by BJ Hanlon
Edin headed to his room and sat at the small desk, his knees touching the bottom of the desktop. Was there something he was missing? Edin fell asleep with the thought in his head.
As he slept, something tickled his mind. He saw the dark caverns, it was like Olangia… but it wasn’t. It was dark and somehow Edin knew it was hexagonal. He felt like he’d searched everywhere for a way out. There were dark tunnels leading away but they were blocked. The roaring river he’d floated down had turned to a lake at the center of the city before continuing through a different darkened tunnel that delved into the unknown abyss. He’d caught fish in the lake, weird eyeless fish that tasted like cod.
There had to be a way to get to the surface. His supplies were running low, he had maybe two days of rations left to supplement the fish.
Then there were the things chasing him. They were slow and easily fooled, but they were dangerous.
Draugrs. Edin had seen one, he’d fought one. Seven had been slain in this place by fire.
Why was he thinking about himself in the third person?
In his hand, his long, dainty looking hand, he held an old long knife. It was worn, unbalanced and chipped. Why didn’t Edin train him better?
At that, Edin woke. His mind was swimming. Why would he want to learn his own forms? He remembered that part clearly and remembered the bow and the cold dwarven city that he’d never been to.
More thoughts raced through his mind, those of running from draugrs, the dainty fingers, one’s he’d held. The breasts and the long dirty hair.
Edin’s heart stopped and suddenly, he knew what the dreams were. Not dreams at all, but visions. He was somehow seeing her mind… her thoughts.
Arianne was alive in another dwarven city beneath the earth trying to find a way out.
Edin leapt from his bed. He was sore and tired but he felt a renewed energy and panic.
She was alive for now… somewhere far away. How would he get there? How would he find her?
Edin burst from his door and into the hallway. He looked right and then left, up to the spire and down to the city.
Rihkar’s door was still closed.
Edin knocked. “Rihkar…” he called and knocked again quickly and with more force.
“What?” An annoyed shout came from beyond it.
Grumpy in the morning, Edin thought. “She’s alive… Arianne.”
There was a garbled answer, it could’ve been ‘fluff yourself,’ which Edin didn’t understand or ‘float a porch shelf.’ Again, it made no sense to him.
Soon the door swung open and the frayed and weary looking Rihkar, really not much different than normal, stood before him. His tunic was off and his ribs looked like wind chimes.
“Did you say to fluff myself?”
Rihkar rolled his eyes. “What do you want?”
“She’s alive in a dwarven city just like this. A hexagonal city with a lake in the center… have you heard of anything like that?”
“No,” Rihkar said pulling his hand down his face.
Edin stared at him, expecting the old man to expound a little more than just No.
Rihkar sighed. “Legend has it there are many dwarven cities beneath Bestoria. There have been expeditions but none were ever found. I knew of an expedition that was set to leave from Galara in Porinstol a couple of years ago but the Grand Count shut it down.”
“Too far west,” Edin said. “We lost her… she disappeared north of Dunbilston.”
“Right… well unless you can find an entrance into the city… you will never find her.”
Edin ground his teeth and stared over his old man’s shoulder at the blank stone wall. “What about the tunnel below?”
Rihkar’s jaw cinched. “It was like that when I got here. And I got a bad feeling that there are things beyond it… evil things. Our family, we get those sometimes.”
“Like the wyrm?”
Rihkar grunted.
“I know you’re a terestio, an earth mage and can move the debris.”
“What about the Rage Stone? Will you just leave it?”
“For her, yes,” Edin said. “I have to go… I cannot leave her alone.”
Rihkar shook his head. “How far do you think it goes until you reach another cave in? I cannot leave until I find it. You could walk for weeks, months before you reach another cave in and by that time you or your woman will be dead. Probably both.”
Edin swallowed, he wouldn’t let his hope of seeing her vanish into the darkness. “If we find it, will you come with me… father?”
Rihkar’s grim glare faded. A sad look came over him as he tugged at his beard. Dust and other particles descended like snow. “Of course,” he sighed, “but what makes you think we’ll find it?”
Edin looked toward the ceiling, he remembered the statue, his thoughts of the tower outside and his ideas the night before. “What does lightning have to do with dematians?”
Rihkar thought for a moment, his lips puckering then he looked up at Edin. “Legend has it that the father god Estoolin cast down Yio Volor with a lightning bolt. Yio was too enthralled with the destructive creatures on the land, too hateful of men, dwarves, and elves.”
Edin’s eyes lit. “The god of the dematians…”
“Yes, when Yio hit the earth it was said he ‘mated’ with it and formed the dematians.” Rihkar paused. “Or so it is said…”
“Gross…” Edin said and looked around at the stone walls of the cavern. How would that even be possible? Edin shook the thought away. “So, he created the dematians and the wan stones?”
“He really didn’t like magi,” Rihkar said.
“I wonder if he was turned down by a magus lady,” Edin said. “I’ve read of many losers who go crazy after being found unattractive to the opposite sex.”
Rihkar shrugged. “We’re getting off topic, what does this matter?”
“So lightning is part of the creation of dematians….”
“Yes, why?”
