by Joshua Cook
“No idea, but remember this was nearly fifteen hundred years ago. This was beyond advanced for then. Maybe it was a knowledge thing. Oakheart had been the only Maker then. Maybe he had some reason for keeping things confusing. I mean, there was the whole political fight in the Bridgefinders over magic… maybe there was more over Maker stuff.” Shrugging, Cendan moved a wooden box carved with fire motifs, which oddly was filled with crystal bells, off to one side.
“Yeah, maybe. But that’s not really helpful to us now,” Sal answered. “Hey, I got a question. What was Oakhearts real name, anyway? We all call him Oakheart for obvious reasons, but that was the name the Slyph gave him, what he was called… you know… before?”
Cendan paused in his searching. “You know, he didn’t know. I didn’t dig deeper. I was in such a hurry, it just wasn’t important.” Cendan took hold of the key and concentrated once more, searching for the answer. He was still for quite a while before opening his eyes and sighing. “That piece of information apparently wasn’t given to me. I wish I did know. He deserves more than just being called what she wanted him to be called.”
Sal held up the gear they had been searching for. “Found it!” They hurried back to the EVA room, which now had a far different appearance than when they had started. Instead of trying to actually replace the damaged equipment, in an effort to make things go faster, they had just bypassed it all, laying in new work to make the connections whole again. Cendan checked his watch. They had been at this for eight hours now, and he knew they were both tired.
“Hey, Cendan, what’s this?” Sal pointed to a gear in a small section of work, near the upper right wall. “There’s a… well… it’s a door plate, with a keyhole in it?” Sal moved out of the way.
Cendan examined it. “I have no idea. I seem to be saying that a lot today, but I don’t know. None of the information I have right now says anything about a keyhole.” Normally the keyhole wouldn’t even be visible. It would have been hidden from view by all the gears and wire in front of it. Someone would have to climb up there and go behind that mess to see it.
“Strange.” He was about to say more when a blast shook the room.
“Alarm!” Sal yelled, climbing down fast. Cendan followed him and they both took off for the map room as fast as they could. The alarm sounded twice more, which made Sal run even faster. The two of them skidded to a halt in front of the map, where Jasmine and Marcus were already.
Grellnot knew she was coming to find Grellnot. How she knew that Grellnot was at the tree was not known. She couldn’t track Grellnot anymore, not directly. Grellnot was too strong for that. A deep sigh escaped Grellnot, wheezing out of him. Grellnot was so hungry. That stupid human Finder Maker had made him even hungrier, but Grellnot had let him go. That had been the hardest thing Grellnot had done in a long time.
With a rush of wind, the Slyph appeared before him. “Grellnot, what happened at Oakheart? Why were you at the tree?” The Slyph was still engulfed by anger. “My prize is gone, dead, and you were there. Why?”
“Grellnot not know what you are talking about. Grellnot not at Oakheart. Grellnot be elsewhere.” The lie came easily to him, and she couldn’t prove he had been there.
“I smelled you, Grellnot. Your stink gave you away. I came there, smelled you. Oakheart was just a tree when I got there. The man, the Maker inside, was gone. It was just a tree!” The Slyph yelled, making Grellnot wince. “Give me answers, Grellnot!”
Grellnot spat. “Grellnot was at tree. Slyph knows Grellnot goes there sometimes. Grellnot go and leave when he feels you coming.”
The pure white feet of the Slyph paced across the ground, not getting dirty from refuse of the Overhand. “You’re not telling me something, Grellnot. Oakheart was there, and then you were there, and then what was left of the human was gone. Gone! What happened, Grellnot? Tell me.”
Grellnot huffed again, but said nothing.
“Let me put it this way—if you do not tell me everything that happened at the tree, I will send you on a one-way trip to the cavern. You will live out the rest of your dirty, disgusting life trapped there with everything that lives in that dark hole in the ground. Forever.” The Slyph pointed a slim, pale finger at the pitiful creature. “Last chance, Grellnot. Tell me.”
