by BJ Hanlon
Edin blinked back tears as the god started to walk, to pace before him. Slowly and casually like Horston giving a lecture.
“You believe that you are someone you are not. You simply were the one who woke me, you were the one who found the grove and activated the ancient prison that has held me and my minions.”
Edin wanted to ask, ‘the grove?’ but no words could come out.
“You see, a mage could only open it and for thousands of years the grove was guarded by your family. A family that had been of non-magus’. They even openly rebelled against the king thinking that if they could kill all magi then I could never return.”
Edin felt woozy on his feet, he felt confused and scared and lost.
“Only you, developing the talent in that direct location set in motion the events for my rise.”
Edin tried to swallow but his mouth was dry. His head hurt from the deep and gravelly voice inside it.
“Edin,” Berka coughed from behind him.
Edin glanced back and saw Berka on his hand and knees. One of his hands was gripping the hilt of the greatsword as streamlets of sweat poured from his head.
Berka planted a foot down and steadied himself.
“So I suppose I should thank you for bringing me back into this world.” Yio Volor said in his mind. “You broke the spell my brother and Vestor, your forbearer, put on me when they trapped me in the underworld.”
Berka screamed, he was on his feet now and rushed toward Yio Volor.
“Don’t!” Edin screamed as Berka tried to swing.
But then suddenly he stopped like he hit a wall and then stumbled back. Then he saw it, the wall, dark black and reaching up to the sky. It was like a shadow lengthening as the sun set.
Somehow, this got Edin to react, to move again. He ran to Berka and pulled him back from the ever-expanding shadow wall.
Edin summoned a culrian around both of them to protect from the shadow. Then slowly, the white ethereal light met the dark wall.
A buzzing sound rang in his ears like a billion bees. The latter light began to consume the former like a bat does insects.
“You cannot stop me.” Yio Volor said.
Edin screamed as he continued to drag Berka back. His friend flailed and kicked his feet and shrieked in a wild howl, like a bear with its foot in a trap.
Edin pulled him as far from Yio as possible and was nearing the edge of the clearing. Then Edin reached out and felt the flames with the talent. He couldn’t control those and didn’t have the time to wonder why.
He sucked the air from them and made a hole. A long archway actually and he dragged Berka and him through it.
He heard the chattering of dematians, squawks and growls and cries of beasts he couldn’t recognize.
The feeling of terrible, evil eyes were upon him. There was the hatred and a hunger.
At that moment, he remembered the evil that he’d felt when he’d first seen the mob outside of the manor.
Then Berka scrambled to his feet as Edin pulled him forward. Then they were running. Not sure where but away.
In his mind he heard, “you can flee me now. Say goodbye. This I give you as gratitude. The only one I’ll ever bestow on a human.”
They ran through the woods. He saw colors exploding around and through the forest. He heard them too. Great explosions that seemed to be going off every split second.
Earth exploded around them, trees began to fall like a logger had gone on a frenzy and the air beat and pulsed like the earth itself was breathing.
They ran, he didn’t know how long they ran or which way they were going. There was no morning light, no moon. There was the forest and the darkness and the explosions.
Then there were bodies. Men and horses and they weren’t from Berka’s patrol.
They were from Edin’s own.
The sergeant was trapped under his horse, blood pouring from a wound beneath his armpit. There was the kid that woke him, or at least what was left of him as his torso was ripped from his legs. Men and horses were dead all around.
Despite seeing that, he didn’t know which way to go.
“My gods,” Berka said slowing for a moment. Then something clicked and he ran to the right, to an unknown place.
Edin followed. He grew more and more woozy and tired as they continued to run through bare bushes and over fallen trees.
Bodies of birds, deer, and rabbits liy around. Limp snakes hung from trees like garland.
Then there was the sound of water. A rushing water and Edin spotted it twinkling in the flashing lights.
They ran to the river and he couldn’t see the other side in the darkness. Edin summoned an ethereal light and spotted a great tree hanging precariously over water.
They had to get downstream and fast. Edin knew that it’d be cold but it didn’t matter. He summoned an ethereal blade like he had over the ravine so long ago and slashed at the trunk.
The tree splashed into the water like a giant doing a belly flop and bobbed up.
“Get to it,” Edin shouted and pushed Berka into the cold water. Edin dove after, barely acknowledging the cold. He reached up and threw an arm around the trunk and then grabbed Berka.
Edin let go of the light and felt for the water. With it, he took hold and pushed the tree into the middle of the river.
“Was that?” Berka gasped while his teeth chattered. “The god of the underworld?”
“Yes,” Edin said as he began to feel the freezing water surrounding him like the most unwelcome pillow of all time.
“Oh good. I thought I was going mad.”
Edin tried to laugh but his body was frozen. He tried to hug the tree tighter and closed his eyes. Edin saw the visions behind those closed eyes. He saw the deaths from the past, then he saw his men. The one’s he’d abandoned to chase after a lone dematian. They may have still lived if he hadn’t.
Voices were shouting around him a little later. They were from afar and muted as water crashed around him like he was a rock in a rapid.
