The Voyage of the Minotaur

by Wesley Allison

  “Help Me!” he screamed.

  Several soldiers came trotting down the hill. When they saw the blood covered young woman and the older man, they stopped for a split second. Then two of the soldiers scooped up Egeria, while a third helped Zeah to his feet and guided him by the elbow. The soldiers took them into Miss Dechantagne’s tent where a meeting was going on. Suddenly everyone seemed to be shouting and talking, but Zeah couldn’t follow any of it. The world seemed a blur of unconnected sights and sounds. Then he felt a slap across his cheek and everything came back into focus. Miss Dechantagne was looking into his face.

  “What happened?” she demanded.

  “I found her like this,” he said. “We were supposed to have dinner.”

  “Get Dr. Kelloran and Father Ian,” she ordered the soldiers, who raced out of the tent.

  “Where did you find her?” she asked Zeah.

  Zeah just stared at Egeria, now lying on the floor of the tent. One of the officers from the Minotaur, he couldn’t place which one it was, leaned over to examine her wounds.

  “She’s been stabbed,” he heard the officer say.

  “Where did you find her?” repeated Miss Dechantagne.

  “By the Result Mechanism.”

  “It’s the same type of wound as the women who were stabbed on the ship,” continued the officer.

  Doctor Kelloran burst in and immediately took over from the ship’s officer. She tipped Egeria on her side, and ripped open the back of her dress. Then she began pressing bandages to a series of horrible gashes in her back. A moment later the tent flap opened again and Sister Auni entered. She knelt down on the other side of the injured woman and pulled out her small vial of oil.

  Tracing a cross with the oil on Egeria’s forehead, she said. “In the name of the Holy Savior, I heal your wounds.”

  Egeria took a deep and sudden breath. Dr. Kelloran finished applying pressure bandages and began wrapping gauze around Egeria’s mid-section.

  “Where is Father Ian,” demanded Miss Dechantagne.

  “He went out,” said Sister Auni. “I don’t know where. But we need him. I’ve helped her, but we need him to cast a healing spell of full magnitude.”

  Zeah suddenly felt the urge to get up, to run outside, and to find Father Ian. He had to save Egeria’s life. Father Ian could cast a healing spell. It didn’t matter to Zeah that it was Kafirite magic—not this time. He turned and bolted out the tent flap. He heard but did not register the voices that called after him to stop. He didn’t know what possessed him to run in the direction of the wall and the forest beyond, but he did. Just inside the gate, several gas-powered torches burned. In their flickering light, Zeah could make out the large form of Father Ian.

  “Father Ian!” he called, running toward the man.

  The Priest turned and looked at the man running toward him. A strange look of fear crossed his face, and he turned and unlatching the gate, passed through into the wilderness. Zeah ran even faster and in just a moment, he too had passed through the gate. There was a worn path between the trees, and Zeah ran onward, stumbling on tree roots and rocks, but staying on his feet.

  Something happened then. It was beautiful. Had it been any other time, Zeah would have recognized it as such. The huge yellow moon rose up over the mountain to the southeast, illuminating the magnificent trees and the spaces between them almost as though it were day. Zeah could see Father Ian standing between several trees thirty or forty yards ahead of him.

  “Father Ian!”

  Suddenly a huge blocky head swung out from among the trees to the right of where the priest stood. A huge maw tilted down on Father Ian from above. The tyrannosaurus snapped its mouth shut around Father Ian, leaving only his lower legs sticking out from between the long, vicious teeth. The dinosaur stood up and gulped back its meal. A single shoe fell down eighteen feet from the beast’s mouth to tumble across the ground. Zeah couldn’t tell from the way it rolled whether it still had a foot in it or not. Slowly the tyrannosaurus turned its head to look at Zeah. It took a great sniff and then started toward him, slowly at first.

