Canto 11 The Guardian Of The Mount

The Monarch had given them provisions for the journey and three mounts to make the climb up the mountains. The creature was called a Stout and reminded Keisha of a Hadrosaurid dinosaur but duck billed. It had a thick and furry body making it resistant to cold and icy wind temperatures.

Its stocky hooves clip-clopped on the rocky surface of the mountain.

The clouds in the sky looked grayer than usual, and the rain, while not heavy, was relentless with soft flurries gracing its presence.

Keisha's throat tightened when she looked over the cliff edge at the dark woods that looked like an endless sea of darkness, filled with creatures she had yet even to see.

“Don’t look down.”

Keisha looked away. Verona took the lead, looking back every so often at Keisha and Celra at the rear.

“I don’t get why I had to ride this thing.” Celra fidgeted on the saddle. “Why can’t I just shift?”

“Because,” Verona echoed a sigh. “We don’t need any more reason for the Monarch to dislike us. We’re already on thin ice as it is.”

Keisha had an inkling that Verona was referring to the promise that she made.

“I’m sorry, Verona. I can’t sit by and know that someone’s life is in danger. My mamma has always helped people no matter what the situation was.”

Verona sighed. She stopped the Stout, and the others did as well.

“Don’t be sorry. It’s nothing to feel guilty about that, you want to help people. I guess I’m not used to that. Since my father died, I’ve just been by myself, so…I get it.”

Verona’s face turned red, and she twisted a strand of her hair. Keisha looked at her with a huge smile on her face.

“So, yeah,” Verona stumbled over her words. “We should keep moving, so Monarch Palino doesn’t think anything suspicious. Though we’ll have to leave the Stout’s once we reach a certain part of the mountain, it’ll be too narrow for them.”

“As long as I can get off of this thing, that’s fine with me,” Celra complained.

The three traveled for a few miles until they reached the narrowest portion of the mountainside. Saddling off the Stout, the three wall-climbed to the other side of the mountain.

“Don’t look down, don’t look down,” Keisha repeated the mantra. She stared at the dark clouds and watched the rain particles fall in droplets when her footing slipped off the ledge.

Keisha’s heart leaped. Her eyes widened, as she began to fall. A scream couldn’t reach her lips, but someone grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. Keisha’s vision blurred, staring into the dark sea forest and her legs dangling below her. Her stomach tightened, and she tasted the sour bile that rose from her throat.

“Got you,” Celra grunted. Her claws gripped Keisha’s clothing, and her other clawed hand held the base of the mountain. Her fangs gritted together as she tugged Keisha to the top of the mountain again.

“Are you okay!” Celra clambered on top of Keisha, holding on to her for dear life.

Keisha reciprocated the hug and held her waist. “T-thanks, Celra. That was too close—Oh my gosh, you’re bleeding!”

Keisha looked at the stained blood on her shirt and saw where Celra’s hands had skid marks from where the rock had pierced her skin.

Celra grinned, shaking her head. “This? This is nothing; I’ll heal soon.”

A roar emitted the sky, louder than any normal canine.

“We should be close. Are you going to be okay?” Verona asked.

Keisha nodded.

Reaching the mouth of the cave, they peered inside, and to their horror, they saw ghostly souls in cages hanging on the walls. Inside on a rocky perch was the three-headed dog, Cerberus.

Sitting as he barked orders to the souls, his six pairs of red eyes tracked each soul to their designated destination. He had a bushy black beard and a large belly, and sharp claws. He could have been as tall as twenty feet had he not been crouching.

Celra whimpered beside Keisha, her ears bent at his presence, sensing his Alpha superiority.

“Shh, it’s okay, Celra.” Keisha tried to coax her to relax.

Cerberus turned one of its heads straight at them. “What do we have here?”

Verona gritted her teeth. “He knows we’re here.” Had she known it was Cerberus they were dealing with she would have prepared better.

“Come out Daughter of Virgil, Daughter of Dante, and…a She-Wolf, how interesting. I can smell you from here.”

Keisha looked to Verona, who shrugged. There was no other choice. They couldn’t turn back. They followed after the other, with Verona taking the lead and Celra gripping Keisha’s arm.

The souls slinked past them in aligning rows keeping ten feet apart between them and the three-headed beast.

Giant tusks were revealed when it opened its mouth. “What brings you three here?” Its baritone voice was slow and rattled the walls of the cave.

Keisha flinched and swallowed the nerves that disturbed her. “We’ve come to free the spirits that Menoos has stolen.”

“—and we’ll fight you if necessary,” Verona added.

Cerberus let out a laugh. “Not even your papà’s could best me.”

“Please!” Keisha begged, taking a step. “Why are you doing this to these citizens?”

Cerberus shook two of his heads. “You know nothing for being Legacies. The citizens will fall into bloodshed because Menoos gave the Monarch a chance to stay away, but he refused and sent hunting parties to raid the Demi’s in our territory.”

Verona scoffed. “That doesn’t mean the people should have to suffer.”

