The last demon falls, and I realize I had pictured this moment of triumph differently in my mind. There was cheering. There were embraces. And yet, there were tears for friends lost.
But I had certainly pictured it with all five of us standing together.
The sudden silence that falls over Phiur is deafening. Leito’s song has ended. No one speaks. In fact, no one seems to breathe.
Blaize still lays on the ground where she landed after striking the orobas’ dark shield. She hasn’t moved.
Jilli sheathes her giant sword on her back and runs to her companion’s side. Her footsteps pound on the sandy brick road. It’s the only sound anywhere, so it seems too loud. She drops to Blaize’s side, gently touching the elf’s cheek with her large hand.
Jilli puts her ear to Blaize’s mouth, and I hold my breath, hoping against hope. She drops her forehead Blaize’s chest, and I can see Jilli’s body hitch with what can only be sobs.
My eyes burn. I drop my chin to my chest.
Mieklo chitters something comforting, stroking a lock of my hair.
Rent comes up on one side of me. Hax appears on the other. The twins help support him, their faces somber, each a mirror of the other.
Jilli rises to her feet, Blaize in her arms. The elf looks small compared to the barbarian, smaller than usual. I’m used to boisterous Blaize, her personality larger than herself.
The remaining city guards gather, but they keep a respectful distance. Captain Dmaris has his head down.
Hax is the one to approach Jilli. “I’m sorry. I should have been there to fight the orobas. I didn’t have to be so showy with the fire dragon. It was a drain, and it kept me from being there when she needed me.” His eyes are rimmed with red.
Jilli remains quiet, unable to form words.
“We gave each other a hard time,” Hax continues, his voice hitching with emotion, “but she’s always kept in step with me, you know? I respected her for that.”
He stops, squinting, a frown forming. “Is she… smiling?”
Jilli sighs as Blaize erupts into laughter. Her two-colored eyes open, and she slaps Hax on the arm. “I’m not gone for ten minutes, and you go all mushy on me.”
Hax’s face turns red. His expression is a mixture of anger and disgust. “You faked dying? Seriously?” His voice is quieter than usual.
“You should have seen your face!” Blaize continues to laugh.
“Well played,” Hax says, conceding.
Jilli sets Blaize down, still silent. The elf takes a step, and her legs buckle. Jilli catches her.
“Uhh, well, that demon’s shield did give me a bit of a shock.”
Rent checks her over. “You’ll live.”
Blaize smiles impishly.
“I didn’t want to help her,” Jilli tells Hax. “So I just stayed silent.”
Hax brushed it off. “I’ll get her back.”
The twins giggle.
“Ugh, I need an ale to get this sudden bad taste out of my mouth,” Blaize says.
“Does it test like jealousy?”
“Hardly. I’ve got Jilli. She’s enough woman for me. I don’t need two.” She drags her two-colored eyes up and down the twins with disdain.
“Jilli is two women,” Hax says.
Jilli gives him a severe look. “I can break you in half.”
Hax throws his hands up before him and changes the subject. “Hopefully, the Jolly Lute is still standing,” Hax says, giving us all a sober reminder of the state of the city.
“That’s where we’re staying,” Leito says, his smile radiant. “It seems our paths shall remain joined for a bit longer. How delightful.”
The city streets are empty. Even with the erebus defeated, the people don't dare to leave their homes. A handful of fires still burn. Plumes of black smoke mark their places throughout the southern half of the city.
We’re all relieved to find the Jolly Lute still stands. The inn and the surrounding blocks avoided the damage that has hit nearly every other neighborhood in southern Phiur.
I note the library still stands as well. It’s cut right into the rock of the cliffs on the northern side of the city, most of it within the mountain itself. The entire city would have to be destroyed to even mark the library.
I look up at Leito. He’s chatting cheerfully with Jilli and Aleria. I look between him and the library, my heart in conflict.
I'll have to decide my next step toward the future. Soon. Which future? I don’t know the answer, but no decisions need to be made today.
Today, we'll all celebrate being alive. I'm glad Blaize is still with us, no matter how annoyed I was at her deception. Even Hax has never gone so far. I groan inwardly, thinking Hax will be looking to outdo her now.
