The Grim Conspiracy

by C. Craig Coleman

  “I’ve no time for you now, Nokmay. I’m a busy man and much work to do. The woman had no idea what she was doing and paid for her curiosity.”

  Ickletor hurried on to his estate seeking refuge behind its wall, but she was close behind him. He passed through and shut the gate holding it between them.

  “Come see me another day, if you must.” He turned to go, and she crawled over the gate and stood beside him but said nothing. “Well, what is it then?” he asked. “What do you want?”

  Nokmay glanced down at the concealed book and her face tensed. “It’s that very book I’ve come to talk with you about. You hold The Book of the Underworld. You’ve just seen it’s not to be trifled with, priest. I can see you will, though. At least I may prevent your causing a greater disaster than you, unattended, can anticipate.”

  “What do you know of this book?” He moved it closer to his body and a bit to the back as if she would try to snatch it.

  “I know it came from a civilization that made its discoveries and recorded them there before they obliterated all traces of themselves,” she pointed at the book, “other than that record. I have an inkling of the power those incantations can control or release. The power is far greater than you have any concept of.”

  Ickletor clutched the book wrapping both arms around it, locking it to his chest. “I’ve some idea.”

  “Yes, I’ve seen a vision of the tempest you released onto your estate, fool. You’d better not make that mistake again. The people know of that freak storm. Another and they will believe you are an evil sorcerer bringing and yet limiting the rains for your personal benefit.”

  Ickletor tapped the book, “This book contains the means to more power than you can ever conjure, witch. Now if that’s all you have to say, be gone.” He walked on to his house.

  Nokmay followed. “I can help you understand much of it, Ickletor. Don’t delve into its mysteries blind.”

  Ickletor spun around, “What did you come here for? I don’t want you around Octar or me!” He opened his door, entered the house, and turned closing it on the witch.

  “Tingtwang sent me!”

  There was a long silence, and then, though reluctant, Ickletor opened the door.

  35: Bobo’s Return

  With tail wriggling, Bobo leaped down, landing just beside dozing Malladar and flopped over on the prince. Malladar shot up and back against the boulder grabbing for his sword before he even recognized the purring jaguar stretched out beside him.

  When Toda recovered from his faint, Malladar had his arms around the aloof, sitting cat that still purred. The prince rubbed his head against the great cat’s neck, and Bobo rubbed his jaws all over Malladar, claiming him. After greetings, the prince sat back and tried to look angry.

  “Where have you been, you bad beast? You ran off when we went into that evil forest. Did you know something we didn’t? Some savior you are.”

  A large female jaguar suddenly plopped down beside Toda. She ogled the priest who promptly fainted again. Malladar whirled around at the sudden intrusion. The big female dismissed what appeared to be a dead priest and ambled over to Bobo, nuzzling his neck.

  “Oh, I see,” Malladar said and grinned, “You dog!” Well, not dog, of course. You know what I mean… no, I suppose not, never mind.” Cautious, he extended his hand to the female who looked at Bobo before sniffing the hand. With apparent disdain, she wandered back into the murky night, but Bobo remained. The two lay back down snuggling with Malladar’s arm across the cat’s chest and Bobo smacking the prince’s leg with his tail until they drifted off to sleep.

  *

  Toda came to all of a sudden. He gasped and shot up on his elbow, scanning the surroundings looking for what he thought he remembered was another jaguar. Not finding one, he looked to Malladar asleep with Bobo.

  “This is so messed up,” Toda said. He shook his head before scanning for the other jaguar again. “I must have gotten overwrought when that beast crashed down beside Malladar. There wouldn’t have been two of them.” He fluffed up his bedroll headrest and lay back down, keeping one eye on Bobo who eyed him. “It’s chilly tonight on the ground,” he mumbled. Indifferent, Bobo’s head sank back into sleep.

  Toda had almost closed one eye when a jaguar easily as large as he was plopped down beside him. She rolled slightly pushing back against him, pressing him against another boulder.

