We observed the sky calmly. “Do you miss your world?” she asked softly after a pause. “Do you miss Elisa?”
“Averot'h was an amazing place, with thousands of inhabitants, dozens of palaces, and spires. Yet, it was a cruel and merciless place, rotten to its roots. But I do miss my home at the farm, our apple orchards, the countryside along the Yellow River, our visits to marketplaces down the river. I miss my Mum, and my brother. And I do miss Elisa.”
“What would you do if not for troubles with dragons?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “Traveling, perhaps? I don't know...”
The wind blew stronger. A meteor illuminated the horizon.
She touched me gingerly with her palm, and our fingers interlaced.
We stayed there for another half an hour.
Neither of us spoke again.
~
“I'm curious why you haven't asked yet,” she said, while the daylight was coming through the window of her chamber.
I rubbed my eyes and gave a yawn.
“Asked about what?” I replied with a sleepy voice. “I need more sleep…”
She giggled and turned a little, exposing her back.
I composed myself in an instant. “Well, I thought you would tell me about it yourself.”
“It's the mark of my origin,” she said. “It stands for who I am.”
I nodded. “I know precisely who you are,” I brushed her hair from her face. “You are my love.”
She gave me a smile and sat up.
“There is one thing I don't understand.” I said. “Why were you so reserved at the beginning of our herb-picking rides? I was deeply worried about it.”
“Because I didn't know what to think about you! Well, I found out you were a kind, unselfish person soon enough, and also a capable healer. But you had claimed to be from the south, yet you were surprised to see dragons. Your accent was strange. You had never heard of Rotah. You were hiding your wizard identity. You literally fell down from the skies! What should I have thought of you, hah? Moreover, you fell in love with me, making the situation even more confusing.”
“Wait!” I stopped her. “How did you realize I was in love with you?”
She shrugged casually. “It was obvious.”
I blushed. “It was not!”
“It was as obvious as the truth that birds can fly because they have wings.” She insisted with a smirk on her face while her eyes were burning with amusement.
I blushed even more.
“The way you looked at me,” she continued, “The way you hurried to help me with this or that, the way you touched me, all these small signs were disclosing your feelings in fact.” She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. “Or am I wrong?”
I shook my head. “You are right,” I admitted. “But you were fond of me as well.” I returned her a smile. “I'm not blind either.”
She tilted her head. “Before you arrived, I was an island, isolated from other people. But your presence changed everything. I enjoyed your touches. I looked forward to being in your arms during our rides. I liked your sincere smiles. Every time I built defensive walls around me, you knocked them down with just one laugh.”
“That's the point I don't understand. Why you were so distant then?”
“I guess, we women like to be wooed, we want to see an endeavor, a true interest... Though I was tempted to do so, I didn't want to give up a kiss, or more, too early. But, in two weeks, I surrendered to you entirely.”
She flushed and hit me in my chest with her fist. “And that's your fault!”
I gave her a grin and moved above her, straddling her legs and leaning forward. Our lips locked softly.
“I have to go to the infirmary.” She whispered, kissing me hungrily. “I have work to be done.”
“It may wait,” I replied and met her lips eagerly. She bent backwards a little, resting on her arms. “What are you going to do?” she breathed.
“I'm going to put you on your back.”
Her lips halted for a moment.
“Put me on my back?” she replied, turning scarlet. “Hmm…” Her kisses grew torrid. “Then what are you waiting for?” she murmured, placing her palms on the back of my head. I leaned forward, and we both sank into the bed.
CHAPTER 10
The Task
our happy days were gone too early, however...
One afternoon, Deadweed left the fortress with Auger and four riders. She accompanied the Commander to some town in the east, where they hoped to find new allies. Auger reassured me they would be back in three days. Deadweed kissed me good-bye, not caring five men were watching.
I was only without her for several hours, but it already felt like an eternity.
I was unable to sleep in the empty bed of hers, so I took a walk on battlements, listening to the wind and observing the moon and stars. The calmness of the night helped me regain my composure again.
From the shadow of the donjon a familiar figure emerged. He wore the same fur cloth, and the bone piercing his lip was as white as I remembered it.
Mouth looked around, reassuring we were alone.
“You have let me wait for two months!” I complied.
“It was necessary,” replied the Mouth. “Gharib needed some time to plan its actions. Now we are ready. Come with me.”
“I can't leave the fortress now. Dragons can attack us anytime.”
Mouth's eyes rolled up. I already knew it occurred when he was connecting with Gharib.
“Gharib says the dragons will not attack before the new moon, when darkness covers their arrival,” Mouth spoke. “We have seven days left. You will be back in the fortress when they come.”
“So where are we going?”
“We are going to Belron, a dragon stronghold, where the Dragon Queen and a magic relic are sheltered.”
That caught my attention. “What relic?” I asked.
