Secrets of Arkana Fortress (42 page)

              ‘Why not?’ Mikos hopped over a prickly plant with vicious looking purple spines on it. ‘Y’know… I’m getting really tired of all this acrobatic dodging around stupid plants.’

              Byde parted a curtain of gigantic leaves and edged through. Suddenly, he flew forward, his foot having caught something hard and menacing. He landed on his side and rolled over, swearing profusely. ‘Speak of the devil,’ he remarked, pointing at the overly huge green root he had careened over. He got to one knee and checked himself for injuries. He winced when he touched his left arm. ‘Ah shit.’ He pulled up his sleeve and revealed a massive cut between his elbow and wrist. ‘Not what I wanted,’ he mumbled, annoyed.

              Mikos stepped closer and held his friend’s arm like a precious artefact. ‘Let me do this.’ His free hand swiftly yanked the sleeve from its stitching, exposing Byde’s entire arm.

              ‘What the hell, Mikos!’ he cried sharply.

              ‘Just shut your mouth.’ He wrapped the fabric around the wound and tied it tight. ‘Just bear the bandage and get on with it.’ He helped Byde to his feet. ‘Is your magic going to be hindered?’

              ‘As long as there isn’t any infection from the cut then it’ll be fine.’

              They moved on, delving further into the mystery that was the jungle of Bolsil Island. Hoping it would get easier – the duo were quickly realising that this was not going to be the case. The trees grew closer, shrubs and bushes grew thicker, and the silence grew even more deathly; not even the wind could penetrate the dense shield of growth.

              ‘One thing that’s bugging me.’ Mikos clucked his tongue.

              Byde coughed and wiped his forehead. ‘What’s that?’

              ‘These so-called creatures that the fishing woman was on about… what’re we going to do if we come across one of them? Or even more than one of them?’ There was the shaking he had feared in his voice.

              ‘I think we’ll deal with them when we find one.’

              Out of seemingly nothing, a high-pitched whining swirled around them like an intangible mist. The plants bent and pulsated with some sort of energy, a distortion forming across their vision that was akin to a drunken state after a long night in a tavern. The trees crept down from above, encasing them in their canopy; while the floor, horrifically, ebbed at their feet like a rippling sea of trapped souls.

              ‘I think we’re near to the shrine,’ said Byde in a low, flat voice. A trickling of sweat ran down his forehead and stung his eyes with their saltiness. ‘This isn’t good.’

              Mikos turned around a few times, assessing what was going on around them. His heart was in his throat, ready to burst out and run away from the danger. ‘You’re telling me. You sure this shrine isn’t evil or something?’

              Byde shook his head. ‘No it isn’t… and I wasn’t talking about the shrine; I was on about the cut on my arm.’

              ‘What?’

              ‘I can feel it in my blood… my magic is going to be useless.’

              ‘You’ve got an infection already? It hasn’t even been half an hour.’

              ‘Whatever… it was I cut myself on… it must’ve had a poison or… something… fuck this hurts.’ He fell to one knee and held his head, an uncontrollable knifing pain shooting through his mind. ‘Please… for the love of… the gods… let us in.’

              Mikos shot his head around as he heard something, or someone, speaking to him. He felt nothing except a rising dread from the pit of his stomach that seemed to liquefy everything inside him. A torrent of emotions surged through him out of nowhere; he felt the warm trickle of a flood of tears burn his face.

              ‘What the hell is this?’ he exclaimed amidst strong sobs of unnatural anguish.

              Byde did nothing but groan, his body shaking like a leaf in the wake of a tornado.

              ‘Byde? Snap out of it, man!’ Mikos stumbled to one side and collapsed to the writhing floor. He could feel long, vine-like limbs creeping around his body and mind, but saw nothing covering him. He batted his arms and legs about, trying to free himself from the invisible constraints.

              ‘Hold it,’ Mikos said abruptly. ‘This is… just an illusion, isn’t it?’

              Another grumble from Byde who was now in a foetal position on the floor, sweat engulfing his face.

              Mikos raised his arm uncontrollably and opened his hand. ‘Stop it… now!’

              The forest waned and receded, falling silent upon Mikos’s command. Everything was back to looking normal again; even Byde had stopped perspiring and was now sitting up rubbing his forehead with his palm.

              ‘Look at my arm,’ he said, holding it outstretched. He unravelled the makeshift bandage to reveal unbroken skin. ‘That was… strong magic, indeed.’ He looked at Mikos with relief, but saw his friend rocking back and forth hugging his knees. ‘What is it?’ He rushed to Mikos’s side and held his quivering shoulders carefully.

              ‘I can’t handle this,’ he mumbled through his forearms.

              ‘What do you mean?’

              ‘I had almost no control over my magic then. What if I can’t cope and kill someone for no reason?’

              Byde softened his voice. ‘You’ll have me to help you marshal your abilities; guide you toward total control of your magic. What you’re experiencing now is just an imbalance caused by your magic – you will get to a point where this won’t happen.’

              ‘What if there’s no time for all that? Aren’t we running out of the stuff? You said we were against the clock with this.’

              ‘Stop panicking about things that haven’t happened – there’s no point in it unless they do come true.’ He stood up, a stern look on his face, and clicked his fingers. ‘Now, how about we…’ His voice ceased abruptly.

              Mikos raised his head, frowning at Byde. ‘What is it?’

              Byde palmed his hand at him. ‘Don’t move a muscle.’

              ‘What the hell is it, Byde?’ He could see his friend’s face morph into one of sudden onset fear. ‘Are the Faceless here again?’

              Byde shook his head.

              ‘Then what?’ He took a chance to slowly turn his head in the direction of Byde’s stricken gaze. ‘Ah… shit; what the fuck are those things?’

