Shadowlands 9: Ring of fire

I looked more closely at the darkening horizon. The haze was a growing sandstorm. It was exactly what I wanted right now. I really wanted to be covered in sand.1

“Perfect!” I shouted. I tilted my head back, “Quit looking at me!” I cursed at the sun as it glared down. 2

It continued in spite of my demand.3

I looked around. I needed cover from the storm, or I really would die. Off in the distance I saw a speck of black.4

I started running, but blood loss did not favor me there. I eventually broke down to a trot, and before the dot took any distinguishable form, I was walking again.5

But still I continued on. Sand was picking up, aggravating my fresh wounds. The dot grew.6

That dot was the only thing between me and death. If I hadn’t seen it, I would have been lost in minutes. That dot which grew larger steadily.7

I heard roaring behind me. I looked back and saw the sandstorm approaching. A giant skull formed in the sand, trailing powerful wind behind it. An evil grin ready to swallow me up spread across the horrifying face.8

For reasons possibly related to this development, I started running again.9

The storm gained on me. I went down behind a dune. My dot was on the other side. Soon I would see what it was. I crested the sandy hill and saw a “Palm tree! Water! God don’t let it be a mirage.”10

I ran up to the oasis. It was a tiled pool, with trees planted neatly around the octagon of water. A hole in the center of the pool caught my attention. I leaned over the water to look at it.11

There in the depths of the water, a tunnel had been dug into the bedrock below. I looked down further to see my reflection. It was the girl’s face that looked back at me.12

“I held my breath, and so can you.”13

The skull was approaching quickly. I hopped into the drink.14

Sand rushed past, but the pool remained pure. Looking around I saw that the pool was full of phantoms, drifting silently in the water. They paid me no attention.15

I swam to the hole, and found that I could breathe in the water. Using the rough sides of the tunnel as handholds I crawled through the rocky passage.16

It was deep, and dark. The only light had long since been blocked out by the storm. I had nowhere to go but down. The tunnel twisted and turned, bringing me deeper and deeper underground.17

The girl’s face appeared to me again. “Follow me.” She twisted into a pale light and led the way. I pulled myself after her.18

“Who are you?” I demanded. But she did not answer.19

I emerged in a large chamber, the water’s tension held it in the tunnel. It was a twenty foot drop through the air to the bottom of the opening. The light was gone, and I had no way down.20

I looked into the room. It had been set up like a hunting lodge. I stuck my head out of the water, and looked around. A chandelier made of antlers hung from the ceiling just out of my reach.21

I pulled myself a little closer. Just inches away. Buoyancy failed me, and I started falling headfirst. I stretched for the chandelier, and the chain on my left wrist snaked out wrapping around the antlers. More links latched onto the shackle, easing the shock on my shoulder.22

I clinked down to land gently on the floor of the chamber, and the extra links disappeared one by one as the chain retracted.23

I took the opportunity to look around some more. Since I now had no way out, there was really nothing better to do. In the center of the room, next to where I had landed, stood a heavy oak table. Heavy oak chairs had been set around it, and then occupied by slouching skeletons.24

The skeletons looked strange and cartoonish. Their hands feet and heads were bigger than a human’s, and they had massive overbites. The skeletons at either end of the table were about four feet taller than me. The others were just shorter than me.25

A fire burned merrily in a fireplace behind the head seat at the long table. On closer inspection the logs were large bones.26

The fire cast strange shadows over the mounted heads of odd looking creatures. Axes and swords and other such sundries hung from the walls behind coats of arms.27

Next to the fireplace was a sundial on a turntable. The turntable had degrees marked on the underside, and a notch at each quarter turn. It was pointing to zero, directly at the fire.28

A book lay on a smaller table in the corner. I opened it up. There were diary entries -which I had no patience or concentration to read just then- followed by blank pages.29

I walked as I leafed through the blank sheets. I walked over a bearskin rug, and sat down next to a stuffed chimera. On the final page –the one glued to the back cover- someone had scribbled a note: point the sun to the number that brought you here.30

“That’s weird.” As I contemplated what the note might mean, I did not notice the rug starting to sniff around. I did not notice the skeletons at each end of the table standing up I did not notice anything at all until the chimera began moving.31

