Crossroads - Part #1
Rebecca Smith
Issue #5 (July 2008)
They were gone. All of them. Alicia stood in shock, staring at the flaming ruin that had been the home she was born and raised in. It was gone now. There was nothing left except the blazing wreckage. Even as she watched the roof caved in upon the hapless structure. Soon it would be nothing but a pile of ashes and all her family’s history with it. She felt a sob rising in her throat and choked it down with a will. How had this happened? A few hours ago when she’d left everything had been fine.
“I’m sorry, Alicia.” The Mayor laid a heavy hand on her shoulder. “There was nothing we could do to stop them. Why they chose your family we don’t know. Maybe it was the lack of protection. You know how beasts get stirred up on this night. These things happen, even far from the frontier…”
Alicia felt herself stiffen. She looked at the ruined house, at the blood stained ground. Her grandmother’s body lay off to the side, covered by a sheet. Her mother and the midwife had died inside before the fire ever took hold. There were other wounded among the villagers. The two guards who had held first watch were dead.
Anger filled her. “No Mayor, these things don’t just happen. This was deliberate. Now will someone please tell me exactly what happened?” She turned to face the assembled villagers with an angry glare. Her hand clutched the hilt of her sword. She faced them, trembling in rage, daring them to defy her. She looked far older and more menacing than her sixteen years at that moment and knew it.
The villagers were terrified. As well they should be! A host of things, materializing out of the gathering dusk on the Night of the Dead, storms through the village gates, kills an entire family and then disappears as suddenly as they had come? They had reason to be frightened.
The mayor’s hand tightened on Alicia’s arm. “Now lass, don’t go making waves. They’re gone. It’s too late for us to do anything about it…”
“It’s not too late to go after them!” Alicia cut in angrily.
“And risk bringing them back down on us again, this time on the whole village? Be sensible, lass!”
Alicia pulled away from the mayor and strode in amongst the villagers, snarling. “Did anyone –anyone- see them? You!” She snatched at the sleeve of the midwife’s helper and held her arm fast. “Did you see them, or anything? What did they look like?”
The poor girl was trembling. She was only fifteen. “Yes’m. I saw ’em, ma’am. They was monsters, all big and hairy and some of ’em looked like big spiders, all bloated and ugly…” She shuddered and closed her eyes.
“Did they take anything?” Alicia asked, her stomach clenching in fear.
The girl opened her eyes and looked at the mayor. He gave her a warning glare. Alicia’s anger doubled. She felt something odd radiate through her, like a wave of power. “Would somebody tell me what’s going on, GOD DAMNIT?!”
Every window in the village shattered simultaneously.
Alicia jumped, as startled as the villagers. ‘Did I do that?’ She wondered. She had to face the fact that she had. It wasn’t the first time she’d caused things to mysteriously break when she was angry. How often had her mother warned her not to lose her temper? Now she was perilously close to losing all control as well.
She looked from one startled face to another. “Well?”
“The baby, mum, they took the babe,” The girl told her. Tears were starting to well up in her eyes.
“Baby? Mother had the baby?” She hadn’t been due for days yet.
“Yes mum. After you ran off from ya’lls argument she went into the birthing. Yur mammy had just come out to tell us ‘bout the babe when those things came in out of nowhere. They tore through us and killed your mammy and when on inside. I heard Maura shriek and then they came a runnin’ out. One had the babe in its mouth. Then the fire began. There wudn’t a thing we could do, mum, not a one. Honest.”
Alicia felt numb inside. Her hastily formulated plan was for revenge, not rescue. Why would they take a baby? Unless… unless they weren’t just some of the misborn and were instead part of something far darker. It hardly mattered, she decided. Not now.
She let go of the girl’s arm and stumbled through the crowd. They parted before her, as if afraid some kind of contamination might leak off her and onto their own precious selves. She heard the mayor yelling for someone to stop her and wasn’t surprised to find her way suddenly blocked by the Lukson boys. They were nearly twice her size and solid muscle. “Sorry, Ms. Alicia, afraid we can’t let you pass ’less the mayor says so.” The eldest told her.
