Jacko stumbled into the tunnel wall, giggling.
“I said whoever could take on Mikhail had to be feisty, didn't I, Priya?”
Suddenly it all clicked, they're in league with Mikhail! How could I be so stupid? But why, why are they all after me?
“Tell us what you did to Mikhail and we won't hurt you,” said Priya, meeting Taija's eyes for the first time since they'd met.
"Now let's not be hasty,” Jacko said. “I'm still gonna' hurt you. What Priya meant to say is that I'll hurt you a lot less, if you cooperate.”
Jacko resembled nothing of the sweet little boy she’d first met now. The face Taija had thought seemed so young and kind now filled her with hatred. She wanted nothing more than to punch Jacko, again and again.
They were insane, Jacko, Priya, Mikhail, all of them. They should've had rooms next to her in the asylum.
Taija had completely forgotten about Jacko’s pet gerbil, until she saw it wriggle back out of Jacko’s pocket and dropped to the floor. Only now it was no longer a gerbil, but some grotesque creature which had doubled the size and grown green spikes over every inch of its body.
“Oh yes, and Jerry is a demon. He’s still my pet though,” Jacko snarled. “I didn’t lie about that.
Jacko chuckled. “Look how angry she is. Velkarath will soon break her.”
“Screw you,” Taija screamed. Instead of running away, she leaped forward to attack.
She went to punch him again, but at the last moment Jacko's hand morphed into a steel shield. He raised it above his face and her fist smashed into it with a crack.
Taija yelled, full of fear and fury. She lashed out with her other hand, this time slapping Jacko so hard he staggered. She’d slapped the smile right off his face, his cruel mirth was gone, replaced by livid wrath.
The demon Jerry scurried across the floor toward her, chirping like a frenzied bird, but Taija kicked it away and down the tunnel without hesitating.
“Oi! That’s my friend,” Jacko bellowed.
But Taija wasn't about to let him wield more magic against her. All her life she had had terrible problems with her anger, with her slave masters, with her fellow slaves and anyone else who crossed her.
Jacko tried to tackle her, but she booted him once in the stomach then again in the side of the head as he doubled over. This time he fell to the ground, where Taija proceeded to stomp on him, her rage rendering her uncontrollable.
“Priya!” Jacko yelped desperately in-between kicks.
Abruptly, she was seized from behind, an arm around her neck. She tried to kick out but found herself inhaling a smoky blue gas that had appeared out of thin air. She struggled fitfully, but Priya held her still as the smoke sent her to sleep.
*
“We need to take her through the portal. We should've taken her through as soon as we got to the sewers.” Priya's voice was the first thing Taija heard as she came out of her daze.
“Balls to that,” Jacko replied. Taija couldn’t see him but could sense he was smirking. “I want to have a little fun with her first. Once we get to Velkarath I might never see her again. She’d likely get murdered before I have a chance.”
She didn’t know what this Velkarath place was that they kept mentioning, Mikhail had too, but they seemed intent on taking her there. It wasn't a place she wanted to go that was for sure.
Taija felt numb, she thought she might be in shock. Being attacked by three different strangers wasn’t ideal, but it was something she was used to. But magic…it couldn’t exist, could it?
“Jacko, we can't. Our orders said…”
“Who's in charge here?” Jacko cut across Priya vehemently. “This is your first damn mission and you've already mucked up by letting her hurt me.”
“At least I didn't bawl like a baby as a little girl kicked the crap out of me,” Priya replied.
“Oi, you're forgetting just how much pull I have in Velkarath, rookie,” said Jacko. “I'm tight with Selina, too. Prince Ralice even spoke to me once. One word from me and you'll spend a week in the torture chamber.”
“Oh, I know how much pull you think you have. You're mates with Rath and Ragul, that's all. And if they had any power everyone in Velkarath but them would've been slaughtered by the end of the first week.”
