by Joshua Cook
Cendan slowly picked Jasmine up, her body limp and deadweight.
“I don’t know how. But I’m not sure finding out how is going to be an experience I will enjoy. Keep an eye out for Marcus. Let’s get Jasmine out of here. And us to for that matter!” Cendan waved to Jasmine’s focus, “Can you get that? Don’t want to leave it here.”
Heather took it, her practiced eye knowing what it was.
The hallway looked the same though Cendan felt like everything had a more sinister feeling to it now. Where was Marcus? None of this made any sense, and Jasmine, the only person who might shed some light on what the hell was going on, was stone cold out of it. Heather followed behind him if only because she didn’t know the way. The going was slow. Cendan’s grip kept slipping. Carrying someone who was truly deadweight was far harder than it looked, and Jasmine didn’t even weigh that much. Cendan tried to make light of it, to diffuse his tension at least.
“Ok, once we are safe, I gotta come up with a pattern for making things easier to carry!” His attempt at humor fell flat, though, even to himself.
Three corners, two, one, and there they were at the exit.
“Go on, let’s get out of here!” Cendan said as Heather raised her fetish. A pause, and then she slowly lowered it, her face turning even paler.
“Cendan, I can’t. He knows we are here. It’s barred!”
Cendan swore again to himself. Locked up in a place they can’t leave with a violent crazy man, who has unknown magical abilities.
“Damn it,” Cendan swore, still holding Jasmine. “What the hell now?”
________
Marcus’s face split into a grin. The traitor Cendan and that witch were now trapped. He had been surprised when they had entered, shocked in fact. The Keystone had alerted him to Jasmine entering the lair. He’d sprinted to see how she’d escaped, only to find her still bound in place and unconscious. It was only then, using the abilities of the Keystone, he had realized that somehow Cendan and the witch woman from before had found a way to mimic Jasmine’s entry.
Anger had spread through him, and at first he’d wanted to use his new abilities to hurt them, make them feel all the pain they had inflicted upon him. Only one thing had stopped him; Cendan’s focus. That key was the way to end the war with the Slyph, forever. That would make him the hero and the legend. He didn’t want to damage it; Cendan always had his focus with him. Always. Just another betrayal of how the Bridgefinders worked. Cendan was ‘too good’ to leave his key to help strengthen the barrier.
He had to find a way to get it away from him. He needed it, and he desired it. Cendan wasn’t worthy of even touching it. He’d watched as they found Jasmine, hidden away but watching. Somehow the Keystone allowed him to see everything and anything in the headquarters, and he used it to great effect.
The first thing was to lock the door; they couldn’t get out, and they had to stay. Watching Cendan struggle with carrying Jasmine, his first delight turned to disgust. He didn’t use magic! Watching and listening to the witch and the traitor talk about using the tool of the Slyph, turned his stomach. He was using the powers granted to him by being the Leader of the Bridgefinders. Nothing more and nothing less.
The witch was cute enough, he thought as he watched them, even for all her lies and deceit. The story about Grellnot and the Slyph at war were all lies, he was sure. Lies and tricks, designed to have them let one of the outsiders in, to let them destroy what was left of the Bridgefinders. That witch probably took the orders from the Slyph herself, to lie low the mighty Bridgefinders once and for all. The weak ones had fallen for it. Cendan was even helping them! But not Marcus; no, Marcus knew the truth. There was no war on the Echo World, and the Slyph was making her final move. She’d tried a straight attack which had failed. This plan of hers was subterfuge and poison.
Marcus turned his attention back to the traitor as they realized Marcus had trapped them, trapped them in a maze that they didn’t know he controlled.
“You will die soon, Cendan Key, you and that witch. I’ll take your focus and use it. And my name, Marcus Wheeldon, will go down in history as the man who defeated the Slyph. I will win.” Marcus spat the words out and huddled around the Keystone. His Keystone.
He just had to wait. He needed to find a way to get that key away from Cendan. They wouldn’t find him, and he’d know where they were at all times. That witch though, he didn’t need her, he didn’t need her at all. The grin returned to his face. Marcus was going to have some fun.
