by B J Hanlon
Arianne grabbed a skin from her pack and tossed it to him. She kept her eyes on the book in her lap.
Edin unplugged the cork and sniffed. Malty, hoppy goodness wafted to his nostrils. “You brought another one?”
“You seem to have a need for it,” Arianne said flipping a page.
Edin took a long drink. He tried to imagine they were in a tavern sharing ale and enjoying each other’s company.
“So, any mage can cast spells?”
“Yes, some non-mages can as well. It simply takes the right mindset, enough will, and knowledge of the power words.”
“Power words?”
“Words that grant power,” Arianne said flatly. “Ah, here we are. All magi are born with one talent. Never more. Volig the Martyr was able to acquire a second through intense study and physical exertion. He sacrificed his life to study magecraft dying young. Hence martyr.”
Edin took another drink.
“How’d you learn your second talent?” She glanced up at him, her intense eyes seemingly digging for answers. “Did you study for it? I don’t know what you’d study or even how…”
Edin shrugged. He had his suspicions, he wasn’t sure, not really. The gemstones were the only connection that made sense… but they really didn’t make sense. Lightning erupted from the statue, the alter was filled with water.
“Well, it’s interesting. I don’t know how you were able to withstand the lightning bolt either.”
“Lightning bolt?”
“In the courtyard, I only saw it out of the corner of my eye, but a bolt struck you… and somehow you were able to survive.” She closed the tome. “I want to get out of these tunnels… they are driving me crazy.”
He smiled and held up a hand. “Crazier.”
She threw what was left of her jerky at him. “I’ll get you for that.”
Hours later, the packed dirt became a hard, gray rock. Boulders became common as did white splotches that reminded him of crushed bugs.
They heard soft screeching and beating sounds like when the servants would shake out a rug… though this was many servants and rugs.
“Bats,” Arianne called out from in front of him. “That’s their scat on the ground. If they have red markings on their wings, we run. They’ll attack anything.”
The tunnel’s roof began to rise and the walls widened. Stalactites and stalagmites began appearing like the teeth of a great stone beast. They climbed through and around them. Some were slimy and wet to the touch.
The flapping wings grew louder. A glimpse of a small object flew through the edge of the fire light.
“They’re nocturnal… the fact that they’re in the cave means its day time, and we can’t be too far from the exit.”
“I know how bats live…” Edin said. “I’m not a city rat…”
“Sorry, I didn’t think commoner’s school would’ve taught you…” She turned back and smiled. Framing her face, the first glimpse of sunlight appeared. A beautiful beam came through the roof with a thin ray of sunlight. Tiny bits floated in it reminding him of the day he and Horston spoke about energy.
Then he saw it was thirty yards above at the top of a rocky wall. The opening was shaped like a child’s drawing of a triangle. A lot of squiggles to the lines.
“Gods,” Edin whispered.
“Too high for you?” Arianne asked. The tone of her voice was almost jovial, as if the beam of sunlight triggered her happiness to hatch like an egg.
He held up the wrapped hand, the tips of his fingers looked pale. Of all the ways out of a cave, why did it have to be a climb? Edin wondered.
“Right, sorry.” Arianne looked back up and sighed.
He could see grasses and vines hanging down, but nowhere near them and beyond it, the sky was perfectly blue. It felt like purity beyond the rim of the dank underworld. They moved directly beneath the opening.
“I can blow you.”
“Excuse me?” Edin said, shocked by her casual statement.
“You know, use my talent. Why? What did you think I meant?”
He opened his mouth to speak then decided against it. He shook his head.
“Are you ready?”
“Now?”
A strong burst of wind hit him behind the knees. Edin lost his balance and before he knew it he was in the air careening toward a thick pointed cave tooth. Edin screamed but the wind pushed him just out of the way. It went fast, too fast.
Suddenly, he was out of the cave and flying in the air. The rushing of the wind… the tornado below him was violent.
