Black. It surrounded her. Cold, dark and seemingly endless. She could not see or hear, or feel anything other than the cold. That is, except the sharp pain in her chest that had long since died down to a dull ache. But still she was alone. She could not even see herself. She tried to reach up and touch her face, but she was unsure if she was just numb from the cold, or if she wasn't really there. She did not hear her voice when she tried to speak, if it were not for her own thoughts she would not be sure she still existed at all. She was in a pitch black pit of ice, and what was worse, she was alone. And he promised she wouldn't have to be alone ever again.
“No!” She told herself determinately, trying to steel her own resolve against dispair, “he will come for me! He will come,” she thought over and over. “He will come, won't he?”
Xerro thought that he had never been so colorful in his life. Back were the fine linens and leather vest, but where the last outfit was brown and blue, this time around she picked green and lavender. He wasn't a fan of the vest to begin with, and here he was again. But he would be on the road again soon so he could surely humor the princess for tonight. He turned to leave and caught sight of the staff leaning against the side table. Arcos Magi, an imprisoned god of magic from another universe. Quite possibly the most dangerous item in the world. Anyone other than Xerro who touched it was possessed by the mad god. He could leave it there for tonight, but then he thought about the fact that he didn't need some chambermaid entering the room, picking Arcos up just to walk away with it and starting this whole mess over again. So he picked up the staff in his hand and exited the room.
Xerro made his way down to the banquet hall, encountering Tina and Stelletta as he walked. They were both wearing nice dresses, Stelletta in particular was wearing a beautiful red dress that made her look so different from her usual self. Without the head to toe black leathers she was nearly as lady-like as Angeline.. Her raven hair hung down over one shoulder, exposing the slight point of her other ear. And she moved with a grace that hinted at the elven side of her heritage. Tina, on the other hand, was an explosion of tooling and fluff. Bright blue and white, accentuating her tiny waist with its flared skirts.
“Greetings, Xerro,” Tina said, “you look… you look…” she began, her face betraying the effort she was putting forth to find a compliment. But the warrior woman finished for her
“You look like a clown.” She completed, lacking any sense of tact that was more like the Stelleta he had come to know.
“Angeline picked it out.” He replied, pulling at the hems of the offending outfit. “Perhaps she seeks to humiliate me because I decided to leave.”
“I don't think she is that kind of person.” Tina reassured him. She looked at the staff in his hands, biting her lower lip nervously, “is that safe to have with you?”
“I don't think there is a safer place for this than in my hands.” He replied, twirling the stick in his grip. “We wouldn't want some random person discovering it and becoming another Sorcerer King.”
They met up with the guys from the crew. It seemed formal for Pyre meant nicer robes with lots of filigree. Runes stitched in gold and silver thread adorned all the robe's edges. Brute, on the other hand, had a jacket and breeches that hung on his elven frame like it was from when he was still human. But it was at least a respectable deep blue and black. And Xerro wondered how long the shirt underneath the jacket would remain white. He had seen the barbarian eat.
They entered the grand ballroom and it wasn't hard to realize why the princess had chosen these colors for him. It was the whole theme of the party apparently. Lavender and green were everywhere and, for at least a few precious moments, Xerro wondered if he could simply blend into the decor and disappear for the duration of the festivities. He became less worried about his appearance when he discovered he was not alone in being dispensed an official party uniform. Angeline had, it seemed, chosen the same outfit for sir Wogan. Only the dashing good looks of the Kingsblade made the same cut and colors actually look serviceable.
“Bastard,” Xerro muttered as he stepped up to him and took the offered drink.
“I can't help it if I make this look good.” Wogan retorted as he handed him the cup of wine.
“Is this another of Magnus's fine vintages?” Xerro asked, examining the liquid.
“No,” he replied unexpectedly, “one of mine.”
Xerro sniffed and eventually sipped the deep red liquid. It was fruitier, sweeter and less harsh than the wine from the festival. It had more than just the flavors of grapes.
“Are those cherries I taste?”
“I cut the grapes with cherries a third to two. Makes it sweeter.” He rattled off with a casual affinity that told Xerro this was what the warriors of this kingdom did in long stretches of peace. It was what they gravitated toward apparently, to fill the gaps between the fighting. Xerro imagined the general and the Kingsblade in their retirement swapping fermentation tricks. He wondered which life was preferable, the soldier or the sommelier.
The fanfare heralded the entrance of the princess. She glided down the steps, her gown mirroring the colors she had dressed her men in. It was obvious she saw them as a trio, even if he was a third wheel in the way of this cold war of the hearts between them. It would not be his problem soon, not once he was on the road once more. But being here, getting to know these people, it really had been nice. Having people to confide in, to share a smile, to just be himself around. He would miss it, he had to admit to himself. To not be alone anymore.
