The Severed Realm

by Michael G. Manning

  “Just there? Doesn’t he move around?”

  “He said he doesn’t need to,” offered Matthew. “As far as I know, he’s still there, listening for ANSIS broadcasts.”

  “Shouldn’t we go get him?”

  Matthew’s face took on a look of concentration, then he answered, “Not yet.”

  “Why?”

  “Same as with my sister. Either she’s locked down the castle, in which case he’s safe, or she hasn’t, and they’ve taken him. If he’s safe, we might as well let him keep up his work. If he isn’t, we might just be kicking a hornet’s nest if we pop in suddenly. Waiting a week or two will reduce our risk. We may get more news in that time. I don’t want to make any reckless choices if we can avoid it. I’ll continue to keep watch here for a few weeks. If no one shows up, then I’ll do something,” said Matthew.

  Karen sat down next to him, then scooted over until their shoulders were touching. “You don’t act very upset, but I know you have to be worried sick. It’s ok to show it.”

  He took a deep breath. “Hopefully I won’t have to show it.”

  “Huh?” she said, nonplussed.

  “Because there’s only one way I can think of showing it right now. If my father’s dead, or Moira, I won’t get upset. I’ll get even,” he replied.

  “That isn’t ominous at all,” said Karen wryly.

  “It’s not ominous. It isn’t an omen. I don’t intend to give them any signs or warnings. If they’ve hurt my family, I’ll make those responsible pay for it,” said Matthew coldly. “By whatever means necessary.”

  Karen felt a cold chill run down her spine. Shaking herself, she stood up again. “I’m hungry. Want to go to the castle and eat?”

  “No,” said Matthew, shaking his head. “I have to stay here in case Elaine or my father show up. I’ll open the way for you. They’re serving porridge again today.”

  She shuddered. “Ugh.”

  “There’s dried mutton if porridge isn’t to your taste,” said Matthew, smiling slightly.

  “Pass,” said Karen. “I’ll go to Dalensa. I know a lovely inn there that serves the most delightful pastries.” As soon as she said the words, an idea came to her. “Actually, do you have any money?”

  Matthew shook a small purse that held a few coins. “Some.”

  “Give it to me,” she commanded.

  He sighed. “I knew this day would come. First you insist on sleeping in my room, now you’re taking my money.”

  “I’ll make you eat those words,” said Karen. “Literally.” Lifting her own purse, she shook it in his face. It was fairly bulging with coins. “I’ll buy as much as I can and bring it back for everyone. Your coins will just add to my noble sacrifice.”

  Matthew frowned. “Porridge is fine. We aren’t starving.”

  Karen laughed. “You are the oddest man I have ever known. Maybe you don’t care if you eat the same thing every day, but I know for a fact that most of the people in Lancaster are probably about ready to gnaw their arms off just for a change of pace. Besides, it isn’t healthy to eat one thing all the time.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’ll explain vitamins later,” said Karen. Plucking the purse from his hand, she vanished.

  ***

  It was a week later when Chad, Elaine, and Cyhan arrived. Matthew discovered them waiting outside the boundary when he opened it that morning. “Took you long enough,” he said dryly.

  “I’m glad to see you too, ya twat,” responded Chad. “It ain’t like I walked across half of Lothion to get here or anythin’.”

  Elaine pushed Chad aside. “Is there anything to eat? We haven’t had a decent meal in forever.”

  The hunter protested, “We had crow and wild onions fer stew last night, ya crybaby.”

  “Crows aren’t food,” said Elaine stiffly.

  “Says who?” asked Chad.

  Cyhan spoke up, “It needed salt.”

  “Everybody’s a fuckin’ critic these days. Next time I’m lettin’ both of ya starve.”

  The big knight gave him a flat look.

  “What?” said Chad. “I’m a hunter. You keep sayin’ the world is yer weapon or whatever, but the world is my damned stew pot, so ya’d best keep that in mind if we’re stuck in the woods again.”

