The Twilight of the Gods - a story of Mantra, Chapter 1

Chapter verse quotes are selected from the poetry of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe


The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

A story of Mantra and Black September

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson



Chapter 1

"The Man on the Doorstep"

But suddenly my anger grows,
A mighty spirit fills my nose.
My inward feelings all revolt.
A creature such as thou! A dolt!

By Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe


I stood off with the man on the doorstep of my Canoga Park tract home. The stranger wasn’t formidable or even frightening in appearance. About five feet tall with light red-brown hair, he looked soft-bodied and overweight. His features were mildly West European. His unassuming garb,  a dark tan suit, was topped off with an old fashioned shoestring tie. But I had brushed by this man at the mall only a couple hours earlier, and now he had followed me home. That wasn’t good.

"I saw you at the restaurant," I said through gritted teeth. "What are you doing here?"

He returned an awkward smile. "It is of urgency that we confer. Something happened to you today, Mrs. Blake, something that you do not as yet understand. But it is crucial that you do understand."

His accent sounded foreign, but I couldn't place it. I had gone through hell within the last few hours, and now he was implying that he knew about it. How did he know? Was he part of it? I was ready for a fight, but there was nothing outwardly threatening about him. Also, he seemed to be only asking for a parley.

With my arms crossed, I demanded, "When I ask something, I expect an answer!"

His reply came as a jabber. "Forgive me for being maladroit. I don't normally involve myself in -- operations. I am only here now because a crisis has arisen. I have a very demanding task ahead of me and I cannot deal with a menace of such scope without assistance of the most gifted kind."

"What menace?" I asked with a snarl.

"That is hard to explain. But to meet the challenge, I need to recruit a hero, the most powerful hero I can locate."

“Well, good luck in finding one,” I said.

"Please, Mrs. Blake. I know who you are and I know what you can do."

I sighed. "Listen, fella, you must be mistaking me for somebody else. If by 'hero' you mean you want an ultra, I can assure you that I’m only an office worker."

"Oh, but I'm very well aware that you are one of this world’s most notable ultras, Mrs. Blake."

I hate it when people call me out for being Mantra. They’re mostly blackmailers. "Sir," I said, "would you please go away before this suburbanite shows you her dark side?"

"I of course expected that you would deny the secret life you are living," he said, mildly, "but I know that you are Mantra. I know everything about you, in fact. I even know the events you experienced during your short trip this evening.”

Short trip? To me it had lasted days, and everything about it was a horror story. Did he really know what I’d lived through? “You’re babbling, mister,” I said.

“Please, madam – sir -- we need to speak." He glanced over his shoulder, as if checking for enemies. “I can't emphasize how vital it is that we come to an accord.”

I cringed to be called “sir!" Only a tiny cadre of my friends and enemies knew about my incomprehensible past.

"I'm afraid I'm not expressing myself very well," the little man stated. "Please suggest some means by which I can prove my rectitude and earn your trust. Time is of the essence."

He had pronounced “time” in a funny way, as if -- to him – it was more than just a common noun. I hoped that there wasn’t some new crisis coming. I had just been battered by several crises and wasn’t up for another.

But who was he and what did he represent? I used my mystical senses to scan him for power traces. Some very dangerous foes were able to hide behind pacific disguises.

What I registered in his energy aura didn't reassure me one bit.

It was like the stranger was standing inside a vortex of overlapping power-fields, the likes of which I was beyond my experience. Whoever or whatever this being was, my scan results had put me on notice that I didn’t dare take him lightly.

"Why are you here?” I asked sharply. “To fight with me or kill me?"

"No indeed!" the little man blurted. "It's as I’ve said. I need your help. While I might go seek out assistance of others, the calculated odds offer the best success if you join me willingly."

"I don’t know what your trouble is, but why should you expect me to help out a total stranger?"

He sighed. "I would gladly explain everything, Mantra. May I speak from the heart?"

"If you aren’t speaking from the heart, what else are you doing? Lying?" I demanded.

"Not at all. But I’ve been taking care not to say too much too quickly. My story is a daunting one and thought you should be eased into the scope of the danger gradually. Forgive my caution, but a mistake made in this first contact might later lead to failure at a time when failure is unthinkable."

"How unthinkable?"

"The Multiverse faces extinction and uncountable trillions of inhabitants will blink out of existence.”

“The only multiverse I know of comes out of my son’s comic books.”

“Oh, the Multiverse is real. There are a near-infinity of universes. These, collectively, are called the Multiverse.”

“If there's a multiverse, it has to be pretty big. What is so terrible that it could damage a thing so unbelievably huge?”

“What a god makes, a god can unmake.”

I grimaced. Was he talking about gods now? Was he some sort of religious nut? To be fair, though, I knew that gods were real. I myself had met three of them last Christmas, but none of them had seemed to have the moxie necessary to build even one universe, much less a multiverse. But I also knew something about alternate realities. I’d encountered one such last month and a second one just today.

"May we go inside?" he inquired.

“Why ask? You’ve got power crackling all about you. Can’t you force your way in?”

“That would be impolite.”

“Is showing good manners more important to you than rescuing the...Multiverse?”

“Not at all, but wherever good manners are observed, cooperation is made easier,  don’t you agree?”

"I wouldn’t know. People give me precious little cooperation. Look, let’s take this one step at a time. I think you’re more than you seem to be, so I can't let you out of my sight until I figure out what you are. Where you come from?"

His smile manifested as a brief tightening at his mouth-corners. "I come from a place you already know exists. The Godwheel."

Yikes! I did know something about the Godwheel. One thing I knew was that nothing but trouble ever came out of the thing! I glanced over my shoulder, toward the bedrooms. “It's not a good time for me to be entertaining super beings,” I said. “I've got children at home."

"I know that you do, Mrs.... ah, Sir Lukasz.  But if we speak in soft tones, our conversation should not wake the tykes. Or, should we instead select some alternate locality for our parley?"

I frowned. "Here on Earth decent parents don’t go out and leave children alone in an empty house."

He smiled again. "Then I have a proposal that might satisfy your concerns. May I ask whether the youngsters are secure and well – at just at this instant?"

I answered warily. "As far as I know."

"Excellent. Then we shall remain in this instant for as long as necessary. The little ones will not hear a whisper of our interview."

"Could you be a little more clear about that?"

"It may be hard for a person of Earth to understand. Watch carefully and I shall demonstrate the phenomenon of stopped time."

The man reached into his pocket and this, reflexively, made my force field flare up at its greatest strength. It manifested so strongly that it cast a green glow across his innocuous face.

The stranger didn’t react overmuch and I watched him take a small foil-wrapped item from his coat pocket.  

"What's that?" I asked. I had seen some terrible things come out of small packages.

"It's a piece of candy – a chocolate kiss, actually," he said. The little man held the milk chocolate between his right thumb and forefinger. Then he took his fingers away.  

And the candy didn't drop.

It had stopped in mid-air, hanging there in levitation.

But my surprise was brief. "What is this game? If I wanted to, I could pull a trick as good as that one myself.”

"What is important is not the manifestation, but the cause of the manifestation. You are seeing a very elementary illustration of the effects of the two of us occupying a field of zero time.”

“Oh, come! You said you were rushed. So why do you talk so much and say so little that makes sense?

“I will try to be more clear. We are in zero time now. In the place where we stand, no significant time is passing.”

“I still don’t get it. But before you explain anything else, tell me how it is that you know so much about my most important secrets."

"My people have very efficient data-gathering technology. I have virtually all your memories downloaded into my VIGOPS and I may draw upon them at will!"

"What's a VIGOPS?"

"It's an English anagram signifying the technology in use. In your speech, a VIGOPS is a -- a memory bank. When I introduced nanotechnology into your bloodstream, it commenced to monitor your brain activity and has converted large parts of your retained memory into a retrievable data stream. This data is recorded by the VIGOPS that is housed within my vehicle and I am able to tap into it remotely wherever -- and whenever -- I am."

I looked at him incredulously. "You’ve put something into my bloodstream? Was that the reason you poked me in the backside at the restaurant? You did it to steal the whole contents of my mind? And now you’re saying that you can read the juiciest parts of my life history anytime you want?"

