For anyone new to this blog, I’ve been serializing one of my stories, Lost and Found, by posting one chapter every other week. If you’d like to start at the beginning (which is a very good place to start) you can follow this link and it will take you to the main page for Lost and Found where I’ve got links to all the posted chapters, reviews and all that good stuff.
This week the audio version of the chapter has been delayed, but I will post it here as soon as it is possible.
Chapter Thirteen
A bizarre-looking man spinning a flail in tight circles over his head met Bayne on the landing at the top of the stairs. The left side of his face bore three great gouge marks, old scars that looked like he’d gotten on the wrong side of a grizzly. His eyes were pain-filled, and there was no mystery as to the source. Two bandaged shapes erupted out of his ribcage.
An extra set of arms? How lovely.
‘Yes, everyone should have one,’ Bayne thought back, and then ducked to avoid the spiked ball the stranger had aimed at his head. It whistled as it passed, far too close, to his ear.
Stepping to the side, Bayne left one leg in front of the other man and, with Teyat’s handle clasped between his hands like a hammer, slammed them down with all his strength between the man’s shoulder blades. The thug was driven forward and tripped over Bayne’s foot before tumbling, flail-first, down the stairs. A guttural and incoherent cry preceded the wet thud of his body hitting the bottom.
Efficient, but not much fun.
‘Sorry, but I am in a bit of a hurry.’
Bayne looked around himself. There were three doorways, but only one was closed. He peered into the two open ones to find a storeroom and a stark bedroom. Neither was inhabited so he stepped back and assessed the closed door.
‘Seems likely to be a bad idea.’
Yes
‘Got any good ones?’
Not a single one.
‘Alright then,’ Bayne took a step back and then kicked the door open. As it swung forward he flattened his back against the wall beside it. When nothing bad happened, he tilted Teyat so he could see much of the room reflected in the flat of its blade.
A stone table with hinged iron bars dominated the center of the room and various tools of torture hung from the walls. The floor was patched with stains and over by the single window, open to the elements, was an iron cage. It was cubical with each edge being barely longer than Bayne was tall.
Something shifted in the corner of the cage furthest from the door and Bayne sucked his breath in through his teeth as he recognized Colby. Her hair hung, lank, around her face and her clothes were filthy.
Pulling his gaze off her, Bayne forced himself to continue scanning the room. There, by the end of the table, he saw another person who looked so comfortable in the room it could only be one person. Scholar.
He, the source of Xavier’s mutations and nightmares, an object of legend and myth in Haven, was the man holding Bayne’s sister prisoner. Now, seeing him for the first time, Bayne was surprised. He had expected more.
Scholar wasn’t big and didn’t look strong or even rich. He just looked old. Old and mad. He was dressed in ordinary civilian clothes; a homespun tunic and wool breeches that hung off his gaunt frame. His scraggly grey hair hung to his shoulders in greasy-looking strands and was so thin that even in the reflection Bayne could see the liver spots which marked his scalp like a treasure map.
‘Here goes nothing,’ Bayne thought and, lifting Teyat to an offensive position, he bolted around the corner of the doorway and headed straight toward Scholar.
“Bayne, don’t!” he heard Colby shout. He glanced in her direction to see her moving toward the front of the cage then looked back at Scholar just in time to see a man-sized shadow disentangle itself from the shadows and move, with unnatural speed and silence, toward him. It was vaguely triangular with long arms that almost reached the ground, and a head with two gaping holes where its eyes should be. It had no legs, instead a sort of smoky funnel held it above the ground like it was floating.
Bayne felt its cold grip around his right wrist, and, holding Teyat in only one hand, he struck awkwardly at it. The darkness parted as the blade swept through it, and then merged back together in the sword’s wake. The creature was stronger than any creature Bayne had ever encountered and it twisted his arm behind his back, then grabbed the second, holding him fast and helpless. He struggled but to no avail. The icy tendrils which served as the shadow creature’s fingers burned him with their cold, chilling his hand and weakening his grip on his sword. He heard Teyat’s curse in his mind but ignored it, tightening his grip as best he could and watching Scholar.
The skin on his face hung from his bones like his clothes did his body, but underneath the wrinkles Bayne could see a strong nose and hollow, haunted eyes that were a vibrant shade of green and lit with maniacal heat. Scholar tilted his head back and laughed and in that instant Bayne’s fear for Colby solidified into anger.
Scholar leaned against the stone table in the center of the room, watching Bayne and the door behind him. “Is my soldier going to be coming soon? I really do need it back, I’ve invested so much in it already.”
“Xavier is a long way from here.”
“Oh,” Scholar smiled mockingly. “Is that its name? How quaint. You’re wrong about its location though, its around here somewhere. I saw it out the window rolling around in the dirt with my hounds master. I could be patient and wait for it, I suppose, but I bet I could think up a way to speed things along.” He crossed over to the wall with its myriad of medical devices hanging on it. He ran his bony fingers over them. Hatchets, scalpels, daggers, tongs, spreaders, skewers, Scholar treated them like instruments of love, caressing them with his eyes and stroking them with his fingers.
