by John Hook
“Anika?”
He winked. “Izzy will be out in a moment.”
I chuckled and shook my head as I went back down and waited in the morning sun. I was realizing that nothing surprised me very much anymore, although I was curious.
Izzy came out about five minutes later. His expression was hard to read but there wasn’t even a bit of embarrassment in it.
“Should I ask?”
“It’s kind of interesting, actually. It’s funny it never occurred to me before meeting Anika, but the fact that our bodies are biological glamours that reflect how we think of ourselves raises the possibility that if someone thinks of themselves in more than one way—well, you saw.”
“Is she—or he—transgender?”
“And then some. Anika thinks of herself as she and presents herself that way to the world. I don’t know whether Anika was a he when alive, transgender or what. Here, thanks to the glamour, it almost has no meaning. For intimacy and sexual exploration she uses both and even conjures some cosplay kinds of glamours—alien skin with exotic patterns.”
“I guess that’s okay with you?”
Izzy laughed. “Quentin, you are probably the straightest, most conventional meat-and-potatoes guy I have ever known. I would have given anything to have seen your face at the door.”
“Yeah, I guess that would give me pause.”
“And that’s okay. Me, I may not look it, but I’m sort of up for anything. Anika really lit something up in me.”
“Well, good for anyone that finds someone to be with and care about in this place.”
“So, what’s the plan besides talking about my sex life?”
“You don’t think that will help us?”
“Well, it might keep us amused.”
“In that case, I do have a plan, but first we need to grab Taka and work on a little side project.”
A couple of hours later, we were dragging a long line of black rocks onto the bridge. They were the black rocks that had some element that was volatile when it encountered lava. At my request, and with not a few odd looks in my direction, Taka and Izzy had figured out a secure way to run a thick rope around them, chaining them all together in a single long line. We had to do a few tests to determine what I hoped was true: that a detonation close enough to another rock could set off that next rock without using lava as the reactant. We had used these rocks as missiles against the conical tower where we freed the Angel’s prisoners. Dark Men had been there fighting with us, but I was pretty sure they were unaware of what the source of the explosions was.
As we dragged the long line of rocks out onto the bridge, the Dark Men walked up to their end of the bridge with both curiosity and amusement. They knew we were up to something, but were pretty confident it wasn’t anything that would affect them. They probably thought we were going to attempt to erect a stone barricade.
“Do you think this is long enough? I had to estimate the distance.” I looked at Taka.
“It will be kind of funny if it isn’t. Not for us, but in a plan-goes-fail sort of way.”
Izzy pointed to a couple of arrows with round clay heads in his quiver. “I have plan B if we need it.”
We reached the center of the bridge and stopped. The Dark Men at the other end looked like they were deciding whether to come out and see what we were up to. I waved at them and gave them my biggest, goofiest smile. They grinned and shook their heads. They weren’t going to give me the satisfaction of appearing worried. I was counting on that.
We secured the rope at one end of the rocks to the side of the bridge. Izzy, Taka and I walked back and picked up the other end of the rocks as if we were going to walk it across and create a line of rocks on the bridge. It would have been little more than a speed bump and what we were doing didn’t make a lot of sense, but it left the Dark Men too busy trying to figure it out to react. However, instead of walking it across, we immediately jammed the end over the side and sprinted as fast as we could back towards our side of the bridge. A glance over our shoulder confirmed the Dark Men were disoriented by our running. A few ran out on the bridge and others actually fell back, not sure what was up.
I didn’t have a chance to witness what happened next, but I know from the effect we achieved. Gravity pulled the heavy rocks more and more over the bridge, remaining anchored at one edge of the bridge by the rope. The line of rocks must have been, as we intended, long enough to hit the lava. The first rock hitting the lava was probably sufficient, but no doubt lava also splashed up the rock chain.
There was a bright flash and then an explosion. And then another and another. The explosions traveled up the chain and suddenly the entire bridge was rocked and the supports over the river of lava were shattered. Finally the whole bridge was enveloped in flame and shattered. The middle two thirds of the span split open and plunged to the deep canyon below. Several of the Dark Men who had the misfortune to run out after us screamed and also plunged into the canyon.
When it was over, there was no more bridge connecting Gerod’s side of the city and ours.
“Gerod won’t be happy about that.” Izzy grinned.
“We have a deal, but I saw his forces. This will help him keep to his bargain while I’m gone.”
“We are headed to this city over the mountains.”
“I am.”
“We are going with you,” Kyo announced as she and Blaise came up.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. If Gerod decides to go back on his deal…”
“You just made that very difficult. Taka and Cesare are quite capable of handling the defense forces here,” Kyo chided. “You, on the other hand, have a habit of going off and getting ever more powerful magical beings pissed at us. You are the one who needs watching.” Kyo looked serious but her eyes danced with humor.
“Besides, I really would hate to miss you doing the pissing off,” Blaise added.
“Anika and I will be coming too,” Izzy announced.
I sighed. “Maybe we should just charter a bus.”
“I need to see you before you go. Come to the Keep.” Saripha’s voice was in my head.
