Zaldizko - Chapter 16 The Banshees Lair

Small Cap and I sighed with relief when the new path didn’t show the tell-tale signs of a web-spinner.

It looked like Colin had found a path around such a creature’s lair, so we had thought.

I ran into his back when he suddenly stopped. The sight he was seeing made me whimper.

The path had led us into a dead end that was some sort of red-brick cavern.

“This is strange. I followed the gold path that should take us back to the Lotus Bridge,” his hands stoically explained. He addedafter some coaxingthat the Lotus Bridge was the platform area with the gold coin olive tree.

He released a few deep breaths and closed his eyes as if to calm himself. If he was doing his best to keep calm, both Small Cap and I were ready to wet ourselves. I cowardly clung behind the good knight’s back.

The entire black wall was covered, disgustingly, with white silk webbing and messily wrapped cocoons that had the tops of black shrivelled (I presumed) heads poking out.

“Me don’t like web-spinners,” Small Cap said. The great huntsman spider cowered further in the belt pouch.

“Sheesh. A spider afraid of a spider… Shit, those heads are creeping me out!” I tried to sound tough and failed.

I clung closer to Colin’s back that heaved with a heavy sigh.

“Aah, who enters my lair?” A deep and smooth voice resonated around the cavern, which sent a mad flurry of chills up and down my spine.

Panic sent my heart pounding madly against my chest, beads of sweat trickled down the sides of my neck.

Colin unsheathed a pair of short swords from his belt. He braced himself for a fight.

I took a few steps back and calmed my panic with a few deep breaths, convincing myself that it was just a spider. I’ve faced far worse and have lived to tell the tale.

“Well, well, some nice guests have arrived.” The deep voice spoke next to my ear.

I trembled and mumbled incomprehensible nonsense when I realised the voice was above me.

He raised his swords before the web-spinner, which was nothing like the types I had come across before. It was ten times worse.

I felt it was the most appropriate time to confess my sins and brace myself for Buddha.

My body shook from the heavy thud the web-spinner’s body caused when it dropped to the ground to stand before us.

“Mr Black Spider, my you doth look radiant today.” I formally addressed the black spider with a red stripe on its back and gulped at the sight of its long legs, the span of two men, ending in razor-sharp points.

Its eyes were barely visible on its head. A sharp stinger twitched animatedly at its backside, like how a man would flex his muscles before dealing a lethal punch. It towered over us with twice the height of Colin.

“Spider? Ho, ho, ho, I see you are not the educated one.” The spider let out a sinister chuckle. “I’m a banshee, but I suppose that information is irrelevant.”

I gulped down my fear, instinctively recalling as the banshee advanced with teasing and testing steps.

“He’s gonna wait one, maybe, two breaths then pounce if he’s like me,” Small Cap calmly informed whilst burying himself deeper in the belt pouch.

I tapped Colin’s shoulder to get his attention and quickly summarised this fact with my hands.

This made him readjust his attack strategy and pull out a red ball, which he smashed to the ground to create a cloud of smoke we could hide behind.

He pulled me into a frantic run around the cavern, through narrower paths and pockets that we hoped would take us out into a clear area.

My panic increased when everywhere I looked was more webbing. It was sticking to our boots and slowing down our plight.

He paused to pull me behind him again.

I clung to his back.

“Buddha!” I screamed pitifully when our bodies were jolted by the heavy landing the banshee’s body had made to the ground before us.

The cavern echoed with the spider’s triumph laughter, along with many agitated scratching and tapping noises on the rock walls.

“You bleed, I dine!” The banshee made a sound like smacking lips together.

It lifted its backside and lowered its front for a pounce.

“Gaah!” I gagged at the astringent taste that went into my mouth when the banshee’s body disturbed the air with its leap for us.

Colin sheathed his swords. His body glowed white-blue from the fluid movements his arms and hands made in an elegance dance.

I remembered a time when I had sat and watched the old monks from Gat Shiem doing a similar dance in the meditation gardens one sunrise. They had called these movements bidea, (a path). A form of movement-based magic that invoked an ultimate and supreme state of being to manipulate the airborne elements of our world. It was an uncommon practice, not belonging to the Sacred Word.

Colin’s ability manipulate the air elements within the cavern using bidea was captivating. I almost forgot we were fighting for our lives. The banshee’s curt cry brought me back to reality. It let out another shrill cry when it bounced off our white, protective energy shield.

