Dark Rot

by Simon McHardy

  The tentacles retreated back to the lake. Goron stumbled over the rocky ground after them. Szat lit the way, flinging fireballs with pinpoint accuracy and no effect.

  “Murdus protect us,” Goron gasped looking down from the outcrop of rock to the lake. Even in the weak moonlight the charybdis was visible, a huge mass obscuring the feeble reflection of light on the lake. Goron felt like screaming and fleeing in the opposite direction.

  The charybdis’s single moon-sized eye was fixated on its prey as it reeled it in. Morwen had been hauled into the shallows of the lake, and her screams had stopped. Goron had vowed he wouldn’t let her out of his sight. He dashed over the pebbled shore and latched onto a tentacle as it sank into the water.

  The inky blackness closed around him as he was dragged down. He started to shimmy up the tentacle in search of Morwen.

  He found the knot in the limb and felt Morwen’s pitiful struggles to escape. One hand still grasping the charybdis’s flesh, he used the blade of his axe to chop above the knot. The meat was rubbery and tough and did not cut easily. His body was desperate for air; his lungs burnt, and his head felt as if it were being squeezed in a vice. He struggled to continue with the grisly task, refusing to let go and abandon Morwen to her watery fate.

  His axe had hacked six inches into the tentacle and still the charybdis held on, diving deeper into the dark. The blackness seeped into his head, drowning thought and memory.

  Goron took in a watery breath. Where was he, in a dream? He let go of the tree he was climbing and floated up to the canopy of green stars. The scene changed. He was a giant splashing across the sea and mountains to pluck a sick star from the heavens. He stretched his hand out and caught one.

  When he opened his fist it was full of rotting, green meat, its pungent odour massaging the back of his throat. He vomited. A torrent of water, coloured green by his stomach acid, sprayed into the air and floated away with the breeze.

  He was in a vast cavern illuminated by the soft glow of the fluorescent green mushrooms which grew among the rocks and walls. In the cavern’s centre was a pool surrounded by a ring of stony ledges upon which he’d taken refuge. Goron adjusted his axe and eased himself upright. Only a hundred feet away was the charybdis. It had dragged its enormous bulk onto the rocks. Its attention was diverted by something lying upon the sandy floor.

  Goron crept closer.

  It was Morwen, and her black onyx staff was still clutched in her hand. The monster prodded at her with a tentacle.

  “Leave her be!” Goron roared. He covered the rocky ground between them in a few leaps and unsheathed his axe.

  The charybdis turned laboriously in his direction. Its moon-sized eye glared down at him.

  Goron had only one chance. He raised the axe and hurled it at the white orb. The blade sank into the soft whiteness as if it were powdered snow and vanished.

  “Oh shit,” Goron said. He stood there with no idea what to do next. His only means to hurt the monster had vanished.

  A pink tear with the consistency of a squashed strawberry fell from the charybdis’s eye. It blinked.

  When the giant orb appeared again it was no longer moon white but crimson red. The charybdis let out a howl that made the ground tremble, and a shower of stone and dust rained down from the cavern’s ceiling. Tentacles lashed the air around Goron.

  It had worked. By blinding the charybdis, he had given himself a chance to rescue Morwen.

  He ducked a tentacle swung with enough force to break every rib in his body. He jumped another that would have left him a cripple.

  “Get up,” he urged Morwen nudging her. She remained motionless, her skin pale and her lips blue. She needed the water squeezed out of her but he couldn’t do it there. Any moment they could both be squashed.

  His eyes darted around the cavern looking for an escape or a haven. There was a cave fifty feet away.

  He threw Morwen over his shoulder, surprised at how light she was.

  Despite Goron’s weariness he moved quickly ducking and weaving the whirling tentacles. Only a leap away from the cave, he was flung to the ground as a tentacle thumped into his back.

  Morwen broke Goron’s fall. Her ribs cracked under his weight and a jet of water gushed from her mouth. She groaned, her eyes flicked open before rolling back into her head.

  Goron slung Morwen roughly over his shoulder again, extracting another groan, and staggered into the cave.

