by Eddie Patin
Riley suddenly appeared his age again. According to his dad back on Ebonexus, Riley had just turned twenty-nine. The cyborg stared into a far-off place and let Jason see a part of him that was hurting. He was hurting so bad...
Jason felt tears welling in his eyes, then broke his gaze away. He wiped them off on the back of one glove. He wanted to hug his friend. Instead, he put a hand on one of Riley's shoulders, which shocked the younger man.
"Riley," Jason said. "Let's go save our friends."
Chapter 30
Jason watched as Riley disappeared into the sky. The soldier's coattails fluttered behind him like a cape as he rode the flying disc that they'd captured from the necromancer's tower up toward the canopies of the towering, mushroom-shaped trees. Riley had his silvery Gauss rifle in his arms. Jason had made sure that the man's radio still had plenty of battery power and its volume maxed out.
Once again, Jason stood in the shattered swamp alone.
The sulfur smell was thick in his nose. He watched his friend ascend through a gap in the treetops, intent on the open sky. The blue glow of the flying disc under Riley's feet made Jason nervous as it grew further and further away.
Eventually, Riley was gone, popped through the forest roof and no doubt looking for the black storm.
Jason could remember what the world looked like from up there. Even though he'd been scared as hell, balanced on upper branches and well over a hundred feet off of the ground, he felt far freer up on top than down here in the mud.
Looking around, Jason made sure that his AK-47's safety was still off. It was.
The unending bog stretched out in all directions around him; brownish-grey with patches of red algae either coloring pools of standing, mucky water, or tossed around by the maelstroms and decorating the drab landscape with clumps of thin red strands that reminded Jason of War of the Worlds. The trees were huge and held large insectoid horrors within the massive tumor-like growths of roots at their bases. The root structures were like giant cages full of darkness and filth. Hard-to-see large mosquitos the size of cats drifted around high in the air, lazily exploring the landscape. Jason was glad that he hadn't been attacked by any of them.
There were ettins in this swamp, and they would eat Jason—pull him to pieces—if they caught him. When the two Reality Rifters had arrived here for what was supposed to be their final assault, Riley had scanned the area with his cybernetic senses and told Jason that there were no ettins or trolls nearby. Still, Jason worried anyway.
If they came for him, he'd send them to Hell with his lava key. He'd swallow them up into a sea of magma...
Jason fidgeted with the lava key around his wrist as he looked around, surrounded by the drone of insects and small creatures hiding in the mud. He could kill ettins no problem with his rifting powers. But, he'd learned, rifting as a weapon is not a cure-all for everything. He'd failed to kill Vorealus. Twice.
If he and Riley failed this mission, they'd be in a really bad spot.
Besides, Jason thought. Riley has the mind protection now.
"Hopefully," Jason added aloud.
It had to be either the other ring or one of the two colorful stones that had saved him from the giant's powers. If they were wrong, then Riley would be knocked out of the sky as soon as the giant looked at him. And if they were right, then Jason would be the one to fall asleep this time...
He wasn't looking forward to that.
Jason looked around. He was antsy. He really didn't want to stay put. Monsters could come upon him at any time. He was tempted to rift up into a tree, or to scout out the black storm himself by using his OCS to rift to the ettin village again.
Stick to the plan, Jason thought, shifting his weight on his boots in the spongy mud.
Still, he thought, looking up for Riley. It's been a while...
Jason reached for the radio hooked to his backpack strap. He hit the transmit button and pulled it close to his mouth.
"Riley, come in. Can you hear me? Come in, Riley. Over."
There was a pause then Jason heard his friend's voice under either some heavy static or wind in the microphone.
"Jason! Almost there, buddy! You okay?"
"Don't go out of range, Riley," Jason replied. "Don't go too far! We can do as many jumps as we need to. Over."
"I hear ya, man," Riley said. "I found the storm and I'm heading to the clearing near the troll cave. Come to me in a minute."
"Okay. Over."
Jason waited, keeping his rifle shouldered and watching his croaking and buzzing surroundings nervously. He didn't bother waiting for Riley to call him before pulling out the half of the focus key blank that would lead to the cyborg. Staring at his half of the blank that he and Riley shared, Jason thought about ways that he could use the same concept for different applications. For one thing, as soon as they all got back home together, Jason intended to make necklaces for Riley, Gliath, and Morgana—which they'd hang onto all of the time—then he'd store the other halves with him. If he had a 'Gliath key' and a 'Morgana key' and a 'Riley key' from the start, they would have been out of this mess right away.
There might also be other ways that he could use focus key blanks. Maybe, over their travels, he could toss half of a key blank into any sort of hazardous environment they came across to create more weaponized focus keys. What would happen if Jason threw one into the deepest part of an ocean ... or into outer space? Maybe he could find a deadly place that would be safer to throw enemies into—safer for him, anyway—without the risk of setting everything on fire like with his lava key.
After a minute of staring at Riley's half of the key they'd divided for their rescue mission—feeling desperate to get to Morgana and Gliath—Jason went ahead and opened the rift. The portal opened like it always did—loud and fiery with a flutter and a snap—then roared to life, throwing sparks all over the swamp and overwhelming the quiet bog with its chaos.
