"That's enough playtime for now, children," I said. "We have a hidden illusionist to find, remember? Lock and load, people. Lock and load!"
"Don't ask!" Trix advised Quina, who had just opened her mouth and raised an enquiring finger. "It's best not to become involved with Stephen’s explanations. They'll only confuse you even more. I've always found it's smarter not to say anything."
Chapter 24
We journeyed further on down the canyon and met our third illusion. At least, that’s what I sincerely hoped it was. It appeared in the form of a gigantic mottled snake, of enormous length and thickness, with its huge mouth displaying two massive fangs. It hissed like a steam kettle when it detected us and its coils writhed restlessly.
"Now that's what I call an illusion," Nix exclaimed. "It's almost as real as the last one."
"I think it’s a little more real than that," I corrected, watching Zen beginning to bristle and snarl. "Our Illusion Detector here seems to believe this one is flesh and blood."
"You can’t be serious!" Thorn gasped. "Look at it! No snake in history has ever been that size!"
"Apparently this one is," I told her grimly.
"What's the plan?" Nix asked, warily eyeing this Mother of all Snakes.
"Well, it’s blocking our path for one thing," I observed, "so we’ll either have to fight it or go around it somehow."
"Fight it?" Trix shrilled. "It's monstrous! It could swallow me in one bite!"
"Only if you let it," I told her. "All you have to do is to keep away from the bitey end."
"Very funny," Trix growled, arming herself with a small knife that had somehow magically appeared in her hand. "Do you have any other clever advice to add?"
"Just the one more," I proclaimed, staring at the elongated behemoth. "Snakes have no ears, so they can't hear sounds directly. They locate their prey by ground and air vibrations."
"So?" Nix asked.
"So we stay nice and still and throw some rocks in a general direction away from us, and hope our scaly friend here falls for our little deception. Luckily for us it’s blind. Look at the white scales over its eyes, so it won’t be able to locate us by sight."
"It's worth a try I guess," Nix grunted, looking around for loose stones. "I certainly don't want to take it on head to head."
"This whole thing is rather clever, really," I commented, also scouting for ammunition.
"How so?" Quina asked.
"We've had two illusions in our way already," I explained, "and now here’s a third obstacle. Supposing someone successfully navigated the first two, they'd probably be expecting this one to be an illusion as well, and would walk right up to it. Clever psychology, you see?"
"Now that you put it like that," Quina pondered, "I think you're right. Whoever is behind this is no fool. We'll have to be extra vigilant."
We gathered a decent mound of loose stones and began to throw them off to one side. The snake’s head immediately swivelled to where our projectiles were landing and its hissing increased in intensity. We kept up our bombardment until the huge reptile finally began to move away towards the noise.
"Now, take it nice and slow and don't stamp your feet," I cautioned, in a whisper. "We'll sneak around the wall of the canyon and hope that overgrown worm stays distracted."
We cautiously sidled along the rocky wall while the snake investigated our newly manufactured pile of rocks. Luck seemed to be with us, and we succeeded in gaining a clear pathway through the canyon. Unfortunately, we'd forgotten about Zen and his wolfish instincts. As we were passing behind the snake, its twitching tail became too much of a temptation for him. With a growl, he pounced on it and sank his fangs into the flesh. Immediately, the snake reared and Zen was flung off.
"Run!" I yelled, unnecessarily.
And run we did. Because of its size, the snake had difficulty turning around and so we had a major head start. Trix ensured that Zen regained his feet before she joined our flight and, together, we fled for our lives before the rampaging reptile.
When it was obvious that we were no longer being pursued, we slowed down and stood around in a panting group.
"Too close for comfort," Nix wheezed.
"That's for sure," I agreed, holding onto Thorn. "Having Zen with us seems to be a mixed blessing."
"He was simply being true to his wolf heritage," Trix objected, instantly springing to Zen’s defence. "He tried to protect us."
"If that's his idea of protection," Nix commented, "then I don't want to be around when he attacks anything."
