“So what’s the problem?” asked J’Mart. “We’ve got less than ten men, and I vote we run in whatever direction yonder beastie is not.”
“It’s too late,” said Withers when Joel repeated J’Mart’s remark, without the sarcasm. “Damn thing’s gotten too close, and I think we’ll have to fight.” By now, Frayne had awakened the rest of the party, and they were crouched in a circle around Withers.
“Can we see it yet?” asked Athena. “It’d be nice if we could see what we’re fighting.”
Withers shook his head. “I could show you, but we’d have to track there and back and lose valuable time. Mark me – it’s about half a mile behind us and closing fast.” He looked around at the members of the party. “What do you want to do? Fight or run? Not that it makes much difference by now.”
Jared cleared his throat. “I think I’m not the only one who can honestly say that I dislike the notion of running. I say we stand and fight this thing, whatever it is.”
“Is it possible that it’s just going in the same direction and it’ll pass us by if we hide?” asked Joel.
“No. It’s definitely tracking us,” answered Withers. “I gave it three chances to change direction yesterday, and it ignored all three. It’s got our scent, and it’s interested.”
Bowen cleared his throat. “I’m with the Prince. We are the King’s Scouts, and we don’t run and hide from an enemy. I say we fight.” Around the circle, the others were nodding in agreement. Joel felt the adrenaline beginning to course through his veins, and suddenly he wasn’t nearly as frightened as he had been a few minutes ago.
Withers’ eyes settled on each of them in turn. “All right, we fight. We should find an open space so it doesn’t have anywhere to hide, and so we can surround it. You, bowman,” he said, looking at Bowen. “I hope you’re fast with that thing. As soon as it breaks cover, start shooting as fast as you can. Aim for the eyes if you can. Everyone else, pick a spot on the thing and attack it. There’s no real strategy here, because I’m not aware of anyone ever going up against one of these and living to tell about it.”
“How motivational,” said Step, grimacing. “I always wanted to be the first at something. Now maybe I can be.” Joel grinned in spite of himself.
Gaen stood up. “All right, it’s getting light, which will give us a better chance than we stand in the dark. There’s a large clearing about two hundred yards to the east. Let’s head there and see if we can mount an ambush.” Without another word, everyone gathered their weapons and they began marching east, leaving the remains of the campsite where they were.
Joel walked with Fender at a brisk pace as they headed toward the clearing. His sword was buckled around his waist and was unfastened from the scabbard, but he felt more foolish than anything. His guitar was slung over his shoulder out of harm’s way. J’Mart was sitting on his other shoulder, but the little man was uncharacteristically quiet as they walked.
“Any suggestions for me?” he asked Fender.
The wizard didn’t answer immediately. “From what I know about these creatures,” he said slowly, “arrows and swords aren’t going to do much good. I think you and I should separate from the rest and attack with magic. I think we’ll be able to help a lot more that way than with our swords.”
“Okay. What should I visualize? Fire? Ice?”
“How about great big pointy things going into its eye sockets?” broke in J’Mart. “That ought to fix it up.”
Joel smiled, unable to help himself. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember the spell for ‘great big pointy things.’ Good idea, though.”
“Try fire,” said Fender, not responding to J’Mart’s half-jest. “If that doesn’t work, try ice.” He gave a wry smile at Joel’s expression. “I’m sorry I can’t be more specific, but since I don’t know much about the jakar, I don’t know much about its weaknesses. We’ll simply have to experiment and see what works against it.”
“I just don’t like experimenting while our friends are fighting and dying.”
“Nor do I, Joel, nor do I.” Fender broke off. “Here’s the clearing. Let’s head for those rocks off to the west, there.” The two magicians ran for the small pile of boulders Fender had indicated, while the others in the party spread out, crouching low among the bushes and facing south. Fender closed his eyes and seemed to be mouthing spells. Joel, for his part, felt rather foolish going into battle holding his guitar, but he forced himself to relax and began thinking about how best to attack the jakar.
