Aphanasian Stories

by Rhonda Parrish

  "Did you hear something?" Colby asked, looking in the direction of Xavier's shadow. "Like a muffled curse?"

  Xavier shook his head, and Colby quirked an eyebrow. "Are you okay to keep walking? I've slept, but you haven't, and with all the stress and walking, especially with your injury..."

  "I'm fine. Z'thandra's heart restored my strength. Completely.

  Let's talk while we walk," he took her elbow and continued along the path. "I think we ought to put some distance between ourselves and the Reptar before we make camp in case they change their minds about how they feel about enemies of Furtma."

  Colby nodded and fell into step at his side.

  "First, yes, Furtma is what the Reptar call Scholar's castle. As far as I can tell it means wrong. As for Scholar, if he was ever human he isn't anymore. I'm not sure what he is exactly. Perhaps he's a victim of his own insanity. I wouldn't be shocked to hear he'd operated on himself. His lifespan is not measured in years Colby, more likely it spans centuries, and he's had people working for him for much of it."

  - 111 -

  Rhonda Parrish

  Colby's mouth formed an 'o' of surprise, but after receiving that tidbit of information she pressed for the most important one, "And the stone? You haven't told me where the stone is."

  He took hold of her wrist and moved her palm until it rested

  over his chest wound, "I tried to indicate in the tree...it's right here."

  Colby frowned. "Really? In your chest?"

  Xavier nodded. "Absolutely. Think about it, Colby. You said the stone you're looking for has the power to heal and gives strength right? Well, Scholar was trying to increase my strength when he implanted this thing in my chest, and you said it yourself; I heal faster than anyone you've ever seen."

  He paused a moment and Colby felt a slow smile spread across

  her face before he continued. "Combine that with the fact Scholar had a piece of the heart and it becomes a near-certainty."

  "A near-certainty, yes, but—how would we get it out? I mean, there has got to be risk—I don't know if it's a smart risk based on a near-certainty."

  "You wouldn't be willing to take that chance to save your brother's life?" Xavier asked, looking down at her.

  "I," Colby weighed the options carefully before conceding, "I don't know."

  "You flatter me, Colby," Xavier said, using a tentacle to brush a stray hair off her face, "but it was unfair of me to ask such a question because it's not a near-certainty after all. I know the stone is inside me."

  "How do you know?"

  "Because I could feel Z'thandra's heart beating inside me, in my chest wound. It filled me with serenity, with strength. I think it sensed its missing piece and was calling to it – there was definitely a connection of some kind there."

  The pieces fit, yet Colby didn't feel relief. "Will you…are you willing to have it taken out?"

  Xavier nodded without hesitation, and Colby instantly felt

  better, though still uneasy.

  Terricina was meant to be a secret. She didn't know anyone

  here in Aphanasia she could ask for help, and she certainly wasn't going to cut into Xavier's chest herself. There was no help for it, she was going to have to take him home with her, to Terricina. She didn't have a choice.

  - 112 -

  Aphanasian Stories

  "I guess," she said. "The thing to do is make camp before dawn and then take you back home. There's something you should know."

  "What's that?"

  "Where I'm from, Terricina. It's not in Aphanasia. It's a whole other plane of existence, a whole other world." She blurted the words out, speaking as quickly as she could, like pulling off a bandage.

  "A whole other world? Well, I've heard of places like that, doesn't it usually take great magic to get to them?"

  "Usually, yes," Colby admitted, relieved that Xavier didn't seem to think her mad or be upset. "We'll take a portal though, all it takes is a word to activate it."

  "And you said there were all sorts of beings there, that I might not be the only," he paused and then went on, "the only freak there."

  "You're not a freak Xavier," Colby said, resting her fingers on his shoulder.

  Xavier laughed self-depreciatingly, and then looked up at her, his brow furrowed. "You don't look happy Colby, why? You have what you came for."

