Rojuun (34 page)

Krraa bid his gem sstejj forward at a slower
pace than the rest of the horde. He wanted the horde to kill as
many Rojuun as possible as well as the new, terrible beings that
protected them. His small group traveled on the far side of the
river away from the rest. They moved quietly and efficiently as he
watched the beginnings of the battle. Krraa wanted to see the new
creatures die and watch the Rojuun scream and suffer before he took
his prize.

What he
didn’t
want was for his pets
to hurt the glowing one. He had told them not to kill her, but they
were too stupid to follow directions. They just wanted to kill
Rojuun. They would kill the glowing one too unless he got to her
first. Krraa made his small pack hurry forward a little bit
faster.

The horde crashed over the black fleshless
one, only to die. They attacked the silent one, only to die. They
attacked the Rojuun woman who learned from the others and died
against her long knives as well. Krraa hated them. He hated them so
much. The Rojuun needed to suffer. These creatures were stopping
his pets from their desires. His red cat-eyes flashed and a
high-pitched, double whine of frustration came out of Krraa’s
unnatural throat. The pack of gem sstejj answered back with whines
of their own.

Krraa watched eagerly as his goliath reached
the fight. When Rojuun spells glanced off the gem barrier, Krraa
howled in triumph. The gem sstejj pack howled in response. He knew
the Rojuun would die soon and quickened his pace. He could see the
glowing person in the filthy Rojuun camp. Krraa wanted that glow
very badly.

Before plunging into the river, he looked at
his biggest pet to see how many it had killed. With horror, he saw
the silent one stabbing the back of it. Krraa stopped his mount and
watched fearfully as the silent one stabbed it again and again. He
laughed nervously when his goliath didn’t die. The silent one
couldn’t
kill it. Nothing could kill it. Another spell
glanced off of his pet and Krraa laughed louder. He stopped
laughing when the silent one ran toward the gem.

Krraa screamed as his creature shattered
into a thousand pieces under the force of the blow. A metal blade
shouldn’t have damaged the gem. His biggest pet was invincible! The
red flash was bright and Krraa shielded his eyes. He saw the silent
one fly through the air and fall to the ground. There was no more
time to waste. The battle wasn’t going as he had hoped, but the
sheer numbers of his pets were keeping them busy. He would just
have to take his prize quickly and escape.

The gem sstejj scurried into the river,
running along the bottom to the waterfall pool. Their gills enabled
them to breathe underwater as did Krraa’s. In a moment, they were
on the other side of the pool. He could see the glowing one taking
care of an injured Rojuun. It made him mad. The Rojuun needed to
die and it wasn’t acceptable that the glowing one use power for
anyone but Krraa.

A purple whip laced with lightning hit the
gem sstejj to his right. It staggered though the gem kept it from
being destroyed. Krraa had forgotten about the purple lightning
creature. It shouldn’t matter though. That one wasn’t important, it
couldn’t be. Another whip crack drove the gem sstejj to the ground
again. Its gem became unstable with magical sparks shooting out of
it.

Important or not, the purple lightning
creature had to be dealt with. Krraa rose into the air, spreading
his dark, wasp-like wings to hover above the purple creature. He
drew in dark energy and then released it violently as it buffeted
his wings. Black, poisonous webbing hit the purple creature,
slamming it back against the cave wall.

The purple creature screamed in pain as it
found itself trapped in the poisonous silk. Krraa settled back down
upon his mount and folded the wings he loathed. The glowing
creature was also screaming and trying to get to the purple
creature. It irritated Krraa. The glowing creature was supposed to
fix him and it needed to stop wasting energy on anything else.

One of the Rojuun leapt to attack him. Krraa
unleashed magical black liquid from his palm. It covered the
Rojuun’s body causing it to scream as it fell dying to the
ground.

Krraa rode his mount up to the glowing one
who had neutralized the poison in his net and was trying to release
the purple creature. He jumped off to grab her. She turned,
shooting blue fire at him. He deflected it with darkfire. Then he
slapped her across the face, knocking her down. He put his hand
forth and sprayed more of his web, trapping her. He did not lace it
with poison as he had for . . . he didn’t remember why he had cast
the other web. That made him mad. He didn’t like wasting
spells.

