by J D Cowan
Jason crossed the pathway toward the ramparts. He couldn’t blame the Earthwalkers of this place for how they lived, but his allies were a whole other matter. It was as if Matthew and the other two thought all their problems were solved. Did they forget Shaula was still out there?
He stood atop the ramparts and looked far into the distance back the way they came. There the dark clouds swirled about the mountains like a permanent black mark on its existence. Between them lay untold miles of misty green-hued forests. His stomach curled scanning over it. The memories of Mageuopolis would stay in his thoughts until his death.
“Duel!” a man yelled from behind him. “Sir Orach is about to duel the newcomer!”
A crowd of knights swirled around the large square stone building down the road from the church. Jason assumed this was the barracks. Men from all over ran toward it, including Matthew.
The blacksmith was located beside the barracks. The smithy leaned against a post, ignoring the chaos. The barrel-chest man grinned straight at Jason.
The boy leaped down from the stone steps into the grass and passed the crowd. He ignored the hooting and hollering as they shouted in a circle.
“Jason, eh?” the man barked. “I have a present for you and your brother.”
A cheer shouted from the crowd beside them. Swords clanged from within their circle.
“Abbot Grenzer told me you could use some armor for your trek. I have it for you whenever you wish it. You’re well built for a boy.”
“I’m fifteen. You’re making me armor? I don’t even know you.”
“Even if the Abbot and Sir Orach didn’t ask me, I still would have done it. There are some good tales about Pollux. I’ve forgotten so many of them, though. Age is a fickle mistress.”
One of the duelers in the center of the crowd shouted. A blade reverberated against a hard object: probably a shield.
“What do you know about Pollux?” he asked the blacksmith.
“The wielder is destined to be a god. Strength and immortality, the stuff of legends. You should be grateful that Pollux has chosen you, eh?”
Jason thought of Case’s buried body. He suppressed a shiver. “I’m not so sure about that. Does anyone come out of the forest often? I’m half-expecting a witch to come flying out of it.”
The blacksmith grinned. “We sometimes get stragglers, but they have already gone mad from the fog by the time they reach here. You won’t meet any witches out here!”
The crowd gave a disappointed sigh. Jason could no longer ignore the interruption. He said goodbye to the blacksmith and pushed through the gaggle to the center. He would put an end to this distraction. When he finally slipped inside, he found two familiar warriors.
Alain stood breathing hard and triumphant with light cuts across him. Matthew lay splayed out on the grass with his sword two feet from him. Bruises covered him. The fallen man gave Jason a thumbs up as he sat forward. At the edge of the crowd stood Sir Orach, arms folded. None of them wore much in the way of armor.
“Matthew?” Jason asked. “You’re fighting Alain?”
“He’s showing me some tricks. Apparently, I hold the grip too tight and have bad footwork. I’m also too slow.”
Sir Orach nodded. “You have work to do. For now, Castor will cover your amateur movements.”
Matthew listened intently as he gathered his breaths. It was unlike him to seriously take advice. When Sir Orach finished, Matthew stood back up and hobbled over to the fallen sword.
“For a beginner, it’s not so bad.” Sir Orach clapped Alain on the shoulder. “However, your fury overwhelms you and dulls your movements. A foe can easily steer you how they wish. Be more aware of your surroundings, Alain.”
Alain looked down at his battered blade. It had taken more of a beating than Matthew did. The victorious warrior said nothing as he let Sir Orach continue his lecture.
Jason could not tear his attention from Alain. For someone who had won, he sure grimaced a lot. The warrior had lived his whole life fighting and protecting those he loved, but he had never considered how he would battle in a different landscape from his former prison. Now the rules had changed. Maybe Jason had more in common with him than he first thought.
And that was when it hit Jason. He had held them all back since the two landed on Tyndarus. Matthew led, Alain and the others fought, but Jason had been a tagalong that would have been dead ten times over if he didn’t have Pollux. He couldn’t get by on luck forever.
“Finally, he walks,” Sir Orach said to Jason. “You are due for your lesson.”
“Me?”
Matthew handed his sword and shield to Jason. “Good luck. Alain doesn’t play nice.”
“He what?”
But Matthew passed into the crowd without saying anything. Several soldiers clapped his shoulder as he passed. In front of Jason, Alain grew a grin that was as sinister as it was joyous.
“Now this,” Alain said, “this is what I want.”
Jason gulped and stepped into the center of the grass.
“Remember,” the boy said. “I’m new at this.”
“That hermit left something for me while you slept. Would you like to see it?”
“I guess.”
“Beat me, and it’s yours.”
Before Jason could reply, Alain charged him. The boy’s arms trembled with each sword strike. This would not end well.
They spent the rest of the day in training with their swords. Alain thrashed Jason handily, but the boy did pick up a few tricks for handling his blade. Matthew couldn’t help but admire the kid’s fire and refusal to stay down. His spirits rose abnormally high.
At sunset, the two of them and the siblings gathered on the ramparts. Matthew traced the path they would be using in the morning for the boy. He’d gone over it in his mind many times while Jason slept dreamlessly.
