by Azalea Ellis
Sam and Zed didn’t bring it up again, but they didn’t look happy.
After we were all well rested and recovered, we packed up. As we filed onto the smaller, clunkier ship that sat in the clearing, Torliam’s eyes followed Chanelle, who was unresponsive, but followed the group’s gentle commands. “What is wrong with her?”
I stood back with him, watching her. “She’s . . . a bit like you,” I said. “NIX experimented on her, and caused some damage to her brain.”
Torliam’s lips curled and he spat on the ground. “Humans.” It was a curse word, coming out of his mouth.
“I think the Seeds might be able to heal her,” I said, as nonconfrontationally as I could.
He looked at Chanelle for a long while, and the anger faded away, replaced by a distant look. He entered the ship without another word. After a few minutes, Torliam lifted us off. If the ship’s clunky design and worn-out body hadn’t clued me into the ship’s quality compared to Lady Ladriel, the flight did. It was noticeably slower and shakier.
Zed stood behind Torliam, curiously watching as the giant man piloted. “How long till we arrive?”
Gregor groaned and rolled his eyes from the back. “You’re already asking the stereotypical, ‘Are we there yet?’”
Zed scrunched up his face and stuck out his tongue at Gregor, then grinned when the small boy huffed and looked away with his nose in the air.
Torliam released a small smile at their antics. “It will be many days before we arrive at the fort. This ship is little better than an old children’s toy. We will not be stopping, because we are about to enter the Dark Lands. It is much too dangerous.”
“Dark Lands?”
“They have been abandoned by my people, left to the monsters and . . . other creatures. They are hazardous even to my people, so for you . . .”
Zed laughed. “Yeah, yeah. I can guess what you’re going to say. Us puny humans would all be slaughtered within mere moments of encountering the fresh air outside the ship.”
Torliam gave a single nod. “Indeed.” But I noticed that once again he failed to hide his smile.
Zed leaned over his shoulder again. “Can you teach me how to fly this thing?”
“Perhaps.”
We flew for hours, and I took the spot up at the front beside Torliam, meditating under the light of the brilliant sun and rolling clouds. I turned my awareness inward, wondering if this was also a function of my Wraith Skill, and leisurely imprisoned every drop of Chaos I could find within myself. When I finally opened my eyes to the sunset, I was relaxed, almost languid.
That relaxation didn’t last for long, as the first thing I saw was Torliam’s tense face, looking outward toward the horizon. Dark clouds were gathering on the very edge, above a slight glint that I thought might be water. Torliam was pushing the ship fast enough that it shook uncomfortably.
“A storm?” I asked.
“Yes. But I do not think it is the type of storm you mean. Things have worsened in the time I have been gone.” He pushed the ship a little harder. “I will try to outrun it.”
“Can this thing fly in a storm?”
“No. But we cannot land here.”
I leaned forward and looked down. I’d had my awareness focused inward instead of on my surroundings while meditating, so I gasped when I saw the forest of feathered metal spikes below us. They followed the path of the ship, swaying, and turning towards us like sunflowers toward the light. Or, more likely, like some sort of carnivorous plant following the movement of its prey.
The storm on the horizon moved faster than I thought possible, drawing near to us. I could hear the wind screaming. And I mean that literally. At first, I thought I was imagining it, but the sound was unmistakable. “What is it?” I stared at the mass of dark writhing clouds that seemed at times to have the shape of grasping hands, borne on an unnaturally fast wind.
“There is no word for it in your language. It is a storm that thirsts for blood to add to its waters.”
Jacky had moved to look out the front viewport beside me, and her knuckles went white as she clenched her fists. “Gimme a monster to fight any day. This isn’t . . .”
I nodded my understanding. “Same here.” The ship lurched, and my insides went with it, my throat tightening in fear. I was no stranger to fear, and if I was honest with myself it was my constant companion, but it had been a while since I’d faced the special brand of it Estreyer produced.
