Kel felt sad and lonely. It had been over a week since he had been separated from his clan. Since that time he had decided to travel east. He didn’t really know where to go and as far as he knew his clan had been destroyed and betrayed from within. He was walking east because he knew that at some point he would get to the Barrens. Nakanwa might be able to help him, but for now, he was alone. Not only was he alone, but it was cold and windy. Cresting a large hill he was able to see far into the distance. Standing between two rocks at the top of the hill, he took in the view. His heart sank when all that he could see was more windswept hills. He sat down between the rocks in order to shelter himself from the wind. While resting, he let his mind wander. He thought of the past. He thought of the distant past.
He remembered a morning that had started out a little tense and was got a bit worse. Traveling through the city was disgusting, even for Kel. There was filth, trash and death on the streets. He was constantly on guard because of the chaos. At least he found comfort in their escort. It provided a show of their importance. Kel’s clan and the escort party were given a wide birth. Anyone and anything in the streets recognized them as something not to mess with. It helped Kel walk a little easier, but the hair on his back still stood up. Kel had to be ready for anything, even if the others weren’t. From the city gates, they were walked directly into the center of the city.
Kel along with his other clan members numbered five in total. His group was made up of the strongest members of his clan including his clan leader. Nomoci was one of them. He walked along side Kel with pride and nonchalance. They knew why they were there and as far as Kel knew there shouldn’t be any problems. The goal was to get in and out as quickly as possible with no problems. The road that they were on went directly from the city gates to the palace doors. The opulence of the palace doors did not make an impression on Kel. Instead he thought of how difficult it would be to get out of the palace if the doors were closed. He also thought of why anyone would want to live here. Upon entering, the party was greeted by a young man in black robes and a black cowl. After reluctantly handing over all of their weapons, they walked down the main hall. The ceiling was at least sixty feet high. About fifty yards in, the hall came to a great intersection. The group continued straight and once they passed the intersection, the young man in black opened a door on the right side of the hall. It was a waiting room.
The room was elaborately decorated, but was a bit dark and dreary for Kel. The ceiling was ornate and all the trim was fine. Once the young man left, Kel checked to see if the door was locked. It wasn’t. A bit relieved, he began to take a seat next to the door and at the same time he looked to his other clan members. Nomoci was poring himself a drink, the others were talking. At the moment he sat down the door opened, Kel jumped up not knowing what to expect, but it was only a servant. Kel towered over him. Looking down at the servant, Kel stepped directly in front of him, blocking his path. He was carrying a platter of delicacies. As soon as the fragrance caught Kel’s nose he let out a big smile. Looking down at the platter he saw some curious yet wonderful things. His heart raced as he reached out for the bowl of eyeballs. A tap on his shoulder choked him out of his trance. It was Nomoci. He looked Kel in the eyes, smiled, and then looked at the platter.
Reaching out towards the food he looked back at Kel and winked. Nomoci then looked at the servant. Nomoci’s eyes were still and his gaze was stoic. With one smooth movement he flung the platter across the room. The entire time he kept his gaze on the servant. All of the food on the platter went flying across the room. “We’re not here to eat. We don’t want food. Bring us some women.”
The servant was terrified. His whole body shook as he scurried out the door.
Disappointed, Kel looked at Nomoci. He was short and a little stocky with a big gut. The wrinkles on his face and his dark, sun beaten skin showed his years. Looking over at the other clan members Kel could tell that they didn’t care. They had returned to the conversation they were in before the servant entered. Nomoci knelt down and picked up some of the food. Taking a bite, he looked at Kel and said with a smile, “Sorry about that. Did that for show.” Shrugging his shoulders and taking another bite, he continued, “Floor’s so damn clean, doesn’t really matter.”
It wasn’t more than a few minutes before the young man in black returned. He opened the door and looked back into the hall and motioned in three naked human females. They all had their heads down, but the shortest one of them looked up and briefly scanned the room as she walked in.
