Onio (28 page)

Onio
threw his head back and glared straight ahead. His eyes smoldered and his cheeks
were flushed with worry. Mel could barely hear his words as he whispered, “The
king is wise and just…but he does not fully comprehend the army we now face. There
is rage and revenge within the small soldiers ranks, perpetrated by their
commander. I think that they will stop at nothing to find us and kill us all! What’s
worse is that New Moon leads such a large group into the underworld tunnels!”

“Onio,
speak softly now, lest you be accused of treason!” Bouldar’s voice cut through
Mel’s senses. Both Onio and Blue Sky jumped slightly, and glanced around at the
guards and the sasquatch people surrounding them. Satisfied, they resumed their
whispered discussion.

“I
mean no disrespect, Grandfather. I think that New Moon is a fine king and an
even better sasq. It’s just that there are too many of us to guard properly in
the tunnels below, and once we get to Montana, what is to stop the small human
army from attacking us again?”

Onio’s
fists clenched in frustration. He had spoken to Mel about his theory that the
United States armed forces had fewer jurisdictions in Canada than they did in
the States. Mel agreed, but pointed out that there were American bases
scattered all over the world. She did think though, that the bitter cold of the
far north would be a better deterrent than anything else, and assured her
husband that if her bundling up in warm furs would keep the sasq people safe,
she would do it, and gladly.

Wolf
spoke softly, adding, “I have been to the place New Moon seeks. It is a good
cave, and very large. It is also remote…far from the small humans and their
armies. You must learn to have faith in the sasq who are older and wiser than
you, First Son.”

Mel
saw her husband’s cheeks flush at the rebuke, but she also saw his shoulders
sag in defeat. There was no sense now in arguing the high king’s logic, and
further discussion would only cause anger and anxiety. Onio turned around and
gave his wife a quick, searching glance. She smiled at him warmly, offering
what little support she could, and he turned forward again, calm once more.

The
sasquatches walked for another twelve miles and then the column stopped. They
had come to one of the large stone portals used in going down into the
underworld. Mel felt like running, screaming, in the opposite direction, but
when it came her turn, she followed her new family down into the underworld
lands of dark demons and shadowy monsters.

The
sasquatches crept down the dry and crumbling stairs. As before, the gloom
encroached upon them and torches were lit to keep the ever-increasing shadows
at bay. Some of the sasq children wept fitfully, as if they knew that their
kind was not meant to walk these halls. Unlike before though, these tunnels
were not cold but uncomfortably warm. Within minutes, Mel and the sasq people
were peeling off excess clothing and wiping sweat from their bodies.

They
were somewhere below the vast New Mexico desert, she knew, and so what was
below reflected, like a dark mirror, its counterpart on the Earth’s surface. It
reminded Mel of what hell must be like, if there was such a place.
Maybe
this is it
, she thought ruefully and grinned. Her smile froze though, when
she heard a tortured scream from the front of the column. The sasquatches stopped
to face what threatened, and Mel gasped with fear at what was skittering down
the tunnel.

Three
giant spiders scuttled towards the sasq guards and they raised their spears
with shouts of fearful fury. The spiders were like the rats they had
encountered in their first journey through the underworld tunnels, deformed and
mutated to enormous proportion by elements within the strange and toxic
environment. Their long, spindly legs were twice as tall as the tallest sasq warrior,
and their many, multi-faceted eyes gleamed and searched hungrily for the
quickest and easiest target.

Mel’s
heart wrenched with sorrow when she saw one of her friends, the old
white-haired sasq named Falling Waters, skewered on the end of one of the
spider’s legs like a marshmallow on a roasting stick. The spider stopped its
forward progress long enough to shake the offending particle off its leg. The
dead sasquatch flew through the air and hit the tunnel wall with a crash before
sliding into a boneless heap on the floor. Before Onio had a chance to seize
her arm and pull her behind his sheltering body, she saw that Falling Waters’s
face was as white as a sheet of paper and his eye sockets overflowed with
blood.

