BETRAYAL

Standing beside Dame Kerry, Rune gave me a puzzled look. “What are you doing, sleeping in a tree, Ja?”

“A tree? What-” Small branches crackled under my hand as I sat up. Covered by a white blanket, we were laying together on a different white blanket under a canopy of leaves, the tree branches above us the same height as the roof in the house had been. Looking down, the bed had somehow been replaced by a series of interlocking branches that had created a platform of sorts.

Rainbow sat up as well, placing her fingers over my lips as I opened my mouth to ask what in the world was going on. Professor Bella’s voice came from somewhere below us. “Get both of them down here now.”

“Let them get dressed first,” Dame Kerry said, handing us our clothes, along with sandals that had belonged to someone else. “Found these draped over some branches with the sandals below them. Now, if I was sitting where you are, I’d be thinking about making an escape. So I made sure we brought along about a dozen of these frog-speaking Texans, who actually know what end of a gun goes where.” She grinned at me. “No one’s gonna touch a hair on either your head or your arse, but the shagtail beside you isn’t gonna be as lucky.”

“You will not lay a hand on her,” I snarled, my mouth dry as dust while fear clutched at my heart. “I mean it.”

“No harm will come to her if you cooperate,” Professor Bella’s voice called up. I looked past Dame Kerry at the ground below. No trace of the house remained; instead, she stood in a field of carefully tended white and red flowers, a stone altar standing in the place the table had been, with four sawed off tree trunks around it. Each of them had been carved into the shape of a dwarf holding a flat plank over his head.

Where the walls had been there were now flowering trees, their branches forming a canopy overhead like a roof. Professor Bella, dressed in khakis and muddy leather boots, put her deathly pale hands on her hips. “Get dressed and come down so we can get back on ze white road.”

I did not see that we had any choice. “May we have a little privacy, at least?” Dame Kerry grinned, but Rune lightly punched her shoulder and pointed down when she looked at him. She shrugged and climbed down while Rune waited, who then climbed down himself as Rainbow slipped on her white dress. I put on my tunic and trousers, both stained and ripped in places, and helped Rainbow climb down the branches until our feet touched the ground once more.

Professor Bella walked up to us with a sly smile on her face. “Ze prodigal son returns to me with his pet,” she said as she stopped next to Rainbow and began to sniff. “You smell… absolutely delicious.”

Panic grabbed me by the throat. “Do not touch her. I will do whatever you want, but only if Rainbow remains with me.”

Professor Bella’s expression became the cat’s with a bird under her paw. “So long as you do my will, your little pet will remain safe.” She moved until we stood less then an arms length away. “You were there in ze tunnel when ze trap I set was sprung, so you now understand my reputation for peculiar eating habits. Do not think of defying me.”

Fear raked me with its claws as Professor Bella trampled flowers under her feet walking to the gap in the trees where the doorway had been. “Ran-Li, I believe your wish has been granted. Your granddaughter smells like she is with child.”

My fear became shock as Ran-Li shuffled in through the opening. Her deeply wrinkled face looked haggard and wan, as if sleep’s embrace was not something she had recently known, and her hands trembled. Yet despite that, her voice remained steady as she looked at us. “Where?” Without thinking, my eyes went to the weathered block of stone and back again, and Ran-Li smiled. “Good.”

“Grandmother,” Rainbow said, “what are you doing here?” Her eyes went wide. “Oh no, you didn’t.”

Dame Kerry laughed. “She sure did. Played Judas Iscariot and didn’t even ask for thirty pieces of silver. Every night she went into a trance and made this weird, owl-like illusion that flew off to wherever Jon was and told us what he was doing.”

“Ja,” Rune said, “and I keep telling you whatever she does isn’t illusion. They have substance, and hers flies right through stone.”

“What else could it be?” Dame Kerry’s expression became intense as she stared at me. “Ran-Li described how you killed Jean Lafitte, smashing his head in with a rifle butt.”

I looked away from everyone. “I lost control. It will never happen again.”

“It will if I have any say so.”

“While I should be angry with you for disrupting my plans,” Professor Bella said before I could respond, “your actions put ze soldiers firmly under my thumb, and gave me a hold over you as well. I dislike having you so close to danger, but as your Koncava has noted, you need ze experience.” She gave me an appraising look. “Though if Shabaka’s stories about you are ze truth and not just senile ramblings, you already have a good bit.”

My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, senile ramblings? My grandfather’s always been of sound mind and body.”

“Not any more, don’t ya know,” Rune replied. “I think everything that’s happened is breaking him down, Ja.”

