Mirrortac fingered the softness of the feather and tried to withhold feelings and memories of his beloved Yenic.
‘This be the bird that brought the greenstones to the Faug Forest. One that was worn by the princess and the other now worn by me. They do not have such stones there. I keep this feather as memory of one who was lost to me yet whose love lives in my heart. I beg you to press me no further upon this as the memory is still painful,’ he said, holding back a sob in his throat.
The Petros ruler seemed profoundly touched by the erfin’s sentiment and began to sob in sympathy but the erfin thought he was being mocked and glared at the petros with anger.
‘Do not mock me!’ he shouted but the petros ruler continued to sympathise.
‘Nay Mirrortac. I mock it not. This is a sad tale it tells. If only it could vibrate away its pain but it has no horn. Listen now awhile and stay my introduction...’ Sum-tu-la-Hoona continued into an abbreviated introduction followed by the erfin’s own introduction. Then it told Mirrortac to be seated on the sand floor. The day was growing dim and a blaze of red shone up into the cavern as Luma dipped below the world.
‘Since it is here in the favour of Wa-Ku yet bears no homage then it will be given a proper name and know something of this world from its beginning.’
Sum-tu-la-Hoona lifted up his Golden Rod and placed its clearstone cluster against the erfin’s forehead.
‘With the Golden Rod of Wa-Ku, I Sum-tu-la-Hoona Wa-Ku Picka-da-Ru-So Harma Cuss Wee Foo-Du Tok, Lord Supreme of Petrosium and Keeper of the Rod, pierce this that is of the stone our home with the name of Mirrortac as of its homeland Eol; Faug-tu as its adopted second homeland; Hinda-la-see: that which walks on its hind legs; Ru-Fo : that of fur; Ob-Fo : that of bone; Trunam : traveller between worlds; Wa-Ku Picka-da : it that walks with Wa-Ku; and Tok-Ruk : it that found the stone. These together are its name for as long as Petrosium lies beneath its feet. In Wa-Ku be now Mirrortac Faug-tu Hinda-la-see Ru-Fo Ob-Fo Trunam Wa-Ku Picka-da Tok-Ruk!’
Sum-tu-la-Hoona jabbed the rod at Mirrortac’s forehead, splitting the skin. A droplet of erfin blood ran down his face.
‘There! It is named!’ the Lord Supreme smiled, bearing more of its fangs.
Mirrortac flinched and rubbed the blood off his face.
‘It will heal, petros companion. Now to matters of importance! I will relate to it the coming-lore of Petrosium,’ the petros began; pausing while Mirrortac settled himself for the lengthy listening ahead.
The Lord Supreme told him then of the beginnings of Petrosium in a space when time did not revolve and all was darkness in the world. Wa-Ku entered the sky along with the nightkeeper, Uk-Aw, the reflection of the master who made Petrosium out of the blazing furnace that he brought with him across the sky. Wa-Ku scattered his stones upon the earth and turned it and all that previously lived upon it into sand and stone. Out of The Wet he formed the petros who were allowed to live in the aureum mountains that had been left after the Great Burning. He sent them fur and bone creatures from across the desert and gave the petros whispering power to kill these for food but warned them to touch nothing Of the Stone. Three messengers descended from the sky in a silver stone of fire, bringing with them the perfect greenstone of Wa-Ku that they placed within a deep cavern under the Spire of Wa-Ku. They then instructed the petros to fashion special tunnels in a line through the Spire as dictated and all the caverns were sprinkled with crystal dust. The dust grew into large crystals that yielded forth the good wet that Wa-Ku had promised them. The messengers created a stone likeness at the bottom of the great cavern of the stone. The good wet filled many pockets in the small caverns and much of the hollow within the deep cavern, creating a pool that became the Deep of the Shining Wet. After a time away the messengers returned and instructed all the petros in the Proper Talk as praise to Wa-Ku as well as the instruction that at an appointed day each 360 days of the Revolving Time, Wa-Ku would appear in the Deep as a vision, giving instructions and advice to all his people. Those who were not made in the fashion that Wa-Ku had intended or those who rejected the stone of Wa-Ku were cast out into the Dome of Shadow where darkness paled their features and caused them to shun the brightness of day. These became the Petros of the Shadow and would remain separated until a cleansing time still to come. This then was the way of Petrosium.
