by B. T. Narro
The screams outside were no longer constant. In the gaps of silence I heard a different noise, a distant roar of a wild beast. The desmarls, I realized. I didn’t know why they beckoned, though. Perhaps they were hungry, or maybe the heat had reached them, or maybe the screams had startled them. Either way, they were below us while Exo was clearly above us. There was nowhere to go.
“Oh look, one of these nice men has a wand for me.” Exo spoke emphatically, like he was an actor in a play. It was clearly meant for our ears.
Kory must’ve recognized that Exo was up the stairs, for he hid in the corner opposite of us. He raised a finger to his lips and nodded, showing us he wanted the element of surprise. I nodded back, moving closer from the corner to make sure Exo would see me first when he entered.
“Stay a few feet behind me,” I told Lisanda.
She moved without answering.
“Lisandaaaaaaaaaa,” Exo called playfully. “Lisanda Takareeeeeeeeeee. It’s time to pay for your stupiditeeeeeeee.” He slowly stomped down one step at a time. “I hope your boyfriend is with you.” Another step. “Your…” Another step. “Sweet…” Another step. “Sartious…” Another step. “Boyfriend.”
He leapt into the doorway. “There you are,” he said politely, almost childlike.
It was painfully tough to look at him. Burned flesh, burned clothes, burned hair, burned everything. One eye was welded shut at its corner from a grotesque flap of his brow that folded over and stuck to his cheek below. His large nose was badly morphed. One nostril was rigid and square, while the other was caved in and oddly curved, like the way paper folds in on itself when scorched. Nearly all of his lips were gone, with just one bit of pink remaining in the corner. The rest of his mouth was pressed into his face, giving him the appearance of a mummy.
Though, unlike a mummy, he had no wrappings, no bandages. His skin had gone white in some places, however, and black in others, making it seem like he was wearing something around his arms at first. But no, he still wore the same red robe as before even though it was shredded and barely hanging on his decrepit body. The blue soaring wings that were across his chest before had no color left and were barely distinguishable.
“I never got a chance to ask why you did it.” Exo’s voice was ice cold. “Why you told him I was coming back.” He let his wand rest at his side, twirling it between two fingers.
I held up my wand, Bastial and Sartious Energy at the ready. Kory still stood in the corner with his wand ready. His eyes were on me, and I could feel his eagerness to jump out.
“I trust him more than I trust you,” Lisanda answered confidently, though I heard her take a step back behind me. “My father should’ve thrown you in prison years ago.”
“Your father is a coward,” Exo said quickly and aggressively. “Too much so to stand up to me. When you were kidnapped by this fool,” he lazily lifted a finger at me, “your father’s messengers told me this was my last chance. His messengers! He sent other men because he was too afraid to tell me himself. I was told to leave the palace and only come back if I found you. That’s it! No information about where you might be, where guards had been sent to look already. Nothing. Only that you were taken by ‘the Sartious mage.’ He didn’t expect me to find you. It was his cowardly way of getting rid of me. So I became even more determined to come back with you.” Exo coughed wildly into his sleeve.
I let my wand lower slightly. I still knew in the pit of my stomach that I would need to use it, but how and when was still to be decided.
Exo cleared his throat. “I apologize for that. My lungs haven’t been working too well since my little incident.” He spoke sinisterly.
“Did you hurt Drent?” I asked with caution, unsure I wanted to know.
“Who the hell is that?”
“The blacksmith you threatened to find the farm.”
Exo’s mouth twisted into what seemed to be a smile. Without lips it was hard to tell.
“Him? Now, that’s an interesting piece of this story.” Exo wagged his finger at Lisanda over my shoulder. “Your father’s idiot guards were sent to question him twice. The first time he scared them off.” A laugh sputtered out. “I don’t know how, but he did. They came back with more and he lied, lied, lied.”
Exo was speaking melodically now, really enjoying his own voice. “But then I found his forge and got the truth out. He told me about the other guards and about what he’d told them: that your farm was about ten miles north of Facian. But I’ve been lied to for so many years I can actually tell when it’s happening, unlike the King’s half-wits. Yes I threatened him, and I would’ve done a lot worse, but he’s smarter than he looks. He gave me the truth about your farm and I left.”
