by Bill Albert
Bound to the wall, defenseless, Angelia and Blinks looked at each other. Their hearts were pounding and there was a cascade of emotions that left them unable to speak.
It was as if the entire world froze when they heard a high-pitched cry from above. The attacking spiders held their positions and looked up into the darkness. There was movement as something so impossibly big it was hard to understand that it could move in a confined space like the caves came down before them. If its size wasn’t enough to give it away the stripes of white fur on its back made it clear that it was the queen.
The spiders on the ground cleared enough area for her to land. There was no sense of fear or urgency around them. They were just making way for their leader.
The queen looked at Angelia and Blinks and clacked her pincers at them incredibly close. She reached down and picked up the flame sword by the handle and held it incredibly close to them. Both were expecting the queen to kill them and were completely caught off guard when, gently and deliberately, she burned the webs away and freed them. Their eyes blinked as they adjusted to the change in light and focused on Lincilara floating just over the queen’s shoulder.
The queen made several noises, instructions to her subjects, and they patiently disappeared into the darkness. The queen looked back at Angelia and Blinks and gave them a series of clacks and whistles.
“She says we can go interrupted,” Lincilara translated. “We’ll be left in peace.”
“My little angel. How did you do that?” Angelia asked staring at the fairy.
“We talked,” was all Lincilara answered.
The queen moved close again and her breath brushed across their faces.
“Save the elves,” the queen said with a whisper. “We understand what it is like to be judged,” she finished and then pulled back.
“Wait a minute,” Angelia called and then looked to Lincilara. “I need you to tell her something for me.”
Lincilara nodded and translated Angelia’s words exactly.
It took several minutes for Angelia to use her powers to heal the wounded spiders. Blinks watched quietly then finally turned to Lincilara.
“In the world of Starpoint there is no one as brave as you,” he said to her. “I only hope that, someday, I can live up to the example you have set.”
Lincilara blushed, smiled, then kissed him on the nose.
Once they got started, they walked quickly with no interruptions and they were soon near the mouth of the burial grounds. To their surprise there was a light inside. Blinks and Angelia spread out to make sure no one could come up from the side and Lincilara fluttered between them. They nodded to each other when they were ready and stepped inside in unison.
There were six guards from the outpost standing inside the cave. They stood, unmoving, in various positions giving the impression that they had simply walked into the cave as if it was nothing unusual. Two more armor, but only one had his weapon in hand. One was carrying a parchment unrolled as if he’d been reading it. What had an empty mug dangling from his fingers. Two more head torches that were still burning but were almost down to their timber and there was enough ash on the ground beneath them to indicate they had been burning for several days. The guards were quite dead and, though they stayed in position, their bodies have been steadily decaying. Their skin was blue, and their eyes sunk back into their sockets.
Angelia gently pull the torch from one of the guards with her wand in hand ready for attack. The torch slipped out easily and she waves the torch near the guard’s face but got no reaction. She looked at Blinks who was on the guard’s other side.
“I can smell them,” Lincilara said.
“That’s good,” Blinks said.
“That’s wrong, Lincilara pointed out. “Even the dead have a certain smell to them.”
“She’s right,” Angelia nodded. “These men and been dead for several days. The decaying older should be overpowering by now.”
“wait a minute. This one smells like dead flowers,” Lincilara said as she circled the one holding the parchment.
Lincilara fluttered and close to his shoulder and tried to push him back.
“Stay away,” she cried urgently. “Please get back.”
Blinks and Angelia were surprised by her urgency, but luckily still had their weapons in hand, when the undead guard dropped the parchment and grabbed the fairy out of the air.
Blinks jumped forward and grabbed the guard’s hand to prevent it from shoving Lincilara into its mouth. It was incredibly strong, and Blinks was forced to jam his arm against his chest to keep her distant. He tried swinging in with his flame sword but knew that if you move to make a clean strike the fairy would die.
“Drop!”
“Pull!” Angelia ordered him and he let his body fall to the ground while maintaining a grip on its wrist. The shift in weight pull the hand away from his mouth and Angelia drove her arm down hard on his elbow. There was a sickening crack as the bone split and everything below the elbow came free.
Blinks cradled the arm and rolled away. The muscles had gone limp so Lincilara was free and he gently laid her on to one side near a rock where she couldn’t be seen. Then he was on his feet to continue fighting off the guard.
Angelia had struck the guard in the shoulder and the rest of the arm had completely broken off. It had punched at her with his remaining arm in stature with luck by striking her in the jaw. She was forced to fall back.
Blinks step forward with a devastating blow and removed its head. The body jerked around wildly jabbing at thin air and he ducked to stay out of reach.
