Third Power

by Robert Childs

  These two men looked up and dropped their ill-gotten prey simultaneously as Steve charged. They had little time to react, but each rolled away in opposite directions from the surprising attack and returned to their feet with weapons drawn.

  Steve winced and rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his knife hand, trying to shake the sudden haze threatening his concentration. It was those eyes again, watching, observing, getting closer. And fast.

  He backed away defensively, trying to clear his head as the two soldiers separated and circled around. Steve knew his life depended on his ability to think clearly and he couldn’t afford a distraction like that again. Whatever had saved him before may not be there to do it a second time.

  Closer.

  “Give it up, boy,” one of them said. “You don’t want to die, and you are worth more to us alive anyway.”

  Tippen appeared from behind a tree with his bowstring pulled to his cheek. He nearly released but a crow swooped down and forced him into a dive for cover. The pike banked and then climbed, fleeing to the treetops with the large bird close behind.

  Closer.

  The two soldiers advanced from opposite sides and pressed in on their cautiously retreating bounty. The second soldier pursed his lips then and whistled. Two crows cawed loudly in reply, then swooped down on the young man from above with claws outstretched. Steve swung his blade wildly; retreating and shielding his eyes as best he could but barely able to see enough to do either.

  In the midst of his confusion and near-blindness, a monstrous roar set Steve to a panic.

  “Look out!” he heard one of the soldiers shout. Something massive and white flashed out of the corner of the young man’s vision. Abruptly, the assaulting crows relented and he risked a brief glance skyward. There now a single crow remained, peaking in its climb, and then diving yet again for him. Steve lined up his attack and three feet of steel cut the air with a whisper, severing the black bird diagonally.

  Steve felt those eyes again, pressing on him like a physical weight; so close it set his skin to tingling. His face paled at the sound of a deep, slow growl behind him. He turned cautiously and beheld a massive beast, the rumble of its throat muffled by the prey it still held in its jaws. A tiger, unnaturally large and savagely beautiful, with a rippling torso covered by a coat of white fur with black stripes; in its jaws, the corpse of the second crow, the blood turning its furry white chin crimson. The pupils in its glacier-blue eyes dilated as it regarded the young man with unusual intelligence.

  Steve chanced a look to the side and noted the two remaining soldiers were nowhere to be seen, their courage seemingly fled in the presence of the magnificent beast.

  The tiger regarded him silently for a moment and then placed the carcass of the bird down on the grass, pushing it once with his nose toward him. Though he didn’t know how, Steve sensed—or rather heard—the very thoughts of this creature as it offered a share of the kill as a gift.

  Steve held out his hand and the order of his life began to take shape in his mind, coming together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and he suddenly realized this one piece had been missing; this animal—this part of him—had been missing his whole life. He now fully understood the true reason he had come to the Memsherar.

  “It was you, wasn’t it?” Steve asked.

  The tiger moved closer to the youth and licked the outstretched hand with a coarse tongue. Steve slowly dropped to his knees and stroked the thick, soft fur of the beast’s head and neck. If he weren’t so utterly amazed by it all he would have laughed.

  “You were looking for me. You were drawn here to find me just as I was supposed to find you.”

  “Wizard!”

  Tippen! he remembered suddenly. Steve had almost forgotten about the pike, and from the sound of his little friend, the crow was pressing him hard in pursuit.

  The tiger’s lips pulled back over ivory white fangs as the bird and pike came into view. Before Steve could utter a word, the magnificent animal sprang into the air. The crow squawked in surprise and tried to evade but too late. The deadly maw of the tiger closed around its body and crushed the life out in an instant. The great white beast landed nimbly on all fours and spat the feathered carcass out on the ground.

  Tippen flew back around, careful to avoid the monstrous cat, and lighted upon Steve’s shoulder, his chest heaving with the exertion of the chase. “Your doing?” he asked, gesturing toward the tiger with his bow.

  “No,” Steve replied. “Not even close.”

