Page 3 of Relyn (Warriors of Etlon #6)

Relyn

“ K ill!” It was the first thought, the first sound he could remember, but it was there, loud and definite, hissing at him over and over again. “Kill! Kill it, kill it!”

He didn’t know what it was. He didn’t know what he was. He could move, yes, move across the surface that was cold and rough beneath him. The world was black. Was he supposed to see? And how did he know that he could not see if he hadn’t seen before. He stilled for a moment, but the order continued.

“Kill! Kill!”

Even if he couldn’t see, didn’t know what he was, something deep inside of him rebelled against the voices. But he had no way of speaking, no way of communicating. He was a pulsing form and not much more.

The voices got angrier, and a burning pain coursed through one side. He withdrew, retracted himself away from it. He sent out a finger in the other direction, and encountered a shape.

“Yes, kill, kill it.” They were pleased and the pain stopped.

He moved to explore the shape more. A jolt of pleasure tingled along his edge.

They wanted him to reach out, cover more of the shape.

He moved, sliding himself across the uneven surfaces, discovering that it was a warm and moving frame.

It had breath. A living thing, like him.

“Now kill! Kill it!”

“Kill!”

The voices became more insistent, more grating and the pain became more frequent, but for some reason, something inside his core refused to budge.

He didn’t like the voices, didn’t care how much pain they caused.

This creature they wanted him to kill had done nothing to harm him.

The more they prodded, the more he resisted.

If he could reach out to them, he’d cover their noises and show them just how much he cared to do what they wanted.

Suddenly the hissing stopped, the pain subsided. Had he won? Would they now leave him alone?

The form below him moved. “Kill me. It’s what they want. I am nothing. They’ll kill me anyway.”

He had no way to respond. He still hadn’t figured out how to communicate, but at this point, he was quite sure that he’d rather end his own existence rather than comply with the commanding voices.

A sound vibrated behind him, and suddenly he was wracked with pain. He clung to the form below him, which suddenly shouted.

“Mahdfel will kill every single Suhlik Devil! We will never surrender! Death to-”

It gurgled and a warm liquid spilled out over his form.

As his pain receded he realized the form below him had stopped moving.

The devilish voices had killed it, but left him alive.

The life blood drained out of the form and absorbed into his.

The feeling was indescribable. But his shape was learning, filling out holes in his existence, forming organs and taking shape.

He suddenly knew how to create eyes, noses, horns, and hair.

He could breathe and maintain a heartbeat.

But something inside him told him not to use this information yet, to hold and hide it away from the… what had he called it? Suhlik? His enemy that would strike down a helpless form and try to push him to kill without provocation. Yes, he would hide everything he could from them.

Time stretched out. It was hard to tell how long he sat there, absorbing the life blood from the form, the Mahdfel, the warrior that had faced his enemy bravely.

There was no change in light or sound and it could have been hours or days.

These things were only beginning to have meaning for him anyway.

Then another form was thrust into the space, landing practically on top of him.

“Balcore?”

It spoke. It- he was another Mahdfel. The new form reached for the dead one and muttered a curse under his breath. He moved away to allow for the inspection.

“What the-”

The new Mahdfel shoved at him, sinking his hand into his fluid body, trying to wipe him away from the form. He moved back as fast as he could, withdrawing until he hit a corner of the room.

The Mahdfel cradled the head of his friend. “Oh, Balcore. I swear that I will kill as many Suhlik as I can in the memory of your name. It shall be the last thing they hear.”

Yes. That was his thought exactly. Balcore would be avenged. How he would go about doing that, was yet to be determined. But this Mahdfel and he shared the same goal. They were allies.

He sat for a moment, before making his final decision to reveal himself. He coalesced his fluid, forming eyes, and lungs and teeth. Soon he had created arms and legs as well. Then he could open his eyes and see.

“What bloody sacrilege is this? Wearing Balcore’s face!”

He struggled for a moment to use his new mouth, to navigate the tongue and lips to form the words he instinctively knew how to say.

“I have no other face.”

“Who the hell are you?”

“I don’t know. I have no name. No memories past this space. They wanted me to kill him.”

The Mahdfel growled at him. His purple skin bulged as if his muscles were ready for a fight.

“But I would not. That is why they came and did it for me. When his life blood spilled onto my form, I… learned how to take this shape.” This didn’t seem to put the Mahdfel at ease.

“I will fight them with you. We will kill them instead,.” he said.

The Mahdfel blinked and squinted his eyes at him. Clearly, he did not trust him.

“I do not know what I am, but I know that I will not be their slave,” he said through Balcore’s face. Had he another choice, he would wear another, but if it meant claiming more lives of anyone but Suhlik, he would refuse.

“That is true Mahdfel thinking. We were all slaves to the Suhlik until the rebellion. Our fathers and forefathers were created, just like you. I am Caldar, and together we will slaughter them.”

Caldar held out his arm and he grasped it in friendship. It was the beginning of a bond, a friendship, that he would honor until death, which given the circumstances, might be sooner rather than later.

“You have no name?” Caldar asked.

“Not that I remember.”

