The Green Knight (Space Lore Book 1) (22 page)

Baldwin stared in amazement, almost whispering, “When I was little, my grandmother told me that my grandfather was one of these ghosts because he’d died in battle right after they got married. I think she was trying to bring me into her way of coping with the loss, but I was too young to appreciate that. Instead, it just left me terrified of these things until I was old enough to understand what they really were.”

Some Scyphozoans were slightly larger than others, but all of them shared the common feature of resembling a floating teardrop, a narrow top and an extremely wide base.

“It must be like looking in a mirror, right?” Pistol said, patting Fastolf on the back.

The oaf could only groan.

They had walked without rest for nearly a day, but in that moment, all of them were overcome with the dazzling view of dozens and dozens of these beautiful things swaying through the forest in complete peace and calm. The sound of leaves rustling as the breeze came through, followed by the slow wandering of the soft blue glowing lights was hypnotic.

Traskk’s tongue darted out of his mouth as he spoke in a low grumble.

“What did he say?” Morgan wanted to know.

Vere continued to gaze at the lights drifting in front of her when she spoke. “He said they have no smell. He can smell just about anything and they don’t have any kind of odor at all. Every living thing, even trees and grass, have smells. But not these things.”

As if to agree with Vere’s translation of what he had said, Traskk offered a low whine. Vere had seen the reptile, twice the size of any normal man, rip murderous aliens apart during bar fights. She had seen him become overcome with bloodlust upon seeing a Toaden outside the bar on Folliet-Bright. And, only hours earlier, had heard that viciousness as he tore the amphibian bounty hunter apart. When these things happened, it didn’t matter what she said or how many people were with her; nothing was going to stop Traskk from killing what he wanted to kill. But now, that same Basilisk was stepping awkwardly back and forth, wanting to stay as far away from the Scyphozoans as possible. His tail, which could kill someone with its force or uproot a tree, dragged limply on the ground.

“Do we go around?” Baldwin asked.

“It will take too long,” Vere said.

Fastolf raised his blaster again but A’la Dure grabbed his wrist so hard that he gave a slight cry and immediately pulled his hand back.

“You won’t hurt them,” Vere said, agreeing with A’la Dure.

His pride hurting as much as his wrist, Fastolf tried to make a joke out of it: “Scared of the ghosts, are you? A plague of cowards! Every last one of you.” And yet he also backed away from the Scyphozoans as he said it.

It was Morgan who said, “If you grew up on Edsall Dark you’d know you don’t do anything to harm the tears of the forest.”

“Plus,” Baldwin said, “my father told me anyone who killed a Scyphozoan eventually became one.”

“Occulus used to tell me that too,” Vere said, lowering her head, “My mother believed her parents were out here as well. Although, for a completely different reason.”

In that moment, she joined A’la Dure in becoming incredibly saddened by the sight of the aimless beings in front of her. Each one was a reminder not just of all the people she had lost in her life, but a reminder that the galaxy was a cold and lonely place. Every second that went by was another opportunity to lose someone you loved. These glowing spirits seemed to be proof of that.

Another gust of wind came through. When it did, the entire legion of glowing forms drifted further from left to right. Their tentacles followed a moment later, trailing behind as the Scyphozoans were pushed through the woods, then hanging underneath the creature after it came to a rest.

Pistol said, “There is a twenty-nine percent chance we will make it to the kingdom in time, but that probability is decreasing every moment.”

Without another word, Vere stepped forward until she was mere feet away from the nearest glowing creature.

Traskk gave a nervous hiss.

Fastolf yelled, “What are you doing?”

Without turning to look back at them, Vere said, “They won’t hurt you if you don’t touch them. They have long tentacles but they won’t reach for you. Just keep a safe distance.” Then she continued forward, making her way in between the deadly souls.

Morgan followed. Then Pistol. Then A’la Dure.

Seeing them leave him, Baldwin uttered a prayer to himself, then began carefully navigating the field of venomous spirits.

Fastolf retrieved his flask from his vest and took a big gulp. He was going to put it back in his pocket but Traskk reached for it and took a drink as well. When the reptile handed it back, it was empty.

