The Magelands Origins

by Christopher Mitchell

  ‘There you are,’ she said. ‘Ya fucking malingerer.’

  Grinning, she sauntered over to his bed. Kallie withdrew her hand.

  Killop nodded to his sister as she sat on the mattress.

  ‘You alright?’ she asked. ‘Ye don’t look too bad for someone who had five hundred lizards stomp all over him. Ha!’ she said as she looked up. ‘I see Bollock has followed us here. Good boy!’

  ‘I heard about Careen.’

  ‘Aye,’ she said. ‘Old bastard took out a whole load of the wee shites first though.’

  ‘So where’d they go? The Rahain?’

  ‘Fucked off back down the hill,’ she said. ‘Shitebags.’

  She raised her left hand, and held it in front of his face, fingers wiggling. ‘Anyway,’ she said, ‘this hand here has thrown the fire more times over the last couple of days than I’ve ever managed before. Mental. Must have torched a thousand of the fork-tongued bastards, literally single-handed. Still wasn’t enough.’ She sighed. ‘Point is though, I can feel it wee brother. This battle’s made it stronger.’

  The candlelight flickered over her features as she spoke in the gloom of the hut. She looked serious for once, contemplative even, and she wasn’t displaying the slightest sign of tiredness.

  ‘When did you last sleep?’ he asked.

  ‘Sleep?’ she snorted. ‘Yer fucking delirious, brother. While you’ve been resting yer fat arse on some comfy mattress, we’ve had work to do, like piling up six thousand scaly wee corpses onto pyres. We cannae all be lying around getting pampered by…’ she looked up, and saw Kallie sitting there, and did a double take.

  ‘Look at the state of you,’ Keira said, frowning at the archer, ‘ya clarty wee midden. Pull that armour off and get it cleaned and fixed up. And take a bath, you stink. Wait a wee minute, have you been sitting here for the entire fucking day…?’ She paused, and looked from Kallie to Killop and back again. ‘Right,’ she said, shaking her head and getting to her feet.

  She paused by the entrance to the hut, and turned. ‘You’ve got thirty minutes, then I’m sending everyone in to watch.’

  Killop cringed as Keira left. Cow.

  Kallie got up from the chair and sat on the edge of the bed.

  ‘I better get this armour off then.’

  He watched as she unbuckled her steel breastplate, propping it up on the floor against the chair. She undid a few more clasps and buckles, at her shoulders and waist, and then stood up and heaved the heavy leather and mailed armour over her head, leaving her standing in her sweat-stained woollen undershirt. She sat back down on the bed, her back towards him, and folded the mail and leathers. As she was leaning over to put them on the chair, Killop reached out his hand to touch her waist. She started, turning and pulling away. Her face wore a look of surprise. His stomach churned.

  ‘Really?’ she said, eyebrow arched.

  He opened his mouth, but couldn’t get any words to form.

  ‘So what about Klarid?’ she asked, sitting back on the bed, remaining out of arm’s reach.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Your beloved from the village.’

  ‘What?’

  He thought. There was a man in his village by that name, a right bad-tempered old bastard. He sighed. ‘Is this something that my sister might have told you? That I’m supposedly in love with someone called Klarid?’

  ‘Aye, it was her right enough,’ she said, a grin forming round the corner of her lips.

  Killop started laughing. ‘That cow. No, Kallie, I fancy girls. Well, women. Not all of them obviously. I’ll shut up now.’

  She laughed, sidling up close. He reached for her, pulled her into his arms, and they kissed.

  After an hour free of interruptions, Kallie helped a bruised Killop limp from the hut to join their remaining squad round the campfire.

  ‘Ye’ve not broken him already, have ye, Kallie?’ Keira laughed. The squad around her chuckled, looking like they needing something to smile about. ‘Ye never know, we might need him later.’

  Kallie held his arm as he lowered himself to the ground by the fire, grunting in pain. Conal reached over with cups of cider for them.

  ‘I did tell him to go easy,’ Kallie said, ‘but he was insisting on…’

  ‘Whesht, hen!’ Keira grimaced. ‘Don’t need the fucking details.’

  ‘Aye, spare us,’ laughed Kelly, sitting to the right of her sister. ‘Last thing you need to hear about is your twin’s sexual escapades.’

