Kings of Ghumai- The Complete series Box Set

by D N Meinster

  The Mayor sauntered up to her. “Are you going to…?”

  “Shift?” Rikki looked out to sea. There was no sign of Noon or the broken island she’d created. Didn’t that mean they had to be on the northern side of Set?

  “What is it?” Mayor Kellig asked, turning to face the waters.

  Rikki didn’t want to worry the Mayor, but she was growing uneasy at the lack of any other sound besides the waves. This is where everyone had gone to. It didn’t make sense that Set was empty.

  The Mayor locked his hand onto her staff. “Take me to my constituents.”

  Rikki bit her lip and shifted them away. If they weren’t on this part of the island, she could only hope she’d find them on the other.

  The broken beaches faded into view, but so too did something that hadn’t been there on her last visit.

  Snow.

  Before Rikki could get a better look at their surroundings, something smashed into her back and tackled her to the ground.

  She could feel its heat as it sat on her back, though the cloak prevented her from being burned.

  Rikki was only able to lift her head up enough to watch Mayor Kellig run away and leap into the Unending Seas.

  Her arms were locked at her sides, and though she had her staff in hand, she wasn’t able to maneuver it. How was she to lift this thing off her back?

  She couldn’t. But maybe she didn’t have to.

  Rikki took a deep breath and willed herself to sink into the sand. She could feel the tiny granules tickling her exposed skin as the beach swallowed her up but left whatever had attacked her on top.

  When she sank far enough that she was free of whatever had sat on her, she shifted out from the sand and back to higher ground.

  She stood back up immediately, finally free of any obstruction, and took a gander at what had attacked her.

  She should have been able to guess: frost urchins. A small pack of them had made it to Set, and three of them were charging at her, their mouths gaping and quills on end.

  Rikki summoned up a barrier which materialized in-between the torso of one of the urchins. Its front half was propelled forward before it tumbled helplessly through the sand, while its back half merely fell to the side.

  A second barrier appeared along the path of another urchin, and it slammed its head into the nearly invisible wall and dropped unconscious onto the ground.

  The last urchin got close enough to swipe at Rikki, and one of its quills managed to slip open the back of her hand. Rikki responded by lifting a cloud of sand into the air around them and transforming it into shards of glass.

  The shards enclosed the urchin before they embedded its body all at once. The skewered creature was dead before it collapsed into the sand.

  Rikki swiftly healed the laceration before checking on the status of the Mayor. As she turned her sights to the sea, she spotted the rest of the Twilean survivors floating in boats between the islands. Some had even taken residence on the newfound island between Set and Noon.

  She grinned to herself, watching them bob along in the waters while the agitated swimmer caught up to them. The Mayor would check up on them and let them know what she had done. They were safe from the urchins. They could return to their homes.

  And she was close to being able to return to her home too. All that was left to do was return to her friends and dig up the fifth Key.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Fifth Key

  Aros and Doren came back into view as Rikki shifted to their side. But there were more in their company than before she had left them. A handful of urchin corpses lie at their feet, the victims of bronze and Ligold weapons. Clearly, not all of the frost urchins had returned to their nest on the Cartographer.

  “I hope there aren’t many more left,” Rikki stated, nearly startling her friends. “I got a few on Set.”

  “However many are left, I’m betting the Twileans can handle them,” Doren asserted.

  “Yeah, they’d outnumber them now, right?” Aros asked.

  “As long as the Cartographer doesn’t drift back here,” Rikki replied. She was fairly certain she’d set it on a trajectory that would take it far from the Twilight Islands, but she couldn’t control the winds and currents forever. That would be in the Goddess’ hands.

  “They’re probably good for another three hundred years or so,” Doren said with a wink.

  Rikki smiled back before surprising him with a hug. “Let’s get this key and go.”

  Doren grimaced. “Why are you so eager to return home?”