  Zeah didn’t wait to see if it would speed up. He turned and ran back toward the gate. What the human didn’t realize was that the dinosaur had little need to hurry. He gained on his prey with every step. What the tyrannosaurus didn’t realize was that he had been spotted by sentries walking atop the fortifications. They fired their weapons, causing the dinosaur to slow just enough for Zeah to escape, rushing inside the gate and bolting it shut after him. The riflemen continued to shoot, causing the tyrannosaurus to bellow in pain, then turn and stagger back into the foliage.

  Chapter Sixteen: Terrence’s Women

  The shouting and gunfire brought Terrence out of the white opthalium induced state. He was sitting on the ground with his back to a massive redwood tree. It was in fact, that first tree that Iolanthe had tagged with a ribbon to save its life. It was completely dark all around him, and at first the lapping of the waves nearby was the only sound that registered with his befuddled mind. When he again heard the shouts and gunfire at the far end of the compound and he recognized them for what they were, he was actually happy. It meant that he hadn’t been awakened by someone discovering him while he was seeing.

  Could you call it “seeing” if you didn’t really see anything? Terrence had used the drug from the small blue bottle several times since the arrival in Birmisia, but he had seen nothing in the other world except that endless fields of the ever-present purple flowers. Never before had he been there without meeting Pantagria. Now he searched for her and she was nowhere to be found.

  Terrence picked up his helmet, which was sitting next to him, and then stood up and began trudging up the hill at a modest pace. When he saw a blood covered Zeah Korlann being escorted by two riflemen into Iolanthe’s headquarters tent, he ran the rest of the way.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, as he burst into the tent. He stopped short when he saw Miss Lusk, lying on her side, bloodied, on the dirt floor. “Let’s get Father Ian in here.”

  “Father Ian isn’t coming,” said Zeah shakily.

  “Sister Auni, go get another acolyte to cast a cure wounds spell,” ordered Iolanthe. Then she opened the top drawer of her desk and pulled out a brown bottle. “Soak her bandages in this and poor the rest down her throat.”

  She handed the bottle to Dr. Kelloran, who was kneeling over the red-haired woman’s prone form. The doctor did as directed and a moment later was rewarded with Miss Lusk opening her eyes. Sister Auni arrived after a few minutes with Brother Galen, who followed the exact same procedure that she had in casting a spell. Color returned to Miss Lusk’s face and she began to breathe freely.

  “Who did this to you?” asked Iolanthe.

  “I didn’t see them,” said Miss Lusk. It was an obvious labor to speak. “Someone was running the Result Mechanism. I went around the corner to see who it was, but…”

  “There were papers coming out of the machine,” said Zeah.

  “Go find those papers,” Iolanthe ordered her brother. “Maybe we can find out who was using it.”

  Terrence nodded and left the tent. He picked up a gas lantern nearby and stomped down the hill toward the still chugging and clanking Result Mechanism. Just before he reached it, the machine stopped, letting out a long whistle of leftover steam. He pulled out one of his nickel-plated .45 revolvers and circled around the huge device. Standing at the controls was his brother Augie.

  “What’s going on, old man?” said Augie, when he noticed Terrence.

  “What are you doing here?” Terrence asked.

  “You know you really shouldn’t answer a question with a question,” Augie replied. “The machine was running and nobody was here, so I shut it down.”

  “You didn’t see anybody here?”

  “No, and I waited around for a couple of minutes too.”

  “Are there any papers coming out of the slot on the side of the machine?”

  They both stepped around
to the far side, where the printing slot was located, but there were no papers either sticking out of the slot or on the ground below.

  “You don’t have anything to do with this, do you?” asked Terrence.

  “Anything to do with what? A bloody machine making a bunch of racket?”

  “The stabbing.”

  “Stabbing? What stabbing?”

  “Egeria Lusk has been stabbed. Right over there, by the look of the ground.”

  “Kafira! And you think I had something to do with it?”

  “No. But you were at three of the crime scenes, at least three, so some people are going to get the idea you could be involved.”

  “What do you mean three? The murders on the ship? I thought you pegged Murty for that, and pegged him good too, I might add.”