“Just shut up, okay,” Jacko snapped. “You aren't tough enough to be a Rakarn and everyone knows it. You conjured a sleeping gas on this girl, instead of beating the hell out of her. That's Venator magic, not the real stuff. Now, I'm in charge and you'll do as I damn say, or else.”
Priya stifled a laugh. “Sorry, tough guy.”
“By the way,” Jacko continued. “What was that stunt you pulled when we first met this slave bliak?” Jacko said. “Why were you saying she wasn’t a slave an’ all that? She matched the description given to us. Were you trying to let her get away?”
“Course not,” Priya snorted, “I just wanted to be sure she was the right one.”
“Whatever, I’m the one who spotted her first anyway. I’ll be telling the Masters I did everything on this mission myself.”
As Taija raised her head, Jacko strutted forwards, his face full of glee as he slapped her hard.
“How do you like it?” He kicked her in the stomach.
Taija gritted her teeth against the pain, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of crying out.
She tried to hit him again but found that her hands were bound together by an invisible force. What! Magic isn't real. This is all just one big nightmare.
“Come here, Jerry,” Jacko called his demon. Taija tried to wriggle away but Jerry crawled toward her, biting her ankles repeatedly. She yelped with every bite as stings shot up her body.
Jacko joined in too, stomping on her leg, then her arm, laughing throughout it all.
“Stop it,” Priya shouted. “Let's just take her home. They won't want her beaten to within an inch of her life.”
“Shut up!” Jacko booted Taija hard in the stomach again before chuckling and placing his heel on her cheek.
“I won't beat her too bad, just a broken jaw. Maybe a broken nose and a couple of black eyes, too.”
“No Jacko, we need to take her to Prince Ralice, he'll know what to do.”
“We're taking her to Princess Kaelyn,” Jacko snarled. “Kaelyn’s men will torture the information out of this one.”
“Kaelyn is as mad as Rath and Ragul, she'd kill Taija without a thought. Prince Ralice would want us to take Taija to him.” Priya insisted.
“If the princess heard you say that, she'd cut out your tongue and nail it to your forehead,” Jacko snarled. “I’m starting to question your loyalty. Everyone knows Ralice is the wrong horse to back in this fight. Kaelyn is the future heir, Ralice is barely in Velkarath.”
Taija curled against the sewer wall, even if her hands hadn't been bound by magic she was in too much pain to fight back now.
She couldn't believe how someone who’d appeared so kind and innocent could turn out to be so cruel. Jacko crouched down and wrenched her up by her hair before spitting full in her face.
“Where’s Mikhail, you little bliak. Did you kill him?”
“He tried to kill me,” Taija rasped.
“That wasn't what I asked.” Jacko wrenched back on her hair again.
“That brute is quite important to Velkarath, at least to some people. Tell me where he is-or where his body is, and I'll make sure the others don't hurt you too much when we get there.” He smiled sweetly at her, as if she could trust him. She's been stupid to trust him once, let alone again.
“Tell us Taija,” Priya pleaded. “It’ll be easier for you. If you cooperate, I can ask the Masters to let me be your guide, I can look after you.”
Taija stared at Priya, confused. Cruel as he was, at least Jacko was easier to understand. She didn't know what Priya's game was. Was she really sympathetic towards her? Or just playing a sick game where she pretended to be friendly? Either way she appeared to be the lesser of two evils.
/>
“Ah, the old good cop bad cop shtick,” Jacko smirked. "Good one, Priya. This could be the start of a beautiful partnership. We should go on more recruitment missions together.”
Priya gave Jacko a look of deepest loathing.
“Would you like that little girl?” Jacko yanked on her hair again. “I'll let Priya babysit you if you want, just tell me what you did with Mikhail?”
Taija was silent for a long moment, then turned and spat in Jacko's face, giving him a taste of his own medicine.
He recoiled, scrubbing his face furiously.
“Jacko, calm down.” Priya put a hand on his arm, but he shoved her to the ground violently.
