‘Stop!' a voice abruptly bawled. "At once!"
Fever for blood broke immediately, and the bog ring frittered away to reveal Harmony Valour and the smirking wizard at the foot of the temple. Scarfell wore a patch over the left eye I'd removed with a flute. Kat lowered the katana to his shin — business with Grutas would have to wait.
"Welcome to my home!" said Scarfell, delighted. "Grutas — remove Fox from his horse!"
Obeying that order, Grutas strolled past Kat with a twinkle in his eye. "You don't have to," I stuttered back at the giant, "I'll get off mys — "
The flat end of his axe battered me off the horse. I lay blurry headed on the clay as our animals fled around the Fort. They were quickly seized and eaten by the insatiable.
"I want Fox unconscious!" demanded Scarfell, over squealing horses and bloody butchery. "Put mud in his lungs!"
Grutas pressed his foot on top of on my head until my nose snuffed in the grey muck. Scarfell cackled as the giant held my face in place.
"You!" Kat roared at Grutas.
The bog leader's eyebrow perked up on seeing the katana, aimed between his eyes.
"Come here…" growled Kat. "Come now."
Grutas removed his foot from the back of my head and I barfed out mud. There was something more in Kat's anger, compassion maybe, I don't know.
"Back away Grutas!" ordered Scarfell, his hand motioning the giant away. "The samurai will be only too happy to kill you."
Grutas' features seemed to melt, and when his brain eventually understood the order, the undermined strongman was enraged — his erratic axe severing one bog in half, before kicking and hacking the unfortunate thing to a smudge.
"Do as I say!" cried the wizard, playfully sparking fire like flint off his knuckles. "Your adolescent behaviour grows increasingly on my nerves, Grutas! Out of my sight with you!"
Covered in bog blood, Grutas stormed toward one dilapidated tent, releasing his fury on any pig solider within range — biting his teeth into one head and smashing his fist through the chest of another. The loss of three bogs simply amused Scarfell, who now walked to Kat. "Drop the sword samurai," he said calmly. "This time, you are well and truly surrounded."
Scarfell respected Kat's talents by remaining far from his sword, whilst I paused ever so still on my stomach, tasting the muck between my teeth, reality seeping in. Although I knew Kat was only one man, I somehow believed, no matter how ridiculous, that the legend would get us out of anything.
"What do you want wizard?" asked Kat.
"I have plans for you both," he said. "Throw down your sword is the first… and prey I do not destroy you where you stand."
Kat surveyed his surroundings with that poker face. I was probably now the closest person in his life, but I couldn't tell you what he was thinking at that moment in time. Would he attempt to kill every bog and Grutas into the bargain? Or was the added factor of wizard magic too much for him? He arrived quickly at his decision. "I will drop my sword wizard, but you pray — pray I never hold it again."
And with that, Kat relinquished his katana — and an army overwhelmed us.
17. Eye for An Eye
Kat was inside a compact cage, complete with iron bars and a sturdy lock. So constricted was he that he could not stand or stretch; so there he sat and waited, with a bad tempered expression, crossed legs and a mind hell-bent on escape.
There was little light in this dense hold, and when Kat finally acclimatized to the murky conditions, he saw ten cells — five down each side with only a narrow corridor separating them. At the far right of that corridor was a closed door, and at the opposing left was a window covered with a block of wood. The vague shadows of fellow prisoners shuffled in confinement, followed by the occasional clang of body parts hitting the bars. There were constant mutterings of discontent here, and a pitiful sobbing coming from the cage directly in front of Kat's.
"Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want."
This prayer came from a female, incarcerated in Kat's adjoining cell. "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures," she continued, a hint of French about her accent;" he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his names sake. Yea though I walk through the valley of death I — "
"Enough!" Kat barked. "That won't help you escape woman!"
"It won't help me escape," she said, "but it does help. You are new here."
Kat did not answer his neighbour, but he did respond to her hand, reaching through their shared bars to pat on his leg. Like an agitated gorilla, Kat snatched her wrist and yanked the arm toward him.