It bellowed with frustration when the shield blocked its counter attack and scurried about the cavern walls and ceiling for a vantage point.

I yelped when it reared its body over my head, baring its razor-sharp pincers. A concentrated force of white air held back its killing blow. I scurried out of its path to stand behind Colin.

His bidea dance caused a protective force field around us.

“It won’t last. Need a plan,” his hands sped through in conversation.

I nodded my head, trying to think of something.

We were stuck in a cavern with no obvious exit and our way hampered by sticky webbing that would likely be our end if we got caught within them.

Colin added a creepy fact that he had seen children version of the banshee waiting in the shadows. So, we were surrounded. He was the only one with the skills to fight them.

“How do we get out?” I signed without a clue on how we’d achieve the impossible.

“One way. Kill the Banshees. All of them,” he answered nonchalantly.

The way he was able to remain cool and collected was beginning to piss me off.

“Oh yes, kill the banshee, not a problem, it’ll be all in a day’s work, except for the fact, THAT THEY’RE FREAKY NASTY DEMONS LIKELY TO EAT MY HEAD BEFORE I GET TO THEM!” The words blurted and fumbled out of my mouth and hands.

Speaking my fears seemed to have calmed me. I felt a lot more in control and refreshed after exhaling a few deep breaths.

“Better?” He smirked.

“Quite,” I said and nodded coolly.

Jarring thuds and sizzles against the force field remind us of the importance of time.

“I need you to keep the enemy at bay while I find the exit,” he ordered and handed me his two guns from holsters that were strapped to his sides beneath his overcoat.

They were slightly different to the ones that Jensen and Wilfred used. His guns were heavier, thicker and had a better grip. There was a round chamber that housed 24 small bullets near the loophole trigger.

He ran me through the basics of releasing the safety, cocking the triggers for firing and disarming, and the actual firing. Also, how to use the tiny tip on the barrel as a viewfinder to lock onto a point of a target.

“Don’t worry about bullets running out. The chamber automatically refreshes,” he signed. “I’ll reset the force field to repel the immediate attacks around us. You will then keep the banshee brats and Big Mama Banshee at bay while I find us a way out.”

“You better not take bloody long,” I grumbled as I cocked the guns, readying myself for the task at hand.

It seemed to bring something of a twisted smile to the knight’s face.

Colin refocused the energy field to reflect the immediate spider attacks away from us.

I aimed the guns at the approaching Big Mama Banshee and fired.

The large spider reeled backwards with pain from the deep impact it felt to a set of its eyes.

“Ugh! Suck out their brains!” Big Mama Banshee shrieked and called out children reinforcements. “SUCK OUT EVERYTHING!”

I fired off rapid rounds to dampen the advancing tide of normal sized redback spiders scurrying towards us whilst Colin pulled out his crystal shard to home in on a way out.

He signalled that he had found the exit, which was blocked by a mass of webbing and a clutter of spiders.

He moved his arms in another bidea sequence that created a repelling barrier around us. It was keeping the clusters from crawling on us, but it wouldn’t hold them back for long.

I yelped at the small spider that leapt for my face, which ended as splatter against the wall from my gunfire; I was able to repeat the fate for a lot of other spiders that went for a kill.

However, my arms were tired, not accustomed to handling the weapons for long.

“Famine. Help me!” I heard Death’s voice and saw the hollowed-eye ghost version of himself standing on the other side of the repellent barrier.

“Death!” I yelled out and felt Colin’s firm grip on my arm.

He increased the strength of the barrier and drew my attention to Big Mama Banshee behind him. I noticed a fine thread of bluish white light linking the two.

“I was gifted with your brother’s ego. Such a fine tasty morsel. Pity, it wasn’t the real thing.” The banshee’s words toyed with my emotions as it paraded around our fortified barrier for a weakness.

My heart raced with fear and anger at the sight of Death’s ego weakening and becoming stronger upon a pull of the link the banshee controlled.

“Famine… Don’t list… be… bound” Death was trying to tell me something, but his voice changed back to its earlier cry for help upon a pull of the link.

It was obvious that the banshee was attempting to lure me out of the protective barrier.

“Is this really my brother’s ego?” I placed the guns down and signed with hopes Colin would give me a definite answer.

