Squire of War

by M. H. Johnson

  “Faster.” Was all Twilight said, but Jess nodded. Her steady jog turned into a ground eating sprint. She did not question the exhilarating sense of vitality that had begun coursing through her since that first terrible encounter, so stoked on combat and fighting for their lives they had been. She only now realized that heady rush had never quite left her. She felt, curiously, as if she could run at this pace forever, and she could tell by his steady breath that Malek must feel the same.

  Jess chose not to question her ability to sense the silvers and grays of her surroundings, perfectly visible, though there was no longer any source of light to be found in this crevice so deep underground. She knew only that they would soon come upon a ledge overlooking a massive chasm, some thirty feet wide, unimaginably deep. Deep enough perhaps, to send one spinning down to very pits of Hell.

  Jess laughed. She had never felt so exhilarated in all her life.

  “Malek! Chasm ahead! Thirty feet! Can you jump it?”

  “Hell yeah!” Her shieldbrother laughed, infected by the same heady euphoria.

  And suddenly the narrow corridor widened into an incredibly vast cavern opening up before the massive chasm she had sensed, lit by sparkling crystals and moss glowing upon the roof of the chamber far overhead, and Jess felt herself blasting forward from the very edge of the precipice, having launched off perfectly, as if she had performed the same feat a dozen times before, flying in a graceful arc across the howling chasm to land with catlike grace upon the far side, Twilight instinctively leaping off her as she dove into a roll before snapping upright to her feet once more.

  “Damn it!” This from Malek, Eyes twin mirrors of exhilaration and terror as he launched himself across, Jess snapping out her hand to grab his own as the lower portion of his body slammed hard against the edge of the precipice, causing him to gasp and look down at the howling winds shrieking in the darkness below. Jess swallowed down her own sudden terror as her eyes joined his, gazing into the abyss that had almost claimed her shieldbrother's life, before pulling him up and out with an abrupt heave.

  “By all the gods… that hurt.” He wheezed for several moments, and Jess touched him gently, sensing no internal rupturing of his essence, or snapping of bones. He was momentarily winded, but that was all. He laughed. “Good catch, shieldsister. I would have hated dragging myself from the ledge, assuming I could have hung on after slamming into it. You are one strong girl, you know that?”

  She laughed with relief, sinking to his side, squeezing him tight. “I’m as strong as they come, Malek. You know I’ll pit my skills against anyone who dares throw down the gauntlet! I'm just glad you're okay. Had you fallen in, I'd have had to jump in right after you! Gravity itself we would bend to our will, if it helped us survive this dream."

  Malek chuckled. "To think you might actually try to come for me and twist the very laws of nature, should I have fallen into that horror. You're completely mad, shieldsister. Just one of the things I love about you." Their momentary relief transformed once again to apprehension as they heard screams once more, this time much closer.

  She quickly righted herself before gripping Malek's arm, pulling him to his feet as well. “Are you okay, brother? Can you still fight?”

  He coughed once but nodded. “Damn right I can. As you said earlier, I’ve never felt so alive, never felt so energized! That blow to my torso hurt, but it’s not going to slow me down. We must have sprinted for miles, but I feel like I could run forever.”

  Jess nodded and picked up the pace one more. On and on they dashed through the winding tunnels, guided by no more than Jess’s strange intuition and the echoing sounds of the panicked shouts they heard, finding themselves at last before a massive door, made of stout birch and covered with dark red sigils that stunk of blood and feces.

  “By all the hells. Necromancy!” Malek hissed. And Jess grimly nodded, a flicker at the corner of her eyes causing her to turn around.

  Jess gasped. “What games of sorcery are being played, Twilight?”

  Malek spared Jess an apprehensive gaze before turning around. “The path behind us, it's gone!”

  And Twilight hissed in displeasure. “Open the door before us, Hound. We don’t have time to dally!” For back the way they came was nothing but a wall of blinding fog, yet even the outline beyond spoke of a great room they had never crossed, as questing white tendrils of mist slowly crept towards them.

