by Scott King
The crying became wailing, and Kenzie slammed her palms against Doug's chest. She repeated the action, only this time she hit Doug hard enough to propel him into the air and off the cliff.
Carter saw everything in slow motion.
Kenzie's lips twisted into a crooked smile while Doug's eyes widened as he clearly realized that he was about to face the same fate as Bash.
Carter cleared his mind and called forth his magic. "Prösenta!"
The wind roared, catching Doug. For a moment he hung there, floating over the cliff. Then the air shifted and flung him over their heads and back onto solid ground.
"By Eadimor's breath, what the abyss was that?" Doug scrambled to his feet, putting more distance between himself and Kenzie.
"This." Kenzie rubbed her hands together. "This is always my favorite part."
The bleach-blonde hair flowing from Kenzie's head expanded out of her skull and grew to reach her shoulders. The tint darkened until it became a solid black. Her body pulsed and shifted, so instead of looking petite and trim, she looked fit and muscular. The features on her face stayed the same, but her cheekbones rose and made her look slightly older.
Carter's second sight didn't kick in, which meant that the transformation wasn't magic. It was natural. Whatever Kenzie was, she was powerful and something special.
"Don't get me wrong, sometimes putting on the act is fun,"– The being that had once been Kenzie stretched her arms out with fingers interlaced, cracking her knuckles–"but Kenzie was pathetic. I'm not sorry to see her go."
"I don't understand," Doug said. "What is going on?"
"Shapeshifter assassin." Not-Kenzie pointed at her chest and then at Doug. "Dragon I was sent to kill. I would've done it over a week ago but the brat had to turn you into a human."
Kenzie wasn't real. She never had been real. She was a persona Carter hadn't seen through. He liked Kenzie, and learning she had never truly existed hurt as much as if she had died. It also meant that the shapeshifter was dangerous. She intentionally killed Bash and for days had befriended them all. Someone who could do that so easily was sick in the head.
Carter mouthed the words "be careful" to Doug. He had intended to say it with snark, but he couldn't find the energy to speak. The world blurred, and the fatigue of commanding magic made it hard for him to remain standing.
"I won't be easy to kill," Doug said.
"I saw what happened with Jack." Not-Kenzie flexed, and her hands shimmered as they transformed into swords that glistened in the morning light. "But I'm much more deadly. If you don't believe me, ask Bash. Though, in my defense, he had it coming. For months, I've been looking for a way to kill him without having to take the blame."
"What about Jack and us saving you from him?" Doug asked.
"A ruse," she said. "He had a part to play and did it well. He will be compensated."
"Look Kenzie–"
"Kane," she said. "My name is Kane. Kenzie isn't real."
"Ok Kane." Doug's lips smacked as if saying the name left a bad taste in his mouth. "We can work something out here. I don't know who would want me dead, but there is no reason for this."
"There most definitely is a reason, but I don't have the time to bother explaining it. I have work to do." Her hips swayed. She moved her blade arms in a rhythmic, circular motion and Doug had to scramble to keep out of their path through the air.
"You are crazy." Doug dove under her blades, jamming his shoulder into her ankles. She flopped sideways and fell over him. He rolled onto her and repeatedly drove the butt of his fist into the back of her head. He continued to pound her so hard her face sunk into the dirt.
A ripple rolled across Kane's body. Her hair parted, and the bony back of her skull morphed and became her face. Her arms and legs also reversed direction. "Oh sweetie. You didn't understand, did you?" Her eyebrows pulled together, and she spoke out of the corner of her mouth in a motherly tone. "Remember, I said I'm a shapeshifter."
Doug didn't slow his assault. Her nose bent from the impact of his knuckles, but by the time he lifted his fist to prepare another punch, her face had returned to normal.
"You are boring me." Four extra arms with gangly fingers grew out of Kane's sides. She gripped Doug's limbs and lifted him off her chest. He attempted to wiggle free, but she held him. She ran a blade arm across Doug's cheek in a loving manner and then brought the appendage to his throat. "Let's see how tough your dragon skin is."
