Steele Alchemist

by Deck Davis

  They each took a short break, while keeping someone on watch at all times. Faei and Solly tried the bear mutoction, even though the idea of drinking brewed bear blood disgusted the mage. Whenever the beating of Thotl and his men’s pulses seemed to grow, they marched.

  Two days later, their journey brought them to a place that Jake knew he’d had to visit, but hadn’t quite believed he ever would. It brought them to the beginning of Widow Leaf Forest.

  Faei stopped. “Are we sure about this?” she said.

  Wind swept through the trees ahead of them. Their branches were black, almost as if they had been ruined by fire, yet their supple leaves meant that this forest wasn’t dead. When the breeze hit the trees they moved in unison, almost as if they were breathing. He doubted anyone would ever make a fortune selling camping holidays in Widow Leaf.

  “There’s nowhere else to go,” said Jake. “We can’t turn back, and there’s nothing out there for us east or west. Widow Leaf was always the destination, eventually.”

  Faei nodded. Solly gulped.

  “Then let’s go,” said Faei.

  They took their first steps into Widow Leaf. The further in they went, the darker it got. And then a curious thing happened; the pulse beating of Thotl and his men lessened. Jake drank more bear mutoction in case the effects had worn out, but it was the same.

  Thotl and his men were stopping their pursuit. The sound of their pulses got weaker and weaker, until finally, it stopped completely. Now, they were so far away that Jake couldn’t sense them.

  “Have they given up?” asked Solly.

  Jake shook his head. “No. They’ve driven us where they wanted us to go.”

  Chapter Thirty

  The decision to push on through Widow Leaf was an unconscious one. It seemed that words weren’t needed between people who had spent so long together. How much time had Jake spent with Faei now? Weeks? A month? It was the longest he’d lived with anyone since his parents died, that was for sure. He was even getting used to Solly, but he just felt that he and Faei had a connection that was a little deeper than sharing the same shack.

  Going further into Widow’s Leaf was the right thing to do. It wasn’t a nice place, but he couldn’t think of anywhere else they could go. The shack was lost to them, as was the alchemist’s house. Even if they had another safe haven, there was no telling how many follow potions Thotl had. Or who was making them.

  That was a jarring thought. So much so, that he stopped walking. Their feet had been making steady crunches over the twigs and bracken, and the sudden stillness as Faei and Solly followed suit didn’t feel right.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Faei.

  “Do you think that Cason made Thotl’s follow potion?”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “It’s just a thought I had.”

  “Follow potions aren’t the stuff of masters, pot-stirrer,” said Solly. “Any number of alchemists could brew one.”

  Faei nodded. “After all, you figured out how to do it, didn’t you?”

  “Wherever we’re headed, Cason is there,” said Jake. “I’m sure of it. And we know Thotl is linked to it as well. Him, the Watcher, the orbs. They have Cason prisoner somewhere. Maybe they’re forcing him to make potions.”

  “I doubt he kidnapped Cason just to brew him up stuff he could buy in any town.”

  “Maybe,” said Jake. “Or maybe he’s having him brew things that he doesn’t want anyone else to know about.”

  They continued their journey, always heading north. As the day wore on, Jake began to sense movement around him. Not from animals or people, and there was nothing sudden about it. It was more a creeping sense of change; as though the forest was gradually forming a different shape around them. Trees seemed to bunch tighter than before in some areas, and sparser in others. Green vines slithered between tree trunks and formed thatch works that came to resemble walls. At first, he thought he was imagining it, but before long, there was no mistaking it.

  He stopped and turned around to look at the forest behind them, at the path they’d taken through it.

  The way back was blocked by impenetrable wall of thorn-lined vines. When he looked left and right, he didn’t just see a wild expanse of forest anymore, instead he saw more vines, more walls, more of nature creeping up and hemming them in.

  “It’s forming a maze,” he said.

  “The Widow Leaf labyrinth,” said Faei. “I didn’t believe it really existed.”

  “And do you believe it now?” asked Solly.

  “Well…yes. Since we’re in it.”

  “A while back,” said Jake, “I climbed a tree on the plains near Cason’s shack. I saw the maze. Only then, I didn’t know it was actually a forest.”

  “Let’s hold on a second before G’ydor really starts laughing at us,” said Faei. “Thotl works for the Watcher, and he’s chased us into Widow Leaf. It just so happens that we wanted to come here anyway. Just not quite yet.”

  “Right so far,” said Jake.

  “Now, Thotl has forced our hand. I wonder what he would have done if he had caught us back in the alchemist’s house. It was only your mutoction that gave us warning.”

  “Butchered us on the spot most likely,” answered Solly.

