Tourist - 15
Additional Notes: "Charisat" belongs to Martha Wells' novel "City of Bones."
Just the name, not the concept. (Remember, I took the Siri from another of
her novels. Really people, check her out.)
WARNING. VIOLENT CHAPTER. BLOOD IS SPILT.
The great hall was magnificent. It was a dome, a pocket, almost, in the
sand. The ceiling, walls, everything was made entirely of sand packed
into place. One wrong move would bring the entire city caving down on
this one point. But I was sure magic had something to do with it as well,
as I saw portals opening in the sand to allow people to walk into the
room. We stepped through one such portal, and I listened to the sluicing
sand as it closed behind us.
Effectively, there was no entry and no exit.
The great hall was lit by floating orbs of fire which produced no smoke,
which I could understand. Smoke would require ventilation. There were
great banquet tables lined with food and fruit, exotic goods of the likes I
had never seen.
“Welcome to Charisat, gentlemen,” Karl said with a flourish, prodding us
forward. “Lucky for you, tonight is the Great Festival, and we were in
need of some sacrifices.”
As we toured the dome, a cage in the center, nestled quietly between the
banquet tables, became evident. Inside, Darren sat with all the regality of
a King. Lee was cuffed to the wall beside the cage, struggling. He must
have been freshly caught.
Karl led us straight to the area and motioned for me to set Ben down. I
leaned him carefully against the cage Darren was in, and I noticed our
leader’s eyes were roaming cautiously around, tracking Karl’s every
move.
“Daniel, my boy, over here,” Karl motioned and I stepped up. He was
holding more manacles, and I reluctantly held out my wrists. I didn’t see
any way out of this, other than playing along. Perhaps that was what
Karl had been counting on all along.
“You piece of shit,” Darren snarled, the sound echoing around in the
sand room. “You worthless, possessing, small dicked piece of the lowest
dump trash I have ever seen.” He spat at Karl’s feet. I raised an
eyebrow in surprise, and exchanged a glance with Ben. He was just as
surprised as I was.
“Darling Darren, you’re going to have to calm down,” Karl said,
stooping down to be eye level with his prisoner. Darren shook the cage
violently, pressing his face against the bars. “Calm down,” Karl hissed
again, “or damn the sacrifice, and I’ll kill you myself!”
“You raped my mind, you trash,” Darren slammed his fist against the bars
and slumped backwards to glower at Karl. “If I ever get out of here...”
Lee whispered in my ear as I fought to loosen the bindings at my wrist.
“Darren’s been like this for about an hour.”
“Do you know what happened?” I whispered back.
“No idea. He just snapped.”
The Doctor unbent himself and smiled pleasantly at Ben. “And you, you
stupid bodyguard, I think you shall be first. The Charisat like to get the
weakest out of the way.”
I cursed myself for letting him bind me first. If I had known that Darren
was no longer under mental influence...I swore aloud, and Karl turned to
me curiously. I could picture my blade pressing against his flesh, his skin
bending at the point until it finally broke and Karl was no longer a man,
he was only a traitorous shell of bone and gristle.
I glanced at the supposedly injured Ben. He was standing straighter now,
a restless hand tapping on Darren’s cage. Karl withdrew a knife from his
belt and began sharpening it against the edge of the metal bars.
“You here?” Ben asked me.
I blinked. “You going to kill me?”
He smiled grimly. “I can’t. I’ve got a broken leg.”
“Damn,” I said with a flicker of a smile. “I forgot. Yeah, I’m here for
you.” Ben stood up fully and I prepared to draw my sword, as best I
could with my hands bound.
But it was Ben who made the first move, swinging his staff like a club
and clocking the Doctor on the back of his head with a sickening crack
that should have dropped any other man. Instead the Doctor turned,
furiously, and grabbed wild eyed for Ben.
Ben lunged for empty air at my side, hitting the ground with a thud and
rolled, and when he righted himself again, the Siri was bent at Karl’s
throat.
The good doctor could only laugh.
“Splendid, my boy,” he said, clapping. “I see now I have not given you
enough credit.” He was backing away and Ben was advancing with him,
but soon they butted up against Darren’s cage and retreat was no longer
an option for the Doctor. “Honestly now,” he gave a halfhearted laugh.
“Is killing the answer? Surely there is something we can arrange. You
know you won’t get out of here alive if you kill me.”
