Echo

by H Waters

  “Claire will feel my presence a kilometer away,” he replied.

  “Who is he?” I yelled again.

  “He goes by the name Nikolai,” the Addax responded. Once he finished his last words everything had vanished. I was left in absolute darkness.

  “Wake up, sunshine,” Scarlet said as she tapped me on the head with the bottom of her staff.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I complied, sitting up and feeling a little bit sick to my stomach.

  “You were yelling in your sleep again. This time about hairy men and white bears,” Kallen laughed, wiping off what appeared to be vomit from the side of his mouth as he stood up from where he’d been resting.

  Scarlet smacked him in the back of the head with her staff, knocking him back off his feet. I laughed and got to my own feet, grabbing my bag and fastening my sword back onto my hip.

  “Here,” Scarlet said, tossing me some dried fruit and meat.

  “Thanks,” I replied with a smile.

  “Let’s get going,” Kallen grumbled as we followed him out of the clearing and back to the path.

  “Where are Lucy and Alaric?” I asked Scarlet.

  “They already headed off down the trail ahead of us.”

  “Well, we should catch up. I have some information that he really should know,” I told her as I picked up my pace.

  Alaric and Lucy were not moving very quickly, and we soon caught up to them. Even though it was morning the thick fog made the forest of dead trees and rocks seem like it was midnight, preventing any bit of sunlight from poking into the forest. “Wheewh!” I whistled to Lucy. As she turned her head towards me I tossed her the last piece of my dried meat. She flawlessly caught it and chomped it down, almost forgetting to chew. I did not have a very big appetite myself, still feeling a bit woozy from the dream.

  “Hey, Alaric. Last night I had another one of those visions,” I confessed as I pulled up beside him.

  “I heard,” he chuckled. “Something about hairy men and white bears?”

  “Well, kind of. A hairy shirtless man killed a white bear, but that’s not what was important about it,” I corrected him.

  “Go on,” he insisted.

  “Well, you see, I had another run-in with that white deer, or Addax, or whatever he calls himself,” I stuttered.

  “Did he say anything of importance?” Alaric asked, starting to sound kind of bored.

  “Well, he said that shirtless, hairy guy was named Nikolai, and he had the same tattoo as you, but with some extra weird letters on it, and I had previously seen him in that hall in the vision before.”

  Alaric’s tone got a bit more serious. “Why would you be having visions of Nikolai?”

  “The deer seems to think that he is what they’re using as a power source for whatever they’re doing with this machine,” I answered.

  Alaric rubbed his scruffy chin. “But he died in that hall, and no one has seen him since,” he argued.

  “From what I saw he was near the back, closer to the door than you were. I wouldn’t doubt it if he was one of the first to flee out of the back doors,” I proposed.

  “I did not hear anything of the sort when I was still in allegiance with the Devil’s Legion, but they could have snatched him as he fled and kept him imprisoned ever since,” Scarlet added, eavesdropping from not too far behind us.

  “But why on earth would they be waiting at the back just for him?” Alaric asked, confused.

  “Well, he was one of the oldest, so the most powerful. Maybe sending the Prophet in was just to flush you out of the hall. Maybe the end goal was not to kill you all, but gather you as power sources,” Scarlet suggested, sounding slightly disgusted with her own idea.

  “Big drunk batteries,” Kallen laughed, now riding Lucy again. Scarlet whacked him with her staff again, this time hitting him square in the chest, sending him tumbling to the ground. Kallen got up, and after grumbling a few curses at Scarlet he hopped back on Lucy.

  “So he is alive,” Alaric proudly declared. “We must go free him!”

  “Hey, calm down,” I said. “I want to free him as well. The deer said that Nikolai had helped him back in the day. So I think he could tell me more about who or what this deer is.”

  “But we have to be careful,” Scarlet said, “we can’t just barge through their front door. We have to be careful and take this slowly or we could all wind up dead and forgotten.”

  “But we have to save him,” Alaric demanded.

