Chapter Thirteen

Scourge of Shadow

 

We apparently get to our destination, as Timtallagay slows and stops skipping. It heads for some bungalows in the near distance, and picks up reservations that are apparently waiting. I can't stand it.

"That's how you travel?" I asked it. "That's so inefficient!" I told it.

"What's inefficient about it? It got us here." TimT looked annoyed.

"How do you travel?" Tekvar asked. Um. Should've kept my mouth shut.

Trying to sound matter of fact about it, I answered him "Reach and pull."

"How do you travel?" he asked incredulously. "How do you pop in and out?"

"Pop?" I replied "With a trump."

Timtallagay found that there was a note waiting for it. S/he picked it up and began reading it. Injarda-o and myself read over TimT's shoulder. The note read:

Be extra careful in what you're doing. The forces of anarchy have recently been released. - Dad A nice note from a parent. Now there's something new and different.

"Your folks send you notes?" I asked TimT.

"Of course." Like it was normal or something.

"You...speak to them on a regular basis?" I was surprised.

"Wow" I commented. "How unusual." Gwen looked amazed too.

We all sat down about the cottage/bungalow place and I looked out the window at the beach resort scene. Heh. Not bad.

"So why are we here?" I asked.

"We're waiting to contact 01" Timtallagay replied.

"ARE we....and how do we reach him? You told 01 you'd meet him here?"

Timtallagay replied that s/he had. "When he was done investigating the hill. For some reason, 01 didn't want to meet at cowland."

I was confused at how they had made their arrangements, but Timtallagay explained that they had agreed on this right before I pulled them through with the Logrus search. That made sense. TimT commented that it wanted to visit it's parents to let them know it was alright. What a weird notion that one is. We all sat for a moment, considering options.

"Corvina?" asked Injarda-o. "Who was the old man in the trump?"

"Ah" I said. I considered misdirecting or lying to him, but I guessed he'd find out eventually. Sides, it was probably a good sign that he didn't instantly recognize the picture. Not a great sign, but at least a good one.

"The old man is Dworkin" I told him.

"Ah, that's what he looks like" Injarda-o sounded satisfied.

Timtallagay explained that we didn't have to just sit here and wait to hear from 01. We could go wherever we wanted and check in here now and then to see if 01 had returned and left a message, or gotten ours.

Timtallagay expressed that we should go and get other things done and let 01 find us by note or by tunnel, using the Black.

"So, what do you know about the Black?" I asked.

"It's the Abyss" Timtallagay answered.

"But it doesn't feel like the Abyss" I muttered. Not that I'd ever tried to control the forces I was diving in, just that it didn't feel like that when he used it around me.

Timtallagay looked interested. "What does the Abyss feel like?"

"I would find it hard to describe" I said hesitantly. I'm not sure I could put the sensation of pit-diving into words.

We discussed it for a bit, but none of us really knew enough about it to make more educated guesses.

We eventually began discussing where we needed to go and what we needed to get done.

"We can't go to Amber" began TimT "and at the moment it doesn't look like I should be at the Courts."

"That wouldn't be wise, no" I agreed. "I need to get in touch with Merlin, however."

"Don't you have a trump of Merlin?" TimT asked.

"I had a trump of Merlin, but it's back in Gwen's shadow" I told them dejectedly.

"I can make you a new one" Injarda-o offered.

"We could trump back to Gwen's shadow" Timtallagay suggested.

"Yeah, why don't we go back and check that out, Gwen said it wasn't destroyed " I agreed.

Tekvar was sitting in the corner, staring off into space. He was reclining in an easy chair, and drinking a beer.

"Tekvar" I asked "you coming with us?" He shrugged. The corner behind him seemed to get more distant, space growing behind him. A slight disturbance began behind him, and I called the Sign of the Logrus to me to take a better look at this. I noted fog and smoke swirling in that corner.

"Tekvar" Timtallagay called "behind you is something rather peculiar looking."

The swirling and distancing effect behind him grew more pronounced. A form began to appear in the effect behind him, and 01 arrived. Timtallagay greeted 01, asking about the investigation of the hill. 01 claimed to have found nothing there and nothing happening.

Timtallagay didn't look convinced, but no amount of careful questioning was producing any difference in 01's answers.

I looked back at the corner, noting that the distortion hadn't quite closed itself yet, and the corner looked rather wrong.

"01" I asked "did you leave something open behind you?"

"Looks normal to me" he commented.

"No" I argued "there's something there. You got a hitchhiker?"

I probed the Logrus, noting what spells I had ready. Tekvar moved away from the corner. 01 just stood and stared, mostly at us, partly at the corner.

"01 I suggest you move. There is something there whether or not you see it" I told him. I knew he wouldn't listen, being stupid and arrogant. I almost hoped something really nasty came through and mushed him like a bug. 01 stood there in the middle of the situation.

Enough, I thought.

"01" I told him "do me a favor. Either walk right up to it and get killed, or back the hell away so the rest of us can see, ok? Pick one, I don't care. Get yourself killed, or move. Because if I cast at something that looks nasty, and I hit you by accident, oops!, I won't cry. Move."

