by Jay Swanson
“I'm actually quite surprised you managed to bring all of the missing pieces back to me,” the woods doctor said as he let go of the blade and walked towards his collection of potions. “They must be sealed with the blood of the willing, it is said, and you have certainly proven yourself to be more than willing.”
Blood was practically pouring out of his chest along the blade now, the gems buzzing silently with an energy he hadn't even imagined possible. Is this what you wanted? Chakra asked them.
“I'm sorry to use you, my boy, but I'm far too old to accomplish what you have. It’s been decades since I was able to acquire the sword.” He cackled to himself. “However, while I may not be able to fight monsters of any kind, I am quite capable of stabbing a stupid country boy in the back when he's on his knees.”
Help... me... Chakra slowly slid down and fell to his side at Melina's feet. He reached out and grabbed her hand. Please.
Give yourself to me. He could hear the topaz clearly now. I am complete, I am ready. All you must do is give yourself to me.
The old man reappeared on the other side of Melina carrying a knife. “There is no power on earth like that which you have gathered for me, lad. For that at least I thank you, and to show my gratitude I'll do for your woman what you should have done the moment she came down with the flux.”
The woods doctor reached forward to place the knife against Melina's throat.
No...
The world slowed to a stop as the voice asked once more. Give yourself to me.
Anything to save her.
Give yourself to me, and she is safe.
Flashes of his friends, of his sister, of his father rolled through his head. Everything they stood for, everything they represented to him told him not to do it. All he once knew opposed itself to what he must now do. In spite of the determination growing within him, he knew he should not. But then Melina's smile came back to him. Her laugh. There was only one way to ever hear that laugh again. He gripped her hand with all the strength he had left.
I'm... yours...
Suddenly a shockwave rolled out from Chakra as he was suspended in the air, knocking the woods doctor to the ground and sending his knife skittering to the wall. Chakra floated up slowly, his arms and legs unfolding and reaching out. The armor disassembled itself and the sword drew free of his chest. His scream jumbled in the wavering air as the steel scraped his ribs. The edges of the blade burned as they cut him again. Soon none of it was touching him. Every piece of armor glowed and changed, thickening with cracks and bursts.
You shall not be disappointed. The voice of the topaz was all he could hear. I shall show you my gratitude.
The armor rushed in on him then, latching and clasping and enclosing him in its grasp. He shouted as a power unlike anything he had ever known infused itself with him, entering through the wound in his chest and pulsing through his veins. He could feel it wash over him again and again until he was one with the magic.
“I am God, and now we are one.”
Instantly he knew he must save Melina now, or forever lose the opportunity. He reached out, straining against the will of the armor to consume him, fighting to channel its power into her. He stretched as the armor pulled him back.
“Would you give the last of yourself so willingly to save her?”
“I would give anything...” He grit his teeth into the strain of the effort. “Anything!”
“So be it.”
The power jumped from him like a bolt, a single line of thin ethereal blue trailing as it struck Melina in the chest. Instantly she arched her back, pain racking her until a black ooze mingled with the blue of the topaz was drawn out of her mouth. As it rose, it turned into mist and faded into the night.
Chakra smiled as the armor began pulling on him again, watching as she coughed and opened her eyes. But the topaz was focused on him now, and as it pulled and twisted on him he began to lose sight of her. Someone was shouting in the hall, and the woods doctor rushed Melina. His sword swung free, clutched in his massive black hand as he cut the old man down and sent him to his well-deserved grave.
The world turned red, the tint sharpening his vision and making everything clear. He knew who he was now, who the topaz called him to become. He grinned as a woman screamed. Such a small thing as she scurried away from him. Then four men entered the room, and he knew his time had finally come.
- - -
“This castle must have been massive,” Aims said, the group slowing as the ruins came into full view ahead. “Just look at the size of that tower. You wonder what it looked like before it fell into disrepair.”
“A prime example of why you pay your groundskeeper well.” Pegg winced against the motion of the horse. “Or at least have him whipped from time to time.”
“Quiet, boys,” Yoren said as he urged his horse out ahead of them. “Let's not draw any attention before we must.”
Soon they dismounted, leaving their horses to cross the broken bridge of the moat on foot. Each drew his weapon out and held it at the ready, uncertain as to what lay beyond the thick black walls before them. Yoren pushed the half-rotted door open a little farther. He could feel his pulse quicken as he swallowed hard against the dread of what he might find on the other side.
I hope you’re here Chalk, he thought. I hope we aren’t too late. Ever since his wife’s death, his children were all he cared about. They were all he had. Then he stepped into the courtyard beyond.
The whole place was overgrown with vines and weeds. The stables and smithy, among other unidentifiable buildings, had long-since collapsed and been rendered unusable. The moons shone brilliantly directly overhead now, illuminating the courtyard and lending an even more imposing presence to the half-ruined keep overhead.
A place like this would normally have left Yoren to wonder about its owners. Who built it, and why it had been so thoroughly abandoned? Especially considering the myths that had sprung up around it since their disappearance. But his son was in trouble, and Yoren's curiosity was limited to where the boy was and if he could save him.
