by J M Guillen
“Unless I’m mistaken, my dear friend Abriel has chosen to hitchhike along on this excursion?” He raised one eyebrow at Alicia.
“Oh.” She gave him a sunny smile. “Hi, Simon.”
“Hello there, O’ Abriel.” He shook his head and a touch of confusion played at the corners of his eyes.
“Dad left me her token,” I hurriedly explained.
“I know.” He turned to Alicia and then back to me. “I’m a little more concerned with how your friend became the caretaker for secrets intended for you?”
“It’s been a strange few days,” I winced.
“Abriel has watched me build the Scions of Babel from nothing!” Simon ran one hand through his mussed hair, overwhelmed. “Did you give her the token? Just hand her everything I created?”
“We’ll have to talk about th—”
“Liz, I trusted y—!”
An excruciating, gangrenous laugh sliced through the darkness to my left. That awful sound mutilated space itself, poisoned the world around us. Lorne’s mirth was no mere laughter; it was like a dirge of cancerous, eldritch horror.
We each started and spun in that direction even as we heard the crack of Rehl’s pistol.
He sprinted along a wall of the garage sale detritus and fired into a creature that stood almost three times his height and bore huge bull’s horns.
He is not fighting a minotaur, some part of my mind yammered. Not in a labyrinth.
“That’s …” Simon's voice trailed off and his eyes grew hard. “Oh, Elizabeth.”
“I’ve officially decided that bargaining with the Gaunt Man might have been a mistake,” I chirped at him brightly.
“Yeah.” He skewed up one side of his mouth the way he did when he focused on something.
I peered toward Rehl, trying to figure out what had captured Simon’s gaze.
Other creatures lumbered in the shadows, creatures the Gaunt Man had certainly summoned.
Even though the Assets and Rehl fought side-by-side, it seemed as if they were about to be overwhelmed.
Behind them all, I saw the distorted, monolithic outline of the Gaunt Man himself.
The inhuman menace moved between shadows, stepped between them as easily as I might step across a threshold. Even from so far away, I felt the barbarous atrocity of the light that burned in those eyes, the way they regarded me, almost as if a viperous caress.
“Gumdrop,” Simon’s tone felt casual, yet I could feel that it held a hidden knife. “Who are those two… Gentlemen out there with your friend Rehl?”
Alicia caught my gaze, her eyes wide. She gave a tiny, frantic shake of her head.
“That’s a long story too,” I said.
“No, it’s not.” Simon’s eyes grew hard. “It’s a short one. They’re monsters. They’ll fuck you. The end.”
“Simon!” Alicia’s eyes were wide.
“I know how you feel, and you’re not wrong.” I held up one hand, pleadingly. “There’s a lot to explain here, and I promise I will.”
In the shadows, the Gaunt Man laughed as Rehl brought the bull-headed horror down to the ground by shooting out its knees.
That laughter haunted me, mocked me. I couldn’t help but feel that this, all of this death and pain, amounted to little more than the Gaunt Man making a point to me.
“So…” I shook my head. “What I really need is for you to trust me. We’re not with those guys, not really. But because they think we are, they fought the monsters long enough for me to find you.”
“You telling me you’re using the Gentlemen?” he scoffed, just a bit.
“If it will hurry this along.” I gave him a strained smile. “I’d rather not die here.”
Simon looked at me for a moment, then gave me a rueful grin. He chuckled, a sound that seemed out of place against the shadows of Lorne’s shop.
I gave a weak smile in return.
“All right, Turnip.” He shook his head. “I’ll play the good little damsel. You got a way to get us out of here?”
Maybe. I crossed every finger I had as I turned to Baxter. “Bax, you and Rehl were keeping track of misplaced walls a while back?”
“Yeah?” Baxter’s skin tone looked positively unhealthy. “What about it?”
“Are we close to any now? Any of the walls?”
“Sure.” He nodded. “Smart play, putting our back to a wall. Give them a negative surprise bonus.”
“Yeah,” I smiled at him. “How far?”