My grandfather had always been my rock, the star I navigated by, and to hear Rune say he was losing control over himself shook me hard as Professor Bella folded stick-thin arms across her chest. “Now, while Ran-Li was able to get close enough in ze cave tunnels to hear what was said, she had to keep her distance while you escaped from ze giant. Tell me what ze plan was in case you were separated.”

I grimaced. “There was no plan. Everything was happening too fast to do anything but react.”

“I think Jack’s going to call it quits,” Rainbow said before I could go on. “He could follow the path here to the shrine, but he doesn’t know whether we’ll be here or not.” She glared at Ran-Li. “This is the shrine of Ix-Chel, isn’t it?” Ran-Li gave her a weary nod and Rainbow snapped, “Why did you lead them here? We were going to go back and find someplace safe, either Edzna or deeper into the interior to take refuge with the Eagle polity. I don’t understand you anymore,” she added with a wail.

I moved to put my arms around her as Ran-Li shook her head. “What I do must be done. Black Lion keep Rainbow safe, keep daughter safe, help Bella kill Camazotz. All must be done.” She looked at Professor Bella. “Should leave now. War party still on Sac’be, tracking you.”

“Down a side passage leading to an alternate route to Zotz-Na? Even if they do catch up to us, ze plan will be as before, with ze automaton at ze rear of ze column. However, you are right. We need to leave. Though I do have one question,” Professor Bella added, looking at me. “Ran-Li told me you warned Jack Watson that Captain Lafitte was going to attack instead of surrender. How did you know?”

“Because Jean Lafitte never surrendered,” I blurted out without thinking. I gathered my scattered wits and added, “I also watched how they moved. Kobols used to telegraph their intentions by the little movements they made and men do the same thing.” It was a bald headed lie, and I forced myself to meet Professor Bella’s gaze without flinching as my heart picked up its pace to a fast trot. She stared at me for a long moment.

Then she shrugged. “In truth, you did me a favor. Miss Rose pointed out that his and ze pirates death means a greater share of ze gold for everyone, which makes her even happier.” Professor Bella made an ‘after you’ gesture towards the opening between the trees. “Take a few minutes for matters of nature and we will be on our way.”

Rainbow and I did so, then followed behind Ran-Li as she led us down a dirt path that snaked alongside the river for a short time. Off in the distance, black shapes belonging to a great flock of birds were circling something hidden by the foliage, but we lost sight of them as the path curved and marched on under a canopy of trees.

Within a quarter-hour or so, the trees thinned before ending altogether in a clearing where another massive stone head of a serpent stood, its lower jaw hanging down to the ground. A large group of people were sitting or standing in front of the open mouth.

Most were rough looking men in denim trousers and button down shirts, all of them carrying rifles, but Miss Rose stood next to the stelae, wearing khakis in the same style as Professor Bella, as were Mr. Stephens, Catherwood, and my grandfather. Catherwood must have heard us coming, for he stepped away from the other two and began waving his arms. “Jon!”

Grabbing Rainbow’s hand, I began running towards them past Ran-Li, who smiled for a moment as we went by. Rune also took off, running beside me at an easy lope, but I ignored him as we continued until reaching the others. Rainbow and I stopped in front of them, Catherwood embracing me before performing whatever rituals Eldarions use in these situations to Rainbow, while Mr. Stephens pumped my hand and clapped me on the shoulder.

Then my grandfather wrapped his arms around me as if he would never let go. “Jon, ever since they separated us I have been beside myself with worry.”

“I am fine, sir,” I said as he finally let me go. “Truly, I am.”

He gripped my shoulders. “Why did you come after us instead of finding someplace safe? All you would have done is get the others, and likely yourself, killed.”

I sighed. “Hubris. Up until yesterday I thought I could do it, but after Rainbow told me she was pregnant with our child, I realized I needed to think about her instead of you. Only then did the truth hit me: I would have gotten my friends killed, and still found myself in the same place I am now, or possibly worse.” My grandfather was staring at me, wide-eyed, and I looked at him in concern. “Sir, are you alright?”

He whispered, “She is with child?” I nodded and he said, “She is certain?”

“She is. She says there is some special sign-” My grandfather broke down and began crying. I wrapped my arms around him. “Everything is fine, sir. Truly, it is.”

It frightened me, seeing him like this, as he never cried in front of anyone, but I kept it off my face as Rainbow came over to where we stood. He let go of me as she placed her hand on his arm. “The curse is lifted, Shabaka. I had a dream last night in which your captain was reliving the battle yet again, until everything around him stopped and faded away. Then the one who put him there appeared. ‘The price is paid’, he said to the captain. ‘Your spirit is free to leave this place’. The captain wept and dropped to his knees, clasping his hands together. In that moment a shaft of light surrounded him and the dream ended.”