Cloud. His horse was standing in the stables, obscured in the darkness but visible now as he approached the keep. Chakra was here somewhere. He had to be.
Yoren moved cautiously up the steps, pressing on the door at the entrance before a shockwave rolled through the castle. A gust of wind rushed past them an instant before the door was slammed shut on Yoren and threw him back a few staggering feet.
“What was that?” Thruss asked from below.
“Chakra!” Yoren kicked the door open as panic welled up inside him. He ran through the broad hall until he stumbled on a high room at the center of the keep.
Moonslight fell from gaping holes in the ceiling, filtering through the dust in the air and illuminating the growing figure of a massive warrior at the center of the room. Its black armor coursed with teal energy, gemstones held prominently at the center of the various pieces. The stones grew dim as the warrior reached its final height of twelve feet.
A girl was beneath it, scurrying back and away from the corpse of a crumpled old man. It took Yoren a second to realize it was Melina.
“Melina!” Yoren shouted. “Come here!”
She looked hurriedly back at him, but then screamed as the monster stretched and flexed with a roar that shook the walls. She managed to get to her feet, but ran away from all of them and into a passageway at the side of the room.
“Melina!” Aims shouted for her, but it was too late. She’s alive. Gods be good, she’s alive!
“What do we do?” Pegg was at his elbow.
“What is that thing?” Aims nocked a shaft to the string.
The monster's armor steadily dimmed until it was a somber black, but its eyes had begun to glow. They burned a steady red from within its skull-like face.
Yoren couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “The eighth Demon that is to come…”
“My time is upon you,” it said with a booming voice that made Yoren's stomach ch
urn involuntarily. “Yet the world may not know it.”
“Chalk?” Pegg said with disbelief. “Is that you?”
“Chakra is no more.”
With that it stepped forward, swinging a massive black blade still splattered with the blood of the old man. Yoren swung his ax as he stepped to the side, knocking the blade wide as one of Aims' arrows struck it in the chest. The monster laughed and kicked out, striking Yoren in the chest and sending him back into Aims.
“Chakra?” Thruss said as he lowered his staff. “Why?”
But the monster's reply was simply a thrust of its blade. It rammed the sword into Thruss' belly to the hilt, then pulled it out with a deep sucking noise.
“No!” Pegg shouted as Thruss dropped dying to the ground. “Thruss!”
Pegg lunged forward, striking at the monster's side with his sword. But the thick metal plate turned his blade and the monster twisted with the speed of a snake, bringing its spiked fist around and hammering down into the side of his head with a sickening crunch.
Yoren watched in horror as Pegg crumpled to the ground, his body unmoving as the monster turned to face the remaining two. Yoren checked on Aims. Unconscious. He got to his feet and began moving to the side, twisting the ax in his hands. Wringing the wood in desperation. My son. My only son. He envied Aims in that moment, the fact that he no longer faced the decision that lay before them. Yoren swallowed hard as the monster's eyes followed him, stepping lightly to rotate and follow him as he moved.
“Chakra,” he pleaded. “Son, please. These are your friends! Can't you see them?”
“I have no friends save for those that submit,” the deep voice responded from behind its mask of death. “I am the eighth of my brothers, and the true God of this world. Soon the world will know I am come, but until the time is right, none can know of my ascension and live.”
Yoren's stomach dropped to hear the words, the myths and legends and reality colliding before him to create a waking nightmare. The world's greatest fear had come to life, and his son had been the dark horse it rode in on.
“We will never submit to the likes of you,” he said with more courage than he felt.
“Then submit to death.”
Yoren’s heart fractured in that moment and he cried his anguish. He hefted his ax, running forward to close the distance with the Demon that had been his only son. To embrace his destiny.
- - -
Melina had found herself suddenly faced with a monster, the haze of the past few days lost to her as she awoke in the ruins of an ancient castle. There was shouting, death, and in her panic she ran. Now she scrambled up a set of worn stairs, moving ever upwards through endless halls and corridors until suddenly she was in the open. There were merlons nearby, marking the ramparts of some tower. No other part of the structure rose like this one. It stood tall in spite of the fate of its neighbors.
She slowed and dropped to the ground at its center, exhausted and out of breath. She placed her hand on her chest as she took in deep gasps of air.
My lungs, she realized. I can breathe!
She looked up at the moons above her, remembering the darkness in which she had been captive for so long. The loneliness.
The nightmares that plagued her remained on the fringe of her memory, pressing in with ambiguous terror as she continued to catch her breath. The fear of losing Chakra remained ever at the forefront of her mind. There was no one she loved more, and no way she could imagine living without him. She needed him. Especially now, lost and alone atop a broken tower.
But where was he? She stood slowly on trembling legs, a deep-seated hunger rising from her core to weaken her even more than her tired lungs. Where are you Chakra?
She shuddered as fear came over her. What was that monster? She barely remembered it, as if a dream itself, but the reality was beyond doubt. The terror grew and weighed heavily on her – she had sensed the power of its presence, a power beyond physical size or strength. She could sense that power even now. There was something ancient in it, something massive and all-consuming. She got up and walked slowly to the far side of the tower, wiping cold sweat from her brow.
