Suddenly I was seized with panic, and I raised my hands to pour forth lightning. Twin bolts engulfed the rider, making his body fall into a fit of shuddering. The lightning swarmed around the black wood of his bow, which split in two with a crack.
My concentration was killed by a sudden stab of pain in my thigh, and the lightning winked out of existence. I fell onto my hands, gasping as more blood seeped from my wound.
The rider had fallen to its knees from my attack, but now it found its feet again. With steps as slow and deliberate as a glacier it came forward, drawing a sword from the scabbard at its side. The blade was black with silver edges that glinted in the moonlight. Tatters of dark cloth fluttered in the wind of its approach.
It was coming for me, and I knew that if I couldn’t save myself, I was done for.
I shot up, adrenaline pumping through me and dropping the pain in my leg to nil. My right hand snatched the whip from my belt and I let its length drop to the ground, then flung it back. With a snap of my wrist I brought it forth again, shooting lightning all the way through to its leather tip.
The crack of the whip was greeted by a flash of lightning that burst forth, surrounding the rider’s arm with a yellow blaze of light. I swung again, the whip sending a current into the rider’s leg — it dropped to the street, never making a sound.
I tried a third, but this time the rider saw it coming. It leapt to its feet, sidestepping the blast of electricity that leapt forth. In a burst of speed it ran forward, trying to press the half-second I’d given it, coming close enough to strike with its sword.
My left hand leapt forward, blasting it with lightning. The bolt hit its face like a freight train, flinging the rider back and through the air. It met the ground hard, the sudden crash of its armor deafeningly loud even after my thunderclap.
The rider pushed itself up once more as if it hadn’t even noticed. But as it turned to me again, I saw half of its helmet was missing. Through the smoke that poured through the rent in the gleaming metal, was a rotting, twisted face, stained heavily with death and possessing sightless eyes that stared at me in furious hate. I’d seen zombies in movies before. I’d also seen cheesy animated skeletons. This was somewhere in between: a half-rotten corpse with eyes that no longer saw the real world, but stared at me all the same. It was like a body long dead, but still held together, forced to move by some power I couldn’t understand. There was no true life in the rider any more. It was a puppet, moving on strings held by an unseen hand.
With terrible deliberation the rider reached up, removing the remaining half of the shattered helmet. Its full, corpse-like face shone in the moonlight, the skin glistening with the pallor of death. Its boneless jaw dropped six inches as it screamed a terrible cry of rage. The rider’s inexorable march continued, every heavily-booted footfall promising death.
Terror gripped me, a sudden fist closing around my heart and squeezing as hard as it could. Adrenaline was replaced with panic, and the pain in my leg slammed back into place like I’d been shot all over again. I felt the urge to curl into a ball and wait for this thing to kill me.
“Tseeer!”
A rush of air behind me knocked me to the ground as a brown-winged shape flew by overhead. The hawk slammed into the rider, knocking him down. They tumbled, their bodies wrapped too closely for the rider to use his sword. But the hawk’s flight was headlong, out of control; after bouncing off the ground, it tumbled away, the rider flung in the opposite direction — to my left, near the rim of the pit.
The rider struggled to one knee, its limp, expressionless face turning in my direction.
I reached for the lightning within me. I gave it full rein, letting it flow into and through my body, drawing on it like a spigot trying to tap the Pacific. Sparks danced along each of my limbs. I felt my shoulder-length hair jutting out, standing on end with the charge in the air. The lines of lightning danced down my arms, converging into twin balls of power clutched like boxing gloves on my fists.
The rider screamed, its jaw distending as black flames vomited from its maw.
I released the lightning. Twin pillars of elemental power punched the rider from his feet, sending him flying back like a cannonball. He slammed into the town’s outer wall — and punched right through it. He disappeared from sight, launched into the blackness of the night like a shot from a gun.
The silence in the air was overcome with a tremendous, roaring whoosh. It was a sound I hadn’t heard in weeks, since the first day I’d come to Midrealm.
Beyond the city wall, a glowing blue wall of energy sprang into being, launching up from the ground like a waterfall in reverse. It soared into the sky, curving over my head and behind me. The barrier, expanding to encompass Elladorn, a town now freed of Chaos.