There they saw the road that went miles into the distance. Halfway up the path waited a destroyed town that had been raided by lizard men decades ago. Far beyond it and over rolling hills sat the last town before Nerono. After that was a two-day journey to the city.
“I still wish to see the others,” Alain said. “But I will offer you two my sword.”
“Can you at least tell me what the hermit gave you?”
“It’s this.” Alain removed a tiny slab of a mirror. The shard glinted sunlight across their faces. “He said it was a piece of a Mirror Gate, but it doesn’t do anything at all. I kept it as a gift, but it appears quite useless. I would offer it to you, but I plan on traveling with you regardless.”
Matthew scanned the horizon, tracing their possible path. “You two don’t have to follow us. I’m still not sure how exactly we’re going to handle this. Shaula will probably find us soon.”
“We cannot leave until I defeat you in a duel, Matthew.”
“What?” He asked, incredulous at the idea. “Why?”
“You interfered with my duel. You should be grateful it is not Sir Orach. I will only crush you—he would take your head.”
Matthew laughed to himself. “You Earthwalkers are something else. Honor is everything, huh? Me? I would have just kicked you in the throat and called it a day.”
“I would expect that from you.”
Ordopha sighed. “Men. Can you two think of nothing else but violence?”
“I guess I just don’t get it,” Matthew said.
“Well, you are human. I’m sure there are many things you do that we cannot understand.”
“The Abbot is lending us three cat-trals for the journey,” Alain replied. “We’ll be in the village in half a day. Compared to the mountains, this is nothing.”
Unless Matthew’s bomb went off. But he didn’t need to mention it. They had enough worries without him adding his own. Shaula might be crazy enough to set it off, but he had to hope she wouldn’t. Otherwise, he would ever be able to relax.
Crows squawked from the branches of nearby trees and chatter from soldiers erupted from below. The slow descent
of the orange horizon darkened blue. Night arrived.
Soon enough Alain and Jason left them alone. The boy was tired and unwilling to talk about the seed and Alain wanted to attend Intactilis one more time. Matthew waited with Ordopha for what felt like hours as the remaining curve of the sun seemed stuck in the sky. He wanted to thank her.
After they found the Mirror Gate and figured out how to open it, Matthew would never see either sibling again. If it weren’t for them he would be a puppet of Shaula. There was nothing he could do to thank them. But as he struggled to think of the words to say, Ordopha laughed.
Her shining platinum hair ruffled in the light breeze. She brushed a strand from her face, and her lips curled into a smile. Peace flowed across her. In a universe full of decay, she had only become more radiant.
“Is there something wrong?” she asked, looking up at him.
Blood rushed to his cheeks and glanced ahead once more. “No, I was just thinking.”
“You do that a lot. About your home?”
“You could tell?”
She laughed softly into the wind again. “You aren’t hard to puzzle out, Matthew.”
“I’m just trying to figure out what I’ll do when I get back. If I even do destroy this bomb and the Mirror Gates, I’m still at a loss. Do I become a hero? But then I have to get in with that crowd, and I can’t do that. But Castor is incredible, and I can’t just get rid of it.”
“So use it. Use it like you used it to save us from Shaula. There must be many on your world in need of saving. You’ve mentioned there are many like you.”
“Sort of.” Of course, there were superheroes and villains where he came from, they were what Serenity City was known for. But he just couldn’t see himself with them. He couldn’t put on a face. “Jason loves them. Maybe he’ll become one when he gets back.”
“And you?”
“I don’t know. There are still things I have to do.” Her fragrance caused him to lean in closer. He paused, shaking his head. What was he doing? Women always did this to him. He leaned back. “But what about you? You’re free now. You can do anything.”
She hummed and looked up to the sky again. “What do you think of this dress?”
Ordopha wore a simple green number that could not have been made for anyone but a peasant. The material bunched as she showed it off. But it worked on her. Then again, he wasn’t sure there was anything she could wear and not look good. He had never seen her more dignified than that moment.
“I’m a man. You’re asking a member of the wrong sex.”
“No,” she said with a smirk. “I mean that I have never clothes like this in that prison. Very fetching. I was told this is merely common garb for women, but I feel as regal as a queen.”
“Not sure how you can tell the difference. You look good in anything.”
She locked eyes with him after a short pause. His cheeks reddened. He tried to laugh it off. When she looked away again, he thought he saw red in her soft cheeks. Now he felt even worse.
“I’m going to hit the sack early,” he said. “Jason’s tired, and I don’t want him to transform while we’re standing out here. I’d never hear the end of it. Besides, maybe he’ll finally spill about the seed.”
She nodded, still focused on the distance. “I understand.”
“Are you going to be okay out here? It’s getting cold.”
“Thank you, but I will be fine. The mountains were far worse than this.”
“But you don’t have magic protecting you here.”
“No,” she said with a smile. “I do not.”
Matthew marched to the sleeping quarters. Knights continued their practicing outside with swords clashing, and monks kept up their chores, but they began to thin out. Soon enough only the guards would be left.
Inside monks prayed by their beds while some slept. Jason lay in his bed with his hands under his head. Matthew sat beside him. The boy hummed a song from some old cartoon.
