“I could have killed you, Nick,” she whispered again, her tone of voice one I had never heard from her before.
“It’s fine,” I said as I finished up. “You didn’t mean to. It’s my fault; even I knew to cover my eyes when I cast the rune. I should have said something.”
“And your sword…”
“I can see it,” Lhandon said, the monk now peering over the edge of the gorge.
“I would fly down there, but I think I need to stay grounded for a second,” Roger said.
“Is it accessible?” I asked Lhandon as I walked over to him. I bent down next to him, also looking over the side. Roger hopped over to me, and I placed my hand on his back, healing him as well.
“That’s the good stuff,” he said, ruffling his feathers.
“It’s right there,” Lhandon said, pointing down, and hooking his finger up to indicate the location, “tucked between those rocks. Can you see the fire?”
“Damn,” I whispered, seeing that my Flaming Thunderbolt was at least fifteen feet down.
“You could use your fan again,” Lhandon suggested. “Drop down, raise yourself back up, and grab it on the way up.”
“No, I can get it,” Saruul said, puffing out her chest as she walked over to the edge. She took a deep breath, looked at the bridge, hissed at the floating skull, and then glanced back down to the sword.
I tried to stop her, but by that point, she was already lowering down the other side.
“At least bring the sheath with you,” I said as I started undoing my belt.
She pulled herself back up and I took this opportunity to get between her and the edge, the butterflies rising in my stomach and settling.
“Out of the way, Nick,” she said, baring her teeth. “It’s my fault that it’s down there; I’m going to be the one that gets it.”
“I can use my fan, like Lhandon said,” I told her. “I did it before. I just need to step off the edge, lower down, and then paddle my way back up. It could take me a few tries, but—”
“—Nick, I have to do this. And I can climb, trust me. I was born in the mountains, remember? You don’t think I can climb down there, grab your sword, and climb right back up?”
“I’m not questioning your abilities,” I started to tell her.
She placed her hand on my belt. “I’m going to need this.”
“Let me…” I looked to Lhandon and nodded.
“Yes,” he said, interpreting what I was thinking, “let him at least set his rune.”
Saruul paused. “You mean what you were practicing earlier?”
I nodded and lowered to the ground to a seated position.
I took a few deep breaths in, and as I did the green button appeared.
I waited until it was stabilized and then I stood, still focused on it. I placed my hands on Saruul’s shoulders and walked her away from the ledge, just in case something happened and we had to return to this moment in time, to give me a little space between the stubborn lioness and sudden death.
Once we were away from the ledge, I mentally pressed the green button, and nodded at her. “Ready.”
“Your belt and scabbard,” she said softly.
I took my belt off and she wrapped it around her waist, all the way to the last belt loop.
Saruul made her way back over to the ledge and lowered over the side, the lioness expertly moving down from rock to rock. She got into position, and shifted to a rock on the right, nearly losing her balance before swinging her left hand up and grabbing another one.
Saruul reached the sword.
She used her feet to pull it up, followed by her tail, keeping the weapon as far away from her body as she could.
Now holding onto the rock with one hand, both her feet squarely in place, the lioness used her tail to place the sword in her hand, which allowed her to stick the flaming blade into its sheath.
She climbed back to the top, huffing as she pushed herself up, as the floating skull settled over the center of the bridge, back to its guard position.
“Let’s never do that again,” Roger said as we made our way out of the Bayan Mountains, following the same path that we had come in on, Saruul easily able to point it out even though parts of it weren’t marked.
“He is suggesting that we don’t do that again,” I translated before Lhandon could ask.
The monk couldn’t help but chuckle. “I don’t disagree with you there, Roger.”
“But we do need to have a better plan for when something like that happens again,” I said. “We really should have talked more about crossing the bridge before we got to it. I’m just glad that…” I shook my head. “All of us are okay, and that’s all that matters.”
“And that you have your sword back,” Roger said. He was perched on my shoulder as usual, the bird not too keen on flying yet.
“I’m just so glad I didn’t…” Saruul gulped.
“I’m glad you didn’t too,” I told her, squeezing her hand.
Our moods lightened once we reached the jungle. We took a quick breather and ate some of the dried fruit, the sugar helping a little as well. Another twenty minutes or so and we came to the stream, all of us bending down to drink from it.
The water was refreshing, a slight mineral taste to it, and once I’d had my fill I stretched my arms over my head, yawning.
“I’m right there with you, Nick. I can’t wait to nap,” Roger said as he returned my shoulder.
“A nap would be nice,” Saruul added.
“I don’t nap very well,” Lhandon told us, “but I can keep quiet and read Conversations with a Hellspawn while the three of you rest. We do have to give the book back to the monastery, and I need to pay young Tsetsen a visit. But I suppose that can wait until later. We should discuss our journey back to the capital over dinner.”
“Why don’t you nap well?” Saruul asked as we continued onward.
“When I first joined the Monastery of the Exonerated One I stupidly would find nooks and crannies to sleep in, missing out on some of my studies. The Exonerated One learned of this, and he forced me to take a nap standing up every day from that point forward.”