"Leave him alone, you big meanie!" Trix protested, cuddling her pet. "Zen is the bravest protector there is. How many others would have taken on that snake single-handedly?"
"She’s right, you know," I consented. "Zen might be over-enthusiastic at times, but his heart is in the right place. And there's no denying his courage. All he cares about is our safety."
"Yes, he is remarkable," Quina murmured. "Just like everybody else in this group of yours."
"Again with the group matrix?" I queried, smiling. "Just what is it about us that you find so fascinating?"
"You intrigue me," Quina replied, matching my smile. "And there's this …… aura of destiny around you all. I can't quite pin it down. It's nebulous, but it's there. I don't know what it means just yet, but time will tell. In the meantime, we have to find out who's behind all this."
"Too right," Nix proclaimed. "I'm getting a little tired of all this fooling around. Let's finish it, once and for all."
"Amen to that," I assented.
Chapter 25
We continued our interrupted journey and finally stumbled across a dwelling. It wasn’t particularly pretty, bearing a decided look of long term dilapidation, but it was obviously lived in because smoke curled lazily upwards from a broken chimney.
"Is this it?" Trix asked in a hushed voice. "Are we there?"
"Possibly," Quina replied. "Who else would be living in such a place?"
"How do you want to handle it?" Nix enquired. "Do we rush in like the snake-biting Zen or are we going to be more discreet and sneak around first?"
"Let's go for discreet," Thorn offered. "We don't know exactly what we're dealing with here."
"Discretion is always the better part of valor," I contributed, "so I'm with Thorn."
"Now there’s a surprise," Nix mumbled sarcastically.
Thorn grinned at him. "Just because no sane female will come within sighting distance of you," she told him, "is no reason to take it out on the rest of us."
"I'm downgrading your tail to a three," he retaliated, "and that's being generous."
Our plan of being discreet became null and void a few seconds later when a wizened, stooped figure erupted from the ramshackle building and waved a stick at us.
"Go away!" this newcomer shrieked. "How did you get past my snake? What are you doing here? I'll kill you all!"
We were taken aback by the verbal attack and the unprecedented sight of this peculiar fairy. For one thing, he was a ‘she’ and appeared to be quite mad. Not that it made her any the less dangerous or even believable. After all, Quina had pretended to be ugly and look how she’d turned out. No, it was best to be careful.
"Don't come any closer!" Thorn warned, her rapier in her hand.
"You can't tell me what to do!" screamed this crazy person, angrily jumping up and down. "Do you think I take orders from the likes of you!" Then she stopped her tirade and peered intently at Quina.
"It's you!" she hissed.
"Is it?" Quina questioned, taking a step backwards.
"Yes, it is!" her interrogator replied, closing the gap between them. "After all this time! At last!"
"Look," Quina said pacifically, "I don't know you. Who are you and what do you want?"
"You mean you don't even recognise your own sister?" this extraordinary figure croaked.
"Mirrella?" Quina gasped in shock. "It can't be! It's impossible! You're dead!"
"Oh, I'm sure you'd like that," Mirre
lla purred. "You hated the competition, didn't you? You always wanted to be better than me, no matter what. Always trying to outdo me. I was always second best to you, wasn't I? No matter how much I tried, I could never beat you. You were better at sports. You always had better grades at school than I did. Better boyfriends. You became a doctor. Everyone looked up to you and I was left behind. The second sister. Never as good. ‘Look at Quina!’ they'd say. ‘Isn’t she pretty? Isn’t she clever? Why can’t you be more like her, Mirrella?’ That's what they told me all the time! Every day! And then I got sick! And did my oh, so clever and pretty sister, save me? Did she? No!" Mirrella suddenly screeched. "Do you take me for a fool? Did you think I didn't know what was going on? You didn't even try! You wanted me dead! You wanted me out of the way! I wasn’t about to give you the satisfaction of seeing me die, so I crawled away like a wounded animal and hid in the wilderness. But I survived! Barely. And from then on, all I wanted, all I ever dreamt about, was to crush you the same way that you had destroyed me."