  “Yes, I did. And Murty was a bad sort; I don’t doubt it for a moment.”

  “You know I wouldn’t stab a woman. What’s that all about? I was very fond of Danika.”

  “Danika?”

  “Miss Kilmurray.”

  “Oh, Kafira. You knew her?”

  “I knew her, but I didn’t do anything to hurt her. I certainly never killed her, and I didn’t kill Miss Lusk.”

  “Miss Lusk is alive.”

  “Well, thank heavens. Now she can tell you I didn’t stab her.”

  “She doesn’t need to tell me,” said Terrence. “I know you didn’t stab her.”

  “Good. A brother should trust a brother.”

  “You don’t have any blood on you.”

  “Oh.” Augie looked down at his clean clothes. “I could have changed clothes.”

  “You don’t have any blood on your shoes or your face or your hair.”

  “So you trust me.”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.”

  Terrence and Augie climbed back up the hill to Iolanthe’s tent. Miss Lusk had been taken to her room, and Dr. Kelloran and the church acolytes had gone along to see to her. Iolanthe was standing in the center of the tent and Zeah was seated on one of the canvas camp chairs. His hands hung limply at his sides and his chin rested on his chest. Iolanthe slowly stepped around the room.

  “What’s going on?” asked Augie.

  “It seems that Father Ian has been killed by a dinosaur,” said Iolanthe, as if such things were common occurrence. “You two will go out at first light and kill that beast once and for all.”

  “Which dinosaur?” asked Augie.

  “The tyannothingy.”

  “The tyrannosaurus,” corrected Terrence.

  “Precisely,” said Iolanthe. “Kill it dead.”

  “All right,” said Terrence, who then turned and exited the tent. His brother followed him.

  “All right? That’s it?” said Augie, as he followed his brother toward the wooden barracks. “We just go hunt a tyrannosaurus in the morning?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, all right then.”

  “Meet me by the gate—first light.”

  Terrence left Augie standing outside the door of the barracks. Closing the door behind him and hanging his helmet on the doorknob, Terrence stripped off his shirt and plopped down on the cot, which was the only piece of actual furniture in the room. The rest of his twenty by twenty-five foot apartment was filled with stacks of boxes. Looking up at the ceiling, he thought that hunting for the monstrous dinosaur would probably be easier than hunting Pantagria had proven.

  At first light, Terrence and Augie let themselves out the compound gate. Both carried their pair of matching nickel-plated .45 caliber revolvers, but each also carried a B1898 magazine-fed bolt-action .30 caliber service rifle. Augie wore his slung over his shoulder and Terrence held his in the crook of his arm, but both had a cartridge in the chamber. They made their way through the massive redwood forest.

  It wasn’t long before they located a trail of blood leading away from the protective wall. Consisting of six to twelve inch puddles spaced two to three feet apart, the blood trail led about three miles. At its end, the tyrannosaurus lay on the ground, on its belly like some great alligator. There was obviously life still in the cold reptilian eye, though its breathing was slow and ragged. The two men stepped up to within ten feet of the gigantic mouth filled with long knife-like teeth. The eye watched them.

  Terrence put his rifle to his shoulder and fired a shot above and behind the eye. The dinosaur let out a grunt but didn’t move. He fired a second shot and the beast stopped breathing. He fired a third shot, and Augie fired one as well, just to make sure.

  “What do we do now?” asked Augie. “Do we gut it, so Father Ian can have a proper burial?”

  “I don’t think I’ve got the stomach for that,” said Terrence. “We need to get out of here before more predators come.”

  Terrence pointed off to the right of the tyrannosaurus’s tail, where already a half dozen velociraptors were waiting. Augie nodded and the two men began walking back toward the wall.

  “What’s the status with the locals?” asked Terrence.

  “Well, it’s like this. You see there are four villages nearby: Tserich, Chusstuss, Tsuus, and Chullu. The Tserich are friendly, the Chullu aren’t and the others fall in between. The real trick though is showing them that we can take on the great power to the southeast.”

  “What is that?”

