“I am your King,” the man said, “I have returned.”
Ivfa’s frown went even deeper.
"There isn't any king anymore," she said, "The nobles keep fighting."
The man nodded. “I am aware,” he said, “It will be time for them to stop. But I have a lot of work to do first. I’m going to need your help, Ivfa. And yours, too, Koba.”
Koba’s blood ran cold. He stumbled back from the man. He brought up the knife in his hand. Held it in front of him. Though his arm shook so hard the man probably couldn’t see the little knife there.
“How do you know our names?” Ivfa asked.
Again the man smiled. It made his face look kind and generous. A smile that said everyone was his friend.
“I am the King,” the man said, “Why wouldn’t I know your names?”
Ivfa seemed to be resisting the man’s charm. She frowned more and folded her arms over her narrow chest.
“A king is just a man,” she said, “And you’re not my king. I don’t have a king.”
The man tilted his head slightly to the side. His silver eyes twinkled with mirth.
“Of course you have a King,” he said, “I’m right here. I like you Ivfa. You shall be the King’s Guardian and Captain of the Royal Guard.”
It was then Koba realized the man was insane. He must have been a soldier who wandered off into the desert and lost his mind. He probably encountered one of the village hunters and learned everyone’s names. It wouldn’t have been hard. There were so few people left in the village any more. And even fewer children.
And he and Ivfa were always together. Look for a boy of about ten summers and a girl a little younger and you’ll find Koba and Ivfa.
Koba’s hand steadied. He thrust the little knife toward the man.
“Leave our village,” he said, “You’re not welcome here.”
The man laughed. Just a little. Enough to tell Koba that the man was amused, but not angry.
Which only made Koba angry. The nobility thought the villagers were simple, stupid folk. Just peasants digging in the dirt for sustenance while the nobility rode past on their powerful steeds, covering their noses at the stench of poverty.
What the nobility wouldn’t think about was that those peasants were people. People with lives and hopes and fears. The only difference was the amount of wealth each had.
And no matter how much the nobility may look down at the peasantry, the noble’s life was not better. Only different.
Though there was another difference between nobility and peasants.
The amount of sheer destruction nobility could bring upon the world.
Koba suddenly realized the stranger was staring right at him. With such intensity, if felt like the man stared into him.
His face went hot. He broke his gaze from the stranger’s.
The next moment, the stranger’s hand closed around his. The hand that held the knife. Koba tried to jerk his hand away, but the stranger’s hand clasped his firmly. But not so hard as to cause pain to Koba.
The stranger’s hand was smooth, but not soft. There was a heat in him like standing near to a fire. Koba again tried to tug free. Fruitlessly.
“Let me go,” Koba said, hating the whine in his voice.
The stranger smiled, then gently took the small knife from Koba’s hand. Koba slumped. His only weapon–his only means of defense…gone. Now he and Ivfa would die.
"I like you, Koba," the stranger said, "You mind is keen and your spirit strong. You shall be my Herald. For now."
Whatever a herald was, Koba had no desire to be it.
“Let me go,” he said, “The village men will be back soon. They’ll kill you if you hurt us.”
Which was completely untrue. The village men would fall to their knees and put their faces to the dirt and beg the noble stranger to spare their lives.
The man knew it also. He set the knife (which looked comically tiny in his large hand) down on the ground. Then he put his hands on Koba’s shoulders.
“Koba,” he said, “We have many years ahead of us. And much work to do. The people of Dendon are at the precipice. Without me, without you and Ivfa, and all who will follow us, the Dendon race will become extinct. And so much will be lost. We have so much yet to give to the universe. I need your courage. I need Ivfa’s courage.”
Ivfa put her little hands on the man’s arm. He gave her a gentle smile.
“What do you want us to do?” She said.
The man took one hand from Koba’s shoulder and gathered both of them into a hug. Koba tried to resist, but the man’s arms were like iron. It was like trying to resist the southern winds that would sometimes howl across the land for days.
The man released them and held one shoulder in each hand.
“I want you to believe each day will get better,” the man said, “Though, there will be days when it seems darkness will win.”
Ivfa’s eyes shone. She clasped her hands in front of her. Whatever spell the man was weaving, she was already lost to it.
“I will,” she said, “But what should we do now?”
“Let me go,” Koba said, “I don’t want anything to do with you. You’re just another noble who will use us. Then when there’s nothing left for us to give, you’ll toss us aside. There won’t be any rewards for us. No riches. And no rest, either. Go away from our village. Leave us alone. Go ruin someone else’s lives.”
“Koba!” Ivfa shouted.
The stranger shook his head. His expression became sad. For a long time he just stared at Koba.
“A part of me wishes I could just go away,” the stranger said, “But we can only move forward from here, Koba. It has taken me so long to get here. And cost me so very, very much.”
The stranger let go of Koba and Ivfa’s shoulders. He leaned back on his haunches. He turned back to stare at the desert from which he had come.
