by GARY DARBY
Once on their feet, Tavin glances around, his eyes staring at the dark nothingness. “In all the gods’ names, where are we and how did we get here?”
“Let’s just say you’re in a horrible place,” I reply, “and how you two got here is a rather long story for which we don’t have time.”
“We’ll explain everything,” Phigby answers, “once we’re out of here. Can you walk?”
Pim is staring at the ground, doing a slow circle before she becomes a bit frantic and widens her circle. “My lance! It’s gone!”
“No,” I hasten to answer, “it’s safe. I found it and gave it to Amil to hold until we get back.”
Pim lets out a long sigh of relief and gives me a wan smile. “Thank you, Hooper. Silky?”
“Waiting with Scamper,” I answer, “just outside the cave. It was he who alerted us that you were missing, and he and Scamper led us to this place.”
“My hero,” Pim smiles.
“Enough chatter,” Phigby orders, “stay between Hooper and me. Do not leave the light and whatever you do, do not let the shades back into your mind for if you let them in a second time, I’m not sure we can bring you back. Understood?”
“Understood,” Pim whispers and Tavin answers by giving Phigby a sharp, quick nod.
“Let’s go then,” Phigby commands and strides away, the rest of us following close on his heels.
We’ve not gone far when the darkness comes at me again. I can feel it licking at my thoughts. Its touch is repugnant, disgusting—as though I were wallowing in days-old pig slop. I take a quick look at my companions and can see from their contorted expressions that they feel it too.
I take a few more steps, my anger building with each step as the shadows try to push their malignant thoughts into mine. Finally, I’ve had enough and whip Galondraig out of its scabbard with a hot, “No!”
“I’ve had enough!” I yell. “I and my companions do not belong to you nor do we belong in your filth. Begone, or I will destroy you!”
I thrust Galondraig high, my face and eyes hard as I turn in a slow circle. Then, Phigby is at my shoulder. “Hooper, a second time may well call to Vay and this is the last place we want to face her.”
“Perhaps, Phigby,” I return, “but look at Pim and Tavin. They’re struggling, they may not make it out of here. So, I either use Galondraig or you come up with something quick.”
Phigby glances at our wavering companions and sees what I see, their eyes shut tight, their jaws clenched, their faces contorted as if they endure great pain. They’re battling against the Shadow Flames but can they fight long enough, can they survive the wrenching, hateful notions that the shades push into their minds?
He turns to me, his face and voice grave. “Then if we are to save our companions, let us do it together. Call upon Galondraig and I will add what I can to its power.”
I draw my arm back and thrust my blade still higher, calling out, Vald Hatta Sasi Ein! Power to this One! Galondraig bursts into a brilliance that shreds the shadows with spears of light.
At the same time, Phigby holds his own hands aloft and cries out in a thundering voice,
Light to me, gleaming round
Night to day, know no bound
Keep at bay these shadow hounds
Let the light so utterly confound!
He brings his arms out full, then snaps his hands together in a loud clap while calling, Radius extremis! Lys to me!
His hands begin glowing brighter and brighter. Tiny sparkles seep through his fingers, like flowing sand, to dribble onto the floor. At first, it’s a small stream but it grows until it’s a shiny ribbon of light that pours onto the floor.
It makes a circle at his feet that widens until all of us stand in a glowing ring. But the light doesn’t stop there, it expands, pushing farther and farther outward.
Seeing my chance, I stride forward until I’m at the edge of the radiant disk. For some reason, this time I can clearly see the shadow beings that stand just at the edge of the light.
I bring Galondraig back and swing with all my might. My blade passes through a dozen or more shadows and I hear shrieks, screams of pain. The shadows turn and flee but I don’t stop. I dart around the glowing circle slashing at the things.
As I do, I growl, “How dare you use my family like that. How dare you portray them as anything but the loving, caring people they were, and how dare you turn them against me and me against them!”