The woman shrieked as her face smacked the rigid bars. "I only wanted to be certain!" she cried. "I wasn't convinced! I needed to know if…"
"Well?"
"If… you were monstrous?"
"I am no monster," Kat growled, with another pull of her arm. "Are you?"
"No, no!" she yelped. "You're hurting! Please! Release me!"
Kat let go and she scurried back in her cell, making the most of any space between them.
"I was only curious," she then said, rubbing the pain from her arm. "May I ask what kind you are? What kind?"
"I am human. I am samurai!"
"Sam…" she stuttered, surprised. "Is your name Kendo Katamuro? Are you the warrior, Kat? "
Instantly, Kat honed in on her box of shade, eyes straining for a better look. "Who are you?" he asked, seeing nothing of the woman.
"Are you… the Kat?" she softly repeated.
"I am! And you?"
The woman exhaled with relief as if she knew him. "My name is Harmony Valour. It was my duty to collect you and Daniel Fox from the beach not far from here."
"Valour?"” Kat returned, puzzled. “How did you get here?"
She held a guilty silence next door until Kat rattled her bars, "Answer!"
"The wizard captured me!" she blurted out. "Demanded information concerning you and your companion, particularly when and where I would be expecting you both. It is my fault you were captured. I am to blame, samurai."
"You stupid fool!"
"He tortured me!" she exclaimed. "Pressed his palm onto my forehead — the burning was…"
Her story and sorrow seemed genuine enough. “Scarfell was keen to acquire your friend," she added, clearing her eyes; "I expect he won't last long."
"We will all perish from our bodies woman! All of us!"
"Not you Kat. If we had the light to see you would realize that those confined here are unique to the Distinct Earth. We are the wizard's zoo, his exhibit for all eternity. You are the second caged today. A naked man was locked in the corner cell shortly before your arrival in the fort. I am afraid he has not moved since."
"What else?" asked Kat, whiffing in a putrid combination of straw and shit.
"There is a sphinx and serpent in this menagerie, and various kinds of alien; Scarfell also had a unicorn which I managed to free before my own imprisonment. The wizard was very cross, although having the only man to escape Hell has cheered him somewhat."
"And you? What are you?"
"I am… an outcast," she replied, gulping down some past hurt. And revealing nothing more, Harmony changed the subject. "I suggest we get used to our incarceration samurai — ever since I freed the unicorn security has been increased. Bogs inspect cell locks on the hour and patrols of the Fort are round the clock. The bog men are not the brightest, but there is strength in numbers."
"I will not be caged!" he yelled, making a futile attempt to pry his bars apart.
"The keys are hanging near the door," she informed him. "Nothing else will open these locks."
The keys could not be seen in the dark, so Kat resigned himself to patience for the time being.
Minutes later, a rattling came at the end of the corridor, and the cellblock door duly opened. Kat and Harmony cricked their necks for a better view, but the squeaking door only let in more darkness from outside, concealing the identities of these people now mo
ving along the corridor.
"This will be quite spectacular," said the old man. "Fresh in this afternoon. It took nine weeks to track him."
"I have been looking forward to it," replied a robotic sounding woman. "If only my sisters could be here to see it."
A trio of silhouettes passed Harmony's cage, then Kat's on their way to the farthest end of the cell-block.
"Time approaches," said the old man. "Let there be light!"
The block of wood covering the window was removed, and rays of translucent moonlight illuminated the cellblock. Under that window stood Scarfell with Grutas, and that green-eyed siren who earlier claimed to be Harmony Valour. "Wizard!" exclaimed Kat, furious.
"Joy!" said Scarfell; "the Kat is awake! My latest acquisition, there are curious far and wide who will come to view you samurai. They will not be disappointed."
"Hell could not hold me!” he roared. “Bars will not hold me!"
Grutas sneered at Kat's arrogance, whilst Scarfell merely waved a pithy hand at it. "You are a legend, Kat," he returned, "but one of flesh and blood. Now if your strength can indeed pry iron aside, then be my guest. Beautiful moon tonight Miss Valour, don't you think?"
