Time Spiral

by Scott McGough

  Nine seconds, ten, eleven …

  Radha was mildly impressed by the strangers’ choice to go out and meet the barbarians head-on. The smaller of the two scaly ones used his blade-tail to take off a raider’s arm at the elbow then ripped another Gathan’s throat out with a savage bite. The larger scaly waded straight into the Gathans’ formation, trading blows with the raiders and leaving them facedown in his wake.

  Radha especially appreciated the humans’ fire magic. The unarmed girl was keeping safely out of the way, but the little male in red threw his bolas so that it wrapped tightly around a raider’s neck from fifty feet away. When the flaming weights all simultaneously slammed together on the target’s head, the entire apparatus exploded. Radha fought to restrain a lusty cheer and almost applauded.

  The red-garbed woman was also putting on a spectacular show. Orange fire flared whenever she used her batons to block or deflect an incoming blow. She rolled clear of the enemy, crossed her batons in front of her, and generated a killing blast of flames that cooked two of the lead Gathans where they stood.

  Despite their prowess, Radha knew the visitors were destined to lose. They were holding their own, but even now the colos horn sounded again, and a second wave of Gathans started thundering down into the valley. Man for man, the newcomers were up to the challenge, so it was too bad for them they were so badly outnumbered.

  Fifteen seconds, sixteen, seventeen …

  Radha eagerly searched the second wave for the warlord, the leader of the Gathan ’host, but he was not among them. Be patient, she reminded herself. She could forego a dozen bloody battles for the chance to meet the enemy chieftain in single combat.

  The horn sounded again, though the Gathan reinforcements weren’t even halfway down. Radha glanced up to the bugler and saw that a new barbarian warrior was holding the horn. Her eyes glazed over as she recognized Greht, her enemy, the Gathan’s greatest warlord. He had come to personally oversee this raid on the forest.

  Radha stopped counting and whispered aloud, “At last.”

  Greht lowered the colos horn. The Gathan warlord was gigantic, well over seven feet tall and absurdly overmuscled. His chest and arms were so swollen that Radha couldn’t imagine how he lifted a sword, much less fought with it. His waist was almost as wide as his shoulders and his legs were, like two barrels stacked on top of each other.

  The muscle-bound form was topped by a squat, square head and a flowing mane of black hair. Greht’s face was hidden under an angular metal mask that had been riveted directly into his forehead and cheeks. Red coals glowed deep within the mask’s iron eye sockets, and its jagged triangular teeth were clogged and coated with a flaky mixture of rust and dried blood.

  Patient, Radha repeated to herself. She would be patient, at least until Greht was closer. He would come down to celebrate if the battle went well for his warhost or to salvage the day for them if it went poorly. Either way, Radha would get her chance.

  Greht raised the colos horn to his metal mouth. The loudest peal yet floated down the mountain, overtaking the Gathan second wave before reaching those raiders already on the valley floor.

  The effect on all of the raiders was immediate. The sound energized them, engorged them, and renewed their vigor and their spirit in the face of a determined enemy. They moved faster, howled louder, and appeared bigger.

  A raider who had been caught flat-footed by the little scaly’s tail somehow managed to twist away from the killing stroke. Another Gathan swatted flaming bolas out of the air before they could snare him. Captain Llanach of the Skyshroud Rangers was borne to the ground under a lurching barbarian who was himself covered with fighting-mad elves.

  The tone of the skirmish quickly changed as the Gathans switched tactics. Instead of simply getting past the forest guardians, they now focused on crippling or killing as many as possible. They were the thin edge of the wedge, and all they had to do now was keep the battle going until the wide end followed them in, until the second wave reached the valley floor … which it was on the verge of doing.

  A severed elf’s head bounced clear of the confused tangle of bodies around Llanach, and the Gathan who chopped it took a dagger in the ribs for his trouble. Seemingly unaware of this injury, the decapitator lunged forward with the elf blade still in him and drove his forehead into that of the ranger who had stabbed him. Radha heard a fearsome crunch and watched as the lean elf warrior fell lifeless to the ground, his face caved in from the bridge of his nose to the top of his skull.