“Apologize,” Ben commanded.
Karl scoffed. “What?” He looked nervous, as if there was some trick. I
was sure there was. I rubbed my bindings again, trying to work them
free.
“I said, apologize. Now. For taking his mind, his body, without
permission. For fooling all of us. For keeping me injured. For being the
traitor that you are.”
“I’m...I’m sorry,” Karl stammered, confused.
“I don’t believe you,” Ben replied, and I saw his arm slam home, the
blade flashing in the artificial light that surrounded the dome.
Darren cringed as his face was spattered with red.
Karl gave one choking, wet laugh, blood dripping from his mouth. Ben’s
stroke had cut straight through his sternum, cracking his ribs and going
through the other side. “What...?” the Doctor asked, confused, before he
collapsed to the floor, dark blood pooling around him. The Siri,
implanted in his chest, disappeared.
“Fuck,” Ben growled, watching the sword disappear. “We could’ve used
that.” He viciously ripped the keys off of Karl’s belt and bent to unlock
Darren’s cage. The man was calmly wiping off his face, and examining
the red that stained his hands.
“Are you okay?” Ben asked gruffly, pulling the smaller man out of the
cage. “Not hurt?”
“Not really,” Darren replied, and it was the first time in a month that I
knew it was Darren Hayes that was speaking. He looked around, at the
women that were starting to pile into the hall for the banquet and
ceremony. “But I think we’d better get out of here.”
“Great idea,” Lee replied, and shook his wrists, clanking the metal bonds.
“If your bodyguard would like to unlock the rest of us?”
Ben tossed me the keys and I worked my cuffs off, and then went to get
Lee off the wall. We looked down, then, at Karl’s empty body.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, laying a hand on Darren’s shoulder.
“I’m not,” the man replied, giving the body a sharp kick with his steel
toed boot. “Now let’s get the hell out of here.” He turned to Lee.
“Anything you can do?”
The magician frowned, his eyes flashing.
“Ah...Lee...” Ben said falteringly, stooping to pick up his staff. “Your
eyes.”
“Gone back to blue?” Lee asked, distractedly. He was eyeing the ceiling
and walls.
“Yeah. And your skin’s fading, too.” The man was shifting now, like a
confused chameleon.
“It’ll last for at least another ten minutes, don’t worry,” Lee assured him.
Ten minutes was nowhere near enough time. But it wasn’t like we could
just walk out undetected, anyway.
Or could we?
I turned to the sloping wall behind us, the one that Lee had been strapped
to. I pressed my hand against it, and the sand shifted beneath, a portal
opening. “Let’s go!” I yelled, snapping Lee out of his reverie. The three
followed me as I dashed up the tunnel.
“Where are we even going?” Ben demanded, panting.
“I don’t know. But up is a good direction,” I yelled over my shoulder.
We were passing rooms with people in them, and they were poking their
heads out after us. After a few minutes, the trample sound of boots on
stone attested to the fact that we had pursuers.
“After them!” came a female voice from far behind in the corridors.
I grit my teeth and ran harder, clambering up towards a small light at the
end of the tunnel. How cliché.
We shot out one by one, like bullets from a pressure gun, collapsing on
the warm sand. Lee stayed on his feet, his palms pressed calmly out
toward the opening, and closed it for good. The main entrance sealed
with a vacuum packing sound, and the sound of bodies hitting a wall
echoed from the other side.
“Surely there are other ways out,” Darren asked.
“There are,” Lee said. “But they won’t move in the daylight. So we’ve
got to get as far as fast as we can until the sunsets.”
I groaned in protest, flopping back down on the dunes. “Couldn’t we
just rest for a day or four? I’m so tired...”
“We’re all tired,” Ben replied, hefting me up. “But we’ve got to keep
going. There’s not much more we can do.”
Darren was smiling. “It doesn’t matter. Look!” We all turned around to
see where he was pointing. “We’re almost there!”
Not five miles away lay a lush, green land, where sand dunes were
transformed into rolling hills. Great walls came up to surround the area.
“If we can make it there by sunset, we’ll be fine,” Darren continued.
“We’ll be just fine indeed.”
I sighed, standing up. “How long do we have?”
Lee peered up at the sky. “Four hours. Five would be pushing it.
Moving in this sand, that leaves us just enough time to get there.”
tbc...