Behemoth (The Jharro Grove Saga Book 6)

by Trevor H. Cooley

  On the morning of the third day, the behemoth’s approaching shape could be seen on the horizon, burrowing swiftly forward then stopping, forward then stopping, the ground trembling with each movement.

  Roo-Tan and Mer-Dan forces spread out in front of the city’s southern wall, directly in the path of the coming behemoth. Standing just behind the forces was a long line of powerful witches. Most of these were high ranking members of Roo-Tan houses and Grove elves that had been held back from the front lines. Each one was paired with a sorcerer that could use blessing magic to fortify and strengthen the witch. Their mission was to stop the approach of the Mother.

  Beth, being the strongest of them, stood directly in the center of the formation. Sir Hilt and the rest of the Dry-Foot Brigade stayed protectively around her. Swen and Helmet Jan stood atop a guard tower high above them.

  As the Mother neared, the witches extended their magic, sending a nullifying barrier into the ground before them. The hillscape grew closer in swift pulses, clearing thirty feet at a push. Then it hit the barrier.

  The Mother stopped.

  Mellinda, giddy with the thought of her victory at hand, was caught completely by surprise. Why wasn’t she moving? The barrier in front of her wasn’t physical, but it was as if she had no control over her body past that point.

  At the top of the quivering hill, a tentacle rose into the air. An eye formed on the end of it and Mellinda was able to see the vast white city in front of her and the trees of the Grove tantalizingly on the far skyline. She was so close!

  Another eye sprouted and she got a good look at the formation in front of her. The soldiers were in protective formations. Ah, that was it. They were there to defend a series of witches paired with sorcerers. It was something Mellinda recognized from wars past.

  This was the technique used by the Roo priestesses years ago to halt her first wave of troll attackers. It hadn’t worked when she had returned and planted the behemoth in the swamp beneath their feet. But this time, they knew what they were up against. They were directing their powers at the ground beneath them.

  Mellinda wouldn’t be stopped this easily though. She decided to see just how strong they were. She pulled in even more of her amoebic body from deep in the swamps and gave a great forward push.

  Instead of moving forward, her flesh pushed outward and upward, breaking free of the earth and rising high above the ground like a swelling wave. The defenders trembled in fear of her presence and that bolstered her confidence. Let them fear her.

  She formed large eyes in multiple places along the front of the wave and at the base opened a series of human-looking mouths with large square teeth. She could not send any tongues or tentacles forward past that barrier so she contented herself with making the mouths let out a peal of mocking laughter.

  Then she pushed more flesh forward and grew even larger as she brought her wombs to the forefront of the wave. Puckered holes in the face of the wave yawned wide. Her trollkin armies streamed forth, unaffected by the barrier of magic designed to keep out the Mother only.

  The defenders rushed forward to meet their charge and war was waged on the doorstep of Roo-Tan’lan.

  * * *

  Justan’s journey to KhanzaRoo had started off well. Travelling again with Fist and Lenny and getting to know Maryanne and Cletus and Rufus had made the soggy journey enjoyable. It hadn’t even been all that difficult.

  Witch Jasmine knew all there was to know about survival in the swamps. Tarah’s tracking expertise had been invaluable in helping them know which areas to avoid. The imp had even been on his best behavior. Justan couldn’t have asked for better companions.

  But on the day Deathclaw had finally caught up to them the first disaster hit. The massive upheaval in the swamps had drenched all of them, ruined many of their supplies, and Tarah’s mule, poor Neddy, broke a leg and sank into a quagmire. The mule screamed, frantically trying to pull himself free and Tarah had needed to calm him while Rufus grew and pulled him out. Fist was able to heal the injury, but that had just been the first of their problems.

  Large sections of the swamp’s landscape had been changed. Most of the grassy islands had sunk into the water and the sections of the swamp that had been raised were nothing but mud full of decomposing matter. The swamp, which hadn’t smelled nice before, now smelled worse than the sewers of Dremald. At least, that’s what Lenny said. He called the stench a mix of, “troll arse and gator vomit.”