“I suppose you want to go too?”
Saripha didn’t answer. The Keep is what we now called the stone tower where Saripha and some of the other citizens lived when I first arrived. It was a hollowed-out stone structure in the mountains which we used to call the Tower. However, after the incident at the conical tower, we now called it the Keep to not mix things up.
“You talking to yourself now,” Izzy prodded.
“Saripha. We’re meeting her at the Keep.”
“When do we go?”
“Now.”
8.
We reached the Keep without much incident. We mostly kept quiet the whole trip, watching carefully. Most of the time, when possible, Kyo was either up in the trees or running at higher elevation to observe and monitor. Luckily, by taking out the bridge, we had made it difficult for the gray demons to follow us and we slipped out of Zaccora. We had always been careful to not let anyone learn about the Keep. Janovic had, because of his psychic links to Saripha and myself, but it was hidden in an area of the mountains most demons avoided.
When we arrived, Paul greeted us. He was feeling good because Saripha had shown up just before us. Paul always felt more centered when she was around. Amazingly, he wasn’t wasting a lot of energy on blaming everything on me, although a lot of what was going on certainly could be laid at my doorstep for my inability to just get along with whatever peace I could carve out.
Sidney was puttering about creating glamour food with Zeon, apparently a new talent they picked up after being away from Saripha for so long. Saripha used to make real food because she had needed it when she was still mortal. We didn’t need food, but we would often share it with her because she could actually do amazing things with the plants that grew here.
Paul also introduced us to five citizens from Rockvale. He apparently had about ten as guests and would send them out, two
or three at a time to scout and maintain communications with any other diaspora encampments they could find, including Haven. In this way Paul, remarkably, had pretty good situational awareness for almost all the Rockvale exiles.
“I hear the Zaccorans think of you as their king,” Paul said disdainfully, but he smiled just slightly. He knew the whole thing would make me uncomfortable.
“Enemy at the gates. Having a king gives you someone to behead when it all goes badly,” I shot back.
We sat around a table enjoying some of the food that Zeon brought over along with some grass tea. Along with myself and Paul, we were Saripha, Kyo, Blaise, Izzy and Anika. Three of those from Rockvale, two men and a woman, stood at the back, listening. Two more kept watch outside in case.
I filled everyone in on my conversation with Gerod.
Paul looked at Kyo. “Do you know anything about this city, Antanaria?”
“Not much. I’ve heard of it. Remember, most of my travels were elsewhere until I discovered this group and settled here. I think it is what you would consider the capital city for the entire…” Kyo paused, having trouble coming up with the right word. “…I really don’t have a handle on how things break down, but it is a seat of government, or at least governance, for some very large macro-region of Hell.”
“What about the Magister?” I asked.
“Again, heard of them but have never seen one. They are widely feared, at least by reputation. They are giants.”
“Giant what?” Paul asked nervously. “Are they human?”
“Don’t know. This is an oddly preliterate world we live in, despite being made up of former humans. No books, no iconic depictions, no murals.”
“No storytelling,” I said. It just kind of popped out.
The others looked at me with varying degrees of puzzlement and amusement.
“Think about it. Aside from the rare rebellious humans like us, most of whom never get organized and are scattered, you find mostly humans of two types. The emotionally defeated trauma toys we call the mass, who have withdrawn deeply inside themselves, and those, like the people of Haven, who create a fantasy world and pretend the grim reality doesn’t exist. No one has a story they want to tell about what is really going on.”
“I figure that’s why we got ourselves a writer.” Blaise grinned. “Only you don’t seem to do much writing.”
“I’m too busy revising this world’s scripts. Do we know if the Magister has any powers aside from just being big?”
Kyo shrugged.
I looked at Saripha. “I’m guessing this is something else Guido never talked about.”
Saripha returned my gaze but didn’t say anything.
Suddenly one of the women from Rockvale ran in.
“We’ve spotted Grays.” She threw the words out with her exhaling breath as she tried to bring down her heart rate from running.
“Here?” I asked. “At the Keep?”
“No, a couple of ridges lower down, but they are getting close.”
“Show me.”
We ran out the door. Izzy had his bow. Kyo, throwing on her long sword, disappeared into the trees.
We made our way along the ridge and then plunged further down into the heavily wooded mountain slope. The mountains had been pushed up in such a way that the different slopes formed terraces that held whatever rain we got. This resulted in a thick canopy of the various strains of evergreens, unlike the more scraggly trees that grew at lower elevations. I was no expert and probably would be hard pressed to know the difference between a pine, juniper or redwood, so I had no idea what they were. They kept everything in shadow, which minimized the undergrowth. This made it easier for us to cover the distance and keep noise to a minimum, but we had to be careful because it meant there was some sight distance and I didn’t want the gray demons to see us before we were on top of them. The woman leading us brought us to a ridge and then, silently, motioned us down. I dropped to the ground and crawled to the ridge on my belly. Izzy came up beside me. On a narrow trail below were five gray demons, moving slowly, sniffing the air. One of them snarled in frustration.
