Halcyon Rising_Shadow of Life

by Stone Thomas

  “There are no babies yet,” Vix said. “I’m only a couple weeks pregnant at most. I’m fine now. It was Arden that got the worst of it.”

  “Oh, Arden,” Nola said. She walked toward me, and I immediately felt guilty. She should be resting inside her crystal cocoon, gathering the strength to evolve again.

  “Nola,” I said. “Please don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

  Her lower lip began to quiver. “No, you won’t.” She knelt down and pulled me close, pressing my face against her chest as she began to cry. I forgot about the agonizing pain in my side and lost myself in that moment. I had never been so close to her before, felt the warmth of her skin pressed against mine. I wanted to throw my arms around her too, but I didn’t want to overstep. She was consoling an injured head priest, not inviting me into a lover’s embrace.

  “When I tried to solve the mystery of what that attacker was,” she said, “I peered into the future.”

  “And?” I asked.

  She glanced at Vix, Mamba, and Lana before switching to telepathy. I see dead people. You’re one of them.

  I pulled back. Is this like last time, when you said I would betray you and it was a totally different person instead? One with “I can’t be trusted” written all over his smug feline face?

  No, Nola said. That premonition was unclear from the start. This one is a high-definition, 3D, full-color supershow of blood and destruction. She wiped the tears from her eyes. See for yourself.

  Wait!, I said, quickly enough to stop Nola from pulling my mind into a fully immersive projection of her latest visual omen. Maybe I don’t want to see it.

  Oh. Why not?

  I have a city to build, people to protect, and children on the way, I said. How can I focus on all that if I have visions of my own death clouding my mind? You said not all premonitions come true, even crystal clear ones. I’m not sure I can handle this one right now.

  Ah, she said. I’ll respect your decision, I guess. I mean, it’s stupid and short-sighted and I hate it, but I’ll abide by it for now. That’s how respect works, right?

  Not entirely, I said.

  I hope you’ll change your mind though. Forewarned is forearmed, and your forearms could use all the help they could get.

  I glanced at my forearms and the sleek metal bracers that covered them. Are you saying increasing my Strength will help save my life?, I asked. That attribute was due for another upgrade as it was, and I did enjoy the added muscle mass it gave me.

  I don’t know what I’m saying, she said. I’m just worried.

  Tell me one thing, I said. Will it be painful?

  You scream a lot and wet your pants, so I’ll go with yes.

  See, now I’m sorry I asked.

  “I’d like to move you to a recovery bed,” Lana said, interrupting the long silence while Nola and I conversed in our heads. “They speed up the body’s biological processes, which means you’ll heal at a faster rate. That, combined with my healing magic, and we might patch you up relatively soon.”

  “Are there beds to spare?” I asked.

  “We had some folks waiting for Jorgo’s bed,” she said. “I can move you to the front of the line though. You are in charge around here.”

  “No,” I said. “I’m not using my position to cut in line. I can breathe. I can walk. It just hurts like all hell. What I need now is to lie down. It would be helpful if someone could prepare Jorgo’s body for burial. We’ll have to set aside some land for a cemetery.”

  Lana nodded and headed toward the recovery room.

  “I agree,” Vix said, “you should lie down. Let me take you to your private room.” She helped me stand and walked me toward the door in the back of Nola’s temple.

  After Vix closed the door behind us, she helped me lie back on the bed. “Let’s see how bad it is,” she said. She climbed on top of me and placed a knee on either side of my body, careful not to brush against my injured side. She began untying the laces that held my blue leather vest together.

  After she peeled my vest back, she gasped. Everything was red and bruising quickly. “I’m so, so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. None of our weapons did any good against that thing, I just wanted to do something.”

  “You were trying to help,” I said. “I get it.”

  “Let me make it up to you,” she said. She leaned forward and kissed my chest, next to the dark green design the goddess of safe passage had burned into my skin. Vix trailed down my front with her mouth, breathing deeply as she went to take in my scent the way she always liked to do. It was like an intoxicant for her.

