CHAPTER 31
Over one thousand dwarves perished under the stones. Explosions rang through the Black Columns from all directions. Smoke, dust, and rubble filled the air. The underlings fought dirty. Cowardly. They sank to any low to win. “Mood, what do you require of me?” Aaluun said.
“Get some dwarves down into the rubble, and save who you can. Go now! Take the shield bearers with you,” Mood said. The fight had taken a turn for the worst. The dwarves’ backs were against the wall. Now, the wall had fallen on them. They were moments from being trapped in the Black Columns. The curtains would close once and for all soon after that. He let out a gusty sigh that ruffled the long ends on his blood-red moustache. “It’s fighting time.”
Mood trudged down the rocks where a fierce battle raged. The dwarves, outnumbered three to one, fought against a new current of underlings that swarmed in. Mood stood tall on a rocky outcropping, staring down at the melee twenty feet below. The underlings stabbed their cruelly designed weapons, ripping dwarven flesh. The dwarves, protected by hardened steel armor and helms, shoved their weapons into the underlings with devastating accuracy. It wouldn’t be enough. Mood banged his axes together. “Ready or not, underlings, here Mood comes!”
Axes spread out, he leapt from the ledge, hanging in the air like a great bird until he dropped into the ranks. He crushed underlings beneath him. His twin axes went to work. “Have at them, dwarves! Show them the dwarven machine’s power!”
With Mood in the lead, the dwarves’ ranks tightened. The fighting reached a new fervor. They belted out battle cries. Row by row, they pushed the underlings back. Marching forward with small metal shields, they called out in dwarven. “Shove! Thrust! Shove! Thrust! Shove! Thrust!”
“They are no match for us!” Mood shouted. His hacking axes slung blood like splattering paint. “No mercy! Huzzah!”
The underling ranks caved.
“Seize the moment, brethren!” Mood roared. “Seize the moment!”
Out of nowhere, a sand spider scurried amidst the dwarves with a black barrel attached to its back. Instantly, the underlings retreated. Mood bellowed, “Take cover!”
The barrel and spider exploded in an ear-jolting Ka-Boom!
Mood slammed into a rock wall. Dead dwarves fell beside him. His head pulsated. Blood covered his face. A dwarven warrior in a suit of chain mail twitched. Half of his face was missing. The stink of foul smoke from the mystic black powder and scorched flesh hung in the air. Mood kneeled down by his warrior and cradled the dwarf.
“Is it bad, my king?” the dwarf said. His only good eye was fixed on Mood. The other was gone. “I can’t feel my fingers.”
“It’s a fine wound. A fine one.”
“Worse than yours, I hope.”
“As bad as I’ve ever seen,” Mood said, offering a grim smile.
“I took fifteen of the fiends, my king. I want to take more.”
“I’ll take more for you,” Mood said. “You are valiant, Ecklun. I’m proud to be your king.”
“Honor to serve…” With a gasp, Ecklun died.
The hard-fighting sounds of battle echoed throughout the columns. The dwarves would fight until there was no fight left in them. Mood waded through the smoke. Dwarves were strewn all over the sands. He couldn’t take a step without seeing a fallen dwarf. He stepped into one of the passes where a loud commotion came from dwarves and underlings.
“Curse my eyes!”
A thirty-foot giant stood in the channel, swatting his great arms at everything that moved.
***
Georgio and Lefty were tied up and bound to large stakes in the ground. The striders piled wood around them all the way up to their knees.
“We are not your enemy!” Lefty screamed. “The underlings are our enemies. Please, tell your leader we are on his side. So we stretched the truth a little. We did what we had to do to survive.”
The striders went about their business, piling the sticks a little higher. A ring of striders had formed around them. The leader, Kocus, was present in body only. He stood on his knees, shouting at the sky in strider language.
“Save your breath,” Georgio said to Lefty.
“For what shall I save it?”
“Perhaps you can blow the flames out when they start.”
Lefty shot Georgio a look. “Are you trying to be humorous? Now? Of all times?” Two striders caught his attention. They were inspecting Lefty’s blue-bladed dagger. “That’s mine, mind you. But you can have it if you free me. It has a special power. But I have to be alive to share it with you.”
