Thirteen Forgotten Worlds (Seam Wardens Book 1)

by Brant Williams

I sat up and glanced around wildly. My first impression had been right. I was in a cage with long, vertical bars spaced a few inches apart. I grabbed the bars, but they were thick and way too strong for me to break without an enhancer.

  I reached for my enhancers and felt… nothing. It was as if I had never had them. A feeling of fear and dread swept over me. My stomach suddenly clenched in knots.

  I was trapped and had no way of getting out.

  I peered between the bars at my surroundings. We were in what appeared to be a large cavern. The walls were lined with cages built into the rock, extending up four levels with wide paths and stairs to give access to each of the levels.

  Dozens of other stand-alone cages were spread out on the ground, each cage big enough to stand up or lie down in, but that was about it. The roof and floor of the cages were made of steel sheets several inches thick. The ends of the bars were sunk deep into them.

  Each of the stand-alone cages could be rolled on a set of wheels and had a locked door that I could find no way of opening from the inside. I grabbed the bars to the door and shook them as hard as I could, but there was almost no give. These cages were very well made. It would be enviable craftsmanship if it weren’t for the fact that I was trying to break out.

  Apparently, drug lords didn't skimp on their dungeon construction.

  Many of the other cages appeared to have someone – or something – in them.

  “Alexa?” I called out. “Are you there?”

  The only reply was a cacophony of growls and howling from the other cages. Several of the other occupants had gotten up and were pacing their cages. I recognized a few of the creatures from my studies with the Seam Wardens, and they were all of varying levels of animal intelligence and hostile predators.

  A distinctly human-sounding groan from the side drew my attention. “Alexa?” I called again. “Is that you?”

  “Pierce?” came the reply. She sounded groggy and only half awake. “Where are you?”

  I located the cage where her voice was coming from. There was another cage between us, so I didn't have a direct view, but I could mostly see her through the multiple sets of bars. She appeared to be lying on the floor.

  “I’m behind you,” I said. “Two cages over.”

  “Cages?” Alexa sat up. “How did we get in here?”

  “Brylings,” I said. “They attacked us from behind.”

  “I hate Brylings,” said Alexa, still sounding groggy. “Regular spiders are bad enough. Giant, mutant spiders that can turn into human form – too gross for words.”

  “What about your enhancers?” I asked. “Can you access them? Mine are completely gone.”

  There was a moment of silence followed by brief yet creative swearing. “No,” Alexa said. “I can’t. How is that even possible?”

  The sound of a door opening interrupted our conversation. Four large men marched into the room, each carrying metal bars with two wide circles attached to each end.

  One of them came and looked at me. He appeared to be human, but there was something off about him. It took me a second to recognize it – he was a Stoki. Once I recognized it, the oblong shape of his head was obvious.

  He grinned wickedly, and then attached one of the circle ends of the bar to my cage and, holding the other end, began pulling me out of the large cavern. The length of the bar made it impossible for me to reach through the bars of my cage and strangle him – something I desperately wanted to do.

  I tried to reach into my transdimensional pocket and pull out my Boom Sticks, but when I reached my hand in, there was nothing in there. I checked the other pockets, and they were all the same.

  Nothing.

  While I was unconscious, they had gone through my clothing and removed everything from my transdimensional storage pockets.

  No weapons. No enhancers. Things weren’t looking too good for us.

  “What about your transdimensional storage?” I called out to Alexa. I had to yell pretty loudly because the wheels on my cage made a horrendous squealing sound. “They took my Boom Sticks and all my supplies.”

  “Nothing here either,” she shouted.

  Fortunately – or maybe not so fortunately – another Stoki was pulling Alexa’s cage as well. They towed us out of the cave and into a well-lit hallway lined with steel panels on the walls. Long, horizontal scratches showed where previous prisoners had attempted to use their claws in a desperate attempt to stop their journey.

  I wondered what they knew that we didn’t.

