by Logan Jacobs
“Would you not be a loyal wife? And are you not the most powerful female sorcerer in the West?” he continued.
“Well, for one thing, I cannot bear you children,” Vera said as she glanced down at her stomach, where I knew that particular rune she had pointed out to me was located under the green silk.
“Pah! Savajun magic,” Gorander scoffed. “The crude scribblings devised by a system as primitive as that should not be any significant obstacle for sorcerers of our caliber to undo, my dear.”
“Crude scribblings?” Vera asked softly. I watched her black eyes narrow and felt a jolt of eager, somewhat sadistic anticipation as I waited to see the outcome of their exchange. Now, Vera had rebelled against her tribe and the outcast role that they had assigned her as their First Sorcerer. She had almost entirely left Savajun ways of living behind her. Often, the remarks that she made about them made me think that she herself hated Savajuns with a passion. But, as I had also learned, for a white person to make a disparaging remark about the Savajun race in her presence was a mistake. A very serious mistake.
“You are, of course, breathtakingly beautiful nonetheless, my dear,” Gorander said hastily. He seemed to recognize the quiet menace of her response, even if he mistook the cause. “With or without those marks. Although I’m sure that, if you like, it would be possible to figure out some sort of spell to remove them from your skin.”
I chuckled. Both sorcerers looked at me. In that moment I wasn’t remotely concerned about their wrath, simply because I knew I wasn’t going to be the target of the most imminent attack.
“So, you’re telling me to either kill him, or marry you?” Vera asked Gorander coldly. There wasn’t any trace of the pleading, adoring, seductive tones she had layered on just a few minutes ago.
“I’m telling you to prove the loyalty that you proclaim,” Gorander answered with equal sternness. “In whatever way you see fit.”
“Didn’t mean to break up this happy relationship,” I remarked cheerfully. “Sorry about that, it’s kind of a bad habit of mine.”
Theo snorted. The two sorcerers, again, pointedly ignored me. But of course they weren’t really ignoring me. They were just pretending to. I could practically feel the hatred towards me radiating from Gorander. I was, in a sense, or could have been anyway, everything that he aspired to be, and I had thrown it all away like it meant nothing. Not to mention that I still seemed to have some kind of hold over the woman that he coveted. Not that it had ever stopped her from trying to murder me in the past, and I didn’t know whether it would discourage her now.
Vera was an extremely talented sorceress, partly due to her genetic gifts, partly due to her cunning, and partly due to her sheer ruthlessness. I’d survived a scuffle or two with her before. But she claimed to have grown even more powerful since the last time I’d seen her, which made sense given that she was constantly pushing the boundaries of her abilities, and that appeared to be true based on what I could observe of her handiwork with Gorander’s magnificent, half-illusory, nightmarish palace. If Vera attacked me now, and moreover if Gorander teamed up with her to destroy me, then my chances of survival were a lot slimmer than I would have liked to admit. So, the smart thing for me to do would be to act preemptively. In this moment of her hesitation, as she weighed her options, my wisest move would be to slice her head off with my sword when she wasn’t expecting it. Then, I could concentrate my focus on fighting Gorander, I would only be facing one foe instead of two.
But her hesitation made me hesitate. Part of it was not really wanting to kill her, sure… but part of it was also pure curiosity to see what her next move would be. If I chopped her head off first, then I would never know.
Both Gorander and I watched her with fascination. She stood there as resplendent and proud as a queen, with that green silk clinging to every curve of her strong and graceful body, and her raven black hair cascading down her back. Her chiseled, golden brown features were not of the Old World race, and they were not Savajun either. She didn’t look like anyone except herself. And her dark eyes in that moment may not quite have been a demon’s… but they weren’t quite human either.
“I don’t think this palace is big enough for the both of us,” Vera pronounced finally.
In the instant while Gorander and I were both still processing what she had just said to him, she drew her arm back and whipped it forward as if to pitch an invisible ball. In midair, the invisible ball morphed into a huge fireball identical to the one Gorander had thrown at me, before Vera extinguished it. I wondered, in fact, if she had in some abstruse way that a non-sorcerer wouldn’t understand, managed to conserve the energy from that same fireball, and was now redeploying it against its original maker.
Gorander let out a roar of pure fury, a sound more raw than I would have imagined him capable of making. The little woven platform of branches and leaves that the hedge had extended to support its master immediately retracted back into the standard rectangular outline of the rest of the maze. As he dropped, Gorander’s gold and purple robes billowed out around him. The fireball sailed over his head and missed it by what looked like inches. It winked out pretty soon after it passed him by. I didn’t know the exact details of how this particular spell worked, but I guessed that Vera was either reabsorbing the energy back into herself when she terminated the fireball, or that sustaining the fireball required additional energy beyond just creating it in the first place, so she ceased the effort as soon as she saw that it had missed its target.
Then Gorander made the same gesture that Vera had, and an even larger fireball sailed back her way.
I guessed that was his way of retracting his proposal of marriage.
