The Darkslayer: Bish and Bone Series Collector's Edition (Books 1-10): Sword and Sorcery Masterpieces

by Craig Halloran

  The Gruell was getting dim. Lefty’s legs ached, and his belly groaned. He kicked at the bugs crawling over his toes. It had only been a few hours, but that was nothing for a dwarf. Every minute, Lefty wondered whether or not he should try to climb out. He could see himself cresting the rim, only to find Hoknar staring right at him. He’d be put in a grimy cage or a covered pit for days. Some nights, Hoknar left a yellowish rooster that crowed all the time.

  “Hoknar!” he yelled. “Hoknar, please!”

  Silence and biting bugs were his only company. He’d had enough of the company that he kept. He’d punished himself enough. He had to escape the next chance he got, but if they caught him, he’d be dead.

  I can do this.

  The wart-nosed dwarves were a curious bunch. They had a way of finding things. Creatures. People. They set traps and surprises. Anything they put a mark on, they found again. And there were at least twenty of them sulking in the misty woodland. He could see them that didn’t want to be seen. Always on the lookout for their hideout. Maybe more keeping an eye on things. If Lefty slipped out, there was no clear right direction to go.

  I can’t do this.

  He clutched at the hairs on his head.

  Don’t be a child. Get ahold of yourself. It was Melegal’s voice he heard. He took a breath and eased his mind, blowing out one mental candle at a time. Listen. Learn.

  Confined in the pit, he focused on the sounds above. A breeze rustled the dirt. Distant birds ca-cawed. But no sound of a dwarf grumbling or picking.

  Here goes.

  He dug his tiny fingers into soft dirt. The dirt would break away under a heavier man, and normally a wooden grid cover sealed the hole. Lefty climbed with a spider’s ease, one tiny handhold at a time. He could have done that at any time, but why, when it would be fatal. Cresting the rim, he peered outward. Hoknar’s hollowed eyes were glaring into his.

  “Ya be a fool!” the dwarf said, rising to his feet, axe in hand.

  Lefty pulled himself out of the hole and stood on his legs.

  “A dead fool!” Hoknar yelled, “if you don’t get back into that hole!”

  “No!” Lefty said.

  “What!” Hoknar said, charging forward, nostrils flaring. The dwarf breathed steamy smelling breath into Lefty’s face. “I’ll tell you one more time.”

  Lefty kept his eyes locked on Hoknar’s. There was a thing about the wart-nosed dwarves. Their hollow eyes blinked slower than most. He started a count. One bishandbone, two bishandbone …

  “Do as I say, Halfling.”

  …three bishandbone…

  Hoknar blinked.

  Quick as a cat, Lefty blew a handful of dust into Hoknar’s face and darted to the side.

  Always have a plan. Good or bad, it’s better than nothing.

  Hoknar bulled up and took a vicious swing with his axe.

  Swish!

  His next swing was wild.

  “What have you—”

  Hoknar coughed. Sputtered. His wide eyes froze, and his joints locked up. In a moment, he stood like a bearded hot-faced statue.

  Lefty rubbed powdery hands on Hoknar’s forehead. Dusted the rest onto the dirt. It was the same powder the dwarves used to kidnap their victims. A mystic concoction abused by the dwarves. Lefty had stolen a spoonful of it months ago and preserved it ever since.

  Lefty wrenched the axe from Hoknar’s frozen grip. He looked up into the ugly dwarf’s eyes. He could see the angry life in them.

  “I hate you, Hoknar,” he said. “No one as cruel as you should live.” He swung the axe back and forward into Hoknar’s head, wrenched it free, and shoved him into the hole. “I just wish I had enough powder so I could kill the whole lot of you.”

  He started chopping at his chains.

  “Ho, Hoknar!” another dwarf yelled. “Where are you?”

  Bish no!

  Without a second thought, chains rattling on his ankles, he vanished into the misty woods.

  Please don’t let them find me. Please don’t let them find me.

