Collecting The Goddess (Chronicles Of KieraFreya Book 1)

by Michael Anderle

  “I hate to say that you were wrong,” KieraFreya started, sarcasm clear in her voice. “But you were... Huh.”

  “What is it?” Chloe asked. She paused as she started to feel something too, like the strange wave of power she had felt upon discovering the location of the greaves in Nauriel. KieraFreya had said a kind of magical magnetism came forth from her armor, both as an attraction and because of her desperation to find the missing pieces.

  Chloe took a few steps forward, feeling the pulse strengthen. Another few steps, and it faded again.

  She looked down at her feet, her legs looking only slightly ridiculous with the greaves over her shins and a plain pair of prison shoes. Sweeping her foot back and forth over the sand, she began to dig a small groove into the sand, her foot soon becoming buried.

  She pulled her foot out with some effort, her heart sinking into her chest. They were above it, of that she was sure. But how the hell was she ever going to get down beneath the sand far enough to start her search? Sure, the items might be near now, but where the hell was that entrance?

  “Erm, Chloe?” KieraFreya said sheepishly.

  “Not now, I’m thinking,” Chloe snapped.

  KieraFreya led Chloe’s arms, sharply changing her direction to look out at the sand dunes, where several dark shapes were now moving toward them. Chloe squinted, making out large fins swimming through the sand, deep grooves left in their wake as they moved in a triangular formation, heading straight toward her.

  Chloe used Creature Identification, missing the first few creatures but managing to lock onto another that momentarily raised its head out of the sand.

  Sherikan (Lv 12)

  256HP

  Chloe cried out as she turned and began to run away, her feet sinking into the sand, which somehow seemed to have grown softer as she had stood still. Her feet sank with every step, and it was an effort to make any distance.

  “Tag! Ben! Gid! Jesepiah!” she shouted, hoping that they’d hear her and run out to help. The creatures were gaining on her, and fast. Could her shouting be heard through their computer screens? Would she be able to rouse an alert just with her voice?

  Chloe had reached the closest hut when she suddenly felt hands on her ankles. She hit the ground and was dragged back, her legs disappearing beneath the sand.

  Jesepiah rounded a hut, searching for Chloe. Chloe called out to her and Jesepiah sprinted in Chloe’s direction, diving over the sand to take Chloe’s hand.

  Chloe kicked as though she was swimming, but it felt like the sand had turned to sludge. Her hand slipped from Jesepiah’s, and before she knew it, Jesepiah and the village had disappeared from view as Chloe was dragged beneath the sand.

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Mia finished the last few lines of code, her eyes beginning to blur as she checked the last pairings of brackets and abbreviations on the bright blue screen, the lines of text in different colors to indicate that everything was matched up and as it should be.

  “Wow, you’re really good at that,” Demetri said, sipping his fifth cup of coffee that morning.

  It was a Saturday in the real world, the clouds outside hanging like a thick woolen blanket above the city. Demetri had purposely shifted his meetings for the day in order to sit with Mia while she finished up the last of their project, the apprehension between them a reflection of the weather outside.

  “I guess there’s more than just one thing I’m good at.” Mia winked, making Demetri think back to the previous night. It wasn’t an expectation that they’d hook up whenever he came over now, but that didn’t mean it didn’t happen every time either. They just couldn’t help themselves. The honeymoon phase of their relationship kept permanent smiles on their faces.

  Mia tapped a few buttons, hit Enter, and then sat back. A box with script began to play on autopilot. Mia watched with intense focus, aware that the last time she had run this script, several error messages had come up—accompanied by many, many exclamation marks.

  “How’s it looking?” Demetri asked.

  “Wait…”

  They did so, the script running smoothly and working its way to its final line of code. When it was complete, a small tick appeared to confirm that the code was working.

  Mia blew out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. “I think that’s it.”

  “Yeah?”

  Mia grinned, pulling out the memory stick and holding it at eye level. “Oh, yeah. Let’s do this.”

