The Sleeping King

by Cindy Dees

  “Sell it we do not, merchant!” Sha’Li snapped.

  Funny that she, of all of them, would be first to dismiss the option of profiting from this extraordinary find.

  Will did a double take as he noticed something odd in the dim shroom light. A gray outline was visible upon the lizardman girl’s right cheek. It looked like a crescent moon crisscrossed by an eight-pointed star symbol. Where had that come from? In another time and place he might have stopped to ask. But as it was, he merely murmured, “Now what?”

  They all looked at one another blankly. After a moment Raina began walking around Gir’Ok’s corpse once more. “It has to be here,” she muttered. “Another clue.”

  Stubborn girl. Wasn’t the Sleeping King’s crown enough?

  Cicero observed, “We could wander around this place for weeks and never find everything it conceals. We are missing something.”

  Raina picked up the hem of her white skirt and reached out to rub Gir’Ok’s armor. Sha’Li leaped forward quick as a cat between Raina and the nearest hanging roots and cursed as a half-dozen thorns shot her in the back.

  “Oh! Sorry,” Raina murmured. “Good stars above, Sha’Li! What happened to you?”

  Will looked over sharply at the lizardman girl and belatedly noticed that she looked like his mother’s pincushion. Dozens of finger-length thorns stuck out of her hide.

  Raina reached forward to pull one out, but Cicero grabbed her wrist quickly. “The thorns are poisoned. I am wearing gloves. Let me get them.” Raina yanked her hand back, and Cicero commenced carefully pulling the thorns out of Sha’Li and laying them aside.

  When the task was done and Sha’Li’s colorful cursing had subsided, Raina said, “Can we cut away the roots from Gir’Ok’s chest? I think I see something interesting.”

  Eben did the honors while Cicero with his sword and Sha’Li with her claws beat off the roots that would have attacked the jann. In a few minutes Gir’Ok’s chest cavity came into sight. Or, rather, a leather breastplate, inlaid with another round gem to match the one in Gir’Ok’s circlet, covered the crumbling ribs of the remains. A raised series of ridges embossed into the leather formed the shape of a stylized eye with the gem at its center. It stared back at the party balefully.

  “Creepy how it watches you,” Rosana muttered.

  “Maybe it’s not watching us,” Raina murmured. “Maybe it’s looking at something. After all, his hand was pointing up at the crown.”

  As one, the group turned to follow the unseeing gaze of that giant eye across the chamber.

  Rosana whispered, “I think I see something moving over there—something big.”

  CHAPTER

  29

  Will replied in a hush, “I saw it, too.”

  Sha’Li’s claws extended with a faint slithering sound, and Will, Cicero, and Eben followed suit, brandishing their swords. They crept forward in a tight cluster toward that hint of movement. A bulky shadow moved across the faint glow of the mushrooms and they all froze.

  Sha’Li hand signaled for the rest of them to hold still while she investigated. Cicero signaled something back to her and the lizardman girl nodded. She peeled off to the right while Cicero slipped off to the left.

  Rosana eased up next to Will’s side, and he felt her trembling against him. A desire to put his arm around her, to draw her close for comfort, struck him. But until they knew what that … thing … was he needed to keep his hands free to fight. He glanced down at her reassuringly and noted that Rosana’s hands were glowing in the folds of her skirt.

  Cicero and Sha’Li returned far too quickly for Will’s peace of mind. Cicero reported, “There’s a magic circle of some kind. Inside it is a gigantic mottled gray wolf with two heads.”

  “A two-headed wolf?” Will echoed skeptically. Such things did not exist! They were the stuff of hearth tales designed to scare children into staying inside at night.

  Sha’Li nodded. “Dangerous, it looks. But unable to leave the circle, I think.”

  Raina whispered, “Can we go around it?”

  Will stared at her. “Why would we want to do that? Better to avoid two-headed wolves, completely, I’m thinking.”

  “Gir’Ok’s eye looks in that direction. Whatever we seek must lie beyond the circle and the wolf … wolves … wolf.”

  Stars, he hated it when Raina was logical like that.

