“Duty unto Death!”
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High above the little town of Nuttinnew, Keyshi circled about, preparing for what would most likely be, its final dive into the cold, dark gullet. Its temperature was surprisingly high, nearly 130 degrees.
Keyshi had engaged in an emergency maneuver used by summer breezes to maximize their efficiency whenever they were overtaken by a sudden drop in temperature. It was an extremely dangerous maneuver, and could, if not performed precisely, cause premature non-existence. In principle, it relied on the fairly basic law of aerial-thermalics, which states that the mere act of existing expends vast amounts of energy.
For a summer breeze this expenditure is usually dissipated rather quickly into the surrounding cognitive-deficient air currents. The purpose of Keyshi’s special maneuver was designed to retain this, otherwise, lost heat for as long as possible. This was accomplished through a series of controlled convolutions.
class=Section4> By continually turning one’s self inside out, the heat normally expended into the free air was instead recaptured by the very entity expending it as it continually re-engulfed itself. Thus, it would be able to re-utilize its own spent heat as a new source of energy, becoming a self-generating organism which could have perpetuated itself forever were it not for one drawback - another law of aerial-thermalics which states that for every gain there is an equal and opposite loss.
Unfortunately, the amount of heat regained through this maneuver is inversely proportional to the amount of energy needed to maintain the consciousness required to control the rejuvenating process. Eventually, a continually convoluting summer breeze would lose awareness of itself as a whole entity and would drift apart into billions of free-floating molecules, becoming little more than random air.
As Keyshi prepared to dive, its total consciousness was directed toward the complicated task at hand. Everything was as close to being right as it was ever going to be. The young, dying human was near the well. The Key to the underworld was hanging in plain view over its opening. The dust storm surrounding the little town had built up sufficient particles to create a high voltage electrical charge. All the pieces of the greatest prank ever played were in place.
Down, down, down Keyshi dove as it narrowed its being into a thin, reverberating stream, leaving a line of vapor and a high pitched whistle in its wake.
Everyone in the town jumped to their windows or raced outside to see the cause of their auditory irritation. Clapping their hands over their ears, they searched for the sky overhead for its horrendous source. But all they saw was a thin line of white cloud streaking out of the clear blue sky straight down into the well.
In Center House, Pentalope jumped off the sleeping cot and sprang to the window, where she, too, clasped her hands over her ears.
"What is that?” Fleetra shouted in a half sleep as she pulled the cot cover over her naked body.
"Another of that wellkeeper's tricks, no doubt. Quickly, get me dressed. Tell Madrath to get my....”
"Ooh,” Fleetra broke into a flood of tears.
"Stop that!" Pentalope screamed, but Fleetra wailed even louder. "By Veget, I said stop it!” Pentalope screamed again, as she vaulted across the room and slapped Fleetra across the back of her head. Fleetra’s crying instantly stopped, but more from shock than pain.
Before she could fully assimilate what had just happened, Pentalope jerked her by the hair and stretched her neck back until her face was directly beneath her own.
"Just because I let you act out your wickedness upon my own honorable flesh, don’t think for one moment, I love you or your miserable, petty perversions." Pentalope jerked Fleetra down onto the cot. Then raising one leg, she pressed her foot against the side of her seamstress’ head, digging in her toenails, as she continued.
“You mean less to me than the putty between my toes. Your only value to me is in how well you please me. Your only reward is that I allow you to serve me. Do you understand?” Pentalope roared as the whistling sound outside grew louder.
"Yes, yes. I know. I know. You - you’re hurting me,” Fleetra choked, trying not to aggravate Pentalope more by squirming beneath her foot.
"Am I? Why, I'm so sorry, my dear. You know I wouldn't harm a short hair on your fair head." Pentalope's demure had changed to her sickening, pseudo-sweetness. She took her foot from Fleetra's head and bent down as if to kiss her servant’s reddened cheek. But at the last moment, she grabbed Fleetra’s hair once more, and jerked her head up to her own. Then she kissed her full on the mouth.
