The Corin Chronicles Volume I: The Light and the Dark (43 page)

He looked back in the direction of the creature and flinched momentarily, for it was looking straight at them. The Corin moon revealed much of its features. Its face was horribly disfigured, with multiple scars and tears across its forehead. In places, bone could be seen through the tattered skin, and it was covered all over by thick, black liquid. Its eyes, even the pupils, were a sickly, pale white.

The creature dropped the bone and began limping steadily in their direction, letting off mild howls at odd intervals.

“It has seen us,” said Mikael, breathing frantically.

Ramon held out his right hand, urging them to remain calm. The creature continued to walk toward them, sniffing into the ground. A few minutes elapsed before the creature emitted another howl, even louder than before, and then turned away suddenly, nearly running back toward the village.

“Should we follow it?” asked Topenga, rising from the ground.

Ramon nodded and also got on to his feet, quickly followed by Mikael, whose right hand rested on his axe. They followed quietly after the creature, which had now entered the village. As they got closer, the black mist started to fall against their skin, causing Ramon to forcefully rub his hands across his face, almost as if feeling the taint the mist carried with it.

“This is a place filled with death, my lord,” said Topenga when they entered the village. “The stench of decay is all around us.”

The creature had limped to the edge of a hut in the center of the village. Abruptly, it turned around, looking at them, raising its hands in the air. This time its howl was louder than ever.

“It knows we are here, my lord,” said Mikael.

“That it does,” the prince spoke softly. “The people here were like us once, before Auphora banished them to this.” Ramon noticed the shock that crept on Mikael’s face. “They really were our brethren,” he continued. “Now look at what they have become. They are worse than the dust beneath our feet, neither living nor dead. Mere scavengers of the night, praying for death, but living on and on.”

“The legend is true then,” Topenga said. “The Frultoy.”

Ramon nodded. “This is what Auphora did to our great planet. It matters not what our gods did. Our people do not deserve this.”

“Look, my lord,” interrupted Topenga. “It is fleeing.”

Ramon watched the creature enter a different hut in the distance, which, like most of the huts farther into the village, still had a roof and windows, though cracked. The entire structure was coated in the same black substance that smothered the face of the Frultoy.

“Should we continue to follow it?” asked Mikael.

“No, our mission is not here,” said Ramon. “We must find the secret entrance to the Caves of Sena at once.” With haste, he walked into a hut immediately to his left. The black mist substance had tainted the entire hut, and the floor had surrendered to the insects.

“What are we looking for?” asked Topenga.

“If Master Ndu’s story is correct, the hut we seek will bear the mark of Sompua,” replied the prince. He stopped in the middle of the room, with his mouth open. “It may be…” He paused for a few seconds. “By the gods, what if…?” He started to run his fingers across his chin.

Topenga and Mikael exchanged confused glances. “What is it, my lord?” asked Topenga.

“We have very little time.” Ramon quickly stepped out of the hut.

Shrugging, Topenga and Mikael joined him. Outside, the red moon was a welcome change from the black substance that filled their eyes in the hut. “What is it, my lord?” Topenga asked again.

Prince Ramon’s eyes remained fixed on the skies above him for a few minutes.

“The black mist is clearing,” he said softly, almost to himself.

“I do not understand, my lord,” said Mikael. “Is that not a good thing?”

“The Horde approaches when the black mist clears,” Ramon said, almost whispering.

Topenga and Mikael edged closer, trying to make sense of the words of their prince, but he continued mumbling, as if trying to remember something from a book. He repeated the same thing over and over again, before Topenga raised his hands in frustration.

“My lord!” he shouted. “Please speak to me.”

“We must separate.” Ramon seemed to be in a panic. “Just before Master Nitiri left me in Sabudu, he spoke of something that bore no meaning at the time. He said that the Horde approaches when the black mist clears. He also said that the darkness will keep them away.”

“But what does that mean?” Mikael’s mouth hung open.

Ramon continued to mumble softly with his back to both Mikael and Topenga. Then he suddenly turned around to face them. “Do you not see?” he said. “They are frightened of the dark. That is why the village is empty.”

