by Mike Maddox
He closed his eyes, trying to picture himself in the room he had visited so many time before, but it was hard when so many of his memories were of the lights, the beautiful scents and sounds that filled the Mage's chamber. He realised that he couldn't picture himself in the room in his mind, because he could not actually picture it ever being dark.
Looking down he noticed the pattern on the floor, and suddenly gained his bearings once again. He was standing on a mosaic, an intricately patterned image of the sea. Like all who entered the Mage's chamber and wished to keep their sanity, he had learned to avert his gaze from the Mage himself. In doing so he now knew every inch of the floor pattern by heart.
Working from right to left, his tracked the path of the dolphins on the floor until they met the sea monsters. This was his clue to turn to his right and follow the shoals of tiled fish until he came to the image of the giant crab in the centre of the room. The Mage's throne should now be twenty feet straight in front of him.
Walking slowly across the floor, using the pattern of the fish as a guide, he advanced to where the Mage should be seated.
The light should have been pouring out of the Mage by this point. To his disquiet, the closer he approached the throne, the more intense the dark became.
The thin light from his pendant caught something up ahead. At first he grasped at hope, assuming it to be some faint magical trace, some glimmer from the Mage. But it was not.
He was looking at a reflection of the light. He was standing looking at a shiny, curved surface. Raising the light he saw that the entire throne was surround by what looked for all the world like a bubble. A film of some constant moving liquid, like a dirty soap bubble, only twenty feet high.
He felt ill. The throne was completely surrounded by the disgusting membrane like a huge balloon, like an egg sack.
Egg sack.
"Oh no." He stepped closer, horrified. "Oh no." He came closer to the viscous film, breathing through his mouth against the vile smell.
The sacred space of the Mage was alive.
It moved, it bulged and squirmed. The entire egg was in motion, a brown, hideous mass of movement.
The egg was alive. With worms. Dropping the torch, Grefno jumped backwards in disgust. "Mage..." He said, his voice a whisper. "Mage, what has happened to you?"
He watched, repulsed as the egg sac bulged. The hideous creatures within slithered and slid though the vile liquid.
Grefno backed towards the door, never once taking his eyes from the abomination. "Guards!" He shouted. "Guards, inside now!" But no footsteps came. There was nothing except the sound of his own beating heart and the tap of his shoes on the marble floor.
Still facing the abomination, he cast a quick glance past the entrance. The guards were nowhere to be seen. He was alone.
It was insane. This was the most magically powerful place in all of Allesh. There should be guards everywhere, Sages and palace staff attending to the Mage's every need.
Approaching the door, he placed his hand into a communications port, allowing him access to the Castle internal combinations systems. Normally the Castle bureaucracy was humming with civil servants and officials, carrying out the will of the Mage, administering the state in his name.
Changing frequencies he tried the Castle guard themselves, but again received nothing but white noise. It was as if something had eaten the communication network within the Castle.
There was no response from Castle transportation, nor from the hangers that maintained and ordered the Thought Ships and aircraft. Nothing from the stables, nothing from any of the security stations.
He finally accessed the security web, showing him the movements of everyone in the Castle.
He felt sweat run cold on his brow as he saw the results. According to the report, he was the only human in this entire wing of the castle. Sages, Warriors, servants, all were missing.
Grefno leaned against the wall, never once letting his eyes slip from the hideous egg shape before him. As he stood there, his mind racing with possibilities, he was startled by a sudden blip of contact from the screen.
It was the hospital. Someone from the hospital was picking up his signal.
"This is Grefno." He spoke the words, in a careful measured tone that belied his fear.
"Grefno? This is Doctor Barrot. What in the nine hells is going on? We're losing power in the hospital."
"Doctor Barrot! A pleasure to hear a familiar voice." Grefno took a breath. "The situation is in the Castle is... complicated. I'm afraid that we need your help."
"You need our help? Grefno, have you any idea how many patients we're dealing with here? There are dying people on stretchers lined up in every corridor on both floors. Every store room larger than a cupboard is now classified as a ward. And you need our help?" Kadia Barrot paused, watching her husband on the far side of the ward as he closed the lifeless eyes of a middle-aged man. It was Felson, the owner of the shoe shop. She had kissed him once when they were teenagers.
"The Castle seems to have suffered some attacked from within." Grefno said. "I am not sure what has happened to the Mage."
"What do you mean you're not sure? Have you been to see him?"
"I think I have seen him. It's hard to tell. As I said, things here are... complicated."
"Grefno, you've either seen the Mage or you haven't. Surely it's s straightforward as that." Kadia's voice tailed off. "Isn't it?"
"I don't know. I've been into the chamber and I've stood in front of the throne, but I don't know if I've seen the Mage or not."
"Then what did you see?"
"Worms."
"Worms? In the Mage's chamber?"
Grefno pulled himself together, concentrating on what to say next. "Leah Carleaf, one of the Gardeners thought she saw a creature in the well. We have identified the creature as a Gentle Worm, a species native to the Hirvan wastes. They secrete a toxic slime. If this beast has been living in the well, then it's more than likely that it's been poisoning us."
