Fate's Hand (7 page)

Temo arrived at the tower a few days after hearing a curious imp’s message late one night in his room. “The red wizard has been defeated and the tower’s new master would like to speak with you, alone.” At first Temo thought it to be a trap for sure, but it had been years since he had heard anything about the tower. The tower should have been Temo’s.

Many years ago, before he died, his uncle had written a letter detailing the instructions and warnings about the tower. Temo set out from his mercenary guild immediately to locate the mighty artifact and claim it, but Yusar had beaten him there. The red wizard had a camp at the base of the tower and invited Temo to come rest. He told Temo he was sent by his uncle to secure the tower and wait for his arrival. He gave great detail and information about his uncle and the travels they had. Temo was suspicious since the letter he had didn’t mention the man, but after a short time of talking he felt at ease. He tried, with the man’s help, to get into the tower. Temo took his time carefully reading about the tower as the red wizard stood by.

After several hours, Temo finally stood up and exclaimed “I’ve got it!” and gestured the right hand symbols to conjure the door for the tower. The second the door appeared in the stone, Temo felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down to see a long poniard’s tip, covered in blood. His knees went weak and he fell to the ground as everything faded to black.

When he awoke, the tower was gone
—along with the red wizard and Temo’s prized magical axe. Thankfully, the man hadn’t checked him very well and his ring of regeneration saved him from death. Temo sat up and looked at his chest. The wound was sealed up, but he was weak from the blood loss. His clothes and armor were caked in dried blood. He stayed in the wizard's abandoned camp for another day to finish healing his muscles before he set out, planning to find the man. Then kill him.

The trail went cold after a week, so he returned to a nearly empty guild house. Upon his return, he learned that shortly after he left to find the tower, the same red wizard came and talked to his men about him and his quest. The wizard tried to pass himself off as a friend of Temo’s uncle, but one of the men saw through his lie. When the members started to press him, he went on an rampage that nearly leveled the place. Several members were left dead or injured before the others chased him off. The lead guild members started to get matters under control, also sending out a few scouts to find Temo and inform him of the events and danger. The scouts hadn’t found him, but did happen to spot a strange black tower a few days' travel away. Temo gathered a few of the best mercenaries with promise of great pay and revenge, then went on the hunt for the wizard. When they arrived, the red wizard, enclosed in a green ball of light, met Temo at the base.

“Well, you’re not supposed to be here.”

“
Perhaps you should have stabbed me in the back twice…” Temo replied, letting the last words linger as a question.

Yusar smirked. “Yusar the Red, and
—”

Temo burst into action, cutting his words short, throwing his hammer and charging in immediately behind it. As Temo ran, he charged both hands up with electricity. Yusar tried to start a spell, but the explosion of movement in which the large mercenary acted caught him off guard. The hammer struck the protective globe of light, covering it with deep, web-like cracks. Temo jumped into the air, grabbed the handle of the hammer, and released the electricity into the globe. The green surface shattered in a massive release of magical energy and sent both men flying in opposite directions. Temo scrambled to his feet as his band of mercenaries charged past him on the attack. Yusar grunted and got to his knees. He wiped a small trail of blood from the corner of his mouth and looked to the tower, now only an arm’s reach away. He looked back to the men running toward him and smiled, placing his hand on the tower and uttering a single word. The wizard disappeared as the men came to slide in the dirt at the base of the tower.

Temo heard a low humming noise. Temo shouted an order to his men to run and sprinted as fast as he could away from the tower as the noise began to rise. The base of the tower exploded in an outward concussion push, splintering nearby trees and hurling men through the air. Temo came to his knees, coughing up dirt and trying to focus his eyes. A sharp, painful ringing noise ran through his ears. He looked around to his group, finding one of the men impaled up in a tree, the others on the ground trying to gather their bearings.

The tower started to vibrate and a blur light raced up the stone. An instant later, the tower disappeared, leaving the broken men scattered on the ground in disbelief. Temo knew from his uncle’s notes that was one of the tower's defense features. The holder of the tower could shift it to another plane, then reappear in a new location within a day’s walk away. Temo collected his men and returned to his guild. After helping assess the damage Yusar had created, Temo realized his guild needed him for rebuilding. The mercenary group continued on with their work with the understanding the red wizard Yusar would certainly die.

Temo had spent all of his resources and spare time in search for any and all knowledge of the tower. He never received a shred of credible information to help his search. Until now. This opportunity, trap or not, was too tempting to pass up. Temo told his men where he was headed and invited one other to come along. The man, Jora, had joined Temo’s guild after his brother, the man impaled into the trees by the towers defensive concussion, was killed. He made his promise to be there with Temo when Yusar was finally found. Shortly after receiving the invitation, the two men left the guild house.

As it began to get dark, Val stopped to make his camp. He sat by a very low burning fire at the entrance of an empty cave. He looked through his pack and realized for the first time just how low he was getting on supplies. He took the ration of bread he was going to eat, broke it, and placed half of it in his bag. He snuffed the light when he was done and wrapped up for bed. He rubbed his hands together to bring them warmth under the covers, but it felt like he was rubbing a cold stone. He ran his human hand over his other, feeling every muscle and line. It was what he could imagine holding hands with a dead person would be like.

Val rubbed his scarred and disfigured wrist, still feeling only a slight amount of his own touch. He thought about all his uncle’s stories and anything he had ever read in a book. Nothing sounded remotely like what he was dealing with. It couldn’t be any infection or disease, at least none he had ever heard about. He gave up his thought process, frustrated, and focused on the matter at hand.

