Smart Alec in the Dark Lands

by Donald Wigboldy

  He felt fear and worry jumbling inside his stomach. Fighting down his panic, Alec swallowed and tried to evaluate the world around him. He had magic, he quickly realized, and knew enough spells to maybe help him.

  Looking around to make certain that he was safe, Alec gasped spotting a large figure whose face was hidden by his cloak.

  As if surprised that it had been spotted, the watcher took a step back uttering words that sounded familiar to Alec's ears. Blue light gathered in a ball within his extended fingers. Ice flakes marked its leather gloves holding an ice spell ready in case the boy should try to attack it.

  Immediately starting a spell in response, rotating his right arm and focusing on his extended left hand, Alec made a powerful shield made of wind. At first clear to the eye, dust was pulled into the swirling shield of condensed air revealing a circular defense roughly five feet in diameter. Holding it between them, the novice did nothing more to antagonize the figure roughly fifty away.

  It stepped towards him and tilted its head. Alec noticed more silver scales covering its neck and jaw, but thought that he had seen what he thought was a man speaking to cast the spell. While such a note would normally not mean much, the fact that the silver scales moved with each magical word made the boy frown in confusion. He had assumed that this was an armored foe, but looking more intently, Alec noticed that the scales on its arms seemed too detailed to be something made by an armorer. While he knew that armor could be intricate and have great detail; that its arm seemed to move and the scales adjusted like a man's skin to his muscles, made him think that perhaps the figure in front of him wasn't wearing armor at all. The scales were part of him.

  "I don't want a fight. I'm lost and just want to go back home," Alec said watching the tall, cloaked figure holding its ball of icy coldness without releasing it at him. Perhaps this creature didn't want to fight either.

  Again the cloaked one spoke, but this time the words didn't seem familiar at all. He certainly wasn't speaking common and where Alec thought that the words used to create the spell were similar to those used by wizards to create their magic in his world; these newest words seemed to be a language that was completely foreign to him.

  "I'm sorry, but I don't understand you," the boy sighed as he shook his head.

  Moving closer to him, the tall watcher appeared curious and less frightened. He spoke again, but Alec remained unable to comprehend its language. Afraid that the language barrier would keep him from conveying his words and need to the man, the novice wondered what he could do. Perhaps signing or drawing it on the ground might help, but how to convey that he was thrown here from somewhere else.

  He just didn't know what else to do.

  The blue globe of cold winked out of sight and the scaled creature called out a new spell. Alec braced himself fearing the worst, but when the creature touched its forehead with his left hand before pointing to the boy with his right, there was no noticeable attack at all.

  "Can you understand me now?" a deep voice questioned the air.

  "Y-y-yes, but how?" Alec questioned in complete confusion. Though he could understand the other man's question, it raised many more. He had never heard of a spell capable of translating another language like this.

  "Hmmph," the deep voice replied as the creature appeared to shake its head, though Alec was still unable to see much of its face at this distance. "It is a simple spell. The Ciemnosci have passed along the magic to all of the races under its control since the beginning of their contacting other creatures and worlds. You can hardly expect to know every language otherwise."

  "I'm sure that's true," was his reply though not every word seemed to have come through the translation properly. "What is Ciemnosci?"

  Sighing in annoyance, the creature stated, "Not what, but who. The Ciemnosci are the blue devils who have razed worlds and conquered many races with their power. Their magic is the most powerful of all and that power rules us all."

  "They're that big and powerful? You seem pretty strong. Are you a Ciemnosci too?"

  Laughing a strangely growled out set of sounds, the figure pushed back the cloak revealing a silver head. Its teeth looked sharp. With a blunted nose, its bright, blue eyes stood out from scales that the boy was now certain were part of its skin. "I am not Ciemnosci. I am Zmaj of the race of Dragao. We who are the descendants of dragons are nothing like the Ciemnosci."

  "But you serve them?" Alec asked slowly trying to understand.

  Again the strange, scaled creature sighed and looked down as if disappointed, "We do. They destroyed much of our world. If we didn't join them, we would have likely died out here."

  Alec looked around in surprise. "This is your world?"

  "This is Atropos, the former home of the dragao, before the Ciemnosci tore away much of the world's magic to power theirs."

  The concept of stealing a world's magic made the boy shake his head. It was too much to conceive, especially as he was already nearly overwhelmed from the battle and subsequent removal from Alus apparently, but it sounded like his fears were justified. He was apparently a long way from home.

  "If your world is destroyed, and your people serve these Ciemnosci, then why are you still here?"

  Looking up at the slowly moving clouds and to the distant hills around them; the sorcerer finally turned to the boy and stated, "There is still much of value to them here. Much of the world's magic is gone, but there are still other resources here that they desire.

  "Atropos has become an outpost governed by the Ciemnosci from their home. Portals can bring new guardians or swap out the ones already here when their time is done."

  "What do these Ciemnosci look like?" he asked wondering if any of the creatures that he had seen in Alus might be a match for this powerful race that had humbled creatures that claimed to be descended from dragons.

  "Similar to you except their skin isn't pinkish like yours. They are dark blue, black or gray with white, silver or gray hair. Oh, and they have pointed ears unlike your weird looking round ones."

