by James Palmer
“That is really getting annoying,” Blackthorn grumbled.
The rumbling was getting closer, the sound of something impossibly heavy dragging itself snakelike along the metal floor. There was another sound just beneath the rumbling, a sort of high-pitched whine.
In the light cast by Blackthorn’s light sword, they saw what was making the horrible sounds.
“The great worms!” cried the old woman. “The Master has awakened them from their centuries-long slumber! We are doomed!”
Blackthorn saw them now, two snakelike shapes that slithered up the shaft toward them, wide, diamond-shaped heads encrusted with spinning blades.
“Moons of Mars!” the barbarian swore. “I see what you meant by eyes instead of teeth.”
“This Valaron is a crafty devil,” said Princess Aria. “I’ll give him that.”
“I don’t think Valaron created those things.” To Lorna he said, “Get behind me, Crone!” The old woman ducked behind him and cowered. Blackthorn held his light sword out in front of him, hoping it would block a strike from one of these mechanical devils.
Princess Aria touched the diadems on her necklace and raised her left hand in the air, her fingers splayed. A spinning disc of purple energy formed in the air above them.
One of the worms lunged for it, the spinning, diamond-hard blades pulverizing when they made contact with the whirling energy field. The tunnel filled with the tang of burned metal as the worm flinched backward, its sightless, mangled head just sitting there above their heads as if weighing its options.
Suddenly the second worm dived into the tunnel floor, the rapidly spinning drill that was its head making short work of the metal surface beneath their feet. The whole tunnel shook violently.
“It’s going to come up beneath us!” Shouted Blackthorn. “Run!”
The metal floor buckled and bent, and the spinning head of the snakelike machine emerged directly behind them with a shower of sparks and the smell of burning metal. The first serpent thing came after them again too, its bent blades and teeth useless, but its large diamond-shaped head still made for a deadly flail. It thrashed at Princess Aria, who was barely able to get out of the thing’s way in time. It left a huge dent in a metal floor that was already rent beyond repair.
“These things will dog us until we are dead,” said Blackthorn. “If you have some bit of sorcery that would be helpful, best deploy it now.”
“I have to do everything,” she replied sarcastically. Touching her necklace again, she raised her right hand and sent out coils of purple energy that writhed like tiny snakes. They insinuated themselves around the first snake thing, entering it through tiny holes and flaws to strike at its inner workings. Suddenly, the snake thing spasmed as a shower of sparks flew from it, then fell heavily to the floor.
The second snake dove for Blackthorn, but he was ready, leaping backward, pushing Lorna along with him. The thing’s head buried itself in the floor where the barbarian had stood seconds earlier. Blackthorn gave a shout and leaped into the air, igniting his light sword and severing the drill bit head cleanly from the thick cable that was its body. The headless coil lurched, spat sparks, and fell and lay still.
“That was fun,” said Blackthorn, deactivating his sword.
“Let’s find Oglok and get out of here,” said the Princess. “Before Valaron sends more of his mad machines after us.”
“I will stay with you,” said the crone. “The Master knows I aided you now, and he will surely kill me.”
“Not while the Princess and I draw breath,” Blackthorn assured her. “Now, which way to Valaron’s proving grounds and our friend?”
“This way,” the old woman pointed.
They walked twenty or so feet. Finally the old woman stopped and pointed above her head. “That hatch opens out in the middle of the proving grounds,” she said. Beside her on the wall a series of metal rungs led up to the hatch.
Blackthorn understood now why they were taking the long way around. The old woman Lorna had led them directly below their enemies’ feet.
“We thank you,” said Princess Aria. To Blackthorn she said, “How do you want to play this?”
He considered this. “Well, the element of surprise is certainly on our side. He unsheathed his light sword and set it ablaze. “Let’s go in, guns blazing.”
A sly grin played across the Princess’s mouth. “It’s simple, but I like it.”
A quick energy blast from Aria’s outstretched hand sent the hatch high into the air, with Blackthorn, the Princess and the crone right behind, levitated up and through the narrow portal by Aria’s sorcery.
