73

Chapter 66

My legs are in motion even before my stunned mind had fully grasped the situation. My eyes locked on the receding figures of Rosa and the harpy my long powerful strides cover ground as fast as my body would carry me. After a few strides I pull the encumbering pack from my shoulder and let it fall away. I hear it split open behind me, spilling my every worldly possession out onto the rain soaked mountainside, as my legs pump faster. None of that mattered now. Not my stuff, not my rope, not even my land. My gaze remains solidly fixed on the one and only thing that did matter.

Rosa fights, she fights for her life. I hear her snarls as she thrashes and punches and kicks against the beast twice her size. She twists to jab her horns into the creature's leg but they are not yet long enough to be anything more than a nuisance. Her efforts might not be hurting the monster but they were slowing it down.

"Fight!" I shout after her, struggling against the steep slope and the slick footing. "Keep fighting Rosa! I'm coming!"

My breath catches in my throat as suddenly Rosa is tossed to float midair for an instant, before being grasped again by the creature who had simply been repositioning its prey to be carried easier in its over sized feet. Thank the gods its sharp talons hadn't yet seemed to pierce her flesh. It had her more solidly now. Rosa continues to struggle and wriggle but escape looked unlikely. Rosa secured it starts to pick up speed.

The creature looked to be seven feet tall, maybe eight if straightened up, with greasy black feathers that ran from its head all the way down the center of its back making it appear like it had long onyx locks. It is humanoid but instead of arms there were two great black and gray wings that spanned twice the height of a man. Its skin had a sickly gray pallor and as it turns its head to look back at me I see its features twisted and hideous. It had large round eyes like an owl's with a wide beak like nose. It's mouth was grotesquely wide, as if someone had sliced its cheeks open nearly back to its nonexistent ears, with long jagged yellow teeth. Opening its mouth wide it lets out another deafening cry. "KREEEEE!"

Three more mighty flaps lifts them higher and further away. My mind and my heart screams at my body to run faster but I am already at a full sprint with the mud and slick wet stones seeming to do everything in their power to slow me down. With each slip and stumble they get further and further away. I crack my knee across a jutting boulder, I don't even feel it but it slows me up by another crucial half a second. The harpy had almost crested the ridge ahead. I didn't know what was on the other side. Another slope like this? A sheer cliff? It didn't matter. I continue to run with all the strength I could summon.

"ROSAAA!!!"

Her futile struggles cease. She turns her head to look back at me. Even from here I can see the raw terror in her wide magenta eyes. This was her worst nightmare come to life. In her face though I also see...sadness. Just before disappearing over the ridge Rosa calls back to me.

"Run away my boy!" She sobs. "RUN!"

"NOOOO!!!"

"LEAVE ME!" Reaching out toward me she cries. "Quin...I...I...I lo..."

"KREEEEEE!"

With that the harpy dives down over the edge to the East side of the mountain. Things go eerily quiet, just that same patter of rain as before, as my pumping legs carry me to the peak. My momentum hurtling me over the lip I would have fallen to my death had it been a cliff, thankfully I see another long green and gray slope falling away from me. With the beast diving it had picked up speed considerably and the pair were now out of earshot and receding into the mist.

Run. Run. RUN! Keep running.

The rain and wind whipping past my face I bound and leap and dash down the long boulder strewn slope. Running faster than I ever had before yet feeling like I was moving through cold honey.

"ROSAAA!!!" I cry one last time as they fade into the white mist.

Just keep running. Just keep moving. I would not let this happen. This is NOT how my time with Rosa would end. Even in my frantic state it is not lost on me that of all of the monsters to attack us it was a harpy, fabled to be sent down by the gods to punish the wicked. Was this some sort of retribution for Rosa and I's sins? Had Rosa presence in my life been a test of my piety? Had we angered the divine with our unique relationship? If so...fuck the gods! Fuck them all! My Lady, my slave, my best friend, my true love was greater than the lot of them!

I continue moving straight in the direction I had seem them going careful to keep my ears alert for any sound or signal, of which there are none.

My lungs heave and gasp in the high mountain air. My muscles burn. I slide and skitter down the steeper portions then stumble up to keep on going. My spirit urged me on but I was slowing down. With each passing second the faster flight of the harpy carried Rosa further away from me. I couldn't even know if I was still headed in the right direction. My run becomes a jog as my eyes and ears search frantically for any sign of them.

"Rosa." I gasp between hard breaths. "I'm coming. Don't...give up."