"None of that is true!" Quina protested stridently, her face pale with shock. "I tried everything I knew to help you! I loved you, Mirrella. I was devastated when you disappeared. I looked everywhere! For months! I've carried an ache in my heart ever since. You're my sister! How can you say these horrible things?"
"You're not fooling me, sister!" Mirrella replied, spitting out the last word with loathing. "I know you hate me so I devised this plan to bring you here." She began cackling and dancing an obscene parody of a jig. "I knew they'd look for you to heal that fairy if I made the poison obscure enough. I couldn't find where you'd gone, you see. I needed someone else to discover your whereabouts."
"You poisoned my sister and gambled with her life just so you could find Quina?" Thorn gasped, horrified. "What sort of a monster are you? Traculimna almost died!"
Mirrella shrugged. "So?" she said nonchalantly. "It was worth it to find my darling, loving Quina." She leered at us all. "I guessed you'd be clever enough to get past my illusions but I had hoped my little pet would have taken care of you, but it looks as if I have to do it myself now."
Chapter 26
What to do? Quina’s sister was obviously deranged. All of her physical suffering and isolation had affected her mind, but could she still be saved and restored to normalcy? True, she had tried to kill Tracey, but I didn’t believe she was ultimately responsible for her actions. But where do you draw the line? How responsible do you have to be before you’re held responsible? Surely, Mirrella did have to shoulder some of the blame for what she’d done. She had let her paranoia take over her life, therefore the initial fault could be laid directly at her feet. Before I could speculate any further, Mirrella screamed, "Now, die! I'll be rid of you once and for all!"
She waved her staff at us and I felt a mental surge of such undiluted hatred and loathing that I nearly buckled at the knees. I heard Quina scream in pain and I almost joined her. It felt as if my brain was being shredded. Mirrella’s psychic attack tore at my very essence and I struggled to hold my identity of ‘Stephen’ together. I could actually feel my individuality fragmenting under the pressure of this unprecedented battering.
Where it all would have ended is anybody's guess, but Zen decided to lend a hand, or rather a paw, at this stage. Seeing that Trix, his beloved mistress, was in undeniable distress, and deducing Mirrella to be the culprit, he crept up on her and seized her by the leg. Mirrella yelped in surprise and immediately her mental attacks ceased. I staggered, desperately trying to regain my equilibrium and watched with blurring eyes as Mirrella and Zen fought for supremacy. Somehow, breaking free from Zen’s grip, Mirrella sprang to her feet cursing, but then suddenly clutched at her chest, groaned and collapsed.
Quina rushed to her sister’s side, felt for her pulse and frantically began resuscitation techniques. After about ten minutes with no result, I laid a gentle hand on Quina’s shoulder and softly said, "Give it up, sweetie. You can't do any more for her."
Quina turned a stricken face to me and shook her head. "No," she denied, "I have to save her! I couldn't before but maybe I can this time. Don't you see? I can't fail her a second time!"
"You didn't fail her the first time," I consoled. "You've been carrying that guilt around for far too long. Let it go, honey. It wasn't your fault and neither is this. Your poor sister was beyond all help and there's nothing anyone could have done."
"What do you know?" she snarled at me. "How can you possibly understand? I've lost her again. She’s my sister!"
"She tried to kill you," I reminded her.
"She wasn't to blame," Quina rationalised. "Maybe she’s right. Maybe it was all my fault. Perhaps I was jealous of her and didn't treat her right. What if ……..?"
"You can ‘what if’ yourself to death if you're not careful," I advised, squatting down beside her. "Please don't come to any decisions right now. Take the time to mourn but don't blame yourself for things you didn't do."
"Don't touch me!" she exclaimed, as I put a sympathetic hand on her arm. "Leave me alone!"
"I don't think so," I told her drawing her into an embrace. "You don't want to be by yourself right now. There’s comfort in having friends around you when you're grieving."