At first Fleetra didn’t respond, other than stretching her lips tightly across her teeth as she grimaced from the pain of her hair being pulled. However, Pentalope's kisses soon became more passionate. Fleetra could feel Pentalope's tongue indelicately searching for her own. Fleetra could resist no longer. With a long low groan that sounded more like a growl, she allowed the release of her own passion. But, as soon as she did, Pentalope pulled away from her.
"Just what do you think you’re doing?” Pentalope roared. "Do you think I’m sick - like that Marbrit? How dare you attempt to corrupt me with your odd vulgarities. Now, get up and, for Veget's sake, and put some clothes on! The sight of your nakedness is making me ill,” Pentalope spewed her contempt, then rose from the cot. The whistling outside had stopped.
"When you’re done, go find my hairy beast. Tell him to wait for me on the front porch. Then tell my ambassadors to gather all the people of the west there, as well. Today is my moment of destiny. I know it! I can taste it, as surely as I can taste you, my dear.”
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In Loden's hut, Wudrick's eyes sprang open. He clasped his hands over his ears to muffle the loud, shrill whistle. "It’s happening. It’s happening, now, and I'm missing it,” he muttered while quickly sitting up - too, quickly. Immediately, his head began to spin as he surveyed the room. He was alone.
Slowly, carefully, he let his legs fall over the edge of the cot. After waiting a few moments for the room to stop spinning about him, he stood up and staggered through the sleeping and eating rooms to the front door. By the time he reached it, the whistling sound had stopped. "Drat! It’s over!" he moaned as he stepped outside. His body felt weak as his brain continued to spin in his head. He could feel his legs shaking as his knees buckled under him. Stumbling backwards, he tried to support himself against the hut wall, but he knew he didn't have the strength not to fall - and fall he did. Giving in to the inevitable, he slumped forward, unconscious, into the arms of the Hooded One.
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The sound of Keyshi's sonic dive which drove the inhabitants of Nuttinnew to cover their ears drove those near the well opening to the ground out of shear auditory pain. Fortunately, however, the volume wasn’t equaled by the length of exposure. Due to their proximity to the well, their encounter with the painful, high pitched shrill didn’t last long.
Still, it took several moments for them to recover their hearing. By then, Keyshi was deep in the belly of the well, passing through the opening to the first chamber. Without hesitation, it slipped into the breach in the wall of the Gatekeeper’s chamber. Taking a quick pause to appraise the situation (but not long enough to reconsider its decision) Keyshi sensed the presence of two powerful life forces just ahead.
"I guess this is it,” Keyshi sighed. "Here I go." With that Keyshi shot a sliver-size blast of warm air into the inner chamber, inadvertently grazing the Gatekeeper.
"Eeek! Fire and Torment, I've been bitten! By - ow, again! It’s - ow, it - ow, ow! Molten lava! By the Great Supreme One, how did some horrible little warmling get in here past the Key (salute)? Ow! Ow! Stop that!"
“What is it?” cried the apprentice.
Without answering, the Gatekeeper forced its injured parts into snow packed chamber walls, which served the dual purpose of easing its pain and fortifying its defenses, although it was unsure where the warmth was entering the chamber, for each strike seemed to come from a different direction. Most importantly, it
was arming itself for a chilling offensive.
“There! Take that!” the Gatekeeper shouted, while blasting puffs of ice cold air into several possible inlets of intrusion. One was a most unlikely place - a hairline crack in the very chamber wall which housed the Key.
The sudden blast of icy air momentarily stunned Keyshi. The little breeze couldn't believe how painful the cold was and instinctually let out a squeal.
"Ha!" shouted the guard with glee. "A hit! A hit! Listen to it squeal! But I don’t understand how...?"
"What is it? What’s happening? What’s the matter?” the apprentice shouted excitedly, as it danced about the chamber, trying to keep out of the Gatekeeper’s way.
“Oh, molten lava, since you’re sure to be my replacement after my promotion, you might as well know, the Key (Salute) which keeps the warm beings from ever entering our icy domain in the underworld, is hidden within this wall.”
“No! Really? Then how could there be a warmlings attacking from there? Surely, The Key (salute) wouldn’t allow such a thing. You must be mistaken!”