"Why, yes. But the VIGOPS is useful in so many more ways than mere its basic function.”

I was steamed. "So you shot me full of high-tech crap without asking?"

He nodded contritely. "That was a discourtesy, I grant, but I am under great pressure to actively engage my mission. Be assured that these nanites do not adversely affect the human physiology. Another useful function they have is to allow a controller to maintain contact with his subject across multiple planes of reality and through extreme degrees of temporal displacement."

"Are you appointing yourself my 'controller'? Get this! I don't care for being controlled. You’d better hope that your control is really good, Mac, or else I’m going to do something that’s painful and very long-lasting."

"I sincerely hope not, madam -- sir. Once I have demonstrated to your satisfaction that I'm acting in the interest of the entire Multiverse, I have every confidence that you will judge my course of action to be honorable and necessary."

If this character was actually in control of me, could he make me do anything he wanted? Could he make me drop dead with a single thought? I glanced again at that damned chocolate kiss of his, still hanging in space.

“To reassure you, perhaps I should brief you more fully about zero time,” he suggested.

“Yes, do that,” I told him guardedly.

“Because we have the appropriate nanites in our bodies, we can carry out joint functions. At the moment we occupy a time-dilation field. This field displaces us into a shared temporal sub-dimension, and while we are there, chronological progression around us is so attenuated that a single nanosecond of real time may be perceived by us like a year – or, at a different setting, a thousand years."

Was he claiming to have stopped time? I looked around, trying to pick out some anomaly to contradict a notion so wild. The second-hand on the wall clock wasn't moving, nor were the leaves across the street swaying with the breeze. All our surroundings, in fact, now looked eerily still, like images in a photograph. On the other hand, my face, clothes, and hair all felt perfectly natural to the touch.

"Anything that contacts our bodies will be acclimatized into the field," the stranger explained, as if reading my mind.

Damn it! I didn’t need another mind-reader after spending time with Pinnacle very recently!

My caller concluded, saying, "The effect of the field affords us the illusion that Time is passing normally, but that is by no means the case. Experiment with the phenomenon all you like."

My glance went to the small table beside the doorpost. Upon it rested one of Gus's model autos. I reached out and pushed the latter over the edge. The toy started to fall, but the instant that my finger lost contact with it, it stopped dead in space -- just like the candy.

I rounded on my visitor. "Did you switch the kids off, too?"

"Of course. They are switched off from our own perspective, at least!"

He had said that with gaiety, as if it were a good thing! I was very close to flying off the handle.

"Preserving the cherubs in perfect safety was the whole point of suspending Time, was it not?" the stranger inquired.

"Maybe we should talk inside," I finally admitted.

I stood aside to let the little man enter and guided him into the living room. I sank down on the edge of the couch, next to Mr. Paws, Evie’s teddy bear.  "Please, take a chair," I told the weird strange. Inwardly, I was not feeling the least bit hospitable.

He did as bidden. He sat quietly for a moment, as if at a loss as to how to begin his appeal to me.  

"You're a very peculiar man," I remarked.  "How can you do the things you do?"  

He gave a modest shrug.  "I have had an excellent technological education."

"Education has its value," I agreed, "but you need to stop being so vague.  For starters, is there some reason that you haven't told me your name yet?"

Again he flashed a grin.  "I have been remiss.  On Earth I usually go by the name of Gabriel."

"All right, Gabriel, you have some explaining to do.  Are you really able to play tricks with time?"

"I'm afraid so," he admitted. The man’s apologetic manner didn't exactly reassure me. Some of the most notorious serial killers in history have been innocuous-seeming men. "But a full explanation would hardly be possible to one from a civilization which hasn’t as yet learned even the basics of time law."

"If you're saying that I'm too dumb to understand your explanations, I'd suggest that you recruit a different person."

"Oh, I’m sure you are not...dumb. You have answered many challenges across the span of centuries and doing so takes profound intelligence."

"I don’t see myself as anything special," I told him.  "I've made plenty of mistakes. If you really know everything about me, you’ll know how often my enemies have bested and killed me." In the alternate world that I had just visited, I had made errors that had caused people I loved their lives.

"Oh, you must take great care not to die before our mission is completed. Previously, you were fated to live for centuries, but until the crisis is passed, you cannot count upon that being true.”

“Previously fated?” I echoed.

If my prophesied life span had suddenly been cut off at the knees, I wanted to know the reason why!

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 2
 

THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 6, Part 2

 

Posted 02-07-22

 

THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 6, Part 2

A story of Necromantra

By Aladdin

Edited by Christopher Leeson

THE VORTEX, Chapter 6, Part 2

“A policeman is a member of what your people would call the Night Watch,” I explained.

“Did he speak true?” inquired the blonde warrior.  “Will I be challenged every time I go abroad wielding a blade? Is there no freedom in this land?”

“Not much.”

“What sort of world have you brought us to?”

“It’s the world of my birth, the only world I can offer you,” I replied.

“I think we should get new clothes, if Marinna thinks it is prudent,” offered the younger Arielle.

“You girls understood the night watchman’s words. How is that?”

The princess shrugged.  “I could tell he wasn’t speaking Ulikan, yet I understood him.”

The knight affirmed that. “I found that I was able to speak the language of this place on my first visit. It must be part of the magic of the Demon Blade.”

“Well, great!” I said. “Knowing the language will make it easier for you two to get along.  As for clothing, I’ll show you how to purchase things at shops. Afterwards, we’ll find you a place to stay. But buy things will take money, so I’m going to go out and get some.”

Because Ulik had inns and coins, the Godwheel visitors readily grasped what I was telling them.

#

Leaving the pair resting at a street bench, I went off alone. Identified a flamboyantly-dressed man as a pimp, I robbed him. Possessed of a few hundred dollars, I rejoined the girls and we were soon shopping at a Goodwill store. The cousins came out looking like sisters, wearing shirts, jackets, and jeans.  But the captain had held on to her armor, now wrapped in a bundle. She looked uncertain about what to do with it.

“Keep it,” I told her. “A fine, hand-made piece suit of plate will be worth a lot of money to a collector.” Glancing toward the princess, I said, “And the same goes for your court dress. Be sure to insist on a good price.”

“But for how long will we need to skulk in hiding?” asked the warrior.  “Will we ever dare to go home? It is said that the Tradesmen never forget.”

“Just like elephants.”  

My quip caused my companions to ask what an elephant was. Fortunately, there was a Republican handbill pinned to a wall board, and so I was able to show them a cartoonish version of what the beast looked like.

“And this strange creature has a good memory?” asked younger Arielle.

“Not really. That’s just a folktale,” I explained.  

From there, we explored a depressed residential area were there were “for rent” signs displayed. Soon we found the Arielles a room for two and paid the rent in advance. 

I advised the Ulikans not to keep their room beyond the point where their rent ran out, but to find some new lodging at some good distance, one that I wouldn’t know about.  I explained that should the Tradesmen capture me, I might be forced to reveal where to find the princess. Then she would either be seized or killed outright in reprisal. I wanted to avoid both eventualities. Also, if I lost my mind again, I worried that I might get the notion to kill the two of them for some mad reason. I was improving their chances of survival by getting away from them as soon as possible.

Food was the next thing on our agenda. We stopped at a small grocery, where I demonstrated how to shop there. After that, we called at a Burger King. Taking our meals outside, we ate at one of the metal, canopied tables abutting the sidewalk. I couldn’t help but smile, watching my stepdaughter wolf down a Whopper sandwich. “Wonderful!” the teen exclaimed. “’Tis is a dish fit for a king!”

“Yes, the savory food served here is why this tavern has been named after a great monarch known for his amazing banquets,” I japed.

The girls similarly enjoyed their French fries and soft drinks, despite my warning about the unwholesomeness of the latter. After we had stuffed our trash into the restaurant bins, I said, “Look, it isn’t going to be easy for the two of you to settle into a world so different from your own, but many things here operate in similar ways. Like, in Ulik people have to earn their way by working for wages. Same here. But there is also a dole dole that they call ‘welfare.’ The government alms to beggars and doesn't make much fuss about it. Anyone living in a neighborhood like this one will be able to tell you how to get it.”

