The Mask Wearer (9 page)

Amos’s only distraction during his long trip to the woods of Tarkasis was the time he spent reading
Al-Qatrum, the Territories of Darkness
. The book was actually an encyclopedia of the harmful creatures of darkness. There were maps, drawings, and a lot of information about unimaginable monsters. Amos was glad that he had brought the book with him.

As he read, Amos learned about the existence of the basilisk. An illustration showed an impressive beast, with a snakelike body and tail, a cock’s comb on its head, the beak of a vulture, and rooster-like wings and legs. Described as one of the most abominable and frightening of the world’s creatures, this monster was the creation of the magicians of darkness. To create a basilisk, you had to find a rooster’s egg that a toad would brood for at least a day. Once it was born, a basilisk could let out a single piercing whistle that was able to paralyze its victim before it attacked.

The basilisk always bit on the tender flesh of the neck. Its bite was extremely venomous and deadly. According to the book, the gaze of a basilisk had the power to wilt vegetation
or to roast a bird in flight. So far there was no antidote to the basilisk’s bite. No bigger than a chicken at birth, it grew to an imposing size once it took flight. In the air it was as nimble as a snake and as voracious as a vulture. The basilisk killed for the thrill of it. Humans were its prey of choice. The book cited several cities that had been totally decimated by only three or four of these monsters.

Yet this dangerous creature became very vulnerable under certain circumstances. For example, it died instantly if it heard a rooster’s
cock-a-doodle-doo
. In addition, just like gorgons, the basilisk was unable see its reflection and survive. So it lived in perpetual fear of mirrors and other reflecting objects that could cause its immediate death.

One by one, the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in Amos’s mind, and he was finally able to imagine a way to free Bratel-la-Grande of the snake-haired women. First, it was obvious that the gorgons would not leave the city without getting back the pendant that was now in Beorf’s possession. Second, Yaune the Purifier, who knew of the gorgons’ power and therefore should have been able to protect his knights, had made a grave mistake. Since the knights’ well-polished armor shined as bright as mirrors, the creatures should have died instantly when facing them—well before they could curse the city. But Yaune had neglected an important fact: gorgons always attacked at night, when mirrors don’t reflect anything.

The only way to eliminate these monsters was to install mirrors everywhere and to light hundreds of simultaneous fires in the city. But how did one go about executing such a plan?
Amos wondered. He thought of Beorf’s fireflies, but he would never be able to rally thousands, even millions of them.

Deep in thought, Amos was still trying to come up with the best way of eliminating the gorgons when he arrived at a village. He stopped to drink at a fountain.

“Who are you, young man, and what are you doing here?” an old lady asked. She was dressed in white and bent over her cane.

“I’m on my way to the woods of Tarkasis,” Amos told her. “Can you point me in the right direction?”

The old lady remained pensive for a moment. “Unfortunately, I can’t help you. In two days, you’re the second person who’s mentioned this forest to me. Isn’t it strange?”

Amos was surprised. “Who else asked you about the forest?” he wanted to know.

“A very nice man and his wife. They also inquired if I had seen a boy with long dark hair, wearing leather armor and an earring, and carrying a stick made out of ivory on his back. Yesterday I had not seen him, but today he’s right in front of me!”

“Those are my parents!” Amos cried out, deliriously happy to hear news of them. “We had to go our separate ways and I absolutely must find them. Please, madam, tell me which way they went.”

“I believe they went that way,” she said, pointing.

Amos thanked the old woman, eager to take off. But the woman asked him to stay with her a few more minutes.

“I’m going to tell you something, my young friend,” she
said, inviting him to sit down next to her. “I know that you wish to find your parents as soon as possible, but I had a dream last night and I feel I have to tell you about it. I was baking rolls. Every member of my family was around me, and I was doing my best to please them. My children, my grandchildren, my cousins, my nephews, they had all been turned to stone. Then, suddenly, you appeared in my dream. I did not know you and you asked me for something to eat. I gave you three or four rolls. As you bit into one of them, you found a hard-boiled egg. I told you, ‘One often finds eggs where they are the least expected.’ That’s it. I don’t believe that dreams are meaningless, so I baked rolls this morning and I brought them with me. I also have some eggs. They’re for you and my wish is that you find your parents soon.”

