Chapter 10 - Hooray! We’re Saved!... Now What?

They had been walking for about ten minutes.

“Master Gabriel, where are you taking us?” asked a female voice.

It was not a sarcastic question, but the words struck a nerve.

Gabriel turned around to face the twenty-three centaurs behind him. The rain had subsided only to the point where he could see Paul in the back of the group. Like well-trained children, they had halted the moment he had. He noticed that they were all walking in pairs, and were in the exact same place in line they had been since leaving the barn. Only a single male stood in line alone. They all bowed their heads to avoid eye contact.

{Shaniddia,} he said. The centauress jumped at the mention of her name.

“I was the one who asked the question,” interrupted Noliea nervously.

{Shaniddia,} Gabriel repeated, {would you go tell Paul to come here please?}

Without looking up, the zombie turned and headed to the back of the line.

Gabriel took a step towards Noliea. She reflexively crossed her arms around her waist where she had been slashed less than an hour ago. Her long black hair hid her face completely. In a whisper nearly lost in the droning of the rain, she repeated, “Master.”

He looked down at the cowering centauress. Her legs were set very close together, and her tail was pressed close to her body as she tried to make herself as small as possible. She was shaking uncontrollably. Then faintly, just as faintly as her whisper had been, he could hear her crying.

{Noliea,} he said to her in a soft voice, {look at me.}

Noliea slowly raised her head and brushed her hair aside. She raised her eyes only to his chest.

{No, look at me.}

She raised her head a bit further, and looked directly at him.

Again, Gabriel was transfixed by an overwhelming flood of emotions. Her hair was matted, and her cheeks were sunken, but those eyes...

“You summoned me, master?”

The emotional sting of the word “master” brought him out of his stupor.

{Uh, Paul,} he said, breaking eye contact and turning his attention to the giant centaur, {let me see your shackles.}

Paul obediently held out his arms.

The two rings on his wrists looked like bronze or copper. Each one had a loop on one side that a rope or chain could be attached to. Gabriel also noticed that the centaur also had one on each front leg. Looking at the others, he confirmed that they all wore the same bonds.

Gabriel turned one of the shackles around on Paul’s wrist. They looked to be a single piece of metal, with no seam or hinge.

{How did they put these on you?} he asked.

“Their metal smith forged them on,” Paul replied.

Gabriel winced at what he thought Paul was implying. {You mean, they put these on you when the metal was still hot enough to bend?}

“Yes.”

‘Those unholy bastards.’

Grabbing one of the shackles between his thumb and index finger, Gabriel squeezed as hard as he could while twisting the metal back and forth with his other hand. Once he had made a section thin enough, he grabbed the two sides and pulled the ring apart.

“Why are you removing them?” asked Paul hesitantly.

{I am not your master,} Gabriel said through clenched teeth as he pried apart the second band, {and I’ll be damned before you ever call one of those creatures back there ‘master’ again.}

It took about a minute to remove all four shackles. As Paul stepped back to shake out the feathers around his massive hooves, Gabriel wordlessly gathered up the four strips of metal and threw them into the rain. The downpour swallowed them up without a sound.

Paul, with a look of uncertainty on his face, turned to go to the back of the group.

{You don’t have to get back in line, Paul,} said Gabriel, {you can stand anywhere you want.}

Turning his attention back to Noliea, Gabriel asked, {Do you want me to remove your shackles?}

Noliea wordlessly held out her arms.

By the time he had removed the shackles around the third centaur, the paired line had disintegrated into a loose group encircled around the archangel. As he worked, Gabriel asked each of them their name. Some, like Noliea, simply held still has he worked. Others, like the one he was freeing at the moment, would ask him questions.

“Why didn’t you eat the slave master?” asked Melinda.

That one stumped him completely. {Why would you think I would eat him?}

“You said to the slave master that you had not eaten in three days, and that if it betrayed you, then you would eat it.”

{You heard me say that?} asked Gabriel, amazed. He had barely whispered the threat to the slave master.

“Yes.”

