by Travis Bughi
Hm, tis this? Tis buried deep, isn’t it? Damn that angel. He shall stop me naught, and neither shalt thou!
Emily began to jerk in the air, her body flipping end over end. She could hardly sense it, so great was the assault on her mind. Her eyes saw clearly, despite that her lids were shut. Her entire body was invisible, and her lids were nothing but a formality as she whirled in the air.
Beneath her, Eisa and Takeo were at a stalemate. Eisa was pressing the attack, swinging his stronger, heavier blade like the cleaver it was designed to be. The strikes were too strong for Takeo to parry, and so he was dodging and keeping his distance, calm eyes ever watchful for the opening he needed to end the fight.
Opposite them, Jabbar and Koll were on the ground, wrestling like wild animals. Jabbar was snarling and spitting, trying to bite Koll’s head off with his massive canines. Koll was roaring back, one hand gripping Jabbar’s neck, the other viciously punching Jabbar’s wounded side. Koll’s every muscle was bulging. His veins ran like twigs up and down his body, barely contained by his own skin. Blood flowed from Koll’s arms and chest as Jabbar slashed him open with razor claws. The sand below slurped the blood up and caked the wounds that touched the ground.
Emily desperately wanted to help them, but that thought was a distant whisper compared to the thundering pain that pounded into her brain. The jinni was in deep—she could feel the monster like a red hot poker ramming through her eye—and it was searching for something.
Through sobs and cries of pain, Emily summoned all the strength she could, screaming in silent agony the entire time, and pushed back.
Ha! What now? Thou aspires to stop me? FOOL! I shall make thou suffer for thy insolence!
A slash of pain, greater than before, whipped through Emily and, for a moment, made her entire body go limp. The bow fell from her hand and reappeared to the visible world, dropping to the ground and landing softly on the cushioned soil. In the wake of that pain, Emily felt the jinni’s probing stop.
Ah! I hath found it!
And Emily saw it, too, or rather, she felt it. For a moment, her vision flashed a brilliant white, and a calming serenity washed over her, dulling the pain in her mind to a barely noticeable peck. Then that feeling passed, the light receded, and the pain returned.
Give it to me!
“NO!” Emily screamed.
She latched onto the light’s source with everything she had and pushed against the jinni.
“Get out of my head!” she bellowed. “Get out!”
A heavy thud echoed from below, and Emily saw Eisa lying dead on the ground. Takeo was standing over the fresh corpse, katana stained red and dripping blood into the hungry sand. Takeo waited only a moment, breathing hard, before he turned and charged Jabbar.
On the other side, the rakshasa had gained the upper hand. He’d dragged Koll up from his feet and was strangling him with clawed hands. Koll was still lashing out with both fists, putting every bit of strength he had into striking the rakshasa’s hard body. He was fading, though, with each blow weaker than the last.
Upon seeing Takeo come running, Jabbar roared in anger and threw Koll to the ground. The viking coughed and spurted, sucking in precious air. Takeo yelled as he swung at Jabbar, and his blade caught an inch of Jabbar’s arm before a heavy claw raked Takeo across the face and sent the samurai spiraling, blood pouring into the air.
Jabbar turned his attention back to Koll, grabbing the viking by his long hair and hauling him to his feet.
Up above them, Emily continued her silent battle with renewed strength. The light the jinni had found within her was released and flooded Emily’s mind like cool water, pacifying the fiery pain. It gave her a weapon to fight with, and she wielded it with all the power and stubbornness that had been bred into her.
What art thou doing? The jinni screeched. Thou canst not do this!
“Watch me,” Emily replied.
She screamed again, this time not in agony, but in ferocity. She balled her willpower up like a tangible force and slammed against the jinni’s knife. A satisfying rush swept through her as she heard the jinni cry out.
How art thou doing this? Tis not possible! Thou art a mortal!
Emily felt her thoughts harden to the likeness of stone. Something cool, calm, and emotionless had broken through the other side of the light and now fought alongside her in silence. It was slow moving but persistent, and as it gained ground, Emily began to reclaim her own mind.
