Renzhies Read online

  Monsters and Demons

  Book Two

  Renzhies

  Mara Duryea

  Copyright © 2021 by Julia Benally.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Website: sparrowincarnate.blogspot.com

  Instagram: sparrowincarnate

  Cover and illustration by Jeff Brown Graphics

  Edited by Scarlett R. Algee

  Works also by Mara Duryea

  Monsters and Demons Book 1: Nri Kryne

  Upcoming

  Monsters and Demons Book 3: Akrenzhen

  Table of Contents

  Zhin

  1.The Ruins

  2.Worms

  3.The Tug

  4.The Underground House

  5.The Thing in the Forest

  6.Predators and Prey

  7.…and killed the fire

  8.Journey through the Snow

  9.The Healing Room

  10. Monster in the Chimney

  11. Monster Mother

  12. Rindar

  13. Me and Grampa

  14. The Strangers

  15. Sinking Mountain

  16. Giants

  17. Rezh

  18. Crossed Paths

  19. Wanderers

  Gilanra

  1.Into the Library

  2.The Sun Ceremony

  3.The Prisoner

  4.A Coward Has No Soul

  5.The Baking

  6.Something Lost, Something Found

  7.The Syladin and the Wanderers

  8.What Ikalkor Did

  9.Inside the Secret Door

  Rezh

  1.The Mirilite Mines

  2.The Homecoming

  3.A Birthday Lunch

  4.The Bed of Death

  5.Sormin Vozhrith

  6.Spewings

  7.Drama on the 50th

  8.The Race for Baby

  9.The Evergrin Bells

  10. Beygar!

  11. The Memory

  12. The Secret

  13. “…maybe one did anyway.”

  14. What is a Renzhie

  15. They Were Familiar

  Rilkin

  1.The Hunting Trip

  2.The Claim

  3.Wanderers and Sivarins

  4.Brass Corridors

  5.The Renzhie Room

  6.The Empty City

  7.The Horde

  8.Karijin

  9.A Sunbeam’s Claim

  10. The Live Toy

  Iskerkin

  1.The Missing Piece

  2.A Click in the Corridor

  3.The Mad Haladon Chase

  4.Filtered Blood Light

  5.The Skinless Blob

  6.The Stitched Man

  7.Rematch

  8.The Iskerkin vs The Renzhie

  9.Midnight Gate

  10. Embers

  11. One More Story

  12. Iskerkin Heart

  Glossary

  Just for Bigman

  Renzhies

  Zhin

  1

  The Ruins

  Dark vines curled around alabaster towers and crumbling bridges. Large golden flowers were nigh blinding in the sun, and their honey scent twice as powerful. Debris cracked the paved streets. A myriad of plants grew in every corner and crevice. Unseen birds trilled among the abandoned buildings as Zhin crept through the shady streets on kiderrin back.

  It hardly mattered if he was in direct sunlight or not. A gooey blanket of insufferable humidity enveloped the ruins. Warm sweat, dampening Zhin’s black hair and round furry ears, coated his golden skin. He glanced at the sleek veneer of dark brown fur sheathing his feet and halfway up his calves. It hadn’t frizzed up, but it was just as moist as the rest of him.

  A pile of red berry-like droppings caught his half-moon eye. Paveenie scat. Zhin had figured paveenies lived around here. They enjoyed eating tipplenum fruit, which sprouted like disordered vermillion roots in the gardens and courtyards. His desperate hunt for red meat was coming to fruition.

  As Zhin continued on, the piles of droppings increased. The paveenie odor of rotten fruit touched his nose. The two-legged reptiles appeared somewhat like thaluts, with their stiff tails and long necks—only paveenies didn’t bear an asinine smile. Being large animals, adults stood six to eight feet tall. Their fingers and toes were nothing but three fat claws. Three rows of serrated teeth crammed their beaks.

