Blood Bride (Aarabassa World) (13 page)

A
sizeable army of shiny black myeaz warriors, lined the tunnel walls, remaining deadly silent. They did not wish to break or hinder the concentration of their leader who busily communicated with another, who was not amongst them. They were readying for battle but they knew not whom the enemy was. Huddled in the tunnels they had very recently burrowed into, all experienced a strange sensation, as if the sands surrounding them were on fire. Something stirred and they sensed the imminent danger.

‘My people are here,’ Quazat informed the human Prince.

‘How did you know that?’

Amos still could not believe that an army of thousands of dedicated myeaz warriors waited at his fingertips.

‘In my lands, my kind sense danger in air.   They have followed scent. I feel them in tunnels and I speak with them in many ways. They brave and not care of death. When I give order, they attack. Battle in tunnels. Slaves welcome invasion. Door to freedom. Listards know my kind no longer friends.’

Amos spoke with Quazat quietly, with his head bowed. The humans in the group ignored their whispered conversation, all they were interested in was eating. Others were busy cooking.

Amos used his small skills in an attempt to make a watery soup over a small fire.

The listard slaves were plucking at the black cold walls in an effort to capture a tiny lingering bug. When they caught them either with their tongues or hands, they threw them into  a thick green slop that they hastily stirred. Quazat had called this dish a Zchow. Crushed innards of small creatures mixed with rice.

Amos shivered, relieved that he was not expected to eat such a unappetising  swill. It was difficult to know the full content of the soup his companion cooked but he was confident it had no alien meat substance in it. It looked like some unknown vegetation, safe and edible. When he had questioned Quazat, he had just laughed and said it grew on the walls of the caves. He surmised it must be some kind of mushrooms and moss.

Balancing on a seat of soft crumbling stone, he rested his arms on bent up knees.  Slowly he sipped the thin soup from the tin bowl. Even Quazat lacked enthusiasm at meal times. When the Prince had emptied his dish, he stood up to stretch his limbs, using this as an excuse to look around and observe his surroundings. Quazat remained squat, a position he chose most of the time so he was unobtrusive. Amos looked over at the listard tent. The constant illumination of the flickering sconces, though not very bright, cast dark shadows into the distant alcoves but the tent itself was well lit from within. He could make out dark silhouettes moving around. Leon stood contemplating over the lack of developments since this leader had joined them, when he was suddenly thrown off balance by trembling walls.

‘That’s not your people getting too close is it Quazat?’ he asked of his myeaz companion.

‘Iced water. It melts in deep wells,’ Quazat replied.

Activity increased within the cave chamber. The leading listard came dashing out of his tent and spoke with a group of guards. He appeared very excited and hurried the guards to dismantle the tent and move the slaves out of the chamber. He cared nothing for the health of the slaves, he merely did not want them to witness any unfolding events.

‘Pretend to be in a deep sleep Quazat. I want to delay our departure.’ Amos was determined not to miss out on any new developments. ‘You say, a deep well of ice, how can that be? In the middle of the desert,’ he whispered through the side of his mouth so none could see them in conversation.

‘Human,’ a loud croaky voice bellowed at him. ‘Wake that beast quickly or I’ll skewer his brains!’ The hostile listard threatened.

‘I’m trying to waken my friend,’ the Prince yelled back at him, unafraid. ‘I think he may be dead from our labours. I’ll move any moment now so take your ferocity elsewhere.’

Quazat reverted to Mindtalk.
Not want brain skewered. What you mean you think me dead? I wake up now?
He was keen to move out with the other slaves and wondered at what this human Prince had sensed.

No you can’t wake up yet!
Leon shouted in his Mindtalk.

‘Call it a gut feeling but I think we should stay around as long as we can,’ he calmly spoke.

Amos knelt down behind Quazat’s shiny head, while the myeaz feigned sleep. The trick worked well as no other listard seemed to notice them. 

The stifling heat in the chamber was increasing rapidly. The listards gathered around their leader showing no fear at the tremors around them. They circled and knelt down on the ground. Amos spotted the leading listard in the centre of the circle formation, standing motionless and chanting. His bulky body slowly lifted up and drifted towards the roof of the chamber, surrounded by swirling green gasses. Turning to face the cave wall, he raised up both arms, encompassed in an unseen force. An electrifying white light emitted from his fingers.  The light appeared to melt the solid rock in a final attempt to break through.

‘Come forth almighty one. It is time to cross the seas and travel home to your Master,’ the leader yelled in a strange enigmatic voice.

‘Voice belong to monshaad Emperor,’ Quazat informed the Prince. ‘I feel presence in listard mind.  It very strong.’

‘That gives us our proof,’ the Prince whispered. ‘These listards are in league with the evil forces of the Darklands. 

‘We attack now?’ Quazat was ready for battle but the Prince was hesitant.

