Demiourgos

by Chris Williams

  “Scales black like night, eyes dark, very cruel. He come in the night and challenge shaman for leadership. He defeat shaman easy, he leader now.” The ashkanti shrugged once more. “He tell us you enemy of tribe; say you come to kill us.”

  “No we’re not here to kill you. We’re just passing through. We don’t want any trouble; we didn’t even know you were out here until you attacked us.” Rose locked eyes with him for a moment, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t want to kill you but I can’t let you go either, we don’t want you running back to the tribe to tell them where we are headed.”

  “A conundrum or puzzle if you will.” Liostro chimed in from behind them while cleaning his blade as best he could on the fallen ashkanti’s scales and clothing. “We could knock him out or blindfold him.”

  “One more thing, I’d like to know how this ashkanti leader knew we were here.” Rose inquired as she pulled her gaze back over to their captive.

  “He tell us god wants you dead, Ashram say your blood to be used to make us powerful.” Kanyik replied without hesitation. “Elf used to bargain with other elves, get us power.”

  A haunting cry far off in the distance made all three of them turn their heads in that direction and then look back to the captive ashkanti. Before she could question him he turned to her and smiled. “They come for me, you go. You seem truth to me.”

  “We can’t trust him.” Liostro said as he brandished his weapon. “I will end it, no need for you to bloody your hands again.”

  “No, leave him.” Rose quickly ran over to her fallen weapons and unsteadily sheathed those, grabbing what she could from their camp and stuffing it into her pack. Once she and Nina had packed the essentials she motioned for them to enter the forest in a northern direction, they had been headed east.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing.” Liostro said through a frown as he gathered up his pack and disappeared into the brush with Nina behind him.

  “So do I.” Rose looked over at Kanyik one last time and disappeared into the tree line to follow after the two of them. Once they were away from the camp she halted them both. “I want to see what transpires. Go ahead of me and I’ll catch up.”

  “No, you’re too weak and they might catch you.” Nina said as she tugged on the sleeve of Rose’s tunic. “We have to get out of here.”

  “Go, now!” Rose replied as she pushed Nina toward Liostro. She was thankful when he took her by the shoulders and led her into the brush as Rose had requested. It took a moment to steady herself before closing her eyes and using her magic to make her body as light as a feather again. The world around her wavered for a moment but she steadied herself and used her hands to climb effortlessly up a tree not far from the small clearing they had been using.

  She could see the tied ashkanti and for a few minutes there was no movement in the clearing but his as he struggled with the bonds. A black-scaled serpent man not unlike him slithered out of the trees with a wounded Sarthis in tow holding a bandaged arm close to his chest. She could hear them talking but their language was too foreign for her to understand.

  She watched the larger black serpent making motions with his arms. To her amazement Kanyik motioned to the south with his head several times. Five more of the ashkanti warriors emerged from the trees and stalked up behind the two of them. The leader made motions toward each direction and one of the warriors went in each direction with two of them taking the southern direction as Kanyik had indicated. She was about to turn away and join her companions when the leader took a long slender knife from his belt and slit the throat of the helpless Kanyik, leaving him tied to the tree.

  Sarthis was obviously displeased by this action but said nothing as he followed his leader back in a southwestern direction supposedly toward their village. Rose put a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from making any noise as she expressed grief at the loss of one who had attempted to help them at his own peril. Her voice was a whisper. “He knew. He knew what would happen.”

  Keeping the spell going Rose shoved off of the tree toward Liostro and Nina she let herself drift slowly toward the ground, propelling herself along using the trees around her. She was able to successfully float to the ground not far from them. Dropping the spell made her feel a little less weak but not by much. She had expended enough energy to weaken herself; she wouldn’t be able to use any more magic until she had rested. “I’m spent; I can’t use my magic anymore until I can stop and gather my strength. Kanyik told the leader that we went to the south but he sent a single warrior in each other direction.”

  “I can take one of them.” Liostro said simply as he began to unsheathe his weapon.

  “No, no more bloodshed. Nina I want you to cover our tracks as best you can, we’re heading back to the east as fast as we can go.” Rose ordered as she hefted her pack and motioned to Liostro. “Put it away.”

  “If I kill him they’ll think we went north instead of east.”

  “If you kill him they will search the north harder than they are trying now and surely find our trail.” Rose countered as she started walking off toward the east with Liostro following behind her as closely within her steps as he could. Nina walked behind them both dragging a fanned branch attempting to brush the tracks out as quickly as she could and keep pace.

  “I do not enjoy taking lives, and I did not enjoy watching that black-scaled bastard kill Kanyik.” She sighed as she led the way to the east.

  “They killed him?” Nina echoed quietly. “I don’t understand.”

  “You don’t have to; true evil isn’t something you can pin down with words.” Liostro had his hand on the hilt of his sword. “I can feel that vile thing even from this distance.”