I looked at the taxidermist trophy next to me. Its tail started flicking. It pulled at feet bolted to a platform. It eyed me hungrily.32

Calmly and nervously I walked to one of the swords mounted on the wall. I lifted it off its hooks and the bearskin sunk its claws into my calf. I staggered with the pain.33

The rug pulled itself closer. I stabbed it in the head. No effect. I kicked across the room. One of the chimera’s feet ripped off of the platform. It pawed at the air for a moment, as it tried walking towards me.34

“Need some help?” I asked it. It growled at me. “Okay then,” I said childishly as I cut off all its legs and its head. “There, now we don’t have to worry about each other.”35

I turned away from it and looked around the room. The skeletons were all gone. “That wasn’t nice of you,” said an unseen whisper. I looked and a skeleton dropped from the ceiling.36

“We don’t like mean people.” Another one dropped.37

“Mean people will be dealt with.”38

“Mean people will die.”39

I’m sure you know exactly how this one turned out. It took about two seconds for the room to fill with rattling bones. I fought them with everything from the swords and rifles on the walls to the chairs, and even a chimera leg.40

It was a rough fight. One moment the floors would be littered with bones, and the next moment all the skeletons would be up and fighting again. To top it all off, I still had no idea how to point the sun to the number that brought me here, and I didn’t have much opportunity to ponder it.41

One of the big skeletons dropped down next to me. Before I moved to react, he struck me with his broad hand, and I sailed across the room, slamming against the sundial.42

The center point on the dial cut my back. I rolled off to avoid a chair that had been hurled after me. As I lay on the ground I noticed something. The ring around the turntable’s base had degree markings like the top of the table. Except this dial had only one accented dash, at two hundred and seventy three degrees.43

I got up and ducked behind the turntable. One of the skeletons got within my reach and I whipped him with my chain. It extended and wrapped tightly around his neck. I smashed him against the walls and his comrades. Under the cover of chaos, I turned the sun dial all the way around to face that magical number.44

The result did not even delay for dramatic effect. The surface tension holding the water into the hole just popped and the chamber flooded with water. I swam to the hole. The skeletons followed me quickly, propelling themselves easily with their large hands.45

The sun dial started sinking into the floor. I pulled myself into the hole, and crawled in the water. The skeletons clawed behind me.46

The water started rushing again, slowly at first, but the current grew until I could hardly hold on. My bony pursuers had no difficulty continuing.47

I pulled myself up against the hard current. A firm hand gripped my punctured leg. I kicked at it. The skeleton fell and I assume knocked his friends down.48

I kept climbing, pulling myself up into the tiled pool, which was now the focal point of a large palace garden. The hole sealed and the pool filled with water.49

I swam to the edge and pulled myself out. Everything was dead quiet. Light breeze rustled through the broad leaves of desert plants. Urns and statues turned to watch me as I walked by. Everything was black marble, sharply contrasting the white desert sand. 50

As I got closer to the onion domed palace, the statues became more grotesque. I climbed one last staircase and entered the main garden. I could see the palace more clearly now. It had five towers. The dome of the closest one poured out fire from every window and crevice. The main palace dome was in the center of a great swirling cloud of dust. The skull floated over it.51

I continued my lonely approach. The blowing sand got thicker with every step. There were no statues in this part of the garden, just an oasis grove. I opened the door and a blast of heat and sand washed over me. I grabbed an ornamental draping and pulled it down, wrapping it around my face and continuing onward.52

I made my way to the burning tower. I looked up the staircase, cringing from the heat. Everything was covered in glass. The stairs oozed in half melted silicate. Glassicles hung from the torches and lanterns on the walls and ceiling.53

The flames burned bright. I braced myself and ascended in the clear sticky goo.54

My feet were hot before I had taken ten steps. I trudged up the stairs, slowed by the weight of the melted glass sticking to my boots. I couldn’t use the railing, not that I didn’t try, but because it burned to the touch.55

As I ascended it got so hot the air would randomly burn; little flares spontaneously rising up from the glass. I reached the door to the turret, high atop the tower. It was too hot to touch.56