  Big claws and lots of teeth. Zhin wished he’d located the weapon packs from when Ikalkor had set the kiderrins on fire. There’d been no trace of them when he’d attempted to procure them. Some pus-bucket traveler must have stolen them.

  High-pitched squeaks cut into Zhin’s regrets, and he smiled. Paveenies. He trailed the sounds to a heavily-vined arch, but stopped the kiderrin before entering the courtyard beyond. Paveenies feared kiderrins, who were baby retsinists.

  If Zhin had possessed weapons, he would have executed this differently. If grekhams hadn’t devoured his kiderrin, this could have been easier. Vijeren and Sibare had informed him that this kiderrin, Barv, only pulled wagons. Zhin decided to return to basics.

  He guided Barv through the arch and into a paveenie pack. The green and yellow beasts fell silent. Their heads swiveled on long slender necks toward the intruders. It dawned on them that a kiderrin had invaded their midst. Whistling in terror, they bolted.

  In less than a second, Zhin singled out a six-foot paveenie. Not only was it big enough to feed his family, but it was small enough to manage. He had the injuries from Bellecaro to think about. Of course, his scheme disregarded those wounds. This might not be the best idea, but if he ate anymore fish, he swore his fur would fall out.

  Being a Kabrilor, Zhin’s body could handle rougher usage than a Metirin one could. A Metirin’s body was also tougher than a human body from Earth. Ilings were made to survive their savage planet. They often endured damage that would have killed an Earthling.

  Shouting at the kiderrin, Zhin pursued the chosen paveenie. It darted through a gap in a jagged wall and tore down the street. Hoping to lose the hunter, the paveenie dashed through buildings and tangled vegetation. It only hindered its own speed.

  The kiderrin gained. Closer…closer…closer…Barv could have chomped the paveenie’s tail. A trained hunting kiderrin would have done it. Instead, Barv of the Red Lanadin Hills flanked the target. Were they not having a friendly race? Barv couldn’t understand when his friend veered to the right.

  Zhin hadn’t anticipated this. What followed sprang from pure instinct. Leaping onto the quarry’s back, he hooked his still-tender claws into the flesh. The violent impact knocked the paveenie off its feet. Predator and prey crashed at the base of a craggy tower.

  As the paveenie twisted its head to bite its attacker, Zhin batted a stone across its temple. Once, twice, but on the third strike the paveenie caught the rock in its beak and tossed it across the street. With its face turned for a fraction of a second, the hunter seized his moment. He impaled the animal’s neck with his claws.

  Blood spurted into Zhin’s face, and the beast bucked him off. As he landed flat on his back, the paveenie’s heavy footfalls pounded down the street.

  “Aiee,” Zhin groaned. What had he been thinking about? Now wounds which hadn’t ached throbbed. Vijeren had volunteered to hunt. Zhin should have let him. Wiping the gore from h
is eyes, he pushed himself to a sitting position. A thick ribbon of blood marked the paveenie’s flight.

  Zhin eyed the kiderrin. “Your parents would be ashamed of you for letting it go.”

  The kiderrin blinked his black bird eyes. They’d ended up with the more mature animal, but Barv seemed unusually thick these days.

  Hauling himself to his feet, Zhin climbed into the wooden kiderrin frame. He left bloody handprints on the heavy brown blanket secured beneath it, which provided a soft barrier between rider and beast.

  As he followed the crimson trail, Zhin tentatively massaged the cannibal’s messy bite on his shoulder. “I hope you turned into an evergrin,” he growled, as if the cannibal could hear him.

  Ilings incinerated corpses because they attracted evergrins. These soulless monsters twisted cadavers into more evergrins. It would have been the fate of Vijeren’s body, had he not revived. This curse applied only to the human dead.

  The blood trail led to a patch of bushes beneath a broken arch. The paveenie’s corpse lay in the middle. Zhin threw a rock at the stomach to make sure the beast didn’t jump up. It had happened to Ikalkor several years ago. Now he was an idiot. Zhin waited a few more minutes before attempting extraction.

