“This is ghastly,” Ebenezer said, his face taut with horror. “I think I’d rather be eaten by a giant spider than a thousand small ones.” His eyes fell on the smoking husk of the giant spider that lay twitching on the floor. “Yes, I prefer the big one.”
Venir glowered at Master Sinway. “Don’t you find it strange that I am still alive? After all, you’ve tried to kill me a dozen times, yet I still live. Did you ever stop to think that I can’t be killed?”
“Everything dies eventually,” Master Sinway said. “But to be certain I’m going to witness it for myself. Bit by bit, you will be turned into tiny little pieces that are devoured and scattered.” He stroked the sack. “I don’t think there is anything you can do about it at this point. The reign of man is over. Now the underlings will control the surface once again, as they did before.”
Venir wasn’t so sure about that. Even Kuurn and Elypsa were giving Sinway curious looks. “You are cave dwellers, nothing more. You are just an advanced form of the urchlings from whom you were all spawned.”
Many underlings gasped.
Sinway sniggered. “I must admit that in over a thousand years of facing enemy after enemy on the surface, I’ve never encountered one with a mouth like yours.” His eyes drifted onto the spiders. They were only a few feet from Venir’s toes and fingers. “Please, share your final thoughts. It’s the last chance you’ll get before you start screaming. Entertain me. Entertain us.”
A smile filled Venir’s face. In a valiant effort, the webbing bending as he moved, he pulled his thumbs to his ears and wriggled his fingers. He stuck his tongue out and made a “phlyllpt” sound.
“Am I to believe this buffoon is the one we called the Darkslayer?” Kuurn said.
“You’ve seen him fight,” Elypsa said. “But he’s not the same man without the armament. He’s just an oversized fool.”
“I might be an oversized fool, but I’m not the biggest fool, Elypsa. That honor goes to the black heart beside you.” He let out a mirthful chuckle.
“He’s lost his wits,” she said to Sinway.
“I’ve tortured many humans over the centuries, and when pushed to the point of death, they often act out erratically. Usually, it comes in pleas of mercy, but I wouldn’t expect that to be the case with a warrior like this.”
“No, that’s not why I’m laughing, you iron-eyed fool,” Venir said. “My wits are as sharp as my tongue. I assure you.”
Struggling to get a glance at the spiders crawling toward him, Ebenezer said, “Then why are you laughing.”
“I’m laughing because, even if I perish, another Darkslayer will rise. Check your shoulder, Sinway. The armament sack is gone.”
Sinway pawed at his shoulder. His feet dropped onto the seats. The mystic sack was gone. “No! Impossible!”
“You don’t possess it, Sinway, it possesses you! And now it’s gone, idiot!” Venir burst out laughing.
Master Sinway glided up from the bench, straight toward Venir. His eyes burned like molten iron. He clutched Venir’s face. “Where is it?”
Still chuckling, Venir said, “I have no idea, fiend.” He tried to headbutt Sinway, but the webbing held him back. “I hate these webs.” In the past, Brool’s keen edge would slice the webbing away with the ease of a hot knife through butter. Now, Venir was held fast, and he was curious what happened to the armament. Where are you? Come to me.
“I feel your thoughts,” Sinway said. “Give it to me!” His fiery eyes drilled into Venir’s head. “You will tell me all that you know!”
The thin layer of moisture on Venir’s eyes dried up. His face felt like it caught fire. Sinway was boring into his mind. He set his eyes on the underlings. “Go ahead! Try to pry out what you can get!”
Two iron wills locked together. A burning shoving match of minds began. Sinway attacked and pried. Venir’s psyche, hardened by a thousand battles, grew in resolve. He attacked and shoved Sinway back.
“I will turn you inside out!” Sinway shouted. He became a shadowy, suffocating blanket.
Venir’s memories flared up. He was back in the hole underlings buried him in when he was a boy. He gasped for breath and choked.
CHAPTER 19
I hate it when the tables turn, Melegal thought. His body was as stiff as a board. Ashlyn had a solid grip on him using his own weapon, the knit cap, against him. It was a scary thing. Her dagger’s blade was pressed against his throat. Her dreamy eyes locked with his. Be done with it then.
