The End of Surrender, page 18
part #4 of The Stalwart Link Series
Leo sprinted with his father as everyone watched the beast. But the kasigerr didn’t seem to move much. Its massive head mostly hung down.
“Our army might’ve injured it badly,” Leo said.
“It does look to be that way,” Darren agreed. “But we’re still going to take cover in the forest just in case.”
There was a large creature in the sky that circled around the kasigerr from a safe height. It reminded Leo of a vulture waiting for an animal to die for it to feed, but this creature must’ve been as long as a house, at least by the width of its wings. It had a pointed head, or perhaps that was just its mouth. It was too far away to tell much.
“Do you know what that is, Erisena?” Leo asked as he pointed.
“Ravitch has told me of powerful creatures in the air that hunt large game. It must be one of them. I do not have a name for them because I’ve never spoken to them. I don’t believe them to be Esitren.” Erisena looked the other way. “Ravitch should be meeting us in the forest soon after we arrive. I sense that he is not far. He’s been looking for Andar, but he hasn’t found a human here.”
“Will your other creatures meet us as well?” Darren asked.
“The only other creature still alive and somewhat loyal to me is one I have not summoned yet.”
“Why is that?”
“Because she might be dangerous. She is aggressive, even towards me. I have been trying to pacify her and explain our situation, but…how do I say this gently? She survives here because of her strength, not her intelligence. There are many creatures that are the opposite, like Ravitch, or Rygen’s kloxy. It takes time and patience to make a creature trust us, especially when we can only send vague messages at first between the realms. I do hope that while I’m here I can connect to beasts easier as KRenn did.”
Leo still felt nothing from the stalwart link, and eventually they made it within the forest. The kasigerr hadn’t moved very much, but it might come looking for them soon.
Leo asked Erisena, “Could other creatures tell the kasigerr of our whereabouts?”
“The creatures cannot speak to each other in that way. They only speak to summoners. That is one reason it is so difficult to begin a relationship with them. They do not know how to communicate at first.”
“It’s going to be dark soon,” Darren said. “We’ll have to look for a shelter. Save the lamp for when it’s absolutely necessary, Erisena.”
The forest had a dense underbrush with no visible path. Leo had to lift his legs high with each step. They would not be able to travel far like this, and each day was precious. Andar could desperately need their help, and so might their army in the light realm.
Everything about the forest was unfamiliar. The trees were taller. Many bushes were spiky, making it even more difficult to get through them. The leaves in the trees and on the ground were circular with small ridges that were somewhat sharp. The easiest path was around the base of the large trees, where shrubbery did not grow as thick, but there were massive roots to deal with there.
With his mind, Leo searched close and far for anything even resembling the dense link of Artistry that used to connect him and his brother. The energy itself was always different when compared to the Artistry of the air. The stalwart link was immovable, strong. It had brought comfort to Leo whenever he touched it with his mind, like grazing the hilt of his weapon when he felt at risk, as he did now. But he still couldn’t find the link.
The feeling of searching for it, only for it not to be there, was like missing a step or going downstairs. The terrible sensation of nearly falling plagued him over and over. A piece of him was missing.
Come on! he yelled inwardly.
After some time, his father’s hand on his shoulder nearly shocked him.
“Leo, it’s going to be all right. It will come back to you.”
Leo realized he had been following his father without paying attention, and now it was nearly too dark for them to see much ahead.
“Here’s as good of a place as we’re going to get,” Darren said, but where he was pointing made Leo feel like there had to be somewhere better.
Lane gave a sigh of resignation. “All right.”
Leo and Darren let the two women enter first. Leo was certain his father would want to be on the outside, so he didn’t bother to argue.
It was a large burrow, clearly made by some animal that had hopefully abandoned it. If not, Lane and Erisena would likely awake to an unfortunate surprise. There was barely enough room for Leo to crawl in, so Darren had even more trouble. His father’s back was scraping the dirt ceiling when he followed.
There was just enough room to turn around. It was one of the few times Leo wished he wasn’t so tall, or his shoulders weren’t as broad. He was next to Erisena, though there was some space between them as the tunnel ran diagonally into the ground. Leo sat, hunched, his knees bent. At least it was warm.
After some debate, they decided to crawl farther into the tunnel and space out so they could lie flat on the ground. It was much better, and Leo realized he could actually fall asleep like this.
He awoke later to Lane screaming. Leo sat up with a startle, banging his head against the ceiling as dirt rained down around him.
“It’s fine!” Lane announced. “I got him immobilized.”
Leo could hear the savage snarling of something ferocious coming from the same direction as Lane’s voice.
“Need someone to kill this thing, though!” Lane added.
“I’ll do it,” Erisena said. “I can’t see a blasted thing. Give me a moment.”
In the pitch black, Leo heard Erisena stabbing the beast as she grunted. The creature snarled viciously before finally falling silent.
“Ugh,” Erisena said as she crawled back toward Leo.
“Everyone all right?” Darren asked. “Lane?”
“Yeah, it only startled me.”
Leo heard Lane shoving, or possibly kicking, the corpse of the animal away from her.
