Rojuun (35 page)

It appeared as though someone had taken a
Rojuun and twisted it with dark magics. “You glow brighter again,”
it said in eerie tones. “Your glow will fix me and make me better.”
Its voices were shrill, like a twisted version of the Rojuun,
hurting Liselle’s head. A putrid odor emanated from the creature,
filling her nostrils.

She desperately tried to think. Perhaps if
she offered to heal the monster it wouldn’t hurt her. “D . . . Do
you want me to h . . . heal you?” she stammered weakly between
sobs.

“No, not heal,” the creature said, tilting
its head slightly. “Your glow will fix me. I will take it, wrap it
around me and
fix
me.” It shuffled a little closer to the
table, reaching out a twisted finger. “I will
take
the
glow,” it said with a sinister smile.

Liselle writhed in her bindings, struggling
to get away. A dreadful laugh emitted from the creature, echoing
throughout the room. The torture devices along the wall seemed to
laugh along with the creature, taking on a malicious life of their
own.

The creature grabbed a small hooked knife
and moved to her side. Liselle arched away as much as she could,
but to no avail. “Do you scream, glowing one?” it whispered in her
ear. Then it put the tip of the brutal knife against the soft inner
skin of her stretched arm. He didn’t cut deep, but it burned
badly.

Liselle
did
scream. Then she felt
another tug in her hair. The flower in her mind told her to relax,
the time was coming soon when she would need to do what it
asked.

“Such a pretty glow,” the creature said in a
creepy, high pitched tone. “I must taste it.” Liselle saw the
aberration sink its teeth into her arm. Agony rocketed to her
fingertips and down her side. She screamed even louder, wanting it
to stop more than she had ever wanted anything in her life.

The creature pulled away from her arm,
though the burning agony did not ease. It licked its disgusting
lips in pleasure. “Ohh, the glow tastes so very nice,” it said.
Then it gave a shrill, haunting giggle. “It will fix me so nicely
and I will have so much fun pulling it out of you.” He moved his
face even closer to Liselle’s. “You scream nicely. I like it very
much.”

She pulled away from him as much as she
could, her eyes wide in terror. Heaving sobs racked her body as she
tried to wrap her mind around what the creature was doing to her.
What she didn’t understand more than anything was why. Why did the
creature exist, why did it hate the Rojuun, why did it want her
glow and why did it want her to suffer? All she could get past her
lips was, “W . . . why? ”

“Why? Because you glow and your glow will
fix me,” it said, moving back to study her. “I hurt. My body isn’t
finished and I need your glow to finish it.

“Not finished?” Liselle asked, desperately
clutching at anything to make him stop hurting her. She took a deep
breath, releasing it in a sob while trying to stay focused. Her
head was swimming with pain and fear. “What do you mean not
finished?”

“You don’t know of me? They didn’t tell you
of my kind?” he asked, suddenly interested in talking. The creature
stepped back and played with his hooked knife. He licked the blood
off the tip. “No, they wouldn’t would they? They are ashamed of me,
aren’t they? Did they tell you of my pets, glowing one?” he asked,
tilting his head sideways as he looked at her.

“P . . . pets? They didn’t t . . . tell me a
. . . anything.” Liselle could feel blood trickling down her arm
and side.

“Of course they didn’t tell you. You
wouldn’t help them if they did.” The creature began pacing back and
forth, getting angry. It was a shuffling pace, not at all like the
graceful glide of the Rojuun. Then it stopped and smiled at
Liselle. “I will tell you, glowing one. I will tell you what they
won’t. You’ll like that, won’t you?” There was a cajoling tone to
one of its voices and a whining tone to the other. The combination
sent chills down her spine.

She didn’t want it to tell her anything.
Liselle just wanted it to go away. More than that, she didn’t want
it cutting the glow out of her even if she didn’t understand what
that meant. “Y . . . yes. I would like that,” she answered in a
wavering voice. Her head swam with pain.

“My name is Krraa.” The name sounded like
pebbles being crushed together. “I am hhorrj. My pets are sstejj.
They tried to make us, but they failed.” The words were spit out as
an accusation. “Rojuun thought to create life. They thought they
were gods. They thought they could create animals and people.
Rojuun were arrogant and foolish to try.” Hatred oozed from both
voices.