"What are you up to wizard?" the French woman asked him.
"You will see, mischievous one… you will see."
Kat peered into Harmony's cell, the diamond light revealing a small portion of her heart shaped face. She was young, no more than twenty years old, with long yellow hair to her shoulders. Harmony felt Kat watching her, and met his hard face with a polite smile. "Pleased to see you… cell-mate."
Clicking his spindly fingers, Scarfell brought all attention back to him, and especially the cell underneath the full moon's gaze — a cage belonging to a naked man. "Wake up!" moaned Scarfell, repeating the order until the forlorn stranger stirred. This person's body was scab ridden, hair a haven for lice; his legs curled up into his belly and he hid his head inside tightly folded arms. Eyes still closed, the man shook, trembles at first which grew to severest chills in no time at all.
Mutually disturbed, but too intrigued to look away, Harmony and Kat watched the scrawny man cough, and like his shivering, this clearing of the throat increased. "Reveal your true form!" whispered Scarfell, leering through his bars. "Show me your soul…"
Dollops of black gravy began dripping from the man's mouth, and he scraped his fists repeatedly on the stone floor — the flesh coming away like grated cheese from his knuckles.
"Seal the window!" yelled Harmony, disgusted. "Stop this circus!"
Gagging, the naked stranger opened his mouth to expel large quantities of slurry from his stomach, and the more of this sick he discarded, the thicker in consistency it became; a gluey spew oozing from every orifice. Surprisingly, even with a system clogged full of bile and no possible room for oxygen, the prisoner did not pass out.
"Help him!" cried Harmony. "Enough!"
Scarfell was engrossed, and with deaf ears to Harmony's pleas, he leant ever closer as the man squawked, his bloated face the colour purple and his forehead pulsing with a fat boil. That boil burst and the white puss dribbled down his nose. The stranger then winced to his back and there had a raging fit — flapping his arms like a bird as jellied tears ran from his tortured eyes. "Ahhrrr!" he groaned and gurgled.
His skin became black now with growing patches of wiry hair; his jawbone abruptly shut with vice like force, shattering the teeth inside his mouth. That mouth presently barfed out all the teeth and a tongue to the tarry pools under his face.
"Wonderful!" exclaimed Scarfell, clapping a hand on one knee. "Wonderful!"
"Indeed," added the hypnotic looking siren.
"Kill him!" Kat yelled. "End this misery!"
"Oh no!" said Scarfell, playfully. "And miss the best part?"
The man's convulsing grew to intolerable levels, until his bones bent crooked and began contorting inside his frame, the cracking grotesquely audible. Suddenly, the spinal cord, with all its connecting tissue and veins, sprung out from his back, followed by all ten finger and toenails launching like missiles from their ends, with longer and sharper nails now replacing them. The ribcage seemed to pump from inside his skin, breathing in and out until eventually breaking free with a ghoulish burst, revealing a cavity of organs cooking in putrid slime. The stranger's neck stretched out with a crunch, and a pair of sludgy eyes popped from their sockets and dangled like conkers from the bloody holes.
He was still alive — still — even as leather like skin seemed to knit itself over a new skeleton. Throughout this transformation was the man's constant writhing, the grinding of parts and the generous lashings of red blood and black yuck. "Uh!" he spat. "Grauwhl…"
The man's guttural sounds eventually cleared to screams, screams replaced by a huskier growl until at last, the ear-bursting bane of the wolf.
"Magnificent!" the wizard cheered.
The furious monster attacked its cage with teeth and claws, causing even the giant, Grutas, to retreat.
"Do not concern yourself, Grutas!" said Scarfell, laughing. "He cannot escape his nightmare."
The sick show finally over, a delighted Scarfell led the way out of the cellblock. "’til the next full moon!" he added, closing the door behind him.
Crossing his legs together again, a solemn faced Kat attempted to meditate his mind from the ravings of the wolf, and from the sorry state in which he found himself.
