Spanners - The Fountain of Youth (26 page)

“Now it’s
our
turn to give
you
one final warning, Conquistador,” said the chief. “We’ve all taken vows of complete poverty, with no family, no property and no attachments of any kind. There’s nothing with which you can threaten us and no one whom you can take hostage to make us bend. We’re a loose collection of individuals who live forever, and nothing more. There’s nothing that we want, and we have nothing for you to take away. If you continue to threaten us, we’ll have no recourse but to bury you for a thousand years this time, not out of spite, but only so that we may continue our humble, hidden way of life.”

Juan was unmoved by the threat and whispered to Balthasar in the
ir old Spanish dialect.

“It’s time,”
said Juan.
“Gather the troops.”

Balthasar coughed twice loudly, which was the signal to the guards waiting outside that no one should leave this place.

In a few moments Drayne will slip into this room and put them to sleep with a brush of her fingers,
thought Balthasar.
If any try to escape, Cannon will put them to sleep with his fists. Then we’ll take them far from here, bring out our hacksaws and begin our work in earnest.

“I’ll give you one last opportunity,” said Juan to the council. “Swear fealty to me and you’ll be rewarded. Disobey me, and four hours from now you’ll experience an agony that no creature has ever experienced before, and your torment
will not end
.”

Juan’s eyes glowed and he looked at each member of the council, including the boy with the doves, who looked like he was about to run.

“Now,” said Juan. “Will the immortal Arawak nation swear fealty to me, and swear that they’ll fight for me in the upcoming battle? Will you spend an eternity under
me
, doing everything that I ask? Or will you choose an eternity in Hell, with no hope for salvation?”

/***/

Four hours and thirty minutes later, their trucks were a hundred kilometers north and twenty kilometers east into the desert. No human would ever see them, and no human would ever hear the screams from Koriuaka, the boy with the doves. He had been the most difficult to wrangle. The five members of the council stood to fight when Juan’s crew attacked, but Cannon had made short work of them. The boy had run away and might have succeeded had they not found him by his birds, freeing the last one from its cage before Cannon grabbed him by the head and dragged him back to Juan.

They were far enough away from civili
zation that Koriuaka’s screams couldn’t be heard, but just in case an errant hiker was passing through, Drayne took enough of his life away so the boy could barely move. The boy’s yells still came out, but they came out like faint wheezes, increasing in intensity each time Balthasar turned the heat up in his tank. The council’s decapitated bodies writhed each time Balthasar increased the temperature, but they didn’t make that much noise. After binding the five bodies with rope and putting them in a box, the only noise they made were faint thuds, persistent but not too distracting.

Juan told Balthasar to turn the flame off, and he did. It would take the oil an hour to cool down completely, so Drayne touched the boy lightly on the neck once more so that he still wouldn’t yell. He was quiet, but the boy couldn’t focus due to his pain, so she touched his severed wrist and it became black and deadened to pain signals. The boy calmed down but was still frightened and looked at Juan with glowing eyes.

“Now listen,
Koriuaka
,” said Juan. “Five centuries ago you helped us, largely against your will, but here we are today and you’ll do the same. Do you understand?”

The boy nodded faintly.

“Good,” said Juan. “Now let me tell you the price of immortality. I paid a dear price at your hands: five centuries in a box. You, along with your council, are paying an even dearer price. The council’s five living heads and your severed hand are now in a device that can do naught else but deliver pain. I don’t know the mechanics of immortal biology, but I do know that an immortal’s severed hand can still send pain signals to its detached body, even at great distances. Do you understand?”

The boy’s eyes were watering up with tears, but he nodded.

“You’re in a very dark place, Koriuaka,” said Juan, “but the council is in a much worse place. A hand in boiling oil hurts, but their heads are
who they are
, and that hurts much more. We can of course choose to freeze the container, add pressure, or simply leave it boiling under the ground for a year if we so desire. Do you understand the power we have over you and the council? Do you understand that no one will ever find them?”

The boy nodded.

“Do you understand that one misstep, one lie, or one truth untold from you means that your head will be placed in this vessel next?”

More tears came from the boy’s eyes and he started to shake; he eventually stopped and nodded.

“Good,” said Juan. “Now I need information from you: a location that you’ve been sworn never to reveal; do you know the location of which I speak?”

The boy nodded and Juan stood up to address his crew.

