Lord of Monsters

by John Claude Bemis

  “What’s that?” Sop cried, pointing to the right.

  At first, Lazuli thought it might be a stunted tree atop a distant, heat-shimmering dune—maybe part of the Upended Forest! But as they flew closer, they discovered it was a solitary traveler taking slow, measured steps.

  “Where did he come from?” she wondered aloud.

  “And where’s he going?” Mezmer added.

  “Nowhere fast,” Sop said, which was true, as the traveler had hardly taken three steps since they’d started watching him. “Should we ask if he knows anything about a river?”

  Mezmer gave a pat to her kirin. “Take us down, Fini.”

  They landed in the sand in front of the traveler and dismounted.

  “Greetings, wayfarer,” Lazuli called to him. “Are you lost?”

  The traveler stopped and pulled back the dust-rimed hood of his cloak. He was a chimera of some reptilian variety and so massive and intimidating with all the spines and frills around his face that the aleya gave a squeak and hid behind Pinocchio’s back.

  He had the oddest eyes Lazuli had ever seen. They protruded out from the sides of his face like miniature volcanoes with beady black orbs at the ends. The chimera rotated the strange telescopic eyes in a circle before fixing one on Lazuli and one on Pinocchio.

  “Not. Any. More. Your. Majesties.” He spoke almost as slowly as he moved.

  “You recognize us as the presters?” Pinocchio asked, clearly surprised.

  The corners of his scaly lips inched into a smile, and he brought a clawed finger up with protracted effort until it pointed at Pinocchio. “You. Are. Human,” he said simply.

  Lazuli had gotten so used to Pinocchio being human she had almost forgotten that he must look a bit strange to their people.

  “What is your name, sir?” she asked.

  “Kataton.”

  “Kataton, we’re searching for a river that runs through the Caldera.”

  The lizard said slowly, “The. Crimson. River.”

  “Yes,” Mezmer hurriedly replied. “Can you point us in the right direction?”

  “Better. That. I. Show. You.”

  Rion made an impatient sigh. “Can’t you just—”

  Pinocchio cut him off. “Wini, can you carry two of us?”

  The kirin batted her long eyelashes. “I’m strong enough to carry more.”

  “Good,” Pinocchio replied. “You can ride with me, Kataton. Lead us to the river, please.”

  Kataton made a stiff bow before lumbering toward Wini. Lazuli and the others were all saddled back up while Kataton was still coming over. Sop twiddled his thumbs. “Are you always this slow?”

  “Not. Always.” Kataton chuckled as he hoisted one leg over Wini’s back. “I. Can. Be. Quite. Fast. When.” He settled on behind Pinocchio. “Necessary.”

  Sop gave him a dubious one-eyed glare.

  Once they were airborne, Kataton lifted a claw and pointed. “That. Way.”

  It wasn’t long before they reached the Crimson River. Lazuli realized why it had been hard to spot. The thin ribbon of ruddy water lay nearly hidden between the enormous dunes rising on either side.

  Lazuli heard Pinocchio ask Kataton, “What were you doing out here all alone, anyway? Do you live nearby?”

  “My. Village. Was. Destroyed,” Kataton said. “We. All. Left.”

  “Are you from Sunder?” Lazuli asked.

  “Yes. Your. Majesty.”

  “Where are the others?”

  “Gone. On. Without. Me.”

  As slow as Kataton was, Lazuli wondered sadly if the other villagers had simply abandoned him in their haste to reach the safety of Caldera Keep or some other city.

  “Did you see the attack?” Pinocchio asked. “Or were you out in the desert gathering gems?”

  “I. Saw,” Kataton said. “I. Am. A. Cook. I. Was. Baking. Beetlebread. For. The. Harvesters’. Breakfast. When. They. Came.” His eyes protruded a bit farther. “A. Dozen. Terrifying. Monsters.”

  “How did you escape?” Lazuli asked. In her mind, she was imagining Kataton lumbering slowly along as the attack rained down on him.

  “I. Led. The. Children. And. The. Elders. Into. My. Cellar.” Kataton nodded. “As. Quickly. As. I. Could.”

  Sop gave a cough.

  “Your. Majesties,” Kataton asked. “Are. You. Searching. For. These. Monsters?”