Grellnot whined and beat his head against the ground. “Grellnot not want to. Grellnot stuck. Tell you what happened, who knows what you will do to Grellnot. Not tell you, you send Grellnot to the cavern. Think, Grellnot, think!” The thud its head made echoed off the rock and earth walls.
“The stupid human Finder Maker, it was there. With the tree. With your tree. Grellnot hear the Finder Maker’s shiny treasure. Hear it very far away. Grellnot come to see what makes the noise. Grellnot talk to stupid human. Human tell Grellnot that if you win that you have no need for Grellnot. That if you capture the stupid human, you win. Grellnot be forgotten, or left to starve... Poor hungry Grellnot. So hungry.” Grellnot gave a long groan.
“Grellnot let human go. Grellnot leave and not follow him. Stupid Human. Stupid Grellnot. Grellnot should have eaten the human Finder Maker, taken his shiny treasure. You still punish Grellnot, but Grellnot get punished either way now. Grellnot not be so hungry if he ate the stupid human Finder Maker.” Grellnot whined and fell silent.
The Slyph was stunned. The Maker? Cendan Key? He had been here? In her world? He had done something with Oakheart! Freed him somehow, or done something. Anger built in the Slyph. “You let him go?”
Grellnot said nothing, but nodded.
Power built in the Slyph. She couldn’t destroy Grellnot, but the cavern it would be. Grellnot snarled at her. “You need Grellnot. YOU send Grellnot away, but Grellnot find a way back. Grellnot not scared of you!” With a leap, Grellnot attacked the Slyph, teeth bared to take a bite when, with an onrush of air, he vanished in mid-flight.
Unsettled, the Slyph paused. Grellnot had tried to attack her? It had never occurred to her that her creation could do that. Grellnot was in the cavern now, and even he couldn’t leave there without her permission, a permission that would never come. The Maker, was he still here? How had he gotten here, and how was he going to get back to his world? Capture him?
There was no way to track him, the Slyph knew. Without Oakhearts powers, the other magic, the human world’s magic, was untouchable to her. She knew from her search for Grellnot that none of her creatures had seen a human. The closest had been the elves… But no, the elves would not betray her that way. They were unhappy with her rules, but she had at least let them keep their female human toys, as useless as they were now, having been here for hundreds of years.
There was only one way to fix this. She needed to strike and strike hard. She had attacked the Finders once before and been rewarded with Oakheart. They had strengthened their defenses since then, but still a full-on attack could wipe them out, force a merge of the worlds now. It was dangerous, but the Slyph had to act. With Oakhearts knowledge, and the powers of a new young Maker, she stood to lose all the ground she had gained over the years. It was time to act.
The Slyph was busy. She had gathered creatures both large and small, old and new. If she was going to strike now, she had to use everything, all at once—before that Maker used his newfound knowledge to fix that thrice-damned machine, or something worse. She’d use Goblins, Gremlins, Ogres, Jabbers, Valocks, Klacks, Trixies, and a smattering of mixed insect types she’d never given names to. And while Grellnot was no longer in the picture, for the first time, she was sending the two hounds right into the Bridgefinders’ base.
The Hounds had also been made by joining her powers with the magic drawn through Oakheart, which meant that they were of both worlds that should even in light of the stronger defenses, be able to find that new Maker and either devour him, or if possible, capture him. The Hounds stood at nearly six feet high, and while they were called Hounds, they were like no dog ever to walk the human world.
Each was covered with a leathery skin, only broken up by hard pl
ates of chitin. While they walked on all fours in the same manner as a canine, three large tentacles sprouted from their bodies, one on each shoulder and the third right behind the neck. They had been let loose to hunt and run wild in her world, and they had grown in power and size.
Even better, unlike Grellnot, the Hounds adored her. They groveled at her feet, whining and giving short barks. They wouldn’t turn their backs on her, and they wouldn’t argue. She had used Grellnot instead of them because she had believed that a talking, intelligent pawn would do better hunting down Finders. She regretted that decision now.