“To a wall?” He seemed a touch dazed. “Um, that way, about three minutes maybe.” He jerked his chin to his left.
I glanced out to the Assets and Rehl as they frantically fought against Lorne and his bound monstrosities.
They had moved approximately fifty yards further along the wending aisle leaving a trail of frozen… chunks of various creatures along the floor, as well as scorched furniture and the corpses of bizarre, animalistic beasts.
I relaxed into my power and let go of fear and worry and everything small that harried my heart.
I took a deep breath, and the Wind coursed through me, around me. It teased my hair, capered and played. It had the spirit of a child and wanted little more than for me to stop and play as well.
I opened my eyes and saw Simon gaze squarely at me. A wistful glance, followed by a nod. I felt his pride in me.
“Oh, Sassafras.” His smile grew wider.
I turned back toward the battle, and the darkness of Lorne.
“Come back.”I half whispered, half thought. I intended this for all three of my allies, and knew, in my heart, each of them would hear. “We may have our way out. Fall back.”
Baxter, right next to me, heard what I said as well. Struggling, he reached over his back and eased a hand into the pack he had strapped there. He pulled out a single flare.
“Help you with that.” Simon stepped over to him and lit it.
“Not that it’s going to be dark anytime soon,” Baxter teased Alicia. “But if the party is on the move, then I should get started now. I’m not interested in being outrun by people who have the unfair advantage of, oh say, blood left inside them.”
“You’re right; that wouldn’t be fair.” I gave Baxter a smile. “You and Alicia should go ahead and get started for that wall. We’ll be able to follow the light easily enough.”
“Then I guess this is for you.” He dropped the lit flare on the ground and gathered his pack.
“Wait.” Simon stopped in place and stared at Baxter with stunned recognition and shock. Then, he shook his head, amusement in his eyes. “Baxter.” Simon cocked his head, extending a hand as he pointed at the young man.
“Yeah?” He looked up at Simon, a bit dazed.
“Would you mind giving me my cane back?”
9
“I actually brought my staff,” Simon grumbled as we stood together and waited in the darkness. “Few other doodads too. I bet I won’t see them again.”
“You’ve got to tell me how he caught you,” I whispered as Bax and Alicia slipped further from the party. “I never would’ve thought he could.”
“You know how the Gaunt Man is far more than you thought he was?”
“Yeah.” I bit my lip. “Way more.”
“Well, as it turns out, the Gaunt Man is far more than I thought he was.” Simon gave me a rueful smile.
We chuckled together for a moment and watched as Rehl and the two Assets finally began to organize their retreat.
After another moment, Simon spoke again. “Hey just out of curiosity,” he raised one eyebrow at me, “you gotta way out ’a here, right?”
“I’m hoping.” I reached inside my jacket.
“Oh boy.” He shook his head after catching a glimpse of what I held. “I have no idea if that’ll work.”
“That’s what we got.” I considered for a moment. “Why wouldn’t it work?”
“Empyrean is like a lot ’a magic in this world. It only works in the context of the story you’re telling.” He made a show of looking around us.
“I get the feeling that the Gaunt Man is the one who sets the rules here.”
“You never make any sense,” I muttered. “I’m—”
“Fleeing?” The Gaunt Man’s voice echoed through epochs and burbled with endless corruption. “Are you not pleased with my hospitality?”
Neither Rehl nor the Assets responded, simply focused on creating a clear path to us. Garret shot two creatures that leapt out of the darkness, gigantic jaguars crafted from exposed muscle and sanguine ichor.
“Asshole!” the large Asset swore as he whirled on a goat-like beast that slipped on to his side.
The loathsome thing had no eyes, rather eyestalks that sprouted from its head like some kind of mutant beholder. A dirty-yellow glyph on its forehead burned with putrid light. It hissed.
“Not today, Billy.” The big man typed manically on that keyboard, and with a WHUF, shot the hircine beholder, center mass.
It then fell upward, bleating wildly and flailing arm-tentacles.
I stared, captivated.
