Rain (The Quest Trilogy-Book Two) (12 page)

Rain bent down to pick up the parcel and then opened the layers of the soft, scaly material of silver color. The stone was inside, white as milk and with sharp spikes surrounding it.  Rain lifted it from its silvery bed, afraid to hold it too tightly for fear of piercing his fingers with the spikes.

“Thank-you, Queen Mother.” he said, bowing low and slipping the stone into his belt pocket.

“You may keep my skin, too. Consider it a gift for saving my young. Use it as an armor. Nothing can pierce an armor made of my skin.”

She must have moulted recently, thought Rain, gratefully accepting the skin. He walked out of the cave with the silver skin bundled into a small parcel and tucked under his arm and hurriedly made his way back to Kaami. It was a long walk back and Rain wanted to finish his job here before the sun set and it got dark. He remembered then that he had to return the stone to the Queen Mother once he was done with it, and broke into a jog.

When he was only a few feet away from Kaami’s cave, Rain stopped to catch his breath. From his pocket, he drew out a flask of water that he always carried with himself and took several large gulps of water. Once his breathing was fairly even, he walked up to her.

She was waiting for him outside, as promised, wriggling and dragging herself on the rocky ground restlessly. The minute she saw him approach, she stood up with a hungry, greedy look in her eyes. She eyed the parcel tucked under his arms with open lust.

“I don’t believe it! You actually managed to get the Nahla from the Queen Mother!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands gleefully. She looked at him in amazement. “What is special about you, sequestor?” she mused aloud, and then lunged forward without waiting for an answer.

“Give it me. Give it to me!” she said, swiping the air, trying to grab it from Rain.

Rain backed away immediately, out of the reach of her greedy hands.

“Not so soon, Kaami. First the wisdom, and then the stone.” he said, firmly clutching the parcel tightly.

The stone wasn’t inside the parcel, of course, but she didn’t need to know that.

“Is that the Queen Mother’s skin? Why did she give it to you?” asked Kaami, eyeing the silver skin suspiciously.

“Yes, it is the Queen Mother’s skin. And why she gave it to me is none of your business. Now, keep your promise and give me the wisdom.” said Rain, eager to get the job over and done with already.

“Where is the stone? Show it to me first.” demanded Kaami.

Rain cast a wary glance at her and then opened the silver parcel slowly, stealthily slipping the stone between its layers along the way. The moment Kaami set her eyes on the stone she began to sway in glee, dripping green saliva from the corners of her mouth.

“At last! At last!” she chanted to herself over and over again and then fell to the ground. “Follow me.” she said to Rain, and began to writhe towards the mouth of the tunnel.

“Why?” asked Rain, his suspicions about her motives heightening.

“Come.” she beckoned, entering the mouth of the dark tunnel.

“Why are we going inside?” he persisted.

“You do want your wisdom?” she said over her shoulder.

“Well, yeah. But you could give that to me out here, too.”

“Your wisdom is inside. Come …” she hissed, already disappearing within the dark recesses of the tunnel.

Rain looked at his Geeya, unsure of what to do next.

“Look,” said his Geeya, “if you don’t feel that confident going in just like that you could put on the armor given to you by the Queen Mother. Besides, in case you should need it, you have your bow and arrow too.”

“Armor?” asked Rain, puzzled.

She pointed to the silver skin.

“Oh, right. Yeah, I think I will.” he said, wrapping his torso with the crude but incredibly light armor. Then he followed Kaami into the tunnel.

As they walked in silence, Rain realized that this was the first time his Geeya had suggested an idea to him on his Quest.

‘Hey, wait a minute. You just helped me on my Quest. I thought you were forbidden from doing that?’

‘I did not help you on your Quest. I merely suggested a way for you to protect yourself.’

Rain’s spirits fell.

‘I see.’

And Rain did. But there was a bright spark to this, too. This meant that there were loopholes in a Geeya’s clause against helping one’s sequestor out on their Quest. Rain made a mental note to exploit this the next time.

