Kings of Ghumai- The Complete series Box Set

by D N Meinster

  "Mud rhino," M'dalla noted, coming up beside him. "But last I checked, they were only supposed to have one head."

  Both of the rhino's heads growled at them, and Mr. Kwee hid behind Aros' neck as the animal plodded along in front of them.

  "The Bellish made that?" Aros asked, recalling what M'dalla had said before.

  "More like manipulated what it was," M'dalla stated.

  Aros watched as it passed by and then dove into another dune, its two heads unsettling him more than any other creature he'd seen in Belliore. "Do you have any idea where the generator might be?" he asked, hoping they could get out of this zone before something worse rose up from the sands.

  "There's a place in here where the cacti refuse to grow and nothing dares come near," M'dalla said with intentional foreboding. "My guess is that's where we'll find it."

  Aros didn't understand why the animals would avoid the generator, but he said "Right," anyway.

  The two of them marched through the desert, M'dalla remaining by Aros even though she could shift at any time. Was this a kindness or was she leading him into a trap? She'd only been helpful so far, if not forthcoming, but it could all be a deceitful performance. Aros wasn't afraid, though. He'd spent more time in a desert than she had. And he was ready to duel her if he had to. But the longer she went without turning on him, the more certain he became that she wasn't going to. This Roamer was actually on his side, for now.

  Aros felt something ram into his foot, and he looked down and saw a gray shell poking out of the sands. He bent down to get a closer look and noticed there was a lineup of similar shells behind it.

  "Let it be," M'dalla warned him.

  "What is it?"

  She glared at him, eyes wide with exasperation.

  "Fine, fine." He stood back up, stepped over the shells, and proceeded onward. "So, did you know the Resurrected?"

  "The who?" she replied, sights on the horizon.

  "You know. Sarin. Uh." He thought of the others' names. "Spira. Uterak. They were trying to open the Door. You lot seemed pretty concerned with Sarin."

  "There's no reason we have to speak while we're doing this," M'dalla tartly stated.

  "I can always talk to Mr. Kwee," Aros replied. "He'll answer me."

  "Kwee kwee," M'dalla imitated him. "Kwee kwee. See, I can answer like him, too. But somehow I don't think that would satisfy you."

  "Maybe if you translated that," Aros responded.

  M'dalla stopped and turned toward him. "I didn't tag along so you could badger me. I could just as easily leave and do what I have to by myself. Would you prefer that?"

  "Just filling the time," Aros said, and he continue onward. He really wanted to get some answers from her, but he'd rather keep her around than force her away. So he bit his tongue and they trounced through the desert in silence.

  What was M'dalla hiding? He hadn't the deductive skills of Lady Yveen, but maybe if he thought about it hard enough, he could come up with a guess. All the Roamers had magical cloaks that allowed them to shift, even though they weren't mages. She was Twilean, but the others weren't necessarily from the same kingdom. So, somehow, they'd gotten together, despite that they might've lived in different places. How could that be? Before Rikki, only Hatswick was traveling between the realms. Well, the Resurrected could shift, too. Sarin had made it to Faunli.

  Aros ran a hand through his spikes, not getting any closer to figuring it out. He needed help for things like this. It was like one of those problems they'd ask in school, and Aros had Leidess to assist him back then. Now, he had Doren and Rikki. Perhaps the three of them could work it out.

  "Stop," M'dalla ordered, holding an arm out. "Up there." She pointed to an uneven mound of sand that seemed to have a depression at its center. "Blades out," she said, retrieving her flail.

  Aros carefully unwound one of Mr. Kwee's tails and withdrew both his blades. "How do you keep that in your cloak?"

  "Magic," she answered.

  "But – "

  "Shh." M'dalla remained as still as a statue. Even her flail refused to budge as the breeze pushed against it.

  The dunes in front of them were collapsing. Mountains of sand were erased in seconds as something beneath the desert disturbed all the grains.

  Aros distinctly remembered the rattipedes hiding underneath the sand in Kytheras' sewers. Is that what was doing this? There was some critter moving beneath them, but it had yet to poke its head up from the desert.

