"So you move slowly?"
"I am the snail," he returned. "Unfortunately this ocean was wider than anticipated, and my supplies…"
I stopped the knight in his tracks, glancing understandably at the strips of bark he once tore from his raft.
"Are you married, Eddinray? Have you ever been in love?"
On asking, I witnessed a suspicious twitch at Kat's ear.
"I have never been married," replied Eddinnray. "And have only ever loved my queen."
"Who you can't remember?"
"Regrettably…"
"But have you ever loved a real woman?" I said, frustrated. "I mean, a normal girl?"
Condescendingly, Eddinray shook his head. "My dear, dear fellow — how can a real woman, a normal girl ever compete with the natural beauty and glorious grace of a queen?"
I continued eating, feeling somewhat sorry for Eddinray. The man had never experienced real love in his lifetime, never lost himself in its wild highs and dreadful lows. I fell in love once, not with a queen I couldn't remember, but with a flesh and blood woman who became my wife. The marriage was short lived — three years tops — but I was undoubtedly wiser for the experience.
When Eddinray quizzed Kat on the subject of love and marriage, I could almost hear the samurai's system slam shut — no-one home — so I answered for him. "That katana, Eddinray, she's all the woman Kat needs."
The knight nodded respectfully. "As a warrior I can understand the ninjas devotion. I salute you Kat! I do I salute you!" Eddinray swallowed down more fish then burped. "One thing — one thing intrigues me gents. That is, how did you ever come together? Fox and Kat — hardly a likely friendship is it?"
Eddinray looked to me for an answer, and I was happy to give an honest one. "I was told by a timeless witch that Kat and I are a union of convenience, not friendship. Who am I to argue?"
"Timeless witch?" the knight frowned. "Union? By God for what purpose man?"
"Kat is escorting me to Hell, Eddinray. He's been there before."
"Love it!" Eddinray tittered. "Love a man with a sense of humor! Any-more fish?”
***
A sticky morning. We'd been flying high and straight for well over an hour. Strong winds did little to repel the heat, and I grew concerned to notice that Atlas was already worn out. Her wings flapped laboriously under the weight of three armed men, and her body subsequently lost altitude at an increasing rate. There was hope on the horizon however, a thin crust of land, and I whispered encouraging words into the Weather-Maker's ear, hoping she had enough in the tank to get us there.
Kat remained tucked behind my shield with the knight pressed like a sardine behind him. Eddinray kept the flight interesting with more hot-aired tales of chivalrous quests for God, queen and country.
"Over there Danny boy!" he yelled, pointing to my left side. "Do you see it man?"
I was surprised how this escaped my notice for so long. Eddinray directed his finger to a distant blotch where the water appeared to become two distinct kinds of ocean — one bubbling black and tar like, the other blue and calm as ever. "That's the boiling sea!" he told me. "The fires of Hell cook the water from below! Legend has it a giant snake swims from those depths to feed on forsaken sailors here! It swallows them whole then returns to the underworld with a digesting bellyful of ships and men!"
"Have you ever seen this snake?" I yelled over the wind.
"If there is such a thing Danny boy, then I haven't seen it! Perhaps it was afraid of me?"
Kat's dislike for Eddinray seemed to be escalating, the samurai growling with contempt whenever the obnoxious knight addressed him. "Have you ever jousted before ninja? Have you ever stared another man and his stallion down before charging with all your might for a fair maiden's favour? Have you ever had your head locked in the jaws of a tiger? I call your attention to the dimples in my helmet!"
"I am samurai!" Kat screamed over his shoulder. "And you are spitting on my neck!"
"Good for you!" he replied. "Much prefer samurai to ninja. I fought one ninja in the Mucklanton vulch pits, hand-to-hand combat, fight to the fiercest death! And a nasty, cheating rogue he was too! However, I would sooner fight a ninja than a dinosaur! Take a previous adventure of mine for example; I encountered an odd sort of Dino-woman, flesh eater of course! Have you ever killed a man, Kat? I must say you do not look the sort. Son of a farmer are you? Steal a dead man's armor did you? Shameful behaviour, truly shameful!"
