Immortality's Touchstone

by Mark Tufo

“Gee, thanks, buddy,” I answered, like I wasn’t already treading on rough waters.

  Lana had come over to our small group. “My scouts tell me that we are completely encircled by werewolves.”

  It was close to two hundred miles to Denarth and that was the only secure location I could think we could get to.

  “Lana, we have to get back to your home.”

  “And then what?” she asked. “Michael, we cannot handle this many refugees, and they certainly won’t fit inside our walls.”

  “You’re starting to sound like your father,” I told her.

  I might as well have told a woman I was arguing with to relax—that’s how pissed off she looked at me right then.

  “She’s right,” Azile said. “There are too many. We’d never be able to keep them safe for the journey.”

  “We can’t stay here and fight.”

  “There’s another option.” Mathieu was looking over to the island.

  “They’ll starve,” Lana said.

  “No, no they won’t.” I could see where Mathieu was going with this. “Lunos only wants the boy. The rest of the inhabitants go and hide out on the island for a day and we take Gabriel here and hightail it for Denarth.”

  “Can we be sure Lunos will follow?” Azile asked. “If he doesn’t, we have condemned these people.”

  “The only alternative is to stand and fight. Honestly, I’m not sure how much of a chance we have here, this far removed from resupply,” I said. “Listen, I’m only throwing in my two cents. If anyone has a better idea...by all means.” I gestured with my hands.

  There was silence. “We indeed must be in trouble if Michael’s idea is the best one that we have,” Mathieu said.

  “Shit, buddy, don’t hold back on my account,” I told him. “I feel like I must owe you money or something; getting a very passive aggressive vibe here.”

  He hugged me and smiled. “Not at all, it is just very good to see you again, I have not had a friend I can jest with.”

  “Lucky me,” I told him. “Gabriel, you up for some horseback riding?”

  “On one of those?” He was looking at the enormous creatures.

  “Yeah—don’t worry it’s not as scary as it looks.” I hoped he couldn’t see the lie as I spoke it.

  “I’m not afraid. I’ve always wanted to ride one.”

  “We have to bring him to Denarth,” I told Dour Face.

  “Then go,” she said.

  “Don’t you want to come?” I had a confused look on my face.

  “He’s been nothing but a burden since the day he came to my house.”

  Gabriel was not paying her any attention as she basically said she didn’t love him and never had, and would be glad to be rid of him. I expect it wasn’t the first time she’d said the words. Even so, I wanted to break her fucking jaw to make sure the next time she said any words it would hurt like hell.

  The citizens of Robert’s Land weren’t quite as ready to let us go on our merry little way as Dour and Gangly. We’d be taking away a very large part of their defense; it was all we could do to convince them that we would also be taking away the very reason they were being attacked. But that wasn’t entirely true, and I have to think that at least part of my lie was exposed to the harsh, bright sunlight where it sat out in the open in all its naked glory. Were we condemning these people? Our only chance, and I meant theirs as well, was speed. We needed to get the hell out of here before Lunos attacked again. Odds were he was more inclined to pursue but if he wasn’t...? And that was the question everything hinged on. The half-vamp, the supposedly, evil part of me had been pushed out. But I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a significant portion of me that considered driving a knife into Gabriel’s skull might be the best thing we could do. So how much wickedness must I have housed within me? Or still did?

  Sick, I know it—and that’s why I didn’t voice it. Here was Lunos, already on the precipice of taking over the entire eastern part of the old United States and still he felt the need to find this Veil Piercer for some as of yet unseen advantage. If this kid was so important, could we somehow use him for our own devices? Or was he just an instrument for destruction? Like the living embodiment of a nuclear device. Sure we’d rather have that power than let our enemies have it, but in the end, it just wiped everything in its path out. Good, bad, indifferent all just gone. That was the problem inherent in weapons of mass destruction. Gabriel was either the savior or the destroyer; it would be infinitely easier if he were wrapped in the guise of Dour Face, her I’d off just for the fun of it.

