Chapter 9 - Rescue

I’m so cold. I think I was able to set my broken arm, and I pulled out all the feather darts and purified my wounds, but I’m still bleeding. Without Ruby, I’m already freezing to death. The icy mist cuts deep, and I can’t stop shivering. I want to search for Ruby immediately, but I need to at least survive the night.

I search around blindly in the mist, and eventually I manage to find a small cave in the side of a cliff where there’s just a bit less wind. I use some lightning to heat up the rocks, and I huddle close to the warm stone.

“Ruby.” Tears freeze on my cheeks, and I close my eyes.

I wake up to the sun in my eyes. It’s utterly frigid, but the sky is clear. There is a layer of frost on my skin, and I can barely move. I heat stone with lightning and try my best to get warm again.

Once I’m a little bit warmer, I force myself to my feet, and start searching for Ruby. I’m looking for signs of where the harpies might have went. The two harpies I killed are still lying on the cliff where I fought them, their bodies picked clean by something overnight. They said something about a castle. My best guess is that’s where Ruby is now. I have to find it.

I don’t see any structures though, just rocky mountains. I have no idea which direction to go.

My best chance is to climb to the top of a mountain, so I can see really far in every direction. Then maybe I can find the castle and rescue Ruby.

I start walking up the slope.

Every footstep is so heavy. I have to stop every few minutes to use lightning to heat myself back up again. It’s too cold, my throat feels like it’s freezing just from breathing the air.

The mountain is huge. One of the bird monsters almost notices me, and I hide. I don’t know if I have the strength to fight it right now. Nevertheless, I continue upward towards the icy summit.

Two days later, the rock has given way to snow and ice. Deep crevasses lie like hidden traps underneath the snow. Every once in a while, I see a future where the ground gives way and I fall into an icy abyss, then I step somewhere else. A snaking line of footsteps trails down the mountain behind me.

There are no rocks to heat up anymore. When I get cold, I just send lightning all around my body to heat up the air instead. It’s a fleeting relief. The icy wind always blows the warmth away in an instant.

At one point, I find another track of footsteps crossing the glacier. They look like human feet, but each one is as big as I am. The tracks stops at the edge of a deep crevasse.

Near the summit, the air is so thin it’s hard to breathe. Sharp wind-cut rocks poke out of the snow to form steep cliffs. I dig my claws into the rock and climb up slowly. The wind is howling around me. It feels like I’ll be blown away. I hang on tight. Inch by inch, I struggle upward. While I’m climbing, the sun sets, and frost forms on my neck. I don’t stop. I cannot stop.

Finally, I reach the summit. The moon is illuminating the mountaintops. I look around.

I can’t see any castle. I can’t see any sign of the harpies at all. Did I climb up here for nothing?

I sob. I can’t help it. The tears freeze in my eyes.

I don’t know if I have the strength to climb back down. The wind is sucking the life out of me.

Am I going to die here?

The moon is so bright in my eyes, so warm.

I reach out and grab the cord that tethers me to it.

“Please, Moon Sister. Are you listening? Will you help me?”

I can only hear the wind. The chord slips from my grip, and I blink the frost out of my eyes.

I take a deep breath, and I worry it will be my last. But it cannot be, because I will find Ruby.

I will find her. Even if I die here, even if I’m already dead, I will find her. I shall will it so.

The light of the moon hits just right, and I see a second thread, thin but strong. It stretches out from my chest and bends around a distant mountain. I touch it. It’s warm. It’s her.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

I can feel her. I know where she is. Ruby is right behind that mountain. My heart is pounding.

Lightning.

I dash down the mountainside, letting my connection to Ruby dictate the path. The thread carries me forward, around the boulders and the crevasses, down through a deep valley.

I have to catch my breath after a while. The mountain is far. It will take a few days to reach her.

Now that I know where she is, I refuse to stop moving for long. I have to save her. I kill what monsters I can along the way, and eat to regain my strength, then keep moving.

Once I manage to circle to the other side of that mountain, I can see the castle.

There are harpies flying all around it. It’s old and crumbling, and the walls are coated in blood, long trails of sinew hanging down from the crenellations. Ruby’s thread leads up to the very highest tower.

“I’m coming, Ruby. Be strong.”

My approach is tricky. The castle lies on an exposed bluff. I would have to clim up steep cliffs to reach it, and there are harpies everywhere. I need to be careful.

I decide to approach the castle from behind. It might take a couple days, but if I climb up the mountain until I’m uphill of the castle, I can approach it by going down a rocky slope.