Vera didn’t move right away, which I suspected was probably due to pure shock. With her arrogance, she probably believed that Gorander would never be able to harm her regardless of what she had done to him. But she should have considered the fact that a personality like Gorander’s could never love anyone as much as he loved himself.
Before I knew what my body was doing, I dove at her and tackled her out of the fireball’s path right before she would have been swallowed by the flames. I heard the quiet whoosh and felt the searing heat wash over me as it passed by.
Vera’s body was pinned under mine. I couldn’t deny relishing that long-lost, and yet familiar, sensation for a moment. But then I pushed myself up, grabbed her arm, and dragged her with me.
I glanced over and saw that the fireball that had just missed us hadn’t vanished afterwards the way Vera’s had. Instead, it had crashed directly into the nearest wall of the maze, and set the greenery ablaze.
“Come on!” I yelled at Vera. “Break the looping curse so we can get out of here.” I looked over to Theo and saw that he had trotted over several yards to put more distance between himself and the burning wall of the maze and looked just as eager as I felt to leave. If I had been a sorcerer too, or if my magical ability had been fireball throwing instead of size manipulation, then maybe it would have been a different story. But neither was the case, and I wasn’t the kind of valiantly posturing clod to stand there and wave my sword futilely at Gorander until I burned to death. I was more the kind of guy to run away unashamedly… and then circle back later, when my enemy thought he was safe, and demonstrate to in a very bloody fashion just how terribly mistaken he had been.
Vera, however, was a sorceress, and she didn’t seem willing to accept the idea that she was any lesser of one than her teacher and master. She also seemed too angry about the fact that he had just attacked her, regardless of the fact that it had been in direct retaliation for her own attack, to have any room left over for fear.
“Let go of me, Hal,” she growled. “This is between me and Gorander. And I’m not leaving till it’s finished.”
“Don’t be a damn fool,” Theo yelled over at us. “I’ll carry you both out, if you fix this maze.”
Vera ignored him. She stood tall, a defiant silhouette against the inferno that blazed at her back, wh
ich looked rather tame in comparison to the fire in her brown eyes, and raised her hands to cast another missile at the sorcerer standing atop the opposite hedge. In that moment, I loved her. I also hated her. I knew I couldn’t make her do anything she didn’t want to. And I also knew I couldn’t leave the maze without her. Even if I could have undone the curse that trapped us inside, that is, which of course I couldn’t.
Gorander raised his hands in response. At first nothing happened, and it looked like Vera’s fireball was about to consume him. But then, a few feet away from his body, it seemed to strike an invisible wall which caused it to sort of flatten and flare outward, and then it regained its roughly globular shape and bounced back toward Vera. And me, since I was standing right next to her.
I grabbed Vera and pulled her out of the way again, and the nearest flame just barely caught the edge of her robe where the hem trailed slightly on the ground.
“… Thank you,” Vera said after I stomped out the flames.
I felt a light shove between the shoulder blades, not from a hand but from a velvety muzzle.
“Don’t you think it’s quite past time to take our leave?” Theo inquired anxiously.
Then I turned to see Gorander descending from his perch on the hedge. He wasn’t climbing, he was just floating down through the air until his feet landed on the ground. He was an unfortunate-looking fellow, but the expression on his face was even uglier.
“Die, faithless bitch!” he screamed as he raised his hand.
Vera let out a little gasp. Then the world went sort of soft, hazy, and pearlescent. It was like I was viewing it through some kind of veil.
Then, I realized that the strange layer between me and the rest of the world was, in fact, a bubble that encompassed all three of us, man, woman, and horse. I realized this due to the torrent of brilliant, roaring fire that rushed overhead and swirled around us on all sides, but in the shape of a dome so that it did not touch us, as if something were holding it at bay. A sorcerous shield, courtesy of Vera.
Staring at the underbelly of the fire was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. It was a dazzling display of the most brilliant reds and oranges, the most rapid and unpredictable movement patterns, and it enabled me to imagine quite vividly what it would have been like to burn to death. Not pleasant, I decided. Although probably perversely beautiful to view from a safe distance.
“Is this what hell looks like?” I wondered aloud. “I don’t like it one bit, but it sure is real pretty.”
After about a sustained thirty seconds of total encompassment by fire, Vera let out a little whimper, and I saw that her jaw was clenched and her skin was dewy with sweat, despite the fact that her shield blocked out the heat of the surrounding flames.
“Don’t you give in, girl,” I said. “He can’t keep it up forever, either. And I know you ain’t gonna let him win.”
The fact that Vera didn’t even spare the breath for a sharp retort worried me more, because it meant she must have been using every ounce of her energy and then some to sustain the shield against Gorander’s fiery onslaught.
Theo didn’t speak either, but he nuzzled my ear, a gesture which usually would have been quite endearing, but in this case I suspected that he might be saying an uncharacteristically nonverbal goodbye, which caused a sinking feeling in my stomach.
I rubbed his shoulder in return and had a few flashbacks of all the stupid adventures we had been on.
I hoped there would be more to come.