And the others. Yoren was down there. Thruss, Aims, and Pegg. Why are they here? A knot formed in her stomach as she realized what must have happened. They came because Chakra took me from my family. They came to save him. This is all my fault.
She scanned the garden beneath her until the mountains drew her eyes to the stars. If only I knew where Chakra was, we could flee this place together.
“Here you are.” The voice boomed with a deep authority in spite of how quietly it said the words. “A terrible irony that the power to save your life should be the same that ends it.”
She turned, blood drumming in her ears. The massive, horned warrior stood at the entrance to the stairs from where she herself had come. She was trapped.
“What have you done with Chakra?” She asked, a cold hatred edging in on her voice before she screamed. “WHERE IS HE?”
“Chakra?” The monster laughed. “The boy is gone. He fought well for you. Perhaps you should know that much.”
“You killed him?” Her heart constricted in her chest. Then she remembered Yoren in the keep, and the others... “You killed all of them?”
“They are but the first of many,” the monster said as it stepped forward. “Among whom you must now be counted.”
Melina’s eyes filled with tears, darting along the monster’s features as she tried to piece everything together. The memories of the last few days were so lost, so tangled... how could Chakra be gone? He would never leave her. Never...
“No...” she said as she backed to the edge of the tower. “No... it's not possible.”
Tears ran freely down her cheeks as she choked back a sob. And then she realized the monster wasn't moving forward any more. It was twitching, struggling as if fighting to control its own movements. Finally it stopped, completely motionless before looking up plaintively at her.
“Lina?”
“Chalk?!” She couldn't believe it. “Chalk? You're... you're in there?”
“I'm...” He groaned as he arched his back. His voice warped as he struggled. “Lina... listen to me!”
“Chalk!”
“Lina, you have to run! You have to get as far from here as you can!”
“But Chalk!”
“Lina.” The voice of her beloved came ringing out of the horror that stood before her. “I did everything I could! All of this was for you... Lina, I love you... I'm so sorry...”
“No,” she whispered. This was all her fault. “No Chalk, I'm sorry.”
She couldn't live without him. Chakra would never have come here if she hadn’t fallen sick. The others wouldn’t have chased them here. Whatever this monster was, it was using Chakra. It had forced him to kill the others, and now it would force him to kill her too. She couldn’t allow that; it would destroy him. There was only one option left to her.
She could feel the wind whip at her cloak as she took a final step back. One step too far, her weight shifted too much.
“No!” Chakra's voice boomed as it intermingled again with that of the monster. “LINA, NO!!”
She backed into the darkness and fell to the night. The wind rushed through her raven hair one final time, drawing her tears out into the open sky.
“I'm so sorry, Chalk...”
Acknowledgements
Dark Horse is rare in that I know more or less what inspired it. I had been wanting to write a story about the dear and extreme cost of the Ascension of Demons in my world. That inspiration struck before I finished Tomb of the Relequim. I made myself wait until I was done writing that, then excitedly put the first third of Dark Horse down in a day.
Originally, the scene was set in my mind by watching Adam Sandler play Shadow of the Colossus in Reign over Me. The description of the game’s concept in that movie did it for me. I’ve never played it, and I never read a summary of its contents until I sat down to write this se
ction, but the spirit clearly carried over.
I was fascinated with the idea of blindly casting aside one’s self to save another in a totally selfish and ignoble way. Dark forces rising to claim control of some desperate soul. A boy in the right place at the right time, or very much in the wrong one. It all depended on perspective. In retrospect, the natural downside to this is that you don’t get a lot of insight into the mind of the person being saved, in our case, Melina. We catch snippets, hopefully enough to understand her decisions, but being comatose makes for a cruel barrier.
Chakra’s dream sequence was inspired entirely by Florence and the Machine’s Cosmic Love. If I ever get a chance to make a music video, this will be it. The entire scene plays out shot by shot to that music. The throne room in the dream has strong ties to a map in Final Fantasy Tactics - which one I can’t say, but it’s near the end of the game and I remember playing it roughly 20 times before beating it. This particular location, the fortress in the mountains, will be one you see again in the future.
Dark Horse, by Gold Wolf Galaxy, was the song that set the tone and pacing of the book, including its abrupt ending (as odd as that may sound for such a long song). I listened to it constantly for a few weeks. My strongest memories are listening to it while riding the train out of London and watching the English countryside slide past. Again, I could play out a summary of the entire story to that song. The metal climax parses perfectly with Chakra’s transformation. The name of the song may or may not have been where the title of the book came from, but it all worked together quite well with the theme.
The original draft of Dark Horse had more monster fights and no puzzles. The fights caused strain on a few beta readers and they were right to ask for them to be cut or condensed. If you wanted to know more of Pegg’s backstory, you have them to blame for its exclusion. Puzzles were something I had been scared to try my hand at, and this pushed me to do it. I have Rob and Catherine in particular to thank for weighing in on this and pushing me to tighten up the story. Rob remains my primary beta reader, the alpha beta, if you will. Without him I’d get lost in a matter of paragraphs.