Chalice of Life

by R. A. Rock

  “Then he told me I was going to help him hide it—the cup. And I did. I helped him. I spent months with him, traveling and figuring out the distances and the perfect spot to hide it. Foregoing my responsibilities to my family and my people.”

  His bitterness was stamped on his face, as if he was consumed by the rage he still held for the King.

  “And then once it was hidden, do you know what he had the nerve to do? As a reward for helping him?”

  “What?” Tess said, not sure she wanted to know.

  “He let me drink from the cup. Gave me immortal life. Thought he was doing me a favor, for goodness sake.” Obviously, Conrad hadn’t thought it was a reward but a curse.

  The four of them were silent as Sakiwayo told them of the torment the King had unintentionally bestowed on him.

  “Then he tied me to this place. I could have immortal life but only if I stayed to guard the Kettle Stones. Do you know what that has been like?”

  “No,” Finn said, his eyes stormy. “I can’t imagine.”

  “I have had to watch my people being destroyed before my very eyes and I have been able to do nothing to stop it.”

  “But couldn’t you have tried—” Jayde started.

  “I tried,” Conrad said, his eyes dead. “I tried everything. Over and over. But I couldn’t stop it. Western culture flowed over this land from east to west like a tidal wave and destroyed most of what it encountered. Sure, there’s some broken pieces left. But it’s nothing compared to what once was.”

  “Sakiwayo, I’m sor—” Jayde cut herself off, eyes full of tears.

  “I saw my once proud and powerful race reduced to being the dregs of society. The poorest of the poor. A third world country amidst so much affluence. And those who live now, they think things are getting better. That finally things are going to be fair and true and right. But their sad little lives are only an echo, a shadow, of what we once were.”

  “Hey,” Jayde said, offended. But Finn put his hand on her arm and she stopped.

  “From his perspective, he feels it’s true,” Finn whispered, and Tess knew he was right.

  Gah, what a mess the King had made. Not that he probably cared. Sakiwayo had done exactly what the King wanted. Of course, he hadn’t had a choice.

  “So, will you let us in or not?” Tess said, trying to be considerate but wondering what it would take to get Conrad to stop this painful ranting that was breaking her heart and let them in.

  “I have guarded this place for thousands of years,” Conrad said, sitting down on a nearby stump and going on as if Tess hadn’t spoken. “And after I realized what it was going to be like to have to watch everyone I ever loved or cared about die, I tried to kill myself.”

  “No,” Jayde said, aghast.

  Tess took a step back and ran into Ethan. He threaded his fingers through hers and she took comfort in his warm hand against hers.

  “Yes. Over and over, I tried. Until I realized it wasn’t possible.”

  “Because of the immortality the King gave you?” Tess said, not quite understanding.

  “Every few months, I get an undeniable urge to come back here and drink from the cup. It’s always the same. I sing the song. I go through the arch and disable all the booby traps. Then I cross the bridge. I get to the Chalice. I fill it with water from the spring. It turns to Elixir. And I drink it.”

  “You drink Elixir every few months?” Ethan said, incredulously. “You must be practically indestructible.”

  Tessa made note of everything he said. Maybe she could convince him to disable the booby traps for them too? After all, they were here as Faeries from Ahlenerra. Not exactly on the King’s business, but for the good of the land, there was no doubt.

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Conrad said. “I am pretty much bullet proof. But I always had hope that one day I would be free. One day, the King or his Faeries would return. And I would be released from this prison. Or someone else would come and I would also be free.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Ethan said, his tone suspicious.

  “If I let in anyone who is not the King, the spell will kill me.”

  “But if the King comes and lets you out of the spell, then, you’ll die too, right?” Jayde said, her face sad. “Without the Elixir?”

  “Yes,” Conrad said as if it was the thing he wanted most, as if he couldn’t wait. “Either way means freedom.”

  “Wait, what are you saying?” Jayde demanded.

  “That whether the King has sent you or not,” Conrad said, meeting each person’s eyes. “I will die. And I will finally be free.”