I reached at it from a few steps away and the chain wrapped around the door loop. I pulled hard and it fell into the glass, making a small splash. It slid down, burning up before it reached me.57

I tried not to think about what was keeping me from erupting in flames. I just settled with the idea that death would be too easy, and therefore I remained alive and suffering.58

I entered the room. There before me stood a Kami Priestess, chained to the wall. Her whole body was made of fire. “Help me. Please. Save me.”59

“Usually when I get close to Kami, they try killing me. Why should I give you the chance?”60

“Kajos didn’t kill you! He hardly even tried! You know he could have destroyed you.” I turned away from her, “You know it’s true! Put faith in me too. I can help you get out of here.”61

“How can you help me?”62

“My brother is the demon of sand, he imprisoned me here. If you do not kill him you will not make it out of the desert alive.”63

This was not what I wanted. “So you’ll help me kill your brother, and you won’t try killing me? Why should I believe you?”64

“Do you have a choice?” she asked.65

“Alright then, I’ll make a deal with you. What’s your name?”66

It took a little while for me to find a heavy object that wouldn’t scald my hands. I smashed the loops anchoring her chains to the wall. When she broke free, the room cooled drastically.67

“Thank you. I have something to give you in return. Actually they are yours already, I simply made them stronger.” She went to display of weapons and drew out two tulwar. They were a sandy bronze color, with rubies in the hilts. On each blade was a rune that looked like the sun.68

She handed them to me with a belt and two sheaths. “I gave them some of my power. Use them with a passionate fury, and they will burn like the anger of the sun. I am sorry, but I cannot go with you. I am trapped here until my brother is defeated.”69

“Let’s go back a little bit, Atana,” I said, “You say they were already mine.”70

“Yes, a girl came here a few hours before you, and gave them to me.”71

“What did she look like?” I asked.72

“That would be telling.”73

I used the door to slide down the spiraling stairwell of glass. The palace was big, and had been designed to get bigger and stop following the rules of geometry once an intruder… intruded. It’s a little disconcerting to jump from one ledge to another, and fly in three different directions, none of which are allowed by the laws of reality.74

I leapt onto a balcony, and then ran across a wall, sliding towards a pit of spikes. I lashed out my chain and it wrapped onto a chandelier. I swung up and landed on another balcony. A large demon stepped in front of me. He had a lizard like head, and a thick broad muscular body. His teeth looked like razor sharp disks, essentially a mouthful of curvet incisors.75

He swung at me with his claws, and narrowly missed me. My body convulsed slightly as a shock ran through me. He blasted the wall behind me with an arc of lightning.76

I drew the tulwars and rushed him. He struck me, and I tumbled across the floor. Another arc of lightning narrowly missed me.77

My blades flared up. The flames spread up my arms and over my shoulders. Soon I was covered in fire. I charged him again. 78

When he swung at me, I jumped up, and planted my feet on his hand. I springboarded off of his hand and tumbled over him, wrapping my chain around his neck. I pulled him back and cut him with my left tulwar in one wrenching motion, and came around with my right sword, stabbing him in the head.79

The chain slacked and I walked away from the corpse. There were more guards, sand golems, easy enough to kill, but hard to keep down.80

Wherever I sliced them they turned to glass, but the rest of their bodies would still reform when smashed.81

Sand was getting thick in the air. The more of them I killed the more dust seemed to kick up. I was getting dizzy. It felt like I was going to suffocate. I couldn’t see anything except for the light pouring through the glass onion dome.82

I was in the center room. The sand had been so thick that I hadn’t realized how far I had come. The demon probably lead me there, baiting me with his minions. I panicked as the realization came to me.83

I couldn’t move. Every moment I expected a trap to spring out of the haze and kill me.84

In my fright the flames weakened, allowing more sand to come closer. I was hoping to fight the monster, but It seemed that he was content with smothering me.85

I choked on the sand. I coughed myself dry; I was covered in powdery dust. I focused hard on my anger. The demon, not willing to face me, but just slap my face and stifle me. The fire spirit, not really preparing me for this, just sending me to do her bidding. And Deathwalker who intended for me to die, fuck learning, he wanted me dead and I knew it.86

