by Stone Thomas
“Hell?” she asked.
“Your name,” I said. “You said it was ugly. You’re wrong. It’s beautiful, and it suits you.”
She stepped toward me until her nose was an inch from mine. She was exactly my height, and her eyes were oversized jewels shining on her pale gray face. The red of her lips was the only color she wore, the same candy apple red as the endless sky. I leaned toward her. She smelled like smoke and roses.
Her lips met mine in a moment that consumed us both, a little taste of heaven in a world consumed by hell.
Then she gave my crotch a surprise grasp and squeezed. “Now we’re even for before,” she said and pushed me through the rift.
+13
The next thing I knew, the demigoddess had pushed me toward the tear in reality and I tumbled through it, landing face first in the bushes.
A man kicked me in the side.
“Ow!” I said. “That was my bad side.” I fought against the pain and stood, ready to fight back, when Telara punched the man in the face. Long cuts sliced into his cheek from the bladed metal piece she wore across her knuckles like a set of four rings fused together.
“Nice of you to come back,” she said. I saw the fallen body of a man covered in blood. I didn’t have to ask. I knew. Telara had killed him, and it was his death that opened the rift I had just fallen through. Apparently the fight I left behind didn’t end when Telara ran, it followed her.
As the man stumbled backward, Telara punched a cretin with her other hand, tearing apart its black metal body like a foil piñata. The second cretin leapt at me, latching onto my torso and knocking me back to the ground. My spear sat in the bushes, but it took both arms to grab the cretin and push it further from my prone body.
Telara, her face smeared with human blood and the thick black life essence of slain cretins, towered over me. I held the cretin as far from my body as my arms would reach while it thrashed for its freedom. Its jagged teeth scraped against each other as the small dark creature’s jaw snapped shut.
A fist erupted downward through its belly. Telara had punched a hole through it with her bladed knuckles. I tossed its body to the side as it melted into a puddle of black goop.
I reached for my spear while Telara ran through the bushes after the last remaining fighter. He was a human man, and he didn’t seem keen on sticking around now that he couldn’t count on Duul’s familiars to round out the fight. I ran after them both, stopping only once Telara had grabbed the man and lifted him off the ground.
“Don’t kill him!” I yelled. Telara held the man in the air by his shirt. He kicked her in the stomach, and while she grimaced, she didn’t double over. She didn’t even loosen her grip.
“Why not?” she asked. She drew back her fist.
“Every time a person dies, the burning rotten souls of Duul’s ancient warriors stand ready to invade our world,” I said. “Through the hell rift that opens up. Because Valona can’t close them. Ever since… it’s a long story.”
“Fine,” she said. She held her palm to her mouth and used her teeth to pull her metal knuckles free, then she punched the man in the forehead with her bare fist. His head rolled back and his body went limp. She tossed him into the bushes.
“We’ve lost our cover,” she said. “You have access to the portal arch, let’s go. Quietly. Before more of Kāya’s fighters find us.”
I had no choice but to follow her. Popping out of a rift was disorienting stuff and I wouldn’t know which way the portal arch lay without Telara’s guidance. We stalked through the trees for half an hour before the arch came into view.
“I can send you back to the Imperial City,” I said. “Or anywhere else.”
“We’ll go to Halcyon and regroup,” she said.
“I’m not taking you to Halcyon,” I said. “I don’t know you, and I don’t trust you.”
“I work for the Great Mother,” she said. “Our goals are the same.”
“Increasingly, I don’t believe that’s true,” I said. “She has an agenda, and it’s different than mine.”
“She’s using you,” Telara said. “Let her. It’s the only way to save our lives, the gods’ lives, and the world. She put Duul in his place once and brought peace after a decade-long god war. She’ll do that again with our help. Open the portal.”
I thought about saying something else and pushing her through. Roseknob, Fatesong — even Martinstead, the city issuing orders to Father Cahn in support of Duul’s war. I couldn’t do that though. Pushing Telara through a surprise portal was a dirty trick, and I probably wouldn’t even succeed. She was slender, but strong. She looked like someone that would require a very serious push, but at this point, I was kinda too tired for that.
“Don’t refuse,” Telara said. “The last thing you need is to make an enemy of the empire while Duul already wants to destroy you.”
She had a point. As much as I didn’t want an imperial “dagger” in Halcyon, it was better to keep an eye on her and play nice with the Great Mother.
“Halcyon,” I said, activating the portal and summoning a wall of bright green energy. Nola was waiting when we stepped through, and she looked pissed.
“Do you know what goes through my mind when I wake up in the middle of the night and scan Halcyon but can’t find my head priest?” she asked.
“You go a little crazy?” I asked.
“I go a lot crazy!” she yelled. “Where were you?”
“Oh, just hell,” I said. “The non-lux-wraith that we fought in your temple was a straight-up ghost. There are legions of them, waiting in the underworld for their day to fight the bad fight a second time.”
Nola stared at me for a moment, no doubt reading the myriad thoughts that raced in my mind. Thoughts of Brion and our stolen energems. Thoughts of the Great Mother’s imperial daggers. Thoughts of the gray-skinned demigoddess’s candy red lips pressed against mine.
