by BJ Hanlon
Edin moved slowly down the hall toward the lowest ring of the tower. He shed the cloak even though the cold would slice through his shirt as if he were wearing nothing.
Edin counted to two hundred and gears began to creak in the walls. They were faint but distinct. Edin carefully put his hand to the mechanical latch on the door.
He quickly shoved cloth in his ears and pushed the door open. As soon as he did, he heard the wyrm’s cry. It was muted but gave him chills.
The evening sun’s rays crept in leaving a long rectangle on the sparkling floor. He heard another cry and pushed it open further.
Looking into the dying sunlight, Edin’s eyes began to water. He had to wait for the right moment.
Then it happened.
A great bang as the wyrm tried to hammer the door. He hit it once, twice… and that was Edin’s moment. He slipped out the door and tiptoed quietly to the edge of the stone rampart before looking out over the bridge to the tower. The base of the spire was more than fifty feet below.
Edin readied his hands on the edge and took a deep painful breath. “This is for you Arianne,” he whispered.
He vaulted over, clenching his mouth so he wouldn’t scream. Edin dropped a few feet before the wind began to pick up. He rolled with it, using it to push him out further from the base and closer to the bridge. Edin was dropping fast. Very fast, he felt the tails of his ear mufflers flapping against his scalp.
The shock of the air was bad, but seeing solid ground ripping toward him that fast, nearly caused him to whimper.
Edin stifled it as he tried gliding on the wind. He was over the stairs and then the long bridge. He was falling fast. He gathered more of the wind and threw it further forward. He was over the tunnel to the docks but was dropping too fast.
Then even over the muffled ears and the roaring wind, he heard the cracks and a wild human scream. Rihkar…
It broke his concentration and Edin dropped to a few feet above the ground. His heart raced as he summoned all of his power over the wind. It was like corralling a gaggle of geese. Air billowed under him as blackness blotted his eyes. His joints and bones felt like they’d been on the torturer’s rack for hours.
Instinctively, he pushed out his arms with much effort and felt the hard, frostbitten stone. Edin blinked, curled up and dropped a shoulder. Pain roared in the shoulder as he started to roll. His upper back slammed into something and then another unknown dug hard into his kidney and his butt cheek. He rolled to his feet. Trying to ignore the pain, he had to keep running.
Then open air and the drop to the rough rocky cliff and freezing water. Both ready to accept him. To destroy him.
Edin’s chest thudded as he stumbled and whirled his hands trying to keep from dropping off the side of the land bridge.
A gust of wind cracked him in the face and knocked him back.
Edin turned and glanced up at the spire but couldn’t see any movement. Edin lowered his head and ran at the old, broken tower. He stepped over old foundation stones and ran through what could’ve once been someone’s dining room.
He heard a wild cry from behind him. Edin ducked his head and pumped his legs faster. Faster than he’d run in… maybe ever.
Each step was closer, but it didn’t feel that way. As he watched the tower, slowly grow larger, he felt something was advancing on his back.
Finally, it grew to all of his vision and Edin glanced back over his shoulder.
He saw nothing.
Edin dove into the long shadows of the tower and curled up next to the brick. He laid on the ground next to it panting. His eyes were searching the spire for any sign of the beast or of the possible dematian. There was nothing.
Where was the wyrm? Did their trap actually kill the beast? Rihkar was supposed to explode the rocks outward with his talent and hopefully, the stakes and the rocks would pierce the beast; the chest, maybe the head.
Then he saw it. A thin, nearly invisible smoke line was floating toward the heavens. Its source was beyond the peak. Edin had no idea what it meant… but a hollow feeling in his stomach said it wasn’t good.
Edin swallowed. Did he now lose his father? Don’t think like that, he told himself. Rihkar wanted… no wants, you to find the stone. “He’s not dead,” Edin whispered beneath his breath and picked himself up and entered.