“When the earth was just a barren land, Zarhan, a spirit of life, descended from the skies and gave birth to all vegetation and animals we know. He created wizards, humans and dragons, the three races capable of thinking. Also, Zarhan left three magic relics here. Gharib believes each race was supposed to own one relic, but none of them were ever found, till now. Somehow, dragons found one relic, a magic egg that gave them protection and the power to grow in numbers. They are becoming more aggressive and confident, a real threat to wizards and humans. We must stop them before it's too late.”
“I understand that, but what precisely is my part in your plan?”
“You must find and destroy the egg. There is a catch, however. You have to restrain the use of magic, so that you cannot be traced. Dragons, and the Queen above all, can feel an alien magic.”
I thought about it for a second before I gave him a nod. “How can we get to the stronghold unseen?”
“We have to move through Shadoworlds. It's a world next to ours, with different geography but it's free of dragons. We will leave Shadows in a place where Belron lies in our world, and enter the stronghold unobserved. We assume the egg lies in the vicinity of the Queen, who rests in the Hall, the largest chamber of the stronghold.”
“I don't understand one thing. Why do you need me? It seems you could do it yourself.”
Mouth frowned. “I cannot walk into the fortress unnoticed, because dragons know my scent. The same applies to other Gharib members. We are very old, we have met dragons in the past, so they remember us. But you are unknown to them. You can make it.”
“So, the deal is that I will find and destroy the egg and you will return me back to Averot'h before the battle starts, and then to my world in the future?”
Mouth nodded. “That's the deal.”
I bit my lip. The dilemma I had to solve reemerged again.
Do I want to return to my time?
I looked around. It was dark already. I suppressed the desire to write a good-bye letter to Deadweed.
I decided quickly. “Let's go!”
Mouth nodded
and stepped into the murk behind him.
I followed him into the darkness.
~
The white walls of Averot'h were gone. I squinted into the bright sun. It was almost noon and the sky was deep blue with only white, veil-thin clouds high above us. We stood on a flat hillock surrounded by a desert with red-orange rocky formations in the distance, with no vegetation or dwellings in sight. In front of us, some fifty feet below, a suspended bridge arched a deep gorge.
Mouth beckoned me to follow him to a zigzagging pathway descending steeply to the bridge. He crossed it with ease and stopped on the other side.
Up close, the bridge's construction looked odd. Its surface was not compact. Instead, it was made of white fragments of various shapes and sizes hardly touching each other.
How does it stick together? How can it possibly suspend in the air?
Mouth had warned me that our usual magic would not work in Shadowlands.
Obviously, some other kind of magic ruled this world, and it enabled this peculiar construction to exist.
I stepped onto the nearest piece of white. I thought it was wood or stone, but, in fact, it was a bone! And it shifted under my boot so I almost lost the balance.
Damn!
I dared another step, placing my feet on a large flat bone, but when I touched it, it moved again, and I staggered, almost falling down.
“If you fall, you die!” Mouth commented emotionlessly from the other side.
How did he manage to cross it so easily?!
Is it some kind of a creepy test?
I continued moving forward with maximum caution. The bones tended to jump aside every time I touched them, but step by step I learned how to place weight on them, gaining confidence to move further, until I reached the end of the bridge.
Perhaps, I had lost wariness too early.
I underestimated the last bone I stepped onto. It shifted away so quickly that I treaded onto the empty air.
Damn!
I waved my arms instinctively, heeling over, before I sensed something firm underneath that stopped my downfall. A large bone prevented me from falling into an abyss!
I breathed out deeply and made the last two steps before I touched the solid rocky ground on the other side of the gorge.
“I expected you would have performed better, as son of a Warlock,” Mouth commented, his hands crossed over his chest.
I felt anger rising from my veins, but I managed to calm down quickly. White bones behind me exploded into the air, whirled in a large vortex and then assembled into a giant dog. The pallid beast turned his huge, ghostly skull to me. In his empty, dark eyeholes a silent question loomed.
“Stay easy!” I ordered in my thoughts.
“As you wish, my Lord…” The creature answered so only I could hear it.
“Meet my new friend,” I informed Mouth. “His name is Skuller.”
The bone-dog turned to the wizard and bared his teeth which could fracture men's thighs in one fierce bite.
Mouth moved back two steps before restoring his composure.
“Skuller will accompany me to the stronghold.” I said with an ingenuous smile.
Mouth turned away without a word, leading us to an almost invisible path meandering among red-grey boulders of all sizes and shapes.
We set out on our journey in silence, but I couldn't stop smiling anyway. It was my first small victory.
I managed to shut Mouth up at last…
~
We were travelling for three days across a desert with fascinating rock formations and sand dunes, whilst warm wind was whispering eerie enchantments in my ears. All the landscape was colored in shades of grey, hardly distinguishable from the shadows it cast.
It seems Shadowlands is truly an appropriate name for this land..
“Tell me, how was Gharib born? And how did it happen you became a part of it?” I asked Mouth while we were crossing a flat landscape, maybe a former seabed, as the soil was covered by thin layers of salt.