The adrenaline drained from my body. I fell to my knees. For a long time, I just sat there. I gingerly tried to touch the arrow in my thigh. Big mistake. After screaming and nearly passing out, I decided to leave it alone.
Dawn was gathering in the east. The light grey of daybreak was growing in the endless expanse of sky, providing just enough light to begin to see the world around me without torches. I looked around the town. I had no idea where I was. I didn’t even know if I’d be able to find Martin’s house again.
Barius.
I had to find him. He should have been all right, but I had to know. I groaned as I forced myself up onto one leg, shuffle-hopping down the street.
It was right after I passed the first building that I found the hawk.
It was huddled under the awning of a house near the wall. Its wings were still shaking — apparently I’d given it a much bigger jolt than the one I sent through Barius. I felt a little guilty about that, but then again, the hawk had been trying to kill me at the time.
It recoiled when I poked my head around the corner. But it seemed to recognize me, because it soon calmed down.
I took a hesitant, jerky step forward. It didn’t move. It was just staring at me with its gigantic eyes. In the hole, they’d been pits of darkness. Now I saw that they were a bright, almost translucent blue. Gold flecks were splayed throughout. The eyes blinked with every step I took, evaluating me.
It was wearing a saddle of light brown leather. Clearly this thing had been a mount before the rider had found it, before Chaos had claimed it.
I reached out a tentative hand, hoping like crazy it wouldn’t be bitten off. The hawk’s beak was still plenty big and plenty sharp.
“Hey, boy,” I said. “Are you friendly?”
The hawk blinked, but it still didn’t move.
I took one shuffling step forward. My hand met the feathers on one wing, tucked against its side. The hawk turned to look at my hand, then back up into my eyes.
It felt weird, because I was sure it was just an animal. But I felt like the hawk was acknowledging me. Trying to tell me something.
“Well, you can go now,” I said. “You can fly home. To Hawklandia, or wherever.”
The hawk cocked its head.
“I mean, wherever it is you come from,” I said. I pointed one finger straight up into the sky. “Fly.”
Soundlessly, the hawk took flight. The backdraft from its wings nearly knocked me over as it launched itself above my head, flying along the ground as its wings scrabbled for air, launching itself into the sky. Only once it had cleared the tops of the buildings and had begun to circle did it finally cry out, one last time.
“Tseeer!”
It vanished behind the roofs of the buildings across the street, only to appear once again in the sky above, wheeling in massive circles as it slowly gained altitude.
I sighed and made my way back to the street. I shuffle-hopped along, clutching to the sides of buildings to support myself as I walked. Townspeople were just starting to emerge from their homes in the growing light. One by one they found the street, looking around fearfully, and then stopped dumb when they saw the looming energy of the barrier towering above their town. I heard them murmuring to each o
ther. Then the murmurs turned to shouts. Children began running down the streets, pounding on doors and telling everyone to come out.
Elladorn was within the kingdom of Athorn once more.
I tried to stay out of sight, walking on the farthest side of the street from the barrier. But eventually a woman, finally having had enough of staring at the barrier, turned and saw me hobbling along.
“You!” she cried, running over. “You’re a Realm Keeper! Did you rebuild the barrier?”
Heads turned, everyone whipping around mid-stare to look at me. I felt my cheeks burning as I tried to wave her off. “Um, it’s no big deal,” I tried to tell them.
“You’re hurt!” she said, ignoring me. She rushed over, and two men came to help her. One of them ran into the building I was leaning against, only to come back out with an old wooden chair. He placed it beside me, and the other man practically shoved me into it.
“No, I’ve got to keep going,” I protested, trying to stand. “I need to find Martin’s house. Or Petunia’s house. My friend is there.”
The woman turned, all business-like, to a little blond boy in the street. He was staring at the barrier with his chin hanging down to his chest. “Nicolas!” she snapped. The boy jerked around to stare at her with green eyes. “Go find Martin and his mother and bring them here. Now!” The boy nodded and disappeared.