Steel determination begins to waver toward hopelessness. In this gods damned mist I had no hope of spotting them. This cursed wind would swallow any noise. And with them being on the wing I had no chance of tracking them. With no other options I just keep moving forward powered by the only thing more powerful than the despondency I was feeling, love.

"Where are you?" I huff. "Where are you? I'm coming. I'm coming..." My feet slow further. "I'm coming Rosa." Hopping up onto a boulder that stuck up at an angle from the surrounding slope I pause to scan the vast open landscape beyond, or as much as I could see in the fog.

Nothing. All was quiet except for the incessant wind and rain. Not a thing stirred but the waving tufts of grass and shrubby alpine flora. I had nothing. Nothing to follow. They were...gone.

"No." I whisper as true despair sets in. "Rosa. No."

Clenching my fists I throw them into the air and let out a scream of impotent rage and heart rending pain that comes from the very core of my soul. "RAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

It is more than rain wets my cheeks as I stand broken and alone looking out over the bleak terrain. My arms slowly lower back to my sides. My head sinks. My heart breaks.

Chapter 67

My howl of agony is still echoing off of the stones around me when...in the split second window between hearty gusts...I catch a tiny distant voice. "Quin?"

My head snaps up again, eyes darting about. Had I imagined that? Wiping the tears and rain from my face I listen hard, turning my head this way and that. "ROSA!"

"Quin." I hear her voice again, no louder than the squeak of a mouse and sounding as if it were coming inside a clay pot.

I zero in on the source of the sound. It had come from behind me. But there is nothing there? I squint against the rain as I step down from the boulder and slowly walk forward. "ROSA?"

"I'm...here baby. I'm here." She says back. I could hear the tremor of distress in her voice. Was she injured? It is a strange sensation of elation mixed with concern and fear hearing her voice again, along with a whole lot of confusion.

"Rosa...I can't see you."

I hear my Lady cry. My eyes settle on a scrawny twisted shrub growing up at the border of one of the embedded boulders. I stare at the frail yet hearty plant, baffled, as I notice the tender pale pink flowers at the ends of the spindly branches. It is an alpine rose.

"Rosa?"

Approaching the shrub I can hear more clearly the sounds of Rosa weeping and breathing heavily. What I am seeing and what I am hearing do not go together. Kneeling down I scan about then, there among the thorny branches, I see a familiar ring of silver. I reach into the bush, disregarding the thorns scrapping my skin, and pull one half of the magical bracelet from it.

I turn it around and look through the portal. At first all I see is a circle of darkness, though the dry fetid smell wafting through told me the magic was working. After a moment I can start to see the texture of stone illuminated by very dim light. I bring it closer to my face.

"Rosa?"

All at once a magenta eye glides in from the side to peer through the hoop in my hand. In the little bit I could see I can see her cheek is streaked with tears.

"Baby." She whispers, scared out of her wits.

Blood stained fingers reach through and I touch them with my own and kiss them.

"Rosa, where are you?"

Her cold trembling fingers stroke my cheek.

"Baby, I'm so sorry. I never...I never wanted to h-hurt you."

"Never mind that Rosa. Please, tell me where you are."

"I love you baby. I love you so much." She weeps. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry. Forgive...meee."

"I love you too!" I say, nearly breaking down myself as the words I had longed to hear fill my heart and soul. I keep focused though, I hadn't the time nor luxury to succumb to tears. "Rosa." I say firmly and with a calm that surprised even me. "You have to tell me where you are. I lost you in the chase."

"...krrrreekk..." I hear an inhuman growling chirp echo off of rock walls.

"Mmmmm!" Rosa's eye shuts tights as she whimpers in sheer terror. Rosa disappears and the view spins wildly. I squint to make out any detail I could. I see stone walls. I see a floor littered with feathers, crunching dry branches, and cracked bones. I see a snatch of pale light shining into the area from an opening in the rock. Rosa's hand reaches through and grabs mine as hard as she could. I hold her wrist tight, wishing I could pull her through to me. It was such a helpless feeling. Seeing, hearing, and touching her without actually being able to help her.

"I love you." She whispers, her lips right up next to her wrist. "I love you Quin!"

"Please!" I urge, trying to keep my voice down so as not to alert the monster. "Tell me where you are Rosa. You need to tell me now."

Her hand disappears back through the portal. She pulls back so that her full face could look through to me. A couple of our fingers interlock along the bottom of the ring just to keep that physical connection.

