The Adventures of Deacon Coombs (61 page)

“Yes, Master.”

“Gem, signal us if you detect the arrival of Urzel. Jim, do not leave even one hundred feet between you and me on this climb. Keep your monitor on to scan in 360 degrees.” Deacon looked back at Nedilli, who was emerging from the chamber appearing as a quaking cloud of faint yellowy mist, blocking out vegetation in an irregular, shifting shape. “Xudur, I leave Nedilli and Gem in your care.”

Xudur calmly replied, “Hasten back.”

With a last burst of energy, Deacon’s sore body climbed the hill two steps at a time after they had circled the clearing. His heart jumped into his mouth at every chirp of a cricket, every snap of a twig, every rustle of the underbrush. Deacon stopped yards short of Goharn’s hut to catch his breath, and dozens of small green eyes from evening critters peered back at him from out of the twisted shrubbery.

There was an odd, shrill communication between two salamanders behind him. As he turned to look past Jim to the whistling duo, he saw the lights of Ketapongo twinkling below. Just then, the jungle suddenly burst into staccato pulses of the inhabitants. To his left, he noticed the first evidence of a fogbank that was forming and rolling down the hillside. The moonlight was piercing through the canopy and bathing the clearing below. It cut through the darkness of the jungle. It almost symbolized the time for heroism.

He checked with Jim one last time for signs of Urzel. Still negative. He stepped up to the entrance of the hut, where dim lights were vaguely visible from within, and ordered Jim to remain on guard about twenty yards distant. Slowly, he drew the awning aside. As Deacon peered into the hut, his eyes strained to see Goharn Lok huddled beside the glowing embers of his fire—with a startled Lyanna at his side.

“Lyanna! What are you doing here?” He was inside and beside her.

“Deacon, oh, Deacon. You scared us. What are you doing here? You are supposed to be headed away from Earth with Urzel and Nedilli! To the Maxime Quadrant! Off in space. What are you doing here, love?” Lyanna was stunned; she held her hand over her breast, seeming to have been taken by surprise.

Goharn stepped forward to greet Deacon with a handshake, while he continued to fix his eyes on Lyanna.

“Urzel escaped from our initial trap. We believe that he might be making his way here on this night, so we have transported his mother, Nedilli, onto the grounds in the clearing below.” Lyanna looked mortified, pressing her hands over her mouth. Goharn appeared to be agitated. Deacon asked again of her, “What are you doing here?” He then added, “You have to get out of here immediately.”

“I am studying dipholopic fever firsthand in the child Urzel. I thought it best to visit while you and Urzel were millions of miles away. Also, Goharn contacted me to convey that the child is near death, so I took this opportunity to interview him and take cell samples before he dies.” She waved a small cylinder in front of him.

Deacon went outside the hut and asked Jim to move immediately up the hill to the child’s hut. Then he reentered as Goharn said, “The child has never been weaker. His body has no fluid retention. There is nothing else that local doctors can do.”

He asked of Lyanna, “What is your medical diagnosis?”

“I agree with the local physician Goharn engaged. Urzel the corporeal being will die imminently, and there is no medical treatment to save him. Thanks to Goharn’s cooperation, though, we have many more cell samples to study; the child is weak and did not resist my sampling.”

“You are leaving right now, Lyanna, for I do not know what scene will play out tonight.” He stepped deeper into the hut and tried to grab her under her shoulder.

She pulled away and said, “No.”

“I won’t have you here when the creature arrives.” Deacon continued to try to tug at her. Resisting him, she stumbled toward the doorway. His momentum forced him outside also. He stammered, very upset. “Listen to me. Descend this path to the clearing below and then run as fast as you can. Don’t look back! There will be an explosion.”

Suddenly, Deacon felt dizzy, as if he were breaking up, as if he was about to Vesper.
That
is
it.
It
was
all
a
dream.
I
was
Vespering
with
Nedilli
and
Xudur
and
Urzel
and
Toad,
and
we
are
materializing
at
the
edge
of
the
galaxy.
Yes,
we
were
Vespering
and
are
about
to
rematerialize.
I
am
still
in
the
H’vington. Why did he think this? Because on his latest attempt to grab Lyanna, his hand seemed to pass right through her arm.
Was
I
drugged?
He rubbed his throat, his eyes; his temples were throbbing, his head possessed by a light-headed sensation. And then the spinning started.

