by Eric Vall
My stomach dropped. “So we’re stranded?”
Varleth let out a hiss of a sigh. “Well…”
Arwyn walked right up to the banisher, her brows raised. “Well?”
“As a banisher,” he began slowly, “I can theoretically open a rift of my own. I have never done it personally, but I know the principles and spells involved. It will take some time and will drain me considerably.”
Arwyn’s command was quick and resolute. “Do it.”
Varleth nodded. He sheathed his sword and thrust his hands forward, his eyes pinched shut as he began to mutter. As sweat started to pebble along his temple, he fell to his knees, his brows deeply furrowed, and a deep purple glow emanated from his hands.
Just then, a commotion broke out all around us, a cacophony of roars and yells and growls. The rest of the bird-things monstrous friends had been roused, no doubt attracted to the massive amounts of mana Varleth was drawing.
Or worse yet, it was an ambush, and the fact that the monsters could plan an ambush was terrifying by itself.
“Varleth, how much longer?” Arwyn asked, her voice urgent, bordering on panic as dozens and dozens of monsters started to pour over the walls of the town and rushed us with a fury.
“This can’t be rushed, ma’am.”
Arwyn cursed. “Okay, you two.” Her eyes drifted over to Nia and me. “We need to hold them back for as long as necessary.”
We simply nodded to her and then to each other as the monsters came into view. From what I could tell, there weren’t any that were too strong, just the basic catalog of grunts, ghouls, chatteroshi, goblins, trolls, imps, and the like, but there were so many of them. It was like when Nia and I had been in the Shadowscape the first time, only this time we were surrounded and didn’t have a lot of room to work with.
I had an idea though I wasn’t sure if I had a lot of time to do it. I hurled three of the four crystals I already had in my hands as I sent up a prayer. As they hit the ground at my feet, they flashed and exploded in a puff of smoke. When it cleared, my three drillmoles looked at me expectantly. I knotted my brow in concentration as I gave them their orders. With that, they dove into the ground and got to work.
The ground began to shift in a circle around us, carving the ground into a deep and perilous trench separating us from the monsters. The area was about the size of the tavern’s common room, so we had room to move. The first monsters arrived, ghouls and chatteroshi and some goblins. Ghouls were mindless, so they fell right into my trench. The chatteroshi were hesitant, but started to jump the trench anyway. Nia roared and sent jets of flame all around us, keeping them back. While she was at it, she conjured up a roaring wall of fire that filled the moat and shot high into the sky to add an extra layer of protection.
There were so many monsters though, so I knew we needed more. I thought back to the first portal when I had first seen Nia manipulate the earth element.
“Nia, can you put a wall of stone around us?” I asked as I fished out one of my wallerdon crystals. She thought for a moment, then nodded. She began to mutter, took a deep breath, then slapped her hands to the ground. The earth began to rumble, and Nia gritted her teeth. With a final cry, she brought her hands up and over her head. Suddenly the earth erupted around us to encase us in a rough rocky wall which I topped with my wallerdon.
Once that was done, Nia dropped her arms and took deep breaths as we heard ghouls burn in the flames. The chattering gnashing of the chatteroshi was deafening as they tried to claw up the walls, but I continuously heard them hiss and burn from the heat of the fire.
Arwyn managed to snicker. “Well done, you two.”
“That won’t hold them forever,” I replied grimly.
“It… it won’t have… to,” said Varleth behind us, the strain clear in his voice. We looked back to see the air before him ripple and expand, then turn the deep purple of a rift. There it was, a way home. Varleth shook tremendously and grimaced through his mask.
“Hurry though, I can’t hold it for long.”
He didn’t have to tell us twice. Arwyn shouted at Nia. “You first, Kenefick, then you Gryff. I’ll be right behind you.”
We nodded. Nia swiped the sweat from her brow and moved past Varleth and dove through the small rift. I followed behind her. Varleth’s rift was about half the size of a door, but it would do. I gave him a nod.