“But it is always dark here, my lord.” Topenga said. “The Dark World knows no light.”

“To us, that may seem true,” said Ramon. “But to the Frultoy the red moon must seem as bright as our sun in Tustodes. And this black mist is their only nightfall. Once this mist clears—”

“Daylight,” Topenga said. “The black mist is their darkness, and once gone, they will all return.” Topenga placed both hands on his head. “How many of them are there?”

Ramon grasped his sword and shook his head. “Too many. The entire horde of Sompua and Shompta.”

“We must flee this place at once, my lord,” said Topenga. “We will be no match for them.”

“No,” said the prince smoothly. “We must separate and find the entrance to Sena. Quickly. There is no other way.”

With a nod, Topenga ran into the hut directly to his left. Ramon and Mikael took the two nearest huts on the right. They ran furiously from hut to hut, and soon had searched all of those in their immediate vicinity. Moving to another section of the village, they continued the search. Each building Ramon entered carried the same stench of death and despair. In between dashing across the village, he noticed that the mist had almost completely cleared, and yet the village remained empty. He began to hope that perhaps the legend had been wrong, until he caught the eye of a Frultoy, standing motionless in the middle of the town, with its pale eyes focused on him.

Remaining as still as he could, he noticed it tilting its head back and forth, opening its mouth without emitting any kind of noise. It had to be the same one they initially saw at the village entrance, he thought. Looking past the creature, he counted six huts that had not yet been searched and started to consider every possibility. But just at that moment, he noticed that the black mist had completely lifted.

The creature no longer remained silent, howling in the same way it had before. Ramon looked toward the village entrance, expecting to see a mass of Frultoys coming for him, but the dust remained undisturbed.

Returning his focus to the remaining huts, he noticed Topenga emerging from a building behind the lone Frultoy. Mikael soon followed, but his entrance was directly in the line of sight of the creature, which continued to exchange glances between both of them. Topenga, meanwhile, continued to edge forward unnoticed, his hand on his sword. Another loud howl from the creature stopped him in his tracks as he drew his sword, looking toward the prince for an order.

As he weighed his options, Ramon knew that the longer they stayed in the open, the more danger they would invite, but he had to make the decision. To the shock of Topenga, the prince drew his own sword. The action brought a different kind of noise from the creature, almost like a dog’s bark. Ramon charged forward, with his blade outstretched. The creature howled louder and louder before also charging for the prince, its previous limp completely absent.

A few yards from contact, Ramon felt the ground beneath him trembling, and a glance toward the village entrance revealed the dust on the ground continuously rising. Before he could catch his breath, a sea of Frultoys charged through, screaming even louder than he had imagined they could. In his shock, he had almost forgotten the first Frultoy, which was now within a sword’s length of him, its mouth open and teeth lunging at his neck. As Ramon lifted his sword to strike, he saw the blade of Topenga piercing through the beast, rendering it motionless before the Colonoy kicked it away.

Glancing back up the hill, they saw hundreds, maybe thousands of Frultoys charging for them. With no time to speak, they both ran toward the closest hut. Upon entering, they saw the perspiring face of Mikael behind them, and, following his entrance, slammed the door shut. Quickly, they gathered every thick piece of wood they could find and placed it in front of the door.

Mikael pushed his hand against it and was surprised at how sturdy it was, considering the amount of time it must have been there. “It will hold them, my lord. But not for long,” he said, struggling to catch his breath.

Both Ramon and Topenga were staring out a window. They could not turn their eyes away from the approaching Frultoys. Suddenly, the prince turned and looked about the hut, turning over the dust-covered benches and tables, looking for anything remotely resembling the emblem he sought. He focused on a small corner of the hut, which looked especially neglected and dusty.

Mikael rushed over alongside him. “What is it, my lord?”

Ramon did not answer, instead kneeling down and examining the suspicious corner of the hut for a few seconds. “Here,” he shouted, wiping a thick layer of dust from the post of what at one time might have been a bookcase. “It is the mark of a single serpent, almost as Master Ndu described. Could the entrance to Sena lie beneath—?”

