“What sort of modifications? And what do you mean by ‘the first part’ of my army? There’s more?”
The girth of the gentleman’s belly shook as he laughed. “I’ve been instructed by your master to alter their programming, so they will accept verbal commands from you. As for what I meant, the machines you see before you are the most substantial part of the army, but I’ve also been commanded to release your friends from service so that they may travel with you,” the supervisor replied, nodding his head toward the impish creatures that Verin loathed.
Great! I’ve been saddled with a bunch of annoying cowards who will probably be more irritating than helpful! Shaking his head in disgust, Verin turned to regard the row upon row of machines that would soon be at his disposal. He was amazed by the multitude of dormant sentinels which covered every square inch of the floor before him; the mechanical minions ranging in size from the tiny, beetle-like creatures, to rats and bats, to large cats resembling mountain lions. Even larger still, were the giant, humanoid machines which resembled trolls. These later machines dwarfed anything Verin had encountered in the past, including the cyborgs in the abandoned city below the mountain and the mechanical horses that his adversaries rode. “How long do you expect the reprogramming to take?”
The supervisor scrunched his face in thought, looking over the array of machines before him. “I should be able to finish altering their programming within an hour or two,” he remarked after calculating the number of creatures in the room and guessing about how long it would take to make the necessary changes to each one. Removing an object from his pocket, the man held it out toward Verin. “One last thing. I need you to speak into this device in order to capture your voice so I can make the proper adjustments.”
Nodding, Verin complied with the supervisor’s request. “I’ll be right outside, near the river. When you finish, come get me.” Leaving the man to his work, he drifted through the exit and into the tunnel.
***
As Verin waited impatiently for the stocky human to complete the modifications to his new army, he paced back and forth down the corridor flanking the underground river. If the tiny, impish demons that comprised the Factory’s workforce had been less annoying, he might have stayed inside and conversed with them to pass the time. Thankfully, the supervisor’s estimate had been fairly accurate. The man was strolling through the doorway into the tunnel right now, hopefully to let him know the army was ready.
“Your legions await your commands,” he announced with a smile.
Chapter 21
Exhausted from traveling for days on very little rest, Edward decided enough was enough. With the abandoned town a safe distance behind them, and the fact they had encountered nothing more dangerous than the woodland animals they hunted for food, he halted their progress in a small clearing. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can barely keep my eyes open,” he announced, hopping down from the steed he shared with Brian.
“I thought you would never say that.” Katie smiled weakly, emitting a barely audible sigh. She could tell that most of Edward’s wounds had healed from the intense battle a few days ago, mainly by the way he carried himself, but also because she had noticed the difference in his energy and enthusiasm. If she didn’t know better, Katie would think he was almost as good as new. Even Julie was recovering from her captivity at an alarming rate. Other than her friend not being the chatterbox she once was, everything else about her seemed back to normal. Her pallor no longer appeared sickly, her voice wasn’t scratchy anymore, and with all the nourishment she had been taking in that she’d previously been deprived of, her sagging skin had filled out and erased the emaciated look she had when they found her.
No further encouragement was needed. Before any of them could say another word, everyone had dismounted. Brian had even gone so far as to wander off into the nearby forest to collect firewood. If it weren’t for the fact that she was so weary she could barely stand, Katie would likely have followed the shaman and done a little hunting.
Within a matter of fifteen minutes, Brian returned to the clearing with an armload of wood. Placing the branches and twigs on the ground, he deftly arranged a good portion of his haul and Edward did the honors of igniting the fire. Tired beyond imagining, they quickly wrapped themselves in the blankets they had acquired from the abandoned town and encircled the campfire, lying down in the partially green grass as the sun hung low in the sky and cast a red-orange hue over everything. There were a few mumblings about setting a watch, but Edward seemed content to rely on Brian’s heightened awareness of evil, figuring it would give them enough warning if danger should happen to stroll into their neck of the woods. Before drifting off to sleep, the last thing Katie heard was the soft, familiar sound of moving water.
***
Unsure of how long she had slept, Katie opened her eyes to almost total darkness. The campfire had almost completely gone out, leaving only traces of an orange glow emanating from its embers. Sitting up, she probed the immediate area with her fingers in search of the remaining pile of wood Brian had gathered. After a minute, she located the branches and grasped a few pieces to add to the fire before the chilly night air extinguished it completely. When the flames began to lick at the dried twigs and ignite, she stoked the fire, adding more and more wood until the spreading warmth caused her to back up a few feet.
The infusion of heat stirred the others to wakefulness. Rubbing his eyes, Edward sat up and glanced skyward. His brows crinkled into a frown when he didn’t see either of the moons in the veil of darkness above him. Did I sleep that long? It was strange for him to sleep through an entire cycle of the brilliant, white orbs rising and setting, but it seemed like he had done just that. It left him feeling disoriented.
“What’s wrong?” Katie asked, seeing the confused look on his face.
