by Logan Byrne
“Thank you,” he said, before putting the back of his head against the headrest and breathing heavily.
“Wait!” a man yelled, running onto the runway. “Here, am I too late?” He handed the gnome two silver coins and she looked back at us before nodding for him to get in. She reached back, unlocking the door, and the plane squeaked as the massive man, maybe four hundred pounds, pushed his way inside.
“Whoa, what?” Charlie asked, perking up in his seat as the ogre stuffed himself into the plane like a sardine in a can. “Uh, what’s going on?”
“Sorry, guys, I need to get down to Nairobi to see my girlfriend. It’s our anniversary,” he said, smiling gleefully. I breathed in, gagging a little. The smell of decades-old onions and cheese wafting off him was pungent enough to kill a healthy horse. He grunted, and I did a double-take because I was sure I saw yellow fumes coming off him, but that might have just been the smell hitting me.
“I hate you,” Charlie mouthed, staring me down.
“Okay, ready for takeoff,” the gnome said, before starting the propeller engine. It stalled a couple times before coughing and starting to spin. You’d need a degree just to operate the array of buttons and dials in front of the pilot. I peered forward, noticing some of the meters were missing glass, and one was even missing a needle, before I focused outside the window and tried to stay calm. If I were this nervous, Charlie must have been about to burst.
The plane began to move and we bounced up and down like a seesaw out of control on the shot shocks as the plane picked up speed. The gnome pulled back on the handles, the plane lifting clumsily off the dirt runway as we ascended into the sky. A light breeze rolled in through the poor windows, which would normally scare me, but this time they provided a much-needed breeze.
“See, this is fine,” I said to Charlie, who was sitting with his eyes closed, his brain not letting him look out the window.
“Well, this is a problem,” the gnome said.
I woke abruptly, gasping for air as I was pulled out of a rather nice dream about Blake taking me out on a romantic date, as the plane began to shake, a small plume of smoke rising from the front engine.
“What’s going on?” I asked, as Charlie began to shake.
“It looks like we’re having some light engine trouble,” she said.
“Light? There’s smoke coming out, lady!” the ogre grunted.
“We’re going to have to take a detour and stop outside Juba,” she said, after looking at her map and compasses.
“Where’s that?” Charlie asked, looking out the window.
“South Sudan. It’s an hour-and-a-half-long flight from Nairobi,” the gnome said.
“We make it this far and then this happens. Only to me,” Charlie sighed, pressing his head against the glass window.
“Hey, it’s okay, kid. We’ll get there,” the ogre said, patting Charlie on the shoulder.
“Thanks,” Charlie replied, with a somber tone.
“This is the Huntress requesting permission to begin an emergency landing,” the gnome said over her radio. “Got it, thank you for your help. Okay, guys, we’re going to be fine. They said we could land here.”
“I think we have different definitions of fine,” Charlie said.
The plane coasted downwards, circling around the airport, as thick columns of black smoke started to billow out of the engine. I gripped the ends of my armrests, my knuckles turning white, until the plane made contact with the paved runway and we skidded along until eventually stopping. “See, not so bad,” she said, from up front.
Not amused by her antics, Charlie was the first one off, hopping out of the cabin with his bag before stretching himself in every direction. “At least I get to stretch my legs,” he said.
“Aren’t you coming?” I asked the ogre, as I went to get out.
“This ain’t a magical outpost, so I have to stay put. The mortals can’t see me like this,” he said, pointing to his green skin and massive size.
“Maybe this will help,” I said, pulling out a tin of the disguise pills that Faus had made for me.
“What’s this?” he asked, holding a pill, which looked about the size of a speck of dust between his giant fingers.
“It will make you look different for a while. Have fun,” I said, before hopping out of the plane. As Charlie and I walked away, I heard him laugh and yell happily, before I turned around and saw a man about six feet tall walk out of the plane. He looked mortal, and I thought he was happy that he did.
“That was a nice thing you did,” Charlie said.
“Yeah, it was,” I replied.
Our pilot told us to stay tight for a while, refusing to let us explore the town even though we were stranded. I wanted to find a café or park, but she was explicit that we didn’t want to go outside, for whatever reason.
“How much longer?” I asked, after thirty minutes had passed and we were getting just as stir-crazy as we had in the cabin.
“Well, we might need to stay the night here. The plane needs repair, and they can’t get the parts until the morning. Sorry, folks,” she said, before walking off.
“Lexa,” Charlie said, exasperated. “We cannot sit here for another night. I have to get back to work soon.”
“I know, Charlie. Maybe there’s some way for us to get there through other means of transportation,” I said, before getting up and grabbing a travel brochure on a rack in the corner.
“What are you doing with that?” Charlie asked.
“They have one here for Nairobi,” I said, grinning.
“Yeah, and?” he asked, not getting what I was hinting at.
“If I know where I’m going, I can try to get us there,” I said, flipping through the brochure.
“I thought you had to have been there before,” he said.
“I do, but maybe being this close with these pictures will help me get us there anyway,” I said.
“And what are the consequences if you can’t?” he asked.