They walked on and on, with Kaami leading him through an endless maze of twisting and turning passageways. Rain repeatedly looked at his Geeya who was the only source of light in here, glowing like a dull red beacon. The deeper Kaami led him, the more dank and smelly the air became and Rain was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe. She finally led him into a large cavernous place and by then, Rain was panting and sweating because of the lack of fresh air.

The cave was fairly large, dark and damp. Several piles of skulls and human bones were visible to Rain and a putrid smell wafted all around him. Kaami came to a halt in the middle of the cave and then turned to face him.

“The stone …” she hissed softly, standing up and holding out her hand for it.

Rain shook his head. “I told you, the wisdom first.”

She stared at him with those dead, glassy eyes. “All right. It doesn’t matter either ways now…”

He wondered what she meant by that but didn’t want to distract her now, when she was finally going to give him his wisdom.

“The wisdom I am giving you, sequestor, is this … never … ever … trust anybody …” she said, dragging out each word slowly.

Rain looked at his chain. It showed no response.

“This isn’t the one I’m looking for.” said Rain

“I haven’t finished saying it.”

She smiled widely and from the gap between her front teeth Rain saw two fangs descending slowly. Fear formed a cold knot in his chest.

“Well, say it quickly then.” said Rain, trying to conceal his nervousness behind impatience.

Kaami’s tongue flicked out twice, licking the air and filling Rain with dread.

“Never trust anybody … with all your secrets …
ever
.” she said, emphasizing the last word with a bang of her fist against her palm. “No matter who they are, or how much you love them, or how you are related to them, etc. etc. you get the drift?”

Rain looked at the chain on his neck. A single claw was now glowing.

“All right, this is it. Now use the stone to break the curse quickly and then return it to me. I promised the Queen Mother I would give it back to her once my work was finished.”

Kaami gave a little jerk of surprise.

“Give it back to the Queen Mother? You mean… you didn’t kill her?” she asked, lowering her gaze so he wouldn’t be able to read her emotions.

“Kill her? Why would I kill her? I asked her to let me borrow the stone and she agreed.”

“Oh …” said Kaami, looking intensely disappointed.

“It’s just that, when you got the stone, I thought you had … never mind. It’s not a problem.” said Kaami, abruptly closing the topic and a suspicion dawned on Rain.

“Wait a minute …. You sent me there because you
wanted
me to kill her, didn’t you?”

Kaami said nothing, just stared at him impassively and more revelations dawned on Rain as he looked around the cave.

“And it’s not the Queen Mother who feeds on humans, it’s you!”

An evil smile stretched across her features and in the dull red glow cast by his Geeya, she looked truly terrifying.

Rain knew he was in trouble then. Knew he had to keep her talking and somehow figure out a way to escape. His hand reached slowly towards the arrows behind him and then stopped midway. It was no wonder she wasn’t afraid. Since she had drunk from the well of immortality, the arrows would not kill her. In fact, nothing would. His only hope was to wound her badly and that, too, would fail, because she would kill him the minute he let the first arrow fly.

“Why did you want me to kill her?” he asked, sounding braver than he felt.

“The Queen Mother is the protector of this island. She, along with her young, keeps the Island of Bana free of all dark and evil elements. Elements … like me.”

“And how did you know that I am a sequestor?”

“Because no human prey comes walking up to my cave. They seem to sense… how shall I put it? That something is not quite right …”she said, laughing with a soft hiss. “It is only the sequestors who come walking in … the unfortunate one’s …but you should be proud of yourself. You are the only one so far to have succeeded in bringing me the stone.”

“How many sequestors have been here before me?”

“Four…”

“And how many survived?”

But Rain knew the answer to that question before he had even asked it.

“None.”

Kaami had confirmed his worst fears. No one had made it out of here alive, yet. And obviously, other than him, no one had actually retrieved the Nahla from the Queen Mother either. They had probably tried to fib Kaami into believing that they had it, deduced Rain.

He looked behind, searching for the entrance to the cave. The way inside was so long and twisted, he had no idea how to find his way back out. Rain’s spirits sank as the realization hit him that she had brought him this deep into the cave so that he wouldn’t be able to escape.

