The Minotaurs of Maze World

by Eddie Patin

  Jason moved his arms and turned as requested, staring out of the open, draped door of Athelos’s booth. His eyes danced over the crazy bodies and features of the sometimes-incomprehensible creatures he saw passing by out there. After a while, Jason's head was spinning with all of the novel and freakish stuff he was trying to process. He realized that back home, he had a little white cat that was probably sleeping on the couch and a video game console sitting there, turned off. He had friends—Amanda and Tom—starting their new life in Portland, and Ben was probably working in his home office and waiting for Jason to call him out for a beer. While mundane stuff was transpiring on Earth, Jason was standing in a weird alien’s store being fitted for armor so that he could go monster hunting ... for minotaurs!

  A fierce dread started boiling up inside Jason’s guts and he felt his heartbeat quicken. This was weird and scary, and ... Jason didn’t have to do this. He felt a strong longing to ... what? Go back to his old life? That can’t be it, he thought. He didn’t fully know what he wanted, but was it this?

  "Jason!" Riley said suddenly. "We’re good to go."

  Jason became aware of the soldier’s hand on his shoulder. He heard Riley talking to Athelos, but the words were all blending together as his eyes followed what looked like a blurry smear of color purple floating down the street outside. "Thanks, Athelos. We’ll do the best we can."

  The man felt afraid.

  "I look forward to benefiting from your work, Reality Rifters," the translucent, floating being replied. "I will have this armor ready in an hour’s time. And Jason Leaper..."

  The voice was waiting, so Jason returned, gradually slipping back into reality. He saw the dim form of Athelos floating in the booth in front of him, his Merc armor draped over an arm that didn’t completely make sense.

  "Yes?" he said.

  "This armor may work for you for now, and when I am finished adjusting it, it will be comfortable. However, Jason Leaper, if you do indeed decide to hunt for me, bring one hide to me personally, and I will make you something valuable—a jacket perhaps..."

  "What will it cost?" Riley asked.

  "I will create an armored jacket for the cost of the hide you bring me," Athelos replied with a voice like a breeze, "plus a little gold for my labor. Do this, and you will have fantastic protection, Jason Leaper..."

  Jason nodded, then remembered his CamelBak and started sipping on water from his bite valve. The cold water from his pack instantly made him feel a lot better. This place was like being in a really weird dream and Jason realized—when the icy water splashed in his mouth—that he felt chilled. He had let his mind numb, and was just riding along as if he was allowing a bizarre dream to play itself out. He suddenly felt a lot more aware.

  "Thank you, Athelos," he said with an awkward smile, then followed Riley back into the sandy, dim streets full of the bizarre and barely-comprehendible.

  Jason followed Riley as they weaved through the varied creatures and humanoid mercenaries. Eventually, he realized that they were heading to the center of the pyramid.

  "Where are we going?" Jason asked above the din of voices and weird sounds of the Market.

  Gliath’s deep voice grumbled from behind them: "To the Bounty Boards..."

  Chapter 9

  Riley led the way to the ancient, temple-like structure in the center of the Market, watching the new guy behind him every once in a while as what was left of the Reality Rifters weaved through foot traffic in the sandy streets. Gliath followed quietly, strong and reliable, peering around without concern, but Jason...

  Jason 934 seemed to be freaking out. The Earth man walked along behind Riley while gaping at the variety of creatures and planeswalkers around them. His eyes were glazed over as he took it all in with occasional expressions of outright horror and dread.

  Back at the tailor’s, Riley had noticed Jason becoming more than a bit distracted. By the end of their conversation with Athelos, the guy seemed to be mentally gone. As the three of them approached the carved-stone steps leading up to the Bounty Boards, Riley thought back to his own first experiences here in the Market. There sure was a lot to take in, of course, and the human mind couldn’t even wrap around some of the sights and visages of otherworldly creatures here.

