by Sever Bronny
He kneeled by his poor horse and gently stroked its mane. “I’m sorry, boy,” he whispered. “I’m sorry …”
If they did this to the palfreys, what would they do to those people? To One Eye?
He untied the rucksack and stuffed his blanket in. They’d have to leave the other six blankets behind, the weight would only slow them down. He slung the rucksack over his shoulder and glanced about. They were in a shallow valley between two gentle hills. A shrill wind blew around them, bringing with it a frosty bite and wisps of curling powder snow.
He stood up. “We have to keep going. We have to leave them …”
Bridget’s shoulders heaved, still holding the animal’s neck. “Oh, Spirit,” she kept whispering.
Leera cradled Bridget, pushing her braided locks out of her eyes. “Bridge … there’s nothing we can do. Come on, we have to go …”
“We’ll have to take their horses, it’s the only way,” Augum said in a distant voice, already envisioning the coming struggle.
Leera nodded, tenderly stroking Bridget’s head. “There’s only two of them, we’ll have the advantage.”
But they’ve got horses, he thought, glancing at the still animals, the wind already pushing snow onto their flanks. The poison had come on so suddenly. He should have seen this kind of treachery coming. After all, they were dealing with people that butchered and burnt entire villages. That should be the emblem on their banner—burning homes, burning animals, and burning people, instead of a burning sword. He clenched his jaw.
Leera dragged Bridget to her feet.
“Spirit was so innocent,” Bridget mumbled. “What did she do?” She struggled in Leera’s grip. “What did she do!” before going limp. “Just like mother and father …”
Leera rubbed Bridget’s back. “She didn’t do anything, Bridge. They didn’t do anything … Come on, we have to keep going.”
Bridget let go suddenly. She looked at the palfreys, sniffed, and began marching. Augum and Leera exchanged glances before following.
The trio pushed on through the waist-high snow, following Bartholomew’s horse tracks. The going felt agonizingly slow compared to the pace of the palfreys. The wind blew into their faces, making the trek even more difficult. Scattered cloud zoomed overhead, leaving enormous swaths of star-filled sky.
“Here they come,” Leera said, nodding at a pair of distant plumes.
Augum’s heart began racing. There was still no sign of Bartholomew. They would have to face Robin and Haylee and take their horses. It was the only way …
He ran through a mental list of spells in his head—Shine, Telekinesis, Repair, Unconceal, Centarro, and Shield, the last still hit and miss, though Shine had that shock extension. He wished he knew the Slam spell, or for that matter, an actual offensive spell, like a lightning bolt or something.
They had no weapons to speak of—Sparkstone had confiscated Burden’s Edge, and Blackbite was now probably sitting in some merchant’s case, a prized possession to be sold at a ghastly price. They did, however, posses the Orb of Orion, whatever good that would do them in a fight.
“They’re gaining,” Leera said, breathing rapid bursts of steam. “Let’s make a stand at the top of the hill.”
The trio reached the crest and turned around, shoulder to shoulder.
Leera placed a hand on Bridget. “You ready?”
Bridget only nodded, face hard as stone.
“We can take them, we’ve faced worse,” he said, thinking of the skeleton back at Evergray Tower, the walker in the woods, and the hellhounds in Castle Arinthian. He dropped the rucksack to the ground.
Robin and Haylee slowed to a canter, black and red-striped robes billowing.
Augum raised his palm. “Shyneo!” It lit up with crackling lightning.
“Shyneo!” said the girls, palms lighting up the snow with prismatic hues.
“Remember that we have Centarro,” he added out of the corner of his mouth. He fingered the dragon tooth amulet around his neck, hoping it really did bestow courage, because he was going to need every ounce of it.
Robin and Haylee reached their crest and stopped a few horse-lengths away, allowing a moment of windy silence to pass between the two adversarial groups.
“I see the nags couldn’t cope,” he said at last.
Bridget actually spat in his direction. “Because you poisoned them! Proud of that, are you?”