  ‘It’s worse for me, but hen,’ Keira said. ‘I mean, I had to see his wee willie winkie every day when we were growing up.’

  ‘I’m sitting right here,’ Killop grunted. ‘And Keira, what the fuck? Klarid?’

  ‘I’d forgotten about that,’ Keira said, laughing. She toppled over onto the earth, holding her sides as tears rolled down her cheeks. ‘I’m gonnae pee maself,’ she gasped.

  ‘Who’s Klarid?’ said Conal.

  ‘So the whole Klarid story was a load of old shite?’ said Kelly. She looked up and caught her twin’s eye. Kallie winked back, smiling.

  ‘Klarid was my imaginary boyfriend from the village,’ Killop said.

  He gazed at what was left of his squad.

  Conal was nodding and laughing, but with a deep sadness in his eyes. Kelly looked annoyed with her sister, but was laughing along regardless. Her scar, running all the way down her face and neck, would be a deep and lasting mark, but one the Kell would look on with respect. Kylon looked amused. He was smiling, though as usual was saying nothing. Calum was hardly reacting to the others at all. His eyes were cast down, his dirty face streaked with dried tear lines, and he was clenching and unclenching his fists, like he was about to explode. Keira was still rolling about like a demented donkey, and Kallie - he looked over at her. She sat on his right, and her left arm was around his waist, stroking his lower back. In her right hand she held her cup of cider, and she was laughing. He felt as if time stopped. He wasn’t just imagining it, he thought, she was beautiful.

  Keira noticed the way he was looking at Kallie, and rolled back up into her seat, cat-like. Their eyes met over the fire, and she raised an eyebrow at him, a half smirk on her lips.

  ‘So, eh, what are our orders for tomorrow?’ he asked.

  ‘Well,’ she said, stretching out her legs and drinking her cider, ‘these poor bastards here will be back on lizard-burning duty, and you and me will be taking a daunder over to the moothill. Chief’s wanting us there first thing.’

  ‘Not more lizards,’ said Kelly, groaning. ‘I cannae face it. The fucking stench of them.’

  Kylon grimaced and spat.

  ‘Come on,’ Keira said, ‘we cannae just sit here and let them fester in the sun. I ken it’s a ball-ache. One more day, though, and that’ll be the lot of them.’

  ‘Do ye think they’re coming back?’ Conal asked, as he was making the rounds with the cider jug. ‘The lizards, I mean.’

  ‘I hope so,’ growled Calum. They turned to look at him. Pain and rage were etched in the lines around his bloodshot eyes, and his black hair and beard were matted and filthy.

  ‘You alright?’ Keira asked him.

  ‘No.’

  No one knew what to say to that, and everyone quietened down for a minute. The only sounds came from Kylon, who was sharpening his sword, and Conal, re-filling everyone’s cups.

  ‘In answer to your question, wee man,’ Keira said when the young Kell reached her with the jug, ‘it doesnae look like it for now. I was speaking to Kaylan this afternoon, and she says they’ve legged it all the way back to the coast, thirty miles frae here. Away greetin’ from the doing we gave them. Cheers,’ she said, taking the cup.

  They drank in silence by the fire, each reliving their memories.

  ‘How’s Clara doing?’ Killop asked after a while.

  ‘The healers were still working on her leg, last I looked,’ said Kelly.

  ‘Aye,’ Keira said, grinning. ‘Did ye hear she punched out one of the healers?
She needed four of the bastards to hold her down while they sedated her.’

  ‘She’ll be alright, though,’ Kelly said. ‘Once she was out cold, they did a good job binding up her leg and getting a splint on. Be days before she’s walking, but.’

  ‘As long as she can still fucking shoot straight, who cares?’ laughed Keira. ‘And anyway, maybe it’ll teach her to get out of the way next time we shout “duck”!’

  Killop looked up as the laughter stopped. He glanced over to Conal, who had turned away, his face in shadow. He caught Kallie’s eye, and they shrugged at each other. Keira appeared to be oblivious.

  Calum got to his feet, his eyes fixed on the ground.

  ‘And where the fuck are you off to?’ Keira said.

  ‘A walk.’

  ‘Want me to come with ye?’

  ‘No.’

