by Sam Ryder
“Fine,” she said. “My father passed into the Deep when I was but six turns of the seasons. My mother sank into the depths when I was seven. I had no siblings. No friends. I was passed around like a possession. No, less than that. Like I was an unwanted thing that required great cost and effort to maintain. On my world, you are tied to your family name. My family was known to be bottom feeders, scoundrels. My parents didn’t die because of bad luck. They died because they got into trouble and did stupid things. I didn’t miss them because I didn’t really know them. My name was worthy of laughter wherever I went. Younglings mocked me. I was cornered regularly. Hurt. Poked. Made to bleed. Left to attract dangerous predators.
“But I survived. I learned to defend myself. We are required to join the military for two years and when I did, I was ready. I fought for territory against our enemies, the Shellbacks. I killed many of them. I thought being hard would ensure I could never be broken again.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she spoke, though her own eyes remained trained on some unimportant spot in the distance.
“I was wrong,” she said, after several seconds of silence.
We were Outcasts, all of us. That was why Eve had chosen us. Yes, we’d been brought here against our wills, a method of recruiting I was trying to change, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t flourish here. Whatever damage Millania’s past had inflicted on her, here she was more. She’d risen above all that.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I made a friend,” she said. “Guilty by association. He didn’t give two shits about family names or reputations. He saw to the core of me. He changed me.”
The rest didn’t need to be spoken, though I felt she wanted to speak it. Still, I didn’t prod her. Like all she’d done since arriving on this planet, she needed to do this on her own terms. “He gave me hope where before him there had been none. And the funny thing is, I think I gave him hope too. Together we were more than the sum of our parts. Does that make any sense?”
It did, more than I could explain. I nodded.
The next thing she said was completely and utterly unexpected. “He was killed by accident.”
“What?” No. There had to be more to it. There had to be a greater purpose. Like the forces of the universe molding and shaping past, present and future to bring us here to this exact moment at this exact time to accomplish something that mattered. Not some freak accident that took Millania’s world.
“We’d both finished our time in the military. We’d survived. We wanted to settle down, start a family, create a life of our own, carved out away from the people who wanted to tear us apart.” The webbing between her fingers had gone pale, and I could tell she was pressing her hands hard into her legs. “Oceania had bad storms sometimes, but we could usually ride them out deep underwater. I can breathe the water for many hours before I’m required to resurface.” I’d always wondered about her gills and whether it meant she could live underwater completely or still required air from time to time. A single tear tracked down her cheek, but her expression remained stoic. She was a master at self-control, even in the face of memories that would’ve torn most people to shreds. “This was no ordinary storm. It lasted for days. Twice we’d needed to risk it and make our way to the surface to breathe before descending once more. When we went up the third time, most of the storm had passed. The waves had calmed. The winds had weakened.
“The rogue wave came from nowhere. It shouldn’t have mattered. Waves were nothing to us. We ducked beneath the crashing wave and I was all ready to come back up to laugh about it. I came up, but he did not.
“I found him sinking in bloody water. There had been debris in the wave. A sharp stick. It had pierced his heart. He would’ve died instantly. He wouldn’t have felt any pain. I wished…”
I placed a hand on her shoulder and she flinched, shaking her head, more tears splitting her cheeks. “I wished I had been the one killed,” she said, a sob emerging after the last word.
I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into my chest as she shook.
“I don’t,” I said.
~~~
Learning about Millania’s tragic past had only reaffirmed my belief that we all had a role to play in whatever was to come. Maybe the universe was random at the best of times. Maybe it was only luck or random chance that had spared her while taking the man she’d loved. Or maybe there were forces at play that mere mortals couldn’t possibly hope to understand. Whatever the case, after sharing her story with me, she’d brushed the tears away and thrown herself into training with the other Warriors.
Beat made her way over to me while her Warriors continued to practice with various weapons. “She okay?” she asked, gesturing toward the Oceanian.
