Death Flag

  “Well, it’s about time. You finally decided to wake up, huh?” a girl’s voice asked sarcastically.

  Madison rolled his eyes into the back of his head before closing them and ignoring the girl’s voice. Maybe if I just—

  He heard her feet hit the floor and come running toward him. “Oh no. No no no! You don’t get to go back to sleep, and you are not ignoring me. There’s no way I’m going to sit here another four days and watch you snooze! I can’t take it!”

  Four days? “What?”

  “If you make to sit here any longer, I’m going to start drawing on you!” She moved to the foot of the bed and continued. “There are about a million other things I could be doing right now that are more productive than keeping an eye on you, ya know.”

  “Four days?” Madison asked, it suddenly dawned on him what she had said.

  “I’m totally going to be behind in transfiguration and alchemy!” She paced back around the bed, stopping behind his head where he couldn’t see her. “And, ugh, don’t even get me started on runic equations! There’s not enough time in the world for that archaic old bats—”

  Madison sat up in bed. “Four days? I’ve been asleep for four days?” he asked anxiously, turning as best he could to look at her.

  “Anyway, I don’t know how you can even sleep so long to begin with. It would be so awful being in bed for that long. I can’t even imagine how bad my hair would look if I—”

  He reached out and grabbed her by the wrists as she walked by. The sudden action caused her to immediately stop in her tracks, go quiet, and stare at him. “How long have I been asleep?” he asked again much more firmly.

  “Four days. I just said that! And why are you holding my hands? I don’t even know you that well and—”

  “Stop!” Madison had only been awake for about half a minute and he already wished that he was back asleep again. This girl was just too much. “Where am I? How did I get here?”

  The girl blinked a few times like he was speaking a different language, and it was the most startling thing she had ever heard. “You don’t remember? If you don’t know, how am I supposed to know? Do you often forget where you are, or how you got to places? Maybe that’s why you’re here. Did you lose your memory? Or would you remember if you lost your memory? If you did, would—”

  “Quiet!” Madison said loudly, interrupting her before she could keep going. Holy shit. This girl. “For just a minute, be quiet. Stand still, and be quiet.”

  “Hmph. You don’t have to be rude about it,” she said, almost pouting.

  Madison let go of her wrists and pointed to the chair she had formerly occupied across the room. “Just . . . go sit down. Wait. For just a minute. Just wait.” Although she seemed reluctant and almost as if she had her feelings hurt, she turned and walked across the room and sat down. It was the first chance he had to get a good look at her, and what he saw made him curious. She was a young girl, likely in her late teens, a little over five-and-a-half feet tall, and she had curly, blonde hair. Aside from that, he couldn’t tell too much about her appearance because of the robe she was wearing. It looked like a strange combination of a candy-striper uniform from the mid-twentieth century and a nun’s habit, though it was a golden-white color rather than black.

  Madison pressed his hand to the bridge of his nose as he thought for a moment. I’m clearly in some type of medical facility, but how did I get here? The last thing I remember is talking to that hulk dude who wouldn’t let me speak before I passed out. I guess that’s a good sign. They wouldn’t waste time or energy or resources trying to keep me alive or save me if they were just going to kill me after, right? So, I can assume that I’m safe for now—whatever that means.

  The sheet had fallen down to his waist as soon as he sat up, but he lifted it back now to see that he was wearing a pair of white, pajama-style pants. His left arm still had a thick, white bandage wrapped around it, covering his arm from the middle of his forearm down to his wrist where it was wrapped around his hand, but other than that and the pants, he was completely naked.

  Where are my clothes? Should I even bother trying to make an escape before someone else comes around?

  “What happened are my clothes?” he asked.

  “Those filthy rags? I imagine they’ve been burned by now,” she snapped. “They smelled like pig shit and looked even worse.”

  Wow. Rude. What did I do to piss you off so quickly? And I thought you said you didn’t know how I got here? But you know what I was wearing? “Who are you? What’s your name? Did you change me?” he asked, putting on his best fake smile. He had never had trouble with the ladies before, so maybe there was still time to charm his way out of this.

  “We are trained to do our duty—no matter how unsightly it might be,” she responded snidely.

  Yeah. I definitely hurt her feelings. Madison sighed. “Come on, you don’t have to—” The door opened before he finished, cutting him off mid-sentence. He would have shut up as soon as he saw Davion walk into the room anyway—probably whether he wanted to or not.

  “Good. I heard that you were awake,” he said by way of greeting.

  Madison couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that. He had been up for less than two minutes, no one had come in or out of the room, and word had already reached this man that he was awake. That was an interesting bit of information that was worth holding onto. “Best nap I’ve had since I don’t know when,” Madison answered honestly. Davion seemed to be letting him speak freely for now, so he was going to make sure he didn’t say something to piss him off. It seemed easier to just accept it and move on rather than to fight the system or question it for now.

  Davion nodded. It was a small movement, though full and honest at the same time. “The medicine you took affects everyone a bit differently, but that’s generally how it works.”