My run becomes frenzied, my sword blows faster, harder as I chase after every shadow I can find until finally I hear a hissing voice, Begone, cruel sword master, leave our realm. You have our word we will not trouble you or your companions again.
I stop, breathing hard and snarl, “You best keep your oath, or my promise is that I will come back and destroy every one of you.”
At that, Phigby’s light seems to snap outward to flow across the stone floor, up the walls and across the enormous cavern’s ceiling chasing every shadow away.
I turn back to my companions to see Pim and Tavin standing with eyes open and relieved expressions across their faces.
“You two all right?” I ask.
“I think we are now,” Tavin replies. “But, I for one, am not ashamed to admit it was touch and go for a moment there.”
He breathes in deeply, lets it out, his face troubled as a frown builds. “I never realized I harbored such dark thoughts.”
Phigby lays a hand on his shoulder. “Most likely, none of you did to the extent that you think. The Shadow People can manipulate, magnify if you will, even one thought into many.
“Do not believe for a moment that you are the evil person that the shades would have you think. None of you are that person, and I doubt that you ever will be. Now, is everyone ready to leave this place?”
“I don’t know, Phigby,” Pim smiles and gestures outward at the brilliance. “This is now a lovely, amazing place.”
I know what she means. The light is soft and warm to the skin. In a way, it beckons too, but not in the malicious way of the darkness.
“Yes, well,” Phigby grumps, “it is now, but I assure you it will not last long and the shadows will be back to reclaim their domain.”
“If that’s the case,” Pim quips, “just show me the way out of here and try to keep up.”
Phigby smiles, turns, and strides away at a ground-eating pace. I slip Galondraig into its scabbard and hurry after them. It takes us far less time to get to the exit portal than it took finding our missing companions.
As we hurry up to the cave’s entrance, I see that it too now glows and just a step or two away, the rest of the company waits, peering into the cave with anxious faces.
We all but burst through the portal and into our comrades’ waiting arms. Pim scoops up Silky to nuzzle him while Amil stands to one side, holding out her lance for her to grasp.
A bundle of fur belts me in the chest and I knuckle Scamper’s head while he chitters at me. Awwwrrrrittte? he asks.
“I’m fine, Scamp, thanks for asking,” I reply.
There are hurried greetings and questions but Phigby holds up a hand to silence everyone. “Much as we are all delighted to have our companions back, the truth is, we must be away from here and swiftly.”
“Why?” Amil questions.
“In a word,” Phigby growls, “Vay.”
Amil stares at Phigby but for an instant more before he spins away toward Wind Glow, saying over his shoulder, “That’s a good enough word for me.”
The others hurry away to their dragons with Cara running alongside me. “What happened in there?” she asks.
“I had to use Galondraig,” I answer. “Twice.”
“Oh,” she replies as if my answer explains everything.
“I’ll tell you all about it later, promise.”
“And I’ll keep you to it,” she replies as she spurts toward Wind Song.
Scamper bounds ahead of me and flashes up Golden Wind’s leg to her skull sheath.
“Welc
ome back, Hooper,” the golden whispers as I clamber up her leg to her neck. “It is good to see our missing returned to us.”
“Agreed,” I answer as I slide into her neck saddle, “but we need to set a swift pace aloft. Vay may well be on her way.”
While I check to make sure the sprites are snugged tight on her back, the golden turns quickly and heads for a clearing where she can spread her wings. “You used the gemstones.”
“Had to,” I answer.
“To save our friends is always a good reason to use their power.”
“Yes, but like you always tell me, from one scalding cauldron into another.”
“Perhaps.”
I lean forward. “You know something? About Vay, I mean.”
“I know,” she retorts, “that we don’t want to be here when she arrives.”
With that, she spreads her wings, catches the breeze and we wing upward. As we rise higher, I ask, “Where to?”
“Where would you like to go?”
“Anywhere that Vay isn’t.”
“That narrows it down a bit, but it’s still a big world, you know.”
