Chaos and Retribution Box Set, page 98
part #1 of Chaos and Retribution Series
He looked at the other two tablets. What were the words on them for? He pondered this. The aranti lived in the sky, and the words for controlling them were on the tablet with the drawing of a cloud on it. Did that mean that the words on the other two tablets were meant to control different kinds of creatures? That had to be it. What else made sense? Probably the words on the tablet with the waves on it were for controlling creatures that lived in water, while the one with the mountain on it must have words meant to control creatures that lived underground.
Were there creatures like the aranti that lived in the water and in the soil? It seemed impossible, but then so did the aranti themselves.
The aranti had told Karliss they were kin to Kasai, yet clearly Kasai was not like them at all. He did not live in the wind as they did. Which meant that he was either a creature of the water or a creature of underground. After seeing Kasai melt stone with a touch, Karliss had to assume that Kasai was a creature of underground. Which meant that the three words on that tablet could be exactly what he needed to fight Kasai.
Now if he could only translate them. How did Unegen manage it? The answer had to be here somewhere.
He started to walk around the room.
“What are you doing now?” Batu asked. “Why aren’t we leaving yet?”
“I’m looking around, that’s what I’m doing,” Karliss said, making a disgusted sound. “What are you so afraid of?”
“Being killed by an angry god. Didn’t I say that already?”
“No god lives here,” Karliss said.
“You don’t know that,” Batu said.
“Either way, I’m not leaving yet. The words are useless to me unless I can translate them.”
Karliss walked up to one of the walls and was startled when a section of it slid back suddenly. He jumped back. The section slid closed once more.
“Did you see that?” he asked his friends. He turned and saw that Hulagu was holding a struggling Batu by the collar.
“Let me go!” Batu cried. “I’m getting out of here.”
“Not as long as Karliss is still in there,” Hulagu said.
Batu gave up fighting. It was useless anyway. “Why are you so strong?” he said.
Karliss moved toward the wall again. Once again, the section slid back. “It’s a door,” he said.
“Great. You found a door. Now can we leave?” Batu asked.
Karliss walked through the doorway.
Chapter Eighteen
“No, Karliss!” Batu yelled, but Karliss ignored him. He’d come too far, risked too much. He wasn’t leaving without learning what he came to learn.
As he stepped through the doorway, the lights went on in the room. It was smaller than the first room. On the far side of the room, up against the wall, was a long, low table.
On the table was a body.
“What do you see?” Hulagu hissed from the entrance. He still had hold of Batu’s collar, and they were both staring at Karliss. From where they stood, they couldn’t see into the room.
“I think I found the owner of this place.” He looked over at them. “It’s a body.”
“What?” Batu cried, his eyes wide. “You found Tung-alk’s body?”
“It’s someone’s body. I don’t think it’s Tung-alk’s.”
“Don’t go near it,” Batu cried, as Karliss started walking toward it. “No! What are you doing? I told you not to go near it!”
Karliss kept walking.
“Now we’re doomed for sure,” Batu said. He sighed loudly. “Well, if we’re doomed anyway, I want to see it too.”
“Me too,” Hulagu said. Hesitantly, the two entered the first room.
Karliss saw right away that the body wasn’t human.
Whoever it was had obviously been there a very long time. He was mummified, his skin turned to yellowish leather. Whatever clothes he had been wearing had disintegrated to the point that only piles of dust, and a few tiny scraps of fabric remained. His lips had withered and pulled back from his mouth, which showed no teeth. His eyes were large and set high on his head. His nose was flat and wide. He was about the same height as a person, but with a more delicate bone structure. But the most noticeable difference was the fact that he had four arms instead of two.
Hulagu and Batu approached cautiously. Batu looked like he was about to bolt from the room. “Is that Tung-alk?” Batu asked, stopping a few paces away. “He looks different than I pictured him. I don’t see any horns or claws.”
“Whoever he was, I don’t think he died peacefully,” Hulagu said, pointing.
The torso on one side was crushed inwards.
“Who could be powerful enough to kill a god?” Batu said in awe.
“I don’t think this is Tung-alk. I don’t think it’s a god at all,” Karliss replied.
“But you said one of those tablets has the word of power on it. The word of power is used to control the spirits,” Hulagu said. “The spirits are the servants of the gods. Why would he have the word of power in his home if he wasn’t a god?”
Karliss looked at his friends. “I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone before. Those things we call spirits? They’re not. They’re aranti. If they are servants of the gods, they never speak of it, because I’ve never heard them.” He took a deep breath. “I’ve started to think there are no gods. Or at least not anymore.”
“What?” Batu said. “No spirits? No gods? Are you crazy?”
“Are you sure?” Hulagu asked.
“About the gods? No. But I am sure about the aranti. And now after seeing this place, well, I’m starting to think maybe the aranti were his servants, long ago before he died.”
“He could still be a god,” Batu maintained.
“He might be,” Karliss said. “I guess we’ll never know.”
“God or not, I don’t like being in here. I feel like something bad is going to happen any moment,” Batu said. “Can we leave now?”
“Before I copy down the words or figure out how to translate them?” Karliss said. “Not a chance.”
