Chapter 43 - The Kraken Gate
Where Mahkran was pointing there was a flicker of a murky pink shape, and then another, trailing Benjamin’s group. In the handful of moments that we watched, horrified, it was clear that the creatures moved more easily than the humans over the rocky ground, and they were gaining on their quarry.
‘Come on!’ I cried. Throwing the crossbow at Millicent, and clutching my spear tightly, I broke into a run. ‘We have to catch them up.’
Millicent, Inigo, and Yates joined the pursuit as we raced across the fractured ground, hurdling small rocks and batting bruise-coloured shrubs aside. We’d hardly got going when everything went wrong. Mahkran, who was in the lead, yelled a warning. I was right behind him. Unable to stop, I burst out into a small clearing between the jagged rocks. The ground was dry earth, packed into cracks in a gently sloping floor of bedrock. In the centre was a cave entrance, large enough for a person to squeeze through. Just hauling itself clear of the hole was one of the infernal Charg.
The description of land-kraken was apt. I had only ever seen pictures of the aquatic variety back on Illesin. James, claimed to have seen the real ones a couple of times during his time at sea. Like the ones on Illesin, the one I was looking at had eight legs, although the word leg implies too much rigidity. The Charg positively flowed out from its lair. Atop the mass of writhing, mottled-purple limbs, the mass of its head seemed to swell out, broad and flat, with two black eyes the size of fists protruding on stalks on either side. There was no sign of its mouth, but Evershed claimed it lay at the centre of the creature’s limbs, beneath it, in effect. All about the hellish creature hung a pinkish haze, a swirling fog that boiled out from pores in its skin. The other thing that hit me was the smell, a sickly-sweet rotting smell mixed with ammonia.
‘Stay back,’ I warned Inigo and Millicent. They took cover behind some large rocks on the edge of the clearing, but Private Yates was already alongside me.
To his credit, Mahkran had not loosed a bolt while the creature was half-hidden. Now that it was in full view, he fired his crossbow. I expected the power of the weapon to drive the quarrel clean through the Charg’s head but instead, it lodged up to its fletchings with a sickening thump, just beneath the animal’s bulbous eye. The Charg emitted a blood-curdling noise, somewhere between a roar and a shriek. It flailed its limbs then shrieked again. Then, almost tenderly, it wrapped one of its tentacle-like legs around the quarrel’s shaft and pulled it out. Malachite ichor gouted from the wound.
‘Shoot it, Ms. Onacar!’
I heard the chock sound as Millicent pulled the trigger, but she’d had no training with the weapon. The bolt flew wide, shattering on the rocks behind the monster. Its eyes swivelled, checking for the source of the noise behind it, even though the broad mounting of its eyes must have given it good peripheral vision. Seeing nothing, it turned its attention back on us and began to advance. Mahkran was reloading his crossbow, so I moved to my right, waving my spear and shouting to distract it. The tactic worked…too well!
The Charg shot towards me, two of its tentacles uncoiling like the arms of a pickpocket in Gainsayer Alley. I used the spear like a club and batted them away. Evershed had told us all how the Charg he’d seen had decapitated a deer-like creature with its whip-like limb, so I danced back, hoping I’d gauged the range correctly. Now the Charg quivered and the purple cloud around it intensified, billowing out towards me. Again I stepped back. Another crossbow fired, this time from Inigo. The quarrel found its mark, sinking deep into one the Charg’s limbs where it joined the body. Mahkran also shot it again. One of the Charg’s huge eyes exploded, fragments of shredded flesh and fluid slopped down its flank. The creature emitted its strange, rattling shriek and sagged a little. Private Yates charged forward, intent on finishing it off. It was a bold move.
‘Wait!’ I called, hoping my fears were unfounded.
Yates plunged headlong with his spear foremost. It looked as though he would succeed, but the creature was evidently not as incapacitated as it looked. At the last instant, one of its tentacles lashed out. I caught a glimpse of white serrations along one edge of the limb and Yates’ head jumped from his shoulders. Part of my brain was trying to process what I’d seen and deal with the shock, while another part watched the corpse lurch onwards, crashing into the alien. Trapped between Yates’ remains and the Charg, the spear was thrust deep into the alien. I stared aghast as the Charg writhed. I was just beginning to despair of ever killing the Draxil-cursed alien when its struggles slowed and finally stopped. Its cylindrical torso and head slumped sideways to the ground.
For a ghastly moment, all was still, then Inigo and Ms. Onacar cautiously approached.
‘Is it safe?’ The hydrologist asked, white as a sheet.
Mahkran went to peer into the opening in the ground.
‘We can’t afford to stop here,’ said Inigo, reaching out a hand to my shoulder.
‘Yes. We need to get going.’
Inigo looked at Yates’ headless corpse. ’What do we do about him?’
‘We’ll come back for him later…if we can.’
Inigo was about to say something when Mahkran hissed a warning.
‘Noises in here,’ he said, indicating the opening in the ground. ‘There are more coming.’
‘We need to move!’ I grabbed at Inigo and turned him around. I pulled the flap on his backpack open and dug out six sticks of dynamite, fuse cord and a flint. ‘Inigo, you and Mahkran go after the others now. Take Ms. Onacar with you and run.’
They set off. Mahkran took Millicent’s hand and coaxed her into a trot. Physical activity would help to offset her shock. I worked fast, rebinding the bundle as four sticks and shoving two into a pocket in my breeches. At the entrance to the cave where the Charg had emerged, I could hear what Mahkran had heard. Scuffling noises and strange, low-frequency thrumming sound that came and went, but was getting louder. Is that them, communicating with each other? Draxil’s Beard! How many of them are in there? Set the fuse quickly and get out of here!
I cut the fuse short, but I needed time to get away. I hesitated for two more ticks while I considered how intelligent these aliens were. Would they see burning fuse as a threat and find a way to put it out? I couldn’t take any chances so I snipped a bit more off, then lit it, lobbed the dynamite into the cave and ran like Meniah, escaping from her tyrant husband.
Comments
Post a Comment