Bridgebreaker (The Echo Worlds Book 2) (15 page)

As they stood in front of the wall, they exchanged glances.  Cendan held his focus in his hand and reached out.  Yes!  The transition point was still there.  He, however, couldn’t open it.  Every time he tried, it just slid away from him.

“Ok, so it’s still here, but I’m barred from opening it.  I wondered if Marcus might find a way to keep me from coming back.  Go ahead and try what you can,” Cendan asked Heather, opening his eyes to the sight.  He wanted to see this, see if he could try to follow the pattern.

His sight blossomed in front of him as he watched a folded and waved pattern form around them.  The transition point itself he’d never looked at with the sight, and he noted its distinct similarities to a Bridge; but still some clear differences.  What would change when he tried to open it?  But with the sense of unease here with the car and the open door, he knew it was better to get in and see what was going on.  He watched as the pattern Heather had created seemed to connect to the transition in a strange way, and then just as quick the way was open.

“C’mon.  I don’t know if Marcus or Jasmine can tell I did that, but I’d rather find out inside than outside,” Heather remarked as they each took a breath and walked forward.

The inside looked pretty much the same; or at least the entrance did.  Still the same randomness as always.  Nothing seemed out of place, but it would be hard to make anything look different here.  At least he knew now why the Maker wing information about the place had stressed that patterns had power.  One mystery solved at least; a minor victory, but better than before.

“Ok, we are in.  Before we go further, I can ward us against one physical blow.  Just one.  People are hard to ward; we move too much,” Heather noted.

Once again she quickly worked a pattern, this one settling over them both before slowly sinking into their skin.  Cendan noted with a level of professional interest that she appeared to tie the pattern to her fetish, and at the same time she worked a recharge pattern into it, effectively keeping the pattern running off her fetish, but not draining it.

“Neat trick,” Cendan said.

“Yeah, the ward is a good one to know.  I’ll show you in more detail after we figure out everything,” she replied and gripped her fetish in one hand.  “Lead the way.  You know this place better than I.”

Cendan headed down the hall, keeping his eyes and ears open.  He did let go of the sight, however; it was a bit distracting here in a fairly magic rich environment.

“Wait, EVA!”  He reached out towards the presence in his mind that had been so quiet as of late.  It was still there, but barely.  Sadly, he couldn’t even feel that she was there without concentration.  He felt a bit guilty honestly; he hadn’t even been thinking about her while he was in the Rivenwood.  There’d been so much to learn and know, he’d kind of forgotten her.  Which bothered him.  Why and how could he forget EVA?

“Anything?” Heather asked beside him.  “If that mechanical thing can help us, or tell us what’s been going on here, that would be useful.”

Cendan’s shoulders shrugged.  “I can’t feel her, well only barely.”  He debated calling out for Jasmine, but again, he wanted to find her before dealing with Marcus.  “Let’s go to the kitchen.  At least there’s a better chance she is there than Marcus is.  Unless something drastic has changed in the last few days, he’s probably holed up in the barrier room.”  Cendan walked down the hall, but taking care not to make much noise.

They passed by the map room on the way, still left in exactly the same way as it had been.  The ragged hole was still in the wood.

“I never found a way to fix that,” Cendan said, stopping to look.

“All in good time.  I don’t think any of us expected things to go south like this, Cendan.”  Heather’s hand fell on his shoulder, a small comfort.  Cendan thought back to that day, not too long ago in time, but an eternity in experience and knowledge.  He shrugged off her hand, remembering what had happened later.  Not speaking, he returned the way he had been going, Heather following behind.

Cendan’s fears amplified as they turned the corner and saw what the kitchen had become.  It was a wreck.  Smashed cabinets; food thrown on the floor; something or someone had trashed the place.  Burn marks on the wall from something, and food just thrown away and rotting, based on the smell coming from the trash.  His hunger faded as he took it in, replaced by a growing worry about Jasmine.