  Cicero whispered, “The circle does not go all the way to the wall on the left. I think there is a narrow path around it. We would have to hack through some roots. Beyond the circle there is a dark patch in the cave wall where no mushrooms grow. It is perfectly circular in shape.”

  “A door, mayhap?” Eben asked.

  “Maybe.” Cicero shrugged. “It is worth investigating.”

  Rosana whispered, “And you’re sure this wolf-creature cannot leave the circle?”

  Sha’Li answered, “A path is worn in the floor around the perimeter of the circle as if the beast prowls it.”

  They eased forward and to the left with Cicero in the lead. Having to move so slowly through the jungle of roots was maddening to Will until he heard the deep, rasping breath of something huge in front of them. Abruptly his feet wanted to drag even more slowly than before.

  “There,” Cicero breathed.

  Will looked where the elf pointed and his mouth fell open. It was indeed a two-headed wolf. It stood half-again as high as a man and easily twice as long as one. Its coat was shaggy and gray in the dim light, its paws the size of Will’s head. And its fangs … both mouthfuls of them … were nearly the length of his sword and gleamed dangerously. Only a shockingly thin band of light in the dirt of the chamber’s floor separated them from the monstrous creature.

  Worse, the beast was awake. Its yellow eyes glowed in the darkness and its heads swung side to side, independent of each other. Both noses took long, loud sniffs. Abruptly the beast growled, the vicious rumble striking terror into Will’s heart.

  Snarling, the beast rushed the side of the circle nearest them. Surely a mere line in the dirt could not contain such a monster! Will braced to die as the beast slammed into an invisible barrier, snapping and snarling in impotent fury. Spittle frothed at its mouths as the wolf lunged again, clawing at the air before it in rage.

  Will eyed the narrow strip of dirt bounded on one side by the magical circle in the dirt and a wall of mushrooms on the other. Great. Don’t cross the circle or else be torn to shreds. Don’t touch the mushrooms or be rendered mentally incompetent and likely to wander into the aforementioned circle. Don’t overly disturb any roots or else be squeezed to death … or, if really unlucky, shot with poison thorns. “This is going to be fun,” he breathed.

  “Hey. You’ve got a staff!” Raina retorted. “I glow in the dark in this white tabard and have no magic.”

  She is out of magic? Dismay coursed through him as Cicero picked his way precariously through the narrow alley of safety. If the agile elf barely made it through there how were the rest of them supposed to make it? Will had been counting on Raina’s nigh unto endless reserves of healing magic to fix whatever injuries they incurred in this hall of horrors.

  “Landsgrave Hyland? The battlefield? Remember?” Rosana murmured to him. “She wiped herself out. It will be at least sunset on the morrow before her energy stores renew themselves.”

  He rolled his eyes as Eben commenced the treacherous walk past the narrow spot. He stumbled and nearly fell into the circle and staggered back into one of the fungi. Only Cicero lunging forward and yanking him down to the ground prevented Eben from charging the wolf in the circle and being torn to shreds. The party waited in tense silence while Cicero wrestled the jann for several long minutes until the hallucinogen wore off.

  Rosana went next. She was small and agile and only had one tense moment when the wolf lunged at her skirt which had apparently crossed the margin of the invisible magical barrier. She barely managed to yank it back in time to keep the beast from snagging it and dragging her to her death.
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br />   Raina went next, and her White Heart tabard snagged on a root, which promptly wound itself tightly in the fabric. Raina was forced to pull out her boot knife and saw painfully slowly through the tendril of root. But finally, she was free and continued on.

  It was his turn. Why did his body have to go all weak and uncooperative on him just now? Bloodroot, he warned, I need my strength. Stars, he hated sharing his body with another spirit!

  He followed the course the others had taken but nearly lost his balance as the wolf lunged at him, snapping and clawing mere inches from his face. The fetid odor of its breath nearly knocked him over as the wolf opened its gigantic maw, displaying dozens of deadly fangs that could no doubt rip a man in half with ease.

  Finally, the circle began to curve away from the wall, and he had a few more inches in which to navigate his way forward. And then he was beside the others. While Sha’Li brought up the rear, making the traverse look easy, Will looked around. Eben had moved over to the circular dark patch on the wall and was studying it intently.