  "I'm happy. I am. But I'll be happier once I know that I'm not sacrificing one man to save another."

  ~*~

  As they walked they shared stories of their childhoods,

  swapped riddles and studiously avoided talking about the stone in Xavier's chest.

  Once Xavier decided there was sufficient distance between

  them and the Reptar village, they found a patch of nearly dry ground and made a hasty camp. As they set up Xavier felt Colby's eyes on him. "What do you think the Reptar did to those guys?"

  "I don't know. Don't think I want to know really," he replied.

  "But what do you think?"

  "I think..." he considered all the stories told in and around the swamp about the Reptar. Tales meant to scare children into behaving as well as the darker, more likely stories told around community campfires late at night. "I think it's better if you don't think about it."

  Silence settled around them like a cloak, but it was a

  comfortable silence. As dawn drew nearer, Colby blinked and

  looked over at Xavier. "I hadn't realized how late, er, early it was getting – and you haven't slept. Go ahead, I'll take first watch."

  - 113 -

  Rhonda Parrish

  "Sounds good," Xavier jerked his head toward a small stand of bulrushes. "I'll just make a quick stop there first."

  Colby smiled, and settled herself on her bedroll, and he moved into the swamp to relieve himself.

  His shadow and that of the reeds sparred and tumbled over top of one another all around him as he stood at the edge of the plants, his back to the campfire. "What?" he whispered. "I know you want to say something, so out with it."

  "Ye drekkin' insane lover-boy?"

  Xavier laughed and turned toward his shadow. "Well, that remains to be seen doesn't it?"

  "Yer gonna go to a diff'rent world an get cut again jus' for a piece a ass? Ye can pay fer that here ye know."

  "It's not for a piece of ass. Terricina could be a fresh start for us, I really – what was that? Did you hear something?"

  "I ain't heard nuttin' 'cept you being all –"

  "Shh, I think–"

  Xavier's sentence remained unfinished. Several pairs of strong arms grabbed him from behind, pulled him backward to the ground, and pinned him there. While five hands held him down, a sixth jammed a dirty gag into his mouth.

  Foul breath assailed his nostrils as one of the men hissed in Xavier's ear. "Ahh, all the enhancements in the world don't help the prey when it's distracted, do they?" He laughed quietly before continuing. "Now to get a piece of that pretty young thing you're travelin' with – she didn't look too shabby from what I could see earlier."

  Xavier's stomach flipped and he felt bile rise in his throat. He tried to call out but the filthy fabric in his mouth muffled him to the point where it was futile. With his hands and tentacles pinned to the ground and the scarred man he recognized as Tobias, a guard from Scholar's castle, leering in his face, Xavier did the only thing he could think of – he slammed his forehead into Tobias's face.

  Tobias screamed in pain and anger as his nose crumpled.

  Jumping up he drove his boot into Xavier's side and smiled at the cracking sound that resulted. "Bastard!" Again and again his boot slammed into Xavier's side. He grunted into his gag with each impact, and rode a wave of agony-induced nausea.

  Then through the haze of his pain Xavier looked over at

  Colby's bedroll to find it empty, and as unconsciousness claimed

  - 114 -

  Aphanasian Stories

  him, the corners of his mouth pulled up into something halfway bet
ween a grimace and a smile. She, at least, had escaped.

  - 115 -

  Rhonda Parrish

  - 116 -

  Aphanasian Stories

  Chapter Seven

  Colby stood in the shadows holding her backpack with one

  hand while the other covered her mouth to muffle the involuntary groan of dismay she'd made when she saw the scarred man kick

  Xavier over and over again.

  When she'd heard the struggle just outside the camp, some

  instinct had kept her from calling out. Instead, she'd snatched her backpack up from beside the fire and headed into the swamp. Now she watched, helpless while two men held Xavier down and a third kicked him.

  Colby suspected she had only a short time before the men

  turned their attention away from Xavier and started to look for her.

