Summer of Crows

by Hans Cummings

  Regarding her feet, Tasha sighed. “Justice must be served. If you think the crime is worth the punishment, I doubt anyone here will be bothered if you carry it out.”

  Aveline lowered her head, meeting Tasha’s eyes. “I don’t care about the rest. Will you be bothered?”

  Tasha faced the drak. He glared at Therkla with bloodshot eyes. Snarling, he snapped at his captor, spittle dripping from his jaws. She pulled her cloak around her, feeling a reassuring warmth from the feathers, then shook her head. “Do what you must. For the safety of Curton.”

  Nodding, Aveline returned to Therkla’s side. “Take him away. Make it quick. We need to get this over with.”

  Therkla grinned. “About time you came to your senses.” She carried away the thrashing drak, ducking behind some rocks as she drew a long, curved knife. “After I’m done with you, I’m going to gut a wizard.”

  “So, what’s this?” Aveline ran her hand along Tasha’s cloak. “Is this what was more important than finding your friend?”

  “I—” Tasha, feeling her face grow hot, lowered her gaze. “It was calling…”

  “Relax.” Aveline pulled Tasha into a hug. “I know you’d divert your attention only if you thought it was important. You still came after me, and I’ll never forget that.”

  Hearing her friend’s affirmation, Tasha smiled. “Honestly, I’d hoped to never see the inside of a mine or cave again after Drak-Anor.”

  “I’m not fond of the dank underground myself.” Aveline put her hand on Tasha’s shoulder. “Are you going to be all right going in there? You can stay out here and watch over the horses.”

  Tasha shook her head. “No. I’m with you until the end.” Therkla returned from behind the rock. Her blade dripped with drak blood. She wiped it clean on a tent flap.

  Tasha felt a chill run down her spine at the sight. “I may not have lived in Curton as long as you, but they’re my people too. They deserve justice, all of them.”

  * * *

  After sharing a quick meal of jerky, bread, and cheese with the group, Aveline ensured everyone possessed functional weapons. Satisfied they were as prepared as possible, the knight-captain led the group into the mine. Despite complaints by both Ra-Jareez and Jazeera, Aveline insisted Vasco and Tasha provide them with light. If a renegade wizard indeed occupied the lower levels, then he surely knew they approached if, from nothing else, his quickly diminishing number of drak minions.

  The group moved with cautious urgency through the familiar sections of the mine, descending through the chamber where they had first encountered the faelixes and caprikin before moving on to the corpse room. The winding tunnel leading deeper still from the corpse room narrowed, forcing them to travel single file. As they crept forward in silence, Aveline became painfully aware of the creaks and clanks of her ill-fitting, salvaged breastplate.

  After a sharp descent that forced them to cling to one another to keep from falling, the passage opened into a glittering cavern. Crystals jutted from the walls, reflecting the light of Vasco’s staff and Tasha’s amulet like thousands of stars in a black velvet night. Pausing to stretch, they beheld the cavern’s natural beauty.

  “I never imagined such a place could be real.” Aveline took Tasha’s arm. They circled a gigantic crystal hanging from the ceiling like a faceted column. Glimpsing Tasha’s reflection in the face of the crystal, Aveline witnessed its transformation.

  Shimmering, the feathers of Tasha’s cloak spread behind her like great wings. The sorceress’s face became lined and worn with age, and her legs withered until they resembled that of a bird. Hearing a shriek echo across the cavern, they turned their attention away from the vision.

  Ra-Jareez clutched his sister’s hand as the stone floor enveloped her, drawing her into it. Wrapping his arms around Ra-Jareez’s waist, Yun pulled. Vasco and Aerik rushed to their side to aid in the rescue.

  Meanwhile, Therkla stood transfixed by a wavering image in a nearby crystal.

  The floor around Jazeera’s legs rippled like water as she sank deeper and deeper. Aveline and Tasha joined with the efforts of the four, pulling her loose. They tumbled backward on to the cool, wet cavern floor. Once freed, Jazeera scrambled away from the spot.

  “Therkla? Hey.” Aerik shoved his oroq companion who stared at her reflection.

  The oroq licked one of her tusks. “I’m with child… yours?” Screaming, she fell clutching her belly.

  Although the oroq writhed in horror at the image, Aveline caught her.