Eventually Leo fell back asleep again. He awoke many times, but he was finally sound asleep when the sounds of his father shouting his name awoke him. There was another creature attacking them, this time from the surface.
It seemed to be morning, for there was enough light for Leo to easily see the long snout and sharp teeth of some reptilian thing snapping at Darren’s feet.
“Link him, Leo!” Darren yelled.
But without seeing the rest of the body, Leo needed another moment. He had his Artistry search for the legs of the beast. The Artistry relayed a message to him, four, and it gave him a general idea as to where they were. It took another few breaths for him to direct the Artistry around them, out of view, but eventually the creature was immobilized.
“Done!”
Darren aimed his sword between the yellow eyes of the creature and thrust his weapon hard into its skull.
Darren was panting by the time it was done. He looked behind at Leo. “Do you feel the stalwart link yet?”
Leo gasped as the familiar feeling came to his senses. “Yes!”
“Is he close?” Darren asked with hope.
Leo concentrated. The stalwart link was thin and weak, which might mean Andar was many miles away, or maybe the link just needed to strengthen itself again.
“I’m not sure.” He went on to describe the link.
Darren pushed the snout of the dead beast out of the way with his feet and crawled out. Leo, with an aching back, was glad to follow his father. His dry throat begged for water, and his stomach growled for food. But at least Andar was alive. They would find him.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Andar didn’t know how many hours he’d lost in the collapsed cavern. Getting out was a nightmare that he relived in his dreams as soon as he made it to the surface and passed out. He awoke with a sharp sting to his throat, desperate for water. He rubbed his bleary eyes and was able to partially see that it was no longer night, like it was when he’d surfaced. Besides climbing through the collapsed cavern, he’d had to dig some of his way out. Even though he wore gloves, his hands ached so fiercely that he worried he wouldn’t be able to grip his sword if he needed to.
Luck had been on his side though. He had found and recovered his now chipped sword while getting out of the collapsed cavern. His backpack and all its contents, however, seemed to be lost forever.
Fortunately there didn’t seem to be a living creature nearby. All must’ve been scared off by the kasigerr the day before. Andar had slept in the midst of torn earth. He’d tossed and turned many times throughout the night, and his back and neck still gave him sharp pains as he tried to get up.
The river was not far. He could barely see ahead of him as he plodded along. If Deza or the kasigerr saw Andar, he would accept his death without a fight because he didn’t have the strength to oppose them.
By the time he made it to the river, he felt as though he needed to sleep through the morning as well. He lay at the bank and cupped water into his mouth. It was cold and refreshing for his burning throat. Soon his belly was bloated. He turned over and fell asleep to the sound of the river.
He awoke sometime later to something nudging his leg. He sat up.
“Toothy!” Andar gathered up the plump creature and squeezed it. “How did you escape Deza?”
“Blargh. Blargh, bulaargh.”
“Sounds like quite a story.”
Andar was even more shocked as he saw one of the bitter fruits on the ground beside them.
“Is this for me?” he asked as he picked it up.
“Blargh!”
Toothy didn’t take it from him, so Andar figured it was. He peeled off the skin and sank his teeth in. He didn’t care that it was bitter. He finished it in a few bites and wanted something else.
“Thank you,” he said.
Andar stood. He was still hungry, but he felt that he could fight if he needed to now. He looked around for signs of the kasigerr or Deza, but all was quiet.
He gasped as he realized something. His stalwart link was present!
Andar fell to his knees and cried with relief.
Toothy came to his side and whined as if Andar might be hurt.
“My brother is here,” Andar said as he composed himself enough to stand. “Now I just need to follow the link to find him.”
“Blargh?” It sounded like a question.
Toothy surely understood none of this. Andar made it easier for his pet by starting in the direction of his stalwart link and motioning for Toothy to follow.
“Come,” Andar said.
The link is as thin as a thread. Either that meant Leo was very far, or the stalwart link was still recovering.
It had almost been two days since Andar had tumbled into this realm. So over a month had passed in the light realm. It was enough time for Leo to make it to Jatn. Had he come alone? Andar didn’t think so. Their father was probably with him.
The knife of hunger in Andar’s stomach was soon excruciating. In case it would be a long journey to Leo, he decided it would be better to venture back into the forest where Toothy might help them find some more fruit, at least.
As one hour turned into two, his hunger worsened. He started to feel that all was too quiet now. Something had happened, and the creatures here sensed it.
The forest seemed empty, but Andar knew that to be an illusion. When he looked closer at the ground, there were small insects similar to ants, only blue. When he pulled up the end of an old fallen branch, a disgusting medley of squirming creatures shaped like worms excited Toothy, who buried his face in them and feasted while Andar turned away.
Andar walked for another hour. Even Toothy was starting to look delicious by then, but Andar never would actually consider eating his little friend.
Something startled him as the bushes rustled. Toothy let out a squeal. Andar spun around as a four-legged beast leapt at him. Andar fell beneath it, his hands grabbing its front legs as the jaws of the beast snapped at his face.
It was too heavy and too strong. The beast bit at his nose, saliva spraying in his face.
