Mindbender

by David A. Wells

  The captain grudgingly followed his orders in spite of his crew’s protests. Less than an hour later, they ran aground in the shallow waters on the northern shore of Grafton Island. The water was only four feet deep, but Alexander still took the longboat from the ship, mostly to prevent the captain and his crew from getting to shore quickly enough to warn the enemy forces stationed on the island. It was a quick ride to the beach.

  The road that circled the island was about a quarter mile from the shore. They approached it with caution but it was empty so they crossed quickly and headed due south into the interior of the mountainous island. As they gained altitude, Alexander stopped to check on the progress of his pursuers whenever a clear view presented itself. They were closing fast but it appeared that they weren’t willing to run aground. Several vessels were heading for the port a mile or so east along the northern coast while one remained anchored in the little cove near the ship Alexander had commandeered. He estimated that they were at least three hours behind, plenty of time to lose them in the rugged wilderness of the island.

  By dark they were well away from the coastline and into the foothills of the mountain that loomed up from the center of the island. They made camp and Lucky prepared a hearty stew over a little campfire.

  Alexander could tell that Conner was nervous about something but he waited for the young prince to speak up rather than ask him about it. After dinner was eaten and their bedrolls were laid out under the clear sky, Conner cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

  “Legend has it that this mountain is haunted,” he said quietly. “I don’t know how much is true and how much is a story, but we should be cautious.”

  “Caution is always wise,” Alexander said. “As I understand it, there are ganglings in these mountains, possibly dragons as well. There might also be a creature called a revenant. They’re supposed to be strong and fast. And winged, so they may strike from above. Malachi Reishi created them by mating a virgin witch with a demon. He said they heal very quickly from injuries and that the only sure way to kill one is to cut off its head. Hopefully, we won’t encounter anything, but we should be careful nonetheless.”

  “I figure it’ll take a couple of days to reach the keep,” Anatoly said. “Might go faster if we stay in the foothills and skirt around the mountain rather than trying to go over it.”

  “The enemy soldiers are more likely to find us if we stay closer to the road,” Alexander said.

  “Soldiers are much easier to contend with than the creatures you spoke of, Lord Reishi,” Jataan said. “I would recommend the course Master Grace has suggested.”

  “I agree,” Lucky said. “Ganglings are dangerous in the mountains, especially if they ambush us from higher ground.”

  Alexander nodded. “All right, we’ll avoid the mountains and stay to the foothills.”

  They woke early the next morning and began the long walk around the mountainous island to Lighthouse Keep on the southern bluff. The forest was thick and travel was slow, but the density of the foliage in the early months of summer offered ample cover from the enemy patrols that frequented the road not a mile away.

  Several times during the day, the group stopped and hid to avoid soldiers that made sweeps into the forest near the road. Alexander preferred to avoid a confrontation, more to protect their position than out of fear of the outcome. He had become confident in his deadliness with the Thinblade, and Jataan had proven to be a formidable ally. He still didn’t really like the little battle mage but he had to admit that his assistance was helpful, and it was certainly preferable to having the man as an enemy.

  At nightfall they made a quiet and dark camp, ate a cold dinner, and laid out their bedrolls. Alexander thought about Isabel as he drifted off to sleep. He worried for her safety and wondered what she was doing but mostly he missed her. Her presence had a way of calming and centering him like nothing else. She made him feel like he was exactly where he was supposed to be.

  He woke with a start. Jack was kneeling beside him, shaking his shoulder gently. He motioned for silence in the dim light of the stars and the half moon overhead, then pointed into the forest. Alexander sat up quietly, checking the Thinblade at his side, and looked to where Jack was pointing. In the flickering moonlight, he thought he saw the silhouette of a man standing several dozen feet outside their camp, except the man had no colors. Alexander pulled on his boots and drew the Thinblade. Anatoly came awake from the stirring in the camp and fluidly rolled to his feet with his war axe in hand. Alexander motioned for silence and began to advance on the man’s position.

