Firestone

by Ryan Carriere

Roeg gestured the story to Ookum and Tsisa, who sat quietly while Minnoa spoke.

  “Ifrit was the first born and was of fire and stone. He churned and roiled, creating a great heat. It was that heat that spun the world and built the lands from the depths of the seas and eventually led to life—with the help of Gaia, of course.

  “An’nuna’ke, the second born, was of blood and bone. He felt his power was secondary to Ifrit’s, and over time, he became jealous and would fight with him. Ifrit, in turn, would show his power and create great explosions of fire. This fire would mix with Gaia’s water and bring more and more life to the world.

  “An’nuna’ke, unhappy with Ifrit and Gaia, started to feed on this life and became stronger and stronger, until one day, he challenged his brother’s power. An’nuna’ke resented both Gaia and Ifrit and fought them openly. Ifrit accepted the challenge, and they fought great battles that brought much bloodshed and fury. In the end, Ifrit defeated An’nuna’ke, and that made An’nuna’ke scornful and dark. Gaia became frightened and banished both sons, and herself, binding their power to three eternal stones. Her thought was to contain the negative emotions without disrupting the life-power of the stones.”

  Roeg, Tsisa, and Ookum were so enticed by the story that none of them moved. They barely breathed until Ookum asked, “Where did she banish them to?”

  Minnoa looked at Ookum. “The Firestone was in the fire caverns, until the Atlanteans stole it from there. The Bloodstone is in the Land of Darkness, and the Waterstone… well… it’s not known where it is.”

  Minnoa leaned towards Roeg and looked him in the eyes. “They say the eternal stones have the power to give and take life. Fourteen years ago, when the Atlanteans—your mother—stole the Firestone, they released Ifrit. But he has been stuck in the Fire Caverns ever since. Somehow, they separated him from his power in the eternal stone. I think that is why it’s harming you. The Firestone may be broken.”

  As Roeg finished gesturing the story to Ookum and Tsisa, they both gasped. Roeg thought about what Minnoa had said. He thought how the stone protected him, only when his life was truly in danger. That was also when it hurt him.

  Roeg stood, held the Firestone, and said, “To get to the Land of Darkness, we first need to make it through the Fire Caverns and convince Ifrit to let me keep the stone.”

  ROEG

  Into the Fire

  A

  fter leaving the safety of the sleep quarters, they entered another series of tunnels and caverns. The black stone that made up the tunnel walls seemed to breathe. On closer inspection, Roeg saw tiny droplets of steam release from the tiny pores in the stone. “I can see the breath of the tunnel walls.”

  Minnoa stopped walking. She turned and had a grim look on her face. “We are getting close to the Fire Caverns.”

  Ookum had stopped beside Roeg, listening to the conversation. He clicked, then stopped himself. Instead, he asked “What are we talking about?”

  Roeg looked at his friend and noticed how much Ookum had changed since they first left the village. He now tried to use words and sentences more often. Ookum Shroomsling’r didn’t freeze anymore. Roeg rarely heard him click-grunt; it was only when Tsisa and Ookum spoke together that they used the clan language.

  Roeg smiled and repeated what Minnoa told him. “Minnoa said we are getting close to the Fire Caverns.”

  Minnoa continued, “That is where Ifrit is. I am not sure what we will see in there.”

  Roeg glanced at Tsisa, who now stood between himself and Ookum. She was not doing a great job at hiding her scowl. The twins elbowed at each other until Ookum let out a grunt, rubbed his side, and slid away from his sister. A confident grin pulled the corner of her mouth, erasing the scowl.

  She chimed in, “Can we keep moving? It’s hot in here, and I don’t think I can take being underground for much longer.” The heat and moisture plagued her hair, making it stick up much more than usual. As she moved, her hair seemed to have a life of its own; it had never fully recovered from the gnomish baths.

  It took all of Roeg’s and Ookum’s energy not to laugh, especially when they shot each other looks. Tsisa had caught them several times, punishing them with her elbows.

  They walked through an open doorway and instantly felt the heat—not the type on the surface from the sun above, but a sickeningly oppressive heat that made it hard to breathe.

  Roeg fingered his red stone. He was lost in thought as they descended the winding tunnel. Thoughts of the journey filled his mind. So much had happened in such a short period of time.