  “And if you die, then no one will ever save him,” Scarlet continued to lecture. Alaric huffed in agreement.

  XIV

  As we walked through the dark, gloomy forest, everything was uncomfortably quiet; even our footsteps sounded muffled. No one spoke for a very long time, and the only sound besides our movements was the random scuffling of things moving around out of sight in the trees, but Scarlet and Alaric seemed unfazed by the noise.

  “What exactly is our game plan to sneak into the university?” I asked the group, trying to break up the crippling silence.

  “There should be a door about halfway up this mountain tucked away in the stone, leading into the bottom of the university,” Scarlet replied. “A library of sorts, if I remember correctly.”

  “So it is secret and safe?” I asked.

  “Well not exactly secret, but there should be limited security, considering only the Devil’s Legion and their festering minions know about it,” Scarlet answered.

  “Good enough,” I agreed.

  We continued up the dark and winding mountain pass for what had to be at least half a day — it was impossible to tell due to the sun being completely blocked out by the thick fog. The further we walked, the more often the rustling sounds happened. “Do you guys hear that?” I asked nervously.

  “Probably just a squirrel,” Kallen said, waking up from his nap on Lucy.

  “That was far too big for a squirrel,” I barked back. Scarlet just shrugged, and Alaric was too far ahead to hear me complain.

  Then there were the shadows. As the rustling would happen, so would strange shadows. They danced through the mist from treetop to treetop, making only the slightest sounds considering how big they looked.

  “Um, guys, I think whatever it is, is getting closer,” I declared, feeling extremely uneasy.

  “Have you ever heard of the boy that cried wolf?” Scarlet joked.

  “Yeah, but that boy was not in a dark woods full of noise and shadows on his way to a den of ungodly creatures in order to free a man from some sort of soul-sucking machine,” I ranted, trying to swallow my fear.

  “Did you see that?” I asked the group, trying not to sound scared. “That was way too close to ignore.”

  “See what?” Scarlet replied, rolling her eyes.

  “The shadows. They keep shifting. I feel like we’re being watched.”

  “I’m sure it’s just the wind,” Scarlet said.

  “That’s the strange thing, there is no wind,” I told her.

  “Well, maybe it’s just not a windy day?” she laughed.

  “No, like there is no wind at all, not even a breeze. The air is still and stale,” I said, trying to get Scarlet to take this seriously. She stopped and looked at the dead trees.

  “Huh, that is odd considering how high up we are,” she replied, sounding concerned now. “Nature does strange things sometimes.” She shrugged and kept walking.

  “I think nature left this place a long time ago,” I said, following behind her.

  The shadows kept shifting and moving unnaturally, but every time I looked straight at them they became still, normal-looking shadows. “Kallen, have you ever been down this way, since you use to live in the mountains?” I asked. After a minute there was no response, and I turned to tell him how rude it is to ignore someone, but he was gone and so was Lucy.

  “Scarlet! Lucy and Kallen are missing!” I screamed, turning back to see her. Scarlet and Alaric were both gone as well.

  I spun around, surveying the dead fores
t trying to pick up any trace of them, but all I could see was the shifting shadows. “Maybe they got ahead of me,” I said out loud to myself, trying not to have a panic attack. I sprinted as fast as I could down the trail, running until I fell to my knees to catch my breath. The shadows stopped. Well, this is it, I thought to myself. This is how it ends. Alone in a dark forest eaten by some awful looking creature.

  Out of the shadows a large arm jolted out, grabbing me by the shoulder and aggressively pulling me into the brush.

  “Shhhh,” Alaric calmly said, putting his hand over my mouth to prevent me from yelling. Scarlet and Kallen were crouched next to Alaric, Scarlet holding Lucy by the collar.

  “What is going on!” I demanded, pulling Alaric’s hand from my face. Kallen just pointed to a hole in the thick wall of brush, through which we could see the path. I was about to say there was nothing there, when a large gray figure dropped from the treetops onto the path, its back turned to us. It was very tall, at least a foot taller than Alaric. A worn, thin tunic that resembled a burlap sack covered its skinny body, the vertebra of the creature was easily visible through the tunic. Lucy began to whine, but Scarlet quickly grabbed her snout and held it shut, forcing Lucy to the ground.