  The silhouette didn’t move or react as Alexander approached. The trees swayed from a gentle breeze, throwing shadows and moonlight across the forest floor. Then the man suddenly disappeared. Alexander froze, scanning the forest with his magical sight. There was nothing out of place, no evidence of any threat.

  “Did you see anything, Little One,” he asked Chloe in his mind.

  “No, My Love. What was there?” she responded silently.

  “I’m not sure.”

  He went to the place where the man had been standing and carefully searched the forest floor for any sign of his presence but found none. It was as if they had seen a ghost, except Alexander had seen ghosts before and they didn’t look like this.

  Jataan came up silently through the darkness. “Is there a threat, Lord Reishi?” he whispered.

  “I’m not sure,” Alexander said. “There was a man standing here watching us but he didn’t have any colors.”

  “Have you ever seen a person that didn’t have colors before?” Anatoly asked.

  “Never,” Alexander said. “A living aura is produced by a person’s life force. Whatever was out here in the trees wasn’t alive and it didn’t leave any sign at all. No footprints, nothing.”

  “Maybe there’s more to the stories of haunting in these mountains than we thought,” Jack said.

  The rest of the night offered little rest. Alexander slept fitfully and dreamt of shadows in the dark. He came awake several times with his heart hammering in his chest. By morning he was both relieved to see the dawn and tired from the restless night. After they ate their cold breakfast, Alexander described what he’d seen. Jack and Anatoly added a few details as well.

  Lucky frowned in thought as he chewed a bite of biscuit with jam and then shook his head. “If it was alive it would have been visible to your second sight. If it was actually there, it would have left some trace of its coming and going, not to mention Chloe would have seen it as well. I’m not sure what we’re dealing with, but I don’t believe it’s a man.”

  “Could it have been the effects of a spell?” Jack asked.

  “Possibly, but I suspect Alexander would have been able to see some trace of the spell’s aura,” Lucky said.

  “If anyone sees anything out of the ordinary, speak up,” Alexander said. “There’s no telling what’s out there. It could be the revenant we were warned about or it could be something else. Let’s make sure it doesn’t take us by surprise, whatever it is.”

  They moved cautiously throughout the day. Several times they heard the sounds of galloping horses in the distance as patrols rode by on the road. They continued on slowly, listening for any hint of enemy in the forest around them.

  About midafternoon, they came to a little clearing with a small spring bubbling out of the ground and running off through the thick, mossy meadow into the forest. Standing near the little pool of crystal-clear water was a man dressed in charcoal-grey robes. He was old with long white hair and steel grey eyes. He stood leaning on a staff and was looking at the spot where Alexander stepped from the forest as if he were waiting for him to arrive. He locked eyes with Alexander for a moment and then smiled ever so slightly.

  “Anatoly?” Alexander said.

  “I see him,” Anatoly responded.

  “I don’t,” Chloe said as she buzzed into a ball of light and became visible.

  “I see him as well,” Lucky said.
r />   Alexander nodded. He stepped out into the meadow and said, “Hello.”

  The man flickered and vanished from sight as if he’d never been there.

  Alexander froze in place and scanned the forest. There was nothing out of the ordinary, just thick foliage surrounding the entire meadow with a few large rocks here and there.

  He went to the place where the man had been standing and examined the ground for any trace of his presence but found none.

  “Chloe, we saw him standing right here,” Alexander said.

  “I saw nothing,” Chloe said. “Did you see his colors?”

  Alexander shook his head absentmindedly. “No,” he said. Then he looked up at Lucky. “Any thoughts?”

  “This is most puzzling,” Lucky said, shaking his head. “Clearly, there’s more at work here than we understand. Whatever it is, it hasn’t posed a threat so far, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t or won’t. I suggest an abundance of caution.”

  “Some of the stories of these mountains tell of seeing things in the forest,” Conner said, “and others tell of deadly creatures that roam the night. Most of the people who live here don’t venture into the forest or the mountains after dark and the few who have and returned, speak of seeing many strange things.”

