Modern Magic
Page 189
Uncrossing her legs, she wrapped both around Valek’s slender waist as she licked his face and purred.
“Why do you bother?” he whispered as he ran his hand through her hair. “I need information.”
“Yes, my lord.” She pouted when he continued to ignore her laps of affection.
An androgynous creature, Valek had only two pleasures: money and profit.
“Orono captured a soul, named Amana…”
“Yes.” Manola licked her lips as she skillfully pulled him closer to her until her legs tightly locked around him.
“Her sister Sarah was rescued by a strange man at the Allerton Circle, and I want his name…”
Uncoiling from Valek, she leapt off the desk and made her way to the office door. The chilliness of the afternoon did not affect the scantily clad vixen, for she was dead. Valek kept her soul in a crystal bowl beside his bed.
“Quickly!” he demanded.
As soon as the office door closed behind her, Valek pulled open the desk drawer. The desk only had the one drawer; its purpose was more prop than use. He removed a blue orb, much larger than the orbs that Orono used to capture souls.
Indeed, this one was the ‘mother’ of the much smaller orbs. Valek was, above all else, a businessman. The violence and chaos surrounding the distribution of the potion Solance to the military groups of both Earth 3012 and Saturn Four was only remedied by the extremely generous amounts of funds donated to his establishment.
Not that the generals of both armies knew that he was selling the notorious potion to both sides, that was the beauty of commerce. All business deals were private.
The potion labeled “Solance” was creamy-white and tasted bitter and chalky, but it was not the potion’s taste that sold bottles. It was the results.
Solance enabled whoever drank it to have the ability to read minds, an invaluable asset on the field of battle. Especially for Earth 3012 and Saturn Four, who had been warring against each other longer than he had been in existence.
But the Solance only lasted for 24 cycles before wearing off, leaving a bad aftertaste and an illness that caused one to return again and again to the potty house.
Sighing, Valek replaced the mother sphere into the desk and started towards his chambers. The day had been filled with demanding discussions with General Cullen from Earth 3012. He had used twice the Solance that he had in prior months and accused Valek of diluting the serum.
Chuckling to himself, he found the accusations humorous. He had done no such thing but the thought had occurred to him.
Diluting the serum would only ruin his dealings with General Cullen and he emphasized that. The General’s bony face grew red and solemn as Valek informed him that his duty was to strengthen the serum and that he, Valek was doing just that.
He had said, “General Cullen, if you find Solance to be not what you are looking for, I can revisit our agreement and perhaps come up with a fair settlement.”
The very mention of the revisiting of the contract meant a possibility that he would revoke the contract. That meant no Solance for General Cullen’s army. If there was no Solance, General Cullen knew that he would lose the war.
General Cullen quickly said, “Oh, no, Valek, that will not be necessary. Forgive me, Valek.”
He said, “Then can we discuss your next shipment?”
General Cullen nodded, “Yes.”
Laughing at the memory, he opened the connecting door between his office and his private chambers. Pulling aside the wrought iron screen, he removed his leather boots immediately as he crossed the threshold.
Unlike most wealthy businessmen that he knew, he found guards, servants, and mistresses unnecessary and cumbersome. He had had servants before, but found that when he gave one specific orders, they would perpetually fail at delivering or carrying out those instructions, leaving him to have to go back and complete the orders. He found it more refreshing and satisfying when he carried out and completed his own desires, wishes, and goals.
But Valek believed it unwise to hold the notion that he could manage all matters himself. That was where Orono and Manola came into some importance. He oversaw each and every action they attempted, and the incident earlier in the day would have been better handled had he paid more attention.
Unfortunately, he had other duties to which he must attend to, like General Cullen’s unexpected correspondence.
Sighing again, he passed through his outer quarters without taking a glance at the room or using the assistance of torches, candles or fireplace. Amazingly, he did not collide with the wooden bench made of acaia armata where Manola slept. Nor did he step into the only other furniture in the outer room, his square table of drink and herbs.
The outer quarters resided on the northern wing of Valek’s castle, a modest, but heavily guarded castle that was built on the rocky plateau just above the soul cages and operating canyons of Solis’s western continent.
The eastern, southern and most northern continents on Solis, although thriving villages and towns at one time in the planet’s history, were now uninhabitable. The southern continent in particular at one time had an ocean to its western shore and mountains.
Industries found the tropical temperatures and scenic settings irresistible and before long, as it was with other planets and kingdoms, people populated the area in huge numbers.
Within several decades the people had abandoned the southern continent and migrated to the eastern continent, and eventually the most northern continents, destroying the environment and carelessly depleting Solis of its limited natural resources.
The story of Solis’s destruction was as old and as common as the water that ran underground through her canyons and caverns, producing the impenetrable slick, oily rock that Valek called ‘celleac’. He had found the one substance in the Pixlis galaxy that no one or nothing, not even a person’s soul, could escape.
Leaving his boots in the outer room, he strolled barefoot to his inner bedchamber. Valek’s feet fell silently on the stone floor due to the floor’s coverings of human hair.