Alicia drew her sword, the same sword her father had once worn in countless battles. She was the only one here who really knew how to use any weapon except a hunting bow or a hoe. “Do you want to die? I’ll kill anyone in my way.”
They obviously hadn’t been prepared for this; the two big oxen leapt out of her way so fast one would have thought their tails were on fire. She stalked past them and onto the main road through the village. The tracks were easy to see stamped deep into the snow which covered the road. Big paw prints and small ones with various numbers of toes, as well as claws. This hadn’t been a closed party. There had been monsters of all types in this lot.
The tracks led west towards the main gate into the village. Alicia followed them with the villagers only a breath behind. The gate had been utterly destroyed, smashed into bits. A ragtag group of villagers stood guard there against groundhog attacks. It wasn’t likely this time of year, although it wasn’t unknown either. Misha Friedman tried half-heartedly to block her way. “You’ll die if you go out there.”
“Maybe.” Alicia stepped past her and over the ruins of the gate. It was forbidden to go beyond the gate after sundown and had been for as long as Alicia could remember. There was too much chance of running into something nasty. It was a rule she had always followed, yet now she broke it without a single thought. The tracks were clear in the snow and that was all that mattered.
It was fully dark now. That hardly mattered. Not a single cloud was to be seen and the stars shone bright as diamonds. The light from the moons made the landscape bright as day. Dos, Diana and Breda all rode the sky this night and all three were full; but this was not just any late winter’s eve. This night was special; it came only once a year. The Night of the Dead, it was called and it was said that on this one night spirits and other such unpleasantness had more leave to roam the land than was usual and that the veil between the worlds was thinner now than at any other time. Alicia had never believed it, but now she wasn’t so sure.
The road had not been cleared all winter and the snow had piled up as deep as most people were tall. The passing of the beasts had trampled it into a hard path that was easy for a human wearing only boots to follow. It wound deeper and deeper into the forest out of reach of the village. The beasts had not strayed from it by so much as a paw length to the left or right. They had been ruthless and methodical in their quest and took the shortest possible route. Even the pattern of the tracks suggested speed. She wondered why they had been in such a hurry. Surely they couldn’t actually be worried about pursuit, not after the mess they had made of the village?
Alicia ran after them as quickly as possible through the deep snow. Something big and ugly leapt at her from under a tree and she killed it without ever slowing her pace. She topped a rise and came out from under the cover of the trees and into a broad meadow. She came to an abrupt stop, as the end of the trail presented itself in a sudden, stark fashion.
It didn’t end so much as disappear. The tracks simply vanished, right in front of her. A solid line of prints and then nothing.
‘What? This can’t be…’ Alicia stared in shock. She had to have lost the trail or they turned off… No, the trail was clear behind her and there were no tracks to either side. There was nowhere else to go. Despairing, she sank into the snow at the edge of the trail and touched it gingerly with her fingers. A shock made her jump. Green sparks tinged the air and nausea swept over her.
Wait a moment... that was too much like the feeling she had had earlier that evening to be ignored. She had been standing beside a tree, feeding a red bird out of her hand, when the world dropped out from under her. She had fallen to the ground, retching and clutching at the nearest object to steady herself. When she had finally regained her balance, she’d discovered that everything in the forest had disappeared: the birds, the animals, even the insects. She had hurried homeward then, convinced something was wrong. The same feeling had overcome her again not more than a few minutes later. Then she had returned home to find it utterly destroyed. Strange things were known to happen on the Night of the Dead, but Alicia had never heard of anything like this. Were the old legends about the thinning of the veil between the worlds on the Night of the Dead true after all?
It was said that on this night not only were spirits more active, it was also easier to cross between spaces on one world and even between worlds. She knew it was possible to do such a thing; the Guardians were known to do it occasionally and Ashten had crossed, not just between the spirit and the normal worlds, but between the stars. Something had crossed from somewhere else, murdered her family, stole her brother and crossed back again. She had to follow, but how? She was no Guardian and the nearest Tower was leagues away.
