by Ben Yallop
CHAPTER SIX
Somewhere in Mu
The future: date unknown
The day after his encounter with the rogue Sam found the people of the town even more cautious of him than before. He had been seen leaving the safety of the houses at night and the townsfolk had become suspicious of him, even more suspicious than they had been before. Only the Riven and rogues dared the plains at night. The woman for whom Sam had done some work had hastily pointed him in the direction of the next village with genuine fear in her eyes. But she had given him a little water, bread and cheese to take before she had shooed him off.
‘The closest place nearby is that way. Less than a day’s walk,’ she had called after him when he was a safe distance away. ‘But be careful. You’ll be getting ever closer to the Rivenrok Complex.’
Sam had set off early, heading in the direction she had pointed and taking a faint path through the long grass. He focused on the high hills and mountains he had seen before but if they came any closer as he walked then they did so at a rate which was all but invisible. So, the Complex lay that way. He had not realised that it was near here. The seat of the Riven King, the nest of the Riven from which they poured like black ants to inject poison into this world and the previous one. A cancer that crossed all times.
Sam walked and walked, keeping up a good pace despite his tiredness. But as the sun began to near the horizon Sam began to worry. He should have reached the next village well before now. The lady had told him that he would reach it easily before nightfall but he had seen no sign of it. He must have missed it and this was not a place to be out at night. Should he retrace his steps and hope that he came across it quickly, or should he press on? Would the village appear just over the next hill? He decided to keep moving but as the sun itself disappeared and then its light began to fade from the sky Sam realised that he was in trouble. He could see nowhere to shelter. No trees, not even so much as a rock to put his back to. He decided to take a risk and took a few running steps and used his presence to push against the floor driving him high into the air, using presence again to cushion his landing. He didn’t like making himself so visible, so conspicuous, but from above the grassy plain he could see much further. There was still no sign of a village, or much else, although he thought he saw some humped rocks away in the distance. He took another running presence jump facing the other way. Still nothing.
He had spent nights in the open before, but never so far away from civilisation. He had to admit that he was worried. Although he had presence to protect himself it had not been working as well as it had previously. Sam had at times felt it sort of stutter out. He guessed that he was tired and not eating well which might be affecting him. He hoped that was all it was anyway. As he took a third leap he felt his presence falter slightly and he wasn’t able to manage his landing as well as he would have liked. He stumbled as he fell, and felt his ankle complain as he came back down into the grass. Nursing a limp he continued in the way he had been going, towards the humped rocks he had seen from the darkening sky. His ankle was sore. He would not be moving much further tonight.
The night became darker, although the half-moon reappeared to light his way. He came across a new path, of sorts. The long grass, silvery grey in the moonlight, had been flattened in a wide road. Clearly this was a well-used pathway for the track to be so broad. Sam crept along it, hoping that the boulders ahead would provide some cover. Before long he saw their humps, catching the moonlight and casting shadows darker than the sky above them. Pools of tar in the pale grass.
Sam guessed that such a feature in an otherwise empty expanse might attract others to this place. The world of Mu had many weird and fantastical creatures in it. Who knew what beast had decided to call these massive rocks home? Sam approached silently, carefully. All was quiet. He reached the first rock. The pale grey stone was smooth and cold to the touch. He edged around it, intending to check the area for danger.
Suddenly a rumbling cough shook the air around Sam. He stepped sideways off the trampled area, his ankle complaining, into the grass and fell to the floor, hoping for cover. Then another sound came, one that chilled Sam to the bone. An ear-splitting roar which made Sam clamp his hands over his ears in fright. As the sound faded away he peered carefully, shakily, though the grass towards the massive rocks ahead of him. Then a wave of fear washed over him again, freezing the blood that pumped through his heart and loudly in his ears. One of the rocks up ahead was not a rock at all and it moved. Uncurling itself it stood, slowly climbing to massive feet. It was a sitecah.
Sam had not encountered these man-eating giants before although Kya had told him about them. Covered in shaggy hair the giant stretched, pushing massive arms towards the sky as it yawned. Sam did not dare to breathe. The thing was the size of a house. Easily double the height of the giant Sitecah which Kya had told him about. This must be the alpha male. Its massive frame, roughly the dimensions of a man, was covered in long hair which Sam knew would be auburn in the sunlight. Its face, high above him, had a sloping forehead and small piggy eyes. It turned on the spot briefly sniffing the air. It bent and grabbed something from the floor lifting it high to peer at it. Sam saw with a shudder that it was a rib cage. The giant peered at the bones carefully before tossing them away. Then it began to walk, its huge feet making the earth shudder despite a surprisingly quiet tread. It moved down the widely trampled path, towards Sam’s hiding place. He was terrified. The long grass was good at hiding him from creatures close to the ground. But this giant was so large that he would surely see Sam just by looking down. Sam closed his eyes and offered a silent prayer.