  Once again, they were dependent on magic to see them through. Fist was able to use a mix of earth and water magic to raise a path in the muck and dry it out enough for them to walk on. When he grew tired, Justan used Rage, changing the elemental output of the sword so that he could send out a blast of cold to freeze and solidify the mud in front of them.

  Then came the second upheaval. It wasn’t as sudden, but it was constant. The ground rose and fell rhythmically, almost as if they were standing on the Troll Mother’s lungs. Even Cletus became nauseous eventually and sleeping was nigh impossible. In addition, the journey which had already become uncomfortable and tedious had now become treacherous. With footing constantly changing no one dared ride the horses and even magically dried out, the mud cracked and crumbled.

  The result of all of this was that they were delayed greatly. The journey that they had hoped to take in six or seven days took ten. The slowness of the journey was made all the worse because of the obvious signs that something big had happened and they had no way of finding out what. Tarah hid it well, but Justan knew that she had to be frantic with worry. At least she had her bond with Djeri to show her that he still lived.

  They came upon their first trollkin as they neared KhanzaRoo. Jasmine warned them in advance that he was nearby. They spread out and surrounded him ready for a fight.

  Justan’s sensitive ears picked up his voice before he came into view.

  “My plants! My poor plants. Oh how the Mother must have been mad to do this to me. Mother forgive me!” The voice was high pitched and did not at all fit the physique of its owner.

  He was kneeling over a long line of vegetables uprooted by the recent upheaval. The trollkin was seven feet tall and fat, with a rat-like tail. Long claws tipped his hands.

  Justan came up behind the trollkin, his swords drawn. “Turn around slowly.”

  Beady trollish eyes widened when they saw the blades. “Uh. What is a human doing here?”

  “Telling you to be very still,” Justan said as the rest of the group gathered around.

  The trollkin glanced around, at the imposing party and swallowed. “I ain’t looking to fight for sure.”

  “Your name’s Julal, right?” said Tarah, recalling the face from Djeri’s memories.

  Julal raised his hands in the air. His nose twitched as he talked. “Don’t know how you know that, but yeah. I’m Julal and I have a pregnant wife and I want to live to see my child so don’t kill me or nothing.”

  “We want you answer some dag-gum questions is what we want,” Lenny said, Buster in hand.

  “O-okay. Questions? Sure. I can answer anything,” he swore.

  “Where is Mellinda?” asked Deathclaw, his voice menacing.

  “Mellinda?” Julal grimaced. “She’s dead. Sorry. I didn’t do it!”

  Justan’s eyes widened. “What? How did she die?”

  “The king killed her. Chopped her up and threw her to the Mother. At least that’s what I heard. I wasn’t there, but lots of folks were mad about it. There was lots of fighting all over town. I didn’t really like her that much. Saw her kill a kin one night. But she did look after Melane when she got sick once so I didn’t tell nobody.”

  “Mellinda was fed to the Mother?” said Lenny. “Well, dag-gum! That’s one job done without even havin’ to swing a hammer.”

  “That just means she’ll be reborn again,” Deathclaw reminded him.

  “Oh. Right,” said Lenny. “Hell.”

  Justan frowned. “Yeah, but would she be reborn wearing the Rings of St
ardeon? I don’t think it works that way. Also, according to Aloysius she was somehow in Arcon’s body. She could end up powerless and separated from him.”

  “Or she could end up bigger and meaner,” Maryanne reminded him.

  Tarah leaned forward, placing the point of her spear against his chest. “What about Djeri? I know you know Djeri. He had memories of you.”

  Julal blinked in confusion, but nodded. “Oh yeah. I liked him lots. But nobody’s seen him in days. The king don’t think so, but folks say he run off. Of course, most folks’re gone now.”

  “What do you mean?” Tarah pressed.

  The trollkin grimaced. “I wasn’t there, but . . . folks say that the Mother sprouted up and took ’em someplace.”

  “Does she usually do that?” Justan wondered.

  “No,” said Tarah. “This is new. Ain’t it, Julal?”

  He nodded. “But lots of folks’re gone so maybe it happened?”