“Nice” was Nomoci’s response. Walking around Kel, Nomoci approached the young man, got right up in his face, pointed at the door, and said, “Now get the fuck out of here.” Kel and the other clan members laughed at him as he backed away and quickly exited the room closing the door behind him.
“Ah, what could be better?” Nomoci asked rhetorically. Putting down his drink and food, he walked up to the first girl. She couldn’t have been more than twenty years old. Her skin was stark white as if it had never seen the light of day. Her head was down and her long, dark hair covered most of her face. Nomoci moved close to her and grabbed her breast. She barely flinched and turned ever so slightly. Nomoci reached around her with his other hand and grabbed her ass. Pulling her closer, she didn’t move as he spread her ass apart. He then shoved his hand deep into her crotch from behind. Sinking a few his fingers into her, she squirmed slightly with displeasure and let out a groan.
Nomoci turned to Kel and quickly stuck his fingers up to his nose. Squinting his eyes, Kel let out a strong, quick exhale through his nose as he shook his head. Kel returned his open mouth to where Nomoci’s hand was and bit down hard. Kel’s sharp teeth bit air as Nomoci hand was too fast.
Smiling Nomoci asked, “Don’t you want some of this?” motioning towards the girls.
Kel looked down at the girls. They looked defeated and crushed. Nomoci had returned his attention to the first girl and lifted her chin so that he could look into her eyes. Her head raised, Nomoci saw a blank and clouded gaze and a face that showed no expression. “Wow” Nomoci said as he looked back at Kel, “Check this out”. He returned his attention to her face.
“What did they do to you?” he asked, but received no answer. “You in there?” he asked, lightly slapping her on the face. Again, there was no response. Looking up at Kel, Nomoci sighed heavily and said “I don’t want this. She’s like a zombie. You want this?” Kel shook his head. With a disappointed look on his face he asked Kel if the eyeballs were any good.
After biting into one of the eyeballs, Nomoci walked over to the door. Opening the door, he looked back to the entrance of the palace. The hallway was empty. Perking up, Nomoci stepped back into the room and looked up to Kel and the girls.
“Hey, I got an idea. Girls, come here.” The girls didn’t move. “Kel, bring me those girls” ordered Nomoci. Kel started to walk towards the girls and they moved away from him and towards Nomoci and the door.
“Good, good. Come here.” They did with hesitation. He had them look out the door way and to the front of the palace. “That’s the exit. You want out of here? That’s it.” He then pulled them back in the room, leaving the door open. “Here”, reaching into his pocket he pulled out a small bag. Opening it up, he showed the girls the contents. There were about ten gold pieces inside. He cinched it closed and placed it on his open palm. “Maybe this will wake you up.” All of the girls kept their heads down, but Kel noticed that one of them looked at the other’s feet.
Looking up at Kel, Nomoci said, “Come on, pony up something.” Kel looked at the girl who had looked up to survey the room when the three of them first walked in. It was the same one which he just noticed looking in the direction of the other two. It was the short one. He then reached back behind his belt and pulled out a small dagger.
“You son of a bitch. Ha, you’re amazing.” Nomoci said as he slapped Kel hard on the shoulder. Kel held the scabbard and pushed the handle into the chest of the short girl. No one moved for about ten seconds. They were all silent. Then the girl grabbed the knife with one hand and the gold in the other and made a run for the door. Kel and Nomoci let out a cheer and ran to the door to watch her run. Nomoci began to cheer her on, yelling for her to “Go, go, go.” When she was about half way to the entrance, Kel looked over his shoulder at the other clan members; he could tell that they were annoyed.
“Nomoci! What are you doing?” demanded one of them.
“Hold on, she’s almost there” Nomoci responded as he and Kel watched the naked girl reach the front doors. He let out a victory cry as she turned the corner. Turning back to the clan with a huge smile on his face, he lifted his hands in the air, and said, “What? Kel and I are just messing around.”
Just then, Kel, who was still looking out the door, saw the young man in the black cowl turn the corner of the intersection, he was walking towards them. Kel left the door open and stepped back to allow for the young man’s entrance. He grunted loudly to the others to let them know that someone was coming.