Robin shrugged. “Hey, it wasn’t me. You can thank the stable boy for that one. He’s real eager to please.”
Augum recalled Justinius’ smirk and cursed himself for not catching on.
“You’re nothing but a vile idiot toad!” Leera yelled. “A nasty, sleazy, repulsive and brainwashed toad!”
Robin cackled. “Hayles, the Leer is calling me a toad, maybe we should go, it’s just too awful, too hurtful and wounding!” but Haylee only gave him a cold glance. He didn’t even notice.
Augum was anxious to get this over with. “You going to come and fight? Won’t get away with cheap shots like you did last time!”
“Stupid fools.” Robin glanced at Haylee with a secretive look. “Still think we’re going to play on the same level as the gutterborn rats and get dirty.” Robin held up a stone, placed two fingers in his mouth, and whistled sharply.
The trio looked about, confused.
“I don’t see any army,” Augum said, but he was concerned—if they poisoned the horses, who knew what other treacheries they were capable of.
Robin genuinely laughed. “Just wait, gutterborn …”
A moment passed and they heard a distant cracking and rumbling, like something was digging through the snow.
“There …” Bridget said, pointing in the direction they had come from, color draining from her face. A mound of snow was furiously ripping toward them, the icy surface cracking forward of it. Whatever it was, it was big.
Rob and Haylee’s horses whinnied, but they held firm on the reins. “If only Auntie Erika was here to witness what her precious little pet will do to you …”
The Banyan Beast
The mound of snow exploded and out jumped what looked like a nine-foot ape, except in place of eyes there was just a monstrous black nose, its two holes opening and closing like tankard lids. It had glossy black fur and giant arms out of proportion to its body.
“Dark hell …” Leera said, taking a step back as the thing roared in their direction, exposing racks of jagged teeth. It sniffed the air, turned to Robin and Haylee, and roared again, spooking the horses and almost throwing their riders off.
“Whoa there, whoa—” Robin said. “Not us you filthy beast, them—” He pointed at the trio. “And remember, just the females, not the male. Leave him for us!”
The beast made no gesture that it understood, instead continuing to sniff the air for scents.
“Maybe you should try using the stone,” Haylee muttered.
“Oh, yeah.” Robin palmed the strange rock. He placed it to his lips and spoke into it. The beast immediately turned to the trio and roared again.
“Sorry about that, it’s kind of stupid,” Robin said to the trio. “It’s an arcanely enslaved banyan beast, and it doesn’t like being above ground. Anyway, his teeth will be the last thing you two gutterborn wretches will ever feel.”
Haylee’s head whipped his way, voice cracking. “But you said no one would die—”
“You wouldn’t—” Bridget said, retreating another step.
Robin snorted and held the stone to his mouth. “Knock the females down, make them suffer!”
The banyan beast dropped forward on his two powerful front arms and charged, kicking up white plumes. It was all the trio could do to jump out of its way.
Robin laughed at the spectacle.
It uses smell, Augum realized, desperately trying to come up with a plan. If he could just get the stone … but that would mean he’d have to be faster than the horses. It gave him an idea.
“Bridge, Leera—work with me,” he said as the
trio prepared for another charge. “Stay close—”
He turned his back to Robin and Haylee, pretending he didn’t know where they were, all the while backing up towards them. He let his hands traverse the thin unbroken layer of icy snow as he cracked its surface, feeling its rough texture, judging its strength. He carefully watched every movement of the beast, noting how its blindness was its greatest weakness, smell its greatest strength.
“After the next pass, I’ll cast Centarro,” he whispered out of the corner of his mouth. “You two cast it when mine expires—watch out!”
He dodged the banyan beast’s charge just in time, but Bridget wasn’t so lucky. It smashed into her, sending her flying and crashing to the snow in a powdery explosion.
“BRIDGET!” Leera screamed, sprinting for her.
Robin guffawed. “Did you see that, Hayles?”
“Robbie, please, you said they wouldn’t—”
“You realize I’m just toying with you,” Robin said to Augum, ignoring Haylee. “The real fun will be when I give it a kill command.”