Angelia looked at her gold tipped wand. She spoke a very brief incantation and tossed the wand into the air. There was a blur of light as the wand went up into 2-foot-long club fell out of the darkness into her hand. She swung hard and completely crush the skull and the body drop to the ground into heap of bones and dried flesh.
“Behind you!” Blinks warned her and she turned to find the guard still holding the torch rapidly approaching them. She waves the club in front of its face, but the cast had no effect on his blank, dead eyes.
Blinks was about to advance to help her when he felt something strike is back, he turned quickly to see the guard with a weapon, a short sword, had hit him. They hit with small and the red cast in the armor prevented him from getting hurt, but he knew better than to depend on luck.
He swung at the armed guard but this one was faster than the rest and managed to lean back out of his way. Blinks his flame sword was longer but the armed guard was smaller and could maneuver out of the way. He reversed the path of its sword and manage to cut a foot-long slice into its chest.
He stepped forward and turn to circle around it. As he turned, he saw the guard using its torch as a club fighting with Angelia. The torch and the club collided in midair and there was a shower of light and sparks that forced him to look away.
The armed guard had moved in closer and took a few swings at them. It was close but not enough to hit him. He swung high but it backed out of the way and he missed. He made a full circle, at a strength as he went, and lowered the blade. He struck it just above the knees and there was another sickening crash as the bones of the legs splintered and it fell back to the ground. It lost the short sword and clawed at the air but since it seems confused Blinks left it to help Angelia.
As he approached the guard swung the torch at her. She ducked out of the way and stood so quickly she could use the attacker’s momentum against it. She pushed the torch in and soon the guards close Ron fire.
Blinks repeated his attack on the last guard and struck this one low and hard. A collapse to the ground and she crushed its skull with her club. The body simply collapsed onto the ground.
They glanced at each other but before they could say anything the sounds of the legless guard trying to move caught their attention. They ran to it and finished it off until it stopped moving completely.
What about the rest?” Angelia asked.
“Watch them,”
he called and hurried to where he had hidden Lincilara.
He was relieved to find her exactly where he had left her, but now her body was curled up like a sleeping baby. Her wings were wrapped around her like a cocoon, but he could see, just barely, that she was still breathing. Blinks picture up and cradled her with one hand and slowly stroked her body with his index finger.
“We can’t stay here for long,” Angelia pointed out to him. “We have to get moving before those three do,” she said pointing at the remaining guards.
Blinks pulled a green cloth bag from his pocket inside his armor. He emptied the giant, dwarven, and human coins out to the dirty sand and gently slid Lincilara inside. Even more carefully he put her back under his armor for protection. They soon stood up and started moving.
The closer they got to the library the faster they ran. Blinks and Lincilara knew there was nothing between them and the library and Angelia picked up on their enthusiasm. They were all smiling when they reached the top step that led to the stone courtyard of the library. Their smiles faded and they came to a stop when was clear to them what had happened.
A large chunk of one of the libraries walls was missing. There were debris scattered in all directions giving the impression that inside the library something had exploded. There are cracks in the covered ceiling directly above the whole and some of the rubble stretched all the way across the courtyard to them.
Inside the library, they could see dozens and dozens of bookshelves had collapsed and books were scattered across the floor. Not far inside they could see other piles of ashes and the charred remains of books that had been burnt. Other places were filled with books that had been torn to shreds and whipped carelessly about. From the bottom of the steps they could see the tree that had blossomed inside the library. It’d been split in half as if struck by lightning in the fire had obviously started in the core and had consumed most of the books on the second floor.
Lincilara fluttered over to sit on Blinks’ shoulder. She took a good grip on his collar and started crying. Blinks stared at the ruins and sat down on the steps in shock. Angelia move next to him and, so struck she could not speak, she reached over and grabbed his hand for support.
Most of the library had been completely destroyed and they could swear they heard someone in the distance laughing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: SCREAMS IN THE LIBRARY
With their weapons ready they went to the bottom step and looked at the broken stone courtyard.
“I imagine this was quite beautiful,” Angelia said sadly.
“It was magnificent,” Lincilara replied.
“Lincilara, can you sense anything different from the first time here?” Blinks asked. “Other castes still in place?”
“Some of them are,” Lincilara said fluttering up and down as she spoke. “The outer shell that would allow who got in and out is still there. There’s very little left on the top floor, some round the edges on the bottom, and a few hints of castings around the tree.”
“What about Marassa?” He asked hesitantly.
“Nothing distinct,” she answered relieved that she had something to concentrate on. “There’s been a lot of fire in there. The smoke and fumes are confusing lots of things.”
“Maybe we should get moving,” Angelia suggested. “See if there are any clues in there of what we are looking for. How did you manage to find things the first time?”
