Maal The First Skull- Shadows of the Mind

by Theodore Packwood

  “If you kill her, then we will destroy you and your tribe,” eXia said. “We stand again on stone, and will not relinquish our freedom! You will all die,” she threatened, her finger pointing at them. “Let her go and we will leave without grinding you to dust.”

  “uXulu make task: come back and kill later!” Hak yelled.

  “You deserve no less!” aXarelle screamed.

  “No take task!” Hak said. “You take task: give up!” He used his knife to slice down Jil’s back. She shrieked, but I could not sense the pain as her back arched away from it, only Fear and Anguish.

  Gath gave Vol a rapid update, and the standing Goor looked to him. “All Goor task: wait,” he said softly, so that Hak might not hear it.

  I rushed over to try to push my fingers into Hak’s hairy head, but he kept moving, his gaze shifting from the Goor to the uXulu. There were groans and painful cries from the beaten creatures near the Stonewalkers, but many of the unharmed were outright angry with Hak.

  Tchurn was sitting upright, watching Hak closely. Despite the commotion, it was Jil’s kidnapping that drew his keen interest.

  “Why are you hesitating?” I yelled at him. “Help her, Tchurn!” I tried to bring sparks to my fingers, desperation leading me to carelessness that might entrap me again in The Nail. Yet the sparks remained elusive as our entwined Fear crippled me.

  Fear drives you to act foolishly again, said Carmine.

  She may perish with no consequence, said Cerulean.

  Or we may both die! cried Amber.

  Erigg had placed his antlers upon the bar and was furiously trying to wrap something around the two furthest points. Reze’ was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her eyes wide as a wicked smile twisted her lips.

  eXia looked down at aXarelle, whose face was consumed by fury. She looked ready to charge at Hak, confusing me with her sudden interest in Jil’s well-being. eXia put her hand on aXarelle’s shoulder, who looked up at her, a snarl on her face. She looked down upon the others. They shook their heads.

  “I can’t,” one of them said. “I can’t do it any more.”

  “My stone also is not strong enough,” another said.

  “We have already lost a sister.”

  “Fight,” was all aXarelle could say. “Fight, fight, fight.”

  “Hak task,” eXia said. “Keep me. Let the rest go.”

  “No take task!” he yelled. “No. Take. TASK!” He stabbed Jil in the back. The knife punctured through her gut, and the tip pierced through her front skin, dark red with blood.

  Fear and Anguish subsided for a moment, before exploding. I felt a bolt or lightning arc through me, an electric dichotomy of terror and sadness that paralyzed. I could not move nor speak.

  “No!” Erigg yelled.

  “Jil!” yelled eXia.

  Tchurn was up, and everyone who had started to move—the Goor, eXia, aXarelle, even Reze’— all froze again. His presence was so daunting that no one dared act while he was in motion. He tromped away from his table, leaving his sword behind. He passed by the Stonewalkers without a glance. I could not fathom his desire, though I was barely cognizant from the influx of emotion.

  Hak snarled at Tchurn as he approached. He gave Jil a shallow stab in the ribs, before pointing his crude knife at Tchurn. Blood dripped off the blade, but Tchurn did not react. All the other Goor watched, not sure what to do. Gath was whispering to Vol frantically.

  “No task!” Hak yelled at Tchurn. “No task!” He stabbed Jil a third time, weak and quick, so he might threaten Tchurn with it.

  Tchurn did not falter. He stood well over twice as tall as Hak, and his imposing size made Hak panic. When Tchurn got close Hak sliced him across his gut, a huge cut that would have disemboweled a man. The knife clacked harmlessly along Tchurn’s mail.

  Tchurn grabbed Hak’s knife arm with his huge hand. He reached forward with his left hand and peeled Hak’s knife out of his grasp.

  “Goor task: stop big man!” Panic leaked out of his words. “All task: help Hak! Help Hak!” he squealed.

  Tchurn punched him in the face with a quick jab. Hak tried to block the punch with his free hand, releasing Jil. She slumped to her knees, clutching her belly. Dark red streaks slithered down her abdomen and trickled between her thighs. Her emotions fell to almost nothing.

  “Jil,” I breathed, my Fear mounting as hers subsided.