The glowing creature struggled in the web.
Krraa slapped her again to shut her up. She sputtered, trying to
cast a spell. He could see her gathering energy, but before she
could succeed, he released a dark mist into her face from his
twisted hand. It sent her into unconsciousness.

Krraa picked his prize up and tossed her on
the back of a gem sstejj. Magic hit the sstejj, causing the gem
barrier to flare. Krraa looked up to see the pathetic Rojuun
builders attacking him. With his mind, he directed three gem sstejj
to attack them. When the Rojuun performed their tumble maneuvers,
Krraa guided his pets to attack where their enemies would end up.
Two of the Rojuun were shredded by the teeth of the gem sstejj. The
others drew back in fear and tried to cast spells again.

Krraa didn’t want to be caught up in the
fight. He could see the fleshless killer was still destroying his
pets and he didn’t want to face it. Krraa secured the glowing
person with more webs and then leapt upon his own mount, turning
away as quickly as possible. The remaining gem sstejj killed four
more of the Rojuun before following.

Spells were cast at them, but the gem
barriers made spells impotent. The small pack was back into the
river and on the other side in a short amount of time. The webbing
enabled the glowing one to breathe while being carried underwater.
Krraa looked back over his shoulder, certain the horde would be
overrunning the camp. Even the fleshless one must have fallen back.
He adjusted his vision to see detail in the camp and was shocked to
see the fleshless talking to the silent one. Krraa had been certain
the silent one had died when the goliath exploded.

Krraa screamed in frustration once more with
both of his voices. The gem sstejj screamed with him. He turned
back toward his tunnels, ordering his pack to run as fast as
possible.

Just before the pack entered the tunnel,
Krraa heard the roar that shook the cavern. He turned in time to
see the great, fearsome beast rise into the air. It exhaled
lightning breath down upon Krraa’s pets, destroying most of them.
Krraa had no idea where that creature had come from. It was the
most horrifying thing he had ever seen in an existence filled with
horrors.

When his pack reached the tunnel, he spurred
them to even greater speeds with his mind. The next roar made Krraa
whimper in fear. The tunnel was darker than the cavern had been.
There was still light from plants and moss, but his pets had
trampled most of the larger vegetation. Krraa felt more comfortable
in the dark. He could still see, but it was much easier for him and
his pets to hide. The cursed Rojuun did not like the dark. They
were cowards who believed evil lived in the murky depths of the
world.

The monster roared again. It was more
distant this time and Krraa hoped it wouldn’t come into the tunnel.
He didn’t even look over his shoulder for fear that it would be
following him.

The hole to lower levels was just ahead.
Krraa led his mount into the depths of the world and slowed down.
It wasn’t wise to move quickly on the sides of holes even though
sstejj were sure-footed on the rocky surface.

Krraa looked over his shoulder only to see
purple light flare in the tunnel above. Lightning crackled through
the air, creating a sharp scent in his nose. He decided that his
pack could move fast. Safety wasn’t
that
important after
all.

He took the next level of tunnels and
traveled a ways to another hole, going down. That led to another
level where he turned a different direction. The next hole went
down even further, and then another direction change in the next
tunnel.

After more of this, the pack was in a dimly
lit, medium sized cave with few phosphorous plants and little moss.
Krraa stopped to listen. There was a stream running quietly over
the rocks. Drops of water, created by humidity in the warm air,
fell from the ceiling. He could hear the skittering of sstejj that
he hadn’t taken to the battle above. What he could
not
hear
was the sound of that horrible monster.

Krraa guided his mount across the cave to
his lair on the other side. The glowing creature was still tied to
the back of the sstejj next to him. She wasn’t glowing very
brightly now, but he could still harvest the glow to make himself
better. He dismounted, leading the gem sstejj with his glowing
treasure.

He led it to the room where he did much of
his work. There, he stopped his pet and unattached the glowing one
from it. Krraa slung her over his hunched back.

