INTERITUS,
by Emillia Gryphon
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has "3765" words.
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Avery Cook crouched as low as his aching knees would allow,
rocking back and forth on the hard wet bricks. The Watchers had long since
passed their nightly rounds but still he shivered at the prospect of being
caught. Street urchin orphans were one of the many things that the city of
Interitus frowned upon; even as much as they frowned upon fairies, hobgoblins,
sprites or any other type of fae. Hastily he wiped his mouth with the back of
his hand and began his crawl down into his home in the sewers. It was not an
ideal living; there were numerous dangers besides the Watches who patrolled the
streets. For nearly twelve months now there had been whispers of something
lurking under the prospering city. Avery shook his head out of his fears as his
feet landed in sludge and he ducked between the iron bars that strained out
water from the other larger debris. He scanned the grate momentarily, hoping to
find something to eat but there was nothing. With a sigh and a sniff he pushed
himself forwards, his eyes straining to see in the dark. Ten years after his
parents' murder, Avery had found no better shelter or living space then the
endless maze of pipelines under the city. Despite all of its drawbacks, it was
the safest place for children like him. Something jolted Avery from his mission
as he balanced on a large pipe; startling him so that he was nearly thrown off
into the dark filthy water.
“Whose there?” He waited a moment, his fingers struggling to grip the cement brick walls on either side of the narrow sewage line. A loud huff echoed down a dark tunnel to his left and he whipped his head around towards it, staring into the dark abyss from which nothing came but the stench of trash and feces came.
“I said whose there?” Instinct gripped him as he fingered for the short knife at his belt. It was his most prize possession, stolen off of a nobleman in the markets. The knife didn’t look like much from the outside but was in fact, imbued with dwarven magic. Such things had been banned after the war against the fae, or mythical creatures as they were referred to now. He held the knife with a shaking hand and stepped down from the pipe, knee deep in waste water. The tunnel was larger than others in the system and smelled worse too, of carrion and urine.
Avery stole a glance upwards every now and then, but no light came through. Suddenly, the darkness moved. Avery looked down to see ripples moving past his grimy legs. He took three more steps into the tunnel’s maw before stopping. Two pairs of glowing eyes stared back at him.
They were a milky white with narrow pupils like a cat’s. He could barely make out two fore claws and hindquarters. The form’s sinuous length was curled about itself with no wings, but a frill of strange looking membranes almost like a fish’s fin ran down its length. Two tendrils extended from above the nostrils, an uncountable number of smaller tendrils adorned its fin like frills about the head. The colors of the beast were obscured in the dark, but Avery would guess that the thing bore a hue of dark green and blue scales. The frills down the thing’s spine were the color of the ocean in winter; darkest blue and stormy gray. But it was not a thing, he realized. It was a dragon, so the rumors were true; but how? All of the fae had been wiped out during the War of Souls nearly two thousand years ago. The kingdom of Availion had quenched Somniis of all of its magic and ancient creatures in the war and none yet lived. Particular care had been taken to assure that no dragons survived at all, for they had ruled the world of Somniis way back when humans were a weak race without the power of engineering, metals and fire. That was an old age, of nature and superstition. But this new age of man was great. Or at least it was supposed to be. Avery inwardly writhed. His parents had been murdered in the name of this new steam driven progress.
“Who goes there?” The voice of the supposed dragon asked wearily. Avery stood within fifteen feet of it now and could make it out more clearly. It was not as large as he would have thought, though it still toward over him greatly. Fangs protruded from its upper lip and its tail was curled around itself protectively. Avery stood bewildered for a moment and was about to turn the other way before the creature spoke again. Its voice was rasping and deep. “Are you a warrior or a king’s man come to slay me?” It huffed again, its reeking breath hitting Avery full in the face.
He took another step and examined the dragon more closely. Its dark sides moved up and down with effort and he could make out bloody patches where scales were missing; its frills were torn and it’s ribs shown plainly. Avery sighed; he had been in the same sorry state for the better part of his own life. Taking a breath he belted his knife and said in a voice that he hoped sounded calm and collected:
“I am called Avery, sir,” the dragon snorted; without warning its head snaked closer sniffing him. The boy stood still but was not frightened. He had taken on much larger challenges in his short life. A starving dragon would be no match if it came to a fight. At least he hoped it wouldn’t.
