A Girl From Nowhere

by James Maxwell

  Griff made a sound Taimin had never heard before: a low growl in his throat, trailing off into a whine.

  The refugees began to mutter, and as their mutters became louder, they all exchanged glances.

  The birdlike shapes flew in a tight formation. Moving as one, they descended directly toward the people on the ground.

  19

  The wart-faced bax, Mugrak, herded Selena between campfires and past tents. Selena’s jaw was clenched tightly as she moved between hundreds of bax. They carried cactuses on their shoulders, practiced combat, sharpened spears, and turned skewered lizards over fire pits.

  Selena’s hands were bound in front of her. Her wrists burned from the tight leather, and dread was like an empty pit in her chest. She wore a collar around her neck, fixed to a cord that led to Mugrak’s hand. He was taking her to Blixen, the Warden of the Rift Valley, who commanded every one of these warriors.

  The encampment was located in a long, wide gorge. Tents filled the area between the two tall cliffs. But despite there being so many bax gathered in one place, the encampment felt far from permanent. For a start, there were no females or young: Selena had heard from her captors that Blixen was keeping them out of sight, dispersed throughout the Rift Valley to avoid the city’s patrols. What she was seeing was the core of his army: hundreds of male warriors.

  Coarse voices filled the air, along with the smell of wood smoke and roasting meat. The toad-like creatures watched her curiously as she passed, nudging one another and casting her malevolent smiles.

  Surrounded by so many, Selena avoided the dark eyes watching her. As she instead looked into the distance, she saw that a large group of skalen had made camp in a place farther along the gorge, separate from the bax. If Group Leader Vail was here, then Rei-kika would be too. Selena tried to see Rei-kika’s thin frame among the skalen, but couldn’t.

  Mugrak yanked on the cord and she stumbled. She fell down, hitting the ground heavily with her knees. The collar tightened around her neck, choking off her air.

  Arms went around her, and she heard laughter nearby while Mugrak hauled her back to her feet. Air rushed into her lungs as her chest heaved.

  “Careful,” Mugrak growled.

  He scowled at her as she struggled to catch her breath, but now that she had his attention, she saw a chance to ask the question she was desperate to have answered. She coughed one last time and then met Mugrak’s deep-set eyes. “The girl,” she wheezed. “Where is she?”

  Mugrak snarled and held up the leather cord, shaking it meaningfully. “Keep moving.”

  Selena was forced to focus on her footing as he yanked her along again. It didn’t matter if she quickened her footsteps; he seemed to take pleasure in her discomfort. Soon Mugrak took her past a cluster of fire pits toward a rise in the ground. She found herself walking uphill toward an alcove, a cleft in the rock that created a space separate from the main camp. Proud-looking bax warriors stood guard outside a broad pavilion, with skins laid out like a mat leading up to the entrance.

  Selena gritted her teeth and brought herself to a halt. This time she was expecting the pressure on her collar. She wrapped her tied hands around the cord at her neck and stood her ground.

  “Mystic . . .” Mugrak’s eyes narrowed.

  “I want to know where she is,” Selena said.

  “If Blixen is displeased—”

  “I don’t care. I might suffer, but so will you. The girl. Where is she?”

  Mugrak’s lip curled. He tried once more to pull on the cord, but Selena wouldn’t be moved. As she continued to glare at him, he gave a shrug. “She was cold. Or hot. Or sick. It is hard to know with you humans. She died. Borg burned her body.”

  The blood drained from Selena’s face. Her nostrils flared. “You killed her.”

  “I killed her parents, but she died of her own accord.” He gave a malicious grin. “If I were you, I would worry about my own fate. Make me look bad in front of Blixen and I will roast you alive.” He brought his mouth close to her ear. “Remember,” he hissed, “it is you humans that started this.”

  He pulled on the leather and dragged her into the pavilion.

  Selena blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dark interior. Blixen sat on a broad rock, legs apart and hands on his knees. Even among so many warriors outside, he was easily the biggest bax she had seen: tall and broad-chested, with muscled shoulders and fierce grooves above his eyes. A circle of bones decorated his neck and thorns studded his leather armor. He scowled impatiently while he waited for Mugrak’s approach.

