Etherno

by Aaron DeMott

  The girl looked like she’d just stepped out of some ancient painting—or would have, were it not for the modern pocketed utility belt cinched around her waist.

  She walked toward them. Oddly, the rings on the staff didn’t jingle.

  “Hello.” She stopped a few feet in front of them, and nodded to each of them in turn. “Onin, Kasai, Tannin, Cerina, Saija. I am the herald of the Wizard. My master has sent me to assist you.”

  “Um, how do you know our names?” Cerina asked.

  “The Wizard knows all.” The herald bowed to them. The rings on her staff jingled. She glanced at it, flicked an ear, and bowed again. “My apologies. Only Ard knows all. The Wizard, as his servant, is also quite knowledgeable.”

  She glanced up at her staff, which remained silent. She smiled and turned back to them. Onin raised an eyebrow. This was one strange girl. And what was the deal with the staff?

  “So, do you have a name?” Onin asked.

  “My name is insignifi—” The rings on top of the staff clinked. She glanced up at the staff, frowned, then sighed. “Very well. My name is Amaryllis. Please follow me. We have much to discuss and prepare.”

  “Um, a moment please?” Onin turned and beckoned to the others. They huddled in close. “Can we trust her?”

  “I don’t know about all this ‘master’ talk.” Saija shivered. “Brings back some bad memories.”

  “Her staff has the symbol of Ard,” Kasai said.

  “Ard has his own symbol now?” Cerina asked.

  “Well, the symbol in the staff is the first letter for ‘Ard’ in the language of the monks.” Kasai shuffled closer to Onin. “If she carries that around, she can’t be all bad, can she?”

  Onin turned to face Amaryllis. “Excuse me. Does your master have a name, or just a title?”

  “My Master—” The staff clinked again. She cocked her head to the side and stared at it, then her ears and shoulders drooped. “I don’t think it’s proper, but… His name is Ryogin—” She narrowed her eyes and glared at the staff. “—sama.”

  Apparently satisfied at the lack of reaction from the staff, she smiled and turned back to them.

  “Is it just me—” Tannin covered his mouth with his hand and leaned closer to Onin. “—or is this girl a few grapes shy of a fruit basket?”

  “Hah!” Cerina snorted and turned up her nose. “That’s rich, coming from you, of all people.”

  Amaryllis took a step forward. “We can discuss this further in more comfortable surroundings, if you’d like. Ryogin-sama has rented a room for our use, and I’ve prepared some snacks.”

  “Snacks?” Tannin stood up straight. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

  Cerina and Saija shared a look, and simultaneously smacked Tannin upside the back of his head.

  “Ow! What was that for? It’s breakfast time, right?” Tannin rubbed his neck. “And I don’t think the Natas would trick us with snacks. Doesn’t seem like their style.”

  “Hmm. He does have a point.” Saija tapped her finger to her lips. “It doesn’t seem a very Natas thing to do.”

  “Okay, we’ll come with you to hear you out, for now,” Onin said.

  “Excellent! This way, please.” Amaryllis turned around the led the way down the street.

  They turned down a cobblestone side street lined with two-story brick houses. Each house had a small shop in front. There were food stalls, trinket shops, tool vendors, clothing stalls, and just about anything else one could possibly want. The house at the end of the street was a two-story structure with the same imitation marble walls and roof that most of the houses in the city had. This one also had several small umbrella-covered tables out front. People enjoying their morning tea and rolls were clustered around each table.

  Amaryllis led them to a side door of this house and up a narrow flight of stairs. She stopped at the top of the stairs, and gestured that they should enter the first door on the left. Onin stepped into the room and looked around. The walls were painted a pastel green, white drapes hung from the window on the far wall. Six pastel green chairs with a pink floral print were arranged in semi-circle in the center of the room.

  “Ooo! Food!” Tannin said.

  Onin turned around. A small white table loaded with pastries, meat, and something that looked like eggs in a muffin wrapper, as well as two pitchers and some glasses was against the wall next to the door.

