Achil & The Rise Of The Mandrake

by David Papa-Adams

  Chapter XVII

  Beware The Valkyrie

  The Grimmer reached out and held Achil’s hand with hers, in the other she took hold of the Queens, the sand began to swirl at their feet and create a funnel which they were immersed in. Achil felt himself falling uncontrollably, and then in an instant his feet were on solid ground. He stood with the Queen and the Grimmer on a cobbled street in Findolin. It was dark but for a few street lanterns which shed a little light.

  “That was certainly a quicker route back,” said the Queen.

  The Grimmer on her arrival to the mortal wilderness had altered into a woman, though still fare, the glamour surrounding her had diminished, her hair was now a deep reddish hue, her skin pale, like apple blossom and her eyes were icy blue in this human form her appearance was no longer a cause for concern as any that looked upon her would see a young beautiful woman. She still wore the long shimmering blue gown. The Grimmer stretched out her hand as if touching the air. She cocked her head to one side as though listening.

  "Should anyone ask about me tell them that I am a healer. I sense only three Valkyrie,” said the Grimmer. “The first is not close and it may prove difficult to find her, I believe she hides in human form. Show me where the last victim of this plague of yours died.”

  Achil pointed in the direction they were to go in, and led them toward the house. The Grimmer’s eyes shone transparently, reflecting the smallest light, it was as though the dark veil that surrounded them held no obstacle to her sight.

  “When we enter the house you must be prepared,” she said. “A Valkyrie has the power of deception like no other; it is able to confuse the mind. They are intelligent, cunning creatures; in fact they feed off the dark energy of men, especially fear, and they frequent places where a catastrophe has befallen the local populace.”

  “So that's why Jin sent them here, and that's also why the affect they've had was only felt once the siege had begun,” said Achil, setting off in the direction of the latest victim.

  They darted down one narrow street after another, with the Grimmer almost expectant that their foe might know they were there. To Achil‘s relief they finally reached their destination stopping in front of a small innocuous stone building which stood in the middle of a terrace of similar types of houses. Achil knocked on the door, they heard a shuffling inside, and the door was slowly opened by an elderly man. Achil introduced who they were as the Grimmer had asked him to. The man invited them in thankfully, his hair was long grey and matted, by the look of his sallow eyes and his drawn face he had the appearance of someone who had not slept for days. He walked away from the door with a tired gait as though he were carrying a heavy burden. They entered into a small room which was sparsely furnished, there was a small fire burning in the hearth which was in sharp contrast to the cold stony floor. A chair with blankets laid over it rested up against the wall. The old man picked up an iron rod and began poking the fire which sparked into life.

  “Are you here to help my granddaughter or to pronounce her doom?” asked the old man his voice trembling as he spoke. “She is fading before my eyes and there is nothing I can do. Where you are strong and fight the battles of our time, we have had to fight a different battle, that of hunger and plague.”

  "There is no greater struggle than the one you are currently fighting," replied the Queen.

  Achil asked the old man to show them to his granddaughter. He slowly stood up, and led them up a narrow flight of stairs to a small cramped room which could barely fit the small double bed where she lay; her small frail frame had sunk into the mattress, her hair twisted in clumps rested stiffly at her side. The old man woke the girl gently and explained to her why the three strangers had come. Achil turned to the old man and escorted him out of the room and down the stairs. The Queen and the Grimmer stood over the bed as Achil re-entered the room. There was no indication that he could see that the girl suffered from anything other than the plague.

  The girl looked at them frightened and unsure of what was going on. She was very pale and delicate, on seeing her Achil felt a pang of pain, that frail girl was about the same age as Achil's own daughter would have been, had she lived. There was a purple pustule on her neck. The Queen noticing it, placed her cool hand on the girl's forehead.

  “She’s burning, is there anything you can do to calm her,” said the Queen sadly.

