Chapter 23 - If You Can’t Beat Them...

“Where’s Kayla?” Lenora asked Fiona. She instantly regretted asking.

“They killed her!” she blurted, “The Klidz killed her! She went to her parent’s house to hide, but...”

“I’m sorry, Fiona,” Lenora said as she cradled her in her arms.

“Why is everyone here?” Fiona asked.

“We had to leave king Derit’s city,” Lenora said, “We found evidence that the Klidz haven’t been entirely honest with us since they first arrived.”

“We met a strange creature this morning. He told us the Klidz were coming to Lendoren to kill Shahira.”

“Did he have two legs?” asked Geila, who had been communicating with Dewdrop. Fiona nodded.

“What is she saying?” asked Lenora indicating the giant arachnid.

“She said that there is a creature like the one you and Shalynnda were talking to,” she translated, keeping her focus on the fruitpicker, “It is still in Lendoren.”

“We can’t go home,” said Barry, “If we do the Klidz will kill us too. And if we stay here the death worms will eat us. I suggest we go back to their city and wait for an explanation from king Derit.”

{Derit is dead,} came Gabriel’s voice from behind the mass of fruitpickers. Most of the arachnids scattered in all directions; but Dewdrop and the other largest ones formed a line of defense in front of the herd.

“Gabriel?” said Shalynnda, a wave of nausea creeping in as she caught a wiff of him even at this distance. The majority of the herd backed up in shock.

“Lenora!” yelled the tiny centauress inside the box he was carrying.

Lenora’s eyes went wide with shock, “Mother!”

“Goddess!” exclaimed Shalynnda as she recognized the voice. The two women plowed their way through the arachnids and ran towards Gabriel.

Gabriel held the box up as the two mares ran up to him; a small vile of fluid attached by a section of tubing, {Lenora... she...}

As Lenora grasped the box, the last bit of strength left Gabriel and he collapsed to his knees.

{Can’t... home...}

“Shalynnda, see to Gabriel,” said the Goddess, “Lenora, get the herd into the woods. Kennek will be here any moment and you must not let him get this flask!”

“You’re too late,” said Kennek as he suddenly appeared out of thin air. He held his hand out towards Lenora and uttered a single sharp command. The crystal box flew out of Lenora’s grasp and went sailing over to Kennek.

Lenora shouted the same command as she too held out her arms. The crystal box suddenly stopped in mid-air as the two wizards battled with sheer force of will. Lenora’s stubbornness was more than a match for Kennek’s ego, but Kennek had drained much of the magic from this world and she was still tired from the spell she had used earlier on the Klidz guards. Lenora stumbled as the box reached Kennek’s outstretched hands.

“Get away from him!” Kennek yelled as he realized that Shalynnda was brightening Gabriel. He backhanded the priestess so hard her body spun half way around and she slammed unto the ground unconscious.

Turning his attention to Gabriel, Kennek uttered another command and Gabriel was instantly paralyzed by a field of glowing green light.

“I’ll give you credit for one thing,” Kennek spat as he looked at the figure in the crystal box, “You honestly had me believing that you had gone insane.”

“It’s over Kennek,” the Goddess said hotly, “All of Lendoren is now known to you. You will never transfer their souls.”

Kennek looked at the crowd of people beyond the wall of fruitpickers. Most of them were the ones he had ordered the Klidz to kill last... to let them live the horror of watching their beloved ones die.

Kennek sighed. He showed no emotion, no anger, no remorse. “It’s not over,” he said, looking almost sad at the people looking back at him, “It’s just... different.”

Kennek chanted several words then returned his focus to the Goddess. “You see, my plan was perfect: I would liberate all of my people to a higher plane of existence. No longer would they have to be content with the meager scraps of knowledge you occasionally dole out. They would travel the farthest reaches of the world beyond ours. Each would be a god unto themselves.”

“And then you came along,” he said, motioning towards Gabriel as he uttered another word. Gabriel levitated upwards until he was facing the man.

“I don’t know what to make of you,” Kennek continued, “You show up from out of nowhere, slaughter thousands of death worms to save someone you don’t even know, throw yourself in the path of a lightning bolt to save a child you just met, burn an entire nest of death worms to rescue just one person....”

Kennek looked back at the city. His face showed an expression of shock as he snapped his attention back to Gabriel. “And you slaughtered all of Derit’s elite guards, just to keep three women you’ve never met before alive.”

Gabriel’s face was beginning to turn red. The paralyzing field was preventing him from breathing.

“And yet, when you saw me, you were ready to... how did you put it? ‘Rip my lungs out with your bare hands’? For someone who has such a fanatical devotion for saving my people, you certainly have an interesting way of showing it towards me.”

A long black obelisk came floating up the road from behind the crowd of stunned onlookers. “Ah,” said Kennek seeing that the world gate he had summoned from Derit’s castle had arrived, “You know, this ‘flying’ thing you do has merit. I will have to explore it more once I have taken care of the business at hand.”

Gabriel didn’t respond. He face was now a deep crimson.

“People of Lendoren,” Kennek yelled, “I’m afraid that since you now know of my existence, I must banish you from this world. I have reactivated this world gate, and you will travel through it. Anyone who refuses go will be executed... like this.”