The ship lurched again, and I bit my lip to keep from making a sound and giving myself away. My teeth fit perfectly against the thin scar I had on the tender skin on the inside of my lip. The pain of the bite was familiar, and helped me to unclench the death grip my hands had on the sides of my seat.
“We will land there,” Torliam said, pointing with his chin to a spot past the forest of spikes where boulders sat scattered about on the barren ground. The ship lurched again as a portion of the storm cloud lashed out at our tail end. “Prepare to abandon the ship. We must hide amongst the stones.”
I nodded quickly, and took the opportunity to occupy myself with something I could actually affect, instructing the team to put on the packs and make sure everything was tied down to them securely. We had some plastine rope, and we all worked together to tie a piece of it to ourselves. I hoped if we were heavy enough, we’d be able to withstand the force of the winds outside better, or at least someone who was could keep another from being blow away.
“Seriously?” Gregor said, his voice rising. “We’re going to abandon the only thing keeping us safe from that?”
“The ship is meant to fly, to be carried by the wind. You may stay inside it while it does so, if you wish,” Torliam snapped. He half-crashed the ship down amongst the boulders, and threw open the door. The wind flooded in, assaulting our ears with its shrieking. He let out a roar in response, but though it was defiant, I recognized the fear in it. And that terrified me, more than the storm itself.
Chapter 16
How can I be substantial if I do no cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.
— C.G. Jung
I ushered the team out into the gale, following right behind Torliam in a defensive formation. Strong and heavy people on the outside, the ones who needed protection moving within the makeshift shell. I moved at the side, with Zed on my left, because I knew I wasn’t strong enough to protect our back. Even with the packs weighing me down, the wind almost lifted me off my feet, so I hunched down and dug the claws of my toes into the ground for a tiny bit of extra purchase.
I knew I put on a facade of bravado for others. I needed people to believe in me, so my team would listen and follow my lead, and my enemies would fear me and hesitate to attack. I’d even hoped that if I told the lie of my own fearless power enough, it would become the truth. I had started to believe it, a little bit. But now we were back in Estreyer.
We ran, hunched over to make smaller targets, and I kept a firm grip on Zed’s sleeve, just in case. Adam threw out shields to the left and right to impede the wind while Chanelle stumbled along next to him, and Blaine used the size and weight of the mecha suit to curl protectively around the kids. Jacky brought up our rear, weighing herself to the ground.
I risked a glance back to make sure she was okay, and saw the cloud form a funnel and reach down to the ship, sucking it up into the roiling mass. Like it was a toy.
Jacky screamed something at me, but I couldn’t hear her.
I shook my head and turned back to the front, then screamed myself when I saw the wing of dark mist swinging toward us from the side. Luckily, no one could hear me, either.
I ducked down farther as it swept over us, widening my eyes as it obscured my vision any farther than a foot or so in front of my own nose. The sky had been darkening, before. Now everything was true black. My ears ached from the noise of the screams all around us. I tightened my grip on Zed to make sure we weren’t separated, and pushed my awareness outward.
Faces swam in the darkness
, attached to formless bodies with cutting wind for hands. One swam past my vision, large and open-mouthed, as if it was moving to devour me, and along with it, a scythe-like whip of wind cut towards us from the side, formed from the dark mist.
Torliam turned toward it, with Adam mirroring him when it smashed against one of his shields and obliterated it, but the others didn’t even know it was coming. At its height, it was literally positioned to cut them in half, separating torso from legs.
I attacked, slashing out with a combination of claws and a rush of Chaos that followed my movement. I wasn’t holding back. I had too much to lose, and with the Seeds I’d taken and the others stashed in my pack, I’d be more than able to mitigate the side effects.
The scythe disintegrated with my attack, and the face focused on me for a moment, but looked more surprised than angry or pained. I tried again, on a nearby figure moving toward us, with the same effect. Or lack of effect, as the case may be. Maybe this storm was too similar to Chaos to be hurt by it. All I could do was return it to its amorphous state, not destroy it.