  Chapter 44

  Tess was physically hot and emotionally uncomfortable. This trip to the Kettle Stones was proving to be more upsetting than she had ever imagined.

  Her mind started to wander because she didn’t want to think about the ancient human and how much he had suffered. She wished she could just leave. Just go and get a late lunch or early supper at that greasy spoon Jayde had wanted to find in Swan River. Or she wished she was back in Ahlenerra. Or maybe at Ethan’s magical place. In the cabin that had felt more homey than any other place Tess had ever lived.

  “No, no, no, no, no,” Jayde said, curling her hands into fists. “You can not do this. I can’t let you.”

  Sakiwayo shook his head. “You cannot stop me, child. I have wanted this for longer than you have even been alive.”

  “But you must have so much knowledge, so much wisdom,” Jayde said, her voice breaking. “You can’t just die. We could learn so much from you.”

  “All you would learn from me is bitterness and despair. I have nothing left to give this world. And my time in it has long passed.”

  “Conrad. I mean, Sakiwayo, please. Don’t do this.”

  He didn’t say anything else but took off his backpack and then his overly large jacket. He carefully removed a hand drum and a drumstick from the bag. The drum was made of real animal hide and had clearly been made by hand. It looked very old.

  “No, please,” Jayde begged him, falling to her knees. A stick cracked as she landed on it.

  “I usually try to do this during a storm so it’s not as noticeable,” he murmured, not listening to Jayde’s pleas at all. His eyes were on the Kettle Stones. He stood and the forest grew absolutely still right before he began drumming. Tess held her breath.

  Then he moved, hitting the drum, each strike like a heartbeat. Around her, Tess felt the magic gathering. It was all being pulled into the Kettle Stones and was creating a column up into the sky.

  After some time of drumming, he began to sing.

  “Way ha way hay. Way ha way hay. Way hay a way hay.”

  He sang and the magic swelled.

  Jayde was crying now in earnest, her hands over her face. Finn dropped down beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. He gave Tess a troubled look and she just shrugged, furious. This was the King’s mess and they were having to deal with it. As usual.

  She didn’t think the King had done it on purpose to hurt the man. He probably honestly thought he was giving him a gift that all mortals would want. But by trapping him there and not asking his permission, he had turned his gift into a curse. And this man—who had only wanted to do what was right—had paid the price.

  It pissed her off. The King wasn’t a bad man. He just didn’t consider others. It was all about how he appeared. It was all about saving face and putting on a good show. It was all about his stupid pride.

  And Tess was sick of it.

  “Way ha way hay, way ha way hay,” Sakiwayo sang, his drumbeat filling Tessa’s body the way the drum did at a Revel. She could feel her Starlight responding.

  Ethan squeezed her hand and she squeezed back, glad he was there.

  Clouds gathered and a strong breeze began to blow, whipping Tessa’s hair into her face. It got darker and darker and the wind blew harder and stronger.

  And still Sakiwayo sang.

  Soon, Tess could hardly hear him over the roaring of t
he wind in the trees. The clouds above were dark grey and churning. Sakiwayo suddenly stopped singing, ending with a loud ‘ha’.

  With a great crack, a bolt of lightning shot down from the clouds and hit the Kettle Stones. Tess felt it in her bones as the rocks split apart.

  “What the hell?” Ethan said, letting go of Tessa’s hand and stepping forward toward Sakiwayo.

  Tess was right beside him. A huge cliff appeared behind the rocks that hadn’t been there before. And in the midst of the shattered stones was an arch made of Starlight that led into the cliff.

  An almost musical hum emanated from the arch.

  “Whoa,” Finn said as they all stared up at the magic-infused golden bricks of Starlight that made up the arch.

  “Finally,” Sakiwayo said, a true smile on his face. “I’m free.”

  The ancient man dropped to the ground and lay very still. The grass that still blew in the wind waved around him.

  Like a benediction.

  Then he turned to dust. And blew away.

  Finn’s face was as stormy as the weather as he pulled Jayde into his arms while she cried her heart out over the poor cursed human.

