Binarius (18 page)

Firinne yelled through the air.
“You all right?”

“
Yeah, just a
scratch…bastard!”

“
Kaolin, you’re gonna have to
switch me spots. I’ve gotta be in the rear.” Firinne grabbed
Kaolin’s arm as he grabbed hold of Mabon’s mane.

Firinne was now in the rear,
clinging with her thighs for dear life.

Here goes nothing.

Just as Kaolin started yelling at
Firinne, and asking her why she wasn’t attacking, the ground in
front of the Desideriums began to shake. All of the riders,
including Cyneric, stared at the ground, and then back at her. In
the midst of the air screaming next to her ears, Firinne could
faintly hear Cyneric yell something out to her, and for once, she
didn’t care.

The first one sliced through the
ground seconds behind the target. The sounds of crumbling rocks
echoed through the forest. Firinne was raising crystals from the
dead — massive shards of fractals — Quartz as sharp as blades. The
second one didn’t miss. Up from the depths of the dirt, a crystal
shot up like a dagger, impaling a Demogorchian, and causing its
rider to be flung forward into the air. Moments later it was
trampled by its kin.

Another crystal, larger than the
last, rose into the air into the middle of the pack, causing
momentary unbalance. Firinne wasn’t tired, not even a bit. It was
like she had been awakened — resurrected. Never had she attempted
crystal growing of this proportion, and she was excelling at
it.

“
You ready for the finale,
Cyneric?” she yelled.

He locked eyes with her, and she
held his gaze. Then a smile — the sweetest she had ever given
him.

Forgive me Fia.

She tore open her mother, and her
mother screamed— a horrible tearing — a thunderous
noise.

Firinne opened her eyes and stared
upon her creation.

Fifteen feet in the air and three
times as long, as tall as the wooden spikes at Archen, stood a wall
of crystals, interlocked and overlapped — flawless.

And from behind the crystallin
barrier, Cyneric was screaming.

“
That was amazing!”

“
Thanks,” Firinne said, “we had
better lose them as fast as we can. That wall will give us some
extra time, but I don’t want us to get arrogant.”

“
Which way should we go?” asked
Kaolin.

“
Let’s stay on track. They’ll have
to cut to the east or west to get around the wall, and they might
have a hard time finding our path again.”

“
Right. C’mon Mabon!” Kaolin
said.

“
Oh, you’re friends
now?”

Kaolin smiled.

Neither of them had slept all night
and in contrast, they hoped Cyneric and the pack of Demogorchians
had slept. In the early light, they could see that the peaks were
drawing closer now. Firinne had never been this close to the
mountains before. The only thing that she knew about them was that
the Clandestine Guardians lived there or used to and that The
Ascending had taken place there.

The path was now becoming rockier.
She didn’t think that they would be able to continue to ride on
Mabon’s back, and so she dismounted.

“
What’re you doin’?” asked
Kaolin.

“
We can’t ride on him all the way
up. He could easily lose his balance on these rocks, and then we’d
all be in trouble.”

Kaolin nodded. “Thanks for the
ride, mate.”

The air was beginning to cool, the
higher up they went. So far, there was no sign of Cyneric or his
pack, but they continued. Their pace was now slowing due to all of
the rocks and uneven ground. Firinne could see now that the peaks
at the summit were covered with snow; blinding beacons in a terrain
of gray hues.

Kaolin stopped. “Did you feel
that?”

“
The cold?”

“
Yeah, but it felt like we stepped
into it.”

“
Did you feel like something
touched you?”

“
Yeah…it was like the air around
us was covered in silk for a second…like I stepped through a web.”
Kaolin shivered.

“
Keep your eyes open.”

The higher they traveled, the
bigger the stones on the ground became, and Firinne began to wonder
whether these were naturally occurring stones, or if they were from
something else. The air had significantly thinned now and they were
both panting a little for oxygen.

“
Kaolin, do you know if there was
ever a castle on these mountains before?”

“
Nah, why?”

“
I don’t know…look at these
stones.” Firinne pointed down at one and traced her finger against
it. “They’ve got straight edges.”

“
Well, I guess we’ll find out if
we come across a ruin.”

“
Yeah, I guess so. It just seems
odd…I know this is where The Ascending happened, but…something
seems off.”

After they had walked a couple more
feet, they noticed that there was black smoke, billowing up ahead.
The closer they got to it, the more they became convinced that
there had been a Castle on the mountain.

A gray fireball with a black tail
flew through the air and caused a huge explosion in the
distance.

“
What’s going on?” Firinne yelled
through the blast, — as if he would know.

Kaolin just shook his head. He
looked scared — so was Firinne.

They were walking carefully now.
Just up ahead, there were the same gray flames burning a small
shrub. Firinne walked over to it and she noticed something as she
got closer. The fire didn’t seem to be giving off any heat, even
though she could clearly see that it was burning the shrub to
ashes.

“
Kaolin, c’mere and see
this.”

After he had inspected it, Kaolin
put his hand through the flames. Nothing happened. “What kind of
fire does this?”

“
I’ve no idea, but something weird
is going on. We’d better be careful.”

She looked behind her down the
mountain from where they had come. There was no sign of Cyneric and
she was more hopeful that they had really lost him. The last thing
they needed right now was a stampede behind them as they walked
through this place.

The farther towards the smoke they
walked, the more scorched everything became. But she couldn’t smell
the smoke, the air seemed fine to breath, and she didn’t see
anyone.