  “We are,” Lazuli said. “We’ve learned that they might be escaping from an ancient prison hidden in the Upended Forest. But where it is—”

  “Farther. Down. The. Crimson. River,” Kataton said.

  Lazuli gave a jolt of surprise. “You’ve heard of this forest?”

  “Yes. Your. Majesty.” Kataton swiveled his tiny eyes. “Go. That. Way.” He pointed to where the river trickled off to the right.

  Rion banked Quila, and the kirins trailed behind as they followed the river into the late-afternoon sun. The river at last widened, forming a lake nestled in a valley of red dunes.

  “Down. Here,” Kataton said.

  They landed beside the shore, but there were no trees of any sort growing by the lake.

  “This can’t be the Upended Forest,” Sop said, leaping off Pini and throwing a hand out irritably.

  “Maybe it’s upended because all the trees were blown over long ago,” Mezmer offered.

  “No,” Kataton said, easing off Wini’s back. “It. Is. Beneath. Us.”

  Sop traced a circle around his ear. “I knew this limp-lipped lizard was crazy. Now he’s gotten us lost.”

  “Look,” Rion said. He pointed to the center of the lake.

  Lazuli had been so busy searching the shoreline she hadn’t noticed until now that there was a hole in the middle of the lake. Water cascaded down, disappearing through an opening like a great drain.

  “I had my suspicions all along the forest had to be underground,” Rion said confidently. “Why else would it be upended? We just need to go down those falls to reach it.”

  “That. Is. Right,” Kataton said.

  Lazuli could see the confusion on Pinocchio’s face. She wasn’t quite sure either what they were dealing with, but Mezmer began to take charge.

  “Can we fly down, then?” the fox asked Rion.

  Quila made a disgruntled squawk.

  “She won’t go in there,” Rion said. “Griffins hate enclosed spaces.” He pointed to Wini. “Kirin, you and your sisters will have to take us down into the forest.”

  Mezmer stepped past Rion with an irksome scowl. “I can handle this, my good knight.” She turned to Wini. “Are you nervous in enclosed spaces, dear?”

  “Not at all, General,” she said, throwing her horned head to one side to let her mane flow luxuriously. “Would you like me to check out what’s below before we carry you down?”

  “That would be excellent, darling,” Mezmer said.

  Wini sprang into the air and disappeared down the hole in the middle of the lake.

  Mezmer shook Kataton’s hand. “Thank you for your assistance, dear. Safe travels to you.”

  “I. Can. Stay,” he said. “To. Help. My. Presters.”

  “This is hazardous business, what we have to do,” Mezmer said.

  “I. Am. Not. Afraid.”

  “I appreciate your bravery but—”

  “Mezmer.” Pinocchio motioned for her to come over. Lazuli followed, along with Sop and Rion. When they were out of earshot, Pinocchio whispered, “I think we should bring him.”

  “What? Why?” Rion scowled. “He’ll just slow us up.”

  Pinocchio flashed him a look of annoyance before turning back to Mezmer and Lazuli. “Kataton said he could move quicker when necessary. And considering what we might be facing in the prison, another knight would be useful.”

  “He’s not a knight,” Mezmer said.

  “But he could be,” Pinocchio said. “Besides, I like him. He’s…calm.”

  Sop rolled his eye. “If he were any more calm, he’d be dead.”

  Pinocchio frown
ed.

  “We could be endangering his life to bring him,” Lazuli said.

  Pinocchio opened his mouth to argue, but she kept on. “However, if he understands the dangers and is willing to help, then Pinocchio’s right, we can always use another knight. Besides, we might be underestimating Kataton. Give him a chance to prove himself.”

  The corners of Pinocchio’s mouth inched into a smile. Lazuli hoped she wasn’t making a big mistake. But Pinocchio felt strongly about Kataton, and she’d learned his instincts about people were usually right.

  Mezmer scratched her chin, ignoring Rion’s disgruntled puffing. “Very well, darlings. We’ll see if he still wants to go once he realizes what’s down there.”

  “I’ll talk to him.” While Pinocchio hurried over to explain their mission to Kataton, Wini returned from the lake, shaking wetness from her fur and scales.