  Malladar heard the gasp and opened an eye. He saw the jaguar sleeping and Toda’s head over its chest with his eyes like beacons in the moonlight. He went back to sleep. When he awakened in the morning, neither Toda nor the jaguar had moved all night. Toda’s eyes were red and glaring at Malladar who chuckled knowing the priest was furious but dared not make a sound.

  When he rousted Bobo to attend to a call of nature, the two cats stood and followed him into the underbrush. Toda leaped up and furiously rolled up his blanket. Malladar returned with his companions, and the female sauntered over to Toda, where she sat beside him. The terror on the priest’s face reflected his fear of moving at all. Eventually, Toda tried to slip away from the jaguar. She noticed and stepped beside him where she slapped her massive, scratchy tongue up beside his face. He grimaced, as she sat back displaying indifference.

  “I think she likes you, Toda.” Malladar grinned.

  Toda’s face pinched and turned red. Not moving his head to look directly at her, he glanced down from the corner of his eye, and then whispered, “You think this is funny, do you? I’ll end up her breakfast any minute now.”

  “No, really, she likes you.”

  “Lovely, please just kill me quickly when she starts to tear off my limbs one by one any minute now.”

  Fearing to leave the clearing, Toda turned to relieve himself on the boulder behind him. When he finished, the two cats followed behind. Bobo shot a stream of urine that washed all trace of Toda’s ‘mark’ from the boulder. It splashed the priest. He sniffed his garments; then his face pinched again.

  “I think we should get going and eat later. I have no appetite at the moment.”

  Malladar was rolling up his bedroll and chuckling. “Perhaps you’re right. Maybe we can find some water so you can wash up. You’re getting a bit ‘ripe’ if you know what I mean.”

  Toda stamped his foot. Prince or not, I’d kick your butt for that remark if that great beast wasn’t protecting you every moment.”

  “You should be more grateful we have these two guardians. Nothing will sneak up on us with them as protectors. It’s almost Bobo comes and goes directing or diverting us in some way.”

  The female jaguar rubbed against Toda’s leg as they walked. He looked down at her, and she looked up to meet his eyes.

  “I suppose you’re right about that.”

  “What do you suppose her name is?” Malladar asked.

  “I think Lizzy might fit.”

  Malladar smiled and nodded then looked at Bobo who seemed to him to shrug his shoulders as he walked.

  “Sounds like a good fit. You don’t suppose she might be a bit large for that name, do you?”

  Toda looked down as the cat looked up at him again without losing a step in her stride. Still walking, he hesitated then reached down and cautiously patted her head. He snatched back his hand as if second thoughts prevailed. She leaned and rubbed against him. Toda smiled, “Yes, I think Lizzy it will be if that’s okay with you, Miss Priss.” He looked over at Bobo and chuckled, “Maybe Mrs. Priss.”

  Aloof, Lizzy gave no response and walked on.

  A few miles further down the trail, Bobo snatched the satchel containing the meteorite in his teeth and bounded into the woods beside the trail.

  “Hey! What are you doing? Where are you going with that?” Malladar said dashing after the great cat.

  Bobo led the two men on a frantic chase keeping just ahead of them for a near half-hour before the jaguar raced ahead and disappeared. The two men finally came to a small clearing where Bobo had shaken items from the haversack out on the sand surround
ing a pristine pool. As they entered the glade, Bobo jumped up swatting at something that fluttered over the water. He missed whatever it was and landed with a whitewater plunge. In a second, the big cat was out of the water and gone from the clearing leaving vines whipped all-round.

  Spray splashed whatever he’d swatted at knocking it against a large leaf. It slid off with the water but a strange purple plant tendril whipped around it, tying it tight.

  Lizzy was the first to hear something strange and cocked her head. She went to investigate, and Malladar noted it.

  “Don’t kill the poor thing,” he said. Lizzy moved away back to lay down by Toda. Malladar examined the frantic thing wrapped tightly by the vine’s tendril. As he watched fascinated, the tip of the tendril unwrapped and began to morph into a pitcher shaped appendage. As the pitcher swelled and turned red at the lip the spiral began to loosen. The top contracted as the bottom of the coil relaxed moving the trapped creature slowly down towards the pitcher.