  I watched Alexa through the bars on our cages as we traveled and tried to give her a reassuring smile when she caught my eye. If it conveyed at all how I actually felt, it fell well short of reassuring and was probably more in the vaguely-nauseous category.

  We emerged from the hall into what appeared to be a scaled-down version of a Roman coliseum. The wide, circular room had a hard-packed, dirt floor, and the seating was raised ten feet above us. I also noticed that the observers above were protected by thick sheets of something clear – like at a hockey game. While I didn't know what it was made of, without my enhancers I had no doubt that it would be just as difficult to break through as the steel bars of our cages.

  The two Stokis bowed to the people sitting in the stands above and left the room, closing thick, steel doors behind them. There was a loud click, and the doors to our cages popped open. I looked through the bars at Alexa. We both seemed to be having the same thought: Were we safer inside the cage rather than out?

  I still couldn’t access my enhancers. I felt exposed and vulnerable without them. Like King Arthur without Excalibur, or Yoda without the Force. I was suddenly very aware of how frail and delicate the human body actually was.

  After a moment’s careful deliberation, I took a cautious step outside of the cage and Alexa did the same. If we were going to be attacked, I would rather have some room to move than be stuck in a cage.

  Alexa walked over and stood next to me. We both faced the people in the stands above.

  A man sat on a large chair that was best described as a throne. It was twice as wide as the other seats around it with a tall back that was almost six-feet tall. The throne was richly upholstered, and the arms and back of the chair were lined with what certainly looked to be jewels. They looked real enough.

  The man on the throne was large as well. While it was hard to judge since the man was still sitting, I guessed he had to be well over six feet. Maybe, six and a half feet. He was certainly tall, handsome, and muscularly built. He had broad shoulders with powerful arms and large hands that looked like they would be excellent at crushing things, and jet black hair that was just tinged with gray at the temples.

  He wore a long-sleeved, black shirt very similar to the ones the Seam Wardens wore. No scratch that. The shirt was identical to the ones the Seam Wardens wore. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised considering this was likely the guy who had somehow gotten access to enhancers to sell.

  The most noticeable thing about this man was the intricate tattoo of a black and yellow spider extending from his right cheek down to his neck. It was large, and the legs circled the man's throat making it look as if the spider had him in some death grip.

  Clearly, this was Marcus Booking. Now, I understood why they called him "The Spider."

  Marcus straightened up in his chair as he saw us.

  “Well, well, well,” he said, a note of mocking in his voice. “Who do we have here? Seam Wardens? In my house? Oh, my day is complete!”

  Alexa and I exchanged a look. I saw the warning look in her eyes. If he made Alexa this wary, he must be very dangerous.

  “We don’t have a quarrel with you,” Alexa said.

  Marcus raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s strange. I was told that you threatened one of my men and demanded to know my location. That doesn’t sound very peaceful to me.”

  Unfortunately, the man had a point. This was bad.

  When we didn’t answer, Marcus nodded. “I thought as much. You probab
ly aren’t feeling quite as brave since your enhancers are blocked.” He grinned at the look of discomfort he saw in our expressions.

  “Oh, yes,” he said. “It’s my own recipe. A little something I developed to deal with my own particular affliction and has come in quite handy for dealing with nosy Seam Wardens.” He held up an aerosol can he had strapped to his belt. “It’s quite effective, don’t you think?” The crowd in the stands laughed raucously.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  "Oh, it speaks!" exclaimed Marcus with an affected look of exaggerated surprise. "Well, that's an excellent question." He paused and thought for a moment. "Today, what I want is entertainment."

  At the word “entertainment,” the crowd started buzzing with excitement.

  “Yes,” he said slowly. “I believe you are in luck. Today I want entertainment. Bring in the disgraced!”

  I had no idea what the “disgraced” was, but it sure didn’t sound like something I wanted to see.

