bedeviled & beyond 06 - bedeviled & befouled

by Sam Cheever

  “Told me what?”

  Gerch shook his head, “It is not my place.”

  “I’m sick to death of secrets.”

  He shrugged, staring off across the swamp.

  I stewed for a few minutes, wondering if I’d ever know what the hell was going on in my life. Which reminded me of something else I didn’t know. “You never told me what happened back there. While I was asleep.”

  “No. I didn’t.”

  I waited for the explanation but it never came. “Gerch?”

  “Leave it be, Astra.”

  Hearing him call me by my name in his deep, gravelly voice was strangely intimate. It touched me. But not enough for me to listen to his advice. “What are you hiding from me? You might as well cough it up. I’ll just keep annoying you until you tell me.”

  He turned, his craggy lips curving in a weary smile. “I’ve endured hours of agonizing torture as the king’s man. I think I can withstand you being annoying. Besides, it isn’t as if it would be something new.”

  I elbowed him in the side and was happy to hear him grunt softly under the impact.

  We sat in silence for a few minutes. I was too tired to sleep and too weary to stand. So I stared off into the swamp, noting a strange rippling across its surface. I picked up a pebble and threw it into the black water, watching it sink through the ripples and disappear. “Were we attacked?”

  “Astra...”

  “I was dreaming of being attacked. I was dreaming of fighting back. Somehow my brain must have known my power was back.” I stopped talking, a sudden realization taking my breath. “Gerch...was I fighting back?”

  He kept his gaze determinedly from mine. I grabbed his arm. “Was I shooting power in my sleep, Gerch? Did I cause that fire?”

  He frowned, leaning forward to slough off my hand. “I told you to let it be, Astra.”

  “And I told you I wouldn’t. I’m just going to keep at you until you give it up.”

  He shook his head. “That is your problem, halfling.”

  “What’s my problem, devil?”

  “You don’t understand that every action has a consequence that flows from it, touching everyone else in your life. Everything you do touches everyone you love. You do not live in a vacuum. Every time you create havoc it produces ripples.”

  “Ripples...” I frowned, my gaze skimming back to the concentric circles sliding away from us—away from the only raised, dry spot I’d seen since entering the swamp. I stood up. “Yes, ripples. Every action causes them.”

  “What are you thinking?” Gerch stood too.

  “If I’m right, I’m looking at Dialle’s location.” I leapt into the water to the sound of Gerch yelling for me to stop. The black water closed over me, its weight and inky dark causing a moment’s panic. But I shook it off and concentrated on feeling what I expected to feel. A splash nearby told me Gerch had joined me. I reached out and grasped his hand, stilling him.

  When my lungs started to hurt, and I was about to give up I finally felt it. A slight tug in the undercurrent. I squeezed Gerch’s hand and rose to the surface for a quick breath, then I dove again, kicking my legs to move toward the tug.

  We hadn’t gone far before something swayed against my skin in the dark abyss. Something stringy and slippery, covered with slime. I jerked my arms away from the grasping tendrils, kicking hard to get away from them.

  The water rippled and moved around me, thick with the clinging things. I had a brief, terror-filled thought that they were some kind of living creature. Some version of snake or long worm. But nothing bit me as I shoved past them, though the blades along the sides were razor sharp, slicing my skin as I pushed through.

  My chest burned with the need to breathe. I forced myself onward, determined to find the source of the churn on the surface of the water. Behind me the water roiled from the ungraceful thrashing of a large form.

  I’d have been alarmed except for the bubble encased grumbling that accompanied the thrashing. It occurred to me I’d neglected to ask if devils could even swim. I decided, given Gerch’s decidedly ungraceful progress through the black stuff they could manage, but it wasn’t pretty.

  The forest of clingy vegetation seemed endless. I’d just about decided that I would have to swim to the surface for air when a soft light finally showed between the thick, waving tendrils. I kicked one last time and shoved my way through the nasty stuff, earning a few more slices down one arm for my trouble.

