The Antique Page 14

  Ake Williams hung up the phone. He felt the urge to go out and hunt—that was the only way he could silence the voices in his head. The chaos in his mind was like listening to hundreds of conversations at once, and everyone was constantly yelling. He was surprised that his brother Craig didn’t sense his panic, but hiding his feelings was Ake’s specialty. If he let it show, even over the phone, he knew Craig would panic too, and that was the last thing Ake wanted.

  He got up from his chair and went to his closet. He pulled open a door that had a hidden safe. After punching in the code, the safe’s door popped open. That was the moment he felt the most intense before a hunt—the anticipation. Behind that safe were his secrets of this world; it was the way he needed to breathe before the ordinary life ruined it. He slid out a drawer of knives, lined up neatly in their custom-made wooden slots. His fingers ran over the selections and picked out a three-inch wooden carving knife. It was one of his favorite hunting tools. He knew that night he was going to make good use of it. The anticipation grew stronger; he could taste the adrenaline in his mouth and hear the screaming in his mind. From his medical training, he knew where to make the incision to get someone to scream high pitch and then silence the next. Once his mind was set, the tide of voices in his mind subsided; it was a familiar feeling, a routine, and an addiction.

  He checked himself in the mirror and saw himself smiling.

  11

  Lão Chóng (Old Worm)

  A large six-foot worm lurked six feet under the ground. At the tip of its head were rows of diamond-like teeth that could tunnel through rocks and tree roots. The worm had been with the queen from the very beginning; it was the reincarnation of the Dao monk, Lao Zen. Over the past thousand years, it had countless caretakers; now, it was solely groomed by Manfred. Together they captured runaways and homeless victims, collect their flesh and blood to feed Manfred’s wife, Meredith, and the queen, then transform their souls into underlings and trap them inside the worm. The underlings were divided into five different warring clans: serpents, toads, centipedes, spiders, and lizards. Each clan once controlled their own worms, but as the queen grew weaker, the worms died off, and the clans had banded together to survive. After much bloody infighting, the toad and the serpent clans were left in charge inside Lão Chóng, and the rest of the creatures were either killed off or put into a cocoon state. The queen didn’t care who was in charge, so long as there was order. She used the worm to develop spells, create food, and run errands. But with only Lão Chóng left, the queen grew weaker, and matters would just get worse if the queen didn’t find a blood child soon. The situation had been dire even before Manfred’s attempted assassination, and now everyone was wondering––-and worried––-about their fate.

  “We killed Manfred! We killed our master!” Many of the underlings were sobbing quietly, but others were letting their feelings be known, quite loudly. Feeling of sadness and dread were palpable among the assembly.

  “Quiet!” one of the toads spoke with an authoritative voice that cracked like thunder. “The situation is now under control.”

  A serpent minion cried, “We not only lost our connection with our queen––-we are blind from the outside world!’

  The room was stifling hot as a charcoaled body hissed in the middle of the room.

  A few minutes earlier, the serpent bit Manfred, then quickly retreated. Its long slender body wriggled down a serpentine hole, past layers of dirt, grime, and even a colony of ants. The tunnel narrowed, then opened up into a cave filled with noisy chattering and moving shapes. The serpent struggled to get through the opening, but its scales began to melt, and the skin shriveled. The serpent twisted violently, but the more it struggled, the more its body deteriorated. Finally, its muscles lay bare, and blood poured out of its eyes and mouth. It dragged itself through the opening, fell onto the floor, and died.

  Next to it, movements congregated close to the dead serpent.

  “Don't touch it unless you want to look like that.” Someone way in the back moved with haste towards the dead serpent. Others in front parted away for it to move up. “He died sacrificing himself by stopping Manfred. He died for a good cause, and because of his heroic act, he saved the queen’s life.”

  The large serpent was Yhawri, the headmaster of the serpent clan. Being the oldest of the serpents in this underworld, he was greatly respected. He was the only one among the serpents in the room with a human face. Only a few of the serpents had lived long enough and earned their human face back. It was well known in their dark world that Yhawri held the position as the group’s shaman.

