Pompeii
This was written whilst being ship wrecked on the last bits of Holy Isle. It was submitted for the Hearth and Home story competition.
A true tale of courage by Lanceman Nazareth Sparkel.
There are moments in time when everything stops. From the look on his face, this was one of those moments for Pompeii. He wore a dress uniform of blue and gold and he was surrounded in a circle of maybe ten other lancemen. Then he saw me watching, and he smiled. It was enough and he was ready to start. He opened his arms wide to sky and in as loud a voice as he could manage, he called the world to his feet.
"By the power of the ancestors of Avalon and the Palatinate, I seal this circle!"
Everything sped up again and his contributors began to call the names of all the different Ancestors. Everyone that we knew on Avalon and all those the Prince Bishop told us about from Albion.
"St Cuthbert stand guard for us that none which we do not invite may enter this circle!"
Pompeii moved about his contributors, urging them on as if their very fortunes that day would depend on the tone of their voice.
"Mithras lend us tooth and claw that we may defeat that which tries to harm us!"
Suddenly he was more alive than I had ever seen him before and I realised what a great shame it was that I had taken so long to be here.
"St John, aid us to stand in faith and wellbeing through the challenges ahead!"
Today it didn't matter that he was afraid of spiders or the dark places from which demons spring to kill children's mothers. Nor did it matter that he could win no battle of might or martial skill. Pompeii found his own way to fight and nothing was going to stop him drawing his line in the sand across which no enemy would pass.
[Three months earlier]
"Reth! Reth! Damnation, Reth, where are you?"
I jumped down out of the tree to land right behind him. He had on one of the basic training tabards desperately trying to escape up from under his belt. A sword hung awkwardly at his side - like it was as keen to get away from him as he from it.
"What do you want?"
"What were you doing up there?"
"Keeping watch."
He looked at me like he was trying very hard to be tolerant. "Keeping watch. And yet you couldn't see me looking for you? Or hear me calling you?"
"Didn't say I didn't see you."
Any tolerance was being stretched to its limit. "Be as mad at me as you want, Reth. You're still too young to join up and get yourself killed in some fight. It's not what you think it is, you know."
No doubt I rolled my eyes at him. We had that conversation a lot. "Fine. Can I go now?"
"No! Look, I want to talk to you, okay?"
We both had our mother's temper. I was just better at provoking it in him first.
"What do you want to talk about, Pei?"
"I'm just trying to take care of you. Like I promised."
I laughed at him. People say as a lanceman I was never that nice a person. They don't know what that means. Even if it was only to Pei.
"How are you going to take care of me, Pei?" I pointed my arm out past the trees away from home. "If the Nosta Kar come around that corner, what are you going to do? You can't fight. You can't even run with your bandy leg. And I can't fight because you won't let me learn. So we both die. And if we see Mother and Father again, they're going to know it's your fault."
It's funny the things you think you'll have all the time in the world to apologise for. Except not in a funny way. I got what I wanted. He couldn't speak for a moment and I couldn't have hurt him more if I hit him. His eyes grew hard then. Much the way mother's did when Pei and I pushed her too far. I think he might even have tried hit me but he knew that was a fight he couldn't win.
"Oh I can fight, Nazareth. That's what I came to tell you if you'd only grow up and listen to me for once. Its not all about charging into battle with swords and shields that are no use out there. There's other ways to fight and I've found one. I've spoken with the Prince Bishop himself about it. I'm going to learn to be a ritualist and I'm going to fight with magics better that anything years of being a soldier would give you! All these people fighting and the Nosta Kar still come. But my way - I can make a difference. And so help me, I'll make sure you're not one more dead soldier to them like Father was!"
He stormed off. I kind of felt he had the right to the last word on that one.
It was amazing. I knew there was some kind of invisible shield between me and the ritual, but I swear I could feel the power building up.
"We who are born of the Dream and we who woke to the Dream - we are part of the fabric of Avalon now and with the blessing of our Ancestors, we shall weave it once more!"
Forget what these things are supposed to be capable of doing, it was magical to watch him in action. The contributors moved around Pei with such fluidity and he at the centre of it all with such grace and dignity. All my life he walked with a lameness and it was a big part of how I saw him. But not today. Today he stood mighty. Solid as any tree I dared climb. There was no sign of any weakness in him. Only power.
"This power is Avalon itself! Remoulding herself to be the same land but with one difference - poison to the Nosta Kar! We of the Dream, of beauty and faith - we - the people and land - will be poison to them!"
I tried to catch his eye - to let him know just how well he was doing, but he was in a different world now. Only the words and the movement and power mattered. His hands moved through the air as if the power was something tangible he could reach out and grab and shape to what he wanted. He was magnificent.