  "Wha – "

  "Shh." If she was afraid, M'dalla didn't show it. There was not a quiver in her stance or a glint of fear in her eyes.

  The beak of the creature finally poked out from the sands. Its jaw was crusted in metal, and its eyes were redder than a healer's coat. There were no arms and legs on its scaly body. It was entirely smooth, except for the occasional glint of silver stuck onto its skin.

  Aros didn't know whether he should be relieved it wasn't a rattipede or concerned that they were face-to-face with a colossal snake. It was as thick as several trees, and its length was indescribable, as part of it remained buried. It didn't seem to notice them at first, as it slithered out of its nest and shuffled the sands atop the desert. He didn't know if his swords could be effective against it but considered that the weapons in his armor might be, if he was able to activate them again.

  "Look," M'dalla whispered.

  Aros moved his eyes off the snake and toward where she was indicating. A metal hatch was sticking up from the sands, most of it uncovered by the creature's movement.

  They'd found the generator. Now they just had to make it past the giant snake.

  "I'll distract it," she murmured. "You go for it."

  Aros nodded, and when M'dalla charged at the snake's head, he took off for the hatch.

  Bright red beams flattened the sands in front of him, and Aros skidded to a halt and fell backwards into a mound. He looked to the left and saw that the snake was shooting the beams from its eyes.

  M'dalla beat back against it with her flail. She smacked at the rays until she was close enough to the snake to make contact with its head. With a powerful twirl, she smashed her weapon into its side and it went down faster than a broken AGT.

  Aros got back on his feet, but the snake recovered as well. It headbutted M'dalla and sent her soaring back toward him. She crashed into a dune but emerged with a brutal intent. "Go!" she screamed at him, before racing back to the snake.

  Aros scampered to the hatch, putting his blades away and twisting the handle as he'd done in the tropical zone. After he pulled it open, he hopped inside and the entire room lit up. It was an exact replica of the last hatch he'd entered, which meant no labels and no clear off button. He'd have to make it explode again.

  "Wanna help?" he asked Mr. Kwee, who had tightened onto the back of his head since the snake's arrival.

  When Mr. Kwee didn't respond, he figured he'd have to go it alone. Aros sped around the room, pulling levers and pushing buttons. When he was sure he hit every one, he rushed back to the hatch's entrance. Fortunately, they'd built a ladder into this one, and he grappled up every rung until he was back in the desert.

  M'dalla had put a few dents into the snake's metal jaw but had failed to put an end to its assault. When it wasn't trying to bite her, it was firing its red beams at her.

  "Over here!" Aros shouted at her, getting an idea.

  She spun in place and shifted over to his side. Her disappearance momentarily rattled the snake, until it spotted her and slithered toward her.

  Alarms started blaring from beneath them. "You know what's about to happen," Aros told her.

  M'dalla glanced down. "I'll keep it here. You need to go." She looked at him.

  "Just shift in time," Aros said, and he sprinted from the area.

  The snake kept its focus on M'dalla, and it spread its mouth wide as it struck downward and tried to ingest her.

  But M'dalla bashed its nostrils in with her flail, and it arched itself away from her.

&nbs
p; When Aros reached a row of cacti, he turned around and watched the two battle. The snake tried to body slam her, but M'dalla rolled out of the way and slammed her flail on top of its head after it missed. She then jumped onto the snake's back and ran on top of it, toward the hatch.

  M'dalla leapt into the air and spun right above the hatch, shifting away. The snake tried to snap its jaw onto her as she went, but only bit into air. While it tried to find her, the generator exploded in a plume of flame. The snake's head, and part of its body, were scorched by the fires.

  "Two down," M'dalla said as she spun into place as Aros' side.

  The remains of the snake plummeted into the sand, with nothing but blackened bones and a roasted jaw left atop its head. Somehow, though, its lifeless eyes were still red.

  Aros quivered as he thought of the nightmares that dead carcass would bring on. "Let's go." He didn't want to stick around in case it was somehow revived, either by magic or by science.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Underwater

  The AGT was waiting for them where they'd left it. Aros wondered how M'dalla had gotten it to do that. When he'd left his first one, it'd taken off on its own. They boarded, and Aros instructed it to head for the "Oceanic zone."