The Skeleton Corps were too busy torturing Oglok to notice the round hatch door soaring twenty feet into the air and Blackthorn and the Princess floating down toward them, their bodies surrounded by purple auras of energy. The old woman was set down near the hole and slunk away to a door set in the wall of Valaron’s compound. She opened it and fled to return home to her beloved village.
The Mock-Man was lashed to a post while the men taunted and jeered at him, occasionally giving him doses of electricity from their cursed cattle prods. Oglok snarled and hissed back at them, but could do no more.
Princess Aria had no sooner set herself and Blackthorn safely on the ground that she went straight to work on Oglok’s jailors, causing cattle prods and swords to fly from their hands. The dozen or so men turned in confusion toward the Princess and the barbarian.
Blackthorn raised his light sword, its energy blade glowing and throbbing with power. “We’d like a rematch.”
Princess Aria raised her hand once more and the chains binding Oglok to the wooden post became enveloped in purple light. They appeared to melt away and vanish, leaving Oglok free. The Mock-Man stretched his powerful arms and growled.
“Yes, old friend,” said Blackthorn in reply. “You may have at them.” The barbarian grinned, then added, “With extreme prejudice.”
Usually a peaceful sort, the torturous guards had riled the ordinarily good natured Mock-man, spurring him to violence, and he lashed out at them with relish, tossing them about like rag dolls.
Blackthorn went to work with his light sword, cutting their electric prods in half and relieving the rest of their swords, staffs, spears, maces, and any other weapon they dared raise toward the barbarian.
Princess Aria used her magic to bind Valaron’s soldiers, twisting chains, weapons and anything else nearby into sturdy shackles and binding as many of the fleeing men as her sorcery could grab. When every member of the Skeleton Corps had either been captured or fled, a flash of light appeared.
“What is the meaning of this outrage!” Valaron demanded. “You three have proven to be formidable opponents. I was going to let my men practice their skills on you. Now I shall have to destroy you outright.” He glanced at the Princess menacingly. “Except for you, my Princess. My machines have completed their analysis of your physiology, and you will be of great value to me.”
“What are you talking about?” Aria snapped.
“You’ll not lay a hand on her, tyrant,” said Blackthorn, his Sword of Light held at the ready.
Valaron laughed. “I’ll do what I like, barbarian.” He touched a stud on his gauntlet, and Blackthorn’s Sword of Light suddenly winked out.
“Moons of Mars!” blared the barbarian. “What have you done?”
“Merely shut off that troublesome little toy of yours before it hurts someone.”
“I’ll handle this.” Princess Aria touched the diadems on her necklace and an energy field coalesced around her, then crackled and faded. She tried again. Nothing.
“By the First Men!” she shouted. “How dare you interfere with the powers of a Princess of Mars.”
“I dare because I can, my dear. Your necklace was difficult to crack, but plumb its secrets I did.”
“Those discs,” said Blackthorn. “They must have scanned our weapons and gave Valaron a means to control them.”
“You are very clever,” s
aid Valaron. “For a barbarian. The technologies beneath my Keep allow me to do any number of things.”
Oglok had finished with the last of Valaron’s Skeleton Corps and now focused his attentions on their leader. He lunged toward the wizard, but another touch of his gauntlet and the sorcerer had the Mock-Man and his companions contained within a cage made of pure energy.
“Your puny efforts to dispatch me have grown tiresome,” said the sorcerer. “Now you will watch while I strip the Princess’s abilities and transfer them to myself, then I will destroy each of you with my own hands.”
With a flash of light the energy cage containing Blackthorn and his companions was transported back down to the vast room filled with machinery that they had recently escaped. Valaron was nowhere to be seen.
“This is depressing,” said the Princess. Oglok growled in agreement.
“This is maddening,” said Blackthorn, stabbing buttons on his lifeless light sword. “Why won’t our weapons work?”
“Valaron is more powerful than we gave him credit for,” said the Princess. “At least his gauntlet is.”