  Behind me Gerch gave a shout of alarm and I turned, seeing him rolling around the water with something long and decidedly snakelike wrapped in his arms. Though the thing blended perfectly with its surroundings, I could see its long, black form where it was aligned with Gerch’s.

  I was torn. I desperately needed air, but couldn’t quite bring myself to leave Gerch to his fate. So I turned around and headed toward him, my fingers glowing in the inky depths as power surged to spark at their tips.

  Gerch had the thing around the throat and was barely keeping its snapping jaws from slicing into his neck, but he’d paid a price for focusing there. The snake’s long form was tightly wrapped around Gerch’s chest and middle, no doubt squeezing his very breath away.

  Something floated downward from the thrashing pair, dropping slowly toward the dark sand at the bottom. Gerch’s sword.

  I reached for the snake thing with my energy-drenched hand and sent a stunning jolt into it. The snake jerked, it’s form unfurling from Gerch, and fell limply toward the floor of the swamp.

  I started toward the light again but the water churned to my left and something smacked into me. Fangs sank into my thigh and, before I thought about what I was doing, I opened my mouth to scream. Water flooded my mouth and I sucked it into my lungs, panicking as they compressed under the inky substance.

  I thrashed desperately but somehow didn’t drown.

  The snake creature coiled around me and started to swim. I struggled briefly but soon felt the world clouding as my lungs gave up their struggle to find air and started to shut down.

  As we speared through the inky water I listened with horror as the thump, thump, thump of my heart slowed to an elongated thump...thump.........thump and then stuttered, on the verge of stopping completely.

  Suddenly we burst from the water, flying through the air, and the thing released me. I dropped like a rock, hitting a hard but yielding surface. The nasty snake creature that had transported me twisted like a fish over the water’s surface and, at the last moment, dove back into the black liquid.

  I rolled over, coughed, and spewed about a gallon of water from my lungs.

  The water exploded upward again and Gerch flew toward me. I was too drained to move out of his way. All I could do was hope he missed. He hit the sandy ground mere inches way, landing on his face with a grunt.

  When I finally stopped horking up black water that tasted like fish poop, I rolled over onto my back, panting and wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

  Gerch pushed himself into a sitting position, panting between his knees. “Remind me never to follow you into the water again.”

  I laughed, shoving my hair from my face. “I didn’t ask you to follow me. Besides, if I hadn’t had to save your sorry ass from that snake thing I wouldn’t have almost drowned.”

  He glared at me from under his red brow. “Save my ass. Who do you think that thing was going for when I grabbed it?”

  I blinked. “Oh.”

  “Yeah. Oh. Ripples, Astra.”

  I stood up on wobbly legs and pain shot through my thigh. Looking down, I grimaced at the bleeding fang wounds, quickly healing them. “It doesn’t matter. I think this is where that creature lives, which means it’s where Dialle is. Get off your lazy ass and let’s go find him.”

  “It doesn’t bother you at all that those snake things delivered us here like takeout food?”

  I frowned. The thought had occurred. “If that’s true then we just have to make sure we give the monster food poisoning before we die.” />
  “Har, Astra.”

  “Welcome to my lair.”

  We both jumped and turned at the melodic-sounding voice. Surprise brought power spitting from my fingertips and I was immensely glad to have it there again. Peering into the dim light at the back of the cave, I saw something huge settled onto the sand, tucked into the shadows.

  I increased the amperage of my energy and lifted my hand, illuminating the back wall. The first thing I noted was the enormous, slanted blue eyes. The rest of the thing seemed to be all body and no limbs, snakelike. It had a massive head, a broad, flat snout, and tiny, pointed ears that stuck upright from its head, like a cat’s. The snakelike body was shiny, its scales glistening gold and silver in the spark from my magic. I couldn’t tell how long it was, but it was long enough to give me pause. The circumference of its body looked to be around twenty feet. When it lowered its head, wide, slit-like nostrils flaring, I saw a tiny set of wings fluttering on its back. They didn’t look like dragon wings, more like water wings.

  “Who are you?”

