Sword Sirens

by Edmund Hughes

  “How does it feel?” he asked. “Did the runestone give you any new powers?”

  Eva closed her eyes for a moment and slowly exhaled. She looked at him, gave a small nod, and then held one of her hands out to the side. White light coalesced in the middle of her palm, and an instant later, an arcing bolt of lightning burst forth, striking a nearby bush with enough intensity to cause it to instantly burst into flames.

  “We should probably avoid starting too many fires,” said Ari, hurrying to stomp the smoldering bush out. “Might not turn out so well for us, given how close we still are to the tower.”

  “Sorry,” said Eva. “I feel… a little overwhelmed. The runestone had a mid-level lightning enchantment. The power it has imbued me with is hard to handle.”

  “Do you want me to take it out?” asked Ari.

  Eva shook her head. “I suspect it will provide us with an advantage, both in the labyrinth and against the Weatherblight. For now, however, I would feel more comfortable in my sword form, if that is alright.”

  “Of course,” said Ari.

  “Wielding me in my sword form will allow you to draw from my new power,” said Eva. “Don’t hesitate to do so should it become necessary.”

  She pulled her clothes on and flashed with light, shifting back into her sword form. The blade fell tip down, impaling itself deep enough into the grass to stand upright unaided. Ari furrowed his brow, noticing that Azurelight had undergone similar changes to its appearance.

  Small arcs of lightning energy flickered across the blade’s edge in a constant, subtle dance. The sword also pulsed with a faint glow in a rhythm that almost approximated relaxed breathing. Ari took the weapon by the hilt and whistled as he sensed the new magic imbued within it.

  It felt as though just by holding the weapon, he’d placed his hand onto a new type of enchantment. He could trigger it if he wanted. He suspected it would allow him to channel magic similar to what he’d seen Eva do a moment ago. Ari decided to wait until he was in the labyrinth to start playing around with it, both so he’d have a proper target and so he wouldn’t risk starting a forest fire.

  He sheathed Azurelight and continued on his way.

  CHAPTER 43

  Ari entered the labyrinth through the usual hatch, dropping down into the now familiar hallway that led to the first chamber. There was no mesmer awaiting him this time, which he found a little strange, though not unwelcome. The air was stale and a little dusty, which brought a feeling of nostalgia for the Hollow along with it.

  He retraced one of the previous routes he’d taken, ending up in the long corridor with numerous branching paths. Skipping over the one that he’d taken with Eva and Kerys last time, he found another door locked with an essence door further down the hall.

  He took a couple of seconds to consider whether it was worth opening. He had enough essence stored in his body to open one or perhaps two locked doors without much trouble. Ari remembered all too well what had happened when he’d rushed on his previous visit to the labyrinth, and he had no intention of getting himself into a situation where he was forced to find a new exit out to the surface.

  He pressed his hand against the ward lock and expended the requisite amount of essence into it. The door let out a rattling, scraping noise as it descended into the floor. There was another hallway behind it, and it was surprisingly well lit by half a dozen pulsating green crystals attached to the ceiling.

  He took a step forward, and immediately heard a tile click underfoot as he triggered an unseen trap. Ari had been expecting one, and he felt annoyed at himself for not noticing the irregular pattern on the floor. He hopped backward as three massive, swinging scythes released from slits in the wall, one of them cutting through the space where he’d just been standing.

  The hallway was a gauntlet, and unless he wanted to waste the last of his essence on opening a different door, Ari would need to get through it. He slid Azurelight into its scabbard and rubbed his hands together.

  The challenge would be as much about timing his movements as it would be about stopping himself in the small gaps in between each scythe. If he took a single hit, he would most likely bleed to death, judging from the size and apparent sharpness of the gleaming edges of the traps.

