by Mark Boutros
‘I’m not going back. They’re all yours,’ she said.
‘I need you, Bar Witch,’ Hargon said.
Bar Witch kicked the wheel of the cart. ‘They’re better off hiding in that room until someone rescues them.’
‘Or until they get found and enslaved or slaughtered?’ Hargon folded his arms.
He was right.
‘Don’t care. I’m done.’ She walked away.
‘Grolt put his hope in you because he trusted you. Even at the end he stayed loyal to what we’re doing, because he believed we have a chance. And so do I. I know behind that moody attitude you care, so feel free to disappear and start a new life, but this’ll always be in your head. You’ll always wonder if you did the right thing,’ Hargon said.
She could walk until she found a port and she could disappear to a far-flung island in Hastovia. But it would be all she’d ever think about. She turned to him. ‘Moody attitude?’
‘Sorry. Alternative attitude?’ He shrugged.
She chuckled.
‘We can do this, but only if we do it together,’ Hargon said.
Bar Witch nodded, but had no idea how they’d succeed. ‘Let’s get more berries.’
‘What do you think makes a good leader?’ Hargon picked berries and threw them onto the cart. ‘Is it being selfless, being kind, or being like Arazod and basically being insane?’
‘No idea. Telling others what to do?’ Bar Witch suggested. ‘What’ll you do if we survive this one?’
Hargon smiled. ‘I think I’ll show my paintings to more people. I’ve always been scared. What if they don’t like my art? Or what if they make rude comments?’
Bar Witch sat on the cart. ‘You can’t please everyone. Trust me.’
‘Yeah.’ Hargon joined her.
‘When the old tavern used to be packed we had all sorts and I don’t think I ever had an entire room be completely happy. There’s always one, but that’s normal. I’ve had ale thrown at me, an empty cup whack my head. Once, I did a dance and someone rushed the stage and swung his sword at my legs.’
Hargon’s eyes widened and Bar Witch laughed.
’Thanks for being the calm one,’ Bar Witch said.
‘Thanks for being the strong one,’ Hargon replied.
Hargon surprised her. She had dreaded being stuck in this situation with him, but now she couldn’t think of anyone better to suffer this responsibility with.
She spotted Peezant flying towards the castle. ‘Might be news. Let’s get back,’ she said.
Shared Vision
Sabrinia entered a wide corridor. Steel panels had fallen away from the cavity-ridden, rocky walls.
Opposite her, fallen rocks blocked a steel door.
The grunting grew.
Frong unsheathed his spear and faced the stairs. ‘We’ll hold them off. Oaf, you take the door.’ Frong chucked a throwing axe into a Gygus’ neck, knocking it down and creating a pile-up. ‘That’ll give us some time.’
Sabrinia fired arrows into the darkness of the staircase while Arazod waited, clutching a loose rock.
‘Oaf, how’s it going?’ Sabrinia shouted.
A large rock flew past them and bashed a Gygus. ‘All done,’ Oaf said.
They turned to join him but a fleshy tongue grabbed Frong’s face and dragged him into a hole in the wall.
‘Frong!’ Sabrinia’s neck tensed and she turned to the others. She wanted to dive into the hole to find Frong but a swarm of Gygus filled the corridor. ‘Run!’
Arazod grabbed Frong’s spear and they sprinted through the steel door.
They passed more chambers containing hooks and blood-stained steel tables.
‘Those pests don’t stop running,’ Arazod complained.
Sabrinia turned and fired more arrows. In the corner of her eye the tongue shot out towards her.
Oaf pushed her to the floor. ‘Sorry.’ He extended his hand.
‘It’s appreciated.’ She grabbed his hand and stood.
‘Probably best not to stop,’ Oaf said and smiled.
The tongue wrapped around his neck.
‘Oaf!’ Sabrinia reached for Oaf’s hand, but he was gone.
‘Save my boy!’ Oaf screamed and vanished into a cavity.
Sabrinia chased him and climbed into the hole, but Arazod grabbed her leg and pulled her out.
‘Get off me!’ She kicked.
‘You don’t go running into the mouth of a beast,’ Arazod said.
‘We need to save him and Frong!’ She pushed Arazod away.