Augum picked himself up from the snow, ignoring the pain from his ribs, a pain he had almost forgotten about since coming to the caravan. The ground began rumbling, signaling another charge. It was he and Leera now, and if one of them didn’t act, they were lost.
“Leera, keep its attention on you,” he said, unsure if she heard him in her attempts to find Bridget. He had no time to say it again. The beast charged straight at her. Robin was only ten feet behind and to the right of him. Haylee was further.
Leera had to withstand the next pass, she had to.
“Centeratoraye xao xen!” He felt the rush of the spell slow everything down, or perhaps his mind sped up. Every nuance, every texture, every gesture and feeling was clear as the night sky, and visible for what it was. The snow became crystal sharp. The wind flowed over him like an invisible river. Every moment counted, yet this time he would not prepare for the side effects—he needed that time to do the impossible.
He whipped around and raised his palm at the horse. “Shyneo!” He concentrated on brightness, pushing past the boundaries he knew. It had to be brighter. Lightning crackled to life around his hand. He willed fear with his stance, the way his arm jutted, his fierce look.
The horse whinnied, rearing up on its hind legs, but his eyes were already fixed upon Robin’s arm. When it reached the right angle, at the apex of the horse’s rise, he extinguished Shine and switched to Telekinesis, arcanely reaching for the rock in Robin’s hand.
The ground began shaking from the banyan beast’s charge as a momentary battle arose between his Telekinesis and Robin’s grip on the stone. He knew it would have been next to impossible if Robin was paying attention, but at that very moment, Robin was distracted just enough to yank the stone from his hand and send it flying toward Augum.
By the powerful rumbling, he knew he was too late.
Just as he was about to grab it, a mountain hit him, or at least, it felt like a mountain. He hurtled forward, slamming into Robin’s horse, knocking the wind out of his lungs and sending Robin falling to the ground.
The pain in his chest exploded, amplified by Centarro. Yet Centarro also allowed him to recover quickly by focusing on that which mattered. Robin was still lying in the snow as Augum began searching for the stone, struggling for breath, chest grating with wave after wave of bone-crunching sharpness. He fought to concentrate through the pain.
Then he stopped, attempting to do something that would have been impossible without Centarro—he went back to the moment he was hit from behind, poring over the minutiae of events.
The stone was just before him … he was sent hurtling forward … his eyes reflexively closed from the impact … and yes, there it was—he remembered feeling the stone hit his chest. It must have tumbled at a particular angle, a particular speed. He recalled the sound only a stone would make as it careened across a thin frozen layer of ice he had already studied.
It could only have gone in one direction. He turned—and there it was, almost invisible behind a clump of snow, not ten paces away. He sprinted, but he was not the only one that had spotted it—Haylee had apparently witnessed the whole thing and was galloping straight for it.
His brain fogged as Centarro expired. “Shyneo!” he called, hoping to blind Haylee’s horse, but the spell failed. He dived for the rock, fully expecting Haylee to trample him, but her horse just jumped over him instead. He heard her shout something as the last threads of concentration slipped. He lay stupidly in the snow.
“Command it!” he heard a girl’s voice shout. “Tell it to stop! Gods, tell—”
The ground rumbled again.
“Stop? Stop what?” he mumbled, staring groggily at the stone in his hand.
The rumbling ceased. Something growled nearby.
“He has it—!” shouted a male voice.
A frantic female voice shouted a phrase that sounded like gibberish to Augum. He giggled at the funny words. Time passed filled with otherworldly noise as he nestled the stone close to his chest, its smooth texture cozy, safe. His chest tingled like a bug bite. He stared at the starry sky and smiled, enjoying the simplicity of it, the beauty of twinkling stars.
Suddenly the stone was yanked from his hands as a figure hurtled across him. He barely noticed, brain still foggy, senses crawling back snail-like. A vicious struggle ensued nearby too complex for his feeble mind to follow. Something roared very loudly.
