A Glimmer on the Blade

by Rachel E. Baddorf

  The circle around the fire glowed and Yupendra gave the final earth trembling clap. He then slumped to a seated position at Giovicci’s head. The men were too weary to be surprised or awed by the magic. They ate their food and waited.

  Anoni took another mouthful of soup, and nearly bit her spoon in half when she heard a voice.

  It won’t work. He’s too weak to hold a circle, echoed a voice in her head. Carefully, Anoni removed the spoon. She had never heard a mind-voice with such clarity, as if she wasn’t even trying.

  Who are you? Where are you? Anoni asked.

  Why would I tell a lowly human my name? I wouldn’t give you that power, the voice sneered. It was male and familiar.

  Why are you in my head then? Anoni asked sharply.

  Go burn yourself, none of your business, he said snidely.

  Anoni snorted in disbelief. Looking closely at Yupendra, Anoni could suddenly see not only the spell lines on his hands, but the twisting floating net of lines that surrounded the fire. Magic? A twinkle of light on the edges of her vision roiled through all the possible colors. A sudden thought struck her with adrenaline-pumping dread. Yupendra had been right. She knew nothing of magic. And her assumptions about how her deal with the Ozuk would work had just been proven wrong. What if I already know your name, Anoni said, afraid to test her theory.

  How could you know my name? Where am I anyway? It’s so dark in here. I hate it. I can hear the ocean from here. Her, I can hear Her Tide. The voice cut off, seeming to realize it was babbling. Where have you taken me, bitch!

  Anoni winced at the shout in her head. Beside her, Corin stopped eating, her movement catching his attention. He reached out to touch her shoulder but stopped. Looking horrified, he flexed his hand and wrist then jerked back, staring at her. Anoni looked at him and did a double-take. There were silver spell lines all over his body. He backed away from her, fumbling for a knife and settling for dropping his food and backing away.

  Angry and panicked, the voice continued to yell at her. Where have you caged me bitch? Get me out of here!

  Your name is Koseichiro, and for Goddess’s sake, shut up! You’re burning my ears, she retorted.

  Where is this?

  You’re in my head, you idiot. You put yourself there.

  Don’t mock me, human. I could boil your brain in your skull with a twitch of my hand.

  Anoni laughed. She couldn’t help herself. Corin looked at her like she’d gone mad and then started searching for Vansainté. She had half of an Ozuk threatening her from inside her brain. Nothing had been this funny for weeks.

  Maybe I’ll do us both a favor and give myself a head trauma, she said. You don’t like it in there? Neither do I, Anoni thought, rubbing her face with her hands. Can’t you see out? she asked. She had also assumed if the Ozuk was helping her to see magic, then he could see out her eyes.

  No. Get me out of here, bitch!

  Try for it. I don’t know how this works. If you can’t see out, how did you know Yupendra was doing magic?

  Can’t you smell it? I guess your puny human senses wouldn’t.

  I don’t know how to get you to see out of my eyes. Just think of light, a fire, and people. You haven’t been out of the dark in a long, long time. And I resent the implication that my mind is a dark and empty place, she snapped. Hysteria was overriding any terror she could have felt. Maybe she had finally gone stark raving sun-mad. It was a possibility.

  Did I say it was empty? Hell no. I keep bumping into things. It’s like a living room with too much heavy furniture in here. Don’t you ever clean up?

  Anoni giggled. A few of the men looked at her, shocked.

  It’s pitch black and all around is the sound of the tide and the smell of badly cast magic. It stinks in here, he said, true disgust in his voice. Anoni stumbled to her feet and rushed over to Vansainté, drunkenly weaving. Corin backed a few steps away. Using Vansainté’s shirtfront for a lifeline, Anoni looked up into his concerned face.

  “He says the inside of my head stinks,” she giggled. Deadly earnest, she looked around him to Corin. “What did that backstabbing bird freak do to me?”

  Corin answered unsteadily, “He said he was sorry. That’s it.”

  “Great! Just burning great! I hope Yupendra can do exorcisms.”

  “Are you okay?” Vansainté asked, trying to steady her.

  She pushed him away. “No! I’m being cussed at by a voice in my head. He keeps screaming about the dark.”

  I smell an emission. Well done. Spicy, said the Ozuk.