The striders tilted their heads. One of them spit black juice on the wood.
“I don’t think they are interested.” Georgio’s stomach growled. “I wish I didn’t have to die on an empty stomach.”
“Unlike me, you probably won’t die. You’ll probably burn and it will be mighty painful, but eventually, the flames will fizzle out and you will heal.”
“Do you really think so?”
Lefty gave a sad nod. “Yes, but it will most likely go on for hours. I’ll be long dead. Just remember me, Georgio. I honestly tried to be a true friend.”
“You are a true friend. One I would die for. Hopefully not more than once though.” His brows perched. The striders lit up a pair of torches. “I have an idea. Perhaps it will work. What did you say that strider’s name was?”
“Tarcot.” They had both brought up the name several times, but this tribe of striders didn’t know him.
“No, the other one.”
“Oh, that’s Kocus. It’s easy to remember because it rhymes with Locus.”
“I suppose I can remember that, not that I’ll need to remember much of anything much longer.” Georgio called out. “Kocus! Kocus!”
“What are you doing? Don’t interrupt him. They are very tribal people. They take these ceremonies very seriously.”
“Kocus! Kocus!” A strider walked over to Georgio and slapped him in the face, one at a time, with all four hands. His entire face stung.
“What are you planning?”
“You say they are a spiritual people. Perhaps we can convince them that we are special people.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m going to suggest they burn me, before they burn you. If I live, it’s a sign and we both go free.”
“That’s a brilliant idea, but I wouldn’t expect you to do that for me. It’s too risky. I’d hate to see you perish on my account.”
Georgio eyed him. “You thought of this plan, didn’t you?”
“Who? Me?”
“I know you, Lefty. Just admit it.”
“Fine. It crossed my mind the moment we were tied to the stake. It was going to be a last-resort suggestion. You know I wouldn’t want you to die unless it was absolutely necessary, but we don’t have another way out.”
“That’s pretty sad that this is the only idea that either of us can come up with.”
“Indeed.”
Kocus rose up to full height and came toward Georgio.
“Eh, why don’t you let me do the talking, Georgio?” Lefty said.
Georgio managed a shrug.
With both sets of arms crossed over his chest, Kocus said, “You wish to speak. Speak.”
“Mighty, Kocus, I can prove that we are not your enemy. We are destined to be here and help fight our mutual enemy, the underlings.” He cleared his throat. “My comrade, Georgio, may burn, but he won’t die. If he can outlast your flames, then you set us both free.”
“You will be proven a liar once more, halfling man.” Kocus made some clicking sounds. “If it is as you say, the spirits of the sands and sky will make it so.” He motioned to the strider holding the torch. As the strider came forward, he said to Georgio, “You are willing to do this?”
“Even if I die, I hope you’ll consider setting my friend free despite his alleged treachery.”
Kocus leaned forward. “No.” He clapped his hands. “Now burn him.”
&nbs
p; The strider tossed the torches on the blanket of wood at Georgio’s feet. The wood caught quick. The fire spread and smoked. In seconds, flames crackled all around. Georgio screamed.
CHAPTER 32
Venir lay still, pinned beneath the stones from the hallway above. The heavy rock and marble had knocked him from the saddle. His fingers touched Chongo’s hair. The two-headed dog’s breathing stirred the rubble. Helm throbbed.
The fiends are getting desperate.
Through a crack in the rubble, he could see an underling mage hovering over him. It floated high. Its emerald eyes were wary. Its fingers clawed at the air and began to sparkle. Shards of green energy jolted through Venir. His exposed arm straightened in the air, shocked for a long moment. It fell down once the energy passed through.
Racked with pain, Venir held his position. He tasted the bitter tang of metal in his mouth. In his lifetime, he’d been hit with more underling energy than every lightning storm that passed over him. Life was pain. He was used to it.
His arm lay still between the broken rock, the hairs singed off. The underling mage lowered from the air. Its robes dusted the top of the rubble inches from Venir’s fingers.
