Page 2 of The Syphon King

“Be still, demons,” Seer muttered, bringing a gasp from Zodak at the sudden release of pressure in his neck and chest.

“They fear you,” Zodak hurried. “What will you do?”

“I’m gonna cast them out,” he said. “But... it might hurt like a sonofabitch.”

“Do it, Seer,” he begged.

Seer looked over his shoulder. “Mind if I have a moment of privacy with him?”

Zodak watched the remaining Kings turn to leave. “Thank you, brothers,” hewhispered as the evil in him burned and writhed within the pores of his bio-ink. “It’s trying...to escape.”

“TAKE ME TO HIM!” ZENscreamed.

“Stop fighting,” the man with the blue eyes ordered as he came next to her. “I’ll take you to him, but you must calm down.”

She nodded many times, her heart racing. “I’ll calm down, I promise.”

“Let’s see if you can walk.”

“I can, I can be quiet,” she rasped, her words shaking along with the rest of her body as she fought to hold the memory of him. She mustn’t forget.

“I’ll need to keep your arms restrained until he can look at you.”

“But I have to see him,” she gasped. “The one who saved me!”

“The Syphon King saved you. And now he’s chained to a wall so the evil he took doesn’t kill everybody here.”

The Syphon King. Tears burned her eyes and doubled her vision. “He’s...a King?” she whispered, wiping her tears.

“Seer is helping him with all that he siphoned,”another giant man said.

“Seer,” she said, blinking away her tears, the vague memory of blue eyes flashing in her mind. “The man he was with?”

“They found you,” the same man said. “Zodak and Seer. And brought you here. Vex, help me with her feet.”

She watched as one with only a beard and a bald tanned head full of tattoos released her ankle restraints. “Zodak? Is this also the Syphon King?”

“It is,” he said.

Memories flashed through her head, and she gasped. “Seer is the one. He...helped him. The Syphon King didn’t want to hurt me,” she whispered, her vision blurring again. “He was helping me.” And this is why she remembered him. She only forgot very bad things. And she did not forget him because he was not bad. “Why did he save me?”

She got no answer as they led her down several halls before they entered the place she last remembered, coming to a group of men silencing their approach as they peered at something from a distance.

“Seer is with him,” another giant of a man said. “He asked for privacy.”

Zen finally found what their eyes were fixated on, and her breath left her lungs. The one called Seer held the head ofher savior while he thrashed then erupted in screams of agony that choked her. The man yelled something and the air in the dome shook with a blast of light.

She stood on quaking legs as Seer fought to remove the restraints from her savior’s dangling, lifeless body. Panic gripped her at the thought of him dead. She shot out through the odd forest as fast as her bonds allowed, tripping on the stone steps leading to him.

Her face slammed into the cement as strong hands lifted her from the floor. “Leave me!” she sobbed, her feet finding purchase and fighting to propel forward.

“I got her,” the Seer man said suddenly before her. “Remove her restraints.”

“You sure?” the one with no hair growled.

“I’m sure,” he said as Zen’s tears returned at how her savior remained face down on the floor.

“He’ll be hurting when he wakes,” Seer said.

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