Hard Reign

by John Hook

  We entered the building, hesitating to try and listen for any sounds. There was only the always eerie silence of the abandoned city. Sunlight streamed into the first floor from windows. These windows were openings carved out of the curved stone walls, all around each floor of the tower.

  We descended the stairs to the lower level. There were no windows at this level since it was below ground, but the curving staircase was open enough that light poured in anyway. It was dimmer, but we didn’t need the lamp. Saripha put it down.

  We walked over to the door. It really was a vault door and, although it wasn’t made out of metal, it was heavy and clearly intended to protect what was on the other side. Izzy bent close. He examined it and touched it. He took out an arrow and tried to scratch it with the arrowhead.

  “It looks like petrified wood, if I had to guess. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m not sure even your exploding rocks would punch a hole in it.”

  “You could just blow away the wall around it,” I commented.

  “These polished stone walls we’ve seen are pretty tough too. However, if this door is meant to protect something, I would guess it’s like a lid on a box and breaking away the walls won’t get you in.”

  In the center of the door was a wheel made of the same material. There were shafts inserted into the wheel at various angles. Both Izzy and I tried to move the wheel or the shafts. We had no more luck than the night before.

  I turned to Saripha. She shrugged.

  “I’ve never seen it and Kanarchan has never mentioned it.”

  I saw Izzy grinning and gave him a puzzled look.

  “What?”

  “You are going to find a way to get in there.”

  “Probably, I hate locked doors. Especially in this place.”

  “Gives you a project while you’re training.”

  I paused. “About the training…”

  Saripha smiled. “You want a break.”

  “I think we should make an expedition to Zaccora. I think we need to make sure everyone else is okay and do some planning. We can still train as opportunities present themselves and we’ll come back, but all this indirect stuff is driving me batty.”

  “Okay.” Saripha smiled wider.

  “Okay?”

  “I’m pleased and surprised you lasted this long.” Saripha put a hand on my shoulder. Her eyes were both playful and kind. “It’s time to see if we can learn any more about what is going on and how we can find Rox and Kanarchan.”

  4.

  We decided to take a couple of days to prepare for the journey to Zaccora. We didn’t know what was out there or what we would be facing or even if Zaccora still existed. We hadn’t heard from anyone yet. Then again, everyone had been sent out quickly from Rockvale and no one knew specifically that we would head for the abandoned city, though that might be a first guess. Then again, they might have thought we disappeared because we met a bad fate. Unfortunately, we had no means of communication when we were separated. We needed to work on that.

  Izzy and I went out into the wooded areas and brought back armloads of wood. I created a couple of bat-like clubs reminiscent of what the Dark Men had carried. Izzy selected shafts that were as straight as possible and showed me how to clean them with a stone edge and notch them. He found small stones that either had sharp edges or that could be ground down into edges and began attaching them to shafts with grasses. With better time and tools, he could make formidable arrows. These might only be good for one shot before the heads worked loose, but they would work.

  I also had my short sword, but it was pretty much a weapon for close-up fighting. Saripha wove grass straps that could be used to roll up bundles of arrows for carrying on our backs. I wasn’t going to learn archery in a couple of days, so I would just be the mule that would carry Izzy’s arrow supplies. All he had to do was cut the strap and grab the arrows.

  Saripha put together poultices and various other treatments she used to enhance her own healing powers. We might be the dead but we were living entities with biological bodies, even if there was some sort of magic in the mix. For Saripha, it made no difference. She could work with either, biology or magic.

  “So, how do your powers work now?”

  As part of our preparation, Saripha was having a couple of last sessions with me. We weren’t doing anything dramatic, but she was using meditation and yoga-like exercises to strengthen my connection to the blue entity. That’s what she said, anyway. I had no idea what she was doing.

  “I’m still learning the answer to that question. In some ways, they’re stronger. Having a glamour body seems to attune me with greater fidelity to the nature of this world. Since magic is about being in tune with nature, my direction is more direct.”

  “Except that nature here is more atavistic. You used to say you didn’t use magic as much here because the forces here were darker.”

  “That’s what I used to think.”

  “You don’t now?”

  “It’s more complicated than that,” Saripha said wistfully. As she talked, she was manipulating my back a bit.

  “How so?”

  “Nature is nature. This world has some unique elements to its physics, but nature is neither good nor evil. It just is. The world is filled with cruel beings that do dark things to others here, so there’s a dark river of energy that flows through things. Still, I realize it’s no different than when people in our former world lived under a malevolent dictator. Dark energy abounds, but magic still connects to the nature underneath—it just takes more work to get to it.”

  I thought about that for a moment. I felt warmth rising up my spine, but it was gentler this time.

  “So doing magic doesn’t force you to use dark forces.”

  “You are assuming there is something like dark magic. There is no dark magic. There is no white magic. There is just magic. Intent is what makes it dark or light.”

  “A lot of bad intent in this place.”

  “Yes, there is. It’s easy enough for some to embrace it.”

  “It’s funny you mention that. It sometimes seems to me that what people do to each other in this place is worse than what any of the alien species—demons and such—do to us.”