  Anoni looked at Vansainté’s still glowing right arm. Trying for calm, she related, “He says your arm smells spicy.”

  Vansainté raised an eyebrow and exchanged a look with Corin. “Giovicci’s going to die tonight if Yupendra can’t heal him,” Vansainté said in a low voice. “Keep this quiet and we’ll figure it out in the morning.”

  Anoni frowned at him. “Who’s giving the orders around here?”

  Vansainté gave her a do-you-really-want-me-to-dignify-that-with-an-answer look.

  Can you hear me, monkey girl!

  “Yes, fine,” she said, cringing and went back over to her seat. She turned her attention back to the conversation in her head. I can hear you. What do you want?

  I’m still in the dark. I’m still here!

  Goddess, talk about a headache. Light a candle in there or something. After she said it, she had a wild momentary anxiety about whether her mind could catch on fire. It would be worth it if he would shut up so she could think.

  A bit better. How can you think in this mess?

  You actually— never mind, I don’t want to know. She shook her head. Can you find my eyes now? Her eyes went painfully unfocused. Ouch! Be careful!

  There was a little evil laugh. This could be fun. Her eyes crossed.

  She did the only thing she could think of. Mentally, she blew out the candle.

  Hey! It’s darker than the afterlife in here! Give it back!

  Leave my eyes alone and I’ll give you back the candle.

  Fine. He agreed so readily, she wished she had asked for more. She imagined the candle again. The circle is going. He called an emitter, but it’s too...He was interrupted as she heard the loud snapping of wood. An Ozuk, fully formed, had broken the firewood, stepping down into the flames of the fire. Ah, Scalamindara. Nice entrance.

  The Ozuk stood seven feet tall, well-muscled, with gray scales, and androgynous. It had six arms and its knees bent backwards. Its head was covered with a multitude of tentacles, six inches long. The tentacles moved like sea grass in a current, sweeping one way, then the next. Its eyes were black pits. Its mouth was wide and full of pointed teeth and it smiled in glee.

  It stepped out the of fire as Yupendra clapped and tried to throw something into the fire. Nothing happened. The Ozuk walked past the prone Giovicci, barely giving him a glance. Yupendra moved to stand between the Ozuk and the startled men. Those that could pulled swords. Yupendra continued to chant, trying to catch its attention. It was hard to tell with the pits, but she would call the look dismissive.

  Anoni pulled her sword and raised it to the guard position with effort. She was so tired.

  Scalamindara, how is life in Safiro nowadays? the voice inside Anoni asked cheerfully.

  The Ozuk paused, startled by the mind contact. It looked past Yupendra and locked its eye sockets on Anoni. A cold sizzling voice issued from its mouth.

  “WHAT IS THIS? WHO?”

  Don’t act like that, Scalamindara, just because I’ve been out of the game for a while.

  Anoni tensed as the Ozuk made for her. It was powerful enough to kill them all, but it made for her, puzzled.

  You don’t recognize me? I’ll give you a hint. You and I were the terror of Almacenista—invading temples, demanding sacrifices.

  The Ozuk froze and the horrific smile went into frown. It was almost a relief.

  “KOSEICHIRO, HOW DID YOU ESCAPE YOUR PRISON?”

  Anoni tensed.r />
  Oh, I hitched a ride from this gullible human. I was getting so tired of the cuisine down there. Nothing but blind cave fish and the occasional dead rodent.

  “YOU GAVE UP YOUR POWER? YOU GAVE UP YOUR OZUK BODY FOR THIS PITIFUL MEAT CONSTRUCT? WHERE IS YOUR PRIDE, KOSEICHIRO?” The tentacles thrashed.

  He was very angry indeed. I wanted to get out of that cave before I decayed into a mindless black hole! defended Koseichiro.

  Her passenger might have finally recognized the danger, thought Anoni.

  Koseichiro’s anger buzzed in her head. Her left eye twitched, her vision had gone black and white except for the colors of magic.

  “YOU HAVE DISGRACED YOUR NAME AND YOUR ORIGINS! YOU HAVE GIVEN UP YOUR POWER. YOU ARE JUST SO MUCH MEAT, LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. YOU WILL BE LOCKED IN THAT BODY LONG AFTER I KILL IT, SCREAMING TO THE GODS FROM A ROTTING CORPSE ON THE GROUND. THE GODS WON’T TOUCH YOU. YOU ARE UNCLEAN.”

