The City that Time forgot

by Patrick McClafferty

  Gareth looked over his shoulder at Wokeg, his face expressionless. “I didn’t. It was an act of faith.” He held out his cupped palm over the fire, whispered a few words, and gently dropped the small ball of fire that had appeared there down among the twigs. Flames licked up immediately.

  Chiu punched him in the arm. “You are so full of shit, Gareth Köhler. I know how you hold your hand when you form a fireball, and you were waiting for that cat to make one wrong move.”

  The former marine sighed and rose to his feet, stretching his back as the flames in the fire rose. “You’re right, and you’re wrong. I was willing to bet my life on a little faith. I was not willing to bet any of yours.”

  Wokeg stepped forward, bending his nearly three meter height almost double to stay under the low ceiling. He scratched his gray/green skin casually with a long six-fingered hand. “You want I should find food for us?” The rough voice was surprisingly gentle, and Gareth grinned.

  “Don’t bother.” Gareth replied. “You’ve worked hard enough today. You might as well change into human form. I’ll take care of dinner.” Wokeg shot him a faint smile as he flowed into the form of a well-built young man, about twenty five years old and weighing eighty three kilograms. His shoulders were wide, and his brown hair was somewhat shaggy and ragged, thanks to Lyndra’s attempts at hair cutting with her boot knife. His cheeks were smooth and Lyndra, for some reason, was always watching him very carefully, with a hungry look in her green eyes. Chiu touched his arm, and he heard her soft voice in his mind. We’ll take care of dinner. It’s what familiars do with their partners, or had you forgotten?

  Gareth turned to find Chiu’s face very close to his own. Yeah, I’d forgotten. He admitted reluctantly. But to be honest, I hadn’t planned on doing it myself. He glanced at the ceiling. “Athena, I have no idea how to ask for dinner in Latin, and to be honest I’m too tired to think straight. I could use your help.” There wasn’t a magical whoosh, or any noise at all. A heavy steaming pot simply appeared, hanging by a metal tripod over the fire. A loaf of French garlic bread sat on the table, with silverware, bowls and a skin of wine. Gareth sniffed, frowned, and slowly raised the lid of the pot. He couldn’t suppress the grin. “Spaghetti and meatballs. Thank you.” He said aloud, as he reached for the serving ladle.

  The dinner was finished, the single pack horse bedded for the night, and the four sat in the warm great-room, scents of wood smoke and Italian seasonings slowly fading, watching the fire flicker and listening to the wind moan outdoors.

  Wokeg leaned forward from his spot against the wall and looked at Gareth. “Who is this Athena you speak to?” Wokeg’s voice in human form was cultured and well spoken, his gray eyes intent.

  Gareth shut his eyes. “You are new to our small family, so I suppose I should begin at the beginning of my story. He gave Chiu and Lyndra a quick smile. “If you’ve heard it before, bear with me.” He took a deep breath. “I was born thirty eight thousand years ago, give or take a millennium, on this world in a country called the United States of America.” He heard Chiu stifle a gasp. “I was a professional soldier in an elite unit called Force Recon of the United States Marine Corps.” His look grew distant. “I lived in a violent world… in many ways more violent than this one. We had many wars. It was in one of those wars that I was injured, losing both my left leg and my left eye. Unable to perform my mission any longer, the Marine Corps let me go. I arrived home to find that my former wife had decided that she didn’t want a life tied to an invalid. She left me and took what little money I had, selling my house and taking that money also. I was left with nothing. I found her new boyfriend and smashed his leg… permanently. In my former land that offense is punishable by prison time, and since I had nothing left to lose, I decided to put me out of my misery. My first attempt to kill myself failed when my gun refused to fire… three times in a row. My second attempt, drowning, nearly succeeded and I found myself walking up a muddy beach in Eldenworld, healed of my previous injuries, but also totally unaware of why I had survived at all. I knew in my heart that I had one chance to have a better life, and I had better not fuck it up. Then I met Chiu.” He stopped, and a thoughtful look crossed his face. “I don’t know what Athena is or isn’t. She can play with time like we play with a deck of cards and she repaired me easily enough. I owe her my life, and I repay my debts.” He chuckled wryly. “Enough theology; or technology, depending on how you look at it. She tasked me with saving this world, and told me that the answers to my questions were known to the Eye of Zuebrihn. For the longest time I believed that I was actually on another planet. The Eye told me that there is a wave of death coming at us from space, and in order to save the world I must blow up the moon, creating a barrier of dust and debris in front of us dense enough to block the wave of death, saving the life on this planet.” Chiu, Lyndra and Wokeg were all staring at him, their mouths hanging open.