They didn’t have long to wait. Bowen and Athena were just settling into position behind some trees when something moved at the south end of the clearing. At first, Joel could see nothing more than the grass and stark bushes. A breeze was stirring the bushes, and Joel strained to see the beast, not sure what to look for.
Suddenly he realized with a shock that the wind was not stirring the bushes. Coming toward them through the clearing was an animal so well camouflaged it was nearly invisible. It bore a strong resemblance to a mountain lion, but it was covered with scales rather than fur, and was about four times as large.
As he watched, he realized that the animal was not merely camouflaged. The patterns on its skin actually changed to reflect its surroundings as it moved, making it almost impossible to see. A shiver ran down his spine as he realized that he was watching an apex predator, and that predator was hunting.
Without warning, an arrow shot from the trees where Bowen had hidden himself. The jakar twisted to the side almost too fast to see, and the shot went wide. It was followed by another, and then another, but the jakar was moving quickly now, zeroing in on the source of the bowshots.
It was halfway to the stand of trees when Frayne rose from the ground almost directly in front of it, sword drawn. The jakar swerved to meet this new attacker with a growl. Again, its speed was incredible as it swiped at the stout man with its forearm, claws extended. Frayne ducked, but he wasn’t quite fast enough, and Joel could see a line of red appear on his shoulder as he hit the ground.
Then Fender’s lips moved, and a bolt of lightning streaked across the clearing and hit the beast dead center, knocking it to the ground. It was up again almost immediately, but then Gaen, Jared and the other members of the team appeared and circled it, looking for an opening.
Fender’s bolt of lightning reminded Joel that he was needed as well, so he struggled to hold a cohesive thought of ‘fire’ in his mind and strummed a chord, trying to aim his magic at the beast the best he could. He was successful almost immediately, and a reddish-orange circle of flames engulfed the beast.
The jakar shrugged off the flame, seemingly unhurt by either the lightning or Joel’s attack. Jared took advantage of its distraction and aimed a sword thrust at its neck. He missed, but the jakar’s reaction allowed Gaen to thrust his spear at the monster’s rib cage. The spear connected and pierced the hide, and the clearing was filled with a high-pitched squeal of pain and anger.
Athena was next, and she jumped at the beast as it reared in pain from Gaen’s spear thrust. She aimed her longsword at its chest, but the jakar saw her coming and met her halfway with a tremendous swoop of its left arm. There was a crunch, and she flew across the clearing and collapsed, unmoving.
Joel was up like a shot. He knew he couldn’t reach her, and he hoped she was all right. He watched Step and Bowen circle the jakar as Gaen and Frayne attempted to distract it. Closing his eyes, he pictured ‘ice’ and strummed another chord.
Blue light flew from his guitar and hit the jakar in the right hind leg. Almost immediately, frost appeared on its skin and the leg seemed to stiffen up. The beast roared and spun, seeking its tormentor. Gaen aimed a blow at its neck, but his sword bounced off the thick armor. The jakar didn’t even seem to notice; it had located Joel and was crouching, readying itself to pounce in his direction.
Fender began mumbling something under his breath frantically as Joel froze, staring the beast in the eye. The eyes were yellow and had vertical pupils, like a cat. As if
it knew that it had found the source of its pain, the jakar’s eyes narrowed and it leaped, halving the distance between them in less than a second. Fender’s eyes grew wide and he threw up his hands, unleashing a blast of frigid air that knocked the animal off balance for a moment.
Bowen took advantage of that moment and managed to release two more arrows, both of which penetrated the thick hide and lodged in its back. Growling, but ignoring the arrows, the jakar righted itself and ran at Joel again with dizzying speed.
Time seemed to slow. I need to finish this NOW, he thought, as images of icebergs and glaciers came to his mind. He knew he needed more than a chord, and Joe Satriani’s Crystal Planet came unbidden to his fingers. In what seemed like slow motion, he twisted to the side, avoiding the creature’s strike and at the same time unerringly fingering the notes. Blue-white light almost exploded from his fingers and surrounded the jakar, holding it in a vise-like grip. As the beast screamed and struggled, the light seemed to solidify, and the monster’s struggles slowed as first frost and then ice began to encase its body. Joel continued to play furiously, and in a few seconds the frozen prison was complete. With a final hiss, the jakar ceased struggling. The ice imprisoning it solidified, and the clearing was quiet.