  The Ozuk swiped at her, quick as lightning. But Anoni’s reflexes were used to it now. She blocked his arm with her blade, leaving a glowing wound. Anoni ducked away, mind racing. Ozuks were immortal. How could she kill something that doesn’t die?

  Quickly—if you don’t want to be in my corpse, how do I banish it? Anoni asked the Ozuk in her.

  I could be freed of you if you died, the Ozuk pondered. It was one theory I had before I did this.

  Anoni slipped on the pebbles of the beach, regained her footing and ran. It was close behind her, grabbing hold of her foot, and dragging her back with a teeth-rattling jolt. Anoni kicked it hard in the face and rolled away. As she scrambled upright, she saw in her peripheral vision that Corin and Yupendra were coming with bows.

  You really want to take that chance? Corin said your other self was still in the cave. You want to go back? Or become acquainted with all the maggots who will eat my body? Anoni argued.

  Fine. You know his name, your first weapon. If you can get back to the fire and get it inside, you can contain and banish him if you can get the casting person to help you. Your sigil is the Moon Goddess; this could complicate things...I have never banished anyone before...Ozuk don’t.

  But then how?

  It worked on me, he said bitterly. He continued to instruct her as Scalamindara grabbed her in a bear hug, trying to tear out her throat with his teeth. She took a handful of the tentacles on his head and sheared them off with her sword. The creature screamed and dropped her. She ran for the fire. Immortality hadn’t cured Ozuks of pain, it just made them more unsuspecting when anyone was capable of taking a piece out of them.

  She got to the fire a moment before the Ozuk. She leaped, spin-kicking him in the head and severing his hamstrings in one smooth motion. The Ozuk crashed to the ground with a shriek, thrashing. She hacked at him, severing the left leg. He didn’t bleed, just shrieked as the stump bulged and began to regenerate.

  Anoni searched for Yupendra. “Help me get it back in the circle. Then we need a binding ceremony. Quickly!” She grabbed an arm and dragged the Ozuk toward the fire.

  Yupendra took a bunch of herbs from his bag, throwing them into the fire and began another chant, harsher this time, louder. Close to the fire, Scalamindara got traction and thrashed, breaking her hold and throwing her to the ground. His legs were healed. He was up, looming over her. The arrows Corin hit him with were as effective as flea bites.

  “YOU WILL SUFFER FOR THIS. I WON’T JUST KILL YOUR BODY, I’LL CRACK YOUR SOUL OPEN LIKE A NUT.” His tentacles were a riot of movement.

  Glaring up at him, she yelled, “Scalamindara, I call you by your true name. I banish you. I BANISH YOU!”

  He lunged, monstrous hands outstretched. Reversing her sword, she took hold of the blade and executed a murder-stroke using the weight of the heavy hilt end of the blade down to propel the blade where his neck and shoulder met. It half-cleaved his neck, and she swung him around using where the crossguard was hooked behind his neck. She let go of the sword and he tumbled back into the fire. Yupendra chanted, going round the fire. She dragged herself up, spared a moment to notice her hands were cut from the murder-stroke and went to grab her sword from the groaning Ozuk. Hilt in her hand, its gray arm snaked out and yanked her into the fire, sprawling her on top of it, gathering her close. Its power, a bright sickly green, haloed them, and ran through her as he tried to overwhelm her body’s natural energies. The spell line scars on her hands began to glow green. The flames didn’t affect him at all, but they were hot around her, blazing high and licking at her clothes. The Ozuk tried to blast her into dust, just like the clergy had. She caught Yupendra’s gaze through the flames. He stood helpless. He could not close the spell with her inside or she would be killed. The Ozuk wrapped both hands around her throat and squeezed as his power poured into her.

  Help me, Kosei! begged Anoni.

  I can’t. I can’t! I’m stuck in here. There’s nothing to channel the power out! The Ozuk’s power burned higher, overwhelming her as he squeezed her throat closed. In her moment of panic, she felt a jangling crash in her mind. With the last of her strength, she reared back and stabbed down, putting her sword all the way through the Ozuk and into the ground.