I leave my backpack behind, hidden between a couple big boulders. It will only slow me down. The climb is grueling, but I’ve recovered a bit, and I can feel Ruby’s warmth through her thread, so it’s not as bad as before. The biggest problem is hiding from all the harpies. Sometimes they fly overhead, and I have to crouch in the shade of boulders hoping they don’t notice me. Fortunately I’m downwind of the castle, so they shouldn’t be able to smell me coming.

Once I reach the icy snowcap of the mountain, I can see the castle towers down below.

I take a couple hours to rest and recover my strength, and then it’s time.

I quickly head down the mountainside, moving as quietly as possible. I need to get as close to the castle as I can before the harpies notice me. I feel completely exposed, scrambling down a vast rocky slope in plain view of the towers. I keep my eyes wide and my ears high.

“Trespasser! Trespasser!” I hear a shrill voice scream in the distance.

Lightning.

Throwing stealth to the wind, I shoot along Ruby’s thread in a bolt of lightning. The crackling energy carries me through the air along a jagged path, directly towards the tallest tower.

A shadow flits out from the tower window, and intercepts me. A clawed foot slams into my stomach, knocking me out of the lightning and sending me tumbling wildly through the air.

Talons rake across my back. I couldn’t see anything! I’m falling toward the rocks.

Suddenly, a clawed foot wraps around my neck, and rips me sideways. My body is slammed into the castle wall, my face pinned against the rotting guts that trail down the granite bricks.

The talons drop me. I desperately reach up and dig my claws into the wall to slow my fall, but I lose my grip halfway down. I drop with a thud onto the rocks at the base of the castle.

Glaring down at me, I see eyes of gold under a crown of brass.

“Take her to the coop.”

A black feather shoots into my throat, and a cloying inky shadow spreads through my blood.

Everything goes numb.

I wake up on cold wet stone. There is a putrid stench in the air. I try to move, and I realize the shadow is still weighing on me, paralyzing me. I let moonlight flow through my body, and it’s quite difficult at first, like the gate is clogged up with tar, but then I think about Ruby, and the moonlight comes surging through. The shadow is banished from me, and I sit up, gasping.

My arms are shackled behind my back. I’m in some sort of prison cell. There is only one gate that leads in or out, and it’s high above me, up a narrow shaft. There are lots of bones here, and something that looks like part of a human skull.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Suddenly something stirs in the corner. I startle, turning to see a man crouching there.

“Ah? You cured the curse of your own power. Unexpected, but not inconceivable,” he says.

He has long wiry black hair and a beard. Piercing green eyes peer at me for a long moment, then turn back down to his own body.

He is staring intently at his own legs.

The man’s whole body is covered in twisted veiny back runes. The runes look similar to the ones that appeared on me when the harpies shot me with their cursed feathers.

The man is running his finger along the patterns, mumbling to himself.

“Weakness flows into pain, and pain flows into shadow. The third meridian is homologous to the insistent alignment pattern, but has a hyperbolized source. No, that’s wrong. But it isn’t. Wait yes it is. Maybe I’m thinking about this all wrong.”

“Are you trying to get rid of the harpy's curse? Do you want me to cure you?” I ask.

“NO!” He screams furiously.

I scoot backward.

“Sorry, sorry, I got a little worked up there. I lost my train of thought. How silly of me,” he says.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“Yes, quite fine thank you.”

He goes back to muttering to himself.

I take out my claws, imbue them with moonlight, and start scratching at my shackles. I manage to scrape a nice little gouge into the iron. With enough time, I should be able to get these things off. Then maybe I can climb up the shaft and get out.

“Oh, I forgot to ask. Would you like some tea?” The man asks.

“What? You have tea?” I ask.

“Yes, but it’s not very good.”

He picks up a half skull that was sitting under a spot where water drips from the ceiling.

“I think I’ll pass,” I say.

“A pity. Hydration is crucial for a healthy mind.” He downs the liquid, and places the skull back where it was. It slowly collects more water, drip by drip.

He goes back to examining the runes on his body and muttering to himself. I continue scraping away at my shackles.

“What are you doing, exactly?” I eventually ask him.

“Studying of course. I would be mad to pass up an opportunity such as this! It’s a pity they torture me so much. I would have to escape to not get tortured, but then to escape I would have to dispel the curse, but if I dispel the curse I can’t study the runes! Truly a pickle if there ever was one.”

“You know how to escape?”

“Do I know how to escape, she asks! Ha! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO I AM, GIRL?”

“No?”

“Oh. I see. My name is Zalorian. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Who are you?”

I gulp. “I’m Ayla.”

Zalorian picks his nose, staring at me intently. “Ayla. Ayla. Ayla. Why are you alive, Ayla?”

“What?”

“Why did the queen not just eat you? You look nice and juicy, after all.”

Suddenly there is a bang from up above. A shiver goes down my spine. I start scraping at the manacles faster.

