Alphande'
Gildarren

The creature took a single step forward and the earth trembled. I skidded backwards but managed to regain my balance immediately.

“We will have to move quickly.” said Ashbeth as he unsheathed his sword.

“Do you see the staff anywhere?” I said as I armed myself with my bow pointing it at the massive golden eye that looked down on us. I took several steps backwards still pointing my arrow at the creature’s head.

“No and if I did see it I wouldn’t tell. I have allowed you to stay alive this long because you will increase my chances of getting past the beast. Make no mistake as soon as I get what I want this partnership ends.”

“Point duly noted.” I said. Another burst of fire issued from the creature’s mouth lighting up the sky. I had two enemies to face and I couldn’t tell which was worse, the dragon or Ashbeth.

Nothing can beat magic except stronger magic. Lower your sword and save your arrows as they are useless against me Ashbeth of Kulkar and Evander of Gé Addar. It said as it slipped its forked tongue in and out through it slotted fangs. It took another step forward, flapping its wings once, stirring the air around us. It was then that I noticed the something strange about its wings. The things that I thought were fine scales I noted to be thinner and rod-like each like small chimes hanging from a giant sheet. Each of them could potentially be a staff or rather the staff, Alphandé.

This scene was oddly familiar it took me back to the time I spent in the library of Ta él. The sheet of gold chimes that surrounded the wooden staff, I was thoroughly convinced that this was the same thing that I had witnessed. But how could that have been? The library showed things that were, not what was to come. Unless it was the past, someone else’s. But Tet had said that no one saw what happened once the contestants entered the volcano. So the only person who could have left that memory there was a former Grey Mage but who and why would they do that? And could I have been the only contestant to receive that image?

I was abruptly brought back to the present as the place was filled with an angry roar. Ashbeth had somehow managed to clamber up the side of the hill and had jumped unto the beast’s neck. The creature shook its head but it couldn’t dislodge him as Ashbeth drove his sword under the silver plated flesh of the animal.

“By Avandor,” I mouthed silently. “No Ashbeth, this is not the way…” I shut up as I knew that he couldn’t hear me and I doubt he would even listen if he did hear.

Ashbeth was again ahead and I took off running towards the dragon. A single talon rested of the ledge on which I was perched and I scaled it silently while the dragon was preoccupied with Ashbeth. It was like walking on a road made of polished silver, but I soon learned that I should step along the edges where each scale overlapped.

I looked down and swallowed hard as I knew a single slip would mean the ending of my life as a pool of bubbling magma was directly below me. The dragon lifted its leg and I clung on to it as the leg was now airborne. There was no way down, from now on the only way to go was up.

I looked across to Ashbeth who still slashing away at the creature. The dragon shook with each assault but I noticed that it wasn’t fighting back.

“Ashbeth stop!” I shouted at him and this time he heard as he noticed me below him.

“Stop what? I am winning.”

“It is not fighting back, don’t you see? This isn’t the way to the staff.”

“You are clearly wasting my time.” He then unplugged the sword from the creature’s neck and moved in large bounds across the shoulders and towards me. I swung myself over onto the creature’s shoulders and he was right behind me. He came at me with his sword at me and I blocked it with my bow. Luckily the wood held strong as whatever magic it possessed made it impervious to the sword. He swung again and I had to duck out of the way. This was not a fair fight in any sense, though we were both armed, my weapon was useless from this distance. The only way I would have a chance at winning was if I somehow managed to disarm him.

I climbed in bounds that were impossible for my human strength. He was behind me as I ran around the spines that shot up like polished stakes of gold that lined the neck of the dragon.

“This is not a game of hide and seek Evander!” he shouted. “Show yourself!” he said. I peeked around the spine and saw him two spines down. He was moving stealthily around each before jabbing his sword around the other side. Each time he came up empty he got even angrier.

He was now approaching the spine I hid behind. I timed my footsteps with his and as he slid around to the front, I quietly slipped behind him.

“Evander you can’t keep this up for much longer. There are only so many spines that you can hide behind.”

“I know, that’s why I am not hiding anymore.” I said as I kicked him behind the knee causing him to stumble forward. The sword didn’t fall as I had hoped, instead it was planted under the thick scale of the dragon’s neck and had sunk lower down into its flesh.

Another great roar erupted and the creature begun to lift his head in agony. The relatively flat surface was rapidly going up into a steep incline. I threw myself behind one of the spikes, wrapping both my legs and arms around it. The creature kept on lifting its head until the once vertical spine was now horizontal to the pool of magma that lay below me. I squeezed my eyes shut and held on tighter as if the creature tilted any more I would surely slide head first into the boiling lake.

