Chapter 20
Rion crept forward as he stayed low along the sides of the crevasse. He had been hiding throughout the day, and the sun was beginning its descent to mark the onset of eventide. The boy remembered Devos, and what they read about the area from the telling stones. It was apparent to him that the tale of Kaelr finally ended in one of these rock formations. A few leagues out in the distance lay the city of Lethe, and the old teller had surmised that there would be a few islands of stone jutting out from the seas of sand that would mark the final resting place of that legendary hero. If Kaelr had a tomb, then it would have to be somewhere nearby.
Ever since the sand sail crashed against the edge of the nearby boulders, Rion had been able to heal his wounds quickly and made a dash towards the numerous gorges and rock formations in an effort to escape from Slane. The boy wasn’t sure if the Magus had been hurt at first, but within moments, he heard shouts and curses carried across the winds. It surely meant that Slane was still alive and somewhere close by.
What kept Rion moving was the voice in his head. It started out as a faint whisper, and it sounded similar to Elder Zedne’s. The tone was calm, it instructed him to be quiet and stay out of sight, for aid would be coming soon. Rion had been scared at first when the voice began speaking to him, but he soon surmised that it may have been coming from the red robed woman that he had been dreaming about, ever since they made this journey out into the wastes. The sense that he was not alone, that someone was helping him, gave the boy an added confidence. If it were not for that voice, he might have given up already.
Rion had made it up on a rock ledge, and carefully lay on his chest while he tried to peer down at the wadi below him. He had heard some footsteps nearby and was hoping it was an ally coming to help. But as he took a peep, he quickly saw it was not a potential savior, but his enemy a few yards below. The boy bit his lip and slid his head back, out of sight.
Slane turned when he noticed a slight sense of fiction on one of the nearby rock ledges above him. The Magus grimaced as the pain in his twisted ankle kept him distracted. When the vessel collided with the boulder earlier that day, he had been thrown clear and onto the sand, but was able to use his mindforce to cushion the impact. His quick actions saved him from grievous injury, but he still hurt his ankle badly. Slane hadn’t noticed where the boy had ran off to, though he knew that the child had to be nearby, for the flatlands all around offered no cover from the sun and his own eyes. He had been walking around for hours with one boot on, hoping for a sign of Rion’s tracks. Slane had a feeling that the boy’s latent mindforce was at work, and Rion may have been using his Vis to cover any of his footsteps with loose sand to hide his trail. The lad was clever, but he was even more so, and Slane was confident he would find him soon.
His mouth was parched and he swallowed painfully. Slane could have gone back and retrieved some water from the wrecked land ship, but he felt that he needed to find the boy first. He had been searching along the same area for the entire day now, and still no sign of Rion. When he realized that the sun had begun to set, his frustration increased by the minute. Each time he rounded the side of a boulder, he had expected to find the boy, but every time he looked at a potential hiding place, there was nothing there but sand and stone. He just didn’t believe that the boy could have disappeared into thin air, so he kept on searching.
The trail in front of him ended on an incline, leading up to another set of rock cliffs above. When he took the first step, his ankle gave way and he fell onto his knees. Slane gritted his sharp teeth as the pain in his ankle flared up. “Curse you, boy! Show yourself!” he bellowed. “Look around you, there is nothing but empty dust all around, you cannot hide from me forever!”
Slane stood up as his echo reverberated along the rock walls. “Rion! I promise I will not hurt you, boy! Just come on out and we can agree to an accommodation!”
No response. The boy was being stubborn, even though his actions were hopeless. Slane’s frustration was now at a tipping point. Rion was making it hard for him, and he promised a brutal punishment for the boy the moment he would catch him.
Despite his sore throat, Slane’s voice was roaring. “Rion! This is your last chance! If you do not come out now I will be merciless with your punishment!”
Still nothing. Eventide had finally set in and the area was now bathed in twilight. This would make finding the boy even harder. The moon above was in its full phase, but he would have preferred daylight. The shadows loomed larger now, the stones and boulders even more concealing. As he rubbed his sore ankle, a new thought came onto his mind. Why not use his Vis to help find the boy?
