by Dekker, Ted
"Not if you're dead." The queen's lips pulled back in a fierce sneer. Amulet guardian he was, to be feared. "Of course, there are other arrangements. I see you've met Shaeda. Abhorrent little vampire, isn't she?"
Shaeda bristled. The hair on the back of Johnis's neck stood up.
He could feel her starting to dominate him.
Johnis pulled the medallion away from the beast, draped it over his neck. His heart began to race again.
He had to think. Outsmart this creature. Get them both out of here.
"Fly, you fool."
Wait, wait!
He growled.
Human patience now surpassed Leedhan patience.
Silvie held the torch aloft. It was turning her skin red, but she didn't seem to care. The bats kept away from the fire.
"I'll torch us with it if I have to," she warned.
"Take us out," Johnis said. "I'll tell you the entity's plans and let you feast on the Horde instead. What do you think of that?"
The Leedhan had coiled up like a snake. She hissed. Johnis hissed.
"Amusing, pup." Again the Shataiki opened its palm, came forward several steps. "You will unleash more than you can imagine, and you will defy that which you do not wish to defy."
"I don't recall a Shataiki ever telling me the truth."
"Are you certain of what you know?" The bat paused, waited expectantly. "Or are you judging me by my fur?" He smiled, a yawning, jeering expression.
Johnis's mind warred between hatred and fear.
The beast grinned and raised a wing, drawing their attention toward the rafters. A dozen smaller bats clung upside down, their jaws dripping with a glistening gel. Some of the viscous liquid dripped down on Johnis's head.
Shaeda snarled.
"Let me take the amulet," Johnis said. "The entity holds me prisoner. Help me trick her and take her powers, and once the Circle is dead and we have the Horde, I will betray her to you. Think on this, Queen. Shaeda, the mate of the Leedhan chieftain."
Johnis glanced at the medallion around his neck. The necklace.
It made them visible.
Leedhan magic channeled through the medallion and did what it willed.
The Shataiki guardian hissed. "Return it to me, and I will allow you to leave alive."
"I don't think I can do that ..."
His mind was changing, slipping. His skin turned translucent white.
Through one eye he saw blue, through one he saw purple. Together he saw red haze washing over everything.
He gave himself to the Leedhan's impulses. His mind raced faster. His focus quickened. His senses razor sharp. Resolve steeled. Sharper his senses and more steeled his resolve.
Shaeda rushed through him, flooded him heart, mind, and soul. His thoughts were her thoughts. His will hers.
Silvie gaped at him. "Johnis ..."
Purplish-red colored the Shataiki and Silvie.
The queen threw back his head and roared. The Shataiki all came to life.
Silvie set the book ablaze and flung it at the queen. He jumped away from the blaze. His minions took flight. The whole chamber swarmed, tearing and clawing through the air. Many tore through a shaft above and through the one by which Johnis and Silvie had entered. Their shrieks mingled with those of the worms. Sludge dripped everywhere.
"You fight well, for a vampire's pet," the queen jeered, "If you survive, I will trade you freedom for the vampire's blood and for her power over the Horde."
A loan on the amulet?
But . . . that did mean he could be rid of Shaeda. But a Shataiki was worse than a Leedhan. He well remembered Alucard and Teeleh.
The queen flung back his head and roared. They dove for the exit.
Silvie kept her grip on the torch and slung the rest of the water. Now awakened and angry, facing enslavement to two humans, the Shataiki were a boiling cauldron.
Johnis twisted through. Silvie scrambled over his legs and up his back, set fire to the entrance. He bent his knees. She slammed the grate on a Shataiki's snout and made it scream louder.
"Hurry!"
Johnis sped after her. Behind, the bats flung their bodies at the grate and cursed each other until it came open. They reached the top of the staircase, right where they had fallen earlier. Smoke and flames licked at their heels.
Shaedas presence settled on him.
Her hazy eyes became his.
Her strength, his.
Her ancestors, her history, her hate ...
All his.
"Now what?" Silvie asked.
He whipped his head around, lip curled. "Can you jump that far?"
"No!"
"Silvie-"
The bats were on them, snapping, clawing, and beating them with enormous wings and deafening shrieks. They would circle high and swoop down on Johnis and Silvie's heads, always attacking from above.
Only Silvie's torch offered any protection. That and Shaeda's phenomenal strength.
Johnis managed to strike a second and used that to keep them back. The torches went between their teeth every time they had to climb. Blood poured from open wounds. First: get out alive.
"Grab!" Johnis latched onto a bat right as it headed toward the top. It jerked under his weight. A second and third joined the fray. Johnis swung out and broke loose of the bat's leg, barely catching the edge.
The harach. He didn't dare lose it.
They craved human flesh. And Leedhan blood.
He hoisted himself over the lip of the floor, rolled, and reached down for Silvie. "Jump! Jump!"