  “Eager isn’t the right word,” Rikki said. It was less about going back to Kytheras than finally finding out what Hatswick was up to. Once they had the four Keys, she was certain he’d reappear. And if they were able to defeat him, then all of Ghumai would be safe once more. That feeling that they weren’t quite safe, that there was something malicious waiting for them, would go away.

  “Well, I’m eager,” Aros replied.

  “To go back to Kytheras or Terrastream?” Doren teased.

  Aros gave him a slight shove and they let out a few chuckles.

  “When we have four Keys, Hatswick will come for us,” Rikki warned.

  Aros and Doren’s faces immediately fell.

  “And then we can snatch the fifth,” Rikki continued. “The mission’s over after that.”

  “What will we do with all five Keys once we have them?” Aros asked, hoping his friends or the Goddess could answer. He was met with shrugs and silence.

  “If we kill Hatswick, we can send them back to the other kingdoms,” Doren stated.

  Rikki and Aros looked somberly at him.

  “What? You know you were thinking it. What else are we supposed to do?”

  Rikki nodded. They didn’t really have any other way of dealing with Hatswick. If he lived, he would always be a potential threat. They couldn’t conjure up another door to lock him away too.

  Aros didn’t want to object to his friends’ plan, but he didn’t like the idea of intentionally trying to kill someone. So many had already died over the course of their travels. They couldn’t help it when they were in the middle of a war, but they didn’t have to premeditatively plan on murdering their enemy.

  Yet this was the man that had murdered Leidess. Maybe he could accept it after all.

  “Hatswick deserves to die,” Aros stated aloud.

  “For Milo and Leidess,” Rikki added.

  None of them seemed to like these dark thoughts, but no one objected to this most obvious course. There was no alternative. To save Ghumai from Neanthal, Hatswick’s life had to be ended.

  Doren flipped his shield off his back and held it out between him and his friends.

  Aros subsequently slid a blade from his back and laid it atop the shield.

  Rikki moved her staff to touch her friends’ weapons. “We’ll do what we have to. Together.”

  “Hurry,” Magenine’s voice whispered in Aros’ ear.

  “The Goddess wants us to hurry,” Aros repeated.

  “Good to know She doesn’t dissent,” Doren said as he returned his shield to his back.

  “Hatswick has had a long life,” Rikki stated. “Longer than Amelia’s.”

  “I won’t feel guilty,” Doren said as he began to shake the arm of his cloak.

  Aros was slightly taken aback that Magenine’s response was to tell them to get on the move. She should be the one to tell them to stop. He was already feeling guilty and they hadn’t even done anything yet. If anyone was going to talk them out if it, it’d be him. And he couldn’t bring himself to do that. Each time he considered it, he saw Leidess’ face; he saw her soul leave her body.

  The map finally fell from Doren’s sleeve and into his hands. “Shall we?”

  Both Aros and Rikki looked over his shoulders as he unfurled the map in front of them. Drawn onto the old parchment was the outline of Noon, with an X marking the spot where the fifth Key was apparently buried.

  “Be ready for anything,
” Rikki advised, not knowing if there were traps awaiting them from Hatswick or the person who’d drawn and enchanted the map.

  Doren rolled the map up and stuck it back up his sleeve. “You can shift there?” he checked with Aros.

  Aros nodded.

  Within moments, all of them shifted off of Rise and onto Noon.

  Aros started screaming before he realized why he was screaming.

  He had shifted way above Noon and was plummeting toward an uneven snowbank. He flailed and twirled as he attempted to spin out of his predicament, but between the wind and the promptly approaching island, he wouldn’t be able to shift in time.

  As he prepared for impact, he felt his whole body jolt as he was brought to a standstill in midair.

  “Aros!” he could hear Rikki and Doren both call out in a scolding and concerned manner.

  He grinned sheepishly though neither of his friends could see. Apparently, he’d yet to master the art of shifting.

  Carefully, he floated downward until his feet touched land. When Rikki removed her guiding magic, Aros stumbled forward and fell face-first into the snow and sand.

