Dungeon Master 4

by Eric Vall

  Chapter One

  The doors to the Bear’s Gate swung open with a wave of my hand, and as I strode in, I saw her, the high queen, my wife. She was seated in one of the twin thrones with her back straight as a rod as she stared down at the man speaking to her from below. I already knew something wasn’t right, and as I stepped closer, the crowd of at least twenty men shifted uncomfortably in my presence. The men before her were unruly, their clothes ripped and dirty, but the weapons they held were pristine and shone in the candlelight from the chandeliers above.

  Annalise and I made eye contact, and from her tense expression, I confirmed that she was irritated. I moved closer, and I heard the angry voices of the men over the sound of my boots clicking on the sparkling marble.

  “Just because you challenged the High King and won doesn’t mean we will accept you as our leader,” the tallest man commanded. His hand was on the hilt of his sword in its scabbard, but Annalise’s expression never changed. Her face remained impassive and seemingly uninterested, and for a moment, she reminded me of the previously emotionless Morrigan.

  “We will never accept a woman king, you should have known that when you challenged your father,” the man continued. I assumed he was the leader of this vagabond group, but his dirty blonde hair was scruffy, and his dirty face was unshaven.

  I circled them like a prowling tiger, and a few of their eyes broke away from Annalise to follow my movements. They seemed calm, but I could feel their hearts hammering in their chests with anxiety. They had watched the woman before them slay not only their king but her very own father. They should be frightened of her. I trained Annalise to be a vicious warrior, and it had shown when she challenged the previous king.

  “You refuse me as your high queen?” Annalise questioned, her voice even and cold as she looked each of them in the eye.

  “We do.” The leader nodded firmly, and a few others nodded their heads along with him.

  Annalise tilted her head at them, and her braid swung down her back as she unfolded her legs. Then she glanced at me and a small peek of a smile broke over her lips.

  “Are there others? Or are you the only group that is against me as your queen?”

  “We’re the only ones!” a man in the back shouted proudly, and a sly smile spread across my lips. I could feel the dark power spreading throughout my body, and I knew what Annalise wanted to do. We were in tune with each other, even more now after being united in marriage. She was an extension of myself, like a finely made suit of armor accompanied by a broadsword.

  The leader of the group jerked his head back and cursed at the man who had spoken. They had effectively revealed their hand, and I watched from the back, ready to block their exit if they tried to run. Annalise stood and placed her hands on her hips, her brows furrowed, and I saw the group of men scuttle backward a few steps in her commanding presence.

  “You come into this sacred place,” the swordswoman stepped forward and down the three steps that led towards the group of huddled men, “where my ancestors once ruled and now rest, and declare me unfit for rule?” She gestured to the detailed statues of the old High Kings lining the walkway towards the thrones.

  “I-I--” the leader stammered.

  “You betray me, and you betray the land of Tamarisch. Treason, traitors to your motherland and to the ruler who rightfully ascended the throne. Do you know what we do with traitors?” she questioned in a powerful voice, one eyebrow crooked up, and the men in front of her warily glanced between each other. Her dark eyes then flitted to mine, and I could see the malice building there, and it aroused me to see her become the strong leader I always intended her to be.

  I stepped forward, and my hands came up to rest on a smaller man at the back of the group.

  “Traitors must be weeded out and trampled on the ground before their sickness spreads to others,” I muttered in the man’s ear, but I could tell the others heard too as their spines snapped to attention. “In a strong kingdom, there is no place for weakness, and here you all stand, the weakest of the weak. Even the smallest mouse scurrying into its hole can hear you shaking in your shoes before my queen and me.”

  “We come with strength in our hearts and a blessing from the gods to challenge you!” the leader yelled in response, but his voice comically cracked at the end.

  My laughter resounded against the vast walls.

  “The gods, you say?” I inquired with mock interest, and the man I held onto peeked over his shoulder, his muddy brown eyes were huge with fear as my hands tightened, and the dark power rushed to my fingertips. “I gave you no blessing.”

