The Serpent and the Crown

by Sam Puma

  “I’ll bring the antidote with us.”

  Jankaro didn’t want to go through the struggle of putting the armor on Ixtlayo.

  “They might have a new poison for which you don’t have an antidote.” Titus walked toward Jankaro, glaring at him with his hands on his hips.

  “Just a short ride, we’ll stay close to Caladon.” Jankaro tried to keep his voice calm as he hid the anger that was welling up inside. They were both making an effort to make peace and get along, but Titus was the commander, and Jankaro hated having to take orders from him. “I just want to test out my hip.”

  “This one rides fast. Don’t get carried away and ride out past our scouting perimeter.” Titus turned and shouted at the other soldiers. “Break time is over! Weapons up!”

  Ixtlayo knelt down for Jankaro to mount. He spread his legs over the Ashtari’s back. His hip was tight but the pain was mostly gone. Ixtlayo stood and Jankaro was excited to be back on his back as he trotted for the front gate.

  “Rain’s comin’,” Aramis hollered as they trotted out the front gate.

  Jankaro looked up at the sun shining over a cloudless sky and shot a quizzical look back as Ixtlayo launched into a trot across the first bowl shaped meadow outside Caladon’s front gate. The caress of the breeze felt soothing and he smiled as a red robin darted past his face. Ixtlayo trotted past the grove where they buried the jaguars and paused on the hill where they charged the Cruxai in the previous battle.

  “We beat them. And they will remember. We’re going to build a wooden version of you, Ixtlayo. The carpenters are working on it right now. We’re going to put it right here and light it up when the Cruxai come. They will be distracted and come to try to take you out. We will shower them with arrows.”

  Ixtlayo bellowed a response and Jankaro thought he caught the meaning as he thought of building another. “Better build two. Yeah, good idea. We should build as many as we can.”

  Ixtlayo set off to the west, running over the hills and through the trees, snapping at the occasional winged or furry creature that got too close to him. They passed a few scouts who warned them about their lack of weapons and armor, but they were still comfortably nestled in Galdean territory, and Jankaro had no intentions of riding him out much further. But it was fun to ride Ixltayo and see the birds.

  Ixtlayo continued west and Jankaro worried that he could be out for Cruxai blood. He had that aggressive feeling to him, like he was on the hunt. But his belly was quite full and he rarely hunted while Jankaro was with him. When they were together they hunted Cruxai. “Ixtlayo it feels like my hip is tightening up again; we’d better head back soon.” Ixtlayo grunted in agreement but started heading west again.

  Up and over the next hillside they saw a rider approaching. Janesa’s feminine form revealed her identity and she rode up close, waving them down. Jankaro noticed a pleasing change to her appearance. Her long, wavy black hair was out of its tight ponytail and blowing freely in the wind, and the top two buttons of her shirt were undone to reveal the soft curves of the top of her breasts.

  “Look at you! Riding again.” She smiled as she pulled her horse up and halted.

  “It’s still tight but it feels so good to be back out here. The air was getting stale in there.” Ixtlayo grunted his agreement.

  “Franco must be doing a good job.”

  “Yes, but he’s hard to look at.”

  “Well, I needed a break from pulling out stitches and stretching everyone’s legs. Out here in nature is where I love to be.”

  Jankaro remembered the concerns that Franco raised about Janesa. “Are you doing okay? Are you going to continue working with your plant teacher?”

  “What?!” Janesa’s features betrayed her irritation. “You and fifty other men want to know when I’ll be available again.” She shook her head.

  “Wait, I was just…”

  “You’ll be second in line, Titus already claimed he would have me first. As if I would!”

  “I just wanted to know if you were doing okay…”

  “I need to go. You are distracting me. What are you doing out here without your armor? You should get back to Caladon and get his armor on. We can’t afford to lose him.”

  Ixtlayo turned his nose up to the wind as the clouds formed on the western horizon. He started forward to the west.

  “Wait!” Jankaro pulled back on him but he kept trotting away, following his nose.

  “Hey! You better get back!” Janesa’s horse galloped to keep up. She waved her arms trying to get Ixtlayo to turn back. He turned his head, pulled his lips back and growled. Janesa’s horse turned sharply away. She lost her balance and fell to the ground.

