Kerian started at the sound, his gaze following his host as he moved under the balcony. Two corridors led off, to the left and to the right, each one lined with yet more glass containers. A huge aquarium stood centrally between them, its walls coated in dark green algae, obscuring whatever horror lurked inside. There was a sense of something large and ghostly pulsating through the water, its physical features difficult for Kerian to make out from this distance.
“I don’t have many visitors coming here, out in the middle of nowhere, from whom I can seek sponsorship or who care enough to drop by to see how I am.” His host shouted as he headed towards the large glass tank, “Equally, it’s not as if I can go door to door to beg for scientific funding. ‘He has such a big castle; why should we lend him money?’” Kerian noted the distain and emphasis the man placed on the latter sentence as if this were a scenario he was replaying in his mind.
“Instead, I have to rely on the bounty from tempests, lost travellers and carriages mired in the mud. So when strangers seek shelter, ask directions, or request help to mend their carriage wheel, I am always happy to play the good host and help out. It isn't my fault when they can't pay the price for the service I provide?”
He banged angrily on the glass of the aquarium, making whatever was inside flash brightly. Orbs of light appeared to dart and swirl around inside the murk, clearly agitated at the sound.
“If you can’t pay for my aid, then I either hold your family to ransom until you can, or experiment on you… Or both in Octavian’s case. Oh would you like a biscuit?" He turned offering a plate of stale oatmeal cookies as if this conversation were completely rational and sane. Kerian noted that several of the offered biscuits had bites already taken out of them.
“I would not like to spoil my dinner.” Kerian apologised, moving to follow and remembering the place settings at the long table as he passed. “Are you expecting more guests?”
A pale hand reached out, adjusting the flame below a bubbling beaker, turning the heat to a low simmer before the scientist’s piercing eyes turned their attention back towards Kerian.
“My hounds are already bringing our latest visitors towards the keep. I expect them shortly, despite their reluctance to accept my invitation. I get very angry when people don’t accept my charity.” He looked back towards the discarded cookies as if making a valid point. “I’m starting not to like you Mr Styx. I think we should talk business. Where is the bounty that you have promised me?”
Kerian met his host’s gaze and frowned, causing the man’s facial expression to darken and match his own. The pup squirmed desperately in the scientist’s grasp but he showed no signs of noticing, his focus now entirely on Kerian.
“We shall discuss payment of ransom when I have seen Octavian’s wife and child. Not a moment before.” Kerian replied coldly. “I feel there is no need to pay you if the goods have been damaged.”
“Damaged.” The laugh was humourless and dry. “The welfare of the goods depends on how quickly Octavian returned with payment. How long ago was it my hound? How long since I sent you out into the big wide world to gather ransom for sheltering your wife and daughter from those hill bandits?” His gaze looked over to where Octavian was sniffing at one of the glass cases in the left corridor and whining softly.
Kerian started to edge towards the cases, his passage taking him close to the glass aquarium. Orbs of flickering light raced towards him.
“What’s in here?” Kerian asked, trying to change to subject and calm the scientist down. “Is it some kind of aquatic will-o-wisp?” One of the creatures slammed against the inside of the algae coated glass, red and white pulsating colours flared in the water and where the colours faded at the tips of the creature’s limbs. Kerian noted the image and frowned. His suspicions were coming together now, the mental jigsaw puzzle pieces slotting into place but he did not like the picture he was beginning to perceive.
“Is something the matter?” His host asked. “You look as if you have seen a ghost Mr Styx. I can assure you they are perfectly harmless as long as you don’t fall in the water. These creatures use colours in the most unusual ways. The way they communicate forms a large part of my experiments.” He tapped on the glass again, watching with glee as the lights within flared red and white.
“I often find if I leave them long enough, they can become extremely aggressive, especially when they are hungry.” A smile filled with rotted teeth flashed towards Kerian, before the scientist turned and started to climb a metal staircase set at the side of the tank.