  Lana the Ninja was easily the best rider among us, her horse the fastest, and arguably she was the best warrior on this endeavor. It made sense that Gabriel rode with her, we’d fixed the saddle so that he was strapped in. In the event we had trouble, her defense was to run and the rest of us would basically become a giant speed bump for Lunos’ army. Now we were left wondering if he was even going to let us leave. Odds were he’d seen the townsfolk head back to the island; we’d done our best to disguise Gabriel as a bedroll slash backpack, he should pass as luggage from a distance. We had to hope that Lunos was assuming we hadn’t figured out who the one he sought was and that we, having done the job we’d set out to do, were leaving. Every hour he spent waiting out the people on the island was more time we had to decamp unhindered.

  Our column was on the move, although we looked more like rush hour traffic in downtown Tokyo with how densely packed we were. Talbotons made up the entire outer perimeter, we had the Denarthians completely encased and Lana was almost dead center; she was pretty much invisible to prying eyes. Now if her luggage would only stop adjusting itself periodically, we’d be fine. I had hopes we were going to get away. Slim hopes, sure, but hopes nonetheless.

  “Leaving so soon Michael?” Dammit. This came from the woods—words of challenge directly from Lunos’ snout.

  “Going to meet up with the rest of the reinforcements,” I said completely unconvincingly.

  “I have werewolves watching Talboton and Denarth, there are no others coming.” If he was bluffing, like I was, he sounded way more sure of himself.

  Fuck it; we had nothing more to lose. “Fine, Lunos. You apparently know everything; Come and attack. I have no desire to banter with you—I really just want to massacre your spawn and when they’re all used up and ready to run, I’m going to come for you. I killed your psychotic brother; it is apparently my lot in life to end your entire line. Then and only then will I be free from wandering this earth. That, you know to be true. I was sent back, Lunos, specifically to kill you. Even now that’s why you took off when we came to Robert’s Land’s defense; that’s why you don’t attack us right now. You’re scared, and you should be. You’ve seen my resolve; you’re my fucking mission, you lucky bastard. What chance do you believe yourself to have when even the heavens have aligned themselves against you?” And I started laughing, at first, it was just a way to punctuate what I had said, but the more I did it the more it took on a life of its own. It became this sort of maniacal braying that is really kind of tough to be overly proud of, even though it felt good to just let go of myself, and even if it ended in a coughing fit. And maybe if my complete abandon put a sliver of doubt in Lunos’ mind; it was well worth the undignified display.

  Werewolves began to materialize from the woods, though they did not attack. The horses were none too thrilled. Well, neither were we. Bailey repeatedly told her men not to fire. They stayed a good twenty feet away; it was clear they were looking for something—or more likely someone. I hoped Azile’s magic was enough to keep Gabriel off their radar. Lunos had already proved very adept at seeing past her spells. I could only hope she had upped her game, though I wasn’t going to say anything, between the two it would be better for me if Lunos found what he was looking for and we had to fight our way out of this particular predicament. For over three miles they kept pace, encircling our entire troop. I expected them at any time to lunge in after us, though that never happened. Af
ter five miles, the scouts Lana had sent out reported back that we were no longer being followed.

  It was another five before we felt safe enough to let Gabriel poke his head out. There was not a man or woman among us that was not worn out, yet we pushed on long into the night. Sooner or later Lunos would realize that what he was looking for was no longer back there, because somehow he had known it was there to begin with. As if just having this thought opened up the topic, Azile began to speak. She looked so uncomfortable atop that horse, I wanted to find her a pillow-top mattress she could lie down on.

  “Stop looking at me that way, I am not going to break,” she said. “I have been thinking on Lunos.”

  “Yeah, he seems to be pretty popular right now.”

  “I do not believe him to have mystical powers beyond what is normal for their kind. There is someone among his group that is a witch...or more likely, just has great raw talent.”

