The Exodus Sagas: Book I - Of Spiders And Falcons (59 page)

“Yes, my
Lady
.” he returned the bow, chuckling as he spoke, to the beautiful elven noble. The knight of Chazzrynn started up the trail, following the cut branches and brush that the greataxe had left behind.

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The crates and barrels were far more organized, save for the remaining back row of the storage hull. Zen had spent much sweat with the crew in rearranging the new supplies, graciously allowed by the king of Chazzrynn. More came down,
hopefully not too many more
, thought the priest, as he was running out of room. The smell of musty saltwater and mold did not bother him, nor the aroma of wood or sweaty crewman, yet there was something else that caught his nose, something that did not belong down here, a stench that permeated the others. “Keep em coming men, but put em there if you will, I need to set the back row straight to get em all in here rightly.”

Azenairk squeezed his bulky girth through the orderly supply crates, to the far back row. His eyes did a double glance, finding something he did not expect to find, his jaw dropped. The body of Dennilar and three other crewman lay piled, faces cut, throats slit, puncture wounds and lacerations galore, not to mention bloated and smelling of days old death. “Saberrak!! Shinayne!! Anyone!!” he yelled, the men up and down the stairs relaying calls, but not all the men. One of them, a quiet one, wandered toward the storage area, with Zen trapped in the back. His grin was fanged, his eyes pitch black, and his arm ended in a curved blade of white bone. He began to crawl over the barrels, seeing the dwarf unarmed. “
Great Vundren's shield
! You sly little fiends come and get your passage to hell!” Azenairk waited till the creature got closer, then prayed holding his Hammerpiece around his neck, his hymn and devout words took form as light appeared in his right hand. The doppelganger disguised as a raggedy crewman got closer. The light took gold then silver, finally a white glowing form of a hammer. “God will
always
provide to those of faith.” the last Thalanaxe smiled, seeing concern go across the shapeshifters face, and he stepped forward wielding the hammer of God.

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Lady Shinayne heard Zen from below deck, and dashed toward the stairs. Her blades out, yet having no armor to protect her. She leapt down half the distance of the stairs to the landing between her and the hull. She was not alone. Two seamen met her on the platform between the upper and lower stairs, blocking her way. Each had a foul look, and eyes that were darker than normal. Swords brandished, they silently stared at the elven woman, and then she knew what they were. Slowly, out of their left palms, bone and flesh twisted into an elongated spike, glistening wet white protrusions that waved in front of her. The two doppelgangers moved in, weaving their stolen natural weapons and their unnatural ones as well. “Disgusting. Are you two
sure
about this?”

The blades cut across at her, setting up for a quick kill, the two creatures lunged with stretching arms to puncture the elf through the chest. She parried each cutlass with her curved elven swords, then dropped to her knees quickly, hearing the sound of the two fiends impale each other on their own spikes. They hissed in agony, and before they could take another attack, Shinayne was up on her feet. She cut at the one on her left, disarming his weapon, then following with the longblade. She took its head off right below the chin. The elven swordswoman dropped again, crossing her swords behind her head for the attack she knew was coming. Feeling the edge of the cutlass and spike hit her weapons, she spun around cutting off both arms at the wrist, then plunging both through the doppelgangers chest. Purple blood leaked all over the platform and stairs, and the crew started to arm themselves and rush to see what was happening to their fellow mates.

Anger in their eyes, the men looked at the handiwork of the elven woman, then watched as the men that lay dead slowly transformed into pale white husks, hairless, sexless, and fanged with black demon eyes. “Search the ship! We have doppelgangers aboard courtesy of Valhirst! Move!” Lady Shinayne rushed down the stairs, the men stepping aside despite the horror on their faces. Many men followed the elven noble as she headed below deck to Zen’s aid.

Purple blood on his face, his hands empty, Azenairk Thalanaxe walked up the stairs and met Shinayne halfway. “Mine’s dead my Lady, you allright?”

She stopped her steps, nearly running into the dwarf head on. “Killed two, how many more are there?”

“Was Captain Dennilar one of the ones you cut down?” the dwarf looked around for the captain, not seeing him anywhere.

“No. You?” Shinayne caught her breath, and tried to sense where a strange aura of emotion might be coming from. She closed her eyes, sensing the aft and above. The captain’s quarters, she felt something wicked, with no emotion, moving.

