Chapter 8 Part 10

Avery blocked the blow as the dark blade whistled towards his head. Liberator turned the blow cleanly aside, but Avery staggered back from the savagery of the attack. In a flash of light, the scenery changed. Avery and Ragnera battled on a cliff top overlooking the rolling waves of an angry sea tossing in the throws of a gale with lightning bolts crashing all around the fighting pair.

Ragnera charged again and Reaper swung out and low in an attempt to duck beneath Avery's guard. The ranger jumped to his left and leaped over the deadly blade, but Ragnera was an expert swordsman and as the dark sword cut empty air, he swept about in a circle and drove the point inwards to catch the ranger off balance, but missed.

There was a rumble and Avery and Ragnera found themselves wading up to their hips in a lava flow. By some unknown means, they felt no heat and were not burned and Avery countered with a low sweeping cut which Ragnera dodged.

Ragnera wasted no time even as the scenery changed again. Standing on a barren rocky surface beneath a sky filled with the two blazing suns, a single moon, and a bright green and blue planet covered with weather patterns. They were on the larger moon.

The sight distracted his enemy momentarily and Ragnera darted forward with a blow aimed at the ranger's neck, but at the last possible moment he altered his strike.
Avery reacted with admirable speed, but was not quite fast enough to escape unscathed. His right forearm took a shallow cut before Liberator once again turned the attack aside.
Again Avery staggered back. Again the scene changed.

Avery and Ragnera circled slowly in a void of stars. Between them the two suns circled likewise along with a dozen planets in a celestial dance. Avery felt his cut hand go completely numb and a cold beyond imagining began to creep up the injured hand.

Ragnera gloated. "Reaper has tasted your blood," he told the ranger. The sword moaned as if to agree with its wielder. "Can you hear it? It hungers for your rich soul. I shall feed well upon you, but do not feel too badly, for I can sense your power. I shall make you the highest of my lieutenants when I animate your corpse to my purpose." Ragnera struck again and Avery barely avoided another cut. The numbing cold had reached his shoulder making his whole right arm totally useless. He had only his left hand to fight with.

Again the scene changed. Standing many fathoms beneath the waves of an ocean, the two fought on. Time and time again Ragnera attacked and miraculously Avery turned aside each blow.

The scene changed yet again and they stood on a plain. Within a circle of tall stones they fought. The stones were stacked and aligned for some purpose that distracted Avery with curiosity. That almost cost him his life.

Ragnera caught the distraction and with an evil grin, he lunged with an equally savage blow. Reaper caught Avery's injured arm just above the wrist and neatly severed the appendage.

Avery fell back to the ground. He stared at the stump of his hand while Ragnera playfully sliced at the air before him. "Do not delay the inevitable," the god pushed, "it will only make the end more terrible. Already I must struggle to control Reaper's lust."

Avery's eyes fell on the black blade and felt panic rising in his throat as the pitch of the sword's moan rose to a soul rending wail. The ranger climbed back to his feet. His left hand tightened on Liberator's hilt.

Fear not, the sword's voice entered his mind, and Avery felt the familiar peace of the merging of his consciousness with that of the sword. Avery set his feet and felt the cold recede from his right shoulder. Ragnera noted his new attitude and charged in anger.

"So you grow bold? It will not aid you," the god taunted.

Avery drew the sword to guard with his single hand. "This is the moment of truth," he declared. "Let it end here and now."

"Despair!" Ragnera shouted as Reaper fell with a horrible frenzy upon Avery. "Despair, for I am Ragnera, the god of war, and in my hand is death!"

As Reaper fell, the sound was like that of a haunted spirit, but the blade never touched its target. Liberator leaped up and intercepted the terrible weapon. Avery counter attacked.

He swung Liberator in an over-the-shoulder hack. Ragnera brought Reaper up to parry.
The swords met in a crash of thunder and lightning. Both combatants were tossed backwards and to the ground, each losing his weapon in the process.

Avery sat up in a daze. His right wrist ached but the stump of his missing hand had ceased to bleed. Apparently the terrible coldness of Reaper's blade had frozen the flesh as it had cut.

Propping himself up, Avery looked for Liberator. It lay on the ground not far away. As did Ragnera. The god too was slowly getting up.

Avery quickly crawled across the grass to his weapon. Once armed, he climbed to his feet to meet any further attacks from the god.

Ragnera stood a dozen meters away. He bent to the ground and lifted a long jagged piece of metal. Reaper had been shattered.

Avery watched for several long moments. Should he kill Ragnera then and there?

