Alchemist (The Four Corners of Santerria)

  “What about the bodies?” asked Darius, running after them.

  Terry sighed but she did not look back. “We don’t have the time. We have to find my father. He needs to know.”

  ******

  The sun was beginning to kiss the horizon as they reached the edge of the Gyris Mountains. The foothills had given way to a series of hillocks and beyond them, a highway and pockets of civilisation. Lanterns flickered in the evening gloom from the villages and towns that lay scattered across the vista before them.

  “So what’s the plan?” Connor asked, wiping his beleaguered face.

  Terry looked at him. The last few days travel were beginning to show. “What do you mean?” she asked.

  He gave a long sigh and shut his eyes, allowing Terry to see how dark the circles had become around his sockets. “Well, are we going to stay in a tavern tonight or are we still trying to avoid everyone?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t care anymore, I need a shower.” Terry was a little tired herself but generations of digging and hunting over great distances had leant her endurance where her companions began to falter. One of her few vices was the want to wash her flesh every so often. Her ancestors had been harder than her in that respect, but nearly a decade spent amongst the humans and the lick of soap every day was a habit that was difficult to kick.

  Something tugged at the back of her mind, causing her head to ache. She closed her eyes, wiping them with her hand. The voice called again, this time grabbing at her with more force, hot and angry. Terry shook her head, batting the thoughts away. With a flash of anger it retreated.

  It was the fourth time that day the fractured piece of her mind had reached for her conscious and each time it had got louder and been harder to fend off. Days ago it had been a dull voice at the back of her head but now it was constantly trying to stir.

  “Terry?” It was Darius. He was walking alongside her but he sounded as if he was talking to her from far away.

  She blinked at him, slightly dazed. “What?” she asked.

  Darius sighed angrily. “I was asking you what we were going to do if someone saw us? What if they phone the Kamari?”

  Terry stared at him for a long moment. His concerns seemed trivial to her; irritating. She did not know why. She gave a lazy shrug. “What are the Kamari really going to do? If they did catch us we’d just be deported again. It might be to the border or it might be to Earth, either way they’d actually be doing us a favour.”

  The colour drained from him. “Deported? But I’ve not done anything wrong.”

  Connor looked at him, his expression grim. “I’m sorry to say this but you have. You ran off with a fugitive, in any court you’d be guilty by association.”

  “But...I haven’t done anything! I know the law they can’t do that, surely?” He began to protest.

  Terry rolled her eyes. More than anything she wanted to rip his throat out just to shut him up. “Darius!” she snapped and the young man grew silent. She turned to face him. “Just...” she said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. It was there, tugging at her again. “Just...calm down...please.” she said quietly, holding a hand out to him. That said she turned away, walking on.

  Connor and the water elemental exchanged shocked glances. But when words failed them to describe what had just happened they could do nothing but follow the angry Alchemist onward down the slope.

  ******

  The hour was late; but despite the silence and stillness of the night in the world outside their window, Terry found herself waking. She sat up, the quilt falling from her. She peered about the room, seeing as clearly as day despite it being swallowed in gloom. Connor and Darius both slept soundly in their beds.

  Rubbing at her eyes, Terry pushed herself to her feet. She stepped across the room, her steps muffled by carpet. She opened the window to the back of the room, which opened out onto a narrow back alley.

  Through the darkness she saw two large eyes glinting at her. Smiling, she raised a finger to her mouth and turned away. Crossing back to where Connor lay, she shook him awake.

  “What?” he mumbled, groggy with sleep. He could see her smiling, despite the dark. “Our lift’s here.”

  A few minutes later they were heading out of town on the backs of two primeval Alchemists, flanked by an armoured escort on quiet, human feet. Terry rode on her father’s back with Darius, while Connor rode on Lyle’s, reunited with Faye. The two giants strolled out of town, along the backstreets and away from the lantern street lights, as to not draw any unwanted attention.

  Terry lay with her back propped up against the base of her father’s long neck. Darius sat slightly further down, leaning against one of his many, oversized back spikes.

  “Are you feeling any better?” Terry asked. Darius opened his eyes, he had been dozing. “What?” he asked, only half-hearing. “Oh, sorry, yeah, a bit. Thanks.” He rubbed his eyes. “Sorry, I think I fell asleep there.”

  “It’s okay. I’m thinking about nodding off myself.” She replied, shifting into a more comfortable position. “You don’t mind do you dad?” Fallo made no reply.

  Darius gazed off into the darkness. The town was silent. He imagined the hundreds of townsfolk who lay sound asleep in their beds at this late hour. Then he thought how crazy it was that a king was passing by so many of their doors and that they would never know. He looked back at Terry, his thoughts turning back to the stories he had heard about her.

  “Can I tell you something?” he asked.

