The Trials of the Minotaur

Part Three: The Wondrous Beast (Chapter Four)

The Minotaur and Doctor Eid were chained together, arm to arm and neck to neck, and led by the bandits deeper and deeper into the wild and rocky hills from whence they had emerged. They walked throughout the day, the Minotaur marking the time by the way the sun shone upon him, the bandits setting a hard pace and rarely stopping. Once they had left the road and disappeared into the hills, the bandits relaxed and became jovial, shouting and teasing each other, celebrating the good fortune of their raid. Beside him, the Doctor muttered a series of repeated phrases under his breath. The Minotaur could not make out what he was saying, whether he was offering prayers or curses to his gods.

By day’s end both captives were parched and exhausted, barely able to keep on their feet. When the bandit chieftain called a halt for the day, Doctor Eid fell to his knees, gasping so desperately the Minotaur thought he was weeping.

“You had better have more strength than that, or I have placed my fate in the hands of the wrong man.”

When the Doctor had recovered himself he laughed bitterly. “My friend, my strength lies in more ethereal matters. The corporeal defy me often. This shall be a trial as I have never suffered, but fear not – I shall talk us free of it before long.”

“We shall see,” the Minotaur said.

The chieftain, hearing the two of them conversing, came over and leveled his sword at the Doctor. “What is the beast saying? There shall be no secrets among us now that we are friends.”

“Ah, well,” the Doctor said, “Naturally. As to that, he was merely chiding me for my weakness after one day's hard work.”

“He is a fearsome creature,” the chieftain said.

“You need have no fear. He responds to my command, so long as we are both well kept he will not turn against you.”

“It is a wonder that anyone was able to blind him.”

“He invited the wrath of a god.”

The chieftain raised an eye at this. “Is that so? What god is this?”

The Doctor shrugged and then raised himself to his feet so that he might look the bandit in the eye. “I am not familiar with it. A barbarian god, you understand.”

The chieftain spat on the ground in response.

“How do you think some a creature as this came to be? The gods had a hand in it, surely.”

“Not my gods.”

“No, nor mine. We have gods worthy of the name, you and I. This beast, though, comes from a land of fallen gods. They have so fallen that the result is this, congress between a god and a beast.”

The chieftain spat again and uttered a curse in the direction of the Minotaur. “He should be put to death. He is an abomination before nature.”

“He is an abomination surely, but I would hesitate to put him to death. A fallen god is a god nonetheless, and he has some of their powers, to be sure.”

The chieftain considered this a moment. “So long as the Empress pays us the coin promised, the creature lives.”

The Doctor nodded and smiled grimly, falling back to ground as soon as the chieftain had walked away. “We are in good hands,” he said to the Minotaur. “We are in good hands.”

The Minotaur considered this in silence. The Doctor seemed to lose his conviction after that, falling into a miserable contemplation, muttering to himself again. His foul mood was only relieved when the one of bandits brought them both a bit of boiled grain to eat. When they had each scraped their bowls clean, the bandit passed them a skin filled with water, which they emptied between them. That bandit sat down to keep watch on them, another man leaving the comfort of the fire to act as a sentinel somewhere in the darkness.

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This is the twenty fifth chapter of the Trials of the Minotaur. I will post a chapter a week (there are over 30), but if you enjoy what you're reading and don't want to wait, you can buy this book at Amazon, Kobo, and Smashwords. Thanks for reading.