Midrealm

by Garrett Robinson

  “Understood, sir,” the man said, trying not to move his chin too much.

  “March!” barked the officer, and the rest of them passed through into the city, disappearing into darkness.

  I breathed a sigh of relief. “That was close.”

  “Yeah,” Tess said. “That poor soldier.”

  I snuck through the gap in the wall, keeping a more careful eye on where I was going. “Poor soldier? He’s one of the bad guys, Tess.”

  She padded along quietly behind me, her voice tinged with disapproval. “He didn’t seem like a bad guy. He was just scared. I don’t think he’d even be here if it wasn’t for guys like that officer forcing him.”

  I shook my head. “Unwilling or no, he and his buddies will kill us if they get a chance,” I said. “So let’s not have another close call like that.”

  “I’m not the one who tripped,” she sniffed.

  I ignored that as we went half-walking and half-jogging through the field toward the campfires of Terrence’s army.

  We met nobody on the road coming the other way, and it took us about twenty minutes to reach the camp. We snuck up to thirty feet away from where we could see the first sentry, a human. He stood leaning on his spear, his eyes roving in the darkness. He looked bored out of his mind. And young. Barely any older than me.

  The closer edge of the camp was all Shadows. I’d wanted to approach through the human side, the ones on the other end of the camp. But now that we were here, I could tell it would take us close to another half hour at best to creep around to the other side — the army was that huge.

  “We need to approach through the Shadows,” I said urgently.

  Tess’ all-white eyes grew wide with fear. “What? No. You said we’d go through the human side.”

  “It will take too long,” I insisted. “We don’t have a whole lot of time. And besides, we can always escape through the human side of the camp. How we get out is more important than how we get in, anyway.”

  Tess didn’t look pleased. “How do we even know where Terrence is?”

  “You tell me,” I said, pointing. Right smack dab in the center of the camp was a massive tent held up by eight poles. Surrounding it were many smaller tents of similar design, but less than a third the size.

  “I’d bet every dollar I’ve got that Terrence is in the big one,” I said.

  Tess sighed, still uneasy. “Fine. Let’s just go.”

  We stole forward, swinging to the left a bit to keep away from the sentry. He didn’t budge as we stole past.

  Unlike the humans on the other side of the camp, the Shadows didn’t bother with tents. I doubted that they slept much, if at all. But they did have fires, lots of fires upon which they were cooking things I didn’t want to guess at. It was all meat. None of them had so much as a roll of bread. They gnashed into the flesh while it was still bloody, red liquid running down the edges of their mouths and staining their sharp teeth.

  “Gross,” I whispered.

  Tess merely held on to my arm. I felt her hands shaking.

  The camp was tightly packed. I’d hoped we could sneak through to Terrence’s tent in ten minutes. But it took us closer to a half hour. A half hour of quiet, step by step progression. We almost ran right into Shadows twice. Twice we ran into pathways that were blocked by groups of the things, and we had to find another way around. Once we stumbled over a sword leaning against a log. Shadows leapt up out of the darkness, and we had to scramble away before they searched the place too thoroughly. I thanked my lucky stars again and again that Tess didn’t lose control.

  Finally we approached the compound of big tents at the center of the camp. The biggest one was in the middle, and a ring of guards made a firm perimeter around the smaller ones.

  They were Shadows, but not Shadows like I’d seen before. These ones were bigger. Taller. They had to be at least eight feet. Each of them had two swords crossed on their back. And though they were in full armor, they wore no helmets. Their formless faces were fully exposed. Their massive, stubby noses swelled and shrank with every breath.

  They were way too close together for us to just sneak through. A single wrong move, and we’d brush against one of them.

  “Can you get in one of their minds and distract them?” I whispered, peering out at the guards from behind the corner of a tent.

  “No way,” she said immediately. “I was in the mind of a Shadow back in the Sink, when we went to visit the oracle. I’m not doing that again.”

  “Any other ideas?” I asked, exasperated. “We can’t get through that ring.”

