Aster Wood and the Blackburn Son

by J B Cantwell

  I was responsible for the people of this city. Not because I had chosen to be, but because I had the power to be. I was compelled to fight for them by the most basic of principles. There was no middle ground in this fight.

  But there was one side that had an advantage. And it wasn’t mine.

  As the men started to realize what was happening, that an attack was coming from another direction, they turned to meet it. Then, with an alarming suddenness, their actions shifted from defense to attack. They seemed drawn to me like a magnet, and wave upon wave kept coming at me, aiming all their efforts at taking my life. They fell against the barrier of the blasts created by the staff, but that didn’t stop them. Like bloodhounds ten feet from prey they couldn’t catch, they climbed over each others shoulders in a frenzy, beating each other bloody to be the one to get to me first.

  It was as if they were drawn to my magic, like a siren’s call to the lonely, and they all sought to rip the song apart.

  I started to become desperate as I blasted them again and again, waiting for my newfound powers to knock them back and keep them down. But as soon as one group faltered, the next wave was climbing over those on the ground, their teeth bared and a chorus of snarls breaking the peace of the morning.

  As I realized the size of the horde that was on me now, the seemingly endless assault I would face on the field, I started looking for a way out. I moved through the crowd, inching towards the wall, shattering through each new surge of soldiers, hoping that those up top could see me. Men hit the ground with heavy grunts on every side. Shouts came from the top of the wall above, but the volume of the battle was so loud I couldn’t make out the words. Only the roar of war filled my ears, without explanation or reason.

  I didn’t take my eyes off them, certain now that even a brief faltering of concentration would result in my death. And then, finally, my hand that ran against the wall behind me found what it was looking for, and I gripped my fingers around a thick, strong rope.

  But I couldn’t climb. I could only clutch at the tightly woven fibers, hoping that someone up above had the strength to pull me up.

  I stood still, the only movements I made were to aim the staff. The men fell. The others climbed over them. Again and again. Until a strange wall of human rage began to build itself right in front of me. Like heavy stones, the men at the bottom supported the rest, and up went the men, fighting madly to breach the invisible border the spells from the staff created. Up and up they went until they towered above me. It was only a matter of time before someone got through, before my blasts wouldn’t be wide enough to protect me.

  And then, the thing I most desired to feel at that point made my heart leap with joy. The rope was pulled upwards towards the top of the wall. My hand lost its grip for a moment, then found it again, holding it so tight I was sure nothing would ever be able to pry my fingers from it. Slowly, painfully, I was raised up the wall. The men cried out in anger as their victim was whisked upward, out of their reach. I continued to hit them with jolts from the staff, and only when I was twenty feet up, well above the top tier of piled up soldiers, did I grip the staff in my teeth and turn my attention to holding onto the rope.

  I was breathing hard, and I wrapped my legs around the bottom section of the dangling lifeline. Below, one man leapt from the top of the heap and grasped the rope hanging a few feet down from my feet. I looked down and was greeted by his snarling smile and gray teeth. But then his eyes grew wide as he lost his hold and fell awkwardly to the hard ground below. His body lay there, one leg stuck out at an odd angle, as the men swarmed on top of him, trying to reach up towards me.

  But I was too high now. Their cries of frustration slowly faded as I was hauled upwards by unseen arms, replaced by the shouts of the men above. I closed my eyes and held onto the rope with everything I had. Finally, large hands gripped me beneath my arms and hoisted me over the top edge, where we all lay panting.

  “Don’t stop,” I heard Finian’s voice. “Get him all the way over.”

  More dragging, and I was lying splayed out on the top edge of the wall. I released the staff from my teeth, which ached from the effort of holding the heavy wood. Someone pulled me up to sitting, and when I opened my eyes, Kiron’s blue orbs stared back at me.

  “What happened?” he asked gruffly. A long cut extended from his forehead down his nose.

  “You were right,” I panted. “It was a trap. This whole thing, all of this,” I gestured to the men and women defending the wall. “It was all a trap. For me.”

  Then, before we could speak again, or even think of what needed to be said next, a deafening boom came from the other side of the wall, shaking it and us. We both stood up automatically, peering over the edge.

  At first, everything appeared as it had moments before. The men, scattered now with their prey out of sight, fell back to their original positions like dogs called home.

  Then I saw them. Three distinct groups in the center and on two sides of the battlefield had formed platforms with their bodies, and atop them three different men stood tall.

  At least, I thought they were men. But even at this distance I could see that something wasn’t right. Their skin seemed to glow an eerie green, even in the stark light of day. And they were so tall. Not tall like the giants of Riverstone, but long and thin, like skeletons stretched to twice the height of a normal man.

  I stared as they raised their arms above their heads. Three long jets of power poured from them, combined in the center and then, all at once, were thrust towards the city as one.

  The entire wall shook, this time breaking great chunks of rock from the edges, which hit the ground below with heavy thuds.

  “They’re trying to take the wall!” Kiron shouted next to me. But it wasn’t me he was talking to. “Finian!” he yelled. “Get the others!”

  I saw Finian twenty feet away turn, heard him yelling, but couldn’t make out his words.

