by Davis Ashura
William didn’t need to be told twice. Neither did the other two. They all dug in. William got to the bread first and cut off a large slice. He slathered on plenty of butter. Next, he grabbed four or five strips of bacon, and scooped equal amounts of fruit and casserole onto his plate before sitting down at the kitchen table.
“Morning all,” William said after stuffing several mouthfuls of food into his mouth.
“Morning, yourself,” Jake said. He sat across from William, his all-American handsomeness equal in its own way to Jason’s more exotic good looks. “Took you long enough to wake up. Thought we’d have to start without you.”
A calling rooster outside interrupted William’s response.
“Any chance we can have rooster stew for dinner tonight?” Jake asked, his blue eyes shining with a hopeful expression.
“Woke you up, did he?” Mr. Zeus asked as he soaked a greasy skillet and a baking pan in the kitchen’s farmhouse sink. His tone didn’t contain much sympathy.
“I slept through it,” William said.
“Yet you still look like crap,” Jason noted.
“Smells like it, too,” Jake added.
“That’s your breath,” William replied.
Mr. Zeus set a skillet in the sink. “Same dream last night?”
“Pretty much,” William said.
Jake cleared his throat. “I told him to have Mr. Zeus, you know …” He wiggled his fingers.
“Erase bad thoughts?” Jason guessed.
Jake nodded.
“Then what’s with the finger wiggle?” Jason asked.
“It’s supposed to indicate magic.”
“It looked like you were trying to flick a booger,” Jason said.
“What? No, it didn’t,” Jake protested. “This is flicking a booger.” He pretended to reach into his nose.
“Gross!” Jason shouted.
William laughed.
Afterward, they settled down to the serious task of eating. Jake foolishly got up to get some OJ, and William and Jason scarfed down his bacon.
“Hey!” Jake protested.
“You snooze, you lose,” Jason said with a shameless grin. He emphasized his point by aiming a piece of bacon at Jake, who snatched it out of his hand.
“Or wave your food around like a dumbass.”
William laughed again, but stopped when Jake picked up his bread, licked it, and set it back down. William wordlessly passed the bread over to him and got himself another slice. He wisely took his plate with him while he did.
“You three,” Mr. Zeus shook his head in mock disbelief, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He sat down next to Jason with his own plate of food.
Jake made to reach for one of Mr. Zeus’ bacon slices.
“You’ll lose your hand if you even try,” Mr. Zeus said, not bothering to look up from his food.
Jake pulled back.
After breakfast, Mr. Zeus put the leftovers away while William cleaned the dishes and Jake and Jason dried them. It was a routine they’d fallen into since William and Jake had moved in with Mr. Zeus and Jason.
“When can I go home?” Jake asked while they worked.
Jason groaned. “Not this again.”
“Yes, this again,” Jake said, his tone waspish. “I want to see my family and let them know I’m alive.”
William empathized with how Jake felt. Had their roles been reversed, he’d have been every bit as desperate to get home.
“You know I’d let you go if the decision were mine,” Mr. Zeus said, “but it’s not. You also know what Arylyn’s Constitution states, and we can’t change it to suit our whims.”
“It’s not a whim,” William said. “In this case, the law happens to be stupid.”
“Didn’t you take the class on American Ethics?” Jason asked.
“Ethics shmethics,” William replied. “Arylyn’s Constitution doesn’t forbid Jake going home. It only says a magus has to be able to create a braid that prevents a normal from disclosing the truth about us. Mr. Zeus could do that for Jake.” He snapped his fingers. “Problem solved.”
“That’s not what the Constitution says,” Jason disagreed. “It says the magus who wants to speak to a normal about Arylyn is the one who has to be able to create the braid. It doesn’t say another magus can do the work for him.”
“I get that,” William said, “but the Constitution is wrong to require it, and we’re wrong to insist on it.”
“No, it isn’t,” Mr. Zeus disagreed. “The magus who wants to leave the island has to be able to create the braid. If he or she can’t, it puts us all at risk.”
