Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li: The Morcyth Saga Book Three (7 page)

As they near the trees where James and Miko
are hiding, one of them pauses and begins sniffing the air.
The
bug repellent!
James suddenly realizes.
He smells the bug
repellent.
The warrior cocks his head to the side as if
attempting to determine from which direction the smell is
coming.

James watches as the others suddenly take
notice of the smell. After a brief exchange of words, the warriors
begin working their way closer to the trees they’re hiding in.
They’re almost upon them when a rhino-lizard bursts out of the
dense foliage and grabs one of the warriors, dragging him screaming
off the trail and back into the swamp. The other three warriors
immediately turn, and screaming war cries, give pursuit as they try
to rescue him.

“Come on!” James says as he comes out from
behind the trees and hurries down the trail as fast as his injured
leg will allow. As they rush down the path, screams and roars can
be heard coming from where the warriors are fighting the
rhino-lizard.

“This is crazy,” Miko announces after
they’ve put some distance between them and the battle behind them,
“we don’t even know if we’re going in the right direction.”

Pointing off through the marshy wetlands,
James says, “Would you rather try to cut cross country?”

Thinking of the little fishes that inhabit
the water, he shakes his head no.

“Then we have to stick to the path as best
we can and hope that we run across him,” he explains.

The pain in James’ leg continues to throb
with every step he takes, perspiration courses down his face. He
has to lean heavily upon the stick in order to even remain
upright.

Out of the swamp ahead of them, the sound of
beating drums begins to be heard. Sure that they’ve found where
Jiron has been taken, James hastens along. They soon come to where
the trail diverges and he hesitates only a moment as he ponders the
best way to go. The one leading left goes more in the direction of
where the sound of the drums is coming from and looks well
traveled, so he turns that way and follows it.

From up ahead, the beating of the drums
become louder the further they progress along the trail. The trees
begin to thin and they’re able to make out a village of crude huts
sitting upon an island surrounded by stagnant bodies of water. The
trail they’re on leads straight to it and he can see several other
trails leading away from the island going in different
directions.

“Miko, look!” James whispers as he points to
a cage sitting on one side of the island. Jiron is lying within the
cage, shirt soaked with blood and not looking too good. At first he
appears dead, but then he moves and James breathes a sigh of
relief.

Looking over to the island, Miko watches as
dozens of warriors do a dance with their spears to the beat of the
drums. Surrounding them are the women and children of the tribe,
all standing and swaying to the rhythm. In the middle of the
dancers stands a man dressed in ceremonial attire holding a staff
atop which sits the skull of some unknown animal. He looks to James
like some sort of witch doctor.

“How are we going to get him out of there?”
Miko asks, not liking the odds.

“I don’t know,” replies James. “It doesn’t
look as if they’ll be doing anything for a while, though.”
Motioning to Miko, they make their way to the edge of the water
where several trees grow that will afford them some protection
while they observe what’s going on.

Just as they settle into their hiding place,
two warriors approach the village from where James and Miko had
just come from. They’re carrying two others who have obviously been
chewed upon by a rhino-lizard, neither of which look alive. These
must be the ones who’d almost discovered them earlier.

When the warriors get to the island, some of
the women begin wailing as they see their men folk being carried
in. Several of them come and take the fallen warriors away into one
of the huts. The witch doctor and the warriors dancing seem not to
take any notice of the new arrivals.

The warriors suddenly stop their dance and
the witch doctor begins talking to them. Gesticulating wildly and
speaking loudly, he begins to work them into a frenzy.

James notices a pile of bones off to the
side of the village and points it out to Miko. When Miko sees it,
he gasps. For there mixed in with bones of different types of
animals are two human skulls.

“Cannibals,” James whispers.

“What?” Miko asks.

Leaning close so Miko can hear him better,
he repeats himself, “Cannibals. They eat people.”

“Jiron?” he asks, aghast that that could be
his fate.

“Looks like it if we don’t get him out of
there,” he tells him.

Shuddering, Miko looks at the cannibals with
unmistakable loathing.

While the witch doctor is speaking to the
assembled villagers, several of the men begin erecting a large
spit. When the spit is fully erected and sufficient wood has been
piled beneath it, several warriors go over to where Jiron is being
held and open the cage door.

Two go in and grab him, dragging him out of
the cage and carrying him over to the spit. “Can’t wait any
longer,” James says as he watches Jiron being brought closer. He
looks to Miko who nods understanding.

Miko watches as James settles in and begins
to work the magic.

The witch doctor stands before the spit,
staff held at his side. The warriors carrying Jiron approach and
come to a stop before him. With one warrior supporting him on
either side, they stand him up in front of the witch doctor.
Jiron’s head lolls to one side as if he’s not exactly
conscious.

Raising his staff high above his head, the
witch doctor begins to sway. He begins chanting as the beat of the
drums intensifies. Feet stomping, he continues chanting as he
dances his way around the warriors holding Jiron.

He’s gone around them several times when he
comes to a sudden stop. The chanting ceases as well as he turns and
looks directly over to where James and Miko are hiding.
He knows
we’re here!
Miko suddenly realizes.

The witch doctor shouts something to the
warriors near him and points over to where they’re hiding. He’s
about to say something else when the villagers as one, gasp aloud.
He turns to look behind him and sees what looks like creatures made
of swamp mud walking out of the water. Little fishes are wriggling
within the mud and occasionally fall out to flop about upon the
ground.

Raising his staff, he cries out as a flash
of light leaps from the tip of his staff to the nearest mud
creature. When the light hits the creature, it looses all cohesion.
With a sodden plop, the mud which had formed the creature falls
apart and splats with a sickening sound as it forms a pile upon the
ground. The light flashes again and again until all the mud
creatures have been reduced to a pile of muck.

