The Ryle of Zentule

by Michael Green

Letty forced them to stew in awkward silence for a little longer before continuing, “I have no idea how long we’ll be down here. I warned you at the beginning—”

  “All right, we get it, you were right, and we were wrong! Could you leave us alone, please?” Dean snapped.

  Letty’s face reddened. Her eyes narrowed and her jaw set. She felt an impulse to attack and humiliate Dean with either an insult, or an open palm across the face.

  Emma refused to meet her glance.

  Staza, Quill, and Blue, were all watching.

  Letty sighed.

  He’s right; I’ve been cruel from the beginning. Now they’re stuck here, and they know it.

  Letty almost apologized, but turned and sat with the Caspians instead.

  “What’s their problem? Running low on diapers?” Staza asked.

  “They—” she started sharply, before pausing, “they’re just having a hard time being away from home.”

  Quill sensed Letty’s concern and spoke softly, “I’m enjoying a bit of adventure, though I also miss my own bed.”

  Staza scoffed. “I’m not the religious type, but I wouldn’t mind killing a few ryle on the way to Andy. I’d like a little payback for our species. My bed at home can burn for all I care. I’ve tasted freedom and I won’t go back.”

  Quill and Letty stared with open mouths at Staza’s sudden vitriol.

  Staza crossed her arms and locked eyes with Quill, who was too shocked to speak.

  “What about you Letty? Do you miss your bed?” Staza asked sarcastically.

  “I—I don’t know if I’ll go home ever again. I also don’t think we should be talking about this now. Our plans for the future should wait.”

  Quill ignored Letty and looked straight at Staza. “Where will you go then? The surface, with those weaklings?”

  Staza looked away and let her head rest against the hull. “I think I might capture my own part of the city on the surface.”

  This will be a problem if I can’t calm them down.

  Quill was about to retort, but Letty reached out and grabbed his arm. She shook her head. Quill opened his mouth angrily, and then closed it, before turning away from the girls and going to his sleeping bag.

  Staza stood up and went to take the first watch.

  Letty crawled into her own sleeping bag, careful not to glance at Emma and Dean. She pulled the bag around her face, realizing the temperature dropped as the so-called night set in.

  She couldn’t sleep, and soon heard sobbing coming from Emma, and then soft consolations from Dean and even Blue.

  Now I’m the bad guy.

  Letty rolled over and tried to keep from crying.

  I haven’t even thought about my own parents, or the failures and bad grades waiting for me when I get back… if I get back.

  Letty was surprised when a red-eyed Staza came to wake her for second watch.

  Letty put on her helm and carried a blanket up to the watching post at the head of their cart.

  At least it’s beautiful out.

  The rolling shrub-land waved under the gentle brushing of a soft, ever present wind. She watched the sky and, after a long moment, fancied that she might see the moon, hidden up there in the swirling mess of color. Almost every shade of red and purple were run through with thick cords of gold. She watched as off in the distance a long line of soldier brutox marched, their attendant carts and ravagers trailing along behind. Limp banners jostled as they sunk out of sight.

  Letty swayed with the wind and thought of her friends, and her home, school, and a car she wanted to drive. She thought about Andy making a scene in Caspia and snapping her out of that nightmare haze Pythia had put her in.

  Moments later, she spied people emerging from their homes, which were nestled away so expertly in the thick shrubbery, that she only noticed them after their doors opened. The Elazene, in their borrowed skins, greeted a phantom dawn and went to work on their farmsteads. Letty turned and saw Ahmet exchanging gifts and greetings with one of the local farmers.

  “What are you doing?” Petri asked, her voice startling Letty.

  The young girl was bearing a tray with cups and a steaming pot of tea.

  “I’m on watch,” Letty replied, yawning and stretching what she now realized were incredibly stiff muscles.

  “Did you sit up all night? Aren’t you second watch?” Petri asked, carefully handing Letty the tray before climbing up.

  Did I? Was I up all night?

  Letty grimaced and remembered the hurt feelings of her friends from the day before.

