The Voyage of the Minotaur

by Wesley Allison

  He ran his hands down her body. She was thin and her dress had a lot of lace. She was wearing a corset and a bustle. Then he felt the warm, slick feeling of blood. He more carefully felt her torso. There were two wounds cutting through dress, corset, and stomach. With each beat of her heart, blood oozed out of the two holes. He ripped the blindfold from around her head and stuffed it into one of the knife wounds. Then he pulled the cloth gagging her down over her chin and found another wad of cloth in her mouth. He took this and pressed it into the second wound.

  “Terrence,” the woman said, weakly.

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s only me.”

  “Yuah?” It had taken him a moment to recognize the strong dressing maid in the fragile response, but now he knew. “Yuah?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yuah, you love me?”

  “Yes,” was the almost inaudible reply.

  Suddenly it was as if a hundred people had burst into the room. The sounds of voices were all around—people shouting, people swearing, people asking questions. Yuah was ripped from his hands and pulled away. He was pulled to his feet and shuffled aside. Somebody, he didn’t realize whom, but in retrospect he thought it was Mercy Calliere, had shaken him and asked him what had happened.

  “It was Kesi,” he managed to say. “Kesi stabbed her.”

  He didn’t say anything about Pantagria or the drug. Who would care? Who would care that a drug addict had been poisoned. Who would care that Kesi had… changed someone who didn’t even exist.”

  Taken by the shoulders, Terrence was led away from Kesi’s apartment. He didn’t know where he was being taken until he got there. Once there, he knew he was being ushered into Iolanthe’s headquarters tent. He was guided to a chair and sat down. Then he was left alone for some time. He wasn’t sure how long it was. He knew that it wasn’t as long as it seemed. His adrenaline was up and his heart was racing and he was in pain. Finally the tent flap swished aside and someone stepped in.

  “Kafira, Terrence,” said Iolanthe. “He really beat the crap out of you. You look awful. Let me go get someone.”

  “Iolanthe?”

  “Yes?”

  “Nothing.”

  His sister left. Again he was alone in the tent. His body was beginning to feel pain again and there were few parts of it that did not partake of that activity. What hurt the most were the ribs on his left side. This was no surprise since both Pantagria and Kesi had managed to strike them or to have him fall on them again and again. The pain was steadily increasing. Suddenly he couldn’t breathe. He tried to cry out but couldn’t. He tried to stand up, but instead slid down from his chair onto the ground, passing into unconsciousness before he hit the ground.

  “There’s not really much left of him, is there?”

  Terrence knew the speaker was speaking about him, before he knew who the speaker was, or that he was awake, or even that he was alive. He thought that if he were really dead, he’d be in hell, probably with Pantagria. He tried to look around, forgetting that he had no eyes. He clicked his tongue on his teeth in resignation. He continued listening to the voice.

  “How long until he wakes up?” It was Zeah Korlann.

  “I don’t know.” It was Padgett Kelloran.

  “I’m awake,” said Terrence.

  “Master Terrence. Thank God you’re alive.” Zeah placed his hand over Terrence’s. “We were all so worried. The Doctor had to cut into your chest and bleed you.”

  “I didn’t think doctors did that anymore.”

  “It was a collapsed lung,” said Dr. Kelloran. “You were bleeding into your chest cavity. I had to release the pressure or you would have died.”

  “Yuah?”

  “Yuah will be fine, thanks to you,” said Zeah. “I owe you for that, Master Terrence, I truly do.”

  “She’s okay?”

  “Yes, she’s fine. It’s been… Well, you’ve been unconscious for four days.”

  “Kesi?”

  “There’s been no sign of him. Miss Dechantagne… your sister thinks that he escaped into the forest. Nobody saw him leave, but the sentries we have are watching the wall for lizzies trying to sneak in, not someone trying to get out. Most are untrained, too.”

  “So the Dormouse has already left port?”

  “Yes.”

  “One more decision made for me.”

