by Shawn Keys
Their path was clear. The footing looked totally solid now.
Zahn darted a look back at her. “How?”
A smile shone from Angelica’s expressive lips, totally pleased her solution had worked out so well. “I suddenly realize what music I was hearing! You’ve heard it, too. The modern version plays over the credits for Visionary Studios before every movie they make that hits theaters. This was the old version, played without all the fanfare. I just completed the last bar that kept getting left off.”
Zahn hugged her in close and planted a fierce kiss on her lips. For as long as he dared, he let the kiss linger, making it very clear how special he thought she was. When he parted, he panted out, “You are incredible.”
Feeling the same sort of rush, Angelica struggled to bring her own breathing under control, licking her lips and brushing his face. She wanted more. But the dark space wasn’t the place. Fighting off her desire, she pointed at the lights. “Those seem odd to be down here.”
Zahn considered them. “He must have an old generator or maybe a water-wheel sort of thing to keep all this running. One more reason to hurry. Something that old could break down and leave us in the dark.”
The pair crept down the stairs, not trusting that some part of the traps had been left in place. Eventually, the next room opened up before them. This area was a little larger, but the room had only one focus. A ray of intense light was pointed right down from the ceiling, emanating from a dagger of crystal protruding from the stonework.
Illuminated by that light was a decadent marble fountain. A burst of continuous water was spraying upward from the center, then tumbling down into a small pool causing a cascade of shining turbulent bubbles. The architecture of the fountain was like a set-piece from a Roman historical epic. The stonework shone with the texture of marble. The blocks used were all creamy-white with flecks of black to give them depth.
A series of low benches surrounded the fountain. A gaunt figure was stretched out on them. The skull of the corpse was propped on the edge of the fountain, not quite touching the water. He was clothed in a period costume right out of the eighties – a white suit and pants commonly seen on a dozen cheezy cop shows or crime dramas of the time. Zahn checked himself quickly. Not a costume. This was him. This was Klein, lying within inches of his most prized possession. He’d been here for decades, slowly rotting away.
Angelica knew it as well. She whispered in disbelief, “That’s really him! All these years, everyone thought he’d just vanished off the face of the Earth. All this time, he’s been right here.” Her voice was soft, and it drifted to the boundaries of the room. Her words were almost swallowed under the constant murmur of the water fountain.
But not completely.
A distorted roar reverberated from the shadows on the far side of the room. The full power was jumbled, like the noise was rattling around inside a hollow cage of bones before reaching their ears.
“Aww, fuck.” Zahn swore, then hurriedly tapped the ring-relic on his right hand.
If he had hesitated a fraction of a second longer, they would have been dead .
Even as the world slowed to a crawl, a lumbering horror bolted from the darkness. The desiccated remnants of a three-hundred-pound bear launched itself toward them. The jagged remains of its jaw yawed open as it bellowed in anger at the intruders.
The first hints of Angelica’s scream pitched into the air as Zahn jumped between them. The gauntlet on his left hand surged into life. The runes glowing with azure fire. Zahn opened his palm and smeared the air between the creature and his lover. Three fast washes of brilliant color remained behind in the air. It seemed like a flimsy shield against the onrushing fury of the skeletal creature.
But Zahn didn’t dare pause. He remembered Angelica’s story. She had said Klein kept two of them as pets.
He cut back to the right in time to intercept the second bear. He was running out of time. The ring-relic could only accelerate him for a few brief seconds. Enough to change the tide in a battle, but only if he used every precious morsel of added time.
The second beast was a few steps behind the other, but it was charging them with an equally mindless rage. One of its paws came up to swipe at Zahn, but he darted left and grazed past its left side. His gauntlet flared to life once more. He had dodged out of its way like a matador with a red cape. He extended his two first fingers and made a slashing motion from the creature’s nose and down its flank. A trail of razor-sharp energy slashed out from his fingers. Like the blades in the stairwell would have cut them apart, the bear’s own momentum carried it into the magically created scythe. The force of its impact severed limbs and cut through bones. Nothing but a bunch of dried up remains was left to rumble to the ground in a scattered pile.
Behind him, Angelica had curled in on herself, instinctively readying to absorb the first bear’s attack as best she could. Against all reason, the skeletal bear hammered like a freight train into the conjured azure shield…and stopped short with a colossal, crushing bang!
A living creature would have snapped its neck and broken its spine. In this case, the bear’s snout was shattered and its jaw broken into a million pieces. But despite the injuries, it shook drunkenly and strove to recover.
The creature’s jaw was ruined, but Zahn knew its claws would be plenty lethal. Feeling the last of his time magic draining away, he jumped high and came down toward the bear’s neck. He was aiming to cleave the beast’s head right off. At the last second, perhaps sensing its demise, the bear jerked up and rammed Zahn with its rotted shoulder.
Zahn flew back through the air several feet before landing heavily on the stones. Grimacing away the pain, Zahn rolled twice to the right. He narrowly avoided the smashing pounce as the bear landed right on the spot he’d been. He kept rolling as the bear tried to crush the life from the puny man who had caused it pain.
