by Kyle West
“We may not have much time,” Serah said. “You think you could stream us both down there at the same time?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Getting those two down took less effort than I thought. There seems to be no limits to the Orb.”
Her eyes marveled. “Amazing. That’s what we’ll do, then.”
The rock shone again, and Lucian reformed the tether. This time, he created two anchor points, one for both he and Serah. The Orb of Binding thrummed, feeding Lucian more and more ether, all of which went into building up the strength of the tethers.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Serah said. “This amount of magic is unreal!”
As soon as the tethers reached the right tension, Lucian and Serah were pulled away from the cliff with surprising speed, so fast that Lucian was afraid he might lose his pack. His Focus felt more slippery this time, as if it couldn’t handle this amount of magic as efficiently. It was a hard limitation on just how much magic he could stream. The ground below rushed up to meet them, but they could at least see through the mist now.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Serah shouted.
Lucian didn’t want to tell her he was hoping for the same. Maintaining his Focus was difficult under the strain. His concentration almost slipped a couple of times, forcing him to refocus his efforts.
“We’re almost there!” Serah said.
They were close enough to see a large boulder and two figures beside it standing on a flat expanse. Lucian slowed the flow from the Orb, and within moments, he and Serah touched down a few meters away from Fergus and Cleon. Fergus stopped streaming his Radiant Magic on the rock, and it faded to its usual gray color. His face was paler than usual. Lucian hoped he hadn’t had to overdraw.
“We’re here,” Fergus said. “Now, which way is Snake Rift?”
“West,” Serah said, pointing. “We’ll have another choice to make there. Cross the rift and try to shoot across the Upper Reaches on the other side, or travel the rift itself and make for the Blue Crossing.”
“Let me guess,” Lucian said. “That connects to the Blue Rift?”
“You catch on fast,” Serah said. “That will take longer, but it’s safer. In the Upper Reaches, you’re trading humans for wyverns and exposure to cold, and wyverns and exposure to cold are undoubtedly more dangerous.” She peered into the gray, cloudy sky. “Speaking of, we should really get moving.”
“I thought wyverns only hunted at night,” Lucian said.
“They do,” Serah said. “However, our smell and body heat might be too much of a temptation to resist. And I don’t know how long it’ll take to cross the Reaches here. I’ve never been this way before.”
“Doesn’t look like there are any caves or mountains around these parts,” Cleon said. “Should be safe.”
“You might be surprised,” Serah said. “We’ve dallied enough. Let’s move.”
She took point without waiting for anyone else. Fergus opened his mouth, before Cleon clapped him on the shoulder.
“Looks like the Captain has been usurped.”
“Why, you little—”
“Hurry!” Serah called.
The three men brought up the rear, plodding across the gray landscape.
24
The going became easier, even with the thin air. The land was flat, sloping slightly downward. The problem would come later when it was time to descend into the Snake Rift.
By early afternoon, the slope was steeper and rockier. They had to weave around fallen boulders, lower themselves down sheer cliffs, and have Lucian tether everyone across crevices. Even if the ether from the Orb of Binding was infinite, Lucian’s mental capacity to stream it wasn’t. He wasn’t only physically tired, but mentally. Exhaustion was written on Serah’s features as well, but even so, she took the lead and found a path through what seemed like a trackless waste.
They wove through a narrow ravine carved from a swift-moving stream tumbling down the rocks. Serah walked quickly, jumping from rock to rock and setting a brutal pace. At times, she’d stream an antigrav disc or two to bridge the wider gaps, holding them long enough for everyone to cross. Even Fergus was starting to get winded.
“Surely, we can break here for lunch and refill our canteens,” he said.
When his deep voice echoed off the ravine’s side, she placed a finger to her lips. “No. We can do that later. We still have ten kilometers of this to cover.”
“Ten kilometers?” Cleon asked. “Seriously?”
“We’ve already done that, and it’ll take another couple of hours with this pace.”
“I’m pretty beat,” Lucian said. “Maybe just a short break?”
“No.”
Fergus watched her suspiciously. “What are you hiding?”
Her only answer was to keep moving.
“That’s not a good sign,” Cleon muttered.
“Serah?” Fergus called.
Serah stopped, her face whipping around. “Quiet!”
When Fergus spoke again, he was quieter, if only marginally. “If you would just explain—”
“Guys . . .” Cleon said, pointing up.
Lucian didn’t know how he had missed it before. In a cleft of rocks right above them, below a stunted tree, lay a pile of eggs, each about the size of a human head.
He hoped it wasn’t what he thought it was.
They practically ran the rest of the way. No one complained. They couldn’t put those eggs behind them fast enough.
They went around a final bend with about a kilometer left that seemed to end at a steep drop-off. The fading light meant they had an hour or less to get out of this canyon and seek shelter.
Lucian kept looking over his shoulder, expecting to see or hear wyverns following. But the canyon remained silent save for their footfalls. They dashed from rock to rock and forded the stream multiple times. It was a race against time to get out of here before it got too dark.