  I wisely said nothing at first, but we all know how long I can go with that. “Am I detecting a little professional jealousy going on there? I mean, you go to the finest witchcraft university, rule half the world, win the hearts and minds of the masses, and then this uppity street magician comes along and just starts crinkling her nose and changing your people into mice.”

  “Crinkling her nose?”

  “Oh don’t tell me you don’t know Bewitched?” Nothing. “Come on...Samantha Stevens... Endora? Darrin the hapless mortal? Really? Fine, forget it. Last time I bring up universal cultural references with you.”

  “This is serious, Michael, they may have someone of great power. I am more concerned with what they are capable of doing than getting an idiotic husband into trouble with his workplace boss.”

  “Ah hah! So you do know the show!”

  “Not the point.” But she was smiling, and that made her absolutely glow.

  “Pregnancy looks good on you,” I told her. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here for most of it.”

  “Get that look out of your eyes; that’s why I’m in this spot to begin with. I’m just happy you are here now. I thought I’d lost you forever.”

  “I get that a lot.”

  “At any point in your life, Michael, have you been serious for more than five minutes together?”

  “There was that one time in jail when Bubba wanted to get to know me better—I was all business then. When a four hundred pound man says he has a crush on you, those are the types of things you need to take seriously.”

  “Michael.”

  “He was holding four bars of soap, Azile! I had my chastity to think about.”

  “Oh-oh.” Her free hand dropped to her belly and she leaned back. Sweat immediately broke out on her forehead.

  Shoot me, but the first thing out of my mouth was: “Bad burrito?”

  “Baby, you ass.” Was the reply.

  “Please tell me that is was just an extra big kick, like he was stretching his legs or something?”

  She didn’t mince her words. “Help me down. This is happening right now.”

  “It...it can’t, there are no bars nearby!” I looked around in a panic...yep, still in the middle of nowhere.

  “Help me down you big jerk!”

  “Azile, I’m sorry, I know that you’re uncomfortable, but Lana wants us to keep moving,” Mathieu said as he came up on us.

  “That’s what I’m saying!” I had a hysterical lilt to my voice. “I told her she can’t have the babies here.”

  “Babies? Now?” He suddenly got as pale as I was.

  My body was on autopilot, thankfully, as it helped Azile down off her horse. I let my limbs perform even though my mind was racing with all the possible things that could go wrong with having a birth in the wild, so to speak.

  “If I’d just stayed dead just a little longer.” Yup, I really said that out loud. Luckily Azile was busy in the midst of some deep heavy breathing. Women, the much stronger of the species, began to appear almost magically. Blankets were being laid down, water was set for boiling. She was receiving adequate care, now if only she would release her death grip from my hand I could get the fuck out of there and find a remote town to hide in.

  “I’m never letting you go again,” she said as she rearranged the bones in my hand.

  “Help me, man,” I mouthed to Mathieu, who was standing on the peripheries, a worried expression on his face. He was working his bottom lip by biting at it and pulling on it with his left hand. At least he had the smarts to find something else to do, or look like he had. “Asshat,” I told his retreating form.

  Azile screamed out; sounded like Latin—something along the lines of fatebor enim animam. Found out afterwards it meant that she was going to own my soul for doing this to her. Fitting and relevant, but it kind of sucked in one aspect because I’d just got the damned thing back. Everything was going alright, at first. The women were moving about almost in a choreographed way as they alternated between wiping her brow and getting Azile into a comfortable position. Then things got real tense real fast. I was up by Azile’s head where I figured it was marginally safer. Yeah, I know childbirth is a very natural, very beautiful affair. Just that, well, some beautiful, natural things are still better left to the imagination.

  Now, I used to be a huge fan of turkey deli meat. Well, back in the day, I was up late one night; couldn’t sleep—probably worried about something real important like the car needed a muffler and we couldn’t afford it. Anyway, I start watching this stupid show called Food Secrets and they are going into detail about how my favorite sandwich meat was made. I was grossed the fuck out watching them do it; a food I’d loved since I was a kid was ruined forever. It was like this jellied paste that they squished into the familiar shrink-wrapped turkey you saw at the store, like, it was barely even food. Women having babies is the same thing. I had a general idea how it all went down, enough to be functionally literate about it. There was really no need for me to witness every little specific. Anyway, it’s not like I could help.