Gabriel paused a bit while he pulled the shackle free from one of her legs.

{I lied.}

“You mean, you have eaten in the last three days, or you would not have eaten the slave master.”

{Both. I ate some fruits and nuts this morning, and the thought of eating one of those insect people is... well... disgusting.}

“Then why did you say such a thing to him?” asked Shaniddia.

{I thought the fear of being eaten by a god would insure the slave master’s cooperation,} he said, not looking up at the zombie, {Evidently, I was wrong.}

“So you wouldn’t have eaten him?” asked Melinda, making sure she understood.

{No.}

“Would you eat one of us?” asked Paul.

Gabriel, who had been on one knee to remove the final shackle from Melinda’s left leg, stood up and faced the giant centaur.

{No Paul, I could never eat one of your people.}

Gabriel noticed that a subtle change swept through the centaur. The look of fear lessened in his face. In fact he noticed that the look on all the centaurs seemed to relax considerably.

“How do we know you’re not lying now?” ask Shaniddia.

The other twenty-two centaurs collectively gasped in unison.

{You don’t.}

“Then-” the zombie began, but stopped as she received a stern look from Noliea.

{Don’t stop her Noliea,} said Gabriel, {When I said you could ask me anything I wasn’t lying. Ask me your question Shaniddia.}

Shaniddia looked directly at Gabriel with her horrid visage, “Then how can any of us trust you?”

{I don’t expect you to trust me,} he replied, {Trust is something that must be earned.}

“You looked like you were ready to kill me back in the slave quarters.”

{Because you look like a zombie,} Gabriel replied, {I thought you were going to...}

Gabriel stopped himself short. He looked around at the group of centaurs as if he was looking at them for the first time.

{This is nuts,} he said, bowing his head and rubbing the bridge of his nose, {I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation.}

“What’s wrong?” asked one of the centaurs.

Gabriel laughed. It was a short, forced laugh that contained absolutely no humor. {What’s wrong? What’s wrong?? Oh, I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s see. This all started when I saved my friends life by jumping in front of a telepath who was going to kill her. The next thing I know, I’m stuck in a maze in the dark with giant dune worms trying to eat me, skeletons trying to eat me, rotting zombies trying to eat me, vampires trying to eat me... Am I beginning to paint a picture here? Then, after three months of being chased non-stop, some girl shows up and tells me that she’s here to help me, but only makes matters worse by bringing in her own nightmares... which, I might add, includes an alien with acid-blood who, you guessed it!, is trying to eat me! }

As Gabriel’s voice got progressively louder, the group of centaurs got progressively farther away.

{Then, as if having every single thing I’ve ever been even remotely scared of wasn’t bad enough, this kid does something to my head, and suddenly my head is a public freak show for the entire world!}

Nobody said a word.

{Then, I find myself back at The Complex, and everyone, including Illusion, is trying to kill me. What a frick’n surprise! And then the next thing I know, I’m stuck here on this god-forsaken planet where I can’t find any food, I can’t teleport back home, and... hold on to your hats kiddies, ‘cuz this is the killer part... everyone I meet is trying to eat me! And after freeing twenty-three totally mythical creatures with normal English sounding names like ‘Paul’ and ‘Melinda’ from giant talking bugs, I’m being asked the question, “How can we trust you?” by one of the frick’n zombies! }

Gabriel had to stop and gasp for air. His fists were clenched in rage, and his face was red with anger.

{And look at this,} he said, holding up the medallion, {I find it just a bit too convenient that you just ‘happen’ to have a translator lying around! But you want to know how you can trust me, Shaniddia? Well the answer to that question is ultra, ultra simple: Don’t ever trust me! That ought to make it simple enough for both of us! All this is just some part of a nightmare that I can’t wake up from, and I’ve got two telepaths to thank for it. }

{And you!} Gabriel leveled his finger at Noliea, {You’re the reason I know this isn’t real. How dare that little bitch pull you out of the back of my head and expect me to think that you’re real! Well I’m not going to fall for it! }

Gabriel stormed off into the rain, leaving the centaurs behind.