The room was aglow with orange light. A lava line was circumventing the twenty-foot-across tower. Across the way were crumbled stone stairs that led to a dark opening above. A pair of stone beams crossed each other in the ceiling.
Windows looked to the south, east, and west. Broken shutters hung from loose stone pegs. It was like the dwarven construction but different. Maybe a bit taller.
Did humans build this after the dwarves?
Edin looked at the lava line. Not unless mankind used to know how to do that, Edin thought.
It didn’t matter. Edin followed the direction of the lava line. It seemed to come up in a small circle at the perfect center of the tower like a spring. Then it went directly to the south, just offset from the window. It rose up the wall and circled the tower down here and climbed to the second story where it disappeared through a gap between the ceiling and the wall. Another line was delving back into the ground in near the same spot where it had exited.
After a moment of scanning, he realized there was nothing to this room. There was nowhere to hide a stone and he had no clue where it was.
His hunch said this place. The wave showed him this place… But there was nothing. Did the elf lie? Was Edin wrong? Edin moved toward the door and pulled it open. Outside the sun had set and it was growing darker. The smoke line had disappeared in the darkness.
There was no sign of the wyrm. Edin turned back, “don’t give up…” whispered Edin, “it has to be here…” He looked at the glowing lava line. A slow flowing hot liquid… no not liquid, it was rock.
Molten, burning stone from underground.
“What if,” Edin shook his head. Why would anyone put a stone under lava? These lines moved throughout the entirety of the spire and possibly the city. Edin sat on a small stool and stared.
A tapping sound began gnawing at the back of Edin’s brain. It was like an annoying water drip pounding deeper and deeper into his thoughts. He stared at the line, letting it grow larger in his vision.
The door squealed and a pair of large, dark shapes suddenly leapt into the room. Edin felt his connection to the talent crushed like a stone on a peanut.
On instinct, he rolled to the right, his head barely missing the lava line. A clang of metal on stone came from behind him. Edin rolled until he was looking up at the wall with his feet pressed against it. Above him was a sword swooping around in an arc.
He pushed his feet into the walls and rolled backward landing on his toes. The smell of singed hair filled the place.
Dematians. Fast ones. Edin’s foot landed in between the seat and the cross member of the stool he’d been sitting on. One of the dematians was stepping forward to cut him in half.
Edin kicked. The stool flew off his foot and caught the dematian in the crotch. The demon stumbled sideways and its bootless foot landed on the glowing red line.
Then it let out a pained chittering and chattering cry. His mate didn’t seem to care. The sword wielder slashed at Edin who barely had time to duck.
Edin lashed out a foot and caught the dematian in the knee. There was a crack and the dematian dropped. But the scorched one was rising with the dematian horsehead knife. The beast was careful to watch his step, but he didn’t move well.
Edin tried pulling his blade from its sheath but the attack was too quick, he had to spin out of the way. His foot landed on the greatsword as the second beast was trying to pick it up.
The hilt smashed to the ground crushing the beast’s clawed fingers with an audible snap. A long arcing strike came at him meaning to cleave anything above three feet.
Edin pressed his foot onto the weaponless dematian’s shoulder and leapt. Grabbing the
beam, he thrust out his feet. His heels crashed into the dematian’s face, snapping its head back and sending it flying into the wall.
It screamed as the black skin sizzled against the line. Then Edin heard a creak from above him. The ceiling. Without thinking he let go, his legs still extended so he was nearly parallel to the ground.
He landed on the other dematian that cried out. Edin got a whiff of what could’ve been roasted pork that’d gone bad. Edin rolled off and turned to the two beasts. The dematian he’d landed on wasn’t moving, the other was trying to peel itself away from the fiery wall. Edin noticed a red dot forming above it. A raindrop. Then it dripped and dripped again. Burning lava falling from the ceiling.
It landed on the dematian’s head and sizzled. The thing cried out in such pain he wasn’t sure that the brain wrecking screech wasn’t from this thing.