He peered at Death’s hollowed-eye impression, the banshee and me.

“Your brother’s good as null,” he replied.

“He’s not, his egos there!” I answered back with a hope he was lying.

“You need a body for that ego,” he coolly explained.

“I’ll give him mine!” I was becoming desperate.

“You’ll be good as null. His ego, the soul, goes in, your soul goes out. Like trying to pour a full cup of water into another full cup.”

My mind scrambled for a solution to save my brother, even if that salvation was to bring his soul to peace. There was no way in hell I was leaving any essence of Death attached to that thing.

“What if I cut him loose from Big Mama Banshee?”

“The soul will fade out to null,” he levelly commented.

“Is there nothing that can be done?” I begged Colin with burning hope. “I’ll do anything to save my brother.”

Colin cocked his head to one side and coolly signed, “Anything?”

I gasped with exasperation. Surely, he wasn’t suggesting some shonky business dealing at this point and time? My fists curled with an urge to punch the knight’s smug face.

“This is not a time to make deals!” I hissed.

Colin chuckled and patted my head condescendingly.

“My condolences. I am only interested in getting out of here alive with you.”

I picked up his guns. “I’ll find a way to save my brother. Do whatever the hell you want. I’m stealing your guns. ”

“I can see why the Aueralius Brothers are captivated by you. You hold my interest too. Okay, I’ll help you in exchange for a kiss,” he smoothly commented and demanded.

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MIND?!” I shouted, which excited the masses of banshee circling the perimeter of our barrier.

He chuckled and flashed me a cocky grin that reminded me of Trix.

“Fine. Make it quick.” I released my frustrations with a weary sigh.

His arms wrapped my waist and reeled me close to his body, so our noses were almost touching.

A fragrant aroma of vanilla-citrus lingered the air between us.

I naturally relaxed in his arms and braced myself for the kiss.

He opened his mouth to mine, making my cheeks flush from the hot sensation of his lips and tongue.

Delicate green light wrapped our bodies as our kisses deepened. My strength weakened as his increased. He pulled out of the kiss before I was about to collapse in his arms.

“Not only beautiful, you have the refreshing gifts of a hira,” he signed, allowing me to reclaim my composure.

“Happy now?” I said and ended my signing with a rude finger.

“Quite.” He chuckled.

He resumed a serious tone as he ran through a makeshift plan of how we would save Death’s ego and escape the banshee’s lair.

“I know a spell that can grant your heart’s desire, but it has produced certain side effects on some past occasions.” Colin’s expression was void of his earlier teasing and smugness.

“You’re still keen to salvage your brother’s ego?” he asked with an attitude of confirming a business deal.

“Yes,” I adamantly answered.

“Can you ask your spider friend this question?”

I cocked my head to one side with a pensive frown. “Okay.”

“Will you temporarily give your body to the ego of your friend’s brother? Even if could mean yourself being nullified?” Colin carefully signed so I could not mistake his words and the implications behind them.

I felt troubled by the fact that the cost of transferring an ego to the form of another could mean the loss of losing one.

If Colin believed that it was possible for Small Cap’s body to contain Death, what other options did we have?

“What about Small Cap?” I asked

“The spell allows for two contrasting egos to coexist in the same meat suit. The ego of a spider and human most definitely fits the criteria.”

“Small Cap. Can we use your body for Death’s ego until we’re able to return him to his body?” I reluctantly asked the spider.

“What? Freend need, my body?” Small Cap rephrased nervously.

The least I could do was give him a straight and honest expectation, so I walked him through my understanding of Colin’s question in our minds that made the great huntsman tremble nervously.

“I’m not going to lie and say there aren’t risks. You can say no. I would be forever grateful if you said yes. You know I will do everything in my power to protect you,” I firmly thought.

Small Cap paused for thought before returning with a shaky agreement on the matter.

“He agreed but this better not cause harm to him.” My hands reluctantly signed an answer to Colin’s question.

He patted my head and stood before me with expression of getting down business.

“For success, you’re to follow my instructions to the T.”

Small Cap and I nodded. We waited for the next steps.

He reinforced the enclosing barrier, which further agitated Big Mama Banshee and its children.

He pulled out his fob watch and signed words that I roughly translated to, “I am the Light Grimoire.”