“How is Ord taking it?” Jason asked. “You leaving Tyndarus, I mean?”
“About as well as Alain, I guess. That’s a dumb question.”
Jason laughed. “Right, I’m dumb. Anyway, I think I’m getting the hang of that sword. Alain beat me a few times, but . . . hey, are you listening?”
“I am.” But that was a lie. He kept watch on the window and the large moon that had just lit the sky. Earth’s moon was not so different from this one. “Tyndarus really is a lot like home.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Never mind.”
The night fell fast. A dog howled miles off. Jason slept inside Matthew’s head as the latter lay awake on the bed. What was this sick feeling he kept having? Something here wasn’t quite right. Hopefully, when they left in the morning, he would regain his senses again. Soon enough his eyes became heavy like weights, and his thoughts petered out. Sleep won out.
The ground trembled. He shook in his bed as a horn bellowed outside. An earthquake raged.
Guards bellowed outside. Matthew jumped from his bed half-asleep with Jason stirring inside his mind. The other monks sat up. While they mumbled, he ran out into the night still in his shirt and pants.
Flaming arrows arched over ramparts and into the grass. Several struck the buildings, including the church. The guards ran about flinging arrows outwards to their attackers. Shouts screamed into the night.
“What’s happening?” Jason mumbled.
A horrendous sight climbed the ramparts towards the inside. Red lizard men screeched and slashed at the guards as they landed on the inside of the walls. Soldiers ran out to meet the beasts.
“We’re being invaded.”
Chapter 13
Fire Lizard Invasion
Swords flashed and fires burned across the abbey buildings. Jason and Matthew ran into the barracks for weapons. There they found the blacksmith who led them to their armor. The silver shone brightly as did the close helms and sturdy looking swords. Jason clutched the blade close. Matthew led him back out where the battle raged on.
Chaos ruled the outside. Red lizards burned anything they could get a hold of. Swords clanged, and axes split skulls, but the monstrous beasts simply kept coming in over the walls. First a dozen, then another dozen, and yet another.
Alain fought by the front gate surrounded by several men, including Sir Orach. Jason and Matthew joined them in a circular pattern to help with defense.
But as the beasts swarmed the soldiers, Jason quickly noticed an abnormality. The lizards centered their attention on the two of them. The monsters ducked and weaved around most other soldiers purely to assault Castor and Pollux. Shaula had sent these things for them.
That was when Jason got an idea. He deflected a sword swing and yelled out to Matthew. “Find Ord. These things are coming for us. We should get out of here before this place is razed.”
Matthew paused as if considering Jason’s words. His shield slammed against the helmeted head of a lizard man.
“You’re right,” he replied. He waved to Alain. “You guard him, and I’ll find her.”
“As if I can guard that monster.”
Matthew took off towards the servant’s quarters, slashing anything that came near him. The lizards slunk back as he passed and soon followed after him. They swarmed in a crowd, sweeping across the ground. A blade caught one in the back as they gave chase.
It was Alain. He waved Matthew off, and the wielder of Castor vanished into the flames.
“Where did they come from?” Jason yelled to his friend’s savior.
“Out of the forest fog! Shaula’s puppets appear to be after you and Matthew. We need to leave this place now.”
Jason grinned.
Sir Orach ascended the ramparts, and his men followed, cutting any who dared get close. The lizards hissed and swore as they fell upon their enemies. Sir Orach barked orders to Alain and Jason to get going. The soldiers all slashed like mad, downing lizard men in waves of pure carnage. Alain used the m
oment to run, with Jason right behind.
“To the barn,” he told the boy.
They ran towards the barn and found two cat-trals that had been set aside for them. The Abbot waited for them inside. He handed them their supply sacks for the journey filled with wrapped and salted foods. It was time to leave, but neither Matthew nor Ordopha had returned yet.
“It is a madhouse outside,” the Abbot said to the pair.
“They’re coming for us,” Jason replied. “The faster we leave, the faster they’ll stop.”
“Jason!” one of the soldiers from outside was calling for him. “Hurry!”
Alain growled as they returned to the carnage. “What is the problem now?”
“It is Matthew. Hurry and come with me.”
Alain and Jason glanced at each other and then at the soldier. Matthew was supposed to be getting Ordopha. Before either could answer, there was a loud voice booming above like a muffled megaphone. Her regal tone could never be mistaken for anyone else.
“Castor and Pollux! Please come outside quietly, or everyone and everything burns.”
Jason instinctively flinched, and Alain tensed. They both knew the voice of Queen Shaula of Mageuopolis quite well by now.
Matthew stood at the door to the servant’s quarters with goosebumps growing on his skin and fire in his blood. The large lizard man looked down on him with smoldering eyes. This one was different from the others. This one had a round head, stood seven feet tall, and wore silver armor, not unlike his. The red beast held two women, one under each of his massive arms. They were half-conscious. One was Chel, the servant girl, and the other, Ordopha.
Heat burned in his blood as he gripped his sword tighter.
“I watched these two for a while now,” the lizard boomed. “They’re mine.”
“You were hiding here.” Of course Shaula had agents outside the mountains, but he didn’t expect them here. “What took you so long to make your move?”