  “Over here!” the jann called.

  “Keep your voice down!” Will snapped.

  “Why? The wolf’s wide awake.”

  True. In fact, they had to raise their voices to be heard over the steady stream of whines, growls, and snarls emanating from its dual heads.

  “It’s a door,” Eben announced. “And this carved bit here, in the middle, is a lock. It has slots for two keys. I do not know what these other markings are.”

  Will stared at the intricate spider’s web of lines crisscrossing the surface of the door. It looked like wood, but so smooth and black and polished that he might mistake it for stone at a glance.

  “The workmanship is amazing,” Eben said in awe. “It must be priceless.”

  “If we find the king and wake him, I promise you can carry out this door and sell it, merchant,” Will said.

  Eben grinned over at him. “I would have to wrestle Sha’Li for it first, and she would kick my arse.”

  “Forget that not, Rainbow Boy!” Sha’Li snapped.

  Rosana and Raina grinned. The moment of levity was interrupted, though, when Sha’Li announced, “Yonder are the keys.”

  Will looked where she pointed and groaned. The wolf was standing on its hind legs and pawing some fifteen feet in the air, which was why Will caught the faint glint of metal at its neck under its furry chin. Will looked closer and spied a circlet of metal around each of the beast’s necks. Collars.

  “Let me guess,” he asked. “Keys hang from each collar.”

  “Aye,” Sha’Li answered grimly. “Fast I am, and the keys I can steal. But the beast I cannot defeat.”

  Cicero commented, “You need a distraction. But what on Urth could keep that thing occupied for long?”

  “Can we even enter that circle?” Rosana asked.

  Raina fielded that one quickly. “Almost all magical and ritual circles can be crossed unless they are specifically designed to prohibit a being from entering or leaving. Like Fido, over there. Circles do not act at all like magical walls, which prevent all beings from crossing them.”

  Cicero shrugged. “Even if we could get into the circle, that beast would rip us to shreds.”

  “Maybe not,” Eben piped up.

  Will stared at him, startled. “What do you have in mind?”

  “I can turn to stone temporarily. The beast will not be able to do me harm while I concentrate. If I were to get it to bite me and be forced to hang on, could you get the keys, Sha’Li?”

  The lizardman girl stared at him with new respect. “Steal them I could.”

  Eben nodded and stepped up to the edge of the circle. He made fists of both hands, pressed the knuckles together in front of his chest, and closed his eyes. He appeared to take a deep breath, and then the color of his skin did indeed begin to change in the sickly light. The multicolored whorls and swirls from before faded, leaving a dull, gray sheen over all of his exposed skin.

  “I am ready,” Sha’Li announced.

  Eben stepped forward. His foot passed easily through the circle, and the beast wasted no time grabbing Eben’s leg and yanking him up high into the air. The jann brought his fist down hard on the beast’s second nose, and immediately the second head grabbed him by the arm. The two heads shook savagely, doing their best to tear Eben in half. But to no avail.

  Sha’Li moved fast, leaping onto the beast’s belly and climbing its fur like a flea. The beast shook itself as if registering her presence, but then Eben swung his free fist again and clobbered the beast in the side of a head. The wolf’s answering snarl was muffled as it chewed fiercely on Eben. But Eben’s concentration held.

  “The first one I have,” Sha’Li grunted. Will had to admit, she was very good at her roguing craft. Of course, if she hadn’t been quite so light-fingered and hadn’t stolen Bloodroot’s disk in the first place Will wouldn’t be hovering on the verge of death now.

  Will held his breath as Sha’Li clung to one of the wolf’s necks precariously. The beast was still whipping its heads from side to side in an effort to dismember Eben. The lizardman girl leaped and Will gasped as she flew from one neck to the other.

  The wolf let go of Eben’s leg to snap at its other neck where Sha’Li now clung.

  “Watch out!” Raina shouted.

  Sha’Li swung below the neck fast, barely missing being the wolf’s lunch. The beast yelped as it bit itself and lifted the head still holding Eben’s arm high while the other mouth snapped ineffectually at the neck where Sha’Li now hung. The lizardman girl actually used the jann as a shield, ducking behind his flailing body as the wolf tried to grab it with its snapping jaws.