  Kiron was breathing hard, trickles of sweat running down his long hair and beard. He was fumbling with a little sack, trying to untie it.

  “Kiron, what are you—” I started.

  “Let us go first,” he interrupted. “Then, you join.”

  From the sack he pulled out a fat, silver disk. He tossed the sack away and got to his feet, immediately mounting the highest edge of the wall. He stood tall, with all the confidence of a commander. And I saw along the edges of the wall several other pairs of feet jump to the edge.

  Kiron raised his disk first, aiming the jet of power to his right. One by one, the men we had rescued from Stonemore’s curse raised their own, identical silver disks, and their streams of energy met with Kiron’s in the sky above. Soon, nine jets of light were writhing together above our heads. Every one of the men in the group sent their talents into the air to defend Stonemore. Only Owyn was missing from the original group.

  “Aster, now!” Kiron shouted.

  I shook my head, confused and not a little shocked by the display of power. And he had given me no instruction. I had no practice with this group, barely any practice using my own powers at all. But I raised Owyn’s staff and pointed it towards the place where the nine jets met in the sky, hoping that whatever these men had planned would somehow be remembered by the wood. Below, I could see the three skeletons on the battlefield, their own defensive streams nearly joined now. We had to strike now.

  Light burst from the staff, instantly meeting the other streams in the sky. And the world beneath the wall exploded.

  The wall shook as it had before, but didn’t crumble. On the ground below, huge swaths of soldiers were knocked backwards into the dirt. Aftershocks of power from the initial blast continued to radiate outward, tossing those who struggled to regain their footing back to the ground.

  Everyone on the wall cheered. I turned to look at Kiron, who smiled broadly in my direction. His trick had worked, with or without my prior knowledge. My chest filled with air as though I had been underwater for a long time. We were not so defenseless a
s I had believed.

  But as the dust settled below, the lightness I felt deflated in an instant. The skeletons still stood, unmoved, and their own blast was building now.

  “Get down!” I shouted.

  Too late.

  This blast hit the city with more force than the first. Several men were knocked over the side of the wall, but I lay sprawled out on the stone, unable to see who had been lost. Had they been ours? Our men, the precious few who could combine their powers to make the only weapon our side had?

  I felt dirt in my mouth and crunched it between my teeth as I rolled to one side, hoisting myself back upward. But I shouldn’t have bothered. Another blow came, knocking me back again. And another. How were they doing this? It seemed the three ghouls had gathered up their power, and now blast after blast hit us. Large pieces of stone began to break free from the wall again, and I found myself unable to move any faster than a crawl.

  I stayed flat on my belly, working my way over to where Kiron had hit the stone. He was on his back, and a large cut was gushing blood along his forehead. I shook his shoulder when I got close enough.

  “Kiron!” I shouted through the confusion. “Are you alright?” His face was blank for a moment, but then he blinked several times and seemed to regain himself.

  “Uhh,” he moaned, his hands moving up to grip his forehead. He rolled to his side, but not before another blast of power hit the wall again, sending everyone who had managed to stand up right back down again.

  “What do we do?” I yelled.

  Above, two jets of power met in the air above our heads. Power from our side.

  “Look!” I gripped Kiron’s shoulder and turned him towards the sight.

  He still seemed dazed, but held out his disk automatically. A stream of silvery energy burst from it, meeting the others in the sky. I held up the staff and did the same. Another jet joined our fireball from the far side of the wall. Five. We had five men sending their magic up into the sky.

  Where were all the others?

  But we couldn’t wait for more to join. As if the magic, itself, somehow knew that we had sent all we had, the ball of power exploded. I quickly peered over the edge of the wall, and the same scene unfolded again, though this blast was somewhat less powerful than our first. As before, most of the soldiers were down. But the skeletons remained standing.

  This time, it was only seconds before their attack hit us again, and as my back hit the wall, cold realization seeped into my heart.

  We were going to lose.

  None of us had planned for this. Though we all must have known.

  Kiron was still on the ground, painfully pushing himself up on all fours, blood dripping into a small pool on top of the stone.

  Another blast hit, and this time the wall started to crumble in earnest. Our section of the stone seemed to drop by several feet. The wall wouldn’t last long. I got to my feet and began shouting.

  “We have to get out of here!” I yelled. Shocked, frightened faces turned in my direction. I pointed to the other side of the city, where no army lay waiting. Only that enormous mountain range that grew from the base of the city. Our escape.

  People started standing up, and those who couldn’t crawled. I bent down, grabbing Kiron by both his shoulders.

  “Time to get up, old man,” I said, trying to hoist him.

  “Get off me,” he grumbled, one hand clapped over his forehead.

  As he stood, I realized something was wrong. No, not wrong, but different. I looked around at the people, all starting to get to their feet, occasional cries of fear or anguish escaping their lips. But aside from that, all noise from the battle had ceased.

  I ran for the edge of the wall. Maybe our attack had done some good after all. The hope that I would see those skeletons down in the dirt alongside their warriors drove me forward.

