Aphanasian Stories

by Rhonda Parrish

  They continued to slowly side step, first one way and then the other, still neither struck. Bayne led the circle one last time, then, when his back was to the sun, he struck. Jaliena barely managed to get her sword up in time to block the attack. Still, Bayne smiled as he noticed her stumble, and when he counter-attacked he could see her favouring her right hand a little.

  "Don't you just hate it when the vibrations make your hand go numb?" he taunted.

  Jaliena set her jaw at a determined angle and struck again, but Bayne parried the blow easily.

  "You'll have to do better than that."

  The wiry woman struck again, this time attacking low. Bayne

  side-stepped the attack and countered with another large swing.

  Normally he wouldn't dare leave himself open with an attack like that, but he'd sized up his opponent and found her wanting. Jaliena parried the attack, but stumbled in the process and Bayne stepped forward then dropped into a crouch and swung one leg around,

  spilling her into the dirt.

  Jaliena scrambled to turn around and face Bayne, but before

  she made it back to her knees Bayne struck her down. He slammed his sword straight down through her heart and gave it a vicious twist.

  "That is what you get for hurting my sister." he snarled.

  Pulling the blade, wet with gore, back out of the woman's still body Bayne turned to face the tumbled down shack.

  Ahh that felt nice. Next? Teyat cooed in Bayne's mind. The rubble shifted again, and Bayne looked from it to the keep, then back again. 'I'm not going to hang around and wait.'

  Good. Let's do this. We'll take care of them when they catch up.

  ~*~

  Every beat of Xavier's heart increased his stress. He could feel each wave of blood in his temples and hear it whisper inside his ears.

  Every muscle was as taut as the skin on a drum and he strained his senses to know what was happening on the other side of the door.

  The footsteps drew nearer, and nearer still. With each passing moment Xavier's certainty he was about to be discovered and the whole castle alerted grew. His fingers shook and his knees felt weak.

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  The steps were less than a man's height from the door. Any minute, any second, it would open.

  Then the approaching steps were replaced by a scuffling

  sound. Xavier pressed his ear against the wooden door but all he could hear was the underwater sound of his own pulse. Drawing back he closed his eyes, focusing all his attention on his sense of hearing, enhanced by Scholar's modifications. He heard a sound, like a body hitting the ground, and then the squeak of a step on the stairs; ascending them.

  "Bayne to the rescue," his shadow said and Xavier, his nerves stretched to their limit, jumped at the sound. "Brave," the shadow snorted, his disdain clear in his voice.

  Xavier opened his mouth to reply, and then looked around

  himself. Regardless of what had just happened on the other side of the door, there was no denying his own actions. He'd hidden in the storeroom, cowering like a mouse before a cat.

  Lifting his chin and pulling back his shoulders, he gestured

  with his head toward the door. "Take a look."

  His shadow shifted, moving its upper body under the door,

  then after a moment retracting back. "Someone's on the ground, but he ain't Bayne and he ain't movin'."

  Xavier opened the door and stepped out and over the body of a man, just in time to see Adrian enter the keep with one of his dogs at his side. The dog turned toward him andin two quick steps Xavier crossed the distance between himself and the hounds master,

  tackling him. They crashed into the ground and a wave of pain, beginning at his bound ribs emanated through Xavier's body. He sucked in a sharp breath, at the same time as he heard Adrian's get driven from him at the impact.

  "Dog!" His shadow barked and, without losing his grip on the man beneath him, Xavier rolled away from the beast's lunging attack and out into the sunlight. Xavier kept the roll going until he was back on top of Adrian and then wrapped his hands around the other man's throat and pressed him down into the ground. Adrian reached with both hands for Xavier's face, his fingers hooked like claws, and despite the pain it caused in his ribs, Xavier arched back to keep from having his eyes gouged while continuing to apply pressure to Adrian's throat.