She rolled her eyes. “You can’t go anywhere without trying to pick up girls, can you?”
“She made the first move,” I said.
“I did not!” Telara said.
“Not you,” Nola and I said in unison.
“But now that we’re on the topic,” Nola said, “who are you?” Nola raised a crude small sword at the woman.
“Nola!” I said. Since when was she packing heat?
“Telara Frist,” the woman said, “imperial dagger assigned to Valleyvale.”
“You keep saying ‘dagger’ like it’s a title,” I said.
“The imperial daggers are the empire’s elite enforcers. If a mayor breaks a binding treaty, if an elf monarch marshals too many troops, if the beastkin try to claim land that isn’t theirs, we set things right again. By force, if necessary.
“Duul’s army took us by surprise. Those of us that weren’t trapped behind the walls of the imperial city mobilized when the war broke out. The Great Mother delivers our orders in visions while we sleep, and mine were to come here and ensure Kāya’s death. I’ll assist with that task any way I can.”
“You can start,” Nola said, “by getting back inside that portal arch, heading home, and telling the Great Mother to take her ‘assistance’ and shove it where the sun god doesn’t shine. But come up with a polite way of saying it, so I don’t sound like a total brat.”
Nola, I said, the Great Mother won’t like us kicking her out. I’ve seen Telara fight. She may be an asset we can use.
She’s an armed goon, Nola said. I want her gone.
“I can see I’m not welcome here,” Telara said staring at the metal blade, its tip just inches from her chest. “I’ll leave. My purpose was never to disrupt you.”
“What is your purpose?” I asked. “Before you were assigned to Valleyvale, where were you?”
“Landondowns,” she said.
“And look what happened to them,” Nola said. “You couldn’t protect their city or my mother. Get off my lawn.”
Telara didn’t protest. She glanced toward the north end of the hill, then
climbed down the stone steps that led to the ground level. We watched her walk the long northern path toward our front gates, and then disappear into the forest.
“I had no—”
“I know,” Nola said. “It’s not your responsibility to pick fights with the Great Mother. Leave that to me.”
“You and your new weapon,” I said.
“You like it? I’ll need it to activate my new combat class skills. The blacksmith made ten of these before I settled for this one. I told him to keep practicing, since I’m not going to win any wars with a crude iron short sword, but it will do for now.
“He made you a new spear too,” she continued. “You can pick it up in the morning after you’ve gotten a few hours of sleep. How was hell?”
“Surprisingly cold,” I said, “but informative. Kāya is killing Valleyvalians to open portals to the underworld, but if we can save Valona from whatever monster the Great Mother sent in there, we’ll have a new ally in this war. A powerful one.”
“Valona said all that?” Nola asked.
“Her demigoddess daughter Reyna,” I said. “We just have to save her before Duul does. It’s a race between us and Duul now to tame the rex fulmin, whatever that is.”
Nola took in a deep breath. “The rex fulmin is a beast of the wilds, like the zenocat Duul cursed and sent with his last attack. In the lands far outside the settled world, there are magnificent creatures still connected to the natural energies that created all life. They’re as old as the gods and the first generation of men that walked the earth. It’s a crime against creation to capture those beasts and use them like slaves.
“They are sensitive, and majestic, and if I’m being completely honest, a little sexy. All that power, all that magic crackling inside them. Like gods, but more primal.”
“So it’s not just Duul who’s cursing the beasts of the wilds,” I said.
“No,” Nola said. “And I don’t know the first thing about defeating them. The best course is to set them free and release them back into the wilds where they belong. If any of those magnificent beasts serves a god, it should only be by choice.”
“Wait,” I said. “You make it sound like we could convince one of these ancient magical creatures to serve you here and guard Halcyon against Duul.”
“Anything’s possible,” she said.
“Except mating with them, right? ‘Cause you sorta said…”
“I would never!” Nola said. “I meant they were theoretically sexy. I thought you’d understand that.”
“With you,” I said, “there’s so much I don’t understand.”
“I forget sometimes that you’re simple,” she said. “It’s not your fault.”
“I’m not simple!” I said.
“That’s what every simple person says.” She patted me on the head. “Now go get some rest. Having Valona on our side will prevent more ghosts from escaping the underworld, but we’ll still have to expel the ones that are already here. I’ll work on that problem while you sleep.”
We walked together down the steps that led to the temple. Once inside, I pushed open the door to my chambers, expecting to find Mamba still asleep.
Where’s—?, I asked.
Mamba woke up to an empty bed, Nola said, so she went to find Vix to make sure she didn’t need anything. They’re curled up together outside now, asleep.
I peeled off all of my clothes and climbed onto my bed. As I stared at the ceiling, I wondered if hell’s warden was watching, but it was too warm to pull the covers up and I was too tired to care.
+14
I stood on Halcyon’s hill as the morning sun rose over the trees. Hammers and saws played in a symphony of construction with Vix as their conductor. Our people were going strong, our resources were improving, and we had an enemy on the horizon that we could conquer if we acted with speed and precision. We couldn’t spend a week preparing or she’d grow impossibly strong. We needed to gather what we had and do our best with it.
