Descent Book 1: Descent from Man

by Phil Geusz

The world absolutely flew by as I hopped over the levee and raced along the edge of the overgrown area on the earthen mound’s far side. I made a few spy hops to make sure the coast was clear, then swerved out into the open where I could move faster. My car loomed up out of the darkness, and I skidded to a halt in the gravel. The Dart seemed much larger to me now than it had when I’d parked it. The slab-side of the vehicle towered over me like a cliff-face. My plans called for driving Tallismane out, since she couldn’t run. But now I wasn’t sure that I could even get into my car, much less drive it!

  I hopped around the Dodge in frustration, seeking a low point. But the vehicle’s body rose straight and sheer above me on all sides. Rabbits aren’t built to climb. For the moment, I was defeated.

  Defeated! The word tasted like ashes in my mouth. I would not be defeated, I swore to myself, would not let Tallis be taken without a struggle! I pummeled the ground once more, thumpthumpthump!. I’d overcome so many difficulties since being cursed, done so many things that I was supposed to be unable to do. Surely I could leap one more hurdle!

  Leap? Hmm…

  Just how high could I leap, anyway? I’d not had much time to experiment. I flexed a hindleg experimentally; it felt like a coiled spring. The car seemed awfully tall, but perhaps I was strong enough to do it anyway?

  The clock was ticking, and there wasn’t a second to lose. Once more I raced around the Dart, trying to figure out where the best place to land might be. That’d be the trunk lid, I decided, the same route by which I’d left the car. Not allowing myself too much time to mull things over, I hopped a short distance down the gravel road to allow for a takeoff run, then turned and gave it the works. The wind sang in my ears, my pulse throbbed, my body thrust ahead like a perfect machine…

  …until my left hindfoot slipped in the treacherous gravel! It happened at the worst possible moment—there was a dull thud as my head rammed up against the unyielding chrome bumper, then everything went black.

  I was lying on my side when I came to. My head was still ringing with the impact, and at first I couldn’t move a muscle. Eventually my eyes opened; it was still dark. I’d not been unconscious very long, then. Rather queasily, I rolled over onto my belly and shook the gravel out of my fur. The motion drove a red-hot iron into my right cheekbone. Most likely it was broken; my eye was swollen nearly shut. I stood up, then hopped back and forth a little to see what else might be broken. Everything worked except my head, which simply wouldn’t clear. It’d be wonderful, I decided, to lay down under the car and take a nice nap. I’d just closed my eyes when an elf-horn sounded in the distance. The single sweet note brought everything back to me. Tallismane! I had to go get Tallismane!

  The swollen knot on my face was growing bigger by the second, and the sick feeling in my stomach was no laughing matter either. But I knew what had to be done, so all that was left was for me to force myself to do it. Once more I hopped a short distance away from the back end of my car, then turned and raced towards it! No! a voice that should’ve been strange and alien but somehow wasn't cried out in my mind. Stop! Hurthurthurt! Confused, I broke off my run and skidded to a halt. What was I trying to do to myself, anyway? I might die if I rammed into the bumper again! Then I cursed my weakness, took a few steadying breaths, and tried again.

  Leap, leap, LEAP! This time my toeclaws found good traction and I rocketed skywards. My chest caught the lip of the rear deck, but the momentum was enough to lift me the rest of the way. There wasn’t much time for self-congratulation, however. I laid there with my shattered cheek pressed up against the cool gray metal for a few seconds; it felt very nice indeed. Then it was time to get going.

  Form there, getting into the driver’s seat was a piece of cake, and the bucket seats only made it easier. Then I was behind the wheel and ready to go! With a smile marred only by massive swelling, I stood up proud and tall behind the steering wheel and placed my paws on the spokes. But soon enough the grin faded. There was something terribly wrong. I was in my car, yes, forepaws on the wheel just like always. Everything was perfect, absolutely everything.

  So why on Earth wasn’t I going anywhere?

  I shook my head again; thinking was hard! So long as I was running away from people or figuring out how to get places, my mind was all right. Which made sense—these were the sorts of activities one expects from a rabbit and therefore I’d never entirely lose the skills involved. But as for everything else…

  I wailed in fear and frustration. Damnit, I’d forgotten how to drive! The thing I loved most in all the world! Desperately I looked around the inside of the car, trying to remember. My head throbbed, and I grew more and more confused as I took in one meaningless control after another. Only the steering wheel made sense; I remembered it well enough. You turned it left or right. Experimentally I leaned on the spokes, but it wouldn’t budge. Oh no! It wasn’t working! Did I remember wrong? Had I lost everything? I wailed again at the injustice of it all, then scowled and got back to work.

