by BJ Hanlon
Edin looked back. Trees, live and dead, fell; earth and plants were ripped from the ground and joined the growing demonic twister. He ran on and leapt a great fallen log probably two feet in diameter and an instant later, it whipped over his head.
Then he was hit in the back.
It was like being hit with a hundred wet towels on his shirtless back and it stung as he was flung, spinning like a top off to the right.
Edin’s left arm hit a tree. It was a stinger and the entire thing went numb as he was spun and landed hard on his back. He rolled three or four times and then stopped as his face pressed against a leathery, nasty skin that smelled like old urine and rotten tomatoes.
Edin’s body wouldn’t respond. Heck his mind barely wanted to do anything but close his eyes and play dead. Maybe the flying swooping twister would go over him and he could flee to somewhere else and although he knew it was not a permanent solution, it also wasn’t being here where he’d be ripped apart or beaten or maybe eaten.
The last made him shudder and he got a larger whiff of the body next to him. Edin raised his head to get away and his eyes opened. He was pressed into a dematian that was seated up against a tree. It was a large one with a great cut across its stomach and its guts spilled out.
But that wasn’t what caught his eye.
It was the thing that was around its neck.
Edin’s mouth went dry and his left hand opened and closed. The staff was gone but that barely registered.
He blinked and reached up and touched the white fang that glowed slightly. Just enough, but it was there. He touched it half expecting to feel something.
But there was nothing physical in the touch. It was a crillio fang and it hung on a string that looked completely familiar.
It could not be, Edin thought. He’d lost it in the ocean. He lifted it up and slowly pulled the head forward so that he could get it off the beast’s neck.
A small burst of sunlight suddenly lit up the area even more and Edin saw, etched in the side of the fang in extremely small letters was the words:
Edin, You’re stronger than you know. Love Mother.
Tears welled up and he blinked though he did not blink them away. He heard the roaring of the wind beast thing, he heard the ripping of trees, and the cracking of lightning. Boiling and acidic water began bubbling up to his right. The smelled burned his nose as Edin squeezed the fang and looped the string over his head.
It dropped down to his chest and covered his heart.
Edin flexed his left hand. It worked, but there was a muscle pain in his bicep. “That’ll bruise tomorrow,” Edin said barely thinking of the implication of the words but still knowing somewhere inside what it meant.
The large cloud serpent, wyrm thing, was roaring above the trees now, circling up in the air. Then a loud voice ran through the forest and over the trees and wind. “Your hero will die now,” Yio Volor called. “And you will die soon.”
Suddenly the wyrm turned like it could actually see Edin and think on its own and it opened its dark cloud mouth.
He half expected it to expel something like lightning or fire but nothing came. It dropped down and Edin took a breath.
“I’m stronger than you know,” Edin said directing the words to Yio Volor.
He closed his eyes as the sound grew louder. The wind picked up and he reached out his left hand. In it he formed an ethereal ball the size of an apple.
Edin saw the light in his mind. He felt the energy that little ball had. It wasn’t about strength and size and power; it was about spirit.
Without looking, Edin threw it up at the beast. It roared with no sound as the light flew into the cloud beast’s mouth. In his head he saw it disappear as if it’d been swallowed.
“Your puny light ball cannot—”
Edin put all of his strength and force into it. He willed it explode from inside. Edin looked as the cloud that was ten feet away suddenly erupted in a great ball of light that would’ve blinded anyone around them.
But Edin could see still, in fact his eyes were nearly perfect as he looked through the light and saw where he was.
Somehow, he was back in the glade. To the right, he saw the crack in the earth, the chasm that Yio Volor had made and noticed things.
Inside the dirt gap and being thrust up from the earth were large stone blocks. Blocks that seemingly fitted together perfectly and Edin guessed with no mortar.
Yio was also there, on the other side of the glade, and he was rubbing his eyes rapidly. In his hand was the quarterstaff with five of the six Ballast Stones and that was when Edin knew what he had to do.
He had to get it.
Then from around him, he heard voices. Human voices. They stepped into the clearing, Rihkar was first, followed by Arianne, Dorset, and Le Fie. Hotep, Papa, and Mel joined. On the opposite side came Grent and Dephina followed by Hyle Coroju and the she-elf and an older woman who looked like an older version of the she-elf. Henny appeared with Yechill and Ocop.
There were many more as well. Men and women all around baring swords and spears, axes and bows.
A surge of hope and gratitude ran through him. He wasn’t alone. The tears were barely held behind his eyes as he felt the strength. The spirit that each of them held, the confidence in him and Edin realized it wasn’t just about him.
It was about all of them.
“Together.” Vestor said in his mind. “It is all of us together.”
Edin was without the staff that gave him endless energy but that didn’t matter. He stepped forward as Yio Volor began to see again. The god of the underworld glanced left then right then straight at Edin.
“You brought your friends here to watch you die,” Yio hissed.
Edin spun the sword. It was one of those old friends and he watched Yio’s eyes shift as he tried to follow it.
Then Edin roared and ran at the god. He crossed the glade in an instant and was just before Yio swinging his weapon. Yio was barely fast enough to block the attack. Edin’s sword was deflected but he went with it, using the momentum to come back around.
