Kings of Ghumai- The Complete series Box Set

by D N Meinster

  Grace had her staff back out after the prolonged respite. "You know him?"

  "Did you ever think you should listen to him?" Rikki replied without answering her question.

  "Not even once," Grace responded, tucking her staff back underneath the teal layers.

  "Why do you hide that?" Rikki asked.

  "Actually, you should hide yours, too." Grace held out her arm and allowed sheets of teal cloth to descend from under her sleeve onto the ground.

  "Why?" Rikki asked.

  "Mages have never been very welcome in Faunli," Grace answered. "It's even worse now." She pointed her staff at the pile of aquamarine fabric and within a second it started wrapping itself around Rikki.

  "We could try turning invisible," Rikki said as the sheets bound her legs.

  "’Cause that worked out so well for you," Grace quipped.

  Once Rikki was well concealed beneath the layers of teal, they resumed their trek. "So what exactly is Uterak doing in Radite?" Rikki asked.

  "We shouldn't converse when we're in the middle of these fields," Grace replied.

  They walked in silence after that. Rikki remained perturbed by the whole situation but felt a nagging curiosity about Uterak's part in Neanthal's machinations. Were there more profound reasons for his resurrection? Perhaps Magenine had sent her back here to learn how vast their enemy's plan was. Uterak could have been selected for rebirth in the future. That still didn't explain why Grace was so keen on getting to him.

  Who was this Grace, anyway? She didn't recall her from any history texts. Could she be a sin mage? Or on her way to Radite to become one? Rikki ceased moving once again. This could all be a trap.

  Grace came to a halt and her shoulders sank. "What now? We're almost there."

  Rikki tugged at the cloth to try and loosen it while she thought up a response. "Have you ever seen Neanthal?"

  "No," Grace said. "And I don't plan to."

  Rikki eyed her with suspicion.

  "Bitch, are you having problems trusting me?" Grace said with some amusement. "I have no idea if you're about to stab me in the back, and you don't trust me?"

  "I've never heard of you either," Rikki responded.

  "Because you have amnesia," Grace said. "Or did you forget that you'd forgotten?"

  Rikki pulled at the teal fabric with added fury. "I...This is ill-fitting."

  "And you rushed to join me. You can go back." Grace resumed her excursion.

  Rikki chased after her seconds later. "Sorry. I'm having a hard time adjusting."

  "To what?" Grace snarled.

  "Everything," Rikki sighed.

  Grace stopped as the field began to dip. "Radite is up ahead. We won't be able to shift inside, but we should be able to shift right to the wall. That should get us past the Massku."

  Rikki knew that word. The Massku were the legions of Neanthal's forces; those that he had forged from his own dark soul. She'd also heard them go by another name: the Ifta. Though that word may have been exclusive to those that abandoned Neanthal. She wasn't quite sure.

  "Ready?"

  Rikki stretched out her hand.

  "What are you doing?" Grace asked.

  "I can't shift by myself."

  "You can't shift?" she asked, finding it hard to believe such a pronouncement.

  "No one taught me," Rikki bemoaned. And then it struck her. "You could teach me!"

  "Quiet down," Grace replied. "Do I look like a teacher to you?"

  "No, but why else would I run into you?" she asked, getting rather excited. "Magenine sent me here for a reason."

  "Magenine?" Grace repeated the name like she'd never said it before. "That Goddess Quentin wouldn't stop going on about?"

  It took a moment for Rikki to realize how far back she'd actually gone. Neanthal had revealed Magenine's existence after he arrived. He must have just done that, meaning he'd only been in Ghumai for a short period of time. It was tempting to try and stop him now; to reveal how they'd defeated him the first time and do it before he could inflict any real harm. But what if that somehow made things even worse? Rikki swatted it from her mind, reiterating her latest revelation to herself. She didn't come here to alter history. She was here to learn to shift.

  "So you believe in Her?" Grace asked.

  "You will too, someday," Rikki replied.

  Grace squinted at her. "I'll teach you to shift on two conditions. One, you help me get Uterak out of Radite. And two, you tell me who you really are."

