Alchemist

by Terry Reid

  Terry’s antennae pricked at the sight of food. Rising onto her six clawed feet, Terry turned and headed to the river; wet gravel crunching underfoot. Watching the flow of the water for several moments, she suddenly began slashing at it.

  “What is she doing?” asked Darius, watching as he chewed on a mouthful of the soggy pastry.

  Connor also turned to watch. “Fishing.”

  True enough, a few minutes later she returned, dropping half a dozen fish by the campfire. She squeaked then returned to where she had been sitting some distance away.

  “Thanks.” Connor said after her.

  She squeaked in reply. Closing her eyes she turned away from them, rolling up into a tight ball.

  Seeking out a couple of large, flat rocks, Connor placed them over the low flames. He then laid two fish across the top of them. “It might not be much of an oven but it’ll do.” He said, giving a slight smile.

  Darius shrugged. “I don’t care. I’m so hungry I’d eat them raw if I had too.”

  The following day the three of them set out on foot. Despite having scoffed some fish Terry had reverted back to her human form. They had all been small fry. It would have taken her hours to catch enough to fill her stomach – time they did not have. Fortunately the weather was promising a hot day ahead. The sun was beginning to peak over the hills to the east and a light breeze stirred the long emerald grasses in ripples, as if it were a green sea.

  Terry caught Darius looking at her. “What?”

  “You smell like fish.” He smirked.

  She laughed. “So do you.”

  “I forgot to bring my toothbrush.”

  “It wouldn’t have made much difference for me if I had all the toothbrushes and toothpaste in the world.”

  “I never thought I would say this but I think I prefer what you normally smell like.” Darius added, peering at the sky.

  “Which is?”

  “Metallically...is that a word?” He asked, giving her a puzzled look.

  “Thanks, you know how to make a girl feel special.”

  He laughed. “I’m only joking! You don’t usually smell like that, only if you’ve turned into your primeval form.”

  She smiled. “You just keep on digging yourself into this hole, don’t you?”

  “Maybe when we get home we should create our own brand of perfumes.” He mused, staring back at the sky. The bright sunlight had certainly lifted his mood from the night before.

  Connor gave him a funny look from the far side of Terry. “That’s a very random thing to say.”

  “We were talking about smells and it’s just came to me.” He shrugged. “I mean, think about it. Terry has a stronger sense of smell than anyone else, so she can pick out the best fragrances and we could market them.”

  “I never knew you had a degree in marketing.” Connor replied.

  “We don’t need one as long as we find the right fragrance.”

  Connor snorted a laugh. “I don’t see it working somehow.”

  “Says the IT consultant.” Put in Terry. “We all know how exciting fixing computers is.”

  “Excuse me? I have a job!” Connor rebuked. He pointed at her. “You got fired from your last one.”

  Terry shrugged indifferently. “I don’t need a house and I don’t need money. I can hunt and I can dig, that’s all I need.”

  “Yeah, I know you can live underground.” A smile peeled his face. “You could be queen of the Wombles if you ever decided to move back to Earth!” he laughed. Darius burst out laughing too.

  “Shut up!” she shouted, giving him a hard shove. Connor was still laughing as he ran forward a few feet. But the humour abandoned him when he reached the summit of the hill. Terry and Darius also fell silent.

  In the valley below, a peach and black mound smouldered, casting long, low plumes of grey smoke.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Darius asked.

  “Yeah.” Terry replied.

  “This is the second time this has happened.” Connor said quietly, his gaze fixed on the blackened mound of charred flesh. He couldn’t tear his gaze away despite the horrific sight.

  Terry soaked up the scene around the briary. The lush grasses had been muddied with commotion and blood. Bow and spears lay scattered among the few fallen that the opposition had failed to collect to add to the flames. She drew a deep breath, the smell of rotting flesh filling her nostrils. It told her all she needed to know. “This couldn’t have happened more than five or six hours ago.”

  Darius suddenly became uneasy, looking about in all directions.