This time Yio had to block with the quarterstaff and there were sparks that exploded from it.
The strength of Edin’s strike took Yio’s arm backward and he stumbled and yelped.
Edin brought the sword up and around again and brought it down at an angle continuing to press.
He clattered it into Yio’s black steel sword. Sparks erupted from around them and Edin caught them and sent them into his opponent’s face.
Yio tried and failed to counter with a jab of the staff. Instead, Edin leapt up and corkscrewed over it, with the help of a small breeze, and came back down.
His sword slashed down and hit the quarterstaff barely an inch from where Yio’s hand gripped it.
The end of the staff slapped down on the ground. As it struck, the earth split. Edin landed to the side but Yio was straddling it.
Edin screamed and summoned an ethereal shield to over his foot. Edin let loose a snap kick and struck Yio Volor’s hand as it held onto the staff.
The god of the Underworld screamed and howled. The quarterstaff flew up into the air and out of sight.
He spread the glowing ethereal light to his leg and up his thigh and all around him so it was like armor. Edin followed the snap kick with the sword, also covered in ethereal light.
Yio’s sword arm was coming down but Edin was faster and more precise.
Mirage slashed through Yio’s wrist to the great surprise and shock of the demon god.
Yio howled again, or maybe it was a continuous howl as Edin brought it down and cut through his gut.
Yio dropped to his knees above the chasm. He looked up at Edin, then fell inside.
He dropped about twenty feet into the darkness and Edin thought he’d disappear back into the underworld.
Then, Yio seized something with his good hand. A large stone that once had to have been part of an ancient structure.
“You will not defeat me,” said
Yio. “My rise has been ordained. This is my world now!”
Edin saw the Ballast Stone staff a few feet away. It had landed in a half-burnt bush and was sticking up like a flagpole. The five Ballast Stones glowing brightly. He walked to it and picked it up.
The energy that coursed through at that moment was palpable. Edin reached into his pocket and grabbed the light purple Ballast Stone. He stared at the two of them and saw that the stones all pulsed with light. It was the first time they’d been together in a thousand years.
“Edin?” Arianne said cautiously from behind him.
He saw the spot where the stone would fit. A single opening at the tip of the staff. Edin took a breath and brought the Ballast Stone to the staff.
The pulses grew stronger and there was a buzzing in his head.
Yio yelled, “How’d you get that?”
Then Edin brought the two together. With a quick snap, he placed the pulsing light purple stone into the staff. Power flowed through it and through him. It was as if all of the powers of the elements were joined into one.
The entire staff began to glow with a bright light that was nearly impossible to look at, though Edin couldn’t take his eyes off it.
“Edin!” Arianne screamed.
“Son!” Shouted Rihkar. Others cried out as well.
Burn Vestor’s last might.
The words were in his ear and he wasn’t exactly sure whose they were, but he knew exactly what to do. Edin pointed the quarterstaff at Yio Volor. The god of the underworld looked frightened as if he’d soon become just one of the dead who occupy his lands.
Edin let the energy flow from the staff. He thought of Rihkar’s words, his instruction, let it flow through. Edin did that. He tried bringing the energy from all around the area into the staff and redirecting it.
He saw a beam of white ethereal light hit Yio directly and the demon god screamed. It wasn’t a howl anymore; it was a cry of pain and fear.
He let it race through him and saw the beast convulsing. Somehow, the beast had to be sent back to his realm. Not the corporeal place under the world, but the other place, the spiritual Underworld.
“Edin!” Arianne cried out. “Stop.”
He glanced over his shoulder and could then see all of the people and their energies, white ethereal mists, flowing from them and into him.
Arianne collapsed to her knees, Le Fie fell to the side, Grent and Dephina held each other up, but only just. Rihkar still stood and he was shuffling closer.
Edin was killing them. He saw that, taking their energies and using them. Master Horston had warned him about that, about using up your energy but said nothing about others…
Edin couldn’t let them die. Not when he had his own energy. Edin had no choice, he ceased summoning the world’s energy and focused on his own.
He screamed as all of his strength began to flow. He poured his energy into it and down into the hole. Yio’s voice matched his for pitch but Edin’s was growing weaker.
As was Yio Volor, but he still held on. Edin knew then that Yio Volor would outlast him.
A hand fell on his shoulder. “Use mine also son,” Rihkar said in his ear. “Together.”
Edin nodded and though he knew the outcome, he had to do it. With everything he had, he used their energy. The light then turned into a great ball the size of a pumpkin and the great final bolt of it hit Yio Volor.
There was an explosion of light, he saw Yio fall and then everything went black.
Edin was glad in death there was no pain.
17
The End of an Age
Cooing birds called from outside as waves lapped at rocks somewhere in the distance. The soothing scent of fresh baked bread and chocolate wafted in. He groaned and opened his eyes to see a sun filled room made of white plaster and wooden support beams rising up the walls. Above was a thatched roof with more wooden beams crossing. For a few minutes, he just stared looking at the beams and wondering where he was. Though what was even more confusing was who he was.
