by Dante King
“Helping her will ultimately help me.”
“She serves a rival god. Leave her to solve her own problems, and walk the dark path alone.”
Was that a hint of jealousy I could detect in her voice? I couldn’t resist flashing the invisible goddess a smirk as I replied.
“What’s it to you who I choose to help or hinder, Isu? I’m feeding you souls either way, both of us upping our powers. Why do you care what god she serves anyway? I don’t give two shits about the Lord of Light; you know that as well as I do. I only care about getting my lordship back, and this is a means to that end.”
“She is distracting you from your true purpose.”
“Oh, really? And what is my ‘true purpose,’ according to you? You know what—don’t bother answering that. I’m doing whatever the fuck I want, and if you don’t like that, well, you can just take back your gifts. I don’t need your help, and I don’t owe you anything.”
Part of me thought that maybe it wasn’t the best idea to insult the Goddess of Death, but my honor overrode this caution. Nobody tells Vance Chauzec, Lord of Brakith, what to do. Even immortal goddesses. Besides, she needed me. She knew I was the best man for Grave Oath, that nobody else would suck up as many souls as I did.
“You are a fool, Vance Chauzec,” hissed Isu. “And you do not deserve the gifts I have bestowed upon you. But I am a generous goddess… I will give you time to think on this foolish decision before I retract them.”
With a final powerful swirl of wind around me, Isu’s presence vanished, and the air settled down.
“Were you just talking to someone?” asked Elyse as she stepped out from behind the bush with her things. “I thought I heard voices.”
I figured it probably wasn’t the best idea to tell a bishop of the Lord of Light that I’d just been having a casual conversation with the Goddess of Death.
“Um, I was just talking to him,” I answered, pointing at my skeletal companion. “Seeing if I could get a few words out of him. Not surprisingly, it turns out that he’s not the most talkative fellow around.”
He looked at me and cocked his head as if to say, “What the hell, bro?” but of course, he kept his silence. Elyse chuckled at my admittedly weak attempt at humor. She looked especially stunning when she smiled; mirth suited her like a tight-fitting catsuit.
“It would seem that it lacks a tongue,” she said, her smile quickly fading. Her pretty face crumpled into an expression of distaste as she stared at the skeleton. “And even if it did have one, I don’t think such a foul thing would have much to say worth listening to.”
“Whatever,” I grunted. “Come on, let’s move. We’re losing daylight, and it’s much easier to set up a camp in the woods before it gets dark.”
“Agreed. Let’s go.”
We walked for some time in silence, with the skeleton trailing a couple of yards behind me. Every so often, I would practice “throwing” a part of my soul into his bones and get used to controlling him, getting the feel of the whole puppet master thing.
As I was doing this, an interesting thought crossed my mind: if I resurrected another skeleton alongside this guy, would I be able to control them both like this? And not with them simply mirroring each other’s—my—actions but using each of them individually, their movements independent of one another? That would involve some serious multitasking, and I wasn’t even sure it was possible, but if I could somehow manage to do this, it would make me pretty damn invincible. I made a mental note to try this out next time I came across a resurrectable corpse.
When we got closer to the woods, Elyse started steaming on ahead of me. I didn’t blame her eagerness to set up camp; the woods would be cloaked in pitch darkness once the sun set completely.
An upside to her worry was that it gave me the opportunity to stare at her ass. It shifted tantalizingly beneath her cleric’s robe as she walked, her ass cheeks’ smooth round shapes protruding slightly more left and right in turn, showcasing their toned perfection—and she swayed her hips in a manner that no holy woman should. It was a pleasing end to our hike, so much so that I wouldn’t have minded going on for another couple of miles.
I noticed something else, too, something beyond her walk having a lot more in common with an exotic dancer’s than a bishop’s: she seemed to be getting afraid. As it got darker, she became more hasty, almost to the point of panicky jittering. She was struggling to keep her cool.