  “Lad! Lad, is that you? Well, ah’ll be dipped in fairy dust, ya’ sound like yer okay to me! Get us out a’ere!”

  Steve went to the first satchel and laid it on its side. A couple of tugs and the drawstrings loosened. Jiv immediately scrambled out and nearly fell over backwards when he saw the tiger. “Woah, lad! Friend a’ yers, I hope?”

  The tiger turned from its kill and regarded the little man with nothing but curiosity, but the sprite took two steps back under that gaze all the same.

  Steve nodded. “He is now. Don’t ask me how I know, but he’s a friend.”

  Jiv rubbed at his chin wide-eyed and clearly wary. “Amazin’!”

  “Wizard,” Tippen said tugging futilely at the drawstrings of another bag. “Your assistance, please.” Steve laughed and happily went to his friend’s aid.

  Jiv sat in the palm of Steve’s hand. “Look at em’, lad,” he said with a pleased smile.

  Human and sprite watched from the shoreline as the winged people cheered and swooped and dived around the bonfire—the size of a small cook fire compared to Steve—in hearty celebration. The soldiers, stripped of their weapons and armor, were long since driven from the forest by wild boars, friends of the tiny people.

  The moon above shined down through the treetops and cast pale spires of eerie light upon the two of them. Steve turned his eyes from the night sky and stroked the thick fur of the tiger lying beside him with his free hand. The big cat growled contentedly.

  “They’re excited about havin’ somethin’ so very new ta’ talk about.” Jiv finished.

  “Certainly beats any hunting story they’ve got so far,” Steve agreed. “They all seem to see each other as ‘better’ people for the experience. Like they all went up in rank or something.”

  The sprite lounged back on his elbows in his friend’s palm and turned his eyes upward. Changing the subject he said, “I’m kinda’ curious as ta’ why yer still here. Ah said ah’d accompany ya’ back—and ah still will—but what are ya’ waiting for?” He glanced briefly to the big cat and back again. “Ya’ already found what ya’ was lookin’ for.”

  Steve scratched between the tiger’s ears and thought sullenly how this magnificent animal was one of the few things he had encountered on this world that had not tried to kill him on sight. First Azinon, then the Shangee, then hired soldiers. He wondered how many more “problems” he would run into before finally getting home. He fingered the crystal through the bloodstained cloth of his sweatshirt as he remembered the feeling of helplessness when…whatever it was, had taken control of him. The magic of the crystal had saved his life but, by that same token, if not for being given the crystal his life never would have needed saving in the first place.

  Turning his attention back to the subject at hand, Steve looked to his little friend and forced a smile. “I need to hang around a little longer. I just want to see how things turned out.”

  “Ahhh,” Jiv said with a knowing nod.

  Steve nodded with him. “They’ve been talking for some time now.”

  As though on cue, Tippen and Lavari walked from the shadows hand-in-hand. The pixie’s hair was slightly mussed and she had a peculiarly light air about her. Both were smiling and Steve knew already that Tippen had good news.

  The tiger sniffed the air at their approach and Steve settled him with a thought. He didn’t understand the bond between them, this ability to communicate by thought alone, he just simply accepted it for now. He would have time to sort throu
gh the how and why of it later. To the pike and pixie he said, “I take it you two are a happening thing.”

  Neither understood the colloquialism, but the context was clear enough.

  “We are a…happening thing,” Tippen answered. “Lavari has asked me to be her life mate, and I have accepted. We thought you should know first.”

  Steve inclined his head slightly toward them. “I am honored that you would think of me before your own.”

  “Oh, Steve,” Lavari said with such affection, as though speaking to a lifelong family friend. She left Tippen’s side and flitted up to kiss his cheek. “To us, you are our own. Were it not for you our brothers and sisters would be suffering a fate worse than death even now.”

  “Yes,” Steve agreed. “But if Tippen had not saved me—twice, no less—I never could have done it. We saved each other, and as a team we were able to save you all.”

  Steve knew what they had gone through spoke far more for Tippen’s bravery and skill than any competition between the two of them ever could.

