Coming to a decision, he went back to the main chamber and picked up the rucksack. He put the tin containing the healing seeds and the Alder Eye Journal inside it and fitted it onto his back.
Taking up the druid staff, he gripped it tightly and strode out to meet his destiny.
Chapter V: Ice and Mud
A blast of icy air hit Calladyce as the doors of the elevator opened. It sliced through his flesh, biting deep into his bones. He closed his eyes against the onslaught and took a deep, steadying breath. Even after all this time, the bitter cold still overwhelmed him.
When he had collected himself, Calladyce opened his eyes and lumbered out of the elevator compartment, resting heavily on his cane. Snow crunched beneath his feet as he left the warmth of the elevator and entered the boreal darkness beyond.
He had gone a few paces when the elevator doors slammed shut, leaving him beneath a shroud of black. He paused and waited for the grey twilight glow to seep through the gloom and light his way. It came from hidden sources set in the sweeping walls of black ice either side of him, and only seemed to strengthen the shadows rather than provide effective illumination. Still, the ghost light was bright enough for him to pick his way along the narrow snow covered path to the pit.
His progress was slow and his breathing laborious, steaming out of his mouth in thick vapour. As he shambled along, sleek metallic shapes, ink-black and bat shaped, darted to and fro in the darkness above him. Security drones, programmed to terminate anyone whose DNA was not on their clearance database. It was an extra layer of protection against intruders, though Calladyce doubted anyone would be able to find their way into the chamber. It was hidden deep beneath the penitentiary, accessible only by the elevator in Calladyce’s office at the top of the tower. It was feasible that somebody could reach here through the labyrinthine cave complex that honeycombed the island, of course, but mother’s other children inhabited the tunnels beyond and they would make short work of any fool that dared enter their domain.
A low, impatient rumble came from the direction of the pit, and Calladyce immediately picked up speed. Though the exhausted joints of his ancient body screamed in protest, he ignored the agony. When mother called, you came running, or limping.
The narrow path opened out into a vast snowfield studded with countless blue ice crystals that glittered like tiny stars. Huge, jagged icicles gleaming black hung down above his head like the fangs of some monstrous leviathan, and the pit in the centre of the snowfield gaped like a cancer before him. A growl, deep, guttural, came out of it and Calladyce hurried over to its obsidian lined edge. Gritting his teeth against the effort, he managed to hunker down into a kneeling position.
“Immersion has been successful, mother,” he said, keeping his head bowed and his eyes on the ground. “BeyondMind has exceeded all our expectations.”
In the depths of the pit, he heard mother slithering and his body grew colder as she rose up. A layer of frost began to form on his meaty hands.
“Our test subject seems to be reacting well to his new environment and he has shown that he can look after himself,” Calladyce continued, not daring to look up. “In fact, I think he will adapt so well that I am almost confident we could move to stage two by the end of the month.”
He could feel mother become agitated. Her mind oozed out to him, shooting ice hot tendrils into his brain. His body shuddered and he grovelled lower into the snow.
“Amy, mother? No . . . she was not as receptive as I’d hope. You’re right, we shouldn’t have revealed BeyondMind’s true nature without conditioning her first, but her mind is first rate. I couldn’t risk damaging it. Without her imagination and talent, we would never have made the Alchemy Worlds what they are. I’m sure given time she will come round to our way of thinking. She could be instrumental in achieving the great master plan.”
A flensing pain sliced through his mind, making him flail around on the ground like a landed fish. He let out a pitiful moan and begged her to stop. Mother intensified the agony for several long, terrible moments, before releasing him.
He sagged against the edge of the pit in relief. “I, I understand mother,” he croaked, when he could find his voice again. His head was spinning and his stomach roiled and lurched like a drunkard. “Full responsibility for Amy’s loyalty is mine. I will make sure she is compliant or I’ll take steps to . . . phase her out of the project. You have my word, no, mother I understand how vital the success of the plan is. I will not let you down.”