  “THAT WON’T SAVE YOU.” He smiled at the blade in his chest. She clutched at the blade with her bloody palms. Anoni felt a snap, like the last tumbler in a lock had turned into place and a new path was open. Scalamindara’s power poured into her and now it bounced through the elements in her mind. A spark touched it off like a flame from pure alcohol, going from vapor to flame in her mind in a roar and down through the sword into the ground. The spark lit him, changing his power, pulling it into her faster, building. The Ozuk began laughing low and joyful.

  “YES, CAN YOU FEEL IT?” he shuddered with happiness, pleasure even. The power exploded out in a shock wave through the earth and air, blowing out the fire in a flash of sparks and sending wavelets through the cape waters.

  It was like the Goddess had blinked, and the universe with it. Anoni fought for breath, and felt the joy of air back in her lungs for one and then another breath. She pulled her blood-sticky hands off the sword. The only light left was moonlight and Vansainté’s sword arm shaking and blinding. It took her a moment to realize he was running toward her, and another long moment before she realized the Dragons were speaking. Her hearing faded in, as she shook her head, trying to clear the fuzziness.

  “Quiet,” she croaked. “I can hear you.”

  Arms pulled her off the Ozuk’s charred corpse, lifting her, carrying her to somewhere she knew not. She was aware of being settled on a bedroll near a small campfire some ways off from the previous site. The men were there, moving their remaining supplies: what they had scavenged from the wreck of the wagon. Some of them shouldn’t be moving, she thought.

  She was holding a cup of something hot, but couldn’t be bothered to figure out what it was. She noticed the men kept looking at her, but she didn’t know why. Her hands should be hurting, she thought. Holding the cup in one hand, she examined her palm. No wounds, just new pink skin. Someone had washed the blood off them. There had been blood, she was sure. Unless she had hallucinated it all. She had been talking to herself, and had been trying to figure out how you could kill an immortal being? As the darkness closed in on her, she heard the tin cup clatter to the ground.

  ***

  Cape Miliar

  Anoni

  She woke to the sun high in a clear blue sky. Corin was sitting beside her, eating an apple. “Hello,” she said, squinting into the painful brightness.

  “Ah, you’re awake.” He hugged her fiercely and then sat back with a blush. “Vansainté, she’s awake!”

  The Dragons assembled, ragtag, still looking at her with that strange expression. She realized Giovicci was standing among them and from there saw that none of the men sported the injuries of the night before.

  “What happened?” Anoni asked.

  Yupendra sat next to her and took her pulse. “Nice to have you back.”

  “What happened to ever
yone?” questioned Anoni. This quiet smugness of the men was starting to make her feel uncomfortable.

  Giovicci mumbled something, he was scribbling as fast as he could in his notebook.

  “What was that? Giovicci?” Anoni prompted.

  He looked up. “Godmaker. You’re a Godmaker, Anoni,” he said, awed.

  “Yupendra, have you been giving him the good drugs?”

  “You channeled the Ozuk, changed him into the ambient energy of the region,” Yupendra murmured, examining her eyes.

  “That’s...”

  “Look,” Corin pointed back at their previous campsite. Bright new grass had grown up among the pebbles, and a thin sapling rose out of the blackened corpse.

  Arjent came forward, his arm no longer in a sling. He was ecstatic. “Did you do it on purpose?”

  “Do what?” she asked, distractedly.

  “You healed us. Everyone who was burned or cut was healed.” Arjent flapped his formerly hurt arm to prove it no longer pained him.

  “I don’t think so...”

  “Why did he call you that, Anoni? He went right for you and started talking up a storm. I mean, I thought Ozuk were unreliable after Vansainté’s arm, but I didn’t think they were dumb enough to mistake you for somebody else.” Arjent ran out of breath and looked hopefully at Anoni for an answer.

  Anoni shot Corin a glance. “We met an Ozuk underground.” Her mind was suspiciously clear of voices, her vision clear of spell light. Maybe he was gone. She surveyed the men. “Why are you all so happy?”

  “Ah, they expect this means you haven’t offended the Goddess, seeing as you killed an Ozuk,” Vansainté said, smug at her bewilderment.

  She massaged her face, trying to keep the tension headache from forming between her eyes. “Could you all go away now? I need to rest.” And think, and deal with the insane things that have just happened. “Just go back to work.”