Slane figured there must be a way. All his life, he had trained to use his mindforce on objects and people that he could see with his own eyes. But what if he could use his other senses to guide his Vis instead? Slane narrowed his eyes as he stood at the edge of the gulley. He had been walking up and down along the entire rock formation for hours, and he more or less knew where the numerous trails led to. If the boy kept changing his position in order to avoid him, then Rion must have left some sort of tracks that he could focus on.
Instead of relying on visual clues, Slane began to use his hearing more as he walked silently along the sides of the boulders. If his ears could pick up the slightest sounds of movement, he would use his mind to visualize the area and use his Vis correspondingly. If the boy was carefully moving away from him, then he was sure that Rion would have to keep him in visual sight in order to anticipate where he would be moving to.
Slane momentarily relaxed his visual senses while using his mindforce to feel the grains of sand among the nearby boulders around him. If he had enough power to throw a person fifty yards into the air, then he surely could seep through a few grains of sand and check if they were disturbed due to someone’s weight and vibrations.
Sure enough, his ears soon picked up a slight scratching noise somewhere to his right. Closing his eyes, the sound became even more acute now that he knew where to focus his other senses. Within moments, he realized that someone was observing him from a nearby crag. Slane turned and gestured with his hands.
Without warning, Rion was suddenly thrown up into the air. The boy screamed as he dangled upside down. It was as if a giant, unseen hand had plucked him out from his hiding place and presented him before his enemy. The boy thrashed helplessly in midair as he tried to use his own Vis to lower himself down, but he had no reserves left. Rion had steadily been worn out from a lack of rest and water. He was helpless, and Slane knew it.
“I told you that this would be a foregone conclusion, boy,” Slane said, his voice now full of confidence once more. “I gave you a chance earlier to come out voluntarily, but you refused. Your stubbornness will cost you.”
“Let him go,” a voice coming from behind him said.
Slane turned, his Vis momentarily dropping Rion down into the gulley below. Standing on a nearby flat bedrock was Miri. She had taken off her armor and was wearing only her loincloth and bodice. The spear she held in her hands glowed slightly in the moonlight, the carved glyphs in its shaft seemingly energized by the night.
Miri took a step forward as she bent her knees in a fighting position. Her mindsense told her that Rion was stunned from the fall, but he would be alright in a few hour’s time. She remembered what the old Gorgon had said. Miri needed to focus on her mind, for it was superior to her body.
Slane was still in a state of shock, but he instinctively drew his sword. “This-this i-is impossible! Y-you are supposed to be dead!”
“The gods brought me back,” Miri said tersely. “Once again we shall have to fight for the boy.”
Slane frowned. He knew that he had driven the sword into her guts by the use of his Vis, but he couldn’t even see the wound he had inflicted the day before. What sort of trickery was this? He felt it was better to make some small talk while he recovered his reserves of Vis. “I am afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Striga. How is it that you were able to reco
ver from that killing wound I had given you?”
“I had an ally who revealed herself after the battle,” Miri said.
Slane furrowed his eyebrows. “Who? Another Striga?”
Miri shook her head. “She was much more. A Gorgon.”
Slane snorted. She had to be lying. “A …Gorgon? Surely you jest me.”
“She happened to be Kaelr’s mate,” Miri said. “She had been living in that pyramid for eons, for she was fated to wait until we had arrived.”
Slane blinked a few times. Had this Striga gone mad? “You are speaking about the ancient tale of Kaelr, the legendary Magus who had begun the great rebellion against the Gorgons? But that happened so long ago!”
“It did. Kaelr was no mere legend. He was a real man.”
Slane chuckled. “Did you not listen to your own words? You are describing a tale that occurred eons ago, yet you are telling me that a Gorgon happened to be Kaelr’s mate, and she had waited all this time for you to come visit her? Do you truly expect me to believe that?”
“It does not matter. I am here,” Miri said.
“Perhaps you are telling the truth. Why would this Gorgon ally with you?”