Amos thanked her, took the food, and went on his way without really understanding the old woman’s dream. When he turned back to wave a last good-bye, the woman had vanished.

The farther Amos walked, the more he thought about what the woman had said:
One often finds eggs where they are the least expected
. He stopped in his tracks. What if the pendant stolen by Yaune all those years ago contained a rooster’s egg? That had to be the reason why the magician of darkness wanted so badly to get it back! The pendant itself did not possess any magic or evil power. It was simply the wrapping that protected the egg. The first owner of the pendant had wanted to create a basilisk. It made total sense: this magician commanded an army of gorgons, and wanted to add to his ranks a monster
capable of destroying an entire regiment in the blink of an eye.

Amos concluded that the enemy of Bratel-la-Grande exercised power over all living creatures, near or far, who were related to snakes. He had to be malevolent, treacherous, and very dangerous. Beorf was in great danger, and Amos wasn’t sure how to warn him.

T
he gorgons were in hot pursuit of Beorf. He ran into the forest, his head lowered as he tried to avoid the nighttime obstacles.

The first two days following Amos’s departure had been quiet for the humanimal. The gorgons concentrated their search in the city. In his hiding place in the forest, Beorf slept and rested in anticipation of the difficult nights to come. He also pondered at length the best strategy of defense against the invaders. The main idea, simple and efficient, was to get rid of the gorgons one by one.

Beorf perfected dozens of traps and set them everywhere in the forest. He guessed that after several nights spent uselessly searching Bratel-la-Grande, the monsters would inevitably begin to comb the surrounding areas. The gorgons would find various trails—all his own—and would follow them to try to corner any fugitives. The humanimal had purposely left
footprints in the fields and in the forest that led directly to the traps.

So as not to be spotted when going from trap to trap, Beorf morphed into a bear. The gorgons were looking for the thief who had stolen the pendant, a human. Not a bear! These creatures would never imagine that the animal and human were one and the same.

One moonlit night, as the gorgons followed Beorf’s footprints, three of them encountered quicksand. Hidden from sight, the humanimal saw them disappear into the ground.

“Minus three!” he shouted.

Meanwhile, another small detachment of gorgons found itself in the clearing around his old burned-down house where he kept his beehives. Beorf ordered the bees to attack. The insects swarmed together to form a huge cloud above the gorgons and swooped down on them at full speed. Petrified in flight by the gaze of the monsters, the bees fell from the sky like a torrent of stones and pierced the gorgons’ bodies. The insects had sacrificed themselves, allowing Beorf to get rid of five more gorgons.

Soon Beorf noticed that the gorgons’ wings enabled them to glide for short distances, but that the snake-haired women were unable to truly fly. He imagined another ambush.

Ditches encircled the tilled fields around the city. These were filled with water through a dike; the water was used to irrigate the farmers’ land. Aware of this, Beorf dug several large holes in the fields and covered them with twigs and hay to hide them from view. The following night, eight gorgons
fell into the holes. Beorf opened the dike. The water flooded the ditches and holes. All of the gorgons drowned.

Tonight Beorf planned a different snare. He had raided the knights’ armory and had planted spears into the ground and hung sabers and swords from tree branches. The only way to avoid these sharp blades was by using a particular path through the branches. Since the gorgons attacked only at night, Beorf had all the time he needed to conceive and set his trap. He trained all afternoon to make sure he knew how to escape the blades. The moment of truth was not far off now.

Beorf could hear the gorgons approaching. He couldn’t run fast on two legs. At least his snare wasn’t far off. He just had to maintain a good speed to save his life. Out of breath, he took the safe path through the branches. The gorgons, on the other hand, didn’t suspect what awaited them and entered the forest of blades at full speed. It was a success! Not one gorgon survived.

Pleased with himself, Beorf returned to his father’s library—his main hiding place—to rest for the remainder of the night. He opened the trapdoor, went down the rungs of the ladder, and looked for his lamp of fireflies. Instead, a red light flooded the room.

