C.E. Murphy - Truthseeker

“I don’t know! Giants!”

“There’s no such thing as giants!” Half a dozen stones came smashing down toward them, giving the lie to Lara’s assertion, for all that it rang true in her mind. She flinched back, staring as another one flew overhead and bounced into the ravine. “It’s got to be him.”

“He’s a giant? !”

“No! I mean, I don’t think so!” Lara pressed her spine against her standing stone, then dared another glimpse toward Kelly. They were separated by no more than twenty feet, with one of the pin-stones offering shelter between them. “Stay there!”

“Like I was going to go anywhere!”

A giggle rose up and gave Lara the nerve to launch herself into a run, aiming for the nearby standing stone. A hailstorm of smaller rocks exploded down at her, pebbles pelting her arms and ribs as she ran. One, a fist-sized rock, connected solidly with her thigh and she stumbled as bone-deep pain bloomed. The rest of the stones rattled off the ninepin rock as she rolled into its lee. Kelly’s voice broke over the last clattering of stone: “Are you okay?”

The ache in her leg was dull but comprehensive, setting her whole body off-kilter so she wanted to both curl over the injury and to throw up. Lara put her hand against it, gasping, and managed a weak “Yeah” in response.

Kelly’s silence was filled with another rattling of stone, at the end of which she said, “You’re still a terrible liar, Lar.”

“No, I’m okay. I’m just …” Lara exhaled like the ache would rush out on her breath, then inhaled again deeply. “That hurt.”

“I’ll come the rest of the way to you.” Before Lara had a chance to protest, Kelly burst out from behind her rock, running pell-mell across scattered stones. She slid behind the ninepin rock seconds before another round stone came rolling down the hill to batter their protective wall. “You shouldn’t’ve come after me, you idiot. But thank you.”

“You sounded like you were dying! Why didn’t you just turn around and come back?”

“Look.” Kelly nodded toward the switchback and Lara pushed herself up to peer at it.

The mountainside had closed, no hint of the passageway visible. Lara, incredulous, said, “That’s not even possible, is it?” and Kelly laughed.

“Lara, hon, we’re well on our way to six impossible things before breakfast. We—eep!” Rock shattered over their heads, the top of their standing stone exploding under the impact of another thrown stone. “We can’t stay here.”

“No, I mean, it’s really not possible.” Lara scowled at the blank mountainside, searching for a way to see through what she was certain must be illusion. Truthseeker was better suited to words, she thought, to hearing and speaking the truth. Seeing it was too complicated, the human mind poorly constructed for truth’s visual tricks. She clutched the staff, frantic to call its power to help herself see through the impossible, but it remained cold and quiet in her hands. Like it resented the limitations she’d put on it and was punishing her for it. The thought was absurd, but there was no hint of mistruth to it, and Lara found herself staring at the staff in bewildered distrust.

Kelly caught her arm, shaking her from half-formed thoughts. “I know it’s not possible, but that’s not stopping it from happening! That rock that hit you … can you run?”

Lara rubbed her thigh again, residually aware of the ache there. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s a bone bruise. A week from now after I’ve forgotten what happened it’ll turn purple.”

“If you can manage to forget what’s happening I want your therapist’s phone number. Come on, maybe we can get over the edge of the ravine and it’ll protect us.”

“No, we need to go up.” Lara peeked around the edge of their rock, then yelped and flinched back as another barrage came rolling down the mountain. “It feels right, and besides, that’s where the stones are coming from. I’m going to get this guy even if I have to fight giants.”

“With what?”

Lara pushed herself up. “With the truth.”

“Oh, good. You’ve got a truth shield, then? One that’s going to keep enormous rocks from flattening us?”

“Sort of.” Lara closed her eyes, listening not for the next rumble of stone, but for the music that was a part of her. The nightwings had strained at that tune, making it ugly, though she hadn’t recognized that until the third encounter. But it meant something; it had to.

It meant that, like the breach between worlds that had let them through, they weren’t a true thing. They undoubtedly existed, but like a flaw in cloth, a woven bit gone wrong. It pulled at everything else, warping it the same way an out-of-tune piano warped a song.

There were no giants. Not in this world, not now, if there ever had been. Lara clung to that as a truth she could be certain of, and it hummed comforting agreement. “There aren’t any giants, but giants are throwing the stones.”

“What?” Kelly half-swallowed the question, letting Lara ignore her. Music trembled, unable to fuse there aren’t any giants and giants are throwing the stones into a cohesive whole. One couldn’t be true without the other, and the first part carried more weight.

“There aren’t any giants to throw the stones. I want the stones to stop.”

Shocking silence surrounded them, as alarming, in its way, as the rockfall had been. Lara crowed triumph and swung around the edge of their standing stone to glare defiance up the mountain. “They’re an illusion. That must be his talent.”

“An illusion?” Kelly surged to her feet, gesturing at herself. Scrapes lined her hands, her shoes were dusty, and a bruise was forming on one cheekbone. “That’s a hell of an illusion, Lara. Packs a lot of punch. And the nightwings sure as hell weren’t illusions! How’d he make them if he does illusions?”

“The nightwings were something else. I mean, Dafydd knew what they were, so it’s got to be a spell the Seelie can work as a general rule, cutting away pieces of the night sky to make an attack beast. And anything can hit hard, Kelly. Air can hit hard.” Lara began picking her way up the riverbed, gaining speed as her certainty grew. “That’s got to be it. You can’t see the air, but it’s got presence. His talent must be giving it form, making it real.”

“Air’s one thing, but those were rocks!”

“No.” Lara turned around, catching Kelly’s hand and nodding toward the passage they’d just climbed. “Look.”

The ninepins stones still stood, rickety and tall in the ancient sluiceway. But they grew up out of flattened stones, grass working its way between the cracks. There were no lumps of round stones to be seen, though dust still settled where they’d crashed into the earth. “Look,” Lara said again, softly. “He stopped holding his concentration, so they disappeared.”

“That’s not possible. They almost killed us.”

Lara let go a quick laugh. “Maybe it’s not possible, but it’s true. It’s just like the military trying to use compressed air for nonlethal weapons.” She started back up the mountain, hearing Kelly follow close behind. “The only difference is this guy can add a visible component to the attack. I’m sure of it.” She felt like she was floating on the music, confidence shoring her up.

“The military can’t turn compressed air into visible rocks,” Kelly muttered, but the argument had run out of her. “Lara, what do we do against somebody who can turn illusion against us? I mean, he could be hiding in plain sight.”

“I don’t think it’ll work on me now that I’m looking for it. Dafydd’s glamour wouldn’t, anyway. I knew he was using it, but I still saw him as he really is.”