As
the giant spiders drew nearer to the torchlight Mel’s blood ran cold. They were
black widow spiders grown huge and ghastly with glossy black hairs and gleaming
eyes. Their fangs dripped a steady stream of poison saliva and pale strands of
silky webbing oozed from their nether regions, covering the ground and a number
of fallen sasquatches in a deadly, silver shroud.

Although
they moved with uncanny grace and frightful speed, two out of the three spiders
were already dead, or dying. “Get back…back!” the shouts echoed through the
tunnel walls. “Do not let the venom get on your clothes or bodies! Get back!”

Onio
grabbed Mel’s arm with one hand and his mother’s with the other, and they took
off running toward the back of the column. Mel felt the small hairs on the back
of her neck stir and quiver as the dying screams of another sasquatch filled
the air. Onio made sure the females were safe and then ran back to help
vanquish the last spider. It was already down though, and he hung his head,
trembling with nerves. Then, to his horror, panicked shouts rose up behind him.

Turning
back around, he looked past his wife and the hundreds of sasquatches huddled
against the tunnel walls and saw a sight so horrific, it made his knees go weak
with fear. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of spiders were running toward them from
the way they had come. Somehow, the sasq had managed to climb down into a
spider’s nest! Onio gasped and thought,
We are overrun…doomed
!

Then,
he winced as the rock that hung from a thong around his neck grew hot. The
stone the ancient alien had given him had seemed ordinary and rather ugly. He
had actually considered tossing it away. Onio could not shake the feeling,
however, that the gift was filled with power…a tarnished talisman not to be
taken lightly. Therefore, he had fashioned a strip of soft leather and hung the
talisman and a ring of soft golden metal from his wife around his neck for
safekeeping.

Now,
the stone blazed against his chest. Shouting in alarm, Onio drew the thong up
and over his head with his right fist. Immediately, the stone turned red and
bright rays of light shot from it toward the advancing army of arachnids. The
first flank of spiders squealed and shrieked as the light hit them. Some burst
into flames, while others simply fell over dead, smoking in piles of ash on the
floor.

“First
Son, what is this mighty weapon?” Blue Sky shouted. The other sasq warriors
that stood close by gazed at Onio and his rock, with their eyes open wide in
awe, except for Wolf, who studied the stone with a small smile of sudden
understanding. They did not have long to marvel however, as more and more
spiders approached, cautiously now, as if they sensed their prey was not as
easy as first thought.

Onio
held the rock high again and another burst of light beams covered the spiders. More
fell but still more advanced. Meanwhile, the guards that surrounded the high
king were working on another tunnel opening. It was so old and unused the rocks
had melded into one another seamlessly, but slowly the rocks rolled apart. The sasquatches
ducked and ran through the opening into the dark tunnel. Onio saw Mel look back
once with her eyes open wide in fright, and then she and the rest of his family
were gone.

“Onio,
we must go…hurry!” Blue Sky urged.

Onio
willed the stone to work one last time. Running fast toward the spiders and the
new tunnel entrance, Onio lifted the Herculean stone again. The distance between
the spiders and the fleeing guards was less than ten feet, and Onio was the
last warrior to dive toward the safety of the tunnel entrance. Five mighty sasq
guards stood by to collapse the tunnel entrance before the spiders could
follow.

Their
eyes grew wide as they saw how close the advancing spiders were to First Son. One
of the guards, the mighty sasq named Willow, threw his spear with deadly
accuracy, hitting the closest arachnid right between its many eyes. The spider
collapsed in a heap on the tunnel floor, causing a bottleneck that kept its
fellows from following in the sasquatches footsteps.

The
other guards cheered and stepped forward to pile rocks over the tunnel entrance,
but then they looked down and saw that Onio lay on the floor at their feet. His
body was stretched out flat, with one long, spindly spider leg pinning him down
to the ground. They could see long lines of blood dripping from either side of
the creature’s leg, as though its very exoskeleton consisted of poisonous fire.

Onio’s
beautiful green eyes were filling up with blood and his chest heaved with
effort, as if the spider’s deadly venom was causing his blood to race. Two of
the guards used their spears to lift the creature’s leg off their companion,
while the others pulled Onio away.