The captain frowned. “Does this land have no honor? Is it not better to starve than to beg?” Her cousin frowned in agreement.

“Suit yourselves. I only wish I could introduce you to some guide who could teach you how to live in this world, but I don’t have any friends.”

I refrained from explaining that I had betrayed all my former friend to their deaths.

“But I do have a mortal enemy who knows about the Godwheel and might be willing to lend you aid,” I continued. “She’s a decent person and I think you’d like her.”

“Why is she your enemy?” asked the warrior.

“I murdered her lover. Her name is Mantra. She’s a sorceress, like me, but she's more sane. She lives nearby, but her exact whereabouts is something that I have to keep secret.”

“Why?"”

“Because she fights evil and has so many dangerous enemies that she's forced to live under an assumed name. I don’t want to endanger her life, nor the lives of those whom she protects.”

I had tarried long enough and the actual moment of our parting wasn’t poignant. I had, after all, made it all too clear that they couldn’t trust me. Hell, I couldn’t even trust myself. I knew they would be much, much better off without the constant danger that I presented.

As I rose to leave, the knight nudged something against my arm.  “Here, Marinna,” she said, pressing the Demon Sword upon me. It was wrapped in an old checkered tablecloth purchased at the Goodwill Store. “Keep this. I want nothing more to do with the thing.  Only, I ask that you seek to find a way to free the wretched souls imprisoned within it, if you possibly can.”

“I don’t know,” I said.  “It’s a terrible weapon to hand over to a madm -- madwoman.”

“I know, but what else can I do? What if it came to be found by a person ignorant of its power?” ”

“Are you forgetting that you’ll be giving up your means to return to your home?”

She glanced down. “Do you truly believe that we can ever go home safely? And, in faith, I cannot think that there is very much left there for us to go back to.”

I shrugged and accepted the wrapped object.  It vanished before the knight's eyes.

“Where did it go?” she asked.

“Into my mystic closet. It’s a kind of invisible magic trunk where I keep my armor when I’m not wearing it.”

“Sorcery is a strange thing,” she declared.

“I agree,” I said.

When I next turned away, neither of my companions said a word to delay me. I wouldn't be missed and I was glad of that. Until I had rid myself of the Beast, I dared not to keep company with friends. As soon as I turned a corner, I passed out of their sight – and out of their lives.

It surely wasn’t what I wanted, but for their own sake they had to be cut free.

I was alone again, but didn't have the luxury of feeling sorry for myself. I had to act swiftly to make a new life for myself. It would, of necessity, have to be a life that was very from any life that I had ever lived before.

The first matter at had was getting myself some money. That meant committing another robbery. 

But that was an emergency measure; I didn't want to live as a criminal. I  needed to go underground. I needed a job, something commonplace, something that would allow me blend in with the crowd. The whole idea of common labor was, of course, a stain on a knight's honor, but it had been a long time since I had been living honorably. Even “caitiff” was a term too good for me. 

But what, exactly, could I do to support myself? My craft had always been fighting. Supposedly, I could seek out some wealthy scoundrel who might be amused to have a bodyguard who looked like me. But, contrariwise, I’d been gambling since the fall of the Roman Empire and knew my way around modern casinos. I might possibly work as a dealer. Anyway, Las Vegas would be as good a town as any to dwell in.

But from here on I would be living footloose and friendless. I was reminded of that old TV series, The Fugitive. I had enemies that I needed to avoid. Mantra might duel and kill me, but I’d be even worse off in the hands of the Tradesmen.

I had always been a man-slayer, but Necromantra had made me into a cold-blooded murderer. That was what made me hate her most. I thought I would rather die than have the Tradesmen once more forcing me onto battlefield after battlefield.

I soon got the money I needed and boarded a tourist flight to Las Vegas. Worn to a frazzle, I dropped off to sleep over the California desert.

My dreams were haunted by the Beast. I felt it stalking me. And it remained there, just out of sight, no matter how hard I tried to lose myself amidst the dark and twisted streets stretching out before me.   

The end

THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 6, Part 1

 THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 6, Part 1

A story of Necromantra

By Aladdin

Edited by Christopher Leeson

THE VORTEX, Chapter 6, Part 1

The death of so many super beings across the killing field was feeding me all the bio-energy I could absorb. I continued my flight, scanning the battlefield for Captain Arielle.  I saw that few of the human battle groups below were continuing with the fight, now that it was being waged by aliens using weapons beyond the ken of Ulik’s medieval-level warriors.  I was hoping to see the familiar serpentine coat of arms that belonged to Captain Arielle and I soon spotted it, fluttering above the helmeted heads of her iron-shod soldiers.  
 

With a force-field raised for my protection, I landed amongst the men of the unit, causing a minor stir, one that brought Captain Arielle forward almost at once. She was looking drained and uncertain, which didn’t surprise me, given the surrounding confusion.  To her credit, most of her warriors appeared to be no better off.

I stepped toward her. “I've taken your cousin out of harm's way. I'll take you to her,” I said.

She grimaced and called an officer to her side. "Take command while I'm gone," she told him. Then to me she said, “I need to talk to Arielle.”

Agreeably, I put my arms around her and levitated her armored mass until she became less weighty than a sack of goose down.  Seeing us rising aloft brought cries of amazement from her soldiers.

The wind I summoned carried us speedily to the dome of rock where, I hoped, the princess still waited.  Happily, she hurried from behind a boulder as soon as we’d touched down.

The captain received the younger Arielle into her gauntleted arms.  “Will you come with me to my home world," I asked, "or do you have a better refuge in mind?”

“Why must we go to some strange new world?” the princess asked.

“To save your life!” I answered. “I don’t know how they do it, but the Tradesmen seem able to locate anyone they want to. The Godwheel is their own world and their power is greatest here. Remember, they restored you to life on the condition that I remain their slave for the rest of my life. I've had my fill of slavery, but if I abscond, I’m sure they will carry out their threat and kill you.”

“What will happen if we both stay here at Ulik?” the teen asked.

With a sigh I said, “I think that the captain can tell you as well as I.”

The soldier said to her cousin, “You can expect to remain a political pawn, just as you were with Erhan and Armand. Worse, now that the Aerwa are involved, there's the threat of a larger war. No one knows what is going to shake out of this, but the Darkur might strike back with a very large force force. And they might choose to send it through Ulik.”

“But if I stay here, can’t I at least do a little good for the people?” the younger woman asked.

The captain shook her head. “How much good have you been able to do for them so far? It's the size of the army that makes the difference. Many people pity you, but there is no one expounding the idea that you are the leader that these terrible times call for.”

At that, the princess shifted my way.  “Marinna, if I go to you world, will I ever be be able see my home again?”

“Possibly,” I said, “especially since your cousin possesses a magic sword that's able to carry people across the gulfs between worlds.”

The soldier drew the blade as soon as I mentioned it.  “I’m not sure how far we can depend on this demon steel. Sometimes it forces me to do things that I have no liking for.”

I grinned mirthlessly. "At least you have some ideas about what I deal with every day," I said.

Just then, I heard faint cries, like ghosts from a tomb.  The sounds had to be coming from the sword. “My God! Are the souls of the sacrificed men still trapped in that hell blade?” I asked.  “Why do you keep it?  Doesn’t the wailing drive you mad?”

The knight shook her head. “Every enemy the blade slays is swallowed by it.  I would gladly be rid of the thing, but in the hands of the wrong person it could do great evil. Regardless, I'm hoping for the opportunity to free its captives. Unfortunately, I'm not a witch like you and I don't know what to do. Can you do something to help?”

I regarded the gleaming metal.  This was a deadly piece of work, too be sure. It made the Sword of Fangs come off like a Cracker Jacks prize. “Well, girl, I can't know that until I've studied it some.”  

Her eyes flashed and she snarled, “Don’t call me a girl!”