Seated at his father’s desk, a bald man was looking at him. His luminous eyes were a pale yellow, with elongated pupils that dilated and contracted constantly. Scales covered his hands, arms, and neck up to the back of his head. Beorf noticed that the man’s eyebrows joined together above his nose, just like his own. The man’s nails were horribly long, and a
forked tongue came out of his mouth, which was filled with pointed teeth. His bare chest displayed strong muscles, and he wore dozens of gold necklaces adorned with precious gems around his neck. He also wore two large shiny and gilded earrings. Legless, his body ended with a very long, gray, snakelike tail covered with black spots.

Beorf tried to flee at the sight of this monstrous being. But as he turned on his heels, he was caught and immobilized by the man’s huge snake-tail.

“
Ssss
, you already want to leave, young friend?” hissed the snake-man. “It’s very,
ssss
, impolite to rush off without letting me,
ssss
, introduce myself first.”

The tail relaxed its stranglehold on Beorf, who turned around to face the hideous intruder. Beorf was shaking.

“Good,
ssss
, you’re a courageous boy,
ssss
, it’s very good. My name is Karmakas, and I traveled far,
ssss
, to come here. Don’t be afraid, young friend, I don’t want to,
ssss
, harm you. Like you,
ssss
, I am what humans call a humanimal. I would not hurt someone of my own race without good reason. You seem surprised to see me!
Ssss
, is it the first time that you are in the presence of another member of,
ssss
, your species?”

Unable to utter a word, Beorf nodded.

“It’s very unfortunate,
ssss
. Do you know why humanimals like us disappeared one after the other? It’s because humans hunt us. Humans are,
ssss
, jealous of our gift,
ssss
, jealous of our power. Me, I am a naga. Which means in,
ssss
, ancient parlance,
ssss
, a snake-man. You are a beorite, a bear-man. You have power over,
ssss
, bees and some other insects. My power,
ssss
, is over every crawling, biting, and venomous
animal that slithers. I control the gorgons because of their hair. But I have to tell you a secret that,
ssss
, you may already know. I am also a powerful magician.”

Beorf took a step back.

“Don’t be afraid, I’m a nice,
ssss
, sorcerer. I hurt only,
ssss
, those who hurt me. I turn nasty only,
ssss
, when someone is nasty to me.”

With a shaky voice, sweaty hands, and a pounding heart, Beorf interrupted the sorcerer. “Then why did you change all the dwellers of the realm into stone with your army of gorgons? You wanted to get your pendant back and punish Yaune the Purifier, did you not? So it wasn’t necessary to injure so many innocent people to satisfy your thirst for vengeance!”

Karmakas laughed. “You are a smart beorite! I think that snake-men are wrong to think that bear-men are the lowest members of the humanimal race. You’re not as stupid,
ssss
, as you seem,
ssss
, big fat bear. The inhabitants of this realm were turned to stone because they trusted,
ssss
, a thief and a murderer. I’ll tell you my version of the story and you,
ssss
, will understand. I was living peacefully in my hometown,
ssss
, a large city that no longer exists today. In the middle of a stony desert,
ssss
, the nagas and the men who resided in the city lived together in peace. We were craftsmen and our skill,
ssss
, was to work gold. We also had mines and a lot,
ssss
, of wealth. Men grew jealous,
ssss
, of our riches and called on the Knights of Light,
ssss
, to exterminate us and steal our property. Fortunately, the gorgons,
ssss
, came to our rescue, but,
ssss
, too late. My wife and my fifteen children,
ssss
, all of them nagas, were
killed by the knights. Yaune the Purifier is the only knight who managed to survive. And do you know why? Because during the final battle against the gorgons, Yaune was,
ssss
, in one of our temples stealing our riches. If he had participated in the battle, he too would be dead,
ssss
, petrified by the gorgons. The pendant belongs to my people and I’m here,
ssss
, to take back what was stolen. That is all, ssss. Creatures of my race, those who,
ssss
, survived, wanted to take revenge on men and make them pay for their,
ssss
, avarice and their failure to accept creatures that,
ssss
, do not look like them. Didn’t the Knights of Light,
ssss
, kill your father and your mother because they were different?”