  While part of her told her to run and pray they let her go, another, stronger, part of her advised her to stay put. She couldn't save Bayne without Xavier, and even if she could, she couldn't just abandon him to these men.

  She did a mental inventory of her assets and came up wanting.

  She had some magical scrolls still, but most of them were benign, water purification spells and the like. Still, there were two...

  Colby tore her eyes away from Xavier as he went limp, and

  while his attackers dragged him toward the fire, she moved further into the shadowy embrace of the swamp. Digging through her bag she used the meager light of the moon to read the labels on her scrolls. Finding the ones she sought, she tucked them into her waistband and looked through her herb pouch. Once she located the appropriate envelope she stashed it with the scrolls, grabbed a pair of leather gloves from the depths of her backpack, stuffed the bag into the nook of a tree and knelt down.

  Shescoured the ground for vines. When a sound of alarm from

  the camp came to her ears, she forced herself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm her shaking fingers.

  She pulled the gloves on, spilled some of the dried herbs into the palm of her hand then slid the damp vines, one by one, through them. Each time she stopped to replenish the herbs in her hand she tied the vines together so that they formed one long rope.

  A slight tremor remained in her fingers despite her deep

  breathing earlier, but somehow she managed to cover all the vines in the dried herbs and tie them all together. Once that was done she

  - 117 -

  Rhonda Parrish

  began to string them from tree to tree in a web-like pattern along one side of the camp.

  She furtively watched the men by the fire while she worked.

  Xavier still wasn't moving but seemed to be breathing. The other men, the ones she could only assume worked for Scholar, were

  standing over him, moving their arms angrily. She couldn’t make out their entire conversation but enough fragments floated to her ears for her to know they were arguing about whether or not to pursue her.

  Her stomach fluttered and she offered a prayer to Calamyr that they wouldn't make up their mind before she was done.

  The goddess must have been listening because the men were

  still bickering when Colby finished weaving her vine web. She moved several feet to the left and with one more steadying breath, stripped off the gloves, let them fall to the ground and pulled out one of the scrolls. She broke the seal, unrolled it and held it close to her eyes, squinting to read it in the moonlight.

  Her whispered words stumbled at first, but as her eyes grew

  more used to reading in the faint light and magic replaced the fear in her body, she became more confident and sped up. As before, the syllables began to flow over one another, naturally, like a waterfall or an avalanche. This time, however, when she reached the final word she didn't whisper it and fall silent, rather, she stood and shouted it, closing her eyes and pointing her slender finger at the pitiful campfire in the middle of the clearing.

  With an audible whoosh the flames flared to life and then

  vanished. Colby opened her eyes once again and held her breath. Her eyes, closed when the fire suddenly grew bright, adjusted to the darkness far quicker than the three men hovering around Xavier. She watched their silhouettes stiffen with shock and heard their arguing become even more frenzied. She picked up a fist-sized stone and hefted it in the direction of the web of vines. It crashed through the brush loudly. The man who'd kicked Xavier made some sharp

  gestures in the direction of the noise, and his two compatriots ran into the swamp toward it.

  Colby smiled grimly as she heard the vines reverberate as the two thugs ran into them in quick succession followed by the sound of bodies dropping to the ground. She'd hoped to get all three but, she told herself, at least she'd evened the odds. The man still standing started and looked around nervously.

  "Marcus? Samar?" he called with a slight tremor in his voice.

  - 118 -

  Aphanasian Stories

  A low moan answered him to his left, but no sound came from

  the right. Realizing that his eyes would soon be as adjusted to the moonlight as hers, Colby wrapped the ends of a short length of vine around her hands, leaving a fair bit of slack in the middle, and crept out of the concealing shadows of the swamp. Internally bemoaning the fact she hadn't had enough soporific herbs to cover the vine in her hands as well as those around the camp she moved, silently, toward the extinguished fire. Again the man called out for his friends, and was answered only by a nearby bullfrog.