“That’s it!” said Blackthorn. “Valaron’s gauntlet is the source of his power. If we can destroy it, we’ll have him by the throat.”
“That is easier said than done without our weapons,” said the Princess.
“Indeed,” Blackthorn replied. “Let us think on it a while. I am sure an opportunity will present itself.”
“We may not have much time. I’m afraid I know what Valaron intends to do to me, though I don’t know how it’s possible.”
Blackthorn said nothing to this, merely nodded. The Princess had been very secretive about her origins up to now, and any questioning would probably just raise her guard up even more. And if it was like anything else he’d seen since awakening on this ancient Mars, he probably wouldn’t understand it anyway. The energy cage throbbed around them, which seemed to have awakened the machinery within the chamber, for it pulsed and vibrated in rhythm with the hum of the cage.
“I wonder how long Valaron can keep up certain levels of power,” mused the Princess after a time.
“What do you mean?” asked Blackthorn. The Mock-Man regarded the Princess quizzically.
“We know that every time he uses his gauntlet, the machines down here come to life,” she said. “At least, that’s my theory. But for how long? Even your Sword of Light can’t be used indefinitely, and must be periodically recharged.”
“So the same must be true of Valaron’s gauntlet,” Blackthorn mused.
Princess Aria smiled. “Perhaps. If we can get him to use it more than he should and overload his equipment, he’ll be powerless.”
Oglok growled excitedly.
“That too,” said Blackthorn. To the Princess he said, “Oglok thinks once Valaron’s machinery is out of commission we’ll have the use of our weapons.”
Princess Aria shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. What do you say, General?”
“Anything beats standing in this cage waiting to die.”
Suddenly the incomprehensible machinery within the chamber flared to life, gears whirring and lights flashing. In the midst of this chaos Valaron appeared. “Well, my pets, how do you like your cage?”
“Let us out and we’ll show you,” said Blackthorn.
Valaron laughed. “Such spirit. Even powerless you choose to defy me.”
“It is you who are powerless compared to the might of the First Men,” said Princess Aria. She cast Blackthorn a sidelong glance.
The barbarian gave a slight nod. “You are nothing to them.”
“We’ll see about that!” snapped Valaron. “Within this chamber lie the secrets of the ages. It was technology like this that spawned the First Men! It can unmake them as well.”
Princess Aria laughed.
“You don’t believe me? Then allow me to demonstrate.”
The sorcerer touched a stud on his gauntlet and the section of cage in front of the Princess vanished. An invisible force snatched her from their prison and flung her across the room. Oglok, who was closest, tried to leap through the breach but the missing section reformed as soon as the Princess was free.
Princess Aria was hurled through the air and spun around so she was facing Blackthorn and Oglok. She was pushed against a raised slab of metal and shackles shot out, gripping her wrists and ankles. “What is the meaning of this!” she screamed.
“You’ll know soon enough, Your Highness,” said Valaron mockingly. “We shall now see who is higher than whom when I strip you of your abilities.”
“Impossible!” exclaimed the Princess.
“Not to me!” Valaron touched a button on his cursed gauntlet and walked calmly to the side of the room where Aria was being held prisoner, while a structure similar to the one that held her seemed to grow out of the floor of the chamber. He ascended a set of metal stairs to stand level with the Princess and just a few feet away.
“I analyzed more than your weaponry,” said the wizard. “You, my Princess, are a remarkable creature. You have the sorcery of the First Men running through your veins.”
“If you mean I’m wired, you are correct. But what was given to me cannot be tampered with by the likes of you.”
“That is where you’re wrong, Princess. I have learned a great deal during my time in this Keep. Things that have made me Master of this valley. Things what will soon make me Master of Mars as well.”
“This tyrant is worse than the First Men and Morningstar combined,” said Blackthorn. Oglok growled in agreement. The barbarian turned to the Mock-Man. “We must do something quickly, old friend. Aria is in great danger.”