  Looking down, I saw that there were feet-thingies too. I hopped down into the footwell and studied them. They were black and hard and very important somehow; that much I was certain of. I tried to count them, but it was no use. My brain wouldn’t go there at all anymore. I stamped my foot, then grabbed the biggest lever-thingie in my teeth. I shook it vigorously, determined to make the nasty thing give up and submit to me. The sticklike-object sort of flopped back and forth…

  …and as it did, the odd motion helped me remember something! The big lever on my right had to move at the same time that the far left foot thingie was pressed down. A living body can sometimes remember things, Uncle Andy had explained to me once, long after a damaged brain has forgotten them. Physical reflexes are every bit as much imprinted into the nervous system as other memories. We’d temporarily regained some of my algebra skills that way back in the very beginning.

  I’d just recently lost my driving skills, right? Therefore the technique was at least worth a try. I sat down behind the wheel and tried to remember my trip earlier in the evening. I’d gone fast around an extra-sharp corner once; it was a happy memory. Coming out of the turn I’d…

  My right leg jerked. I’d stepped on the right-hand thingie to go faster!

  Well, this was a promising beginning! Already the Dart seemed much less mysterious and threatening. Any moron could drive a car, it seemed, even a bunny rabbit. All I had to do was figure out how to jigger the pedals…

  This was easier said than done. I knew from my memory fragment that the far right pedal had to be pressed down in order to go forward, but there was no way that I could stretch far enough to reach it while also holding onto the wheel. Eventually I found an old plastic coffee cup under the seat and wedged it into place so that the pedal stayed down all the time. It wasn’t quite all the way down, because the cup wasn’t big enough. But it was pretty close. That might be enough, maybe.

  Then I took the key into my mouth and twisted it; everything was coming back to me now! “Rrr-“ the engine said, but as it did so the Dart lurched drunkenly forward. I’d done something wrong again. It was all so confusing! How could I have possibly ever enjoyed driving? You had to be a genius to figure all this stuff out!

  I breathed deeply a couple times to calm down, then searched my memory for another time when the car had lurched forward like that. It wasn’t easy; but eventually I found one. It’d happened the day I drove my car home for the very first time. I closed my eyes and smiled; the sense of pride and joy where overwhelming! The floorboards were full of rusty holes, the windshield was cracked, and the top in rags. But I was in love, love, love with my rare find! Slowly I'd crept up to a traffic light. Everyone stared at me, as much due to the white bunny ears as the ratty old wreck of a car. I was nervous at all the attention. The light turned green and I'd moved my left leg much too quickly. The car had bucked and jerked…

  That was it! It was the thingie on the left! The bucking and jerking had something to do with the left pedal! Despera
tely I searched under the seats for another coffee cup or something to jigger that pedal too. But there wasn’t anything! What was I going to do?

  Well, I could sit on it, couldn’t I? Somehow the solution felt right. Once I got the noisy-thing going maybe the car would start moving and I’d be okay. It was a long and awkward reach, but eventually I found a way to hold the pedal down with both feet while turning the key with my mouth.

  “Rrr,” the Dart said. “Rrr-Rrr-Rrr BAROOOOOOOOOOOM!”

  Oh, no! It wasn’t supposed to do that! The sound was much too loud, much too noisy! And scary too! It was going to blow up! Terrified I leapt up into the driver’s seat to bail out…

  …but as soon as my weight came off of the pedal the Dart’s tires scrabbled madly for purchase and the car surged forward so quickly that even I couldn’t have kept up with it! The Dart had gone mad!

