Across the Kolgan Sea

by Benjamin R. Babst

  “Oh yes, the giant one would be the good addition to it.”

  So it would seem there were Agrians that were also here, no doubt they were with Feljust. Especially with that comment about “the giant one.” No doubt they also meant Ahrad had scared them off for good and they were too lazy to chase that big of a party.

  The svartalfar searched the area, I presumed for Ahrad if they knew he had to be within sight. The confident of the two was prowling around the other side of the river while the other was on my side. “Where is the alf?” it muttered to itself as it struck the air and trees around it. “I want to start a collection of my own.” It drew nearer to me and I tried to scoot away as it became clear my fake bush would be next. I looked back at Ahrad, hoping he could see my anxious look.

  He forced himself to stand up, but he had to stay bent and clench his stomach with his arm. With the free arm, he waved his wand once again. This time, there was no flash, just a copy of Ahrad that appeared at the top of the hill. “Up here,” it shouted.

  “Is it the real one or the other illusion?” It hesitated just before it struck me.

  “I don’t know, and it’s too hard to tell. Just continue to search the area.”

  “But what if it is the real one?”

  “He must then be trying to get us away from something else.” The two then went into arguing over what they should do, the one beside me wanting to give chase, the other more cautious. As they bickered, Ahrad dropped his gambantein and reached for the sword. He lurched over to the smarter of the two and thrust his sword into its throat.

  I leapt out at the other one just before Ahrad had told me to do that very thing. It grabbed ahold of me and tried to pry me off, but its attention was drawn to the crony that gave a death wail for the mere moment before its throat was run through.

  “Three alfar?” it asked cluelessly. I gave it two punches to silence it, one to the gut and another straight to the face.

  “Dumb thing,” I said disdainfully. It didn’t stay down by itself. Rather, it groaned and coughed, but it stood on its hands and knees. Before it could get up all the way, I gave a few swift kicks to the stomach and continued until he stopped moving.

  I turned around and checked on Ahrad. “Are you all right?”

  He guffawed. “All right? Of course. I may have a stab wound that goes straight through my stomach and maybe cracked my spine, be bleeding so much that the snow around me is melted, and have several vital organs pierced, but I’m fine.” He coughed and collapsed on the ground. “By any chance, could you get me some timber?”

  I smiled and nodded. As I picked up some branches on the ground, he swayed and he began to fall onto the ground. He was losing consciousness from blood loss, and I knew I had to do something. He had to keep himself busy or he’d die. I rushed over with the timber I’d gathered so far and placed it in front of him. “Will this do? I know it’s kind of faint, but will it do?” I talked to him to make sure he had something to focus on.

  He picked up a piece and squinted at it. “I can close up my wounds with this much—I think, but I’m really going to need some more to be safe.” He looked up and after searching for a bit, he pointed to a tree with a very plump branch (though it was more like he flopped his arm in that direction). “That one should be good.”

  I went over and tried to pull it off. “So, it was a good thing that I came when I did, wasn’t it?”

  The faint glow of healing magic cast over the tree as Ahrad drew the tree’s life into himself. “I guess it was. Might have…done the same thing as I did now. I just wouldn’t be having you to help me recover. They ruined the fun of my job today though. They went and decided to attack the woodsmen I was trying to scare off. Of course…that Feljust fellow was also there. He was a real challenge. I tried to scare them off by making it look like the woods were on fire, but that didn’t work on him. Oh, what did he do? He smiled. I think, he even walked into the fire to prove it was harmless. Funny man that Feljust, and not in a good way.”

  “That is interesting.” I responded, unsurprised by the remark about Feljust, but amazed by his lack of belief in Ahrad’s trick. His illusions were the best of all the alfar I’d met. All others just couldn’t make them as vibrant or move as naturally as Ahrad could, and those who could, needed hours of preparation to pull off even one. Admittedly, a lot of that came down to Ahrad’s gambantein, which had years of illusions locked within it.