  A shadow passed over them and all eyes went to the sky. Alexander felt a tickle of fear when he recognized the silhouette of a wyvern gliding toward the mountain peaks in the distance. A closer look told him that it was very real with vibrant colors and that it had an elk clutched in its talons. Alexander breathed a little easier as the beast drifted away from them. It had its meal and probably wouldn’t be hunting for the rest of the day.

  “Obviously, there are several very real dangers in these mountains,” Alexander said.

  Camp that evening was cold and dark again. They were taking every precaution to avoid the soldiers still searching for them as well as the other threats the wilds of the mountainous island had to offer. Alexander felt like he had just drifted off to sleep when he woke to a terrifying scream.

  He rolled to his feet with the Thinblade in hand just as everyone else in the camp came awake and rose to meet the threat. Lucky had been standing watch. He pulled a vial of light from his bag and raised it high just as a creature from out of a nightmare landed in the middle of the camp.

  It stood seven feet tall and was proportioned like a man with arms and legs but that was where the similarities ended. It had charcoal-black leathery skin stretched tight over its muscular frame, long lanky arms that ended in clawed hands, fangs protruding from its mouth, and a crown of black horns. Its eyes glowed red and it had giant black batlike wings.

  Alexander tried to make sense of the creature’s colors. They were a mixture of the vibrant colors of a wizard and the inky blackness of a demon. Then the thing screamed again, seemingly in response to the light cast by the vial of night-wisp dust that Lucky held in the air.

  It was a shriek of madness so penetrating that Alexander stood almost paralyzed with irrational fear. The terror flooded into him and filled him with cold stark panic. He struggled to move but couldn’t even flinch away from the terrible creature. He could see with his all around sight that his friends were all in a similar state of frozen panic. With an act of will, he fled into the place in his consciousness where the witness lived, where emotion had no hold and cold reason reigned supreme. In that instant, the spell was broken, the fear subsided, and he stepped forward to face the monster.

  It swept its wings forward, propelling itself backward over Jataan, who stood stock-still behind it, and landed outside the field of light.

  Alexander didn’t hesitate for even a second. He pulled his vial of night-wisp dust from his pouch and held it high to cast the captured light of the sun at the dark creature. With a powerful stroke of its black wings and a shriek of frustration, it took to the air. His friends broke through the spell of terror that gripped them as the creature fled from the light.

  “That was unsettling,” Jack said, still trembling from the unnatural fear conjured by the creature’s scream.

  Boaberous grunted.

  “What was that thing?” Anatoly asked.

  “I’m pretty sure that was a revenant,” Alexander said.

  “I haven’t felt fear like that since the trials,” Jataan said. “I must beg your forgiveness, Lord Reishi. I’m ashamed to admit that I was overcome with terror and unable to move.”

  “I’m pretty sure that was a result of the revenant’s magic,” Alexander said. “Don’t worry about it, I felt the same way.”

  “How did you break the spell?” Lucky asked. “I struggled to break the grip of the fear but was unable to move.”

  “During the mana fast, I discovered a place in my mind where emotion has no power. From there I was able to face the trials and overcome them. When I felt the fear caused by the revenant’s scream, I retreated into that place and the spell broke.”

  Jataan and Lucky nodded in unison.

  “The stillness,” Jataan said. “I remember it from my trials. When the trial of fear came upon me, I was lost to it for a long time until I found that place within where everything was still and calm. Only after I found it was I able to face the fear.”

  “I recall a similar experience,” Lucky said. “The detachment of that place enabled me to face the trials and succeed. I’ll keep that in mind if we encounter that thing again.”

  “The good news is, it really didn’t like the light,” Jack said. “Unfortunately, I suspect that any soldiers nearby have marked our position.”

  “Probably, but I doubt they’ll risk moving through the night, especially after hearing that thing scream,” Anatoly said. “Still, we should probably double up the watch and have a vial of light ready just in case.”