"Stop this," Doug said.
"Shhh, we are experimenting." She applied pressure to the tip of her blade arm, creating a dimple without breaking Doug's skin. "Hmm, let's try a bit more force."
A dribble of his blood ran down his neck. "That hurts."
"I'm sure it does." She pivoted her arm so that a scarlet line wrapped around the bulge of his larynx. "It's a good sign though. For a moment, I had feared your skin was impenetrable. That would have made killing you a bit more complicated."
Carter wanted to do something, but he was still too weak to risk magic. At best, the spell would fail, and at worst, he could burn himself out. Maybe he could muster an agyl or two? With two fingers, he tried to make a line in the air. He was so unsteady that he lost his balance.
A pair of hands caught him and he was surprised to discover it was Alex. "I got you," she said. Gideon was beside her. His long sword was leveled at Kane. Blood dripped off its cross guard, and Gideon's replacement for the vest that had burned was now stained red.
"Let him go, Kane," Gideon said. "This is between us."
"You silly goose,"–Kane twisted her neck a full one hundred and eighty degrees–"I'm here for the dragon."
A gurgling squeal sounded from the forest. All heads turned to see Mogul staggering toward them. In his right fist, he held his metal bo staff, and in the other, he held nothing, for his left arm was gone, severed at the shoulder. It wasn't a clean cut. Tendons and thin strips of skin flapped in the breeze. The ape-man's pupils were swollen to the point that the whites of his eyes were no longer visible. A teal froth flowed from his nostrils, streaming around his mouth like a beard. He moved in a maddened state, increasing his speed upon seeing Gideon.
Gideon sprung to intercept Mogul.
Their weapons clashed. Gideon was stronger, but Mogul moved with inhuman speed.
"That will keep them busy." Kane leaned in close to Doug as if to kiss him. "Which should give us time to end this thing we have going on between us. I'm thinking decapitation."
Doug head butted Kane. Their foreheads made a cracking sound, and her grip loosened. He kicked off her chest and broke free.
"Give him to me." Doug snatched Carter from Alex.
"What are you doing?" The words came out slurred, but Carter didn't care. He was happy to be able to vocalize his thoughts.
"We are leaving." Doug tucked a hand under Carter's armpit and dragged him backward, away from the others.
"We can't leave them," Carter said.
"Which them?" Doug asked.
"Alex and Gideon." Carter had clearly heard what Kane had said. She called Alex a princess and someone named Med-something wanted her.
"Nope," Doug said. "I don't trust them."
"Trust me," Carter said. "We can't leave them."
Doug ignored Carter and continued to drag him away from the action. Already they were a good thirty parses away from Kane.
Kane pivoted to follow them, but Alex, with her silver sword, intercepted the shapeshifter.
"I'll deal with you later." Kane swung an arm blade at Alex's gut, but she sidestepped the blow and drove her short sword into Kane's chest.
"You will deal with me now." Alex twisted the blade.
Kane shut her eyes. She took in a deep breath and let out a long grumble. "So be it."
The goo of Kane's body oozed and hooked around the blade of Alex's sword. It rippled and pushed the sword out of her chest.
"What are you?" Alex gasped, backing away.
"That's right." Kane snapped and tapped her temple
. "You missed the whole reveal."
Kane's raven hair went blond as it was sucked back into her skull. Her lips grew a bit fuller, and her cheekbones dropped so that she looked like Kenzie again.
Alex's eyes widened.
"Ta da!" Kane smiled, showing off Kenzie's perfectly white teeth.
Alex kicked Kane in the crotch. It was a futile attack, but while Kane shuttered, recovering her balance, Alex rolled, retrieving her sword.
Kane feinted right and then slapped Alex in the face. She repeated the action, and Alex blocked the strike with her sword.
A lizard's tail grew out of Kane's butt. She spun. The tail caught Alex in the shins, and she landed on her back. In less than a heartbeat, Kane smashed a foot into Alex's abdomen, pinning the girl to the ground.
"Don't hurt her," Cooke commanded. Her voice sounded so loud that Carter's ears rang once more. The old woman emerged from the forest.
