EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (285 page)

The three friends might have been reflections in a mirror as they leaped into forward somersaults at the exact same time, hoping to put distance between themselves and any danger that might be right behind them. The three reflections came to their feet and spun to face the would-be attackers. Now armed with very different weapons, this was the first time they did not appear to be the same person.
 

Two large shadows came charging at them through the darkness, growling and snarling as they galloped.
 

“Alcatross!” Jade was able to scream as two silver projectiles launched from her hands towards one of the beasts. She dove to the side as the giant panther-like creature came to a stop right where she had been standing less than a second ago. It turned to face her with its enormous head bearing a dog-like snout and three tiny horns on its forehead. It had one dagger lodged deep in its eye and another protruding from its chest. She leaped back into a double handspring as it lunged towards her, but it never got that far. It stumbled forward as it took heavy, unseen blows from behind.

Jacob twirled his staff in an offensive explosion, driven more by fear than any channeled aggression. His trademark barrage of pitter-patter shots that didn’t carry full force but were certainly hard enough assaulted every inch of the beast’s back legs and finally its head.

The beast winced from the reckless assault coming from multiple angles at once. Eric held his stance low and tight as the second beast charged into the camp. It was clear he could easily impale the creature the way it was coming right at him, straight as an arrow, but he would also take the brunt of the charge. This was not a time to take a blow to give a blow, given the size of the thing. He dipped his shoulder and rolled to the side as the beast lumbered past, but not before slashing the creature’s leg as it galloped by.

The hit was solid, and the alcatross howled as it fumbled to regain its balance. Eric knew his blow was true, and pressed the assault immediately.
Keep the pressure on. Don’t ever relent
, his dad always told him.

As the creature turned back to let out a roar, cold steel slashed across its face, buckling the great beast. It lowered its head and retreated on all fours, cowering and shaking its head the whole way. Eric knew he had the upper hand. He effortlessly worked his sword into its dance of death, slashing high and low through the creature’s flesh with absolutely no wasted movement or fear of needing to defend. For the helpless creature now on the ground, the merciful deathblow came quickly. The other beast was on the move. It had dealt with Jacob’s flurry and was now trying to press through the whirling attack, wincing through the tight, quick shots but still moving forward. Jacob worked his staff in probing defensive shots towards the eye of the beast as he backed up.

Jade jumped onto its back from behind. She held the dagger lodged in its eye as a handle to pull herself higher onto the beast. The creature roared in agony. It shook and bucked wildly to remove the new threat. Hanging on with everything she had, Jade thrust her other dagger into its remaining good eye. The blind creature howled as it bucked its head repeatedly. Jade grabbed both daggers and pulled as hard as she could, leaning all her weight backward. The beast had little choice but to lean back with her. “Jacob, now!” Jade screamed, her body now fully arched back, the creature being forced to look at the sky.

Jacob jumped forward, staff ready. He measured...measured...
thrust
! His staff drove hard and deep into the huge beast’s throat with a sickening crackling sound. It tried to roar, but only made a low gurgle as it crumpled to the ground.

Jade still twisted the daggers the whole way down, just to make sure. The three friends rushed towards one another, urgently checking each other for wounds. Relief flooded Jacob and Jade upon seeing Eric was fine. In fact, he was more than fine, with not a single bruise or cut. He had taken down the other beast alone! Jade was so angry at herself. She was in charge of getting them to Taron, and her irresponsibility had almost cost them everything. “We can’t stay here. We need to ride—now!” she said with a real edge in her voice. She retrieved her daggers, wiping them off on the alcatross’s fur, and began packing up. She carried on without a word.

The other two followed her lead without question. After that encounter, neither one of them felt much like staying here either. They rode into the night. None of them would have been able to sleep anyway had they stayed.

The air was cool but pleasant as they dashed along in silence. The moon was hidden behind thin clouds, only allowing enough light to show its approximate location. Jacob and Eric were both feeling rather content with themselves despite how bad things could have gone. Those were the largest foes they had ever had to deal with, plus they had been caught off guard. However, Jade’s face was unreadable. They wondered how many times she had seen this sort of thing. How desensitized she must be. The sun was starting to show over the horizon, and the adrenaline from the fight had long faded.
 

“About three more miles,” Jade said sleepily as she tried to stifle a yawn.
 

The news snapped the other two out of their sleepy haze. They were getting close, and uneasiness was brewing in them now.
 

Eric began to second-guess his decision to make this trip. He started getting cold feet at the thought of—well, being special.
But what could I have done
? he thought.
The worst that can happen is that they realize I’m just like everyone else; that there is nothing special about me, and I get to go home
. He believed that reasoning would comfort him, but somehow it didn’t. Searching his own feelings farther, he started to wonder if
that
was his real fear—that he was nothing special and would be sent home. He dismissed it all to butterflies in his stomach
. I mean, who would actually want this?
he thought, trying to convince himself.
This...burden
!
 

“There,” Jade yelled out as she pointed off into the distance. As they got closer, it became more and more surreal. They knew it was a big city, but were not ready for its sheer beauty.
 

Both Jacob and Eric let out deep breaths.
This
was the sort of sight that reminded them how far they were from home.

Chapter XI

T
HE
ROAD
’
S
SURFACE
HAD
CHANGED
from gravel and dirt to gray cobblestones for several miles now. The horses clipped-clopped along easily on the smooth stone as the wide road became more condensed with riders and merchants’ wagons coming and going from each direction. Folk marching along on foot lined the street as well, but knew to stay far off to the side, away from the horses and wagons that puttered along.
 

“Stunning” did not even scratch the surface when it came to trying to describe the breathtaking city. The great stone wall that surrounded the whole city was built for protection, but whether or not it was on purpose, the marvel was truly gorgeous. No doubt it was solid on the inside, but the gentle cream color looked more like it belonged on a gingerbread house—too smooth and delicate-looking to possibly be functional protection.

