The Perfect Ten Boxed Set

by Dianna Love

  “A dugurat?”

  “As if you don’t know,” Etoi muttered. “You put them here.”

  Walking third captive in line behind me, Tony spoke up. “Think she just called you a moron in another language, Xena.”

  I cast him a droll glare over my shoulder.

  Gabby, who was right behind me cut in. “Astute observation from someone who has probably been called that in every language.”

  When I faced forward, Etoi turned around, walking backwards. “Make fun all you want because you will–”

  “Enough, Etoi.” Callan cut her off.

  Her eyes transmitted a promise of retaliation for getting her yelled at, as if I’d caused her to be in trouble. She spun around and stomped away.

  “Never thought I’d miss being at school,” Gabby murmured as she moved closer behind me.

  I gave a quick check over my shoulder at Gabby. She now wore a wary, distant look I started to think might be the first honest face she’d shown since I’d met her.

  She trudged along looking like some exotic flower left out in the heat too long. Her ponytails and ribbons drooped, as did her shoulders.

  Next to the droopy flower, I probably looked like a wilted weed. But I had a sense of this being my normal state.

  Trudging along two steps behind Gabby, Tony had a grim set to his mouth and squared shoulders. As if he’d felt me watching him for a moment, he lifted his eyes and gave a half-smile with as much humor as a man going to his death. “The teachers will never believe us if we make it back to the Institute.”

  What could matter so much for him to worry more about a school project than the trouble we faced? I tried to encourage him. “We’ll get out of this.”

  A sharp poke in my ribs took my breath.

  I swung back around to face forward and found Etoi walking backwards again with one of the sword-type weapons. Some kind of grayish-brown hardwood with the tight grain of dense wood that had been honed to a lethal edge and deadly tip. Her lips thinned with menace. That’s when I noticed Callan had moved several long strides ahead of her, providing Etoi a chance to speak freely again.

  Fueling my own expression with plenty of foul mood from a long day chocked with pain, I lifted my vine-wrapped hands in a quick move and shoved the tip of her sword away from my chest.

  She flipped the blade back in place just as quickly. “I’m not one of the children to easily disarm.” Her smile promised pain if I gave her reason to justify slashing my stomach open. In fact, her expression dared me to fight back so she’d have an excuse. “You have no value here and would be wise to remember that.”

  She seemed to like hearing herself talk. I changed my tactic to a more friendly approach. “At least tell me where here is.”

  “Don’t act as stupid as you look, tek-nah-tee.”

  I turned that on her. “If you’re as intelligent as you look, you’d realize I’m telling the truth and have no idea what a tek-nah-tee is or where I am.” A pretty consistent state of mind for me today.

  Tight lines across her face eased in thought. She clearly considered whether I spoke the truth, but in the end she scoffed at me. “Don’t think to play tricks with me. They won’t work. You know very well where you are since there is no way for you to be here without a tek knowing. And what’s that on your leg? We don’t wear anything like that.” She pointed to the restraint banding my ankle.

  I hesitated to answer. I didn’t want to say I’d been cuffed as a security measure since that would give this bunch even more reason to think of me as a threat.

  Etoi’s smug smile deepened. “Obviously another tek device you plan to use against us.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  Quick as a thought, Callan was once again marching only one step ahead of Etoi, his back an imposing figure that dwarfed her. She didn’t realize he’d returned. He swung his head around, dark eyes scanning over his shoulder. His gaze settled first on me, pausing long enough for me to cock an accusatorial eyebrow at him that turned his face even harder, then his eyes landed impatiently on Etoi.

  He spoke in a quiet voice ripe with iron authority. “Take a flank position, Etoi.”

  She tensed at having been caught disobeying his earlier order to be silent and clenched her lips in a rigid line before nodding. Moving six feet to my right, she took point over a string of children walking parallel with our line.

  I slowed briefly, thinking. How’d I know the word point meant to take the lead? Another puzzle piece slipped through my fractured thoughts.