  In an instant, the man I held onto screamed in pain as both of his clavicles snapped and protruded through the taut skin of his chest. Blood boiled from the twin wounds as he rocked forward in pain, but I held tightly to him as the rest of his group turned to gawk. I raised one hand over both our heads as all eyes came to rest on me, and dark purple light snapped from my fingers like ravenous fire. As time slowed, I clenched my hand into a fist, brought it down like a hammer, and smashed it on the crown of the man’s head.

  The traitor I held in front of me barely had enough time to take a ragged breath as the hand contacted his bald head. First, his eyes bulged out of their sockets as his mouth dropped open, and then blood streamed out of their corners like tears. As time began to return to normal, the eyes that strained against their confines exploded out of his face like projectiles, and the optic nerves flew out behind them likes sails.

  The eyes smacked into the leader’s chest and stained his yellowing tunic red with blood before they fell to the floor with a moist plop. Through the crowd, I could see the leader’s face pale, but I wasn’t finished with my first victim yet. The eyeless man’s head began to shift and shiver like the skull beneath the skin was rearranging itself, and then I let go of him. As he stumbled forward, sickly moans escaped his mouth. The leader took a step backward as the blind man tripped through the crowd with arms outstretched as he searched for something to hold onto.

  The group stumbled back, afraid to get near to their wounded comrade as his whole body started to convulse, and then he howled, the sound strained like he was being choked off. The eyeless man began tearing at his skin, and he ripped at the flesh of his face as if there was something scuttling underneath it. He roared and tore at his lips as his whole body shifted like the bones were repositioning themselves. Then he buckled forward to spill out his blood and internal organs onto the marble floor.

  The whole mass of men gasped, and the leader swallowed hard while Annalise watched from behind, her eyes intent on the convulsing man, interested at what I would do next. I moved forward, and my armor clanked and rattled as I stopped just in front of the man. Then I held up one hand above the wounded coward, and black smoke curled around his form as he purged his body once more of its organs. And then suddenly, he stopped. His entire being trembled as I held him still. He gulped and sputtered on the floor, but I kept him in place with my unearthly power.

  A wicked smile spread over my lips as my eyes blazed red, and I tightened my outstretched hand into a fist. The man on the floor exploded, and blood and gore sprayed through the air. Black orbs of power encapsulated not only my body but also Annalise’s as the man’s bone fragments whizzed through the air and buried themselves in his brothers. They screamed in pain, and a few moved to remove the bone splinters from their flesh.

  As the traitors struggled, Annalise lowered herself closer to the ground and pressed one finger to the bright emerald stone at the hilt of her mighty sword. As she drew Bloodscale, the air crackled and snapped with electricity while an enraged fire burned in her dark eyes. The expertly crafted sword’s etched scales glinted wickedly in the light, and a low ominous humming emanated from the blade. Th
e humming loudened before it came to a crescendo that made some of the traitors wince and scurry away. Then ancient runes and arcane symbols flashed across the hilt and pommel as they brought the sword to life beneath her hand. Green light snapped and curled around Annalise’s form as the power of Bloodscale and its augmentation stone took full effect.

  Bloodscale’s blade extended twice its normal length and two curved blades emerged from inside the hilt. The sword took on a more threatening air as the same emerald light around Bloodscale engulfed the high queen’s form. The emerald lightning that encapsulated Annalise grew stronger, and then the streaming light rose into a blinding beacon before it broke into glimmering streaks of sparks like fireworks descending from the sky. As the sparkling fire cleared, it revealed a transformed Annalise. She held Bloodscale high, her face bright and shining against the gilded v-necked breastplate she now wore.