The god knelt and gathered the many pieces of his once powerful weapon. Then he leaped skyward with a bellow of pure rage. Slinging the pieces in all directions, they vanished from sight as they left his godly hands and then Ragnera too disappeared.

"Where did he go?" Avery wondered out loud.
He has been defeated, the voice returned. Though he claims to be a god, to fight you now would be suicide. He will retreat and plot revenge. But that is hardly your problem. You must tend to your hurts and return to you fellows.

"And how am I going to find them?" Avery asked. "I don't even know where I am."

In this I can give some aid. But first you must heal yourself, and fear not the warlock's detection.

Avery put Liberator away. Then he retrieved his severed hand. It was an eerie feeling to holding his own hand and not feel anything through it. He cleaned the severed area generously with water from his bottle, and did likewise to the stump where the hand once was attached.

Finally Avery sat upon the ground in the shade of one of the stones and entered his healing trance. He drew his knife and slowly cut away the frozen flesh. The pain intruded upon his trance, and he had to work hard to shut out the agony. Then as the flesh bled, he accelerated the healing growth and reattached the severed appendage. He bent his will and spirit to the task of reconnection each blood vessel, nerve, and fiber of muscle and bone until several hours later, he felt the tingle in the hand's fingertips quickly followed by an ache in the bones themselves. The feeling was returning and he would soon have full use of his hands, but for the present, he would be able to use only his left hand.

After the healing trance wore off, Avery lapsed into a deep sleep. The physical drain of the fight and the healing effort had taxed him greatly and he slept soundly for a long time.
When he awoke, he found that he had company. A unicorn grazed nearby. At first he thought it was Ganatar, but the color of this creature was a very bright blue.

Avery stirred soundly to allow the unicorn to hear him. He did not want to startle the creature by sneaking up on it.

The unicorn raised its head and stared at him briefly then slowly cantered over to where he was sitting.

"Good morning," the unicorn said in a definite feminine voice. "I wondered if you would wake at all this day."

"This day?" Avery asked. "How long have I been asleep?"

"I arrived two days ago. I was sent by my lord Ganatar, to fetch you. You were asleep even then."

"Ganatar sent you?"

The unicorn lay upon the grass next to where Avery sat. "He did. He asks that you join him in the Janus Valley beneath Mount Gale. Your mate and Calista and her mate await you there."

"How did they get there?"

"The free peoples may not be able to directly interfere with the war you wage with the gods, but we can protect those you hold dear. Woeden, the Seer, told us that should they be captured they would be your fall, so we invited them to the Janus Valley. There among my people and others, they are protected."

"Where did you find them?"

"They were traveling towards us as it were anyhow. We found them emerging from the Orkon mountain range at the northern tip of the Strip."

Avery stood and stretched his legs. He tested his hand but the ache was still there. He knew it might take several months before it returned to normal.

The unicorn stood as well. "Climb aboard, champion. It will be a pleasure to give ride to Ragnera's bane."

Avery carefully mounted the unicorn and took a double handful of mane hair. "Hold tight," the unicorn warned and then she bolted into a full gallop. Her hooves flew across the ground touching ever so lightly upon the grass as they went. Avery knew that she was fast, but the height of the suns in the sky told him that they were weeks south of the Janus valley, and maybe even months to the east or west of it as well. He wondered how the unicorn could have gotten to him so quickly.

Without warning, the long blue crystalline horn of the unicorn flared and Avery suddenly found that they were riding through low rolling hills with scrub brush.

Again the horn flared and they were riding across a pond bordered by dense trees. The unicorn's hooves never sank beneath the waters, and before they reached the trees, the horn flared again. This time they were passing across flat and open prairie.

Avery at last understood. He vaguely recalled Ganatar telling about the powers of the various breeds of the unicorns. This blue unicorn could make short teleportations or something similar. Avery smiled to himself and held on. He absorbed himself in the constantly changing scenery. It was not altogether different from what he had experienced in the fight with Ragnera.

The suns were on the verge of setting when the familiar sight of Mount Gale loomed in the distance. "We will soon be home," the unicorn informed him. She slowed to a trot and then to a walk. "We are in familiar territory and safe. Let us walk quietly back to the valley."

Avery dismounted. "Let’s walk together," he said. "You’ve carried me far and I’m grateful."

"It was a pleasure," the unicorn replied. "The revival of our race is a debt we will never be able to repay well enough."

"Consider the debt paid for my part," Avery said. "But pray, tell me your name?"

"I am called Trina," the unicorn replied shyly. "I am the youngest of us and so my turn to foal will not come for a while. Already, the most senior of our mares are showing signs of new offspring."

Avery laughed. Ganatar had been busy.