Valaron placed his hands on two metal orbs that had risen from the platform on transparent rods and closed his eyes. The machinery within the chamber went wild, pulsing lights beating in time to a deep rhythmic hum coming from somewhere deep within the ground.
Aria screamed then, her face a rictus of pain. Dark lines began to show under her skin, bulging out in places. A spider web tracery of such lines appeared on her face, like cracks in porcelain. She continued to scream.
Valaron too appeared to be in some discomfort. He winced as if punctured, and the same lines began appearing under his skin, crawling up his arms from the metal orbs, tracking through his veins like poison.
“Stop, villain!” yelled Blackthorn, powerless to stop this horror.
Oglok howled and beat his chest, then rammed his shoulder into the energy cage.
Blackthorn started to grab his friend, get him to stop such a foolish, futile gesture. Then he realized what Oglok was doing. The glowing of the machinery around them increased in intensity when Oglok attacked the cage. “Keep it up, old friend,” he said as he punched one of the bars with his fist. It didn’t burn. Instead it was more like touching a rapidly flowing stream of water. Slowly, he slid his light sword into a beam, breaking a portion of the cage, which quickly reformed. The machinery about them grew brighter momentarily, then faded somewhat.
“I don’t know what we did,” said Blackthorn. “But keep it up!”
Oglok acquiesced and continued his onslaught, while Blackthorn assaulted the bars of their energy cage with fists, boots, and his deactivated light sword. Suddenly the bars of the cage appeared to fade, growing less intense with each of their prods. Finally it was enough that Blackthorn believed they could break through. “On my mark, Oglok. One...two...three...jump!”
Blackthorn and Oglok successfully broke through the energy cage, which faded into nonexistence behind them. Some of the machinery overheated and shorted out, assaulting their nostrils with the scent of ozone and burnt wiring.
Blackthorn tried his light sword hesitantly, and the familiar pillar of heat and light erupted from the weapon’s tip once more.
“Now you will pay, villain!” said the barbarian as he and the Mock-Man strode across the room toward Valaron and Princess Aria, dismantling machines as they went.
“Stop, you fools!” Valaron shouted, but he was pow
erless to stop them, lashed as he was to his machine that was even now inserting the weird metal threads that ran through the Princess’ veins into his own.
“Whether this is science or sorcery, I have no idea,” said Blackthorn. “But I know only brute force can stop it. Come, Oglok. Let us end this madness once and for all.”
Blackthorn stormed Valaron’s platform while the Mock-Man ascended Aria’s. With a swipe of his light sword Blackthorn melted the struts holding the metal orbs aloft.
Valaron screamed as electricity danced around him, and thin tails of silvery thread trailing from his outstretched hands whipped through the air.
Blackthorn’s onslaught had freed Princess Aria from her shackles, and Oglok had flung her unconscious body over his left shoulder and was descending the platform while lightning danced around them.
“You think you have stopped me, barbarian?” Valaron shouted. He laughed maniacally as more machinery in the vast space exploded. Dodging stinging thread, Blackthorn leaped from the platform and joined Oglok. “Let’s go,” he said, and they made their way through the maze of crumbling machinery to the opening the crone had shown them earlier.
The whole place thundered and shook, and it seemed as if the entire Keep would come crashing down around them. Princess Aria stirred and demanded to be put down at once.
“Are you all right?” asked Blackthorn.
“I-I think so,” she replied shakily. “I’ve never had my wiring mapped before. That hurts.”
Blackthorn didn’t have a clue what the Princess was talking about, but he didn’t push for an explanation. “I believe it was painful for Valaron as well.”
“Serves him right, meddling in powers he can scarcely understand.”
“We need to get out of here,” said Blackthorn as the entire building shook suddenly.
The princess looked around the now familiar tunnel as they ran down its length. “I think we should look for a more direct way out. One that takes advantage of speed over stealth.”
“Good idea,” said Blackthorn.
Suddenly Oglok veered down a side tunnel as he barked excitedly.
“He said he smells something,” Blackthorn told the princess.