  The Grimmer paused before placing her hand over the girl's eyes to close them. The Grimmer then chanted a small incantation taking out from her belt the small carved staff. Her eyes flashed with power. The staff slowly began to move and became alive; she placed it on the child, as the others looked on horrified. Achil tried to grab the snake, but the Grimmer put out her hand, and both the Queen and Achil found themselves helpless to intervene. The snake bit into the child. The child yelped and began to pant heavily a ghastly fume filled the air with an awful stench. The eyes of the snake came alive and flashed brilliantly, to consume the foul vapour, once it had completed the task it altered again. The Grimmer then returned the staff to her belt. She then freed Achil and the Queen.

  “Before you judge me look at the sore, it heals,” said the Grimmer in a commanding voice. “If you ask for my help you should not question my methods.”

  They stared down at the little girl as the sore began fading and colour returned to her pale cheeks. The Queen once more placed her hand on the girl's forehead.

  “She is much cooler,” said the Queen. “You’ve done it.”

  “Well you needn’t be so surprised, of course I've done it,” said the Grimmer.

  “Next time perhaps it would be wise if you gave us some warning as to what you intended doing,” said the Queen. “It would help us to react in a less hostile manner. Anyway what of the Valkyrie?”

  The Grimmer began to concentrate her icy blue eyes glowing menacingly.

  “A Valkyrie was here some time ago,” she said menacingly. “This girl is strong to still be alive. Every time the Valkyrie possesses someone and infects them like this, it drains their life’s energy from them; imagine a leech sucking your blood, once its fed it leaves, leaving the person vulnerable and weak to this pestilence, which is an ugly after effect of its presence. The Valkyrie that inhabited the girl is probably at rest at the moment in some lower creature like for example a cat or dog, until it is ready to feed again. It may even be hiding in the shadows.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Achil.

  “I mean it becomes one with the shadow, a creature without physical form,” said the Grimmer. “There’s something else you should know. It is a creature that needs to feed at least once a day in the mortal world. And your city is filled with the vulnerable and weak, which means there is an abundant source of food for it here.”

  Achil and the Queen listened to the ominous words of the Grimmer with growing dread, these creatures were far worse than the Furies he had once fought against, far darker, far more insidious.

  “You can still destroy them though, right?” asked Achil.

  “Not destroy them, capture them. And I will send them back to the Underworld where they belong,” said the Grimmer.

  “That's good enough for me,” said Achil. "One thing though if they belong in the underworld what are they doing here?"

  "Your enemy the Jin has powerful allies and some are not of this world."

  "Now that is troubling," replied Achil.

  They went down the stairs informed the old man, that with a little rest his granddaughter would recover. The man was overwhelmed with relief and began sobbing as he climbed the stairs to tend to her. The three of them took their leave of him and wandered out into the street. The Grimmer put her hand out as if feeling the air. Quietly she moved off, closely followed by Achil and the Queen. She stopped to rest a moment breathing deeply.

  “I forgot how punishing and fragile it is being in human form. It has been a long time since I have walked upon the earth,” said the Grimmer.

  “Tell me,” asked Achil. “What co
uld you have possibly done to warrant becoming you know?”

  The Grimmer turned sullen as if the memory of what she was about to say filled her with despair.

  “It is long ago;” said the Grimmer sadly. “It was a time when the largest beasts roamed these lands and when the first people to walk Suberia were young. But the story is a long one as you can imaging perhaps one day when we meet again, I will have time to tell you.”

  “You're right this is not the time for such a tale,” said the Queen. “Especially since the Grimmer can only remain in human form for a short period, we should concentrate on finding the Valkyrie, before she's forced back into the underworld.”

  The Queen stepped ahead of them, her torch raised above her head, so that she could peer down each small side street that they passed. She called them over. They found her standing by a large dead rodent that had had the life sucked out of it. The Grimmer placed her torch over the creature and set fire to it. The smell of rotten flesh mixed with sulphur was unmistakeable.

  “The Valkyrie has been here,” said the Grimmer. “That smell I would recognise it anywhere. We must be close. Remember these creatures are as powerful as witches, and though it can only control the weak and feed off them, it still has the ability to do a lot of damage and hide anywhere.”

