The Ryle of Zentule

by Michael Green

  The Ryle of Zentule

  Tales from the Netherscape - Book Two

  By Michael Green

  © 2019 Michael Green

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover art by Alexey Rudikov

  1st Edition

  All characters and events in this book, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-1-950593-04-0

  For Jennifer and Bob.

  Though the world might crush us all, true parents hold up the sky and craft a home so the self might be.

  Chapter 1: Empty-handed

  Chapter 2: Parents

  Chapter 3: Zentule

  Chapter 4: Following Footsteps

  Chapter 5: Deliberation

  Chapter 6: The Right Path

  Chapter 7: Hyadoth

  Chapter 8: Mouse Country

  Chapter 9: Cataclysm

  Chapter 10: Sidetracked

  Chapter 11: Chimerax

  Chapter 12: Among the Elazene

  Chapter 13: Degoskirke

  Chapter 14: Gifts

  Chapter 15: At the Scene

  Chapter 16: The Last Leg

  Chapter 1

  Empty-handed

  Lysette scrambled to her feet, her face split with agony as the brutox subdued Andy. She was deaf to the calls for retreat from her friends at the portal.

  She had dropped her crossbow when she saw the marble roll to her feet. In a flash, she grasped it. For a moment, it rested in her palm. She recalled Andy teaching her to use it.

  Almost instinctively, she tightened her grip. She clenched the Argument past the point of pain.

  A wrenching feeling ran up her spine as the blade appeared. It weighed nothing. Its sliver light shone out against the glow from the portals.

  It’s humming, she thought.

  Her focus fell to the blade, despite her surroundings. Past the blade, she saw a figure approaching.

  A brutox was moving towards her. It bore a spear with a vicious serrated tip that sparkled like glass in the light of the portal. She felt a tug on her hair and heard Taptalles yelling in her ear. He had been for a while.

  “What are you doing? Snap out of it! It’s coming for us!”

  Letty took a breath and swung the blade in a wide arc. As if striking with a heavy bat, she put too much force into the attack and nearly stumbled. Gratefully, instead of being struck down while she was off balance, she saw her enemy staring stupidly at his cleaved spear.

  You’re not swinging at a baseball! The blade is made of light!

  Her mind tried to adjust to the weightlessness of the weapon. She nearly panicked, not sure how to act. The creature dropped its broken weapon and continued towards her.

  “Don’t just stand there! Use it like a brush!” Taptalles yelled.

  She stepped back and flicked her wrist. In a flash, the brutox toppled into pieces.

  “That’s it!” Taptalles yelled in her ear.

  A pair of brutox, wielding axes, came at her from opposite directions.

  Letty slid towards one, and flicked, cleaving its axe haft and splitting the beast apart with a second powerful swipe, before turning to face the second. Its attack came towards her at a ponderous speed.

  Letty stepped aside and watched the brutox stumble as it struck nothing. An unimpressed smirk flashed across her face as she looked into the creature’s spider eyes.

  She flicked her wrist once more and the brutox split in two, its heavy axe making a loud thud as it struck the ground. She spun around to face the mob.

  Her brow rose in astonishment as the dozens of brutox stepped back.

  Letty approached.

  “No! You’ve made your point! We need to go through the portal!” Taptalles tugged on her hair, screaming, “We have a chance, while they’re afraid!”

  Letty snatched him off her shoulder with her free hand and tossed him back to Quill, who could only stare.

  “You have to go! Letty, just leave!” Andy yelled from somewhere in the mob.

  I have to get to him!

  Letty rushed forward, swinging wildly. She heard herself crying out as she slashed a way through. The brutox refused to face her, stumbling over each other to escape her flashing blade.

  Trained reflexes compelled the brutox to raise their weapons, and an occasional shield, as she attacked, but every offending blade or haft split apart, like paper tearing, leaving its wielder defenseless.

  She was wild with the struggle to save Andy, but for every brutox that went down, there were a dozen more still in the way. It had only been moments, but her heart felt ready to burst, and her eyes were brimming with tears. Her throat tightened and refused to allow her more than a gulp of air. She swung one last time, cleaving a blade in two, but instead of falling back, its owner lunged and struck her with a closed fist.

  “Letty!” a shocked voice echoed in her mind as her ears rang from the strike.

  She stumbled back into Quill and Staza, who pulled her away and held off the charging attacker. The brutox rushed them with his sword, which lacked most of its blade. He fell for a feinting lunge from Quill, and left himself open to a piercing thrust from Staza, who sunk her blade into the creature so deeply that she struggled to free her weapon. Another charged, forcing Staza to abandon her spear and draw her short sword.

  Letty looked down at her hand and saw the blade was gone, though the marble remained. With her free hand, she felt that her chin was wet. Rubbing at it, she saw a smear of blood.

  Shrill clicks silenced the enemy. The brutox moved all at once. The mob separated, and Andy was held aloft for them to see. Dozens of claws and beastly hands held him tight. Letty saw them wrench his flesh all at once, and he screamed.

