by N. P. Martin
The little abandoned church lay just ahead, and as I began to move toward it, a sudden bone chilling roar stopped me dead in my tracks. The sound was akin to that of a roaring bull, but much deeper, and it reverberated through the whole valley like a declaration of war. I looked up the hill to the trees beyond, but I couldn’t see any sign of the creature who had made the sound, and I concluded it must be hidden in the trees somewhere, probably keeping a close eye on me. And going by the sound of that roar, I also felt like the beast was relishing the fact that I had come to challenge it, and that it didn’t consider me any kind of threat; that it was looking forward to killing me, in fact. Clearly, there was no point in remaining invisible any longer.
On edge now, I hurried toward the little church, making my way through the front entrance where the door had long since rotted off. Inside, it was just an empty shell with not even a roof, but at the very front of the church the old stone altar still stood, and on it I could see something glinting in the dull light. When I walked up the aisle to the altar I was almost surprised to see a long silver sword sitting there. It seemed Nyxie was telling truth. As sincere as she seemed, I still fostered doubts about Nyxie’s intentions, which given my recent experience with the Fae in Cork, I couldn’t help. But now as it turned out, my doubts were unwarranted. The sword was actually here, and it was frankly magnificent.
A little hesitantly, as if I knew the sword would shock me when I touched it, I reached down and picked it up with both hands; one hand on the grip, the other under the blade. It felt as heavy as I expected it to, given it was forged from solid silver. Despite its weight, however, the sword was also supremely balanced, a fact which became more apparent as I held it up with one hand to inspect the blade, which was exquisitely engraved with Celtic knot work and some other symbols that I didn’t recognize, making me wonder just how old the sword was. The grip was leather and comfortable in my hand, though I wasn’t all that comfortable with the blade itself. Simply put, I had never used a sword before in my life. Any combat training I had over the years, which wasn’t much, revolved around close-quarters unarmed combat. Weapons training never came into it.
"Well, it’s coming into it now," I said as I took the sword and walked out of the church again. Dark clouds had formed overhead, the diminished light making the landscape seem somehow sinister now, as if something was trying to tell me that I wasn’t welcome here. It would have been easy, in that moment, to just drop the sword where I stood and then turn and head back across the lake again, leaving the buggane to its business. But five girls were missing. Five girls whose families were going crazy not knowing if their loved one was alive or dead; and if alive, what suffering was she going through?
As had been happening a lot lately, I got a sudden flash of the visions Drakkar had shown me before he vanished. More specifically, I kept seeing the blood, gallons of it everywhere, and an overwhelmingly sense of of violence that scared and exhilarated me at the same time.
Maybe I don’t have a choice here, I thought. Maybe taking on monsters like the buggane is just what I do now.
Whether that was true or not, I didn’t know. At any rate, I gripped the sword tight in my hand and started to make my way across the rugged landscape, toward the cliff and the cave that was burrowed into it.
I had walked about two hundred yards from the old church when a low, whispering voice stopped me in my tracks.
"I can smell your blood…"
I couldn’t be sure if the voice, which made me shudder, was inside or outside my head, until I remembered Nyxie’s final words to me…
Don’t let it into your head…
"Too late now," I said aloud as I began to look around for the buggane, my eyes finally settling on a tall figure standing about fifty yards away by the edge of the trees. The figure was humanoid in shape, and completely black from head to toe. It was difficult to make out the face from this distance, especially with the failing light, but I could see the head was shaped like a horse, with long ears that stood up straight. There was no doubt it was the buggane.
"I will feast on your flesh…after I kill you…"
I stood gripping the sword in my right hand, thinking that the buggane was going to charge me, but it just kept staring.
"Find me if you can," it said, and then in the blink of an eye, transformed itself into a massive black steed that instantly reminded me of Enbarr, Manannán mac Lir’s own steed who had made a meal of my severed hand. The buggane, in its new transformation, then galloped off toward the cliff, soon disappearing inside the cave.
I had to admit, I was a little shook up by the sight of the buggane. In its humanoid form, it looked massive and frighteningly powerful. Even with the sword and my magic, I knew I was going to have a battle on my hands, and that’s if the shapeshifting beast didn’t kill me before I had a chance to react properly.
It was with some trepidation then, that I made my way toward the mouth of the cave, giving it a wide berth at first because I half-expected the buggane to come rushing out of the darkness at me. After a few moments however, I realized it wasn’t going to. If there was a labyrinth inside the mountain, then the beast wanted me in it. There would be no sport in killing me just yet. It wanted to play first.
Slowly, I walked into the cave, becoming quickly enveloped in total darkness.
Once I was inside the cave and realized that I couldn’t see shit, I decided to cast a spell over the sword, causing it to give out a ghostly bluish-white light that was just enough for me to see by and at least make my way deeper into the cave without walking into the walls. This way, I could hold the sword with both hands and still illuminate the way.
The deeper I went into the cave passage, the more my nostrils began to wrinkle at a musky sort of smell that got stronger as I went. It smelled like horse, but also of dung and…rotten meat. I hoped not the rotten flesh of the five missing girls, but even it was there was nothing I could do about it except kill the buggane so it didn’t take anymore innocent victims.