“Good luck,” I told him.
Sweat drenched his face and plastered his hair to his forehead. “Go, summoner. Hurry.”
Right. No dawdling. With a deep breath, I dove forward and went through the rift and back to our world.
I found on the other side that I had stepped out of one hell and into another.
Chapter 3
Time could be screwy in the Shadowscape. You could stay there for ten minutes and find that the whole day had gone by, or you could be there for hours and find that only a minute had gone by. It was impossible to predict, and I was hoping as I was pulled between worlds that it would be the latter.
This time though the time shift had betrayed us.
When Nia and I came through Varleth’s rift, we found the sun high in the sky, nearly at its noon peak. It would have been a beautiful day if it weren’t for the fires raging all around the town and the screams of the dying. The triage tent was torn asunder, and there was blood and broken bodies everywhere.
Buildings all around were demolished, mounds of brick and rubble. The inn was destroyed. The haunting shriek of those shadowy monsters pierced the air, but they weren’t so close now. One circled our airship as some of our surviving soldiers did their damnedest to survive and do anything to kill the terrifying beasts. Another flew high overhead and menacingly watched the carnage as the final one flew north.
I stripped off my mask and ran a hand through my hair. This wasn’t good.
Nia’s hand clapped my shoulder. “Gryff!” she shouted and pointed to the ruins of the inn. It took me a second to see what she was referring to, but then it became clear. The black boots, the steel leg guards, the silver cloak. Orenn.
“Shit,” I said and ran with her to his side. Orenn laid still amidst the broken wood and stone. Blood ran down his face and stained his uniform in multiple spots. He was breathing, thankfully, but he didn’t look like he was in good shape. I went to put my arms under him, but Nia slapped my hands away.
“Stop! Wait for Arwyn. We don’t want to do more damage if we can help it.”
I nodded. “Right.”
A moment later, Arwyn came through the rift, a shoulder under Varleth to support him. He was ashen and could barely stand as drained as he was. The rift blinked out once they were through. That was one good thing at least. The monsters on the other side couldn’t follow. Not much solace, given the situation, but it was something.
Arwyn’s face swiftly contorted with worry as she took in the scene. “Maker,” I heard her wheeze. When she saw us, she gently let go of Varleth, who then sat back on his butt and sucked in fresh air, and came to us in a rush. She tossed aside her mask and dropped to her knees next to Orenn and immediately started to probe the metallogue’s wounds gently as her hands glowed gold with healing magic.
Without so much as a word to us, she got to work. Gunfire continued to pop from the soldiers behind us, and my eyes went that way in time to see the monsters pick up two of the soldiers, fly high, and drop them to their deaths. I didn’t watch, but I shuddered when I heard their bones break on impact. The two remaining monsters both screeched, making my ears throb, and then they both started to fly away.
Arwyn cursed. “This is bad,” she said hoarsely. “This is bad, bad, bad.”
Nia stood and watched the monsters fly away. “Ma’am, what do we do?”
Arwyn’s brows knitted tightly together as she grimaced in concentration, her eyes glued shut. “You need to go after those monsters.”
“What about you?” I asked. I didn’t want to leave Arwyn here since she didn’t have offensive magic of her own. If those mo
nsters came after her...
“I’ll stay here.”
“What?” I stood, my heart racing. “All by yourself?”
“My duty is to the wounded, Gryff,” she snapped. “Offensively, I would be useless against those monsters, anyway. My skills are needed here.”
“But--”
“Go, Gryff,” she barked. “That is an order!”
I gulped and straightened. “Yes, ma’am.” She was right of course, I knew that. I was letting my personal feelings for her get in the way. Lives were at stake, and this was where she could do the most good.
“Take the airship and catch those things. Hurry.”
Nia and I nodded, and I looked over Orenn one last time and hoped that Arwyn could save him. I had faith in her. As Nia and I ran for the airship, Arwyn yelled behind us. “Take Varleth with you, and good luck!”
