Bone Lord

by Dante King

  “Very well then, Vance. You may put forward your suggestions to me, and if I deem your performance sufficient, I will consider keeping the suggestions in mind when deciding what your next power will be.”

  “Only if they are ultimately beneficial to you, of course. Anyway, how about we put this idea into practice? Let’s see… I think a great new power for me—with the ultimate aim of getting you more souls even faster—would be something that would allow me to take souls without using Grave Oath.”

  “Taking souls without using Grave Oath? How do you propose to do that?”

  “Well, the skeletons I’m able to raise, and the beasts, like Fang, are essentially your creatures, resurrected from the dead by your power, correct?”

  Isu nodded, frowning uncertainly.

  “So,” I continued, “Given the fact that they’re your creatures, linked to your power, which I channel, couldn’t you make it so that the souls that come from people or creatures they kill go into Grave Oath?”

  “Perhaps.” She gestured for me to continue.

  “I’m the conduit, the flesh-and-blood link between you and the world of the living. My skeletons and creatures are physical beings, connected to you—and this dagger—through me. So, whatever or whoever they kill, those kills are really mine, even if only indirectly. Make it so that their kills—my indirect kills—count in terms of soul-taking.”

  The frown on Isu’s face morphed into a pleased, if subdued, grin.

  “It’s something that could work favorably for me, I suppose,” she said slowly. “We could try it out, yes. I have a certain spell that might prove useful. And if it works well for me, I’ll let you keep it.”

  “If it will allow you to take physical form again, for a much longer time than last time—let’s say, for the duration of one night,” I said, grinning salaciously, “I’ll do whatever it takes to get you as many souls as possible. You and I only just got started last night, and I’d like to see and experience a whole lot more of the Isu I saw… and touched.”

  While saying this, I saw that this line of motivation was working pretty well. A look of eager, ravenous hunger spread across her gorgeous features, and I could almost sense the swirling fog getting a little wetter as I spoke.

  “Very well,” she purred, her hungry smile broadening. “I have decided to grant you the power to capture souls via your skeletons’ and creatures’ kills. Take out Grave Oath,” she commanded.

  I drew the dagger and held it out to her with both hands. She gripped Grave Oath by its hilt with one of her fog-hands. The forest seemed to grow darker, and the wind howled louder in my ears as Isu spoke powerful words in a language I didn’t recognize, her voice suddenly seeming to come from everywhere at once. It was as if she was sucking the light of the moon out of the sky; even the bright, shiny disc of the moon itself seemed to become dulled, its glow tarnished as the sky grew black and thick around it.

  Grave Oath grew hot in my hands, almost too hot to touch, but I knew I couldn’t let go of the weapon, not until Isu had completed her spell. Suddenly, black veins of anti-light—this was the only way I could describe them—blasted out from the dagger, blotting out everything around it and coursing like eager serpents through the trees toward the wagon.

  “Each of the necrotic veins,” Isu explained, “are connected to your skeletons, and another to the beast you call Fang.”

  So, these pitch-black arteries would be the conduits along which souls would travel from my skeletons’ and creatures’ kills into Grave Oath.

  Abruptly, the veins vanished, and everything appeared to return to normal. Once again, the full moon was bright in the sky, and the woods were quiet but for the sound of insects and night creatures. Even though I could no longer see the veins of anti-light, I could feel that they were there, tugging with a minute force, like microscopic strands of spiderweb on my blade.

  Chapter Ten

  “It is done,” murmured Isu.

  “I have one more request,” I said, “that, uh, maybe I should have made before you did the whole enchanting thing.”

  Isu growled and glared at me with undisguised annoyance. “What else do you want?”

  “Well, I was focused so much on the kills Fang and my skeletons would be making that I forgot that there are two more people with me, two more people who will also be making kills. It’d be great if there was some way to get the souls from their kills too. I mean, this is all to benefit you, you know. I’m just thinking of how best to get as many souls to you as possible.”

  “Why don’t you just solve the problem of those two whores the easy way instead of asking me for unnecessarily complex solutions to problems that shouldn’t even be there?” she muttered darkly.

