King Fallo stared
at him. “Did your mother not teach you any manners or are you just
stupid?”
Darius turned
ashen. The youth looked away again, hoping that they would forget
he was even there.
“Dad, leave him
alone, he meant no harm.” Terry said, sitting back down. The king
gave the youngster one long, last hostile stare before sitting down
alongside her.
“Where do you find
these people?” he asked loudly, unconcerned if he was
overheard.
She leant over,
lowering her voice. “You don’t have to be rude to him. He’s been
very unlucky recently and has a psychotic ex-girlfriend who also
wants to kill him.”
Her father
sneered. “Why must you keep concerning yourself with such trivial
matters that have nothing to do with you?”
Terry looked at
him in disbelief. With a smirk she asked, “And why must you keep
having a go at me? I’ve been back two days and you still keep
banging on.”
“I am not
criticising you I am just concerned about your attitude.”
She looked
bemused. “Now that
is
criticism.”
“What I mean is
you...” he considered his words, “speak differently, you act
differently from when you were last here.”
“I was fifteen
when I left it was quite a long time ago. Of course I’ve changed.
That would be a bit like me being exiled when I was five and you
not seeing me for ten years and then saying “you’ve changed” when
you saw me again as a teenager.”
“I also did not
raise you to be pedantic.” He said bluntly. He gazed out across the
sandy plains. “It is more than just you just growing up though. It
is like I said last night; living with humans has changed you.”
“I’m still an
Alchemist.” She said, lifting her arm. A large, sharp blade shot
free from the topside of her elbow, as the copper-coloured armour
plates formed across her hand.
He smiled. “I
meant no offence daughter but you know that I am not keen on
humans. I can’t stand the sight, neither the smell of them. It’s
difficult to ignore the mannerisms of their kind that you have
picked up.”
The blade
retracted into Terry’s arm but her hands remained gloved.
“I’ve not yet seen
you as your true self since you have returned.” He said. The ‘true
self’ he was referring to was her primeval form. It was the way she
had been born.
Terry shielded her
eyes against the sun, gazing up into the otherwise featureless sky.
“It’s not something I’m in the habit of doing around people.” She
admitted.
“Lyle and I are
going hunting after sundown.” He said.
Before Terry could
reply a call went up from the front of the line. The lead Monoglyph
had stopped, calling in a low, rumbling sound. The second Monoglyph
clicked in response, the third doing the same. The primeval
Alchemists had also stopped, speaking to one another through
shrieks and growls.
King Fallo stood
up, along with Terry and the others to see what was going on.
“What’s up?” asked Connor, walking up behind Terry. She shielded
her eyes, but it was hard to see passed the metal giant ahead. “I
can’t see from here.”
“What’s going on?”
shouted Lyle from further down the line. Connor waved to him. “We
don’t know!”
Without word, Lord
Fallo made the leap from where he stood to the Monoglyph in front
in one flawless bound. Darius looked at Terry in astonishment. “How
does he do that?”
Terry smirked.
Taking a few steps back, she sprinted and jumped. She easily
cleared the twenty foot gap between the two giants but had to grab
the edge of the others shoulder plate in both hands and pull
herself up. Connor ignited in a ball of flames and took off like a
firework, leaving Darius behind.
Terry landed in a
crouched position in the dust, just behind her father. Rising, she
stepped up to his side, squinting against the shimmering vista that
sprawled out before them. Connor landed nearby.
“We should give it
a wide berth. There is no need for anyone to see this.” Terry said,
her keen eyesight picking out the details of what had caused the
Monoglyphs to stop, despite the distance.
Connor held a hand
over his eyes to see better but all he could make out was a black,
featureless mass in the shimmering distance. “What is it? I can’t
tell.” He asked, looking at Terry.
Terry whispered
into his ear, lest any of the other Alchemists or other party
heard.
Connor swallowed
hard. “My Lord, surely we should at least find out what species
they are.” He suggested, remembering his formalities.
