---Chapter 11
The figure which stood beside the grave was taller than any human should have been. Her form was vague, blending with the mists at every pulse and swirl. Silver hair, trailing dress and a gracefully bowed head. There was nothing threatening about her posture, but everyone could feel the power that was around her. Slowly, the mist drew back until she could be seen more clearly, but it did not disappear altogether from around her.
“Who...who are you?” Lenny finally asked, forcing himself to speak.
Her head came up and eyes like smoke fixed him with their gaze. “I am her mother.”
“Soleeryn’s?”
The figure bowed her head once in response. “Her father was a mortal man, a prince and ruler among them. His troops were lost in the mist trying to take a shortcut to victory. He stayed with me for a year...then died as mortal men do. My daughter being of both worlds I could not keep her in the mist for long. She had to live in her father’s world, then. Now she will stay in mine.”
Bending down, she reached a hand towards the grave as if about to grasp something above it. But instead of stopping at the top of the earth, her hand went right through it into the ground. When it came up again, she was holding another hand, just as pale and wraith-like as her own.
Slowly, she drew a ghost out of the moist, churned-up ground. It was Soleeryn, in every shape and detail the same, except for that she was made of ashy mist. She seemed to be asleep at first, head bowed and eyes shut, though she came to stand beside her mother.
There was a muted gasp from the travelers. Raggsy’s voice was heard muttering that this was just too much for him, while Jax vehemently exclaimed something in hoverboarder-slang under his breath. The rest watched with a wary, awed quiet.
“You mortals of other stars have been kind to her, though you led her into danger,” the mist woman said, “but that simply brought her more quickly to me. What request of yours may I fulfill in return for your kindness to her?”
The travelers looked at each other across the fresh grave, trying to consider what would be best to ask for.
“Can it be anything?” Jax asked hopefully.
The mist woman gave him a look full of cutting laughter. “‘Anything’ would be a broad promise, little mortal. And one I might not be able to fulfill. What if you were to ask for one of the moons and it crushed the planet because of you? Not anything. Just what is within my power and common sense.”
“Within your power...” Jax gave her a sideways look. “Can you give us back Soleeryn?”
The mist woman returned his look, but sharp and gleaming. For a long, tense moment she said nothing, as the sleep-walking ghost of Soleeryn stood beside her.
“I can not bring her back to life as you know it. She is of the mist now and must not leave it,” she told them all eventually, sweeping her eyes in a flashing arc across each of them. “I’m sorry, but that is out of the question.”
“Can we at least talk to her?” Amber asked in a small voice, “say good-bye?”
The woman of mist nodded, sweeping a hand towards her daughter as if releasing something. The wraith of Soleeryn opened her eyes, blinking and gazing around with a faint smile of pleasant surprise. They were darker than her mother’s, almost pure black. She looked down at the grave and gave a little start. Something long and complicated crossed between her and her mother in a single look.
Soleeryn nodded, turning back to look at all of her friends gently. “Do not worry. I remember where I came from now and know who I am. I’m sorry to leave you before we can finish our journey. I hope that we can give you some things to help you on your way.”
“Of course we can,” her mother inserted, “they are facing the great purple Cruels and must be aided. And they returned you to me.”
She smiled, adding, “shall we be classic, daughter, and give them three things?”
Soleeryn agreed, “let my gift be the first.”
Stepping forward, she took a large vial from a pocket of her robe. None of them had seen it before and, in fact, it seemed too large to have gone unnoticed in her robe. It was Amber she gave it to, as if the girl was taking her place in the membership of the crew.
“This potion will cure most wounds and illnesses, including the touch of the Cruels. The larger the hurt, the more you must use. But don’t waste any. Go easy until you understand the dosage.”
“Thank you.” Amber bowed her head, hiding the tears in her eyes.
Soleeryn brushed the girl’s shoulder with a misty hand, before moving back beside her mother.
Next, the woman of mist took a small object from a pocket in her own dress. It appeared to be a compass, encased in ebony wood and decorated with mystical spirals of gold wire and tiny, silver leaves clasped on to it. But when she opened the case and showed it to them, it only had a single, gold hand on a blank face.
“This arrow will always point towards the ‘Power Core’ of any dimension you come to,” she explained, passing it into Jax’s hand as he was nearest, “and will darken in color the closer your proximity. It should help you find and recognize the anchor of the worlds you must travel to.”
