Brechalon by Wesley Allison Page A

hundred
tentacles, touching every inch of the cell, caressing the woman
like a demonic lover. She slowly rose to her feet, the tips of the
alien appendages touching every inch of her skin.
    “ Uuathanum eetarri blechtore maiius
uusteros vadia jonai corakathum nit.”
    A black fog poured into the cell from all four
walls. It filled up the tiny chamber and sprayed through the
openings in the door, creeping down the corridors of the prison and
into every room and every cell, every nook and every
alcove.
    * * * * *
    “ How is it?”
    “ It was ace,” replied Saba. “Now I
just want the sun to come back.”
    “ Don’t be like that.” Yuah stepped
down the stairs from the back door and put an arm around the boy’s
shoulders. “Let me take a look.”
    Saba held the square of magic glass up and Yuah
pressed her eye to it, leaning back to find the sun. “There. The
sun’s starting to move out from behind the moon. In a few minutes
everything will be just like it was before.”
    “ Good.”
    “ You shouldn’t let Miss D ruin your
fun. She’s a right bitch, you know.”
    “ No, she’s not.”
    “ She is.”
    “ Well, it’s not her
fault.”
    “ What do you mean?” asked
Yuah.
    “ Nothing. Here. Do you want this?”
Saba pushed the magic glass into her hands and started up the
stairs into the house.
    * * * * *
    Zurfina smiled as the dead grey tentacles
caressed her.
    “ Now I will leave and now I will
lay my vengeance on this stony prison and this little kingdom and
this world.” She raised her arms and began her final incantation.
“Uuthanum…”
    At that moment a thin streak of light entered
from the small window high up on the wall. It was so tiny that it
might have gone totally unnoticed, had it not stuck the first and
largest of the grey arms moving around the cell. But the tiny
sliver of sunlight burned through the tentacle like a hot ember
through a slice of bread. The great tentacle jerked and thrashed
about the room and the other appendages did too, one of them
striking the woman and throwing her halfway across the floor. More
sunlight entered through the window and all of the unearthly,
unholy members were yanked back through the portals that shimmered
where the walls of the cell had once been.
    “ No! No, I’m not finished!”
screamed Zurfina.
    * * * * *
    Yuah stood in the courtyard, idly staring up at
the eclipse, and totally unaware that she was being watched from a
window on the third floor. Terrence watched her, appraising her in
a way that he didn’t bother appraising other women. There was no
doubt that she was beautiful. She wore no makeup, had her hair
pulled back into a bun wrapped by a maid’s cap, and she wore a
simple maid’s dress with minimal bustle and almost no color. And
yet she was one of the most beautiful women that he had ever seen.
There was no doubt about that. Iolanthe was thought to be a great
beauty and with her flawless skin and those striking aquamarine
eyes, she was something special. Yuah’s chocolate brown eyes had a
tenderness and an innocence in them though that one would never
find in his sister’s, and Yuah’s features were perfect. She could
have been one of those women that the great sculptors of old used
as a model. She was just the right height and she was
well-proportioned. So what if she was a bit skinny.
    Yuah was almost perfect. But Terrence didn’t
want an almost perfect woman. He had thrown away any chance at a
wife and a family and a home. That was not going to be his future.
His future was far away, in another time and another place, on a
great field of purple flowers with a woman who was frighteningly
perfect. He turned away from the window and climbed back into bed,
pulling the box filled with small blue vials from beneath the
pillow.
    * * * * *
    A large square of sunlight filled the center of
the cell floor and sprawled naked in the center of that square was
Zurfina. She lifted her head up just enough to look around and then
she slammed it