“Avery.” The dragon tasted the name like new food. It’s eyes looked him over critically. “You are not a king’s man, not a soldier?”
“No sir,” Avery said, quietly.
“You call me sir?” the dragon asked, something in its tone told Avery it was not pleased by the formality. It sighed, exasperated. “I am female, you twit. I was called Poside once, yes. If I recall correctly, that is my name.”
“Oh,” he said. The dragon let out another sigh and winced in what could only be described as pain.
“So if you are not a king’s man, and you are not here to kill me as you would have done already. What are you doing here?” She sounded bored.
“I live here,” he admitted, sullenly. Something about this dragon made him feel as though he could admit everything he was ashamed of, like he was small and needed to be pitied. He felt humiliated. Maybe that was why humans had killed all of the fae.
“That makes two of us,” the dragon stated, coolly. She looked him over again, her milky eyes glowing faintly. “After you’ve lived in the dark as long as I have, your eye sight starts to go,” she said, as a matter of fact.
Avery swallowed, thinking of something else he could say. He stood in a strange place between sympathy and fear. He did not dare to speak, nor did he dare to flee. Finally, it was the dragon who spoke again, “Do you go to the surface often?”
“Yes,” he managed. It was not every day that he was interrogated by a dragon. Poside nodded, the smallest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her scaled mouth making the boy shiver.
“How is the sea?” Avery spun in his head, trying to remember what the Sea of Sunar even looked like, let alone how its upkeep had been going. Since the Revolution of Industry the king had no problem dumping the left overs of their technology into the waters and forests surrounding them. The Sea of Sunar could not be faring well if it did not foster human’s advancement. That was the unspoken law of the world ever since the fae were wiped out. Nothing was made out of wood or natural materials anymore, only steam and iron.
“It is fine, I don’t see it much,” Avery said, plainly.
Poside nodded. “I haven’t seen the sea in nearly two thousand years.” Her voice came slowly; he could see her eyes looking down into the murky water below them.
“Why is that?” Avery asked, dumbly.
Poside said nothing for a long time; when she spoke, she had turned. Snarling she snapped at him, her fang’s inches from his face, her eyes savage. “Because you humans have killed my kind and have poisoned our world! I do not wish to be living in these sewers anymore then you do. But one must survive somehow.” Avery nodded, praying she would not see the terror in her eyes. She held his gaze for a long time before finally letting go and rearranging herself and letting out small coughs. Avery looked at her. Her dull scales and nearly blind eyes, the bloody oozing sores on her sides, her labored breath. Something kicked in his gut, something that made him sad. As if every hope left for humanity would die with this dragon; as though his parent’s death would be in vain if this creature died.
“You are going to die?” he asked, slowly; she certainly looked like it, in his humble opinion. He had seen death so many times and he knew the look creatures had when it was about to take them. This dragon was showing the signs, slowly but surely. Poside hissed with unseen strength and shook her head violently.
“I do not mean to lie down and die like a worm you miserable twit! Death takes us all in the end that is just a fact. But that doesn’t mean we need to make it easy for her!” she snapped. Avery was knocked backwards into the sludge with her movement and before he could do anything, he felt a large claw fish him out. Poside wiped him off as best as she could with her tail and sat him down on one of her massive coils. “I used to live in the ocean when it was clean and endless. But now I am here and have been forced to live like this because of the ignorance and bloodlust of humans. Your stories are true you know; we fae are sickened by iron and there is much iron and other toxins in this water. If I die down here no one will know I ever lived, except you but you are only an orphan no better than I.” Avery tilted his head, looking at her closely. Though insulted by her comment, he found that words had escaped his mouth and instead he only nodded. They sat there silently, listening to the drips of the water and the whispers of their own forgotten wishes. Avery thought of his parents who had tried to oppose the king and who argued that there was a precious need to preserve magic and the fae. They had been caught hosting fae in their household in secret, a centaur and a unicorn.
