Chapter 10

James slowly wondered home while trying to process everything he had been told. Shernine was planning on heading north from Alchem’s hut in an attempt to find out where he’d gone. He suspected that they would rendezvous with a small regimen of the King’s Army in a northern town or encampment before moving northeast towards the capitol for debriefing. They already had a few weeks head start, but James knew Alchem was not going to be traveling at any great speed, especially considering they were traveling with a substantial amount of cargo. Still, Shernine figured it would take a couple of weeks to catch them and who knows what after that. He wasn’t sure he was going to be able to convince his parents to let him go, but James was getting old enough to start making his own decisions and this was going to be the start.

He still wasn’t as convinced as Shernine that Malcolm would follow the orders of the King’s Army to the letter. Malcolm had been very dedicated to Alchem’s work and especially his well-being for as long as James had known them, so he couldn’t see Malcolm putting Alchem in harm’s way. Malcolm was also very adamant about staying out of the affairs of Mainland wars. He might be willing to deliver Alchem to the destination but after that point he wasn’t sure how involved Malcolm would become. There was very little chance that Malcolm would allow for Alchem to go alone if the situation wasn’t safe and he wouldn’t follow the King’s Army, so unless he felt comfortable with the contract then Malcolm would keep Alchem out of it. At least, that was James was thinking. Of course, a contract with the King’s Army wasn’t an optional invitation, but James trusted Malcolm would be able to convince them Alchem was in no condition for the amount of travel required.

Unfortunately it was the way Shernine reacted to Malcolm’s previous involvement with the King’s Army that worried James. His perception of the situation shifted quickly when James mentioned it. James didn’t know what sort of idea Shernine had about the way political operations occurred in the Mainland, but he didn’t seem too keen about having Malcolm involved in it. Of course, Alchem also used to be a member of the King’s Army, but if Shernine was to be believed, it would have been long enough ago, no one from that time would be around to remember it but Alchem. James wasn’t positive that Shernine was telling the truth. Was Alchem really that old? Hundreds of years seemed like stretch, but James didn’t want to step on Shernine’s toes as he seemed to be his best bet of finding out what happened to Alchem and Malcolm.

James climbed out from the brush and entered the horse fields through the fence. The horses were in the stable making quite a bit of noise. James wondered over to see if there was anyone around but the structure was devoid of any other animals. As he entered the horses quickly quieted down for a moment and stared intently at him. They seemed mesmerized by his presence. James figured his father must have locked them all up in the stalls for whatever reason. As he approached one horse it slowly back away from him into the corner of the stall. Without breaking eye contact James slowly began to unlock the gate to enter at which point the horse began jumping and kicking and neighing. “Have it your way then.” He muttered as he back away and locked the gate.

James closed the door behind himself as he walked back into the field and to the house.  Right away he saw Michael wonder around to the front of the house and out of sight. He must have been over looking for James. He made his way inside to find both of his parents in the kitchen, as he entered he found his parents sitting calmly in the kitchen. “Was Michael just here?” he asked.

“Upstairs. Came to drop something off for you…” his father paused for a moment. He lowered the town of his voice so Michael couldn’t hear him. “He’s not in good shape, is he?” James shook his head and made his way up the stairs. Inside his room, Michael was there with a big bottle of something resting between his hands. He held it out for James proudly but, as it was unlabeled, James wasn’t entirely sure what it was supposed to be. He took it from Michael and looked through the dark, green glass cautiously.

“Uh, thanks?”

“It’s homemade booze my friend!” James pulled the cork out with his teeth and gave it a whiff. It smelled vaguely fruity behind the heavy scent of alcohol. “It’s my own special recipe. I’d tell you what’s in it, but then it wouldn’t be a secret.” He coughed with excitement.

“I think you mean, but then I wouldn’t drink it. Is this gunna make me go blind?”

“Blind with excitement?” James put the cork back in the bottle and set it on his desk.

“Thanks, I actually…” he was cut off by a tapping on his window. Confused, he walked over and unlocked the hinge on the shutters to open the window. He almost fell backwards when he saw Bart staring in at him from immediately outside. “What are you doing?! We have a front door!”

“I’m trying to show you how unsafe it is to have all this garbage piled up outside your window. Somebody could get into your room and night and kill you or something.” Michael snickered when he heard “or something.”

“Yeah, but you couldn’t have gotten in here without me opening the window.” Bart rolled inside with a tremendous thud onto the floor. “That’s fair. But clearly you’re going to open it regardless of who might be behind it.” James and Michael weren’t really sure how to respond to that. “Alright, I was supposed to pick up some things from town but I came here instead.  I didn’t want your parents to see me because I’m trying to be discreet about it.” Just as he said this, James’ mother arrived in the doorway, she seemed genuinely concerned.

“What happened? Did you fall?” She turned to Michael, then amusedly to Bart, lying on the floor. She rolled her eyes as she walked away, back down the stairs.

“Yeah well, I don’t think trying to break through the floor was the most ‘discreet’ way of getting in here.” Michael answered as he plopped down on James’ bed with a large sigh.

“Is there a particular reason you came all the way down here?”

“Yeah, I saw Michael walk past my place on the way south of town and I figured I sneak up on him, but at some point I realized he was holding a glass bottle and didn’t want him to accidently break it. The last time I jumped out at him he threw a basket of bread into the air and screamed like a girl.” Bart stood up and noticed the bottle sitting on James’ desk. He sat on the desk next to it causing some awful creaking sounds to echo through the room. After biting off the cork and spitting it onto the floor he took a quick swig. “Woah!” he said with a cough, “is this stuff gunna make me go blind?” Suddenly James remembered where he had been that afternoon.