He flew up over the ground, the bushes, tree trunks, and the canopies. There was nothing between him and the sky. The sun was warm and for an instant, he thought he saw the endless blue of an ocean.
Somehow, he heard a loud chirp from near him. Edin glanced down. Beneath him, he saw a red bird soaring. His heart stopped and his stomach went into his throat.
The wind hand pushing him up stopped and for a moment, he was suspended like a shirt hanging from a hook.
Then he fell. He was racing toward the canopy, the wind howling past his ears. His eyes bulged and he felt helpless. Edin screamed but the sound was unable to even reach his own ears.
What did he do? He was going to die. He closed his eyes and twisted so he was facing the green layer of death. A few moments later, he was being whipped and scratched as if by a gang of angry cats. The whooshing sound muddled the cracking of branches, twigs, and possibly bones.
Something smashed into his thigh. Edin screamed as pain wracked his brain. Then he flipped forward. Almost an instant later, his lower back caught a different branch. He felt a sharp pain and heard a crack. Then entire branch fell.
A blurry form darted out of the way screeching at him like a guardsman telling him to get off the roof. He yelled, his voice lost in the noise around.
Suddenly, he stopped. All of his air rushed out of him. Edin gasped and looked up, seeing a cacophony of light mixed with a snowfall of leaves coming down. Then he saw the blur again. He tilted his head and squinted. The thing, a small human-shaped head with long arms and legs and a tail did the same. Then it raised its hand and threw something at him. Edin felt it hit his chest and bounce off. Then the thing leapt through the tree tops like a monkey.
“That was…” Edin wanted to add ‘one,’ but everything hurt but somehow, nothing was broken. He felt like he’d gotten in a fight with a bear.
As he stood, he noticed the trunks of the trees were white though the ground was covered with red leaves. Edin rolled over and began coughing. The forest floor had a mix of wide-leafed ferns and bright red bushes. Edin saw inch-long needles sticking from a bush only a foot away.
The forest felt foreign.
He reached up and absently held the fang in his grasp. Slowly, he sat, surprised his back hadn’t broken. He hefted the pack up and saw it was intact. His sword still by his side. His ironwood staff turned crutch was missing. He’d had it looped through the pack… he was certain of it.
Everything seemed the same. It smelled almost fruity, there was a warm breeze that rustled the trees and critters skittered through the land.
Edin thought he caught a glimpse of the monkey again. It was the first he’d ever seen outside of a drawing.
The only direction he was certain of, was up. After the flight and the painful descent, he couldn’t tell where the cave exit was, where Arianne was.
“Arianne?” he called, hoping he’d hear her reply. She was probably still climbing, though he didn’t know which way to start searching.
Edin drank from the waterskin and sat up against a tree a few feet from a thorn bush. He closed his eyes and dug for a meadowcat flower. Unfortunately, the pain was becoming normal, like the way he felt the energies around him.
Why didn’t he use the shield? He thought as he closed his eyes.
A strong kick to the leg woke him. “Hey, you sleep while I do the hard work?” Arianne chided staring down at him. “I swear you’re just as lazy as my sec
ond cousin Bilf.”
Edin started rubbing the spot.
“Gods, what happened to you? Why are there scratches over your arm?” She quickly slipped out of her pack and began running through it.
“It’s not just the arms,” Edin said. He pressed the pack into the tree and tried to stand. “You sent me flying into a forest.”
“That’s for calling me crazy,” she said. “And I figured you’d use the culrian.”
“I forgot.”
Arianne frowned and shook her head. “Let’s get you cleaned up.” She helped him take off his shirt and began rinsing the small scratches with water before applying lodi paste. “Now the trousers.”
“I’m fine,” Edin said.
“You can leave your undertrousers on; oh wait, those burned.” She smiled. “Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing special…”
“Nothing…” Edin didn’t know what to say.
“Shut up and cover yourself if you wish,” Arianne said.