  “Please, enjoy.” Amaryllis made a sweeping motion toward the table. “The pastries and the fruit juice are from the hostel, but I made the egg bites and the tea myself.”

  Tannin shoved an entire egg bite in his mouth and made a noise that sounded like it was supposed to mean ‘delicious.’ Onin waited for the girls to get some food, then he grabbed a few pastries and some egg bites and sat in the chair next to Kasai. Amaryllis took the seat on the other side of Kasai. She let go of her staff, which remained standing, apparently of its own power.

  Tannin nudged Onin with his elbow and pointed to the staff. Onin glared at him and shook his head. The floating staff wasn’t the most important thing at the moment.

  “I do wish we had more time to get to know each other first. However, we don’t have much time, so I’ll get right to the mission.” Amaryllis leaned forward. “There’s a Natas slave camp just south of the city. I need your help to free the slaves.”

  “Wait a minute.” Cerina paused with a pastry halfway to her mouth. “We need to destroy some gate thing.”

  “That too, is a priority.” Amaryllis folded her hands in her lap. “However, the gate isn’t finished being built yet, and we need to free those poor people before the Natas can—”

  “—turn them into reinforcements,” Saija finished.

  The room fell deathly silent for a moment.

  “No one wants that.” Kasai said.

  “Agreed.” Onin stood up.

  “Now, hold on.” Tannin grabbed Onin’s arm and yanked him back down. “Yeah, the last thing we want is more Natas running around, but does anyone have anything even resembling a plan?”

  “I hate to agree with the moron.” Cerina gave Tannin a sidelong glance. “But he’s right. The last time we ran into a Natas making party, we not only didn’t save the girl, we barely escaped.”

  “Good point.” Saija bit her lip and poked at her pastry. “When we rescued the Matari, we had a plan, and that worked rather well.”

  Everyone turned to look at Amaryllis.

  “The slave camp is located about forty miles south of the city, about forty-eight miles total, from here.” Amaryllis pointed out the window. “With the gate construction being the priority, the camp should be lightly guarded. Ryogin-sama’s plan is for us to fly out of the city, land outside the camp, and sneak in. If we leave soon, we can observe the camp and further develop a strategy. Ideally, we can find a way to sneak everyone out.”

  “One question.” Cerina leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. “Why doesn’t this Ro-jin guy come and help?”

  “Ryogin.” Amaryllis’ eyes narrowed. “And he doesn’t have to answer to the likes of you.”

  One of the rings on her staff clinked. Amaryllis’ left ear twitched. “Sorry. Ryogin-sama is busy making other preparations. He also wishes to let you know that he’d like to physically assist, but his gifts aren’t suited to combat.”

  The two girls glared at each other.

  “Well, uh, let’s go rescue those people from the real enemy.” Onin looked back and forth between Cerina and Amaryllis. “You know, the Natas?”

  “Agreed.” Amaryllis stood, grabbed her staff, and led them out the door and down to the street. “Do you have transportation?”

  “Yup.” Onin generated servitors for himself, Tannin, Cerina, and Saija. “Kasai can manage on her own. Do you need a lift?”

  “No, thank you.” Amaryllis rotated her staff to hold it parallel to the ground at about waist height, and hopped up to sit on it side-saddle style. “Follow me, please.”

  Onin’s jaw dropp
ed open as Amaryllis rose up into the sky on her staff. He turned to Tannin. “Did you see that?”

  “Shrooms?” Tannin asked.

  Cerina smacked her forehead with her palm and muttered something that Onin didn’t quite catch. He rolled his eyes and flew after Amaryllis.

  Chapter 16

  Plans? We Don't Need No Stinking Plans!

  Onin pushed more power to the servitors on his feet to catch up with Amaryllis. “Wait up!”

  Amaryllis slowed and veered over to him. “Yes?”

  “Could you please slow down a little? The others are falling behind.”

  Amaryllis nodded and slowed her pace. Kasai and the rest of the team soon caught up and clustered around them.

