Charms of the Feykin

by Charles E Yallowitz

  Stepping into the central hall, the adventurers stop at the horrific sight of Zohara. Gray ooze is dripping from her naked body, which is covered in blinking eyes and red-lipped mouths. Her blonde hair is fanned out behind her and leaves scratches in the floor as she paces. Sensing her guests, the priestess’s head leans back until it is upside down. A look of embarrassment is on her face when the woman sees Delvin and she tries to find her gown, but the garment has been shredded. When her many eyes fall on Sari, Zohara shrieks in rage and hurls the table through the transparent wall.

  “That one is supposed to be dead!” she shouts, her head returning to its natural state. With a high-pitched screech, she reveals a swarm of crimson tongues that stretch out of her toothless mouth. “We had both of you under our control. Then we felt you break away and something else snapped. We got hurt and lost control. Now all our favorite pets had to be turned off until we can fix this.” The priestess stretches her neck to put her face a few inches from Nyx. “What did you do to us? Rancid, worthless, pathetic, angry creature hurt us. We want our fiancée to take your head and feed it to us.”

  “Don’t call me that,” Delvin says, his blade swinging for Zohara’s neck. The weapon stops short when a pulse of agony drives the warrior back. “Not sure who or what you are, but I don’t care. I’m going to kill you for what you did.”

  The creature cackles before whirling around to face Dariana, the telepath rubbing her temples in concentration. Zohara moves away when she feels a violent strike to her psyche and coagulated blood falls from her nose. Retaliating with a storm of mental blades, she sends the silver-haired champion slamming against the wall. Several cuts appear on Dariana’s body, but the woman refuses to react while she peels back the fake priestess’s defenses. Sensing that the others are about to attack, Zohara tears opens a psychic doorway and lets the telepath fall into an astral pit. The sudden drop stops Dariana’s progress, but she is able to pull herself out of the mental hole before it can close. At least twenty angry voices erupt from the depths of the creature’s mind and give her enough power to telekinetically swing the champion around the room like a toy. All of her eyes are shining and blinking out of synch while she batters the woman against the walls. When she is forced to duck a blast of fire, the bleeding telepath is released and lands in Timoran’s arms.

  “Barghest,” Dariana whispers, her faint voice causing the priestess to stop. In response to the word, a low growl rumbles from every corner of the room while gray shadows creep across the floor. “That’s what you call yourself. Frog told us about firstborn of each village being impregnated by a mysterious attacker. The children that burrowed out of their parents were drowned by the Order, but they didn’t really die. All of you floated to Binhadar Falls and hid up there while corrupting the plateau. There are multiple psychic minds in your head, but they work in unison. I wasn’t prepared for more than one opponent, so you got the jump on me. I’m sorry, my friends, but I might not be able to help much. Not without time to focus and I doubt she, or should I say they, will give me the chance.”

  “What did you do to the Feykin?” Sari asks, taking a brave step toward the grinning creature. She reaches out to control the stagnant water, but finds that she is unable to manipulate even a drop. “What did you do to my powers?”

  “That wasn’t us, but it’s a nice surprise,” Zohara answers, licking all of her lips and patting her stomach. Eyeing Nyx, she sends an image of Stephen into the channeler’s mind and squeals at the woman’s reflexive shiver. “Our creator never came back for us. We guess he thought we were dead or simply lost interest in us. Only reason we know about him is from eavesdropping on the other temples. The teleportation portals might have been unstable for travel, but our minds were able to cross the gap. That’s why we know how important Binhadar Falls is to you. That’s why we took the Feykin as our toys. Now all of them are squirming in our bellies because we got mad. We get hungry when we’re upset.”

  Having snuck around the side of the room, Luke sprints forward with his sabers drawn and coated in pink energy. The half-elf leaps at the Barghest, but the creature stretches to grab the ceiling and pulls herself to safety. Becoming bigger and bulkier, Zohara yanks a stone slab out of the building and hurls it at the forest tracker. Luke dives out of the way and rolls to his feet, intending to rush into another attack. Instead, the snake fiend’s flexibility awakens and his rubbery arms twist in an attempt to impale his chest with his own blades. Luke finds that his hands are stuck to his sabers, so all he can do is bend away from the keen edges and jabbing points. He is unable to react when Zohara drops down, her mouth open wide enough to swallow him whole. The creature’s powerful jaws slam on empty space as Sari tackles the half-elf out of the way. A thin dagger is left in the priestess’s toothless gums, which causes her to roar in pain and frustration.