“But you could—”
“What if something happened to me in the Far Beyond?” Mr. Zeus asked. “What if I was injured? What would Jake do then? How would he protect Arylyn’s secrets?
William deflated. He hadn’t thought of that.
Several days later, Jake jogged alongside William up the main stairs of Cliff Spirit, all the way from the base to the top. Four hundred feet of climbing. Jake smiled when he heard Daniel and Jason wheezing as they struggled to keep up.
Jake felt nothing more than a slight burn in his thighs, and he certainly didn’t need to fall back. Instead, he ran alongside William, controlling his breathing as Travail had taught.
They eventually reached the aptly named Clifftop and slowed to a walk, taking a quick breather. Daniel and Jason stood hunched over with hands on knees while Jake stared out at his new home.
Roughly seven thousand people called Arylyn home, and most of them resided here in Lilith, the only settlement on the island. Five cliffs, one for each Element, soared from beach to sky and made up the village. Each one rose to roughly the same height, had a central stair—the Main Stairs—and contained a number of terraces. Upon them stood Lilith’s gorgeous homes and grounds. A single finger of River Namaste’s waters split each cliff and cascaded down as a set of misty, laddered waterfalls. Rainbows arched off the sea, and bridges that appeared fragile as glass, linked the various cliffs and terraces.
Jake never tired of the sight.
“Let’s pick up the pace,” William said, setting off again.
Jake kept up with him as they passed through the Village Green, a triangular promontory atop Cliff Spirit that jutted like the prow of a ship. Walkways fanned out from a centrally-placed gazebo which was surrounded by tall gardenias and flame trees. Low-lying, wrought-iron chains ran along the perimeter of the Green to prevent people from tumbling over the edge, but Jake reckoned someone drunk enough could probably still find the quicker way down.
They jogged through the flag-stoned streets of Clifftop, amidst tall, narrow buildings made of brick, stone, or both. They stood shuttered and quiet. With the sun nothing more than a rosy glow to the east, most Arylyners had yet to awaken.
The road they traveled forked. Westward it led to the enrune fields and Janaki Valley, the farmlands of the island. But to the east, the direction William took them, it ascended a gentle slope where it dissolved into a mottled path of gravel and grass. They passed Linchpin Knoll, so-named because all the anchor lines attached to Arylyn atop it. Jake stared at it wistfully.
The trail curled north, and Mount Madhava dominated the view. The lower and middle reaches held an evergreen forest, while higher up a gray-black granite spine knuckled skyward toward a snow-capped peak. Foothills clustered near Mount Madhava’s flanks, huddling like frightened children, but none reached the mountain’s rocky shoulders.
Their path switch-backed south before turning sharply east. It widened there, tracing a steep drop-off that plunged hundreds of feet into a narrow gorge containing the remnants of River Namaste as it raced on to the Pacific Ocean. Even from up here, Jake could hear the water battering its way downhill.
Their path shifted north once more, onto a mild descent, and William ran faster. Even Jake struggled to keep the pace. Daniel and Jason’s breathing grew ragged, but William didn’t slow down.
Jake understood why William pushed
so hard. He wanted them strong and ready for when they returned to Sinskrill. It might be years of training away, but for William it didn’t matter. He wanted them ready, especially since Travail had always taught that a fit asrasin could braid more powerfully.
The pace never slowed, and Jake focused on his breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Fill his lungs.
They cut through a narrow ravine before reaching their destination, a grassy hill with stairs cut into it. Each step was braced by a stout piece of lumber, and at the base of the rise lay a number of smaller logs, all of them notched with handles.
William hoisted one onto the back of his shoulders and proceeded up the hill. Jake followed suit.
Jason groaned. “You guys are killing us.”
“Shut up and pick up a log,” Daniel said. He grunted as he got under one.
Jake started up the hill. “Five trips up and down, and then we jog back to town,” he announced.
Jason groaned again. “You guys really did this every day on Sinskrill?”
“Twice a day,” William said as he passed them on his way up again. “Travail wanted us ready.”