Edin looked up and saw the tree and Berka next to him. His friend’s eyes were open but his lips were blue. Above him, the limbs of the tree were trapped in the burning barrier that ran across the entry to the city. The flames began to catch the limbs.
“Help,” Edin yelled out. Then he saw a person in the firelight off to the side. A moment later, he felt the water slowly forming around him like a boat.
Edin couldn’t talk beyond the last word. He closed his eyes and disappeared again into a nightmare of death.
He was walking down a long and wide boulevard. He felt unhurried, he was at peace with what was happening.
By the looks of the buildings, he could tell it was a great city. One of history and tales of valor. He knew it to be Calerrat when he spied the prince’s castle. It as well as everything else were on fire with the rest of the city.
All but a single building off across the river in old town. It was tall and that was why he could still see it.
Edin reached an intersection and saw men and women leaping from a pair of four story buildings next to each other as the flames tore out the windows below. They didn’t want to be burned alive and he agreed it’d be a bad idea.
Then there were the hordes of beasts running through. There were dematians and giants and crillios running over the bodies of dead humans and elves.
When did the elves get here? Edin wondered as he walked through the street. He turned and continued further down another street. He spotted someone running from a burning house. A woman with a bonnet in her hair and a baby crying in her arms.
Behind, a crillio was racing after her and catching up with amazing speed.
Edin simply looked away as he continued toward somewhere else. The woman’s screams were drowned out by the great explosion of a collapsing building somewhere.
Then he saw the harbor and the boats as sailors tried to hold off the attackers from getting on the docks and then on the ships as they were cast off.
One shi
p was already gone. In the harbor but just barely in the circle of fire light when there was a great glow and a bubbling beneath the water.
Edin smiled.
Then a geyser of water exploded and crunching and cracking sounds as the ship and all of its passengers disappeared beneath the waterline.
12
The Coming of the Beast
There was little Edin could say when he was roused. His mind was filtering between what had been the reality of what was happening and the visions that had been dancing in his head.
Edin tried to concentrate on a flame that was in front of him. A small burning wick of a candle. But he then saw everyone burning. Someone touched his arm and he yelped.
Edin looked over and saw a face melting from the bone. He closed his eyes and began to rock. “Go away,” he said, “go.”
Arms were wrapped around him and he felt the warmth of human contact. For a moment, then he felt the searing of the flagrant fire.
Edin cried out.
“It’s okay Edin,” the voice said. A warm, soft voice next to his ear.
Edin shook his head. “No, it’s not,” Edin said, “it’s not okay.”
“What happened?” she asked and Edin could feel others were in the room as well.
I need to be strong, he thought and tried to concentrate on a single white dot in the darkness of his closed eyes. He breathed in. He swallowed and his mouth felt rough.
Then in his head he heard, ‘it is okay. Tell them I am here, tell them to say goodbye.’ He knew exactly who it was.
The words were like nails on slate as they pounded through his skull. He’d escaped Yio Volor only to be tethered to him through his mind.
Edin gasped and hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath. His eyes shot open to see he was in a large room with a canopy bed. There were four people around, his father, Le Fie, Arianne, and Dorset.
“He’s here,” Edin said.
Then the visions came again and then another voice. ‘Concentrate, learn to keep it out.’
The voice pressed against the other in his skull. The other side of his head. It was like a pair of armies hemming and hawing as they fight over a single foot of ground.
Edin moaned and rolled over. Light blinded his eyes and somewhere beyond the confines of the room he heard bells ringing and people shouting.
“Take care of him,” Rihkar said and then there were footsteps running from the room.
“Edin,” it was Arianne’s voice. “Edin we need you, we cannot do this without—”
He was shaking his head vigorously. “You didn’t see him,” Edin whispered. “He is pure fear… pure terror.”
“Blast it, Edin!” she shouted and a slap came across his face.
Edin blinked his eyes open. He looked up and saw her looking down at him. There was fear in her eyes but also a fight.
“Do not make me do that again!” she shouted. “I was taken by those demons and held for weeks. You were barely there for brunch.”
Edin’s jaw quivered, “it was Yi—” She slapped him again and in Edin’s head he heard. ‘You deserve it.’
The words were a man’s voice.
“Arianne. I—”
Another slap and his face felt like it was on fire but he couldn’t move, he couldn’t even block the strike from happening. He looked for the talents. Any one of them, but those all seemed to have gone into hiding.
The visions then came back. The city burning and Arianne, the beautiful and proud woman was upon a crucifix in front of the palace. She was panicking and crying but he could see the talent as she fought as the flames all around were being thrashed in the wind.
She was strong.
“Get away,” she screamed as Edin approached. A small breeze brushed past his body. “You’re a monster. The gods were right to cast you down.”
“Do not speak of what you do not know,” said Edin who clearly wasn’t Edin. “I was tricked by a demi-god. One whose allotted time on this plane has long since gone away.”
A burning feeling came through and he blinked his eyes open again. Above him was Arianne. She wasn’t on the cross, but she was still crying. Her beautiful gray-green eyes were red and her tears were like rivers streaming down her perfect face.
