Poetic Justice

As Carn dies from his injuries, Amala and her parents desperately hurry to find him.

28.

Poetic Justice

 

Carn came awake with a gasp, feeling blood pooling in his mouth and his whole body ignited in intense pain.    Something had happened " something had changed and for a moment he did not know what it was.    But as his life began to ebb out of him, it dawned in his mind " they had done it!   

Somehow, Mazzikim’ruhin was dead!   He didn’t know how it happened " the demon would not have died easily, especially in spirit form.   But he was dead, and Carn was quickly following.   He looked down at his burnt, bloody limbs, hoping that he would see for just a few moments, his actual skin.   Yet the long hairy goblinoid arms were still there.   He remained a Bugbear.  

Still, he smiled, coughing up blood as he did.   Now, finally, he could rest.   The geis was removed.    Then he thought of something " the demon had been under a geis not to harm any of Celathon’s family.    Amala, and her brother and sisters were actually members of Celathon’s family, through descent from the Faesidhe King’s  sister, Sialia.

That must be it!   He had attacked one of them.   The thought sobered him " what if he had killed one of them.   What if it had been Amala?!    This made him cough more violently and he felt his head spin.    His ears rang terribly and he knew he was on the verge of death.    How ironic, he thought.   Mazzikim’ruhin could have been cast out by simply attacking one of Duke Dullerm’s children.   

Still, he wouldn’t have wanted that, for the Demon would have probably killed them.    Hopefully they were all still alive.

Especially lovely Amala.    He found that he could not breathe due to blood pooling into his lungs.    It wouldn’t be long now.    He would have loved to tell them, or at least tell her.

Before his delirious eyes, he fantasized that he saw her, running up to him, calling out his name and leaning over him.   It seemed so real to him.   He would leave this world speaking to the the vision of her.

“Goodbye, lovely, sweet girl.”  He whispered, coughing blood as he spoke his last sentences, “I would have told you who I was, if I could.    Mazzikim’ruhin is gone, forever.   The Dragon is dead.    May your life be filled with happiness and joy.    As well as love.    You are so beautiful… just like your grandmother, though different too.    Thank you for… being kind to me.     I…needed that.   Now, my time is done… the game is over…no more pretending…or longing…it’s all over… Goodbye…”   Carn closed his eyes, content to end his life with the dream of the pretty Drow girl as the last thing he saw.

 

“Oh no you don’t!”  He heard her voice, as if she was speaking to him " not the ending he wanted.   Why would his mind not let it end properly?   He opened his eyes again, and through the blackness and fog, he thought he could almost  see her, turning to someone with her.

“Heal him!” She commanded.   Carn tried to open his mouth again to protest, but he was too weak.    He felt two pairs of hands touch him on the forearm and chest.

The voices of the Duke and Duchess of Dullerm spoke in unison, “In the name of Yesh, be healed!”

White energy flowed through him from head to toe.   His body jerked and shook from the flow of healing power for a few moments and though he was far from completely healed, he realized he now would live.

Wide-eyed, he looked up into the radiant face of Amala Dullerm, who glared at him with a frown.   

“You’re not getting out of this that easy, Carn!   I have too many questions that I need some answers for, and you and I are going to have a long, long talk.    But not here and not right now.   Can you sit up?”

He didn’t answer, but just numbly rose to a sitting position.    He looked down again at his arms.    They were covered with shaggy fur, but were almost healed.

“I thought you were a dream.” He said to her as he glanced around the passage.     The Dead Dragon still lay next to him and the passage was still filled with smoke, though for some crazy reason, the smoke seemed to have a strong hint of coffee to it.

Amala pulled the cloth he had used for a mask, back over his face and then did the same with her own, “I’m not a dream, Carn, but more of a nightmare.    Once you get better, I just may kill you myself.   Have you any idea what you put me through?”

“You shouldn’t have followed me.”   He replied as she offered him a hand to help him stand.

“Well, it wasn’t easy, you know.   You nearly caused me a nervous breakdown.    What happened?”   She was looking down at the Dragon’s corpse and he knew she was wondering about its death.

 

He gave her a much abbreviated account of his encounter with the Dragon and how he had tricked the demon to leave.   Eleazar and Aurei Dullerm stood quietly against the passage wall and listened to him recount the tale.

“You can cast spells?”   Amala asked as he finished.

“Yes…I hadn’t used magic in a long time though.”  He felt very uncomfortable having to explain the details, but he knew they would just keep thinking of new questions for him to answer.

“Were you a wizard, then?”   The girl asked.

“No, I was… a bard.”  