Angeline dashed straight to the two of them, Wogan took her hand and kissed it with a bow as she curtsied, after which she practically bowled Xerro over with a hug.
“Nice party princess,” he wheezed out, “but I thought this was for Tina and her crew.”
“It is for you all,” she replied, “after all it was you who defeated the sorcerer.”
She punctuated this point when she stepped back with a raised eyebrow look and a quick nod to the staff still in his grip, “it is the safest place for it.” He repeated for the umpteenth time today. “He is effectively neutralized in my hands.”
“Like I said,” she turned, and with a wry look over her pristine shoulder, “you are the one who defeated the Sorcerer King.”
A small stream wound its way towards the castle. It was a most unusual stream because for the first thing, it was a muddy beige color, like someone had poured out a great amount of spoiled milk. Secondly, it was flowing uphill in the drainage grate’s direction much in the way the wastewater from the castle did not. And thirdly, when it entered the stream of exiting clear, well clearer, water it did not dilute. Just like a stain in the water. It was running backwards against the normal flow of the water. When it reached the grating and entered the castle, flowing until an end of the stream came to be and disappeared into the structure.
The night consisted of eating, drinking and mingling. Xerro often wondered about mingling. The concept of mingling seemed to be alchemical in nature. It was when two or more objects flowed together until separation, or telling one from another, became impossible. Completely new compounds were created from mingling. The societal version if this was evidently less absolute. Even though people moved about each other in the room, certain groups remained wholly un-mixed. Cliques and pairings did not blend and make new compounds, or groupings even, but simply made their presence known and then went back to being unrelentlessly separate. Xerro attempted to keep out of the mingling process, however as the speeches began the spotlight became unavoidable. Cheers and accolades abounded, some for people Xerro wasn't sure were even there during the fight. It seemed the trick to keeping some nobles happy about giving out congratulations was making sure they got some too. As far as he was concerned they could have his.
Xerro took his accolades, along with an embrace by the queen herself, with simple thanks and no ado, as to exit the attention of the room as quickly as possible.
While some of the curious tertiary awards were happening, he found a red haired gnome at a back table avoiding the spotlight as well.
“You should be happy,” Xerro said, sitting down next to her. “When word gets out your troop saved an entire kingdom, the work will pour in, I'm sure.”
“I have never worked for praise.” She played with a cherry lock while staring at her wine glass, “I have always been interested in helping people. There really is something about making others happy that no other feeling in the world can compare to.”
“I wouldn't know,” Xerro confessed, “I spent my life surviving, keeping my head down and running from every confrontation and connection.”
She eyed him curiously at this comment, “yet you saved a princess you didn't know, you made Angeline happy by being a friend, and you saved Melodie from the darkness. That does not really scream ‘avoidant person’ to me.”
“A pit,” Xerro interjected.
“Sorry?” She asked, his interjection interrupting her tirade.
“I saved Melodie from a pit. When the sun set the fungus down there lit the chasm like a world of color. Few places down there were really dark.” He expounded, remembering how it was like existing inside a rainbow.
“Sorry,” she replied, “I was repeating the prophecy I guess. I had paraphrased it before.”
“So what is the whole prophecy?” Xerro asked, now thinking maybe she was wrong before about Melodie being this divine child.
The priestess closed her eyes and pictured the sacred texts she had read so long ago. “In a holy city, to a woman of love, a child of light will be born. She will be cast down by hatred and pride, but her love will lead her from the darkness and her voice will help create peace and bring about a world undreamed of. She will be the divine child of Alyssa, and no magic will be able to stop her love.”
“So what does that all mean?” He asked, attempting to ponder the meaning of her words, “if her love was unstoppable why was she able to die? And Melodie can't bring about peace, she's gone.” Xerro hung his head, his heart aching again now, more than it had in days. “I'm sorry Tina, but it sounds like Melodie was not your divine child.”
“Prophecies are confusing things,” she said, placing a tiny hand on his, “you often never know what they mean until you are in the middle of them unfolding.”
“Well I can tell you what is unfolding,” he replied, “it's obvious I was meant to be alone. It is dangerous to know me.”
“No Xerro,” the little gnome woman countered, hugging onto his leg since she could not reach his neck, “I don't believe it, and even so, dangerous or not I'm glad to have known you.”
“The pleasure of my company does not excuse the fact that I am dangerous.” Xerro sighed. “I don't want to tangle anyone else in the trouble I have myself wrapped in.”