“She will be,” I said. “She’s a tough one.”
“Damn straight, son,” she said. “Hey, the Black will be here soon. Did you want to go see your newest recruit?”
I frowned, trying to make sense of what she was saying. Newest recruit? We hadn’t had a recruit in over a week, when Eve had last gone Finding. And now that she was…gone…there wouldn’t be any more recruits until the Three figured out whether they could Level up a new Finder.
“Dumbass,” Beat said. “You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?”
Oh shit. I had forgotten. Perhaps my mind had been trying to block out the memories of what had happened to Eve to protect me, but still. I’d been on the last Finding mission. And we had brought back a recruit. A fucking large one. “The marmot?”
She grinned, nodding. “We call him Stomp. Creative, I know, but the name Nrrrf gave him was like twenty letters and sounded like a fart when you said it so…”
I spun around. Given the sheer size of the creature we’d managed to bring to Tor, forgetting it—him?—was no easy feat. But it’s not like my eyes could miss a gargantuan beast if it was sitting next to me. “Where is it?”
“That’s why we were laughing before,” Beat said. “While you were gone, our recruit fought in his first Black. Those supersized monsters never stood a chance.”
I gaped at her. “How did you control it…Stomp?”
“We didn’t. Nrrrf did. She comes from Primo, remember?”
I needed the reminder. It had always felt strange that both the talking lions and the giants came from the same place. A place that happened to have massive creatures called marmots. “She knew how to get it to fight?”
“Him,” she reminded me. “And yup. She made these high-pitched sounds and the big fella stampeded through the ward shield. We kept our distance, because well, friendly fire and all that. We didn’t even have to fight. Stomp must’ve killed three dozen monsters before the rest backed off. The next night was the same. No monsters even showed up on the third Black. Just the threat was enough to keep them away, it seems. That’s why we are all so well-rested and in good spirits.”
The whole thing was…tough to take. On one hand, it was fantastic news. We’d lost our Finder but her final mission had provided the best Warrior we’d ever had. On the other hand, we’d lost our Finder. Bitterness coated my tongue. Was her sacrifice worth it? Could I have saved her if I’d only been faster, stronger?
No, I knew. The effort of bringing back the massive creature would’ve sapped her life meter regardless of what I’d done. Did the Three know that when they sent her? Did Eve know that?
Questions without answers. Still, I promised to bring them up the next time I saw the Three. I they knew…it would be the last straw. I would convince the Warriors to leave with me. We could form our own tribe, fight monsters and protect each other and find a way to free Vrill.
And we would take our big fucking marmot with us. The Three could fend for themselves. They would be fine. I’d already restored Airiel’s heart, after all. Soon she’d be more powerful than the rest of us combined. Good luck and buh-bye.
I knew I was spiraling because of grief again, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t right.
“Hey,” Beat said, an
d I sensed she’d said it a few times before I finally heard her. “Your eyes glazed over for a minute. You all right?”
“Yeah. Yeah. I was just trying to make sense of things.”
“About Vrill?”
“Yes. And other shit too. Too much shit.”
“Speaking of which…watch your step when we go visit our new buddy. And you might want to pinch your nose.”
~~~
The marmot poo was impossible to miss, the size of boulders, trailing smelly crumbles across the wasteland. With no footwear to speak of, I was careful to give each dropping a wide berth. The marmot—Stomp—was sprawled out along the base of the cliff, its long, sinewy tail stretching to one end of the rock wall while its swordfish-like snout jutted to the other end, digging a path in the hard ground.
The beast was sleeping, its hefty belly pressed firmly against the ground, a portion of its body rising and falling with each mighty exhalation.
Nrrrf sat nearby on her haunches, watching over the creature. I could tell the blue-furred lioness heard our arrival; one of her sensitive ears was angled back toward us.