  “No! I have to help him!” she cried, pulling against Quill and Staza, though she barely had any strength left.

  They yelled and pleaded with her, but all she could see was Andy’s bloody face.

  “Let me go!” She railed against her friends, and even tried to bite them in her frenzy. They were too strong.

  “Stop her!” Titus called.

  Something struck her head, and she stumbled, holding the marble tightly as her vision doubled.

  Don’t let go.

  She felt herself floating backwards. There was a sudden change in temperature and finally, silence. The breeze coming off the sea was gone.

  She was in a warm and dark space. The air was dry and musty.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Staza asked.

  “She should be fine. Just give her a few minutes,” Titus answered, his voice hoarse.

  “If you didn’t give her a concussion!” Taptalles complained.

  Letty felt small hands on her face.

  “We don’t have any minoe!” Taptalles said, reprimanding Quill. “You shouldn’t have hit her so hard!”

  “She was getting away—I had to do something!”

  “Peace! We need peace!” Titus cried. “The lad was doing as he was told.”

  “I wasn’t doing as I was told,” Quill complained. “It was the only choice.”

  “Please, stop it before I loosen your teeth, Quill,” Staza said, grabbing him. “We need to show them respect.”

  There was a long silence.

  “You’re right. Titus, I was—”

  “Don’t apologize. I too aired ill-chosen words.”

  They were silent again.

  “I can’t see anything,” Quill complained, stumbling in the dark.

  “I can’t believe we left him,” Staza said.

  “Even if you all bore the Argument, and were properly trained, that still would have been an impossible fight,” Titus said.

  L
etty felt her head throb and she groaned.

  “Get that cloth back on her face! She’s bleeding again!” Taptalles said.

  “How can you see?” Quill asked. “It’s pitch black.”

  “Our kind is blessed with sharp eyes. They even work in darkness,” Taptalles said.

  Staza felt her way on the ground and tried to put pressure on Letty’s nose.

  Letty coughed and felt like she was suffocating. She shot up and took the cloth from Staza’s hands. “You’re choking me!”

  “The blood is still strong!” Titus said, pleased to see her moving.

  Quill and the mice stumbled to her side, she pushed them away and held the cloth to her face.

  “You might have a broken nose,” Staza said. “If only we had some ice.”

  Letty looked around the dark space and saw only the barest outlines of figures nearby.

  “Where are we?” Letty whispered.

  “That’s what we were hoping to learn from you,” Taptalles said.

  “I have no idea—” Letty tried to stand but stumbled over an unidentified piece of furniture. Quill and Staza kept her steady.

  She stumbled again and felt the marble slip through her fingers.

  “No!” She pulled free and fell to her hands and knees. “We need to find it!”

  “She dropped the Argument,” Titus said.

  Quill and Staza bent to help, and so did the mice.

  Letty’s hands grasped a cold metal bar, she felt around it and realized what it was. I’m sure this is an office desk.

  Her hand bumped into a metal bin that tipped over with a familiar sound. That’s a trash can!

  For a moment she felt relieved, knowing the desk and can indicated their return to the surface.

  A moment later, her mind darted back to the missing marble, and she redoubled her frantic grasping.

  There was a flash and Quill yowled. “Found it,” he said, shaking his jolted hand.

  Letty crawled towards his voice, reached around in the dark, and felt its surface.

  She clutched it to her chest. “We need this,” she said, incensed. She grasped it and the blade appeared.

  Everyone leaped backwards, afraid of being bisected.

  The light from the blade was so violent and bright in the complete darkness, that it was still nearly impossible to see.

  “You don’t understand,” Letty said, not bothered by the brightness. “I…”

  She wanted to explain how important the marble was, but she couldn’t find the right words.

  Their concerned looks deepened and they held hands up to shield their eyes.

  “Forget it,” Letty said, releasing her grasp and putting the marble in a pocket of her torn and mangled dress. “It’s not like it saved us.”

  No one replied.

  Finally, Quill spoke, “It was a false feeling of safety. If we never had the marble, maybe Andy wouldn’t have tried to foolishly hold them back.”

  “Right, you know that for sure. Maybe we all would have been captured,” Letty snapped.

  “This isn’t the time for an argument,” Titus interjected. “We’re here now, and that’s what matters.”

  We’re not all here! Letty’s face twisted in anger, though this was lost in the darkness.

  There was a rustling sound and Quill struck a flint and started a fire in the trash can.

  Letty looked around and realized that they were in an office, but everything seemed outdated, as if the office was many decades old.

  “Crazy. It’s like out of a black and white movie. There’s even a typewriter. And look at that telephone! It has a wheel on it,” Letty muttered, though the others didn’t understand a word of what she was saying.

  Smoke from the trashcan fire filled the room.

  Letty coughed and moved towards it. “Put it out!”

  Quill grabbed a metal tray from off the desk and put it over the can, suffocating the flames in moments.

  “My world is a lot more flammable than yours,” Letty said, eyeing a floating ember.

