Protector

by Sam Ryder

  Regardless of all that, this wasn’t our first rodeo, and we strutted up to the massive door without fear. Or at least so I pretended. In reality, I was shitting myself, remembering the house of horrors the place had been the last time.

  You made your bed… I thought.

  “Should we knock and ask for a cup of sugar?” Beat asked.

  I seemed to recall her making a joke at this exact moment the last time we were here, though I couldn’t recall what it was. Her comedic timing was always impeccable.

  Lace looked at her like she wanted to rip her throat out with her teeth. “How’d you get in the last time?” she asked.

  Now that made me laugh. “We opened the door,” I said, which might’ve sounded sarcastic but wasn’t. To demonstrate, I braced my feet and pushed. The weight of the heavy door fought against me at first, but then groaned and began sliding inward. Beat helped push while Lace supervised like the cat princess she was.

  Like before, we stopped pushing when the door was open wide enough for the largest of us—me—to squeeze through the gap. Also like before, the door shut all on its own once we were inside, the thud reverberating through the ground, into my body, and making my teeth hum.

  That’s where the similarities to my last trip to the demon fortress ended. The chamber I found myself in was completely different. Completely. When I last walked through this door, I found myself in a large stone space with support columns erected at regular intervals. There had been a riddle and a bunch of slithers trying to inject their poison into us and yada yada yada, yours truly had solved it. We’d escaped by the thinnest of margins.

  This time around, the room was like a wildlife sanctuary without the wildlife. At least there was no wildlife so far, for which I was glad. On Tor, wildlife meant the things of nightmares, with blood-dripping fangs and claws that could rip out a heart with a single swipe. This room was almost…pleasant.

  The sound of a burbling brook. Moss lining the floor, a soft carpet under our bare feet. Creeping ivy and other foliage covering the walls. Vines hanging from the ceiling. In place of the columns, godsdamned trees growing from the mossy ground.

  Like I said, it was almost pleasant, if not for the fact that it felt wholly unnatural.

  While Beat and I studied the room, I could tell Lace had the itch to move forward and explore. It was in her nature, and I was fairly certain she didn’t have any concept of video games on her home planet. I reached out and grabbed her arm. “Wait,” I said. “We should—”

  But Lace was Lace; she squirmed out of my grasp and stalked forward. I reacted without thinking, diving forward and colliding with her from behind, knocking her face down onto the moss. “What do you think you’re—”

  The rest of her statement was obliterated by the crash of a massive boulder that slammed into the ground where she’d been a moment earlier. It literally missed my sprawled-out leg and foot by millimeters.

  “You…” Lace said, twisting her head to look back. I was on top of her, her lithe warm body tight against my skin.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Beat said. “He saved your life and all that. We’ll need to keep saving each other’s lives about a hundred more times if we want to walk out of here with all our limbs.”

  “Next time I say something, listen,” I said to Lace. I thought I’d get a sharp rebuke, but this time she nodded, looking slightly pale. Good, I thought. At least we got that out of the way. “That goes for all of us. No instinct should be ignored. If either of you have an idea or a concern, let us all know. We’re in this together.”

  “Thanks coach,” Beat said. It was a fair jab—listening to my speech in my head, it was kind of cheesy. “The only problem: if we lose the big game, we don’t still get to go out for pizza and soda afterwards.” Also a fair point.

  “Then let’s not lose.”

  “Should we put our hands in and do a chant?”

  “What the hell are you two going on about?” Lace asked. “And get the fuck off me.” Ahh, there she is.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I’m a little afraid to move.”

  “Convenient, considering you’re in perfect position to give it to her from behind,” Beat noted.

  “I—” Shit. The reminder of my…positioning…awakened Little Sam. It was the last thing I needed right now. Damn Protector-Level libido.

  “Here we go again,” Lace said. “You stabbed me.”

  “Want me to make a Protector sandwich?” Beat asked. “Sam gets to be the meat.”

  “Not helping,” I muttered. “Might I remind you both of the precariousness of our situation? You know, the boulders falling from the ceiling.”

  “Boulder—singular,” Beat said. “C’mon, what are the chances that another giant—”

  She must’ve moved forward because the end of her sentence was replaced with a high-pitched yelp followed by another slam and the sound of shattering rock. On either side of Lace and I, crumbling rocks skittered across the mossy terrain.

  “Okay, you were right,” Beat called. “Boulders. Plural.”

  “Don’t move,” I reminded everyone.

  “Great,” Lace said. “Feeling a little crushed here. Can you at least lift your body up a little to take some of your weight off my spine?”

  I wasn’t sure what was triggering the falling rocks, but I assumed it wasn’t our motion itself. More likely where we stepped. Classic video game traps triggered by walking on certain portions of the ground.

  I lifted my torso up slightly. To my surprise, Lace’s ass moved up with me, remaining flush with my groin. “Better,” she said.

  At least my erection had vanished after the second boulder almost squashed my best friend. It seemed to come and go at a pace equivalent to that of a racecar doing laps on a track. I really didn’t have time for a romp right now. Not when the climax might result in both big and little Sam getting smooshed (that’s another technical Warrior term, in case you were wondering).

