I crawled on my stomach over the lip of a hill, looking down into the quarry stretching below us. It was the next day and we had arrived a few hours before our intended target of nightfall.
To be honest, I had thought there would be many more guards outside. Instead, the abandoned, ancient mines I could vaguely make out weren’t even lit by torches.
“Something about this seems wrong,” Carva murmured, her thick brows furrowed.
I echoed that same sentiment. “These are Perin’s lynchpins. There should be dozens of men here making sure that nothing happens to them.”
“They’re magic users, right?” Jayne said. “Can they cast illusions or something? Hide some men behind false walls, or set traps?”
“I don’t know, you guys tell me. I’m not exactly familiar with your land’s version of magic.”
“It is possible.” Myrik answered. “Depending on what school of magic they studied under and their aptitude.”
“Possible? Or probable?”
“Unknown.”
“Great.”
“What about your vision?” Carva hissed. “Any little tasty tidbits that could help us keep our heads firmly attached to our shoulders?”
I felt my stomach squeeze tightly. “No. I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright, I’ve been in tighter situations before.”
“Yeah?” Jayne countered with a scoff. “Like what?”
“It involves a very nice sailor who had an affinity for wooden spoons. But that’s a story for another day.” She scooted a little further over the edge. “I see a pretty clear path over there to the north. Right along those pines. It’s light enough to indicate rare traffic, but there enough to mean at least someone’s here and moving out for supplies regularly.”
“Well then, what do we do?” I asked. “Just walk down?”
“It seems so,” Gael said. “Albeit carefully. Keep low, and follow me.”
We all rose from the ground, but stayed hunched over as we crept along the lip of the hill leading into the gully.
The night was eerily still, the only noises being the wind rushing through the boughs of the trees and the chirping of various nocturnal bugs. Every single leaf crushed under our feet, or branch we brushed aside seemed impossibly loud, like it would summon a horde of Julian’s men to fall from the sky and set upon us with swords and shields.
Yet somehow, we made it to the entrance of the mines without incident.
“I’m going to repeat my previous statement that there is something very off.” Carva said.
“Shh,” Gael murmured, leading the way.
The opening of these caves was dark. Beyond night-dark, but a thick, inky, total blackness that blotted out every bit of light.
“I can’t see,” I whispered to Gael, reaching out to try to find a wall or his body to make sure I didn’t accidentally careen off into some deadly pit.
“How can you, no--.right. Humans have terrible dark vision.”
“Well, I don’t know about terrible-”
“It’s terrible.” Myrik said matter of factly. “Here,” He fished into one of the pouches at his waist, then handed a crystal to both Carva and I.
“What’s this?”
“Think of it as a glowstone, but dimmer. You can control it via your voice, try to use it sparingly.”
His hand didn’t immediately jerk away from mine, and we had a moment where our fingers remained touching. I didn’t know what it meant, but I took it to be a positive before he drew away and we were back to the mission at hand.
“Thank you,” I whispered before looking to the multi-faceted mineral. I didn’t know if there was supposed to be some sort of abracadabra password to get the thing going, so I decided asking politely couldn’t hurt anything “Light up, please. But not too bright. We’re sneaking.”
Surprisingly enough, the stone began to glow with a faint, dull light. It was enough to see my feet and make out Gael’s back, but that was about it.
“Now that’s the stuff.” Carva said with a whistle of appreciation before catching herself and cutting off the sound. “Yours is enough to go on for the moment, I’ll put mine away.”
“Let’s hope you don’t need it.”
“Right though, ‘cause that would mean we’ve split up or something and I think we can all agree that in this sort of situation, that is usually a terrible idea.”
“You’re strangely knowledgeable for a village housewife.”
She gave him a coquettish little look and pulled her smaller crossbow from her leg. “You pick up a thing or two facing the wiles of motherhood.”
“I feel like that’s not the whole story.” Jayne murmured.
