by Billy Wong
"Please don't kill me," he blubbered.
Some son of the greatest warriors in the kingdom! Oswald hadn't really done anything, and already he begged for his life. He dragged the boy upright and put a blade to his back. The little coward froze, resistance probably the furthest thing from his mind. "Don't worry, I won't kill you yet. Now take me to your sister."
"B-but..."
"Do it now!" Oswald spat. It amused him how quickly his hostage obeyed, leading him to the tower without delay.
The boy—Jacob, he was called—identified Oswald as a friend to the clerk who greeted him and brought him straight to his sister's room. As he pushed Jacob in before him, Oswald greeted the wounded girl lying in her bed with a smile. "Remember me, defiant one?"
"Leave Amber alone," Jacob pleaded as Oswald shoved him to her side and pointed his sword in their direction.
"Amber, hmm?" He smirked. "Looks like you won't escape death this time. But first, where's my sword?"
She met his eyes fearlessly. "If you're going to kill me anyway, why would I tell you anything?"
"I can make it quick... or not so quick." Amber reached for the sword at her bedside, and he said, "That'll do you no good. I bet you're too weak to even lift it."
To his surprise she did manage to pick up her heavy sword—not the one he was looking for—and even raised it in a semblance of defense as she sat up. "I'll hardly die to the likes of you."
"You are impressive. Maybe I will let you live, if you give my sword back."
Amber's resolute expression told him she wasn't falling for it, but Jacob stammered, "O-our parents took it to look for you, and ask where it's from."
"It's from the Flying Vipers' lair, of course. And now that I know where it is, I have no use for either of you."
"Wait!" Jacob cried. Oswald didn't listen, slashing hard at Amber as her brother backed away to the side. What a useless coward! He'd deal with that one after the girl was finished.
"Jacob, help!" Amber screamed while she desperately fended off blows from her awkward position. In bed, she could hardly dodge, only block and parry his attacks, and Oswald knew it only a matter of time before he put her down for good. A heavy impact crashed into his left arm, and he stumbled off balance. What? The coward had done something for once? He hardly had time to think about it before his canny opponent took full advantage of the opening, her point finding his groin. "That's payback!" she beamed, but he barely heard while bright pain spread from between his legs to engulf him. He fell backwards, his skull bouncing off the floor, and a great heaviness filled his head as consciousness faded.
#
Jacob stared at the bleeding corpse at his feet and said softly, "Wow, Amber, you did it. You killed him."
"He's dead? That fast?" she whispered, turning white.
Though he was probably even more scared and pale, Jacob hadn't expected his tough sister to be so shaken by her enemy's death. "What's wrong? I thought you'd be happy to have him dead."
"I don't know, but maybe it's because I never killed anybody in our own home before. It just feels weird, and somehow wrong."
He felt more relieved than wrong at the moment. "Why? He tried to kill us and now he's dead. Serves him right, what difference does it make where it happened?"
"I guess you're right. It's just that I'll feel queasy still having to live here after his body's removed, but..." She smiled gratefully. "Thanks for saving me, Corn Cob. But you broke our statue of Mom. Wonder if she's going to be mad."
Glancing at the split clay bust, Jacob gave a shaky laugh. "Oh well, I made that one anyway. Being glued back together won't hurt its appearance that much."
"So he did tell us where he got the sword, right? I kind of forgot in the excitement."
"He said he got it from the lair of the Flying Vipers, and I don't think he was lying. So apparently, he had no idea where it came from originally either."
#
By the time Rose and Finn got back from their fruitless search of the thieves' cave—well, they did find some riches Oswald had been unable to carry—Oswald's remains had been disposed of, and their resilient children mostly recovered from the stress of the encounter. After hearing their account of it, Rose patted Jacob's shoulder. "I'm glad you managed to save the day this time. Looks like you're becoming a man!"
He smiled, but reminded her, "I did something in the last fight with him too. It just didn't go so well."
"Still good to know you stuck by your sister this time instead of, say, trying to sneak out past the guy trying to kill her."
