by Doug Backus
Deke thought about it for a moment. It would tire him out, but at the same time he wanted out of the swamp. He could rest when the swamp was behind them, and flying out would save them valuable time. It was not the first time he had thought about it, but Mary had said it was too risky as any movement in the sky over the swamp would attract Phits and that was the last thing they needed. Maybe if it was a short distance though, it might be worth the risk.
Mary stopped and looked toward Deke. “We have gone over this before Deke. Did you not hear Kiran when she said you had to use your powers sparingly? It could kill you if you exert yourself too much. You do remember what happened in the Realm of Solace, don’t you?”
“I have grown stronger since then. Don’t you want to get out of here?”
“Of course I do but not at the expense of your safety or ours. The Phits do regular patrols of this swamp, and if they see any one of us it will be the end of our journey. Besides, we are almost out of here. Why risk it now?”
“Let’s just keep moving Deke. Mary is right. It is not worth it. I am sorry I suggested it.”
A small knoll appeared before them in the distance. Mary stopped and looked back at Deo and Deke. “That hill marks the beginning of the end of this swamp. In another hour or so it will be behind us.”
They were both thrilled to hear it. The smell had become so rancid Deke did not think he would ever be able to wash the stench from his skin. They began their climb and in a short amount of time they had reached the crest of the knoll. There, they found the source of the smell that had plagued them for the last several hours. Thousands of bones had been piled into a large mound; bits of flesh still clung to many of them. This was the source of the smell. Flesh decomposing in the hot sun.
Mary urged them on. “Quickly, we are almost there.”
“Mary, this looks a lot like the place Torrell described,” Deke said cautiously looking around.
“Nonsense, I know exactly where we are. Besides, there is no such creature,” Mary said while hiding her smirk.
They had only walked a few more steps when Torrell jumped out from behind the pile of bones. She was still a ways off from them but there was no mistaking who it was.
“Be careful, it’s Torrell,” Deke whispered running for the cover of a nearby bush. Mary and Deo followed closely behind him.
“What is she doing?” Deo asked.
“I don’t know, but I don’t think she saw us,” Deke said glancing quickly over at Mary. She looked enraged.
“What is it Mary?” Deke asked.
“Nothing, I just knew she would try to ruin things.”
“Ruin what?” Deo asked.
As the words left his mouth a loud screeching noise caught their attention. All three glanced over to see Torrell surrounded by a small twister. She screamed aloud at a lone evil looking figure that stood less than ten feet away from her.
“That is Solharn,” Deo said.
“Solharn! What would he possibly want with Torrell?” Deke asked.
“It is a good question Deke, and one that I think we will soon have the answer to,” Deo said, repositioning himself.
Out of nowhere two more figures appeared. Deke could clearly see one was Mary, and the other must have been her paladin, Delca.
Deke turned to Mary to find she was no longer beside him. “Is she crazy? What is she doing down there?” Deke said as he stood to go after her.
Deo pulled him back down. “It is not Mary, Deke. It is Torrell’s memory of Mary and her paladin, Delca. The story she told of the Tetagorous, it was true. Torrell has been caught and is living her worst nightmare. It is the only thing that makes sense,” Deo explained.
“But how would Torrell even know Mary’s paladin?”
“I don’t know, but look,” Deo said pointing toward Torrell.
Torrell’s screams grew louder as the Tetagorous, who quite convincingly looked as if it was Solharn, projected the illusion of him grabbing Delca by the throat. Delca screamed helplessly. Mary, who appeared to be lying on the ground writhing in pain, was begging him to stop. Her screams fell on deaf ears as Solharn extended two of his fingers around either side of Delca’s cheeks, and forced her mouth open. Deke felt sick as he watched Solharn’s lower jaw drop, and begin to fill Delca’s mouth with a thick oozing black fluid. She gurgled helplessly trying to spit the liquid out, but eventually she succumbed, swallowing it. Afterward, he laughed and threw her to the ground, watching as her body convulsed. Only after her body lay stiff on the ground did he turn and gaze at Mary with a sickening grin.