With a sigh, I reply, “The ode did say we were to find her portal, but first we had to find those —”
“Who with fire do meld, with hammer, chisel in hand is held, armor strong, armor bright, dragon-scale strong with glow of light.”
“Right, those are the ones and also this Whisperer—whatever, or whoever that is.”
“In that case,” she answers, and lifts one wing so that we turn eastward. I glance back to make sure the rest of the company follows as Golden Wind does set a swift pace.
Soon, we’re in a ragged bunch soaring under the stars’ and the moons’ light. One glance upward tells me that Osa’s, Nadia’s, and Eskar’s light is but a grain of sand compared to Vay’s. A grim reminder that the battle continues and if we can believe the moons’ dimming, one in which Vay is winning and we’re losing even though we’ve managed to defeat her several times.
We sail on and I can’t help but let my thoughts drift back to what happened in the cavern. The golden breaks into my thoughts by asking, “You seem uneasy, Hooper. I take it your experience with the Shadow Flames was a bit unsettling.”
“Yes . . . and no.”
“A good, solid answer, no ambiguity there.”
With some reluctance, I tell her about my experience. All of it, leaving nothing out. “I know, I really know that my family would never, ever do something like that to me, yet . . .”
“You wonder how you could harbor such an idea that the shades could turn it against you?”
“Well, yes. I’ve always thought I loved my family and that my mother showed me her love by saving me. How could I ever think ill of them?”
“You weren’t thinking ill of them, Hooper. You were thinking ill of yourself.”
I consider her comment for a long moment. “My guilt, again. I lived, and they didn’t.”
“Yes. Guilt has its place in our lives but not undeserved guilt. Too often, if we dwell on such, it becomes not only our rationale for committing wrong deeds, we think there is no hope for us so why should we try to be better than we are.”
I nod slowly at her answer. “That’s exactly how I felt. I convinced myself that I had no value, no worth because of what I had done, or rather, supposedly had done.”
“Hooper, none of us must ever shirk the consequences of our actions, but never can we assume that we are less than who we can be. In a way, the shades were tempting you, as it were, by saying that, if you had been brave, if you had been courageous, if you had been a good person, you wouldn’t have let your family die.”
Golden Wind pauses for several wingbeats. “Hooper, if is a small word but it is powerful in its own way. If can sow the seeds of doubt about ourselves, our self-worth, our self-esteem, and when that happens, we believe that all is lost, and that hopelessness and futility are our lot in life. Then we are at the mercy of the Shadow Flames.”
“Yes,” I whisper, more to myself than to her. “If is a very powerful word—to that I can attest.”
“But now that you know, Hooper, you are more powerful than it—if you so choose.”
I have no answer for her, so I sit back to feel the cool wind wash over my face, letting its freshness seemingly blow away my dark thoughts of before. It’s a bit later before I lean forward and ask, “Golden Wind, what did the three sisters mean when they said that our journey was coming to an end?”
Golden Wind does not answer immediately but when she does, it raises my eyebrows a bit. “Do not all journeys come to an end at some point, Hooper? A better question would be what is it that we will find at journey s end?”
“Well?”
“That I cannot answer, Hooper.”
“Cannot or will not?”
“Cannot. As Vay’s power grows, I’m afraid that my ability to see what lies ahead grows dimmer to the point that I shall become like Alonya. Ever since we left the Wailing Swamp, her Queen Sight has grown less and less, though she is loath to admit that it is so.”
I nod to myself. That partially answers a question I had about Alonya. “But there are times when it seems that her Sight works but she won’t reveal what she sees.”
After a little hesitation, I say in a small voice, “I think she sees something about me—something that is really bad.”
“Or,” Golden Wind points out, “it could be about another member of the company or perhaps about the whole company.”
“Yes, it could be, but the way she looks at me I think that whatever it is, it’s about me.”