Once they arrived at the precipice, Snake Rift stretched before them. True to its name, it zigged and zagged every which way. It was smaller than the Deeprift, at least half of its width. Even so, the rift’s walls rose hundreds of meters above and below. There didn’t seem to be a clear way down, though Lucian spied a trail on the opposite side of the rift.
The question was, how to get there?
“Can you tether us again, Lucian?” Fergus asked.
The mere idea made him want to groan. “I’m starting to feel tapped out.”
“We all are,” Serah said. “We need to get out of here fast.”
“What about your anti-grav aura?” Cleon asked. “Too far to leap?”
Serah nodded. “I don’t have the ether for that, even for one person.”
Lucian saw there was no choice. “I can tether everyone over one by one, like last time.”
“I don’t see any other way,” Serah said. “It’s getting dark, so we need to be . . .”
At that moment, a great whoosh rushed over the ravine. Lucian looked up to see not a wyvern, but the passing of a long, wooden hull. It was there and gone in less than ten seconds.
Lucian could only stare, his mouth agape. Had he really just seen that? Judging from the others’ expressions, they were similarly shocked.
But before anyone could say anything, shrieks filled the evening air.
The Zephyr had just kicked a hornet’s nest.
“We’ve got to move!” Fergus shouted.
There was no time to consider options. In seconds, wyverns would be upon them, and not even the Orb of Binding would be able to save them if there were anywhere as many as Lucian was expecting.
The only option was escape. Once again, Lucian would have to reach for the Orb, despite his exhaustion. Everyone’s lives depended on it.
Lucian reached for his Focus, setting anchor points on all four of them. There simply wasn’t time to do things safely by streaming them across one at a time; it was either this, or death. He streamed a single focal point across the rift, at t
he largest boulder he could find next to the trail. He began streaming, magic burning through him in a nonstop torrent, building up the power of each of the tethers. Far more magic was needed than he had expected. His vision started to fade, replaced with a world of blue and white lines. He didn’t have time to question it, nor to even feel fear. He had to make this work.
“Hurry it up, Lucian,” Cleon said.
His voice seemed to come from another world. And still, the four tethers needed more magic, more tension. The world fell away, until all that was left was the Orb burning in his consciousness like a shining blue sun. And beyond that sun was something else. A familiar fear he never wanted to feel again.
That presence reached out for him. You would kill yourself for them? Save yourself. I can show you that which you seek.
Lucian ignored the voice, siphoning the surrounding ether emanating from that sun. He couldn’t question what this place was or what exactly he was seeing. He got the feeling it might be the ethereal field itself manifesting before him.
He screamed as the surrounding energy infused inside him. He redirected it all into the tethers. Surely it should not take this much magic, but for the first time in his life, Lucian was creating four separate streams. Each additional stream, he knew, became more expensive to create and maintain. A quadrastream took sixteen as much magic as a single stream. He was doing something that the Transcends of the Academy would deem impossible for almost any mage, and he was doing it without experience.
But he also had no choice. Time seemed to slow as the blue reality faded. Lucian felt his body return to the Shadow World, his reality. His mind snapped fully back to the ravine. No more than a few seconds must have passed, but now every part of him was shining with blue radiance. And the tethers were ready.
When Lucian let go of the tension, at once, all of them sailed away at breakneck speed across Snake Rift. Cleon lost his pack, but still brimming with ether, Lucian opened a fifth stream, anchoring the pack to Cleon. Ether burned through him even faster, shockingly fast, but only for a moment. Cleon grabbed the pack, allowing Lucian to close off the stream. Lucian only slowed down once they were meters from the trail, setting them down near the focal point. He let go of the stream entirely with a gasp.
As more wyvern shrieks filled the air, Lucian’s vision blackened for a moment before returning. He looked back at the entrance to the ravine across from them. There were a dozen of those things coming for them, all as large or larger than the ones he had fought alone.
Fergus stood with his spear, along with a shield that seemed to be made from light itself, with a brightness to counter the wyverns. Cleon’s hands were wrapped with fire. Serah knelt, shockspear at the ready with a silvery aura of Gravitonic Magic surrounding her.
The shrieking wyverns poured over the ravine exit across the rift. In the skies above, there was no sign of the Zephyr.
Despite his exhaustion, Lucian opened a new Binding stream, focusing the magic at the point of his spear. Until now, he hadn’t realized magic other than Dynamism could be streamed along a shockspear, but somehow, he was doing it. More and more magic collected in the growing blue sphere, which shone brighter and brighter. Again, the world faded, as the Shadow World receded and was replaced by the Manifold and the ethereal field it generated.
Remembering the voice he’d heard before, he didn’t want to delve too deeply.
With a roar, Lucian thrust his spear skyward, releasing a blinding burst of blue magic from the spear tip. A fork of blue lightning shot outward, connecting with the forerunner of the wyverns. It shrieked as the lightning split into multiple paths that bound even more wyverns. It was the same thing that had happened at the Snake Pass, except instead of the lightning grabbing boulders, it was grabbing wyverns. The air emanated with pained screeches. His consciousness was beginning to fade as his Binding stream petered out . . .
“Stop!” Serah said. “You’re going to kill yourself!”
Lucian let go and would have collapsed had not Serah caught him. Forcing his eyes open, he could see that the wyverns were leashed to each other by tethers, all pulling them toward each other.