Deke could hear Torrell’s screams become louder and louder.
“I own half of your soul now earth child. Did you ever really think you could defeat me?” Solharn drooled. “Do not worry. Soon you will not remember who you once were anyway. Soon you will be Pintante,” he laughed.
Solharn and Delca slowly evaporated, leaving only the apparition of Mary lying on the ground weeping. Deke and Deo watched in shock as she slowly changed into Torrell.
Torrell’s screams became deafening. She was now sitting on the ground with her hands to her ears while the whole scenario started again.
“Deo, I cannot believe what...Torrell…Torrell is Mary.”
“And Mary, or whoever she is, has led us into a trap,” Deo said finishing Deke’s thought.
Deke shook his head. “She left the locket as a clue. I should have known when Mary…or whoever she is did not recognize it. Torrell, or I mean Mary, was trying to help us all along. She has sacrificed herself for us so that we could see the truth through her nightmare. We must save her Deo.”
“But how do we fight a myth? We don’t even know what the creature really looks like,” Deo responded.
Mary’s screams were continuing without a break. It would not be much longer before her heart succumbed to her fears.
“If only I could change you into the creature itself, then you could trap it in its own snare,” Deke said.
“You cannot change me into something that you have no knowledge of but perhaps we can confuse the creature. Quickly, change me into Torrell.”
“But even if that works, you will just take her place.”
“Yes, but you can change me again. Deke, it is her only hope.”
There was no time to debate. Deke began to concentrate on Torrell. In seconds Deo’s transformation was complete. Deo ran down the bank toward the Tetagorous who still appeared as Solharn. He stopped just behind it waiting for Deke to make his way around the creature’s rotting house.
Once Deke rounded the first bend leading to the house, Deo began to scream as loud as he could. The Tetagorous spun around looking at Deo in confusion. Deo began to feel wind at his feet. Before he knew it, he could not move. He was trapped inside a pocket of air. The plan had worked. It had confused the creature enough that he dropped his hold on Mary, perhaps thinking that she had somehow escaped.
When Mary fell to the ground, Deke ran to her aid, pulling her in behind the mass of bones and up over a large bank. Leaving her there, he ran back to help Deo. A strange sensation came over him when he saw the Tetagorous. It was still disguised as Solharn, but a new figure had appeared. It was him. Five miniature worlds revolved around in front of them. Deke was sure they represented the Balance of Five. One by one each world began to turn black, until all five were in darkness. Solharn and him looked at the worlds and laughed. Was Deo’s worst fear that he would help Solharn in his bid to destroy the Balance of Five? It made no sense. Deke was confused while watching the scene play out. Deo’s screams finally brought him back.
He quickly changed his mind set and watched as Deo disappeared from the air trap the Tetagorous had captured him in. The air currents did not dissipate though. Obviously confused, the creature moved closer to get a better look. It would never see the beetle swirling madly around in the wind.
Finally, after a prolonged look, the Tetagorous growled and turned. Deke watched the air swirling around Deo slowly stop spinning, eventual
ly disappearing completely.
Deke would be the first person to see this mystical creature in its true form. He shuddered at the sight of it. He wanted to scream. He wanted to turn and run as fast as his legs would carry him. He held his breath fearing that the creature might hear him. His muscles went tense, perhaps as a defensive mechanism brought on by pure fright. The Tetagorous was a gruesome creature. It walked on four legs that were covered in a yellowish fur. Its massive head appeared far too heavy for its body to sustain its weight. Its ears were simply large empty holes in the side of its head. Several eyes, too many to count, popped out everywhere, allowing it see in virtually any direction. Their bright blue color stood out against its brown leathery skin. Its mouth appeared almost like an amphibian’s, designed to swallow its victim’s whole, and then later regurgitate their bones. Its body however, was by far, the most revolting. Large and bulky, it had transparent skin that allowed Deke to see its intestines and internal organs. He was sure he could see the form of what was some unfortunate creature that had succumbed to the fears brought on by this monster.