“
At hand…” Val whispered into the darkness. He heard a scrape across the stone and his eyes shot open. He bit his lip and wished he wouldn’t have spoken. He heard another sound and his heart beating loud in his chest. Val tried as hard as he could to focus on the darkness, but couldn’t see anything. The distinct ring of a blade being pulled from a sheath finally made Val spring into action. He threw his cover off and into the air, hastily trying to arm himself in the confusion. Val drew his sword and spun around to face two orcs standing before him. The two large orcs gave a look to each other then began to circle around. Val bent his knees and shifted his weight, unsure of what to do. One of the orcs held a bow and the other a crude meat cleaver.

Val decided to turn his main attention to the orc with the bow and tried to square off more to him. He listened for the orc behind him to make a move but kept constant eye contact with the archer. The large monster had a white hand painted across his face with a long scar trailing his jaw line. He gave a deep grunt and pulled an arrow from his hip and began pulling it back in the bow. Val stood and tried to gain a good footing to try and dodge the coming arrow. As the young man looked down the shaft of the arrow a wave of adrenaline and fear ran cold across his chest. He felt his arms go almost numb with the rush of emotion as he focused on the orc's weapon.

The sound of the orc behind him coming in a rush broke Val's concentration and he turned his head to see the other enemy standing in place, stomping his feet. Before Val could turn back, he heard the twang of the bow releasing an arrow. Val twisted and sprung off his back foot in an attempt to dodge the arrow. His red hand released the handle of the sword and struck across his body, catching the oncoming arrow just behind the head, breaking it in half.

Val looked down in confusion then turned to face the space between the two orcs. He quickly exchanged glances between the two orcs and held his ground. The one standing to his left stopped stomping and looked on in confusion. He gave out a growl and began to advance on Val. The second orc cut him short with a loud grunt. He grabbed another arrow and pulled back, aiming for Val once more. Val turned slightly more toward the threat and held his ground. The orc released the second arrow and Val could see once more there was no way he could dodge it. Once again, his hand shot out, but this time it ripped the sword from his weak hand and thrust it down and to the side, catching the arrow on the shaft and deflecting it. He looked over to see the blade-wielding orc clutching the arrow protruding from his shoulder. The large creature stumbled backward over Val’s supplies. The other orc yelled and drop his bow to charge Val with a thick short sword he pulled from its scabbard.

Val began to backpedal from the charging orc. The orc quickly covered the ground and started hacking away, forcing Val to blocked with his sword. His left hand began to sting from the vibration and power of the orc’s blows. Val screamed out in defiance and tried his luck pushing back against the blows. His left hand lost its grip and slipped off the sword. The orc kept one hand on his weapon, grinding his sword's edge into the other, using his height as an advantage. He reached down under the two locked swords and upper cut Val, sending him stumbling. Val tried to shake the pain away and keep his sword up, but it was quickly batted away by the attacking orc. As the orc came at Val with his sword overhead the young man tried to bring his hands up in defense. The orc stopped and made a wheezy grunt. Val realized his red hand was outstretched and followed the finger tips to see his dagger sticking from the orc's neck.

The orc dropped his sword and clutched his throat. Dark red blood ran across the orc’s white painted body and he dropped to his knees. Val watched on in disbelief but remembered the orc behind him and spun around. The orc growled and began pulling the arrow from his shoulder. Another arrow flew through the air and landed in his forearm, pinning it to his chest. The orc screamed out further in rage and pain before a large tree branch smashed across the back of his head.

A large man stood over the fallen orc, looking down at the creature. His massive muscles and bony facial features shone in the light. Val brought his sword up before him and looked to the new threat. The man chuckled and put his hands up in a peaceful manner.

“
I’m on your side, kid,” the man bellowed. He grabbed his canteen, took a drink, then splashed a little bit across his face. He rubbed his hand across his brow and down his neck. The man seemed to shrink away in the moonlight as Val held his defensive pose. The man replaced his canteen and started walking forward. Val relaxed and let his sword down as soon as he recognized Rylan's smile. He dropped his guard and, from the corner of his eye, realized Asher was crouched over the first orc. Val watched as he removed two arrows from the orc’s back. Asher rolled the orc over and was surprised to see a dagger in the throat. He eyed Val before pulling the dagger free and wiping it off on the body as Rylan walked up to Val.

“
Hey, nice shot, kid,” Rylan said, smiling.

Asher handed the dagger back to Val.

“I thought I brought him down. Hmm,” Asher said in a low, deep voice.

“
Guess you didn’t need our help as bad as we thought, huh?” Rylan asked.

Val, still visibly shaken, looked on and tried to come to realize all that just happened.
             

“
How?” he asked without thinking.

“
How what?” Rylan asked.

“
How did you find me, and why? How were you a squirrel, then a large man, and now normal?”

“
I wouldn’t say normal,” Asher chimed in. Rylan squinted his eyes and shot a look at the dark bowman.

“
Well, like I said before, I—I mean, we—were worried for a young man like you to be out here in the Gray Hills all alone. So we followed you. And for the other…well, that’s a long story. Tell you what: let’s leave here. These were scouts for the slavers, so there is a chance there might be more. We know of a safe place. Come with us and camp for the night. If you tell me the story about your hand, I’ll tell you my secret.”

The sound of a grunt turned Val’s attention to Asher crouched over the second orc, cutting his throat. He reached into the orc's bag and grabbed a small leather pouch, then tossed it to Rylan. Rylan opened it and looked inside and smiled. He looked up at Val and scrunched his nose. Rylan took a few coins out of the pouch, then held it out for Val. Val shook his head no. Rylan sighed and tossed it into his pack.

“You want to leave it for the other orcs?” Asher asked before walking into the darkness.

“
We're coming,” Rylan called over his shoulder before turning to Val. “Come on, he doesn’t wait. I’ll help you carry your pack.”

Val reluctantly joined Rylan in gathering his things before walking off into the night.