by Gustavo Bondoni
in Issue 103, August 2020
“Hello Abren. You sent me on a suicide mission,” Sangr growled.
“And yet, here you are,” the sorcerer replied. He spoke carefully, trying to keep the blade of Sangr’s rapier from drawing any more blood than it already had. There was little else he could do with a sword against his neck. “I trusted you would be up to the task.”
“You trusted I’d get myself killed.”
“Not in the least. I wanted you to assassinate the king for me. That’s why I went to the trouble of hiring you in the first place.”
“Hiring me? You kidnapped Yella.”
“You wouldn’t have taken the job otherwise.”
“Of course not; it was madness.”
“But now that you’ve completed it, you can collect your fee and live a life of comfort.”
“What if I decide I want your liver for my fee?”
The sorcerer showed that ice truly did run through his veins. “Then you’ll never see your little lady again.”
“Damn.” Sangr pulled the sword away. “A thousand. In gold. And Yella.”
“That is what we had agreed,” the sorcerer said. “I am as good as my word.”
“All right. Lead the way.”
Abren led him through torchlit hallways and staircases, always heading downward. To Sangr’s surprise, their path led through a sally port in the outer wall of the keep and into the moonlit garden. The wizard kept up a running commentary all the while.
“I must compliment you on the ease with which you penetrated my defenses. I’d heard that you are quite good at this sort of thing, which is why I hired you in the first place, of course. But I’d also planned my defenses against the possibility of a skilled thief scaling the walls… so I’d venture to say you had a little outside help? And to get through my defenses, am I correct in guessing that it cost a small fortune?” The man paused and took a few steps. “And that the money is a direct result of the mission I sent you on?”
Abren waited for Sangr’s reply but, as none was forthcoming, he chuckled. “I’m beginning to think I should be miffed at you for acting all annoyed with me. It appears you made out pretty well from the deal.”
“Don’t push your luck.”
Sangr followed the wizard’s laughter down a gravel path that led towards the mountain. A cave yawned open before them but, unlike most caves in his experience, this one wasn’t a darker patch in the already dark wall. The cave glowed blue, like a beacon of wizardly light, and Sangr suddenly felt too tired to go on.
Everything. Every single thing he’d done over the past three or four years of his life, since he’d made the awful mistake of leaving his tiny village in the frozen north, reeked of magic. The parade of magical monsters, ensorcelled jewels and even inherently magical people had left him exhausted. All he wanted was to take Yella, walk to some isolated village far from the centers of power and magic and simply grow old. They had enough treasure put away for several lifetimes. There was no reason to go on as they had.
He wasn’t relishing putting that argument to Yella, but he’d cross that bridge if he ever came to it.
“I assume she’s inside?”
“Yes. There’s something I need to tell you, though.”
Sangr’s rapier flew out of its scabbard like it had a life of its own. The sorcerer threw up his hands.
“Don’t make me burn you to a crisp, Sangr. I gave you my word, and I intend to keep it.”
“Tell me.”
“Yella is inside, and she’s perfectly all right.”
“Then why do you need to talk to me?”
“Because… well, I can show you.”
They walked into the cavern. The place seemed to be made entirely of crystals and, if Sangr’s mind hadn’t been on Yella’s safety, he would have been assessing the potential value of the shards that covered the floor.
As they penetrated deeper into the cave, the images became more polished, and the huge crystals, freestanding, vertical and taller than he was, would have fetched a pretty price anywhere on the plains—even if they’d been nothing more than quartz.
But they weren’t quartz. The interior of each crystal looked like quicksilver, eddies swirled within to create patterns that almost seemed to coalesce into faces and figures. It felt like looking for shapes in the clouds.
Then he no longer had to look. The figures in the countless crystals coalesced unmistakably into faces and bodies. No. Not into faces and bodies. Into face and body, singular. Every crystal contained the delicate features and knowing smile of his beloved Yella. None of them looked happy to be inside a crystal. Several were banging on the surface, but none of them acknowledged his presence.
“How do I get her out?”
“That isn’t the right question, Sangr. Look closer.”
He did. At first all he saw was Yella, trapped in a crystal, angry at the indignity, repeated a thousand times, or maybe more. Certainly as far as the eye could see.