  He noticed the tunnel had changed; the walls were no longer lined with stacked stone but seemed to be carved out of a smooth, dark stone.

  He ran his fingers along the wall. It felt smooth, but steam boiled from its pores. He pulled his hand off the wall as pain shot up through his fingertips. “Ouch.”

  Without looking back, Minnoa called out, “Don’t touch the walls.” She studied her map. “We are almost at the Fire Caverns. According to my map, we have a couple more turns in this tunnel, then it will open up to a lake of fire.”

  Ookum shot Roeg a glance that showed his fear while he tried to puff his chest in a show of bravery.

  Roeg’s head still ached, along with his damaged arm.

  “When we get there…” Minnoa stopped in mid-sentence, searching for the right words, “That’s where Ifrit is. Do not touch the lake of fire.”

  Roeg gestured the warning to Ookum and Tsisa.

  The end of the tunnel glowed red…fire red…which seemed to be exaggerated by the dark stone of the tunnel and by the cavern itself.

  Ookum breathed deeply. “That’s a lot of red—maybe too much, and I like red.”

  Tsisa charged ahead of Ookum, elbowing him out of the way. “Let me go first.” She shot into the cavern and gasped.

  Roeg entered the Fire Caverns behind Tsisa. The oppressive heat gripped his breath and stung his insides. There was a distinct smell that reminded him of rotten eggs. “Ugh. What is that smell?”

  Minnoa held her nose. “It’s sulfur. The smell of Ifrit.”

  Roeg thought of the village. Sometimes when they hunted, they would spy a bird’s nest and scavenge eggs from it to eat. Once in a while, the eggs were spoiled and smelled terrible; that didn’t compare to the smell of the Fire Caverns.

  The cavern was vast. Pillars of dark stone spiraled out from the depths of the fire lake, some so massive, they almost reached the ceiling. Roeg looked up and felt small; the Great Hall seemed tiny in comparison to this. The rough stone that made up the walls and ceilings had severe edges and were broken off into sharp spears.

  A worn path hugged the side of the cavern; it seemed passable, without having to venture too close to the bubbling fire lake. The firewater looked thicker than regular lake water. Every once in a while, the surface would gurgle and sputter. Colossal bubbles would stretch and pop, releasing more of the sickening, rotten egg stench.

  Tsisa was the last to cover her nose. “I can’t take this smell. Blech.”

  “We need to keep moving,” Minnoa said.

  “How do we summon Ifrit?” Roeg asked.

  While holding her nose, Minnoa turned to Roeg. “Why do you want to summon Ifrit?”

  Roeg thought about it. “Unn said I need to keep the stone, but it’s hurting me. I figure that if we can get Ifrit to be one with the stone again, maybe it will stop hurting me. And if I can convince him to let me keep it like Unn said…”

  Minnoa nodded. “I didn’t put that together. That might work. But how do we get him in the stone?”

  Roeg looked back to make sure Ookum and Tsisa were behind him and saw them elbowing for space on the small stone path. He could see that Ookum was trying to hold back retches but was failing miserably. Minnoa heard Ookum’s retches, turned, and put a finger to her mouth, signaling him to be quiet.

  Roeg felt intense heat on his feet. Smoke lifted from his foot coverings, and he felt the heat s
eeping through them. He lifted his foot and saw the bottom smoldering.

  Minnoa pointed to the other end of the cavern. “There. On the other side of the cavern. Do you see it?”

  Roeg strained to see. “I see something…”

  “It’s a way out,” Minnoa said.

  Roeg’s neck started to burn. He thought it was a fire bubble; one must have landed on him. He raised his hands to check, but there was nothing there.

  A sudden relief washed over him—or was it dizziness? His pace slowed. He was hot, too hot—and parched. He smacked his lips in an effort to persuade his mouth to produce some moisture. He wobbled, and his knees felt weak. He hunched over and retched.

  Roeg heard his friends call out to him. First, they seemed to be right beside him, then they became quiet until he couldn’t hear them at all. He was hunched over and had retched so much, he thought there couldn’t be anything left in his belly.

