by Scott Toney
“Chit chit.” The rodent licked the ground pill slowly from his palm, its scratchy tongue rubbing again and again on his skin. It reminded Ivanus of a pet he had before the meteor came. The snoot sneezed several times after eating. It sounded sick.
“Come here. I will hold you.” The snoot curled up in Ivanus’s arms and he stroked its fur until they both fell asleep.
*
Ivanus opened his eyes to shafts of sunlight spreading through holes in the space craft overhead and machines coming to life in the chamber around him. Lights illuminated on the walls of the room and gears clicked behind the wall facades. How is any of this still operational? he wondered. Could KR4 maintain all this on its own? It was the only bot on the ship, as far as Ivanus could tell. It seems like such a basic droid, and yet…”
The snoot woke and stretched its back beneath Ivanus’s hand. It looked at him for a moment and then leapt from his lap and scampered from the room.
Too much thinking. The ship is not operational for flight. That much is clear. It is time to go. He stood and walked from the room, down the hall past other areas and then into the main hull of the ship. KR4 was perched atop his satchel, waiting patiently. The snoot sniffed a wall close by. “We are leaving now,” he assured the droid.
“Void.” KR4’s voice was sharp. “None come. None return. All gone.”
“Do you have feelings?” Ivanus asked it, curious.
“Negative.”
“We wish you the best. We could very well come back one day, but for now we must find our friends.”
“Vrax.”
Ivanus took the satchel’s strap in his hand and waited for KR4 to move. “Yes, and others. I search for men and women as well.”
“KR4 accompany.” The bot stretched its fiber-like legs to Ivanus’s hand close by and then laid itself down against his fingers, locking into place against the back of his hand and attaching to the cybernetics.
It could come in handy to have a droid like that with me, he thought while hefting the satchel over his back. The snoot leapt to his waist and then ran up to perch on his shoulder.
With one last look around the ship Ivanus walked out the ship’s front and into daylight. The massive gun he had discovered was clenched in his hands.
Behind him inside the vessel a plain glass box began to blink blue.
In the stars far above a long forgotten ship’s distress signal was received.
Chapter 9
“Finish him!” Bayne shouted into the arena before him where two men fought fiercely for survival. Since taking control of the citadel and bonding with Samuel’s essence Bayne had taken full control of all warriors around the area and set up several arenas for death matches to amuse him. He pitted man against man in the arenas, forcing them to fight but not controlling them enough to know the outcome. “Finish him!” The cyborg threw a fist into his half-dead opponent, knocking him to the ground. He then ground his foot into the man’s throat. The opponent choked loudly. The crowd of warriors around them stared on blankly.
“Isn’t it enough? Let the man live,” Andral pled his brother.
“Do you not enjoy the power? Do you not feel it? I allow you to control your own mind, but be careful of your words or I may grow weary of you.” Bayne did not look at his brother, but instead walked toward the arena where Riad’s foot still choked his opponent. “Finish him! I tire of this match!”
With a thrust Riad dug his boot against the man’s neck.
Crack!
Riad stepped back as the other man lay lifeless in the corner of the arena. His face was unrecognizable and blood pooled around him.
“Andral!” Bayne called. “Pick a man to fight our champion! Surely there is one here who can defeat the cyborg!”
“I beg of you.” Andral came to his side. “Can we stop for the day?”
“Do you volunteer yourself?” Bayne’s voice was firm, haunting.
Andral was silent for a long moment before holding out an arm towards an elderly warrior at the arena’s edge. “Him.”
“You choose a weak man who would soon die anyway. You go soft. Fine.” With a thought Bayne forced the elderly man to enter the arena with Riad. It was fun to watch his old ally do his will, to wield him as his personal play thing. As Riad went to work on the man, thrashing him into pulp, Bayne turned to look at the lava sea beyond the citadel. “I grow bored, brother. How did Samuel keep entertained? Surely there is something more exciting to do.” When Andral did not answer him Bayne forced one of Samuel’s old warriors to his side. The man was well-muscled and heavily armored. “I am bored,” he complained. “I seek to be entertained.”