“Guys,” I hissed. “We’re about to storm the metaphorical castle. A little focus, please.”
“I’m focused.” Carva hissed back. “It’s Jayne who’s busying eyeing my ass.”
“What? No, I’m not.”
She frowned at the crimson dragon. “Why not?”
“Guys!”
“Sorry.”
We took a collective breath. I understood the moment of levity, we were risking our lives to find a needle in a haystack --mind you, a haystack that could collapse in on us at any moment.
Gael made a motion for us to move forward, and we crept along in a quiet line.
Our journey was pretty straightforward until we reached a larger opening, and suddenly four different branching halls stretched out before us.
“Dammit.” I spat quietly, my voice barely above a whisper. “Which way?”
Gael leaned forward, his brow furrowing as his nose crinkled. His subsequent sniffs seemed almost comically loud in the painfully silent mine. But I managed to keep in the giggles as he turned back to us. “This way,” he said, gesturing to one of the middle halls.
“What, did you magically smell their cult robes or something?” Jayne teased.
“Piss, actually.”
“Gross.” I murmured.
“Yes. I would advise not touching the ground.”
“Noted.”
We continued forward, and it didn’t take long for the smell to hit me. Sharp and acrid, it reminded me of a time I had to babysit a couple of kids who had parents that horded seven different cats and didn’t clean the litter box enough. That didn’t bode well for once we got deeper into the winding caverns.
I didn’t want to think about what was smooshing underneath my feet, spreading out like slightly too chunky peanut butter. My eyes were watering, and my nose was burning, and I wanted more than anything to sprint forward into somewhere with fresh air.
And then I heard something.
It started off as a gentle scraping, and I didn’t think it was possible, we grew even more silent and slow as we listened to the sound. Then came a light clicking. Eventually, an entire score of different generic working noises reached us as we crept along.
It took a couple more minutes for light to reach us next. It started off as a flickering red against the far wall of the tunnel we were sneaking down, then slowly increased until we were at the edge of our little path, with the sounds just beyond an opening a few feet away.
The tension running through me was like a crackling bolt of lightning, and I was guessing that everyone felt much the same way. Suddenly Carva was pressing her smaller crossbow into my hands, then pulling her larger one from her back.
Myrik drew in a long breath of air. “I smell at least two.”
“But only two?”
“At least two. There is a difference.”
“Yeah, but is there anything else? Why would there just be two people here? Perin should have this place crawling with guards, body doubles and trick outs.”
“This is a trap. I know it.” I said. “We need to leave now.”
“What? But you said there was no way he could know that you know about his sorcerer’s plan.”
“There isn’t! But think about how easy this has been. It’s too easy. I know Perin and there’s no way he would just leave these guys here on their own volition.”
“Hello?”
We all froze at that, the call out belonging to none of us.
“I can hear you, you know. I’ve been able to hear you since you arrived.”
Well, there went that. I supposed that all the skulking was pretty pointless now and stood, walking out of the tunnel before the others could stop me.
They rushed after me, of course, but by then it was too late. I was in full view of the room and I could not believe what I was seeing.
There were indeed two figures, slight and fragile, as well as several bodies laying around them. The corpses definitely belonged to guards, but instead of being out and rotting as bodies tended to do, each of them were contained in a kind of crystal.
“W-who are you?” The closest figure asked, voice clearly shaking.
It was only then that I actually looked to who the voice belonged to. It was to a woman, although her cheeks were so sunken with hunger, and her lips cracked from thirst that it was impossible to tell her age. She looked like she might have once had long, blond hair, but it was hacked off unevenly in a grime-covered halo around her head.
“My name is Mercedes.” I answered honestly, taking a step forward.
Her head whipped towards me and my stomach jolted as I realized that she had no eyes. Instead, only smooth expanses of scar tissue. “Come no closer! What do you want?”
“Well,” I murmured, “to free you, actually.” I glanced over their work station to see that there were vials upon vials and pestles and mortars and everything else you would expect when making ancient level gun powder.