Both of them had their reasons for being worried. Fastolf’s giant belly gave him less room for error in navigating through the field of glowing creatures, making it much more difficult to walk between them without touching one. Traskk’s tail might have been an even greater liability. It was longer than he was tall and was continually moving with what seemed to be a mind of its own. Surely, it would accidently touch a Scyphozoan.

“Do we stay here?” Fastolf said, looking out at the forest of glowing objects.

Traskk’s answer was a low hiss and then a quick movement out into the beginning of the field of faint blue lights.

“Why me?” Fastolf said. After pulling out yet another flask, this one hidden in his rucksack, and taking a large drink, he too took a step forward.

At the front of the group, Vere called out, “They only move when the wind comes through. Other than that, it’s fairly easy to find room between each one.”

All around her, tear-shaped creatures glowed, turning the forest into a soft blue glow of tranquility. When she stopped and looked at the creatures, which might have been mindless jelly aliens just as much as they might have been the spirits of those she had known and loved, she saw a peacefulness she wished she could attain more often in her own life.

There had been sporadic instances—the quiet after a long day of telling jokes, the calm that came with taking the Griffin Fire out into space—in which she felt at one with the galaxy. Those moments were few and far between. And when they did occur, they were fleeting, gone before she could hold onto them.

Looking behind her, she saw Morgan, Pistol, A’la Dure and everyone else, all at various distances, each following the path she was making through the tears of light. Looking forward again, she continued on.

Every once in a while she heard a rustling of leaves and called out, “Wind,” and everyone watched the Scyphozoans closest to their left to see how far they would drift toward them. Then, as a group, everyone would adjust their path to stay away from the forest spirits.

At the back of the group, Fastolf took a deep breath and sucked in his gut as much as he could. Traskk actually picked up his tail in his arms and carried it so it didn’t linger too far behind him or unconsciously wag from one side to the other and accidently touch one of the poisonous creatures.

He turned to Fastolf and growled a series of words in Basilisk but Fastolf was too filled with a combination of liquid courage and extreme fright to pay attention to what his reptilian friend had just said. He had no way of knowing that Traskk had just warned him that if he ever told anyone about seeing the Basilisk carry his tail, he wouldn’t have a face the next morning.

“Wind,” Vere said again, pausing to see how much each Scyphozoan would drift.

Another light breeze. Another gentle swaying of the Scyphozoans. All around them, the galaxy’s most toxic living creature drifted only feet away from where they each stood.

As she took a step forward, the glowing tentacle spirit directly in front of her dissolved into a mist of light blue energy that hovered in the air like mist, then slowly descended toward the ground. The Scyphozoan she had been looking at was gone. She stared at the moist blue glowing light on the rocks by her feet, waiting for it to sink into the ground and disappear, trying to piece together what had just happened. In all the stories she had been told of the forest spirits—the forest’s tears—she had never heard of them dissolving for no reason.

Then the reason hit her and she screamed, “Bounty hunter!”

Without any place to offer genuine protection from an enemy whose position she still didn’t know, she scrambled between two Scyphozoans and crouched toward the ground, hoping the tree nearest to her would offer some cover.

A burst of laser fire came out of the trees, landing by her feet. At the same time, she felt a gentle breeze rush past her cheeks.

Immediately, she yelled, “Wind,” and had to ignore the bounty hunter in order to make sure she dodged the throng of poisonous creatures drifting all around her.

There was too much going on around her for her to figure out exactly where the bounty hunter might be hiding. Another laser shot came near her face. Another Scyphozoan dissolved into blue mist, illuminating the air as phosphorescent light misted onto the ground. She withdrew her blaster and began firing toward the spot from where the shot seemed to have come. Behind her, Morgan was doing the same.

Vere asked Pistol if there was anything out there.

“There is life all around us,” Pistol began to answer before seeing her expression and realizing that wasn’t what she meant.

“Anything dangerous? Anything out of place?”

His eyes began to glow, then he said, “One life form different from all of the others. A medium sized creature. Positioned at point two.”