The footsteps stopped. The sitecah was almost level with Sam. It snuffed at the air. Sam saw a look of puzzlement come over its stupid face. It had smelt him. It took another giant step forward, still sniffing at the air. It was so close to Sam now that he couldn’t comfortably crane his neck to see its face, but he could hear the loud sounds of it sucking air in through its nose. From the corner of his eye Sam saw it begin to cast about, staring down at the ground.
Then, suddenly, with terrifying swiftness it lunged. Sam closed his eyes and waited for the impact. But nothing came. Two quick heartbeats later Sam had his eyes open again. The giant was facing away from him. A massive rumble began as it started to run, blissfully, beautifully away from Sam. He let his head fall back onto his arms and dared to let out a sigh of relief as the sitecah pounded away into the night chasing something else which had been foolish enough to come close. When Sam was sure it had gone far enough he rose and ran in the opposite direction as fast as he could on his sore ankle. After what seemed like hours, when he couldn’t run or even jog any more he walked, not daring to stop. The unseen sun began to brighten the sky but still Sam walked putting another sleepless night behind him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Pennsylvania, USA
Sometime in the early 21st Century
More power. It dripped into Allende like a leaky tap might fill a swimming pool, one maddening drop at a time. What could he do to get more power and get it faster? He felt permanently conflicted. He wanted to sit in the throne to collect every drip of presence but he also wanted to travel, to learn still more and to begin to put his plans into effect. He had begun to rely increasingly on others, bad men whose minds could be controlled, to do his bidding whilst he waited. He didn’t like having to use others, although he had become adept at using his presence to make his followers act as he wanted. But, it was something he would have to get used to, after all Kings got their servants to do the work didn’t they? They didn’t do it themselves.
He had secretly travelled a little himself, using the lines he had found. Far in the future he had seen the possibilities, the culmination of everything he had learnt. And he had realised that he would eventually be successful. If he was doomed to fail then how would he have found the results of his plans already in place? But he had also realised the risks.
His new recruits had done well so far. In the far
future he had found a big man called Ferus with a strong presence. Ferus had become the perfect tool for seeking out and recruiting others or destroying those who might have presence but could one day threaten Allende’s authority. Allende had found Pech too, not as big, not as strong, but no less dangerous for all that. Pech had proven himself to be the perfect counterfoil to Ferus. Pech was intelligent and cunning and, above all, malevolent. Allende had used him to gather all sorts of information. Allende had learnt of new sources of power, the doorway they called the Blood Line not least amongst them. And Pech was searching for it, and one day, he would find it.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Somewhere in Mu
The future: date unknown
Sam walked all the next day but was no closer to finding anything like shelter before the sky began to darken again. During the day he saw nothing and no-one with the exception of a flock of black birds which circled high above him briefly before changing direction and speeding away. Despite the empty plains he could not shake a feeling that he was being followed. He could feel a faint presence which seemed to get stronger as he walked. The ground began to change and he realised he had already begun to climb slowly above the flat grassy meadows towards the high hills which had seemed so distant. Should he cross the mountains? Would he be able to? What would he find on the other side? It was both exciting and scary at once. He had no doubt that different kinds of monsters would call the high places home.
He had long finished the meagre provisions given to him and his stomach complained constantly. He worried about how he would feed himself. But he pressed on, there was nothing worthwhile behind him. He kept walking though he felt weak. He had tried using presence to leap along to make faster progress but it just wouldn’t come. This really frightened Sam, without his telekinetic abilities he was defenceless. Yet, despite his powers waning Sam could feel the presence of another. It was so faint as to be almost invisible. The words of the woman back at the village echoed in his thoughts ‘You’re getting ever closer to the Rivenrok Complex’. Getting ever closer to the Riven King, thought Sam ruefully. But he didn’t know what else to do other than walk. There was nothing behind him worth seeing, that was for sure. Perhaps if he got up into the mountains he would be able to see something below worth heading towards.
The sun was again already under the horizon when Sam finally found a place to stop his seemingly endless trudge. It was an old ring of stones, a small henge. It would offer no shelter but at least the standing stones were something he could put his back to. He sat, his knees drawn up to his chest as the sky grew darker, trying not to notice how the long grass was flattened in places. Clearly something visited this lonely spot. Sam just hoped that it didn’t come tonight.
He must have dozed off, exhausted as he was. He awoke to the sound of sniffing. He moved with a start and something leapt away with a strange bark. He was full awake then and on his feet. The animal approached again, curious. It was one of the weird hairless dog-like creatures, known as chupacabre. It approached warily staying just out of reach, a low rumble sounding in its throat. It showed long teeth as the growl grew louder. Sam raised a hand towards it. His presence came and the animal let out a yelp as Sam lifted it and threw it away out into the grass. He heard it land with a thump some distance away. Two more canine faces appeared around one of the standing stones. The snarling began again. Sam looked around wildly. He was surrounded.
The other beasts were more cautious to attack and kept their distance at first, making sure there was a circle around him. Every now and then one would dart forward to snap at him and Sam would tense ready to use presence and they would dart away again. Then one came too close and Sam had to use his presence, this time he was barely able to toss the animal a few metres. The others saw this and became bolder and angrier but still they prowled warily. Then, suddenly, they all turned as one at some unheard sound and with their strange yelping cry they scattered.