  He laid her down carefully and slumped onto the rock-strewn ground beside her. The walls of the cave were lined with the same fluorescent mushrooms which cast their eerie light throughout the cavity. Exploring the cave would have to wait. Morwen was breathing again, but she’d slipped back into unconsciousness. He didn’t know what he could do for her, perhaps she needed only to rest. They both did.

  Morwen’s persistent cough woke Goron. The charybdis’s raging was over. He could see its vast bulk motionless in the cavern beyond. Worried for Morwen, he put a hand to her forehead and found her burning hot.

  “She’s going to die.”

  Goron started at the voice. His expression changed from surprise to astonishment when he noticed it was Szat.

  “She’s got pneumonia. I saw it many times when Morwen worked in the infirmary. You drown from the inside. It’s a horrible way to go,” Szat continued, then noticing Goron’s gaping mouth he added, “I’m a good swimmer, and I can hold my breath for an exceptionally long time. My record’s a week.” Impressed with his own achievement the demon’s mouth stretched in a toothy grin.

  Goron was impressed. He’d once managed to win a bet that he could make love for two hours whilst doing a headstand. Admittedly the poor girl was confused about what was going on. He shook his head, now was not the time to be boasting of such things. “How can we help her?”

  Szat plucked a mushroom off the side of the wall and nibbled the edge. His face scrunched up at the taste, and he spat it out. “We can’t,” he said and licked his armpit to get rid of the taste of the fungus. “But she can buy a miracle if she’s willing to pay the blood price.”

  “Just like one of her curses?” Goron couldn’t imagine the demon’s armpit tasted any better than the mushroom.

  “Exactly.” The demon stroked an imaginary beard. “Do you realize if curse makers die, their curses cease to exist.” The demon seemed to delight in divulging this news. His face stretched into that sinister grin. “I just wanted to throw that out there for your consideration.”

  Two days ago, before Goron’s encounter with the forest goddess, he would have left Morwen to die down there and probably whispered, ‘It serves you right,’ in her ear. But now he was starting to realise there was more to life than sex with beautiful women—he just wasn’t sure what. “Morwen,” he said shaking her.

  She opened her gummy eyes and stared uncomprehendingly at the face swimming before her.

  “It’s me, Goron.” He tried a smile, but it felt ludicrous on his face and wilted before it bloomed. “You need to ask your night mother to heal you, or you are going to die.”

  “I’m so tired.” Her eyes closed, and she drew in a ragged breath.

  “Szat is here. He can help.”

  Morwen snorted, “That bastard.”

  “You don’t want to give up now we’re so close. Imagine returning to Wichsault a heroine, the castle could be yours, and you’d be so popular you could be justiciar,” Goron said.

  Morwen opened her eyes again.

  “I can draw the signs and bite off your finger.” The demon’s eyes glittered at the thought.

  “Do it.” Morwen weakly lifted an arm to Szat. The demon licked his lips.

  “Will one of mine work?” Goron asked. The thought of Morwen losing a finger in her weakened state didn’t sit well with him.

  “The night mother is not fussy,” Szat said. He lunged at Goron’s hand. Goron yanked it away
leaving Szat’s teeth to snap at the air.

  “No, take my toe,” Goron yelled taking off his boot.

  Szat scowled at the smelly foot. Goron wiggled his hairy pinkie toe. “Take the little one, I don’t need it.”

  Szat’s face screwed up in disgust.

  “Do it, I need my fingers for fighting.” Morwen’s body convulsed in a coughing fit. “Come on, we have to hurry,” Goron growled. He turned his head away and gritted his teeth. There was a sharp pain and when he opened his eyes, his toe had disappeared.

  “Foul,” Szat said and spat the bloody toe onto the ground. “Anwen’s toe was much nicer.”

  “The runes,” Morwen rasped.

  “Right.” Szat grabbed a stone and started scratching spidery runes on the ground around the toe. “There, you just need to mutter the spell now.”

  Morwen sputtered out the words, “Kaexo kl’t grotl aerb aerb larau dv v’tl. dho tioov kluvd no houravk dal vhud hildk noaerb vae’r.” A shadow, vaguely human, detached itself from the wall and grasped the toe in a taloned hand. It studied the offering for a moment and then hovered over Morwen, leering down at her.

