6. Chapter 6
Chapter 6
O utside, the road was long and the sun brighter and hotter than Zen ever could have imagined. He'd never been in the open like this. He'd never left the city and had to pull his hood lower as a headache began to form with terrible nausea reminding him that he hadn't eaten. He didn't want to seem weak and pull something from his pack so soon.
"Here." Dante thrust something at him. It appeared to be two dark glass discs bound together by wire.
"What is it?"
"For your eyes. Hook the ends around your ears and the sun won't sting so much. Used to use those for protection against alchemist's fire and armor fixes, but I have a better pair now."
"Thank you." Zen hooked the wires around his ears as told. The discs covered his eyes and made the world instantly dimmer. "Amazing…"
Dante gave a rough pat to his shoulder before moving ahead to join Morty, whose nose was dug into his book with the moving map. Zen smiled within his hood. He doubted he'd ever get used to casual touches.
"A bit of cheese might help as well." Khel handed Zen a wedge. "Something salty works wonders for me when I'm feeling off."
"Thank you." Zen accepted the wedge but wished he had more to offer than gratitude. He wanted to pull his weight when the time came. "Sir Mor—I mean, Morty —does the tale of Lord Gaian tell us how to get into the barrier once we find its entrance?"
They had been traveling for hours. The road was devoid of any trees, and they didn't appear to be headed toward any. They didn't appear to be heading toward anything other than a barren expanse of dusty plains.
Morty looked like he should be overburdened with his bag of books and several attached to his belt, but he moved as though completely unencumbered, leading them along their path. "Like I said last night," he explained without looking up, "the barrier is crumbling. We'll be able to get in."
"More easily in than out." Dante rumbled with excited laughter.
"Do you… truly worship the Dark Goddess?" Zen asked hesitantly.
"Why?" Dante grinned back at him. "Think we eat babies?"
"I-I—"
"Ignore him," Khel said with a lighter chuckle. "The truth isn't like the stories. Why should who we worship matter if we are good to one another? I believe in the Sun God, but in a more merciful and welcoming version than the laws say. Morty follows the Twilight God because he pursues knowledge and magic above all. And Dante follows the Dark Goddess for her… encouragement of independence."
Dante spoke like reciting an oath, loudly to the open air:
"Compassion within reason, Justice over law, Passion before apathy, And freedom for all!"
Then he returned to Zen. "Does enjoying good food, good ale, and a brawl from time to time make me a monster?"
"I… suppose not," Zen said.
"You're a bit of a monster when you've gone without food, ale, or a brawl for too long." Morty snickered.
Dante shoved him so hard, he stumbled—but didn't drop his book.
Zen started to laugh, but his head throbbed, and he grimaced with a rub at his temple.
"Sun still getting to you?" Khel asked. "Morty! Levitate this, won't you?" He unhooked his shield and held it above Zen's head.
" Float ," Morty said with a half-hearted wave, and when Khel released the shield, it remained aloft, protecting Zen like the awning of a building.
"Thank you," Zen said—for the third time. "I hope I won't be more bother than help on this quest."
"Nonsense," Khel dismissed. "We're not expecting a warrior. We need a priest. We'll look out for you on and off the battlefield. Don't be afraid to say if something's bothering you, brother. Otherwise, how will we know?"
The ease from the heat made it easier to smile back at Khel, and Zen was even able to pull back his hood.
"Besides, it won't matter once we reach the barrier," Morty said. "It's a land run by a mad vampire. They don't have sunlight there."
"They don't?"
"So say the tales."
A land without sun. Zen felt a little guilty looking forward to that.
Morty's progression slowed, the rest of them gathering around him as they appeared to have reached a fork. "The most concentration of monster activity lately has been here." He pointed to a spot on his map, and then to another the opposite direction. "But also here…"
"Which is the source?" Dante pressed.
"Um…" Morty looked both ways and shrugged. "Flip a coin?"
Come to me.
Zen felt that tingle again, with added relief from the heat washing over him as he turned to the north. "That way."
The others stared at him.
"You're certain?" Morty squinted.
Zen nodded.
"Does the Sun God speak to you, Brother Zen?" Khel asked.
"It's… just a feeling, but I know I'm right."
His new friends exchanged curious glances but came to silent agreement.
"Better than a coin toss." Morty slammed his book shut. "Let's go."
They continued for several more hours, resting, eating, or relieving themselves as needed, while keeping a consistent pace. When the sun was getting low enough that Zen returned the shield to Khel, Morty announced that they should stop completely for the day.
