Vyan wished for the millionth time that as a young man he'd sought another way to acquire the land he and his wife had intended to farm. Taking up a sword to follow Batuk upon the promise of his own tract of land had made sense at one time. A foolish decision observed clearly in hindsight. Just another way he'd failed his wife. Time had stolen her face from him, but not the sense of failure to protect her.
Vyan blinked away the hot sting in his eyes and swallowed to wet his dry throat. His saliva tasted bitter with salt and remorse.
A sizzle of energy washed across his skin in a cloak of warning.
"Stop." Vyan raised his hand to enforce his order. Hair pricked along his arms. He sniffed the air for a hint of danger. The breath he inhaled burned his throat, indicating the threat was near and powerful. They'd entered the monster's invisible cage. Vyan's hearing sharpened with the possibility of facing a creature in battle. Thin twigs snapped beneath his feet, loud as a tree being axed.
He and his men moved to circle their warlord.
Batuk shook his head and lifted a single finger to indicate all of his men should remain behind him except his first in command. An arrogant move when facing an unknown enemy.
Resigned to his fate, Vyan fell into step with his warlord, who pushed into a clearing.
The entire jungle stilled. Nothing scuttled across the ground or swooped through the air between the webbed branches overhead. A foul odor assaulted Vyan's nose and throat.
He caught a sound, a deep, rasping noise coming from a large animal. He gained Batuk's attention before pointing across the opening to where a palm frond shot fifteen feet above the ground and trembled in sync with each ragged breath from whatever hid there.
Batuk took another step into the opening.
A strong vibration tripped through the air, followed by a low, keening howl filled with menace, as if the animal warned them they had trespassed in his domain and there was no way out.
Vyan's blood pumped hard in his body. He touched his sword, which hung in the leather sheath at his hip, but had to take care. The witch who'd freed their small number had warned that any use of majik in the monster's spellbound cage would backfire against them.
A snarl bellowed in the dense forest in front of them. Trees swayed and the ground trembled.
The animal raised its head.
Vyan had never seen anything so repulsive. How could something alive smell of swamp rot? Most of the body was covered in sores and scabs. The small parts that weren't were a hideous patchwork of filthy hair and scales. Batuk believed they sought some form of a man, but this thing stood ten feet tall and could be nothing other than a monster.
Vyan drew his weapon, heartened at the shirring sound of eight more swords drawn behind him.
"No!" Batuk ordered. "Sheathe your weapons. Now!"
So we die like slaughtered lambs? Vyan held his frustration in a firm grasp. He did as ordered and stood beside the warlord he'd sworn fealty to many centuries ago.
The animal drew its cracked lips into a snarl, fully exposing uneven saber teeth. He tipped his head back and bellowed, the sound neither human nor animal but clearly a message that they had wasted the head start the beast had given them. In its haste to get to them, it uprooted trees as thick around as Vyan's waist and bounded forward in heavy steps, shaking the ground.
When the beast entered the clearing, it was half human. At least, the barrel chest, two long legs and two dangling arms were humanlike in structure. It wore threadbare jeans but no shirt over the hair on its chest, which was matted with blood. Scales wrapped its abdomen and ran across its hunched shoulders. Each three-toed foot was twice the length of Vyan's.
Black eyes peered from beneath a jutting forehead.
"By all the saints, what is that?" Vyan whispered, but he never got an answer.
The animal raised its bulging forearms with four thick fingers dangling from each hand. It pointed jagged fingernails at Batuk.
"I am here to offer you a deal," Batuk said, raising his hand in a silent order for the animal to stop.
Instead, the beast took another step and clenched its stubby fingers into fists that cut his palms. A warning, but the monster was curious, or it would have slain them all by now.
The men mumbled in harsh whispers, clearly questioning the sanity behind this march. Even Vyan wondered if his warlord had lost his mind while traveling through the portal.
The animal sniffed the air, grunted, then peered past Vyan and Batuk. On its next sniff, it growled, as if preparing to attack.
Batuk called out over his shoulder. "Bring the woman."