  Seeing his panic, she said, “Whoever did this is long gone.” But she scanned the surrounding hillsides with her eagle-eyed vision once more time just to be certain.

  “Still, I think I’ll feel safer the further we are away from here.” Connor said anxiously.

  “We should go down there first and have a look.”

  She suddenly realised how ashen Connor had turned.

  He drew an uneasy breath. “I don’t think I want to go down there after the last one.”

  “Okay.” Terry said. She looked at Darius, who shook his head. “Alright, I’ll be back shortly. Keep an eye out.” And so she went on alone.

  A strong, putrid smell filled her nostrils as she approached the smouldering briary. As an Alchemist she was used to the smell of death because of all the creatures and people she had slain over the years to fill her stomach. Usually she ate her prey as soon as it was dead and quite often, while it was still alive and freshly caught. She felt the hunger stir in her, but it was muted. Her skin itched slightly, her body ready to shed the guise of human flesh for her true form. Why was this happening more frequently? Stopping, she closed her eyes. She drew a deep breath, the smoky air rushing into her lungs. Then she exhaled, opening them again. The sensations were gone. She turned her nose up at the stench. This time her stomach knotted in revulsion. Definitely all here now, she thought.

  She began looking around the battlefield. Broken spears and bows littered the muddy ground with the odd tribesman lying among the blood soaked grass blades. Whatever happened here, the fight had been one-sided.

  She crouched alongside one of the bodies. The tattered blue headband the man wore told her that this had been the Iok tribe, one of several that lived in the borders between Alchemist territory and the Southlands. Terry sighed and wiped her eyes, suddenly feeling tired. Who had done this to them? And why were they so many miles away from home? None of it made any sense. She had never heard of the tribes venturing so far south before. She stood up. Gingerly placing the tip of her shoe on the body, she rolled him over. Blank, glassy eyes stared at the sky. She crouched down, examining the wound on his stomach. She felt at the torn bloody flesh and felt. He was killed by a blade. An Alchemist blade. Terry stood and went to examine another one of the bodies that had not been added to the cairn, only to find the same thing. Her worst fears had been confirmed. It was exactly the same as the previous tribe they had found slaughtered in the desert.

  Returning to the hillside she was greeted only by questions. “What did you find?” Connor asked, walking to meet her.

  She shook her head, looking back down the hill. “It was Alchemists.”

  Connor froze. “What? Who?”

  “I couldn’t tell, I couldn’t get a scent. All I could smell was burned flesh.”

  Her friend gave her an uneasy look. “It has got to be the same people.”

  “I don’t know.” She said, walking on the way she had originally intended. “But what I also don’t understand is how this tribe got so far from home.”

  “What about the bodies?” asked Darius, running after them.

  Terry sighed but she did not look back. “We don’t have the time. We have to find my father. He needs to know.”

  ******

  The sun was beginning to kiss the horizon as they reached the edge of the Gyris Mountains. The foothills had given way to a series of hillocks and beyond them, a highway and pocke
ts of civilisation. Lanterns flickered in the evening gloom from the villages and towns that lay scattered across the vista before them.

  “So what’s the plan?” Connor asked, wiping his beleaguered face.

  Terry looked at him. The last few days travel were beginning to show. “What do you mean?” she asked.

  He gave a long sigh and shut his eyes, allowing Terry to see how dark the circles had become around his sockets. “Well, are we going to stay in a tavern tonight or are we still trying to avoid everyone?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t care anymore, I need a shower.” Terry was a little tired herself but generations of digging and hunting over great distances had leant her endurance where her companions began to falter. One of her few vices was the want to wash her flesh every so often. Her ancestors had been harder than her in that respect, but nearly a decade spent amongst the humans and the lick of soap every day was a habit that was difficult to kick.

  Something tugged at the back of her mind, causing her head to ache. She closed her eyes, wiping them with her hand. The voice called again, this time grabbing at her with more force, hot and angry. Terry shook her head, batting the thoughts away. With a flash of anger it retreated.