  They rapidly crossed the apartment to Chloe’s booth in the other room. Demetri peered through the small letterbox-size piece of polycarbonate that allowed them to see inside. Chloe looked so at peace. So serene.

  It was kind of morbid, really. There was barely a flutter or of movement from the woman inside the pod. It was as if she were nothing but a mannequin.

  Mia got down on her back and slid beneath the smooth curves of the pod, feeling for the spot where the bulk of the circuitry was kept. They had hardwired certain functions into the prototype to allow for modifications, but it was a feature the box-tickers and button-pushers at Praxis refused to recognize.

  “Ready?” Mia said, staring up at Demetri before she went all the way under. He looked strange from this angle, wide at the bottom, thin at the top, like she was seeing him through a funhouse mirror.

  Demetri nodded, his eyes returning to Chloe’s closed ones. He watched for any movement or signs of discomfort beneath as Mia slotted in the memory stick and began to work her magic.

  Chloe held her breath for as long as she could, but it wasn’t long enough. Sand found its way into every single hole in her body, leaving her wondering how long it would take before she would be able to pull down her pants without particles of sand falling to the floor.

  Not that she would need to take off her pants anytime soon.

  This was a game, after all.

  The grip around her ankle was tight, but Chloe was more worried about how the sand now seemed to be a liquid around them. Occasionally particles would scratch her, but overall, it felt like she was being pulled through a vat of toffee fudge.

  Mmm, toffee fudge…

  KieraFreya screamed a little herself when the sand suddenly disappeared and they found themselves falling through open air for just for a few seconds before Chloe landed on something hard.

  She moaned out loud, rubbing her ass, then using her Healing Hands to repair whatever damage had just been done. After that, she found she could sit upright.

  You okay? KieraFreya asked.

  “Nice of you to show some concern for a change,” Chloe said, not recognizing she was talking out loud until she saw movement. She crab-walked backward until she hit a solid wall.

  In front of Chloe were some of the strangest creatures she had ever seen. Their bodies were primarily fish-like, except for the humanoid legs and arms, but their heads tapered into long points, revealing brutal sets of razor-sharp teeth. In the light of the flickering torches that illuminated the underground cavern, Chloe slowly became aware of the several dozen sand sharks now looking at her, their coloring helping them blend in with the sandstone walls.

  The sharks muttered and growled among themselves, slapping each other as their discussions grew more heated. Chloe couldn’t help but laugh as she noticed that, due to the positioning of their eyes on either side of their heads, they had to rotate in 180 arcs in order to properly see who they were talking to.

  Finally, one of the sharks stepped forward—well, was kicked forward was more like it—looking apologetic as it approached Chloe.

  “You,” it said, pointing a fin at Chloe, “human?”

  Chloe waited to reply, not realizing that was the extent of the question. “Erm, yes?”

  The shark returned to the others, the chattering resuming in a tongue Chloe couldn’t identify.

  After a series of nods, the shark returned to its position in front of Chloe. “You...eat fish?”

  Chloe thought of all the types of seafood she had eaten in her life. Lobs
ter, squid, trout, tuna, hake, shark. She flushed as she guessed there might only be one right answer to this question. She hated the idea of lying, but then remembered that technically she hadn’t eaten any fish since she had been in Obsidian.

  “No?” she replied.

  The shark nodded, seeming to come to some kind of conclusion. It returned to the other sharks, the chattering now taking on a feverish intensity.

  Chloe rolled her eyes, growing impatient.

  The shark returned once more and pointed a clawed finger to the ceiling. “You...no safe...up there.”

  Chloe followed the finger, recognizing for the first time that she was not actually in a cave. The walls were too smooth and well-defined for this to be a cave. It was as if she were inside a building of sorts. There were doors on each of the four walls, although the floor was nothing but loose sand.

  She turned her attention back to the shark, its mouth hanging open to reveal those razorblade teeth. “I don’t feel like I’m much safer down here either, to be honest.”