________
The two armies faced each other, one dwarfed by the other. Grellnot’s conscripted force, for all its size, was nothing compared to the sheer numbers the Slyph had. Even now, Grellnot could hear the things behind him grumbling. Fear kept them in line, and not just fear for their own lives, but what Grellnot could do to their tribes, homes, even their whole race. The Slyph did not stand at the head of her forces, but at the back. Grellnot could smell her. She was confident, proud. The two creatures near her were new to Grellnot, and their smell confused him. He peered to see the magic, the threads themselves.
All of the assembled things were overlaid with it, it was bound to their very beings. And all ties for them led back to her. Grellnot suffered a rare shock, however when looking at the two hounds; they were like Grellnot! A mix of the magic of this world and the magic of the human world. Grellnot did not know where they came from, but they did not give Grellnot much worry. They were flesh and bone. They could be eaten, just like everything else.
“Grellnot!” The Slyph’s voice burst out over the plain, as the creatures silenced themselves. Even the ones Grellnot had gathered still worshiped the Slyph as a goddess. “Grellnot! How dare you turn against me? I, who created you; I who gave you the power to hunt the humans. And yet here you are, daring to strike at me?”
Grellnot smiled, his long tongue hanging low like a panting dog.
“GRELLNOT HUNGERS!” he screamed back. “Grellnot not be your slave, Grellnot not need your help or power. Gellnot is power.”
Lurching forward faster than any creature, save the Slyph, could follow, Grellnot tore the head off a giant bull looking creature – that is if a bull was covered with metal skin and breathed smoke. Tearing chunks of steaming hot flesh off the body of the thing, Grellnot took huge bites.
“GRELLNOT HUNGERS!” It screamed again.
“I will destroy you Grellnot!” The Slyph had no need to scream, her voice carried over the air as if she was standing next to each creature there. “You have outlived your usefulness, creature.” Standing in the air, the Slyph raised her hand to order the attack.
“You have no power over Grellnot,” Grellnot screamed back. “Show them. Destroy me from there.”
Creatures on both sides watched the Slyph, expecting her to destroy Grellnot with a flick of her hand. But she did not. Muttering arose.
“SHOW THEM,” Grellnot screamed again. “She cannot hurt Gellnot.” Dancing on the corpse of the thing he had just killed, Grellnot howled with glee. “She can’t hurt Grellnot. She wants her pets to do it, she is too scared of Grellnot!”
Again the creatures looked to the Slyph to destroy Grellnot. The sky darkened over them as the Slyph grew angry.
“KILL HIM!” she yelled, ordering her creatures to attack.
Grellnot simply pointed at the Slyph, and with a roar, Grellnot moved forward, his army reluctantly following. Most had expected not to have to fight; that the Slyph would end him. They had hoped she’d forgive them for following Grellnot. The two armies clashed and thought ended. Now was the time to fight, or die.
Time passed, and chaos ruled. Jabber fought Jabber, goblins speared anything that came close, and no one and nothing knew friend from foe.
Grellnot paid the things following it no mind. Grellnot had one goal; to get to the Slyph and to feast. Stomach growling in its ever present hunger, Grellnot leaped from creature to creature, ripping out throats, biting through muscle and sinew. Not knowing or caring on which side
any creature was. They were all meat, food, blood. Grellnot’s hunger grew with each kill.
________
The Slyph watched Grellnot move through the battlefield. This had been a mistake, Grellnot was a danger she didn’t have an answer to. She had hoped the sheer number of creatures could overwhelm the thing, but was quickly shown that that idea was one she never should have had.
“Hounds! Defend me!” The Slyph sent her two pets after Grellnot and vanished from the field of battle.
________
Grellnot saw the Slyph flee, and could feel her location elsewhere.
‘She flees,” he screamed, his voice so loud it overwhelmed the noise of battle, sending many things to the ground clutching ears or whatever else they used to hear with. “She flees!” Grellnot screamed again. Confusion spread over the great battle. A great many simply left, to return to wherever they had come from, fearful and unsure of what to do. Some still fought, too lost in bloodlust to be aware of anything else.
