The Archimage Wars: Wizard of Abal (20 page)

Then I said, “But aren’t the other
Houses worried about Morgain gaining too much power? What about the
Dokkalfar Archimage, is he supporting her, or against
her?”

Hydan said, “Well, first off, the
Dokkalfar Archimage is a ‘she’, her name is Kali, and I’m sure she
supports her daughter in this matter, for it brought chaos and
destruction, the Dokkalfar choice in wine.”

“
So the other Houses do
nothing?” I asked.

Toji answered, “It is my humble
opinion that most Houses feel whichever House overtly attacks
Morgain first will draw her ire, and she might turn her army on
them when she is through with the Sivaeral line. They would rather
have her wrath fall on another House, and let that House take the
brunt of her charge. That could destroy the other House, and even
if they survive, they would be easy pickings in their weakened
state; so the other Houses wait.”

“
While Morgain’s army grows
stronger,” I noted, “But if they acted together…”

Toji laughed, “The Houses rarely act
together. The last time was to expel The Dragon from the Archimage
Ring of Ten, some four thousand years ago.”

“
So,” I said, “if she is so
powerful, how in the hell were you going to stop her by yourself,
Toji? What, were you going to try to sneak up and stab her in the
back?”

He frowned, “That would not be
honorable, or likely even possible. No, I was going to attempt to
reach her in person, and once I was in her presence I would
challenge her to a Duel Arcane!”

“
A Duel Arcane?” I
repeated, dumbly.

Hydan replied, “It’s a formal
challenge, and if someone has been wronged, it is a challenge which
must be accepted by the Accords. To break the Accords would call
down the combined wrath of the Ring of Ten. That’s what happened to
The Dragon.”

I turned back to Toji, “And you think
she would have accepted, and you could defeat her?”

“
No, though I would have
tried my best,” he noted. “But, what I expected her to do was to
murder me instead of accepting my challenge. That act of dishonor
would force my Archimage to do something about this Dokkalfar
upstart!”

“
But, in that case, you
would be dead,” I noted.

“
Yes, but I would have died
honorably, completing perhaps the greatest honor quest of any
Fourth in our history! I would be remembered, and
revered!”

“
Great, that, and four
bucks can get you a fancy cup of coffee on Earth,” I
noted.

He shrugged, “We all must die; it is
part of the Silent Mother’s plan. It is better to die with honor,
in a way in which you will be remembered, than to expire with a
whimper and be forgotten. I will have a death which changes the
Worlds for the better, and my name shall be remembered!”

I had nothing to say to that, who
would?

We got underway again soon and
eventually came to a large river which crossed our path. It was a
good three hundred feet across, and moving swiftly for such a big
body of water, about four knots of flow.

That’s when we heard the dull pounding
of those three-legged beasts again.

“
Quickly, into the
Celadon!” Toji exclaimed, and then took three quick steps, launched
off a big boulder in a perfect dive, and knifed into the surface of
the river. I noticed his clothing seemed to disappear just before
he went into the water.

Hydan was next, though he just jumped
in feet first, and then ducked his head under and was
gone.

Myrka and I were left alone, but she
said, “Should we follow them, or fight?”

“
If they are as bad as Toji
explained, I think we better get wet.”

“
I can kill them,” she
noted, staring off toward the oncoming sounds of the riders headed
our way. From the volume, they were nearing the rise, and once they
crested over we would be exposed.

I shook my head, “Remember, Myrka,
these things use Derkaz magic, just like you do, and there are many
more of them.”

Her dark eyes narrowed, but then she
nodded and took three steps into the water, before turning it into
a shallow dive. She didn’t come back up, and neither did the other
two.

That left me, without a clue as to how
I was supposed to stay underwater without drowning. What, was I
supposed to believe I could hold my breath forever? Well, I didn’t,
not for a second. That water just looked dark and
ominous.

But then I heard the riders, they were
nearly upon me, and would see me standing there at any second. I
dove into the water, taking a big deep breath, and hoped for the
best. I tried to believe I didn’t have to breathe; maybe it would
work.

The water closed over my head, and I
opened my eyes, expecting to see the normal blurry view you got
when you went into a pool, but instead everything was sharp and
clear like I was wearing a scuba mask. Then I recalled those
transparent second eyelids I’d seen on Myrka and the other saeran
bodies. I figured they must be there to let you see underwater.
Come to think of it, like humans, which still shared a little of
the features of a monkey or ape, these saerans still had remnants
of their heritage to an aquatic mammal. Their eyes were one such
feature, as were the translucent scales over the skin. I wondered
if there were other things still fishy about saerans?

I felt my clothing dragging me down,
so I started struggling out of it. Shut up! I know I should have
just believed they weren’t there or something, but I was having a
hard enough time just holding my breath.

I dropped my shoes and other clothing
as soon as they were off, and eventually I was buck naked. That’s
when I noticed my feet elongating, like a fan opening, and there
was tough skin between the elongating ridges which were in the
place of human toes. Holding my breath was starting to burn my
lungs, I had to breathe!

I thought of going to the surface for
a breath when I noticed the indistinct shapes of creatures at the
shoreline. If I surfaced now, they would see me.

My lungs were really starting to
burn.

Hydan swam up, and did a loop right in
front of me, I swear like he was some kind of harbor seal, and his
body was all bendy. Then I think he noticed my face turning
red.

He opened his mouth and blew out a few
bubbles, miming for me to do so as well.

Like hell, that was the last of my
air!

I felt massive pain in my lungs now; I
figured the carbon dioxide buildup must be severe. In fact, with
this much pain, and after nearly five minutes holding my breath, I
should be blacking out, but I wasn’t.

