by BJ Hanlon
“So, what do we do now?” the monk said.
After a long moment Edin said, “You should leave. You cannot help me now. Take the raft and follow the river to Alestow.”
The monk just stared at Edin for a moment, a long moment. It was as if he were trying to read Edin’s mind, but he didn’t feel any invasion. Then the monk reached into his robe and pulled out a chain. It was like a Vestion priest’s chain, though this was much different. Much fuller. He saw the home and the book, he saw a snake, a sword, a triangle…
“After the first one-hundred years where we receive one token every ten, the chain becomes heavy. Then we switched to one token every one-hundred years, but after the first two-thousand, we decided that it should be one every thousand.” The monk paused looking at all of the tokens around his neck. It was longer than any monks he’d seen and would hang past the man’s navel though he held it between his hands, his eyes moving from token to token. The face, the shovel, a plant. “I just received my third thousand-year token last year. I have thirty in total and I do not believe my neck can handle another.”
The monk called Monk had a wistfulness in his voice. Edin had the feeling that despite the sorrow at his brother’s death, the sadness of leaving the vale, a part of the monk was awakened. He closed his eyes and then spoke again. “The abbot thinks I should as well.”
“He’s talking to you?”
‘I can talk to you too...,’ the abbot said in Edin’s head. It was so unexpected that he nearly dropped his ale. Monk steadied him.
‘Got it,’ Edin said. ‘No more of that will you. Talk through Monk.’
“He says fine. And that Berka is healing well. Another day and he should be healthy enough to leave.”
“A day in vale time?” Edin asked.
“Yes.”
“A fortnight or so in the out here.” Edin said. “What happened in the vale? What happened to the lake and the people and the animals…?”
“The mist did not touch the monastery. Everyone there was fine.” The monk seemed to catch his breath. “A few monks climbed the stairs to escape it, but they are in a bad way.”
“Your brother?”
“They’re all my brothers,” The monk paused. “But no, he did not return from the cottage.”
Edin said nothing. He turned back toward the north and then toward the west. He could see no monsters coming from either direction, though to the north, he saw clouds forming.
Thick bulbous gray clouds, like clothes in the washtub, began to roll together. They were far off and moving slowly, or so he thought.
Edin saw lightning inside one of the clouds, then more in another. Edin felt uneasy, then to the east something caught his eye, it flew toward the cloud and disappeared inside it. A streak of red with a grayish trail led to it like a wide tipped pen.
Then there was an explosion within… lightning increased to a vicious rumbling roar. Orange bursts erupted in there with the lightning. Orange and then yellow or blue. Then below it, objects began leaving the cloud. They were black and orange streaks that disappeared beyond the horizon. Edin wasn’t sure what happened but he realized his jaw was open and he glanced down at his mug.
The ale shivered in his hand. He set it down but the shivering didn’t stop.
“What is happening?” Monk said.
More objects began raining down. He heard as well as felt the explosions now. They rattled his bones.
Bliz whined and looked up at Edin. His dark eyes shimmering with what would’ve been fear, probably was fear.
“It’s moving toward us,” Monk said. There was no fear in that voice. Not anymore.
“You can still leave,” Edin said catching his breath and somehow getting his mouth to work. It took quite a bit to get that out.
Monk shook his head.
Edin looked at Bliz. “You can too.”
Bliz tilted his head as if to say, ‘are you serious?’ It was the same look Bliz had the last time Edin had to leave him.
“Well, it’s coming here, might as well get ready.”
Edin lit a fire in the hearth and set up candles around the room. Being able to control fire would be a plus and with the inn being stone, he felt at least partially protected.
Edin poured himself another ale and sat at the bar.
“This is what you’re going to do? Just drink some ale as the world is coming to an end.”
“Not yet, and it won’t be while I still hold this,” Edin said. He pulled the birth stone from his pocket and set it on the bar.
“It sure looks like it’s going to end,” Monk said as he moved closer. He reached out and picked up the emerald. “It looks just like a gemstone.”
“It’s the Birth Stone. One of five gemstones from the set of Blossom Stones.”
“The Blossom Stones? The stones of the gods?”
Edin nodded. “The ones that adorned the king’s crown for thousands of years until the fall of the kingdom.”
Monk moved close to the flame of a candle and peered down at it. It took a bit. A long bit as he looked into the stone. Edin wondered if he was talking to the abbot or just in deep thought.
Then he walked around the bar, grabbed a mug and an ale and sat down next to Edin. “So, you’re the Ecta Mastrino then, yes?”
Edin drank but didn’t answer. He was sick of answering this.
Monk began listing them: “Fire.” Edin nodded. “Water, wind, earth, lightning? Spirit?” Edin nodded at them all.
“Well I’ll be, you are the prophesized one, Vestor’s hero.”
Edin still felt off somehow. But what exactly did he expect when he grabbed the Birth Stone? Did he expect to be able to fly or something? Maybe move mountains with his mind or grow giant forests with a thought? Did he think he could create rivers or oceans or destroy cities?
He thought of those things, and none of that mattered right now. He pictured Arianne as he’d last seen her. In that darkened cell, all alone and scared, probably wondering where he was and why he wasn’t rescuing her?
