Chapter 9
I felt like I was in some old horror movie nightmare. No way could I have my ankles and wrists strapped to a table, and be surrounded by glass beakers and vials filled with putrid, floating objects. Cobwebs dangled above my face, threatening to strangle my screams in their gossamer stickiness.
But there I was, in the dungeoness lair of the strange besheveled man.
The room had been carved out of the earth and was an angular circle.
There were no windows and only one crude wooden door, but a round hole in the high ceiling revealed a short chimney, and the starry sky a few yards above that.
Their gentle light shone through the gap and onto the middle of the floor, where a large cauldron hung over a crackling fire.
The flames must have been magical, as all the smoke floated straight up and out through the hole.
Parts of the floor were polished by the countless steps of my ‘host,’ and told the tale of his many travels around the space.
Vhulkar himself shuffled from one table to the other along those paths, plucking vials and bottles from the surface, studying them for a moment, and putting them back.
He muttered to himself as he went along.
“No, that would be quite reckless. Ah-ha!” He plucked a vial from a cluster and lifted the glass to his face, where he swished the bracken-like contents. “This might be just what’s needed.”
I pulled against my straps, but the leather only groaned beneath my efforts. “I’m telling you, you have the wrong person. I don’t have any magic. Somebody else’s magic dropped me there.”
“Nonsense,” he insisted as he moved over to a table stacked with books. “The nethral are enthralled with you, hence you must have some unique characteristic.”
“Yeah, that’s my ability to get into trouble!” I snapped as I wriggled in my bindings. “Now, could you stop helping it and let me go?”
The man spun around with a heavy glass ball clasped in his hands.
The bowl was filled with filthy water, and dirt sat on the bottom.
What caught my attention, however, was the creature that swam in that dank liquid.
It was some sort of squid, but with bulbous eyes and a head that tapered into a shark-like fin.
Each of its four tendrils ended in bulbous sacs and sharp, needle-like tips that released whatever was contained in those sacs.
“You forget yourself, woman. I am master here, of this forest and all its boundaries.”
Idle chatter. That would bide me some time to think of an escape plan. “I thought these woods belonged to King Scalyvar.”
The man clutched the bowl tighter to himself and lifted his nose.
“That worthless boy? He has all the temerity without the wisdom. I had no trouble resting these woods from him, and I shall have no trouble using my nethral minions to take even more land.” He raised one fisted hand in the air above his head, and his eyes bulged out of his head.
“Then they shall remember the name of Zareth Vhulkar! He who they wrongfully banished!”
That’s it. Just tell me your life story and give me enough time to extend mine. I lifted an eyebrow. “What’d you do?”
His long nostrils sniffed the air. “I was merely experimenting on nethral. Just harmless experiments, and yet they at the university thought I should destroy all my precious work. It would have been ‘good for the people’ if my work had stopped.” He shook his fist in the air.
“Nonsense! These creatures can be used for our purposes! They can be great armies and vanquish all our enemies overnight! We need only harness and expand their pits, and all our foes will be no more!”
Pits. Titus had used that word, too. “What’s a pit?”
My question was followed by an awkward silence. My host lowered his hand and blinked at me. “What do you mean by that question?”
Uh-oh. I swallowed hard. “I, um, I’m not from around here, so I don’t know too much about the nethral.”
“The nethral have not left any of our world untouched for thousands of years,” he whispered as he crept up to me, his dark eyes unblinking. “Where were you raised that you have no idea about their origins?”
I pulled against my restraints as I tried to move away from him. “J-just a little out of the way place. Nothing special.”
“It must be very special,” he mused as he reached the table.
My heart pounded in my chest as the man’s eyes flitted over my person with evident disdain in their depths.
“You are a very foolish woman to deny me the information I desire.” He set the bowl on my slab near my side.
I arched my body as far away from the thing as I could manage.
“But first, however, we shall ensure you will be no more trouble to me.”
Vhulkar used one long, slender finger to beckon to the nethral.
The beast trotted forward and sat down in front of him.
The man stroked the monster’s head, and my stomach churned as I watched the flesh partially melt into a tar-like substance.
My ‘host’ twisted his fingers into the substance like it was cream and came away with a handful of the sludge.
