Legend of Ecta Mastrino Box Set

by B J Hanlon

  It was cold and smelled damp. The air made his leg and broken wrist ache.

  “We’re at the bottom?” Edin said.

  She looked up, almost startled. There was a drained look in her face. Then it relaxed. “Yes,” she said. Arianne had set the torch into the dirt floor and was sitting next to it like a campfire.

  Edin crawled over. She made to move to help him but he waved a hand. He wasn’t happy being an invalid.

  “I’m tired,” she stated and she leaned against the wall and was almost instantly sleeping.

  He couldn’t do anything. Though he checked his leg and saw the stab seemed to be healing quick. Edin laid next to her.

  Arianne woke sometime later while Edin was chewing some more meadowcat.

  “Where’d you get that?” Arianne said quickly.

  “Your pack…”

  “Do you not know it is rude to rifle through a woman’s belongings?” Her voice was high, shrill even.

  “I’m sorry,” Edin apologized raising his hands. A sharp pain rolled through his broken wrist and he grimaced.

  Arianne sighed, “me too. Can you walk?”

  “I can try…” She handed him an ironwood staff. Not her tarix wood one. He saw she carried the bejeweled knife and her golden bow.

  They moved on after a while, through a dark portal held up by old but solid looking timbers. His thigh and wrist were bandaged and it hurt… but not too bad somehow.

  The tunnel snaked left and right as it delved deeper beneath the mountain. He had no idea which direction they were headed.

  The slope varied between a slight decline and nearly a sheer drop. It seemed like days, maybe a week, though there was no way to tell how long it actually was. They slept when they grew tired, usually huddled close together for the warmth, and they ate little.

  Arianne had used a healing spell on him a few times and slowly, the wounds disappeared but it drained her.

  As they walked, he couldn’t help thinking about a mole. It was the thought when he’d first woke. How could something live down here? It seemed far too suffocating a life. The surface was for him.

  Arianne walked ahead of him, looking back every now and then offering a scoff or a ‘hurry up lazy.’ She’d never complained about the hike, though each night she fell asleep almost instantly.

  It was late in their hike, after at least five many hour hikes, when he began to hear something. The only sounds had been their own footsteps. Edin never knew the unnerving sound of absolute silence before he came down here.

  Now, he heard the soft gurgling of a lazy river and Arianne seemed to fight a desire to sprint to the sound.

  The tunnel slowly began to widen as the dirty roof and walls faded away. The river grew louder and then they were in a large dark abyss, colder than the tunnel. Their footsteps crunched on hard stones, or so he thought. Then he saw they were shells. Millions, billions of them. Some no bigger than his little finger.

  The room smelled almost fresh, the air giving him a sense of invigoration. But the light from the torch was too weak and they could only see its reflection in the black water. He remembered the sinkhole. The she-elf’s warning.

  Arianne moved ahead of him to the river’s edge and leaned down to drink.

  “Careful,” Edin said.

  She slurped from cupped hands. “It’s cold and clean… from the surface.”

  “Be careful nonetheless.” Edin stepped closer, still hobbled by the leg. He dropped a hand to the hilt of his sword and stared down. He saw his reflection. Dusty and tired. His hair was unkempt and his scruffy facial hair needed a shave. He gripped the crillio fang as he summoned a small ethereal ball in his hand. The light reflected off the rippling current like the moon on a cloudless night.

  He could almost imagine they were outside, sitting near the Crys just enjoying the night and each other.

  “It’s beautiful,” Arianne said, he followed her gaze to a cascade of different colors shining all around the cavern. “It’s like a rainbow… crystals…”

  With the light, he could see the riverbed slopped away. It looked like a rich sediment below, the type farmers would fight over.

  “We need to cross it I think,” Edin suggested.

  “Really? You don’t want to just jump in and see where it takes us?”

  Edin stared at her, but she just shrugged.

  “Come on, servant,” she said and began walking the bank of the river. The water seemed to lighten her mood.