  “As long as I never have to eat lotus roots or cattails again, I don’t care,” said Elaine, shuddering at the memory.

  Matthew finally stepped in to end the debate. “If you’d shown up a week ago, you might have been disappointed. All we had was porridge and dried mutton, but over the past week Karen has been making trips all over Gododdin to restock the larder. We had roast pig last night. I’m sure there’s still some in the kitchen if you can convince the cook to let you have it.”

  Chad grinned. “At this point I’d sell Elaine to him for a bit of pork.”

  Elaine sniffed disdainfully. “Thankfully, I’m not yours to sell.”

  But Chad ignored her, continuing, “Hell, a few more days and I’d pay to have Elaine cooked and just skip the pig altogether.”

  Matthew laughed. “What about Sir Cyhan? He’s got more meat on him.”

  “It ain’t about the meat, boy. It’s about the fat. This girl’s got plenty on her hips. Cyhan’s old and nothin’ but muscle. I’d probably break a tooth tryin’ to chew his gristly ass. A hunter learns to judge his prey. Trust me, she’d be better eatin’.”

  Elaine looked imploringly at Matthew. “Please tell me there are women at the castle. Another minute with these two and I’m liable to commit a crime.”

  Sir Cyhan glanced at Chad. “I didn’t do anything.”

  The woodsman shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I just gave her a compliment and you’d think I insulted her.”

  Chapter 45

  It’s impossible to overstate just how beautiful the world is when you can get up to an elevation that allows you to really see it. Nature is beautiful at ground level too, but from the sky, it’s an entirely different beauty, one that changes depending on altitude. Just above the tree tops, it’s still very close, but the horizon is visible in every direction. Farther up and the landscape starts to reveal its contours, and if you go even higher, the things that were previously details become part of the mixture of colors on what looks like a gigantic artist’s canvas.

  As I may have mentioned previously, flying is probably my favorite part of being a wizard, and on this day, I got to share it with someone new. Rose overcame her fear more quickly than I expected. Some people never do, as I had learned with Roland years before. Once we got higher and the ground seemed too far away to be a credible threat, her mouth opened up into an ‘o’ of wonder and awe, a feeling I could still appreciate despite how often I had seen the view.

  I took us as high as possible, using some of my strength to maintain a tight bubble of air around us. The coastline we had been on turned out to be just the edge of a massive landmass that went on seemingly forever, to a horizon that was now considerably farther away than it had been before. In the distance I could see mountains, though I had no way of knowing if they were related to the Elentirs or some entirely different range. Between us and the mountains was a verdant tapestry of forest and grasslands, occasionally broken up by rivers that glinted with reflected sunlight.

  The only bad thing was that in none of that impressive vista did I see anything that looked remotely like our dislocated destination, Lancaster. After several minutes of looking, I took us back down to a more tenable altitude, one at which I didn’t have to make a constant effort to keep our precious bubble of air from bursting and leaving us without anything to breathe.

  We headed straight inland at a ninety-degree angle to the coast behind us. It was a good bet that Lancaster wasn’t in the ocean, though it was perfectly possible that we weren’t even on the right continent. There was just no way of knowing.
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  The plan was to fly until we spotted something interesting, such as Lancaster, or night fell. We could afford to do that for a few days, assuming we found food and water. I figured that if we hadn’t found any sign of it after a week, we could just cross back over and if we were somewhere unknown in our own world, we would have to risk using one of the teleport circle destinations that I knew.

  I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do that, though. By now there was a very good chance that most of them were being guarded.

  As we flew, we saw vast herds of animals on the grasslands, and from that height it was impossible to see if they were as strange and ill-tempered as the other animals I’d encountered before. My default assumption was that they were, since almost everything else had tried to kill me thus far.

  I felt a vicarious pleasure watching Rose admire the landscape, and a boyish pride from showing her how fast I could fly, though I refrained from the blistering speeds I sometimes used when I was alone. It’s funny how the presence of just one person can turn even someone like me into a responsible person.