  The creature slowly looked around, analyzing the surrounding forest and path. Eventually it turned toward us. I froze completely, so terrified I had to physically cover my mouth with my hands to prevent myself from screaming. The creature had long white strands of hair hanging from its scalp. The pale gray skin on its face was so tight you could see the outline of every bone. Its nose was bent and long, while its eyes glowed a fiery red, not black like so many of the other creatures I had seen. Its face resembled that of an old woman who was rotting away.

  It sniffed at the forest air while it looked around. Once it was satisfied, it waved to the trees. On cue, more of the creatures began to appear. One after another dropped to the ground from the treetops. The now quite large group of hideous creatures began to walk down the path in the direction we’d been heading before Alaric pulled me into the brush. They walked away without a sound, their footsteps on the loose gravel path not even producing so much as a whisper.

  Once the creatures were out of sight, I turned to Kallen, but before I could speak he quieted me by holding a single finger to his lip. We waited quietly, sitting in the exact same position, for hours. When the sun began to set, I was allowed to talk. “What the hell were those things?” I demanded to know. “And why have we been stuck sitting here for so damn long?”

  Kallen stood up, stretching his small legs. “Those were what we call vultures,” he answered. “As for why we waited, well, those things have very keen senses. They would have known we were trailing them in minutes.”

  “Why were their eyes glowing red?” I asked the group.

  “They are supposed to be black,” Scarlet replied. “It is likely Claire’s witchcraft.”

  Alaric stood up from where he had been sitting. “Well, we should get a move on. We still have a lot of ground to cover before the University.”

  We pushed through the thick brush, making our way back to the path. Alaric and Scarlet led the way. They were talking about something, but they were just out of earshot. “Do you little people have super hearing or something? Can you hear what they’re saying?” I asked Kallen, who was trying his best to keep up next to me with his short legs.

  Kallen rolled his eyes. “No, we do not,” he grumbled. “But whatever it is, it must be funny,” he added, pointing to Scarlet. She was laughing and smiling more than I had ever seen her. At one point it almost looked like she was blushing. Alaric seemed to be telling a story, moving his hands around in the air as he talked. “At least they seem happy. I have a feeling after we meet up with those Vultures again it is going to get messy,” he said. “Is that sword all you have?”

  “For weapons, yeah I guess it is, but I think it’s enough.”

  “Well, take this, it’s helpful for when you’re in a pinch,” he said with a smile. He was holding a small knife, about as long as a pen. The knife’s long blade was a beautiful silver, and its handle was short and made of ivory or bone. He put a thin leather sheath over the blade and awkwardly tucked it into the heel of my boot while we walked.

  “Well thanks,” I said, patting him on the head.

  “Don’t do that,” he grumbled, swiping my hand away. “Dog!” he called out to Lucy, who was walking a couple of feet in front of us. She ignored him and continued to walk, likely knowing that if she stopped, she would have to give him a ride.

  Over time the clouds in the dark sky began to clear, letting the full moon shine through. The moon’s glow lit the path ahead surprisingly well. We had been walking for hours when Alaric finally stopped. He stared at a small fork in the road. One path went further up the mountain and looked far less used, while the second was well worn and sunk down into the mountain. “We take the high road,” Alaric said quietly.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Shhhh, lower your voice,” he replied. “Look.”

  Looking down at the path below I could see hundreds of large, thin footprints pressed into the ground. “Come, quietly. We are close now,” Alaric said, taking off down the narrow upper path. The rest of us followed in single file.

  After only about a half an hour of walking Alaric abruptly squatted down beside the trail and looked down. He motioned for us to follow suit and we quickly did. Looking through the dense foliage I understood why he had stopped. The lower trail, which ran not far below our trail at that point, had abruptly ended at a large wall of rock. The rock wall looked no different than any of the other ones scattered up the mountain, except for a small pedestal with a glowing red orb resting on it. The pedestal was hidden slightly in the shadows, tucked tight up against the rock.