He rolled the muck in his hand, crafting the disgusting tar into a slender snake.
Vhulkar moved up to my head and grabbed my chin with his empty hand. “Now open wide.”
Horror filled my every being as I realized what he intended to do.
I thrashed in my restraints, but my efforts were as futile as before.
The man pinned my head to the table and forced open my mouth.
I let out a scream as he thrust the ooze into my cavity.
The thing wriggled over my tongue and slid down my throat. It tasted like rotten death.
The ‘snake’ dissolved inside me, spreading inside my body. I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth against the invasive chill brought by its invasion.
Vhulkar began to remove the straps that held me down. “Now we shall have no more need of these.”
He released my hand, and panic and hope forced me into action.
I yanked my arm away and clawed at the strap that held my other wrist. The man stepped back, a grotesque smile on his face, as I freed the rest of my body.
I leaped off the table and backed away from both my host and his hellhound, with one of my eyes ever trained on the open door.
“You cannot escape,” the man warned me as he picked up his jar of disgusting squid. “You are at my command, the same as this nethral.”
My eyes darted between the man and his monster. “I’m willing to give it a try.”
Vhulkar grasped the black bulbous glass that hung from his chain and rubbed his thumb over its surface. “You are going nowhere.”
I froze as a strange rigidity came over my body. My arms and legs felt like hundred-pound weights had been strapped to them. I grimaced and tried to move them, but they wouldn’t budge.
A sly, crooked smile slipped onto his lips.
“Do you see? You cannot leave unless I allow it. Now then-” He lifted the jar with both hands so the contents almost hid his face, “-we shall see what magic you hold so closely to yourself.” He patted his strange bauble and nodded at a nearby chair. “Sit down and we shall begin.”
I remained in my position with a stiff upper lip, and my stomach pleaded at me not to agree to anything involving that strange squid.
The man narrowed his eyes at me and wrapped his hand around his necklace.
A faint glow emanated from the jewelry, and the tension I had felt in my body increased tenfold.
The stress was so great that my muscles cramped, and a silent scream emanated from my parted lips.
I wanted to curl into myself, but my body wouldn’t move. His magic forced me to stand there in agony, unable to do anything more than contort my face to reveal my pain.
My tormentor drew his hand away, and a vicious look of delight glistened in his eyes. “Now will you obey, or should we continue this little play?”
The tension faded, but not the pain. My legs buckled and dropped to my knees. I caught myself with my hands and bent over. My chest heaved up and down, and a dry cough choked my throat.
“Cease your pathetic whimpering and climb into the chair!”
I raised my head high enough to glare at him. His response was to clasp his wicked jewel. My spirit remained defiant, but my body flinched. I eased myself onto my feet and stumbled over to the chair, where I collapsed onto the seat.
Vhulkar loomed over me, his hands stroking the glass bottle.
He popped the cap and held the mouth to my face.
My stomach churned at the odor of putrid water.
The creature reached up with two legs and grasped the lip.
It pulled itself out of its tank and clutched my arm.
Its touch was as cold and clammy as death.
The thing slithered into my lap and wrapped its legs around my midsection.
I squirmed and shrank away from its disgusting body, but the sharp tension of the curse forced my body to remain still.
My heart pounded in my chest as the creature pressed its sharp tips into my arms. I winced as I felt the needles pierce my flesh.
The monster pumped its arms, forcing the contents of the bulbous sacs into my body.
At this rate, I was going to be completely embalmed before the night was out. A harsh shudder ran through my body as the slimy liquid flowed into my veins.
The chill quickly changed to agony as the liquid ran hot inside me. I thrashed about and succeeded in tossing the creature off me. Its skewers were torn from my veins, and blood poured out, staining my clothes and the floor.
Vhulkar stumbled back, clutching the empty bowl to himself and gaping at me. “T-that is impossible! The liquid should have drawn the magic from your body!”
I collapsed onto my knees, where I wrapped my bleeding arms around myself. Even in such agony, I managed to whip my head up and glare at him. “I told you I don’t have any magic!”
He lifted his nose. “That is impossible! You must have-” His gaze dropped to something lower than my face, and his eyes lit up. “That!”