A baying noise broke into Grellnots celebration. T hose creatures, the new ones, ran towards Grellnot. He could smell the magic that made them, so similar to Grellnot. Grellnot was greater though, Grellnot had more. More power, more strength, more hunger! With a scream of joy, Grellnot ran at the hounds, blood and flesh, magic and power; Grellnot would feast!
________
The Slyph appeared far off, in a safe hold she had recently made. She’d spent the last day or so traveling over the Echo world, making places to hide if it came to that. Hide. Her, the Slyph, hiding from a disgusting thing like Grellnot. Regret was not something the Slyph felt often, but with every fiber of her being she regretted making that thing. She paced around the smooth underground hollow she had made, waiting. A forceful lurch shook the hollow, and she whirled around.
Grellnot stood, his face locked into a rictus smile, blood dripping from most parts of its body.
“Grellnot find you….” it said in an almost sing song way. “Grellnot feast on your poor dogs. They were tasty, and so like Grellnot.” It flicked a small piece of something towards the Slyph, and she dodged out of the way. It was a part of a tentacle, from one of her hounds.
The Slyph felt fear, something she had no experience with.
“Grellnot, we are not enemies. The humans are, the Bridgefinders. They are the enemy.”
Grellnot laughed, a deep rough sound, and licked its lips, savoring the taste of her fear. The Slyph’s fear. Grellnot wanted more.
“Humans are food. Meat and bone, blood and sinew. Grellnot not fear them, Grellnot eat them.”
The Slyph slowly walked backward, away from the thing she had created.
“Yes, food Grellnot. So why are you here? Go… hunt! I release you from your banishment. You can go back to the human world and eat your fill!” Just as quickly as she had sealed the Barrier from letting him through, she ended it.
Grellnot shook its greasy head. “Grellnot will hunt, Grellnot will feast. But the Slyph will be first. Grellnot is free now, Grellnot is not your tool!” Screaming in rage, Grellnot leaped again for the Slyph, but with a blink and a rush of inward moving air, the Slyph was gone, transported elsewhere. Grellnot spat on the floor.
“She can’t run from Grellnot, Grellnot will find yoooouu….” Its voice, moments ago filled with rage, was once again a sweet croon. Grellnot raised its head and smiled, then it vanished, leaving nothing but an empty hole in the ground behind.
________
The Slyph appeared in a different place, and in her rush, almost didn’t recognize it. The ground was burned and cracked, and the burned out ruined husk of a huge oak tree stood over it all. Oakhearts tree. She hadn’t returned here since her anger at his mind and spirit letting go. The Slyph touched a blackened section of bark, wishing Oakheart was still here. The Slyph did not regret what she had done to him, but she wished she had his power. Being able to draw on the magic of the human world might be of use to her when it came to her new enemy.
If Cendan Key hadn’t managed to escape, she would have had a new Maker to play with, maybe even two if she had caught him early enough. She still wasn’t sure how he had managed to escape. Bridges between the worlds weren’t that common. She suspected that he had been helped by something or someone here, and that list was not very long; those who would help a human.
A soft pop behind her let her know her time of reflection was up. Grellnot had arrived.
“Grellnot will always find you. You cannot run from Grellnot!” its rasping voice came. “The tree? You not happy when the other stupid human Maker stole the tree away from you, it looks like. Smells like death to Grellnot.”
Turning toward the creature, the Slyph felt fear once more, but tamed it as best she could. She was the Slyph! She was the ruler of this world, creator of life here, master of all she saw.
Grellnot was sitting on a burned rock, picking its teeth with a small piece of bone it had produced from somewhere.
“You cannot run from Grellnot. Grellnot finds the idea of eating you here, where Grellnot was born, a good one.” Drool spilled down from the corner of its mouth, stringy and thick. “Your time is gone. Grellnot will rule.”
Holding up both hands, the Slyph knew this was it. She had to either stop Grellnot here, or she would die. She could not die to this thing. This stomach with teeth.
“Listen to me, I am your creator! I am your mother! You only exist because of me!”