“Let go,” she demanded.
Never!
Below her, Jabbar was trying to ram one clawed paw into Koll’s stomach, and Koll was using both his hands to stop him. Koll was still screaming like a madman, arms and veins swelling as he pitted his vast strength against an even stronger enemy.
Behind them, Takeo stumbled to his feet, the entire left side of his face caked in sand-covered blood. He had to use his katana to help him stand, but the moment he was up he leapt toward Jabbar, swinging with all his might. The sword bit into Jabbar’s back, cutting open another wound just below where Koll’s axe had hit, adding another stream of blood to Jabbar’s already matted fur, turning the orange and black strips to a solid red.
Jabbar roared out and kicked Koll away, flipping the big viking over so his head struck the ground first, and then whirled on Takeo. The samurai jumped back, keeping his distance and holding his katana ready. He could only see out of one eye, the other winking open and closed as blood leaked into it. Jabbar snarled and sent spittle flying towards the samurai but did not charge. Takeo was faster than Koll, and Jabbar was smart enough to realize that.
Above them, the war of wills waged onwards, and it was truly a battle now and no longer the slaughter it once was. Emily pushed back with the very source of power the jinni had sought, a concept Emily couldn’t understand but did not need to. She screamed, balled her fists up, closed her eyelids for all the good it did, and forced her will against the jinni with the hard, stone gauntlet she’d been handed.
“GET OUT!” she screamed.
NEVER! TIS MINE!
“I SAID GET OUT!” Emily roared.
And there she saw it—in the screaming agony, clarity sprouted forth: a clear image of gently flowing yellow grass, the morning sun just now rushing over it. And then, there was strength. A solid, untouchable serenity gripped her, and she felt like a portal to another soul had been opened.
And through that portal came the rocky fist of a colossus.
There was a bang so loud that even the trio fighting below heard it. Takeo, Jabbar, and Koll looked up to see Emily appear out of thin air and fall to the ground, limp as Eisa, the quiver on her back raining arrows alongside her. Miraculously, she fell on none of them and didn’t even shout when she struck the floor. Emily was aware she had just fallen, but the truth was that the dull pain of the fall was nothing compared to what she had just endured.
Takeo was closest to her, having circled Jabbar, and left the rakshasa near the back of the chamber. He rushed to her side and lifted her head from the sand.
“Emily!” he said. “Emily, are you alright?”
Jabbar might have taken that moment to pounce had he been ready. However, he was vastly distracted by the black-robed, blue-skinned old lady hovering just over the red-cushioned chair. Jabbar’s eyes were wide, his pupils dilated, and his ears perked up in confusion.
“What . . . how are you . . . it can’t be . . . a jinni? What is going on?” he stammered.
The jinni was shaking and seemed to have difficulty maintaining her composure. She clutched her head in both hands, pressing the black nails into her skin, and moaned.
“Worry naught, my puppet,” she said to Jabbar. “Thou performed admirably.”
Jabbar’s ears flattened again, and he snarled, baring his teeth.
“You dare call me a puppet?”
The jinni removed one hand from her skull and pointed at Emily. Takeo and Emily gasped and stumbled to their feet, ready to leap out of the way.
“I hath underes
timated thou,” the jinni seethed.
“You’re not the first,” Emily replied, voice quivering.
The jinni sighed then and winced at an invisible wound. She relaxed and pointed her finger at the ceiling.
“Fine then, thou may keep thy goods. Now, the trap I promised ye.”
A flash of blue light exploded from the jinni’s finger, and a low rumble enveloped the chamber. Suddenly, four fist-sized holes in the ceiling shattered and released a stream of sand into the chamber. The low rumble continued from the doorway, and Emily turned to see a slab of stone slowly falling to block the room’s only exit.
As for the jinni, she was gone.
Chapter 29
Jabbar roared and made a break for the doorway, but he was a step too late as Koll launched from the ground and clung to his back. The viking wrapped one arm around Jabbar’s neck, another around his shoulder, and used his feet to trip the beast and send them both crashing to the ground.
