by C Lee Tocci
“What’s your horse’s name, Jeff?” asked Nita.
“This trickster?” Jeff watched the horse’s ears closely. One was pointing forward, the other was straight back. “Look at him! He’s just waiting for his chance to throw me again!”
“We’ll call him ‘Rusty!’” Nita declared.
But no one ever did call that horse “Rusty”. Jeff kept calling him “the Trickster” and that’s the name that stuck.
“Your turn, Marla.” Todd turned to find Marla, standing stock still, staring with wide unblinking eyes at Jeff and the Trickster. “C’mon!”
When Marla wouldn’t move, Todd led her by the arm over to the placid brown mare that Nita had dubbed “Cocoa.” It took a bit of coaxing but Marla was finally up on its back. If Cocoa was aware of her passenger, she didn’t show it. She munched quietly on the tall grass and pretty much ignored her rider.
“Let’s try a few steps, okay?” Todd went to the horse’s head.
“No!” Marla hissed in a panicked whisper. “That’s okay. We’re good!”
“You really should try and walk with her a bit.” Todd tried to pull the horse’s head away from the grass, but Cocoa just butted him off and went back to munching.
“Todd! She’s eating!” Marla was aghast, as if Todd was being rude.
Slowly, gingerly and with no unnecessary movements, Marla reached down to pat Cocoa’s neck. Her touch was so faint that it seemed unlikely that the horse felt it, but Marla squealed loudly when the horse pulled up her head and looked back at her rider. Marla smiled shakily and wiggled her fingers.
“Nice horsie,” she squeaked.
Leaving the two of them to make their peace, Todd looked around for a mount for himself.
Afterwards, he was never sure if he picked the black horse or if the black horse picked him, but even before he pulled himself onto its back for the first time, he had dubbed his mount “Midnight.”
He was barely astride when Midnight took off at a trot. Todd grabbed at the mane and squeezed with his legs, trying to get his butt to stop jarring against the horse’s back with each step. He had a few seconds of feeling like he might actually have an iota of control when Midnight broke into a canter. Todd’s knuckles were white as he clutched the mane. He bent his head down next to the horse’s neck, wondering if biting the mane might help steady him. He squeezed his legs even tighter, trying to get his body to match the rise and fall of the horse’s stride. Midnight took this as a sign to go even faster. They galloped in a huge circle around the herd, only slowing when apparently Midnight got tired. They slowed to a merciful walk. Todd couldn’t have released the mane if he wanted to. His fingers shook. He felt as if all his blood was in his feet. He barely saw the others as Midnight walked slowly back to the center of the herd.
“Showoff!” Jeff muttered with a glare.
Todd had no idea what he was talking about.
The others stared at him, waiting for him to lead. Unable to trust his voice, he nodded for Donny, who had remounted, to go ahead and they started off.
“Hey Donny!” Nita’s voice rang out after they had walked for a while. “What’s your horse’s name?”
Donny looked down at his mount before turning back towards Nita.
“Horse.” He said simply.
Horse broke into a gentle trot and the others followed, heading steadily northeast.
Todd squinted at the black fleck circling lazily in the distant sky, but it wasn’t until they reached the cliffs that he realized that it wasn’t a raven, just a vulture. It settled on a bluff and watched them pass.
The bird stared unblinking and unmoving. Todd wondered if this was how vultures normally acted. Maybe it was hoping that one of them would fall off a horse and die. He looked back again. It was still there, staring at them. He rubbed his scalp.
When he looked back the third time, it was gone.
Beneath an icy halo of artificial light, Syxx sat, inert, his eyes burning venom into the darkened recesses of his office, the dismembered carcass of a vulture at his feet.
The failure of the Director to reclaim the child disturbed him more than he cared to reveal. The child’s escape from the infestation of Nether Rock might have been luck; the interference of the old Stone Warrior in the desert was unfortunate; but for her to have slipped through the noose of his security forces concerned him deeply.
That the child may actually survive long enough to reach Kiva was a possibility that must be considered. Syxx could no longer rely on the corruption of mankind and nature. It might be overkill, but the elimination of the child must be ensured.