"Best we setup camp before the sun sets. It's not likely we'll have a quiet night."
"You think we'll be attacked?" Zen asked.
Looking around, there were still no trees. Finally, in the distance, Zen could see hills and forests, but none near enough to offer protection. The road had been quiet, with few travelers setting out these days. Zen had forgotten to fear enemies lying ahead.
"Monsters have been invading your city for weeks," Morty reminded him, "and we're heading closer to their home."
"Right. Are there no maps of the old fief to say how close we might be?"
"Sadly, no. Crestfall's not noted anywhere on modern maps, but my guess is we'll reach it by early morning."
"Crestfall?"
While Khel began to setup a canopy for shelter, and Dante pulled wood from his pack, Morty dug out his map book again and showed it to Zen. "As it was once called. I'm guessing… here." He circled a large area near them. "Some stories mention a great waterfall by the lord's castle. Perhaps we'll see it."
Zen felt a nervous twinge at the thought of reaching the vampire lord's domain, though he knew that was the plan.
"Ready when you are, Morty," Dante called. He'd setup the wood for a fire, and Morty waved his hand with little thought.
" Ignite ."
The camp was small but cozy, the company better than any Zen had ever known, to the point that he could almost forget that their true quest was to face untold dangers.
Thinking too hard on that brought back Zen's nausea, even though the sun setting was usually a blessing, and he could finally remove the discs from his eyes.
"I didn't get to ask before," Zen broached as they sat around the fire, "but how did you all meet? You're not exactly an average party."
"Above average to be sure," Dante snorted.
"Dante and Morty met first," Khel said.
"I graduated from the Wizards Academy when I was your age," Morty began, "eager to learn everything I could. I headed away from Spearsong, figuring I'd only learn more of the same if I went there, and set out to discover if it was true that dwarves can't wield magic, so I ended up in Underhaven."
"Dwarves can't wield magic?" Zen asked.
"Of course they can," Dante said with a huff. "As much as anyone from any other race. Depends on the person! But you can't go throwing fireballs when you live in caves."
"Dante did once anyway," Morty said as an aside. "Well, not a fireball, but one of his bottles of alchemist's fire."
"There was a spider!" Dante defended.
Zen and the others laughed.
"It was a big spider," he muttered.
"You grew up with dwarves?" Zen asked.
"Half the time. Half with my mother's tribe."
"Your parents aren't together?"
"They love each other, but they work better apart. Besides, Father's dutybound as king to stay with his wife."
Zen was certain the crackling of the fire must have distorted that sentence. "You're… the son of the dwarven king? You're a prince ?"
"I'm a bastard," Dante clarified, "but a loved one. My full-dwarf brothers treat me better than each other. No threat of me taking the throne someday. My parents meet up every so often to rekindle their passions. The dwarven queen has her own lovers, so no one cares."
The idea of such a thing happening—at least openly—in the Kingdom of Aerie would have been unheard of, but Zen supposed anything was possible where the Sun God held less sway.
"Just don't ever ask him how a dwarf and a giant make it work," Morty said.
"With a footstool and a lot of luck!" Dante chortled.
They laughed again.
"I wanted to meet the giants next," Morty continued, "so when I was ready to leave Underhaven, Dante accompanied me."
"Haven't been able to get rid of him since." Dante shoved Morty like seemed so common, almost toppling him into Zen's lap, but Morty bounced back with nary a scowl.
"When I was twenty-one," Khel spoke next, seated on Zen's other side, "I set out to decide if I should leave the guard for broader endeavors. I wasn't sure yet. I'd been with them since I was eighteen. The three of us have been back to Spearsong a few times, but it's only recently I made the decision to stay on the road for good."
"Coz he finally knows what fun's like!" Dante shoved Khel like he had Morty, and Khel beamed as if he wouldn't have things any other way.
"We first met when I came upon these two fighting off some bandits."
"Khel," Morty said with a pat of his stomach, "I'm getting hungry."
"On it!" Khel scrambled to his feet and started sifting through his pack for provisions to pass around. Zen had expected to fend for himself, but they'd been sharing food since the start.
"Don't tell him," Morty caught Zen's attention with a low whisper, "but we were the bandits, he just didn't realize."
Zen gaped.
"In our defense," Dante added, "they were assholes."
"Hungry, Brother Zen?" Khel returned.
