by H. D. Gordon
My mouth worked like a fish, panic rising in me.
Just as my vision was starting to blur, the Seer released me. I almost collapsed to the ground, but managed to catch myself on the bars. Skittering backwards, I gasped for air, my eyes as wide as saucers.
For a long while, all I could do was gasp, trying to calm the racing of my heart.
The Seer had not retreated back into the shadows of the cell, but instead, stood looking down at me. His head was bald, his skin that chalky complexion that marked his kind. He wore nothing but a strip of cloth around his waist, revealing a body that was thin to the point of emaciation. When a smile pulled up his lips, I noticed they were black at the seams, as if stained by tar. The expression was enough to make me consider bolting back up that stupid staircase, taking my questions with me.
I managed to get a hold over myself, taking no small amount of comfort in the bars between us.
“You’ve been waiting for me,” I said, and cringed internally at the sound of my own voice. It sounded so juvenile after hearing the ancient quality of the Seer’s. “Why?”
The Seer said nothing, only continued to stare at me with those soulless eyes. I realized how much I’d come to depend on my aura reading when I tried to read his only to remember that he did not have one.
I tried a different angle. “I need to find the City of the Seers,” I said. “Can you help me?”
Again, nothing.
Sweet. This was going swimmingly.
I glanced around at all the various aura signatures, and looked back at the Seer. “What is this place?”
“A prison,” the Seer answered, to my surprise.
I resisted the urge to voice the no shit that tried to escape my throat. The Seer’s smile widened a fraction, as if he knew what I was thinking.
“Do the prisoners deserve to be here?” I asked.
“That’s a very subjective answer,” he replied.
“Why are you here?”
Silence.
“I’m going after the Relic,” I said, getting the feeling that the Seer knew exactly why I was here, anyway. “I’m going to return it to its rightful guardian, but I need your assistance finding the City.”
Nothing.
I released a frustrated breath. This was pointless. I bet the only reason Shiva had let me come down here in the first place was because he knew talking to this buttonhole was pointless.
“Never mind,” I said, gathering my phone and turning away.
“You give up very easily for someone with so much to lose,” the Seer said.
I paused, turning back. Now it was my turn to stare at him in silence.
“Come closer,” he said.
I snorted. “Why? So you can choke the life out of me?”
He blinked, a second layer of membrane flashing over the milky orbs of his eyes. “I could have killed you a moment ago if I’d wanted. You want my help. I want to know if you’re worthy. Give me your hand, child.”
Of all the things I’d faced in my lifetime, one would think that this wouldn’t scare me, but it took every bit of courage I owned to close the distance between us, to offer my hand to the Seer. He was much taller than me, by a foot and a half, at least, and I did my best not to cower under his shadow.
When his hand closed around mine, I had to bite my tongue to hold back a squeal. Time seemed to pause as coldness seeped into me where we touched. Now I couldn’t move if I wanted to.
“You wish to return the Relic to its rightful place, but you don’t realize the consequences of such action,” he mumbled. “You sold your soul to save your friend, and now you don’t want to pay for that purchase.”
I swallowed; the only action my body seemed capable of.
“Your lover speaks with the dead, but you are the one who is haunted.”
The Seer released his hold as quickly as he had claimed it, and I felt control of my muscles return to me.
“Go, child,” he said. “You don’t really want what you think you want. Go, and let fate take its course.”
I blinked, my eyes burning all of a sudden. I clenched my jaw to keep the tears at bay. “I…I don’t want to die,” I said, the words sounding in a whisper.
The Seer looked at me without pity. “What mortal does?”
“I mean…I’m not ready. There’s so much left to do. I want to set things right.”
“Like you did with Leonard Boyce?”
The name was like a slap to the face. In fact, I would’ve preferred a slap. Leonard Boyce, the man whose neck I’d snapped after he’d killed Sam. The human whose life I’d taken. There were no words to address this.
“What do you want?” I asked, and hated how weak I sounded, but was helpless against it. “Just tell me what you want.”
The Seer made a sound that might have been a laugh, though it was more a croak. “You have nothing left to offer, child. Your life and soul have been claimed.” He retreated into the back of the cell, where the light from my phone couldn’t reach, as though his body had melted into the wall.
I blinked away the moisture gathering in my eyes. “There must be something.” Then it hit me. “What about getting out of here? What if I promised to get you out?”
For a few moments, there was only silence. Then, from the shadows, “Not all of us fight our fates, child. This is mine. I deserve to be here. Besides, the magic here was built to hold the worst of creatures. Breaking it would be no small task.”
I glanced around at the double rows of aura signatures belonging to the other captives. “And the others?” I asked. “Do they deserve to be here, too?”
“If I say no, what would you do?”
I mulled this over for a few seconds. “I would probably try to save them.”
“Then you’ve learned nothing. Trying to save everyone is what’s gotten you into this mess in the first place.”
I turned to go, my shoulders slumping as I accepted the realization that coming here was pointless, that perhaps this whole mission was pointless.