“What if we look around while you copy the words?” Hulagu asked. “That will save some time and get us out of here faster.”
“Don’t volunteer me,” Batu said. “I don’t want to stay in here any longer. Someone needs to go check on the horses. I volunteer to do that.”
“Nope,” Hulagu said, grabbing Batu’s arm before he could get away. “You’re staying and helping.”
“Ouch,” Batu said, giving Hulagu a wounded look. “You don’t have to squeeze my arm so hard. See? I’m staying and agreeing to help you look.”
Karliss went back into the larger room, leaving the other two still arguing. He’d gotten a piece of parchment, a quill, and a small bottle of ink from Firehair, and he took them out and laid them on the table. Opening up the ink, he dipped the quill in it and began copying the words. He took his time, wanting to get the strange script as exact as he could. Who knew what detail would be important? He didn’t want to miss anything. It was painstaking work and required a lot of concentration.
He was so engrossed in his task that he lost track of time, so he didn’t know how much later it was when Hulagu came over and tapped him on the shoulder. Karliss blinked and looked up. “What is it?”
“We found another door,” Hulagu said. “I think.”
Karliss followed Hulagu over to the opposite side of the room from the first door he’d found.
“Look here,” Hulagu said. “Does that look like the outline of a door to you?”
At first, Karliss couldn’t see it. It simply looked like a blank wall to him. But then he was able to make out a faint outline. “How come it doesn’t open automatically like the other one?” he asked.
“I don’t know. We tried stepping everywhere.”
“Maybe it doesn’t open because we’re not supposed to go in there,” Batu said. “It could be dangerous. Did you ever think of that?”
“I think we’re past that,” Hulagu said.
Hulagu and Karliss spent some time trying different things while Batu offered his opinions.
“Try jumping up and down,” he suggested. “Maybe whatever’s in the floor that makes the door open is stuck or something.”
That didn’t work. Neither did pushing on the door or trying to slide it to the side.
“You didn’t find anything else, did you?” Karliss asked.
“Of course, we did,” Batu said sarcastically. “We found a magic spear, in fact. Guaranteed to kill Kasai with one blow.”
“We didn’t find anything else,” Hulagu said.
“Then the answer to how Unegen translated the word of power must be in there,” Karliss said. “I’m not leaving until I get in there.”
“Great,” Batu said. “I knew we shouldn’t have told him about it. Now we’re never getting out of here.”
The three of them spent a long time trying the same things over and over again. Nothing they did had the slightest result. Finally, Batu got mad. “It’s hopeless. We’re never getting through this door,” he grumbled, slamming his fist against the wall beside the door.
When he did that, the door suddenly slid open.
Batu jumped back, alarmed. “Did I do that?”
“Nice to know you’re good for something besides complaining,” Hulagu said.
Beyond the door was a short passage, leading deeper into the mountainside. At the end of the passage was another room, this one smaller than the other two, less than a half dozen paces across.
On the far side of the room was a circular door. Set into the circular was a crystal about the length of a child’s arm and somewhat bigger around. A yellow light emanated from it, pulsing slightly.
“Oh good. A glowing crystal,” Batu said. “I’m sure it’s something terrible. Can we leave now?”
Karliss started toward it, but as he was crossing the room, the crystal’s color changed from yellow to orange, and it began to pulse faster. Karliss rubbed his arms. He had a strange, prickly feeling on his skin, and he felt unnaturally hot.
“Don’t come any closer,” he warned the others.
“No chance of that,” Batu said. “Even from here I can feel it. It’s like snakes are crawling in my stomach.”
“Any idea what it is?” Hulagu asked.
“No idea,” Karliss said.
“Whatever is on the other side of those doors must be really important,” Batu said.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because that thing was put there to protect it. You can’t open the door without removing it, and who’s going to do that? I’m clear across the room and I feel terrible. Imagine what it’s like up close.”
“How can you stand to be so close to it?” Hulagu asked Karliss.
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem to bother me as much as it does you two.”
“Comes with being the hero, I guess,” Batu said. Then, for no particular reason, he added, “I miss Sube,” and sighed a little.
“You miss Sube, or you miss her cooking?” Hulagu asked.
“Can’t it be both?”
Karliss took a couple more steps forward. The crystal changed from orange to red and pulsed even faster. The prickly feeling intensified, and he felt sick in the pit of his stomach. Sweat started pouring off him.
“Don’t touch that thing,” Batu warned.
“I agree with him,” Hulagu added. Both of their faces were pale, and they’d backed up into the short passage, trying to get further away from the crystal.
Karliss hesitated. What if the answer he sought was on the other side of that door? But what if he touched the crystal and killed himself? “Okay,” he said reluctantly.
As he backed away, the crystal changed from red to orange, and then back to yellow. He followed the other two back to the main room. Batu wiped sweat from his forehead and said, “Are you about done with the copying? If I don’t get outside and get some fresh air soon…I don’t know what I’m going to do, but it won’t be pretty.”
“I’m with Batu,” Hulagu said. He looked a little like he wanted to throw up.
“Why don’t you two go back outside and check on the horses?” Karliss said. “Let me finish copying, and I’ll come join you.”