“F-free us?”
“Yeah. I mean, to be honest we thought this would be more of a kidnapping situation, but that’s clearly not the case. Did Perin do this to you?”
“Perin?”
“The man who told you the Prince would give you respite from his crueler tendencies if you made the powder that would help kill the dragon.” I almost described the disguise I had last seen him in before realizing that would be quite useless to this particular woman.
“Oh. Yes. He found us where we were hiding in a village. He dragged us here, chained us, and said we would have relief finally if we just did as he said.” She held up her hands where I could indeed see shackles there. But unlike regular bonds, they seemed to almost glow with a foreboding light. “He promised us safety, but then left us in the hands of these men.” She gestured vaguely and I surmised she meant the dead bodies behind her. “They were not nice.”
“And what’s with your friend there?” Jayne asked, pointing his blade to the still-silent figure facing the wall. They were wearing tattered robes that looked like they might have once been blue, but had long since faded to a grungy gray that was spotted with stains and burns.
“She can’t hear you,” The blind woman answered. “And she cannot speak either.”
“Convenient.”
“My eyes were stolen when our Coven was raided when we were but children, and they took my sister’s tongue as well. We are now prisoned by a madman and haven’t eaten in days. What about that is convenient.”
I tried to hide my grin but I failed pretty miserably. “I like this girl.”
“Woman.” She corrected me, her voice low and adamant.
“Absolutely.” I agreed, taking another step forward before she flinched away rather violently. “Hey, it’s okay. I just want to get you out of those bonds.”
“You cannot touch them,” she snapped. “The man had me enchant them myself.”
“What, and you didn’t but some sort of failsafe in there behind his back?”
“I tried,” she murmured, sounding a bit softer than her previously knife-sharp tone. “He is very… perceptive.”
I nodded in understanding. “Yeah, I’ve experienced that first hand.”
“And you survived?”
I nodded. “Barely. But it’s because I had these fools with me.”
“…can you describe these fools that you are talking about or am I just supposed to infer that you have a merry crew.”
Oh right. “Full visual explanation soon. Right now, let’s get you freed. Do you have any batches of the powder you were supposed to be creating?”
“Powder? What powder?”
I cocked my head to the side. “You know, the black powder meant to level the mountains the dragons were hiding in?”
“I know nothing about any black powder. We were brought here to create spells to help the castle withstand a frontal attack by the winged beasts. Fire-swallowers, star bursts, water summons, but nothing about mountains.”
I went cold but tried to keep my face just as relaxed. “That’s… concerning.” Panic bubbled up but I forced myself to stay focused. “Alright. Shackles then. Those star bursts you mentioned. I think I read something about them, they temporarily blind people, right? By releasing flashes of light and heat?”
“Yes. I’ve been told they’re as beautiful as they are painful.”
“What if we used one on these? Would that work? The heat could make the lock pop, right?”
“I don’t… perhaps?”
“Let’s try, shall we?” Her blank face pointed towards me, and if she had eyes I knew she would be staring at me while she debated whether this stranger was worth risking her hands. By all the context clues being dropped in rapid succession, I could figure out that this woman had been taught repeatedly throughout her existence that trusting others meant pain and loss.
But eventually, she turned away and felt along the table for something. It was interesting to watch her “look” for whatever it was she needed, until her bruised fingers -some of which were missing nails- closed around a small canvas bag tied with a rawhide strip. It was hardly bigger than a tea bag, and she pressed it into my palm.
“The activation usually takes impact, but a touch of fire works just as well. Spread these contents evenly over my bonds.” She placed her wrists on the table side by side. “I will try not to move so we don’t spill.”
“Is it safe to have a spark in here?”
“Probably not.”
“Alright then.” I looked to Myrik, who was watching everything with that same intense look in his eyes. “Would you?” I asked simply. He didn’t answer, but nodded silently. I couldn’t be sure if his lack of speech was due to him observing everything he could, or his latent discomfort with me as a person. Either way, I supposed that didn’t matter at the moment. We had some sorcerers to save. “Thanks. Spreading the contents now.”