There was a massive thud against the door, followed by what must have been hundreds of footsteps just outside the building. Shortly after came the faces of Frultoys, huddled in the window, splotched with the same thick, black liquid. They tried desperately to get inside, but kept trampling over each other in their haste.

“We must do something at once, my lord,” said Topenga. “They will soon be inside.”

Ramon tried to topple the shelving, but it would not budge. He scratched his head a moment then turned around. “I need fire substance—a lot of it. We must burn it. The passage to Sena may lie underneath.”

Topenga looked at him for a few seconds, seemingly confused, but another thud of the door jolted him. He poured most of the fire substance they had over the spot Ramon had pointed out. “How are we going to acquire fire substance when we need to get back?” he asked as he poured. “The demons birds will no longer—”

“We cannot think of that now. It all—”

The prince stopped as a Frultoy burst through the window. Mikael quickly drew his axe, but in that instant, another creature breached their defenses through another window. Within seconds, they were surrounded by four undead creatures, with hundreds, potentially thousands more, still ramming against the door to get in.

“Burn it, my lord!” shouted Topenga. “We will handle this.”

With rage in his eyes, Topenga charged for the Frultoy to his immediate left, ramming his sword straight into its chest. As he pulled his blade out, however, a second one had jumped on his back, trying to bite him repeatedly. Resisting as hard as he could, he found himself on the floor, wrestling with the creature. A glance up revealed that Mikael had killed one, with the other trying to swipe at him. Looking to his immediate right, toward the direction of Ramon, he saw the prince focused on starting the fire.

The feeling of black ooze against his skin brought him back to his predicament, and he realized that the grinding teeth of the Frultoy were now dangerously close to his face. All the strength he could muster did not seem to be a match for the creature’s grip on him. It’s grinding teeth and milky white eyes came ever so close, and he truly believed that his time had come, that he had failed in protecting his prince. But the Frultoy’s grip suddenly loosened, and its body fell limp.

Catching his breath, he looked up to see Ramon pulling his sword from the creature’s chest. All at once, he felt its viscous, black blood spill out all over his bare chest, and it occurred to him then that this was the same black substance they had seen covering the faces and bodies of the Frultoy Horde. Cannibals.

Topenga soon felt extreme heat, the smell of smoke filling his nose. Rising to his knees, he saw a blanket of fire extending toward the ceiling. “Did you find what we seek?” he asked the Prince.

Ramon nodded, ash covering his face. “The hut is now known to me, yes,” he said.

“But it is not this one?”

The prince shook his head. “I am afraid not. And reaching it could be unachievable.” Ramon pointed toward a large hut at least two hundred paces away from them. A large crest with the figure of two snakes facing each other hung at the top of it, smothered in the familiar black blood of the Frultoy. “That is the mark of Sompua,” Ramon continued. “It lies on top of the hut, rather than within it.”

Topenga pulled himself up to his feet to see that Mikael was also by the prince’s side, with the last Frultoy motionless on the floor. He noticed the fire fading, with ash covering the walls. A gaping hole through the ceiling exposed the red moon. Ramon continuously swiped through the window at the horde of Frultoys as they tried to enter.

Assisting his prince, Topenga continuously looked toward the hut they needed to get to, then back to the charging creatures.”We must do something, my lord,” he said. “Fatigue will most likely claim us before the Frultoy breach our—”

A roar startled all of them. It was one they had not heard before, and it came from the direction of the village entrance. They also noticed that the Frultoy had stopped trying to break through the door. Instead, the creatures were retreating.

Worriedly, they all ran to the front window, where their view revealed the undead beasts that had now assumed the position of spectators, standing a few feet back with their eyes open, looking at them but not moving closer in the slightest. They filled most of the village, crowding each street and alleyway, but they had started to part, creating a path of some sorts. The same roar came once more, and this time, all three warriors looked in its direction. What they saw caused Ramon to swallow.

A huge beast that approached was not a Frultoy but a giant, fifteen-foot behemoth, with a single triangular eye in its forehead and a wide, exaggerated mouth. Its thick skin had a look of worn leather, and a single, coarse horn protruded from the top of its head.