The Vitalis Chronicles: White Shores

by Jay Swanson

  “I told you, White Shores.”

  “So White Shores is on a cliff somewhere?” his tone shifted completely into one patronizing. “That's all there are over there, nothing but cliffs outside of the ports.”

  She stayed silent.

  “OK, fine. The coast. And remind me who told you to go there?”

  “My mother.”

  “The witch?”

  She whipped around on him, Ardin recoiling like he expected a slap to the face.

  “She is not a witch! Do you hear me?”

  “Is that why they called her the Great Witch?”

  “You'd better watch yourself...”

  “Or you'll cast a spell on me like your witch of a mom?”

  She did slap him, though not so much with her hand as with an invisible mallet that swung with her hand. It knocked Ardin sprawling and he worked on regaining his senses with his face in the weeds.

  “I swear if you say that about her one more time I will end you, Ardin... Ardin.. whatever your damned name is! Do you hear me?”

  “Vitalis.”

  “What?”

  “It's my name, Vitalis.” He rolled onto his back. “And your dear mommy was the one responsible for me losing my family, thanks. So I don't care too much for pleasantries where she's involved.”

  He rubbed his cheek, still feeling the sting of the broad blow.

  “So screw you? I guess?” he said.

  She just stood staring at him, breathing heavy.

  “Yeah.” He stood up. “Screw you.”

  Ardin brushed off his clothes as the two just stood in silence collecting themselves.

  “I don't know why I let you come along,” she started finally. “This was a huge mis–“

  “Why do you hate that word so much?” he interrupted as he looked up from his shirt.

  “What?”

  “Don't hit me for this, but 'witch.' Why do you hate it so much?”

  She was caught completely off guard as her stance changed and her mind worked on an answer. “I... well we... we aren't witches.”

  “Then why does everyone call you that?”

  “I... ignorance I suppose.”

  Ardin looked at her for a while, as if gauging the honesty of her response.

  “What are you then?”

  “I'm a... we're Magi. How can you not know this?”

  “I thought Mage was another word for sorcerer, same with Magess for witch.”

  “Well they're not.”

  “Could'a fooled me.” He shrugged as he started to walk downstream again. “Everyone uses them that way.”

  She turned to catch up. “They may be synonymous now but they were never meant to be!”

  “What?” It was his turn to look confused.

  “Synonymous, it means interchangeable,” she sighed.

  “I know that,” though he wasn't sure that he did. “What I meant was how do you know they weren't always syn... interchangeable?”

  “Don't you know anything about history, Ardin?”

  “As much as you do I'd suppose. You're hardly any older than I am.”

  “That's not true at all.”

  “Alright fine, what's in a name? Mages are different than sorcerers and witches; for the sake of discussion, I'll give you that. Just tell me what the difference is.”

  “Witches aren't real, to start.” It was her turn to sound incredulous. “They're a ridiculous story contrived to slander the Magi.”

  “Slander? We had to free ourselves from them! What's to slander?”

  She sighed again. “Free yourselves? You talk like you were there!”

  “Well I–“

  “The human race sought us out and slaughtered us to free themselves, if that's what you want to call it. But they didn't free themselves to freedom, they freed themselves from it.”

  Ardin's brow furrowed for a moment, “I'm not sure that makes sense.”

  “Would you just listen? The Magi were created to guide mankind, to act as a sort of barometer for morality and as teachers of culture, technology, justice, everything.”

  “Ok fine,” he ceded another point. “Let's say that's true as well, and the Magi were really our pals and it would have all been hunky dory had we just stayed pals forever. Why didn't we? If you're so great, why on earth kill the lot of you?”

  “Because humans are foolish,” she spat the word.

  This time it was Alisia's arms that crossed. They walked in silence for a while longer, unfortunate rocks finding themselves the unwarranted recipients of wrath as unsolicited kicks landed them in the river. The sun had risen to its apex before they stopped to break out the stale bread again.

  They were running awfully low, Ardin noticed, as his stomach growled. He hoped they'd reach the Delta soon, before she took them wandering off into the wilderness again at least. He figured they were only a matter of miles away from the city. Then again, he wasn't so sure that civilization would prove much safer.

  “What do you have against Magi anyways, Ardin?” she asked him as he took the last bite of his measly meal. “Why do you hate them aside from the fact that your family taught you to?”

  He chewed on the question as he chewed on his bread, and he stared into her eyes. Hard. He stared so intensely that soon she felt uncomfortable; sad. What was wrong with this kid? She wanted to say something, but her question still hung unanswered in the air. Well if he didn’t want to talk any more, then she didn’t want to sit under his glare any longer. Instead she looked at the lonely hillside that sat behind him. Some of the grass on the cliffs to her right wasn't moving with the wind.

  “Because they killed my family,” he finally said, bringing her attention back to his steely stare. “Because my family is dead, rotting in the hills under the eaves of our house. My family didn't teach me to hate the Magi, you did that well enough yourselves.”

  Alisia truly didn't know how to respond to that. It made her mouth go dry to think that her mother could have been somehow tied to the death of his family. But she didn't know what he was talking about. He was readily becoming a mystery to her. Even more so now that he had started staring at her chest, she hadn't noticed at first but he was doing so and had been for the last few moments at least.

