Modern Magic
Page 204
The scent of honeysuckle gradually diminished, as an unidentifiable robust odor grew stronger.
Orono’s head turned back and forth as he gazed upon the huge pillows of fat, cake candles that winked and at crystal bowls and vases decorated with pressed gold. He did not know what to look at first.
“Saturn Four has been blessed with not only light and victories, but also wealth.” Orono rubbed his sweaty hands together. “No signs of a war-ravaged kingdom. It has faired well.”
“Do not look too closely, Orono. You will not be here long enough to steal anything,” General Ogroth said.
“Why would I steal when I have information to sell?”
“Your price will remain what we agreed.” General Ogroth placed his hand on his sword.
“Only if I continue to agree!” Orono spat. “I have the information you seek, General. This information would benefit Valek, no?”
Orono smirked beneath his sickly folds and fleshy cheeks.
General Ogroth’s bushy eyebrows rose in question then furrowed together in a furious scowl. He whirled around and pinned Orono against the stone wall. In a matter of seconds, he had unsheathed his sword and now had the glistening blade against Orono’s bulging neck along with his thick, forearm that was pressed hard against Orono’s windpipe.
“Understand this, you creepy piece of crud. This information you are selling us had better be all that you claim or it will be my extreme pleasure to painfully extract more information from you.”
Streams of smoky swirls blew from General Ogroth’s nose as he growled. “Agreed?”
Orono struggled against the slightly larger but surprisingly strong, General Ogroth. “No need for violence. It will be what we agreed,” he sputtered and wheezed, but he dare not swallow the lump in his throat for he feared the lump would not make it over the sharp blade.
“Good.” General Ogroth pressed the blade in and it bit into Orono’s flesh, forcing a whimper of pain as a single line of blood trickled down and over his rolls of flesh.
“I do not like you,” General Ogroth snarled. “Give me a reason to rid the Pixlis Galaxy of you and I shall do it.”
Beads of sweat raced down Orono’s face, mixing with the blood that pooled at the base of his neck.
“Now, follow me,” said General Ogroth as he stepped back, releasing him. He quickly reached for his neck.
They turned eastward down a hallway that lacked the sweet scents and elaborate design of the others. The earthy scent of dust and mold scented the hallway and from hidden crevices ants and other small insects escaped into the obscure cracks of the castle walls. Thin, tapered candles were scattered infrequently down the hall, and the noises of the castle could not be heard.
They came to an old and weathered door. The smell of rotting earth grew stronger. It was the only door in the long hallway of dust and moist earth.
General Ogroth knocked twice and the door opened from the inside without aid.
No guards, servants or maids were about in this section of the castle. No music, food or elaborate celebration was being conducted. Orono searched for a sign of feast or life, but he only found eerie silence and emptiness.
“What is this place?” he asked.
“Enter,” General Ogroth ordered.
Orono stepped cautiously into the room; the bare room had only one chair and several candles. Despite the early morning hour, the room remained shadowy and dim except for the candles’ tiny, circular splashes of light. There were no windows.
Frozen by fear, Orono could not step forward. He had one foot in the room and the other in the hallway.
“Go on!” General Ogroth smashed his hand into his back, forcing him into the room, before entering in and slamming the door closed behind him.
A withered man draped in a ratty blanket sat in the room’s sole chair. His bald-head occasionally caught the candlelight and Orono made out very little else. But the smell that filled the room was one that he needed no light to identify. Death.
“Your highness, Valek’s henchman, Orono, has news hat may be useful to our cause.”
The king raised his hand and beckoned Orono to come closer.
“Tell him, now.” General Ogroth stepped back, giving Orono some room to approach the king.
Orono shuffled forward still holding his neck with one hand. “Good morning, your highness.” He could not believe that this was Saturn Four’s king. He was dressed like a servant.
“Get to the point,” General Ogroth demanded.
“Yes, well, it would benefit you to know that Valek makes Solance from souls. For sanctuary on Saturn Four, I will show you how to make it yourselves.”