Jax gave his thanks and passed the indicator over to Lenny with the whispered words. “You’d better keep this. I already have to worry about the Di-jump as it is.”
“But I lost the S.B.C.” Lenny shook his head. “I shouldn’t be allowed to carry anything important.”
“Just take it and stop complaining, okay? Either that or pass it on to someone else.”
But everyone else was standing near the head of the grave and he did not want to make a scene in front of the two magical women of the mist.
“What should our third gift be?” the elder asked her daughter.
But it was Raggsy who gave her a suggestion, “maybe you could kinda’ help us defeat the Power Core on this world? At least give us an edge. We really need to make time and we’ve lost some recently, if ya know what I mean?”
“That would be the most useful thing,” Leaflow agreed. There was muttered assent all around.
Once again a look passed between mother and daughter. The woman of the mist took another item from her gown, this one a sand clock with silver frame and purple grains inside.
“This should help you on all worlds,” she told them, holding it out in one hand. It was about six inches tall and slim, with a blue gem on one side and a red one on the other. “Turn this over and the sand will begin to run. It will fall from the blue gem towards the red for exactly thirty minutes. In that time, the Power Core’s power will be diminished so that they will not have control over anything in the world other than themselves. Once all of the sand has gone to the red, their power will come back. It takes an hour for the sand to run back from the red to the blue. It cannot be made to work any quicker, and it can not be used again until all of the sand has crossed back.”
“Take it, Leaflow,” Jax hissed, and the cloaked one accepted it with a small, polite bow.
“That is all my power can give you for now,” the woman of mist said, giving a sigh as if made weary by the giving of them. “Now for your good-byes, daughter, and then these people must leave our mist.”
Soleeryn came forward and shook them by the hand once, saying something in a low tone to each that no-one else could hear. What she said to Dansei made him frown and look away, while Leaflow nodded once as if in acceptance. Raggsy had a hard time taking her hand and seemed afraid of it, while Jackal started faintly at what she said in surprise.
To Lenny, Soleeryn only said, “be constant and you will reach your goal.”
He gave her a look that must have been grimmer than expected, because she smiled sadly in return and moved on. It seemed that having become a wraith among the mist had given her a second-sight, or a touch of clairvoyance. Being no longer mortal, Soleeryn was touched by magic.
Their time to leave had come and the mist began to retreat, until they found themselves standing in the twilight on a lonely rise of moorland, with a freshly-made grave at their feet. The women had disappeared with the mist.
“She’s found her place, now,” Jackal remarked, “as must we all.”
“Aye, that’s the truth of it!” Patch agreed, waving a hand at the airship. “So there’s no use being glum any longer. Let’s take our loot and get goin’.”
---
A short time later the compass and hourglass sat on the little table in the cabin of the airship, the compass’s needle steadily pointing the way. Most of the crew were gathered around the table, though Amber was at the wheel and Raggsy had stayed with her as company. The others were discussing what Soleeryn had told each of them. Or at least, Lenny and Jax were. No one else put forward an offer of their secrets.
“She told me to 'keep following my questions and I would find the answer,” Jax explained, making a wry face. “Whatever that’s supposed to mean.”
“Well, I guess the Di-jump was a sort of question that you have been following,” Lenny suggested, “and so is your quest to find out what EX-2 is and why it has conquered the worlds.”
After a moment he added, “I know what my message means. I can’t stop to worry about what has been lost along the way. If you’re going to learn about EX-2, I’m going to destroy it.”
This was met with an awkward silence. Lenny‘s grim determination was not shared entirely by the rest of the crew and perhaps only understood by two of them.
“Though we haven’t found out yet how we’ll get to the enemy,” Patch ventured, “at least, from what I was given to know, it’s not a place easy to find with the Di-jump.”
“Dr. Devi went there and came back,” Jackal pointed out, resting his pale, bare feet up by the little stove to dry them out. He still had no boots, as they had been lost in the sea.
“So there must be a way to get there that doesn’t take a Di-jump at all. Instead, it takes his old teleportation machine. But who knows where he hid that or if he kept it at all, when he was escaping EX-2.”