“Someone did a number on this place,” Heather said out loud.  “And that doesn’t seem like a good sign for you or me.”

“Yeah, or Jasmine, assuming that Marcus had something to do with this,” Cendan responded, tightening his grip on the key.  “Let’s keep moving.”

He started off down a side hall, heading straight to EVA’s main room.  Hopefully the connection would work better there.  Hopefully.  And barring finding Jasmine on the way, he might get some answers.  The door to EVA’s room seemed normal, but the room itself was not.  Spare parts from the Maker wing were all over the place, some burst and broken, and a ladder was placed directly where Cendan knew there was a secret keyhole.

“This shouldn’t look like this,” Cendan said to Heather, who was standing behind him with a somewhat awed expression.

Reaching out again for EVA, he noted the connection was stronger here, which he had strongly hoped.

“EVA, can you hear me?” Cendan asked mentally.  No words came out, but a throb of gratitude and excitement seemed to pulse off the thing in his mind.  “Can you tell me, or show me, where Jasmine is?  I need to know what’s been going on.  I can tell someone has been doing... something to you, and I’m going to assume its Marcus?”  The tiny piece of EVA flashed in strong anger at the mention of Marcus’s name.  Or was that pain?  Hurt?  He wasn’t sure how much EVA could actually feel.  “I’ll do whatever I can to help you, but we’ve got to find Jasmine.”

The air around them both seemed to tense up and thicken, and in the tiniest of whispers, he heard a tiny reedy voice say, ‘Exam Room...’  Heather nodded at him.

“I heard it to.  You know where that is?”  He nodded, holding up a finger for her to wait a moment.

“EVA, I’ll be back.  Can you tell me anything about what’s happened?”  Anger and fear flooded through their link.  Cendan knew that if it was this strong with whatever had happened to dampen it, EVA was in fact terrified.  “Calm EVA, calm.  I get it.  I’ll be back, and I’ll be careful!” he said out loud for Heather’s benefit.

He pointed down the hall, leading the way as they walked.  As they traveled, he explained what EVA had been feeling.

“Great, so the magical mechanical everything is terrified.  This doesn’t make me feel any better, Cendan!” Heather said as she shifted her now white knuckled grip on her fetish.

Cendan agreed with her.  EVA being worried wasn’t a good thing.

“The exam rooms aren’t far.  But the fact that EVA thinks Jasmine is there is not good news.  Those rooms haven’t been used in ages.  They were… primitive rooms used for the study and who knows what else on creatures from the Echo World.”

Marcus was still the unknown quantity, but based on what they already had seen and knew, Jasmine hadn’t been able to do anything about him.  Cendan was worried now that in fact the rage and anger that had been directed at him had, in his absence, been directed at Jasmine.

“Just around this corner,” Cendan said as they walked faster.  Turning the corner, the door to the primary exam room was open a crack.  Heather cocked her head for a second and motioned Cendan to be quiet.  Silence filled the hall, but was that breathing he heard?

Slowly they walked toward the cracked open door and peeked in.  Jasmine!  They both burst into the room, and as Cendan saw Jasmine, his stomach sank.  She was still wearing the same clothing that he’d last seen her in.  She was sweaty, dirty and very pale.  Marcus had shackled her to the table as well, it appeared.  Anger rose in him, both at Marcus and at himself.  He should have convinced her to leave with him, not this!  Heather had turned somewhat pale taking this all in, as well.

“Cendan.  We need to get her out of here, but you need to know…  There’s a pattern here.  She’s under a spell.”

Cendan brought forth his sight, swearing under his breath.  Heather was right.  There was a pattern, flowing into her head and out of it, and oddly the pattern was somehow attached to, well, everything.  Unlike what the Shrouded had taught him, this pattern was locked in multiple ways in both points and threads.

“This is weird,” Heather mumbled.  “I’ve seen a lot, and I’ve never seen anything like this one.”

