what happened the night they took his sister. They assumed, wrongfully, that their God had told them to change their course, and the clerics had hoisted him up as a symbol of His divinity.
Eight years he spent with the Dwarves, keeping to himself, expanding his abilities, planning for the day he’d head north and find out what became of Reyna. They had fought his departure, but he was insistent and would not be delayed any longer. He had grown proficient with his staff, learning to hone his other senses; using them to direct his strikes.
He refused to let himself become the vulnerable blind boy again.
He traveled north in the company of a horse given to him on his supposed twelfth birthday. Through its eyes, he navigated the forest and made it to the plains once more. He traveled past the human settlements, using his powers to steal food in order to conserve the little coin he had for trade. He was warned by patrols that the north was no place for a blind boy, but he simply nudged them with his mind and moved them along.
He was determined to find his sister, no matter the cost.
On the border of the Deadlands was a sole Human fortress—Alamar. Through his horse’s eyes, he studied the castle from a distance. Nestled against the side of a mountain, it had been heavily fortified; the sole barrier between the hordes that infested the Deadlands and the rest of the populated lands to the south. A giant wall stretched from tower to tower and the smoke rising from the other side spoke to the fact that it was currently under siege. It had been that moment when he felt a familiar flicker on the surface of his mind and his heart surged with hope.
He could distantly feel the presence of his sister.
He mounted his horse and rode straight towards one of the towers lining the wall stretching west. He could sense from the men guarding it that there was a gate nearby, used by the cavalry to run down attacking hordes or raid the lands to the north.
Talking to them wasn’t an option, they’d never let a blind boy through the wall under any circumstances. Instead, he made himself invisible to their eyes and made the man guarding the gate forget that he opened it to let the thin, blindfolded boy through.
North of his position, he could see through that guard’s eyes that Alamar had been besieged by a very large horde of goblins and orcs, being driven forward by creatures holding whips. They were gray, with large wings, talons, and horns protruding from their brows. He had shivered at the sight and his resolve almost broke, but then he felt her again, in the midst of command tents situated to the rear of the army. He had tied up his horse, hating to leave his “eyes” behind, but not wanting to task himself too much by having to hide it as well.
Blind, he slowly made his way forward. He had to rely on his hearing to warn him of enemy scouts, as he used his telepathy to hone in and track his sister’s presence.
When he came closer to the rear skirmish lines, his sight returned as his mind automatically touched the goblin patrols and relayed their vision back to him. He envisioned himself as an orc and projected that towards anyone that looked in his direction. Hesitantly, he stepped through the sentry lines, waiting to see if it was going to work. When he didn’t get challenged, he had let out a sigh of relief, and felt for the warm glow of his sister just ahead.
It had taken every bit of his concentration to keep from being discovered, but it paid off as he entered one of the tents and found her standing in front of a table reading maps. That she was alive made his heart surge from his chest, and he almost forgot to keep his defenses up. She turned to look at him and he felt hope that she’d recognize him; that she’d be overjoyed and embrace him once more.
He had been sorely disappointed.
She had been armored as she was now, in pure black and red, her helmet bearing horns, just like the nasty creatures driving the army to attack the castle. She was obviously not a hostage and actually looked to be a commander planning the next wave of attacks. Her eyes showed no hint of recognition, though he hadn’t shielded himself from her, and she saw exactly who he was. The suspicion and alarm on her face alerted him to the fact that she was about to call for the guards stationed outside her tent. He had no choice but to dive into her mind and stop her.
It surprised him when he hit a brick wall.
Her mental defenses were stronger than any he had ever encountered before, and he had to let everything else go in order to maintain the attack. Though he had vowed to never be vulnerable again, in those minutes of struggle between brother and sister, anyone entering the tent would see him as he truly was. That was the first time his nose had bled, as he broke her wall one stone at a time, giving everything he had to try and reach his sister.
“Reyna, please, it’s Jared,” he had pleaded, trying to distract her concentration long enough to get in.
“Jared is dead,” she had responded in a flat monotone voice. What had they done to her?
She had reached for her sword and was intending to cut him down. Horrified, he swiftly struck her with the butt of his staff, just below the chin. His soul despaired as her head snapped back and she fell to the ground unconscious.
> Her guard was finally down and he instantly changed his projection to one of those nasty winged creatures he’d seen outside. A guard had pulled back the tent flap and looked in his direction. He tried to give him a menacing sneer, and it must have worked, because the tent flap closed instantly. He knew she wouldn’t be unconscious long, so he took advantage of her vulnerability and drove his mind into hers.
Images had ripped through his soul. Of her being taken before an evil witch dressed in red, rage over having brought the wrong child. They had been ordered to come after him not her! This was all his fault! The beatings, the torture—he felt them all.
Over the years, she had been personally molded by the Phoenix into an instrument of evil. She had been trained in warfare, became skilled with every weapon in their arsenal, and was rewarded with the black armor she wore to this day. In horror, he watched as his sister took a knee and swore fealty to the evil bitch that had abused her; that made her into this evil shell at his feet.
The guilt he felt was immeasurable. This would’ve been him had they not disregarded him due to his handicap.
She had begun to wake up and he drove himself deeper in, doing something he had never dared to do before; he took control of her mind. She resisted, but he was already too far for her efforts to do any good. Her mind reacted violently to the invasion, but her body had remained still; he was in full control. He had made her stand up and face him. The hate in her eyes broke his heart in two. Not about to give up and refusing to leave her behind, he walked them out of the tent and to her horse tied up nearby.
It had been a harrowing escape. He had to constantly fight her for control, sometimes feeling it slip and almost losing her. It took everything he had to keep her on her horse. His deception was gone, he was visible to the world. He made her answer challenges thrown at them, declaring him a present to their Queen, one she had long sought, and that he was to be delivered to her right away. A couple of times he had to nudge them along, and that’s when she almost broke free of his control completely.