Path of the Divine

by Harmon Cooper

There were eight treasure hunters gathered around a female prisoner.

  Sona.

  It was clearly her, the woman with a pink and purple energy radiating off her hands, weak, barely clothed, sitting in the snow with her head bowed forward. Fist of Force was in front of the men, wearing a fur overcoat with a hood on it, a frustrated look on his face as he tried to figure out how to use the items.

  I saw a bowl made of stone and a pillar with several stone hooks.

  Other than that, there was an enormous gate, easily thirty feet high with barbs along its edge. There were also a host of ladders discarded near the gate, telling me that many had tried to scale it, and that none had ever succeeded.

  As quietly as possible, I shimmied my way back down the rock to find Lhandon waiting for me.

  “Well?”

  “Nine men in total and they have a prisoner, the head of Madame Mabel’s elite gaurd, Sona.”

  “They’ve made no progress on the gate, then.”

  “Nope, they’re just standing around it.”

  He shook his head. “They’re doing it at the wrong time of day.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The gate can only be opened if the moon and the sun are in the sky at the same time, so at dusk, or early in the morning. I suppose it’s possible for someone to do it during the day if the moon is visible, but the traditional time to do it would be morning or dusk.”

  “And how does that work?”

  “Put the Sand of Armeck in the bowl, and hang the Mirrored Pendant of Danzen off one of the hooks. You have to aim the moon’s reflection at the sand, and once that is set, you simply stab it with the Mummified Hand of Dolma. Easy.”

  “I don’t know if I would describe that as easy,” I told him.

  He chuckled softly. “That is one of the easier ways to open a forbidden gate in this kingdom, if you ask me. You should hear some of the other ones.”

  “I’m sure they would make me cringe.” I settled my breath.

  “Perhaps. Since they will be at it all day, maybe we could just rest in a nearby cave, waiting for them to give up. The treasure hunters will be vulnerable at night.”

  “That’s true,” I told him, and just as those words left my lips, one of the treasure hunters stepped around the rock to take a piss.

  I tackled him to the ground, but he had already let out a yelp before I could place a hand over his mouth. He tried to buck me off, both of us rolling in the snow for a second.

  More of the treasure hunters came running, each with a weapon drawn, a few already taking Lhandon prisoner. Eventually, I got on top of the guy and sunk a fist into his face, only to be pulled off by one of the other treasure hunters, my arms yanked behind my back as two men prevented me from fighting any further.

  I tried kicking my way out of it, only to get a knee to the groin which triggered an unthinkable pain through my body.

  Now on the verge of vomiting, and trying to control the pain surging through me from the groin shot, I was dragged around the rocks and deposited in front of Fist of Force.

  “What do we have here?” he asked. The man’s face was partially concealed by his hood, his eyes beady and bright.

  “You…” I heard Sona say. The woman was looking up at me, blinking, seemingly regaining some of her strength judging from the way she pushed herself off the ground.

  “What’s your name?” Fist of Force asked me.

  “Nick Barnette, nice to meet you,” I told the man looming over me.

  He shook his head. “Clearly the name of an outsider, and most definitely the name of a fool. I suppose I’ll make this quick then.”

  “You aren’t even going to give me the opportunity to fight you?” I asked him. “Or are you just going to sic your thugs on me?”

  “My thugs? These are some of the best treasure hunters in the Kingdom of Lhasa.”

  “They seem kind of sloppy to me,” I told him as I got to my feet, lifting my fists, ignoring the pain from being kneed in the groin.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “About fighting you? Or about how sloppy some of these guys look?”

  “Very well. I will enjoy this more than I thought I would,” he said, a light spiraling down his right fist.

  “You killed everyone at the temple,” Lhandon shouted, anger spreading across his normally serene face. “Are you not aware of the karmic repercussions of what you’ve done?”

  “Your petty understanding of karma is what has kept you oppressed all of your life,” Fist of Force said, his eyes still focused on me. “You will die here today, monk, just like your brethren, and just like the strange outsider that you have convinced to take up your cause.”