Blood dripped out of her nose onto her chin. Blinking, she stepped back. More blood came. “What’s happening?”
Melegal regained control of his body. In a cobra-quick swipe, he snatched the cap from her head. Ashlyn staggered into the wall and fell down holding her nose and head. Melegal placed his cap back on his head and smoothed it over the side of his face. There was tingling, illumination, and heightened awareness. Ah, that’s so much better. Now, where was I? Yes, I was about to kill this cap-stealing witch. He approached and put the sword to her neck. “Is your head hurting?”
Rubbing her temples, she said, “It feels like someone dropped an anvil on it. Please, put me out of my misery, Melegal.”
He cocked back, started into his swing, and stopped. “No, I can’t do that, even though you deserve it after aiding Altan Rey and his betrayal of us. I’m not one to kill women, and I find you pretty. It’s so hard to mistreat comely. It’s a flaw of mine.”
She reached out. “I’m grateful.”
“Don’t be grateful. I’m still leaving you in the hands of the underlings. As for me, I’ll be just fine.” He began to twist the Ring of Vanishing.
“No, wait! It was Altan that betrayed you, not me, and even he hoped that the plan would work.”
Melegal smacked her on top of the head with the flat of his blade. “Is that so? Then why was I taken to the gallows, and why were my objects stolen?”
“Ow,” she said, rubbing her head. “He said you wouldn’t fit the profile of a fighter. You were a hard sell. In truth, you know you wouldn’t have lasted like the others. They would have slain you. You had a better chance in the gallows than in the pits.” She cast her eyes at Altan’s corpse. “He wasn’t so bad. He just wanted to take care of me and himself.”
“He served the underlings. There’s nothing redeeming about that, ever. As for you, you are baggage. Go away.”
Ashlyn threw herself at him. “Please, please, please, take me with you.”
“I can’t. And don’t get blood on my vest. This fabric is a difficult acquisition.”
“Really?”
“Just don’t get blood on it.” He cocked his head. “Oh dear.”
“What?”
“I hear Venir laughing. That can’t be good.”
“Laughing is a good thing, no?”
“Not when he’s dealing with underlings.”
A loud, painful wail carried into the preparation chamber from the arena. Melegal scuttled toward the bunker where the fighters waited. He crept inside the back end. Underlings were chittering orders as they hopped into the arena. The badoon underlings already in the arena backed into the dugout. Melegal shoved Ashlyn back. “Hide quick. They’re coming!”
***
Jarla’s fingers caressed the mystic sack like it was the soft skin of a baby. Her heart raced. She’d abandoned all hope that she would be in the presence of the armament again. But she had it, tight in her fingers, like so many long years ago when her royal colleagues violated her.
“What is it, princess?” Pernsky said with his warted face pressed against the bars.
“A reckoning.” She opened up the neck of the sack. A tingling sensation ran up her fingertips. She stuck her arm inside. The inside of the sack felt like an empty room filled with cold air. She fished around. Her fingertips touched metal and brushed against wood. She gripped the handle and pulled the object out. The pommel came out first, followed by a long, dark-stained shaft of wood. Next came the twin black blades. The war axe was huge. “Slat, t
his isn’t mine. It’s Venir’s.”
“Show me what you have, exotic one,” Pernsky said. “Please, I must see.”
Even with a sinking heart, Jarla marveled at the terrifying weapon in her hand. The dark blades shone on the edges. The spike was stark and menacing. She ran her fingers over the cutouts in the blade’s metal. It was light to handle, but there was heft. She fished inside the sack some more but found nothing else. “The day I lost this to him is the day I died.”
“What is that you say?”
Jarla faced the ugly man, holding the axe in her hands.
“Gah! Where did you get that weapon? You cannot possess that weapon! Give it to me!”
“It’s not a weapon.” She approached the cell door. “It’s a key.” She jammed the spike in the keyhole and twisted. The metal tumblers in the mechanism shattered. She shoved the door open.
Pernsky cowered. “Don’t kill me! I worship you, great lady! Please, don’t harm me. I’ll do anything. I’ll take you to your friend.”
“Tell me, Pernsky, how many times have your forced yourself on women?”