  “Oh, Petri, one thing. Are we going directly to Degoskirke?”

  The girl tilted her head, Letty saw mistrust in her eyes through the helm.

  “Answer my question first, please.” Petri said.

  “Oh, right—yes. I guess I stayed up; I wasn’t tired.”

  Petri stared for a moment before speaking, “We’re going home first. It’s on the way. But you shouldn’t stay up all night, you won’t be able to walk today. You need to look after yourself, don’t be so foolish,” Petri scolded her, while pouring a cup of tea.

  “So, we aren’t going to Degoskirke, after all,” Dean muttered.

  Letty saw that her friends were up and had been listening.

  “It’s on the way,” Petri repeated herself, hopping down into the cart. “Up, up, and drink your tea, then we have some fine bread—fresh baked.”

  Letty refused to look at her friends that morning, and, as Petri predicted, could only tolerate a few hours of walking, before nearly passing out from exhaustion.

  She awoke in the shade, staring at the inside of a covered wagon.

  I’m in the lead cart.

  Petri laid a hand on her cheek. “She’s awake.”

  “Give her water, but sit her up first,” Ahmet said, slight urgency in his voice.

  Letty accepted Petri’s help in sitting up.

  We aren’t moving.

  Letty took a water-skin from the girl and drank deeply. She rubbed her eyes and looked out from the wagon. Ahead of the caravan, she saw her friends practicing their footwork and parrying. Staza led them in the exercise. Somehow, the sight of it was enough to make Letty laugh.

  Why does it seem so natural for Quill and Staza? Even when Emma and Dean are doing it right, they just look absurd.

  “I see you are healthy after all,” Ahmet said, handing Petri a bundle.

  Petri opened the bundle and presented Letty with her uneaten breakfast.

  “Healthy enough to laugh, healthy enough to eat,” Petri insisted.

  Ahmet chuckled. “Very good, dear, now go show them a thing or two—but don’t get too rough.”

  Petri emitted a pleased warble as she flew from the cart. She slid to a pause and turned back to grab her child-sized baton before rushing off again to join the others.

  “I was right. A few days of you and your friends has done my daughter more good than a hundred lectures. Your helplessness has taught her to rise to this new height.”

  “Maybe I should rent out my friends to other Elazene parents with misbehaved children.”

  Ahmet raised a brow and his cheeks puffed out slightly before he let out an uncharacteristic cackle. He struggled to stop laughing. “Yes, it could be quite the profitable enterprise, though at some point, you surfacers would no longer be helpless, but a decade’s worth of profit isn’t to be scoffed at.”

  Letty grinned and chewed on a slice of bread with crimson butter.

  “But look at her; fierce and wild, isn’t she?” Ahmet said, watching his daughter strike at Dean’s knees.

  “She is,” Letty answered.

  “She mentioned that you know.”

  Letty paused. “Know what?”

  “You know that we aren’t going straight to Degoskirke.”

  “Yes, she told me. We are going to your home, first.”

  Ahmet nodded. “I hope this won’t be a problem. It is on the way, and we will only stay a night, God willing.”

  Let
ty was quiet for a while. They watched the sparring, and both wore a smile as Petri stood in as Dean’s partner for Staza’s blocking lesson.

  “Okay, so long as you don’t forget our agreement,” Letty said firmly.

  Ahmet scowled. “Yes, our agreement. You make excellent guards,” he spoke sarcastically.

  Letty felt her face redden.

  “Think, girl. Petri could have done the job better. What I do for you is charity; let’s be straight on this subject.” Ahmet paused for a long moment. He took a sip from his cup of tea before continuing, “I do not begrudge what we give, if that’s what you think. Life has been hard to my people, but we aren’t lost until we turn away our own kin.”

  Ahmet reached for a bag and produced a carrot before passing the bag to Letty.

  He’s a Seer too.

  They both ate their carrots before Ahmet rounded a heavy brow her way. “I hear that you are suffering in your role as leader. Your two groups of allies are rather different, but you favor one over the other.”