  He’d worn his Feathercloak, and as he neared the first scythe, he realized how much of an advantage it would give him. Ari waited until the scythe was passing through the hallway and leapt forward an instant sooner than he felt like he needed to. His jump let him pass by in the split second before the scythe shifted directions, and his Feathercloak helped him stay balanced and not stutter-step forward into the next trap.

  It took him only a few moments to make it past all three, and he was relieved to find a switch on the other side that deactivated them. The door at the end of the hallway was made of wood, and it swung freely on its hinges as he pressed his hand against it.

  The chamber on the other side was filled with mesmers, though thankfully, most of them were light blue. There were at least a dozen on either side of the chamber’s entryway, which was shaped like the tail end of a capital T. The back of the room was laden with weapon displays and mannequins draped with helmets and chainmail, clearly an armory, and a heavily guarded one, at that.

  Ari drew his sword and slowly made his way forward. The light blue mesmers coalesced into form as he moved past them, and each one stood with stiff posture and with weapon in hand, alert and at attention.

  There was another mesmer standing in front of an ornate chest in the center of the room. Unlike the others, this one was dark green, and Ari prepared himself for a fight as he approached it. As much as he hated instigating a battle that he could avoid so easily, it was what he’d come into the labyrinth to do. He needed the essence that the darker colored mesmers could provide if he wanted to survive the coming storm.

  The dark green mesmer shifted into its ghostly form in a flash of light as Ari came within a few feet of it. It was a tall male Saidican clad in regal robes, wielding a longsword and a small shield. He was partially bald and had wrinkled features, but his expression was one of keen determination that made Ari feel wary of facing him as an opponent.

  “Anything you can tell me about this guy?” whispered Ari.

  “Only that he is more dangerous than he seems,” said Eva, through their bond.

  “Well that’s no good,” said Ari. “I already thought he seemed pretty dangerous.”

  He hopped forward, testing the mesmer’s reflexes with an attack that was more of a prodding poke than a real strike. The robed mesmer fell back a pace, smiling a little and not bothering to lift his sword or his shield.

  Ari circled around the old mesmer, feeling a small prickle of unease that he couldn’t quite pin down. He shot a quick glance at the light blue mesmers in the hallway, wondering if they’d attack on the command of the dark green mesmer, despite being weak and relatively oblivious of their surroundings.

  His opponent chose that moment to rush forward. Ari tried to get Azurelight up in time to block the oncoming slash, but he was a second too slow. He still managed to hop backward, but the robed mesmer’s ethereal blade sliced a shallow cut against his ribs. He felt his skin slicing open along with a rush of essence sucking cold. He knew that he hadn’t really taken any physical damage, but the pain was still sharp and pressing.

  “Who were you in life?” wondered Ari, aloud. “You don’t look like a typical knight or a soldier. But you clearly know how to fight.”

  He gripped the hilt of his sword in tight fingers and launched a rapid series of strikes. The mesmer avoided the first two with dexterous footing. Ari’s third slash was on pace to cut open the mesmer’s neck when the ghost flashed with light, disappearing and reappearing a few feet away.

  “Magic…” muttered Ari. “You were some kind of battlemage, then?”

  Two could play at that game.

  Ari made a show of attacking with a few obvious sword strikes, triggering another teleport from the mesmer. As soon as
he spotted where the ghost had displaced itself to, he shifted to a one handed grip on Azurelight and extended his palm outward.

  He’d seen the way Eva had channeled lightning and tried to mimic her posture as he activated the greatsword’s runestone with his will. He felt a small amount of essence drain from his dwindling reserves, followed immediately after by a flash of white light in his palm and an arcing blast of power.

  The lightning hit the mesmer square in the chest and knocked it backward into one of the weapon racks. None of the weapons fell, of course, which messed with Ari’s intuition a little, but not enough to distract him from pushing forward and pressing on the advantage.

  He suspected that finishing the mesmer off with magic would prevent him from absorbing its essence properly, so he attacked with an overhand slash. The mesmer lifted its shield in a desperate attempt to block. Ari curved his attack at the last second, making sure his blade connected with the ghost’s torso.