  "It's a deal," Rikki replied.

  "Good." Grace took out her staff and held it up to Rikki.

  Before Rikki placed her hand on it, she asked, "Why didn't you shift straight there to begin with?"

  Grace looked away as she answered. "I was having some trouble shifting this morning."

  "Oh great," Rikki replied as she grabbed onto the white and blue rod. In an instant, her body went numb and the green fields started to fade away. High red walls and throngs of Neanthal's forces replaced their surroundings.

  Grace flung Rikki off her staff and placed her channeling crystal on the wall. When nothing happened, she silently begged Rikki to do the same.

  Rikki touched her staff to the same location and imagined a hole forming in the wall to let them through. But the wall remained unchanged, refusing to bend to their magic.

  As they continued to try to break past Radite's defenses, a sharp chill ran through Rikki and she turned to find a black blade inches from impaling her.

  Rikki swung her staff and shattered the black sword upon making contact with it. The black plated soldier retreated before the shards even hit the ground

  Two more plated Massku took his place.

  Grace took her staff from the wall and stood side-by-side with Rikki. "Let's show these assholes what mages can do."

  Green flames enveloped Rikki until the blue-green material disintegrated and the gray dress beneath was completely visible.

  Grace's garb merely transformed into a tight blue robe that hardly made it to her knees. She ran forward first, and with a rather mighty swing, sent two plated Ifta soaring into the sky without even making physical contact.

  Unsure she could manage such a feat, Rikki instead rammed her staff into the ground, splitting the earth so it could swallow incoming Massku.

  Four-legged demibeasts managed to avoid the cracks and sprang for the two mages.

  Grace smashed her staff into the snout of one before it could clamp its teeth down on Rikki. It sank to the ground, almost certainly dead.

  Hands formed from dirt and grass rose up from the ground and ensnared another two demibeasts. Rikki compelled her manifestations to crush the creatures in their grip.

  Grace pushed Rikki aside as a few black swords nearly nicked her. She retaliated with a gigantic fireball, which swallowed several of their adversaries.

  As more demibeasts charged at them, Grace and Rikki took to bonking them on the heads with their staffs. With stylish coordination, they made sure no fanged monster could touch the other. Piles of them started to gather in front of the wall, until they finally abandoned their attack.

  The plated Massku made their move after the demibeasts failed. Fifty of them, possibly more, lined up, all with their swords drawn and preparing to strike.

  Rikki and Grace looked each other in the eye, confident they could take them on. They held their staffs out, ready to meet this threat and defeat it.

  "Enough!" someone shouted from behind.

  Uterak hopped down from the top of the wall, landing beside Grace. He was dressed not in the golden armor Rikki had remembered him in but in black metal similar to the Massku. His face was the same, though: the dark eyes and skin, the mustache. "What are you doing here, Grace?" he demanded to know.

  "I came for you," Grace replied, angry that she even had to answer such a question.

  "I told you not to," Uterak said. He placed his hand on the sword hanging from his hip.

  "What are you doing?" she asked in a harsh whisper.
r />   "You can tell Aergo that it's over," Uterak said. "Neanthal has already won."

  Rikki knew that it was true, but didn't say anything. Uterak didn't seem to notice her. It was best it stayed that way.

  "What did you find out?" Grace demanded to know.

  "He's a god," Uterak said. "We're all meant to serve him."

  Grace gazed at Uterak like she didn't recognize him. "We serve the King."

  Rikki was sure she saw despondence in Uterak's countenance, but it was immediately replaced by a more hardened demeanor.

  "You can tell your mortal king that his end is near. Neanthal is coming for him." Uterak turned away from her and made to leave.

  "I'll tell him that you failed," Grace replied. She held out her staff for Rikki.

  Rikki touched the staff and immediately shifted away. Within seconds she was back amongst the trees where she had first met Grace.

  "What was he supposed to do?" Rikki asked.

  Grace only answered with sobs.

  Rikki assumed they must have been friends, or even something more. "Grace?"