A cold wind howled down the mountainside and slammed into her. She staggered, but caught herself in time to keep from being knocked over entirely. What now? She struggled to her feet and looked around, sword at the ready. Nothing dangerous presented itself anywhere. Although- wait. She knew where she was now. This was the exact spot where the path to the village crossed the trail that led up and down the mountain. She could see the curve of the trail as it wound upward. She had followed it long ago and knew that it ended at the pass. No one lived that far up. There was another village down in the valley. She might find help there, but it would take days. Her own village was the only thing that was back the way she had come. There would be no help from that quarter.
The wind shifted again, this time blowing directly from the east. The treetops bent westward from the force and Alicia’s eyes were drawn that way as well. She had forgotten about the path that led west, and father into the forest. She could pick out the faint outlines of it in the snow, a narrow winding track that led into the heart of the forest.
There was nothing out that way except the Dauphin.
The Dauphin. Nobody knew who or what she was exactly, save that she certainly wasn’t human. It was forbidden to enter her domain without permission and those who did were seldom heard from again. Like old Bose, who’d been the village woodcutter until he decided to go poking around in the Dauphin’s territory and disappeared. However, hadn’t she also helped Luke Deswin when his daughter had been so sick? Not just sick; dying. Everyone had known that was the case. The village herbmistress had been unable to help her and there wasn’t time to get her to a real Healer. Luke had bundled the girl up in blankets and disappeared into the forest with her in his arms. Two days later he returned with her in tow, completely cured. Alicia also recalled that he had taken everything valuable he and his wife owned and returned with none of it. Alicia knew she had nothing of value to offer, certainly not any gold or silver and what she wanted was a lot more involved than a healing.
Only what choice did she have? None, if she had a chance of saving her brother. The Dauphin might at least know where they went and be willing to pass along that information. She crossed the road and headed up the path to the Dauphin’s lair. The forest closed in immediately. The gigantic trees of Redora’s eastern forest pressed in close on either side of the snow covered path. They towered overhead and touched at the topmost branches, blocking the sky. The only light came from the faint glow given off by the phosphorescent mushrooms that grew at the base of the trees.
This was prime Groundhog territory and Alicia was well aware of that fact. They normally hibernated in the winter, though occasionally attacks happened. They usually occurred after something unusual had happened that would wake them from their slumber. What had happened tonight would probably qualify. Alicia kept her hand on her sword and her eyes and ears open. She would only have a second’s warning. However, nothing stirred in the forest tonight. Not even the wolves or night flyers. Silence was as thick in the forest as the snow. It was almost as if the entire forest had gone into hiding.
Cold sweat broke out on the back of Alicia’s neck. How much farther could it possibly be? Her father had always insinuated that it wasn’t very far at all, but as the path stretched on she began to wonder if she was going to make it in time. Wait a minute- was that sky up ahead? Yes, she could see stars and the edge of one of the moons. The trees were definitely thinning. She was coming out upon a broad clearing. A single enormous tree grew at the center of it. It was huge, as big around as a house and as tall as the largest of the trees in the forest proper. Little lights winked on and off inside. Moonlight glinted off the snow piled deep around the clearing. Something moved in the shadows underneath the tree’s branches. A hollow voice boomed out at her.
“THAT’S FAR ENOUGH, GIRL.”
Alicia froze. The sweat that had been confined to her neck was suddenly all over her body. “Dauphin? I have come to ask for your help...”
There was a pause, then the creature gave a very humanlike snort. Luminous golden eyes stared at her out of the night. “The Night of the Dead is upon us. All three moons ride high upon the midnight sky. Spirits are roaming the land. Demonkin have crossed Between the Worlds and stolen a mortal child. Now a young warrior mage comes seeking my aid? I know what you want, girl. No.”
Alicia’s breath caught in her throat. The Dauphin’s abrupt refusal didn’t register. “You know who they are? And where they went?”
“Of course I do! It would take a simpleton not to notice a power surge like that!”