“Please, my Lady,” said the woman, turning back to me. “You must rest. My son will find your friend. You are hurt.”
“I’m fine,” I lied, white spots beginning to dance in front of my vision again.
In the end, I stayed there and let her tend to me. She made one of the men tear strips from the bottom of his shirt, wrapping them tightly around my leg to stop the flow of blood. And ten minutes later, I heard heavy footsteps and shouting coming down the street toward me. I looked up to see Barius, barely able to walk but still shoving his way through the crowd, yelling that everyone had better get out of his way before he started knocking heads. He saw me and abruptly stopped yelling, just jogged toward me as fast as he could, a juggernaut knocking people out of the way like bowling pins.
“Sup,” I said with a nod at his approach. “Had a good rest, old man?”
He glowered down at me. “Better than you, it seems.” He looked up at the woman with me sharply. “Why haven’t you fetched a healer, woman?”
The lady, so confident and commanding before, wilted under Barius’ battlefield scowl. “Er…I’m sorry, Sir, I didn’t think — ”
“Clearly,” he groused. “Go get one. Quickly!” The woman jumped at his bark and disappeared.
Martin and Petunia approached from behind Barius. Martin was hiding shyly behind his mother’s skirt as they wove through the crowd, but as soon as he saw me he broke into a sprint and came to my side. I looked down at his little face, so much like Emery’s back home. A sharp pang of guilt struck me as I thought of my family back on True Earth, with me asleep in my bed and unable to be woken. I hoped they weren’t worried.
“Lady Raven!” shouted Martin. “Are you all right?”
I forced my grimace into a smile and ruffled his hair. “Of course I am!” I said. “I’m a Realm Keeper, remember?”
“You did it,” said Petunia, her eyes wide. “You put up the barrier.”
“Well, I mean…I guess, yeah, technically,” I said, blushing. “But it was almost an accident.”
She knelt at my side, placing a gentle hand on my arm. “Thank you,” she whispered. She reached out to snake an arm around Martin, holding him close.
“We’ll need to get you to a healer in this town,” Barius said to me, ushering Petunia back. “They’ll keep you from bleeding your life away until we can get you back to the healers in Morrowdust.”
I groaned. “I just want to go back — ” I paused, my words catching in my throat. I’d almost said home. “I just want to go back to the Runehold,” I protested. “I want to go to sleep, wake up in my room, and play games on my phone for what’s left of my Saturday night, and I don’t want to think about anything.”
“What’s a phone, mama?” Martin whispered to Petunia.
“I’m afraid that’s not going to happen today,” Barius said. “But if I may carry you, I can take you to a healer myself. You can rest there.”
“Fine,” I grumbled. I held up my arms like a baby asking to be picked up by its parents. “You may carry me.”
Barius grunted in what might have been a laugh and then scooped me up. He took one halting step after another, heading down the street in the direction he’d come.
“Tseeer!”
Everyone in the street jumped, and Barius whirled, clutching me harder and turning his body to protect mine.
“No, it’s okay!” I shouted. The hawk swooped down to land on the street before us. The townsfolk scattered like mice, running for their lives.
“It’s okay,” I said again to Barius. “He helped me. I purged him of Chaos.”
Barius looked at the hawk suspiciously. “That was the rider’s mount?” he asked.
“It was,” I confirmed. “But it was taken over. I healed him. He’s all good now.”
Barius snorted noncommittally. “Looks like one of the warhawks of the northern elves. I’ve heard tales of them, but I’ve never seen one in person before. I thought they’d be more impressive.”
“Be nice,” I said sternly. “I think he can understand us.”
Barius looked at me with a smirk. “It’s a she.”
I did a double-take at the hawk, scanning it again. “What? How can you possibly know that?”
“How can you possibly not?” asked Barius. “What does it want?”
Almost as though it had been waiting to be asked, the hawk took a couple light hops forward. Then it lowered its head, staring up at us with its beak almost touching the ground. Its eyes met mine, unblinking.
Suddenly I understood. “She’s giving me a ride,” I said. “She can take me back to Runehold.”
“That’s an incredibly bad idea,” said Barius. “You’ve never ridden one before. You could lose consciousness during the flight and fall.”