Shaking his head, he turned to meet her gaze. “Nothing, I guess,” he shrugged. “It just felt weird for a second, not seeing one or both of the moons overhead.”
“Maybe the first one hasn’t come up yet,” Katie surmised.
“Somehow, I doubt it. My body feels like I’ve slept far too long for that to be true.”
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but to me it almost seems like the sun should be out,” Brian interjected with a half-hearted laugh.
One eyebrow crept up Katie’s forehead as a barely audible sound distracted her from the conversation. “Shhh,” she whispered, putting her index finger to her lips. Cocking her head to one side, she strained to decipher the noise. “Does anyone else hear that?” Her eyes flitted from one face to another, looking for any indication that any of them heard what she did.
“I don’t hear anything,” Edward remarked.
“Nor do I,” Brian added. “But …”
“But, what?” Katie pried.
“I’m getting a faint sense of something,” he answered. “It seems to be coming from above us.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what I hear. It sounds like flapping wings, and large ones at that.” Katie looked up into the shroud of darkness that enveloped them. Worry lines creased her forehead and for a moment she almost expected something to swoop out of the night sky to attack them.
“I think I hear it, too,” Julie whispered.
Suddenly, the veil of night was lifted for a few seconds. “Holy … fucking … shit!” Whipping her head up to gaze upon the anomaly, Katie saw an enormous streak of fire shooting northward through the sky. “What the hell was that?”
The sound of beating wings grew louder for a moment, but quickly receded. As did the conflagration above them. “Whatever it was, I think it may have been an ally,” Brian stated softly. “The strange sense I was getting a short time ago is gone.”
“Do you think it was one of the Gods, intervening on our behalf?” Katie asked, tapping Edward on the shoulder to get his attention.
“Divine intervention? I don’t think so,” he replied, shaking his head. “I can’t be positive, though. All I can
say is that I’ve never witnessed anything like that before.”
For the next hour, the four of them sat around the campfire and swapped theories on the night’s events. No further phenomenon occurred during their conversation, and Brian assured them that whatever had caused the sight they’d witnessed was long gone. Before any of them had realized just how much time they had spent discussing the possibilities, the first rays of morning light began to show on the horizon.
As the sky brightened, the topics of their conversations shifted toward the day ahead. “I’ve noticed that you’ve rebounded from your injuries quite well,” Katie addressed Edward in a light-hearted tone. “I think Julie is in much better shape now as well.”
“What are you getting at?” Curiously, Edward looked her way.
“While I know that you are likely feeling as if you could travel for another week on the amount of rest you got last night, I wanted to see if you would mind sticking around here for another day?”
“If you have a valid reason for staying here, I would certainly consider it before making the decision to leave.”
“Well … um … for the past few days, I’ve been considering teaching Julie how to use my crossbow.”
“Can’t that wait? You know better than anyone how urgent our mission is,” Edward retorted. “We have plenty of food at the moment, and someone can always help you load the bow if you need to hunt.”
“True,” Katie admitted, “but hunting isn’t the only reason I’m asking.” She paused for a second, allowing her words to sink in, and watched his eyebrow creep up into his hairline and disappear. “Until such time that my hand heals up enough to load the bow by myself, I think it would be beneficial to have another person in the group who can use it. Especially if the unexpected rears its ugly head out of nowhere. If I were forced to use the crossbow in battle, I would be as useless as a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest.”
Although he was hesitant to concede that her observations were valid, he nodded his head in agreement. “Point taken. We will remain here for now, but only until sunrise tomorrow. It may not be enough time to show her every nuance, but it should be enough to make her competent with the weapon. I’m certainly not going to expect her to acquire your skill level in a day.”
Wearing an ear to ear grin, Katie crawled across the ground to where Edward sat and planted a big, wet kiss on his cheek. “Thank you!”
Chapter 22
Once the initial surge of excitement passed—after acquiring his new toy he had flown recklessly through the sky as if he were joyriding down the streets back home in a beefed-up muscle car—George steered his mount in increasingly larger circles, hoping to catch a glimpse of the group he was sent to find. When the sun began to rise on that first day, and his efforts had produced nothing, he guided the beast to the ground to take cover during the daylight hours as he’d been instructed. Not that he cared about following the Black Knight’s orders. It just made things easier for him, knowing he would have to catch the demon by surprise if he ever wanted to get his revenge.
Though the cooler air of the higher elevations had exhilarated and invigorated him, not to mention the frigid temperatures stopping the flow of blood from his leg wounds, he quickly became bored after hopping from his steed’s back. With nothing better to do for the time being, he sat down at the base of a barren maple tree, tucked his fingers together behind his head, leaned back against the trunk, and drifted off to sleep.
When George awoke later that afternoon, he stretched and stood, gazing toward the bright yellow orb in the sky. If he was correct, he assumed there was only an hour or two of daylight left. For the first time since his departure from the mountain, he felt and heard his stomach rumble. Shuffling through the dead leaves, he approached his metallic steed. Pushing the button behind the foreleg that the Black Knight had shown him, he ascended the steps and removed the pack of supplies from the lever. Hopping to the ground again, he opened the sack to see what sort of goodies the demon had seen fit to give him.