  Alec had seen a creature that resembled that description leading the force which had attacked them. It had crested a steep hill and directed the multiple races of creatures using magic, if the novice was correct. If not magic, he had no idea how the man had coordinated the attack when his forces should have been blind to his directions.

  "I was dragged into a stormy looking portal, I think. I broke free from a four legged bird creature before it could take me wherever the portal was going and I fell through into here. Do you know how I can go back home?"

  The silver scaled creature looked thoughtful, but responded after only a moment saying, "The Ciemnosci guard their portal magic and very few outside of their race know the exact words needed to make the storm gates.

  "We call the bird creatures, rovdyr, here by the way."

  "Ok, rovdyr then... so you don't know anyone who can send me home...," the boy looked up sheepishly and added, "I'm sorry. I don't know your name. I am Alec."

  "I am called Helios," the dragao replied almost dismissively as it turned thoughtful once more. "I do not know the magic enough to help you, but perhaps Ediyem might know. She leads Fort Naermere, such as it is, and has been the one to make contact with her home world when necessary. If anyone here would know, it would be her."

  "Could you take me to her?" the boy asked starting to get excited with the possibility of meeting someone capable of sending him home. He had barely had the time to understand his predicament, but Alec was already wishing that he could return to White Hall and the people there.

  The dragao seemed a little dubious even though it had been he who had suggested this person. "Ediyem might not be so forthcoming, but... I suppose that she might be convinced. She certainly doesn't seem like one to avoid doing something to spite the Ciemnosci in Cenestraya. She doesn't like being stuck here anymore than most do and I am not certain why she was placed in Naermere, but I would guess that it would be a punishment for most of her kind."

 
"Would you take me there to her then?" Alec asked and realized that Helios was surprisingly hospitable considering he had held magic ready to attack the novice only moments ago.

  Again the scaled figure took pause. Alec heard a low groan from its throat, perhaps because Helios also wondered why he was so willing to communicate with this intruder to his world. Unlike these Ciemnosci, however, the boy was only trying to get back home and not here to destroy anything or harm anyone.

  The silver scaled head turned to the side considering the question when suddenly the dragao shifted into a stance of attack. Alec started to call up a new shield but sensed that Helios wasn't targeting him at all.

  An unintelligible growl called out and something hunched over moved into sight. It wasn't alone.

  Silvery blue light leaped from Helios' fingertips striking the malformed figure. It stood on two legs and seemed vaguely reminiscent of one of the dragao's kind, but it moved oddly as it attacked. Flakes of cold formed on its dull brown skin and gave ground a moment with the force of the spell.

  With a second set of words that failed to translate to the human, Alec watched as suddenly the sorcerer called on four small globes of light. Helios opened his hand and the four bullets launched curving out before driving back into the monster from either side. Sounds like metal clubs striking flesh came to Alec's ears and the novice wondered what kind of spell this was. Neither looked like anything he had seen cast in his school, though there were many spells that the novice had likely yet to see that veteran wizards could cast as well.

  Continuing to look at this spectacle, Alec expected the creature to fall and stay down, but its resilience was something beyond the boy's experience. It looked to have taken a lot of damage. At least one of the four bullets had punctured its skin and a black ichor oozed slowly from the area on its chest.

  "Boy, look out!" the dragao warned pointing to his left.

  Alec raised his air shield again as he turned. Another creature that looked like a distorted version of a dragao leaped towards the novice. The shield reflected it back and as Alec readied another spell, he got a better look at the thing attacking him.

  Its eyes glowed with a light blue light that verged on gray. They were unlike Helios' eyes. Though the dragao's eyes were different from a human's, they were still made similarly. There were animals that were perhaps more like them, but compared to the thing attacking him now, they were intelligent and full of life. Looking at this creature attacking him now, Alec almost wondered if it was alive at all.

  A fireball the size of a melon launched from the boy's right hand as he shifted the shield aside a moment. It struck the monster and it caught fire. Flames didn't just cause a short burn, but set it alight like a log in a campfire. Even so the monster only staggered back for a moment before trying to launch itself at his shield once more.

  "Go for the head!" Helios called out apparently keeping somewhat of an eye on him as the dragao tried to kill his own creature.

  Taking his staff, Helios drove it into the open mouth of the monster even as he chanted a new spell. It didn't seem to react to the piece of wood at all; but when fire exploded from the tip of the staff, its eyes burst with flame briefly before goo came out the ears and nose ahead of a blast of fire.

  Alec wasn't watching, however, and used a new spell. It was one that even battle mages were using of late thanks to a young mage's ability to translate wizard's spells into those of a battle mage. Blue light seemed to shimmer in his hand extending both ahead and behind him like a spear. The novice held onto focused wind looking for his opportunity to attack. As the creature attacking him tried to claw at the shield, Alec pushed it back with the wind before flinging the spear aiming with his eyes more than his hand. It struck the strange creature in the ruined scales on its forehead with the sound of bone breaking.

  Willing the spear to drive through its skull, a hole appeared dead center as its eyes suddenly tried to look up at the new orifice. Seeing light from the opposite side, Alec wondered what it would actually take to kill this monster when nothing seemed left inside that skull. His question was answered as it suddenly collapsed like a puppet after having its strings cut.