  Toda looked up and seeing Malladar’s fascination joined him to watch the proceedings. “What is it?”

  “Hard to tell with it all wrapped up, but it looks like a tiny, maybe eight-inch person with wings like a flying termite queen!” Malladar looked closer as something buzzed his head. He ducked and glanced back at Toda, “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  Two more little eight-inch flying things buzzed him and fluttered over the creature the vine was moving down into the pitcher that was filling with fluid. Malladar shook his head with annoyance and looked closer still.

  “There it is again; the bug is making that sound. No it’s not a bug. That’s a cry for help!”

  Toda turned back to collect the scattered backpack items and set up camp. He mumbled, “If I have an amorous jaguar attending my every move, you can have eight-inch flying people, I suppose. Nothing in this infernal forest makes any sense anymore.” He looked up at the prince and chuckled, “They’re going to lock us up when we get back if we breathe a word about anything that’s happened since we left the city limits.”

  Malladar plucked the vine’s tendril, tore off the pitcher, and picked out the flying thing that had slid into the liquid. In an instant, the creature shook off the viscous fluid, flew up, and dove into the pool splashing froth as it thrashed. When it stopped flopping and lay upon the water with pale blue wings spread across the pool’s surface, two other such creatures descended and plucked it from the water. A strange charcoal-colored fish with large teeth shot from the water and snapped at the dangling creature just missing it. The two flying things flew the exhausted being to a tree branch where it off shook off silvery water and stood looking down at stunned Malladar.

  “Toda!”

  “What?”

  “Toda, you have to come see this.”

  “See what?” Toda asked still not looking over to Malladar.

  “I think these are tiny people, Toda.”

  The priest looked up, “You haven’t been snacking on mushrooms, have you? Oh if I should live to get back home I’ll never crawl out of the temple mound again. Who am I kidding; they won’t let me out of the darkest cell if I do get back alive.”

  “Toda!”

  Toda picked up his cooking pot and walked over to Malladar, who was grinning and pointing. “Go ahead and lose your mind to the mushrooms if you like. Flying little people indee… What the heck is that?!” Three tiny winged creatures stood on the branch smiling at the two men.

  “I believe they are as you put it, three little flying people.”

  Malladar reached and lifted Toda’s lower jaw with a finger. The two men looked at each other then both at the water sprites.

  Toda swallowed, “You ever heard tell of sprites, I mean for real?”

  “Nope, only in old wives’ tales.”

  “Me neither. Maybe we should pack up and move on someplace where we don’t see things that are only going to get us locked up if mentioned back home.”

  Malladar ignored the remark and reached out to the creature he’d saved. The other two flew up a safe distance and hovered, but the one he’d saved stepped onto his hand. When he drew it closer for inspection, she flew up and hovering just in front of his face, leaned forward, and planted an almost imperceptible kiss on the tip of his nose. Then she nodded and flew off with her two friends.

  “Wow!” he said. A tingle spread from his nose over his body, and he felt a warm, calming sensation. Smiling, he turned to Toda.

  “Whatever that thing is, whatever it did, you have a pale golden glow around you,” Toda said. “It’s fading, but it’s definitely there.”

  “This is some magical place, Toda. Bobo brought us here for some reason. He wanted me to find these sprites.” Malladar looked about for the two cats. “Now they’ve disappeared again. How am I to know what this is about?”

  “Well, the two jaguars weren’t going to tell you for sure. Uh, not unless they start talking.” Then anguished, Toda turned to his prince, “They haven’t started talking to you, have they? I want some of those mushrooms, too, if I’m to continue on this trip with you.”

  Malladar chuckled, “No, Bobo isn’t talking… yet.”

  “Good, good, glad to hear that.”

  “Not talking, but he is communicating.”

  “Dear Yingnak, here we go again. Pass the mushrooms, please. At least I hope they aren’t too bitter.”

  “Toda, Bobo wouldn’t miss that sprite. He deliberately missed it. He caused the splash to endanger the sprite. He waited for me to see that. I was supposed to save it.”

