Storm Raven

by K Hanson

  She took a moment to glance around the rest of the room. Aside from a few doorways that led into adjacent corridors, there weren’t any other distinguishing features. She hoped that one of those doorways would lead out of here since she couldn’t reach the ladder. As she took a closer look at the spot where the bottom of the ladder should have been, she saw that the stone looked like it had been melted or burned away, as the spot was glassy smooth.

  Turning back to the fountain, the same energy that she had felt when descending charged the air around her. Something about the fountain pulled her closer. Slowly, Nereyda approached the flowing blue light.

  When she reached the pool of light, she stared into it and watched it swirl around. What is this place? Is this some kind of trick?

  Nereyda bent down to dip her hand into the light. As soon as her fingertips brushed the pooling light, something surged into her through her arm. She screamed as energy jolted through her whole body. When she tried to pull her hand out of the fountain, it wouldn’t budge.

  The fountain itself seems to surge at her touch. Instead of the gentle trickle of light that it had released before, it now poured its contents from the top in a torrent.

  As the light seemed to rush up her arm and into her body, something swirled inside of her. It felt almost as if she had a storm inside her own body. It felt like she simultaneously had a tropical storm and a blizzard inside of her. A mix of wind, rain, snow, and electricity roiled in her belly.

  The power of the energy coursing through her overwhelmed her, and she fell forward into the fountain before passing out.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  After taking over the role of supervising the crew of the Storm Raven as they continued mining, Brynja saw things improving for her friends. Instead of pushing themselves to the breaking point, they now took regular breaks and could rest their arms or get water if they needed to. Since they now had a quota for their whole team, rather than individuals, she could distribute more work to those who were more physically fit, while others could handle lighter tasks. In fact, after instituting a more reasonable work schedule, they consistently surpassed their weekly quotas by a wide margin.

  One day, the beginning of a new quota week, Brynja chipped away at the wall with her pickaxe when the old supervisor came down to their section of the mine.

  “I have to say, I’m quite impressed with how your team has been doing. Somehow, your section of the mine has become the most productive in the whole complex in the short time you’ve been in charge of things. How did you do it?”

  “I think we just stopped driving ourselves so hard. It may seem backward, but by taking more breaks, we became more productive.”

  “Well, whatever you’re doing, it’s working. And working well enough for the mine administrators to notice. We think you can hit twice your normal quota.”

  Brynja’s eyes widened. They had been doing well, but nowhere close to hitting double their target. “I don’t think we can do that. We’re doing about as well as we can.”

  “You’re going to hit it, or your whole team will suffer the consequences. And, remember, you’ll be the one dealing out the punishment.”

  “I remember. But this goal is too much. Why do we need to hit a target so high?”

  “Because you’re the best section in the mine and we think you can do it. Also, the only reason you need is that we want you to do it. You don’t need any other reason than that.”

  “I’ll see what we can do.”

  “Of course, you will. I told you to do it.”

  The man walked away, leaving Brynja to think about how to achieve their new quota.

  “Team, we need to talk,” she announced to her crew. “Take a break, grab some water, and gather around.”

  Everyone found their canteens and clustered around Brynja. She told them what the supervisor had told her.

  “But, how can we possibly hit that?” asked Jim.

  “Here’s what we’re going to do,” said Brynja. “We’re going to need to take shorter breaks, and some of the people who have been doing lighter work will need to spend more time mining.”

  “How do we know that we’ll be able to hit our new quota even if we do that?” Jim wondered.

  “We don’t know. We just have to give it a shot. Otherwise, they won’t be lenient with us,” replied Brynja.

  Kyla interjected, “What if we have to keep this up for longer than a week? If this becomes the new normal target, I don’t think we can do it long term.”

  “We’ll just have to hope that they’re satisfied with one week of this new target. If we hit it, I’ll see if I can get them to bring it back down.”

  For the next week, they followed the plan that Brynja set out. Their breaks became half as long, and she expected everyone to spend more time mining to produce more ore. At the end of each day, the work had exhausted the entire crew, but their output increased. Unfortunately, the increase didn’t seem to be enough for them to hit the new quota. To push harder, Brynja negotiated with the guards to give them all longer shifts in the mines. It wasn’t a difficult bargain to make, as she was probably the first person in the history of the mining complex to ask to do more work.

  By the last day, though, it became clear that everyone was hanging by a thread. The big push had caught up with them, and pickaxes fell slower and slower. They were very close to hitting the new quota, but it became clear that they would fall short. It had been their most productive week yet, but the physical toll and the knowledge that they would fail hit their morale hard.

  On the final day of quota week, the supervisor came down to take the final tally of their work. He looked through their load of ore to see how much they had produced. After he finished counting and making his notes, he shook his head. “It seems that you’re barely 100 units short. That’s pretty good.”

  “I know we didn’t make it,” said Brynja, “but this has been our best week yet. Can’t we just call it good enough?”