  With minuscule effort Tchurn lifted Hak far off the ground and slammed him up against one of the timbers. Hak beat on Tchurn’s face with his free hand, but Tchurn took the blows without a flinch. He showed Hak his own knife, then he rammed it through Hak’s abdomen into the timber.

  Hak howled as Tchurn held him there. Tchurn waited for Hak to stop howling, then looked him in eye. Without a word, Tchurn let go.

  Hak screamed as his weight caused the knife to slice up into his belly. He grabbed the knife and tried to prevent it from disemboweling him. He was very strong, and stopped his slide downward, but he could not pull the knife free.

  “Goor task: help Hak!” he cried weakly. “Help Hak!”

  Blood dripped on the ground from the dagger’s hilt.

  “Goor task: kill all!” Vol shouted. “Kill uXulu, kill strangers, kill...”

  A thin beam of light pierced his throat, streaking from the bar. Vol choked, and gurgled.

  Everyone looked over to see Erigg holding his antlers like a bow. A thin line of blinding, white light connected the two farthest points, a bowstring glowing like a sun. He put the first two fingers of his right hand on the string and pulled. As the string stretched, another thin beam of light formed into an arrow, nocked and ready. The farther he pulled, the brighter the light-arrow became, the more painful it was for me to look at, and not just in my eyes. My entire ethereal body was repulsed by the light, and the surface facing it sizzled. I floated into cover behind Hak’s post.

  Jil’s crumpled form terrified me. “Jil!” She did not respond.

  Erigg’s face was grim and clearly unhappy. When he had it at maximum pull, he said:

  “Reze’, kill.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, arms already popping out of place. The fangs, and their owner, leapt over the bar. The Goor were stunned by Vol’s death; they seemed incapable of decision. The two nearest Reze’ had their throats sliced wide open before any of them reacted.

  “All task:” Gath shouted. “Kill all!”

  A light-arrow beamed through the air at Gath. His fast duck saved him: the light-arrow merely slashed along the side of his head.

  “All big task: Kill all!” he shouted again, crouching behind a table. He heaved it onto its side, bowls and mugs clattering away from his barrier. Another light-arrow from Erigg pierced through the wood of the table, leaving a smoking hole very near Gath’s face.

  The Goor frenzied. They attacked with reckless fury, enraged at Vol’s death. They renewed their assault on the uXulu, hurling themselves with abandon at them. A dozen jumped on Tchurn, five or six went after Reze’, and three leapt toward Erigg.

  Tchurn took their blows impassively. He calmly reached behind his head and pulled the mail hood over his head, and walked back to his table. As he passed by the uXulu, he grabbed one of the Goor about to drag aXarelle off the rock and tossed him against the bar with little effort. The other Goor battering him followed behind, pounding their fists upon his armor with no effect.

  Reze’ whirled and spun. She twisted and curled, sliding between blows and gliding under strikes without ever being touched. Her daggers sliced through Goor all around her, spraying blood onto the tables and floor with every turn. Within moments, the six who attacked her were all bleeding to death on the floor, wailing from being disemboweled, or silently clutching at their necks as they gasped for air. She stepped over them, licking her blades, moving to attack another group who were getting ready to throw one of the heavy wooden tables at the uXulu. The look on her face was cold delight.

  Erigg saw the three Goor who leapt at him. Instead of pulling his li
ght-string with two fingers, he pulled with all four. Three light-arrows appeared on the string between the gaps of his fingers and he fired them. Beams of light seared through the Goor and vanished into the darkness overhead. The creatures crashed upon the bar, smoking holes in their chests leaking blood upon the counter.

  “Jil?” I slid under the wooden floor, appearing in front of her in the shadows produced by the bar. It shielded me from Erigg’s light-infused bow.

  “Master?” she asked weakly, barely audible above the din. “I can see you so easily now.”

  As could I. Even in the shadow, the white light seemed to outline my shadowy hands, making them visible. Could the others look upon and notice me now? I turned, to see them all focused on combat.

  “At least I won’t turn into a monster, now,” she said. There was faint Anguish from her, and tears dripped out of her eyes. Why was there a mirrored Anguish within me?