Then, patches of daylight began to break through at the top of the dome. Little handfuls of precious blue sky. Eventually, the sky overtook the entire roof of our prison. But the fire continued to rage on all sides, and I realized what that meant. It was self-sustaining now. It wasn’t just a weapon that Gorander was throwing at us anymore, that could be dodged. It had probably ignited all the surrounding hedges by now. The maze was burning.
“I can’t do this anymore,” Vera gasped. Her black hair was drenched, and she was trembling all over. “I’m sorry-- I’m so sorry--”
For which offense exactly, I wanted to ask. But I guessed I could bite my tongue just this once. I used one arm to gather her into an embrace against my chest and rested my chin on the top of her head. I looped the other arm around Theo’s neck, and he laid his huge muzzle atop my head.
Then, the shield sort of pulsed. I thought at first that it was about to collapse, that that was Vera’s ferocious will to survive finally giving way, and we were all about to be reduced to a heap of ashes. But instead, it just took on a different texture. It seemed less pearlescent and somehow denser.
I looked over at Vera, to find her staring up at the subtly new dome in bewilderment.
“It’s him,” she whispered. “He took it over.”
I didn’t know how to feel about that. Not getting immediately burned to death was a nice surprise, to be sure, but somehow I didn’t think Gorander had had a sudden change of heart and decided to take mercy on the woman who had just revolted against him, as she always, eventually, revolted against everything.
Then, the bubble started moving. Not getting any bigger and not getting any smaller, but just sort of sliding along the ground, so that instead of standing in the middle of it, we were standing progressively closer to the edge, without having taken a single step.
Out of curiosity, I placed a hand against the shield, and found that it felt as solid as glass. Out of an even more reckless kind of curiosity whether my ability also applied to objects that were made of magic alone, I attempted to expand the dome.
It didn’t expand an inch, but I connected with the shield in a way that I shouldn’t have been able to. It was like tapping into the magical current of it for a moment. The texture started to feel more similar to ice than glass and sent a chill through me, and it had a kind of indescribable wrongness to it that made it recognizable as an alien material that didn’t belong on earth. At the same time, I heard a faint, shrill, buzzing chorus in my ears that resonated with malice. I hadn’t been sensitive to this… aura, I guess, of the barrier, until I attempted to use magic on it. I had a sharp sense of vertigo and stumbled back a step which caused my hand to lose contact with the shield, and then my mind quickly cleared. I realized my heart was beating at twice the usual rate and I was panting as if with exertion.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Vera said when she noticed what I was doing. I guess she could talk again now that she was no longer the one controlling the shield.
“Thanks for the warning,” I said dryly.
“You’re welcome.”
“So, you’re on my side now?” I asked her skeptically.
“For the time being,” Vera agreed nonchalantly. She cast me a smile. She was clearly exhausted, but the fact that we had just peered over the brink of destruction together hadn’t robbed her of her cockiness.
“Well, thanks for not trying to spoon any bullshit about undying faithfulness and servitude into my mouth,” I snorted.
“If I ever do that, it probably means I’m plotting your imminent death,” Vera informed me.
“But if you threaten to execute me for refusing to obey your wishes, then it means you actually intend to save my life at the risk of your own?” I asked.
“It could mean that,” Vera conceded with a mischievous glitter in her cat-like dark eyes. “It could also mean that I’m going to execute you if you don’t obey me.”
The three of us started walking, because the shield was pushing us along through the maze.
“Where is he taking us?” I asked.
“I don’t know-- but, out of the flames,” Vera pointed out. That was a pretty good reason to accept the bubble’s guidance, for now. “He probably didn’t want us to die instantly. He probably wants to torture us first.” Her tone was as matter-of-fact as if she were remarking on the weather.
“He’s a sadist?” I asked as we turned down another corridor of the maze. The two hedges that comprised it were only partially alight, so I guess
the fire hadn’t spread throughout the entire maze yet.
“Not exactly, but he’s very proud, and my taking your side over his will have offended his pride greatly,” Vera replied.
“Well, that was a pretty foolish thing for you to do then, wasn’t it?” I asked with a smirk.
“It was a calculated move, actually,” she answered. “I always knew I’d need to overthrow Gorander at some point. He was too possessive over me, idealized me too much, and yet at the same time was always convinced of his own intellectual superiority to me. But he’s also a stronger sorcerer than I am. So when you showed up, and I realized that a situation of two against one could be arranged, I knew that would improve my odds.”
“How romantic,” Theo commented sarcastically.
“I just hope your calculated ploy pays off,” I said. Our odds didn’t exactly look spectacular at the time. But as long as there was still a breath in my body, Gorander still had reason to fear.
Now we had passed out of the burning section of the maze and were turning another corner, one that I didn’t recognize. Gorander must have lifted the looping curse to allow us to move to another location.
I felt my neck prickle and turned around to see the sorcerer striding into sight from out of the flaming hedges behind us. His scepter was extended straight out before him, pointed at our bubble. His gaudy robes were singed at the edges, and his expression was grim.
After another turn or two, I realized that he was guiding us back to the palace. Not to the same door from which we had exited, but an inconspicuous side door set in an alcove that was painted blue.
“What part of the palace does that lead to?” I asked Vera.
“Any part,” she answered grimly.