‘Soon,’ Amos replied. ‘Go to your people and ready them for battle. I’m staying here a bit longer I wish to know what it is they plan.’

Again the floor rumbled. Amos held on to Quazat’s shiny raven black torso for balance.  Quazat, still squat flat on the floor, slowly stretched one of his spiny limbs to assist the Prince’s balance in the tremors.

The floating listard leader seemed unaware of his surroundings. Still deep in a hypnotic trance, he continued to direct the hot white light at the crumbling wall. The dazzling white thrum of power increased in its momentum. The other listards looked on in a trance like state, their wide eyes shining like black bright marble. They too seemed to be gaining a power from a hidden energy field.

‘Where is that power coming from?’ Amos wondered as he watched from a dark corner that shadowed them.

‘Other beings possess them. They lose control of minds. Many entities create this power.’ Quazat could not pinpoint from where the control came but sensed it was of evil proportions.

‘The monshaad Lords, it must be,’ the Prince voiced. ‘The Emperor could not do this alone and they all able to possess another’s thoughts?’

‘They wake Vellor,’ Quazat was certain of this much.

‘Hmm, to what purpose is a Fire Giant to an evil emperor on the other side of the world?’ the Prince could not solve this puzzle. Convinced now that the Emperor and his monshaad Lords were indeed behind this activity. Yet he could not see the reasoning behind the why and what for. What could a Fire Giant do for a monshaad? In his confused thoughts

Amos had not noticed the listards had finally crumbled the cave wall. They worked quickly, putting their efforts into a thick layer of blue ice. It too was instantly melting. Through the ice, a dark shadow stirred. Quazat nudged the Prince from his deep thoughts, with a sharp prod from his long antennae at the top of his oval head.

‘Quazat, that’s not nice, it hurts! I thought I told you to go,’ Amos whispered as loudly as he dared, looking indignantly at the disgruntled myeaz warrior.

‘Not care it hurts,’ Quazat retorted. ‘You wake up. Listards break cave wall. I see what stirs beneath.’

The listards still chanted with a low hypnotic humming of some language that Amos did not understand. He looked through the gaping hole in the cave wall and realised the thick wall of ice on the other side was melting rapidly. The dark shape within was becoming more apparent.

‘My comrades restless,’ Quazat said. ‘They sense panic from fleeing slaves They ask if we attack?’

‘Not just yet, Quazat.’ Amos scratched at his head as if he were solving a problem in his study back home. ‘I barely know what that thing is behind there.’

It is Vellar, Fire Giant, what more you need?’

‘Yeah. Maybe we should charge in and slaughter the lot of them?’

Amos was agitated. Being a leader was not as glamorous as he had imagined it would be.

‘I don’t think killing them will stop this Fire Giant from escaping, so what use is battle until we know …’

‘Prince must think quicker?’ The myeaz sensed his friend’s unrest.

‘Don’t you tell me to think quicker you overgrown  …’

Amos found himself speechless, realising that he was indeed panicking at the unknown.

‘Quazat, ask yourself why should this creature be of such importance to an evil presence at the other side of the world?’

‘I not know,’ Quazat had no answers to the Prince’s quandary.

‘Would you have attacked by now if I were not here?’

‘No. Only attack when danger near our nests. Humans different. They protect more than what belongs to them.’

‘What is that supposed to mean?’ Amos turned his frustrations on his friend. ‘Are you trying to tell me this is none of my business?’

‘I not think same, you do,’ the myeaz sighed at his own irritations. ‘Prince must make decision. My people follow you. Respect humans. Make choice now.’

‘I don’t know Quazat.  I just don’t know. I’m only a Prince not a King.’

‘You a King soon. You learn. Now make choice.’‘And if I make the wrong one?’

‘Then you make new choice.’

‘Very well, then I say we wait. I say we wait to see what that thing is. I say, it’s going to come out whether we attack now or later, so we may as well wait. You go to your people and get prepared. But, you never know, it might turn out to be on our side’

‘Fine,’ Quazat cut short.

‘Good,’ Amos snapped.

The chaotic howling and shrieking of slaves escaping to freedom had now ceased. The tunnels were eerily quiet, only a feint howling wind was heard, folding around the bends and seeking sanctuary in the crevices. Whispering its weeping lament up the hallways to end in a large chamber where a human and a myeaz warrior watched the dying listards. One by one they dropped to the floor with a dull thud as the very essence of their lives sputtered to an end. The Emperor needed their efforts no more, he was almost there and he almost had a hold of his child.  The mind control that his Lords held over each listard slowly diminished, their strength dwindled to a mere flicker, they had become useless vessels.