“Run!” Koll yelled. “By Valhalla, RUN!”
The doorway was already one-quarter closed, and the low rumble of stone grinding on stone echoed so loudly that Emily could feel it in her heart. Her head was splitting from the lingering pain, but she grabbed up her bow as Takeo hauled her to her feet.
“We can’t leave him!” she begged.
“We must!” Takeo answered and pulled her toward the door.
Jabbar roared and stumbled to his feet, fighting and trying to grab Koll with his paws. His claws found purchase and ripped huge gashes in Koll’s skin, sending bright blood into the fresh sand that was pouring in all around them.
“GO!” Koll screamed. “RUN!”
The door was now halfway closed, and Emily no longer resisted Takeo’s urgings. She ran with him, and the two ducked under the heavy slab. Takeo immediately turned around and grabbed under the slab, pulling up with all his strength.
The slab didn’t even slow.
On the other side, Jabbar finally ripped Koll loose and flung the viking away. Koll flipped end over end like a ragdoll, his wounds streaming sand and blood as he tumbled. The rakshasa snarled, fell to all fours, and barreled at a full sprint toward the quarter-open doorway.
“STOP HIM!” Koll cried out.
Emily was already on it. She knelt to her knees and drew the only two arrows still remaining in her quiver. As she pulled them back, she took in a breath, aimed, and then released as she breathed out.
The arrows slammed into each of Jabbar’s shoulders just as he reached the door, causing him to snarl and falter a single step, and then Emily lost sight of him altogether. The slab fell, but then stopped just a hand’s width from closing. On the opposite side, Emily heard Jabbar roaring with effort.
“He’s caught the door!” Koll’s voice echoed from the crack. “Damn it! He caught the door!”
Emily’s heart skipped a beat as she watched, utterly stunned, as the slab slowly began to rise along with Jabbar’s roars. She gasped and crawled back from the door, unsure of what to do. From beneath the widening crack, she saw Jabbar’s clawed feet and hands and the chamber behind him, slowly filling with sand.
“Hold him, Koll!” Takeo shouted and drew his katana.
From the other side, Emily heard Koll’s voice closing in and Jabbar’s roars turning to snarls. Takeo knelt to the ground, took his katana in both hands, and stabbed Jabbar’s paws. The rakshasa roared in pain but did not let go.
“Pull!” Takeo yelled.
Koll gave a mighty yell as Takeo stabbed again, and Jabbar let go of the slab with one paw. The slab finally stopped moving up.
“Die, beast!” Takeo screamed, and then slammed the blade into Jabbar’s foot.
The rakshasa roared again and fell back, toppled over by the combined strength of Koll and Takeo’s attacks. Having nothing holding it up anymore, the slab fell to the ground almost instantly, snapping the katana underneath it and sending a billow of dust and sand into the air. A hollow silence followed.
And then Jabbar’s roar echoed through the stone.
Emily and Takeo moved back from the slab until their backs touched the cold wall opposite the room. Jabbar roared and roared, and the faint trickle of falling sand filtered through the tiny cracks, weeping through the wall’s decayed fissures like tears. And then, slowly but surely, Jabbar’s roars grew fainter and fainter, until silence ruled once more.
Emily and Takeo were both breathing hard, backs against the wall, for several moments, listening to the silence, barely daring to blink. Emily held her bow in a death grip, her knuckles white with the effort. Takeo held the handle of his shattered katana, the blade now wider than it was long, with equal desperation.
But the silence proved that their fears were for nothing. After his breath began to settle, Takeo peeled himself away from the wall and looked at the broken sword in his hand. He sighed and set it on the ground.
“Farewell, Kollskegg Ludinson the Sturdy,” he said, looking towards the room that had become a tomb. “You shall be missed.”
* * *
With the jinni gone, so too were all the illusions, and they discovered that the cellar’s stairs came all the way to the sandy floor. Emily and Takeo climbed them, ragged and bleeding, but mercifully free as they had not been before. Having grabbed no torches on the way out, they were forced to stumble through the pitch black until they could escape Kings’ Hearth.
