Duke Grandfather- The Whole Story

by James Maxstadt

  I called Sarge over and told him the plan. He wasn’t happy about it, but saw the logic behind it. “I’ll be back as quick as I can,” he said, and ran out the door.

  He was only gone a moment when he stumbled back in, bleeding from his shoulder.

  “Bastard was waiting,” he grunted. “Soon as I went out the door, the street lights went out, and he got me. I barely managed to block it and get back in here.”

  Again, the lights went out, followed by the sound of that dry chuckle.

  “No, no one will leave here alive. Not unless the elven woman is left to me. Last chance. The next time the darkness comes, so comes your deaths. Think carefully.”

  The lights flared back into existence.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “No idea,” Lilly said. “But if this creep thinks he’s getting to Tomoni, he’s got another thing coming. I can hold him off, for a long time if I have to. He won’t get through my shield. The only problem is…I can’t do anything else while I’m maintaining it. And I can’t extend it any further, either.”

  “We’re on our own, is what you’re saying.”

  “Yeah, I’m afraid so. But Duke, if he starts getting the upper hand, I’m going to…”

  “No,” I interrupted her. “You’re not. Regardless of what else, you hold that shield and get Tomoni through the night. Tomorrow, you can get her outside into the daylight.”

  “Duke.”

  “Not up for debate, Lilly. Besides, this thing's not going to take us.”

  I wished I felt as brave as my words sounded. I managed to keep any trembling out of my voice, but the truth was, I had no idea how I was going to stop this thing. In order to save Tomoni, and to avoid a war with the Elves, Lilly might be forced to watch Masuyo, Sarge, and me all get cut to pieces in front of her. And while I didn’t want to be a filet of Nuisance Man, I also didn’t want her to have to see that.

  “Masuyo,” I said quietly, “your sword worked on it before. It made it drop the knife, whatever it is. Can you still fight?”

  He was leaning against the wall, bent slightly with his hand pressing the wound in his side. But now he straightened and looked at me. “Yes, I will fight,” he said, in broken but understandable Common.

  “Good. Sarge, how about you?”

  “Not sure what I’d be swinging at Duke, but you know better than to ask.”

  “Alright then, here’s the plan.” And I outlined what I thought we could do. Lilly approved, as much as she could of anything at the moment, which was good. A large part of it hinged on her ability to maintain her shield and keep the thing away from her and Tomoni.

  I drew my gun and whispered to it. Then, the three of us stood back to back, and waited.

  The lights flickered, flashed, and blinked on and off, the flames disappearing and reappearing each time. Every time it happened, we tensed, held our breaths, and waited. It was playing games with us, making us think that it was coming, but then pulling back, letting the fear build to a fever pitch. We held steady.

  Then, the lanterns went out and stayed out. There was a flash of soft light from around Lilly, and I saw the globe that surrounded her and Tomoni blink into a quick existence as the knife struck at it. But with a noise like the screech of metal on glass, the knife slid off of it, and disappeared back into the darkness.

  It attacked again, trying from a different angle, and then again. But each time, it was stymied and slid away into the darkness. Lilly stood calmly, but I could see the strain on her face. Tomoni touched her shoulder and spoke softly, and I saw some of that strain ease. Now she could do as she said, and they were both safe.

  There was a long, drawn out hiss from the darkness. Rather than the chuckle from before, this was a sound of frustration and annoyance.

  “Necromancer,” came the voice. “You play with the forces of death well. I cannot breach your defenses, nor can my knife. You leave me with one option. Lower it, give me the elf woman, or I will gut these others.”

  This time, the lights stayed off.

  “Not a chance,” Lilly said. “You’re not getting Tomoni, so you might as well take your little toy and go back to whatever hell spawned you.”

  The chuckle sounded again. “Brave words. Foolish words. You will have cause to regret them.”

  The knife suddenly appeared and darted in at Sarge, who barely got his sword around in time to deflect it. It pulled back, hovering in mid-air, and then struck again, getting past his guard, and scoring a hit on his forearm. Sarge cursed, and his blade lowered for a second, but then snapped back into guard position.