01 stared at me for a moment, then sidestepped the corner, still keeping himself closest, but no longer directly in the line of fire.

"Thank-you" I told him. Should've just cast and hit him. He had ample warning. If it wasn't for Suhuy...

Staring into the corner, it occured to me that the phenomenon had something of the Logrus about it, but also had elements of power I did not recognise.

I watched it changing, and then there was a short, scraggily haired , rastifarian, hunchbacked figure coming out of the effect in the corner, with other figures in silhouette behind him. For a moment I felt a kind of panic, thinking it was Dworkin and I started to back away. I realized then that it was not, and stood my ground, waiting to see what would occur.

The six figures finally materialized, and the scraggily old man looked around the room. He eyed us and proclaimed, "I am Lothos, Scourge of Shadow."

After barely a second of silence, Injarda-o, Gwen, Tekvar, and myself cracked up laughing. Maybe you had to be there, but for sure this was hilarious.

Timtallagay stepped up, saying "Hi, I'm Timtallagay". TimT didn't even laugh.

Lothos looked at TimT. "Did I ask?" he said. Unfortunately, this only resulted in more gails of laughter from the rest of us, sans 01. Tough crowd. Cynical group.

Annoyed, Lothos scanned the group. "I don't think you people understand what I said."

"Ok, yes?" Timtallagay said to him politely. "You said you are Lothos..."

"You said hi I'm Lothos, Scourge of Shadow, fear me, is that it?" I asked in between giggles.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I am the best, most wonderful, greatest, all that, yes" he said quickly, with a slightly insane cast to his tone.

"I like you" I told him. Have I mentioned yet that I am not considered one of the Courts great diplomats? Nor am I hired for my excellent judgement of character....

Behind Lothos were 5 other people, still silent, who looked similar in bedraggled appearence. Their clothes were tatteres, they were hunched over like undead. They were not looking well. Still, I just couldn't take anyone with an entry line like that seriously.

"So, what can we do for you Mr. Scourge?" I asked flippantly.

"Everything I ask" he replied in an intent half-whisper that for a moment ran a chill down my back. A few alarm bells were going off, but I silenced them. Geesh, he was only an overbearing shadow-wizard.

Still stiffling laughter, I said to him "Are you going to start with something in particular, or are you just going to be vague at me?"

"I am thirsty" he said with that same quiet intensity "bring me a drink."

I'm all for testing the boundaries. Never would have survived Dara's mechnations with a personality otherwise.

"Anything in particular, or should I just dump water on your head?" I asked him.

"Whatever works" he said easily, in a brighter tone. This bothered me ever so slightly, but I was not going to let it show. Besides, the half-grin was contagious, and he was terribly funny.

Turning to Injarda-o, I couldn't stifle the giggles anymore. "I do like him, I can't help it" I giggled at him. Injarda-o wasn't having much success with a straight face either, I'd noticed. Timtallagay looked at us like we had grown extra heads, which wasn't helping.

"Excuse me" it said "do you usually laugh when people just....pop through?"

"Only when they're funny" I retorted.

Meanwhile, Lothos was looking around. "Where are we?" he asked.

"Metabolis Three" replied Injarda-o. No one has ever taught him the laws of information before, I see.

"Haven't a clue" I told him "they called it the Blue Place. Aren't they eloquent?"

"Blue place" Lothos mused out loud.

"Scourge of Shadow, that's great, I love that title" I mumbled to Injarda-o.

Lothos looked around, and out of the window. He looked down the beach at the family units near the water.

"Children at play, what a gorgeous day. I think I'm going to meet them" he said, then walked out the door, his followers behind him.

We watched out the window. Looking at them through the Sign, I realized that his form was blurry. There were aspects of the Logrus in him, and there were parts of him that were terribly painful to look at. I began to think that there was something really wrong with this guy. Lothos walked down the white sandy beach toward the crystal blue water where the children were at play. I had the opinion that this would be a bloody, quick murder scene. Lothos nudged his followers, cutting them a bit, and they began bleeding, leaving a trail of red, red blood on this white sand. It looked pretty disturbed, and I liked the effect.

Lothos reached the dozen children on the beach. He sat down in the middle of them with a smile, between the sand castle and the search. The followers began swinging into the children, chopping off their heads. Parents, lifeguards, various adults of the resort (and Timtallagay) all charged down onto the beach, screaming and yelling in horror and fury. At least 30 in all were charging Lothos' followers on the beach.

Suddenly Lothos stood and threw up his arms, screaming "Armies of Shadow, arise."

All 30 of the charging adults stopped in their tracks, hunched over and grabbed the nearest weapon-like thing near them, as in rocks, clubs, anything available. The whole crowd started toward the bungalow we were in, advancing slowly with their new weapons.

We stared for a moment, in dumb horror, jaws on the floor. Injarda-o was the first to react, and dissapeared in a shimmer of trump. 01, grabbing Tekvar, opened up one of his tunnels and vanished. I pulled my trump of the Courts, grabbed Gwen, and vanished. The last thing I saw was Timtallagay still charging down the path. Ewww.