  There were screams, loud crunches, flashes of light, and howls of pain. Even with their losses, the Goor seemed to be slowly winning. Several Goor were closing in on Erigg, throwing cups and plates to distract and force him to duck, throwing off his aim. eXia had no less than eight Goor piled on top of her, trying to force her off the rock. Two more of the Stonewalkers had gone down and could not be seen amongst the fists and arms of the Goor. Reze’ retreated from a dozen Goor who stayed just out of reach of her fangs, holding broken bench pieces to deflect her slashes as they herded her into a corner.

  A loud shing filled the air, and red light gleamed. Tchurn had lifted his sword, and it shone like a bright red beacon. With a heavy growl he spun his sword in a wide arc around him. Four Goor were cut in half, their torsos falling forward as their legs toppled backward.

  Another swing and three Goor lost heads and legs. Another swing and five more perished. Like Death itself, Tchurn’s sword scythed through the beasts, slicing through bone, flesh, and wood with ease. As he dismembered and decapitated, his sword also split tables in half with loud cracks, and gouged deep gashes in stone walls with dull thunks.

  Goor screams filled the hall—the agonized cries of the dying. Blood and body parts flew. More arms, legs and heads were severed by Tchurn’s blade as he mercilessly cut Goor to pieces. One of the decapitated heads still had an arm attached. It was trying to yell, and its fingers twitched. Half a Goor tried to crawl away, both its legs missing. A headless body wandered aimlessly, stumbling into tables before tripping on another corpse and falling to the floor.

  Yessssssss! cried Viridian.

  A familiar smell filled my nose—the rancid, awful smell of split intestines, blood, shit and piss. The horrid aroma of death, like the stench in The Nail, but fresh and bloody, not stale and oily. It seemed to feed my very core, like a first meal after enduring ages of starvation. It fed something deep within my spirit, but not the ocean of insanity, nor Obsidian, nor the lake of Pith. Despite the paralysis, I wanted no end to it. I could not look away, despite my worry for Jil.

  In two more steps and swings, Tchurn rescued Reze’ from the dozen Goor cornering her. Three more and Erigg was free from assault. Two more and he was near the large rock. An enormous swing against the Goor killed all nine who were pounding an unconscious uXulu on the floor. Two jabs killed three on eXia, and another huge swing destroyed the four on aXarelle. Within moments, the Goor went from nearly victorious to losing, as Reze’, Erigg, and the Stonewalkers counterattacked.

  Tchurn found himself beneath the loft bearing foodstuffs, surrounded by thirty Goor. He was unable to push against them, despite his enormous strength, and the overhead loft hindered his sword strikes. He swung his sword horizontally above their heads, slicing through support beams as if they were not there. He kicked the post nearest the crowd and the loft collapsed, dumping its heavy barrels and laden sacks upon them. At least half of them were killed instantly while Tchurn sidestepped from beneath the disaster and with an overhead swing slew five that had dodged out of the way.

  “All Goor task: flee, flee!” Gath yelled. He leapt for the ladders up above, but was immediately pierced by a beam of light. “Glurck!” he yelled, as he fell to the ground, holding a hole in his neck. More light arrows flew from Erigg’s bow as the retreating Goor tried to escape. His face was grim but he showed no mercy.

  Tchurn continued to decapitate and disembowel as he moved through the room. Reze’ followed in Tchurn’s wake, stabbing those who had survived up into the chin, across the neck, or through the eye. One eyeball got stuck on her fang, and she laughed at it.

  The white beasts lay dead and dying everywhere by the time the three of them were through. A nearby Goor was trying to put his intestines back into his gut, but they kept slipping through his fingers. Another was trying to crawl away to the exit, but did not realize he had lost both his legs, and blood drooled out of his open stumps. Another was leaning up against a stone wall, missing his head. Somehow, his body had not slumped to the ground where a large pool of blood had formed. Severed arms and legs lay strewn about the room as if some vicious meat grinder had chewed its way through the room. Some had escaped through the door beneath the trunks, and only a few more to the upper rooms.

  Tchurn leaned over and wiped his bloody blade on a pile of Goor bodies as tall as he was. He surveyed the room, putting the point of his blade on the ground. Standing amidst the massacre, blood and fragments of flesh dripping off his armor, he looked like an avatar of death. Jealousy and I became reacquainted.

  One of the Stonewalkers cheered, but no one joined her.