  No one deviated from that arrow-straight direction until we approached a puke-green fog hovering just above the low-growing jungle vegetation. I could probably stretch my hands from one side to the other across the patch of mist.

  “Is that green crap what I’m smellin’ that stinks so bad?” Tony asked no one in particular. “What is that stuff?”

  Callan lifted his hand and signaled to his line of children as he angled his direction to avoid the green mist.

  Never-let-it-go Tony quipped, “You fight monster croggles, but you’re afraid of a little fog?”

  When Callan once again didn’t respond, Etoi couldn’t pass up an opportunity as her group came closer to ours with Callan’s shift in direction. She clearly wouldn’t be silenced for long, which made me wonder at her status in this group. Her smile lacked kindness when she said, “As if you don’t know the fog will peel the skin off your bones...slowly, and painfully. However, if you wish to pretend otherwise, by all means step into it. I’d enjoy hearing you scream.”

  Tony scoffed at her. “Dream on, babe.”

  Guess she didn’t rank being called sweet cheeks or sweet cakes.

  In the next few steps, the fog was just ahead and to the left of Callan as he shifted the line right, giving the stench zone a wide berth.

  I wrinkled my nose at the rotting sweet-sour smell. Just how dangerous could a patch of green translucent fog be?

  As deadly as a pretty flower?

  What gave it the rotting odor?

  I tossed a warning over my shoulder to Tony and Gabby. “Let’s not test it, okay?”

  Tony answered, “Got no plans to touch any of this crap even if it does sound like Amazon girl’s only tryin’ to yank our chains.”

  Etoi pointed at a small, pink lizard-looking creature with a perfectly round head and eyes at the ends of two prongs that stuck off the top. “Perhaps the eegak will teach you a lesson.” She aimed her wooden sword to prod the funny-looking lizard that had brown and white dots splattered across its pink body. It scurried between the broad leaves of low-growing plants, the pencil-shaped body and tail stretched as long as my forearm.

  All at once, the lizard paused, head sticking up, tongue flickering. Etoi poked the sword tip again and the lizard took off at a run, bulging eyes locked ahead as it raced and lunged into the fog.

  At first contact, the lizard squealed a hideous high-pitched sound as its skin literally peeled off its little body. Small legs kicked at a phantom attacker as it writhed in a grotesque ball of muscle and bone. And then pifft, like water hitting a hot surface, it disappeared.

  That explained the disgusting smell.

  Gabby gagged as if she was going to throw up. “Gross.”

  Tony just whistled. “Daa-yum.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Etoi’s calm face during the whole event. I asked, “It doesn’t bother you to see something innocent die that way?”

  She kept marching forward as she spoke. “Most animals know to avoid the fog unless they’re being chased, except for the eegak. They are almost as stupid as a dugurat who has no survival instinct.” Then she added, “Nothing innocent should die, but–” Her gaze slid to me with lethal intent. “Teks aren’t innocent.”

  Callan must have had enough of her. “Etoi, go ahead to alert Mathias of our arrival.”

  That must have been something she wanted to do. Lowering her head, Etoi took off, quickly passing Callan and disappearing into the jungle ahead of him a
t a fast trot.

  Would Mathias be the he I’d heard those boys talking about earlier? The one we were marching toward? The possibility that he might be more dangerous than Callan had me making another attempt at communication. “Is Mathias in charge of this place?”

  Callan still ignored me.

  At the mention of Mathias, the mottled, colored skin on most of the kids started moving, changing shape and position, even to different colors on some.

  But nothing moved on Callan’s skin.

  I couldn’t really fault him for his silence. A wise warrior reveals little to the enemy.

  Who’d taught me these lessons that fluttered into my mind as if sent on the wind?

  Callan lifted his hand and extended one finger up.

  The children who had been flanking us moved over to our main line, some filling in gaps between me, Gabby and Tony. I glanced back to catch Gabby’s eye and she nodded, letting me know she was fine for now even if we were too far apart to hear each other without yelling.