Exo shrugged. “He didn’t annoy me, so he got to live. But both of you…” He brushed his hand at us with a laugh. “You’re going to die.”
Sudden rage flushed into Exo’s face, and he aimed his wand at us.
“Lisanda, behind me!” I reached one hand back to make sure she was there and then snapped my wand to create a wide shell of SE wrapping around us.
To my surprise, Exo didn’t cast a fireball but a river of fire instead. It was so thick and hot I nearly lost my concentration as it surged toward us. Yet I managed to remain steadfast, keeping my Sartious shell up as well. The fire crashed into it, exploding against it and jetting into the air like ocean waves crashing into a rock. His river of fire was wider than my Sartious shell, passing by us and rolling up against the stone walls behind us.
Lisanda let out one quick scream and pressed against me tightly.
I wanted to make sure she hadn’t been burned when the fire stopped, as the heat from it was immense, but I couldn’t turn away from Exo. He was coming into the room, drawing in more Bastial Energy so that his wand began to glow.
The moment Exo entered, Kory’s wand started glowing as well, his face scrunching with concentration. But the deranged mage noticed him out of the corner of his eye and spun around, creating his own Sartious shell and successfully blocking the fireball.
Exo aimed his wand at Kory in retaliation, but Kory already was rushing toward Exo, uttering a battle cry.
Kory tackled him just before Exo let out the fireball from his wand. It missed Kory, going off to the side and crashing into a shelf of food instead. The shelf fell backward, crashing into the next, which fell into the one behind that, and so on.
“Run!” Kory screamed as he wrestled with Exo. But I didn’t want to flee. I wasn’t at home anymore. My family wasn’t tied up with Exo standing over them with a knife. I was confident I could beat him here, especially with all the SE at my disposal.
I aimed my wand at them on the ground, but they were rolling and fighting so vigorously my chances of hitting Exo without hitting Kory were slim.
Lisanda bolted into a dash, trying to squeeze between me and the fallen shelves blocking her path. She got caught on something. There was a loud ripping sound as she spun and fell to her knees. The shoulder on her light blue tunic was torn apart. It must’ve found an edge of the metal shelf beside me.
Kory and Exo were grunting, each trying to aim his wand at the other while keeping his opponent’s wand at bay. Kory got Exo pinned on his back, holding Exo’s outstretched arm against the ground, but it made the wand point right at Lisanda in front of me.
Exo’s eyes found her, and he let out a scream to focus while he wrestled. His wand glowed white.
I snapped my wand to create another shell, this one in front of Lisanda, who was quickly getting to her feet.
She spun around to me and crouched, her hands on her head.
Exo’s fireball wasn’t larger than my torso, so it easily was absorbed by the Sartious shell.
“Run! Get out of here!” Kory shouted again.
Lisanda grabbed my hand and pulled me to the door. I didn’t fight her, just followed, keeping an eye on Exo, who put all of his focus back on Kory on top of him.
The hall was dark. The torches on the wall had gone out or fallen, I did
n’t know. I couldn’t see. Bright streaks and spots hung in front of my vision. I knew it was from Exo’s fire exploding a few feet from our faces.
Lisanda and I nearly tripped several times as we hurried up the stairs, holding on to each other for balance. I knew I was brushing against fallen bodies and felt thankful I couldn’t see the carnage around my feet.
Toward the top of the stairs, the torches still were lit, allowing us to speed up and find the exit.
Lightning surged through the sky as we stepped outside. As soon as it faded, I realized it was nearly as dark out here as it was in the mountain. Heavy rain was pushing down on us, wind gusting into our faces. Lisanda and I held up an arm in a meager attempt to block the weather for a glimpse around us.
Lisanda saw it first, gasping as she pointed. “The horses…”
“He killed them,” I finished the sentence for her. “Didn’t want us to run if we got out.” I made an effort not to look at the many, many dead horses, each burned and disfigured.