  After a couple of minutes one of the vultures walked into the moonlight, quickly looked around, then walked over to the glowing red orb. “We have the traitor,” the Vulture growled.

  “Alive?” the orb asked back.

  “Very much so,” the vulture reassured the little red orb.

  “Bring him to the incubation floor. Claire would like a few words.” A human-sized hole opened up in the side of the rock.

  The vulture turned back down the shadowy path and waved its hand, motioning for something to come. At least twenty vultures walked out of the shadows. This first group was followed by two more vultures who each held a chain. The two chains were shackled to the wrists of a man they were dragging on his knees down the path. The man was wearing a brown robe that was tattered and torn, and a large hood covered his head. The vultures one by one ducked their tall lanky heads down, stepping into the small door in the rock. Once they were all through the door slowly slid shut.

  “What is the incubation floor?” I asked Scarlet.

  “I don’t know, I haven’t been in the loop with these creatures for hundreds of years,” Scarlet replied, sounding concerned.

  “So, what now?” I asked the group.

  “We were sent here to gather intel on what is going on behind these doors,” Kallen bravely declared, “so let’s get to it.”

  “Well, we cannot go through that rock without talking to whatever is behind the voice of the red orb thing,” Alaric added.

  “So we go through the vent system,” Scarlet offered.

  “The what now?” Alaric asked.

  “The University uses a complex metal duct system to circulate air through the entire building,” Scarlet replied. “And unless they’ve changed it, I should be able to navigate us through it.”

  She stood up, walking only a short way up the path before veering off into the dense brush. Alaric shrugged then followed suit, and one by one we followed Scarlet. Once through the brush we could see Scarlet standing near a large steel grate that was bolted directly into the rock face. “Hey muscles, rip this off,” she ordered Alaric.

  “Muscles eh?” he said with a smirk, as he strutted over to the grate.

  “Ju
st pull it off,” she told him, rolling her eyes.

  Alaric grabbed the top of the square steel grate with both his hands and began to pull it towards himself. As he pulled his feet dug into the rock. One by one the bolts began to snap. With each bolt that snapped, the grate bent a little more. He pulled at it until the top half of the grate was bent completely down, revealing a hole big enough for each of us to climb through if we went one by one.

  “Only take what’s necessary, it’s tight in there,” Scarlet told us, throwing her bag to the ground. The only thing she kept was her staff, which she tied to her back with some thin rope. I threw my bag onto the ground next to hers, keeping only my sword on my hip, the key in my pocket, and the small knife in my boot that Kallen had given me. “Follow me and try not to get lost,” Scarlet told us all.

  She crawled into the duct followed by Alaric, Kallen, Lucy, and then me. The duct was just big enough for me to crawl on my hands and knees. Every once in a while I could feel my back rub against the top of the duct. I was shocked that Alaric even fit in at all. The duct was made of a shiny steel that was cold to the touch.

  “Are you sure this can hold my weight?” Alaric asked Scarlet.

  “I’m sure it will be fine,” she replied from up ahead. “Now be quiet, sound carries through these things.”

  We slowly snaked through the vents. It was incredibly dark; I could just make out the back of Lucy, and wherever she turned I followed. Every once in a while, the angle of the vents would slope upward more sharply. “Are we going up the mountain?” I asked Kallen, who I presumed was still in front of me, somewhere in the darkness.

  “I believe so,” he whispered back.

  Up ahead light was shining into the vents from the side wall. It was bright enough to see Scarlet and Alaric stop up ahead. I crawled a little faster in order to catch up to them. Once there I realized where the light was coming from: in the side wall of the vents there were small grates every four feet or so, not big enough for a human to fit through, but maybe just big enough for a Clurichaun. Scarlet was looking through one of the grates, with great focus. Out of curiosity I peered through the grate closest to me.