Jason stared at it, waiting for the center to clear. A second or two later, he saw Riley standing before him, facing away with his left hand on his hip and his Gauss rifle up on his right shoulder. His boots were still locked into the flying disc, which was now firmly resting on the ground.
Riley was somewhere out in the open. He was waiting for Jason and had no idea that Jason could see him just then.
Feeling a little awkward about spying on his friend—even for a moment—Jason shook his head then broke the surface with his hand. Riley immediately startled as the destination rift exploded into life behind him.
He stepped through then released it.
"Hey!" Riley exclaimed, clapping Jason on one shoulder. "That worked just fine. Let's keep moving. I'll put you at the edge of the storm for the next one."
Jason looked around. They were indeed in the clearing, though he was disoriented and didn't recognize his surroundings. Looking down one lane of the clearing, Jason saw that the sky was black.
"East?" he asked.
"Yup."
"Okay, good," Jason said. He thought of Morgana lying on the transparent floor of her cube, gasping for breath, pale, and sweating as she choked on her own Carbon Dioxide. The image made his heart hurt. Jason wanted nothing more than to be there, right then. "Let's hurry!"
"Will do!" Riley replied, then with a faint hum of the flying disc, he took to the air again.
Jason watched the cyborg fly away—fast—up into the sky. He ascended until leveling out perhaps forty feet high. Riley zipped along with his coat fluttering behind him, slightly crouched onto the disc, disappearing down the lane and heading toward the storm.
Once again, Jason was left in the quiet bog, looking all around him with his AK-47 shouldered. This time, he kept his 'Riley key' in his rifle's support hand. He searched for signs of danger all around him, but he saw no ettins. He couldn't spot the troll cave anywhere.
"Hurry up and wait," he muttered to himself with a sigh.
His heart was beating too quickly for standing around on an empty slope of mud and red algae.
Jason knew that after the next jump, waiting wouldn't be so easy. He'd be at the edge of the storm. There might be will-o-wisps to deal with. Maybe the giant himself...
After a while, Riley's voice came through on the radio. He was shouting above a heavy wind and Jason didn't know if he was flying, or just inside the black maelstrom.
"Okay, Jason! Rift to me!" he finally said. His voice crackled with interference.
Jason opened a rift to Riley and saw his friend touched down on the ground again as the portal cleared. The sputtering roar was very loud after standing in the quiet bog for a few minutes.
He stepped through.
When Jason released the fiery portal, the roar of it disappeared, but the noise of the dark maelstrom remained. Wind buffeted him from all around and black vapors whipped by like evil ghosts. Riley stood next to Jason, still hooked into his disc, ready for action with his Gauss rifle and a fire in his dark eyes. As Jason took in his surroundings, he saw that they were inside the tree line up the slope from the clearing. Jason was near the big root structure of one of the huge trees.
Riley had intentionally landed somewhere with cover. Good.
"You ready for this shet?!" he called out over the wind. "We still have to get through the fruking castle to the courtyard! I'll land on the walls somewhere!"
"I'm ready!" Jason shouted back. "Hey, we don't need to go through the castle! The courtyard with the cubes is open to the sky! Maybe you can just go to whatever roof is up there, and I can catch up to you! Then, we can attack from above!"
Riley smirked. His short, dark hair was being thrown in all directions by the wind. "Good idea, Jason! Alright! Watch out for bugs!"
Jason's eyes flashed to the root structure and the darkness within. A jolt of dread flew up his spine.
"Okay!" he shouted back. "Watch out for harpies!"
Riley nodded then took to the sky. The blue glow of his flying disc departing into the black storm gave Jason a small fright. The blue glow of the disc was the same color as the will-o-wisps.
Jason watched—squinting his eyes against the stinging wind and thrown flecks of mud and grit—then looked back into the root structure again. He turned on his image intensifier, but it only helped a little with all of the mud and water flying around and the black wind blocking his vision. Still, there didn't seem to be any giant centipede-things or anything else staring back at him from just inside the roots.
Turning off his night vision again, Jason scanned the clearing, peering through the storm to see whatever wasn't swallowed up by the maelstrom, then staring into the whirling blackness itself, searching for will-o-wisps.
Nothing was going on. Not yet.
It was loud and blustery. Jason reached up and pulled his radio to be as close as possible to his ear without taking it off of the strap.
When he saw three bobbing blue balls of light emerge from the darkness in the clearing below him, Jason felt an icy stab of fear.
He could hunker down and hide from the things. Hell—he wasn't afraid of fighting them, but if he did, he might draw the attention of Vorealus again. And when it was time to rift to Riley, he'd surely draw the will-o-wisps up to him with his dramatic fiery portal.
Jason listened at the radio. He waited. His heart beat faster and faster as he watched the exploring will-o-wisps down below. He started to wonder if he'd already missed Riley's 'all clear' because of the loud wind. Then, he heard the cyborg's voice come through on the radio. Jason had no idea what Riley had said, but he'd heard something.
That was it. It had to be it. Riley was on the castle roof.