“I can hear,” The woman grumbled. “I don’t need a running narration.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t comment further. She had every right to be a bit prickly. “Alright then.” I opened the pouch and glanced at what was inside. It was a mix of fine powders, some of them grey, some of them red, and a few that were iridescent in the faint light of the lanterns at the edge of the workroom we were in. I carefully dumped it into what looked like the locking mechanisms of each shackle, as well as on the parts where the chains kept her wrists bound within a few inches of each other. “All done,” I murmured.
Myrik lifted his hand, and I took a step back hoping that this would somehow work out.
“Wait!”
Thankfully, the dark dragon paused, and we looked to our rescue-ee. “My name is Angrassa,” she murmured. “My sister’s is Mischa. She liked fruit and water, but she cannot stomach ale. She’s very scared of lightning.” She took a deep, shaking breath. “If this hurts me, or kills me, you must take her. You cannot leave her on her own to die.”
Her honest, terrified plea stirred something within me. The love evident in each of her words was impossible to ignore. So, I approached her once more, making sure each of my steps were clear and audible, before crouching down and placing my hands just below where the cuffs had rubbed her skin raw. “You’re going to be just fine. And to prove it to you, I’m going to stay right here.”
“Mercedes!” Gael barked. “Are you sure that is the best id-”
“Yes.” I answered firmly. “Myrik, if you please?”
He hesitated a moment, and I took in a deep breath to prepare myself for a speech about compassion, but it turned out it wasn’t needed. He snapped, and a small plume of fire burst into being on the blind sorcerer’s restraints.
I would be lying if I didn’t say I was scared. That my imagination didn’t readily whip up an image of the reaction blowing the both of us sky-high. But instead of any tumultuous explosions, the star burst let out a brilliant flash of light that I barely remembered to shield my eyes from, and then I heard the tell-tale cracking of a lock forcibly popping open.
I waited for the heat to dissipate before risking opening my eyes, and relief drenched my soul as I saw the cuffs blacked, broken and on the floor of the mine.
Angrassa wept openly, but before I could console her, a warbling, choking sound filled the small room.
The blind woman whirled around, already having forgotten above herself. “Mischa!” She cried, moving her hands in a pattern that didn’t seem too drastically different from ASL that I had observed back in my world. “It wasn’t lightning! It’s fine! I promise it’s fine!”
It was the first time the other woman had turned from the wall she had been facing the entire time, and my heart ached upon the sight of her. Almost half of her face had obviously been burnt long ago, and her doe-like eyes were wide with fear. There was an intelligence behind that terrified wall, however, and I could see understanding start to settle down per panic and she and her sister communicated silently.
A couple of moments passed and I gave the women their privacy by flicking my eyes to my companions. They were watching with a mixture of interest and a bit of awe, and I couldn’t blame them. Somehow this plan was working.
“She is ready,” Angrassa said, standing and returning to her table to feel around for another pound. While it was true that I could just reach it over and hand it to her, I knew that was totally unnecessary and waited the extra five seconds it took for her to find it herself.
“I will need you to spread it across hers as well, so I can communicate with her,” she said matter of factly. “She does not like to be touched, but she will tolerate it as long as I keep talking to her.”
“Understood.”
I moved forward again and we went through the same steps again. I was a bit more nervous with Mischa, considering her eyes stared with an unparalleled intensity between both her sister and I, and she was clearly much more built than her slighter sister.
Despite the nerves bundling up in my middle, I kept going, until we were ready for Myrik to do his thing. Shielding my eyes, I smelled the powder alight, and a panicked keen rose from the woman once again.
“She’s alright,” Angrassa said, “She knows she’s safe, she just doesn’t know how loud she’s being.”
“It’s fine,” I said, eyes still screwed shut.