Woman? Vyan went cold at that one word. He caught the scent of innocence before Nhivoli and another soldier marched forward with a young female bound and gagged, hanging by her hands and feet from a narrow tree limb supported across their shoulders. She appeared to be unconscious at first, but the animal's growl roused her. The poor girl took in the scene with wide eyes, then jerked back and forth, bleeding where the ropes cut into her soft skin.
Fury screamed through Vyan's brain and threatened to explode. He stopped the men from entering the clearing and spoke to Batuk. "You cannot do this."
"Do not argue with me." Batuk's hand moved to his sword. His face gnarled with rage. "This is the only way to free our people. Without the beast's help, we have no chance against the Beladors once they learn of our escape from Mount Meru. Do you not care for your people? Have you forgotten all you have lost to them?"
Drawing a sword on Vyan would have been less of an insult.
The animal snarled and growled, pawing the ground.
"Wait, I have an offering." Batuk waved the men into the clearing.
The reminder of all Vyan had lost in a bloody war with the invading Beladors crashed through him. Pain forged an alliance with his anger to tear a fresh gash through the heart that had withered in his chest over time. He'd spent centuries dreaming of revenge, willing to do practically anything to make the Beladors pay, but using this woman stirred something inside Vyan he'd been sure had died along with his wife eight hundred years ago.
His conscience.
First the men slid the ropes holding the woman's hands and feet from the pole then they backed away quickly.
"All wars require sacrifice," Batuk whispered to Vyan. "Besides, you have no power inside this cage, so do not kill my men with misplaced honor."
Vyan struggled to find a solution to the impossible situation he'd marched into. Since they had no way to retaliate, this animal would definitely kill all of them. In truth, Vyan would welcome the end to his private hell, but not at the cost of another innocent life.
Keeping an eye on Batuk and his men, the animal dropped down on one knee next to the squirming girl, whose skin glistened with fear. Muted noises gurgled beneath the gag on her mouth. The beast studied her, as if not sure what to do, then flicked a sharp fingernail across the ropes holding her feet, slicing cleanly through. She froze, staring with horror-filled, bloodshot eyes at the monster. It cut the ropes binding her wrists. Her body shook, her small shoulders rocking with tremors. The simple blue sack she wore as a dress clung to womanly curves that belied the girl's youth.
The beast gently slipped a talon between the gag and her face, slicing the rag with little effort.
She screamed, eyes bulging in terror.
Vyan began to wonder what the beast would actually do. He swung his gaze to Batuk, whose black eyebrows drew tight over his hard expression.
This clearly confused his warlord.
The young woman began crying hysterically and spewing garbled words in a language Vyan did not speak. He understood the meaning behind them, though. She pleaded for her life.
The self-hatred he lived with each day for failing his wife would be nothing compared to what he'd feel if he found no way to stop this travesty. What was left of his soul would be a true wasteland.
When the girl moved to crawl away, the creature roared and slapped the ground with its open palm. Vines exploded from t
he earth, pushing her onto her back, then tethering her arms and legs. It bared its teeth. A thin tongue slinked out, stretching all the way down to touch her face.
She cringed, turning away and crying harder.
Vyan closed his eyes, damning himself along with the others. This was wrong!
Her scream snapped his eyes open and shook loose what was left of his humanity. He could not let Batuk do this. They'd all sworn revenge on the Beladors, but offering this poor woman to a monster was not his idea of war.
"Wait!" Vyan fully expected to pay for this interference with his life.
The beast's glare was only outdone by Batuk's murderous gaze, which should have backed Vyan away, but didn't.
"The girl has not taken the serum the witch gave us," Vyan quickly explained.
The warlord's face blazed red with anger, embarrassment, or both. "Nhivoli, why did you not give it to her?"
"My lord, I do not have the serum, Vyan does."
Batuk's fingernails lengthened into sharp metal claws, a sign he wanted to kill someone. With his glowing yellow eyes locked on Vyan, it wasn't hard to figure out who. "She is nothing more than a meal if she does not drink it. Give her the serum!"