Mirrella initially resisted my hug, trying to push me away, but only half-heartedly. Finally, defeated, she fell against me and began to wail. I stroked the back of her head as she sobbed out her remorse and anguish. I felt pleased that her inner sternness had finally broken down and released her pent-up emotions, because I knew she'd feel all the better for it. I rocked her gently as she cried and wondered about the circumstances that had led us to this scenario. Mirrella’s vengeance had spun a wide-reaching web indeed. Who would have envisaged that one person’s mania would involve such a time-consuming plan? And for it all to end so tragically ……. But I couldn't see it concluding in any other way. I doubt if Mirrella could ever have been restored to sanity. Her overwhelming hatred had corrupted her very soul. Rather ironic, that. She used physical poison for revenge and had ended up only mentally poisoning herself.
Quina’s grief eventually subsided and she calmed herself. Pushing herself out of my arms, she wiped her eyes, looked down at her sister and then back to me.
"Thank you," she whispered, huskily. "Thank you for your support. You were right. Having friends around is a comfort."
"And we’ll always be around whenever you want us," I confirmed. "All you have to do is say the word and we’ll come running."
Chapter 27
We built a monument of rocks over Mirrella’s body and stood for a few minutes in respectful silence. Regardless of how we felt about her in real life, when it came down to it, Mirrella should be remembered as a fellow passenger on this rocky planet called Earth and deserved the dignity of our farewell.
"You can always visit her in the spiritual realms," I prompted Quina as we made ready to depart. "Once she’s free of her physical limitations and emotional imbalances, perhaps she'll be more accepting of everything you did for her."
"Maybe," Quina sighed sorrowfully. "It's worth a try, anyway. Those in the spiritual plane do tend to think a lot more rationally." She briefly touched my hand. "Thank you again for what you did back there for me," she murmured. "It meant a lot. I think I've been alone for far too long. I’ve forgotten what it's like to have friends."
"Isolation isn't good for any of us," I commented. "We need others around us. It's our nature. Why don't you come and live in the settlement? It’d do you good."
"I don't know," Quina said, hesitantly. "All those people! I'm not sure I could cope after all this time of being by myself."
"You could stay in our house for a little until you acclimatise," I offered. "We have a spare bedroom you could use in the meantime. Come on, Quina. What do you have to lose except your loneliness?"
While Quina wandered off to ponder my suggestion, Thorn urgently pulled me aside. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "You can't invite her into our house!"
"Why not?" I asked, surprised. "It's obvious she badly needs friends around her at this time. She has to readjust herself back into society and needs our aid to do that. Don't you want to help?"
"Of course I do," Thorn announced adamantly, "but I just don't like the idea of having her around you. I've told you before that I think she fancies you and I don't need the extra competition."
I stared at Thorn in amazement. "Competition?" I asked, disbelievingly. "Dear heart," I said, taking her hand, "you should know by now that as far as I'm concerned nobody could ever compete with you. I'm not a polygamist. I'm strictly a one female male and no one could possibly come between us."
"Is that so?" she murmured, smiling slightly. "And what about Traculimna, then? Where does she rate in all of this?"
"Yes, well," I blustered, flushing a little. "Our situation is somewhat unique. You know I love you both equally and couldn't give either of you up. Okay, I'll modify my statement a little. I’m a one-pair-of-sisters person and wouldn't dream of being anything else. Satisfied?"
"For the moment," she replied, putting her hand over mine and giving it a squeeze. "But I'm telling you to be on your guard with Quina. You're so hopeless when it comes to females. We can be very sneaky and underhanded when we want something, you know, and you're so easily swayed because you have a big heart. I can't bear to lose you, that's all."
"That's never going to happen, you silly thing," I reassured her. "It'll take some world-shattering event to change my feelings for you and I can't ever see that taking place."
"So you say," Thorn muttered.
I returned to Quina for her decision. She exhaled noisily and announced, "I think you're right, Stephen. It'll do me good to immerse myself back into society again. I have been away too long and I'm starting to recognise the strains of being alone. Look what it did to my poor sister! I don't want to end up like her." She glanced across at me and asked, "Are you sure about your offer? Being with you would certainly help. Does Arugohumna agree?"
Revenge (7) (The Underground Kingdom) Page 8