[Two months earlier]
There was never a time I didn't love my brother, but we reacted to the things that happened in our lives in very different ways. It made him want to protect me from life itself - and it made me want to take on the world and all its demons. Not a combination that leads to peace and harmony in the household. But some nights, when it was moonless and the sound of battle carried across the dark, I knew he was afraid and I wasn't angry at him for it. So maybe I didn't want to be alone either.
"Pei?"
He looked up from our father's favourite chair, balls of scrunched up paper by his feet. "It's late, Reth. You should be in bed."
I handed him a mug of steaming tea. I could have my moments. "Yes it is. Don't ritualists need sleep too?"
"Thank you." He smiled and tired as he was, I realised what some girl might see in him some day. If he ever got his head out of rituals, that was. "Yeah, they do. But I've got a lot to do."
I sat cross legged on the floor with my back to the fire. "Like what? I mean, I've seen one of those ritual things and it doesn't look that hard."
"What? When? I thought I told you to stay away from the circle! Damnation, Reth! The Nosta Kar could pour out of there at any time!"
I shrugged. "I wanted to see. Anyway, Beth was there. Nearly everyone has signed up now, Pei. I've hardly any friends left here."
He groaned. "Can we not have this fight again?"
"We don't have to if you tell me what you're doing." I smiled. He had no choice but to smile back.
"Have it your way. Okay. It is much harder than it looks. Harder than I thought it would be. You're responsible for every person in there with you - and for what happens. There's so much power you can call down, Reth. And really unpredictable things can happen. Have you ever heard of the Void?"
I shook my head.
"Well I don't really understand it fully - which is why I still have a lot of work to do - but anyway, it's a dangerous place in between all the worlds and it's full of dangerous things."
"I thought void meant empty?"
He grinned. "I think that's the biggest joke of them all. It's not empty. But it's not all bad - there are ways to cross it safely using transport circles. And it's the way Ancestors can send a lot of power to a ritualist in a ritual circle."
"But if the power can get through, then what about the dangerous things?"
He gave me a look and I understood it completely. We both said nothing for a while. Then I asked him.
"Are you scared?"
Reluctantly, he nodded. "I'm not good at this, Reth. My teacher - Lanceman Eddington, keeps asking me what I'd do if this happened, or that happened… unpredictable things. And I can't come up with good answers for him. I just… if I think about it for a while I can - I always come up with good ways out later - but there on the spot, I don't know what to do."
I put my hand on his. "It's only been a month. You'll learn."
He sighed deeply. "I know. You're right, I know I will. I just hope I have time."
The contributors rubbed gold dust on their faces and pretended to be Nosta Kar rolling over the land. As they met the people or came across a tree or stream, they fell, clutching at their throats. Poisoned by a Dream. Pompeii was triumphant.
"And with our power we will turn our Dream to their Nightmare! So they may not walk our land! They may not see without being blinded, they may not hear without their ears falling off!"
He spoke with such commandment, I thought I heard my father's voice. While part of me wanted this to finish safely just as soon as possible, another part of me wanted his moment to continue forever.
"All that they taste will be bitter poison! All they touch, eat their very flesh!"
All the time his contributors showing exactly what that would look like. I was very very glad to have been so wrong the night before and I couldn't wait to tell him.
"Let the Nosta Kar know - Avalon rejects you! Our children will be food to you NO MORE!"
From a blue cloudless sky, thunder clapped.
[One night earlier]
Such a shadow I had never seen over anyone as when Pompeii came home that night. Those who knew Avalon back then will know that's no light thing to say. I barely had time to open my mouth.
"Reth, I'm going to tell you to do something and I'm really not in the mood for an argument about it, okay? You're just going to do what I tell you."
Not his best opening line ever. Especially on the day a boy I quite liked decided he would hang around no more when there was fighting to be done.
"I'm not a child, Pei. And it's not much longer before I don't need your permission to do what I want."
"Well let me keep you alive at least that long then!" His hand immediately went to his head and through his hair. "Sorry."
Even for our family, that was too quick to temper. I sat down at the kitchen table and pushed the bread and cheese I had been helping myself to his way. "What's happened?"
He sat, biting his lip. "The south camp was attacked early this morning. Eddington was killed."
"Eddington? Your teacher?"
"Not just my teacher, Reth. The only good ritualist we have. Bar His Grace."
I wasn't getting it.
"That's too close now. Lance Sergeant Kamyr has been put in charge of evacuating civilians from the area."
Now I got it.
"No."
"Please. I'm asking you."
"A minute ago you were telling me."
"I'll tell, ask, beg - whatever you want if it means you'll go!"
I remember looking at him a long moment before answering. "I don't want to go."
"I don't care-"
"Not-" I grabbed his hand to make him listen. "Not because I want to be difficult. Not even because I want to help fight - though I do. I don't want to leave you. I'm afraid if I go… I'll never see you again."
It took a lot of holding my breath and gulping large breaths to not let the tears out. I think he had the same trouble.