“Ready for what?” Daniel gasped. His caramel-colored skin shone with sweat, and his fine curly hair plastered against his skull.
“Whatever we had to do to get off Sinskrill,” Jake answered.
“Then why were you so skinny when we picked you up?” Jason asked. “You should have been as ripped as Arnie.”
“Not enough food,” Jake answered.
“So why are you doing it now?” Daniel asked.
Jake answered. “So we’re ready for when we go back to Sinskrill.” Daniel opened his mouth, and Jake cut him off. “Save your breath. You’ll need it.”
All of them focused on making it up and down the cursed hill with their cursed logs. The only sounds to be heard were their grunts and groans.
By the fourth trip, Jake’s legs burned, from his calves to his thighs, an ache seemingly deep as his bones. His heart pounded, and his breathing came fast. Sweat poured off him, down his face and stinging his eyes. He wouldn’t stop, though. Not now. Not ever. While Jake didn’t want to return to Sinskrill—he hated and feared the place in equal measure—he would do so. He owed Travail and Fiona, loved them like family, and he wouldn’t allow his family to suffer. Just as importantly, Jake also believed Sinskrill’s dark god, Shet, was coming, and if he did, no place would be safe. They had to find a way to stop him, and maybe Travail and Fiona could help them figure out how.
William finished his final trip and dropped his log. “See y’all later,” he said before setting off, presumably back to Lilith.
Jake shook his head in disbelief, a sentiment apparently shared by Daniel.
“How the hell does he run so fast?” Daniel asked.
“Kohl Obsidian,” Jake replied. “The necrosed’s blood got inside him and made him stronger and faster. Now shut up. I want to finish up, go home, and take a shower.”
“What’s stopping you?” Jason asked.
“Nothing,” Jake answered. “Except I like going back as a group. Call it the football player in me. I like being part of a team.”
July 1987
william stood on Mr. Zeus’ front porch and stared at the lovely morning weather with wistful longing. The sky held a blazing, early morning sun, cotton-candy clouds, and was a rich, Carolina blue. Gardenias and tall verbenas with neon-purple flowers lined the front porch and drew butterflies that danced on imperceptible breezes. In the distance, two miles away and a quarter-mile down, the aqua water of Lilith Bay gleamed and glistened. Arylyn didn’t have any mosquitoes or other annoying insects buzzing around, and the only sounds were of softly rustling palm fronds and wind chimes hanging from the porch.
All in all, a picture-perfect day, but William couldn’t enjoy it. At least not yet. He had school, and worse, Jason was to be his instructor.
Again.
William mentally scowled. College he could accept, even regular classes like in high school, but school in Arylyn with Jason as the teacher was one notch short of hell.
At least Jake and Serena had to share his misery. She hadn’t yet arrived, and William, Jake, and Jason sat upon chairs on the porch and waited for her.
“What’s on the docket for today anyway?” Jake grumbled, his tone reflecting William’s own lack of enthusiasm.
“History,” Jason answered.
“Again?” Jake scowled. “This is like, I don’t know, the tenth time we’ve had to take some kind of history class with you. I mean, how much history is there?”
“Plenty,” Jason said, “especially when you consider how old Arylyn is.”
“But it’s not like anything ever happened here,” Jake said. “People are born on Arylyn, or they come over like me and William. Everyone gets along because this place is paradise. That’s it. Rinse and repeat.”
“That’s not it,” Jason protested.
“Yes, it is.” William agreed with Jake.
Jason glared at William. “I’m surprised at you. Aren’t you the one who loves history because it tells you where you came from?”
“Yeah, but that’s only if there’s something interesting to come from,” William said. “Arylyn’s history is boring.”
“Besides which, why do we have to go to school anyway?” Jake asked.
“You didn’t think you’d have classes at Notre Dame?” Jason asked.
“Yeah,” Jake said, “but that’s different.”
“How’s it different?” Jason asked.
“Because you’re the one doing the teaching,” William answered. “It’s weird having a friend teach you something.”
