The Golem’s first memory was pain.

The Queen created it with her magic, forcing formless material into a monstrous shape with her hands and power. Even though she ruled the land of Velona, the material didn’t want to obey her commands; her incantations manipulated and forged its figure. The soil and clay of its body rebelled, causing it great pain.

Its first act would have been a scream if it could speak.

But why would a tool need to speak? It existed for her alone. She gave him eyes to see – smooth, black stones – and ears to hear – holes in the hard mud of its flesh. It had a mind to think simple thoughts to relay information through the Queen’s connection in the brain she created.

It did not understand her magic. That was not its place.

The Golem lumbered through the dense forest of thick trunks and wide leaves. A heavy mist hung around, almost alive in its shifting and churning, and the mist plunged every sight in a haze.

The man in its hands fought to escape – he had dark hair with tan skin. His clothes were dirty and torn, smudged and seeped in the jungle over the past few days, and he writhed and struck at the Golem with all his might. While the man had broad shoulders and thick arms, the Golem was too strong. Layla had made it stronger than any other creature in Velona. The one she could control without question.

The Golem had never seen a human before. Never knew they existed before Layla sent it after this one. Humans were strange creatures.

After a few minutes, the man stopped fighting, panting with exhaustion. A gray-yellow light glowed around the man, anxious. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”

The Goelm didn’t answer. He couldn’t. The mist around its brown legs swirled while it plodded toward the rendezvous point with Layla.

“I’ve heard about you,” the man said. “The other creatures I met, they talk about her. And you. The Golem. Do you have a name?”

It didn’t have a name.

“I gotta admit, I thought I was pretty well hidden,” the man said. “I feel like an idiot. You some sort of mind reader or something?”

No, but Layla had given it magical abilities to track her targets – enhanced sight and smells and knowledge of the land of Velona gave the Golem advantages. The man wasn’t from Velona, the Golem could tell that at least, and made the mark easier to find, easier than other beings from the planet.

An opening appeared in the canopy above, and through it the Golem spotted the floating mountain up ahead – massive, jagged piece of land that hovered high over the jungle, above the brances and the mists, and Layla ruled from the top of a vast castle that even now emerged into view. The Golem had never been there. No one had that it knew.

The canopy closed once more to drape them in shadow, and the Golem tread forward.

“Are you going to answer me?” the man said. “Or can you even talk?”

The Golem thought that would have been obvious by now. Perhaps the man was an idiot.

It sensed the red, roiling light up ahead. The man must have, too, because his glow turned orange-pink, the color of alarm.

“The other creatures here,” the man said. “They say she lies. There’s someone I love back where I come from, back on Earth. They say she keeps love from this place. But I know love. I feel it. Can you?”

A tinge of purple mixed with the man’s orange-pink glow. The Golem had never seen that emotion before. Earth?

“I mean, love. The greatest. And she keeps it from you. Don’t you care?”

It did not. The Golem shouldered its way through branches and dark green leaves and stepped into the clearing.

The man pushed against his forearm, to use leverage and pry himself free, but for nothing.

The Golem had tried not to hurt the man. Layla wanted her targets delivered as whole as possible. She understood damage, but it wanted to please its creator. Only she could give its constant pain a measure of relief.

The clearing was thick with mist, and the red and green colors of hate and smugness were like a shell around his master, difficult to see the form she wore today, one of white, smooth skin, dark hair, and a sheer blue dress. The Righteous Queen. Layla.