Waving my sword in a slow arc before me, I was trying to decide which was the greater threat when the head of the flipper man exploded. I looked back over my shoulder and nodded my thanks to Ben.
“Halie! Look out!” he shouted, too late.
Shrieking in surprise, I tried to avoid the wolf-head ghoul lunging for me. Unfamiliar with true battle, I’d made what could have been a fatal mistake—I’d taken my eyes off an enemy. Jaws lined with rows of dagger-like teeth snapped shut on my arm before I could move.
I twisted, trying to free my arm even as I used the sword gripped in my other hand to chop at the creature’s leathery back. Bloody chunks of soft flesh exploded from the wounds I was inflicting. From the corner of my eye, I saw the red and white swirl of Dusty’s coat as she leapt to my defense and tore at the creature, repeatedly biting and slashing at its arms and legs.
When I finally managed to jerk my arm free I was expecting to see blood, my blood. I nearly fell down in relief when I realized that the bloody mess smeared over my arm like over-ripe fruit was actually the ghoul’s teeth.
Ignoring its multitude of bloody wounds, the ghoul dodged the dog and came after me again. “Come on, Big Ugly—I’ve got more for you!” Angry that I’d been caught off-guard I spun and landed a solid kick in its gut before slashing it again. Between my attack and the dog viciously savaging it, the ghoul was finally over-balanced.
Staggering, it swayed for a moment, giving Dusty barely enough time to abandon her grip, and landed on the ground with a sodden thunk! The dog darted in for a final bite of a quivering leg.
“Halie! Are you okay?” Ben grabbed me by an arm and spun me to face him.
“Yes, thanks for the warning.” I blushed and wiped some of the slime off my face.
Over his shoulder, I spotted a pair of skorks slinking from the cover of some rocks, creeping toward us. “We’ve got more company,” I warned Ben as I pulled away from him.
He spun and pointed his weapon, intending to shoot them, but instead of attacking us, the skorks veered off and pounced on the dying ghoul. It squalled faintly and fell silent as the goblins began feeding on it.
“That is just totally gross,” I gasped in disgust before turning in the direction of Jake’s shouts for help. He and Jennie were bravely holding off a cluster of ghouls. At first I couldn’t locate Kelly, but her now familiar battle-cry drew my attention to a cluster of rocks where she had managed to corner one of the nasty little skorks. I was trying to decide who needed help most when Ben shook my shoulder.
“Help your sister, I’ll give your friends a hand,” he ordered as he shifted the revolver in his hand.
I gave the dead wolf-ghoul and the skorks scavenging the corpse wide berth as I ran toward Kelly. I’d nearly reached her when her opponent saw me coming. Shrieking, it dodged under Kelly’s cane and scuttled off into the underbrush.
“I think it’s had enough of me,” she laughed as we watched the ugly little creature slinking into the shadows.
Before I could respond we were interrupted by the distinctive sound of a taser set on kill. “Sounds like Rainor’s got things under control.” I looked around for him, but he must have been behind the rocks further in from the water. “Come on, we need to check on Jake and Jennie.”
By the time we reached them, the last of the ghouls were retreating into the rocks. Ben fired several more rounds at the ground and the bullets kicked up little puffs of sand behind the ghouls flopping and rolling into the cover of the rocks and brush.
“That should keep them from coming back,” laughed Jennie.
A rustle of bushes nearby drew our attention to a lone skork, sneaking up on the frogg where he was hiding in a nearby cluster of rocks. I took a step to go to its aid but Jake held a hand up to keep me back.
In two long strides, he was behind the skork. Swinging his sword, he smacked the creature on the back of the head with the flat of his sword. The ugly little goblin was sent slamming, face first, into the damp sand. Sputtering and squealing, it rolled to its feet and twisted its head almost completely around on its neck to see who had assaulted it. Its face curdled like week-old slop and it’s large, poppy eyes bulged nearly out of their sockets in fear. Hunching its shoulders up around its long, floppy ears as if anticipating another blow, it scuttled off into the rocks.