"Baby...my boy..." She says between shallow panting breaths. "...you...you need to listen to me now. You need to listen to your Lady. You...you need to run. You need to run baby." She lets out a little squeal of fear as the sound of scraping can be heard behind her. "Live. Go...live."

"Rosa, I can't..."

"Thank you Quin. Thank you for the happiest days of my life." She says as her tone shifts to an eerie calm. I could see and hear the hope draining from my Lady as a grim acceptance of her fate grows. "I should have died back in Rome. But...you gave me more. So much more. You gave me love, you gave me hope, you gave me a dream. Thank you Quin." She takes a long breath, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. "Don't...forget...me. Now. Run. Run my boy. Run and do not look back."

Before he left my father had taken me aside and told me that he joined the military not for the glory of the Emperor but for the security and well-being of his family. He told me that if he were to die on the field of battle it would be a sacrifice done in our name, not the Empire's. He told me that when I was a man, a full fledged man with something truly of my own to love and to lose, that I would understand. I had never forgotten the expression on his face. His eyes steeled yet tender, focused off to the distance as if seeing something that I couldn't. I see that same haunting look now in the eyes of my beloved Rosa, only this time I understood. I understood because I felt it myself. Seeing that embrace of self-sacrifice come over my Lady brings love yet also sparks my anger. I might be her boy but I was no longer a child.

"Enough!" I fume. "We do not have time for this."

"Baby." She pleads. "You have to...get away. I can't..."

"Rosa!" I look her dead in the eyes. "In all that you've come to know about me...do you honestly think I can leave you?"

Her barely held brave face cracks as she sobs openly. "No."

"Would you have left Danae? Would you give up on me?"

She cringes with worry and fear as she realizes what I was saying. "No. But..."

"Then let me help."

"Quin...it will kill you."

"I will find that creature now or later. You know I will. You are right Rosa...I need you. I need you in my life. My dreams are nothing without you there beside me." I say with all of my heart. "Give me a chance to find you Rosa, before it's too late."

With rekindled hope comes renewed fear. "I'm scared!" She mewls. "I'm s-so scared!"

"I know Rosa. I'm coming." I kiss her fingers, the iron taste of her blood finding my tongue. "Tell me, quickly."

She takes a breath and swallows, before slowly nodding. "We...we circled back. Back toward the peak. A cave near the peak. It's..." She turns her head then back quickly. "...it's near the mouth of the cave. I think it's looking for you."

My head turn up and to the right. Though I could not see the peak through the rainy mist I knew it was there. My energies renewed I am running again, my long strides eating up the distance as fast I could make them.

"Stay alive." I say. "Do whatever you must. Hide, fight, run. Just stay alive." I say as dash up the boulder strewn slope. "Shout if anything changes. I am coming!"

She says something softly which I cannot make out. Had I wings I would have lifted into the air such was the speed with which I loped over and between boulders. It barely enters my mind what I was setting off to do. That I was running toward an encounter with a mythical beast. What chance had a farmer with a dagger against a harpy? It didn't matter. Love had left no room in my spirit for fear or doubt. Rosa was alive! Rosa was in danger! Rosa needed me!

Slowly revealing itself through the mist I see green of the slope turn into a towering gray granite peak. This HAD to be where they were, even at full flight the harpy would not have had the time to get to another peak. Knowing where they were and getting there however were two very different things. Between me and the peak is a steep grade of loose stone that I already knew would be hell to climb. In the time it takes to reach it I had plotted out what I felt was my best path up. As I start to make my way along the edge of the scree I start looking for caves along the nearly sheer cliff face.

Just then I hear a gasp emanate from the hand in which I held my half of the bracelet. "OH! Oh gods! It's coming!"

Chapter 68

My attention split between trying to locate the cave mouth and the terror unfolding from the palm of my hand I continue to find my way round the granite plinth of a peak. Through the portal the view swings and careens wildly as Rosa scrambles about the cave.

"It's coming." She says frantically. "There's nowhere to hide!"

"Fight Rosa, fight!" I say. "I'm coming."

Moving swiftly along the bottom edge of the scree I come around to see another face of the peak. My eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary I desperately scan the area. I don't see a cave, but what I do see is the bright white of sun-bleached bones scattered among the dark wet gray of loose stones. Looking up the vertical cliff from region the bones are most concentrated I spot a ledge about fifty feet up. There! It had to be. The ledge formed the top edge of a fissure that ran diagonally down through the living stone. Along that fissure juts out a very narrow shelf I may be able to use to climb along.