When they came outside, dark clouds had rolled in, obscuring the moon but leaving just enough radiance to see by. They found the sphinx dead outside—claw and sword marks scoured its body, but its mouth and paws were covered in blood as well. Takeo pointed to the killing blow done by a scimitar slash and commented on how Jabbar never would have made it through alive without Eisa’s help. Emily appreciated the distraction. She was trying not to think about Koll.
That task proved easier than she anticipated when the two realized Takeo hadn’t made it out with his pack either. He and Emily each wore only a single water skin, and the map was tucked away in Takeo’s clothes. They were back in the harsh desert again, and it demanded their attention. The only weapons they had now were a bow with no arrows and the pesh-kabz strapped to Emily’s waist.
First, Emily saw to Takeo’s wounds, using a torn piece of cloth from his clothes to dab and clot the blood. The streaks across his face were thankfully shallow, and she thought it likely that only one would scar. When she told him of this, he seemed indifferent to it. Emily thought that perhaps Takeo was thinking of Koll, too.
They plotted a course to the nearest waterhole and made the decision not to stay at the inn for the night. Bad experiences aside, they feared that the jinni might come back or, worse, that it might never have left. Both weary and tired, they struggled on into the night anyway, putting precious distance between themselves and the battle they’d fought. They were silent the whole way, both preferring to save their strength for walking.
Toward the end, Takeo began to limp and stumble in exhaustion but refused to stop. He insisted that they continue while the heat of the day did not plague them. Emily grudgingly agreed, but only after Takeo allowed her to help him. She slung his arm over her shoulder, and they pushed onwards.
When the inn was but a speck in the distance and Takeo could take no more, they stopped and made do with sleeping in the sand. They covered their noses and mouths with clothes and passed into deep slumber immediately. When they awoke, it was to the bright sunlight beaming down on them and the heat of the sand rising all around.
It took a full day to reach the oasis, and once there, they wasted no time soaking their parched throats in ecstasy. After that, they doused their hands, head, and feet in the water, and then Emily shook her head, removed the letters from her vest, and just dove in altogether. When she came up for air, she laughed and almost shed a tear with the pleasure it gave her. The muddy bottom was like a cushion under her feet, the cool water a blessing on her wounds.
“Come on in,” she called to Takeo.
The samurai hesitated but the
n reached into his pockets and removed his map, flint, and steel. He set them next to his water skin and then waded into the water as well. He sighed deeply in relief but did not submerge his head. The bandages were still wrapped around his face.
“It’s nice,” he admitted.
Takeo let a small smile grace his lips and closed his eyes. He tilted his head back just enough to soak his hair, but kept his ears just a touch above the waterline. Emily dipped completely under again and threw her hair when she came up.
“So, tell me,” Emily said, running her fingers through her hair, “how quickly can we leave for Juatwa?”
Takeo was rinsing his own hair as he frowned at her question. He squinted, as if in thought.
“Well, at least a week until we reach a port. After that, we’ll have to find someone going to where we want and willing to accept our labor as payment. I wish we could have found the jinni’s treasure before we left.”
“You actually think there was a treasure?” Emily raised an eyebrow.
“There must have been,” Takeo blinked. “How else would the jinni have lured us from Phoenix Temple to Kings’ Hearth? She likely put a small treasure there, somewhere, and hoped that Jabbar would bring us, or rather you, to Kings’ Hearth next. Then again, perhaps she knew we would escape from Jabbar. I can’t really say for sure.”
Emily frowned and twirled in the water, enjoying how it made her feel weightless. For the second time since seeing Savara, she wished that she could swim.
“I guess we’ll never really know,” she shrugged. “Perhaps the jinni planned this whole thing. She did say she changed fate, didn’t she? I bet there wasn’t any treasure.”
“Maybe one day, if I get the chance, I’ll come back and find out myself. Then I’ll prove you wrong.”
He smiled, and Emily laughed.
“Well, you can come without me, then,” she smirked. “I’ll just take your word for it.”
“You don’t like Savara, I take it?”
Emily just bounced her eyebrows in response.