The fob watch hovered before him in mid-air. His hands clapped three times, moved about in a delicate and graceful dance to open the watch. Silver light poured out of it with impressions of time running in the air before us.

He signed the words for Ego Port within the light, using his fingers to form more words in the air. The glowing words were caught by his hands with graceful sweeps.

“Place Small Cap to the ground before us,” he instructed me.

I relayed the instruction to Small Cap who obediently complied.

Colin placed the clear quartz crystal shard next to him. His hands moved with a flourish and ceremonial sweeps, making the previous glowing words momentarily reappear and transition into a delicate white aura around Small Cap. He clapped his hands three times to disperse the words and turn off the light. He snatched the watch and returned it to his pocket.

The aura was still beaming around Small Cap.

“The spell is ready. All that is required is to break the link between your brother and Big Mama Banshee and reconnect his link to Small Cap,” Colin advised and briefed us on our next actions, which carried risk and room for error. We had to succeed.

The first task was finding a vantage point on Big Mama Banshee. Once I could get close to Death, I needed to break it.

“Ego links are psychological, so has to be negated with psychology,” Colin explained.

I frowned. Death hardly held grudges or matters close to his heart nor was he a person easily rattled. So, how could a stranger demon know so much about my brother to bind him to an ego link?

“I don’t get it. Death is not one to stew on worries. I’m likely the one to feel troubled about stuff and the most emotional out of all of us,” I commented and pouted at Colin’s agreement to the fact.

“That’s a reason you’re not likely to be bound to an ego link. You’re too transparent.” Colin chuckled.

I yelped at the sizzling and thumping noises coming from the surrounding barrier.

“How much longer can this barrier hold?” I gulped at the sensation of losing time.

“It depends on how long I can keep my cool?” Colin smirked. That was the secret behind his magic.

I sighed and decided it was wise to keep my own emotions in order and my head as clear as possible.

“So, we need to negate the psychological issue holding Death captive to the banshee to break the link between them, then re-link him to Small Cap and get the hell out of here,” my hands rephrased.

Colin nodded his head. He went into detail of our next, actual, steps we were going to take as soon as he had removed the barrier.

I nodded my head with understanding of his instructions and cocked the two guns in my hands in readiness for action.

“No problems. Let’s get this done.”

Small Cap climbed back into my belt pouch.

Colin placed the crystal shard next to him then readied his weapons at his belt for quick retrieval once the barrier was lifted.

He slowly exhaled. Some of his breaths fell short. I noticed he was pressing his left arm closer to his side. Was he injured?

I placed the guns down.

“How deep is your wound?” I frowned, forced his arm aside and lifted back part of his overcoat to look at what he had been, skilfully, holding in.

There was a small gash wound toward the side of his waist, and when I pried apart some of his shirt material to garner a better look, saw that the skin was pustulating and heavily bruised.

I took a closer look at his face and noticed sweat trailing his skin. His green eyes were slightly weepy. Why hadn’t I seen it earlier?

“You can’t go out like this!” I scolded.

“Nonsense. How are you going to achieve the impossible without my aid?” His hands gingerly reminded me.

“Then I guess I better do something about this wound.”

I stared him hard in the eye. “What did you mean when you said I was a hira?”

Colin swallowed a breath. His hands fumbled through an explanation of how he knew of someone who held similar powers that could heal with a kiss and other certain touches. This hira emitted a signature that magis aware of the scent could detect.

“I can heal this?” I pointed to his wound.

His eyes blinked in response, which I took for a yes.

If that was his sole intention for the earlier kiss, why didn’t he say so upfront? Why didn’t he heal the first time around?

I released a frustrated sigh and freed the wound from as much material as possible. It was nasty and looking extremely painful.

“Close your eyes and imagine I’m someone else if you like,” I whispered as I gently coaxed his head towards mine and kissed him.

The vanilla-citrus aroma toyed with our senses as our kisses deepened and the warmth from our bodies mingled.

My mind was going crazy with an urge of wanting his touches and kisses to other areas of my skin. I felt his strength increasing and mine fading fast.

He wrapped his arms around my waist to keep me steady as he pressed harder and deeper.

Gentle green light embraced our bodies as we delved further into each other. My yearning for his touches were invoking a numbing sensation throughout my body. He stopped when I became limp in his arms.

I felt heady, queasy in the stomach and an acrid taste of iron lingering my tongue.