  Llanach struck back at the Gathan and missed, but the blow bought enough time for the elf captain to get back to his feet. The remaining rangers regrouped around him.

  At the other end of the valley, the barbarian who had dodged the scaly tail now grabbed hold of it and hauled backward with all his might, pulling the reptile warrior down onto one leg. Two other barbarians quickly closed on the vulnerable stranger, but the lizard’s larger tribe mate was lightning-fast. The bigger green scaly plowed in and swept aside the Gathans before they could butcher his comrade, taking only one serious axe blow to the chest as he sent all three raiders flying.

  A thick stream of flame blasted one of the hurled Gathans out of the air. Radha followed the fire back to the baton woman who’d cast it. She noticed another Gathan silently charging the woman before he pounced on her, but the foreign firecaster did not. The woman was quick enough to cross her weapons defensively in front of herself, but the Gathan’s broadsword broke through her guard with a single overhand blow.

  The sword cleaved through one of the woman’s batons and on through two of the fingers on her left hand. The red-garbed warrior drew a sharp breath, but she did not scream or cry out. Instead, she shoved the rounded tip of her remaining baton into the Gathan’s chest. He caught it easily, his huge hand swallowing the baton, the woman’s hand, and part of her forearm.

  Before he could crush bones and enchanted wood alike into splinters, the woman spat a loud curse in a strange tongue and the raider’s entire hand disappeared at the center of a bright yellow fireball. Then the woman planted her foot on the off-balance Gathan’s chest and shoved him away. She turned and cradled her wounded hand against her stomach as she withdrew, her feet digging into the hard, cold ground.

  She took only a single step before a huge, rough-knuckled hand clamped down on her head from behind. Its fingers were charred black and smoke drifted from cracked knuckles.

  “You call that fire?” The wounded Gathan laughed as he tightened his grip. With very little visible effort, he lifted the woman’s head until her feet came off the ground. She grabbed his wrist with both hands to keep her spine from separating. Blood from her hand steamed as it flowed across the barbarian’s blackened, smoking skin.

  “Here,” the brute snarled. “Choke on the true fires of Keld.” He brought his free hand around and clenched his fist. Smoke started to rise and a small, searing nugget of red light formed, still visible through his thick, callused fingers.

  Radha leaped to her feet. There was a flash of metal and a whisper of steel. The Gathan’s black hand opened and he dropped the baton woman. Half-blind and bleeding, the eight-fingered stranger rolled away. She looked back as she struggled to her feet, anticipating a death blow that never came.

  A large, sharp piece of metal stood imbedded in the Gathan’s face. It was about the size of an adult’s hand and shaped like an elongated teardrop. The blade’s thin, pointed end was buried deep in the bridge of the raider’s nose. Its larger, rounded side hung down in front of his chin. Dark blood trickled down both sides of the Gathan’s nose and his eyes bulged. He blinked. He teetered backward and fell with his burned hand extended, tightly clenched around the memory of his opponent.

  “The fires of Keld,” Radha said loudly, “burn only for Keldons.” Her voice cut through the other sounds in the valley, and though the melee did not stop, every combatant in the field began factoring this new arrival into the proceedings.

  “There’s only one Keldon in this valle
y,” Radha snarled, “and you’re all looking at her.”

  Driven by an unseen wind, Radha’s hair spread out behind her like a cobra’s hood. Her eyes flashed. The air around her head and shoulders hissed and popped as it filled with tiny green flames, each one distinctly shaped like a small oak leaf. Soon there were more than a dozen of the magnificent emerald blooms flickering around her.

  Radha relished the looks of surprise and confusion. From her belt she drew another tear-shaped blade, identical to the one she’d stuck in the Gathan’s face. The finger-grips along the tear’s inner edge allowed it to fit perfectly in her hand, the sharp point emerging from the top of her fist like a small dagger.