  Masuyo flowed around to confront the knife, giving Sarge a chance to drop back. The blade tried a flurry of attacks, diving in high, low, and in the middle, moving faster with every strike. But Masuyo was as fast, and although his breath began to come in gasps, and the sweat broke out on his brow, he held his own.

  Sarge grunted, and I glanced over. He was looking at his sword, and the notch that the knife cut in it. I’d never seen such a thing, and it made me look more closely at Masuyo’s. It was hard to see when it was moving, but every time he blocked the knife’s blow, another small piece of his sword was cut away. Soon, very soon, it would be cut in two, and then the fight would be over.

  He tried to reach beyond the knife, strike where the arm that wielded it should be, or the body behind that. But the knife blocked every attempt, no matter how skillful the elf fought. And every time, another small shard of metal was shorn away.

  But he was doing the job and holding it at bay. Sarge ripped a strip from his shirt and bound the cut on his forearm. He moved up next to Masuyo and started to attack also. His efforts were no more effective than the elf’s. The blade blocked every attempt to get past it.

  I stepped off to the side, to where I could shoot at what should be the things body, and not risk hitting anyone else. I raised the gun, pointed at the area behind the knife and fired.

  The little, metal ball that came out seemed to sail through the air in slow motion. It glowed as it exited the gun, and flared brighter as it went. The room was suddenly filled with light, and there was a horrible scream that split the air.

  Behind the knife was a man of average height and build. He wore a black cape over a white, frilled shirt, and black pants. His face was sallow and pale, clean shaven, thin, and framed by stringy, black hair. His eyes were bloodshot, with very dark irises. It was he who was screaming as the light washed over him.

  I fired again, and the next metal ball did the same, illuminating him more fully. The knife wavered, and Masuyo jumped in and plunged his sword through the man’s torso. While the wound looked horrific, there was no blood, and the light seemed to pain him more.

  He dropped to his knees and covered his eyes, the knife still held in his right hand. I took careful aim and fired a third time. This time, the ball travelled slowly, hit the knife and exploded into a brilliant glare.

  We all cried out and flung our arms up to protect our eyes. When the flash cleared, we stood blinking, tears streaming from our eyes, in the normal, suddenly dim seeming light of the watchhouse lanterns. Of the strange man and his wicked knife, there was no sign.

  “Good job, Duke!” Lilly yelled. “What did you set the gun to?”

  “Darkness,” I replied. “I told it to kill the darkness.”

  “And that worked?”

  “Yeah, I guess it did,” I said, and looked down at the gun in my hand. “I think there’s a lot more to this thing than even we thought.”

  Lilly lowered her shield and ran to me. We embraced and stayed that way for a few minutes, enjoying the familiar solidity of each other. When we broke, Tomoni moved to Sarge and helped him with the gash in his arm.

  “Thank you,” she said, but then her face became sad as she looked over at the body of Katashi.

  Sarge went and got some of the Watchmen who were on duty out on the streets. They fashioned a litter for Katashi and carried him with great respect to the Palace, followed by Masuyo,
Tomoni and us. I had never been to the Palace before and didn’t really want to go now. But there was no way that I was going to let Lilly out of my sight, even if it meant having to present myself to the bigwigs on the hill.

  As it turned out, it didn’t matter. We approached the gate and were met by the two men in black who visited us earlier in the day, along with several members of the Palace Guard. Neither of them were happy to see Katashi’s body.

  “Your mission was a failure,” the non-wizard type said, a note of disappointment in his voice.

  Lilly didn’t bother responding. Instead, she turned and hugged Tomoni. The elf hugged her back, squeezing her tightly before she let go.

  “I will never forget you, Lilly. Nor you, Duke. Nor Sarge. You have the gratitude of the Elven Nation, and my own personal thanks. I hope to see you again, and perhaps I can show you my homeland.”

  The two men in black shut their mouths and seemed to be reconsidering their opinions. Neither Lilly nor I cared. We said our goodbyes, even getting an earnest handshake from Masuyo and headed for home. It was a long, exhausting night, and I was ready for bed. I didn’t even care if the taverns were still open, I'd had enough.

