by Daniel Ruth
A Shuffling of Planets
Book Three of the Chained World Chronicles
By Daniel Ruth
Dedication
In memory of a wonderful mother, Marti Ruth.
A Shuffling of Planets
Book Three of the Chained Worlds Chronicles
Copyright © 2018 by Daniel Ruth
All Rights Reserved
Kindle ASIN: B07N7NQ9PH
KDP Paperback ISBN: 9781795394918
Revision 1
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 1
Derek smiled to himself as he finished engraving the last digit into the circle he had laid down in his basement. After years of hard work, he had finally mastered the formation of the inter-dimensional portal. He bit his thumb and let a dribble if his blood land onto the circle. Instantly a blue and black distortion spun in place above the diagram, quickly opening into a tear in the fabric of space.
His grin diminished slightly as he saw a twenty-foot figure on the other side. It wore no clothes but the only bare flesh it showed was shiny scar tissue. It almost appeared as if the man’s form was made of gray wax that had been left out in the sun. The region below its stomach was even less distinct as if a child had playfully molded two lumps and joined it into a mound he called a torso.
“Excuse me, Mr. Playdough man but I need to get home,” Derek started politely. The pitiful creature was disgusting but there was no reason to be rude. “Could you please move out of the way?”
“You haven’t paid the toll,” the creature gargled in a voice reminiscent of broken glass. “You can’t pass unless you pay the toll.”
“I am pretty sure there isn’t a toll on interdimensional travel.” As a dragon, I had inherited a treasure trove of knowledge. Some of it was instinctual, some of which needed a bit of practice and training and some was simply a database of facts. I couldn’t remember anything about a toll keeper between dimensions. “What’s the price?”
“It’s a new thing we just started,” the wax monster explained. As I got used to its appearance, I could almost see a vaguely feline outline to the melted face. “I’ll need twenty Twinkies,” he began as I nodded agreeably. “And the soul of a little girl named Beth.”
“Well, I can get the Twinkies but the soul is in use by someone. How about the soul of a creepy elf guardian who needs to be punched in the face a few times?”
“No deal...” he began before immediately being interrupted by the door chime. I seemed to be a bit muddle-headed because it took me a moment to realize it was the front door.
“I have to get the front door,” I said as I turned to go up the stairs. “I’ll get back to you on that soul thing.” Trudging up the stairs glumly I wondered if I added the soul of a crime lord, would it sweeten the deal?
“Hey guys, movie night?” I asked as I passed the living room where my old friends sat on the couch passing around a carton of popcorn.
“Yep. Tonight, it’s the Matrix. Volume one through six,” Parnell said cheerfully, sparkles flickered around his free hand as he let the magical energy in his body play in his hand. What a show-off.
“I wanted to see Sucker Punch but got outvoted,” Leslie grunted. She was playing around with some gears and circuits. She always liked inventing or fixing things... even if I did usually blow it up by accident.
“Say aren’t you all dead?” I asked. It did seem odd. I mean it was movie night but weren’t there supposed to be other people here?
“If you don’t see the bodies, don’t go assuming stuff,” Parnell said loftily. He seemed thinner than usual, almost skeletal. Cracked, withered lips munched gustily on the popcorn. “Besides, why the hell would you be trying to get back if we were dead? Idiot.”
I nodded to myself. That was a good point. Turning I continued to the door. When I opened it, I saw a huge black dragon. He looked down at me with baleful glowing eyes.
“Hey now, you can’t come in,” I said irritably. “Last time I let you in, you blew everyone up!”
“I was just kidding. Can’t you take a joke?”
I suppose it was rather petty to hold that against him. “Fine. Come in, but no more bombs!”
“Dragon's honor!” With that, I moved out of the way and he strode into the house. I was about to follow when I heard another voice.
“Isn’t it rude to have a movie night without your girlfriend?” the flirty voice of Mirabel came from outside.
“I didn’t know your number,” I defend myself as my girlfriend strode up to the door. I moved out of the way and she sashayed by me, with a cute twirl of her scaly tail.
I looked back outside to be sure I wasn’t missing anyone. I saw a bevy of demon insects marching by but they didn’t seem inclined to come my way. Looking up I glimpsed a cowboy riding on top of a steed that was mostly a mass of tentacles. He was hooting and hollering as he dug in his spurs. It looked like a lot of fun. However, he wasn’t slowing down so I simply shrugged and closed the door.
Walking back inside I saw that the huge black dragon and the really cute dragon were jockeying for space on the couch. They were also tugging at the box of popcorn, neither one willing to share. On the ground, I saw old scattered and crushed popcorn and broken bones. I frowned sadly to myself. On the one hand the urge to have a neat lair tore into me, on the other hand, I couldn’t bear to move them. Odd.
“Am I late?” asked a bubbly voice behind me. Turning I saw a cheerful elf smiling at me.
“No, just in time,” said Maribel from the couch. “We’re watching Chainsaw massacre.”