  Terry opened her eyes. “Yeah?”

  “You know the other day I said that you were nothing like how I imagined you would be?”

  Terry had a dim recollection from down by the river, but the conversation was hazy at best; another symptom from her head injury. “Yeah...I think so.” She shuffled about. “Sorry if I don’t remember it all. It’s like I’ve told you before, I remember very little when I’m in that form.”

  She saw him nod through the dark. “It’s ok.” He said. “If you don’t remember I was a little rude about it.” He bit his lip, thinking of how to phrase what he was going to say next. “It’s just... rowing up there were all sorts of stories about you and how you defeated Edward. You were legends.”

  Terry smirked at that. “I like your choice of words. I would never describe any of us lot as legends.”

  Darius flushed, suddenly embarrassed. “I just mean that’s the way people talked about you.” He shrugged. “Sorry, I’m not explaining it very well. What I was trying to say is that in reality you are all so much more down to earth, you know what I mean?”

  It was Terry’s turn to shrug. “They would have started saying the same things about anyone who had killed him.” She laid her head back down against Fallo. “People have a lot to say about what happened and most of that is complete shit to be honest.”

  He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You still stopped the most wanted man on the planet.”

  Terry sighed tiredly. “No we didn’t Darius. He’s still out there, god knows doing what.” Her gaze grew distant.

  “You’ll stop him again.”

  “Yeah...I hope so.” She said. But she doubted her own words.

  ******

  Terry couldn’t move much when she woke. Her father, still in his primeval form, was cuddling her against his chest. Feeling her movement, he unrolled, letting her go. He craned his head over her, gazing at her with those big, amber eyes of his. He squeaked in greeting. Terry reached up and patted his muzzle. “Morning.” She smiled. He squeaked again. She stood and stretched.

  The sun was already well up, peeping through the warehouse windows. She felt like she could sleep for a month. But if they were going to get back to the safety of the borders they would have to get moving again. She knew sleep would have to wait.

  Fallo and Lyle had walked late into the night before stopping to rest in an abandoned industrial estate on the outskirts of a small town. They were still at least two hundred miles or so north of Marrich an
d one hundred more from the borders. Even if the two of them ran flat out, it would still take nearly two days for them to reach the border and they had already travelled such a distance to find Terry and her small band of travellers. She knew realistically that it would be another three or four days before they finally reached safe territory. Terry’s father had incredible stamina, but Lyle and the soldiers were not any stronger than any others of their race, which was slowly their progress.

  “Morning.” called Connor, sliding the old, rusty warehouse door down behind him with some difficulty. His presence drew gazes from the resting soldiers but none of them spoke a word.

  “Where have you been?”

  Connor looked surprised. “I went for a pee.”

  Faye stopped brushing her hair and shut the compact mirror she had with her. She wrinkled her nose at him. “I did not need to know that, thank you.”

  Connor shrugged. “She asked.”

  Faye rolled her eyes and flipped open the mirror, resuming her beautifying. “Men.”

  Connor and Terry exchanged glances.

  Looking about Terry noticed that the other water elemental was unaccounted for. “Where’s Darius?”

  Faye shot Connor a glance. “Outside.” He said. It was obvious from his expression that he did not wish to say more.

  Terry nodded. “Ok.” She sat back down, pressing her back against her dad. He had lay back down to rest again. “I take it no one has any food?” she asked, putting the question to the floor.

  Faye shut her compact, pushing it into her trouser pocket. “I’m afraid not, we left in somewhat of a hurry.” She replied, somewhat unpleased. “Since then I have only eaten what your father or uncle have caught and that was not a lot.”

  “It’s a good thing we had those pies and chips last night at the tavern then?” Connor said to no-one in particular as he scratched absently at the stubble on his chin. He had showered at the hotel the evening before but had been too lazy to shave, opting to do it first thing in the morning. There unexpected midnight flight had dashed that want.

  Terry smirked at him. “You’ve nearly got a beard.”

  Connor continued to rub at it. “You like it?”

  Terry turned back to Faye, still laughing. “You must have something left.”

  She shot her a dark look. “Do you see a bag? Like I said, we left in somewhat of a hurry.” She began brushing the dust from her trousers.

  Connor walked over to his backpack to have a look. At the same time, Fallo opened his eyes and sat up. Terry paid no heed to his movement and did not see the tentacle that rose up into the air above her. Its end transformed in a large metallic spike.

  “Terry...” was all Faye could say, before the sharp device plunged into the back of her neck.

  Terry screamed, crumpling over. Lyle’s head shot up at the noise.

  Faye and Connor made for her but Fallo warned them off with hisses as they came too near. Seconds later the spike pulled free and the tentacle retreated.