"They've come too far, Reth. They're crossing the line Eddington and I said we wouldn't allow. And now he's gone and I have to… I need to know you're safe. Before…"
Then I had an extra large dose of 'getting it'.
"No. Pei, no. You can't." I was shaking my head even as I stood up and went to him. "You haven't been learning for long enough - you can't do this yet."
He looked at me with such sorrow in his eyes. But there was something else too. "I've been hearing that all day. But what's the choice? Eddington is dead. I can learn no more. And if we let the Nosta Kar come any further, then there'll be no more time."
"Of course there'll be time! And what about Hatfield? Let him do it!"
"Our best minds say at the current rate of progression, they'll have the circle in a matter of weeks. As for His Grace, well he says he's got one good ritual in him yet but this isn't it." He shrugged.
"What kind of crap is that?!"
"That's His Grace's crap! And if you ever want to wear the blue and gold, you'll learn to respect it!" He sighed. "Even if it is enigmatic demonshit."
"Okay. I'll go."
For a moment I thought he didn't hear me.
"What? Did I hear that right?"
"I'll go, Pei. If you come with me."
His hopes dashed, he groaned and pushed the platter of food away from him. "I can't. I have to stay and fight. The only way I can."
"Except you can't! You told me yourself! You're not good enough yet!"
"Hey, that was two months ago. Things have changed, you know." He tried a comforting smile but I knew him too well.
"Please come with me! Avalon is huge! We'll find somewhere the Nosta Kar can never get to!"
"There's no such place."
"This is stupid, Pei! You don't see me running off to the battle lines - I know I can't fight well enough yet no matter how much I want to kill them all! And you can't either!"
"Damnation, Nazareth! Can't you be the one person that believes in me?!"
Things went silent a moment and we both knew the truth before I said anything.
"The one person to believe in you - should be you, Pompeii."
"I have to try."
"Then I'm not leaving without you."
He rested his head in his hands, leaning on the table. "If you can't be somewhere I know you're safe, will you at least be there?"
"You think I want to watch you try to kill yourself?"
"I won't. I can do this." He looked up at me. "I promised to take care of you and I will. But this is the only way I know how."
I sat back down. "I hope so. Because if I lose you too… I'll never love anyone again."
It happened so fast. It was like a great tear inside the circle - this crack of blood red lightning. Then sparks flying everywhere. The contributors who had seconds earlier known exactly what they were doing were suddenly thrown off course and Pompeii… he did his best.
"This is our Dream! Our Power! Our chance to turn the tide on the Nosta Kar! Stay with me, lanceman… come on just keep chanting and it will be okay!"
I knew there was no point in me running toward him, but I did it anyway. Of course I was not the only one concerned at what was happening. All of them shouting at once…
"He's losing control-"
"Come on boy, it's your circle!"
"By Kerremar, what is that?"
At much the same time I forced myself through the crowd to smack up against the circle's seal, there was an almighty pop that left my ears ringing for days. I thought for an instant I had somehow broke through. Except it wasn't me.
"Sparkel! Get rid of it! Get rid of it now!"
The contributors had lost all control of themselves now - if they were so weak as to be startled by a mere demon, it was no wonder Pompeii didn't have enough to control the power.
Pompeii stared up at the demon - an ugly mud brown things with scarlet horns and bad teeth.
"The Nosta Kar. They must have sent it-"
"The Nosta Kar! Oh good ancestors, they're coming!"
The crowd around the circle diminished as a fight that could be affected headed our way. For me, there was nothing else in the world but that seal keeping me from my brother. It was one of those moments where everything stopped.
"This… this is my circle…" His voice wasn't so loud and commanding anymore. Or perhaps I couldn't hear over my own screaming.
"This is my circle and I call everything of the Void within it back to me so that none others be harmed!"
Silence. Then filled with screaming. Battle cries in the face of the approaching Nosta Kar, contributors battering the other side of the shield in an attempt to get out, the demon preparing to feast… and eventually Pompeii as it all collapsed in on top of him. It came so slow and too fast. And it burned.
The invisible shield holding me up crumbled away and I fell to the dirt, unable to get up for the contributors desperate to escape.
"Nothing left but ash - Lanceman Steel! Get the girl out of here!"
Kamyr's voice was the last I heard that day.
Cursed to feel again and alone on the last remnant of Avalon, I wish I had Pompeii's courage. He couldn't fight the way our parents did, but he had the strength in his heart to find a different way. And when everyone told him he couldn't do it, he tried anyway for the chance that he would succeed and save everything he loved. Okay, so he failed, but does that really take away what was in his heart? I teased him most of our lives about being afraid of silly things, but faced with his choice I would have been too afraid. I am too afraid. And now it's too late to learn courage from the bravest man I'll ever know. My big brother Pompeii.
All Works are © Original Author
(OC Author - Amanda Hill)