Chapter 7 – The Battle of Beeble-Zub and Wa-Ku
Twelve days had passed since the Day of Revolving Time and the meeting with the Lord Supreme of Petrosium. Mirrortac had feasted on bilk and spoken of the differing customs of each of the worlds he had known. He had passed freely along the passages beneath the Spire of Wa-Ku and the Dome of Petros but found no passage leading to the Dome of Shadow. Except for the initial explanation, no petros ever mentioned it - as though it did not exist. Mirrortac spoke with some of the petros people he met, complying with the tedium of the strict protocol of Proper Talk. The only petros who could give any prior acknowledgement to an unknown petros or anyone else was the Lord Supreme who had that authority because it was required to know all who moved upon Petrosium regardless of whether introductions had been made.
Mirrortac decided to go out alone and inspect the Plain of Many Spires and the mysterious Wet that lay beyond. He made his way out over the dunes and around the Spire of Wa-Ku that was bright with the glare of the morning. The squat mound of the Dome of Shadow came into view, a hillock of dark opal stone, resting in the shade of the Spire that loomed over it in majestic gold. The erfin could see no visible entrance until he was well out towards the Plain of Many Spires. Then, as he glanced back, he saw a single cavern peering out at him with a sinister empty stare. As he walked onwards, the forest of thin spires confronted him. They were each an erfin-length in thickness at the base and the stone in them was hard as granite. At close quarters, they exhibited an uncanny likeness to trees long since died away, standing together in untidy rows, stretching for untold erfin-lengths to westering and eastering. He wandered in between their tall still forms, examining their strange structure. A cool wind blew into his face, bringing with it a suggestion of moisture. As he looked northering, he could see The Wet clearly, curving away to embrace every horizon in a gigantic lake. The waters within it moved about in a rolling mass of hills and valleys and the sound of its churning motions echoed beneath the unseen depths of the cliff.
Mirrortac edged up to the lip of the plain. The cliff descended some 500 erfin-lengths, eaten away in a convex of land and littered with hillocks and spires of harder stone that had withstood the action of the surging and relentless sea. Islands of stone wallowed at the border of the lake that thundered and smashed upon the shore in a plunder of foaming waves. A spray of mist and water shot into the air as a wave collapsed against the stone pillars below. Mirrortac was astounded at the sheer volume of the terrifying waves. No lake he had seen had ever assumed such dimensions nor been so alive with the force of its own volume. Above the frothing heads of the waves flew a number of the familiar white birds, hovering suspended before dipping at the waves in search of fish. Nests were scattered beneath overhangs and within crevices along the cliff face and the screeching of the birds could be heard above the noise of the sea.
The sight of all this seething water was more than the erfin could stomach and he cringed back from the cliff’s edge, fearful of its all-encompassing wetness as well as the unknown dangers that lurked within its depths. ‘I will have no more of this!’ he muttered to himself and swung himself around towards Petrosium. The silvan sands scrunched between his toes as he walked and the mute stone spires seemed to issue silent warnings to him - ‘Get way from here!’ they seemed to say, their truncated forms crowding around him as he passed. ‘Silliness,’ Mirrortac admonished himself. ‘These are not thocks. They are mere stone.’ But the soundless pleas of the spires persisted in haunting his progress and he was glad when he finally had passed out into the open again. But as he climbed up and down the shallow dunes towards Petrosium, he could detect a strangeness within the air. T
he Dome of Shadow menaced him with its one dark eye while a dimness seemed to pervade the sky.
In moments, the dimness became a darkness. And as he looked up towards the shining countenance of Wa-Ku-Luma, he gasped in fear. An evil blackness was engulfing the fire and before his eyes, the great flame in the sky was devoured. A darkness like night enveloped the landscape and soon a great and awful shadow was cast upon all of Petrosium. Moon-drops appeared in the sky while Wa-Ku-Luma remained engulfed, marked only by a ring of fire that battled with the forces of darkness.
‘Oh Mateote! What terror! What terror!’ Mirrortac cried, trembling in fear.
Suddenly a voice snarled from the shadows. ‘What is this? Fur and bone is it! Clad with stone is it! The perfect feast!’
Mirrortac jumped back, startled.
‘Who is it? I am Mirrortac Faug-tu Hinda-la-see Ru-Fo Ob-Fo Trunam Wa-Ku Picka-da Tok-Ruk. It cannot eat me. I walk with Wa-Ku!’ he gasped; surprised he could remember the name given him.