  “There is a great lizzie city. I suppose the best translation is city-state. It controls all the trade in northern Birmisia and demands tribute, not only from these four villages, but from hundreds of others. If we can show that we can protect them from this Suusthek, then they’ll come over to our banner.”

  “How many do you think we can get?” wondered Terrence.

  “Hundreds in the short term, eventually thousands, maybe tens of thousands. And they’ll work for pfennigs—literally. It seems that our little copper pieces can be made into all kinds of jewelry and spear points. They love them. They’ll spend much of what they earn with us too. Our manufactured goods really impressed them and I think they’ll soon be unable to live without them.”

  “Good.”

  “We are going to have to show them that we’re someone they want on their side.”

  “Good,”

  “You can’t blame them for being skeptical. After all, compared to them, we’re not very physically imposing—soft and weak really. Iolanthe did make quite an impression on them. I think they’re a little afraid of her actually.”

  “Well, at least we have that in common with them,” said Terrence, dryly.

  “Hold on,” said Augie.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a shoe—size seven I’d say.”

  “Is there a foot in it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Bring it along,” said Terrence. “They can bury that.”

  They reached the gate and entered. Several of the men of the rifle company, Sergeant Landcaster and Corporal Bratihn among them, were waiting to hear about the demise of the local monster. The fact that it had almost been dead when the two Dechantagnes had put it out of its misery did nothing to lesson their joy at news of its death, nor the congratulations handed out to the two men who ensured its finality. They clapped both brothers heartily on the shoulders.

  “Don’t let up your guard though,” advised Terrence. “We know there is at least one more tyrannosaurus in the region, and for all we know, there might be something even worse running around here.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Landcaster. “We have a regular posted watch now, day and night.”

  Terrence and Augie returned to Iolanthe’s Headquarters tent, but found it empty.

  “I could use some more sleep,” said Terrence.

  “Why don’t you go back to your cabin, old man?” Augie walked around the desk and sat in Iolanthe’s chair. He opened her top right drawer and withdrew a cedar cigar box. Placing it on the desk and opening it, he withdrew a fat Enclepian cheroot. He lifted it to his nostrils and took a deep breath.

  “That’s fine. Rolled on the
thighs of brown-skinned virgins.”

  Terrence just looked at him.

  “You going to take a nap or not?”

  “Yeah. You?”

  “I’m going to wait for sister.” He bent over and began moving things around in the drawer. “What other goodies do you suppose she has in here? Freedonian chocolate?”

  Terrence shrugged and walked back out of the tent. Several children were busy pouring down gravel on the walkway from the tent to the barracks. He stepped around them and then used the trail they had created to return to his own apartment. Once inside he again plopped himself down on the bed and went back to sleep, this time fully clothed and with his boots on.

  There was pounding on the door. Terrence opened his eyes and began to climb out of bed. The pounding continued. He stepped across the room and threw open the door. The bright light outside silhouetted the form of Yuah Korlann in the doorway. Her skirted lower half was wide and completely filled the door frame, but her upper half reminded Terrence of how thin she actually was.

  “Good. You’re awake.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Look what I’ve got.” She pulled a picnic basket out from behind her. “You’re going to take me out for lunch.”

  “Why would I want to do that?”

  “Because I have been working my ass off. Between your sister and the wedding plans, I haven’t had a moment to myself all week. If I don’t have a moment to relax and share a bit of pleasant conversation with someone, I’m going to go barmy.”

  “Can’t you find one of the women to waffle with?”

  “I could if I wanted to,” Yuah said. “Get dressed.”

  “Get dressed?”

  “Yes. Preferably something without blood splattered all over it.”

  Terrence looked down at his shirt and found that it was indeed the case that blood was splattered across the front. The disclosure, that it was only dinosaur blood rather than human, would probably not matter to her so he simply turned around and began to remove his shirt. Yuah stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

  “Don’t forget to wash your face and shave.” She leaned against the door. He stopped and looked at her. “I’ll wait,” she said.