He reached up and scratched the itchy stubble on his chin and neck.
There was the memory of a dream that ran through his mind. A dream that stemmed from reality and one of recent times, or so he thought. He was running through a wood with a friend.
A dream of playing in the forests. Playing with swords and staffs and fighting with monsters. Though those monsters weren’t in the forest. Not always.
He licked his lips and glanced around the small room. There was a table next to his bed and a chair next to that. The chair had blankets and pillows around it as if it’d been slept in and on the table was a mug of something steaming.
He pushed himself up and leaned back against the headboard. It was a small room with a painting of a gray-haired woman in an apron standing next to a white-haired man in a doublet. Both were staring at him with weird stoic gazes.
It was almost as if they were watching him and not only that, they were gazing directly into his eyes.
He picked up the mug and sniffed the contents. He knew the smell, mintweed tea. He nearly gagged. How’d he know that but not who he was?
His mouth was dry, so he drank anyway. Then he coughed into the tea. It leapt up and splashed his face, eyes, and over his blanket.
Fast footsteps pounded on a wooden floor outside and a moment later the door was flung open. In front of him was a beautiful blonde woman with gray-green eyes and high cheekbones. The smile that came over her face was broad.
“You’re awake,” she gasped. “Finally.”
Arianne. That was her name. And that wasn’t the only thing he remembered, he remembered other more intimate moments.
“Aria,” he said.
“Yes. It’s me.”
I remembered her… he thought. On a mountain top in a huge range. The Crady Mountains.
She turned and called over her shoulder. “Dorset, he’s awake.”
“Where am I?” he asked though after the words were out of his mouth wondered if the question, ‘who am I’ would’ve been a better one, though really he didn’t want to ask that right now.
“A cottage on the sea,” she said.
“What happened?”
A blond man ran in and grinned. “Edin!” he shouted. “You’re awake. It’s about time.”
“How long…” Edin said, yes, Edin was the right name.
“Five days,” said Arianne, “the funerals are today.”
“Funerals?” Then things came back to him. He remembered a great fight and battles. He remembered seeing men and elves and dark-skinned demons, dematians, fighting. “I, we fought off the horde. When did I fall?”
“After you sent Yio Volor, wherever you sent him, his forces scattered,” said Arianne. Then her voice grew somber. “Calerrat is mostly destroyed, no word yet on Carrow or Frestils and the lands are growing wild.”
More came back to him. “They’re destroyed,” Edin said and knew it to be true. The beautiful lands of the Monks of Vestor were gone, the elven lands probably, and many other formerly human lands.
“You saw it?”
“He told me.”
“Well, I will not believe it until it’s confirmed. The god of the underworld is not a fountain of honesty,” Dorset said. “Come now, we have clothes for you in case you did wake.”
Edin nodded. He stood and though he was weak, he felt okay to do so.
Dorset left to bring in a package as Arianne helped him to the chair. “Who’s been sleeping here?” Edin asked.
“Me when you’re too stubborn to share our bed.”
“Our bed?”
“Well it better be,” she said, “or I’m going to have to cut off little Edin and then kill you.” She nodded toward his groin.
“That’d be called regicide,” said Dorset returning with the package. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“Not yet it isn’t.”
“What’s that?” Edin asked.
Dorset shook his head and handed Edin a brown-paper wrapped package.
Edin opened it to find a black doublet, black trousers, and black boots. There was a white cloak as well.
As he spread it out, he saw embroidered on the upper chest was a brown staff with colored stones embedded in it.
“You’ll have to include it in your coat of arms,” Dorset said, “it’s yours after all.” He nodded toward the corner and Edin followed his eyes. There he saw Mirage, his sword, and the brown bejeweled staff.
“Mine?” Then he remembered using the staff and aiming it and all of the power toward the god that was hanging by a hand over a great chasm.
With Arianne’s help, he changed into the clothes. Formal looking clothes, a bit like the uniform from the Isle of Mists, though cruder. Then Arianne latched the cloak around his neck and stood on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss. “I’m not kidding about taking that off if you do not ask me.”
“Ask you what?” Edin said and smiled.
She slapped his chest.
They went through a small living area with an attached kitchen, both combined were no larger than his mother’s great room. The front door opened and Edin saw the tents and huts and crude cabins all around. It looked like an army camp. They were on a hill overlooking the ocean and along the coast, there were large wooden structures. Pyres.
Edin happened to look the other way and saw crumbling stones and walls. Destroyed homes and castles.
“Calerrat?”
“What’s left of it,” said Arianne as Dorset started to lead the way down a small dirt path. As they went, people that had been standing on the path before them, moved to the edges.
They were looking at him, staring at him as if he’d forgot to pull on his trousers. He looked at Arianne who didn’t return the look. She held her head up and stared straight ahead.
Then off to one side Edin began to see his friends. Henny waived, Yechill was grinning at him and waving stupidly. Aniama slapped down his hand. Fokill was there too, though he looked quite a bit more somber. He saw General Albe and his family, or what was left of it.
Male and female mages from the isles were there with their flowing robes though some of them seemed a bit worse for wear. Elves were mixed in as were a few folks that looked like pirates.