  Lavari returned to the forest floor and rejoined Tippen at his side. They kissed, and Tippen looked once again to his friend. “Where will you go now? What will you do?”

  Steve glanced briefly in the general direction of Haldorum’s camp. “I think it’s time to go home. In the morning, I’ll go back to the man who brought me here. I’m sure he’ll see to my travel arrangements.”

  It was Tippen who flew up to him then. He shook hand to finger with Steve and said, “If ever you come by this way again, I want you to know that you are forever welcome here. What you did for me—aside from what you did for us all—is something few men would have done in your place. The Pixish are in your debt. If you ever need us, we will answer your call.” He returned to Lavari’s side and then together they walked away.

  “Hey, you two!” Steve called after them. “Make sure your kids know who their god-uncle is.”

  Tippen laughed and called back, “Not only that, but we shall name our first born after you!”

  Steve waved as they walked away and into the firelight around which the other pixies and pikes continued their celebration

  After a moment, Jiv turned scratching his head and said, “I feel sorry for the whelp if it turns out ta’ be a girl.”

  The following day dawned bright and clear. A lazy breeze drifted through the camp, bringing with it a slight smell of moist pollen that sweetened the air around them. The horses perked their ears to the wind, listening curiously to the men before them as they practiced the lyrics to an unusual song amongst themselves.

  “No, no, listen to what I say,” Scott interrupted. “It’s ‘doo wah ditty, ditty dum ditty doo’.”

  Haze scratched his beard in question at the strange language and adjusted so he sat legs crossed before him. “Scott, these words. What do they mean?”

  “They don’t mean anything. It’s just a part of the song that makes it kind of catchy.”

  “But surely they have a meaning,” Lurin insisted.

  Scott slapped his forehead with the butt of his hand and Haldorum smiled from across the way.

  “Trust me, guys, there is no meaning. They’re just words in the song. This is an Earth song, I’m from Earth, I know what I’m talking about. Okay? Now, do you both know when to come in?” The warrior and woodsman each nodded, though uncertainly. “All right then, you guys are the backup. You sing when I give you the sign. A one, and a two…there she was, just a walkin’ down the street singin’…” He pointed to them.

  Haze and Lurin chimed in, their words choppy but credible, “Doo wah dit-ty, dit-ty dum dit-ty doo!”

  “Just a walkin’ along and a shufflin’ her feet singin’…”

  “Doo wah dit-ty, dit-ty dum dit-ty doo!”

  The three of them burst out with triumphant laughter and Haldorum, too, found himself laughing at their strangled success.

  “It is a strange music,” Haze said still chuckling. “But I think I like it.”

  Haldorum crossed over to where they sat around the ashes of last night’s fire and took a seat between Scott and Lurin.

  “Wizard!” Lurin welcomed. “You must join us in this. These Earth songs are very intriguing.”

  “Yeah,” Scott said in agreement. “One more voice and we’ll have ourselves a regular quartet.”

  Haldorum smiled but shook his head. “No, but thank you.” His expression looked slightly pensive, and it caused the others to quell their merriment a bit. “Steven is on his way back,” he said.

  The three of them rose together and Scott dusted off his sweats with a sigh. His sweats certainly didn’t look anywhere near as bad as Steve’s, but all the magic in the world wasn’t going to help him get the grass and dirt stains out.

  “So do you have some idea what he did out there?” he asked.

  The lines around Haldorum’s eyes deepened, making him appear much older just then. “I do not know for certain. My senses cannot permeate the Memsherar. But when Steve emerged from it I felt the presence of two others with him.”

  Haze’s hand drifted to the hilt of his longsword. “Enemies?”

  Haldorum paused a moment, looking beyond them to another place. “No,” he said at last. “He is with friends. Whatever occurred, he was successful, but I am afraid I can see no more than that.”

  Haze removed his hand from the pommel and let it fall back to his side, Scott breathing a sigh of relief at his side. When Haldorum had first told them where Steve had gone, Scott had argued it for the better half of an hour. The idea of either one of them going out alone when things like the shangee were lurking about was ludicrous to him. But in the end, the old wizard had won out. Scott was just going to have to wait until his friend had returned.

