The Grim Conspiracy

by C. Craig Coleman

  The corners of Toda’s pinched mouth turned down, and he shook his head but said no more. He shuffled off to the barn. When they opened the stable door, there was nothing inside but an old cart whose wheels had crumpled after termites had eaten the bottoms of the spokes. There was no hay in the loft, and moonlight had begun to seep through large holes in the roof.

  “We can snuggle down in a bit of warm, dry hay,” Toda mocked. “The hay, such as there is has mostly rotted to mush!”

  Malladar pulled the barn door closed. “Okay, so the barn is falling apart.”

  Toda smirked and looked at the prince, “You think it will be safe to sleep under that crumbling roof tonight?”

  “Only one night, what could go wrong?”

  Malladar picked up his pack and selected a stall that was still dry. He kicked enough hay in a pile to make a minimal bed.

  Toda looked back at the door then followed Malladar to find a dry stall. He had just settled down across from the prince when the old woman pulled open the door and shuffled in with a pot of something steaming and two ceramic bowls.

  “I brung you men some hot stew,” she said. She sat the stewpot down on a shelf beside her and left closing the door.

  Malladar looked at the steaming kettle, back at Toda, and back at the pot. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry, and we haven’t seen hot stew in a week.”

  “Hold on, Your Worship. We don’t know what’s in that stew.” Toda rose, shook off the hay, and followed Malladar to the stewpot. Cautious, they both studied the contents. The prince stirred the stew thick with herbs, vegetables, and some meat they didn’t recognize.

  Toda pushed Malladar’s hand away from the stew as he was about to taste it.

  “Let me taste it first, my lord. The kings of Octar and Tigmoor would tear out my heart if something happened, and I returned without you.” Toda took the spoon and tasted the thick, pasty stew.

  “What do you think?”

  Toda shook his head and took another taste. “Tastes like nothing I’ve tasted before.”

  Malladar took the wooden spoon and dipped into the pot for a taste himself. “Not bad, probably used herbs we aren’t familiar with.”

  “Strange herbs indeed,” Toda said. “Don’t eat too much. Let’s see how the night goes, and if we aren’t dead in the morning, we can finish it before she comes to get us to fix the roof.”

  They ate a small portion and settled in for the night. About two in the morning with moonlight giving the barn a pale silver light, the barn door cracked open. A slight scraping noise from the door sliding across the floor awakened Malladar. The old leather hinges had failed to hold it up.

  “Toda!” Malladar whispered across to the other stall. Toda was out cold. He’d eaten more of the stew after all. Malladar struggled to toss a stick and hit Toda in the chest, and still he didn’t react. When he started to get up, the prince realized he could hardly move. Then he heard the old crone shuffling across the barn floor through the sparse hay. He peeked through the stall boards and saw she had a sinister grin carrying a flint knife in one hand and a bowl in the other. He managed to shuffle back in the dark corner of the enclosure and pull a bit of hay over him.

  As she approached the stalls, he heard her mumbling a scratchy-throated ditty.

  “Blood for three that follow with glee,

  Hearts for me and satisfied be we.

  Doom and gloom to the grave they go,

  To renew our lives as we well know.”

  She approached the stalls and glanced to where Malladar had hidden. Only the dark corner of the stall aided the meager hay to hide him. He peeked through thin straw covering him and saw she had doubled in size and was morphing into a monstrous bat-like creature with fangs like a spider. The skin on her arms sagged more and more changing her arms into wings that she used to crawl across the floor turning into Toda’s stall!

  A shape-shifter, Malladar suddenly realized!

  He’d heard scary tales of such creatures to keep him from running out in the night as a child. She’d assumed they’d eaten the stew and were immobilized like spider victims, defenseless and still live to keep the fluids flowing.

  The moonlight flashed off the knife blade as she raised it to plunge into Toda. The bowl must be to collect the blood and hearts. The thought shook him up. He struggled to pull himself up with the help of the stall slats. It took all his strength and adrenalin rush to raise his obsidian encrusted war club. Fear seized him as he stumbled across the stall floor to smash her with the club. He stumbled and fell forward on the floor.