  Radha turned from the wounded baton woman and the other strangers to face the Gathans. She drew a second tear-shaped blade, holding it with the tip extending from the bottom of her fist. Arms flexed, Radha raised both weapons toward the raiders

  “Welcome to Skyshroud, you filthy mongrel bastards.” She turned to the remaining elf rangers and waved impatiently.

  “Withdraw, Llanach! Return to your camp and prepare for a feast. There’ll be fresh meat tonight.”

  With a raucous howl and without a single thought to Freyalise, Radha sprang toward the nearest Gathan, her blades raised high and a cloud of leafy flames trailing behind her.

  Teferi spoke clearly, emphasizing each word to show his interest. “Who is she?”

  Freyalise did not seem inclined to answer, but Teferi didn’t mind. It was a largely rhetorical question anyway, as he had already learned a great deal about the new arrival simply from observing her.

  Her name was Radha, but that was the only bit of information he could easily skim from her mind. The rest of her thoughts were guarded and violent and would require significant effort to pry out. From the few seconds he’d been watching her and reading her, he knew several things for certain. She was a warrior. She was proud. She was physically formidable.

  She was also beautiful, the most welcome sight Teferi had seen in quite a long time. Mana flowed to and from her so freely that she glowed and sparkled to his ascended eyes. She was like a fresh, bright flower among dry weeds, a clear mountain spring rising from an otherwise flat and featureless desert.

  He examined the battleground below him, his own near-infinite capacity for mana guiding him as a bat’s sonar guides it through the densest forest. There was significant combat and fire magic being tossed around down there, though neither Keld nor Skyshroud could provide the mana to fuel it. In this dying environment, all of the factions had turned to alternative sources of magical power: the Shivans had their mana stars, the elves had Freyalise’s blessings, and the Gathans had their warlord. The barbarian leader’s enhancing magic didn’t require much mana, but instead it collected each individual warrior’s strength and ferocity, mixed it all together, improved it, and returned it to them fivefold.

  Radha, on the other hand, employed no such alternative. She was drawing mana directly to her, the way mages had done on Dominaria for thousands of years. There was still the question of how she was using mana when there was no mana to use … or at least, nowhere near enough in the local environment. Somehow Radha had access to magical energy that no one else had, that no one else could even perceive. Teferi himself could not see Radha’s magic until it touched her and appeared as part of her flaming mantle.

  So many questions he was eager to answer. Where was the mana coming from? How was she drawing it to her? Should he be pleased to at last encounter the kind of robust magic he expected, or should he be concerned that it was so much more powerful than anything else in Keld? What was it about the fierce, unique, and exotic woman that was so distressingly familiar?

  He turned to face Freyalise, who was still glaring angrily down at the valley. The forest patron might likewise not be able to see the secret of Radha’s abundance, and so she might be interested in letting an experienced scholar investigate. Teferi continued to smile blandly. With this bargaining chip, he might yet convince Freyalise to help.

  “I will ask again, Protector of Skyshroud.” Teferi spoke solemnly. “But I will be more precise: what is she?”

  Freyalise glanced up at Teferi. “She is a child of my forest. A disobedient child. A reckless child.”

  “Does she have the spark?”

  The protector of Skyshroud’s face was inscrutable. “You tell me. We planeswalkers tend to recognize each other, even before we ascend. What do you see in her?”

  Teferi closed his eyes and tilted his head toward the woman. “She has something,” he said, “but it’s not the spark. She does not have the potential to become like us.”

  Freyalise’s expression softened. “You are correct, or at least, I concur. She will never be like us.”

  “She claims to be a true Keldon, and she clearly isn’t.”

  “No. Though she denies it daily, Radha is as much an elf of Skyshroud as she is a warrior of Keld.”

  “She is very important,” Teferi said musingly. “To me. And she will be more so.”

  “Radha is important to me,” Freyalise turned and squarely faced Teferi, “and she is mine. I have my own plans for her.”

  “Of course,” Teferi bowed slightly, “but we are reasonable beings. We can reach an understanding.”

