Chapter 13

The Stool Remains Empty Forever

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The very moment that Panpar fell, Jo-Laina wanted to turn the group back, to prevent more of the people that she had come to love from making the same sacrifice, to protect them, and to keep them safe. She wanted to order an immediate retreat because her heart fell with him, dropping in her chest, making it feel more like her gut, full and heavy, but she knew she could not. This was a fight, it was a fight to the death, either theirs or the Shooktah, and only the Gods could predict for sure which that would be. They couldn’t stop, fallen comrade or not, their only choice was forward.

Another green blazing ball shot toward them as she and Argimos entered the clearing of death and, the moment they cleared the corner, Jo-Laina realized how the odds were truly stacked against them, for there were literally thousands of freshly dead Barakai scattered around the Shooktah scouts. Jo-Laina was able to deflect the blazing ball with one of her sabres and she immediately began to charge the Shooktah that had shot it, Argimos filling in next to her, and Jerifai, arrow nocked, wasn’t far behind. Just as she made the halfway point to the massive being, an arrow zipped past her. The arrow struck dead center in its chest, correllium tip leading it, and it did puncture, but not deep enough to matter. The arrow fell away like a pebble thrown at a wall.

The next blazing ball stopped dead in its tracks, stopped by Argimos’s shield. That’s when Jo-Laina saw it.

The entrance to the cave, cut deep by another Baran-Dak Toi, long ago, with the intent on holding something precious and dear to her ancestors. The entrance to that cave wasn’t far away, and according to Panpar and his stories, was in a place set close to the grey. A weak point in the fabric of what was, leading to the other fabric of what almost was. The Dormant Doorway was standing by itself, somewhere inside of that cave.

There were battle cries filling the air from both sides of the fight, some were cries of aggression, meant to incite fear into the enemy, and some were cries of pain and misery, another comrade had fallen, but Jo-Laina had no time to see who it was. She could still feel Jo-Vanna’s presence and that was all she had time to care about.

The Shooktah that she was to face was the tallest of all of them. As they approached it, taking the final steps before her sabres would begin their dance, she couldn’t help but feel the truth of what Jo-Vanna had said during their meet, that she may only be tall enough to reach its knees, and Jo-Vanna had spoken true.

Argimos immediately proved what a powerful ally he could be. The moment they reached the Shooktah, he leapt forward in attack, claws extended forward, roar bellowing, and mental fingers assisting as his weight bore down on their enemy, flinging the Shooktah back twenty feet. The Shooktah recovered quick, bounding forward, staff extended in front of it. It had the blade of its staff intended for Jo-Laina, and she spun sideways, sabres arced, striking the blade twice as it passed her. The blades of its staff existed no more.

The Shooktah seemed surprised by the sudden disappearance of the blades that only seconds before had tipped its staff. It looked momentarily at the tip of the staff, then at the ground where the rest of the blades rested, and then to the little girl who had cut them off.

“You broke my weapon!” it cried out in anger and surprise as another death cry rang out from Jo-Laina’s right side. She couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like Morj’im, one of the newest members of her clan, a member in which she hadn’t had time to get to know, but a member that her heart cried for all the same as she heard his body hit the ground.

“And you have invaded a land in which you are not welcome!” Jo-Laina exclaimed as her mind clung to the recent fallen comrade. Someone needed to pay for his death.

The Shooktah blinked twice. Even its eyelids looked heavy. “We go where we want to go!” it said as it swung its heavy staff at her again. She swung her sabres, both parallel, both with all of her might, at the end of its staff as it approached her. The Shooktah were huge, the Shooktah were powerful, but the Shooktah were slow. The Shooktah staff suddenly became three foot shorter.

It blinked twice more as if its eyelids were a pump and that pump must have been tied to fuel the fire of its anger because, as soon as the second blink was completed, it roared and charged, staff pointed straight forward, green blazing balls shooting from the end of it, firing not just once or twice, but a dozen times in seconds. Argimos had his shield up in time and the balls of light began to ricochet everywhere. Argimos had his shield around all three of them, as the Shooktah’s staff hit it. Surprisingly the Shooktah’s staff did not stop dead in its tracks. Argimos’s shield stopped him, but there was give. The Shooktah pushed hard against it, with muscles mightier than many men did, and Jo-Laina, through Argimos, watched as the staff inched its way closer.