He raised his claws. ‘We need to get the gauntlet, then we stand more of a chance of saving them.’
He had a point. If Oaf and Frong were still alive.
The Gygus closed in, but the tongue wrapped around three of them at once, scaring other Gygus away.
Sabrinia took a breath. ‘Let’s get the damn thing and burn that stupid tongue!’ She’d cook it and feed it to Peezant.
They passed more torture chambers.
‘I think you should reconsider keeping the gauntlet. You’d be able to handle that power,’ Arazod said.
‘Right now I just want my friends back.’
They entered a steel honeycomb with a large pit in the middle.
Frong, Oaf and some Gygus lay slumped against the far wall, covered in webbing. Fleshy tongues poked out of the wall and sucked on their heads.
Sabrinia worried the tongues would devour her friends like the skeletal Man-Hawk in webbing next to them.
Sabrinia approached and stabbed an arrow into the tongues attached to her friends, forcing them back into the wall.
Smashed skeletons occupied a chamber. One had a crown hanging off its skull. There it was on her arm – the gauntlet.
Sabrinia approached the chamber.
A Gygus landed in her path and swiped its claws at her.
She dodged and punched it, then jammed an arrow in its eye.
The creature shrieked and fell into the pit.
‘Duck!’ Arazod yelled from across the pit.
The tongue brushed Sabrinia’s head.
‘Look.’ Arazod pointed to the holes. A faint glow appeared in the holes, perhaps the creature’s eyes.
‘Let’s test it.’ Sabrinia faced the glowing spot. The tongue shot out and she dodged. She shot an arrow at the next glow she saw and the beast screeched.
‘Behind you!’ Arazod yelled.
The tongue whacked her and knocked her over the rocky ledge. She dangled over the pit.
Arazod grabbed her wrists.
The glow appeared in a hole behind him.
‘It’s coming,’ she said.
Arazod swung her onto the ledge and rolled out of the way.
The tongue lashed and retracted.
‘You get the gauntlet. I’ll distract it,’ Arazod said.
Sabrinia ran for the gauntlet.
Arazod dodged tongue attacks.
Sabrinia pulled the gauntlet off Seliria’s hand. She put it on and wasn’t sure what to do. She ran her hand along the yellow markings but nothing happened.
One of the skeletons by Seliria held a bow and an arrow more impressive than she’d ever seen. She took the bow, much lighter than her own. She lifted the arrow, covered in markings and with three holes in the middle of the shaft.
‘Hurry!’ Arazod backed into a chamber with nowhere to go.
The gauntlet had a needle on the inside and sat above Sabrinia’s vein.
Sabrinia pressed it into her skin and a crystal on the gauntlet glowed green. Warmth filled her veins. She felt at one with fire. She willed her hand to be consumed by flame and it was. She stepped out of the chamber and sent flames shooting into the holes.
‘Sabrinia, wait for my signal,’ Arazod said.
He stood in the doorway of the chamber and held Frong’s spear. The tongue fired at him but he sidestepped. He jammed the spear through the fleshy rope. The beast tried to retract its tongue but the spear held it in the doorway.
‘Now, Sabrinia!
’
She ran at the tongue and leapt, wrapping her arms and legs around it. She set herself on fire. All around her, flames licked; it was eerily calming.
Shrieking echoed through the room until the tongue flopped to the floor and the noise stopped.
Sabrinia lay on the ground catching her breath. The tongue bled and blistered.
Arazod offered Sabrinia his arm. She gave him an appreciative half smile. ‘Let’s free the others.’
They ran over to Frong and Oaf and she pulled at the webbing on Frong’s face. It was tough.
‘We need a knife, or maybe your claws will work.’
He didn’t respond.
‘Arazod?’ She turned around and a spear whacked her across the head.
Change the World
Karl struggled to focus.
Marlens stroked watery lotion into his hand but he groaned, worried the skin would come off his flesh if she rubbed too hard.
‘Hold on, Karl.’ Marlens sprang to her feet, grabbed a jar and left the room.
‘What’s going on? Don’t leave me,’ he strained, trying to sit up on the steel.
She had left him before and thrown some exploding jars.
‘Phew,’ she said. ‘I thought it was more of those weird creatures.’