  “Julal,” said Jhonate. She was twisting one of the Jharro rings on her fingers. She had two of them now, both given to her before they had started this mission. One was her link to her father. The other one was a mystery to Justan. He’d figured it was just a link to one of the other forces out looking for the Mother’s brain, but the way she was messing with it made him wonder. She always had a habit of twisting on a ring when thinking of someone. “Do you know where we can find the king?”

  Julal frowned, slow to answer for the first time since the questioning had begun. “You gonna hurt the king?”

  “No,” said Jhonate. “I promise you that I have no intention of harming him. He was my brother before the Troll Mother swallowed him.”

  Julal leaned forward a bit, squinting his eyes at her. “He does have an eye that kind of looks like yours . . .” He shook his head. “Nope. Sorry, I can’t tell you nothing about the king.”

  “He’s at the Axis Palace. Isn’t he, Julal?” Tarah said.

  “I ain’t saying nothing. Don’t kill me, but I’m not,” he added.

  Witch Jasmine drew a knife from her belt. On the end of the handle was a curved claw that glowed white with spirit magic. She pointed the claw at Julal. “I can find out whatever you want to know.”

  Tarah sighed. “I don’t know why I didn’t just do this at the beginning.”

  She reached out and grabbed the trollkin. She winced, then shrugged and let go. “The king hasn’t left the palace since so many of the people disappeared.”

  The fat trollkin frowned. “Hey, what’d you do?”

  Jhonate nodded. “Then let us go. Julal take us to the palace.”

  “Whoa. Hold on, there,” said Lenny. “You sure we should be runnin’ across town? We do that, we’re just askin’ fer a fight. ’Sides, we ain’t here to see the king.”

  “I am,” said Jhonate. “I was supposed to wait until after Mellinda had been slain, but it seems my brother did that part for us.”

  Justan nodded. He had wondered why Xedrion had given in to her request to come. “That ring you have is his. Isn’t it?”

  “Father was wearing this ring when Xeldryn went missing,” she explained. “It has not worked correctly since his disappearance. It does not point in his direction but it is not cold either. It is why father still had hope that he was alive.”

  “Why do you wanna see the king?” Julal worried.

  “To get him to stop this war,” Jhonate replied.

  They left Neddy and Albert at the edge of the city and had Julal take them to the palace in the stealthiest way possible, making their way through parts of KhanzaRoo that had been deserted since the upheaval. Witch Jasmine extended her magic, gently discouraging any trollkin that wandered in their direction and warning them when someone could not be avoided.

  The greater portion of the city was flooded. All of the stone paths or walkways were covered with water. So they walked along the grass islands that were still floating on the high water, taking any bridges that hadn’t broken, leaping across gaps when they could, and every once in a while having Rufus grow in size and take them across watery gaps too large to cross otherwise.

  Cletus saw the gaps as a fun game and challenged Maryanne and Deathclaw to leaping contests. After being reproached several times by the stealthy raptoid, Cletus made sure to whisper his challenges.

  Fallen buildings and other wooden structures clogged the waterways, making for impromptu bridges across some areas and convenient hiding places in others. They avoided the majority of the trollkin in the mostly deserted city, but despite their best efforts, they were seen. A trollkin bird, flying high above, circled the party and flew ahead of them towards the palace.

  The great pyramidal structure soon loomed on the horizon, but before they could reach it, Witch Jasmine warned them that a large number of Trollkin were approaching.

  Justan addressed the others. “We want to avoid fighting if possible. No one make any aggressive moves. Deathclaw and Gwyrtha be still. Rufus, make yourself small. Fist . . . crouch down a little.”

  Soon the approaching group came into view. They climbed out of the waterway onto a grassy island not far from the party. They were massively muscled trollkin, a score of them, many of them with animal traits. Grim looks adorned their faces.

  “If they wan’t a fight, we ain’t avoidin’ it,” Lenny observed, clenching Buster’s handle.

  “Do not raise your weapons,” Justan warned him. “Yet.”

  “Wait,” said Tarah. “I recognize some of them from Djeri’s memories. They are the king’s guards.”

  Indeed, Justan saw that many of them carried Jharro weapons.