  “Ardin,” he was unresponsive. “It's rude to stare, Ardin, especially like that.”

  But Ardin didn't hear her, he was staring at a little glowing dot that had appeared on her dirt stained light jacket. It bobbed a little as it moved from her stomach to her chest and rested above her heart. He had heard of this, something about little glowing dots that were used for something in the military. He knew that they could be used to point things out... point things out for people or aim weapons. Weapons? Weapons!

  The train of thought plowed through his mind in a flash as he suddenly put it all together and, without thinking, dove at her.

  Luckily for Ardin, he caught her completely off guard as he yelled her name and took her sprawling with him over the log she had been sitting on. They landed with a loud thud and a groan as a nearby rock turned to a puff of dust. The crack of the rock shattering was followed quickly by another resounding crack of a different nature that echoed back from across the water.

  “Sorry,” he said hurriedly as he picked himself up and dove for cover behind a boulder. The colorful dot appeared again, this time flinching onto the boulder at just the last moment and aiming wide to the detriment of the stone. Ardin pulled himself up behind it as the dust and fragments started to settle on and around him.

  “Sorry for what?” Alisia said after rolling up against the log, another shot splintering the wood and echoing through the gorge.

  “Staring at your chest,” he smiled.

  She wasn't sure if she should roll her eyes or not but didn't get the chance as she closed them instead to protect her vision from another exploding rock. She wished that the river had worn the stones down a bit, at least they'd be more comfortable to lay on.

  “We need to go,” she heard Ar
din say through the ringing in her ears.

  “What?”

  “Now!”

  “Why?”

  “They're coming for us. We have to get out of here!”

  “With that maniac up there shooting at us? I don't think our chances are all that good.”

  “They're no good if we stay!”

  “He can't hit us if we stay here,” she said.

  “Exactly.”

  “What?”

  “Why is he still firing if he can't see us, Alisia?” She couldn't really answer that. “He's trying to keep us here! They're coming for us, and if we stay here they'll catch us with our pants down. We have to go, now!”

  She didn't want to move, but she couldn't really argue the point either.

  “How on earth do you know all this?” She flinched back as another round split its way through the top of the log.

  “I'm a soldier's son,” he said as he scanned the area quickly. “I should say was a soldier's son; when we played war as kids we would spend the first half of the day studying maps and drawing plans.”

  He flinched away this time as a rock spat at his feet.

  “The point is that it was stupid of him to risk the shot if he didn't have a contingency plan in the works, and unless Khrone's just got dumb we're in deep trouble.”

  He looked around for an escape route. And then he saw it, a spot in the river that was broader than the rest just a stone's throw further on. The water was running through it visibly slower, it looked like it was working hard to progress downhill. Alisia's ford.

  “There!” He pointed to it. “Your stupid ford, it's right there!”

  She looked up but couldn't see as far with her head so close to the ground. She didn't dare risk lifting it any higher.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive,” he grinned. “Can you make some sort of shield for us?”

  “They're MARD coated bullets, Ardin,” she said. “They 'd penetrate anything I put up with ease.”

  “They seem to be having a rough time with that log,” he said with a knowing glance to her botanic shelter.

  She glanced at it then back at him, almost aghast as the idea took form in her head.

  “Why not?” he said as she stared at him. “We've gotta die sometime!”

  She glowered at that. “It won't protect us from other angles!”

  “It won't have to if the sniper's the only one with MARD rounds.”

  She didn't like the risk, but closed her eyes to focus anyways. Her knuckles went white as she gripped the rocks beneath her shoulders, a gentle mist forming between her hands. Her eyes flared open as she threw herself up, the log followed.

  The stones groaned as they gave way to their departing friend. Smaller rocks crackled as they tumbled back to their larger compatriots. The sniper picked up the pace of his shots, but still couldn't get a clean one off.

  “Let's go,” she said as she towered over an impressed Ardin. “I can't keep this up forever.”

  He stood and led the way as quickly as he could towards the ford, slowing whenever she called for him to. He found it difficult not to jump out of his skin every time a slug struck nearby, but they were moving out of the sniper's effective range. He was almost in the river when three rounds splashed in the water off to his right. Startled, he stopped, and looking upstream could see a Hunter kneeling by the shore just out of range.

  It was a captain. He could tell by the long, slender, owl-like ears that jutted up from along the sides of his helmet. Ardin cursed under his breath and started walking into the river, wishing he could run but knowing he shouldn't.

  “Any chance you could take care of that?” he shouted over his shoulder, nodding towards the captain as he did so.

  “No!” she yelled back. “Keep going! Quickly!”

  “You're the boss,” he yelled as he picked up the pace, each step increasingly difficult as the water worked its way up to his knees.

  The river spat at him continuously as more rifles joined the fray. He didn't want to look back but was sure that more Hunters were joining the chase and taking their shots. The water didn't get any deeper, however, and his confidence started to come back. Maybe they'd make it through this after all. And then he heard a splash, larger than the bullets' light punches, followed by an even larger splash.