Mother seemed satisfied with this, and reclined back into the pit. Though the temperature was below freezing, the doctor’s body was soaked with sweat. His heart pounded madly, straining from the shock. With shaky fingers, he wiped away the drool leaking out his mouth.
“If that is all mother, may I go back to my cage?” he asked timidly, still keeping his eyes downcast and on the ground in front of him.
Mother let out a low, desultory growl and began to slither down into her lair. The signal she was finished with him.
Grateful, Calladyce picked himself up and lumbered away. His thoughts though lingered on Amy. Poor Amy, such a bright girl with so much potential, it would be a shame to lose her if he couldn’t get her under control. She was extremely stubborn, rather like their Mr. Temno. It was not going to be easy taming her spirit. He did not like to think what would happen if he couldn’t though. He had grown very fond of her, but there was no room for sentiment, as mother had quite rightly had to remind him.
Mother knew best. Mother always knew best.
* * *
Matias turned his head upwards toward the sun. Its warmth caressed his skin, and he breathed in the rich clean air. It was scented with flowers and seemed to fill him with vigour and optimism. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the serenity, before a growling in his stomach brought him back to the here and now.
He opened his eyes again and lowered his head. The attack of the moss mubb and the stress of getting to grips with his new surroundings had left him with a raging hunger, although he had no idea where to obtain food. He doubted there’d be a fast food joint nearby, so it looked like he would have to do things the old fashioned way.
First though, he needed a direction to go in. Now in the wide clearing outside the Healer’s Hovel, the Feysecret Forest sprawled around him, a morass of huge twisting trees and long grasses. Vibrant flowers graced the forest floor, along with clusters of large peculiarly shaped mushrooms of various blues, greens and reds. He wondered if there were edible, but decided not to risk it. The only thing he knew about mushrooms was those him and his buddy Joey had tried back in high school. They’d spent the next six hours dancing naked with waste paper bins on their heads. He didn’t relish being in that kind of state if he ran into any more moss mubbs.
Thinking of the mubb he’d killed, he looked back at the Hovel. From the outside, it looked like a huge tree stump fused to the remnants of a daub and wattle house. The walls were heavily decayed and lichen caked the thick roots that snaked out from the stump.
“Fancy chowing down on roast moss mubb tonight?” he said to himself, and then shook his head. “No, I didn’t think so. There’s gotta be something around here that a guy can eat!”
An idea hit him. Turning away from the Hovel, he took out his journal and pointed it at the forest. The ruby flared again and there came the heat. When the journal felt normal again, he opened it and read the new entry, which was now on a new page under the heading Locations.
Flipping back to the moss mubb entry, he saw that there was also a new heading above it called Creature Compendium. Matias nodded his approval. That would help matters if he needed to find a particular entry quickly. Turning back to the locations page, he read through what it had to say about his surroundings:
Location: Feysecret Forest
Standing since before the time of the Angel Wars, Feysecret Forest is a place of great magic and mystery. Communities of secretive fey dwell in its lush depths, keeping
to themselves and wary of strangers, and small human settlements eke out a meagre existence in the forest’s outer regions. Other creatures dwell here also, both natural and . . . less so, along with traps and pitfalls for the unseasoned adventurer.
That was all the entry had to say, and Matias slammed the book shut in frustration. He was no closer to filling his belly. Still, if he found one of those human settlements the entry mentioned, he was bound to find food as well. And he’d prefer to try his luck with his own kind than run into any fey, whatever the hell they were.
Putting the journal back his rucksack, he gripped his staff and headed away from the Hovel, deciding to move in a straight line. He figured if he couldn’t find anything else, he could simply turn round the way he came and chart a course back to the tree stump house. If nothing else, it would serve as a base of operations until he could locate some place more suitable.