“Come on.” I took her hand and started in a quick dash toward the mountain where we’d made camp before being taken.
The weather was unrelenting. I’d never minded the rain unless freezing wind came with it, like now. Luckily, this meant Exo would have no way of tracking us. It was so dark out, I barely could see more than two trees ahead of me. Any tracks we made would be gone from the wind and rain by the time Exo had enough light to find them.
Unfortunately, this also meant Lisanda and I were shivering after just a few minutes of running.
We stopped under a tree that mostly shielded us from the wind and rain. Only then did I notice the rip in Lisanda’s dress was much more extensive than I’d first thought. There was a jagged tear from the top of her right breast through her shoulder. The long sleeve of her right arm was barely hanging on, attached by a thread. It twisted wildly in the wind.
She saw me looking and quickly pulled up her sagging frock to hide the top of her budding breast. It was too dark for me to see it clearly, but I looked away anyway.
“Are you cut?” I asked. I hadn’t noticed any blood.
“Just a long scrape, not deep.” Lisanda tore off the sleeve that was bound to come off soon anyway. It left her whole arm bare, matching her shoulder and the top of her bosom. As staring would be the only way I could really make anything out in this weather, it wasn’t too difficult to keep my eyes from lowering—though somewhat difficult, I had to admit.
“I haven’t seen Exo behind us,” I nearly shouted. I wanted to whisper, but the wind and rain were too loud.
A flash of lightning brightened everything for a blink. Thunder followed.
“No, I think we lost him,” Lisanda answered in the same loud voice as mine. “How far to camp?”
I looked at the mountain. “Maybe three miles?”
A gust of wind hit us like a tidal wave. Lisanda threw her arms around herself, shivering. She didn’t say anything, but I could see it on her face. Three miles was too far.
I felt a shiver starting as well, but it was easy to fight off—for now. Soon, we both would be shaking uncontrollably.
“We need to find somewhere out of the wind to warm up,” I suggested.
She nodded and took a step close to me, nudging against my chest. On reflex I curled my arms around her, holding her tight. Lisanda kept her arms around herself but turned her head sideways to push herself against me closer.
We stood like that for about a minute, using the tree as a shield as best we could.
Though we were warming up, and Lisanda’s shivers had begun to die down, we both knew we needed to move—somewhere we wouldn’t be seen if Exo happened to come this way.
“Ready for another run through the rain?” I asked.
She leaned back in my arms to look up at me. “One more minute like this.” She pushed herself back against my chest.
I squeezed her into me, and her chin came up on my shoulder. Her arms swung out and wrapped tightly around my back.
Another strike of lightning came down. Thunder followed immediately after. Neither of us trembled as we continued to hold each other.
“Another minute sounds good,” I said.
Chapter 24: Warm
“There.” I pointed.
Without waiting for Lisanda to agree, I dragged her toward the rocks I’d noticed at the base of a nearby hill. Even with the deafening wind and pouring rain, I still could hear Lisanda panting. She was doubled over, staggering as I pulled her forward.
“Almost there,” I reassured her.
We were completely soaked by then. It felt as if I’d jumped into the cold sea and stayed there until the chill reached my bones.
There was a short but wide crevice between the rocks that looked deep enough to fit us both.
“You fafa…first,” Lisanda sputtered between breaths and shivers.
I knew why she’d said it, and it wasn’t to be polite. We didn’t know what was in there, and there were some animals that looked for shelter just like we were doing.
I let go of Lisanda’s hand and crouched to peer inside. After holding her hand for so long, I felt somewhat vulnerable with it no longer in my grasp.
Or perhaps that was just from this eerie little cove I knew I would be crawling into.
I pushed Bastial Energy through my wand to create light and aimed it inside. There was indistinguishable crud around the edges of the rocks that mostly looked like dirt, and that was it. Empty.
Happily, I crawled in on my hands and knees, and I could hear Lisanda following right behind me.
I was so cold and tired from running, it was even an effort to keep up the low Bastial light. As soon as I touched the back wall and could go no farther, I let it out.
