Free Zenak by George S. Pappas

horror when he saw his comrades begin to flow into each other and onto the floor. It was not that he pitied them, but that his ruse might be discovered at any time. To his relief Vokar and Mara hastily left, leaving the seed of their destruction behind—Famad.
    Famad, when Vokar and Mara were out of sight, left his comrades to melt and headed for the main guardhouse. His mind was filled with consternation. When was Zenak going to return? Should he ride out and tell Zenak? How was he going to tell Zenak the bad news? All these questions and more plagued Famad until he arrived at the main guardhouse and told his story to his captain.
    When Famad arrived at the door of the guardhouse, he stopped for a moment to get his thoughts together. How was he going to explain what had happened? He shrugged his shoulders and stepped into the room. His eyes immediately started water­ing from all the smoke from the cigar-smoking guards. He squinted in the poor light to find the captain. In one corner of the room two men were sitting and playing ginga [Apparently, from looking through the other scrolls, ginga is a game similar to chess except the pawns are allowed to move in any direction and the bishops, or babas, as they are called, are allowed to move only once in any dia­gonal direction.] In another corner were four men passing a bottle of wine around and watching a young woman they had bought for the evening writhing in her own ecstasy on the table. Finally, he caught sight of the captain in the back of the room near the rear door.
    â€œCaptain, come quickly,” Famad yelled. He ran toward the captain and the captain squinted his eyes a little and ducked his head so he could see who was calling him.
    â€œOh, it’s the idiot, Famad,” he said, sounding disgusted as he chewed on his cigar.
    â€œMy Captain, the queen has been abducted and her guards melted,” Famad said as he reached the captain.
    â€œAbducted? Melted? Have you gone insane?” The captain said incredulously.
    â€œNo, I’m not insane. The queen has been abducted by Vokar and through some sort of black magic he melted all of us, except me of course.”
    The captain chewed his cigar a little harder and stared with suspecting eyes at this man whom he thought was a total idiot. Then he shuffled his feet a little and turned away from Famad to better think.
    â€œI’m telling the truth and if you procrastinate any longer the queen will be getting farther away and you will be getting closer to Zenak’s sword,” Famad said in a fit of bravado.
    The captain once again looked at Famad, spit on the floor, grabbed up a bottle of wine, took a great swig from it, and said, “Take me to your melted friends.”
    Famad bolted ahead of the captain and took off for the entrance to the queen’s bedchamber. The captain lumbered behind him breathing heavily all the way.
    When they reached the hallway to the bedchamber all there was to be seen were puddles of black liquid littered with clothes and weapons. The captain surveyed the scene for a moment and, walking carefully around the puddles, went into the queen’s bedchamber. Famad followed him.
    â€œThere doesn’t appear to have been a struggle, here. But it does appear that she’s left because her clothes are gone and the child is gone. Are you sure she didn’t go willing­ly?” the captain asked Famad.
    â€œI saw Vokar pulling on her and threatening to kill her baby. There is no way she went will­ingly. Besides what woman would go willingly with that crea­ture Vokar and leave Zenak? Especially someone as beautiful as Mara,” Famad said.
    â€œI guess you’re right. She is too fine a person to do that,” the captain replied. No one but Vokar and Mara’s private servants knew of her depravities and even her servants only knew of her sexual wants. Other than that they thought she was pure of heart. In fact her sexual needs were