“I think it’s time you faded back,” Melegal said. “There is little you can do at this point. Maybe you can cast a spell that will dig us nice graves.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Fogle said, drifting back behind the ranks.
I bet I could have been a good mage. Better than that egghead, anyway.
Melegal rode up alongside Venir. “Don’t put that helmet on and get yourself all lathered up. We want to leave some survivors.”
Venir stretched his axe toward him and said, “Maybe you should take this, then.”
Melegal snorted and led his horse away, saying, “Just don’t get carried away.”
“That’s not my way.”
***
Melegal shook. His heart pounded in his chest as they approached. He was too far out of his element. He was doing things he’d never considered doing before. And for what. Profit? Vengeance?
What am I doing? And why did they even listen?
It was a simple plan. Hit. Run. Turn the Royals and underlings against each other. Build mistrust. Breed confusion. That was what Royals did. He’d lived it for years. Now it was time to use their own tactics against them. Create a spark that would force the Royals to fight against the underlings. But would they do enough damage to make it work?
I doubt it, but doing something is better than doing nothing.
A streak of black caught his eye, diving and disappearing into the tunnel. It was Fogle’s familiar, Inky.
Slat. He’ll probably find out there’s a hundred more in there.
***
Fogle watched on horseback. He could see Venir in the lead, approaching the ramp guarded by the underlings. He could also see something else. He’d sent Inky into the depot tunnel. It was twenty feet high, and Inky flew in thirty feet deep and squirmed up into the support beam rafters. There were underlings. Another score or two. Maybe more further back. They stirred. His blood stirred.
I thought so.
He rubbed his spellbook. He’d kept his thoughts to himself, prepared a spell, and now the time had come to cut it loose. The underlings closed in on Venir and the others. The conversation, however it went, wasn’t going well. Venir’s axe came up and ripped down.
Forgive me, Inky.
He closed his eyes and spoke a powerful incantation.
***
It was a short conversation.
“See those carts back there?” Venir said to the underling. “They are here to pick up your dead.”
The underling chittered something to the other, and the other spoke in Common.
“What do you mean, Human?”
“The dead,” Venir said. “Pick. Up. Your. Dead.”
“What dead?” The first underling screeched and went for his sword. The other whistled an alarm.
Brool flashed up and Brool flashed down.
KABOOOOOOOOOOM!
The ground shook. Large chunks of rock, dirt, and debris erupted from the Depot.
“Have at them, rogues!” Venir roared. He sank Brool into the second underling’s neck. “That’s two for me!”
***
The ground above the tunnel of the Depot had sunk twenty feet into the earth. Melegal pulled off his coif and tossed it to the ground. The Depot was a dust- and dirt-covered hole now. The scaffolding and catwalks had been shattered. Underlings were buried in a pile of limbs, entrails, and other carnage. Whatever had shaken the ground was a power he’d never experienced before.
Venir and Brak and the others had made quick work of the underlings and chased away a handful of survivors.
Perfect.
Fogle approached from the hillside with a look of satisfaction on his face.
“Did your bird do that?”
“Indeed.”
“That’s quite a bird.”
“Indeed.”
“It would have been nice to have a heads-up about it.”
“But that would have ruined the surprise.”
Armor coated in dark blood, Venir approached with a scowl on his face.
“I don’t think he’s going to like what you did.”
“Why?”
“’Cause I’ve never seen anyone kill more underlings than him before,” Melegal said.
BOOK 4: LETHAL LIAISONS
CHAPTER 1
Metal.
Slice!
Bone.
Slice!
Death.
Slice!
Three underlings lay in pools of blood, dying at Venir’s feet. Blood dripped from Venir’s axe, Brool. The mystic axe seemed to hum with new life, glinting in the moonlight. He stepped on the corpses and waded back into the darkness of the City of Three’s network of buildings.
Nothing like a nighttime stroll.