“What!” General Ogroth sprung from his position and smacked Orono’s head. “That is not what we agreed.”
“Does he speak the truth?” The king’s high-pitched voice startled Orono.
“No,” General Ogroth said.
“Yes,” Orono whimpered as he stroked his injured head. “I can prove it.”
“General?” The king turned in General Ogroth’s direction.
“I do not believe him. Valek is known for deceitful trickery, and this one is no different.”
“But, I—” Orono stampered.
“Forgive me, Your Highness, for wasting your time.” General Ogroth snatched Orono by his cloak and dragged him from the tiny room, being sure to slam him into the unyielding wall.
“Guards!” General Ogroth barked.
The stone walls on either side of the door slid back, revealing hidden passageways. Three guards emerged and surrounded Orono.
“You have finally given me a reason to slaughter your pathetic hide!”
“I would not be so sure, General,” Orono said softly.
Just as three of the palace guards rushed to tackle Orono, he reached into his pocket and threw a bright orange sphere to the floor where it shattered.
Billows of heady, thick smoke furrowed up throughout the hallway as one of the guards screamed.
“What happened? Where’s Orono?” General Ogroth questioned as he fumbled in the smoke infested hallway. He could not see anything.
“My arm – it’s been bitten off! Something bit –” the guard screamed.
General Ogroth caught a fleeting glimpse of Orono and a smaller person with large teeth running down the hallway to the north just as the smoke began to dissipate.
“There! He’s fleeing down the hallway to the north!” General Ogroth shouted.
Silence.
“Guards!”
As the smoke cleared, his breath caught as he found himself standing in the center of three dead and mutilated guards.
* * *
“Excellent work and just in the nick of time.” Orono patted MaxMion’s head. “Did they miss me?”
“Doubtful. I told them I was going to eat and that you were covering the cages.”
“That General Ogroth is an idiot. We will have to try something or someone else.”
“King Richard is still at the castle,” MaxMion said.
“How fortunate for us!” Orono laughed as he pulled the pink sphere from his cloak and elongated it to a portal just large enough for he and MaxMion. “Let us go home.”
* * *
Kalah had been right. Veloris was frigid and terrible at night. The orange glow of Sarah’s protective sphere shielded them from those harsh elements and strange nocturnal dangers.
Zykeiah said little as they journeyed towards the Southern Forest. She kept the map unrolled as she studied it by moonlight through her tinted glasses.
“How can you read that without any light?”
“The moon provides plenty of light, Kalah,” she said.
Their voices echoed and penetrated the blackness of the night. The sounds of creatures and their own strange noises bounced back at them through the sphere. It caused them to jump and look over their shoulders.
“How long before we reach the Southern Forest?”
“Not long if we travel throughout the night. We should re
ach the forest by mid-morning.”
Zykeiah coiled the map and placed it into her sack. “This would have been more difficult had it not been for Sarah’s sphere. Let us be grateful for what we have.”
“How do you do it?” Kalah slowed his danker beast so that Sarah could catch up to him.
“I do not know. I simply picture and think of what I need.”
She hastened her danker beast and she passed Kalah. She did not want to talk to him. There were parts of her that did not trust him.
As Zykeiah and Sarah rode up front, Kalah covered the rear of the sphere.
“Not natural,” Kalah remarked as he touched the sphere and sniffed.
“There are many things that are unnatural in the galaxy, Kalah,” Zykeiah said.
She removed her tinted glasses revealing her glowing eyes to Kalah and Sarah.
Sarah screamed and for a few moments the sphere flickered and cool streams of the night air filtered in.
She replaced her tinted glasses, and smiled. “You have never seen my eyes at night, forgive me for startling you.”
Sarah placed her attention back to the sphere and concentrated on maintaining it while her heart beat wildly I her chest.
“Speechless?” Zykeiah asked. “They were a gift from a friend.”