The creature thrashed suddenly as it whined, rolling off Andar and kicking away Toothy, who still had a piece of the creature’s tale between his teeth. Toothy spit out the fur and blood and bravely charged at the beast.
“No!” Andar yelled, fearing his pet would get himself killed. But Toothy jumped a few feet into the air to avoid the swipe of the beast. He came down hard onto the animal’s back.
Andar had taken out his sword by then. He had one chance for a surprise strike and made it count. After Andar’s sword cut deep into the creature’s neck, it was too late for it to do much else. The second blow of Andar’s sword finished it off.
When Andar was done, he saw that his pet had been scratched. The wound on Tooth’s side bled, but it didn’t seem to be very deep. Toothy didn’t appear to feel it, but he probably would a little later. He stared at the dead creature as if expecting it to come back to life. Finally he looked over at Andar and walked over to sit on his feet.
Andar petted his friend’s fleshy back. “Thank you, Toothy.”
Andar didn’t know how he was going to make a fire, but he was certain that he was going to find a way. He was going to eat some of this beast, and it would not sicken him, if Andar’s will had anything to do with it.
He could start a fire with flint, but he’d lost his backpack when he had to fit in the tight hole to escape the collapsing cavern. Andar knew it was very difficult for anyone to start a fire without flint, and especially so while he was this hungry, but he had something on his side. In the depths of the caverns in this dark realm, with nothing but a spark of light, he had taught himself how to make a transfer-link. Now he was damn well going to use it.
Andar collected the brush for the base of the fire and soon found a stick appropriate in length to rub for heat. He was so hungry by the time he had finished setting up the fire that he found himself resisting the urge to bite right into the raw flesh of the dead beast.
Toothy roamed around looking for food while Andar got started. He rotated the stick back and forth. He had to make enough heat to allow the Artistry to understand it. That meant Andar had to feel the heat himself, and he couldn’t seem to move the stick fast enough unless he took one hand off and put it near the bottom to feel for heat with his hand. Whenever he did that, however, he lost some of his progress.
He was nearing exhaustion as he repeated the process over countless times, but he found it easier to communicate with his Artistry now that it already understood light and t-links. Communicating with Artistry was building a relationship. It seemed to remember what Andar had already taught it, and it always wanted to link things that were similar.
He spoke to it silently, telling it to link the heat at the base of the stick to the heat in the air around them. It was a good thing there was warmth in the dense forest. In fact it was this warmth that the Artistry seemed to understand better than the pulsing heat from the stick.
After at least an hour of drilling the message to the Artistry, something clicked into place within Andar’s mind. He felt that the energy finally understood what heat was, or at least what it felt like, which was all that was needed in this case.
Andar worked the stick until he felt that he couldn’t go on. “Now,” he said as he panted, linking the warmth in the air to the emanating heat in the cluster of brush at the base of the stick.
The link came together. It was a web of thin beams of Artistry, all connected to one another. But it was no good without a transfer of power. Andar closed his eyes and envisioned the sweeping hands of his mind moving all the warmth of the air down through the beams to the center of the web, where his brush lay.
It felt like a freezing wind passed through Andar, sapping all the heat from his body. There was an explosion of fire a breath later. He screamed as he jumped back from the blazing fire. He’d lost his concentration, his link broken, but perhaps that was a good thing. The roaring flames were nearly as tall as Andar, but they quickly fell to a more manageable size.
With barely the strength to stand, Andar stuck in one of the larger sticks he’d had ready, then he started to hack away at the beast.
Toothy had returned by the time Andar had cooked the first slab of meat. He cut some off with his sword and tossed it on the ground near his pet.
“Blaarrrrrgh!” Toothy said with obvious excitement, gobbling up the meat quickly and looking at Andar for more.
Andar ate the delicious meat and fed Toothy until neither of them could manage another bite. He wanted to pass out right there, but he needed to start walking toward his brother. Every hour in this realm was nearly a day in the light realm. And not only that, it was dangerous in here. There was no time to rest unless Andar absolutely needed it.
He hadn’t reached out for his stalwart link in quite some time. As he felt around for it in his mind’s eye, he came across a sturdy beam of Artistry. This was not his stalwart link. It was unfamiliar, startling him, like walking into a room expecting to see his brother, only to be greeted by a stranger.
But as Andar focused on it, he realized that this was the link that connected him to Leo. It was just far stronger than it ever had been before. If Artistry in the air was akin to thin fabric, then the stalwart link was like a beam of metal. At least that was how Andar used to think of it. Now that he observed this stronger link, he realized that his previous analogy of metal was wrong. This was the strongest form of Artistry, surely. It made the cocoon shielding Andar from the Esitry feel like paper, and the cocoon had become too strong for Andar to break.
The Artistry of Andar’s stalwart link was so dense that he could almost see it passing through the cocoon and surrounding Andar in moving energy. He wondered if it would even protect him from Esitry if his cocoon was to fail.
Andar passed his hand through the beam, almost expecting to feel something. He did, but it wasn’t from his hand. In his mind, he could see the moving energy of the stalwart link passing around his hand, refusing to be blocked.