  He turned to see his protector and shelter both flounder in the water, the bullets picked up a new fury around him. He was starting to hear the whip-crack of their passage as her guard temporarily floundered.

  “What happened?” He rushed to her.

  “Lost my footing. I fell.”

  He couldn't tell if she was more scared or ashamed, but it didn't much matter at this point. He lifted her up roughly as she scrambled to find footing.

  “We need to run, c'mon!”

  Alisia's dark auburn hair was plastered across her eyes but she ignored the blindness and ran. As best as one could run in knee deep water at least. Yells and shouts started to come from the shore as the Hunters worked to close the gap, but Alisia and Ardin had made their way out of the sniper's range. Ardin was well over half way across and was beginning to feel the sense of elation that only fresh hope can bring.

  Alisia was working to keep them hidden as best as she could, shooting up a large spray of water behind them so as to block their enemies' view. It seemed to be working too as the shots were flying wide to their left with the drifting droplets of water and fewer were landing around them.

  Ardin disappeared about ten paces in front of her, arms flailing in the air; it seemed it was his turn to lose his footing. He got up before she made it to him and continued moving, holding his arm at the right elbow as it drooped to his side.

  They made the shore and started running for a draw that would take them up into the cliffs. Ardin stumbled again, slowing but still running on. Alisia turned, now half way between the river and the cliffs. She closed her eyes and put her hands out in front of her body, bringing the heels of each palm together so that her fingers spread outwards like a pink spider.

  Murmuring something under her breath she concentrated on the rocks in the riverbed before her, weaving her tendrils through them as best she could and taking hold of as many as her mind could carry. The familiar mist began to form around her feet, swirling gently against the wind. The soldiers were starting to cross the water at the ford now, taking erratic shots from their hips as they navigated the slippery rocks.

  Alisia's eyelids scrunched up with her brow as she set her jaw and tightened her hands into fists. Then suddenly her eyes and fists opened simultaneously. Dozens of rocks varying in size from grapes to grapefruits flew from the bottom of the river at the pursuers, cracking skulls and thudding into stomachs.

  She didn't wait around to see the full effect of her work. She was slower now, her energy sapped by the effort of lifting the rocks. She didn't see Ardin ahead and was momentarily distressed by his disappearance. She figured he would be waiting for her around the corner and near the top of the cliffs. It appeared there was a game trail through the draw; it curved into some tall rocks that sat on the one cliff in front of its taller neighbor.

  “We almost have time to rest,” she said lightly as she got closer to him. She could only really see his legs. “But we shouldn't. Let's get out of here, Ardin. Ardin?”

  She rounded the small corner to where she could see him better, sitting in the tall grass with his head on his chest.

  “Stop sleeping, let's go!”

  He didn't respond as she knelt next to him and noticed the darkened cloth around his shoulder. She frowned as she pulled him forward to find a deep hole in his back. Ardin Vitalis wasn't going anywhere.

  SEVENTEEN

  ALISIA FELT THE urge to run but fought it back. She ran to the corner again to see where the Hunters were at, but it looked like they were busy tending to their own wounded. She ran back to Ardin and knelt in front of him again, pushing him upright to try and talk to him.

  “Ardin?” she s
aid gently. “Ardin, can you hear me?”

  He was breathing shallowly. He groaned softly as she pulled him forward again. Blood curdled subtly through his teeth. The hole in his back was right by the shoulder blade. It looked painful, she thought, as she pulled at the torn shirt.

  She hadn't developed much in the way of healing powers but she needed to do something fast if she was going to have any worthwhile effect. Alisia placed her hands over his shoulder on his back and closed her eyes. She had no idea how to get the bullet out. She couldn't very well rip his shoulder open to get to it.

  She prayed for a moment, knowing there was little she could do. But as she did so she could feel the warmth enter her hands. Almost as if of its own volition, the sensation continued until it made her fingertips tingle, and then concentrated in her palms over the wound. She could feel the tissue quiver and before she knew it, something was protruding from his shoulder and into her hand. Surprised, she opened her eyes to find the spent slug ready to be pulled out. It was still hot to the touch.

  She put it down hurriedly and worked hard to remember how to mend broken flesh. She focused as she twisted her flattened hands over the hole in his back. Ardin groaned as the heat built up and spread to his shoulder. She could feel it mend, slowly but surely the muscles were latching back onto themselves across the gap and blood began to flow.

  She opened her eyes finally, exhausted but satisfied. The wound wasn't fully healed, it wasn't even entirely closed up, but he would live for now at least. Ardin sat up tentatively on his own, wincing as his shoulder blade moved back into place.

  “Ow.”

  “Happy to see you too.” She patted his knee and gave him the last of their water. He took it tenderly, spitting out a bloody mess with the first pull, but it seemed to revive him a little.

  “I feel like I got stuck with a spear.” He tried to reach his shoulder with his good hand but she gently intercepted it.

  “Could have been worse,” she said. “And it will get worse if we don't get going. Can you move?”

  “Yeah,” he grunted as he tried to get his feet under him. “Just gimme a second.”