I shrugged.  “I get it. A lot of Earth women don’t like being called girls, either. You’ll fit in just fine if you travel to my world.” Then I pivoted toward her younger double. “Well, what’s your decision, Princess?” I asked. “If I leave this world and you stay behind, the Tradesmen will slay you. If we both stay, it won't be much better. If I ever misbehave, the Tradesmen will slay you. If I stay, the Tradesmen will continue to use me as a weapon. I've killed hundreds for the Darkur, and in time the death toll will be thousands. Necromantra likes to kill, but I don't. Worse, killing makes the demon inside of me grow stronger, and that's the last thing I want.”

The princess shifted in appeal toward the captain. “There’s been enough death, I think, and I can't be responsible for any more of it. I have little choice but to go to that different world she talks about. But please understand, Cousin, that I am neither ordering nor requesting that you to come with me.”

The older woman shook her head. “I have had my fill of this power struggle. And I can’t let you to explore a new world alone, especially not under the guidance of the very madwoman who killed you once already. By your leave, Princess, I will open the way for the three of us to Marinna’s world.”

Young Arielle gave an assenting nod, but it was a gesture of resignation, not hope.

Turning, the knight took a deep breath and, holding the blade like a spear, hurled it into a boulder near to us. It struck deep, sinking inches into solid rock -- a trick that was worthy of the Sword of Fangs itself.  It released a fountain of energy upon impact, in the form of a dazzling vortex.  When the warrior stepped up to retrieve the sword, the vortex yet remained, as if waiting. The captain was not surprised by this. And why should she be? This would not be her first crossing between worlds.

“Come with me,” the elder Arielle said, wrapping her arms around both her cousin and me. Like a six-legged beast, we guided ourselves into the gullet of the whirling light.

#

The next thing we knew, we were standing in a fetid ally behind what had to be a butcher shop. Black flies bounced off our faces, very much at home amid the pervasive pungency of rotting meat.

The captain looked warily at this ugly corner of the new world that she had briefly visited before. The younger Arielle’s face was alight with amazement. I looked about, trying to figure out what country we were in. From where we stood, the alley ended at the crowded sidewalk of a busy street.

“There is no use standing here,” I said. I led them into the throng of pedestrians. When a pair of college-age girls sashayed by, the captain regarded them with consternation. “Are these maidens harlots?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No, lots of women dress provocatively here.”

“Who forces them to do so?

“Nothing except vanity, I think. The customs we have will be new to you. Wherever men have their way socially, they insist that women comport themselves modestly. But whenever a society liberates women, some will choose to attract attention by wearing very little.”

“You’re joking!”

“Not at all. You'll soon get used to the idea. I’d wager that you ladies will be wearing clothes just like theirs by this time next year.”

“Never!” the knight stated emphatically.

Actually, the knight might very well look fetching wearing a tight mini-dress. “On the subject of clothes," I cautioned, "you have to expect Earth people to judge you on the basis of unimportant things, such as what you wear. Dressed for Ulik, we look suspicious and out of place. Ankle-length gowns, steel plate, and dragon tattoos are going to attract attention that won't be at all helpful.”

As if to affirm my warning, a police officer stepped up to us at that juncture.  “Lady,” he addressed the captain.  “Is that sword real?”

To my surprise, Arielle understood his speech and replied in English, “Of course!”

I spoke up. “She means of course not. The assistant costumer just handed her that sword along with the rest of the costume.  Joan of Arc is being filmed a few blocks from here.”

“From here?” the officer  echoed. He stared suspiciously at the sparing cut my sorceress outfit.  “Is it a porno version?  That’s the only kind of movie they ever make around Van Nuys.  Wandering the streets wearing wacky costumes is going to get you into trouble. This isn't a nice part of town.”

Having warned us, he continued with his patrol.  That was for the good.  If he had he caused us any real trouble, I would have had to be rough with him.

But our brief conversation had told me where we were. I knew that Van Nuys was a suburb on the north side of L.A. Ominously, it was within walking distance of Canoga Park, where another knight of Archimage, Mantra, lived. If she laid eyes on me, her first reaction would be  homicidal. And, more the pity, I couldn’t have blamed her.

“Who was that man?” the princess asked.

“A police officer,” I explained.

There were very many things that two Arielles needed to know to be able to get along safely on the Planet Earth. Unfortunately, for their own good I would have to leave them soon.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 6, Part 2.

THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 5, Part 2

 THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 5, Part 2

A story of Necromantra

By Aladdin

Edited by Christopher Leeson

THE STORM, Chapter 5, Part 2

Arielle’s situation being somewhat improved, I would have wished to push things ahead and rescue her entirely from what was a barrel of snakes. Unfortunately, I was held back due to the uncertainty of Ulik’s fate. I felt I should attempt something positive in order to save lives, it’s troubles being to such a great extent caused by my earlier usurpation.

While Arielle was settling into her place in Armand’s camp, the Darkuran battle troop left its bivouac, arriving at the siege sight like a lowering storm cloud. They proceeded to set up a new camp behind the main army. Though they initially held aloof -- like a pride of lions contemplating a flock of sheep – no human there was reassured. I made rapid inquiries and learned that this redeployment had not been approved in advance by Armand. With tensions running high, word traveled surreptitiously through the ranks that the men should keep their weapons at hand and stay close to their assigned units. Armand, I learned, had called a council of war with his main people, discussing the unwelcome closeness of the alien detachment.  

The next morning, an Darkuran ambassador arrived at Armand’s pavilion followed by a thuggish guard of honor.  Our faction leader had little choice but to received them, though he kept his own guards on hand and allowed only one bodyguard into the tent with the ambassador. I didn't like it. This unexpected initiative by the Darkurans carried the stench of trouble.

While Armand and the ambassador were meeting, all hell broke loose.

From the distance came the sound of horns and clamor; Duke Erhan, from the city, was making a desperate sortie. The incomplete siege lines were overrun at several points, but Armand’s men, already on alert due to the looming presence of the Darkurans, rallied and issue devolved into a sloughing fight. Our side had not been caught flat-footed and so I didn’t see what the city garrison hoped to gain by forcing an open fight.

Continuing to watch from the sidelines, I received no orders and so took no action. I was unwilling to kill Ulikans – of either faction -- for no good reason. Before long, the cry went up that the that the Darkurans were approaching the battlefront.  I guessed they would be able to rout Erhan’s soldiers with ease and then pursue them with gleeful slaughter all the way back to the city gates.

I was totally wrong.

My bad.

I heard the sounds of dismay behind me and whirled to see the Darkuran ambassador’s bodyguard emerging from Armand’s tent holding the viscount's severed head in his gore-drenched fist.

In a flash, I knew what was going on.

Because Princess Arielle had been rescued, Erhan’s position had been rendered hopeless. He had no option except to send to the Darkurans, offering them the sun and the moon and the stars if only they would switch sides. Clever! The Darkurans had probably been peeved at Armand because he had been reluctant to put himself heavily into their debt. That was upsetting their king's plan, and so the new offer from Erhan would have been appealing. No doubt King Q’zon had been contacted by magical means and had signed off on the treachery.

So Ehran had launched his attack against Armand’s besiegers, knowing that the Darkurans would rise to support him. With Armand’s leaderless array caught between two enemy masses, a massacre had begun. I saw no point in joining the battle myself. Really, I had been indifferent to the choice between either Erhan or Armand for high lord. The best move I could make would be to use the chaos to act in the cause of my personal aims and help the people I cared about.

I continued to watch, absorbing the energy released by countless death wounds. I don’t always have to kill personally to vampirize the released bio-energy of the dying. I get a larger percentage if I kill personally, of course, but just being near to violent death replenishes my magic somewhat. Merely by standing there, I was being charged like a battery.

But there were other pressures on me. The victorious side would soon break through into the noncombatant area, so I left my place of vigil and made for the pavilion which had been assigned to Princess Arielle.

“Marinna!” shouted the teen when I came in through the flap.  She looked afraid, not sure of my intentions.  Maybe she thought I was supporting the Darkurans, while, in fact, I was on no one’s side except hers.  The plucky girl stood fending me off with a sword and a buckler, but I came closer, undaunted.  I was hard to kill; I could recover in minutes from deadly wounds when my energy level was high – as it was now. Once I survived being run through by Mantra’s enchanted blade – the Sword of Fangs.