  “What do you mean?”

  “By all the gods, must I spell it out for you as if you were a child, you foolish mortal?” she hissed. “Give me those worthless sluts’ souls the same way you’d give me any enemy’s soul! Use Grave Oath on them, dump their disgusting bodies, and move on with your own quest! They’re unnecessary baggage, weighing you down and distracting you from your true purpose.”

  “No,” I said firmly. Perhaps it wasn’t the smartest idea to outright deny a goddess, especially one I was hoping to bang when she could hold her human form long enough for that, but there was no way I was going to simply kill Elyse and Rami. They were useful to me. More useful alive than dead, anyway.

  “‘No’? That’s all you’re going to say, mortal?” she snarled, her eyes shining bright with icy wrath.

  “Okay, let me make it a little clearer for you,” I said defiantly, “since your ethereal ears seem to be full of ethereal wax: I’m not going to kill my friends. Get it? Now, you can either help me—and help yourself in the process—or you can be stubborn and limit your own potential. I mean, simply killing Elyse and Rami would get two more souls, yeah, but that’d be the end of it. But think of how many more souls you’d be gaining if you used them for your own benefit. When we get to Bishop Nabu’s, there are going to be hundreds of soldiers around, not to mention that fat fuck of a bishop and his slimy clergy buddies. It’s gonna be a regular bloodbath! You’ll be inundated with souls, so why not make it possible for us—all of us—to maximize your soul count?”

  “You insist on keeping those whores by your side, do you?” she hissed. The green light of jealousy gleamed in her eyes, but something else was starting to show itself in those bright orbs too: greed.

  “I do. Regardless of whether you choose to help me or not, my friends are staying by my side.”

  “Ugh,” she growled. “Fine. Do you have any gold coins on you?”

  “A couple,” I said, fishing around in my coin purse.

  “Give me two.”

  I placed a gold coin into each of her outstretched palms. The coins disappeared immediately into the fog but did not fall to the ground. Instead, it was as if the swirling water vapor and wind had simply dissolved the metal. Then, once more, I saw the anti-light veins of the blackest darkness dart out from Grave Oath’s tip. This time, they shot into Isu’s form, which darkened temporarily.

  Bright violet light flashed abruptly inside her form, as if a microscopic thunderstorm was raging within her. Then, the anti-light veins disappeared, and the coins appeared in Isu’s palms again, in a strange process that looked like reverse absorption. I immediately noticed that the coins looked markedly different. Each now bore the same likeness of a demonic head that was on the pommel of Grave Oath.

  “If your whores keep these coins on them when they make a kill,” said Isu, “the souls of those they slay will be captured by Grave Oath. This is all I can do for now; I do not have enough power to grant you any more requests.”

  “Not even a quick visit in human form behind the bushes?” I asked with a swift grin.

  “I need more souls for that. So, go, Vance, and get me the numbers you promised. Hundreds of souls streaming into me. You’ll be possessing me for more than a night if you achieve that.”

  �
�I will do this, Isu,” I said, now solemn. “And I will—”

  In the blink of an eye, her fog form dissipated into the night air, and the whirling tornado of air grew abruptly still.

  I heard the rumble of the massive wagon growing more distant and jogged out of the cover of the trees. It didn’t take too long to catch up. When I climbed back up onto the front seat, I found Grast roaring with laughter and the two young women glowering at each other in angry silence.

  “What the hell happened?” I asked. “I was only gone for two minutes, and you two are looking like you want to kill each other!”

  “Ask them… what they… were arguing about!” snickered Grast, between bouts of roaring laughter.

  “Go on, tell me. How exactly did you two manage to get into a fight the minute I went to piss?”

  Elyse stared at Rami with daggers in her eyes and folded her arms aggressively across her full, round breasts, making them bulge invitingly upward. “She started it!” she muttered, pouting.

  I shook my head and rolled my eyes, then looked at Rami. “Is it true? Did you start it?”

  Her dark eyes were full of bristling wrath, but her gaze softened when it met mine.