  He’ll get used to it, Riley thought, ascending the stairs of the ornate, jet-black building that stood above the rest of the Market in the center of the pyramid. The Bounty Boards was a small pyramid in its own right—a pyramid within a pyramid. Each of its four slopes were carved into imposing stairs as dark as the void of space—seemingly designed for creatures taller than humans—and Skinner's open-air pagoda let in the pink light of the Market's interior. From up there where the manager of the Bounty Boards stood dealing with planeswalkers and mercenary companies, you could easily see in all directions out over the entire Market; all the way to the outer walls.

  Riley felt both of his rifles bouncing against his back and hoped that they wouldn’t get scratched up. Shet, he thought. Whatever job they went on next—be it minotaur hunting or any other—the soldier felt like bringing both guns. Sure, the Gauss rifle had a technological edge and was head and shoulders above the lever action in penetration and velocity, but that Marlin 1895sbl would be great for raw power and ... it was just plain fun.

  The three of them passed a group of Nothrix, who passed Riley by on flappy, scratchy feet, glaring at the soldier with their strange, insect-like eyes as they belched and clicked in conversation with each other. The bug-men headed down the stairs, back into the streets, then faded into the crowd.

  Jason stared at them as they passed, his face flushed with fear.

  Passing through the massive columns holding up the stone frame of the big, open structure, Riley led the way into the main area of the Bounty Boards where he’d been so many times before. The noise of the Market streets faded away as they walked deeper into the building—there was something about this place that absorbed echoes—and Riley turned when Jason suddenly gasped.

  "Who’s that?!" Jason asked, staring ahead in shock and wonder. He had stopped walking and put one shaky hand on Riley’s shoulder.

  Riley looked ahead and saw who he'd expected. Zayden Skinner stood talking to two bounty hunters near the wall full of digital readouts showing current available jobs. The tower of a man still looked the same as when Riley saw him last: a little taller than Gliath’s hybrid form but far broader, wearing ornate alien armor that reflected the pink light of Churn as if it was made of metallic red-gold. Skinner's skin was smooth and pitch-black, and his strange, flame-like hair flicked and licked at the air with all of the shifting colors of the rainbow. Zayden Skinner looked like a man carved from jet-black stone, impressive and confident as hell. This was his domain...

  Riley's eyes hung on Skinner's multicolored, flickering hair. The last time he'd seen such colors, he was escaping the destruction of universe 113 and the Reality Rifter base there, and his friend was dying, consumed by expanding crystalline lattices of every deadly hue...

  Using his bionic processor, Riley controlled the flow of fear and dread blooming from the terrible memory. He shook the bad thoughts away.

  "That’s Zayden Skinner," Riley replied quietly. "He’s the manager of the Bounty Boards. Come on. "

  Riley could feel a nervous energy coming from Gliath, who stood tall and darkly imposing, watching everything around them with his yellowish-green eyes. Every once in a while, those eyes would flick over to Skinner, and the soldier knew that his friend was anxious about the coming conversation.

  That's right, Riley thought. Jason 113 had failed...

  Riley led the way toward the inevitable confrontation. Skinner wouldn’t be happy that Jason 113 almost got them killed, and much less pleased that they’d failed at their bounty on universe 1240.

  The two humanoid bounty hunters walked away as Riley approached the huge, exotic man. They murmured quietly to each other in a language that Riley didn’t understand, then were gone down the stairs.


  "Riley Wyatt..." Zayden Skinner rumbled, looking across the dark space as they closed the distance to stand before him. Skinner's eyes glowed with a fire that looked golden in the light of Churn. He wasn’t smiling. He rarely ever did.

  "Hey there, Skinner," Riley said, stepping into conversation range and craning his neck to regard the ebony giant. He could feel the heat pouring off of him. Riley felt like shrinking into himself under Skinner’s gaze, but he knew that he’d have to face the man’s disapproval if he ever wanted to work the Bounty Boards again.

  "Your group," Skinner said, his voice low and grinding like stone on stone, "is reduced. You have also changed Jason Leapers again, I see."