“I want you out of here!” I said, shouting over the general din of fight and confusion.

“No!  Help my people. My life doesn’t matter!” she returned indignantly.

“Stop that, Arielle!  That the attitude that got you killed the first time! There's not much I can do except help you personally,” I admonished. Only later did I realize how much like a parent I must have sounded. But, fine. More than anything else, she needed a parent just then.

Scooping up my stepdaughter, I went phantom and levitated away.  A few arrows and lances passed through our insubstantial forms as we came through the tent wall, but the fighters were paying us little heed. Taking flight, we reached a line of rugged hills about fifteen miles away. Before landing, I checked it for danger, but sensed no life larger than a vlag -- a harmless creature about the size of a rabbit.

“Keep your head low and stay here,” I told Arielle.  “I’m going to go back and find your cousin.  After that, we'll have to concentrate on getting ourselves out of this mess alive.”

“No, Marinna!” she yelled. “You have to do more than that!”

I left her without answering. This hadn’t happened the way I’d wanted it to, but events had changed so quickly.  The most productive thing I could do would be to rescue the princess' cousin, whom I though would be ready and willing to join me in protecting the girl's life.

But I was being too pessimistic. I had been surprised once already today, and now I was surprised again. Looking across the battlefield, I saw something amazing advancing over the horizon.

#

Unknown to me, Captain Arielle had held her men back from recklessly engaging Armand's men, until the treacherous movement of the Dakurans made clear what the situation was. From then on, her only interest was in finding Princess Arielle and taking her to safety.     

Airelle thereupon worked her band around to the flank and in the open ground made for Arman’s noncombatant camp. But there the knight found fleeing fugitives and plenty of dead, since the Darkurans had brushed by, killing many when they did so. The princess was not to be found, however, and the warrior maid only just barely held on to the hope that the girl was not already dead.

As Erhan’s soldiers approached the area, the she-knight directed her men to make it appear they were pursuing fugitives. At some distance from the tents, they caught up with a broken cohort of routed soldiers wearing Armand’s badges. Arielle shouted after them, requesting parley. A junior officer who knew her on sight slowed and let her come up to him.

“What can we expect at Erhan’s hands, lady?” the lieutenant asked feverishly, blood oozing from the elbow joint of his armor.  

“I don’t think Erhan’s in real command anymore,” Arielle replied. “You'd better avoid both his men and the Darkurans for as long as you can. Have you seen any trace of the princess or the witch?”

“I wouldn’t advise you to trust the witch,” the lieutenant replied in bitterness.

Instead of disputing, she asked that the lieutenant’s group should doff their Armand badges and join with her band. As the now-enlarged group moved out, newcomers gravitated to it for protection, encouraged by the sight of the maiden knight’s pendant. Some of them had an interesting story to tell. Arielle listened to their excited jabber.
   
“More trouble?” asked the lieutenant.

“No! It’s good news," the she-knight replied. “But now it's more important than ever that we find the princess.” She was inwardly pessimistic, but by giving the band some definite task to perform, they would be imbued with an aim and a sense of purpose.

#

Remaining aloft, I had seen the Aerwa warriors sailing over the horizon like a dense flock of geese. I safeguarded myself with a force field and waited in place, unsure how these alien beings would react at the sight of me. I had had scarcely any personal contact with the Aerwa previously, except that many of them knew me as a powerful living weapon serving Q’zon. Fortunately, they ignored my person and preferred to go after the Darkurans, whose grotesque forms they could see on the ground.

The brutes below began to shapeshift, making themselves even more formidable. But Q’zon’s troopers numbered only scores – their numbers having been kept deliberately small so as not to alarm the Aerwa. But the Aerwa had been alarmed regardless. To capitalize on this probability, I had urged the noblewoman to send to the nearest Aerwa outpost with an appeal for aid against the Darkuran threat. Her emissaries' appearance had apparently encouraged an modest interventionist response and hundreds of flying warriors had been dispatched toward Roch.  

The elf-like Aerwa’s main weapon was a staff born by most of the warriors, capable of raining energy discharges on the enemy. Most of the Darkurans met the aerial onslaught by taking to sky in the shape of dragon-bats. By my assessment, Q’zon’s small troop was so outnumbered that it could not last long, but I was left to wonder how this mad affair was going to be sorted out later. Armand was dead. Would the Aerwa offer protection to Erhan, though he had been ostensibly the ally of the Darkurans? 

But did any of it matter?

While the wild fight raged on, I resumed my search for the blonde soldier girl.

TO BE CONTINUED in Chapter 6, Part 1

THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 5, Part 1

 THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 5, Part 1

A story of Necromantra

By Aladdin

Edited by Christopher Leeson

Choices

“If my people may die by the thousands, how can I avoid aligning my life beside theirs?” declared Arielle the younger.  

Her cousin shook her head. “I understand what you’re saying, but make sure in advance that your life will be dearly sold. For the moment, I don’t believe that Erhan can survive politically if he doesn’t have a royal marriage to legitimize his claim. If he cannot gain that marriage, he is on very weak ground. If you go instead to Armand, the viscount will be greatly strengthened. Erhand and his supporters may begin to see the hopelessness of their cause.”

“But if Erhan gives up, what will the Darkur do?” the younger cousin asked. “Will they just go home?”

“It might not go smoothly," I said. "King Q’zon sent them there to leverage power over Armand. They won’t head out easily,  I told her. “Besides, their race is always spoiling for a fight. But the real danger is that Q’zon might reinforce the battalion for a war against the whole of Ulik. That would be bad, but at least that should bring both factions together.”

The knight turned on me, exasperated. “Any victory against the Darkurans will be bought very dearly! Against a full army, defeat by by those demons will be almost unavoidable!”

She was right.

Then the soldier asked, “Do you suppose that an attack on Ulik by the Darkurans would draw in the Aerwa?”

I shook my head. “While I don’t think that the Aerwa would approve of a Darkuran war of conquest in the Wold, who knows if they would start a major war over it? Even if one eventually came, it would probably be too late for Ulik.”

“What are my choices then?” the younger cousin asked.

“What do you most hope for?” I asked.

“I want peace for Ulik, no matter who becomes high lord. What is the worst case?” she asked grimly.

“In the worst case could be genocide. The Darkurans consider humans too weak even to make useful slaves. If it comes to such a war, your best aim would be to flee and save yourself.”

“Flee to where?” the girl demanded. “If such a war started, the invaders would surely seek to take the whole Wold, not just Ulik.”

“As I see it, you have three choices. Support Erhan and face the coming war. It shouldn't amount to much more than the fall of Roch. It won't even take long, if Armand is supported by the Darkur. After that, who knows how much the 'allies' will demand of Armand for the aid given him?

“Or, leave Roch and go over to Armand. Even without a clash of arms, Erhan’s cause would probably collapse over a few days or weeks. Hopefully, if they are asked to do very little, the Darkurans might not demand the suns, the moons, and the stars for their compensation. But one can’t expect their kind to be sane and sensible.”

“This is ghastly!” the girl said.

“It may prove out that you have the wherewithal to improve the situation. Your best choice might be to depart to places unknown. I’d help you with that.”

“What places unknown?”

“Your cousin has the means to take us all back to my home world, the same world that she visited when she was seeking to find and slay Lord Pumpkin.”

“My wish is to save the greatest number of lives,” the princess said. Then she looked at me accusatively. “If my father had not been murdered by a madwoman, none of this would be happening!”

“That’s true,” I admitted.

Saying nothing, Tavon's daughter drew her cousin close. “What should I do, Arielle?”

The latter grimaced. “I see no good choices. When you decide what course is least terrible for you, I will be with you as long as you wish me to be.” Then, glancing my way, the war-maiden said, “Leave us. This is very much a family matter.”

“Of course,” I said.  “Only do not talk for too long.  Those spies I stunned will not sleep forever.”

“Thank you for not killing them,” the princess said.

With a sigh I and walked away. She was too good a person to guide a rowdy kingdom and I feared for her.