  “Maybe throw a rock off in the distance,” Tess said helpfully. “Try and lead them away.”

  “What do you think this is, a video game?” I snickered.

  “Why not?” she said, indignant. “Try it.”

  I sighed. “That’s something they do in the movies, Tess. It doesn’t work in real life.”

  She scowled and stooped, picking up a small rock near her foot. She looked around and spotted a rack of weapons near a tent a few yards away. She flung the rock, and it clattered loudly off the weapons.

  Two of the Shadow guards’ heads snapped around at the sound. In a movement too fluid to be believable, they drew their swords and stalked toward the weapon rack.

  I stared, dumbfounded. “No way,” I said.

  Tess shrugged and stole out across the grass. “Told you,” she said.

  I followed quickly, stooped so low I was bent almost double. “That shouldn’t have worked! It’s a stupid video game trick!”

  “Shhh.”

  We slipped through the gap in the line and disappeared into a gap between the smaller officers’ tents.

  Now that we were here, I could clearly hear voices talking within the larger tent. One of them sounded like a suck-up. The other voice seemed angry but sounded polite, like a poisoned dagger in a sheath of burnished gold. I recognized the angry one as Terrence. I gestured Tess to stop, and we crouched in the darkness, listening.

  “Your men will lead the assault tomorrow, general,” said Terrence, his tone allowing no argument. “And they will do it because I say so. Do not think I have forgotten the terms of our arrangement as easily as you seem to have.”

  The suck-up voice responded, sounding overly pleasant. “Of course I have not forgotten, your Eminence. It is only that my men wonder why we cannot continue putting the Shadows at the fore of the battle. Why must true men such as us waste our lives?”

  “You waste your lives for me for the same reason they waste their lives for you: because you are commanded to. Need I put your loyalty to the test?”

  The last sentence was a nasty growl. I heard the hiss of leather as a sword slid from a scabbard. The other voice waited a moment before responding.

  “N-no, of course, my Lord,” said the other man. “It will be as you say. I would not think to question you or your captain.”

  “You have already questioned me,” said Terrence, the smile in his voice growing. “Do not do so again. Leave me.”

  There was the sound of a tent flap flying open on the other side, and then silence for a moment.

  “Sheathe it,” said Terrence, sounding bored. There was another hiss as the sword that had been drawn was returned to its home.

  “I will admit I share some amount of skepticism of this plan,” said a third voice. It was a new one. Female. “We can always get more Shadows. Our masters have made that clear. Why sacrifice the men? They are plentiful, but they are not limitless.”

  “You dare to question the great Lord Terrence?” spat yet another voice. It sounded familiar, but it took me a moment to place it.

  Terrence answered the question for me. “Settle down, Podric,” he said, amused. “As for your question, it is understandable, and I forgive it. Tell me, did you ever play games as a child? Fighting games, using wooden sticks as swords?”

  If the woman was surprised by the question, her voice didn’t betray it. “Of course. My brothers and I played them of
ten.”

  “And what were they called? What did you do? Who did you pretend to be?”

  “One of us would be a brave knight, and the other a wretched goblin. Or one of us would be a Realm Keeper, and the other would be a Shadow.” The woman’s voice grew more dubious as she spoke.

  “And did you ever play Brave Knight versus Innocent Farmboy Pressed Into Warfare?”

  Podric’s voice snickered. The woman answered, “I see.”

  “These new Realm Keepers are scarcely more than children. Slaughtering Shadows by the dozen means nothing to them. They are storybook creatures, ancient villains of nightmare. But killing humans? I think not. Look how long they hesitated before striking against my mages.”

  “And yet they did kill them.”

  Terrence gave a disgusted growl. “It is the old man. He was there, turning them to his purpose. But an army of fresh-faced young warriors, all of them looking just as scared and pitiful as the Realm Keepers are themselves? They will not.”

  “The Runegard may yet make short work of them,” said the woman. “They will have no such qualms.”