Thankfully the dragon stopped moving. Its roar filled the air and the sky was again brightened by the golden-white flames that sprung from its mouth. Even though I was behind the spray, I could feel the scorch of the inferno pricking at the skin on my back.

It craned its neck down until we were again level. I unhitched myself from around the spike. Luckily I managed to hold on to my bow throughout the ordeal.

I looked around warily to see if there was any sign of Ashbeth. Just a few steps ahead of me a rivulet of purple liquid bubbled from under the scale where the sword was stuck but there was no sign of the weapon anywhere.

Something moved and I turned left. I felt a swoosh of air pass my cheek and the sting of a fresh wound on my face. The wound however was superficial, if I hadn’t looked away in time… I glared at him both in anger and surprise.

He swung again and the sword struck the thick spike becoming lodged. While he tried to pull it out I used the end of my bow to knock him across the face. He staggered backwards, leaving his sword behind. I kicked him in his back repeatedly.

I could hear him groaning in pain but for once I didn’t care. I was tired of all of this. I wanted this Race to end and I wanted it to end now. I dragged an arrow from my bag and in less than a second it was nocked into the bow ready to be drawn.

He turned around. “I know you Evander. It is not in you to kill an unarmed man. That is the nature of a changeling and you are not one of us.”

“Not now, but when this ends I will be.” I said as I let the arrow fly mercilessly into his chest.

“Go in peace,” I said as I let another arrow fly. Tiny drops of blood welled up around the wound before running down his forehead and of his face. His death was not serene as his mouth was agape and his eyes stared blindly ahead.

I stooped down and was about to close his eyes, but his body had started to disintegrate into orbs of white light. One second it was there, the next it was gone. The two arrows that I had spent fell soundlessly to the ground.

I took them up and then placed them back into the quiver. I stood up and looked ahead.

From here I could see over the cauldron of the volcano and out at the frozen lands that were spread around me for miles. It was like I was at the very pinnacle of the world. The thought suddenly struck me:

I was the only one left.

I had won.

I had won.

Yet somehow I felt I had lost.

Silent tears streaked my face as there was no joy in this victory. The journey of four days had now started to take full hold on my body and I instantly fell weak.

The weighty consciousness of Gildarren filled my mind once more. Alphandé waits for you to claim it Evander of Calabar. Why do weep instead?

“I weep because in winning I have lost.”

What have you lost?

“Myself, my honour. How easily death comes to my fingertips. I am not who I was before I started and so I do not know who I am now.”

Yet if you hadn’t killed you would have been killed. Is that not the cycle of life? The strong were meant to endure while the weak perish. It said in an as-a-matter-of-factly tone.

“Life is cruel.” I said.

But you are not. This is the reason you weep. You think you have lost your compassion or your honour. But if that were so, why is it that you weep?

I shifted my head and thought about what he said and I had no answer.

He continued. You do not know thy self now as you have yet to fully claim it. You are who you were as well who you shall be. You are the winner of the Great Race, but not yet the Grey Mage. Claim Alphandé and claim thy identity. Then you will have no reason to weep.

A sudden sense of peace came up on my mind as realised the truth in what was spoken.

“You are as wise as you are great, Gildarren.”

The collected consciousnesses of many have given me multiple perspectives. That is another form of wisdom I suppose. It said with a hint of mirth.

“I do not understand what you mean?” I said as I stood up. His massive head was angled towards me so that I could look directly into its jewelled eye.

Choose your staff. It said as it held out one of its massive wings.

I looked at the thin membrane coated with millions of gilded rods, but I knew that it wasn’t any of those that I searched for.

Great power can lie in the simplest of things Evander. Echoed Babu’s voice in my head.

Among the rods of gold I spotted a simple knotted wooden branch. I walked through the swinging rods setting out peals of bell-like music as I pushed through to where I wanted to be.

I grabbed hold of the branch. “Alphandé I choose you.” I said.

A sudden burst of silver light surrounded me and for a moment time and space ceased to exist. In that single moment, I saw all that was and all that was now. A new strength suddenly filled me and an energy like I’ve never felt before coursed through my veins transforming and healing me as it went along.

When I opened my eyes, the light had cleared and the dragon that had been my footstool was no more. Instead I stood on air yet I was unafraid of falling. Surrounding me were the eyes of a thousand men all garbed in silver.

I looked down and I too was garbed in a similar fashion. The wooden twig now became a silver staff exuding the brilliance of all the power it held.

“I was the chuman Evander, but not so anymore. I am the Grey Mage.” I said as my sonorous voice seemed to resonate throughout the lands around me.

“All hail the Grey Mage.” replied the host of people surrounding me as they dropped to their knees in reverence.