  “I don’t care that it was your best week. You had a goal, and you didn’t meet it.”

  “Come on. We nearly broke our backs getting all of this for you. Has any other section ever come close to this?”

  “No, and I don’t care. And neither does the administration. Your job is to hit your target. If you don’t, you pay the price.”

  Brynja stewed. “What is the price this time?”

  “Twenty lashes.”

  “Twenty lashes between all of us? That’s not so bad.”

  “Twenty lashes for each of you, not combined. And your punishment is that you get to deliver them.”

  “I refuse. I won’t do it again.”

  “So, forty each, then? And you’ll be on the receiving end, too.”

  Forty lashes would shred their backs to ribbons. Kyla still winced sometimes from the ten she had gotten weeks ago.

  “Fine, I’ll do it,” she relented.

  “Excellent. I’ll have the guards chain each of them up for you when their turns come.”

  The guards herded the Storm Raven crew into a line near the wall where they conducted their floggings. First, a pair of guards brought Jim forward and tore open the back of his shirt.

  “Just get it over with, Brynja,” he said.

  Tears filled her eyes. “I’m sorry, Jim.”

  He nodded. “I know.”

  And so it began. First Jim, then Hob. Elvar had to be carried away after passing out at the end. Brynja didn’t bother trying to hold her tears back as she struck each member of her crew, her family. Most of them took it well, and they didn’t blame her. She almost wished they would. Seeing their strength and resolve made it worse with each blow she struck.

  Finally, the guards brought Kyla and locked her into the chains. When they ripped open the back of her shirt, revealing the still-fresh scars from her last flogging, Brynja froze. In that moment, she took in what she had done to her friend. Looking down, she saw the pool of blood that had collected from the crew members she had whipped so f
ar.

  Brynja snapped. Instead of hitting Kyla, she turned and snapped the whip across the face of the supervisor, sending him sprawling to the ground and clutching his cheek. Before he or the guards could react, she dashed to one of the pickaxes that lay on the ground. Returning to the supervisor, she raised the tool over her head and let it fall onto him. It only took one blow to kill him.

  One guard ran up to her, but she swung the ax, and it sank into his belly. He dropped to his knees in agony. The other guard grabbed her from behind and forced her to drop the ax. He then shoved her face first to the ground and shackled her hands behind her back.

  “You’re coming with me to see the administrator. You’ll regret doing that.”

  “Whatever happens, I’m pretty sure I won’t regret any part of it, aside from not doing it sooner.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  When Nereyda regained consciousness, she was lying on a cold stone floor. It took her a moment to remember where she was, deep in the ruins she had stumbled into while exploring this seemingly abandoned island. Whatever that blue light had been, it had given her a real kick. As she lay in the darkness, she still felt her insides reeling. Something new had awoken in her, and she didn’t know what.

  Nereyda sat up and rubbed her temples at the pain pulsing in her head. She took a deep breath of the musty air to clear her mind. Something else now mixed into that smell, like the faint smell of meat that had been fried too long. Assuming that some sort of animal wandered among the ruins, she ignored it. She looked at the fountain where the light had poured out. Nothing remained there now. The light was gone. The only remaining light came through cracks in the wall of the large fountain chamber.

  Pushing herself to her feet, Nereyda bent down to grab her sword, which she had apparently dropped when the fountain had knocked her out. She scanned the floor for anything else that might have fallen. Looking up, she found the opening in the ceiling and ladder that she had used to climb down into the chamber. The bottom part of the ladder, carved into the stone wall, had been scorched into smooth glass. The intact rungs remained out of her reach. Along one of the walls, she spotted a doorway, which appeared to lead into a hallway. Without any better ideas, she walked toward it.

  As she approached the entrance to the corridor, the stench of burning meat grew stronger. The smell became rancid and pungent. Along with the smell of frying meat, Nereyda now picked out the scent of rotting flesh and burning hair. The odor brought back her memory of what had happened to that village in the Shattered Sea.

  When she reached the doorway, Nereyda paused to look down the hallway. She could hear a soft shuffling sound coming from the other end.

  Definitely some sort of animal. Although, I don’t know of any animal that smells of burning, rotting meat.

  The shuffling grew louder.

  That sounds like footsteps. Maybe it’s not an animal. Is someone else down here with me?

  Nereyda stayed put and peered around the doorway. A sliver of light from a crack in the wall fell on the other end of the corridor so she would be able to see whoever or whatever approached.

  The shuffling reached the corridor. Nereyda held her breath as she waited for the source to reveal itself. It came through the doorway and moved toward Nereyda’s position in the fountain chamber. As it passed through the light, she saw its silhouette.

  His silhouette, actually. The shape of a man moved down the hallway toward her, dragging his feet as if he had been injured. He wore some sort of jewelry or shiny clothing. All over his body, lines of red and orange seemed to glow as they reflected what little light managed to hit him. Except, as he approached, she realized that his clothing somehow still gave off cracks of light even when he stepped into complete shadow. The stench also grew so strong that Nereyda had to suppress the urge to gag. Something was wrong, very wrong, with this man.