Sam did not relax. He did not know what had scared them off. He held his breath, his back to a stone, silent as he could be. Then he heard a sound which sent ice into his blood. The howl of a garoul. It approached him in full view, slowly, on two legs like a man, eyes fixed on him. It walked towards him boldly, dropping to all fours as it came. The smaller chupacabre gathered around it, yipping excitedly, following it towards where Sam stood. One got too close and the garoul snapped viciously at it, not even breaking its slow stride. It’s bite opened a great gash in the creature’s flank. It screamed in pain and darted away. The other chupacabre immediately fell upon it, tearing it apart in a flurry of excitement. The garoul watched the chupacabre feast as it padded slowly towards Sam and then it turned its head back towards him. Sam readied his presence and prayed he would be able to call on it.
A few metres away the garoul stopped. Within seconds the chupacabre had finished eating the injured one, like piranhas they had flensed the flesh from its bones. They gathered back around the garoul at a respectful distance. Suddenly, Sam heard a snarl behind him. He whipped his head around. Three more garoul had him surrounded. He hadn’t even heard them approach. Then, as one, they attacked.
At first, Sam’s presence came fluidly again. He moved easily around the inside of the stone circle. For what felt like an age Sam was gloriously like his old self in the battles he had had with Weewalk, Kya and Hadan by his side. He span and pushed, attacking the beasts, killing where he could get a firm enough mental grip. But still they came as though his presence attracted them like a magnet and Sam began to tire. Eventually, he felt himself really weaken and his presence began to stutter. He suddenly realised that in his present state he didn’t have it in him to win.
He was going to die here and no-one would ever know. These creatures would pick the meat from his bones and then probably eat those too. He almost laughed. He had once almost believed that he was special in some way and that he might be the hero of some prophecy. As his last bit of energy went into pushing away a garoul that snapped towards him he wondered what his death would mean to the future. He was supposed to have survived and eventually, in some distant time, have had children who would have eventually brought about Ferus at the end of a long ancestry. Was that all a lie? Another of Tarak’s tricks? Would the future just change and morph to heal itself around Sam’s premature death? Would it be better this way? Finally, he sank exhausted to the grass.
A dark shape leaped high into the ring of stones landing in front of Sam. Sam closed his eyes and readied himself for the attack. He expected that the first thing he would feel was teeth or claws at his throat so he was surprised to feel something touch his shoulder, although he could not suppress the flinch.
Sam’s eyes flew open and he found himself looking into a terrible face. He pushed himself backwards in shock. The face was close to his own. Partly shadowed by a Riven style black cloak Sam could see a bald head under the cloth and a network of scars, puckered lines across a pale face. Only one eye stared at him, the other eye was welded shut by a criss-cross mess of old wounds. It was the face from some terrible nightmare. Sam had never seen anything like it. So many scars.
‘Move!’ the man commanded with an accent that Sam didn’t recognise. ‘Get up! Come on, fight!’
Then the man turned and fired presence at the attacking beasts. White lightning crackled from his fingers. The rogue, thought Sam trying to get his feet underneath him. By the time he had struggled to a standing position, slumped against one of the stones, the rogue had sent the attackers yelping away into the night. Sam slid back down the stone. The rogue faced away from him, looking out into the night at the fleeing garoul. After a minute he turned back to Sam, pulling his hood back away from his head. Sam saw more scars appear, shiny in the moonlight.
‘Are you hurt?’ said the rogue.
Sam shook his head. ‘Just exhausted,’ he said.
‘I’m afraid we have not finished yet,’ the rogue said.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Sam.
The rogue just gave a g
rim smile and turned quickly to throw his hands up, pushing upwards with a powerful presence. A massive hairy fist passed over his head, deflected by his push, smashing into one of the standing stones, showering Sam and the rogue with chips of rock and dust. The sitecah roared.
‘I have,’ said the rogue with a grimace ‘not been able to get rid of him since you found him yesterday.’
Another fist came flying down out of the sky.
‘We’d better run.’
‘I’m not sure I can’ said Sam.
The rogue pointed one arm towards him and pushed him high off into the distance. Sam flew like he was a limp doll pulled backwards on a giant elastic band, although he landed softly enough. The rogue landed next to him a second later.
‘I’ll push you and then follow,’ he said.
Sam was jettisoned into the sky again, flopping like a puppet with cut strings in his tiredness. Again the rogue landed next to him a moment later. In this way they were able to cover quite a distance quickly. As they flew, wind whistling in his ears, Sam heard the faint howl of the garoul and an answering cry from the sitecah. After a while he and the rogue stopped their flight and, near a rocky outcrop with good views around, they came to rest. Sam let out a deep breath, lying back in the grass.
‘Thank you,’ he said shakily.
‘You have done well to survive out here.’ The man sat down next to him.
‘I saw you out in the plains the other night, didn’t I?’ said Sam.
‘Ah yes. I thought you had seen me,’ nodded the rogue. ‘Would you like something to eat?’