“Burdens are lighter carried by more than one.” She countered with a fortune teller reply.
“Trying to pull a man with a rock tied to him from the water can drown you both.” Xerro quickly turned her phrase to his point with practiced skill.
Tina looked at him with those sad gnomish eyes, “Xerro, no one can live long without love. Those who try always end up becoming the real monsters.”
Kuss stood on the hill overlooking the town. The bulk of his troops had to wait at an encampment a mile back, that is except the one soldier who held the chain of his new benefactor's pet. The abominations that accompanied them had punctured his ear holes. But he was a faithful soldier and volunteered. The torch that occupied his other hand opposite that of the chain, flickered next to Kuss. As if the flame was reaching out to him. Trying to extinguish itself on him, the unnatural cold of his flesh now drawing out all heat that ventured near him. He was tempted to test this theory out by walking up to the creature composed of living flame and wrapping his cold arms around his chest to see if he would be snuffed out. Or if this cold would freeze the swarm of bugs that made up the other and they would fall dead to the ground, or if this entropic chill would crack stone. These creatures stood there unmoving, listening to their master's voice in their heads. Just as he now had to. That deep grating voice droned on, he was not even sure it was even talking to them. Kuss felt it simply talked because it liked the sound of itself.
“I'm inside,” the feminine voice echoed in all their heads.
“Then begin,” The voice of Kerkakelmak spoke.
The creature made of fire nodded to the living rock pile, and the pile of stone began to walk toward the castle, crushing everything in its path underfoot.
Lord Benson was receiving accolades for his part in the queen's rescue, as to what that was, Angeline couldn't recall for the life of her. She found her wayward Kingsblade at the food tables, sampling bonbons of all things. She grasped his hands in hers and smiled up at him.
“Not long ago in the square you were going to give me a dance.” The princess fluttered her luxurious eyelashes at the tall, muscular knight trying to swallow as quickly as he could. “We were interrupted before I could enjoy it.”
He smiled back at his princess, his charge, and his lady. Tina's words tried to batter their way into his thoughts like the lizard army did the castle gates recently. Could he? Should he? Was love more important than duty? Was there even a difference? How much different would keeping her safe from a distance be from keeping her safe from while wrapped in his arms? “Fate can be cruel it seems.” He quipped as usual, avoiding the emotions of her words.
“Then I guess I should demand what is owed to me before it butts in again.” she laughed, before pulling the significantly larger man toward the dancefloor.
They stepped into the beat with the music like someone steps into a comfortable pair of house shoes. Tina stood beside Xerro and watched with a smile as her pushing was finally bearing fruit. She could see the slight smile on the queen's lips as her highness noticed her daughter happily dancing with her protector. “This is what I find satisfaction in Xerro.” She whispered, glancing over at a dark corner of the room where Stelletta and Brute were already getting more familiar with each other than polite society might be comfortable to allow, “making connections that were meant to be. That spark when two hearts finally join as one.” Tina took his hand in hers as she lay her head on his hip while she watched the two finally have their dance, “love is its own kind of magic, Xerro.”
The guard noticed the puddle on the ground, he had not the faintest idea what was spilled, but by the color alone it looked disgusting. He stopped before it and absently poked at it with the butt of his halberd shaft, only to not have even the time to blink as the liquid shot up the shaft, across his arm and began to push its way into his nostrils. He opened his mouth to scream only to have the strange liquid flow into his mouth as well.
Corbin stood on the ramparts over the gate, he lamented being on guard duty when he could be at the party, but with their numbers decimated the protection of the kingdom was paramount. He could hear the music from here at least, it pleased his ears like the cool night air and the view from up here pleased his skin and eyes. He watched over the town with a smile, after so long under siege he missed this kind of tranquil look at his town. Which is why it took him a few moments to react when the first house exploded into the air.
By the destruction of the second house Corbin was running along the wall screaming, “sound the alarms! Sound the alarms! We are under attack.
Feldin the palace guard turned the corner to find his fellow guard Destin rolling on the floor, his head enwrapped by a milky colored bubble.
He rushed up to his friend, his hands passing through the animated liquid as he attempted to tear it off Destin's face. His hands didn't even feel wet, like the liquid refused to separate or cling to him. That is, until Destin collapsed to the floor. As soon as his friend stopped moving the strange liquid shot up his arms and flowed into his mouth and nose.
The alarm bells could be heard, even over the music, and as the band came to an abrupt halt the shouts proclaiming the town under assault could be heard rising outside. Wogan looked at Angeline and she could see his heartbreak plain as if he spoke it aloud, duty pulled her knight from her once again as he rushed out of the room. Fate, it appeared, had more cruelty in store.