The door to the Jolly Lute is locked and barred. Not surprising given the current climate in Phiur. After several moments of bumping and clicking on the other side, the door opens and the innkeeper appears. “Good, you’re not erebus.” she says, peeking through the crack of the door at Leito.
“No, ma’am. I don’t imagine they would knock.”
“Have the erebus been defeated?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Leito bows deeply. “But there may yet be a few stragglers. So it’s still best if we all go inside and relock that door.”
“Yes, of course. Come in. Come in.”
After the door is secured once more, the innkeeper turns to us. “You look like you’ve had quite a time of it out there. Can I get you some food, or would you prefer to retire to your rooms? I could send something up.”
The greatroom is empty except for our two groups. She wrings her hands, eager for something to do.
I can’t imagine the terror of being locked in here with no idea of what’s going on outside except the sound of rocks smashing buildings, and wondering if you’ll be next.
“I’ll stay for an ale or two,” Leito says.
That’s the general consensus.
We have our choice of where to sit, since all of the tables are empty. It makes it feel later than it is, that and the cool dark of the greatroom. It’s a relief from the bright sun and its harsh reflections off the sand and stone.
When he’s finished eating, Hax stands and stretches. The twins look up from either side of him, watching him. “Well, I’m wrecked. I think I’ll head up to bed.” His face doesn’t match his words, though. A mischievous smile has formed, and he waggles his eyebrows at Kaehi and Noelani.
They giggle.
“Oh, gods. Get out of here, Hax,” Blaize says, finishing her ale in one swig and reaching for a new glass.
“What? I’m so tired. I’ll probably sleep for days.” He gives a mock yawn.
“Sleep, yeah.” Blaize waves him away.
Hax laughs and heads upstairs, the twins following. They embrace him from either side, and the three of them disappear in the wake of whispers and giggles.
Blaize rolls her eyes and drinks her ale.
Jilli kisses her on the cheek. “We’ll go to sleep soon,” she promises.
That draws half a smile from the elf.
Leito looks across the table at me. I’ve finished eating and I’m sketching a picture of the orobas. Its arms are out wide, and its wings form crescents to either side of it. I don’t look up, but I can feel the bard’s eyes on me and the picture.
I tell myself I should say something but nothing sounds right in my head.
“That’s quite good. Accurate. I can almost feel the slimy touch of its dark magic,” Leito says.
I try to hide my burning cheeks by keeping my head down. I pretend to still be drawing, but I’m really just darkening the demon’s outline. After a few passes, it looks like the black shield, the one that knocked Blaize away.
I realize I haven’t said anything back. “Thank you.”
It’s ridiculous how nervous the bard makes me. Maybe not so ridiculous since he’s everything I want to be–a traveling bard surrounded by friends and living a life full of adventure. But I have no instrument, no voice, no talent, and I certainly don’t have the man’s charisma.
I have no choice but to go to the library of Phiur. Transcribing is the only thing I’m good at.
Besides, Mieklo needs to be at the library. My free hand finds him on the table, and I pet him down his back. His contentment radiates through me. I notice his fur is softer and more glossy than usual. Could he possibly be happier traveling than he was in the library? After all of the times we nearly lost our lives, every monster we faced down?
But how often had we instead joined together with the others in laughter? Told stories around a fire with nothing but us and the noise of crickets for miles in any direction?
“Somehow, I think you don’t want to go to the library and stay here in Phiur.”
Leito’s voice surprises me from my thoughts.
The whole page is black behind the orobas I drew now. I set down my charcoal and finally look up at Leito. “I don’t have any skills to bring to their group. I would just be a burden.”
“That’s not true,” the bard says, shaking his head. “I saw you with your sword. You didn’t hesitate to use it when you needed to.”
“I only killed a couple,” I say.
“And you didn’t run away.”
I remain quiet.
“I thought you said you wanted to be a bard.”
“Yes, but…” I can’t finish.
“But?”
“I have no instrument. I can’t sing. My poetry is wretched.” I cover the four lines on the page facing the orobas.
“It can’t be wretched,” Leito says with a chuckle. “Let me see.”
I uncover it.
He reads it outloud:
“Face of bone, skull of steer,
Enough to make one’s mind panic.
Summon dead, make them walk,
With spells black and necromantic.”
When Leito says the words, they sound like the words of a spell, they sound powerful. I could swear the orobas twitches on the page.