“No, look,” I said, pointing. The saddle didn’t just have stirrups, it had little leather straps that wrapped around the rider’s legs. “See those straps? If I lose it, I’ll still be safe. And besides, I don’t think she’ll drop me.”
The hawk clicked its beak a couple of times, jerking its head back toward the saddle.
“Come on,” I said. “Let me give it a shot. You said it yourself, I know how to ride a horse. How different can this be?”
Barius stared at me.
“Okay, it can be a lot different,” I admitted. “But who cares? Let me do it. Don’t make me order you.”
Barius made an exasperated noise. “There should be an age limit on when I have to obey you,” he grumbled. But he walked forward and swung me onto the saddle on the hawk’s back. In less than a minute we’d secured my legs in the straps, and I leaned forward over the saddle to clutch the reins. Rather than a harness around the hawk’s head, the reins were affixed to a complicated arrangement on its neck.
Barius looked up at me. “Clearly it’s a waste of my breath to tell you to be careful,” he said. “But do it anyway. If you die, I get demoted.”
“Oh, so it’s totally worth it then?” I said.
He eyed the bird dubiously. “I just hope it doesn’t decide to take you back to its nest and feed it to its young.”
“It’s not an ‘it,’ it’s a ‘she,’” I said, turning up my nose. “And she has a name.”
Barius cocked an eyebrow.
“It’s Ella.”
I kicked my heels. Ella’s massive wings pumped beneath me, launching us airborne even as the wind of her ascent knocked Barius over on his butt. My stomach gave a lurch and I snatched at the reins, nearly vomiting as we went airborne. The arrow in my thigh was jostled, and I almost cried out.
But then we rose above the town, and my pain turned to wonder
. The landscape stretched out below me as far as my eyes could see. Far away, just over the horizon, I saw the spires of the Runehold and the royal palace of Morrowdust. I saw the rising sun ascending over the mountains in the east. And the plains across which Barius and I had ridden rolled in undulating green waves, up and down, forming the bones of the kingdom that was now my home. Or at least, was half my home. Now it was time to go to my other one.
Ella’s wings stroked the air, and we left Elladorn behind us.
TO BE CONTINUED IN…
MILES
MY NAME IS MILES GRAVE, and I’m living a double life.
I didn’t always, you know. Before my life went insane, I’d never heard of Midrealm. Then I went to detention for cheating on a test, I passed out in the middle of the classroom, and then there I was. Another world. Another universe. Another life.
Like I didn’t have enough problems in my real life.
I was a high school senior. I wanted to get into USC after I graduated, but I was having trouble with my studies. I was working late at night on homework, cramming on every subject where I was weak — doing extra tutoring with Sarah as I tried to cling to the GPA I needed for a track scholarship. And now I had a whole other world I was a part of, an entirely new life that I somehow had to balance with my real life on Earth.
That’s what was on my mind as I stood with the others at the entrance to the catacombs that Raven had found the day before. She’d gone riding out beyond the barrier, as incredibly stupid as that sounds. She wouldn’t talk about it in too much detail, probably because Greystone had ripped her a new one once he’d heard. He’d called her an idiot, a fool, and a reprobate, whatever the heck that was. I thought he was a little harsh, but at the same time what she did was incredibly dumb.
Once he was done reaming her out, Greystone got all of us together and hustled us out to the catacombs double-quick. Yet, despite running us out here like our lives depended on it, Greystone now wandered around the tomb alone.
The tomb was big. Like, Sistine Chapel big. I had no idea how long it had been there, but the stone itself looked older than time, like it had seen its best days long ago and now was just holding the roof up because it didn’t know how to do anything else. It was large enough to house the remains of an army, and yet only a single sarcophagus was within, a woman carved into its lid. It was placed against the wall opposite the entrance, like the focal point of a shrine. Completing the religious look were the remnants of candles, long since burned out. Their multi-colored wax puddles covered the tables on either side of the stone coffin. Twin underground streams of water ran along the walls to the right and left, bubbling brightly and giving a pleasant undertone to the otherwise solemn atmosphere of the place.
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