Deke stayed as low to the ground as he could. He wished he could dig a hole and hide as he watched the Tetagorous amble back toward its makeshift home. He watched it stop and look around as if unsatisfied with what it had accomplished so far today. Then it slowly transformed into a magnificent bird. A bird, he had heard described before by Torrell, a Cawlaway. As it flew away, Deke’s body finally began to relax. As if remembering that he had to breathe, he gasped and rolled over trying to fill his lungs with the air, of which they had been deprived.
Deke waited several minutes before concentrating on Deo. There was no telling where he could have ended up. The wind could have blown him anywhere. When he finally appeared as himself a few feet from where the Tetagorous had imprisoned him, Deke could not help but quietly laugh to himself. It took Deo several attempts to stand before his body reacquainted itself to being grounded.
Deke walked over to help him.
Their plan had worked, but they still needed to be wary of Mary’s imposter and the Tetagorous, should it return. Deke quickly described it to Deo, and both agreed that they had to make it out of the swamps in a hurry. They quickly ran toward the small knoll where Deke had left Mary. She was not hard to find and neither was the imposter. She had her arm tightly wrapped around Mary’s neck, allowing her just enough air to breathe.
“Who are you?” Deke demanded.
“I am who you fight against, Deke Brolin.”
It was no longer the sweet voice of Mary, but rather a low, raspy and sinister voice that sounded slightly familiar to Deke. The imposter’s head cocked to one side, its twisted smile and bulging eyes sent a shiver down Deke’s spine as it stared at him waiting for a response.
“You are Solharn? Not quite how I pictured you.”
“I am a form of Solharn. I come in many forms, and right now I choose to use this body. She is not really worthy of me. She is weak and easy to control. Then again, she played her part,” he snickered.
Deke glared at the form of what he once believed to be his best friend.
“You dare to talk of weakness? Only a coward would choose to take advantage of those who are less powerful than they. You, Solharn, are a coward and that is the weakest form of life. You believe yourself to be the almighty, but you are nothing compared to Queen Elissa. She rules with her heart, her people follow her because they love her. You rule with nothing but scare tactics and promises that you cannot or will not deliver upon. Your people follow you because they are timid cowards themselves. You are a picture of everything that is wrong, and nothing that is right. Now, let Mary go!”
“Or what?” Solharn said laughing through his clenched teeth. “You will give me another speech on moral principles?” Solharn laughed again before continuing. “Why continue on this petulant quest? You have two choices as I see it. The world you fight for is weak and you, Deke Brolin, are weak, but given the chance to learn the power you hold, you could become strong. I can help you realize your true powers. I alone can make you unstoppable and I will, if you join me. Or you can take the second choice. Just hand me the amulet, take your friends, and live the less than perfect life you have led up to this point.”
“I don’t know why I was chosen for this quest. I do know that I have done everything I can to complete it successfully. I may not have a perfect life but I do have integrity and loyalty which are qualities of strength not of weakness. I will never join with you; nor will I walk away,” Deke responded.
“You talk of doing everything you can, of integrity and loyalty. It is those two traits that have made you weak. Those traits have landed you here. You have blind loyalty and blind faith. That is why you will fail. Think about it boy, you could not even detect that I was not your long lost friend, Mary.”
Deke stood in silence thinking about what Solharn had just said. He was right. He never suspected Mary was anyone aside from herself, but then again, why would he?
Solharn continued. “Oh come now boy. Don’t stand there thinking there were no signs, no way that you could have known. You ignored the signs. You chose to ignore them.”
“I didn’t choose to ignore anything!” Deke yelled back at Solharn in disgust.
“Really? Do you expect your friends, do you expect anyone to believe that you did not suspect Mary was not really who she said? After all, she was your best friend. You, more than anyone should know her.”
“I would never….”
