Chapter 2
Teela stared for two seconds, then she bolted up and attempted to kick Tri-Klops in the head. He caught her foot easily and threw her on the ground again. Teela bounced back up and tried to unhook her staff … but it wasn't there. It was supposed to hang in her belt, but it didn't! She must have dropped it! It must have …
Tri-Klops smiled broadly, and held her staff up teasingly. He had snatched it when he saved her from falling.
She clenched her bloody fists and felt the cuts sting. She threw herself forward to punch him, but he side-stepped her, grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm. She gritted her teeth and tried to sneak a foot around his ankle to trip him, but he only twisted harder, making it feel like her arm would break. He made a sudden movement, spun her around and drove a sharp elbow into her side, knocking the air out of her lungs and giving her a stabbing pain in the ribs.
It came to Teela she was too weakened by the cold to put up a proper fight. Her reflexes were dulled, her legs didn't obey her as they used to, and her aching hands were practically useless, otherwise the two warriors would have been more evenly matched. But she'd rather die fighting than die of cold – or give up.
She spun on one leg and tried to kick him. He dodged, grabbed her ankle and threw her into the wall. The world felt like it made a barrel roll, the young warrior gasped and coughed as she forced air down her lungs again, and her shoulders ached. Fueled by pure anger she got up on her legs again, rolled her joints in an attempt to soften them up a bit, then flew against her enemy, a sprinted jump she hoped to use to tackle him into the ground.
But Tri-Klops lashed out one arm, and although she managed to avoid the full force of his strike, he grazed her enough to slap her to the ground. Her head felt like it had been put on an anvil, her whole left side of her face aching, and the cave spun.
Get up! Get up! He's coming for you! she screamed in her head, but no matter how much she forced herself she couldn't stand again. She was too tired, to cold, too dozy. Her mind faded in and out of consciousness, and her hands and knees and her bottom hurt from cuts and bruise after bruise. She trembled violently, the ice sticking on her bare skin.
Tri-Klops stood there for a moment, making sure she didn't rise. Then he returned to his backpacks and took up two rolls of rope. Teela didn't regain her wits in time before she felt her hands and feet getting bound. She tried to kick him and crawl away, yelled and cursed at him, but he just grabbed her legs and forced her down.
"Stop wriggling." he said and took a better grip around her.
"Let me go!" she screamed, but he just puffed out an amused grunt. "LET ME GO!"
"Why, so you can stumble off the cliff again?" he asked and tightened the knots.
"I'd rather die than become a prisoner of Skeletor – or you!" Teela yelled. Tri-Klops chuckled.
"One death or another, does it matter?" he asked and suddenly pulled her up by her collar. He dragged her out again into the cutting air and she got her eyes full of snowflakes. She tried to struggle away, but he yanked her sharply and her feet only made furrows in the snow. She shook her head to get the crystals out of her eyelashes, but another, harsher haul made her suddenly swing like a doll, dangling over the cliff, hanging from Tri-Klops' out-stretched arm.
"Shall I let go?" he asked with a smile. Teela looked down. The polar sea lapped at the ice, like an old toothless man sucking on a sweet, making the ice floes bob and crush against the wall. It was more of a slush than clear water, a gray goo that piled and sank, but she would sink straight through it, and with her hands and feet bound she couldn't swim.
"Let's see … I recon you've got between five to fifteen minutes before you die of hypothermia, although the shock will probably kill you sooner." Tri-Klops mused. Teela didn't say anything. She shook from a shiver and pressed her knees firmly together. Fear gripped her, made her want to grab onto Tri-Klops' arm like a life-line. A small part of her tried to convince herself that a quick death in these waters was better than whatever fate Tri-Klops had in store for her, but the rest of her rotated in fright. Looking at the ice floe and she could all too well imagine the endless, lifeless depths beneath; The darkest, most lonesome grave in all of Eternia.
"Shall I let go?" he asked again.
She despised herself for her weakness, and hated him for bringing it out of her. She closed her eyes, clenched her jaw, and shook her head.
