Chapter 22 - Leaving And Staying

“We’re leaving?” said Dale in a hushed shout.

“Yes,” said Lenora in an authoritative tone Dale hadn’t heard in many seasons, “And I don’t mean before nightfall either. I want every single citizen of Lendoren on the road and heading south before the middle of the day. No one is staying behind.”

“But my queen,” Dale said, but didn’t even get the objection started.

“Dale I’m not going to tell you again. Tell everyone to drop whatever they’re doing and meet me at the front gates. Now go!”

“Yes, my queen,” the young man said, and galloped off.

“What will we do about supplies?” asked Shalynnda once Dale was out of earshot.

“There will still be enough clothing and other needs in Lendoren,” Lenora replied, “Of course some people may have to wear off colors.”

“I would wear white if it meant we got out of here faster,” said Shalynnda.

“Priestess Shalynnda?” said a roan mare named Geila as she galloped up to Shalynnda, “Oh thank the Goddess you’re okay!”

“Okay?” asked Shalynnda, alarmed, “What makes you think I wouldn’t be?”

“When I saw the door broken on your house and the blood in your doorway.”

All three woman sprinted to Shalynnda’s cottage.

“Gabriel!” Shalynnda and Lenora exclaimed in unison. He was laying face down just behind the doorway in a pool of blood.

Shalynnda brightened him but he didn’t move.

“What is that?” asked Geila, backup up.

“His name is Gabriel,” said Shalynnda, rolling him over onto his back, “He’s a friend.”

“I’ll tell the guards,” Geila said, and bolted for the castle.

“Stop her!” yelled Shalynnda, but Lenora was already after her.

“What do I do Gabriel?” she whispered as she tried to recall what he would do if the roles were reversed. She saw him waking up beside her daughter on the lip of the worm pit. Shahira wasn’t breathing. He forced air into her lungs...

Lenora and Geila returned to the cottage and were shocked to find Shalynnda on the ground passionately embracing the strange two-legged creature.

“By the Goddess Shalynnda, what are you doing?”

“Sit over there,” Shalynnda said, pointing to the opposite side of Gabriel, “Hurry, we don’t have much time.”

“I am not going to kiss him!” Lenora adamantly stated.

“I’m not kissing him,” Shalynnda said between ‘kisses’, “I’m breathing for him. Here: Put your hands on him like this.” She placed her hands, one over the other, on top of his chest. Lenora hesitantly followed her instructions.

“Now shove down on his chest and keep doing it until he wakes up.”

Lenora gave the alien a half-hearted shove.

“Hard!” said Shalynnda after giving him another breath, “You’re not going to break him.”

Lenora put her weight into it and shoved him hard enough for him to convulse.

“Again,” the healer exclaimed, “Keep doing it over and over.”

Several tense seconds went by with no results.

“What are you doing?” asked Geila.

“It’s a way to start their people breathing if they stop.”

As if on queue, Gabriel coughed and rolled into the fetal position. Several more seconds passed as he attempted to cough his lungs out of his chest. Shalynnda brightened him again and the coughing fit subsided.

{How... did you know?} asked Gabriel, gulping lung-fulls of air.

“I remembered how you saved Shahira,” the priestess replied.

{I didn’t give her CPR,} he replied, getting to his feet, {How did you learn to do that?}

“I will tell you in a moment,” Shalynnda said, “But I have something much more critical to say. Lenora, Kennek is alive.”

The news hit the queen like she had been touched with a cattle prod. She literally grabbed Gabriel, “You saw Kennek? Alive?! Was Dustin with him? Was Shirhon there?”

“Lenora,” Shalynnda said, taking Lenora’s hands off of Gabriel, “I need to speak with Gabriel alone for a little while. It’s an urgent matter.”

Lenora was about to protest, but the look Shalynnda gave her told her that this was not the time for an argument. “Geila, help me get the herd ready,” she said, and the two mares departed.

The priestess and the archangel stared at each other for a few seconds and then Shalynnda turned and walked over to what looked like a medicine cabinet hanging on the far wall. Slowing opening the front, she pulled out a glazed flask the size of an aspirin bottle.