An extracted soul that is deposited immediately into the cages left a pile of lifeless skin, hair and body. Orono suggested that Valek use the hair for his personal floorings. A good idea Valek had responded, a rarity coming from Orono.
The remainder of the skin and body landed in a pit just outside the cages that was home to other garbage such as the remains of slaughtered fowls, beasts and henckens. The compiled waste of the potty-houses also ended up discarded in the pit.
Relief washed over Valek as he sat down on his polished wood bed. The bed contained no mattress nor pillow, neither quilt nor blanket. He never slept, his mind a prisoner of ideas and plans that swirled around in a chaos so fierce that his eyes remained open, unable to close and rest.
The two moons of Solis, full and bright and temporarily free of black clouds, illuminated a rectangular plot of Valek’s quarters. Climbing onto the bed, Valek stared at the swirling patterns of the ceiling.
His mind returned again and again to the one who had escaped, the one called Sarah. No, the one that was rescued by another that came through the Allerton Circle.
It was not like him to second guess his decisions, but the nagging, relentless feeling that there were some things he had missed, an omen that he should have caught, would not be silent.
Whatever it was, it could only mean his destruction unless he identified it. He had learned over the years to pay attention to the details. Each time he had failed to watch the details, he had paid dearly.
He still remembered the old woman he threw rotting food at as a child. She warned him again and again to leave her alone. He ignored her warnings. He had ignored the wooden dolls she had hanging up in her windows with the knives and daggers stuck in them. He had ignored the details.
And one day he threw rotten food at her and she cursed him. He stood mesmerized as the old woman ran into her home, grabbed one of her wooden dolls and stabbed it.
Immediate
ly Valek felt a sharp, burning pain in his stomach. He doubled over as bright red blood began to saturate his shirt. His friends raced for help and the local doctor had him fixed within the hour, but the pain remained.
He had ignored the details.
With eyes staring at the ceiling and sleep driven from him once again, Valek folded both hands across his bony chest and sighed.
* * *
Orono peeked into Valek’s office and breathed a sigh of relief when he found it empty.
“He must have retired,” he snorted before closing the office door and turning to MaxMion, a shorter, thinner version of Orono. Had MaxMion been taller than the average fig tree, he would be more intimidating.
His petite size deceived many and they found themselves rushing to the medicine man for herbal relief and balm, if they lived. He had enormous over pronounced teeth, two of which had been known to rip the tough flesh of wrangler birds without the aid of a knife, dagger or sword.
Legends abound that Valek discovered MaxMion on the home world of Earth 3012. He, with only two hands and a bumpy complexion, was a waif of a man who had the fighters of General Cullen frightened and fleeing when announced they had to face him in the tournaments of the King.
He had won so frequently in the tournaments that King Garison had decided to retire him to the slave mines on Earth 3012. Valek paid for his release and brought him to Solis to oversee the cages.
His compensation was neither money nor women, which he had difficulty finding due to his huge teeth. It was the flesh of some of the captured souls. Not all the bodies of the captured souls found their way to the garbage pit; some found their way to MaxMion’s dining table.
Orono and MaxMion walked along the gloomy hallways towards the dungeons. The torches spaced out every five paces or so had been extinguished due to Valek’s dislike for light. It hurt his eyes and often burned his pale skin when it was exposed to Solis’s sun for too long.
For every step Orono’s broad foot took, MaxMion, an entire head and shoulder shorter, had to take two. Barely out of breath, MaxMion maintained Orono’s pace as Orono hurried to the dungeons.
“Are you sure it was her?” Orono asked for the third time that evening.
“Yes,” MaxMion answered. “She altered herself then entered the cage with the one named Amana.”
“Not another word.” He placed a pudgy finger to his lips.
Valek’s castle served one purpose and that was to provide shelter. Valek did not waste his wealth on fine, hand-sewn carpets, tapestries or furnishings. He did not entertain and he did not dance.
He did, however, believe that due to his growing wealth that others might attempt to take it. Therefore, the castle had been designed with many outlets to protect itself.
The location, high upon the rocky plateau of Solis’s western continent, made the castle difficult to reach. The castle, called Vanor, rested behind a curtain wall that required the drawbridge be lowered to cross the moat which had been filled with a greenish liquid of questionable origin.
If an intruder had indeed passed all of these initial defenses, the castle itself was equipped on its roof with platforms that extended out from the castle that allowed for boiling oil, rocks, and other items to be dropped on attackers.
In addition to the platforms, the walls had parapets—slits on the roof that allowed arrows to be shot through to oncoming attackers.
As they rounded the final corner and descended the spiraling steps to the dungeon, Orono grabbed the sole torch in the staircase as they descended further and further below the castle.
The dungeon did not hold prisoners, but were the chambers of Orono, MaxMion and other henchmen who worked for Valek. Only Manola resided inside the official castle walls.
Entering the first square four paces-by-four paces cell, Orono placed his hefty bulk on the flat mattress on the stony floor.
“So, he did not trust me to locate the girl and the mystery man?” Orono asked.
MaxMion squeezed inside the cell that had seemed to grow smaller with Orono taking up more than three-quarters of it.
“That is the way I see it,” he answered around his teeth.