  CHAPTER 28

  Melegal rose to his feet, keeping his steely eyes on Jaen. Her fists were on her hips, and her lips were puckered.

  “What do you mean, ‘What have you done?’ I’ve done what I was told.”

  She brushed his comment off and glared at the darkly dressed woman lying green on the floor, “Who’s this?”

  “That’s Jasper. An acquaintance from the arrangement you made.” He rubbed his fingertips into his temples. “Why did you transport both of us?”

  “Because I can. And I need answers to my questions.” Jaen held out her hand. “The sack of coins, please.”

  Melegal eased it out of his jerkin and placed it in her palm.

  “I guess I’ll get no payment after all.” He plunked down on the sofa.

  “What are you doing?” Jaen said.

  “Giving my jelly legs a rest. How did you get us here?”

  She rattled the sack of coins and jewels she had and said, “This isn’t money. It’s magic. But you would not understand if I tried to explain.” She sat down beside him and glanced at Jasper. “Do you like her?”

  “I like most women, so long as they don’t talk too much.” He cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t be jealous.”

  “Jealous?” Jaen perked up. “Ha! Magi are above such trivial things.”

  “Well that’s good, because I’ve take a fancy to Jasper’s charms.”

  Jaen turned her chin over her shoulder and said to him, “I don’t care.”

  “Yet your cheeks redden somewhat.” He smiled. “I’m flattered.”

  “Ha! Don’t overestimate yourself, Envoy. You’re just a commoner to me.”

  “So the wine we shared had no meaning,” Melegal said, locking his fingers behind his head and leaning back. “Even though you picked me, out of all the rogues in the city?”

  “Tell me what happened,” she said, being matter-of-fact.

  “Do I get my Quickster back?”

  “Of course. Your ass means nothing to me, but the fact that it means something to you is quite sad.”

  Melegal nodded. Though he still wondered why the amiable sweet-faced woman had become so frosty. Her personality had made quite a switch. He wondered if Jaen was even the same woman.

  “Well, I think you already know the answer to that, or you wouldn’t have jerked us up here so fast.” He jerked his locked hands over his head and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

  Jaen flinched.

  Melegal said, “Say, how about we discuss this over some wine?”

  Her painted eyes narrowed.

  “No.”

  Melegal leaned back and said, “Alright, then tell me what you know. I know you know something. How, I don’t know.”

  Jaen poured the pouch of gems and jewels out on the table. She picked up a small amethyst and held it to her ear. It matched her earring. She plucked it out and tossed it to Melegal. “Hold it to your ear,” she said.

  He did so.

  “Listen,” she said, pursing her soft lips. She started blowing on the amethyst she held and whispering as well. “You never know who’s listening.”

  He heard it perfectly.

  “I’ll be,” he said, setting the earring down. His thoughts were haunted. He’d had no idea the magi could do such things. It sent a shiver through him. “So you heard everything?”

  She nodded.

  “But fear not. These are rare things.” At a wave of her hand, the earring glided through the air and reattached itself to her earlobe. “We don’t have many at our disposal.”

  So you say.

  “And we have to be careful who we deal with,” she continued. “Keep tabs on their dealings.”

  Melegal eyed the treasure on the table.

  “Are they all magic?”

  “Not all.” Jaen twirled her finger. The coins and gems scratched over the table and back into the pouch. “But enough of them.” She placed her hands on her exposed knees
. “Now, seeing how you survived your first test, are you still interested in being an envoy for us?”

  “What, dicker with underlings? You do realize that won’t end well.”

  “Everything was going fine until your comrade spoiled things.” She sighed. “A shame, because he could have been useful. A bit too brazen for our likes.”

  “You lured him there?” Melegal said.

  “Where?”

  “That snake pit you sent me to.” He started feeling a little foolish. “You were testing him too?” His nostrils flared a little, and his easy breathing increased. “How long have you been watching us?”

  “Long enough,” she said. “Long enough to understand that the pair of you have a great understanding of underlings. We thought it might be useful.”

  Melegal raised his voice.

