The clash of metal against metal rang through the night. Corpses lay across the blood-soaked fields, as the living fought on. Crows circled in the sky, waiting for their feast to commence.
I watched from above, where I lay in the grass at the top of a hill.
The south called me, but the south was on the other side. The quickest way would be to march through the battle, but I would not do that. I had no business here. This was not my fight.
Maybe if I waited for a little while, it would end.
The larger army was led by men in yellow armor. Their banner of ochre spirals against an azure field floated above their heads as they pressed against the enemy.
And yet, despite their smaller number, the opponents held strong. They were served by magic wielders who stood in the back and cast spell after spell.
At this stage, it was difficult to say who would win, but I doubted the war would end soon. The balance between the two forces was too even.
The wizards would eventually tire, there was no doubt, and then they would be weakened.
But those fierce warriors on the other side were only human. They, too, would tire. And then the balance would be maintained.
I shook my head as I pondered my options. There were not that many. I could either run into the fray—and likely suffer the consequences of my folly—, or circle around and waste hours.
Then again, it wasn’t as if anyone was waiting for me.
The man that I sought had been sighted ten years ago. There was little hope I would find him or any evidence of his passage.
So I crawled away from the edge of the hill, then walked back toward my horse.
As I mounted him, screams of pain echoed through the night. I grimaced and started toward the west.
I glanced up at the sky.
Another issue was that it was getting late.
Though I had not battled, I too was tired.
I needed to rest.
Heading west had not been a random choice. There were mountains in this direction, and I hoped to find some shelter there, away from the madness of war.
Perhaps I could have put a stop to it. Perhaps I could have tipped the balance in favor of one side over the other...
But which side would I have chosen?
I knew nothing of these people, of their conflict, of their grievances. So why should I risk my life for them?
No, better I move on.
It took a couple of hours to reach the foot of the mountains. By then, the echoes of war had faded in the distance.
I found a cave, tied my horse, and settled for the night.
***
When I woke up, I found a child staring at me.
I jumped back, startled.
“Hello,” he said.
He stood on the other side of the fire I’d made—though the flames had died out in the night—, his back to the entrance of the cave.
I stared back at him.
“Who are you?”
The boy looked at me with curious and unblinking eyes.
“Drex,” he finally said.
His voice was soft and sad.
“How long have you been standing there staring at me, Drex?” The child just shrugged. I grunted as I pushed off my cover. “Well, since you’re here, care to hand me that bag over there? I’m Reikk, by the way.”
He looked in the direction I was pointing, tilted his head as if pondering what to do. He took a few steps, leaned down, grabbed the bag, then brought it to me.
“Thanks. Where are your parents?”
The boy shrugged again as he watched me bring out bread and fruits from the bag.
“I’m lost,” he said after a moment.
I glanced at him, then motioned with my head toward a rock near me.
“You might as well sit and have something to eat. I’m assuming you’re hungry?”
The boy looked at the rock, paused, then sat down before turning his head toward me again as I handed him an apple.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Another shrug.
“Suit yourself.” I took a bite out of it as I set the bag down. “What are you doing out here, Drex?”
“I want to go back home,” he said softly.
That was a feeling I could relate to.
“And where is your home?”
“I’m lost,” he reminded me.
That made me uncomfortable. Maybe because the whole thing felt just way too familiar.
“Tell you what. I’ll help you get back home if you eat something.”
I held out a piece of bread for him.
The boy frowned. He looked at my face, then at the bread. He reached out and snatched it.
I smiled. “We have a deal, then.”
***
After we’d had breakfast, we set out into the morning sun. But which direction should we go?
I needed to head south. But for all I knew, that might take us further from the boy’s home.
“Is there anything you can tell me?” I asked as I looked at him. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
He stared at me for a moment, then shrugged.
“Darkness.”
Well, that didn’t help me much.
“Was your home attacked? During the night, maybe?”
He tilted his head, a thoughtful expression on his face, then nodded.
“I think so. There were screams. Lots of screams.”
It felt like he was going to say something else, but stopped.