“Hooper, just being the Gem Guardian doesn’t make everything all about you, you know.”
“That’s not what I meant. You know that I feel that every single one of us in the company is as important as anyone else.”
“I do know that. It’s just that I don’t want you to assume the worst when it may not be the case at all. Hooper, you have to keep a clear head about yourself and not dwell on thoughts that would distract you, or us, from doing what must be done—now, and in the future.”
“Keep a clear head,” I snort. “Easier said than done when you have Vay, her demon, her minions, and most of Erdron after you.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that most of Erdron is after us—it’s more like half.”
“All right, let’s call it your way, just half. That’s still a lot to have to worry about.”
“Or, maybe it’s a bit less than half, more like—”
“I get it. Why don’t we just say it’s a whole bunch of Drachs, dragons, demons, and other dastardly creatures after us.”
“Yes, I suppose that a ‘whole bunch’ would sum it up nicely.”
Wingbeats off to my right cause me to turn in that direction. “We should give the dragons and ourselves a rest,” Phigby calls and points ahead to a narrow clearing in the forest.
Just beyond, I can see sharp mountain peaks poking up into the skyline. If we need to sky over those mountains then, yes, a rest for the dragons is a good idea. After a quick wave to Phigby, I say, “Golden Wind, let’s set down in that glade just ahead and give everyone a breather.”
In answer, she tips her wings a bit and begins a long glide toward the meadow, which is bathed in moonlight and looks like a giant, glowing footprint set in the middle of the forest darkness. Moments later, Golden Wind beats her wings to slow us and we gently settle to the ground.
As the golden plods toward the tree line, I watch over my shoulder as the company brings their dragons to a landing. I halt the golden at the first line of trees and frown. As Wind Song and Bold Wind saunter up, I motion toward the forest. “These trees are packed pretty tight. If we try to force our way in there, it’s going to be pretty noisy.”
“How about we have Regal Wind plow us a road?” Cara questions.
Phigby shakes his head in answer. “Let’s have the dragons sleep up against the trees. It will spread us out, but we won’t sound like a horde of woodcutters either
.”
It’s not long before we have the dragons, head to tail, stretched out in a line and hunkered against the trees. As they drift off to sleep, the rest of us settle next to our dragons with Marce and Helmar on guard duty.
One glance at where the King and Queen stars begin to touch the horizon tells me that our night’s sleep will be short as dawn is not that far off. With my head propped on an elbow, my back to Golden Wind, and Scamper tucked against my stomach, I drift off into a restless sleep where I seem to be fighting the Shadow Flames all over again.
I couldn’t have slept for more than a few moments when abruptly Golden Wind springs to her feet spilling me off to one side. Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I push myself upright. “What’s wrong?!”
“Listen, do you not hear it?”
I still my breathing, close my eyes, put all my focus on listening. After a few moments, I raise my head, “Yes, there is something, but I can’t quite make it out.”
“A battle, Hooper. I can hear shouts, the sound of bows, and . . .” her voice trails off as she raises her head higher, peers off in the distance.
“And . . . what?” I ask.
“Get everyone up, Hooper, we must go quickly.”
“Go? Go where?”
“To help, of course.”
“Help? Help who?”
“No time for questions, Hooper, hurry!”
I dash away to wake the camp, only I can’t help wondering who are we helping, and most importantly, if we’re about to get in the middle of a battle, who are we going to be fighting?
CHAPTER SEVEN
Golden Wind’s insistent urging for me to wake the camp is wasted as I no sooner rush forward than all the dragons spring to their feet, their heads up and their eyes staring at some distant point. Their low growling wakens my comrades and a moment later, Cara is at my side. “What’s wrong, Hoop?”
“I’m not sure,” I answer, my voice low. “Golden Wind says there’s a battle going on and we need to go help.”
“Help who?”
“My question exactly.” Just then, my eyes catch Snag standing near Wind Strider, his eyes, like his sapphire’s, staring off into the distance.