  Erigg came limping out from behind the bar, thocking his way with antlers under his armpit. There was no sign of the light string now. Reze’ continued to slither through the room, grinning madly and singing softly as she executed survivors.

  “Erigg, how do you fare?” Tchurn asked.

  “I’m fine! I’m tryin’ ta get ta Jil!” He attempted to climb over the many bodies between him and Jil, but his bad leg slowed his progress.

  “Erigg.”

  The red-haired man looked over at Tchurn, a frown on his face.

  “She is dead.”

  With his declaration, terror brought my attention back to Jil. “No,” I whispered.

  Erigg scowled and shook his head. He stepped on top of a Goor corpse and hopped over a slippery blood pool. Tchurn stepped over bodies to get to Erigg, and passed by the Stonewalkers at the large rock.

  “She could not have survived Hak’s back stab,” he added.

  With mounting Fear I examined Jil. Her head was slumped and no emotion came from her. “Jil?” I asked loudly, with no response.

  “Thank you,” I heard eXia say. She had intercepted Tchurn, and there was an intensity to her gaze and voice that spurred another surge of Jealousy. Sparks were in my hands before I had thought to summon them.

  Tchurn seemed puzzled. He turned away, but eXia took his arm. “By the deepest stone—the roots of the mountains—the uXulu thank you.”

  Tchurn jammed his sword into the bodies near him and placed his hands on her upper arms, surprising her by lifting her off the ground and placing her closer to the bar. He held her there, as if ensuring she would not move. She looked up at him, naked and perfect.

  The sparks burned and sizzled in my hands, yearning for freedom.

  Tchurn yanked his sword free of the bodies and hoisted it over a shoulder.

  “Be still,” he said. High overhead he lifted the gleaming sword. Blood flew off it in a strangely beautiful arc. She looked at him in disbelief.

  “Why?” she said. “Why not kill me before?”

  Down the sword came. I rushed toward him, too late, too late! “No!” I screamed.

  eXiaxana closed her eyes.

  E

  There was a soft chank accompanied by a loud thud as Tchurn's sword embedded into the floor.

  eXia looked at her slack chain, lying between her breasts. She held it up, confused for a moment. A radiant smile grew on her face, a smile I yearned to fall upon me.

  Tchurn walked
past her. With a few more swings he freed the other Stonewalkers from their chains. aXarelle and the others thanked him, but he merely nodded. Finally he went over to Jil, where Erigg was kneeling.

  See how easily he forgets Jil in the midst of eXia? asked Tawny.

  Her figure is flawless, said Magenta.

  Just another weakness to distract him from his purpose, chided Carmine.

  The voices continued their berate of my behavior as I passed the uXulu. Two of them lay on the damaged wooden floor, unmoving. One was oXellona: her chest had been crushed in and her throat flattened, revealing her neck bone amidst the ruin of her throat. The other’s head was an unrecognizable mess of blood, brain and bone. eXia and the four remaining uXulu gathered solemnly around them. She saw oXellona and her hand went to her mouth.

  “Oh no,” she cried, dropping to the floor to cradle oXellona’s face between her ample breasts. She almost pulled oXellona’s head free from her torso, and a choked-off wail burst from her.

  “What a waste,” aXarelle said, full of scorn. “No uXulu should have been lost in this fight.”

  eXia turned her face up to glare at aXarelle, and a pair of angry tears rolled down her cheeks. “You, who could not bother to wake yourself in our time of need!”

  I left them to their angry words and newfound grief. I had my own fatality to attend, with wave after wave of Fear as I worried about being banished to The Nail.

  I floated by the post Hak had been impaled to. He had not been rescued: his body slumped over his own knife hilt, his blood dripping to the floor in a slow rhythm.

  Will you thank him for initiating the confrontation? asked Tawny.

  He is dead! cried Amber. So many are dead.

  Yes! The massacre was invigorating, said Viridian.

  Now it is time for masturbating, said Magenta, and they laughed.

  I ignored them and moved to Jil. She was in awful shape. She had slumped to her side, almost in a fetal position. Rivulets of blood ran between her fingers and onto the floor. The cut Hak had given her along the back was vile: the cut had split her skin apart, leaving ragged flesh jutting outward, exposing her spine. Her eyes were closed and, and… she was breathing! Shallow breaths, but she was alive!