  “Who in Bish is ‘we’?” He scanned the room. “I don’t see anyone else.”

  Jasper rose to her knees, coughing and rubbing her head.

  “What is going on?” She blinked and rubbed her eyes. “Where am I?”

  Jaen sneered and flicked a mystic spark at Jasper. The golden sparkles showered the young woman, drawing a long yawn and stretch of her arms. She collapsed on the floor.

  Melegal’s fingertips tingled. Power came too easily from this woman.

  “Let’s get back on course,” Jaen said. “Shall we?”

  Melegal nodded.

  What other course do I have?

  “Melegal, we want you to keep an eye on things. Most that we’ve dealt with cannot handle exposure to the underlings.”

  Well there is a reason for that! I can only assume they like the thought of having their throats intact.

  “We need someone who can watch, observe, deal, and report back to us,” she said. “The underlings have much to offer from their underworld. We can learn more about them this way. Understand their nature and their ways. And when the time comes, we will, if need be, put them away.”

  “More likely, they will put you away.”

  She cocked her head.

  “I don’t take your meaning.”

  “I think the world is fully aware what a menace they are. They run roughshod through the south. Now they’ve penetrated here, and you are trying to build some sort of nurturing relationship with them.”

  “We need to understand our enemies if we hope to defeat them,” she said.

  Madness! No one in their right mind would ever want to get within ten feet of an underling if they could help it. Underlings hated all the races. The race of men took dire exception to them. It had always been that way, but now that had changed.

  “So you are going to do business with them below, even though they are sending your soldiers home dead, mutilated, humiliated? Have you not seen what they do? I thought you had eyes and ears everywhere?”

  “Blood is often spilled before there is peace.”

  Melegal shot up off the sofa.

  “Peace!” His voice rang in the chamber, surprising him.

  Jaen’s grey eyes grew wide. She raised her hands.

  “Mind yourself, Rogue.”

  What am I, Venir? Settle down, Melegal. This is not your polished way.

  Perhaps not, but the underlings were a problem. A vermin. An infestation. Over the past several months, he’d given serious thought about what Venir said. The warrior wasn’t the cause of their problems. The underlings were. Always pressing. Striking. Killing. Not to mention the meddlesome royals.

  “Sorry,” he said, straightening his clothes. “But I want no part of this.”

  “It pays well. Offers security and safety,” Jaen said, coming closer, her voice more soothing. “You will help us spy on them. You don’t need to concern yourself with anything other than that.” She touched his shoulder and rubbed it. “We need a man with your resolve. Someone strong that can handle it. Deal. Observe. Report. We offer much protection.”

  Her eyes and voice drew him in. His stick body softened. He wanted to help her. See more of her. He wanted to know who we was. After all, the tower could hold an awful lot of people. Maybe I should play along. Slip out of sight later.

  But he backed away and said, “No.”

  “Don’t you want your precious pony back?”

  “Yes, but not at that price. I might be sordid, but I have some dignity. That’s more than I can say for you and the rest of your ilk.”

  “What?” she said, unable to contain her dismay.

  “I’ve done plenty of bad things. I’ve stolen, lied and murdered. But at befriending underlings, I draw the line.”

  “You are a fool,” Jaen said.

  “Not nearly as foolish as you. I know enough about underlings to say with certainty that if you practice this strategy,” he said, pointing at her chest, “then you’re going to die.”

  “Get out!”

  Melegal looked around and said, “It shames me to say so, but I don’t know how.”

  She whirled on him. The entire room shook. A blast of air cut through the room, lifting him from his feet and hurling him out the window. He saw Jasper right above him and turned to look down. The street rushed up to greet him. His whole life flashed before his eyes.

  Nooooooooooooooo!

  CHAPTER 29

  Venir glided down to the water level, head and shoulders low. He eased his way onto one of the docks and waited behind some crates.

  Helm pulsed on his head, urging him forward, onward.

  He kept his rising temper in check. Listened.