He blinked into the darkness and saw the wretched form of a Petros of the Shadow. It bore two horns and its skin was pale against the sands. The creature snarled at him again and flashed its eyes.
‘Walks with Wa-Ku does it? That is no excuse. Where is Wa-Ku now? We have no care for Wa-Ku! What a fool it is. I will have it for my feast.’
The petros lowered his head and aimed his horns at the erfin. Mirrortac dived into the sand and dug into it to escape.
‘It will not be safe there, stupid Mirrortac! I will stop it in its digging,’ the petros shouted.
Then Mirrortac felt the terrible numbness and was unable to move. The ‘whispering speech’ was paralysing him and his breathing began to falter. He gasped and lost consciousness.
When he awoke, the arms of the dread petros were around his neck, clasping him with the strength of ten erfins. Above, in the sky, Wa-Ku had begun to win his battle against the terrible darkness and light was again emerging into the premature night. The petros looked up and grunted.
‘Wa-Ku is strong. It wins but the battle is yet to begin! Beeble-Zub will get it. My master will get all of it!’ the harsh voice of the petros warned.
The warning given by the spectre of Merftac flashed in the erfin’s mind - ‘When the fire of Luma is snatched from the sky its power will be at its greatest!’ This petros did not observe Proper Talk. It defied and cursed Wa-Ku. Mirrortac withdrew Moongleam in a lightning movement and the sword gleamed as he swung it into the clutching arms of the petros. The blade sliced through the skin with ease, exposing sinews and blood. The creature let out a bellow of pain and turned its horn towards him. Mirrortac swung the sword around for another attack but was struck by the ‘whispering speech’, and dropped his sword as his hands went numb. The petros slid up to his side and grasped him within the grip of its good arm. Blood seeped out of its wounded arm but it took no notice. When the numbness passed, the erfin was powerless and Moongleam dragged in the sand behind him, attached to him only by its snerk-skin binding.
‘I ought to kill it but Beeble-Zub wants it. I hate it! It stings me with its rod. It is vile and furry!’
The creature muttered on as it dragged Mirrortac across the last few erfin-lengths to the Dome of Shadow and into the entrance to the cavern. The passages here were not like those elsewhere in Petrosium. There were no glistening gemstones, aureum or phosphorescent sand. In their place were walls of hard cold obsidium and black opal that seemed to absorb any light there was, transforming the passages into a wallowing blackness that even the erfin’s night eyes could not penetrate.
Mirrortac was taken deep beneath the earth into a chamber of unknown dimension where he could sense the presence of creatures that hissed and sucked with horrible stench-filled breaths. The petros left him without saying another word; left him with whatever creatures presided in this darkness.
At first, he could see nothing but as his eyes adjusted, he caught a glimpse of a wink of yellow light that peered at him from a few erfin-lengths away. Soon he saw five others, blinking at him like moon-drops. The yellow eyes bobbed up and down, raising themselves up to heights above the erfin then dropping to his level again. Mirrortac gagged on the overwhelming stench that was like insect blown dead meat and rotting vegetable matter. The creatures hissed in unison, examining him with silent speculation before they spoke, simultaneously; as with one voice.
‘Whatsis brought Mee?’ they hissed. ‘Tiss fur and bone iss it? Tiss of the stone iss it? Whatsis call itself?’
Mirrortac choked, trying desperately to stop himself retching.
‘I am,’ he coughed, ‘Mirrortac. But I have no wish to be here. Let me go! What do you want with me?’
The air was cold in the chamber although it had been quite warm at the surface. The creatures shifted with a single heaving movement then halted again.
‘Mirrortac? We have no such name in Petrosium. Whysis here? Itsis comes from other places. Itsis does not like Beeble-Zub? Why dush it not like Beeble-Zub?’
‘Where is Beeble-Zub? Is one of you Beeble-Zub?’ Mirrortac asked.
The creatures broke out in a chorus of gasping, sucking snickers.
‘Gnyah - Gnyah - Gnyah - Gnyah. Itsis amuses Mee! What a stupid thing. “Which one is Beeble-Zub?” it asks. Which one? Which one!
‘We is Beeble-Zub, stupid Mirrortac! We is Beeble-Zub. Now, letsus stop our stupid talk. You are going to help Mee, You is,’ Beeble-Zub snarled.
‘Help YOU? How can I help you? Why should I help you, whatever you are?’
