by Justin Sloan
She gave him a pitying glance, and it hit him for the first time.
“You… you’ve never truly believed.” He scrunched his eyes, trying to process this. “Maybe you witnessed the blessings, but I know you never bought into the Saint and talk of the Order. Your eyes lit up at the talk of magic, but not because you wanted it gone… because you secretly loved the idea of it.”
He stared at her, waiting, and she couldn’t deny it.
“All that time living under the roof of the Order of Rodrick,” he went on, “and it turns out you were just basically getting free room and board.”
“I was watching over my big brother,” she said, irritably.
“Watching over me?” He couldn’t believe this. “You are my little sister. I’m supposed to be taking care of you. I can’t even imagine what’s going on in your head right now. Wait, did you… You didn’t, I don’t know, kill someone or do some sort of sacrifice?”
“Where the hell would you get an idea like that? No, I’m telling you, one minute I was there, worried about you, and the next, some sort of power was rising up within me. If I could explain it, I would. But I assure you, I did nothing bad and evil or whatever weird ideas you have going on in your brain right now.”
A couple of the archers from their escort were looking their way now, and Alastar wanted to yell at them to mind their own business. Instead, he put both hands to his mouth, breathed out deep and then tried to clear his head.
“Let’s look at this from another angle,” Rhona said, caution heavy in her voice. “We were attacked, aye? And we have no idea who they were, but they showed up after I used this magic.”
“They were able to sense it being used.” Alastar wanted to hit himself for not realizing it sooner. “Of course. So, the key for us is to ensure that you don’t use it again until we’re ready for them.”
“Right, though…”
“Though you haven’t had complete control of it so far,” he said, nodding. “Yeah, I considered that. Easy answer is we keep both of us out of trouble until that moment.”
She laughed. “Keep you out of trouble? In the last twenty-four hours, that’s been easier said than done.”
“We hide out, help Donnon return to his clan, and then figure out where we can find the Sword of Light.” She gave him a skeptical look, so he added, “We don’t stand a chance against them otherwise.”
A flicker of doubt crossed her face, but then she smiled and said, “Those bastards won’t know what hit them.”
“There’s the sister I like to see,” he said, nudging her with his elbow. “Who knows how many of our friends were killed by the sorcerers. Setting aside the war on magic or whatever we want to call it, I know one thing for sure—duty demands I see them answer for that sin. Honor compels me, and I wear her calling like a badge across my chest.”
“Do you think Tina made it out?” Rhona asked.
“Tina…?”
“By the Saint, did you ever pay attention to my friends? Tina… she changed your sheets on weekends.”
“You were friends with her?” he asked, then saw her look and changed it to, “You were friends with her, aye. I remember.”
“Pig shite,” she said with a laugh. “You never gave a damn for anything but your precious brothers in arms.” They stood there for a moment in silence, and then she added, “All this talk of honor, wearing it like a badge across your chest.” She gave him a skeptical look, then laughed. “You’re corny as hell.”
He joined in the laughter.
“I’m glad to see you two are in such good spirits,” Donnon said, standing at the side of the path and waiting for them. “We’re here.”
Alastar was amazed at the village ahead of them. He had always imagined clansfolk to live in small huts in the mountains, to avoid the haunted hills like everyone else did. But right here, at the base of the cliffs and even rising up into the cliffs, were all of the old ruins he and everyone he knew had always been told to avoid. It was full of old ruins, mostly with dirt blown over them by the years with grass and trees growing on top. It made it so that you could barely tell there was an overturned vehicle with the words ‘school bus’ barely showing.
Against the cliff, if you looked close enough there was what looked like an upside-down house. Because he had studied the earthquakes that had followed the collapse of civilization long before the Age of Madness, Alastar began to understand what had happened here.
Wind blew in heavy gusts, causing what sounded like distant howls of men and women lost to the old ways. Caves appeared scattered throughout in areas that would lead to underground buried cities.
He knew a woman once who had gone exploring down into those caves, but came out possessed, or so the High Paladin had said. Alastar had always wondered if her crazed ramblings about ancient technologies and an alien race were something she could have learned about down there, or whether they were simply the results of parts of her brain crumbling away.
She had been the closest he came to a romantic relationship. His curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he asked her about it. When she led him to the edge of one of these caves, he had peeked in and seen a picture of a man’s face holding something that looked like a metallic weapon. The whole thing lay on its side amongst more broken glass than Alastar could ever imagine had existed, strange contraptions people said were called cars, though the word seemed foreign whenever they said it—like a made-up thing. How could they ever have made a piece of metal like that carry someone?
All of this old technology was down there, but rumors of skeletons and worse kept people away.
Everyone except poor Betty. When he had tried to turn back, she threw herself at him, crying, telling him he had to go down with her, to see the wonders she had seen, and then she tried to go down on him. It seemed like an odd time to do that, even if he hadn’t had his paladin honor to keep him from allowing her. But she was crying and begging, undoing his pants as she knelt before him, and he was so confused he hadn’t even been able to stop her until the warmth of her hand engulfed him.
