by Sever Bronny
Leera saw the look on his face. “We’re in serious trouble here …”
She hurriedly unpacked the Orb of Orion. “Mrs. Stone, are you there? Mrs. Stone!” but there was no response.
“There is no use resisting fate,” Peyas said, walking up to the circle of stones around the obelisk. Far behind him, the big Occi wrestled with the harpy.
“Peyas, help us—” Augum said, getting back on his feet, shaking the confusion off. “All we need is the correct symbols—”
“There is no use—”
“But there is! You can make a choice—you can help us.” He stepped close to the gaunt Henawa. “You are suala sapinchay.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means ‘brave snowskin’.”
Peyas watched him a moment before glancing back to the struggling Occi. The man was winning against the harpy.
“Please,” Leera whispered. “We don’t have much time—”
“I know of only two places for you to go,” Peyas said at last. “The glacier from which you had come—or Bahbell.”
Augum glanced up at the obelisk. “The skull with the roof over its head—that’s Bahbell, isn’t it?”
“It is. Is that where you want to go?”
“No, we need to get back to our friends—” Though now he knew how to get into the castle when they had to return …
“Then pay careful attention.” Peyas stepped before the obelisk and touched the corresponding runes. They lit up in succession, despite the fact he had not used Shine. Instead of triggering the last rune that would have triggered the spell, he only pointed at it.
“Got it,” Augum said as the runes faded. He looked back at the village and saw that the big Occi man was now free of the harpy and racing for them.
Leera grabbed Peyas’ hand in both her own. “Goodbye, Peyas, and … thank you.”
He gave a slight nod.
“Shyneo,” Augum said as Leera took his other hand.
“Hurry, Aug, he’s almost here—”
“Working on it …” He tapped out the correct pattern, gripping her hand tighter. “Here we go—” He smacked the final rune with his lit palm and was immediately yanked with an implosive crunch.
The Journey Back
The portal spit Augum and Leera out at the base of the obelisk. It was the middle of the night but the sky was completely clear, lit by a field of the sharpest stars Augum had ever seen. The wide pale face of the full moon made the Muranians glitter, as if trying to rival the stars.
“Wraith’s gone at least,” he said after taking a good look around. That was a relief—he did not have the arcane strength for another battle.
Leera nodded at the glacier. “That must be the Legion company.” A black line of troops snaked along the distant ice. Flashes of steel and armor occasionally reflected the moonlight. “They’re in for a nasty surprise …”
Augum’s hollow stomach groaned a complaint. They had missed supper, but there was hardly time for that now. “Let’s put as much distance between us and this pillar as we can before setting camp. Nefra might come after us as soon as she discovers we’re gone.”
“Agreed.”
They strode away at a rapid clip, heads swiveling back to the pillar. The unliving man had not followed them either. Augum wondered if Peyas had something to do with that.
The cliff took them twice as long to climb down as it had to climb up, and it was twice as hazardous at night, for the ice had grown more slippery in the harsh cold. Nonetheless, they managed it without incident before undertaking the long trek back toward the wolven cave.
“Did you slap me back there?”
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Didn’t help my headache.”
“Kind of helped mine.”
He glanced at her.
“What? It was sort of … therapeutic. I should be slapping you more.”
“Really?”
“Uh huh.”
He stopped on the pretense of fixing his boot, grabbed a handful of snow, and playfully dumped it down her back. She squealed.
“You evil little—” and immediately began chasing him. He let her catch him and the two rolled in the snow, giggling and wrestling, relieving the tension of the battle.
“We … should … be … walking!” Leera shouted as Augum, who was on top, kept trying to smear her face with snow.
“But wait, your face is dirty, let me just clean it—”
“GET. OFF!” She finally managed to shove him aside and the two lay in the snow, gasping for breath. He got up, smiled at her, and offered his hand.
“Jerk,” she mumbled, taking it.
“We really do need to go though,” he said. “Truce?”
“Pfft.”
Some hours later, the eastern horizon began to blush with the first hint of dawn. The stars slowly disappeared, leaving only the ethereal moon. Deciding they were still too close to the portal pillar, they continued walking until midday, when exhaustion, hunger and thirst overcame their will. They broke for lunch in a wide valley between two mountains.
Augum squeezed the last of his waterskin into his mouth after eating salted and dried salmon steak. “I’m out …”
“Me too,” Leera said, stuffing her waterskin with snow. “Should have refilled our skins in the Occi camp.”
“With what, bloodfruit? Don’t think the Occi even eat or drink.” He nodded at her water skin. “And that’s not going to work.”
“What? Why not?”
“I tried it once with Sir Westwood on a long hunting trip. Snow didn’t melt and only made me colder.”
“I don’t believe you,” she replied, grabbing more snow and stuffing it in to her mouth. He did the same but found it only made him shiver, and did little to quench his thirst.
She glanced skyward. A bank of gray cloud moved in bringing light snow flurries. “Weather’s turning and I’m too tired to go on. Let’s camp here.”
“All right, but we have to camouflage the tent with snow, in case the harpies fly by.”