  “Uh-huh, you sure you’ve not been eating funny mushrooms?”

  Malladar turned to Toda, “Enough of the mushrooms, listen to me. The sprite is the key to something we’re supposed to find here.”

  “I don’t suppose it might be a secret door back to Octar before I resort to mushrooms.” The priest sorted the scattered items and scratched his bald spot. “Do you have that black rock on your person?”

  Malladar’s heart skipped a beat. “The Eye of Dindak, no. It’s in my satchel there.”

  Toda looked Malladar in the eye, “No, it’s not.”

  The two men dropped to the ground and scratched about to find the missing stone. As Toda scratched in the leaf litter at the edge of the clearing, an anaconda struck at him, and he jumped back just in time. “Malladar!”

  Malladar half jerked out his sword when the snake slithered racing towards the pool. As it touched the water, innocuous vines surrounding the clearing shot out purple tendrils, their tips turning flame red. Before the snake could slip underwater, a dozen vines shot from the jungle edge and wrapped around it. They pulled it back from the water ironically squeezing the life out of the reptile. The vines retracted back into the jungle with their lifeless victim’s muscles still writhing.

  “It’s as if it's touching the water triggered the vine attack,” Toda said.

  “Yes, but the vines didn’t shoot out for the sprite or Bobo,” Malladar said. He grinned, “Stick your hand in the pool.”

  “Me!” Toda said as he backed up from the water. “No, we’ll just stay away from the pool.”

  “Did you find The Eye?”

  They both stepped closer to the pool and spotted The Eye at the bottom.

  Toda shook his head, “That’s not a good development.”

  Malladar began to strip down. “One of us has to dive down there and get The Eye.”

  Toda crept closer to the pool. “Wait, let me test it first.” He stretched out a stick to the water, and nothing happened. Then he pulled back his sleeve and extended his hand. As it got within a fingers length of the water, tendrils emerged from the forest all around the pool. As he stopped and started the movement, so the tendrils extended. “No, you can’t get in that pool or even touch the water. You saw how fast it caught the sprite and the anaconda.”

  Malladar sat back on his haunches arms wrapped around his knees. “We have to get The Eye stone out of the pool. Bobo brought us here delibe
rately. I’m certain of that. Also, he made sure we discovered the lethal nature overhanging this spot before we got entrapped by its curse. Bobo threw the stone in the pool for us to get it out.”

  “We can’t fish it out with a stick or something. The vines react to any movement touching the water. They’d have had Bobo if he hadn’t dashed away so quickly. Remember how they were whipping about after he landed in the pool?”

  “No, I don’t think we can fish it out,” Malladar said. “The sprites are the key. That’s why Bobo swatted the one.”

  Toda scratched his brow. “The vines attacked the sprite as quickly as they would a larger animal.”

  Malladar jumped up! “Animal, yes, the vines feed on animals. Remember that tendril turning red and into a pitcher that filled with fluid. It was going to dissolve the sprite. Likely, they’d grow through larger animals absorbing their fluids as well.”

  “How does that help us get The Eye?”

  Malladar stepped to the edge of the clearing and grabbed a vine. The foliage all around the clearing quivered. He whipped out his knife and cut a length of the vine. The two ends bled a red, blood-like fluid. All of a sudden, three purple vine tips writhed from the forest converging on the prince.

  “Watch out!” Toda said. Using the new spear, he swung it smashing back two of the then red vine tips. Malladar hacked off the third as it was straightening, and turning woody like an arrow shaft, and surging at his torso. The stump bled and withdrew into the bushes.

  “Was the vine worth risking your life for?”

  Malladar shook his head, “I hope so. We shall see.” He began to thread the vine segment weaving it into a rough basket shape. He attached it tightly to the spear pole. “I’m hoping the fear my attack created, coupled with the fact this basket is ‘one of them,’ that the vines will not attack when the basket breaks the surface of the pool.”

  Toda put his haversack on his back and took Malladar’s in hand. “We may have to make a hasty retreat if those vines regroup and attack.”