  “You may call me Nestrada.” The creature’s voice was almost too beautiful to bear. It slipped along my spine and made my stomach tighten with fear. Melodic and rich, the tones felt magic-induced, meant to soothe potential prey.

  I frowned. “Okay. Let me try this again. What are you? And what have you done with Dialle?”

  The thing slid its beautiful blue gaze over Gerch, its wings fluttering. “This one is ugly.”

  Gerch scowled. “Bite me, bitch.”

  I grinned. Dialle’s right-hand man had definitely been spending too much time around me. The creature’s mouth opened, showing long, curving ivory that gleamed in the light from my power. I decided I’d better translate or Gerch would become fast food even more quickly than he’d anticipated. “I don’t think he meant that literally.”

  The creature’s flesh rippled in a shudder. “I am glad. I think I would find him tough and repulsive.”

  “You didn’t answer my question. What have you done with Dialle?”

  Nestrada dipped her head again, flaring her nostrils. I realized that must be her way of sizing me up. “You are attractive. But small. I have heard stories. I expected a much larger creature.”

  I sighed, used to being dissed by dark worlders. “I’m much bigger on the inside.”

  Nestrada seemed to think about my declaration for a moment. Finally she lifted her snout, her elongated form beginning to unfurl. “Come, I will take you to your handsome king. I know not what he plans, only that he needs my help to accomplish it—and the price he will pay for that help.”

  I glanced at Gerch. With her words, he’d lost some of the vibrant-red color in his wide face. “What exactly is that price, Nestrada?” he growled.

  She ignored him, unfurling endlessly as the first part of her body slithered away and disappeared down a wide, low-ceilinged passageway. As she kept uncoiling I realized with a pang that she was even more enormous than I’d feared. Her silvery scales were darker along her back and sides, turning the colors of an opal on her wide belly. Situated low on her sides, two rows of jagged spines gleamed like knives, occasionally scraping against the rocky walls as she slithered. When only her tail was visible, it snapped sideways to propel her more deeply into the passage and the two long spikes on the end ripped deep furrows into the heavy sand, sending it into the air in a stinging spray.

  I spit sand from my mouth and started after her.

  “I don’t like this, Astra.”

  “Ya think? Just be ready.”

  “For what?”

  I shrugged. “Expect the worst. I’ve learned worst case scenarios usually find me first.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The Monster’s Lair

  So pretty standing there so still, so terrifyingly real,

  The monster’s dream he doth fulfill, a horrible fate to seal.

  The slashing tail before us in the passageway left an indelible path to follow, a visual accompaniment to the heavy sound of slithering that marked Nestrada’s passage into the earth.

  The passage where we walked was unlit, filled with the biting stench of rotted fish and other things that didn’t bear too close an examination. I got the sense of climbing, as if we moved up a mountain through its interior.

  Gerch stayed close, his black gaze sliding continually around the space. I used my power to sense the air around us, searching for foreign auras. Between us I figured we’d be forewarned if anything approached.

  After about an hour, the passage finally started to widen, a soft, amber light giving the rough-hewn walls a fractured appearance and creating shadows that made me jumpy.

  A wisp of fresher air told me something was about to change. A low, insistent roar sounded in the distance. “Sounds like water,” I told Gerch.

  He nodded, saying nothing. My companion was in full-out demonic-soldier mode, his craggy face stiff and dark with intent and his big hands clenched at his sides. I suspected he was wishing for the sword he’d lost in the tumble with our snaky kidnappers.

  Nestrada’s thick, deadly tail snapped sideways one last time and disappeared. We rounded a curve in the passage and saw a wide, uneven opening. The space beyond that opening was filled with light and vegetation. In the distance a massive waterfall crashed down the rocky wall, ending in a jagged pool big enough to accommodate a giant, slithering monster with pretty blue eyes.

  Around the pool, standing still and straight, were several figures dressed in gold-and-silver robes. The figures stared straight ahead unmoving. Their silky hair, blond to midnight black, trailed over their shoulders, down their bodies and pooled on the floor. Not one of them turned to look at us when we entered the cavern. I wondered if the creature had them under some kind of spell.