“Well, you know, limbs torn off or maybe your torso the other way around when we get there,” I said, shrugging and smiling awkwardly.
“Why not? This trip is already out of control, so why not walk the opposite way of where I’m looking all the time. Why not?” he asked, getting up to pace around, mumbling to himself like a maniac.
“Surely this is good enough,” I said, seeing a picture of a sprawling park in town. “Nairobi National Park,” I pointed it out to Charlie, who seemed unimpressed to say the least.
“If you want to take the risk, I will. I won’t love it, but I’ll do it,” he said, picking up his pack.
“What about the ogre?” I asked.
“What about him? He’s fine, he’ll get to leave tomorrow morning and get out of here,” Charlie said.
“Well, ready to go?” I asked, and he grabbed onto me. I looked one last time at the picture of the park before putting my wand above our heads and teleporting us out of Sudan.
The journey happened in the blink of an eye, but it felt like several uneasy seconds passed. Not knowing where I was going, our bodies were twisted all around, like wet towels being ringed out, before we slammed back down to earth. I stood up, looking forward, seeing the city in the background looking exactly like what I’d seen in the brochure. “See, no problems,” I said, smiling.
“Lexa,” Charlie said.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Look behind you,” he said, and I slowly turned around.
Four. There were four female lions, growling, as they began to stalk us, slowly circling around us and trapping us in.
“I don’t want to shift, I think it will make them panic and attack,” Charlie said softly.
“I’ll protect us, don’t worry,” I said, my wand still in my hand. I slowly moved it upwards, gulping, before trying to keep my breathing calm. “Arma Maximus,” I said, before swirling the wand around Charlie and me in a quick, fluid motion.
The lions pounced, the bubble just barely connecting, as t
hey bounced off the translucent barrier and hopped back. They clawed at it, trying to clench us in their massive jaws, as the barrier took punishment after punishment while the two of us, huddled together, stayed safe.
“Okay, now what?” he asked, his arms wrapped around me.
“We need to teleport out of here,” I said, looking around. “Maybe into the city there.”
“Are you sure you can do it? It’s far away, and you haven’t exactly seen it before,” he said.
“Would you rather be eaten by a pride of hungry lionesses?” I asked.
“Good point,” he said, and I raised my wand above us.
We popped out into the city, stumbling a bit, before I fell to my knees. I slipped my wand back inside my jacket, standing up and watching the pedestrians around us look at us strangely as they walked past. I smiled, nodding hello, even though I knew they didn’t understand anything that had just happened.
“Why aren’t they freaking out more?” Charlie asked. “We just appeared out of thin air.”
“It’s a trick Mirian taught me. I used a special spell to basically make us invisible as we came in. They never noticed us pop in out of thin air, they thought we were there the entire time. I think they’re just looking at us weirdly because we were on the ground,” I said, dusting myself off.
“It’s starting to get late,” Charlie said, looking at the setting sun. “We need to find somewhere to stay before going to the lake.”
Luckily Nairobi had a magical scene, though it wasn’t exactly the type we were used to. Even smaller than the oasis, it was mainly comprised of beings who traditional shamanistic magic and not the kind I’d practiced and learned about in M.A.G.I.C. and in the camp. Still, they were magical, and we didn’t scoff at creatures who offered to take us in—for a price, of course.
We rented a small room in the back of a building, and walked in to see two mattresses, no sheets on either of them, with some pieces of straw falling out of one. “Maybe we should’ve just stayed in the airport for the night,” Charlie said, swallowing his pride.
“Somebody didn’t want to, now did he?” I asked sternly.
“I know, I deserve it. Let’s just eat and get to bed. The sooner we wake up, the sooner we can leave here and get this mission over with already. I want to go back to Britta,” he said.
“Missing her, I take it?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s hard being away from her for so long. I don’t know how you and Blake do it,” he said.
“Well, it’s not like we have a choice, you know,” I said, laughing.
“I guess so, but still, I commend you both for looking past it and continuing on. You must really love one another,” he said.
“Yeah, we do. It’s nice, having him there, even if I’m not always with him. Soon enough, though. We’ll get Kiren out of power and then I can be with him all the time,” I replied with a smile.
I pulled out two of the ready meals that the mess tent had prepared for us, using my wand to hydrate them and bring them back to life, as the mashed potatoes grew in fluffiness and gravy filled the well as if we’d struck oil. “I love magic,” Charlie said, before stuffing his face.
“I think we need to come up with a plan for tomorrow,” I said, as bits of mashed potatoes fell out of Charlie’s mouth.
“What’s there to plan? We’re going to take a trip out to the lake, get the crystal, and then get the hell out of there,” he said, licking his fingers clean of gravy.
“They said there were harpies there, a lot of them, and that we needed to take caution. They’ll attack us, Charlie, and then what? Do you think we can take on a nest of a hundred or more harpies on our own? Even with Blake and Britta, we couldn’t take them all. Their talons are as sharp as razors,” I said.
“We’ll use your Obscurio spell, get close, and they’ll never even see us. Even with their bird vision, which by the way isn’t as good as my feline eyes, they’ll never be able to see through your spell. We get the thing, you teleport us back to the camp, and everybody goes on with their day,” he said nonchalantly, as if he’d played this through his head already.
