by Dante King
“I sense that there has been some progress with your quest to find the Dragon Gauntlet, and to resurrect a dragon,” she said. “I yearn to become the dragon, Vance. Every night my dreams become more vivid and intense. But also, there are nightmares, terrifying visions of what will come to pass should the Blood God defeat you. It will be the end of the world; everything will be drowned in a never-ending tsunami of blood. Only you can prevent this, and you need a dragon by your side.”
Friya was excited when I told her what had happened earlier that night with Zhenwan and the Blind Monks, and she’d told me before how she desired to become a dragon in a similar manner to how she could shift into a werewolf.
“Then my dreams are coming to pass.” She smiled. “I could not understand one particular, persistent vision until now. Always I saw men with their eyes burned out in my dreams, and I took this to be a sign of doom. Now, however, I understand it to be a sign of hope. These Blind Monks will play an important role in the upcoming quest, I am sure of it.”
“They’re a good bunch, and when it comes to unarmed combat, I’d say they’d kick the asses of pretty much any Prandish warriors.”
“They will be excellent allies on this quest, then.” Friya gave me a gorgeous smile that seemed to thank me for calming her worries.
“So, why are you wearing your Cloak of Changing?” I asked. “And what are you doing up so late? I’m guessing you weren’t just waiting up to talk to me about your dreams.”
“You’re right. I was waiting for you so I could say goodbye.”
“Goodbye? Where are you going?”
“Look up at the sky.”
I glanced up and saw that the storm clouds had cleared, giving way to a starry sky and a bright full moon.
“This is when my werewolf powers are at their strongest,” Friya said, her eyes gleaming silver in the moonlight. “And my most recent dream has revealed to me that I must use my werewolf form to aid you in this quest now, but in a mission I must do on my own. I can travel with great speed and stealth through the night, and there is an object you will need for this quest that only I, in the form of a werewolf, can obtain for you. I will retrieve it, and rendezvous with you in the capital city.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay on your own in a strange land?” I asked. “I can send some of my undead troops with you for extra protection.”
“They’ll only slow me down, Vance. I must do this mission alone, in my werewolf form. This is what my dreams have told me, and I must do what my dreams command. Trust me, I won’t come to harm. The vast majority of enemies would rather run from a werewolf than fight one, after all.”
She did have a point; as stunning as Friya was in her human form, when she transformed into a werewolf she was downright terrifying.
“As long as you’re sure this is the right course of action to take,” I said.
“It is. My dreams have never failed me before, and I highly doubt they’ll begin to fail me now. Goodbye for now, Vance. I’ll see you soon.”
“Goodbye, Friya, and good luck with your quest.”
We shared a fiery kiss before she leapt from the balcony and landed on the dark alley outside the inn. She pulled the wolf’s head section of the cloak over her head, and in a speedy blur of motion and distortion, she changed from a woman into a towering werewolf. The beast’s yellowy eyes glowed menacingly in the gloom, but as different as she looked with her fangs, claws, and fur, I could tell it was still Friya inside that muscular, shaggy-haired body. She stared at the moon for a few seconds, let out a piercing wolf howl, then bounded off, disappearing into the dark night.
“Good luck Friya,” I whispered to the empty darkness. “I hope you find whatever it is we need.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Before dawn the next morning, I said my farewells to Rollar and Drok—who were staying here in Gongxiong to keep an eye on the ships and the army inside them—and to Elyse, Isu, and Rami-Xayon, who were going off to ensure Rami-Xayon’s parents were safe.
A sparrow came to Tong-Tong’s tavern bearing a message from Rami-Xayon’s twin sister, Yumo, saying that she’d find and meet me along the road to the capital. After this, Zhenwan, Layna, Anna-Lucielle, and I left the Plump Herons inn and headed over to the temple.
I was dressed in civilian clothes, as were the women, so as not to attract unwanted attention from Imperial Army soldiers or the Emperor’s officials. We all had weapons concealed under our clothing, though, and would be ready for combat in the blink of an eye. Well, all of us except Zhenwan. I told him that if there was a fight, he needed to hit the ground and keep his head covered, and I’d protect him. Better that than him running around in a panic and getting in our way.
