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

by Craig Halloran

  Brak turned, head and shoulders low, face splattered in blood. An inhuman cry ripped from his throat. “RAWR!” In one great stride, he collided into the throng of well-trained, fully armored soldiers.

  A terror.

  A fury.

  His gory blade’s speed and power were unmatched. It sheered a clavicle. Ripped through armor. Guts and entrails spilled under the wrath of the berserk meat cleaver.

  Jasper gaped and gagged.

  Jubilee grinned. That’ll teach those bastards!

  Kam found her way between them. “We had better get out of here.”

  “There’s the door,” Jubilee said.

  The trio headed for it, but the door slammed shut.

  “No one goes anywhere!” Jaen’s eyes were lit up in radiant purple. Her hand glowed with the same fire. “I’m not through!”

  Brak let out a guttural howl. He was suspended above the dead, hacking at the air. He flung one sword into the back of a crawling soldier and let out another howl.

  “I don’t know who this man is, but his days are through,” Jaen said. “And so are all of yours!”

  “Get down!” Kam said.

  A blast of power surged into the three.

  Sssrazzz!

  Their bodies tumbled and skipped through the chairs and tables.

  Jubilee groaned and twitched.

  Jasper moaned and spat blood.

  Kam fought her way to her feet

  “Stay down,” Jubilee said, grimacing. Blood dripped from her nose to her mouth. “Stay down.”

  Kam staggered up with her head held high.

  “Take me, Jaen, but leave them alone.”

  “No,” Jaen said, making her way out from behind the bar. “I’m going to let you watch me kill them first.” Another blast burst from her hands, flinging Kam over the table.

  She didn’t get up this time, but her eyes were open.

  Jaen stopped in front of Jubilee and Jasper and looked down. Her hands still flared with mystic power.

  Jubilee’s hair stood on end.

  Jaen sneered. “I hate meddlers. But I do enjoy killing them.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Underlings and men were one thing. Cave dogs and urchlings with poisoned claws were another. And there were packs of both.

  Venir stepped toward them, shouted, whipped around, and retreated. He caught the underlings barring his path flatfooted and plowed through them with a wide, arcing swing.

  A clamor rose from the dark bodies. Howls of outrage chittered after him as he sprinted down the shore.

  Helm shouted inside his head, Go back! Kill them! Kill them all!

  “No!” Venir growled. “I’m in control!”

  Helm had controlled him plenty before—and he had died for it. Now he would fight on his own terms. Dashing down the dark shore, he passed docks and small caves scattered along the river. Here behind the ranks of the search party, he didn’t need caution. He stretched his stride.

  Barking hounds and shrieking underlings sprinted toward his back, closing in.

  Turn and fight them! Helm urged.

  Venir felt Helm tearing at his mind. Running wasn’t Helm’s way. But he knew the swarm would overwhelm him.

  “Time to try things my way.”

  Another hundred yards, maybe two, he went down the shoreline. He could feel his pursuers’ breath on his heels. He ran down a set of docks and dove into the Current.

  Claws scraping over the wooden planks, the albino urchlings screeched to a halt.

  Venir treaded water, thinking, Maybe they can’t swim. Beginning to sink, he took a breath.

  One by one, the dogs jumped off the dock and swam toward him. The albino urchlings followed, plunging into the water.

  Bone!

  Venir’s boots hit the bottom, and he started his walk toward the other shore. His eyelets crested and his body emerged on the other side.

  The first cave dogs crossed just behind him and charged.

  Brool lashed out.

  Yelp!

  The dog fell.

  Two more crossed the river, shook the water from their fur, bared their teeth, and leapt to attack.

  Brool’s spike lanced one in the heart. His fist cracked another in the snout.

  The vicious beast latched itself on his arm, jaws locking.

  Venir screamed, dropped Brool, ripped out his hunting knife, and plunged it into the dog.

  Its body fell limp.

  He snatched up Brool and began running again.

  Dogs were still crossing the water, and the urchlings pursued him from the other side, racing him up the river.

  Leaping over deadwood and debris, Venir sprinted by more shanties. He needed higher ground. Sanctuary. Escape.

