Book Read Free

Secrets of the Elders Kindle Version

Page 8

by David Matthew Almond


  “Amazing that such a weapon is just out of reach, unknown to them with the Crystal in darkness!” he wondered at the irony, how many of the people lying dead on the ground could have been spared had they known?

  Logan jabbed his staff hard into the side of the free insect, as it batted the citizen by his side back to the ground. The soldier joined in, firing her gun at its head, and flinching as bullets harmlessly bounced off its armored skin.

  “We need to get out of here while the other two are distracted!” his brother yelled to his companions as they furiously fought the lone insect.

  Corbin seized his opportunity while the skex were fully distracted trying to separate from each other; flinging himself over the dead monster he had been using as cover, and making a beeline for the defense spear behind his brother. Logan had just fallen onto his back, barely rolling away from the insect’s tail, as it whipped across the air. He hopped to his feet as Corbin came running across his limited view, like a ghost emerging from the shadows yelling. “To the left, by your feet!” One second he was there, then just as quickly, he was gone, leaving Logan to ponder whether he had just seen a phantom or perhaps even a flickering piece of his imagination playing tricks on him. He judged the truth of his brother’s arrival, when stooping down to blindly grope around his feet, his fingers found the odd relic of a rifle he had taken from Elder Morgana back in Riverbell.

  Jumping into the seat of the machine, Corbin started furiously working the crank, spinning it hard with both hands. He moved the weapon in the wrong direction at first, then realizing his error reversed, to aim at the two struggling insects. Once they were in his sight, the larger skex must have sensed its doom. Recognizing its vulnerability, the massive beast sheered the smaller one’s head off, sacrificing its sister to save itself. The monster growled in defiance just as Corbin brought the weapon’s sight down to point directly at its head. With a tight squeeze of the trigger, the spear shot out of the machine with a large snapping sound, shaking the floor where it was securely bolted and shoving him back hard against the seat. Straight through the beast’s compound eye, and deep into its body, the barbed steel spear tore. The creature’s insides began shooting out in a stream where the spear had pierced. Screeching, the dying skex took two staggering steps, before its face came down with a crunch into the stone floor.

  At the same time, Logan aimed the laser rifle he had retrieved, his blood pumping hard with the elation of finally regaining some sort of advantage in this fight. The remaining beast came on furiously, smashing one of its crab-like pincers down hard on his left hand and pinning him to the stone floor. The pain of shattered bones coursed through his body like an electric current, stifling his breath as he winced, grinding his teeth together.

  The only thing stopping the skex from goring him on the spot was the swift reaction of the soldier, who was back on her feet and running the civilian’s spear in at the monster. Catching it right between its rows of armored plates, she gave them just enough of a distraction. Logan squirmed, frantically trying to break loose from the hulking monster’s grip. His blood curdling scream made Corbin jump, as he watched his own prey falling off the edge of the parapet.

  Robbed from the moment of triumph, he had to shield his eyes from a succession of bright flashes, followed by a series of loud screeching sounds as the laser rifle blasted through the skex’ armored hide, leaving the beast to fall dead on its side. Freed from the monster’s weight, Logan dropped his weapon, dumbly staring at what was left of his hand and roaring in pain. All of his fingers were shorn right down to the knuckle leaving only a thumb, brokenly jutting at a weird angle from the crushed area of pulpy flesh where his hand used to be, as fountains of blood squirted out from the mortal wound.

  Corbin screamed for his brother, jumping down from the weapon. Before he even made it to Logan’s side, the soldier was there, already tying off his wrist with a makeshift tourniquet of cloth that she had quickly torn from her pant leg.

  “Do you have any medi-gel?!” Corbin anxiously asked, but the woman was already squeezing some of the stuff onto the nubs of his brother’s hand. Desperately grasping his brother’s shirt, Corbin pulled him up onto his lap, and began pleading for him to stay coherent, “Logan talk to me, stay with me!”

  “Those glasses look ridiculous, little bro...” the delirious man said, smirking at him just before passing out.

  The soldier began to chuckle, “Man, this guy is something else! If he hadn’t shown up when he did, we would all be dead for sure.” She said, shaking her head at the insanity of it all.

  “We need to get my brother back inside the city to a healer now!” he replied, as he pulled Logan up onto his shoulder while the soldier was working to grab his legs. They carried him just behind the defense spear, where she said there should be a doorway, but needed his help finding it in the dark. Once inside the corridor one of the soldiers quickly brought them to the healer’s barracks.

  “You are damn lucky son. Not only to survive a fall like that, but then to find your brother on top of it all. You Walker boys are heroes, no doubt about that.” One of the older soldiers mumbled to him, chewing on the butt of a cigar while his arm was being stitched up.

  Corbin dimly heard the man, lost in his stomach churning worry over his brother’s wellbeing. He looked over his shoulder at the soldier, then down at the remnants of Logan’s hand, and muttered to himself. “Lucky? Yeah right...lucky…”

  At the apex of Fal, on the highest wall of the city, a door banged opened. Out of the twelve levels of the capitol, only the top two had yet to be breached by the invading horde. The battle below was at somewhat of a standstill, a short reprieve as the soldiers were retreating into the city walls to regroup, carrying the wounded to safety. Taking the advantage, as the swarm of carnivorous insects distracted itself to feast on their already captured prey. Some of the people were still alive as the skex were ripping them apart. Elder Alan looked down at the grisly scene of carnage from the top level, despair filling his heart to see the great massacre in his beloved homeland.

