“More descend from the mountainside, Nyrobie!” Carrie reached for a fallen branch. The staff-like weapon met an oncoming wolf’s skull with sickening results. Wounding creatures of the earth was unnatural and went against everything within her.
“Jerrek has returned, Carrie!”
“He is without him!”
Jerrek swiftly joined the women—his hands in front of him—he raised at least one hundred stones high above the three of them with nothing but his mind. The rocks remained suspended in the air briefly, before they shot toward the onslaught of approaching wolves, annihilating several in a disgusting scene of evisceration and dismemberment that had Carrie turning her head from the sight.
“Why are you not chasing the river, Jerrek? Where is he!”
“There was a fall, Carrie!” The panicked Jerrek looked about the bloody chaos as more wolves rushed to them from the trees.
“The wolves are not our only enemy this night. The forest is against us, entirely. Bears, great cats, and more creatures of the sky wish to end us as well.”
Even the roar of the approaching bear was not enough to snare her attention. “What fall, Jerrek? Where is he? I must get to him!”
“Behind you!” Rushing past her, Jerrek’s foot met a leaping wolf.
“Where is he!” Carrie’s scream was physically visible as it left her mouth. It rippled through the atmosphere, knocking her friends to the ground and sending their attackers flying from them. The trees closest to them swayed and rattled from her rage, massive ripples tore across the river top.
“It…it cannot be.” Nyrobie’s eyes were wide with disbelief as she stared from the ground.
“Charlie!” The second wailing sent the remainder of the wolves, as well as the approaching bear, high into the air—some pierced upon the branches, others crashed to the earth and their death or fell to the rushing waters. Hundreds of river stones tore through the air on her sorrowful screams.
“Nyrobie! Silence her!”
“Carrie! Please! You will kill us!” She looked to her friends, seemingly horrified from the ground below her. So deep and coursing was her grief that it conjured an emotion she was unfamiliar with. Carrie was not only angry—something dark had awakened within her—an ache.
As if the attacking animals suddenly awoke from a rage-driven psychosis, the surviving wolves eagerly fled the scene, leaving Carrie, Nyrobie, and Jerrek amongst a plethora of corpses.
“Carrie…look to me, my friend.” Jerrek cautiously approached.
“Silence, Jerrek! Nyrobie, can you reach him? Does his heart beat still?”
A tear escaping Nyrobie’s eye had Carrie on the verge of eruption. “Only now…his dreams are of you, Carrie. He will pass on while dreaming of you.”
“No!” The word tore from her throat, sending her friend and several more stones through the air. Nyrobie landed on her feet much further down the bank.
“Carrie!” Jerrek ran to her. “You must control it!”
Looking to Jerrek, Carrie collapsed in his arms. “Send me with him! Toss me to the river! I can’t exist without him! Not for all eternity! Not when I’ve only now regained him!”
“Carrie! Let us run with the river’s waters. Perhaps his heart beats still! You must control your gift.”
Shaking her head while pushing past him, she absorbed his words. “What…what gift?”
“Carrie…you possess the echo. If the council learns of this—”
“That’s impossible, Jerrek! That skill is ancient. There hasn’t been a member with such gifts since long before us. Such talk is the stuff of legends and myths. I’m young and have yet to learn of my skill.”
“Carrie.” He walked to her, embracing her. “Do you not see your destruction?”
She glanced about the scene, trees half uprooted, and the carcasses of several wolves adorned the broken branches high above them in a macabre and eerie scene.
“That matters not, Jerrek. I must reach him…let us run swiftly.”
Nyrobie—wide-eyed and seemingly fearful, approached cautiously.
“Carrie, my friend. Your gift is extraordinary…but if the council learns of its misuse—”
“I haven’t the time for silly words and talk of nonexistent gifts. I must go to him. Either help me or return to Evrastill.” She charged past them, preparing to run.
“We are forever at your side, Carrie.” Nyrobie walked beside her. “Let us find him.”