Jax idly spun the magic compass around on the table, making its needle flicker before steadying out in the same direction as they were traveling. It had darkened just slightly since they left the Valley of Mist, the gold seeming to age as it lost its luster. Leaflow had a hand resting lightly on the base of the hourglass, making sure it could not be upset by the same sort of game as was being played with the compass.
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As they were talking a loud noise suddenly burst in from outside. It was a growling shriek which cut through the air, freezing all the occupants with its fearsome sound. Outside, they heard mingled cries of surprise from the pilot and the Ratperson.
“A wyvern!” Lenny exclaimed, jumping to his feet. He remembered the sound all too well from their last visit to this place. Everyone scrambled out of the cabin, Leaflow still carrying the hourglass. It was night time, the darkness on the deck broken by a pair of wavering lanterns hung from the metal frame above. Outside, the sky showed purple-veined like an old man’s hand.
“A dragon!” Amber shouted from the wheel, pointing out at the sky. Raggsy had lost his sling and shots in the ocean, but he was carrying a long kitchen knife which he held up with a feral snarl. It wouldn’t have helped him much against a wyvern. But he still brandished it from next to the wheel, guarding the pilot.
Looking over the rail, Lenny saw a glittering shape angling through the air towards them. It appeared dark in the shadows of night, though its eyes gleamed with a purple glow. Streamlined, striking head, swept wings and a pair of dangling, thick legs made up its silhouette. The shape slithered through the air, sweeping in for another attack.
“Jackal!” Amber shouted, “shoot it!”
The western man was the only one left who had a long-range weapon with everything necessary to fire it. Lenny was almost completely out of energy, having used it to fight off creatures on Amber’s world.
“I’m already on it,” Jackal muttered, taking a standing aim at the oncoming beast. For a moment they saw both eyes gleaming purple, coming on with deadly purpose. A moment later there was a snap! from Jackal’s rifle and a blast, the wyvern wailing as one of its eyes went dim. Losing momentum, it folded its wings and bounced off of the side of the airship, making the whole craft rock and shudder. The crew staggered, catching themselves on rail or cabin as the ship bobbed wildly. Gradually, it steadied out.
“You got it!” Jax shouted gleefully, but their triumph did not last for long. There was another shriek, this one echoed by a third, and two more wyverns could be seen climbing the airways from down below. The airship was above the Outland mountains now, heading north-east at an angle towards the other side. The great beasts materialized out of the mountain shadow, wings drumming as they gained altitude.
“Heaven’s fire!” Dansei exclaimed suddenly, striking a glitter of light in his hands before throwing a bundle over the side towards the beasts. There was a momentary wait, a glitter of flame and then a burst of fire spread in a blanket over one of the dark shapes. It roared and rolled in the air, trying to rid itself of the flaming substance. Unable to, it dropped towards the ground and disappeared in a burst of sparks in the night. Meanwhile, the third was still rising, Jackal having moved to the edge to aim down on it. But just before he pulled the trigger the ship shuddered again, throwing his aim off. The bullet whizzed away into blackness, lost. With a curse he began to chamber another round.
Lenny felt a smaller impact on the ship and whipped around to look towards the bow. There, a pair of strange creatures were pulling themselves over the rail. They were like small men or monkeys with no tails, but long, grasping arms and wiry legs. They had wings fit to their shoulders, enabling them to fly. Their hands had six or seven fingers apiece, each set with a razor claw.
“Enemies over the bow!” Lenny called, racing towards the front of the ship. As he ran, three more of the little creatures came scrambling over the rail. He heard Jackal take another shot as well, but heard no cry to indicate a hit. Patch, Jax and Leaflow joined him in the fray, the cloaked one passing the sand clock to Raggsy for safekeeping as he ran.
Lenny had no weapon, as there was not even enough energy in his banks for him to use the lance for long. He simply kicked out at the nearest creature, catching it under the furry jaw and sending it flying backwards, where it slammed into another by the rail. There was a sound of swords being drawn as the others joined him, hacking at the little savages. Shiny, sharp claws whirled in the air, tiny clicks and grunts filled it as the creatures fought with the men. More of the beasts were climbing over the railings, not only at the bow but all along the port side of the airship.
In the middle of the fight there was another great impact, which made the whole ship shiver. Lenny looked over his shoulder to see Jackal being sent sprawling across the deck and a wyvern’s wing swiping across it, claws grasping the rail and tearing a section of the planking away with a terrible cracking nose. Wood splintered, someone shouted and the wyvern fell away.
