“I would have never imagined that Luke was this heavy. The way he moved made him look so light,” Aedyn groans while he struggles back to his feet.
Once Aedyn balances Luke in his arms, he turns to see the space around Nyx is crackling with raw energy and her long, black hair is whipping the air above her head. A rumbling from the ground below his feet sends the priest nervously running toward Haven. Aedyn gives a final glance towards the clearing in time to see a body being launched into the sky, exploding in the air with a hissing pop. To his surprise, there is no rain of gore like he expected. Aedyn squints in the darkness to see that the exploding corpses are being magically transformed into colorful oak leaves. It isn’t long before a delicate rain of leaves begins to cover Haven in an autumnal blanket.
Aedyn tries to lick a single tear from his cheek. “I think Luke would be very happy to . . . that is strange. I sense a disembodied spirit. Do you wish to fight me for this body? I warn you that I have no reservations about banishing you.”
*****
“Are you okay, Nyx?” Luke asks when he gets to his feet.
A dull ache courses through his entire body and forces Luke to wince every time he moves. He blinks the stars out of his eyes before he can look around the battlefield. An eerie haze surrounds everything and there is not enough starlight for him to see further than five feet in front of him. Burning corpses are scattered around the clearing, giving off just enough light for Luke to see his friends. They are almost sixty yards away from him in the same spot that he remembered standing in before the magical explosion.
“I must have been knocked all the way over here. A few more feet and I would have gone through that tree,” the half-elf says while he wanders towards the others. “It looks like that blast ended the battle. My father and grandfather must have already left to tell everyone that it’s safe to come out. Although, I’m surprised they didn’t search for me after I got thrown here.”
Luke stops halfway to his friends when a subtle noise catches his attention. At first, he thinks it is nothing more than a scavenger wandering among the trees behind him. The clouds part and let enough blue moonlight into the clearing to reveal a beautiful, ebony horse standing at the edge of the forest. Its red eyes glowing in the darkness gives the horse a demonic look, which makes Luke uncomfortable. His nervousness becomes fear when the horse steps further into the moonlight. The black crystal horn looms three feet out of the stallion’s forehead and absorbs some of the light from the air.
“You must be Gabriel’s black unicorn. What does he want?” Luke inquires, trying to sound brave.
“Your path is blocked. Find your footing,” the unicorn neighs without opening its mouth.
“I don’t understand.”
The unicorn rears back and shrieks at the sky before it charges directly at the forest tracker. Luke dives out of the way, but he feels the point of the horn graze his forehead. He rolls to his feet and turns to see that the unicorn is still galloping away. The unicorn stops at the far side of the clearing before it turns back toward Luke and stamps its foot. Luke puts his hand to his head in order to feel where the unicorn’s horn scratched him. He can feel a line of dried blood, but there is no sign of the cut that the blood came from.
“Look, unicorn, I just went through a battle against the undead and managed to survive a magical explosion. I’m too tired to chase you through the woods,” Luke announces, cautiously eyeing the unicorn. “Gabriel can wait for the morning and talk to me himself. I don’t mean to offend him, but I barely had the energy to get out of your way. The spells that hit me must have drained my strength instead of killing me.”
“The path will be harder without me,” the unicorn warns the warrior. Its voice booms in the air even though it is over a hundred yards away.
“Will it be impossible?” Luke asks with a grin.
The unicorn waits for a minute before answering. “No.”
“Then, I will have to decline your offer. I’m too tired to keep up with a unicorn and I refuse to leave Nyx behind,” Luke says, giving a low bow towards the beast. “Also, I just came home after being away for so long. I want to enjoy my time before I have to leave again. I thank you and your master for your offer. Tell him that I will continue to entertain him.”
“Foolish whelp,” the unicorn neighs. It silently sinks into the shadows of the forest and disappears.
“Wonder what he meant by that,” Luke mutters, scratching his head. “I’ll have to talk to Aedyn about it tomorrow.”
