Continued from Part 2
His Digimorpher chirped. He answered it.
"Hi Boss, any what's new?"
Zhane was six hundred meters below sea level in a stone dungeon in Krulos's capital, waiting an order that he be executed at dawn for high crimes against the state.
"Nothing much. You?"
"Well you'll be pleased to know I got through to Lord Trey! He's confirmed that this Sorceress Etheria is indeed the priestess of Lokar we seek, but he assures me that she should present no problems to you as long as you don't allow her to draw you out into a position where her monster army has numerical superiority."
Zhane looked out the bars in amusement. Fifteen monsters of various shapes and sizes stared back at him. Forty more were stationed throughout the building. "Good to know, I'll keep it in mind." He snapped the cell phone shut.
The Digimorpher peeped again, and with a sigh, Zhane answered it. "Yes?"
"Just one more thing boss. The telemetry I'm getting off the Digimorpher indicates the entire city is generating an inhibitor field. You won't be able to morph if you need to, so be careful eh?"
Zhane buried his head in his hands.
-
It was Taya's fault. She really WAS a lousy lookout. Only this time, she wasn't the one to get caught.
-
Zhane was marched in front of the crowd between a Terror Toad and a Fearog, bound at the wrist. The crowd roared its approval.
The execution platform had been set up in the city square. Apparently fans of the 'Gallagher' style of corporal punishment, it consisted of a platform he would be chained to, with a five ton weight suspended above. The first few rows of the crowd were carrying spattershields.
The herald called the crowd to order and announced a list of charges, destruction of the Tithing Records building, destruction of the Royal Sculpting Academy, the destruction of the Institute for Phrenological Studies...
Zhane ignored this and instead concentrated on studying his surroundings. Lessee, raging crowd, no escape route, monsters out the wazoo. Right, screwed. He went back to listening to the charges for a moment. Who was that sitting behind the judge in the high seat with a white monster guarding her? Could it be? Why, golly it was! That could be no less than the Sorceress Etheria herself! Zhane squinted, trying to make out more than a vague hint of robes and a dark complexion. There was some kind of tattooing around her eyes... He stilled his mind and concentrated, looking not with his eyes but his in-sight. The tattoos snapped into focus in his mind, he was seeing them as they were, not as his poor organic eyes perceived them. Let's see, it was writing, ancient Nathadian actually... he recognized 'Lokar' and 'tears'. Languages were not his long suite. The herald was coming to a finish, time to make a scene!
Zhane shoved the two monsters holding him aside and stepped forward, waiting until he had the crowd's attention. He looked up at Etheria, okay, gotta keep a straight face now... Zhane raised his chained hands to the sky and bellowed. "Etheria! Let mah people go!" He winced inwardly as his upper lip twitched again, hoping it didn't ruin the effect.
The distant figure stared down at him dimly. After a long moment, she reached next to her chair and pulled out something- a megaphone. Her voice was thin and reedy. "Oh, hey, when you put it that way... sure! I hereby set your people free!" She settled back in her chair as the crowd laughed.
Zhane scowled. Great, a heckler. "This is your last chance!" he warned her.
The megaphone clicked on again. "I'm trembling. Squish him."
The crows began to chant, "SQUISH, SQUISH, SQUISH!" The monsters led Zhane onto the platform, the weight creaked ominously above him.
Ok, this wasn't funny anymore. Zhane kicked out at the Fearog's knee and sent it stumbling. The Terror Toad croaked and struck with its tongue, grabbing Zhane around the arm. Zhane backpedaled, falling off the end of the squishing platform. The toad advanced on him, leering, as it slowly wound him in on his tongue.
Zhane smiled grimly, reached out with his mind, and threw the switch on the weight. With a creak, the weight came down.
Squish. The tongue wrapped around his arm went limp.
The crowd was screaming in confusion and approval, Zhane's actions shocking them out of their complacent stupor. That was all fine and good, but now there were more putties and monsters headed for the stage, and Zhane was running out of time.
Grabbing a handful of dirt, Zhane bounded towards the judge's high seat. A shark-ninja blocked his way, but Zhane brought his wrist-cuffs up the block the ninja's half-axe. The binders clanged, and broke, tumbling free from his wrists.
"Thanks!" Zhane threw dirt in the ninja's eyes and darted beyond him. The crowd was energized now as he made him way towards Etheria. A putty got in his way, but he sent it back with a kick, its reverberation tearing through the ranks behind it. He vaulted off the shoulder of a the Metal Mangler acting as bench guard, and suddenly, he was standing on the judge's podium-
The judge roared, picked up his 'gavel', a massive hand-over-hand weapon, and Zhane recognized Hammeron the Pirate executioner with a chill. He knew better than to try and block that warhammer, he flipped over its arc instead, dancing precariously on the front of the podium. He was swinging in wide horizontal arcs, all he needed to do was-
Zhane deliberately paused, appearing to lose his balance.
