Plane of the Godless Read online

  “I don’t understand. What happened? Who are you?” Her voice started up almost of its own volition as she pulled herself to a sitting position and arranged the strange soft cloak that was covering her to protect her modesty, putting out questions one after the other, until he held up a hand to say wait. Then he reached into his pouch – pouch? She suddenly noticed that he was dressed very strangely, in addition to his strange hair, skin and eyes. Almost like a monk, or what? And what was he doing?

  Giltreas pulled out the components for the spell that would give him her language and let them communicate. The short chant came to him easily, and he activated the spell. The familiar draining feeling of a casting tired him a little more, letting him know the spell was succeeding. As the spell completed, the magical energy grew inside him much faster and way stronger than was usual, and a strange buzzing noise came to him, things he had never felt or heard when shaping and casting spells before. He realized that the air around him was vibrating, getting louder as the energy built up from casting the spell. The buzzing noise changed to a noise like a rushing river, and grew louder as the energy from the spell built up, roaring in his ears. He had never encountered this phenomenon before, and hesitated. He considered what to do for an instant, but when no other choice present itself, and having come this far, he reached out towards her to cast and complete the spell, touching her hand, hoping that whatever happened would be within his power to set aright later.

  She gasped as a tiny jolt of electricity shot through her. A roaring noise instantly filled the air, very quickly growing louder and higher in pitch. When the roar grew intolerably loud, a huge white flash seemed to come from everywhere, making the woods brighter than daylight before blinding her. A stupendous concussion of sound accompanied the flash of light, leaving her ears ringing and spots before her eyes even as the force of the blast knocked her back to the ground and rolled her over twice.

  She ended up on her stomach looking away from him where the force had tossed her like a rag doll, and as she picked up her head she saw that the white energy had mostly faded away to nothingness. She could still vaguely see its outline, almost like a wave, much taller than she was, racing away from the small clearing in an ever-expanding circle across the ground in all directions. As it passed trees, plants and every living thing, it seemed to flow right through them, temporarily making them translucent with white energy, almost like she was looking at an X-ray of the plants it passed, before it moved further on. She lost sight of it in the woods, but could catch a glimpse as she could see it sometimes between the trees, moving across clearings and up and over small hills. The ground and the plants in its path seemed to glow white for a moment as it made contact with them then moved past, then it slowly faded away as the wave moved on at high speed.

  When her mind could focus again, she looked around the camp at the devastation the explosion had caused. The fire had been blown out. Everything, including the dead bodies that could be moved, had been pushed outwards, away from the center of the blast. Astonished and stunned, she looked back, and saw that the blast had spent its main force on the grey man. He was lying on his side several feet from where he had been before, with his mouth open and eyes shut. He was bleeding from his nose, mouth, eyes and ears. He was still, but every now and then would twitch like something was shocking him, and was obviously very badly hurt. She wasn’t sure who he was or what he had done to cause the explosion, but he had killed her four assailants before they could finish her. As such, she would help him now if possible. She owed him that.

  She stood as quickly as her trembling muscles would allow, then walked over on shaky legs to where the cloak had fallen. She picked it up and settled it over her shoulders, drawing its comfortable softness and gentle warmth around her, pulling the thick tie around her and knotting it off, and then walked over to the stranger.

  She bent over him, and gently worked pulled him over onto his back. His head lolled in such a way that she knew he was at least unconscious, if not worse. She reached out and turned his face towards her so she could check him over more, and noticed huge hole between his ear and temple, extending up towards the top of his head. A good amount of his scalp was missing and his skull showed through the gap, broken and dislodged, with some part missing. The ghastly wound was pouring blood out into his grey hair, turning it bright red in the light from the flashlights gathered around and the campfire. Feeling sick to her stomach at the gruesome injury, she felt for his pulse, but couldn’t really tell if it was there or not. Dismayed, not knowing what to do to save him, she froze, trying to think of something as she watched the blood seep now more slowly out of him. Looking around, she saw nothing around that could be used staunch the flow, and looked back to his wound, feeling helpless and sick with worry and fear for him.

  And was shocked at what she saw. In just the seconds she had looked away and back again, the blood flow had slowed considerably, and was pooling in place, filling in the wound in defiance of gravity and several other immutable science lessons from college. Almost immediately, a green light began to glow at the site of the injury as the blood loss stopped entirely, and the pool of blood forming on the side of his head started to pulse, first so faintly that she was not even sure she was seeing it, until it was obviously there. She reached out and put her fingers to his throat, checking his pulse and dreading what she would find, when to her surprise, it was strong and steady, not the weak beating of someone whose injury placed him so close to death, a far cry from what she had found just moments before.

  As she watched the pulsing green glow in amazement, she slowly realized that the blood was filling in the wound, taking the place of missing tissue and bone; then it began to change color. The sight of it stunned her. What was she witnessing here? In a short time, the ghastly wound closed up, healed completely. Even the hair that had been lost grew back, flowing down his head until it matched the rest of his hair in length and fullness. Then the glow moved slowly over his head and down his body. When it reached his feet, it seemed to fade into the darkness, and it was gone.