“A gift?”
Kalah snorted. “You might as well tell her everything. We have more than enough time.”
“Not everything.” Zykeiah laughed. “It is enough to know this—my sight could not be restored when I was reincarnated back to flesh, so I received new eyes.”
Sarah now understood her discomfort whenever Zykeiah turned her eyes and attention to her. Her eyes were unnatural, almost mechanical. Strange.
“I have never heard of such things,” she whispered.
“They are not of this galaxy,” Zykeiah said with a wink.
With that, Zykeiah fell silent as she quickened her danker beast slightly ahead of Sarah.
Removing a piece of leftover sweet bread from her sack, Sarah ate as the night wore on.
“The circle is called what?” Kalah, eager to disturb the silence, asked again. He was used to the thriving sounds of castle life, not the foreign noises of the forest.
“For the third time, Kalah, it is called the Circle of Elderon.”
“The Circle of Elderon will take us to Saturn Four?”
“Yes!” Sarah and Zykeiah answered in unison.
* * *
The rank smell of animals, plants and snow seeped into the sphere forcing Sarah awake.
The sun’s rays plunged through the trees in an attempt to lift up a new day.
She gazed around at Zykeiah, who was wide awake, too, as they continued to the Elderon Circle. A painful throb at the base of her neck protested to sudden movements and reminded her that sleeping while sitting upright was not a good idea. She longed for her bed back at the castle.
Kalah had fallen face forward into the coarse mane of his danker beast while still riding.
“How?”
“I do not know.” Zykeiah shook her head. “The smell would wake me.”
“Me too,” Sarah agreed.
The two giggled as they rounded the bend of the trail that had gradually became more and more rugged. It was less apparent as to what was forest and what was trail.
The cries of the wrangler birds ceased and Sarah noticed that she did not hear the customary sounds of animals and branches breaking.
“It is quiet,” she said.
“We must be getting close to the Circle,” Zykeiah said. Suddenly she shouted, “Look there!”
Sarah eyes followed her finger to the blackening vegetation to the southwest.
“The Southern Forest?”
“Yes,” Zykeiah turned to Kalah. “Wake, Kalah!”
“See there how the decay spreads and the tangled older trees are warped and gnarled? The Southern Forest is more than just the southern half of Veloris’s Great Forest. It houses all of the major transport circles according to the map. This is both a privilege and a curse for the transport circles use the planet’s energy. The more the circle is used, the more the circle destroys.”
“How?” Sarah asked, in awe of the circle’s destructive power.
“The circles use the energy of life around it. That is why the ground is blackened and dead. The more you use the circle, the farther out it has to expand to reach fresh life sources.”
“Then why did it not kill us when we came through the circle?”
“I do not know everything.” Zykeiah laughed.
“Well, how did you know that about the circles?” Sarah asked.
“It is a Minister Knight’s duty to know Veloris’s history and geology. Marion taught me,” Zykeiah said quietly.
“History was his favorite,” Kalah replied dryly.
“The Circle of Elderon should be to the left, just pass those hills.”
“Great.” Kalah licked his lips and rubbed his head over and over again… nervously.
Sarah’s stomach knotted into small stones of fear. The slick black earth shimmered, indicating the Circle’s presence, reminding her of Solis.
Smaller than the Allerton Circle, the Elderon Circle, from its appearance, did not get much use.
“Smaller than I thought.” Kalah climbed down from his danker beast, pulled off his two sacks and crept closer to the Circle.
“Yes, but we only need it for this one time,” Zykeiah said.
Sarah collapsed the sphere and climbed down from her danker beast. She grimaced at the cold air.
“We will have to leave the dankers!” Zykeiah yelled over the wind as she, too, climbed down from her danker beast. She removed her sack. “Into the Circle.”
Sarah joined hands with Zykeiah and Kalah as they entered the tickling warmth of the Elderon Circle.
“Hold on!” Sarah screamed as the Circle began to spin.