"So why do some have the sickness and not others?" said Kadia.
"Some people drink more water than others. Possibly the poison is concentrated the nearer you get to the source. That's my guess at least. The toxin is almost certainly magically aggravated, so it probably follows its own rules to a certain extent. It is fair to say that the illness won't be behaving in a normal, conventional sense. There is a possibility that those affected could even be linked to the creature in some way."
"What do you mean?"
"Hirvan worms can influence and control some other life forms. Plants, in the main. But if it has the ability to reach out and control other organisms, then there is a chance that it could have linked in some way to the victims of the poisoning."
Doctor Barot paused, trying to take it all in. "Can you catch it, Grefno? Can you get a sample of the creature so that an antidote can be created?"
"I hope so. In the meanwhile, do your best. The hospital has its own water supply, doesn't it, doctor?"
"It does. It's fed from the stream that flows along from the woods. Just as well, by the sound of it, Grefno."
"Indeed. I will call you as soon as I have further news, doctor. Grefno out."
Leaving the Mage's chamber and the abomination that pulsated and bulged at its centre, Grefno made his way towards the library. He felt naked without his guards, and was becomingly increasingly worried.
The Inn was quiet. The door and window which had previously been subjected to a constant battering by the worm, had now been reinforced by piling chairs and furniture against them. Since Shaule had attacked it with the burning flare, the worm had not been seen or heard.
"Perhaps it's given up?" said the innkeeper, a broken bottle in each shaking hand, his eyes never leaving the broken window.
"It's always possible," said Leah. "Or else it's doing something else."
"Like what?" said Rendoplh.
"Well I don't know! Something nasty, probably. Some nasty, wormy things."
&nbs
p; Shaule stood up, addressing the occupants of the room. "We need to find somewhere else to hide, and which can be better defended. Any ideas?"
"How about the barracks?" said the innkeeper. "I would have thought that would be the safest place, no?"
"We've already been there once today, " said Leah. "We're not going back again."
"Leah's right," said Shaule. "We need to find somewhere else before the worm comes back."
Rendolph stood up, placing his ear to the wall at the back of the room. "Hey! Can everyone keep quiet for a bit?" The people in the room turned to look at him as he stood side on to the wall, straining to hear something on the other side. "Come and listen to this."
"What is it?" said the innkeeper, joining him.
"Don't know. Some kind of scratching sound."
"Stand back," said Shaule. "Really, get away from the wall now!" Rendolph did as he was told at once, joining Shaule and Leah in the middle of the room, but the innkeeper stayed with his ear pressed to the wall.
"It could be rescuers!" said the innkeeper. "Perhaps they've come to get us at last." He turned to smile at them. "Honestly, you people. Have you no faith at all?"
The smile was still on his face when, with a deafening roar, the wall bulged, collapsing inwards. The falling wooden beams and plaster caught the innkeeper, knocking him to the ground. Above him, triumphant in rage, towered the worm. It opened its slime-crusted jaws and bit the innkeeper clean in half.
Backing away with the rest of the villagers, Leah grabbed Rendolph by his collar and ran towards the door. "Help me!" she shouted, throwing chairs across the room as she pulled the barricade apart.
Shaule knew he had to buy them time to get the barricade down. While the creature was busy with the innkeeper, then the others were at least safe for the moment, and so he held his fire. There was, he reasoned, no point in antagonising the beast in an enclosed space, not when there were so many people in the room. He waited until the beast had finished with the innkeeper before he raised his rifle and fired.
With a hiss, the creature turned about and flicked its tail across the room.
"This way!" shouted Leah, pulling the last chair away from in front of the door. "Run!"
The villagers needed no further encouragement and were soon outrunning her down the high street. Glancing over her shoulder Leah saw to her horror that the creature, having finally been forced away from the rear of the building by Shaule's gunfire, was now coming around the side towards them. "This way!" she shouted to Rendolph. "Inside the bakery, quick!"
The two friends ran into the bakery, slamming the door after them. They stood there panting, their backs to the door.
"You think it's noticed us?" Rendolph asked. "It might have been scared off by the shooting."
He was answered by a crash of glass as the creature thrust its head in to the tiny shop. Up close, Leah could see bits of the innkeeper's clothes stuck to its glistening teeth.
"Yes, I think it noticed us!" Leah shouted, running. As they reached the rear of the shop, the worm lunged towards them, its mouth open in a savage snarl. As it did so, Leah flung open the doors to the oven, pushing Rendolph to one side as she went to the other. The heat was intense, as the ovens had been burning dangerously out of control for some hours now, whilst the baker sheltered in the inn. With a squeal of pain, the creature recoiled away from the heat, hissing and spitting as it retreated from the shop in search of easier game.
"Ouch!" said Leah, kicking the doors shut with her boots. She turned to her friend. "You all right?"
He smiled weakly. "Not really. There's this buggering great wormy dragon thing trying to eat us. It's kind of upset me." He sat down heavily. "I'd quite like to be sick now."
Leah picked up a sweet bun from one of the shelves and took a bite. "Come on," she said. "Got to keep your strength up, you know."