#

With no clear decision being made by either of the Arielles, the game became increasingly perilous, the odds for tragedy greater. It might still be fairly simple to save the teen’s life if we didn’t wait too long, but I saw no clear course for helping the sorry land of Ulik.

I had brought all this about, and I despised myself for it.

Days passing, I couldn’t bring myself to wait any longer and so I acted on my own, not even consulting with Arielle Senior. Because I didn’t want to drag her down with me, I waited until the knight was attending an assembly of Erhan’s subordinates before I acted.  As furtive as a specter, I entered the princess’ apartment through the floor of the empty rooms located above her suite.

Briefly startled at seeing me filter down through the stucco, she clenched her fists and declared, “I don’t want to talk to you.”
    
“Princess,” I said, “it's time you made a decision for your own welfare. Doing nothing is too risky. It leaves your fate in the hands of others. What could be worse than being a pawn for exploiters or an opportunists?”

“You make choosing sound so easy,” she said, pivoting away.

“If you don’t know what to do, at least tell me what you don't want to do. Narrowing things down will make deciding easier.”

She was quiet for a moment, but finally said, “I can’t marry Erhan. It would be all the excuse Armand needs to attack the city. If he decides to do that, he’ll have little choice but to call for Darkuran help. And you know what that can lead to.”

“Haven't you considered that you can’t save the kingdom? Maybe you should be focused on saving yourself.”

“If I did that,” she said, “it will surely be war. If I abandon my people, I am not worthy of them. I’ll be an exile wherever I go, and that is all that I would deserve to be.”

“If you don’t want to help Erhan, you don’t want to flee personally, is there anything left to do except going with Armand’s offer?”

She sighed. “Even though he is not any husband I would care to have, you’re right that I need to choose my own fate. I think I may best serve my people by joining with the stronger faction to stave off a civil war. Then we would only have to worry about how the Darkurans react.”

I nodded. “Good enough. Let’s get on with it then.”

The windows were hung with dark drapes. I tore down a couple of these to use as cloaks. They would help us blend into the darkness outside. Then I took the girl into my arms and flew with her through an exterior wall.  

The night was misty and had no trouble getting beyond the range of the sentries’ crossbows. Once over open ground, I made for Armand’s encampment.

I placed the youngster the care of my maids in my own tent. They were definitely spies for Armand, but I had no reason to keep the arrival of Arielle secret from him. Then I flew back to Roch carried out a secret reentry.

I had done the latter for the good of the elder Airelle. The simultaneous disappearance of the both the princess and her maid would have looked bad for her. I thereafter stayed in my small room until the absence of the princess became generally known. Thereupon, I joined in with the excited crowd in the halls outside and made sure that I was recognized. Later, when the maiden knight joined me, I explained what had happened. She didn't care for the fact that I had acted alone, but admitted that with the deed being done, it was for the best.

I wouldn’t have liked to be Erhan that night. His options had suddenly become very narrow. He looked very much like an usurper with very little general support. In the morning, the fortress was sent word that the princess was in Armand's camp requesting protection. The announcement also said that "the traitor" Erhan's life would be spared if he struck his flag and accepted exile. Because the latter remained stubborn, Armand ordered the deployment of fortified siege lines in preparation for the forcible seizure of the town and castle.  

Amid the bustle of the next couple days, Erhan dispatched representatives to the enemy under a truce flag. They were asking for the transfer of non-essential personnel into Armand’s power. The request was dressed up as a humanitarian gesture, but such things were commonly done in war to save food in the face of a siege. In my maid guise, I said adieu to the elder Arielle and duly evacuated the castle. She would herself continue to feign support for Erhan, while looking for chances to undermine him. The intrigue as a whole seemed to be going smoothly for Armand, but I was a player, too, and I had a few tweaks in mind that he was not going to like.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 5, Part 2

THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 4, Part 2

 

Written 2006
Revised Oct. 7, 2021
 
 

THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 4, Part 2

A story of Necromantra

By Aladdin

Edited by Christopher Leeson

 
Chapter 4, Part 2

The Best Laid Plans (Continued)

 

The next morning, I learned that Captain Arielle had withdrawn from Armand’s camp. She hadn’t gone into Roch but, being still neutral, had taken a position outside the line of fire of the anticipated clash of warring factions. Some of Lord Armand’s people were already wondering out loud as to whether the renowned warrior had slain the Darkuran for some reason of her own, but, of course, the evidence was lacking. The Darkuran ambassador, meanwhile, was fit to be tied over the incident, but the killer had left no trail behind.

Possibly, just to give the Darkurans something else to think about, he gave orders for his host to move into siege position against Roch. Thanks in part to my use as a figurehead, his forces had been recruiting well, until by now his faction was twice the size of Erhan’s muster. That made it unlikely that the Duke would be coming out to fight. On the other hand, a mere two-to-one was no great advantage when it came carrying fortified walls. Probably, the Darkurans, with their superior weaponry, would have to be brought up, seeing as how they could make short work of all obstacles. I doubted that the primitive stone bulwarks of the fortress could resist even the first attack by the intensity of their firepower.
    
Oddly enough, my killing -- motivated from sheer necessity -- had opened up some positive options. I went to the viscount with a plan. Ostensibly, I was being helpful, but my real intention was to plant suspicion between allies and to slow down the build up to open warfare.

“My lord,” I said to my unbeloved betrothed, “it would be a pity if your Ulikan allies were alienated by a Darkuran atrocity.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“I have seen the Darkurans at war; they leave nothing alive on conquered ground. Worse, if you use them in battle, King Q’zon will consider you to be deeply in his debt and will start demanding greater compensation, more compensation than you should wisely hand over.”

He reacted, but not in the way I wanted him to. “Run along, my lovely,” he said, not looking up from his map. “Only a fool takes military advice from a woman.”

That rankled. I'd gained a new body, but still possessed my well-tested understanding of warfare. I wondered if I should at last "come out" and set him straight about my life story, but decided against it. Being continuously underestimated gives a woman a great advantage, one that should not be lightly throw away.

“I know, my lord. But consider this. You risk gaining the enmity of all the kingdoms around Ulik if you bring the widely hated Darkurans into Man Land, long term. The way I see it, the only claim that Erhan has to power is in his prospect of marrying Princess Arielle. If she were lost to him, his cause wouldn’t amount to much. It’s not like anyone would consider the likes of him inspiring or charismatic.”

“Perhaps,” the nobleman answered, finally deigning to look my way, “but he’s not an idiot and so will be holding her securely. It would take a major assault to win the princess free and, without the Darkuran help, any assault would be futile.”

“There are several ways to look at this. Ask yourself what would be the result if you did rescue her?” I asked.

He straightened. “I sometimes forget that you’re a warrior sorceress and not just a redhead -- even one with a penchant for sleeping yourself to the top. What exactly do you have in mind?”

“If I were to go into Roch myself and bring her out, what then?”

“Why bring her out?” he asked. “Why not just kill her?”

“Because the slaughter of a popular innocent would turn much more of Ulik against you. If I could bring Arielle out and place her into your custody, Erhan might be fool enough to launch an attack beyond his walls to get her back. You could deal with his inferior forces easily enough in the open field.”

He shook his head scornfully. “I think you're mainly interested in keeping the princess safe. Women are always getting sentimental over this child or that pajonga cat. Clear your head, Marinna. Affection has nothing to do with politics. If the reign of Lord Pumpkin taught us nothing else, it should teach us how effective the iron fist can be.”

“Lord Pumpkin was a mighty sorcerer, and that was what made his iron fist so hard. It might be less easy for a man less well advantaged to rule the same way he did,” I cautioned. “Your prosperity will be best served if you make and hold many allies. Arielle would give you prestige enough to draw some especially important kingdoms to your side.”

He regarded me keenly. “As I look at it, Arielle has an even better claim to the hearts of the people than you do. Why should I not marry her instead and set you aside?”

