Squire of War

by M. H. Johnson

  She lurched, falling forward, choking on the stench of molasses and brimstone.

  “Twilight!”

  “Jess, get a hold of yourself!” Her familiar hissed, nipping her ear.

  She hissed. “Twilight!” blinking in surprise, not knowing why she had been momentarily dizzy, frowning at Glist even as his eyes widened. She was not expecting him to be armored. Though free of steel, he wore a thick, padded gambeson and leather gloves, his free hand upon the sword at his belt, even as his other effortlessly carried the now drooping boy to the door at the very end of the corridor.

  “Open up! I have the child, and the bitch followed me! She actually made it through.”

  With an eerie creek, the door began to open.

  Furious, beedy eyes locked upon Jess, his dark smile turning to a nervous grimace as Jess dashed towards him, no matter that she felt as if she were charging upstream, so thick the air had become. His fist clenched his sword hilt even as he frantically pounded the door with his feet, and so slowly did it lurch open that Jess felt a fierce sense of exhilaration, knowing she had a chance!

  Her foe swallowed, ready to drop the child and draw his blade.

  And then the door lurched open, Glist and his limp captive abruptly yanked within by a massive hand.

  Jess hissed and lurched back, heart pounding with dread.

  The door slammed shut, far quicker than it had opened.

  Jess swallowed. She turned to her familiar, gazing at her so intently, only now realizing how the walls bucked and wavered in the gloom, doing her best not to look at the shadowy indentations slowly forming.

  Sapphire eyes met her own. The distant cries of Hatsk and the others could be heard, far off and faint, as if shouting from across an impossibly vast chasm.

  Jess swallowed. “We have to go through there, don’t we?”

  Twilight nodded. “But first, mistress, you must ready yourself. Take off your silly robe and the mail hauberk you wear underneath.”

  “But Twilight, that’s absurd! It would leave me all but defenseless!”

  Her familiar slowly shook his head. “In all the days we have explored this keep at all odd hours, savoring the freedom of living as we chose, blackened dagger that you are, in all that time, have you ever stumbled along this corridor before?”

  Jess frowned and shook her head, even as she shucked off her robe and shirt of interlocking iron rings.

  She blinked, gazing at the walls anew as she dropped her shirt of mail, somehow certain that the shadowy reliefs of men writhing and twisting in torment hadn’t been there even seconds before, nor had they been moving. But perhaps it was just a trick of the odd light.

  Jess looked up. Not a torch or magelight to be seen.

  A scream, far off.

  Jess gazed at the door. A massive affair of ancient hardwood in a frame of iron, it stood silent sentinel to the horrors Jess feared lay just beyond.

  Jess shook her stunned stupor away, realizing she was wasting precious seconds, her hand slowly reaching towards the door.

  “That is because we are no longer in Highrock proper, Jess. Though this is but the shallowest of puddles, we begin to dip into the sea of the strange.”

  “This shouldn’t be here,” Jess whispered, even as her hands caressed the door.

  She lurched back with a cry, gazing at Twilight with horror.

  “Jess, what’s wrong?”

  “It’s… the door. Somehow, oh gods, somehow it screams with the weight of all the poor souls lost, all the denizens of our home sacrificed to whatever horror lays beyond!”

  Twilight frowned. “This is bad, Jess. Very bad.”

  “I know!” Clenching fists now trembling with horror, Jess forced herself to face the door once more, dreading its hoary touch, knowing the pain trapped within.

  “You have to do it, Jess. Elsewise those children, perhaps Malek as well, will remain trapped in that chamber of horrors.”

  “I know that!” Jess sobbed, pressing both her hands to the door with a sudden cry.

  Reeling as dozens of screams tore through her soul.

  The haunted gazes of dozens of keep servants locked with her own, pleading desperately before shadowy figures as they were brutally cut down. Frantically raised arms bound together doing nothing to stop impending death, cruel laughter washing over them with their dying screams.

  “By all the gods.” Jess shuddered. “So many. And some of them I recognize! People Malek and I, all of us Squires, rescued from slavery. Only to be… only to be...”

  “Butchered by the vilest of serpents, in the heart of our home, the very memory of their loss torn from our minds as they were consumed by Shadow with their dying screams.”

