Aethertide (Chapter 13)

Raisa struggled, twisting in the air like a rag on the wind. Even though she knew what held her above the fatal drop to the distant valley below was her only salvation, she struggled because it was the ape’s grasp, its huge hand wrapped around her ankle, swallowing most of her leg and perhaps falling was better than being eaten.

Off to one side, Olivia stood aghast, not daring to move in case the ape decided to change its mind and drop her friend into the chasm. She looked at Raisa, her hair like an upside-down flame as she dangled, and then at the ape that snorted and pouted at them both. Raising her hands slowly, she circled the creature to get its full attention.

“Woah there, big fellow. Let’s not do anything hasty,” she said in what she hoped was a companionable tone for apes.

Raisa called out from behind her: “Olivia, are you mad? Run! Get away while it has me.”

“He caught you, Raisa,” Olivia said over her shoulder, keeping her eyes on the ape. “He’s an animal, his motivations are easier to read and far more trustworthy than any human. I don’t think he wants to hurt us at all. He’s trapped, scared.”

Moving closer to the beast, she held out her hands, and gently stroked the white fur on its outstretched arm.

“Steady as she goes, there,” she said in the softest sing-song voice that she could. “How about you put my friend down?”

The ape shifted its weight, wafting Raisa around but still she dangled over the cliff. Scrutinising Olivia from only a few inches away, the ape snorted, blowing back Olivia’s hair and ruffling her clothes. It seemed unconvinced.

“Oh my. That’s some pungent breath you have, my large friend,” Olivia said, trying not to turn away but desperately wanting to. He reached out slowly, resting her hand on the ape’s cheek and began to walk, letting the ape’s head swing toward her as she walked away from the edge. Though still curious and uncertain, the ape did follow. Almost as an afterthought, the giant beast set Raisa down in the dirt, inches away from the cliff edge.

“That’s it,” Olivia said with a tight-lipped smile. “Come back this way, all calm and friendly.”

Propping herself up on one elbow and swiping her hair out of her face, Raisa said: “What are you doing? It doesn’t understand you.”

“I don’t think it matters what you say, Raisa. Only how you say it. Doesn’t it, big fellow?” Olivia stroked the ape’s hand as it brought it around to lean on its knuckles and shift its weight again. “Shush, now. She’s just cranky from being upside down. All that blood rushing to her head.”

The ape snorted another huff of bad breath as Olivia finally reached the cliff wall where the ape’s other hand was buried. She turned slowly away from it to peer into the crack. There was the creature’s giant fist in the dark, and all became clear.

“Do you have anything to eat?” Olivia asked Raisa.

“A little,” Raisa replied, dusting herself off.

“Would you give him some?”

With a snort to rival the ape’s, Raisa dug into a pouch at her waist and pulled out something dry and dark. A few edible leaves. Holding them in the very tip of her fingers, she held them out to the ape. It moved quickly, making her rock back on her heels. The ape’s hand slid free of the crack with ease and it reached out, displaying bruised and grazed knuckles, to take the leaves from her in its giant fist and cram them into its mouth.

With her hand still outstretched and face a bundle of uncertainty, she asked: “What just happened?”

Reaching into the crack herself, Olivia produced a handful of dried grasses.

“It’s a naturally formed monkey trap,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “He reached in for this grass, but once he had it in his fist, his hand wouldn’t come back out. He must be starving.”

“He’s a grass-eater,” Raisa replied.

Olivia held out the retrieved grass and the ape crammed that into its mouth, too. “It looks that way. So much for terrifying monsters in the mountains.”

While the ape ate, she petted it, making cooing noises. Eventually, Olivia moved a little closer but not by much.

“The day isn’t over, yet,” she muttered but Olivia didn’t seem to hear. She was staring up at the animal with a silly grin on her face.

“I think I’ll call him Tobias,” she said.

Styr and Aki stood over the old woman, watching the faint movement of breath shudder through her thin frame. Aki looked down at the wrench in his hand. How simple it had been. How easy.

“What’s wrong with you, boy?” Styr spat at him. He gestured to Mrs Mian. “This old woman is clearly a peasant of some kind.”

Aki still regarded the wrench, turning it this way and that. His voice was dreamlike, thoughtful when he answered the Archmagi: “But, she saw us. And she’ll be dead soon, anyway. They all will.”

“That is not the point,” Styr said, clipping Aki around the back of the head with an open hand. “You have no control over your impulses. Be damned if I know why the Council thought you had potential. When we return, I’m sending you back. I’ve had enough of herding you like some wild animal.”

That brought Aki out of his haze. He made to argue but the Archmagi had already stalked away to continue digging through Olivia’s papers and books, barking an order over his shoulder as he went:

“Set up the focus. That, at least, will make you useful for once.”

Putting the wrench carefully aside, letting his eyes linger on it for a moment, Aki did as he was bidden for all the good it would do him in placating his master. Sliding wooden rods and metal rings from their packs, he assembled a tripod and a brass housing for a large aetheric crystal to sit inside, all the while muttering to himself.

“Control your emotions, Aki. Think before you act, Aki. Pah! What does he know? I would be so much more powerful than him. He just won’t let me try.”

He shot a look over to the Archmagi, to make sure that the old man’s failing hearing

hadn’t picked up on his rant. But Styr seemed unperturbed. Similarly, the old woman was still unmoved. Finally, the wrench drew his eye once more and the answer to all of Aki’s problems coalesced.

Let the old man begin the aetheric cascade. Give him what he deserves. Then blame the subsequent explosion for his demise and return to the Council a hero.

Aki smiled. Yes. They would have to graduate him, then.