Luke looks back to Nyx in time to see a corpse soar into the air and explode into a cloud of leaves. A whistle escapes his lips and he starts to jog over to Nyx. He is a few feet away when he notices a limp form in Aedyn’s arms. The priest is too far away for Luke to make out who he is carrying. The forest tracker lets his curiosity get the best of him, running over to where the priest has stopped to look at the swarms of leaves that begin to litter the town.
“Is something wrong, Aedyn? Did somebody get hurt?” Luke asks when he catches up to his friend.
“I think Luke would be very happy to . . . that is strange,” the priest whispers, tensing up and looking around. “I sense a disembodied spirit. Do you wish to fight me for this body? I warn you that I have no reservations about banishing you.”
“Not another attack,” Luke groans in exasperation.
“Do not take me for a fool, spirit,” the priest announces.
Luke draws his sabers and looks around the clearing. “I don’t know how much help I can be against a ghost, but I’ll back you up. I’m not as tired as I was before, so I think I’m getting my second wind.”
“This is very odd. I sense that you are not an aggressive spirit, but there is something here that has gained your interest,” Aedyn whispers, gently laying the body on the grass.
Luke is about to say something when he looks down at the body that Aedyn had placed on the ground. He stares blankly at his own limp corpse and weakly sheaths his swords. A sour taste starts to form in the back of Luke’s throat while he begins to understand that he did not survive the magical explosion. With a quivering hand, the half-elf bends down to touch a blue flower next to his foot. He starts to feel faint when he sees his hand pass harmlessly through the flower. He tries again only to watch the flower wilt away from him. Luke nervously looks around Haven, noticing that everything has a white haze around their edges.
“I thought that haze was just my eyesight suffering from a concussion. I didn’t think I was dead. You have to help me, Aedyn,” Luke begs the priest. He slowly reaches toward his friend’s shoulders, his hands trembling. He freezes when he notices that his hands shift from solid to translucent.
“Back!” Aedyn shouts with a swing of his staff. Luke stops where he is and the staff passes harmlessly through his chest. An uncomfortable tingling runs through his incorporeal form while it regains its shape.
“I’m dead. I can’t be touched. I . . . I can’t touch anything,” the forest tracker drones, his mind trapped in shock. “I’ll never be able to hold Kira or get hit in the shoulder by Nyx again. I can never argue with my father or help Fizzle with his big words. It’s all over.”
Aedyn cautiously lowers his weapon. “I guess you’re not the target, Luke. This spirit seems to be nothing more than a curious guest.”
The priest bends down to pick up the body just as Luke panics and dives through him. Aedyn spasms and foams at the mouth until Luke finishes passing through him. Luke leaps into the air and awkwardly hovers for a brief moment before he tries to drop back into his body. Shimmering green energy erupts from the body and sends Luke sailing through a nearby building. The forest tracker rushes back to his body and yells as he collides with the energy again. He desperately pushes against it while a dull pain grows in his ghostly arms. When he looks down to see his fingers starting to unravel, Luke jumps away from the barrier and falls to his knees.
“I . . . can’t get back. Why can’t I get back?” he cries. He tries to pound on the groun
d, but his hands pass harmlessly into the dirt.
“I can still sense you, spirit. I underestimated you at first, but your attack on me and your attempt to possess my friend’s body has revealed your true intentions,” Aedyn weakly announces, warm drool falling from his mouth. “Now, I must banish you. I apologize if you are merely a confused spirit who does not know any better, but this must be done.”
“Wait a second, Aedyn,” Luke sputters, crawling away in fear. “I’m Luke. I’m just trying to get back to my body.”
An orb of yellow energy begins to form in Aedyn’s chest. Luke watches the hazy outlines of the world around him stretch tendrils towards the priest. The thin trails of energy are mesmerizing and nearly hypnotize Luke until he guesses what will happen if Aedyn’s spell hits him. The forest tracker takes a final look at his body before he runs as fast as he can through the nearest building and into the dark forest. Luke keeps running until he can barely take another step and is forced to collapse. For a terrifying second, he feels like he is about to fall through the ground, so he scrambles back to his feet and pushes himself against a tree. The tree shivers and releases all of its green and red leaves. When Luke calms down, he moves away from the tree and sits down on the cold, moist earth.