They did just that, erecting the tent and building a wall of snow on the north side where they figured the harpies would most likely be coming from. Then they crawled inside, hoping to catch a few hours’ sleep before continuing on.
“What do you think our little harpy is doing right now?” she asked as they got comfortable.
“Probably waddling in circles or something.”
She snorted, and found his hand under the blankets.
Augum woke some time later to a distant voice saying, “Hello? Can anyone hear me?” The wind blew and the tent was dark. He reached into his rucksack and brought out the Orb of Orion, placing his ear against it.
“Nana? Is that you?”
“Yes, Augum. I am most glad to hear you are well. I tried contacting you earlier but received no response.”
“We were sleeping, Nana. We got out of the Occi camp but had to walk all night. We have everything the wolven asked for, including a way to get into Bahbell. Oh, and Nana, we learned a lot from the Occi—”
“—that is all very well and good, Augum, but I have precious little time to banter, and your training is more important right now. Is Leera there by your side?”
“She’s sleeping, but—”
“Please wake her.”
“Yes, Nana.” He supposed he could tell her about what he learned later. He gave Leera a gentle shake.
“Ugh … tired … leave me alone …”
“Wake up. Training.”
She rolled over and opened puffy eyes. “Now …?”
“—are you both paying attention?”
“Yes, Nana,” Augum replied as Leera put her ear to the orb.
“—I was just asking how the spell casting of Object Alarm and Object Track went.”
“Um, we haven’t been able to cast either successfully yet.”
“Not a single casting?” There was an audible sigh. ”Considering your circumstances, I suppose I should not be
too cross. Now tell me exactly what you were doing.”
Augum and Leera proceeded to inform Mrs. Stone all about their many failed attempts with Object Alarm. After trying to cast it a few more times for her, Mrs. Stone diagnosed the problem—although their visualization of the object was fine, they weren’t assigning a sound to the trigger.
“Think of a very specific sound,” Mrs. Stone went on, “a sound powerful enough to wake you in your dreams and loud enough to be heard in conversation.”
“How about a bell?” Augum asked.
“That works just fine. Let us try again.”
They continued casting the spell until Leera shouted out joyfully when Augum touched the lantern. His own successful casting came soon after.
“Good, you are well on your way to learning your first enchantment. There are complexities to the spell but we can discuss them later. I want you to continue practicing it often; I expect great progress on both Object Alarm and Object Track in the coming days. It is how you will guard the orb and your possessions. Now continue to work and study hard.”
“We will, Mrs. Stone,” Leera replied. “Have you checked in on Mr. Goss and Leland by chance?”
“I dare not endanger Milham and its residents with my presence. Lividius has put together a party of warlocks to help him find the scions, warlocks with seasoned travel experience, thus I am always on the move. So far, I have been able to stay a step ahead of them, but unless I find some way to stop the search, it is inevitable they shall find me. Luckily, the Tiberrans are proving quite the distraction, for they do not succumb easily.”
“Oh and about what we learned from the Occi—I think my father made a witch’s pact with Magua.” He had to say something about it, even if it was something obvious.
“Yes, I believe so too—”
“I think it’s the same one Occulus once made—” There was more to it of course but he didn’t want to drown her in detail.
“What makes you so sure, Great-grandson?”
It all tumbled out in a rush. “All the pieces fit. Occulus was promised eternal life for all the women he had taken and the children he had fathered—they’re now who we call ‘the Occi’. Then he was taught how to raise an entire army of undead, which he used to take control of the Dreadnoughts. The last thing the witch wanted was for him to capture Ley for her father, the Father of Demons—”
“That is quite enough, Augum,” Mrs. Stone said. “A preposterous tale told by a self-serving Occi, no doubt. I would have hoped you to possess better sense than to believe such a yarn. The histories are clear—Occulus was a mad man bent on destruction and power. He wanted eternal life and knowledge from the Leyans for himself. Besides, the Occi cannot have possibly lived so long—eternal life cannot happen outside of Ley, as you have seen with your own eyes.”
“But Nana, they’re walking proof of—”
“—of necromancy, nothing more. There are arcane illusions powerful enough to accomplish such feats.”
“But—”
“Let us talk no more on the subject. I have a great many people to help here.”
His shoulders slumped. “All right, Nana. Please be safe.”
“And you, Great-grandson. Take care of each other.”
“Bye, Mrs. Stone,” Leera said.
Augum began folding his blanket. “She didn’t believe me …”
Leera gave him a sympathetic look. “Well she did come from an academy, and history books are unquestionable in places like that. Besides, you know she can be a little stubborn sometimes.”
“I’m worried. What if my father catches up to her?”
“She’ll be fine, she’s Mrs. Stone. I’m more worried about us. We have to get inside Bahbell without being killed by the Legion or the Occi.” She shoved the Orb of Orion into a rucksack. “Not to mention, as was made so damn obvious last night, we can’t really go toe-to-toe against warlocks without offensive spells.”
He sighed. “I know … I thought we’d have learned them by now. We’re almost 3rd degree!”
“It’s that way on purpose with offensive spells. Imagine a bunch of 1st degree kids running around blowing each other up. Happens anyway sometimes at the academy.”