I folded my arms over my breasts. “It matters to me not at all whom you marry, Lord Armand. If you haven’t noticed it, you’re not my dream mate any more than I’m yours. Sooner or later, Q’zon will take me back anyway. That is all I can look forward to as a destiny. I actually do think that Arielle would be the better choice of consorts for you.” It made me queasy, offering my stepdaughter to a crooked politician, but I’d rather have Armand scheming to marry her than scheming to assassinate her.

He shrugged. “You’ve only told me your intention. Now tell me your plan.”

“My plan can best be served by getting Captain Arielle into our cause. Fortunately, I heard enough from her to know that she is not at all fond of Erhan. If we can offer her something worthwhile for her support, I propose having her pretend to choose Erhan’s cause. When she deploys into the castle, I can enter along with her, disguised as one of her servants. That will allow me to meet privately with the princess and persuade her to accept your proposition.”

“Bah!” the nobleman scoffed. “Why should I think that Arielle likes me any more than she like’s Erhan?”

“For the best of reasons. You have the bigger army.”

He looked at me without scoffing. I knew how to talk to a man, having been one.

“Also,” I said, “she has been living as Erhan’s hostage, not his eager bride. And whatever Arielle chooses, I think it will prove acceptable to her cousin. The captain is totally devoted to the princess. She will have a force of arms inside the very castle that you need to take. Something useful could be done with that advantage, I’d say.”

He was frowning, but no disagreeing. “You almost think like a man. But if the princess agreed to join us, how will you get her out of Roch?”

“Easily.” I picked up a bronze candlestick. “Pretend that this is the princess, and pretend that this table is the fortress walls.” Then I made my arm and the candlestick phantasmal and passed it through the surface of the table.

“Very interesting,” he remarked with an appreciative nod. “What partners we might actually become if only I could trust you.”

“You never be able to trust a witch, my lord, especially not a witch who is owned by someone like King Q’zon.”

He obviously agreed. Now, if he only he would be just as agreeable to the rest of what I'd been saying to him.

#

I was with Captain Arielle’s troop when it crossed over the drawbridge into Castle Roch. Disguise was nothing new to me. With my hair blackened and nose reshaped and enlarged by an artful appliance, it would have taken Princess Arielle herself to recognize me.

We settled into new quarters and it was soon arranged for the cousins to meet. I was chosen to attend on the captain during the reunion, and my disguise must have been convincing, insofar as the princess didn’t give me a second glance.

“Wait one minute before you speak,” the older cousin whispered to her young kinswoman. Then she gave me the nod and I went about the room, seeking for listening holes.

I discovered two, the agents behind them betrayed by their life traces. They could have been either Erhan or Armand servants, but it didn’t matter which. I send a magical surge through each hole in turn, strong enough to put a strong man into a faint.

“It is done,” I advised the captain. “Speak your piece.”

“What is done?” asked the younger Arielle, her brow wrinkled prettily.

“Marinna has secured the chamber from eavesdroppers.”

“Marinna?” The girl looked at me. Her incomprehension transformed into wide-eyed horror.

“Why did you bring her?!” she fairly shouted.

“The plan was hers. What’s wrong?” the captain asked.

“She – she murdered my father!”

The warrior-maid looked at me aghast. Seeing no surprise or denial in my expression, she drew her sword -- the same nasty sword she'd told me about.

“Put that down,” I told her. “I've admitted that I've had periods of insanity. There is no way I can make up for the worst things I've did, but I’m earnest in wishing to do the best I can for the princess. After that, I want to leave this land forever.”

“If you killed Lord Tavon, you deserve to die,” the warrior told me coldly, suddenly seeming to be more the warrior and a good deal less the noblewoman. “If not for you, this war would never have been fought at all!”

“She claims that she was possessed by a demon,” young Arielle put in. “I wish I could believe that there was no more to it.” Then she hung her head. “No, I think I do believe it. But it isn’t enough of an excuse to make me feel about her the way I once did.” The princess placed her hand upon her cousin’s fist and pressed the sword hand toward the floor. “I don’t think Marinna would harm me intentionally. Just keep in mind that she’s capable of almost anything when the madness is on her.”

I felt the evaporation of spirit of the camaraderie that had been growing between the soldier and myself. And I also felt a twinge of shame to be the recipient of even the cautious trust that the teenager was bestowing on me. My stepdaughter was not good at hating and holding grudges and I was sorry for that. If she expected to survive in a world like this one, those were valuable qualities to learn, and the sooner she did, the better.

“You came with a plan. What?” the princess asked of me, her eyes reflecting the torch fire.

“We will take you to the camp of Viscount Armand,” her cousin answered for me.

Arielle frowned.  “Is that wise?  Can we trust him?”

“No. No more than we can trust Erhan,” I ventured.  “But if the Darkur attack this city, thousands in it will die.  Each one of those beasts is worth a score of Ulikan soldiers, and they command weapons like your defenders can scarcely conceive of.  These stone walls will be no obstacle to one of their attacks. If it were not for the Aerwa people, a race equal to them in power, the Darkur would have long since inundated the Wold in a bath of blood.”  

I was talking straight on that score. I could only wonder why hadn’t it happened already. I needed to get young Arielle out of this powder keg of intrigue and into a safe place. The only question was, what place would be safe for a royal princess, even on a world as large as the Godwheel?

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 5, Part 1

The Beauty and the Beast, Chapter 4, Part 1

 

Written 2006

Revised Sept. 11, 2021
 
 

THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, CHAPTER 4, Part 1

A story of Necromantra

By Aladdin

Edited by Christopher Leeson

 

Chapter 4, Part 1

The Best Laid Plans 

 

She shook her head, like she was trying to shoo away flies.

“The sword was given to my by a demon at the price of the lives of a dozen lives – the lives of my friends and followers. I hate the thing, but if I carry it around with me, it will drift away to find another master. I wouldn’t mind that, except that in hands of a person worse than me, I dread what it could do. If you’re a sorceress, Marinna, maybe you can understand that.”

“Nothing much surprises me anymore,” I admitted. “But did you actually sacrifice your closest friends just to gain a magical weapon?”

I shouldn’t have said that. I had no right to rebuke the elder Airelle, or anyone else for that matter. Necromantra would have been glad to enter into such a bargain. But wouldn’t have pegged Captain Arielle and Necromantra to be birds of a feather.

“I did not!” the knight declared. “They willingly surrendered their souls to a demon – not for a magic sword, but to save my life. We had attacked Lord Pumpkin’s castle in the night, but we were outmatched and I was wounded and dying. The demon healed me at the price of the self-sacrifice of our kingdom’s best knights.

“When I was left alone, he gave me the sword without my asking. It may have been that he wanted Lord Pumpkin dead, too, but he had explained nothing! The sword suddenly opened a portal to the place where the Pumpkin had sought sanctuary and I went through to confront the enemy of my people.”

“But you didn’t kill him,” I pointed out.

“I did. But by his foul magic, he never stays dead for long. I would have burned his body to a cinder to make sure we were rid of him, but I didn't have time. The sword was calling me back home.”

Hers was a too-easy protest of innocence, but I didn’t try to make myself disbelieve it. I didn’t want to despise her, because if I rejected her it would leave me alone and impotent.

“I didn’t here come to quarrel,” I told the she-knight. “I’m here because something you said before gave me the hope that you might be a person to trust in this den of vipers.”

“What did I say?”

“You bothered to mention that Princess Arielle herself might have some rights and interests while her kingdom is being despoiled around her.”

“Can you actually care about the princess? There are stories about Queen Marinna, and very few of them are edifying.”

“Those stories are true,” I told her. “But that that was then and this is now.”

“There is not much in your own words to give me much confidence, Lady,” she observed.

“Where I come from they say that actions speak louder than words. First, how many men can you bring into battle?”

She frowned. “That would depend on what I’m asking them to fight for.”

“You would be asking them to fight for Princess Arielle’s life at the very least, and her throne at best.”

“On those terms, maybe a dozen,” she said. “But I have a couple hundred swords behind me – mostly men personally committed to me, not to Tavon’s heir. Tavon was the first of his dynasty and reigned only briefly, after the fall of Lord Pumpkin. He was a good man, but his brief tenure didn’t create any broad or deep following. The people yearn for a proven paladin in very bad times and there is no constituency to place the scepter into the hands of an unseasoned minor. They would be ready for either an Armand or Erhan, except that both are so evidently self-interested that even the peasants can see it.”