“I found three of the stones…” Edin said.
“What? Where are they?”
“Arianne has them…”
“Blasted boy… why didn’t you tell me? Which ones?” He nearly screamed this while clenching and unclenching his fists.
“I don’t know you… father. You’ve never been around.” Edin fought Rihkar’s glare with his own. “I found the Blossom, Shimmer, and Sun.”
His father stared at him seemingly mulling something over in his head. Then his lips smacked. “And what does lightning have to do with finding the Rage Stone?”
“They each have an associated talent… Blossom is water, Shimmer is wind, and Sun is—”
“Lightning. Rage is a ruby. Fire.”
“That’d be my guess. And I found each with something that had to do with the talent. What is fiery here?”
“Nothing? There was no fire, no flames of any kind when I entered. It was black as night.”
“How did the dwarves live? You said it yourself, they cannot have a normal flame. The smoke would smoother anyone before they could dig the place out.”
He thought for a moment then shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Edin’s excitement fell like a tree in the woods. He turned around and leaned against a wall tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling again. Somewhere far above the tower, Edin knew the wyrm was there. But why? Was it guarding something or waiting? The beast clearly was in league with the dematians after the attack on Coldwater. What if that staff helped control the beasts of old?
These were questions he couldn’t answer.
Too much was going on in his head. Edin wished he’d had an ale or whiskey. He needed to walk, he needed to think.
“I’m heading up,” Edin said. “How do you control those windows?”
“A stone with a sun on it. They’re next to the doors when you enter.”
Edin nodded. He strapped his sword to his belt and started up. He left his cloak in the room and began the long winding ramp up.
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At the first door, he pushed it open and looked around the room. With the windows closed it was dark but for his ethereal light. There were stone pillars surrounding the outer edge with ledges to sit. A postern door sat off to the left, Edin guessed it exited to the ramparts.
This place seemed more apt to the earth stone than the fire stone. There was nothing that indicated fire on any of the pillars. They were smooth and rarely adorned.
After checking the second and third rooms, he still saw nothing. Everything was the same. On floor three he held his hand over the window stone. Would he see the wyrm right away? Would it somehow sense that the window was open?
He reached the top floor and looked around the stone statue of the dwarf. It was squared off as if the man and his hammer were made entirely of hewn rock. Even the beard was small chipped stone perfectly square.
Maybe it was the dwarven god? Did Tilliac know a story about dwarven mythology? Does this stone statue have something to do with fire?
Edin went to the shutter opening and pressed the button. As soon as he did, there was a grinding sound from somewhere beneath the floor. At once, a large circular panel lowered around the spire. It was like the rock was dropping its trousers.
Beyond the antechamber and door were the only places he couldn’t see and from the part he was in, there was no sign of the wyrm.
He wondered about Yechill, Edin took a breath and stared out at the sea. It was cold and filled with icebergs. There was no hint of fire.
What here would have fire? What could give the dwarves light? They couldn’t see in the dark, right? Or they didn’t communicate like bats were said to have.
Edin imagined short men screeching at each other and almost laughed when he envisioned them running into each other like blacked out drunks.
They wouldn’t need the windows then would they?
There had to be something. Edin sighed and his gazed dropped toward the tower at the edge of the sea. He was probably two hundred feet above it. That was it. It had to be there but how? Why?
If it was a lighthouse, the light part was gone. Probably tumbled into the sea. What if the stone was in that part and deep beneath the waves?
Edin turned toward the statue of the dwarf god. Dwarfy Edin decided and walked around.
There was a water stone on it, though how’d they get water up here, he had no idea. Except the water had two wavy lines… not three as he’d seen below.
“Hmm…” Edin said looking at it. He stepped forward and traced the two lines with his fingers then in a moment of thinking what the heck, he pressed it.
Clicking and crunching sounds came from beneath him and from the statue. He glanced around and looked for something to have changed.
Nothing had.
Then something caught his eye. The lighthouse.
Edin’s mouth dropped. In a blackened window, barely visible from this height, Edin saw a red glow.
13
Finding the Rage
Fire. The Rage Stone.
Somewhere from down the circular ramp, Rihkar exclaimed something unintelligible. Edin felt warmth growing through the room. Where the floor met the wall came a thin line of orange light. Gold objects ensconced in the walls began sparkling, runes that were invisible before lit up.
The line of orange followed the clear walls, through the antechamber and rose up and over the door to the other side.
It curled down the hall in a quick whoosh.
Edin trotted down following the line of flames, it rose to the waist and then nearly head high on the inner wall. Warmth radiated from it, warmth but not heat.
It was a fire… but flameless and somehow flowing in a track. It moved to the second circular floor, flowing around it, lighting it to a full brilliance that magnified hidden sparkling diamonds in the walls and the ceilings.
On the floor in the center of the room, he saw what looked like a constellation. One of a man fighting something with his bare hands. A two-footed lizard with short clawed arms.
He didn’t even know what to make of it. He stepped gingerly over the stars and suddenly heard a muffled screech.
He paused. Though the windows were still closed in this room, the wyrm’s screech made him cringe. It was a war cry of some kind.