“Did you know that suicide is not unknown to us?” she said as she examined the bottle in her hand, “It’s rare to be sure, but not unheard of.”

She picked up a basket and gently set the bottle against the side. She then began to pull out other items from the cabinet and place them gently in the basket as well.

{It hadn’t crossed my mind,} he replied, completely lost to her reason for bringing up the topic.

“Garo thought about it every day after Tara and Eric died. He saw the death worms kill them both. He had horrible dream-visions every night until the day king Derit told us that Shahira had been killed. I never saw him after that.”

Gabriel watched as Shalynnda finished putting the various small objects in the basket, {I thought your people didn’t kill for any reason.}

“Our lives are our own,” she said quietly as she wrapped the basket in a towel, “It is the one gift the Goddess gives to us. The one thing we have that we can call our own. We can do with it whatever we wish.”

She reached into a larger basket on the floor and pulled out a blanket. In a well-practiced motion she brought it behind her and spread it out evenly over her equine back. In the same basket she pulled out what appeared to be saddle bags and placed them over the blanket. It’s what she did next that took Gabriel completely be surprise. Shalynnda pulled off her serape and dropped it onto her equine back. She then bent over and reached between her front legs to tie the saddle bags together around her midsection. When she stood back up she noticed that Gabriel had turned his back to her.

“What I don’t understand,” she said, “Is why you weren’t embarrassed when you saw my daughter bare-shouldered, but now blush when you see me.”

{It’s different,} he said, {Shahira didn’t have a choice. You do.}

“Choice?” she said, putting the wrapped basket into the saddle bags, “No Gabriel. There are no choices left. I’ve lived a very long life. I’ve seen the season of winter over seventeen hundred times. It is time for me to go to the Goddess.”

Still unclothed, she walked over to where the king’s dagger was still lying in the dark pool of blood. “You and Garo we’re right you know,” she said as she picked up the weapon.

{About what?} he said, uneasy at the way she was holding the knife.

“About all this,” she said, gesturing around the room, “This is all some horrible dream-vision. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The Blessed Goddess would not forsake her people. She would never let her beloved children rot away in some underground pit of blood and feces. She would never leave those who have left this world to stay trapped in her temples.”

She fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably, “And she wouldn’t make me...” She choked, and cleared her throat, “She wouldn’t make me relive the death of my children a second time while the monster who cursed them still lives.”

Shalynnda, high priestess of Lendoren, held the dagger, point-first, at arms length. There was the sound of someone striking a match, and the dagger flashed a bright-white radiance. In an instant it was gone.

Gabriel walked over and knelt beside the woman. For a long while neither of them spoke.

{One of us is wrong,} Gabriel finally said when Shalynnda had managed to calmed down.

She wiped her eyes and looked up at the stranger, “What?”

{We both can’t be having a... dream vision,} he said, {It’s either you or me, but not both.}

Shalynnda was silent for a while, lost in thought, “I don’t know,” she finally said, “I just don’t know. I can’t figure out which one of us is dreaming, and which one isn’t. But does it matter? If this is your dream, then I’m not real and my death would be meaningless. If this is my dream, then my death would still be meaningless.”

{Some of my people believe that if you die in your dreams then you die in real life,} said Gabriel.

“You were dead only a short time ago.”

{I-} Gabriel started, but then paused. Had he died? He didn’t even remember making it back to Shalynnda’s cottage. He only remembered waking up on the floor in a coughing fit. But can you wake up in a dream? How many times had he done that since coming to this world?

{I don’t know,} he said, {But I’ll make you a promise if you make me one.}

“I have nothing I can promise you,” she said meekly.

{Yes you do,} he said, picking up her serape and placing it gently over her head, {Promise me that you’ll stay with us until you and Shahira reunite.}

Shalynnda was quiet for a moment, “And what will you promise?”

{I promise that I will bring Shahira home.}

Shalynnda looked up at the archangel, the faintest glimmer of hope in her eyes, “I promise.”

Gabriel stood and looked at the dagger in his hand with a scowl that made Shalynnda wince. {Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to return this to its rightful owner.}

He walked out the front door, startling several dozen Klidz as he took to the skies.