I didn’t get what she could be afraid of. I, for one, preferred the darkness and took comfort in being in the woods at night. I guessed that for church people, with all their fairytale nonsense, there was plenty to “fear” in the shadows. I could have teased her about it, but I decided not to. Not for the moment, anyway—maybe later, around the campfire. I had to admit, for a woman of her radiant beauty, there were more reasons to be nervous in the woods after dark—bears, dire wolves, possibly trolls, and vampires too, but not likely in this region.
I didn’t need to worry about any of those things, though—not with a skeletal sentry who didn’t need sleep, who wouldn’t drink too much and doze off in the small hours of the night. He didn’t even need light to see potential threats; I suspected he could simply sense the presence of enemies.
Elyse and I set up a simple camp and managed to get a small fire going. I went to fill up our water bottles at a nearby stream.
When I returned, the fire was already burning strongly. Elyse was sitting on a log quite close to it, holding a bottle of wine. She offered me some when I joined her. It seemed like she would have wanted nothing more than to cuddle up to me but instead made a show of scooting over. I was eager to get a look under her cleric’s robes, but I wasn’t going to push things now.
I took a swig of wine and leaned across the gap to hand the bottle back to her.
“Good stuff,” I remarked.
“It’s from the vineyards of Erst,” she said bitterly, “which should, by rights, be mine. Instead, that scum Nabu is reaping the profits and drinking himself into a stupor on the produce every night.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “So, in addition to being a liar, a thief, and a murderer, he’s a glutton and a wine-sot too?”
“All of that and more.”
“I look forward to sucking his soul into Grave Oath.”
“Grave Oath?”
“My dagger.”
“Ah… well, then I look forward to seeing you do that.”
Her hatred for Bishop Nabu was almost palpable.a The more I got to know Elyse, the more I was sure she was hiding something. She had a depth belied by the simple robes and her innocent face. What was lurking there?
I’d find out soon enough. Maybe far sooner than I imagined.
“Another of sip of wine?” she asked, suddenly meek and pleasant again.
“Sure.”
I took the bottle and brought it up to my mouth but paused mid-sip, with the wine just touching my lips. Elyse was looking at me brazenly, the fire dancing in her eyes. I met her gaze for a long moment, and with the suddenness of moonlight breaking through a thick mass of clouds I wondered just what I was getting myself into.
I chuckled, shook my head softly, and swigged.
Chapter Five
For a while, Elyse and I sat in silence, passing the wine between us and taking languid sips, watching the campfire writhe gently as the darkness grew thick around us. My skeleton was patrolling the perimeter of our camp, at my command. I hadn’t thrown my soul out and done the puppet-master thing; I wanted him to act independently, and knew that he could, after seeing what the first skeletons I’d raised had done in the skirmish in the crypt. Perhaps he would have protected the camp of his own accord anyway, but I wanted to be sure so that Elyse and I could get some rest. Erst was a long way off, and unless we hitched a ride, we’d have a few days of trekking ahead of us.
I noticed Elyse’s eyes were on the skeleton. She was staring at it with a look that was half fear, half revulsion. I guess I couldn’t blame her; the sight of a
skeleton walking around like a living being wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that most people were used to. Even me.
The gentle light from the fire illuminated Elyse’s delicate features in a most pleasing way, and I took a few moments to appreciate her natural beauty. Her large eyes sparkled subtly in the firelight under her finely curved eyebrows, and her full lips, wet from wine, gleamed enticingly. The curve of her slender neck beckoned to my lips, and again my thoughts turned to what was concealed beneath her cleric’s robe.
She abruptly turned to face me, and for a moment, my eyes met hers. She responded with a shy smile, while I simply chuckled softly and passed her the bottle.
“So, are we actually going to eat anything, or are we just going to have a liquid dinner and get smashed around the campfire?” I asked. “I didn’t know that members of the clergy were allowed to drink more than a sip of wine outside church services.”
Elyse blushed. “Well, we’re not supposed to make a habit of it, but the Lord of Light doesn’t mind if we indulge every now and then.”
I was about to crack a joke about Nabu taking this lenience to its extreme, but I held my tongue; Elyse seemed to be lightening up, and I didn’t want to kill the mood by mentioning the man who’d taken everything from her. For the same reason, I decided not to ask her about Erst or the vineyards for the moment.