  “It split me open! Tried to claw its way out.” Therkla pushed Aveline away, glaring at anyone who moved to help her.

  Shivering, Tasha examined the cavern. “We’re close to the rift. It’s affecting the environment and how we perceive it.”

  Vasco poked at the section of floor that entrapped Jazeera with the butt of his dragon-bone staff. Giving way under pressure, it coated the pole. It slid like thick soup when he lifted it. “Were our need not so urgent, I would love to study this rift. What it does is nothing short of wondrous.”

  Aveline glanced at Tasha. The sorceress seemed unaffected. She gestured toward a passageway leading deeper into the tunnels. “Wonder later. Let’s get moving before these crystals drive us mad.”

  Chapter 24

  The throbbing in her head, which Tasha first noticed in the crystal chamber, grew worse as they continued exploring. Buzzing reminiscent of a thousand angry hornets joined it as they approached the end of the tunnel.

  Like a gaping maw, a dark hole opened into another cave emanating scintillating colors. It simultaneously reeked of carrion and wildflowers. In the distance, Tasha heard lilting bells underlaid with screaming.

  “What smells like baked bread?” Vasco peered into the depths, holding his illuminated staff over the opening.

  “Bread? Are you dense?” Therkla wrinkled her nose. “It smells like puke and that moldy cheese that farmer tried to give us in Brackeborg.”

  “It’s the chaos rift.” Tasha pulled Vasco away from the edge of the pit. “It affects everything around it. Try not to look at it while we’re down there, and don’t touch it.”

  “Yes, let’s just concentrate on stopping the wizard, his cronies, and saving whomever he’s holding prisoner.” Aveline secured her mace at her waist and lowered herself to the edge, dangling her feet over the precipice. The faelix siblings tied a rope around a nearby protuberance of rock. Before they finished, Aveline slid off the edge, disappearing into the darkness.

  “She’s not keeping all the glory to herself!” Therkla, pushing past Tasha, jumped in after Aveline. Aerik followed suit with an eager whoop.

  Tasha closed her eyes. “Foolish bravado.”

  Raj tossed the free end of the rope over the edge. “We’ll take the slow way.”

  Once they reached the bottom, a short descent despite appearances, Tasha assessed the cavern. Crystal lined the walls, floor, and ceiling, creating a maze of reflective surfaces and bringing the coruscating light from the rift around a bend in the passageway. Therkla and Aveline advanced ahead, weapons drawn.

  Tasha touched Raj’s arm. “Once the battle is joined, maybe you, Yun, and your sister can free any prisoners you find. Getting between Vasco, me, and the wizard will be dangerous.”

  The faelix nodded. “Yes, I understand. We’ll lend a claw when we can, but we’ll make sure any captive townsfolk are safe first.”

  As they approached the chamber containing the rift, the passageway brightened. Beaming into the cave, Calliome’s sun greeted them when they rounded the bend. They shut their eyes against the sudden glare. Between them and their quarry, the chaos rift, a miasma of kaleidoscopic colors, whirled in mesmerizing patterns. Attuned to arcane forces by her training, Tasha strained against the sudden onslaught of power from the massive, churning rip in reality. Easily the size of a small house, it dwarfed the cultists at the mouth of the cave.

  “More interruptions?” The robed human kicked one of the draks. “You have failed me, my hands. Deal wi
th these intruders, or I will feed you to the rift next.”

  The draks, raising their weapons, charged toward the group. Aveline, Therkla, and Aerik responded in kind, closing the distance before the draks reached the left side of the cavern. Raj, Jazeera, and Yun hugged the cavern wall to the right, keeping their distance from the melee while they searched for prisoners.

  Vasco leapt forward, passing the faelixes and caprikin. Emerald tendrils of arcane power swirled around him, and the blade of his staff glowed red hot. Speeding to the other side, Tasha gripped her amulet. She dodged to the right as Aerik kicked the drak he fought into the rift.

  “K’teep’ma tis astrapis!” Pointing at the wizard, Tasha directed a bolt of lightning toward him. He smiled as it splashed against an unseen shield, surrounding him in a bubble of dancing emerald electricity.