  “As a sacrifice or not, we will eat you, little Feykin,” the Barghest declares while continuing to control Luke and his sabers. The gypsy is forced to grab her friend’s wrists and lock her body, which leaves her vulnerable to the advancing monster. “Swallow you whole and enjoy you for weeks. Sweet fae blood rare and we want it all. Maybe we will eat the shaman too. That way you have company.”

  “Wait!” Delvin shouts, sheathing his weapon and walking with his arms raised above his head. He pushes Nyx away when she tries to stop him, his hand roughly pressing her face. “I have an offer. You want to marry me and use me as a sacrifice. While fighting your curse, Nyx told us that you have alternatives. Let my friends go and use your extras to replace them. I’ll stay with you.”

  Zohara releases Luke from her power, her eyes gathering on her front to watch the brown-haired warrior. “That ritual will make us whole and give us the power needed to conquer the jungle. Not very champion-like. Though we could eat Phelan to replace Sari and kill someone to make their loved ones miserable. Neither would taste as delicious as the original meals, but we can live with that if it completes the ritual. What about your great destiny? Your friends can’t challenge Binhadar Falls and the plateau without you. Be a long time before a new champion is created to join them.”

  “I’m pretty sure I no longer count as a champion.”

  “Prove your honesty by kissing me as I am.”

  “Revive Dariana first.”

  “That sounds like a trap, so no.”

  “Very well. My part of the deal first.”

  Delvin takes a deep breath and leans closer to the ooze-covered creature, his left hand reaching out to caress her face. Gray slime sticks to his palm and causes a mild burning as the substance creeps up to his wrist. He waits for Luke and Sari to rejoin the others by the door before letting his knuckles roll along Zohara’s cheek. The warrior’s lips are almost touching the bloated ones of his former fiancée when he abruptly ducks. Leaving a trail of fruit in its wake, Delvin’s enchanted shield spins across the room and attaches to his left forearm, the disc trapping the Barghest’s head. With the creature thrashing and slamming the champion against the floor, he twists his body to flip her into one of the stagnant pools.

  “Get to the waterfall!” Delvin shouts as he draws his bastard sword.

  Seeping out of the trap, Zohara punches the warrior in the chest, which knocks him into the hallway. As if mauled by a large beast, his damaged chainmail is now shredded beyond use and he is bleeding from several long wounds. Delvin is grabbed by Luke and Nyx, who urgently drag him by the arms. He is about to argue when he hears Zohara shriek and watches her transform into a mass of gray, veiny flesh. Only the multiple eyes and her plume of blonde hair remain while the rest of her loses all traits of ever being human. Whenever the creature makes a noise, it is through an enormous, toothless mouth that emerges from what Delvin assumes is its bulbous stomach. With another scream, the Barghest plunges its multi-jointed arms and dripping tendrils into the floor and rips the entire temple in half while the champions sprint down the cracking steps.

  *****

  “Are they zombies or not?” Sari
asks as she kicks a glassy-eyed Feykin away. She does her best to avoid stabbing the citizens since she sees that they are still breathing. “I really don’t want to do this. They’re like me and I’ve hurt them enough.”

  “Then stick to illusions and sleep magic,” Nyx replies, knocking several enemies away with a wave of liquefied earth. The channeler ducks a spear and punches her attacker in the stomach, which barely slows the Feykin down. “Zohara might have turned off their nerves like Dariana does to herself some times. Doesn’t look like they’re fully conscious either. Not true zombies, but definitely close. I agree with Sari that they’ve suffered enough, so we need to get out of here before we kill someone.”

  “Push to the waterfall and start climbing!” Delvin shouts from ahead. He focuses more on using his shield to bash his way through the mob, his fount powers helping him deliver paralytic blows. “Once we get to the plateau, we can rest and make a plan. If this Barghest has been living in my temple for a while then we might find a clue to defeating it up there.”