  His chest burned.

  Kill them! Kill them all! Helm urged.

  Venir’s legs continued to churn through the darkness. The shoreline and river narrowed ahead, where more water rushed out from a dark tunnel. The urchlings surged ahead to cut him off. Venir pumped his legs as fast as he could, but not fast enough. The urchlings cut off the passage, and more cave dogs started to cross.

  “Fight or die!”

  CHAPTER 21

  Kam’s eyes fluttered open. She groaned to see Jasper and Jubilee sitting on a table, bound to one another with mystic ties, screaming at the top of their lungs while Jaen stood between her and them, laughing.

  “What are you doing?” Kam managed to say.

  “Laughing at them.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they think they’re on fire.” Jaen’s purple eyes flashed. “Isn’t my power fascinating?”

  “It’s sickening,” Kam said, struggling against her own bonds. “You need to stop this! How can you be so depraved?”

  “I enjoy it.”

  Weary, Kam tried to think of a plan. She had nothing left. No spells. No power. On the other hand, it appeared Jaen had power oozing from her. Her half sister was strong, very strong, stronger than her, even. “What do you want from me?” Kam groaned.

  “Entertainment.”

  “Tormenting others isn’t entertainment. It’s evil.”

  “It’s more or less an experiment. You know that. You were part of the circle of mages once.” Jaen smiled. “And what you shunned, I embraced. I so enjoy the power.”

  “You’ll never know true power,” Kam said. “That’s what the circle never understood.”

  “Oh, and you do?” She looked around the tavern, huffed, and rolled her eyes. “I can see that.”

  Jasper and Jubilee’s screams continued.

  Near the bar, Brak was still suspended, chopping at the air with his other sword.

  “Please let them be,” Kam pleaded.

  “It’s merely an illusion. Just a really good one.” Jaen’s nostrils flared. “I swear I can smell the flesh burning in the air. Can’t you?”

  The screaming was maddening.

  “Stop it!”

  Jaen waved her hand, and the screaming stopped.

  Jasper and Jubilee panted. Their bodies were covered in sweat, and their eyes had a glassy look.

  “Is that better, Kam?”

  Kam nodded.

  “I’ve an even better idea.” Jaen extended her hand toward Brak. Using her powers, she brought his floating form over and stopped him a sword stroke from Jasper and Jubilee.

  Jaen winked at Kam and said, “Imagine your berserk … oaf I guess … mutilating your friends, whom he believes are my soldiers. Wouldn’t that be horrifying?”

  “Please,” Kam said with tears streaming from her eyes, “don’t do this! I’ll do anything!”

  “No you won’t,” Jaen said. “You say you will, but you won’t. You are too stubborn, Kam. Too proud. Humility is beneath you.” She moved Brak closer. The frenzied man hacked away. “Now, to return the girls’ senses to them.” She rolled her fingers.

  Jasper and Jubilee blinked. Their heads snapped up toward Brak.

  “Brak!” Jubilee cried. “Noooooo!”
<
br />   Brak’s feet hit the floor, and his sword came down.

  ***

  Heart in her throat, Jasper squeezed her eyes shut. I hate this place.

  ***

  Kam’s thoughts raced. I’ve failed them all.

  ***

  Jaen’s eyes were wild with passion. Controlling people aroused her.

  Zang!

  An invisible force flung Brak into the nearest fireplace, crushing the mantel.

  Jaen whirled toward the front door. “You!”

  A man with tousled brown hair stood just inside the door frame. He wore dark-green robes and had an angry look in his eyes. Fogle Boon’s hands stretched out before him. His eyes bore into Jaen.

  “I don’t know how you escaped,” she said, “but it will be your own peril.” Shards of purple light came from her hands, lashing out at Fogle.

  He swatted the blasts away with the mystic shields on his own hands. Then he loosed his own lightning. The tavern lit up as white-hot light streaked across the planks and into Jaen.

  There was a sucking sound. The silvery light disappeared into the glowing orb that Jaen jerked out from her sleeve.