Waving his hands in front of his face, he said, “Never not once, never not once. I’m too ugly. Too ashamed. I used to be handsome before the witch Manamus got me. I’m sorry I teased you, just warrior.”
“You’re lying, aren’t you, Pernsky?”
“No, no lies!”
Jarla wanted to stab him in the heart. She knew he was lying. She’d killed men for less in the past, but now, she didn’t have it in her. This war wasn’t with men, it was with underlings. She marked him on the arm with the tip of her axe.
Pernsky shimmied away. “You won’t kill me.”
“I will if you betray me.” She slung Brool over her shoulder. “Now, take me to the pit.”
CHAPTER 20
Master Sinway’s mind suffocated Venir’s thoughts.
“You will die, Darkslayer!” Sinway said. “You will die swimming in your own guts. Now tell me where the armament is!”
Venir was drowning in a sea of black. The void permeated his body. It burned, everywhere. He climbed through the hellish black fires with a will that would not give. The current of evil tried to take him. He held fast. He’d fought over a thousand times before. One more was nothing. No matter how painful.
“Tell me all that I must know!”
Sinway’s mind-probing powers drilled into Venir’s memories. A flood of information came forward from the very first moment he touched the armament and beyond. Venir saw the axe, Brool, plucked from his fingers by Sinway. The underling held it in the air, gloating. A lightning bolt streaked down through the purple-black sky, charging the weapon. Sinway chittered with glee.
“Get out of my head, fiend!” Venir managed to say. His body bucked in the webs. “Get out!”
A new image sprung forth—a vicious underling bulging in muscle wielded the armament. It wore a metal helmet with burning black eyelets. Burning ruby eyes glared from the eye holes. It carried a shield with notches designed on the edge. The axe it carried had nasty jagged edges. The underling darkslayer hunted down and slew every friend Venir ever had. Red blood flooded into the gutters on the streets.
Master Sinway cackled. “You are doomed.”
Venir, bare chested, faced off with the evil darkslayer version of himself in a dark and dustier version of the Warfield. The evil darkslayer came at him. Venir ducked a fatal swing. He popped up and spit in the fiend’s eyes. “This is my armament!”
Venir wrestled over the ground for the axe. He landed hard punches. He ripped the axe free from the monster’s grasp and split its face in half. “My axe!”
Back in reality, his hard blue eyes shot open. His hot gaze locked onto Master Sinway’s iron eyes. There was outrage. Shock.
Sinway hissed. “You know nothing!” He floated away and turned. “That sack is here still! I sense it! Find it!”
The underling soldiers broke off into search parties. The rest of the audience remained.
“I beat you,” Venir muttered. There wasn’t an ounce of strength left in him. His head was pounded like a blacksmith’s hammer on an anvil. “I beat you.”
Sinway faced him once more. “You beat nothing. You are about to die. Already, the wolf spiders nibble at your fingers. Your comrades’ as well.”
Brak and Ebenezer screamed. The wolf spiders, with fuzzy white hair and red stripes, gnawed on their flesh.
“Get it off of me! Get it off of me!” Ebenezer screamed.
“Heh-heh-heh,” Sinway said in a very human way. “Enjoy your death; I know that I will.” He floated back into the stands and took his place between Elypsa and Kuurn, who were now seated.
“Father! It hurts!” Brak called out. “Aaaaaugh!”
Venir’s heart clenched. He fought against his bonds. It did no good. Sinway was right. The end had finally come. The call for the armament had fallen to someone else. In the end, he had failed. “Don’t cry out, son!” he shouted to Brak. “Don’t give them the satisfaction!”
His shouts carried over Ebenezer’s own wailing. The underlings looked on the dying men, unable to hide their wicked hearts. Their gray faces showed glee… elation. It was sickening to see one taking such pleasure in suffering. The underlings delighted in it.
Venir crushed a palmful of spiders in his hand. It was all he could do. He squished their guts out with his fingertips. “Fight or die!”
Brak caught sight of him. His hands, as big as shovel spades, did the same thing. He clenched his palms. “Fight or die!”
“Fight or die!” Venir hollered back. “The old knight swings! Lady death sings! Fight or die, lads! Fight or die!”
Together, they sang out the same chorus. Somehow, Ebenezer managed to join in.