  “BAROOOOOOOOM!” my car continued to scream. We were already moving much too fast for me to jump out. Desperately I swung around in the seat and tried to get the raging monster under control. We were drifting off of the gravel road to the left; instinctively I twisted the wheel and straightened us out. The spokes turned easily now; maybe my crazy plan might still work! The levee loomed up in the darkness; despite my shattered cheek I grinned as we flew up the steep slope. Going fast was an awful lot of fun! But then the fun ceased as the Dart and I flew over the top of the mound. We were going too fast! Much, much too fast! And I hadn’t the faintest idea of how to slow us down! With an elegant grace that belied its age, the heavy old convertible sprouted wings for a moment and flew. I floated, floated, floated above my seat…

  …then came crashing down as gravity reasserted itself and we slammed hard into the gravel. I was slammed to the floor and everything went black again, just like when I ran into the bumper. But this time I was only out for an instant. I clambered my way back up into the seat and took command once more. Everything seemed all right for a second or two, then I realized that the noisy-thingy was much quieter and we were slowing down! I ducked down under the dashboard again; the cup had been knocked out of place. I started to put it back, then realized that I needed to slow down soon anyway so Tallismane could get in. The trailer was just ahead; I’d pick her up, then drive her straight home. Wouldn’t her parents be surprised and happy to see her?

  There were elves all over the place, but their horses didn’t like my Dart very much. And neither did they. They scattered like leaves before me. I honked the horn at them a few times—how could anyone ever forget about the horn?—and some of the horses went crazy. But there were still a few elves standing where I needed to stop. I pointed the Dart right at them, and they turned and ran as well. Probably it was a good thing that they did. I might actually have been able to hit them.

  Tallis climbed out of the ditch at the sound of my horn, bless her. She was such a smart girl! I rolled the car up beside her and then hopped down to sit on the left pedal-thingie again. The gnome climbed in as I wedged the coffee cup back into place. “BA-ROOOOOOOOOOOM!” my Dart roared in anger. But this time instead of being afraid of the noise, exhilaration filled my heart. Nyah, nyah, nyah, elves! I’m faster than you all! The back tires spun and caught, and once more my car exploded into motion.

  I was going fast again, maybe even too fast. Did the Dart only have two speeds, too slow and too fast? And, I suddenly realized, I was headed in the wrong direction at that! The main road was behind me. Who knew where this little by-way might lead? Into a dead-end, most likely. Well, there was nothing for it but to find out. The more distance between us and the elves before we ran out of road, the better. I turned towards Tallis and grinned. “Are you all right?” I asked her.

  “Yes, but…” She looked uneasily down the road.

  “But what?” I asked.

  “My Mommy never drives so fast on little roads like this!” she said.

  My ears were flapping in the breeze and I’d just successfully faced down a whole troop of elvish hunters. Nothing could faze me anymore! “Rabbits go fast everywhere,” I explained. “It’s just how we are.”

  “Oh,” Tallis replied. But she sounded unconvinced somehow.

  I wanted to explain further, but suddenly I ran out of time to talk. A turnoff appeared, but it was closed off by a very solid-looking gate. Most of the traffic took the turnoff these days, it was clear, because the supposed “main” road I was following began to decay rapidly. Then it petered out altogether, and without any warning at all I was barreling through the main body of elves, all packed up and ready to move camp. There were elf-women and horses everywhere! Most were screaming and some ran about hysterically as I slewed and dodged my speeding car right through the thick of things. By a miracle I missed them all. Once we were through them, things opened up a little. The ground was grassy and fairly level, except for one large rectangular patch of weeds marked off at the corners by stacks of cement blocks. This was where the mobile home had until recently been situated, I reckoned. Giving that area a wide berth, I wrenched the Dart around until we were bearing down upon the harried elvish baggage train once again. The women had mostly cleared out, but the animals were still running amok. Silly creatures; didn't they know that rabbits always circle back? This time I clipped a laden donkey, though not too hard. It hee-hawed in rage, but seemed unhurt.

  Then we were barreling down the gravel road again, practically flying. I looked over at Tallis and smiled, but the child remained frightened. Well, I reasoned, she’d been through a lot.

  Then something struck the windshield and ricocheted upwards off of the angled glass. An arrow! Another shaft came flying out of the darkness, and another and another. But I couldn’t see where they were coming from! How could I dodge what I couldn’t see? My left forepaw twitched, and I remembered the headlights. Cars had lights on them so you could see things at night! I reached out and pawed at what I thought was the correct thingie, but the wipers switched on instead. Cursing, I tried again. But they only went faster. Finally, however, I hit the right switch and the whole field lit up as if the sun had suddenly risen. The Dart had really good headlights, I remembered now that I saw them. I’d paid lots and lots of money for extra ones. The elves ceased fire and grabbed at their eyes in pain. Before they could recover I was past them.

  Now that the lights were on, I could see that the mobile home was just ahead. We were almost free!