“Lo, you wrote that?” Jilli asks. She looks over at me, her arm draped over the back of Blaize’s chair.
I nod.
“I knew it was about that terrible orobas without looking.” Jilli shivers and squeezes Blaize around the shoulders, pulling the elf closer and almost making her spill her ale. Blaize slows her hand, waits for the foam to settle, and tries again with better luck. Then she’s back to her conversation with Aleria.
“Okay, that decides it,” Leito says with a clap of his hands. “I’ll do it.”
“Do what?” I ask.
“I’ll teach you how to bard.”
Two weeks later, we spend another back-breaking day gathering rubble and carting it away with wheelbarrows. It’s hot work. The sun bakes me even in light linen clothes. My skin has turned more pink than brown with all of the sun I’ve been getting.
After working my muscles all day, Leito works my mind all night, every night. He gives me no rest and no sympathy when I say I’m too tired. It only slips out once or twice. Being tired would not stop me from spending my nights with Leito, because I’m eager to soak up all he can teach me, even if it means less sleep.
After two weeks of the same, there’s a change.
The rhythmic sound of rocks hitting one another in the wheelbarrows becomes more sporadic and then stops. I drop my stone in with the others, humming a tune that’s stuck in my head, and I realize everyone has stopped.
In the middle of our working area, where the wheelbarrows are gathered, me standing beside one, is a giant man on a giant white bird. Its legs are long, longer than mine, and its wings look too small to lift it from the ground. The man is giant, and he seems familiar.
Two more men on the long-legged white birds stop behind the first.
“Princess Jillabrenda Isleifsdottir!” The first man shouts. He watches the group of us crowded around, looking for one face amongst many.
Jilli steps forward, brushing the dust from her hands. “Hello, brother. You’ve come a long distance to find me.”
“You have no idea. I’ve been traversing these wretched lands for weeks. The sun is too hot. How do you stand it here?”
The barbarian woman shrugs, and I see the family resemblance. I realize why he seems familiar. “I’ve just gotten used to it. So has Gnuf.”
The ummuth brays at his name, hitched to cart half-full with rubble and unable to graze.
We’ve all gathered closer around Jilli now, but Blaize stays farther back.
“Princess?” Hax asks.
“Yeah, I guess that topic never came up, eh?” Jilli says with an embarrassed smile. “Well, surprise.” She flicks her gaze to Blaize and away again.
“Sister, I bring dire news,” the giant man says, keeping them on subject. The giant white bird paces beneath him, and he settles it with some motions of the reins.
“What news, Olavi?”
“Father was out hunting, and something attacked his group. It slaughtered all of the hunters, but father’s body was not amongst them, nor anywhere within a dozen mile radius. All searches turned up empty. We can only assume he is dead. Mother has gone into mourning, and she will not take up the duties of the crown. We need you.”
Jilli stays quiet, pensive.
Blaize finally speaks up. “Is he saying you're now the queen of your people?”
“It seems so.”
“You think you know someone,” Hax grumbles.
Looking everywhere except at Blaize, Jilli shrugs. “Olavi is right, I have a duty to my people that I’ve run from long enough. I can’t ask any of you to accompany me. This is something I need to do alone, and it will surely mean the end of my adventuring days.”
“You are never alone, Jilli. It sounds to me like there is some mysterious monster to slay,” Hax says. “That’s something I’m always up for. Count me in. Brother?”
“Me as well. Someone has to keep Hax out of trouble.”
“And me.” Blaize spins her knives in her hands. “Maybe there will be a royal-sized bounty.”
“Lo?” Hax asks. “Are you in?”
Mieklo chitters with excitement in my ear.
“Of course I’m in. I’ve got to show you all I can handle myself now,” I say. I get a smile out of even Blaize at that,
It looks like a new adventure lies ahead of us.
THE END (for now)
~ * ~
Phew! Thanks for reading the final chapter of my monster serial mini-series! I’m so glad you came along for the adventure. It seems Lola-Grace’s story will continue. How exciting! What new and interesting monsters & beasts will she encounter? Find out in Part II, coming soon!*
If you’d like to join Lola-Grace on her next adventure when it starts, sign up to receive future updates and chapters directly to your email. I also plan to make an audio version of this serial. So you’ll receive updates about that as well.
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* Future release date not yet available.