Cendan nodded.  “I don’t know if we can do anything about it, but let’s get her out of here at least.”  As he quickly undid the shackles, out of the corner of his eye, he saw her focus; the painted red orchid.  Why wasn’t this in the barrier room?  Marcus had always insisted on them being there.

“Cendan there’s something else you’re not realizing.  This pattern; the only other person who could have done this is Marcus.  That means he’s using magic.  Which means... we are in far more danger than we thought.”

His movements slowed as the awareness of what Heather was saying sunk in.  Marcus hated magic.  He hated the very thought of magic.  But yet, here was proof he was using patterns.  He was using the very magic he had complained – screamed even – about.

“We are in deep here...” Cendan noted.

“EVA!” he said out loud while he worked the last of the restraints off of Jasmine’s unconscious form.  “I bet that whatever is going on with EVA, that’s Marcus’s doing as well.”

Heather nodded as she kept her eye on the door.

“That makes sense.  But how could he do these things?  I mean, he’s had no training.  And even the Shrouded know that Marcus hates the stuff; magic I mean.”

Cendan slowly picked Jasmine up, her body limp and deadweight.

“I don’t know how.  But I’m not sure finding out how is going to be an experience I will enjoy.  Keep an eye out for Marcus.  Let’s get Jasmine out of here.  And us to for that matter!”  Cendan waved to Jasmine’s focus, “Can you get that?  Don’t want to leave it here.”

Heather took it, her practiced eye knowing what it was.

The hallway looked the same though Cendan felt like everything had a more sinister feeling to it now.  Where was Marcus?  None of this made any sense, and Jasmine, the only person who might shed some light on what the hell was going on, was stone cold out of it.  Heather followed behind him if only because she didn’t know the way.  The going was slow.  Cendan’s grip kept slipping.  Carrying someone who was truly deadweight was far harder than it looked, and Jasmine didn’t even weigh that much.  Cendan tried to make light of it, to diffuse his tension at least.

“Ok, once we are safe, I gotta come up with a pattern for making things easier to carry!”  His attempt at humor fell flat, though, even to himself.

Three corners, two, one, and there they were at the exit.

“Go on, let’s get out of here!” Cendan said as Heather raised her fetish.  A pause, and then she slowly lowered it, her face turning even paler.

“Cendan, I can’t. He knows we are here.  It’s barred!”

Cendan swore again to himself.  Locked up in a place they can’t leave with a violent crazy man, who has unknown magical abilities.

“Damn it,” Cendan swore, still holding Jasmine.  “What the hell now?”

________

Marcus’s face split into a grin.  The traitor Cendan and that witch were now trapped.  He had been surprised when they had entered, shocked in fact.  The Keystone had alerted him to Jasmine entering the lair.  He’d sprinted to see how she’d escaped, only to find her still bound in place and unconscious.  It was only then, using the abilities of the Keystone, he had realized that somehow Cendan and the witch woman from before had found a way to mimic Jasmine’s entry.

Anger had spread through him, and at first he’d wanted to use his new abilities to hurt them, make them feel all the pain they had inflicted upon him.  Only one thing had stopped him; Cendan’s focus.  That key was the way to end the war with the Slyph, forever.  That would make him the hero and the legend.  He didn’t want to damage it; Cendan always had his focus with him.  Always.  Just another betrayal of how the Bridgefinders worked.  Cendan was ‘too good’ to leave his key to help strengthen the barrier.

He had to find a way to get it away from him.  He needed it, and he desired it.  Cendan wasn’t worthy of even touching it.  He’d watched as they found Jasmine, hidden away but watching.  Somehow the Keystone allowed him to see everything and anything in the headquarters, and he used it to great effect.

The first thing was to lock the door; they couldn’t get out, and they had to stay.  Watching Cendan struggle with carrying Jasmine, his first delight turned to disgust.  He didn’t use magic!  Watching and listening to the witch and the traitor talk about using the tool of the Slyph, turned his stomach.  He was using the powers granted to him by being the Leader of the Bridgefinders.  Nothing more and nothing less.