He heard snatches of birdsong and the chatter of insects as he walked through the clearing, and the heat of the sun bore down on his neck and shoulders. He stumbled upon the whisper of a narrow track and decided to follow it into undergrowth, enjoying the cooling balm offered by the trees. After hiking a couple of kilometres, he came upon a shallow stream and sagged with relief. By now, his thirst was as savage as his hunger and he quickly bent down to scoop up handfuls of water. It tasted sweet and he gulped it down with a fierce greed, regretting that he hadn’t found a flask amongst the dead druid’s possessions.
Sitting back on his haunches, he stared out at the forest listening to the rush of the stream. It ran eastwards, and he decided to follow it and see where he ended up. As Matias was just about to stand up though, something stirred in the bushes on the other side of the stream and he froze in place.
As he watched, a small, squat wild boar waddled out of the undergrowth and dipped its head to start drinking the water.
It seemed blithely oblivious to him as it drank, and Matias was struck by a sudden idea. Roast pork would sure make a nice dinner and the boar didn’t look like it could run very fast. True, he didn’t have any means to cook it, but he’d deal with that later. For now, he just had to concentrate on catching it.
As slowly as possible, Matias stood up, keeping his eyes hooked on the pig. The animal didn’t spook, and carried on drinking. His body tensed and he gripped his staff tightly in both hands. If he moved fast enough, he might be able to brain the animal before it even knew what was happening. His palms became slick with sweat and his mouth went dry. The thought of feasting on the boar’s succulent meat was driving him crazy. Raising the staff, he darted across the stream and drove it down toward the boar’s skull.
The animal squealed and bolted away as the staff came sweeping down, missing it completely. Matias swore and went running after it, the hem of his robe flapping against his bare legs.
“Damn it!” he screamed, swinging at the boar with his staff again.
The boar avoided the strike with ease, bounding through the trees as fast as a hare. Matias struggled to keep up and was panting hard. He came to another muddy clearing, and the wild boar scooted into the bushes to the left. Matias careered into the mud. As he turned to see where the animal had gone, the ground beneath him started to give way. There was a horrible squelching noise as he started to sink.
“What the hell?” he snapped.
He lurched forward, trying to get back onto more stable ground. But the mud clenched around his legs tightly and he stumbled forward onto his chest. Anger began to turn to panic as he realised he was being dragged further into the slop. Flinging the staff away, he reached forward and grabbed at a nearby tree root with both hands, attempting to use it to pull himself free. The mud bubbled and he felt something squirming against his waist. He struggled harder, and the mud churned around him, becoming a seething vortex that pulled him down with brutal force. Matias’ fingers were white as he clung to the root, and the muscles in his arms bulged. The mud yanked at him without mercy and he screamed as he lost his grip on the root.
Suddenly, he was being dragged deeper and deeper into the muck, and he flailed helplessly as the vortex consumed him.
Chapter VI: Jhondey
The mud was at his chin now, and his hands waved helplessly in the air. The vortex was sucking him into oblivion and his mind screamed with rage and terror. It was over before he’d even begun to get started. This was so wrong. It couldn’t end this way!
Matias let out another yell, a reaction to his fear and fury, as the mud began to seep into his mouth. He spat the muck out as best as he could, and brought down his arms to grab at the ground and pull himself out of the mud. It was to no avail and he closed his eyes as he prepared for the end.
Without warning, something huge and bulky erupted from the undergrowth nearby. Matias heard a heavy clanking sound and, just as his head submerged beneath the mud, two large metal clad hands reached down and grabbed his arms.
His eyes flung open and he let out a startled cry as he was yanked out of the mud. Before he got completely free, the mud reached up like the tentacles of some deep sea monster and clutched at his legs. Whatever was holding his arms yanked so hard it made his bones judder. With a loud slurp, he was suddenly loose.
Everything became a blur, and in the process of being extracted, he collided with the body of his saviour which was hard and metallic. The thick smell of rust filled his nostrils. He grunted with pain and, when the hands let him go, he collapsed in a heap on the thankfully solid ground. He gasped for breath and curled up into a ball.