“It’s dead,” Kennek said flatly as he entered the chamber, “That little creation you managed to conjure was ripped to shreds by the death worms.”

The Goddess said nothing.

“Why the sad face?” he taunted, “Did you honestly think you could use your magic inside my trap and expect it to work?”

Kennek picked up the flask attached to the crystal box. He guessed there was at least two drops more than this morning. “You’ve certainly been trying, haven’t you? For almost a hundred seasons you didn’t even give me the gratification of a single drop of your essence. But now...”

He paused, rolling around the small pool of liquid, “Now you can see that no matter what you do my trap will capture it.”

“I was right,” he added to himself, “It is perfection.”

Again, the Goddess said nothing.

“You’ll have to pardon me if I seem to be gloating,” he added, turning his attention to the tiny figure in the box, “Because I am!”

“I thought you would feel cheated,” the Goddess said, breaking her silence.

“Cheated?” snapped Kennek, “Cheated from what?”

“Not having the pleasure of the kill yourself.”

“Oooooh,” said Kennek, smiling and shaking his finger at the tiny figure, “Now that was pure trickery on your part. It was known to you and it knew me! How you did that I have no idea. But no, I have no death on my hands. All the souls I’ve collected have no knowledge of my presence.”

“If you say so,” the Goddess replied, “But you are nowhere near as intelligent as you think, Kennek.”

Kennek chuckled, “I’m smart enough to imprison you. And that’s all that matters.”

“Oh Kennek, my poor, poor misguided child.”

“I am NOT your child!” he spat, slamming his fist on the table.

“True. I no longer claim you as my own. But since you’re obviously my intellectual superior maybe you can answer a question for me?”

“Ah,” Kennek grinned, “The mother of all knowledge doesn’t know everything after all! So what subject should I enlighten you on?”

The Goddess crossed her arms and thought for a second. “Do you know what a sonic boom is?”

Kennek looked perplexed, “What kind of question is that?”

A muffled explosion shook the castle on its foundation. Dust fell from the ceiling, and the various instruments on the table rattled.

“Oh, nothing,” said the Goddess as she flicked her tail, “Forget I even asked.”

“General, report!” yelled the king over his own deafness.

“Unknown, my liege,” Kror yelled back, barely hearing above the ringing in his antenna, “The troops are too dispersed to get an accurate damage assessment.”

“King Derit!” exclaimed one of his attendants as it pointed to the sky, “Look!”

The king focused his attention skyward. In the east, just below the cloudfall, a prominent upward bow could be seen; the edges of the bow were swirling like water flowing down a drain.

“Dung!” exclaimed the king, “What new manner of trickery is this? The very sky now conspires against us! Kror! Have the troops double their efforts. I want to be out of this wretched city before mid-day!”

“At once, my king!” Kror exclaimed, and scurried off.

“We need to find shelter,” he said to his assistants, “Find a large covered area we can use for a command center.”

“Yes, my king,” his attendants replied, and they too scurried off to obey his orders.

The side courtyard of the castle was an area roughly one hundred feet in diameter. White stone had been inlayed on the ground, and several shade trees were located throughout. Most of the foliage was bright green with the passing of another healthy spring. For some reason the king actually liked this area of the centaur city. He had learned long ago that this was the reading area for the library; where scholars would bring their books and scrolls and read or debate. It was said that their goddess often walked among their people in this place. He could understand why.

{King Derit,} called a voice behind him. He turned around and found the creature standing directly in his face.

{You dropped this,} it said and rammed a dagger through the king’s chest with such force, the creature’s puss-covered fist emerged from the kings back with the dagger still in its grip.

The king slid backwards and landed on the white marble with an unceremonious clunk.

Gabriel collected the other three daggers from their notches in the king’s carapace. {And tell your ‘great fate’ he can kiss my ass.}

“We are ready, my queen,” Dale said as he trotted up to Lenora.

Lenora swallowed hard, and asked the one question she had always feared. “How many?”

“Four thousand, five hundred, and fourteen,” Dale replied without emotion, “With three healers.”

‘Out of over seventy-two thousand...’ Lenora thought to herself.