  "He was ordered to find out what he could about Neanthal, not join him," she finally answered. "He was supposed to come back." She stared at Rikki, her eyes red and cheeks puffy. "You owe me your story now."

  "It can wait," Rikki assured her.

  "No," Grace said. "Now."

  Rikki went on to explain who she was and where she was from. She felt she owed Grace that much. But she left out several vital details, in the hopes of preserving the history she had read about. There was no reason for that to change. It all worked out in the end, didn't it? Or, at least it worked for about three hundred years.

  "You must keep this secret," Rikki urged her. "Tell no one."

  "It's not possible," Grace said. "No one has ever done it."

  Rikki couldn't help but smile as she said, "I'm the first."

  "And you did it by accident!" Grace began a fit of giggles that lasted far too long.

  "That's why I need you to help me shift," Rikki told her.

  "So what happens to me?" Grace asked as she gained control over her laughs. "And what happens to Uterak?"

  "Uterak remains loyal to Neanthal," Rikki said, sure that such a fact was already obvious.

  "And me?"

  "I don't know."

  "Nothing fit for the history books, then?" Grace said. "But the damn guardian traitor gets a mention?"

  So Uterak was a guardian? It made sense that all of the Thalians would be traitors of some sort. Before Neanthal, everyone was loyal to the King of Kytheras.

  "Does this all turn out well?" Grace asked.

  "I can't tell you," Rikki replied. "But, you know, I'm here."

  Grace snorted. "I wonder who Amelia hooks up with. I always thought she was a lesbian."

  "You can't tell her!" Rikki shouted.

  "Shhhh," Grace responded. "I won't." Her eyes fell upon Rikki's staff once more. "To think Amelia literally has that same staff, right at this moment."

  Grace was spending too much time dwelling on this situation. "Can you teach me to shift now?" Rikki whined.

  She grinned in response. "You must have had one shit teacher. Shifting is easy."

  "Really?" Rikki said in disbelief. If it was that simple, she wouldn't have wound up so far from where she meant to be.

  "You must be thinking about it all wrong," Grace said. "When you want to shift someplace, all you have to do is know that you're there already."

  "What?"

  "Shifting is all about being in two places at once. You only need make one of those places fade away, and then you'll be in the other."

  Rikki considered what Grace was telling her. "So it's not about feeling numb? And going someplace else?"

  "That's totally wrong," Grace said. "It's probably how you wound up here."

  Rikki thought she understood, but there was really only one way to test it. "I'm already there."

  "Wait," Grace warned. "You might want to go back to that abyss you mentioned first."

  "Why?" Rikki said, her skin getting goosebumps at the very thought of it.

  "It's best to do exactly what you did to get here, except in reverse," Grace said. "Don't you think?"

  Rikki couldn't argue with that. If that place existed outside of time, it would make sense how she ended up in the wrong Faunli. "But there's something there, in the dark."

  "After I just saw you take on the Massku, you're telling me you're afraid?"

  It may not have made sense to Grace, but whatever was in that abyss scared Rikki more than Neanthal's peons ever could. She had no desire to go back to it.

  "If you faced it – "

  "I'm glad I don't have to," Grace said. "But you do. Go on now, Rikki. Haven't you messed up time enough for one day?"

  Rikki smiled at Grace. She had a point. "Thank you, Grace."

  "Don't mention it. Actually, do mention it. Write me into the margins of a history book or something. I don't like to think I'll be forgotten."

  "You won't be," Rikki assured her. And with that, Rikki immediately contemplated that she was currently in two places at once: Faunli and the abyss. And as she thought more of it, Faunli began to fade away.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Reason to Hope

  They were gone and there was an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. Blood was seeping from a wound he could not treat. His jaw ached from the impact of someone's mace. Aros had been left to die in the fields of Faunli.

  He no longer feared death, if he ever did to begin with. He had been acquainted with it when he was younger, when his father had passed. Comforting thoughts of the Great Bastion and an increase in chores had eventually pushed it all from his mind. An emptier house became normal.