  The mesmer flickered, and Ari felt a significant windfall of essence rushing into him. He let out a small chuckle and rested the flat of his blade on his palm.

  “How was that for you, Eva?” he asked. “Are you holding up okay?”

  The sword flashed in response, and Eva appeared beside him in her incarnate form. Her eyes were closed, and she was hugging her arms across herself as arcs of lightning danced across her body with faint, whispering crackles.

  “Eva?” Ari reached an arm out to set on her shoulder. “Are you alright?”

  The lightning around her surged, striking outward in all directions in an intense blast. Ari was thrown backward, tumbling through the air before landing in a painful heap on his neck and shoulders. He felt reasonably certain that if not for his Feathercloak, he would have broken a few bones at the very least.

  He slowly pulled himself to his feet, staring across the room at Eva. Her eyes were host to a furious white glow, and her hair had come free of its braid. It fluttered in the windless room, locks of it bouncing and dancing as the electricity continued to rove across her body.

  “Eva!” shouted Ari. “Relax, it’s okay. The fight’s over.”

  He took a step back as she began to advance toward him. She lifted an arm, holding her palm outstretched in a manner that announced what she was about to do next. Ari threw himself to the side as Eva channeled lighting into the space where he’d been standing the instant before.

  He covered his head as he landed and rolled across the hard stone. Eva’s gaze followed him, and Ari could tell from the emptiness in her expression that she was beyond the reach of his words.

  He opened his hand and tried to call out with his will in an attempt to summon the sword to his hand, as he had when she’d fallen off the platforms in one of the labyrinth’s other chambers. Eva flinched slightly, but Ari felt a silent, rebellious refusal in response to his command.

  “Hey,” he said, backing away slowly. “This isn’t about the joke I made when I was inserting the runestone, is it? Remember that joke, Eva? Remember me, and all of my annoying and endearing qualities?”

  He had to throw himself flat as another blast of lightning came within inches of melting his face. He rolled to the side and rose to his knee next to one of the weapon racks. His hand fumbled across the hilts as he picked one of the weapons at random, bringing a rusted short sword up to hold in front of him.

  “Eskrana sytal les marviana,” said Eva. “Eskrana rotal!”

  She surged forward, moving with inhuman speed as she crossed the distance between them in a single bound. Ari tried to block with the sword, but even unarmed as she was, Eva found her way around his guard. He felt her slam an open hand into his chest with enough force to make his rib cage scream in pain and send him flying backward into the stone wall.

  He let out a groan of pain as he tried to stay upright on shaky legs. To his surprise, Eva hesitated, blinking her bright eyes as a flicker of confusion passed over her expression.

  “It’s me, Eva,” he said. “Aristial. Lord Stoneblood, as you so often insist on calling me.”

  The moment faded, and Eva’s eyes narrowed into a fierce glare. She started lifting her arm again for what would likely be the final spell of the rather one-sided fight. Ari let out a shout and threw the rusted short sword with all the strength he had left.

  He didn’t aim for her. Instead, Ari lofted the weapon through the air, toward one of the other weapon racks. It struck at an angle that knocked several other swords and maces loose, which fell to the ground in a clatter of metal on stone.

  Eva was distracted for an instant, and that was all the time Ari needed. He hurled himself forward, pulling her into a tight embrace that he hoped would be enough to bring her back to her senses. And at the very least, getting so close made it a lot harder for her to blast him with lightning.

  “Evastria!” shouted Ari. He pulled back slightly, tilting his head and kissing her before she could stop him. Her lips moved automatically against his, and a bit of the tension left her posture.

  “…Mythril?” whispered Eva.

  Her eyes were still glowing, which was enough for Ari to justify moving on to his second plan. He roughly slid his hand underneath the back of her bodice and pressed his palm against the spot where he’d socketed the runestone. He was surprised that he could find it by touch alone, with his hand sensing the innate magic in much the same way that it felt to touch a ward.