He knew he had to time this. He spun one more time, widening the gap just a little more – goading the beast to take a real leap at him.
The undead bear took the bait and jumped.
Zahn reached up and activated his gauntlet one last time. Dragging it from a point, he opened his fist so that the azure shape formed a spear-like cone thrust upward.
The bear’s body came crashing down onto the spike. Impaled, the creature went mad with fury. Scrambling backward, Zahn whipped his hand in a glowing circle. This was his last magical charge on the gauntlet, so he had to stretch it. Struggling to keep the spike solid long enough, Zahn slashed his fingers through the bear’s neck, severing the head off at last. As soon as the spine was broken, the creature ceased its undying fight.
Silence fell once more.
The whole fight had taken maybe twenty seconds. Zahn went to one knee, fighting the fatigue his ring-relic always brought on.
Angelica recovered from her crouch, literally shaking in her boots. “Zahn?”
He coughed once, spitting out a little dust he’d gotten into his mouth. “I’m here, Angie. It’s over.”
“What are these things? They…” She came toward him slowly, circling wide to give the two crumbled bear corpses as much distance as possible while trying to get to him. “These can’t be real! They’re like zombies from a horror movie!”
The comparison wasn’t perfect, but Zahn wasn’t about to split hairs with her. “Yeah, pretty much.”
“How is that possible ?” She was freaking out a little.
Zahn figured that was only fair. “I had hoped to introduce you to magic with something wonderful, not with abominations like this. ”
“Magic,” She said with a deadpan voice, as if realizing she was dealing with a crazy man after all.
“For want of a better word.”
A long pause. “Alright, Zahn. I want to run out of here screaming. But I can’t. Not after what I just saw.” She went to her knees in front of him, her hand reaching out to lay on his shoulder. “But you need to help me out here a little. This is insane! This can’t be happening!”
Angelica closed her eyes, trying to absorb those impossible numbers. “The oldest civilization on Earth is 7,000 years old, give or take.”
“The oldest modern civilization, Angelica. Humankind is a million years old. An awful lot can happen in a time-span like that. So much has gotten buried and ruined. You’ve heard these stories before.”
“I have?”
“Some. At least the most famous one. Atlantis.”
“Wasn’t that somewhere in King Arthur’s age?”
“Once the stories got twisted around, many came to believe that. Then again, many people think Arthur is nothing but a legend as well. Atlantis fell into the sea long before the Egyptians built the pyramids. Those civilizations were not focused on metal and plastic and nuclear fission like we are. That’s why they crumbled so completely and we can’t find many traces of them. They were civilizations of magic and energy.”
“And left nothing behind?”
“They did leave something behind.” He held up his two hands. “And relic divers like me try to collect them.” He held out his right hand. “Come with me, please? ”
Still trembling, she reached out and placed her hand in his. He guided her up toward the fountain, making sure to stay on the far side from Klein’s remains.
He dipped his hand into the pool, cupped his palm, and drank deeply from the water. Crisp life-energy filled him, driving away any fatigue and stress. He sucked in a breath of poor relief, then cupped his hand again. He lifted it, dripping, to her lips. “Try it.”
Angelica fought against her nerves. Zahn knew that if he hadn’t literally saved her life twice in the last two days, there was no way she would have taken that drink. As it was, she still locked eyes with him while deciding if he was nuts. Finally, she dipped her lips and drank from the pool he had created in his hand.
Her ocean blue eyes widened, and she sucked in more deeply. Then, she nuzzled against his hand and gulped down the rest. Panting at the fresh influx of energy, she looked up at him with wonder. “What is this thing?”
Zahn gestured to the whole fountain. “This is just artwork Klein used to conceal the true relic. The water is bursting with the relic’s magical blessing, but that’s just a side effect.” He reached down below the surface, dipping his whole arm up to his shoulder in the cool water. Fishing around, he located the center by following the splashing current. His fingers located the vial he knew was there, traced the lid on its crystal hinge, and flipped it closed.
Instantly, the fountain’s spray ceased. The surface of the pool stilled.
Tugging the object at the heart of the pool free of its housing, Zahn brought it to the surface. Once it was in sight, they could see it was the size and shape of a large flower vase with a sealed cap over the top. There was a small lever upon it that worked one of two ways. One would let a small flow through that a person could drink. The other would open the cap completely, and let a rush of liquid power blast out.
Zahn tilted his head toward it. “This is the Fountain of Life, Angie.”
She gawked openly at it. “You’re kidding!”
He chuckled. “I’ve searched for this since the very beginning. Everything else I’ve done was to find this. I’d better not be wrong or I might really go insane.” He pointed at the three dead beings around them; Klein and his bears. “All relics are creations from another age. They aren’t inert. They are… alive. In a way. Maybe better to say that they recognize who owns them. It changes how they react and how they reward their gifts. Klein was a performer while he was alive. When he died, the power of the fountain kept flooding this place. The bears might have drank from this pool, and were slowly twisted to suit their dead master. Unable to die, but morphed into the image of death at the same time.” He gestured toward her. “Like you said, zombies. Just not from some strange disease like in most movies.”