Syxx slowed his breathing to a stop. His eyes rolled back so only the whites showed. Anyone foolishly entering his office at this hour of the night might have thought he had died of a stroke, sitting upright in his chair.
Yet no one was unfortunate enough to enter his office.
And from the acid of the night, the Chee-Tola was called.
Chapter Thirty Eight
The Grotto of the Chee-Tola
The horses carried them for hours and showed no signs of tiring, but their riders couldn’t make the same claim. The sun had set and the foothills cast eerie shadows in the dusk. They passed a grotto, nestled between two canyon walls, with a quiet stream running through it.
Todd no sooner said, “this might be a good place to camp,” when the herd stopped. Since they had no reins to guide them, he wondered if they understood his words.
Lilibit was asleep atop Old Auntie, her arms and legs dangling down the horse’s flank. The fact she had not fallen off was more to the credit of the gentle mare than to any aptitude of Lilibit’s. Old Auntie waited patiently while the travelers dismounted, their legs stiff and bruised from the unaccustomed riding. Todd helped Devon and Nita off their mounts before hobbling over to unload Lilibit. She mumbled and flopped against his shoulder, but didn’t wake up.
Todd carried her as he led the group into the narrow canyon. A small grassy meadow provided grazing for the horses and a soft bed for the travelers. The walls of the canyon were steep and close, Todd felt they could risk a small fire.
They sat in a ring around the fire while they unpacked the rations they had bought in Malagua. When Marla handed Lilibit a peanut butter sandwich, she shot a impish grin at Jeff.
“Any brown bead or baked beans left?” Lilibit asked innocently.
With a roar of mock fury, Jeff leapt, trying to smash her sandwich into her face, but Todd stopped him with a look. With a satisfied chuckle, Lilibit stuck out a peanut butter covered tongue at Jeff, who retaliated by flicking a pebble at her behind Todd’s back.
But everyone stopped laughing when Lilibit picked up the pebble and peered at it closely. No one breathed as she held it against her cheek, listening. After a long moment, she placed it back onto the ground and gave it a gentle pat. As one, they heaved a sigh of relief.
Sometimes a stone is just a stone.
A snail twitched.
Alongside a secluded brook, a snail shuddered. Possessed by some malignant force that took control of its meager nervous system, it crawled onto a nearby spit of unmarked sand. Upon that pristine surface, the snail began to carve a delicate arc. After completing barely half of a perfect circle, its simple network of nerves failed. With a scalding hiss, the snail tipped over, dying with a sizzle of smoke and spume.
The first snail was not quite dead when a second quavering snail inched its way out onto the sand, its trail continuing the arc etched into the silt.
In the colorless light of the waxing moon, one snail after another curled into lethal agony, hissing and fuming into oblivion. Before the night was over, the streambed was littered with smoldering snail corpses. Yet in the end, carved into the sand, was a perfect spiral of thirteen rings. Driven to completion, the last snail sizzled into death at the center of the spiral.
For a long still moment, nothing moved but the gentle current of the brook. Then, slowly the spiral began to pulse from beneath as if a fountain of sa
nd were bubbling up from the bowels of the earth.
By the raking light of the moon, a fetid head crested from the center of the spiral.
The Chee-Tola, Assassin of the Vortex, had been beckoned.
The neighing of nervous horses woke Todd. One hand reached for his staff while the other wiped the sleep from his eyes.
The horses’ ears were pointed back, their attention focused on a large boulder a little upstream of their camp. Todd scrambled to his feet, his staff at the ready.
A long shadow grew from behind the boulder and crawled slowly towards the sleeping travelers. From the gloom behind the rock, a figure emerged.
A groggy Lilibit ambled back into the clearing. She was fastening the button on her pants, having gone behind the boulder to add her own contribution to the local ecology.
Todd blew out an exasperated sigh, but he knew it wasn’t reasonable for him to be annoyed at Lilibit for his own jumpiness.
Lilibit stopped and patted her pants pockets. Frowning, she looked down at the ground and then turned to go back behind the boulder.