As Eddinray rambled on, I received a sudden chill. I had blinked and missed an alarming drop in the horse's height, continuing at a steady decline until Atlas' hoofs unnervingly ran over water, leaving a trail of spray a mile back. Daylight was dying too, and the temperature inexplicably plummeted. At Atlas' galloping hoofs, shimmering blues were being devoured by an overwhelming darkness from behind, an object growing and gaining on us.
Noticing that consuming shade now, Eddinray peered back, and his jolly prattle came to an abrupt end.
"Danny?" he whimpered. "It might be a wise idea if you asked your pet to Giddy bloody up!"
I stole a look back and sight of the thing near knocked me from the saddle. I gripped the reins, kicked my heels and roared Atlas into action. She responded instantly — galloping, flying from the mammoth wave, a living tsunami: The Leviathan. Reptilian in outline, it grew out of the water — itself of the water — opened a cavernous mouth and flapped two gargantuan arms back and forth to catch our swift horse. "Ya!" I exclaimed. "Ya! Ya!"
"Faster!" cried Eddinray. "Faster man! Faster!"
The knight squinted over his shoulder to see the same sort of fish he ate for supper skittering inside this creature's washy stomach. Desperately panting, Atlas flapped her wings and powered her hoofs, but her pace was gone. "Up girl!" I begged, as her legs submerged in the salt water. "Up!"
The monster spewed a great hose at us, soaking our backs and the horse's already sopping wings.
"She's sinking!" I bellowed, out of ideas. "Come on girl! Please!"
Closest to the Leviathan, a bold Eddinray removed his long sword and began lashing at the indestructible thing. "Back Devil! Back I say!"
He beat and slashed at the wet throat and face, but his blade passed through, causing no damage whatsoever. Kat meanwhile, grimaced to a suction of sea below, contemplating a sacrificing leap to ease the horse's burden. "Don't even think about it!" I screamed over the crashing spray. "I need you!"
Kat shook a doubtful face, and I stretched further into Atlas' ear. "Give us more girl! Nose up! All you can! More! More!"
She tried and tried, but in vain. Her snout collapsed from exhaustion, leaving me no choice but to prop up her neck. "Come on!" Both my hands reached lower to fumble inside her compact satchel; and as our wet world closed in, something found my hand in that bag. I saw it and others glowing gold inside the satchel, and turned aghast back to Kat.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Weather-Makers, Kat! Weather-Makers!"
The Leviathan descended until only its heady outline bobbled out from the sea. It opened its lips and took us all inside its mouth now. The thickest rain showered down on top of us, and the Leviathan's water-based tongue tasted the bottom of Atlas, savouring this unique snack. The monster then closed its lips, taking the last of the light and us with it. "Hold your breaths!" I cried. "Get ready for it!"
I removed the astonishing form from the satchel. In my grip was a single bolt of buzzing lightning, which did not scorch my eyes or burn the flesh from my bare hand. It lit the Leviathan's mouth up with a yellow heat so fierce that Kat and Eddinray covered their faces. Drenched, I raised the blazing bolt over my head and horse, and squinted further down the monster's throat at all the fish, the weeds and the sands of the sea. "Don't forget your appetiser!" I roared, throwing the jagged bolt straight and true toward those tonsils.
The resulting implosion was immediate. Foam rushed up noses and mouths, filled lungs and twisted bodies back and forth; gargling, drowning, hopeless.
16
. The Eyes of Harmony Valour
Kat sat up as my saturated body stopped beside his on the shore. Heaving and spluttering, I stood to spew a gutful of salt water over my thighs. "Where — where are we?"
A stream seemed to pour from Kat's armor when he got to his feet, and shaking his oily hair like a wet dog, he secured it again in a topknot. The sea was as calm as the shore we left a day ago, a pacific vista with no clouds in the sky or monsters underneath it. The beach stretched along a tropical shore, and at our back was a steaming Forest fat with trees.
"We made it," I said, checking my belongings to find the short-sword, dagger and shield in their proper place. Nausea leaving me, Atlas brushed her long nose against my arm. My face was distorted in her reflective coat, and temporarily forgetting she was an immortal, I was delighted to discover the horse alive. I embraced her, and then remembered something else. "Eddinray!"
Examining the beach and water, the knight was nowhere to be seen. "Eddinray! Can you hear me?" I listened, hearing only the hiss of forest and the rustling break of waves. "Kat?"
