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Shektee had known the moment the ancient looked at her at the spaceport that it would call on her. It surprised her that it had taken its time and given her almost two days of freedom. She’d started to think it had no need of her so she would be able to slip away from it. She should have known better. The forest she was walking through faded to a shadowy reflection of itself. She felt the pull as she was summoned across the astral plane to its lair. In an instant, she was before the creature. It was shaped like a human. It was even wearing clothing like the humans did and it had a thin staff in one hand.
Shektee dropped to the ground, groveling for pity she knew she would not receive. She hoped the show of respect would earn her some consideration. She’d never met an ancient before, she’d only heard of them. She waited for it to speak and tell her what it wanted of her.
“Stand and take this,” it said as a battle ax floated toward her. “You are to deliver it to the human male you saw at the spaceport. You are not to harm him or the female he is with.”
“Yes, master.” She took the battle ax and put it in her magical pouch. She tried not to think of how she was going to find the man or any of the other questions springing to her mind. It was not her place to ask questions, just to serve.
“For this service I will give you two things,” it stated as it reached for her head. “First, is the ability to change your form. You could already make minor changes; now you will be able to completely change to whatever form you desire, with some restrictions. Second, is the wisdom behind the gifts I am giving you. If you treat your servants with respect and reward them for their service they will be more willing to serve you and therefore try harder to please you as long as they do not see the rewards as signs of weakness. Now go, I have also given you the ability to find him.”
Shektee willed herself back to the Rift. She would have to pass through the Rift to get back to the human plane of existence. She, like most of her kind had found out early that she could easily leave the human plane with a simple thought but could not return except by being summoned or passing through the Rift. It annoyed her that she’d spent so long locked in the spaceship when she could have easily shifted to the astral plane and then returned through the Rift, if only she’d known the Rift would last this long. She thought about what the ancient had told her and about her new ability. She knew she didn’t understand fully what it had meant but she did know that it was right. She would willingly serve it in the future if it meant she might gain more power.
The trip to the Rift was short, for her travel through the astral was always fast. She passed through the Rift in the form of a giant bat. She’d learned of them from Arnold. He had been afraid of bats so she hoped other humans would also fear them. The problem was, she had no idea how to fly, so she promptly plummeted to the ground. She was not old enough or strong enough to have grown her own wings yet. The fall hurt but she was able to heal the damage quickly and found an easier form to find this human: The panther in Arnold’s memory was strong, fast, and agile so she dropped into that form and started running. She was really starting to like this new ability. All the items she was carrying became part of her like tattoos.
25
Mystique hadn’t slept all night. She’d tended the fire and watched Daemon. He had regained a lot of his color overnight but still hadn’t regained consciousness yet. The wounds she could see were mostly healed with just bruising left. She thought he should have woken up by now; she was afraid he was stuck in some nightmare. He’d been rolling around and mumbling most of the night. She’d thought about waking him, but didn’t want to get too close. Her mother had been attacked by a man she was trying to wake up once. He’d almost killed her before he’d realized what he was doing and stopped.
Daemon had calmed down and seemed to be sleeping peacefully now, so she hoped he would wake up soon. Mystique wasn’t scared of much but she didn’t like being out in the middle of the woods. She didn’t have any way of knowing if some predator was nearby. She would also have to go out looking for firewood again soon but at least it was close to daylight now.
Mystique froze at the sound of a twig breaking. Whatever had done it was behind her, which meant it wasn’t Daemon. She slowly turned around to look, trying not to startle whoever or whatever it was into attacking her. She froze again this time in true fear as she spotted the huge black panther standing only a few yards away her. She tried to get a grip on her fear but the panther was larger than she was and it kept licking its fangs.
Shektee was under orders not to hurt the woman, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t scare her a little. Her fear tasted so good. The man was sleeping near a fire and showed no signs of waking up, so she could drink in the woman’s fear for the few moments it lasted. The young woman was already overcoming the fear aura Shektee was projecting and would probably run or attack soon.