  Chapter 7: Lost

  Their progress through the forest was hampered by the inability to take the normal trails and paths so they would not draw attention. Rose had not been able to rest throughout the day and even with the sun setting for the evening she had still insisted that they continue onward and put some more distance between the party and the ashkanti attempting to locate them. Her body burned with effort because she was beyond spent. Rose could not quench her thirst on the rationed water they were carrying so several times Nina had been forced to locate water from a low-hanging vine or a free-standing pool somewhere in the forest. The only thing that kept her from collapsing from sheer exhaustion was the fact that she did not want to share her blood with anyone, let alone a whole tribe of those creatures. The implications of that were enough to force her legs to keep going, one in front of the other.

  Dusk wore on for what seemed like an eternity to her tired limbs and they still walked on into the night. Not far into the darkness Rose felt her legs give way and she toppled forward as if she were a felled tree. Somehow Liostro got his arms around her in time to keep her from falling to the ground and hurting herself. She was in such a daze that she had not noticed they were both walking closer to her. “We have to keep going.”

  “No, you have to rest.” Liostro frowned and set her down by a tree. “I'm not one to question orders from a superior under most circumstances but in this case you are in no shape to continue. I'll take first watch.”

  By the time the camp was set Rose had been sitting long enough that she could no longer stand on her own. She had spent her adrenaline, reserve energy and second and third winds so her body was unable to respond to her commands. Liostro helped her into her bedroll without complaint and stood to take first watch. “Wait.”

  “Yes?” He asked simply, turning around to look at her in mid-stride.

  “Stay with me for a minute.” Rose looked up at Liostro through haze-filled eyes and sighed. “Just for a minute.”

  “As you wish.” He smiled for her and sat down near her bedroll. As an afterthought he ran his fingers through her hair and watched her for a long time as she drifted in and out of sleep. It was clear she was fighting sleep though her body needed it. His heart skipped a beat as he sat there with his eyes never leaving her face
. Emotion was something he had suppressed for so long at the behest of his masters.

  Buried feelings haunted him while he was around her. It was painful for him at times because of his conditioning. All of that flew away with his freedom; it was akin to a bird being liberated after a life of caged existence. This had been in the making since the day he had let the naarabian child go free. Something in him had snapped something deep inside him that had been shackled and pinned down by what he considered to be brainwashing.

  He had vowed to always protect the two of them, both Rose and Nina. Though he had sworn it in blood and in heart it was different with Rose. He felt as if they were meant to meet each other from the day he had first seen her looking at him from a distance. She was the lone figure that had stopped and challenged his unwavering gaze unwittingly.

  In the back of his mind he knew once he had laid eyes on her and started the battle he had already resolved himself to lose. She had surprised him with magic, one of the things he had been taught to fear. That fear was not unfounded from what he had seen go on between Rose and the ashkanti who had been burned alive from the inside out. In the right hands though, he knew magic could be a wonderful thing. That much was true from just observing the wonders the elves had created in the forest. It was a lust for power that had almost killed the planet.

  The change inside him was alien, a feeling he had never experienced, a shift in his very being and he attributed it Rose. Perhaps there was something to the observations of Leonidus and Rose. Maybe he had been a good person all along but misguided. That did not excuse him from the atrocities he had committed in the name of the darkness, he knew that. Liostro let out a sigh and kissed Rose on the forehead, standing up to watch the perimeter of the camp.

  As the night wore on it became harder and harder to quiet his thoughts, the questions and doubts that raged through is mind. He wondered if he was worthy of this quest and whether he was the right person for the job or not. Each question led to another and steadily they reached deeper within him than he had ever searched. Liostro turned around and settled his gaze upon Rose again. Out of the corner of his eye he saw what seemed to be a cloud or haze floating near her but when he looked around her vicinity he shook it off as his need for rest catching up with him. He had let Nina get a little more sleep than they had agreed upon due to his own internal struggle. The young elf had been silent since he had made the comment about the true nature of evil. The truth was sobering; true evil never slept, it never had scruples and most of the time it lacked a tried and true definition or motive.

  After a moment of looking on as Rose slept restlessly he walked over to Nina and touched her shoulder, giving her a light nudge with his hand. “Nina, it's time for your watch.”

  When she did not awaken at first he attributed it to the travel time but something didn't seem right. Her eyes were moving rapidly and she was slack when he lifted her arm off the ground. Liostro walked over to Rose, who was in a similar state. No amount of shaking could bring either of them out of their torpor. “By the twin scales can we not get a reprieve?”

  Their brand of magic was beyond his ability to comprehend but he focused inward, within himself and closed his eyes while taking a deep breath. Calling upon one of the abilities he had learned in his training he drew his sword and focused his thoughts on the area around him, centering particularly on anything malefic. He reached out around himself slowly and methodically with his senses and found a presence hovering over Rose. The black haze he thought he had seen was apparently real. Once he knew it was there he focused on his blade, it had been a long time since he had been forced to use his abilities as a knight to strike against such a foe.

  From within he gathered a power that was dark and condensed. He watched as it physically coalesced around his blade like a shell of black crackling energy. Standing before the unseen foe he swung his blade through empty air and felt slight resistance, it slowed visibly and a shrill cry erupted from the very spot in front of him. Liostro discharged the energy into the creature, causing a shadowy silhouette to appear before him with spidery wisps of a cloudy white substance flowing out of the deep wound he had cut in its side.