Chapter 7
He awoke to the smell of burning wood. His lungs ached and burned as he inhaled. Looking around without moving, he came to the conclusion he was in a thick sleeping blanket of some sort and that he was still outdoors. His aching body longed for additional heat.
He coughed as his gaze rested upon his clothing draped near the fire. It’s not a dream…it wasn’t a dream. Sitting up, he looked about the chilly scene—the morning hours had brought snow with them. He hadn’t seen a snowflake in decades, but now they fell all around him.
“Oh…easy there, Bubba. Here, you lay on back down.”
“Wha—” Attempting to talk produced a raspy, nearly inaudible voice—strained and burning.
A solid, heavily dressed and muscular man with a thick brown beard appeared, squatting down in front of Charlie. The man brought the top of the blanket over Charlie’s exposed shoulders and then pulled a stocking hat down further on Charlie’s head, covering his ears.
“You with me?” There was a genuine concern in the man’s eyes—he looked to be in his thirties and perhaps a hunter or woodsman.
Charlie merely nodded.
“I found you on the bank just there. Your lips was bluer than the Coors can mountains. You gotta nasty bite on your arm from some critter.”
“I…need my clothes.” His voice nearly failed him.
“Huh? Bubba your skeeters were froze solid. I wouldn’t recommend you puttin’ them bad boys on right about now.”
“I need to go.”
“I know ya do. My wife is on her way here now to take your butt to the hospital…you’re lucky you’re not dead, Bubba.”
“Charlie.”
“Charlie? My name is Austin. You relax, stay in that there sleeping bag and Brenda will be here soon to take you in to town.”
“No…please…I need to go.”
“You need to rest, Charlie. Hypothermia is serious, son.”
“Stop talking to me like a child…I’m more than twice your age.”
The man simply smiled and patted Charlie’s cheek with his gloved hand. “Please…lay back down and stay warm.”
The cold and fatigue had Charlie incapable of offering argument. He glanced toward the thick pillow on the ground below him and rested his head to it.
“Ny…Nyrobie…”
“Say what, Bubba?”
“I feel Nyrobie…in my head.”
“I’m sure you do, bud. Just relax and rest.”
Closing his eyes, he could literally feel Nyrobie within his psyche, as if she were physically there. Unsure of how such dynamics operated, he merely relaxed and allowed her full range of his current thoughts—hoping it would result in a reunion.
“Damn birds…”
Instantly Charlie’s eyelids flung open. He glanced about the snow-dusted evergreens to find them littered with grackles and blue jays. Their tiny eyes all peered down upon him.
“No.” Charlie returned to the seated position. “No.” Panic worked to resurrect within his battered, half frozen core.
“It’s okay…they’re scavengers.”
“Run.”
“What? Bubba, I don’t know if you hit your head or—”
“My name is Charlie, not Bubba, and we need to run away from here.”
“Okay…we will as soon as my wife gets here.”
“We need to go now.”
“You got no clothes, boy…balls’ll shrivel up to the size of peas if you come out that bag.”
“No…you don’t understand.”
“He certainly
doesn’t, does he…Charlie?” Appearing from the morning’s shadows was the man Charlie despised with every ounce of his being—the man that robbed him of a lifetime of beautiful sunsets and colorful springs. The man who took his sight.
“You…”
The man smirked—chuckling lowly as he approached. “Me.”
“Now…who the hell are you?” Austin stood between Charlie and the man.
The dark-cloaked man walked to Austin, extending his hand—not in a manner of greeting—but with all digits extended separately in an odd fashion.
“Are you responsible for Charlie’s accident? He could have died. You kids don’t need to be out here in the elements with your silly capes and—”
“Sshh.”
Charlie watched helplessly from the ground as the man placed his hand on Austin’s chest.
“Fear not, mortal child…only fade. No pain, only nothing.”
Seconds later, Austin collapsed to the ground—his opened eyes revealed a horrendous lifelessness—breathlessness on the snowy earth.