  Chapter 45

  Finally, Jayde stopped crying and pulled away from Finn, wiping her eyes. The sun was starting to drop lower in the sky, its yellow-orange rays slanting in through the trees. After the pseudo-storm that Sakiwayo had created, the woods around the shattered Kettle Stones felt cool and quiet. There was a glow from the magic arch and Ethan could feel the Starlight coming off of it. He sniffed in distaste. So much magic, it was kind of overkill.

  “Sorry,” Jayde said. Her lovely mocha-colored face, framed by pieces of her dark hair, looked so miserable it made Ethan’s heart clench. “It just seems like… such a… waste.”

  “We get it, mortal.” Ethan felt bad for the little creature and for the human who had been stuck in what had really been purgatory for him. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  She swallowed hard and got to her feet. Finn hovered nearby, obviously upset that she was upset.

  “You okay to go on, Jayde?” Tess said, concern all over her face.

  “Yes, I’m good. I’m sorry.”

  “No need to apologize,” Finn said.

  “So what?” Jayde said, wiping at her face. “We just walk right in?”

  “Seems unlikely that it’ll be that easy,” Tess said, studying the beautiful, light-filled arch. “But I’m assuming that’s how we start.”

  She glanced at Ethan and he shrugged.

  “You’re the Faerie.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s not going to be an advantage,” Tess said, holding her gun at the ready and advancing through the arch.

  Ethan followed her, with Jayde behind him and Finn bringing up the rear. The Fae man had got his sword out of Tessa's backpack that was filled with weapons. He looked ready for anything. Good. Ethan could use an excellent fighter at his back. And he trusted Finn.

  The light was blinding as Ethan went through the arch, but when he emerged on the other side, the four of them were in a large tunnel.

  “Why do I feel like we’ve just come a long way, though it didn’t seem like it?” Finn said.

  “Because we probably did,” Ethan said, looking all around the tunnel for danger. “There’s no way that arch wasn’t spelled to take us to this specific place.”

  “Am I going crazy, or is there a mountain here that isn’t on any map?” Jayde said, her face completely perplexed.

  “It’s probably not exactly here,” Ethan said, wondering how to explain. “The King brought it or created it out of magic.”

  “Yeah?” Jayde looked mildly skeptical.

  “Yes, well, have you heard of quantum mechanics?”

  “Everyone’s heard of quantum mechanics, Ethan,” Jayde said, as if he was ridiculous for asking. “I’m educated. And I’ve seen at least one sci-fi movie.”

  “Well, the mountain is probably occupying the same space and time but it’s not in the same dimension as ours.”

  “Do you even know what you’re talking about?” Tess said, skeptical.

  Ethan was annoyed by Tessa’s disbelief. After he had spent millennia killing, when he had quit fighting as a Hunter, he hadn’t only found music. He’d found education, too. He had a couple degrees now, and one of them was a Bachelor of Science, with a major in Physics. He knew what he was talking about. Though honestly, all that quantum physics stuff bordered on magic.

  “Okay, how about this for an explanation?” he said, pausing dramatically. “It’s there but it’s not there. You like that better?”

  Jayde wrinkled up her nose. “No, I liked the first one more,” she said, looking confused.

  “Suffice it to say that apparently, there is a mountain here that we couldn’t… access… before,” Finn said, ending the discussion. “Now on to more practical matters. How are we going to light our way?”

  “Ethan can probably make a luminescence orb or maybe I can.” Tess stared at her hand and it began to glow slightly.

  “How about an old-fashioned flashlight?” Jayde said, holding up her backpack. “I came prepared for anything.”

  She pulled out a huge flashlight and switched it on.

  “Perfect,” Ethan said, giving Jayde a pat on the back. “Good thinking, mortal.”

  “Sometimes, I excel at that,” Jayde said, leading the way.

  “I like this human, Tess,” Finn said with a grin as he followed the mortal into the darkness.

  Four hours later, they were still walking down the tunnel.

  “What the actual hell?” Ethan said, his feet aching. “We’ve been walking for hours. How far could it possibly be? How big is this mountain? Where are we even going?”