It was at that moment that another form of creature joined the fray. Swarming over the sides came things like horses with men’s bodies, draped in fraying cloth of violet and green. Their front hooves were set with spikes and they charged towards their opponents at a fast trot as soon as they hit the deck.
“We can’t hold them off for long!” Patch called above the fray, his eyes gleaming with battle light. “We must go down with the ship to the last man!”
Raggsy had dropped the hourglass to his feet and was fighting with his long knife, trying to keep everything away from Amber, who struggled with the wheel as more things hit the hull, shaking the airship and flinging it about in the sky. Jackal had regained his feet and was discharging the pistol at a rapid rate, until it ran out of bullets. He was left with only his empty rifle as a cudgel.
“Raggsy, flip the hourglass!” Jax’s voice came above the noise of the creature’s strange grunts and moans. The Ratperson scrambled for the object and caught it up in both hands, just as they saw the wyvern heading for their balloon, giant back claws outstretched. The little wooden frame turned over in Raggsy’s quick paws. Sand began to trickle from one side of the glass to the other. Abruptly, there were no enemies to be seen.
“It’s just like Leaflow’s mind magic,” Lenny gasped in relief, “it shuts off the Power Core’s forces right away. We’re saved.”
“But we only have half an hour to find the Power Core and defeat him,” the cloaked one pointed out, wiping purple blood from his sword with a sweep of his gloved hand.
Lenny nodded agreement, looking around at the wreckage of the starboard rail and the crew picking themselves up or grimly tending to their weapons. Amber had held the wheel through the whole ordeal, refusing to give up the steerage of the ship even while pressed on all sides.
Lenny’s forehead wrinkled in a frown.
“I see everyone except for Dansei. Where has the Ninja gone this time?”
They looked in the cabin and all across the deck, before finally realizing that he had been standing near the rail when it was torn away. Jackal had been knocked further back onto the deck, but Dansei must have been swept overboard.
“Not another loss already,” Amber exclaimed sadly, “and we kept together so well up until now.”
“There’s no way of finding him now, even if he is alive,” Lenny said, cautiously looking over the side of the ship into the darkness of the mountain peaks below. And, he admitted silently, there was very little hope of that.
---
The Shinobi awoke slowly to the uneasy feeling that he was somewhere he had been before but wished that he was not. Sitting up quickly (the wound in his side did not ache much any longer) he glanced around himself. There was a faint whir and hum, a sound of moving things filling the air. And an odd scent, almost like the smell of a rock being scorched by a fire.
He was sitting on a purple-hued floor made of polished stone or steel. It was cold and hard, but that was not what bothered him most. The thing which rose in front of him was what disturbed him. It was a mass of gleaming wires, flashing lights and strange objects. Some sort of machine, he guessed. It was almost exactly like what he had seen in his vision of the purple palace before, but slightly different in a few minor details. Including the fact that there was what appeared to be a sheet of gray glass set in the center of the mass, facing him directly.
As he looked about him warily, the screen flickered like a fire being lit. A glow came on in it and a scene appeared. It seemed to be a room made of solid steel, all polished highly and set with amethyst stones. A figure sat on a plain black chair in the center of the room. He did not appear tall, or short, thickset or thin. In fact, he was hard to put proportions to at all and the longer you stared at him, the more he seemed to blur into nothingness. It was like a reflection of a person seen in rippling water.
The form sat staring back at Dansei for a long moment before speaking, “do you know who I am?”
“Not the sword sharpener, I expect,” the Ninja replied with a polite bow of his head. Outwardly, he was calm. But inside he was scrambling for some explanation of what was happening.
“I am EX-2,” the figure returned coldly, with a mechanical precision that had nothing stuttering or static about it. “You know of me. You and your traveling companions have caused me much trouble, especially the World Changer. For that, he must die. Probability points to his companion’s decease, as well.”
“And I?”
“There are other plans in place for you.” The figure seemed to reflect for a moment before proceeding. “I cannot touch you strongly here. You are not in your own dimension, nor mine. So I must send you to yours. It will take a great deal of my power, but it shall be worthwhile in the end. That creature in your dimension has made a poor anchor. His mind is in two parts. Yours shall serve me better, when he is gone.”
