Banshee Worm King: Book Five of the Oz Chronicles (22 page)

I didn’t have to turn to know it was April.
 

“There she is,” Bostic said stuffing a piece of steak into
his mouth.

“I hope you made me some,” she said sounding far too giddy.

He cut his steak in half.
 
“Would I neglect my partner?”
 
He
slid a plate with her half of the steak to the end of the counter.

“Partner?”

He chewed his steak and said, “Yep.
 
Partners.
 
I wasn’t lying when I said I was lonely before. Everybody I’ve met has
become worm food.
 
Ain’t that the
damndest thing.” He snorted out a laugh.
 
“Anyway, since the meat has a hold of April, and the Myrmidons offered
up their deal, I figured I could take on a partner.”

April took a bite of her steak and howled.
 
“I cannot believe I wasted so much of this
before by puking it up.”

“What are you doing, April?” I asked.

“I’m enjoying my steak, thank you very much.”

“I mean, what are you doing getting involved with Bostic?”

“What am I doing?
 
I’m
trading in running for my life from all those monster thingies to living a life
of luxury.”
 
She sniffed a piece of steak
before eating it.
 
“Bostic has got it
all.
 
A mansion in the sky.
 
His own personal little highway in the
sky.
 
And, all the Mrymidon meat I can
eat.” She giggled.
 
“Hey, that rhymes.”

“You don’t know what this stuff is going to do to you.”

“What, make me happy and strong and healthy?”

“Look,” I said, “I don’t know how this stuff works, but
I’ve seen what it does to people.
 
The
Ratty-Bobs don’t look happy, strong, or healthy.
 
They look like the walking dead.”

Bostic cut into his steak.
 
“The Ratty-Bobs don’t know how to manage their supply.
 
Go too long without it and your body don’t
react well.
 
You gotta stay ahead of the
hunger.
 
You get hungry for it, you’re
too late. Ratty-Bob’s ain’t never learned that.
 
I’ll make sure April here don’t make the same mistake.”

She smiled with chewed-up steak in her cheek.
 
“Isn’t that sweet.
 
A knight in shining armor.”

“Anything for my partner,” Bostic said.
 
“Now, Oz, I hate to be a stickler, but you
never did answer my question. Are you going to fight me on this deal?”

I didn’t have a choice, and he knew it.
 
“No,” I said.

Ajax huffed and flashed his teeth.

“Your gorilla friend don’t look too happy,” Bostic said
pointing with his fork.

“He doesn’t trust you,” I said.

He swallowed.
 
“That
hurts, but what are you going to do?”

“I don’t trust you either.”

“Again, what are you going to do?”

I didn’t know what to say.

He held up the steak with his bare hand.
 
“You see this.
 
This means more to me than the hand that’s
holding it.
 
The Myrmidons have presented
me with an offer that could set me up for life with this stuff.
 
You ain’t gotta trust me. You just gotta know
that there ain’t no way in hell I’m going to screw that up.”

I turned to Ajax.
 
“He’s right.”

He huffed and lumbered away.

“Let’s go,” I said.

“Hold on to your cupcakes there, boy.
 
Like I said before, there’s no hurry.
 
I’d prefer to let them stew just a bit
longer.
 
Maybe I can talk them up to 50
Myrmidons.”

“We’re not going to let them stew,” I said.
 
“We’re going now.”

April rolled her eyes.
 
“He gets like this.
 
Bossy, bossy,
bossy.”

“Son, the sooner I hand you over to them, the sooner your
life becomes a living hell.”

“I don’t care.”

Bostic shook his head.
 
“This hero stuff really is as annoying as piss on my trousers.”

“Tell me about it,” April said.
 
“This is the kind of hell I’ve had to go
through with this idiot and that other one, what’s his name?”

“His name,” I said irritated by her lack of respect, “was
Archie.”

“Right, Archie,” She said and then shrugged.
 
“His name might as well have been loser.”

Bostic tilted his head back and moaned.
 
“I’m so bored with this conversation.”
 
He moved around the corner and headed for the
cot.
 
“I’m taking a nap.
 
When I awake from my slumber,” he said with a
fake high society accent, “I shall escort you to our freaky ant friends.”
 
He plopped down on the cot.
 
“My boy, your hell shall begin soon
enough.”
 
Lying down he said, “I hear
them Myrmidons are just plain nasty creatures.
 
They got these little mites, size of a pea, they stick them in the ears
of their prisoners.
 
Don’t know why
exactly.
 
Probably just to drive them
bat-crap crazy.
 
Those little mites dig
their way deep into your ear and lay eggs. Those eggs hatch and little tiny
larvae sit there in your ear, nibbling away on your flesh. They nibble, and
nibble.
 
All the while you can hear every
tiny bite they take.”
  
His eyelids
closed and he started to snore.

April pushed her plate away, looked past me, and stared at
Bostic for a couple of seconds.
 
Satisfied he was asleep, she leaned in and whispered.
 
“Listen, my head is spinning from the meat,
so I don’t know how long I can think straight.
 
The Myrmidons aren’t far from here.
 
At the third platform, you can either go left or right, go left... no
wait, right.
 
Go right...”

“So wait, are you with Bostic or not?”

“No, you idiot.
 
I’m
not with him.
 
I just told him that.
 