“Gharib came into existence the day after the first humans and wizards were born,” Mouth answered. “Primitive societies from the Age of Dawn needed someone to lead them in those hard times. Naturally, the most capable and wise men seized the task.”
“As wise and capable as you?”
“Exactly,” Mouth replied, unaware of my irony.
“How long is our journey supposed to take? I'm getting thirsty and hungry a bit.”
Mouth turned to me. “I thought you would hang on longer, the son of a Warlock,” he said, not bothering to hide his disdain.
I was confused by his hostility.
Did I give him a pretext to hate me?
~
The fifth day of the journey a crisis came.
The sun was burning; the desert was hot as a furnace, with the air shimmering on the horizon. I didn't eat or drink for several days. My throat was aching and scratching, I prayed for a drop of water, but the sky was deep blue with no thunderstorm that could bring me relief. My magic was useless, Mouth was right. I had crossed my fingers at least hundred times in all imaginable ways to create water from dust, sand, or stones, but all in vain. I managed to shatter several smaller stones in unexpected explosions, and glue sand together, unable to produce what I needed most. Apparently, the magic I had known from my world didn't work or worked differently here. I felt the power. It was almost omnipresent, but I couldn't master it.
I began to lag behind Mouth. Every step was more and more exhausting. But Gharib's spokesman was walking as though he went on a sightseeing trip.
How is it possible he is not tired at all?
Mouth stopped and turned to me.
“I'm dying from thirst,” I moaned. “Let's seek some water.”
“We don't have time,” Mouth said. “You are even weaker than I had expected, the son of a Warlock.”
The way he pronounced his last words made my teeth clench.
You repeat it one more time, and I will kill you.
~
That moment had to come sooner or later.
I fell to the ground, unable to move forward, unable to carry my own weight. Skuller stopped by my side, observing me with his empty eyeholes.
I'm to die here.
My unprotected skin was turning dark red. My head was burning and ready to catch fire from my dry hair.
The world blurred. As in a dream, I sensed Mouth approached me without a word.
He is like a vulture, waiting to see me kick the bucket.
Suddenly, my tormented sight registered a puddle of water twenty feet away.
Fata Morgana?
I sat up.
The puddle vanished. And then it appeared ten feet further away!
“What is it?” I croaked, pointing a finger at the peculiar thing.
“It's an aquarius, a water-bearer,” Mouth explained.
Indeed!
Now, when I focused my sight, I noticed a tall, translucent figure moving across the desert on incredibly long legs!
He is made of water, and puddles are his soles!
I groaned in despair.
If only I could catch him...
I moved to my knees and then to my feet with heavy panting.
But aquarius was moving much faster.
Damn!
When everything seemed lost, Skuller came to my rescue. He gave a growl and darted toward the water-bearer. When he got close enough, he jumped on his back and bit a large piece out of his colorless body. Water squirted out high to the sky.
And I was there to catch it and drink!
No words can describe the moment when I touched the water with my cracked lips. It was truly a blissful moment!
I drank and drank, and my strength returned quickly. Even Mouth joined me, drinking and washing his face.
I poured the water on my head and shoulders before the aquarius collapsed to the ground, leaving a large pool behind him.
We filled our water pouches to the rim.
The world f
elt much more hospitable now. I looked around.
“Which way to Belron?” I asked Mouth.
He said nothing, just nodded to the northeast.
He didn't say how far we were from the stronghold, but I sensed we were pretty close, maybe less than a one-day walk.
We have made it...
~
I thought all our troubles were gone now.
I couldn't have been wrong more!
Just an hour after our encounter with the aquarius, a black point appeared on the horizon in the direction of Belron.
My gut feeling made me stop. Mouth also halted, observing the spot.
“You said dragons cannot enter Shadowlands,” I pointed out softly.
“Apparently, I was wrong,” Mouth admitted. He was as surprised as me.
“Oh, do not tell me that you, mighty and respectable speaker of Gharib, can be mistaken...”
He gave me a piercing look.
I grinned as warm feelings filled my chest.
He deserved that...
Skuller joined us with his head turned to the approaching dragon. I could sense tension from the way he crouched.
“Lay down,” I ordered, and the dog dissolved into individual bones that fell into the dust, indistinguishable from the surrounding stones.
“What are we going to do next?” I asked when the dragon drew closer. His long neck was embellished with a black, winding stripe, and the rest of his body glowed matte brown.
“I accompanied you a long way,” Mouth said slowly. “Now, your task is fully up to you. Gharib needs me elsewhere.” Above his head a silver stripe emerged, as the power of Gharib reached him, and he was gone in a blink of an eye.
I didn't even manage to express my disgust!
He ran away like a coward!
He left me here alone!
And the beast was getting closer with every flip of its powerful wings. In my world it would constitute the same danger as a fly.
The War of Spells Page 8