But as he concentrated on the individual crystals, Sangr realized that they weren’t all the same. To start with, they didn’t all look alike. Most of the Yellas he could see wore the familiar tan breeches and green shirt she always sported, but some were dressed in different colors. One sported low-cut shoes of a truly peculiar design. Another wore her hair nearly to her waist. A third, unimaginably, was wearing a red dress.
He stepped back and realized that every single one of the iterations was different, even if sometimes almost imperceptibly so.
“What… what is this?”
“These are Yella. Each and every one of them. But not all of them are from this world. There are as many worlds as there are stars in the sky and I’ve called all the Yellas from each of those worlds here for you.”
“But I don’t want the ones from a different world. Just give me the one who lives here.”
Abren looked sheepish. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Yella was trying to escape. She’d killed three of my guards and was climbing the wall. I hit her with the first spell I could think of that wouldn’t kill her. Unfortunately, it was a random banishing spell.”
“Let me guess… you don’t know where you sent her.”
“It shouldn’t have been a problem. I knew I could bring her back. And I did. She’s in here somewhere. I’m sure you can find her.”
“Find…” the words trailed off as Sangr looked over the countless crystals. “How…”
“Preferably quickly, I’d say. The crystals are unstable, and if you dither too long, they might start shattering.” So saying, the sorcerer backed towards the entrance. “Once you find her, all you have to do is touch the crystal holding her and say her name. Easy. So… I’ll see you when you’re done. Here’s your money.”
Backing quickly, he tossed a heavy purse at Sangr’s feet.
Sangr watched the sorcerer go, knowing that when a man of that kind retreated in such an undignified manner, it meant that something was about to explode or otherwise go badly pear-shaped.
For a moment, he was torn between finding Yella as fast as possible in order to get out of the cavern and running after the sorcerer to attempt to cut him into small pieces. The man, like all of his kind, seemed to have a pathological need to keep every letter of his promises. Unlike others, though, this one seemed to have an equal desire to see Sangr dead. At the very least, his actions made it perfectly clear that he was unconcerned with the thief’s continued welfare.
The urge passed and Sangr looked into the chamber. The task ahead was daunting: there were hundreds of women in the crystals and each could realistically claim to be his Yella.
He nearly froze, but the sense of urgency from the wizard’s words saved him. He knew he had to be moving, and he also knew that he would know his Yella when he saw her.
So Sangr ran between the crystals. Most of the women he discarded immediately. This one was dressed wrong, this other wore her hair in a way that the original would have died before accepting. Others had a different posture, or a strange expression. He ran past dozens.
Every once in a while he stopped for a closer look. Each time he did so, he was disappointed, but there were some women that he just had to check. He couldn’t simply run past and risk losing Yella to whatever cataclysm was approaching.
Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks. Two crystals held nearly identical women. Both dressed in the right breeches and in the correct shirt. Both wearing Yella’s shoes. Both with expressions of frustration with being locked inside a crystal that would have been perfectly at home on his love’s face.
He peered closely at one.
Then he looked at the other. Something was telling him that the woman on his right was the correct choice, but he couldn’t put a finger on what it was.
And he saw it: a white line across her forearm, a gift from a servant of the god Qalnoth, received in a serious sword fight that ended with only Sangr and Yella standing. The woman on the right had the scar. The other didn’t.
He reached out and touched the crystal, certain he had the right one. Then, frightened by the fact that nearly a third of the room had gone unsearched, and that there were crystals he still had to verify, he stopped dead.
A crack like thunder echoed through the chamber and a crystal thirty paces away exploded into shards. Rocky shrapnel pattered against every surface and announced that his time was up. He touched the crystal and shouted: “Yella.”
The rock surrounding her disappeared and Yella blinked in surprise before her eyes settled on him. Tears welled. “Sangr?” she asked. She reached out with a hand and stroked his cheek, as if to satisfy herself that he was truly there.
“Come on,” Sangr urged. “I’ll explain later.”
She looked confused. “Explain?”
They had no time to talk. The crystals were all vibrating coarsely, and having seen what one failure could do, he didn’t want to imagine what all of them suddenly bursting at the same time would entail. He took Yella’s arm and yanked her towards the exit.
They’d barely taken two steps when a rock halfway between them and the safety of the gardens exploded. It was too far away for the shards to reach them, but the shock set off another crystal nearby, causing it to burst as well. That one set of the one beside it.
Despite her recent imprisonment, Yella reacted with the usual alacrity. She stopped dead in her tracks. “The explosions are coming this way.”
