by Justin Sloan
“Well, at least we know we’re not the only ones here,” Rhona stated.
Donnon grunted. He was looking for a way down.
The fairy, however, moved away from that location and went deeper into the island and west instead of east.
“If they’re the enemy, they aren’t near Lady Mowain,” Alastar countered. “I say we keep our eyes on the prize. Focus on taking her out, then deal with whatever else is here.”
The others agreed, so they moved back up the hill. Before they rounded the bend again, Alastar spared a look back to see another ship approaching. Something was definitely going on down there, and it made him think about their friends on the mainland. He hoped they were proving successful at finding the enemy. At times like this there was no room for wasted effort.
A strong gust of wind blew across the tall grasses in the areas below the hill, so that they rippled like an ocean wave across the land. Birds hopped from one spot to another, then took to the sky and circled the group before moving on.
Before long they were walking parallel with the shore, past the crags and cliffs in this direction, and then, without warning, the fairy simply stopped. She had moved to a spot of bare rock with a few haggard trees nearby, bent by the wind and growing low to the ground.
There was nothing here.
“Please tell me that thing didn’t just lead us to…what? An old campsite?” Donnon groaned, lifting his hands over his head to catch his breath. “We’re lost.”
They all started looking around, searching for a secret passage or anything that could help them. Did they need to go underground? Was she around here, watching them while invisible or something like that? It didn’t seem possible, but then again, what seemed possible no longer seemed logical, based on the world they now saw and everything they had learned they didn’t understand about it.
Still, they soon gave up.
This doesn’t make any sense, Alastar thought, waving his hands in a circle as if that would convey his frustration to the light fairy. She kept circling, then moving to the ground and coming back to him.
“She seems…confused.” Kia shrugged. “Maybe she’s lost.”
“Or maybe there’s buried treasure there and she’s leading us to it,” Lannis offered. “How cool would that be?”
“Considering that it wouldn’t help our cause in the slightest, not very.”
The boy shrugged.
“Let’s try something else, then,” Alastar said. “Maybe we can work our way around the island, see if the fairy does something different at a different angle.”
“Right,” Rhona agreed. “Or maybe we’ll spot something along the way, some clue.”
“Or maybe their goddess will be bathing nude in the waters,” Estair said. “Isn’t that what goddesses do?”
Donnon chuckled, but stopped at a look from Rhona.
“This one’s not a real goddess,” Rhona argued, giving them a glare that shut them up. “She’s a murderous aunt who will die today.”
Nobody knew what to say other than Alastar’s grunt of agreement, so they followed him when he started walking. He kept the fairy in play in case something different happened, but she simply kept circling around him now that they were leaving the spot she had apparently thought they should be.
“So let’s say we find Her,” Estair started when they had approached the shore again and were walking along it. “How do we attack? I mean, She’s damn powerful, right? And it’s not like She won’t have Her best at Her side.”
“We have our humanity, our sense of right.” Rhona nodded to herself as she said it. “Our sense of justice.”
“You expect to beat Her with that?”
Rhona opened her mouth to respond, then closed it again, frowning. Expectant eyes turned to Alastar.
“You expect me to have a plan, I imagine,” he said. “Of course. And I have a great one.”
They waited, walking in silence.
“And that is?” Donnon finally asked.
“I have it, it’s just, you know, floating around up here somewhere,” he motioned to his head, “and I’m waiting for it to become clearer.”
“You’re telling me that we’re marching into the hideout of the most powerful sorceress we’ve ever met and we don’t have a plan?”
Alastar nodded. “The plan is to kill Her. The rest is just details. Nobody cares about the details.”
“We’re royally fucked,” Donnon grumbled, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his sleeve.
“Hubris,” Kia said, and they all turned to her.
“That’s not very nice,” Alastar started, but Kia held up her hands.
“I don’t mean you,” she replied. “Isn’t that how we’ve gotten to Her so far? I mean, every step of the way She has acted out of too much confidence, and we strike and win in those moments. Right?”
