The Darkened Veil

by K. D. Wren

  The faun stood there mulling it over. I decided to try and force his hand.

  “Zhas, the Opener of Ways is looking for me. Soon, his agents will discover where I have gone and they will come for me here. If you want to be safe, you should get me as far away as possible. Like off this world entirely.”

  It worked. Zhas sighed and stared at his hooves. When he looked up, he wore an expression that was equal parts angry and resigned.

  “There is a…was a city. Built by elves who came to trade. They used magic doors to come and go from this world. The city is ruins now, but the doors might still work.”

  “Do you mean the ruins I saw from the beach?”

  He nodded. “Dangerous path. I will lead you, but no more.”

  “Agreed. When can we start?”

  “Now.” He grabbed a stone tipped spear and tossed it to me. It was light in my hands, but the wood shaft felt springy and strong. I had never used a spear, but the concept seemed simple enough. Holding it gave me a bit of confidence. Confidence that Zhas then proceeded to shatter.

  “We have to go quickly, but be quiet. Harpies still fly patrols near the city. And packs of hounds roam the grasslands. You are slow. It is best to avoid them.”

  Great. Giant humanoid birds with fierce talons and packs of hunting dogs. And me with a stone spear. The weapon began to feel very flimsy. Zhas grabbed a short bow and a quiver of arrows and strode out of the cave without another word. Hefting the spear that now felt more like a twig, I followed.

  We wound our way up a narrow switchback and reached the top of the cliff just as the clouds began to thin. The red sun bathed the plateau in front of us in an orange glow. In the open field I felt very small, very exposed. Zhas trotted ahead, keeping his head low to the ground. I followed as best I could. The thin and sporadic scrubby brush offered little in the way of cover, so we tried to keep up a good pace. Without shoes, I had to watch my footfalls carefully. The ground was mostly bare dirt; the few outcroppings of rock and sporadic bunches of dried grass were easily avoided.

  The ruins of the old elven city rose up in front of me. Elegant gray stone towers rose hundreds of feet in the air before terminating in a ragged, broken shape. The city must have been immense because even after an hour of jogging, I had sweated through my clothes, but seemed to have gotten no closer. There was little variation on the plain, little clumps of dry bushes, so it was hard to judge distance. The trek soon became monotonous. The unchanging terrain and the impression that I was making no progress toward the city made me feel like I was walking on a giant treadmill. After a while, I grew bored.

  A sharp cry snapped me back to attention. Something between the call of a bird of prey and a hideous human scream split the air and raised all the hairs on my neck. Zhas didn’t even stop to look, but raced to the next clump of bushes and dove underneath. I sprinted behind him, the pain in my bare feet forgotten. I slid into the bushes next to him. I saw the fear in his eyes; my heart jumped up into my throat, cutting off my breath. I tried not to make a sound.

  The terrifying cry was repeated over and over. I tried to locate the source through the spindly branches of my hiding place, but was unable to spot the creature. The faun and I stayed silent and motionless for long minutes. The cries faded and then disappeared. Still, we stayed under the brush to make sure the flying threat was gone.

  The faun loped out ahead again and I followed as best I could. Despite the fact that I was a good foot and a half taller than him, his short legs seemed to eat up the ground, while I was forced to pick my way along, trying to avoid rocks and spiky plants. Suddenly, Zhas froze. The only sound that reached my ears was the wind whistling through the brush, but the faun’s ears were twitching about and he lifted his nose to scent the air. I saw his body tense.

  He shouted something over his shoulder and took off. I didn’t need the book to tell me what he said. I ran.

  Fear of whatever had put the spurs to my guide infused my weary legs with energy. The pain of each bare footfall forgotten as I lengthened my stride to keep up with Zhas’s cloven hooves. Suddenly, the tumbled walls of the city reared up in front of me; a mass of stone blocks carved into precise angles, now laying in disordered piles. It was like a giant child had finished playing with their blocks and then strode off, knocking them over. I imagined the wall as it must have appeared before the catastrophe that befell the city. Was beauty diminished by its ephemerality? Or did the fact of its short life make it more precious?