  The shark cocked its head, then slowly turned back to the others, holding Chloe’s eyes until the last possible moment before returning to the still-chattering others.

  “Oh, won’t you just talk to me directly!” Chloe shouted, her hands making fists as she yelled at the ceiling. “Where the hell am I?”

  The sharks shut up in an instant, their focus now on her. Silence ensued before Chloe saw movement from the back of the group. A moment later, a shark that was twice as wide as the others came through, sucking in its gut as it made its way toward Chloe. “Excuse me, coming through,” it said in perfect English, giving Chloe a ray of hope.

  “I’m ever so sorry,” the fat shark said, running a hand across the top of its head. It was particularly well-spoken, reminding Chloe of English butlers from the movies she had watched as a kid. “Human isn’t their first language, see, and it often takes them a while to realize that perhaps communications would go a lot more favorably if someone who actually spoke the native tongue of the captive was present.”

  The shark presented a hand. “Finley.”

  “Chloe,” she said uncertainly, taking its hand in hers. The other sharks recoiled the second their hands touched.

  “Oh, calm down, will you?” Finley called back over its shoulder. “It’s not like she’s going to stab me in the gut for offering a flippin’ handshake.” A chuckle. “Hmm, ‘flippin’”

  “Can we go back to this ‘captive’ business?” Chloe asked, still trying to work out what the hell was going on.

  “Oh, a thousand apologies, Chloe. A thousand and one. See, ‘captive’ is the operative word for what you are to my fellows here, but it in no way encapsulates what’s going on in the relationship dynamic between us. For all intents and purposes, we’ve saved you from a very hostile death by bringing you to the safety of the Lost Palace of Irizeth.”

  “The Lost Palace of...woah!” Chloe gasped as she looked once more around the large room she was in.

  “That’s right.” Finley chuckled, sucking back a dribble of saliva from the corner of its mouth. “Another hour out there, and who knows what might’ve swallowed you whole? There’s a reason the surface village was abandoned, you know.”

  Chloe’s eyes widened. “My friends. They’re still up there. We have to go get them.”

  Finley waved a hand, “Don’t you fret, dear Chloe. We’d never abandon our fellows to a brutal death by sandworm or dune-goblin. Leave the rescue to our men and women, and we’ll have your friends returned to you in a jiffy.”

  Chloe tried to imagine the creatures that lived in the sand. If they were half as bizarre as these guys, the others would be in trouble. Were dune-goblins the same sort of creature she’d encountered in her first hours in Obsidian, only with yellow skin and thicker hides?

  And what the hell were sandworms? Chloe thought back to her brother’s fishing days, bait boxes full of mealworms. Could a thousand sandworms of that size rip a person to pieces?

  Finley placed a hand on Chloe’s lower back and began to guide her toward the other sharks. “Let’s not worry about that for now, though. In the meantime, let me show you around the place. The Lost Palace of Irizeth is a place of nobility and wonder, and I sense you’re an adventurer bursting with curiosity, am I right?”

  Chloe nodded, swallowing hard. Her mind full of worry for the others on the surface, not much room left for herself as the sharks split to let them to pass. Some of the more muscular specimens snapped their jaws hungrily.

  “Don’t you fret,” Finley said, a small laugh in his words as he saw the look of concern on Chloe’s face. “The sherikans are a peaceful people at heart. We’ve spent years hiding below the surface and helping adventurers and wanderers on their travels. This actually used to all be lakes, y’know? Long, long ago.”

  KieraFreya snorted in Chloe’s head. Told you so.

  I didn’t argue with you!

  Still, as they passed the other sherikans, Chloe couldn’t help but feel like they were doing more than watching a friend pass them. Hungry looks crossed their faces as she was ushered out of the room and deeper into the palace.

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  The Lost Palace of Irizeth was a spectacle that Chloe had never in her life expected to experience. Guided by Finley, she navigated her way around the massive underground dwelling, unable to believe there were several levels on which the sherikans lived.