  She realized at that moment that she had been hyperventilating, and forced herself to take a slow, deep breath. The man in front of her continued to breathe, but didn’t seem to be moving around at all. He must be unconscious, or something, but he almost seemed to be sleeping. She decided. She couldn’t just leave him here, so…

  She looked around, and didn’t see any vehicles, but that didn’t mean much. She remembered being driven here in a Suburban or something like it, so it must be around here somewhere. The leader had been driving the SUV that brought them all here deep in the woods, so she picked up one of the flashlights that had illuminated her, and walked, as gently as her bare feet would let her on the ground in the trees, over to where he lay.

  She flashed the light over his still form to see if she could spot where his keys might be. And turned away instantly, her stomach heaving as she saw the huge wound in his chest. There was nothing in her to come up, but her stomach valiant gave it a go anyways, wracking her body with the attempt to empty itself. The effort left her weakened temporarily, driving her to her knees in front of his bloody corpse. She squeezed her eyes shut hard, then reached out to move her hand across the damp ground until it touched his arm.

  Keeping her eyes closed, she moved her hand around until she found his hand, then she moved it past his hand to his body. So far so good. Working her hand into his front pocket on that side of his body, she found some change, but no keys. Taking a deep breath, she turned her head until she could only see his feet from the corner of her eyes, then scooted around him until she could get to his other front pocket. Nothing. Where…? He had been wearing a light jacket. Must be in there. She turned her head slowly, sweeping her eyes up his legs, until she could just barely make out the bottom of the jacket. It was laying open on the ground, probably when… don’t go there, she told herself. Just get the damned keys.

  She closed her eyes and felt around where the jacket should h
ave been, and reached into the pocket. Success! Pulling the keychain out, she opened her eyes to look at it, and immediately regretted it as her eyes were pulled to the ruin of his chest again. She gasped, clamping her eyes tightly shut, and turned away. Her stomach roiled again, but it knew it was empty, so didn’t engage in any more futile acts.

  She stood, turning away from the corpse as she did so, and looked around. Not seeing anything resembling a large black SUV, and her mind ran over the thought - of course the bad guys drive a BLACK SUV, and the largest they can find – must be compensating for something, she thought in dark humor. The thought conjured up something dark and cold inside her, and she shivered in the warm air. Pulling the cloak around herself more tightly, she held the key fob up over her head and pushed the unlock button.

  A chirping sound came to her, and she turned, walking carefully over the forest floor and then the path she found. She followed the path for a few minutes, chirping the remote from time to time to confirm her direction, and found the truck around a bend in the path, down on the main dirt road. Opening the driver’s door, she got in, started it up, and carefully drove it back up the path to the small clearing, barely clearing the trees on either side, and jouncing over the uneven path as she crept up to where the grey man lay.

  ◆◆◆

  He allowed himself a small celebration as he contemplated the furtherance of his plans. Another step completed, and an annoyance removed from his path as well. The call had come in just about twenty minutes ago.

  “Sir, the first of those two problems is resolved, and the second will also be resolved soon. Unless there are issues, this is the only time we will talk.”

  God, he loved professionals, he thought with a contented sigh. He took a sip of the cognac that he saved for just certain special occasions. Expensive as hell, and oh, so fine. One down, one more to go, probably tomorrow. Now he could move his plan forward without having to fight with her over it. Yes, all was right with the world.

  Chapter 3

  She stood at the end of the bed watching him breathe, and her mind swirled with endless questions. Where had he come from? Who was he? Why was he dressed that way? And what the hell happened when he touched her? Her ears still rang slightly, almost an hour later, from the sound and force of the concussion. Her thoughts went back, playing quickly over everything that happened, like a movie in fast-forward. Trying to get his unconscious form into the Suburban, then getting him up into a fireman’s carry and laying him in back. Looking over the small clearing, and picking up bits of torn pajamas, everything of hers she could find. Trying to remember the moments from when she got to the clearing to when she saw him kneeling beside her. Grabbing his strange pack and even stranger-looking crossbow and setting them in the back of the Suburban next to him. Then, the drive carefully through the woods with her lights off while being able to see adequately in the darkness.

  Her memories after she woke up were mostly a blur now, her mind in a tangled whirl of half-formed thoughts and concepts that seemed to start to form, then where swept away by the currents of her emotions. She started to pull the cloak tighter around herself for a moment as she stood over the bed, then she forced herself to stop. She wanted to get into her own clothes. With one last glance at the sleeping or unconscious form on the cottage’s guest bed, she turned and padded silently across the hardwood floor out of the room, pulled the door most of the way closed behind her, and went over to the master bedroom.