A shadow blocks out the light from the shaft, and I hear a chain jangling. The grate is opened, and a shadow flits down.

“Oh ho! A royal welcome!” Zalorian says.

A very tall harpy looms over me. She has black feathers, and is wearing a brass crown studded with various gemstones. Her eyes are bright gold, almost glowing in their radiance. Her face looks more human and has less boils than the other harpies. She has sharp features, very high cheekbones and a straight nose with narrow nostrils.

“Silence, you coot,” she snaps at the man. “If you will not speak of the heartshards, then you will not speak at all.”

Zalorian makes a zipping gesture over his lips.

The queen harpy crouches in front of me. I scramble backward.

She grabs me by the throat with the claws at the end of her wing. She holds my head in place and brings her face close to mine. I can smell her rotten breath. She looks deeply into my eyes.

With the claws of her other wing, she gently reaches out, and stretches my eyelids apart, opening one of my eyes as wide as it will go.

“How magnificent,” she says.

Then she drops me. She flits back up the shaft of the dungeon, and the grate slams closed.

I’m trembling. What was that?

“What does she want from me?” I ask.

Zalorian shrugs.

A day passes with me scraping at my manacles and Zalorian studying his runes. As the light from the shaft begins to fade, Zalorian begins fidgeting, becoming visibly anxious.

Then, once it’s fully dark, the grate opens again, and several harpies drop down. They all crowd around Zalorian. He curls up into a ball on the floor, moaning and trembling.

“Thumb screws today!” One of the harpies shouts gleefully, clutching Zalorian’s head with both of its feet.

Another harpy drops down the shaft. It’s the one that took Ruby.

“Kidnapper! Murderer!” It shouts, leaping towards me.

I pull away, but it doesn’t touch me. It just crouches in front of me, grinning.

“The queen likes your eyes. She says your eyes are better than hers! How outrageous! She has already called the surgeon for a transplant! Called the surgeon! Called the surgeon!”

Suddenly, Zalorian starts screaming. The harpies have placed some sort of rusty metal device on each of his hands, and they’re cranking it slowly.

“Tell us the about the heartshards! About the heartshards!” The harpies scream at him.

The harpy who took Ruby leaps on me. Her talons clutch my chest tightly.

“Once the surgeon arrives and the queen takes your eyes, I can finally punish the murderer! Punish the murderer! Punish the murderer!”

The harpy jumps up and down on top of me, kicking down on me repeatedly. Her sharp talons stab into my skin with each stomp.

“Mercy! Mercy!” Zalorian begs.

“Tell us about the heartshards!” The harpies demand.

“Never!” Zalorian screams.

The harpy finally stops jumping on me. “Suffer and rot! Suffer and rot!” She screams at me. “Dread the day Karalga punishes you! Dread the day! Dread the day!”

Cackling with manic laughter, Karalga flies back up the shaft.

I purify the punctures from her talons. I refuse to rot, and even if I suffer, I will not give up.

I can still feel Ruby’s thread. It’s as warm as ever. I hold onto it tightly.

The harpies torture Zalorian long into the night. His pained screams continue until he can do nothing but whimper unintelligibly. Then they finally leave.

Zalorian falls asleep in the bones. I continue scraping at my shackles all night long.

Early the next morning, I finally cut through one of the shackles. The other follows shortly.

No longer chained down, I walk across the cell to Zalorian. He’s sound asleep, snoring. I sit down beside him and check on his condition. There are bloody holes in the tips of his fingers. They’re badly infected. I grab hold of his hands and purify the wounds.

He sputters, waking up with a start. “Aaah! Oh. Ayla. Good morning.”

“I’m going to try to escape. Do you want to help me?” I ask.

He gasps. “Is it that time already? Oh dear.”

He runs his hands along his arms and legs. “Have I learned it? I have. Perhaps still a flawed and incomplete understanding, but to seek perfection in all things is to seek it in nothing!”

“Yes or no?” I ask.

“Yes! I will help.”

“I need to rescue my baby sister. The harpies took her. She’s in the top of the highest tower.”

“Very well. I must go there too.” He pulls me close, whispering in my ear as he pats my back. “Ayla, revenge is a terrible thing, but it’s oh so sweet. Don’t tell anyone.”

“Can I cure your curse then?” I ask.

“Children can't be doctors! What are you, nine?”

“I think I’m ten now. What date is it?”

“No clue!”

“Anyway, my age is not important. The curse is weakening you isn’t it?”

“Oh, yes, indeed. Let’s get rid of it.”

Zalorian stands up. I realize now that he doesn’t have any manacles on him either. He walks over to the shaft of the dungeon. “Right about here should do.”

He picks up a bone shard, crouches down, and starts drawing on the ground. He slowly turns in place, rapidly drawing random-looking scribbles in a circle around himself.