  A deep, resonating voice—a bottomless, unnatural sound—echoed in his head. “You have something of mine…”

  Roeg winced at the sound; it shook him to the core. His insides rattled, and he felt like they would break apart and split from him.

  The voice squeezed Roeg’s mind and wouldn’t let go. “You shouldn’t have come here…”

  Roeg retched again. The taste in his mouth was unnatural; it was putrid and nauseating. His eyes wouldn’t open. They were held shut by an unseen force. He tried to speak, but his mouth was held shut by the same force.

  He imagined what he wanted to say to the voice. “Who are you?”

  The all-consuming voice spat in his mind, “That is not the right question. I am of no importance. What is important is the stone around your neck. It is mine, and I want it back!”

  Roeg retched again, but this time he felt nothing come out. He retched again and again, but his belly was empty. He was powerless to stop the sick taste in his mouth. He felt like he was burning from the inside.

  The voices of his friends were only whispers in his head.

  The voice snarled once again in his mind, “I don’t know how you came to have my eternal stone, and how you did not die from its power, but I want it back. It’s mine.”

  Every word suffocated Roeg and sent searing pain through his body.

  Roeg steeled himself and ignored the knotting pain. “My mother gave it to me. She said it would protect me.”

  The voice gripped his mind. “Ah… your people stole it from me. Greed and lust for power consume them. I knew someone like that once, long ago. As such, I will consume you to get my stone back.”

  Roeg felt his arms give way. His body sank. He was powerless.

  By some unseen force, his body lurched, and his legs lifted off the ground. He was under the complete control of the burning voice in his head.

  He felt the pain of heat below him. Where was he going? How was he moving? Was this Ifrit’s doing?

  He heard the voice again, but this time it suffocated his whole being. He felt submerged in the flame, and an intense heat he could not explain gripped him. “Agree to give me the stone, or die.”

  The pain was so intense, Roeg couldn’t think. He couldn’t breathe; he fought for air, but there was none.

  He was going to die.

  The voice prodded him again. “You have little time, boy. Your insides are burning, and you are running out of air. Decide.”

  Roeg couldn’t concentrate; he was weak. He was dying. “I am going to the Land of Darkness…” he blurted out to the voice.

  There was a pause. The sickening grip released slightly.

  A rising power allowed Roeg to speak again. “There is a great fire coming that will destroy all we know. I will take the Bloodstone from the Land of Darkness to the Great Spirit Sea in order to stop the great fire.”

  There was a pause again.

  The voice sneered, “How noble of you.”

  The pain intensified. Roeg tried to fight it but failed.

  Images of his life flashed in his mind: old Unn’s face—how he had smiled and guided Roeg. The flashing images sped up: the village, the Great Spirit Sea, Ookum, Tsisa, the waterhole, Luli, Krukk. They grew with speed and intensity.

  A burst of energy shot through Roeg, and it numbed the pain. The intense heat released its grip. Roeg opened his eyes.

  A ring of fire circled him—the stone’s protection. It was hazy at first, then his vision cleared. He floated high above the lake of fire. He looked down and saw his feet as they dangled below him.

  Two eyes, burning and dripping with fire, stared at him. Lines of firewater sizzled and oozed out of the creature’s cracked, black stone face. Smoke billowed from the surface of its rock skin. The stench of sulfur saturated everything. Great horns of jagged, dark stone wrapped its head like a crown, the points dripping and oozing fire. Its face and body morphed between solid rock and flame, smoke and haze. It formed and reformed, never standing still.

  Roeg stood eye-to-eye with Ifrit, the fire demon.

  SEPHONEI

  Flying Solo

  A

  bil pulled his meat stick from the fire and tossed a chunk to Ku-aya, who sat beside him on the other side of the fire from Sephonei. Abil bit into the meat, juices squirting and dribbling down his chin. Sephonei’s stomach growled as she waited for him to toss her a slab. It never came.

  “Where’s mine?” Sephonei said.

  Abil snorted as he tore another chunk of the meat off. “The way I see it, li’l fistler—until we ride, you’re on your own. An’ don’t forget what Sin said about your parents.”

  Ku-aya shot Abil a hard glare and shook her head. “Bloody bull horns, Abil, don’t use that against her.”