The monks were waiting for us, all twelve of them. Ji-Ko smiled and got down on the ground when he saw me. The others followed suit, and together they pressed their foreheads to the ground.
“We are here to serve you, God of Death,” Ji-Ko said in a solemn voice, “and we will gladly sacrifice our lives to that end.”
“Good to know, my friends,” I said, “but hopefully it won’t come to that. Come on, let’s get out of here. We’ve got a Dragon Gauntlet to find, a goddess to resurrect, and plenty of asses to kick.”
We made our way out of Gongxiong, taking one of the narrow, winding roads that led through the seemingly endless jutting karst mountains that extended out from Gongxiong in all directions. The air was no less humid in the mountains, I soon discovered, almost as hot as the coastal town. The foliage covering the steep mountainsides was dense and green, and alive with all sorts of strange birds and insects.
“Keep your eyes open in this part of the country, God of Death,” Ji-Ko cautioned. “There are dangerous wild beasts in these mountain jungles. In these times of chaos and anarchy, they have become overly bold and aggressive. Many unwary travelers have been dragged off into this jungle and devoured.”
At the mention of beasts devouring men, Layna’s attention was immediately piqued.
“Ooh, tell me, monk, what manner of beasts are these that catch and eat men?” she asked. “They aren’t giant spiders, are they? I miss my war spiders dearly.”
“Oh no, they’re not spiders or insects,” Ji-Ko answered. “They’re huge cats, panthers with saber teeth. They hunt in packs of five or six, usually around dusk or dawn. It is at these times that we must be most cautious.”
I had other ideas, though; I felt like a part of me was missing without any undead creatures around me. I understood what Layna was saying about missing her war spiders. I had a few zombie versions of my own, after all. I hoped that we did come across some of these saber-toothed panthers, so that I could hunt them and down raise them as undead attack cats.
After a while, we started to encounter stone ruins along the side of the road. The piles of rubble and half-collapsed buildings grew larger, until we were walking through what must have been an ancient city. All the ruined structures were made of a volcanic black stone, most likely obsidian.
When I asked Ji-Ko, he told me a tragedy had befallen the city that stood here thousands of years ago. All its people had simply disappeared, and soon the city had fallen into ruin, most of it having been swallowed up by the jungle. This reminded me of Kroth, where the Demogorgon wiped out the entire population in literal seconds. The Blood God was one of the most ancient deities in the world, so who knew what had happened here …
Layna started talking to me again, interrupting these dark thoughts.
“All that talk of saber-toothed panthers eating people has got me feeling peckish,” she remarked.
“You get pretty excited every time the topic of eating people comes up,” I chortled. “I remember all the human bodies hanging in spider silk cocoons in Aith. Did you ever eat any people?”
She chuckled darkly and flashed me a mischievous grin.
“I’m an Arachne, Vance, and not just any Arachne, but the Webmaven. It would be most strange if I didn’t eat people! I do miss the taste of human
flesh, sautéed in a good red wine, or barbecued over an open fire,” she said with a sigh.
“These people you used to eat,” Ji-Ko said with a disapproving glance, “I hope they were not innocent victims.”
“No, no, convicted criminals, all of them,” Layna said. “Murderers, rapists, those sorts, sent to Aith for their death sentences by nearby human settlements. While some Arachne were, well, a little unscrupulous about where they sourced their human flesh, we royal Arachne only ever ate humans who deserved death, like the convicts sent to us for execution.”
“What does it taste like, human meat?” I asked, not feeling the need to hide the kind of morbid curiosity I felt about this practice.
A dark gleam sparkled in Layna’s eyes. “The best meat you’ll ever taste, bar none. That’s why it’s such a taboo in human society, I believe. If you humans started eating each other, you’d develop such a ravenous appetite for it that the human race would be extinct in weeks, if not days. It’s succulent and juicy, with just the right salty edge. Like good bacon, or pork sausage, if you want to compare it to something you know.”