“After all these long years,” my grandfather whispered. He teared up again as did Rainbow, the two of them embracing as both Mr. Stephens and Catherwood walked over to congratulate him.

Professor Bella tapped me on the shoulder. “Leave them and follow me.” I hesitated, not wanting to leave Rainbow alone, and she added, “I will hold to my word for as long as you hold to yours. However, right now I want to introduce you to ze automaton so it knows you. Kerry,” she called out, “bring ze girl once they are finished.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

My grandfather pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and blew his nose. “This is unmanly of me. Go with them,” he said to Rainbow. “It needs to know who you are.” She gave him an uncertain look, but joined us as Professor Bella led the way to the serpent’s open mouth.

Just inside the mouth, a brass lantern on a stone tooth gave off a green glow. I turned towards Professor Bella. “How well is that shielded?”

Rainbow’s face took on an expression of disgust over the Terramagica device as Professor Bella shrugged. “Rose has not caused any explosions just by handling one, though I make sure all devices are off before Ran-Li opens or closes ze entrances.” She led us to the edge where the stairs began and we walked down.

Instead of a cave, the walls were smooth stone, while the white road, illuminated by more lanterns, curved in a rounded, sideways L shape, with a small piece leading up to the steps. There were two wagons, with the much smaller one to the right of the stairs. Several more rough men were standing around it, along with six native men in a harness as if they were horses or Ogres, the wagon filled with crates and travel trunks of various sizes.

The larger wagon stood by itself far to the left. This one had a motionless automaton in the harness, a patchwork machine resembling a mule, its body made of a metal skeleton covered in places by tin plates with lead mixed in, protecting its small Terramagica engines, each powered by goblin gas in its leaded cylinder that gave it motion.

The automaton sitting cross-legged on the wagon’s elevated platform looked far more refined. This one was man-like in form, its steel frame covered by shiny pieces of brass reflecting like gold in the green-tinged light, and possessed six arms, two of them coming out of its back. It resembled a statue I had seen in the Londinium museum of a Hindu god. Otherwise, it was crafted to appear human, though it had a single, green glowing eye in the back of its head, which I noticed before the head rotated. The automaton watched us with its two equally green glowing eyes as we left the stairs and approached.

Its body remained facing forward, two hands on the handles of the Gatling gun, a device with six gun barrels arranged in a circle, a lower hand grasping the hand crank that rotated the barrels. On top was a cartridge holder with rounds set in a row, several other holders resting in the automatons lower hands.

I was nervous, both from the automaton and Professor Bella’s presence, so I was happy to stop when she held out a hand. She placed herself in front of the machine. “Unit.”

Its mouth opened but made no other movement. “Unit recognizes primary user Bella.” Its voice had a flat, metallic quality, neither male or female, and without inflection. “What is the user’s request?”

Professor Bella moved aside and pointed at me. “Unit will recognize Jonathan Goldspear as an authorized member of the expedition, priority level.” She turned towards me. “Priority means it will seek to keep you alive before anyone else, and that includes ze soldiers. Rainbow,” Professor Bella called out, “step forward so ze automaton can see you.” Rainbow stepped a few paces away from us, a wary expression on her face as Professor Bella said, “Unit will recognize Rainbow as authorized member of ze expedition, routine level.” She faced forward toward the automaton again. “Unit will acknowledge orders.”

“Unit recognizes Jonathan Goldspear as priority member, unit recognizes Rainbow as routine member. Unit awaiting further-” Its head rotated forward again. “Motion detected, multiple targets.”

Arrows began streaking past our heads. “Unit will open fire,” Professor Bella yelled as an arrow pierced her shoulder, knocking her back. She straightened and turned around. “We are under attack,” she shouted in French, as the automaton began cranking the lever on the Gatling gun with its lower hand. The two upper hands aimed at the warriors rushing towards us wielding machetes, while the two coming out of its back fed the ammo belt into the gun as it spat out bullets.

I grabbed Rainbow and ducked down underneath the wagon as war chants became screams. The men around the smaller wagon rushed towards us, rifles in their hands, while more men appeared at the top of the platform and started down the stone stairs, led by Dame Kerry and Rune. Professor Bella began swearing in French as she turned and ran towards the others while arrows flew past her and skittered as they hit the stone floor.

Two more arrows pierced her back. Professor Bella staggered, but then recovered as the half dozen men reached her. “Get into position and start firing,” she snarled, the men crouching down in a line as she added, “If anyone shoots the Nubian, you are next on the dinner menu.” They began to fire at the warriors streaming around the wagon as the sound of men above us on the wagon involved in a struggle began. The air reeked with the acrid smell of cordite as the Gatling gun stopped firing.