“How do you even know that word?” Donnon asked. “Hubris...”
Kia shrugged, gesturing to Rhona and Alastar “One of these two, I think.”
“She’s not wrong,” Rhona stated.
“Then how do we use it?” Alastar slowed his pace, realizing he was starting to get winded. The sun was hot today, and his armor didn’t help.
“Well,” Rhona replied, glancing at the children, “we have two fighters with us She would never expect.”
“You want to put my little Kia directly in harm’s way?” Donnon asked. “You can start over on the brainstorming. That plan isn’t happening.”
“Dad…” Kia put her hands on her hips, stopping now so that all the rest had to stop too. “Without me and my being in harm’s way back there, we might still be fighting the war to the south. I don’t care if I’m young in age. I’m old as hell in kicking-arseness.”
He frowned, biting his cheek as he debated how to answer that.
“We brought them for a reason,” Alastar interjected. “As much as you don’t like it, your little girl has more power than the rest of us combined—excluding Rhona, maybe.”
Rhona shrugged. “I have no idea what I’m capable of, so I don’t mind saying we’re on pretty equal footing.” She put an arm around Kia. “We ladies have to stick together.”
Donnon grunted, and started walking again. “Do what we have to, but I’m not letting that witch get close to my daughter.”
“Donnon,” Alastar started, but the man turned on him, putting a finger in the paladin’s face.
“No! None of you have children, so you don’t get it. When you have a daughter—or son, I imagine—there’s nothing you wouldn’t do for them. There’s nothing more terrifying than the thought that you might fail them, that you might let them get hurt. I couldn’t live with it. So while she might be the key to winning this thing, you can be damn sure I’m never leaving her side.”
“And we’re here with you,” Alastar replied. “I’ll give my life before seeing any of you hurt. You understand that? It’s not you alone out here. It’s all of us.”
Donnon’s rage slowly faded from his eyes, and he gave a nod.
“Hell,” Alastar continued with a playful smile, “you’re practically my brother at this point. You think I’m going to do anything that would allow my new brother or my de facto niece to be hurt?”
Rhona cleared her throat. “Um, to be all on the same page here, nobody has actually gotten married yet. Or…really discussed it, even.”
“I didn’t say he was my brother yet,” Alastar countered, and they all started walking again.
“Yeah, but don’t be presumptuous.”
Alastar held up his hands and laughed, but then he saw something ahead of them. Farther up on the beach, walking toward them, was a trio. He instantly dismissed the light fairy.
“Swords ready,” Donnon said, adjusting his kilt. “Trouble.”
“Two-women-and-an-old-man kind of trouble,” Rhona noted.
“Old man?”
Alastar nodded. “He has a walking stick but…” They were close enough now for him to see that wasn�
�t the case. “No, it’s a staff. Like Andreas had.”
“What do we make of it?” Donnon asked.
“Could be foe, but…” Rhona shielded her eyes from the sun. “They aren’t attacking. They look like they’re running from something, actually. They just sheathed their swords. Either they’re friendly, or they want us to think they are.
“Let’s find out.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rhona was fairly certain she’d seen a bluish-green glow from the eyes of the man who carried the staff, but it vanished as they drew close. Unless he was a Storm Caller that didn’t make sense—at least, not according to what she had learned from Andreas. Immediately she was on edge from that, and it became worse when she sensed movement in the shadows at the tree line. A lot of movement.
Was this some sort of ambush?
They had sheathed their swords, but that wouldn’t mean much if a hundred other armed warriors charged out from hiding.
She considered telling the others of her concern, but instead smiled when Donnon glanced at her. Better not to alarm them unless necessary.
“Hello!” one of the women said. She looked to be the more normal of the two, without the craziness the other had in her eyes. Something seemed familiar about the second, though not I-know-her familiar. More like she had met some of her relatives recently or something.
