Aethertide (Chapter 15)

“If someone had told me only yesterday that today I would be scaling a rock face to reach a wizard’s hideout accompanied by a wild woman and a…gorillizard, I’d have had them committed to Bedlam,” Oliva grumbled as she pressed her face to the cliffside, arms spread wide, trying to become adhesive through sheer force of will. There was no answer from Raisa who was already much higher. Olivia continued, putting off climbing for a few more precious moments. “If I’d known that this was where my research would take me, I’d have gotten out a little more, maybe taken up a sport. Although I don’t think anything in London could have prepared me for this.” Daring to look around, she spotted Toby leaping from handhold to handhold with apparent ease and glee. Olivia groaned.

Raisa’s voice drifted down to her. “Are you coming?”

“Yes,” Olivia shouted back. “Just enjoying the moment as much as possible.”

She started to climb and soon felt Raisa’s hand reach down to help her. Panting on the ledge, Olivia shook her head. “I can’t believe I just did that.”

“But are you having fun?” Raisa asked.

Olivia smiled a little coyly. “Perhaps a little.”

“Well it was worth it. We found the entrance.” Raisa said with a smile, tipping her chin toward a cave entrance. She helped Olivia to her feet, straightening her friend’s goggles on her head. “Let’s go see to these Magi and get you home.”

Raisa strode with confidence toward the dark opening in the mountainside, Olivia in her wake. They stepped inside, Olivia noting the chisel marks around the well-carved entrance and taking it as a good sign that they were entering somewhere man-made. From behind her came a frustrated snort and she looked back. Toby hunkered by the entrance trying to make himself as small as he could. Olivia could tell that even if he were to crawl, his shoulders would be too wide to follow.

“Sorry, Ape. You won’t fit,” Raisa said.

Olivia doubled back to embrace the huge creature who didn’t fight back. “You can’t come with us where we’re going, Toby.”

Toby seemed unconvinced and tried to shove himself into the entrance again. Dust and gravel fell and he sneezed as he sat back, defeated.

“Go on, big fellow,” Olivia said. “Go find some grass.”

Olivia felt Raisa’s arm slip around her shoulder and they stood there for a moment with the gorillizard as he scratched at himself forlornly. Then Raisa led her away.

“We have to go. He’ll get the idea.”

They walked a little way into the darkness and when Olivia looked back, Toby was still there.

Purple fog began to bleed from the aetheric focus, filling the room as Aki raised the wrench above his master’s head. He paused. With Styr’s attention on focussing the aether into the explosive tripod he had a moment to enjoy this. The cold steel in his hand, the weight of it, the way his arm felt powerful and the decision solidified in his mind. This was the path to the future he yearned for, a shortcut to brilliance. Bunching his muscles against the wrench’s weight, he felt ready to strike once and once only into the gleaming skull of Archmagi Styr.

Something gripped his ankle. The old woman, her glistening eyes boring into him bisected by a trickle of blood from her forehead.

“Don’t do it, boy. Don’t…”

Aki kicked her aside like a mangy dog. “Get off of me, old woman!”

The Mrs Mian rolled aside with a sad cough of pain. But it was enough to get Styr’s attention. He turned from his work and spotted Aki, wrench raised, maniacal in the aetheric glow.

“Aki, what are you doing!?” The Archmagi demanded.

“Taking my rightful place.”

And the wrench swept down.