“I can nap standing up,” Roger chimed in, no one paying attention to him.
“And if you didn’t know, when you try to nap while standing up you generally end up falling over. It only took me a few falls to realize that napping was no longer for me.”
“That sounds cruel,” Saruul said.
“I would stab someone with a knife if they tried nap torture on me,” Roger added. “Believe that.”
“You should rest,” the lioness said softly, “especially now that you are your former teacher’s teacher. You can nap as much as you want.”
“Perhaps I will,” Lhandon said, yawning and placing his hands on his belly. “But later, always later.”
We pressed onward, pockets of the foliage turning purple. Most of the flowers hanging off the trees and vines were wet, the ground soft and springy, the sounds of birds and monkeys filling the canopy above.
We walked a bit slower than we had earlier, all of us ready to get back to civilization, most notably Roger, who seemed to comment on the jungle every few minutes.
“It’s just not my kind of jungle,” he said numerous times.
“That makes no sense,” Saruul informed him. “Jungles are jungles, just like mountains are mountains.”
“Please. Are you saying the mountains we just came from, the one with the demon skull guarding the only bridge that I saw, are the same as the Darkhan Mountains?”
“I…” She shook her head. “I see your point.”
“Exactly.”
We continued to follow the stream, where we started to notice signs of civilization. There was a wicker basket with rocks in it, a bedsheet hung over one of the branches, even a footprint in the muddy banks.
We were close.
After taking a break to drink more from the stream, we made our way through the trees that led to the brewery, Saruul�
��s ears instantly perking up.
“Get down,” she said, dropping to her belly.
I did the same, Lhandon slowly lowering as well.
We heard some commotion, Roger quickly taking to the air.
“They have Amraa,” he said upon his return, his feathers standing to attention on the back of his head. “Hugo’s soldiers are here.”
There was no time to second-guess what I was about to do; I pressed up to my feet, tracing the rune that allowed me to absorb three strikes, and I charged forward. I launched myself over a small wooden fence and landed, my hand on the hilt of my Flaming Thunderbolt of Wisdom.
I drew my blade as I came around to the front of the brewery, where I found seven of Hugo’s soldiers.
Buka and her mother, Sarnai, were huddled together; the soldiers had Amraa on the ground, the old man on his knees.
A shout was just starting to leave my mouth when one of them drove an ax into the back of Amraa’s neck. The man didn’t make it all the way through, so he brought his arms back and hacked at Amraa’s neck again, this time going straight through and decapitating him.
The other soldiers all turned to me.
I brought my Flaming Thunderbolt to the ready, absolute fury boiling inside my gut. I barely noticed the people standing outside the brewery, nor did I pay any attention to the fact that Saruul had now joined me, even Lhandon catching up to us.
And true to his nature, it was Roger who led the fight, the bird swooping down onto some of the soldiers and batting his wings in their faces, distracting them while I charged.
I noticed my time switch appearing, but I was too enraged to actually trigger it, my first swing cutting off a man’s hand, the smell of burning flesh meeting my nostrils as his wound cauterized.
I spun around and took another man out, our weapons cracking together only once before I kicked him away, pressing my sword into an exposed section of his torso. Another man went down as Saruul in her lion form tackled him.
The man who had executed Amraa tried to charge Saruul but he was again distracted by Roger, the small bird driving his talons into the man’s eyes and shouting curse words as he did so.
I lunged forward and drove my blade just below the man’s naval and pulled it up, flames pressing out the other side.
I heard Buka scream.
I glanced at her to see one of the soldiers running toward the young girl and her mother.
My time switch filtered into shape, I triggered it, everything ground to a halt.
With a deep breath out I looked from Saruul, who was finishing off one of the soldiers, to another enemy, the man just about to engage her. I then turned to a soldier who was starting to flee, and finally to the man on the verge of attacking Buka and her mother.
It was then that I noticed a swath of saffron robes between the mother, her daughter, and impending doom.
Lhandon’s hand was charged with icy energy, his ponytail flailing in the air behind him, his palm aimed at the man’s stomach.
Time sped up.
Lhandon brought the soldier down and I went for my Cooling Fan, using it to knock the fleeing soldier off his feet and also blowing away a few of the people who had gathered to witness the commotion.
I ran toward the soldier and stabbed my blade through his back just as he tried to get up.
The townspeople started to disperse, some running, others moving away slowly, watching to see if we would do anything else.
I exchanged panicked glances with Lhandon and Saruul, Roger perfectly summing up how I felt in that moment as he lowered onto my shoulder: “Well, that was fucked.”
Chapter Twenty-Two: Redo
“There has to be a better way we can do this,” I said as my heart started to settle, an adrenaline dump coming on.
Buka continued to sob, Sarnai cradling her decapitated father’s body. The townspeople had mostly run off; I knew it wouldn’t be long before city guards started to show up in force.
“You mean…” Lhandon nodded. “It would take us back to just before Saruul retrieved your sword.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “Saruul?”
“And then we rush to get here?”