  Petri. She’s been spying on us and telling her father.

  Letty looked away, not sure how angry she should be about the breach of their privacy.

  “Do not take offense, girl. I am here to aid. These words struggle to smooth the path before you. Please do not grow rigid; now is the time to learn, more than any other. You are going to a dangerous place. In some ways the city is worse than these dusty plains. You must be as one, not fractured.” He paused. “But your plan: You go to rob a purple lord of his possessions?”

  Letty nodded. “It’s a stupid plan, isn’t it?”

  “Only if born prematurely, in haste. Your party is blessed with six perspectives.”

  Six? He must be including Blue.

  “Take the time—this is essential—to let each set of eyes divine the truth of your challenge. There will be disagreement, but it is your duty to make sure there are no hurt feelings when one path is taken and another left.”

  “I never wanted to be leader; it just happened. At some point they were asking me what we were going to do, and I just opened my mouth and answered, but I have no idea if it’s for the best. I don’t think we have the right plan.”

  Ahmet smiled. “What is best, in this case, is faith, my girl. There is no perfect plan, especially when you go to worlds unknown, but even a turbulent course will be traveled happily if the pilgrims do so in good faith.”

  Letty sighed.

  “It comes naturally to you. Do not second guess yourself, not for your own sake, but for theirs. If you meet the day with defiance and confidence, they will see. The animating spirit will flow from you to them. If you mope, they will shatter. Right now, your bearing is far more important than whining over a perfect plan, particularly if so much is unknown.”

  “I see your point, but what if I don’t have faith in them?” Letty whispered.

  Ahmet nodded and thought on it for a while. “This is much like your futile hunt for the perfect plan. You hunt for the perfect players.”

  “But you said yourself that Dean is useless, and Emma…” Letty sighed.

  “We jibe others in the hope that they will rise. Dean suffers our critiques with good grace, and he will rise to the occasion in the way right to him. Emma will too. If there was no hope, I would have left them by the side of the road. I assume you made the same decision earlier in your trek?”

  Letty was silent.

  “They chose to go with you and the snake children?”

  Letty nodded.

  “They could choose to turn back down the road we travel, at any point?”

  Letty looked away.

  It’s true. They could leave at any point, if they really wanted to.

  “You cannot bear the responsibility of their lives. They made the choice, foolish or otherwise, and if you bear the responsibility of that choice, you deprive them of what is essential in life: the ability to learn from it.”

  Letty felt a tear form in her eye.

  He’s right. It was their choice. It’s wrong of me to behave this way. They are stuck with us now. Making them suffer for it won’t help.

  “Do you feel like waving a stick about?” Ahmet asked.

  Letty nodded.

  “Join them.”

  She did so.

  “Are you feeling better? Is it true, you didn’t get any sleep?” Emma stammered as Letty approached.

  “Yes, but I’m fine,” she said, raising her hands to keep the questions at bay.

  Staza tossed her a club, and Letty joined in the exercise.

  Ahmet looked on for a time, occasionally cheering for his daughter.

  The caravan lumbered on after a quick lunch. That evening, Letty apologized to her friends. They had unrolled their sleeping-bags and kicked their shoes off for the night.

  “Hey, Emma, Dean?” Letty started.

  They looked at her, uncertain.

  “I’m sorry for being mean about—well, I haven’t been fair to you, and it’ll stop.”

  Emma gave her a thankful smile, but Dean looked away.

  “I’m not responsible for your decision to come down here, so I’ll stop acting like it. I need to realize that we’re a team, especially if we’re going to stand a chance against whatever is waiting for us in Degoskirke.”

  Dean looked up. “It isn’t easy for Emma or me—being away from home and all. We’ll stop complaining so much, to make it fair.”

  Emma nodded, and Letty smiled.

  “Cute,” Blue sniped at them from across the cart.

  Staza scowled at the mouse and hurled a pair of balled up socks his way.

  Blue hadn’t expected the socks and was bowled over backwards into his favorite basket. The struggling mouse feet kicked up a wave of laughter and light applause.