“Which direction were you coming from when you found me?” I asked.
He turned and pointed toward the south.
“Great. Your home is probably that way. Let’s go.”
I mounted my horse and pulled him up in front of me, then we rode off.
After a couple of hours, the sky darkened, and I saw lightning in the distance. Thunder followed shortly.
Just what we needed.
I glanced up at the sky. It was still sunny, but I knew it wouldn’t last. We were headed straight into that storm.
It was shortly after this that we heard it.
The familiar clash of metal against metal.
As it grew louder, I stopped the horse, jumped off, tied it to a tree, and crawled to the top of the hill.
Looking down in the valley below, I was startled.
Because this was the same battlefield I’d seen before. With the same soldiers in yellow armor, facing the same magic wielders.
I had gone to great lengths to circle around them, and yet here I was...
Could they have moved during the night?
It started to rain as a chilling realization hit me.
This was the same hill I’d been on before. And that tree, where I’d tied my horse, was the same one where I’d tied him before.
I stumbled back, alarmed.
There was something wrong here.
I looked at the sky again.
Dark clouds had gathered, and the rain battered my face.
I hurried to the horse.
The child still sat on it and watched as I approached.
As I got back on, he tilted his head.
“Are we leaving?”
“Of course, we’re leaving! There’s a battle down there.”
“My home is on the other side,” he said.
“We’ll circle around it.” I guided the horse toward the west again. “And I thought you said you didn’t know where your home was?”
“I remember now,” he said softly.
“What else do you remember?”
His back was turned to me, but I saw him shrug.
“Darkness.”
Well, I could worry about that later. For now, I needed to get us out of there. And try to figure out what had brought me back.
There were many wizards in that smaller army. Could they have cast a spell that had unintentionally affected me?
That was the only explanation I could think of.
I muttered a few Words under my breath and looked through the veil that formed before my eyes.
“You do magic?” asked the boy.
My eyes darted back to the sky. There were colors there that had not been there before. They swirled in a frenzied mess, as if panicked by the violence and suffering below.
“Do you know what this war is about?”
I looked to the ground and found just as much confusion there. Magic was everywhere. Colored strands twirled and swirled in a frenzied mess. There was too much to make any sense out of it. Even the horse, the boy, and my own hands were covered with the damn thing. It’s not that we were necessarily under a spell, just that magic permeated the air in such a way that it blinded me. There was no way to tell if some of those strands had affected us, but it would have been surprising if they had not.
“They are afraid,” said the boy, his voice calm.
With an annoyed wave of my hand, I dispelled the veil. What use was it to me? In the state things were, it would only get in the way.
“How do you mean?”
He shrugged again. “Some fear the wizards, others fear being enslaved. And, of course, they all fear death.”
None of that explained why the war had started, but I did not press him with more questions. He was just a child—what could he possibly know of such matters?
As we moved toward the mountains—the same ones, I felt sure, where I had slept—the rain relented.
At noon, we paused by a stream to eat.
The boy stared at me.
“You were not afraid, back there?”
I glanced at him. “Afraid, no. Concerned, yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I’d been there before and had moved away from there. There was no reason why—”
“I meant, why were you not afraid?”
After taking another bite of my food, I looked at the boy.
“Why would I have been? We were far enough to not be seen or risk anything. And whatever these men are fighting about is none of my concern.”
The boy ate quietly for a moment.
“Reikk,” he muttered.
“Yes?”
“I know that name. I’ve heard it before.”
That was no surprise, but I grunted nonetheless.
“You are a wizard, too,” he added. “But who are you really, and where do you come from? Nobody seems to know.”
“Neither do I.”
“What do you mean, Reikk?”
I fell silent for a long while as I stared into the crackling flames. When I spoke again, it was in a low and sad voice.
“There is not much that I remember. Only fragments, like pieces of a puzzle. Images of another world—one that I have yet to find in my travels; of places and faces once familiar to me, but which now mean nothing. Some memories have been coming back, though.”
“Memories?”
“Of foreign places. Where there is no magic, only technology... metallic walls, metallic vehicles... and so many people... like a sea of them...”