  Then a sparkling light appeared near one corner of the building, and something slammed into my car. The light blinked again, and two more blows shook the Dart. It was a shooter gun! We were being shot at!

  Elves? I asked myself. With shooter guns? That simply couldn’t be!

  There wasn’t much I could do about it, though, except keep right on going. We’d either make or we wouldn’t. “Get down!” I commanded my passenger. “Hide, Tallismane! Find good cover!”

  More bullets slammed into the car, and I hunched down as low as I could in the driver’s seat. White smoke began to curl back towards me from the loud-thingie. It smelled funny, but it was smoke, sure enough! A fire! Oh no! We were in trouble now! The flashing light blinked again, and this time I could hear the shooter-gun over the car’s moving-noise. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but we couldn’t get away if were on fire! And shooter-guns were bad things; if the elves used them we couldn’t even run! So I bared my teeth and swerved towards the gunman. “Eat him, Dart!” I commanded. “Eat him!”

  The elf stood his ground and fired again, even though the car must’ve seemed like the end of the world to him. But the bullets did him no good. My Dart was big and heavy and strong; he’d need a much bigger shooter gun than that to kill it! Too late, the elf realized I was right and tried to duck away. I swerved and slammed square into him; it was a terrible blow! But he had his revenge. I’d been so intent on feeding the elf to the Dart that I failed to look beyond him. The corner of the mobile home was looming up quickly. Oh no! I cranked the wheel, but it was too late. We slammed into the siding…

  …and br
oke right on through, noisy-thingie still screaming and splinters everywhere! The blow knocked me down into the footwell; by the time I climbed back up the Dart was in trouble again. We were headed for the ditch! I tried to turn us away, but the wheel wouldn’t spin that way anymore. The go-noise was louder and angrier than ever, but this time the Dart was finally beaten. First we ripped through the brush, then the front of the car dipped down and we stopped. The car jittered and shook and the roar went on and on, but we were snared. Reflexively I turned off the key, then collapsed onto the console. It was over. The Dart was wrecked, I was in no shape to run and hide, Tallismane would be recaptured and caged. I groaned in agony…

  …and the brightest light I’d ever seen in my life stabbed out of the sky and struck me full in the face.

  “DON’T MOVE!” a powerful voice from the heavens cried out. “YOU’RE UNDER ARREST. STAY WHERE YOU ARE!”

  It was a police helicopter, probably responding to all the racket. Shooter-guns made lots of noise, and for that matter so had my Dart. The cavalry had come! But was it in time? There were still plenty of elves about…

  “Tallis!” I croaked. “Tallis! We have to go hide just one more time. Ready?”

  I was answered only by silence.

  “Tallismane?”

  Oh, no! I sniffed the air, trying to penetrate the funny-smelling smoke that was masking everything. Now that I was making a deliberate effort, I scented blood. A lot of blood! I hopped down into the passenger-side footwell. Tallis had taken shelter there, but too late. A bullet had found her neck, and even as I watched a jet of blood squirted from the wound.

  “No!” I whispered, looking around for something that might help. But there was nothing. The helicopter was still circling, and I could hear a siren in the distance. Help, however, would arrive far, far too late.

  There was only one course left open. I pawed at the wound and examined it with care, then flopped the young gnome over and studied the exit point as well. My eyes might not have the capacity for detail they’d once had, but what remained was enough to allow me to open the inner eye that was my birthright.

  Someone moaned in the distance. Probably the elf I’d just run down. But I didn’t have time for him or any other stinky old elf just then. If they wanted to kill us, let them. I was busy!

  A nearly-forgotten inner ecstasy began to swell inside me. This was what I'd been born for, not hopping across fields! Mentally I spun and wove the mana that lay latent inside me, shaping it until it was a perfect fit for Tallismane’s wound. Magic is easy to learn but difficult to master. Almost anyone with the Gift can perform a healing spell, but the inexperienced consume huge amounts of Power along the way. In advanced training a sorcerer learns how to conserve his strength by using incantations and wands and such as points of focus. But they’re not essential. Healing Tallis would’ve been beyond the abilities of almost any other living mage denied the use of focus-points. The amount of mana required was tremendous. But I was rich in mana, even richer than my father had been. If I was willing to use everything I had, I could save this little girl.

  And that was exactly what I was going to do, cost what it might.