  Gripping the green and yellow tail, he lugged it onto the pavement. Zhin stared at its great girth. Gutting a fish with his claws was one thing, but a paveenie? He needed a hammer and saw. He could tear chunks of meat off the sides and let the kiderrin munch off the rest. He examined his fingers where the retractable claws were concealed. They’d suffered a slight relapse, but they could perform. He set to work.

  Paveenie meat was tender, after it was cooked. Zhin gritted his teeth as pain cranked through his claws. He imagined them affixed to a frail piece of cartilage inside his fingers. The cartilage appeared as tattered as a damaged fishing net. Zhin squirmed as if fingers wiggled in his stomach.

  Tossing the hunks of flesh into the frame, Zhin settled on a shady boulder. The kiderrin didn’t forget that the leftovers meant lunch. He did fail to recollect that the paveenie had been his friend. As the beast joyfully devoured his playmate, Zhin squeezed his aching fingertips. The ruined cartilage seemed to be loosening.

  A strangled snarl wrenched him into the present. Gutless awiks, the sound had emitted from the kiderrin. Zhin instinctively scanned its back for the pair of knots indicative of sprouting wings. He laughed at himself. He wouldn’t be able to detect anything with the frame and blanket covering it. Ever since Sibare had warned him the kiderrin was maturing, Zhin had checked the beast every morning. So far, the only evidence of maturity rested in Barv swallowing Shehaz.

  Something had felt off about it, though. Now that Zhin could think without distraction, the concern became manifest. Vijeren’s kiderrin had eaten Shehaz, too. Being a gift from the Uveliels, they wouldn’t have bestowed an aged kiderrin on a precious Retheliel. So why had the creature fed on Shehaz?

  Zhin took a deep breath. Now was the time to relax, not tax his brain. Then again, what was he doing out here exacerbating his condition?

  With a yawn and a shake, the kiderrin sharpened his beak on a stone like a gray-green bird. In the middle of this favorite activity, Barv snarled and swatted his head against the ground.

  “Great Cubons, stop!” Zhin whisked to the beast’s side and caught the tear-dropped head in his arms. Fresh pain jolted through his shoulder. Was Barv sick? Patting the kiderrin’s head, Zhin climbed into the frame and headed back to the underground library. He monitored the beast’s movement for any signs of fatigue. As far as he could tell, Barv functioned properly.

  When the Berivor reached a tower green with thick vines, he whistled three times through his fingers. A few seconds later, three whistles replied in the distance. Their excitement electrified the air, for Zhin’s signal meant a successful hunt. His stomach rumbled in anticipation.

  Zhin continued towards the canal fed from the waterfall he and Sibare had fallen from. Halting the kiderrin on the white stone shore, he rinsed the paveenie blood from his tattered clothes and body. He inspected his shoulder. It was bleeding, but not gushing.

  “How wonderful,” he muttered, and heaved himself from the water. As he rebound his bandages, the kiderrin snarled like his throat was gorged with mucus. Bap! Bap! Bap! The animal bludgeoned his skull against the unyielding shore.

  “Hey!” Zhin arrested the kiderrin’s head before the fourth blow. Apprehension pricked the Berivor’s heart. He’d never witnessed a kiderrin behaving this way. Throwing his clothes on, Zhin hastened to the sunny courtyard.

  The rust-colored pot guarding the library entrance baked in the summer sun. Vestiges of black paint remained of the blasted designs. Once upon a time, the pot had boasted a secret door. Now a cake slice in its side exposed the lengthy stairwell conducting into the library.

  A thread of cooking smoke curled from behind the pot. Here the shade resided during the fourth day Period, or Golden Sun. Day Periods corresponded with the sun’s position. Night Periods paralleled the five moons.

  As the kiderrin loped across the courtyard, Zhin’s Metirin family emerged from behind the pot. If anybody spotted him, a Kabrilor, in company with these little people, the authorities would lock him in a Kosalin for “unhealthy obsession.” The ruins provided a safe haven from such fallacies.