Charlie looked to the man in horror—he remained expressionless.
“You…you killed him? Why? He’s too young…save him!”
“Silence, Charlie. You killed him…not I. You moved my hand, I had no other choice but end him.”
“No! You…you didn’t have to do that!”
“Charlie…I feel your fear…please don’t be frightened, I will not bring you pain…only eternal slumber.”
“No! Please…I don’t wanna die like this.” The idea of never again seeing Carrie’s face had tears pooling in his eyes. His voice ceased as he looked away from the approaching executioner.
To Charlie’s surprise, the man sat next to him on the ground.
“You’re cold, Charlie.”
The tears streaming down Charlie’s cheeks were nearly painful—so frigid as they met the elements. Charlie merely nodded, looking past the man and to the trees and countless birds. He focused on the beauty of the scene rather than the terror. The sun was rising over the mountains, the snow was falling on the evergreens, and he was witnessing it all for the first time in seventy years.
“Tis an odd thing, Charlie, to find myself in such circumstances. To wish, with each fiber of my being, to ease your distress and mend your ailments, and yet I’m left with the unbearable task before me…to end you.”
Charlie shook his head softly, intentionally avoiding eye contact with his guest.
“You’re frightened…I feel it within you, Charlie.”
“Yes…I’m scared.”
“NoktakVu.”
A strange tingling sensation in the tips of Charlie’s fingers had him looking toward his hands. Seconds later, his hands, arms, lips, face and any other part of him that had previously been miserably cold…was pleasantly warm and cozy—as if he were sitting somewhere tropical.
“Better?”
Charlie filled his lungs completely—the scratchy ache was no longer there—his throat no longer stung and burned. The back pains and soreness were gone and the bite from the previous evening’s attack was absent too.
“I don’t understand. You make me comfortable…better…before you kill me?”
Charlie’s question didn’t gain an immediate response. The man looked around the scene and then his gaze rested on Charlie.
“Age…time…may produce an abundance of wisdom…but even an immortal of nearly five-thousand years may find himself perplexed. I do not wish to hurt you, Charlie…your fear brings me great despair…I do not wish to see you perish.”
“Then don’t…why do I gotta die? I been dying for years now…why can’t I live?”
“What choice have you left me, Charlie? Outside of Evrastill…and already your mindless ramblings have infected your fellow man’s ear with knowledge of our existence. That man…his death will forever affect me.”
Charlie offered a disgusted glance. “Oh, I’m real sorry for you…you’re not the one dead in the snow. All that man did was help me, and you killed him. You…whatever you are…are an awful waste of five-thousand years. You’re horrible.”
The man offered a low chuckle. “And you…you would risk the sanctity of my people? You would forsake the ancestors I walk still beside for some novelty idea?”
“You make me out to be a monster. If you’re the reason them birds turned against us…that nature turned against us—”
“My powers are mightier than the river beside you. Just like the river, they can bring life…or quell a beating heart. My powers can sway the intentions of the woodland dwellers, my bidding in turn is theirs. My powers are plentiful…the product is perfection, and I do not act alone.”
“There’s…there are more of you out here after me and them? If you’re so damn powerful, why do you need more than one of you to do what you’re doing?”
He looked to Charlie—seemingly unamused by the comment. “It isn’t necessity so much as desire. We wish to stop such putrid happenings. We long to restore our foundations to their former splendor. We will abolish the radical and despicable ideas that have degraded my people to this current state of sordid rancidness. We shall diminish and dispose of all that have opposed, even if that entails acting against every natural instinct within me. I must dispose of you, Charlie…and then Jerrek…Nyrobie—”
“No! That’s the talk of a mad man. What have they done so wrong? They’ve done nothing wrong!”
“The fact that Carrie walks freely after engaging in despicable acts with a human being is exactly why you must be disposed of! She knows not her full potential. Even now she pursues you. Co-mingling of our species is as foul and unnatural as necromancy or enticing a beast of the field to pleasure you!”