  Jess grimly shook her head, turning once more to the door. She peered intently at the twisted bloody runes, delving deep into their essence, seeking out the faint chords of power that must lay within, so that with but a single cleave she could slash through their enchantments entire, instantly springing any arcane traps. She swallowed, dreading the thought of embracing whatever horrors were locked within that poor, tormented wood that she would have to endure before she could coax the door comprised as much of dream as tree to let them past.

  “Jess, I think I understand.” This from a strangely hesitant Malek, who nonetheless slowly drew a sigil of his own blood on top of the largest of the tainted runes imprinted upon the door.

  Jess gasped in surprise, ready to pull her friend away.

  The overlapping sigils suddenly erupted in white hot flame. The door itself began to smoke, bursting inward at last in an explosion of scorched timber.

  “By the hells…” Jess muttered, gazing at her friend in surprise, but then the terrible tableau taking place in the heart of the massive chamber before them instantly commanded all her attention.

  The chamber before her was madness.

  Within it lay the vast ruins of a wizard’s laboratory. Overturned tables, smashed chairs and tipped over bookcases, tomes strewn about the great floor in a haphazard mess were everywhere. The room stank of the caustic stench of overturned beakers spewing unnameable contents to hiss and sizzle upon the vast concrete slabs of the floor. But what truly caught the eye was the hideous scene taking place in the very center of the room.

  Jess gasped in horror. Master Rens and his dozen protégé’s were not only within that awful chamber, but struggling for their very survival.

  Jess realized that she now witnessing the great arcane ritual from the other side, having burst at last upon the very room Rens had been so keen on viewing through the mists of Shadow, harnessing those many students in a ritual to fuel and open the gate.

  The spell, it appeared, was a great success. And simultaneously, a terrible trap.

  For before the grim-featured Rens and a dozen panicked students, their faces masks of utter terror as they desperately struggled to maintain their magic wards, were a half dozen wraith-like figures cackling and howling, doing all they could to disrupt Master Rens's protective magics. The foul apparitions thrust their own rotting hands into the rainbow hued magical wards between them and the students, dark crackling energies tearing into the wards.

  Jess caught sight of one wraith's sizzling hands actually bursting through the college wards in a shower of sparks, and with a savage wrench the hideous creature yanked one of the desperately screaming students right off her feet, pulling her through the failing magics and into that chamber of living death and nightmare.

  Manic laughter echoed through the chamber as the foul revenant savagely wrenched the girl’s arms behind her, shoving her forward like a prize, savoring her agonized screams as several other revenants closed in, as if all were eager for a taste of the terrified student shrieking for her life.

  And then Jess was struck by a bolt of horror that rocked through her, recognizing the soft brown eyes and gentle smile that had touched her heart with sweetest friendship since her first days at Highrock, her screams spearing Jess's very soul.

  "Oh, by Heaven's grace, that's Josie!" Malek gasped.

  It was then that Jess spotted a figure cloaked in darkest shadow, raising a smoky finger to the protective sphere, eyes like burning embers glaring at the panicked students within.

  Its words slithered in the mind like maggots festering in a dying man�
�s wounds. Like torn fingernails desperately clawing against the pitiless planks of a beggar’s coffin, the last spasms of a man buried alive.

  “Your magical wards mean nothing, mortal! Your pupils shall fall, screaming, one by one. It is only a matter of time before I suck the marrow from your living corpse and savor the bitter fruits of your power. Now behold the terror of your inevitable fate as we rip the flesh from the bones of the lamb before us." The hideous apparition's laughter was the choking rattle of a plague victim. "I shall feast upon her blood and terror, even as your own fear brings you ever closer to the doom that awaits you!"

  “This is madness!” Rens cried futilely. “Why do you wish to slay these students? You were once a part of this college! You were once one of us, renowned for your knowledge and wizardry!”