I was quite fascinated, but Ji-Ko wrinkled his nose and frowned deeply with disgust.
“We Blind Monks are vegetarians,” he said. “And I don’t have the stomach to discuss this topic any further. Please, excuse me.” He slowed his pace a little so that he was behind us, walking among Anna-Lucielle and the other monks.
“You did a good job of scaring off the monk.” I grinned at Layna.
“All this talk of meat has made me rather hungry. Perhaps I could satiate myself with some other kind of meat?”
“You can have all the sausage you can handle, when you and I have some privacy.”
“I look forward to that, Vance. A Webmaven sometimes spends her whole life looking for a worthy mate. I, luckily, have found the perfect mate in my youth.”
“I haven’t really talked with you about your people or your youth. I was told the Webmaven of Aith is one of the deadliest, if not the deadliest Arachne of all. Is that true?”
Layna’s dark smile intensified, and an eerie light sparkled in her eyes. “That wouldn’t be too far from the truth. Once every decade, the Webmaven Games are held in the Great Arena of Aith. This is how the Webmavens are chosen. As you may have heard, Aith has never had a male ruler. Arachne men form the Council, yes, but that is because Arachne men prefer to think rather than fight. In Aith, it is we women who are the deadliest and most vicious fighters, and the greatest female warriors of Aith are pitted against each other in a fight to the death in the Webmaven Games. There is only one survivor of the games, and she becomes Webmaven for five years. I was that survivor; I was the one who killed every other Webmaven hopeful.”
“And when are the next Webmaven Games? I wouldn’t mind sitting in the stands and watching you kick your rivals’ asses.”
“Not for another two years; you’ll have to wait a while for the pleasure of witnessing me kill and devour my rivals,” Layna said.
“Whoa, hold on a minute, you eat the losers?” I asked. Isu had explained some of this when I’d first come to Aith, but this part was new to me.
“Oh yes! While Arachne meat doesn’t taste as exquisite as human meat, it is a close second. The victor of the Arachne Games eats the hearts of her defeated opponents, because we believe it gives us strength and courage as warriors.”
“It’s a custom I’d associate more with the Northern Barbarian tribes,” I said, “but I’m glad to hear that Arachne society has a more visceral, brutal side to it, and you’re not all aloof snobs who walk around with your noses stuck up in the air.”
Layna laughed. “We may come across like that to strangers, and I admit, we are not at all welcoming to outsiders, but once you get past that, you’ll find there’s a lot to our culture. Such as how we Webmavens take our mates.”
“I ‘d love to learn more,” I said with a cheeky grin. “You know, this thick jungle all around us provides an excellent screen, and I don’t think the others will notice if you and I disappear into the bushes for a while, so—”
My randy suggestion was cut off by a bloodcurdling shriek that erupted from a section of jungle about a hundred yards up the road from us.
“What on earth was that?” Layna gasped.
It didn’t sound like it had come from Anna-Lucielle, Zhenwan, or the other monks.
My first thought was that someone was being attacked by the saber-toothed panthers, so a surge of excitement raced through me at the thought of killing a few of them and turning them into undead minions.
“I don’t know, but let’s get on it.” I whipped out Grave Oath and my kusarigama and sprinted off in the direction of the scream, with Layna, Anna-Lucielle, and the monks hot on my heels.
Another scream ripped through the air, this one a lot weaker. Whoever was screaming was in a lot of trouble and was losing strength rapidly.
I veered off the road and crashed through the dense tangle of undergrowth, palms, and vines, navigating a hasty passage through the piles of rubble and collapsed buildings. One more scream reached my ears, but this one was more of a wheezing gasp of defeat than a cry of terror.
I burst through a thick wall of foliage into a part of the ruined city that seemed to have once been a huge arena but was now overgrown with vines and trees. There were dozens of pillars, and like everything else in the ruined, jungle-swallowed city, they were made of an obsidian-like stone.