  Cicero managed to get in a good blow with his bow across the top of the wolf’s free nose that made it yelp and then snarl. Distracted from Sha’Li, it grabbed Eben in its second mouth around the middle of his body. Will couldn’t imagine the crushing power of those massive jaws. But so far, the stoneskin was holding

  Will held his breath as the lizardman girl hooked her feet in the beast’s metal collar and hung by one hand from a fistful of fur, using her free hand to fiddle under the beast’s chin.

  “Got it!” Sha’Li crowed in triumph. She swung down, using the momentum of the wolf’s thrashing head to throw her toward the edge of the circle. As the free beast lunged at her with its mighty paws, Sha’Li rolled fast, crossing the thin light barrier at the last possible second before the beast’s claws snagged her. The wolf’s body smashed into the barrier and the beast screamed in pain and fury.

  Will looked up at Eben. “Okay. You can come out now.”

  “Umm, small problem,” Eben grunted. “If I drop my stoneskin, the wolf will crush my arm.”

  Rosana frowned. “So keep your stoneskin up until the wolf tires of trying to eat you. When it lets you go, you can walk out of there.”

  Raina spoke up. “It doesn’t work that way. Keeping up a magical effect like that takes intense concentration. Eben can only do it for a few minutes at a time if I had to guess. And that wolf doesn’t look even close to bored with the idea of killing him. Eben’s stoneskin will fail before that beast turns him loose.”

  “She’s right,” Eben grunted.

  From behind them Sha’Li announced, “Fit the keys do. This lock I can open.”

  “Not yet!” Will exclaimed. Stars knew what threats lay beyond that circle of strange wood “First we have to free Eben from this cursed beast.”

  “Can we distract it?” Rosana asked practically.

  Cicero bent down, picked up a clod of dirt, and hocked it at the beast’s nose. It ignored the missile completely. “I do not think so,” Cicero answered grimly.

  The wolf lay down, covering Eben’s legs with its giant paws, and commenced chewing on the jann with his free mouth as if he were a bone. A tough, annoying bone.

  “This is not good,” Eben said in tones of rising alarm.

  “Sha’Li, can you go back in there and distract the wolf?” Raina asked doubtfully.


  “I doubt it. I got past its guard the first time because both mouths were full with Eben. But the wolf’s free head is tracking me now.”

  Will looked and noticed that indeed the wolf’s free head was keeping a sharp eye on the lizardman girl, its jaws open and waiting for her to make a mistake.

  “Can you reach the edge of the circle, Eben?” Raina asked. The jann’s legs lay not far from the glowing line of safety.

  “Maybe I can get a foot across, but that’s about it,” the jann grunted. He sounded like he was about at the end of his ability to hold the stoneskin.

  Will suggested, “What if we lasso Eben’s foot, and, the instant his stoneskin comes down, we yank him out of there? Maybe the wolf will be surprised enough by his change that it won’t bite down on him right away.”

  Nobody had a better idea.

  “I can’t hold up my stoneskin much longer,” Eben panted. He struggled for the next few seconds to angle himself until one of his feet rested outside the circle. It was the best the jann could manage. Using a length of thin, tough root that Will chopped off fast with the dagger Ty had given him so long ago, he lashed the root quickly around Eben’s boot.

  “Everyone, grab Eben’s leg or the root,” Will instructed.

  “It’s fading,” Eben gasped.

  “On the count of three, let it go. That’s when we all pull,” Cicero bit out. “One. Two. Three!”

  Will jerked as hard as he could on the root-rope as the beast lurched and both heads whipped toward Eben, jaws snapping together like great bear traps. Eben let out a horrible scream. The group crashed backward as Eben slammed into them, narrowly avoiding hitting the mushroom wall. They all rolled away from the glowing fungi fast as Eben let out another horrific scream. Hot blood shot everywhere.

  Raina and Rosana leaped forward, working feverishly and speaking in half sentences.

  “Know regeneration?”

  “No.”

  “Stop the bleeding.”

  “Got it.” A pause while Rosana poured magic into whatever great injury they worked over. Will had no wish to see it. Then the gypsy muttered, “Bandages. My pouch.”