"I don't take orders from you," Kane said.
"We need her alive." Again Cooke had a booming cadence. She must have been using magic to alter the distance her voice could reach with such volume.
"Alive doesn't mean unharmed." Kane lashed out with her tail, stomping Alex's chest, causing the girl to break into a coughing fit.
Gideon glanced over his shoulder to where Alex lay moaning.
Mogul took advantage of the opening and slammed his bo staff against Gideon's face. In rapid succession, the ape-man struck at the pressure points along Gideon's neck and back, forcing him to the ground.
"Cooke," Kane said. "Do be a dear and toss one of your air bombs this way? I think shoving it down Doug's throat might be an interesting way to end this."
Carter looked from Kane to Cooke. The older woman still held her basket of burs. He could see the agyls and the energy they held. He didn't know exactly how they worked, but the braids were clear. It should have been fairly simple to break them.
"Set me down." Carter tapped Doug's forearm.
"No," Doug said. Already they were so far away from the others it was hard to hear what was being said.
"Give me a few seconds," Carter said. "I have an idea, but you dragging me away is too jolting."
Doug released Carter, who sunk to his knees. That was fine. He didn't need to stand or to appear threatening. This might work better if the Red Hounds didn't see it coming.
Reaching out with his magic, Carter felt for the power held in the basket of burs. There were dozens of the air burs. All he needed to do was find the weakest thread and pull.
Cooke must have sensed what was happening because she threw the basket into the air and turned tail, running into the forest.
"Prösenta!" Carter didn't call the winds. He dominated them.
The air surged and threw Kane and Mogul backward. It swept across the cliff, lifting Alex and Gideon. The two floated to where Carter and Doug sat, and then the wind coiled around their entire group like a cyclone, forming a barrier.
The dozens of agyls inside each of the burs ignited. The basket and metal balls ceased to exist, while a wave of pressure ripped into the cliffside and shot out in all directions. Trees that were hundreds of years old ruptured into dust, and the ground fractured.
Kane's arms and legs became roots, digging into the dirt. She yelled something, but Carter couldn't hear it over the roar of the wind. If his eardrums hadn't been damaged before, they surely were now, but he couldn't worry about it. He had to block out the pain and the sense of his vision shrinking. He needed to direct all his attention at the sphere of air protecting them from the pressure wave.
The front of the wave hit Kane, and her body morphed into pudding, flattening against the broken ground. Soil shot into the air, and the rocks that made up the cliff crumbled. A fresh canyon formed that reached all the way to the valley. Its walls were unstable, and the entire stretch of the mountainside collapsed in on itself.
The others screamed as the dirt beneath their feet disappeared, but Carter wasn't worried about it. He had known he wasn't strong enough to resist the pressure wave, so he didn't fight it. He rode it.
The wave struck their protective bubble of air, and Carter allowed it to shoot them into the sky.
The mountains shrunk, becoming no bigger than wrinkles in a bed sheet. It was mesmerizing and terrifying at the same time because, as the seconds creeped by, Carter felt a weariness come upon him. It started in his arms and traveled in a web across his body. The worst of it was his eyelids. They felt heavy, the weight unbearable. His body begged him to give in, but he didn't. He refused to blink for fear he wouldn't be able to open his eyes again.
An eternity seemed to pass, but finally the sphere of air reached an apex and arced, falling back to the ground. That was when the numbness came. Carter could no longer feel his fingers, and a horrible sense of coldness overwhelmed him. It was as if his pool of energy had run so empty that it was now drawing every speck of heat from his body. His teeth chattered, and his arms shook. Still, he didn't release the magic, for doing so would be instant death.
11
The Princess
Ornsday, 11th of Hearfest, 1162.111
The world flipped, spinning around Alex. She saw flashes of the sun, a blur of trees, and a swirling mix of blue. They all congealed together, becoming an endless cascade of motion.
Alex knew Carter had created the bubble of air around them and that he had caused the explosion on the cliff, but her knowledge of magic was so minuscule that she didn't know how long he could keep it up.