Cerberus snorted puffs of smoke from his nostril. “The city needs to be cleansed of your kind; all they do is persecute and bind us.”

It was another instance of Demi’s against the Natura Borne. Keisha looked between Verona and Cerberus, who glared at one another.

“Wait!” Keisha shouted, stepping in between their sights. “Instead of us fighting, why don’t we settle this another way?”

Cerberus’ brow raised. “And what do you have in mind?”

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“I challenge you to a game of chess.”

Keisha had often played chess with her papà in her spare time. She even won a few games.

A Cerberus head smiled, amused. “Let it be so, Daughter of Dante, step forward so the playing field may be in attendance.”

Keisha looked back at Verona and Celra and stepped forward. As soon as she did, the floor shook. She wobbled as the ground rose into a platform. Keisha looked to see her friends were tiny, and there was a ten-foot drop between them.

Hot musty breath blew in her face like a gust of wind. Keisha stared directly into the six red eyes of Cerberus's giant boulder size head.

Keisha gulped. The stone platform morphed into a black and gray checkered field.

“Scared Daughter of Dante?”

She sucked in a deep breath. “No. What are we using for chess pieces?”

He smirked. “I’m glad you asked.”

Sixteen faded blue figures of souls appeared in front of Keisha, standing on different squares of the chess platform.

The ground trembled again, and another platform rose. Verona and Celra stood a few feet away as they watched the spectacle.

“You expect us to use souls as pieces?” Keisha exclaimed.

“Unless you can come up with something different, Daughter of—”

“—It’s Keisha,” she interrupted him.

“Don’t let him get to you, Keisha!” Verona shouted across from her platform.

“Let us begin, Keisha.”

***

Keisha swallowed hard as the souls shimmered on the chessboard, their translucent eyes flickering with fear each time Cerberus shifted his massive paws. The black and gray squares pulsed faintly beneath their feet, rainwater dripping from the cavern ceiling, each droplet echoing like a metronome counting down the tension between moves.

She clenched her fists, her small knuckles paling. “I don’t like this,” she whispered under her breath. “It’s not right.”

Cerberus leaned in, the heat of his breath ruffling her curls. “You hesitate, Daughter of Dante? You asked for this match.”

“I didn’t ask to use souls,” she shot back, voice shaking but steady. She lifted her chin, glaring up at the towering beast, the flicker of fear in her belly forced down by the memory of her mother’s words: Help people, no matter what.

Cerberus’s three heads chuckled in unison. “Everything in the Inferno has a cost. Move, or forfeit.”

Keisha scanned the board. Her “pawns” stood anxiously, glancing at her, shifting from foot to foot. One was an old man clutching a tattered hat to his chest; another, a young woman with silver eyes, pressed trembling hands together as if praying. The Monarch’s daughter. Keisha’s throat tightened.

She couldn’t just sacrifice them. But she couldn’t lose either. If she lost, Cerberus would keep them all, and even more souls would suffer.

“Keisha!” Verona’s voice pierced the air, sharp as an arrow. “Don’t let him get in your head!”

Keisha closed her eyes briefly, taking a breath that smelled of damp stone and fear. She opened them, clear and resolute. “I won’t.”

She moved her knight, a teenage boy with freckles and a determined jaw, three steps forward in an L-shape. The boy blinked at her, then nodded, standing firm on his new square. Cerberus moved a bishop, a hunched figure in white, who glided diagonally across the board.

Keisha’s heart pounded, but she kept moving, step by step, explaining softly to herself, “Knights move in L’s, bishops go diagonally, rooks straight, pawns forward one, and the queen…” Her eyes flicked to the Monarch’s daughter, who stood on her queen square, a sad, tired smile on her face.

“I won’t let you down,” Keisha whispered to her.

Cerberus’s eyes glowed red, three mouths curling into wicked smirks. “Sentiment will only make your defeat taste sweeter.”

But Keisha kept going. She used her pawns to block Cerberus’s pieces, guiding them carefully, never forcing them into danger without a plan. She moved the bishop, an old woman who walked with a cane, to protect the Monarch’s daughter, using herself as a shield.

“Check,” Cerberus rumbled, moving his queen, an imposing, shadowy figure that loomed over Keisha’s pieces.

Keisha clenched her teeth. She looked at the Monarch’s daughter, who met her gaze, eyes filled with fear but also trust. Keisha took a breath. “I promised I would help you.”

She moved her knight, the freckled boy, jumping him between the queen and her king piece. The boy glanced back at Keisha and nodded, his eyes bright, even as Cerberus’s queen cut him down, the figure vanishing in a wisp of blue light.

Keisha’s eyes stung, but she didn’t cry. She couldn’t. She shifted her remaining bishop, using the old woman as bait. “I’m sorry,” Keisha whispered, as Cerberus’s rook captured her, the woman’s cane falling as she vanished.

Cerberus grinned. “You sacrifice your own so easily.”

“No,” Keisha snapped, tears at the corners of her eyes, “I don’t sacrifice them. They’re helping each other. We’re helping each other.”