“The time has come to raise our army,” said Juan. “The immortal Arawaks punished me with burial, but I wasn’t the only one. They gave many of their own this capital punishment, and though they saved such treatment for those amongst them that had committed the most grievous sins, over time the numbers under the earth swelled. This group is called the
imprisoned
, and the location of their graveyard is a secret. Koriuaka, like every member of the council, has been sworn to secrecy, but he will tell us where this burial site is, and we’ll free the imprisoned so that they may fight for us.”

Juan looked at Koriuaka and then turned his attention back to the group.

“The imprisoned are a tough folk, and their sins grievous, but Balthasar has a plan to heal them once they’re exhumed and control them once they’re active. We’re going to raise these buried demons from the depths of Hell, breathe life into them and then unleash them at the final battle.”

/***/

It took them three days to get to Florida, and another two days to travel far enough into the swamp to find the graveyard. It looked like just another area of the marsh, and Balthasar marveled at how the boy seemed so sure it was the right place.
He doesn’t seem to be lying,
thought Balthasar.
I just pray for his sake that his memory has served him well.

The boy’s memory held true
, and they found all the caskets in the area to which he had led them. A few of the bodies were bound in chained iron caskets much like the vessel that had trapped Juan, but most of the imprisoned had been buried before the Arawaks had discovered steel; these ancient victims had been placed in stone coffins. The work was dirty but they executed it efficiently; Juan’s crew had no use for the heavy coffins, so they just opened them up underwater and brought the remaining bags of bones to the surface. It took them five days to exhume all the bodies; Balthasar counted 412 in all.

While the crew was resting, Juan spoke to Balthasar in private.

“If you remember, we used leeches on the Fountain when we became immortal,” said Juan.

“I do,” said Balthasar.

“Legends say that those leeches gained immortality themselves and have instinctively returned to these swamps, and they’re as big as alligators and twice as deadly,” said Juan.

“I’ve heard these legends too, sir.”

Juan smiled.

“We need not
fear giant leeches because we’re making our own legends. Koriuaka has told me that there is one more prisoner a short way from here, one that was so bad that they had to bury him separately,” said Juan to Balthasar. “He’s been buried for fourteen hundred years; but perhaps we’ll need his ferocity most of all.”

“Of course
, sir,” said Balthasar.

“Four hundred and thirteen
soldiers isn’t a pretty number, but we won’t have a pretty army,” said Juan. “How long will it take to reanimate these creatures?”

“We’ll use a new technique of rehabilitation that will have them up and running within a week,” said Balthasar. “But it will be months before they look even remotely human.”

“That’s fine; they’re an army of
ghouls
, as it were,” said Juan, “and their necrotic appearance will bring fear to the enemy. But what of control? They owe us for their freedom, but will they
fight
for us?”

“I’ll use the same technique on them that we perfected with the populous,” said Balthasar. “It’s a crude method of management; all we’ll be able to do is tell them what they can destroy.”

“That may be all we need to do.”

Juan turned around and looked at the bag of bones they had collected on their boat; though there were more than four hundred
bodies on the boat, their remains probably weighed less than ten men in total.

“When I was under the earth
, I thought of them,” said Juan. “There’s no camaraderie in collective suffering, but there is
understanding
. I had many a dream of rising from the ground and leading my condemned brethren on a path of revenge.”

“You’ll do just that, sir,” said Balthasar.

“Perhaps,” said Juan. “But it’s not that simple. Do you remember our second conquest in Hispaniola, when we were still mortals?”

“The mountainous island we named
El Carey
,” said Balthasar. “I remember it vaguely, though please remind me of its importance, sir.”

“El Carey was shaped like a giant turtle shell if you recall,” said Juan, “and the naturals used that terrain to devastating effect, rooting in high ground that our artillery couldn’t reach. Each run became a suicide mission and the soldiers refused to go, so I convinced my superiors to loose the prisons on Puerto Rico and let some inmates fight for their freedom. We used them and finally
cleaned out the savages, but at a terrible cost; the inmates soon turned against the officers, and
that
became the true battle for the island.”

“I remember, sir,” said Balthasar.

“This army will be instrumental in reclaiming the Fountain, for they
are
from Hell,” said Juan. “They’ve been buried by their own people for unspeakable sins, be it rape, serial murder, cannibalism or a score other worse things.”