  The shadowy creature raised one twisted, blackened hand, and his minions grew still, even as they flocked around a panicked, shrieking Josie, all of them grinning like half-starved jackals, ready to feast upon her struggling form. Their savage brutality was all the more disturbing for the shirts of ancient rusted chain and sheathed swords worn by half their number, as if to show the savage demonic depths that former knights could fall to, in heeding their most bestial desires.

  The hideous shadow exhaled a dry laugh that echoed strangely through the chamber, transforming somehow to the shrieks of dying children. "Foolish mage, do you still not understand? The rumors, the whispered secrets, the newly discovered tomes that hinted at treasures to be found in the depths of a laboratory lost within the dream of Regio? Ah, my pitiable victim, you who walk in the shallowest footsteps of the great path through destiny which I tread. It was a lure! All of it! Shadowy clues to entice fresh prey through realms of dream and madness, to the true bitter end that their fate requires. In service to my dark destiny, and mine alone!"

  The creature's voice became an awful taunt, syllables scuttling like cockroaches crushed underfoot. "Fear not, prey. Yours is not the first group of foolish dreamers to stumble upon my lair. When the horror of this day has passed, and I have chosen my new apprentice from the sweetest of your soon to be butchered students, I shall reforge her into a creature of my making. And she alone will be fit to serve me, even as she revels in the sweet agony that is living death!"

  The terrible being turned to face his minions once more. "Begin."

  53

  Josie!" Time seemed to twist and stretch as the horror of Josie's imminent death roared through Jess. A desperate scream she cried, knowing there was no way she could possibly arrive by Josie's side in time.

  And suddenly, somehow, she was crashing into those vile monsters, shrieking her fury even as her blood covered blade seemed to blaze to life. The closest pair of vile revenants that had been just a heartbeat from feasting upon Jess's beloved friend were cut down in the hot blinding instant it had taken Jess to whip her longsword through their rotting flesh, cleaving through their spines before they could blink, unarmored and unprepared for her onslaught as they had been, utterly focused upon their prize.

  She roared and howled, fighting with a beserker's fury, sowing instant dissension in her enemy's ranks even as a third fell to her blade. Yet the undead warrior she now faced; armed, armored, and more than ready to test her blade, gave Jess terrible pause.

  The beast grinned and Jess beheld its rotting face, yellow-grey eyes, and elongated blackened teeth. In a frisson of horror, Jess realized she recognized that monstrous countenance. At least, who he had been before his utter corruption of flesh and spirit.

  Ubel Niedrig. His once massive body now a feast of writhing worms and putrid flesh, crackling with hideous power. Jess could all but sense the terrible strength coiled within those rotted limbs. It stunned Jess to realize that until that very moment, she had forgotten his entire existence. She had forgotten his malevolent taunts, how he had goaded and threatened Mord and Sable both, the awful chamber deep in the bowels of Highrock where he had enacted his awful sacrifices, children shrieking in terror as they were consumed by living Shadow.

  Only now did it all come flooding back to her, catching sight of Ubel's eyes, eerily the same in death as they had been in life, glaring so malevolently back at her. It was an epiphany of horror, an awareness come by in a flash so quick that not a moment had passed, but Jess suddenly remembered a whole chapter of her life gone missing.

  His mocking smile, that awful, leering, dead-eyed grin was enough to send Jess shaking with a sudden horrific awareness, desperately backpedaling even as her enemy circled her. His strength had been hideous in life, and only now was it clear the price he had paid for such awful potency.

  In the moment of her greatest horror, the corpse that had once been Ubel seized the Vor, launching himself at her, blade lashing out for her skull even as Jess desperately spun away, countering with a snapping strike to his left temple he adroitly dodged, his hideous laughter the sound of cockroaches crushed underfoot. He charged forth once more with murder in his eyes, their battle begun in earnest.

  Ever the corpse of Ubel sought to force her blade in the blind, ever she slipped free of his traps, struggling against the horror closing in on her, waiting for the opening that would give her a chance of survival.

  Ubel snarled with impatience, roaring as he charged forward, whipping his blade around in a vicious arc fit to cleave through even the most well protected throats.