Today was the day before war.
There once was a boy who slept nude.
He woke in a glorious mood.
Then reached for his ‘spear,’
Forgetting I’d hear,
All of his thoughts most crude!
Nola, I thought. There has to be more to literary genius than limericks and mental trespassing.
At higher levels, Nola said, I expect my mind to tap into the nuanced connections between the words we use and the realities we experience, delving into the cognitive richness of the lexicographical form to pair archaic phrases with neologisms as a direct challenge to the orthodoxy of the status quo and to elevate, nay, revivify mankind’s passion for the beauty of language.
On second thought, I said, limericks are fine.
As I surveyed the hill, I noticed it lacked the crackle of energy from the electric energem that added zip-zap power to our walls.
Nola, I asked, did you take down the energem powering our perimeter?
Yes, she said, and just in time. It’s like some of these people didn’t even play with blocks as kids, they are not really cut out for construction. If I didn’t flip that energem off when I did, some of them would have fried. As long as they don’t move it, I’ll be able to flip it back on whenever I want.
Why would moving it matter?, I asked.
A fully charged energem pulsates with action energy, just like you and I. When a full energem is nearby and powered with a specific action, I can sense it and establish a psychic link. It takes time to bring it under my control, and once I do the psychic bond is very precise.
If the energem gets moved while I’m paying attention, that’s no big deal. I can just chase after it with my mind and keep the thing active. But, if it moves while I’m focused elsewhere, the connection will break. Then I’ll have to set it all over again from scratch, which takes time.
Good to know, I said. Now, would you please send everyone to the clearing in the center of the hill? I need to let them know that we march on Valleyvale tomorrow.
“Excuse me,” a man said from behind. “Master Arden? You haven’t been by to pick this up.”
I turned around to find a dark-skinned man three inches taller than me. He wore a heavy apron that covered his torso and down to his ankles in fabric nearly as dark as his skin. He held a simple iron spear in his hand.
“You must be the bl—” I felt my lungs constrict to cut the word short. “The smith. You’re the smith.”
“That I am,” he said. “Did you want to test it out?”
I took the weapon from him. Its handle was smooth and thin. A simple spearhead attached to the end. If my Vile Lance was a merciless instrument of destruction capable of staring doom in the mouth and shattering all of its teeth, the smith’s smaller spear was a fragile toothpick suitable for dislodging strawberry seeds stuck in doom’s bicuspids.
I set down my Vile Lance for a moment to check my skillmeister menu with the new weapon in hand, and just as I had suspected, the simple spear provided zero attribute bonuses.
“Thank you,” I said, “for taking the time to forge this.”
“It’s no trouble,” the smith said. “After the new zoning went into effect, the forge is much more effective. I’ve already crafted a few orders for Vix, though I’m not sure when she plans to pay for them.” He narrowed his eyes at me, as if I were her construction sugar daddy.
“Where is she?” I asked.
He pointed toward the center of the hill. The three wooden towers standing two stories above the rest of the village should have been a dead giveaway.
Make that two towers.
I ran toward Vix’s construction site as the frame of a massive tower teetered, then toppled over. I followed the angry voices of shouting villagers until I reached her.
I wasn’t entirely out of breath by the time I got there, but lung inventory was running pretty low. I inhaled deeply and asked, “What happened?”
Vix just stood there, shaking her head, while one of the men helping
her stepped forward. He pointed a thumb at the woman behind him while he spoke. “This Meadhead forgot to bolt the tower’s feet to the ground while I added the crossbeams.”
“Meadhead?” I asked.
“That’s what the Valleyfail citizens have started calling us Meadowdale folks,” the woman replied. “Meanwhile, if he had just followed Vix’s first plan instead of inventing new crossbeams to add, the tower would still be standing.”
“This is a disaster,” Vix said, pulling me away from the pile of splintered debris. “It seems like the more people I put on construction duty, the less gets built. All they do is bicker. None of them are builders by class, but I thought I could instruct them and rely on them to work together.”
“Maybe we need to do some team building,” I said. “Everyone! Form teams and get building!”
“There’s more to team building than that,” Vix said. “At this rate, we won’t have the towers complete for a week.”
“We don’t have a week,” I said. “We leave tomorrow morning.”
“That’s too soon!” Vix said.
“Maybe you should ask them what they want to build and deploy them accordingly,” I said. “Tell them they’ll learn a trade and maybe you’ll consider sponsoring some of them so they can become builders too. In fact, if they open up Command Chain, I wonder if the XP bonuses will stack.”
“It would be nice to have a few more men under me,” she said. “Hmm.”
“You have that look in your eye,” I said. “Like you’re imagining crazy builder stuff.”
“Yeah… builder stuff.”
As we talked, a crowd formed. Lily and Ambry pushed toward the center, with Yurip, Cindra, Mamba, and Mayblin close behind. I was glad they were here. I wanted them all to hear this.
“Kāya is building anibomb towers, and some ominous metal spire in the center of town,” I said. “We’re out of time.”
The Mayor of Valleyvale pushed toward us with a handful of men and women at his side. “At last, we agree on something. The time to act is now.”