  “Ixtlayo!” Jankaro yelled angrily and pulled on his fur. Ixtlayo growled and kept trotting forward. Jankaro looked back and watched as Janesa slowly got up and brushed the chunks of earth and grass from her clothing. He caught her glaring at him as they crested the next hill, disappearing from her sight.

  “What the hell are you doing? Turn around right now! You want to get shot with a poison arrow and die? You just hurt the only person who might save you if that happens! Come on, we need to go back!”

  Another mile passed beneath Ixtlayo’s feet while Jankaro screamed at him and pulled on his fur.

  The sky was full of clouds and a light rain fell. Ixtlayo slowed to a walk as he came to the base of a woody hill. “Ixtlayo…” Jankaro leaned over his shoulder and as he did, Ixtlayo turned his neck and snapped his jaws together right in front of Jankaro’s face. Jankaro was stunned silent and noticed Ixtlayo was creeping up the hill deliberately, staying low to avoid breaking any branches off the trees. Jankaro inhaled and caught a faint scent of Cruxai. His stomach dropped. He had no weapons. Only a dagger on his hip. And Ixtlayo. He was riding on the fiercest weapon anyone had ever seen. But he was gripped with fear. This wasn’t the plan. In spite of his clashes with Titus, he was fully resolved that he wanted to face the Cruxai from behind the walls of Caladon with the Galdeans by his side. And the armor! They needed their armor!

  A stick snapped beneath Ixtlayo’s foot and Jankaro snapped out of his thoughts and back to the present. He opened his eyes and ears wide and calmed his breath as Ixtlayo stayed low and neared the top of the hill.

  They looked down through the trees on a valley filled with Cruxai. The horde stretched out below them, filling the entire valley and the surrounding hills. Most of them were lying down and resting. In the middle of their massive camp was a large, black rock formation. It was about three stories high and shaped like an uneven, lumpy pyramid. It looked like it could be a structure but there did not appear to be any doors or windows. The Cruxai had obviously brought it with them. Jankaro would have remembered such a distinct rock formation. It was surrounded by a circle of about 90 Jurugas, who were surrounded by about 3000 of the larger, hairy Cruxai. The rest of the horde spread out across the landscape surrounding the rock.

  Jankaro remembered Anhael’s prediction about Agustin leading the next attack. Could that be his dwelling place? Was he hiding in there? And what kind of power was hiding in there with him? Jankaro pondered and watched silently as the Cruxai roused themselves and prepared to march. They could march through the afternoon and into the night and reach Caladon in the middle of the night. With Ixtlayo, he could get back and warn the others.

  “Ixtlayo,” he whispered, and Ixtlayo’s ears shifted slightly.

  An arrow thudded into a tree next to them.

  “Let’s get out of here!” Jankaro hissed and urged Ixtlayo to run back. Ixtlayo circled rapidly around a few trees, staying low and quick. Another arrow hit a tree in front of him, but before the attacker could fire again, his torso crunched between Ixtlayo’s jaws.

  “Up there!” Jankaro pointed back up to the top of the hill at six more mounted Cruxai. “Ixtlayo, let’s go!”

  His stomach sank with the fear that the A
shtari might not be able to resist the confrontation, but he sighed with relief when Ixtlayo bolted down the hill, away from them.

  The archers pursued and fired at them for a while, but seemed content to run them off. In less than an hour they had outrun the clouds and were back under clear skies. A Galdean scout approached.

  “The horde is coming!” Jankaro cried out to him.

  “Already?! Are you sure?”

  “I know a horde when I see one! They are waking up and preparing to march.”

  “I’ll run ahead and alert Titus.”

  “Do you see who I ride? I will be there long before you.”

  “Hmm… you’re right.” The scout looked Ixtlayo over.

  “Look,” he pointed at Ixtlayo’s hind leg. “He’s been hit.”

  “Oh no…” Jankaro’s face went pale.

  He didn’t have any medicine with him. He leaned over to dismount and his hip froze. He lost control and toppled to the ground. The scout dismounted and helped him to his feet while the horse trotted back several paces to keep its distance from Ixtlayo. Jankaro and the scout examined the wound.

  “Smells like poison to me,” said the scout.

