by Deck Davis
“I’m still in shock, to tell you the truth,” replied Solly, though there was a hint of pride in his voice.
He went to the other side of the room and helped Faei to her feet. Her arm wasn’t bleeding anymore, but it was a horrible sight. If she held it in the air, Jake would have been able to see the other side of the room through her torn-open wrist.
“What now?” she said.
Jake nodded at the iron doors. “Isaac went through there. That’s where Cason is, so that’s where we need to go.”
“He’s strong, Jake. And my hand is screwed.”
“While I have your mutoction working through me, I’ve got just as good aim as you. Don’t sweat it.”
“Not quite. You veer a little to the left, and when you try and correct yourself, you go too far to the right. And besides, why didn’t you imbue the bolts? Fire arrows would have worked a treat.”
“I guess the mutoction doesn’t give me every power you have,” said Jake.
Solly joined them. Faei smiled at the mage.
“Well done,” she told him.
It was just two simple words, but Jake could tell they meant everything to Solly. He was happy for him, and happy that he and Faei had bonded, but there was work to do.
“Solly, you’re out of mana, right?”
“Correct.”
“So, you’re out of mana, Faei can’t shoot, and I’m only useful as long as the mutoction is in me. We’re miles away from home, we’re out of healing potions, and we’re about to face a mage so tough he chooses a giant spider as a wife.”
“That’s the size of it,” said Faei.
“Can you walk?” asked Jake.
“If it means helping kill this bastard, I could run a hundred miles.”
“Then let’s do this,” said Jake.
He took all the mutoctions out of his pocket. He had four vials left. One of them was from Solly’s blood, one from a bear, one from a wolf, and what was the other one? He couldn’t remember. And he didn’t care; he just needed every boost he could get. He uncorked each vial in turn and drank them back.
-Aim increased by 25% [Wolf]
- HP inc to 589 [Bear]
- Defense inc by 50% [Bear]
- Mana inc to 340 [Solly]
With the mutoctions working in his system, he strode toward the iron doors.
The doors opened onto a cavernous room that buzzed with energy. The roof reached up fifty feet into a spire shape, giving it the feel of a cathedral. As Jake looked around it, his pulse began to stir. There was just too much to take in.
There were five blue portals in the room; two by the left wall, two by the right, and one at the far end.
In the centre of the room, there was an alchemy table. Behind it stood a man with a grey beard that was thick in some places, patchy in others.
“Cason!” shouted Faei, with more warmth than Jake had ever heard from her.
“Portal!” shouted Jake, with what he guessed was the same warmth.
Isaac Shackleton and Thotl stood on either side of Cason. Isaac, with his diminutive height, only reached to Cason’s chest, while Thotl was a foot taller.
“Come in, friends,” said Isaac.
Cason put a vial down on the alchemy bench. He eyed Jake and Faei with a strange look in his eyes.
Was he happy to see them? Had he missed then? Had he spent all of his time in captivity just dreaming of the moment when Faei and Jake would rescue him?
“What took you dopey cock-bags so long?” he said.
Jake almost turned around to go home. Screw him. Leave him here to rot.
“You might as well come in,” said Isaac. “Cason has finished the potions. As you can no doubt see, I have learned how to open portals where I want them now. No more searching Reaching Crest to find whatever weird and wonderful location they have sprouted in.”
Thotl didn’t say a word. Instead, he picked his wooden club from the workbench. Jagged pieces of metal stuck out from it.
“Bring them over here,” said Isaac. “They might as well die now.”
Thotl grinned. “A pleasure.”
“Dickhead,” said Cason.
Thotl turned to Cason and punched him in the face. Cason tried to get his balance, but ended up sweeping a row of vials onto the floor. The glass shattered.
Then, Jake realized something. The glass shattering hadn’t affected him. It hadn’t even made him wince.
He turned to Faei. “Can you imbue one of the bolts?” he said.
“I still have one good hand. What do you need?”
“Anything that’ll deal with this bastard,” said Jake.
As Thotl and his club approached, Jake readied a bolt and pulled the bowstring taut. Faei ran her hand along it, imbuing it with green energy.
“Acid,” she told him. “Burn his throat out.”
Thotl took one more step, when Jake fired. The bolt reached him in a millisecond and tore clean through Thotl’s throat. He hit the ground with a thud.
Isaac looked at his now-dead henchman with contempt. He had a calculating look on his face.
“Listen,” he said to Jake. “Take one of the portals and leave. You don’t belong here. This isn’t your world, and I know you’ll be itching to get back home. I’m right, aren’t I? Well, here’s your chance. Take the portal, go home, and forget about all this mess. It’ll be like it was a dream.”