The only reason he was sparred was because he fled outside in terror and had watched from behind a market cart as his home burned to the ground. He remembered a large man standing before the house, holding the bloody sword. Avery had tried to go after the man then, but had been too late, he had gotten away and for the remainder of his wretched existence Avery had tried desperately to find the nameless man who killed his parents. Before Poside could see, he wiped his eyes and coughed; wrapping his arms around himself in the dark. There had to be something he could do to help the both of them.
“I have an idea,” he said, after a while. Poside didn’t respond right away but eventually looked at him with milky eyes. “I could set you free! I know this city like the back of my hand. These drains open out to the ocean but there is another way. There is a river, the River Acheron, have you heard of it? I could let you out that way. It goes beyond the smoke of the city, far west out to the mountains.” Poside nodded.
“I have heard of it but how pray tell do you suppose you are going to get me out? There are guards and I am not as small as you. I cannot go sneaking about.” Avery considered; she did have a point. It was a further inconvenience that the sewers came above ground for the last four hundred lengths before the city wall only to pass through a grate and be let out into the river.
“We will go at night.” Poside looked at him with an air of impatience and sarcasm.
“In case you haven’t noticed, it is night time right about now.”
“Then we had better get going before the guards get to their towers,” he shot back and slipped off her scaly side. The dragon said nothing but stood up, uncoiling her massive length. Avery looked over his shoulder and nodded to her.
“I may not be smart but I ain’t dumb. Follow me and whatever you, do keep quiet.” Hot breath from Poside’s contemptuous huff came against the back of his neck but he did not stop. Boy and dragon swerved through the much together, Avery always two steps ahead. He kept his knife out just in case. He didn’t even bother to kick the rats away. Silently he held his hand up sharply, something had bumped off the iron walls ahead. His eyes flicked to the right, then to the left. Two bottomless, sludge filled corridors flanked them on either side.
“What was that?” Poside snapped Avery held a finger to his lips, glaring at her. She may be larger and stronger than him but strength and size mattered little in the Interitus underground. It was about stealth and wit. Avery waited, counting the desperate seconds in his head: one, two, three, four, nothing.
Must be a noble who dropped a loose coin, he thought with a smile. Or the body of a watcher; watchers always wore lots of metal. He made a mental note to go back and check for the corpse later. He waved her on and they continued upwards through the sewers. Avery didn’t know how long they walked or how many piles of feces and rot he had stepped in before they saw the first shades of light. Poside remained silent the entire time, or at least she tried to. Humans were incompetent and untrustworthy, she knew that very well. All of Avery’s movements were deliberate, intentional and planned, that much she observed early on but still: one could never be too careful. The most innocent looking of fae could be the most dangerous. Once again Avery stopped her abruptly. This time she growled,
“If this is a trap human…”
“It isn’t a trap!” the boy hissed; there was fear in his eyes, if only but a fleck of it. Fear was good, fear meant he had sense. Poside smiled dangerously at the thought of killing him but did not act on it. He just might prove useful, and something was different about him. She couldn’t put her wing on it, but something as old as her dearest memories warned her to wait and watch. Avery pointed ahead, the gray light of evening mixed with the darkness of the tunnels. Already she could smell and taste the freshness water outside. The tendrils above her nostrils swayed back and forth sensing the outside world. An unquenchable desire to leap out into the night, over the wall and back into the clear of the river filled her as she sprang forward. The boy leaped, his knife out pointing at her breast, his eyes cutting deep. She snarled furiously.
“Not yet! Soon, but not yet! We have to go slow; do you want a Watcher to catch us?” She snorted but stepped back. Avery nodded and turned around once more, going slower this time as they edged on ward, called by the promise of freedom. Poside was ready to fly the moment the entirety of her head emerged out from the reeking prison. Avery too, wished to fly, if only he could but he kept the feeling at bay. Each step was a prayer and every blink of his eye a wish. Maybe no one will see us, maybe Poside will go unnoticed, and maybe just maybe she will offer to take me with her, away from here.