The fire picked up. Spouting all over me, I made up things to be angry about. Being toyed with by Inkster that night. Creeps being so ugly and annoying. And beatniks, damn them. “FACE ME!” I screamed. My voice burned with fire, like some abyssal demon. Glass fell from the air and started pooling on the ground.87

The skull came down on me, its mouth opened around me and it splashed on the floor. The torches on the walls erupted. The glass in the dome shattered, letting in heat and flame. Holes started melting in the sides of the palace.88

look at him Grok, he let you die, he let you fall prisoner, look at his disregard, look at your enemy 89

I ran up a glass flow, and jumped through a hole. The floor collapsed, and I fell into a pool of scalding hot glass. It cooled on the surface, and I pulled myself up. It bent in beneath my weight and I had to step quickly to get off of the hotspot.90

I looked to the ceiling and yelled out, “What is this betrayal Atana?” My curses went unanswered.91

The whole palace was changing. It had become a constantly churning mess of melting sand. It was like a labyrinth that would not stay put.92

I entered a room less affected by the heat. The floor had been melted away, and reformed by a cooled bubble of glass.93

It sloped upward to a hole in the outside wall. I clung to whatever decorative flanges had not melted as I edged across the room. 94

A glassicle fell from the ceiling. I watched it descend toward the floor. I clung to the wall, hoping the little knobs of cooling liquid would hold me.95

The spike of glass hit the floor. Instantly a spider web spread through the transparent sheet. It plunged through, chipping away jagged pieces as its cross section grew. The floor held. A few of the cracked sections fell in.96

I started moving again. Step and reach with the right. Shuffle up with the left, inching across the floor. A glob of glass the size of my head fell down onto the section of glass I was standing on. It snapped off, and I fell down into the darkness.97

“Sorry Al, I made a promise,” Atana’s voice echoed in my ears. She flew down to me.98

"You treacherous wretch!" I swung at her.99

"It will make sense soon, I am sorry," she flew back up.100

The light of the world became distant.101

I curved, and fell out of the island. I was falling to the abyss.102

The girl’s face flashed in my eyes, “Are you ready to save me?” I hit the abyss. 103

It was so dark.104

he will remain for you to kill 105

***106

I opened my eyes and pushed my long blond hair out of my face. Some leaves had landed on my blue dress, so I brushed them off. My sister was walking toward me. “Alice!” she called out.107

“Here I am!” I ran up and hugged her. Everything felt sluggish and unreal. Who exactly am I today? Maybe I’m just tired.108

“Alice, uncle Charles is going to take us out in his boat.” Somewhere in the country home, Mr Dodgson took his painkillers. A haunt waiting patiently took hold of his mind.109

My uncle came out to greet us. He checked his pockets. “Dear me. I’ve forgotten my watch. Would you go get it while Alice and I get the boat ready? Hurry, we’re running late.”110

My sister walked into the house. Uncle Charles pulled a white rabbit wearing a top hat and kid gloves out of his vest. “Follow the rabbit Alice.”111

It ran for the dock. I ran after it. It jumped into the stream. “Uncle Charles, it’s gone!” I shouted as my uncle walked up.112

“No it’s not, just look closely.”113

I peered into the stream. My uncle’s reflection loomed over mine. He pushed my head under. After holding me there a moment, he kicked my body in. As my sister came running up, he pulled me out, telling her something about me falling in.114

I fell down a long way. Cupboards. All I can remember. I know this place, I’ve been here before, I was just here falling. It all blurred before my eyes. I saw my reflection in a glass table. “This part doesn’t matter to you Al’,” I said to myself. “Go to the house,” my reflection pointed to the keyhole. I ran there and looked through the keyhole. There was a quaint little cottage in a tiny garden.115

I jerked awake. I was my(scrawny pale)self again. Cargo pants, swords, scars from burns and constant beatings; the whole nine yards.116

"I need to find Alice. I have no idea who she is, and I have no idea where to look or where I am, but I have to find her." I planted my hands down in the cool green grass, and pushed myself up. I ran off in silence.