  It was the fourth time that day the fractured piece of her mind had reached for her conscious and each time it had got louder and been harder to fend off. Days ago it had been a dull voice at the back of her head but now it was constantly trying to stir.

  “Terry?” It was Darius. He was walking alongside her but he sounded as if he was talking to her from far away.

  She blinked at him, slightly dazed. “What?” she asked.

  Darius sighed angrily. “I was asking you what we were going to do if someone saw us? What if they phone the Kamari?”

  Terry stared at him for a long moment. His concerns seemed trivial to her; irritating. She did not know why. She gave a lazy shrug. “What are the Kamari really going to do? If they did catch us we’d just be deported again. It might be to the border or it might be to Earth, either way they’d actually be doing us a favour.”

  The colour drained from him. “Deported? But I’ve not done anything wrong.”

  Connor looked at him, his expression grim. “I’m sorry to say this but you have. You ran off with a fugitive, in any court you’d be guilty by association.”

  “But...I haven’t done anything! I know the law they can’t do that, surely?” He began to protest.

  Terry rolled her eyes. More than anything she wanted to rip his throat out just to shut him up. “Darius!” she snapped and the young man grew silent. She turned to face him. “Just...” she said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. It was there, tugging at her again. “Just...calm down...please.” she said quietly, holding a hand out to him. That said she turned away, walking on.

  Connor and the water elemental exchanged shocked glances. But when words failed them to describe what had just happened they could do nothing but follow the angry Alchemist onward down the slope.

  ******

  The hour was late; but despite the silence and stillness of the night in the world outside their window, Terry found herself waking. She sat up, the quilt falling from her. She peered about the room, seeing as clearly as day despite it being swallowed in gloom. Connor and Darius both slept soundly in their beds.

  Rubbing at her eyes, Terry pushed herself to her feet. She stepped across the room, her steps muffled by carpet. She opened the window to the back of the room, which opened out onto a narrow back alley.

  Through the darkness she saw two large eyes glinting at her. Smiling, she raised a finger to her mouth and turned away. Crossing back to where Connor lay, she shook him awake.

  “What?” he mumbled, groggy with sleep. He could see her smiling, despite the dark. “Our lift’s here.”

  A few minutes later they were heading out of town on the backs of two primeval Alchemists, flanked by an armoured escort on quiet, human feet. Terry rode on her father’s back with Darius, while Connor rode on Lyle’s, reunited with Faye. The two giants strolled out of town, along the backstreets and away from the lantern street lights, as to not draw any unwanted attention.

  Terry lay with her back propped up against the base of her father’s long neck. Darius sat slightly further down, leaning against one of his many, oversized back spikes.

  “Are you feeling any better?” Terry asked. Darius opened his eyes, he had been dozing. “What?” he asked, only half-hearing. “Oh, sorry, yeah, a bit. Thanks.” He rubbed his eyes. “Sorry, I think I fell asleep there.”

  “It’s okay. I’m thinking about nodding off myself.” She replied, shifting into a more comfortable position. “You don’t mind do you dad?” Fallo made no reply.

  Darius gazed off into the darkness. The town was silent. He imagined the hundreds of townsfolk who lay sound asleep in their beds at this late hour. Then he thought how crazy it was that a king was passing by so many of their doors and that they would never know. He looked back at Terry, his thoughts turning back to the stories he had heard about her.

  “Can I tell you something?” he asked.

  Terry opened her eyes. “Yeah?”

  “You know the other day I said that you were nothing like how I imagined you would be?”

  Terry had a dim recollection from down by the river, but the conversation was hazy at best; another symptom from her head injury. “Yeah...I think so.” She shuffled about. “Sorry if I don’t remember it all. It’s like I’ve told you before, I remember very little when I’m in that form.”