  The faun had come to a stop while I pondered. I cut my steps to slow down, but still bowled him over. I landed hard on my shoulder. Zhas uttered what had to be a curse and picked himself up off the ground, brushing dried leaves and twigs out of his copious mop of curly hair. He motioned to my pants pocket where I’d stuffed the book. I took it out, opened it, and waited for him to speak.

  “I leave you here. I must get back.” Reading the words as they appeared, my heart sank into my stomach. Despite his small stature and twitchy demeanor, the little faun had given me courage. At least he knew what was out here and how to avoid running into danger. Now he wanted to leave me to go into this ruined city on my own.

  “You can’t leave. You were supposed to get me to the portal.”

  “The portal is close. I will tell you. But I have to get back before dark.” I saw his face soften with what I interpreted as sympathy. “The city is not dangerous. Cloven don’t go in there, so harpies and other beasts don’t patrol. You will be safe.”

  He placed his hand on mine; a reassuring gesture that did not produce the intended effect. Maybe he was right, I would be safe once I was in the city. He had gotten me safely to this point and given me shelter, risking his own safety for me. I decided to trust him.

  He broke off a long stick and began drawing in the dirt. A simple map of the city came quickly into view. Zhas pointed out where we were and traced a route for me to follow to the portal room.

  “What do I do once I get there?”

  He shrugged. “How did you get here? I don’t know.” He smiled and clapped me on the shoulder, then he turned and loped off across the plain without glancing back.

  Chapter 11

  I stared at the dirt map for several minutes. Joselin, one of my friends from high school, had a photographic memory. She could look at this map and pull it up later, looking at it fresh in her mind. Not me. I was ok with directions. I only had to go somewhere once and I could do it again. But this was going to be a challenge. Luckily, the city seemed to be laid out in an organized manner.

  The sun was starting to fall down towards the horizon. I felt the wind shift, bringing a sharp tang of salt as the air came in from the sea. I could hear a sound I hadn’t noticed before. A distant cacophony of baying hounds. That must have been what set Zhas off running. I hoped he got back to his cave safely. And I hoped he was right about the city being safe.

  Leaving the rudimentary map behind, I picked my way around the rubble and found the entrance. A once grand gate leading to a wide thoroughfare now choked by broken stone. It was quiet and empty. Based on Zhas’ account, I would have expected to find bodies, bones at least. Some evidence that anyone had met a cruel end here. But there was nothing. No color, not a thing to mar the omnipresent gray. The city was arranged on a promontory, its walls tracing a half circle against the plain and then rising sheer from the cliff face. Its streets were laid out in concentric rings with spokes radiating out from a central plaza. The street I had entered was blocked by a ruined building, so I followed one of the broad, curving roads until I found another spoke.

  The silence had begun to unnerve me. I wanted to shout, to throw things about, to do anything to fill up the emptiness of this dead city. It didn’t feel like a city destroyed by war. It looked like the life had been literally sucked out of it, out of the very stones. There was a void that threatened to swallow me as well. I could feel it pulling at me with every step, like I was a piece of flotsam drawn into a whirlpool. And it was pulling me right in the directi
on I had wanted to go. That was unsettling.

  I sat down on the coping of a dry fountain. An elf and a centaur posed in the center on a jutting point of rock, hands clasped in friendship. All around them myriad water nymphs and other creatures danced in solid waves. The basin was bone dry and silent. I felt like I had gone color blind, but for the blue of the sky above me. When I looked up, there was a dark spot among the thin white clouds. It was flying a circle high above me. I froze. I felt like a rabbit in a meadow, watching the hawk, hoping against hope that it did not see me. It banked away. For a moment I allowed myself to believe it was moving on, but then it dove.

  It must have been very high, because by the time it came to the level of the rooftops, it was massive. The harpy’s scream turned my insides to ice. It was a cry of pure malevolence. I hefted my spear and set my feet. If I ran, it would just land on my back. This way, I might be able to land a blow before it got to me. It came to a heavy landing on the broken wall of three story building just above me. It’s vaguely human face stared down at me, but there was nothing human about its giant avian eyes. There was not a hint of sympathy, kindness, or pity. It screamed one more time and then lifted off again, flying in ever higher circles, until it cleared the tallest pinnacles of the city. Then it was gone.