“Awesome!” She grinned even wider and I noticed that her teeth seemed sharper than normal. Especially the canines.
“Say, Stella, you didn’t by any chance get turned into a vampire?” I asked tentatively. “Because it gives you bad breath and lowers your IQ by at least fifty points.”
“It’s true,” Maribel chimed in as the evil black dragon lazily nodded in agreement as he took the opportunity to steal more popcorn.
“I heard that,” a faint voice screeched out. I ignored it.
“I’m not a vampire, she said indignantly. “Everyone knows how creepy and icky those are. I would never join a club like that whose god is as stupid as the current one.”
We all nodded in agreement. “However, I do need some blood.”
“Blood?” I asked with some trepidation.
“Remember you promised me some blood to help me resettle my little ones.”
“You mean the horde of elemental presently terrorizing the world as they slowly go insane, trapped in our world?” Maribel asked as she fast-forwarded the movie to the gory bits.
“Well, I was going to go with you but...”
“Sorry, I can’t wait. You know how it is. End of the world and all that.”
“Definitely going t
o be the end of the world for whatever planet they settle and transform into an elemental hell on earth.” The black dragon chuckled darkly. “I approve.”
“Anyway, give me blood,” the elf airily replied while reaching behind her. When her arm pulled back she was holding a monstrous tool that resembled a jackhammer with a hypodermic needle attached to it.
“Wait a minute,” I said, backing away slowly. “I am pretty sure there’s an easier way... or at least a less painful way.”
“Sorry, no time,” she said cheerfully. I was getting a bit tired of that smile. At this point, it felt a little deranged. “Be right back, I need to get the portal and talk to a doorman,” I said as I hastily turned around and ran for my lab. “I am pretty sure I can get a good deal on an Álfar’s soul.”
“I’m an elf, not a Álfar, damn it!” The pointy-eared blond shouted indignantly and ran after me. The corridor to the stairs seemed to stretch unnaturally before me. I finally managed to escape these space defying physics as I reached the stairway and leaped down.
A large hand gripped my shoulder and held me in place. Its texture was of melted wax but I could see the claws of a great cat in its basic form. “It’s too late you know.”
All I could do was to crane my neck over my shoulder. Sure enough, the toll keeper stood in the portal, an arm extended out to hold me. “I have the Twinkies and I’ll throw in the soul of a Álfar. The crazy is free!”
“I said it’s too late. It was too late a hundred years ago. Now you made me get behind schedule.”
“Ah, there you are!” An elf approached from behind me, holding out the machine from hell. “Don’t worry this won’t hurt much!”
“Lair!” I cried out as the abomination was jabbed into my arm. She was indeed lying. It hurt quite a bit. It was also messy as the blood sprayed the entire room. From upstairs the sound of a chainsaw echoed down.
“All done!” The blond said. “Here, have some orange juice.”
“Take your orange juice and shove... wait a minute. I earned this with blood and sweat,” I spat at her. “Give me the damn juice!”
“You should get that,” The gatekeeper offered in his broken voice. I opened my mouth to question him when the doorbell rang again.
“It’s probably someone for movie night. You should go and invite them in.”
“Sure, I’ll do that,” I said as I stomped up the stairs again.
I was still fuming as I swung open the door. I paused in confusion as I saw my new guest. It appeared to be a giant plush toy. It had a female human torso and a long snake body. It seemed familiar but I couldn’t quite remember where.
“Shouldn’t you be taller,” I mused as I took in the doll-like form that came to my waist. The round vacant-looking eyes squinted at me in what I assumed was anger. Frankly, it was as if a cow chewing its cud was annoyed at me.
“This is your fault,” its velvet paws swept over its body, then it waived them in my face. If it had fingers it would likely be wagging them in front of me. “It’s your damn dream, you placed me in this form.”
“Ah. I see,” I nodded to myself. “So I must view you as some sort of powerless, helpless but incredibly dim-witted entity. Makes sense.” I nodded wisely to myself. “So are you here for the movie? I think we’re seeing Resident Evil, the Mars edition.”
“No. I am here to get you to wake up, fool!” Her high-pitched whining was starting to irritate my ears. “You promised to establish a high priest on each of the ten worlds.”
“I don’t remember you caring much at the time,” I said thoughtfully as faint memories drifted through my mind. “Ah, it happened. You blew up the world! What you lack in power as a minor deity you make up for in poor judgment.”
“Go ahead and invite her in,” the voice of the black dragon came from the living room. “Anyone that can destroy a civilization is alright by me.”
“Just wake up and get back to your promise! You’ve already been asleep for a month. That's enough even for one of you lazy lizards.” She stuck her plush chin in the air. “Your pathetically muddled clairvoyant dreams aren’t worth the wasted time.”
“Huh, your pantheon must really be on your ass to fix things but since you have no worshippers your power base is almost non-existent.” I rubbed my chin thoughtfully.