  "Heaven's mercy, Twilight, this is unthinkable!”

  “Focus and get us through!” Twilight roared, fierce sapphire gaze burning through Jess’s awful stupor at last. “This is not your first time dipping your toes into waters of madness. You must be strong. You must break through!”

  Jess jerked a nod, only then noticing her once well-cared for shirt of mail had somehow turned to a corroded heap of rust. In the span of seconds. “Twilight!”

  “Don’t think, just do. Now, Jess!”

  With a lurch, she pressed her hands upon the door once more, overwhelmed with the final agonizing moments of dozens of souls consigned to unthinkable horror once more. Desperately Jess dove past that, feeling the odd grains of that ancient door, sensing its torment, how desperately it yearned to be free.

  “I release you, remnant of ancient forest. Remember the caress of warm sunlight upon your leaves, the gentle breeze rustling your branches, the cool patter of rain trickling down to your roots. Remember that ancient woodland one more. It is time to let go of horrors inflicted by man, and rejoin your brethren in the great garden once more.”

  Jess bitterly forced her grip to hold, enduring horrors unimaginable even as she sensed the wood slowly surrendering the hideous cries that had so long tormented its fragile arboreal soul, embracing the dream of endless woodlands at last, so very far away. Jess all but felt the gentle whisper of the forest flowing through her, terrified grimace turning to a smile almost beatific as she felt the ancient hardwood floor, so drenched with magics dark and vile, sigh in gentle surrender, collapsing to dust before her relieved eyes.

  Only to behold a scene of utter horror.

  40

  Before her was a massive chamber. The floor tiles were covered in pentagrams and sigils that glowed a baleful crimson light, and in each of them was a child, sobbing helplessly, writhing upon ancient wooden frames, hands spiked cruelly upon crosses, crying for mercy even as Glist and his cohort strapped in the very child he had been carrying but moments before, brutally jamming iron spikes into his flesh, pinning his body to the cross as he shrieked in torment.

  All this Jess took in a single horrified instant, yet what truly shook her to the quick was seeing Ubel Niedrig himself, standing over a bloodstained altar upon which a shrieking child had been strapped. "Please!" The boy begged, turning desperate eyes towards Jess.

  Ubel laughed. The massive Aspirant was covered in vile sigils that pulsated cruelly upon his naked flesh, wearing only a cape of what Jess was horrifically certain was human skin. At that moment, he was raising an ancient bronze kopesh blade up high, whispering dark curses Jess felt slither down her spine, their meaning instantly clear.

  Ubel’s eyes snapped open. Pools of blood.

  He favored Jess with the most twisted of smiles.

  “Ah. Mord’s Doxy. Figured it out, have you?” Awful laughter bubbled from his lips as his kopesh blade swung down with chilling speed, desperate pleas cut off abruptly as Ubel cleaved open his victim’s chest, pulling out the boy's heart with a fierce yank, laughing with mad triumph as it burst into flame in his hand.

  “By the Rites of Ancient Lilith, I claim the power of this mortal shell, for now, forever! To her I gift this glorious prize, may she feast ever more upon his soul, and gift me with the strength to
crush all those I despise!”

  “Jess!” Twilight roared. “If you would save these children, you must act, and now!”

  Frozen in disbelief, Jess shuddered at those words, inconceivable horror slithering through her veins as every struggling child stared upon Jess with desperate hope, shrieking their terror, begging for aid.

  “Jess! By all that is holy, stop that bastard!”

  Jess felt her heart lurch, only now catching her friend’s desperate gaze, his clothing torn free, utterly naked, covered in bronze chains upon the largest of wooden crosses.

  Malek was smeared in crimson. For an instant Jess thought the blood was his own, yet she saw how the blood hissed and bubbled, dripping off his flesh, revealing skin free of all blemish.

  Malek howled, bucking against the coils of his chain, to no avail.

  Ubel’s dark laughter seemed to fill the entire chamber of horrors. “Now you see the fate that was to be Sable’s get. Somehow, she escaped her doom, and Mord nowhere to be found. He has broken covenant, and will be forced to pay the ultimate price! But for now, your beating heart will do. Glist. Tarron. Seize her!”