He pulled his arm back slowly, letting her feet graze the snow on the blessedly solid cliff, then dragged her back into the cave. She tried to get up on her feet, but only slipped, and the ropes cut into her ankles. He dropped her unceremoniously by the bags and picked up some cloth he wrapped around her injured hands, the blood seeping through the material immediately. Then he folded out a large skin of thick fur which he rolled her into, threw her and the backpacks over his shoulders, and set off.
Teela grunted by the blunt treatment, but didn't say anything. Embarrassment burned in her face, that she had been so easily frightened. She tried to soothe her bruised ego; that she was only waiting for an opportunity; that it was foolish to throw her life away out of pure spite when she maybe could get a chance to free herself – and maybe turn the tables and have him captured instead!
She wriggled, trying to find a comfortable position with his shoulder pressing into her stomach. She was already getting cramps in her arms and in the hollow of her knees.
At least the fur was warm.
She couldn't see very well slung as she was over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, but he was definitely heading deeper into the cavern. In short it came to Teela that the cavern was actually the vestibule to a maze of tunnels and caverns stretching deep into the iceberg, like an anthill. Astonished she lifted her head and looked around.
Everything was ice. Shimmering from Tri-Klops' lantern which light was reflected endlessly around them: Dull ice, clear ice, iridescent ice. The floor was a tarnished mirror and Tri-Klops walked carefully. Teela could see her own reflection by his feet.
Soon she was hopelessly lost, but the inventor of Snake Mountain seemed to know these tunnels well, because he trudged on without a moment's hesitation. They crossed narrow ice-bridges over deep maws that made her breath hitch in her throat, edged alongside sharp shelves where the young woman barely dared to move lest the inventor lost his balance. They navigated between frozen stalagmites and stalactites, and came upon running brooks where sea water had carved its way in and melting water was funneling its way out.
But he gave no indication why he was here, or where he was heading.
It was quiet here.
Neither of the two spoke, but once Teela had registered the silence she started to pick up on the little sounds around: rushing water, ice that creaked and cracked, falling lumps of snow, the draft in the tunnels … all producing hushing echoes less audible than the man and the woman's own breaths.
Suddenly Tri-Klops came to an abrupt halt. She dangled over his shoulder, just a nose-width away from his shoulder blades. She was about to ask him, but stopped herself: He was listening, intently. She perked her ears and tried to hear, and soon she caught what he must have heard:
A scraping noise, as of lots of claws running on ice.
Tri-Klops rolled her straight up so suddenly she almost yelped. There were no side-tunnels, so he dragged them both into a natural alcove in the wall behind a large cluster of stalagmites, and dimmed the lantern. He pressed both their backs against the wall, one iron-hard arm across Teela's chest as if he didn't trust her to stand still.
A few heartbeats later the sound of claws became louder. Teela peeked between their fence of stalagmites. Creatures had come into the hall. Large creatures, six of them, looking like a mixture of wolves and lizards, with shiny black plating and yellow eyes. Their long tails wagged back and forth as their hind legs moved. They stopped just outside the stalagmites and sniffed around, on the floor and in the air where the two had walked.
Then they continued down, in the direction Tri-Klops and Teela had come from.
The two waited a few minutes, then Tri-Klops released his clamp hold on Teela, and the girl let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.
"What … were those?" she whispered.
"Laigreks." Tri-Klops said. "All of their senses are bad, but they are dangerous when faced head-on. Our scent will fool them the opposite way for a while, but they may soon give up when it become faint. We need to move." With that he bent down and picked her up again.
The young warrior kept her ears sharp from then on, but they didn't hear or encounter the Laigreks again. There was no way to measure time here, other than to count her own heartbeats. She was sure she nodded off a few times, jerking awake and being lulled to sleep again from her enemy's rhythmic walk.
After what Teela assumed was several hours Tri-Klops finally stopped. By then Teela was dead tired and her body ached after been hanging over his shoulder for so long.