“Wait, are you talking about reversing time?” Roger asked.
“That we are,” I said. “I don’t know if it’s going to work, but it’s worth a shot.”
“When did you last set it?” he asked.
“Before Saruul got my sword.”
“That was a long time ago…”
“I’m the only one that would actually be redoing the journey, if that makes any sense.”
“So it’s like double-time for you, huh?” Roger asked.
I nodded. “That’s if it works.”
“We have to try something,” Lhandon said, registering Roger’s tone.
“How will the three of you believe me?” I asked. “I mean, sure you won't think I’m lying, but…”
“Well, there really isn’t time to write something,” Lhandon said, nodding to the road.
The city guards were starting to approach with their weapons drawn, the townspeople staying back.
“I suppose you could take his head with you,” Roger said as he gestured his wing toward Amraa’s severed head.
“Roger!” Saruul hissed.
“Seriously, what would happen? I’m no time expert here!”
“What would happen if I took his head?” I glanced from Roger, who was now on the ground near the man’s head and back to Lhandon.
“He wouldn’t have been killed yet,” Lhandon said, “so it would probably just… disappear, or something.”
“Okay, let’s do this.” I picked up Amraa’s head by the back of his hair, blood dripping from the open wound of his neck.
“What are you doing!?” Buka’s mother asked, tears streaming down her face.
“I’m fixing all of this. Trust me.”
And even though I didn’t quite trust myself, I took in a deep breath, Saruul going to address the city guards approaching us, Lhandon not far behind her. On my second breath out, the time switch appeared.
I activated my ability, everything freezing.
I traced Ra-Mu…
“Your belt and scabbard,” Saruul said softly.
I stood in front of the beautiful lioness, back on the path near the bridge in the Bayan Mountains, the floating skull in the distance and the air suddenly cold and crisp.
“What the hell?” Roger asked as I lifted Amraa’s head, the bottom of it starting to turn to pixelated dust.
“Just hear me out,” I said. “I just came back from the future…”
I paused, waiting for one of them to say something, I also realized at that moment just how stupid this sounded, as if I were borrowing a line from a 1980s movie.
The head now completely disintegrated, I returned my attention to what I was telling them. “Let me explain: we made it back to the brewery, where we found soldiers had taken Amraa’s family hostage. They decapitated Amraa.”
“They cut off his head?” Saruul gasped.
“This was our best option to get there in time and save them. In the time I just returned from, the whole village has been alerted and more city guards are coming. So if we go with that scenario, it’s bad. Especially since we killed all of Hugo’s soldiers.”
“Okay,” Lhandon said, a determined look on his face. “You can explain more on our journey back to the city. I’m guessing we need to move faster this time?”
“Yes, and…” I couldn’t help but smile at her. “Thank you for believing me.”
“You just showed up with the severed head, what else were we supposed to do?” Roger quipped.
“So I still need to get the sword, right?” Saruul asked.
I looked down at my belt to see that the sword was missing.
Weird, but in a way it made sense.
“Yes, you will successfully be able to get it,” I told her as I handed her the belt and scabbard. “Get the sword, and then let’s book it.”
“Book it?” Lhandon asked, an eyebrow raised at me.
“It means let’s move quickly. We can cast our Ra-Mu if we are running out of time, and we can always come back to this point, or at least I can.”
“Yes,” he said as Saruul scaled down the side of the cliff. “Did we rest before or something?”
“A little, but we also just walked slowly. If we can get to the brewery sooner, we can stop soldiers from killing Amraa. We may still have to battle them, and we may need to think of a way to get out of the city.”
Lhandon considered this for a moment. “There is always the option of a boat.”
“The lioness isn’t going to like that option,” Roger said.
“It may be the fastest way,” I told him, “especially if we need to leave the city quickly. Amraa will know what to do. But we have to get to them in time.”
Saruul returned, and handed me my sword and its scabbard.
“I can charge ahead,” she suggested, the lioness still catching her breath.
“Me too,” Roger said. “I’ll go with her, and you and Lhandon can catch up with us. At least we get the family away from the brewery, and if the soldiers are already there, we can fight them off. Nick, my knife.”
I reached down to my boot and retrieved Roger’s knife.
“Also, the knife is heavy, so do you mind if I ride you?” Roger asked Saruul. “Just this once?”
“Is that some type of fantasy of yours?” she asked.
Roger tried not to grin. “I mean, I’m not saying it’s a fantasy per se, but it’s definitely something I have thought about. Come on, lioness, teamwork!”
Saruul shook her head as she began morphing into her snow lion form, her white fur and black stripes taking shape. Roger settled onto her shoulders, holding onto her with his talons, his knife now in his beak, held by its tassel and partially balanced on one of his wings. She growled a little, Roger mumbled for her to chill out, and they took off.
“Try to keep up,” I told Lhandon as I started jogging after them.
He did his best, but the monk had never been the fastest member of our small group.
Even with Lhandon moving slower than I would have liked, we were able to get down the mountain in record time, especially now that we were aware of what lay ahead.
Path of Possession Page 22