Edin ran to the stone and pressed open the shutters. They moved slowly, their gears creaking inside the walls.
He heard footsteps padding loudly up the hall behind him.
“What did you do?” Rihkar cried skidding to a stop next to him. “There’s a wall of lava… it’s beautiful and scary.”
“There was a stone… I pushed it.” Edin said, his eyes fixed on the slow shutters. A dark shape whipped past.
Still below and in front of him stood the stone tower, a lighthouse or a watch tower over the dark sea.
Closer to them on the land bridge, Edin saw small but long mounds. The remnants of a squared off building like the vision with the elf.
There was a cry, a muffled one. Then the shutters began closing again.
Edin saw Rihkar press the button then disappeared further up the tower. He thought his father said, ‘idiot.’ But that barely registered.
He knew, the tower outside held the Rage Stone.
Suddenly there was a thud from above. A bang and a roar.
Edin pulled his sword and ran up.
Rihkar stood in the penthouse staring at the door. The shutters were now closed but his father was tense.
Something hard slammed into the doors but there was no actual affect.
They looked like wood, but it didn’t sound like wood. Edin held his sword before him ready for the wyrm to break through.
After a few very tense minutes, the hammering slowed and eventually stopped. The wyrm screamed and it was harmonized with something else. A chattering call.
“A dematian…” Edin said recognizing it. Now he really hoped Yechill left. Maybe the wyrm wouldn’t have seen him, maybe it would’ve, but with a dematian it was probable he’d be dead if he stayed.
Edin swallowed.
“They can’t break in…” Rihkar said sighing and sheathing his sword. “At least not yet.”
“Well…” Edin said trying to find the words. “They might not have to.”
“What do you mean?”
It took him a few moments to think as he pondered the way to tell him about the vision of the elf and the tower. When he finally did his father glared.
“You are keeping things from me.”
“Yes,” Edin said matter-of-factly.
“I’m your father, you do not keep things from me.” His voice was growing louder, angrier and it was possible the dematian outside could hear him.
For a split second, Edin wondered if the monster could understand what he was saying.
He imagined the dematian listening and turning away. A family argument, better not get involved, those things can get nasty.
“I haven’t had a father ever. Horston tried, Grent… in his own weird way tried. But you were never there. You were never a father.”
Rihkar grew red. “I was protecting you!”
“You didn’t, I nearly died, my mother did, my friend, our servants… they all died and where were you? Off gallivanting around… how many other siblings do I have running around Bestoria? Are they mages too? Did you abandon them and their mothers to the same fate you left us?” Edin stared him in the eyes, his father was blazing with fury. “You are a bad man and a terrible father. If I weren’t stuck in here right now, I’d leave.”
“Oh yeah? And do what, make a boat with no wood and sail across the sea? Or would you somehow swim the sound and scale the cliff before trekking across a dead tundra.”
“I’d go there…” Edin said pointing in the direction of the small tower. “Were the Rage Stone is.”
“I searched it, what just because you had a conversation with an elf on the wave. Are you an elf-lover now?”
Edin crossed his arms.
“Why would he want to help m
ankind?”
“Why would you?” Edin spat. “You said you wanted to bring men and magi back together. Is it because you think it’s the right thing to do or was it all about your glory and adventure?”
Rihkar huffed for a moment, his clenched jaw loosened slightly and he turned back toward the door. “The thunderwrym hasn’t moved in days. And it knows we are under the spire. We can’t use the front door.”
“There’re other doors…”
“Wyrm’s have great ears and would hear my footsteps as soon as I step foot outside. I’d be killed before I reach the first stair.”
“You’re not going, I am,” Edin said.
“I will not let you do that. It is suicide. Even a terrin couldn’t make it to the tower.”
“Well, I’m a mage,” Edin said. “And I can do many things terrins cannot.”
“The culrian? It may stop a thunderwyrm, it may not.”
“I can handle it… I just need a distraction.” He told his father the plan and surprisingly, the stubborn man was receptive.
He knew that the sunshine was difficult for dematians and it had been getting dark when the wyrm attacked too. They had to chance it while the light was out. They took a few hours to set it up and then Edin and Rihkar leaned against the statue of the dwarven god and stared at their pile of debris. Rihkar moved boulders all the way up from the caved in tunnel and they piled wooden spikes carved from doors, cloth, and paper in front of it and on top of it.
The wyrm had thick armor and was quick when in the air.
What about on ground? Would it be waiting out there for the doors to open or would it be flying far above them watching for movement.
Edin opened the top shutters a half foot and saw the it was still light. It would be for a while.
His hands grew sweaty and his heartbeat quickened.
He had a chance to get to the gemstone, hopefully, without the wyrm knowing he’d even left and hopefully he’d have time to search.
Getting back… that was the riskiest part. Edin possibly could leap into the still water of the fjord and swim back to the dock… He wasn’t looking forward to that.
After a few moment’s Rihkar turned to Edin and gripped his shoulders and stared at him with the hazel eyes Edin had seen so often in the mirror. He didn’t hug Edin or wink like Grent would or offer any sort of encouragement. He just stood there.