“We really didn’t,” Blinks shook his head. “It was like it found us, like it knew what we needed to find”
“I hope there’s enough life left in this library to do that again,” Lincilara said they continued when he glanced at her. “I’m sure of it now, this library is alive, or at least it will be for a little while longer. It’s wounded,” she said solemnly. “I can hear it scream. We have to hurry.” Without a pause, they all went forward and soon enter the library. They didn’t speak for a while looking at all the devastation. Blinks was the first to pick up a book and he shook his head in frustration after opening it.
“I can’t read it,” he said as he rose and gently put the book away.
“No, me neither, it’s all the Dragon alphabet now,” Lincilara said. Angelia picked up a book and was disappointed to see the unfamiliar characters as well. “There are 897 letters in the alphabet,” she said sadly. “Just knowing half would be enough to start translating that book.”
“But that book wouldn’t do you any good,” Marissa said as she appeared before them.
Blinks and Angelia quickly stood and held their weapons in her direction. Lincilara took up a stance above them prepared to do what she could.
This was not the same Marassa that they had left behind. That woman had been angry, obsessed with herself, and had the heart of a demon. This woman was mad and even the demon could not survive her heart.
She still had the wiry hair and the cast robe that blurred and shifted her form, but now her hair was silver, and her hands had transformed into claws. She was standing in midair a few feet off the ground.
“That book details the life cycles of the red squirrels. Worthless!” She flicked a finger at the book and the pages instantly burst into flames. Angelia dropped the book and stepped away. Even though the book was close there was a steady string of smoke rising and they knew the pages were still burning. Marassa danced in the air and Lincilara covered her ears from the shattering screams.
“Don’t do that again! Angelia warned her. “Burning books is never an option.”
Marassa gave a wild howl of laughter and for old and the air several times. When she finished, she flicked a finger at Angelia. The young woman saw her movement and jump to one side. The fire bolt hit the book and finally the cover was incinerated.
“Next time I’ll do the same to you, freak, Marassa said to Angelia then looked at the rest. “You, the man, I’ll burn you from the inside. And you, the puny fairy, I’ll make you my puppet.”
“No,” Blinks said stepping closer to the hovering woman. “We’ve come to relieve you.”
It was obvious that she had not expected this news. She fell forward and horizontally floated towards him until she could look them in the face.
“You’re lying.”
“No,” Blinks said. “I will replace you here.” With a crooked smile the floating Marassa gave him a long, hard look. She glared at him, then at the tunnel out, then back at him.
“Why?” She asked honestly.
“I want something from you first.”
“A promise,” she said with a cackling laugh. “Of course, I’ll make you a promise!” She shrieked and rolled several times one holding her position in the air. “NO!” She suddenly yelled and flicked her finger to one side. A fire bolt sliced through the air, but Lincilara was fast enough to be able to avoid the fire and the bolt struck a corner of the building.
The entire building shook in response and they all heard the distant moan of something in pain.
Lincilara circled away from Marassa but didn’t retreat. “One book,” Blinks said flatly. “One book and I will take your place in the library.”
Despite her distrust Marassa couldn’t help but be curious. “What book?”
“One that will save the fairies,” he said gently. After waiting for her to respond for a moment he continued. “The source stones, the focus stones, like the ones you use, Marassa. They are prison cells cast on the fairies. They hold living creatures.”
Marassa hovered in confusion as she searched through her memory. Yes, she remembered the fairy from before. She reached under her multilayer robe and pulled out four of the glowing stones, she shifted them around, then slowly started to smile. She held her hand flat and, using the fingers of from her other hand, made the stones float in the air. Once they were all suspended, she held her hand above them in regular fingers. As if suspended by invisible wires they started dancing in the air. She stared at them intently and started to smile as she increased their moves. Faster and faster they went, and she started to laugh aloud. In one
final swoop she tossed the stones high into the air it wider and faster circles. She flicked a finger and blasted them with a fire bolt. She cried in ecstasy as the blank, dark stones dropped to the ground.
“Stop!” Blinks ordered.
Horrified, Lincilara swept down to retrieve them but Marassa was faster and flicked another fire bolt at them. There was an explosion and Lincilara barely managed to get out of the way. She swept off to one side and Marassa swung to attack the retreating target. She was about to fire when a burst of sparkling lights caught her attention and Angelia’s club smacked into her shoulder.
Marassa screamed in pain as she spun out of the way.
Blinks ran forward with his flame sword high above his head and chop down with all his strength. Between her movements and the blur of her robe he couldn’t see for sure that he hit anything, but the resistance on the sword signal that he had.
Marassa screamed again and leapt forward to escape them. They tried to follow her, but she went up into the remains of the second floor and hurried out of sight.
They watched and waited for her to return for several seconds and did not speak, and did not relax, until they were sure she was gone.
“Are you okay?” Blinks asked Angelia.