We all knew that our situation was serious and potentially deadly, but the look on the goblin’s face was just too much. I nearly choked trying not to laugh, but the snickers and strangled laughs coming from the others destroyed what was left of my self-control—I busted out laughing.
With our attackers on the run, we’d let our guard down and were not watching the open beach behind us until Dusty went crazy again, barking and snarling at the water behind us.
“Take cover!” I grabbed Kelly by the arm and began dragging her behind a nearby boulder with me.
“There must be dozens of them!” Kelly gasped. “And they’re huge! What are we going to do, Sissy?” She huddled against me as we watched the dog race along the water-line, barking furiously at the pack of giant ghouls rising from the waves.
“I don’t know.” I looked down at the sword I was still clutching in one hand and knew that it would be a death sentence to try to take on creatures of this size. “There’s no way in hell I’m going to get within reach of those claws and flippers and whatever those other things are!”
Ben and Rainor had taken positions a few feet behind Dusty and were firing at the ghouls stalking steadily toward the beach. Trouble was, neither bullets nor stun were having much effect.
“We’ve got to get out of here, Sissy!” Kelly jerked at my arm, trying to get me to run.
“She’s right,” agreed Jake as he and Jennie slid in behind our rock, “and they won’t retreat until they know we’re clear.”
I just nodded as we began edging away from the beach. Another volley of hysterical barking reminded me of the dog, armed only with her teeth, valiantly defending our backs.
I stepped from the cover of the rocks. “Dusty!” I shouted to be heard over the weapon fire. “Dusty, come to me!” I called again. Something hissed past my ear, sending shivers up my spine.
Jake’s hand was on my shoulder and we slammed into the sand behind the rocks as a rain of missiles flew from the brush on the land side. Keeping my head low, I slid to the side of the rock and peered around it, hoping to spot Ben and Rainor. Had they been hit in the attack? Before I could raise my head enough to look, Dusty threw her big, sandy body on top of me, panting excitedly.
“Easy, girl, I’ve got you,” I tried to reassure her as I wrapped my arms around her neck.
“Keep going! Get out of here!” Rainor shouted when he saw that we were waiting for them. I was relieved to see that he and Ben had taken shelter in some rocks lying between the ghouls and whoever was firing the missiles. We were very effectively trapped in the cross-fire between the two forces.
“Halie!” Jake whispered in my ear. “I don’t think those missiles were meant for us.” He nodded in the direction of the heavy brush. “Watch, they’re aiming at the ghouls.”
And it was true. All around us, the ghouls were falling, victims of the barrage of short-shafted arrows protruding from their necks and backs.
The attack was over minutes later as the ghouls either collapsed to the sand or sank back into the water, where they were immediately swallowed by the dark waves. When the arrows stopped flying, I crept from the shelter of the rocks to stare in disbelief at the bodies of the dead and wounded creatures scattered along the beach.
“Hey, sis,” Kelly whispered from my side, “I’ve never seen ghouls like that before. What if they come back? How are we ever going to defend ourselves from something like that?”
“I don’t know Kelly, I really do not know.” I didn’t want to frighten my sister anymore than she already was, but these creatures were nothing like the phantoms we’d become so familiar with. Some of them had had heads that resembled sharks but were plainly amphib
ious, with pumping gills and stumpy arms and legs bearing long, dangerous-looking claws. Others looked like giant crabs walking on long legs with claws that clicked and snapped threateningly. Their humanoid faces looked like they’d been pasted between the wobbling antennae in the center of their heads.
“Halie,” Jennie jerked on my elbow to get my attention, “over there.” She pointed at a shark-ghoul that was prowling along the upper-edge of the beach towards a cluster of skorks that had slipped from the brush to feed on a corpse. Oblivious to everything except their hunger, they didn’t see it coming until it pounced. They scattered like a covey of quail but not before vicious jaws full of long, razor-edged teeth snapped shut on the slowest of their party.
None of us especially liked the nasty little skorks, but the creature’s pitiful scream made us all cringe.