“I just don’t think it will be that easy. What if the crystal is under the water?” I asked.
“Cats can swim, even if we don’t like to,” he said.
“Charlie, did you not pay attention at all?” I asked, exasperated. “The water, if you could call it that, is toxic. It’s filled with salt and it’s red. The fumes alone will knock us out the closer we get. You can’t let it touch you or it will hurt you.”
“Hey, if those stupid birds can be near it, we can too. I think we just have to figure it out as we go along. There’s no planning any of this, Lexa. We don’t even have any information on it. All we have are some tales from two old men in a pub in the middle of the desert. It’s not like we can fact-check their sources or anything,” he said, shrugging.
Even if he didn’t care about it all, I did. This was more to me than just some little job. This was an extra hundred and fifty gold coins. That amount of money would change my life, and Charlie didn’t have that added pressure because he wasn’t as concerned. He had a job, and a life, but I didn’t anymore.
Not only that, but even if we pushed that concern aside, there were at least a hundred harpies who were going to be awfully pissed that we were there. What would happen when a swarm of them swooped down and started to peck and rip our eyes out? Charlie wouldn’t be so nonchalant then.
“Just promise me we’ll stick together,” I said, before taking my first bite of food.
“Of course, I promise. I have no intentions of ever leaving you or abandoning you or anything unless you need me to. Besides, I think your mark will find the crystal long before our eyes ever do,” he said.
“What? Why would it do that?” I asked.
“Think about it, didn’t Merlin want this crystal for something? What if your mark, which after all is connected to him, helps you find it? What if it hasn’t been found because nobody with the mark has ever gotten close enough to try?” he asked.
“That’s a good point, but I just don’t think it’s going to help me at all. Maybe if this item was tied to Merlin, but it isn’t. Pote said he tried to find it but never could,” I said.
“Well, whatever the case, tomorrow is going to be our make-or-break day. If we get out there and search all day and can’t find it, I think we’re going to have to call it a day,” he said.
“And give up?” I asked.
“I can’t stay out here forever, and besides, a full day is long enough to look around a lake. If it’s not there, then it’s not there, and we’ll have to start at square one. Maybe those guys in the pub weren’t telling the truth, either intentionally or not. Maybe it’s just that: a myth,” he said, lying back on his mattress as some pieces of straw fell out under the pressure.
I finished up my meal, my stomach finally feeling full after a day of feeling like it was eating itself, before I got up and walked to the window. It was out there, I knew it was, and I was going to be the first one to find it, especially before Kiren could get his hands on it. I just knew it.
5
“And how was your stay, my darlings?” the innkeeper asked as Charlie and I checked out the next morning.
“It was good,” I said, lying through my teeth. The sound of gnawing rats in the walls had kept Charlie and I awake most of the night. “We do need to ask if you know any way we can get to Lake Natron.”
“Lake Natron, you say? Why would you ever want to go there?” she asked, eyeing us up.
“We’re searching for something,” Charlie said.
“You mean the Oxinora,” she said, before sliding over a paper for us to sign to check out.
“So you’ve heard of it?” I asked, perking up.
“Child, it’s said the Oxinora can stop death itself, banishing it to the depths of darkness as one lives eternally without disease of any kind. The power one must possess to even find it would be immeasurable. Beware the harpi
es, though, they do not take kindly to visitors,” she said, smiling.
“What can you tell us about them?” I asked.
“I’ve known eight travelers, hunters just like yourself, who have all gone in search of this mythical item,” she said.
“And?” I asked.
“They all perished at the hands of the harpies. They do not take kindly to anybody, no matter their status or power. I hope you have some good magic to get past them. If that doesn’t deter you, and you still want to face your deaths today, I know a way to get there. It isn’t cheap, but it’s the only way,” she said.
“We’ll do it, whatever it is,” I said.
“How much will it be?” Charlie asked.
“Fifty silver for the two of you to go. You will go by helicopter, but beware, he won’t get close to the ground,” she said.
“Well, how do we get to the lake then?” I asked.
“You must jump out, and hope the noxious fumes of the lake don’t spoil your journey down. If you’re sure, I’ll make the call,” she said, her fingers tapping on her old red rotary telephone.
“We’re sure. Make the call,” I said, nodding.
“Lexa,” Charlie whispered, pulling me off to the side. “Isn’t that all the money we were given? What if it doesn’t work out?”
“We don’t have any other way there, you heard the woman. Besides, you wanted to leave after today anyway, so why would we need more money?” I asked.
“I guess you’re right, but still, I don’t necessarily like the idea of what we’re getting ourselves into,” he said, before breathing in heavily through his nose. “I just hope this is worth it.”
“It will be, Charlie, it will be,” I said, patting his back.
“Okay, the call is made, and they’ll be here shortly to escort you to the helicopter. It’s a shame,” she said, looking us over.
“What is?” I asked.
“That two such beautiful gifted beings such as yourselves are going to die,” she said, shaking her head and walking into her back room.
“Yeah, a shame,” Charlie mumbled, before walking to a bench and sitting down.