Mystique slowly inched her hands toward her knives; if she was going to die, at least she would take her killer with her. She almost had her hands on them when the true terror took form. The panther flowed into the shape of a beautiful woman with raven-black hair and eyes as dark as night with no pupils. Mystique could do nothing; her body wouldn’t move, her brain shut down, she couldn’t even scream. She’d seen what Rift monsters did to their victims and now she was about to experience it firsthand.
Shektee drank in the new wave of fear. It was so strong she almost lost control. “Calm down and leave your weapons where they are. I am not here to harm you. You can also stop wasting energy on that obfuscate spell.”
Mystique was shocked that the creature spoke. She fervently wished that Daemon would wake up. Now.
“I am here to give him this.” Shektee took a tiny trinket out of a small pouch.
Mystique was amazed when it grew to a full-sized battle ax. She forced herself to calm down enough to talk, and asked, “Who, what, are you, and why are you giving Daemon that?”
“You may call me Shektee. You know what I am and I was instructed to bring this to him. I was told not to harm you but I will defend myself, so please put those away, NOW!”
Mystique hadn’t realized she’d drawn her knives until Shektee pointed it out. She sheathed both knives, careful not to move too quickly and risk triggering Shektee into an attack. “I don’t understand. Who told you? Who do you work for?”
“It is not my place to say at this time. I am simply a messenger in this matter. Now take this,” Shektee handed Mystique the battle ax.
Mystique was surprised at how light it was. It was nearly four feet long with blades of black metal that sloped back to cover half of the handle and extended another foot past the tip of the haft. A large ball with four gems of some kind was attached at the handle end as a counterweight.
“Any more questions before I go?” Shektee was enjoying the conversation. It was allowing her to drink in more of the young woman’s emotions and gain a little information at the same time.
“What’s so special about Daemon? Why would something from the other side of the Rift want to give him anything?” Mystique was torn between wanting to learn more from the creature and wanting it to leave… but if it was willing to tell her anything about Daemon and the other creatures, she could handle being in its presence a little longer.
“I am limited on what I can say but I will tell you this. Your friend has the attention of a powerful entity and it has chosen to safeguard you for being with him.” Shektee was going to continue but stopped when she spotted Daemon getting up. She could feel the presence of the ancient within him so she knelt, bowing her head. She didn’t like that the girl still held the ax: One good swing and she would be dead.
Daemon wasn’t sure what was going on but the sound of voices had woken him. He’d hoped to find Angelica had escaped and was back, but the creature talking to Mystique wasn’t human. He could sense its desire to hurt Mystique but it was kneeling before her. Mystique was holding some kind of battle ax and looked very relieved to see he was awake.
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“Mystique, where did you get that ax and who’s that?”
“Shektee gave me this. She said it’s for you. Mind telling me what the hell is going on?” Mystique let most of the fear she’d been repressing go now that Daemon was awake to deal with the creature. Daemon froze when he heard Shektee’s name. Memories of the weird dream he’d had came flooding back.
“I thought that was a dream,” he whispered as he looked down at Shektee. She hadn’t moved. She seemed to be waiting for him.
Mystique handed him the ax without saying anything. She didn’t know what was going on but it sure seemed important.
Daemon took the ax and reflexively checked its balance and swing. Without knowing why, Daemon thought of the spike between the blades and it extended almost a foot past the blades then he looked at the ball and a spike extended from it, another thought and both spikes retracted back. He fell in love with it immediately; it felt right.
“Get up, you look stupid down there,” Daemon told Shektee as he stepped between her and Mystique.
She got up gracefully and stood before him, holding her head straight but not looking at him.
“The old man suggested that I not to kill you and since you didn’t hurt Mystique, I won’t. I don’t understand what’s going on and I don’t think I want to right now. He said something about you being useful in the future so I don’t think he’s done with you. I don’t trust you, so please leave.”
“As you wish, master.” Shektee bowed her head and backed away two steps before turning and walking into the woods. Once she passed the nearest tree, she transformed into the panther and leapt away. She ran for over a mile before slowing down to think. The ancient was not done with her but it didn’t demand her immediate return. She didn’t know if she should return to him anyway, or go about her business.
A foreign thought entered her mind, “A wise thing to contemplate. I will contact you when I have need of you.”