As the companions trotted their tired mounts down the hill, sprawling rooftops made of smooth white tile came into view. As they got closer to the gate, wagons and horses began to bog down as the guards questioned folk one at a time, finding out their business in Taron and that sort of thing, which was routine for a large city.

Both Eric and Jacob were failing miserably at trying to seem like locals. Their wide eyes and open jaws easily gave them away, and their old, ragged clothes did nothing to help.

Meanwhile, Jade sat on her white horse looking like royalty with her head held high and her back straight as a board.
 

Jacob had a mind to make idle conversation with a couple of girls that had pulled up beside them, sitting comfortably in a baby blue carriage that was pulled along by four large black horses. He almost jumped out of his skin when the two of them hung partially out the window to get a good look at him as well. They were almost certainly sisters, given how much they looked alike. Both had light brown skin with long straight black hair and large, glistening dark eyes. Even though they were speaking softly to each other and not to Jacob, he could hear them well enough to know their speech was very different from his. He had never seen people who looked that way either.
 

“Did you think Bryer was the only town in Tarmerria?” Jade said with a sarcastic smile. “You two need to become more educated of the world around you. Yes, of its dangers, of course,” she eyed the pretty girls openly, “but of its beauty and diversity as well.” She backed her horse up a bit to get closer to the cart. Once there, she leaned over and began muttering something that sounded like complete gibberish to the girls.

The two boys stared in awe as the dark-skinned girls’ faces lit up. Of course they replied in the same tongue, although in a much faster tone.

Jade turned to Jacob and said in a plainly sarcastic voice, “She finds you desirable!” Jacob blushed a deep red as he looked away. He was never shy with girls, but somehow this was different. He truly felt like a small fish in a big pond.

“They are from Dronin, guys, a large city far to the west, nestled within the Apili mountain range. Don’t worry, they aren’t used to boys who look like you two either,” Jade said with a sheepish grin, seeing how uncomfortable both had become. She pulled her horse back to its original position when she felt she had tormented them enough. True, Jade was still getting used to the idea of having friends and the normality of being social, but there was one thing she had learned for sure: Teasing boys was fun! Her smile started to fade as they approached the front of the line.
 

The large metal gate was wide open. A steady stream of wagons, folk on foot and riders were flowing out on the other side of the road. The guards were not bothering any of them, but the stream heading in was being questioned briefly before being allowed to pass, mostly just a quick “state your name and business here in Taron.” A short, fat, balding man with an oversized brown robe was jotting down the names as they were being given.
 

Two large guards, each wearing shiny chain mail armor, were doing all the questioning. Each was adorned with a green square on his breastplate with the yellow star at its center. Duplicates of the flag could be seen lined along the top of the wall in many forms. Some were actual flags flapping slowly in the light breeze, while others were permanent posters nailed to the wall, displaying the Queen’s crown.
 

The three companions began to get nervous as their turn approached. The wagon in front of them slowly pulled on into the city.
 

Jade led the way up to the guards, sitting high on her horse, trying to at least seem confident.
 

“State your names,” the sleepy-eyed guard said in a dry, bored voice. He had clearly been here a long time, and asking the same two questions to every single person they saw would put anyone to sleep.
 

They replied in order, each trying to sound confident and sure.
 

“Jade Ethrista.”

“Jacob Couture.”

“Eric Aethello.”

“State your business,” the guard said, now appearing even drowsier than before.
 

“We will be inquiring—”

“We have business with the Queen!” Jacob blurted out over Jade’s carefully considered words.

She just slapped her hand to her forehead, wishing to be anywhere but here at the moment.

“Come on, Eric, show him the necklace!” Jacob said, pointing directly at Eric’s neck. The necklace was tucked away and not on display, of course.

Eric did not make a move, recognizing the seriousness of what Jacob had just done.
 

“The Queen, eh?” said the guard, lifting one eyebrow and seeming quite interested all of a sudden. “Am I to assume you stole a necklace from
the Queen
and are bringing it back out of the goodness of your heart?” Horror flooded through the three young companions. The truth of it was, that necklace looked like it could bring in enough money to buy a small town. If the guard pushed this any farther and found it in their possession, one of two things was going to happen. He would either recognize it for what it was and they would get an immediate audience with Queen Ilirra, or they would be taken away as obvious thieves, to be punished in any way they saw fit. The punishment would surely come quickly.
 

“What my friend is
trying
to say is that we were hoping to see Queen Ilirra Marosia on our tour of Taron,” Eric said, trying to think fast. “We are from a small farming community several miles south of here. As you can see, Jade here is well-traveled.” He gestured towards her as she smiled nervously. “She promised us a tour of Taron. We just thought we might get lucky and see Her Majesty. Nothing but wishful thinking from a couple of farm boys.” He did his best to force the most innocent-looking smile he could muster while the other two held their breaths. The silence couldn’t possibly have been as long as it seemed, but it certainly felt long enough.
 

Suddenly, the fat man and both guards began laughing at the same time. “Go on, go on,” the guard said, chuckling as he dismissed them with a flick of his wrist. “Welcome to Taron, and enjoy your little tour.” As they rode through the gate, the guard belted out one last taunt. “I’ll tell the Queen to find you and say hello!” The laughter even spread to the people in line waiting to get in.

Humiliated yet relieved at the same time, Eric and Jade both began browbeating Jacob for his rash thinking as they scurried through.
 

The guard eyed them thoughtfully as he watched them disappear into the crowd. “Better keep an eye on those three,” he said to the second guard as he rubbed his chin. “Find out where they’re staying and report it, along with their names. It’s probably nothing, but it won’t hurt to check them out.”