  She saw him nod through the dark. “It’s ok.” He said. “If you don’t remember I was a little rude about it.” He bit his lip, thinking of how to phrase what he was going to say next. “It’s just... rowing up there were all sorts of stories about you and how you defeated Edward. You were legends.”

  Terry smirked at that. “I like your choice of words. I would never describe any of us lot as legends.”

  Darius flushed, suddenly embarrassed. “I just mean that’s the way people talked about you.” He shrugged. “Sorry, I’m not explaining it very well. What I was trying to say is that in reality you are all so much more down to earth, you know what I mean?”

  It was Terry’s turn to shrug. “They would have started saying the same things about anyone who had killed him.” She laid her head back down against Fallo. “People have a lot to say about what happened and most of that is complete shit to be honest.”

  He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You still stopped the most wanted man on the planet.”

  Terry sighed tiredly. “No we didn’t Darius. He’s still out there, god knows doing what.” Her gaze grew distant.

  “You’ll stop him again.”

  “Yeah...I hope so.” She said. But she doubted her own words.

  ******

  Terry couldn’t move much when she woke. Her father, still in his primeval form, was cuddling her against his chest. Feeling her movement, he unrolled, letting her go. He craned his head over her, gazing at her with those big, amber eyes of his. He squeaked in greeting. Terry reached up and patted his muzzle. “Morning.” She smiled. He squeaked again. She stood and stretched.

  The sun was already well up, peeping through the warehouse windows. She felt like she could sleep for a month. But if they were going to get back to the safety of the borders they would have to get moving again. She knew sleep would have to wait.

  Fallo and Lyle had walked late into the night before stopping to rest in an abandoned industrial estate on the outskirts of a small town. They were still at least two hundred miles or so north of Marrich and one hundred more from the borders. Even if the two of them ran flat out, it would still take nearly two days for them to reach the border and they had already travelled such a distance to find Terry and her small band of travellers. She knew realistically that it would be another three or four days before they finally reached safe territory. Terry’s father had incredible stamina, but Lyle and the soldiers were not any stronger than any
others of their race, which was slowly their progress.

  “Morning.” called Connor, sliding the old, rusty warehouse door down behind him with some difficulty. His presence drew gazes from the resting soldiers but none of them spoke a word.

  “Where have you been?”

  Connor looked surprised. “I went for a pee.”

  Faye stopped brushing her hair and shut the compact mirror she had with her. She wrinkled her nose at him. “I did not need to know that, thank you.”

  Connor shrugged. “She asked.”

  Faye rolled her eyes and flipped open the mirror, resuming her beautifying. “Men.”

  Connor and Terry exchanged glances.

  Looking about Terry noticed that the other water elemental was unaccounted for. “Where’s Darius?”

  Faye shot Connor a glance. “Outside.” He said. It was obvious from his expression that he did not wish to say more.

  Terry nodded. “Ok.” She sat back down, pressing her back against her dad. He had lay back down to rest again. “I take it no one has any food?” she asked, putting the question to the floor.

  Faye shut her compact, pushing it into her trouser pocket. “I’m afraid not, we left in somewhat of a hurry.” She replied, somewhat unpleased. “Since then I have only eaten what your father or uncle have caught and that was not a lot.”

  “It’s a good thing we had those pies and chips last night at the tavern then?” Connor said to no-one in particular as he scratched absently at the stubble on his chin. He had showered at the hotel the evening before but had been too lazy to shave, opting to do it first thing in the morning. There unexpected midnight flight had dashed that want.

  Terry smirked at him. “You’ve nearly got a beard.”

  Connor continued to rub at it. “You like it?”

  Terry turned back to Faye, still laughing. “You must have something left.”

  She shot her a dark look. “Do you see a bag? Like I said, we left in somewhat of a hurry.” She began brushing the dust from her trousers.

  Connor walked over to his backpack to have a look. At the same time, Fallo opened his eyes and sat up. Terry paid no heed to his movement and did not see the tentacle that rose up into the air above her. Its end transformed in a large metallic spike.