The man’s blank eyes looked through him. “A distance from here the Carvakians have a settlement. It was devastated by our forces years ago but is growing again. I hear they have a structure as large as your citadel. They might rise against you. You could stop them.” The man stood erect.
Bayne gave a half grin. “Yes. I was wise to keep you around. Our forces will amass immediately and proceed to the settlement. We will show them what it means to defy Bayne.” Instantly all of the men under Bayne’s control turned and began forming a series of lines facing their destination. Both Riad and the elderly, almost dead man, walked side by side toward their positions. Riad’s comrade, Carcos, soon joined them.
“I will see you when you return,” Andral said as he turned to walk back to the citadel.
“No, you are coming with us,” Bayne said. “I need someone with a mind of his own to speak with. You will remain by my side.” He waited until Andral joined him and the two walked to a waiting chariot. As soon as they were seated the men pulling the chariot’s ropes began their stride.
Dust billowed about the mindless army as it proceeded into the desert, without rations on their backs or in many cases, swords in their hands.
*
Men died on the trek across the desert. When they died, their bodies were left where they fell. Either that or, if there was no disease, the survivors partook of their flesh as they needed sustenance. Bayne and Andral ate from a store of food the citadel’s food-replicator had produced.
When Bayne’s army finally sighted the small Carvakian city in the distance, they found its walls built like most other cities, consisting of rusted sheets buried into the earth with little support. There were holes in the walls, even visible from far away. A massive gate marked its front and a thick spire rose up from the city’s center.
Bayne could hear the faint sound of chimes carried along the wind. “From here it reminds me of home,” he told Andral as his brother shifted in his seat. The army halted and parted in the center so that Bayne could get a good look.
“It could be Kaskal if it didn’t have the spire,” Andral agreed. “It’s been so long…”
“We will have it.” Bayne put a hand on Andral’s shoulder.
“Do not kill the people there,” Andral pled.
“Why? Do you love them, brother? Do not fear. I will spare many. Our army must grow. I can take the city without drawing blood. Perhaps there will be a forge within their walls for us to make weapons in.” Bayne let that sit in Andral’s mind for a moment. “But a little entertainment first.” He grinned and raised his hand, letting it fall as he sent his army in a hard run toward the distant city.
Riad led the charge, his cybernetics allowing him to be much faster than the other men. Bayne had stripped him of his guns, though they were useless to the boy without Riad’s hands to rend them functional, but he held a long-sword and struck it fiercely at the rust wall connecting to the gate when he reached it.
CLANG!
CLANG!
Rust flecked about Riad as others joined his side. Arrows rained down on the men’s heads as some received killing wounds and fell in blind agony before their hearts stopped. Without minds they just sat as blood oozed from their wounds. The Carvakians shouted from inside the walls.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
Riad�
��s sword spliced through the metal and lodged there as a man beside him fell to an arrow. Another arrow ricocheted off Riad’s metal arm. He loosed the sword and went to the wall, prying his cybernetic hand inside and then using brute force to create an opening large enough for him to step through. As he did, a sword from inside beat against his metal arm. He grabbed it, pulling it through the hole and tossing it behind him. He ripped the arm that clutched the sword from its socket. Blood spurted over him from the dying man as Riad stepped into the walled city, closely followed by Bayne’s other warriors. Men fled in all directions, shouting in fear.
Riad leapt and grabbed a railing where the city’s archers were perched. He struck his sword through the rail and spliced a man’s legs. Another man leapt from the rail and lay crumpled on the ground below. He was soon slain by another of Bayne’s men.
With a pull of his arms Riad flipped over the rail and hacked his sword into the archers close by that had not fled. Men fell like stones off the elevated walkway. Arrows either ricocheted off Riad’s cybernetics or stuck in his flesh. He broke their shafts and hacked on. Soon the archery walkway was deserted of all life but Riad, its planks crimson and dripping down on the fight below.