  “That’ll show him,” Quill said, as Blue leered at them, before diving away into the silks.

  Chapter 15

  At the Scene

  Chimerax landed on a piece of crumbled wall near the outskirts of Hyadoth.

  Akri cawed and spoke, “We’re here.”

  “It’s about time,” Ithyl, the jackal head, replied in her grating tone.

  They both cast a glance at the silent and nameless dragon’s head. Its glassy eyes scanned the ruins idly.

  “Something terrible has happened,” Ithyl said, sniffing the air. “The false Argument, can you taste it?”

  Akri nodded. “The Nightmare is a fey creation, and the lightning as well. You smell the taint in the air.”

  “No. There is something more,” Ithyl said.

  Akri gasped.

  “Look down into the city.” He said, clapping his beak nervously.

  The dragon took in a rattling breath.

  “There’s a sea of mutation stirring in the streets, likely bled from the missing Hyacap,” Ithyl reasoned.

  “We are too cumbersome for this,” Akri grumbled. “That soup can rend or enmesh us further. We need to change. Agreed?”

  “What will happen to us, if we change?” Ithyl asked.

  “I expect we will become of one mind,” Akri said.

  “But who will be dominant?”

  Again, they both looked at nameless, who simply stared down at the city.

  Akri sighed, and then closed his eyes. “I hope they never open again.”

  Their body morphed. Limbs shrank and heads merged.

  Chimerax blinked and laid a hand across his face. Two thick rents ran straight down from his crown, through each eye, and then down to meet over the heart. His hands felt scales between the two lines, fur on the right side, and feathers on the left.

  Chimerax shivered and grumbled all at once. He tried to flex his wings, but found they weren’t there. He held his left hand out and, palm open, a purple orb, the size of a boulder flashed into existence. He grasped his fist and an ultraviolet glow replaced the orb and shone across the rubble. He tightened his grasp and a blade shot into existence. It was perfect and indistinct from a material weapon, save the color. He rel
eased the blade, and a dark haze shimmered around his body. The power of the Counter refused to be contained and seeped out through his skin.

  Remember the forms.

  Chimerax focused on his disjointed memories and found the essential ones rushing to the fore.

  Ahh.

  He loosened almost every muscle in his body and let himself fall. A moment before striking the ground, he felt as if he were stuck to the sky.

  So simple.

  Chimerax floated to an upright position and flew slowly over the roiling remains of the city, dodging the occasional tentacle or clawed limb that lifted to inspect him from the soup below.

  What a waste. Xyth was a fool. Look at this butcher’s attempt at a breeding program.

  Chimerax spotted a cluster of slithers clinging to the underside of a half-fallen tower.

  Let’s see what they know.

  Chimerax rotated till he was nearly upside-down, and felt his feet tap against the stone. He held a hand out for one of the slithers, which cowered in a nook.

  “Come here,” he said.

  A slither, somehow tempted, crawled out of its hole and climbed onto the open palm.

  “Here you go,” he said, pointing a clawed finger at the creature. A thin stream of purple and orange light flew into the slither. “Very good, sit still.”

  The other slithers rushed from their holes to snap at his feet.

  “Now, now, only the brave,” he said before flicking a finger.

  The other slithers went limp and fell from the tower.

  He set the lucky slither down and continued feeding the stream into it.

  The creature grew.

  Moments later, it had the body of an adult ychoron. It clung to Chimerax, who walked up the underside of the tower, before setting it down.

  “You can’t always climb ceilings,” Chimerax said, with a slight grin. “You’re an adult now.”

  “Master,” the ychoron said, bowing. “How may I serve?”

  “In your primal form, you might have seen what happened to this, ill-fated metropolis.”

  The ychoron nodded. “Yes, yes I did. Ravagers rampaged through the town. They bore stripes and banners I didn’t recognize. I expect that they were privately owned, not part of the city’s fleet.”

  “Were they part of an invasion? Was the city attacked?”