Liselle only whimpered.

“The Rojuun did not finish the job. They did
not make us right. They gave me wings!” Krraa yelled in fury. “I
don’t want wings! I hate wings!” He slashed through the air with
his knife. The creature stared into the fire. “Rojuun caged us,
laughed at us, studied us, and . . .” it trailed off, looking back
into its memory. Turning back to Liselle, it said, “Other Rojuun
came to put those who made us on trial. They executed those who
made us.” His voices were sinister and cold. “They said we were
pitiful creatures that should not be seen and then they cast us
into pits to fall deep into the world.”

He stepped closer, running the tip of the
hooked knife along her cheek, drawing blood. Something about his
knife made the cuts burn. Liselle turned her head in fear, sobbing
at the pain. “They did not finish us.”

Krraa stepped back, tilting his head as he
studied her. “I make more pets like the arrogant ones made. I
watched as they created the sstejj and I learned how to make more.
It’s easy. I make many more and send them to kill Rojuun.”

“Then I see you. You glow a pretty blue
glow.” The monster ran his finger along the cut on her cheek. The
pain in her arm was throbbing. She could smell infection in it even
though Krraa had just made the wound. “I can take the glow out of
you and it will fix me,” he said, licking her blood off his finger.
“The glow will finish me. The glow will feel good.”

The creature put his hooked knife back on
the wall and took down two other devices. They looked very sharp
and Liselle began to sob in fear once more. She wanted so
desperately for Vevin to rescue her.

There was another tug in her hair. “
Relax
now, beautiful child. Shh. Relax now
,” The flower said in her
mind. Liselle took a deep breath and, with the help of the flower,
relaxed her entire body. “
Good, beautiful child. Listen
carefully for this will be more difficult than anything you have
known
,” it said. “
The beast is going to hurt you
.”

She saw the thin, sharp devices moving
toward her belly. Everything slowed to a snail’s pace.

“
When it does, you must die
,” the
flower said softly in her mind. A description of how to die
appeared. It would require great willpower on her part.

Time resumed its normal movement. Liselle
watched as the first device pierced her belly through the gown. She
screamed yet again at the explosion of pain and hunched over as
much as the bindings would let her. It was so overwhelming that she
couldn’t remember how to die.

Liselle dug deep within her own mind and
concentrated on the instructions the flower had given her. The
other device cut into her next to the first, causing even more
pain.

She remembered the instructions and followed
them. Liselle let the life flow out of her body.

***

Krraa stared at his treasure as the glow
vanished. He quickly pulled the implements out of her stomach. She
wasn’t supposed to die. He hadn’t done anything that would kill
her. Krraa needed the glow to fix him. The glow couldn’t disappear.
“NO!” he screeched with both voices.

A light appeared on her finger. Krraa looked
closely and saw the ring. It was glowing brighter and brighter.
Suddenly, the ring flared with a great white radiance. Krraa hated
light and shielded his eyes with his arms. The light flared,
filling the room. It was hotter than Krraa had ever felt.

How could this happen? It wasn’t fair! He
was supposed to get his glow and become whole again!
The
deformed creature screamed terribly as the light seared flesh from
his misshapen bones.

Everything in the room caught fire including
the stone walls, which began to melt. The holy light from the ring
obliterated the hhorrj named Krraa, leaving nothing. The radiance
destroyed all of the creature’s tools of suffering and the table
holding Liselle. It even burned the sick, unnatural fire until it
too was obliterated. Then the light flared out and one of the
rubies in the ring was gone. Liselle’s lifeless body collapsed in
the middle of the empty cave.

Chapter
33

Liselle gulped a deep, shuddering breath.
She opened her eyes and tried to stand, but was only able to make
it to her hands and knees. She stayed there, gasping desperately
for air. The ring on her finger was hot and it still shined
brightly.

When Liselle died, the ring pulled her
inside one of the rubies while it destroyed the creature that
killed her. Then the ruby melted, releasing her. The substance of
the ruby traveled throughout her blood to heal the wounds, leaving
her whole once more.