“A bard?   Really?   I have never actually met a real bard.    Just those minstrels who call themselves bards.    It is a rather rare profession today.”

Carn nodded, uncomfortably.   He felt so uneasy speaking about it.    The geis had prevented him from telling about himself for centuries.   Now that it was gone, it was almost as difficult as if the geis had remained.   Perhaps some of it still did " he was still a Bugbear in appearance, so obviously all the magic wasn’t dispelled.  

“I’ve never heard of a Bugbear Bard.”   Duke Eleazar spoke up from where he leaned against the passage, ”But you are obviously not a Bugbear, are you?”

“I’m not what I seem, Duke.”   He admitted, still careful to not say too much.

“So what exactly are you?”   Duchess Aurei asked the obvious question.

Carn looked at his feet nervously, fearful of saying anything more that revealed anything about himself.

“Duchess, I’m not sure that I am permitted to say.    I think that the demon is gone from this world, but I do not know for certain.   Part of the… curse… has been broken, but another part remains, so I would humbly ask to not give a reply to your question until I know what the situation truly is.”

“Alright, but you surely can tell us what curse is gone that would make you suspect that Mazzikim’ruhin has been banished or destroyed?”

Even this felt very awkward for him to say, but he knew he had to give them something in order for them to respect his request.    Fidgeting with his hands, he mumbled, “It’s because I was dying a few minutes ago.”

“Huh?” The three of them said together.

“Part of my curse… or geis… was that only Mazzikim’ruhin would be able to slay me, but there was a counter geis that if I was killed, he would be cast out of Synomenia.”

“That’s an odd set of conditions.”  Aurei commented.

“It was meant to torture me… in the form I am now.   An eternity as a Bugbear, no escape even in death.   But there was insurance in my continued existence that Mazzikim’ruhin would not try to just kill me and then attack those who had the curse placed upon me.”

“And who was that?”   Eleazar asked, but Carn did not answer.  

There was a long moment of silence, and then Amala finally spoke, “I still don’t see how your dying would tell you that the demon was dead.”

Carn sighed, “If I was able to die, then the geis was broken.   I felt it happen, actually.   I was seriously injured and at first I just lie there in terrible pain " like many times before"but I knew I wouldn’t die.    Suddenly I felt it all change and I thought that finally death would find me… but you intervened.”

“Well, you are welcome, Mr. Grateful!”  Amala snorted, but then realized that he really had sought death, and her mood sobered, “Carn, are you saying you WANTED to die?”

He shrugged, “I’ve lived a long time, Amala.    Too long.”

She had no reply to this but just stared sympathetically at him, shaking her head.

“So how do you think the demon was banished, Carn?   Could Aedric’s group have found the spellbook and cast the spell upon the Gem?”

“That is one possibility, Sir.”

“Are there others?”   The Duke pressed.

“Yes, but I don’t want to explain them here.”

“Very well, Carn.   We can’t get past the body of the Dragon to see where this passage takes us, so we’ll have to go back.”

“Does everyone smell a coffee smell?”   Duchess Aurei asked, and they all admitted that they could.

“That certainly smells like Dart’loxinchu.”   Aurei added, “I’ve noticed that since I first smelled that smell, the air doesn’t seem as toxic.   None of us have coughed much.”

“Doesn’t Dart’loxinchu come from the bark of the Faesidhe tree?”   Amala asked her mother.

“Yes, that is what concerns me.    Could the Dragon have set the tree on fire?”

“That would be catastrophic for the Faesidhe.”   Eleazar said, “We need to find Zeatt… or Alleania… as they know the way to the underground cavern where the bark is harvested.”

That settled it for all of them, so they hurried back down the passage, toward Hor’olorbb.

Reviews

[Elina]

Gah! I cannot wait for Carn to finally reveal who he is to Amala! It's agony...haha. I'm such a hopeless romantic.

"He looked down at his burnt, bloody limbs, hoping that he would see for just a few moments, his actual skin, instead of the hairy Goblin arms of his Bugbear form." This is a bit of a run-on.
" Now, finally he could rest." You'll want to add a second comma after "finally."
"He found that he could not breathe without blood pooling into his lungs." This one took me a moment to decipher the meaning on. You may want to re-word a bit. ?
"...speaking to the dream, the words he would have said..." This feels awkward to me; it may need a little re-working.
"...he thought he almost could see her..." You may want to switch "almost" and "could."
"...he looked up, into the radiant face..." You can leave out the comma, here.
"...he still was a Bugbear in appearance..." Perhaps switch "still" and "was."