  They weren’t down in the dirt. They stood as tall as they ever had. But their scepters weren’t raised as they had been before. Instead, they and every man down on the field seemed to be watching something behind them, their focus on our destruction temporarily broken.

  My gaze followed theirs, and I looked past them, across the fields to the hilltop beyond.

  And my heart burst with sudden joy.

  Standing proudly at the crest of the hill, as though no man or spell could ever touch him, stood Pahana.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Wave after wave of silver-blue radiated out from his glowing white form. He stood only for a moment, then broke into a sprint, headed right for the center of the army. As he descended the hillside, I saw he had a rider, though through the confusion I couldn’t tell who it was.

  I didn’t care who it was. All I wanted was for that great beast to get to us as quickly as possible.

  He bounded down the hill, his transparent shield pushing soldiers violently out of his path. His fur glowed brighter than the sunlight as he came for us, knocking the soldiers to the side like bowling pins.

  Without pause, he gathered up his hind end and leapt straight up to the top of the wall, fifty feet above the ground. Immediately, he planted all four feet firmly onto the stone, and his protection enveloped not only those of us on the wall, but the entire city. From his back, a small woman hopped down, and it was only when she pushed the hair out of her eyes that I saw who it was who had brought our savior to us.

  Larissa.

  Crane materialized from nowhere, bounding up towards her and practically knocking her down. Despite her seriousness, a small smile escaped her lips.

  “Get off, you stupid dog,” she grumbled, but I noticed she allowed Crane several sloppy licks of her face before finally pushing him off her chest.

  “You made it,” I said, near tears with relief. Then, unable to help myself, I threw my arms around her. I think she was more surprised by this than Crane’s assault, and after a moment she gingerly patted my back.

  “Course I made it,” she said. “And just in time, too, from the looks of things.”

  I looked around at the battered crowd of dresses and Sunday suits. We were a sight.

  “But we ain’t got time to waste,” she went on. “Gotta get you outta here.”

  “Lissa?” Kiron’s voice came from behind me, and I turned to find him staring, shocked, at his older sister. His looked back and forth disbelievingly between the white panther and Larissa’s withered, drawn face, long thought by him to be unworthy.

  “Surprised, dear brother?” she asked, grimacing.

  He didn’t speak. Instead, he walked to her and embraced her with all the relief I had had, myself. Through his curtain of silver hair I saw fat tears streaking down his face.

  “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you for coming.”

  Larissa’s face was surprised, unsure of how to handle the closeness of the brother who had cast her aside for so long. But then she smiled, and her eyes looked distinctly watery. She returned the hug.

  “Ain’t no problem,” she said into his suspenders. “It was this one here who told me where to meet ya.”

  She pointed in my direction. Kiron looked up, a questioning look on his face. I just shrugged.

  “The place was on fire when I got here,” I said. “I didn’t have time to explain.” Then I turned back to Larissa. “How did you even get here? I thought your gold was gone.”

  “It is,” she said. “It was Pahana who found me, saved me just as those Solitary brutes were closin’ in. They were mighty angry they’d lost you, I’ll tell ya. Anyways, Pahana plucked me outta there like I was a baby kitten in trouble, made the jump from Aria to here with me clingin’ to his back for dear life. Think I mighta plucked out a few of those magic hairs by accident, too.” She looked down at her hands, her face hopeful as she searched for bits of lost fur.

  “What about Jade?” I asked hopefully. “Did you find out why she stopped?”

  “Nah,” she said, abandoning her search. “But I found someone who does know. But we ain’t got time for tellin’ our stories now.”
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  The men below were testing the borders of the panther’s spell, looking for a way in. Or around.

  Kiron turned to the crowd.

  “We must move!” he boomed. “Follow me!” Then, silver disk in hand, he made for the staircase that led down into the city.

  I took a step towards Pahana, caught his eye.

  “Thank you,” I said. He blinked his enormous, heavy lids.

  When our feet hit the ground inside the city, everyone ran towards the opposite end of town. I wasn’t sure how we would get out, but if we had to jump off the wall, so be it. I wasn’t interested in meeting any of the three of those skeletons up close. I would take my chances on a leap down from the wall if I had to.

  It wasn’t until we reached the center square that the people who hadn’t been able to fight in the battle joined our flight, among them several young children. The moment I saw them I stopped dead in my tracks. In the heat of the conflict I had completely forgotten.

  Cait.

  “What are you doin’, boy?” asked Kiron as he passed by me. He tried to grab my arm to follow him, but got too distracted by keeping up with the horde and moved on.

  I turned around, unsure of what to do next. I couldn’t lead the entire city up into those hills for Cait. But without me, without the power from the staff, how would they defend themselves if the army kept advancing?

  “What’s wrong with ya?” came another voice from behind me. I turned to find Larissa, panting hard, her cheeks a ruddy red.

  “I forgot someone,” I said, feeling like a lost kid in a crowd of strangers.

  “What do ya mean?” she asked, looking around at the people running by. “What do they look like?”

  “She’s not here,” I said. “I took her to hide. She’s up in the hills.” I pointed in the direction of the foothills where I had hidden Cait. On one side of those hills were the mountains we were headed for. On the other, the army.