  From the doorway, Lady Cassandra emerged, just catching up to her husband, her white hair and ivory robes whipped around in the wind, as she made her way over to him.

  “Alan, stop this madness at once!” She weakly demanded, out of breath from the run, and knowing there was nothing she could do to stop the man she loved from protecting his people.

  He regarded his wife painfully for a moment, almost looking as if the thought of losing her was too much to bear. Her heart surged with hope for a fleeting moment, thinking he had changed his mind.

  “There is nothing else to it, my dear Cassandra. The day has come and it must be done.” Somberly he stroked his massive braided beard as he spoke. “Now, get yourself back inside where it is safe, my love.” He said soothingly, gently pushing her back by the shoulders into the shelter of the stairwell.

  Lady Cassandra lost herself in his eyes, silently imploring him not to leave. Her husband nodded down at her, hearing her voice in his mind and pulled her trembling body close to his, smelling her hair for the last time. Then Alan abruptly spun around before she could react and slammed the stone door shut, locking her inside the stairwell.

  Alan turned his back to the woman he had loved for almost two centuries, through his hard life she had meant everything to him. “All the happiness in the world could be found in that woman’s smile,” he thought to himself, “but this must be done.” The finality of it all hit him as he made his way to the large dais that was set in the middle of the parapet. An enormous obsidian egg that was twice the very tall man’s height rested in its center.

  Cassandra could hardly find the air to breathe; tears seemed to be flowing from every pore of her body as she choked on her sorrow. Alan had put in the code to seal the gate, leaving her inside feeling helpless in the face of his imminent sacrifice. He gave one last look at his wife, through the window of the stairwell, before flipping the switch to activate the
powerful weapon.

  The egg opened with a mechanical whir, revealing the smallest steps to enter a chamber. Once inside he stretched his arms out above his head, locking them into the harness, which automatically began the process. The whirring continued to build in its crescendo as metal coils sealed around his forearms and clamps clasped his legs firmly in place. His robes were tossed about, as the air began to crackle with energy inside the egg. On the smooth outer surface colors ran in waves flowing brown to green then back to black again.

  Alan’s command had to be shouted, above the machine’s deafening roar, the whirring sound was now so loud it shattered his eardrums, blood running down his neck. The air literally cackled, as whips of energy began lashing anything not bolted down off the platform, pieces of stone showered over the wall, raining down on the swarm below. Some of the skex stopped gorging on their meals, their frenzy interrupted by this new commotion.

  “Farewell, my dear. I will always be with you Cassandra!” the man shouted, although his words would never be heard over the deafening sound as the countdown ended inside the weapon. Behind the sealed stone doors, Lady Cassandra’s screams were lost under the cacophonous wave of energy, as she pounded hysterically on the window for her husband. In her mind, she could hear his screams as the obsidian egg tore his life essence apart, using it as fuel to power itself.

  Lost in the deepest anguish a human can experience, she slammed her forehead against the door as if it would silence his screams of agony that were wracking her mind. With weak legs, shaking and unable to keep her upright, Cassandra fell to the floor sobbing.

  The machine lit up in a brilliant blue glow, taking all of the man’s essence and melting it into raw energy that was building up inside the ancient oblong mechanism. A massive concussive force hit the walls, as the obsidian egg fired large waves of blinding green plasma off its surface in all directions. The stuff was hotter than lava, yet moved down the city walls like a tidal wave, so much spewing forth that not an inch of the area was left uncovered. Everything it touched except for the marble melted under the sheer heat of the otherworldly ooze, absorbing into it, making the plasma stronger as it moved further down. It was only an instant, a blinding hot minute, and the insects were burned completely away, along with all their victims’ mutilated bodies. One blinding flash and the only thing left was a half circle at the city’s base, where the plasma had flowed into the grated moat built for just this contingency plan. A handful of insects were all that remained in the air, fleeing from the site of their near genocide. The battle was over, the city of Fal saved, and Lady Cassandra’s husband was gone forever.

  Chapter 8

  “Stop that, Logan Walker, you fresh little devil!” Maggie lightly slapped his hand away, blushing as she playfully shooed him back, pawing her hand in the air.

  “Well maybe not now then, Mag…” He toyed with her, noticing that the more he smirked, the redder her cheeks blossomed.

  She gave a couple more paws toward him, covering her mouth as she left the room so he could not see her smile. Not that it mattered anyhow, as if he could not hear her giggling with the other medical workers down the hallway immediately after leaving.

  “Ah well, at least I tried.” He thought, stretching his arms and legs out on the cot. All the medical equipment had been removed from his room now leaving only the bare essentials. Logan stood up, looking around the room for where they had stored his boots. He could not expect to sneak out of the place without boots now, could he?