Colby made a soft sound of distress and pressed herself against the back of the cage. Bayne shifted his grip on Teyat and gritted his teeth, grinding his molars together.
Scholar plucked a long tapered rod about the width of his thumb off the wall. He waved it through the air and then bowed elaborately in Bayne’s direction before posing with the pointed skewer.
Colby choked on a sob and her eyes grew wide. She continued to push against the back of the cage, her eyes never leaving the weapon in Scholar’s hands.
Bayne’s grip on his sword jerked spasmodically and his stomach clenched into a fist but through a heroic effort of will he managed to keep his voice from shaking too obviously. “What are you going to do with that?”
“Nothing…fatal.” The man shuffled toward Colby, trapped in her cage.
Bayne struggled against the shadow holding him captive but it held him fast. His lips twisted up into a bitter snarl and his hands became fists on Teyat’s hilt.
Scholar reached through the bars, deceptively quick for his appearance, and grabbed a handful of Colby’s hair. She jerked her body to the side, twisting as far away from him as she could, but the cage prevented her from going far. “There’s a good girl,” Scholar crooned, running the skewer over her skin. He slid it down her shoulder and then across the side of her torso. The iron grazed the curve of her breast and traveled slowly down her rib cage. Then he changed his grip and shoved the shiv into her.
Colby screamed and moved to curl up around the wound, but the cage and the man’s hand in her hair held her fast. He gave the skewer a twist, pulled it out and held it, wet with blood, ready to stab again.
~*~
Xavier had just begun to climb the rickety stairs up to the tower when the body dropped to his left, barely missing him. He felt the wind of its passing then heard the sound, like that of a rotten melon being smashed, of it hitting the ground. A shudder ran through him and he felt his stomach lurch in response.
“Is it?” he asked, frozen in place on the stairs, deliberately not looking down.
“Bayne? Nah, looks like Tobias.”
Relief swept through Xavier, and he continued up the spiraling stairs, taking them two at a time, but keeping a tight grip on the railing with his right hand.
“Oh, is that its name?”
He heard Scholar’s voice as he reached the top of the stairs, and repressed the shiver of fear that slid through him at its familiar tones. He darted to the side so his former captor wouldn’t see him through the doorway and ducked into a side room. It was small with shelves on two walls and a window in another. One broken shutter hung crookedly from it and sunlight streamed through the opening, throwing an elongated shadow out behind him.
“We hidin’ in a new storeroom then?”
“No,” Xavier said, glancing at his tentacles and sounding far more confident than he felt. “Now we’re going to see how good these things are for climbing.”
“Yer gonna get us killed. ‘Member what I told ya ’bout heros?”
“That was martyrs, actually.” Xavier said quietly. “You also wanted me to kill him remember? You can’t have it both ways.”
“‘At was before I knew ye were plannin’ on hangin’ off the side of a castle like some sorta spider.”
“You know what?” Xavier grunted as he hoisted himself up so he was sitting on the window ledge facing the room. “If you can’t say something helpful, don’t say anything at all.”
His shadow grunted but refrained from commenting and Xavier took a deep breath and leaned out so he could see the castle wall. Then he stole a quick glance down and immediately wished he hadn’t. It was a long way to the ground. A very long way. He cursed softly and tightened his grip on the edges of the window.
He drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. Maybe he should just go in the door after all? Maybe Bayne had already taken care of Scholar, maybe— The thought died in his head, as did any ideas of alternate plans as Colby’s pained scream came to his ears. He sucked in a deep breath and lifted his feet so he was standing on the ledge rather than sitting on it, and pressed his body against the wall.
It was rough, and many of the bricks stuck out just enough for him to curl his fingers and tentacles around. To his left he could see the window he knew belonged to Scholar’s laboratory. It wasn’t that far.
With his mind whirling with all the possible scenarios being played out in the room one over, Xavier took a deep breath and shuffled his feet along the ledge of the windowsill, stopping only when they were as far over as they could go. Reaching as far to the left as he could, Xavier scrambled with his fingers and tentacles both for even the tiniest ledge to hold on to. He found several but none of them felt strong enough to support his weight without crumbling.
In the other room heard the sound of Scholar’s mocking voice. He knew if he could calm down and focus he’d be able to make out the words, but he didn’t have time. He looked over at the window once more and judged its distance. He might just be able to make it. Maybe.
“Don’ do it.”
“Shut up.”
“I’m tellin’ ya–don’t.”
He tensed his body and crouched slightly. Without giving himself time to consider what he was doing, or talk himself out of it, he jumped sideways toward the other window.