“I cannot go back,” the stranger said, “I smashed that doorway so I would not be tempted. This is my only chance. And Dendon’s only chance.”
He turned back to Koba and Ivfa. He smiled and winked at them.
“Koba,” he said, “Your life will not be easy. I am sorry for that. Though not so sorry that I will change the river’s course. But I will tell you that there is a reward coming to you. Not soon. And not without terrible cost.”
Suddenly, Koba didn’t want to hear what the man would say next. No good could come from it. He tried to run, but his entire body went rigid with fear.
The stranger put his hand on Koba’s shoulder once more.
“Koba,” the man said, “One day you will be the first true King of Dendon.”
No!
But the man didn’t stop talking.
“You will be the first to best the Three Challenges,” he said, “But don’t worry. You have time to grow up and become worthy of the Challenges.”
Though the man’s hand rested lightly on Koba’s shoulder, it felt like the weight of world was there in that touch.
If only his heart could stop right then and there. To spare him what would come.
But death was not ready to visit him. Not today. Not for many, many days and years to come.
In a shaking voice Koba asked: “Who are you? Really.”
The man who claimed to be the King of Dendon sighed and gave him a sad smile.
“I am the last King of Dendon,” he said.
Thirty
Chris
We were going on the dubious assumption that T&T was still alive.
Liz and I returned to the subway system. After we had gone up to the King’s private apartments under the throne room.
Our intent had been to use the holographic map thing on the King’s old desk to try and figure out where the heck the metal murder worm might be hiding. To our aggravation, the map pooped out on us. It just flickered and buzzed, then died completely.
Whatever energy it had was gone. I tried to put my own energy into it, but the thing wouldn't respond.
&n
bsp; Or maybe my Dendon buddy inside me was blocking it somehow.
I was getting more suspicious of its motives.
I’d told Liz about the extraordinarily vivid dream I had. After I finished describing it, she asked what the hell it was supposed to mean.
I didn’t know.
The Dendon seemed to be giving me a history lesson. It would have been more helpful if he'd just give me the Cliff Notes version. Along with a set of simple instructions on how to get through this silly Three Challenges thing.
The Dendon didn’t seem to get the fact the every single Dendon was dead and turned to (literal) dust. Their history wasn’t as important as me figuring out how to keep their deadly toys from falling into the wrong hands.
Like the metal murder worm. Or dragon. Or whatever the stupid heck it was. I tried not to imagine what would happen if the Don released a bunch of those on Earth.
And since our last long conversation a couple days before, the Dendon hadn’t spoken to me. No matter how much I poked at him.
“This doesn’t look promising,” Liz said.
No kidding.
We were standing in a smallish stone room. A narrow window near the top of one wall let in dim, reddish light. The room was cold. And smelled bad. Like rotten meat and mold.
Maybe it was from all the bones lying on the floor.
We’d followed the corridor from the station platform. Past the Employees Only door. The corridor beyond had deep scratches on the walls and floor. Like something big, nasty and sharp had slithered through there. The was also a stink like freshly struck matches.
That was before we found the bone room.
Liz knelt in front of the pile of bones. Shifted through them with her golden armored hand. She was more than ready for a rematch with the nasty beast. At least, she thought she was.
Me, I wasn’t so sure.
We’d brought some heavy duty plasma rifles from the ship. Well, they were more cannons than rifles. We’d brought two of them. I started out carrying one, but it got too heavy for me about ten feet from the ship. I could have called up some super strength, but I didn’t want to blow all my energy just getting to the subway station.
So Liz slung my plasma cannon over her back and carried the other in her hands. I envied her having the armor.
Though it hadn’t helped her the other day.
“Well. I don’t see any human bones,” Liz said, “Far as we know, T&T has the only other set of human bones on this planet besides us, right?”
She turned her armored head my way. The dim red light from the tiny window ran over her gleaming form. Looking too much like blood.
“Right,” I said, “My little buddy hasn’t said anything about other humans getting to Dendon.”
I listened for a smarmy voice to contradict me. But got nothing but silence.
“Everything else seems to have been here,” Liz said, picking through the bones. She picked up a triangular skull.
“Don.”
A skull with three eyeholes.
“Blinky.”
A narrow, horse-like skull.
“Bolts.”
A reddish carapace with chunks of brown fur along the edges.
“Lobster-bears.”
A cross-section of the most common races of SixUnion. There weren't any examples of the reclusive Tann. But the Tann probably didn't give a rip about the Dendon's toys.
Liz dropped the Lobster-bear carapace and stood.
“None of these look very recent,” Liz said, “They’ve probably been here decades. Or longer.”
“Dendon hasn’t stopped defending itself,” I said.
Liz wiped her hands on her metal clad flanks, making a ringing sound like a bell.
“There wasn’t anything in the histories about this, though,” she said.
“The histories were pretty thin,” I said, “Mostly they said Dendon had been abandoned after an extinction event. There weren’t any descriptions about explorations. We may have just been assuming the planet was looted.”