  The dog snarled and struck again, biting down on Xavier's

  already injured tentacle. A wordless groan of pain left his lips and

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  his brow furrowed as he felt around with a free tentacle for a weapon and found only a jagged bit of stone. Wrapping his tentacle around it, he slammed it hard against the top of the dog's head. The sound was like stone on stone, but the dog cried out sharply, released his tentacle from its mouth and backed off. Beneath him, Adrian's struggles were growing weaker, but the dog was still growling and its muscular body was tensed for attack.

  Xavier relaxed his grip on Adrian's throat. "Call him off. Call him off and I'll let you both live."

  Adrian hesitated for a long moment during which Xavier's

  attention flicked from him to the dog and then back again.

  Eventually, grudgingly, Adrian nodded and Xavier looked back to the dog, poised to pounce at any moment. "Now," he said. "Do it now."

  Adrian coughed and then, his voice raspy and bruised

  sounding said, "Shadow, down!"

  Beside him, Xavier's shadow chuckled, but Xavier was not in

  the mood to join him. He watched the dog. The growl never quite left its throat but it slowly levered itself down until it was laying on the ground. Keeping one eye on it and a firm hand on its master, Xavier rose to his feet, dragging Adrian with him.

  "Rope," he said, "where is some?"

  Adrian gestured toward the wagon Xavier had hidden behind

  and that's when he saw the toppled shed across the way. It lay, a mass of planks with dust motes dancing around it, and he thought he saw, poking out from one of the boards, the black shape of a dog's paw.

  "Guess ye know where the other one is," his shadow said and Xavier realized he hadn't even thought to wonder.

  Dragging Adrian over to the wagon, he found coils of rope

  inside along with shovels and other miscellaneous tools. He tied Adrian's hands and feet, then bound him to the axle. Ripping

  Adrian's shirt off, Xavier used it to create a gag, and then looked over at the dog. It had watched him work without attacking, but a continuous growl still reverberated from its throat and the burning pain in his tentacle increased his hesitation to go near it.

  "Dogs are loyal right?"

  "You aren't serious?"

  Xavier sighed. "I'd hoped." Keeping his eyes on the dog which watched him with a malevolent gaze, he tied one end of a rope to the

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  axle beside where Adrian's was attached, then moved warily toward the dog. The fur on the back of its neck rose and the growl in its throat grew lower and louder. Still, Xavier inched closer,

  approaching the beast warily from the side. The dog watched him, and continued to growl. His fingers shook as he stretched them out toward the dog's collar. Xavier slipped the rope through the ring on its collar, then tied a hasty knot and backed quickly away.

  "That gonna hold?"

  "It'll have to," Xavier replied, "because I'm not retying it."

  The dog's growl accompanied his entire trip toward the keep.

  He kept his eyes on the dog but though it obviously wanted to it didn't move from the spot its master had commanded it.

  Entering the keep he reached the staircase to the tower Scholar had kept him in for so long and started up it. His ribs and chest ached and his tentacle burned and dripped blood in its wake, but his pace was steady, if cautious.

  "Ye shoulda killed 'em," his shadow said.

  "I'm not a murderer."r />
  "I hope yer wrong," the shadow said. "I really hope yer wrong."

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  Chapter Thirteen

  A bizarre-looking man spinning a flail in tight circles over his head met Bayne on the landing at the top of the stairs. The left side of his face bore three great gouge marks, old scars that looked like he'd gotten on the wrong side of a grizzly. His eyes were pain-filled, and there was no mystery as to the source. Two bandaged shapes erupted out of his ribcage.

  An extra set of arms? How lovely.

  'Yes, everyone should have one,' Bayne thought back, and then ducked to avoid the spiked ball the stranger had aimed at his head. It whistled as it passed, far too close, to his ear.

  Stepping to the side, Bayne left one leg in front of the other man and, with Teyat's handle clasped between his hands like a hammer, slammed them down with all his strength between the

  man's shoulder blades. The thug was driven forward and tripped over Bayne's foot before tumbling, flail-first, down the stairs. A guttural and incoherent cry preceded the wet thud of his body hitting the bottom.