  He turned, and they watched him head off alone into the darkness, away from the line of fires that marked their new defensive position.

  ‘Be like that, then, ya prick,’ Keira muttered once he was out of hearing.

  There was an uncomfortable silence. Killop opened his mouth to speak, but Kelly beat him to it.

  ‘Fucksake Keira, he’s just lost both his brothers,’ she said, the line down her cheek glistening in the firelight.

  Keira snarled. ‘Ye think I don’t know that?’ She looked angry, and hurt. ‘And just cause your sister’s shagging ma wee brother doesnae give you the right to speak to me like that, ya torn-faced cow. Aye, that’s yer name from now on, Kelly Tornface.’

  ‘Calm down, Keira,’ said Killop.

  Kallie and Kelly glared at Keira over the fire, who bared her teeth, clenched her fists, and looked like she was about to jump to her feet at any moment.

  ‘Don’t you call my sister that,’ Kallie growled.

  ‘Or what?’ Keira cried. ‘I’ll fucking eat you too, ya wee toerag.’

  Killop grunted as he got to his feet. His ribs were in agony and his legs unsteady. He looked around for assistance, but Conal sat frozen, watching open-mouthed.

  Kylon stood.

  He moved next to the fire, between Keira and the others. ‘Half of us are dead and here we are, squabbling like bairns.’ He pulled out a large, sealed jug from inside his long leather coat. He bit the cork stopper between his teeth, and spat it out.

  ‘What’s that?’ Kallie asked.

  ‘Lach whisky,’ he said. ‘Previous owner won’t be needing it.’ He held it up. ‘Time to mind the dead. Get your cups.’

  The anger and frustration among the squad dissipated. Time to mind the dead. Killop glanced at Kylon. Not only had he dampened down the fight before it could begin, but he had been the only one who had remembered that they had a duty to their fallen to perform. He was a little taken aback that Kylon had just spoken more words in one go than he had all summer, but he wasn’t surprised that he had stepped up. He had seen how Kylon behaved in battle. He was sure of himself, that was certain.

  Keira glanced over the fire at Kelly, who was running a finger down her face. She mouthed a grudging apology, and then did the same with Kallie, who mumbled one back. The squad drained their dregs and gathered round Kylon in a circle. As he was about to start pouring, another arm held out a cup. It was Calum, returned to the campfire, his right fist bloody.

  ‘Not going to miss this,’ he said.

  Kylon nodded, and poured the whisky into the out-stretched cups. He waited for stillness.

  When they were ready, he spoke again. ‘We say these names that Pyre will hear us, and not forget them. We are Kell, this is what we do.’ He paused. ‘As they were taken,’ he said.

  ‘Collyn.’

  They drank, lowering their heads in silence, remembering.

  ‘Caelia and Kyle.’

  They took two long, slow drinks for the twins, together now forever.

  ‘Connie.’ They drank. Conal wept.

  ‘Killian,’ Kylon said, his voice almost breaking.

  They drank again. Tears came to Killop’s eyes as grief for his fallen friends rose within him like a flood ready to pour out.

  ‘And Colm.’ They all raised their cups at the final name, pouring the neat spirits down their burning throats till they were done, and the cups thrown to the ground.

  As the Kell had always done, the squad embraced each other and cried together, weeping and keening to mind and mourn those fallen, and to prepare themselves for what was to come.

  Chapter 21

  Unmade

  Northern Pass, Kell – 17th Day, First Third Summer 503

  ‘How stupid do ye think I am, wee brother?’ Keira called out into the darkness, the morning light not yet penetrating the interior of the hut. ‘I ken yer only pretending to sleep, ya arsehole.’ She paused. ‘Alright, ten minutes,’ she sighed, leaving by the door-curtain.

  Killop opened his eyes to check that his sister had been the last to leave. He glanced over to the bed next to his, to see Kallie grinning back at him. She pulled back her blanket and jumped out of bed, then leapt in next to him. They embraced and kissed under the covers. Killop felt his blood rise, and he ran his hands up the smooth skin of her thigh and waist, at first over the thin fabric of her nightshirt, then under it. ‘We’ll need to be quick,’ she whispered.

  ‘Well. I did ask for quick,’ she smiled. ‘That gives us, what, another eight minutes to lie here and cuddle?’

