by Logan Knight
I kept my sword raised and slid to a halt a few yards away. “Hello, Ru’Hijan,” I said. “Didn’t want to see your boy get his ass kicked, so you decided to help out?”
The priest smiled. When he did, though, his top lip split like dry, weathered leather. It continued to rip apart until the gash reached halfway up his nose.
“You cannot win,” Ru’Hijan said. “You are inferior. Your kingdom has never won a battle against my armies. Even now, the fate of your people is being sealed. Surrender, and I will grant you a quick death.”
“What’s with you guys trying to get me to surrender?” I asked. “A quick death isn’t much of a prize, especially when compared to watching your expression when I remove your head.”
Ru’Hijan hissed and raised his hand. I raised mine, ready to catch his spell when my vision became filled with millions of tiny points of light.
I swiped at them and rubbed my eyes, but I couldn’t make them go away. Effectively blind, I swung my sword wildly, hoping for a lucky strike against my opponent.
It took me a moment to realize he was only trying to distract me so he could attack me from behind. I spun around and raised my blade just in time to block his sword.
I sensed a surge of magic and raised my hand. A moment later, I absorbed another fireball spell and felt another surge of power. I slashed downward, struck metal, and kicked hard. My foot hit something solid, but my next slash missed.
“Impossible!” Ru’Hijan hissed from the other side of the room. “Who do you serve? Who sent you?”
“Ebba sent me,” I said. My vision was beginning to clear. I only needed to keep him talking for a few more seconds.
“Ebba,” he whispered, drawing the name out like he was tasting it. “He will not stop me. I am a god. I do as I please.”
“Not anymore,” I said as I slowly approached him, sword at the ready. “I am Reese Mordecai of the Kingdom of Dahan. Your armies have terrorized my people long enough. That stops today!”
Ru’Hijan smiled again, spreading the crack on his face another inch. “No, servant of Ebba,” he hissed. “It begins today. Your people have not yet begun to suffer. They have not yet experienced the kind of pain and anguish I am capable of producing.”
I feigned a stab, which tricked the priest into swinging his sword low to block. I followed up with a hard elbow to his jaw and a knee to his sternum.
When I disengaged, he raised his sword, but I cut his arm off at his wrist and kicked his leg, knocking him from his feet.
He dropped his sword as he fell, but I caught it before it hit the ground and pointed it at his face. “Ebba sends his regards,” I said. I pushed hard and drove the flaming blade through is head.
When I pulled it free, I noticed the flesh and bone where it had made contact burned like the embers of a dying fire. The light in the priest’s eye sockets had gone out, and he breathed no more. I cut his head off, just to be sure.
Then I noticed that although I was holding a flaming blade, I no longer felt the heat from it. Whoever held the sword was immune to its fire. That was good to know.
“What happened?” Alena said as she rubbed a spot on the back of her head and looked around the room. “Oh shit, and what did you do to that guy? And why’s that sword on fire? And what are you going to do with that gold box?”
“I met his god,” I said as I knelt to remove the priest’s belt and the sword’s scabbard.
“Is that him?” Alena asked. “You killed their god?”
“No,” I said. “That’s only the priest. Ru’Hijan intervened, but their god is still alive.”
“This isn’t good,” she whispered. “Well, it’s good the priest is dead, right? But not the Ru’Hijan part. He knows who you are. Did he say what he wanted?”
I shrugged. “The same thing we already knew the Xorians wanted—the end of everyone who isn’t Xorian.”
I pulled the priest’s scabbard free and added it to my belt.
“What about that?” Alena said, pointing to the gold box.
“It’s time to see what’s inside,” I said.
11
I used my new flaming sword to hack at the lock on the outside of the box. When it looked like I’d done enough damage, I lifted the lid a little and peeked inside, keeping my blade at the ready.
The sprites had gathered close, curious what I was looking at. However, I was worried that whatever was inside might have a taste for them, as the nadodee, the flat creature with stone-like scales, had.
“Back up,” I told everyone. “I’m going to open the box a little more. Don’t do anything aggressive unless I tell you to.”
The sprites looked disappointed again. Alena nodded and backed up a few steps. She was still able to peek at what was inside but was probably out of immediate danger.
When I was satisfied with their positions, I opened the box a little more and was shocked to see what looked like human flesh. I lifted the lid the rest of the way, and Alena let out a small gasp.
“It’s a woman,” she said. “She’s pretty. Hurry, get her out of the box!” Then she turned to Silverwind. “I thought you said it was a monster. She doesn’t look like a monster to me.”
“I said it was a creature,” the sprite retorted. “I never said it was a monster. A creature that had been captured, imprisoned, and forced to do the bidding of the priest.”
The first thing I noticed was she was naked. Her large, full breasts fell to the sides. She was thin, but not sickly, and her skin was deathly white. Her long, brown hair cascaded over her body and around the inside of the sarcophagus. It looked tangled and dirty, but it was beautiful, nonetheless.
Then I noticed the thin, gold chain wrapped several times around her neck. It didn’t look like it was tight, but I sensed powerful magic emanating from it. The other end of the chain was attached to a locking mechanism inside the box near her head. It looked complicated, and I could sense its magic as well.