Come on, little fish. Just a little closer.
The underling touched down. It reached for Venir. A hard nail poked his meaty forearm.
Venir’s hand shot up. He snatched the underling by the throat and squeezed. The throat gave way to his iron grip in a sickening crunch of inner flesh. The underling let out a ragged sigh as it died. Venir shoved it away. With a heave, he shoved a half-ton of rock from his chest and pulled out his pinned legs.
I’m free!
He touched Chongo’s exposed snout. “Let’s get you out of there, boy.” Venir still sensed underlings. There were two mages before, but the other one was nowhere to be found. He grabbed a rock that he could barely get his arms around. With a grunt, he hauled it up to his shoulder. An underling, half-buried in the rock, began worming itself free. Venir dropped the huge stone. Blackish-red blood shot out over the rocks in a greasy smear. Venir let out a little laugh. “It’s been a while.”
One of Chongo’s heads whimpered.
A huge section of wall had the dog pinned down. Chongo didn’t have the leverage to wriggle out. Venir worried the dog’s leg or hip was broken. He lay there like a lame horse. Venir needed to act fast. Helm gave him a strong feeling that the second underling mage was gathering reinforcements. They were on their way. He needed a pry bar, or something, to help him move the rock just enough.
“Father!” Brak called out from the end of the hall.
“Brak! You were supposed to leave.”
Running up to him, Brak said, “I couldn’t. I had a dream.”
“Just now?”
“No, days ago.” Brak put his shoulder against the slab of stone. Digging his feet into the rubble, he pushed.
Venir joined in. Father and son grunted. Muscles bulged in their necks and legs. Pulsing blue veins burst up under the skin. The slab shifted. “Heave, son! Heave!”
The slab moved a few inches. Helm throbbed. Venir and Brak were lifted off their feet by an unseen force. The force propelled them both, slamming them hard into the walls.
The underling mage was back. Using its telekinetic power, it slung Venir and Brak from wall to wall. In a malicious act, the mage slammed both men together.
Brak’s face cracked off Venir’s helmet. His nose bled. Venir and his son fought to get back to their feet only to be tossed aside by magic.
Helm gave Venir a strong sense of the mage’s great power. It was one of the stronger ones he’d faced. Brak sagged against the wall, his body crushed into broken shelving. “Stay down, Brak,” Venir said from the other side of the room.
Quick for a big man, Brak scooped up a chunk of stone and flung it hard at the mage. The stone busted the mage in the face. The mage sank to the ground.
Venir darted to his feet, running at full speed toward the mage. The mage’s glowing hands shot up, shielding its face. Venir hacked the fingers off and split its face. “Brak, we’re going to have more company!” He rushed over to Chongo. “Help me move this. What are you doing?”
Brak was on his feet. He sought the cudgel, Spine Breaker. It lay on the floor. The moment he picked it up, the white ash glowed a soft white. It lit his face up. “Let me try something.”
Venir stepped away from the huge slab of stone that pinned Chongo down.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Brak cocked the weapon back. The cudgel turned a brilliant white. Letting out a roar, he swung into the slab with wroth force. Crack! The slab pulverized into a hundred large pieces.
Chongo lurched out of the rubble and licked Brak’s face.
Venir climbed into the saddle. “Come on, son! As much as it’s going to kill me to go so soon, we’re getting out of here. Get us out of here, Chongo! Yah, Chongo! Yah!”
A squad of underlings jammed into the exit at the far end of the hall. Chongo charged through them. Venir let the two-headed dog lead the way. The beast leapt like a horse from one of the balconies into the smaller courtyard filled with shocked underlings. Chongo raced through them. Venir and Brak swung at the surging fiends. Steel and wood made contact with flesh and bone. Chongo took the stairs from the courtyard up to the castle’s outer wall. Up on the ramparts, they killed another handful of underlings.
“Hang on, Brak!” Venir roared.
Brak held his father tight.
Chongo leapt from the castle wall down into the street. They raced down the roadway, shocking the Bish out of everyone they passed. When they ducked into an alley, Venir took off the helmet and let out a sigh. “Brak, are you all right?”