“I’m gonna tell you how to handle that little trinket,” Simon turned to me, “and what you need to say. You’ll escort your… friends to the exit.”
“Okay.” I nodded.
“This is the line.” He ran his toe across the floor. “They get there, and I’ll call upon the Watchers to hold the Gaunt Man back. You get everyone else out. Then we escape.”
“Um.” I furrowed my brow at him. “What were you just saying about Empyrean—?”
“Listen, Lil’ Filly.” He shot me a look. “What I really need is for you to trust me,” he parroted my words back to me.
“Fine.” I shook my head. “Tell me what to do.”
He did, with quick, specific instructions.
“Really?” I laughed. “You know, if I’d tried to use it without knowing, I could have made things worse.”
“Only you,” he chuckled, “would be capable of making this worse.”
“It’s my mentor’s influence.” I smiled.
“Ima’ start my beckonings and calls,” he continued. “That way, it’ll be faster when the moment comes.”
With Alicia on the run, Abriel’s light faded even further. The three before us continued their steady pace, hampered by the creatures that sprung from the shadows.
So many. I glanced around as quickly as I could, trying to track everything:
A creature that looked more fish-toad than human leapt from the side near Garret, loathsome and wet. All scale and flipper and wide, baleful eye, it lunged at him out of dire shadow—
A slender woman, all but nude, with hair like sable midnight, wearing only chains and leather. Her glyph shone a furious orange. She leveled a silver longbow at Rehl—
A hollow-faced monstrosity galumphed along on three pale legs. A fungal growth covered the creature, having already eaten much of its chest cavity and face. It wailed as it attacked, swinging hairless arms that looked as if they belonged on a gorilla—
And so many more.
They died by Rehl’s bullets, died by Garret blasting huge holes in them. The large man’s rivet gun took out many more: frozen in bluish light, yanked violently upward, or burst into flames.
More. Still. Came.
All the while, the Gaunt Man taunted and teased, yet remained beyond their reach. He toyed with them.
“Jasriel, lord of the Watchtower of Flame and Law, hear me…” Eyes closed, Simon traced his fingers along one of the delicate sigils marked on his left side in preparation.
“Come on,” I spoke into the Wind, more thought than whisper. “Just get to us.” I gathered myself as I waited and readied for the coming fray.
Garret raised his hand and closed his fist to let me know he understood. As they ran, the other Asset sprayed his weapon behind them. Several bluish pulses of light appeared and froze their pursuers.
Close. Almost there.
“Clever little Templar.” The Gaunt Man didn’t move, didn’t sprint up to Garret. Instead, as Garret ran through one of those midnight shadows, Lorne already stood within it.
The baleful, spectral horror loomed there, standing three times as tall as he ever had before. Every joint of him, every knee and elbow, bent uncannily, which gave him more the shape of a great spider than a man.
His eyes burned with corrupt, unclean colors, and his fiendish laugh infected all who heard it.
“Did you believe your life still belonged to you?” Lorne reached out. The ambiguous shadows of his fingers writhed around Garret’s abdomen, as easily as I might catch a kitten.
“Arrrrrrrrchhggh!” Garret screamed wet agony. He squirmed frantically and tried to free his weapon hand.
The Gaunt Man moved with casual, clinical grace as he lifted Garret several yards off the ground.
“No!” I spat and prepared to launch myself forward.
“Wait!” Simon hissed, one arm out in front of me like a mother protecting her child from a car crash. “If an Asset can’t do anything, neither can you!”
“Your life lay forfeit the moment you followed the little bitch into my realm.” Lorne turned Garret toward him and stared squarely into the man’s face.
Those unclean colors burned in Lorne’s eyes. They darkled, shining from deep within the Gaunt Man. Whatever forge burned within that lamentation, its light shone with madness, with incomprehensible knowing.
Garret screamed again and again and again. He flailed in his attempt to squirm away, and his eyes began to bleed.