  “I do not hope to take the Runehold with the untrained wretches I have been saddled with,” Terrence said, scoffing. “But give the Realm Keepers two days of watching men die at the hands of their protectors, and they may lose the stomach for this fight. They may yet give up the ring.”

  “As you say, my Lord,” said the woman, sounding more like she wanted to move on than that she agreed with him. “If I may discuss one matter further before you retire for the night?”

  “You need not trouble yourself with that, girl,” said Terrence grimly. “You know how little I sleep.”

  “Then allow me to claim my own weariness, sir. But now that the city walls are taken and our victory is more a matter of time than of manpower, I wish to renew my request to take men out to search for the other tombs.”

  My ears pricked at that, and I felt Tess stiffen slightly beside me.

  There was a long silence. I could imagine Terrence studying the woman’s face. “You have seemed increasingly eager to find them,” he said finally. “Why?”

  “I am sick of war,” the woman said simply, neither upset nor pleading. It was a statement of fact. “I want to win. I want the conquest of Midrealm to be over.”

  “I hope I do not need to remind you that our journey together does not end with the conquest of Midrealm,” said Terrence.

  “I have not forgotten. But after Midrealm, do you think we shall have so much trouble with True Earth? What defense can they possibly muster that will be greater than the barrier?”

  “A greater defense than you might realize,” Terrence said wryly. “But never mind. What does that have to do with the tombs? We still must wipe Morrowdust and its inhabitants from the world.”

  “But when that occurs, I would rather have the other artifacts ready,” said the woman. “For every one we find, we gain a powerful ally. A companion for your dark friend here. And I would have us continue our search for the source point.”

  I blinked. I looked over at Tess. Her sightless eyes met mine, and she shook her head slightly. She didn’t know what the source point was, either.

  “There will be time enough for all of this afterward,” Terrence said.

  “We need to find out what that is,” I whispered.

  She hid it well, but I could hear the mounting frustration in the woman’s voice. “My Lord, you do not need me here,” she said flatly. “Why not let me continue the search?”

  “How are we supposed to do that?” Tess breathed back.

  Terrence sighed. “Because I have so few people to talk to. At least so few who are unafraid of me. And because you amuse me. And because you are one of the few who can tend to our guest.”

  I was barely listening to him any more. “Can you read his mind?” I asked Tess.

  “I am certain I can find you another conversationalist,” the woman said wryly. “And my ministrations to your guest can, likewise, be tended to by another.”

  “Greystone said that was dangerous,” Tess pointed out.

  “Allow me the sack of this city,” said Terrence. “At least allow me that. Then you may leave me, if you so greatly desire. For then I will long be cheered by the memory of Greystone spiked to the gates.”

  “It’s important, Tess,” I murmured. “I know it is. Please. Try.”

  Tess sighed. Her eyelids fluttered in concentration, her eyes staying ghostly white.

  I heard the sharp screech of a chair sliding across wood. “What in Chaos above — ” Terrence’s voice cut off.

  “Tess?” I asked, suddenly nervous.

  Tess cried out and fell to her hands and knees. Her eyes, formerly white, reclaimed their normal dark brown.

  “They are here!” shouted Terrence.

  With a FWOOM, the tent rocketed up into the sky as a blast of solid air slammed into both of us. We were flung into the sides of one of the tents. I slid back down to the ground, dazed.

  I looked up to see Terrence standing where his tent had once been. I’d forgotten how big he was. He had to stand at least six foot eight, and there wasn’t a scrap of fat on his body. His muscles were like one of those bodybuilders on steroids. Dark tattooed designs covered his skin, including the top of his bald head. He was seething with rage, his massive barrel-sized chest expanding and contracting so fast I thought he’d hyperventilate.

  Behind Terrence stood the woman he’d been talking to. Her face was turned to me in interest, but it was hidden along with her figure deep in the folds of a dark cloak. And near to her were two more people. One I recognized as Podric, his sickly yellow skin looking worse than ever. The other was a slender figure in silver armor. I couldn’t see its face. Its fingers tightened on the haft of a huge black sword.

