by Stuart Jaffe
“Get back on the autofly. It’s not safe,” Javery said. “All of our guards are up at the Assembly Hall or flying down.”
The barks came again, and then the creature. The wellspiker had a snake body thick as the ropes that held the Assembly Hall in place and nearly as long. Six massive arms poked out its sides — the back four ending in clawed feet and the front two ending in sharp points. Malja didn’t see any eyes, but what need would it have if it spent a lot of time underground? Instead, three enormous tusks grew from its head, curving in front and meeting at the points like a bizarre head-cage. Unlike most animals Malja knew, the wellspiker’s tusks were not smooth. They had jagged bumps and ridges, spikes pointing out at all angles much like the surrounding landscape — good for destroying rocks and loosening dirt as it traveled below.
“Please,” Javery said. “I can’t allow you to get hurt.”
A girl, no more than five years old, clutching a ragged doll and stood by a building, screaming for her mother. The wellspiker turned its thick head towards her and opened its mouth — a slobbering thing filled with flat, grinding teeth. On the opposite side of the street, a woman screamed as well, reaching toward the girl but unable to cross because the beast blocked her way.
Tommy took off after her, never looking back for Malja’s approval of his actions. He raced down the street, muscles pumping and moving fast. Malja brought out Viper and ran after him.
Watching him move with such grace and power, Malja thought he would be able to save the girl by himself, and she even slowed her pace. But then a shudder flowed up the wellspiker’s skin. It swept its head around, sending dirt and dust flowing like a wave, and turned its attention solely on Tommy.
Tommy skidded to a halt, and Malja did the same. The creature could see them both, and she did not want to piss it off by charging in on it.
“Fawbry,” she called without looking. “Protect that girl.”
Keeping his hand low but splaying out his fingers, Tommy signaled for everyone to stop. Malja understood — he set out to save the girl, and he intended to be the one to do it.
“We’re a team,” she said. “You and I can take this thing while Fawbry —”
The wellspiker barked and clicked and lunged at Tommy. Its tusks smashed into the dirt road. The boy leaped away, fell, and rolled backward until he righted on his feet again.
Yelling a war cry, Malja rushed forward and swung Viper at the creature’s tusks. Sparks flew but the damage looked minimal as it lifted its head. It flicked its pointed arm at Malja while searching the road with thick, mucous-filled sniffs. When it locked on Tommy standing in front of a wall, it shot towards him again.
Tommy held his ground as the massive beast stampeded his way. Malja’s heart dropped. She knew she couldn’t reach the boy in time. But she also recognized his stance — her stance. He must have seen her play out this tactic a hundred times, and now he appeared to be pulling it off on his own.
At the last second, he pushed off his back foot, propelling forward and to the side, right by the creature. Its momentum kept it from being able to stop and it slammed into the wall, tearing most of the building into pieces. With its back to Malja, she took full advantage. She flipped Viper in her hand and sliced down hard with its outer-crescent. A thick gouge spurted blood, but the wellspiker showed no sign it had even noticed. Then the wound stopped bleeding.
Twice Tommy attempted to concentrate long enough to cast a spell, but each time, the wellspiker attacked, breaking Tommy’s focus and forcing the boy to race off in another direction. Malja tried to cut into the creature again and met with the same results.
As Fawbry dashed by, Malja looked to Javery. “How do we kill this thing?”
Javery stood in the autofly, his face pale, his eyes bulging. She ran right towards him, and grabbed his robe. Yanking him close so that he only saw her raging eyes, she said, “How do we —”
“Don’t worry about the wellspiker. Just get in so we can get away. It’ll leave if we don’t bother it.”
“Tell me how to kill it or I’ll —”
“It’s head! That’s how we’ve taken them down in the past. It has a soft spot on the top of its skull. But that was a long time ago, and we —”
Malja glanced over her shoulder as the creature reared back to lunge for Tommy once more. She sprinted along the road, jumping over chunks of rock and wall that now littered the area, and headed for its tail. When it smacked into the ground again and she saw Tommy dashing to a new position, she got on the thing’s back. Letting momentum guide her, she worked her way up.