  “Now Terrence,” said Dr. Kelloran. “We need to get you to eat something.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “You need to eat,” she said. “You look like you haven’t eaten in almost a month.”

  “That’s probably about how long it’s been.”

  “Really, Master Terrence,” said Zeah. “You have no idea what you look like.”

  “I have no idea what anything looks like.”

  “Put that self-pity away,” said a voice from across the room. Terrence realized he didn’t even know what room he was in at the same time he realized who the speaker was.

  “Yuah?”

  “Yuah, you should still be in bed,” said Zeah.

  “I’m fine, Papa. I’ve had enough healing draughts poured down me to bring a rump roast back to life.”

  “All right. At least sit down.”

  Terrence could hear a chair being pulled over to the side of his bed.

  “We’ll just leave the two of you to sit and talk for a while,” said Zeah. “Maybe you can convince him to eat something.”

  “They are serving soup right now,” said Yuah. “Why don’t you send up a tray? Make sure you get some of those yellow fruits that they found along the coast. I’ll get him to eat.”

  “I’ll be back to check on you,” said Dr. Kelloran, and then Terrence could hear her and Zeah leaving and could hear the door closing after them.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” he said to Yuah.

  “I’m fine. After you’ve been turned to stone, a little stabbing is nothing at all. They’re right. You really do look horrible.”

  He reached up self-consciously to see that his wretched eyes were bandaged over. They were.

  “You always say that,” he said. “I’ve probably looked worse before.”

  “No. You really haven’t. If you don’t eat and regain your strength, you won’t make it.”

  “What difference does it make?”

  “It makes a difference to me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I love you.”

  “Why?”

  “Criminy, I don’t know. God knows there’s no good reason. You’ve done nothing but insult and ignore me my whole life. I mean you were either insulting me or ignoring me, not that you were insulting and ignoring me at the same time, because that wouldn’t be possible, really.”

  “I can’t tell if you are smiling or not.”

  “How cruel of me. So, what happened?”

  “With what?”

  “With Kesi. You didn’t come to rescue me, although you did rescue me. Thank you, by the way. Why did you come to find him? I heard you say you were poisoned.”

  “We left Enclep and I hadn’t had a chance to get…”

  “White opthalium,” she completed his sentence.

  “Yes.” He stopped for a moment. “I asked Kesi to get me some. He did, but he poisoned it with something.”

  “Why did you get it from him?”

  “I just happened to run into him. You know he killed all those women.”

  “I know. I was almost one of them. He probably stabbed Egeria Lusk, too.”

  “That means I killed an innocent man.”

  “Murty wasn’t innocent. If he wasn’t guilty of murder, he wasn’t innocent. Don’t forget about all the children he… oh, I can’t even say it.”

  “Well, he was just one of the ones I killed.”

  “Augie’s death was not your fault.”

  “Yes it was.”

  “No, it wasn’t. Augie’s death was Augie’s fault.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “I wi
ll say it, because it’s true. You know it, and I know it, and even your sister knows it. Augie was the one who was in charge of communicating with the lizardmen. He should have seen what was coming and he didn’t. He was too busy, well, being Augie to pay attention. He never really considered anything on this continent to be a threat to us with our rifles and steam engines.”

  “You should have seen him,” said Terrence. “I never saw him in action before. When we were in the army, we were stationed apart. I was in cavalry and he was artillery, you know.”

  “Yes, I know. I never understood that.”

  “What?”

  “He just doesn’t… didn’t seem like an artillery officer.”

  “Maybe. But you should have seen him against the lizardmen. He was brave. He was in command. I wasn’t even there. I was…”

  “With Pantagria?”

  “Yes. How do you know her name? I’ve never said it aloud.”

  “Yes, you did, a long time ago, when we were children. Well, I was a child. You were almost a man. I heard you say her name, when you were taking the cure.”

  “I never did take the cure. I never did stop. I kept using it. Now I can’t.”

  “Because of your eyes?”

  “No. Because Kesi destroyed her.”

  “What was she like?”