  “Give me time to recover and I can tear it apart,” Dariana groans while guarding Timoran’s back. She finds her punches and kicks steadily losing their effectiveness, a sign that Zohara is strengthening her mindless army. “We’re going to be overrun and she still hasn’t attacked. I suggest we make a run for the border and come at the plateau from the other side of the river. If we’re lucky, they won’t follow.”

  “Retreat does sound like the best tactic,” Luke says, his body covered in pink energy. Unlike his friends, he is trying his best not to touch the Feykin since they melt at the slightest contact with him. “I don’t know if they’re undead or not, but my ring doesn’t like them. There won’t be any people left to save if I don’t get out of here. We need to run before the Barghest arrives and makes things worse.”

  With a shriek, the gelatinous Barghest flows over a nearby house of mushrooms and consumes the structure. It burbles and hisses while sending a pair of tendrils to the river, which is transformed into toxic sludge. The Feykin swarm their enemies as their master waves its arms at Luke, his deadly aura burning the creature’s skin whenever it strikes him. Being formed from multiple beings, the Barghest is able to prevent its bloating body from being dissolved by the Ring of Uli’s purifying energy. Suffering through the pain, the creature grabs the forest tracker by the legs and hurls him into the nearest elemental tower. A wide swing of its stretching body collapses the building on top of the half-elf, pinning him beneath the rubble.

  Choosing its next target, the Barghest fires a veiny lasso that catches Sari by the neck and yanks her into the air. The creature opens its toothless mouth to swallow the gypsy, several pink tongues slapping at its solid gums. With a dull hiss, a burst of clean water soars over the crowd and splits into enough jets to strike all of the monster’s eyes. Blinded and enraged, the Barghest flails wildly as Phelan bounds over the heads of the other Feykin and slices the slimy rope around Sari. He catches her with one arm and spins the gypsy back to her feet before severing several reaching tendrils. His long knives nothing more than silver blurs, he carves a path through his snarling brethren toward the other champions.

  “You’re killing your friends?” Sari asks, horrified by her rescuer’s actions. Seeing a pack of children racing toward them, the gypsy casts a quick paralysis spell to freeze them. “I don’t want you to kill anyone. Please stop doing that.”

  “But these people are a danger to you, my Queen,” Phelan replies while slicing the throat of a fellow hunter. His viciousness helps to keep the rest of the swarm away, but he still tries to attack anyone within reach. “I love you and I’ve sworn to defend you. If the citizens of Rhundar have become traitors or monsters then they’re my enemy. Those that threaten you must be destroyed without mercy.”

  “We’d be impressed with our special creation if we weren’t so angry,” the Barghest growls, its bloodshot eyes able to see again. Flowing across the ground, it rapidly fires tendrils to keep Phelan and Sari on the defensive. “Maybe we shouldn’t have used the lonely child’s magic to enchant you. That makes you closer to her than us. Not a loyal toy. Aw, she looks confused even though you should have figured the truth out on your own. This man never loved you. We had you cast a spell on him like you did long ago with the Callindor. Why would anybody be infatuated with a broken creature like you?”

  “Never insult her!” the Feykin shouts before wiping his blades on his pants and charging. He slashes at the gray creature, but the wounds he leaves are absorbed into the gelatinous mass. “I know about your tricks and I don’t care. Whether this is a spell or not, I swore to protect my Queen and I will do so at any cost.”

  Unaffected by his attacks, the Barghest snares Phelan by the ankles and lifts him over its open maw. “Been too long since we ate a Feykin. Last one was your sister since we didn’t need her any more. You will taste just as delicious as her. Only two of your kind left, so we’re sad to see you go. At least you will last long enough to savor for a while.”

  With a rumble, the river floods and ejects the garbage into a filth-filled geyser that smashes into the creature. The Barghest absorbs the toxic liquid while Sari claps her hands to send a wave through all of Rhundar. Her friends find themselves on tight circles of dry land while the Feykin are washed away, many of them clinging to the buildings. The gypsy launches herself at her enemy and spins to hurl ice daggers that freeze several of the creature’s eyes. She bounds from one water spout to the next in the hopes of creating an opening near Phelan. When Sari sees a chance, she leaps for the Feykin and slashes at the slime around his legs.