  ‘Cheeky cow,’ he laughed, moving into a more comfortable position, his arm round her.

  ‘What was it like growing up with Keira?’

  ‘It was never dull,’ he said. He didn’t talk much about his sister, and had avoided personal questions with the squad, but wanted to open up to the woman in his arms. ‘You have to mind that with Keira there’s a before and an after, everything changed when she discovered she could throw fire. I mean don’t get me wrong, she was cocky, sure of herself and always getting into fights when she was a bairn, but the whole fire throwing? The entire village was terrified of her.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘She’d been having this feud with the Kalliver twins, they were about the same age as us. We were thirteen at the time. It had been going on for thirds, petty nonsense most of it. I remember one time Keira broke into their hut in the middle of the night and glued their hands together.’ He laughed. ‘They couldn’t leave their home for days. Everyone thought it was pretty funny. Anyway, in revenge for that,’ his voice quietened, ‘they killed her cat.’

  ‘Shit,’ Kallie said.

  ‘They left the wee body where she would find it the next morning and, well, she went mental.’ He paused for a moment, remembering the look on his sister’s face. ‘She stormed off to the village kitchen, where everyone was outside having their breakfast, with me running after her. She stopped in front of the Kalliver twins, who were sitting there with their parents and uncles and aunts, their entire family. Keira was screaming at them, with practically the whole village watching. Even the village chiefs had stopped eating, to see what was going on. Then it all went mad. There was a big fire, where they were heating the morning’s milk and barley, and as Keira was waving her arms about, behind her the fire rose up, like it was following the movement of her hands. She couldn’t see what was going on, the fire was at her back, but the rest of the village could see, people were getting up from their seats, starting to panic. The Kalliver family were scared shitless, staring at the fire swirling around behind her. Then Keira pointed at them. Right at them. A ball of fire shot out from over her head, and smacked right into the Kallivers, and burnt the lot of them. It was so quick there wasn’t any screaming, well, not from them. There were plenty of other folk screaming by that point. All that was left of the twins and their family was this scorched and blackened circle in the turf. Keira stood there, staring at the burnt earth, looking like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Then she collapsed, passed out.’

  ‘What happened to her?’

  ‘Well, my ma and da kept her locked up in her room for
days, and I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere near her. At the same time no one lit any fires in the village, just in case. After a few days the old mage Careen arrived and took her away.’

  ‘You were split up?’

  ‘Aye. Didn’t see her for two years, except on the odd occasion when I was let up to the mountain lodge where they were training her. I got to see her on our birthday both years, and for New Year as well. They brought her back when she was fifteen and a half. She was still a pain in the arse, only now she was a pain in the arse with the ability to turn hundreds of people into ash.’

  ‘How were your ma and da?’

  ‘They were shattered by the whole thing. Luckily none of Kalliver’s remaining kin sought out a blood price, terrified of Keira, probably. Da turned to drink pretty much, ma started to hate him for it, it wasn’t a great couple of years. Then she got back and, well it’s a strange thing to see parents afraid of their teenage daughter. Not afraid for her, afraid of her. Still, I never once saw her use her power just because she was angry. After all her training she had it under control, but nobody knew that at the time. The only person who wasn’t feart of her was me. I never believed she would turn on me, and when she got back, we became closer than we’d ever been before.’

  ‘You should have seen her when we thought you were dead,’ Kallie said. ‘When we first pulled you out of the ditch she was going crazy, screaming, and I honestly thought she was going to lose it completely.’

  ‘What about you?’ he asked. ‘I don’t even know which village you’re from.’

  ‘No, you never ask about that stuff,’ she said. ‘We couldn’t decide if you were shy or snobby.’

  ‘Neither, I hope,’ he said. ‘I lost so many of my old squad up north in the spring, I decided I didn’t want to get close to any of you.’

  She smiled at him. ‘I’m glad you changed your mind.’

  ‘Aye, me too,’ he laughed. ‘Well, tell me now.’

  ‘Alright. Kelly and me are frae a wee village called Huntswell up near the Brig border, high in the mountains. Our ma and da are hunters and trappers, which is what we were doing when the clan called us up. Me and Kelly were sent here.’