  “That was powerful, girl. Maybe the lady knight isn’t the one for whom I searched, after all.” Raising his arms, glowing crystals burst from the earth, showering Tasha with shards of hot glass. Cries of pain from behind her indicated her friends caught as much, if not more, of the blast.

  I’ll bet they didn’t teach you this at the Arcane University. Tasha reached out for Gaia, feeling the warmth of the earth beneath her feet. Digging her toes into the dirt, she chanted. “Gwrāthiau a changhennau y goidwig, amthifyn eich was fythlon.”

  Penetrating the shield, vines and roots sprang from the dirt around the wizard. They wrapped themselves around his feet and legs. Failing to leap out of the way, he stumbled. Cursing as he struggled to free one of his legs, his skin sloughed off, leaving gore-covered vines. From the corner of her eye, Tasha observed Therkla throttling the drak she fought. She shook it like a rag doll until it hung limply in her hands.

  “Foul abomination.” Sliding to a stop, Vasco swung his staff in a wide arc before him. It slowed upon contacting the shield, but it stayed its course, slicing through the magical barrier. Allowing the momentum to carry him, he readied for a thrust, spinning in place.

  “Look out!” Tasha shouted a moment too late. A thin spike of crystal shot from the ground in front of the wizard, piercing Vasco’s abdomen.

  Grimacing, he faltered before plunging his bladed staff into the wizard’s chest. Together they screamed, locked in a bloody embrace, the wizard clawing at Vasco.

  Tasha drew her knife, flinging it into the wizard’s back. Her aim untrue, the hilt, bouncing off his neck, left a dent in the skin folds. He punched Vasco in the face, knocking the Maritropan to the ground. Spinning only his head, the Master glared at Tasha.

  She recoiled from the sight of the wizard whose face resembled a melting candle. He lumbered toward her with his head on backward. Snarling, he opened his mouth, bile and blood pouring forth. Behind him, Vasco clutched one of the wizard’s legs, but the flesh sloughed off in his grip.

  Rough hands pulled Tasha backward. Therkla interposed herself between the sorceress and the wizard. A drak with his lower jaw hanging from his skull slid across the floor into the rift. Tasha assumed its crushed bones were courtesy of Aveline.

  “Maris’s bloody spear!” Roaring, Therkla punched the wizard in the mouth, snapping his head back. While he still reeled from the blow, the oroq lunged forward, then lifted him over her head.

  The wizard clawed at her arms, leaving streaks of black oroq blood mixed with his own as his fingernails and flesh peeled away. She heaved, throwing him bodily into the glowing wound in reality.

  A flash blinded Tasha, and she fell to the dirt. As she blinked away tears of pain, she felt the ground beneath her shake. Pebbles rained from the ceiling just before it collapsed.

  * * *

  The glare seared Aveline’s eyes. She grunted, feeling Aerik pull her by the arm from the wailing groans of the rift and the terrible rain of falling rocks. Shaking herself free from his grip, she wiped the tears from her eyes until blurry sight returned and fresh mountain air filled her lungs.

  The cave mouth scarred the side of the mountain, although dust and boulders now filled it. Therkla carried Tasha over her shoulder. The faelix siblings and Yun carried Vasco, limp in their arms. No one else exited the cave with them.

  “Were there no prisoners? No one from town?” Aveline glanced around the hillside where they gathered themselves.

  “We found… pieces of bodies”—Raj shook his head—“but he was the only one we could grab before the ceiling fell.”

  They laid Vasco on a flat boulder. Aveline’s heart sank at the sight of his pale pallor and blood-soaked robes. She knelt at his side, then held her ear to his chest. A weak, ragged breath tickled the back of her head.

  “Tasha?” Aveline searched for her friend. The sorceress held on as Therkla lowered her. She then made her way to Vasco’s side.

  “His wound is deep.” Tasha winced as she peeled away tattered robes, revealing a bloody puncture through Vasco’s stomach. Blood flowed freely from the wound. She tore strips of cloth from what dry material remained of his clothes, pressing them against the injury.

  “We have a name for that kind of wound.” Therkla coughed, spitting away from them.

  “Not interested right now.” Aveline put her hand on Vasco’s cheek. His skin felt cool.

  He took his final breath under the light of the afternoon sun.