  His friends ran over to him as he pushed himself up and got into a kneeling position

  “We should take that cloak away from you,” Doren spoke as he moved in.

  “I just need more practice,” Aros insisted. He understood how to shift to the correct locale; it was only the altitude that was giving him issues.

  “When you next shift, imagine your feet on the ground,” Rikki instructed. “And focus on them never leaving it.”

  Aros tried to memorize Rikki’s words. He couldn’t depend on her every time he was planning to shift. When he returned to Terrastream, he wasn’t counting on her going with him. He had to learn to do it correctly by himself.

  Doren retrieved the map from within his cloak and unfurled it. After studying it for a minute, he said, “I think me and Rikki shifted to right where this X is.”

  “Then let’s follow our footsteps back,” Rikki said.

  “Wait,” Aros requested. He stood back up, and before they could protest, he spun in place, focusing on both staying on the ground and shifting to exactly where his friends had initially ended up.

  Though he sunk into the snow as he completed shifting, he was relieved that he hadn’t ended up even a few inches in the air. “I can do it!” he shouted as his friends made their way back to him.

  “He can keep the cloak,” Rikki said, smiling at Doren.

  “Don’t make her regret it,” Doren said, sweeping a clump of hair from in front of his eyes.

  All three of them began to circle the spot where they assumed the fifth Key was buried. Doren took out his map as they went, nodding his head as he silently assured them that this was the correct location.

  “Where do we get shovels?” Aros asked, wondering if there was something else they could use to dig it up.

  “You don’t need shovels,” Rikki replied. “You have a mage.”

  She froze in place and so did her companions. Gripping her staff with both hands, she held it out between them before leaning it toward the ground and touching one of the silver wings down atop the snow.

  The snow began to swirl in place like someone was stirring it with an invisible spoon. Faster it went, the white powder breaking into bits and the grains of sand beneath it becoming visible.

  Rikki whipped her staff back and a column of snow and sand rose straight into the air before curving toward the Unending Seas.

  Three pairs of eyes peered down into the newly created hole, but none saw anything but moist snow.

  Doren, gripping both edges of the map, held it open over the hole, hoping for something to happen. They were told they needed the map in order to reveal the Key. If it didn’t work from a distance, perhaps he needed to go down there with it.

  As he stood motionless, the X on the parchment began to glow. Moments later, a brightly lit X appeared at the bottom of the pit, illuminating not only the dark sand but an object at the very center of the X.

  It was a simple wooden chest, with a curved top and strips of metal embedded in its design.

  Doren looked to Rikki to bring it up from the hole, but before she could act, the entire island began to shake.

  “Is that supposed to happen?” Aros asked.

  They all watched as the chest started rising up from the bottom of the hole, while the encompassing sand cascaded down into the newly formed cavity.

  “Get back!” Rikki commanded, following her own orders as she moved in reverse.

  Aros and Doren mimicked her, though neither had any clue what exactly was happening.

  The chest didn’t stop rising as it reached their level. Instead, it kept going, propelled upward on the top of an unidentifiable bulbous base that was only shades darker than sand.

  Breaking through the ground all around them were beige tentacles, stiff but menacing. They wiggled but made no significant movement as the chest and its base rose higher.

  “Eight tentacles!” Doren cried as he took his shield in hand.

  “Octopod!” Rikki shouted back, recalling the leviathan from an old school book.

  As its head fully emerged from beneath the island, its startling yellow eyes were finally visible at the bottom of its oblong head, as was a gaping mouth filled with teeth that were at least as sharp as a frost urchin’s quills.

  Doren sped over to Rikki, sidestepping the emerging tentacle between them so he could reach her side. “Octopods are supposed to be smaller than dogs.”

  “Not this one,” Rikki replied gazing at the immense beast.

  “I guess they forgot to tell us about the monster guarding the Key,” Doren said.