She got her answer when the bubble collapsed, and they crashed into a pool within a winding stream.
The winds died, and if not for Gideon's quick thinking, Carter and Doug would have drowned. It wasn't until Alex stepped onto the mucky bank that she saw Gideon with one arm wrapped around an unconscious Carter. With the other, Gideon offered support to Doug, who could barely keep his head above the water's surface.
Alex rushed back into the pool and escorted Doug to land. The big man fell on his back and coughed up water.
Gideon set Carter down on the ground. The boy's cheeks were sunken, and his skin had lightened, as if all the blood had drained from his body. Gideon held the back of his hand against Carter's nostrils. "He's breathing. Are you...?"
"Fine," Alex said. "I'm fine. What was that?"
"He's Owen's ward," Gideon said. "What did you expect? You've heard your father's stories."
"Hearing is different from seeing," Alex said. Arywn wasn't a backwater kingdom. They had amenities that rivaled the finest in Compitum. Yet those were all agyl based. What happened on the cliff was new to her.
Doug rolled onto his side and spit out a splooge of water. Shaking, he crawled to Carter and shooed Gideon away. "Leave him alone."
"As I see it," Alex said. "We are in this together. No need to be rude."
Doug sniffed Carter. "He smells dead, and his heart is slow."
"Side effect of using that much magic," Gideon said. "I've seen it a few times before. He will either recover or not. There is nothing we can do but wait it out. Our concern, though, should be the Red Hounds. I think we landed too far away for them to follow, but to be sure, we might want to put a few more leagues between us and them before nightfall."
The forest around the companions looked different now. Gone were the trees with needles and those with leaves had a more greenish tint, as if autumn had yet to arrive. The forest floor was damp, with plush ferns, but no grass. Moss-covered logs filled the gaps between the trees.
"We must be in Gara," Alex said. "We should head south. Eventually, we will hit the Alsend River or the canal that bridges the northern and southern parts."
"Let's say we do." Gideon waded back into the water. "Compitum could be dangerous. We might want to avoid it completely and head directly to Elene."
"Do what you two want," Doug said. "Carter and I are going to Compitum."
"You will go wherever we go," Alex said.
"We are going to Compitum." Doug stood. His hair was in tan
gles, and his clothes were torn. He looked rough, like an alley cat refusing to back down.
Alex waited for Gideon to back her up, but she realized that he was underwater. Most likely he was searching for his sword and her dirk. She hoped he would find the dirk. She thought she had been holding it when the wind knocked Kane down, but it had all happened so fast she wasn't sure.
Gideon surfaced and had not only their weapons, but both Carter's and Doug's travel sacks. That was good. At least they weren't without supplies. She had her pouch and a few personal valuables tied to her belt, but she would miss her Ryth deck and a few other accoutrements.
"Did you decide what you wanted to do?" Gideon laid the bags on the ground and went back to the edge of the pool. Kneeling, he used reeds and scrubbed Mogul's blood off his arms and vest.
"Doug insists he is going to Compitum," she said.
"I am going to Compitum with or without you," Doug said. "I'll carry Carter the whole way if I have to."
"I heard what they said about you," Alex said. "You are a dragon."
"And I heard what they said about you. You are a princess." Doug said the last bit in a slow drawl and winced as if speaking the word produced a bad taste in his mouth.
"Don't you dare." She poked Doug's squishy chest. "I know what your kind can do. I wouldn't for a second trust you with Carter's life."
"I don't trust you either." Doug returned the poke, jamming a finger into Alex's shoulder.
Stepping backwards, Alex slipped and landed butt first in the mud.
"Hold it! Do not touch her again!" Gideon picked up his long sword and stood, staring at Doug. "Be careful about what you say or do next."
"I have this under control." Alex gathered a ball of mud and chucked it into Doug's face. She knew enough from the past few days that it was one of the worst things she could do to him.
The man-dragon roared.
Alex took a defensive stance in case she had judged incorrectly.
Doug charged, not her, but the pool. He dropped to his knees and feverishly threw water into his face, trying to clear away the mud.
