by Sever Bronny
Augum wanted to give her a hug but was too tired. “We all are, Bridge. We all are …” Heights and confined spaces didn’t suit her, especially for prolonged periods. He hoped they found a way out sooner than later. Then they’d have to tackle the problem of winter without mitts and lacking one coat. And where would they go? What would they do for food? He’d have to hunt, he supposed, though even thinking about constructing traps made him feel even more tired.
Leera broke a few crystals off and stuffed them in the rucksack.
“You shouldn’t do that,” Bridget said.
“Why in Sithesia not? They look valuable.”
“Because … it feels wrong. Like we’re stealing from a sacred place or something.”
“Sometimes a cave is just a cave.” Leera closed up the rucksack, flashed Bridget a rebellious look, and began navigating the crystalline structures.
Augum extended his hand to Bridget. “Come on,” he said quietly, silently agreeing with Leera—who knows what use those crystals might come to.
She sighed in aggravation but took his hand.
The crystal cavern was short, a gem in the abyssal depths of a black ocean. After passing through, they turned to get a last glimpse of its sparkling magnificence. They stood for some time, none of them wanting to venture on into the darkness after seeing something so graceful, so sacred …
They walked and climbed in silence for the better part of the day, or night—no one was sure when exactly it was, or how many days had passed, or how many countless leagues they had traversed. It buoyed Augum’s spirits that at least they began a steady ascent. Maybe they’d reach the surface before starving. Only to freeze to death, he thought, snorting at the idea of it. To have come all this way …
As more time passed and the moss became scarcer, their bodies withered to emaciation. Their appearance turned haggard and hollow. Movements slowed to a crawl and voices softened to whispers. Breathing became rattled, interspersed with coughing.
The cold once again sharpened and Augum found himself longing for a coat. They took turns with the two they did have, though it always left someone to shiver more than the others.
Nonetheless, step by dreary step, they battled the wind, keeping only one of their palms lit at a time, until even that one light was as weak as a dying candle, ready to be snuffed out by the incessant wind.
Another day passed and they weakened further still. It was a day Augum thought a miracle in their condition. They had survived this long, but he knew death was nearing. Obstacles like small boulders that would have required little effort to overcome now expended time and energy they did not possess. The wind bit deeply, the cold shrinking their hunched forms to shuffling stumps.
The ascent dragged on and on. The darkness began to fool with their minds. Sometimes one of them would turn around, thinking they had heard something, or seen food where there was only rock, or light where there was only gloom.
It was Bridget that fell first. “I’m … done,” she mumbled between gasps. “Leave me …”
Augum, who had been dragging the rucksack for the last while and refusing to give it up, was happy to let it slip from his fingers. He fell to the ground beside her. “Let’s … rest …”
Leera collapsed on her other side, extinguishing her palm and their only source of light. “Not … going … without … you … Bridge …”
“This … is … it …” Bridget wheezed. “I’m … done. Really …”
Augum took her cold, bony hand in his own. Her skin was dry to the touch. He gave it a gentle squeeze. “If … you … stay … we … all … stay …” and he meant it. There was no way he would be able to go on without her. “You … must … be … strong …” The effort of speaking was sapping his reserves, not that he had any really.
“Sleep …” Leera gasped. “For … a while …”
Augum was afraid to sleep. He feared death taking them. He listened to the girls’ short breaths, hoping to keep hearing them, tortured by the fact that he was as powerless as a kitten. His mind feebly grasped at ideas. What could they eat? How could they get out? Damn it, what could they eat!
Food consumed his thoughts like sickness, until he swore he was eating roasted chicken, only to suddenly discover it was the edge of the rucksack. The thought would have been amusing at some other time, some other place. But down here in the dark labyrinthine depths, probably their final resting place, it was coldly sobering.
He pushed the rucksack away and turned to the wind, only to see a faint light in the distance. His mind was dying along with his body. It was flailing with hope, though there was none down here.