  Mastering her terror, Jess dropped as she lunged, feeling vicious death arc overhead, her blade slamming into her foe's chest.

  It phased him not at all.

  She desperately lurched back, but not before Ubel's steel covered boot slammed into her chest, sending her tumbling back. A blow that would have shattered ribs, had bronze breastplate and considerable padding not cushioned the blow.

  A battered Jess desperately rose to shaking feet before she could be overwhelmed, yet it seemed that the surviving revenants were content to enjoy the show, gibbering and howling in delight as her nemesis cornered her.

  Ubel's lips stretched in a hideous grin.

  Worms poured from his mouth, slithering between blackened teeth.

  "So many things I will enjoy doing to you, Calenbry, once you fall to the ground, writhing as my blade caresses your flesh."

  Jess felt her guts twist in horrific loathing even as Ubel lashed out with his blade, Jess parring with the forte before darting back, but not before a second savage kick sent Jess stumbling back once more, and never had Jess felt so close to mortal peril as she did at that moment.

  Ubel's icy gaze carefully measured Jess’s every movement. “How long I have hungered for this duel, most hated former sister-in-arms. How Mord and I loathed your arrogant ways. You and your other friends acting so high and mighty at the lords table, as if you had any right to dictate your opinions to anyone, let alone your betters!”

  The hideous corpse spat out a great gob of his own rotting flesh, crawling with maggots, sneering his hate. “It was obvious they all favored you! The trainers, Eloquin, everyone! Spoiled little strumpet that you are, everyone thought your shite smelled of roses and no one and nothing could touch you. The minute a better man tried to put you in your place, they were brought low, while your own outrages were all but ignored!”

  He seethed some moments, gazing at Jess with utter contempt. "Mord found his satisfaction in dreams of mastering you utterly. But I? I will settle for nothing less than your soul, Jessica de Calenbry! And when I am done with you, the ecstasy and agony you feel, writhing to my every whim, will be beyond all compare!"

  Awful laughter, the sound of flesh tearing, filled the chamber. "When I realized there were other ways to power, my followers were not afraid to seize hold of opportunity. We were not afraid to risk our very souls in pursuit of greatness! We answer to no god or man, and have become greater than any of those tied to weaker arts, greater than all those weak-willed fools too cowardly to grasp ahold of true power!"

  And a sudden cold chill washed over Jess as she recalled her desperate rescue of Malek along
with the one child they could save, before the rest were consumed by living shadow. “I remember now. You and your friends, setting up Alex and his coterie with drugged wine, easy prey for Velheim wizards intent upon ritual sacrifice. Using your lackey to drug the families of kitchen staff, so as to steel away their children!"

  And those victims had not been the first, Jess realized, hideous memories of dark secrets long forgotten, permeating her psyche only now, in the heart of nightmare.

  She gazed at the shimmering wards Rens and his students were holding so desperately, a last stand against the most hideous of traps, a vile lich intent upon stealing all their souls.

  "All of this is your doing. Diabolism! Sacrificing those children in the heart of our keep, arranging for Alex and his friends to fall at the linchpin! All of this was to crack Highrock's defenses. To make it easier for your master to strike! Admit it!” Jess’s voice shook with fury.

  And even as Jess was flooded with those terrible memories, Ubel gazed at her mockingly with his rotting eyes, dry dead throat cackling with darkest mirth. "Ah. You figured it out in the end, did you? I did indeed, wench! And what a pity you actually dared to charge my dark brothers but seconds before they could finish butchering all your friends."

  Laughter then, like a dying man's last gasp. "So the linchpin holds. Summer long past, it is endless Autumn that holds sway, ever hungry to reap greater harvests, and you his willing tool. So clever, yet so stupid, Calenbry, that you don't even understand the dark game you play! The spoils you shower upon him are meaningless, for your master has still lost! Archmage Rens, least insignificant of Highrock's pathetic mages, has succumbed to my master's siren call, opening himself up to the trap before you, his spell now the chink in Highrock's armor we shall use to wreak havoc beyond your ken, destroying your master, once and for all!