“Are you sure?” Hulagu asked. “I don’t want to leave you in here alone…”
“Yes, he’s sure,” Batu said. “You heard him the same as I did. See you in a bit, Karliss. Leave the crystal alone.” He was already hurrying out of the room as he spoke.
Hulagu lingered behind. “You’re not going to go back in there and touch that crystal, are you?”
“No, Hulagu, I won’t,” Karliss said, though the thought had already crossed his mind. He couldn’t leave here emptyhanded.
“You don’t sound very positive.”
“I won’t touch the crystal. You have my word on it.”
Hulagu looked at him suspiciously for a moment longer, then followed Batu.
Karliss went back to his copying. He finished a little while later. While waiting for the ink to dry, so he could roll up the parchment, he took another walk around, hoping there was something he’d missed, something that might give him a clue as to how Unegen had translated the word of power.
He walked into the room with the mummified body and stood looking down at it. “I wish you could talk,” he said. “I wish you could tell me how to translate those words.”
He walked around the place, looking at everything closely. He tried picking up the tablets, thinking there might be something written on the backs, but he couldn’t budge any of them. He couldn’t find the outlines of any more doors. There was nothing under the table. Eventually, discouraged, he ended up looking at the body again.
He bent to examine it closer, and for the first time noticed that one hand was clenched into a fist. Why? He looked at it from different angles, wondering if there was something in there. From one angle he thought he could see something bluish.
He tried to pry the fingers open. When he did, the whole hand broke off. “Sorry about that,” Karliss said, his face wrinkling in distaste. “But I guess you weren’t using it anymore.”
He broke the fingers off, revealing a small, blue gem. “Look at that,” he said, and touched it.
When he touched the gem, something seemed to pass over him. The light in the room dimmed briefly, like a small cloud passing in front of the sun. He dropped the gem and looked around, suddenly disoriented. Where was he? He looked down at himself and was momentarily confused by what he saw. This wasn’t his body. It didn’t look familiar at all.
Then the moment passed. He blinked, wondering what had just happened. It was as if for a moment he was someone else. He looked down at the gem. Whatever had happened, it was caused by touching it.
Using his janu to avoid touching it, Karliss picked up the gem and left the room. When he went over to the table, he glanced at the tablets. For a moment he felt like he recognized the alien writing, but then the moment was gone. He felt a thrill of excitement. Was this how Unegen figured out the word of power? Did he also touch the gem?
Karliss sat down in the strange chair. He unwrapped the gem, took a deep breath, and closed his fingers around it.
Like before, he had the sense of something passing over him. A powerful shudder shook his body. He felt very strange. Something seemed terribly wrong. He looked at his hands and got a terrible jolt.
They weren’t his hands.
Alarmed, he jumped to his feet and backed away from the table. This wasn’t his body. Two of his arms were missing. What was going on?
He heard a sound behind him and spun. There were two strange creatures over by the door, staring at him.
Chapter Nineteen
“Who are you and how did you get in here?” he barked at them.
They replied, but their words were gibberish. He backed away. They didn’t look like Devourers, but who knew what the denizens of the Abyss were truly capable of? He needed to use one of the control words to summon Shapers to defend him, but when he tried to say the words, he found he couldn’t remember them.
The strange creatures spoke again. Then they rushed at him. He tried to fight them, but he felt dizzy and weak, and they quickly overpowered him. The big one held him tightly, while the smaller one pried open his hand. He yelled at them to stop, but they ignored him.
Karliss blinked. Hulagu had him in a bear hug. Batu was standing in front of him with a frightened look on his face. The blue gem was lying on the floor. “What happened?” Karliss asked.
“Is it really you?” Batu asked suspiciously and poked him with one finger.
“Yes, it’s me. You can let me go now, Hulagu.”
Hulagu released him. Batu relaxed, but he was watching Karliss closely.
“You looked at us like we were complete strangers and started shouting in some language I never heard before,” Batu added.
“What happened?” Hulagu asked.
“I’m…not sure. I didn’t recognize you at all. I didn’t recognize myself.” Karliss looked down at his hands. “I remember thinking that two of my arms were missing.”
“What?” Batu asked. “Are you saying that you thought you were that thing in the other room?”
“I think so.”
“Where’d you get the gem?” Hulagu asked.
“He had it in one of his hands. After the first time I touched it, I looked at the tablets and had a feeling I almost knew what they said.”
“So naturally you touched the gem again,” Hulagu said, “without telling us or anything.”
“I thought it would be okay.”
“You touched a strange gem you found in a god’s dwelling, that made you think you were someone else, and then you thought it would be okay to touch it again? Are you mad?” Batu asked.
“When you put it like that…” Karliss said.
“You didn’t also touch the crystal, did you?” Hulagu asked.
“No.”
“That’s something. Did it work?” Hulagu asked.
“Did what work?”
“Can you read the words now?”
“I don’t know.” Karliss hurried over to the table and looked at the tablets. “I can,” he said in wonder. He opened the ink, dipped the quill, and began writing the words down as quickly as he could. By the time he got to the last couple of words, his memory was starting to fade, but he thought he got them down right.