Then anger rose up in me, and I turned back. “That’s bullshit,” I snapped. “If you’re saying that trying to do the right thing is pointless, and that fate takes its course no matter what, I don’t care what cosmic wisdom you have, I disagree. I think our choices make us who we are, and our collective choices shape the world. Just because you’ve given up, doesn’t mean the rest of us are wrong for trying. If anything, it’s a mark in our favor. Caring what happens to others and trying to help them is not a weakness, it’s a strength.”
I pivoted away again, eager to get out of this dark hole now that I knew I would receive no assistance here.
“The worst of things often come from the best of intentions,” the Seer called out.
I kept walking.
“Wait.”
I paused, turning back, my hands clenched at my sides.
“If you go to the City, you likely won’t make it out alive. You could be giving up what little time you have left. Would it not be better to spend your final days here, with the ones you love?”
I sighed, because if the others were not pushing me, this was likely the choice I would’ve made, accepting my fate and enjoying what time I had left. But it wasn’t just my fate that was on the line. My mind flashed back to that breeding facility, to the lab of Halflings.
“The Relic is the source of the power for the people in control, and they’ve been abusing that power for too long. It should be returned to the guardian, whether I get to keep my soul or not.”
The Seer stared at me for long enough that I shifted on my feet, not sure whether I should bolt up the stairs or stay put. As if to answer the question for me, a voice floated down the staircase.
“Time’s up,” Shiva called down.
The Seer’s gaze flashed in that direction, and I thought I heard him sigh.
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay?”
“I’ve long believed the Relic should be with the guardian, that the balance of power should
be restored. Perhaps you are the one who can do it. Come here. Quickly now.”
I hesitated. “What are you going to do?”
The Seer’s expression revealed admiration, but also pity. “I’m going to open a portal into the City of the Seers.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
A hole opened up in the ground, a swirling circle of darkness.
From up the staircase, Shiva’s voice called again. “Miss Fae, please do not make me come down after you.”
The Seer inclined his head toward the portal in the hallway floor. “Now or never,” he said.
“How will I know how to find it?”
“Seek and you shall find. The Relic is a living thing, if not in the way of life as you understand it. Call out to it, and it will call back. Now go.”
Footsteps on the stairs, fear in my heart. I swallowed, stepping toward the portal. “Thank you,” I said.
The Seer shook his head. “Don’t thank me yet.”
This was perhaps the worst thing he could say, but before either of us could change our minds, I drew a final breath, and jumped into the wormhole. I fell for what could’ve been a blink, or an eternity.
When I landed, I did so in a heap, head spinning, stomach lurching. Whatever portal the Seer had opened, I’d never experienced anything like it. I pulled myself to a sitting position, finding my legs, holding my hands out when they wobbled beneath me.
My eyes widened as I took in the world around me.
I stood on a perfectly paved street, a gurgling fountain just ahead of me. On either side were white buildings, their surfaces smooth and sun-bleached. Statues of various creatures for which I had no names adorned the sidewalks and buildings, along with intricate friezes depicting stories I could only guess at. The air smelled of salt and citrus, and if I held my breath, I could hear an ocean in the near distance, lapping against a shore.
I took a few steps forward, seeing no sign of life anywhere, the place eerily silent, as though it had been deserted. My eyes told me there was no one there, but my instincts denied this vehemently. It felt as though someone were watching me. For a few heartbeats, I could only breathe in and out, attempting to gain my bearings.
Seek and you shall find, the Seer had told me. Call out to it, and it will call back.
I was considering the stupidity of yelling out “Hey, Relic, where ya at?” when a sound to my left grabbed my attention. I slipped my staff out of my waistband and whispered its incantation, feeling only marginally better once the weapon was in hand.
“I know you’re there,” I said. “Show yourself.”
I didn’t really expect a response, so when a Seer stepped out from between the buildings, paler than the cotton white robes he wore, I raised my brows.
“Child of Immortals and men,” the Seer said. “Welcome to the City of the Seers.”
“Uh, thanks. Who are you?”
“A servant,” the Seer replied.
“Whose servant?”
Lips, stained black at the seams, curved up in a smile. “You’ve come for the Relic,” he said, ignoring my question.
I didn’t see any point in denying it. The Seers seemed to already know everything. “Are you going to try to stop me?” I asked.
His smile grew, and I adjusted my grip on my staff. “Me?” he said. “No.” He glanced over my shoulder. “But she might.”
I dove out of the way just in time to avoid being swallowed up by flames so bright I could not look into them. The heat was such that I broke into an instant sweat, the air taking on the scent of sulfur.
When I was able to open my eyes again, I could not believe what I saw.
The creature was massive, its head the size of my entire body. Covered in scales that turned blue or green or purple depending on how the light hit it, and a tail that was barbed at the end. Massive, membranous wings sprouted from its back, its four legs ending in claws that resembled talons.
Like anybody from the supernatural realms, I recognized it instantly, but was not able to process its appearance before me, as it was a creature from myth and legend.