  “But… but…” Chiu began.

  “The Eye couldn’t tell me how I am supposed to go about this task,” Gareth interrupted. “but it did tell me that the answers would lie in the Master Control Center for this world.”

  Chiu’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “And that is where?”

  Gareth smiled. “In the City that Time Forgot.” He saw Chiu’s jaws tighten. “The Eye couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me where it was located.”

  Chiu spat out something obscene, and Gareth raised his eyebrows. “That is just plain insane. You aren’t considering doing this, are you?”

  He sighed. “I said I would. Athena, or whatever her name is, kept her end of the bargain: she brought me back from the dead, healed me, and gave me a second chance at life.” His look to her grew hard, and uncompromising. “The only place close to a center for information and higher learning on this ruin of a world is Oseothan, so that’s where we’ll go next. You, Lyndra and Wokeg can go your own way after that, with no repercussions. You stuck with me all the way to the Eye. I can ask no more.” Chiu opened her mouth to say something, but Gareth beat her to it. “Don’t say a thing. Think about it, all of you. When the time comes, you’ll know the right answer in your heart.”

  Chiu gave him a long silent look. “What do you think about all of this?” She asked, taking his hand.

  “I don’t think I’m going to survive this.” He returned her a crooked grin. “I’ve felt this way before, however, and I’m still here.” His smile grew bitter. “Most of me that is; it seems as though I’ve lost some of my original factory parts.” He wiggled the toes of his formerly missing foot. “The replacements seem to be suitable substitutes.”

  Her hands on her hips, Chiu stood and glared at him. “You had better survive.” She looked him up and down. “I see a tall, handsome man with wide shoulders, toughened by time and hard living,” she smiled slowly, “lean, and not necessarily human.” She continued. “You could smile more, and you still need a haircut.” Her smile widened. “Your hazel eyes, however, are beautiful. I have plans for us.” She finished with a nod that effective ended the conversation.

  They rose the next morning to find three horses in the small barn. Two of the three had nearby saddles that resembled those used by the seventy five man column of guild assassins the goblins had ambushed and slaughtered on their way to the tower. Gareth and company had survived the encounter only because Gareth had saved the life of a goblin mother and her child soon after his arrival on Eldenworld. Now it appeared that the goblins were replacing the two horses of Gareth’s they had inadvertently killed when the landslide they’d set took out the column of assassins. Gareth nonchalantly wiped blood from one of the saddles before the rest could see. Goblins, it seemed, had a very direct way of dealing with people they didn’t like. Putting his hand on the saddle horn, he swung up into the saddle, just as the rest of his companions flowed into their non-human forms. He shot Chiu’s hawk form an envious look, and then gave a gentle snap on the reins. “Let’s go, buddy.” The thick-chested gelding snorted, but began to move.

  It had be
en a long cold, but uneventful three weeks on the trail for the four to reach Iastoria, but that was all right with Gareth. Events of the past few months had been altogether too

  momentous for his liking, and the marines had taught him that living an exciting life meant living a short life more often than not.

  Sitting securely moored at the dock right where they’d left it was a graceful, nine-meter gaff-rigged cutter with a small cabin. Gareth could see that the sails, main and jib, had been removed and hopefully placed below deck. The hull of the boat was white, with a thin red stripe on her gunnel and the name of Athena was clearly visible on the stern. He gave the railing a slow caress before he tossed his rucksack on deck. It felt like he was coming home. He stepped aside as handlers brought aboard jugs of water for the trip, along with a small charcoal brazier for warmth. He hadn’t gotten as much as he’d hoped for the horses. The man at the stable had recognized the guild mounts almost as soon as they walked through the stable door, and had bargained shrewdly. Now, with the sun reaching midday, Gareth felt the urge to be underway as soon as possible. The geis that had plagued him since his arrival on Eldenworld was obviously still in effect. With the current at their stern, it would be a swift trip downriver to Apheacham, however the lengthwise crossing of the Lake of Shadows promised to be… entertaining. Gareth had no love for the white ice dragons, three times the length of the Athena, that dwelt there. At his side Chiu tossed her bag next to his and stepped aboard. In the bow Lyndra was already stringing the small jib sail, while amidships Wokeg was doing the same with the mainsail.