  Terry’s friends rushed to her, while Fallo looked on.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine.” She said to the chorus of panicky voices around her. She turned to her dad, her expression dark. “What the hell is wrong with you? You could have told me you were going to do that! You know how much that stings!”

  Fallo growled indifferently, lying back down.

  “What did he do?” asked Connor, examining her neck.

  She pushed his hands away. “I’m fine! It was just an energy shot.”

  “A what?”

  “He gave me some of his energy. I’m not hungry now. It’s fine, that’s all it was.” She said, brushing them away.

  Darius stared at her in disbelief. “I thought he was attacking you or something!”

  Taking exception to the remark, Fallo turned and hissed through barred teeth. Darius shrunk away.

  “Dad!” Terry shouted, raising a hand to him. He growled but backed off. “Can we all calm down please?” she asked, looking around all their faces. Everyone stared at her, unsure what to say or what to do next.

  Lyle grumbled. Rolling over, he fell back asleep.

  ******

  They did not set off again until after nightfall. Two primeval Alchemists, especially an abnormally large one like Terry’s father would not have gone unnoticed. After walking for the first several miles, suburbia ended and they entered the wilds once more. The two giants ceased the opportunity to run; the foot soldiers running swiftly behind.

  As the morning sun crept over the horizon the ocean appeared as a glittering silver ribbon to the east. Fallo and Lyle has changed course during the night, heading further to the north east in direction of the Alega Sea to give Marrich as wide a berth as possible.

  The brothers had slowed to a trot, although Fallo still appeared fresh despite the huge distance he had just covered. Lyle was beginning to hang his head from exhaustion and their escort were beginning to trail.

  Progress came to a sudden stop when Lyle gave a whimper and stumbled to the ground. Fallo stopped and turned round. He growled in question.

  Lyle groaned, barely opening his eyes. Fallo grumbled a response.

  Terry leapt down from her father’s back, landing in a crouch. Connor and Faye had already disembarked Lyle when he went down.

  “Shit. He doesn’t look so good.” said Connor, fearing for the fallen Alchemist.

  Fallo growled something else.

  “He’ll be alright, he just needs a rest. Dad, you’ll just have to carry us all for the rest of the way.” said Terry, kneeling down beside Lyle and patting his muzzle. He grumbled, peering at her through half-lidded eyes.

  Faye looked around the flat grasslands. The soldiers trailed into view. The first to arrive began to sit down, without leave. But they still kept a keen eye, despite their fatigue.

  Faye continued to look this way and that. With exception of the occasional rise and tree they were exposed in all directions. She knew that this was the worst place for them to have stopped, especially being so close to the capital, but she did not say it – she knew everyone harboured the same concern.

  As midday approached the weather had gone into reverse. A heavy drizzle and murky fog swamped the landscape. Having grown weary of the rain, Fallo had opted to seek shelter in a small stand of woods. The cover was not great, but it gave him and the soldiers the opportunity to lie down and rest. After the brief respite they continued northwards, using the cover of the weather to their advantage. Little did they know at the time that the rain and fog would last another two days.

  It was long after nightfall that they crossed into the border lands. No one celebrated the fact that they had reached safety; everyone, save Faye and Darius were cold, soaked, tired and hungry.

  A couple of hours after their crossing, Fallo suddenly stopped, his antennae standing on end. Terry and Lyle stood; the latter still a little sluggish despite having regained much of his former strength.

  “What is it?” Darius asked worriedly.

  Fallo craned his head and barked a cry the young man had never heard before. The world fell silent again all but for the patter of raindrops striking against the king’s metal armour. Then out of the night came a reply; distant, but clear.

  Fallo roared and then continued forward.

  Darius grabbed a spike for support as the Alchemist launched forward at a shocking speed. “What was that?” He shouted as he was jostled about.

  “The border patrol!” Lyle shouted back to him, holding on. “We’ll be getting an extra escort back to the colony.”

  Darius laughed with relief. “I can’t wait to sleep in a proper bed again.”

  Lyle wiped his face, the rain doing little to refresh him from his fatigue. “Yeah, I think I could sleep for a week.”

  Connor looked at Terry and she smiled back at him through the dark. The relief of the party was palpable as the thought of safety filled their hearts. Fallo ran on, leaving the fears of the road far behind them.

  Chapter 18 r />
  Dance with the Dead

  Fallo plunged his head into the fountain, ignoring the officials who had gathered about him. The councillor who had been nattering away fell silent. The act had been simple but poignant. The King was in no mood to listen to the politics that took place during his absence - he simply wished to satisfy his thirst after such an exhausting journey. He drank deeply for a few minutes.

  As soon as he raised his head the clamour began again. “Councillor!” shouted Lyle, silencing the man. The man’s babbling was beginning to grate on his nerves.