“What…what are you…look at me.” Charlie produced his hand, holding it next to the hand of the cloaked man. “I’m you. I’m not some dog or—”
“You are a mortal man.”
“But I don’t have to be…and you know that. If I go into—”
“The humans of Evrastill are but lowly parasites—their immortality is unnatural and reliant on their confinement. If not for the wholesomeness of their surroundings—the billions of life-maintaining, blue crystals of our kingdom, those humans would be dust. Your eyes will never see the blue beauty of Evrastill. You will never bask in its glory. Your age will never stand still under the power of the blue ambiance; rather, your time ends naturally with death…now. You will perish here today at the base of this mountain…you are human…you will die as a human in your own land.”
“Well…I’d say you stop flapping your gums and get it over. I’m just about done hearing your voice and I’m none too pleased that shit’s gonna be the last thing I hear before you put me under.”
“Ungrateful mortal.” He stood above Charlie. “Rise to me…and go in peace.”
“Just do what you need to do…but spare her. You got what you came for, let her go home.”
“That’s very noble, Charlie. You needn’t worry of Carrie’s wellbeing. She is destined for greatness. You feel you truly love, her?”
Peering up to the man, whose face displayed a puzzled look, Charlie sighed forcefully, nodding as he did so. “Yes. I love her more than I can put into words.”
“Charlie…human love is an expression…it’s more a fairytale than immortal beings residing in a mountainous kingdom for ages upon ages. Human love equates to violence, infidelity, and even war. Love to a human is just a word…the totaling factors of an evolution in animalistic instinct. Your time with Carrie produced not the bond necessary to embrace all eternity—”
“We are bonded.”
The man chuckled once more. “Again…another word you shall never truly grasp, my mortal son.”
Charlie clumsily stood, ensuring his covering remained secured upon his shoulders.
“From the day you placed your hands on me…took my sight…to the day she brought it back to me…her face was all that kept me breathing. I felt her every night in my sleep, like she was right th
ere with me. When…whenever I was down I could feel her there. I feel her with me now. You can take my life…my lowly human life, but it changes nothing. That bond is there, it was there the day you blinded me, it’s here now, and there’s nothing you can do to break it.”
The man’s face was solemn—the darks of his eyes studied Charlie.
“Nestivahoon! Levushkineu keenocular, Nyrobie!” A second man emerged from the shadows of the trees. Thick, raven hair framed his olive face—his eyes were bluer than the sky above them. He wore the same cloak as the man beside Charlie—intensity laced the words leaving his mouth, a language completely foreign to Charlie. “Lemonyia, nestivahinda halvinea. DonurachVintwein!”
No sooner had the approaching man presented himself, and he was gone once more—vanished on the mountainside.
“I haven’t the time for additional conversation, Charlie. Close your eyes.”
“Promise me.”
“What?”
“Promise me you won’t hurt her.”
“You are hardly in the position to negotiate, Charlie.”
“I’m not negotiating…I’m begging you…please don’t hurt her.”
For the first time since their initial introduction, the two beings shared a gaze inclusive of something like recognition. Charlie sensed this immortal man felt the purity of his love for Carrie.
“Step away from him, Tarik.” Nyrobie appeared from the riverside.
“Nyrobie…”
“I will not ask again. Step away from him.”
“Foolish girl…you know of my magic.”
Nyrobie nodded politely, offering a respective smile. “Indeed. I’m fully aware of your grand capabilities. Your powers are by far more impressive than any I possess…your powers are magnificent, Tarik.”
“And yet…you would threaten me? Not the wisest choice in regard to self-preservation.”
“Tarik…your magic is bold and stunningly beautiful. Yet, your extensive reliance on it leaves you vulnerable to my physical attack. You are no match for me, Tarik. Summon each wolf, bear, and great cat of these mountains. They will not reach you before you’re broken by my hands.”
Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection Page 236