Mirrortac suddenly realised that the six yellow eyes and six heads were attached to the one being. So this was the demon monster Beeble-Zub, he thought.
‘Why should itsis help Mee?’ the creature paused.
‘We will make it worthwhile for you to help Mee, Mirrortac. We hass a plan. It’s a plan with worth for you. Dush it want to go back to its kind? We can arrange thiss.’
‘You could take me back to the Faug Forest? How would you do that?’ Mirrortac was curious.
Beeble-Zub snickered with secretive delight.
‘Thoughtsis you would be interested, Mirrortac. We can do it but first you must help us. We can take you anywhere you want and make you ruler of all you wish. Will you help Mee?’
‘You tell me nought, Beeble-Zub. First…’ Mirrortac coughed, ‘First, tell me how you would bring me back to the forest.’ he tested.
‘Beeble-Zub tells nothing without a promise. You must promise to help Mee Mirrortac and I will tell you all you want to know.’ The yellow orbs winked in and out of the darkness.
‘Tell me first what you wish for me to do?’ he questioned.
‘Mirrortac dush not hass to do a thing but tell Mee the way in to the Chamber of the Deep of the Shining Wet. That iss simple, is it not? Now, will you tell uss?
All eyes were focussed on the erfin.
‘Why do you want to know this?’
‘We wish to free the petros of the trickery of the one calling itself Wa-Ku. They are slaves to its Proper Talk, slaves to his blinding stones. You can help them, Mirrortac. You can set them free and go back to your kind. Iss it willing?’
‘Wa-Ku is the spirit that protects Petrosium as there are spirits in other worlds to protect the people in those worlds. You belong to the darkness. Are you of the Netherworld, Beeble-Zub? What did you do to the fire in the sky? You are more like trickery to my eyes, dark one. I am leaving here.’ Mirrortac felt for the wall and edged his way for the opening to the passage that led to the surface.
‘Foolish Mirrortac! You will find no escape here. I offer you freedom and you wish only slavery. You shall tell mee anyway.’
Mirrortac felt desperately for an opening but could find none.
‘The passage is shut, furry one!’ Beeble-Zub snarled. ‘Now tell mee where the Deep iss and waste no time about it!’
‘If I tell you, what will you do there?’
‘Wee will take Wa-Ku’s eyes from him. He will be blind and all the petros will be free. Dush it want ano
ther chance? Do not be silly now. We can give you anything you wish.’
‘And what will you do to the petros? Eat them?’
‘No, stupid Mirrortac. They will be free.’
‘What if I do not tell you? What will you do with me?’
‘You will be a quick meal, silly one.’
‘Why is it so important that this Wa-Ku be blinded. The petros are happy. He protects them.’
‘They are under a spell. Wa-Ku will kill them all. He blinds them with his light; we will blind him with darkness. Darkness iss safe. Darkness iss free.’
‘Darkness is darkness! There is no love and happiness in your world, Beeble-Zub. You are of the Netherworld.’
Mirrortac persisted in his argument. Beeble-Zub paused, hissing with disdain.
‘Mirrortac iss clever. Or thinks it iss. You are stupid! Beeble-Zub dush not know death. Wee iss immortal. Those of the Light die and are absorbed by the Light. You can be immortal, Mirrortac. You can have anything you wish. Darkness iss safe. Darkness iss free,’ Beeble-Zub whispered.
‘You will not trick me, Beeble-Zub. I will tell you nothing.’ The erfin was defiant.
‘Mirrortac wishes to die. Then this iss your wish. I shall fulfill it now.’
The monster started to move across the chamber, its six eyes bobbing ever closer. There was no escape. Without fully realising what he was doing, the erfin took the greenstone necklace that hung around his neck and held it up towards the approaching Beeble-Zub. The stone began to glow, radiating a sharp green light that illuminated the chamber and the form of the monster. Mirrortac gasped at its hideousness. Its six one-eyed heads bore horns of black ivory and were connected to a large body of hard plates like armour. A long plate-clad tail wagged in the sand behind it while its heads snarled at him with blood stained fangs. When the heads saw the stone and the light, they recoiled in the shadow of the creature’s back.
‘Take it away! Take it away! You damned Mirrortac!’ Beeble-Zub whimpered.
The wall opened up, revealing the passage winding upwards. Mirrortac fled into the passage with the monster shouting after him.
The Wizard's Sword (Nine Worlds of Mirrortac Book 1) Page 18