  Chiu threw him a jaunty salute. “Permission to come aboard?” Her grin was wide.

  Gareth returned the salute and the grin. “Permission granted.” Chiu enjoyed picking odd things out of his memory and tossing them up at him; like the salute on boarding a vessel. It kept him on his feet, but sometimes it was disconcerting.

  Picking up the two bags she headed for the cabin and stopped, looking back at him. “Are we about ready to go?”

  “Pretty much. As soon as Lyndra and Wokeg have the sails rigged we’ll be on our way.”

  She let out a little sigh of relief. “Good. As you were selling the horses, I took a look around. There are a dozen or so guildsmen headed this way. Somebody recognized the saddles.”

  Gareth groaned. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

  Her smile was playful. “We have plenty of time.”

  Gareth met her smile with a glare, which she just shrugged off. “Right!” He stepped aboard and looked forward. “Lyndra, will you please raise the jibsail? Chiu just let me know we have company coming for lunch. Wokeg, how is the mainsail coming?”

  The young man made a last connection and looked up. “Good to go.”

  “Great!” Gareth replied, taking the tiller and glancing up at the filling jib. “As soon as we begin to come about raise the mainsail. Cast off the bowline Lyndra!” Gareth watched the bow of the boat pull away from the dock and grinned like a fool as he reached over and released the stern line. “Raise the mainsail, Wokeg!” The sailed filled with the sound of a pistol shot, and the Athena, trailing a small gig, leapt out into the river.

  He felt a hand touch his shoulder. “That was well done.” Chiu was giving him a warm smile, and on the forward deck Lyndra and Wokeg were grinning like fools. Behind him he heard shouts, and glancing over his shoulder saw a dozen guildsmen in dark cloaks standing on the dock waving their fists at him. Their voices were faint but very angry. One of the men raised a crossbow and fired. Gareth swore as he reached for the Colt, but Chiu touched his arm.

  “Don’t bother. Look!” The crossbow bolt arched gracefully and dropped ten meters shy of the racing boat.

  Gareth was disappointed in himself by how quickly he’d been willing to draw his weapon. He slipped the Colt back into his holster. “That was a good call.”

  “You learn to judge those things when you’re a hawk for a while.” She said simply. Gareth watched another arrow arch up and fall fifty meters short as the boat sped away from the angry crowd.

  “It was still a good call.”

  The sun had just dipped below the mountain peaks, turning the range surrounding the lake a glowing watermelon color when a deep trembling coursed through the boat. Around the Athena the water frothed in tight vibrational white caps, while in the distance Gareth saw the side of a mountain slide into the trees at its feet. Turning the tiller, he pointed the bow to shore as he shouted into the cabin. “Make ready to go ashore. We’ve just had an earthquake, and I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

  The small rowboat had just beached on the rocky shore when the ground began to tremble again, and around the small group trees began to sway. A former resident of California, Gareth began to unpack his rucksack. Thirty meters from shore the sailboat was securely anchored, at both bow and stern for the night.

  Chiu and Lyndra were standing wide-eyed, while Wokeg simply sat down to wait it out. Gareth grinned. “This feels like a 5.2 aftershock. It’s nothing to worry about. Athena warned me about quakes.”

  The two women glared at Gareth. “You forgot to mention that small fact.”

  He paused in setting up the tent. “You might be right.” He replied thoughtfully, and then gave them a wink. “How about that?”

  “But, shouldn’t we do something?” Lyndra was looking at the surrounding trees like they were enemies.

  “How do you run from an earthquake?” Gareth chuckled. “Chiu is the only one here that can fly, and the air is the only really safe place.”

  Chiu gave him a sour look as she began to unpack the cooking gear. “Thanks a lot.”