  Yhawri continued with his subdued voice, “Our hero’s name was Bit. I want everyone to remember him. He had ten days left before he earned his face back. He told me before that all he wanted to do was to remember what he used to look like. He waited for so long, but he sacrificed himself so the rest of you will have a chance to earn back your faces. He was the best spell-caster in our clan, but most important, he was my closest friend and had been with me the longest. You all should never forget that!”

  The horde jostled around the corpse to pay their respect. The circle of moving bodies narrowed, and the anxious murmurs grew; then someone yelled, “But I still can’t believe we killed our master, Manfred! He was our eyes to the outside world. Now we can’t see anything on the top.”

  “We had no choice!” Yhawri yelled back at the gathering crowd. “Manfred betrayed our queen; he betrayed all of us. If Bit didn’t succeed, Master would have killed the queen!”

  Another shadow in the crowd chimed in, “We should have made contact with June. She took good care of us. You saw what she did with the queen. Her magic now is even more powerful than before. We should try to make contact with her. Perhaps she will take us in.”

  A large tree frog from the back started a slow stride towards Yhawri. “Don't forget she left us long ago, remember? Even if you think we could make contact with her, you think the queen would let us just leave? We are our queen's helpers. It has been like this for thousands of years, and you all know the rules: we all have a chance to be reborn if we serve with loyalty. Let's all focus on what is important now, and that is to save the queen.” The frog continued up through the crowd and entered the small circle where Yhawri and the crowd had gathered around the dead serpent. He shook his head and kneeled down next to the body to assess the damage. After he had a good look over and was satisfied, he stood up. “The job is not done. We have to send someone else up again to get the queen to a shelter where she can heal.”

  A trio of small toads waved and came forward. “We’ve already chatted with Lão Chóng. The only thing that can heal him now is the blood children. We need to get him close to the chosen blood child, and the queen will start healing.”

  “Yes, but which one? There are two,” asked a serpent.

  “Maria, the blood child girl that was here, left her purse…I have an idea. We get her address and we can send our queen to the girl’s house.”

  A large toad with a human face named Toherd flicked his fingers, and a small ember of fire came to life. His name was Toheard, and he was the leader of its clan. He threw the fire onto the dead serpent and the serpent's body began to burn. The funeral pyre quickly lit up the dark room. The sinuous smoke rose and was sucked into the nearby wall. The wall was heaving; it was alive. The cave looked as if it were inside the stomach of a giant worm. Against the fire that was now raging, long shadows behind the figures circled the fire that displayed its sorrow in orange, green, and yellow. The faces were not exactly human, but they were a mix of toads and serpents of different sizes. All the serpents wore a collar around their neck and leathery skin garments. They were all standing, posed like humans. The bond between the serpent and the toad clans was tenuous from the constant infightings and power struggles. They were all the products of the queen's spells. The spells forbid them from leaving Lão Chóng. Secretly, the toad and the serpent clans had been making their own spells, hoping they could win over the qu
een’s trust and one day help her break the curse.

  Yhawri slithered between the crowd and rose up next to the large toad; his svelte, scaly body towered over his head. His forked tongue tasted the air, and then he cried with a solemn tone, “It’s clear to me sending another one of us serpents up there is a worthless sacrifice. The situation has changed. We need to work together as a team and figure this out. We should not trust those blood children anymore. Look what the previous one did to the Queen! I say we stay here and nurse her back to health. Moving her now is too risky. If she gets injured more, she will die and we all perish. Without the queen, we will all be trapped in this pit of death, and our souls will be slowly digested by this hellhole we live in. There will be no chance for rebirth.”

  “But we serve the queen. She is hurt and we need to help her. Someone needs to go to the surface and assist her,” a toad barked.