Blushing, he joked, "Well, she wasn't gushing blood this time."
"So what are we going to do about the sword?" Amber asked. "The guy we got it from didn't even know where it was made."
Finn touched his chin. "A weapon like this probably wouldn't be unknown among the legends of the people whose ancestors made it. Rose, do you remember stories of such a blade from anyplace we've traveled?"
"Too many. Tales of beautiful magic swords are a dime a dozen, and far too few near reliable sources of fact."
"Still, recall any specific mention of a gold hilt, blue, red, and purple gems, and a straight blade all in one sword?"
Rose sighed. "I can't remember every little detail I hear in every tale. Give an old woman a break, will you?"
Finn hugged her wide shoulders and said huskily, "You're no old woman. You haven't aged a day since we fought Deathend."
"Now that's a big exaggeration." It'd been almost a decade and a half, after all.
"Hard to tell which lines are scars and which are age anyway. But just try to remember, you know I'm not one for all those details."
Rose closed her eyes and tried to think, quipping as she did, "You'd think after all the hard hits to the head I've taken, you would have a better memory than poor me."
Both her children laughed, making her wince inwardly. Like most, they regarded her nigh invincible, a human fortress who took everything in stride and just kept going undaunted by wounds which would've killed a normal person numerous times over. She didn't want her kids to think being hurt was something to take lightly. Against her wishes, her courageous daughter especially seemed to be getting that idea.
No matter what she said, her children must see the way she moved with more grace than most people who'd never been seriously injured, and probably assumed any nagging hurts of hers to be insignificant, minor aches. No way! Her maimed body tortured her daily, though she rarely showed it—she could take pain very well indeed. She sometimes wondered if she should pretend her injuries hampered her more, so as to teach her kids the lesson of what accumulated damage could do to a person. But that would worry them too much, and also make her look weaker than she'd be comfortable with. Though she tried to deny it at times, she had fair pride in her strength, and would be reluctant to damage it by acting weak.
"Remember anything yet?" Finn asked.
She hadn't even been thinking about the sword. "I'm trying, I'm trying," she said, and this time did try. But she couldn't recall anything for certain about a sword like the one they held, and admitted at last, "No. Sorry."
"It's okay. I'm sure there's a book or twelve about ancient weapons somewhere in our library."
Fifteen books about legendary magic weapons later, Rose, Jacob, and Amber sat frustrated in their chairs, having found no mention of a blade whose description matched. "Maybe it's because most famous weapons are so for providing benefits in battle," Rose suggested, "and this one is mainly for use as a key?"
"Probably," Jacob said, "but recognizing that doesn't bring us any closer to knowing out where it came from."
Apparently paying little attention to their discussion, Finn commented, "This is a really interesting book from the latter days of the Old World. It talks all about the monster army that threatened to overtake the world at that time, and the last mages who fought to save humanity from destruction."
Though it had little to do with the task at hand, the mention of the end of the Old
World rang bells in Rose's mind. A now-defunct prophecy had foretold her children would bring back the being that destroyed the civilization of the ancients to again wreak havoc on the world, but when it was reborn she'd stopped it. Yet her interest in what'd happened in those last days of the Old World lingered. "Where did you find that book?" she asked. "I've never noticed one like what you're talking about."
"You couldn't have looked carefully through all these books. There's thousands of them, and you're pretty busy. You probably overlooked this one because it's got nothing on the cover."
"Let me see it, then."
He handed it over and she began to read about the great war that ruined the past civilization for all time. A frightening tale, if one Rose was already somewhat familiar with. In order to enhance his own potent abilities, a human mage of immense power had forsaken his original body for the powerful form of a demon. The "demon lord" as he came to be known then gathered an enormous army of monsters which swept across every continent, smashing nation after nation into so much rubble. Most of humanity had been enslaved, and the vast bulk of its magic-users slain to keep them from ever threatening the demon's rule.