That was what Jake had wanted all along, to go home. And here was his chance. He could just slip into the portal, let it close after him, and leave all of this behind. It would be so easy.
No. He couldn’t do it.
“It’s over, Isaac,” said Jake. He walked toward the workbench in the centre.
“Your bolts won’t hurt me, boy.”
“Stop calling me boy.”
“But you are a boy. And I’m a rather powerful mage. Didn’t you know? I don’t know how you got by Nezrock, but I’ll feed you to her soon enough.”
“You’ll have a job,” said Jake, taking the vial out of his pocket. “Think I’d be quite a meal for her.”
He shook the vial. Nezrock clambered against the sides, before slipping down. Isaac stared at the vial for a while, arching his eyebrows. Then, the realization seemed to hit him.
“No,” he said.
Jake nodded. “Yes.”
“But…how?”
Solly joined Jake. “Because I’m a goddamn wild mage,” he said.
Isaac’s face turned pale. The wrinkles weighed heavier on his skin, as if he had just aged ten years in less than a second. When he spoke, his voice was choked.
“My wife…” he said.
“Let Cason go, and I’ll let you leave with Nezrock. We’ll escort you to the emperor’s fort, where you’ll hand yourself in to the soldiers. This is your only chance at leaving here alive.”
Isaac eyed Jake with contempt. “I’ll see you again, you can count on that,” he said.
With that, Isaac darted to the right. Cason had just about straightened himself to his knees, when Isaac smashed into him and sent him sprawling onto his back. The sorcerer crossed the room.
Jake saw where he was headed. He was hoping to jump into one of the portals.
He nocked an arrow. He followed Isaac, adjusting his aim.
Isaac was just a few steps away from the portal now. Less than a meter away from escape.
Jake fired. The bolt zipped uselessly above Isaac, hit the stone wall and fell to the ground.
Damn. His Faei mutoction must have run out!
Isaac took one more step, and then he jumped into the portal.
There was a groan of metal. The screech of what sounded like brakes. Then the front of a car smashed through the portal and straight into Isaac’s stomach. Travelling at what must have been forty miles per hour, it gave the sorcerer no chance. Both car and man skidded across the ground and smashed into a wall on the other side. The car’s horn blared on, and the driver slumped over the steering wheel with blood trickling down his face.
The portal must have opened onto a country road, or something. That was the only explanation. Isaac might have mastered how to spawn a portal in Reaching Crest, but he couldn’t control where on Earth it led to.
If that were the case, what about the others? There was one portal on the left, two over on the right wall, and a larger one in the centre. Where did they lead to? A village in Mozambique? The top of Mount Everest? They could lead anywhere! How was he supposed to get home?
Over in by the alchemy bench, Cason groaned.
“Faei, can you go check on Isaac?” said Jake. “And make sure the driver of the car is okay?”
“Car?”
“The big metal thing that just flew out of the portal. There’s a man in it. Can you check he’s alright?”
Faei went off to the other side of the room, while Jake went toward to Cason. When he reached him, he couldn’t help the warm feeling in his stomach. Above it all, he was glad to see the old alchemist. Happy that he was alive.
Jake stuck his hand out. Cason grabbed it, and he helped him to his feet.
“It’s good to see you,” said Jake.
“Kiss my hairy bits,” replied Cason.
Over in the corner of the room, Faei called out.
“They’re both dead,” she said.
“Now what?” said Jake.
Cason squeezed his shoulder.
“I guess there’s something I need to tell ya, lad.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Cason stumbled over to the workbench, leaned against it, and got himself together. After weeks of captivity, Jake had expected him to look thin and gaunt. Instead, his cheeks glowed and if anything, he’d put on a few pounds. Perhaps since Isaac needed Cason to help with his portals, he’d treated him well.
“Anyone got anything to drink?” Cason asked.
“You said you had something to tell me.”
“Right,” said Cason, and nodded. “But first things first; girl, where are ya?”
Faei strode over to them. Jake could tell that she was trying to rein in her pain and hide it from Cason. It always seemed to be a battle of wills between the two of them; who could show the least pain, the least emotion, be the strongest.
When Faei reached Cason, their battle was forgotten. Cason reached forward and pulled her into a hug.
Faei backed away after a second. “Sorry. I’m just in quite a lot of pain.”
“Holy G’ydor’s stinking ball sack,” said Cason. “What the hell happened to ya, lass?”
Jake held up the vial. “Nezrock,” he said.
Cason beckoned with his hand. “Pass her ‘ere.”