She screamed again, so loud he thought she was dead. Then her hands slapped his. Johnis grabbed her fingers and pulled. She scrambled over him.
"Come on!"
They tore through the tunnel with its claustrophobic darkness and sped through the labyrinth with giant bats latched onto their backs, teeth digging into their flesh. Several pulled him down and tore a chunk out of him.
Silvie beat them off and half dragged him, flying down the dark tunnel. Johnis staggered into a wall. Silvie tripped and nearly landed in worm sludge. Together they staggered like two drunks with one leg, back through the overhang and into the lakebed.
"What happened back there? Your eyes-"
"What about them?"
"They looked like Shaedas."
"I think they were."
Bats were pouring out of the lair. The stark Black Forest surrounded them. The trees were laden in Shataiki so thick he couldn't see the sun.
Black wood, black dirt.
The muddy graveyard they had stood in was now full of murky water. The same raunchy substance flowed over the fall.
They were both losing blood, but they dared not rest, dared not stop. Where were Warryn and his men? More than an hour had to have passed.
The Shataiki queen's voice roared from somewhere within. Johnis grabbed Silvie. Shaedas will overran him once more. "We have to go!"
"He said if we got out alive, he'd-"
"Run!"
ARROWS AND SWORDS FLASHED BETWEEN ERAM'S MEN, Cassak's men, and Warryn's men. Despite Cassak's orders, bod ies were falling, dying left and right. So far the Eramites suffered the worst-they would not allow the throaters to take them alive.
"Sanctuary to all who lay down their arms!" Cassak cried over the melee. "Lay down your arms! Lay down your arms! We didn't come here to fight!"
A few rebels submitted, down on their knees, hands behind their heads. Only those who would not yield to the throaters fell dead.
"Warryn! Call off your men! Call off-"
A loud screech took to the air, followed by a low boom-lower than a drum, barely audible, yet piercing the ears-and the earth shook.
The canyon transformed into the thick, broad-leafed Black Forest with trees that climbed several hundred feet into the air. And from its depths came a howling black thunderstorm that screeched into the sky, blacking out the sun.
Throaters, warriors, and rebels all went still. Cassak realized his mouth was open and shut
it. The cloud came straight for them, and several of the men began to run.
Then it all vanished.
All was quiet on the edge of a canyon, where seconds ago a bloody skirmish took more than a dozen victims.
The Black Forest reappeared. Then was gone.
Seconds passed. They turned to minutes.
Cassak recovered from his stupor.
"Take the Eramites and the throaters." He put his sword at Warryn's throat before the serpent warrior could protest.
"We'll wait for the pup."
JOHNIS TUCKED THE MEDALLION INTO HIS SHIRT. DESERT and barren canyon met them once more. He drew it back out. Forest so thick it blotted out the sun enveloped them and the Shataiki swarming out of the cave.
"Johnis!"
He shoved it back into his shirt and they fled together, hearts pounding.
"What in the name of Elyon was that?"
Silvie didn't answer. They didn't stop until they reached where they had left the horses, right at the edge of the Black Forest, and stirred up a flock of vultures.
Both horses were dead, corpses feasted upon by the birds. Silvie screamed. The sound made Johnis jump. He fought the sick urge to retrieve the medallion again.
No, not yet.
Only now, staring at the dead horses, they both staggered to the ground. Shaedas strength left. He collapsed. He'd lost so much blood, and Silvie too. Johnis closed his eyes, the amulet in hand.
He couldn't give up. Not now. He'd survived the queen's lair, survived his challenge. Bats liked playing with their prey. The Shataiki hadn't expected the Leedhan to give Johnis that much power, enough to get out of the lair alive.
Merely a taste.
What else could the Leedhan ... the Leedhan do ... ?
His eyes started to close. Silvie said something, but he couldn't hear it.
Fog enveloped him. Shaeda, punishing him for succeeding, only to die of blood loss ...
Horses and riders shuffled toward them. Johnis felt hands reach for him. He jumped and tried to wrestle free.
"Easy," said the Scab.
"That's a lot of-what happened down there?"
"Look at him, Cap'n. He's almost glowing. And his eyes ..."
"Help the woman," the captain said. "Tie them up." He crouched and took the amulet from Johnis's hand. Johnis tried to struggle but couldn't.
Immediately the Black Forest returned.
The captain concealed the amulet. The forest disappeared behind the veil once more. "What in the name of Teeleh was that?"
"Black Forest. Shataiki," Johnis rasped. "I told Marak ..."
"Sucrow is going to want that," another said.
"It's for General Marak to decide."
They were taken up the path to the rim of the canyon, this Teardrop from Hades. Johnis was placed on the ground, on his feet, wrists bound behind his back.