“Hey, I was just at Alchem’s hut and there was some other guy there.” Bart, for whatever reason, took another swig from the bottle.

“Somebody moving in?”

“No, he was looking for Alchem. He said he’s going to head north to find him. I think I’m gunna go with him.”

“Awesome, I’ll tag along.” He coughed as his second drink reached his stomach.

“That seems kind of sketchy, and that’s coming from me.” Bart and James looked at Michael and just shrugged. “Seriously, do you even know this guy?”

“I mean, he definitely knows Alchem and he seemed genuinely concerned for him. He thinks Alchem’s been summoned by the King’s Army for some kind of work.”

“Well, there you go. He’s far gone at this point. It’ll take at least a couple weeks to catch up to him, and then what? We’re here to take you home, ignore the fact that you’ve been contracted by the forces?!” Bart looked at James. Michael was actually talking some sense for once. It’s wasn’t as if he could easily turn down an order like that, even if Alchem was ridiculously old. James hadn’t really been thinking about it realistically. He was too focused on finding out what was going on to have given it that much thought. If Alchem was actually contracted there wouldn’t be much any of them could do about it. If anyone could have done something it would have been Malcolm, so clearly there wasn’t really an option. Bart took another swig from the bottle.

“Well, I was looking forward to some traveling outside of here and Vordenport. Thanks, killjoy.”

“Hey, I’m just pointing out the facts.” As worried as James was for Alchem, Michael was right, there wasn’t anything they could do. He wasn’t sure he would even run into Shernine again. Shernine was very cryptic about meeting James again. He didn’t really set a definite time or place; he just wanted him to be ready to go in the near future. James resigned himself to never really knowing what happened to Alchem and was forced to trust that Malcolm was doing the right thing.

“Thanks for the booze, Michael.” Michael smiled and then coughed. He tried to wipe blood from his chin without James or Bart noticing but they both did. He was becoming seriously ill. James and Bart felt hopeless for him. They both knew he had seen both of the doctors in Vorren and a few doctors in Vordenport. None of them had any sort of solution for his problem. Michael was deteriorating from the inside out and no amount of support from his friends had any effect on it. The boys all hung around for a but passing around the bottle of homemade booze and talking about various topics that had no meaning to any of them. Even Michael was drinking against all the orders of the doctors he had talked to about his condition. Michael left first after a fit of coughing took most of his breathe away. Bart left a few minutes later to follow Michael and ensure he could make it back into town without any assistance.

After all of the excitement, James headed downstairs to find both of his parents had left the residence. He wondered outside to look for them; they weren’t anywhere to be found in any of the fields. He heard the sound of one horse whining in the stable and decided to investigate, wondering what could have occupied both of their attentions. As he neared the stable he could have sworn he saw the tall man in the green robes just behind the brush in the woods. James ran through the brush cutting himself on one arm before making it into a small clearing. He turned himself around trying to find the man. There was no sight of him and absolutely nothing to see but a serene and quiet forest. James was frustrated beyond belief with this sort of specter he could not identify. He turned himself around again before shouting. “I’ve seen you!” Nothing but silence answered his statement. James felt less than threatening at this point. “Don’t come back here.” He muttered, almost to himself. He felt defeated not being able to identify the man that haunted his peripherals.

James pushed his way out of the brush and walked into the stable. The horses remained in their stalls without much complaining. His parents clearly weren’t anywhere to be found so James left again and began to head back towards the house. It was beginning to get dark. He stepped into a puddle and shook off his foot, irritated, trying to get all of the water out of his shoe. When he looked up he noticed a tall black figure wonder around the side of his house. Terrified that the being may be after his parents he dashed towards his home. He screamed for both his parents but felt as if his voice was too weak to reach through the walls of the house. The door of the cottage was open. James was terrified something had happened to his family. He jumped in the doorway just in time to see the black mass make its way into his bedroom up the stairs.  James ran up the stairs in just a few steps and jumped through the hallway. Inside his room he could clearly see a tall black figure with doglike legs and a long, hairy black tail. Its back was manlike, bony and elongated. It was hunched over on the opposite side of his bed breathing heavily with a dark, black hum.

James turned to his desk to grab the bottle that had been left there hoping to strike the monster before it could turn around to realize he was standing there. The bottle was exactly where Bart had left it. James grabbed it by the neck and turned only to find the beast staring directly into his eyes. The eyes were brightly white, yet emitted no light. It was if they stole all of James’ focus and drug him into the darkness inside. He could not break eye contact, no matter how hard he tried. The face of the freakish being was distorted but James could make out a large and disgusting mouth that hung open with a dark red tongue bursting out from the white skull. The being panted quickly as James could see the shadows of its horned raise and lower on the wall behind it. He felt frozen, as if in a bad dream. Finally, in a distorted manner with its tongue flailing wildly through its mouth as darkness dripped off of its chin the beast proclaimed. “He will fall.” The voice was deep and echoed through the emptiness of the room.

James collapsed onto the floor and vomited a dark and red substance at his feet. He slumped onto his back and closed his eyes. As he drifted slowly in and out of consciousness, assuming he was really awake at all, watched helplessly as the evil creature crawled all over his ceiling with its spindly limbs flashing back and forth. Finally, before completely losing sense of his surroundings, James saw Alchem appear in the room. James tried to scream at Alchem to alert him of the presence of the monster. Alchem simply turned away from the beast; his eyes were grey and empty while he appeared to be staring at something in the darkness. The massive black and distorted freak jumped from the roof and landed on Alchem’s back before James finally resigned to a deep slumber.