  "Yeah..." Riley replied with a smirk, then immediately felt uncomfortable for smiling. "Things didn’t go so well with the last job. Jason 113 ... um ... wasn’t prepared I guess you could say, and we were attacked by a seventh dimensional being who—"

  "The client was very unhappy," Skinner said, his powerful voice easily smothering Riley’s.

  "Well, what can I say?" Riley said, lifting his hands to his sides. "I wasn’t the leader, you know? I'm just a soldier, Skinner. I just do what ... you know." The soldier paused, lowering his hands. He was tempted to blame it more on Jason 113, but the idea made him feel like shet. It was Jason’s fault, after all—leading them into a world that was way too crazy-different for their physiology to handle. If Riley didn’t have his artificial lung to keep him from breathing that weird air, he would have been killed back on that world like Goran and Artemis, or dead on the floor in universe 113 as well, warped and twisted into a body of colorful gemstones and crystal growths encased in an atmosphere of prismatic stone. "I was just following orders."

  "Your previous Jason Leaper’s greed led him to his death. It is fortunate that you and Gliath survived, I suppose. Fortunate that you were able to prevent yourself from breathing the environment as he did."

  Riley pressed his lips together and cocked his head slightly, peering into the stony, black face and glowing eyes. For a moment there, he’d forgotten that Zayden Skinner could read his mind. As his next words spun around in his head waiting to take shape, he saw the flame-haired man crack the slightest smile.

  "Yeah," Riley replied, glancing back at Gliath for a moment to comfort him. "So ... no hard feelings, right? We’d like to get to another job..."

  Skinner’s simmering eyes shifted from Riley’s face over to Jason’s. The ebony man eyed Jason 934 for several excruciating seconds...

  "Your new Jason Leaper—he goes by Jason 934?—he is considerably younger than your previous one."

  Riley saw Jason open his mouth to speak, his blue eyes darting back and forth between him and Skinner. Riley could see inside this building just fine with his cybernetic eyes with even the mildest engagement of his image intensifiers, but in Jason’s natural human spectrum, it must have appeared very dark and pink and strange. Zayden Skinner probably looked terrifying to Jason—his black features hidden in shadow, the multicolored light from his flaming hair and golden glowing eyes gleaming on his metallic armor.

  "So you’re..." Jason started, then stammered a little, "the uh ... boss of the Bounty Boards?"

  "Yeah, he’s younger," Riley said, cutting in. "He’s still getting accustomed to rifting." The soldier could feel waves of fear coming off of Jason. "So ... word is there’s a job for Athelos involving hunting minotaurs...?"

  Skinner’s immovable gaze drifted back to Riley.

  "Indeed," he replied with his low voice. "There are few jobs at the moment. That is one of them. Feel free to look over the bounties." He paused, then almost seemed to smile. "So, Riley, who is the leader of the Reality Rifters now?"

  Riley stared back up at Skinner, who stood with his massive arms crossed over his chest like a dark god, waiting with amusement.

  Fruk.

  This sucked. Riley didn't want to be the damned leader.

  Shet! he thought, squirming. He can hear my thoughts!

  Skinner smiled a little more, his tickled eyes smoldering in Riley's night vision.

  "Uh ... I guess that’s me," the soldier replied. Something inside him cringed at the statement. Perhaps he was still in shock at losing Jason 113. Riley felt a growing unease as he avoided looking at Gliath and Jason’s response.

  After a long, uncomfortable moment, Skinner allowed his stony lips to stretch into a rare actual smile then let out a bellowing chuckle, turning away from the three of them. Raising a dismissive hand, the huge man walked off laughing to himself.

  Riley felt the flush of heat in his cheeks. He scratched his beard, almost looked at his companions, then turned swiftly to the Bounty Boards instead.

  "Come on," Riley said, stalking over to the many electronic screens on the thick and ancient stone wall.

  Jason followed, staring at Skinner's back. Gliath proceeded after Riley as nonchalant as he always was.