The version of the tale recounted in this book, unfinished unlike most modern accounts, ended with a group of mages' resolution to create a weapon that would finally defeat the demon lord and free the world from its grasp. Included in the text was a picture of a structure. It looked to her like the Spire of Pental, the second tallest man-made construct in the land after the Tower of Verveem until the latter sank beneath the earth and it became the first. It'd been long thought to be a solid object with no purpose beyond being impressive, but maybe that could be wrong. And what was more, these mages had collectively been called the "Guardians of Salvation."
"I think it's possible the mages spoken of did their work inside the Spire of Pental," Rose said, "and our sword grants access to it. I mean, it's not a hundred percent, but the shared 'Salvation' in their names might not be coincidental."
"Why didn't I see that connection?" Finn grumbled.
Amber grinned. "Don't feel bad, Dad. At least you did find the book itself."
"Yeah, got lucky there, again."
"So when are we going to go?"
Rose gave her a questioning look. "Are you sure you want to travel all the way to Spire, when it could be a dead end?"
"Yeah, it'll be fun! Right, Jacob? It'd be great to go adventuring with Mom and Dad, as a family."
Her brother seemed less reluctant than Rose might've expected, perhaps because their parents' presence would make him feel secure. "Sure, I'm up for it."
Finn shook his head. "Sorry kids, but I won't be going."
"Why not?" Amber asked. "Even if we don't find anything, you can still have a good time with us, no?"
"It's not that. Somebody should stay here and run the center. I'd come and protect your mom if it was anything really dangerous, but some old ruin shouldn't be too bad. You'll be fine."
Rose nodded. Ever since the center opened, Finn had spent a lot less time accompanying her on adventures. Though she often missed his company, she understood his sense of responsibility—after all, he had been the first new mage in modern times. Besides, she could still rely on him when his help was really needed. "Yeah, your father's right he should stay here and work, but don't worry. Mom can handle herself just fine."
Jacob looked more uncertain now, but didn't try to back out. Meanwhile, Amber laughed. "Of course you can. You're more of a legend than Dad is, 'Iron Flower!' So are we going now?"
"I was thinking of that, actually. But you're wounded, so we'll wait until you've fully recovered."
Her daughter's response didn't surprise her, so reminiscent of her own when an opportunity to do something important presented itself while she was injured. "I'm ready to go now. I can get out of bed, so some light travel shouldn't be a problem, and I'll be even more healed by the time we get there."
Rose wasn't thrilled at the thought of Amber going into possible danger again so soon, but she'd at least feel better being at her side to help guard her. "Considering you seem to have inherited my constitution, I suppose I shouldn't compel you not to do something I've done many times before. So if you're sure..."
"I am. Like you said, I'm your daughter after all."
She nodded despite her worries and turned to Jacob. He was naturally quiet, but she still wondered how much unease his silence during the conversation hid. " You want to come too? You don't have to, you know."
"But I do want to." Yet she detected little enthusiasm in his voice. Maybe he only desired to prove something, and while bringing him along might be of questionable wisdom in that case, a bonding experience like this could help him in unexpected ways.
"Of course Corn Cob should come," Amber said. "Exploring unfamiliar places will help build his courage, isn't that right?"
Rose spotted him giving his sis a dirty look and chuckled. "That's a point too." Despite Amber's insistence that Jacob could grow into it, Rose wasn't sure her son was cut out to follow in his adventuring parents' footsteps and often pondered if he would be better off finding something else to do. But despite his outward aversion to danger, he accompanied his sister into it out of concern for her safety, and Rose wouldn't stop him from choosing for himself what he wanted to do. It wasn't so much different from how Finn used to tag along with her out of love, except he had been much more naturally intrepid than Jacob and not her sibling.
Rose and children got mounts from the stable. Before they could leave, a man she recognized as a local mortician ran up to them. "Wait! Before you leave, I should warn you, that bandit whose body you gave us isn't dead."
Jacob's jaw dropped. "What?"
"You told us he was dead and we trusted you, so we didn't check. But once we turned our backs, his 'corpse' disappeared!"