  “The forest is down there, General, behind the falls. But it’s overgrown. We can carry everyone down, but my sisters and I won’t be able to accompany you, dense as it is.”

  Sop laughed. “You’re just scared, aren’t you? Come on, you’ve got that horn. Do you know how many monsters you could impale with that thing?”

  Wini looked appalled at the suggestion.

  “Thank you, Wini,” Mezmer said. “Probably best that we leave guards topside anyway.”

  The kirin pranced back to her sisters.

  Lazuli looked up at the sky. “The sun will set soon. Should we wait until the morning?”

  “It’ll be dark either way down there,” Mezmer said. “Besides, we’ve lost enough time already with this mission.”

  “Agreed,” Rion said.

  Lazuli wondered whether she should contact her aunt with the mirror, to let her know they were about to go to the prison. Afterward, she decided. She was already growing nervous and knew her aunt would be able to tell. Best not to worry her.

  “Kataton’s coming,” Pinocchio announced.

  Mezmer untied the shields from the kirins and handed them out. “Do we have an extra weapon for him?”

  Kataton slowly took out a hand ax from the back of his belt. At Mezmer’s look of surprise, he said, “For. Chopping. Beetlebread.”

  “If you ever offer to bake any of that beetlebread for us,” Mezmer said, “be sure to remind me I prefer having teeth.” She gave a twirl of her spear. “Wini, anytime you’re ready.”

  The kirins shot into the sky. With Kataton hanging on behind him, Pinocchio couldn’t stop from grabbing Wini’s mane this time. She pitched alarmingly forward as she dove over the circular waterfalls at the center of the lake.

  Pinocchio had half a moment of regret, thinking he might have contacted his father through Riggle, just to let him know their plan. But already the blinding light of the desert had given way to near darkness, and Pinocchio was focusing on holding on and getting his eyes to adjust.

  Wini flew deep into the cool shadowy falls. Leaves poked through the sheen of water. Pinocchio expected to see a pool in the cavern below, but the water just kept falling into darkness. Where was the forest floor?

  Rather than continuing down, Wini leaped through the watery curtain. On the other side, they emerged in the branches of a dense forest.

  “You’re letting us off up in the trees?” Pinocchio asked, wiping the water from his face. “Why aren’t we going down?”

  “Safer that I let you off here, Your Majesty,” Wini replied.

  Kataton climbed off the kirin’s back onto a stout branch. He offered Pinocchio a hand. Pinocchio steadied himself on the heavy bough, peering past his toes to see how far the ground was below. He reeled with shock, realizing why Wini hadn’t taken them down.

  The branches and twisting trunks tapered to smaller limbs tipped with broad leaves that expanded into a thick canopy. It looked like the tops of the trees were beneath them. How could that be? He glanced up quickly. The tree trunks were rooted into the ceiling of the cave.

  The others, catching hold of branches and climbing from the kirins, gasped in astonishment at the upside-down forest.

  “If the trees grow from up there,” Sop asked, pointing a retractable claw up, “then what’s below?”

  No one could see. But judging from the way the roar of the falling water disappeared without a splash, the bottom of the cavern—if there even was a bottom—was incomprehensibly far down.

  Wini poked her head one last time through the falls. “I’ll be waiting, General. Just give a call when you’re ready to come out.”

  “Thank you, dear,” Mezmer said. “All right. Let’s—” She gasped, doing a double take at Pinocchio. “What are you doing here?”

  Pinocchio wasn’t sure what Mezmer meant. Could she really have forgotten he was there? But then he felt something tickle his neck.

  “That anxious ol’ goat Geppetto insisted I keep an eye on Pinocchio.”

  “Maestro!” Pinocchio couldn’t believe it. The cricket leaped from his neck onto his forearm. “Where have you been all this time?”

  “Down in your satchel,” Maestro grumbled. “And that worm’s incessant humming was driving me insane. Doesn’t he know how to carry a tune?”

  Pinocchio hadn’t heard Riggle once since they’d left, but then Riggle was awfully small.

  “I…I don’t need you to keep an eye on me.” Pinocchio glanced at the others, feeling his face grow hot, especially at Rion’s amused grin.