  "Jeez, that guy’s scary!" Jason finally said, hustling to stay right next to Riley. The soldier started scanning the boards, ignoring the jobs that were incompatible with humans. He found Athelos’s bounty and started looking over the numbers. "What is he?" Jason asked. "It’s like he’s some sort of demigod or something? He reminds me of Hades from a Disney movie back home—but, you know—a lot scarier than Jay Leno. Especially with that fire-hair! Wild!"

  Riley looked away from the boards at Jason, who was peering at the screens also reading them. "Who?"

  "The flames on the top of his head?" Jason replied. "That’s like ... well ... it’s like from a movie. A kid movie."

  What the shet was he talking about?!

  Riley shrugged and finally felt at ease enough to let out a smirk. "Oh, Skinner's not bad," he said. "He’s a really powerful guy—one of the founders of this place. He runs the Bounty Boards, yeah, and is all business."

  "It’s really dark in here," Jason said, peering around the inside of the stone-framed structure. "Is it always like this or is it nighttime?"

  "We’ll have to get you some better eyes," Riley said, turning back to the boards.

  There were only four jobs going on right then, two of which were in universes that would instantly kill the three of them if they tried to rift there. Usually there were anywhere between two and a dozen jobs going on at any given time. The other two were the minotaur job—it looked like Athelos was wanting a total of thirty hides from a choice of three worlds where the beasts lived—and another job involving golem hearts and ... a necromancer?

  "What—do you mean like ... magic eyes?" Jason asked.

  "Cybernetic implants more likely," Riley replied. "It’s been a while since I’ve been home. We can go there sometime soon to visit my dad and get you some augmentations ... if you want."

  Jason looked away into pink space and contemplated that for a moment, then stared at the boards again.

  "Someone wants monster hunters to kill a Nebula Wyrm?" Jason asked. "Is that like a space dragon or something?"

  "We can’t do that one," Riley replied. "We wouldn’t be able to go to that universe, or this one either." The soldier pointed at the other incompatible job. "The ones we can work with are the minotaur job—which we should definitely do—and this golem/necromancer job."

  Riley immediately wanted to learn more about the necromancer job. It was probably something too advanced—very over this new Jason’s head—but Riley felt confident that he could take down a necromancer with Gliath’s help. He’d never killed golems before, but how hard could it be with a Gauss rifle? Gauss rifle bolts could penetrate stone. And doing a hit on a necromancer meant treasure—magical treasure...

  "Golems and a necromancer?" Jason asked, reading the screen that Riley was looking at. "That’s crazy! There are real necromancers?!" He stared at the screen, eyes darting back and forth as if lost in thought.

  Riley turned away from the screens and looked at Skinner who was back, standing nearby and alternating between watching them and watching the surrounding streets. The man’s chiseled face was
expressionless and his eyes glowed like embers.

  "Hey, Skinner!" Riley called out. "What’s the pay on this necromancer job?" There were very few details on the screen about the bounty.

  "Not for you, Riley," Skinner replied, his deep voice carrying easily across the space. "That job is an exclusive."

  "But we’ve done exclusives—"

  "Not anymore," Skinner said. "No more of those for you."

  Shet.

  "Why not?!"

  Skinner merely gazed back at him, massive arms crossed over his chest. The rainbow fire on his ebony head flickered back and forth in the dim light. Riley knew why, of course. They’d failed the last job—that was an exclusive—and because Jason 113 had jumped the tiger, Riley and Gliath’s reputation was now damaged. That client who had used the Bounty Boards to acquire the artifact from universe 1240—the item that the Reality Rifters had lost in the fight with that cosmic entity—must have been very set back by their loss; delayed at the very least. Riley would have to work hard to get back into Skinner’s good graces if he ever wanted to get the good jobs again.

  The soldier turned back to the boards and looked over the minotaur job.

  That was it, then...

  The cap was set at thirty hides. It looked like eight had already been turned in by other hunters. The new Reality Rifters could harvest a maximum of twenty-two hides—assuming that no other planeswalkers turned in anymore in the meantime—if they got down to hunting right away. Riley searched his memory, assisted by his bionic processor, and recalled that the last time they did a similar job for Athelos, his team had turned in ten hides...