She reached down and stroked their heads. “Good hound. You want to make me happy, don’t you? Soon, my pets.” Standing up, she raised herself into the air.
“All of you, all my creations… I have sent you all time and time again into the human world. And time and time again, the Finders have caught you, sent you back here. But the time has come—the time to strike. We will overrun their world, destroy the Finders, and merge the two worlds into one. Our world, my world, will be the ascendant one. Humans will be our toys, our servants, and yes…” The Slyph turned to a group of Ogres. “Even our food.”
“Long have we all waited for this moment! Together we will tear the human world down to bare rock!” A roar went out from the assembled creatures, her creatures. “I must prepare, for on the next day, I will open multiple Bridges, and this time instead of working to break the barrier, you will go forth and destroy. Ravage. Feast!”
The roar greeted her. The Hounds joined in with howls that caused even the creatures near them to collapse and grab their ears. They were all her children, and they would do anything for her. This would be over tomorrow. She had won.
Chapter Fourteen
The map.
To Cendan, the map appeared to have come to life. Glowing points covered it, and nearly a small forest of small branches and leaves were growing out of it. This was it—a full-scale invasion, a massive attack.
Marcus looked sick, but with a grim expression, turned to Sal and Cendan. “How long until the EVA is back online? There’s no way we survive this without that machine. The Slyph is coming, full force. I think she’s trying to force the merge, right now, today.”
Cendan had to agree, which meant that the Slyph had finally tipped over to full-on crazy to him. “With Sal’s help? No more than another hour. Without it? Maybe two or three. The room is just too big for one person to rush the job.”
Jasmine and Marcus shared a nod, and then Marcus sighed. “Okay, here’s the plan. Jasmine and I will go out and fight off as many of them as we can. With this many creatures coming through, I don’t know what we can do, but we will try. You and Sal finish that machine.”
“Sal, if the headquarters gets attacked, and it may, your job is to fight them off and delay them. You must protect Cendan so he can get the EVA up and running. We cannot lose him to the Slyph or any of her creations.” Marcus pointed at Sal. “This is your job.”
Sal nodded, but got a bit pale.
“Cendan, finish that machine.” Marcus and Jasmine ran to the barrier room, ignoring Cendan’s attempts to protest the idea of Sal sacrificing himself to save Cendan.
The Slyph watched as a small army of her creations moved through the Bridges to the human world. It had drained her, creating that many portals. It was far harder now than it had been with Oakheart. With Oakheart she could draw on the human world’s magic as well, and together each do one half of the Bridge.
Now, the Slyph had to do it all by herself, and it was going to get worse soon. As she watched her creations leave in groups of three of four, up to eight or nine, she stroked the heads of her hounds. They had a very different destination. It would weaken her greatly for a time, but she was going to send the hounds into the very heart of her enemies. They would hunt down and either capture or kill that Maker, Cendan Key.
There was the off-chance that the Maker wasn’t in the base, but they would cause damage, destruction incarnate. Even if somehow the Finders survived today, they would return to find their home in ruins. She knew of the map they used to find out where the Bridges were forming—that would be the main target outside of the Maker himself.
Gathering her powers, the Slyph started to create a Bridge into the very heart of the base of her opponents. This would leave her weakened somewhat although there was no threat to her anywhere. All the Bridgefinders would be too busy fighting off a full-scale invasion. There were no creatures on this world of hers that could pose a threat. The closest was Grellnot, but that creature was locked away in the cavern.
The Slyph pushed forming a Bridge from her world to the chunk of leftovers the Bridgefinders had claimed many years ago. She regretted letting them have it now. Maybe once all of this was said and done, she would do something with it. She’d hold a remembrance perhaps, or even make it a place to stick things she didn’t want. Keep a few humans there as pets.
The Slyph poured more magic into the Bridge. It was harder than she remembered, but that had been a long time ago, and who knew what tricks the Finders had put in place since then. She had always found it amusing the way she had tricked them into sending their own Maker to her, delivered without her even needing to do anything.