  “Kura bruud kocrekeca, kura bruud kocrekeca,” the figure moaned.

  “What’s it saying?” Goron asked as he lifted his foot to stem the blood flow.

  “It’s not enough. It wants more,” Morwen said.

  Szat launched himself at Goron and latched his teeth onto his ear. Goron let out a high-pitched scream and shoved him away with his elbow. The demon fell taking Goron’s ear with him.

  The ear slayer spat the bloody lump into the shade’s outstretched hand, and the offering disappeared into the wall.

  “What now?” Goron asked, glaring at the demon, the blood streaming down his face.

  “We wait,” Szat replied. Morwen had already slipped into a deep sleep.

  The change was gradual. Colour seeped across her ashen face, and her breath was no longer a hiss.

  Morwen opened her eyes and saw Goron watching her. “What happened to your ear?” she asked.

  “Szat,” Goron said sulkily.

  The demon grinned, showing blood-stained teeth.

  “Ah,” Morwen nodded. She eased herself up. There was no trembling from the hacking cough or wincing in pain from her broken ribs, but neither was there any gratitude for the body parts Goron had sacrificed for her recovery. “Where’s my staff?” she demanded.

  “Out there.” Goron gestured to the cavern.

  Szat crept out of the cave. He wasn’t afraid. Demons didn’t experience fear on the primal plane. If their physical bodies were destroyed, they would return to the nightlands until they were summoned again.

  The charybdis wasn’t asleep. It was emitting a high-pitched whining sound and had wrapped itself protectively around the staff.

  This wouldn’t be easy. There’d be no grab and run. “Pathetic, and you call yourself a charybdis,” Szat said.

  “Zooktuk can’t see.” The charybdis pointed a tentacle at his eye now resembling a giant blood blister. “Hurts.”

  “What did you expect, you tried to kill them.”

  The charybdis shook his head vehemently. “No, never kill.”

  “How about them then.” Szat gestured unseen toward a pile of skeletons, some still dressed in mouldering rags.

  “Zooktuk friends. Zooktuk look after, feed fish and waterweed. All die someday. Zooktuk alone.”

  Szat could see how it could be a bit lonely living in a cave under a lake. “That staff you’ve got there belongs to a friend of mine.”

  “Zooktuk’s staff. Friends gone. Zooktuk friend now.” The charybdis hugged the staff close to its body and bared a dozen rows of dagger-sized teeth at Szat.

  “It’s a healing staff. If you give it to me, I could fix your eye with it.” Fortunately Zooktuk couldn’t see Szat’s transparent salesman’s grin.

  “Zooktuk see again?”

  “Yes, just give me the staff.”

  Zooktuk’s huge brow furrowed in thought as he weighed up the request. “Zooktuk give.” He extended the tentacle holding the staff to Szat who grabbed at it.

  “Make Zooktuk see now?”

  “Yes, yes,” Szat said scurrying away.

  Szat sniggered, “It was like stealing from somebody on their deathbed.” Morwen and Goron didn’t share his amusement. They were sickened by his scornful boast.

  “So he never meant us any harm? And Goron blinded him…” Morwen said.

  “I didn’t know he was harmless,” Goron interrupted.

  There was a loud wail from the cavern as Zooktuk realized he’d been tricked.

  “…and you promised to heal him and then ran off with the staff?”

  “Yes, hilarious isn’t it?”

  “No, and we can’t leave him like that.”

  Goron nodded and kicked at a loose rock. What was up with Morwen? A few days ago, she’d been gleefully killing Wichsault’s ailing population. “I guess not. Can’t we sacrifice one of the demon’s fingers, an arm even?”

  Szat bared his spikey teeth and fired up his hands.

  “No, the night mother has as many of those as she wants. It’s mortal flesh she needs.” Morwen looked at Goron’s remaining ear. “I don’t suppose you want to even things out?”

  “Not a chance.” Goron grabbed his ear protectively and glared at Szat.