It was a dark, gruesome room where unnatural
experiments were performed. Jagged rock walls covered in slime
looked sickly in the light of the fire. Sharp, evil tools hung from
hooks on the walls. They were not the tools of a smithy or any kind
of craftsman, rather they were implements that would make a
torturer feel at home.

A stained iron table was in the middle of
the room. It could be raised, lowered or tilted by gears and levers
underneath. Krraa roughly laid his treasure on it. He then turned
to a fire pit in the corner of the room and lit it with darkfire.
The coals smoldered with red flame, tinged black.

Krraa moved back to the large table where he
removed the webbing on his treasure with a gesture of his hand.
There were shackles at the corners that he attached her wrists and
ankles to, making them tight so she wouldn’t be able to move. He
turned a crank underneath the table, which raised the top. When he
was done, the table was at a slant.

The malformed creature stared at his prize
for a moment. She hung at an angle by her wrists. Krraa would take
the blue glow from her and wrap it around himself.

Food was needed before he would be able to
take that glow. The battle had drained more strength than he had
anticipated. He stared at his prize for a while longer and wondered
if she would scream when he cut into her. He hoped so. Krraa did
like screams so very much. First, he needed food.

As he walked out of the room, the glowing
one opened her eyes and stared at his back in sheer horror.

Chapter
32

When the footsteps moved away, Liselle
opened her eyes. Insect-like wings hung loosely down the creature’s
hunched back. There were four sets of arms like the Rojuun, but the
lower two were misshapen and deformed as though they had never
fully developed.

Tears flowed from Liselle’s eyes as she
began shaking in terror. She couldn’t help the sobs that broke from
her chest. Liselle desperately hoped it wouldn’t hear her and come
back. She caught her breath and tried to focus. Her robe was dirty
from webbing, slime and dirt. The sleeves were hanging down,
leaving her arms exposed. An acrid odor clogged her nostrils. Heavy
silence was broken by the crackling of a fire.

The unnatural fire sent shivers down her
body. When Liselle noticed the tools of torture, she began to sob
again.

She wished that she hadn’t gone with the
party into the cavern. She wished that she had never even heard of
Rojuun. At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to be in her
own bed back in the valley with her mother running fingers through
her hair.

Suddenly Liselle calmed down and stopped
sobbing. What she
really
wanted was for Vevin to come and
rescue her. He would run his fingers through her hair and kiss her
cheek, earlobe and lips. Liselle remembered the web the malformed
creature had cast and how Vevin had screamed. Fear shot up her
spine and she began sobbing again.

She wanted to be strong, but it was so dark
and frightening. The tools on the wall looked cruel and she knew
that diseased monster wanted to cut into her with them. Liselle
could feel them eagerly reaching out for her, wanting her skin. She
sobbed again and gasped for air. Her body was weak. There were no
plants anywhere and the evil mist that he had cast into her face
had sapped all of her strength. Liselle felt the room spinning and
dizziness overtaking her. Desperately, she tried to focus her mind,
but darkness overwhelmed her.

***

Liselle felt a tug in her hair. She didn’t
wake, instead entering what felt like a dream. A purple flower,
which looked a lot like the flower pin she wore, formed in her
mind. It let her know that it would tell her what to do when the
time was right. The flower told her that she must do it, no matter
how frightened she would be. Liselle mentally agreed before
darkness beset her again.

When she regained consciousness, red
cat-like eyes stared through her soul like jagged knives. She tried
not to react, but an involuntary sob escaped her lips. The creature
was more frightening than anything she had seen. There was no hair
on top of the overly large head and its skin was sickly yellow with
blue splotches that glistened in the murky firelight. The twisted
creature sneered with yellowed, rotting fangs as it studied
her.

Liselle whimpered and struggled against the
bonds that held her tight. The creature was over six feet tall. It
kept the wings that grew out of its back tucked away as though
ashamed of them. Two arms ended in hands that were twisted with
oversized knuckles on the fingers. Below those were useless,
misshapen limbs that made Liselle’s stomach turn just to look at
them.