  “The top level is mostly for entertaining,” Finley said, waving a clawed hand around a room filled with strange-looking musical instruments. “It saves us having to bring visitors far when they come down, and keeps those who are sleeping or resting out of the way of guests. Sherikans can be a grumpy race when they’re tired.”

  “Do you get a lot of visitors?” Chloe asked.

  Finley’s face went blank. “Not so many these days, I’ll be honest. The desert doesn’t attract a lot of people nowadays. They can’t stand the heat, see? And many would prefer to make the hundred-mile trek around the sand than pass through it and risk the dangers that come at night.”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that,” Chloe said. “You mention these dangers, yet I spent nearly an entire night up in that abandoned village and encountered nothing. Literally nothing. You say that are sandworms and dune-goblins, but where are they? Where do they hide?”

  Finley gave a knowing nod, a smile touching the corners of its mouth. “Camouflage is the top defense mechanism of anything that lives in the sand.”

  It paused, as if for emphasis. “In the sand, Chloe. You may have just gotten lucky that nothing was near you at the time, but with food so scarce these days, a good sense of smell will lead all manner of creatures right to possible food when it comes into their domain.”

  Chloe’s head filled with the image of thousands of dark creatures swimming beneath the heavy layers of sand. If the sherikans could make a living out of being buried, it was definitely not beyond reason that many other types of creature could do the same thing.

  “But wait,” Chloe said as Finley led her down a wide set of stairs, the walls lit by large torches chained to the walls. They passed several more sharks, who eyed Chloe curiously and licked their lips. “If other creatures can swim beneath the sand and you guys are here, what’s stopping them from breaking into your palace?”

  Finley opened his mouth to speak, then stopped as the floor began to shake. Then came a loud noise that made Chloe think of the sound of the hulls of large boats scraping bottom in shallow waters. The torches flickered as dust and debris crumbled and rained down from the ceiling.

  Finley closed its eyes as if counting the seconds. Chloe felt that strange resurgence of power overcome her, lightly tugging at the greaves and bracers she wore.

  And then, almost as soon as it made itself known, the sound was gone again. Chloe looked behind them and saw several sherikans who had fallen flat on their stomachs now raising themselves back up again.

  “What the hell was that?” C
hloe asked.

  Finley waited an extra few seconds, then, satisfied the disturbance was over, answered Chloe’s question. “Sandworm,” it said simply, as if that was enough explanation for Chloe.

  They began to walk again. “The walls of this palace are thicker than you’d care to imagine and were made from compressed and shaped stone so that it’s almost impenetrable. The palace has stood for hundreds of years as a symbol of the incredible feats of architecture our people can create, and only a few know the exact locations to enter the palace.”

  “You mean others don’t simply stumble upon it?”

  Finley shrugged, now taking Chloe through a series of rooms that held long tables, chairs, and cooking pots. There were a few sherikans at the tables, scooping spoonfuls of strange, slimy food into their mouths. “We’ve had a few incidences of goblins and lizards stumbling through the entrance holes. Easily fixed.”

  Chloe gave sherikan a look as if to say, “How?”

  Finley winked, licked its lips and patted its belly.

  Chloe’s nose wrinkled in disgust.

  “They taste great with hot sauce.” Finley chuckled.

  It showed her around the mess halls, the sleeping quarters and a large room that remained mostly bare that Finley called the “dance hall.” Chloe couldn’t believe how strange it seemed, the idea that these shark-people would find pleasure in gathering together and dancing on occasion.

  Chloe’s favorite series of rooms, however, was on the sixth level down. As they descended the stairs to the lower levels, a familiar smell caught Chloe’s nose—farmyards and livestock. She heard strange animals calling and sped up, Finley laughing behind her as she ran ahead and was greeted by the sight of dozens of pens of creatures that looked like they belonged in a science fiction movie.

  The first pen she came to held tall, feathered creatures that looked like canaries the size of ostriches. Their heads and beaks were large and spade-like, and Chloe saw that the sand around their feet had been scooped and shaped into piles around large eggs.