  Gareth began to make a circle of rocks for a fire while Wokeg, in his ogre form, dragged over a log that was easily as big around as his waist for them to sit on. “We’ll probably have to get used to earthquakes, especially if this is all a part of a tectonic shift.” Lyndra dropped an armful of wood into the fire pit, and went to find another with Wokeg. By the time she and Wokeg returned with more wood for the night, Gareth had two chickens skewered and cooking over the flames, while four potatoes and four ears of corn sat roasting in the coals at the side.

  Wokeg’s eyes widened. “Cheeeken good!” He rumbled as he flowed into his human form, reaching for the nearest bird.

  Lyndra swatted the back of his hand with a small stick she’d been poking the fire with. In an explosion of sparks from the burning stick, Wokeg jerked his hand away with a slightly hurt expression on his face. “Here,” the blond woman began with a faint smile, “we wait until the food is cooked, and then we share.” Wokeg still had a few rough spots in his personality that Lyndra was determined to smooth out.

  A few minutes later Gareth pulled a golden brown chicken off the skewer, split it deftly with a stroke of his knife, and handed two plates, each containing half a chicken to Lyndra and Wokeg. He then did the same service for himself and Chiu.

  “Why is it that you do so much of the cooking for us?” Wokeg asked around a mouthful of bird. “In ogre communities, and in the caravan I noticed that the females usually had the domestic duties.”

  Gareth took a long sip of his hot tea and thought about his answer. “My father,” he said in a melancholy voice, “was a progressive thinker, and taught me how to cook. ‘Gareth,’ he said to me, ‘a man who knows how to cook will never want for a job.’” Gareth grinned and took a bite of chicken leg, the juices running down his chin. “We all have to eat, and the better I can cook, the better meals I have. It’s as simple as that.” The crickets and sounds of the night suddenly went silent, and a moment later Gareth felt more than heard a dull rumble far below his feet. “That was just another aftershock.” He said nonchalantly. “We might be feeling those for days.” The grumble from the Earth faded, and the sounds of the woods slowly returned.

  Chiu flared in for a landing, and stepped carefully down from the deck to join Gareth by the tiller. Since the earthquake some weeks ago, he’d asked Chiu to perform a morning reconnaissa
nce flight to check their future path. Once Chiu had sighted a churning mass of ice dragons, or ice snakes as Gareth thought of them, and Gareth had anchored the small boat until the danger passed. Now they were further down the Apheacham River and well out into the Gliahq Reservoir, but he’d decided to let Chiu continue her flights. They might not have to worry so much about ice dragons now, but pirates were another matter.

  She stretched, and he reached up to massage her shoulder muscles. He didn’t have to see her smile to know that it was there. “That feels good.” She slid a little closer to the massaging hand, and sighed in contentment. “I saw the city of Blajurgh in the distance before I turned to come back. At this speed we’ll reach it just after nightfall, and there are no other boats out and about. What are your plans?”

  The look he gave her was flat. “I’d like to sail on past Blajurgh tonight, and continue down to Phila by boat. When we get to Phila we’ll have to buy camels and join a caravan to cross the Shattered Plains. The boat captains I’ve spoken with all agree that continuing on downriver past Phila to Strizruofast isn’t a good idea. Pirates and slavers have chains set up across the river to stop traffic.”

  Chiu looked thoughtful. “It’s a good plan, but you’ve been at the tiller for twelve hours now without a rest. Let Lyndra and Wokeg steer for a while. You need a break.” Her tone was serious, but there was a sparkle in her eyes that Gareth recognized, and he smiled.

  “That’s a good idea. If you would be so good as to get Lyndra, I’ll turn the watch over to her.”

  There was no mistaking the look on Chiu’s face this time, and her beaming expression to him was warm. “I would be happy to.”

  Later, as Gareth took the tiller back from Lyndra, the blonde woman gave him, and Chiu, who was standing by his side, a mischievous look. “Strange.” She said glancing at the clouds. “While you were resting I thought I felt the boat tremble, like we were having another earthquake.”

  Gareth chuckled, while Chiu turned bright red. “I don’t think it’s anything for you to worry about.” He said, smiling.