  “She was like an angel. She was perfect. I guess she had to be. She was what my own mind turned the drug into.”

  “Was she beautiful?”

  “Yes, but she was just the drug.”

  “I know that. I’ve always known that.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You would have never listened to me.”

  “I’m not going to see her again,” said Terrence after a moment. “I can’t even if I wanted to. I do want to, but I can’t.”

  “I think that’s good. I think you should live your life without ‘seeing’.”

  “I don’t know if I can.”

  “Of course you can,” said Yuah. “I’m going to help you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three: What Happened by the Stream

  “I don’t like being outside of the wall,” said Senta, sitting on a rock and rubbing her hand along the supple neck of the steel dragon.

  “There is absolutely nothing to fear, Pet,” said Zurfina, taking off her shoes, and stepping into the cool water of a small stream. “Between the two of us, we have rescued Captain Dechantagne and brought down an entire empire. Granted, it was an inhuman, stone-aged civilization. What exactly are you afraid of?”

  “Velociraptors.”

  “Don’t start crying about that again.” Then she mocked, “Velociraptors. Velociraptors.”

  “They tried to eat me.”

  “I was once almost eaten by a hydra—a hydra with nine heads. That’s much more frightening than a few glorified turkeys. Come here and put your feet in this water. It is delightful.”

  “Turkey,” said the dragon. “Turkey pot pie.”

  “You’re not hungry,” said Senta, moving to a rock closer to the stream and dangling her toes in the chilly water.

  “Turkey. Turkey. Turkey.”

  “What do you think of this spot?” asked Zurfina. “Well, that spot over there, really.”

  She pointed to a place just above the west bank of the stream where several large maples grew.

  “It’s fine,” said Senta. “Why?”

  “I’m thinking we should build our home right here.”

  “This is a long way from everybody else.”

  “Not really. It’s less than six miles to the gate. We need to be far enough away from everybody else to maintain a sense of mystery.”

  “I’m tired of being mysterious. I want to be near my friends.”

  “Friends,” said the dragon. “Friends pot pie.”

  “That’s just disturbing,” said Senta.

  Zurfina sighed. “I suppose we could find someplace closer to the gate.”

  “Besides,” said Senta. “This place is probably going to flood when it rains.”

  Zurfina looked down at the water running over her feet, and then at the spot she had suggested for their home, and raised her eyebrows.

  “Huh,” she said.

  “Hello beautiful ladies,” said an accented voice from the east side of the stream.

  Senta and Zurfina both looked up to see Suvir Kesi standing beneath a large pine. He wore his usual bright blue clothes and yellow fez with a blue tassel on top. He held his right hand straight out and dangled an 8 ½ x 11 inch sheet of paper.

  “Uuthanum,” he said, and the paper burst in flame from the bottom, burning upwards as if it had been soaked in lamp oil.

  “What the hell was that supposed to be?” asked the sorceress.

  “A bit of mathematics,” Kesi giggled. “A result of the mechanism, you might say.”

  “Silly thing to die over,” said Zurfina, “Uuthanum.”

  She pointed to him with her right index finger, but nothing happened.

  “Uuthanum uluchaiia uluthiuth!” shouted Kesi, raising both hands, and pressing them together, palms up.

  A sphere of flame formed as he pulled his palms apart. Only two inches across, it surged and swirled there for a second, then shot toward the sorceress. In the thirty feet or so between the two of them, the ball of flame grew until when it hit Zurfina, it was six feet across. It exploded into a huge flash, knocking Senta away and into the water. When she looked back, she saw Zurfina completely on fire, her clothing and even her hair in flames. She too fell into the water, in a cloud of steam and smoke. Kesi let out another shrill laugh.

  Senta couldn’t believe it, but Zurfina climbed back to her feet. Most of the black leather pants and leather corset she was wearing were gone, as was most of her blond hair. Her skin was scorched and when she moved, it cracked hideously. She pointed her finger again at Kesi.

  “Uuthanum uastus corakathum paj,” she hissed. Again nothing happened.