I scutter up the slope of jagged shifting rocks, sliding one step back down for every two steps I stride up. At my hand I hear panting breath and rustling. I bring the ring to my face, the wretched smell waters my eyes. "I'm close. Find a weapon. Hold it off as long as you can." I wished I could pass her my pugio to give her fighting shot but I knew the crossguard would not fit through bracelet.

"RRRRRR!" Rosa's wicked sounding snarl echoes up. That's it my Lady, fight! She sounded so much more dangerous than she actual was, hopefully intimidating enough to give the creature pause.

"Krrrrrreeeek." The harpy's grating caw sounds a mix of eagle and crow with just a hint of an almost human-like undertone that sent chills down my spine. That was not the sound of a creature intimidated. Curious, amused perhaps, but not afraid. "KREK!"

"Aaah!" There is a whoosh of a stick or bone swinging through the air. "Stay b-back you...BITCH!"

"KREEEE!" It cries back at her.

Gods it is so close to her!

"HEY!" I shout up toward the ledge, continuing to fight against the sliding rocks. "HEY! I'M HERE! Come and get me!"

Through the portal I can hear my voice in the distance, confirming that I was indeed at the right spot.

"Krrrkk?" The harpy had heard me.

"Come on! Come and fight me!"

After a final frantic scramble I at last reach the base of the cliff. A few feet above me is the fissure. Fuck! I needed my hands my free for this. Looking back down to my left hand I start to say something but notice the chaotic sounds of rustling and fighting. Rosa snarls and the harpy screeches, the fight was on!

"Gods, no!" I was too late.

There is the sound of a whack followed my snapping teeth and cracking wood. Somehow in her struggles Rosa still gripped tight onto her half of the bracelet. As a flash of oily black feather slips across the portal an idea strikes me. Pulling my dagger out I place the ring up against the rock face.

"ROSA!" I scream as loudly as I could. "PUT THE BRACELET ON IT!"

"RRRAaaahhhhh!" Half roar, half cry of terror, Rosa yells. There is a flurry of activity before I see the pale gray of flesh press up against ring.

Not wasting a second I plunge the blade of the dagger through.

"KREEEEEEE!!!"

I can hear the beast's howl of pain both through portal, through which black-orange blood now spurted, as well as from the ledge above. I try to hold the blade deep but the creature throws Rosa back. Then things go disturbingly quiet. The view is still, all I could see the solid stone of the floor of the cave.

"Rosa?"

"KRRRRRRKKK!" The pained rage filled growl of the harpy is all I hear.

I pocket the bracelet and sheath my dagger. Jumping high I grasp onto the shelf. Hugging to the rock face tight I start to climb. Right hand, left hand, right hand, left hand, I progress up along the fissure. Under my breath I just keep repeating over and over. "I'm coming. I'm coming Rosa. I'm coming." Over half way up, thanks to the slick greasy blood covering it, my right hand slips! My legs go with it and I find myself dangling in open air holding on with three fingers. Through pure force of will I power myself back up and continue on. "I'm coming Rosa. I'm coming." Gods! Please be alive!

With a final mighty lunge I hurl myself toward the larger ledge. I pull myself up onto it just in time to watch the gray fury twisted face of the harpy emerging from the darkness of a triangular cave mouth.

"Krrrrrrrr." It growls and shakes its black feathers.

"Come on then." I growl back through gritted teeth. "Let's do this."

Drawing the dagger I step forward, as far from the edge as I could get, as it slowly emerges from the dark. Its inky feathers against black of the cave made the fleshy parts stand out, making it appear a pallid ghost floating in the dim. Up close it is far more terrifying than I even imagined. It is huge, stooped low to fit through the cave it is still as tall as I am. Its wide maw is filled with crooked razor sharp piss colored teeth. Its massive raptor feet ended with onyx black talons. Its gray mottled skin bent and shifted like tough old leather, it's low slung breasts hanging off its torso like empty saddlebags. Down its right side, from a deep wound in its shoulder, ran the same sticky dark amber blood that stained my blade. It pulled its right wing behind it limply. The harpy could not fly away and I had it cornered. My grip on my father's passed down weapon tightens as the realization that this was a fight to death sinks in. Did he wield this in his last moments too? It seemed a random thought, and a strange one, yet for some reason it brought me comfort.