              ‘I imagine they’re the creatures the woman was on about.’

              ‘I’ve never seen anything like them before.’ Mikos remained stock still.

              ‘I… have.’

              The creature stood aggressively on four furry grey legs, snarling in a low voice. Its pointy ears twitched slightly as it moved one of its front paws forward. Two rows of yellowing teeth clenched together while a pair of elongated fangs dripped saliva and doom from their points. It shifted its long grey body and whipped a tail about as it began to encircle its prey.

              Byde clenched his fists. ‘A wolf.’

              ‘What? I thought they went extinct over a century or so ago?’

              ‘A…pparently not.’

              The wolf padded sideways, a low snarl still emanating from its throat. There was darkness about it as it moved, as if it had risen from the depths of the realms of hell. The air was changing around the two casters, twisting and compacting.

              Mikos shuffled back across the floor, his face stern yet distressed. ‘I should’ve brought my sword with me.’

              Byde shook his head, gaze still locked on the mythical beast. ‘It wouldn’t have done any good – wolves are magical creatures.’

              ‘What sort of magic are you on about?’

              ‘We’re talking a kind of magic that even the casters were never privy to.’ Byde stepped back slowly as the wolf batted its tail about menacingly.

              Mikos darted his eyes around in an attempt to find a way out, but found nothing except the void in the trees where the wolf had appeared. ‘How’re we going to get out of this one?’ It felt like the alleyway with the Faceless all over again, but there wasn’t the dreaded fear of death that had brought his magic out from the buried vault inside his mind. Something about this situation was different, and he couldn’t put his finger on it.

              ‘It will sort itself out eventually,’ said Byde through clenched teeth.

              ‘Depends how long we’ve got until it decides to kill us. Can’t you do something with your water magic?’

              Surprisingly Byde laughed, genuinely entertained by the farcical idea. ‘You must be joking, right? Caster magic cannot measure up to this. Wolves were the pinnacle of guardian magic handed down from the gods.’

              ‘Guardian magic? How many types of magic are there?’

              ‘Not now, OK?’

              The standstill lasted for a moment longer until the wolf made its move. It bounded forward; paws rising rapidly, claws glinting in an unseen light. Its guttural growl gurgled loudly, shivering the suddenly heavy air.

              Byde stumbled backwards; Mikos skittered across the floor, both of them unprepared for the looming fate.

              The creature let out a howl as it pinned Byde’s arms against the ground, the smell of its ancient, vile breath steaming across his screwed up face.

              This was it; it had to be.

              He could feel a hand grasping his throat; his mind, and his life.

              He tried desperately to conjure his magic, but found that the wolf’s presence had somehow negated everything in his blood. He opened his eyes, keeping them at a squint. A pair of wispy green eyes leered at him, assessing him in a way he would never know about. There was one thing he could see in the eyes – a rational conscience that was almost telling him to relax.

              ‘Byde?’ Mikos was on all fours with an imploring look on his face, his hair falling in front of his eyes.

              ‘Just stay back, please,’ he replied quietly, waving his hand as best he could. He swallowed hard and mumbled words that Mikos couldn’t recognise.

              Darkness lifted into light; a swirling red mist descended around them, blotting out any sort of view of the forest around them – it was as if they were in a tornado of blood.

              ‘Release the Shir’dah.’

              The wolf suddenly lost its form, turning into a thick mist that lifted up above their heads before dissipating along with the surroundings. A second whisper echoed inside their minds; an ethereal being, of sorts, was speaking to them from beyond whatever veil there was surrounding the shrine.

              The walls of the forest had vanished in a flash of light leaving the two casters, both very much bewildered, inside some kind of cave that had been intricately carved out of the granite using magic. There was no sound whatsoever except for the frantic heartbeats of Mikos and Byde’s chests as they surveyed the cavernous room they had found themselves in.

              Mikos licked his lips as he got up onto his knees, angling his head around to look at the cave. ‘What the heck just happened?’

              ‘Whatever the protective magic here was… it’s now has been lifted to us.’ Byde sat up cautiously, still expecting something hostile to emerge and finish them both off. ‘I… I’ve never actually seen these veils before.’

              There was a strong spicy aroma that they both temptingly breathed in. They were warmed by it like a pair of children with the smell of freshly baked bread. They stood up easily with their eyes shut, enticed by the exotic concoction of smells that beckoned them to its focal point.

              All of a sudden the tasty aura stopped as did they. What they had not realised was that they had walked through to the cavern’s far wall. Eyes now open; they fixated on a circular stone pedestal that vibrated with pale yellow light and a subtle throbbing hum. Byde pressed his hand onto the flat top of the small pillar. It stood just above his waist, and had a large square slab resting on its apex, adorned with a figure of eight shaped groove; a tiny circular basin resting in the centre of it where some kind of object would have been fitted.

              ‘Y’know,’ Mikos started, questioningly. ‘You never told me the point in coming here in the first place.’

              Byde closed his eyes as he rested his other hand on the shrine’s top, trying to sense the remaining powers that may have still circulated through it. ‘These shrines are… were… all linked with one another. I doubt there are any other active ones.’

              ‘How can you tell?’

              ‘Wait a moment while I show you.’ He withdrew his eager hands and reached inside his robe, shuffling about beneath it. He produced a small pouch and loosened the top open, his fingers slipping inside and grabbing what looked like a small tablet made of some sort of herbal mixture. It was tossed onto the shrine’s apex where Byde massaged it with his forefinger and thumb until it was a rough powder. He washed his palm across and spread the mixture out unevenly.

              ‘What’s that stuff?’ asked Mikos curiously, leaning over with an inquisitive motion.