Riad stood, blind but somehow aware of the carnage around him. Something told him this was wrong.
It was a fleeting thought, replaced by knowledge that he must continue the assault.
He leapt from his perch and drove his blade into the skull of a man below, riding his body to the ground. He hacked through the man’s neck and then ran another man close by through the chest with his sword.
Then he heard the voice, the silence. All fighting ceased. Bayne’s warriors and the Carvakians slowly stood straight, their eyes hollow, facing the hole Riad had opened in the wall.
Bayne stepped through, followed by Andral.
Bayne stepped confidently.
Andral avoided the eyes of the men.
“This city is now mine,” Bayne spoke. “You are all mine. Repair the walls. Ready the tower for my arrival.”
Men from both groups turned and walked hurriedly toward the massive tower in the city’s center. The great gray spire rose high above them. Intricate carvings lined its outer surface. Sunlight refracted off its form and shimmered around them.
“Come,” Bayne spoke levelly to a large Carvakian man who was heavily clad in armor.
The man stepped close to him, standing erect. He dropped his sword.
“Graf, come to my side and hand this man your blade,” he beckoned the man who suggested they attack the Carvakians.
Graf came and held his sword out to the Carvakian, who took it steadily.
“I grow tired of being guarded by Samuel’s old guard. Graf, you will go first, and then I will release the rest of you.” Bayne smiled at the Carvakian. “Graf led me to your people. Take his life in turn.”
The hulking man drove Graf’s blade through his heart.
Thud.
Graf’s body hit the earth. His eyes rolled back in his head.
The Carvakian man led Bayne and Andral to the tower’s doors.
As Bayne walked inside he smelt fresh air. He walked to the base level’s center and stretched his arms. “This is much better than Kaskal.” He spoke to Andral who was nearby and looking at a banner hanging on a nearby wall. “And yet it is good to be in a place like home once more.”
The banner was ripped and torn with age. On it was a picture of a king holding his hands down toward children. In his hands was a loaf of bread.
Chapter 10
Weeks Later – The rubble of Gest
Time passed quickly after the were-beasts attacked Gest. Those that were already infected were transformed fully into beasts who still had control of their minds. It was a hard transition and many who were transformed had some depression, but all agreed it was what had to be done and were grateful for what the good-beasts did for them. At first the deranged continued to attack Gest’s people beneath ground, but after a week’s time the passages beneath Gest were searched and it was determined that the deranged moved on to somewhere else. Ragoor had also returned to them on the second day with Marlay and others he had been able to change. Julieth was relieved. Most people, both beast and other, now remained above ground in structures built out of wood. Ineal had birthed a vast forest for them to cut down for shelter. Faiyror and other beasts remained below ground to guard against the deranged beasts.
*
Julieth stood at the edge of the vast chasm where Gest once stood. Starlight shimmered above her. All she had grown to know as home was gone, all of the place’s people forever changed, either in form, heart or both. All except for Ineal? she wondered. A prickling sensation sent a shiver through her as she eyed Vrax, again attached to her armor. And you, if you had a soul. She looked skyward, to a star Ivanus had pointed out to her when they were together. Vrax showed me an image of your death, but I feel you, somewhere in Solaris’s realm. Are the essences within me just sensing the essence which bonded with you? And Bayne and Andral… I cannot sense you. Are you gone from me forever as well? It was the first time since the attack on Gest that she had time to truly think. There had been so much asked of her even after the dark-beasts were gone. Should I lead an army against Samuel? Could Riad be saved?
Julieth knelt, scooping her fingers into the sand near her and then held her clenched fist over the vast cavern. “Would anything I do make a difference? I am but a speck in eternity.” She opened her hand and watched the sand whip in a swirl down into the dark. She breathed a belabored breath as tears streamed down her cheeks. She held her head in her hands, and then wiped her eyes as a grain of sand whipped up into her eye and stung her. Perhaps all it takes is a grain. What other choice have I?