  “Damn it.” Aveline sat back on her haunches, closing her eyes. I didn’t particularly like his lecherousness, but he proved his heart was true in battle. He didn’t deserve this. In that moment, she knew what her next task must be. Leaning forward, Aveline kissed his forehead.

  “I suppose we should take him back to town.” Tasha regarded the countryside toward the sun, shielding her eyes with her hand. “How far do you think our horses are? A league? Two?”

  “Far enough that it’ll be dark before we can get back here with them.” Therkla wiped her blade on her breeches before sheathing it.

  “We will stay with him.” Jazeera crossed her arms over her chest. “Keep the carrion eaters away until you return.”

  “We should all go.” Tasha gestured to the tree-covered hills. “We’ll carry him. The rift is too close. I can still feel it.”

  “The Crow Queen is wise.” Aerik tossed a pinecone toward Aveline. She gasped at its furry texture. Dropping it, she kicked it toward the collapsed entrance to the cave. After rolling to a stop, it sprouted six pairs of legs and scurried into a crevasse.

  They wrapped Vasco in their cloaks and then lifted their fallen comrade. After putting some distance between themselves and the cave, they turned north and headed toward the mine entrance. Soon, they found a clearing adjacent to a small cliff overlooking hills leading toward the ocean. They stopped to rest and make camp.

  Since their night vision proved superior to the others, Therkla volunteered to continue with the faelix siblings toward the mine and their horses. “I’ll make sure nothing eats or steals them. Aerik and Yun should be enough to help you get Vasco the rest of the way in the morning.”

  Although Aveline’s trust in the three remained shaky, she decided Therkla, at least, had done enough to deserve a chance. “Thank you. We’ll continue at first light and meet up with you at the mine entrance.”

  Upon their departure, Aveline considered how best to communicate to Yun her needs without one of the faelixes to translate. After several minutes of pantomiming fire while holding up sticks, Yun grunted, nodding. He entered the forest to retrieve deadwood. Meanwhile, Aerik declared he would forage for nuts and berries to supplement what little dried meats they brought with them.

  Soon after the sun set, the Great Whirlpool of Nethuns peeked above the eastern horizon, beginning its evening journey across the sky. Stars twinkled through the endless black of the sunless sky, becoming brighter as the night drew on. Tasha sat on the edge of the cliff, her hands resting in her lap. Aveline lowered herself to the ground alongside her friend, unsure of whether Tasha was meditating.

  “I’m just checking on Korbin and Revan.” Opening an eye, she peered at Aveline. “Everything
is quiet there.”

  “Good. I was worried a bear or catamount would find Socks an easy dinner.”

  “The rift is probably keeping them at bay. We still have to deal with that, you know.”

  The thought of being in the proximity of the chaos rift again made Aveline’s stomach lurch. “How, exactly, do we do that? How do you fight something like that? Is it even alive?”

  “No, but chaos beasts can enter our world through it, and you saw what it did to the environment around it.” Tasha rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ll bet that wizard’s condition was caused by working near the rift for so long.”

  “So, I guess I can seal the mine and station a command post here to deal with anything that might claw its way through the rocks.” It pained Aveline that such a plan would require her to request a garrison expansion from Lord Mayor Koloman. He would, no doubt, make salacious demands in exchange for granting such a request.

  “That won’t solve anything for long.” Tasha pursed her lips. “The rift must be closed.”

  “Do you know how to do that?” Aveline raised her eyebrow.

  “I don’t, but I’m sure there are those within the Arcane University who do. I’ll send a message to the archmage and request assistance.” Drawing her cloak closed around her, Tasha frowned.

  “There’s an unspoken ‘but’ there…”

  “I have years of unpaid dues, and the nearest Arcane University is in Muncifer or maybe Maritropa. It will be several months before anyone could come out to investigate.”

  Turning, Aveline faced the collapsed cave. This late in the evening, darkness obscured any sign of the cavern. “Surely anything coming out of the rift would take that long to tunnel through the rocks, right?”

  Tasha chuckled. “We can hope.”

  Aveline nudged her friend. “So, what’s this Crow Queen thing you have going on, eh? Aerik’s a true believer.”

  Groaning, Tasha put her head in her hands. “It’s something I have to figure out. I don’t know what’s going on, why this cloak seemed to call to me, why these crows are following me, and why I know their names… I didn’t even know crows could have names!”