The speed picked up and soon the faces of Zykeiah and Kalah were a blur of colors as she fought the urge to collapse. She was thankful her last meal was so long ago, for her stomach burned in protest to the constant spinning.
Finally, the spinning stopped and the three were dropped to the ground.
As Sarah sat up and checked for broken bones, she noticed that Zykeiah, who landed several paces away, did not sit up or move. Neither did Kalah, who had landed perpendicular to Zykeiah.
The salty air caused Sarah to cough as she made her way over to Zykeiah. Although not from Saturn Four, she knew by the warm gentle breezes and the lush green grass that they were not on Veloris anymore.
“Wake, Zykeiah. We are here,” Sarah called out.
Zykeiah woke and sat upright in the grass. She looked around, sniffed the air, and then said, “Home.”
“Then we are here? Saturn Four?” Kalah asked as he, too, sat upright and rubbed the back of his neck.
“That there is the Labbia Ocean. We are on the western coast of Saturn Four. The castle should be close by.”
Sarah stood and dusted her hands to free them from the clinging wet dirt. Kalah joined them and they started towards the castle.
“There are beaches to the left of us, just before you reach the ocean.” Zykeiah pointed to the west. “These are castle grounds, so be wary of palace guards.”
“Do we have a plan for getting past them or into the castle?” Kalah asked briskly.
“No,” she said.
“No?” he repeated in disbelief. “We’ve come here without a plan? Are we then just going to go to the castle and ask to see the king?” His voice grew hard.
“I think that will be best,” she said.
“Kalah, do you have a better plan?” Sarah asked from her spot near the trail’s edge.
“Well, no, but… are we just going to the castle, knock on the door, tell them who we are and what we want?” He shook his head in disbelief. “They will kill us on the spot.”
“They can try,” Zykeiah muttered as she pulled out her dagger. “But we have news I think they�
��ll want to hear.”
“Like Valek selling Solance to Earth 3012,” Sarah said.
“Yes, Sarah. Exactly.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Stop!” The gruff voice seemed to come from the dense thicket of trees to the east of Sarah.
“Raise your hands where we can see them!”
Sarah raised her hands up to the sky; Kalah did the same as he met her eyes. His eyes reflected the same level of fear that she had seen in the Great Hall. Yet a complete calm had settled over her and she was not afraid.
Zykeiah’s hands hovered around her faithful dagger. She was perfectly still, waiting, watching for the person behind the voice to emerge. Then she would attack.
“Now! You in the front!” The bushes rustled as a solid, square-shouldered man dressed in shiny blue armor stood up from the thicket. As he marched closer to them, Sarah could make out the small design of the Circle Clax bird stamped on the upper right of the man’s armor. She had seen one long ago in a picture book. He also had a blue matching cape attached to the back of his armor and it flapped in the gentle ocean breeze.
Sarah noticed three more guards had emerged from the surrounding forest trees and discovered they all wore tinted glasses similar to Zykeiah’s. They also had the same darkened skin and bushy, tightly coiled hair.
“Palace guards,” Zykeiah whispered to Sarah and Kalah as she raised her hands to the aqua painted sky. “Do nothing.”
Sarah could make out the edges of a smile on Zykeiah’s face as the four palace guards made their way to the Minister Knights.
“Excellent.”
Kalah exchanged a worried expression with Sarah as one of the Palace guards approached and began to search him. He grimaced as the guard’s hands moved over his thighs and up between his legs.
“What is this?” The guard pulled Kalah’s sword from its sheathe and held it high for the others to see. “See here, this one carries a sword.”
The guards gestured for the three Minister Knights to get in a tight circle and then surrounded them. Sarah felt small amongst the four equally massive guards.
They had armor that gleamed in the mid-day sun. These guards had never seen battle, Sarah surmised as she thought back to Marion’s assortment of swords that despite their polish, still showed signs of heavy use. What would Marion do in this situation, she wondered as she watched the four guards.