“So you are lost, too.”
I looked up at the boy and gave him a slight smile.
“And that’s why I know how you feel and will do my best to get you home.”
***
We rode on for a couple of hours, until we once again heard the clamor of swords.
A knot formed in my stomach.
It couldn’t be...
And yet, the sound grew louder, and soon I saw the tree again. That same tree I had tied my horse to twice before. And there was that same hill that taunted me as I stared at it.
“What’s wrong?” asked the boy.
Without a word, I jumped off the horse and tied it.
“Wait here,” I grunted.
Why did I even bother? I already knew what I would see, did I not? Was there any reason it should be any different? It was ridiculous. But I needed to make sure. If only to know I wasn’t going mad.
Or maybe I was and that’s why I kept coming back here?
Or was I stuck in some messed-up plane?
No. I would have known. There are signs of such things, which were nowhere to be found.
I crawled up to the edge of the hill and looked down into the valley.
What I saw now was as before.
A large army of soldiers in yellow armor facing a smaller force with a contingent of wizards.
And, as before, the balance was even.
I brought back the veil before my eyes and looked through it.
It was just as much a mess down there as it was up here.
There were just too many wizards and too many spells to make any sense of this.
I dismissed the veil with an annoyed Gesture.
A branch cracked behind me and I spun around, hand on hilt.
The boy stood there, staring at the battlefield with unblinking eyes.
“I told you to stay on the horse,” I hissed.
The boy shrugged. He looked at me.
“Want to play a game?”
“What? No. This is hardly the time. Come.”
I got to my feet, grabbed Drex by the shoulder, and pushed him toward the horse.
“Are we going back to the mountain?” he asked.
I frowned as I looked around.
“No. I’ve tried that twice already. We’ll go east this time.”
He glanced at me with an odd look.
“Maybe this is where you are supposed to be.”
“And what does that mean?”
He shrugged as he climbed onto the horse.
I glanced back toward the valley and shook my head. The boy’s words troubled me, but they made little sense. Why would this be where I was supposed to be? And how would he know such a thing?
After jumping behind Drex, I guided the horse in the other direction. Hopefully, we would have better luck this time.
***
As we rode, my mind kept going back to the boy’s words. I considered everything he’d said since he’d come to me, but also how he’d behaved.
It struck me that Drex showed little emotion. Even when looking at the battlefield, there had been no fear in him, no surprise, no disgust... nothing. His face had been blank. It always was, always had been.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I am Drex,” he answered from in front of me.
“What are you?”
The boy did not answer.
That was enough to confirm what I suspected.
A normal child would have reacted to such a question. At the very least, he should have asked what I meant. He should have sounded confused.
Instead, nothing.
“You are not human, are you?”
“What would I be, if not that?”
Even his way of speaking, I realized, had been off from the beginning. How could I have missed that?
“You are not human.”
This time, it was not a question, because there no longer was any doubt in my mind. Whatever rode with me was... something else.
It then occurred to me that this creature might be responsible for sending me back to that battlefield.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
The fake boy tilted his head.
“Can you hear it?” he asked.
“What?”
“The music.”
I perked up my ears but heard nothing but the wind, and the distant clamor of war.
“There is no music,” I remarked.
“It is sad you cannot hear them. The songs of death are soothing.”
“What do you want from me?” I asked again with a frown.
“You are different,” he finally said. “You do not know fear.”
That wasn’t true, though I thought it best not to contradict him.
“And why would that matter to you?”
“You are different,” he repeated. There was a slight pause. “But you will know fear. Soon.”
Was that it, then? Was this a game, where it just wanted to scare me? And if I let it have this victory, would it release me from whatever spell it had placed me under?
As I pondered this, I saw smoke in the distance, rising into the sky.
This was different.
I glanced down at the boy.
Maybe I should just leave him here and go on without him.
But there was no way I would abandon a child... even if the child wasn’t a real one.
As we came nearer to the smoke, I saw it rose from chimneys.
“Is this your doing?” I asked.