“There’s truth in what you say, but it’s my job to protect the Key (salute), not its job to protect me. Besides, its not warmlings. The air reeks of but one, and its got a most peculiar scent. Perhaps the Key (salute) let it pass unchallenged, figuring the two of us should be able to handle it on our own. Or It could be a test by the lower council.” the Gatekeeper considered its commander’s earlier words. “Still, even if a warmling did manage to burrow its way past the Key without setting off an alarm, that one short blast of freezing air I gave it will make it think again about starting a confrontation with a Gatekeeper to the underworld. There’s not a warmling alive with puffs enough to match us blow by blow, you know,” the Gatekeeper boasted.
The apprentice was right, of course, the Key would never ..., then, again, the apprentice didn’t know the Gatekeeper had been faking its inspection records. It hadn’t actually checked on the Key since - since - well, now, it couldn’t even remember the last time it had actually seen the Key. But, after all, it was a Key to the underworld, created by the COE, itself, and nothing ever happens to a Keyes. Checking on it, as every gatekeeper knows, was just a ceremonial formality.
The Gatekeeper was right about one thing. After receiving the blast of icy air, every instinct in Keyshi's being told it to get the gale out of there and that’s exactly what the little summer breeze intended to do until it caught wind of the Gatekeeper’s braggadocian boast. That was enough to reignite Keyshi's prank playing instinct. So primordial, so powerful was this instinct that once swept to the highest level of its consciousness, it over-shadowed all others, including survival.
Keyshi had left most of its being and temperature in the outer chamber, by merely running a thin stream of itself into the breach. Upon receiving the icy blast, it recoiled halfway back into the breach and, quickly, drew in some warmth attend its frost bite.
With its prank playing instinct fully activated, Keyshi left all caution to the wind. Drawing itself into several thin streams of maximum warmth, it slithered back into the breach like a quarry of snakes. Poking and prying, in, under, around, and through each stone and clod. For as it quickly discovered the Gatekeeper truly had been indolent in all its responsibilities. All along the chamber walls Keyshi found tiny paths through which to travel. Soon, it had the entire chamber surrounded, and as the ice covered walls were absorbing its warmth, sheets of ice began to melt and break away.
"What the...?" the Gatekeeper cried as it raced around the chamber, attempting to prevent the sudden thawing. "Quickly, quickly, go get help. We’re under attack by a some gigantic, tentacled warmling.”
The apprentice dashed out of the chamber and into the long narrow hall. It knew it had come from the left so it dashed off in that direction. However, it had not traveled very far when it came to a junction where the tunnels diverged into six. The apprentice had no idea which way it should go, so it didn't go anywhere. Instead, it stopped and waited for some other wind to come along.
Meanwhile, the Gatekeeper had spread itself out into a thin layer covering the entire chamber, all around and up and down. The tactic worked. As the chamber walls re-froze from the chill of the Gatekeeper’s being, its own cold was enhanced by the freezing ice. The Gatekeeper would have been able to maintain this situation until reinforcements arrived, if reinforcements would have been coming. Until then, it could only hope it could outlast the warmth of the attacking hoard. After all, “Warms were merely primitive air creatures of sub-intelligence and were no match for the wit of a Keeper of the Key,” the Gatekeeper reassured itself.
However, this was not an attack by mindless warms that blundered into the chamber of the Key. The attack was orchestrated by a young, devilish, conniving, and most determined summer breeze, which had, at least as much intelligence as any Gatekeeper, and probably a good deal more than this particular one.
Keyshi had saved a reserve of warmth in the entrance chamber which it now drew into the breach. Setting itself up like an artillery battery, it took pop shots at the guard, now spread thinly about the chamber wall.
"Ow! Ow! Why you ... I'll ... ow!" the Gatekeeper threatened.
"Blow, blower, blowhard!” Keyshi mocked, speaking for the first time. "You'll what? If you leave the wall, the warms will melt the ice. How will you explain that to your commander? By the way, where do they send Gatekeepers who fail at their post? To some place nice and warm, I imagine. Ha, ha!" Keyshi's voice dripped with sarcasm.
"Why you ... whatever you are, I'll, Ow! I'll Ow, ow, ow ...! Oh, just you wait till the reinforcements get ... ow ... here."