  I could think of only one reason it hadn’t attacked me. It was going to report my location. I needed to move. The next spoke I came across was mostly clear and I jogged down it as fast as my exhausted, rubberized legs could carry me. A couple of blocks ahead of me, I saw a grand arch. Unbroken, it rose up four stories, a graceful curve of stone. As I got closer, I saw that it was covered in intricate carvings and bas relief scenes. It brought to mind the Arch of Constantine. I had seen that on a trip to Rome with my parents as a teenager, only this was far larger and more beautiful. But I had no time to stop and stare. Whatever that harpy had flown off to inform must be on its way already. I needed to get off this world and I still didn’t know how to do it.

  The arch was the only opening in a tall, curving wall. The final ring road collected all the spokes and brought their traffic to this point. Passing under the arch and down a tapering corridor, I found myself in a domed room. It had to be the portal chamber. Eight walls that rose to meet a perfect hemisphere above. A large circular opening at the very center revealed a darkening sky. The sun would be down soon. The light was beginning to fade. I turned in a circle in the center of the room, trying to determine where to access the portals. There were arches carved into seven of the eight walls, not counting the actual arch through which I had just entered. I chose one at random, hoping to find some clue that might determine which one would take me to the Inter-Realm.

  The first arch was covered with impossibly delicate reliefs of flowering plants. Small winged creatures that reminded me of Iridessa seemed to float among the giant petals. I moved on to the next archway. It was filled with hills of sand that seemed to be shifting despite being frozen in stone. A large figure of a man with no head, his features in the center of his chest, strode across the landscape. In another section, a humanoid figure was shown transforming in stages into a four-legged creature with a large, heavy head, like a hyena. I moved on. But before I got to the third archway, I heard a noise behind me. It sounded like the whoosh of fire touching a pyramid of charcoal that an overeager griller had doused with too much lighter fluid. I spun around to see a six-foot tongue of flame dancing in the center of the room. The flame solidified into the form of a man. The djinn had found me.

  Chapter 12

  He stood in the center of the chamber. That acrid scent emanated from him. A cruel smile played across his face as he took a couple of slow steps in my direction. I edged away, keeping my back toward the curved wall.

  “You were a fool to run, Skylar. There is nowhere you can go that we cannot find you. He will have you, one way or another. It would be better to come willingly. Trust me, you don’t want him to be angry with you.”

  The djinn was getting closer. I saw the passage out of the chamber only ten meters or so to my left. I turned and sprinted towards it. I didn’t know if I was fast enough to evade him, but I knew I had to try to get away. Flames erupted in front of me and he appeared. Almost contemptuously, he knocked me backwards. I hit the ground hard. I lay on the ground, gasping for air. He stood over me and shook his head.

  “Not smart, Skylar. You are a child entering a world that is far bigger and more dangerous than you can imagine. Lord Vepramet wants to help you, to teach you. You have great potential, for a human at least. My lord wishes to help you reach that potential. He does not intend you any harm.”

  I pushed myself off the floor and stood to face the djinn. “I want nothing to do with your lord. I have seen what he is capable of. I don’t want to learn anything from him.” I glanced over at the floor to my left. The spear Zhas had given me lay near the wall. It was worth a shot.

  Before the djinn could answer, I dove toward the spear. My fingers wrapped around the haft and I rolled up onto my feet. Fire blazed in the djinn’s eyes and he leapt toward me. I cocked my right arm with my hand beside my ear and stepped into the throw, twisting my hips to add power. The spear flew out of my hands and straight at the center of his chest. And right through. It passed through his body like it was made of smoke. The spear clattered against the floor, echoing with the djinn’s laughter.

  “You see? This is why he wants you. You have spirit, courage. You may be ignorant beyond all reckoning, but that can be remedied.”