He turned away from the fake light. No, this was how he was going to die—right here with his friends. He lay still, continuing to listen to the girls’ breathing, wondering which breath would be their last. The count had to be small, perhaps in the hundreds of breaths now …
He turned back towards the light. It was still there, pale as the moon.
Pale as the moon.
Could it really be? He reached deep inside himself for strength, scraping the bottom of the pot, and found just enough to move. “Shyneo,” but his palm would not light.
“Leera … look …”
She stirred with a groan.
“Do … you … see … it …?”
She moaned. “Yes …”
Hope surged like a spring fountain. “Let’s … go … look. Bridge … come on …”
Bridget made a feeble noise.
Leera shook her. “Come … on … Bridge. There’s … light …”
“Leave … me …”
“No …” Augum laced his arms around her and tried picking her up, but he was too weak. “Leera … help …”
The two of them managed to do it together. They began the long shuffle to the light, Bridget flopping between them like a sack of apples, Augum dragging the rucksack by the strap. He could feel her ribs and held her tenderly, wishing he could do more for all of them.
It took forever to get to the light, and the wind only increased, its cold biting through their meager garments, their malnourished and stretched skins. They stumbled often, too weak to light their palms. This was it, Augum realized, the final push …
They climbed and climbed, at last coming upon a great cavern, or more like a sheer vertical hole. Somewhere far, far above, was the moon, its pale light reflecting off the massive earthy walls.
When they saw the enormity of it, it became clear how impossible a climb this would have been in the best of circumstance, let alone in the shape they were in. They collapsed together, without words or hope.
“Sinkhole …” Leera gasped. “It’s … the … damn … sinkhole … We’re … finished …”
One After Another
Time stopped then and there at the bottom of that great sinkhole. It was the same one they had passed on the way to Bahbell, Augum was sure of it. Had they really traversed such a great distance underground? The thought seemed ludicrous and impossible. Yet what did it matter? They were going to die here at the bottom, and that was that.
He amused himself with thoughts of the future. One day, someone will come across their bodies and find some peculiar objects. Crystals, books, the Agonex. An entire army at their command, if they figure out what the artifact was …
The trio curled up tightly together, preserving the last of their warmth. The wind and the cold raked at them with demon fingers, hurrying them along in their final moments. They held on to each other as deep friends, determined to leave this life together.
And then, at some late and grave hour, with Leera and Bridget’s heads buried on his chest, Augum heard a peculiar metal shuffling. It was so unexpected and so out of place that he thought for sure it was his mind finally breaking, until a form appeared before him, perhaps with a few extra dents and scratches.
Horrick carried an orb, an orb Augum remembered to be the Orb of Orion—and it did not shimmer in its protective cocoon. The thought sent a surge through his bo
dy, so much that he actually sat up, startling the girls.
“I don’t believe it,” he said without gasping. “I don’t believe it …!”
“Thy orb, as mine repugnant detractor commanded.” Horrick shuffled forth and gave Augum the orb while the girls sat slack-jawed.
“I don’t believe it,” Augum kept saying. “How did you … how did you find us? How did you get through the cave, through all that?”
The skull helm tilted slightly. “Mine lord?”
Of course he didn’t understand the question, how could he? But it hardly mattered, for Nana was going to save them now!
“Nana …” Augum gasped desperately, bringing the orb to his ear. “Nana …!” but unbelievably, there was no response. He exchanged a perplexed look with the girls.
Suddenly there was another noise from the direction Horrick had come. Augum looked past to see two figures emerge from the shadows, carrying torches, one in armor that reflected the light, the other garbed in black Legion plate. Soon as he spotted that grisly face and those pale eyes, Augum dropped the orb and squeezed Bridget and Leera close.
“How pleasant it is to see you all again,” the Blade of Sorrows said in his deep voice. “What a trek that was.” The revenant commander turned to Raina. “And to think they doubted our trusty companion was up to something. Now feast your eyes on this sorry sight.”
Raina reached into their rucksack and withdrew the Agonex. Augum could no more stop her than he could curl his fingers into a fist. Her hard features creased with a mirthless smile. “There it is. Our lordship will be most pleased.”