My teeth ached from clenching them long before the skork mercifully succumbed.
“That was really awful,” Kelly gasped as she moved closer to my side.
“Yes, it was, but the death of a gruesome little scavenger like that isn’t what’s got me rattled,” I said with a shiver. “What does worry me is the fact that neither of these groups of ghouls are the vacuous, harmless ghosts that have infiltrated our own world. These are solid and very dangerous.” Seeing the dog racing across the beach, snuffling at the bodies of the dead, I called her back to me. “Dusty! Come!”
Hearing my call, she leaped over the thick, green-scaled legs of a dying ghoul before racing back to us.
“Good girl.” Kelly giggled when the sandy dog slammed into her legs.
“Oh, great!” I groaned. One of the remaining ghouls had spotted the running dog and was now waddling after it and toward us.
Taking a firm grip on my sword, I stepped out into the open. I was braced to do battle to defend my sister, but my knees were shaking and my legs nearly collapsed under me when I looked up into the face of the shark-head ghoul. A sound very like a growl rumbled from its chest as it loomed over me.
A flicker of movement to one side drew my attention and I caught a glimpse of Ben and Rainor moving towards me with raised weapons, but I was too close to the seven feet of ghoul. They could not fire their weapons without striking me.
“Damn,” I muttered. Taking a deep breath, I tightened my hands on the sword and released the energy I’d been gathering, allowing it to flow through the hilt and into the blade. I guessed now was as good as any other to test my little theory.
I was bracing to meet the ghoul’s attack when something flew over my head and slammed into its chest.
I took a step back and raised my arm to protect my face and eyes from the cloud of sand being kicked up by the two figures thrashing on the beach. When I was finally able to focus my eyes, I realized that the object straddling the ghoul was a small, humanoid woman. I could only stare in disbelief at the delicate-looking young woman, with a mass of dark grey-green hair swirling about her shoulders, wrestling to free the blade of a long knife from the side of the monster’s throat.
“If you can get a blade into their jugular, it’ll kill’em every time,” she declared with a smile for me and the girls as we gathered around her. She jumped off its chest and stood up with her hand out to greet us. “Hi, I’m Misty.”
“Damn, Misty! How many times have I told you to use the taser I gave you instead of jumping on those things like that?” Rainor demanded as he and Ben joined us. He fired a couple of taser-shots in the direction of the scattering of ghouls still wading through the surf before returning his attention to us.
“Halie, are you alright?” Ignoring the others, he grabbed my hand before the new arrival could wrap it in her bloody grip and, much to my embarrassment, began checking me for wounds. He jerked when he felt the sharp tingle of energy still pulsing through the hand he was holding and gave me a quick look of surprise.
When he was sure I hadn’t been harmed, Rainor returned his attention to the young woman, plainly intending to reprimand her again, but she threw herself at his chest before he could get the words out of his mouth.
“I was so worried about you,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Ignoring the reunion, Ben stepped around the couple and fired his revolver at one of the crab-ghouls sneaking behind us. He was joined on the beach by several more of the new-comers who added their own missiles to the shots he was firing at the creatures still lurking in the churning waves.
“Rainor! Glad to see you again. We were beginning to worry when you didn’t check in on time,” declared a tall, slender man stepping from the rocks behind us.
I knew I was gawking, but I couldn’t help staring as one of the most handsome men I’d ever set eyes on made his way toward Rainor. The effect was magnified when the wind tumbled through his thick mane of russet hair so that it blew into his face and forced him to straighten up to his full height, which must have been at least six-four, and stretch his heavily muscled arms up to sweep his hair back. giving me a clear view of his very muscular body and the glistening scales covering his exposed flesh. I was also pretty sure that those were gills visible at the base of the man’s throat. In fact, it appeared that all of the people that were closing in around us had gills and webbed toes and the same gods of sun and sea look.