  I closed my eyes and laid one forepaw on each side of the gnome’s neck. Then I smiled as the beauty of it all—Life, Power, Joy—washed through me like a crystal-pure stream. I poured myself into Tallismane’s wound, healing and blessing and loving her every fiber, for a true healing merited no less. Then she was safe and no longer bleeding, and I was finally face to face with my ultimate fate. For now my full and complete cursing was finally at hand.

  Straining with the effort, I prolonged the healing spell for as long as I could—I’d pay the price only after it was finally complete. There could be no miraculous escape. Nor did I deserve one. I’d come to this place hoping deep down to find a bullet, but instead the bullet had found someone else. Therefore it was fitting that I should balance the scales. If I were destined to become a beast, at least this way I wouldn’t decay by tiny measures and spend months grieving over what was forever lost. Not that rabbithood was the worst of all possible fates, I mused. I’d done pretty well for myself as a rabbit, hadn’t I? It could be worse, I reassured myself as the mana ran thinner and thinner. It could be worse…

  “Who are you?” a deep voice asked me out of nowhere. “I would know your name.”

  I looked up, startled almost to the point of losing the spell. “Hail, Henst!” I replied in the manner of the elves, though sadly not in their tongue. The renegade was busted up something terrible; it was a miracle he was even able to stand. His head streamed blood, and his left side was half caved-in. But the shooter-gun remained firmly grasped in his good hand. “Come to finish your work?”

  “No,” he replied, dropping the shooter. “Our contest is over, and I’m the loser. My goal was never to kill you, so there’d be no point. I’ve come to learn the name of he who has bested me. Will you do me the honor?”

  I released a breath I’d not realized I was holding. Odd, how one clings to life even when a clean death is something to be coveted. “You might yet live,” I pointed out. “Modern medicine does wonders. And you know many valuable things. Why are elves suddenly carrying guns and using computers, Henst? Why do you kidnap, when you could earn far more by working alongside the rest of us? For that matter, why must the struggle between our peoples go on and on, when everyone else would gladly see it end? You might become a bridge between humans and elves, Henst, and do elfdom a far greater service by living than by dying.”

  Henst smiled bitterly. “You humans are weak. You believe in nothing!” The big man bent over double in a spasm of pain, then stood stonily erect once more, face hard and expressionless. “I could easily kill you. Yet instead I do you honor by asking your name. Will you not give it to me?”

  I nodded, feeling the last vestiges of mana depart from me forever. “Then hear me well, Henst, and if you chance to live long enough I ask you to share my name far and wide. For I am Crown Prince Gregory of the House of Lombard. My father was Gustavus the Powerful, and my mother is Guild Queen Clara, long may she reign. I’m proud of both my family and my heritage. Others must judge whether or not I lived up to my bloodline, though I know in my heart that I gave my all. I go to face my curse now, Henst, and here at the last I find myself both unafraid and unashamed. Please tell my family and especially my mother that I love them, and that they filled my last thoughts.”

  Henst was confused, which was understandable enough. But I had no time left to explain. As my body began its final shift I accepted that I’d never know who’d cursed me or why, would never discover why the elves were selling Nothing Powder, wouldn’t live to know if someday the fair folk might learn to live in peace with the rest of us. In story and fable there always comes a summing up, an ending satisfying to the mind. But reality was different from fiction, I now understood. And if I regretted anything, that was it. For here I was at the very end, with a hundred things left undone, a thousand mysteries unsolved, a million potentials unfilled…

  Then the curse struck me like a tidal wave. My body, my mind, even my soul twisted and writhed and became something else. “No!” I tried to scream, though the word came out as a wail. I fought as hard as I could, trying to hold onto what remained of myself. It was hopeless, of course, and perhaps even foolish for the extra pain that it caused me. But the most important battles are always the ones you cannot win. “I am Prince Gregory!” I declared as my mind melted. Nameless fears tore at my heart, but I would not let them win! Not even now, when there could be no more shame. “I am Prince Gregory,” I declared as Henst bore witness to my passing. “I am Prince Gregory. I am… I am…

  "I…

  Also available from Legion:

  Corpus Lupus

  Transmutation NOW!

  Wine of Battle

  Novellas:

  A Left-handed Sword

  Lagrange

  The David Birkenhead Series

  Ship’s Boy
r />   Midshipman

  Lieutenant

  Commander

  Captain

  Commodore

  Admiral