Snarling, Jacko advanced on Taija once again, this time slapping her face so hard she saw stars. The came another kick to the stomach, then a punch, and another.
“What did you do to him?” Jacko roared.
“This!” Taija screamed.
The midnight mists seemed to pore out of her, trailing across the ground soundlessly. The black mist solidified into a large unidentifiable creature that rose just behind Jacko.
From the corner of her eye she saw Jerry the demon scurry down the sewer and far away, but his master was oblivious until the last moment.
Without taking his eyes off Taija's own, Jacko's expression changed to one of deepest fear.
He opened his mouth to shout, but the mist monster had already surged into him. As Jacko's mouth opened, the mist vomited out of it, causing a disturbing choking sound as Jacko's body twitched convulsively.
Taija felt sick as the mist monster reached into Jacko's chest with what passed for an arm and ripped out his very soul.
The scream Jacko wanted to make was merely a gurgle as his body gave way beneath him. His carcass sagged to the ground, reduced to a dried husk that scarcely looked human at all.
Chapter 41- A Herd of Horrors
Evan only just steadied himself in time as the portal spat him out. He hit the ground running, nearly straight into the gaping chasm before him. His boots scrabbled on rocky ground as he threw his body back. He fell at the chasm’s edge, his legs dangling over the side as he dug his fingers into the rock to stop himself plummeting into the never-ending abyss.
He scrambled to his feet, noticing his companions had also come close to running straight into the chasm.
“What kind of world is this?” Emi cried, her tone equal amounts confusion and fear.
It was only then that Evan realised they’d landed on an asteroid. The asteroid was split down the middle, and they stood only inches away from the gulf. He took several steps away from it, just in case, but found himself disoriented as he walked, since the asteroid was moving.
The four of them floated in outer space. It was like a parody of the Earth’s space, except purple, and the fact they could breathe.
Stars twinkled far in the distance around them.
Weirder still, glowing orbs hovered in the air for as far as the eye could see. The orbs resembled giant pearls, or marshmallows.
“Where are we?” Evan looked around frantically, unable to comprehend that he was in outer space.
“It doesn’t matter, look that little monster still has the Gem,” Bane pointed out the thief.
Evan turned to see the demon in the distance, leaping from orb to orb, getting further and further away from them.
“How can it jump so high?” Sintian demanded.
“The gravity here is probably far less than it is on Veneseron or your old world,” said Bane.
Evan knew Bane was correct, since his feet were already trying to leave the ground without his volition. He meant to raise his foot an inch off the ground but instead felt a force push his leg up high.
“C’mon,” Bane ordered. “We’ve got to go after that gem.”
“But the gaps between those pearl things are massive,” said Emi. “What if we don’t make it?”
“Then you’ll probably fall through purple space forever,” Sintian snarled. “Quick, it’s getting away.”
And then Sintian leapt, flying ten feet high and sailing across the distance between the asteroid and the closest orb. In one step, he bounced off the orb and back into the air. Not only did the giant orbs resemble marshmallows, but it seemed their surfaces were squishy like them too.
Bane jumped next, simultaneously wielding a lightning bolt he launched at the fleeing demon. The thief had a big head-start, and they might’ve never caught up to him. But Bane’s lightning struck the minion in the back, causing the demon to fall atop one of the orbs, stunned.
He and Emi prepared to jump too, before the asteroid drifted further away from the closest orb.
Evan noticed Emillia had frozen at the edge, her stare transfixed at the empty space stretching below them, seemingly going on forever.
“It’s okay, we can do it,” he told her. “We’ll go together.”
Evan grabbed her hand, grinding his teeth in determination as he tried to force himself to leap. He realised he was the one faltering now, he wanted desperately to jump, but found himself unable to commit to it.
“One, two, three. Now!” Emi found her courage before he could and took the lead, jumping first and pulling him along with her.
It was the weirdest sensation, hovering from one pearl to the other. It was like swimming, with the air acting as the water.