At the castle, Wallas checked the safety catch on his weapon, slid a performance enhancing ampoule into his wrist-port to make him sharp, and then went on through the main gate. The two militiamen with him looked from side to side, still unsure that they should even be here, yet alone looking for trouble.
Rounding a corner they saw the first bodies. Blue uniformed Castle guards, slumped to the floor. They had large wounds on their chests where the worm had lashed out with its tail. One or two had bite marks on their faces.
"Is this what the worm does to you?" said one of the soldiers.
"Looks like it," said Wallas. "But just because these were regulars, doesn't mean that we're any easier to kill. They weren't expecting trouble; we are. You got that, boys?"
"Yes, Sarge."
"Good. Now down the corridor, one door at a time and keep alert. Anything moves, try and shout out first before shooting. We don't want to do our own boys, do we?"
Moving further in to the Castle they found technicians, administrators, cleaning staff, all of them with the same wounds. In one wing they found yellow clad Chemical Warriors lying next to Sages. All dead.
Wallas checked the readouts on his armour. There was no sign of radiation or chemical and biological attack. His amulet that warned of magical weaponry was going berserk, however. Although they had some defences against magical attack, it wasn't their area of expertise by a long margin.
He bent down to retrieve two more magical amulets from two dead Chemical Warriors. He handed them to his companions. "Here. Better than nothing."
The men climbed the immense marble staircase that flowed upwards from the entrance hall, passing more dead bodies as they did so. Wallas came to a halt, checking his sensor readings. "We've got life signs up ahead."
"Survivors?"
"Could be. Either that or we've found the target."
Cautiously, the three men rounded the corner at the top of the staircase. They passed more bodies, this time in the yellow of Chemical Warriors. The life signs led them towards a panelled door.
"It's locked, sir," said one of the soldiers. "Looks like it's jammed. Mechanism has been interfered with."
"Right. Let's open it then," said Wallas. Carefully, one of the soldiers placed an explosive charge against the door mechanism. They took cover, their hands over their ears as the device was detonated.
Rushing around the corner, weapons at the ready, they burst into the dark room. The flashlights on their impulse projector barrels searched for a target in the smoke filled room. A sudden movement caused them all to raise their weapons and shout out a challenge.
"Stay where you are!" Wallas shouted.
A Sage stood in front of them, his hands in the air, a look of terror on his face. It looked as if he had been crying.
"Please don't shoot! I'm a Sage! My name is Niaal."
Grefno had also found bodies as he made his way towards the library. He was passing by the armoury when a noise from within made him stop and turn. Cautiously he entered the high vaulted stone annex.
Following the noise of movement he saw an officer, dragging himself across the floor. It was Rilston, the Captain of the guard. "Rilston! Stay there, I'm coming over," Grefno called out.
"Keep back! I think I'm infected!"
"It's not an infection, Rilston. It's a poison. You can't catch it from other people," said Grefno. "It's a worm poison, semi-magical in nature. It's been poisoning people for weeks through the water supply."
"It stung me, Grefno. The worm has this spike on the end of its tail and it stung me," Rilston coughed. "We were trying to fight it off, but it was hopeless. I managed to put my armour on, hoping it would give enough protection against a direct strike from the tail. Seemed a good idea as any."
"Good thinking." Grefno said, checking Rilston's injuries whilst trying not to let on quite how badly wounded the officer was. "It's probably what kept you alive." Grefno eyed the suits of armour lined up on the wall, following them along until he spotted a Chemical Warrior's yellow suit. It had been a long while since he'd had to wear one, but it was easy enough to recall how it was done.
"How long have y
ou been lying here?" he asked, trying to make Rilston as comfortable as possible. "When did the beast strike?"
"I don't know. I think I must have passed out when I was hit. It might be an idea to armour yourself up by the way."
Grefno slid into the armour. As he felt the inner body suit cling to him, the sensors reached into his limbs, augmenting them and making him feel twenty years younger. "You're lucky to be alive, Captain. Forgive me for asking, but is it anything more than luck that has protected you?"
"I'm working for the Mage. Directly reporting to him alone. He has been concerned for some time that there was a plot against him, although he had no real evidence to go on, beyond his own magical predictions." Rilston coughed again. "I was seconded from the navy by the Mage himself, brought in to specifically investigate goings on in the castle. The illness caused the Mage to be greatly alarmed."
"I see. Well, it appears the Mage's fears were well founded, Rilston. Tell me, have you seen the Mage recently?"
"No. As security was tightened I found that I had been denied access to him along with everyone else. He will now only talk to the Sage Niaal."
"And he left you no way of communicating with him? No secret transmitter or anything like that?"
"The Mage furnished me with many tools to help. They all stopped working two weeks ago. I have been out of contact with the Mage since then. I do not know what has happened to him. I naturally fear the worst,"whispered Rilston. Grefno knelt by the man, adjusting the settings on his armour to try and take the pain away. "I was concerned that he might have caught the illness. The thought occurred to me that he might be ill, and the Sages were keeping it quiet."