  “We already have. Radha stays here to help me preserve her home. You will leave Skyshroud the instant this battle is complete, without ever meeting her.” Freyalise began to shine as her skin became tinged with crimson once more. Her features grew indistinct and alien in the unnatural glow, her eyes gleaming like twin suns. “That is the only understanding I care to come to this day.”

  “It will do,” Teferi nodded, his face unconcerned, “for today. But Radha is the key to my understanding this changed world, Freyalise. I mean to get Shiv back without catastrophe, and to do that I need as perfect an understanding as I can get. I need her.”

  “Skyshroud needs her more.”

  “Oh? What will Skyshroud gain by keeping her from me? How long have you been studying her, Freyalise? Skyshroud is still dying.

  “Keld can no longer support itself, much less your transplanted kingdom. How much of your power is devoted daily to keeping this place and its inhabitants alive? Is this subsistence-level half-life the abundant future you envisioned for your children when you brought them here?

  “Let me have Radha, Protector of Skyshroud. I am as devoted to learning and study as you are to your privacy. I will discover the Keldon elf’s secrets, mapping out her place in this strange world. What’s more, I will share what I discover with you, for knowing it may well be the answer to both our problems.”

  Freyalise’s angry aura subsided slightly. “You have no idea what you are asking, Tolarian.”

  “I think I do.”

  “But you do not.” Freyalise quickly returned to her fair-skinned elf guise. “Radha is far more trouble than she’s worth, and not only because she continues to defy my understanding.”

  Teferi smiled. “I have a long history of handling volatile personalities.”

  Freyalise smiled back, sadly. “Radha’s heart is a stone,” she said. “A sharp stone. Some who have tried to ‘handle’ her wound up bleeding and scarred but no closer to their goals.”

  “If one is careful,” Teferi said, “stones can be taken up safely. Stones can be aimed and thrown with precision.”

  “Stones can also be crushed,” Freyalise said, “and when one becomes an obstacle or a hindrance, they often are.” She turned back toward the battle. “Yet….”

  Teferi watched her think, her face expressionless and inscrutable.

  “She seeks to master the battle magic of Keld, to become a leader of armies,” Freyalise mused. “That is not so far removed from what I want for her.”

  “I only want to understand how she accesses mana. She is like the rift in that way, drawing energy to her. I will surely encourage her to increase her command and control over that energy, and that will make her a better warrior, a stronger lea
der. If she cannot learn to do this on her own, I will learn it myself and show her how.” He smiled confidently. “It won’t take long. A few days at the most.”

  Freyalise’s cold expression told him his confidence was misplaced, but she said, “You may take her when you go,” Freyalise said, “so long as you go quickly. While she is with you, I will be watching and listening.”

  Teferi nodded. “Of course.”

  “Then hear the final terms of our agreement, Tolarian. If you and the Shivans are not gone from Keld by sunrise, I will destroy you all. If Radha wishes to return to Skyshroud at any time, I will take her from you.” She turned a condescending eye toward Teferi and gestured to the valley below. “I will now withdraw my rangers and leave convincing Radha to you. Can you end this battle quickly and cleanly, or shall I?”

  Teferi bowed deeply. “You have done enough, Protector of Skyshroud.”

  Freyalise shook her head. “Madness,” she said. As she started to fade from sight, Freyalise called, “Farewell, Tolarian. Do not return, and remember to ’walk carefully near the rifts.”

  Teferi waited until he was sure Freyalise was gone then turned back to watch his exciting new prospect run rampant.

  Radha left a raider with a foot-long slash across his belly, spinning around behind him to avoid the splatter. She had never felt so alive.

  Greht’s influence made each of the Gathans her physical equal, but she was tearing through them as if they were children. She was as tall as all but the biggest of the raiders but so much leaner and quicker that she hadn’t yet sustained a single injury. She had been equal parts fast and lucky to remain intact for this long, and part of her was disappointed that the enemy wasn’t giving a better account of themselves. She had taken a serious toll on them, leaving five dead on the valley floor with spreading crimson stains beneath them.