An angel’s road to hell

77. Of evolutions, pursuits and a little bit of danger

Mordred Pendragon

Getting drunk had been fun, having a hangover, not so much. But I had needed it, dearly. Ever since the battle for Boseiju, things had been strange, to say the least. True enough we had lost our home and my father but that wasn’t why I had reached for a bottle the first chance I had gotten. After Cassy had smashed the jewel I had used to bind a part of Amazeroth’s power, I had felt his presence leave me instantly but right along with it, a fog or rather a blockade had vanished and I had remembered how my trip back then, when I had first found the island, had actually happened. Ever since, my feelings were in turmoil, old grudges, forgotten under Amazeroth’s spell had hit me again in full force. My envy, the suffocating anger, it all came back in a rush.

During the battle it hadn’t mattered too much, I had been much too occupied with staying alive but afterwards… well, it had become a chore just being around my family, especially Cassandra. To make matters worse, even though I knew I had been manipulated into viewing things differently, I still had learned a lesson or two on the way and that resulted in the worst sort of headache I had ever had to endure. On the one hand, I was terribly wrathful, hurt by a family and destiny that had always shoved me aside and ready to see them suffer just the way I had had. On the other hand I knew just how selfish, shortsighted and dumb that was. Life was no walk in the park and if I wanted to change my circumstance I’d have to fucking work for it, not sulk in a corner. As a result I added a decent amount of self loathing to my already rather dark emotional corset. Watching my sister with her new girlfriend had just tipped me over the edge. So I had put a good face on it and played along but when Xorlosh had brought out the liquor I hadn’t been able to resist.

To add insult to injury, Cassie had even woken me up sometime around noon. Now I had at least a very real reason for wanting her head on a pike and I spent the next hour or so blissfully imagining how I’d tie her wings together and throw her over board. A not so pleasant side effect was, that I realised that there was no real venom left. I resented her for what she was and how she had influenced my life but I also liked her and I was clever enough to see just how much she had been going through in her short life. She was barely five, a child by any one’s standards. Back then my world had been full of brotherly quarrels and stealing candy while she had fought in an all out assault on our home and risked her life more times than I cared to count. Damn it, I had really been an asshole and still was, considering how I was acting. By the Great Fox, I had a decision to make. I could either wallow away in self pity and nourish my perceived injuries or I could man up and finally accept that everybody had their burdens to carry. And mine weren’t even that heavy. At least they hadn’t been until I had brought the fires of war to our home. Great, now I felt even worse. Time to get up anyways, I had a long way to go but as a famous martial artist had once said: every step you take makes the mountain a bit smaller but the only the final step makes it disappear.

Unfortunately my personal mountain appeared to be growing rather than diminishing. When I had groggily washed my face and fumbled around with my clothes long enough that I was somewhat presentable the thumping of heavy boots, exclamations and several colourful dwarvish curses reached me through the wooden ceiling. As fast as my protesting body would allow I made my way on deck and was greeted by a scene of frantic activity.

A ritual circle had been established and form the burning incense, the smell of ozone and the heavy layers of magic still in the air it had been active recently. Astra and Aspera, our resident elves were arguing in their native tongue but my brain was still too addled to decipher their rapid fire dialogue. My mom was shouting at an elderly dwarf I had seen around the mines before, Golamosh, I thought, while Xorlosh was frantically trying to calm her down. The dwarfs on deck who weren’t directly involved with keeping the ship on course stood around in groups of twos and threes, animatedly discussing…something.

I strained my hearing and focused on the nearest conversations while I made my way over to my mother. Filtering out most swear words I quickly got a picture of what had happened. The elves had used a ritual to spy on the humans that had taken away the last children of our people, so far so good. They had succeeded and their scrying spell had revealed an ongoing execution. My dear sister had, of course, lost her shit and had torn a hole through the spell. In a flash of light she had vanished right along with Ahri and the spell had collapsed. Right, why would I even be surprised?

As I trotted over the polished wood I had to wonder if she did those things on purpose. Seriously, how could one person attract so much trouble? I wasn’t the epitome of luck either, but whenever she was involved, nothing ever seemed to go as planned. Had she really jumped head first onto a ship filled with mercenaries and cutthroats? At least she was trying, I chided myself. That was more than I could say for my sorry ass which had been lying in bed with a hangover.