  “You saw what happens if you leave Lão Chóng. We can't be exposed to the outside without the queen's help. We used to be able to stay out for a few minutes, but now with her injuries, it will be near-instant death. The curse is always there, waiting for us to be stupid enough to venture outside,” a tree serpent curled up in its own ball offered his caution.

  “I have an idea, but we need to get someone out there to cast the spell. We don't have much time left,” another toad croaked.

  “Look, Lão Chóng just closed the hole that Bit came back in––-we can't get out!” someone yelled as the crowd turned and saw that the entrance where the serpent came in was now shut off.

  “Damn Lão Chóng! It is feeling threatened. What are we going to do?” More commotion rolled across the agitated crowd as it edged to an all-out riot.

  Toherd finally raised his hand and made a long, reverberating croak. The sound was so loud that it shook the chamber.

  Toherd said with a booming voice, “Everyone just calm down. I have been listening and thinking this through while you all were busy panicking. No matter how dire the situation, there is always a way out. If we panic now we all die. We need to let the brain council here think about the options. One way or another, we have to make contact with our queen. She’s badly injured and she needs our help.”

  Toherd lumbered over to a nearby threesome of small toads huddling next to each other, whispering and slobbering on the ground with their sticky saliva.

  The three toads argued among themselves until their voices unified into a constant stream. Finally, they spoke in unison, each completing the other's sentence:

  “There's another entrance we know that will get us out of here.”

  “It's Lão Chóng’s air holes.”

  “If we are lucky, Lão Chóng hasn't shut them off yet.”

  And in unison, the three toads said with glee, “Let's go take a look.”

  “Who knows that part of the chamber best?” asked Toherd. “We need to get the engineer here and walk us through this maze and get out.”

  One of the serpents came forward from the crowd and met up with the two leaders in the middle. It was a small red serpent with purple bands across its skin. “Sir, I have been a serpent for three hundred years, and I have spent a lot of time near that area, so, I know Lão Chóng well. The worm's air hole is covered with slime. Lão Chóng's slime is the most powerful spell neutralizer I have ever known. The queen banned us from getting near that area because she can't track us around there. So the good news is if you are covered in the slime, you are protected from the curse.”

  A green toad next to the red one said in protest, “Are you sure? For how long? Nothing has broken that spell for over a thousand years. You are saying the slime will protect us?”

  The red serpent ignored the doubting toad and continued, “Indeed, the worm uses that to protect itself from the curse. It is the same reason why we are protected inside the worm. If we can somehow get close to the queen without touching the slime, we can cast a healing spell to slow down Queen’s injuries.”

  “Then what?” The green toad’s face suddenly turned red. His eyes bulged out more than even before.

  “Then we pray that the queen will wake up and figure out a plan to save us all,” the red serpent responded and looked down on the ground.

  The green toad huffed, “By the way, I think we have only this one chance. Once someone escapes, Lão Chóng will no doubt shut that hole. If we miss the opportunity and can't keep the air hole open long enough, whoever is in there will get crushed.”

  The room went quiet. It seemed like such a tall order.

  Yhawri finally cleared his throat and said, “We are not sending another one of our serpents out there unless the toads show their contribution.”

  The crowd rumbled, and a small crowd in the back broke out into a fight.

  Toherd yelled, “Stop this nonsense now!” His voice resonated and the cave shook.

  The fight stopped and everyone fell silent.

  Toherd nodded at the crowd. “There is only one way to do this, and it requires both a toad and a serpent.”

  More rumbling spread among the crowd; then someone yelled from the back, “We would never sacrifice our lives for the serpent clan!”

  “Silence!” Toherd’s face turned dark as he stared down the crowd. “We have to get the serpent to swallow one of the toads and then regurgitate it back out once it leaves the worm. The toad then makes it to the surface.”