“Tell me, please. They took my brother...”
“And I suppose you think you’re just going to stroll into Hell and take him back, do you?”
That gave her pause. “Hell? That’s where they went?”
The creature snorted again. “Near enough, as far as you’re concerned. He’s gone, lass. Let it go and save yourself a lot of grief.”
Alicia’s fingers clutched convulsively around the hilt of her sword. She thought of her mother and grandmother and the village midwife, all lying dead back there, killed by a demon’s minions. And her brother, a newborn babe, in the hands of that same demon. “No.” She whispered.
“What was that?”
“No, I said. I won’t just ‘let it go’. That’s my brother they kidnapped. It’s my duty to save him. Even if it I have to go into Hell to do it.” She glared at the Dauphin, eyes blazing fury. “I need your aid. Will you give it?”
There was only silence from the Dauphin for a long moment. “If you go there you won’t come back.”
“Maybe not, but I have to try.”
“Do you have any idea what might happen to you there? I don’t mean just death, girl. There are a lot of things that are worse than death.”
“I’m not afraid.”
Silence again. This time it stretched on so long Alicia began to wonder if she was going to reply. When the Dauphin finally 
spoke her voice was low and distant. “What about payment?”
“What?”
“Payment, girl! This is no small thing you ask me for! I will not do it without proper compensation. What do you have to offer as payment?”
Alicia racked her brain. What did she have? Everything even semi-valuable had gone up in flames with the house. Except... the ring her grandmother had given her last midwinter’s day. It had been in her family for generations. Some said it dated back before the Crossing and had been brought over by the members of her family that survived the death of the old world. Without hesitation she pulled off her glove and held up her hand so that the ring was clearly visible in the moonlight. “This. I have this.”
Golden glowing eyes glared at her contemptuously out of the dark. “That. That’s all? One little ring that’s not even pure gold with only a tiny stone? You’re not asking me to send you on a pleasure trip, girl. That’s not even proper payment for that! What else have you got?”
“Nothing. What do you want? I’ll get it...”
“Not in time to save your brother you won’t. The demon Embreon didn’t snatch him just for the hell of it, girl. He needs to posses a human child born with the Power to cross into this world. You don’t have much time.” The glowing eyes regarded her for a minute. “Let’s make a deal. You give me what I want and I’ll give you what you want.”
“Done. Name your price.”
“Have some patience, girl. Don’t you at least want to know the price before agreeing to it?” The Dauphin sounded exasperated.
“Fine. What do you want?”
“Your soul.”
This left Alicia dumbfounded for a second. “What?” she squeaked when she found her voice.
“That’s my price. Accept it or not, just decide quickly. Time pauses for no one.”
Alicia stared at the hideous creature. Her soul? That was more than she’d bargained for. However, it was her brother’s life, or her own. “Fine. But you can’t collect until I return and get the babe someplace safe.”
The creature cackled. “You won’t return, girl.”
“Until I return or die in the attempt, then. If you can collect a soul from a living person you ought to be able to collect it once the soul is free. Or do the Gods no longer respect honest bargains?”
“It’s not quite that easy, girl. However, I agree.” She paused. Her eyes closed briefly. She sighed. There was a popping sound and a solid golden ring appeared over her head. It drifted slowly towards Alicia. “Touch that and the deal will be sealed.”
Alicia touched the glowing ring gingerly with her ungloved hand. Another shock coursed through her body and set every nerve on fire. She gasped with pain. The ring turned red and vanished with a small poof. “There. It’s done. What n-now?” Her voice cracked on the last word and she found herself blushing.
“Return to the place where the Demonkin crossed over, at the joining of my trail to the mountain road. There you will find a portal that crosses over the abyss between the worlds. It will remain open until dawn. If you’re not back by then you’ll be trapped. You have until the moment you cross the threshold to renege on the bargain, so think carefully, child, and decide what you’re soul is really worth before you take that step.”
Alicia didn’t reply. She turned and fled headlong down the path.
Part two to be continued in the August 2008 issue of the Fantasy Gazetteer.