  The pair ceased trying to hammer spikes into the shrieking child pinned by one palm to the cross, withdrawing their blades with practiced ease, smiling so coldly at Jess as they approached, armor of hardened rawhide covering them both and protecting them, for all that their heads, like Jess’s, were free of all armor.

  “Jess!” Twilight shouted, and Jess forced herself to finally break free of the horror that threatened to drown her soul.

  She knew what she had to do. Glist and Tarron lurched back as she snarled, and Jess dodged aside, darting madly for the farthest corner of the massive chamber she found herself within, doing everything she could not to look at the hideous fresco of blood and vilest sacrifice painted upon the massive domed ceiling, focused only on reaching her friend. Fighting not just terror, but the black whispers of hideous power ebbing and flowing through this chamber of horrors. Honey-sweet energies she hungered for so fiercely, for all that she feared they would infect her with madness, corrupt her very soul.

  Malek’s eyes widened with alarm, even as he bucked and howled. “Don’t, Jess! They will cut you down. Fight, you must!”

  Yet Jess did not stop until she had ran right into the massive slab of wood her shieldbrother was chained to, one trembling hand clamping upon the bloodstained wood, biting her lip as she prepared to endure horrors, shrieking as the endless cries of innocent women and children tortured upon that slab flooded through her, terror turning to unspeakable fury as Glist and Tarron approached.

  Hand on hilt, fury in check. Smiling as Glist and Tarron closed.

  Glist snarled. “We’ve had enough of your interference, wench. It is time to end this!”

  Jess nodded. It was time.

  With a cry, she let go of wood already crumbling in her fingertips, springing forth even as she weaved to Glist’s left, catching sight of his furious gaze, his blade almost lazily thrusting forward, an attack effortlessly dodged even as she whipped saber out of sheath, snapping her hips with a soft grunt as her blade sliced through the air faster than Glist could blink.

  Yet blink frantically he did, eyes wide with horrified wonder as they spun through the air along with his cleaved head, washing Jess and Tarron both in a spray of blood.

  Tarron lurched back, dead black eyes glaring at Jess with darkest hate. “I’ll make you pay for that, b...” his voice suddenly cut off, forced to his toes and dropping his sword, a madly roaring Malek, wrists still manacled, wrapping a massive chain of bronze around the man’s neck, corded muscles showcasing terrible strength as he roared, slamming his hips into the back of Tarron’s spine as he arched and twisted, yanking Tarron to the tips of frantically struggling toes.

  Ubel's powerfully build lacky bucked and writhed against Malek’s back, his strength nothing compared to Malek's murderous rage, desperate wheezes turning to crackling gurgles, face purpling hideously as Malek grimly throttled the man.

  Malek met Jess’s eyes, his feral gaze breaking into the darkest of smiles as Tarron’s heels spasmed and kicked before he grew still at last. “Well played, sister of the blade. Now let’s kill that gods-damned bastard!”

  Malek roared, contemptuously flipping a limp Tarron to the ground as he turned his gaze to a laughing Ubel, Malek's naked heel slamming upon the throttled man’s chest with an audible crack as he walked by Jess’s side, shattering the sternum, assuring his foe would not rise again.

  Yet Jess had made those precious seconds count, frantic hands having found bronze keys upon the tattered pouch Glist had worn, trembling fingers forcing open the manacles of bronze, freeing her shieldbrother as he picked up Glist’s dropped blade, shaking his head.

  “Jess! Stop him now!” Twilight cried, darting towards Ubel.

  Ubel’s laughter turned dark. “Fool. You should have come for me when you had the chance!” He spat, gazing at Jess with sneering contempt. “For the ceremony is complete, their souls are mine!”

  And Jess looked on with horror, shrieking along with the panicked children, all writhing and struggling desperately against their chains as inky blackness poured from Ubel’s chest, the crimson sigils interwoven upon the floor and crosses also transforming as darkness raced along the bloody lines like the vilest of infections.

  Jess roared and cried out, charging forward, desperate to stop the hideous rite she sensed taking place.

  “Help me!” She turned despite herself. Saw the child she had originally come to save bound only by poorly tied rope and a single cruel spike lodged in his hand, gibbering and sobbing as he tried desperately to break free, the stream of blackness slowly creeping up the crimson lines traced upon the slab and himself as well.

  She turned and grabbed the boy’s panicked hand.