  “I told your father that, but you know how he worries.” Maestro flicked his antennae. “Not like you ever listen to my advice anyway. And don’t scowl at me like that! I’m not happy to be here either.”

  Pinocchio knew perfectly well his father had sent Maestro to make sure he didn’t use the Pearl, but he couldn’t explain that in front of Rion and Kataton. So now he wound up looking like a coddled little child.

  Lazuli came to his rescue. “We should get going. Prester Pinocchio, why don’t you lead us?”

  Pinocchio drew his sword and irritably hacked away some foliage, to get a better view for how to maneuver across this forest. As Wini had said, the forest was dense, with branches from one tree tangled together with the next. Honestly, he had no idea where to go. But now that he was leading, he felt he should do so with a bit of confidence.

  “Keep an eye out for the prison,” he said over his shoulder. “The pyramid in Regolith’s memory was pretty big. Would be impossible to miss, I think.”

  Balancing on the branches, Pinocchio had to crouch and duck and clamber, always with one hand holding something, especially as he crossed from one tree to the next.

  The others followed, making as little noise as they could, eyes scanning constantly for signs of danger. The aleya threw a faint light from her bubblelike body that helped them see. The sensation of being in this strange, inverted forest was dizzying. As Pinocchio climbed from one branch to another, he had to remind himself that he wasn’t the one who was upside down.

  “Have you been down here before, Kataton?” Pinocchio whispered.

  “Never. Your. Majesty,” he replied, moving slowly, but really no slower than the rest given how precarious the journey across the bouncy branches and sloping trunks was.

  “What is this?” Mezmer asked. She touched the tip of her spear to a dirty strand draped between two branches.

  Pinocchio thought it was a vine, but as Mezmer pulled back her spear, the strand clung to the blade. “It’s sticky,” she said, giving a sharp pull to free her spear.

  Rion poked another strand with his bow. “Like a web.”

  “I don’t like this,” Maestro piped anxiously from Pinocchio’s shoulder.

  “Then you shouldn’t have come,” Pinocchio mumbled.

  “Try not to touch it,” Mezmer said. “Keep going, Pinocchio, dear. But weapons ready, everyone.”

  This became increasingly difficult as Pinocchio found more of the dark webs blocking their path. He sliced through them easily with his sword, but he kept getting his hands and legs caught. It slowed their progress, and Pinocch
io was just thinking maybe they should find a different route when something burst through the trees.

  A flurry of wings and screeching hit Pinocchio. Startled, he reared back and lost his footing. Before he could stop himself, he was falling, battered against one springy branch and then another, turning end over end. He dropped his sword.

  Trying desperately to grab something, anything, he found himself now crashing through leaves. Whatever lay below—or was it above?—the treetops, he doubted it would be soft ground. Then all at once he stopped and found himself dangling in utter darkness. Elastic webs clung to his legs and torso.

  “Pinocchio!” Lazuli screamed from above.

  “I’m all right,” he called back. “At least I think I am.”

  “I am too,” Maestro said, fluttering around his face. “Thanks for your concern.”

  The luminous aleya swooped down next to him and made a chime of relief. In her light, Pinocchio saw tree limbs and debris broken away by his fall caught in the torn sheets of webs sagging below. And just out of reach, his sword hung in a tangle of strands. Beyond that was nothing but a yawning void. He shivered.

  A series of shrill cries sounded from up in the leaf canopy. Then Rion’s voice rang out: “Monsters from the prison! We’re under attack! Everyone take defensive positions. Prester Lazuli, behind me. Sop—”

  “I’ll give the orders,” Mezmer snarled.

  Pinocchio’s heart jolted.

  There was a swish of arrows. The clunk of swords hitting wood. And more shrieks from the creatures flying about. The aleya trembled next to Pinocchio.

  Several creatures burst from the leaves above, flapping around Pinocchio. They were moving so rapidly he could barely tell what they were, but they had far too many wings—certainly more than two. And their gruesome faces were spiderlike with four glistening black eyes and furry fangs.

  Maestro squeaked in terror before clawing his way down Pinocchio’s shirt.

  Pinocchio eyed his sword. If only he could reach it! He grabbed a web connected to the tangle around his sword and began pulling it toward him. The spider-bat monsters—whatever they were—swirled around him furiously.