Thicker Than Blood

Chapter 2

Algetty

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Some days things wouldn't go right if you paid them."

- Owen Deathstalker, Deathstalker Honor

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Timeless

The scales were tipped, the balance was upset, and powers beyond mortal ken shifted in favor of the darkness. The darkness grew stronger.

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12,003 BC

It was very early that morning when Melchior knocked on the door to the prince's chambers, but Janus was awake, sitting at his desk and working on the design for his mudpie catapult. Beside his chair was a small bag on the floor, already packed. He held up a hand, telling Melchior to wait a minute, and then bent over his design to add a few finishing touches.

His room was unexpectedly clean. The marble floor was polished to a shine, and the early morning sunlight streaming in from the window reflected off its surface. The prince's bed was already made up neatly. The desk he was sitting at was under the window, and beside it was a bookshelf, the volumes on it neatly arranged. There was no clutter anywhere. After a moment more, Janus finished his catapult drawing and stretched, yawning.

"Your Highness, the Earthbound may not...enjoy...having you there. It will be-"

"I know, I know, Schala's already given me the whole lecture." Janus dismissed his concerns with a wave and an irritated glare.

The old Guru sighed nosily through his nose. It was about time someone did something about Janus, before things went too far. Gaspar wasn't the only having trouble with the boy. A few months before, during an important banquet to which the prince was not invited, Janus had been responsible for an unfortunate incident involving two small trees, Dalton, and some of Queen Zeal's bed sheets. Naturally, the boy had been no where near the scene, and naturally there were reliable witnesses to say he'd been in bothering a Nu in Kajar, but no one save Schala doubted that Janus had been the guilty party. Melchior looked down at the prince, who was staring up at him with violet eyes wide with pseudo-innocence and sighed again. Maybe sending him to Algetty was a bit drastic, but Melchior sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to complain. He had enough problems of his own.

"All right," he said wearily, and put his hand on Janus' shoulder. "Here we go."

Closing his purple eyes, Janus nodded his consent. A second later all his blood rushed sickeningly to his head as a white flash signaled the teleportation spell.

It was dirtier than he'd expected, Janus noted when the spell's glow faded and he could look around. Algetty wasn't a cave in rock, it was a cave dug into the ground. There were people everywhere; most of them so dirty that if they stopped in front of a wall and didn't move for a few seconds, Janus couldn't tell they were there at all. Strangely, their appearance went almost unnoticed. A few Earthbound moved off to give them space but that was all. There were numerous torches set in the walls, casting flickering shadows around the room Melchior had teleported them to. It was round, with three tunnels leading off from it, one of which slanted upwards. There was a large wooden table in the room's center, sturdy looking but there were deep cuts in it, and in places its surface was stained. Most of the Earthbound were clustered around it, sorting through piles of what looked like bloody rags.

"Excuse me," Melchior said pleasantly to a young woman nearby. Janus wrinkled his nose in disgust. She was filthy, he could actually see the lice in her matted hair, and Melchior was speaking to her as she were Schala. "Would you please tell me where I could find Siris?" The girl grinned -- she was missing most of her teeth, Janus noted coolly -- and pointed at the slanting tunnel. "Thank you," the Guru said, bowing slightly before leading Janus off in that direction.

As they moved through the crowd of people, a path opened up for them. Earthbound nodded their heads politely to Melchior, called a word of friendly greeting, asked him how was he doing, had his cough gotten any better? Yes, thank you, it was nice of you to ask, Emmi. He knew their names, Janus realized with a start. He actually knew their names. It was gross and vaguely disturbing. Melchior acted as a sort of ambassador for Zeal to the Earthbound; he had to have a certain amount of contact with them. But to know all of them on a personal basis? And be happy about it? Melchior would have to be watched, Janus thought, eyeing him suspiciously as the trudged up the tunnel. It was known that the Earthbound had a few sympathizers who thought they should be treated like royalty instead of the filth they obviously were.

The room at the end of it was smaller than the main one Melchior had teleported them to. The roof was made of dirt, and it was loose with roots trailing through it. Janus thought that was odd, because there were no trees above Algetty. It was warmer, and brighter. There were two thick wooden doors across the room, and Janus could see dents in the roof above them, where they opened and scraped against it. There was a small table off to one side and two men were sitting at it, staring at the Enlightened.

One of them was hardly worth noting. Matted brown hair, thick with dirt, blue eyes that were too innocent, his wide smile -- directed at Melchior -- too childlike. The other had focused his piercing gaze on Janus.