  The sudden noise behind her startled the creature; she spun around. Seeing him, a helpless man scratching around on the floor made her fangs click with apparent delight. He groped about for the club unable to get up as she crept clumsily over towards him. Helpless, he watched as she rose up and extended her fangs to stab down into him.

  Something slammed into her from behind, jolting her whole hairy body. She chittered, stood motionless for a moment, and then fell forward crashing beside Malladar with a pitchfork handle sticking up out of her back. He gasped!

  “Nasty piece of work,” Toda said, his voice calm as he stood and kicked the body. “Yep, she’d dead as a fence post.”

  “Toda! You killed that thing.”

  “What an astute observation, my prince.”

  Malladar stood slowly holding onto the stall post and staring down at the body. “I thought you were unconscious. You didn’t answer when I called you. I knew she had poisoned me when I tried to move.”

  “I told you she had added nasty herbs to that stew. I only pretended to eat it. You seemed to enjoy it, but then young people will eat anything when they’re hungry, which is most of the time.”

  “Toda, I love your cranky self!”

  “Settle down, my lord. I don’t want Princess Kayla to get jealous.”

  Malladar laughed but then stopped abruptly. He looked towards the hut and back at Toda.

  “There are more in the hut!”

  Toda tensed. “More… are you sure?”

  “The ditty she was mumbling. Blood for three… she wanted our hearts for her but our blood for others.”

  Both tensed and looked towards the barn door. Malladar’s adrenaline dispelled the poison. He grabbed his war club and Toda his knife, and spear, which he took seriously for the first time. They tiptoed to the door checking for activity at the hut.

  “She seemed more like a night creature,” Malladar said. “I expect the others are waiting for her to return with their meal. They will be coming to see what the delay is soon.”

  Toda shuffled from foot to foot. “We can’t outrun such creatures. Flying above the thick undergrowth, they would quickly overtake us.”

  “We must kill them now while they are in the hut before they disperse. You any good with that spear?”

  Toda looked at it as if he’d never seen it before. “It’s ceremonial. I never threw a spear in my life. I do look impressive with it in my hand, don’t I?” He grinned.

  Malladar’s eyes rolled. “Give me the spear. Keep your knife in your hand. We’ll stand just out of sight at the ends of the hut; you at this end closest to the barn. When one of the creatures comes out to see what the delay is, you run back to the shed.”

  Toda’s eyes swelled, the whites accented by the moonlight. “Me… run towards the barn. You want me to draw its attention as an easy meal? So far, your plan sucks.”

  “I’ll come around when it spots you and turns your way. I should have a clear shot behind it with the spear.”

  Toda frowned, “Now might be a good time for me to ask you how proficient are you with a spear? I don’t mean to be impertinent, Your Highness but we only have one spear, one chance before I’m tasty meat.”

  “Toda, Toda, Toda, you have so little faith in me.”

  “Forgive me, my lord, but it’s my butt that thing will chew if you miss.”

  “Do you have a better plan?”

  “No, but if we l
ive through this, you’re teaching me the basics of spear throwing before we go any farther.”

  “Fair enough, now let’s get in place before we lose the element of surprise.”

  No sooner had the two men stationed themselves than the hut door opened gradually and another bat-like creature crawled out. It looked towards the barn and chittered. No response. The wings began to unfold, and it crept awkwardly towards the barn using the fingers at the mid-wing like paws.

  Toda jumped out from the end of the hut and ran for the barn. The creature began to thrust out his wings. It squatted to aid its leap into the air when the spear shot through it. Malladar heard the spear shatter the backbone. The monster toppled forward with blood bubbling from around its fangs.

  Toda halted when he heard the thud. Malladar waved for him to return to the hut after pulling the spear out of the dead shape-shifter. The two men stood on each side of the door and waited.

  They soon heard chittering from within.

  The two creatures must have been alerted by the thud of this one, Malladar thought.