Grellnot stood saying nothing at first.
“Tell me, do you bleed? Grellnot wants to know.”
The Slyph could see the rising hunger and rage reflected in its eyes.
“Grellnot…” the Slyph started to say, then she lashed out as hard as she could with all the power she had been gathering since the thing appeared. Weaves of threads tore through the space between them, trying to find some purchase, some way to unmake this thing.
________
Grellnot shook itself. She was trying to hurt Grellnot!
Its skin burned, and the air around Grellnot grew thick. Each step was agony, and it would have roared in pain if it could open its mouth. Grellnot was more than of this world though. Grellnot was of both worlds, and that saved it. The threads could not make purchase, the points and specks of light that made up the human world magic simply made the threads slide off of Grellnot. She could hurt Grellnot, she could slow Grellnot, but the Slyph could not kill Grellnot!
The Slyph felt her fear return, a feeling she hated herself for having. Her magic wasn’t working! Unlike the magic of humans, her magic, the magic of this world, followed different rules. The threads weren’t unraveling, they weren’t ending. It was bound too tight, too dense for even her, born of this world before all others, to break the wave.
Compressing its rage and hate, Grellnot ran through the weaves the Slyph was throwing at it, bursting through with a thunderclap. Its jaws crunched down on the neck of the Slyph and began to feed. The air grew still as the blood filled its mouth. Blood rich with magic and power. Grellnot could scream with the joy it gave Grellnot to eat of it. Silence fell, moving outward across the plains and mountains, forests and swamps, caves and seas.
Creatures and nameless things alike could feel it. All raised their heads and were afraid. Grellnot had won.
Chapter 21
Grellnot could not feel anything but the power now, connecting it to every living thing on the Echo World. And all was Grellnot’s to command. The air, the sun in the sky, the earth beneath its feet. Darkness fell, a darkness split by howling winds and powerful storms.
“Grellnot has FEASTED!” It screamed into the falling dark, its joy a palpable thing.
The corpse of the Slyph was thin now, a desiccated fragile thing. She had only been filled with the power; no flesh to tear, no bone to crack.
“Unsatisfying,” Grellnot muttered as he flung what was left of the Slyph at the base of the oak tree. “She was right about one thing; humans are good to eat.” Grellnot laughed out loud. Reaching out with its new power, Grellno
t summoned a new army, an army twice, three times as large.
“Grellnot commands you now! Come to Grellnot. Tonight we win!” Grellnot yelled, the joy in its voice overlaying the storm sounds. And the creatures came, big and small, many Grellnot knew, but many it did not. Nameless things from deep underground, blind, but possessed of deep cunning. Flying monsters that were legend even here, on the Echo World. Grellnot’s world.
Grellnot smiled. The time was coming. The Slyph had lost because the Slyph did not understand hunger or destruction. Grellnot would feast on the human world, feast on its magic, feast on its humans and animals. Even now its hunger returned, a groaning need to rend and tear. With a slash of a clawed and gnarled hand, Bridges opened up above the still appearing creatures.
“HUNT! KILL! FEAST!” Grellnot screamed as it leaped forward into the closest Bridge. The time had come.
________
Cendan sat on the bed in his old room at the Bridgefinders liar. They were locked in, apparently, by a completely insane Marcus. Jasmine was still out, and he and Heather had no idea where Marcus was, or what his next move would be.
“We need to wake her. She may at least be able to tell us something,” Heather said, looking at Jasmine. “And I think we are going to want her help if Marcus does move against us.” She was right, but it made him feel like a character from a TV show where they wake some poor slob up to answer questions when all the person wants is to sleep.
“I know. But Jasmine can’t help, with the magic, I mean... she doesn’t know any of it. Hell, she doesn’t believe in it, though not with the same level of hate and fear that Marcus does, or did.” Cendan looked down at her. “But either way, you’re right. If nothing else, maybe we can get some food and water into her. She really doesn’t look good to me.” Standing, he held his key over Jasmine’s sleeping form. “I don’t know what to do, though.”
Heather gently placed her hand on his and pushed it down.