"He has drowned Fox.”
My head knew that was possible, but my heart didn't believe it. I jogged further down the shore, feeling the intense heat already drying my clothes
"He was heavily armored!" Kat yelled. "Sank like a stone!"
"You're wearing armor too! I'm wearing a shield for Christ-sake!"
"Then the fool was swallowed down the Goliath's throat!"
His callous attitude sickened me. I turned to confront him when my eye caught a glint of silver. It was a glove washed over the sand. I raced to pick it up then scanned the shore for the rest, but there was no piece of him left. “Poor bastard…” I said, lowering my head in respect, while Kat picked the sand out of his ears.
***
We had been on the beach an hour. I sat with legs crossed and Atlas crouched beside me. Eddinray did not appear in all that time, and I accepted Kat's theory of him disappearing with the Leviathan.
On one knee, the samurai was studying the forest, like he had done Bludgeon's assassin-proof entranceway. There was no obvious route in, and no Harmony Valour to escort us. "We can't wait all day," I complained. "Maybe we're too early?"
"Or too late," he murmured.
The forest was sticky, jam packed with the hustle and bustle of unseen things. Wise trunks rose hundreds of feet and fought for space at the roots. Smog smothered around the trees and random geysers blew chutes into the air. The soil at my feet resembled wet liquorice, while multicolored mushrooms grew in abundance; around those jinxed spiders big and small.
"We go on," said Kat, swallowing something he didn't like. "Get rid of the horse."
The short samurai ventured into the forest without another seconds pause, leaving me to say farewell to Atlas. "You're a brave girl," I whispered. "Thank you so much." Atlas smeared her tongue up my face one last time before trotting off down the beach, reflecting all the gleaming skylight and pearly grains of sand.
***
Our footing through the forest was a lumpy moss, which sank under foot. Fearing another ambush, Kat kept his katana poised at all times, meanwhile I pondered over Harmony Valour, and why she hadn't kept her arrangement to meet us at the beach.
The air thickened as we advanced. Sweat sat permanently over our skins, bringing on a light-headedness that sapped our spirits. Weighed down by armor and the burden of leadership, the punishing climate seemed to affect Kat most.
"How about a break?" I asked. "Five minutes, eh?"
"This is no place to linger," he replied, face greasy.
"For a minute?" I begged, wiping my drenched brow with a damper sleeve. "Do you know what trench foot is, Kat? We keep walking in this mire you'll find out."
I sat on the moss with my back against a trunk. Preferring to remaining standing, Kat's narrow eyes focused between abundant logs, a cloak of fog disguising whatever he may be searching for.
"See anything?" I asked, pleased to be sitting.
He shook an assiduous face, and any chance of rest was suddenly shattered by a prolonged howl, forcing the heart into my mouth. It was the harrowing bay of a wolf or dog close by, silencing the forest snakes, the shrieking bats and incessant creepy crawlies. Again it howled, louder this time, followed by the sound of panting breaths approaching. "Run!" roared Kat, starting a sprint through the dreary mist.
Kat moved like an expert of the terrain, and it didn't take long for me to lose him. Thankfully the howl was fading fast. I cast a reassuring peek behind — there was nothing on my ass. Glancing forward again, my face crashed between Kat's sturdy shoulder blades, and we rolled forward in a collection of samurai red and fleece brown.
"Why did you stop?" I yelled, searching for myself in this mix of moss and men. Kat meanwhile stared at the reason, and pushing me aside, he rose to greet a woman. Straddling a strong brown horse, she directed her hand at two grey horses in tow. "For you," she said with a raspy, foreign voice. I wiped dizziness from my face and stood to be staggered by her beauty.
"Who are you?" asked Kat, concealing the katana behind him.
"Harmony Valour," she returned; "you are expected."
She looked down at me with strawberry coloured cheeks and a perfect smile. Her jet-black hair fell like wet rope to her waist; her slender body was covered in a satin gown which revealed too much of her fleshy legs, plunging neckline and teasing hint of cleavage. Her most startling feature was those bewitching emerald eyes, casting its spell over the pair of us.
"Did the wolf frighten you?" she asked, emotionless.
"So it was a wolf then?" I said.