How long had it been? Two months since the collapse of the ice tunnel? Three months? He didn’t even know. I’m failing her, he thought.
“So what’s the plan?”
“The dematian king is coming. He’ll try to kill me and take the emerald. Instead I’ll kill him and take back my stones. That way he cannot release Yio Volor.”
“Sounds like a simple plan,” Monk said sarcastically and took a sip from the ale. He was quiet then but it seemed like his brain was working. His eyes seemed thoughtful as the firelight danced off his dark pupils.
Was Monk talking with the abbot? Was he probing Edin’s mind? Could he search through it like a woodsman does animal scat to find out what the beast ate? Or was it like reading a tome.
Edin tried to blank out his mind. For a long time they just sat. Slowly, he began to hear the rolling thunder. It was barely audible and the crackling fire had covered the noise very well. Edin sipped on his ale even though it had long grown warm and the room had grown stuffy.
Bliz panted near his feet but Edin kept thinking about the ale or the fire or the walls, the dull brown walls with a single painting. One of the old proprietors. The ones who’d lived here and gave each other a rough time with everything.
The ones who’d loved each other as Edin loved Arianne.
Thunder grew louder and the explosions grew nearer. He wondered what it was like out there. Was the darkness whole yet? Was it night even though the clock on the wall had just chimed five?
Edin stood and looked at Monk. The man was sitting next to him, eyeing Edin carefully.
Monk took a breath and said, “I think I may wish to take your offer after all. I’m worthless in a fight and a boat ride down the river may do these old bones good.”
Edin nodded. He understood and despite having company, he wanted to do this alone. He didn’t want to have the old man, very old man’s well-being in his worry. It meant Edin couldn’t retreat on the raft, but what would that matter.
He had to kill the dematian king or be killed by him. There was no other option.
“I wish you luck,” Edin said following the monk to the back. Edin pulled away the prep table as Monk slipped out back. It was near dusk by the looks of it.
Edin imagined that the world was somehow shoved into a large cave or a giant sock was being pulled over it. A cave or sock of thunder and lightning and gods playing with the world as if it were a ball. Then he thought of the gods as infants kicking it and not really caring what they’re doing but just doing it. Doing infantile things that would hurt humanity.
They really didn’t care, Edin thought as he watched Monk slowly untying the raft from the tree.
Bliz howled. A thick, strong howl. One of sadness and possibly farewell. Edin closed the door and put the prep table before it and wedged it between that and the wall. Edin tried to yank on the door handle. The door didn’t flinch.
Edin looked down at Bliz. “No one’s getting in that way,” Edin said and headed toward the bar. He refilled his ale mug and went again to the front door. The soft patter of rain began to sound on the roof and windows.
He’d always liked the rain. The smell was fresh and clean and the feeling was that of a washed day. Like all past indiscretions were wiped away. It would be a hopeful day.
Edin went to the front. He held his ale in one hand and the quarterstaff in the other. He opened the door to see the entire northern sky was dark. The clouds that had been gray were now black and exploding with sparks of lightning and fire. As he thought about it, he saw something explode above him. He felt it was a large chunk of rock.
It shattered like throwing a spear through a pane of glass. Chunks the size of his head rained down toward the earth at great speed.
Edin held up his hand and caught them before they hit. Then he sent them into the river where they plopped into the trickling water. He heard noises coming from the northwest. Edin thought he could almost see the Great Cliffs though they were many hundreds of miles away. He thought he could see Cliff Raptors on the winds, but the winds high above him were howling. They were whipping past at an enormous speed.
The lightning cracked violently above him again, but he didn’t flinch.
In that crack, he saw the outline of something huge. Another thunderwyrm, though this looked like it was three times the size of the last.
Edin barely had a moment to blink when the cloud, or something in the cloud, sent a bolt toward him. Edin held out a hand and felt the electrical shock strike his arm. But it felt like a feather was tickling his palm.
Then he looked back northwest and saw the cloud, not in the sky but on the ground. He looked north too. More clouds. The east, he saw nothing over the river, but that sky hadn’t turned black yet.
It was moving that way, though he had a feeling it couldn’t completely cover the land.
Not while Yio Volor was still trapped beneath the earth. Not while men and magi still fought on the surface.
A piercing cry of the wyrm echoed through the world. The one that had sent Edin to his knees before.
This rattled his head but didn’t make him collapse. He thought he heard a ‘you’re welcome’ in his mind but it was too hard with the lashing wind. Then he saw the cloud near the ground beginning to crest a small rise and burst through a barren field. Edin knew what was in the cloud now.
Dematians, a lot of them. Edin turned north and was able to pick out more of them. Hundreds of them coming from each side.
They were converging on him as if a giant, or a god like Yio Volor, were slapping together a sandwich with two slices of bread.
The wyrm screeched out again.
Slowly, and as calmly as he could. Edin sipped the ale before he set it down. He was still standing in the doorway of the inn with Bliz right behind him.
Scattered between the dematians, Edin saw large, black cats. He saw black eyes to contrast with the dematian yellow or red eyes.