We did as we were told. Without waiting for his answer, I knelt beside Varleth and put his arm around my shoulder so I could support him. He said nothing as we hobbled to the airship while gasping for breath.
“Are you hurt?” Nia asked him.
“Not physically, no, but creating a rift is taxing,” the banisher explained. “I need some rest to regenerate my mana.”
While I hoped he would get some, I didn’t think he would be able to get much.
I did my best to ignore the dead and broken soldiers as we scampered up the ladder into the airship. Once inside, I helped Varleth get strapped down into a seat, then joined Nia in the cockpit where she had beelined to. It was a cone-shaped room with one panel of switches and buttons near the massive windscreen that faced the front of the ship. I had no clue what any of the controls meant, not even a hint. There were two leather seats before the control panel, and the pilot was nowhere to be found.
“Damn,” Nia cursed as her eyes flew across the controls.
“We have to do something,” I said aloud, then a desperate idea sparked in my head as I turned to Nia. “You’ve flown in these things all your life. Do you have any idea how to fly one yourself?” I hoped that with her station and the high expectations of the Kenefick family that she could have been taught, but it was still a long shot. For the first time ever, I saw a flicker of real doubt in Nia’s eyes.
“I- Maybe?” she said. “My father insisted I learn how to fly an airship, yes, but… I’ve never actually flown one. I do know that if the ignition sequence is done wrong, the entire airship engine could explode…” Her voice trailed off as she hesitantly walked to the controls.
I wasn’t sure why she was worried. Nia didn’t fear death, and neither did I… but then I realized that she wasn’t worried about herself. She was worried that she could be responsible for killing me. I put a hand on her shoulder as she settled into one of the leather seats.
“Nia,” I said encouragingly, “you’ve got this. You won’t get it wrong, and we are going to catch up to those monsters and save the day.” As she looked up over her shoulder at me, I flashed her a smile. “You are a Kenefick, after all.”
That brought a smile back to her lips as she turned her eyes back to the controls. “Thank you, Gryff.” She rolled her neck and focused. “Don’t worry, I can fly it.”
“You’re welcome.” I chuckled and took a seat next to her.
She started flipping switches and pressing buttons. The ship hummed to life, the lights snapping on, the walls and seat vibrating.
I swiveled my head around and called to Varleth. “Buckle up, banisher, Kenefick is flying, and we’ll all probably die.”
“Great,” he yelled back.
“You’re such an ass sometimes,” Nia said with a shake of her head and a smile on her face.
I put my arms behind my head. “Simply trying to lighten the mood.”
Her smile faded as she focused on the buttons. She took hold of the small steering wheel in front of her. “Alright, here we go.”
We rose slowly, the ascent bumpy. I’ll admit, the sensation of flight was a lot different from this vantage point, the entire landscape stretched out plainly before us. When we zoomed forward, the world seemed to rush by us even faster than when I had been riding in the back cabin. It felt like I truly was the one flying, a feeling that only increased as Nia pushed the nimble little airship to its limit as we chased after the strange shadow-winged monsters.
As fast as the airship was going, we could barely keep up. Oddly enough, the worms constantly slowed and sped up, almost as if they were taunting us. I was uneasy with the whole thing. Clearly, they could lose us if they wished, and they weren’t shrieking which I was sure would reach us even through the thick metal walls of the ship.
This whole day was wrong. First, we were lured into a trap in the Shadowscape and ambushed. Now, these same monsters were leading us on a merry chase that we were outmatched in. Something sinister was afoot, and I feared that things were only going to get worse. While I was afraid we were flying right into another trap, we couldn’t exactly leave these beasts to their own devices. If we were heading for another trap, then we would have to spring it and defeat it like all the others.
Just then, Varleth stumbled in from the cabin and put a hand on the backs of our seats. He looked straight ahead, his jaw tensed.
“Do you have a plan?” he asked.
