by Bill Albert
After passing a few random intersections she caught sight of an opening in the ceiling where another tunnel crossed over with theirs and she guided Anamita upwards. They waited quietly again and before long saw three clumsy orcs crawled beneath them in a desperate search. They let them continue on and waited in total silence for several minutes after they had passed beneath them.
“Do you know where we are?” Anamita asked.
“Yes,” Gallif said after a deep breath. “We kept going right at the intersection but didn’t go far off a main course. We can get back to the temple area fairly easy. We just have to wait to make sure it’s all clear.”
“What about Pate and the rest of them?”
“My main target was to get to that shaft and go higher up the mountain,” Gallif explained. “I’m sure Luvin and Jakobus will keep moving in that direction so we can meet up with them.”
“What about Pate?” she asked eagerly.
“Yes, I’m sure he will go with them, too,” she said almost smiling. “You are really close to him.”
“Yes,” she said with a heartfelt nod. “He’s been very good to me. He helped me out and helped me fit in to the school. Even when I didn’t want to,” she added.
“It still takes some getting used to,” Gallif admitted. “I was so used to seeing him as an overbearing ass, but that was all just a show.”
“Well, not all,” Anamita said with a wink. “I trust him,” she added seriously. “Like his father, he does know how to keep secrets.”
“Yes,” she nodded. “Like his father.” They sat silently for a while before Gallif spoke. “You saved my life twice,” she said looking at the floor. “Thank you.” When Anamita failed to answer she looked at her companion and saw her staring down the tunnel ahead of them. She moved to get a view of what had caught Anamita’s attention and found herself just as awe struck. There was a reflection of light on a damp rock wall that could only be one thing.
Gallif started crawling until they were very close and slowly reached her hand out into the thin shaft of sunlight. They stepped into a larger tunnel and could see in the distance a break in the wall where sunlight was sneaking through. Excitedly, but carefully, they approached the wall and stopped just a few feet away.
“I don’t understand,” Anamita said.
This close they could see that the wall was a thick heavy black and brown streaked curtain. It was attached to the top of a large opening by layers of stones. The bottom was also covered with stones to hold it in place. Very carefully Gallif kicked some of the rocks on the floor aside and pulled the curtain away.
This was a view of the Land of Starpoint that they had never imagined before. Being high on this side of the mountain they could see the area directly to the south. They could see the protruding edge of the Terra Firla forest where the school had been hidden. Beyond that came the flat lands of the farms and as the sun passed behind some clouds they could imagine the harbor city of Keometric in the distance. To their right, the southwest, they could see the lower half of the beautiful Rainbow Mountains and as far to the southeast as the VanClev river.
Gallif’s eyes finally fell on the road that directly skirted the mountain beneath them and shook her head in disbelief. Luvin had been right on Festival Day. She could easily imagine what he had seen had been this very curtain being tossed in the wind. She followed the road and could even see where the giant attack had taken place and the route they had followed to rescue him. As she studied it all she began to believe that the movement had been a sign to those ready to ambush the Third Minister that their target was coming.
Their moments of awe at the majesty of the Land of Starpoint were shattered by the sounds of orcs approaching them from behind.
“Damn you to hell,” Gallif spat as she turned and drew her flame sword. There was no escape from here, they could not get back to the smaller tunnel, and knew they would have to fight. Anamita pulled her long sword and stood next to Gallif as four orcs came towards them.
Gallif stepped forward and met them with a wide swing. The first orc, covered in metal armor, parried her and their swords smacked each other in midair. This orc was very strong and confident and Gallif had to use all her force to stop herself from being pushed back.
One of the orcs tried to take advantage of the distraction and slip around her, but it was in sight and range. She released pressure on the leader’s sword, and it swung to her left. She cut through the leather armor leaving a foot-long slash in its leg. It stumbled and as Gallif went back to defend herself from another attack from the leader, Anamita finished off the wounded orc completely.
Another orc replaced the downed attacker and Gallif instinctively took a step back. This orc had a long, blunt end, wooden staff in its hands. The lead orc stepped back and made wide and powerful swings with the staff. It struck the walls hard, but, though the walls were cracked, the wooden weapon was not. Gallif glanced back and saw that they were less than a dozen feet from the edge.
Simultaneously they swung at the orc and they managed to deflect the weapon long enough for Anamita to hit the attacker with the tip of her long sword. It created a puncture in the orc’s chest and it fell back.
The lead orc and the remaining soldier pushed forward on either side of the staff wielding orc. They swung wildly and, almost in unison, Gallif and Anamita retreated a few steps. They were a few feet from the edge now and could feel a breeze on their backs.
The leader tried to push forward again and Gallif felt the temperature rise as the sun emerged from the clouds. She quickly stepped aside and let the leader come forward. The sudden brightness caught it off guard and it stumbled. She kicked at its leg and as it fell, she finished it off with her weapon before it hit the ground.