  He struck out like a snake. His hands grasped my shoulders before I could react. The heat from his body was intense, like standing next to an open oven. I could feel my skin burning under his touch. I tried to kick at his legs, but my feet swept through air. I brought my arms up to break his grip, but his hands dissolved momentarily to allow my blow to pass and then solidified again. He laughed at my powerlessness and then flung me across the room.

  “You are not going to win, Skylar. You are coming with me to meet him. It will be much more pleasant if you just give up and come willingly.”

  I tasted blood in my mouth. I spat it out onto the gray stone floor. “I am never coming with you. I have seen what he did to this world. I am not helping him do the same to mine, or to any other.”

  “What happened here was unfortunate, but not necessary. My lord does not wish for destruction. You can help him. Humans have an important part to play in his plan. You can help bring about his plans peacefully.”

  “And what, exactly, are his plans?”

  “Come with me and find out. Resistance will only lead to destruction. Don’t you want to be on the winning side? You can protect others by helping them choose the right path.”

  I was out of ideas. I couldn’t run away, he was too fast. Still, the open arch beckoned me. He was not coming any closer. I needed time. I tried to look like I was thinking, mulling his offer. Maybe I could replicate whatever had gotten me here in the first place. I tried to think of what I was doing as I fell from my window. I imagined myself somewhere else. I visualized a deep forest, saw myself walking on a carpet of pine needles and fallen trees. Nothing happened. I felt no chill. If anything, it grew hotter.

  “Didn’t work, did it?”

  The djinn was kneeling next to me, a mocking smile across his face. I couldn’t stand it. Fear, embarrassment, and exhaustion tightened together and hung like a lead weight in my chest. I wanted to cry, but nothing would come. I sat on the hard stone, heaving dry sobs.

  The heat faded from my skin. I looked up and the djinn had walked across the room. He was studying the reliefs on one of the arches. He must have thought I had given up. I felt anger welling up inside me. Anger at my own self-pity. Anger at the djinn’s contempt. The lead weight lifted and I felt life return to my legs. From my crouch on the floor, I flung myself into a sprint towards the opening in the chamber. Whether he hadn’t seen me in time or he simply let me go, I didn’t care, but the djinn did nothing to block my path. I knew he would catch me eve
ntually if I kept along the straight road, so I started weaving through side streets, losing myself in the empty alleys.

  I ducked into what looked like had once been a home. Pots and pans still hung above a hearth. A set of knives in various sizes hung up on the wall. They were showing signs of rust, but still appeared intact. Rust. They must have been iron. Why did that stick out in my mind. I tried to focus. Of course! Iron bands were used to control djinn in Indian and Middle Eastern folklore. Faeries and other spirits were also supposed to be vulnerable to iron. Maybe there was some truth to those stories. I had to try, at least. It was only a matter of time before he found me again.

  As if on cue, a mass of smoke curled its way through the doorway. The now familiar form of the djinn solidified out of the smoke. I hid the knife behind my arm and backed away toward the far wall. The djinn’s face was grim.

  “I am growing weary of this game. We are leaving now.”

  He crossed the room in a few swift strides and reached both hands toward me. Tendrils of smoke rose from his fingers. I needed him to be close. I felt my back hit the wall and braced myself against it. He was on me in a moment, his hands burning the skin of my shoulders again.

  “Now, no more running. You are finished.”

  “I am just getting started.”

  I swung my arm out from behind my back and plunged the knife into the center of his chest. This time, he didn’t evade the blow. The knife stuck. Little sparks of flame shot out from the wound. He staggered backward. His limbs started to dissolve into smoke, but instantly solidified again. The djinn fell to his knees and uttered an unearthly wail. Fire spilled out from the center of his chest, wrapping around his whole body. The wail continued even as he was covered entirely in roiling flames. Finally, he fell backward, flames licking up to the ceiling, leaving trails of soot on the gray stone. The wail ceased. Eventually, the fires subsided. On the floor was the charred form of a man. An iron knife, gleaming as if it had just been polished, rose from his chest. I slid down the wall, my legs drained of all strength.