Four Worlds

by Maureen A. Miller

  A shuffle sounded, followed by a soft scrape as light erupted. A pile of twigs on the floor kindled to life.

  “Their twisted hospitality was to offer the means to make a fire–” A man held aloft two rocks, an ore known for drawing a spark when struck together. “But with so little oxygen in here, they knew the flames would die out quickly.”

  A face tarnished by soot and dirt stared up at Gordy, the whites of the eyes a stark contrast in the dim lighting.

  “I am Solont,” he said.

  “From the Horus?”

  “Yes, yes.” He nodded. “The first homecoming, though. I understand from these people that the Horus has returned.”

  “It did. That is how I got here.”

  Solont nodded again, his hand shaking as he extended it in greeting.

  “How long have you been in here?” Gordy asked.

  “In this prison? They’ve brought me six meals. I’m guessing that means six passes of the sun. But, it sounds like I’ll be getting out soon.”

  “That’s got to be good news.” Gordy offered cautiously.

  “Hah. If you call being released in the Dallek Chasm freedom.”

  “That is where they are sending me. What does it mean?”

  “A death sentence, of course.”

  Gordy reeled and sagged back against the craggy wall.

  “Why?” he protested. “Why the death sentence?”

  “They attribute us to leaving them stranded on this planet in the middle of a pandemic.”

  “That’s ludicrous. You know that was not the case. No one knew there were people in the valley.”

  Shaggy gray-blond hair brushed the man’s shoulders as he nodded in agreement. “Ironically, and even more ludicrous is that they started the virus.”

  “What!”

  “That is what the last prisoner in here told me. He’d probably be able to share more of his tale, but they took him to Dallek Chasm. He never returned.”

  Gordy’s head pounded. The startling proclamation, combined with the limited ventilation was producing hammering aches.

  “What you’re dealing with here,” Solont explained, “is a group of people twisted by the tales handed down to them from their ancestors.”

  “What did this prisoner tell you?”

  Solont poked at the fire with a stick. It gave the flames a brief injection, but they soon withered and left him in shadow.

  “The old man, Gallmor–” he snorted. “Hah, old. I am old. Well, this Gallmor was an elder when the Horus first left Anthum. He was targeted. Someone from this village was sent to Aulo to capture him. They brought him back and released him in the chasm.” Solont shuddered. “I could hear their barbaric cheers from here. It was horrible.”

  Shaking off the effect, he continued. “Anyway, this elder suspected all along that the virus was manmade, and given the hatred of the Solthumians, believed they were the source. The day before he was to be released into the chasm, he asked for a last request. He requested to speak with the surviving wife of one of the elder chiefs of Solthum Valley. She was very old. Old enough to outlive her husband, and her first son. Gallmor had little time, so he came straight to the point and asked her if the Solthumians had started the virus that plagued Anthum. She supposedly heaved a great sigh and nodded.”

  Gordy spread his palms before the waning fire.

  “Why would the Solthumians start the virus?”

  “This woman said her husband, the chief, harbored great resentment to the people of the flatlands. Flatlanders thrived on their crops and flaunted their affluence with grand homes and glorious textiles.”

  “Well, who was stopping this guy from planting crops and sewing fine outfits?” Gordy grumbled.

  “Pride, I gather.”

  “Stupidity.”

  “Often synonymous,” Solont mused. “From what I gather, this man was a tad off. But, he was large in stature, and influential amongst his modest village. He convinced his men that if they were to release a small amount of rodent toxin into the river below, they would chase the citizens of the south villages away, and force them to relocate. As his wife portrays it, it was an innocent gesture. He was simply tainting the water supply. Surely, he never meant to kill anyone. His intentions were merely to deplete the Lowlanders’ resources so they would be forced to leave the region. It they left hastily enough, there might even be some abandoned riches to confiscate.”

  “That’s absurd. He was tainting the water with poison. That is not innocent.”

