Hammer 17: Poison

Tsarek’s words hung in the still air of the small cave. Past-father could only refer to Corvan’s grandfather. The lizard had lied about how long he watched the doors. He had murdered his grandfather to stop him from returning home! “Why? Why did you kill my grandfather?”

The lizard fell on its face against the floor. “It was the task I was given by my master. I was under the band and had to obey.”

“That’s no excuse! You said you chose the band; you were responsible for your actions.”

“Yes, yes, it is true and that is why you must take my life for his.” Tsarek spoke into the dirt. “It is the law of the Cor.”

The scaly creature groveling at his feet only increased Corvan’s frustration and anger. It should be punished for what it had done, but he did not want to kill it. Corvan released the hammer from its holster and held it over the lizard’s head. “I am not your judge. I will let the hammer decide your punishment.”

Tsarek twisted over onto his back and a scream escaped its lips. Startled, Corvan jumped back and the hammer smacked into the large globe. It exploded; warm blobs of blue light rained down around him before the room was plunged into darkness. The blue light fizzled out on the floor.

There was a rustle of movement, then a quiet voice spoke. “Please, sir, do not use the hammer against me. I am afraid of what it might do to me.”

The glow in the remaining smaller globes slowly ebbed back to life, revealing a pathetic form cowering against the far inside wall of the storage room. Corvan lowered the hammer. A long time ago, Tsarek had killed his grandfather, but the creature before seemed different than the one he had first met with the band around its neck.

“I will not take your life, Tsarek,” Corvan stated as he slid the hammer back into the holster. “I am not bound by your laws. You are free to go.”

“Oh, sir, please do not send me away.” Tsarek crawled out of the pantry and back to Corvan. “To send me away is to send me back to him.” He rested a paw on Corvan’s right sneaker. “Please, sir, I wish to stay with you now. You will need me to get through the labyrinth. I freely desire to serve the Cor-Van and to help him rescue his counterpart and remove the black band from her. It makes you do terrible things that you will regret as long as you live.”

The words hit home. Could Kate end up as angry and violent as Tsarek when he had worn the band? He had to find her as soon as possible and he needed Tsarek’s help, whether or not he could trust the lizard.

“I don’t need you to serve me,” Corvan said, “but I will let you be my guide until we find Kate and return home.”

Tsarek sat up and nodded vigorously. “I will assist you, but we cannot reach her right now, and she can go no farther until the next shift of the labyrinth. That is also when the first portal will come open. For now, I must finish packing, and you need to rest. You can lie there.” He pointed to a low mound on the floor. “It is my special sleeping place.”

Corvan dragged the pack over to the mound and sat on it. The weariness of the long day and night settled in as he leaned back against his pack. As he relaxed, the spot beneath him grew softer and slowly conformed to his body. He desperately wanted to close his eyes but not with Tsarek in the room. He was also getting chilly in just his t-shirt. Opening the top of the pack he pulled out the plaid long sleeve shirt and put it on.

As he buttoned it up, he found Tsarek watched him with keen interest. “You are tired and there is a long journey ahead of us. I will be sure to wake you in time to repack your things. Although the first opening is quite large, the others may be too tight for all your belongings.”

When Corvan only looked back at him, Tsarek turned away and began to pick through the alcoves cut into his storage room walls. Each compartment contained something from the world above: a battered transistor radio with a piece of barbed wire stuck into the broken antenna, a carefully polished bent fork perched on a rock like a thin metal bird, a rusty adjustable wrench with only one jaw, and a scruffy baseball with Corvan’s early attempts at a signature scrawled across it. From what he could see, the lizard was a highly organized packrat.

Tsarek appeared to ignore Corvan, but from time to time the lizard’s eyes would flicker in his direction. Was he waiting for him to fall asleep, so he could attack him and steal the hammer?

He sat up and forced his eyes to stay open. He had to find out more about this creature. “Tsarek.”

The lizard jumped and dropped the plastic baby rattle it has been examining. “You must sleep, sir. Our journey begins soon, and it will not be an easy one. You will not find a soft sleeping place like that once we are inside the labyrinth, only cold hard rocks.”

“I can’t sleep. Too much has happened in the last day. Or has it even been a day? I guess there’s no way to know down here.”

“We know the passing of time, sir, for the glow of the lumiens ebbs and flows in a regular cycle.”

“Like the tide of the ocean?”

“I do not know the word ‘ocean,’ but as in your world, we rest in the dark and work during the light—although I have heard that now the settlement workers must work longer, at least if the production of fire sticks can keep up.”