“Do you know a Lampren can also live for hundreds of years without any signs of aging?” The scientist climbed a few steps, wrestling with the pup that was clearly very aware of where it was heading. “They like their food to be particularly energetic. It’s something to do with how they process the chemicals found in their prey’s brain at the time of the kill. I hope to unlock that secret and figure out how they do it. I also want to figure out how they mesmerise their prey.”
The scientist opened the lid of the aquarium and without a sign of remorse threw the puppy inside the tank where it immediately started splashing about in the water, desperate to escape, its claws frantically paddling at the surface. The lid slammed back down, sealing the creature inside its watery tomb and the lights in the tank started flashing wildly.
“Mankind has always wanted to outlive the years they are given,” the scientist continued with his lecture as he descended the staircase. “They pluck at straws to extend life beyond its natural limits. I know of two such pitiful attempts, there is a cursed knight that has managed to live for hundreds of years on an island to the north of here, his keep filled with the wailing spirits of his doomed family who do nothing but torment him every night, leaving him in abject misery.” He brushed his hands together, then wiped them on his trousers before continuing his tale.
“Then there are rumours of a lich wizard who has managed to use his obsession with magic to keep his body functioning, despite the fact that pieces of him keep rotting away over time. I understand he has to mask his body in enchantments of illusion just so he can sit with people and not cause them to vomit.” His host grinned again before turning to a workstation and flicking a beaker filled with a viscous purple fluid. Kerian tried to focus on his host but felt his gaze drawn towards the aquarium and the pitiful sounds coming from within.
“Then there are the vampires and the were-creatures. I’ve tried that. The failed experiments are here for you to see. Only existing during the twilight hours, responding to the cycles of the moon or having an unquenchable thirst for blood. No…none of these ideas appeal to me. If I can harness the Lampren’s power, I will not simply extend how long I live, I shall remain fit and well enough to enjoy those years and will have the power to make anyone obey my commands.”
“Rattling around, all alone inside your ruined keep. How is that any better than a cursed knight or an undead wizard?” Kerian spat, his horror tainting each word as the water inside the aquarium frothed and churned as the Lampren circled the struggling puppy. Colours flashed inside the tank, then suddenly the puppy stopped struggling, its movements weaker, before it slipped beneath the surface and slid down the glass. The creatures inside the tank attacked as one, ripping the pup apart in a frenzy.
Tiny barbs on the end of their feelers shredded the drowning creature into small parts, lumps of flesh swiftly swallowed by the monsters, presenting Kerian with a sickening view as larger barbs lanced out and sought ingress to the puppy’s skull and the moist brain inside.
“Oh I don’t intend to stay here. I intend to travel, see the world, feast on the sights, the sounds, the smells. If you can live forever you can amass wealth and live in style as long as you don’t spend too long in one place. The world is my mistress and I am keen to indulge in everything she can give me.”
Kerian swallowed hard, suddenly feeling a little light headed. He walked unsteadily over to the glass case where Octavian continued to scratch and w
hine. He gazed past his friend’s shaggy form and noted the beautiful woman that appeared to be sleeping at the base of the cabinet, her body curled tightly in the small space, her legs drawn up, her hair a cushion against the glass. Ana had never looked so radiant in all the times she had visited him. A luminous ghost stood over her body crying softly, her phantom hand tenderly touching the glass above her transformed husband’s head where he continued scratching at the glass coffin that held her corpse, his claws working frantically around a small crack at the base.
The knight tried to clear his throat but suddenly found it raw with emotion as his host laughed coldly behind him. Ana looked as though she had been dead for a long time.
“Oh my dear Octavian,” the scientist stated sarcastically. “You always were too slow. I bet you regret knocking on my door now don’t you.”
“Where’s the child?” Kerian asked his voice barely a whisper, his eyes not moving from the crack in the case. “Where is Iolander?”