  “Do we have a plan?” Cerina said.

  “The camp is about an hour away, right?” Onin asked.

  “Correct.” Amaryllis pointed to the horizon. “It’s that way. Ryogin-sama says the Natas should be holding their slaves in an abandoned resort near an old lake bed.”

  “Okay. I’m going to send a servitor on ahead.” Onin generated an infrared servitor, which zipped ahead of them. “There. We can land out of sight and get some intel before we get there.”

  “Excellent!” Amaryllis clapped her hands together. She wobbled a bit on her seat, then grabbed her staff again.

  “Okay, we’re about a mile from the camp.” Onin re-absorbed the servitors, squatted down, and drew a circle in the dirt with his finger. “The camp is roughly circular, and about forty acres in size. It’s surrounded by a hedge—”

  “Ooo! Not a hedge!” Tannin held the back of his hand to his head and fell over backward. “Whatever will we do? We’ll never get past the security hedge!”

  “Will you knock it off?” Onin punched Tannin’s knee. “Anyway, as I was saying, the servitor spotted guards along the perimeter, but we should be able to sneak in.”

  “And then what, oh fearless leader?” Cerina snorted and rolled her eyes. “You gonna just walk all those people out of there?”

  “Cerina! Don’t you want to save them?”

  Cerina jumped to her feet. “Of course I do! I don’t want anyone to have the same fate as my sis—” She took a deep breath and sat back down. “I’m just saying we should have a plan first. Things tend to go much better for us when we have a plan. Not to mention teamwork is kinda our weak point, and adding Miss Talks-to-sticks over there is probably going to screw that over royal.”

  “Sorry about her.” Kasai jerked a thumb at Cerina.

  “It takes time to trust new people.” Amaryllis’ tone was cheerful, but her ears drooped slightly.

  Onin glared at Cerina out of the corner of his eye. Every time she started to show progress… He smiled at Amaryllis. “Hopefully we can get in, free the slaves, and get out easily, and we can get to know each other better.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” Cerina snorted and picked at her fingernails. “Do we actually have a plan of some sort?”

  Onin turned to face Saija. “Can you portal them out?”

  “I’m not sure.” Saija bit her lower lip and looked off into the distance. “I think so. How many people are we talking?”

  Everyone turned to stare at Amaryllis.

  “I’m not sure. Ryogin-sama got his information from traders who saw the slaves, but they didn’t get an exact count. I’d guess around fifty, but it could be more or less than that number.”

  Saija frowned. “I might be able to manage that.”

  Cerina snorted. “Might? Don’t know? I’d like more—”

  “Well, let’s not debate all day.” Tannin stood up and stretched. “We could yap all day and not change anything. Might as well work with what we’ve got. I don’t know about you, but if I was stuck in that camp I’d take any help I could get.”

  Onin looked around. Everyone else nodded and rose to their feet.

  “All right, let’s do this.” Onin led the way to the Natas camp.

  They reached the hedge after about fifteen minutes.

  “Oh look. An impenetrable hedge.” Tannin yawned. “Might as well turn back.”

  Cerina smacked the back of his head.

  “Allow me.” Kasai stepped forward and the hedge parted in two, as if two giant invisible hands had parted it.

  “Ooo, very nice!” Amaryllis stepped forward and bent down to look at roots of the hedge plants. “You even moved the dirt so as not to kill the plants. You have an amazing gift.”

  Kasai blushed and took a step behind Onin.

  “Yeah, I’m sure no one will notice the gaping hole in the hedge. We’d better hurry,” Cerina said.

  Onin shook his head. Leave it to Cerina to find the worst in a situation.

  “According to the servitor, there’s a large heat signature in one of the main buildings. We should check there first,” Onin said.

  The main building was about two hundred feet long, and about eighty feet wide. It had plain white vinyl siding and a metal roof. The windows were boarded over, and half a sign that read: ‘ountry Club’ hung askew over the main door. They hadn’t encountered any guards on the walk to the building.