“What do they work at?” Corvan asked. “Why would they force people to work in the dark?”

Tsarek picked up the rattle, gave it a quick shake, then put it back in its cubbyhole. “Each group has different tasks to perform but the lowest class are the gleaners. They tend the lumien clusters and the other plants people need for food.”

Corvan pushed his pack away and stretched out. “The people eat only plants?”

Tsarek emerged from his pantry with his paws full of wheat sheaves. A dried gopher carcass hung by one leg from his teeth. He scurried over to drop the wheat and spit out the dried rodent by the growing pile. “It is against the law, but some have taken to eating other creatures.”

“Like what, cows?”

Tsarek grinned, exposing his pointed teeth. “Oh, no, nothing like cows. Just a few small animals, like those.” He gestured to the gopher carcass. “Just as in your world, there are those who take advantage of their position higher up in the eating order.”

Was the lizard saying that the high-ranking people ate those in classes lower than themselves? Did animals like Tsarek eat whatever they could find? He thought of his grandfather’s bones in the entry above and decided he didn’t really want to know.

Tsarek watched him intently, but when Corvan met his gaze, he bustled back to the cubby holes and began selecting more items. At times, he would hold something up to the light of the remaining lumiens, give a heavy sigh, then place it back. “Such a wonderful collection,” he muttered. “Some he has never seen before. There would have been a great privilege for bringing back such things.”

Corvan stiffened. Tsarek must be referring to his former master. That might mean there also a reward for bringing him back alive.

Tsarek chose three smaller items, wrapped each one in a scrap of cloth, and placed them by his row of supplies. He turned, and his eyes met Corvan’s. “Sir, you really must sleep.”

“I can’t. I have too many questions.”

“Then ask. I will try to help. I have been observing your world a long time.”

“You said that you were guarding it before I was born?”

“Long before that. I was young myself when I was first sent here.”

“Were you expected to guard this portal all your life?” Corvan ask.

“For as long as I was left in this place. There is no returning unless the band calls you to report or another Watcher arrives to takes your place, but there are so few of us left. We are to keep the portal safe from all intruders. No one must be allowed to come into the Cor or to …” Tsarek’s voice trailed off, and he turned back to his packing.

Corvan flicked the pocket watch open and reread the inscription. “Did my grandfather say anything to you before he died?”

Tsarek turned around. “He did not have time.” A look of remorse crossed his face. “When my kind are afraid or in a fight and we kill, it is very swift.” The lizard lifted one claw and glared at it with the angry expression Corvan remembered vividly from the first encounter on the rock. Tsarek frowned at his claw, then the angry look returned. His dark eyes were smoldering with hatred.

Corvan sat up and fumbled at his side for the hammer.

Tsarek’s face relaxed, and the lizard moved his claw closer to Corvan’s face. In the dim light of the small globes, he could make out a drop of yellow fluid forming at the tip of the longest claw.

“It only takes a scratch.” The lizard shook its claw, and the drip fell to the ground. “It was much easier to produce with the band on because you need to get very angry to make it come out.” He pointed the claw at Corvan. “Catching the rodents was simple. I would wait until they stuck their foolish heads out of their holes.” He made a slashing motion with his claw. “They were dead before they could even pull their bodies back into their burrows. It can be somewhat slower with larger animals, like that dog creature that attacked me. It depends on how much they absorb. I can make it even slower if I want them to live until I …”

“It’s okay, Tsarek,” Corvan said, shaking his head. “That’s all I need to know.”

Tsarek nodded politely. “I am glad to be of service. Are you able to sleep now?”

Any hope of sleep had abandoned Corvan. He would need to keep an eye on Tsarek day and night.

Tsarek moved over to the crystals. “I know what will help you rest. My mentor used to play a tune for me when I could not sleep. I am not sure I can remember how to play it after all this time, but I will try.”

Tsarek ran his claws over the angular rocks, and soft music swirled around the cavern then wrapped around Corvan like a warm blanket. It remined him a bit of his mother’s lullaby.

Leaning back against the pack, he closed his eyes. Small lizards danced in his imagination. Their claws were clicking on the rocks. He forced his eyes open to watch Tsarek’s poisonous claws caressing the crystals. Sleeping with this dangerous creature so close was not a good idea.

Corvan’s eyes grew heavier.

Just before they closed, he thought he saw a line of yellow venom dripping down the luminescent surface of the largest crystal.