The orc with the staff started swinging again as it came forward and both Gallif and Anamita knew they could not fall back any further. The edge was just beyond them. As Gallif deflected a swing, Anamita jumped forward and rolled beneath the arc of the weapon. She brought her long sword up and directly cut into the orc’s chest. It howled in pain and Gallif swung in and removed one if its hands. In panic it clumsily swung the staff back and forth and accidently killed the wounded orc.
Gallif glanced down as Anamita rolled around its feet. She was quick, but it opened her to an attack and the staff struck her shoulder. She caught her breath and started to rise but howled in frustration.
Anamita was entangled in the orc’s legs as it fell forward off the edge. She was pulled along with it and Gallif jumped just in time to catch her hands. The force of motion was too great and Gallif was carried along until her shoulders were just over the edge and the toes in her boots were dug into the dirt to break her advance.
Anamita was released from the orcs legs and it quickly fell away but neither of them could take the time to watch it.
“Get your feet steady against the wall,” Gallif ordered. “I can’t hold you if you keep swinging,” she cried desperately.
“I can’t,” Anamita said as she kicked forward. “It’s too weak!”
Gallif felt herself start to slip as the soft ground beneath her gave way under their combined weight.
“Take hold of one hand,” Gallif said. “I’ve got a red banner and I think I can get it, but I have to hold you by one hand.”
Eyes wide in terror Anamita switched her grip and held on to Gallif’s left wrist alone. As her position changed Anamita was caught in a gust of wind that blew her slightly away from the edge. She screamed in fear and then looked up to see if Gallif had any success in retrieving the red banner but found Gallif staring at her and unmoving.
“Gallif, please, help me up.”
To Gallif the entire world had stopped moving. She didn’t hear Anamita’s words or feel her weight but as the wind blew her hair back she clearly saw Anamita’s pointed elven ears.
“I beg you, Gallif, help me!” Anamita said with tears streaming down her face.
“What are you?” Gallif said with her thoughts in turmoil. “You betra
yed Rayjen and everyone at the school!”
“No,” Anamita cried. “I’m not evil. Not completely elf,” she screamed in panic.
Gallif looked down and saw the human like body and hair that had hidden the true elven signs.
She felt the ground shift beneath her and it was suddenly over. She didn’t know if it was the sheer weight, the slippery sweat and dirt on her hand, Anamita’s weakness or even the burning hatred of the elven race, but Anamita was loose and falling. Unable to move Gallif lay on the edge and watched her, heard her death scream as it echoed, until she disappeared on the rock wall below.
She kept seeing the fall and hearing the scream again and again.
She did not see or hear three orcs come up behind her and grab her arms and legs. She didn’t fight as they dragged her away.
She didn’t say anything when they took her to her jailer or resist when they removed the swords, the knife strapped to her thigh, or the backpack and tossed them aside.
They finally took her into a cell, dropped her face down on the dirty floor, and slammed the door shut as they left. It was almost pitch black, except for a faded orange glow of a torch outside the door. There was a very small window in the center of the door and a single shaft of light that rested on the small of her back.
Her mind was in turmoil and she was nearly in a state of shock. She wasn’t aware of the passage of time, the darkness, or even her own breathing. She couldn’t think or move at all until she felt a soft hand touching her shoulder. Her thoughts snapped back to where she was and she rolled away with a hand up and ready to fight. She was expecting an attack and was surprised when none came.
She moved to a sitting position and slid back enough so she wasn’t in the light. She couldn’t see or hear anyone else, but she knew she wasn’t the only one in the room.
“Who’s there?” she finally asked.
“I’m sorry,” came a slightly accented voice from the darkness. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Where am I?”
“My jail cell. It’ll surprise you exactly where you are at.”
“What do you mean?”
“We are inside Starpoint Mountain,” the female paused for effect. “Yes, we are inside the mountain itself.”
“I know,” Gallif said with no emotion as she looked at the bare light for signs of her fellow prisoner.
“Oh,” the woman said with considerable disappointment. “Usually people don’t know.”
“Who are you?” Gallif finally thought to ask.
“Idin,” she answered.
“My name is Gallif.”
“Hello, Gallif. You knew you were inside Starpoint?”
“Yes, of course. We, I mean I, purposefully came here.”
“You said ‘we’,” Idin said and paused to see if Gallif would respond. “How did you find a way in?” she asked after she realized Gallif had let it go.
“Luck,” Gallif answered honestly. “You’ve had others here before?”
“Yes, but they didn’t know where they were at first.”
“Someone brought them here? Kidnapped them?”
“Yes, a door opened, and someone was brought in.”
“How many?” Gallif asked wondering if she knew her door analogy involved jumps.
“You are the forty-second. Would you like a drink of water?”
The question was such a surprise it took several second for Gallif to say that she would welcome some. There was movement just out of sight and Gallif heard the woman take five precise steps, pour water from one container to another, and return to her original position. Then a hand holding a chipped ceramic cup appeared in the light. Gallif reached forward and slowly took the cup away.
“Thank you,” Gallif said.
“You are welcome,” Idin responded.
“Have they ever tried to escape?”
“Yes.”
“Have you?”
“No.”
“What do you do?”