Venir’s big frame half-filled the next alley he ventured in. The walls were sheer on either side. The tiny stone window shutters were closed. The City of Three was in chaos. It was just what Venir wanted. A war had finally begun between the men of the races and the underlings. Now, it wasn’t just Venir and his comrades fighting, but a small part of the city also battled the fiends.
Helm throbbed.
Eh? Venir slowed his pace. The hairs on his neck rose.
Toowah! Toowah! Toowah!
Battle-hardened muscle sprang into action. He snapped his shield over his head. Darts ricocheted off the metal. Underlings surged in a tight knot down both sides of the alley, hemming the big fighter in.
“Ah, the little worms want to die some more. Good!” He pulled his shield to his chest, raised Brool up high, and charged. “Feel my wrath!”
The throng of fiends lowered their small spears. It wasn’t the typical underling patrol, rather a heavily armed unit designed to hunt renegades like Venir down. Their hate-filled eyes were bright ruby gemstones, their chitterings sheer horror to mortal ears.
Venir brought his war axe down with an angry laugh.
“Ha!”
Spear shafts snapped. Striking swords clattered off his shield’s metal. The underlings fought like wild cats. Jabbing. Stabbing. Screeching.
Brool and Venir sang their own song.
Slice! Chop! Crunch!
He gored an underling through the chest with Brool’s spike.
Glitch!
He slung the impaled underling over his shoulder like a shovelful of dirt. The underling’s corpse landed on top of the oncoming others.
Outrage!
The angry fiends redoubled their efforts. Attacked with vigor. They made sharp whistles.
Brool whistled back.
Slice!
An underling’s head popped off. Blood spurted from its neck. It dropped to its knees, still swinging. The next attacker met a more grisly fate. Brool split its face in half.
Chop!
Venir wrenched the blade from the bone. Coated in gore, blood charging his veins, he continued the onslaught until the breath of life in the underlings was no more. Venir slung the blood off of his axe, plucked a few darts from his body, and limped down the alley.
Helm warned.
Thump-thump.
Venir whirled at the sound of an underling heartbeat.
An underling crawled out of the heap of flesh and darted down the alley at inhuman speeds.
Venir gave chase in great strides, but the underling’s mystic dash was too fast. The alley opened into the moonlit streets, offering the sanctuary of escape.
It glanced back, offered a mocking chitter, and turned away. And then it tried to slow down, but too late.
A man larger than Venir stepped into the alley. He towered over the underling, reached down, and snatched the little monster up by the neck in two hands.
The underling flailed its arms and kicked.
Snap!
It moved no more.
The huge man tossed the fiend aside like a rag and wandered deeper into the alley toward Venir.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?” Venir said to the man.
“And let you have all the fun?” Brak sa
id, laying his hand on Venir’s shoulder. “Sorry, Father, but sometimes I just can’t sleep at night. Not when all these devils are running loose.”
Venir peered up into his son’s face. Brak stood nearly seven feet tall and was built like a bull. There was contentment in his soft eyes. Venir shook his head. “I guess I’ll have to make sure Jubilee tucks you in better. Come on,” Venir said, nudging Brak forward. “And don’t slip on those entrails.”
Brak smiled. “All right, Father.”
Venir went back down the alley, twisted and turned through a couple more, and hunkered back behind an abandoned tavern wall. Brak did well for a big person. He was an observant young man and did his best to shadow Venir’s moves. It made Venir’s heart swell a little. He just didn’t want to get Brak killed.
Brak slumped back against the wall beside him and peered into the gloom.
Even with the assistance of Helm, Venir didn’t hear any enemies close by. He dared to speak softly. “How did you find me?”
Brak shrugged. “Not sure. Just wandered until I heard some noise or sniffed out fresh corpses. Lo and behold, there you were.”
Venir huffed a laugh. He needed one. The last few months had been nothing short of intense, since they’d blown up the underling hive. “You could at least put some more armor on.”
Brak brushed his hand over his leather tunic, decorated in metal studs. “I’ve got thick skin.”
“You have a thick skull.”
“I believe it’s inherited.” Brak drummed softly on his knees and glanced up at the tower tops in the sky. “Do you think she’s up there?”