  Efficient, but not much fun.

  'Sorry, but I am in a bit of a hurry.'

  Bayne looked around himself. There were three doorways, but

  only one was closed. He peered into the two open ones to find a storeroom and a stark bedroom. Neither was inhabited so he stepped back and assessed the closed door.

  'Seems likely to be a bad idea.'

  Yes

  'Got any good ones?'

  Not a single one.

  'Alright then,' Bayne took a step back and then kicked the door open. As it swung forward he flattened his back against the wall beside it. When nothing bad happened, he tilted Teyat so he could see much of the room reflected in the flat of its blade.

  A stone table with hinged iron bars dominated the center of the room and various tools of torture hung from the walls. The floor was patched with stains and over by the single window, open to the elements, was an iron cage. It was cubical with each edge being barely longer than Bayne was tall.

  Something shifted in the corner of the cage furthest from the door and Bayne sucked his breath in through his teeth as he

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  recognized Colby. Her hair hung, lank, around her face and her clothes were filthy.

  Pulling his gaze off her, Bayne forced himself to continue

  scanning the room. There, by the end of the table, he saw another person who looked so comfortable in the room it could only be one person. Scholar.

  He, the source of Xavier's mutations and nightmares, an object of legend and myth in Haven, was the man holding Bayne's sister prisoner. Now, seeing him for the first time, Bayne was surprised.

  He had expected more.

  Scholar wasn't big and didn't look strong or even rich. He just looked old. Old and mad. He was dressed in ordinary civilian

  clothes; a homespun tunic and wool breeches that hung off his gaunt frame. His scraggly grey hair hung to his shoulders in greasy-looking strands and was so thin that even in the reflection Bayne could see the liver spots which marked his scalp like a treasure map.

  'Here goes nothing,' Bayne thought and, lifting Teyat to an

  offensive position, he bolted around the corner of the doorway and headed straight toward Scholar.

  "Bayne, don't!" he heard Colby shout. He glanced in her direction to see her moving toward the front of the cage then looked back at Scholar just in time to see a man-sized shadow disentangle itself from the shadows and move, with unnatural speed and silence, toward him. It was vaguely triangular with long arms that almost reached the ground, and a head with two gaping holes where its eyes should be. It had no legs, instead a sort of smoky funnel held it above the ground like it was floating.

  Bayne felt its cold grip around his right wrist, and, holding Teyat in only one hand, he struck awkwardly at it. The darkness parted as the blade swept through it, and then merged back together in the sword's wake. The creature was stronger than any creature Bayne had ever encountered and it twisted his arm behind his back, then grabbed the second, holding him fast and helpless. He struggled but to no avail. The icy tendrils which served as the shadow

  creature's fingers burned him with their cold, chilling his hand and weakening his grip on his sword. He heard Teyat's curse in his mind but ignored it, tightening his grip as best he could and watching Scholar.

  The skin on his face hung from his bones like his clothes did his body, but underneath the wrinkles Bayne could see a strong nose

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  and hollow, haunted eyes that were a vibrant shade of green and lit with maniacal heat. Scholar tilted his head back and laughed and in that instant Bayne's fear for Colby solidified into anger.

  Scholar leaned against the stone table in the center of the

  room, watching Bayne and the door behind him. "Is my soldier going to be coming soon? I really do need it back, I've invested so much in it already."

  "Xavier is a long way from here."

  "Oh," Scholar smiled mockingly. "Is that its name? How quaint. You're wrong about its location though, its around here somewhere. I saw it out the window rolling around in the dirt with my hounds master. I could be patient and wait for it, I suppose, but I bet I could think up a way to speed things along." He crossed over to the wall with its myriad of medical devices hanging on it. He ran his bony fingers over them. Hatchets, scalpels, daggers, tongs,

  spreaders, skewers, Scholar treated them like instruments of love, caressing them with his eyes and stroking them with his fingers.