“I wait. Believe it or not I was once a very powerful caster. Then I got involved. Zaslow came to me to get him inside Starpoint Mountain.”
“How?” Gallif asked and felt a shiver go up her spine.
“I had been experimenting with making holes in space. Creating doors between one place and another that people could go through. He wanted to come here.”
“But with that casting you have to know where the door will open to,” Gallif said as she sat.
“Yes. I made blind casts,” Idin shifted uncomfortably as she spoke. “How prophetic. A leap of faith that cost me everything. A miracle chance that worked getting us to an open area in Starpoint Mountain.”
Gallif drank all of the water in the cup before she asked, “What was the cost?”
“Everything. There were defenses cast onto the walls. Ancient ones laid down a thousand years ago. I could never cast again.”
“You should have been rewarded.”
“Zaslow thinks he’s a god,” Idin continued without responding directly to Gallif’s comment. “People usually forget that not all gods are good. Sometimes they consider letting you sacrifice something for them as a reward. That’s where Spire came in.”
“Spire?”
“The dark skinned one. Dark in his eyes, heart and soul.”
“Rewarded by fighting bigger enemies,” Gallif whispered. “I’ve seen the results of those rewards before.”
“I’d seen the truth and Spire convinced Zaslow that if I ever told anyone, no one would ever believe he was a god,” Idin said slowly.
Much to their surprise the doors were suddenly flung open and several orcs came in. As her eyes adjusted to the sudden light, she turned to get a look at her brief cell mate but was grabbed and pulled from the room before she got a good view.
“What was it you saw?” Gallif asked as they dragged her into the hall. She tried to fight back, but she was unarmed, and the four muscular orcs were too powerful.
“How Starpoint Mountain was born,” Idin called as they slammed the door shut and moved down the hall. Idin sighed as silence returned to the cell. Out of habit she reached up and scratched her pointed ears.
They quickly took Gallif into a room at the end of the hall. The walls were a sharp contrast to the stone in the rest of the mountain and she quickly surveyed the room. There were four glowing white lights floating just below the ceiling and four more just above the floor that bathed the room completely. There were no shadows, no places to hide, and the room had only one door and no windows. The walls were covered with glass and reflected everything back and forth into infinity. There was only a metal table with leather straps from end to end in the middle of the room and the orcs carelessly tossed her onto the table’s surface. Roughly, and with effort that took all four of them, they stripped her naked and strapped her to the table. Then, without a word, they left the room and closed the door behind them.
Gallif fought against the straps but could not loosen them enough to move freely. The inside of the door, and all of the walls, were mirrors and she looked around the room for any sign of help, but all she saw was herself naked and strapped to the table looking directly back at her.
After several futile attempts to free herself she laid back and closed her eyes. She told herself to concentrate, to remember all of the things she had learned at the school. She remembered the ways to control fear and panic and soon was calm and breathing normally. She closed her eyes and listened to the room and used that to center her emotions.
Even with her eyes closed she could tell there was a sudden brightness directly in front of her. She opened her eyes and saw that two of the lights were now only a few feet away from her face. Then a third joined them to form a string. They remained stationary for a second and then, as one, started moving in a circle around her head. Then three other lights made a string and circled in the opposite direction. The lights moving and the reflections on the walls gave her the feeling that she was moving, and she quickly began getting dizzy. She closed
her eyes, but the lights were bright enough that she could still pick them up when they moved before her.
“No,” she said aloud and told herself to disbelieve. Quickly the moving lights faded out, but the sensation of movement remained and she tried hard not to vomit. She couldn’t move and her throat was stone dry, but she feared swallowing would cause her to be sick. She breathed slowly, deeply, and carefully opened her eyes.
Tome stood before her. His skull was crushed and he was covered in blood, but his eyes were open and he was staring at her.
“I died because of you,” he said and blood bubbled in his lips as he spoke. “You failed to protect me.”
“There were too many,” she pleaded. “I couldn’t get to you.”
“LIAR!” he yelled and came rushing at her.
She screamed in fear and just as he was about to collide with her he disappeared and again all was silent.
She breathed heavily, her bare chest heaving with each intake, and she repeated to herself that this would not break her. She was stronger than this.
When she next opened her eyes, the young boy she had met outside Atrexia was looking at her with his eyes wide. He was looking at her naked body lustfully.
“You tricked me. You played with me. I’m just a boy.”
Gallif felt a tightening in her chest. She tried not to admit it to herself, but she knew that he was right. She had used her looks to get past him quickly.
Suddenly the boy’s skull was crushed, and he was covered in blood. “I died because of you!” he cried.
“This isn’t real,” Gallif cried out loud. “He didn’t die. It’s a trap.”
“We died because of you.”
Suddenly she was in the barn on Bitran’s estate with the bodies that had been ripped to shreds in a frenzy swinging from their ropes.
They moved closer to her and even with her eyes closed she could sense them before her.
“We died because of you!”
“NO!” she shouted. “I do not believe this!”
Then there was another form, a shapeless form, blurring, changing that walked towards her to crystal clarity. It was herself.