His whole body had gone rigid, and, at that moment, he understood the feeling of sin. Trembling, he had pushed her hand away, told her that he was sorry, but he just couldn’t, and turned and ran back to the castle.
Part of him still wondered what he would have found down there if he had gone with her, and what it would have felt like if he had never pushed her away. But he knew that was the evil, sinful side of him thinking.
He would never know, regardless. Within the year, the High Paladin had labeled her a witch and had her burnt at the stake. She was gone, and he had nearly been locked into it with her. If he had only gone farther that night, he, too, might have burned at the stake.
Staring at these caves now, he perhaps felt the ghostly presence stronger than the rest of them. He knew he wanted nothing to do with those caves.
Which was probably why his body went rigid with fear when he saw the others entering.
“You can’t be serious,” he said.
Lokane turned at the entrance, smiled, and said, “You have a problem with our home?”
Everything inside of Alastar wanted to turn away, to tell this man that he wouldn’t take a single step into these haunted hills. But if they were willing to do so, then by the Saint, so would he.
He was a paladin, after all.
With a nod to his sister for encouragement, he followed Lokane in through the entrance.
CHAPTER SIX
Rhona wanted to laugh at the look on her brother’s face as he entered the underground tunnel. If he only knew how many times she had been down in these types of places as a young teenager, he would lose it.
If everything her brother believed were true, could it be possible that Rhona’s explorations into places such as these are what gave her this curse, or blessing, or whatever the ability to use magic was?
What else was she supposed to have done while he trained in warrior ethos and the path of the Saint, or prac
ticed swordplay with his paladin brothers all day? She certainly wasn’t going to sit around the castle, so she and a friend had gone out exploring. The treasures they had discovered were mind-blowing.
Old toys of the like they could have never imagined, some that even looked like the crazies had in the Age of Madness. A statue of a horse made entirely of metal. Food in cans unlike anything she had ever tried, from a world long lost… but too far gone to be edible. They couldn’t bring it up to show anyone, unfortunately, because going into the underground was strictly forbidden. Even if you ignored the ghosts, these areas were known to have large drop-offs and to suffer the occasional collapse.
All of that being the case, she still wasn’t prepared for this.
When they exited the dirt tunnel, its walls and ceiling propped up with large, wooden beams, they emerged into a great cavern.
Clearly, the clans had been busy.
Where buildings had toppled and fallen into ruins, the clans had carved out and repurposed, so that old metal and brick debris now served as walls to partially made underground keeps. The result was mostly uneven-grounded, square rooms with low ceilings, many of the rooms stashed with armor and weapons.
A clan woman looked up from where she had a torch on the wall and was manipulating fire to weld a spear-head onto the shaft, but Lokane stepped forward and closed the door between them.
He smiled but shook his head as he said, “You never saw this.”
The others carried on, all moving into one large tunnel, except for two who went off into another adapted building to their right. They were at the base of a half-submerged building that looked like it had once risen up above the ground quite a ways, but now likely had crumbling old walls up there at best.
“And what is this, exactly?” she asked, glancing at her brother to ensure they were on the same page. He was staring around at the weapons in awe.
“You mean to launch an attack on the paladins?” Alastar asked.
Lokane shrugged. “A defensive strike is a better way to say it.”
“That’ll only serve to infuriate the High Paladin further, cause them to launch a full on offensive, to—”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, sir,” Lokane interrupted, “but isn’t it the case that we are already at war? I fail to see how us delivering a decisive blow will hurt us in any way. And besides, if reports are to be believed, your High Paladin may or may not still breathe. Am I wrong?”
Rhona could feel her brother’s pain in his words as he explained that they didn’t know, that they had fled the battle.
“A paladin who retreats when others are in danger?” Lokane shared a look with the others.
Donnon stepped forward. “This man is no coward. He chose to defend his sister… and me. He faced real sorcerers, and I don’t mean magic users like us, I mean real, possibly evil, able to pull fire from nothing sorcerers.”
Lokane froze at this, eyes locked on Donnon. Finally, he blinked, and turned to Rhona with a cocked head. “But what I’m not understanding is, first, how you escaped. Second, all of that just to run away with your sister? Couldn’t you have stayed and fought?”
Alastar opened his mouth to respond, but Rhona held up her hand.
“I had exerted myself,” she said, “so my brother chose to carry me to safety.”
“And the so-called warlock?” Lokane asked with a nod to Donnon. “Why him?”
“At first we thought they were after him. It wasn’t until later when they started talking about snatching me that we realized…” She trailed off, seeing in Alastar’s eyes that she had perhaps said too much.
“Ah, but why would they be after a simple lady of the palace?” Lokane folded his arms, waiting.
Donnon frowned when the other two didn’t answer. “Best to be honest here, lass. You’re among magic users now after all, so no reason to be shy.”
“She used magic?” Lokane turned to her with fascination in his eyes. “Well, is it true?”
She spun on Donnon. “You have no right!”
Donnon was about to protest, but Lokane put a hand on his shoulder and said, “We’re all friends here.”