  Selena’s whirling thoughts took focus. Her shock was steadily shifting to anger. Her mouth tightened and she glanced at Mugrak. She wanted him to suffer for what he had done.

  Mugrak brought her to a halt in front of Blixen. Selena was forced to return her attention to the huge bax in front of her.

  Her eyes widened.

  She hadn’t initially seen the thin mantorean in the low light. Rei-kika stood at Blixen’s side, waiting in the shadows. The scar on Rei-kika’s face was now joined by a second, bigger scar on her forehead. Selena’s anger grew. Blood roared in her ears.

  “Rei-kika?”

  “Silence,” a bax behind her growled.

  “Great Blixen,” Mugrak said. “This human female can cast farther than any other. I offer her to you as a gift.”

  “Ah . . .” Blixen said as he regarded her. His size gave his rough voice a booming quality. “This is the wild one Group Leader Vail spoke of. You are Mugrak, are you not?”

  “Yes, Warden.”

  “And what is your rank, Mugrak?”

  “I am second file.”

  “You are now first file,” Blixen said.

  Mugrak puffed himself up, and then, while Mugrak and Blixen continued to speak, something snapped inside Selena.

  She looked at the scars on Rei-kika’s face. She remembered Mugrak holding the little girl up by her hair. The child had witnessed the death of her parents and then spent her last days in terror. How many children lived in Zorn? The rage grew until Selena’s vision shrank to a narrow focus.

  Fire sparked inside her.

  Before she knew what she was doing Selena was holding the radiant symbol of her power pent up inside her mind. She fed it her anger, and with her gaze fixed on Blixen she concentrated on the idea of giving him pain. If she made the pain strong enough, she might be able to kill him.

  What are you doing? Selena heard a voice inside her mind. She saw Rei-kika staring at her, the only one present who was mindful of Selena gathering her power.

  I’m going to end this.

  They will kill you.

  I don’t care.

  They will kill me too!

  Selena imagined the glowing symbol pulling her out of her body and she burst free of the bounds of her physical form. In an instant she could sense the mood of every creature around her. She felt Rei-kika’s terrible anxiety, and Mugrak’s cringing desire to please. Blixen carried an indomitable determination that was startling to behold.

  Gathering her strength, Selena prepared to travel, but this time rather than journey to see things far away, she would tunnel inside Blixen’s skull.

  No! Rei-kika cried inside her mind. Not like that.

  I’m going to hurt him, Selena replied. Her resolve was strong. Nothing would stop her.

  He is not what you think he is.

  He rewards his warriors for butchery.

  Selena sensed Rei-kika relent. Look. Like this. Let me show you.

  All of a sudden Rei-kika’s ethereal consciousness was beside Selena’s. While Blixen and Mugrak spoke, Rei-kika and Selena descended toward Blixen’s skull and entered.

  Selena found herself confronted with flashing thoughts and images. At first it was confusing, but then Rei-kika did something. She lifted a layer of Blixen’s outer self, holding it up, and showed it to Selena before she wormed her way underneath. The mantorean did it with the gentlest of touches, sliding over rather than through Blixen’s thoughts w
ithout disrupting them in the slightest.

  It is similar to what they made me do to you, but softer, Rei-kika said.

  Selena followed suit, touching another part of the warden’s mind, feeling her own consciousness merge with his. Rei-kika helped her through until they were both within the outer layer and could see his thoughts even as they occurred to him. Selena gained an impression that Rei-kika’s awareness was bobbing up and down like ripples on a bowl of water, becoming almost transparent before solidifying. She realized that where Rei-kika struggled to maintain her own sense of identity while merged with Blixen, she had little difficulty herself.

  Thousands of potential thoughts whirled through Blixen’s mind, but only some became actualized as he decided to form them, and only some were in the form of words; most were baser desires. Unable to help herself, Selena looked deeper, and burrowed down to reach his memories, the next layer within the bax’s mind.

  You learn fast, Rei-kika sent. Some would say too fast. Wait. This is what I have to show you. Look.