  Aros fell back into a seat, not eager to find what awaited them in the next zone. The Bellish had littered these environments with an assortment of vicious and unappealing monsters. Then it struck him that what they didn't contain were chrome men. He'd destroyed two generators already and not one peacekeeper had come after him.

  He looked to M'dalla, who was resting in a seat opposite him with an arm held up to her face. When she went to look at the fabric, Aros saw it was stained red. There was a cut on her face that was oozing blood. But then something strange happened. The stain on her cloak faded away, as if some unseen force had suddenly cleaned it. She then held it back to her wound.

  "How did it do that?" Aros asked, gawking.

  "Magic," M'dalla stated, like it was always the answer.

  "But you're not a mage," Aros said.

  Mr. Kwee tumbled into his lap and released a cooing sound as Aros started stroking him.

  "Mages can enchant objects," M'dalla reminded him.

  Aros knew that was true. Doren's shield had been enchanted so it could never break. But who had enchanted M'dalla's cloak? And why?

  M'dalla held up a finger. "Don't."

  "Why not?" Aros whined. "I'm trusting you. Can't you trust me?"

  "It's not about trust," M'dalla snapped at him. "Do you not understand what a vow is?"

  "There must be something you can tell me," Aros said. "Like, if the Goddess sent us to retrieve the Keys, why would She send you as well?"

  "The Goddess?" M'dalla asked, confused for a moment until she realized who he was talking about. "Oh. Magenine. So you're a believer, huh?" She moved her arm away from her face and examined the blood on her sleeve. There was much less seeping from the gash.

  "Believer? All of Kytheras believes. Most don't have the Goddess speak to them directly, though." Aros didn't intend for the remark to come off as pompous, but how else was he supposed to say it? Magenine wasn't even talking to him anymore, anyway. She could've told him exactly how to turn off the generator, but he was left to guess at it. This journey wasn't getting easier, yet he no longer had Magenine's guidance or even a reappearance by Leidess to help make it through. The only one who'd shown up was this Roamer. And Mr. Kwee.

  M'dalla arched an eyebrow. "She spoke to you?"

  Aros nodded.

  "You sure you're not just crazy?"

  He had thought that once, too, but was glad to have been proven wrong. "It was Her."

  M'dalla gazed at the Keys on Aros' waist. "We weren't sent here by the Goddess. If She wants you to have them..." Her voice trailed off.

  "Who sent you?" Aros inquired.

  "Now arriving at your destination."

  M'dalla flashed him a smile before standing back up. The door of the AGT opened and a steady stream of rain entered the vehicle. At least it was still raining here.

  Aros got to his feet, letting Mr. Kwee hang off him, and he edged over to M'dalla. When he got a better look out the door, he was confused. There was no ground to step out to. The AGT had stopped in midair.

  He leaned forward, trying to get a handle on where they were. Beneath them, there was not land, but water. An ocean raged below, with every raindrop disturbing the deep blue surface. Aros panicked as he watched the waters swirl. Was he supposed to dive in? He didn't know how to swim. The current had carried him when he had to jump into Wingless River, and he didn't drown because it was shallow enough to stand in.

  The ocean below did not look shallow. He would guess it was deep; deeper than any body of water he'd come across yet. And where exactly was the generator?

  M'dalla readied to jump out, but Aros grabbed her arm. "I can't swim."

  She was unable to hide her amusement. "So the Goddess tasked finding the Keys in a land once surrounded by water to a boy that can't even swim?"

  "Kytheras is surrounded by desert," he countered. "You wouldn't be able to swim either if you'd grown up there."

  "Maybe." M'dalla pulled his arm in and started swiping her fingers on the armor. She got the invisible to lines to reappear and illuminate. "There's a breathing apparatus."

  "A what?"

  "Go put your pet on the seat and I'll show you."

  Aros unwound Mr. Kwee's tails and set him down on the chair. When he returned to M'dalla, she fiddled with the lines until the entire area around his neck lit up.

  "There."