  The group of trollkin parted down the middle as one last person emerged from the water. He stood several inches taller than the rest, was broadly built, and had a striking defect. The left half of his head was trollish with long black hair, protruding razor teeth, and a beady red eye, while the right side of his head was bald and human. A Jharro bow was slung across one shoulder and he carried a Jharro staff in one hand.

  “The king,” said Julal.

  “Do not stop me,” Jhonate said. “And do not follow.”

  She ran toward the trollkin. The king’s guards stepped forward, raising their weapons and Justan shouted out at her. Jhonate took a mighty leap, barely clearing the gap between islands. Justan pulled his bow and drew an arrow, ready to fire if she needed him. Maryanne and Jasmine followed suit.

  The king, his eyes wide in recognition, held his men back. Jhonate, without hesitation, ran past the other trollkin to wrap her arms around him in a deep embrace. “Brother Xeldryn, I knew you lived!”

  The Troll King stood in shock, looking down at his sister’s head pressed up against his chest. He had never expected to see Jhonate again and when he had thought of the possibility, he had always pictured her recoiling, repulsed by his face or unwilling to touch his slime-coated skin. Yet here she was, no flinching, her head pressed up against his chest.

  Slowly, his arms enclosed her. A tear slid down the human side of his face. “Jhonate . . . why have you come?”

  She released him and took a slight step back. “I came to bring you something.”

  She removed the ring from her finger and touched it against his Jharro staff. The wood stuck. “Father wishes for you to know that he will accept you as you are. He wants this war to end.” She placed her hand on his chest. “And he wants you to come home.”

  “All of us, Jhonate?” asked one of the other guards.

  Jhonate turned to look at the one who had spoken. “Mother Herlda? Is that you?”

  The female trollkin, Jharro sword at her hip nodded warily. “I doubt Xedrion would want to see me like this.”

  Jhonate cocked her head at the woman, noting the reptilian skin that coated her arms and shoulders. “Was your relationship ever about how you looked?”

  “I do not think that going back will be an option for most of us,” Xeldryn said. “However, I too want this war to end. The problem is Mellinda.”

  “We were told
she was dead,” Justan said.

  The king looked over at him with a frown.

  “This is Sir Edge, my betrothed,” Jhonate said in introduction. “May my friends approach?”

  He nodded and the group began to cross over.

  “If I remember correctly, Father does not like him,” Xeldryn said.

  “Edge won him over,” said Herlda. “He is a good man.”

  Justan stuck out his hand and when the king’s moist hand grasped his, he gripped it firmly. “We were sent here for Mellinda,” he said.

  The king explained what had happened, how Mellinda had taken control of the Mother. “She has been quiet for several days since taking the army away. But she is never really gone.”

  “She is all around us,” said another guard.

  “We have a means to destroy her,” said Jhonate. “We must only find her brain.”

  “The sooner the better,” said Deathclaw, looking at the scar on his palm.

  The king frowned thoughtfully and sighed. “Then we must go to Solitude.”

  The king and his guards led them to the palace and around the massive building towards a water-covered pathway that led into some trees. As they walked, Tarah asked him about Djeri’s whereabouts, but the king said he did not know.

  One of the guards, a striking part dwarf, gave her a worried glance. “Are you Djeri’s wife?”

  “Yes, Murtha,” she replied, matching her worried gaze. Murtha blinked in surprise and Tarah added, “I’m truly sorry about how things happened with you, but I am here to save him and I will take him back with me.”

  “How do you know me?” Murtha asked, slowing down.

  “Djeri and I are bonded. And I know he is somewhere here in this city,” Tarah replied. She pointed in the direction of the bond. “That way. I can feel it. Will you help me find him?”

  “Yes,” Murtha answered immediately.

  “Sir Edge!” Tarah called out.

  “Go and find him,” Justan replied and she parted from the rest of them, taking Lenny, Willum, and Cletus with her.

  The rest of the group continued to follow the king as he led them through the ankle-deep water into a lushly wooded area and beyond, to a wide still lake, the grassy banks of which were barely visible under the water.