“Never better. Now what?”
“I’m going to see Kam’s body.”
CHAPTER 33
Dogs! Of all the things, they have dogs! Melegal climbed over the outside railing of the top flag spire. He climbed over the rail and underneath the deck. Carefully, he crawled into brackets that held the outer railing and catwalk suspended. Clinging there, he waited. Within seconds, the underlings and dogs appeared on the outer catwalk. The underlings circled around the catwalks, making confusing chitters to one another.
Idiots!
The cave dogs were a different matter. Two of the huge, mangy beasts clawed at the planks above Melegal’s head. Their foul slavering drool dripped between the planks onto Melegal’s clothing. Yecht! He fought the urge to stab a beast in the face.
The underlings tugged at the dogs’ collars, but the beasts wouldn’t give. One of the underlings flattened out on the catwalk. He peered underneath, scanning side to side, but looking for a long moment on Melegal.
Melegal could see that he was still invisible, but it was an odd thing, not being able to see oneself. It gave him an unwelcome sense of insecurity. He relied on more than his eyesight to exercise his skills, but total concealment was intense. He held his hand out in front of him. It wasn’t there. It makes me wonder if I even exist. He stuck his tongue out at the underling. Vile thing! I hope you run into my friends on the way down. The underling rolled back onto the catwalk and talked to the others.
A commotion started in the courtyard below. All the underlings leaned over the railing. Venir and Brak were on the back of Chongo, riding though the underlings like they were oversized rodents. There was about thirty seconds of intense action before Chongo charged up the ramparts and leapt the castle wall into the streets. The small of Melegal’s back tightened. How grand? I’m the only one fool enough to still be in the castle. Let the annuals show that it was I, Melegal, that rescued them. Lousy, louts.
Melegal remained in his perch, arms wrapped around the metal, feet planted into the wall in a crouched position. His arms started to burn. I can’t hang here all day. To his dismay, a pair of dogs remained. It was clear the dogs could either see or smell him. He wouldn’t be able to climb back onto the catwalk without having his hands bitten off. There was only one way out—down the neck of the tower. He wriggled hi
s nimble fingers. It’s been a while, boys.
With saliva dripping from the planks to his shoulder, he broke free of the brace and began the agonizing downward climb. The tower consisted of chiseled stone blocks and mortar. There was enough of a ledge on each block for him to get a toe hold. His hands, never sweaty or clammy, gave him a dry grip. Taking his time, he moved down the surface one level at a time. Twenty feet into it, his muscles were burning.
This used to be an easy climb. I’m already winded.
Melegal climbed everything he could scale back in the day. It started in his youth. He crawled up into the highest places to hide from people. It continued when he made a career of robbing people. Climbing was freedom to him.
He made it halfway down the tower with only fifty feet left to go before the first spider appeared. The pony-sized bug with eight tiny red eyes that gleamed like jewels came right at him.
I’m sick of these things!
Clinging to the tower like a fly, he didn’t move. The sand spider’s front legs touched his back. It paused. Slowly, its feet massaged Melegal’s back and legs. The sticky feet stuck to his clothing. The spider opened its mouth, revealing fangs dripping with venom. It leaned into Melegal’s face. The acid-like venom dripped from its mouth onto Melegal’s shoulder. It burned through the clothing, scorching the skin underneath.
Melegal’s mind cried out. His fingers dug into the rock. He bit the inside of his cheek. The spider’s legs patted over his body for a long minute. Its gaping mouth snapped open and closed. Below its abdomen, the spinnerets started to open.
Slat on this! I might be many things, but I won’t be spider food!
Fighting to keep his hold on the wall, Melegal touched the spider with the tip of his finger. He sent a charge from his ring into the giant insect. The spider’s legs curled up. It fell like a stone, bouncing off the balcony below and into the bushes. Underlings in the courtyard stared upward and aimed their crossbows at the tower.
I might be a dead man, but at least I’m not a meal.
The Darkslayer: Bish and Bone Series Collector's Edition (Books 1-10): Sword and Sorcery Masterpieces Page 119