Xerro saw Wogan rush past and took one step to follow before the Kingsblade called back, “Xerro, stay with the princess! Don't leave Angeline's side!”
“I can help!” He cried.
“Stay with the princess!” Wogan ordered.
Xerro looked over at the staff in his hand and thought, at least he knew not to expect the sorcerer.
The townspeople fled to the castle gate screaming as a dozen soldiers rode out to meet whatever was destroying the town. They needed to buy time for the people to get to safety. Not knowing what to expect, they wore the heaviest of armor and wielded lances. Some of them were nothing more than citizens yesterday, volunteering because they had some fighting experience. An experience that would be put to the test tonight. The horses thundered down the main thoroughfare as another building scattered across the town. Rising up out of the flying rubble was a giant made of stone, like a walking rockpile composed of mismatched stones and peering over the roofs of the surrounding buildings, it raised its rocky arm to bring it down on the soldiers. The horses scattered as the flagstones of the street rose into the air.
Cedric was a tavern bouncer a few months ago, now he was a knight, kind of. He hoped he would get that far. But right now as he dodged a monster of granite, he was trying shoo bugs off his visor. Quite a lot of bugs, in fact, and they were growing in number by the minute. More and more insects poured in through the opening in Cedric's visor, now biting and stinging and crawling all over his skin.
Cedric fell from his horse to the ground. He screamed as he shook and spasmed. Merrilyn slid from the back of her horse to run to her fallen comrade. The area was suddenly lit by a fire in human form as it walked around the moving monolith toward her. The form snapped out one hand toward Merrilyn as a stream of flame poured across the open air. Her armor heated, searing her skin underneath. She screamed in pain as she was roasted alive inside the metal suit.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The bugs flew away from Cedric, leaving the blood stained skeletal visage that remained of his face to stare out of his visor.
Merrilyn slumped to the ground, flesh cooked and blood long since boiled away, she had been a guard all of twelve hours and now she died as one.
“Loose!” Screamed Corbin, as the ballistas sent fence post sized crossbow bolts at the stone behemoth. The wood shafts splintered on impact.
“It's like attacking a mountain.” The guard commander said as Wogan arrived on the rampart. “You never said anything about things like this when I told you I was joining up.”
“Like what? What are they?” The Kingsblade asked, as he looked between the stone giant, the living flame and the swarm that alternated between a flying mass and a walking bipedal form.
“Not human, that's for sure.” Corbin replied, “but those are definitely lizards.” He added pointing behind the stone man.
Behind the walking mountain was a lizard man pulling something along by a chain. It looked like a small child. And behind him was the unmistakable visage of general Kuss. He was either painted all white or something had altered him too. “
“What in heaven's grace is at our doors now?” The knight whispered before turning to Corbin, “Move the catapults into position, hurry.” Wogan commanded, “I'll rally another contingent to defend the gate.
“Brute, Stelletta, meet Wogan at the courtyard. Pyre, we need to get to the ramparts.” Commanded Tina. Angeline was amazed at how quickly the tiny woman took charge. It reminded her of Wogan.
“I can help,” added Xerro.
“Yes,” she replied, “by protecting the princess. You are our last line of defense Xerro. Stay with Angeline.” The gnome finished before running off with her team.
Xerro followed the princess to the window as she sought a vantage point of the attack.
“I get it,” she consoled the lad, “first we praise you the hero, now we stick you on the sideline.” Angeline held Xerro's hand, “trust me, if they need magic overcome, they will call on you.”
Wogan struggled to organize the guard. Most of them were recent conscripts and not used to commands. Their numbers were decimated, their conscripts untrained and these monsters much more dangerous than the lizard army ever was. Whoever they were they could not have timed their attack more perfectly. Wogan's only hope was that Xerro could stop them when they prove unable.
The assassin and her barbarian ran out onto the parade ground, giving Wogan some hope. From the above he could hear Tina in prayer.
“Merciful Alyssa, please grant us the boon of your love and protection as we carry your message forward in this time of peril.” As she concluded the prayer, a soft white glow covered all the soldiers in the courtyard, and Wogan could feel a tingle on his skin like a thousand light kisses.
Divine protection, skilled monster slayers, suddenly Wogan's fears seemed less hopeless.
The Kingsblade sat up tall in his saddle and addressed his troops. “Today the kingdom faces danger once again. Danger like we have never seen before. But today we also have heroism like we have never known before. Each of you chose to be here. Chose to defend your kingdom in its time of need, when you did not have to. Stand firm, stand strong. Do not seek to kill the monsters, just impede their progress, aim for its legs, stay in front of it. Then I and Tina's crew will slay them. For queen and princess! For Amberwyben!”