It was a crossroad of four narrow tunnels, dark and shaped like wormholes, probably by water that had flowed here once. Tri-Klops looked around, listened, ran a hand over the walls, sniffed the air, and then, apparently satisfied, put the girl down with his bags. He then pulled out and set up a portable campfire from one of his knapsacks, and lit it with a lighter. A crackling fire began to burn in the cavern, casting an orange glow on the walls around them. Teela inched closer to the flames, curled up under the heavy fur, silently thankful for the warmth that finally seeped into her stiff and numb limbs. She massaged her knees the best she could with her bound hands and the cramps eased a bit.
He had food as well. Tri-Klops roasted some meat and bread, the smell making Teela's stomach growl. She hadn't eaten anything since her early breakfast back at the palace, and nearly the whole day had passed since - perhaps more?
To her great surprise, he actually offered some of the bread and a piece of venison to her.
"Eat up." he said.
It smelled heavenly, but although hungry she was reluctant to accept even a single crumb from him. Tri-Klops studied her with a thoughtful expression, as much as could be determined from what was visible under his visor.
"If you don't eat that I'll save if for my next meal. But I won't offer you anything again. Don't you dare waste food." he suddenly said.
Teela glanced at him with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. But she accepted the food and ate up, using her fingers to tear greasy bits from the meat. Who knew? If Tri-Klops kept her alive long enough she might find a way to escape, or the Masters might find her …
They ate in silence, sharing a cup of red wine he heated over the fire. The steaming brew burned her tongue in her eagerness to drink, but warmed her chest and her stomach, and she sighed contently. She let the steam warm her face and hands, feeling as if lumps of ice inside her fingertips were finally thawing.
After their sparse supper, Tri-Klops took out a long-stemmed pipe and stuffed it with dried, dark blue-green leaves from a pouch in his belt. The spicy, sweet smell when he lit it was sharp and attentively familiar, and Teela wrinkled her nose.
"Healer's herbs?" she asked surprised.
"Would you like a breath?" Tri-Klops asked and leaned back against the wall, looking relaxed and content like a cat.
She shook her head, but some leaves to rinse her mouth with would've been nice, she thought. The Healer's herbs were actually a weed that grew all over Eternia, but it was really a welcome little miracle-plant. It was used as a strong antiseptic and was a favorite by healers to treat both wounds and diseases. Cooks used it in food and cakes, and people everywhere mashed the plants into a paste they chewed or brushed their teeth with. Teela had never seen anyone smoke the leaves before, though.
"I worked briefly as an assistant to a herbalist when I was younger than you." Tri-Klops explained. "Smoking the leaves makes almost as good result as the paste, but this way they also clear the lungs and cleanse the body. You should try it sometime."
"I'd rather have some to chew on." Teela said hopefully. Tri-Klops gave her a loop-sided smile, but kept his pouch closed. His teasing put her in a bad mood. She sat herself up a little straighter, glanced at him as he exhaled a white cloud, then decided to be bold.
"Why have you spared me?" she asked.
Tri-Klops sat quiet for a moment.
"I'm sure you can think of countless reasons. Believe whatever you wish." he finally said.
"What do you mean?"
"I thought I was pretty clear."
"Well, you aren't. Why are you here?"
"Hunting."
Teela felt her heart jump. Was he hunting one of the Masters? Had he thought she had arrived with company? Was that why he had captured her?
"And I'm the bait?" she asked.
"That is an excellent idea."
"Don't make any change of plans on my account." Teela sneered.
"On the contrary, you may be of good use in this."
"Anything … or anyone … in particular you're hunting?"
"An uppity warlord who has begun to cause trouble."
"A warlord resisting Skeletor? One of many, perhaps?"
"No, just the one. And don't get any ideas, girl. Harga is no hero – he's been plundering villages and slaughtering those who could not provide for him. He is similar to Beastman – almost as strong, just as smelly, and even more violent. He is more likely to rape and enslave you than help you."