Deacon knew what had to be done. He was emotional and upset by her presence. He feared for her safety. He stood straight and breathed heavily with long, deep inhales, just as Lyanna had taught him, changing his frame of mind while grasping his head with both hands. He stared at her, her face bathed in a silver shaft of moonlight. Her outline was becoming fuzzy as he reached a calmer state.

Slowly, he took both his hands and commenced a choking grip on his own throat. Harder and harder he squeezed, until he panicked in the confusion. He was on his knees, now visualizing the moon dripping with blood, observing the vegetation nearby with branches as swords, seeing his beloved Lyanna standing before him, sneering at him. As he tightened his grip on himself, she began to hiss at him.

“Yessssssss, tighter! I command it, fool. A fool in love is weak! I knew you would let your guard down for her!” The voice terrified him as he heard it being spat out at him.

Then he regained his composure, changing his mood. Jim had registered two life forms—Goharn and the child. Urzel, as usual, went undetected by their instrumentation in his dimensions and was too distant for them to notice any density irregularities. Deacon’s love and concern for Lyanna caused him to overlook that fact. He stood, released his grip, and pointed and mentally screamed at the image, saying, and “You are not Lyanna!”

Using his training that she had taught him, he expelled his anxiety and increased his attraction to her. Releasing himself from the stranglehold by changing his mood and thoughts, he confidently, surely, moved his thoughts to a different gear, his hands now completely free, limp at his sides. He stood erect to defy his challenger. He now understood that his powers could scare Urzel.

He opened his eyes and examined the now-quaking cloud of boils before him. “You won’t ever kill me, Urzel Lok! I am your mental match. Come. I dare you! Try again. Come on! Strike at me! Strike at me! Choke me again.”

The cloud now magnified in size and began to shiver, expanding and expanding as putrid colors filled the dell. Jim arrived by his side and they heard, “I am Lord Urzel Lok. I will destroy all of you just as I have destroyed the Jabu, Como, Geor, Travers, and all those who have stood against me.”

“No.” Deacon bravely moved toward the bubbling mass. “You are Urzel Lok, a poor, pitiful child creature. Your reign has been bloody, and it is over. Jabu has been recaptured by Alliance forces in your absence.”

“Liar! Liar!” shouted the malefactor.

Deacon stepped forward to the edge of the hill and pointed at him, his body charged with self-assurance. “You are finished! You will die bloody unless you repent.” Deacon was furious, but now a strong, sudden gust of wind blew in his face and forced him to grab onto Jim, who stood sturdy.

“We fear you no more. Be gone!” Now the wind reached gale proportions, toppling Deacon as Jim stood firm beside him. Deacon could only hope that with his distraction of Urzel, that Xudur, Nedilli, and Gem had initiated a final assault and readied the force fields for Nedilli and Gem to attack.

“Liar! Liar! Liar!” The form of the cloud faded as Deacon felt a light-headedness. He fought it as Jim stepped forward to warn that Urzel was approaching again and raised Deacon to his feet. Deacon shouted, “I dare you to encompass me so that I can cast you out with my venomous feelings for you!” He stood, arms outstretched, legs together, and his body straight and taut.

“Come, Urzel. Feel the power within me.”

Now to his far left, Xudur charged up the hill to catch Deacon as he fell again. The moonlit scene became silent. Xudur and Deacon stood together. “He will return for a final conflict. I am sure of it. He pauses to plan his assault, whatever it may be.”

Jim spoke. “The child is on his last few breaths; I checked minutes ago. I should never have left you, sire.”

Goharn emerged from his hut. “Why, Deacon Coombs, I feel that I have been under a spell. When did you arrive?” Deacon grabbed Goharn’s arm. “No time for courtesies or questions. We must depart the hillside quickly.” They scampered down the incline together through the dense brush—Goharn, Xudur, Deacon, and Jim—with Deacon informing Goharn of the Medullan’s coming. As they conversed to prepare Nedilli for her encounter, Deacon mentally screamed at Urzel to distract him. “Urzel, you are finished. Your life is over. I will punish you mentally.”