  “A dream eater here?” The outline looked like a man with a wavering form, standing on two legs with a wide maw filled with sharp bone-like teeth. Dream eaters were a rare creature he had faced only one time before. He had heard rumors that they were born from the nightmares of wizards murdered in their sleep. Using every bit of strength he could pour into his blade he forced the creature to appear in corporeal form, it solidified slowly before him and snarled. “Nina, Rose, wake up!”

  “No!” Nina shouted suddenly as she bolted awake and gazed around the encampment with a haunted look in her eyes. She stumbled out of her bedroll and crawled over to Rose, shaking her lightly. “Rose!”

  “Wake her quickly while it's distracted, I can't hold it in this plane for long!” Liostro was straining against the creature. He watched it claw at his blade with its hands severing a few of its own fingers as it did. In the past he had been accompanied by another warrior or some sort who would dispatch the creature while it was in corporeal form.

  “I can't wake her up!” Nina cried as she kept trying to shake Rose awake.

  “Then kill it!” He shouted through gritted teeth and a strained voice.

  She scrambled back to her bedroll and retrieved her weapons from their holsters right next to her pack. Unsheathing them she charged at the creature and plunged the fine-crafted elven blade deep into its side. Her blades were ancestral, a long darksteel dagger and short sword of the same material but she had been told they were enchanted heavily. She found satisfaction in the unearthly howl that erupted from the disgusting shadow-creature. When she withdrew the blades she saw the cloud-like white substance leaking from the hole and watched it close quickly. “By the scouring sand!”

  “You have to sever the head Nina, go for the neck!” Liostro struggled with the supernaturally strong creature and attempted to pin it to the ground, his ability to hold the creature in this plane was limited and it was taxing his strength with each passing second. The best he could do was maneuver the thing to its knees by pulling it across Rose's sleeping form. “Quickly!”

  Knowing it could not dislodge the blade the dream eater reached out and tried to choke him, wrapping its powerful fingers around his neck and squeezing with all it could. Liostro tightened the muscles in his neck and twisted his blade in the wound, making it release its grasp and grab for the wound again.

  Nina grunted with effort as she swung the short sword out and connected with the creature's shoulder as it bucked against the blow and screeched. The second swing placed her dagger in the back of its neck so she pulled it sideways and sliced through the tissue as if it were made of paper. It staggered slightly and she swept the short sword in her right hand back across, cutting the head clear through to finish the job. “This thing has been tormenting us for hours. Rose! She was so weak when you jumped in; I thought it was going to kill her.”

  Nina knelt down before Rose as Liostro fell to his knees. She ignored the injured human for the moment and shook Rose hard trying to stir her from sleep. “Why won't she wake up?”

  “She has been drained almost to the point of no return. I don't have any smelling salts, which is the only thing I know that will wake her.” Liostro struggled with sheathing his sword and groaned, leaning forward across Rose's prone form while trying unsuccessfully to stay upright. “We need something with a pungent aroma.”

  “Murkweed!” Nina chimed suddenly as she stood and rushed off into the nearby forest. “It's a small plant with wide green leaves and a sickly yellow colored flower; it grows on the northern face of some trees. Gather the flowers and bring them to me!”

  Liostro stood with some effort and headed into the forest in another direction, hoping that he wouldn't have to go far, he didn't want to let Rose out of his sight. It seemed that someone or something wanted her dead badly enough to release a dre
am eater into the world. The prospect of that frightened him more than the dream eater itself.

  Nina returned before he did and began grinding the disgusting looking plant she had found with the hilt of her dagger. As he stepped back into the camp his nose protested instantly, causing him to turn his head and cough in protest.

  “That smells horrid.” Liostro was saying as Nina waved the squashed mix of flowers and leaves under Rose's nose. She had mixed it in a bowl and spread it on one of the broad leaves he had brought back that hadn't been the right type of plant.

  “You have that right.” Rose said weakly when her eyes popped open.

  “Oh Rose! I was so worried.” Nina wrapped her friend in a tight hug and took the bowl of green goop away from them, quickly digging a hole in the ground and burying the mixture. “Thank god, when that thing started attacking us I was sure we were done for.”

  “As was I.” She replied weakly. “What happened?”

  “Liostro noticed something was wrong, he attacked it and together we were able to kill the damned thing.” Nina sat near Rose and took her hand. “I don't seem to remember much about what happened though.”

  “My memories are starting to wane as well but I do remember something. It said that it could not be free until it destroyed me; someone sent that thing after me. But there was something else, a familiar presence. It felt like someone was watching us.” Rose closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. “Whoever sent that thing knows it failed.”

  “I know you don't want to, but you and Liostro should try to get some sleep. I'll take my watch and wake the two of you early so we can carry on.” Nina said as she stood up wearily and headed for her bedroll again to take a seat.

  “I shall try but it feels unsafe to do so.” Rose sat for a while watching Liostro across the distance. His face was drained, whiter than usual, it was obvious that he had expended quite a bit to save her. Nina sat for a long time before she stood up and walked over to a nearby tree, leaning against it for support. Rose couldn't help but close her eyes.