  My hand at my side, I quickly traced up the rune that Baatar had taught me, aware that it had worked once I felt a buzzing in my arms.

  Hopefully, my ability would come to me; if not, at least I’d be able to block his first three strikes.

  A fist came out of nowhere, a left hook that would have knocked my skull off had it not been for the speed of my arm protecting my head and absorbing the blow. It was powerful enough to toss me backward into the snow, my feet cutting two lines at least a foot in length.

  “Interesting,” Fist of Force said, loosening up his hands. He brought them back up and lunged for me again, my power kicking in just in time.

  It was as if he was moving a hundred times slower than he normally would have, an angry look on his face as he came forward with his right hand, a force oscillating around his knuckles.

  I had plenty of time to get behind him, where I delivered my own punch to the back of his head, reality speeding up as the man stumbled forward.

  “No!” he screamed to the other treasure hunters, all of whom had moved into position to attack me, a few of them lifting crossbows. Fist of Force slammed into me with a punch, my arms barely able to stop his attack.

  I had one more block left.

  I had to use it wisely.

  Time was no longer mine to control. As he came in for a third strike, my arms naturally moved into place to block him.

  He stumbled backward, recovering and quickly returning with a punch that shattered my forearm, sending me flying backward into a rock.

  I fell to the snow, pain rippling through me as I tried to push myself up.

  All I could think of was calling Saruul, my lips opening to whisper her name, just as she had told me to do.

  I barely saw the tropical burst of color zip through the air, slamming into Fist of Force.

  The man staggered for a moment and fell to his knees, the hilt of a dagger jutting out of his chest.

  “Roger?” I asked as the bird fluttered around Fist of Force’s head. “What… what are you doing here?”

  An enormous wrecking ball took my attention from the bird to the treasure hunters, four of them crushed by Lhandon’s attack.

  This gave Sona the moment she needed to jump into the fight. The scantily clad woman took out the feet of one of the treasure hunters and rolled on top of him, bashing him with a headbutt that ultimately knocked her out too.

  This left three treasure hunters still alive. Roger flew over to one of them and fluttered around his face, confusing him, giving me the moment I needed to trace up the rune that gave me the Healing Hand power.

  Wincing, I quickly brought my free hand over my shattered arm, the one that Fist of Force had pulverized.

  The bone clicked back into place, the muscles tightening, the pain dissipating.

  I was up on my feet in a matter of moments, sucking in a deep breath, and taking off toward the two treasure hunters who were about to engage Lhandon. My power came to me again as my hand flattened into a chop, which I brought down against one of their backs, the man spilling forward.

  Surprised, the other tried to cut me down with his sword, time slowing to a standstill as I ducked his blade, coming back with an uppercut that sent an arc of blood into the air.

  Realizing that there wasn’t time to waste, I grabb
ed one of their swords and drove it into the first man’s body, pulling it out and digging it into the second.

  Savage.

  “We have to kill them all,” I told Lhandon, catching my breath. “Otherwise…”

  “I already took out four of them,” he said, “and Sona took out another.”

  “I counted eight… ”

  Wham!

  Something clapped against my back, knocking the wind out of me. The final treasure hunter stood over me with a large bludgeoning object, spikes on its end. I could feel my muscles screaming, blood seeping out of my robes.

  I rolled to my side, trying to place my healing hand on my back as best I could, sucking in deep inhalations as I watched Roger distract the man again.

  Lhandon charged forward, connecting with the treasure hunter and knocking the wind out of him.

  Pushing myself off the ground, and ignoring my own blood’s vibrancy against the fresh snow, I limped over to the two.

  “Move, Lhandon,” I shouted, and as he did so, I drove the blade deep into the treasure hunter’s chest, the man’s angry eyes locking on to me as he let out his last breath.

  I wasn’t done yet.

  I made my way over to Sona, carefully lifting the woman off the treasure hunter she had headbutted.