We stopped on either side of her, but she didn’t look at us, her eyes trained forward on Stomp. “I am struggling,” she said. Her words surprised me, and I could tell they surprised Beat too, given the way her eyes flicked to meet mine.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
She sighed, and I couldn’t help but to admire the animal beauty she held, a majesty that was impossible for a human to emulate. “I wasn’t well-loved back on Primo,” she said. “But I’m sure you already knew that.” I did. Eve had always had a knack for choosing the lost and the downtrodden to bring into the Three’s service. Outcasts, all of us, reforged into Warriors.
“You are well-loved here,” I said. Which was true. I may not have known all the Warriors half as well as I wanted to because of the limited time I’d spent with them, but it didn’t change the fact that I cared for them. I don’t know if it was Vrill’s influence that had instilled in me that sense of responsibility—she did, after all, save me, a complete stranger, in the Circle—but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I felt protective of Nrrrf and Uva and Merlin, and all the others.
She shook her head, but I could sense it wasn’t a denial of the heartfelt statement I’d made. “That’s why I’m struggling,” she said. “I’ve never been a part of something like this. A group that helps each other, fights together. Despite the dangers, I liked it.”
“But not anymore?” I asked.
“No, that’s not what I meant.” Her voice was gravelly, giving it a serious tone that fit the nature of our conversation. “I still like it, but seeing Stomp…”
Ahh, that made sense. She was homesick. Maybe not for the people who had mistreated her and made her feel like an outsider amongst her own kind, but for the place she’d grown up. Could you love a place without loving the people who inhabited it? Yes, I thought, thinking of the house I’d lived in as a boy. I’d had so many grand adventures in that structure. I’d been a pirate, a miscreant, an outlaw, a hero. My parents might not have been affectionate, and I’d spent more time with babysitters than with them, but that had never marred my imagination’s ability to create a world where I was loved.
“You saw Primo,” she continued, her gaze finally drifting over to fall on me. “Running through the wild forest, drinking from the clear, sparkling streams…there is a freedom in that place we may never have here, confined to this tract of land protected by magical shields. Stomp reminds me of all I have lost. So now I struggle.”
I nodded. Maybe agreeing with a wayward Warrior wasn’t the textbook thing to do, but the old ways of uniting those who did battle in the dark were no longer the best ways. Not to me, anyway. Sometimes that might mean losing a Warrior—like what had happened with Belle when I’d persuaded her to join Buploog’s all-female tribe—but having Warriors who wanted to fly from the nest was counterproductive.
“I wish…” A felt a pang in my chest, because I couldn’t give this lioness what she wanted. “I’m sorry. If Eve was still…here…I would ask her to return you to Primo, if that’s what you desired.”
Nrrrf cocked her head to the side in confusion. “You would allow that? The Three would allow that?”
I raised one eyebrow and managed a goofy, half-smile. “I don’t know about the Three. But I would do everything in my power to make it happen. I still will, if it’s truly what you want. If there’s a way for the Three to Level up a new Finder, I will see it done. Their first mission will be to take you home.”
“Thank you,” she said, and I could hear the deep melancholy in her voice. “But I wouldn’t go home. Just because I miss a place doesn’t mean I want to return to it. I’ve turned that page in the story of my life. This is my home now. And, even though it has dredged up painful and happy memories of Primo, I am glad for Stomp’s presence. He is a reminder of the good things I once had.”
“I’m glad,” I said. “And I’m glad you are here. Without you, Stomp would turn us all into pancakes.”
She chuffed out a laugh. “He will continue to devastate our enemies. Hopefully it will be enough to hold them back until a new Finder is chosen.”
“Hopefully,” I said, exchanging another look with Beat. The truth was neither of us had any clue whether that was even possible. Back on Primo, Eve had insinuated that being a Finder was more something you were born into than something you could be chosen for. Unless I was missing something, I didn’t think we would be getting any recruits anytime soon, if ever again.
Which meant one thing: I needed to move up my timeline for connecting with the other tribes on Tor, those ex-Warriors who had chosen to leave the Three’s service.