  All was going as well as could be expected. I was actively ignoring everything that was going on around me; Azile was yelling out a string of obscenities in Latin, probably casting spells around the entire globe as she did so. Some poor sheep farmer in China had just grown donkey ears. If I hadn’t been surrounded by women, I would have given my junk a once over, just to make sure she hadn’t cursed it into oblivion. Listen, you’d feel the same way if you were dating one of the most powerful women on the planet. The bones in my hand were constantly shifting, like sand in the Sahara, and then they weren’t. Things changed just that fast. Her screams stopped, her grip loosened, and before I could be ushered away, I saw blood...more than seemed reasonable, given the circumstances.

  Her face was rapidly fading to the color of grade-school paste. She was dying; I’d come back just in time to watch her die. Something inside of me began to bend then break, my mind overlaid the image of another that I loved dying while giving birth. They were both so pale; lips of purple, trembling as their life’s fluid leaked out. I knew enough about myself to realize I was seeing something that had happened or would still happen in another of my life-lines, but it was so real, it was right in front of me. My heart was hollowed out as I watched that other woman die. That I loved her was without question; feelings of despair washed over me with enough force to push me to the earth. Tears leaped from my eyes as terror cascaded upon me.

  “She’s dying!” I wailed. Mathieu was by my side, his hand upon my hunched, heaving shoulder. “I don’t even know her name, Mathieu, but I can barely breathe.”

  I think he understood that as something to do with my grief, for he said nothing. The duality of the images began to blur further before finally, the unknown young mother began to fade as her life left her. The sound of a baby’s cry broke through the fog I found myself mired in. This followed almost immediately by another.

  “She yet lives, Michael.” Mathieu’s words were lined in hope. I could make out nothing clearly through the curtain of tears that blinded
me. I was pulled, or maybe led back over to Azile. She had two small bundles wrapped up and they slept peacefully on her chest. She looked to me, a tired smile spread across her features.

  “I’m sorry you had to see that,” she said, and no part of me thought she was referring to the child bearing. She’d somehow known about the vision. “It’s alright, Michael, I am alive and well. Sore, perhaps, but well. She reached up and wiped a tear away from my cheek.

  “What...what happened?” I asked as I kissed her forehead.

  “The many lives you lead sometimes bleed over. Sorry, that was a poor choice of words. Have you met your children?” She smiled. “A boy and a girl.”

  They were so small; not much bigger than a deflated football. One had a shock of red hair, the other a tuft of black.

  “Neither one looks like me,” I told her.

  “That’s a good thing.” It was Mathieu beaming behind me. “I am an uncle!” he told all around us.

  If I could have built a fort right that moment, surrounded us all, kept us safe from every evil, every enemy that would do us harm I would have done so, there and then, and never ventured from it for any earthly reason. If only I could have.

  “Chancellor, you wanted me to tell you when I heard from the forward scouts,” the leader of the guards said.

  Lana was next to Mathieu leaning into him. “What news do you have?” she asked becoming all business again.

  “That’s the thing, Chancellor, we have not heard from them.”

  That was cause for alarm. I’m pretty sure Denarth citizens were direct descendants from Germany. They believed wholeheartedly in schedules and keeping them. If they missed a check-in, there was a reason.

  “None of them?” she asked.

  “None of the six have reported,” he told her.

  “Azile are you able to...”

  “She cannot!” It was one of the women that had been overseeing the births.

  “Ride?” Lana finished.

  “We will set up a defensive perimeter,” Bailey said.

  “You will do no such thing,” Azile said. I know she was trying to put some force behind the words but they did not come out much above a whisper. “Getting Gabriel to safety is of the utmost concern. I have ways of protecting myself. I am not quite as vulnerable as I look.”