“Fine, then I will show him.” Orono patted his stomach. “I have had it up to here with his snide comments!”
MaxMion only nodded. He had heard these arguments from Orono before.
“Come, let us rest.” Orono rolled onto his back, tossing the torch onto the cell’s floor.
The torch sizzled then went out as MaxMion crawled onto Orono’s lumpy stomach and slept.
Chapter Three
“Wake up,” Marion’s voice called. It sounded far away, like it was down in one of the pits of Solis where the echoes of the caverns amplified the moans and groans of the multitude of slaves. Amana was there now, adding her voice to the chorus of lost souls.
When Sarah opened her eyes, he stood above her with a worried expression that was hastily erased when he saw her eyes focus on him. He grunted as he stepped away. She sat up and rubbed the back of her neck where a purpling bruise had emerged.
“There is not a great deal of time for me to tell you all, so listen carefully.”
Sarah stood shakily and held tightly to Marion’s outstretched hand as the dizziness and nausea passed.
“Do not try to leave again,” he ordered.
Sarah wondered how her rescuer could turn into a kidnapper with one swoop of her tongue and a simple suggestion.
“Do you understand?” he asked as he applied pressure to her slender hand.
“Yes.” She grimaced as she tried to free her hand from his huge hand. It was rough and callused.
“Good.” His solemn face lit up into a smile and he started again towards the direction of the castle to the north, but Sarah noticed that they were further north then before.
He went over to where the danker beasts, short and broad hairy creatures that were used as beasts of burden, waited near a small pond. The pond seemed to be partially frozen by Veloris’s bleak climate. The danker beasts were prepared and well adapted to the harshness of Veloris. Their thick hairy hide covered all but their eyes and short pink nostrils. They snorted and passed gas on such a continual basis that it filled the air with the putrid odor of rotting food, yet they were dependable and quick despite their four trunk-like legs.
“Get on.” Marion tossed a blanket over one of the smaller female danker beasts. “Thanks to you, we are now later than usual. We must use the danker beasts to reach the castle before nightfall.”
He lifted her on to the smaller danker beast, careful to allow his hands to remain around her waist longer than necessary. She seemed so fragile that he wanted to be careful with her. She was a precious commodity, not to mention a pretty one.
The moon had sunk further in the sky, and the mountain ranges to the west seemed farther away where earlier they seemed closer. How far had they traveled while she was asleep?
“As you may not be aware, Solis is the home planet of Valek. He draws his strength from there,” Marion said.
Sarah sighed. She knew this; she had been a prisoner on Solis.
“It was not by chance that you and Amana escaped the cages.” Marion continued ignoring her displeasure at his history lesson.
“What?” she balked. “We distinctly planned for months and months on that escape. We hoarded as many sharp objects and rocks in which to saw through those damn chains…”
“Yes, yes,” he interrupted impatiently.
“…The hours spent slowly crushing and destroying the objects.” Sarah continued totally engrossed in the memory of the planning of the escape from the soul cages. There were four of them that dared to attempt an escape: Amana, Suzie, Margaret and Sarah. Margaret’s soul number was called just one week into their plan. Then Amana’s capture at the Allerton Circle. Suzie—well, Sarah did not know what happened to Suzie.
“The other you were to meet at the Allerton Circle,” he interrupted again louder and more firmly.
“Was
another in my camp, a female from Earth 3341 named Suzie.”
“No, was I.” Marion laughed. “Suzie was a decoy, a sacrifice if you will…”
“A sacrifice?” The words felt foreign on Sarah’s tongue. There had been many that sacrificed themselves already for the cages. Did Suzie have to be one more?
“Many have given their lives for your arrival in this place.” Marion took in a deep breath and secretly cursed Valek and his cages.
“You are very important, Sarah,” he concluded. He then offered a silent prayer that she was all that they had risked, gambled and died for. She had better be that good.
* * *
The Northern Forest’s landscape was pathetically beautiful due to its fantastic flowers, evergreens and colorful arrangements and vegetation that flourished amid the white snow. Every once in awhile the electric blue of Wrangler birds could be seen, or the pale whiteness of the owlers could be spooked from the trees. It gave the area the appearance of a detailed painting; the harsh numbing coldness did not give anyone the opportunity to stay around long enough to enjoy the view.
There were lakes and rivers the color of crystal blue, and then there were others that were as black as tar or as red as blood. It was beyond anything that Earth could produce.
Fish and other aquatic animals were plentiful in some of the lakes, deep below the icy surface and down into the depths of the lake. Most were poisonous; others had only been seen once or twice and never captured.
Marion had warned that some of the lakes were poisonous. Sarah was reminded of the legend of the Garden of Eden, where everything was beautiful but that one tree meant death if fruit from it was eaten.
This was not a pleasure trip and Sarah mentally slapped her hand for allowing herself to become distracted by Marion’s knowledge of Veloris.
Many questions rolled around in her mind that were not answered by Marion’s educational tale of Veloris’s forest. Why was she chosen to be here? Who exactly was Marion? He said that he was one of the Minister Knights of Souls, but she had never actually met a Minister Knight of Souls, so what if he was a fake? What if it was all a lie?