Edin drew his sword and pierced the demon’s neck just to stop its cry. As he pulled out the blade, the thing dropped down and putrid blood pouring from its throat.
Something caught his eye. A small brilliantly orange stone flowing through the lava as if it were a boat that moved in the waves as opposed to on top of them.
A rock, the ruby… but there was no way he’d be able to grab it.
Edin looked around and found the dematian’s sword. He jammed it in the stream. The tip began to melt as he tried to flick it out.
But only a little of the molten rock flew out. When he looked at the blade, the tip was completely gone. Edin drew his blade and looked at the tip of his own sword.
It was eluvrian steel and enchanted. It could handle it right? What if it destroyed the blade?
He pictured Arianne in those caverns… in that city under the world. He had to get her. He had to save her and this was necessary. Compared to her, the sword meant nothing.
The stone finished its circuit and was about to disappear back into the ground. It was now or never.
With a quick movement, he slashed the blade into the river of fire. Sprays of molten rock flew out and away from him… as did the gem. Edin watched it crash into the stone wall and then drop, it hit an angled stone and skip across the stone floor into the pile of debris.
He jumped the first body and dropped to his knees before it.
Edin lifted a piece of lumber, a large stone and more lumber. He flung away an old scabbard, a leg of the stool. Where was the stone?
Smoke began to fill the room and his eyes was burning. Edin coughed as he was throwing away things he couldn’t even tell what they were. It was getting harder to breath. He could only smell the fire only taste it and only think about it.
There was nothing he could do. He had to find it before he left. It was that or… he erupted into a series of coughs, he lurched over and wretched.
For a brief moment of inspiration, he pulled his jerkin up over his mouth Edin slashed at the pile with his sword and heard the tink of stone skipping across the stone floor. The glittering ruby danced as it followed the curvature of the wall and somehow came to a stop just before the only door.
Standing in that door, darkening the room was the dematian king. Edin saw the eyes dancing in the smoke and the bone breastplate, the spiked teeth and a glowing gnarled staff. Edin could make out symbols on it.
He chittered something and slowly picked up the gemstone. A moment later, he turned and walked away toward a large serpentine creature.
In the moonlight, Edin saw the wyrm bending its long head down as the dematian king stepped over it and straddled the neck as if it were a horse.
Then it beat its wings and disappeared directly above him. Edin pulled himself across the stone floor, he felt the heat of the lava near his fingertips and barely missed it. He pulled forward more, then more. Crawling across the stone floor to the open door. He needed to get out.
Then he reached it. He wasn’t sure how far out he was when he heard the cry of the wyrm.
Edin’s earmuffs were gone and he convulsed. Beyond it, he felt and heard the explosion. Chunks of wood and stone flew everywhere, pelting him like he was a criminal in need of a good cabbaging.
But these cabbages were hard and painful but he couldn’t scream, he couldn’t cringe or cover up. Something slammed into his head and the world went black.
When he came to, he was nearly frozen. He tasted blood in his mouth and his body hurt like crazy. The right side of his head felt almost wet and there was a sheen over that eye. Edin wiped it with the back of his hand and noticed the orange glow.
Edin turn around. The entire tower was aflame with a large sprout of fire blazing into the air. It was as if the fuel source were unending.
The lava. Edin pulled himself to his feet and looked about, there was no sign of the dematian or the wyrm.
The night was quiet except for the weird gurgling sound. The Rage Stone was gone. Edin stumbled away from the tower and turned around. There was nothing left of the place. The tower had seemingly melted. Edin dropped his hand to his sword.
It wasn’t there. He remembered having it in the tower and dropping it somewhere. His heart sank. Then he thought of the attack.
He glanced around and then saw the bridge to the spire. Rihkar.
Edin began rushing toward the spire and began climbing the tower stairs. “Be alive…” he huffed.
He was freezing and the door he’d exited was closed. As he stumbled up, he kept having visions of his father lying broken in rubble or maybe there’d only be an outline of his body burnt into the stone.