  “No, definitely not.” He decided, shaking his head, while still wearing the smirk. Three days ago, he had been able to pry some info out of a porter who stopped in nightly to play some cards with him and until this point Logan had still been too weak to make any use of it. But today…today was different, he felt excellent, right back to his old self.

  “Well, except for my new friend.” he thought, looking down to where his hand used to be. The medical team had done their finest work saving his life, when he had arrived. Medi-gel aside, he was losing a lot of blood. The healers stemmed the bleeding quickly enough, but his hand was ruined beyond repair, fingers and knuckles left back in the carnage of the battle somewhere. After they finished, the Elder’s personal bio-engineers had quickly taken over. They worked methodically to install the new hand, first melding his nervous system to the cybernetic circuitry, then the vessels, muscle, and ligaments were all replaced with hydraulic pistons and gears. His new hand was covered with a thin soft elastic coating. It looked metallic but felt slightly squishy. One of the older healers claimed the stuff was as strong as any steel blade. Logan wiggled the fingers of the mechanical miracle, delighting in the spectacle of hydraulic drives seamlessly responding to his nervous system.

  Logan was never one to dwell over the past, not since a tragedy of youth robbed him of feeling. Initially, he had been quite distressed to find out his natural born hand was gone, as was only natural. However, as the days passed, he realized his body was getting used to the new appendage and before he knew it, the new hand was something he was just accustomed to, functioning so naturally he began to forget it was even mechanical. He knew in his heart that he was more than fortunate to have received such an amazing gift.

  “If only it wasn’t so damned shiny though,” he lamented again, this time out loud. He had tried to coax them into coating it with a dermal layer one of the nurses informed him of, but the staff said the High Council would not authorize any further expense. The work they had already done was rare enough, only given to him as a reward for saving the capitol with his warning, and it was not as if he had the funds to pay for such an expensive procedure on his own.

  Logan peeked around the open doorway, looking up and down the corridor to see who was around. There were the boots resting on a pad just outside in the hallway! Snatching them, he instantly went to work getting his things together, saving the new black leather gloves that some of the nurses had pitched in to buy him, for last. Apparently, his ceaseless flirting had paid off, with the women giggling about the green-eyed devil’s shameless flirting. They should disguise his hand just enough to blend in, as everyone in the medical center seemed to know about the young man who had saved the city, marking him by the mechanical appendage.

  Another quick glance around the doorway into the corridor, to make sure no one was about, and Logan made a dash for the exit. If he did not take this opportunity, the chance may not come again, especially once his nagging little brother came to pick him up for their trip back to Riverbell.

  The great marketplace of Fal was alive with sounds and smells on that fine afternoon. It had been a short trip from the medical center to the large bustling square for Logan. At least folks called it a square, as is standard for such things, but it was more of a winding labyrinth filled with shop stalls, all arranged at odd angles, set up in no perceptible pattern. As the young man from Riverbell came closer, the bustle of people ahead was almost overwhelming being the most people he had ever seen in one place. All about vendors were shouting their wares and everywhere he looked customers and merchants were haggling over prices. The whole thing delighted him.

  Fires crackled as food carts cooked up their specialty dishes, made to order and guaranteed fresh. The square was just bursting with the people of Fal bustling about their daily routines. You would never even know to look at it, only two short weeks before, this city was under a life threatening attack. Logan deftly sauntered his way through the crowds, trying to blend in and not be such an obvious country bumpkin.

  Just when he began feeling comfortable with his city swagger, a lovely woman with thick black curls cut across his path, their eyes lingering for a moment, and he walked hard into a table of potatoes for sale. The vendor slapped the back of Logan’s head with the frond of an ent tree, yelling about the mess he had made and demanding payment for the damaged vegetables, while the girl giggled to her friends about the silly young man. Logan tried to apologize, scrambling to pick up the mess, while the ol
d woman just kept hitting him, until he finally gave up and dodged back into the crowd of benignly indifferent people.

  No one seemed to pay any attention to each other. People were so unaware of their surroundings; they were even bumping shoulders without a single word of apology. This was nothing like his village. Just past a stand selling ceramic bowls and another vendor peddling playing cards, the crowd opened to make way for a group dancing merrily in pairs. The band played on joyfully while couples twirled in circles, switching partners, dipping and laughing raucously. Crowds of shoppers stood around enjoying the spectacle, many clapping along with the music and rhythm of the musicians.

  Some passers’ by dropped coins into a donation box, which was guarded by a hawkish looking man who menacingly gripped a leather-laced club. He was watching this way and that, looking as if he dared someone to try to steal the money he was being paid to protect.

  Laughing at the scene, Logan moved on, walking by a food cart that was overflowing with citizens waiting to have their orders taken. The short, heavy woman behind the counter was calling dishes over her shoulder to the cooks. “Now there’s a woman who looks like she doesn’t need anyone guarding her money,” Logan thought. Shimmying in closer to see what they were cooking, he caught a mouth-watering smell wafting out of the oversized frying pans. The cooks skillfully worked to sauté hunks of meat, throwing strips of mushrooms and onions into a thick yellow curry. His stomach rumbled as his senses were assaulted by the exotic dish.

 

‹ Prev