“Crillios,” Edin whispered. Bliz howled. A loud, strong howl like that of a pack leader. Edin petted Bliz’s head and gripped the quarterstaff.
Surprisingly, the robe gave Edin a lot of room to maneuver and he’d gotten used to the sandals enough that moving in them was even easier than moving in the boots.
Edin stepped out before the monsters coming toward him. He felt a charge of lightning coursing through his body. And he felt it above. The thunderwyrm was producing it.
Edin lowered a hand to the western company as they came at him. It was a staggered line with crillios and dematians. Edin closed his eyes and let it out.
The lightning crashed at the demons striking the blade of one and sparking. It leapt from the dematian to at least three others. Those ones stopped mid run; their bodies seized but more continued on.
Many more.
To the north, he saw things flying above the dematian army. Long headed beasts with gray skin, black eyes, and wingspans nearly ten feet across. They weren’t wyrms or dragons, they were something else, something primeval.
That was the only word Edin could think to call them.
Primevals.
The rain was starting to come down and they seemed to be all covered in water. Edin took a breath and felt the lightning above them. The dematian king had done him a favor in bringing the storm. He had offered Edin a way to fight them all.
Edin felt for the lightning crackling above him again and suddenly couldn’t feel it. Then he looked up. He saw the lightning. It cracked and sparked but he couldn’t feel it.
The water came down and a great explosion erupted above him. He saw it and knew what it was. Another meteor or comet.
Edin reached out and felt the stones in the air. With a great thrust, he sent them down onto the northern attackers. There were great explosions and he saw a few of the primeval birds drop from the sky and heard the cries of the demons and crillios.
He reached to the water to the east and took the river’s momentum.
Edin took it in his hand and lifted the water up like he was pulling a long rope out of a trough. He pulled it out and then sent the water in a wave toward the northern army.
There was cries that sounded surprised as many dematians and crillios and even a few of the primevals were taken out by the waves as beasts crashed into each other.
There was an exhaustion coming on him. He tried to remember what Rihkar had said, tried to let it flow through him.
With a deep breath he put an arm out as he reached for the energy that was all around.
There were bits and he let it flow into him as he also felt the rain coming down; he held it and turned it to hail. Small and large chunks of razor-sharp ice. He sent those toward the western group.
There were more pained and tortured cries and Edin could see the bodies, like lumps of black coal on the ground.
But the attacks didn’t work as well as he’d hoped. There were more behind. Waves of the dematians, and crillios and the flying primevals.
He needed to steady himself on the hitching post for a moment. Then Edin looked down at Bliz from the corner of his eye. “My friend, this isn’t going to end well.”
Bliz was looking to the northwest and the demons coming from that way. In a crash of lightning, he saw more flying beasts. A huge V shape of them. They’d just crested the hill a mile or so away.
Then he heard a howl, something from the east. Edin turned and saw blurs of gray, white, and black running across where the river had been. He’d sent the wave into the dematians, but the river should’ve immediately refilled. It was refilling, but slower than it should’ve been. It was as if the water slowed for him. For them.
Vestor.
Then he saw the dire wolves, a pack of them, leaping out of the riverbed. He heard the cries, squawks of a different kind flying in from the north.
The primeval birds began to waver, the northern group were being flanked by the wolves.
Suddenly, there were brown and white birds flying low and appearing from behind a rising hill
. Cliff Raptors were swooping into the western group and plucking dematians up from the crowd and tossing them when they were thirty or forty feet in the air.
Edin drew his sword and stepped into the rain.
He felt the water wash over him and felt streams rushing down his face and past his eyes. Edin put up the green hood. He spun the sword in one hand and the quarterstaff in the other as the dematians rushed toward them.
“Ready,” Edin said. Bliz snorted or sneezed. Edin thought the dire wolf was saying. ‘Come on already.’
Then the first dematian was within reach. The beast came at him with a large horsehead knife. The dematian was slow and seemed like he could’ve been scrawny. Edin parried the haft with his staff and drove his blade through the dematian’s neck. Edin flicked his wrist and the head popped off.
Then he summoned an ethereal bubble and he heard the crash. Metal scraping, crillios and dematians howling. He heard Bliz roar and a chattering, crying scream from a dematian.
Then there was another.
Edin released the shield and started forward. He parried an attack with his staff and smacked the dematian in the head with his own weapon. A mace.
The dematian dropped and didn’t get up. He blocked and dodged two more, one with a spear the other a greatsword. Then Edin countered both. He slashed through the shoulder of a crillio that was about to pounce but was too slow. The crillio still leapt but it was hobbled and barreled into three dematians. He saw the blur that was Bliz and other dire wolves dodging between the forest of dematians and crillios.
The primeval birds were attacking and being attacked.
A giant one was gouged by the beak of a Cliff Raptor. The raptor tore out its neck. Blood splattered in the rain and the thing started to careen down like it had a few drinks.
Edin saw it coming toward him out of the corner of his eye. He leapt back and two crillios took his place.
The bird crashed into one and both bowled into the other. Edin sent ethereal knives into the two downed cats but more took their place.
He had felt good for a moment, then he saw three, no four, cliff raptors taken out by a blast of yellow from the sky. A bright yellow beam.