  “As I said, I gather he was a bit off. Not a good trait for someone in power,” Solont remarked. “As to be expected, the water supply became polluted. Mosquitos feasting on the livestock that drank from the river became vectors of disease. It was just a matter of time before mecaws were affected.”

  “But it didn’t affect those who started the whole mess? It didn’t touch this chief?” Gordy asked bitterly.

  “Some of their own were afflicted. That is when they moved high into the mountains. The damage in the lowlands was just brimming. The Solthumians sat smugly up here on the peaks, thriving off of glacial water while watching the virus consume everyone.”

  “That is repulsive,” Gordy nearly gagged. “I can’t even believe someone could be so vile, so unconscionably vengeful. Who was he to take people’s lives? Children’s lives?”

  Anger vaulted Gordy to his feet where he paced as best he could in the darkened nooks.

  “Gallmor told me that although the elder chief’s wife expressed remorse, she was still supportive of her husband, even so many years after his passing.” Solont nodded at the rolling gate. “The man who banished you to Dallek Chasm–that is the grandson of this purveyor of evil.”

  And Sema was the great granddaughter of this ruthless exterminator.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “We can’t be certain about any of this,” Gordy argued feebly.

  “No,” Solont sighed. “I suppose we can’t. But, the fact that we are about to die in Dallek Chasm lends some credence to the tale.”

  Running his hands along the rock barrier that had rolled shut, Gordy felt for a mechanism that might disengage it.

  “Why are we going to die there? If someone releases me–I don’t care how treacherous the chasm is–I am going to find a way out.”

  The fire had died out, and all he could hear of Solont was his labored breathing.

  “It is not the chasm itself,” Solont murmured. “It is the creature that lives in the chasm. The Dallek. The last man who brought food here told me about it. He taunted me with visions of how I will die at the hands of this gruesome creature.”

  Gordy flinched, but ground his teeth.

  “That is not the way I am going to die.”

  “Oh, and you have it preordained, do you?” Solont laughed hollowly.

  The ground trembled beneath them as the wall slid open. Sun pierced the darkness with a molten sabre that cast little heat. A shadow eclipsed the glare and advanced, disappearing as the wall grated in its rails, leaving only the torch held in the strangers’ hand.

  Gordy dropped his shoulder and aimed for the waist, but caught himself just as his eyes adjusted. It was Sema. After spending a night in a cave studying her face under waning firelight, it was easy for him to read her features in this environment.

  “Food,” she said simply, thrusting a sack at him.

  Gordy did not accept it, but Solont shuffled forward, snatching it.

  “How much more time do we have?” he asked.

  “Sunrise, I’m told.” Sema avoided Gordy’s gaze as she replied.

  Solont made a disgusted motion with his hand, but shuffled off, digging into the sack and settling in the recesses of the cave to eat his last meal.

  Gordy remained with his shoulder hitched against the sliding rock wall, blocking Sema’s exit.

  The flare in her hand cast brilliant slivers of determination in her dark eyes.

  “Step aside,” she ordered quietly.

  “This
is what you wanted?” Gordy asked. “You wanted to capture a stranger and bring him back to his death?”

  She winced, but lifted her chin. “I did not know when I captured you that they would put you in with the Dallek.”

  “Had you known, would it have changed the outcome?”

  To her credit, she no longer evaded his glance. Her response was ripped huskily from her throat. “It might have.”

  “Sema,” he reached for her arms in earnestness. She recoiled so he drew back. “Please, you can still help us. Do you really believe innocent people should die like this? Regardless of what you have been told happened rens ago, neither Solont,” he nodded towards the back of the cave, “or myself–neither of us were even born then. You weren’t either. How long–how many generations will this carry on for?”

  “It will carry on as long as there is anger and resentment.”

  “And do you have them?” he fired back. “Are you angry and resentful of me? Of Solont?”

  She hesitated. Her lower lip quivered under the light of the torch. “Of what you represent. Yes.”

  Gordy cocked an eyebrow.

  “All your anger is misguided, you know,” he rebuked. “I gather you never had an opportunity to chat with your great grandmother.”

  “What?” The torch wavered.