Sangr had reached the same conclusion. “We’ll need to go back, deeper into the cave.”
“Is there an exit that way?”
“I have no clue. But I also have no other ideas.”
“You never were one to have a contingency plan, were you?”
“It wasn’t my fault this time, I swear.”
“Whatever,” Yella said. She wasted no more time arguing and headed further into the cave.
Sangr followed, moving as fast as possible without getting too close to the crystals. The last thing he wanted was to set off another series of explosions at this end of the cavern. He saw Yella looking at the crystals as she passed, her face growing ever more concerned. Knowing her, concern would soon turn to anger, which would be directed at him, even if they were in the middle of trying to fight off a monster as she vented.
He smiled. He was glad to have her back. The months without her had been torture.
The cave was larger than he’d been able to see from the first chamber. It grew narrower as they went deeper, and there were fewer crystals. He glanced at one and saw Yella dressed in some outlandish silver garment which clung to her body and left even less to the imagination than her breeches did.
For a fleeting second, he wondered if he could liberate more than one version of her. But then self-preservation kicked in—Yella would kill him if he tried it—and he decided against it.
A sound to their left caught Sangr’s attention. He looked to see one of the crystals apparently intent on shaking itself to pieces as it vibrated against what appeared to be a wall of ice. He threw Yella to the floor and covered her with his body. Shrapnel flew through the air around them. A piece of crystal ambedded itself painfully in his upper arm.
“Ow,” he groaned.
“Are you all right?”
“You tell me.” He showed Yella the wound and she rolled her eyes. “Just a little puncture. I’ve seen you take much worse and keep fighting.” She said it with fond sadness. Then, with a quick motion, pulled the offending shard of rock painfully from his arm.
“We should go that way,” she said, pointing. The exploding crystal had taken a good piece of the wall with it. The opening led to another cave, equally bright, but seemingly devoid of detonating rock. Sangr could hear the explosions behind them, getting inexorably closer. The sound overruled any anxiety he might have had about what else, apart from lethal crystals, might live inside a sorcerer’s cave complex. He followed Yella through.
“Don’t go in too deep. Just far enough that the shrapnel can’t reach us. We need to go back that way to get out.”
They entered the new cavern which, apart from lack of crystals, appeared identical to the first. Cool blue light came from the walls—someday he’d have to ask a sorcerer about the sourceless light they all seemed to use; he suspected it must be the first spell they learned in evil wizarding school—and the same rock and white sand littered the floor.
Sangr saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Some kind of crystal insect the size of a human baby scurried among the crags in the rock.
“As soon as those things stop exploding, we’re getting out of here,” Sangr said. In reality, though, he was relieved. He’d expected the monsters to be bigger. He could probably hold this one off for a few minutes, if necessary.
The explosions in the adjacent cavern got closer and closer before finally drawing alongside the opening. They took cover, Sangr looking behind to keep the creature at bay. A crash shook them and when he turned back, his heart sank.
“Of course,” he spat.
Yella gave him an amused look. “Did you actually think it would be that easy?”
The opening between the two caverns had collapsed. Large rocks had detached from the wall and roof, and the resulting pile of rubble had completely blocked off the exit. Sangr ran up to it, hoping to shift some of the debris, but a single look at a boulder the size of a shepherd’s cottage convinced him that it was a lost cause.
He turned back to see Yella, short sword drawn, sparring with the insect-thing. He took his place beside her and immediately fell into the glorious, side-by-side rhythm that they knew so well. It was almost as if no time had passed. They alternated: block, parry, strike, block, parry, strike.
Sangr smiled happily as he studied the monster facing them. As they struck it, chips flew out of the hardened carapace, but that hardly slowed it down. The question seemed to be why, exactly, a stone spider would attack two humans. Surely it couldn’t eat them, so perhaps it was just an expression of territorial defense.
He hated to think of the amount of grinding and polishing his rapier would need to get the nicks out. As he thought it, he realized that, now that Yella was with him again, he had no particular fear of being killed. They’d get out of this, together, the way they always did. He could afford to think about inanities in the middle of a fight.
The little monster retreated out of reach and scuttled deeper into the cave.
“I hate to say it, but we need to go after it. I don’t see any other exits.”