  Ari let his will pull the runestone outward. It separated from Eva in a burst of resonant energy, and her eyes immediately returned to normal. She went limp against him, and Ari gently lowered her down to the ground.

  “Lord… Stoneblood…” muttered Eva.

  “It’s okay,” said Ari. “You’re okay now. I took the runestone out.”

  She nodded weakly, and Ari took her hand into his. Her expression still looked distant, but he saw the Eva that he knew in the eyes that were staring back at him.

  “I remembered more,” she whispered. “Both of who I was, and… of what I have done.”

  “You have?” asked Ari.

  She nodded again.

  “I do not think we should strengthen the bond anymore, milord,” said Eva.

  CHAPTER 44

  It took Ari a couple of seconds to process her words. He frowned and gave her hand a small squeeze, unsure of what to say or how to react.

  “What do you mean, Eva?” he asked.

  “The runestone triggered some of my old memories,” she said. “I have… seen the type of person who I used to be. It was not pleasant. I was not pleasant. I’m scared of what I saw.”

  “And you think that if we keep strengthening our bond, you’ll keep remembering more?” asked Ari.

  “Yes,” she said.

  She wouldn’t look at him, and Ari felt his heart beating to an odd, aching rhythm.

  “Are you sure this wasn’t just a reaction to the runestone?” asked Ari. “Maybe our bond doesn’t have as much to do with it as you’re assuming?”

  “I have been socketed with other, similar runestones to this one before,” said Eva. “I can only assume that memories related to those periods of time in my life were triggered by you pulling from the magic contained within it.”

  “What did you remember?” asked Ari.

  Eva winced and shook her head, unwilling or perhaps unable to answer his question.

  “Eva, I should have told you this earlier, but your old master’s memories came to me in a vision while I was unconscious during the windstorm,” he said. “I experienced his life with you back before—”

  “No!” shouted Eva. “Stop! I… do not want to hear it.”

  “Eva,” said Ari. “It might help. What I saw was—”

  “Milord,” said Eva. “Please do not say anything more. If you have any fondness for me, I would ask that you respect my wishes in this. Please.”

  “If… that’s really what you want,” said Ari.

  “I do not want to know anything more about who I was,” said Eva. “I do not want to
remember anything more. That also means, as I already said, that I would ask that we refrain from attempting to strengthen our bond any further.”

  The odd, aching feeling in his heart became a little more prominent. Ari nodded slowly, knowing that there was no reasonable way that he could refuse her request. He spent a few seconds searching for the right phrasing for his next question.

  “What will happen to you if we stop strengthening the bond?” asked Ari. “You said that it was necessary for you to manifest in your incarnate form. Will you eventually lose the ability to do that?”

  “I do not know,” whispered Eva. “But the thought of that happening scares me less than what might happen if we keep going.”

  Eva, as she’d been in her uncontrolled state, had scared Ari. But the idea of her eventually turning into a sword and staying that way was far more unnerving to him. He reached his hand out and ran it through her hair. Eva gently took hold of his wrist and stopped him.

  “You shouldn’t do things like that,” she whispered. “Even small intimate gestures have an effect on our bond.”

  “I can’t even touch you?” said Ari. “I suppose that means I can’t kiss you, either.”

  He tried and failed to keep his emotions from leaking out in his voice. He hadn’t felt this way in years, since he’d been a child and first learned of how his status as an orphan would keep him from ever being able to marry Kerys.

  “I will continue to serve you in other ways,” said Eva. “I am sorry.”

  Her body flashed with light before Ari could get in another word, and his fingers were suddenly wrapped around the hilt of Azurelight, rather than her soft hand. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh as he slid the sword back into its scabbard, feeling annoyed at the extent of the lingering pain in his chest. He tried to convince himself that it was from one of the hits he’d taken in the earlier fight as he forced himself to return to his investigation of the chamber.