“You must be named. My father was named Relyn. He died in glorious battle. I plan to name my son this as well. Of course if we do not escape, I will have no son to name. I shall give you this name.”

It was a statement, a fact, and he pondered the name. Relyn. He had no exception to it. He had no liking of it, but it was a good name. A good Mahdfel name, and he was Mahdfel.

“I am Relyn,” he said, enjoying the sound of it on his lips.

Caldar nodded, but there was no more time for talk.

A doorway opened on the far side of the room and a Suhlik filled it.

The devil hissed and showed brilliant golden teeth and claws.

It struck quickly, slicing through Relyn.

Had he actually been made of flesh and bone, Relyn would have been gutted immediately, but instead, his form liquified for a moment and the path of the claws sealed as quickly as it had been split.

This obviously confused the devil, and he paused, trying to figure out why his victim was not lying dead on the floor.

Caldar took advantage of this and swept around, grabbing the monster by the neck and twisting, snapping the life out of it much more quickly than it deserved.

“Ha!” Caldar said as he let the Suhlik crumple to the floor.

He grabbed one of the knuckles and cracked it’s armor casing.

“We’ll use their own fingers against them.

It’s a crude weapon, but effective.” He bent one bladed finger against the other and used it to saw it free.

Caldar handed him the blade and went to work on a second one.

The blood from the end dripped onto the surface of Relyn’s skin, and he felt a familiar tingle. He felt the forms pushing into his memory. If he wanted to, he could become a Suhlik, just as he had formed himself into a Mahdfel.

“I have an idea,” Relyn said. “But you may not like it.”

“If it gets us the fuck out of here, I’m all for it.”

“I shall try it. Stand still for a moment.”

Relyn put his hand- Balcore’s hand, and let it melt forming a thin layer that creeped across Caldar’s form.

He slowly molded himself to the form, until he completely surrounded the Mahdfel.

Then, with much concentration, he slowly, part by part, gave his outer skin the appearance of the Suhlik, as if Caldar was wearing the devil’s skin.

Once he was done, Relyn relaxed and let Caldar’s muscles pull him and move him as if they were his own.

Caldar held up the shiny claws that now extended from their fingers. The reflection staring back was clearly Suhlik. It was quite unsettling, but Caldar seemed impressed.

“This is a very good idea.” Caldar tested the movements, and once satisfied that his disguise would hold in place, he exited the room and into a long hallway. There were similar doors all along the hallway.

“The rest of my company is dead. Balcore was the last that I had not seen with my own eyes,” Caldar said as he paused and listened at the next doorway. He waved his hand at the door anyway and it slid open. It was empty.

Caldar sighed and continued on. There was a hope that he could rescue more, but every door he came to revealed an empty room. The final door at the end led to a wider corridor. Here, he did not test any more doors, knowing that at any second, they could come across another Suhlik and be discovered.

Caldar moved purposefully through the corridors.

He did not pause or blink when he saw the first Suhlik.

He walked by as if the monster were invisible.

It would not do to leave a trail of corpses behind them, yet.

He seemed to have a good idea of the layout of the facility and soon enough they entered a large hangar bay full of ships.

A quick glance around and he chose one. It was small, sleek and armed to the teeth, the perfect ship to make a getaway in.

There were three Suhlik nearby, it was clear that they had no idea what was about to happen.

Caldar reached out for the first one, and easily slid his knife fingers between the scales around its neck and cut its throat.

Relyn could feel the tingle as his body contacted the blood, but he ignored it as the second Suhlik looked up in surprise.

A moment later, it too was lying on the floor from a snapped neck.

The third let out a great hiss and attacked, slicing its fingers against their chest. But Relyn was ready, and thickened the layer, allowing it to pass through him and not Caldar.

It hissed and attacked again, but Caldar reacted swiftly, slicing his opponent in the same way, but his claws penetrated, slicing the devil nearly in two.

The Mahdfel actually laughed as he climbed up the hatch ramp and sealed the door behind him.

A brief search showed the ship was empty, and a moment later, they used the Suhlik face to pass through the security and were speeding away without any pursuit.

It wasn’t for nearly twenty minutes later that Relyn pulled away, reforming back into Balcore.

He took the navigator’s chair and looked at the control panel.

He could not remember seeing one before, but again, his instincts guided him, and he easily knew how to complete each function.

“We shall be back in Mahdfel space in less than 12 hours,” Caldar said after a long moment of silence. “You don’t have any one, or anywhere?”

“I do not remember anything beyond the Suhlik.”

“I have been around, and I’ve never seen a species quite like you. Odds are that you don’t resemble anything that you started out to be.”

“I am alone.”

“You are unique. That makes you special, not alone. And I’m always on the lookout for special. A Mahdfel of your talents would come in very useful, if you wish to join me.”

“I will join you.” Relyn didn’t really need to consider it, but he asked anyway. “Will I get to kill more Suhlik?”

“Yes. Though to be fair, I did most of the killing. But it is to be expected that both of us claim to have killed a dozen or more in our escape, which alone will make us legends.”

“Legends. I do not even have my own face.”

Caldar shrugged. “You will wear Balcore’s face, and you will honor his sacrifice with the blood of endless golden devils. He would like that.”

“Then I shall.”