  The Grimmer took her stick from her belt and placed it into the flames that were consuming the animal. Without burning the staff it seemed to draw out the blue aspect from the fire.

  “Seek,” she said.

  The eyes of the carved snake lit up, she turned the staff this way and that as she did so the eyes either shone brighter or dimmed. When she was sure of the direction to go in; she led them away. They moved down one street then the next, having to back track where necessary if the intensity of the light faded. All the time they were closing in on the creature.

  Finally they came to a house, a small cottage; the render had begun to crack to the side. It was quite unobtrusive like any other two up two down but for one thing, it contained something insidious. Achil tried the door it was open. He cautiously entered closely followed by the others. A rush of cold stale air greeted them, there was no fire burning on the hearth and nor had there been for some time. The house felt oppressive, even the room they were in was barren, as though it had been vacated a long time ago. The small furnishings were covered with linen sheets that could have been death shrouds. As they quietly looked around a small mouse disturbed from its slumber gave out a screech and scurried passed them and out the front door. The Queen entered the kitchen, a table at its centre was covered with crumbly decaying bread and dust; in the gloom it was difficult to tell exactly how long the house had been left untended. She came across a lantern which had been left by the basin, and lighting it, the room was filled with shadowed halo. Still there was nothing to indicate that anyone was home. She went back into the small corridor where the Grimmer and Achil were waiting, and was about to suggest that they leave when there was a loud banging coming from upstairs, as if a door was slamming shut. The Queen and Achil froze, the Grimmer gestured toward the direction of the sound and was about to climb the stairs but was stopped by a strange sight. There at the top of the stair was a macabre apparition, a small boy in a white robe; the Grimmer stared up at him recognising the Valkyrie within his eyes. He seemed ghostly, lifeless, more a reflection you would find from staring into a pool. He turned and walked into one of the upstairs rooms.

  The Grimmer snapped sharply at the others, “Listen to me very carefully. The Valkyrie when cornered can leave its host, and descend upon the nearest habitable vessel it can find without them realising it; everyone quickly outside.”

  They all began to back out of the building. But before she left the Grimmer went to the fire and took a covering of soot and placed it in her pouch, she then joined the others outside. She placed her stick in the bag and uttered the word.

  “Restore,” She then began to pour the contents in front of the front door and on the window sills.

  “I will do this to all the openings in the house,” said the Grimmer. “To prevent the Valkyrie from escaping then I will bind the creature so as to take it to the underworld. You two remain outside.”

  The Grimmer entered the house once more and went upstairs and stepped into the room where the small boy was and began to pour some more of the contents from her pouch in front of the door and again onto the window sills. She then began to chant, holding her small staff up in front of her.

  “Valkyrie,” she said. “Demon of frailty, usurper of life, come forth.”

  She repeated the words over and over again. The boy started to shake violently, and then from out of him leapt the demon.

  “What mortal dares to summon me?" wailed The Valkyrie. “You shall taste the bitterness of my kiss.”

  The Grimmer stood firm and repeated the chant, as she did so the Demon began to form itself into a thick black smoke ready to strike out at her like a coiled serpent. But nothing happened. The Grimmer forced the Demon back against the wall with her staff, sensing the danger it was in; it tried to escape through the door without success, and turned in vain to the window but it was of no use, there was no exit for the creature.

  The Demon was both angry and confused. “Who are you that you can contain the Valkyrie?”

  “It is I, the Grimmer, Guardian of the three Kingdoms. You shall be coming with me. BE CAGED.”

  With that last word of command the entity was absorbed into the small staff of the Grimmer.

  The small boy withered once the Valkyrie had departed his body; he had been far too drained of life to have survived the ordeal. The Grimmer went down the stairs and outside where the others were waiting for her. Achil made to go back inside the house to care for the boy, but the Grimmer stopped him.

  "It is of no use he is dead."

  “Could you not have captured that evil thing without killing the boy?” asked the Queen.

  “The boy was already dead when we arrived,” said the Grimmer sadly.

  “So what happens now?” asked Achil.