"It was. The beast will now be supper for a larger predator. There are many here in the forest."
The thought of a carnivorous wolf being supper for something larger made me anxious, and extremely aware of the fact that we had stopped moving.
"Our guide?" asked Kat.
"To the mouth of Hell," she replied. "That is my duty. Mount your horses and follow. I ride fast and hard to a Fort not far from here."
"Fort?" I said, prudently on my guard. "Why should we go there?"
"It has been long abandoned and will provide suitable shelter for the evening. I have my instructions. Come." She clicked her heels, turned her horse on a dime and charged over a new forest path.
"Do we trust her?" I asked my companion, who settled a foothold into his new horse's stirrup.
"We have no choice…"
***
We rode fast and hard as Harmony demanded. The pace was unrelenting and, as usual, I found the going tougher than the rest — my grey horse not a patch on the swift Weather-Maker. Our widening road eventually brought us to a wooden door, a dominating fifteen feet tall and flanked on each side by soaring tree trunks. Harmony and Kat waited on horseback as I brought up the rear. Foliage around this entrance was sad and overgrown, and the wood of the door was old with rotting hinges. Harmony was right. No one had been here for some time. "Miss Valour?" I asked, trying not to look at the provocative bend of her back; "what was this Fort used for? Do you know?"
"It was used to keep bogs out," she answered, "the armies of the wizard."
That was a relief. If this Fort could hold back bogs then I wanted in. Our three horses shuffled restlessly while Harmony kept us waiting. Before we could question her reasons why, there came a knock on the other side of the door. Harmony leant forward to return two knocks on the wood. She then sat back on her animal and waited for the entrance to creak open. It did, cutting down the middle to form two, inwardly grinding doors. "Who opens these doors?" asked Kat, cheek twitching.
"I have a friend inside," Harmony answered, plainly. "He is known to you. There is nothing to fear men."
"Known to us?" I said, baffled. "Who is he?"
The doors parted enough for Harmony to click her horse into the Fort. Kat passed me an indifferent expression before following her in. His casual attitude was reassuring, so I set my horse toward his.
Past the doors, I was r
elieved again to discover an ancient and barren place inside. Surrounded by a fence of wooden poles with the suffocating trunks beyond, the fort contained many dilapidated shanty homes constructed over a surface of flat clay. There was an elementary looking stone temple in the centre of this enclosure, a place of worship presumably with numerous tents dotted around it. I searched for the man supposedly known to us, hoping to see Sir Isaac Newton or even master Bludgeon. Unfortunately, a thunderous strike of two slamming doors woke me from naivety, and looking back over my shoulder, I watched five bogs fixing the entrance shut.
"You said it was to keep them out!" I cried at Harmony Valour — her watery lips grinning back: "Twas not successful…"
Time seemed to slow as bogs hunched from those dank corners and crevices — a hundred — two hundred. Kat, our horses and I shuffled side-by-side — looking into each other's eyes — no thoughts in our heads — no ideas. Bogs hedged us in with their curved blades, sharp spears and mouths snarling zeal. This was a stockade — and we were its prisoners.
The minute Harmony Valour stepped off her horse two dozen bogs left us to feed on that poor steed. Happily, she passed over the reins and watched with perverse delight as they devoured the animal with hands stripping flesh, stuffing hair, meat and entrails into their gobs.
"What do we do Kat?" I gasped, freaked out. "What do we do?"
"Remain on your horse," he replied through gritted teeth. "I will get us out of this!"
Then, cool as you like, Kat climbed off his horse; one leg after another. Once bogs caught the whiff of his movement they moved in, encompassing us in a circle of black bodies.
Kat eyed up the bogs, but eyes couldn't see anything else. His removal of the katana inspired a growl around the rabble, then a hiss as Kat pointed the sword at the mutated legions. "Attack!" he yelled, fury turning the end of his nose red. "Attack now!"
I was gob-smacked by his bravery.
"Attack me!"
The monsters moved to allow one particular bog to enter the angry ring — the giant Grutas, who rested his battleaxe on a strong shoulder. The hissing became deafening as Kat and Grutas took tantalising steps toward each other. They had business to settle, and it could not wait. Both appeared confident, Kat twirling the katana and Grutas tensing his muscle-bound arms in preparation.
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