“Then you wish--?” Dansei began, feeling the jagged edges of panic at the idea. But before he could get further a sharp pain ran through his mind, making him wince, and when he opened his eyes it was to stare up at a round, shining moon that he knew presided over the night on his own planet.
---
As they flew on through the night with all speed possible, the indicator on the compass turned slowly from gold to tarnished brown, then to a shade on the borderlands of black. Lenny held it in his hand now, standing beside the pilot at the wheel. Everyone was tired and needed rest, but they needed to defeat the Power Core even more. They had twenty minutes left, from the thirty they had been allotted. Then the Cruels would be back, perhaps in stronger numbers.
“Down there!” Jax called out from a vantage point in the bow, using his arm to pint down below them. “There is a light and some sort of structure on that cliff. Start circling down, Amber!”
Lenny checked the dial. The compass needle showed onyx now, almost blending in with the color of the face below so that it was difficult to see. “He’s right. This is it.”
The airship bobbed down through the star-strewn sky, approaching the structure Jax had spotted. It was a castle built of plain dark-gray stone, set on the table of a cliff overlooking a green valley. It was a simple fortress, at least now that Ex-2's influence was removed. Turrets peered over the edge of the cliff into the shadowed vale, while a large courtyard opened on the inner edge. From within the court an orange light flickered and glowed; the flames of a large bonfire. As the airship neared the ground, there was a soft hissing noise nearby and a solid thunk as something hit the side of the ship. Leaning over, Raggsy pulled a crossbow bolt from the wooden planking and skipped back with it, holding it up.
“Looky here. Some sort o’ message!”
Lenny took the bolt from him and found a piece of parchment wrapped around the shaft. Unrolling it, he saw symbols written on it in the heavily decorated and difficult to read script of Soleeryn’s world. It took a moment for him to understand the message, though it was short.
'If ye come any further I will have to challenge ye to a duel. Mayst your champion beware.
Count Dalython of Skrimbrok castle, by the grace of his Master.’
“He wants to challenge one of us to a duel?” Jax squawked when Lenny was done reading it aloud. “Wow, I wish I had a better weapon for dueling! It would be so turbo to fight a count in a duel!”
Lenny gave him a severe look over the top of the scroll. “Come on, Jax, you know that one of the more experienced fighters will have to take him on. What’s the stakes if we fight and lose?”
“One of us dies, at very least,” Leaflow remarked, “and we lose the few minutes of time left in the hourglass.”
The airship passed close beside the wall of the fortress and they saw a gleaming figure standing in the light of the flames below, a weapon held in one hand. He raised it towards them in a symbol of defiance and salute, showing that he was prepared for them.
“But who will fight him, and what weapons are allowed?” Amber worried, “Patch and Leaflow have swords, while Jackal has his firearms. But mine is out of bullets, and Lenny is out of energy.”
“What about me?” Raggsy scowled, “I’m no sucker when it comes to a tussle.”
“Yes, but you only have a knife. I suppose if it’s a knife fight...”
Leaflow gave a small twirl of his blade in the air. “I don’t see why we should fight fairly, even if we do accept the duel. We’re not here for fun and games: this is war. One of us should set him up as if for a fair fight, then Jackal plug him from behind.”
Everyone except for the gunman blinked and looked uneasy. It was a good suggestion, but one that required a certain view on honor to accomplish. Lenny hesitated, glancing once again over the side at the figure waiting by the fire. They had little time to lose. Honor is a peculiar thing. Reluctantly, he nodded, “we’ll try it, though I’ll feel like a rat afterwards.”
“Hey.” Raggsy gave him a nudge. “There’s a lot worse t’ings to be than a rat, ya know. Anyway, I put in my bid right now to be the champion.”
As they airship came to a rest right above the ground and the rope ladder was thrown over the side, they debated this point. Leaflow, Patch and Raggsy all offered to do the deed.
As they climbed over and stood on the hard, stone clifftop in the dark they decided that Leaflow would be the best to accept the challenge, as the deception had been his idea. He would not hesitate to accept a battle then cheat at it. And Jackal was quite willing to shoot the Power Core if the battle was not definitely going in Leaflow’s favor right away.
“But what if Dalython double-crosses us?” Jax asked.
“Hopefully he won’t have the ability to,” Leaflow returned, giving his sword an extra polish with the corner of his cloak.