  “Bechnoth uuthanum pestor paj,” said Kesi, stretching out his hand.

  A cone of cold, like the simple spell that Senta had learned her first day with Zurfina, but much larger and more powerful sprang from the wizard’s hand. The frosty air cut through the space between the two spellcasters, centering on Zurfina. In seconds, frost formed to cover her entire body, even freezing the stream for ten feet or more around her.

  Senta let out a shriek and ran for the protection of the nearest tree on the opposite side of the river from where Kesi stood. She ducked behind a redwood three feet in diameter and dropped to her knees.

  “Don’t go far!” called Kesi. “I have something I need to show you!”

  It wasn’t the wizard, but a crashing sound that made Senta look around the tree. Just as she had suspected, Zurfina had broken out of the icy prison, melting the frost on her body and the ice in the stream. Senta had always thought that Zurfina could not be harmed by magic, but now the sorceress looked very unsteady. She reached up and snatched something out of the air near her face and threw the invisible object at Suvir Kesi. Whatever it was must have hit near him, because from out of the ground around his feet sprang a dozen black tentacles, each more than ten feet long. They immediately began grappling with the man. Zurfina dropped backwards into a sitting position in the chilly water.

  Senta watched as Kesi pulled out a large curved dagger and began to hack at the tentacles, which wrapped themselves around his legs, arms, and neck. There was a real look of panic in his face, but after a moment, he began cutting more of the slippery black tentacles than grew to replace the ones lost. A look of triumph came over him and he slashed with renewed vigor until the last of the squiggly conjurations were gone. Throughout it all, Zurfina sat unmoving, the six-inch deep water flowing around her.

  “Nothing to say?” asked Kesi, looking down at the sorceress. “Power all gone? I don’t think so. You still look a little feisty to me.”

  “Uuthanum rechthinov uluchaiia,” he said.

  Even as he did so, the sorcere
ss grabbed another of the glamours floating around her head and threw it. It looked as though it took all her energy to do so. A bolt of lightning shot from Kesi’s hand directly at her. But a misty form, shaped like the spectral hand of some ghostly giant appeared out of nowhere, palm raised up like that of a police constable directing traffic, and the lightning bolt ricocheted away at a sharp angle.

  “That was it, wasn’t it?” said the wizard. “Now you’re done. Thank goodness for that mechanical contraption. Without it, I never would have been able to formulate a spell powerful enough to counter magic that, well let’s be honest, is normally greater than mine by a factor of four.”

  Suddenly a steel streak shot out of the sky and hit Kesi in the chest so hard it knocked him to the ground. The steel dragon dug all four claws into the wizard’s flesh, and sank sharp fangs into his neck. Kesi shrieked and crawled around pulling at the dragon with both hands, but it was as if he was fighting with a buzz-saw. Claws raking across his chest and teeth attempting to rip out his jugular.

  At last, as if realizing he was a wizard, Kesi shouted out. “Uuthanum.”

  The little dragon went flying away from the man, taking fistfuls of flesh with him and trailing blood. It crashed into a large tree, and even across the distance of thirty feet or more, Senta could hear the snap of one of the small wing bones breaking against the tree trunk. The little armored creature landed in a clump on the ground.

  “Ah! You scaly mongrel bastard!” shouted Kesi in an unnaturally high voice, getting up to his knees, and pressing his hands over his wounds. “Oh, you’ll pay for that!”

  Senta looked over at Zurfina, who sat exactly as she had been sitting. The tiny jewels that floated around the sorceress’s head, that had been invisible to everyone but Senta, circled around. Then as the girl watched, they began to pop, like so many soap bubbles, one after the other. With what seemed to be a great deal of effort, Zurfina tilted her head up and watched the glamours disappearing. Pop, pop, pop, they went, until there were six, five, four, three. The sorceress shook herself. The last three little sparkly jewels continued to circumnavigate her head. Reaching slowly up, she plucked one of the last three and looked at it in her hand.