  In less than two hours, we were over the mountains and passing over a wide plain. It wasn’t all plains, of course, but a lot of it was. Still there was no sign of anything familiar, or even interesting. I had half expected to see shining metal everywhere, a testament to the presence of ANSIS, but from our vantage point it appeared to be just untouched wilderness.

  Another five hours and the plains still continued, but a new mountain range was beginning to show its head on the distant horizon.

  We were also thirsty and in need of some time on the ground to manage our more human needs. My bladder felt as though it might burst. So I took us down close to a river. The land nearest it was greener, thick with lush grass and small copses of trees.

  I was wary, though. Water is also a magnet for animals, and more importantly, for the larger animals that eat them. This time we didn’t encounter anything, but Rose wasn’t happy about my rules for waste elimination.

  “I can’t pee with you standing over me,” she insisted. “Go over there.”

  My response was short and succinct. “Spiders.”

  She frowned. “Do you sense any?”

  “No, but last time I missed them, and they killed several men before I could help them. And they were wearing armor and in the company of several mages and dragons. What if there’s something super sneaky here, like a giant, rabid ant-lion?” I warned her. “If I’m not close, you could be dinner before I could do anything.”

  She looked at me archly. “Do you really think there’s something here?”

  I honestly didn’t. I had been examining the area carefully, above and below ground, with a paranoid obsession that only comes to people who’ve been ambushed by monster trapdoor spiders, which I had. “There might be something I haven’t seen before,” I said. “You stay here and I’ll move to the other side of that bush.”

  “You can still see me with your magesight,” she pointed out.

  I let out a sigh of exasperation. “That’s been true for most of your time in Castle Cameron, as long as I was within a mile or two. I won’t be paying attention to your particulars, trust me.”

  “Very well,” she said, pointing. “Over there. And don’t talk. I’m going to do my best to pretend you’re miles away.”

  Another thought occurred to me. “One second. Let me make sure this bush isn’t carnivorous.” Brave beyond words, I shoved my arm into the shrubbery and shook it to see if it became enraged or would try to eat me. It didn’t. “Alright, I think you’re safe,” I told her.

  “You are ridiculous,” said Rose. “Go.”

  Contrary to my expectations, nothing terrible happened. Once our biological necessities had been taken care of, I used some of my power to levitate a portion of the river water, and then I heated it to boiling before allowing it to cool so we could drink it.

  Luckily, I still had a small pot stored in my pouches, so I left the remaining water there and then plucked some fish from the river for an impromptu lunch. I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty catching fish in that manner. As a boy, one of my father’s favorite activities had been fishing. He hadn’t gotten to do much of it, since he was kept pretty busy at the smithy, but whenever he had the chance, he would sneak off to the river and spend hours staring at the water.

  Some days he had brought home several; others he would get nothing for his effort. Remembering that, my use of magic felt like cheating. As always, though, I preferred to cheat than go hungry, and even the fish wasn’t enough to fill us up. A few more days of this and I’d probably start having dreams of vegetables.

  Chad Grayson had once told me something interesting. “At least half the plants you see are edible in some form or fashion.” I had asked him why we didn’t eat more of them, and his reply had been sternly pragmatic. “Because almost all of ‘em taste like shit.”

  Putting aside my yearning for carrots and onions, Rose and I returned to our journey into the unknown. As we got closer to the next mountain range, something began to stand out. A forest hugged the foothills and lower slopes, and in the midst of it, there was a tree that rose much higher than the others.

  As we drew closer, it soon became apparent the tree in question was a giant that dwarfed its cousins, and I had a sneaking suspicion it was no normal tree. It looked suspiciously familiar to some I had seen in my memories. It also looked much like the tree that had until recently been Tyrion’s body.

  “I think we’ve found civilization, of a sort,” I told Rose.