Reaching a hand down to her leg, Julieth touched Vrax’s cold, metallic form. Veins of red light shimmered over the bot as she made contact. “Are Bayne and Andral alive?” she asked it.
There was no response, either in her mind or from it verbally.
She was about to ask again when the sound of heavy footsteps came from behind her.
When she turned, Julieth saw Ragoor halting quickly near her. Plumes of sand whipped up behind him. “You must come quickly. A scout returned from his post. Faiyror insisted I retrieve you. We will meet in Elias’s new home.” His maw was wide as he breathed deep breaths. He waited for a nod and then turned, bounding away in the starlight.
Speaking with Vrax would have to wait. She did not know why the droid avoided her.
Julieth’s back burned as she stretched her wings. It had been a while since she heard the essences’ voices in her mind. She knew the abilities they provided her were what riddled her flesh with seared lines. You are a part of me, at least for now. She beat her wings and pounded into the air, moving quickly in a sharp trajectory while she watched Ragoor peeling over the desert and weaving under the veranda of a wooded tree canopy. Wind stung her face as she drove toward the crop of trees. With a thrust of her right wing upwards Julieth spun through tree limbs and then buffeted her wings to land in a run on the ground where Elias’s cabin stood. Faiyror, Ragoor, Elias, Marlay, Ineal and a young beast-boy awaited her outside the two-room building. All were beasts now except Ineal. She still was not used to seeing Marlay and Elias transform as darkness fell. During the day they are so normal that I begin to forget. How hard that must be for them. Julieth went to Marlay and hugged her before following Elias and the others inside.
Inside the cabin several candles burned in rusted metal sconces. Wax from the trees had been syphoned to make candles before Gest was attacked and a store of candles had been brought back up from beneath the rubble. A stone table set in the room’s center. On it was a map drawn with ash.
“Tell them what you told me,” Faiyror instructed the youth.
The young one searched the eyes of everyone in the room and then set his sight on Julieth. He wiped perspiration from his brow. “A large force moves toward us. I sighted them from the top of a dune a dist
ance out. They move in a systematic formation and never break lines.”
“Did you see who led them?” Julieth’s hands were sweaty. “A priest perhaps? He would be tall, I believe, with a flowing red robe. That is what I have heard.”
“I wish I could say, mam. All I saw was the army. There was a man whose limbs gave off a glow, even in the daylight.”
Elias stretched his hair covered fingers over the map. “That could be the cyborg. Surely it is Samuel’s army, even if Samuel himself is not with them. We had avoided his presence for so long in Gest.” He looked to Julieth. “Have you led him here, or is he following that bot you carry?”
Julieth looked down to where Vrax attached to her armor. A faint blue light moved over it. “Samuel should have no knowledge of me, unless Riad, Andral or Bayne spoke to him of my existence. Anything is possible, I suppose. Who knows where Samuel has eyes? As for Vrax…” A shiver ran through her, a sharp resonance. “…It is a droid, but it could prove useful to him. It is possible that Samuel is searching out Vrax.” When she looked down to where Vrax had been just seconds before she realized it was gone. She then saw its light blinking in the corner of the room.
“What do we know of him?” Elias’s beady eyes drew Julieth’s attention back to him. He was tense. “I have heard rumors but know little as fact. They say he controls others and believes himself a god. We need a solid plan if we are to face him. Either that or we should flee. That may truly be our only option.”
Julieth placed a hand to the table. “I have heard those things as well, but I know more about his ability. It comes from an essence which has bonded with him, of course. Raid told us that when Samuel is close enough to a person he can take control of that person’s mind and actions, rendering them basically a shell and imprisoning the person’s soul within the body. I do not know if people who are being possessed can see out of their eyes. Samuel can control as many people as he wishes and hold on to that possession even after they leave his range.”