Drex did not answer.
We entered the village a few minutes later.
***
People flocked around us as we got off the horse.
I glanced at the boy, then at the villagers.
“Who are you?” asked an old man.
The tone in his voice was not pleasant.
“He is Reikk,” said the child before I could say anything.
No one looked at Drex. All eyes were on me. They had been antagonistic from the start, but now anger flared inside them.
“Why do you bring your curse here? Is it not enough that we are plagued with unending storms?”
“And raids from the usurper!” added a woman.
“It is the end of times!” cried another voice from further in the back.
I lifted my hands to appease them.
“I know nothing of your troubles, friends. I am but a mere traveler seeking shelter for the night.”
The boy shook his head. And though he spoke in a whisper, I heard him well enough.
“That was a mistake.”
The old man who had spoken first spat on the ground.
“There is no shelter here for the likes of you. You had better leave.”
Some of the younger men had brought pitchforks, and it made me cringe.
I glanced again at the boy and saw that he was staring at me.
Was that a smile on his lips?
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
Though my question was directed at the boy, it was the old man who responded.
“We want you to leave, stranger. Was that not clear enough for you? Leave or die. Your choice.”
My eyes remained on the boy.
He shrugged.
“You must embrace the darkness within you,” he said softly.
A hand shoved me and I stumbled back, bumping into someone who stood behind me. I turned just in time to get punched in the face.
Again, I stumbled and bumped into someone else.
I quickly raised a hand and uttered a Word.
Another hit came through before my shield was up. This fist held a dagger. I felt the blade slice through my clothes and graze against my skin—though it went not deep enough to wound me.
“Enough!” I shouted.
A light glowed around my fists, and everyone took a step back.
Except for the boy.
He stared at me.
“I am not here to harm you. Why do you attack me?”
The old man pointed at the child.
“He does not belong to you! Why have you taken him? Give him back to his parents, thief!”
I turned to Drex.
“You bewitched them.”
The boy shrugged.
“It is a small thing.”
“What do you want from me?” I asked again.
“Play with me.”
“What?”
This time, he really did smile.
It felt strange, though. Unnatural.
“Let’s play a game.”
From the corner of my eye, I noticed that the villagers all just stood there, blank stares on their faces, as if waiting for instructions on what to do next.
“This hardly feels like the time for that.”
“Do you not want your freedom?”
I quirked a brow.
“What did you have in mind?”
“You must kill all the villagers.”
I stared at the boy in disbelief. “Why would I do that? These people have done nothing to me.”
“They have done nothing yet,” replied Drex with his twisted smile. “But that will change, I promise. They will come for you. Look.”
He gestured toward the crowd. I glanced over and noticed swords drawn and pitchforks pointed at me. But their movements were slow, as if dampened by some invisible force.
I lifted my veil and saw the colored strands that held them back. They were all connected to the child.
“Why are you doing this?”
He shrugged. “Why not?”
“I will not kill these people.”
“Then they will overcome you, and I’ll win.”
“And what would you get out of my death?”
For the first time, the boy laughed.
“Who said anything about dying? Oh no. I want you very much alive. But your soul will be mine.” He paused, tilting his head as he pondered. “There is power in you. I sensed it when I first found you, sleeping in that cave. I could have slit your throat, but that would have been such a waste. You could be of use to me.”
So power was what he wanted. And yet, he seemed to have his fair share already.
“How?”
“Have you not guessed yet?” His sigh did not sound so childlike. “I feed on fear, if you must know. You are powerful and fearless. I would send you to them.” He pointed over his shoulder, in the direction we had come from. “To those idiots on the field. You would tip the balance, would you not? Ah, yes. Your sword and your magic would sow discord and death through their ranks. No one could resist you. Can’t you see? You and me, we could rule this world. It is such a beautiful vision.”
The boy was inflating my abilities, though he seemed to genuinely believe his assessment was correct. Still, he had in the process given me valuable information.
A creature that fed on fear.
I had heard rumors of beings such as these, though I had never met one of his kind—until now.