  She started laughing. “There’s nothing you can do to hurt me,” she said, raising the orb high over her head. The bulb radiated with power. “But there is plenty I can do to hurt you.” She loosed all she had absorbed.

  It smote Fogle full in the chest, disintegrating him and setting the tavern on fire.

  Kam screamed, “Noooooo!”

  ***

  “That was easy,” Jaen said with a smile. “Sometimes, I even surprise myself.”

  Someone tapped her shoulder.

  She turned and found herself looking up into the face of an angry Fogle.

  His eyes locked on hers.

  She felt her mind and his mind merge.

  “You’re a bad woman, Jaen,” a voice said inside her head. “And it’s time you paid.”

  The orb dropped from her hand. “Uh …”

  The world around her went dim.

  ***

  “Welcome to my world, wicked child,” Fogle said inside Jaen’s mind. He’d tied the two of them up in a mind grumble, and now the pair fought for their lives.

  “Fool!” Jaen said. “You cannot best me!” She clawed at his thoughts, tore at his brain.

  Fogle laughed. “Child, surrender,” he said, his robes stretching out, enveloping her, “before all is lost.”

  They battled in another plane now, the plane of wills and minds.

  She turned loose one terror after another: images of him shackled and tortured, the same images with Kam and the others.

  He launched his own assault: evils he had discovered in the recesses of underling minds.

  Jaen screamed. And then she slipped her fingernails into the back of his neck, drew him toward her, and whispered poisoned thoughts into his ears. She was strong, conniving, and subtly vicious.

  His mind quaked. His will bent.

  “You are mine,” she hissed in his ear. “All mine, wizard!” Her mystic body wrapped him up from head to toe, warm and seductive in power, exerting her will and offering her body, offering him everything. “Be mine, Fogle,” she said. “Be mine forevermore.”

  He could have given in. Most men would have, with the things she offered, but he knew better. He held on, pushed back, and exposed the angry jealous woman within her. He laughed again, a deep resonating sound.

  She shrieked and attacked again, digging into his painful memories. “A woman left you for a dragon?” But she found no doubt in him, no weakness. She did uncover a sliver of anger, however.

  He swatted her efforts away like flies. “I’m over it, and I’m finished with you.” He plucked all of her mystic knowledge from her mind, one syllable at a time.

  “What are you doing?” Jaen wailed. “Stop that! Please, stop it!” She wrapped her arms around his legs and feet. “I beg of you.”

  He tore out words she’d never recall again. Made the simple cantrips difficult.

  She shook and screamed. Her mystic form jerked, buckled—and then his connection with Jaen shattered.

  ***

  Fogle gasped, staggering back. “What happened?”

  Kam stood over her half sister’s body, staring at the dagger in her back.

  Fogle blinked hard at the shaking woman. “Why? You didn’t have to do that. Why?”

  “I didn’t do it,” Kam said, not looking his way. “Jubilee did.”

  He found Jubilee sitting cross legged on the table. She had a spacey look in her eye when she said, “She deserved it.”

  CHAPTER 22

  “See them?” Pall said.

  Lefty shook his head no.

  “Those are tracks,” Pall continued, speaking from one knee. He placed his hand on a patch of moss. “It’s scraped. Just a bit.”

  I don’t care. I just want out of here.

  “What kind of tracks do you think they are?”

  Arms folded over his scrawny chest, Lefty lifted his blond brows. “Deer?”

  “Have you ever seen a deer in a marsh?”

  “Moose?”

  “Rrrh … you are a confounding little man. I’m trying to teach you something.”

  “I can’t think when I’m this hungry.”

  “Oh,” Pall said, “why didn’t you say so?”

  “I did.”

  Pall reached into one of the many pouches that decorated the belt that held in his belly and pulled out some black nuts. “Try ’em.”

  Lefty plucked one out of his grimy paw, dropped it in his mouth, and bit down. It was sour and hard as a stone. He spat it out.

  “What did you do that for?” Pall asked with a scowl.

  “It’s made of stone.”

  “You suck it, not chew it.”

  “You didn’t tell me that, and it tastes horrible.”