The wellspiker let her get about halfway when it shook its body, loosening ages of packed dirt, roots, and rock as well as one angry woman. Malja fell to the ground, hitting it hard enough to knock out her breath. In the distance, she saw Fawbry carrying the girl towards her mother. As he handed the girl over, his eyes roved back towards the autofly.
The autofly!
Malja jumped to her feet and hurried to Javery, the pilot, and the waiting vehicle. “You,” she said, indicating the pilot. “Get me over that thing.”
The pilot looked to Javery who fell back in a seat, upsetting the half-full glasses of alcohol. “I, um, I’m not sure —”
“If you don’t do it,” Malja said. “Then get out of my way. I’ll figure it out myself. I might break your baby, though.”
Rather than let her ruin his precious autofly, the young pilot took the controls. They lifted gently off the ground, and Malja punched the pilot’s shoulder. “This isn’t a pleasure trip. Get this damn ship over that bastard now!” The pilot obliged, pitching the ship back and pouring on the speed. Malja gripped his chair to keep from tumbling back.
Tommy dived to his right, tucked into a forward roll, back up to his feet, and kept running. Dirt stuck to his sweating body, and when he stopped, Malja saw his heavy breathing. He could only dodge for so long. The creature’s lack of sight and brains had been Tommy’s lucky break, but Malja knew even that kind of luck ran out.
“Now what?” the pilot asked as he hovered the autofly over the wellspiker’s head.
Malja stepped to the edge with Viper raised above. “Tommy,” she shouted. “Hold still.”
Tommy looked up at her, tapped his chest twice and brought his hand to his head — an old-style salute. She watched the wellspiker roll its head, trying to sense the boy. It found him and because Tommy did not move, it paused an extra second as it attempted to figure out why the boy had stopped. That was the extra second Malja wanted.
She jumped.
Though she dropped to its head in less than two seconds, she had enough time to feel her stomach rise to her chest. Malja brought Viper down fast with its point making first contact like a hook. Viper hit skull, and the vibrations of cracking through bone shivered straight up Malja’s arm.
The wellspiker reared back, its short barking noise taking on a high-pitched squeal. Malja hung on as the creature flung its head around in an attempt to dislodge her. The action only caused it more damage. Its six extremities shook without control, and the beast flopped to the ground. It rolled to its side, but Malja refused to let go.
She gained purchase on its head and yanked Viper free, sending bits of bone and tissue flying off. Another crying bark erupted as blood gushed out the hole in its skull. Malja hopped off the dying animal and walked to Tommy.
“You okay?” she asked, pulling a cloth from her long coat. As she wiped Viper clean, Tommy nodded. “Good,” she said. He looked at her longer, as if expecting something else, but she turned away.
Javery had returned to the ground, and she wanted a few answers.
“That was a marvel. Thank you,” he said.
Several townspeople emerged from the buildings — cautious, at first, then smiling, and finally breaking out into laughter. Three young women surrounded Fawbry, much to his delight. Malja whistled for his attention. He laughed with one lady, hugged the second, and kissed the third on the cheek before jogging back over.
“You have some lovely people in this town,” he said.
Javery nodded with a forced smile. His eyes scanned the ground as if he expected another attack. Malja followed his gaze but saw no sign that anything else would be popping out of the ground.
“I am so sorry about this,” Javery said. “It’s very odd for them to come into the town. In the old days, generations ago, it happened. But after we killed a few, they realized they’d be better off going after the wells buried elsewhere.”
“The wells?” Fawbry asked.
“That’s what they want. We just happen to be in the way. Come. I’ll show you.”
Javery led the way, though his legs seemed a bit looser to Malja. Fawbry waved at the adoring coos of the women as they headed away from the wellspiker’s corpse. At a low, red door with a single guard, Javery stopped. He gestured for the group to duck and enter.