"Why would someone like that resist Skeletor?"
"Do you know anything about the politics in the Dark Hemisphere?"
Teela hadn't even known there was such a thing as politics in the Dark Hemisphere. Even long before Skeletor's time the Dark Hemisphere had been considered little more than an uncivilized wasteland with roaming packs of bandits.
By the campfire, Tri-Klops told her that the Dark Hemisphere had always been split into thousands of small, ever-changing territories. Much of the Dark Hemisphere were barren cliffs and cold deserts, but there were areas which hosted farmlands, forests which provided game, and coastal areas which gave fish. These regions were small, but vital: The organs which made the whole hemispherical body survive. And the trade lines were the veins through which the hemisphere's life-blood flowed. Those who controlled the regions and the trade lines were the ones who had the power.
The rulers of these territories had been warlords who had constantly tried to take over one another. They had been nobility, merchant princes, cultist leaders, tribal chieftains and common bandits. Keldor had been one of these warlords, with the difference that he had been the last one standing. Finally he had claimed Snake Mountain as a permanent testimony of his power, the Dark Hemisphere had been united under his sole rule, and all the other warlords had either been killed or been forced to swear allegiance to him. They now ruled as stewards of their regions, paying weekly, monthly and annual fees to Snake Mountain. The borders were now constant, farmers could work in peace without being preyed upon, traders distributed wares to all over the hemisphere, and anyone who disrupted the stability was harshly dealt with.
Thanks to Skeletor, the Dark Hemisphere was enjoying a long period of peace.
It wasn't a just or democratic system, but it was the closest thing to order the people had had for centuries. Roaming tribes of bandits remained, of course, but they knew to keep low enough profile to avoid the attention of the Lord of Snake Mountain. But occasionally a brash chieftain or some of the stewards would conspire to try and challenge Skeletor's might. Skeletor rarely lowered himself these days to deal with these upstarts. It fell on his minions' lot to do that, which was just another testimony of his power.
"My target is a man called Harga." Tri-Klops told Teela. "He's been gathering followers lately, plundering villages, attacking caravans, and refuses to heed Skeletor's demands. He needs to be taken care of before he becomes an actual problem."
"And you need my help with that?" Teela asked with a slight grin. She put up a confident front, even though she had nothing to give.
"Every little bit helps. And a beautiful young girl might draw him out."
Teela glared at him.
"He's proven more resourceful than I imagined." Tri-Klops mused, more to himself than to Teela. "To think he actually took his escape to the South Polar Cap … I would like to find out more what he knows, and that means I need to capture him alive."
So that was his purpose here. Teela thought of her own mission – to map out the South Polar Cap and search for available resources here. But the South Polar Cap was – or so she had assumed – an uncharted and uninhabited archipelago of icebergs. But Tri-Klops seemed to know it well – and seemingly so also this Harga. Perhaps there was more to this place than she had thought?
But before Teela could voice her question, Tri-Klops yawned. He knocked the ashes from the pipe, pulled out a knife hanging from his belt and – to her surprise – cut the ropes binding her hands and feet. She massaged her wrists carefully when the blood came rushing back, and she looked quietly questioning at the man.
"I assume you won't try something so stupid as to flee? Get some sleep. Tomorrow you'll carry your own weight." Tri-Klops said and rolled himself up in his own cape.
Teela watched him, unable to tell when he fell asleep. Blood rushed to her cheeks in hopeless anger. She was stuck with him. Even if she killed him and took his supplies she still didn't know the way out. She would wander around here until the cold or starvation took her. The Masters had no way of finding her here. There were no tracks on the ice she could follow back to the opening, and if she tried to take and hide a weapon from him he would soon find out – and kill her.
She was stuck here, with Tri-Klops as her only life-line. And he knew that.
She wanted to hit him. She wanted to kill him. She wanted to scream and rage and do something.
Instead she rolled herself up in the large fur skin Tri-Klops had given her, curled up into a ball to keep warm, and tried to sleep.