“Queen Lenora?” asked a man Lenora barely recognized, “Where are we going?”

Lenora looked at the man for a moment before answering. He wore the simple saddle bags that everyone else had along with a dingy working blanket to keep them from chaffing. In another time she would have taken pity on him and offered a meal and new clothes. Now he looked slightly better than the rest of the herd. Mustering a sincere smile she simply said, “Home.”

A hushed murmur ran through the herd. Looks of uncertainty could be seen on everyone’s face. Lenora cleared her throat, “I know that everyone is concerned about the death worms. Shalynnda and I have recently learned that the death worms have left Lendoren. We will be safe there for at least a day.”

“The king and many of his herd went to Lendoren this morning,” said someone Lenora couldn’t see, “Did he destroy the death worms?”

“The king went to Lendoren for other business,” Shalynnda said, “He does not want us to disturb him in his work. That is why we shall move into the woods if we encounter his people coming back from-”

A sharp clap of thunder cut off Shalynnda; The rumble that followed lasting for several seconds as the echoes came in from the surrounding mountains.

“What was that?” Lenora whispered to Shalynnda. Shalynnda closed her eyes and concentrated.

“That was Gabriel,” she said momentarily, “He... he...”

She finally shrugged her shoulders, “He moved in a way I can’t describe.”

“Where is he?” Lenora asked, trying to look beyond the crowd.

“I’m guessing Lendoren,” said Shalynnda.

Lenora looked at the priestess, “That thunder came from Lendoren?”

Again, Shalynnda shrugged, “Maybe he can explain it when we get there.”

Both women turned and headed towards the front gate which now had triple the number of guards it normally had. It was also closed.

Lenora chanted a few words as she approached the watchman, then spoke, “We have received a call from our Goddess.”

“The city is in lockdown, centaur,” the guard clicked in surprise, having never spoken to a centaur, “None may enter and none may pass.”

“We must appease our Goddess,” countered Lenora, “If we don’t... the... great thunder will come here. Her anger will know no bounds. She will be very upset with you if you do not let us go to the forest!”

The guard exhaled in disgust, “Your goddess means nothing to me. No go before I whip the whole lot of you.”

Lenora’s stubbornness swelled. “If you do not let us out then the Goddess herself will use her magic. Do you want to be responsible for her wrath upon your people?”

Lenora made a small gesture behind her back and said a word that didn’t translate. As if on queue, the wind began to pick up around the area where the guards were standing. She swirled her hand around several times and the wind picked up to near hurricane force.

“Oh Blessed Goddess! Please do not put your wrath upon these people!” she yelled over the howl of the winds, “They do not understand your teachings.”

“Open the gates!” yelled the watchman, “Open them before the entire city is blown away!”

Instantly the winds subsided. Lenora leaned heavily against Shalynnda for support. She was exhausted.

Several guards rushed to open the doors and the remains of what was once the entire population of Lendoren headed south to their city.

“What are you doing, you little brat?” demanded Kennek.

Without waiting for an answer he passed his hands across the room and spoke several words. Splinters of wood began to crawl across the stone floor and black liquid seeped up through the cracks and out from the corners. The splinters had an almost magnetic attraction to themselves as they snapped together to form shards, then pieces, then finally reassemble into a wooden pedestal with a large wooden basin on top. The ebony liquid flowed and joined like mercury as it moved up the sides of the pedestal and into the bowel. Waving his hand across the surface of the liquid, Kennek said a single syllable and peered into the pool. What he saw shocked him.

“It lives!” he gasped, “It lives, and Derit is dead!”

“He’s coming for you,” the Goddess said nonchalantly, “No Klidz can stop him, and you dare not kill him. He is known to both me and to you, Kennek.”

“No! You... you lie!” he shouted, but his gaze remained riveted on the pool in front of him.

“He's an abomination!” he gasped, watching the carnage unfold in front of him.

“Takes one to know one,” the Goddess quipped.

For the first time since her imprisonment the Goddess saw Kennek display a new emotion: Fear. But just as quickly his face brightened. Incanting again, he leaned over the pool of liquid and watched.