  “If you could talk to her you would learn that it was your own people who infected the Lowlanders. It was your own people who brought on the pandemic that would nearly destroy this planet and leave so many nomads in space. So, before you cast stones and throw people into chasms–look hard at your reflection.”

  Sema’s eyes rounded. A hand flittered over her mouth.

  “That’s insane!” she retorted. A deep breath steadied her. “You are right. I don’t believe you should be assassinated. When I brought you up here I thought I would collect my fee, and perhaps a public spectacle would be made of you.”

  “I’d say being thrown in with the Dallek is a public spectacle. I’m not the first one either, so were you really that naïve?”

  Some of the fight left her. “I thought that was a one-time occurrence. An old man. I was led to believe he wandered off and found himself lost in the chasm.”

  Even as she said the words, Gordy could see she was unconvinced.

  “I have to go,” she uttered, retreating. Her hand fisted to rap on the door.

  “Sema, please–”

  The fall of her fist sounded unnaturally loud. The light that followed, unnaturally bright. And the size of the two guards outside, had him wondering what a Dallek looked like.

  Before the rock wall grated shut, Sema whispered, “I’m sorry.”

  The last shard of sunlight dissolved as the barricade rumbled closed.

  ***

  Gordy and Solont stood shoulder to shoulder on the ledge overlooking Dallek Chasm. A natural staircase was created from the tiered slabs of a waning waterfall. On the chasm floor below lay a mottled fusion of water, rocks, and grass. There was no creature to be seen, but the chasm was long, and no doubt held many secrets.

  Behind them stood Sema’s father flanked by a group of men wielding crude weapons. Their forbidding formation and sheer size pressured the duo to descend.

  Gordy resisted. He pivoted to face the bearish leader.

  “Why don’t you tell your people the truth? Tell them that your grandfather was responsible for the virus that drove all the Lowlanders away on the Horus–the same Lowlanders you have taught everyone here to believe abandoned you.”

  Awareness flared in the man’s hooded eyes. He clamped down on the reaction with a fierce scowl.

  “The words of a desperate man.”

  “What is your plan?” Gordy challenged. “Find and kill anyone who could threaten your perpetual lie?”

  A few men turned their heads to gauge their leader’s reaction. His glare slapped them all back into place.

  “Enough,” he roared. “Send them into the chasm. This will dissuade others from venturing to our land.”

  Gordy searched the crowd, but could not locate Sema. He cast a sideward glance at Solont. The man looked older in the light of day. Dirt scored his face and darkened his fair hair. His once crisp white uniform was slashed and tarnished. He gave Gordy a brief nod.

  The words were unsaid.

  They would descend into this chasm.

  But, they would not be defeated by the Dallek.

  As a club prodded Gordy in the back, he shot one final glare over his shoulder and marched forward. He reached the bottom first, Solont perched behind him on the last of the rock steps.

  “Stay there,” Gordy whispered. “If we confront this as a team, perhaps we can get by this Dallek and climb the other end of the canyon to freedom.”

  “Perhaps.” Solont sounded unconvinced. He eyed the gorge walls edgily.

  Impenetrable shadows lurked in a bend in the channel ahead. Above, soared a remote ribbon of blue. The descent had been steep, but Gordy was more concerned with the ascent on the opposite end. Sema’s father had taunted that if they made it to the other side, they were more than welcome to escape. Anger at that smug challenge spurred Gordy on, but he needed to temper the ire and concentrate.

  Ground pebbles churned under their feet, making more noise than he cared for. They took each step cautiously, not knowing where an attack might originate. Perhaps the Dallek was merely a fable. Maybe this was all just an elaborate scare tactic.

  “Did you hear that?” Solont whispered.

  A soft hiss, innocent enough to be misinterpreted as the wind sighed inside the great crevasse.

  “Come on,” Gordy urged, climbing up onto a boulder. “Stay on higher ground. Elevation gives a slight advantage.”

  Solont looked ahead. “And when the boulders run out?”

  “We’ll improvise.”