  Breathing heavily considering it was such a short fight, Alec looked around him warily as Helios backed towards the boy. The dragao was searching for more of them as well. Unlike the boy, he didn't seem winded at all.

  "What were those things? They looked sort of like one of you."

  Glancing towards the boy, the larger sorcerer didn't answer him and instead said, "We should go. Once there is one, it always seems to be followed by more. We don't want to be caught out here by a pack of them."

  The two found no others close to them and Helios led the way at a brisk pace. After several minutes' quick march, a high walled fortress appeared. It wasn't large at least compared to White Hall. This was no city. He had lived just outside of Windmeer and seen the guardian city from the town of the same name to its south. It would have dwarfed Naermere, but in an uncertain place surrounded by strange monsters trying to attack him, it looked big enough to be safer than where they were out in the field at least.

  It was over half a mile away and as they rounded a low hill, what had been concealed from where he had arrived, was now visible and drawing the two onward. Another shambling monster was between them and the fort. Helios reached into his pack drawing out a shard of glass. More appeared out thin air with the next words of power before the dragao sent a dozen gleaming, pointed daggers of glass into the new monster.

  Since they had been hurrying, the monster barely had time to react and turn towards them before the daggers sliced it up. Three struck the neck and head severing the spine enough to make its head tip onto its shoulder before collapsing like the one Alec had killed.

  "Come, come, Alec. Like I said, more are likely to show up now after a spilling of blood."

  The boy hurried after the dragao and quickly the two reached a deep, dug out trench which surrounded the tall stone walls. He also felt the tickle of magic and guessed that someone had created a barrier to add to the fort's defenses. They skirted the trench until they found a walkway leading through the open hole to the base of a large wooden door. It was reinforced by what the novice thought was iron, but perhaps in this world it was their equivalent instead. He didn't know if the same metals could be found on other worlds after all.

  Helios moved to the door and rapped on it with his staff. "Open up, it's Helios!" he called out loudly.

  In the alien air, Alec actually thought the dragao's voice seemed a little thin and maybe too quiet to carry to those inside. His worry appeared unfounded as the door was opened letting them look into a decent size courtyard. Helios started forward and the novice was about to follow when he spotted a frightening creature in front of them. One of the minotaur type monsters from the battle stood holding the door and looking beyond the two arrivals.

  "Thanks, Torok. Where is Ediyem?" the first earned a distracted nod from the minotaur, while the question made it glance away from whatever was drawing its attention beyond the trench.

  "Office, I think," it huffed with a voice that Alec would believe a bull might have, if they could talk. He had heard cows and bulls in the market or the fields around the farms near Windmeer much of his life. This creature's mouth moved differently from the words that he heard, however, and the novice wondered if it was more than just a translation that he heard because of Helios' magic.

  The minotaur was even larger than the dragao and glanced down at the boy barely half its size. "What's this thing?" it asked gruffly.

  "Something I found before getting attacked by some hollows."

  It shrugged and replied as the door was pushed closed behind them. "Wasn't that why you were out there?"

  Waving the larger creature off, Helios responded, "True, but they hid until the boy arrived." Looking to the walls, he added, "The others around too?"

  A strange flash of light from the fort's roof perhaps forty feet above them was th
e source of a ray of green light that lanced past the outer wall.

  "Shaelamee's there. The rest are around somewhere. Only you were outside."

  The minotaur seemed disinterested and walked away to an open door in the tower leading up to the top of the outer wall.

  Dismissing the other creature, Helios led Alec across the open courtyard to another smaller door. It was still much larger than most doors in Southwall. Since creature's the size of the minotaurs needed to use them, he guessed that they had to be.

  Inside the fort everything felt almost normal to the boy in spite of the fact that he was far away from home on another world. Stone floors supported gray stone walls and more stone made up the ceiling. It could be the inside of a typical fortress in Southwall; at least Alec knew that it wasn't dissimilar from White Hall's hallways anyway. There were tables and chairs here and there. Doorways were passed leading into other rooms, but Helios didn't stop at any of them.

  Finding a stairway, the two moved upwards steadily. They didn't stop at the second floor and walked up to the next one before exiting. Another flight led upwards. Alec had noticed an open door letting extra light illuminate the crisscrossing stairs below it. Guessing that the last flight led to the roof, the novice wasn't surprised that the dragao was looking for someone's office here.

  Alec's magical senses noted a feeling of magical power above him and another on this floor. He wondered if, like Helios, these were wizards as well.

  The silver dragao walked down the hallway before looking into an open doorway. Looking past him from the side, Alec spotted another dragao. It differed from the first in many ways, however, so the boy wondered if they were truly the same race or not.

  Colored bronze, this dragao was slightly smaller than Helios, though it was much taller than the teenage boy. It looked lighter in build and its eyes were merely brown. The biggest thing that made him question if this creature was also dragao was that it had a much longer snout. A dragon's face, if Alec was to guess. He had seen pictures of the che'ther and this face was more like one of them, while Helios' face was closer to that of a human's.