Once more I waited until the heat was gone and then I looked back to the pair. Angrassa was helping her sister up and I was surprised to see that Mischa was the same height as her sister, but with a much different body type and thick, curly brown hair. Perhaps they were related more in the bonds of their coven than actual blood? Obviously, that didn’t matter, but I tucked it away in my mind to ask about later. Assuming we had a later.
They continued to communicate for a moment, Angrassa feeling Mischa’s face, and Mischa gently patting her sister’s shoulders and arms, making disapproving clicking noises at what I guessed was how slight her sibling had become. I gave them as much time as I could before Gael cleared his throat.
“We should be going.” He murmured, eyes on the corpses around him. “How long have these men been dead?”
“It is hard to say.” Angrassa answered honestly. “There is no sun or moon here, so time often seems to go on forever. I did not intend for this to happen, but I overheard them planning to lay hands on my sister.” Her face turned to me, and if she had eyes I knew exactly the look that would be within them. “You know that I could not allow that to happen.”
“Of course,” I said gently, “you did exactly what you had to do. Are you ready to get out of here?”
“We have been ready for a very long time.”
I nodded, and Gael once more turned to lead us out.
I was a strange mix of emotions as we walked out of the myriad of tunnels. It went much faster as we didn’t have to crawl and sneak this time, but we definitely weren’t at full speed as we escorted the weakened sisters. I wanted to offer them my arm, or some sort of relief, but after Angrassa’s warning that Mischa did not like to be touched, I thought it best to give them the space they requested. They were fully grown adults, I needed to trust that they would ask for my help when they needed it, and not that they were helpless women that needed to be pitied.
However, there was also an underlying apprehension. They had killed all those guards and somehow Perin didn’t know? After being in his head long enough, I knew he would have some sort of failsafe for this. Like that the guards were supposed to send him a raven at the end of each day. Or fire a flaming arrow into the air. Or something.
This couldn’t be it.
We reached the end and stepped out into the gully once more. The night was just as silent as we left it, almost oppressive in its stillness.
“We brought an extra mount,” Gael said. “Are you able to ride or do you need sit behind the saddle?”
“What, you think just because I’m blind that I don’t know how to ride a horse?”
“Actually, yes.”
“Well you’re right, but it would be wise not to assume further in the future.”
“I will try to remember that.”
He went to take a step forward, but Myrik caught his shoulder. “Wait, I smell-”
He never finished, his body rippling and buckling instantly to explode into his dragon form. The sound of multiple bow strings being loosed echoed through the night, and the next thing I knew, I was being screamed at to move, then shoved to the side.
I slammed to the ground, skidding across the earth as my vision was completely blotted out by a cloud of black smoke. But that didn’t make sense. The shapeshifting from human form to dragon didn’t generate mist I was now being cloaked into. Only dragon to human. I didn’t know why, I just knew what I had observed.
I rushed to my feet, and when the darkness cleared, I saw a line of archers all standing on the lip of the hill where we had first arrived. And even more soldiers behind them.
But a gargling noise drew my attention, and my heart just about stopped when I looked down to our feet.
Myrik was laying there, some of his face and arms still mottled with scales and arrows peppering his chest.
“Oh my god, Myrik!” I cried, collapsing to his side. Thankfully he was alive, and he looked to me slowly.
“You were right.”
“Shh,” I urged, my mind rushing. “This is going to be fine. You’re going to be fine.”
“I really doubt that, actually.”
The voice was not one of our group, and I heard a sharp intake of air from Angrassa. “It is him.”
Once more my gaze returned to the hill above, where I saw a figure standing at the center. Although I had never seen his face, I didn’t need a sign to know it was Perin.
He was so…normal.
He was Caucasian, with no scars or otherwise distinguishing characteristics. His nose was straight and unbroken. His jaw wasn’t particularly strong, or sallow. If I was making a character in a video game, he would have been the most generic model I could have possibly imagined. It was hard to compute that this man was the one who had been terrorizing me as well as the citizens of this realm for generations.