  It was almost three hundred yards of crunching shells until a wall pushed them nearly into the water. They had no way to cross.

  There were scraps. Rotting wood, rope, and a few rusting metal shards. They were clearly forged, but the deterioration made it impossible to know what they once were.

  “I see no way across.” Arianne sighed.

  There was no boat, no bridge. If either had once been there, they were long gone. His arm was sore from the crutch and his hand was aching more with the cold.

  “What do we do?”

  “I’ve been in a snowmelt river,” Edin said. “Going in could mean our deaths.”

  “That much I gathered,” Arianne said. “I’m tired anyway, let’s figure it out tomorrow…”

  Edin was fine with that. They dug the torch into the shells and the mud beneath and tried to get scavenged wood to catch. No matter how long they held it over the flame, it wouldn’t start.

  Edin took a drink from the aleskin. Then she did too.

  There was little talk. It was cold and they huddled together next to the torch.

  “It’s an unending torch.” Arianne told him. “It’ll burn but never go out or emit smoke. You don’t have those?”

  Edin shook his head.

  They drank heavier, their tongues loosening and they even laughed. She took a few jabs at him, both with soft fists and little taunts. They weren’t hurtful, they were jokes. Maybe it was her way of coping she leaned against him a lot.

  Her smile was slowly returning as she drank from the skin like she was celebrating a grand achievement.

  Somewhere far above their heads, Edin pictured the surviving Por Fen enjoying their ale and the rich wines of the keep. The thought sickened him. Evil men in her bedchambers, in her father’s. If it wasn’t destroyed the place would be looted and the magnificent library burned. He held that thought to himself.

  He shivered. “I wish we had bedrolls.” Edin said clutching his good leg to his chest. They only had the small blanket Edin woke up with. Arianne’s family didn’t use bedrolls so she didn’t have any and without a fire they’d be freezing nearly every night on the road.

  “My version of camping is a grand tent with a four-post bed put up by servants,” Arianne said. “Not this commoner… sleeping-on-the-ground thing you are used to.”

  She shivered and Edin put an arm around her as they stared at the torch.

  “Don’t get any ideas,” she whispered in a soft tone. She closed the aleskin and looked at him. “No creepy touching when we sleep.”

  “What do you think I’m a noble?” Edin said.

  She smirked and curled over and pulled him down.

  Edin draped the blanket over them and they laid face to face, with her forehead at his mouth. Her golden hair smelled like she’d dried it with a barbeque of rotted fish. Despite the smell, being this close to her it was impossible to quiet his mind of thoughts. The softness of her body, the warmth of her skin.

  Oh gods, he thought, his body was acting on its own. He slowly tried to turn his hips away.

  “Edin?”

  “Uh huh?” His heart thumping.

  “I’m glad you’re with me,” she said and snuggled her head deeper into his chest.

  It shocked him. There was a softness to her words. Relief washed over him and he closed his eyes. He needed to think about something else, the fight, his injuries… how he almost died. He exhaled and his lips brushed her forehead.

  “Go to sleep,” Arianne sighed.

  That wasn’t goi
ng to be easy.

  Edin was awake most of the… well night, he assumed. There was no way of knowing. The slow-moving water seemingly brought him to the edge of sleep before an errant thought about her woke him.

  His brain seemed like waterlogged grass after a drenching downpour when she finally started to stir.

  Arianne yawned, her breath smelling of stale ale. She dug her head back into his chest and readjusted her arms pulling him closer.

  “Arianne? Are you awake?”

  “Another hour,” she groaned.

  He laid in that spot, trying to think of how to get over the river. If there was even an exit on the other side.

  When Arianne woke, an hour later he guessed, he saw her hair was messy, there was a line from his sleeve crossing her cheek and her eyes were glassy.

  “What?” She said brushing her hair back.

  “Nothing,” Edin said sheepishly.

  She stared for a second longer before turning to look across the river. “I can barely see anything on the other side.” She began digging into her pack. She pulled out a pair of apples and gave him one. “Can you give us some light?”