‘He’s killing them,’ Amos turned his face away from the sickening sight. The thick reptilian skin on their once bulky bodies now hung like crumpled sacks. Frey hallowed faces with lips drawn back to show grating teeth. Had they gritted their teeth together in harrowing pain?  Lifeless gazes stared in wide-eyed revelation. Moments before death they had realised that their very souls were at risk, never would they reach the Realms of the Dead. Forever they would remain in torment, their wandering souls trapped by the monshaads. Even a listard wanted peace in death. These poor creatures had believed they followed a strong new leader who had promised them riches if they aided him to release the sleeping monster. He had never unmasked his true desires, to eat their souls.

Water flooded forth. The entire chamber quickly filled with the foul stench of the previously stagnant water.

Amos struggled to remain afloat while his companion fared much worse. A myeaz is a land creature and has no knowledge of swimming. Quazat used his front legs to grip onto a small ledge jutting out of a corner. Amos swam to him and used his friends big body as a ladder to climb to the ledge. The water billowed around them and started to bubble and boil. Steam rose to the ceiling of the chamber and hissed out of the swirling liquid. Amos perched on the ledge and pulled with a demon strength he never knew he possessed. He would not allow his companion to boil alive in the swell of water that amassed around them. The myeaz felt the surge of human strength as he held on to the arm that helped him, and it urged him on to fight for his life. With his first thorax stretched half on the ledge, he managed to pull at the back one. This was indeed a private battle between life and death. He determined to beat the darkness that attempted to take the very last breath from his living body. He made one last effort to drag his remaining thorax from the heated water that churned around his helpless wiry legs.

‘Come on Quazat,’ the Prince yelled, fearing for his friend’s life. ‘You can do it, just one last pull. Do it Quazat or you’ll lose those spindly legs of yours, you overgrown beetle.’

‘I not beetle,’ Quazat crackled back, ‘I am ant!’ With one last thrust, his entire body rested on the ledge, pressing the Prince hard against the cavern wall.

‘You’ve done it Quazat. Rest my friend, rest awhile.’ 

The damp heated air agitated his quivering antennae, he could not pick up a signal from his people. The myeaz warrior drifted into a bewildered stupor.

Amos smiled. Looking at the creature before him, indeed he was no beetle but nor was he a mere tiny ant. They had become such friends that he had, at some point, overlooked the power of this companion. This large insectoid was superior in all manner of things. Relieved that they would both live a little while longer, he looked out at the strange waters that had almost taken their lives.

The level was sinking down. The hot liquid gushed in all directions down the tunnels. It was hard to see in all the swirling grey steam and even harder to breathe. As the surface of the ground became visible, Amos noticed the dark silhouette of the creature that had been imprisoned within the thick walls of ice. It was now lying in a motionless bundle in the middle of the cavern floor, just like a newborn.

‘Quazat,’ he shook his friend’s armoured body. ‘It’s time to wake up. We need to get down from here and out of this place before that “thing” wakes up.’

I coming Prince,
Quazat could only manage Mindtalk.

It proved too much effort to try to speak the strange human tongue. Slowly the myeaz warrior came around, his blurry vision focusing a little clearer.

‘Am I glad to see you finally coming around from your slumber, my friend,’ the Prince’s voice seemed muffled to his sensitive hearing. ‘We’re a little high up from the ground so you’re going to have to get us down, and we need to do it in a hurry.’

‘You climb on me, Prince?’

Quazat could now see the danger of their predicament. The tide of gushing water had forced them to seek refuge on what appeared to be a ledge at the top of the cave wall.  Now the water had gone, they perched high from the ground.

‘You hold on. I walk down wall.’

‘A frightening prospect my friend, but one I would rather confront than that beast down there waking up.’

Amos climbed on the section between the segments of his companion’s shiny thick armoured body. It was much easier than he had expected as he slid into the wedge between each thorax. He hugged his arms around the spiny column. It was a strange sensation heading vertically down a wall but he trusted his companion with his life and felt no panic as they descended. Finally arriving at the floor was a relief, but the close proximity of the slumbering beast soon reminded him of their urgency to flee from this chamber. 

‘Is that Vellar?’ He asked of the myeaz. ‘And why does he still sleep?’

‘When buried he still child. When escape he stay asleep while he grow quickly.’ 

Quazat stood close to the sleeping giant while both he and his human partner stared in amazement at the sight before their eyes.

The large human body curled up tightly in a fetal position. It had large wings curled upon its back.

‘It possess fire of dragon as blood. Come Prince, stay on my back, we find my people in dry tunnels.’

‘Isn’t it a little unusual for myeaz to allow riders on their backs?’ The Prince was puzzled at this invitation. He remembered a myeaz would kill any who attempted such a feat.

‘We brothers. We joined through fate. I protect you with my life, you likewise.’

The myeaz knew his words were true. He did not wait for a reply from the human. Turning, he rushed out of the cave walking on all of his spindly legs. The speed of a myeaz is equal to that of a centaur. Amos closed his eyes. Cave walls blurred in his vision. The sensation of such speed was both exhilarating and frightening. At least they were leaving Vellar behind, but he knew he had not seen the last of the Fire Giant.