“Why Mr Styx. Where else did you think I got the fresh food for my hounds?” He laughed, slowly licking the blood-stained fingers of his hand.
Kerian felt the gorge rising in his throat. The room suddenly felt too hot. He needed to sit down. The knight turned and headed over to the dinner table, sinking down onto one of the chairs his body shaking as he realised the horror that he faced.
“Now, now Mr Styx. Don’t look so pale.” He slid a crystal glass in Kerian’s direction and poured a clear liquid into it. “Have a drink, relax. Then we can get down to business. You still have my ransom to discuss.”
The scientist smiled, then slapped his pale forehead with his open palm.
“Oh where are my manners?” he chastised himself, tutting loudly. “I realise I never introduced myself. How extremely rude of me. I hope you can forgive me.”
Kerian looked up at his host and fought the urge to be sick. He knew what the man was going to say. Had known it long before this moment yet hoped against hope it could not be true.
“Welcome to Castle Glowme Mr Styx. My name is Lord Okubi” He held out his hand in greeting, his fingers still streaked with blood.
“…But you can call me Malum.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
The stone block grated as it slowly raised up from the floor of the maze, allowing two deep brown Minotaur eyes to stare out across the darkened arena towards the Stairway of the Triumphant where it rotated at the very centre of the labyrinth. Nostrils flared as the creature sniffed, trying to see if he could detect any other contestant’s scent but there was an amount of pungent smoke slowly sliding across the ceiling in dark black clouds and all that his nostrils detected was something that smelt like roasted pig that contrasted sharply with the scent of dead snail currently at his feet.
“What can you see? Come on Rauph boost me up so I can take a look. I want to see where we are.” Ashe complained.
“We are at the centre of the labyrinth.” Rauph replied. “I can see the staircase but I can’t see anything else.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Ashe pushed from below. “Come on let’s win this stupid competition and then we can finally leave Taurean.” Rauph frowned, the Halfling’s words weighing as heavily upon his mind as the stone slab currently balanced upon his head. To be honest, despite everything that had happened he was not sure if he really wanted to leave Taurean.
The stone slab slid fully over to one side and Rauph climbed out, his chestnut hair covered in white dust and grime from navigating the underground passage. He turned and offered his hand, pulling Ashe up through the hatch as if he were catching a fish off the stern of the El Defensor, yanking the Halfling clear out of the hole as if he weighed little or nothing at all.
Ashe stared around as soon as his feet touched the ground, his eyes wide with excitement, taking in the tall spiralling staircase that remained in constant motion, the bladed steps folding away, whilst others opened up like petals from a flower kissed by the rays of the morning sun. The staircase wound its way up through the ceiling and into what had to be the innards of the great pyramid but from where they stood, Rauph and Ashe were too distant to see into the centre of the ancient monument. Beams of fractured light shone down through the opening at the top of the stairwell, bathing the shifting steps beneath in a golden glow that winked on and off as the steps subsided and then reformed.
The arena floor also glowed with a shimmering light, highlighting a grid pattern of perfect squares each ten foot by ten foot with a gleaming silver edge. It reminded Ashe of a massive board of Knights and Castles. Rauph and he were on the edge of it, with the shifting stairway standing at the middle of the far side. The Halfling’s eyes scanned the floor, realising that the square pattern was repeated both to the left and the right and probably on the far side of the staircase as well. Four boards overlapping, so that whatever way a contestant approached the stairs, they would have to cross the patterned floor. Ashe found the floor a delight to behold, the squares shimmering about the base of the stunning, golden stairs as if they were ripples rolling out across a bejewelled pond.
“It’s beautiful!” Ashe whispered in awe. He took another long look around the large area, frustrated that he could only make out the vague edges of the massive arena from where they stood due to the thick smoke in the air. There were no clear signs of the entrances into this space, so he had no idea from where the other contestants were expected to appear. Ashe shrugged and stepped away from Rauph, eager to gain a better look at the spinning stairway.