“That dark spell must have knocked my spirit out of my body. Now that I think about it, Aedyn and Nyx never noticed me while I was in the clearing. They would have noticed me when I dodged that unicorn,” Luke says, straining to choke down his terror and despair. “It doesn’t matter anymore. There’s nothing else that I can do now that I’m a wandering spirit. A lonely specter that will spend the rest of eternity watching his loved ones go on with their lives.”
“I told you to come with me,” the unicorn whispers, stepping in front of the half-elf.
Luke stares sadly at the unicorn. He lets his gaze wander until he regains some of his courage. “I was an idiot for not accepting your offer. You don’t have to rub salt on my wounds. Not that this form can have any wounds. It’s nothing more than . . . what am I made of?”
“You are nothing more than aura now,” the unicorn informs him. “It is what all spirits are before they return to life or move on to death. You are at a crossroads.”
“Are you still willing to help me get my body back?”
“I never made such an offer. I merely told you to follow me,” the unicorn states. It rears up and pulls an apple off a low branch.
“I get it. You were going to bring me to the afterworld. Death would be the easiest path for me to take since getting back into my body involves contacting my friends and figuring out that green barrier,” Luke claims, flipping to his feet. A defiant smile appears on his face and he proudly straightens his back. “Sorry, but I’m not going to follow you. I never took the easiest path when I was alive and I don’t plan on starting because I happened to die. Besides, there has to be a way back if you’re giving me a choice.”
“I can see why my master finds you entertaining. He looks forward to watching what you will do.”
Luke bravely reaches up to pat the unicorn on the head. “Then, tell him to pay attention. I’m going to have a little fun before I go back to my body.”
10
Barely aware of her surroundings, Nyx sits on the steps of Talos’s house. A trail of dry drool runs down the left side of her chin, which she cleans with the dirty sleeve of her shirt. With a whimpering groan, she stretches her stiff back and gets to her feet. Her mouth is dry with a sour taste in the back of her throat. Nyx runs a hand through her hair, but her fingers get tangled in several knots. A squeal of pain escapes her lips when she pulls a few hairs out of her head. She jumps at the sound of heavy footsteps, her cold joints filling the morning air with painful creaking. A weak grin crosses her face as she looks up at Talos. The elf chuckles slightly at the sight of the disheveled caster standing on his patio.
“How did Alyssa take it?” Nyx quietly asks.
“She cried the whole night, so I stayed,” Talos replies, a wide yawn cutting off his voice. “When did you get here?”
“I came here once I finished cleaning the clearing,” Nyx answers, her voice cracked and throaty. “I heard Isaiah snoring and thought you might be inside, but the door was locked. So, I sat down on the stoop to wait for you. I guess I fell asleep.”
“That appears to be a safe guess,” Talos states, a touch of concern in his voice. Talos walks by her and puts a hand on the doorknob.
“Can I see Luke?” Nyx blurts out.
“For your own good, I have to say no,” Talos tells her without turning around. “I can tell that you are hoping to find him alive when you walk in. If I let you see him then it will only cause you more heartache. Please, get yourself some breakfast and talk to your priest friend. He will be able to help you more than staring at a body that will never move.”
“I just want to see him,” Nyx desperately cries.
“And I said no!” Talos booms in a thunderous roar.
Nyx shies away from Talos who still refuses to look at her. The caster opens her mouth to say something, but all she can produce is a pathetic gurgle. She turns and runs away from the building, tears streaming down her face. She rushes into the street and blindly turns toward the northern clearing. Nyx runs a few yards before she collides with a slender, middle-aged woman wearing a blood red dress of velvet. The dress has a neckline that dips down to the woman’s navel with only a golden belt of woven silk to keep it from opening. Nyx is very surprised that she bounces off the violet-haired woman who merely stumbles back a few steps.