He turns back toward their hiding place as
he points his staff in their direction. A yellowish beam of light
flashes in their direction but is deflected by an unseen
barrier.

The villagers begin crying out as the women
and children get up and run off the island, using paths leading
away from where James and Miko are hiding. The warriors grab their
spears as they begin racing toward them.

“James!” Miko says urgently, “they’re coming
this way.” He waits a moment but James fails to respond to what
he’d said.

As the warriors come closer, a stick flies
up off the ground and begins twirling above the path, blocking
their way. A warrior comes close and tries to strike the stick,
only to end up being struck himself. The force of the blow could be
heard even from where Miko sits and the warrior reels backward into
his companions.

Miko sees James remove one of his slugs from
his belt and watches as it flies toward the witch doctor. Inches
before it hits him, it’s deflected away.

The warriors holding Jiron take him back to
the cage and lock it before joining the others who’re trying to get
past the whirling stick. Miko sees Jiron begin to regain
consciousness and stands up groggily, holding onto the side of the
cage as he surveys what’s going on.

The witch doctor again let’s loose a bolt of
energy which is once more deflected before it even gets close.

A violent tremor suddenly courses through
the ground and Miko has to grab hold of a tree next to him in order
to remain upright. The warriors trying to get past the whirling
stick begin to fall as the shaking of the ground throws them off
balance. One unlucky fellow stumbles near the water’s edge and
trips over an exposed tree root. Crying out, he falls into the
water which suddenly roils with movement as hundreds of tiny fish
begin biting him. Miko watches in horror as the water turns red and
in less than a minute, the water again grows calm and naught but
bones can be seen.

The shaking had rocked the island as well,
causing the witch doctor to stumble but had somehow managed to
remain standing.

James is beginning to pant from the exertion
of maintaining the whirling stick that’s blocking the warriors’ way
and in dealing with the witch doctor. The familiar headache caused
by too much magic usage begins to make itself known, his vision is
starting to blur as well. He’s not going to be able to continue
much longer, he needs to finish this quickly before he passes
out.

Miko watches as the island stops its shaking
and the witch doctor steps closer to the edge of the island.
Suddenly, the pool of stagnant water near him erupts, throwing muck
and water into the air. A good portion of the eruption arcs through
the air toward the island where the witch doctor is standing.

Trying to get out of the path of the swamp
water, he back pedals quickly, but not quickly enough. The water
falls upon him and suddenly he starts to scream as dozens of small
fish attach themselves to his exposed flesh, their tiny sharp teeth
digging in hungrily. He begins trying to tear them off when a hole
suddenly opens up in his chest. A spray of gore explodes out his
back as one of James’ slugs exits his body.

The witch doctor falls to the ground in a
pool of his own blood, the little fishes continue biting and
wriggling into his body. The warriors, who’d been trying to get to
James, stand in stunned silence upon seeing their witch doctor
fall. They begin crying out in fear as they turn tail and run,
following the paths the women and children had taken earlier. In
short order, the island is clear of everyone except Jiron who’s
still in the cage and now more alert.

With Miko’s help, James gets up and makes
his way along the path over to where Jiron is being held.

When he sees them emerge from the swamp, a
big smile breaks across his bloodied face. “Thought that might’ve
been your handiwork,” he says to James when they get closer.

“Couldn’t leave you to be their dinner, now
could I?” James asks as he begins to unlock the cage.

Getting a whiff of the bug repellent, he
goes, “Gah! What did you guys fall into?”

“Pretty bad, isn’t it?” Miko says. “It may
smell bad, but it keeps the bugs off,” he explains. “James did
it.”

“Got any more?” Jiron asks as he kills yet
another mosquito who’d tried to make a meal of him.

Nodding, James concentrates and the mist
appears. Jiron’s nose wrinkles as it begins settling in upon
him.

When James sees his reaction to the smell,
he smiles and says, “You get use to it.”

“I sure hope so,” he says.

“We better get out of here before they come
back and bring friends,” James tells them. “I doubt if this is the
only village in the swamp.” He gazes around the island at the many
paths leading away.

“Which way?” Miko asks when he sees him
considering their choices.

“We came from the south,” he says, “nothing
there but beach. The villagers took the paths toward the east, so
maybe we should follow the one to the northwest.” He points to a
well used path that leads in that direction.

“As good as any,” Jiron says as he goes over
to the mat on the ground near the cage where his knives had been
placed. Strapping them on, he turns to leave and notices James’ leg
for the first time. “What happened to you?” he asks.

“Big lizard came and took a bite out of
him,” Miko replies for him. “But we took care of it,” he says as he
glances to James. “Didn’t we?”

Giving him a slight smile, James says, “We
sure did.”

Hobbling, James continues to use the stick
to aid him in walking as he and the others leave the island on the
northwest path.

Leaving the island behind, they set out upon
the trail as they keep an eye out for any warriors who may return,
seeking retribution for the death of their witch doctor. On Miko’s
mind however, are the rhino-lizards who seem to pop out from the
trees with little or no warning.

A couple of times they observed one of the
natives moving among the trees off in the distance, but none ever
came close enough to pose a threat.

“They must be keeping an eye on us,” assumes
James.

“As long as that’s all they want to do,”
Miko says as he continuously scans the sides of the trail, as well
as behind them, for natives and rhino-lizards.

“Think they’ll attack?” Jiron asks.

Shrugging, James replies, “Who knows? I
wouldn’t think so since we took out their most powerful person.
Though, you never know.”

“They may be out there preparing to attack
us at any minute!” asserts Miko.

“If it happens, it happens,” James tells
him, annoyed at his negativity. “But until it does, there’s not
much we could do in anticipation anyway, so relax.”

Miko is anything but relaxed as he continues
to jump at every noise coming out of the swamp.