  “Maybe the mage that enchanted the map didn’t tell them. They probably assumed that only a Thalian would dig it up.” Rikki stood in place, admiring the work of a fellow mage. They’d not only linked enchantments and engorged an octopod, but they’d managed to keep it alive for hundreds of years, well past its natural lifespan.

  “Why are you smiling?” Doren shouted at her.

  “Whoever did this was on our side,” Rikki replied. “And they were really serious about protecting the Key.”

  “Are we just supposed to watch it?” Aros asked, finally making his way over to them.

  The octopod’s tentacles had fully emerged from below, and though they smacked snow and sand as they flailed about, they had yet to target the trio.

  Rikki was reluctant to harm the octopod and tried to think of a way to grab the Key without maiming it. “If we take the Key from the chest, maybe it will break the enchantment. It might go back to its normal size or even return to its underground home.” It was only a guess, but they were going to have to grab that key one way or another. Better to try doing so without fighting it first.

  “Launch me,” Aros said, holding onto both clawblades.

  “What?” Rikki replied.

  “Send me toward the chest. I’ll either get to it or distract it so you can shift to it.”

  Rikki glanced at Doren and nodded. She held out her staff horizontally and Aros leapt on top of it. As he got his footing, Rikki swung her staff forward and sent Aros soaring directly at the chest.

  A tentacle swept out from the octopod’s side and snatched Aros from midair.

  “My turn,” Doren said. He spun in place and shifted to atop the octopod’s head. As he reached down for the chest, a tentacle ensnared him and pulled him into the air.

  Rikki tried summoning the chest down from the octopod’s head, but it wouldn’t budge. She was going to hurt the protector of the fifth Key. She knew it was only there to fight Thalians, so she tried to check any bubbling guilt as she targeted the octopod with her staff.

  With two swipes, the tentacles that were clutching her friends detached from the leviathan’s body. It howled as its freed tentacles crumpled into the snow and sand.

  Aros and Doren rose up and charged at the monster. But before either could reach it, they were on
ce again taken airborne by a pair of remaining tentacles.

  Aros was not as badly positioned this time, and he tossed a clawblade directly at the octopod’s eye. It turned a dark shade of red as the clawblade blinded it.

  Doren copied Aros, sending his shield at the octopod’s other eye. It stuck into the moist membrane and turned it just as red as the other.

  Its tentacles went wild as the blind beast attempted to guard the chest from threats it could not see. It swayed and shook its head as it did its best to continue its duty.

  Rikki took her staff in one hand, the channeling crystal glowing in a luminous green that appeared to coat the silver, and she tossed it like a javelin at the octopod. Instead of making direct contact with its head, it curved and cut through each of its tentacles. By the time it returned to Rikki’s possession, the octopod was completely disarmed and her friends were once again freed.

  The octopod squirmed and snapped its mouth open and shut, but it was helpless to defend the chest.

  “It’s okay,” Rikki said on approach. “You did well. Your mage would be proud of you.”

  Her words did nothing to calm it.

  So Rikki laid her hand on the beast, and it almost instantly went still. The place she was touching on the octopod transformed to stone. And, like a gray wave, it overtook the monster and left it as little more than a statue.

  Aros came up to the stone octopod and locked both hands on the hilt of his clawblade. After several yanks, he freed it from the statue, taking only a bit of gravel with it and send up a thin cloud of dust.

  Doren had much more trouble retrieving his shield and had to rely on Rikki to use her magic to free it.

  The three of them gathered together at the base of the stone octopod, gazing up at the chest atop its head.

  “I’d say Doren should take this one,” Rikki said, tapping the Key on her necklace.

  “Agreed,” Aros replied, nodding vociferously.

  Doren eyed both of his friends before spinning in place. He shifted to the top of the octopod, adjacent to the chest.

  He scrutinized the wooden box, checking for any indication that there might be another trap waiting. But he could deem nothing on the smooth wood or metal suspicious.