  My gamer mind considered the situation. The moss was the problem. It was hiding the floor, which might hold a clue to what was triggering the traps. “Beat,” I said. “Can you pull away any of the moss without putting pressure on the floor itself?”

  “I think so,” Beat said. There was silence for a few moments. Lace shifted under me, her tight ass rubbing against my midsection.

  “Progress update?” I asked Beat.

  Beat said, “I managed to uproot about three square feet of moss.”

  “And?” I asked.

  “Checkers,” she said.

  “What?” Lace asked, but I immediately understood.

  The floor was tiled squares, some one color and some another. Stepping on the wrong squares meant you got concussed by a falling boulder. Stepping on the right squares meant you could live to take another step. Easy enough.

  “Which color set off the traps?” I asked.

  That’s when Beat threw a curveball in the dirt rather than what should’ve been an underhand lob down the middle. “Both,” she said.

  SIXTEEN

  STICKS, STONES AND SEX

  “Both?” I confirmed, incredulous. I don’t know why I assumed the Morgoss would fight fair, but this was madness on a whole other level. A patterned floor but a trap system that was completely random? What chance did we have?

  “We’ll just have to run for it,” Lace said. She’d pushed to her feet and tugged her bottoms over her ass, careful to stay within the bounds of where we’d been lying. I did the same, repositioning myself beneath my loincloth.

  “Bad idea,” I said. “You might make it, but we’ll be crushed behind you.”

  “Not if we take turns,” Beat suggested. “Lace is quick enough to get across. She can set off all the traps and then we can follow in her path after she’s on the other side.”

  I shook my head. “Won’t work. There will be a bunch of big boulders in the way and we’ll need to take a more roundabout path.” There had to be a pattern, even if it wasn’t as simple as the colors of the tiles. The on
ly problem was that we would need to rip up all the moss and then test the traps until we figured it out. That could take hours and would still risk one of us getting crushed.

  “Not necessarily,” Beat said, washing away my pessimism. “If we stay on a straight path between each boulder, we should be okay.”

  “And then what? Climb over them?” I wasn’t shooting down her plan, which was sounding better and better, just trying to make the whole thing clear in my head.

  Beat eyed the boulders. “We could, but it might take a while. I was thinking we just skirt the edges, keeping our bodies flush with the stone. Even if we trigger another boulder, we’ll be partially protected by the boulders that have already fallen.”

  That made sense, though it was still dangerous. Then again, this fortress was full of dangers. Avoiding all of them was impossible. We just needed to choose which risks were worth taking. And I thought this was one of them. “Okay. Are we all in agreement?”

  Lace nodded, her ears twitching with anticipation. She turned, bending her knees and crouching in a runner’s starting position. In my head, a silent gun went off and she accelerated forward, her clawed feet giving her plenty of traction as she did her best impression of Usain Bolt. In truth, she was faster than the Olympian, and would easily win gold in any of the sprinting events.

  I watched the ceiling. Holy shit. The boulders dropped through large gaps in the stone ceiling, one after another, like a bomber’s payload over its target. I avoided the urge to shout a warning as I didn’t want to distract Lace from running full speed ahead. If the ground was really what was triggering the boulders, her speed would ensure she wasn’t hit.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! One after another they hit, scattering rock shrapnel in all directions, some of the stones breaking off in sharp pieces that sunk into the moss. We would have to be careful not to step on them with our bare feet when we followed.

  The dust settled and there was silence. The boulders blocked our view of the opposite side of the room. “Lace?” I said.

  “Meow,” she said, which was unexpected. It seemed like such a childish response from a fierce woman like Lace, but I was quickly learning she had a silly side to her, one she’d hidden well.

  “Is there a door somewhere?” I asked.

  A rustling sound, movement of foliage against stone. And then: “Yes. Beneath the ivy. Let me try to open it.” A creaking sound was all the confirmation we needed. “We’re good to go.”

  “Can you walk or are you too tender between your legs?” Beat asked. She said it lightly, casually. She was good at keeping a straight face.

  “Har har,” I said, though I’d expected the jokes to fly my way eventually. “I’m fine. You first.”

  “So you can take me from behind like you do with all the women? Or do you need a minute to recover?”

  Truthfully, my leveled-up body would have no trouble performing again. Which was crazy. But she was obviously joking and I was more than ready to get out of this deathtrap of a room. “Yes. No. I’ll go first.”

  “How chivalrous.” Beat slapped me on the ass and shoved me forward.

  I tiptoed across the moss, pressing my feet onto the telltale depressions where Lace’s much smaller, lighter feet had traveled. One wrong step and I might set off another boulder the cat-woman had missed.

  I made it to the first boulder, my heart pounding. I looked up, considering again whether climbing was the better option. Both Beat and I were decent climbers, but the boulders bulged out on the side, which would turn gravity against us. One false move and we’d fall. Then all bets were off.