Todd started to settle back down, but his scalp still prickled. He rubbed at his hair as he glanced around the clearing, but he couldn’t see any potential threat. Then the horses began to whinny even louder.
The noise woke the others. They gaped as the stallion rear up and pawed at the air, as if sparring with some invisible foe. Then, neighing in terror, the horses bolted out of the canyon.
Todd hefted his staff. He scanned the dark shadows that lurked in the recesses of the canyon, but he couldn’t see anything that might have caused the horses’ panic. Everything was quiet. Very quiet. Unnaturally quiet. The others felt it too, you could see it in the way they rose to their feet and looked around.
A screaming caw made them jump. Todd whipped around to see a black blur streak down between the canyon walls. He caught a glimpse of a bird, one grey feather pale against the darkness, as it sliced the air overhead. Todd ducked as it passed and turned to watch as it shrieked upstream. It disappeared into the shadows and the night grew deathly quiet once more.
A movement, black on black, caught Todd’s eye and he peered at the spot where he’d thought he’d seen it, behind a boulder, upstream of where Lilibit stood. His voice caught in his throat as something emerged from the gloom.
Twenty feet above the unsuspecting Lilibit rose a huge serpent-like creature. Its snake-like torso glistened scaly black and its body was covered with claw-like barbs that flexed and curled like boneless fingers as if to lure its prey into its reach. Its head looked like a human head, despite its glowing pupil-less green eyes. It was as if this demon might once have been a man, but had been so corrupted that its soul had been sucked out and it morphed into this malevolent viper.
Lilibit read the fear in Todd’s eyes and turned, but didn’t have even a second to grasp what she saw, never mind react.
With a stabbing lunge, the serpent attacked. Its huge toothless mouth did something no human jaw could ever manage. With a wheezing creak, it opened to a gaping chasm, saliva dripping from its toothless gums. With a stabbing snap, it grabbed Lilibit in its jaws.
The creature drew itself up, its head towering above the grotto floor. All that could be seen of Lilibit were her legs, kicking from its mouth. It straightened its neck and jerked its head, trying to swallow the struggling girl.
Todd froze for one long second before leaping to try and grab Lilibit’s legs. He missed and fell to ground in a heap. He grabbed his staff and slammed it against the monster’s body, but it just bounced off harmlessly.
Grey Feather screamed back into the grotto. Todd was confused as it ignored the monster and dived at him instead. Todd swung his staff at it to sweep it off, but the bird swerved sharply and came back to peck at him again.
Grabbing his thigh as the beak jabbed into it, Todd felt his father’s knife where it hid, sheathed beneath his pant leg. He pulled it out as Grey Feather flew off. Grasping the haft in both hands, Todd struck deep into the flank of the beast.
The monster thrashed in pain; dark burgundy blood, flecked with pale green bile, spilled from the wound. It swung its tail at Todd’s head, lethal barbs fully extended, but Todd ducked, rolled, and sprang back to his feet. Then he stabbed it again.
The serpent lowered its head to see what was attacking it, and Marla leapt, grabbing at Lilibit’s twitching legs. It reared up again and Marla was pulled off the ground. Hanging on to Lilibit’s legs, she was wrenched back and forth in the air as it viciously snapped its head, trying to dislodge her.
Jeff ripped frantically through his backpack. Pulling out the dinner knives he’d snatched from Mesa del Tío’s cabin, he clenched one in his teeth and gripped one in each hand. He charged the beast and plunged the first knife into its tail. He pulled back in surprise as the blade sizzled and dissolved into smoke like a chip of dry ice thrown into a flame. The same thing happened to next two knives, but at least it looked like the beast suffered as well. Todd looked down at his own knife as he stabbed at the beast again, wondering why his blade was not disintegrating. Not that it mattered, though the beast bled, Todd didn’t think his little knife was doing much damage.
Grey Feather dove down into Todd’s face again, then flew up to peck at the beast’s head, at a spot just above its eyes. Gritting his teeth, Todd leapt onto the back of the beast and began shimmying up its back. He ignored the barbs that ripped into his skin as he stabbed his way up its spine.