She must have been speaking to the others. Karl used his shield to force himself to his feet. Had they succeeded?
‘Where are the others?’ Marlens asked.
‘Please move,’ Arazod said. ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’
‘What have you done?’ Marlens asked.
Karl stumbled out of the room.
Flames engulfed Arazod’s body and he threw a fireball at Marlens. Karl knocked her out of the way and shielded himself from the fire. The heat stung him.
‘Don’t get in my way!’ Arazod said.
Karl struggled to his feet and stumbled over to Marlens. ‘Marlens…’ He turned her over. She was barely conscious and her head bled.
‘Go,’ she slurred. ‘Stop him.’
Karl dragged his legs and followed Arazod to the top of a cliff, illuminated by the night sun.
Arazod, no longer on fire, stood with his back to Karl.
Ryza and two Man-Hawks hovered above him. She held the blade that had ended Sags’ life, and her Man-Hawks waved flaming branches.
Karl hid behind a rock.
‘Well done, Little Arazod,’ Ryza said. ‘I’m glad I didn’t chop your head off.’
Flames surrounded Arazod’s body and he sent a ball of fire towards Ryza.
She pulled one of her soldiers in the way and shielded her face with a wing. The soldier shrieked, blackened and crumbled; his life reduced to ash, blown away in the wind.
‘What are you doing, Ryza?’ the other Man-Hawk said.
Arazod sent more fire towards her, but she sacrificed her second soldier and then flew far from Arazod.
‘Die!’ Arazod yelled, firing fireball after fireball, but she was out of his range.
‘Are you done?’ Ryza asked.
‘I’ll be done when you’re dead!’ he said.
‘And when you kill me, how do you plan to leave this island?’ Ryza pointed to the ship, a flaming coffin.
Arazod’s eyes widened. ‘No!’ He fired at Ryza. ‘No, no, no!’ He fired and fired. His feathers stood on end. He screamed into the sky, then sat.
‘You’ve made your point, Little Arazod, but I’ll always be a step ahead of you, because I know what goes on in your tiny mind.’ Ryza landed and walked towards him.
‘Stop!’ He aimed his hand towards her.
Karl hoped he’d torch her, then himself.
Ryza raised her arms and placed her sword on the cliff. ‘Join me, brother. I will see to it you finally have the love you’ve always wanted.’
Karl stepped out from behind the rock. ‘Don’t do it, Arazod. Burn her! We’ll find a way back.’
Arazod turned to Karl and looked apologetic. ‘The problem with good people, Karl, is that you don’t understand power.’ He touched the gauntlet. ‘You would destroy something so—’ he wheezed. ‘Magical. You want to keep the world the same, but I want to change it.’
Karl stepped towards him, knowing he could be turned to ash in an instant. ‘We don’t want to keep the world the same; we want to protect it.’
Arazod’s shoulders hung.
‘Ignore him, brother,’ Ryza said. ‘I will make you my second in command.’
‘She’s just using you, Arazod. You know that,’ Karl said.
Arazod shook his head at Karl. ‘Isn’t that all anyone ever does? Uses?’ He gasped. ‘I want to be on the winning team, Karl. I want to be—’ He wheezed. ‘Part of the change, instead of being crushed by it.’
He turned to his sister and nodded. ‘Second in command?’
‘Arazod…’ Karl said. How could he do this?
Ryza nodded. ‘Let’s get you home.’ She picked up her sword. ‘But first.’ She pointed the Grave Blade at Karl and lunged at him. He blocked with his shield but fell back, too weak to fight, and his hand stung. She stared down at him.
‘Stop,’ Arazod told her. ‘Killing him is too kind, Ryza.’ He faced Karl. ‘There’s no way off the island—’ he wheezed. ‘Let them starve to death or be eaten by creatures.’
Ryza chuckled. ‘You’re quite good at being evil.’
‘If there’s one thing Father taught me, it was how to be horrible.’
Ryza lifted Arazod under his arms and they flew away.
Karl wished he’d driven his sword through Arazod’s spine.
The Wreckage of Failure
Karl came up for air with bits of the ship in his hands.