Liz did a slow circle of the room. Carefully stepping around the bones. Probably scanning with her sensors, looking for traces of T&T.
“Things have looked rather undisturbed,” she said, “Especially here in the capital city. If the Don had come in and picked the place clean, I bet they would have had some fun blowing crap up before they left.”
It was something I hadn’t thought of before. The city looked abandoned. Like the residents had just suddenly picked up and left. Liz was a hundred percent right. If the Don had been here, they would have wrecked the city. Just for fun.
After they ripped through the walls looking for tasty bits of Dendon technology.
“There’s some kind of planetary defense,” I said, “Something that must have been activated when the King left. Or even before. A nasty surprise for anyone who tried to come steal the Crown Jewels. Something that’s still working thousands of years later.”
Liz turned to me. Her armored face gave me no hint of her expression. But her clenched fists did.
“Here there be dragons,” she said.
Thirty-One
Titus
The thing that kidnapped him had friends.
And a really nice place to roost.
T&T sat huddled behind the golden throne. Still naked. Still cold. He was starting to fear for T&T Junior's health. The little guy had hardly shown himself in hours. Or was it days? It was hard to tell. There weren't any fricking windows in the place.
But he was grateful for the continued presence of oxygen. Even if the place smelled like someone had dropped a spice rack into a bonfire. Though being kept alive maybe wasn’t the happiest thing.
Because the fact of his continued existence meant the thing–or things, now–wanted something from him.
He’d already tried to tell the stupid things that he didn’t know any useful information. Well, he did have mom’s personal comm number. She was a Pretty Big Deal back on Earth. So that could be considered Important Information. Heck, if they wanted to call her, he’d even introduce them–
Hey mom. Your only and favorite son here. There’s some creepy creatures here that would like to talk to you. Oh, and by the way, could you pretty please send a fuck-ton of battleships here and rescue my damned ass!
Of course, she’d probably give him that lecture about professionalism and self-reliance. The really boring one that he could never stay awake for.
He never did hear how that lecture ended.
A grating, yet high pitched voice barked near him” “Boobies are the best!”
He jumped, then shrank back against the golden wall behind the golden throne. That was at the end of the golden room.
The decorator of this place had some weird boner for gold.
Which was pretty unimportant at the moment. Because one of those weird things had come around the side of the (golden) throne and was blinking its single red eye at him.
The creature was one of the smaller ones. One of the twins. There was the big wormlike spiky thing with, like, a million skinny arms, then there were two of these smaller wormlike ones. These two smaller guys weren’t quite as segmented as the big guy. Their bronzy metallic bodies were just as crazy faceted like the big guy, but they only bent in a couple places. And they didn’t have a gazillion arms, either. They had five segmented appendages at the front of them, with wicked claws at the ends. At the center of the five appendages was a single, glowing red eye. And a tiny slash of a mouth below.
They had some funny little legs at the other end. Which they used to propel themselves at a great speed.
Basically, they looked like sea cucumbers that had been designed by a mad steampunk scientist.
Cute from a distance. Terrifying up close.
Like right now.
“Wanker,” the crazy metal sea cucumber said.
The thing’s manic red eye glowed like the world’s most evil stoplight. It crept closer on its stubby little legs. Bent in the middle and leaned t
oward him. It had the same sulfur fart stink like the big monster.
“My dick is so hard right now,” the thing said.
Which sent T&T scuttling away from the crazy thing.
Only to be met on the other side of the throne by the thing’s twin. This one was meaner than its brother–sister?–whatever the hell it was. Its clawed appendages gnashed against each other in front of the glowing red eye.
It waved its head(?) at him. Forcing him back against the golden wall.
“I’m going to tell my mom on you,” the thing said. In a grating, squeaky voice similar, but not the same as the one on the other side of the throne.
He was starting to regret being such a smartass. Teaching those things all those phrases seemed funny at the time.
Not so funny now.
“Leave me alone!” T&T shouted, covering his face with his sweaty hands.
“Leave me alone!” Metal sea cucumber one said.
“Suck my balls!” Metal sea cucumber two said.
Maybe mom and that counselor had been right. Maybe he did have a weird fixation on his genitalia. The counselor had assured mom he’d grow out of it. Eventually. That had been a long time ago, though.
“BOOGER PICKING SON OF A BITCH!”
A new voice. Booming over everything else. Practically shaking the walls with its grating, metallic sound.
The mother worm thing.
Oh god. What now?
The two smaller things scooted out of the way. A moment later two glowing eyes appeared around the edge of the throne.
“Come on, dude,” the thing said, “Better give me a break, bro.”
Which was close enough to get your damned ass out here that he got up on shaky legs and edged out from behind the throne.
The big worm thing backed up on its fifty kajillion legs. Its pincer arms waved in a beckoning manner.
He’d learned to comply right quick when the thing wanted him to do something. The thing wasn’t afraid to draw a little blood to get his attention. The cut on his chest was still barely scabbed over from the last slice.
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