  I wiped my hands on my pants to get bits of bark and that stabbing feeling off. This branch was too large and too firmly attached to the tree to let go. It occurred to me I could maybe just break it off by making it explode just a bit. I wrapped my hand in my sleeve, covered my face with the other arm, and grabbed back on. The life of the tree pinched off as I commanded and it fell to the ground with a large pop and crack. I picked it up and said, “Okay, I got—” I froze when I turned around. There, looming over Ahrad was a ranis, and Aegir stood at human stature and used his elongated claws as a leash. The bear blinked hard and struggled to stay in one place. It probably hurt too much to move with Aegir’s claws dug into his neck and legs like that. “Ahrad, I know you’re tired and weak, but you have to move.”

  The elderbear grunted and Ahrad turned to look at it. “I don’t see any need to worry, it’s just a—” Ahrad’s confidence in the peaceful nature of elderbears was proven false as it made a mighty swipe and knocked him to the ground. Aegir flexed his fingers and the ranis moved to accommodate, breaking the ice on the river and dragging Ahrad into the water.

  “No, you’re not taking him,” I shouted. Without any time to lose, I ran at the giant with the branch held as a club. I swung at him, but I didn’t even succeed in making his grip on the elderbear waver. Like he were made of fog, he just vanished where the wood passed through and curled back into that position.

  “What’re you doing there? I’m in danger here,” Ahrad shouted just before the ranis pushed his head under the water.

  Ahrad was unable to see what I saw, another clue he was an illusion. That elderbear was not a hallucination, however, that was certain. Recovering my stance, I leapt at it, the spear claws rippling away as the hit landed. It didn’t care about what was thumping it on the back, it just continued to do as Aegir forced it to do.

  I looked at the branch, terrified that there seemed to be nothing I could do. These beasts’ hides couldn’t be pierced by the mundane. What was I expecting to do with a stick? I looked at its face again and saw that it looked terrified at what was happening as well, but worse was the way it began to moan from the pain and inability to resist the power of a god. What I had to do became clear. Not only did I have to save my friend but I also had to put that poor thing out of its misery. And the way I was going to do that was through that mournful gaze of its.

  I replaced my heart with a svartalfar as I sharpened the broken end of the branch by magic. Now holding it by the pointed end, I leaped onto the ranis’ back and drove the spearhead into the eye. It cried even louder now, and I could tell it was fighting even harder to get off Ahrad and the weapon; a warm and wet feeling soaked from its neck into my pants as it struggled.

  A few tears of remorse formed as I prayed to Freyr and to all the Aesir, the gods of war, for aid. Despite how painful it was for me to do, I pulled up on the spear while it was still in the socket. It gave one final shout before it collapsed onto Ahrad dead.

  As soon as I pulled the spear out, I got off the remains and tried to push it off him. The noise of something retracting rang through my ears, and all strength in my arms faded. “What you care for has been dragged to my hall,” Aegir spoke. He looked down on me, a look showing arrogance, but surprisingly, pity, painted onto him. The only other thing he did was shake the blood off of his claw and then turn and walk away. The snow and fog swallowed him.

  I returned to the bear. I was too scared to push it off anymore. Blood was flowing from the leg in front of me, so at least in some respect, Aegir was truly here and w
as influencing things. I beat myself in the chest. What was I doing thinking of things like that at a time like this? Ahrad was dead and there was nothing I could do. It was bloody, but I dug my face into the ranis’ fur to cover my tears.

  There came a small spark and a faint ripple of light came out of his hand. Forms shimmered themselves into existence. Some were the forms of a human-like creature, but with a dull gray hue and wraith-like, and others like some kind of large snowflake falling from the sky. The trees started to fade away, not vanishing entirely, becoming only slightly transparent, like gemstones. There were many of these shadows flickering around in the distance. Their forms all merged together into a massive ring of vague mist around me and two of them stood prominently in the center, dancing gracefully.