  “Vix,” I said. “I’m not sure now is a good time.”

  She placed a hand on my pants. “Seems like a fine time to me.”

  “I just mean, you didn’t intend to hurt me. It was an accident. You don’t have to do this.”

  “I want to do this,” she said. “To make it up to you, and because…”

  “Because what?”

  “Okay, it’s not entirely selfless,” she said. “It’s the pregnancy hormones. They’re driving me crazy. I need a little release.” She rolled her hips forward, grinding them against my pelvis. “You can just lie there, it’s fine.”

  Her hands reached for the buttons on my pants. Then the door flew open.

  “Mamba!” I yelled. “We’re, um, a little busy right now.”

  “That’s okay,” she said. “I can wait. I want to be next.”

  “Excuse me?” I asked. Vix continued to pop the buttons along the fly of my leather pants.

  “To be pregnant,” she said. “I always wanted to be one of the gypsy mommas when I grew up, but the winding road of fate led me to a fork with bent tines. I won’t be welcome there again unless I make myself something I’m not, but I can be Halcyon’s first gypsy momma!”

  She shut the door and pulled up a chair, watching as Vix yanked my pants from my waist. “Ah!” I said, reminded of the pain in my ribs from Vix’s quick movement.

  No sooner did Mamba shut the door than it burst open again. “I came,” Cindra said, clearly out of breath, “as quickly as I could. The mine. And the stairs. And oh my, am I interrupting?”

  “No,” Vix said.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Have I ever been shy?” she asked. “Beastkin don’t bat an eye at this sort of thing. The town square in Denvillia isn’t just a trading bazaar, it’s also where half of the city was conceived. There’s no shame in mating.”

  “Sweetie,” Cindra said. “I heard about the intrusion. Are you okay?” The slime girl hunched over herself, resting her hands on her knees. Her emerald green skin seemed dull, like it had lost some of its smooth sheen.

  “I will be,” I said. “Are you? You seem exhausted.”

  “Our recent fight with Duul’s forces took a lot out of me,” she said. “The cool air in the mine helps soothe me though. I’m sure I’ll recover my energy soon.”

  “Would you mind closing the door?” I asked. As Vix grabbed ahold of me and prepared to “mate,” I didn’t want the entire temple to get a free show. Cindra put a hand on the door when two more people burst through it.

  “Are you kidding?” Lily asked. Her hands frosted over with ice magic as glacial blue as her flowing robe and the matching pointy hat that framed her pale freckled face. “Valleyvale is under siege this very moment, and you’re taking time out for an afternoon delight?”

  “It’s still morning,” I said.

  “Not the point,” Ambry replied. Lily’s sister held one hand on her hip, wrinkling her red robe.

  “Nola said we were attacked,” Lily said, “by the same kind of murderous ghosty things chasing all over Valleyvale. If we don’t get in there and put a plug in this thing, we’re as good as ghosts ourselves.”

  “Okay, Vix,” I said. “Stop.”

  “I thought you’d say that,” she said, adding a disappointed whimper. She climbed off of me and pulled the sheets over us both. “There, now you’re not exposed to the world.
I’m protecting your modesty.”

  The sheets tented against me. “A little late for that,” I said. “Okay, everybody out. Meet me in Yurip’s office in twenty minutes. Sound good?”

  The girls nodded and filed out of the room, but I caught Vix by the wrist as she climbed from the bed. “Where are you going? I just bought us twenty minutes.”

  Vix grinned and leaned down, brushing her nose against my ear. “Don’t worry. At this point, I can finish in five.”

  +4

  A well-polished placard on the door read, “Chief Administrator — YURIP KNOBBLE.” Our resident lawmonger had lost no time making himself at home in the office Vix built with care and precision. Inside, the generous bookshelves that lined the rear of the room overflowed with books and rolls of parchment. An overabundance of clipboards covered the central conference table.

  “Is this a good time?” I asked. Lily, Ambry, and Cindra had already taken seats at the table.

  Yurip looked up from his desk and scrunched his eyebrows. “For what?” he asked.