“Power-seekers are always self-interested. But with enough swords around her, Arielle has both the head and the heart to make a rare queen. But, tell me, if you’re related to the former family and you’re also the sort of person to make grown men willing to die for you, why haven’t you become a throne candidate yourself?”

“I am only related to the royal family on her mother’s side,” she said, shrugging.

Maybe that was all that was to it, I still thought she might stack up very well against the other contenders. There had to be something more, something she didn’t want to talk about. I supposed I could have found out more if I dug for it, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted or needed to.

All I said was, “I came here hoping that we could serve the princess together.”

“Truly?” she asked. “I heard rumors that you were not to be trusted. Your reign was a bloody one.”

“It was, I’m sorry to say. You need to understand that I was insane then, and I was insane for a long time before then. But I’m more or less sane now, so I need to work fast. If I lose my mind again there might be no coming back from it. Even now, I’m only serving Armand’s cause because I’m forced to.”

“How are you forced?”

“Powerful interests will slay the princess if I do not serve my master’s interests.”

“Are your speaking of Erhan? But you have already been open about your opposition to Erhan.”

“No, I’m under the thumb of forces that are much more dangerous than Erhan.”

Arielle shook her head. “I don’t know what you expect from me, but I would like to help my young cousin through this chaos. I’m not sure that fighting for a throne in a kingdom like this serves her best interests.”

“That’s my feeling, too,” I said. “I have sorcery, but if I stay only queen on the chessboard can’t create a checkmate. I could use some help.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what a chessboard is.”

“It’s a metaphor. I’m saying we have to talk. We have to know if we can achieve anything as allies.”

#

After leaving Arielle’s tent, my wobbly flight reminded me that I was in critical need of a kill.

Killing domestic livestock could have revived me somewhat, but the half-formed spirits of dumb beasts are weak. My curse renders me helpless unless I live as a murderer and that is the reality I have had to deal with. Necromancer would cheerfully have killed anyone on hand, because she saw existence in the terms of an extra-planar demon. But in my current state of mind I didn’t want to kill even the knights engaged in this civil war. It is the nature of people to quarrel politically and I doubt they deserved to die any more than did Archimage’s knights, men who were my best friends. So, if I was to rule out the slaying of humans, where did that leave me? Where are the rampaging dragons when one needs them?

There was the nearby Darkuran contingent, of course. I hadn’t had the chance to kill many Darkurans thus far, except for a few criminals I had been used to execute. But killing such as they had been a memorable experience. They had powerful, magic-charged spirits, and each one on his own was a full meal for me. But I was plighted to obey the king of the Darkurans, and so I couldn’t betray them and let suspicion fall on me.

I tentatively flew toward the Darkuran encampment, keeping out of sight in the low-hanging night-mist. Even in the dark of night, I thought I could find one or more of them wandering around.

The only question was how to make the kill without be called out for it. I needed a conventional weapon for the execution insofar as a death by magic would make me a prime suspect. But, unlike in the old days, swordplay came hard to me, having a shape that a lingerie model would envy and the upper body strength of a thirteen-year-old boy.

In a war camp of this size weapons, at least, abounded. My magic enabled me to spirit away a medium-weight sword from a set of stacked arms. I felt its heft off in an isolated copse and found that I could adequately swing and thrust it. Now I only had to use it to kill someone.

I spread my aura wide, knowing what a Darkuran life signature feels like. They were thick in the tents, and in some wide-awake group gatherings thereabouts. But it didn’t take me long to trace one of the creatures who was prowling alone through the benighted bivouac. I moved toward his bio-signature, found him, and then stalked him until he reached a place where he was out of sight and isolated. While in a wooded grove beyond the light of the campfires, I then dropped to Earth behind him. At once I loose a magical back-shot calculated to stun him. If I could render him helpless, I could hopefully use my sword, to leave him dead and unmarked by the signs of sorcery.

I have a good aim and my shot through him to his knees, though it lacked the potency needed to render him unconscious. I came in behind him with all my strength plunged my point into his sinewy hide – but I’d never tried to kill a Darkur that way and it only it only penetrated an inch or less. He tumbled away and metamorphosed, making himself into a formidable battle monster with thick chitin-like plates. Before my eyes, he took on the aspect of a damned ugly, many-armed species.

The Darkuran turned to face me, and the sight of a woman holding a sword left him unimpressed. He himself was holding a Darkuran blaster. That worked in my favor, since I impressed him as being so contemptible that he didn’t reflexively cry out for help. “I’ve heard that human meat is almost as tasty as that of the Aerwa, and that of their shes are the sweetest of all,” he rumbled.

“Oh, so you haven’t already eaten humans?” I asked. “Maybe I picked the wrong guy to assassinate.”

“Oh, yes, you have,” he replied. Wearing the ghastly face of present guise, I couldn’t tell if he was smiling at the thought of killing me or not. He wouldn’t have been so smug if he realized that I was Necromantra dressed in ladylike garb. Because he seemingly wanted to enjoy killing me slowly, he gave me the chance to move first. I used telekinesis to send my sword through the air to striking at his gun-hand. My sorcery had diminished to such a degree that I failed to entirely shear off his wrist. But the surprise and the pain of the strike made my opponent drop the blaster.

I ducked under his guard, seizing the gun in a roll, and then fired at his jaw, to preempt any belated bellow of alarm. His crippled cry came out strangled and low volumed. Because the Darkur race could heal with preternatural swiftness, I had less than a minute to locate and destroy the creature’s change-organ, its best weapon and most effective kill-spot. Unfortunately, that organ is no stationary thing, such as a human’s heart is, but it possessor can move it anywhere within its body to serve the self-defensive needs of the moment.

I fired into his gut, but that didn’t stop him. I leaped out of the way of his wounded rush, but the sweep of his arm knocked the energy pistol from my grasp and into the briers of the dark woodlot.

I could have fled, but I needed a life and also dared not to leave behind a living witness to my rebellion. I surprised him by springing to retrieve my sword on the ground, but he was instantly on top of me and only the force field I’d thrown up kept him from slicing me into pieces via his claws.

“You!” the monster growled, having recognized me by my glowing aura. The realization that he was up against a super-witch frazzled him, time enough to do a flash-probe of his body’s for mystical traces. Back in Darkuria, I had made it a project to learn how to find the location of a Darkuran’s change-organ, something very useful to know. Being magical, it gives off a patterned throb of mystical energy, on even easier to detect than a heartbeat. Fighting him by main strength was out of the question, so I hurled the sword at him again, riding on the crest of another a burst of kinetic energy. It entered him like a steel-headed bolt shot from a crossbow, with his change-organ as my target. In my weakened state, I had nothing left to give. It was like putting the whole bet on one dice cast.

The Darkuran gave out a muffled yowl of when penetrated and collapsed inert. As his dim spirit evaporated into the night, I felt the released of the alien’s bio-power as it flowed into me. It was a mystic recharge exceeding any that I could have gotten from a dozen ordinary men. And, as a bonus, the taking of it left me guilt-free. Instead, I felt like more like a big game hunter who had downed a trophy-worthy beast.

Refreshed, I looked anxiously about. I heard the clump of boots breaking the brush – probably sentries that had heard strange sounds. On impulse, I retrieved the Darkuran blaster in case of future need, and then went phantom, diving into the ground. I focused on the energy currents of a nearby flowing stream, so as to not get lost.

Shortly thereafter, with the blaster hidden in my “mystical closet” – that explicable “other-place” where I may store objects and retrieve them at will” -- I returned to my tent, changed my soiled garment for a night dress, and woke up my spell-anesthetized servants.

I was reasonable certain that I’d left no murder clue behind by the time I slipped between my covers. Before I dropped off to sleep, I was only sorry that the Darkur I had found hadn't been a killer of human beings. But it was a dirty world and nothing ever worked out in the nice and tidy way that we would want them to.

Continued in Chapter 4, Part 2