A few moments later the lifeless husk of king Derit floated into the room. Kennek motioned it over in front of the table and it settled gently on the floor.

“I’m not done with you Derit,” Kennek soothed as he knelt beside the dead king.

The Goddess stood quietly and watched as Kennek began chanting.

Barry came galloping up to Queen Lenora. He was a young man, barely a hundred seasons of summer, but he had been the queen’s messenger for most of his life. Even at this young age he could almost look the queen square in the eyes. Both his parents had been among the fastest runners in Lendoren, and his long legs and almost unending energy had been passed down to him. His coat was the same as his father’s had been: steel gray with a thin dark stripe running the length of his lower back. His matching hair made him appear much older than he truly was.

“You summoned me, my queen?” he said, slowing down to match her pace.

Lenora wrapped her arm around the youth’s waist and hugged him. His near boundless energy somehow exuded into her, making her feel like she could run for days on end. “Your rights are coming up this summer, aren’t they?” she asked, smiling.

Barry blushed; the topic had caught him completely off guard. “Yes, my queen,” he said, smiling and looking down at his hooves.

“Well then,” the queen continued, “Before any young girls take you away from me, I have need of your unique abilities.”

Barry smiled. He hadn’t seen the queen act this way in many, many seasons, “How may I serve you, my queen.”

“I suspect the king will be returning from Lendoren along this road,” she said, “And I know he’s performing some sort of private ceremony with his people. I want you to run ahead and report back to me the moment you see any of the Klidz. But don’t go too far; I want you always within my sight.”

“Yes, my queen,” Barry said, kissing her cheek. He shot ahead in a blur of motion, and in no time was barely a spec up the road.

“Do you think it’s safe?” Dale asked from behind Lenora as Barry galloped off, “He’ll be on the road alone.”

“Barry is faster than any three of us combined,” Lenora said, “If anyone can get out of-”

“What?” asked Shalynnda as Lenora stopped mid-sentence.

“Barry’s stopped,” she said, pointing to the curve for ahead in the road. She could barely make out the young man pick something large up off the road and start running back. The entire herd ran to meet him.

“Lenora!” Barry said excitedly as he came within hearing range, “He has an urgent message for priestess Shalynnda.”

Barry was carrying a fruitpicker.

Shalynnda reached out to brighten the animal. It practically leapt into her embrace and enveloped itself in her blue aura.

“He’s terrified out of his wits,” she said, even though it was obvious by the way it had wrapped all eight legs around Shalynnda’s upper torso. She gently stroked the hair along the arachnid’s abdomen. “Easy little one. You’re safe here. Nobody can hurt you.”

The herd continued along as Shalynnda tried to calm the insect. Lenora sent Barry ahead again in case other fruitpickers were coming.

“He says that the Klidz are all around the city,” Shalynnda finally managed to translate, “But it’s hard to understand him. He keeps signing something about needing to come to the city then his next sign is telling me to stay away.”

As they traveled forward, Geila came up and spoke to the fruitpicker. She initially tried to carry it herself, but the thing would not release its grip from Shalynnda. She finally resorted to talking to it while the priestess tried to keep it calm.

“There... a... healer come in the city... with another half... then two more.” Geila finally managed to translate, then asked, “When?”

The insect make a few subtle motions, which Geila translated as ‘this morning’.

“I know,” said Shalynnda, realizing what the creature was saying, “A healer came to the city this morning with another half. That would be Shahira and Gabriel.”

“Yes,” exclaimed Lenora, “I could see how he could be described as half a person. And the other two would be Fiona and Kayla.”

“Or someone else,” Shalynnda hinted. Lenora knew exactly who she was referring to.

Suddenly, the fruitpicker that was solidly clamped onto Shalynnda became very animated. It practically leapt off her chest and went skittering up the road as fast as it could.

“He said his people are coming,” Shalynnda said nervously.

The people in the front of the herd watched as they saw the arachnid first catch up to, then pass Barry at his post well forward of the group. Several seconds later Barry himself took off at a full gallop after the creature.

“By the Goddess, I told that boy to stay in sight,” Lenora exclaimed as she broke into a fast trot. The entire herd followed.