Angelica was baffled, but growing more curious by the second. She could only deny what was happening for so long when the evidence was right in front of her eyes. “You said this was a Fountain of Life. How’d he die if he was right here?”
Zahn looked over at the dead movie studio owner with sadness. “Not even a major relic like this is all-powerful. It’s a Fountain of Life. It will sustain a person forever. Keep them young and filled with vitality. It might even reverse some diseases linked to aging. But it can’t heal wounds. If he was injured by a knife or a gun, he might have died here beside endless life. Horribly ironic.”
Angelica nodded slowly, starting to understand. Not quite sure if she believed, but…starting to understand. “And now?”
Zahn held the vial carefully, then opened the small aperture and tilted it back. Drinking a long, steady stream, he embraced the cascade of pure energy. It flooded his mind, burning away any trace of the mental fog that came with fatigue. The background aches and pains a normal human suffered in the run of a normal day evaporated. The bruises from his life and death struggle against two death bears remained, but that was nothing against the raw life energy storming around inside him.
He lowered the vial. His hand fell to his side and he just EXISTED…
Until at last, Angelica’s gentle voice broke through to him. “Zahn? Are… are you alright? You’ve been kneeling there for five minutes.”
Zahn came back to himself. His eyes opened, seeing the world in a way that felt fresh and full of possibilities. His mouth broadened into a dazzling smile which infected Angelica almost immediately. He leaned in and kissed her deeply. The taste of her was on a new level of sweet. She melted into him, her tongue sweeping in to taste what he had just tasted.
The frenzy of their kiss faded, and they rested their foreheads against each other while they recovered.
Zahn found her gaze with his. “Now? Now the Fountain is mine. It will be linked with me. Look. See there?” He pointed at the bear corpses. Already, they were crumbling rapidly to dust. Their connection to their dead master was severed. They were finally able to finish their long-delayed decay.
Angelica turned around in a slow circle on her knees, watching them vanish. “I can’t believe this is happening. It all seems so unreal!”
Zahn slipped forward on his knees, pressing his chest to her back and cuddling her into a hug from behind. “This is as real as you and I. I know, it is so much to take in all at once. But you can’t un-see the magic once you’re aware of it. I debated telling you. I know what it could do to you. But I couldn’t stand misleading you. Not after what we shared.”
Angelique reached up to hug him back. “Don’t apologize. I know how hard it must have been to trust me with this. The power of it is terrifying. But…I want to know. The hardest part is thinking of how long I’ve been in the dark all my life. Pretending at fantasy when there was real magic all along.”
“You can see why we have to keep it secret, can’t you?”
Angelica nodded fervently. “If you let this become public, there’d be wars over this stuff. You are holding the Fountain of Life, for crying out loud! People would kill for that.”
Zahn squeezed her more tightly. “I’m glad you see it. You’ll keep the secret then?”
She lowered her lips to kiss his forearm. “Of course.”
“Then I’ll keep yours.”
She turned her hea
d to look up at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”
He kissed her sweet mouth softly, then said, “You helped make this happen. You solved the riddle. And if I wasn’t already thinking about bears when we came down here, they might have got the drop on us.”
“Seems like nothing compared to you fighting with them!”
Zahn let out a soft laugh. “Hardly a fair comparison. I’ve been doing this a while, and I have other relics to help me. You came into a magical battle totally unarmed. Except for your mind. And that saved us.”
He kissed her once more, then rose up. “I want to give you a gift to show you how much it means to me.” He padded over to the fallen form of Klein. Respectfully, not wanting to disturb the dead, he also wasn’t willing to let a precious icon of the past be lost. He had seen the metal necklace, and now reached around to find the clasp. As he unfastened it, he noticed the man’s remains were already disintegrating. He would be dust within the hour as the power of the Fountain left him.
He came back over to Angelica and knelt in front of her. He held up the necklace. The chain looked silver, though he knew it would never tarnish. The end was an equally unblemished silver falcon shape. The falcon’s eye was a flawless diamond. “When you told me his story, I knew he would have something like this on him. Bears aren’t the sort of animal you tame. They’re wild. Eventually, things go badly. If he kept them around, he had to have a way to influence them. Once I was close enough, I could see the magic surrounding this item. You can’t tell, but another relic I have is an ancient version of a contact lens. It’s over my right eye and lets me see magical auras unless they have defensive, concealing magic of their own.”
Angelica’s hands came up automatically, reaching for the necklace even as she said, “How could I possibly accept this?” Her fingers stopped tantalizingly close to the silver falcon shimmering in the light of the crystal above.
Zahn smiled encouragingly. “There is a bit of a code among relic divers who cooperate. The one who uncovers the myth is the one who claims the prize. Even if the others help, the one who did the research and led the mission gets the central object that is found. The way I see it, you were the one who knew the lore surrounding Klein that led to this one.”