  “It was an innocent question,” Rami protested. “I wasn’t trying to start a fight. I just asked her…” She suddenly broke eye contact with me and blushed heavily. “Well, I… I asked her…”

  “Go on,” urged Grast boisterously after taking another slug of his Yorish brandy. “Tell him what you asked her!”

  “I simply wanted to know,” said Rami, still unable to meet my gaze, “whether or not you have a big… you know…”

  “She wanted to know if you had a massive cock!” blurted out Grast before bursting into a bout of raucous laughter, now completely uncontrolled. He had trouble breathing in between the howls, let alone speaking another single word.

  I couldn’t help breaking into a smile and chortling as well.

  “I told her I’d never seen it!” said Elyse, her eyes still ablaze with anger. “But she insisted that, like some common street abandon or tavern wench, I must have, after spending a single night in your vicinity, already… already…”

  “Already what?” I asked, grinning.

  “Already had a good taste of your sausage!” roared Grast raucously. He’d recovered to join in again. “Swallowed your banana! Squeezed your mighty pork sword into her pink sheath!”

  Damn, Grast’s laughter was infectious. It was good to have another guy around again. Neither Elyse nor Rami looked particularly amused, though, despite my joining in.

  “Tell her!” insisted Elyse. “Tell her the truth, that I haven’t seen it! I don’t know how… how big it is.” She shook her head in a sudden shaky burst. “And, for the love of the one and only God, I’m not interested in finding out!”

  “Ladies,” I said, sliding over to the back seat, positioning myself between the two of them, and slipping an arm around each woman’s shoulder in one fluid movement, “if you wanted to know how big it was, all you had to do was ask. I’d be happy to show either of you its magnificent stature, any time.”

  Rami’s eyes sparkled with eager delight as she eyed me up and down— down, especially.

  Elyse simply huffed. But out of the corner of my eye, I could see she was fighting back a shy smile.

  “When we have less pressing issues on our plates,” I added, after having rubbed their shoulders and giving them a brazen once-over from my new point of view. “Patience, ladies, patience. Now, speaking of those pressing issues, we’ll be getting to Bishop Nabu’s cathedral in two hours or so.” I lowered my voice. “Hopefully, Grast won’t be too drunk to stand up straight by that time—”

  “I’ll be fine, I’ll be jus’ fine,” slurred Grast. “Of all people, shouldn’t I, a wine merchant, know how alcohol affects his body better than anyone else? But, yes, no more brandy for me… at least not until I’ve gotten you lot inside the cathedral and you’ve put Nabu’s head on a spike. Then, we’ll all drink to our victory over the oppressor and such.”

  “Indeed, we will, my friend.” I reached forward to give Grast’s shoulder an appreciative squeeze. “But before we plan the celebration, we’re going to have to actually achieve the victory. So, tell me, Elyse: beyond those few hundred Church of Light guards and soldiers who will be hanging around, who else are we likely to run into on our way to gut that fat pig Nabu? I assume he has some sort of bodyguards around him. A man as hated as him would surely be at least a little paranoid about his personal safety.”

  The deep blush had vanished from Elyse’s face, and now, she wore a serious expression again. “He has a core of very powerful bodyguards around him: the Resplendent Crusaders.”

  “Who are these Resplendent Crusaders?” asked Rami. “I’ve never heard of them.”

  “They are some of the Church of Light’s most formidable warriors,” answered Elyse gravely. “They are zealots, completely dedicated with every ounce of their minds, hearts, and souls, to protecting Church authorities. They train fanatically with their weapons and are tremendously skilled fighters. They know no fear and will not hesitate to die to protect their charge, who in this case is Bishop Nabu.”

  “What weapons do these Resplendent Crusaders generally use?” I asked.

  “Each Resplendent Crusader is armed with a longsword, a mace, and a tower shield. Their tower shields are particularly deadly, as they are enhanced with spikes and blades. They use them offensively as well as defensively.”

  “It’s gonna be an interesting fight, that’s for sure. It sounds like the Resplendent Crusaders will be a definite step up from the Church of Light thugs and Rollar’s vagabond goons. What do you think, Rami? Are you ready to take them on?”