The witch was cute enough, he thought as he watched them, even for all her lies and deceit.  The story about Grellnot and the Slyph at war were all lies, he was sure.  Lies and tricks, designed to have them let one of the outsiders in, to let them destroy what was left of the Bridgefinders.  That witch probably took the orders from the Slyph herself, to lie low the mighty Bridgefinders once and for all.  The weak ones had fallen for it.  Cendan was even helping them!  But not Marcus; no, Marcus knew the truth.  There was no war on the Echo World, and the Slyph was making her final move.  She’d tried a straight attack which had failed.  This plan of hers was subterfuge and poison.

Marcus turned his attention back to the traitor as they realized Marcus had trapped them, trapped them in a maze that they didn’t know he controlled.

“You will die soon, Cendan Key, you and that witch.  I’ll take your focus and use it.  And my name, Marcus Wheeldon, will go down in history as the man who defeated the Slyph.  I will win.”  Marcus spat the words out and huddled around the Keystone.  His Keystone.

He just had to wait.  He needed to find a way to get that key away from Cendan.  They wouldn’t find him, and he’d know where they were at all times.  That witch though, he didn’t need her, he didn’t need her at all.  The grin returned to his face.  Marcus was going to have some fun.

________

The two armies faced each other, one dwarfed by the other.  Grellnot’s conscripted force, for all its size, was nothing compared to the sheer numbers the Slyph had.  Even now, Grellnot could hear the things behind him grumbling.  Fear kept them in line, and not just fear for their own lives, but what Grellnot could do to their tribes, homes, even their whole race.  The Slyph did not stand at the head of her forces, but at the back.  Grellnot could smell her.  She was confident, proud.  The two creatures near her were new to Grellnot, and their smell confused him.  He peered to see the magic, the threads themselves.

All of the assembled things were overlaid with it, it was bound to their very beings.  And all ties for them led back to her.  Grellnot suffered a rare shock, however when looking at the two hounds; they were like Grellnot!  A mix of the magic of this world and the magic of the human world.  Grellnot did not know where they came from, but they did not give Grellnot much worry.  They were flesh and bone.  They could be eaten, just like everything else.

“Grellnot!”  The Slyph’s voice burst out over the plain, as the creatures silenced themselves.  Even the ones Grellnot had gathered still worshiped the Slyph as a goddess.  “Grellnot!  How dare you turn against me?  I, who created you; I who gave you the power to hunt the humans.  And yet here you are, daring to strike at me?”

Grellnot smiled, his long tongue hanging low like a panting dog.

“GRELLNOT HUNGERS!” he screamed back.  “Grellnot not be your slave, Grellnot not need your help or power.  Gellnot is power.”

Lurching forward faster than any creature, save the Slyph, could follow, Grellnot tore the head off a giant bull looking creature – that is if a bull was covered with metal skin and breathed smoke.  Tearing chunks of steaming hot flesh off the body of the thing, Grellnot took huge bites.

“GRELLNOT HUNGERS!”  It screamed again.

“I will destroy you Grellnot!”  The Slyph had no need to scream, her voice carried over the air as if she was standing next to each creature there.  “You have outlived your usefulness, creature.”  Standing in the air, the Slyph raised her hand to order the attack.

“You have no power over Grellnot,” Grellnot screamed back.  “Show them.  Destroy me from there.”

Creatures on both sides watched the Slyph, expecting her to destroy Grellnot with a flick of her hand.  But she did not.  Muttering arose.

“SHOW THEM,” Grellnot screamed again.  “She cannot hurt Gellnot.”  Dancing on the corpse of the thing he had just killed, Grellnot howled with glee.  “She can’t hurt Grellnot.  She wants her pets to do it, she is too scared of Grellnot!”