“Nice to finally meet you, Mercedes.” He said. God, it was weird to hear his voice too. Although I’d had multiple conversations with him, it was still different face to face. “You don’t look nearly as obnoxious as I thought you would.”
“Thanks.” I hissed, nearly shaking with rage. “I wish I could say that the feeling is mutual.”
He laughed, and I never wanted to drop kick a human so badly in my entire life. “Ouch, so prickly so soon? And here I thought you would be excited to see an old friend after so many days of our special little visits.”
“How,” I gasped, pressing my hands to Myrik to try to stop the bleeding. “How did you know we would be here?”
“You thought you were so clever,” He murmured, slowing strolling down the lip and coming down the path. The entire while the archers’ bolts were trained on us, daring us to try anything.
“I still don’t know how you knew about the little witchlets I holed away, but you made a single mistake. I never told dear, rage-filled Julian where they were. If only to have insurance that he wouldn’t have me assassinated in my sleep.” He clapped once more and I wanted to tell him that was about as bad guy passé as monologuing, but I swallowed down my words bitterly. “But your plan was brilliant. Truly. If it weren’t for that one overreach, you would have had me.”
He reached the floor of the gully but still kept several feet away from us. I could feel Gael’s tension beside me, and caught Carva’s crossbow into my peripheral vision, but I willed them to be still. For Myrik’s sake.
For all our sakes.
“Of course, I could never anticipate that my little songbirds here would murder all the men I generously put here to take care of them. That wasn’t very nice.”
“You starved us, you bastard.” The blind woman spat. I risked a glance behind me to see that she was beginning to glow around her hands, and the air began to crackle around her.
“Not so fast, darling. I’d cut that our right now if you don’t want your, your would-be rescuers and your sister to become human pincushions.”
“Please,” I whispered to this woman who I had just met. “Stand down.”
The woman paused, her eyeless face sliding between me and our mutual enemy, before she slowly straightened and let her arms hang loosely at his sides. “Very well.”
“Look at that!” Perin crowed. “Maybe you really are the granddaughter of Guerra. You certainly have a way with manipulation.”
I stood, tears threatening to well over the rim of my eyelids. “So, what now, Perin. You win. You caught us. This entire thing was a trap and I fell for it.”
“Hold on, can’t you let me enjoy this for a few moments before I have to get all practical?” he laughed. He was loving this, I could tell. “But fine, if you insist. The tall strapping fellow will return right to Julian’s dungeon where I’m sure that prince will be more than happy to see him again. As for tall, dark and handsome who’s bleeding down on the ground, well he’s not really going to be around to enjoy the same accommodations, but we did have a cell waiting for him.
I don’t know who this other dragon is with you -- maybe the one that dropped you off the last time Julian thought he had you in his clutches? But he can take what was meant for the dark one.
“The weird sisters there will finish up their preparations to finish fortifying the castle. And Lady Carva there, oh, you are a wild one that came out of nowhere, aren’t you?”
“Aye,” She said, her voice as strong as steel. Man, I don’t know where she got the cajones, but it helped me feel a little less terrified for a split second. “Tell me it’s good. Is it the gallows? Maybe some drawn and quarter action?”
“Only if you sweet talk me just right.” He laughed again, but no one shared in the mirth. “But actually, Julian wants to meet you personally.”
“Well that’s just outright disappointing.”
“And you, Mercedes. You are my special little project. Julian wants you, of course, but we both know that you’re solidly mine.” He took a step closer to me, and Gael outright bared his teeth at him.. “We’re going to have so much fun, aren’t we?”
“Wait,” I blurted, voice cracking.
“Oh no, little girl. We’ve been playing cat and mouse for far too long. There’s nothing you can say that will delay --”
“Let them go.”
He did stop at that and his eyes went wide in amusement. “Pardon me?”
“Let them go. Take just Myrik and I.”
“Myrik.”
