by RG Long
Elise looked up and saw that, indeed, everyone was around. But were they ready to continue the discussion? That she did not know.
Everyone had been eating and talking without a care for a moment. Remembering the decision at hand seemed to bring everyone back into their somber states.
“I think we ought to inspect what’s going on,” Gorplin said. “Wouldn’t be like us to just leave a mystery unsolved. All this man in the tower business. A king who’s reigned for decades. Sounds like someone who could be a real danger.”
At least saw several people nodding their heads. She knew that Ealrin had already made the decision to leave Redact and seek rest for a season.
“And what would you do if finding out this mystery led to more deaths?” she asked the dwarf specifically, knowing that the others who had agreed were listening. “Your death?”
Elise asked this question, knowing that she was an outsider to this group. She was Ealrin’s sister, but she had not been with them for the duration of their journey. She hardly knew some of them. The assassin, the dwarf, The older man, and the elf were all friends of Ealrin. Not hers.
But she was Ealrin’s sister. And if he went on a quest, his life would be in danger too. She had lost him once. She was not inclined to lose him again.
“There’s always a risk,” Holve said from his place by the railing.
He, alone, had been eating by himself. Elise thought he was lost in his own thinking. This was the first time she had heard him speak since last night.
“And you would risk my brother’s life?” she asked him.
He looked back at her with a kind expression.
“Ealrin knows the dangers we face. He’s come up against them many times. And the reward is that we might save more lives than just our own. Perhaps those of people we’ve never met. There is a darkness coming from this land. I feel it. We can either choose to run from it or towards it and face it down.”
Captain Felicia gave a soft ‘aye,’ and her Skrilx companion nodded.
Elise took a deep breath and looked the group over.
“I believe people should choose whether or not they are willing to risk their lives,” she said. “Not have that choice made for them. Even those who entered Rerial’s military could choose between serving in a capacity like mine, where we would fly the ships and put ourselves in danger, or be like Jill and work on them from the capital. Both noble tasks.”
Jill folded her arms. Elise wasn’t sure if she had insulted her in this or not. It didn’t matter.
Holve opened his hands while.
“No one here is forcing anyone to lay down their life,” he said.
“No,” Elise said, but it is encouraged.
“My brother has always wanted to do the right thing,” she said as she turned to face them all. “I know you have seen that. You spent three years with him. Well, I’ve known him for eighteen. He’s a good man who wants to do what’s right. But sometimes he will do it to the detriment of his judgment. He says he wants to rest. To think. To study. To make an informed decision. Is that bad? What if more lives could be saved because of instead of rushing in, we stopped to consider?”
Everyone on the deck was silent. They slowly looked either at Elise or Ealrin. She turned to face her brother.
“What do you have in your heart?” she asked.
Ealrin looked down at her, and then over to Blume. The girl had been pouring over three books. Two of them had been with them for a long time, according to Ealrin. The last one, Teresa had brought with her. The princess had given it to Blume once they were reunited. She had seemed overjoyed to get it and had done little else but look at its pages since receiving the gift.
Elise looked between the two. Blume looked Ealrin solidly in the eyes. Was there something there Elise had not yet perceived? Blume nodded at Ealrin, who put down his plate on the barrel where Jill had been working.
He took a deep breath before speaking.
“Let’s get the Sky Dart up and running,” he said. “Because I do trust Holve, we should at least inspect what’s going on.”
He looked over at the older man. Elise noticed something pass between them. Perhaps an understanding? Maybe a recognition that Ealrin was only doing this because Holve had suggested it? Elise wasn’t sure.
“After we see who this man in the tower is, we should return to Thoran, or the very least Good Harbor and rest.”
38: Towers
The suns were high in the sky as the cursing Jill came from below the deck of the Sky Dart. The mechanic had been fighting with the airship all morning.
Teresa was sure about half of the words that the mechanic was saying were appropriate to repeat. But they kept on getting mixed in with the names of parts of the ship. She tried her best to tune out the shouting because she wasn’t sure which she would be able to ask about later and which she should try to remove from her memory as local cursing.
She drank a glass cup of water from a roughhewn wooden mug and sat down beside Blume.
Most of their party had been trying to determine if it was wise to investigate the man in the tower or not. The decision was made, and the group had decided to pursue this adventure, but not everyone was as equally convinced of the wisdom of the maneuver. Everyone seemed to have their opinion one way or the other, but the one who was not sharing anything about it at the moment was Blume.
Teresa had nearly forgotten about the book when they had climbed out of the hole beneath the tower of magic. She had found it stuffed into her shirt only after arriving on Jaxon’s airship. When she had been able to take the book from Headmistress Cactus, she didn’t know. But the girl had nearly squealed with delight the moment Teresa had produced it and showed it to her.
Ever since Blume had been looking at the books, they had gathered from all over Gilia. One was Jurgon’s book of runes where they had discovered the existence of the Everring Tree. Another was an ancient tone they had found in the dirt on the continent of Ladis. And now there was this book of runes from Redact.