  The rest of the night was spent in a state of half sleep and half wariness. No one wanted to be caught asleep if the revenant came back. About an hour before dawn, they heard the beast scream off in the distance followed by the screams of men. Everyone was up and ready in an instant.

  After a tense moment of waiting and straining to hear any sign of a threat, Boaberous chuckled.

  “Sounds like our pursuers have met the revenant,” Jataan said.

  “At least they didn’t get a good night’s sleep either,” Anatoly said. “It’ll be dawn soon. We might as well strike camp and get an early start.”

  “Yeah, I doubt I could get back to sleep if I tried,” Alexander said.

  They risked a fire for a hot breakfast of porridge and a cup of tea as the light of day grew brighter. After the encounter with the revenant, the thought of facing a squad of soldiers was almost refreshing. The enemy was dangerous but also a known quantity. Alexander understood how to fight them and knew the limits of the danger they represented. The revenant and the man in the forest were both still a mystery and the unknown nature of their capabilities only served to heighten the threat they represented.

  They made better time as the forest thinned and became more rocky and mountainous. The southern tip of the island was a high bluff that jutted up out of the ocean and then grew steeply into the mountain that dominated the center of the island.

  While walking through a boulder field at the base of a high cliff, the enemy ambushed them. In the back of his mind Alexander chided himself for not anticipating the attack, since they had revealed their position with the light they cast in the night and with the smoke of their cook fire. Given a known position and a known destination, it was a simple matter for the enemy to guess at their route.

  When Alexander and his men entered the small clearing with the cliff face on one side and dozens of twenty-foot boulders on the other, they heard a battle cry and suddenly a platoon of Reishi Army Regency soldiers poured out from their hiding places behind the boulders and surrounded them. They were armored with the signature breastplates of the Regency, emblazoned with the letter R over the heart, and they were armed with short spears, large round shields, and short swords at their belts.
They fanned out around Alexander and his friends but didn’t attack immediately.

  The commander of the platoon stepped out from the semicircle of his men and bowed formally to Alexander.

  “Prince Phane extends his congratulations and an offer of truce,” he said. “Surrender the Sovereign Stone and bow before the rightful Sovereign of the Seven Isles, and you, your family, and your friends will be allowed to live. You will rule Ruatha in his name and live as a king. This is the last time he will make such a generous offer.”

  “That’s what he said the last time he made me the very same offer,” Alexander said, shaking his head. “Do you even know who you serve?”

  “I serve the rightful Reishi Sovereign,” he said.

  “Lord Reishi is the rightful Sovereign,” Jataan said. “He has bonded with the Stone and taken counsel from the sovereigns of old. Prince Phane is a pretender. You serve the wrong master.”

  The commander smiled with a shrug. “Yet it would seem that we have you in our grasp. You are outnumbered five to one and I can see that two of your number are ill-equipped to fight.”

  “Your numbers are insufficient,” Jataan said calmly.

  “Don’t be a fool, Lord Alexander,” the commander said. “Accept the offer and we will escort you as a royal guard to Lighthouse Keep where you can await the arrival of Prince Phane, pledge your loyalty to him, and end this destructive war.”

  For what it was worth, Alexander could see from the man’s colors that he believed what he said. Phane was nothing if not a skilled liar.

  Alexander shrugged off his bow and pack, then calmly drew the Thinblade with a smile. “Let me make you an offer, Lieutenant. Stand down and leave us to our task. I have no wish to harm you or your men but if you don’t accept my generous offer, I will kill you all.”

  The lieutenant forced a laugh but his eyes never left the Thinblade. “You’re hopelessly outnumbered. We have you surrounded. Don’t be a fool. You can’t possibly win.”

  “You’re wrong,” Alexander said. “You’re the one who’s at a disadvantage. Withdraw or die.” His words hung in the air as the lieutenant weighed the wisdom of carrying out his orders. The power of his loyalty to a fraudulent authority won out.