Then the warriors and the automaton went over the side and landed in a heap. Brass clattered like a rack of falling pots as the automaton kept fighting, one hand crushing a man’s windpipe while another smashed a different man’s head against the stone floor, and still another crunched a warrior’s wrist into splinters. His scream went up several octaves as more warriors ran past the wagon. One of them paused to glare at us, a crazed look on his face, and I held Rainbow tight as he raised his machete.

He stopped and shook his head, turning back towards the front as a bullet hit him in the gut, dropping him like a rock. But then he staggered back up, blood pumping from the wound as the crazed expression returned and he screamed out a war cry as he started forward. “Cahal’s fed them stone-snake,” Rainbow gasped, as the warrior caught more bullets in the chest yet pressed on, lurching like an East-end gin crawler as he rushed Dame Kerry. She raced towards him with an axe in each hand, her fingers protected by a metal buckler. As he got close, he raised his machete over his head and slashed down.

Dame Kerry caught the blow, metal ringing as the machete blade slid off the small, rounded shield, and swung hard with the other axe, splitting his skull. Rune, his long sword held with both hands, rushed past and swung at the warrior behind her as Dame Kerry’s opponent dropped to the ground and did not rise.

The Norseman’s long sword slashed the arm wielding the machete down to the bone, the weapon tumbling from nerveless fingers as the warrior slammed into Rune and bounced off. Rune stepped back and swung hard at the spot between the man’s neck and shoulder as an arrow pinged off the pauldron protecting his shoulder, Rune’s blade snapping the man’s collarbone as it dug into his flesh. Bright blood sprayed both of them as the warrior dropped to his knees. Dame Kerry laughed, making a comment I could not hear over the din as Cahal stepped into the light.

The tip of the Artifact short spear in his hand glowed bright blue. “Unit,” Professor Bella called out as more warriors went down from rifle fire while the Frenchmen closest to us grappled with warriors already shot, “protect the users under the wagon.”

“Unit will obey primary user,” the automaton said in its flat voice, throwing off the warriors trying to bring it down before crouching down in front of us. “Users will remain in place while unit is in guard mode.”

It extended all six arms as if ready to embrace us, and I hung onto Rainbow as she tried to get away. “It will not hurt us,” I said to her as the automaton’s head began rotating back and forth, scanning for threats. “Just do not use any Aethyr energy until it moves away.”

Rainbow nodded, her eyes wide as we peered around the brass body at the continuing battle. Dame Kerry and Rune were locked in combat with several warriors as Cahal moved until reaching a space where nothing blocked his view of Professor Bella, who grabbed one of the brass lanterns and ripped off the shielding. She threw it straight at him as he threw his short spear at her.

“Bomb!” I screamed, pulling Rainbow back with me as Rune and Dame Kerry dove away from Cahal towards the floor.

The lantern exploded. Brass shards pinged against the automaton as more men screamed. Dame Kerry, visible off to our right through the automaton’s arms, grabbed at her lower leg as the Terramagica smell of cinnamon mixed with musty serpent rolled over us before fading away. The last piece of brass rattled as it skittered across the floor, and as the sounds of gunfire died off, I let go of Rainbow to peer around the automaton’s body.

The lantern had ripped Cahal’s chest into red ruin, the Eldarion flat on his back with his arms and legs sprawled out, a death snarl on what remained of his face. Yet his aim had been true. Professor Bella lay on her side in a crumpled heap, the now cracked and useless spear sticking out from her thin chest with at least a foot of it sticking out the front.

From the darkness behind us someone barked out a command, and the warriors still on their feet turned and fled back the way they had come, the rough men more than willing to let them go as they looked at each other as if to say, ‘What now?’ I opened my mouth to call out to them in French and ask for their surrender.

Bella sat up and began to laugh. I stared in shock as she pulled several brass shards from her body and threw them to the side, the metal ringing in the quiet so pronounced you could hear a mouse breathe.

She looked around before climbing to her feet. “Men of the republic,” she called out, “remember the terrible oath you swore and the reward promised when the world is ours. Look at me and realize that everything we told you is the truth. Now, round up the Europeans, get the automaton back on its wagon, and pack up everything left above. I want to be back on the white road in a half hour or less.”

“Commander Bella,” one of her men said, “a few of the natives are still alive. Should we shoot them?”