Blume had a bit of parchment in front of her that she was making scrawling notes on with a charcoal pen. Teresa recognized half of the symbols as their own script, but the other half were runes she did not recognize.
“What have you been able to uncover?” she asked as she took another drink from her cup.
Blume looked up and blinked several times as if waking from a daze.
“I think I need Galp!” she said as she gathered up all the books and her parchment and ran to the rooms of the Sky Dart.
Teresa tried not to feel insulted.
She was going to stand up when Ealrin sat down beside her with his own cup.
“I see she’s not talking to you either,” he said, after drinking a bit. “She’s hardly said a word since she got that book. I wonder what’s in it?”
Teresa shrugged her shoulders. She had no idea either.
“Do you really think we must go to the tower?” she asked Ealrin.
In answer to her question, he took another long drink.
“Your sister seems to think it’s right to go to Thoran. Or at least she thinks you think that’s right.”
Ealrin shook his head.
“I’m not sure what’s right,” he said. “I’m tired of losing friends. I don’t want to be responsible for any more deaths. Surely you can understand what that means?”
She could.
Being a princess and a general meant that she was in charge of the lives of thousands of soldiers. She sent men and women to their deaths at her command. If she could help it, she would spare them. But often, war meant sacrifice. Like what her father had done for them. For her.
“Do you think it would be safe for you to return to Thoran?” Ealrin asked.
She had considered this more than once. If she returned to her home, as the eldest of her siblings, she would be the rightful queen to the throne. But she had left in order to avoid a civil war. She had abdicated so that no more death would be caused on her part.
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She did know what it meant to sacrifice.
“I think we should return to Good Harbor,” she said. “It’s an independent city-state. I think we would be welcome. “
“You mean we would fit in with the riffraff,” Ealrin chuckled. “I don’t remember Good Harbor housing the most upstanding of citizens.”
Teresa agreed.
But maybe they were riffraff now.
“What about this man in the tower?” Teresa asked. “Do you think he’s someone we should be worried about?”
Ealrin sighed.
“We end up being worried about almost everyone these days,” he said. “There are very few countries who are actively seeking out peace and not war. Thoran may be one. The Southern Republic. Darrin. The New Elven Nations.”
He laughed again.
“And probably not a single one on Ladis.”
“They were a different category altogether,” Teresa agreed.
She stood up and looked around the deck. The suns were still high overhead, and everyone was either preparing to leave or trying to help Jill below deck to fix the Sky Dart. She was just about to ask what Ealrin thought they should do for their next meal when the deck gave a lurch.
Teresa hugged the railing as the ship rose up into the air and then slowly came back down. There was a churning and whooshing sound coming from below the deck as someone was shouting.
“What the devil is going on!?” Gorplin yelled as he emerged from the quarters of the ship, holding his ax and a sharpening stone. “Are we moving the blasted ship again?”
“Yes!” came the muffled reply underneath the deck.
Jill burst out from down below with Jaxon on her heels. She was covered in grease and dirt but looked jubilant.
“It was the activator! The rimstone wasn’t properly responding to the third and fifth initiations!”
“Uhh...” Ealrin said as Teresa looked over at him, probably looking just as confused as he did.
“We’re flying again!” Jill said. “Jaxon, take the wheel!”
Jaxon let out a whoop as he looked at Ealrin.
“I think you forget this isn’t my ship,” he said. “Let’s have the captain give it a go, shall we?”
Ealrin nodded and leaped up to the steering column. He looked around the ship. Teresa could tell he was happy. Happy that his airship was working again and happy that he was going to fly it. There was a moment’s pause where his smile faltered, but it was back on his face in an instant. She was fairly certain she knew where that came from.
“Everyone get ready!” he called out. “We’re heading for the tower of Darc.”
39: Mystery Stew
Her skin was burning hot. Everything was burning. The very road she was trying to crawl along seemed to scourge her flesh. Patches of her fur had been burned away. Anywhere her armor did not completely cover was now burned skin. The pain was intolerable.
But her desire to survive and put a blade into Ferdinand was unstoppable. She would survive. Even if she had to crawl over every stone and piece of debris that Poral had to offer. Once she had been like an angel of death, dealing out the final blow to those who were close to crossing the portal between the land of the living and wherever it was those who died resided.
At the moment, she prayed that no one would stumble upon her. She would be an easy target to take.
To the best of her knowledge, when Ferdinand had tried to dispose of her, she was at the very edge of town, working her way to the docks. She was trying to crawl her way there now. If she was going to avoid the flames that were still overtaking the city, that would be her only hope.
Water.
She crawled on her belly until her arms were so tired she could barely feel them anymore. Then she convinced herself that feel her arms was not important to her survival. All knew needed was to continue to move. To persevere. To continue. She struggled and attempted to crawl some more, knowing that every moment she stopped was a moment the fires came closer. She refused to be consumed by the flame. Rather, she was going to live.