  “The medicine?” Madison asked curiously. “Oh, you mean the healing elixir or whatever that Warren gave me?”

  “Healing drought,” Davion corrected. “Although, calling it an elixir isn’t exactly wrong either. It’s a medicine made from a powerful combination of herbs and magic. It can save a man from death, but it comes with a price. No matter where it comes from, the body requires energy in order to heal itself. Normally, the healing process takes a long time—days, weeks, or even months. It uses nutrients from food and from those stored within the body to gradually heal itself over time. The healing drought speeds up that process tremendously, days become minutes and weeks become hours, but the body still requires energy to do the work it needs.”

  “Ahh . . . I see.” Madison nodded in understanding. He definitely grasped the concept, but something didn’t quite sit right. “You said it was magic?”

  “That’s right. Healing magic is a bit different, of course. It provides its own source of energy in a fashion, so the body isn’t taxed nearly as much. You were pretty beaten up when Warren found you, so it took a lot out of you as it healed you: two broken ribs, several more bruised, and more cuts than anyone bothered to count. And, although I wasn’t there, I have a feeling you drank a bit more than you should have. I’ll have to have a talk with Warren about that in case this situation comes up again in the future. In truth, I’m honestly impressed that you were even able to stand on your feet as long as you did before it took its toll on you.”

  This conversation is going in an entirely different direction than it did last night. Wait . . . Than it did four days ago. Four days? Really? That was the price I had to pay for staying alive? He seems like an entirely different person now. He’s actually being forthcoming with information. He glanced at the young woman behind Davion and saw her looking up at him with a mixture of confusion and fear on her face—and possibly a bit of adoration as well.

  “So, where am I? What is this place?” he asked.

  “We’ll answer that in due time,” Davion replied. “But there are a few things we need to see to first. Rae!” He turned to the girl on the other side of the room. “Run ahe
ad to the chamber and tell them we’re on our way.”

  Ah, yes. There’s the cryptic and elusive rhetoric I remember all too well.

  “Th-the . . .” she stammered and then practically wilted under whatever gaze Davion shot her. “Yes, sir,” she said and ran out of the room before anyone could say another word or she had to be told twice.

  Madison swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up for the first time in what felt like forever. Even though only four days had passed, his body wasn’t going to let him forget the fact that he had been immobile the entire time. His knees and legs felt stiff in the way that muscles do when they don’t get used, and his back popped all the way up and down his spine as he twisted from side to side, limbering up. But, aside from all that, he felt good. Damn good. He couldn’t say whether it was the healing drought or the sleep, but as far as his body was concerned, he actually felt like the last week hadn’t happened.

  He had to hurry and catch up with the large man after that. Davion was either in a hurry or didn’t like wasting time because he had turned and left almost as soon as he finished giving Rae the order. Madison practically jogged to catch up with him and keep pace, yet Davion seemed to walk leisurely in long, even strides.

  It turned out that he had been right about being in a sort of medical ward. Much like the ones back home, the building he discovered himself in was completely white, though it was built from what appeared to be mortar and stone rather than tile and steel. Strangely, however, it didn’t feel like any medieval castle he had heard of. The hallway was open and airy, the slabs of rock that it was constructed from were impossibly large and perfectly fit, and there were windows spaced out at regular intervals to let in the sunlight. Large glass panes filled the windows, letting in sunlight, and he could see out into a type of a conservatory that was filled with various different plants and trees. The hallway they were in curved around the open-air garden and exited through a set of heavy wooden doors.

  He caught a glimpse of a large yard as soon as they exited the building, but Davion was down the flight of steps and stepping into another building before he had time to take it in and get a good look. There were young men and women milling about on a large, grassy lawn, though he couldn’t tell what they were doing, and he was certain that several of them stopped and stared at him as he walked past.

  Several minutes down another hall, this time built from the same impossibly-large stone slabs, though they were a dark, muddy red this time instead of white, and they had stopped in front of another door. It was much smaller than most of the ones they had passed on the way and might have been a storage closet for how inconspicuous it was. Rae was beside the door, breathing hard and standing next to a young man and a middle-aged woman. The older woman’s grey hair still had a few streaks of black in it, though that would probably fade away soon as well, and she wore it up tied up in a bun on the top of her head. She had a stern look to her, and she didn’t bother to hide the incredibly-obvious fact that she had begun scrutinizing Madison as soon as he was in sight of her.

  “Warren!” Madison said happily when he spied out the young man. It wasn’t like they were lifelong friends, or even close at all, but he was still glad to see him nonetheless. The young man had saved him from death’s door, even if it had landed him in this strange place—this place where magic was real and people were twice the size they should be with twice as many muscles and where no one could answer a straight question.

  “Madison,” Warren responded, a brief smile flashing across his face. “I knew you’d make it.” He cast a sideways glance at the woman beside him and then up at Davion and then back to the woman again before finally settling on Madison. He looked nervous.

  “Well, this is him,” the woman said impatiently. “Show me what was so important that it requires my personal time and presence.” She looked down her nose at Madison as she spoke as if he were a bug she was about to cuss out for wasting her time even as she squashed him beneath her heel.