  With Gordy in the lead, they leapt from rock to rock, Solont slipping once, but recovering and offering a wave of assurance.

  The hiss filled the chasm again, although this time it did not sound so innocent. A sequence of grating thuds, followed by a cascade of chimes–no, not chimes, but something clinking in harmony. Gordy scanned the narrow alley, thinking nothing of significance could fit. If only he was armed. This creature surely couldn’t withstand the blast from his Star Laser.

  Leaping to the next boulder, Gordy thought he detected motion ahead, but the chasm walls stood like grand sentinels–keepers of the path to freedom. One of these sentinels budged, however. The rock face split as a giant shard of granite gave way. Gordy waited for the rumbling dissonance of a landslide, yet the fragment stood tall. When it moved laterally, he realized they were in big trouble.

  “New strategy,” he murmured loud enough for Solont to hear. “Let’s get off the boulders, and instead, use them as a shield.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Solont choked.

  What had resembled a glacier calving, in fact, became an animated wedge of rock nearly as tall as the chasm itself. It hunkered down, enabling Gordy to see the blunt head, with four oversized teeth, like inverted sabers. Shadowed holes were inset on each side of the flat crown. Whether they were eyes, ears, or nostrils, he could not tell, but their hooded skin locked onto Gordy and Solont’s presence with laser precision.

  Gauging the four razor-sharp teeth, each nearly the length of a mecaw, Gordy felt he could dodge them or deflect them long enough to escape through the narrow gap between the beast and the chasm wall. In fact, the thick legs, which blended in with the bedrock might prove to be the perfect provisional hiding spot. Use the creature’s great size against him.

  All of this conjecture vanished at the sound of chimes in the air. A series of long arms dislodged from the hulking gray body, snaking around the chasm floor like heat-seeking pythons. The gnarled tip of one arm brushed against the boulder Gordy stood atop. At this close range, he detected the source of the chimes. A cascade of claws dangled from the appendages. The hooks were barbed and seemed to undulate with their own agenda–a plan to kill. Ev
en now he heard the crisp scrape of their track against stone.

  “I don’t think this thing cares where we are,” Solont hissed. “He’s going to find us no matter what.”

  A lifeless tree stood trapped in the great shadows of the chasm. Two twisting arms wrapped around it, and in seconds the thick trunk was severed, scarred to its core with zigzag precision.

  Gordy eyed the head of the Dallek the next time it stooped in. It was small in proportion to the body, the dagger-like teeth reaching well down the thick muscular neck.

  “I’m not sure it can actually see us,” he whispered.

  The head swung back and forth, a pendulum of doom. Serpentine arms writhed in premeditation–seeking–seeking–

  “Those arms will slice us into crup if we try to get past him,” Solont warned.

  Most likely. But, going forward was the only option. Retreat would just back them into a corner.

  “Alright, back to our plan,” Gordy kept his voice soft, conscious of the Dallek’s reaction to it. Certain intonations seemed to be lost on the beast. “Slowly climb down behind this boulder. We’ll find an opportunity and we will bolt for the next large rock to use as shelter.”

  They both looked ahead to the boulder that seemed light years away. Before they reached it, they would be shredded into pieces like the pebbles that lined the ground. Scanning the gravel, he suspected some of the pebbles might actually be bone.

  With his back slammed against the hard rock, Gordy craned his neck, catching a glimpse of one of the talon-lined tentacles creeping only inches away. There was a certain rhythm to the Dallek’s exploration, almost a ripple effect, as if the arms moved like undulating waves. Watching that pattern, he gauged the best moment to make a move and gave Solont a quick nod, holding up his fingers to count, 3, 2, 1.

  They burst out into the sun, aiming for the next boulder. In an all-out sprint, Gordy smelled the foul stench of the Dallek, the bristly skin of its left thigh all too close for comfort. Chimes clanged all around him, an ominous tune that grew louder as each limb circled in the air.

  Ahead, the shadow of the boulder loomed like a divine sanctuary, but a sickening sound at his back clamped down the door to that haven.