  Selena experienced the memory as if it were happening to herself.

  Blixen was angry. Surrounded by his personal guard, the strongest and most skilled of all his warriors, he took determined strides toward the place where the skalen under Group Leader Vail had made their camp.

  The altercation was still underway. Vail’s reptilian eyes blazed. A dozen skalen flanked her, javelins poised above their shoulders. Facing them were Kyrax, a second-file commander, and an equal number of bax under his command.

  Blixen scowled as he approached, his attention on the ongoing scuffle between the two groups. Vail’s son, Watch Leader Rees, held a pair of pale eggs in his arms. The young skalen was attempting to put his back to Kyrax, who lunged from one side to the other, trying to snatch the eggs. Rees’s expression was desperate.

  “Stop, you fool,” Group Leader Vail hissed at Kyrax. “You will break her eggs, and then what?”

  The mantorean trembled with agitation as her eggs threatened to tumble onto the hard ground. She tried to dart in to take the eggs herself, but one of Kyrax’s underlings grabbed her from behind and threw her down. Her stick-thin limbs fell in a tangle. She lifted her head. A seeping wound had opened up above her eyes.

  “Just give us the eggs,” Kyrax grunted as he reached around again, with Rees narrowly evading him.

  Blixen’s powerful, booming voice cut through the commotion. “All of you. Stop this at once.”

  Heads whirled as both bax and skalen saw Blixen approaching with six menacing warriors in leather armor. Fear struck face after face.

  “Warden . . .” Kyrax said. He stopped snatching at the young skalen. The eggs almost fell before Vail’s son brought them close to his chest.

  “Kyrax. Explain yourself,” Blixen snapped.

  “We wanted to borrow the mystic—”

  “Borrow? Just for a few hours, or days, and you were going to give her back?” Blixen spoke in a low growl. “The skalen are our allies. I have made that very clear.” He glared while Kyrax stood apprehensively. “Kyrax, you are demoted to third file. Now get out of here before I decide to punish you further.”

  Kyrax bobbed his head and rushed away, taking his warriors with him.

  Group Leader Vail opened her mouth. “Thank you, Warden—”

  Blixen lifted a finger and thrust it toward the old skalen. “I am not pleased with you either, Group Leader.” He indicated the mantorean on the ground. “She is innocent in this struggle. We are fighting the humans. Are they not enough? Here.” Blixen put out his hands. “Give the eggs to me.”

  Watch Leader Rees looked to his mother for orders. Vail hesitated and then gave a reluctant nod. Blixen took the two eggs; they were surprisingly heavy for their size. The mantorean’s eyes followed her eggs as she climbed to her feet. Her antennae waved back and forth.

  “Mantorean, what is your name?”

  “Rei-kika.”

  “I need mystics, Rei-kika, more than you can know. If I help you care for your eggs, and promise to keep both you and your hatchlings safe, will you cast for me?”

  Rei-kika replied in a croaking voice. “I will.”

  The memory drifted away.

  Do you see? Rei-kika asked. I have my eggs back.

  He is still using you, Selena replied. And the things you do for him will cause humans to suffer.

  Have you not realized that everyone in this canyon is in hiding? Rei-kika replied.

  Of her own accord, Selena examined another memory.

  Blixen stood beside the burned-out remains of a tiny village. The stench of char was in his nostrils. His mouth tasted of ash.

  “Humans did this,” a voice said.

  Blixen seethed with anger. He knelt down and stroked the cheek of the infant bax. “Why do they hate us so much?” he asked.

  “It’s their way,” came the response.

  Blixen spoke again. “But why burn them alive?”

  Selena shuddered; the outpouring of emotion that accompanied the memory was overwhelming. There were countless experiences around her, a lifetime to behold, but there was one remembrance that stood out above all others.

  Blixen, the Warden of the Rift Valley, stared in futility at the city of Zorn.

  “She is in there,” a voice said. “Your wife was only taken three days ago. We will do everything we can to get her back for you.”

  Blixen’s response was slow in coming. “You know she is gone. I will soon be fighting humans wearing her skin as armor.”