When I saw what had just happened and who had been screaming, I skidded to a halt, almost rooted to the spot in disbelief. The man who had caused his victim to scream froze too, similarly surprised.
The one who had been screaming was a Yengish peasant girl, and she let out one final, pitiful gasp and then died. Her throat had been cut, and the gaping wound stretched from ear to ear. And there, kneeling down beside her, with the girl’s hair gripped in one hand and a red Blood Dagger in the other, his mouth and jaw wet with the blood he’d been drinking from the girl’s throat, was the Hooded Man himself. At the far end of the ruined arena was a glowing portal.
The hood he wore kept his face from the mouth up shrouded in dark shadow, so I couldn’t see who he was, except that he was Prandish, and seemed to be elderly. Despite his appearance, though, I knew the old bastard was anything but weak.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Vance Chauzec, God of Nothing,” he snarled, and in his voice were the thousand echoes of the deep rasp of the Blood God. “I brought this maiden here and sacrificed her so you would hear your screams, futile to stop them. You crossed the ocean faster than I expected, but you are too late. You were too late before you even set sail. We are stronger than ever, and we will drown the world in blood!”
His voice was bizarrely familiar, but I just couldn’t place it. Was he one of the members of my father’s court? Or had I met him in my many adventures while I worked as an assassin, and later, a crypt diver?
I didn’t have time to think long on his identity because I could already sense him summoning his powers.
“I’ve been looking forward to this,” I said as I plunged my spirit deep into the earth beneath me to draw up as much Death energy as I could muster. “No more running, you coward. Let’s finish this.”
“You are the only one who will be finished, Chauzec, you and the puny fools who follow you!” he roared.
Anna-Lucielle and Layna were directly behind me, as were the Blind Monks, who were in combat stances, fanned out in a semicircular formation. Zhenwan had run off to hide somewhere. Anna-Lucielle’s powers would be useless here, however, and she was no fighter. The monks’ unarmed combat skills, impressive as they were, would do little against an opponent as powerful as this. Layna’s webs and weaponry were fantastic against most warriors, but she couldn’t fight this adversary either. Well, that might not be true. Her webs could prove useful here.
“All of you take cover,” I said to my fighters. “Only I can handle him. Layna, get around to the other side of the arena and cover t
hat portal with as many webs as you can. I’m not letting this motherfucker escape this time. Go, all of you!”
“God of Death, we said we would give your lives for you, and we will,” Ji-Ko said as he touched his jade necklace, a sign that seemed like an oath.
“No. Nobody is helped if you throw them away like this! Run, and take cover—that’s a command.”
“They can run, they can hide, but I will find them, and I will devour their souls, just as I will devour yours, you wretch!” the thousand booming voices of the Blood God roared.
A tremendous shockwave, like the first violent tremor of a sudden earthquake, tore through the ground, knocking everyone off their feet. I scrambled upright as the Hooded Man’s robe and cloak exploded, and the ground beneath him erupted like a volcano blowing its top.
What spewed up in a mighty torrent from the bowels of the earth was not lava or magma. It was a vertical tower of blood, thirty yards in diameter, surging upward to a height of over fifty yards. The bloody tower flung huge rocks and blocks of rubble hundreds of feet into the sky with the force of its gushing. It ripped trees out of the soil and hurled them in the air too. Blood rained down on the jungle in a red shower with the intensity of a monsoon downpour.
“Vance!” Anna-Lucielle screamed as she ran to and fro to avoid the falling rubble.
“Run, dammit, run, take cover!” I roared as I channeled all the Death energy I could muster into my weapons and armor.
The gushing torrent of blood started to subside, revealing a towering figure inside it: a Blood Giant. The Hooded Man had just transformed himself into a Blood Giant.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Blood Giant was twice the size of even the biggest Jotunn, a hideous ogre-like monster composed entirely of flowing blood. It leered down at me with his red eyes, and its two enormous hands, each the size of a large wagon, began to glow and crackle with crimson lightning. I knew what was coming, and I knew that, without a shield, the Blood lightning would splatter me into a million pieces.