Jake gave the vial to Cason. Cason threw it to the ground, smashed it, and crushed it under his boot.
“She tried getting me to marry one of her daughters. One of her and Isaac’s little freaks. Stupid eight-legged wench.”
Solly cleared his throat. He stuck his hand toward Cason. “Evening,” he said.
“Solly! What are you doing here? I’m losing my mind right now. Not only does my favorite demogoth girl and apprentice run here to save me, but my all-time number one wild mage comes with them!”
Solly shrugged. “They needed a little help. And the boy here brewed me a few potions.”
“Has he learnt to make anything that doesn’t have the consistency of piss yet?”
“He’s quite good actually,” said Solly.
Jake couldn’t help a little smile at the complement. He quickly hid it away. He clenched his fingers. He couldn’t help feeling anxious; whatever Cason needed to tell him, he got the sense that it was important.
“You had something to tell me?”
“First, yell me how you are,” said Cason. “Give me some good news.”
“We found a ton of herbs outside the den,” said Faei. “Enough for thousands of demogoth potions. Enough to keep everyone in my village going for years, until you find a cure.”
“Excellent news, lass. Getting them to actually drink the stuff will be a bit of a ball ache considering how far gone they are, but mebbe that’ll be Solly’s job, ha! Anything else?”
Jake nodded. “Well it isn’t good news, but we had to leave the shack. It just wasn’t safe. Someone broke in and smashed the place up.”
“I hoped as much, if I’m honest,” said Cason. “Not the smashing, obviously, but that’d you’d have the sense to leave. What about all my stuff, then?”
“Pretty much all ruined,” said Faei.
Jake remembered the letter he’d found in Cason’s bed. The one signed ‘JS.’
“I, err, managed to save this,” he said.
Cason snatched the letter from him. He unfolded out, took a second to scan it, then slammed it on the table.
“Did you read this?” he said.
Jake shook his head. “No. I just saw the initials of who sent it.”
Cason was silent for a moment. Then he leaned against the worktop and looked Jake in the eyes.
“Okay. I need to tell you somethin’. But don’t hate me, boy.”
“Why would I hate you?”
“Something I figured out a while ago. Not long after you got here. A day, maybe. But I kept it from you. And I wasn’t ever going to tell you, if I’m honest.”
“What is it?” asked Jake, eager to know, but not wanting to show it.
Cason showed him the letter. “You know who ‘JS’ is?”
“Not a clue.”
“Jessica Steele. Your aunt.”
All the blood left Jake’s face. A fuzzy feeling crept over him; like pins and needles, making him numb.
“What?”
“This was written to me from your aunt, Jake. Years ago, when we first starting courting.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Faei told you about my…past, yes?”
Faei looked around the room, as if avoiding Cason’s glance.
“Come on, girl. Don’t be coy. You told him something, at least, didn’t ya?”
She shrugged. “I don’t really know the story.”
Cason eyed Jake. “But I’m sure you heard about something that happened to me. And that I used to have a family, right?”
Jake nodded. He didn’t know what to say; he was still frantically trying to piece it together in his mind and work out why his aunt, who he’d never met, would write to Cason.
“Eighteen years ago,” said Cason, “I was in a car accident. My wife and daughter were with me. A truck turned out of a junction when he should have waited, and he crushed us. I made it out. I didn’t wake up for another three weeks, but I made it. But my wife…my daughter…”
Cason stopped for a moment. Jake was going to ask him something, but he had so many questions that it was impossible to pick one.
The alchemist gathered himself.
“My wife…she was your aunt. And Franny, my girl. Well…she was your cousin.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m your uncle, lad. That’s as plain as I can say it.”
The words hit Jake like a punch to the gut. Numbness spread through his face.
“No you’re not. My uncle isn’t called Cason.”
“And Cason isn’t my real name, lad. It’s just what I call myself here.”
“But how can you be my uncle?” he said. “You never said anything.”
“Not long after Sarah and Franny died, I saw one of the griefer creatures. At first I thought it was because I was drunk, but it didn’t go away. I followed it to a portal, and I ended up here, in Reaching Crest. Been here ever since. Truth be told, it’s been so long that Earth’s like a fading dream to me.”
“You’ve known my name from the day I got here. Why didn’t you just tell me who you were?”
“I was hopin’ I could find a portal and get you home, and then forget about it. I didn’t want to go back to Earth, and I knew if I told you who I was, it’d just cause a whole barrel load of shit. You’d be asking me stuff, things I didn’t wanna talk about. You’d be pesterin
g me to go home with you. I didn’t want it, Jake. There’s nothing for me in Earth. My home is here.”
“I could have handled it. You should have said.”