  Without waiting to consult with Toda, he tossed the priest the spear and raised his club, then dashed through the door.

  Two half-grown young bat-like things hung from the hut’s rafters. Bones, human bones dotted the floor. The youngsters’ wings began to flutter like baby birds begging for food.

  Toda rushed in brandishing his spear. Malladar leaped forward and smashed the head of one of the young. Toda dashed up behind him and thrust the spear through the other one. The men sank to their knees watching the trembling bodies’ stop moving as blood seeped down onto the floor.

  “I’m never eating blood pudding again,” Toda said. “I’m going strictly vegetarian.”

  “Toda, all the hearts you’ve seen ripped out of sacrificial victims and the gore and blood atop the temple, and now you swear off blood pudding?”

  Toda turned to Malladar, his eyebrows rose, “It wasn’t my heart or blood at issue there.”

  Malladar shook his head, then stood. He gave Toda a hand helping him up. “Looks like you learned one end of a spear from the other rather quickly.”

  “Necessity is the fastest and best teacher.”

  They set fire to the house and barn and traveled back to the trail.

  “You know I’m suspicious this map has led us on some side route. The main road to the west was much larger when we left Octar. I don’t think these predatory creatures would be hunting the main road,” Toda said.

  “I’ve been thinking the same thing,” Malladar said. “We are heading west, southwest assuming the sun still sets in the west. We’ve come too far to go all the way back. We’ll keep going on this trail and hope it eventually leads back to the main road to the Purple Mountains.”

  “What if it doesn’t,” Toda asked. “What if it leads down? The creatures we’ve encountered seem to prefer dark, dank places… underground. What if it leads to a tunnel that goes deep under the Purple Mountains?”

  “You worry too much, Toda.”

  As Malladar continued ahead slashing the tropical leaves out of their way, Toda stood a moment nodding his head. “Maybe, but then that’s why I’m still here!”

  17: Crossing the Void

  Nokmay stood at the edge of the great rift in the earth. A vulture circled on thermals overhead. As she observed it, it began to spiral downward until it landed on a dead tree branch void of leaves and bark. It stared back and forth between her and looking east of her.

  “The three of you go west along the edge of this cliff until you find a way over the gulch. I’ll put out the campfire and catch up shortly.”

  Eva looked askance. “You’re up to something, Nokmay.”

  Nokmay’s forced smile faded replaced by narrowing eyes and tense lips. “Do as you’re told if you want to live through the day.”

  Rasa and the guard lit out, moving to the west. Mother and daughter stared at each other for a moment before Eva blinked and followed the other two without further protest. Nokmay kicked soil over the fire while scanning the area to the west.

  “Move along now, Eva!”

  A sudden shuffling in the undergrowth told the witch her daughter knew she’d been caught spying and had given up. Nokmay then turned east and moved with haste following the vulture. They turned back into the undergrowth, and after a few minutes the vulture landed on a dead branch. Nokmay searched nearby. She discovered a cluster of boulders surrounding a hole in the ground nearly hidden by leaves and sticks. The vulture flew up and away.

  The witch tossed enough branches and litter away from the hole to reveal it was possible to step down into the depression. Cautious, Nokmay began stepping on the stones, working her way down into the hole and discovered it led deeper into the earth. She shuddered and descended through the lichen-encrusted stone entrance into the cool dark earth. The musty smell of active leaf mold made her cough. She descended to a very small cavern where she waited only a few seconds before the scent of sulfur merged with the musty air.

  “What do you want?” Nokmay asked. Her mind heard the response.

  “You promised my children flesh to feed on.”

  Nokmay crossed her arms across her chest, pulling her rags closer around her. “I can’t whip up a war overnight. Have patience. Bodies aren’t that easy to come by. I will secure carrion for those things. They fed well enough at that village.”

  “See to it you do and soon. You have three traveling companions.”

  “Don’t you threaten to harm them!”

  “My patience with you is wearing thin, witch.”

  “Yes, I rather got that point.”