  “Here,” Davion said, turning to Madison. He took a pouch from his pocket and held it out for Madison. Once Madison reached for it, the giant upended it into his hand. The same translucent stone he remembered seeing in Davion’s office tumbled out into his hands.

  “Oh, I remember this,” Madison said. “I was curious how it worked, but . . .” He trailed off when he realized that everyone present was watching the stone intently. The old woman’s eyes were practically glued to it. Just like before, a small tendril of black smoke tinged with just a hint of purple appeared in the center of fist-sized crystal and grew until it filled the entire center of the stone. Once it had, the inky vapor began rolling against the crystal, filling every nook and cranny as if it was looking for a way out. I remember this now. It’s the same color as—

  “It means nothing,” the woman said dismissively. Madison looked at Rae and Warren and saw that their eyes had grown as large around as saucers.

  “Nothing?” Davion asked skeptically. Surely, even you can’t dismiss that kind of result when you see it. You’ve conducted the test yourself thousands of times.”

  “Pah!” the woman said, sending spittle flying in Madison’s direction. “We’ve seen it before. That stone lies, and you know it. It’s been wrong before. If you think he’s worth your time, you do the test. But I have better things to do than waste my time chasing fairy tales.” With that, she turned about abruptly and stalked off down the hallway in the direction opposite of the way they had come.

  Davion took the stone out of Madison’s hand and dropped it back in the bag before returning it to a pocket. “Come,” he said and pointed to the door, stepping aside so that Madison could enter.

  Madison pushed the door open, and it soundlessly swung open to the inside. Almost immediately, he was hit with a heavy blast of frigid air. He was still only wearing the pair of pajama pants he had been given in the hospital ward while he was unconscious, so it felt like he had taken a dip in a Siberian swimming pool during the middle of winter. He turned a questioning look to Davion, but when he realized the other man was waiting for him, he stepped inside.

  He felt a weird feeling as he stepped across the threshold, like he had been briefly submerged in water, and it made his skin crawl. What the hell was that? And why the hell is it so cold all of a sudden? And why are there no lights in here? The room he was in was pitch black. He couldn’t see a thing. He took a step forward and felt something cold crunch under his bare feet. Another step forward, and it felt the same. If he didn’t know better, he would swear he was walking on snow. Is this asshole trying to trap me in a damn freezer or something?

  “You two may come inside as well,” he heard Davion say behind him, and then there was a click of a door shutting.

  As soon as the door was closed, a world materialized in front of him. Rather than being on the inside of a small storage closet or a freezer as he had imagined, an entirely foreign scene appeared. They were standing in the middle of a forest in the dead of winter. A low, hazy sun hung in a dull-blue sky that was spattered with a few light-grey clouds, and a thin blanket of pure white snow covered the ground and dusted the trees, making it look like they had woken up to the first snow of the year on a wintery day.

  He walked forward into a clearing and found a large, loosely-woven mat on the ground that looked like it had been woven together from dried yellow grass. He stepped onto it tentatively and found that it was firm underneath his feet, so he ventured out onto it. He turned, looking around the clearing, and only became increasingly confused as he did. There was a weapons rack on one side, filled with just about every weapon he had ever heard of. There were long swords, short swords, axes, mauls, hammers, flails, bludgeons, throwing stars, and everything in between. There were also a few he didn’t quite recognize but was sure he had seen in some movie at one point in time.

  Next to the weapons rack, there was a small table with a chess board set up on it. The pieces were neatly arranged, waiting for someone to begin playing. When he
walked over to it and took a closer look, however, he realized that both sides were missing their queen. On the far side of the clearing, there was a large table with old-fashioned maps sprawled out on it and a compass lying on top of those. There were several figurines, the type that would be used to show the location of troops in war, but they were all lying on their side as if they hadn’t been positioned yet. There was a bookcase next to the map table, filled with books whose titles he couldn’t read, and a wooden globe next to that. He spun it around briefly, but none of the landmasses matched up to anything he recognized from back home. As far as he was concerned, whatever planet it depicted might as well be alien to him.

  On the last side of the mat, to the left from where he entered, there was a large open fire pit. There was a massive fire burning in it, the red flames licking up into the cold air, but it seemed rather subdued for a flame so large. Most of the fires he had seen that size were bonfires, which flared up into the sky and greedily consumed the wood used to burn them, but this one seemed to be almost unnaturally under control and burning at an even pace.

  “What is all this?” he asked, finally turning back to the others who had remained near the entrance while he explored. “Where are we? How did we get here?”

  “This is wherever we need to be,” Davion answered. He had folded his arms across his chest, and he didn’t seem to be bothered by either the cold or the falling snow in the slightest. Rae and Warren, however, had basically wrapped themselves in their arms and stood shivering in their boots. Neither of them was wearing anything remotely appropriate for the weather, and they were apparently freezing for it.

  Cryptic as usual. “Let me guess,” Madison said. “Magic?”