Alastar had simply nodded, none of their group speaking yet. They were still busy trying to figure out how safe this was. Gesturing behind her back, Rhona signaled for the children to not get too close.
“Don’t worry,” the same woman now said. “We’re, you know, good guys.”
The man with the staff mumbled something to her and Rhona found her eyes narrowing. Strangers mumbling to each other was rarely a good sign.
Instead of waiting to see where this was going, Rhona stepped forward and put on her best friendly face. Better to let them think she didn’t suspect anything, if possible.
“I’m Rhona,” she stated, then motioned to the others and introduced them. The first woman to speak on the other side was Abbey, the other woman was Hekla, and the man’s name was Dustin. At least, so they said.
“And what brings you here?” Alastar asked, when the introductions had been made.
Abbey kept glancing back at the tree line, but her gaze seemed more worried than conniving, which put Rhona at ease.
“We’re from Holdgate,” Abbey, leaving Rhona to wonder how that had been an answer.
“It’s not illogical to think a Storm Raider could be with the Dark Society,” Donnon said in a near-whisper. He had a good point. This man, Dustin, was clearly from Kaldfell, where the Storm Raiders came from. But as Andreas had pointed out, most Storm Callers weren’t with the Storm Raiders. Or none, he had said, though she had a hard time believing that.
Were this group who they appeared to be? Even if they were, it didn’t necessarily mean they were on the right side.
Alastar adjusted his stance, and Rhona recognized it to be an offensive one. “Are you Storm Raiders?” he asked.
“No,” Dustin replied, his voice heavy with irritation. “Why would you assume that?”
Abbey raised a hand. “We’re good guys.”
“So you said,” Rhona replied. “ But we have a bit of experience with people who say they’re the good guys.”
“So you’re not with the Dark Society?” Alastar asked. “Not with Lady Mowain?”
“We’re not. In fact, we’ve never heard of her.” Dustin leaned forward on his staff in a casual way. “Listen, maybe we should all just go our separate ways.”
“Not yet,” Abbey snapped. She looked at Rhona. “Look, I know how crazy this sounds. We met each other two minutes ago, but I think we have a lot in common. I know your magic can control shadows.”
Rhona pulled back, eyes wide and darting to the shadows at the tree line. If this lady were with the goddess, she might have power over those shadows too. If they both tried for them at the same time, who would win? Was this another of her cousins, sent here with a different strategy from the other woman they had defeated? She shared a worried look with Alastar, who turned on the newcomers, sword raised.
“How do you know that?” he asked.
Abbey’s eyes went to the sand, then back to them as she opened her mouth to answer. She let out a few stammers, and then bit her lip. Rhona clenched her fists, ready for a fight.
Taking a deep breath, Abbey spluttered, “I saw it in a dream.”
Rhona glanced at Alastar. “Well, that’s not the strangest thing we’ve ever heard.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s true,” her brother answered.
Abbey pushed forward, stopping only two paces from Rhona, piercing eyes staring into hers. “Maybe I was shown that dream so I’d be ready for this moment. See, we’re shipwrecked on this island, and we need help getting off. We’ve been through a hell of a lot. After washing up here we found this weird old ship, and I mean old.”
“Too old to take out of here then?” Rhona asked.
Abbey nodded. “And then we were back there, and there’s this cult of people in dark hoods that tried to kill us!”
While Rhona and Alastar shared a look of confusion, wondering how much of this to believe, Estair stepped forward.
“I’m sorry to hear about your troubles,” Estair said, crossing her arms, “but we’re not leaving. We just got here.”
Rhona agreed, but maybe them trekking all the way back to their boat and giving it up wasn’t the only solution. “We did see that ship enter the cave.”
“Wait, what cave?” Dustin asked.
Rhona didn’t even look back, but continued to assess Alastar and the others to see if they were open to helping these people—if indeed they needed help. Finally, Estair gave a barely perceptible nod.