After the young man in black entered the room, he addressed the group, “I am to escort all of you to the throne room”
Adjusting his ass on the rocky ground, Kel wondered about the fate of that girl. He hadn’t given her that much thought over the years, but now that he was alone, he wondered how far she had gotten and if she was still alive.
The immensity of the iron, throne room doors had the hairs on Kel’s back standing on end. They were at least forty feet high and each of them was twenty feet wide. As they began to open, the young man in black turned and quickly walked down the hall, away from the doors. They slowly began to open and it was then that Kel saw that they were at least five feet thick. Kel noticed that Nomoci was also looking at the doors. Nomoci didn’t say a thing; all he did was look back at Kel with a nervous look. When the doors opened completely, the five members of Kel’s clan were able to see the entire room, including the person that they were here to see.
Walking into the thrown room, Kel found himself in awe. The room was circular and domed and even though it was large, when the doors shut, the room became claustrophobic. There were three levels. Kel and his clan were on the lowest. The entire room was made so that the throne, which was on the third level was the focal point. After a quick glance to the throne, Kel diverted his attention so he could take in the rest of the room. He quickly looked at the floor in front of him, then the walls, the ceiling, and finally returned his attention to the throne.
The floor was made of black marble. From what Kel could see, there were little specks in the marble that were glowing green. The specks were slowly moving up the stairs. The second level was about eight steps up and there was about 20 yards between the first set of stairs and the second. Each step spanned the entire room, from wall to wall. The steps were supported all the way across by human skulls. Each one of the skulls had their mouths open. Kel would be stepping on top of the skulls in order to reach the second level. On the second level was a large circular pool. It was dark and the water in it was still. On either side of the pool were two naked humans writhing on the ground. The green specks that were flowing on the floor were moving in their direction. Their bodies were covered in them. The two humans were moaning in agony. Their cries were soft, almost a background noise. It seemed that they were in so much agony that they couldn’t cry out any louder. The third and highest level was only two steps above the second and it was much closer to the throne. There was nothing on this level aside from the thrown. Kel wanted to look to the throne, but the flickering lights from the walls diverted Kel’s attention.
The light was coming from torches along the walls. Upon looking closely at those torches, Kel could see that they were not torches. They were bones. The walls were made of what looked like rough stone, but when he looked closer, he saw that there were bones protruding from the stone. All along the walls were bones. Many of them were skulls. Kel recognized a few of them; giant, unicorn, dragon. There were so many that he returned his attention to the torches. Around each one of the bones that were on fire there was a black tar oozing from the walls. The tar was on fire and it was slowly dripping off of the bones. The fires were soft, deep, unnatural red. The small blobs of lit tar would drop to the ground and burn themselves out. They created a ring of low burning fire around the entire room. The walls had many small alcoves and 12 large ones. The small ones housed artifacts of all kinds. The large ones were big enough for a human. All of the large alcoves were empty, save for two. One human was on the second level and one was up on the third level. They were both in the same dress and neither of them moved while Kel’s clan took in the room.
Looking up, Kel could not see how high the ceiling was. Blocking his view of the ceiling about sixty feet up was a large, swirling, black cloud. It covered the entire ceiling. The cloud’s edges were well defined and it was black as ink. Kel caught a glimpse of some creatures flying within it. It didn’t take long before he looked back down, knowing that he couldn’t see enough of them to identify what they were.
Finally Kel looked at the throne. It was raised high above the floor. The throne included many steps up to the seat. The entire thing was massive and it too, was made from skulls and bones. Looking at the entity which resided upon the throne, Kel was surprised. Sitting atop the throne was an old man dressed in rags.
Finally stepping forward was the human in the alcove closest to the throne. It was a woman. She was tall and lean with straw-blond hair and grey eyes. Her eyes had bags under them and her skin was sallow. She was dressed in a black cowl and robe with a rope tied around her waist. At each end of her rope belt hung a human skull. She began to move forward after the group had taken in the room. As she walked forward, Kel noticed that she nervously looked over her shoulder twice. She was looking up to the feet of the old man. When she stopped, she addressed Kel’s clan.