Avery did a quick last minute sweep of the surroundings but only the blind legless hermit called Old Jacob lay sleeping, breathing heavy beside the immense stone wall. The river of sewage opened up into what was supposed to be a channel and what had actually become a pool and a dumping ground living space for the underlings of Interitus. The fact that it was deserted tonight was almost too good to be true.
“Here we are,” Avery whispered, and this time he did not hold back his smile. Poside looked around, closing her eyes and for a moment she smiled in relief. A sense of pride washed over Avery as he reached out a tentative hand to touch her slick scales. Immediately he realized this was the wrong thing to do. Robbed from her reminiscing, the water dragon swatted him away, the force sending his body to collide with the stone wall.
“Oops,” she said, though her tone did not sound terribly sincere. Avery shrugged himself off, his breath catching as he heard shouts and saw the watchtower at least several feet down the wall light up and watchers come down.
“You have to go, now!” he hissed, pushing her forcefully. Poside looked at him, and then her head snapped towards where ten Watchers, clad in bronze and iron suits, their faces obscured by gas masks. They were not unarmed either. Avery knew those weapons, heart iron guns they were called among the lowly. When the last dragon had supposedly been killed, they took his heart which held his inner fire, a magical substance within all dragons. It was the source of their power and magic, their souls and their will. Somehow through artificial magic manipulated by the last of the surviving wizards and new technology, they had kept this substance potent and created new weapons. Iron heart guns, and even more terrifying, iron mechanical dragons had been created. They terrorized all kingdoms outside of Availion. Even the people of Interitus lived in fear of their own army and its mechanical weapons. Avery had never seen an iron dragon, but he had seen the work of iron heart guns and that was enough to send his adrenaline pumping.
“Go now!” he screamed, throwing the entirety of his weight against Poside whose tail flicked with the intent of killing. “You have to go, before they get the dragons!”
“The dragons?” she shrieked. Avery rolled his eyes for a moment. The Watchers were running faster now, nearly all of them had finished climbing down the wall.
“Not real dragons, metal ones! Weapons now go!” Poside swallowed hard.
“What about you?” Avery didn’t know how to answer her but there was no time. Instead he put on his best smile, taking his dwarven knife from his belt.
“Don’t worry about me. You are the last dragon there is. If you aren’t free there is no magic left in the world at all.”
“There is always magic in the world,” Poside said. “You just need to learn how to see it.” A small comfort; Avery relished in it for a second before shoving her again.
“You have to go!” The Watchers had already knocked down Blind Jacob who had heard the commotion and was running towards them. They were well past his cowering form, their guns raised and ready as they ran.
“Wait! You’ve given me freedom; I must give you something in return!” Without warning, Avery dove at a Watcher; it had attempted to come up from behind Poside. Lunging, the boy drove his dagger into the man’s thigh. The Watcher screamed and fell, Avery lost no time. Ripping the gun from his shaking hands the orphan stood and let out a grunt as he heaved it into the stomach of another Watcher. He too fell to the ground, his gun sending off uncontrollable ammunition. Three more Watchers screamed crumbling as stray bullets hit them. There were plenty more however who were able to dodge, several of whom ran at the boy.
“You can give it to me later!” Avery bellowed. The dragon opened her mouth suddenly, roaring out a terrible fury as her tail knocked down five of the oncoming Watchers. She swiped at another coming in from her left, her claw puncturing his side. She snarled and threw him several feet into the air and turned once more to Avery. She looked at him hard with her eternal eyes, nearly blind yet knowing.
“I can give you a name, Avery.” Poside whispered intently before hissing and making a swipe at three Watchers whose bullets had skidded off of her scales. Something in her voice made Avery stop and listen. “The man who killed your mother and father, his name is Lord Kasheb!” Poside screamed and dodged as a Watcher made a leap for her throat. Lord Kasheb? The man who watched the house burn! Avery realized, but before he could open his mouth to say so, Poside leapt aloft, flinging herself over the height of the wall. She twisted and turned among the stars, dodging the fire of the guns and mini-bombs which shot at her. Avery had a split second to watch her performance. A split second to admire her skill, and her magic before rough hands grabbed him. Something heavy cracked across the back of his head and all went dark and numb. A dark, air tight sack was flung over his head. He smiled to himself underneath it.