She moved her queen. The Monarch’s daughter stepped forward gracefully, standing in line with Cerberus’s king, a pale, trembling figure that recoiled from her.

“Check.”

Cerberus’s heads stopped laughing. All six eyes narrowed.

The beast tried to move a pawn to block, but Keisha’s remaining knight pinned it down.

She stepped closer to the edge of the board, her small hands clenched at her sides. “You can’t keep using people like this,” she said, voice clear, echoing in the cavern. “They aren’t just pieces on your board. They’re people. They’re scared, but they’re brave, and they don’t deserve to suffer just because you want revenge.”

Cerberus’s heads glared, lips curling back over tusks. The souls on the board watched, silent, waiting.

“Checkmate,” Keisha whispered, moving her queen forward one last time.

The Monarch’s daughter raised her chin, placing a gentle hand on the trembling king piece, pinning him in place.

A hush fell over the cavern.

The platform lowered slowly, the souls dissolving into faint blue sparks that drifted upward like fireflies in the cold air, joining the others trapped in the cages.

Cerberus exhaled a cloud of smoke, eyes glinting with reluctant respect. “You’ve won, Keisha Alighieri. A daughter of Dante, but different indeed.”

Keisha’s shoulders slumped, her knees shaking, but she kept her head high. “Promise me you’ll let them go.”

The Cerberus heads nodded, their combined voice a rumbling chorus. “As promised.”

“Thank you,” Keisha whispered, watching the cages open, souls floating free, their faces turning to her with tearful gratitude as they vanished into the shadows of the cave.

Verona grunted. “That was the most agonizing four hours in my life. Are we able to pass or not?”

“Go through this pass, and Menoos will be ahead. He hasn’t devoured any souls yet, stay safe, Legacies.”

The three of them departed. Keisha said her farewells to Cerberus, who watched her with unreadable eyes, she knew this wasn’t the end of the war between the Demi and Natura Borne. But maybe, just maybe, it was the start of something better. They headed toward the lighting of the cave where Menoos sat on a mound of rock and a line of souls hypnotically lined in front of him, so he could eat them.

His meaty hands were holding a soul about to consume them.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Verona changed into her Stanza form, and the Circuit Gem glowed as it summoned a Demi from it. A large blackbird, the size of a falcon, cut Menoos wrist, releasing the soul from his hands.

Menoos let out a holler. His head was too small for his snake body; he had a tip of blonde hair on his bald head and dark circles around his beady eyes and gray lips.

“Who dares disturbs my meal!” Menoos bellowed angrily.

“That would be us,” Verona said. “Looks like you’ve overrun the bill.”

Keisha used her ring to turn into her Stanza form as Celra shifted. The girls broke out to fight Menoos, who struggled to reach them with his short, stubby arms. Keisha had to roll out of the way as Menoos slammed his fist on the ground. Celra bit his leg, and Menoos shouted in agony.

He swiped at Celra with the back of his hand, sending the She-Wolf backward. Keisha reacted quickly and used the Earth Verse Trappola di terra to summon an earth wall from the ground. Celra used her hind legs to hop on it and spring herself at Menoos to attack.

The glow from Verona’s gemstone shone brightly as she commanded a Verse to keep him immobilized: Impacco Spinoso!

The ground rumbled below their feet, and several dozen thorny vines sprouted from the ground. They grabbed onto Menoos arms and tail to hold him down.

“Now’s your chance, Keisha!” Verona shouted.

Keisha scaled up the length of Menoos arm. His hands lashed out to strangle her but blades of wind struck him every time. Keisha was getting closer and she watched the feared look in his eyes; his black teeth gritted together. Menoos shut his eyes tightly.

“Please, don’t!” Menoos let out a cry.

“I wasn’t going to attack you,” she said as Menoos’ lower lip quivered.

“Keisha, what are you doing?” Verona called out from below.

“It isn’t fair that Natura Borne hunt Demi, right?” she asked, staring into his glassy-filled eyes. “And you thought it would be fair to get back at them by taking these people? That’s just evil.”

Menoos sniffled. “And what do you expect me to do? They’re going to keep hunting us to extinction. It’s time Demi’s take control of the Inferno as it was thousands of years ago.”

“You have every right to feel angry and scared because they’re taking away your freedom. But don’t you see? That’s going to turn you exactly into them.” The look on Menoos face was in disbelief as if he didn’t care as long as justice was served. It was all too familiar back home.

She couldn’t let that happen here too.

“What if I told you that you could live in peace? I know nothing can happen overnight, but if you release all the souls, I can promise the Monarch and his people will do the same.”

Menoos grunted, making a face. “Your eyes…you’re one of those Earthborne’s from the surface. How can I trust you?”

“Because I’m not just an Earthborne, my papà is Dante Alighieri, a Shikari, and as my birthright, I am a Legacy. I swear I would do things differently than Legacies before me…And if my word is broken, you can eat my soul instead.”

“Keisha!” Verona called out, Celra howled, but their cries were ignored. Keisha and Menoos continued to stare at one another.

“Do we have a deal, Menoos?”