  I brought my blade into his chest as well.

  “That’s all of them,” I said, catching my breath. I continued healing up until I was nearly blown aside by a cold gust of wind, a hailstorm whipping down another hill.

  Fear came across Lhandon’s face as he shouted to me, “It’s an ice spirit! Get to the nearest cave!”

  He pointed at one of the caverns we’d seen earlier, not twenty yards away from our current location.

  My first instinct was to grab the items that Fist of Force had collected.

  Luckily, Roger already had the bag of sand as well the pendant. The only thing missing was the weapon.

  Fighting the storm, and screaming for Roger to go to the cave, I made my way over to Fist of Force. I dropped before him and took the Mummified Hand of Dolma from its sheath, noticing that the blade had a pinkish hue along its edge.

  I stuffed it in my own sheath, even though it didn’t fit correctly.

  I saw Sona’s toppled body slowly being buried in snow. I made my way over to it, lifting the woman over my shoulder. The wind howled in my ears, its chill striking me to the very core as I stumbled toward the cave opening.

  “I’ve got you,” I told her as the storm picked up, shrieking all around me.

  I barely made it.

  I knew as soon as I reached the entrance, and as soon as a huge gust of snow followed by a small avalanche burst past me that I was incredibly lucky.

  I set Sona down, Lhandon taking over and pulling her deeper into the cave. My hand on the cave wall, I started following after Lhandon, Roger eventually landing on my shoulder.

  “Happy to see me?” he asked, his beak chattering.

  “I don’t know what I would have done without you,” I told him.

  “I’m just glad to be owed a favor,” he said as we progressed deeper into the cavern, the echo of the wind reaching us.

  It was as if the snowstorm was a school of banshees, all competing to scream louder than the other. I was glad that we were away from it, that it didn’t seem to be coming down into the cavern.

  “I’ll start a fire,” Lhandon said once we reached a wide-open space. “There must be something around here to burn.”

  “I’ll check,” Roger told me.

  “Can you understand him?” I asked Lhandon as the bird took off.

  “No, but you apparently can, and that’s all that matters.”

  “I’ve got something,” Roger called from the other side of the cavern.

  I joined the bird and found a pair of skeletons still in their armor, along with a wooden treasure chest.

  “We can break the chest apart for the wood,” Roger said. “Maybe we could burn their bones as well.”

  “Let’s try the wood first,” I said, opening the chest.

  A white snake with red eyes jumped out of the treasure chest. Roger picked it off in the air, clamping down on its neck and killing the creature.

  “How would a snake survive all the way up here?” I asked, still shaken by the sudden strike.

  “You found a snow snake?” Lhandon called over to me. “That’s a sign of luck… unless it kills you.”

  Roger flew the snake over to Lhandon and dropped it before him.

  “Fascinating,” Lhandon said, examining the snake for a moment. He looked up at Roger. “I can’t understand you, bird, but I do appreciate your assistance.”

  “His name is Roger,” I told Lhandon after I’d dragged the chest over to him. “You didn’t happen to grab one of the swords back there, did you?”

  Lhandon shook his head.

  “Damn, that would have made this easier.”

  I didn’t dare use the Mummified Hand of Dolma on the wood.

  I could already feel a strange energy radiating from the blade, which was why I unsheathed it after I brought the treasure chest over to Lhandon, placing the blade on a flat rock.

  I wanted to get it away from me.

  “It’s cursed, you know,” he said, eyeing it suspiciously.

  “I can sense something is wrong with it.”

  “Please, take one of the cloths from my bag and cover it for now. I’d prefer not to look at it.”

  “Same,” I told the monk as I covered the weapon.

  I returned with a large stone to start breaking apart pieces of the wooden treasure chest. I thought about using my foot, but considering I wore leather shoes with thin soles, I figured it would be smarter to use a stone.

  Roger landed near the fire pit, hopping around as he spoke to me excitedly.

  “You won’t believe what I’ve been through,” he said as I started working on the treasure chest.