Some of the warriors on the ground were moaning as they began to crawl away, leaving trails of blood behind them. Professor Bella gave them a cool look before shaking her head. “Leave them. Much as I would like to close off the openings and leave them all to die, with wounded to take care of and a way to escape, the war party should quickly lose heart.”

Her expression turned grim as she surveyed the half dozen riflemen, all either dead or dying. “Leave the ones who failed at the test as well.” The men continued staring at her and she made an impatient gesture with her hands. “Well? Get on with it.”

All of her men began moving at once, two of the slightly better dressed ones conferring a moment before shouting orders to the others as Professor Bella turned our direction. “Jonathan, are you well?”

“We are both fine,” I replied, starting to move around the automaton. It reached out a hand to stop me.

“Unit will return to standard mode and follow instructions of secondary user,” Professor Bella called out to it.

“Unit will obey primary user.” The automaton stopped rotating its head, moved its arms to its sides and stood up, Rainbow keeping a wary eye on it as we climbed out from beneath the wagon and got to our feet as well.

As several of her men escorted my grandfather and the others, including Ran-Li, down the stairs, Rune called out, “Bella, Kerry’s got a piece of metal in her leg that’s embedded pretty deep, Ja.”

“I’m not having one of those filthy Eldarions touch it,” Dame Kerry snapped at him. “Just yank it out and patch me up.”

“Kerry-”

“I mean it. The Eldarion-Norse I admire, but not these arse-shagging savages.”

“I can pull it out if you have the tools,” I said. I gave Professor Bella a wary look as she glanced towards me. “My grandfather’s estate was a working horse and sheep farm, which meant everyone had some veterinary training.”

Dame Kerry’s eyes looked ready to bulge out of her head. “You used to work on sheep?”

“So did my grandfather,” I shot back. “At least with you, I will not get shite all over me.”

“I wouldn’t put money on that,” Rune replied as he grinned at Dame Kerry’s scowl. “Don’t ya know.”

“If yank out metal, leg get red and swollen,” Ran-Li said as she shuffled over to us. “Plants in forest, help body fight. I can find-”

“We do not have ze time to spare,” Professor Bella said. “Wash ze wound in ze whiskey my men are hiding on ze little cart after you are finished, so we can go.”

“What about you?” Mr. Stephens asked as the others joined us, keeping a respectable distance from Professor Bella. “Madam, I do not know how you are managing to remain on your feet, but your wounds-”

“Are an inconvenience and nothing more,” Professor Bella said. “Are you familiar with ze creatures known as ze Arachni?” He shook his head. “They are a hybrid monster of human and Dire-scorpion, larger and faster than most mortals. Ze venom in their tail mixes with ze victim’s blood, giving ze person a kind of undead life while making them ze Arachni’s servant.” She cocked her head. “Once she has enough servants to keep her safe and provide her victims, she stops injecting her victims with venom and simply drains them, leaving ze bodies for her servants to consume. Quite ze sensible arrangement, would you not agree?”

“I know of such creatures as yourself from my talks with members of the Explorer’s Club,” my grandfather said in a cold voice, sounding like the man I knew him to be. “Obviously the spear missed your heart, for a blow to the heart or the head is always fatal.” He shook his head as his voice wavered. “I should have seen that from the beginning… but they said the servants were brutes, subhuman…”

It stung my heart to hear my grandfather begin to softly ramble as Professor Bella smirked. “Oh, you civilized, sophisticated, men of science, thinking you have all ze answers. Jonathan, we do not have adequate tools, but we have ze automaton. I will tell it to obey your commands and you can use it however you need after it pulls ze spear and arrows out of me. Do your surgery on ze large cart and let Kerry remain there until it heals or gets infected.”

“I’ll walk,” Dame Kerry began. “I don’t-”

“You’ll ride, Ja,” Rune said, placing his hand over her mouth, “because I’ll make you drink all the whiskey you can take without puking, to help with the pain.”

Dame Kerry opened her mouth, but then seemed to think better of it as Rune took his hand away. “When you put it that way, I can ride for a little while.”

“Then it is settled. Rune, move Kerry onto ze wagon bed, then carry ze Maya Eldarion’s body to the fire pit we just passed before reaching this entrance. Ze rest of you put some distance between us before operating on her, and I will catch up once I am finished.” She licked her lips. “Unless someone would like to keep me company while I eat?”

While I have within my library a detailed collection of the rituals and ingredients needed to create monsters, for obvious reasons I shall not be writing them down here. However, I will mention that to change a human into something else, a small bit of flesh or blood or even ground up bone, is needed for the change to take place.

It does not have to come from the creature, either. If the monster can warp an ordinary human itself, it’s enough (for example) to use a tiny piece of an animated servant to create a true Arachni…