  Edin crunched into his. A slight bitterness exploded in his mouth but it cleaned the taste of stale ale from his palate.

  Edin summoned an ethereal ball that lit up the room as best as it could. “I can try…” Edin said remembering the grasslands. “I’ll probably pass out after.”

  “Nothing new there.”

  He stood. Not only did he have to send the ball of light across an unknown expanse of river in pitch darkness, he’d have to try and control it somehow.

  Edin shut his eyes and held his concentration. A moment later, he thrust a hand out and felt the ball rocketing into the cavern.

  The connection to the talent ran through him. Then it faded. He felt the weariness growing. Gritting his teeth, he tried to focus. Edin saw it diving further into the cavern.

  In his mind he could see the white orb shine above a sparkling blue river. The cavern was nothing but dirt and rock. He was in another world. A dark foreign world, one of elves, dematians, magic, wild beasts, crazed monsters… abominations.

  “There is another side and I think I see a tunnel,” Arianne said.

  Edin released his control and watched as the ethereal light blinked out and with it, he fell. Arianne caught him and lowered him down.

  When he woke, he was by the fire again. Arianne was staring out over the black water, not looking at him. He thought she was in her own world before she spoke.

  “There is a legend of a philios who created a boat from the ethereal light you possess. It sailed throughout the kingdom. The talent somehow held even as he slept.”

  Edin was foggy as he reached down and touched his injured thigh. If he pressed it would hurt but now the pain was dull. His wrist was still wrapped tightly and would have to stay that way.

  “Do you think…” she said, her eyes dropping to him.

  “I don’t know, I could try.”

  She just stared.

  “Now?” Edin asked. He was tired and a bit groggy.

  “No in three weeks,” Arianne said.

  He sighed and stood, limping on the crunching shells. “Should I make paddles too? How about a sail and a nice comfortable hammock for you?”

  “Sounds nice.”

  Edin sighed. He really wasn’t sure about this. Did light float? Could he hold a raft together?

  He had to try.

  It took him a few moments as he pictured the rafts farmers would use to cross the Crys if the bridge was too far. After a brief moment of picturing it in his mind he heard a gasp, then, “Pretty.”

  Edin looked and saw it bobbing slowly in the water. Then it began to move, floating with the current.

  “Quick,” Arianne said as she leapt on. She held both packs and the torch.

  Moving quickly, wasn’t something he was able to do. Edin tried to reach the raft but it moved as Arianne put her weight on it. His foot crashed into the cold water and his entire body was about to follow when a wind caught him. Edin wind-milled his arms to catch himself from falling.

  “Hurry.” She shivered. One of her legs hung off like an anchor in the muck.

  Edin splashed in. The cold water leapt up his legs. He sprawled forward and slid onto the raft with pain wracking his wrist.

  The splashes came down around him as the raft bobbed in the current. Edin looked down, through the white window to see a sudden and deep drop into an unknown bottom.

  He doubted he could swim that…

  The water picked up speed and he looked to where they were going but he could see little in the darkness… then the roof was sloping toward them. It felt like they were headed to a great mouth, being slurped down the throat of the earth.

  “We’re drifting!” Arianne shouted, her teeth chattering like a woodpecker. “Control it…”

  Edin didn’t know how, he could feel the water beneath the raft but they wanted to… needed to keep going down river. He reached out with his mind, he felt the waves and the current, his heart raced and his arm felt like he was lifting a thousand pounds. The water was there, he grasped it and felt it. He seized control and the current stopped. For just a moment around them.

  Then it burst…

  Edin cried out. The speed increased as they floated toward the center. Nothing happened. “I can’t …” He was feeling tired again, his concentration almost snapped.

  Ahead, he saw the place where the bank disappeared and the river was funneled into a shorter tunnel with a ceiling barely a foot above the surface...

  Sweat broke out on his head, at least he thought it was.