“Didn’t Travail teach you?” Jason asked. “Or Fiona?”
“He’s a troll, and she’s a scary old woman,” Jake said. “You’re my age. It’s not the same.”
“Well, boo hoo,” Jason said. “It’s not like this is fun for me, either. I could be out doing something a lot more fun than wasting my time with you two.”
“What’s stopping you?” Jake asked.
“Mr. Zeus,” Jason answered.
“Sucks to be you,” Jake chortled.
“More like sucks to be you,” Jason replied.
William couldn’t help but smile as Jake and Jason continued to bicker. They reminded him of an old married couple.
“And maybe you should stop being such a little girl about it,” Jason said. “As soon as Serena decides to show up, we can get started.”
“Speak of the devil,” Jake said. He pointed with his chin as Serena stepped through the front gate and marched toward them.
She wore a sleeveless, blue dress that ended at her knees. It swirled around her long legs with every step she took. Her naturally brown skin had darkened to a deeper shade under Arylyn’s sun.
William dipped his head in acknowledgement when she mounted the front steps. “You finally tired of being a hermit and a drone?” he asked.
Serena settled into a cushioned wicker chair. “I was never either.”
“Yeah, you were,” Jake said. “You were a drone until you became a shill.”
Serena’s eyes briefly narrowed, but otherwise her features remained flat and unreadable. William couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
“I stand corrected,” she said to Jake. “I was once a drone like you. Remember when you had to clean the stables?”
“I don’t want to have to referee another argument between you two,” Jason said to Jake. “Shut up and let’s get started.” He proceeded to recite a series of facts and boring stories from the years prior to the founding of Arylyn.
“So to summarize,” Jake interrupted, “we’re learning about what happened in the world before Arylyn, not anything about Arylyn itself?”
“Yeah,” Jason agreed, sounding hesitant.
“Then I rest my case,” Jake said, sounding triumphant. All that history is about some other place and time because nothing happens on Arylyn.”
Serena smirked. “You sound like you w
ish you could live in interesting times,” she said to Jake.
“I’ve had enough of interesting times,” Jake replied. “You’re the biggest reason why I experienced them in the first place.”
Again, Serena’s eyes tightened.
“The Lord of the Sword,” William said, interrupting her before she could respond, and reminding the others of the main topic of Jason’s talk. “Pretty cool name, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know,” Jake said. “I think it’s trying too hard to sound badass.”
“No one knows who he was?” William asked.
“All we know is his name,” Jake said. “Shokan and his wife, Sira, the Lady of Fire. They rallied the ancient asrasins and slew Shet.”
“That’s not how we learned it on Sinskrill,” Serena said.
“I don’t care how they learned it on Sinskrill,” Jake said.
“Except we need to know as much as we can about how the mahavans think,” William reminded him. “Our business with them isn’t done.”
“What do they say?” Jason asked Serena.
“On Sinskrill,” Serena said, “we’re taught that Lord Shet came to Earth from Seminal. He taught the ancient asrasins his art, thereby lifting them up from the mud. He intended for them to join him in his heavenly home, but then came the Befouler and his Bride—the Lord of the Sword and the Lady of Fire. Initially, they were the wisest and most powerful of all asrasins, but they grew overly proud—”
“And after pride comes the fall?” William guessed.
Serena inclined her head in agreement. “They began speaking out against Lord Shet. They questioned why they couldn’t cross over to Seminal at a time of their own choosing. They demanded Seminal’s grace, and rallied followers. It was then that the mahavans and magi were born. The mahavans remained loyal to Lord Shet, while the magi became apostate followers of the Befouler and his Bride.”
Despite his feelings toward Serena, William found himself growing interested in her tale. Based on their expressions, so did Jason and Jake. They all leaned toward Serena as she spoke.
“War broke out,” she continued. “It raged for years, maybe longer, with both sides taking horrific losses. The world itself was broken, with mountains leveled, seas drained, rivers boiled off, and canyons carved where none before had existed.”