Jeff reached back into his pack to grab more knives, but with his attention turned, he didn’t see the tail of the beast swinging towards him until it was too late. The tail caught him and he flew across the stream, crashing into the wall of the canyon. Blood streamed from where one of the treacherous barbs had slashed his arm. He pulled off his shirt and was wrapping it around the wound when a crack in the face of the cliff start to crumble.
The crack widened and a huge pair of dark eyes glowed from the abyss. Jeff screamed a warning to Todd.
Meanwhile, Donny stood, his arms fluttering in indecision. Devon and Nita were hurling small stones at the beast, so Donny picked up a boulder the size of a school desk and flung it at the monster like a cannonball. The rock struck its neck and the beast fell.
The earth shook as the snake whipped its tail against the ground in pain and fury. It rebounded to its full height and Lilibit’s ankles and feet were all that could be seen of her. Marla still clung to them, but with a snap, the beast thrashed her against the wall of the canyon. Her hold slipped and the next lash of his head sent Marla flinging over the stream and across the grotto, landing in the arms of Ulex.
Ulex broke through from the Nether Rock, the cavern wall splitting in front of him. He surfaced next to Jeff, just in time to catch Marla as she was whipped through the air. He looked down at the blood dripping from her head and immediately transformed into a rocky pillar of fury. Setting her gently onto the riverbank, he hefted his crystal staff and turned to face the beast.
“Kill!” Jeff ordered, pointing at the snake, as if Ulex was some kind of mutant attack dog.
Ulex could not understand his words but acted nonetheless. With a voiceless roar, he charged the snake. Bearing his staff as he would a spear, he thrust it through its tail, pinning it to the ground.
Lilibit could no longer be seen and the mouth of the beast now bellowed with pain and rage. Its roar caused small rockslides along the canyon walls and when the beast turned its head towards Ulex, it spit forth a stream of bile that engulfed the young Netherrockian in a wave of green acid.
The bile sizzled as it dripped, searing the grass and moss at Ulex’s feet, but when the flow stopped, Ulex opened all four sets of his eyelids. His crystalline skin was pocked and scored, but the acid dribbled off, leaving him only slightly hurt, but very angry.
All this time, while the others were attacking the beast, Todd was slowly crawling up its spine. Pierced and ripped by the barbs, Todd fought to ignore the pain. What was harder to ignore was Lilibit’s fate
. That she could no longer be seen was a reality he had to deal with. That she was dead was a reality he refused to face.
Finally, he reached the scaly head. Gripping the back of its neck with his knees, Todd grasped his knife with both hands and plunged it right into the spot that Grey Feather had pecked at, right above the creature’s eyes.
The snake roared and snapped his head back and forth. Todd clung to the haft of his knife and rode the dying serpent to the ground.
The beast twitched and frothed, its lidless eyes growing black and dim. Wrenching his blade from the skull, Todd leapt from its back and ran to the point where its torso swelled unnaturally. Frozen with shock, the others watched as Todd ripped open the bowels of the beast, exposing the lifeless form of Lilibit.
He used his knife to cut away a length of intestine wrapped around her neck and then pulled her out. He laid her on the ground. Her skin was blue and cold to the touch.
Wiping the bile from her face, he tilted back her head and tried to breathe life back into her mouth. Part of him knew it was futile, but he had to try.
He didn’t know how many minutes passed before Marla, the blood dry on her scalp, placed her hand on his shoulder.
“Todd,” she whispered hoarsely, “she’s gone.”
Devon broke from the circle. He patted Lilibit’s pocket then checked her clenched fists. Looking up, he met Todd’s eyes.
“Her stone’s missing.”
The others searched the ground frantically, Jeff even going so far as to gingerly rummage through the serpent’s intestines with a long stick.
Todd, however, recalled Lilibit’s reaction before the arrival of the beast when she had turned back to look for something on the ground. With a bound, he leapt over the carcass and ran to the streambed. There behind the boulder, fallen on the sand was Ewa-Kwan, Lilibit’s stone, glittering dimly in the moonlight.