Juan pointed at the small bodies that Cannon was piling into storage containers. They would be formidable soon, but now they were just quivering bits of sinew and bone.

“But five centuries ago our prisoners took El Carey,” said Juan, “and after they revolted, we killed them and then kept the island; we got what we wanted in the end. We may have to rely on you to do the same after the imprisoned take the Fountain for us.”

“Sir?”

“Monstrous armies are needed to change history, but they’ll have no place in the world we’ll create. You’ve helped find this army, and you will be tasked with disposing of them once we’re done.”

“I don’t understand, sir.”

“You must build more tanks, Balthasar,” said Juan, “more tanks for more heads. If we’re to create Heaven, there must be a Hell, don’t you think?”

Balthasar had no words.

“I plan to have a tank for my own captives of course,” said Juan. “One that I’ll place beneath my throne in which I can place Adam, so that I may bring his eternal punishment personally. But you, Balthasar, you’ll be in charge of making sure Hell exists under our purview so that Heaven can exist everywhere else. Can you do this?”

Balthasar continued his silence.

“Don’t worry,” said Juan with a smile. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves; the final war has not yet even begun.”

There was a loud guffawing and commotion in the distance
, and Balthasar saw that Cannon was bringing back the 413th imprisoned Arawak. Even though his body was nothing more than bones, he was larger than the rest—taller and almost as broad as Cannon. Cannon’s face was bleeding, and Balthasar heard Cannon complain that the buried Arawak had bitten his ear while he was being rescued.

“Fourteen hundred years in a box and he still has enough energy to bite,” said Juan. “This will be a fierce one; our army from
Hell will all be fierce, and angrier than we can imagine.”             

PANTHERS IN THE SNOW

Adam woke to birds circling him far overhead; he thought they were vultures searching for carrion, but Phage told him otherwise.

“Vultures don’t like the cold,” said Phage, “and they don’t come this far north.”

“What are they?” said Adam.

“Something else,” said Phage.

Adam still hadn’t regained his form yet, but was improving. When they had first dug him out he was an absolute wreck; alternately lashing out violently and collapsing into a stupor, with little in between. They decided that it wasn’t safe to drive him north at first; his violent episodes were paranoid and calculated. Mayfly feared he might get out of the ropes that they put him in and attack the driver, and Phoe feared that he might hurt himself. Adam gradually gained moments of lucidity and began to understand the triggers that caused his behavior; his violence was caused by the paranoia that someone might bury him again, and his depression was caused by the thought of them succeeding. Both feelings were worst after he woke. He had the same dreams of burial that he had always had, only this time there was no coffin; it was just him and the dirt.

Though his nightmares continued, his delusions passed and so did his times of catatonia, and within a few days he was functional enough to travel. They drove north slowly, lingering at each fork in the road and asking Adam twice which path to take. He still had the map in his head and they trusted him, but they were worried that the spell under the earth might have corrupted his memory.

They
still followed Adam’s instructions, taking lefts and rights, passing landmarks they had seen before and some of which they weren’t so sure. They passed over open, frost-covered fields and traveled through forest so thick that snow couldn’t touch the ground. They saw berserkers and other creatures pass by in the distance, but as they traveled north they noticed fewer and fewer signs of life.

“The birds are following us,” said Phoe, pointing to the sky.

Adam looked up, and indeed she was correct; the flock of circling birds flew above them and seemed to be following their course north.

“
Are they vultures?” asked Adam again.

“No
, they’re not,” said Phoe. “They’re doves—white doves.”

I always taught Phoe that birds never fly towards the cold, and they don’t.
Am I wrong?
thought Adam.
Maybe I’m wrong about this; maybe I’m wrong about a lot of things.

“Tell me
, Phoe,” said Adam. “The childhood you just had without me—was it happy?”

Phoe shook her head
no
.

“I should have been there,” said Adam. “I don’t know how, but I should have–”

“Bad childhoods aren’t the end of the world,” said Phoe. “I’m here with you now.”

Adam smiled and nodded.
Perhaps I should have let her go a long time ago, happy childhood or not,
thought Adam.
Though I failed to protect her, she can now protect herself.

“Do you remember this, Adam?” said Phage from the backseat, pointing to the trees outside
. “Because I don’t; this looks different than the way we came down.”