Otherwise I’d be with the others surrounded
by those Myrmidons going out of my mind because I couldn’t eat any of
them.
 
Plus I wouldn’t be sitting here
telling you where you can find them.”
 
She shook her head to try to get rid of the haze going through her
brain.
 
“Go left...”

“Right,” I said.

“Right?
 
Right,
that’s right.
 
Go right until you get to
the fifth platform.
 
You’ll see two giant
trees that crisscross like an ‘X’ about fifty yards away.
 
They’re on the other side of those trees.”

“How many of them are there?”

“When we left? Eight. But more were called up to make
Bostic’s trade.”

I grabbed her hand, “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” she said patting my hand.
 
“Because I don’t see any way in hell you can
save them.
 
You’re outnumbered and
they’ve got weapons.”

I stood, “Story of my life.”
 
Bostic snored.

“What are we going to do with him?” I asked.

“I figured before you leave you could help me with
this.”
 
She held up a roll of duct tape.

“Where in the world did you get that?”

“Found it in a cabinet,” she said tossing it to me.

I smiled.
 
“I’m
actually going to enjoy this.”

***

I stood on the fifth platform and scanned the woods.
 
April didn’t give me the direction of the ‘X’
and, given that she had just eaten some Myrmidon meat, I wasn’t even sure how
reliable she was.
 
I couldn’t find
anything that looked like an ‘X.’ Just when I was about to give up, Ajax
pointed in an area I had looked twice before.
 
It was an ‘X’.
 
There was no
mistaking it.
 
Only it wasn’t fifty yards
away.
 
It was at least two hundred.
 

I sat down on the platform and opened my backpack.
 
I had everything I needed for the upcoming
battle: crossbow, arrows, knife, and Myrmidon meat.
 
I rubbed the meat on the bottom of my shoes
and much to Ajax’s displeasure, I rubbed it on his feet and hands.
 

We were on the ground in no time, headed for the ‘X’ at a
brisk pace.
 
I watched for movement, but
there was nothing.
 
A hundred yards away,
I saw something move.
 
Ajax and I ducked
behind some trees.

“Whatcha’ doing?”

I nearly had a heart attack at the sound of the voice.
 

Max appeared from behind a tree a few feet in front of us.

“What are you doing here?”

“Business,” he said.
 
He pointed to the ‘X’.
 
“Myrmidons
are just past them trees.”

“I know,” I said holding up the bow.
 
“That’s what this is for.”

“You gonna give them that?”

I groaned.
 
“No, I’m not.
 
I’m going to shoot them with it.”

He scratched his head.
 
“How many arrows you got?”

“A dozen or so.”

He looked at the ‘X’ and then back to us.
 
“You must be a good shot.”

“I have my moments.”

He giggled. “Well, you better set your mind on having a lot
of them moments.
 
Cause you’re gonna have
to shoot about 200 Myrmidons with your 12 arrows.”

“What?”

“I say you better set your mind on having...”

I stopped him.
 
“I
heard you.
 
How do you know there are 200
of them?”

“Just come from there, that’s how.
 
Done some baiting.
 
Give a sample of Banshee meat to one of
them.”
 
He laughed and slapped his
leg.
 
“You should have seen that big
fella stumbling around.
 
Couldn’t find
his footing standing still.”

I sat back and leaned against the tree.
 
“200? I can’t take on 200 Myrmidons.”

“Give another one a sample and he fell flat out in about
two seconds.
 
I tell you what, them
Myrmidons cannot handle their Banshee the first time out.
 
They ain’t much better the second time, but
the first time they might as well just find a spot to lie down before they eat
some.
 
Save them some heartache and hurt
for when they pass out.”

I wasn’t listening to him, and he wasn’t listening to
me.
 
“I’m liable to get the others
killed.
 
I should go back and give myself
up to Bostic.
 
Let him make the
trade.
 
At least they’d all be safe.”

Max pulled a white and yellow ball of slime out of his
pocket and sniffed it.
 
“They go nuts for
this stuff.
 
Out of their minds.
 
Kind of sad if you think about it.”
 
My backpack caught his eye.
 
The sack that contained the meat stuck out of
the top of the pack.
 
“Oh Lordy, you
ain’t got more of the jubilee meat, do you?
 
Jubilee meat.
 
Jubilee meat...”

I yanked him down to the ground and cupped my hand over his
mouth. “Be quiet.
 
I do have some jubilee
meat.
 
Got caught in your clearing
without it last night and nearly got bit in half by a Banshee...” I saw what he
was holding for the first time.
 
“That’s
Banshee meat?”

“It is.
 
Always carry
a sample with me because you never know when you’re going to run into a
Myrmidon.”

The worms could be my ticket into the Myrmidon camp.
 
“Tell me how it works, Max.
 
How do you get the Myrmidons to eat that
stuff?”

“Ain’t nothing to it. Once they get a whiff of it, it’s
like putting honey in front of a bear.
 
Even if they’ve never had it before, this meat just takes them over.
Lord knows I gotta have my jubilee meat, but not nearly as much as them big
ugly ant men gotta have their Banshee meat.
 
The trick is to let them know this ain’t all you got.
 
Soon as they learn you’re sitting on an
unlimited supply you can get them to do just about anything.
 
They just ain’t got no power over it at all.”