“Where is Gwenneth?” the dwarf looked up toward the captain’s deck, and picked up an oar off one of the away boats.

“She was studying that scroll up there, where the captain was plotting our course.” Shinayne started back up the stairs, Zen behind her holding the oar like a spear, and the crew reluctantly following at a distance.

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Saberrak saw the opening, a flat clearing near the top of two valleys, and another giant wooden pillar topped with the carving of a giant cat’s eye. He had stopped many times in his climb through the valley and up to the top of the small lush mountain. He had heard that someone was following him, assuming by the sound of his steps, it was James. His senses keen while out away from all the people, the gray minotaur smelled something, several in fact. He smelled urine on the breeze, and animals, feline by the odor.

He walked further, following the scent, and crouched behind a strange flowered tree, its purple blooms and red seeds swaying from the branches on the wind. He saw several men, wearing rags and animal skins, yet some dressed as sailors. None of them armed, all around a fire, talking and eating, laughing, looking at the sky and trees. Freedom, the minotaur felt that they were happy to be atop the mountain, living a free life. He decided to approach.

“You there! Who are you,
friend?
” the men stood up, dropping their food and walking forward. They stared at the hulking horned beast, intrigued, but not afraid.

“Saberrak the gray, my ship is getting supplies below.” he walked forward, looking down at the dirty men, all human, smelling of cat urine. He stopped, seeing them stop, and converse in a language he did not understand. He spoke the Agarian tongue, the rough language of the ogre, and even an old lost underground dwarven trade tongue, but this was different, bestial with growls and animal noises mixed together.

One spoke up, of the dozen or more that now gathered. “
Another ship
? Not the one that just landed hours ago over there?” he pointed to the southern side of the island.

“No. My ship is there, and has been all day.” the minotaur pointed to the northern tip of the island nearby. As they began talking, he began to back away, sensing something just not right about these men. He heard noise from behind, mixed with heavy breathing.

“Why by the wings of Alden, did you find it necessary to climb all the way…Saberrak,
who are they
?” James reached for his broadsword, realizing he had not worn his chainmail nor brought his shield on this little hike.

“Just start slowly down the valley. There is another ship on the south side, and they know of it. Regardless of whom these men are, we have to leave before the other ship rounds the island.” Saberrak pulled his other axe, the smaller one in his left hand, and backed up slowly keeping the knight behind him.

“You need to come with us, the lord Bansa will wish to see you.” two of them spoke in unison, like they were commanded to do so from something else. Their eyes turned an off green and yellow blend, pupils shrinking and slivering. Black whiskers began to sprout from their faces, and they began to purr loudly at the minotaur and the knight.

“This Lord Bansa, I assume he is a cat?
Like you
?” Saberrak quickened his pace walking backwards, keeping both axes out in front of him. He heard James draw his blade, and keep well behind the minotaur for cover.

“
Yes
, a great cat, the greatest, and the wisest, and the largest, and the oldest in the islands. He is worshipped here, by many, and by you as well.” now four or five were talking the same words simultaneously, sending chills to their prey. Half the men had started walking on all four legs, their skin turning black as fur sprouted thick and shiny. Tails had grown, and as they did, painful yawns and hisses issued from fanged feline mouths.

“Saberrak, these men are turning into large cats. I think we should run, they look unfriendly to say the least.” James had never seen anything like this before, not heard of it. He could not imagine meeting their lord or God, or whatever it was. He waited for the minotaur to make the first move.

“I think we will just leave then, send our regards to your lord.” Saberrak the gray eyed each one, eleven he counted, and lowered his horns while he withdrew.

All of them now black panthers with glowing yellow green eyes, standing over four feet at the shoulder, speaking in unison. They began to move to circle the two visitors. “Your worship will be most appreciated, and if not,
your meat will be
.”

“
Run
!” Saberrak turned and sprinted with James Andellis, heading down the forest valley as fast as his powerful legs would allow, hearing the sound of the angry felines behind him. He heard their claws land into trees, their paws land into branches, and the chase and feline roars of the rest. His heart pounded, fearing more for James than himself.

