A
braham wiped the ice from Horace’s eyes. The big man’s eyeball twitched.
“Horace? Horace, are you alive?”
Horace’s eye didn’t move again.
Abraham placed his hand on the man’s chest. He checked Horace’s pulse on the wrist. He swore he felt a beat, but it was very slow. “What in the world could have done this?”
“I don’t know. Are the women all right?”
“There aren’t any women with this group.” Abraham walked through the group, inspecting them all. Not a single one of them had a horrified or shocked expression. It was as if they’d been frozen in time. He waved his hand in front of Vern but got no reaction. “Can’t you see them? I thought that you could see them.”
“I can’t see anything. I’m a sword. I don’t have eyes.”
“You said you could see.”
“I can sense things as well as sight. I suppose it’s another gift. Hmm.”
“Hmm, what?” Abraham tried to take the extinguished torch out of Skitts’s hand, but the Red Tunic’s fingers were locked around it like a vise. “Do you sense any other people? There should be at least seven more from the group.”
“I sense something.”
As fate would have it, Skitts was carrying Abraham’s backpack. He reached inside the pack and fished out a Zippo lighter. He popped the lid open and flicked the flint wheel. He got small sparks. “Come on.” He shook the lighter and flicked it again.
A flame started. He lit the torch, which slowly caught fire. The flame grew, casting soft light over the rigid company.
“That’s better. You said you sensed a presence. What sort of presence?”
The engravings in Black Bane cooled.
“Oh great. You’re sleeping again just when I need you most. And not like the love song ‘I Needed You Most’ either. In more of a macho way.”
Abraham scanned the area. Nothing was there but pitch-black beyond the torchlight’s thirty-foot radius. The chill winds rustled his hair. He moved over to Horace and said, “Hey, big guy, can you hear me?”
“Of course he can… for now.”
Abraham spun around, brandishing Black Bane. He peered into the blackness toward the sound of the voice. It was a woman’s voice, low, wicked, and gravelly, like an old witch’s.
“Show yourself,” he demanded.
“What is your name?” the voice in the darkness said. It came from a different location, on the other side of the Henchmen.
He spun around and said, “Show yourself, and I’ll tell you.”
No reply came. He didn’t hear a word.
He envisioned the Frights that he’d first encountered when he came to Titanuus. They were bony pink-eyed women with strands of wiry hair. “Did you do this to my friends, witch?”
“Don’t insult me. I am no witch!” The voice darkened. “I am much, much more. What is your name, human?”
“Show yourself, and I will tell you. I think that is fair.”
“You invade my territory and now give me orders? You fool of flesh and blood. I will end you…” Her voice was followed by a hiss and a soft rattle. “But I will honor your final request and show my face.”
Abraham turned. The woman’s voice had moved behind him. Something told him he should run. His knees should have been knocking, but they weren’t. Ruger’s body held fast. The sword warrior didn’t fear anything.
With his heart pounding in his throat, he said, “I’m waiting.”
Twenty feet ahead, a light shone on a face in the darkness. It was a woman, fair and beautiful. Her skin appeared radiant and lit up from within. He saw no body, only her beautiful face with haunting good looks.
In a seductive voice, she asked, “Do you like what you see?”
With icy breath and jaw hanging, he said, “Absolutely.”
“Good.” Her words wrapped around him like a warm blanket. “Now, tell me what your name is.”
“Ruger, er… Abraham. Abraham Jenkins.”
The face hovered in the darkness, moving gently side to side but coming no closer. “That is a strange name, Abraham Jenkins. But we like it.”
“We?”
Another face appeared, just as pretty as the other. Both of them had long, flowing, illuminated white hair that moved as if it was floating in the inky depths of the ocean. “Yes, me and my sister.” They spoke as one but changed who was speaking between words and sentences. “Do you find us divine?”
He licked his lips and said, “Certainly. Can I see the rest of you?”
He lowered his guard, and his knees bowed. A cool, fragrant mist drifted through the air and coated his body like dew. His taut muscles started to relax.
“I can’t wait to see you.”
“Yes, I can’t wait for you to see us either. We are called Duplii. We don’t receive visitors like you very often.” Duplii’s heads came closer together. Like Siamese twins, they almost touched cheek to cheek. “Please, relax and let us welcome you to our home.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Abraham replied. He’d completely forgotten about the Henchmen and everything else. He felt as though he was entering a spa of some sort. Swaying a bit, he said, “This is nice, but it’s getting chilly. Do you have any blankets?”
“Of course we do.” Duplii’s exotic faces drifted apart, farther and farther.
Abraham’s eyes danced between both of them. The mist coating him started to crystallize on his body. He felt as though he’d fallen into a blanket of snow.
“Are you ready to see us fully?” Duplii said.
“Y-yes,” he muttered as a fiery warning started pricking in the dulled recesses of his brain.
Duplii’s heads came back together and forward. His heavy eyes widened. Duplii’s heads grew bigger the closer they came. They were twice as big as his. He didn’t see the sensuous bodies that he expected either. Instead, he saw something else as he watched the heads rise.
“Oh no.”
Duplii’s heads were attached to the ends of fleshy strands. Those strands were attached to a monstrous hulk that towered twenty feet high. Its jaws were wide open and filled with rows of thousands of sharp teeth. An inky mist came out of its mouth, still covering Abraham like soft rain.
It was the most hideous thing Abraham had ever seen.
“Do you still think we are beautiful?” Duplii said.
“Absolutely not,” Abraham muttered as he watched the great mouth full of slavering teeth descend upon him.