  “I’ve called a meeting,” I said. Vix brushed past me and selected a chair. She turned it sideways to allow her fox tail to rest behind her without the seatback getting in the way.

  “Oh,” Yurip said. He scratched his head, barely forcing his wavy black hair to move. It was cemented in place by some kind of hair shellac. “I was just about to alphabetize my checklists. I suppose that can wait. But why—”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  Mamba walked in next, or maybe danced was a better word for it. Whatever melody accompanied her mind kept her hips in motion, gyrating her pelvis and her shoulders with each step. She sat down next to Vix.

  “I brought you a sweet roll and a kabob,” she said. “In case you were hungry. And if you aren’t, you can still have them anyway, in case the babies change your mind.”

  “There are no—,” Vix started, then changed course. “Thank you, Mamba. That’s very sweet.”

  “Excuse me,” Yurip said, “but why—”

  As the door swung open, Nola hurried into the room. “I’ve invited Gowes and Eranza to this meeting,” she said. “Everyone try to contain your optimism so we can stay pragmatic while the god of wishful thinking explains a few things.”

  “First, could someone please explain—” Yurip started, but Lily interrupted him.

  “Is this meeting about retaking Valleyvale?”

  “Yes, Lily,” Nola said.

  “Finally,” she replied. “A vote for immediate action.”

  “Not quite,” Nola said. “We need to understand what we’re up against and prepare accordingly. Lana told us that the attack on Valleyvale included orbs of light like the one we saw transform into a warrior this morning. Whatever this was, Kāya is behind it, and securing Valleyvale is key to keeping this problem off our doorstep. However, if she’s raising a spectral army, it’s not enough to stop just her. We need to stop the warriors she has already summoned. Warriors we still don’t understand, and still can’t harm intentionally.”

  “Balgrac kept saying the name Rigita,” I said. “Does that help?”

  “I hadn’t heard that name before,” Nola said.

  “But I had!” came a chipper voice from just outside. Gowes strode through the front door with his head priest, Eranza. He sat cross-legged on the floor next to the conference table, then floated upward until he was eye level with the rest of us while Eranza pulled her long, blonde-gray hair into a ponytail that rested on her flowing blue blouse.

  “Rigita was always Aunt Rigita to me and Sajia,” Gowes said. “Most gods don’t much care for titles like ‘uncle’ or ‘dad,’ but she would scold us time and again for dropping the ‘aunt’ from her appellation. It’s not an issue today though, because everyone knows her simply as the Great Mother.”

  “Wait,” Nola said. “You and my mother called her Aunt?”

  “She was our mother’s sister,” Gowes said, “so yes. During the first god war, when Duul attempted to assert his dominion over the world and all the gods in it, Aunt Rigita rallied an army to stop him. She recruited other gods to help. Sajia and I were young at the time, but many of the older gods fought and died in that war.

  “When Rigita had finally silenced Duul, she established her own city as the seat of the empire and declared herself the ruler of all godkind. She promised not to allow war and strife to return, but she had a few… demands. For starters, she required us to call her ‘Great Mother,’ and never to utter her true name again. I’m not surprised Sajia followed that order, keeping that name a secret even from you, Nola.”

  “I would just like to ask—” Yurip said.

  “The Great Mother’s first step,” Nola muttered, “to becoming an egomaniacal despot.”

  Nola’s offhanded insult toward the goddess in charge of Yurip’s beloved empire set the lawmonger over the edge. “EXCUSE ME!” he yelled, jumping up from his seat. “Will SOMEONE tell me why this meeting is happening in MY office?”

  I turned my head toward him and stared for a moment. Yurip was a small man to have a forehead vein so thick. His heart was in the right place though. “We’re meeting with you, Yurip. This is important, and we’ll need our chief administrator’s input.”

  “Oh,” he said, straightening his shirt and sitting back down. “Of course. Carry on.”

  “So this morning’s attacker,” I asked, “was obsessed with stopping the Great Mother from taking power, even though she took power ages ago?”