They advanced cautiously through several chambers, always trying, by dead reckoning, to move in the direction of the entrance Sangr had used. There was no guarantee that the two caves would share an exit, but at least they wouldn’t be going deeper into the mountain. That was, of course, if Sangr hadn’t gotten hopelessly turned around in all the excitement.
The only warning they had was a slight humming, but it was enough. As if sharing a mind, Sangr and Yella dropped to the floor simultaneously, as something flashed over their heads. Had they remained standing, both would have been decapitated.
Sangr rolled to his feet. What he’d thought was a large boulder was actually a scaled-up version of the spider crystal they’d done battle with. It advanced cumbersomely, glaring at them malevolently through red eyes.
“Looks like our little friend came to find her mommy,” Yella remarked.
“Yeah. I’m thinking we can’t take that thing.”
“I’m with you. Especially because there are four more over there.”
“Damn. I thought those were just big rocks.”
“The only way out is behind them.”
Sangr grinned at her and, with a whoop, ran straight between the creatures. They reacted slowly, and the adventurers made it out of the chamber unscathed. There were no creatures in the next room, and the two laughed excitedly.
The spiders pursued them, but the result was never in doubt. The two thieves were simply too quick and, within minutes they reached a reinforced iron gate. Beside the portcullis, a door big enough for a man, but not for a monstrous spider gave them access to Abren’s gardens.
They exited and embraced each other.
“Let’s get out of here,” Yella said.
“No. I need to do something.” He fiddled with the wheel that controlled the gate until, with a groan, it began to budge. He kept lifting until he thought there was enough room for the spider’s to squeeze through. “There. I hope they wreck his gardens.”
They sprinted off, vaulted the wall and kept going until they felt safe from pursuit.
“Do you believe he actually paid my fee?” Sangr said. “We’re rich. Even richer than we were.”
“Sangr…”
“We can leave this life and try to live like real people. Rich people even.”
“Sangr!”
“What.”
“We’re not going anywhere. Not together, at least.”
“What do you mean?”
“Those women in the crystals. Who were they?”
“They were you. I mean…” he quickly explained what the sorcerer had told him.
She looked at him sadly. “You chose wrong. I’m not the Yella you were looking for.”
“What? No. You’re joking.” He laughed nervously, but the sound died when he saw her face. “That can’t be. The clothes. The way you fought beside me. The scar on your arm—”
“They gave me that scar the day I watched you die,” Yella said. “In my world, in my life, you’ve been dead for two years.”
He froze. “You mean…”
“I cried for weeks.”
His world spun. “We can make it work.”
“No, Sangr. You pulled me out of my life, a good life. I met another man. We were happy. You destroyed that.”
“Still…”
“I loved you. But now I love someone else. And we can’t be together.”
“Why not? He’s not here. If you loved me once, you can do so again.”
She gave him a sad look. “Don’t you see? If you’re here and I look the same way as the Yella from this world looked, then this world must be nearly the same as mine. He’ll be here, somewhere. All I have to do is to find him.”
“Not if I find him first.”
“You won’t find him first. You don’t know who he is.” She gave him a hard look. “And if you try to follow me, I’ll gut you like a fish.”
Sangr just nodded. He had nothing to say.
As she walked away, checking to make sure that he wasn’t following her every few paces, he vowed to find his own Yella.
And the way to do that was to speak to the sorcerer; Abren would be more than a little miffed to get ambushed in his own house twice on the same night.
Then he swore. Had he known he would be crossing the lawn again, he wouldn’t have released the spiders.
Sangr sighed and pulled his rapier. At least those things were slow.
©August 2020 Gustavo Bondoni
Gustavo Bondoni is an Argentine novelist and short story writer who writes primarily in English. His debut novel, Siege was published in 2016, while two others, Outside and Incursion, were published in 2017. On the short fiction side, he has over two hundred short stories published in fourteen countries. They have been translated into seven languages. his writing has appeared in Pearson’s Texas STAAR English Test cycle, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Perihelion SF, The Best of Every Day Fiction and many others. He placed second in the 2019 Been Memorial Contest and received a Judges Commendation in The James White Award. His work has appeared previously in Swords & Sorcery.
Other recent work includes an ebook novella entitled Branch, published in 2014. He has also published two reprint collections, Tenth Orbit and Other Faraway Places (2010) and Virtuoso and Other Stories (2011). The Curse of El Bastardo (2010) is a short fantasy novel. His website is at www.gustavobondoni.com.