The black wind was going absolutely crazy on him, shrieking and screaming, swallowing him up and Janus had to really concentrate to get a look at him. His hair was dirty blond and cropped short. He was decked out in hard black body armor that looked disturbingly to be made of some creature's scaled hide. Two curved swords were strapped crosswise on his back and he was wearing two belts of daggers across his chest. The challenge was in his pale green eyes, though. A cocky sort of prince of Zeal or no prince of Zeal, you're just a kid down here, squirt, and I'm not going to let you forget who's really in charge of Algetty. The corners of his mouth twisted up slightly in what was almost a sneer. He stood to his feet, walking around the table and bowing at the waist. The other man just sat there, grinning stupidly.

"Welcome, Your Majesty, to the Earthbound village of Algetty."

"Your Highness," Janus heard himself correct the man automatically, and he narrowed his violet eyes at the black wind. I got the message, now stop it. Leave him alone! Leave ME alone! The black cloud-like wisps spiraled faster in response, and Janus thought he could faintly hear some great sinister being voice a deep, satisfied chuckle.

'Hardly alone,' it rumbled pleasantly. 'If they have anything to say about it. And they will, you can be sure of that. Never could keep their prying fingers out of my business. They find me...irresistible.'

Janus felt all the strength drain out of his body. It was the same demonic voice that haunted his dreams and left him screaming for Schala in the middle of the night. The faintly amused chuckle repeated itself.

'They're stealing you from me, my little prince.' Its voice took on a pouting tone. 'All my hard work, all these long years, all for nothing. At least they can't take my Schala. Good as she may be though, in comparison she's nothing but sloppy seconds.'

'Who are you?! You can't have Schala!'

'You amuse me, little one.'

The black wind vanished.

"Oh," the man said, raising an eyebrow as he straightened, completely unaware of what had transpired. "Well, excuse me, Your Highness." He whirled around, smiling broadly at the other Earthbound. "Kirby! Show His Highness to the royal bedchambers, please."

Kirby actually bounced to his feet, and Janus was still too stunned to fight the hand that reached down and snatched his, tugging him towards one of the doors. The man grinned down happily at him, talking fast.

"Hey, my name's Kirby. What's yours? Siris called you His Highness, does that mean you're a prince? That's cool."

Melchior watched until they had entered the room and turned to Siris. "You'll look out for him?"

"Of course." His voice became low and intense. "The Mammon Machine?"

"A month, at most."

"You have to do better than that, Melchior, we aren't nearly ready." Siris leaned back, folding his arms over his chest, narrowing pale green eyes. "What did Schala say?"

Melchior looked uncomfortable. "Well, I-"

"You haven't asked her." The Earthbound closed his eyes and sighed heavily, growling low in his throat. "We're going to need someone with magic for this, Melchior, and I mean some real magic, not what you and Belthasar have to offer. You think he's just going to let Zeal go without a fight? After all the hoops he had to jump through to get her?"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Melchior said quickly, backing away a step. "It's not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do, you know."

Siris stared at the old man in front of him and sighed. He hadn't meant to scare him. "I'm sorry," he relented. "It's not easy down here either." The Earthbound paused, a light coming on behind his eyes. "What about Janus? He might be hard to convince, sure, but tell him you'll get him a pony or something-"

"Wouldn't work. He doesn't have any magic."

Siris' eyebrows arched in surprise. "Really? Are you sure? That has got to suck. Anyway, Melchior, if you don't get Schala in on this soon I'll tell her myself." Melchior started to protest and Siris held up a hand to stop him. "That's not important now. Do you have it?"

"Will you shut up and let me-"

"No." The old Guru growled in frustration. "Hey, like father like son." Melchior glared for a moment, then reached into his robes and withdrew an object wrapped in black cloth. He held it out but when Siris reached for, snatched his hand up.

"You will not believe what I had to go through to get one of this quality."

"Okay, so I owe you, it's not for me anyway." Melchior looked doubtful. "Really! It's for her, alright?! Now what does she gotta do to make it work?"

The Guru sighed, holding the bundle out again. "She knew to ask for it, she'll know how to use-" He broke off abruptly when Janus and Kirby came back in the room. Kirby was still holding the prince's hand, prattling on happily. Siris snatched the bundle away from him and it disappeared somewhere in his armor.

"Schala is your sister? Man, that's gotta be real fun. She visits us sometimes and she's really nice and all. I don't have a sister but Siris is my brother and he's real nice, too, don't you think so? Oh, and what's really awesome is we've got a niece, even though she's not really related to us, she calls us her uncles and she's not always nice but she is really smart. I-"

"Kirby," Siris interrupted smoothly. "Say bye-bye to Melchior here. Janus, may I have a word...?" Gratefully, the prince detached himself from the now sniffling Kirby, looking a little dazed. "This way please."

Siris led him down the tunnel, back into the crowded room. The people were more organized looking now, standing in groups around three large sleds. Two were empty; the other was piled with primitive weapons. Siris waved his arm proudly as if to encompass the whole room, a smile forming on his lips.

"We're going hunting." He turned to Janus, and the prince thought that smile looked a little bit too sinister. "You're coming with us."

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