‘Sags!’ Frong dived into the dark wreckage again. Wood burned on top of the sea; no matter how many times Frong and Karl dived, Karl knew it was pointless. He wanted to stop Frong, but how could he? All Frong had was the hope that he might find his dead lover only partially charred.
Frong surfaced and Sabrinia held his shoulders. ‘You need to rest, Frong.’
‘I need to find Sags. That’s what I need to do.’ He dived back in.
Sabrinia looked at Karl. ‘You’re not helping.’
‘That’s exactly what I am doing.’ Karl dived. The water soothed his burnt hand. He found nothing so returned.
‘How are we supposed to get back?’ Oaf sculpted rocks into planks, trying to make a boat.
Even if he made something big enough, without sails they’d be rowing for the rest of their lives.
‘If I ever see Arazod again I’ll snap his neck.’ Oaf stopped pounding the rocks and stared out at the empty ocean. ‘What about Questions and Quizmal?’
‘Let’s go back inside Seliria’s lair. Maybe there’s something that can help us,’ Marlens suggested.
Anger rose in Karl’s body. If he’d killed Arazod when he had the chance, none of this would’ve happened. He hated them for trusting Arazod and for making Karl think he could.
They would likely die here. There would be no resurrection, no saving Oaf’s son, no saving Flowfornians, and no redemption. The world would fall and those unfortunate enough to be kept alive would live with Man-Hawk screeches piercing their ears until they died.
Karl walked away, up the mountain.
‘Where are you going?’ Sabrinia asked.
‘Away.’ Karl walked to the cliff where Arazod had condemned him to death and sat on the edge.
‘You okay?’ Sabrinia sat next to him.
‘What’s the point in any of it?’ Karl asked. ‘When I just existed and ate honey-covered beans, ignorant to everything, life was fine. Boring but fine. Now, every day, even in the last few years of peace, I worry that we’ll be attacked. Is that what life is? Constantly waiting for the next evil to fight until eventually one just kills me? That’s not a life.’ He hated himself for thinking it. ‘Sorry, I know it’s selfish.’
Sabrinia put her hand on his good one. ‘It’s not. Living without struggling against the world should be the minimum,
but the world isn’t like that. And you were never good at being a bean-eating stray. There was a long list of people who wanted to hurt you.’
They chuckled.
‘True. Proster for one.’ Karl smiled.
Sabrinia rested her head on his shoulder. ‘It’s not about us, Karl. It never has been. It’s about preparing the world for others. It might feel like we’re fighting a never-ending tide of evil, and that when one wave settles another larger one forms on the horizon, but we have to believe that each victory gives the future a chance. If we let ourselves get washed away without fighting back, the future gets washed away too.’
‘But isn’t the future just the same cycle but with different people?’
‘We have to believe it won’t be, that evil is an illness that can be cured and one day the world will be the one we hope for. Otherwise what’s the point in any of it?’
Karl took a breath and squeezed her hand. She was right. ‘I just want it to be a bit easier.’
She turned to him and they kissed. He would fight for their future.
‘Karl! Sabrinia!’ Marlens yelled and ran up to them. ‘Could use a hand or two.’
They returned to the shore. Oaf stood in front of Frong, waist deep in the sea.
‘Just eat me! I don’t care!’ Frong waved his spear at a mass of Gygus behind a ten-foot high wall of fire Marlens created.
‘He doesn’t mean it,’ Oaf said to the Gygus, raising a hand. ‘Go and eat some rocks or something instead. We’re not so tasty.’
‘Come on!’ Frong stepped towards the Gygus, but Oaf held him back.
Frong hit Oaf’s arms. ‘Let me die! I’ll take a handful of them with me.’
Karl and the others stood in front of them. ‘If we’re going to die here, Frong, it’ll be from starvation and no hope of leaving the island, not from getting eaten by these weird yet terrifying things.’ Karl raised his shield, gripping it as well as he could.
‘How long does that fire last, Marlens?’ Oaf asked.
‘Not long enough,’ she replied.
The wall of fire lowered to Karl’s height.
’Frong,’ Sabrinia said. ‘Some advice would be handy right about now.’
Oaf turned Frong to face him. ‘Sags would want you to go on, Frong… And… Well… I need to see my wife and son.’ He welled up.