  Colby's heart pounded so hard she could feel it throbbing in

  her skull. Each step brought her closer to her opponent. She took a quick look at Xavier, prone on the ground, then at the back of the man who'd put him there and pounced. She shifted her hands so they crossed at her wrists with the vine held slack between them. She covered the space between she and Xavier's attacker in two quick steps. In one motion she threw the vine over the stranger's head, waited until it was even with his neck and then pulled it taut by uncrossing her wrists.

  Taken by surprise the man tried to dig his fingers under the

  vine and pry it away from his throat. Colby winced and felt tears sting her eyes as he struggled against her and made choking and gagging noises, but she held on tight, using the vine's cross-over to her advantage. Even so, he was much stronger than she and she could feel him getting his fingers between the vine and his skin. She shifted her grip and pulled harder, but the man kicked back. His foot caught her in the knee and she stumbled.

  They fell into what had been the fire. Colby felt the residual heat from the partially burned wood against her back as the man's frame crushed her chest, knocking the breath from her lungs. The coals beneath her burned, and she would have cried out, but the stranger's weight on her chest made it impossible to breathe. As she lay on the ground gasping and squirming to get away from the heat at her back, the man got his fingers under the vine and ripped it from her hands. He scrambled to his feet and stared down at where she lay, struggling to get out of the coals at his feet.

  "Stupid bitch!" he snarled, his voice gravelly-sounding from the trauma to his neck. As he pulled back his foot, preparing to kick her, Xavier grabbed it from behind him and yanked. Colby saw the look of surprise on the man's face and twisted out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed under his weight again.

  - 119 -

  Rhonda Parrish

  She rose to her feet, and grabbed the unburned end of one of

  the logs she'd been laying on. While the stranger frantically tried to get his feet underneath him, Colby used both hands to raise the log over the top of her head, and then brought it down hard against the back of his skull. She heard a dull thud, then he collapsed,

  unconscious but still breathing, at her feet.

  Xavier stood slowly, breathing with obvious effort and with an obvious look of pain on his face. "Colby?" he asked, his voice shaking. "Are you okay?"

  The log slipped from her slack
fingers and fell to the ground beside the unconscious stranger and she looked up at Xavier. She was filthy and winded, her back was burned, the pain intensifying anytime she moved, and she could feel tears washing down her

  cheeks. She considered his question for a long time before nodding slowly. "Are you?"

  "I've been worse."

  She looked up into Xavier's eyes and half-smiled. They stood

  in silence, watching one another in the moonlight for a long moment, then a moan from the left brought reality crashing back down upon them.

  "What are we going to do with these guys Colby?" Xavier asked. "I'm no murderer."

  "I have a scroll that might work."

  Xavier started to laugh, but then clutched at his side as the sound turned into a low groan of pain. Yet, once it had passed a smile was on his lips and he looked down at Colby. "Of course you do."

  - 120 -

  Aphanasian Stories

  Chapter Eight

  They left their campsite as dawn was just beginning to light the sky. Xavier had rubbed some herbs Colby had given him on the

  burns on her back. They weren't terrible and shouldn't blister, but even so, she wasn't moving very quickly. They had wrapped his ribs tightly which greatly decreased his pain, so he insisted on carrying Colby's bag; she couldn't possibly stand its weight on her back.

  "How long will those vines hold them, do you think?"

  "The scroll said it would turn the vines to stone for a day."

  Xavier nodded. "We should be out of the swamp in a couple hours at this pace so that should be a good head start."

  "Once we're out of the swamp we're nearly there."

  "How do we actually get from Aphanasia to Terricina, Colby?"

  Xavier asked, realizing that in all the action of the past few days he'd never actually asked.

  "There's a portal up in the hills by Haven."

  "And no one has stumbled across it?"

  "They can't see it." Colby pulled the map out of her back pocket and pointed to a part in the hills just east of Haven. "It's there.