  Sephonei tried to hide her grimace. She reached into her satchel and pulled out the last of her rations: a stale piece of dried meat and some leathery fruit strips. She glowered at Abil as she tore off a piece of the fruit. “Ai. The way I see it, you two are walkin’ till you agree to my terms. It’s a long walk to the Land of Darkness. I’ll be there to get the stone before you. When I take the stone back to Sin without you, it’ll be you he’s after, not my parents.”

  As if on cue, a log in the fire popped and a spark landed on Abil’s leg—his expression changed from a scowl to wide-eyed pain as he slapped it out.

  Sephonei chuckled dryly. “See, even the fire god agrees with me.”

  Ku-aya spoke up. “This is madness. We are a team actin’ a fool. The stakes of this mission are too high to be treadin’ in the water like this, yaa? We need to all agree an’ move on. Like I said, I can agree to terms one and two, but the third is too much to ask. Helpin’ the sebtaurs goes directly against Sin an’ the Order. Hell, it goes against Atlantea! You remember you’re Atlantean, yaa?”

  Sephonei sat quietly for a moment and chewed on her fruit leather. “What if we help them quietly, without Sin knowin’?”

  Abil belched and wiped his chin. He balanced his crossbow lazily across his legs, subtly pointed at Sephonei. “Sin would find out—Sin always finds out. You don’t become the Archmagus by havin’ an apprentice li’l fistler pull a fast one you.”

  Sephonei eyed the cocked bow on his leg. The red from the fire glinted on the point of the metallic arrow head. She wouldn’t be intimidated. She grabbed her lute and ran her fingers down the strings of the instrument, giving the slightest hint of a sound. “You know, I could play my lute an’ you’d be powerless to stop me. Your crossbow would fall from your hand, an’ I could guide you all the way to the Land of Darkness without the slightest objection.”

  Ku-aya looked from Abil to Sephonei and rolled her eyes. “Enough, you two. Am I s’posed to pick up my trident an’ get caught up in this first-rate showdown? We can work through this. Abil, you said you got to know one of those fauns the last time we came to the mainland, when we went lookin’ for that tertiary stone down the coast, yaa?”

  Without taking his eyes off of Sephonei’s lute, he squinted then shifted his body
so the crossbow was now aimed at Sephonei’s head. “Ai. He was a bit of a haggler, that one—but had some fine materials to trade that I needed for my bow-tip oils. We struck a bargain, an’ as much as you can be friendly with his sort, he was alright. What’s that have to do with anythin’?”

  Sephonei noticed the bow aimed at her head and countered, strumming a chord on the lute. Both Abil’s and Ku-aya’s auras changed colors to match the rainbow-colored waves of her lute. When the chord ended, both Crystal Hunters blinked and shook their heads. Abil’s crossbow fell to the side.

  Abil reached for it, but Ku-aya broke in before he snagged it. “Leave it. The game you’re playin’ is over. Let it rest there. Sephonei, put down the lute, yaa? We can negotiate this without all the threats an’ charms an’ arrows to the head.”

  Sephonei glared at Abil, who matched the invisible eye daggers she sent. She plucked one more chord then set the lute by her feet. “Ai, what you have in mind then?”

  Ku-aya sat back a little and reached in her satchel. She pulled out the map and held it out for them to see. “We are lost. We know the general direction of where to go, but it could take weeks or months to find the Land of Darkness. We don’t have that much time, so all this bickerin’ you two are doin’ is only slowin’ us down. Sephonei, think of your parents. How long d’you think Sin’s gonna wait before he takes notice an’ gets impatient an’ goes after ’em?”

  Sephonei winced.

  Ku-aya turned to Abil and continued, “Abil, I know you are gunnin’ for your own crew. You’ve been a good second hand, but I know you’ve been wantin’ to run the show. If we get this stone… well, you’d get a captain’s pin straight out, yaa?”

  Abil turned to her and nodded without losing his glare.

  Ku-aya let out a breath then turned back to Sephonei. “So, what I’m proposin’ is this. You two behave an’ work together, an’ help me find this stone, an’ once we get it back to Sin, we part ways. Sephonei, if you want to help those sebtaurs, you’re free to do so on your own terms. An’ Abil, you’ll get your captains pi—”