  “What now? Do we just knock?” Cerina asked.

  “I was hoping there’d be windows.” Saija pulled at one of the boards that covered the closest window. It didn’t budge. “I was hoping to portal into a dark corner or something.”

  “We could just barge in.” Tannin walked around front and poked a finger at the door. “I could break this down, or Kasai could.”

  “Oh, that’s a brilliant plan.” Cerina rolled her eyes. “What if there’s guards or a Natas inside?”

  Onin looked over his right shoulder. “Uh, guys, I hate the break this up, but there’s a guard approaching. Come on.”

  Onin lead the way around to the back of the building.

  Kasai leaned in close to whisper in his ear. “Could you send an infrared servitor in with the guard, assuming he goes inside?”

  “That’s a great idea.” Onin held out his hand generated an invisible servitor.

  “That’s pretty,” Amaryllis said.

  “Wait, you can see it too?” Kasai turned to look at Amaryllis.

  “Well, just a shimmery outline. I’m half Nekotian—” Amaryllis pointed to her ears. “—so my vision and sense of smell are a little better than average, too.”

  “Half…” Kasai’s voice trailed off, and she twirled her hair with her index finger.

  Onin put his arm around her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  Saija took a step closer and took Kasai’s hand. “We can leave if you need to.”

  “I’ll be okay.” Kasai smiled at Onin and gave Saija a quick hug. “Thanks. I can do this.”

  “All right.” Onin gave Kasai’s shoulder a squeeze then let go. “That guard did pop the door open long enough to check on the prisoners, and my servitor was able to sneak in. There aren’t any guards in the building. It looks like everyone is sleeping, or doing light chores.”

  Cerina tilted her head. “Is it just me, or does this scream ‘trap’ to anyone else?”

  “There’s Natas involved.” Saija shrugged. “There’s always a trap or trick of some sort. But this situation isn’t unusual. The Natas actually treat the prisoners relatively decently. Work them just hard enough that they’re tired, but not so bad that they want to revolt. Also, they don’t want to wear out or mark up a potential host body.” Saija shuddered, and Kasai took her hand.

  “It looks like this may be our best opportunity,” Amaryllis said.

  Onin nodded and lead the way back around front.

  “Kasai, can you smash the door open?” Onin asked.

  Amaryllis held up a hand and walked forward. She bent down and examined the door knob. She straightened up and turned back to the others. “No need. I can open it.”

  Amaryllis spun her staff sideways and placed her palm against the symbol of Ard. “Artifice.”

  A white and blue sparking circle formed under her hand. She pulled it slowly away, and
a metal key emerged. The circle dissipated with small pop. Amaryllis grabbed the key, inserted it into the lock, and bowed as she swung the door open.

  “Is that your power, to make stuff?” Saija asked.

  “Kinda.” Amaryllis stepped inside and beckoned to everyone to follow. “Let’s get these people out of here before that guard comes back.”

  Onin blinked in the dimmer indoor light. Small wood partitions divided the interior of the building into different areas. Sleeping ares were set off to the sides, and the large main area was divied into an area for eating with a large table and chairs, and a workshop area in the rear. Several small groups of people were scattered throughout the building. Most of them were asleep, but several were sweeping, mending clothing, or washing dishes. All work stopped and the people looked at Onin and the others wide-eyed. Several of them backed away slowly. Kasai had already approached one of the groups and was talking to them in low tones.

  “Saija.” Amaryllis waved Saija over to the wall. “Can you make a portal here?”

  “Yeah, sure. Where should it lead?”

  “The street outside the building where we had breakfast, please. Ryogin-sama will ensure their safety from there.”

  “Onin!” Cerina’s voice was low and urgent.

  “Yeah?” Onin turned to face Cerina.

  The door to the building was cracked open. Cerina stood behind the door and leaned around it, looking out.

  “Get over here. Someone’s coming.”

  Onin jogged over to the door and peered out. The person was too far away to identify but looked female. She was alone and had a cocky strut to her walk.