“Who?”
“You know who.”
Venir did, he just didn’t want to admit it. Brak was talking about Kam, and he didn’t want to talk about Kam. It made him think of Fogle. It made him mad at her. He squeezed Brool’s handle. “No idea.”
“Fogle came by before I left. Looked really tired.” Brak cleared his throat. “Said he’d seen Kam, but only for a bit. I asked if she was well, and he said, ‘Well as can be expected, given the nature of the inquisition.’ I wonder what he meant by that? Do you think they’re hurting her? Aren’t they her family?”
“Families can have very sordid ways. You never know unless you live with them.” He clenched his jaws. It burned him up that Fogle had access to Kam and he didn’t. After all, he was the father of Erin, and that made it even worse. Fogle, however, had the connection with the wizards in the towers, and they wouldn’t permit anyone else inside. At least that was what Fogle had told them, and there was too much of a reason not to believe him. “I like to think she’s safer in those clouds among her own than she is down here.”
Brak bobbed his chin. “True.”
Venir popped upright.
Helm burned on his head. A sudden, powerful, pulsating warning.
“What is it?” Brak asked, gathering himself up to his feet. His eyes were alert and ready.
Venir’s nostrils flared. His eyelets gleamed. “Don’t know.”
A fiery ball of red and orange light streaked across the sky and collided into the top of one of the towers.
Ka-booooooom!
The ground shook. The tower toppled over.
Gaping at the burning sky, Brak said, “Sonuvabish!”
The Darkslayer Battles
CHAPTER 2
“I think it’s high time you stopped looking over your little shoulders,” Pall the Blood Ranger said back to Lefty. “Ain’t no one gonna be following us out here.”
“You said that last week,” Lefty replied, picking up his pace along the big dwarf’s side. “And the week before that and before that and—”
“Pah, I get it. You ain’t dead, and you ain’t going to be. Not with me around, anyway.” Pall blew snot out of his nose. “Did I ever tell you about the battle with the Balfrog? They have horns, you know.”
“Yes, you’ve mentioned it.” Lefty rolled his eyes. “No need to mention it again.” He glanced behind him. For several weeks they had been traversing the barren Outlands. The bright suns glared above, beating on him all day, only to dip and leave him shivering at night. As refreshing as the suns had been, he was getting tired of sweating. His legs were chafed, and his feet blistered. “Can we stop for a bit?”
“Stop? We just started.”
Lefty slunk down to the ground and dusted the sand off his big feet, which were red and swollen. Grimacing, he pinched pus out of the blisters.
“You should have worn boots,” Pall stated. “Dwarven leather keeps out the weather.”
“I don’t have any boots, remember? And they only slow me down.”
“The only thing slowing you down now is yourself.” The brushy-faced dwarf squinted his brows toward the horizon. The weathered dwarf was one with the elements. Nothing bothered him. Not a fly, scorpion, snake, or mosquito. It was all the same as the wind to him. He cocked his head. His nostrils flared. “Smell that?”
Lefty crinkled his nose and took a whiff. “I’m downwind from your dander, but I’ve a feeling that’s not what you’re going for.”
Pall cupped his hand to his ear. His bloodred brows lifted.
Since they’d departed from the marsh, they’d been in one scuffle after another, all of which could have been avoided. The orcs had been at least a mile away, but Pall had ambushed them. A band of underlings’ trail was found. Pall ambushed them. There had been gnolls, kobolds, more orcs, and an ogre that seemed lost. Pall ambushed them all. Slaughtered them. “Give evil the same respect it would give you: none,” he said.
Lefty quickly got the drift of this extreme prejudice. He gathered himself up on his knees. “What do you hear?” Or see. Or smell.
“Riders. Lots of them.” Pall’s meaty hands fell on his machetes. “I think they’re coming this way.”
Lefty eyed him. “Perhaps they’re hunting us. Maybe they’ve become wise, and they’re ganging up on the Outland vigilante.” He huffed. Lefty’s plan had gone awry. Instead of heading where he hoped, back to the City of Three, he’d wound up on a wild dwarven excursion. Or rather execution. Bloody Blood Rangers. “Maybe we should hide.”