  Faei shook her head. “No. I think he’d have taken us to the Watcher. When we ran, he had to change his plan. He chased us into the forest, straight into the maze. I’d bet you a thousand gonils that if he’d have caught us in the house, he would have taken us a different way. The maze is here to trap strangers, so it wouldn’t make sense for people who work for the Watcher to get caught in it.”

  “I think your deductions have hit the mark,” said Solly, “But I am afraid it doesn’t alter our course. We are still trapped.”

  “I think I know where she’s going with this,” said Jake.

  Faei put her leather pack on the ground and sat on it. “Oh? Go on then…”

  “Thotl is going to trap us in the maze. Either follow us through it somehow, or wait for us at a dead end he knows we’ll stumble into.”

  “Again, that doesn’t alter our course…” said Solly.

  Faei glared at him. “Shut up about courses! Jake is having a revelation here. It’s the first he’s ever had, don’t spoil it.”

  Jake carried on as if he hadn’t heard them. “Since it’s a maze, there will be lots of turnings and stuff. Thotl will have ways of getting in and out of the maze that we don’t. He’ll come in, follow us, and eventually he’ll have us cornered.”

  “What do we do?” asked Solly.

  “We find our way out. While we do that, we leave him a false trail.”

  Before setting out proper, they drank some water and feasted on some of the salted meat Faei had in her leather pack.

  “Let’s do an inventory,” said Jake. “We didn’t get chance to take the bags up the chimney with us, so what have we got?”

  They’d hardly had time to grab anything before escaping the alchemist’s house, so that left them with a few pieces of meat, whatever potions and mutoctions he had kept in his coat pocket, and a rather fancy bone-carved quill that Solly carried around with him at all times. It was useless, but the mage felt like he needed to add at least something to their inventory.

  Jake checked his potions. He had four good healing potions, an average follow potion, a wolf mutoction, and the mutoctions he’d made from Faei and Solly’s blood. He also had two palm-sized bombs. Back in the alchemist’s house he’d found a supply of bomb cases and fuses, and he’d finally put his bomb making skills to use. Luckily, this alchemist had written down careful instructions on his potions and contraptions.

  “How are you for bolts?” he said.

  Without even pausing to count, Faei said, “Twenty-two. And enough mana to imbue most of them.”

  Solly again felt left out. “I might have another quill with me somewhere,” he said.

  Jake stood up. “We better get moving. Keep hold of the bones from the meat; we’ll use th
em to leave a false trail from time to time. If we get going now, it’s shouldn’t be too hard. We’ll be out here before evening. Trust me, I’m an alchemist.”

  Evening came, and evening went, and the three of them found themselves no closer to an escape.

  By the time they finally decided to rest, the last scrap of light had gone. Had it not been for the dense covering of interlaced tree branches above them, the stars would have been in full view.

  Faei took her pack off her back and set it on the floor. She rested her quiver of bolts next to it.

  “If we get going now,” she said, mimicking Jake’s voice, “it shouldn’t be too hard. We’ll be out of here before evening. Trust me, I’m an arse-face.”

  “Now now, there’s no need for that my dear,” said Solly.

  “Still got that quill?” asked Faei.

  “Certainly,” said Solly, eager to be useful.

  “Then stick it where it shouldn’t fit.”

  Jake sat down. Where the forest near the alchemist’s house was humid, Widow Leaf was awash with a cold breath of wind. He wanted a fire, but knew it would be insane to start one. Instead, they sat close together to share as much body heat as possible.

  “We’ll take shifts keeping watch,” said Jake. “But whoever’s turn it is, if you feel yourself start to get drowsy, wake someone else up immediately. Don’t take any chances.”

  “The sooner we are out of here the happier I’ll be,” said Solly.

  For the latter few hours of their day’s walk around the maze, Solly had complained about how the walls were moving and that it was getting tighter. Jake didn’t see if himself. If the walls had moved, it was imperceptible. Still, that didn’t mean he felt at ease here.

  “Why are you so claustrophobic?” he asked.

  “Before mage college, my father used to brew his own ale,” said Solly. “He kept the brews in the cellar, but you could only get to it through a cramped passage, about the size of a large dog. Either that, or go all the way outside, around the house and unlock it from there. My father preferred to just make me crawl through the tunnel into the cellar. I used to hate it; it was dark, full of insects, and sometimes, rats.”

  “So we’re adding rats to your phobia list?” said Jake.

  “Isn’t there anything you’re afraid of, o fearless one?” asked Faei.

  Jake shrugged. “I haven’t met it yet, if there is.” He said this as confidently as possible, but in his head, he thought, just make sure there’s no smashed glass around.

  He took first watch that night. While Faei and Solly stretched out near him, he sat upright. More than ever, he wanted a fire, but knew not to chance it. He kept his dagger by his left and a bottle of brittle bone potion to his right, and he attuned his ears to the sounds of the forests; the nighttime rustling of night birds leaving their nests for the hunt, the day critters getting back to their dens to see the night through.