  Tony gave me a similar nod and mouthed, We’re with ya, Xena.

  We might be in trouble up to our armpits, but we were finally in this together. First time I really believed that since we’d landed here.

  In the next few steps, Callan and our party emerged from the jungle into a wide-open area...completely shrouded in another green fog.

  But this band of green mist was huge, rising three times as tall as me and spreading a half-mile wide.

  Had Callan marched us here just to force me, Gabby and Tony into a mist dense enough to kill all three of us? If so, Callan had better be prepared to die, because I wouldn’t go meekly to my death, or allow any of my group to step a foot into that stuff without a fight.

  “We’re not going in there,” I warned him.

  The stoic warrior finally turned to acknowledge me. “You’ll not be harmed if you follow directly behind me and your other two follow you.”

  Could I trust anyone in this place? No. I didn’t know how I’d called up the strange energy that had helped me stop the killer flower and defeat the croggle, but I believed I could call it forth again if someone pushed me to defend myself and the other two.

  I slowed my pace and asked, “What if we don’t follow you?”

  Callan took a moment answering, a tight smile playing around his mouth as if he looked forward to a worthy opponent. “Please resist. Not that I need more proof that you are tek-nah-tee who have killed nineteen of our smallest children–so far. But it would simplify my life to gain a decision now instead of later. The question is what do you think I will do if you refuse to follow?”

  In other words, walk forward and risk entering this fog that we might not be immune to even if Callan and his followers were, or stand firm and end up gutted.

  Tough call since he thought the three of us were tek-nah-tees who’d killed children...and someone’s brother. I could understand wanting to punish anyone who harmed those unable to defend themselves, but even without knowing my true identity I was sure I could never hurt an innocent. Especially a little one.

  I would not willingly die–or let Gabby and Tony pay the price–for someone else’s crimes.

  CHAPTER 12

  Faced with choosing between entering fog that could flay us alive and facing a pack of weapon-wielding opponents, even if they were kids, I picked what I hoped was the better of the two options.

  I told Callan, “I’ve never harmed a child and I saved that young girl from the croggle. We’re not this tek-nah-tee thing you keep accusing us of being. A warrior’s word is worth his life. If you give yours that you’re telling the truth, we’ll follow you, but if either Gabby or Tony are harmed you’d better hope I don’t live. Because I will make you pay.”

  Callan took my measure with a steady, clear-eyed gaze and said, “I give my word that I speak the truth. If you and your friends remain in line along with the others, the three of you will pass through the fog with no harm.”

  The word friends raised something strong within me. A sense of bond I couldn’t assign to the brief relationship I had with Gabby and Tony, but at this point we were in this nightmare together and had to depend on each other. And it wasn’t as though I knew if I had any friends or not.

  Could I accept this unknown guy’s word?

  Did I have a choice at this point? No. “Thank you.”

  He leaned close and added, in a far more menacing tone, “I’ve also given my word to destroy every tek-nah-tee I meet as long as I draw a breath. I swore my life to this vow. Do not test me again.”

  I knew when I was butting my head against a rock wall and nodded to Mount Callan to show my acknowledgement. Angling around, I snagged Gabby and Tony’s attention and called back, “They’re going to make a path. Stay exactly behind the person in front of you.”

  Gabby paled but her eyes sharpened with determination. She swung around, speaking to Tony, then she and Tony faced forward, both giving me tense nods of understanding.

  I hoped I wasn’t leading them to their deaths when I told Callan, “We’re ready.”

  The leader gave me another look of promised retribution then turned his back to me and raised his arms. A spear clutched in one hand and the other hand empty. He spoke in a strange language, murmuring until the fog parted, rolling back to the right and left, leaving a three-foot-wide tunnel. Just enough room to move through while still needing to be careful. Then he strode forward.

  What had Tony just said a few moments ago? Daa-yum.

