Pity sluiced through his core. But even though the web might have made her path a little more difficult, it was worth it. She would soon understand, when age and wisdom caught up with her.
A PORTAL. WAS THAT really what it was? Colin gazed at the Bat, its peaks spread as if in flight. Briton’s tracks led here. Exhaustion threatened to pull Colin to the ground to sleep, but he shook it off. Just a little further. Briton couldn’t be far.
The night sounds invaded the silence once again. Yes. Briton couldn’t have passed far, if the path was just now once more bursting into song. Follow the signs. Forget the ache in his legs, the pain in his skull, the desire for sleep. Think of the children who needed somewhere safe to lay their heads. Think of Braille and Walker, sacrificing their lives. Think of...Lily. Yes. Think of her.
He pushed on. Should he use the Deep to strengthen his mind and body? No. Briton would sense it and know he was here. Foolish thought.
A cry echoed through the path, filtering on the breeze. Sobs. Screams. Colin stopped. Was it a trap? Did Briton know he was here?
A cry so feral and filled with rage that it froze his blood ripped through the air. Colin raced forward. No, that was no trap. Someone was in agony.
He followed the sound until he came upon a glade. Briton stood, tearing his clothes from his body and screaming. Whirling around, he spun and spun, hands clenched to his ears. Screams tore from his throat, unspherely dirges that echoed on and on. Was this it? Had he finally gone mad?
“Stop!” Briton fell to his knees and pounded the dirt. “Stopstopstopstopstop...” A sob interrupted the call, and his shoulders shook. Colin shuffled forward, almost without meaning to. His chest squeezed even though his mind rebelled. Briton deserved whatever tormented him.
The breeze grew stronger, whipping Colin’s cloak and tugging. He grabbed the flailing cloth and pulled it tight. Briton raised his eyes, but when his gaze landed on Colin, he didn’t say anything.
Did he not know who he was? Colin itched to grasp the Deep, but something held him back. Pity? Cowardice? Both?
“Make them stop, Colin.” The plea was like a child. Briton raised a tear-stained face. “Please. Make the voices, the lava, the rage, make it all stop.”
“The voices?” he asked. How odd.
“They accuse me, torment me...their eyes are like flame, their bodies like coal. Radan, Josiah...all of them. I only was doing what I thought was right!” He gripped his hair and pulled, crying out. “Stopstopstopstopstop.”
“You can see them?”
“Don’t you get it?” Briton leaped to his feet, but instead of charging or attacking, he whirled and raced away. Stopping, he flung his hand out. “We all have it within us!”
“What?” Colin asked. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“The Rift you fool! You blathering, idiotic son of the Liar! We all have it within. The Deep. The Rift. Good. Evil. How can you not give in to its allure? It is so powerful, so all-consuming...” he stopped, fell to his knees. “So real. Creator! Make them stop!” He threw himself face-first into the dirt. Another scream, muffled by the ground, echoed in the glade.
What should he do? Put Briton out of his torment, like a wild animal caught in a steel trap? No. Put him to death for murder.
Yet wasn’t his torment enough? Who was Colin to dispense justice? Sure, he was one of the last warlocks alive. But did that make him judge and executioner?
Colin grit his teeth. Lily. The children. All of the Jin’tai. They deserved to...what, exactly?
“I am lost. I am undone. They will not be silent.” The words were muffled, but then Briton raised his head and turned to look at Colin. “Remember when I killed my mother?”
“Like it was yesterday.” Colin did nothing to stamp down the anger and revulsion that arose in his breast.
“She came to me, too. Demanded retribution. But this? This is...stopstopstopstopstop.” He tore at his hair again, tufts coming away in his hands. “Please, Colin. Please kill me. Make them stop. JUST KILL ME.”
No. Death was too good for Briton. But what else was there to do? He couldn’t leave him. He had to somehow bind him. Bind him to what?
The portal. They were standing on a portal.
Colin glanced up, the mountain peaks towering overhead. He embraced the Deep, pulling it in fast and sweet. Briton made no move to do the same. What was it Tiberius had said? The portal would suck the Deep like rains sucked into a dry river bed? He marched toward Briton, who cowered in the dirt. Poor, foolish, despicable Briton. Murder did not beget murder. But it did beget justice.
Colin reached out with a tendril of the Deep to Briton’s core. The Deep swirled there, yes, but so did something else. Another alien power, glowing hot, like a vat of oil. Was it really the Rift?
He would deal with that later. Colin reached down to grab a handful of soil. This had better work.
He pulled on Briton’s power, taking the Deep and funneling it first through himself and then into the dirt in his hand. The roaring of the waters nearly knocked him to his face. Briton was strong. But he did nothing to stop Colin.