  “It’s possible,” Gowes said, “that we encountered one of Duul’s fallen warriors. From the past. He may think the war is ongoing, and he may not be wrong. Duul never accepted his own defeat, why should his followers?”

  “Akrin is the god of passing time,” I said. “Is he behind this? Why would he send us ghosts of wartime past?”

  Why does my father do anything? Nola shook her head. He’s stupid and weird.

  I would have gone with ‘idiot-syncratic,’ I said.

  Of course you would have, Nola replied. “Akrin’s passion in this life is building his city into the world’s most populous. As much as I wouldn’t put it past him to side with Duul if he thought it would help him grow Roseknob’s numbers, this wasn’t my father’s doing. This is beyond the scope of his powers. Duul’s new mystery helper is the woman who peered out at us from the rift.”

  “No,” I said. “She’s trapped in the darkness, and I’m going to save her.”

  The image of that sultry, shadowy girl had burned into my mind. She held the key to all of this, I was sure of it. The next time that rift opened up, I’d reach inside, grab her dark, delicate hand, and pull her into my world. She’d fall into my arms, and stare up at me with her large, mysterious eyes. She’d mouth a slow “thank-you,” unable to voice the words through her overwhelming gratitude, overjoyed that I had whisked her away from a lifetime trapped in the darkness. We’d make passionate love on the grass for hours, then she’d tell me exactly how to defeat Duul, unify the world in following Nola, and—

  “Hey!” Nola said. “Snap out of it. All of you.”

  I looked around the room. Everyone seemed lost in their own thoughts, wide grins sweeping across their faces.

  “Uncle Gowes,” Nola said, “we could do with a little less wishful thinking and a little more critical judgment.”

  He laughed and threw his hands up in surrender. “I am what I am, and I rather think it all works out in the end. A happy little daydream never hurt anyone.”

  “So,” I said, not quite giving up the mental image of that gray-skinned, white-haired rift-woman with perfectly round breasts resting on her bare chest. “How do we fight off a battalion of ghosts?”

  “The books,” Ambry said. Her face registered none of the disdain her voice carried.

  “No,” Lily said. “You don’t think father gave up the books, do you?”

  “What books?” I asked.

  “Our father has an odd sort of personal library,” Lily said. “He keeps it in the st
udy behind his office, collecting books from adventurers that pass through the city. Over the last decade he’s filled an entire wall with them.

  “Most are books about leadership,” she continued. “The sort that tell you when to lean in, when to lean out.”

  “Sounds hokey,” I said.

  “It is,” she replied. “But some are arcane tomes that he bought just to keep them out of circulation. If adventurers sold them to shopkeepers, we could have had trouble. There’s one that likely has a few chapters on handling ghosts. It’s called Physical Emanations of Necromancy and Invocation of Spirits.”

  “Books with long titles like that need acronyms,” I said. Everyone gave me a funny look and I didn’t know why. “But since it doesn’t have one, let’s just call it the ghost book.”

  “Knowing this,” Cindra said, “what should we do next?”

  “We do what we should have done weeks ago,” Lily said, leaning her hands forward on the table and rising from her chair. “We take our best fighters and march on Valleyvale. Ambry and I won’t just sit around anymore. We should have brought our mother’s electric energem back to our hometown when we had the chance. It was her life’s work and it kept the city safe all these years.

  “It’s also all we have left after she disappeared. Our father may not be a mayor fit for war, but he’s in danger. So are hundreds of other people until we secure the city and find that book.”

  “Not to mention,” I said, “the ghost book could give us control of all those glowing warriors. Imagine how cool our army would be then.”

  “If we have to fight off exploding rabbit-shaped familiars and ghostly warriors hell-bent on destroying the empire,” Lily said, “so be it. Arden and Vix rescued all of the Meadowdale refugees on their own. I’m sure we can handle Valleyvale next.” She threw herself back into her seat and folded her arms across her chest.

  “I understand your concern, but Valleyvale will be fine,” Gowes said. “I only see a bright future for Valleyvalians.”

  “We got lucky in Meadowdale,” I said. “It was virtually empty.”