Emerald, Amethyst, and Stars Collide

The Claws Come Out

Blood has been spilled. Covenant has been made. The prodigal has come home.

If you don’t know what any of this means, you need to catch up on the story before reading today’s chapter. Tap here to visit the full chapter list. Tap here if you only need to read the last chapter, Skin and Bone and Thrones.

Emerald, Amethyst, and Stars Collide

The Tannites stood like sentinals lining the walls of Erets. Three of the creatures swayed from side to side behind Lily, Cole, and Emily. Cole was holding Lily tight with one arm wrapped around her, while Emily kept one hand pressed against Lily’s back with the other firmly gripping her arm. “You stay put,” she hissed at Lily.

Ezekiel Marsh, now a full Tannite himself, straightened his bent over body to full height and let out a bark from behind the needle teeth in his mouth. The Tannites along the walls stirred, and the three Tannites behind Lily, Cole and Emily left their place to approach Ezekiel. They surrounded him. Ezekiel gnashed his teeth at the two Tannites who matched his size. He swiped a claw at the smaller one.

“Do not square up and challenge your father, boy,” Apkallu warned Ezekiel. The shadow motioned his hands toward the Tannites along the permitted of the temple. “Your brothers won’t have it.”

Ezekiel kept his arms spread to hold the other Tannites away. The razor sharp teeth that filled his mouth clacked together as he flexed his wide jaw. The song had left his mouth. The rage that was still in his heart for Erets had turned him back into a Tannite, a skin he had been bound to and freed from once already. Yet, it was his brother’s son who had been dragoned himself. More glitters than gold. The Tannite prison is one he thought he’d never escape, let alone ever return to. It was in that prison he also learned the melody of Apkallu’s brides. They maintained their will, though still made into his daughters as their desire was for him. The Tannite skin merely put on brute force and servitude. Combining the two songs, Ezekiel maintained his will while his eyes turned black and his flesh ran as cold as the water in the deep.

As the Tannites pressed in on Ezekiel, he formed the bridal melody from down within his chest. His body glimmered with an emerald light. The light spread from his body to the floor of the cave and reached the feet of the Tannites closing in on him. The small one jumped back and snapped at the light. The two large Tannites backed and lurched as the light swept over their feet.

Ezekiel heard the voices in his head as the light touched the creatures.

“Heresy! It takes the fish!”

“She’s mine! She deserves better and I will give her to the dark lord.”

“It’s all C-average’s fault. He did this to me! Aaacckkk! Pain! Paiiin! Paish. Paiiiirssh! Aaaggghhhrr. Maaaaggghogg. Ma, maarr, mash. Marsh. Marsh. Marsh.”

The two voices Ezekiel was hearing in his head began to sync in unison, much like the song all the Tannites sang. “Marsh. Marsh. Marsh.”

There was a third presence that remained quiet while the other two writhed. One of the larger Tannites turned its head sideways and bored a stare into Ezekiel from the black orb of its eye. A translucent eyelid blinked from below the eye.

As the horde continued to press in, Ezekiel continued the melody and tried to communicate with the quiet Tannite. The echo of “Marsh. Marsh,” reverberated in his mind and he breathed to still the noise. “Your name?” Ezekiel asked in thought.

“Jeremiah,” the quiet voice answered. The Tannite roared and flashed his claws wide. Ezekiel continued to hum the melody and Jeremiah began shaking his finned head. “Jeremiah,” he tried again. “Fight it. Fight it and we can fight ‘em.”

“So… strong.” So weak were the whispered words, thought Ezekiel.

Ezekiel snapped his teeth at the air and barked. “Fight it!” he thought.

“Marsh. Marsh. Marsh,” came from the horde around them.

“Fight!” he yelled in his mind again. “Break the spell!”

Jeremiah opened his mouth and from deep down in his gut came the slightest hint of the melody. The light at their feet turned from green to purple. Stars burst from the rock and fell from the roof of the temple. The dimmed orbs went out and the crimson rainbows shattered.

Apkallu watched from the steps of his throne as all this transpired, unseen in realms even his wakened vision could not penetrate. The misty black fog that billowed around his form fell with the stars and left a slimy black humanoid form glaring with black orbs of fire at Ezekiel and Jeremiah.

“Seize the boy!” Apkallu thundered, though no lights flashed with the command as they had prior. Erets shook as the Tannites left their posts at the perimeter and descended on Lily and Cole, Emily still behind them. Cole’s muscles tensed as every black bulbous eye in the room turned on him.

Emily grabbed at Lily, digging her fingers into Lily’s dress. Lily screamed as she fell backwards. “You’ll make the master angry!” Emily shouted at Lily. Emily’s hair had fallen out of its braid and her eyes flashed with anger. “You’re being selfish! How could you give up on love?”

“Love this!” Cole said as he shoved Emily by the arm into the oncoming throng of Tannites, sending her spinning. Lily gasped. Emily disappeared into the moving mass.

Ezekiel and Jeremiah rushed the steps of the throne room with their claws flexed and teeth bared. Traces of amethyst light draped off their jagged dorsal fins as they ran.

Apkallu growled as they raced to the steps and braced his stance for their attack. Ezekiel threw his shoulder into Apkallu’s gut and they tumbled backwards in the impact. Apkallu rolled to his knees. Jeremiah leapt over Ezekiel’s tangled frame and brought both claws down into Apkallu’s abdomen and ripped sideways. Black smoke hissed from the wound and he roared. Apkallu thrust his knee up into Jeremiah’s jaw and his needle teeth shattered in a spray of slime and spit.

Ezekiel rose and bit Apkallu on the shoulder and raked his claws down his back. More smoke fell out of Apkallu, and he threw his elbow back into Ezekiel’s nose, caving in the maxilla. Jeremiah was on his knees, still shaking his head and spitting mucous. Ezekiel fell backwards onto the steps. Apkallu lunged at him, raising both fists above his head before he brought them down like a hammer on Ezekiel’s face. The fish man’s arms and legs spasmed and shook. Again, he brought his fists down onto Ezekiel’s face. Over and over Apkallu crashed down his vengeance onto Ezekiel until he was a bloody pulp of bone and skin.

Jeremiah staggered to his feet as Apkallu turned to face him, leaving Ezekiel’s lifeless body on the steps behind him.

Lily and Cole huddled by the altar as the Tannites encircled them with no escape.

The Fall of Ideals

Life isn’t going to turn out the way you thought it would, and the graceful execution of plan B isn’t always an option. Maybe there’s honor in it.

Do me a favor and tell someone about the Story of the Marsh Boy in the meantime.

We’re building momentum towards the end. Now’s the perfect time to catch up so you can read it when it gets here.

Talk to y’all in two weeks.

~ J.P. Simons