“Wow, look at him,” gasped Jennie as she leaned against me to whisper in my ear. Neither of us could seem to keep from staring at the men gathering around us. None of them were wearing a lot of clothing, just sandals and short sarongs in an assortment of pale, silvery colors. Even the scales on their bodies shimmered either a silvery pearl or iridescent sunshine gold.
“Orin! Gotta’ say, your timing is good! What’s going on with this attack?” Rainor demanded. “I’ve only been gone a couple of weeks. When I left, things were pretty quiet here.” Ben’s return made him stop, as if suddenly remembering his audience.
“Please excuse my manners,” he said. “I would like to introduce you to some new friends of mine.” He proceeded to name us before introducing the natives. “This is Misty, my little sister,” he said with a wink, “and Orin, who is leader of this pack of renegades.” He smiled at the man’s frown. “The rest of this pack are, well, they are all residents of the village we are about to visit, and I’m sure they will manage to introduce themselves later on. Right now I would really like to get us out of the open and to the village so we can get some information and,” he looked down at his wet, sandy clothing, “some dry clothes for all of us.”
The natives closed in around us, smiling and chattering as they carried us along a path through the surrounding barrier of rocks and boulders.
Chapter Twelve
We’d gone only a hundred yards past the strip of rocks when we encountered a canal of water. A well-traveled path following its bank, and the residents of under-world began to appear.
The all-too familiar phantoms that had been haunting over-world for most of the last half-century arrived, swooping and swirling about our party. A pair of the stumpy-legged trolls just like the one I’d seen kill a monkey in front of our apartment building only a day ago chunked into sight, happily chasing each other between the tufts of purple grass that lined the pathway. A serpentine bigger than any I’d seen before swooped from the trees and eagerly greeted Rainor before moving on to gently rub against each of the new-comers like a giant cat looking for attention. The only difference between these and the ones we already knew was that these were not ghosts.
“You aren’t concerned about the serpentines?” asked Misty when it was my turn to be greeted. “Their size can be a little intimidating.”
“No, I’ve been seeing them all my life and I know they’re harmless.” I laughed. “But those ghouls that came out of the ocean—those were something none of us have seen before.” I studied the dainty, elfish young woman walking at my side for a moment before deciding to question her. “Is this the way the ghouls act all of the time? Are your people always in danger?”
Misty nodded her head. “Yes, s
ince the time that the two worlds first came into contact. I’ve been told that the ghouls were not as aggressive or deformed before then. It has something to do with the radiation of the sun, but this is the way it has been for all of my life.” She paused, as if trying to decide what she could ask. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything,” she smiled and cocked her head, “but you and your friends are obviously not like those poor freaks that frequently follow my brother home, so tell me, are you one of these psis that he’s been so ardently searching for?”
“Maybe. Rainor seems to think we can help. I’m really not sure if there’s anything we can do, but we did agree to accompany him so that we’ll have a better idea of what’s needed for both worlds to accomplish the merging.” I frowned, trying to organize some of my thoughts about recent events. Everything had been happening so fast. “All I know is that if there is something we can do to bring an end to the way things are now, well, then we’re willing to do anything within our power to help.”
The raised path we were following had widened and become a wide, sandy dike. To our left, what had been clumps of spindly trees had gradually thickened and become a forest, but the ground on the far side of the canal was a patch-work quilt of grain-bearing fields and groves filled with tropical plants and trees bearing an assortment of unknown fruits. Sometimes, there were small groups of men and women tending to the crops. These always paused in their work long enough to wave in a friendly manner at the party passing by.
Several members of one such group even put down their tools and made their way to the stone-lined bank of the narrow canal, waving in a friendly manner for attention.
“Halie,” Kelly whispered nervously, “do you think they’re going to attack us?”
“I don’t think so,” I tried to reassure her. “They act like they know Rainor.”
“Rainor! A word, if you please!” called the large humanoid ghoul at the head of the procession of farmers. “It’s good to see you again, Sire.” He smiled in a friendly manner as he went on, “We’ve been hearing rumors of scavengers in the area and were wondering if you’ve sighted any.”
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