“They don’t seem to be very good at tracking,” Izzy whispered. “Looks like they are this close by dumb luck more than anything else.”
“I don’t want to be tracked.”
“Apparently blowing up the bridge wasn’t enough of a hint for Gerod.”
I looked at the skies, what little we could see through the trees.
“The Shade?”
“Keeping my eyes open. He claims to be afraid of the Shade, but this is all some kind of setup. He isn’t telling me everything.”
“Does he ever?”
I looked down from the ridge again. It looked like the leader of the party of Grays was about to send them off in different directions. I didn’t want to let that happen.
“Izzy, five is too many. Take out the two that are straying slightly.”
Izzy rose on one knee and went into motion. In the next instant he had two precise hits. One demon’s head exploded and another dropped, gasping, with an arrow in its throat. At precisely the moment Izzy had brought up his bow, I had slid down the bank. Instead of worrying about the noise, I made no effort to be subtle. It’s what helped freeze the demons in place for a moment so Izzy could aim. In a cloud of dust and leaves, I landed hard and jumped up inches in front of the lead gray demon. I had my short sword in my hand.
The Gray glared at me and I could see he was preparing to bring up his needle-like talons. The two demons behind him snarled. They broadcast: “Forget Gerod. Kill him.”
I winked at them as a black blur appeared behind them. Then just Kyo was standing there, her blade dribbling off the last of the green goo beading up on it. The two demons behind the leader were dead on the ground. The mix of hatred and disdain in his face were clear but he did nothing.
“Gerod won’t like this,” I heard in my head.
“I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about whether I’m pleasing Gerod or not. However, you, you lucky devil, get to live to take a message back to him.”
There was a moment’s hesitation and, for an instant, I swore I saw panic in his eyes.
“I’ll be killed if I go back.”
“Pick better employers next time. But they might forgive you because you went up against me. Tell them you fought your way out and barely survived.”
Kyo’s eyes lit up. “Shall I make the story look good?”
The gray demon shifted uneasily.
“Oh, I’m sure by the time he gets there it will be quite the story.” I looked back at the demon, holding his hateful gaze. “Tell Gerod I’m going to Antanaria as he asked. I don’t need an escort. If I see any more of you, all will be killed. Now go back to your dark city and tell Gerod before I change my mind.”
Kyo gave the demon a rude push in the direction back. He snapped his teeth at her, but kept going, half stumbling.
Izzy and the woman from Rockvale came up.
“Think it will work?” Izzy asked.
“Probably not. But we have more of a head start now.”
“What do you think Gerod is playing?” Kyo asked.
“We know Gerod is connected to things here much deeper than he lets on. He knew about the Tower and Haven and the whole thing. It is possible that some very bad folks in the hierarchy are unhappy with him for what went on. So it may be he really does want me to succeed in getting this Magister to rein in Knightshade.”
“Then again, if the Magister eliminates you it might help Gerod,” Izzy added.
“Gerod seems to either not know about or not care about the blue power,” Kyo noted thoughtfully.
“I’m not sure never bringing it up is an indication. At the very least, he has to be connected enough to know they aren’t going to do anything too drastic until they figure out a way to wrest it from me. I guess he just doesn’t have a use for it himself, being neither a Shade nor Manitor.”
“We aren’t going to figure this out, ar
e we?”
“Not without going to Antanaria,” I answered.
“We’d better get back to the Keep.”
When we got back to the Keep, I wanted to just gather everyone who was going with me and head to Antanaria. I wasn’t one for sitting around chit-chatting when something needed doing. For me, anything that might lead me to finding Rox needed to be done yesterday. I also figured we might not have a lot of time before Gerod made another attempt to pick up our trail and if we stayed here, he’d probably succeed.
Saripha, however, insisted that there was something important we had to do first. She was a bit evasive, but said it was an important part of my training. I had my usual attitude that training was fine and I still felt guilty about what happened to Saripha at the tower, but it could wait until a quieter time. The fact is, I just wasn’t comfortable with Saripha’s realm of magic. It wasn’t skepticism. I had seen enough to know that her powers and the magical elements of this world at least were real. They just made me uncomfortable. I think it was because I really couldn’t understand them and therefore felt no competence with them. I didn’t know why I felt so confident physically against such powerful forces. I had never been like that in life, but crossing over changed me.
Despite my impatience, I could see the seriousness in Saripha’s eyes. One of the things I trusted with Saripha is that she would respect your priorities even if she disagreed with them. If she was saying this was important, I had to believe her.
I told the others to be ready and Saripha and I went up to the room at the top of the Keep. She carried a cloth roll with her. I noticed it because it looked like fine woven cloth. Most of the textiles I had seen here that weren’t part of peoples’ glamours were woven of the rough grasses that grew here. We entered the room and she motioned me to sit on the floor.
Saripha closed the door and sat down across from me. There was light from a small window set up high on the wall. It touched her and illuminated her face. She set the cloth in front of her, between us.
“I take it that’s something important. I’ve never seen cloth quite like that here.” I met her eyes.