“Mordred, where, by the Great Fox, have you been? Did you seriously sleep until now?” Mother’s high pitched voiced combined with her rather loud exclamation wasn’t the best cure for my headache. But I endured. “You sister is gone along with Ahri and that fur ball,” she shot Golamosh a scathing look, “has been telling me how we can’t do anything about it. Please tell me you have an idea.”

“I’d have to know what happened first. Could you please calm down? Your hysterics are neither helpful nor necessary.” Aghast she stated at me but at least I had managed to shut her up. “Now then, could somebody who isn’t close to hyperventilating tell me what the little devil has done now?” With a worried glance towards my mother who had turned a fascinating shade of pink Xorlosh quickly stepped in to fill the silence, preventing her from starting another tirade.

“That’s not easy to answer, lad. Best we, or rather the mages with us,” he include Astra, Aspera and the hairy dwarf in a sweeping gesture, “can tell, Cassandra ripped a hole through the scrying ritual those two lovely ladies conjured and somehow stepped through, taking Ahri with her. Quite understandable, considering the humans were about to kill off two of the children. Unfortunately she tore the structure of the spell apart as well and now we’re back at square one without the materials to set up the ritual again. And Helena, like I said, it’s not a question of want or we’d already be behind her, it’s simply that we can’t reach her. Trust me on this, if there was even the slightest chance, me and me lads would already be moving.” Meanwhile Astra and Aspera had joined our group.

“He’s right, as much as I understand your urgency, Helena, even if we could install a similar ritual, we wouldn’t know how to pass through. Teleportation is a tricky thing and none of us are maters of the different aspects of space magic but I feel confident enough to say that what she did shouldn’t be possible. We definitely can’t replicate her feat. For now we’d be much better served discussing what we can do rather than what we can’t. We think it highly unlikely that the two of them won’t be able to deal with the mercenaries the merchants have hired, especially after what we have just witnessed. Assuming they are alright and managed to subdue the humans, we have to figure out how we can help them.”

“That’s easy enough to answer,” I replied. “The marks are still in place, right? Well then, we continue on, as fast as we can. They won’t be running from us anymore so we should reach them quickly enough. I quite agree, even if Cassandra is a little erratic from time to time she won’t allow any harm to come to her people and she won’t succumb to a pack of rabid dogs, especially if she has Ahri with her. That much I know. If we’re lucky they, might even figure out a way to contact us. Most of the kids should already know a little magic and maybe one of them can use the mark to form some kind of connection. To put it plainly: Golamosh should retreat to a place where he can hear his own beard grow and focus on any form of telepathy that might reach him. Meanwhile we put the magic we can produce to good use and conjure up a nice tailwind to carry us along. It might also be a good idea to prepare some food and medicine, just in case.”

They stared at me in silence and I was starting to get nervous until a hearty chuckle from Xorlosh put me at ease. “Simple and probably the best we can do for now. Unless anyone disagrees I’ll have the lads bring out the storm rigging. You can conjure up a storm, can’t you?” Astra and Aspera exchange a quick glance:

“With the help of Helena and Mordred we sure can. We might even be able to focus it on the sails with a little effort. If you two would join us we could get started right that second.” My mother was visibly upset at not being able to reach her youngest child immediately but after another minute or two she relented and eagerly went to help the elves. I joined them as well, if only to add an additional source of energy to their spells as I didn’t know the first thing about weather magic. If they’d told me to blow something up, things would have been different, but alas…

The next couple of hours were tedious, boring and damn exhausting. Holding a spell for a prolonged period of time, even when only supplying energy to the structure, took an immense amount of concentration. Combined with my already aching head and my bad mood it turned out to be a special form of torture. The only silver lining was that my mother had to focus as well and was forced to take her thoughts off of everything that might have gone wrong aboard the other ship. While we laboured in silence, pushing more and more mana into the complicate construct Astra and Aspera had formed, the dwarfs around us did everything in their power to squeeze even the last bit of speed out of their vessel. Creaking wood, slapping sails and groaning hawsers competed with the rushing winds about which noise would break our focus first and the intermingled curses in the deep, grumbling dwarven tongue didn’t help at all. Suffice it to say, we weren’t exactly having the time of our life. Or at least I wasn’t, some of the dwarfs were seriously enjoying themselves.