“I can’t sss…eee anything,” Lisanda said, her shivers making it hard to understand her words. She grabbed my leg by accident, quickly moving her hand to the side the moment she touched it. “Put the lala…light back on and mooo…ve farther in. My legs are sss…till outside. I’m fff…reezing.” Her teeth continued to rattle loudly when she was done speaking.
I couldn’t see her, but I could feel her hair dripping onto my outstretched legs. “I’m as fff…ar as I can go,” I explained through my own shivers. I put the light back on. “Sss…ee?” I used a thumb to show her how the rocks dipped behind me, creating a wall that slanted away from us.
My heart jumped when I turned back and noticed that half her breast was peeking over her ripped dress. She was still on her hands and knees with her dark hair twisted down one side of her face, the opposite side of the tear—the opposite side of her uncovered breast.
I lost my focus from the shock of it, and my light went out. I didn’t notice if she’d seen me looking. It had happened too fast. I was hesitant to start up the light again in case she felt exposed. I waited, but she didn’t ask for it again.
Lisanda rustled around my legs, making an obvious effort to squeeze in farther without sitting on me. She had no luck, and soon our limbs were getting tangled as we each grunted and made effort to find space.
“Do you want to sss…witch places?” I offered, still shivering so much my teeth were clattering when my jaw wasn’t clenched.
“Then you’ll jjj…ust be cold. Your lala…legs won’t fff…it all the way in either if we sss…witch.”
I already was cold, and the small crevice wasn’t warming me as quickly as I’d hoped. “Here, mooo…ve your lala…legs over here.” I took what had to be her ankles and gently pulled them around my waist. There was no room for us to sit side by side as the little cave was too narrow to turn our bodies, but I figured she could sit on my lap with her legs going under the slanted wall behind me. I imagined they would fit nicely.
She slapped my arm lightly, though it still stung as my skin was tender from the cold. “Those are my baba…bare legs you’re grabbing with your caca…cold hands!”
“I’m sss…orry.” Only then did I realize how close she would have to be for my idea to work. Lisanda
literally would have to be on top of me, our chins resting on each other’s shoulders. The idea was quite brash, but I was freezing, and it was the best thought I had for us both to warm up.
“It’s fff…ine,” she said. “Where do you wawa…want me to go?”
“Keep mooo…ving toward me.” I started to reach for her hand or arm but stopped myself. “Do you mind if I tata…touch you?”
“Gaga…go ahead.”
“Reach out your haha…hand, I can’t sss…ee anything.” I let that be a cue if she wanted me to focus more energy into light. Instead, she said nothing, and we found each other’s hands.
I pulled her toward me. “This way.” She came with my tug, sliding up onto my thighs.
“But I’m sss…itting on you nana…now.”
“You’re nana…not heavy,” I reassured her. The weight of her body actually was calming my shaking. “Keep going.”
Soon her thighs found my sides just above my hips, and her arms bumped into my chest. I expected her to complain about the proximity, but to my surprise she didn’t say anything.
I was leaning back, putting my hands on the ground behind me to support my weight and the force of her leaning on me. Lisanda’s legs stretched out between my hands and my hips, fitting snuggly. With each of us shivering and Lisanda on my lap, it was somewhat difficult to hold us up. She was leaning forward a little too much, pressing her hands against my chest in awkward bundled fists.
“I need to adjust myself to sit forward,” I warned her, already noticing my shivers dying down. “Can you sit up straight?”
She leaned off me by straightening her back. My eyes had adjusted by then, allowing me to see the outline of her face. I straightened my back as well to match her posture. With nowhere for my hands to go, they found Lisanda’s back and wrapped around it.
I thought I heard a faint gasp when I touched her, but I couldn’t be sure because of the loud wind just outside.
“This is only because of the cold,” she said flatly and then leaned into me, closing all the space between us with a tight embrace.
The first thing I noticed were her breasts pushing into my chest. Then I realized her legs had tightened around my hips as well. Her arms came over mine, holding on firmly to my upper back. With nowhere to put my head, I nestled my face in the nook of her shoulder and neck. Following my lead, she rested her chin on my shoulder.