  “So how long before he gets here?” Scott asked.

  Lurin tapped him on the shoulder and pointed off to his left. “Three seconds, give or take.”

  Scott followed the woodsman’s finger and spotted Steve trudging into the camp. Close on his heels, a massive white tiger with black stripes, thick set and powerfully built with a tiny man seated casually between its ears. The little man wore a green tunic and trousers fashioned remarkably—amazingly enough—out of what looked to be leaves.

  The sprite, however, was merely a blip on his attention span, the tiger dominating the scene. “Where did he get that?” Scott breathed in a voice barely above a whisper. The big cat at his friend’s heels was unusually large, even as tigers go, and with Steve standing at six feet, three inches the animal’s shoulders still reached as high as his hips.

  “Hi,” Steve said with a short wave.

  Of the four standing before him, Haldorum seemed the only one at ease in the tiger’s presence. He approached Steve and stopped only a few feet away.

  “I must say, Steven,” Haldorum said quirking an eyebrow, “I assumed your experience would be different, but I never anticipated just how much so. This is certainly a surprise.”

  “Not nearly as surprised as ee’ was,” Jiv piped in with a thumb jab in the young man’s direction.

  Steve, having forgotten his little friend in the silence leading to camp, quickly introduced the sprite. “Oh yeah, everybody, this is Jiv. Jiv, this is Scott, Haldorum, Haze and Lurin.”

  “Pleased ta’ meet ya’ all,” Jiv said heartily.

  Haldorum inclined his head toward him. “As are we to meet you, friend sprite. Not often do I get to meet the denizens of the Memsherar.”

  Scott said nothing, preferring to continue staring wide-eyed at the tiger.

  Steve followed his gaze and then shrugged. “I had thought I’d found what I was looking for early on, but it turns out this fellow here is who I was looking for the whole time.”

  Scott snapped his head up and looked his friend in the face. “You don’t just walk in someplace and make friends with a tiger.”

  Steve laughed. “You wouldn’t think so, would you?” Then, more seriously, “I didn’t think about a lot of things until I came here.”
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  “And what are you thinking now?” Haldorum asked.

  Steve took a slow breath and squared his shoulders. “I think I don’t belong here,” he said levelly. “I thought about this all the way back from the forest.” His eyes narrowed. “You knew about those men in the forest, didn’t you?”

  “I knew,” Haldorum replied.

  “What men?” Scott asked, glancing back and forth between them.

  “Then why did you let me go?”

  “Because, Steven, the Memsherar would not have allowed them to cross her borders if they were not meant to be there. It is my guess they were to help you discover something inside yourself.”

  Steve pursed his lips with anger in his eyes. “Your guess? I was nearly killed twice out there, and you guess? If it wasn’t for a certain pike I befriended I wouldn’t even be here now.”

  “I never had any doubts you would return,” Haldorum said apologetically.

  “Well, I sure as hell did!” Steve paused a moment, hearing the volume of his own voice. After a moment he said more calmly, “Look, it’s just I’m not used to having my life threatened several times a day—and I’m not a big fan of someone who purports to be a friend knowing about it.”

  “Wait a minute,” Scott said perplexed. “Somebody jumped you out there?”

  Steve nodded. “Yeah, several somebodies. I met a race of little people called pixies and pikes—like Jiv here, only they had wings. If it wasn’t for my friend Tippen I would have been hamburger.”

  Scott glanced in the direction of the forest as though he were trying to visualize the tiny people his friend spoke of. He looked back again saying, “So what happens now?”

  Steve’s eyes locked on the wizard’s own and he nodded once. “We go home.” Haldorum started to speak but Steve cut him off. “No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes. Haldorum, don’t you get it? This world isn’t for me. I’ll admit, I used to relish the idea of having some sort of magical powers and living in a faraway kingdom and fighting evil monsters. But I was seven years old.”