  Heat pounded down on my head and I looked up. A stark, blue sky, devoid of clouds, held a golden globe of light, which beat relentlessly against the ground. I judged the temps to be well over a hundred degrees. If it weren’t for the fine mist caused by the waterfall, I figured the space would be like a desert. Steep, rocky walls enclosed the opening where we stood, creating a wide bowl that should have been airless. Yet a soft breeze lifted the tips of my damp hair off my shoulders.

  Apparently we’d found Nestrada’s hidey hole.

  “Astra.”

  I turned to find Dialle standing a dozen feet away. He looked unharmed, yet his pretty blue gaze was filled with sadness. I started toward him but didn’t get far. I brushed up against a barrier of some kind that burned my skin and pitched me backward. Landing on my ass on the grassy surface, I shoved off and brought power sizzling to my fingertips. “What is that shit?”

  Nestrada laughed and icicles danced down my spine. Gerch reached for a non-existent sword.

  “He is in a prison of his own making, child.”

  I frowned, addressing Dialle. “What the hell’s she talking about?”

  He sighed, looking down at his hands, which were folded in front of him. He looked calm, terrifyingly resolved. “She’s right, Astra. I have given Nestrada what she wishes so that you can defeat my father and the witches.”

  The ice in my spine spread to encompass my body, bringing gooseflesh up along my arms. “What exactly is it that she wants, bud?”

  He lifted his hands, smiling. “Me.”

  “He is pretty, is he not?”

  I turned to the slithery bitch and lifted a hand, intending to power-smack the snaky smile off her evil face.

  “Don’t, Astra. I have given my word.”

  “Dialle, this doesn’t make any sense. Everything we’re fighting for is lost without you. Your court will die. Even if I manage to defeat your father and the two bitches on my own. It will all be for nothing if you aren’t part of it.”

  “No. You can hold the court alone, Astra. You are my queen. If you mate again the court can remain whole.”

  All the blood ran from my face and I staggered back. “No.” Gerch’s earlier words suddenly made sense. He never told you
? “I won’t do it, Dialle. I won’t leave you here.”

  “You must, Astra. You have no choice because I intend to stay.”

  Nestrada’s blue eyes sparkled with humor. I got the sense she thought we were just adorable. And that really pissed me off.

  I’d show her adorable.

  What are you up to, Dialle?

  His gaze held mine steadily. There is no trickery here, Astra. Nestrada has an item that will help you defeat your mother and Astis.

  I noticed he’d left his father off the list. I wondered if there was a message there. What item?

  “He refers to my venom. It has very powerful and deadly properties.” Nestrada’s too-beautiful voice brought my head snapping around. She’d heard our telepathic conversation? I turned back to Dialle and he inclined his head slightly. His gaze widening in silent entreaty.

  Okay. So we couldn’t communicate. Fine. It didn’t matter anyway. I knew what I was going to do, and it didn’t include leaving Dialle behind to be the monster’s plaything. “Fine,” I told Nestrada. “I don’t like it and I can’t promise I won’t be back later to find some way around it, but I’ll honor Dialle’s wishes on this. For now.”

  The creature shook her head at the adorable naughtiness of her toys and it was all I could do not to bitch-slap her with my power. “You will not defeat me, child.”

  “Probably not. But I’ll enjoy trying.”

  Her bright-blue gaze sparked with delight. “You were correct, halfling. You are much larger on the inside.”

  “Just tell me what you have and how I can use it.”

  ~SC~

  An hour later I was clutching a cloth-wrapped package and Gerch and I found ourselves climbing a set of steps cut roughly into one wall of Nestrada’s hidey hole. I felt Dialle’s gaze on my back as I climbed, my heart bleeding at having to walk away.

  “We can’t leave him here, Astra.”

  “I have no intention of leaving him here.”

  “You’re currently doing a very convincing impression of it.”

  “Just be quiet until we get out of this place. I have a plan.”

  “I can’t wait to hear it.”