Hammeron cried triumph and swung a killing overhand blow- but the human wasn't there! Unimpeded, his blow traveled without slowing through the front of the podium, and continued through the floor. Hammeron let out a yelp as the floor went out from under him and he fell into the crowd.
Zhane was already moving on to Etheria. He recognized the monster guarding her now, it was an Eye-Guy. Zhane threw the last of the dirt in his hand, and kicked it off the podium as it flinched leaving- for the moment at least- just him and Etheria.
Not wasting time on ceremony, he grabbed her by the throat and hauled her to her feet and bellowed, "Recant and be saved!"
Etheria was much less impressive in person, and Zhane was suddenly conscious of the fact that he was choking an old woman, but he didn't let up his grip- couldn't. The monsters were regrouping below him as he spoke. "Now! Recant Lokar! Look at me!"
Etheria brought her face up, and smiled, but her sunken eyes did not open. Almost gently she brought her hand up to brush his cheek and move over his face. "I am." And it was with a sickening jolt that he, close up, was finally able to read the fullness of the tattoos on her eyes.
In scrolling ornate Nathadian script, the tattoo encircling her eyes read; FOR LOVE OF LOKAR, AND MYSELF, NO TEARS SHALL I SHED.
Her eyes... her Eye-Guy bodyguard... Etheria was blind. She'd blinded herself.
And he remembered the Lokar compact. The only way to break a vow of service to Lokar was with tears... of compassion. And Etheria could never shed those tears.
So startled was he by this that he relaxed his grip on her throat enough that it caught him off guard when she suddenly squirmed, eel-like, and slipped from his grip, only for her knee to snap forward a second later and connect, heart-stoppingly, into his crotch.
Zhane crumpled in a tight ball, trying not to cry. Heroes don't cry, he wasn't going to... damn.
It was a mercy when Etheria's foot connected with his head.
-
He couldn't have been out more than a minute when he was hauled to his feet. A Terror Blossom was dropping stun spore into the now rioting crowd, and Etheria was sitting back in her throne, a look of fascination on her face as the Eye-Guy studied Zhane- seeing him through the monster's eyes he supposed.
Zhane struggled for a moment before realizing the arms that held him were clay. Best not to strike a R-Putty while it held you. He glared at Etheria (glare at her, or the monster who was her eyes? No, at her,) and swung his head towards the crowd. "You hear that Etheria? That's the free people of Krulos! You may have their cities, but you'll never take their spirit! One day, they will overthrow you!"
Damn, Etheria didn't look impressed. Instead she stood, looking considerably less frail than she'd appeared as he choked her, but every bit as old. She took a dirk from her belt and swung it in a short circle, the blade extending into a full sword. She placed this at his throat. Her next words were so quiet, he had to strain to hear them.
"Recant, and be saved."
Zhane spat. His shot went wide, spattering on the face of the R-Putty next to her.
"Pity." She said flatly, and pulled back the blade. "Goodbye Elvis."
Zhane cursed at her in ancient Nathadian.
She paused, puzzled. "...nothing but a hound dog? What is that supposed to-"
Zhane screamed, and threw himself forward with all his weight, taking the two R-Putties holding him with. They hit the platform almost simultaneously, stressing the ALMOST. He felt his back and left arm being torn open by their grip before they neutralized. He kicked the Putty next to Etheria, sending it stumbling back into her, singing.
With a scowl, she killed the spell animating it and it fell to her feet, Zhane's spit still trickling down its dead clay face. "Do you know how long it takes me to sculpt those?"
Zhane didn't care. He grabbed a handful of the dead putty and squeezed, the brown clay squishing through his spit-slicked fingers. He shook his fist in front of her, waving the wad of clay. "Is that all you consider these people? Raw material? A thing, to be made or unmade?" He continued to work the clay in his hand, all he needed was a few more seconds... He trimmed the excess clay until he had a mass with five limbs, roughly a human, soaked in his own spit. "This is a person! This is Me!" he breathed on it as he said so. The words weren't perfect, they'd have to do.
Etheria cocked her head, she was seeing the figure through her bodyguard's eyes. "No, I- STOP HIM!" she screamed, finally realizing what he was trying to do.
Oh well, he could only have hoped for a few more seconds anyway. Grabbing a handful of his own hair, he PULLED, yanking a few strands free and pressing them back into the figurine. "Gotta go!" He flipped backwards off the Judge's podium, beyond the circle of monsters guarding it.
Two, three seconds before they could turn and swarm him. His hands were already in motion, scrawling five rough lines in the dirt representing this stage and the podium, and next to it a square...
"Clay of the Earth, essence of my flesh! And I-" Soccadillo was a half-second from him. He moved the figure from the podium to the square.
And vanished.
-
THE CITY SQUARE
"...am gone!"
Zhane reappeared in a swirl of dust in the City Square.
He immediately doubled over, retching his guts out, there was blood in the vomit, and the sympathetic figurine he'd used to move himself here squeezed out through his spasming fingers.