  Colby made a soft sound of distress and pressed herself against the back of the cage. Bayne shifted his grip on Teyat and gritted his teeth, grinding his molars together.

  Scholar plucked a long tapered rod about the width of his

  thumb off the wall. He waved it through the air and then bowed elaborately in Bayne's direction before posing with the pointed skewer.

  Colby choked on a sob and her eyes grew wide. She continued

  to push against the back of the cage, her eyes never leaving the weapon in Scholar's hands.

  Bayne's grip on his sword jerked spasmodically and his

  stomach clenched into a fist but through a heroic effort of will he managed to keep his voice from shaking too obviously. "What are you going to do with that?"

  "Nothing…fatal." The man shuffled toward Colby, trapped in her cage.

  Bayne struggled against the shadow holding him captive but it held him fast. His lips twisted up into a bitter snarl and his hands became fists on Teyat's hilt.

  Scholar reached through the bars, deceptively quick for his

  appearance, and grabbed a handful of Colby's hair. She jerked her body to the side, twisting as far away from him as she could, but the cage prevented her from going far. "There's a good girl," Scholar

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  crooned, running the skewer over her skin. He slid it down her shoulder and then across the side of her torso. The iron grazed the curve of her breast and traveled slowly down her rib cage. Then he changed his grip and shoved the shiv into her.

  Colby screamed and moved to curl up around the wound, but

  the cage and the man's hand in her hair held her fast. He gave the skewer a twist, pulled it out and held it, wet with blood, ready to stab again.

  ~*~

  Xavier had just begun to climb the rickety stairs up to the

  tower when the body dropped to his left, barely missing him. He felt the wind of its passing then heard the sound, like that of a rotten melon being smashed, of it hitting the ground. A shudder ran

  through him and he felt his stomach lurch in response.

  "Is it?" he asked, frozen in place on the stairs, deliberately not looking down.

  "Bayne? Nah, looks like Tobias."

 
; Relief swept through Xavier, and he continued up the spiraling stairs, taking them two at a time, but keeping a tight grip on the railing with his right hand.

  "Oh, is that its name?"

  He heard Scholar's voice as he reached the top of the stairs, and repressed the shiver of fear that slid through him at its familiar tones. He darted to the side so his former captor wouldn’t see him through the doorway and ducked into a side room. It was small with shelves on two walls and a window in another. One broken shutter hung crookedly from it and sunlight streamed through the opening, throwing an elongated shadow out behind him.

  "We hidin' in a new storeroom then?"

  "No," Xavier said, glancing at his tentacles and sounding far more confident than he felt. "Now we're going to see how good these things are for climbing."

  "Yer gonna get us killed. 'Member what I told ya 'bout heros?"

  "That was martyrs, actually." Xavier said quietly. "You also wanted me to kill him remember? You can't have it both ways."

  "'At was before I knew ye were plannin' on hangin' off the side of a castle like some sorta spider."

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  "You know what?" Xavier grunted as he hoisted himself up so he was sitting on the window ledge facing the room. "If you can't say something helpful, don't say anything at all."

  His shadow grunted but refrained from commenting and

  Xavier took a deep breath and leaned out so he could see the castle wall. Then he stole a quick glance down and immediately wished he hadn't. It was a long way to the ground. A very long way. He cursed softly and tightened his grip on the edges of the window.

  He drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. Maybe he

  should just go in the door after all? Maybe Bayne had already taken care of Scholar, maybe— The thought died in his head, as did any ideas of alternate plans as Colby's pained scream came to his ears.

  He sucked in a deep breath and lifted his feet so he was standing on the ledge rather than sitting on it, and pressed his body against the wall.

  It was rough, and many of the bricks stuck out just enough for him to curl his fingers and tentacles around. To his left he could see the window he knew belonged to Scholar's laboratory. It wasn't that far.