Inside, Malja found a small room — cool air, one narrow window, and a wooden door in the back corner flush in the stone floor. Etchings ran along the top of each wall, apparently depicting the story of Carsite, Scarite, and the love that tore them apart — Pali. Javery grabbed a torch from a pile in the opposite corner. Malja had missed that. He lifted the door to reveal a staircase. As they climbed down, he lit the torch.
“This is the lifeblood of our people. Without the Great Well, we could never have ... well, we could not live here.”
They entered a warm, oval-shaped cavern. In the center, she saw a rough pool with a glittering greenish-blue light from within. Steam lifted off the surface of the pool.
No, that’s not a liquid. “What is that?” she asked.
Javery beamed and flourished his hand toward the pool. “This is the Great Well, a source of powerful magic.”
Tommy perked up even as Malja felt her heart sink. “Magic,” she said with cold finality.
“Oh, yes. We’ve had control over this well for many generations now, but we’ve only begun to understand it. From the start, we knew that basic metals like iron could be dipped in the well and receive the ability to float. We also learned quickly that those giant creatures, the wellspikers, lived off of absorbing the magical energies in the Well.”
Malja nodded. “That’s why it came into the town. For your well.”
“It shouldn’t have, though. There are other wells to be found underground, most of which are too deep for us to reach easily. Once we killed a few wellspikers, they stopped coming. And when they would attack in the past, the battles happened below ground. I’ve only heard stories of them breaching the surface like this one. It was strange.”
“But they’re attracted to magic,” Malja said, glancing at Tommy. The wellspiker had fixated on him. Except he had lost most of his magic before they left the world of Corlin. Hadn’t he? Malja frowned. Though she could tell he sensed her watching, Tommy kept his eyes on Javery.
Their guide’s enthusiasm for the Great Well grew. “What’s more,” he said, “when we dip ropes of various kinds in the well, they emerge thicker and stronger. That’s how we anchor our floating islands.”
Fawbry leaned on one leg and rubbed his chin as if he were a great thinker. “I suppose it’s because of the wellspikers that your farms are all in the sky, then.”
“Absolutely. If we could afford the cost of putting the entire town in the air, we would do so, but each farm took us years to build. It’s not easy getting all the metals down here to dip in the well, then back up to be shaped and connected with other metals, then filled with soil, and finally positioned in the air and planted. It took two generations to build the Assembly Hall.”
Fawbry offered a sage nod. “Looks like you’ve got a real problem with these wellspikers.”
“This was an aberration,” Javery said. “And there aren’t many wellspikers, anyway. They are solitary, so with this one here, any others are most likely far away. We won’t see any again.”
“But you didn’t expect one in the town, did you?” Fawbry said. Malja caught his surreptitious glance at Tommy.
“And as the term aberration suggests, we will not see another any time soon. Trust me. Wellspikers are not an issue. The real problem is the Scarites and what Harskill did.”
Hoping she didn’t sound too eager, Malja said, “Tell us about him.”
“Harskill? He came when I was a boy. He brought other magic with him, magic that he gave only to the Scarites. Then he disappeared. And it’s been war ever since.”
“Where are the Scarites? Do you know if he’s returned? Harskill, I mean.”
Javery escorted them back upstairs as he spoke. “The Scarites are on the other major island. Don’t you know the basic geography of the planet?”
“We told you we came from far away.”
Javery’s brow turned down. “There are three main islands. Ours is excellent for growing food and livestock. Scarite is a horrible place — I can never understand why they want to live there. And between the two lies Pali — a small, mountainous land. Empty of all life unless you believe in the Pali Witch.”
“What’s that?”
“A children’s story. Supposedly, long ago, an old woman went there and became a powerful witch. If you can reach her home at the top of highest mountain, she’ll grant you a wish. But if you fail, she’ll devour your soul. Anyway, once Harskill arrived, we had a real enemy to fear instead of a fantastical witch. The Scarites showed their true selves. They want the whole planet for themselves, now. So, we have a war.”