“Never have led your friends down the wrong path?” Solharn laughed. “If you believe that, you are not the person you think yourself to be. Let us look at what you chose to ignore, shall we? You could not remember, or chose not to remember that it was Mary that caused your stress, that caused you to fall into a deep coma that would have eventually cost you your life. What about when you stopped breathing? Did you not find it strange when you learned it was Solko that alerted Kiran, and not her? Nobody could have predicted that Kiran would give her life for you, but even when she did, you chose not to notice that Mary instantly ran to her aid, and left you alone to suffer. Did it even cross your mind that Mary was doing everything she could to save Kiran so you would die? So you would never get that last breath. Then, once again, you chose to ignore when she purposefully spoke the wrong passage in an attempt to give me more time to enter the Sacred Realm. Perhaps you will stand there, and tell us that you had no idea that Mary was leading you straight into danger, despite warnings from Torrell which you chose not to consider. She even left you Mary’s chain as a sign. The chain you gave her. When a Kilto elder appeared before you, warning that someone would betray you, you chose not to heed that warning. If all of this is not enough to convince you then how about you choosing to allow Mary to talk you out of simply flying from the swamps to safety? You may not realize you are working with me Deke Brolin, but you have done nothing but help me. Why change the path you have already chosen? Join me.”
“Do not listen to his treacherous lies, Deke. He tries to blame you for something you could not have known,” Deo said.
Deke looked dejected. “But should have known.”
Deke knew what Solharn was doing and it was working. His words got to him. He was responsible for not noticing Mary was an imposter and that did make him weak. Solharn was trying to break him, weaken his mind, to make him more vulnerable and thereby more accessible to him. But it would not work. He had listened to the Kilto elder who had told him to believe in himself, to define himself. He would not allow Solharn to define who he was.
“Perhaps I should have been more suspicious of Mary, Solharn, but even if that is true, they were mistakes and nothing more. You are wrong if you think it was anything else. I think that answers your question, doesn’t it?”
A sarcastic grin appeared on Solharn. “Let me put it this way then. Hand the amulet to me or I will snap the neck of your friend whom you so valiantly saved from the Tetagorous.”
Solharn knew this was Deke’s weakne
ss. He would never let any harm come to Mary. Deke reached for the amulet.
“Deke, don’t give the amulet to this...this thing. It will not save Mary’s life,” Deo begged.
“And if it doesn’t, at least I won’t have to live with the burden that I could have done something to save her,” Deke retorted.
But Deke was not ready to hand the amulet over yet. While talking to Solharn, he had recalled the Kilto elder telling him that he possessed more power than he knew. He remembered the creature he had defeated earlier in the swamps, and what Kiran had done to save his life. It all revolved around the power of the amulet. Every time the amulet had helped him in his cause it had done so at his bidding, when he held it. He grasped the amulet and held out his other hand in one motion, pointing it directly at Mary’s captor. He thought of the power within the amulet, the power of the light and imagined it flowing through his body and exiting his hand.
Deo watched in amazement as a stream of light shot from Deke’s hand, and struck the imposter, whose body Solharn had consumed. It caused her to fall backwards, leaving Mary to fall to the ground. Deo quickly grabbed her and pulled her away.
“Don’t kill her, Deke! She is Delca, my paladin. It is Solharn that controls her. She doesn’t know what she’s doing!” Mary yelled.
Deo doubted that Deke could hear her. He seemed to be transfixed. He stared blankly ahead as the light continued to flow from his hand into Delca’s body. He began to moan as the core of the light he transmitted turned black. Delca gradually started to change from Mary’s form, to what Deo knew to be her own. Finally, the light detached itself from Delca, and shot back into Deke’s hand. Deke fell to his knees. His body felt different. He bent over and began to vomit.
“Are you alright Deke?” Deo asked.
Deke rapidly turned his head toward Deo in anger and looked at him. For a moment Deo thought his eyes looked black. “Of course I am alright!” Deke screamed angrily causing Deo to back away.