“For queen and princess! For Amberwyben! For queen and princess! For Amberwyben!” They chanted back.
The megalithic stone monster was nearly at the edge of town by the time the catapults were ready. Just three of its paces from the wall by Corbin's estimation.
“Launch!” He yelled. His troops did him proud. Each rock flew straight and true. The first impacted it on its shoulder and chest. The second on what would be its stomach. He was about to cheer when he realized the stones did not fall. Corbin could only watch in horror as the rocks seemed to melt and absorb into the creature, and it seemed to get bigger.
“Who are they?” Asked Angeline. “What are they?”
The terrifying sight from the windows had the room in a panic. “Guards, bar the door!” Ordered the queen. “You, start getting people out through the kitchen.” Amberlynn tamped out the panic by giving people something to do. It was an old trick of the ruling class. Just as you can stop some actions by sowing fear, you can stop fear by putting people to action.
Angeline looked to the courtyard, worried for Wogan. Xerro read her face easily, “he'll be fine. He is the greatest warrior in the kingdom. Maybe even the continent.”
“Against men and lizards? Maybe. But these are monsters the likes of which we have never seen.” The princess replied, but to Xerro he was sick with the thought that perhaps they were something he might be all too familiar with.
Corbin's troops had managed to load and fire one more stone before he called for them to cease. It caught the rock in what passed forna hand and added it to itself as well. The monster stood tall enough now to look over the castle wall. The guard scattered to either tower as, with a groan that sounded like an avalanche, it threw itself at the wall and gate by one shoulder and the wall shattered.
Pyre and Tina tumbled into the stairwell as the gate wall exploded. The ceiling cracked as the entire castle shook.
“Tina!” The young sorcerer shouted, pushing her out of the way just as the stones from above fell right where she stood.
“Hold!” Screamed Wogan as the beast stepped through the tumbling rock and wood to pit a massive foot into the courtyard. “Now!” He cried as his troops charged the leg armed with maces, hammers, and other bludgeoning weapons. Each ran by the leg, chipping small pieces off as the continued past. Circling the walls of the courtyard as to not be somewhere it could retaliate at any given time.
A massive swing of an arm caught two unfortunate conscripts and sent them flying as the others came round and started the charge once again. Wogan galloped past as two squires began dragging the injured soldiers off the field. With skill born of years of riding he leaned over in the saddle until his fingers scraped the ground and snatched up the mace lying there. He righted himself, and wielding the mace over his head charged at his rocky foe.
Angeline screamed as one of the drainage grates in the corner of the room exploded, sending feted colored water raining down across the room. The people that remained could only watch in horror as the pinkish beige liquid all flowed to a central point forming a puddle that slowly rose up. The mass of water formed a vaguely human shape, a female shape. She stood there, looking at Xerro and Angeline. She flowed toward them, her legs undefined as if she were trying to mimic the decency of a dress as the upright puddle flowed at them.
“Master, I have located him.” She spoke in a voice that seemed composed of differing tones of water drops falling into a full bucket.
Xerro stared at the face sculpted from the enormous water droplet, and recognised it. The last time he saw that face it was dripping off the girl it belonged to.
“Start phase two,” came the simplistic answer from the inhuman voice in their heads.
The behemoth stopped in the courtyard and stood there like the statue he resembled. Around its legs the burning man and bug swarm stopped and looked up at the window. Xerro and the princess watched from their vantage point as Kuss walked out in front of the monsters with his soldier and grasped the chain he was holding. With a yank, the person on the end was pulled into sight by the collar around her neck it was attached to. Covered in dirt and dressed in rags, she stared blankly ahead as the lizard soldier placed his hand on top of her head.
“Melodie,” he whispered, and then he screamed, “Melodie!” just as the girl opened her mouth to wail.
Somehow her voice had been magnified. People collapsed like marionettes as the sound rippled through the castle, seemingly unaffected by distance and intervening materials. Wogan, who had recognised the girl the minute she rounded the leg of the stone monster, was attempting to ride as fast as he could into the stables, hoping the stone walls would shield him. He slid off the saddle into one of the hay piles just before his horse collapsed on top of him. Xerro watched the queen suffer a mortifyingly un-noble face first dive to the floor. The guards, partially supported by armor and the pikes they wielded, fell to the ground like a poorly stacked pile of pots and pans.
Angeline was right next to him, spared the effects of Melodie's curse. Still she cried out when her mother fell.
“Interesting,” the liquid girl dribbled, as she glided up to the two, “it seems you are immune to her magic as well.” She reached out to touch his chin with a watery hand. “Master was right. You are powerful.”
