The Immortals Part One: Shadows & Starstone

by Cheryl Mackey

  ***

  Jadeth rushed after Ivo. Jaeger followed, pausing to grab both of their helms. They hurried after him into the night, knowing without asking what he was looking for.

  Jadeth lifted her hammer and a dim green light lit up the narrow path before them. They frantically searched the shadows between rock outcroppings and bushes that rattled in the screaming wind. The path wound steeply, carving through sheer cliffs and rock outcroppings, leaving little space available for what they looked for.

  “There must be one here,” Jadeth muttered and glanced up the path—but the light from her hammer only lit up a few yards at best. They did not dare to do anything else or risk attracting the attention of more minions that they knew were out there.

  Jaeger worriedly watched his brother walk ahead, his stride stiff with single minded determination. He could see Emaranthe's arm swinging loosely and a pale ribbon of her hair drifted in the wind over Ivo’s arm. They had to find a Solarium soon. Without the pedestal, a miniature temple to The Four, there would be no concentrated energy to heal Emaranthe... and there would be no coming back for their friend. He thanked The Four for realizing that Immortals with no ability to quickly heal and return to battle were useless. Far too many had lost their bodies in the early years of The Immortal Wars, and far too few were reincarnated in time without the temples. The Dro-Aconi had grown wise to their use and destroyed many of them over the years.

  “Here! Here!” Jadeth’s shriek broke Jaeger’s thoughts and both he and Ivo stumbled and turned.

  To their left in a jagged indentation of the cliff, a huge bush jerked and shook as Jadeth grabbed the spiny stems and leaves and yanked. A handful of thorns and small leaves ripped free. She pulled again and several spindly stems gave out. Thorns bit into her fingers and palms, but she reached for another handful. Beyond the bush Jaeger and Ivo could just see the small, half- arched stone and iron pillars that marked it as a Solarium. They were lucky. So many had been destroyed by their enemy over the decades.

  Jaeger slid his axe free and pushed Jadeth away. She danced aside just as the blade arced through the air, glinting silver and green in the glow of the hammer, and buried itself in the bush with a brittle crack. Bits of leaves, long stems and thorns, spun away on the wind. A second whack. A third.

  Jaeger swung the axe a fourth time, sending the rest of the brittle stems scattering. Thunder rumbled further ahead of them, shaking the ground. The pedestal uncovered now but for a few remnants of dead cactus, shimmered in the glow of Jadeth’s hammer. Jaeger glanced at Ivo, but looked away as he caught his brother’s tight, pained look. He backed away as he shouldered the axe and moved to stand beside Jadeth.

  Grim and silent, Ivo moved forward and carefully placed the tiny figure upon the circular, knee-high stone pedestal. Emaranthe's cloak and robes, already overly large for her fragile frame, covered her easily as a death shroud…

  “I am so sorry, Emaranthe,” Ivo’s whisper vanished on the wind as he backed away. Guilt sat heavy in his chest, tight and painful. A delicate sniff to his left reminded him that he wasn’t the only one there and he walked with pained slowness to stand beside his other two best, and only, friends.

  “Please work. Please work. Please work,” Jadeth whispered and sniffed, her eyes unashamedly wet. The wind screamed and moaned through the narrow path, dragging her hair into her face.

  Jaeger felt her hair drag across his shoulder guards and snag on the sharp edges. Atypically, he ignored it, but instead his gaze traveled fitfully between the still shape on the pedestal and his brother’s stony face. His hand fisted. They waited.

  Out of the green-hued shadows, symbols and shapes glowed white hot on the stone pedestal. Jadeth’s hammer fell from her startled fingers and the green glow vanished, replaced by the light of the intricate runes covering the stone. Even the wind buffeted and stilled.

  The white runes glowed brighter as Emaranthe's petite body began to fade.

  Ivo swallowed thickly but forced himself to watch as she slowly drifted into nothingness, the bright runes more and more visible through her body as she vanished. At last there was nothing left on the pedestal but the glowing shapes and symbols carved by The Four long ago. The glow gradually intensified.

  Shielding her eyes, Jadeth squinted into the light. Jaeger was doing likewise. Ivo still stared fully into the white hot light, his mouth tight, his gaze searching, hopeful.

  A small, dark shape walked out of the light.

  Fiery eyes glittered in the white light and a small gloved hand curled around a staff. Blonde braids trailed in the buffeting wind, dragging the worn hood from her head.

  She inhaled heavily and smiled widely at Ivo, Jadeth, and Jaeger, as the runes faded behind her, the light flickering and moving oddly— like fire.

  “Emaranthe!” Jadeth launched herself at her friend, forgetting for the moment that she towered over the tiny woman, and tackled her to the ground.

  Laughing and crying both women hugged unashamedly on the rocky ground. In the background, Ivo and Jaeger traded exasperated looks. Women.

  Emaranthe pulled free from Jadeth and stood. Jadeth retrieved her fallen hammer and the green glow once again banished the darkness. Ivo and Jaeger stood uncertainly in the long shadows cast by the pedestal.

  Her gaze flicked between the brothers. Ivo’s face was grim with self loathing, his eyes watchful in the dark, as if awaiting reproach. Jaeger, too, looked worried and pained… something he would never admit to in any lifetime.

  She halted before Ivo and stared far up at him.

  “Thank you.” Emaranthe whispered. Her staff clattered to the ground as she wound thin arms around his waist, armor and all. Ivo froze, startled. He had expected blame and anger, not this.

  “You thank me for letting you die?” Ivo rasped. “I should be begging your forgiveness and thanking you for saving us.”

  “I didn’t die in vain if it saved you.” Emaranthe said softly. “And I would do it again and again, Ivo.”

  Ivo closed his eyes as guilt battled with relief at her return. He knew all too well that sometimes there is no return for an Immortal if the soul is too wounded. Their immortality, a gift from desperate gods, was fickle at best. You were counted lucky if you kept your current body for more than a handful of reincarnations, because with each new body all your previous memories were jumbled, even lost.

  Ivo wondered if that would be a blessing... and wondered how many bodies, lives, he’d lived unremembered so far. The thought was nothing compared to the terror of losing the friends who had been at his side, loyal and brave, for three hundred years.

  Ivo’s iron and chainmail-clad arms gingerly returned the hug, even more mindful now just how small and fragile Emaranthe really was.

  Jaeger watched with a tiny, twisted smile, noting how uncomfortable his brother was, as if Ivo wanted her to yell and blame. It wasn’t Ivo’s fault…

  Emaranthe let go of Ivo and shot Jaeger a wide, sad smile.

  “Oh no,” Jaeger held up both hands to hold her off. “Uh, no mushy stuff.”

  “Hehe. All right.” Emaranthe said. She sighed and bent to retrieve her staff. She caught his gaze and smiled.

  No mushy stuff.

  Jaeger grinned and returned the acknowledgement.

  No mushy stuff indeed.