Onio’s
eyes stared into eternity and he whispered, “Melody…Melody, my beloved.” Then
he saw no more.

Chapter 33

Onio
felt as though he was swimming through a sea of lava that surged and bubbled
viciously, scorching his skin and burning his eyeballs. He moaned and let
himself fall back into the depths where the lava turned into cooling waters,
silent and still. Later, the fiery tempest seemed to lift and subside —the
storm had passed, leaving him cold and wet, shivering but safe on the
shoreline.

He
opened his eyes, wincing at the bright flames of the fire by which he lay.
Melody crouched by his side, weeping softly, and his family surrounded him.
Their eyes studied him and more than one smiled as he glared. “Where am I…what
happened?” he muttered.

He
was lying on his belly and his grandmother, who crouched over him with
antidote- saturated moss, said, “Hush, First Son. You have only just awoken
from the deep sleep brought on by the spider’s venom.”

Onio’s
eyes grew wide as he recalled the excruciating fire of the spider’s caress. His
dreams of lava-tossed seas made sense now, and he groaned. “How many…how many sasq
did we lose?”

Bouldar
answered, “Three of our warriors were killed outright, Grandson, and four more
besides you were injured. All of you will recover. You slept through a fine
burial, though.”

Mel
tucked a bothersome hank of Onio’s hair behind his ear and glanced up at the
healers who sat together close to a small fire next to the wall. There were
four females and two males. All wore the green robes that signified their order
in the healer’s sect. They were very shy and kept mostly to themselves, but
when the need arose for their assistance, they set to with furious dedication.

When
she first saw the body of her husband being hauled in facedown by four large
guards, she knew she had lost him. His complexion was as white and mottled as
marble and his eyes were scarlet with blood. She fell to her knees, wailing,
but was pushed aside by a male sasquatch in a green-cowled robe.

“Stand
aside, girl. He can be saved if you let us do our work.” His words were only a
whisper in her mind but she stepped back, watching, as they applied moss to the
wound on Onio’s back, and forced his mouth open so he could swallow some
foul-smelling liquid. Mel watched as, one by one, the injured warriors were
tended to and their fitful moans were silenced by healing slumber.

That
was two days ago, and now her beloved husband had come back to her. Tears fell
from Mel’s eyes in relief and she felt Onio take her hand. “Wife, don’t cry, I’ll
be fine. I just need to rest a little while longer,” he murmured.

Mel
knew the healers had given Rain seeds of the poppy plant, and understood that
Onio would certainly get the rest he needed when he drank the drugged tea his
grandmother offered.

“My
wound feels better now. Grandmother, may I lie with my wife for a while?” Onio
whispered and Rain nodded. Onio lay carefully on his side, gathering his wife
in his arms. Wolf laid a fur over the both of them and they slept for many long
hours. Later, they awoke to the smell of stew simmering in a pot close-by.
Petal knelt down and whispered, “Wake up, son and daughter. The king holds a
council meeting.”

Mel
sat up, yawning, and saw that many small fires flickered here and there within
the wide tunnel, and that most of the sasq were eating dinner. She also saw
that the king was sitting on a sort of portable wicker chair, drinking
something out of a wooden goblet. He looked very old and worn.

Onio’s
mother handed her son and his wife a bowl of stew, and water so cold it made
Mel’s teeth ache. Looking over at Onio while he ate his stew she realized that,
again, the healers had performed a medical miracle. Onio’s face was rich with
color and only a few broken blood vessels marred the perfection of his moss
green eyes. He grinned at her, and tipping his chin at her bowl said, “Eat,
wife…the stew is very fine.”

She
smiled in return and ate her dinner with gusto. Then, a few minutes later, the
males stood up and walked toward their king. Mel noticed that only the male
population attended the king’s council. To her surprise, she realized she didn’t
mind. The males were, after all, the ones who hunted for food and fought when
the need arose. They made the decisions within the tribe and ultimately paid
the price for those decisions.