Whatever happened to him didn’t matter now. He had done something greater for whatever was left of this world. He had set magic free. His parents would be proud; and he had gotten something in return. He had a name, and once he got free, that was all he would need. Lord Kasheb.
“Whose there?” He waited a moment, his fingers struggling to grip the cement brick walls on either side of the narrow sewage line. A loud huff echoed down a dark tunnel to his left and he whipped his head around towards it, staring into the dark abyss from which nothing came but the stench of trash and feces came.
“I said whose there?” Instinct gripped him as he fingered for the short knife at his belt. It was his most prize possession, stolen off of a nobleman in the markets. The knife didn’t look like much from the outside but was in fact, imbued with dwarven magic. Such things had been banned after the war against the fae, or mythical creatures as they were referred to now. He held the knife with a shaking hand and stepped down from the pipe, knee deep in waste water. The tunnel was larger than others in the system and smelled worse too, of carrion and urine.
Avery stole a glance upwards every now and then, but no light came through. Suddenly, the darkness moved. Avery looked down to see ripples moving past his grimy legs. He took three more steps into the tunnel’s maw before stopping. Two pairs of glowing eyes stared back at him.
They were a milky white with narrow pupils like a cat’s. He could barely make out two fore claws and hindquarters. The form’s sinuous length was curled about itself with no wings, but a frill of strange looking membranes almost like a fish’s fin ran down its length. Two tendrils extended from above the nostrils, an uncountable number of smaller tendrils adorned its fin like frills about the head. The colors of the beast were obscured in the dark, but Avery would guess that the thing bore a hue of dark green and blue scales. The frills down the thing’s spine were the color of the ocean in winter; darkest blue and stormy gray. But it was not a thing, he realized. It was a dragon, so the rumors were true; but how? All of the fae had been wiped out during the War of Souls nearly two thousand years ago. The kingdom of Availion had quenched Somniis of all of its magic and ancient creatures in the war and none yet lived. Particular care had been taken to assure that no dragons survived at all, for they had ruled the world of Somniis way back when humans were a weak race without the power of engineering, metals and fire. That was an old age, of nature and superstition. But this new age of man was great. Or at least it was supposed to be. Avery inwardly writhed. His parents had been murdered in the name of this new steam driven progress.
“Who goes there?” The voice of the supposed dragon asked wearily. Avery stood within fifteen feet of it now and could make it out more clearly. It was not as large as he would have thought, though it still toward over him greatly. Fangs protruded from its upper lip and its tail was curled around itself protectively. Avery stood bewildered for a moment and was about to turn the other way before the creature spoke again. Its voice was rasping and deep. “Are you a warrior or a king’s man come to slay me?” It huffed again, its reeking breath hitting Avery full in the face.
He took another step and examined the dragon more closely. Its dark sides moved up and down with effort and he could make out bloody patches where scales were missing; its frills were torn and it’s ribs shown plainly. Avery sighed; he had been in the same sorry state for the better part of his own life. Taking a breath he belted his knife and said in a voice that he hoped sounded calm and collected:
“I am called Avery, sir,” the dragon snorted; without warning its head snaked closer sniffing him. The boy stood still but was not frightened. He had taken on much larger challenges in his short life. A starving dragon would be no match if it came to a fight. At least he hoped it wouldn’t.
“Avery.” The dragon tasted the name like new food. It’s eyes looked him over critically. “You are not a king’s man, not a soldier?”
“No sir,” Avery said, quietly.
“You call me sir?” the dragon asked, something in its tone told Avery it was not pleased by the formality. It sighed, exasperated. “I am female, you twit. I was called Poside once, yes. If I recall correctly, that is my name.”
“Oh,” he said. The dragon let out another sigh and winced in what could only be described as pain.
“So if you are not a king’s man, and you are not here to kill me as you would have done already. What are you doing here?” She sounded bored.
“I live here,” he admitted, sullenly. Something about this dragon made him feel as though he could admit everything he was ashamed of, like he was small and needed to be pitied. He felt humiliated. Maybe that was why humans had killed all of the fae.