  I stuck to the plan, edging around the boulder, trying to keep my feet as close to the stone base as possible…

  It worked. I repositioned myself in the center of the boulder on the opposite side, where I spotted Lace’s footprints. I took a moment to call back to Beat. “You can come over.” Then I made another careful trek to the second boulder without incident. Beat’s plan was a good one and I was pulling it off without a hitch. I looked back to find her already around the boulder, waiting for me to get out of the way.

  Good. Very good. Going around the right side of the boulder had worked well the last time, so I followed the same route, hugging the stone with both my arms extended.

  I was halfway around when Lace shouted a warning.

  I was in an awkward position and didn’t have enough momentum to shove in any direction except down. I landed flat on my stomach and had the presence of mind to roll flush against the bottom of the boulder, tucking my head beneath my arms just as another boulder crashed into the one above me, making a raucous sound that reminded me of the time I’d witnessed a car crash.

  Stone hail rained down over the parts of my body that weren’t covered by the boulder’s bulge, leaving bruises behind. Somewhere to the rear, Beat shouted something that I couldn’t understand but which I got the gist of from her urgent tone of voice. Get the hell out of there.

  I shoved onto knees and elbows, ignoring a flash of pain as the back of my head glanced off of stone. I scrambled forward like a soldier on an obstacle course during the first week of basic training, crawling around the edge of the boulder and into the next “safe” zone. Behind me, I heard another crash. Then another.

  I looked back, eyes wide.

  The combination of Lace’s and Beat’s warnings had saved my life.

  Where I’d stood and then hunkered down, a huge column of rock now stood, having broken off from the original boulder when the other one had smashed into it from above.

  A wall of rock stood between me and Beat.

  “You all right?” she called. It was just like her to worry about me when I was closer to the finish line than her.

  “I’m good. Thanks. What’s the plan?”

  “I think going up might work better in this instance,” she said.

  I eyed the two boulders, which looked like conjoined twins. There was a lower point between them, a dip between their two heads. I was guessing that was what she was referring to.

  “It could work. But you can’t fall.”

  “Really? I was planning on falling, getting back up falling again…”

  I deserved that. It was an obvious warning. She stopped talking and I heard heavy exhalations and a few grunts. Then her face appeared in the space between the boulders, grinning. Her shield was strapped to her back, making her look like an oversized turtle. Her spear was gripped in one hand while she climbed with the other. “I didn’t fall, daddy,” she said. “Aren’t you proud of me?”

  I didn’t mind being mocked, not if it meant Beat was alright. Then again, we were only barely past the halfway point. “You did good,” I said.

  She beamed dramatically, sliding down the opposite side to land beside me, shield rattling. “Want me to go first this time?”

  “Sure.”

  She made her way to the opposite side and then skirted the edge of the final boulder, choosing to go left. I watched the ceiling for any sign of another massive chunk of rock, but the dark holes just stared back at me like giant dead eyes. “You good?” I asked, when I didn’t hear anything more from Beat.

  “Uh, yeah.”

  Why did she sound so uncertain?

  I shrugged and gave chase, being extra cautious considering what happened the last time. I took the same proven leftward route around the boulder as Beat. When I made it to the other side, I realized why Beat had sounded strange when she’d responded.

  Lace was gone.

  ~~~

  “The fuck?” Beat said, peering through the open door. “Why would she go ahead without us?”

  The answer: she wouldn’t. Lace could be arrogant to a fault, but she wasn’t stupid. “The last time we lost a companion in here it wasn’t by choice,” I reminded her. Dammit. I should’ve been more careful. Should’ve stayed closer to my allies. Dammit.

  That cold, creeping feeling seeped into my bloodstream like it had the last time, with Vrill. Back then, I had been naïve, inexperienced. N
ow I was supposed to be the Protector.

  “Come on,” I said, when Beat didn’t reply. “We can’t dwell on it. For all we know, she’s in trouble in the next room.”

  She wasn’t in trouble. Quite the opposite. The sinking feeling of failure vanished as soon as I stepped into the room lit by demontorches that burned only dark red, giving the room a shadowy, sultry look. The sounds of extreme pleasure arose from every corner, where soft pads had been piled up. It was in one such corner that I could just make out Lace, her head thrown back in ecstasy, her hands massaging her own breasts as she moaned.

  What…the actual…fuck?

  I peered through the dim lighting, trying to make out the other creatures in the room. They were female, that was for damn sure, but clearly not human. Their eyes were bright colors—pinks and yellows and oranges, matching their lips. They were goddess-like, with firm, strong bodies that could’ve been modeled into sculptures. They wore scant, see-through clothing in various stages of undress. Gods, how they moved. That’s when I noticed their wings. Unlike Airiel’s, the wings of these creatures were small, cute, beating fast to assist them in their movements as they groped and kissed each other.

  They were faeries.

  Unlike the Syrene, who I’d been attracted to even though I knew they were dangerous, these faeries were attractive in an entirely different way. Their expressions were light and whimsical even in the throes of passion. Everything I knew about faeries from fiction, however, made me want to run from the room screaming. Of course, I didn’t do that. I stepped forward instead.

  Which is when I realized Beat had done the same, which was very unlike her.

  “Beat?” I said.

  “I tried to go backward,” she said. “My legs had other ideas.”