  “So we are talking about a suicide mission. You realize chances are you won’t be coming back…”

  “I will go.” A young female toad with short, stubby legs appeared in front of the crowd. Toherd recognized the toad’s scar on her forehead to be one of the engineers that worked near the Lão Chóng's mouth. Lão Chóng had powerful teeth that could chew through dirt and rocks, but once in a while, even Lão Chóng would get stuck and would need help. The engineers then would send a crew of toads outside Lão Chóng to dig through the rocks with special tools and spells. Due to the curse, the engineers needed to be covered in Lão Chóng's slime to be protected by the curse ten minutes at a time. The slime from Lão Chóng could only protect the engineers for about that timeframe before the curse burned through the mire. No one could stay outside indefinitely, even with spells.

  Toherd nodded at her and asked, “What is your name?”

  “My name is Su Wei,” the toad replied. “I am small, and I don’t carry any poison in my skin, so any serpent can swallow me. I am also a master of digging tools and the number two spell-caster in my group. I am confident I can reach the surface with a serpent.”

  There was a collective sigh as the idea sunk in.

  “I commend you for stepping forward as a volunteer. However, your bravery needs to be accompanied by talents––-talents that requires both proficiency in drilling tools and being a master spell-caster.” Toherd took stock of Su Wei from top to bottom and couldn’t ascertain anything special about her. A master in digging tool and a spell-caster? Really?

  Su Wei noticed Toherd’s searching and doubting eyes. She knew a bit of credentials were needed to convince the leader. “I’m the first in the engineering class, with the longest record of staying outside the worm without a spell.”

  “Without a spell? What is your record?” Toherd toad wasn’t convinced yet.

  “Ten minutes before the blister starts. Longest record with the spell was thirty-one minutes.”

  There was a collective gasp from the crowd. Most of the underlings had assumed the record holder belonged to Toherd. He held the longest record of twenty-one minutes. There had been rumors in certain circles that an engineer recently broke the record, but the identity of the record breaker had been kept secret.

  Toherd nodded solemnly. “I heard about this feat. So you were the one that broke my record.”

  Yhawri chimed in as well, “Su Wei has a great idea. Only the toads can do this, specifically the engineers with their unique spells.”

  Su Wei looked up at Yhawri wearily and said in a muted voice, “The engineers like myself can’t do it alon
e. We need to get a serpent volunteer who can swallow a toad like me. The volunteer needs to carry me inside, and then we escape out the air hole. Once we clear the air hole, the serpent can regurgitate me out, and then with my digging tools and spells, we can make our way up to the surface.”

  Silence filled the room. The idea sounded crazy, but it was strangely logical. This might be their only chance before Lão Chóng awakened.

  Toherd pressed up against Su Wei so he could look at her straight in her eyes. “You do know what this means, don’t you? This is a suicide mission.”

  Su Wei cupped her hands and replied, “I understand and I am at peace with the decision I have made.”

  Toherd straightened his back, reached over with his webbed fingers and smoothed his hand over the toad’s bumpy skin. “The toad clan—no, we—will all be in your debt.” He then turned and face Yhawri. “We now need a volunteer from your clan. Who will it be?”

  Yhawri snickered, “This is a ridiculous proposal. I––-”

  Toherd interrupted him with a commanding voice. “Well, if you have a better idea, this is the time to share it. Anyone from the serpent clan willing to help?” He looked across the room with his stubby arms open, inviting anyone to come forward. A room that was once filled with chatters now fell silent.

  The ground suddenly moved without warning. It felt like a small earthquake. The rolling vibration jolted everyone off balance. The crowd reacted with near panic. They all knew what the earthquake meant––-Lão Chóng was agitated and started burrowing.

  “Everyone, listen!” Toherd struggled to get back on to his feet. He looked at everyone in their eyes. “We have to act now. Since the queen lost contact with us, Lão Chóng is spooked. The last message we received was that the queen was injured. The scout we sent up came back down dead, as you all saw. Lão Chóng is moving deep into safety and is not responding to our commands. I need someone from the serpent clan to sacrifice himself. There is only enough space for us to send two of us out through the air hole, and we are running out of time.”