About a minute went by where nobody could see either Barry or the fruitpicker. It was Geila who first spotted the large mass heading towards them.

“Look at them all,” the roan mare said as she pointed ahead of the herd.

About two hundred Strandon’s Fruitpickers were heading up the road. Leading them were three centaurs: Barry, a black mare, and,

“SHAHIRA!” screamed Shalynnda, sprinting into a run. The ground shook as several thousand centaurs thundered up the road in unison, while the three centaurs ran to meet them.

“Bless the Goddess!” was the last intelligible thing anyone could understand from Shalynnda as she embraced her daughter; the rest was a muffled stream of words that became lost in the cheers and applause that surrounded them.

Kennek had chanted for an hour, and sweat was running down his face and arms. At times he looked like he would keel over from exhaustion.

“He’s dead Jim” said the Goddess, imitating a male voice. Kennek ignored the comment.

“Are you so mad that you’ve convinced yourself you have the power of life?” she asked.

“Oh no,” he whispered, “Oh no, no, no, no, no. Now see? That’s what proves that you’re as stupid as I thought you were.”

Disconnecting the vile from the crystal container, he held it in front of the Goddess, “I never said that I would give him life.”

“And how much of that are you willing to sacrifice?” she said, a twinge of nervousness in her voice.

“Let’s find out, shall we?” he said, an almost maniacal grin on his face.

“Don’t do this, Kennek. You’re stepping across a boundary from which there is no return.”

“That’s what I’m hoping for!” he said, and poured a single drop of fluid on the dead king.

An unbelievable sensation swept through the castle. It was as if a breeze crossed the room and removed every sound. The room became silent beyond anything Kennek could possibly comprehend. The feeling was maddening. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. The next thing Kennek could hear was screaming, and only then did he realize that it was himself.

“I... live,” declared Derit, rolling off his back and standing. He looked at Kennek, and then bowed. “What is thy bidding, my god?”

The word ‘god’ sent a serge of exhilaration through Kennek. “Kill,” he said, his voice filled with hatred, “Kill everything. You exist for only one purpose now: To destroy all life on this world. You will use every bit of cunning, every scrap of knowledge you have for this and this alone. If it moves, kill it. If it grows, burn it. I have bestowed upon you an ability to heal that is equal to my own. Your strength and speed are at their perfection. You know no fear. You know no pain. You will never need to eat or sleep.”

“I will obey, god Kennek.” Derit said, bowing and turning to leave the room, “All will perish before me.”

“There is a word for what you just did,” said the Goddess as she watched Derit leave the room.

“I know,” said Kennek as he too watched the king leave, “It’s called ‘creation’.”

“It’s called ‘zombie’, Kennek,” sighed the Goddess, “All you did was reanimate the body.”

“Stupid brat!” Kennek leered at the crystal box she was confined in, “You just said I was stepping across a boundary from which there is no return. And he addressed me as ‘god’.”

Kennek stood with his arms outstretched and closed his eyes. He leaned his head back and inhaled as deeply as he could, “I am a god,” he said as he forcefully exhaled, “All will come to worship me.”

The Goddess stifled a laugh.

“Laugh all you want,” Kennek said sincerely, “I’ll make sure that the first thing his troops do when they get back to his kingdom is kill your daughter. Then I’ll resurrect her right here in front of you so you can witness her addressing me as her new god.”

“Kennek, you can lie to yourself all you want, but you can’t lie to me. Without my essence you can’t even create a single seed. But,” she said as she leaned against the side of the box, “far be it from me to rain on your parade. If it’s ‘god’ you want to be called, then ‘god’ it is.”

‘The trap must be affecting her mind,’ Kennek thought to himself, ‘First she calls me ‘Jim’, and then she speaks in strange riddles. And now, she admits I’m a god?’

“I will make you an offer,” he said, “If you relent, and give me all of your essence here and now, I will resurrect you as the most beautiful woman in the world. You will have a god as your first mate.”

“Oh how can a girl resist?” she sarcastically replied, “So I assume you’ll want to have a few children of our own?”

“Of course,” replied Kennek, a look of hunger already creeping into his eyes, “Relent and I’ll let you bear hundreds of my children.”