They began to pass the two men fleeing down the island, gaining ground to each side through rushing trees and midnight shadow. James ducked as a black mass leapt from a tree across his head, landing on the other side of the makeshift trail that was barely visible. The minotaur jumped as one of the ferocious cats scrambled for his leg from the left, landing on his feet as it slid down into the forest slope. He looked behind him, seeing them all moving faster in step and maneuver than he and the knight. He decided to stop, to give James a chance, and to see what these beasts were made of.

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Gwenneth sat with the stone scroll, feeling its power, unable to manipulate or attune to it. She read the incantations in her mind, and what she could of the ancient prayers and story carried in the lost words of language long out of use. She watched as the captain went over the maps, silently. He had been plotting course after course for hours now, retracing the same patterns in different orders, and seemed to be really trying to make it believable. Gwenne Lazlette had been aware that he was a doppelganger since she came in the captain’s quarters this evening for some peace and quiet to study. He had difficulty speaking or making eye contact, and really new little of the maps he was writing nonsense upon. She had peeked up from time to time, noting that the course he plotted would take them to Jal-Adeen, about four months of sailing to the west and around the northern coast of Agara through the Soltaic Ocean and the Sea of Jasada, nowhere near Harlaheim. Gwenne surmised that this creature was young, and had no idea how to read the maps, since part of the journey took the seafaring Bronze Harpy through mountains. She kept her composure, kept studying, and the black crystal wand tucked under her robes with her hand upon it.

Hearing the sounds of battle or commotion outside the closed quarters, the pseudo captain perked up, distracted from his monotonous tracing. He kept his eyes lowered though, and made his way to the sofa, feigning a yawn and a stretch, and sat next to the young wizard. His arm even reached toward her, and she gently blocked it with her hand, placing it in his lap. “Not so fast,
captain.
”

It chuckled, not knowing anything of human situations like this, and seeming confused as to how to get closer to this woman. The creature thought that most human women preferred a mate of position, control, and leadership, so its brain was not processing how it could not get the human to let it touch her. “May I
kiss
you? Yes, yes, kiss you my dear?”

“Only if you close your eyes,
captain
. I am shy, and have never been this close to a man such as you,
sir
.” she stood, feigning nervousness, as she was truly comfortable lying, having had to do so much of it growing up in the towers of the academy. Gwenne waited, sensing hesitation in the creature as it focused on the noises outside, she heard them as also. “Well, I’m waiting…”

The doppelganger stood, one hand behind its back, spreading bone blades from its fingertips. The creature closed its eyes, and stepped forward. The captain’s head smashed against the back wall, knocking dozens of instruments and decorations from the shelves. Eyes wide open and black, the shapeshifter felt held against its will, four feet off the ground, body slamming into the walls from the pointed wand of the woman.

“
Virsul varnas miviandra
!” Gwenneth pointed her hand, keeping the thing in the air with the wand, and shot a mystical cylinder of green mist into the doppelgangers face and chest. The creature screamed, hissed, choked, as it reverted to its natural grotesque form and the pale skin began to sizzle from the acid. “You are a
terrible
lover, and you scream like a little girl,
captain
.”

The door to the chamber flung open, Shinayne backed by Zen with an oar stood ready to kill. They looked at the levitating doppelganger, purple blood dripping from a slowly melting face and chest, it turning into all sorts of birds and animals in attempt to escape the arcane grip that held it. “I need the two of you to duck please.” Gwenne stated in perfect calm. They did so and stepped aside, allowing young Lazlette to levitate the creature out the door and above the main deck. She followed, and carried the doppelganger over the Carisian Sea, about fifty feet out from the ship, the whole crew of the Harpy watching. “
Hidsisir hussel
!” her hand formed a ball of swirling red fire, orange sparks flittering into the air, keeping the wand on the melting doppelganger. Her hand shot forward releasing a cone of fire three feet in length that was guided by her fingertips. It hurled with deadly accuracy, crashing and bursting into a shower of flame that engulfed the creature still being held melting from acid above the water. It flailed, screamed, then twitched very little as it blackened and smoldered. Moments later, a husk of burnt skin over a skeleton was dropped, lifeless, into the water. Not a word was spoken, the crew, and even her friends just looked at the ripples in the sea, then to Gwenne. They watched her put her wand away, and turn around, slowly walking back into the captain’s quarters. Her long dark hair whipped in the breeze, flowing with her black robes, the door shutting behind her.