Again the creatures looked to the Slyph to destroy Grellnot.  The sky darkened over them as the Slyph grew angry.

“KILL HIM!” she yelled, ordering her creatures to attack.

Grellnot simply pointed at the Slyph, and with a roar, Grellnot moved forward, his army reluctantly following.  Most had expected not to have to fight; that the Slyph would end him.  They had hoped she’d forgive them for following Grellnot.  The two armies clashed and thought ended.  Now was the time to fight, or die.

Time passed, and chaos ruled.  Jabber fought Jabber, goblins speared anything that came close, and no one and nothing knew friend from foe.

Grellnot paid the things following it no mind.  Grellnot had one goal; to get to the Slyph and to feast.  Stomach growling in its ever present hunger, Grellnot leaped from creature to creature, ripping out throats, biting through muscle and sinew.  Not knowing or caring on which side any creature was.  They were all meat, food, blood.  Grellnot’s hunger grew with each kill.

________

The Slyph watched Grellnot move through the battlefield.  This had been a mistake, Grellnot was a danger she didn’t have an answer to.  She had hoped the sheer number of creatures could overwhelm the thing, but was quickly shown that that idea was one she never should have had.

“Hounds!  Defend me!”  The Slyph sent her two pets after Grellnot and vanished from the field of battle.

________

Grellnot saw the Slyph flee, and could feel her location elsewhere.

‘She flees,” he screamed, his voice so loud it overwhelmed the noise of battle, sending many things to the ground clutching ears or whatever else they used to hear with.  “She flees!”  Grellnot screamed again.  Confusion spread over the great battle.  A great many simply left, to return to wherever they had come from, fearful and unsure of what to do.  Some still fought, too lost in bloodlust to be aware of anything else.

A baying noise broke into Grellnots celebration. T hose creatures, the new ones, ran towards Grellnot.  He could smell the magic that made them, so similar to Grellnot.  Grellnot was greater though, Grellnot had more.  More power, more strength, more hunger!  With a scream of joy, Grellnot ran at the hounds, blood and flesh, magic and power; Grellnot would feast!

________

The Slyph appeared far off, in a safe hold she had recently made.  She’d spent the last day or so traveling over the Echo world, making places to hide if it came to that.  Hide.  Her, the Slyph, hiding from a disgusting thing like Grellnot.  Regret was not something the Slyph felt often, but with every fiber of her being she regretted making that thing.  She paced around the smooth underground hollow she had made, waiting.  A forceful lurch shook the hollow, and she whirled around.

Grellnot stood, his face locked into a rictus smile, blood dripping from most parts of its body.

“Grellnot find you….” it said in an almost sing song way.  “Grellnot feast on your poor dogs.  They were tasty, and so like Grellnot.”  It flicked a small piece of something towards the Slyph, and she dodged out of the way.  It was a part of a tentacle, from one of her hounds.

The Slyph felt fear, something she had no experience with.

“Grellnot, we are not enemies.  The humans are, the Bridgefinders.  They are the enemy.”

Grellnot laughed, a deep rough sound, and licked its lips, savoring the taste of her fear.  The Slyph’s fear.  Grellnot wanted more.

“Humans are food.  Meat and bone, blood and sinew.  Grellnot not fear them, Grellnot eat them.”

The Slyph slowly walked backward, away from the thing she had created.

“Yes, food Grellnot.  So why are you here?  Go… hunt!  I release you from your banishment.  You can go back to the human world and eat your fill!”  Just as quickly as she had sealed the Barrier from letting him through, she ended it.

Grellnot shook its greasy head.  “Grellnot will hunt, Grellnot will feast.  But the Slyph will be first.  Grellnot is free now, Grellnot is not your tool!”  Screaming in rage, Grellnot leaped again for the Slyph, but with a blink and a rush of inward moving air, the Slyph was gone, transported elsewhere.  Grellnot spat on the floor.