Alitta’s Diary part 22

in Home from the Hill

Dinner or Desert

Darig announces he is putting together a team to jump through shadow to the Golden Circle, with the aid of Hector of Zigo. Those who will go include Surpanakha, DeLambre, Ibemo, a ranger named Timotei and me.

On the second morning after the others leave for Rebma, Hector gathers us together inside a tent. He calls on powerful forces, building to a crescendo, and commands the veils be parted to the fields of slaughter. I see a vision of an evil female face, and reality tears open, revealing mists beyond. Darig goes through the rift, and we all follow in turn.

We stand on a blasted heath, a weeks-old battlefield strewn with bloated corpses and shrouded in fog. I can see no sign of magic on the dead. Hector implies that this place is always like this, with the bodies being replaced or renewed, which I find interesting. He rests for a moment, then calls on the powers again to take us to the Sea of Sands.

This time it is a swirling vortex of sand, that then tears as before, and we step through to a desert. There is a screech and a shout; looking up I see a pair of winged creatures like those at Ygg, very high above us.

Surpanahka and DeLambre immediately shift, as do I, taking on my eagle form. One of the creatures flies off, shrieking. A group of lizard men come over the dune, they look similar to those at Ygg but not the same – these have slate armour with obsidian short swords, and shields.

The remaining creature dives at us from high up, but I wait to evade when it is closer. Fighting erupts on the ground below me. From what I can see our side is holding its own. I rise higher off the ground. Surpanahka does the same, casting illusion magic to hide. The creature does not dive to attack, and I can feel forces gathering – it may be casting spells. I fly up to meet it, aiming to use a power word to disrupt whatever it is trying to do, but it swoops down and outwards, seeming not to want to engage.

Below, spikes of obsidian emerge from the sand around Darig. He jumps at an opponent. DeLambre takes an insect form and attacks an enemy facing Ibemo. In the air, we are still climbing. The creature stops trying to cast and throws a dart at me. I swerve aside. It throws another, and when I dodge again, it flees. I don’t follow.

Back on the ground, I see Ibemo has a nasty wound. Unfortunately after two jumps my hung spells are no longer working so I can offer no assistance. He’ll live.

Hector parts the veil again, this time to the place previously vouchsafed. The vision is of a decrepit old man and a toothless old woman, then a sumptuous room with a view of a city at night. We pass through and the tear heals behind us.

It is not like any place I have been before. The room we are in is at the top of a tall building. There are bright lights, flashing and changing, and one of the walls is glass.

The ranger, Timotei, is transformed, it appears involuntarily – an illusion that has ceased to function. Some of the others recognise him in his new form and call him by another name; Lord Torc. I wonder what his purpose was in concealing his identity. Yet again no-one has questioned mine, seeing me simply as one who can be useful.

Hector arranges for food and drink to be brought, and we have some time to rest and recuperate.