“That makes two of us,” the dragon stated, coolly. She looked him over again, her milky eyes glowing faintly. “After you’ve lived in the dark as long as I have, your eye sight starts to go,” she said, as a matter of fact.
Avery swallowed, thinking of something else he could say. He stood in a strange place between sympathy and fear. He did not dare to speak, nor did he dare to flee. Finally, it was the dragon who spoke again, “Do you go to the surface often?”
“Yes,” he managed. It was not every day that he was interrogated by a dragon. Poside nodded, the smallest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her scaled mouth making the boy shiver.
“How is the sea?” Avery spun in his head, trying to remember what the Sea of Sunar even looked like, let alone how its upkeep had been going. Since the Revolution of Industry the king had no problem dumping the left overs of their technology into the waters and forests surrounding them. The Sea of Sunar could not be faring well if it did not foster human’s advancement. That was the unspoken law of the world ever since the fae were wiped out. Nothing was made out of wood or natural materials anymore, only steam and iron.
“It is fine, I don’t see it much,” Avery said, plainly.
Poside nodded. “I haven’t seen the sea in nearly two thousand years.” Her voice came slowly; he could see her eyes looking down into the murky water below them.
“Why is that?” Avery asked, dumbly.
Poside said nothing for a long time; when she spoke, she had turned. Snarling she snapped at him, her fang’s inches from his face, her eyes savage. “Because you humans have killed my kind and have poisoned our world! I do not wish to be living in these sewers anymore then you do. But one must survive somehow.” Avery nodded, praying she would not see the terror in her eyes. She held his gaze for a long time before finally letting go and rearranging herself and letting out small coughs. Avery looked at her. Her dull scales and nearly blind eyes, the bloody oozing sores on her sides, her labored breath. Something kicked in his gut, something that made him sad. As if every hope left for humanity would die with this dragon; as though his parent’s death would be in vain if this creature died.
“You are going to die?” he asked, slowly; she certainly looked like it, in his humble opinion. He had seen death so many times and he knew the look creatures had when it was about to take them. This dragon was showing the signs, slowly but surely. Poside hissed with unseen strength and shook her head violently.
“I do not mean to lie down and die like a worm you miserable twit! Death takes us all in the end that is just a fact. But that doesn’t mean we need to make it easy for her!” she snapped. Avery was knocked backwards into the sludge with her movement and before he could do anything, he felt a large claw fish him out. Poside wiped him off as best as she could with her tail and sat him down on one of her massive coils. “I used to live in the ocean when it was clean and endless. But now I am here and have been forced to live like this because of the ignorance and bloodlust of humans. Your stories are true you know; we fae are sickened by iron and there is much iron and other toxins in this water. If I die down here no one will know I ever lived, except you but you are only an orphan no better than I.” Avery tilted his head, looking at her closely. Though insulted by her comment, he found that words had escaped his mouth and instead he only nodded. They sat there silently, listening to the drips of the water and the whispers of their own forgotten wishes. Avery thought of his parents who had tried to oppose the king and who argued that there was a precious need to preserve magic and the fae. They had been caught hosting fae in their household in secret, a centaur and a unicorn.
The only reason he was sparred was because he fled outside in terror and had watched from behind a market cart as his home burned to the ground. He remembered a large man standing before the house, holding the bloody sword. Avery had tried to go after the man then, but had been too late, he had gotten away and for the remainder of his wretched existence Avery had tried desperately to find the nameless man who killed his parents. Before Poside could see, he wiped his eyes and coughed; wrapping his arms around himself in the dark. There had to be something he could do to help the both of them.
“I have an idea,” he said, after a while. Poside didn’t respond right away but eventually looked at him with milky eyes. “I could set you free! I know this city like the back of my hand. These drains open out to the ocean but there is another way. There is a river, the River Acheron, have you heard of it? I could let you out that way. It goes beyond the smoke of the city, far west out to the mountains.” Poside nodded.
“I have heard of it but how pray tell do you suppose you are going to get me out? There are guards and I am not as small as you. I cannot go sneaking about.” Avery considered; she did have a point. It was a further inconvenience that the sewers came above ground for the last four hundred lengths before the city wall only to pass through a grate and be let out into the river.