“Maybe I’ve misjudged you churchies then,” I said, taking out Grave Oath to sharpen its edges on a whetstone while we chatted. “I guess not all of you walk around with quarterstaffs stuck all the way up your asses.”
Elyse laughed uproariously and infectiously. “You have a way with words, Vance. Perhaps not a wholesome way, but a way nonetheless.”
I hadn’t thought my joke was particularly funny, but hey, if she liked it, who was I to judge?
“The truth is,” she continued, her tone taking on a more serious air, “I didn’t join the clergy because of faith or religion or anything like that. I mean, I do believe in the Lord of Light, of course—and I know the extent of his powers well—but I didn’t become a bishop out of any sense of religious devotion. I mean, if I really only wanted to serve the Lord of Light, I would have become a nun. Simple nuns and monks are the truest and sincerest servants of the Lord.”
“Why did you become a bishop then?”
“To serve the people of Erst,” she said immediately. “The poor. The peasants.”
I nodded and took another swig of wine. “A noble ideal, Elyse. I can respect someone joining the church to do that.”
“I grew up dirt-poor. I know how the peasants suffer. And having a corrupt bishop ruling over Erst only hurts the poor. The bishop I took over from had been so greedy that his excessive sacred taxes caused a famine that killed hundreds of families. I realized a long time ago that the only way to change the system was from within. So, that’s what I did. And it worked—at least until Nabu came along. I know that there were powerful forces both within the church and outside it that vehemently opposed my reforms and wanted me gone. They helped Nabu oust me. And now, the poor are right back where they started: starving, and working to fill up the clergy’s bellies and purses.”
“All the more reason to take that shithead Nabu out,” I growled, infused with a fresh sense of purpose. “I’m glad I decided to help you.”
She gave me a smile that seemed to come from straight from her heart. It lit up her eyes, and two cute dimples appeared in her cheeks. Her smiles added a knee-weakening attractiveness to her face, and I was seized by an urge to gather her in my arms and plant my lips on hers. I could tell from the hunger sizzling more subtly in her eyes that she would have welcomed this. But I could also see that she was drunk.
While I was feeling only a slight buzz from the wine I’d imbibed so far, I could tell that drinking more than a sip or two was something Elyse wasn’t accustomed to. I wasn’t sure why she’d decided to indulge tonight. Perhaps she was left shaken after the admittedly disturbing sight of the skeleton stalking through the shadows around the camp—or maybe after witnessing the paladin’s soul get sucked into my dagger. It might have just been because she was nervous around me, which was understandable enough. I guessed it probably wasn’t exactly comforting to have a mean, ruthless assassin by your side, who also happened to be a necromancer. But the point was, I lived by a strict—if fucked-up in parts—code of honor, and I wasn’t about to take advantage of an intoxicated girl, no matter how hot she was or how inviting her slightly glassy-eyed gaze was.
“We need to eat,” I said, slapping my thighs and jumping up to my feet. “And I sure as hell wouldn’t mind a hare or two roasted over an open fire. I’ll see what I can catch in the woods for us.”
“And leave me here alone? And how are you going to hunt in the dark?”
I pointed up at the sky, a portion of which was visible through the treetops.
“Some of the clouds are clearing, and it’s full moon tonight. That’ll do for me. And you’ll be perfectly safe here; he’ll protect you.” I nodded in the direction of the skeleton.
“No,” she said firmly, standing up and dusting herself off. “I’m not staying here on my own. Not with the creatures that might be roaming the woods around here. And I… I don’t trust that. Him. It.”
The skeleton turned to face Elyse. He rolled his shoulders in what had to be an I-don’t-give-a-shit-about-what-you-think-about-me shrug and then wandered off. I couldn’t restrain a little chuckle.
“Well, I guess if you insist,” I said. “Just don’t make too much noise and scare the damn game off, okay?”
“It’s not like I’ve never been hunting before, Vance.”
