The Final Redemption by Michael Manning (little red riding hood ebook free .txt) 📕

“The entireisland is most likely guarded by the Kriteck, and they’ve had acouple thousand years to fine tune their defenses.”

“The ‘Kriteck’?” questionedMoira.

“Think of them as the guardians andsoldiers of the She’Har, but they’re a bit more complicated thanthat. The father-tree can create them in any form nec…,” Ibegan.

Gareth interrupted again, “You justtold us there was only one here.”

I nodded, suppressing my irritation.“That’s right. The Kriteck aren’t considered in the same way thatthe She’Har and their children are. They’re temporary and sterile.They only survive two to three months, and they possess only asmuch intelligence as the father-tree endows them with. Some of themare less intelligent than your average dog, while others may be assmart as you and I. It all depends on what the father-tree has inmind when it creates them.”

“How many of these—things, could therebe?” said Moira.

I shrugged, “I have no wayof knowing. A lot, a few, it depends in part on their size andcomplexity. He could produce legions of tiny ones, a few very largeones, and anything you can imagine in between. The main limitationis how many he can growin a given time span, because they all expirewithin a few months. The bigger the father-tree, the more he canproduce.”

“Why would it produce small ones?”asked Gareth. “Wouldn’t they be too small to fighteffectively?”

I grimaced. “Two thousand years agohumanity was nearly wiped out by very small ones. They were sosmall you almost couldn’t see them without a magnifying glass. Asoldier can’t fight what he can’t find.”

“How would something that small hurtsomeone?”

“It’s a long story, one we reallydon’t have time for today. The important thing to realize is thatthe Kriteck could be anywhere and almost any size. The larger onescan use magic, and there could be a lot of them, so diplomacy isparamount,” I explained.

Gareth grinned, showing a mouth fullof uncomfortably sharp teeth, “So don’t start any pissing matches.Don’t worry.”

Moira seemed puzzled. “There’s onething that bothers me. If this ‘father-tree’ you keep talking aboutis that powerful, why didn’t it finish the war with humanity? Whyare we still here?”

Her words brought a lot ofuncomfortable memories to the surface, things that were best leftunsaid, at least for now. “This one is the one that saved us fromthe She’Har.”

“You’ve left a lot out of your story.Why did he help us, when he should have been our enemy? Surely hehas a name? You haven’t mentioned it yet, but with as muchinformation as you seem to have, you must know it.”

Her questions were probingareas I didn’t really want to discuss. Aname? I thought to myself,the only one that would mean anything to you isIlleniel, and I certainly don’t feel like explaining that rightnow. “If you need a name you could thinkof him as ‘Tennick’,” I suggested.

“That’s a rather human surname,” sheobserved. “I used to know several Tennicks. Why not just call him‘Smith’ if you’re going to make things up just to satisfy mycuriosity.”

Plainly she thought I was lying.“Whatever you prefer,” I said noncommittally, “but his name isTennick.”

We were almost to the shore, a thinstrip of beach overshadowed by a looming jungle of trees and vines,when we got our first sign that the island was inhabited. Lines ofpower shot forth from three locations to grapple with our airship.Our forward progress slowed dramatically, and I didn’t botherfighting their efforts. We weren’t here to start a war, quite theopposite.

“Is that them?”

That was Gareth, tension written inhis posture. I nodded, “The Kriteck—yes, they won’t let us near thetree until we’ve gotten permission.” They were drawing us in now,and I had given up any pretense of controlling our movement. Ourcraft came slowly down to land on the beach. A delegation emergedfrom the trees to meet us.

The creatures that came forward togreet us looked like something from a lunatic’s worst nightmare.Two of them had the appearance of something like a praying mantis,if praying mantises were seven feet tall. Their bodies were coveredin a black chitin looking substance, layers of hard armor, which ifyou were to examine closely you would discover that it had more incommon with wood than chitin. Another slunk forward on four legslooking much like a massive cat covered in dark spikes rather thanfur, it was at least twice the size of a tiger.

A rough but vaguely human-like voiceissued from one of the mantis-like forms, but the language wasnearly unintelligible.

“What was that?” said Gareth. “Icouldn’t understand.”

“I think it said ‘purpose’,” suggestedMoira.

The words had brought more memories tothe fore. “It was our language, but the dialect is very old,” Iexplained. “They asked us to state our purpose.” Addressing theKriteck I responded, but not with the same tongue. While I couldunderstand the old human dialect, I wasn’t sure I could replicateit properly. It was similar to my own language but had a verydifferent system of pronunciation. Instead I used the language ofthe She’Har, “We have come to see the father.”

“That is not possible.”

“I have come to present informationabout the father’s kianthi,” I explained.

“Present your information to us,” theyresponded.

I thought hard for a minute, staringat them. Tennick had become a lot more like the She’Har than I hadanticipated, and his Kriteck reflected that. With a few words Idisassembled our shield and our airship, then I recreated theenchanted shield, but this time I left myself outside of it. It nowprotected Gareth and Moira.

“What are you doing?” askedGareth.

Don’t leave theshield, I told them both silently,if you do, they will be able to use you againstme. Normal shields won’t keep their spellweavings out.

You aren’t going to fightthem are you? asked Moira with someconcern.

I hope not. If I do I willlose, in which case Gareth must destroy the island before theybreach the shield around you, Iexplained.

What? How? Why?Gareth seemed alarmed.

I gave him my mostcharming wink. The island was created byan archmage, and it can be destroyed in the same fashion.I looked down, indicating the earth beneathus. If they try to take us by force, youmust make sure the father-tree doesn’t survive.

I’m not sure if that’spossible for me, Gareth relayeduncertainly.

I had already wasted too much time.Returning my attention to the Kriteck I addressed them, “You musttake me to the