Hydan did a loop around me swiftly,
and when he was back in front he squeaked something at me
suddenly.

It was reminiscent of a dolphin
whistle but lower and throatier.

And I understood it! He said, “Exhale,
idiot, you are breathing through your gills, but the air in your
lungs needs to be cleared!”

It was getting too painful anyway, so
I finally did exhale. The pain subsided, and I didn’t pass
out.

Hydan swam around some more, and then
came back and pointed to the small, inch-long, flap under his nose,
which was flexing rhythmically.

Then he squeaked again, “You are
breathing naturally through your gills now, you’ll be fine, but it
helps if you keep moving.” He did a back flip, coming around to
face me again.

I tried to speak, opening my mouth,
but nothing came out; I was out of air.

“
You have to inhale water
first, and then you can talk,” he replied.

Once again, I thought he was insane,
water in my lungs?

Hydan then punched me in the
gut.

I involuntarily sucked in
water.

“
You rat bastard!” I
squeaked.

He laughed and swam away.

I tried to follow and found by kicking
my legs my now longer feet acted like swimming fins, and propelled
me swiftly. A fin along my spine lifted and the collapsed fins
along my arms and legs gave me steering. It took me awhile, and the
whole time Hydan was looping around me, laughing, but I started to
get the hang of it.

I only had to take in water when I
wanted to talk, the rest of the time my gills seemed to handle
extracting air from the water. He was right, though, I had to move
to keep enough water flowing, or I would get kind of light headed.
Holding still wouldn’t make me pass out, but it was just enough air
to stay conscious if you didn’t do any physical
activity.

I noticed Myrka and Toji swimming
alongside. I don’t know if Myrka had the same issues as I did when
she started, I had been too busy with my own underwater acclimation
to notice. She seemed fairly sure of herself at this stage, though
not as fluid or graceful as Toji and Hydan.

I pulled up and said, “Are the
necromages gone yet?”

Hydan shrugged, “It doesn’t matter,
we’re better off in the Celadon river anyway. If those necromages
are like the necrosouls, they can't handle the water. Think about
it, they look a little dried out, like dehydrated flesh quiver,
which humans consume on Earth.”

“
Flesh quiver?” I repeated,
and then did the translation, “oh, beef jerky.”

He nodded and continued, “I say we
head down river, we’re bound to reach a large settlement that way;
saerans almost always build along waterways.”

“
Won’t we get cold?” I
asked.

He laughed, which was an odd set of
squeaks, and then said, “Saerans? They are at home under water as
much as on land, and these scales are made for the water. You’ll be
fine for many hours.”

I noticed Myrka had very small
swellings like breasts, but without nipples showing. Below, between
the legs, where human genitalia were normally located, all of us
were fairly smooth, just a kind of opening which was currently
sealed shut. I figured our genitalia, at least the males, must
naturally retract until needed.

We moved out into the swift current
and started swimming in earnest, which really put the miles behind
us when you added the four or five-knot speed of the water. We were
easily covering ten miles an hour, or seven mectors. At this rate,
we would cover about 56 mectors in the next eight hours!

As we moved through this water world,
I swam over toward Hydan and asked, “So, why didn’t those
necromages come into the water? Yeah, I know, those bodies were
kind of dried husks, and water might have dissolved them or
something, but they are mages, right? So why not just change the
reality of their bodies to something living?”

“
Well, first off, as
powerful as our magic might be, we cannot make life; at best we can
mold what already exists. Now, as to why they couldn’t repair their
dead bodies, or change them to something more suitable for water, I
can’t tell you. I don’t know enough about them, though I could
speculate.”

“
Why not, speculate away,”
I replied.

So he said, “All right, maybe they
can’t alter things to their desire, like a living mage, and can
only keep things like they are, sort of like an Actuality weapon,
but maybe weaker. Or, maybe if their dead vessel gets in water it
breaks the magic which holds their soul to that husk. Or maybe they
just didn’t see us, and would have come in if they had. Hard to
say, but those are some quick possibilities.”

It gave me something to think about
while we swam.

As the sun set the waters around us
started to get dark. Hydan kept us near the shore, and sure enough,
we came upon a low wall built on the bottom, the ends marked by two
stone statues, and a stone sign which stated, “The Slimy
Serpent”.

Hydan gave me a quick flash of a grin,
showing pointy teeth in his saeran mouth, and then swam between the
statues. The walls marked a channel, which became a canal, with
several smaller canals breaking off to either side. Soon we arrived
at a second underwater sign, which had an arrow pointing up a side
canal and the words: The Slimy Serpent. When we followed Hydan into
this canal it suddenly got dark as something covered the canal
surface. The waterway had entered a stone building. When we
surfaced we were in a chamber which had no windows or doors, just a
stone stairway going up in the far corner. We were swimming in some
kind of small pool, which had short walls to keep water from
splashing on the floor of the room. There were some towels hanging
on a rack and some gray robes of some kind of smooth
fabric.

Hydan climbed out and started drying
off, so we followed his example.

“
Where are we?” I
asked.

“The Slimy Serpent, didn’t you read
the sign?” he countered.

I sighed, “I meant, what is The Slimy
Serpent?”

He looked surprised, “Oh, it’s an Inn,
that’s why they marked it out in the Celadon; they were trying to
attract passing saeran travelers, though, in this day and age, this
is probably rare.”

I nodded, “Like a ‘Food and lodging,
next exit’ freeway sign.”

“
What is a free way?” Hydan
asked.