John Brosnan - The Sky Lords

“Yes” she agreed sourly. “Who else but us could be so mad?”

For the first time that day Milo smiled and seemed like his old self again, but his change of mood was only temporary and he lapsed again into grim silence as he led the way towards the distant city.

Trudging along behind him through the foul-smelling fungus, Jan wondered about her relationship with him. It had changed, thanks to the sex of the previous night. He had finally got what he wanted, only it hadn’t satisfied him. What had he wanted then? Not just sex with her. Had he somehow expected to transform her through the act of love-making? Into what? A genuine lover, even though she had already warned him she could never be that to him? That was likely. He had believed, in his arrogance, that he could possess her through the power of his penis alone. Or maybe it wasn’t as simple as that. Perhaps, despite denying the existence of love, he hoped she would fall in love with him.

Well, however differently he felt about her now it did not bode well for her future survival. He must realize that there was no chance of her changing her attitude towards him and that meant he might now regard her as a disposable item; something that could be easily abandoned at the first sign of serious inconvenience.

The morning passed without incident. They heard many sounds in the surrounding woods but nothing overtly threatened them. They did encounter a whip tree, but as it had only recently trapped some fresh prey it presented no danger, being clearly visible for what it was. The prey—a large wolf-like animal—was held against the trunk in an obscene embrace by the tree’s tentacles. Already the wolf’s body was caving in under its fur as the spikes of the trunk slowly sucked it dry.

“Why are the whip trees never attacked by fungus?” Jan asked Milo as they detoured around it.

“As I told you before, they’re not really trees. But apart from that they were designed to be pretty difficult to kill. They’re full of toxins. Too deadly for even the toughest fungi to infest.”

They stopped around noon for a rest. Jan flung herself down thankfully. She was worn out from struggling through the fungus and her muscles throbbed with pain. It was uncomfortably hot too. The storm clouds of the previous night had vanished and the sun beat down unimpeded on the blight land.

“Mother God … the stink …” she groaned. It wasn’t just the fungus, it was her as well. Her slime-encrusted clothes smelt appalling in the heat and she would have given anything for a bath. She thought with nostalgia of the bathroom in her quarters on the Lord Pangloth and wryly berated herself for such weakness.

She was terribly thirsty as well. She took out her water bottle. She had intended only to have a couple of mouthfuls, but before she knew what she was doing she had finished the remainder of the water. She sighed inwardly. How was she going to spend two or three days travelling without another drink of water? She glanced towards Milo, who was lying on his back. Would he share his remaining water with her? Best not to ask him just yet.

Ten minutes later and Jan felt herself begin to drift off to sleep. She knew it was a dangerous thing to do out in the open like this but surely Milo would let her know if anything dangerous appeared.

A sound made her return to full wakefulness. She listened intently. Yes, there it was again! She hadn’t imagined it.

It was a splash .

She sat up. “Milo, did you hear that?”

He didn’t answer. She looked at him. He appeared to be asleep. Good. She would handle this on her own. It would be good if she could announce to him on her return that she had found a source of fresh water. It would help to compensate for her stupid behaviour of the previous night.

She stood up quietly. There was another splash. It came from somewhere to her left. She began to head in what she hoped was the right direction. As a precaution she drew her short sword. …

She’d gone, she’d estimated, about fifty yards when suddenly the claustrophobic clutter of rotting trees and fungoid growths came to an end and she found herself standing in a clearing. In the centre of the clearing was a small lake. It was almost perfectly round and Jan wondered if it was artificial.

Whatever its origin it looked marvellous to her. As she approached it she felt a strong desire to tear off her clothes and plunge straight into its mirror-like surface.

She froze. The surface of the small lake was perfectly flat and there was no stream either entering it or leaving it. So what had caused the splashing? Raising her sword defensively she glanced around the clearing. No sign of anyone else in the vicinity. She looked back towards the lake and advanced towards it warily. She froze again as a large bubble appeared on its surface and then broke with a splashing sound. She immediately relaxed. The mystery had been solved.

But what was causing the bubbles? Gas, perhaps? Coming up through the ground on the bottom of the lake? Or could it be formed by rotting vegetation under the water? She went to the edge of the lake and peered into it. It seemed deep, its sides dropping away steeply. Jan frowned as she wondered if the water was safe to drink. It looked so enticing. …

She went down on one knee, cupped her free hand and dipped it into the water. It felt surprisingly cold. She tasted the water cautiously with the tip of her tongue, then swished a small amount of it back and forth in her mouth. It seemed okay. She would risk a couple of mouthfuls.

A louder splash than usual made her look up. There, in the centre of the lake, a head had appeared. It was frog-like in appearance and coloured a dark green. It had large, bulging eyes and a very wide mouth. The mouth grinned at her. Jan sprung upright and was about to run when the mouth opened and a great length of tongue shot out of it at amazing speed. The end of it was around Jan’s left leg before she knew what was happening. She was jerked violently off her feet and dragged inexorably into the edge of the lake.

She hacked blindly with her sword. The blade made contact with something, sliced through it and suddenly she was no longer being pulled into the water. Frantically she scrambled out of the lake. Looking over her shoulder she saw the head had vanished, but the water in the centre of the lake seemed to be boiling. She started to run. At the same time there came an explosion of water from the lake. She glanced over her shoulder again and saw that the creature had leapt out of the lake. It was huge, with powerful hind legs. She saw the muscles tense as it prepared to leap again. …

She knew she didn’t have a chance. The creature sailed straight over her head and landed with a thump some five yards ahead of her. It spun round to face her as she skidded helplessly to a halt.

It was massive. Even squatting it loomed over her. The great mouth opened again. She saw blood trickling from its corners. “Smart-ass,” the frog-creature growled. “You hurt me. Gonna take weeks to regrow that four foot of tongue. …” He reached out one of his fore-limbs towards her. The long fingers on the human-like hand were tipped with vicious-looking claws. “Gonna teach you some lessons ‘fore I eat you, woman. ‘Fore I finish with you, you gonna be beggin’ me to have my supper just to get it over with. …”

The creature suddenly stiffened and let loose a bellow of pain. It whirled around and Jan saw a large and deep gash across its upper back. A shape blurred beside the creature as it turned. She saw the flash of a sword. The creature bellowed again as one of its fore-legs was lopped off.

Milo , she realized.

The sword flashed again and again and soon the creature was on its back, hind legs kicking feebly as blood pumped out of several fatal wounds. Milo came into focus and began wiping his stained long-sword. He gave her a look of contempt. “Stupid, stupid woman. You’ve been trying so hard to get yourself killed I’m going to let you succeed the next time. You’re absolutely useless … what the hell …?”