Nobody moved. Joel slumped, trying to catch his breath, the adrenaline coursing through his veins. Then he remembered Athena, and a few seconds later he was at her side, Frayne and Gaen next to him. Frayne’s arm was covered in blood, but he looked all right.
All three knelt next to her. Her shallow breathing showed she was alive, but still unconscious. The fact that she was unconscious was probably a good thing; the shape of her left arm and leg showed that they were badly broken. There was also a thin trickle of blood coming from the corner of her mouth. Joel knew that meant that there was internal bleeding, possibly from a broken rib. As he cradled her head, her eyes opened slowly.
“Did we kill it?” she whispered weakly.
“Aye, the SongMaster here did it nicely,” answered Frayne.
“I knew he could,” she said, and winced. “I’m not doing so well, though, am I?”
“Just hold still,” said Joel, starting to panic. “You’re pretty banged up, but you’re gonna be fine.”
She half-smiled at him. “Don’t lie to me, Joel. I can tell my time’s about up. You can’t keep going with an invalid, you know.”
“Don’t talk that way. We can fix you up.” He looked at Gaen and Frayne, but the Warmaster shrugged and beckoned him to step away. He laid her head back on the ground, and she slipped into unconsciousness again.
“She’s right, you know,” Gaen told him. “There’s not much we can do for her out here, and we can’t travel with her in that condition. She’ll slow us down and probably get us all killed.”
The rest of the party had gathered, and Joel looked at them for support. “What do you mean? We can’t just leave her here to die! I won’t do that! At the very least we can take her back to Gerund to be cared for!”
Frayne shook his head. “It would take us days to backtrack, and traveling with her in that condition is too dangerous out here. The best we can do is leave her with food, water and weapons, and hope she survives long enough for us to pick her up on our way back, assuming we survive to make it back this way. I realize it sounds cruel, but it’s all we can do, SongMaster.”
Joel searched the faces of the others, but saw no assistance forthcoming. Even his friend Step was shaking his head sadly. He briefly thought about staying with her himself, but quickly realized that he would be almost no help to her.
Then a thought occurred to him. Steeling his composure, he walked back over to her and sat down, getting his guitar in playing position.
The others followed him curiously, but nobody spoke. Finally Fender, a curious expression on his face, said softly, “What are you doing, Joel?”
He shook his head, trying to clear it. “I’m going to try to heal her,” he said. He held up a hand to forestall the wizard’s objection. “I know you and J’Mart told me that only Healers can heal, but maybe I’m different. Maybe I can do it too. You keep telling me that my magic is completely different, after all. And I have to try. I have to.”
Fender nodded. “Perhaps you’re right, Joel. It is worth the attempt, after all. I will be unable to help, though.”
“That’s fine. Just bear with me and cross your fingers,” said Joel, and closed his eyes.
He had no idea how to begin, but he knew he had to hurry. He strummed a chord lightly and considered how to do what he needed to while he felt the familiar tingling of his magic beginning. Two images came to mind – the green color of new growth, and the knitting together of muscle and bone and tissue. But how do you play healing? He ran through artists in his mind, considering and discarding one after another.
Once again, inspiration came. It’s not gonna be Tupac or Journey or even Vangelis who heals her, he thought. It’s gonna be the masters – Bach, Beethoven and Handel. It took him only a moment to settle on Mozart, and he quickly decided on one of the composer’s early works, Benedictus sit Deus. He took a deep breath and began to play.
He noticed something different almost immediately. The now-familiar lights and colors began to vibrate intensively, and soon his entire body was humming as if he were one big musical string. Power thrummed in his veins as, eyes still closed, he focused his attention on the woman lying in front of him.