Zen accepted the rations Khel handed him. For better or worse, this was the party he'd chosen—and he didn't think he'd have it any other way either. "Very much. Thank you."
Morty and Dante shared a smile.
"What about you?" Dante asked Zen. "How did a darkling become a priest of the Sun God when you hate the sun?"
"I don't hate it." Zen hated the cold more. When there wasn't a fire, there was at least the promise of morning. "Too much light can hurt anyone, I'm just more easily affected. Even the most devout human worshipper can be blinded by the sun or burnt, or so the mothers and fathers used to tell me, despite flinching if I ever touched them."
"Flinching?" Morty said, reaching out to clamp a hand on Zen's forearm. "You feel normal to me."
"You don't realize how unique you all are. Here in Aerie, I'm reviled."
Morty took his hand back, the others all looking at Zen seriously now.
"I… was abandoned, left at the temple as a babe. Everyone always whispered that my poor mother must have been set upon by villainous dark elves and taken against her will. Who knows? Maybe that is what happened. The order is all I've ever known, but what I've known… never included friends before."
The jovial sharing of a meal turned to silent contemplation. Zen worried he'd said too much, that he'd ruined this somehow, only for Dante to pull something from his belt and thrust it at him in offering.
"Wanna get drunk?"
Zen released a shaky breath as the others chuckled.
"Don't actually drink that." Khel nudged Dante's hand aside.
"He makes it with alchemy," Morty explained. "Practically pure alcohol."
"Then only have a sip," Dante insisted, thrusting the bottle at Zen again. "Go on. To new beginnings! And to anyone who says you don't deserve one— fuck ‘em ."
The sentiment was nicer than most things people had said to Zen over the years, so he took the bottle, threw back more than a mere sip, and almost spat the vile substance right back up again.
"It's awful!" he sputtered.
"You get used to it."
They all laughed again, even Zen despite his coughing.
A howl cut the night, and the others were on their feet with weapons ready in a heartbeat, while Zen fumbled to follow, aiming his crossbow out into the dark. They fell silent, each scanning the emptiness around them for the source.
Just a passing wolf—or worse?
They waited, craning their ears for more sounds, but when a second howl finally came, it was significantly farther away.
"Gotta admit," Dante said, as they lowered their weapons with a collective sigh, "figured we'd be set upon by now. Maybe we did head the wrong way at that fork."
"I'm sorry if I—"
"Don't be," Khel interrupted Zen smoothly. "Your gut's better than a guess."
"If we don't find the barrier tomorrow," Morty said, sitting back down amidst his books, "we'll just head the other way. No loss."
Other than time , Zen thought, and the threat of more attacks taking out innocents in the city.
Like Jax.
The thought of that poor elven boy emboldened Zen, but selfishly, he also didn't mind putting off reaching the barrier a while longer. The other questions he had for his friends were about ghouls, vampires, werewolves, and anything else they might encounter on this journey, yet he knew if he asked, he might spook himself into running all the way back to Daxos.
They let Zen take first watch, and he was amazed at how quickly the others fell asleep. Morty had set a magical timer that appeared like a faintly green glowing hourglass above the fire. Zen tried not to watch it too closely. He was meant to be watching their surroundings, and while the others could all see well in the dark, his eyesight was the strongest at night.
Darkness wasn't blackness to Zen, it was calming, comforting, and made the world easier to take in. He could still see the distant hills and forests. The only way something could sneak up on them while he was on watch was if they became completely surrounded all at once.
Like now.
Zen jumped to his feet, swinging his crossbow up at whatever seemed to be creeping closer. He should be able to see it. He could see advancing shapes, hulking, beast-like creatures, but he couldn't make out any details. No matter which way he turned, there were more and more of them every direction. Soon, they were so close that the hills and forests had vanished from the horizon.
A green flash pulsed from the hourglass, sending a ripple of light into the distance. The spell was only visible to the one on watch and the one who was next, but even if the beasts couldn't see the light, for one terrifying moment, Zen saw them.
And they were all eyes and rows upon rows of teeth.
"My turn?" Khel said with a groggy yawn.
Zen whirled toward him, only to realize that in the moment he blinked, the creatures were gone, no advancing shadows, nothing but the hills and far-off trees.
"Is everything all right?" Khel asked, as he got up to gather his sword and shield.
"I…" Zen couldn't speak with his heart in his throat, but eventually, he had to nod. "I think the night was playing tricks me."
Or so he hoped.