"I stabbed him in the groin," Amber said. "Maybe he just fainted from the pain."
Jacob shook his head. "What are we going to do? No doubt he'll come after us again after you probably unmanned him."
Rose's chest felt tight to imagine such a vengeful foe of her children lurked out there, but there was nothing to do about it now. "We'll handle him when we need to. You saw him off twice already, remember? As your father would say, I guess you have your first recurring enemy now."
The reference to popular hero fiction made Amber laugh, and even Jacob smiled weakly. They rode towards southern Kayland, enduring the heavy rains that plagued their journey in stride. Along the way, an irrational fear crept into Rose's heart. It felt too ironic that Amber's inadvertent discovery would involve the Guardians of Salvation, who had sworn to defy the doom of the Old World. The seer Evan's prophecy had said her kids would bring that doom back when grown, but she'd already destroyed the demon lord's new incarnation and proven it wrong, hadn't she? Her children must have just inherited her and Finn's strange fortune, that was all.
They came into view of the towering Spire of Pental, a slightly tapering white column over four hundred feet tall and wider around than some forts. Jacob and Amber gaped in wonder. "So how do we get inside?" Amber asked. "I don't see any entrance."
"Me neither. Let's walk around and see what we can find." They took a stroll around the base, Rose tapping the sword against it periodically to see if there would be any reaction, but it appeared completely smooth and there was no effect.
As they walked, Jacob wondered, "How the hell did they manage to get it so high?"
"Magic, I guess. Like how we can strengthen little things now with our weak spells, only back then they must have been able to keep whole giant buildings like this strong enough to stay standing." She paused. "Or maybe their lost skills were enough to build it without magic, and they just used it to make it last unblemished this long."
They made their way back around to the front of the spire where they'd started. Amber kicked it. "There's no entrance. How are we going to get in there, if it's even possible? Are we going to give up?"
Rose s
miled. "Not yet. The ancients tended to like putting things underground. Let's look around and see if we can find anything." She took her children on a tour of the surrounding wilderness, Amber quickly looking bored while Jacob took in the lush wooded hills with satisfaction. Eventually Rose found a stream which ran out of a cave facing away from the spire and got a good feeling. It reminded her of the tunnel complex beneath Verveem, which had been connected to the surface by a partially underground river. "Let's try going there. With luck we might end up under the spire."
Looking nervously at the current, Jacob asked, "You expect us to swim up that?"
She laughed. "Me and Finn did a bigger rushing river, no problem. You kids don't think you're up for it?"
Her brave daughter answered eagerly, "I'm game. It'll be a good way to test those healing abdominal muscles of mine after being sliced up by that sword."
Jacob stared at her, then shrugged. "If you think my injured sister can handle it, Mom, I suppose I can too. I hope."
Rose felt a bit worried for her children, who youth aside were both smaller and weaker than her, but said, "Try it. I'll rescue you if you can't."
Amber dove in, and after a short struggle got used to the current and smiled as if for Jacob's benefit. Encouraged, her brother joined her, only to shortly lose his battle against the water and begin being swept away. With a sigh, Rose jumped in, grabbed him and dragged him along. "You think you can take it if we pull you after us?" This would be risky if one of them got hurt and could not longer swim, but the trip back should be much easier since it'd be downstream and all.
Fighting to keep his head above water, Jacob said, "Yeah, that ought to be fine. Damn, I feel so weak!"
"You're not that weak," Amber argued as she took his other arm, "you almost beat me armwrestling. Are you being lazy here or what?"
Rose wasn't sure herself whether he was physically incapable, or just mentally unable to keep calm amid the rapids. Either way, she and Amber led the way up the portion of the stream hidden below the earth with him in tow. Eventually they made it to an underground shore and dragged themselves onto dark ground. A tunnel entrance stood out from the wall twenty feet ahead. "Am I getting old?" Rose mused. "I actually feel kind of tired from that little bit, and the river me and Finn swam near Verveem was much faster!"