"Reinforcements? Ha! You think that apprentice of yours is getting reinforcements? Why that pitiful creature is even dumber than you are. I wouldn't count on it even coming back. Besides, if it does show up with reinforcements, aren't you going to be the laughing stock of the underworld? You can't even stave off a little summer bree ... oops!"
"Summer bre - breeze! You’re a summer breeze? But how ... ow ... but how did you get past the Key?” (salute - as best it couldin its thinly spread out condition)
"Get past the Key? What Key? There’s no Key, here,” Keyshi chided.
"No Key? (another attempted salute) Of course, there's a Key (another half-hearted attempt). It’s right there where you are. How could you possibly miss it? How could it miss you?”
"You mean the little oddly shaped thing embedded in the stone? Oh, that was in my way, so I took that up to the surface a long time ago."
"Aack! No, no, you couldn't have! You didn't!" the Gatekeeper was going into pure panic which is what Keyshi had hoped for. In its distracted state the ice was beginning to thaw again. Keyshi didn't want this to happen though, for it needed the guard to be at its coldest when it burst out of the well.
"Seems to me you should already have known that. Say, what kind of Gatekeeper are you anyway? You can't even over-power a summer breeze. Look, your walls are melting, again."
Keyshi continued the taunting, while trying to ignore its own pain. "If all the Gatekeepers are as careless as you, I think I’ll go spread the word, telling all the prank-playing summer breezes, just how easy it is to steal a Key to the underworld. Oh, and what fun it is to dance in a Garekeeper’s chamber when all the ice has melted from its walls. Why I’ll be famous. I’ll be recorded in the book of summer breeze legends - er, not to mention an entry into the Gatekeeper’s Book of Legends. I’m sure you will become quite a ‘legend’ in there, too, as the first Gatekeeper to ever lose its Key - to a little summer breeze, ha, ha!" Keyshi danced and twisted as it spoke. It could feel the heightening of the Gatekeeper’s chilling rage. Soon, the ice on its chamber walls were as hard as the stone walls which supported it.
"You'd better bring that Key (no attempt to salute) back down here, if you know what's good for you."
"Make me. Make me. Nah, nah, nah,” Keyshi taunted in the irritating, grating voice similar to that of a human child’s. Keyshi was rapidly losin
g its warmth. It really was no physical match for the Gatekeeper - at least, not in its own element. If it couldn't outwit it soon, it would be totally overcome by it and in its present level of anger, this would certainly mean instant death.
"I'll make you alright, you little pain in the air ducts. You'll rue the day you ventured into Underearth and stole my Key (salute),” the Gatekeeper roared.
The stone cold ice which had covered the chamber walls suddenly vanished, but not from thawing. The Gatekeeper had incorporated it into its own icy being, filling the entire chamber with a dense, freezing fog. The exposed walls became so frigid that the stone which formed them began to crack and crumble.
Keyshi quickly withdrew as much of itself as it could from the catacombs in the walls, but most of its extending tentacles had already become frozen to the stone. In short, it was stuck. Soon the Gatekeeper would locate its conscious center and then.... Oh, it was more than Keyshi cared or dared, to even consider. With slender barbs of frigid air, the Gatekeeper methodically probed each crack in the chamber wall, stabbing, poking, piercing every hint of warm. When the immense pain from all these wounds collected in its central consciousness, Keyshi couldn't help but let out a squeal. "Aaaeee!"
"Ha!" cried the Gatekeper. "You petty puff. You inconsequential current. You insignificant sigh of air. How dare you think you could perform your puny pranks on a Gatekeeper to Underworld. You must be out of your consciousness. Now, return the Key (salute) to its rightful place, before I freeze you into a stalactite trophy to decorate my chamber ceiling.”
"Ooh,” Keyshi groaned. There was no doubt in its mind that the Gatekeeper could do exactly what it threatened. “Okay, okay, all powerful Gatekeeper, Keeper of the Key to Underworld, I know when I've been beaten. I'll show you where I've taken your most precious Key. However, you’ll have to free me first. I seem to be frozen solid in several places. But take care in releasing me - too much pain and I might lose all my memory and forget where I've put your precious Key.” Keyshi could sense the Gatekeeper swell with victorious pride.
Pieces: Book One, The Rending Page 43