  “An enjarta fears no warrior, no matter what training they have had or what weapons they wield,” replied Rami. I could almost taste the contempt she felt for the Church of Light’s elite knights. Good. I needed fearless fighters by my side.

  “How about you, Elyse? Will you fight against your Church’s most impressive warriors?”

  “I told you before,” she said with calm confidence, “I’m more powerful than you imagine. These men freely work for Nabu. They could have returned to the Luminescent Spires and informed the hierarchy of Nabu’s wickedness. They chose to stay with him. Thus, they are heretics who must be purged.”

  “Okay, good to hear, good to hear. Now, before we go into battle and start kicking ass, I’ve got a little favor to ask both of you.”

  “Anything,” said Rami, almost too quickly and eagerly.

  “That depends on what sort of favor it is,” said Elyse warily.

  I pulled out the two gold coins Isu had transformed and handed one to each woman. They examined the coins carefully in their hands. Elyse was the first to speak.

  “This hideous demon head on the coin,” she said, “it’s the same as the one you have on the pommel of your dagger.”

  “It’s Isu,” said Rami, before I could say anything. Well, the subject needed to be broached at some point. What better time than now, after Elyse and Rami had just been arguing over the size of my dick?

  “Isu?” asked Elyse.

  Again, before I could say anything, Rami piped up.

  “The Goddess of Death, one of your so-called ‘dead gods.’ But I suspect that, like Xayon, the God of Wind, she is very much alive, even though her powers are probably greatly diminished.”

  Elyse shot a searing, accusatory glare at me. “Isu… the Goddess of Death?” she spluttered. “You’ve given me an item with the image of the Goddess of Death? And you fight with a dagger with the image on it! When exactly were you planning on telling me about this, Vance? I serve the Lord of Light, and him alone!”

  “She’s not evil,” I protested. “She’s just… misunderstood. Death is part of the world, part of life, even, just as much as light is. It’s something that has to be contended with. And Isu rules over the realms of death.”

  “What should I do with the co
in?” asked Rami. “I have no qualms about serving the Goddess of Death. In the lore of ancient Yeng, she is regarded as a wise and fair figure, if a dark one, who can take on the form of a beautiful woman.”

  I had to hold back a smile; if either of these two knew just how intimate my knowledge of Isu’s human form was, they’d probably never speak to me again. Or, who knows? They might be talked into having a fourway with Isu. A man can only dream. And they seemed to be more than thirsty for what I was packing, so if the occasion arose, they might just take it.

  “Just keep it on you when you fight,” I said, still struggling to keep a straight face. “That way, when you make a kill, your victim’s souls get sucked into my dagger, which will give Isu more power, which, in turn, will enhance my powers.”

  “You got your powers of necromancy from the Goddess of Death?” gasped Elyse. “By the Lord himself, what else haven’t you told me about your magical powers?”

  “Look,” I said, “when I first picked up this dagger, I had no idea what I was getting into. I never set out to serve Isu—oh, and on that subject, I don’t actually serve her, I work with her. It’s a partnership, okay? It’s nothing like you and your Lord of Light. There’s no worship, no praying, none of that bullshit. No offense.”

  “None taken,” she said sourly. “But I find it hard to believe that you wound up serving—excuse me, getting into a ‘partnership’ with—the Goddess of Death by accident.”

  “Look, just believe me; I never planned to serve Isu, or to become a necromancer for that matter. I’m glad it happened, though, because it’s worked out pretty damn well.”

  I folded my arms defiantly and playfully across my chest after this little tirade and cocked my head to the side with a slight grin, inviting her—daring her—to respond. Weirdly enough, instead of getting all worked up or getting into a huff, Elyse smiled.

  “You may think of us Church of Light followers as intolerant bigots, Vance,” she said, “but not all of us are like that. Especially not me. I won’t lie; I don’t like the thought of being allied with an ancient death goddess or you getting your powers from her. But I can respect your reasons for doing what you’re doing. As long as you can respect my wish not to serve Isu.”