  Zhin eased the kiderrin to a standstill beside the giant pot. His little family surrounded him: three N’hai who didn’t resemble each other in the least, one short Antiminar, and one tall Sirilith.

  Surprisingly, Ikalkor slunk from the stairwell. The sunken-chested Berivor’s craving for red meat had overpowered his ridiculous fear of Vijeren. Somehow, Ikalkor had managed to wax more revolting since Bellecaro. Grime flecked from his ludicrous pants and poison green ripened his collar.

  “What did you get?” said Vijeren, swiping his black bangs from his dark eyes. His hair sprouted faster than weeds. It was about to touch his shoulders. Maybe it was because he spent his days in the canal. It watered his hair, or something.

  A few scrapes and bruises attested his battle with Karijin. In a few days, even those would vanish. Amazing. Nobody fought Karijin without suffering dire wounds.

  “Paveenie,” said Zhin. He began distributing the bloody pieces.

  Sibare laughed at his chunk of Barv’s friend. “Keftsla! Did you murder it?”

  The seventeen-year-old had restrained his wild brown hair with the remaining strip of his shirt. He’d tossed the rest into a corner of the library and walked around half-naked. He could have easily been mistaken for a Syaldin because of his turquoise eyes and large build. Sibare was actually half, but had taken the N’hai form. Because of his Syladin blood, he was hardier than a normal N’hai.

  “Did you kill it with your teeth?” Vijeren sounded as if it was the greatest thing he’d ever heard of.

  Zhin swung off the kiderrin’s back. “No, I used my claws.”

  N’Nar’s gray-green eyes boggled in delight. “You had a battle with it?”

  The Sirilith was an absolute wreck. What a difference from the regal individual Zhin had encountered in the spring! The once silky black hair was now in a constant state of explosion. The rags on his back had once been clothes.

  Since losing his memory, the intensity in N’Nar’s expression had relaxed into child-like innocence. At this point, Zhin disregarded the Sirilith’s age: twenty-three. Sometimes, N’Nar seemed too young to be his brother.

  The Berivor chuckled. “Yeah.”

  Ikalkor picked at the chunk in his hand. “Grampa told you not to hunt like that anymore.”

  Zhin scowled. “I would have used weapons if somebody hadn’t set the kiderrins on fire.”

  “Grampa won’t like this.”

  Zhin snatched the meat from him. “You don’t want any?”

  Ikalkor caught it back with a simpering smile. “You one wonderful hunter, brother.”

  The big Berivor nodded in exasperation.

  N’Nar gazed at the two Berivors. They ho
arded a secret, and Zhin didn’t want to share. What made it interesting was Ikalkor’s genuine concern. The pus-bucket had nearly killed Zhin, and he was worried about this? A few seconds with Vijeren would force Ikalkor to talk—his stomach rumbled. Great Cubons, he’d scheme later.

  “Let’s cook,” he said, and scurried to the fire. The geometric pattern coloring his tapered tail gleamed like a red, green, and black beacon.

  Following N’Nar into the shade, his family commenced ripping the meat into smaller bits with their fingers. As they spiked them onto sharp sticks, Ikalkor sighed and ended with a pompous giggle.

  “What are you laughing at?” N’Nar growled.

  Ikalkor straightened. “Haven’t you heard of knives?” Six glares scorched him at once, and Ikalkor flinched. “What did I do?”

  Zhin rubbed his forehead. “Oh, great Cubons.”

  “Zhin,” said Miranel, “did you go swimming without us?”

  The Berivor gladly turned his attention to the six-year-old N’hai. At least, she appeared six. She’d been born a specter several months ago. Now the curls toppling to her hips were darker than midnight, and her skin creamy. Pink blushed her lips and round cheeks. Only the large green eyes remained the same: glued to Vijeren. She reminded Zhin of a candy-scented doll—a rather feral one adorned in beige rags.