“There are two problems with that, ‘god’ Kennek,” she replied, liberally applying sarcasm to the title, “First off, my belly would be dragging the ground after the first fifty or so kids. Not to mention these,” she added, hefting her breasts.

“You would be eternally beautiful,” Kennek replied, hooking the glass vile back onto the crystal box.

“I already am eternally beautiful!” she shouted, her voice echoing through the empty castle, “How dare you insinuate that I am anything less than perfectly beautiful! Why, if you hadn’t imprisoned me in this crystal box, and locked me in this room at the bottom of the staircase, I’d punch you in the jaw so hard you wouldn’t be able to utter a magical word for an entire season! Then I would take this stupid box to Lenora and the others and show them what you’re doing!”

“My, my,” said Kennek, putting his face next to the box, “I believe I hit a nerve. You’re so mad you’re not making sense.”

The Goddess was so infuriated; she balled up her fists and cut loose a scream that startled even Kennek. “I am making perfect sense!” she yelled, “I’m screaming and yelling so loud you can’t hear anything else but my voice!”

Kennek jerked back in shock, “You’re insane.”

“No Kennek,” she said, her demeanor suddenly returning to normal, “Merely distracting.”

Kennek looked at the Goddess with a new level of confusion. ‘She’s truly gone mad,’ he thought to himself, ‘I hadn’t anticipated her losing her sanity. This could be a...’

Kennek was distracted as a pungent odor assaulted his nose. ‘What is that horrid odor?’

He turned just as Gabriel cut loose with the most powerful haymaker he could deliver right to Kennek’s jaw. It sounded like cannon fire as Kennek’s limp body slammed into the wall and slumped onto the floor.

“Gabriel!” shouted the Goddess. If he didn’t hear her, or simply chose to ignore the tiny figure in the box, she couldn’t tell. His clothes were covered in puss and entrails, and his hands and arms were covered in his own blood from several gashes in his hands. But it was his eyes that the Goddess was looking at. He was staring at the fallen stallion with more hatred and more bloodlust than she had ever witnessed in all her countless seasons of being. He tore into Kennek in a mindless berserk rage.

“Gabriel, no!” yelled the Goddess, “Get me out of here! Get me to Lenora!” But us was no use. She could do little more than watch as the man repeatedly landed blow after blow on the struggling centaur. Kennek finally managed to backhand Gabriel away, and struggled to get to his hooves, but Gabriel slammed back into him screaming with anger.

“Gabriel!” yelled the Goddess again, “You need to take me to Noliea’s mother!”

It was no use. Gabriel continued to pummel the downed stallion relentlessly.

{I made a promise,} Gabriel finally growled at Kennek as he picked the man up by the jaw, {That I would kill you for trapping me in this god-forsaken nightmare. And if there’s one thing I never do, I never break a promise.}

Grabbing the back of Kennek’s head with his other hand, he wrenched the centaurs head backwards. There was a loud crack, and Kennek’s body went limp.

Gabriel stood up panting. Blood was pouring from his right hand. He had broken it several punches ago. The dura-armor cloth was in shreds, and there was a broken spear tip embedded in his left wing. There was even a Klidz arm joint that had somehow become entangled in a belt loop on his pants. Had he even considered looking himself over he would have noticed that he looked exactly the same way Tracy had found him in the maze.

{I’m still... here,} he said to himself as looked around the room in a daze.

“Gabriel, you need to get me out of here!” pleaded the Goddess.

Gabriel turned at looked at the tiny figure on the table for the first time, {I’m still here... Why am I still here?}

“Because I’m still trapped Gabriel,” said the Goddess, “You need to get me to Lenora.”

{Why bother?} Gabriel said, looking pale, {I killed him, and I’m stuck here in this nightmare... forever.}

“No Gabriel,” said the Goddess, holding her hand against the box in front of her, “Kennek trapped you here, but I can get you out. Now please, you must get me to Lenora. I can’t send you home if I’m trapped in this box!”

{Yeah... whatever... always one more thing,} Gabriel said absently as he scooped up the box with his left hand and left the room.

Just behind Gabriel, Kennek’s head slowly rolled back into position.