  Morwen slipped off her sandals and stuck out her foot. “Szat you’re up.”

  Szat ran a purple, pointed tongue across his bulbous lips.

  They wound their way through the cave, beneath the green mushrooms and dripping gloom. The fear that the chamber could end in a solid wall of rock, and they would have to suffer the horror of that long swim to the surface was always on their minds.

  Their anxiety abated as the cave branched out into other passages—one must lead to the light of the sun or the moon. Always, they chose the passage that sloped up. Both of them limped from their missing toes and the ascent was laborious. Goron used his axe, kindly returned by the charybdis after they had restored its sight, as a walking stick, and Morwen hobbled along with the aid of her staff.

  The incline steepened, and Morwen was forced to use the walls to pull herself up. The roof was barely above Morwen’s head when they stumbled into a colony of bats. Morwen flung herself into a crouch as the creatures shrieked their displeasure at the intrusion. Her head throbbed from the commotion, and her stomach heaved as the pungent stench of urine engulfed her. Still, finding bats in the cave was a good thing. Not just for Szat, who had plucked one like an apple from a tree and was tentatively nibbling on its leathery wings, but because it meant there was a way out.

  The tunnel opened up into a cavern. The roof was luminous with thousands of glow worms. Their light was reflected in the puddles, each a galaxy on its own. Stalagmites and stalactites met to form sets of jagged teeth.

  “It’s beautiful,” Goron said.

  Despite Morwen’s preference for shadow over light, she had to agree.

  Reluctantly, they exited the cavern and journeyed along another mushroom-lit corridor. Szat and Goron chatted like old friends about bygone feasts. Morwen trudged along behind. What had her sister seen in the warrior? Was it the broad back and muscled arms? His bad boy reputation or perhaps it was something hidden that others couldn’t see. She’d seen it though, a selflessness shown when the warrior had followed her into a deep lake and sacrificed his body parts to bring her back from the brink of death.

  There was a scurrying sound behind her.

  Szat had discarded the bat, pronouncing the remainder inedible, and plucked another from the ceiling. Their discussion on feasts had whetted his appetite, and he threatened to die of starvation if they did not stop immediately for food. Goron felt peckish too. “Morwen,” he called looking back. “Morwen?” They were in the middle of a long, unr
emarkable stretch of tunnel, but she had vanished. There was nowhere for her to go unless she was squatting behind a rock answering a call of nature. He hopped and limped back to the last bend, but there was only more empty cave. “Morwen, Morwen,” he hissed. No reply.

  “The spider got her,” Szat said.

  “What…when?” Goron forgot about his need for a walking stick and raised his axe.

  “When I was telling you about that time I hid in the oven and ate an entire sucking pig.” Szat cackled at the memory.

  Goron ignored the pounding in his foot and dashed back down the tunnel, his eyes on the ceiling expecting to see Morwen cocooned in a web with some giant arachnid draining her blood.

  “You won’t find her up there. It came out of the ground.”

  Goron cursed and held the torch to the ground looking for evidence of a trapdoor. He tracked back and forth sweeping away the loose stones with his axe and thrusting the torch into crevices and behind rocks. His neck and back ached, and his wounds throbbed from his exertions, but he found no trace of her. She’d completely disappeared. He slumped down against the wall in despair. He’d let Morwen down.

  “Why didn’t you tell me she was taken by a spider?”

  “I had a mouthful, and I don’t like spiders. Besides, she’s a big girl and can look after herself.” Szat took a bite out of the bat’s belly, sucking an intestine down like a big, fat, juicy worm. “They really are better cooked.”

  Goron had tolerated Szat munching on foul-smelling bats in his ear for the last hour, and now he’d had enough. He pushed Szat and the bat carcass off his shoulder. The demon bounced off the ground like a ball.

  “What’s wrong with you? Morwen’s our friend, and you let her die.”

  “Friend!” Szat scoffed, “I don’t have friends.”

  “Figures.” The two sat in a sullen silence. Szat was selfish and disloyal. One cry from the demon alerting him Morwen was spider food, and he could have helped her. He should leave him down here with the bats and the charybdis.