“Most pleased indeed,” Tridian said. “You know, you put us through an awful lot of trouble, boy, an awful lot. My apprentice has lost his good looks, I daresay, and he is most angry. You, unfortunately, are to live, for His Lordship has demanded your return. But you can guess what that means for your friends—”
Augum’s grip on Bridget and Leera tightened. “Don’t you dare touch them!” He didn’t know where the strength to shout had come from. “If you want to kill them, kill me too, you damn cowardly dogs. Kill me too!” And if they didn’t do it, him shouting and depleting the very last of his strength certainly should do the job.
“You have grown bold,” Tridian said. “Too bold, in my opinion. I would put you to the question if the first caress would not end you.” He nodded at Raina. “Finish the little witches.”
“No!” Augum screamed. “NO—!”
The girls barely resisted, not that their wasted muscles were any match for Raina, who looked like she had been well provisioned for the journey that had so sapped their strength. She tore Leera from Augum’s feeble clutches first, drawing her dagger. Yet as she did so, Augum heard the most beautiful sound in all of Sithesia, one he dreamed of hearing for days and days in the darkness—the sound of an implosive crunch.
There before the Orb of Orion stood Anna Atticus Stone, head held high, silken white robe shimmering in the moonlight.
The Blade of Sorrows took a stumbling step backward. “You …”
“Me,” Mrs. Stone said simply.
Raina’s jaw clenched. “Don’t you do anything or I’ll cut her open—” She pressed the knife against Leera’s throat. Augum couldn’t breathe—for a moment, he saw Mya standing there in Robin’s arms.
Mrs. Stone’s brow rose ever slightly. “You will not,” and without any apparent gesture, Raina’s arms began to fold up and away, so far, in fact, that that there were loud snapping sounds. She screamed and fell to her knees, arms dangling limply.
Leera, meanwhile, crawled back to Augum. He placed an arm around her shaking body and drew her close.
Mrs. Stone turned to the Blade of Sorrows. Perhaps the revenant knew it was futile to try anything against the only living warlock to have achieved mastery, for he stood frozen in place like a winter waterfall.
Mrs. Stone stared at him coldly, as if daring him to make a move.
“I yield,” Tridian said at last. “And we both know you cannot kill a soul who has surrendered. It is against your principles.”
Mrs. Stone raised her arm slowly. “For that to apply, revenant, you would have to have a soul.”
Tridian’s eyes widened as Mrs. Stone’s arm ruptured with a crackling blue sleeve. A bolt of thick lightning leaped from it, uniting with the Blade of Sorrows. The man lifted off his feet, convulsing, crying out. He began to burn alive while screaming, finally imploding into the armor with a pop. The hulk of metal and guts fell to the ground, smoking.
“Gods …” Raina gasped, shaking, kicking the ground to crawl away, arms limp and useless.
Mrs. Stone ignored her and crouched before Augum, who held the girls tight in his embrace, afraid to let their frail bodies go. Her hand lit with a soft white light. She pressed it to each of their foreheads. A soothing sensation, like taking a warm bath, consumed Augum’s body. It eased the many pains, the hollowness in his stomach, and gave him a measure of peace he thought he’d never feel again.
Mrs. Stone smiled sadly. “I have listened through the Orb of Orion, as powerless as a newborn babe. But I heard nearly everything of import. Your struggle is over now. You are victorious in your quest. The recipe is destroyed. Lividius will not reach the plane of Ley.”
Augum didn’t have the strength or the words to reply. He only held on to Bridget and Leera, glad they were all right, glad that it was over.
“Please return to Lividius Stone,” Mrs. Stone said to Horrick, “to the one they call the Lord of the Legion. Tell him the hole in his heart is growing larger. Tell him that one day it will consume him. And that day comes ever nearer.”
“As mine mighty antagonist commands.” The small suit of arcane armor shuffled back the way it had come.
