Isle of the Ape

by Jason Halstead

  * * * *

  "Witch!"

  Two days had passed and Rosalyn felt she'd grown closer to understanding the statue, or at least how to commune with the dragon's spirit that was trapped within. She looked up and saw Grack approaching her with Ketten a half step behind him. Grack walked using a thick log as a cane. He'd found clean pants as well, she noted.

  "I see you survived," Rosalyn greeted him.

  Grack nodded. "I lived. Little more."

  "I told you I couldn't heal you. I only stopped you from dying," she reminded him. "Something no one else could have—or would have—done."

  Grack nodded. "I have sons. My line will live on."

  Rosalyn smirked. Human or ogre, it seemed all men worried about the same foolish things. "You owe me your life, ogre. How will you pay your debt?"

  His eyes narrowed and he rose to his full height just shy of ten feet tall. "What you need?"

  Rosalyn took in his mighty legs, thick arms, and broad chest. "I need a man who can protect me. You are not like your kin, you speak my tongue, and you think with a clear head."

  Grack nodded towards the statue of Sarya. "I commanded many ogres for her. I learned the tongue of men from the humans."

  "You will be my lieutenant, Grack. The man I rely upon for protecting me and for special projects. Serve me well and you will be there to see Garrick die. His life will be one of many."

  "And after?" Grack asked.

  Rosalyn smiled as she looked around the caldera. "This is hardly a fitting palace for a queen of the north," she said. "I will rule these mountains and the lands around them. A queen needs barons and dukes."

  Grack nodded and smiled a toothy grin.

  "Go now, Grack, and gather your kin. Teach them to fight and tell them that we will have what the humans have. Teach yourself to fight, too, not like a brute but like a thinking lord of ogres that understands when to cut and when to parry."

  The ogre chewed her order over and nodded. He turned and limped away, using his cane as a support. Ketten stayed behind and watched him go. He turned back to Rosalyn and said, "You have bold plans, my lady."

  "I have plans beyond your wildest imaginings," she confirmed.

  "And what will my role in this kingdom be?" he asked.

  Rosalyn smiled, but not because she was pleased with his question or his servitude. She smiled because he believed her. "What do you want, Ketten?"

  The guide glanced around before looking at her and saying, "I got no want for great things. I'm a simple man. A cabin in the mountains free from threats is all I ever wanted."

  Rosalyn's smile faded. She sighed. "When I'm done, you shall be rewarded. I am demanding, but fair."

  Ketten's eye twitched at her self-evaluation but he kept his mouth closed.

  "Now leave me to this. I'm close to a breakthrough."

  "Yes, my lady," Ketten said. He hesitated and said, "Um, about this place. We've bedrolls and all, but there's little for comfort here."

  Rosalyn waved her hand at him. "Do as you must," she said. "I've more important affairs to trouble myself with."

  She saw Ketten bow out of the corner of her eye and then slip away. She was already searching for where she'd left off in the book she was reading. Communing with the spirits was one thing, but trying to talk with the still present soul of a statue was something entirely different.