“That wasn’t so difficult was it?”

Pistol began to reply, then realized he wasn’t supposed to.

Both Vere and Morgan adjusted their aim slightly to where the android had directed.

A shot streaked toward them. When she ducked behind a tree, Vere came within inches of touching a Scyphozoan and had to leave her left shoulder out in the open to avoid getting stung by lethal toxin.

A gust hit her face.

“Wind!” she yelled and the legion of gelatinous creatures drifted once more.

Behind her, she heard a rustling of leaves and feared a second bounty hunter was coming up from behind, but it was only Traskk climbing a tree to avoid the group of Scyphozoans.

In front of her, another laser blast zipped past her face. In response, she sent a burst of five shots into the trees. Morgan sprayed a wider range of blasts all around Vere’s shots in an attempt to catch the bounty hunter if he tried to move from his hiding spot. The tree they unleashed their blasters on lost its leaves first, then its branches, then its bark. By the time they were done firing, the tree didn’t look like a tree at all but a burnt stick figure statue.

“Wind!” Vere yelled again, half forgetting the Scyphozoans were still moving all around her.

With no more shots coming at them, Morgan dashed forward to look for the bounty hunter. Vere used the opportunity to look behind her to make sure everyone in her group was still together.

Pistol and Baldwin were fine. Both were taking their time, carefully avoiding each spirit of the forest. Traskk was up in the trees, safe from any danger. Fastolf sipped from a flask while he inched forward.

Four people.

But there should have been five.

That was when she saw A’la Dure, just behind Pistol and Baldwin, lying on the ground, shivering and convulsing as energetic blue light sparkled all over her skin. A Scyphozoan was drifting past her, one of its tentacles leaving phosphorescent light across her leg as it went.

47

 
“Hrrmmm,” the Green Knight murmured as he sharpened his axe. It was the only thing he did. Morning, noon, and night, he was either motionless or he was at work, tending to his weapon. Each time the carbide stone rubbed against the blade, a steady GRRRRKKKKKK of rock scratching against metal echoed throughout the Green Chapel. And still, the Green Knight continued, as though the blade couldn’t possibly become sharp enough.

As he worked, one of his thick, gloved hands gripped the axe so tightly that the green wood creaked. Trickles of water dripped all around him. From the rock ceiling. Down the rock walls. Out of the shadows. The Green Knight took no notice of his damp surroundings. As the sun set, the Green Chapel was thrown further and further into darkness. The knight kept his head down, focused on nothing but the sharpening of his weapon.

GRRRRKKKKKK.

The Green Knight made a deep growl from far down in his throat.

“She’s getting closer,” a voice soothed from the darkness. “I can feel it.”

The Green Knight grunted. It was a deep, rolling grunt like thunder in the distance or an earthquake rattling the world around them. But it was only the Green Knight’s impatience.

“She will be here soon enough, my friend. I can feel it.”

GRRRRKKKKKK.

48

Vere ran back to A’la Dure, who was shaking and twitching on the ground.

“It is not advisable to touch her,” Pistol said in his monotone.

Sparkles of the Scyphozoan’s energetic light shot over A’la Dure’s skin like a rash of blue lightning. Vere either didn’t hear or just didn’t care what the android had said, though. Right as she got to her friend and reached down to scoop her up in her arms, Traskk tore Vere off the ground with his tail and pulled her away to a safe distance.

“Let me go,” she said, pushing as hard as she could at the leathery tail wrapped around her waist but not succeeding in moving it at all. “Let me go,” she screamed again, but still, Traskk held her slightly off the ground with his tail until she calmed down and could think practically about what she was attempting to do.

Baldwin leaned over A’la Dure’s face but didn’t dare touch her. After a moment he stood back up and said there was nothing that could be done for her. “The toxin has already spread throughout her entire body.”

And still, A’la Dure shook violently on the ground as the blue bursts of light darted through her body.

Finally, when Vere stopped struggling, Traskk let her go, his tail unraveling and placing her feet on the ground. Before attending to her friend, she shoved Traskk as hard as she could. The giant reptile groaned with sympathy.