Jo-Laina could feel Argimos straining against him. His shield was, in a sense, an extension of his conscious mind. It was his mental universe expanded, like the atmosphere of a planet, but Argimos could make the outer rim of that universe obey his command, forming the invisible fabric of space, weaving it together tight, but the Shooktah seemed to be strong enough to overcome it.

We are not here to just defend, my friend. We are here to eliminate this threat, Jo-Laina thought to Argimos, when I give you the go ahead, release your shield and move out of the way and make sure Jerifai is clear.

Argimos gave Jo-Laina a mental nod and Jo-Laina began to prepare herself for her move as she sensed two more comrades fall.

“NOW!” she yelled. As Argimos let go, Jo-Laina rolled forward to gain momentum. She brought both sabres over her head as she righted herself, using every ounce of strength she had in the move, striking the wrist of the Shooktah that was holding the staff, and nearly tripping over a dead Barakai. She expected to feel the sabre cut through, expected for his hand to be severed from its arm, but there was an incredible amount of resistance, her sabres did not cut through, and she was reminded of the Shriek Bengoi and how it took so many swipes to remove its pelt.

As she spun to assess this creature’s damage, she was surprised to see that it barely had a gash on its forearm. Worse yet, a thick black liquid immediately formed over the wound and the Shooktah did not seem bothered by it.

Jo-Laina’s group was not faring well, but Argimos glanced over to the others and saw that they were doing much worse. The only human left was Greegus, and then there was Jerifai. The others were all gathered in tight to one another.

We must regroup, Argimos. This is not going well at all, Jo-Laina said, form your shield and bring us over to them.

I’m afraid I can’t, Prim. I cannot move and keep the shield going with us. It only works when I’m stationary.

Then we run for it, Jo-Laina thought to him, I will try to block a rear attack.

“We are heading back to the group, Jerifai. Stay close, in case he shoots his staff at us.”

Jerifai nodded and Argimos broke the shield. As soon as he did, they made a break for it. The Shooktah didn’t hesitate. The moment they began their retreat he began to fire a volley of fireballs at them. Jo-Laina spun, began to deflect them with her sabres, and Argimos stopped.

“Keep going, Minh. Get to the others and I will make my way to you!”

Argimos hesitated, but only momentarily and Jo-Laina began to slowly walk backward, the Shooktah grinning, and firing his staff directly at her at a maddening rate. It was everything she could do to match his pace, her sabres doing their dance, elbows flexed and then straight, wrists limber, while those black bladed sabres arced through the air in a blur, as flaming blue lights shot to each side of her. Before she knew it two other Shooktah had joined in the fun and she not only had to block the ones coming from the front side of her, navigate around the body parts of all of the other Shooktah victims, but she had to block additional shots from her left-rear.

“She cannot maintain this pace for long, Belimos,” Jo-Karna announced, “do something!”

Belimos had been providing a shield for the rest of them, but he dropped it and formed a wall between the two additional Shooktah and Jo-Laina. The moment he did the leader of the Shooktah, hearing their change of concern and taking advantage, shot his staff at them, at Greegus specifically, repaying him for the strikes that he had gotten in. Unfortunately for Greegus, his attention had been on Jo-Laina and not on what was happening around him. He was turned sideways to the Shooktah, and the ball of fire took him in his arm, passing through and partially into his chest. Argimos arrived just a moment later, and put up a new shield, but Greegus was already on his knees.

“Man, that’s hot,” Greegus said.

Jo-Laina took advantage of the decrease in fireballs and began to back-step as fast as she could. The gem in the center of the Shooktah staff began to glow brighter as he continued to plaster her with shots from it.

“Stop, Jintah!” the leader of the Shooktah commanded, “Before...”