  He could hear the men and underlings chatting back and forth with one another. The tongues of the underlings spoke perfectly in the common tongue. Undiscernible from an ordinary man. But under their own breath, the underlings spoke back and forth to one another, the Underling words harsh. Mocking. Dangerous. Helm deciphered it all. Their wicked voices were clear in his mind.

  Foolish humans.

  Doomed sluggards.

  We take their women, their children, for booze and baubles.

  These men will be the first to die when we strike.

  Soon every city in Bish will be ours.

  They laughed under their breaths, watching the rogues throw their backs into moving merchandise along the planks.

  Men are fools. We are wise as serpents. They win the war for us.

  Venir crept closer. He eyed the barge. Women and children quivered. A bloody lash in the hand of a brutish thug kept them silent. The underlings continued to gloat from the planks on the deck.

  I must stop this.

  His sweating fingers squeezed Brool’s handle, making a squeaking sound. His breath became heavy. He needed to get the drop on the underlings. Make it quick. The rogues, he could handle later. He left his shield. Slipped into the water. And under the dock he went. Soft sand squished under his boots. The gentle tide ripped over his jaw. He kept going until he stood beneath the underlings, watching their feet rustle over the planks.

  Let’s give ‘subtle but deadly’ a chance.

  With Brool’s axe tip, he pecked away at the blankets under the underlings’ feet.

  Peck. Peck. Peck … Peck. Peck. Peck …

  The underlings peered down at the cracks, saying, “What is it?” Not a single wicked expression showed worry. Concern was drowned by confidence. They resumed their positions and renewed talk among themselves.

  Perfect.

  He tapped away some more.

  Peck. Peck. Peck … Peck. Peck. Peck …

  The underlings stopped their chatter. One drew a blade and bent over, gazing into the cracks. It slid its blade between the gaps.

  Venir eased out of the way. Readied his axe.

  Peck. Peck. Peck…Peck. Peck. Peck…

  “Kill that bird,” one of the underlings joked. “It will be good practice until we slaughter these dopes.”

  The underling scraped its short blade along the seams.

  Venir could see the dark blue gemstone eyes. He rammed Brool’s tip between the planks.

  Glitch!
r />   He punctured its grey matter through the eye socket.

  Venir’s iron-thewed arms pumped with fury. Brool’s spike lanced through the planks and into underling feet like a hot knife through butter.

  Jab! Jab! Jab! Jab! Jab!

  The underlings howled and screamed, their shrieks filled with terror.

  Venir glided back through the waters, watching their black blood drip through the planks.

  A clamor on the dock arose, and swords beat at the water. Venir pulled himself up on the edge of the dock where he’d started, hidden from the fervor. He picked up his shield and spied from behind the crate. Underlings sprawled out over the planks, holding their feet. Two didn’t move. They just bled.

  Suddenly, the situation took a turn. The underlings helped their fallen away from the busted blanks, farther up the dock toward the shore. They argued with the rogues.

  “You betray us!” an underling said, sliding out a pair of steels. “Are you so foolish?”

  A tough came forward. A roughhewn man wearing only a jerkin and breeches. He pointed back and said, “We don’t swim in these foul waters. That could have been anything. Don’t blame your misfortune on us.”

  The other roughneck, the one guarding the women and children with a lash, came forward. He had a nervous look as he passed through the underlings. As he passed their speaker, the stroke of death came quick. The underling disemboweled the man.

  “That’s one. We’ve two dead,” the underling said to the rogue foreman. “We’ll have two more of your kind to make it even.”

  The gawping man’s voice trembled with anger. He ripped out his sword. All his men followed.

  “Come and get us yourself, Red-Eye!”

  In an instant, a skirmish broke out.

  Helm urged him into the battle.

  He had something else in mind.

  Let all those murdering kidnappers kill each other.

  Back into the dark waters he went, wading toward the barge that held the women and children. Their eyes were glued on the battle. Venir tapped the shoulder of one that huddled in the back. She squeaked when she saw him. He stayed her with his hand.