  “Are you still hungry?”

  “Yes!”

  Pall stuck the stone back inside Lefty’s mouth. “Suck on it till the bad taste thins. It’ll go. You’ll see.”

  Lefty found a spot beside a tree and sat down. After a while, his hunger eased, but he still felt queasy. The buzzing flies, big and green, didn’t help things either, landing on and taking off from all the dead bodies. He covered his nose.

  They smell even worse dead.

  Pall wiped his blood-coated machete blades on the ragged clothes of a dead wart-nosed dwarf. Less than an hour ago, they had come across them, and Pall had the jump on them. He killed four of them in seconds and then showed mercy on the fifth. The limping and wounded dwarf now carried the heads of two of his comrades—along with a message.

  “I’ll find and kill all of you,” Pall’s message said, “if I ever see a single one of you again.”

  Lefty found relief in the threat but no relief from the present company he depended on.

  “You ready?” Pall said, sliding his blades back into his belt.

  “For another hunting lesson?”

  “No, to find yer way out of this stinking sweat hole.”

  Lefty lifted his head from between his knees. “Please don’t be joking.”

  CHAPTER 23

  He killed. Murdered. Tormented.

  Blink!

  Buzz!

  Blink!

  Elated, Eep had passed through Bish and his own mystic dimension dozens of times since his new mistress took over.

  Blink!

  Buzz!

  Blink!

  Buzz!

  He’d crossed from one corner of Bish to the other. Hungry. Starving. Ravenous for blood. He landed on a jagged face of rock overlooking a narrow canyon. Covered wagons rattled over the dirt, stirring up the dust. Men’s, women’s, and children’s faces were long from traveling in the heat. He could hear their hungry stomachs groaning. All thirty of them, fleeing the south, heading north through dangerous sand storms and unpredictable monsters, like him.

  Please let me kill them, he thought, clutching his taloned fingers in and out.r />
  No, a firm voice responded inside his head. Female. Pleasant. The polar opposite of what he had been accustomed to.

  They won’t make it. It would be mercy.

  No.

  Please …

  He’d been trying to kill ever since he’d been summoned. He’d even pounced on a pack of dwarven soldiers, only to have his efforts recalled.

  Trinos had shaken his mind for it. “Don’t try that again,” she had said. “You do nothing without my express permission. Just find Scorch.”

  That’s when Eep had begun begging. Pleading. He’d been created to seek and destroy. His long red tongue licked out, snatching a crawling bug. He crunched down.

  Did I say you could eat that?

  No.

  Don’t test me, not even one more time.

  Sorry, Mistress. So sorry. Never again. Never again. But I hunger so much. You must let me kill something.

  Soon. Now search.

  Yes, Mistress. He sighed a raspy sigh. Blink.

  Eep resumed his efforts. Inside the mystic plane, he could see almost anywhere in Bish. He just couldn’t see it up close. It was more or less a bird’s-eye view of things. If he saw something interesting, he’d blink in for a closer look.

  In Two-Ten City, orcs and ogres battled underlings to maintain control.

  Outlaws Hide had become a bloody smear in the desert, where the underlings now thrived.

  The Outposts scattered over the south teetered back and forth between Royal occupation and underling occupation. Soldiers battled. Thousands died.

  Everyone was killing something except Eep, it seemed. It just wasn’t fair.

  He buzzed the treetops of the Great Forest. Cut through the water of the Lush Lakes. Terrified vermin in the Red Clay Forest. In Bone, he busted through windows and tore out window frames, terrifying the women within.

  She says I can’t kill, but she didn’t say I couldn’t scare.

  His stomach growled—not from a lack of nourishment but from a lack of the slaughter. He buzzed over a flock of sheep and farmers, salivating.

  Find Scorch.

  Grinning with his sharp, jagged teeth, Eep flew on. His new mistress, powerful though she may be, didn’t understand the world as he did. He could tell that she didn’t mind seeing all the places that he took her. She found it fascinating. Hence, he delayed his search, buying time, not wanting to find his mark only to be banished shortly thereafter.