  *

  Heart pounding, Eva slipped back from the edge of the opening and rushed along the cliff edge to catch up with her traveling companions. She slipped up beside Rasa.

  “Did you know my mother is in league with real evil?”

  Rasa smiled and kept walking.

  Eva stood for a moment. “What have I gotten myself into?”

  Rasa looked back, “Better you should stop antagonizing her and go along with whatever she is doing. Don’t keep asking her questions. You won’t like the answers.”

  Eva shook her head and hurried ahead so they could catch up with the guard leading their little group.

  “Nokmay said the same thing.”

  The guard soon returned to them.

  “The gap narrows up ahead. A large tree has fallen over it. We can reach the other side.”

  “Some good news for a change,” Rasa said. She smiled at Eva, who said nothing but stood nodding her head.

  They no sooner came to the tree-bridge than Nokmay caught up with them.

  “How did you catch up so fast?” Eva asked.

  “Questions, always questions,” Nokmay said, but she offered no explanation.

  The guard started across the tree trunk first.

  “Wait here while I ensure it’s safe to cross.”

  Eva and Rasa clutched each other watching. The man slid each foot out in front of the other holding onto branches to steady himself as he went. Slowly at first, he gained his confidence and began stepping out further each time. Halfway across he jumped up a bit testing the tree’s strength. The trunk held. He looked back grinning then motioned for the ladies to follow.

  “Come on; it’s sturdy, you can cross.” The guard turned back to complete his passage.

  Eva saw the green tree snake coiled partly behind a limb base. She thought it must have been frightened when the tree toppled. She reached out to point and yelled, but the man stepped on it before he saw it or heard her. The snake squirmed, the soldier’s foot slipped off of it, and both man and snake tumbled off the tree thrashing and writhing. The man’s hand inadvertently grabbed the snake. It wrapped around and around his arm, desperately clinging for dear life. The guard’s scream trailed them and lingered after they disappeared into the void.

  Eva covered her mouth with one hand to stifle her scream. She spun around looking behind her. Nokmay
was staring; her face was blank, her body rigid as stone.

  Silence, the three women managed to cross over to the other side without further difficulties. All the way back to the original road south, no one spoke. At dusk, when they were setting up camp for the night, Eva looked at the others.

  “What was his name?” No one knew.

  Sitting around the campfire later, Eva moved to sit beside her mother.

  “More questions?” Nokmay said, watching and poking the embers.

  “These warnings as you call them aren’t happening by accident. I heard you speaking in that hole in the ground. I heard nothing from whom or what you were talking to. You must tell me what I’ve gotten myself into.”

  Nokmay then turned to Eva, “I MUST tell you nothing! I will tell you what you need to know. To know more will only draw you into more trouble than you can contend with or get yourself out of.”

  “I should never have come with you.”

  The witch’s lip curled up, “Possibly not but your father insisted upon it. Whatever is ahead of us, you could never have stood the ostracism that was about to descend on you in Octar. Now get some rest.”

  “No, I won’t tell Rasa or anyone, but you must at least tell me what we are facing.”

  Nokmay studied Eva’s face. “Very well, Death stalks me, and he will claim you two if I’m not more careful.”

  “How can that be? What have you done to bring such a curse on yourself and us?”

  “Don’t rush to judgment, my child. Do as I say and all will be well for us, maybe only us, but for us. Now get some rest. Tomorrow we must make great headway. We’re behind and can’t afford to be late.”

  Eva glared at her, “Behind and late for what?”

  18: Ickletor’s Reassurance

  Ickletor called for Sestec and burned the bark sheet while he waited. They hurried back to Octar running into a mob surging into the plaza before the temple mound. Covering his face, Ickletor led his servant in through the private back entrance and up the internal staircases. He donned his finery and continued to the temple platform at the top. Adjusting his cloak, headdress, and other symbols of his powerful position, the high priest hesitated a moment to assume his façade of confidence and dispel his insecurity. Only then did he walk out to face the jostling, anguished crowd far below.