  One of the faces on the leading pair, however, had a distinct shape to it, so clear and so crisp it seemed more realistic than anything ever before. It was the face of an alf maiden, teeth shining like the first pearls ever made, eyes with a richer hue of gold than even the ring, Andvaranaut. The only blemish, if one could call it such, on her was a single mole sitting between her eyes, serving to make the rest of her seem more perfect by being only slightly less beautiful from the rest.

  The dancing was familiar to me. I thought Ahrad mentioned something like this in alfar society in one of his many long, winding lectures on various forms of beauty. It seemed strikingly similar to an alfar wedding dance. “Could this be?” I thought to myself as I began to assume the snowflakes falling were intended to be flower petals. “No, it couldn’t be his, Ahrad didn’t seem like the marrying type.”

  “Seem” a word referring to the past that struck my heart and caused it to express its anguish for the dead by allowing all the pain from the fight to rush at me at once. My eyes were blurred by tears, whether it was out of remorse for Ahrad or from the incredible anguish I was in, I didn’t know, but I continued to look upon the half-finished mirage. The image slowly shrunk, the flickering shadows fading away, and then the foliage became solid in form again. The only things that remained when it all ended were the face of the fair maiden and a pinhole of light in Ahrad’s gambantein, both vanishing in a flash.

  “Poor Ahrad.” I shut my eyes. “His entire life was dedicated to the creation of great works, to be awakened from that dream by a death like this? I doubt he could have died a worse death than that.”

  The gambantein sparked and spat, dragging me from the heavenly vision. As it died down, all that was left of it was ash. The thought of who that lady alf was tormented me. Was she a lover? Or a friend? Whoever she was, she was of great importance to Ahrad. So great was her importance to him that he hadn’t finished creating his master piece because he dwelt on that one feature for so long.

  I didn’t have any hatred for the ranis, but I began to stab the thing through the entry wounds left by Aegir. I did this while crying and shouting repeatedly at no one, “I did all I could.”

  Chapter 8

  Ripples in the Water

  For days on end after that, I spent all my time as alone as I could. The alfar were kind enough to have taken me away from that scene, but I just sat alone in the cave by the lake. I never looked back at the water, just straight on at the wall in front of me. My time of dwelling on the trauma was over, but I still wanted to be alone as I contemplated it. Kaihar was kind enough as to allow me not to study in this time, if only because he was also grieving.

  There was a small bit of me that felt bad for how I was feeling, responding worse than my teacher like this. Kaihar was still able to talk to other people after that night. He cried when the elderbear was first rolled off, for the day afterward, and likely to himself on occasion, but I seemed to have completely shut down. Every now and then, I stood up and moved around, looked at the trees in the distance, but I never left this cave for anything.

  Having spent so long staring at that wall, the cracks and bulges in the rocks started to resemble actual things. Toward the top of the cave, one formation appeared like Aegir, with his claws barely peeking out of his beard, staring back at me. Every now and then, some of the red veins running through it made me think of Ahrad again. I couldn’t help but wonder if the alfar really did believe me when I say Aegir was responsible for this. Whether they considered the wounds at the base of all the elderbear’s limbs were evidence for it or not, they went about growing that ship faster. I wasn’t sure if I could make it back by sea anymore. If Aegir was truly intent on my death, no amount of sacrifice would appease him. The moment I embarked, a whirlpool would drag me down or a mighty wave would crush me on the shore.

  I wrinkled my nose, not because I smelled something bad, but because I didn’t. For the past month the alfar had been tanning that elderbear’s pelt, and now the smell of tanning was conspicuously gone. Perhaps they’d finished. It was around the time when the process would come to an end from what I could tell.

  “Um, Erland?” Alodia came from behind. I turned just a little bit and was careful to look up at her, as to avoid looking at the lake behind me. In her hands were a cup of water and a bowl of fried grasshoppers. She didn’t seem to look disgusted at the bowl this time, so I can only guess she had grown used to alf food. She placed the bowl and glass to my side and then sat down in front of me. I had to say, alf dress suited her very well. There was a delicate weave of greens, purples, and a splash of red to this particular dress that transitioned very smoothly into her bizarre skin tone.