Working on instinct, he reached forward with his music and touched her left leg. Almost immediately his music stuttered as the extent of the injury made itself apparent to him. He refused to stop, however, and continued to play as he reached inside the leg to the bone. The feeling was very strange as he realized he was looking inside Athena’s leg with the magical equivalent of an X-ray. He could see two breaks – one above the knee and one below. Concentrating on the upper fracture, he threw himself into the music as he urged the magic to join shattered pieces of bone.
Slowly he could feel the pieces beginning to slide back into place. It was like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle in the middle of a bowl of Jell-O. The tendrils of power coming from his hands and guitar he used as if they were medical instruments; they responded to his playing so well he could use them to nudge and suggest and push. Once all of the pieces were in place, he surrounded the area with a green aura. As he continued the music, he watched as the bone knit together, followed by the torn muscles and tendons that surrounded the break. Within a few moments, the break was gone.
Without stopping to rest, he moved his attention to the lower fracture. Now that he had some idea of what to do, this time it was faster, and it was only several minutes later that Athena’s right leg was whole as if it had never been broken. When he was confident it was done, he switched to her left arm. That was a little easier, as she had only one break – a clean snap in the humerus, which didn’t take him long to fix.
Steadily growing more confident, he moved his magic to her chest, searching for the source of the blood coming from her mouth. It didn’t take long at all to find the cause: she had three broken ribs. One rib had punctured her lung, and another had wreaked havoc with some of her other internal organs. As his music touched the injuries, his fingers faltered again. The colored lights and power actually turned shades of red and black as he caressed the wounds, judging their severity.
He didn’t stop, though. He knew she was seriously injured and didn’t have much time, so he gritted his teeth and started knitting her ribs back together. That part was almost as easy as the leg fractures had been, but when he was done he had to fix her lung. He could feel exhaustion beginning to take its toll on his concentration, but he couldn’t stop. Switching to one of Handel’s early religious works, he surrounded her lung with another green aura and urged it to knit together. It was more difficult than fixing her bone, as the tissue was not as easy to move, but he persevered and finally was able to make the puncture wound disappear completely. Without missing a beat, before weariness took too much of a toll on
him, he moved his attention to the other internal injuries. Once again, it went slightly faster now that he had some experience, and it didn’t take him as long to persuade the organs to make themselves whole again.
Finally he was done. Using his magic, he probed her entire body, making sure he hadn’t missed any wounds. She seemed to be whole, so he withdrew his consciousness and his power. He stopped playing and opened his eyes.
The other members of his party, all watching him intently, surrounded him. J’Mart was there as well, watching him with an unreadable expression on his face. Fender looked impressed. Joel had trouble focusing his eyes, and looked around, blinking. The sun seemed to be a bit higher in the sky than it had been when he started. He rubbed his eyes and was surprised to feel how heavy his arms had become. He felt as if he could sleep for a week.
As soon as they realized he was finished, Frayne, Step and the others surged forward, talking and questioning. Ignoring them, Joel looked down at Athena. Her eyes were still closed, but she was no longer pale. She was breathing easily, and Joel knew she was simply sleeping.
It took a moment for his brain to register the fact that there was another man standing in the background behind his companions. With a shock he recognized Massar. He jumped to his feet and immediately regretted it as he began to sway. Fender jumped forward and caught him, steadying him and helping him walk to where Massar was standing, while Frayne and the others held back and checked on Athena’s condition.
“Well met, SongMaster,” said the wizard. “Well met, indeed.” He smiled. “It seems you are intent on surprising even me.”
Not sure how to answer, Joel shook his head. “I had to try to heal her, even though Fender and J’Mart had told me you had to be a Healer to do it. I thought that maybe I was different, that maybe I had that power with my music.” He realized he was babbling.
Fender was looking from Joel to Massar and back again. “Joel? Is this -?”
“I’m sorry,” answered Joel. “Fender, this is Massar. Massar, you probably know Fender, since you sent me to find him. He’s taught me almost everything I know.”
SongMaster's Realm Page 21