The problem with his ‘game’ was I could not win. If I refused to fight, the villagers would subdue me, and I would fall under the boy’s spell. If I killed them all, my soul would be corrupted, and still I would fall under his yoke.
I glanced around the street and saw my horse a few feet from me. Could I make a run for it before they jumped me? Doubtful.
There only was one option.
I looked back at the boy.
“If I agree to play your game, would you give me a headstart?”
Drex smiled.
“Of course.”
“In that case, I accept.”
***
Not wanting to take any chances—the boy could have deemed a minute or two a sufficient headstart—I had ported out to the part of town I remembered best: its entrance.
The street here was empty, which served my purpose well.
As I arrived, I rushed toward the closest building and climbed onto the roof. There, I lay low to think.
I had no intention of killing anyone, of course. But I had no doubt the villagers would now want to take me out. They were all under the creature’s control.
Though I could see the strands that connected them, I also knew I could not sever them. At least, not all of them. And no matter how many I could take out, it would be enough for Drex to locate me and send the others after me. I could port out and start again, perhaps, but it would be time-consuming, exhausting, and likely too risky to make it worth the trouble.
There was no way around it.
I had to kill the creature itself.
What still stayed my hand was that I did not understand its nature. Was it a shapeshifter in the shape of a boy, or some sort of spirit that had invaded the body of a child? If the latter, killing it would also kill the host, and that was not an option.
I looked through my veil and noticed that this place was not as loaded with magic as the battlefield had been.
There, Drex had not only affected the soldiers and wizards, but also cursed the soil so that it would keep them prisoners within the valley... and, I had no doubt, acted as a magnet upon me.
Here, I suspected he only held the townsfolk. Although...
I glanced toward the street and the countryside beyond. There was a shimmer in the air that confirmed my suspicion.
He must have feared that I’d try to run away—unless the shield was merely meant to stop the villagers from escaping. Then again, they were too far gone to even know they were being controlled—let alone consider fleeing.
No, this had to be for me. Not that it made a big difference.
I might have been able to port beyond the shield, but chose not to try. It was likely he had set some traps for such an attempt. Besides, that thing was too dangerous... it could not be allowed to roam free.
A plan formed in my mind as I stared down at the street.
It was getting dark, and the flames of a dozen torches flickered in the distance. They spread across town as the villagers hunted me.
Drex had made one thing easy for me. He wasted so much energy casting spells, he made it painfully obvious where he was at any given time. His position glowed so brightly it was almost blinding.
I stood and ran toward the edge of the roof, then jumped across to the next one. And then the next, and the next. I kept going, closing the distance between me and that beacon of light.
When I felt I was close enough that I could probably see him from the roof, I lay down and crawled to the edge. I peered out and saw him.
Drex stood in the middle of a street, some sixty feet away from me. He was alone now, though that mattered little. His eyes were closed, and I thought that was odd.
Until I felt a slimy presence creep into my mind.
He was looking for me in his own way, and he had found me!
I quickly placed walls around him, before he could access my senses and guess my whereabouts.
Where are you, little mouse? I heard his voice hiss in my head. Don’t you want to play? You said you would.
There was a touch of reproach in his voice.
I chose not to respond.
He tried to push through the walls, but I held strong.
You are full of surprises, little mouse. Ah, what a powerful weapon you will be once I have you subdued!
I needed to cast a spell, but doing so would make my presence known. Unless I could divert his attention.
Tell me something, I called out. Why do you do all this? You say you feed on fear, then why not content yourself with that? All this seems part of a bigger picture.
My wall still held strong, but I had followed the thread of his thoughts back to his own head. He had not yet noticed my presence there, and I was careful not to make it obvious.
Ah, but to subjugate all humans! Can you not see how much food that would give me? Unlimited supplies if I let them breed under my benevolent patronage.
It was a strange and twisted place to be in. Alien. The thoughts of a creature such as this are not those of a human. It felt an insatiable hunger, and that was all that fueled it.
So that is all it is? You just want more food.
Is that not all anyone wants?