  As I began to nibble at the food, she twitched her lip with reservation. “Erland, I knyow you are upset for your friend, as you’ve told me time and again you are fine, but don’t you think you have stayed hidden long enough?”

  I swallowed and rested my head on my fingers. “And can’t you be content to leave me be? The alfar have been fine with leaving me be for all of this time, why can’t you leave me to mourn as well?”

  “Because I am a human and I knyow this is nyot healthy for you to do. Erland, you must remember that a month vithout sleep is also normal for an elf. They are holding you to vhat they are used to, nyot to how you should respond. I’ve faced loss much vorse than you have nyow. This must come to an end. Ve vere nyot meant to focus on such depressing things for veeks on end.” She leaned forward, obviously deeply concerned. “Was she really trying to guilt me into standing tall?” I looked down at my meal, my appetite was gone. “It’s not working, obviously.”

  I shoved the dish away. “Nice going, now I’m not hungry.”

  “Nyow stop that,” Alodia rebuked me. “Vere you like this for longer vhen I left you at that tributary? Maybe it vas wrong of me to compare this to my losses in the past, but you too have been through much vorse. Ahrad was your friend for nyo less than a month, yet you act like your entire family has just died. Vhat is it that is truly upsetting you?”

  I clenched my teeth and tightened my neck as she now glowered down at me. How dare she compare this to my separation from my family. When I was upset from the shock of all that, it was for fear of if I’d ever return and concern for what they would do without me. It was merely the anxiety a sailor feels when nearing fog-covered fjords. I smacked my hand on the floor. However, the cup was knocked over by my feet and my attention was drawn to it for a moment. As the water flowed from the cup, it became a faint red and then became blood.

  A second thought entered my mind, one that made me think Alodia had something and moved the tenseness in my neck into my stomach as a nauseated feeling. One could say this was just a different portion of those same fjords. The alfar had given me hope and a sense of safety as I passed through that uncertainty; they’d accepted me into their home when I was hunted, they willingly set out to build a ship for me to go home in, their king even blessed me with the might to bring an end to this conflict. Now I’d put them at risk. One of them now has gone and faced a horrible death, and a good friend among them at that.

  “I suppose I’m afraid of the water.” I looked away from the water but still at the floor. “Aegir put
some horrible curse on me. Now I see things, terrible things in the water. I suppose I’m a little afraid that when I set sail, I’ll see nothing but those. That the wake of the ship will turn to blood and that dead fish will float to the surface of the water. That the sea monsters I’ve seen will stalk me all the way home, and I suppose I’m also afraid there will be nothing left when I’m home.”

  She looked me again in the eye, a frown and wide eyes on her face. “But those are just illusions. Aegir’s just making you see things. How do those have anything to do vith thinking your family vill be gone?”

  “Because of the second part of his curse. He said everything I care for would be lost. And worst of all? That it would all be on my head.” I stared down at my hands and flexed them. “I don’t know really, maybe I just haven’t felt like doing anything because I’ve been afraid. Whatever I do, I’m afraid it’s actually something foolish in disguise. Maybe I’ve just been scared into inaction.”

  Alodia smiled and laughed. “Is that all?” she asked almost rhetorically.

  I snapped back up to her. “‘Is that all?’ Didn’t you hear what I just said? Aegir cursed me with bringing the demise of everything I care for. For all I know, that might include you.”

  “Do you really believe you Shaloor are the only vones who knyow of the vays of Aegir?” She flicked her hand over at the sea. “To us, he is the bringer of rain and the overseer of celebrations. Vith vhat you’ve said about him, ve might knyow more about the sea giant than you do. Every so many years, prayers and sacrifices are given to him for rain. At these times, there is rumor he has much anger and hatred to the Shaloor and their many raids on our lands. Among those that speak with him, there is often mention of how he has svorn to svallow you all in his vaters. Despite all of this, I don’t think you have actually died yet.” She rested the cup back on its bottom. “Aegir likes to make large promises like that, but I haven’t yet heard of vone he has succeeded vith. Vhat makes you think this one is any different?”