“We will go at night.” Poside looked at him with an air of impatience and sarcasm.
“In case you haven’t noticed, it is night time right about now.”
“Then we had better get going before the guards get to their towers,” he shot back and slipped off her scaly side. The dragon said nothing but stood up, uncoiling her massive length. Avery looked over his shoulder and nodded to her.
“I may not be smart but I ain’t dumb. Follow me and whatever you, do keep quiet.” Hot breath from Poside’s contemptuous huff came against the back of his neck but he did not stop. Boy and dragon swerved through the much together, Avery always two steps ahead. He kept his knife out just in case. He didn’t even bother to kick the rats away. Silently he held his hand up sharply, something had bumped off the iron walls ahead. His eyes flicked to the right, then to the left. Two bottomless, sludge filled corridors flanked them on either side.
“What was that?” Poside snapped Avery held a finger to his lips, glaring at her. She may be larger and stronger than him but strength and size mattered little in the Interitus underground. It was about stealth and wit. Avery waited, counting the desperate seconds in his head: one, two, three, four, nothing.
Must be a noble who dropped a loose coin, he thought with a smile. Or the body of a watcher; watchers always wore lots of metal. He made a mental note to go back and check for the corpse later. He waved her on and they continued upwards through the sewers. Avery didn’t know how long they walked or how many piles of feces and rot he had stepped in before they saw the first shades of light. Poside remained silent the entire time, or at least she tried to. Humans were incompetent and untrustworthy, she knew that very well. All of Avery’s movements were deliberate, intentional and planned, that much she observed early on but still: one could never be too careful. The most innocent looking of fae could be the most dangerous. Once again Avery stopped her abruptly. This time she growled,
“If this is a trap human…”
“It isn’t a trap!” the boy hissed; there was fear in his eyes, if only but a fleck of it. Fear was good, fear meant he had sense. Poside smiled dangerously at the thought of killing him but did not act on it. He just might prove useful, and something was different about him. She couldn’t put her wing on it, but something as old as her dearest memories warned her to wait and watch. Avery pointed ahead, the gray light of evening mixed with the darkness of the tunnels. Already she could smell and taste the freshness water outside. The tendrils above her nostrils swayed back and forth sensing the outside world. An unquenchable desire to leap out into the night, over the wall and back into the clear of the river filled her as she sprang forward. The boy leaped, his knife out pointing at her breast, his eyes cutting deep. She snarled furiously.
“Not yet! Soon, but not yet! We have to go slow; do you want a Watcher to catch us?” She snorted but stepped back. Avery nodded and turned around once more, going slower this time as they edged on ward, called by the promise of freedom. Poside was ready to fly the moment the entirety of her head emerged out from the reeking prison. Avery too, wished to fly, if only he could but he kept the feeling at bay. Each step was a prayer and every blink of his eye a wish. Maybe no one will see us, maybe Poside will go unnoticed, and maybe just maybe she will offer to take me with her, away from here.
Avery did a quick last minute sweep of the surroundings but only the blind legless hermit called Old Jacob lay sleeping, breathing heavy beside the immense stone wall. The river of sewage opened up into what was supposed to be a channel and what had actually become a pool and a dumping ground living space for the underlings of Interitus. The fact that it was deserted tonight was almost too good to be true.
“Here we are,” Avery whispered, and this time he did not hold back his smile. Poside looked around, closing her eyes and for a moment she smiled in relief. A sense of pride washed over Avery as he reached out a tentative hand to touch her slick scales. Immediately he realized this was the wrong thing to do. Robbed from her reminiscing, the water dragon swatted him away, the force sending his body to collide with the stone wall.
“Oops,” she said, though her tone did not sound terribly sincere. Avery shrugged himself off, his breath catching as he heard shouts and saw the watchtower at least several feet down the wall light up and watchers come down.