Before him were almost two dozen of Marak's men. Evidence of a fight. Dead Eramites, mostly, it looked like. And a few throaters.
The dead Scabs would be left. Four rebels were bound and waiting. And Warryn and the remaining throaters were also under guard.
Johnis felt his mind tumble down the tunnel. Shaedas presence enveloped him. He did not resist. She was truly an entitylovely beyond comprehension.
And she was right. His amulet worked. Sucrow would believe now, now that all these men had seen, now that Marak's own captain had seen the eclipse.
Every last albino would die. Johnis's mind began to spin. Sucrow would kill him.
"Don't give it to the priest," he said to Cassak. He looked over at Silvie. Only then did he notice everyone was staring at him. "What now?"
The captain. "You, using an albino magic?"
"Are you a fool?"
"You're doing it again," Silvie said. "Your eyes ... Your wounds ... and mine too ..."
The warrior holding him let him look down. Sure enough. The bites and scratches and wounds sustained in his battle with the Shataiki were ...
Healing.
His mind sharpened.
Shaedas thoughts interposed with his own, and he couldn't tell which was which. No longer cared. She made him invincible. Omnipotent. Tasted so good ...
"Shaeda," he whispered.
Rough hands dragged him forward. "Let's hope you two haven't started a war," Cassak growled. "Move along. Marak and the priest can sort this out."
ucrow lit the last of his candles and settled to read the old Leedhan legends. Ever since the boy and girl had come, his interest had been kindled. He'd poured over the account and learned much, studied the ceremony the boy Josef kept going on about.
And his plans for the female ...
Sucrow sneered. She was a lovely little wench, wasn't she? A perfect specimen for the Great One, His Excellency, Teeleh. The greatest among the Dark Ones.
A knock at the door.
Sucrow looked up, scowling. "Enter," he snapped. The wretch obeyed and went to both knees, groveling. Sucrow circled the little fool. "I should let Marak hang you just for existing. You're late. Again."
"My priest, forgive ... There was much to-"
"Raise your head, boy. At least pretend to have a spine." Sucrow dug his nails into the back of the servant's neck and drew blood. The servant shuddered but didn't cry out. Sucrow raked deep along the bloated, flaking, already pained flesh.
His servant cried out. "My lord ... forgive me." He sat straight on his knees now, however. That was a beginning. Little weasel couldn't stand at attention correctly in the presence of Teeleh's high priest.
"Forgiveness is for the weak. I am disgusted at tolerating your incompetence. Why are you here, wretch?"
The servant was out of breath. Fresh from the desert. He held up a scroll with Warryn's mark on it.
"My lord."
"About time," Sucrow muttered. He tore it open and scanned it, reading everything that had taken place, including the skirmish between Eram, Cassak, and his serpent warriors.
"Cassak?" Sucrow swore. "Why was I not notified of this immediately? I am weary of that albino-loving general's defiance!"
"There is more, my lord."
"Well, out with it."
"As in the scroll, my lord, they have retrieved the amulet. Everyone present has seen the lair of these ... Shataiki."
"Where is it now? The youths are dead, I presume."
The servant shook his head. "The general has all three, my lord."
"The general. Eram?"
"No, my lord, Marak."
"Order him to bring me the amulet and to kill the whelps. And take the fruit from the boy as well."
"Regrettably, my lord ... Marak has refused."
Sucrow ground his teeth. "Stand up. Your groveling irritates me." He poured a glass of wine. "Tell him to obey my orders or I will see him tried for treason. I want that amulet."
"He ... he said you would say that, my priest."
"Finish, fool. You try my patience."
"He said that because you have executed his family and not allowed him to execute vengeance in his own manner regarding the slave, he will not turn possession of the amulet over to you."
Sucrow slowly turned from the man, tracing one of his braids. So this was it. Out of nowhere had come this amulet and with it the power to make or destroy all that mattered.
Rage boiled through his blood.
He would crush Marak for this.
And Qurong, if he got in the way.
In a matter of days, he would rule the Horde, and every single albino in the land would be dead.
"We will see," he said softly. There was a tremor in his voice. "We will see."
TED DEKKER is the New York Times best-selling author of more than twenty novels. He is known for stories that combine adrenaline-laced plots with incredible confrontations between good and evil. He lives in Texas with his wife and children.
Lunatic and Elyon, co-written with Ted Dekker, are Kaci Hill's first novels. Between substitute teaching and grading and editing papers, she is a modera
tor for The Circle, Ted's internet forum.
Table of Contents
Start
DEKKER FANTASY
A LOST BOOK
Title
beginnings
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
eleven
twelve
thirteen
fourteen
fifteen
sixteen
seventeen
eighteen
nineteen
twenty
twenty-one
twenty-two
twenty-three
twenty-four
twenty-five
twenty-six
twenty-seven
twenty-eight
to be continued