Xerro expected her hand to fall to the floor as she crossed his boundary, but it retained its form. Whatever had happened, it was not magic. At least not magic as he had come to understand it.
“As are you.” He countered, stepping back before she touched him.
The face of the liquid lass formed a smile, “as we are. As the master made us. We do not sleep anymore. We are beyond mortal needs like air and sustenance.”
“Let her go.” Xerro attempted to toughen his tone, “she doesn't deserve what he's done to her.”
“Done to her?” Her voice echoed, “brought her back to life?” She emitted a disturbing sound that attempted to mimic laughter, “Master decides what is deserved and what isn't. He reformed the laws of the universe to create us. Life and death are parlor tricks to him.”
“Let her go.” He repeated, with more force this time. He was unsure of what result he expected in his situation, but indignation fueled his interaction.
The face dropped its smiling facsimile for a moment in apparent annoyance, before quickly reconstructing it, “which one?” she asked, before flowing over at Angeline and engulfing her head and shoulders in itself.
“No!” Screamed Xerro.
The face reformed on the bubble, “which her should I let go?” She asked in a voice like rain on the cobblestones, “choose. Choose quickly before the princess drowns.”
Xerro was powerless. He had taken down a mad Archbishop, and a possessing god-staff, but these creatures, these monstrosities that were once fellow test subjects like himself, were somehow not magical. As fantastic as their existence seemed, it was not the result of magic. He watched as Angeline tore at the liquid assassin, her hands unable to grab hold of her to pull her off. Her thrashings were slowing as she was running out of air. “Fine! Please, let Angeline go.”
The water wench flowed off of the princess, leaving Angeline to fall to her hands and knees coughing violently as the woman flowed from her mouth and nose, reforming into the human-like shape from before. She stood next to the hacking princess and wrapped one limb around her neck like a rope. “You will surrender. You accompany us back to the master, willingly without any attempt to escape, or I will drown her.
Xerro nodded. The woman motioned toward the door and he walked out of the room. Down in the courtyard Kuss had been growing agitated looking for the Kingsblade unsuccessfully. The general wanted to kill him for all the trouble he made him suffer. But his irritation turned to raucous laughter when he spotted Xerro descending the stairs.
“Running did you no good, did it boy?” He hissed, striding toward the princess, “I wanted to kill that knight, but now that I think about it, killing his lady would hurt him infinitely more.” He pointed the tip of his glave at her throat, the water noose around her neck began to frost, causing the woman to scream and recoil the tendril. She lashed out at Kuss in anger but the watery limb shattered when it hit his frozen scales, causing her another scream in pain.
“NO!” echoed the booming voice in their heads, “I want the princess. Bring her to me as well.’
“What!” Kuss fumed, “I want my vengeance! You promised!” he screamed into the sky at the disembodied voice.
“Who is he talking to?” asked Angeline, confused.
“You mean you can’t hear him?” Xerro asked, he heard the voice of Kerkakalmak clearly in his head, plain as the monsters that surrounded them. Plain as its voice was in his dreams. But the princess did not. Did it mean he never really got away? Has it always been with him?
“I hear nothing, Xerro.” his heart sank at her response.
“You will bring the subject and the princess.” The heavy voice replied, “She interests me. The castle is yours. As agreed. You will bring them to me and you can send your soldiers to secure the castle on the way. You will return to a kingdom that is yours.”
Kuss was fuming as he pointed the frost spear at Xerro's back. His deaf lacky led Melodie away as the liquid woman pushed Angeline on by her neck. They marched outside the castle and through the town. Everywhere, the people lay on the ground, asleep. Through the woods for a mile they marched before meeting the remainder of Kuss's war band. Scarcely two handfuls of troops, obviously only the most loyal to Kuss remained after the loss of the sorcerer king. He had lost all his support the magic user had been needed to hold. When they arrived, the lizard general lost no time setting them upon the slumbering kingdom. He kept two lizards, one restrained Angeline with straps and chain in front of her body freeing up the elemental witch, and one shackled Xerro behind his back, holding onto the chain between them. The lizard soldier snatched the staff from Xerro's hand as he shoved him forward. Angeline's eyebrows raised as she watched the god prison taken from the lad's hand. Xerro shook his head back at her. Holding Xerro by the chains had kept him inside Xerro's null effect, so the god would not be running off so long as the guard did not abandon his prisoner.
They walked for two days. Xerro's legs ached, his feet felt as if they would bleed, and sleep tugged at his mind until he would walk for long stretches unconscious of the fact he was still moving until he stumbled. Poor Angeline by the second day repeatedly fell several times to simply be dragged by the chain until she could struggle to her feet.