Edin did and she cleaned and bandaged the cuts on his legs, thighs, and butt. His face and neck were ripped but lightly. He spent the entire time trying to count the leaves in the tree in front of him. He didn’t want to think about her warm hands touching him. Edin shuddered, a good shudder.
“Done,” she said eventually.
Edin breathed a sigh of relief.
“Now, next time you get cut up, I’m not helping you.” She stood and looked him in the eyes. “You’re filthy by the way.”
“You think you look any better?”
Arianne glared at him.
“Because you do,” he said. “Much better. We just spent a long time in that tunnel… where are we by the way?”
“Out of the mountains,” Arianne said and turned away. “There’s a clearing over here.” Arianne began walking away, and like a soldier or a servant, he followed.
The first night outside of the tunnel was amazing. They were able to start a real fire and despite a slight nip in the air, he was comfortable. Arianne yawned and stretched her arms getting ready to sleep.
Edin watched her out of the corner of his eye as he sipped some ale. He hoped she’d want to cuddle again.
“Good night, Edin,” she said resting her head on her pack and curling up next to the fire.
“Good night, Arianne.” He leaned back, slowly as the throbbing back made any sudden movements hurt like he was running through the tree branches again. Edin closed his eyes. The warmth from the flame was nice, but not as good as the warmth of the beautiful woman just an arm’s length away.
A man was hunched over in a chair, leaning like a severed tree snagged on its neighbor’s branches. A black cloak hung over his head with the white emblem of the Inquisitor on his chest.
Standing before the chair, with arms clasped behind their backs, were eight other men in black cloaks. All had their heads shaved, all wore the patch of the Justicar.
The Inquisitor’s hand twitched and Edin saw the scaly burns that ran from his fingers to his wrist almost like he was boiled in a hot stew.
“I am back. My injuries were not as grievous as previously thought.” No one moved, no one replied. “Have we found this… abomination yet?” the man hissed. The voice was slurred.
It took work to understand them like trying to figure out an accounting problem with Horston standing over his shoulder.
A Por Fen stepped forward with his arms clenched behind his back. The pale sunlight through a glass window reflected off his bald skull. “No.”
“Then why are you here?” he hissed, “you were to scour the lands and bring him here. Preferably alive.”
“It is assumed he is dead. The last raven stated the stairwell collapsed and was impassable. None who reached the apex returned.”
“He is not dead. I know it.” The Inquisitor hissed with a nasally breath. “Whose plan was it for a direct assault?”
“Justicar Bas.”
“Where is Bas? He and I need to… talk.” The words slithered from his throat, though talk was clearly not the right word.
“Bas has yet to reappear Inquisitor,” The Justicar said. “I believe Merik was right, it was too early to make him a Justicar.”
The head whipped toward the man and he shrank back. Beneath the hood, he could barely see a yellow and a dead hazel eye. “Are you saying this is my fault?” the Inquisitor challenged. “I trusted in one of my best Rangers and gave him the red.”
“No Inquisitor, Bas was a fine Ranger. But you made Merik your head Justicar… and as you know.”
The Inquisitor spat a wad of green and yellow saliva onto the ground before the man. An overpowering smell of lavender perfume and decay emanated from the spittle. “Firs.”
“Yes sir,” A second Justicar said stepping forward.
“Find this abomination. Kill him.” Then he looked back to the other one. “I need Merik back. I recently sent him to Galara. See that he returns.” A scarred hand raised. “The rest of you, I want every hunter searching for Edin and his companion, the blonde woman who activated the relay.”
“Yes Inquisitor,” all the Justicars chorused and filed out of the room in silence.
“Eavesdropping on other conversations is not polite.” The Inquisitor turned toward Edin, he saw the yellow eye and the dead one. “See you and your girlfriend soon.”
He sat up and looked immediately at Arianne. The dying embers cast the soft orange glow on her ivory skin. Her hair radiated like a crown.
He rested a hand on his chest and felt his heartbeat begin to slow.