As he stood staring into the heavens at the edge of the clearing, taunting a devil he couldn’t find, a tempest rose to shake and bend the treetops. Deacon retreated into the forest. “Ready?”

Nedilli was in the form of a glowing orange gas with boils; she signaled affirmatively to him. Deacon addressed the gaseous figure. “Okay, Nedilli, enter the clearing slowly and then summon him to you. If you cannot reach a peaceful agreement, return to camouflage Gem with your molecules and lift Gem into the clearing with your strength. Jim, where is the corporeal child?”

“He is still too weak to move, sire. He registers as still in the hut up the hill behind Goharn’s lodge.” For a touching moment, all became eerily still, each individual searching the heavens. Then they were directed to the sounds of Goharn sprinting back across the clearing, ascending and relocating the hill. “Let him go,” Deacon said to Jim. “He goes to be with the child for his final moments.”

Gem and Deacon stood at the edge of the clearing. Xudur and Jim were to their left. Chubby scampered to hide behind a large tree at the entrance to the grove. Nedilli, now a quaking glob of orange, yellow, and green, entered the clearing and hovered about thirty feet from the ground. Then, on the opposite side, Deacon spied a robed figure that appeared on the crest of the hill. Out of the robe glowed those two fierce red eyes that he remembered so vividly from Nix.

The robe grew larger as Urzel expanded. At its sight, Chubby ran into the brush and out of Deacon’s sight, seeking deeper cover. Deacon and Gem stood ready just behind the first line of trees. Deacon motioned for Xudur to remain on alert to initiate the dual force fields to encompass Nedilli and Gem. Then Nedilli broke the silence, and with Gem’s translator, they heard them converse.

“Urzel, my son, I have missed you.”

For the first time, Deacon heard a child’s voice from within the robe. “Mother, I have missed your presence too.”

“Urzel, it is time to return home with me to Medulla.”

“No, Mother.”

“Yes, my son. There is so much for you to learn from the elders. There is so much to be taught to you by me. I have been a neglectful parent, and I have failed to give you the teachings and love you deserve. A child should have memories to treasure.”

“I will not return to Medulla.”

“Urzel, you have brought much misery to many. This is not the Medullan way of life.”

Deacon dared to look around the cover and observe the scene. Nedilli was hovering, contracting, expanding, and continuing her plea, rising higher. “You must return to Medulla, where the elders and I will teach you the ways of relating to all forms of life, to respect the right to live by others, to live in true Medullan beliefs.”

The voice expressed anger in its reply. “I want to rule. I will bring my friends the Nicosians here to Earth next to teach Deacon Coombs and all Earth people a lesson.”

Nedilli became upset. As a mother, she was stern. “Urzel, this is wrong. You are wrong. This is not the way of the Medullans.”

Urzel retaliated by saying, “I am only part Medullan. I have the power to choose my own destinies in life. I choose to live as a supreme ruler in these worlds. See my strength, Mama. I have already subdued the entire planet of Jabu! I have followers. Everyone had forsaken me, and now I have risen.”

“No!” Deacon heard Nedilli’s authoritative tone for the first time. “You have caused death and destruction. This is not the way of any civilized race in our universe. Your followers have already succumbed on Jabu.”

“Why do you say this?” There were terrible swirling winds in the glen. Deacon saw Urzel’s black robe pulsating with each gusty blast. Then Urzel disappointingly retreated just as Nedilli’s molecules expanded to fill the space and move to capture the Owler. Deacon had lost track of Urzel now, as Nedilli had become opaque and blocked him from his view. Deacon turned and sought to find Gem, but with no luck.
Did
Nedilli
engulf
Gem
inside
her
already
in
that
brief
second
as
she
expanded?
Where
is
Gem?
The cue had not been given by him, but Gem was clearly missing from behind him. He examined Nedilli’s quaking mass.

“Jim, where is Xudur? Locate Gem. Is Gem engulfed by Nedilli? Where is Urzel?”