Her wailing filled the jungle. The air trembled with her despair.
"The witch said it was not necessary to drink all of the brew," Vyan hedged. "In fact, she warned us about using too much." The witch had actually said to give the serum to an animal, then stake the offering for the beast to feast upon, because she believed the potion would work slower and hold longer if not taken directly, but she did not know for sure. Vyan really didn't care what it did to the monster, but he would not allow this girl to be a sacrificial lamb.
"Feed her the brew now!" Batuk bellowed.
Vyan struggled to think quickly under the threat of his impending death. "What if she drinks the serum then her stomach tosses it back? We can't risk wasting any of the liquid. The beast's body is much stronger than hers. Give the beast some and see if it works. If not, then give the rest to the girl, but do not let him kill her first." He had no idea how he would get the woman away from this monster and Batuk, but he'd bought himself a few minutes with which to plan.
Ignoring them, the monster raised a hand above her, fingers curved to attack. She screamed, then fainted.
Vyan took a step toward the beast, his hand going to his sword. The creature's head spun to the side. He stared at Vyan with raw hatred.
"Sir." Batuk extended his arms, palms open in offering. "I have brought something better than the girl. I have a serum that will give you what you most desire."
The beast's rumbling breaths came quicker. Its black eyes crept from the girl to Batuk, then returned to its prey. It seemed to struggle with indecision until it slowly moved its hand back and forth above her. The silent order caused the vines tethering her to slide away from her body and into the jungle as frightened asps. Moving its hand again, the beast levitated her limp body to lie across one extended arm before it stood and, to Vyan's disappointment, turned toward the dense woods.
What now?
Vyan was Batuk's best strategist, but he'd come up with no idea of how to deter this beast from the girl. If all else failed, he would use his sword. To do so would decidedly result in his own death at Batuk's hands, but Vyan had enough nightmares without draping this woman's death across his shoulders, too.
He called out to the beast. "So you do not want the serum that will cure you of being a beast? Too bad. We shall leave then."
At his challenge, the beast turned a gaze on him so soulless that there appeared to be no eyes in the black sockets.
Vyan took a deep breath he hoped would not be his last. "Lay the girl down and I will give you the serum."
"It is my gift to you," Batuk quickly interjected with enough emphasis to let everyone know he was in charge. He steepled his hands in front of his chest, then bowed to the monster, but his eyes seethed with ire when he glanced at his first in command.
Vyan only hoped if they survived this that he could convince his warlord later he'd been trying to save all of them. He withdrew the metal flask and stepped forward.
The beast swung around. The woman dangled from his arm.
"Put the girl down," Vyan repeated, his tone one of counsel rather than an order.
When the beast still hesitated, Vyan opened the flask and angled it as though to pour the contents out on the ground. Hearing Batuk's harsh intake of air, Vyan prepared for death in the next minute.
The beast flung the girl to the side, where she landed on several bushes, then slid to the ground. Vyan winced, but so far she was unharmed. Bruised and probably mentally scarred. But physically she'd recover.
He placed the flask on a bare patch of dirt and backed away.
The beast lifted its hand over the metal container, which rose in the air to eye level. It stared at the flask, clearly questioning the contents as it breathed in and out in a low rumble from deep in its chest.
"I need you to help us, so why would I poison you?" Batuk asked in an encouraging tone.
The beast stomped its foot.
Vines lashed from the trees down upon Vyan and the others before he could draw his sword. He fought to free himself, but he might as well have been tied with braided metal.
The men called out for Batuk to free them.
His warlord stood tall in his binding and stared at the beast. "Kill me if you choose, but free my men. The only mistake they made was in trusting me. My only mistake was believing you, too, wanted revenge on the Beladors, to make their leader Brina pay for what she has turned you into."
The beast stopped snarling and studied the warlord.
In that moment, Vyan witnessed a flash of longing in the empty eyes. The beast wanted to believe Batuk.
Silence bound everyone for several seconds.