“Gaah,” I moaned.

Colin held my body to his chest, which had fierce heartbeats pounding against it.

I glanced at his wound and sighed when I saw that it was gone. Only a residual amount of dry blood on his shirt and some parts of his skin remained.

“Good, it’s gone,” I said and pulled myself away from his embrace.

I re-balanced myself and reassessed the condition of his guns that I picked up. I felt well enough to fight.

Colin rechecked his own body. I could tell by the brightness of his eyes that he was more than raring to go.

“Okay, five minutes at most you have to contain yourself with your brother.”

He handed me a talisman paper strip. “The words to call upon protection is ‘in his light I seek protection.’ Think it as soon as you toss it in the air. I don’t need to add that you’re best to be next to him at that time.”

I nodded with understanding.

His hands moved in a bidea dance that made the barrier around us blast the surrounding spiders into ash.

I felt my wrists ache every time I fired rounds at the second wave of oncoming banshees to make their bodies splatter on the surfaces.

My determination for Hollow-Eyed Death propelled me forward. I cleared my way towards his ghostly form lurking near the spot that Colin had identified as the exit early.

I tossed the talisman strip into the air when I was within range, muttering the protection script at the same time.

A shield of clear light enclosed Hollow-Eyed Death and me in our own private space. I heard Big Mama Banshee’s shrieksfilled with anguishfocus on Colin who was using his magic and physical power to keep it and its children a bay.

“Famine, help me.” Hollow-Eyed Death’s voice called out to me.

His words were empty as if they were running on a loop.

“It’s me, Death. It’s Famine, I’m here.” I carefully called out to him, aware not to touch the bluish white line of light at his back.

Colin had mentioned that the ego link’s connecting point was at his heart. To sever the link, I needed to break the holding point on his heart, which was psychological.

What could be so troubling that kept him weak?

My mind wandered back to something Colin had said about me being transparent and not likely to be bound to a link.

So, had Death been wrestling with some trouble on his own for a long time?

“Famine, help me.” The scripted voice from Hollow-Eyed Death called out to me again.

“What’s making you worry so much Death that you’d allow these freaks an advantage over you?”

“Famine, help me.”

I squeezed my eyes closed as I thought back to the moment I had seen Death in the mirror. His hands were banging and pressing the glass on his side.

_”I’m sorry but this body doesn’t yearn for the stoic macho type…”_ The hiruda’s words resurfaced to my mind.

“Doesn’t yearn.” I rephrased as my mind persistently lingered on the first image of Death banging and pressing the glass on his side.

His banging fist had made a circular motion near his heart and his pressing fist only had his middle fingers curled in.

“Why are you sorry? What did you do?” I realised the words he had been saying to me at that time.

“Famine, help me.” Death answered with the same scripted voice.

I yelped when I saw several small banshees attacking the surrounding barrier. Panic was starting to cloud my mind.

“Death, you have nothing to be sorry for. I’m here! I don’t blame you for anything!” I raised my voice, hoping it would reach him.

“Famine, help me.”

“What’d you yearn for Death to make you feel sorry?” I near shouted, feeling my desperation.

It was no use, he kept staring at me with those hollow black eyes and repeating the same words.

The link to his back wasn’t showing signs of weakening. I heard Big Mama Banshee’s voice wailing in the distance and moving closer as it realised what I was trying to do.

“Please Death, please.” I swallowed tears that streamed down my face. “Help me understand.”

He repeated the same words with the same expression.

My grief began to weigh me down at the sense of lost hope I was beginning to see as a reality.

My brother was gone?

No! I won’t allow it!

“GODDAMNIT DEATH! Who the hell made you feel sorry?!” I shouted at his ego.

My heart skipped a beat when his voice spoke different words.

“Who… Famine?”

“Yes, Death, it’s me. Who made you feel sorry?” I gently asked, feeling a flicker of hope.

“Famine. I saw you and Pesti. I saw you”

My heart perked up with more hope when I saw the link to his back flicker. I did my best to ignore Big Mama Banshee’s approaching shrills and the increased suicidal attacks from the spiders to our barrier.

“Pesti and I,” I prompted him.

“You were holding hands, looking up to the aurora borealis in the night sky. Happy, both of you were happy.”

Death voiced his last moments at Gat Shiem.