Kennek uttered three sharp words, and pointed at one of the fruitpickers. Instantly it blackened and crumbled to ash.

“You monster!” wheezed Lenora, “That creature harmed no one.”

“Silence, brat,” Kennek grumbled, “You should be thankful that I don’t kill you right now in front of your own mother.”

Kennek’s expression took on an evil look, “On second though...”

The crystal box flashed with a brilliant blue-white light, and was gone.

“Everyone scatter!” exclaimed Lenora as loudly as she could. The herd dispersed in every direction imaginable. Several even mistakenly went into the world gate.

Kennek looked around in wild panic. If someone opened the box...

“Where is it?” he screamed as he ran over to Lenora. He grabbed her by the throat and picked her up off the ground, “What did you do with it?”

Lenora had waited for him to come within range. She reached up with a bottle of ink she had been holding and splashed it in his face.

“Ahhh!” Kennek cried, out of surprise more than pain. He threw her to the ground and chanted a few words. The ink became clear as water. As Kennek became reoriented he noticed that a single person in the herd hadn’t moved.

“Shahira,” he said to himself, recognizing the albino centauress instantly. The old wave of hatred welled up deep inside him once again. “Welcome to your last day on this world.”

But before he could act, a small glimmer of light caught his eye in the grass next to her.

“The box!” he exclaimed. Uttering the spell once more, the box levitated through the air and triumphantly returned to his grasp.

Shahira began slowly walking towards him, still looking like she was in a daze.

Even though Kennek knew the Goddess was still in the box, he couldn’t help but check to make sure everything was still intact. If even the tiniest fracture formed, or the Goddess somehow managed to escape...

The tubing was still firmly attached to the box, but the vial...

‘The vial’s gone!’ Kennek exclaimed to himself, ‘Her essence!’

“Looking for something?” the Goddess asked.

“Shut up brat,” he shouted as he frantically looked around for the missing vile. It was then that he realized Shahira was holding something in her hand.

“Shahira!” yelled the Goddess, “Don’t give it to him!”

“Give me that!” demanded Kennek, and he pulled it out of her hand. He quickly attached it back onto the tubing. Only then did he realize that the vial was empty.

Kennek’s anger went beyond anything he had ever shown before. He screamed, he ranted, he raged with meaningless words and expletives that nobody dared utter. Pointing directly at the centauress, he uttered the same three commands he had used to kill the fruitpicker.

Nothing happened.

He tried it again, and nothing happened. A third time, and still no results. She quietly reached out her hand and concentrated on the crystal box. It wrenched itself from Kennek’s deathlike grip and softly landed in hers.

“NOOO!” Kennek screamed as he lunged for the box.

With her free hand, Shahira gave Kennek an open-handed slap on the side of his face. The force of the blow sounded like a lightning bolt and sent Kennek tumbling head over hooves for over four-hundred feet.

Shahira touched her mother and Shalynnda regained consciousness. She then walked over to Gabriel and touched the glowing field surrounding him. It instantly vanished; his dusky-blue body falling limply onto the grass. Shahira kneeled down beside his lifeless form and pressed her lips to his.

“How did she learn to do that?” Lenora asked Shalynnda, knowing that healers couldn’t transfer knowledge between themselves.

“She’s not breathing for him,” said Shalynnda, “She’s kissing him.”

The thought of kissing that strange creature made Lenora want to wretch. She could still smell him, and he was downwind.

Gabriel awoke with a start. He was staring into the face of a very pretty woman with light pink eyes and a soft smile. Either he was dead and staring at the face of an angel, or he was still in the dream and staring at Shahira. Either way, he felt wonderful.

{Hey pretty,} he said as he brushed the hair from in front of her face, {I wasn’t expecting anything like that from you.}

“Neither was I,” Kennek roared as plowed headlong into the centauress. The two tumbled as Kennek wrapped his hands around her neck and began strangling her with all the force he could muster; chanting wildly to boost his strength.

“Gabriel,” said the Goddess, the box lying several feet next to him, “Kennek opened the world gate. The dimensional barrier is down!”

‘Home!’ Gabriel though to himself, ‘I can go home!’

Gabriel rolled to his feet to see where Kennek was. He had Shahira pinned under his massive equine body; his hands locked in a death grip on the woman’s throat. Shahira didn’t even seem to notice. She simply reached up and touched Kennek’s lower torso with her hands. Instantly, thousands of tiny death worms formed on his flanks and began burrowing into his coat.

“Get them off of me!” he screamed, feeling thousands of parasites burrow into his skin, “They’re eating me alive!”

Kennek jumped up and began to pull the worms out of his coat by the hundreds.

{Lenora,} said Gabriel, {Do all magic spells require you to say some kind of words?}

Lenora looked at him blankly; she had been concentrating on Kennek. “What?”

{When you use magic do you always have to say words to make it work?}

“Yes,” she answered, still not understanding his reason for asking.

Gabriel looked at the black stallion flailing around in front of him, {Perfect.}

There was a blinding flash of blue-white light, accompanied by the sound of a large match being lit.