“No,” I answered plainly. “While this feels like a trap, we have little choice other than to follow them until they land. Unfortunately, airships don’t have any offensive capabilities.”
Varleth scoffed. “You’re right, that isn’t a plan. And what will you do if they split up?”
Nia scowled and answered for me. “We shall cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Even though I could tell that the surly banisher wanted to argue, he could not dispute any of that. “I don’t like it, but I fear that you’re both right. We’ll simply have to see this through.”
I nodded grimly to that, and from there, we rode along in silence for a long while. The ship rose, fell, and weaved every which way as the monsters made a show of their speed and maneuverability. Now more than ever, it was obvious the shadow beasts were trying to get a rise out of us. While it was infuriating, I wouldn’t fall for their games and kept myself calm and collected.
Almost as soon as this became almost routine, the monsters split apart abruptly as they burst into different directions, one south, one north, and one east. Nia cursed, her eyes darting between the three.
“I had a feeling this would happen,” she seethed through gritted teeth. She looked like she wanted to kill something. “Which should we follow?”
I really wished these ships had some kind of magical weapons. Scientists really needed to develop that technology, but for now, I made the best call I could.
“The one ahead of us is heading west towards Bedima Enclave,” I said. “There’s much more of a casualty threat there.”
Varleth nodded beside me. “That’s true. The other two… we’ll just have to pray they don’t do too much damage.”
As the chase went on, the sky darkened as heavy gray clouds swollen with rain rolled in over the land and blotted out the sun. It made seeing the dark creature that much more difficult. This day was not going our way. Nia kept after the shadow monster as best she could though. Her grip was tight on the wheel, and her brow was furrowed.
She bit her lip as the monster suddenly dove low and skimmed the landscape. So Nia jerked the airship down so we could keep on it, and the sudden motion made my stomach drop.
“Damn.” I grabbed fiercely onto the arm of my chair and tightened my stomach.
“Don’t worry.” Nia chuckled. “I am not about to crash.”
“My body isn’t exactly used to intense flying maneuvers,” I quipped back.
“Well, you better get used to it fast,” she said as she pulled our nose forward to follow another rapid ascent by the winged beast as it rejoined the others that it seemed had circled around to regroup here. It then dove again, weaving between the hilly country below. When we crested o
ver the next hill to stay on the monster’s tail, we saw Bedima Enclave in the distance.
The air seemed to get sucked out of the cockpit as the Enclave came into view. The blood drained from my face, and my heart dropped into my stomach as Varleth and Nia both took in sharp intakes of breath. It was so quiet that I could hear their heartbeats.
“No…” Nia said.
“H-how?” Varleth stammered, sounding more vulnerable than I had ever heard.
The cause of our distress was the fires burning across the city, columns of smoke choking the sky. In the middle of it all was a giant rift the size of a church.
Bedima was one of the smallest Enclaves. It was tucked into the crook of two mountains at the edge of the massive Daggerback Mountain range that nearly divided the entire continent. So Bedima was small, but there were large mines that ringed the city that made it look bigger than it was, and the iron, copper, and other precious metals it mined were desired throughout the world.
It had very low walls around the city, thin and minuscule in comparison to the majesty that was Varle’s behemoth walls. But as small as they were, they were still made of the magical xanyarstone that was supposed to keep the people safe. Xanyarstone was anti-magic and anti-monster. Rifts weren’t supposed to open-up within the protective walls. And yet, that was exactly what happened. Again. Only this one was way bigger than the one Nia and I had encountered before.
We lost sight of the monster we’d been following, but it hardly seemed to matter in the face of what we were witnessing.
As we got closer, it was clear that we wouldn’t be able to land at the airship depot that most Enclaves had. The docking towers were knocked down, and flying monsters patrolled the air, though none of them looked like the mysterious flying worm-like beasts we’d been following. A few airships were hovering above the city, but they were swarmed by flying monsters. The smoldering, crashed remains of other airships sat amidst the city and the low fields beyond the walls.