Her heart hurt. It had stopped when she died
then started again once the ring was done with its work. Her lungs
had stopped breathing and needed air badly. Liselle buried her head
in her arms and cried between gulps of air. She cried because of
what had happened to her. Terror and pain had owned her for a
while. She cried because she had died and it hurt. She cried
because she was in this awful place and didn’t know how to get out.
Mostly she cried because she was still scared and wanted Vevin to
come rescue her.

After a few minutes, the crying subsided.
Liselle remained on her knees, with head buried in her arms. She
became still, listening for a moment. The room was quiet, but she
could still hear skittering noises from beyond the entrance. She
didn’t know what was outside of the room and it frightened her.

Slowly, she stood and looked around. The
only light was from the gradually dimming glow of the ring. A
sharp, clean smell had replaced the acrid odors of Krraa’s torture
chamber. Liselle stretched her arms out carefully. They were sore
like the rest of her body, but it wasn’t as bad as she had
expected. The wound on her inner arm was gone. She felt her cheek
and discovered that cut had disappeared too.

Liselle attempted to cast a small light. She
smiled in relief as the blue orb appeared. The light showed that
all of the torture devices were gone, as was everything else in the
room including the table. The rock walls were smooth and shiny,
scoured clean by the ring.

Liselle wore sturdy slippers, which muffled
her footsteps as she moved toward the entry to inspect the
skittering sounds. She reached the entry and directed the light out
a bit. Her worst fears were realized.

Sstejj milled by a stream where water
murmured past. The scent of water mixed with the slimy stench of
the monsters. It was a dark cave half as large as Garrrn Cavern. A
few patches of phosphorescent moss gave off the only other light.
Liselle stood still while letting her orb travel to the top of the
cave. The sstejj didn’t have eyes, so she wasn’t worried about them
seeing it.

Two tunnels led from the cave. Liselle had
no clue which one would lead back to Garrrn Cavern, nor did she
have any idea where in the depths of Ryallon she might be. She
wondered why the sstejj hadn’t caught her scent or felt the
vibrations of her steps.

Liselle began moving toward the closest
tunnel, hugging the wall of the cave. Reaching halfway, she noticed
runes etched into the cave floor in a semi-arch. The sstejj did not
cross the runes, which concerned her. After she took a few paces on
the other side, the closest sstejj smelled the air with its gills.
Liselle froze, watching it. The creature began moving toward her,
sniffing the air as it came. Upon reaching her, it took an
experimental bite.

Liselle ducked out of the way of its teeth,
retreating behind the runes. The creature sniffed the air again
before losing interest and walking away. She was sure that if she
had been Rojuun, all of the creatures would have converged to feast
upon her without hesitation.

There had to be a way to distract them. They
were milling around as though waiting for someone to give them
orders. Liselle didn’t know them to eat anything other than Rojuun,
though she was certain they would try to eat her given the
opportunity. Thinking back, she remembered that the creatures were
cannibals who would eat each other when one fell.

Perhaps if she were to kill one, the others
would set upon it. It felt like a mean thing to do, but they were
terrible creatures and she didn’t want them to eat
her
.
Liselle thought about it for a moment then gathered her
concentration.

A small dagger of fire formed between her
hands. Liselle hoped it would pierce the disgusting flesh of one of
the creatures and kill it. The dagger was only as long as a finger,
but it burned brightly. She looked for a sstejj in the middle of
the pack. With a flick of her wrists, she sent the fiery dagger
flying through the cave.

The sstejj screamed as the dagger ripped
into it and started burning. The monster collapsed to the ground in
death throes. Other sstejj felt it fall and converged on it.
Liselle nearly threw up in disgust as she watched them devour it.
The tunnel wasn’t as close as Liselle would have liked and she
didn’t know if they would all stay busy, so she made two more of
the daggers and shot them into other sstejj further away. When the
rest of the sstejj converged to rip their brethren apart, Liselle
moved to the tunnel as quickly and silently as possible. The sounds
of teeth rending slimy flesh made her gag again.