  On each arm, golden gauntlets reached almost to her elbows, etched with the same jade that moved and flashed as if it were alive. Her strong shapely legs were planted firmly, and the open-sided chainmail she wore was carved and honed to look like the hide of a dragon. Through the gaps in her chainmail, the shin guards and the cuisses strapped to her thighs were crafted from the same fine metal and stopped mid-thigh. The parts of her body not protected by the beautiful beaten armor were clothed in dark creamy looking leather. Across her smooth delicate collar bone an enchanted golden necklace rested, and the rune pressed within the middle was identical to the augmentation stone at the hilt of Bloodscale.

  She flipped Bloodscale easily through the air as if it were light as a feather and brandished it at a man who barely had enough time to react. Using both hands, she plunged the blade deep into his chest, used her heavy boot to kick the weapon free, and moved onto the next man as the first fell to the floor dead.

  The leader was the first to reach for his sword, and he did so with the confidence of a man who was used to battle, but he would be no match for my queen. The men separated themselves into two groups, nine scruffy men faced off with me and ten faced Annalise, all with their weapons drawn. I could easily take care of all of them with one wave of my hand, but I wanted to see how my beautiful swordswoman would fair after all of our training together. I could be lazy in this situation if I wanted and use soul exorcism on all of them, but I figured if Annalise was going to put her all into it, I should too.

  The traitors all came for me at once and lifted a mighty cry into the air, “For country! For honor! For Tamarisch!”

  Too bad they wouldn’t live to see any of those three things.

  I summoned the power of Cethin first, and in the enclosed space of the great room, black storm clouds rolled, thundered, and darkened the space around us. One man holding a flail raced forward and swung the spiked metal ball over his head threateningly. He was too stupid to realize what was about to happen, and it was almost sad to watch as the cloud above them soured even more and a sizzling yellow lightning bolt slashed through the air and struck him. Heat bloomed in the air as his body cooked and crackled from the contact. Then his smoking corpse slumped to the floor, and the flail fell limply from his tensed fist.

  Over the shoulders of the eight others, I saw Annalise dive forward as her free hand reached back to grab her unnamed sword. A man holding a battle ax rushed forward, and she ducked under his arm as he swung down at her. She crossed the blades of both her swords with a roar and relieved the advancer of his head. It rolled under her feet, and she kicked it aside nonchalantly as she sliced another man across the chest with Bloodscale. The man stumbled and fell to his knees, and she ran, lifted her left leg, and slammed her heavy boot down on his right shoulder. The high queen used her momentum and pushed off the dying man to lift herself into the air.

  She flipped once, landed perfectly balanced on both feet, and skewered a man with both blades. She screamed, her eyes wide, the pupil vibrating in the socket as the muscles in her arms tensed, and she tore the blades out through the attacker’s ribcage with a sickening crack that echoed around the room. I laughed to myself at the savagery of my killer queen as three more men advanced on me.

  I waved a hand in front of my body lazily, and before my attackers could slow themselves, the floor parted to reveal a bubbling, rippling pool of magma. One man threw out his hands to stop himself but fell face first into it. His screams died with his soul as it slipped away from his melted carcass, and the others fell silently in as if they accepted their fate like true warriors. I sensed a beating heart behind me and chuckled darkly as I whipped around to face the man who thought he was smart enough to sneak up on an all-knowing god.

  His curved saber was pulled back, and he thrust it forward, but before it could contact my armor, I was gone in a screaming puff of black smoke. Then I materialized behind him and slammed my tense fingers into his unprotected back. My probing fingers tore through his tattered shirt, pushed into his flesh with a loud squelch, and wrapped around the vertebra of his spine. He realized what had happened and struggled against me by blindly stabbing at me with his saber, but his efforts were futile.

  I pulled the column of bone free with inhuman strength, and his body crumpled forward to the floor without the support. With tight lips, I pressed the heel of my boot against his shoulder blade and ripped the spine free from the last remaining strips of flesh clinging to it. His skull smashed onto the marble, his eyes dull and glossy, and I crushed it under my boot with a loud, wet crack as I moved on to my next victim.