There was a loud rushing noise over her head that surprised her. The dust that it kicked up threatened to choke her. She closed her mouth and her eyes until the rushing stopped. Over and over again, the sound came and left. She knew that sound, but could think about its origin, or why it invaded her ears when all else was fire. It wasn’t important right now.
She had to live.
Rark decided that to crawl while her eyes were shut was a better strategy than laying and waiting for the noise to stop and the fire consume her. She continued her agonizing journey. Paw in front of paw, she continued to crawl by feeling alone. She kept to the road, with its brick foundation, and crawled in the direction that she hoped was the water. Whenever she found a building or dirt blocking her path, she adjusted until she was dragging her belly along the bricks again. Once, when putting out another grasping paw, instead of a rock or road, she found a dagger.
She had been weaponless since Ferdinand tried to kill her. This she could hold while she crawled. Continuing on with the blade in her paw, she made herself move forward.
Finally, the noise ceased overhead. She couldn’t tell how long it had gone on, only that it was finally over and the ringing in her ears could decrease.
Looking up, Rark saw that she was close to the docks of Poral. Many ships lay broken and burning on top of the water. Even the dock itself had been devoured by the water in places. One massive ship crowned them all. This must have been the airship that they had seen earlier. It, too, had been decimated, just like the rest of the city.
Rark had given just about all the strength she had to give when she heard a voice.
“What do you think that is?” said something markedly female.
“I’m not sure, maybe one of those Skrilx things?” answered a much fuller male voice.
“Maybe. Do you think we should...”
“It looks beyond any help we could give.”
“Maybe...”
The voices were coming closer. Rark tried to lift herself up off of the ground. She adjusted her grip on the dagger she had found and feebly tried to hold it in her paw.
“Get back...” she coughed.
Her voice was so ragged by the smoke and ash that she barely managed to make a sound.
“Poor thing,” came the voice again. “Maybe we can help it, Orod.”
“I don’t know, Brima,” replied the other. “I think it’s beyond our help.”
“We have to try,” the female, who apparently was named Brima said again.
Rark tried to get up again, but couldn’t. She let herself fall to the ground and sighed. If they wanted to help her, there was nothing she could do to stop them. The last thing she remembered thinking was that if they wanted to kill her and put her out of her misery, there wasn’t anything she could do about that either.
Rark flitted in-between nightmares and pain. When she wasn’t wincing at the feeling of something touching her bared skin, she was reliving the mistreatment of her people and the pain that Rerial had caused them so many years ago.
She saw them all again.
The thousands of Skirlx who had been killed off by the efforts of Rerial and then by the Court of Three. She hadn’t been there. She wasn’t alive during those wars. But she saw it. As clearly as she saw her people marching to war to reclaim the continent, she saw them being killed by the thousands.
And then there was pain.
Her sides and her neck were in terrible pain. She gritted her teeth as she felt all of this in unison.
“I think it’s working,” said the female.
“I think you’re hurting her,” answered her companion.
Rark was in pain. And she was in dreams. She saw the foundation of the world shaken. She saw the very continent drifting apart and into their current form. She saw fire and ruin and devastation.
And she saw the comet.
A fiery orb in the sky that lit up the night. A flame of death and destruction
with thousands of living flames taking on flesh to torment those who lived on the earth below it.
“I shall offer my aid,” came a voice that Rark knew.
A wind rushed over her, and at once, she felt calm. She felt peace. And for the first time since she crawled out of the city, she slept without dreams.
When Rark finally woke up, she saw that it was night. She couldn’t be sure how many nights had passed since she had crawled to this place, but she knew that it had been several. Her stomach ached, and her mouth felt dry. But the pain in her body was less.
She looked up and saw a roof over her head. That felt odd to her. The last she knew she had been crawling through the streets. She turned her head ever so slightly and saw two elves in the corner of the room. The wall has been blown out or burned away, leaving a large section of the area Ibarinsed to the outside. But at least there was a roof over her head.
One elf, a large one by the looks of him, was staring out the opening into the darkness beyond. The other, the female, lay sleeping against the wall. The rather large looking elf was scanning the area outside and then looked in her direction and saw that her eyes were open.
“I thought we had lost you," he said as a small smile crossed his face.
“Brima, wake up,” he said, touching the shoulder of his companion. “Looks like the Skrilx is alive after all.”
The blonde-haired elf blinked several times before she truly opened her eyes and looked in Rark’s direction.
“Oh! You’re alive! For the last day or two, you were breathing so lightly. We were afraid you were dying.”
“Looks alive to me,” Orod said. “I bet hungry too.”
Rourke nodded her head, even though the soreness in her neck made it difficult.
“Hope you like mystery stew,” Orod said with a smile. “It hasn’t killed either of us yet, so I’m guessing it’ll be okay for you. It’s all we could scrounge up.”
In the middle of the room, Rark saw that there were some embers still glowing with a metal pot sitting on top of them. Orod collected a broken bowl and dipped it into the pot, pulling out its contents. The stew was a brownish-red liquid with very little pieces of solids inside it.