In a loud, high, broken pitch she said, “Bow and kneel before your god, Iuz.”
All of the clan kneeled and bowed, except for Kel. He felt puzzled by this statement. He thought to himself, “This is not my god. And I don’t kneel and bow to anyone.”
Thinking back on the situation, Kel shook his head and regretted his inaction. He would learn to draw much less attention to himself and make things smoother by not questioning and not being stubborn. He smiled and rubbed his face when he thought of how foolish he was back then. Looking out on the great wide open expanse in front of him, he thought back to the witch.
It was only a matter a couple of seconds before she had her trembling hand extended, casting a spell. Kel didn’t move, for he was still in thought and he thought that he had done nothing wrong. At the spells completion, a green light cracked across the room and hit Kel squarely in the chest. The wracking pain he felt was like no other. It was as if every fiber in his body was being torn apart. The pain from the spell was so great that he could feel his knees start to buckle. His sight was starting to close in and he began to feel dizzy. He was about to loose his balance and his tunnel vision closed in around the face of the witch. Kel could see the corners of her mouth curl upwards and he could see pleasure forming in her eyes. This infuriated Kel. His anger built up inside of him and his vision began to expand. The pain that was so debilitating began to fall into the background. Regaining his footing, his focus was on the witch.
With his first step forward, her body was thrown back at least twenty feet. It was as if she was tossed aside by a giant. Shocked, Kel looked around and saw the old man’s finger move back from the point in which she flew. The arthritic, gnarled, old finger with its long yellow fingernail then pointed itself directly at Kel. With a tiny flick downward Kel could feel his body betray him as his knee fell to the ground. His chest followed and fell to meet his other knee. Completing the bow was his head, which sent itself so far down that the back of Kel’s head was facing the old man.
He could hear the old man laugh. Kel could tell the laugh was not directed at him, but it still infuriated him. The old man was laughing at the witch. His laugh was cold, soft, and demeaning. Completely unable to control his body, Kel’s anger did not subside. The inability to physically take out his anger frustrated Kel. His anger shifted from the witch to the old man.
With his anger building for about twenty seconds, Kel could finally feel his body returning to him. Upon its return, Kel’s thoughts went to the knife that he had given to the slave girl. Still kneeling Kel’s thoughts went to his claws and teeth. As his body returned, he turned his head to the right, in the direction of Nomoci. He was looking in Kel’s direction and as soon as Kel turned his head, Nomoci looked directly into his eyes.
As if in slow motion, Nomoci raised his hand to his face and raised his index finger as if imitating the old man. He twisted his face by squinting an eye and opening his mouth. And then quickly slid his finger into his nose and stuck out his tongue.
Kel couldn’t help but laugh.
“Rise” was the first word that came from the mouth of the old man. Standing up, trying to hide his smile, Kel looked directly into the eyes of Iuz. He saw no anger in his eyes and he could tell that the old man was pleased. The witch to his right had retreated to her alcove and was still in obvious pain.
The old man spoke to the clan. He spoke with a cold demeanor, but Kel could tell that there was a sense of gratitude. Kel’s clan had done well and they were being rewarded for it. After a few words, seven creatures came out from a door that Kel hadn’t noticed. Two of them were carrying a large chest. Each of the others carried an item. The chest and the items were offered to the clan. This was their reward. After taking everything, the clan left with the old man’s permission. They immediately left the palace and the city. They had what they had come for and they had left without incident, just as planned.
Thinking back on the experience, Kel felt regret. If Nomoci hadn’t had made that face… if he hadn’t given his knife away… if he would have known what he knew now… Kel’s mind always raced with ifs when he thought back to the time of the throne room. He didn’t like to think that it was impossible. Instead he wished the situation would have been just a little different. If it was, then it could have happened then. They were so close. He might have been able to finish it then. Maybe, just maybe he could have killed Iuz.