  I followed, tensing when I felt the cool residue of the fog tingle on my skin, but no burning sensation. Fifty steps ahead the tunnel finally ended at a massive cavern-like space enclosed by the towering fog on all sides, but open overhead. Looking up, the sky reminded me of the striking blue one that had spanned from horizon to horizon back at the Institute, except this one undulated from a deep blue-purple shade to a vibrant red-purple. And that blood-red moon glared down on us.

  I didn’t know anything about the school I’d left, but right now I agreed with Gabby about missing that place.

  At least the school had made more sense than wherever we were now. Once Gabby, Tony and all the warrior children behind me were inside the misty barrier, the path through the fog closed.

  With my group safe for the moment, I turned around and took in the village. Some of the unusual trees and bushes had been cut down, leaving a few trunks high enough to be stools. But those trunks were strange shades, some mustard yellow and others blueish gray. Vines and branches crisscrossed above, stretching from tree to tree and covering an area three times the size of Mr. Suarez’s classroom.

  Young children who stood no taller than my waist moved around inside this area, being watched or herded by others who were closer to thirteen or fourteen years old. Some of them sat around a pile of glowing rocks as if hovered over a campfire, but there were no flames. Others pounded what appeared to be plant fibers into cloth. Two little girls stood facing each other, a small orange gourd hovering in the air between them. It was suspended in air. No strings or levers visible. Another little boy with wild cinnamon hair levitated his body a good foot off the ground. Like the two had done while fighting the croggle.

  They all paused to take note of Callan’s return and us three strangers among them.

  Silence swept around the interior walls of the village that appeared to be made of massive feathers strung on a vine running between trees. The feathers hung vertically side-by-side. All the colors imaginable, but there were more dust-brown feathers with vibrant red or orange streaks than any other.

  I didn’t want to know what kind of bird had a feather as tall and wide as my body.

  Callan handed his spear off to one of his half-sized soldiers, then turned to me. “You. Come with me.”

  “What about my–”

  A spear tip nipped me in the back, hard enough to break skin. Again.

  I hissed at the new wound but followed the leader through a willowy hallway composed of more feathers. I heard multip
le footsteps trailing behind, and could only hope Tony and Gabby were being herded to the same place as me.

  I needed them close if the chance to escape presented itself, but I resisted the urge to turn around and earn one more hole in my back. I had enough cuts and bruises for one day, and figured I’d hear something if either of them were harmed.

  And for once, I didn’t think Tony would stir up trouble.

  But what about this Mathias that I was pretty sure I was about to meet? Would he be as hardheaded as that brute Callan ahead of me?

  Hard to imagine, but based on my luck today I wouldn’t be surprised.

  At the end of the passageway, I followed Callan into a room about twelve feet square. The corners were rounded where the giant feathers, solid mauve and lavender ones this time, overlapped. Just like the rest of the village I’d seen, this space also had no ceiling, and was open to the sky.

  A female teen stood with her back to us while she listened to Etoi who spoke in a low, agitated voice.

  “...they pretend to know nothing. One has the mark on his neck and a strange smell, another has some metal device on her leg, and still Callan brings this threat back to our village. Why did he not kill them when he could? You must tell Mathias–”

  “Zilya.” Callan announced his presence with a voice sharp as a knife slicing air.

  Still standing with her back to us, the other girl, this Zilya I guessed, said, “That will be all, Etoi.”

  Color splashed her cheeks, but Etoi donned a calm expression and dipped her blond head at Zilya in a respectful manner then headed out through a different opening. She spared me a terse, just-wait glance on her way out.

  I smiled, showing just enough teeth to let her know she need not wait on my account.

  A swish of movement drew my eyes back to finally see this Zilya.

  She turned around gracefully, looking as though everything about her contained that same graceful quality, and paused. Her attention landed on Callan first, her eyes widening in question. His stern face didn’t budge. Her tunic-style gown was an odd yellowish, almost golden, material, not shiny, but elegant in its simplicity. Strange half-moon designs were sewn in a deeper burnished gold down the front. She stood eye-level to me, but her regal posture gave her the illusion of being taller.