Digging through the bag, he pulled out a handful of what looked to be dried meat of some sort, though it was shriveled and white so he couldn’t be absolutely certain. Knotting the sack shut, he draped the drawstring over the control lever of his mount and sat down next to the tree he had been napping under.
Placing his stash in his lap, George picked up a strip of the strange looking meat and held it under his nose. Taking a tentative sniff, he noticed nothing unusual about the smell. In fact, it didn’t appear to have a scent at all! Cautiously, he ripped a small portion from the strip with his teeth, rolled the meat around in his mouth for a few seconds, then began chewing. As was the case when he had sniffed it moments ago, the flavor was nondescript. The first thing which came to mind was that it tasted like chicken, but wasn’t it usually what people thought when they tasted something so bland?
Even though the meat was nothing to write home about, he continued eating until his stomach ceased its rumblings. George let his thoughts wander as he ate, thinking about the coming night’s patrol and hoping for success. Closing his eyes, he daydreamed about what he would do if he actually found the small group tonight. A distant commotion, sounding as if it were getting steadily closer to his position, roused him from his thoughts. Tilting his head, he listened, carefully attempting to discern which direction the noise was coming from.
It was difficult to be absolutely sure, but the cacophony seemed to be approaching from the north. Which, if memory served was the direction of the abandoned town he’d seen at the base of the mountain; the same enormous hill where he had stood sentry outside of the blood red lighted cavern in which the Black Knight held his captives in blasphemous crucifixion.
As the sun began to duck under the horizon, leaving him less light to view the possible threat inching ever closer to him, he narrowed his eyes and squinted toward the sound. It was definitely drawing nearer, and he had increasingly more trouble deciphering what was approaching. The mixture of noises began to hurt his ears. There seemed to be an underlying clicking, the din of which was almost like listening to the clatter of silverware. Above that, a steadier, whirring fracas, much like a propeller of some sort, the resonance bearing a similarity to a small airplane preparing to take flight.
The bedlam drew closer still, and George began to see movement, barely perceptible, but unmistakably moving toward him. Through the haze of dust, which almost appeared like a giant cloud of fog, he could see enormous trees, tilting crazily and toppling to the earth. He started to notice the slight trembling of the ground beneath him, and he knew the steadily marching giants, with glints of the fading sunlight reflecting off them, were the cause of it. From this distance, he couldn’t tell just how big these creatures were, but if his eyes weren’t deceiving him, he thought they may be as large as twelve feet tall! Maybe it was a trick of the lighting, but it appeared that these huge beings were swatting trees out of their way as if they were a child’s set of Tinkertoys.
Panic began to set in to his mind. Did the Black Knight sense my deception outside of Cemetery Hill? Did he trick me into believing I had his trust, knowing full well that he intended to send his armies to destroy me? Casting a nervous glance toward his steed, he couldn’t help but wonder if he should flee before the encroaching army reached his position. Do I dare to stick around and find out? A resounding, No! echoed through his head.
Forgetting about the remnants of meat still sitting in his lap, George stood, the coarse white strips of jerky falling to the ground at his feet. He didn’t relish the idea of running away like a coward, but he knew the odds were heavily against him if he stood his ground. Quickly, he ascended to the back of his steed, remembering to move his legs before he depressed the black button to extend the creature’s wings. Within seconds, he was airborne.
As the three-headed, winged, demonic monstrosity rose above the treetops, George steered it in a slow circle to get a better look at the forces arrayed against him. When he saw just how massive the army t
ruly was, he thanked his common sense for telling him to flee. He couldn’t tell for sure how big the assemblage was because the sun had dipped below the horizon, its light no longer reflecting from the metallic shells of the creatures below, but he was certain the force was enormous. Where the army was positioned there were no trees to obstruct his view, almost as if the machines were obliterating everything in their path.
Determined to get as far from the army below as he could, George turned his steed to the south. Fifteen minutes later, he swiveled his head and glanced behind him. When he noticed he could no longer see the army, or the trail of death they blazed as they marched forward, George sighed and started to relax. Spinning his face into the wind, he took several calming breaths as the cool air caressed his skin and blew his long, brown hair out straight behind him as if he had suddenly grown a tail on the back of his skull. At the moment, nothing mattered to him except putting as much distance between himself and the Black Knight’s army as he could. Finding the small group of people seemed irrelevant. The only thing George cared about right now was living to see another day.
Feeling the wind rush through his ears like a howling demon, George sped through the night sky without a care in the world. He didn’t concern himself with the Black Knight’s mission, not even bothering to look below him. If he had, George might have seen the flickering of a campfire. Instead, he allowed his head to tilt back so he could gaze upon the unfamiliar stars overhead, to take in the beauty of his freedom.
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