“The dying dragon.”
“Mercedes, what are you doing?” The Advisor growled.
“What kind of shit deal is that?” Perin shot back.
“I can make it worth your while.”
“Look, you may be cute, but you could have the world’s most magical vagina and I wouldn’t-”
“I can open a portal to another world!”
That stopped him dead in his mid-rejection, and he looked at me for what had to be at least a solid half minute of silence. “Repeat that again.”
“I…can I reach into my bag? I can show you.” He held up his hand for the archer to hold their fire, and I shakily fumbled with my battered messenger bag. Somehow, I managed to pull my abuela’s journal from the bottom without bursting into tears, and I held it up for him to see. “I don’t really understand it, but I think together that we could work it out. She has a lot of stuff in here about how to hop worlds.”
“I don’t believe you,” He said, eyes so trained on the cover of the aged book it was like I wasn’t even there. I was struck again by how he could be any number of boys I had hung out with in college. “You’re bluffing.”
“Here, let me open it.” I held it flat then offered him my hand. “I need you to cut me.”
“What?”
“It’s a blood thing. Do you have a blade?”
“I… no.”
“Ask one of your men for their swords.”
“You have to think I am the dumbest man to ever walk this earth.”
“I’m serious!” I cried, tears now falling freely down my cheeks. “Maybe Myrik and I are doomed but I will do anything to save the rest of them. Let them go.”
“You do realize that they’ll ultimately die in the end anyway?”
“Please,” I whimpered. “Just get a blade.”
He let out an aggravated shout, but then called for one of the men to drop down a weapon. The sheath landed a few feet away and Perin stalked over to it before whipping the sword out.
My heart skipped a beat as the light glanced off the impeccably polished blade. He approached me much too quickly, then held it out. “Here.”
I looked from him, to the blade before standing as straight and tall as I could. “Promise to me you’ll free them!”
“Not until you prove to me that this is worth my time.”
“Promise me!”
“Alright, fine, fine. If you can open a portal for me, not only will I leave your friends be, but I’ll hop right out of this world to never return again. There. Does that make you happy?”
I nodded then pressed my pinky against the edge of the sword.
“That’s it, your little finger?”
“Yeah,” I retorted, not knowing where I found the strength to verbally bite back at this mass murderer. “Did you think I would cut the palm of my hand? There are a lot of important nerves and vessels there. And keep holding the blade.”
“Don’t worry, I planned on it.”
I snorted derisively, but forced myself to keep going. I let the blood welling up from my finger drip onto the strange blade-lock on the side of the journal, then pulled the sharp point out. Quickly, I flipped to the exact page I was looking for.
To answer the call, blood is required. Spill the red from the anchor of that world, sharp and aged.
“See, this is it!” He leaned in but I quickly snapped it shut. “Let my friends go.” I reminded him. “Tell your men to stand down.”
“What’s to stop me from having them shot down the moment you finish showing me all this?”
“I guess we’re just going to have to trust each other.”
“That’s a terrible idea, really, but if you insist.” Another gesture and all the dozens of bolts trained on us lowered. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief that I probably shouldn’t of, then opened it once more. Like I knew he would, Perin leaned closer.
One can use a mirror, but risks destruction of themselves should the glass come to hand.
Water is best, with its ripples and constant force.
It will carry you there, and everywhere.
“What the hell does that mean?”
Quicker than I had ever moved in my life, I grabbed his wrist before driving the long, pointed end of the book-lock into my arm.
“It means we’re about to take one hell of a trip!”
The reaction was instantaneous, even the archers were unable to raise their arrows back up before a massive burst of light erupted from the blade in Perin’s hand. We both screamed as invisible hands grasped us, violently pulling us in.
I watched as Perin’s body distorted and warped in its influence. His body allowed me a momentary reprieve to fall to the earth and latch onto Myrik’s arm before the pull became irresistible.
And then, like water swirling around the drain, we were sucked into the blade.