The dust-coated warrior spun around slowly. “Where? Besides, I’m not one for hiding. Now ready yerself.”
“Of course you aren’t,” Lefty said, gathering himself up onto his feet. He pulled out his hand axe and sighed. “Do I really have to do this?”
Pall took a knee and pointed. “Get in there.”
Lefty climbed into the rucksack on Pall’s broad back. It had been altered so that Lefty’s legs dangled out of either side of the bottom. To make matters worse, his face looked out from Pall’s back, not over the shoulder. It was how Lefty had seen some parents carrying children. This is humiliating. What would Georgio think? He’d laugh his butt off. And Melegal? He’d never let me live it down. A faint smile formed on his lips. I think it’s good that I miss them.
“Get yer helmet on,” Pall said.
“I don’t have a helmet.” Lefty turned in the rucksack to peek in front of the dwarf. A cloud of dust was coming their way. Lefty’s heart jumped. That’s a lot of riders.
“Hum,” Pall said.
“‘Hum’? What do you mean, ‘Hum’?”
“Er, well, I’m thinking maybe evading this horde wasn’t such a bad thought after all.” The Blood Ranger scooped some dirt into his hands, spat on them, and readied his machetes. “I suppose it’s too late to conceal ourselves now.”
“Oh, great.”
The riders thundered right up to them. They were the size of men, faces covered in cowls, clad in dark, heavy cloaks unusual for the Outland. Their horses nickered as they came to a stop and surrounded Pall and Lefty. Scalps of hair hung from the riders’ belts. Heavy swords were strapped to their saddles. The riders encircled the two and lowered their spears.
Lefty sunk into his sack.
“You’re a strange-looking fellow, Red Beard,” said one of them in a low, rugged, and dry voice. “I’d know where you’re
heading.”
“I’m heading where I’m going,” Pall fired back, “not that it’s any concern of yours.”
“The Outlands are especially dangerous to be traveling in such a small number,” the rider said. “And you’re far from any settlements. I can’t help but wonder how you managed to make it this far.”
“Wonder no more, and be off with you, man.”
“No need to be so defensive. If anything, we only came to offer protection. After all, this world is filled with underlings.” The man pulled his cowl down. He had a thick head of brown hair and very light eyes. A jagged scar was on his chin, making for a sinister look about him. “We can escort you and”—his eyes fixed on Lefty—“your child to the next settlement for a price.”
“Not familiar with your custom of offering help at the point of a spear,” Pall said. He stepped up to the man and pushed his spear aside. “We’ll take our chances.”
“A wise man would accept assistance.”
Lefty felt the muscles in Pall’s back knot up. He took a closer look at the rough lot. They all had scalps of one color or another. Their horses’ gear showed Royal insignias. These men were not Royals. They looked more like scavengers.
One of the riders sidled up to the leader and whispered something in his ear.
The leader’s eyes widened. “A Blood Ranger, you say?” He studied Pall. “That would explain the beard as red as a brush fire.” He toyed with the scalps on his belt and ran his tongue across his lips. “And I bet those blades are fine dwarven steel. Hmm, so,” he said down to Pall, “is this true, are you a Blood Ranger?”
Pall squared off on the man. “Aye.”
“Excellent,” the rider said, lowering his spear. His eyes flashed. “Kill him!”
CHAPTER 3
“Did you sleep well?” Jasper said, sliding out of Melegal’s cot. She put her feet on the floor and stretched her arms out.
Melegal caressed the soft skin of her bare back with the back of his hand. “I don’t get much sleep when you’re around.”
“You slept much better than me,” she said, covering her yawn. She stood up, wrapping the blanket around her waist but leaving her back to him. She moved with feline grace and a nice sway to her hips. “But that’s probably because you’re old.”
The Darkslayer: Bish and Bone Series Collector's Edition (Books 1-10): Sword and Sorcery Masterpieces Page 44