When it opened its mouth again, a swirling orb of fire forming in the back of its maw, I swallowed my shock and took to my heels, running as fast as my feet could carry me.
The Firedrake let out an ear splitting roar and followed after.
There was no time to think, no time to panic.
I ran and dodged, sweat trickling down my back as the Drake gave chase. I tried to pull up any knowledge I had about the legendary creatures, but save for a lesson or two in my history courses with the Peace Brokers, I didn’t think the Firedrakes had ever really been discussed.
They didn’t exist in any of the known realms anymore, had not been seen for nearly a thousand years.
I ducked and rolled behind a statue just in time to avoid becoming ash, and tried to calm my racing heart enough to come up with a plan. The Drake circled around to where I was, spinning so that its barbed tail lashed toward me.
I leapt out of the way, the statue behind which I’d been crouching crumbling to pieces and raining down dust. I dipped into an alley between the buildings just before a column of flame eviscerated the air where I’d been standing. I couldn’t keep this up much longer. I would fatigue long before the scaly giant did.
And I still had to find the Relic.
Don’t thank me yet, the Seer had said. Now I saw why. No wonder no one had managed to retrieve the Relic in the past, if the Firedrake was the one guarding it.
Clearing my mind as best I could, I expanded my senses, seeking out the Relic, praying to whatever God might be listening that the Relic would call back.
Instead, all I got was nearly burned to death, and then smashed to pieces by that barbed tail. As the tail buried itself deep into the pavement where I’d been standing only moments before, I noticed something strange about the Drake’s aura. I paused for long enough to almost get my head bitten off, but also long enough to be sure about what I was seeing.
Inside the Drake’s aura, right at the center, was another aura, unlike any I’d seen before.
I uttered a curse, understanding that the Firedrake was not just guarding the Relic.
The fire-breathing beast had gone and swallowed it.
That complicated things.
From nowhere and everywhere at once, I could hear the Seers laughing, that choking chortle that grated on the nerves. I dashed around another corner, the ground beneath my shoes trembling as the Drake thundered after.
Spotting a space between buildings that looked just narrow enough, I lowered my head and sprinted toward it, hoping that this move didn’t backfire.
The Drake didn’t slow as she approached the narrow alley, clearly intending to plow right into the buildings. Using a move I’d done several times as the Masked Maiden of Grant City, I ran up the two walls by kicking off of one onto the other and back again. This gave me the leverage I needed, and when the Drake was in just the right position, I leapt onto its back. Quick as a flash, I used my staff to brace myself, swinging the weapon around her neck and using it like reins.
She let out a roar, bucking and nearly sending me flying, but I squeezed my knees, digging them into her sides, gripping the staff around her neck tighter to maintain purchase. She spun, shooting out flame in every direction, melting even the rock that it came into contact with, until the street on which we were standing was running with lava.
I tried to push some calm into her, sensing that the Drake was not only angry, but also afraid now that I was on her. Before I could really process this, I was yanked back by gravity as the Firedrake shot up into the air, massive wings fanning the flames below.
It was a good thing I wasn’t afraid of heights, because the Drake soared up and up and up. We burst into the clouds, the air growing thinner, my stomach rising up to my throat. The Drake barrel rolled, trying to drop me and send me plummeting to my death below.
I squeezed my eyes shut and held on for dear life, still trying to calm the
beast with my persuasive magic. I was just beginning to think it wasn’t working, when a cool voice spoke in my head.
“If you’d like me to calm down, get off my Gods damned back,” the voice said.
Like an idiot, I glanced around, wondering where in the heavens the voice had come from, because it couldn’t possibly be….
“You can’t have the Relic, so you might as well make this easy.”
I gasped, the wind tearing at my face and the altitude making it hard to speak. “Are you…Are you talking to me?” I asked.
“Who else would I be talking to a thousand feet off the ground?”
I may not be afraid of heights, but that figure made me gulp. “You don’t understand,” I shouted over the roaring of the wind. “I need it.”
“Everyone who seeks the Relic thinks they need it.”
“You are not its rightful guardian,” I said.
“Nor are you.”
“But I wish to return it to its rightful keeper.”
“Why?”
“Because the Seers have been using it for ill gains, to hurt so many people…. And because I’m dying, and I need it to save my soul.”
There was no response from the Firedrake, and I was just beginning to think that she hadn’t heard me when she turned sharply, heading toward a cliff face at a speed that made me glad I’d skipped lunch. As we neared the cliff, she dropped her head and made a beeline south, heading back toward the ground with breakneck speed.
I could do nothing but close my eyes as I awaited the impact. A handful of seconds later, the Drake slammed to a landing on the edge of a lower cliff.
“Get off,” she demanded. “And fight me for what you seek.”
“I don’t want to fight you,” I said, still holding tight, voice shaking from the thrill ride we’d just been on.
“Get. Off.”
I let out a slow breath, hoping that I didn’t immediately regret my next decision, and slid off the back of the Firedrake. Hundreds of feet below, the City of the Seers rose up from the lower cliffs, a turquoise ocean stretching outward to the east, snow capped mountains to the west.