Then, like a door had opened, the
mountains began to echo with the sounds of screams. She could hear
the agony in each wail. Her chest immediately became heavy with
sorrow.
Something horrible is happening
here,
she thought.

“
We’ve gotta go and try to help
them. We’ve gotta help them!”

Kaolin nodded. They ran as fast as
they could — jumping and pivoting around debris.

It had taken them almost a whole
day to climb to this point, but it didn’t take long before the
whole scene was clear. There were bodies everywhere and most of
them weren’t moving. The ground was dark and sticky with blood.
There was so much blood that it was impossible to tell who it had
come from. Bodies upon bodies littered their paths — mangled and
deformed, breaks in bones never seen before. There were men and
women of all adult-age, lying like grotesque puppets — screaming
into the air for their savior. Empty air.

Empty.

Firinne studied the ruins of the
castle, trying to make out some sort of familiarity. Something that
would tell her who this castle belonged to, what family reigned
here. Everything was so black with ash that it was almost
impossible to tell ash from stone. Everything was in pieces and it
looked more like a rock-slide, than it did a castle. There was only
one tower that was still intact but there were no symbols on it.
She couldn’t understand why no one had told her about this place.
Why didn’t she know that there was another Kingdom, or Queendom, on
their lands?

The courtyard of the castle was
even worse. At the center, there was a chasm caused by one of the
fireballs. Inside of it, there was a mound of people screaming for
help. None of them realized that they could not be helped because
they were only heads…nothing more, just heads. Something had
decapitated each and every one of them. What could do such a
thing?

“
We’ve gotta get out of here! We
can’t help any of them!” Kaolin looked pale.

“
You’re…you’re right. Keep moving.
Get back to the path. If there is anyone we can help along the way,
then we will.” She felt like if she spoke anymore that she would
vomit, and she would never stop vomiting.

Kaolin was running and Firinne was
at his heels. Then, something caught her eye. There was a man, in
his mid-thirties with black hair. He had been impaled by a spike of
obsidian. He was holding his middle, with his palms cupped like
bowls, trying to stop his blood from falling to the ground — as
though it would keep him alive longer.

She searched her memory and began
walking towards him. Kaolin noticed that she was no longer
following behind and stopped to watch her.

As she got closer she realized who
the impaled man was. In a moment of complex emotions, she cupped
her hands over her mouth so she wouldn’t throw up.

“
Fff...Father?”

Maybe he didn’t hear her? “Father!”
she said a bit more loudly. Still, nothing. She walked up to him
and put her face in front of his eyes. He still didn’t respond to
her, he just continued to try to catch his own blood.
“FATHER!”

She was now screaming in his face.
Crazed, she continued to scream hoping that he would finally hear
her, see her. She tried to grab him, but her hands sliced through
him like jelly. Firinne backed away and collapsed on the ground,
unable to comprehend what was happening. Kaolin stood with Mabon,
frozen while Firinne sat on the ground shaking uncontrollably,
looking down at her hands and back at the impaled man who she was
sure was her father.

A hand touched her back.

“
Get up, woman-child.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY

Silver Summit

Firinne
looked up. Standing behind her was an old woman, with long, silver
hair. Her skin was wrinkled. The tip of her nose was like a
miniature, peach. Her hands were rough but strong. She smiled down
at Firinne with calm and understanding.

“
You can see me?”

“
Get up woman-child. Of course I
can see you. We need to leave this place.”

“
But why can you see me but…but he
can’t?”

The woman bent down and took
Firinne’s hand. After that, she pulled her up with a strength that
Firinne hadn’t expected.

“
Are you one of the Clandestine
Guardians?”

The old woman pulled Firinne
gently, in Kaolin’s direction. Firinne looked at Kaolin, and Kaolin
shrugged — just as uncertain as she was.

“
Where did you come from?” Firinne
asked.

The old woman stopped and took
Firinne by the shoulders. “We haven’t got the time for questions
right now. We have to leave this place…now.”

Firinne nodded in agreement but
deep down, she was wondering, as she always wondered, whether she
should trust the old woman. But what choice did they have? They
were instructed to go to the mountains. They must climb — climb and
hope they would not fall.

An hour or so had passed. Farther
up they went and soon they were walking in snow. The wind was
howling and they wished they were warm. The peaks were so white
Firinne had to squint her eyes. She could no longer feel her feet
or the tops of her thighs; she kept punching them as if it would
wake them up.

Firinne looked over at
Kaolin.“How’re you holding up, Kaolin?”

“
Oh you know, might stop movin’ on
accident because all my limbs froze-over.”

Firinne put her arm around
his.

“
There…” The old woman was
pointing to a pinnacle. Just below, Firinne could make out a round
patch of darkness. It was a cave, and they weren’t far from
it.

Once inside the cave, the old woman
began stacking up wood in the middle for a fire. A golden ball of
spectralin flew from her palm, and Firinne and Kaolin rushed over
to it. They both sat down and started looking around the cave.
There were primitive drawings on the walls — symbols that Firinne
found no meaning in. Perhaps it was a language long before her
time. There was only one other thing that stood out to them. At the
farthest end of the cave, was a tremendous door. It was made of
some kind of reddish metal, with designs, engravings, and moldings
that Firinne had never seen before. It looked like it came from
another land — time — world. Mabon was curled up in a corner
clearly ready for bed and unfazed by all of the
excitement.