  For a moment Selena didn’t know where or who she was. Blixen’s pain and rage still filled her. The grief that accompanied the loss of his wife was overwhelming.

  His wife is the true reason that he is gathering an army to attack the city, Rei-kika said.

  I’m sorry, Selena replied, but it has nothing to do with me. If I can get away, will you come with me?

  The danger is too great. My eggs are safe here.

  Selena wondered what she could do. She turned away from the memories and focused on the whirl of thoughts. She knew from Blixen’s mind that the conversation with Mugrak was coming to a close.

  Rei-kika sighed. Try this.

  The mantorean formed a thought of her own and tossed it into the maelstrom. Selena looked on as it joined the other potential thoughts, spinning around with them, able to be formed yet not something Blixen would choose to think on his own.

  Something else bubbled up instead. Time to test this new mystic, Blixen mused.

  Quick, Selena, Rei-kika said. I don’t have the power, but if you are going to do something, you need to do it now.

  In desperation, Selena wondered what to do. She discarded one plan after another, until she had an idea.

  Copying what Rei-kika had done, she formed a thought and tossed it into the storm inside Blixen’s mind. It began to disappear, but she concentrated, pouring all her effort into keeping track of the one thought she wanted Blixen to bring to the surface and make his own. It was something close to his own heart.

  “Well, mystic? Answer!” Mugrak was shaking Selena’s arm.

  With a sickening lurch Selena re-entered her body and looked around. Mugrak was glaring at her while Blixen leaned forward. All eyes were on her.

  “The warden has asked you a question,” Mugrak said through gritted teeth.

  “Yes, I am ready to cast for you,” Selena said, meeting Blixen’s gaze.

  “Good,” Blixen said. He rubbed his wrinkled chin. “I am giving you a challenge. Two months ago someone close to me was captured by the humans, who took her, along with others, to the city of Zorn. I accept that in all likelihood she is dead, but perhaps I should not be so certain. I want you to cast for me, mystic. Dead or alive, I want you to find my wife.”

  Mugrak opened his mouth to protest. “Great Blixen, even for her, to search inside the city . . .”

  Selena held her breath. She had encouraged Blixen’s natural desire to discover his wife’s fate, but the next part . . .

&nbs
p; “She will need to be closer to Zorn, yes,” Blixen said. “Which is why, Mugrak, you are to take her to where she needs to go. Be wary of the city guard. Your gift is appreciated. Use it to give me that which I want most.”

  Mugrak scowled, but he nodded. “Your will, Warden.”

  “And, Mugrak? I heard a rumor, something about a human girl-child. I trust it is not true.” Blixen’s voice became a low, ominous rumble. “The humans may murder our young, but we will not descend to their level.”

  A brief look of fear crossed Mugrak’s face. “Of course.” He dipped his head and gave something close to a bow.

  Selena experienced a surge of triumph. She had found a way to get herself far from the canyon, and the army of bax.

  Once she was close to the city, she just needed to once again find the mystic in the tower.

  This time, she would ask for help.

  20

  “It’s the city guard!” one of the refugees cried. “By the rains, we’re saved!”

  The men, women, and children watching the sky cheered, although there were some in the crowd who looked less ready to celebrate.

  Taimin watched the huge, birdlike creatures descend. He swiftly counted twelve of them. The creatures circled as they lost height, wings spread and legs visible underneath their lean, rust-colored bodies. They had narrow heads that tapered to jaws filled with sharp teeth. Dark eyes remained fixed on the plain below.

  Griff growled again, emitting the strange, low sound that ended each time with a whimper.

  “They’re riding wyverns,” Lars said in astonishment.

  Taimin had plenty of experience with wyverns. Despite his relief at finally making contact with someone from Zorn, part of him was unable to shake the thought that there was something menacing about the city guard, as if they were predators and the people on the plain were prey.

  Griff’s urgent growls became louder. Taimin glanced at the wherry and then returned to gazing up at the sky. The wyverns had been wherries at some point in their past, and had since transformed. It wasn’t impossible that Griff might make his own metamorphosis one day. But as it was, he was clearly afraid of his bigger, stronger cousins.