  “Wind…” he said.

  “No sail!” she screamed.

  He closed his eyes and pictured the small sails on fishing vessels. Just a single triangle. He glanced up as it appeared. As soon as that happened, a strong wind slammed into them. The raft rose up and Edin had to shut his eyes. He felt the back rising faster than the front for a moment… they were going to flip. Then she grabbed him and the raft began spinning like a top.

  Edin felt his concentration waning with the unceasing sick feeling growing in his stomach. They would topple, fly into, or crash and end in a miserable wreck somewhere deep in the earth.

  He tried to speak, his mouth opened and closed. He felt Arianne holding onto him still shivering. “Less,” was all he could say, his breakfast was about to come back up and despite the possibility of death, he didn’t want vomit on Arianne. He grabbed her hand and looked at her.

  Her eyes and face were scrunched up to a near frown or one that may have indicated she had to go to the outhouse.

  “Less strength,” Edin called barely holding back his bile.

  She nodded, not lessening the intensity in her face but slowly the waves began to fade and the howling became a whistle. The faux boat hit the bank and they nearly flew out. The bags and Arianne skidded across the white ethereal wood as if it were just waxed and Edin went slamming into the mast.

  He didn’t care. He twisted and threw up.

  As the breakfast flew out, the raft disappeared and he fell a half a foot into the freezing river. Edin scrambled out and saw her shivering. He trembled grabbing the blanket from the pack and wrapping it around them. She still held the torch, but it didn’t offer much heat. One of the tradeoffs for being unending.

  “Why can’t you be a Tosoria? You could make this fire roar then…” she chattered. “I’d be forever yours.”

  They stayed that way, trying to warm for a few minutes… maybe an hour or more. Then, wordlessly, they separated, looked at each other and began to climb the shell beach toward a gapping tunnel. A tunnel hopefully to someplace warm.

  Edin was exhausted from the effort, his eyes barely opening. Feet rarely left the shell covered beach then the dirt when they reached the exit. The crunching sounds barely registering in his brain.

  The ground grew level and warmer. There were thin shafts, about three feet wide, starte
d appearing in sporadic intervals. They paused at every one and stared into the abyss before wordlessly continuing.

  Which way did they go? There was no indication, no sign. The tunnel looped around to the left and they walked farther.

  His clothes were dry now and they ate. Slowly, the ground felt like it was rising and in the ceiling of the tunnel, gnarled roots started to appear. The dry ache in his thigh wouldn’t cease. At some point, they stopped for food in the middle of the tunnel. Edin leaned against the wall, his pack providing him a soft brace against the hard-packed soil.

  She handed him a piece of dried meat and began digging in her pack. “You are a philios and a glasorio. The ice in the courtyard and the river…”

  Edin raised an eyebrow as she brought a large book out from her pack.

  “It’s a water mage and yes I brought a tome. Two actually. The other one is in your pack.”

  “That’s why it’s so heavy?”

  “One is a spell book, the other contains knowledge. Though almost every book contains knowledge, except for fictional stories.”

  Edin frowned. He enjoyed fiction, while maybe they didn’t contain knowledge, he felt they held a truth. A human… or even a magus truth.

  “Anyways, I want to see accounts of a magus with two talents. I’ve heard of it before.”

  “You’re not… appalled by me?”

  Arianne smirked as she leafed through the old pages. “I am, but not for that reason.”

  He tore off a piece of the dried meat as she continued. “So, every magus has a specialty, spirit, water, wind.”

  “Philios, glasorio and gusoria. I know this.” Edin said.

  “They are all just the highborn terms for one who uses blank. Like tosoria for fire, terestio for earth. Electric magi, which are almost as rare as a philios are called instorios.”

  Three… there were three names by which he could be called. He tilted the aleskin on its end so he could get the last drops out. Alcohol numbs the pain and numbs the brain. Another of his mother’s sayings. Right now, his body needed the numbing. He sighed and let it drop to the ground empty. “No more ale.”