“Cover your eyes and grab onto each other!” Fergus said. “I’ll lead us to safety. Just trust me!”
“What are you on about?” Cleon shouted. He shot a few ineffectual fireballs in the direction of the wyverns. Lucian’s Binding lightning was beginning to fade as the wyverns fought against their restraints.
“Do as I say!”
Lucian covered his eyes, and not a moment later, a nova-like burst of light penetrated his eyelids. The wyverns screeched their dismay.
“Follow!” Fergus said. “And don’t open your eyes!”
Lucian felt himself pulled along by Serah, judging by the size of the hands. The ground rocked, causing Lucian to almost lose his feet, shortly followed by a rain of rock.
“What in the rotting hell was that?” Cleon shouted.
“Stop panicking,” Serah said. “You’re making things worse!”
“The Zephyr is back,” Fergus said. “Their mages are attacking us.”
“Why aren’t they attacking the wyverns?” Lucian asked.
“Don’t know,” Fergus said. “There’s a cave up ahead.”
“Get in there!” Serah shouted. “We’ll figure out the rest later.”
The light was dimming outside his vision. He risked opening his eyes. It was no longer bright. In fact, it was quite dim, and it appeared they were now inside the cave. From behind came the sound of screeching wyverns. Looking back, Lucian could see the Zephyr floating down the rift. Hopefully, the ship and the wyverns would keep each other busy long enough for them to escape.
“Deeper,” Fergus said. “This cave goes quite some distance, it seems.”
“Better not be a dead end,” Cleon grumbled.
“That’s not likely,” Serah said. “Most cave systems on Psyche connect with others. If we go deep enough, we can find our way out later.”
“Unless we get lost.”
“Way to stay positive, Cleon,” Serah said.
“It isn’t like we have a choice,” Lucian said. “Unless you want to take your chances with a dozen wyverns and the Zephyr.”
At that moment, Lucian felt something . . . pushing against his mind. He placed a hand on his forehead, a high-pitched ring throbbing in his ears.
Serah placed a hand on his arm. “Lucian. You okay?”
The sound became louder, until he was on his knees. He shut his eyes in a vain attempt to ignore the sound, but it only grew more dominant, until it was all he could think about.
Fergus said something, though Lucian didn’t know what. His vision went black and he knew no more.
25
When Lucian woke up, all was dark. All except for a single light, floating in the distance. Two pairs of hands were carrying him along. And he had a splitting headache.
“He’s awake,” Cleon said. “Should we set him down?”
“Here’s fine,” Serah replied.
Lucian groaned. “Where are we?”
“Somewhere under Snake Rift,” Serah said. “Other than that, we’re lost as lost can be.”
“But no one’s chasing us anymore, thanks to me,” Fergus said.
“You mean, no one’s chasing us yet,” Cleon said.
“Cheery as ever.” Serah knelt and looked at Lucian, her eyes concerned. “How are you feeling? Did you . . . see her?”
See who? Then, he remembered the Psionic attack and being knocked out. Had that really been the Sorceress-Queen attacking him?
“No. All I felt was . . . darkness.”
“Our ward must have worked, then,” Fergus said.
“That’s great, but here’s the situation,” Cleon said. “We’re deep underground who knows where, and we can’t go back the way we came. As far as we know, soldiers are hot on our trail. It will be much faster for them to follow us than for us to find the right direction.”
No one could argue with his
assessment of the situation. The sooner they got moving, the better.
“Get him some water,” Fergus said.
“Can you hold it?” she asked, handing him his canteen.
“I’ve got it.” He drank deeply.
“Now, we need to figure out how to get out,” Serah said. “I’ve been in the tunnels of Snake Rift plenty of times, but none of this is recognizable. There’s a chance if we keep going down, we might run into something that looks familiar. From there, I might be able to find Slave’s Run.”
“That’s too many mights,” Cleon said. “You’re going to need to do better than that.”
“Cleon, quiet,” Fergus said. “I know you’re anxious, but we need to work together if we’re going to get out of this alive.”
“Alive? You’re optimistic.”
“I know it looks bad,” Lucian said. “But we have to keep moving. You’re here, after all.”
“I never asked to be here. And yet here I am, all because of that rotting Orb.”
He kicked a rock and yowled when he stubbed his toe in the process. No one had the heart to laugh. It was more pathetic than anything.
“Lucian is right,” Fergus said. “Do I need to remind you of the stakes, Cleon? Where is your sense of honor and duty?”
“Both of those dried up five years ago, when I realized what honor and duty get you. Absolutely nothing except those who would take advantage of both for their own selfish ends.” He went silent, as if he had said too much. “If we have a death wish already, then we might as well see it through. I say let’s go to the Darkrift instead of the surface, like before. With our fearless Serah leading the way, I’m sure we’ll be up to our necks in gloombats or worse before long.”
“Better than getting killed by the Queen’s mages, in my view,” Lucian said.
“Death is death either way,” Cleon said.
“Every minute we stand here arguing is a minute for the Darans to catch up,” Fergus said.
“You’re good to walk, right?” Serah asked Lucian.
“Should be.”