“Please,” Xerro asked, “she can't go on. She is not made for this.”
“Don't worry about me,” she strangled out in response,”I can go on as long as you can.” She attempted a half hearted smile that he knew was only her attempt to keep him calm. She might die on the road to wherever they were headed, and that confounded him the most.
He had put most of the continent between him and the keep where they were experimented on. If they were headed there it would be months, and neither of them would survive. But he knew what direction the keep would be, he spent enough effort avoiding that direction. That was not their heading.
He glanced at Melodie, still vacant in her expression, she plodded on like the rest of them. The once vibrant green of her eyes was hazy. Still pale and covered in dirt, they dug her from the ground and did not even bother to clean her up. This bothered him more than he could explain, beyond what they did to her, beyond that they made her nothing more than a weapon. Was she really alive again or just an animated husk to make use of her curse. He tried to get in front of her gaze several times over the last two days, but even then there was no evidence she even saw him, much less recognised him.
He looked over at the water woman. Death seemed to not be a concern to them. He recognized her, he remembered her. He remembered her melting. He remembered them all. All their new forms vaguely resembled their old, human selves. “I thought you died.” He said to her at last.
“They did.” Boomed the elder thing in his mind. “But I rebuilt the bodies from the very elements that consumed them. Just as reactivating the body of your little friend was child's play. I reused enough of their minds for locomotion, autonomy of action, and communication. I needed nothing else from them.”
Xerro looked to Angeline, the pull of her chain all that was keeping her upright. “What do you want with the princess?”
“She is strong and determined to live. That will serve the next experiment well. Maybe lightning, or light itself. She may be a masterpiece.” Xerro would almost say the beast was laughing as he spoke, if he thought it capable of emotion.
“Please no,” he pleaded. “She doesn't deserve that.”
“Did any of us?” the liquid lady echoed. “There is no deserving or undeserving. There is only the master's will.”
“Unless you are the master's pet it seems.” The burning man's voice crackled with what seemed disdain as he looked at Xerro. “We could have caught you long ago, but Master seemed content to let you run for a while.”
It seemed, xerro thought, that he may have put too much of their minds back. It seemed they were still capable of emotion. An oversight, a flaw? It was something to remember.
Hours later a mountain loomed in the distance, steam and smoke pouring from the top. In its side the red glow of the magma within lit a fissure, and they were headed right for it. Boulders began to fall to the ground from the monolithic stone man that the smaller lizard men and their prisoners had to navigate around. But as the rocks fell, the giant was getting smaller. The shedding stopped when he was a size that could enter the cave without needing to squeeze. He was now half again the height of a man and as Xerro watched the liquid girl wrapped a watery tendril around the hand of the stone man. Impressed into the big blocky stone head of the giant was half of a human face made of stone. Its resemblance to the boy from his youth that turned to stone in front of him could not be denied.
The cave was hot and filled with vapors making it hard to breathe. Angeline choked as she was dragged inside from sour and stinging smelling gasses. Xerro held his breath as he went in, eventually switching to short successive intakes through the nose and long exhales from his mouth.
“What are you doing?” The princess hacked her inquiry.
“I worked in a mine once for a month.” He replied, still trying to retain the breathing pattern, “they taught me this was the most efficient breathing method underground.”
Angeline was able to still her coughing long enough to attempt Xerro's style. She caught on quickly and was soon copying him.
The fissure opened up into a larger cavern that had passages leading off in multiple directions. The bug man seemed to explode the minute they entered the cavern, his component insects forming a swarm that swirled around the ceiling, swerving in and out of huge hanging stalactites.
“Take the princess to her room” crackled the walking fire. “Keep the girl with him. Perhaps she can remind him what proper behavior looks like.” The puddle girl nodded and took Angeline about the neck once more as her lizard guard undid her bindings. As the girls left her lizard joined his two tribemates leading Xerro and Melodie up another passage. The other monsters scattered, whether they had rooms of their own or other duties he could not be sure.
The passages wound and twisted, and the air grew hotter. The path opened again into a chamber that stank of sulfur and lit by a trickle of lava pouring down one wall into a pit that flowed across the room and out, apparently to other passages in the mountain. A natural looking stone bridge crossed the flow to a ledge on the other side where leather bindings were attached to the wall.
Xerro's guard quickly turned and handed Melodie's guard the staff he carried before leading him across the bridge with the other lizard. Xerro was roughly forced against the wall and his wrist and ankles bound by the two soldiers.
Melodie's chain fell to the floor and her escort left the room unnoticed.