  “You didn’t seem to think that when we found the tower.” Saripha raised an eyebrow.

  “Yeah, I guess when our hosts do bad things, they do it in a big way.”

  Saripha tapped me once more on the back. Everything seemed to just slightly brighten around me and I felt energized.

  “There, that should be good.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Think of it as raising your energy just slightly and leaving the channel open. You will be more receptive to contact with the blue entity. And you should have a heightened awareness, which should help you as you go out into this world. At least, in this condition, I don’t think you’ll have trouble making contact with… him… if it is needed.

  “So am I done with the training?”

  Saripha shook her head. “Not by a long shot. I’m giving you a break, but you’re going to have to return here and hope you don’t encounter anything too formidable before you do.”

  “I was afraid you’d say that. Just shore leave, then, I guess.”

  Saripha’s expression was unreadable.

  “You’d best get ready for the journey.” And she left the room.

  I was drifting in the darkness. That’s about as close as I ever got to sleep. We were planning on setting off the next morning, but it seemed prudent to get a last bit of rest. Saripha was right, the energy level in my body was now higher and it seemed to help my mind wander more. It was a mixture of memories and what I thought might happen as we headed for Zaccora. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to my environment.

  Then, strangely, I felt as if Rox was with me. I thought at first she was part of the memories I was drifting in and out of. I could feel her breath and I felt my already speeded-up heart speed up even more. My eyes opened. Standing at th
e back of the small room I was “sleeping” in was a figure completely in shadows.

  “Rox?”

  I sat up, trying to clear the fog away from my eyes. The figure turned and ran out the door. I was stunned. I couldn’t see her clearly, but the way she held herself, her motion as she ran… it was Rox.

  I jumped out of bed, but I didn’t shout anything. I still wasn’t sure this wasn’t a dream and I didn’t want to alarm anyone if that’s all it was. I didn’t quite twig to how ridiculous that was at the time. If it was a dream, I didn’t have to worry about shouting.

  I ran out of the room and through Saripha’s apartments, into the jazz bar and finally out into the streets. I caught a glimpse of Rox as she rounded a corner up the street a ways. I shouted after her, but she didn’t stop or respond.

  Now I was pretty sure this must be a dream. It couldn’t be Rox and if it was, she wouldn’t be running away from me. So the only real question was, where was this dream taking me? Only one way to find out. I ran down to where I saw her disappear. It was a side street that emerged into a small square with several other back streets branching off of it. I didn’t see which one she took, so I had to choose one. I went with my instinct and chose the street, more an alley, which exited from the square almost opposite me. I was running at nearly full speed and was not seeing any sign of Rox. I was thinking that I must have made the wrong choice when I suddenly felt something sticky and sharp.

  I had rushed headlong into a web. In fact, I half climbed it before the persistent stickiness coating it held me in place.

  I stopped struggling and realized this probably wasn’t a dream. It was most likely a trap!

  I was caught in a web made of metallic strands, like silvery piano strings. Some kind of chemical was flowing down them, which made them sticky. I was suspended only a foot above the ground. The web had been erected with its upper corners attached to the minaret-like towers in this abandoned city. In fact, I recognized where we were. This was near the building with the mysterious door, which itself had a minaret tower.

  Izzy and Saripha came running out of the alley. They must have been following me. So this really wasn’t a dream. I shouted a warning to them and they pulled up short of the web. One of the moons slid out from behind a tower and the threads of the web glistened.

  “You really do find the best stuff.” Izzy grinned.

  “Get me down before we encounter the owner of this web.”

  “It’s not real, you know,” Saripha said quietly.

  “What do you mean?” It felt plenty real to me. “Look. I’m up in the air.”

  “A happy coincidence for the creator of the illusion. Your heightened abilities are capable of some levitation. You’re simply cooperating with the illusion.”

  “Oh, come on, Saripha, I can tell when something is…”

  Saripha, gracefully and with little effort, made a series of gestures. My eyes adjusted, blurring for a moment, and then the web was gone as I fell on my butt.

  “…real.”

  “What was that?” Izzy turned to Saripha as he extended his hand to help me up.

  “I’m not sure, but I sense another with us.”

  Saripha seemed to glide back into the alley. Shadows enveloped her more than they should have and, a moment later, you could only see her if you knew to look at her. Izzy looked confused.

  “She’ll observe until we find out what this is,” I whispered.

  That’s when I heard laughter. Decidedly human laughter, deep throated and sinister. Izzy’s eyes, looking behind me, widened. I turned.

  Above us, across the square, hovered what appeared to be a large man with broad shoulders and massive hands, standing astride two of the floating platforms we had seen so often in this place, the talismans. He wore a purple turtleneck and a black jacket and black pants. His skin was purple with black tattoos that seemed to have metal wire stitched around their edges, giving them a silvery metallic border. Each platform glowed, one black and one purple. However, instead of a human head, he had the head of a spider.

  “Izzy, did you forget to remind me Halloween was coming up?”

  “Must’ve slipped my mind. You have to love the color coordination.” Izzy leisurely threaded an arrow into his bow.

  “We’ve seen those colors before.”