  The golden armor at his collar seemed to unfold and inch up his neck. When it reached his jawline, it kept climbing. His chin was covered in gold, and then his lips succumbed as well. There was no stopping the metal as it consumed the bottom half of his face. When it surpassed his nostrils and the bottom of his nose, it ceased its growth.

  Aros thought it would suffocate him, but when he went to breathe, he was able to do so with ease. "What is this?" he asked, his voice muffled beneath the gold.

  "It'll let you breathe underwater," she told him. "So you won't drown. It's amazing how little you know about this kingdom. Do you just show up without doing any reconnaissance?"

  Aros didn't want to admit his ignorance, so he stayed quiet.

  "That's Bellish armor, and you don't even know how to use it." M'dalla shook her head. "If it let me shift, I'd trade this cloak for it." She turned from him and stepped toward the door. "You're probably gonna sink when you jump, which is good, since I'm pretty sure the generator's at the bottom." She glanced back to him. "Meet you there." M'dalla stretched out her arms and dove from the AGT, heading down to the waters head-first.

  Aros peeked out the door and saw the ocean swallow the last bit of M'dalla's cloak. He did not want to join her underwater and was inclined to let her disable this generator without his aid.

  But there was no knowing what awaited them in the water's depths. The desert was home to an oversized snake. What if there was something worse below? M'dalla might not be able to fend it off herself. And he owed her, since she had taken on the snake alone.

  "I'm not gonna drown. I'm not gonna drown." He looked back at Mr. Kwee after he heard a squeal. "Stay here." Aros closed his eyes and hopped out of the vehicle. He let out a scream as he fell through the misty air and didn't stop even when his feet hit the water.

  His armor took on water as the waves thrashed against him on the surface. He thought they were preventing him from breathing, but then realized he was only holding his breath. He steadily inhaled as he was pulled into the murky depths.

  Aros didn't open his eyes until he was entirely beneath the ocean's surface. The water burned his eyeballs as it pressed against his face, but his sight adjusted after a couple minutes. Though it was dark, there was some visibility, and he could see schools of fish swimming about, not paying attention to the boy that was sinking to the seabed.

  Though he saw normal
-sized sea snakes and obese bass, he was unable to spot M'dalla's cloak or any sign of the generator. He flailed his arms as he attempted to spin his body, continuing the search as he sunk. But only the occasional bubble and sprinkling of algae stood out amongst the fish.

  Aros' feet hit the ocean floor, the disturbance sending a plume of dust toward the surface. His boots dug into the wet sand, the particles lodging onto his coated feet. Each breath seemed louder down here, and the rhythm of his inhalations calmed his nerves.

  "M'dalla!" he called out, doubting she'd be able to hear his suppressed voice.

  All around, there were bundles of seaweed, swaying with the water's current. Minuscule fish swam among them, some making circles as if they didn't quite know where they were going. Aros didn't know where exactly he was going either. There was no clear indication of which direction he should head in.

  He raised his leg and took a step forward. The water slowed him down, so he couldn't move naturally. Lifting his foot up took effort, as did urging it back down. It was like his limbs wanted to float aimlessly in the water and he had to convince them not to. Every stride was a struggle, and one that may have been fruitless. What if he was heading away from the generator and not towards it? What if he never found it or M'dalla? He would be stuck down here, unable to eat, unable to make it back to land. He'd either starve or drown.

  His breaths became shallow and he stopped moving. If M'dalla caused the generator to blow up, then he'd probably be able to spot it. That's how she had found him. Should he wait for that?

  At the very least, there weren't any gargantuan monsters down here as far as he could see. His clawblades could remain where they were. He wasn't even sure how he'd fight with them in these waters. None of his swings would have any momentum.

  Aros took another couple steps, and his boot skidded on something oddly smooth beneath the sand. Whatever it was, he couldn't see it, as it was covered. But it didn't seem like metal, so it couldn't be a hatch. Unsure what it was and unwilling to find out, he kept going.

  The sands beneath him shook as he proceeded. His first hopeful thought was that M'dalla had destroyed the generator, and he looked around for any indication that she had. But the vibrations worsened without any sign of an explosion. Aros glanced down and saw something flexing beneath the grains. Something alive.