I couldn’t tell how much time had passed when my reserves ran dry but the sun was nearing the western horizon. Embarrassingly I was the first to have spent all of his energy and I stumbled away from the circle of casters with bloodshot eyes and the worst migraine I had ever experienced. Slumping down against the mast, I closed my eyes and allowed the winds to tangle my hair until a strong hand patted my shoulder and pushed a bottle of water on me.

“Here lad, drink. That’ll help.” Thankfully I gulped down a couple of mouthfuls before the strong fragrance of dwarven mead hit me. I had to cough violently but when the spasm subsided I admittedly felt much better.

“There,” Xorlosh smiled down on me, “at least now you have some colour in your cheeks again. I was afraid you would pass out on us. Nothing like a good drop of the home brew to rekindle one’s spirits, eh?” A little hoarse I replied:

“Sure. Whatever you say.” I took another deep drag and handed back the almost empty bottle. “Thanks anyways. How are we doing? Did I miss anything?” Xorlosh sat down beside me and emptied the bottle before answering:

“Quite a bit, actually. You’ve been at it for over 7 hours. Quite a bit of stamina you have there but I must say, your mum is a force to be reckoned with. She’s still going strong and even the elves are showing signs of the strain they are under. You’re family is kinda nuts if you ask me. Anyways, an hour ago Golamosh received a message but it’s not exactly all sunshine and roses. For what it’s worth your sister and Ahri freed the kids and killed off the merchants and their lackeys but… that’s where it gets interesting. Their ship was severely damaged during the fight and they are struggling to reach the closest island, we’ll arrive there in a little less than 5 hours if our casters can pull through. Your sister isn’t with them anymore, though. Believe it or not they encountered two dragons.” My eyes went wide but before I could interrupted he continued:

“Apparently we have stumbled from one conflict into the next. An ancient Black has raided the home of one of his rivals and murdered everyone except for a cub. He took her with him and she managed to get away. After a short flight she more or less collapsed onto the deck of the ship with the other dragon close behind. I’m pretty sure you can guess how the story continues. Cassandra tried to lure the Black away to give the others a chance but apparently it didn’t go too well. No, she’s still fine as far as I can tell so no need to get your tails in a twist but she needed help. Long story short, she apparently wants to lead the Black back to the hoard of his rival and, with the help of the cub, they thought they could put an end to him there with all the enchantments and artefacts they hope they’ll find.” He scratched his nose and looked at me from beneath his bushy eyebrows.

“So right now we’re hunting a severely damaged ship, crewed by a bunch of kids while your sister is off somewhere dancing with a dragon. For now, you best keep that to yourself, no need to worry your mother and there ain’t much we can do anyways. She has to remain focused or we’ll need even more time to get there. Once we have the little ones aboard we can think about how we can best help Cassandra. You with me?” I nodded. We had a duty towards our people and I wasn’t even sure if we could be of any help to Cassandra, even if we’re to reach her in time. An ancient dragon? By the Great Fox, out of the frying pan and into the fire as the saying went…

“You’re right. But just to satisfy my curiosity, could we even assist her, even if we were with her?”

A dangerous gleam entered Xorlosh’s eyes and he said:

“Lad, dragons are tough and scary but if you punch enough holes into them, they bleed to death just like every other creature. Me and me boys know a few ways how we could turn the sucker into a pincushion. Rest for a while and I’ll have a good look at all the surprises we still have stored away in our cargo hold. If the lizard gets close enough I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to do more than just “assist”. Me brother’s drum didn’t fall from the heavens, you know?” His gruff optimism put me at ease, at least somewhat, and I leaned back against the mast eager to just relax my aching mind for a moment.

I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew was a small hand that shook me awake forcefully: “Mordred, Mordred, get up! Move your lazy behind, we need you.” I blinked away the sleep and found myself staring into the tired face of my mother, lines of exhaustion clearly visible around her eyes. But what woke me up like an infusion of lightning was the scene behind her.

An island had appeared in front of us, it’s coastline blurry under the light of the moon. I could just barely make out the remains of a crashed air ship on its shore, several dots of light showed where survivors had lit a couple of fires. Above them, visible as patches of darkness that blocked out the stars, a group of three airships hovered in place, the meagre light reflected off the gleaming tips of their weapons which were all pointed downwards.