Then, with neither effort nor concern, the Gaunt Man grasped Garret’s arm by the bicep. With a sickening, wet POP, he ripped the arm out of its socket, and further, tore it away entirely. He turned toward me, smiled, and threw the arm in my direction.
Garret’s agony wailed throughout the chamber.
“Oh God.” My heart pounded with unreasoning, animal terror, and tears streamed down my face. “How did I ever think I could—?” My voice choked off.
“Easy, Liz,” Simon rasped. His eyes were wide and he trembled.
“Fuck!” The large Asset whirled, fury and wrath burning in his eyes. His fingers practically blurred on his keys, and he glared at the Gaunt Man, a snarl on his lips.
WHUF. He shot once, but he hit the inhuman menace square. For the first time, I realized that he shot silvery spikes, much like the crossbowman.
Lorne reared back from the shot and cried out in fury. He flung Garret away, as if the man were little more than a broken plaything.
The spike exploded into white hot flames, burning like a furious and vengeful star.
Lorne screamed again, this time in agony. He thrashed. He gibbered and raged.
“Liz!” Rehl limped frantically over to us. “You found Simon!”
My friend looked rough. Blood ran down the side of his face from some injury on the back of his shaved head. A strip of skin on his left arm had been ripped completely off, as if he’d been partially flayed.
“Yes.” I put one hand to his shoulder as I gazed into his soft brown eyes. I thought I might cry. “I found him. The next campaign goal is to get out.”
“I see Abriel.” He jerked his chin upward, gesturing at the white light that flickered behind us.
“She and Baxter are waiting over the—”
The Gaunt Man screamed again. That cry oozed into my mind and echoed with delirium.
“Just go!” Simon clapped Rehl on the back, his eyes glued on the shambling things in the shadows.
I nodded at Rehl, and he at me. His eyes were tired, so tired…
He ran straight for Baxter and Alicia.
As I turned, I saw the hulking Asset stumble toward us. His face was covered in blood, matted into his beard. In addition to the contraption on his back, he carried Garret, slumped over his shoulder, unconscious.
I saw the place where Garret’s arm had been. I literally saw inside his body.
He’s not bleeding. The fact seemed odd but still true. I actually saw the waxy, cartilage socket where his armbone fit to his body.
“You look like you aren’t playin’ fuck around.” Simon nodded.
“No.” For a moment, the tiniest whisper of mirth played at the edge of the man’s mouth. It quirked up as if the novelty of the odd line amused him. “I’m not playin’ fuck around.”
“Toward that light!” I pointed.
The man only grunted, and we set out.
“Tarahiel!” Simon cried, the word both beseeched and commanded. “Come to me now! Make haste and come to my side!”
From behind me, golden light burst into existence, a fire that brought peace, that burned away all shadows. I didn’t have to turn to see the moment she unfurled, holding the flaming sword that burned with the brilliance of eternity.
“Jasriel,” Simon called, belting out the word like a beat poet. “Jasriel come, you who watch the final realm! You who stand as the scales and the judge. Come and laugh with me at those who stand against us. Come and weep with me at the end of all things.”
I did not like the sound of that invocation. Still, Simon had told me what I was to do.
I ran, and the Silent Gentlemen followed.
I ran straight for that beatific, perfect light.
10
“Is the party ready leave the dungeon?” I panted, more than a little exhausted as I closed in on Rehl.
“Oh yeah,” he crowed, turning from his post. He lead the big Asset and I past a sharp bend in the aisle constructed of old stacked milk crates, two coat racks, and several spears.
“Liz!” Alicia beamed as I came into view. Her smile fell only a touch when she saw the lumbering Asset behind me.
“He looks worse than I feel,” Baxter moaned, catching sight of Garret. “And that’s saying a lot.”
“Where’s Simon?” Alicia tensed, as if suddenly certain that a horrible thing had happened.
“He’s coming.” I nodded at her. “A few of his friends are watching our backs.”
“Alright.” She stared at me for a long moment, as if to be certain of something. Then she nodded. “Alright.”
“Door.” Rehl knocked on one of the many doors we had passed on our way in.