  “Now we eat the last of you,” the monster says, catching the gypsy’s wrist by sprouting an arm out of the severed tendril. Opening its mouth wide, the Barghest swallows the two Feykin and slams its mouth shut. “They’re wriggling, but slowing down. We’ll put them to sleep to make sure they keep. Champion tastes so good that we want her to last.”

  “Give her back!” Nyx shouts as she hurls a fireball. A bolt of pain in her head causes the spell to fly wide and blast a hole in the Water Tower. “I’ll rip you apart, Zohara! Spit my little sister out and I won’t make you suffer.”

  “We need to get to Delvin’s temple now,” Dariana insists while dragging the channeler away from the cooing creature. The Feykin are getting back to their feet and gathering to attack again, the clear path to the waterfall steadily shrinking. “You heard what the Barghest said. It needs time to digest a meal and we saw that it has no teeth. Sari is alive inside that thing, but we need to move quickly to make sure she stays that way.”

  “Can we freeze it?” Timoran asks, batting away an incoming lightning bolt.

  The telepath shoves Nyx ahead and holds her sides, one of her wounds bleeding through her shirt. “That would slow the process, but I’m too weak to do it. Giving her recent issues with that part of her powers, ice magic could harm Sari too. Also I don’t think putting the Barghest to sleep will do the job. Maybe it was created to be weak against Stephen’s time magic or some kind of equivalent, which doesn’t help us.”

  “Fizzle know spell, but it strong,” the drite announces from the sky. He dives through the Feykin, knocking several of them to the ground. “Cover whole city. Friends need run and climb fast. Fizzle and Feykin get caught too. Nyx or monkey dragon man can break. Need keep monster in center. Not sure how.”

  “Timoran and I can do that,” Dariana states, waving the others away. She looks at where Luke is still buried, hoping to spot him crawl out of the wreckage. “This means Nyx and Delvin will be facing the temple alone. I have to admit that I still like our chances of victory. Any other pairing would give me doubt, but I sense that you two will be able to handle the challenges. Run and don’t look back.”

  “But-” Nyx begins before Delvin grabs her arm.

  “Good luck, guys,” the warrior whispers, struggling to drag the young woman away.

  Trying not to worry about their friends, the pair sprint for the waterfall as Fizzle rocket
s into the sky and rapidly circles Rhundar. With a screech, the Barghest reaches for the drite, but her arms are severed or broken by the remaining champions. Timoran swings his great axe with enough force to topple the giant creature while Dariana strains her psyche to confuse their enemy’s multifaceted mind. The telepath turns her attention to the approaching Feykin, her blows aimed at breaking their legs and sending them flying into the mob. Darting over the battle, Fizzle continues to soar and chant while a pillow of rainbow mist rises from the earth. The dragon’s voice reaches a high pitch as he flips and dives to strike the compacted spell. He rams into the cushion and the colorful fog erupts in every direction, plunging all it touches into a magical stasis.

  Nyx and Delvin are still running with the billowing spell licking at their heels. Neither of them dare to look back and risk slowing down, but they are steadily losing faith in being able to outrun Fizzle’s magic. Their muscles are starting to cramp when a winged shadow passes over the champions and they find themselves being lifted into the air. Still weak from her time as part of the chimera, the griffin is very thin and sporting the bruises and cuts that Luke received from the falling tower. With a roaring screech, the elegant beast summons enough wind behind her to launch herself toward the cliffs and soar up the mountain. Far below, Fizzle’s spell finishes enveloping all of Rhundar and the faint forms of those trapped inside can be seen standing still within the colorful mist.

  16

  The plateau’s jutting edge looms out of the parting clouds before the griffin is able to swerve to the side. A tight spiral is all Lucy has time for, her weak body smashing through the solid stone. Still clutching Delvin and Nyx to her underbelly, the exhausted beast musters a final, powerful flap to reach the rocky cliff. The griffin collapses on her side and releases the champions while a tremor shakes the plateau. She slowly transforms back into Luke while his friends drag her to the shore of the rushing waterfall. Standing out against the stony ground, a solitary patch of dying grass is the only comfortable spot they can find for the battered forest tracker. Nyx does her best to use her extra clothes as pillows and blankets, creating a nest for her little brother.