Rhona frowned, looking at her brother who seemed as uneasy as her.
“I guess that’s what it was… Magic, I mean.” Her heart fluttered at the thought of using magic, and at verbalizing what she had done. It was like it could have been a dream before, but not anymore. Not now that she was admitting it. “Honestly, I don’t know what came over me. It was like, one minute nothing was happening, and the next something came alive from within me, and it was struggling to get out. When I let it… poof.”
“Poof?” Alastar said with a nervous laugh. “More like oh-my-god-what-the-hell-is-going-on-we’re-all-going-to-die! But sure, ‘poof’ works, too.”
She shrugged. “You get the idea.”
“Not entirely,” Lokane said, frowning. “Are we talking fire? Wind? Water? Did you see a spirit first?”
“No to all of the above.”
“It was like the shadows themselves came alive,” Donnon said. “Though, I suppose a spirit could’ve been there, just hiding in the shadows.”
“Maybe, but maybe not,” Lokane said. “You mentioned sorcerers able to pull magic out of thin air, correct? Though I’ve never seen it, I’ve heard tales of such magic. And if these sorcerers are doing the same, it’s not inconceivable that they would be after you for a connected reason.”
“Wait.” It was Alastar’s turn to look confused. “I thought all magic came from nowhere, like it just appeared. That’s… wrong?”
“It would seem that sharing our secrets with the enemy wouldn’t be the prudent thing to do here,” Lokane said, pondering, “But since your sister is being honest with us, I suppose a little honesty won’t hurt from our side either. That, and if I judge the situation correctly, you’re basically stuck here with us until we can all come up with a strategy for how to deal with these sorcerers.”
He nodded to Donnon, who stepped back and raised his hands. Nothing happened.
“See,” Lokane said. “Donnon is a fire user, but he can’t just make fire. When a man or woman learns they are a fire user, it is only after a fire spirit has visited them when there is a fire nearby. One might be using a torch when a spirit dances out, looking like a flame, and presents said person with their powers. Or maybe while preparing a hot stew, or whenever a fire is around. Likewise, with water, the user would have generally been by a lake or river.”
“Then, to call on the powers,” Donnon added as he approached one of the torches on the walls, and picked it up, “you simply have to be close enough to maneuver it, depending on your power with the spell.”
With that, he lifted the torch and held out his other hand. His eyes went black, and the flames shot out from the torch, encircling him like a whip before shooting up and coming to form a ball of fire, circling in the air about an inch from his free hand.
He winked at Rhona, and then let the flames return to the fire of the torch.
Rhona’s heart was beating out of her chest, and her mind overflowing with questions.
“And water… it’s the same?”
Donnon nodded. “But not the same people. Clans who live by the water often discover water mages among them. Fire mages are born among the mountain clans, more or less.”
“Come, we mustn’t keep the council waiting,” Lokane said, motioning them onward. “We’ll have plenty more time to talk after breakfast is served.”
Rhona couldn’t help the small whimper of excitement that escaped her lips at the thought of food and drink.
“Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you,” Donnon said, stepping up beside her and offering her a hand so that she could step down a ledge that led to the path below.
She was about to take it, when Alastar stepped between the two of them, grabbed her by the waist, and lifted her down.
“I could’ve done that myself,” she said, glaring.
“Then why would you be reac
hing for his hand?” He turned on Donnon. “And you, thanks for the hospitality, but you’d best keep your hands to yourself.”
He stormed on ahead, leaving Donnon to grin like a schoolboy at Rhona. She had to admit, there was something charming about that grin. Instead of following her brother, or putting up with his being overly protective, she took Donnon’s arm and allowed him to escort her on.
“I was feeling light-headed,” she explained when Alastar glanced back and frowned. He was about to move to help her, when she said, “Just keep walking. I’m a grown woman.”
“Barely,” he muttered, but didn’t say anything more on the matter.
“While I’m all for being used to annoy older brothers,” Donnon whispered, leaning in to her, “I must warn you, I have a sensitive heart.”
She laughed. “We can all tell, you big softie.”
He pulled her closer. She thought about stepping away. After all, she barely knew this man. But after learning that not only had he carried her some of the way, helping her brother and her to escape, but that he was now entrusting them with this hideout and the secrets of his people’s magic, she felt a closeness she had never felt this quickly with anyone before.
They descended into a cave where a woman fire mage bowed at their entrance, and then spread her arms out so that fire spread from two torches to run along the ground. The flames hit a central location and then burst outward, spreading along the walls so that there was one large circle of controlled fire lighting up the entire cavern.
Lady Estair had set up a table where several others were bringing out plates of food. Past that, several other passages broke off, looking like they led up. Some rooms down here formed out of more ruins, sheets of metal from those abandoned with “bus” written on the side, and all sorts of old knick-knacks piled up on the far side.
“What is this place?” Rhona asked.
“A collector’s dream,” Donnon said, nodding at Lokane. “That specific collector, actually. He loves this stuff. Says it connects us to our ancestors and even believes it might have some sort of old magic to it. Me? I say it’s junk. Cool junk, but junk.”