The square beneath his little boot clicked as he stepped on it, freezing the Halfling in place.
“Oops!” he winced, rocking backwards and forwards on the stone and feeling it move beneath him.
“Oops?” Rauph turned from sliding the slab back into place. “What do you mean ‘Oops?’”
A razor thin sheet of metal shot up vertically from the floor, separating the two companions placing a gleaming wall directly between them. Ashe uttered a nervous laugh, then stepped to the left to try and walk around the barrier, feeling the stone shift again as his weight was positioned. Another sheet of metal flew into the air, preventing him from stepping from the stone, its passing edge catching Ashe’s left shoulder and spinning him about.
“Oww! Mouldy acorns!” Ashe steadied himself and rubbed his shoulder only to find his hand came away wet with blood. He stepped to the right, moving reflexively away from the new wall and the stone moved beneath him again. “Umm Rauph, these walls are really sharp. Don’t get too…”
Another barrier rocketed towards the ceiling, this time on the right, boxing Ashe in on three sides and forcing the Halfling to either stay where he was and risk getting trapped if the final side rose, or to step out further into the large open arena and risk further dangers. Ashe knew he had to think fast but there was really no safe option to consider. He could not risk getting trapped, yet neither did he fancy stepping across the gleaming silver line on the floor that now had much more sinister connotations than a simple artistic pattern.
He felt the floor rocking gently beneath his feet and had a thought. If he could just jump all the way out to the centre of the adjacent square, without touching the edge, then he would probably not trigger further reactions. Ten foot of stone lay before him, who was he kidding, there was no way he was going to jump ten feet! He took a deep breath, then leapt out onto the only available space left and felt a rumbling beneath his feet confirming his fears. He had jumped too short!
The fourth side of the square shot up behind him with a bang, completely surrounding the area he had just left. The sound ominously echoing around the arena. There was a loud clanking, then all four metal sides slowly started retracting down into the floor, revealing a yawning black pit where the floor space had once been. Loud grating sounds descended from the ceiling as long openings started to part, revealing the faces of the spectators eagerly craning their necks to stare down into the killing ground whilst other holes opened up in the floor to r
aise smoking torches that spat and popped upon tall tripods.
Rauph looked across the pit at Ashe and held up his hands, indicating to the Halfling that he needed to stay still. The Minotaur’s face was stern in his concern for his little friend but then turned to confusion as a faint clattering sound arose far behind the little thief. Ashe spun, watching with interest as a row of metal sheets shot towards the ceiling in a vibrating wave, marking the determined passage of someone charging across the floor towards the staircase.
“Run for the stairs, Ashe.” Rauph ordered. “Don’t you stop for anything, you hear me. Don’t look behind you, just make for those stairs and whatever you do… Don’t fall over.” Ashe looked down at his feet, then the squares ahead of him and tried to figure it out. Running was all well and good but if he was running and missed a step by even the slightest margin, he could end up half a Halfling, or even less and he was not very keen on that image. He was already small enough!
Ashe shook his head and edged his foot carefully towards the left side of the square he was standing on, all he needed to do was make sure he did not trigger the slab. There was a click, barely felt through his boots and the metal sheet slammed up, blocking his escape to the left. Ashe looked at the distance remaining between his foot and that gleaming metal edge and frowned. It was nearly three feet, meaning that he would need to jump well before the edge if he was to avoid triggering the trap. He did not have the stride that Rauph had. He was never going to be able to do this!
If he could not leap across the yawning pit behind him, then he had no choice but to move forwards. He swallowed hard, it was too much, he’d be sliced and diced before he had even crossed two squares!
“What are you standing there for?” Rauph bellowed. “Can’t you see what is happening?” The navigator gestured urgently towards the clattering sheets of metal and Ashe looked that way, initially not knowing what he was looking at. He did not have the advantage of Rauph’s height and could not see the jagged line of open pits yawning across the playing board.
The Labyris Knight Page 87