Jason clenched his fist around the focus key half and opened a portal. It was like a bonfire in the darkness, driving the gusting black vapors away, burning the storm with its fiery orange roar.
When the inside cleared, Jason saw Riley standing on a wide, open space of white marble. The air behind him was gloomy but nothing like being inside the storm. Riley was fighting with his rifle; snapping his muzzle up, aiming quickly, then firing off burst after burst at enemies unseen. He wasn't on his flying disc anymore.
Riley was also drifting away from Jason at a constant speed. His friend was walking slowly and tactically as he fired, but he was also moving toward the distance in a way that Jason didn't understand...
Then he got it.
Riley wasn't moving. The portal was moving; moving away from him.
Which meant that the castle was moving.
"Holy shit!" Jason exclaimed over the wind and the roar.
Then, he released the rift. He'd have to open a new one, otherwise he could be stepping out into thin air and plummet to his death.
As the rift disappeared, Jason saw five glowing blue balls bobbing around in the clearing, all growing slightly bigger with each jounce.
They were heading his way.
Jason stared at the focus key and opened another rift to Riley. The instant it cleared—roaring and sputtering and shooting sparks all over as the marble floor next to Riley's current position became visible—Jason stuffed the focus key into a belt pouch, raised his rifle, and stepped through.
His muddy boots touched down onto a hard, smooth surface. Riley, next to him, was firing his Gauss rifle at a handful of harpies that were flying in and out on their arm-wings. When Jason released the rift with a pop, he could hear the sounds of wind blowing. The triple-cracks of Riley's three-round-bursts and the screeching and shrieks of the feathery monsters replaced the noise of the black storm where he'd just been standing.
"The castle's moving?!" Jason immediately asked.
Riley looked at him with a smirk, then looked up in alarm. "Watch out!" he shouted as he stepped around Jason and fired up at a harpy that was diving at them. He pierced her naked belly and chest three times and the beast crashed with a sickening explosion of bones and flesh and feathers five feet away. She sprayed a large splat of bright red blood all over the white surface. "Yeah!" Riley exclaimed. "It's moving! We're flying to the southwest!"
Jason had been too slow to dodge the plummeting harpy. It was a good thing that her last flight didn't end on Jason's head.
"We're on the roof?"
"Yeah! Start shootin!"
Jason did. Looking around, he beheld a large and oval-shaped surface that was ridiculously broad with an equally huge hole in the center of it; like they were standing on a massive, white ring. The edges of the circular roof sloped down. There were at least a dozen harpies zooming around or hovering in the sky near them. There were also a good handful of broken, feathery-fleshy bodies scattered around on the huge white ring that they were standing on, dead courtesy of Riley Wyatt.
They were close to the end of this. Jason knew it.
Soon, he would be trying his damndest to get Gliath and Morgana out of their cages, and hopefully, they wouldn't all be killed...
There was a screech to one side.
Jason turned to see a harpy wheeling around in the sky, heading his way. He saw several more flapping their arm-wings just past the outer edge of the ring-shaped roof, watching Jason with predatory eyes. He could see the green and grey horizon—likely the treetops—and just past the edge of the roof, the air below seemed dark. The sky above them was bright and choked with clouds.
He aimed at the harpy swooping in toward him as Riley continued fighting nearby. She moved in a constant arc, circling in preparation to charge it seemed, so Jason made sure to lead a little. There was a strange, hazy warbling in the air; a long, high tone...
Putting the front sight just ahead of the harpy's head and back, Jason held his breath and squeezed the trigger. The rifle boomed, and the harpy's wings suddenly thrust out in random directions, her course was interrupted, and she dropped out of sight. Several feathers lingered in the air where he'd hit her, then drifted down.
"Yeah!" Jason exclaimed.
He faced the several harpies that were hovering near the roof's edge—perhaps fifty yards away—and took aim at the first. Jason could see her severe, hawkish face and slend
er neck. Her mouth was open, making an 'O' shape. She flapped her wings, hanging in the sky. Jason's eyes drifted to her human-like breasts, then down to the bestial legs coated in feathers and ending in long talons.
Settling his front sight in the middle of her chest, Jason let out his breath to take another shot...
The strange sound was growing louder in his ears. It was something he'd never heard before—like a weird harmony of alien voices—and didn't make sense to his brain. As Jason watched the harpy on the other end of his sights, relaxing his pull on the trigger, he saw her 'O' mouth change, and the sound changed slightly, too.
Jason was too curious to kill her just yet. He had to see what would happen next. As the bizarre but very pleasant melody grew louder, he looked at the other harpies hovering next to her; all beating their wings and making similar faces. Jason changed his aim to the others, one by one, looking them over and taking in the odd shapes of their part-woman part-avian-beast bodies.
They seemed to grow larger.
Jason saw the sky darkening below them; opening up to a greater view of the brown and grey Shattered Swamp and the dark red of the treetops...
He raised his rifle again—when had he lowered it?—and aimed at the first harpy once more. Looking over the creature and the shapes that her mouth was making, Jason listened to the strange sound and wondered if that really was the first one. Wasn't it one of the others? He looked over them all again, letting his eyes drift over each of their faces and bodies, one by—