  I glanced over at Annalise, and she had taken down four of her opponents. I was quite proud of her as she fought her way closer to their leader who was shouting out commands to his comrades. I watched her sweep a man’s legs out from under him while using his downward fall to stab him in the heart. He cried out and grabbed onto her blade, but she gritted her teeth, pulled it free, and severed three of his fingers in the process.

  I stalked forward, and the four men I previously left shuffled backward with their weapons raised. I still held the bloody spine in my fist. While I didn’t need it, it made a fine impromptu spear. A thin man with greasy hair lumbered forward, his lips pulled back against his teeth as he held his two maces across his chest. He lowered them as he quickened his pace, and the metal of the mace heads clanged together. He flipped the mace in his left hand and caught it with his right, then smashed both of the rounded heads down onto the marble with one arm. Surprisingly, the marble cracked from the impact.

  I nodded to myself at the display of strength. He would be a worthy opponent, and I almost wished he had been one of the ones attacking Annalise so I could watch her test her skill. He brought the two weapons back up, returned the left mace to its rightful hand, and slammed the heads together. Upon contact, sparks flew between the metal. I readjusted the spine and lifted my free hand in the air to gesture him forward, the only enemy I would face one on one. He smiled evilly at me, and I saw all the teeth in his jaw were rotten and green.

  Oh, how disgusting creatures some humans could be.

  If I hadn’t seen the beauty in them like I did within all of my beloved minions, I would’ve wanted to purge them from the earth. My revolting adversary sidestepped around me like a dancer, and I knew he must have had some type of military training from the way he moved. I followed along easily but also kept a wary eye on the other three waiting in the wings just in case one or all of them were to make a move towards us.

  “You,” the man spat, and his hazel eyes examined my avatar’s face thoroughly. “You are not human.” He struck out overhead with one of the maces, and he moved so quickly that if I weren’t a god, he surely would have ended me right then and there. I lifted the spine in my hand, and the two weapons clashed together. Then the sticky blood that coated the bone sprayed into the air and misted onto my enemy’s face.

  “I am not.” I smiled as I threw off the mace, and he staggered backward from the force, but then he righted himself with ease.

  “I’m not afraid of you,” he assured me, and as I looked in
his eyes, I could see what he said was true. There was not an ounce of fear in this man, and if he were not an enemy, I would have wanted him on our side.

  “You should be,” I sneered, but he shook his head and stood still for a moment. Then he pointed at me with the rounded head of his mace and stared at me from behind it.

  “I fear no man or god,” he said as he lowered the mace, but his eyes stayed trained on mine. “What I do fear is that I will be a man lost to time, so I have one request of you, from one warrior to another.”

  “What is it?” I asked, interested.

  He bowed his head, and one grubby hand went into the loose neck of his tan shirt and came out with a gold necklace, the only thing on his body that looked to be of any value. He stared down at the round pendant in the palm of his hand for a few seconds, and then he closed his fist and ripped the chain from his neck. He threw it to the ground at my feet where it glittered against the light.

  “Take this to my wife, and tell my son I didn’t die a coward,” he muttered with his head lowered, but then he lifted it and squared his shoulders. “Tell my son … his father held his honor until the end.”

  Keeping an eye on him and the others, I bent forward, picked it up as I looked him in the eye, and asked, “What is your name? So that I may find your wife.”

  “Atma, my wife’s name is Merri, and my son … ” He blinked quickly and I saw there were tears in his eyes as he imagined a world where his son had to grow up without a father. “My son’s name is Serin.”

  I nodded solemnly as I tucked the necklace and the beaten metal pendant on it into my void pocket. Then I tested the air with the spear made of bone a few times, and he took that action as the signal that I would do as he asked and was ready to continue the fight. He gulped, suppressed his emotions, and lifted his twin maces into the air like clubs. Behind me, I could hear Annalise struggling with her opponents, but I sensed she was in no danger. Her heart was beating calmly and from the anguished cries that assaulted my ears, I knew she was slaughtering the betrayers.