  It had taken her less time than she thought it would to get his still form into the Suburban, lug his pack to the back of the vehicle, drive back to the house, and put him into a fireman’s carry again so she could lug him up the steps and deposit his still but breathing form on the bed in the guest room. She had pulled off his strange boots, setting them aside, then looked him over once more. Every bit of her mind was on the task at hand, and her sense of focus was totally on getting this person, whoever he was, inside and safe. She should have been more tired. Must be the adrenalin still coursing through her. She should be hungry too, considering. She’d deal with that later.

  His strange appearance struck an odd chord inside her. The rings on his fingers, one on each hand, whose stones seemed to catch the light and reflect more of it back. A necklace of some sort with a black, diamond-like stone on it in a strange, ornate setting around his neck. Thick, wide, matching bracelets were on his wrists, extending up his arms a small ways. Some sort of… something around his waist. And a belt with pouches and purses attached to it. Pants of a strange design. A shirt that looked more like a tunic of some kind.

  And the weapons. She found several knives that would fit well in one hand, and couldn’t have failed to noticed the large, long-handled sword (a sword? had she fallen down a rabbit hole or something?!?) on a belt at his left hip back in the clearing. That she had taken off him when she tried to lay him down gently in the back of the Suburban. It lay against the chair in the bedroom, clustered around with the few other things of his she pulled off him in her attempt to make him more comfortable while he slept.

  Everything about him was different somehow. Like nothing she had ever seen in real life, but possibly a movie or something. Not overly ornate, or flashy, not very plain or very rough, but somewhere in between. Serviceable clothing that looked to be well-made, but of fabrics and cloths that seemed made by hand, and stitched together one piece at a time. Nothing on him was worn out, but it all looked… worn in, or gently used – that was the best term she could think of. And it all seemed to go together as if purchased from the same place, she thought, then wondered where that thought had come from. Some costume shop or something?

  There were rings on a few of his fingers; one a plain gold band, a few others with stones set in simple settings. One, however, was of a very ornate design, set with a black stone that, from the corner of her eye as she looked away, seemed to have a very faint glow deep inside. The necklace around his neck had a pendant on it that seemed to be difficult to look at directly, almost like it didn’t want to be seen. Each time she leaned forward to get a better look at it in the light from the hallway fixture, her mind wandered to a different subject. She shook her head as if to clear it, and decided to talk to him later about it.

  The belt around his waist came off, pouches and all, and she set that aside on the small bedside table, easily in reach and view. Didn’t want him to think she had stolen from him; she’d seen his handiwork in the clearing, but shied away from that thought just as quickly as it had come to her. She even pulled the cloak off herself and set it over the back of the chair, confident enough that he stayed asleep or in whatever state he was the whole time, and that he wouldn’t see her.

  That had been earlier. Now, though, with whomever he was taken care of, she backed out of the room, turned off the light, and closed the door part way. She left the light on in the hallway so that when he woke up, he would be able to see around him.

  She walked back to the master bedroom at the end of the hall, and turned on the light. She glanced at the clock on the dresser as she reached inside, noting that it was nearly two in the morning as she pulled out some under things and started to pull them on, not really looking at what she was doing as her hands followed a familiar ritual, her mind far away on the earlier events of the last few hours. The underwear was too large, so she reached into the drawer again, thinking that some of her clothing from before her latest weight-loss effort must still be in the drawer, and pulled out some that she thought would fit her better, remembering the few pounds she had already lost, and how much more she still wanted to lose to get to her goal. She tried to put the next pair of underwear on, but they were also too big. Then she noticed something about herself, and stood there stunned for a moment, before going quickly into the master bathroom. Flipping on the light by feel, she looked at herself in the huge mirror over the double sinks in shock and disbelief. Then the world swam before her eyes, and she had to lean heavily on the counter top in front of her, looking down away then pressing
her eyes tightly shut, hiding from the site that greeted her in the mirror. When the room stopped shimmying around, she looked up again. And gasped again at what she saw.

  Someone she had not seen in many years looked back at her. The image was much younger than her forty-seven years. The thinning, greying hair was gone, with and in its place was original reddish-brown locks, rich and full. And long. Not more than three hours ago, it had been cut very short because it would not grow right anymore, in the cutest bob cut that she could get to hide the thinning patches on top. The skin on her face was smooth and flawless, without the crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes, or the age marks that had started to take up residence there. The wrinkles on her neck were gone. Her skin everywhere she looked was smooth and flawless, better than she had ever seen it, she realized. The moles and other blemishes on her face and neck were gone. Her body, her arms, her hands, everything was incredible. But that wasn’t the biggest thing.

  All the scars from the accident years ago that nearly killed her, and the seemingly endless surgeries that had put her back together as best as could be with modern medicine, were completely gone. Erased, as if they had never been there before. Her nose was straight and unbroken. The ears were level once more. The eyes were as well. The room spun again, and she sat down on the floor on her naked backside – hard. She sat there, and closed her eyes, trying to catch her breath. When she could look around and the room stayed put, she pulled herself to her feet once more, realizing that she was feeling youthful strength and flexibility for the first time in many years. Decades. And looked back in the mirror once more.