Rhona turned back to the strangers. “If you really are good guys, prove it. Maybe we can work together.”
Alastar’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?” Apparently he hadn’t caught on.
“I’m giving them the chance to prove themselves.” Rhona replied, eyes meeting Abbey’s. “There’s dark magic at work on this island. We need to get inland, but as you apparently learned, these woods are teeming with the disciples of a dark magician. The cave we saw has to be the entrance to some secret port, which means it’s probably heavily guarded. And that there’re ships in there.”
Abbey nodded slowly. “So we work together to fight our way into the cave. We get to steal a ship, you get access to this dark magician’s personal port.”
“Any complaints?” Rhona asked her friends.
Donnon was the first to shake his head. “If they can fight, that’s good enough for me.”
Hekla gave him a toothy smile. “Don’t worry. We can fight. Would you like a demonstration?”
“We believe you, and I’d rather see you kick some enemy arse.” Alastar stifled a chuckle. “Let’s do this.”
Rhona nodded, then spun on her heel. “Good. Follow us to the cave.”
As they walked, the group got to chatting and Rhona found this Abbey character was growing on her. Abbey really did seem to care about fighting to help others, to pursue honor and justice. To not give a shite about the obstacles that stood in their way.
“So Alastar is your brother?” Abbey asked Rhona, pulling back while the others walked a few paces ahead.
Rhona raised an eyebrow. “Yes, but don’t get any ideas. He’s sort of taken.”
Abbey laughed. “No, it’s not that. I was just… I don’t know. Thinking about siblings, I guess. Do you two get along?”
With a chuckle, Rhona shrugged. “Not always, but we take care of each other. We protect each other. Always have. We grew up in…well, it’s a long story. Let’s just say we made it through together. What about you? Any brothers?”
“No.” A strange look crossed Abbey’s face, and she scrunched her nose. “Actually, I might. I sort of just found out about him. Like you said, long story.”
Rhon
a nodded. “A bit of advice: whoever this guy is, get to know him. Learn to trust him. Family’s important.”
Abbey’s face darkened. “I don’t think it’s going to be like that between us.”
“Why not? What’s he done that’s so bad it’s more important than family?”
“He burned my ship and captured my friends.”
Damn, Rhona thought. As much as Alastar could annoy her at times, she was hit with a wave of appreciation for him at that moment. “Ah. In that case, you have my full permission to kick his ass.”
“It’s high on my to-do list.” She paused, glancing at Rhona. “Listen, this is going to sound cheesy as all hell, but in my dream someone told me you are fighting for justice. I just want to tell you that I know how it is. It can be lonely, even when you have all your friends around you. Sometimes it seems like they don’t understand; at least it does for me. I just want you to know that there are more of us out there. However it feels sometimes, you’re not alone.”
Rhona tried to suppress her smile. “You either, Abbey.” Her smile widened a little. “I’ve seen the way that Storm Caller looks at you. You’re definitely not alone when he’s around.”
She was humored to see Abbey’s face reddening.
“He’s just a friend.” Abbey cleared her throat. “Are we close?”
“Me and you? I mean, we just met, but you can tell me anything, and... Oh.” She blushed, realizing her mistake. “You mean, distance-wise? It shouldn’t be much longer.”
“Good.” Abbey smiled. “I’m really looking forward to seeing those shadow powers in action.”
It still bothered Rhona that this woman would have any knowledge of her magic, but she just smiled and continued walking. Either they were enemies, in which case they would put their fighting skills to the test and see who came out on top, or they were friends, in which case she was happy to help get them on their way.
In either case, she was anxious to get this over with.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Larick stood tall at the sight of the charging men and women painted white, their robes flowing behind them. They wore spikes on their arms and heads, and he saw why they were called the white devils, though he wasn’t sure how appropriate that would’ve been in a more genetically diverse land. Up north in Roneland they all looked pretty much the same—pasty and scary with their wild hair and beards—so he figured it worked.