After a few minutes of walking, the cave passage opened up into a massive cavern. Strange looking crystals embedded into the rock put out a reddish light that served to illuminate most of the cavern, which you could easily fit a three-story building into.
With mildly pumping adrenaline, I stood by the end of the passage as I surveyed the cavern, looking for signs of the buggane. My eyes soon fell upon the piles of bones everywhere, most of which were animal bones, but some were unmistakably human, which didn’t exactly fill me with confidence that I would find the girls alive.
But then I heard a whimpering sound coming from the far end of the cavern. Cautiously, I began to make my way forward, sticking to the center of the room because there passages leading off it everywhere, and I was afraid that the buggane would come charging out of one of them. Constantly turning my head to look in every direction as I moved, I finally made it to the far end of the cavern, breathing heavily from fearful expectation that I would be attacked at any moment. In fact, I was so busy glancing around me that I almost missed the hole in the floor in front of me, nearly into it before I realized what I was doing, managing to stop myself just in time.
Frowning, I stood by the edge of the hole and held the sword over it for illumination. As I peered down almost transfixed, I saw that the hole was in fact a Dead Pit Room—a room that had no passages leading of off it. And as my eyes adjusted to the gloom below, they soon widened in shock when I made out a number of shapes lying on the floor.
Human shapes.
Several of them.
None of the people in the pit moved for long moments, to the point where I thought they were all dead. But then one of them looked up, her eyes glinting slightly from the light of the sword. With a face full of fear, she stared up at me, probably wondering why I wasn’t the buggane, or perhaps thinking that the buggane had shape-shifted into a human form.
"It’s okay," I said to the girl in the pit. "I’m going to get you out. Is everyone alive?"
/> "I think so," the girl said in a frightened voice. "The monster…"
"I know. Hold on…"
I thought for a moment about the best way to get the girls out of the pit, before deciding it would be best to use a Levitation Spell to just lift them out. I couldn’t see any other way.
But as I was about to cast the spell, the voice of the buggane sounded in my head.
"Come and get me if you dare…"
In a burst of anger-fueled confidence, I shouted back, "I will motherfucker, don’t you worry about that. I’m going to kill you, you hear me?"
The beast’s laughter seemed to echo off the walls of the cavern, as if it was relishing the fight to come.
Ignoring the laughter, I turned my attention to the captive girls and cast the Levitation Spell over them, placing the sword on the floor so I could use both hands to direct the magic, eventually raising all five of them out of the pit and placing them down on the floor of the cavern. There was enough light from the sword for me to see them all clearly now, and I almost gasped when I noticed how torn their clothes were, and how much blood was over them. Only two of the girls seemed conscious. The other three lay as if dead, though I couldn’t be sure if they were or not.
"Are they alive?" I asked the most lucid girl, who was blond with a face streaked in blood.
She was in so much shock, she could barely speak. "I…don’t…know…"
The second conscious girl sat up, but her eyes were vacant as if her mind was somewhere else entirely. She only flinched when the buggane sounded a great roar from within the mountain somewhere. Ignoring the sound, I went and quickly checked the pulses of the three unconscious girls, and was surprised to find that they were all still alive, though barely. Rubbing my hands together, I cast a Healing Spell before laying my hands on each of the girls, passing to them just enough healing energy to rouse them out of their oblivion. When all three came to, they each screamed in shock at my presence, but with the help of the blond girl, I managed to get them calmed down by telling them I was there to rescue them. Then I turned to the blond girl and told her to get herself and the others out of the cave, and to meet me at the shore. "You’ll have to feel your way out," I said to her. "But you can do it. Just follow the passage."
"You aren’t coming?" the girl said as I went and picked up the sword again.
Another roar sounded from deep in the mountain. "I can’t, not yet."
She shook her head as if I was mad. "It will kill you…"
I stared at her a moment. "Just take the others and go. If I don’t show up soon, I want you to turn to the lake and shout the name Nyxie, you got that?"
The girl seemed confused. "Nyxie?"
"Just shout the name. Help will come."
I turned away from her then to face the right wall of the cavern, from which four different passageways led off. Choosing the one nearest to me, I walked forward and entered it.
The passageway I was in seemed like it had been bored out by a machine, though I couldn’t have been. Somehow, the buggane had created the maze of passageways itself, probably through some sort of magic. Not that I cared much about the bugganes excavation skills. The tunnels were narrow and claustrophobic, and I just wanted out of them. But first, I had to find the beast and kill it, if it didn’t find and kill me first.
Over the course of the next ten minutes or so, I walked down numerous passageways having no idea of where I was going, though it felt like I was heading deeper into the mountain with every turn. The further I went, the less the lock of hair around my wrist glowed, until eventually its light stopped altogether, indicating to me that I was probably nearing the heart of the mountain, well away from the lake.
Throughout all this time, the buggane never let up with its taunts. It kept whispering vile threats in my head, sometimes finishing these threats with loud laugher or one of its bone chilling roars, which was ear-splittingly loud in the narrow confines of the labyrinth. Even more disturbing was the piles of human bones I would sometimes come across as I searched the passageways for the buggane, and as I did I began to realize why the beast was kidnapping humans. It was because it liked to hunt them through the labyrinth like some kind of Minotaur after it was done holding them in captivity. I had no doubt that if I hadn’t shown up when I had, that all five of those girls would have ended up in her, running for their lives as the buggane hunted and then killed them.