  Aros had been able to move past that death in a way he had not been able to do with Leidess. In losing her, he had lost himself. Perhaps it was because he was older. Or that he had known her even longer than he had known his own dad. And even knowing that she continued to live on in the Great Bastion did little to quell his melancholy.

  So there he was, bleeding out onto the grass he lay on, and he was perfectly fine with the inevitable outcome. This was where he was going to die; alone, but only for a short while. Leidess was only a brief trip away. And so was his father. To be with them again would be more than he would ever get in this life.

  But wait. Hadn't he just seen Leidess? Didn't she want him to do something?

  Aros' eyes went in and out of focus as they gazed into the sky. Clouds charged through the vast blue. The sun moved ever so slightly as he watched it. It was so magnificent. The Great Bastion must resemble that. He'd know soon enough.

  Leidess wanted him to kill Sarin! He'd failed, but he was sure she'd understand. He didn't have the power to heal himself. He wasn't a mage.

  Mage.

  Rikki. Where was Rikki? She had gone somewhere. Shifted somewhere. Far away. Too far. She couldn't save him. He didn't need to be saved. He didn't want to be saved. It was almost time to go.

  The sun stayed high up in the sky, but the world was getting darker. It was so odd, since there were so few clouds. Had the darkness returned to Ghumai? Was Neanthal back?

  Neanthal. He had failed to stop him. He would have to explain what happened. That woman. It was her fault.

  Why had she taken Doren? And who was she? Some lady with an eyepatch.

  A crunching sound nearby slipped Aros out of his daze. Was she back to finish him? Aros tried to get a better look but he found it difficult to turn his head. His body did not want to move. There was too much pain; too much blood.

  He hoped she would make it quick. Eyepatch could send him straight to Leidess with one more bash of her mace. It could all be over.

  But what would she do with Doren? And who would find Rikki?

  Aros tried to move again, but it was too painful. There was no saving them. There was no saving him.

  But then who would do it? There was no one else. If Aros died, his friends die
d. That wasn't right.

  No. He couldn't let that happen.

  "Get up," Aros mumbled to himself. His body squirmed amidst the grass as he made another attempt to move.

  "Don't get up," someone else said.

  Or did Aros say that to himself?

  It didn't matter. He couldn't listen to that part of himself anymore. He had to save them.

  "Stay in place. Don't get up."

  Aros wasn't talking to himself. There was someone else with him.

  The revelation made the world brighter, and the pain in his body clearer. Aros took shallow breaths as he turned his head as best he could to get a look at whoever had joined him.

  "If only I, too, had a mace."

  A man with a prolonged metal beak was standing over him. Aros knew this man. What was his name? He didn't have pupils, and he looked rather raggedy.

  "J-J-Jaa," Aros tried to sound out his name with his rather parched lips.

  "Is it my name you are trying to speak? I wouldn't bother. You are clearly too weak."

  Too weak? Aros would show him. He still had his...

  No. He no longer had his clawblades. Eyepatch had taken them. He was completely defenseless. He was going to die.

  "Jient," Aros finally spat out.

  Jient slid his fingers along the side of his beak. "I am willing to save you. Pledge yourself to Neanthal. That is all you must do."

  Aros tried to grasp what that would mean. If he pledged himself and allowed Jient to save him, could he back out? He knew someone who had done something like that. Yveen? No. That was the woman that had attacked him with a mace. She had taken his blades. She had put him in this position.

  It couldn't be so simple. If he allowed a Thalian to revive him, that would put him in Neanthal's debt. And he would be called upon to repay. That could make him an even worse threat than he'd been. Even as unstable as he was, he was still a Magenite. He would never knowingly betray his friends. This would change that.

  But then who would rescue his friends? Either way, they were doomed.

  "Live or die," Jient stated. "That is your choice. What is your response? I need to hear your voice."

  Aros could feel the tears flowing from his eyes. He clenched his fingers together, bit his lip, and fought his way through the agony in order to sit up off the ground. He grabbed onto his knees and glared up at the Thalian. "I choose Magenine. I choose my friends."