  “Yes,” Quill replied, “apparently, we’re inside something, underground maybe. I didn’t expect the smoke to build up like that.”

  “Well, we still can’t see anything, so talking about it is pointless,” Staza said.

  Letty thought back to her time with Andy in Caspia. She took the marble in hand and tightened her fist. A slight glow shone, and then the blade appeared. She stepped back, startled, as she had accidentally sliced through the door.

  “That’s too bright,” Taptalles said, shielding his eyes.

  “And dangerous,” Titus added.

  Letty released her grip.

  There’s a point between.

  She tried to summon the blade again, only more slowly this time.

  Just a little force on the marble.

  Her hand glowed and the blade remained hidden.

  There was a crackle of light and the blade threatened to appear.

  After a moment of practice, she found the right point.

  The office was lit in the soft silver glow coming from her hand.

  “How?” Quill asked, when everyone else could only look surprised.

  “It depends on how gently I hold it. I think my feelings are connected too, but I can’t say why. Andy showed me.”

  “Amazing,” Taptalles said.

  “The blood is strong!” Titus raised a fist in triumph.

  Quill and Staza looked at the mice with pained, uncertain expressions.

  “What?” Letty asked, but quickly changed her mind. “Never mind, first we need to figure out where we are.”

  I may be stuck with crazy mice and snake lady cultists, but we need to do something practical, not stand around.

  “Where is the portal?” She asked.

  “Back in the hall. It was one way, so don’t try to get back to the other side,” Quill said, reminded of the trouble they had getting her through earlier.

  Letty leaned around the cracked door and saw a hallway. There were other office doors and, looking to the right, she saw the hall ended in a charred wreck. The carpet and walls were stained black, and smeared symbols were visible around the periphery of the far wall.

  So, that was the portal. It’s probably for the best that it’s closed now.

  She scolded herself for the thought, but also knew that they could have been killed or captured.

  “I expected the portal to leave us in an old cave,” Titus said. “It looks like things have changed since I was last through.”

  Letty nodded.

  She looked back into the office. The contrast of the Caspians, in their ornate and wild clothing, standing next to an office desk made her head spin. She saw the mice looking through papers on the desk and muttering between themselves. She felt like she might pass out.

  “This will never work. Our clothes are insane,” Letty’s glance passed over Titus and Taptalles, “and you guys can’t be talking or wearing that mouse-sized armor.”

  “This isn’t my first time up here,” Titus said.

  “It’s mine though,” Taptalles added, raising a paw timidly.

  “Us too,” Staza said, looking confusedly at her dress, “what’s wrong with our clothes?”

  Where do I even start?

  “We’ll worry about it later,” Letty said, wringing her hands, “for now, let’s focus on figuring out where we are.”

  There were no windows for reference, but the papers were promising. As she moved towards the desk, everyone’s eyes followed.

  She found dusty letters in the trays the mice were looking through and picked up a sheet.

  “‘From the desk of Lieutenant General Jim Majors, to Dr. J. Koeple: Project IronHawk lead. Please understand that it is with the sincerest regret that funding for your project will cease at the start of the next fiscal year. Use the remaining three months to mothball the project, premises, and equipment. Write letters of recommendation for your staff. Finally, my department will help in fabricating aliases
for your subjects. They will receive world-class treatment at facilities across the country. We will take care of them.’ This letter is dated 1947,” Letty said reaching the end.

  “What does it mean? Is it serious?” Quill asked.

  “I don’t know. It sounds like a government or military project happened here,” Letty glanced around the office before continuing, “maybe we’re in an abandoned facility.”

  “That’s good, right?” Quill asked. “There’ll be no guards.”

  “Hopefully, but we should still be quiet,” Letty said, opening the door and stepping into the hall. She was still light-headed and kept a hand on the wall for support.

  She paused for a moment, the others close behind.

  1947.

  “Titus?”

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “Those portals don’t do anything crazy, like taking people back in time, do they?”

  Titus shook his head no.

  “Why? Is there reason to believe that we’re in the wrong time?” Staza asked.

  “That letter, it was dated so long ago, and this building and everything here is probably seventy years old.”

  Titus dragged a claw across the wood paneled floor. “The real question is, what does seventy years of dust look like?” He showed them the thick coating he picked up.

  “Probably like that,” Letty said.

  They went down the hall, away from the closed portal. Most of the office doors were open, and the rooms were in a horrendous state. Toppled chairs and file cabinets leaked out into the hall. Hundreds of loose papers littered every inch of floor space, causing their feet to slip as they walked.

  They found a cafeteria at the end of the hall and an open elevator shaft.

  “I’d bet anything the elevator doesn’t work,” Letty said, poking her head in the shaft.

  “The what?” Quill asked.

  “It’s a box on cables that moves people up and down buildings,” Letty answered absentmindedly.

  She shone her light and looked down. She was surprised when the floor appeared only a few feet below their level. Looking upward, her light faded into blackness, but not before revealing several levels above them.

  “It looks like we’re on the ground floor—wait no. Maybe we’re in the basement.”