  “You dare?” screamed Terrence in a rage that shook me to my core.

  “Apparently,” I shrugged.

  I cut loose with a ball of flame twice as tall as I was.

  It rocketed for Terrence, who had to dive out of the way. It passed through the air where the woman had just been standing, but if it got her, I couldn’t see it.

  Tess’ head was lolling. She was senseless. I scooped her up in my arms, tossing her roughly over my shoulder. I threw a wall of flames that surrounded and engulfed the command tents, and ran like hell.

  I burst from the tents to find the line of Shadow bodyguards facing me, swords drawn and faces ugly. With a wave of my hand, they all burst into flames. I ran through their screaming, panicked forms, the blast of heat from the fire like a warm breeze.

  With a bone-shattering crash, a flaming boulder slammed into the ground behind me as I ran for the human tents.

  “You think you can kill me?” I heard Terrence roaring from behind me. Fortunately, he was well behind me. I was almost to the human tents.

  A gust of wind slammed into me from behind, pitching me and Tess forward and knocking over three tents that stood in a row. I fell tangled in the canvas of one of them as I heard shouts of alarm erupt all around me.

  “You dare to come after me?” Terrence was positively frothing. I knew many levels of rage, but I’d never heard somebody this angry before.

  Ooh, I thought. This gives me an idea.

  I found Tess’ limp form beneath the downed tent and yanked her out. We emerged from under the canvas to find several shocked faces staring down at us.

  “Realm Keepers!” I cried, pointing back in the direction of Terrence. “They’re in the camp! Fire at them! Fire! Don’t let them see you, or they’ll kill you with their eyes!”

  Utter panic. Men and women scrambled every which way, seizing bows and arrows and firing blindly into the darkness. Terrence shot balls of flame and lightning back in response, unwittingly reinforcing my lie. I picked Tess up again and slipped away in the crowd. I dashed through tents, weaving my way farther and farther from the chaos I heard erupting behind me. Faces turned to watch as I ran past, and once or twice I heard shouts, b
ut I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going, or we were both toast.

  I ran into a gap between several tents to find a sword pointed at my throat.

  At the other end of the sword was the woman from Terrence’s tent. Her cloak still hid her face, but I saw a bit of ivory skin at the end of the arm holding the blade. The sword was long and slender. Kind of like the swords samurai carried in movies, but even more sinuous and deadly.

  “Well, well,” the woman said. “A Realm Keeper, so far away from home. Two, unless I miss my guess.” She flicked the tip of the sword to Tess’ lifeless form on my shoulder.

  “And who are you?” I asked. “Other than a chick that’s messing with something way above her pay grade?”

  A light chuckle emerged from the hood. “Oh, silly boy. Never judge a book by her cover.”

  The sword darted forward, and I had to drop Tess to the ground as I ducked to avoid it. I rolled backward as the sword swept down, then leapt up and out of the way as it came low with another thrust.

  On my feet, I circled the woman warily. I cursed myself for not bringing my sword. I’d been trying for stealth and speed. I scanned around me, but there weren’t any weapons nearby.

  The woman lunged again, the weapon sweeping back and forth more like an extension of her arm than an extra tool. I ducked, sidestepped and hopped backward. Every time, the blade passed by me less than an inch away.

  She’s messing with me, I suddenly realized. She could have struck any time she wanted. She was letting me get away an inch at a time, while circling me around and around in the same spot.

  Well, mess with this.

  I jumped back once more, but as the blade passed by I fired a bolt of flame right by her face. She spun away from it, the edge of her cowl singed.

  “I could have hit you, too,” I said as she regained her balance.

  I heard a loud sniff. “Fine. Your one to my twenty. I didn’t think you’d be so eager to have this over with.”

  I flexed, and balls of fire sprang to life in each of my palms. “What’s the point, anyway? You could have killed me.”