It startled her, but she decided having an ancient using telepathy on you was just another price for being noticed by one. She spent the next few minutes figuring out what to do next. Then she ran east to look for the human town. The farther away from the Rift she got the more energy she needed to exert to stay on this plane, but a few human souls would easily replace what she was expending. She’d lost track of Arnold when the ancient summoned her, but there were a lot more humans at the town.
26
Mystique watched Daemon, looking for signs that he’d changed. Daemon acted like he knew that creature and it had definitely known him.
Daemon was looking around the campsite, searching for something.
“What are you looking for? That guy in armor didn’t leave much behind.”
“I’m hungry. Is there anything to eat?”
“Nope. Here, take a drink. At least you’ll have something in your stomach.”
“How long was I out?” He took the canteen and drank.
“All night. Mind explaining the ax and the thing that delivered it?”
“I don’t know who she was or who sent me this.” He held up the ax.
“Fine. If you’re not going to tell me the truth, can we at least get moving? I really don’t like it here and who knows how long it will take them to fix the ship and leave us behind.”
“Angelica is that way. I’m going to run ahead. Do your best to keep up,” Daemon told her as he started running south. He wasn’t running at full speed but he was still moving very fast. Daemon could tell Angelica wasn’t hurt and thought she was probably sleeping since their connection was weak.
Mystique was going to have a hard time keeping up. Daemon hadn’t thought about the ship leaving, but the more he did the faster he ran. He was purposely trying not to think about what Jim might do to Angelica. He had to figure out how he was going to beat Jim next time they fought. The beast didn’t understand enough about modern weapons to be trusted to win.
Daemon ran for hours, hacking branches and brush out of his way with his new ax. The balance on it was perfect as far as he could tell and it was sharper than anything he’d ever used. It cut through branches four inches in diameter without any trouble. He was leaving an easy trail for Mystique to follow.
It was noon when he finally took a break in a small clearing. The plant life had gotten progressively healthier and he was starting to see signs of animal life, too. He was torn between the desire to keep running until he got to Angelica and the realization that he should wait to make sure Mystique was safe. He was hungry and he knew Mystique would be, too, so he set out to catch something to eat.
The hunt gave Daemon a chance to try out his new ax. It was not a good hunting weapon. He threw it a few times; it flew pretty straight and true but it was far too bulky to use effectively. He found a good stick he could sharpen into a spear and had much better luck spearing lunch. Within an hour he had killed a couple squirrels. He returned to the clearing and started a small cook fire. The squirrels on Endeavor were larger than the squirrels on Earth, but Faust had called them squirrels so he did, too.
Mystique came jogging into the clearing about an hour later and collapsed next to the fire. She was in good shape and had started running about a year ago to give her a reason to be away from her mother, but there was no way she could keep up with Daemon. She’d decided early to jog instead of run to conserve her strength so she could go farther but even that wasn’t going to be enough.
Daemon brought her one of the roasted squirrels to eat while he relaxed a few feet away. He wanted to get moving but seeing Mystique convinced him that he had to stay with her. She was too tired to defend herself if something attacked her.
“Do you know where we‘re going?” she asked after she ate.
“Yes. Angelica is that way,” he replied, pointing over his shoulder.
“Are you sure? I mean how do you know?”
“Angelica and I can always tell where the other is and if either of us is hurt. I don’t know why or how; it’s just something we can do.”
“I’ve heard some people in town can do strange things, too. That creature that gave you the ax said something about me using an obfuscate spell. Any idea what she was talking about?”
“No. I don’ know what obfuscate means. Sorry,” he said, a little ashamed.
“You know I can’t keep up with you, so what’s your plan?” she asked, changing the subject.
“I don’t know. I really want to catch up to Angie but if I leave you alone you probably won’t make it. We’re far enough away from the Rift so there shouldn’t be any monsters but that means there’ll be animals and some of the animals here can be just as bad. Angie isn’t hurt yet so I’ll stay with you for now. Can you go any farther before we make camp?”
“Yeah, I should be good for a few more hours if we don’t run.” Mystique finished the last of the squirrel she was eating and got up to leave. Daemon was up in an instant and waiting for her, ready to lead the way.
Escape from Endeavor Page 46