Which it would soon do to me if I didn’t manage to kill it first.
"Where are you?" I whispered, having trouble breathing now in this hell hole, as the air was so thin and somehow hot as well, as though a furnace was blasting against the outer walls, driving suffocating heat into the center. Rivulets of sweat ran down my face, not all of them from the heat.
As I walked down one of the tunnels, I came across another passageway that led to the left. As had been the case since entering the labyrinth, it was six and one or half dozen of the other which way I went. It felt like I was trapped in an endless maze anyway. A sound from the adjoining passageway, however, roused my interest.
It was the sound of deep, heavy breathing, which was occasionally punctuated by a low snorting of the type a horse would make.
I knew the buggane was close, so I headed own the passageway, the sword held tightly in both hands as I fully expected the beast to appear in front of me at any moment.
But it didn’t appear in front of me at all. Instead, the bastard somehow went around and came up the passageway behind me. I didn’t sense its presence until I felt something razor sharp slice through my clothes and before cutting into the flesh of my back. Screaming in pain and shock, I spun around in the narrow tunnel and swung the sword, but the blade connected only with air as it eventually hit the wall, causing sparks to fly.
The buggane’s laughter echoed through the tunnels.
"…Easy prey…"
Gritting my teeth against the pain in my back, I ran down the tunnel in the direction the buggane had come from, not surprised to find the next tunnel empty. Regardless, I moved down it anyway until I came to a type of crossroads where four of the passageways intersected. As I stood deciding which one to take, I suddenly became aware of a presence nearing me, and I turned just in time to see the buggane charging toward me, though it seemed to have shifted again into something that was massive and covered from head to toe in thick, black hair. In the time I had to take it in, it seemed like a black grizzly bear with tusks and long ears, not to mention claws that were over a foot long. Before I could react properly, the buggane swung one of its massive paws at my abdomen, its claws slicing into my flesh before the beast disappeared once more.
In anger, pain and frustration I screamed. When I looked down, blood was pouring from my belly, and sickly, I could even see my intestines glistening under the light of the sword. Through gritted teeth, I uttered the words to a Healing Spell, and used the magical energy in my right hand to heal up the wound so my intestines would at least not fall out. It was like using magical superglue which patched up rather than healed. That would take another while to happen.
"Come and face me!" I shouted, rattled by the creatures scare tactics despite myself. "Quit this Enter the Dragon shit and come and fight me!"
I doubted the buggane was familiar with the hall of mirrors scene from that movie, but it made me feel better saying it nonetheless. At that point, stuck in the bowels of the mountain, sliced half to pieces, it was all I could do not to give in to the terror and let the buggane win.
But I wasn’t about to let that happen. More than that, I would be ready the next time the beast attacked. All that hair covering its body had given me an idea.
I moved forward down the front passageway until I came to another leading off to the right. As I went down it, I soon realized that it was a dead end, which suited me fine as I turned my back to the wall.
"All you can do is hide!" I shouted, my voice sounding thunderous in the confines of the tunnel. "Are you too afraid to face me?"
The bugg
ane answered by bellowing somewhere nearby, a sound that was so loud I had to cover my ears against it.
The beast was coming.
As I prepared myself, a moment later, the dark figure of the buggane appeared in the mouth of the passageway, and it stood there staring at me with bright yellow eyes as if it was in no hurry to get to me, as if it knew it had me trapped now. I was one of those girls, there was no doubt I’d be screwed right now, and my death would be an inevitably. But if the buggane was going to treat me like another one of its helpless victims, then that was its big mistake.
Because I was nobody’s bloody victim, as the buggane would soon find out.
The beast began to snort loudly as it prepared to rush at me.
"Come on then!" I roared, as much to get my own blood up as the buggane’s. "What are waiting for? Come on!!"
The great beast roared and suddenly began charging down the tunnel at me.
Jesus Christ, I thought, my heart now in my mouth as that thing ran at me. I hope this works.
With the sword now held in my right hand, I waited until the buggane was about ten feet away, then I shouted the words, "Clipeum ignis!"
Instantly, a large shield of fire materialized around my outstretched left hand, and I braced myself for impact. The buggane was going so fast that t couldn’t stop itself in time, and it ran right into the fire-shield, howling in surprise as it did so. It was moving with such force that it sent me reeling back to the ground, the sword clanging off the rock as I fell. I scrabbled back a few feet and then quickly got to my feet again. The buggane was still in the center of the tunnel, its great hairy body now completely on fire as it howled and roared in pain. The beast bounced around off the walls in a manic attempt to douse the flames, but it was too late. With all that hair covering it, it might as well have been doused in kerosene. Even when it shifted in various forms, the flames remained as they burned deeper into its flesh, until finally it shifted one last time into its humanoid form and just stood there facing me as the fire bit deeper and deeper, and the passageway filled with acrid smoke and the smell of burning flesh.