His mind was spinning and his lungs burned, but relief surged through him like water through a burst dam. It took a few moments for the roaring in the ears to subside enough to realise somebody was speaking to him.
“Hey, are you all right? You hurt?”
Matias rolled onto his side and his vision focused on the pale, slender face looking down at him. He felt a hand shake his shoulder. “Hey, can you speak? Are you injured?”
“I’m . . . I’m fine,” Matias rasped. He pushed himself up into a sitting position. “I was just a little winded, that’s all.”
A grin of relief spread across the face. “That’s good. I thought for a moment you were finished. You were lucky. When smother mud’s got you, it don’t let go.”
Matias had recovered enough to now take a proper look at the young boy crouched next to him. The kid looked to be about fifteen, with tangled blond hair framing a narrow, diamond shaped face. He had prominent cheekbones, and thin lips pulled back to show off his straight white teeth, which grinned brightly beneath a small pointed nose. Eyes of shining hazel looked at him with an innocence Matias had never known in his entire life.
Matias’ gaze turned from the boy to the mud which had almost killed him. It was bubbling and seething like boiled water before settling down and becoming calm and innocuous again. “Smother mud, eh?”
The boy nodded. “Would have swallowed you up and ate you whole for lunch if I hadn’t wandered by. You gotta be careful walking in the forest, smother mud pools are all over the place.”
“I’ll bear that in mind,” Matias replied, his attention going back to the boy’s skinny physique. He was an ungainly little thing, all arms and legs, clad in a well-worn leather tunic and breeches, and wearing laced up moccasins on his feet. He carried a bow and quiver of arrows slung across his back. “No way are you strong enough to have pulled me out of there.”
“Course not,” the boy sniggered. “It was Shunz that pulled you free.”
Matias looked around the clearing, frowning when he realised there was only the two of them here. “Shunz?”
The boy stood up and pointed to a cluster of trees. “He’s hiding over there. Shunz is shy ‘round strangers. Shunz! Come here!”
Matias got slowly to his feet as he heard the sound of clanking from the direction the boy had called to. A few moments later, a hulking hunch-backed figure dressed in mismatched armour of copper and iron plates emerged, and Matias took a few step
s back in alarm.
The boy glanced at him and smiled. “Don’t be scared. He won’t hurt you.”
“I’m not scared,” Matias growled.
Yet, he stared warily at Shunz, his body tensed to run. The armoured man approached them slowly, almost shyly, with his head lowered. Matias did a double-take as he realised Shunz wasn’t wearing the patchwork armour. He was the armour.
“It’s a machine,” he muttered, staring up at Shunz’s blocky, bullet shaped head. Like the rest of him, it was ravaged by rust and encrusted with verdigris. Bug-eyed lanterns of blue glass were welded to the head, and a good chunk of the face was missing, revealing a complex hodgepodge of whirring cogs and glowing blue tubes underneath.
“He’s a construct,” the boy corrected. “I found him wandering around the tunnels of the abandoned gnome colony in the east of the forest. He followed me home, didn’t you, Shunz?” he added, tapping the machine affectionately on its rounded shoulder. Shunz did not respond.
The boy smiled and turned back to Matias. “My name’s Jhondey,” he said brightly, and he stuck out his grubby hand, making it into a fist and placing it near the centre of Matias’ chest. Matias stared at him blankly.
“Pleased to meet you,” Jhondey prompted, still smiling. “What’s your name?”
“Matias,” Matias replied, still eyeing Shunz. The construct was motionless, but his lantern eyes were fixed on Matias, as if studying him.
“Matias,” Jhondey rolled the name around in his mouth. “I like that name. I like you.” He bent down and picked up Matias’ staff which had been left discarded on the ground. “You’re a druid,” he observed, giving the staff back to Matias.
The Alchemy Worlds: Enter T(he)rap(y): A LitRPG Adventure Page 4