With a final burst of effort that left her far weaker than she expected, the Slyph created a Bridge to the Finders’ base of operations. With a cry, both Hounds leaped through the Portal, on the hunt. The Slyph gathered herself and conjured a throne to sit upon in case she did get a new Maker to play without of this.
As the Slyph rested and began to refill her reserves of power, a rush of pain flooded through her. The Slyph fell out of her throne as it wavered and vanished with the loss of concentration. Never in her whole existence had the Slyph felt something of this nature. A new wave of pain broke over her, and the Slyph contorted in response.
Though she was weakened, she reached out, trying to find the source of this agony before hit her again. Farther and farther still she reached, and then she found a hole. The magic of the Echo World underlay everything here, the very ground below her and the sky above. But here, there was a hole—a hole in the one place she never expected, her birthplace, the cavern.
Grellnot danced upon the mostly eaten corpse of a creature that the cavern-dwellers had taken down. Grellnot had been banished here by her as punishment. Grellnot had been surprised, however, to discover that his growth in power meant something here, something Grellnot did not suspect the Slyph even understood or knew.
Here, in the cavern where the Slyph had first appeared, the magic of the Echo World was the strongest. A thin piece of skin separated the raw pure form of magic and this place. There were leaks in this skin all over the Echo, which gave the Slyph and her creations power. But here, it was the strongest.
The creatures here were infused with it, and that had led to an unexpected discovery for Grellnot. When he had first arrived here, the huge, dimly lit cavern had seemed to be a prison it could never escape from. Grellnot had only been here for minutes when the first creature attacked him, a long white form, its face ringed with small, writhing tentacles. Grellnot had escaped its initial attack and sunk his teeth into it in response.
That was when Grellnot got a surprise. He could feed on these creatures. The magic here had filled them to the point that Grellnot could feast! Over the time he had done so, Grellnot did not know how long. Time held little meaning in this sunless world. There was only the feasting—blood and meat followed by the magic, the sweet magic. It sang to Grellnot, filled Grellnot, and changed Grellnot.
Soon the creatures of the cavern hid from this new thing that had come here, they feared it and hunted it no more. Grellnot found them then and lay waste to them. Big or small, they all fed Grellnot.
“Grellnot strong now. Grellnot can see the magic.” Muttering to itself, Grellnot could see the threads of power binding it to this place. “She did not know, but the magic here change Grellnot and make Grellnot more. More powerful, stronger, hungrier.�
�� Ignoring the corpse of the kill it stood upon, Grellnot had an idea. Could Grellnot eat the magic it could see now? Not just the magic bonded and infused with the blood and meat, but the raw magic it could see in the air?
The creature reached out with its own magic, the magic of both worlds that filled it. Its shiny treasures jingled on its neck, their link to the power of the human world flowing through them, each one weak on its own, but together quite strong—woven together with the magic of this world, the Echo World. Grellnot caught the threads and pulled them into itself. It could see them tear and break, but the power flooded into Grellnot. Pure power. Grellnot nearly exploded with the joy of it.
“Grellnot is power!” it screamed at the top of its lungs. Pleasure wracked Grellnots form, nearly overwhelming it. It reached forth again and tore another chunk of the threads of magic here free, and another. The magic around him was fading now, breaking. Clumps of threads fell free on their own now, slowly fading as they fell. Sometimes Grellnot would catch them, other times they would vanish before its eyes.
Grellnot knew that only the Slyph could see these threads normally, but Grellnot was now changed. A thought occurred to the creature now. If the magic here was gone… Was it held here still? Reaching forth, Grellnot waited for the barrier to come slamming down, but it didn’t happen. Grellnot pushed farther out, and could see in its mind the hole it had made in the threads of power. Still, the barrier did not come to keep it here.
Grellnot felt the creatures here dying one by one as the magic that was part of them died, ripped away from them in moments as Grellnot had feasted. Even the limited plant life, fungi, and glowing molds were dying now without the threads of magic here to help them survive. A grin, toothy and wide, covered Grellnots face. Grellnot was free!