I left the skeleton to guard our camp while Elyse and I set off into the dark woods. As I predicted, the clouds cleared, and patches of bright moonlight dotted the ground where the tree cover was broken, making it easy enough to get around. I was pleasantly surprised at Elyse’s stealth. There was more to this cleric than met the eye.
We had been walking for maybe 20 minutes when I heard a sound in the distance, carried on the breeze. I signaled to Elyse to stop, and we waited in silence, straining our ears to listen. It was the sound of men shouting and fighting, along with another sound, one that I couldn’t quite place but that seemed like the roar of some sort of large, angry animal.
“These are Rollar’s men,” Isu’s voice whispered in my ear. “I crave their souls, Vance.”
“Let’s go back,” murmured Elyse. “I don’t like the sound of this. I have some stale bread and cheese—”
“No way,” I said firmly. “I have a feeling those are Rollar’s men. And I want to see just what it is they’re up to. Grave Oath is hungry for more souls.”
I thought it was better to keep things on a need-to-know basis with Elyse for the time being. I also didn’t give her any more time to argue with me; I simply took off at a swift but stealthy run, heading in the direction of the noise. I grinned as I heard her curse angrily and then break into a run behind me; sometimes, it was just too easy to get people to do what I wanted.
After five minutes, we got close enough to see what was going on. I skidded to a halt at the top of a bank and saw a very surprising sight in the large clearing below. Six soldiers, all holding burning torches, had cornered a massive beast double the size of a prizewinning bull. The creature was unlike any animal I had ever seen. Also, it seemed to have stumbled upon Rollar’s men rather than the other way around; the clearing was obviously their campsite, and lying on the ground near the beast, in a mess of blood and gore, were the legs of what had formerly been one of their comrades. I didn’t want to know what the beast had done with the rest of him.
Elyse came skidding to a halt behind me and gasped.
“What in the name of the Lord of Light is that thing?” she murmured.
“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure I can kill it—and take down Rollar’s asshole soldiers on the way, too.”
“What? No! That’s crazy, Vance. No, don’t, hey… wait!”
&nb
sp; She was too late; I was already scurrying down the steep bank, screening my approach by keeping bushes and tree trunks between myself and Rollar’s men. When I got down to the edge of the clearing, I took a few seconds to get a better look at the beast before revealing my presence to my enemies.
The creature they had cornered was a thick-bodied, stout-limbed lizard with a long, spiky tail. Its bead-like scales were arranged in a splotchy pattern of deep black and bright red, although its entire broad, diamond-shaped head—which was armored with heavy scales, and covered all over with spikes—was entirely red. A number of crossbow bolts and arrows jutted out of its sides, making it look like a kind of bizarre, gleaming pincushion. There was no blood coming from any of the wounds, though. The soldiers had probably only succeeded in pissing it off.
I watched as one of Rollar’s men darted forward, thrusting his spear at the lizard’s head. It moved faster than anything its size should have been able to, dodging the lunge and then clamping its jaws shut around the spear, crushing it like a toothpick before it swallowed it, spearpoint and all. That bit would probably hurt when it came out the other end.
I decided not to waste any more time. First, I would put the beast out of its misery, then I would get a couple of souls for Isu. This little hunting expedition was turning out to be a lot more profitable than I had imagined.
I maneuvered my way around the edge of the clearing so that I was behind the huge lizard. It wouldn’t matter if Rollar’s men saw me now; the beast was a far greater threat to me than they were, and I needed to handle it before I dealt with them. Speed was of the essence here. I needed to strike hard and fast, before the lizard even knew what was happening. I’d already seen how quickly it was capable of moving, and if I didn’t take it out in one go, I’d be in as bad of a situation as Rollar’s men currently were.
The lizard’s scales looked to be almost invulnerable to weapons of steel—but every suit of armor has its chinks, and I happened to be an expert at manipulating them. There was a longsword lying on the ground nearby, perfect for what I was hoping to do. I couldn’t use Grave Oath to kill the beast; because it had no soul, it would be just a regular weapon against it.