“I haven’t seen an army or a battle,” Malja said as they walked outside. “Have you already pushed them back onto their own land?”
“It’s not that sort of war. They can’t outright attack us because our towns are spread apart. They tried to get a foothold on Carsite, but then the other towns cut off the food supply. The only way they can truly take us over is to do so in one massive attack that secures them our land. So, they attempt to grow their own food and purchase the barest minimum they need from us, and then they conduct raids that we cannot prove they are directly behind. It’s been a political war more than anything, building pressure, and I’m afraid any day now, the whole thing will explode.”
“Without an army, you’ll be destroyed.”
“I’ve tried to get Father to back my plans for my Waypoint system. With it we could travel great distances in short time. Move fighters and weapons very fast.” He looked away. “But they won’t give me the full resources I need to make it happen. So, when the day comes that the Scarites make their assault, I’m afraid we’ve already lost. Most of us will be dead. Those that survive will be slave labor to keep the farms running. All because Harskill arrived.”
Malja placed her hand on his shoulder just as she had witnessed Canto do to Shual. “I’m sorry. You should never have had to suffer like this. That’s why we seek out Harskill. We’re trying to stop him from doing this kind of thing. We want to fix this for the future.”
Javery lifted his head as if he had received a present. “Then fight for us. The Scarites have Harskill’s magic, but if we had your blade, we would stand a chance.”
Malja stammered. “I can’t do that.”
“Of course you can. You’ve shown that you have no problems meddling in our lives. Harskill is one of you and he did it. These two had no trouble trying to steal our food. Why couldn’t you stand for us against these awful tyrants?”
Shaking her head, she said, “That battle is your own. Ours is much larger and more dangerous. But if we succeed, we will be helping you and many more lands like yours.”
“I see,” Javery said, his mouth a cold line. He snapped his fingers towards two ladies waiting patiently nearby. “This is Tonirry and Shuansia. They will take you to a place for rest. Tomorrow my sister will be married to Canto. Please, at the least, do us the honor of celebrating with us.”
“We’ll consider it,” Malja said.
Javery sighed and walked away.
Once they were shown to the guest quarters and left alone, Fawbry burst into Mal
ja’s room and thrust his hands at her. “You couldn’t just lie? You couldn’t tell him something to placate him?”
“What would be the point?” Malja asked.
“Perhaps stalling for a little extra time before they try to execute us.”
Malja rolled her eyes. “These people are no physical threat to us. They can barely take care of themselves.”
“That’s an excellent point. They need help. And isn’t that the reason we left Corlin? Didn’t we set off to save all the other worlds out there from the crap that Harskill is creating? What’s the point if we’re going to ignore them when they ask for us?”
“The point,” she said, holding back the growl from her voice, “is exactly what I told Javery — if we want to save all the worlds, we need to stop Harskill from continuing to hurt them. That was the reason we left Corlin. To stop Harskill.”
Fawbry pulled at his hair and groaned in frustration. “I’d be better off leading griffles.”
“You didn’t do too well at that, if I recall.”
“At least, they made sense to me.” Fawbry yanked open the door. “I don’t care what you say, we’re going to that wedding.” He slammed the door shut. A moment later, Malja heard him bang open the door to the room he shared with Tommy.
Part of her considered Fawbry’s point. The problem rested in Tommy. Whether Javery knew it or not, Malja recognized the truth — those wellspikers had been attracted to the magic that radiated out of him. That’s why she couldn’t let them stay to help these people fight. Tommy needed to be protected. At least, Javery made it clear that these wellspikers were spread thin throughout the country. Hopefully, thin enough to not notice Tommy’s existence anymore. But the sooner they could move on, the happier she would feel.
In fact, the only reason she would agree to stay for the wedding was that they still had no idea where to go to find Harskill. Once they gleaned even the smallest clue, she would have Tommy open a portal, and they would never see the Carsites again.