  She had been studying it as well and she asked, “Is that?”

  “It’s a She’Har elder,” I responded. “Unless I’m much mistaken.”

  “You told me they had gone extinct, except for Tyrion and Lyralliantha.”

  “That’s what I thought,” I said. “But it appears I was wrong. It’s just one tree, though, which means unless there are others that we can’t see, it can’t reproduce. I wonder how long it’s been stranded here?”

  “Seems strange to think of a tree being stranded,” commented Rose. “Since they don’t move. Can you tell if it’s male or female?”

  “Not without being much closer,” I answered. “I’d have to examine its—”

  “Don’t say it.”

  “—twigs and berries,” I finished.

  “It’s a miracle you managed to have children,” remarked Rose.

  I laughed, then returned to more serious matters. “I think I should get closer. See if I can talk to it.”

  “Doesn’t that take a lot of time?” she reminded me.

  Usually, yes, but I knew that at certain times the She’Har elders could speed their perception of time up to match our own. Generally, that only happened if you tried to set one on fire and it needed to defend itself, but there were other rare moments in which they did so voluntarily. Deep down, I had a feeling this might be one of those times.

  If asked, I couldn’t explain my feeling. Perhaps it was a premonition, or maybe it was some strange instinct passed down to me through the loshti, but I felt strongly that finding the elder wasn’t an accident.

  I was meant to be here.

  Naturally that triggered my paranoia. “Let me find a safe place for you,” I suggested.

  Rose gave me a hard look. “We’ve been over that.”

  “Rose, listen. A She’Har elder, while usually dormant from our perspective, is enormously powerful. If I bring you with me and it becomes hostile, I might not be able to protect you.”

  She looked thoughtful. “Could you kill it, if you had to?”

  I chewed my lip. “Maybe. Tyrion killed several, back in his time, but every situation is different.”

  “Well, it’s probably friendly anyway,” said Rose. “If things get out of hand, I’ll put my money on the deranged wizard that’s been doing the flying.”

 
Rather than argue, I gave up. We had been through so much lately that I just couldn’t imagine things getting any worse. We needed help, or at the very least, directions. The elder would probably be grateful to learn that some of its relatives survived, back on our side of the boundary. Also, my strange feeling of intuition was urging me forward.

  We flew on, and as we got closer, the smaller trees thinned out, until they left a small clearing around the base of the She’Har elder. I was also able identify its type.

  The She’Har are not a single race, as I had once assumed before examining my memories. They were in fact five separate species of the sentient trees. Once we were close enough, the shape of the branches was enough to tell me this was an Illeniel tree.

  My feeling of anticipation grew, and a strange sense of déjà vu came over me. We landed just beneath the edge of its massive canopy and began to walk closer. Almost immediately, I felt the presence of a powerful mind.

  I had thought I would need to go all the way to the trunk. If it had been in its normal state, I would have, but this elder was awake and aware of us. I could feel its attention focusing on us.

  The seed has returned, and with it the time of beginnings arrives.

  Not the most auspicious of greetings. I filed the phrase away. It might come in handy the next time one of my children came home after doing something stupid. I have news from the other side of the boundary, I responded.

  Come closer, that we may be joined, said the Elder.

  I frowned. Sorry, I’m not in the mood. We can talk just fine at this distance.

  There was no warning. The danger sense I had only lately begun to trust failed me completely. The elder’s mind fell on me like an avalanche. It was massive, powerful, and all but irresistible.

  But if there’s one thing I had had plenty of experience with, it was dealing with things that were supposedly irresistible. I had earned the name ‘godslayer’ for good reason. Strengthening my shield, I took my staff and used the tip to draw an impromptu circle around us. Then I used that as the foundation for a much stronger shield.

  Rose was already unconscious, and the sight of her collapsed at my feet made me angry, which helped to bolster my native stubbornness. I put as much of that as I could into my shield, but it still wasn’t quite enough.