I noticed a couple of the team were starting to veer off from the course Torliam led, unable to see him or the rest of us, so I broadcast a Window to everyone, containing a constantly updating mini-map. It showed the location of the rest of the team, and the highest-priority dangers as the cloud formed attacks around us.
Zed reached into the holster at his thigh and pulled out a gun. He shot into the amorphous mass, bullets that cut through it for a while before being commandeered by the strength of the wind, and turned back on us. I sent out an alert of danger in their path, and Adam tossed up a shield to stop their progress.
—Bullets not working. It spits them right back.—
-Eve-
—How about an explosion, then?—
-Zed-
He pulled out a small cartridge from his utility belt, and loaded it into the gun. The recoil knocked his hand back, but whatever he had shot detonated in the midst of the cloud in a ball of fire. The flames were quickly sucked up and disappeared, but the screams turned angrier.
—Duck! I’m zapping the area.—
-Adam-
I didn’t even think, but threw myself to the ground immediately, along with everyone except Torliam, who I figured could handle himself either way. I closed my eyes almost too late, as despite the eclipsing mist, when Adam let loose I saw the back of my eyelids in a bright red flash.
—Dammit, Adam! My eyes!—
-Jacky-
When would she learn to close her eyes? This happened every time.
The lightning cut through the wet cloud with light and heat, and despite the fact that electricity hurting a storm-cloud seemed counterintuitive, it screeched so hard I wondered if my ears would begin to bleed and thinned out around us for a bit.
Torliam used the opportunity to point to a big rock outcropping in the distance, and I read his lips scream the word, “Go!”
I scrambled to my feet, still clutching Zed’s sleeve, and grabbed the blinded Jacky around the arm, hauling her up and dragging the both of them forward. The cloud was already thickening again, so I put a big beacon on the mini map where a rock outcrop jutted from the ground, and rushed toward it.
Another scythe rushed toward the more spread out group, from the other side. Too far for me to reach with Chaos, moving too quick. It was going to hit Blaine, and Kris and Gregor along with him.
But I had forgotten he had a VR chip of his own now, and could see the threats signaled on the Windows I’d sent, just like the rest of us. He spun, using the artificial strength of his mecha skeleton to send the two small bodies flying toward my side of the circle.
His momentum carried him around, and as the scythe of wind slashed at him, his suit let out a burst of fire from the hands. It didn’t catch the entirety of the attack, and he flew backward. The split plastine rope waved about in the wind like a fire hose at full pressure, a sign that he was beyond our ability to rescue by forcefully pulling him along.
Zed and I each grabbed one of the kiddos before they could hit the ground or smash into one of the many surrounding boulders.
I wrapped my arms around Gregor, and screamed, “Hold on tight!” into his ear.
Adam was pale and his long limbs seemed to be dragging, but he closed in behind us, throwing up shields to cover our retreat.
Debris whipped through the air, striking the shields, and stabbing at us when they got by.
Some hit Gregor in the cheek, and I tugged him closer and barreled forward with him tucked to my chest, head down and arms wrapped tight around his small body to provide protection.
A piece of severed rope, only a few inches long, tore through the air almost faster than my Skill could perceive. It entered Sam’s stomach from the side, slicing through it like soft cheese. He ran a couple more steps before falling.
Adam paused for a moment to grab the rope around his waist, looped it under his arms, and dragged Sam behind him.
They were moving too slow, Adam without the strength to drag Sam while keeping himself and Chanelle safe, and Sam too preoccupied with trying to keep his guts from spilling out of his torso to help.
Blood spread out on the ground behind them. The stones were . . . drinking it. No time to worry about that, either.
Jacky lunged forward, grabbing Sam around his knees and shoulders, and carrying him forward, faster than Adam had been able to drag him.
Behind us, Torliam turned and began to walk backward toward us, as if he would single-handedly hold off the storm. Then he began to glow. Not like radioactive glow-in-the-dark, but a shining pale blue light that wafted off him in visible ripples.