“Who are you?” I asked.
She stared at my sword with a worried expression. “I am Nadia,” she said. Her voice was sweet, and she spoke barely above a whisper.
“It’s a pretty monster,” one of the sprites said. “We should kill it. Probably with fire.”
I gave the sprite a look meant to convey my desire for its silence and my threat if it didn’t comply. It seemed to work.
“Are you here to kill me?” Nadia asked.
I thought about it for a moment. I had the perfect opportunity as it looked like she was rendered immobile by the chain around her neck. “Tell me,” I said, “and be honest. If I free you from this sarcophagus, what are your intentions?”
She thought about it for a moment before answering. “I don’t know. I have been in here for a long time. A very long time. I would say I would try to find my family, but I believe they are all dead.”
“How long have you been in this box?” Alena asked.
“I do not know,” she admitted. “A year? A decade? A thousand years?” Her voice cracked as though she were on the verge of crying.
It tore at my heart, but I forced myself to remain cautious. I turned and glanced at Alena, who only shrugged. It looked like my plan to kill the creature I found in the box had fallen apart. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. She wasn’t a monster. She was a person. I believed Silverwind, who’d said she’d been captured and imprisoned. I believed she was being forced to help the Xorians somehow. I also believed that if I freed her, their ability to track us would vanish.
I wrapped the chain around a couple of my fingers and pulled hard, but it didn’t break. When I inspected the interior of the box, looking for clues, I noticed a small hole in the lid. It would be situated above the woman’s mouth when the box was closed. It was where the priest would insert the dagger, tipped in our blood, after he stuck us.
“You’re a vampire?” I asked, taking a half-step away from her.
“Yes,” she said. “That is what I have been told. Please help me. I did not want to do it. I di
d not want to help the priest. He is evil. I have served many priests. They have all been evil. All of them.” Her bottom lip was quivering, and tears welled up in her eyes.
“I do not like blood,” she said. “I have heard some of the priests and their visitors speaking of vampires. They say horrible things. The stories are not true. I like spicy sausage and soup. I like vegetables, and beer, and honey. I was forced to eat the blood. I had no choice.”
I knew she was a prisoner, and I knew she didn’t want to be in the box. If she’d been helping voluntarily, it would have made her my enemy. But I believed her when she said she’d been forced.
“You can explain it all later,” I said. “I’ll free you.”
I began to fiddle with the lock which held the chain in place but was interrupted by a sprite buzzing up to my ear.
“Guards!” she yelled. “Big! Ugly! Scary!”
I turned around and crept toward the doorway as the first four entered the room. They split, two to each side, and made room for the big, ugly, smelly one the sprite had spoken of.
The brute had to be seven feet tall and twice my bodyweight. His eyebrows connected high on his forehead, and it looked like his facial hair started just below his eyelashes. He also had what I hoped were crumbs stuck in his twisted mess of a beard. Neither his lips nor his mouth were visible.
“Do not free the creature,” the guard growled. “She is the property of the prie—” His words fell away when he saw the priest's body lying on the floor.
“The priest of Ru’Hijan is dead!” the brute roared. “Kill the creature! Kill them all!”
“I’ll come back for you,” I whispered.
She nodded and offered me a small smile. I turned my flaming sword toward the guards. They were going to take the brunt of my anger at seeing suffering they’d caused the woman in the box.
The sprites jumped into action, setting small fires in the guards’ hair, clothing, and armor. They swarmed around their opponents, making tiny, painful cuts and quick stabs at their ears, mouths, and eyes.
All five of the guards chose targets and retaliated. Two rushed toward me. Another had his hands full trying to avoid being cut to ribbons by tiny swarming warriors. Alena was fighting two of her own.
I fired an arrow at the smaller of my two opponents, and it dropped him before he had a chance to move more than three feet. A second arrow planted itself under the huge guard’s cheekbone, but he kept coming.
The brute swung his sword. When our weapons connected, sparks filled the room. He fought like his life depended on it—like the universe would cease to exist if he didn’t kill Nadia. Perhaps for him, it would have. My first impression of Ru’Hijan was that he was an asshole.
“Flee from this place!” Nadia called out. She was loud, but her voice sounded weak and tired. “I am not worth it! In death, I will be free!”
She was right, of course. If she were dead, we’d both be free. However, she said she had been transformed by Ru’Hijan. She had seen the god the Xorians worshiped. She had met him in person, and I needed to know more about him if I was to rejoin the war effort. Any information I could provide to the commanders of the Dahan armies would be valuable. If she died, she would take everything she knew with her.
The guard winced when an arrow struck him in the knee, but it didn’t affect his swing. I countered, but he parried my stab. I punched him in the face, shattering his nose, but he barely flinched. He hit me in the ribs, knocking me back before taking another slash at my belly.
I blocked it, sending his blade low, and fired another arrow into his other knee. That one must’ve hurt worse because he staggered back a few steps as he attempted to pull it free.
When I stabbed at his face, he revealed he wasn’t hurt as badly as it seemed by slicing at me again. I dodged the blade, but my shirt had a new hole in it.