Then the beast raised its hand and pointed a finger at the flask that floated chin high, but he did not touch it. The metal tin moved to the beast's mouth and tilted as it dropped its head back to allow the brown liquid to flow down its throat.
"He still may not help us," Vyan warned under his breath.
Batuk was unbelievably calm given their situation. "We have never known the outcome of any battle before the first strike of swords." He turned his head and staked Vyan with a menacing glare. "You have never doubted my ability to lead my men before. Do you now?"
"No. My loyalty does not waver." Vyan made sure his voice was solid with conviction to hide the lie. Though honestly, his faith should have wavered sooner.
Much sooner.
The flask hit the ground hard. The beast clutched its middle, moaning. Fire glowed red in its eyes when it raised its head. The beast clawed at its chest as if trying to let something out, then twisted into an impossible shape.
A cry of agony tore loose from its cracked lips.
Vyan could not believe what he witnessed. He prayed they lived long enough to make the witch pay for what she'd given this beast, which would rip them into pieces as soon as it could physically do so.
Red dust appeared from nowhere, swirling in bands around them, faster and faster until the beast was engulfed in a cloud that roared like a loud horn. Sand, loose branches and stones lifted from the ground in the spinning cloud, pelting Vyan's skin, cutting his face and shoulders. The men's cries were lost in the noise until the wind died all at once.
Peace ensued so abruptly that the soldiers quieted, until Vyan heard only the thumping of his heart and each panting breath he drew. He tasted dust and blood on his lips.
When the haze settled, the beast was no longer a beast. Still wearing ragged jeans and no shirt, he now stood only a few inches over six feet tall. His golden hair and pale eyes were as out of place in this jungle as the straight white teeth and perfect features.
Those unnaturally bright green eyes were not human.
They were the unique shade of an Alterant's.
"What do you want, warlord?" the man asked, the glint in his gaze as
hard as the cut of muscle wrapping his upper body. He folded his forearms over a smooth chest.
Batuk remained calm. "I was told you are Tristan. And that you are an Alterant, not a pure Belador, even though you were born under their star. It is rumored you have the blood of a dark spirit, but your fair hair and pale eyes surprise me."
Tristan snorted. "Surely you didn't go through all of this to talk about my looks?"
"As I said earlier, I came to make a deal with you. I need one with your powers to help us."
"Why should I care what you want?"
"Because if you agree to my offer, you can remain the way you are now ... forever. You will no longer be known as a beast."
Tristan's eyebrows flickered in surprise, then he shook his head and shoved a testy glare at Batuk. "Who are you to think you can offer me the impossible?"
But curiosity had slipped through the bravado in his words.
"I am Batuk, the Kujoo warlord. My men and I are willing to lay down our lives to make the Beladors pay for murdering our families and raiding our lands. We will not stop until every one of them lies dead."
Vyan felt encouraged at the slight catch of interest in Tristan's eyes when Batuk mentioned warring with the Beladors.
"You have yet to answer my question, warlord." Tristan shifted, his bored stance reinforcing a lack of patience.
"Release us so we may talk as men. I have proven I am not your enemy by the form you have right now."
Tristan tossed his head to one side, as if silently ordering someone to leave. The vines unwrapped from Vyan's body and snaked away to nearby trees. The witch had warned that this part of the jungle was entirely under Tristan's rule and power, but it was also his prison. The two-kilometer-square area had been shrouded in a spell that prevented him from leaving.
Once the men were freed, Batuk stepped closer to him. "I have sworn revenge on the Beladors for murdering our people and causing us to lose favor with our god Shiva. My men escaped through a portal we've opened between the two worlds. I am willing to help you obtain what you want if you will in turn help me obtain what I need."
"What exactly do you need?"
Batuk hesitated just long enough for Vyan not to trust his warlord's answer. "To free my people from imprisonment beneath Mount Meru, but I feel certain we will encounter the Beladors before this is accomplished. If so, we will need your help to defeat them, as our god forbids us from warring with the Beladors. You can fight them. We cannot."