His feet touched the substance of the closest orb and oddly sunk in a few inches before being repelled back into the air. Evan could scarcely believe where he was, or what he was doing. His arms and legs waved stupidly as he floated over to the next orb in line. This is beyond surreal.
“Oh, it’s not too bad,” Emi said brightly. “It’s quite fun actually.”
“The glarer is recovering,” Bane shouted, his voice oddly distorted by the alien atmosphere. “Snatch him Sintian.”
He looked up as he flew through the air and saw the demon was indeed stirring, getting groggily to his feet, but Sintian was only a few orbs behind the thief now.
Evan tried not to look at the bottomless abyss, but it was impossible every time his feet touched the next orb. If one of them fell, they truly would fall forever.
At one point he lost his balance, as he struck his eighth orb he overshot and ended up diving headfirst into space. He began to float away from the next orb, he wasn’t going to make it.
He flung out both his arms desperately, his lower body was already sinking, but luckily he managed to sink one hand into the orb. The substance turned gooey and his hand sank straight through the side. Frantically, he punched his other hand through too and heaved his body up and over to the top. Evan tried to stand up, but found that both his hands were stuck inside it, and they were sinking further.
The orb was now like quicksand, slowly sucking his body into itself.
With an almighty wrench he yanked his hands out of the substance, but almost toppled back into the abyss. As soon as he steadied himself, Evan leaped after his companions, careful not to stick his hands anywhere near the orbs again.
As he looked up, he saw that the demon had woken up on his orb and was trying to activate the Rambrace again to summon another portal, but didn’t seem to know how. Sintian was only one orb away from the minion, however.
The Koala-monkey was banging his fist against the Rambrace in frustration and suddenly it glowed at the end, creating a portal before him.
Sintian landed directly behind the demon, and was close enough to grab him, but the minion jumped through the portal just in time.
“Glarqing hell,” Sintian cried, scrabbling through the gateway after him. Bane was just as furious, screaming obscenities as he and Emi followed through the portal.
Evan no longer cared, he’d had enough of this world of purple space and merely hoped the next realm was a better one.
The portal claimed him, obscuring his senses with bright lights and sending him flying through space and time, before throwing him into a new world. Evan fell to his knees, immediately knowing this wasn’t
a normal substance. Sure enough, they were on top of a giant silver lilypad, surrounded by a toxic green sea. Thick vapours swirled up from the sea, stinging his nostrils just to breathe in.
The very matter in the air was different. As Evan looked at his companions they were distorted and fuzzy. It reminded him of one of the trick mirrors he’d seen at carnivals. It was either something wrong with the realm itself, or perhaps the fumes from the toxic water caused hallucinations.
The sea stretched out, with no land in sight. Other silver lilypads floated nearby, and as Evan peered through the poisonous green fog he saw giant creatures drifting in the water.
He couldn’t believe his eyes when the shapes drew nearer. They were snails the size of whales, strangely unaffected by the venomous ocean. They resembled the snails from Earth, except their antennae was the size of his arm, and their colossal shells were a luminous blue.
“What is that--stuff--coming from the sea,” Emi said, between violent coughs.
Evan doubled over himself as the sea’s fumes spiralled around the lilypad, trying not to cough as his throat burned.
“No idea,” Bane said, his voice muffled as he covered his mouth with his hand. “Everyone try to breathe as little as possible. We need to leave, fast.”
“There’s the little bliak!” Sintian jabbed a finger at a nearby lilypad. The koala-demon crouched in the centre, once again trying to get the Rambrace to work.
“How do we reach him?” said Evan. “I don’t think we can touch the water.”
The next lilypad was over a hundred yards away, way too far for them to jump across.
“We probably wouldn’t even reach the pad with the Leaplong spell,” said Sintian.
Leaplong would enable them to jump inhumanly high, but not across a hundred yards.
“We can use the water element,” Emillia suggested. “I know our sorcery is almost drained, but if we work together, we can do it.”
Moonlight War- Act II (The Realmers Book 3) Page 15