Above me, I heard the whistling of the wind. An instant later a shadow flew over us and a tentacle reached out and grabbed the plush goddess. Looking up I saw the octopus riding cowboy digging his spurs in and hollering. A tiny snake bodied figure was wrapped up and swinging behind on a rope like a balloon on a string.
“Stupid dream,” a shrill complaint could be heard trailing away in the distance.” I nodded in agreement.
I sat up in my bed abruptly. Stupid dream. Still, it could have been worse. Compared to some of them that had made me put off sleeping, this one was almost a pleasure. I heard a moaning sound from the side of the room.
“Ouch.” Beth was laying against the wall with her arms outstretched as if she was intending on holding it up. No. Her feet weren’t touching the ground and she was embedded in the wall.
“What the heck are you doing up there,” I asked tentatively. She was a smart girl. I’m sure she had some reason for being in such an odd position. “How did you even get there?”
“That would be you,” a dry voice responded from my opposite side. I turned to look. A curly haired red head sat in a chair, relaxing with her feet up. I didn’t recognize her. “I told her not to do it. But we’ll all laugh about it when we think about it in the future. Or at least I will.”
“Maribel?” I asked, making an educated guess. I sensed a dragon nearby and I didn’t think the hydra would be this polite. “You’ve changed your face.”
“I may have caused a tiny bit of a riot the last time I came here to shop,” she replied with a casual shrug. “You know how it is. If you don’t show humans their place, they try to walk all over you. Then you need to do something to keep the mobs with pitchforks away. It was either this or kill them all. And if I killed them all I’d have nowhere to shop.”
I certainly couldn’t argue with that logic. “So, what’s with Beth?” Bits of broken stone and mortar crashed to the ground as the little girl wrestled an arm free.
“You... you... you...” she moaned.
“Me, me, me what?”
“As funny as this is, we need to move on. Your human tried to wake you up and you swatted her. Fortunately, you’ve had her undergo some transformative magic or you’d be down a pet.”
“Why did you let her do that?” I whined in dismay. Not only could I have lost one of my favorite humans but if Jeremy finds out I hit his sister it could seriously damage our relationship.
“I told her not to,” the dragon said with a shrug. “You know you can’t be too fawning with your possessions. Not only does it make them weak but then they won’t follow simple instructions.”
I looked at her flatly. Her own pets loathed her so much they went into a rage whenever they saw her. I am pretty sure the only reason they stayed with her was so they could repeatedly try to kill her. It may also be due to the brand she had seared into their hide. I sometimes think she wasn’t socialized around humans when she was growing up.
More rubble fell as Beth freed her other arm. “Saying, ‘stop or I’ll say stop again’ does not count as a warning.” I frowned again at Mirabel. While it was true this would be hilarious to tell stories about, playing games with the lives of my people was not cool.
“I wanted to relive the moment when you bounced off the force field,” she said with a wicked smile.
“Derek! I can’t believe you told her about that!” Beth squeaked with indignation.
“I didn’t! I swear!” I really hadn’t. Mirabel and I hadn’t really had time to talk much.
“I have a spell that allows some limited post-cognition. Its time limited so I needed to cast it as soon as I could.”
“That’s pretty invasive,” I said mildly. I suppose it w
as my own fault for not including an anti-scrying function in the wards.
“Since we're dating, I need to know what kind of dragon you are. Don’t worry it was all good stuff. I laughed and laughed.”
I finally got up and walked over to Beth. With a simple tug, she was free. She had obviously completed her transformation class and had a body closer to that of a supernatural creature so I didn’t have to worry about hurting her. Of course, the fact that she got stuck in a wall meant we needed to figure out how to increase her strength a bit. Since she had changed her basic constitution it shouldn’t be too hard.
Once I had freed the little girl, I finally got a chance to look around. I winced. The room looked like it had gone through several slasher movies. Dark red blood covered all the walls. There were even splashes on the ceiling. Even the zombie murder scene hadn’t been this bad.
“What happened here? It looks like someone died in here.” I glanced at the ceiling again. “Several someones.”
“Don’t ask me. It was like this when I got here.” Mirabel shrugged her shoulders again.
“Um... well... I mean,” Beth stammered nervously. Mirabel and I both stared at her. My stare was somewhat disbelieving. I just couldn’t equate the bloodbath with the girl. “It was Stella.” Right, that made more sense. Actually. No, it didn’t.
“I don’t get it. She came in and splashed blood all over?”
“Derek, I know you just woke up but surely you’ve realized all this blood is yours.” Mirabel sighed, shaking her head.
“Huh. How about that,” I muttered to myself. “I thought I had dreamed that part.” I glanced down at myself.
I was wearing my magnificent enchanted robe that could take on the appearance of any wardrobe I wished. Presently it was looking like my favorite suit.
It was resistant to damage to an absurd degree and would slowly repair itself and clean itself if it was somehow harmed. Yet, somehow there were marks that resembled huge hands on my arms and shoulders and my left arm was covered with fading blood stains. Correction, the entire left side of my clothes was covered with blood.