Leera managed to give Augum a look. Was that a compliment from Horrick?
Mrs. Stone strode over to Raina and took the Agonex from her limp hand. She was still trying to feebly crawl away.
“You can’t just leave me here!” Raina struggled to get up without the use of her arms. “Save me, you cold-hearted hag!”
“You were about to murder the girls, were you not?”
“I was commanded to!”
“Some commands should never be followed.” She studied the Legion woman a moment with no pity. “You can find your own way back.”
Raina looked at Mrs. Stone with horrified eyes, hard lips quivering, knowing what that meant.
Mrs. Stone picked up the rucksack, put the Agonex and the Orb of Orion inside, and turned to the trio. “I hope you are ready to leave.”
Augum took a last skyward look, at the towering sinkhole directly above, at the pale moon and its soft but cold glow. He squeezed the girls close. “We are, Nana. We really are …”
Annocronomus Tempusari
Mrs. Stone teleported the trio directly into the Okeke home in the dead of night, waking Mr. Okeke and Jengo. Both expressed great shock at seeing the trio in such a state of health. A fire was quickly built up in the hearth and water boiled. Mr. Goss, who was staying in the Miner’s Mule Inn with his son, was promptly fetched. He nearly fainted upon laying eyes on them. Floorboards creaked as the household scampered to see to the trio. Mrs. Stone patiently administered more arcane healing.
For his part, Augum was just happy to be near a fire, knowing Bridget and Leera were safe beside him. He glanced up at Mrs. Stone, whose brows were furrowed in concentration as she gently washed Bridget’s muddy face with a cloth.
“Is … is Haylee—?”
“She is well, my dear child,” Mrs. Stone said without shifting her gaze. “You will see her tomorrow. Now I urge you to conserve your strength. You have been through a most harrowing ordeal and need plenty of rest.”
“How frightful they look,” Mr. Goss whispered to Mr. Okeke, unable to take his eyes off the trio. “Like the undead raised.”
Jengo, looking taller than ever, brought over a bowl of steaming leek soup. His ebony face was creased with worry as he placed the bowl between Augum and
Leera.
“I was certain you would all meet your end in that hellish place,” he whispered.
Mrs. Stone sharply cleared her throat and Jengo stiffened. “B-b-but I’m very glad to have been wrong of course, very glad.” He spooned some soup and brought it to Leera’s mouth, then another to Augum’s. It was the most delicious thing Augum had ever tasted, and something he had been dreaming about for who knew how long.
“More,” Leera wheezed.
“Not too quickly now,” Mrs. Stone said.
“Haylee …” Augum mouthed before eagerly accepting another spoonful.
Jengo’s eyes lit up. “Sensational news—she was carried into town on Chaska’s back!” His eyes zipped between the trio. “The two are quite the, uh, item now. Oh, and she moved in with my betrothed, Priya!”
Augum glanced at Leera and could tell she would have snorted with laughter if she had the energy. Haylee living with Ms. Singh … indeed!
The trio exchanged relieved and amused looks. It was good to be back. Good to worry about the little things again. Good to hear about ordinary things. Good to not have to fight rabidly for one’s life.
“Mercy, child, you must not excite them,” Mrs. Stone said, now on to washing Bridget’s hair with the help of a basin of warm water.
“Yes, Mrs. Stone. Sorry, Mrs. Stone.” Jengo lowered his voice but plowed right on. “Mrs. Stone teleported her to see an arcane healer not long after she arrived, but they couldn’t heal her broken leg completely. Apparently it was much worse than when I broke my arm and stuff. Anyway, now she walks around with a limp. And the two of them told me all about your adventure—wolven, harpies, and those … those cannibals! I must hear every word! Oh, I can’t wait to hear about the castle too. Every. Word—”
“Son, enough.” Mr. Okeke brought a pot of tea over. “You may speak with them tomorrow.”
“Yes, Father.” Then his voice dropped to the barest of whispers as he spoke in rapid tones. “And just you wait until you meet our mentor. The vilest and ugliest—”