Why hadn’t Rihkar run to find him, why hadn’t he tried to help… he must be dead. Edin thought. Edin lost Arianne, the stone, his father… he lost Mirage and was going to die in this place alone. “Failure…” he pushed out through chattering teeth.
It was dark and Edin was shivering when he reached the pinnacle of the mountain. One door hung by a small hinge, the other was gone. A nearly invisible line of smoke was eerily trickling from some unknown source out of sight of the door. It smelled like a barbeque.
Edin stepped over the threshold in the antechamber. Inside, scraps of their trap were lying on the ground and the eerie orange glow of the lava line made it feel as if he were somewhere he shouldn’t be.
He covered his nose and crept forward. He stepped over a puddle of something that looked black. A scorch mark slashed the stone at a steep angle.
Poking out from beneath a crumbled rock was a wrinkled cloth.
Gray, like Rihkar’s…
Edin’s stomach leapt and he swayed when he saw one end was burnt.
“Rihkar…” he choked out; the words acrid in his mouth. The dwarven king was in pieces. His hammer, still solid was lodged into the wall like a lever. The place was a ruin and there was no sign of his father. On the ground near the wall, was Rihkar’s blade. Edin picked it up.
Did the thunderwyrm melt him? Could that even happen to a body?
“Rihkar!” Edin called again. He scanned the room; then he spotted a trail of what looked like blood going down. Edin moved quickly, his heavy feet stomping down the ramp. His energy returned and with it more and more panic.
Edin looked to the second rotunda, the windows were closed but the circle on the floor was lit up like a wintertide tree.
It looked funny for a moment, but he couldn’t stop. He continued down following the long dollops of blood. They reminded Edin of great tears.
The third room was empty and the fourth was lit up. Crumbled on the ground between the door and Edin’s cloak, was his father. The old man was in a heap and unmoving.
“Rihkar!” Edin shouted and ran over to him. Edin dropped down next to him, his knees sliding on the smooth floor. “Rihkar…” Edin shook him vigorously to no response. His skin was cold and damp.
Flipping him over, Edin’s mouth dropped.
Rihkar was pale, bleeding from a cut in the side… but not only that, his right sleeve was torn off just above the elbow and there was no arm. Edin quickly pulled it up and saw that the arm, was burnt off. The wound cauterized as if
it’d been sliced by a searing hot blade.
“Blasted…” Edin gasped and shook him. There was no response. Edin felt for a pulse. It was faint. He grabbed the cloak and threw it over the old man before lifting him.
His back screamed as Edin carried. It took a lot of effort, if he’d had the skills with the wind that Arianne had, he could’ve floated him down the ramp to the bedrooms.
It didn’t take long, maybe five minutes before he was at the door at the base of the spire. It was shut and Edin didn’t have time for this. Edin let go of Rihkar’s legs and shot out a hand. A gust of wind blasted past him. The door was ripped off its hinges and thrown through the room.
A bunch of surprised chattering cries came from beyond it. Then Edin saw them.
Dematians were lying on the ground or flopped against the walls.
His father moaned.
Rage flowed through him. They were in his house… they stole his gem and nearly killed his father and Arianne.
Edin felt the electricity in the air, a burning tingling feeling grew around him as the dematians, ten or more all crammed in the hall, began to rise. The five or so nearest Edin didn’t move.
Edin roared. “Die!” He flipped his hand around and whipped out his palm letting lose all of his strength and anger.
The lightning leapt through the demons like a toad on lily pads. Bounding through and out and scorching them like fire during a drought.
Chattering cries and moans came with the smell of burnt flesh. Edin felt weak and tired. Then it went quiet for a moment.
The slapping of feet running up stairs came from ahead. The dematians had entered the city. A part of him said, ‘that is why Rihkar made his room up here.’
At the far end of the corridor, the door stood open.
Edin laid his father down and raised a hand. The first couple of dematians appeared climbing the stairs. A moment before they reached the door Edin swung out a hand.