  The door we had come through opened, and another cage was pulled in by the same Stoki who had brought me in. The cage contained two men, both much larger than myself. I guessed we were roughly the same height, but these guys each looked to be about twice as wide as I was in the chest.

  The Stoki pulled the cage next to ours and quickly exited the arena.

  Marcus stood in his chair and addressed the two newcomers. "You have both been found guilty of betraying me and our entire operation. You have been sentenced to death, but for today, you get a special opportunity." He gestured at Alexa and me. "These two are Seam Wardens but without their enhancers. Your task is to kill them both. If you remain alive at the end, you will be pardoned. If you die, well, that's the end really. How does that sound as a deal?"

  The two men looked at Alexa and me. One had his head shaved, and the other one had longer hair pulled back into a ponytail. Both of them wore lots of black leather and had hard faces covered in scars.

  “You send us to fight children?” the bald one said. “This is how we regain our honor, by killing children?”

  Marcus stood up and folded his arms. “You have heard my terms. If you choose not to fight, you will, of course, be executed. Did I forget to mention that?” He smiled blandly and sat back down. “Do as you will.”

  With a click, their cages opened. Neither man moved at first. They stared at each other, some type of silent communication passing between them. I wasn't sure if it was simply interpreting each other's looks or if they could somehow read minds. For all I knew, they could do that. I'd seen stranger things since I became a Seam Warden.

  As one, they broke eye contact with each other and squatted down. Their flesh started melting and running in strange rivulets. Their arms and legs grew bristly hairs and elongated. Four more arms sprouted out of their side and their heads twisted into the shape of a spider’s with large, multi-faceted eyes and long fangs.

  Brylings.

  I thought back to what I had learned about them in Cadet Training. They were strong and fast, but no match for a Seam Warden with two or more enhancers. Unfortunately, we seemed to be fresh out of enhancers at the moment.

  Brylings were of average human intelligence, but when they transformed into their spider form, they couldn't communicate and lost some of their higher reasoning abilities in exchange for strength and speed.

  They had some healing ability but could be killed with enough trauma. They were tough, but not impossible to kill.

  Alexa and I both backed up as the two Brylings left their cages and scuttled over towards us. They split apart and attempted to circle around us. Alexa and I stayed back to back, not wanting to let them get behind us.

  Our options at this point were pretty limited. We had no weapons so we would have to pummel them with our fists or feet. Not exactly my first choice.

  It would be so much easier with a weapon. Fighting a Bryling was always dangerous, but without enhancers or weapons, this looked to be a pretty one-sided deal. Since we would be forced to fight at close range, we would have to be careful not to let them bite us.

  One of the Brylings was slightly smaller and brown and tan in color. The other was larger and had black and yellow stripes across its front.

  The striped Bryling launched itself at my chest, surprisingly fast. It hit me and knocked me into Alexa, causing us both to fall in a heap. The other Bryling took the opportunity caused by our collision to leap on Alexa.

  I kicked out at the striped Bryling, connecting with its head and causing it to let out a high-pitched chittering. Alexa took that opportunity to pull her legs up underneath her and shove the brown Bryling away. It flew off her and fell to the ground, but clearly unhurt.

  I punched the striped Bryling in the abdomen. It shrieked and skittered away from me. I turned my head to follow where it had gone and knocked into something hard.

  I had landed near one of the cages and hit my head on the large, metal tow bar with a circle on each end the Stoki had used to pull our cages.

  Without a second of hesitation, I grabbed one end of the tow bar and pulled it off of the end of the cage. It was gloriously heavy and solid. One hit from the bar would do plenty of damage.

  I held the bar at my side and waited for the Bryling to come within striking distance. In their human form, they would have understood that what I held was a dangerous weapon, but in their transformed form they would likely need to see it in action before they realized how dangerous it was. Hopefully, I could do enough damage to stop the fight before they figured it out.

  I caught Alexa's eye and looked down at the tow bar in my hand. She grinned and glanced over at the other cage. It was a good fifteen feet to the other tow bar.