Blocking another attack, I rolled to one side and countered with a slash across his shin. He winced but showed no other signs of noticing. A second slash burned through his bone, and his leg began to bend where there was no joint. He cried out, dropped his weapon, and attempted to brace himself with his hands.
As he fell, I braced my sword’s hilt on the ground and allowed him to fall on it. He hit hard, but his armor was tough, so as he struggled, I placed both hands on his back and shoved him further onto the sword’s point. When the burning blade erupted from his back, I sent an arrow into the two guards Alena was fighting. She finished off both. The sprites got the other.
“You two,” I said, pointing to a couple of sprites who were flying around looking for something to do, “go watch the hallway. Let me know if you see any more guards.”
They offered tiny salutes and buzzed through the doorway.
I turned back to the woman in the gold sarcophagus. “I have a few more questions before I free you,” I said. “First, my grandmother told me that vampires burn in sunlight.”
“It is not true,” she said. “We lose our abilities in the light of the sun. That is all. It is why they kept me in this box.”
“Second,” I said, showing her the bat-shaped amulet from my pocket, “how does this work?”
“It copies my ability to track people,” she said. “After tasting their blood, I can hear their heartbeat. I do not crave blood, but if I eat it, I know where they are and if they are alive. When they die, I can feel their death. It is horrible.”
“If I free you from this sarcophagus, will they be able to track us?”
“No,” she said. “Ru’Hijan built this sarcophagus—this prison. He would have to make another. They would have to capture me and restrain me within it. If this box is destroyed, I do not believe another will be created.”
I noted her uncertainty. I also noted her honesty.
“What do you want to do?” Alena asked. “Are we going to save her?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m going to free Nadia. We’ll take her back to the cave. We’re not going to kill her.”
Alena smiled and began to babble to the woman about how wonderful her cave was and how much she was going to like it there.
I got back to work, studying the lock that kept Nadia chained. It looked like I needed a key, but unless I took the time to search for one and got lucky, there was still another option.
“This might sting a bit,” I warned Nadia, “but it looks like the only way to free you.”
She saw me raise my sword, then she nodded and closed her eyes. It was a look of trust.
As quickly as I could without accidentally cutting the woman, I jammed the tip of the sword into the mechanism near her head and twisted the blade. The lock broke, sending sparks dancing across her body and the floor.
I removed the sword and took a step back as Nadia reached up, pulled the chain from around her neck, and tossed it aside.
The amulet in my pocket had gone dead. I could sense no magic coming from it, and when I inspected its gem, it was dark. The curse was broken. We could no longer be tracked.
“Thank you,” she said. Then she covered herself, suddenly aware of her nakedness.
“The priest’s robes,” a female sprite said. The rest of the little people got to work and had his body stripped down to its loincloth in moments.
Nadia looked disgusted by the robe but allowed Alena and the sprites to help her into it. She seemed weak and tired but offered a small smile of thanks when it was done.
“Let’s go,” I said, but Nadia was only able to take three steps before she collapsed to the floor.
“I am sorry,” she whispered. “I am so tired.
I sheathed my sword and draped her across my shoulders. Nadia touched my hand with her own and offered me another small smile. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Then I turned to Silverwind. “Burn everything. Leave nothing but ash.”
The sprites happily began setting everything on fire. They had a little trouble with the sarcophagus, but by combining their efforts, they had it blazing and filling the room with smoke in only a minu
te. The gold had only been on the outside. Underneath, it was wood.
With the last remnant of Nadia’s imprisonment decomposing to ash, we turned and headed for the main gate. I doubted there were many guards left—if any.
12
The final escape from the prison was uneventful. The front gate was open, and it appeared the guards had left in a hurry. I was glad we didn’t have to fight because I wasn’t sure I could keep Nadia safe. She was weak and tired.
Once we’d made it to the forest and could no longer see the Black Citadel, I stopped at a small clearing and gently sat Nadia on the soft grass. She was winded, even though she’d spent the entire trip riding across my shoulders.
I gave her a waterskin, which she sipped, and Alena offered her some of her dried meat rations. Then we each found a shady spot and sat to rest.
Nadia was ravenous, shoving the food in her mouth until her cheeks stuck out. She acted like she hadn’t eaten in a thousand years. It was possible.
She only stopped once, and even then, only long enough to rip a piece of fabric from the bottom of her robe. She used the scrap to tie her long hair into a ponytail high on the back of her head and returned to eating.
I sipped water, ate a little meat, and watched in amusement as several sprites studied the woman and made appreciative noises as she crammed even more food into her mouth.
The scene must’ve inspired them because they left and returned a short time later with little armfuls of berries. These, Nadia added to everything else she was chewing. When she spotted everyone watching her, however, she blushed so deep she looked like a tomato.
“I apologize,” she said around the food in her mouth.
Alena giggled and waved it off. “Don’t worry about it. It’s probably been a long time since you’ve eaten. Maybe a really long time, right? I bet that box they stuck you in was keeping you alive. Otherwise, they would’ve had to let you out once in a while, right?”
Nadia slowed her chewing for a moment, then nodded and stuffed another handful of berries into her mouth.