  “We have.” Izzy nodded.

  “Hey, fuzzy, can you talk with that spider mask on?”

  “It is no mask, I assure you.” The voice was deep and rich. It was neither boastful nor challenging. It was measured and confident.

  “What the hell are you? The talismans are usually used by Shades, but it’s usually the Manitors that have the animal heads.”

  Low, deep laughter again. It was in our heads, which explained having a voice with a spider head.

  “I am something different. Not a mere Shade, not quite a Manitor.”

  “Black and purple. Metal and illusion, if I’m not mistaken. Was Rox part of the illusion?”

  There was a pause. “I have no idea about the one called Rox. The Angel has her now.”

  Almost effortlessly I burst into motion. Saripha had suggested I might have some ability to levitate, but I had no idea how to use it. I opted for a more old-school option. I rushed into a three-story building near the spider-headed figure.

  “Come back here! Running won’t help you!”

  He didn’t have long to wait as I came flying out of a third-floor window straight at him.

  “Where is she? Where do they have Rox?”

  The spider-headed man simply drifted back easily and I plunged to the ground below. A metallic blade had formed in one hand, apparently insurance in case I had been luckier. I caught myself with the branch of a scraggly tree, which broke off, but, doing so, absorbed some of the force of the impact. I rolled on the ground and shot back up to my feet.

  “I’m glad to see you are unhurt. I have other plans for you.”

  “What are you?” I repeated. It was a delaying tactic. So far I had found most creatures in Hell seemed to like to boast about themselves.

  “I am an experiment. I was once like you. A human. But I have been very valuable to the real powers in this place.”

  “Good to know. Puts you near the top of my ‘needs their ass kicked’ list.”

  It was disconcerting talking to a creature whose expressions you couldn’t read. Spider heads don’t do a lot of emoting.

  “That is always your strategy. Or so I have heard.”

  “Are you a Shade?”

  “A new kind of Shade. They rewarded me by giving me two talismans. Two powers. I call myself Knightshade. Clever, don’t you think?”

  Izzy giggled. “Nightshade is taken. She’s a Batman villain, I think.”

  I detected a bristling of the hairs on the spider head and realized it probably was a sign of annoyance.

  I didn’t care. “What do you want?”

  “That depends on you.”

  “I doubt it. If it depended on me, you wouldn’t ever get whatever it is you want.”

  “You saw what happened to Rockvale?”

  “I don’t think you get to claim credit for that. You are too far down the food chain for that kind of pyrotechnics.”

  “But I can bring it down on you. I need only say that our situation is hopeless.”

  “It is, so bring it on,” I snapped. I wasn’t thinking things through much, just maintaining the bravado as it seemed to be the currency in this place.

  “And if I did, you would never learn where Rox is.”

  I could feel the anger welling up again. It wasn’t just the anger about their taking Rox away. It was anger that, even if he was bluffing, he knew he had me. I would have to find out if he could tell me where Rox was and it would limit my options while I did. It was also the frustration of knowing I had to be careful. I couldn’t betray everything we had accomplished just for Rox, although part of me was willing to do that.

  I hadn’t yet gotten enough past that moment of anger to art
iculate a reply when a flash of orange in my periphery caught my eye. I realized it was just behind spider surfer, in a window of a building he was near. He didn’t see it.

  Then it was like flames shot out of the window. Only they weren’t flames. Izzy pulled me back as I stared, not fully understanding what I was seeing. Loud screeching echoed through the night as the open area was lit up with orange.

  From out of the window and off the roof came a herd of what appeared to be monkeys. Instead of fur, they glowed orange with flames. At least it looked like flames. They were moving fast and they never stopped moving, so it was hard to make out details. However, the other odd thing about them is they were partially translucent. You could make out objects behind them looking through their bodies although they were blurred. All of them seemed to be attacking Knightshade. These seemed to be wild creatures, so I didn’t imagine them as being any sort of ally. It was more like watching bees attack someone who had gotten too close to their nest.

  Knightshade was still holding the blade he had formed in one hand and he swung it furiously, slicing through the monkeys (for lack of a better term) as they attacked. Despite their translucence, the blade cut through them easily enough, but as soon as the pieces of monkey fell away, each piece quivered and spun until it formed a new monkey. They would bounce off walls and grab onto trees and renew their attack, increasing their numbers two for every one Knightshade sliced.

  “What are these things!?” Knightshade was frantic. His body had become covered in a metallic skin. I couldn’t tell if the fire actually burned.

  Izzy shot off an arrow. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to plunge ourselves into this battle, but I understood the instinct. A monkey snatched the arrow out of the air and hooted and hollered and turned somersaults that seemed playful and landed on the street in front of us. It held out the arrow, which then burst into flame and fell away as ash. The monkey stood there staring at us. We didn’t move. I could see it clearly now. Its body was indeed monkey-like, but its face was that of a demon with the round, leathery head and the large mouth with multiple rows of teeth. It made the hideous grimace I had seen from so many demons. It stood there a moment longer, seeming quite amused, and then chattered and hooted and scrambled up a tree and jumped back in.