Easier said than done.
There was one other problem: we were out of time.
The Black, as it always did like clockwork, had arrived.
~~~
VRILL
She could feel the Morgoss tightening the invisible reins that linked her to them via the metal collar around her neck. They were holding her back, trying to prevent her from spurring Mrizandr on ahead of the main body of the Narzani, which now covered the flanks of the mountain chain like a plague of shadows, teeth and claws.
Vrill fought against them, but this close to the demon stronghold made such a thing almost impossible. Her head jerked back viciously, and she almost toppled from the dragon’s back. The collar tightened around her throat, cutting off a breath that was only halfway to her lungs. Defy us no more, that grating voice said in her head as she struggled to suck air through the narrow crack in her clamped windpipe. Swear it!
Even as she grew dizzy from lack of oxygen, Vrill sensed a desperation in the demon overlord’s command. An urgency. Bringing her to heel was taking longer than it had expected. The Morgoss needed her to obey them without question or she might be able to ruin their plans.
But why? Vrill wondered. Why did it matter? The army flowing down the mountainside was as innumerable as the grains of sand on a beach. Even if she managed to break the magical chains that bound her to the Morgoss’s will, she couldn’t destroy them all on her own, could she? Well, maybe—Mrizandr was as powerful a creature as there was on this planet. And yet…it felt like there was something more behind it all.
She tried to lock her thoughts onto the idea, but everything was growing fuzzy now, the spots dancing in front of her eyes matched by many more in her head.
Her head lolled to the side with dizziness, but she managed to grasp one of Mrizandr’s spikes, gripping it so hard she felt its sharp edges cut into her hand.
It would be so easy to let go, to fall from her perch and be crushed on the rocks below. Would that save the dragon? Would that cause the Narzani to flee before his mighty roar as he turned on them, spouting fire at anything that moved?
Her fingers began to loosen. In a rush, the tightening around her neck released and air whooshed down her throat and filled her lungs, burning in her chest as if supe
rheated. Against her own will, her fingers fisted and clung to the dragon spike.
She couldn’t kill herself. Of course not. The Morgoss would not allow it. Nor was it really what she wanted. To admit defeat was out of the question. The sweet swell of breath made her brain work again, an idea springing from the depths of her imagination like a seed sprouting a stem. A single, beautiful leaf lined with silver edges.
Instead of fighting the Morgoss’s will, she leaned into it, strengthening the connection, allowing the chains to surround her.
She could feel the demon’s surprise. It hadn’t been ready for her to do that. It was caught with its mind opened to her, like a book flattened on a desk, its story laid bare for all to see.
Something flashed in her mind, a glimpse of something. A dark spot. A chasm? Yes. The pit grew larger and larger, widening like an evil smile, fire licking the cracks around the edges.
Something was in that pit. Somethings. Many. They emerged like spiders scuttling from a burrow, their skin cracked and molten like hot stone between the fire and the cooling bath. They were large, larger than any Lri Ay she’d ever met, even those Leveled up by the Three.
And yet so small compared to what was dragging itself from the chasm behind them.
The connection with the Morgoss’s mind was severed so swiftly it felt like her own mind had been cut in half by an executioner’s scythe, her brain ripped into two.
She screamed, her pain resonating all the way through her connection to the dragon, who shrieked in response.
But it didn’t change the fact that she’d seen something she wasn’t meant to, and no amount of pain could wash away the memory of those eyes ringed with fire.
The Narzani were a deadly foe, yes, one that could wreak havoc on Sam Ryder and the other Warriors. Maybe even destroy them.
But they were only a distraction. The real army was coming next.
A mixture of fear and determination coursing through her veins, Vrill wheeled the dragon around and then rocketed away from the mountains toward the Warrior encampment. Mrizandr shrieked again, not in pain this time, but in excitement. The thrill of the hunt was on.