“They are a tribe
of nomad Pyrovites. I can tell you that much from here.” Fallo
replied.
Connor squinted
his eyes against the glare but still could see no better. “But what
killed them?” He asked.
Terry looked at
her dad. “I think we better go check it out. I can’t tell from
here.”
Lord Fallo stared
on into the distance but said nothing.
“
Dad.” Terry
prompted.
He gave a nod. “Be
quick but I will not join you. I knew this tribe. It would only
anger me to see them up close the way they are.” That said he
turned away, bristling.
Connor sketched a
bow and the two of them headed on.
As they
approached, the heat wave resolved into a cairn of bodies. The
briar stood at least ten feet in height. Connor covered his nose
from the stench. It was times like these Terry envied not having a
weaker sense of smell. She crouched down next to one of the bodies.
Seeing no obvious wounds, she stood and rolled it over with the tip
of her shoe. A large bloodied wound in the chest revealed the
secret of how the poor child died.
“It looks like
they were killed by arrows or spears.”
Connor looked
around, shaking his head. “Why did they not fight back?” he asked.
“Why did they not burn them?”
Terry slowly shook
her head. “The tribes of the sands refer fire as sacred. They don’t
use it the same way you do in the south. They believe every time
they use it, they lose a little bit of their life and soul. So they
use it as little as possible.”
Connor shook his
head. “I would have fried them...” he gazed back at the body that
lay before them. Flies swarmed about the dead youngster’s eyes and
the corner of his open mouth. “Do you know who would have done this
then?” He asked, looking back at the princess. “Another tribe
maybe?”
Terry gazed about
the carnage that lay before them. “I don’t know. I know the Gellko
tribes sometimes came into conflict over territories but...” she
shook her head, “One tribe would never do this to another.”
“You think this is
a whole tribe?”
She nodded. “Yeah
and whoever did this stacked them as a warning.”
“What makes you
say that?”
“Well if you were
going to slaughter a group of people you would just kill them and
leave them where they fell. You wouldn’t go through all the trouble
of stacking them up like this.” She gazed to the top of the bloody,
stinking, cairn. “Dad’s not going to be happy about this. He would
have likely known these people because.”
“
Come on.”
He said keen to get away from the sight that lay before
them.
“They should be
buried.” She said, opting to stay.
Connor shook his
head. “Terry, we don’t have time.”
“Not me, the
Monoglyphs. They would get it done in no time.” Terry turned and
sliding one of the blade’s free of her wrist, signalled to the
king’s escort by reflecting the sun of the metal. A few seconds
later Lyle responded the same way.
“They’re coming
over.” She said, shielding her eyes with a hand as she gazed across
the distance.
An uncomfortable
silence prevailed. For what seemed a long time all Connor could
here was the buzz of flies and he couldn’t help but imagine them
crawling over the corpses, eating away at the rotting flesh,
despite trying his hardest not too. He felt sick. He looked back at
the approaching Monoglyphs; they seemed to be taking an eternity
getting there.
“Are you ok?”
Terry asked, seeing how uncomfortable he was.
“No...” he smiled
nervously, his back to the corpses. “Not really.”
“You can always go
for a little walk if you want. You don’t have to be here when we
bury them.”
“No, I’ll be
fine.” He replied, dancing on his feet nervously. “You know what?
It’s funny. I know you’ve probably eaten your own share of
Pyrovites over the years but the thing I like about you Alchemists
is that it’s a clean death, you usually swallow Pyrovites, humans
and the rest of them in one.” He joked, but there was no humour
there.
“Connor...”
But he cut her
off, changing the subject to take his mind off the grisly business
behind him. “What do you thinks going to happen at the senate?”
Terry gave him a
surprised look but after a few moments obliged an answer. “I don’t
know. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t worried about it. My
father doesn’t care about whether they remove my exile or not, he’s
only coming because I’m going to find this lord.”
Connor was
confused. “I thought going to see the senate was his idea?”
“No, it was mine.