  Slowly, we made our way over to the other cage, keeping our eyes on the Brylings as they stalked us. When we were still several feet out from the tow bar, the striped Bryling lunged at me. I swung the tow bar and connected with its side. I silently thanked the training masters for all the hours they forced us to train with and without weapons. A year ago, I could have never made the hit, but now, even without my enhancers, my body knew how to keep spacing and look for weak points.

  I felt a crack at impact and knew that the bar had hit true. I wasn’t all that familiar with Bryling anatomy, but I was pretty sure I had broken a rib or crushed a vital organ.

  The monster dropped to the ground and flailed its legs feebly, a yellow goo oozing from between its fangs.

  Alexa took that moment to dive for the second tow bar. She grabbed it and swung it in time to fend off the brown Bryling as it attacked. She connected with its head and the creature twisted in the air, before dropping to the ground, unmoving.

  Alexa and I stood up, breathing heavily, our tow bars at the ready. The two Bryling before us were still alive, but just barely.

  “Excellent work,” said Marcus. He stood up from his throne and applauded. “I do enjoy a good fight.” He stopped clapping and folded his arms. “Now, finish them.”

  Alexa and I looked at the fallen Brylings. They had changed back to their human shapes, and now we could better understand the extent of their injuries. The one who was striped lay face up on the ground with blood flowing out of his mouth. The brown Bryling had a large indentation in its skull.

  It was clear that neither of them was in any position to fight and didn't present any danger. Alexa caught my eye and shook her head. I was in complete agreement. It was one thing to fight to save your life when something was attacking you; it was quite another to kill a sentient creature that had been incapacitated.

  “Not going to do it,” said Alexa.

  Marcus lifted an eyebrow in an expression of incredulity. “You refuse to finish the fight?” he asked.

  “The fight is over,” I said. “Look at them. They lost.”

  Marcus nodded slowly. “They have lost,” he said. He raised his right arm into the air and held up his fist with the thumb pointing up. Then very slowly, he turned his arm so his thumb pointed down.

  The do
ors to the arena opened, and a dozen men ran in, all armed with rifles and Boom Sticks. I flushed with anger at seeing these people using Seam Warden weapons. They had no right.

  Nine of the guards surrounded Alexa and me, pushing us over to the side with rifles aimed at our heads. We were forced to stand with our backs to the walls. Without any enhancers and armed only with metal tow bars we wouldn’t last long against these guards. Our shirts could probably stop a rifle round, but given where the guards were aiming that was little comfort.

  The other four guards stood before the two fallen Bryling and with no hesitation, each guard shot the unconscious Brylings in the head.

  There were four loud cracks as the weapons were fired and each of the bodies jerked for a moment before ceasing all movement.

  Without ceremony, the four guards dragged the two dead Brylings out of the arena, leaving a trail of blood and gore behind.

  With a wave of his hand, Marcus Booking dismissed the other guards. They kept their weapons raised as they backed away and out through one of the gates.

  Once the guards were gone, Marcus spoke again. “Now that you understand how it works here, I give you one more chance to do this right.”

  We heard a loud clank of metal striking metal and a cringe-inducing scraping – like nails on a chalkboard only magnified by a thousand. Immediately, loud snarls and howls filled the arena.

  The gate opened and a massive, cat-like creature ran into the arena. It had a roughly feline-shaped head and was covered in black fur, but that was about where the similarities ended. The creature had six legs with paws that had two-inch-long claws. The creature’s back was covered with a hard shell, like a demented turtle from hell.

  This was a creature we hadn’t covered in Cadet training. I had no idea what it was, but judging from the look of horror on Alexa’s face, she recognized what it was.

  “Do you know what it is?” I asked. “If you know any vulnerabilities, now would be a good time to share.”

  Alexa squeezed her eyes shut trying to concentrate. “Got it!” she said after several agonizingly long seconds. “It’s a Daimun from Maldabard.”