“You have to go, now!” he hissed, pushing her forcefully. Poside looked at him, and then her head snapped towards where ten Watchers, clad in bronze and iron suits, their faces obscured by gas masks. They were not unarmed either. Avery knew those weapons, heart iron guns they were called among the lowly. When the last dragon had supposedly been killed, they took his heart which held his inner fire, a magical substance within all dragons. It was the source of their power and magic, their souls and their will. Somehow through artificial magic manipulated by the last of the surviving wizards and new technology, they had kept this substance potent and created new weapons. Iron heart guns, and even more terrifying, iron mechanical dragons had been created. They terrorized all kingdoms outside of Availion. Even the people of Interitus lived in fear of their own army and its mechanical weapons. Avery had never seen an iron dragon, but he had seen the work of iron heart guns and that was enough to send his adrenaline pumping.
“Go now!” he screamed, throwing the entirety of his weight against Poside whose tail flicked with the intent of killing. “You have to go, before they get the dragons!”
“The dragons?” she shrieked. Avery rolled his eyes for a moment. The Watchers were running faster now, nearly all of them had finished climbing down the wall.
“Not real dragons, metal ones! Weapons now go!” Poside swallowed hard.
“What about you?” Avery didn’t know how to answer her but there was no time. Instead he put on his best smile, taking his dwarven knife from his belt.
“Don’t worry about me. You are the last dragon there is. If you aren’t free there is no magic left in the world at all.”
“There is always magic in the world,” Poside said. “You just need to learn how to see it.” A small comfort; Avery relished in it for a second before shoving her again.
“You have to go!” The Watchers had already knocked down Blind Jacob who had heard the commotion and was running towards them. They were well past his cowering form, their guns raised and ready as they ran.
“Wait! You’ve given me freedom; I must give you something in return!” Without warning, Avery dove at a Watcher; it had attempted to come up from behind Poside. Lunging, the boy drove his dagger into the man’s thigh. The Watcher screamed and fell, Avery lost no time. Ripping the gun from his shaking hands the orphan stood and let out a grunt as he heaved it into the stomach of another Watcher. He too fell to the ground, his gun sending off uncontrollable ammunition. Three more Watchers screamed crumbling as stray bullets hit them. There were plenty more however who were able to dodge, several of whom ran at the boy.
“You can give it to me later!” Avery bellowed. The dragon opened her mouth suddenly, roaring out a terrible fury as her tail knocked down five of the oncoming Watchers. She swiped at another coming in from her left, her claw puncturing his side. She snarled and threw him several feet into the air and turned once more to Avery. She looked at him hard with her eternal eyes, nearly blind yet knowing.
“I can give you a name, Avery.” Poside whispered intently before hissing and making a swipe at three Watchers whose bullets had skidded off of her scales. Something in her voice made Avery stop and listen. “The man who killed your mother and father, his name is Lord Kasheb!” Poside screamed and dodged as a Watcher made a leap for her throat. Lord Kasheb? The man who watched the house burn! Avery realized, but before he could open his mouth to say so, Poside leapt aloft, flinging herself over the height of the wall. She twisted and turned among the stars, dodging the fire of the guns and mini-bombs which shot at her. Avery had a split second to watch her performance. A split second to admire her skill, and her magic before rough hands grabbed him. Something heavy cracked across the back of his head and all went dark and numb. A dark, air tight sack was flung over his head. He smiled to himself underneath it.
Whatever happened to him didn’t matter now. He had done something greater for whatever was left of this world. He had set magic free. His parents would be proud; and he had gotten something in return. He had a name, and once he got free, that was all he would need. Lord Kasheb.
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About the Author: Emillia Gryphon was born in Boston, Massachusetts where she made up stories in her head before she could hold a pen. Upon reading a picture book of the story of Balto and getting through the Magic Tree House Books, she quickly fell in love with wizards, castles, dragons and magic. She has traveled across the U.S visiting such places as Alaska, Hawaii and Morocco. Emillia is currently attending college majoring in Cultural/Medical Anthropology, Religious History and Writing. In June she self-published her own full length story, The Books of Becor: The Innocent Kin on Amazon.com. Emillia hopes to become a professional author of fantasy and historical fiction in the future while working with the Peace Corps.
You can e-mail Emillia at: mostfamouscolorsoftheworldclub@gmail.com |
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