  Nereyda looked around the fountain chamber for another way out. She spotted another doorway across the room, on the other side of the fountain that dominated the center. Backing away from the corridor where the strange man was still approaching, Nereyda started to sneak to the other possible exit from the chamber. As she made it about halfway across, she looked back to see the man’s shadow lurking in the doorway. He seemed to be looking around the room, but he did not act like he had seen her yet.

  As she continued to shuffle toward what she hoped would be an exit from the ruins, her foot struck a loose stone that she had failed to see in the darkness. Nereyda stumbled but managed to recover her balance. The stone skittered across the floor and struck the edge of the fountain. The crack of stone hitting stone echoed through the chamber.

  Suddenly, the strange man let out an otherworldly shriek. The shining lines on his body flared into a red and orange glow as if fire covered him.

  This was no man.

  The creature charged across the room toward Nereyda. No longer concerned with stealth, she dashed toward the doorway and sprinted down the corridor.

  She had no idea how to find her way out of this place. With the sound of footsteps racing after her, she had no choice but to keep running and hoping that an escape route would present itself.

  The creature let out another bloodcurdling cry as it pounded after her.

  At each intersection, Nereyda made a random decision about where to go.

  Left.

  Right.

  Left.

  Straight.

  Right.

  With each turn, the hellish creature stayed at her heels. It even seemed to be closing the distance. She felt the air at the back of her neck warm up as the creature drew closer.

  Another left turn and the footsteps began to fade behind her.

  Nereyda’s neck felt the cool, damp air of the ruins once again. Maybe she had finally outrun the man. Or beast. Or demon. She had no idea what the thing could be.

  Nereyda continued her sprint down the hallway to put the creature as far behind her as possible. Just as she began to feel safe, she reached a portion of the hallway where the ceiling had collapsed. Without digging through the rubble, she had no path through or around the debris.

  Her gaze darted around the hallway, looking for a door or another passage that she might have missed. She saw nothing.

  A low, haunting chuckle came from the darkness.

  That was why the creature had stopped running. It was smart enough to know that she had run into a dead end.

  Nereyda watched as the glow of the burning man approached her. He took his time and seemed to take pleasure in trapping her.

  If only he knew how far from helpless she was.

  Nereyda drew her dagger and flipped it so that she held the blade by the point. With a flick of her wrist, she sent it sailing through the air. The blade plunged into his chest, and he dropped to the ground.

  “I should have just done that first,” Nereyda muttered to herself.

  As she panted to catch her breath, the dagger itself began to glow a bright orange.

  “Shit,” said Nereyda.

  While the creature was still on the ground, Nereyda bolted back up the hallway. As she passed the man, the dagger seemed to melt out of his body.

  By the time she reached an intersection, she heard footsteps chasing her once again. The creature shrieked with rage.

  Nereyda wound her way through the labyrinthine passages of the ruins until she spotted a faint light at the end of a hallway. She raced toward it, hoping that it would be her chance to escape.

  As she approached the light, she saw that the corridor indeed opened to the outside. She also saw that water poured over the exit. Nereyda jolted to a stop as she reached the water. The floor stopped. Instead, it dropped off, with a pool of water resting at least one hundred feet below.

  Nereyda considered whether she should attempt to jump into the water.

  While she weighed her options, the footsteps chasing her grew closer, then slowed.

  Turning around, Nereyda saw the creature stop about fifteen feet away. In
the light from outside, she could finally see whatever it was. While it had the shape and stature of a tall man, its skin looked like it had been burned to ash, as if he had been roasted in a horrific fire. Cracks broke up its body, and fire glowed from the gaps. It didn’t speak, but she saw something in its expression. Anger, perhaps. No, annoyance or frustration.

  Why would this thing be frustrated?

  It paced back and forth across the hallway, but didn’t come any closer. She looked down and noticed that he had stopped where the spray from the waterfall fell.

  “You can’t get wet, can you?”

  The creature growled.

  “Unfortunately for you, I’m pretty good with water. See you later.”

  Nereyda tossed him a wave, then turned to dive through the waterfall and into the pool below.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  As Nereyda splashed into the pool and water surrounded her, she emerged and looked back up at the waterfall. She saw no sign of the strange and horrifying creature that had chased her through the halls of the ruins. She hoped it had retreated back into whatever hole it had come from.

  She swam to the shore of the pond and climbed out. Despite being dripping wet, she didn’t feel the same chill that she normally would. Somehow, she felt in tune with the water that soaked her clothes and the wind that blew the air around her. As she caught her breath, she realized that her shoulder didn’t hurt anymore. She glanced at the place where her wounds had been, only to see that the skin had healed. There wasn’t even any sign of scarring. That fountain had done something to her. She was glad that it had healed her shoulder, but she felt uneasy about what else it might mean.