“How … how do you intend to use the stone?” he asked, rotating the stone slowly in his hand.

“How else? I will swallow it along with you. An effective way to prevent the stone from ripping my insides, don’t you think?” gloated Kaami. “Oh, clever Kaami! Clever, clever Kaami … you have trapped him well!” she sang, swaying with glee.

Rain’s breath was coming faster as thoughts raced through his mind. If this stone could break something as strong as the Queen Mother’s curse, could it also break the shield of immortality on Kaami?

A stone of unimaginable powers, that’s how the Queen Mother had described it.

It hit Rain then, the only way for him to escape from here alive. And he would have only one chance to get it right.

“Enough talking! Time to eat, already.” growled Kaami, growing serious.

She launched herself on the floor and began to wriggle towards him quickly. Equally quickly, Rain unwrapped the silver skin from his body and bundled it securely around his right arm. He clutched the Nahla firmly, ignoring the pain of the jagged spikes digging into his flesh. He could deal with these small wounds later, once he had survived this.

Kaami halted in front of Rain and stood up so that she was towering over him.

“Goodbye sequestor.” she said, opening her jaws so wide that Rain was certain she would not have any problems swallowing him whole. He held his breath and waited for the exact moment.

Kaami pounced down on him and the instant she did, Rain shoved his entire right arm into her throat, digging the Nahla deep into her flesh. Kaami’s eyeballs bulged and she made a gagging sound while her hands tightened around his neck like a noose. Without losing a second, Rain pulled his arm upwards inside her throat, dragging the stone through the soft flesh within. There was a gross ripping sound as her back opened up and then Kaami went limp on his arm. Rain jerked his arm out and kicked her grey corpse away from himself. He bent over, breathing hard. He stared at his arm in disbelief. It had worked; the armor had actually protected him from both, Kaami’s teeth, and her venom.

His shoulders slumped with relief and he looked about for someplace to lean his body on.

“Don’t’!” warned his Geeya, and Rain looked up, startled.

“Kaami has licked the walls of this entire cave, coating them with her venom. If you touch anything, you will die within the hour.”

Rain got to his feet.

“Man, talk about keeping your cards close to your chest. She definitely believed in living by example.”

“Yes. There were many lies and half-truths in what she told you. She manipulated you expertly in order to get what she wanted.”

“Still,” said Rain, his brow furrowed with worry, “that’s only one part done. I don’t know the way out of this place.”

“Don’t worry. I remember it. Just follow me.” said his Geeya. Rain understood that since he had collected his wisdom, his Geeya was now able to help him and this help couldn’t have come at a more opportune time, because Rain could hardly think straight anymore for lack of oxygen.

She led them both safely out of the cave. Once they were outside, Rain pulled in long breaths of the fresh air into his lungs.

“I need to go return the Nahla to the Queen Mother.” said Rain, putting the stone back into his belt along with the skin.

He started down the dirt path with his Geeya floating alongside. He had hardly taken five steps, however, when he felt the now-familiar sensation of being pulled as the air rushed by his ears.

When he opened his eyes, he was back in the forest, near the well of immortality where a newly put up sign warned everyone of the dangers of drinking from it. Everything was quiet around the well.

Heart was gone.

Marine was gone.

And the Nahla … was still in his pocket.

*****

CHAPTER 10

Rain walked up to the well taking slow, deliberate steps and then slumped down on the ground with his back against it, at the exact spot previously occupied by Marine.

“Not planning on taking up from where Marine left off, I hope?” said his Geeya, looking concerned.

“No, I’m not.” replied Rain. “Where’s Marine anyway?”

“He is no longer here.”

“Gone forever?”

“Yes.”

Rain looked forlornly at his hands. They were rough and calloused. He gave a loud sigh. For some reason, he didn’t feel happy about completing another mini-Quest; he felt tired and sad. On the chain around his neck, a single claw was still glowing. He took the claw between his fingers and it crumbled to dust.

“It was Miti all over again.” he spoke quietly, throwing his head back.