It was early morning and slightly chilly. Wet dew covered the ground and looking farther away, it looked like glass. Edin stood but his muscles were sore and stiff. The timeframe for any recovery was completely unknown.
Delphin Gray’s shadowed figure played in his mind. How long had it been since he exploded in the Citadel’s tower? How did he see the meeting… was it something to do with the relay? He’d seen the others, Merik by the tree. That was explainable… well not explainable but there was an explanation. Though a mystical one. Then there were the dreams of Arianne. Good dreams.
Edin placed a few branches on the fire and shut his eyes as sheets of smoke blew over him. He couldn’t shake the feeling that they were connected somehow. He closed his eyes and tried pushing the thought from his head. He tried focusing on his breathing, something, anything. Birds chirped louder, and leaves rustled. Edin tried to ignore them. Arianne groaned and rolled over in her sleep. Edin ate and stared into the fire.
He needed to leave Bestoria. The Inquisitor knew of Arianne, she’d be hunted too now. Edin remembered the slurring tongue, the disfigurement. Edin had hurt him through the relay.
Edin knew people who were extremely proud and so self-assured that any slight was a means to go to war. Dexal had been one. The way the crippled man talked told Edin the man had the same anger.
Edin was quiet when Arianne woke. She was groggy and shivered.
It was her choice to sleep apart, Edin thought.
Then he looked at the rising sun to the east. The way of the Isle. Somewhere out that way as he remembered that brief glimpse of the ocean. Now they needed to find Carrow.
He figured they’d been in that dark tunnel for seven days, maybe more.
To the right, a pair of squirrels chased each other around the ground for a few minutes before they flited up the boles of the birch. Birds chirped around them, Edin could make out maybe four separate calls. Unknown beasts slithered and darted beneath the ferns and thorn bushes around them.
“Which way?” Edin asked while they ate. It was the first words either spoke. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was being in the sun, maybe there was nothing to say. “I saw the ocean in my… flight. It’s just over to the east.” The air was stagnant and warm even sitting, Edin sweated.
“South, I think,” Arianne said though she didn’t seem to sure. “If we’re still going to Carrow…”
“I think we have to,” Edin said.
They began
hiking through the woods. For a while, it was easy as they went through a less dense forest with small bushes and ferns, but then it felt as if the forest was growing thicker, closing in on them. A league began to feel like ten. They began to use Edin’s sword to cut through bramble and vines. It was hot and the movement made it even hotter, sweatier.
They were exhausted and nearly out of water when they stopped. The sun was still out, but it was probably near the solstice and would hang there for a while longer.
“Here’s as good a spot as any to bed down for the night.” Arianne called up to him. He turned back, she was standing over a small open patch next to a fallen tree. “If there was a high wind, the tree would be good cover.”
Edin nodded, though right now, Edin would’ve loved the cooling feel of a summer breeze.
Arianne dropped, “I’d give anything to travel in a carriage again.”
“I’ll be sure to look out for one for you princess,” Edin said as she checked his bandages.
With a quick rip, she tore one off a cut on his chest. “You’d do well to treat your betters with respect.” She ripped off a second one. “Especially when they demean themselves enough to treat your injuries.” A third ripped off. Arianne stopped and smiled at him. “The scratches are healed. I’m going to take out the stitches from your thigh.”
“I have stitches?”
“You didn’t notice?” Edin shook his head. “Just sit back, it shouldn’t hurt too much.” The grin on her face seemed wicked.
She took her time taking out the stitches. He felt the string beneath his skin like some sort of insect squirming and writhing. He tried not to shudder or shake or show any kind of discomfort. It’d just give her more joy.
When she was done, he was breathing heavily. “Where’d you learn how to do all this?” Edin looked down at his thigh. There was a straight line, the length of his forefinger and the skin was pink and tender.
“You must think princesses do nothing but sew, gossip, and prepare for their future as a wife.”
“It doesn’t seem like a skill set for a future queen.”
“My mother,” Arianne said.