And then … silence.
When the fog in his mind finally cleared, he glanced about as if waking from a dream. His chest pulsed sharply, breath shallow.
Then he saw it.
The banyan beast stood over the cowering figures of Haylee and Robin, Leera standing nearby staring at the stone in her hand, a simple expression on her face.
His blood instantly quickened—she’s lost to the side effects of Centarro!
He sprang to his feet and ran to her, taking the stone from her hands. Luckily, Robin and Haylee had no knowledge of the Centarro spell and its side effects, else they would have taken the opportunity afforded them and disarmed Leera of the stone.
“Sit, Lee,” he whispered, gently pushing her to the snow.
She peered up at him like a lost child, braids falling across her forehead.
“Where’s Bridget?” he asked no one in particular, frantically looking about.
Haylee pointed off to his left.
There he found her face-up in the snow, eyes open. He fell to his knees. “Bridge … are you all right? Bridge!” He placed his ear to her chest. There was a faint thumping.
“Bridge, you’re alive!”
Her eyes slowly focused on him, but her mouth remained slightly agape. She did not move.
Something was terribly wrong.
He gently shook her. “Get up, Bridge, get up—” but she didn’t move. Her eyes stayed on him, pleading and sad.
“Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay,” he mumbled, not believing a word of it and painfully conscious of just how fearful he must look. They needed an arcane healer, but where would they find one? He’d never even met one before, and they were supposed to be rare and very expensive, not to mention sought after by the Legion.
He sat there in a kind of panicked trance for a while when the banyan beast snorted, snapping him out of it.
“Leera, I need your help!” he called, seeing that she was regaining her senses. He checked to make sure Robin and Haylee weren’t trying anything. Robin watched with a smirk on his face while Haylee looked on with—was it pity?
Leera slowly got up, brushed herself off, and lumbered over. When she spotted Bridget, she gasped and fell to the snow, gurgling, “No no no no …”
“It’s all right, she’s alive, she just can’t move,” Augum said. “We need an arcane healer.”
“It must be her back—” Leera’s hands shook as she brushed Bridget’s braids from her face. “I’ve seen something like this before … a boy in Sparrow’s Perch f
ell from a tree once. The elders had him taken to Antioc. They had an arcane healer there, though damn it, I can’t remember her name …
“Then that’s where we must go,” he said, readying to pick Bridget up. “Come on, let’s get her on the horse—”
Leera grabbed his wrist. “No! Don’t touch her, she could die that way. It’s really important she remain as still as possible. We have to use Telekinesis and levitate her onto the horse.”
“Just the two of us—?” he asked, fully aware how tired they were from the spell casting.
“We have to try.”
He nodded and the two stood back.
“Aww, wut is wittle Bridgey-poo hurt?”
Even Haylee gave Robin a horrified look.
Augum, enraged, put the stone to his mouth, daring Robin to say another word.
Robin, thinking Augum was going to command the banyan beast to do something heinous, quickly said, “Please no! I don’t want to die!”
Instead, the banyan beast, towering nine feet over Robin, roared down at him, sniffing the air repeatedly over his head. Augum, satisfied the message was delivered, turned his attention back to Bridget. Her eyes followed him, expressing concern and confusion. Seeing her like this was almost more than he could bear.
“Ready?” Leera asked, breathing heavily.
He nodded, steeling himself, trying to ignore his horribly grating chest. The beast’s charge had worsened the damage. They reached out together and began Telekinesis, but it was immediately evident their arcane stamina was too low. Bridget didn’t even twitch. They tried again, failing the second time as well. Leera, panting, looked away from Bridget, checking the black horizon behind her, as if expecting the Legion to come at any moment.
Augum grimaced, holding his chest. A wave of nausea forced him to sit down.
It was over. They were stuck until the Legion came, and then what? What would happen to Bridget? To Leera?
“Let me help—” Haylee said, standing up despite the banyan beast towering over her.
“What are you doing?” Robin asked, snagging her robe. “Sit back down!”