Adam considered that Phage might be right; their surroundings seemed somehow
off
. Adam considered that he might be wrong, but didn’t show any trepidation. He remembered the path, and the Wild Zone had been known to do this to travelers before; strange things found a way to grow or die and disappear from day to day, making the scenery in the journey forward different than the journey back.

“We’ve got to continue north,” said Adam. “We’ll check our bearings in the morning.”

“All right,” said Phage with a smile, “you’re the boss.”

They drove on into the night, with Mayfly at the wheel. He only needed an hour of sleep, but his hour was coming up. Mayfly pulled over by the side of the road and told Adam that he needed to rest, perhaps until morning; they were deep in the forest and the road was difficult to see.

Adam looked back and saw Phoe and Phage sleeping in adjoining beds, with Geryon sleeping way in the back, darkness covering all but his feet. As Adam nodded off, he felt an odd sense of comfort from his family.
We might not all be friends
, thought Adam,
but we’ll always find our way back to each other. One way or another, we’ll always end up in moments like this.

/***/

They woke up to find their keys missing, and a strange note by their door, etched into a slate of wood. Mayfly couldn’t understand the language, but Adam recognized it as an ancient dialect of Norse and translated it for the group:

YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT JUAN’S ARMY WITHOUT US

FOLLOW THE PATH WE HAVE MADE FOR YOU

FOLLOW THE CATS, FOLLOW THE GIRL

WE ARE HERE TO HELP
             

The crew got outside and looked around in the night sky; they could barely see through the forest
, and when Mayfly shined a flashlight into the woods they couldn’t see much more. Still, it was quiet and no one felt any threat.

“I can hotwire the RV,” said Mayfly. “Ten minutes and we’re out of here.”

“Maybe we should stay,” said Phoe. “See where this note leads us.”

“We don’t have time,” said Mayfly.

“We don’t, and it’s a dangerous area,” said Adam. “Berserkers are about and—”

“There’s nothing dangerous here, not this far north,” said Phoe. “It’s too cold for anything to live
, even berserkers.”

“Little sister’s got
a point,” said Phage. “So far I haven’t seen shit.”

“We go into the forest, and then what?” asked Mayfly.

“What happens if you hotwire the car and we continue our drive?” asked Phage.

“We get to our destination,” said Mayfly. “We find Santos de León and the Fountain.”

“Ain’t that simple,” said Phage, taking a leaf from the tree in front of him. “My sense is that wherever we are, we’re not on the right track.”

“We’re not lost,” said Mayfly. “Adam knows the way.”

“He
knew
the way,” said Phage, “but a spell under the earth gives a mind different priorities.”

There was a moment of silence
; Mayfly shot Adam a look to see if Phage was right, and Adam averted his gaze. Phoe took Adam’s hands in hers and looked into his eyes.

“Adam, are you one hundred percent positive we’re on the right track?” asked Phoe.

After a moment, Adam shook his head
no
.

“We can’t just run into the forest,” said Mayfly. “It could be a trap.”

“They crept in, took our keys and nothing else,” said Phoe. “They could have slashed our tires or done something to
us
.”

“Doesn’t mean they’re trustworthy,” said Phage. “But yeah, if Juan Ponce was behind this, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

Mayfly thought for a moment and then nodded his head.

“We can follow this, whatever it is, but we have to maintain a clear path back to the RV at all times,” said Mayfly. “In the meantime, was anyone here awake when our keys were stolen?”

The crew looked around and everyone shook their heads
no—
everyone except for Geryon, who clicked twice.

“He’s a light sleeper,” said Phage with a smile. “Geryon, did you
sense anyone come in here in the last hour?”

Geryon was quiet and then clicked a few times, squealed and then stopped.

“He was out wandering the woods when he thought he heard someone come out of here, but he’s not sure,” said Phage. “The sound waves he put out spooked ’em and they ran away.”

“What did he
hear?” asked Adam.

Geryon clicked again while Phage nodded.

“Just like the note says,” said Phage. “Geryon thought he heard a child and two creatures that sounded like lions.”

/***/

They saw an eight-year-old girl at sunrise, barefoot and sandy blonde, with tan skin and angular features. She was beautiful and was wearing a moose pelt and little else. She shook their keys, giggled and then disappeared into the forest like a pixie spirit. Two creatures followed her; they looked like brown housecats but were as big as hyenas.