Zhane coughed, tasting his last meal twice. "K- knew tha- that was a bad clay to hold a spell..." he chattered as his knees fell out from under him.
The crowd in the square was thin, most of the city must have been pressed into service as his audience, they gave him a wide berth. He struggled to his feet, and fell, blurry vision making out a figure running towards him.
"..lvis! Elvis!" the figure shouted.
It was Taya.
She helped him to his feet, looking horrified. His clothes were ripped open to the muscle on his right arm and across his back, and he was bleeding from his ears and nose. "Omigod, are you alright? I - how did you know I'd be here? Are you... will you be okay?"
Zhane spat blood, and laughed, leaning on her heavily. "I didn't. It's a hero thing." He reached up to wipe his face, saw the mess of spit and smashed clay in his hand and shook his head instead. "You know, you really ARE a bad lookout."
-
THAT NIGHT
"That trick you did with the putty. Can you do it again?" Taya's brother asked.
Zhane cracked a smile through split lips and looked at him. "You mean, can I teach you to do it? Brave resistance fighters popping in and out at will, striking and disappearing..."
He shrugged. "Well, can you?"
"Sure, if you want your brave resistance fighter to show up puking his guts out and unable to walk. No problem. Quite an image for the recruiting posters..."
"Sometimes, all a man has to do is get there," he said grimly.
Zhane stared at him, and shook his head. "You're not ready for kamikaze runs yet."
Taya's brother growled. "Who are you to judge what we are ready for?" he was angry, ready to fight, and the condition he was in Zhane had no hope on winning.
Screw chivalry. Zhane swatted out carelessly and pushed against the other man's chest, simultaneously pulling back on his ankles mentally. He fell backwards with a yelp. "Shut up." Zhane said tiredly.
He got to his feet, his eyes flashing dangerously. "You-"
"Asit!" Taya shouted, her tone unmistakably commanding. "You let him go."
Zhane smiled and nodded. "Yeah Asit. You heard her, let me go."
With a curse, Taya's brother stormed out of the tent. Nominally in command of their small resistance cell- suddenly the most wanted on the planet, it was clear he wasn't used to having to answer to anyone else- even Taya, and he disapproved of his little sister's sudden willfulness.
Taya turned to Zhane. "And you... you really are a colossal ass, you know that?"
Zhane nodded. "Yup." He levered himself out of bed and grabbed her arm. "C'mon."
-
The camp had grown. Fully a hundred new would-be rebels had joined Asit following the showing at Zhane's execution. Hopeless idealists all.
Zhane waved back at the rebels who hailed 'Elvis' on his emergence from the tent. He took Taya out a ways from the camp, still keeping partially in sight so her brother wouldn't get the right idea. "I want to show you something."
"Oh, I've heard that one before."
He grinned. "Which way's the capital, nevermind." He turned her to face the direction of the capital city and gently put his fingers on her temples. "I want you to clear your mind."
"Done."
Somehow, he believed that.
"Okay, now I want you to totally relax, and open your eyes without looking at anything."
Taya made a face. "That's not-"
"Not without seeing, without looking. Looking requires forethought. Open your eyes, and just let the image come to you, don't seek it out."
"O-okay, I think." She waited a moment, and he could feel her eyes open, and she blinked repeatedly.
"What did you see?"
"Just- for a moment... like... lines? In the sky?"
Zhane nodded. "They're force lines. Like... magnetic fields, or regions of dislocation on an earthquake fault, or the progress of a river as it cuts through a mountain. They're forces at work on this planet. You're so used to NOT seeing them, when you look at the world consciously, you can't. They're below your perception. The only way to see them-"
"Is to not look for them, right? Like when you see something out of the corner of your eye." She paused, digesting this. "But why are they all running through the capital?"
Zhane put his hands back on her temples and prompted her to relax and try again. "Etheria moved them, so she could tap their power. Right after she arrived, there were a few weeks of weather and EM problems, right?"
"Yeah."
"This is what caused it. Radically rerouting a planet's paraphysical structure isn't very good for it... see the yellow one in the upper left...?"
"Yes, it's moving."
"I know. I just unhitched it."
Taya turned and looked at him, startled. "You what?"
He nodded absently. "No security on this. Nobody on Krulos would know how to pull apart a binding spell, so she doesn't put a ward on it. Oh, she probably meant to go back and do it eventually... but one things leads to another and you never get around to it... there, see the bluish-white one?"
Taya was smiling. "Gods... Etheria is gonna be SO pissed at you..."
He grinned. "You wanna do one? It takes a lot of focus, but I can help..."
It took five frustrating hours as Zhane picked apart Etheria's nexus of power around the Capital, but she was finally able to watch without watching as a single pinkish line drifted free across the sky and say, "I did that."
-
They were awakened the next day by a pig in a Centurion's helmet outside of camp bearing a message.
"Etheria wants to speak with Presley."
to be continued...