“I’m very sorry about that, ma’am,” Nyx says, scrambling to her knees.
“You should be, brat!’ yells a high-pitched voice.
“I said I was sorry. You don’t have to insult me,” Nyx states, her temper slowly erasing her sorrow.
“Show your respect!” shouts the voice. A small, furry paw suddenly smacks Nyx across the face. She looks down to see an orange squirrel standing on its hind legs and glaring at her with its arms crossed.
Nyx gets to her feet, towering over the squirrel. “I am not in the mood to argue with a talking rodent.”
“Her majesty and I don’t care what mood you’re in,” the squirrel rudely squeaks.
“I said I’m not in the mood!” the half-elf shouts. She angrily kicks the bushy-tailed rodent down the street and it lands with a distant thud. She can see its silhouette get up only to collapse again, its tail waving in the air.
“I can see that your temper has yet to improve, firebug,” the woman laughs in a sweet, yet strong, voice.
“I know that voice,” Nyx says, her face beaming with joy. “Although, the last time we met, you had red hair down to your shoulders. The waist-length violet hair looks good on you, Queen Ionia.” The young caster makes a gentle curtsy, the sudden movement making her a little dizzy.
Queen Ionia discreetly adjusts her crystal hairpin. “I could never find a color that suited my nature. You would think that the gods had created a color for everything in Windemere. I guess I’m just unique. Now, why have I been standing here for so long and not gotten a hug from my best friend’s pupil?”
Nyx gives Ionia a tight hug like a lost child finding her mother. She is vaguely aware of a furry form hopping onto her shoulder. The squirrel rubs its tail under Nyx’s nose before it leaps onto Ionia’s head. The half-elf tries very hard to hold back the sneeze, but the squirrel uses its tail to tickle her nose again. She snatches the fluffy tail before the squirrel can get away and sneezes into the rodent’s soft belly.
“That’s what you get, Zale. I told you not to make problems,” Ionia says, chastising the rodent.
“I am not scared of some half-blood caster,” Zale proudly declares. “I don’t see why we had to come here in the first place if this girl is all that interests you.”
“The talking vermin has a point. Usually, you don’t leave Darkmill unless you are on business,” Nyx mentions curiously.
“I was sent a message that Kalam the vampir
e was moving on Haven. I had hoped to arrive in time to stop his attack, but the message came too late,” Ionia explains. She reaches out to playfully tickle Nyx under the chin. “When I arrived, I found the strangest scene. There were no bodies and the ground was covered in mysterious foliage. It was quite confusing. I had sent Zale ahead to observe and report, but he was no help. It’s my own fault for sending an easily distracted creature instead of a scrying servant.”
“I tried my best,” Zale mutters sadly.
Ionia delicately pats him on the head. “I know you did, dear, but I needed to see what happened. It is such an irritation to cast the spells necessary to watch past events. One has to read every aura trail in the air to carefully reconstruct their motions. Then, one must be able to cast multiple illusions and manipulate all of them at once. Such a headache” She snaps her fingers and a crystal stool appears next to her. The queen gently sits down, crossing her legs in front of her.
“How long did those spells take you?” Nyx inquires with a wry smile.
“Thirty minutes at most,” Ionia whines in exasperation. “That time could have been used for so much more like . . . what do people do in the country? Dancing? Tree climbing? I heard that there is a nightly activity involving cows in these parts.”
Nyx wipes her raw nose on her sleeve. “I wouldn’t know.”
Ionia examines the grinning half-elf carefully. “Of course not, dear. You’re too well bred for such activities. Now, where was I?” asks the queen, her entire body pausing for a few minutes. “Ah, I was explaining what I saw. I was very impressed with your actions. That instant boiling spell against the water ghasts was especially thrilling. Your magic has grown so much since the last time I saw you. I can see that your appetite has grown as well. You really should eat more salads, dear.”
Legends of Windemere: 03 - Allure of the Gypsies Page 22