The underlings’ triumphant expressions soured with disappointment. They hissed and chittered in offense. Kuurn shouted out, “Stop saying that!”
“Slat on you, underling!” Brak shouted fiercely. “Fight or die, you giant rat turd!”
A strange buzz overcame the room. Venir managed a glance up. There was a spider on his nose. He tried to shake it off. A swarm of termite-like insects with sandy bodies and light-blue wings flew down from the skylight above. They attacked the spiders, goring them with bee-like needles on their tails. The wolf spiders’ legs stiffened like paralyzed hands. Many dropped to the floor. Others clung to the web.
The wolf spider gnawing on Venir’s nose froze then fell. A bug replaced it. The odd termite had the bulging bug eyes like a strider. It winked at Venir just before it flew away, and Venir swore that it smiled. Slim?
The spider threat was gone, but they were still stuck in the webbing. He looked up at Brak, who hung a body higher than him. Together, they burst out laughing.
“Ha! Ha! Fight or die!”
Kuurn silenced them both with two pairs of lightning jolts from his fingers. The hairs on the men’s bodies sizzled. With a heaving chest, Kuurn said, “No more! Master Sinway, I beg you, can I kill them?”
Eyes simmering with rage, Sinway said, “Yes, Kuurn, you may.”
Lightning streaked out of Kuurn’s fingers. Father and son cried out as the bolts of power smote both men’s flesh with scalding intensity. The onslaught burned skin and clothing. The smell of burned hair filled the air.
CHAPTER 21
Melegal vanished. As he did so, Ashlyn scurried into a doorless locker, curled up, and covered herself in towels and clothing. Melegal pressed himself into a nook. It came naturally, even when he was invisible. Just in case I’m not invisible. It’s odd not seeing myself. I like it.
A foursome of underlings jogged into the prep room. Bulging in sinewy muscles, with carved-up skin and body piercings, came the fearsome badoon. Covered in ghoulish tattoos, they chittered among themselves.
The wickedness in their voices rankled Melegal. He fought the urge to stab one. Just move on, gray hides. After a short, chittering chat, the underlings departed. Finally.
No one else was coming, but ther
e was still plenty of turmoil coming from the arena. Master Sinway’s voice carried like a bullhorn. So did Venir’s but without enchanted power. Ashlyn came out of her concealment.
“Why did you hide in an ogre’s trousers?”
“Where are you?” she said, sparkling blue eyes searching after his voice.
“I’m here. Come.” He reached out and took her hand. “Better?”
“I suppose.” She squeezed his hand, trembling a little. “Now what do we do?”
“We don’t do anything.” He moved into the darkness of the dugout, towing her behind him. “Keep quiet.”
Venir, Brak, and Chongo were strung up in the webbing. Spiders were eating them. Ebenezer screamed like a woman.
Ashlyn gasped. “They’re being consumed like the dead. I can’t look.”
Melegal was at a loss. He couldn’t walk out there and cut the web. The only thing he could think to do was burn it. But that only worked some of the time, and he’d probably have to give up his invisible identity. I’ll never pull that off!
Madness begat madness as Venir and Brak belted out an abysmal “Fight or Die” song.
He is such a lout. He doesn’t even know how to die right. I’d be like Ebenezer—screaming like a woman.
His head tingled. Something lurked in the ceiling. Before Melegal could stab at the unknown enemy, it dropped from its hiding spot. A small muscular body crushed Ashlyn into the ground. Talon-like hands pierced her ribs. Its wide jaws with protruding fangs clamped down on her throat. Wide-eyed, she died instantly with her gaze frozen on Melegal. He stabbed the creature through the spine. Hunchbacked bastard! He stabbed it a few more times. His body became visible. Not again! He twisted the ring and vanished again. I wonder how many times I can do this?
Shoving the urchling aside, he kneeled down and closed Ashlyn’s beautiful eyes. “So sorry. I intended to save you, regardless of my words. I have a soft spot for most ladies, even the bad ones.” He turned his attention back to the arena. “But, I guess I’m going to have to save my friend instead.”
The Darkslayer: Bish and Bone Series Collector's Edition (Books 1-10): Sword and Sorcery Masterpieces Page 115