  “Now we have one, it will be easier to track the other two. But from here on in you may find things disturbing,” said the Grimmer.

  Achil gave her a quizzical stare, "Things are already disturbing."

  The Grimmer held out her small staff, its eyes shone out. This time it led them to the far side of the city where the dead were being buried. As they approached they could see in the distance the death markers, large stone obelisks. The eyes of the snake began to glow even brighter as they moved closer to the Valkyrie, and as they entered the cemetery they slowed instinctively, not wishing to disturb the dead. Soon enough they stood at the door to a crypt. The iron gates had been pushed back. The Grimmer started to filter out the contents of her pouch across its opening. Then they carefully crept forward, with the Grimmer to the front. Once inside she raised her staff.

  “Illuminate.”

  The staff shone out brighter than before.

  Achil whispered to the Queen. “I’ve got to get myself one of those things.”

  The Grimmer told them both to quiet. There was one part of the crypt that light could not penetrate. It was the Shadow of the Valkyrie, the Grimmer once more started to chant. The shadow seemed to come alive and coalesce into the form of a woman.

  "Who is it that you command me?"

  "It is I the Grimmer. Be Caged," commanded the Grimmer.

  Her staff seemed to suck the creature into it.

  Achil had expected more of a fight, “How is it that that was a lot easier than what occurred previously.”

  The Grimmer shook her head. “It wasn’t easier, it's just that we surprised this one at a time when it needed to feed, in its more weakened state, it could not summon the strength to put up a greater fight. Come we must hurry my time is short.”

  From the crypt they now headed back into the city once more being led by the staff of the Grimmer. They were closing in on the last of the Valkyrie. The Grimmer led them to a
small side street, at its end they could just make out a figure on the ground. When they got closer they could see that it was an elderly man. His face was drawn; the empty eyes seemed to be popping out of his head, his skin appeared sallow, his hair matted. This time the Grimmer started to filter the contents of her pouch around the body.

  She then stepped within the circle she had created and placed her staff over the man and started to chant. The Body began to convulse, foaming at the mouth whilst shaking violently. It suddenly stood up as if hauled up by a rope and leant forward into the face of the Grimmer. The Grimmer took a step back almost breaking the circle. She then touched her staff to the mans lips but this time there was greater resistance to her, as the man knocked the staff out of her hand.

  He then lifted her up off the ground. The Queen hurriedly picked up the Staff and entered the circle; she uttered the same chant as the Grimmer. The Man threw the Grimmer out of the circle and into the wall. But the Queen would not falter and kept uttering the chant. The man moved shakily forward advancing toward her, each step taking great effort. Achil grabbed him from behind holding the struggling figure as tightly as possible.

  It managed to twist round and face Achil and changed into the form of his dead wife.

  Achil gasped but did not let go: the creature was desperately trying to free itself.

  "It's a trick," cried the Queen.

  "Of course it's a trick, will you bloody hurry."

  The Queen placed the staff to the creature's mouth. The Valkyrie was sucked into it, the way venom is drawn from a snake bite. With the enchantment broken, Achil found he held the old man in his hands once more, and with disgust let him loosely collapse to the floor, his frail body had been defeated by the Valkyrie long before they had fought it.

  The Grimmer picked her self up from where she had landed, dazed but otherwise except for a few bruises to her pride, unscathed. The Queen handed back her staff.

  “What will you do now you have all three in your possession?” asked the Queen.

  “I will take the Valkyrie back with me,” said the Grimmer. “And place them where they belong in the lower kingdom. Farewell to you both, but before I leave mark these words, it is a warning to both of you. Jin has powers like no other living creature on your world, except one.”

  The Grimmer began to fade becoming nothing more than a vapour, and as she disappeared her last words hung in the air.

  “Don’t forget our agreement Achil.”

  The Queen and Achil stood for a moment in the dark contemplating her warning. There was a power in the world that rivalled Jin, or was greater than him, could such a person exist. The Queen wished to inform her Sage and the Alchemist of what had just happened. She also wanted to find out how binding Achil’s agreement with the Grimmer was.