The hot darkness reacted to the Deep. It reared up, flowed, pulsated like a heart. Briton stirred on his face, groaning. He whispered something that Colin couldn’t decipher, but the Rift responded. Growing ever brighter and stronger, it boiled and popped. Briton pushed up, speaking in a language as old as the sphere itself. Colin had read snippets of it on ancient texts. The language of creation.
Colin furiously continued funneling the Deep until every last drop burst from Briton and into the soil. Turning, Colin tossed the dirt into the air and swung to Briton. He was laughing as a red haze enveloped him, and swirling creatures of muscle and darkness reached out of the haze to grab him. Caluths? How was that possible?
Briton turned one last gaze to Colin. “It is there in you, too. My old friend.” And then he was snatched and pulled into the haze. It winked out as soon as he was gone.
A harsh silence filled the glade. Colin released the Deep, and as soon as it ebbed away, exhaustion hit him square in the chest. He fell back and collapsed into darkness.
LILY STOPPED AND TURNED to glance behind her. The web still glistened, but it was now miles away. She pulled the sack tighter on her shoulders and continued on the path. It wound through the Bat, and the soil was...different. Charged. As if the Deep had touched it and let its lingering power rest over the dirt itself. How strange. What was it Braille had said? The mountain was a portal? Now she believed him.
The path opened up to a glade. A man sat in the middle, face in his hands. Was that Colin?
Yes, it was. He looked up and caught sight of her. The sadness in his eyes dissipated, instead lighting with life. She waved as he scrambled to his feet.
“How...?” he rushed forward, then seemed to realize what he was doing and stopped. A strange affection for him lit in her chest. No one had ever been very fond of her. Least of all a man. But Colin? The way he looked at her made her think she could perhaps trust someone like him.
“Did you find Briton?” She stopped as he shuffled on his feet, gaze on the ground. His face turned red. Anger? Embarrassment? Something else, perhaps.
“Yes. He won’t be bothering anyone anymore.”
“You killed him?” For some reason it surprised her that Colin would do such a thing.
“Not exactly.” He sighed, raising his eyes to her. “But you can rest assured that he won’t be speaking lies any longer.” He looked over her shoulder as if he expected to see someone else. “Where are you going?”
She shrugged, sadness creeping into her chest. “I’m...I don’t know. I thought maybe I could go to the Library at Grole and somehow learn more about what, or who, I am.”
“Grole?” His face lit up. “I’m headed there, too.”
“Back to your cave, warlock?” she teased.
“Back to make my House.” He kicked at a clod of dirt. “I don’t know, maybe we could go together? Since we are headed the same wa
y, that is. You never know, you might need protection, or...” he stopped, shaking his head. “What am I saying? I need protection more than you. Will you allow me to travel in the safety of your company, Lily?” His face turned redder.
She laughed. “Only if you promise to tell me the whole story of what happened with Briton.”
“Fair enough. I suppose I could be cajoled into a tale or two.”
“Even if you didn’t want to, I could force you.” She laughed when his gaze shot to hers. His eyes softened when he realized she was joking.
“There are worse things than being bent to your will.” His face was now the color of a tomato.
“That sounds like an entreaty. I’ll have you calling me the Bender before long.” She elbowed him and then turned back to the trail.
His feet pounded the dirt behind her as he tried to catch up. “Wait! I’ll be eating your dust if you don’t slow down.”
“Too much accessing in one day?” She glanced over her shoulder.
His face was drawn and sad. “Too much accessing, too much living. I only want a warm fire, a good friend, and a quiet place to settle down.”
The image filled her mind, and for some reason, it didn’t scare her. It warmed her. “Me too, Colin. Me too.”
Interested in more?
Part 1 of the Steward Saga, Rift in the Deep, now available.
Part 2 of the Steward Saga, Rise of the Warlock King, now available
Previous books by this author
Rift in the Deep: Part 1 of the Steward Sage
Rise of the Warlock King: Part 2 of the Steward Saga
The Tale of Briton’s Fury: A Steward Saga Novella on Amazon as an eBook
Free for subscribers to the author’s mailing list
The Survival Guide for Nursing Students: short, quick read for those considering nursing school, or already in a program. Available in print, eBook, and Kindle Unlimited
Janelle Garrett is a jack of all trades. Registered nurse, stay at home mom, medical records consultant...and writer. Her passion from the time she was ten was to write stories with unforgettable characters. The sphere came into existence when she was bed-bound after knee surgery, and in walked a character shrouded in black and trapped in a magical wood on a dangerous mission. The story flowed from that vision. You can catch her on twitter @JanelleGwriter or at her blog, www.janellegarrettwriter.com. Sign up to her mailing list to keep up to date on new releases, free stories, free books, and more.
The Tale of Briton's Fury Page 6