“She said I was needed to fulfill a prophecy,” Miri said.
“And what prophecy is that?”
“In order for this world to be reborn, I must accompany Rion to Lethe,” Miri said.
There was a blank look in Slane’s eyes. “This world? Reborn? How could that boy possibly do that?”
“I do not know,” Miri said. “All I have are my dreams, and the Gorgon who had passed the message to me and my companions. She is gone now, she used the last of her Vis to heal my wounds. All that remains is to fulfill the task before me.”
“Let us make a bargain then,” Slane said. “We can share the boy. I need his blood to make myself whole again. We can both live for a long time using his vitae. What do you say?”
Miri shook her head slowly. “He is not a slave, nor is he some sort of potion for you to use. The laws of Karma have also been broken. By you. And my tribe must be avenged.”
“Well, since you have admitted that your Gorgon ally is now dead, then I can defeat you once again and take the boy for myself,” Slane said. “I think it is better this way. You would be far too dangerous to have at my side.”
Miri held the spear horizontally with both hands as she began to circle him. “No more talk, let us end this.”
Slane used both hands to hold the sword above his head, keeping the point of the blade at her direction. “Very well.”
They both began a slow circle while facing each other. Miri was exhausted from moving across the flat plains all throughout the day. Slane also needed to rest since he had been searching for the boy ever since his land ship crashed. Their respective Vires were at low levels, so each would have to rely more on their fighting skills for this battle. Miri knew that she had the advantage of reach over her opponent’s sword, so she took a few steps towards him as she led with the point of her spear. The moment she got within range, Miri began to make sudden thrusts, her right arm acted as leverage while she tilted the direction of the spearhead up and down with a flick of her wrist. Slane knew he was at a disadvantage since she could easily pivot the direction of her weapon and he had left his cuirass in his stricken vessel’s cabin. As Miri pushed forward and attacked, the Magus gave ground while parrying her repeated thrusts using his blade and forearm bracers, hoping for a proper opening with which to close and counterattack.
Miri launched another series of attacks, but she had inadvertently lunged too far as her front leg slipped forward on the dusty rock. Slane immediately pulled his left hand back and gestured, sending a cloud of sand up around the Striga, partially blinding her. Miri stepped back and used her right hand to wipe the grains of dirt from her eyes. Slane gesticulated again, using his mindforce to pull her towards him. Miri’s boots slid along the ground as her body was suddenly seized by an invisible force and she was pushed towards the Magus.
Slane grinned as he held out the point of his blade, ready to impale the Striga as she was relentlessly dragged towards him. Miri’s eyes were still caked with dust, but she could see enough to realize what was happening. The Striga reacted by falling backwards as she slid past him, his blade narrowly missing her head. Miri used the shaft of her weapon to trip up the Magus as she skidded past him, hitting the metal greaves on his shins. Unaffected by the attack on his legs, Slane turned and swung his sword on a downward stroke, hoping to slice through Miri’s shoulder while she lay on the ground beside him.
Miri used both hands as she used her spear shaft to block the attack. The point of the blade connected with the middle of the pole, but the strange grey material held. Slane slid the edge of his blade along the shaft, hoping to slice through Miri’s fingers, but the Striga angled her spear downwards and let go with her left hand just before the sword connected with it. Slane’s blade slid down onto the ground with a loud clang as Miri rolled sideways to get away from him. Slane pulled his sword up and swung again, narrowly missing her back as she got up and moved away.
Both of them stood facing each other once more. Slane concentrated as he gathered up his Vis for another attack. Miri kept her spear at chest level while trying to mentally probe him for weaknesses. She could tell that the Magus was using his reserves of Vis carefully, keeping up his thought defenses at maximum, while occasional shifting his power to attack at the right moment. What she needed was to deliver a mental strike at him right during the time when he made the deviation. The timing had to be crucial.