“This goes there and that goes here. Yup that should maybe do it.”

Once its done, he stands up and holds his arms out to the sides. “Activate!” He says happily.

The scribbles around his feet glow blue.

The harpy curse runes suddenly peel themselves right off his body. My eyes bulge at the sight.

The floating runes slowly drift upward like a tangled mess of black vines, and when they reach the top of the dungeon shaft, they burrow into the iron grate that blocks our escape.

The grate rapidly corrodes as the black veins eat through the bars like woodworms. Chunks of rust repeatedly drop down onto Zalorian’s face as he stares up into the light, grinning.

Zalorian snaps his fingers. The runes around his feet shift slightly, and then he slowly floats up the shaft as if weightless. He steps into the hallway above.

I stare, my jaw gaping. He’s actually useful!

“Ayla? Aren’t you going to come? I left the levitation circle down there just for you,” he says.

I hesitantly step onto the circle of runes. Suddenly it feels like I’m falling. My hair is floating up all around my face, but I’m slowly moving upward. I float up through the shaft of the cell, out of the corroded grate, and into a dank hallway. My feet step lightly onto the brick.

“Amazing,” I say breathlessly, my eyes wide as I stare at the blue runes down in the cell.

Then a harpy sees us from down the hall.

“Prisoners escaping! Prisoners escaping!” It screams.

“Oh dear,” Zalorian says.

“This way!” I shout, following Ruby’s thread. There’s a spiral staircase nearby. I dash up it.

Zalorian follows right behind me.

After dashing up the stairs, we come out into a hall full of harpies. We need to go through it.

Lunar Lightning!

I blast silver lightning down the hall. It arcs between a few different harpies. They shriek in agony as their feathers catch fire and steam bursts from their flesh.

“Lightning with a celestial aspect? How intriguing. What is the auxiliary rune?” Zalorian asks.

A harpy tackles him.

I pounce on the harpy’s back, crunching through its spine with my jaws as I slash its throat open with my claws. It drops limply on top of Zalorian, blood gurgling from its neck.

Several harpies are still swarming towards us, screaming furiously.

“Kill the murderers! Rip off their heads!”

“I WAS TALKING TO MY COLLEAGUE!” Zalorian screams.

A square-shaped pattern of orange runes instantly forms, filling up the hall from floor to ceiling. Then it flies forward. As the harpies pass through the wall of runes, they become grey dust.

All that remains in the long hallway are dozens of crumbling harpy-shaped ash sculptures.

Terrifying. I should avoid making him angry.

“Do that right away next time please,” I say, eyes wide.

“Indeed. It would do for our musings to lack such interruptions. What were we doing again?”

“Saving my sister. Come on!”

I run down the dust-filled hallway to another spiral staircase, and go straight up. This should be the tower where Ruby is. I can feel her right above me.

We run up the stairs, and at the top, we find a nest.

Strange trinkets line the walls. There are coins and baskets and old paintings. There is a large suit of armor on a makeshift stand, and my sword is lying near it in a pile of other weapons.

Then there are eyes, jars upon jars of eyes, stored in what looks like vinegar. The walls are lined with hides and sinew, stretched across the sconces like a hideous spiderweb.

In the middle of the room is Ruby, sitting in a basket. She is munching on a chunk of raw meat, seemingly not at all bothered by the situation. Then she sees me.

“Ai!” She exclaims in joy.

I run to her.

A shadow flits behind me, and talons wrap around my neck.

“You dare!” The queen booms, lifting me up with one leg, turning me around to face her.

“My staff!” Zalorian runs to the edge of the room, picking up a long metal rod with a thick hexagonal plate at the end.

The queen and I both eye Zalorian.

He kisses his staff. “Reunited at last! Oh, how I’ve missed you!”

The queen drops me. She flits across the room and slashes her claws through Zalorian’s neck.

“Aaah!” Zalorian cries out, blood spurting as he drops to the ground.

The queen beats her wings, and hundreds of feathers stab into Zalorian, instantly turning him into a human pin cushion.

I grab Ruby. Lightning! I fly out the window, my baby sister held tightly in my arms. I hear the queen shriek furiously behind me.

I land on the rocky slope, a good distance from the castle, and turn to see whether the queen is following me, and the tower explodes.

A cataclysmic eruption of purple flame obliterates the queen’s tower, along with half the castle.

I run, dashing downwind as fast as I can, holding Ruby close. I use my lightning to shoot down and around the cliffs, out of sight from the castle. Then I keep on running, not stopping for a single moment. I run until the sun sets.

“Ga!”

“Yeah!” I laugh, tears in my eyes. “We’re back together again! We did it, Ruby!”