  “I’m just surprised you made it all the way up here.” I managed to break a hole in the chest and used my hand to rip a piece of wood out.

  “You’re telling me! I guess I should get to the part that matters to you: I took care of your friend,” he said excitedly.

  I paused. “Evan?”

  “Bearded man, kind of fat like the monk over here, looked like an outsider. I saw him down with Madame Mabel’s forces. I waited until he was sleeping, and then I broke in through his window, taking his eye. I would have gotten both eyes too, but he locked his window after that.”

  “You stole his eye?”

  “What’s the bird telling you?” Lhandon asked. “I mean Roger, what’s Roger telling you?”

  “I’ll catch you up in a moment,” I told him, asking Roger to continue his story about Evan.

  “He’s missing an eye now, which can’t be nice. I got him good, Nick.”

  “It looks like I really owe you then.”

  “But he’s still alive. I wasn’t able to use the dagger on his chest.”

  “That’s fine; I can fight my own battles.”

  “Are you sure about that?” He hopped to my left and starting to pick up a few of the splinters that I’d chipped off.

  Roger flew them to the fire pit and returned.

  “I didn’t have a weapon up there,” I reminded him.

  “And that’s why you have come here, right? The Flaming Thunderbolt of Wisdom is behind those walls. If ever there was a blade for someone like you, an outsider with a heart, it would be that weapon.”

  “I still haven’t decided,” I told him as I broke more of the wood into pieces.

  “You’re talking about the Flaming Thunderbolt?” Lhandon asked. “Did I guess that right? I thought it was decided upon: you will take it.”

  “I just don’t know if I’m the right person to possess such a power,” I said.

  “Your humbleness is very karmic of you,” Lhandon said with a smile. “But let’s be honest about what we’ve done here today, and what you’re planning to do,” he said, dropp
ing his voice, “you will need a real weapon.”

  “Aware.”

  “And how’s the woman involved?” Roger asked, nodding his beak toward Sona.

  “The treasure hunters needed her weapon to open the gate. I guess they took her prisoner as well.”

  “What a fight that must have been,” Roger said. “You’re probably going to want to get the Flaming Thunderbolt before she wakes up; I don’t know how happy she’ll be once she knows that she’s been rescued by an escaped slave. An escaped slave that belongs to her master. Come to think of it, she’s a slave too. Just one with more glory than your regular slave.”

  “Good point,” I told him.

  “And what do you plan to do with her after she wakes?”

  “I really don’t know. Lhandon? Any ideas?”

  “About what?” the monk asked.

  “That’s right, you can’t understand him. What should we do with her once I have retrieved the blade?”

  “I believe the most karmically just thing to do would be to give her the blade and let her go.”

  “Did you give this monk some chung or something?” Roger laughed. “That’s an idea fit for a true idiot!”

  “Careful,” I told the bird.

  “Just hear me out here, and you can tell him everything I’m about to say. You have the head of Madame Mabel’s elite guard with you. That’s her right there, the head of all of Mabel’s guard. And you, Nick from Massachusetts, have rescued her. Why don’t you use this to get into Madame Mabel’s good graces? Then, you can find your friends, and maybe even think of a way to deal with this Evan fellow.”

  “It’s not a bad idea.”

  “And there’s more,” Roger said. “There’s been talk of other outsiders, perhaps those are the friends you mentioned to me. I’ve forgotten their names.”

  “Tom, Bobby, and Hugo,” I said. “You heard about them?”

  “I heard the soldiers discussing one of them. Which one was captured again?”

  “Bobby was captured. Tom disappeared into the Sea of Lhasa, and Hugo went in after him.”

  “And this Hugo one, he’s the one that was a former soldier or something, correct?”

  “That’s right,” I told the bird.

  “Like I said, I heard about the one that was captured, Bobby. But I also heard from a couple of birds that just showed up from Jonang that an outsider has appeared. A powerful one. Maybe this is your other friend.”