Miri sensed that Slane was preparing to close in for another attack as he wielded his sword one handed. The Striga hunched her shoulders and started to move forward while readying her Vis, wishing to goad him into using his mindforce once again. Suddenly, Slane used his Vis to thrust himself forward, sliding along the ground in order to close with his sword. Miri concentrated as she lashed out with her mental tendrils, expecting to break through his thought blocks more easily this time. But instead of completing his skid towards her, Slane quickly recalibrated his Vis to increase his mental defenses while he drew a dagger from his waist and threw it at her. Her concentration broken, Miri tried to dodge the incoming blade, but its tip embedded itself just above her right knee.
The Striga cried out in pain as she went into a crouching position. Slane immediately sensed her weakness as the mental attacks against him ebbed. This was just like the last time, when his feints and attacks were enough to weaken her Vis. All he needed to do now was to finish her off. Slane quickly adjusted his reserves back to his mindforce. With a flick of his wrist, he gestured, and Miri was suddenly thrust up into the air.
Slane grinned as he held her upside down. The Striga was now floating helplessly several feet off the ground. He was using his mindforce to slowly crush the life out of her. “As before, you were defeated. It was foolish of you to ever attempt to fight me after you were mortally wounded the first time. You should have stayed in the Black Redoubt instead of trying to catch up with us. You were given a second life, and you threw it away. This is your final mistake. It will take but a few moments to crush your bones, then I will tear your heart out with my Vis alone.”
Through clenched teeth, Miri remembered the words of the Gorgon. Mind is superior to body. She used her Vis to lock away the pain that was distracting her. Her mindsense was telling her that the Magus below had reinforced his thought blocks and attempting to overcome them would be futile. Miri now realized that she didn’t need to attack his mind directly. Using her mindsense, she began to see through his eyes.
As Slane continued to hold and crush her in the air, his vision began to blur. Within a few seconds, his chest started to feel heavy and his legs felt like stones. Thoughts of doubt began to creep into his mind. He narrowed his eyes in confusion. “What?”
Miri could sense that the mental bridge between her mind and his had now been established. She closed her eyes and began to transfer her feeli
ngs to the Magus. The sensations of pain and suffering, the pressure on her bones and organs, had now begun to seep their way towards her opponent. Now it was his turn to feel her pain.
Slane gasped. His heart felt like it was about to explode. He felt wracking pains all over his body, it was as if his bones were being ground to powder. The agony was so intense, he dropped his sword and his knees buckled. Slane fell forward, his face hitting the bare, dusty stone. Blood seeped out from his nose. The crippling pain was too much and he lost his mental concentration.
Miri suddenly fell onto the ground. Her chest heaved great gulps of air as the relentless pressure on her entire body had subsided at last. Her limbs were still aching and she could hardly move them. As she twisted her head sideways, she noticed Slane was lying on the stone slab nearby. Her opponent twitched a little, then Slane pushed himself up slowly with his hands. She needed to kill him now before he recovered from that reverse transference. Miri used her final reserves of Vis to push the pain away from her mind. Suddenly, the aches stopped and she had feelings on her arms and legs again.
Getting up, she noticed the spear lying on the sand nearby. Miri bent down on her good knee and grabbed it before she limped over to Slane. She held the spear with both hands over her head and drove it down towards him. Just before the point of the weapon fell on his throat, Slane twisted sideways and looked up at her, gesticulating with his right hand. The spearhead suddenly stopped in midair. An unseen force held the weapon back.
Slane’s eyes met hers and he grinned. “That …was a wonderful trick you just did.” He used his other hand to grab at the sword lying beside him and swung the blade towards Miri’s legs, expecting to slice through her shins.
But the edge of the sword suddenly pivoted towards the Magus instead. Slane saw the blade of the sword coming towards him and he tried to pull his head away, but it was too late. The razor sharp edge slashed through his windpipe and he began to gargle blood. With Slane’s Vis suddenly dissipating, the force holding Miri’s weapon was now gone. The Striga drove the spear down onto Slane’s face, the edged point piercing through his nose cartilage and into his brain. Slane let out a death rattle of syllables before his head fell back into the ground, blood spewing all around him.
Lands of Dust (The Dying World Book 1) Page 25