  “We can’t give up, Ethan,” Tess said, her voice determined as it floated back to him. “We have to keep on.”

  “My feet hurt,” Jayde said, not in a whiny voice but as if she really needed a break. “I don’t mean to complain, but can we stop for a minute?”

  “We shouldn’t stop,” Tess said. “We have to get the Chalice. And it’s already late. Does anyone have the time?”

  “Nine thirty,” Ethan said after consulting his watch.

  “We probably should have waited till morning so we would have the whole day,” Tess said, looking as though she regretted the fact that they’d started without any real plan and without having brought any supplies.

  Well, Tess had weapons and Jayde had brought some stuff. But otherwise, they were woefully unprepared for whatever they might face. Although as for that, Ethan thought that whatever they might face probably wouldn’t require things that you shoved in a backpack. Still, the flashlight was quite useful.

  Tess glanced at Finn, who was still trudging doggedly down the tunnel, his eyes fixed ahead of him as if that was the only thing keeping him on his feet and moving forward.

  “We’re probably almost there,” she added.

  Ethan looked at Finn, too. He seemed like he was keeping up but his color wasn’t good. Or so he thought in the light from Jayde’s flashlight. And he wondered exactly how hard Finn was actually working to walk for this long. The guy likely needed a rest. If he overdid it, he wasn’t going to make it back to Ahlenerra. And Jayde needed to rest too. She was just a frail human. She wasn’t very strong.

  But if Tess said they should walk, they walked. Someone ought to tell her she wasn’t Captain of the Guard anymore.

  An hour later, Ethan couldn’t take it anymore.

  “We’re not getting anywhere,” he stated, hoping Tess would listen to reason. “Something’s wrong.”

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Tess said, not listening, as expected. “We just have to keep moving forward and we’ll get there.”

  “No,” Jayde said, her voice certain. “I agree with Ethan. Something’s wrong. I’ve been doing the calculations. Trying to figure out how far we’ve gone.”

  “And?”

  “And it doesn’t even make sense how far we would
have traveled in the time we’ve been walking. There has to be magic involved.”

  “Shit,” Ethan said, putting his hand to his head. “I didn’t think of that. I was just thinking we went the wrong way. Magic. Of course.”

  Tess considered the idea. “Well, I was waiting for us to get to the magical booby traps. I wasn’t thinking that this tunnel was one of them.”

  “A never-ending tunnel,” Jayde said admiringly. “That sounds like the perfect booby trap. The people come in but never get anywhere. It’s perfect.”

  “You might have a point,” Tess conceded.

  “Okay, so how do we deactivate it?” Jayde looked around at the others. They all stared back at her. “You guys got nothing? Really? You’re the magical beings.”

  “Well,” Tess began thinking aloud. “It’s like we’re stuck. We’re trying and trying and trying and getting nowhere.”

  “I know what that feels like,” Jayde said with a sigh. “Stuck in academic hell. Applying for grants over and over and being turned down every time.”

  “Yeah,” Finn said, his eyes fixed in the distance as if he was remembering something. “It’s like being on the run. Every day is the same. Different scenery. Different people. But stuck in the same damn scenario. Again and again. On repeat.”

  Tess thought she knew what that was like, too.

  “Like you get up every day and it’s the same day. And no matter what you try to do to leave, you can’t get out of it. Every day you wake up. And you’re stuck. You can’t change it. You can’t leave. Doomed to repeat it forever.”

  “You get up in the morning,” Ethan said, his face dismal. “You do your job, what you were put here to do. And then the day’s over. And the next day, it’s the same thing. And the same thing. And maybe you want to do something just a little differently. Or you want to do a different thing. But you can’t. You’re stuck.”

  “Okay, so apparently we’ve all had that experience of trying to improve things and not being able to change them, and honestly, that kind of took an unexpectedly dark turn,” Jayde said, taken aback. “But haven’t any of us got out of those situations? How did any of you get out of them? You’re here. Now. So, I’m guessing that you did get out.”