  There was no time, no time at all.

  The boy shrieked and fainted as Jess tore his hand free, hemp rope parting effortlessly, passing him to Malek without turning back. “Get him out of here! Else, he will die!” She glared at the mocking smile Ubel flashed her way. Now a creature of darkness, teeth gleaming bone, his bronze kopesh raised high, turning to a weapon of Shadow before her eyes.

  “No, Jess, we don’t dare separate!”

  “Run!” Jess screamed, only now sensing the danger, Ubel slashing down with his shadowy blade, a wave of devastation tearing apart the tiles between them, rushing for them like a massive wave. “Run!”

  Fiercely, Jess clenched to her sense of self, imagining a bubble of the cool green forest infusing her as the terrible magics washed over her, fighting with every iota of her strength to bend the hideous black magics away from her, yet still she was sent flying. She, Malek, and the wounded boy, all sent rolling across the hard stone tiles, so many now burst to sharp fragments, a score of shallow lacerations upon the boy and Malek both, Jess’s gambeson protecting her from those injuries, for all that she felt disoriented and nauseous, Ubel’s laughter washing over her still.

  “Impressive, bitch. Most people do not survive a shout of corruption. But you have only tasted the barest whisper of my power!”

  Jess shuddered, lurching to her feet, only noticing the cuts to her hands as she found her miraculously intact sword but inches from her fingertips, feeling the fool for not putting mailed gloves back on once wood had been dissolved, yet there had been no time.

  “Now taste the bitter tears of all the endless torment that shall soon be yours!” The dark shadow that had once been Ubel roared, and Jess, focusing intently, saw the hideous web of foul magics twine together in a pulsating web of power aimed straight at her.

  “Run, Malek!” She screamed, raising up her blooded left palm, furiously pushing out with her odd gifts against the matrix of magic crashing against her before she was picked up and slammed against the wall.

  As if she had attempted to grapple with a charging bull, avoiding the horns, but still knocked back by its terrible force.

  Jess groaned, seeing star
s as she crumpled to the broken floor.

  Ubel roared with laughter, the children who had been desperately screaming for help but moments ago were now silent, for all that they struggled and writhed even more frantically than before. Drowning in that hideous skein of darkest Shadow as it devoured them, body and soul.

  Jess choked out a sob. “You monster!” She shrieked, trembling with fury despite the waves of dizziness coursing through her. “I will end you, Ubel!”

  Ubel shook his head, breathing deep of air smelling of blood and brimstone. “I think not, little Plaga wore. Rather, you shall make a most exquisite sacrifice as I tear you apart, spell by spell, til you are a broken, pleading wretch, begging for the knife, like all the fools to die by my blade.”

  His laughter turned dark, ugly. And Jess hissed even as she forced herself to her feet once more, blinking as she sensed the odd wave of eldritch energies forming behind Ubel.

  For all that Ubel’s magics tasted dark and foul, corrupted with sacrifice and suffering, the whispers of magic forming behind him were truly eldritch and strange. Ubel’s soul had been corrupted by darkness. The awful streamers forming behind him was darkness in its purest form, laced with the screams of the fallen. Utterly inhuman.

  “And now it is time for you to suffer a bit more, Calenbry,” Ubel mocked, lashing out with his kopesh of shadow, sending a massive disk of crackling energies weaving for her head.

  Jess desperately dodged back, shoving with her mind even as she stumbled away, barely avoiding the black disk of death exploding into the far wall.

  Ubel’s laughter turned dark. “It will be sweetest bliss, when I tie you upon your pillar of pain and delight you in all the ways Mord never could.”

  Jess hissed and weaved aside, whips of ebony dodged as she dashed forward, and still Ubel seemed unaware of the strange matrix forming behind him, tendrils of darkness somehow far worse than the shadow Ubel was choking his victims with.

  “Jess, retreat! Now is not the time!” Twilight roared.

  Jess hissed and lurched back as Ubel stepped forward, glaring at Jess with crimson sockets lost in shadow, where once his face had been. “Oh, don’t get cold feet now, Jess. I still remember the taste of your vile thorns against my flesh. Now I will let you taste shadow in its stead!” With that he raised his kopesh high, roaring challenge, a shield of shadow forming in his off hand.