She pulled a hand back and Edin closed his eyes ready to take it.
‘Concentrate on the breath, it is fake. Block it out you stupid boy.’
He felt the slap again and heard the cry from beyond his own body. It wasn’t from him. He saw the vision of Monk falling from the sky. He saw a man stabbing Horston.
‘Learn, do better for all of our sakes.’
Edin took a breath through his nose. He felt the air flowing in and moving swiftly over his three-day mustache. He felt it filling his lungs and his chest expanding.
Then the grating words hit him, ‘you cannot keep me out. I first control you, then I control the world.’
Edin moaned as he tried to push that away. Then the visions came and he was standing near a tall building as people were being thrown off. He caught the eyes of a young kid, barely five that was gaping at him in horror.
“Fake,” Edin grumbled. He breathed in again through his nostrils and felt the air rushing in and down his throat. He pushed it further than his lungs. The air ran down his legs into his feet and through his arms into the tips of his fingers.
Edin exhaled.
He felt another smack across his face. It helped. It kept him centered in the real world but it still stung.
‘I own all this land!’ The words did not grate anymore. Instead, they were quieter. It was like the speaker had been walking away as he spoke.
Edin took a breath, he concentrated more on it. ‘It is a distraction.’ He said in his mind and focused on his words.
A shot of clear vision appeared before him. It was a street. The street before the castle and it was empty of destruction.
There were no fires or crucifixes. There was no death.
Edin’s eyes opened and he looked up at Arianne who was bringing another slap down on him. Her eyes were closed and she looked to be doing it almost on repeat like a wind-up doll.
He shot out a hand and caught hers.
Her eyes opened and she looked at him. There was terror in her gaze.
“I’m okay,” Edin gulped.
She laid on him and wrapped him up like he was aflame and needed to be put out. Then she pulled back and kissed him with a wet, tear-filled kiss.
Edin squeezed her.
They laid there for a few minutes wrapped in each other’s arms. Edin had an ominous feeling, a premonition of some sort.
This would never happen again.
Edin blocked that out. He took a breath, heard in the back of his mind one word. ‘Soon.’
He let it pass.
Arianne helped dress him and told him what had happened, how they were pulled from the river, Berka was freezing but coherent and told what had happened.
Edin was frozen and incoherent. The guards that found him dragged him to a nice home near the gate and put him up in a recently vacated room. The previous owners, well off merchants, had set sail for the southern isles not too long before Edin had been found.
Edin remembered the beast in his vision. The one that sunk the ship like it was a toy boat in a bath tub. He said nothing about that and was quiet as he dressed. He strapped Mirage to his side and pushed himself from the bed.
‘Nothing you can do boy. The world is mine now.’
Edin ignored it and took a breath. Vestor. He thought. He knew that was the other voice in his mind and he needed to send a message to the god.
No reply.
As they reached the first floor of the stairs, he heard a commotion out the front door. Arianne and Edin went outside and saw that there were soldiers standing around as a large wagon passed. It rumbled on the cobblestone as the metal inside rattled. Edin saw weapons poking out from it.
Dull and bent.
Then from beyond the walls, there c
ame explosions and yells of beasts that were not natural to this world. He heard the primevals and glanced up. He could barely see them in the firelight.
Just barely as they swooped in and out without making any sort of attack.
“Grab arms if ya’ll ain’t armed,” a soldier shouted. It was one of the men with the wagon filled with weapons. “The prince commands that all men, women, and children above the age of ten shall fight.”
‘They’ll all die. They’ll all burn.’ The voice said in his head, Edin took a breath and pressed it back.
He could remember being ten and looking up at grownups and thinking things like, wow he’s big and strong. Edin couldn’t imagine what a ten-year-old would think when looking up at a dematian or crillio. For that matter, what would a normal person think looking up at a giant or Yio.
Arianne started over. “Soldier, you cannot arm children!”
Edin wanted to go with her. To follow her but heard another explosion. It didn’t seem too close. Everything was in the fields beyond the walls so far. But it was getting closer.
Edin ran toward the wall, found a door beneath a turret and slipped inside. He ran up the stairs past men going up and down. He pushed past a large guy standing like a statue and then between a pair of slower moving men who shouted after him.
At the top, there was a small room with armor and weapons stands and doors leading out to the left and the right. Edin went to the closest, the right one and burst out into the night.
The wall was crowded with men. On it there were small catapults and large, mounted crossbow-like weapons called scorpions.
The flaming braziers from earlier were next to flaming buckets of oil and large containers filled with hundreds of arrows. Edin saw men with pikes and knives and swords readying themselves.
On the wall though, they were surprisingly quiet.
Then there was a loud noise from the field. A bang and men yelped and one started a crazed sort of screaming. An officer rushed to the man and started berating him and Edin looked away. He glanced over toward the great farms of Calerrat.
More explosions lit up the night, some seemed to be simply there to provide light but soon Edin began to see the battlefield that hadn’t yet been, but would soon be.