  “It’s not sukumi.” Jankaro felt a sense of dread come over him. He should have listened to Titus and put on the armor.

  “I’ll get Janesa.” The scout jogged over to his horse and fired an arrow into the air. A plume of brown dust streamed out from behind it. “She’s got a nose on her. She’ll smell that and come running.”

  “I’m not so sure she will want to help after what happened a little while ago. She tried to stop us and we kept going. Ixtlayo growled, her horse got spooked and she fell to the ground.” Jankaro felt his hip seizing up on him.

  “I need to sit down,” he said as he lost his balance and sat down awkwardly. He lay back and tried not to move his hip. His feeling of dread intensified as Ixtlayo lay down and sighed. The poison was hitting him already.

  The scout walked back over to Jankaro. “I’ve got some breath of life we could give him… oh, wait. Here she comes.”

  Jankaro turned to see Janesa galloping toward them, with her hair pulled back and her shirt buttoned all the way up once again. He tried to stand to greet her but his hip was too tight and his leg was numb. He felt ashamed for not listening to her as her horse pulled up next to the other scout’s horse. She dismounted, walked over and stood next to Jankaro as the scout briefed her on what he had seen. She put her hands on her hips and looked at Ixtlayo.

  “What happened?” She asked without looking down at Jankaro.

  “The horde is coming. We were on our way back to warn Titus but this scout noticed he had been hit. It looks like poison.” He looked up at her with a worried look but she did not look at him.

  “Garrett, show me,” she asked the scout and he led her over to Ixtlayo’s hind leg and pointed.

  “Get my left front medicine bag and a gourd of breath of life.” She spoke the command rapidly and the scout ran over to the horses. “Jankaro, get over by his mouth so you can help me pour it in.”

  “Can you help him?” Jankaro’s leg was numb and he had to crawl over to Ixtlayo’s head.

  “It’s a common frog venom. They’ve shot me with it before. I’ll use the same cure that Anhael gave me, and for this big guy here I’ll multiply the dose by 10. That will use the whole bag.” Ixtlayo grunted as she pulled the arrow out. “No use sucking the venom out. The rosomax should do the job.” The scout returned with the bags and they all converged by Ixtlayo’s head. Janesa pulled out a pouch and dumped a bitter smelling powder into the gourd with the breath of life. She held up the gourd and shook it while Ixtlayo closed his eyes and drooled. She handed the tube to Jankaro and looked into his eyes with just a hint of playfulness returning to her glance. “Do the honors?”

  He put the tube into Ixtlayo’s mouth and angled it down his throat.

  “Swallow this good medicine,” Jankaro said softly.

  Janesa handed the gourd to Garrett. “Pour it all. I’ll be right back.” She ran over to her horse and mounted.

  Jankaro leaned on Ixtlayo to stay upright as he watched her pull her bow from the horse’s back and ready her arrows.

  “Oh, no!” Jankaro said as he saw the six riders cresting the hill with their bows in hand. “Go help her!”

  “Got to finish this,” said Garrett. “Don’t worry about her. It’s only six.” Before he finished speaking, Janesa’s bow thrummed six times in rapid succession, and six Cruxai toppled to the ground dead. Their lizard mounts scrambled away, back over the hill.

  “I need to learn to shoot like that,” said Jankaro.

  “It’s all in the wrist,” said Garrett. “I need to learn to ride an Ashtari. Hey we all got gifts.”

  Jankaro stroked the blue streak on Ixtlayo’s head while he watched Janesa pull her arrows out of the fallen Cruxai and wipe them on the grass. She examined their arrows.

  “They’ve all got this stuff. They were waiting for him. Garrett, you go on ahead and report to Titus. I will stay with them.”

  Garrett rode away as Janesa walked over to Jankaro’s side and joined him in caressing Ixtlayo’s blue streak.

  “He is so beautiful. And much nicer when he is lying down.” She looked over at Jankaro, pushed him sideways and smiled with a wink. “That was quite a tumble you gave me today, fish brains. I haven’t taken a good one like that in a long time. It was humbling and exhilarating at the same time.”

  Jankaro’s hip felt better just seeing her smile, listening to her voice, and standing by her side. “Should we give him some juzi stick to get him going?”