The water wench shoved Angeline forward to a cavern with several raised platforms. The princess was unceremoniously lifted onto one by her neck. She struggled for a hand hold to relieve the pain and discomfort. But her fingers once again passed ineffectually through the liquid limb. As she dropped her on the dias, her other limb shot out to touch the top of a much smaller platform. Instantly as a bubble of green light surrounded Angeline on the platform, the stone above where the tendril touched slammed down on it with incredible force.
The princess gasped, as the liquized face smiled, pulling out the limb and reforming it unharmed. Before the stone reset itself above the control.
Angeline touched the bubble, it was like glass see through but it did not give. She pounded the heel of her hand against it but, unlike glass, it made no sound.
“Save your efforts,” the woman bubbled, “there is no escape. And the master will soon be with you to begin your glorious ascension.”
“What do you want from me?” The princess asked, even exhausted as she was, it was in a tone both commanding and fearless.
“Rejoice,” she burbled in return, “we are soon to be sisters.”
“He will come for us.” She stated plainly. “He will come and tear down this house of horrors and he will free us.”
“He can certainly try to get you out.” She laughed, that sounded like rain as she left.
It was silent, this body not only lacked any potential for magic but the basic ability to hear. He wandered the passages of the mountain, surely someone in here would better serve as a host than this reptilian meat sack. A fork led him to a large chamber. Inside was a short stone column and sitting atop it was a black orb cracked with flowing red lines. The far wall rippled in dark energy. He recognised a portal when he saw one. A way out of not only this dismal cave but this world. But first he needed someone with at least a spark of magic potential to open the door to some world he actually wished to go to.
The lizards had bound Xerro to the wall and returned to the entrance, standing guard on either side of the opening. While the reptiles seemed to thrive in here, the heat sapped the very air from his lungs. Every breath was a labor, and the sulfur stench burned his nose and throat. Across the bridge, Melodie just stood there, staring at him blankly.
He failed. He failed Melodie, he failed Angeline, and he even failed to get away. Ten years and now he was back where he started. And he had dragged two people he cared about into this horror of his. He deserved this. He did but they didn't, and now he couldn't protect them. Just like before in Adelphi, when he couldn't even protect her from the father that killed her. He looked up at the girl, enslaved, weaponized and it was his fault. All his life he kept people at a distance. Kept them at arm's length to protect them from what was after him, to keep them safe from him. He was the danger. And now they were in danger. Why, why had he let her get so close?
He looked over at the girl and it was so obvious Tina would have smacked the back of his head for asking. Because he loved her. In the short time they had spent together, everything about her was amazing. He loved every little thing about her, her smile, her voice, the way she laughed, the way she laughed at him, everything. And now she was back, but all that was still gone. As he hung there he knew he needed to say what he couldn't before. She was entitled to at least that. Whether or not she could hear, or even understand it. “I'm sorry Melodie. You didn't deserve this. This is all because of me. I don't deserve you.” He hung there looking across to the eyes that were once so beautiful and more full of life than any he had ever seen before. Now dull, and cloudy, and it broke his heart. “When I first heard your voice I don't think I could have resisted following it if I had wanted to. And you were just as amazing as it sounded. You grew up in a horrible place, all by yourself for most of your life, yet you were so warm, and kind and happy. I don't know how you did it. I ran away from everything, all my life, closed myself off. I told myself eeping people away was safer for them. But I think eventually I was so scared of what I was missing that I didn't want to get close to people just because I thought if I did I would realize what I'd been missing, and it would hurt all the more.” Tears stung his eyes. Water he didn't think his body still contained after days of walking without food and water ran down his face. But he didn't care anymore about staying strong, she was right there. All the tears he fought back since the holy city returned. Their time was now and they would not be stopped. “I didn't tell you because I was afraid. I kept pushing the subject away because I didn't think you'd want me if you met someone better, and I assumed you would. That you would leave me when you found out about me, found out the price that comes with knowing me. Now you are paying it anyway and I should have just been brave enough to tell you! But I wasn't! As always I had my eye down the road instead of what was in front of me.” Great weeping sobs now punctuated his speech. A body aching from being bound and marching day and night for two days spasmed and convulsed in the throes of sorrow. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Melodie. I should have told you sooner. I should have told you when I had the chance. Then you may not have been so insecure in the market. Then you might not have run away. Not if you had a real answer. Not if I had just told you. Because… because I do love you Melodie. I have always loved you.” Xerro hung his head and sobbed.
The girl stood there unmoving as ever as he wept. Then the lips parted, her breath accelerated, and out from between the teeth came a soft hoarse whisper, “Xer… Xerro?”