As he spoke, I dulled his senses. Only a few touches here and there, and only enough for my purposes. I could not have blinded him completely without betraying my presence. All I could hope for was to slow him down in his response.
Not humans.
Humans are weak. You do not deserve the freedom you enjoy. You deserve to be led, like cattle to the slaughter.
I felt confident enough that I could cast my spell. Slowly, my hands moved. The Gestures were drawn out, but precise and methodical. I could not afford a mistake. I’d only have one shot.
And yet, you do not seem to think me weak?
No. I must admit, you are not. But there are few like you. You, and all those like you, shall be made my tools.
I saw torches coming back toward the boy below, who still held his eyes shut. There were some shouts in the distance, and for a moment my heart raced. Had someone spotted me? No, that was impossible.
Speaking of, are there others like you? I asked.
The question seemed to take him by surprise, and there was a long pause as he struggled to find an answer.
What would it matter to you?
It just seems to me that if you all want to dominate humans, you will soon find yourselves at each other’s throats.
With two more Gestures, the spell was complete. Now, I needed but speak one Word to set it off. Once that was done, I would have a minute, maybe two, before he realized what I had done. If he was dulled enough, it would not matter. But if the charm was not sufficient, he would have time to counter my spell—maybe even dispel it.
My kin care little for your species. There was disgust in his voice. They prefer to feed on animal fear. Where is the challenge in that? Where is the pleasure?
I did not respond.
Instead, I breathed one Word.
“Agnassea.”
A chill came over me as a flash of light sped toward the boy.
I could sense him waking, realizing that he was seeing things in slow motion.
What have you done?
The hissing question reached me just as my spell reached him.
The glow that surrounded him brightened even more, and then died down.
Drex fell to the ground.
With repeated snaps of my fingers, I severed each link that held the villagers under his yoke, one by one. I could do this safely now that the boy was unconscious.
I climbed down from the roof and walked up to the child.
As I looked down at him, I saw his body shift back and forth between different shapes.
The villagers gathered around us.
“What’s going on?” asked the old man who had spoken to me so aggressively before. He now just looked weary and as confused as all his fellow compatriots.
I explained to the crowd what had happened.
“Kill it!” shouted some of the men, their confusion now morphed into anger.
I held up a hand.
“No,” I said softly.
“What do you mean, no? It tried to kill you too!”
It wasn’t what it had wanted, not exactly.
“It acted out of hunger,” I said as I looked around at the crowd. “Who among you would not do unspeakable things to feed their children, or even yourself?”
“So you would let it go free?”
“Not quite.” I glanced down at the creature—that no longer looked like a boy. “What would happen, I wonder, if its hunger was satiated?”
“Hunger always returns,” remarked a woman.
“That is true. And yet...”
The veil still floated before my eyes. And as I looked at the creature more closely, I could see that it was a prisoner of its own nature. There were lines of power within, strands that could be bent or melded.
I knelt by its side, held out a hand, and closed my eyes.
“What are you doing?” I heard a woman ask.
But I did not answer. I had a task to do.
Little by little, one by one, I stripped out all the foreign strands, all the things that made it a monster. I went into its mind again, too, and I mended that.
For this creature, I knew now, had not always been what it was. It had once been a human.
I could not give it back its original form, because there was little left of that man, and I knew not what he had looked like.
So, instead, I gave him the shape I had known him to wear.
Drex became a boy again.
When he opened his eyes, he looked up at me in fear.
“Where am I? Who am I?”
I smiled.
“It’s alright, Drex. You are safe. You are whole. Welcome back.”
The village did not trust the child, and I could not blame them.
So I took him with me.
It was all for the better.
This way, I could keep an eye on him for a while, and make sure the creature was really gone.
And, perhaps in the next village, someone would be happy for a son.
Want to read more of Reikk’s adventures? Check out:
The Circle in the Sphere (subscribe for a free copy; if you’ve already subscribed, check your welcome mail for a link)
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Text (c) 2022 by Alex S. Garcia.
Header: royalty-free stock images, edited by me.
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The trouble with epic fantasy is the derivation. But it was well written.