***
Bruised and bloodied, I was strapped to a lone post in the centre of the fort, arms numb and raised above my head. Dry rope cut into my wrists and my back burned as it pressed straight against a post. The wolf's cries came from somewhere deep inside the temple, and I pitied the cursed soul inside it.
Bogs would occasionally pass me here, leaving harsh mementos. I ignored the pain of their punches and kicks, and tried using my time here to gather any intelligence I could. A pack of three bogs always patrolled the fort, conversing in an elemental language of grunts and snorts. These three security guards would briefly patrol the perimeter; sit for an hour or so before being replaced by another disinterested few. They were a lazy species, forever hungry and like erratic teenagers in behaviour. Never once did they patrol the fort completely, only those areas that took their fancy at the time. After a meal of squeaking, cat sized creatures, most of the two hundred plus pig army disappeared into shabby huts and remained there all night long; only the three guards enjoyed the sound of the wolf outside the temple door, with frenzied leaps and primal butting of heads
***
Some time later, dreams and sleep were slapped from my face.
"Open your eyes Fox," he whispered. "Let me see you."
Dusk shone through my waking eyelids before another slap sent my face to the other side of the post. Red drool ran from my bottom lip as Scarfell raised my chin to meet his wrinkled face and lone, bloodshot eye. He looked confused. There was nothing about me that held any unique quality, no mythical Kat like status or magical prowess — there was just a man. "I want to kill you," he said, his breath hot at my neck. "Nothing would please me more."
He removed his hand from my chin, allowing my face to fall. He then caressed an index finger over his mouth — to the sore I gave him on the Macro peaks. That finger circled his lips, and then his whole hand went over the patch covering his left eye.
"I'm waiting," I mumbled, stretched tight. "Are you ready to kill me?"
"Unfortunately," he replied, his hand trembling, "someone else has reserved that pleasure. A necessary compromise, even the most powerful have to make accommodations."
"You're no God," I smirked, summoning all of my stupid courage. "You’re not immortal either… I know, and one day your withered old body will disappear, with no compromises or magic to save your ass. You'll end up a maggot in your own bogs breakfast!" I chuckled, while Scarfell snatched another hold of my chin.
"And you will die on this post, never to see the 9th Fortress! Can you even fathom how impossible a notion that was? What ar
rogance to attempt it! What ego!"
He let my head drop again then moved around the post, going over my front and back with a fingernail scratching my flesh. "Not even half way there, and already in some decay."
"What do you want?" I asked; "if not to kill me?"
"You took my eye — my eye!" he exclaimed, inhaling and exhaling a cauldron of frustration. "And if I can't kill a pathetic nothing like you… then I am taking what's owed!"
With a flick of his wrist, Scarfell removed a knife from his belt — a dirty object that would struggle to cut rough paper. He pressed himself and the blade to my cheek, and I gasped, shutting my eyes to its blunt tip. "Help me Missy! Newton! Bludgeon! Kat! Help me!"
Scarfell smiled, teasing his blade over my perspiring face. "It's fine," he whispered. "I do not want your eye. No. Not today at least."
Sceptically, I peeked a look and was relieved to see the blade at his thigh. "You know what?" he abruptly added; "I've changed my mind!"
Static filled my vision as my skull was invaded — connections permanently cut from my brain. His vigorous carving sent the juice of my eye slipping down my face, and my high-pitched scream was as horrific as any wolf's.
***
Apart from the sobbing creature across from Kat's cell, there was peace inside the block. The small window let in the early morning to reveal enough of Harmony's unusual form. Finally now, Kat could see what made her so special, so unique to deserve a place in Scarfell's zoo. The bulk of Harmony's cage was taken up by a pair of white wings attached to her back, but pressed together with a clumsy bronze clasp biting them down the middle. "Can't use them," she shrugged with an empty smile.
"Did the wizard do this?" Kat asked.
"No. I did. I was banished from Heaven," she started, hiding her face; "an exile here until my return to the blessed is permitted. It is a… long story samurai, and something I'd rather not discuss."
The 9th Fortress Page 18