“I guess. Doesn’t help us though, does it?”
“No, but I’m pretty sure that offensive spell the Occi used back there is the one we get to learn next.”
“Then maybe I can talk Nana into teleporting us to a Trainer or something to learn it.”
It was late afternoon and windy, the sky overcast. They packed up the tent and continued on their journey, stuffing snow into their mouths and practicing spells as they went. It had snowed the entire time they slept, but not enough to cover their tracks, which they used to retrace their steps.
“I’m thirsty …” Leera said a few hours later as they climbed towards their old camping spot. “What do you think bloodfruit tastes like?”
“Blood …”
“Think it’s poison?”
“Probably … let’s just keep eating snow. All we have is one more day of hiking left.”
But snow wasn’t enough, and it was making them colder. Their pace slowed as their thirst increased. Spell practice petered out. Leera withdrew the waterskin only to find it frozen solid. He refrained from saying I told you so.
They finally stumbled across their old campsite just as the sun dipped below the horizon. Tomorrow they would only have to climb down the other side of this mountain, cross a valley, and climb up another mountain to the wolven cave. The prospect seemed daunting without water though.
They used up the majority of their remaining energy setting up the tent. They tried rigging the lantern to melt snow, but the fire from the lamp was too small.
“Your eyes are glassy,” Leera said quietly as she struggled to free her blanket from her rucksack.
He helped give it a tug until it came free. “Yours too …”
They lay quietly, breathing tired breaths, the Orb of Orion by their heads. There might be some way for Nana to melt snow for them through the orb, Augum thought, but she never did check in.
When sleep came, it was restless and inconsistent. All thoughts and dreams involved taking liberal gulps of fresh water.
By the time they departed in the morning, Augum’s throat and tongue felt like sand, stomach a great cavern. His muscles were sore and achy and his head hurt as if he had been pushing arcane boundaries. Every step felt like it took twice as long as it needed to. Spell practice was out of the question.
The day was cloudy and windy with sharp snowdrift attacking their faces. They skipped breakfast but sat for lunch, nibbling at the last of the journey bread.
Leera’s head rested on her knees. “Parched …”
Augum didn’t even have the strength to nod along. Besides, he was too busy envisioning himself swallowing a great pool of clear water. He tried focusing on the distant glacier, but his eyes wouldn’t stay on the same spot. He thought he saw black dots there. Sometimes there was one, sometimes many.
“You … see something … on the glacier?” he finally managed to ask. Talking was an awful struggle that sucked his energy now.
Leera didn’t even move her head. “No …”
“Just … look.”
She squinted at the great winding ice sheet. “Imagining … things.” Her head fell back to her knees.
Augum kept his gaze on the glacier, swearing something was there, yet the dots kept appearing and disappearing like visual afterglow. Wherever he looked, he saw these dots appear, sometimes along the snow, sometimes in the air. “Must be … harpies …”
“Nothing … there … Aug …”
He fought his aching knees to stand. Even shouldering the rucksack was a challenge. “Let’s go …”
“Need … rest …” She stood with a tortured moan, her movements that of an old woman’s. He helped her place the rucksack over her shoulder. Her eyes were half-closed and dreamy and the look on her face worried him. He recalled how she had cr
umpled the night they had been caught in the blizzard together, outside the Penderson home.
And they still had a ways to go …
Augum brought her to him in a warm embrace. Her arm reached around his back and weakly hung on. They stood like that for a bit, gathering snow on their hoods, until a sudden gust almost knocked them over. He decided it would be best to tie the two of them together, not because he feared the wind, but because he feared them drifting apart in their tired stupor. If they lost sight of each other in this …
He dragged out the rope, aching hands making the task take far longer than it should.
Step by dreary step, they plowed on over their old tracks, now barely visible under the fresh snowfall. The flakes began getting fatter, but at least the wind slowed a touch.
At suppertime, they were on the northeast face of the mountain housing the wolven cave. Augum figured that at the pace they were going, they’d make it back to the cave after midnight, if they managed the final steep climb, that is.
His rope went taut. He turned to find Leera lying in the snow. She had fallen numerous times along the way already, as had he, though usually they’d rest sitting up.
He labored back to her. “Leera … we’ve got to … keep going …” He gave her a gentle shake, but she didn’t move. “Leera …” There was a sick feeling in his stomach. He quickly turned her over, resting her head in his lap, and swept matted raven hair aside, revealing a frosted face, cracked lips, and closed eyes.
“Leera … wake up …”
His heart pounded as he placed his ear to her mouth, feeling the gentlest of breath. He glanced at the desolation around him. “Help us … somebody … help us …” but there was only the wind and the soft pad of snow, patiently entombing them under its eternal blanket.
The sky was darkening. Should he setup camp and rest or go on ahead and return with help? No, he couldn’t leave her. He laboriously unstrapped his rucksack and dug at the Orb of Orion.
“Nana … you there? Nana …”
No response.
He spied the three bloodfruits. What if they each had one, leaving one for Raptos? He thought about it. He didn’t have the strength to carry her, or even to setup the tent at this point. What choice was there?