  He took a potion out of his pocket and uncorked it. He knew what it was. It smelled vile; blood left to fester in the sun and mixed with animal sweat.

  He shrugged. A mutoction boiled from wolf blood was hardly going to taste like Coke, was it?

  He drank a sip of the mutoction. It didn’t take long for the canine mixture to dissolve into his blood stream, altering the building blocks of his body. The forest was still dark, but it became a manageable darkness. He could see shapes, at least. Silhouettes of the trees and rocks, blurry shapes crawling in the vine walls.

  His hearing improved too. Night insects creaked and chirped. One of them even let out a little insect scream. It grew into a din of them, and made him realise just how many insects there must have been. He was glad he was on guard duty; if he’d taken the mutoction before bed, there was no way he’d have slept.

  At least Faei and Solly seemed to be getting their rest. Solly was out the second he closed his eyes, gone into a deep slumber like someone without a care. Faei, on the other hand, lay on her side with her back to them both. Something about how tense her posture was made him think she hadn’t managed to sleep yet.

  He knew she carried a weight with her just like most people. Everyone had their weighs of sadness and guilt, even if they tried to pretend they weren’t there. Her particular brand of weight was guilt over leaving her parents and her village. It was opposite to Jake, really, since his parents had left him. Not on purpose, obviously. It meant they had the same problem, but they’d just headed toward it from different sides.

  A noise began to rise above the insect orchestra. It was a buzzing sound, something like the rapid flap of the wings of a hundred flies. He looked around for the source of it, but couldn’t see it to his left or right.

  He stood up. The feeling of tiredness and of cold were gone now. All he could think about was the low vibrating noise, and how uneasy it made him.

  He kicked Faei’s leg. She stirred.

  “Hear that?” he said.

  She listened. “Not really.”

  The buzzing moved slowly, giving him a sense of its direction. He turned on the spot and came face to face with it.

  He froze.

  An orb was watching them. A floating sphere that looked different at night to when he’d seen it on the plain. Here, in Widow Leaf, the rubbery surface absorbed the shadows and became faintly black. Inside it, though, was a face he’d seen before.

  The Watcher. His face was cramped up inside the orb as though it struggled to fit, giving it strange proportions. It was like looking into a crazy mirror in a horror house; the way his leering eyes were up close against the sides, the way his pale, dirty skin squashed up against the orb. The Watcher had his mouth open and his tongue out like a panting dog. He eyed Jake, Faei and Solly with hunger, though for what, Jake had no clue.

  Without taking his eyes off the orb, he swung his leg out and kicked Faei.

  “I know,” she said, “I see it now.”

  “He knows we’re here, then.”

  “He always known.”

  “What now?” he asked.

  He heard the sound of a string snapping, and then a thwacking noise. A bolt pierced the side of the orb. Liquid gushed out, and the sphere crashed to the ground.

  “Problem solved,” said Faei.

  He and Faei stayed awake together for the rest of the night. At the first hint of daylight, they woke Solly. The mage sat up, stretched out his arms and yawned.

  “I slept like a babe wrapped in cotton,” he said. “Is it my turn for watch?”

  “We decided to let you sleep,” said Jake.

  “Nice of you. Did I miss much?”

  “A little,” said Faei.

  They started walking straight away. They needed to navigate the maze that day, or things would take a sharp turn for the worse. Their food supplies were running out, they were getting tired, and the Watcher knew they were there. If they were still in the maze by nightfall, their chances of getting out dropped dramatically.

  They set out. Every so often, Jake would see little shapes scurry in his peripheral vision. At first, he thought it might have been a griefer, or something like that, but Solly and Faei saw the creatures too. Whatever they were, they didn’t seem to want to get close to the group.

  After a few hours walking, they were nowhere closer. It felt like they were walking deeper into Widow Leaf, though there was no real way to tell. The only thing that kept Jake sure they were walking fresh ground was the lack of a trail. They’d long ago given up the idea of leaving a false trail to trick Thotl, and instead had left a trail so that they were certain they weren’t doubling back on themselves. For this, Solly reluctantly donated his green and blue patchwork scarf, which they shredded into little pieces.

  That was why, when they stumbled upon a small, ragged patch of scarf, Jake thought he was going to lose his mind.

  “This isn’t working,” he said, calling them to a stop. “We passed this way before.”

  “And we’ve passed lunch already,” said Solly. “My belly’s aching, insects are everywhe
re, and these walls are closing in on us.”

  “They are not closing in. You’re imagining it,” said Faei.

  “We need a new plan,” said Jake.

  “Truer words never spoken. We’re out of food now, and we shared the last of the water an hour ago. And I didn’t want to tell you this, guys, but I’m out of my potions. You know, for my thing.”