  “There is some in that rosomax blend we gave him. Just a bit, but it will perk him up.”

  Ixtlayo rolled from his side onto his stomach. Jankaro was leaning on him and nearly fell forward, but grabbed Janesa’s arm to keep his balance. She lurched forward and caught herself.

  “I think he is going to be fine. You okay to ride? Want to ride with me? My horse is not as wide as an Ashtari; you won’t have to stretch your hip out so much.”

  Jankaro loved the idea but the darkening skies above reminded him of what needed to be done. Ixtlayo was getting to his feet and stretching, shaking off the effects of the poison as the antidote coursed through his veins. “If I ride him, we’ll get word back before Garrett.” Ixtlayo reached out his front paws and stretched. While his head and shoulders were low, Jankaro took the opportunity to mount. His hip cried out but he tried to hold in the pain as he looked back down at Janesa.

  “Go,” she waved with a handful of arrows. “I’ll watch your back.”

  When Ixtlayo wanted to get across the country, he didn’t hold back. The juzi stick kicked in and he bolted like he was hungry and chasing a fat deer. Jankaro wrapped the long blue hairs of his stripe around his wrists and let his body fly through the air behind him. His blue clothing helped him to blend in with the stripe. The whiff he had caught of the medicine was hitting him and he wanted to jump for joy. With his legs dangling behind, his hip was loose and he didn’t have to feel pain. All he had to do was hold on. “They’re out to get us. We will kill them all!” He shouted at Ixtlayo as he leaped over a chasm. Off in the distance to the north he saw Garrett crossing a bridge. The chasm was too wide for a horse to cross; they had caught up to him already. Ixtlayo charged onward, back to Caladon.

  “Thanks to you we have a few more hours to prepare.” Titus sipped his wine and took a long drag of an herbal cigarette as he spoke with Orion and Jankaro in the war council chamber. He was furious at Jankaro for disobeying his command when he first reported to him, but Orion was able to calm him down and get him focused. Ixtlayo was also there to make sure he didn’t do anything rash. When Titus composed himself, he ordered his officers to prepare the troops for battle. He summoned Maximus and Franco to lead a team to get Ixtlayo into his armor.

&nbs
p; “Jankaro, you will take command of the cavalry and the rest of Rafael’s unit. You will be in charge of killing all the Cruxai that we let through. Orion and I will lead our units on the wall to start the battle.”

  “What about the black rock?” Jankaro asked. “It seemed to be significant, like it meant something to them. All the Jurugas surrounded it. Maybe Anhael was right. Agustin could be in there.”

  “I won’t listen to that madman’s crazed theories!” Titus slammed his fist on the table and his cup shook, spilling his wine. “He wrapped those worms around…”

  “Wait a minute, Titus,” Orion interjected. “This has nothing to do with Anhael. We must consider all possibilities. They may have a weapon in there that could kill us all, and we need to prepare for it.”

  “Okay,” said Titus. He calmed himself by taking another sip of wine and another long drag from his herbal cigarette. He looked at the wall across from him with a distant gaze. “Rafael would know what to do,” he said wistfully.

  “Titus!” Orion took the commander by the arm and stared into his eyes. “That person is you now. You know what to do.”

  Titus looked into Orion’s eyes, mirrored his intensity, and absorbed the confidence that Orion was pouring into him. “Yes. I am Titus of Caladon, son of Oranos! I will lead us to victory.” His intense gaze turned to Jankaro. “Tell us again about the black rock. Give us every detail.”

  “At first I thought the Jurugas were chained to it. But I squinted and saw that they were not. I couldn’t see any other Jurugas out amongst the horde. The hairy ones were all around them, and the rest of the horde, the common Cruxai, surrounded them. It was hard to see under the bodies but I think they had several more wooden ramps and the Cruxai were sleeping on top of them.

  “It was difficult to see the details from far away. I thought it might be a structure and looked for an opening, but couldn’t see one. It had a loose pyramid shape, but it was rounded and lumpy, nothing like the geometry of this one.” He indicated the walls of the pyramid in which they sat. “It must have been thirty feet high and fifty feet wide. It seemed to have an aura of life around it but it was day, so I couldn’t tell. But how did they get it there? It could be a giant new breed of Cruxai with feet underneath.”