For a sickening moment, he thought he wasn’t going to make it, but then one tentacle managed to grab a hold of Scholar’s windowsill and hold. The air was forced from his lungs as he slammed into the wall, but the stone was thick enough that he only heard a dull thud.
“Shadows are fun, aren’t they?” Xavier heard Scholar say, as his lungs filled once more with air. He pulled himself up into the window and looked in to see Scholar speaking to Bayne, his back to the window.
Bayne had a look of hopeless self-recrimination etched onto his face. A man-like shadow stood behind him, holding his arms. Xavier had seen it before, and had felt its chilling touch, the same as Bayne was now.
Colby was in the cage Xavier had spent so much time in. Her hands were manacled, and her side was bleeding. She didn’t see him, and he didn’t dare say anything, not yet.
“They are so malleable, shadows.” Scholar held a bloody skewer in one hand and paced back and forth in front of Bayne, gesturing grandly with it.
Xavier caught Bayne’s eye over Scholar’s shoulder, and though the warrior’s face remained impassive and shielded, Xavier saw him give the faintest hint of a nod.
“That so?” Bayne asked.
Scholar looked up at him and laughed. “You mean you haven’t noticed? Those ones, they can do many things but they aren’t my masterpiece, oh no… no they aren’t.”
Xavier carefully inched his way through the window. His hands were strangely steady and the roiling in his stomach had been replaced by a steadfastness he’d rarely known in his life.
Colby looked up and saw him. She gasped, but Scholar didn’t seem to hear. Xavier raised a finger to his lips and, hoping he looked more confident than he felt, smiled at her. Colby offered him a watery smile in return, and with one last lingering look in her direction, he snuck up behind Scholar.
“My masterpiece, ah, it can’t take physical form like these ones, but oh, what it can do!” Scholar said, sounding more excited with every word.
I can do this, Xavier thought, and then wrapped one tentacle around the mad man’s throat and used another to cover his mouth. He lifted Scholar off his feet by his neck and turned him to face him. “I heard you wanted me to come back.”
Scholar’s look of shock abruptly turned to fear. He began to kick wildly and stabbed the skewer in his hand into the tentacle covering his mouth. Xavier felt the point penetrate his skin, the burn was fiercer than even the dog’s teeth had been, and he cried out. Instinctively his tentacle began to pull away, but he stopped himself and instead tightened his grip on Scholar’s mouth. All it would take is a single word from the madman and he would be lost. They all would.
Using one of his free tentacles, Xavier pulled the skewer out and dropped it on the floor by the cage where it clattered against the stone. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Colby reach through the bars to snatch it off the ground. Holding it firmly in her still-manacled hands she jammed it into the lock on the door.
Behind him he heard Bayne struggling with the shadow that held him, but the sound seemed to come from very far away as his awareness focused on the man he held. Keeping one tentacle over Scholar’s mouth at all times, Xavier used his other ones and his hands to turn the old man so that he was facing him. Looking into his familiar eyes Xavier deliberately recalled all the pain and fear he’d experienced while looking into them, how much he’d suffered at Scholar’s hands. He was no longer the one in the cage, the helpless one. He was in control now. Him. Xavier. “You drugged me, you kept me in that cage, half-starved, half-frozen and tortured me for years.”
Scholar kicked out at him, hitting him squarely in the belly, but the blow was weak and Xavier barely felt it. He slammed Scholar up against the cage beside where Colby was frantically working to pick the lock. His head hit one of the bars and Xavier’s tentacle muffled his cry of pain. He pulled Scholar toward him once more, watching as his head flopped about like a scarecrow’s and growled, “You deserve to die!”
His words echoed around the chamber. They were true. Xavier knew they were true. He’d come here to stop Scholar, to kill him, because it was the right thing to do. He knew it without question. And yet…
All it would take is one more blow. All he had to do was throw Scholar out the open window, or slam his head into the ground, or even toss him to Bayne, who could certainly choke him with his bare hands, but he couldn’t. Despite how much most of his being was crying out at him to take revenge, to punish the man who had robbed him of so much, he couldn’t do it.
Colby moved, and something in her posture captured Xavier’s attention, tearing it from himself and the man he held. Her back was straight, shoulders back and her chin set.
Then Scholar screamed into Xavier’s tentacle and, as his body stiffened in shock and pain, the tip of the skewer emerged from his chest. Colby stepped out from behind him, her face was relaxed, but her fingers trembled slightly. Xavier looked back at Scholar and watched his eyes go blank. As his body lost all its tension Xavier released him and he fell, like a child’s discarded toy onto the floor.
Xavier looked over at Bayne in time to see the shadow creature evaporating like smoke in a wind, then turned back toward the cage.
“Colby,” he breathed, holding her against him as best he could through the cage, and running a hand through her hair. “Colby…”
***
If you like Lost and Found you may also like Shades of Green which is set in the same swamp, or “Sister Margaret” which has some familiar characters and is completely free to read.
All other chapters can be found here –> Lost and Found