It’s only a cover though. Every town from the border to Naris would
have heard about my return by now thanks to dad destroying that
place the other night. My dad will negotiate with them about
scrapping my exile and we’ll go off to see if we can find this
lord.”
“I’m impressed.
How did you ever convince him?”
Terry shrugged.
“It would take too long to explain but this,” she nodded toward the
approaching Monoglyphs, “was part of the agreement to letting us do
this. If dad had his way we would all still be back at the
colony.”
“Well...thanks. We
need to find out who this Phantom is.”
“I couldn’t agree
more.”
A breath of wind
stirred up the loose sand, blowing a handful of dust over them and
the stench of deaf. Connor covered his nose, suddenly remembering
the dead. “I just hope we find Rilario.”
“Me too.”
They watched the
approaching party for a few moments before Connor said, “Your
father really doesn’t want to go, does he?”
Terry sighed. “He
told me that he was sick of politics and he was fed up of the south
telling us how to live our lives. He also told me if the senate
refused to let me stay he would happily risk war with your
nation.”
Connor’s eyes
widened. “Really? It’s not likely to come to that is it?”
She shrugged. “I
don’t know, it all depends if you’re latest prime minister is a
kind man or not.”
“You’re guess is
as good as mine, I don’t know who it is now.”
“We have been away
a long time and my father has never met him. It could all go
smoothly or it could be a powder cake.”
The two of them
stared on toward the advancing party in silence for a few minutes.
Then Terry said, “Besides, if it ever comes to it I intend to
abdicate.”
Connor laughed
with her. “I could be the court jester.”
Terry smirked. “Of
course not, you could take on the highly respected role of
councillor. You get to work long hours, never get to see your
family and be expected to know several million Alchemists on
individual terms.”
Connor smirked,
forgetting the horror behind his back. “I don’t think my wife is
keen on insects.”
The two of them
laughed loudly, but they quickly quietened down when they
remembered where they were thanks to the sea of grim faces that
approached. This was not the time or place.
With the slightest
gesture, King Fallo stopped his party and continued alone.
“How many?” he
asked, his eyes transfixed on the bloodied bodies.
“Forty seven.”
Terry replied, standing to one side to allow him to pass.
Fallo knelt next
to the closest body. After a minute he rose and moved slowly around
the cairn, occasionally stopping to inspect individuals.
When he returned
his face was as hard as stone.
“Did you know them
well?” she asked.
“Yes. This was
Alio’s tribe. He is among the dead,” he looked to the pile, “as are
his children and wives He stared off into the distance and she
could see the anger burning behind his eyes.
“What makes this
even more disturbing is that this was carried out by the hands of
one of our own.”
Terry’s eyes
widened. “What? I could have sworn some of them were stabbed with
spears. The markings on their bodies match the weapons.”
He shook his head.
“Someone has tried very hard to make it look like that. But if you
look close enough you can see the tell tale marks of our blades.
The points of attack also match how we would strike our prey.”
She looked down at
the dead child that lay at her feet; his eyes staring vacantly into
an empty sky. “I must be rustier than I thought...” she muttered,
taking a second look.
“It will come back
to you in time.” Her father said, holding out his hand. Taking it,
he gently pulled her back to her feet.
“In the meantime,
we should lay them to rest. With no tracks or other evidence to
help us find who did this an investigation will have to wait until
we return.” He decided, walking away. He whistled.
With a low
grinding sound, two of the Monoglyphs made their approach. They
would set to the task of burying the dead, a feat Terry did not
envy.
******
The sun hung low
in the western sky, silhouetting the distant rocky hills that the
party would have to negotiate tomorrow. The primeval Alchemists had
set-up a perimeter around the camp, while the Monoglyphs sat around
the campfire – nothing more than a fleck of ember compared to their
colossus scale. They spoke quietly through a series of clicks and
rumbling sounds, quiet enough not to disturb their charge. They
were off duty for now, but would be expected to swap with the
primeval during the night to act as watch.