Then he swung his glowing arm, palm flat, and sliced with it toward the darkness, as if his arm extended far beyond the tips of his fingers, and was really a blade. Whatever power he was using sliced into the cloud with a faintly luminescent edge, and the storm shrieked again and drew back, giving us a few more moments of respite.
The storm gathered itself, tightening as if preparing to shoot forward in retaliation, but Torliam used the edge of his glowing palm to cut a line across the back of his opposite forearm. His blood splattered against the rocks around him, thrown about by the wind. What the hell was he doing?
The clouds sprang forward, formed like curving hawk talons that dwarfed even his Estreyan size. But before they reached him, the rocks around him tumbled together, smashing against each other with such force I could feel the shockwave, even if I couldn’t hear it.
The boulders formed a humanoid shape that reminded me slightly of Behelaino’s rock golems, only much bigger. The stone creature took the brunt of the storm’s attack, and staggered backward. But it had given Torliam time to escape, and he dashed toward us, not even looking back. As he ran, all around us the boulders began to tumble together, and the stones rose on two legs, moving to face the storm.
Torliam quickly overtook my escaping team, grabbing Blaine with one arm and dragging him along as he passed. He escorted us closely the rest of the way to the center of the stone outcrop. Once we were within, it protected us from the wind.
We all huddled up within the protecting rocks, crouching down and covering our ears with our palms. I made sure with a tight burst of the Wraith Skill that everyone was alright, then did the same.
—Eve, are we going to be okay?—
-Gregor-
It was the first time he’d used his VR chip to talk to me.
—Yes. You’re going to be alright.—
-Eve-
I didn’t tell him to trust me. Instead I smoothed my face into a mask of certainty, as if this whole situation was nothing more than an irritation to me. He was a child. I’d never let him know how completely my expression was a lie. Because even if I was afraid, I wouldn’t let him be hurt. That, at least, was the truth.
Sam huddled in a corner, shaking and gasping as he pushed his insides back through the open slice, and applied pressure.
Zed and Jacky worked together
to bandage him up the mundane way, and Sam kept muttering, “I’ll heal, I’ll heal,” over and over again.
The rocks fought with the storm, releasing some sort of power that turned the mist to pebbles and forced it to the ground. Eventually, the storm retreated, and when it did, the boulders settled back to the ground, rolling apart.
Torliam let out a shuddering sigh, and gave the group a despairing look. “Your combat abilities are all woefully lacking. You are so weak, I cannot imagine how you managed to survive thus far.”
“My power has bought us protection, and your friend’s blood has paid for time. We may stay here through the night, but no longer,” Torliam said, crouching over and trailing his six fingers over the rock below, almost as if petting an animal. The cut on his forearm was already healed. “The stones will require more blood if we do, and none of us wants to pay their price, believe me.”
“Is there any safe place near here?” I asked.
“No,” he said simply. “If we can pass the chasm of the North, we might stay in the guardhouse for the night, tomorrow. But it is a long journey for people with such short legs. And as we have just seen, I am too weakened to protect you all, when we encounter danger.” He gestured in Sam’s direction.
“I’m okay,” he muttered weakly. “I can heal it. I just need some rest.”
Jacky stared at him for a moment, then turned on Torliam. “You should train us, then, no?” “If we’re too weak to make it, you should train us till we’re stronger. You’re a warrior or whatever, right?”
Torliam snorted. “I have no desire to waste my time trying to strengthen a group of humans.”
Jacky protested, but he didn’t relent.
The ring from the Oracle, sealed around my left forefinger, glinted in the brightening moonlight as the second moon entered the night sky. I noticed Torliam glancing at it.
“It was the first gift from the Oracle,” I volunteered. “She gave them to me as little interconnected loops, like a chain. I had to figure out how they all fit together, and once I did, they shrunk onto my finger, injected their contents into me and gave me the vision of Behelaino,” I hesitated, “and of you, and now they won’t let go.”