“Well,” said Phage. “The note doesn’t lie
; shall we follow?”

“
If we do,” said Phoe, “we’ll need someone to guard the RV.”

“Geryon’ll do it,” said Phage. “I want to follow this
little forest girl, because I am
officially
intrigued.”

/***/

They followed the little girl through the forest, nipping at her heels but always slightly behind. Sometimes she stayed close and beckoned them forth with her hand, and sometimes she skipped ahead until she was just a speck of movement on the forest’s horizon. But they followed her on and on, and though Adam was keeping track of their location as best he could, their surroundings were beginning to look the same to him.
You can’t remember landmarks when there are no landmarks,
thought Adam, but he quashed the doubt inside and pressed on.

The girl eventually hung back long enough for Adam to get a better look at her. Though he pleaded with her in her note’s Norse dialect to stop and tell them where they were headed, she just laughed and ran forward with her creatures.

“What are those cats?” asked Phage.

“Panthers,” said Mayfly.

“Panthers don’t live this far north,” said Phage, “not even close.”

“You could say the same for barefoot little girls,” said Mayfly.

They followed the child for hours. Adam sensed that Mayfly was getting nervous due to the time, and Phage was winded by the travel. Phoe was having the time of her life though.
This is the Phoe that I remember,
thought Adam with a smile.
She won’t want to leave this forest.

They lost sight of the girl and were worried that she had gone too far ahead, but soon
they heard a whistle and spotted her by a frozen stream. They approached her and she displayed a rock, thrust it through the ice and reached the rushing water below. She tossed the rock to Mayfly, and he caught it and did the same. Soon they all drank heartily; the water was bitterly freezing, but the group was thirsty and it soothed their palates. After quenching his thirst, Adam looked up to see the little girl down on all fours just like the cats next to her, lapping up the water with her tongue. She sat up, giggled and then climbed the tree behind her, as quick as a squirrel. She was gone for about five minutes, but came down with pockets full of nuts and berries. She ate a few in front of the group, and then approached them, giving them each a handful. She was quite small and they were close enough to grab her and demand that she tell them where they were headed, but nobody dared do it.
She’s trustworthy, but we’re also deep in the woods,
thought Adam.
If she were to run away, we’d be lost forever.

The crew
began to relax around her and her panthers. The nuts she had provided brought them a strange warmth, and though the panthers were fierce enough to maul any one of them, they seemed under complete control, as if they were sentient. She laughed twice and smiled, and then ran off deeper into the snowy woods. After a few moments she was gone, and they had only her cats to guide them.

They went deeper into the forest
, and the cats kept pace with them much more consistently than the girl had. After another hour of walking, Adam realized that he hadn’t seen her since the frozen river. Mayfly spotted her high in the tree canopy, jumping from branch to branch without making a sound.

“How long’s she gonna do this?” asked Phage.

“We need a plan to get back if she runs much longer,” said Mayfly.

The crew stopped and the panthers stopped with them.

“Kid’s right,” said Phage. “This trip gets weirder and weirder, all for a pair of keys and—”

Phoe stared
straight ahead as if she had seen a ghost, and it distracted Phage. Adam looked ahead and saw a small clearing in the woods. Within the clearing was a stone homestead that had a low, circular wall around it. The stone buildings inside were large and covered with animal skins, but their corners were too square to be makeshift huts. The structure looked like it had been there for centuries.

“Looks like we’re at our destination,” said Phage. “And it’s a poor man’s castle.”

“Close,” said Adam. “It’s a fortress; a Viking ring fortress.”

/***/

The little girl greeted them at the gate, which swung to the side slowly in anticipation of their arrival. Adam was hesitant to enter, but trusted her enough to walk through.
Those with bad intentions generally take their first opportunity to employ them,
thought Adam.

They went into the interior of the fortress and found it to be a series of boxed houses covered with animal pelts, with each room connected to one another by a stone hallway. Most of the land inside was empty and frozen, and when the group entered the first building
, it didn’t get much warmer. The rooms were dimly lit and decorated with various artifacts, some Viking and some relics local to northern Canada. There were metal helmets and two-handed axes on one wall and Inuit totems on the next. The girl led them through a room that appeared to be filled with metal instruments of torment, but Adam soon recognized them as the traps of fur traders, covered in rust and no longer functional.