  We got home, slipped into bed, and I reached for the light on the bedside table to extinguish it. Then I thought better of it, glanced at Lilly, and lay down, leaving it to burn throughout the night.

  TO KILL THE MOCKING BIRDS

  After the elven delegation left the city, the excitement died down and things went back to normal. There was no mention to the world at large, through the newssheets or by any other means, of the mysterious attacks on Lady Tomoni, or of our role in staving them off. On the other hand, there was also no mention of the Elven Empire being angered and threatening ruin and destruction to us all. In fact, if anything, they painted the visit as a rousing success of inter-kingdom goodwill.

  While I was glad that Tomoni didn’t hold the attack on her life against us, I was still smarting at the disappointment that elven ale apparently did not, in fact, exist. Or if it did, none was offered to me, despite my best attempts to display my interest in it. Oh well, not everything in life turns out the way we want it to.

  There were also no more visits to Lilly from those serious men dressed in the black clothes. We discussed it and decided that they probably didn’t like the way Lilly handled her assignment, and were rescinding their mysterious invitation.

  “Fine with me, Duke,” Lilly said. “We’ve got a lot going on anyway, and I don’t want my whole life to revolve around the King’s secret business. I like our life.”

  Hearing her say that gave me a nice warm feeling inside, but at the same time I wanted to march up to the palace and demand to know what they were thinking. How anyone couldn’t see that Lilly would be a boon to any organization was beyond me. They were probably all afraid that she’d end up taking over and telling them all what to do before the year was out.

  But she was right in that we had a damn good life together. Our work was interesting, even if she was tied to a particular office every day, while I lived a more freewheeling existence. We had friends, Lilly had family, and most importantly, we had each other and a big day to prepare for.

  The details of the upcoming wedding were rapidly coming together, although it always seemed like there was one more question to be answered, or opinion being solicited. Although if you were to ask Lilly, most of my opinions were in the nature of, “sure, looks good, either one.” The problem was, to me, it did all look good and I didn’t really care which flowers were in the temple and which were at the Rose Petal Room. As long as Lilly was actually going to show up that day, I was good.

  I took a nuisance from the Board the day after our ordeal with the darkness. While I felt like staying in bed and sleeping the day away, getting back out there and doing my job was going to be the best thing for me. I pulled an ogre, which was a rarity for me.

  There was a time that eliminating ogres off the Board was my bread and butter. With my Ultimate Weapon, and the intelligence levels of most ogres, it was pretty easy money. But now, I came to realize that that same lack of intelligence that made them so easy to outwit, was also the reason that most of them shouldn’t have been on the Board in the first place. As a group, they were very easily manipulated and drawn into doing the dirty work for those that really should be on the Board.

  But being stupid doesn’t mean you also can’t be mean and rotten to the core. And from all apparent signs, that was the case here. This particular ogre, Bucket, started out as a leg breaker for an orc family. One who shall remain nameless, but since become much more respectable. When they did, they didn’t have as much need for Bucket’s services and cut him loose.

  Bucket wasn’t too happy about that, and I’m sure he didn’t know any other way to make money, so he started preying on some of his past victims himself, demanding they pay him, or suffer grievous bodily harm. Some did, others tricked him, and still others took the beating, which is never a good idea with an ogre. Those few successes, either the pay, or the beatings, went to Bucket’s head.

  Those types of people that Bucket visited when he was employed by the orcs were usually not the type to call on the Watch for help. Many of them were in debt from some sort of shady activity in the first place. If Bucket simply stayed with them, he might have lasted a while longer.

  But instead, he got greedy and branched out. He attacked a human shop keeper, breaking both the man’s legs and destroying his bakery. After that, he demanded money from the dry goods store next door. By the time he crossed the street to the butcher’s, the door was locked, and the butcher himself was running to the Watchhouse as fast as he could.

  Only to have his complaint taken off the Board by me, out for some money and to prove to myself that after a night of terror, I still had it.

  I did. I located Bucket, tried to talk to him, and discovered that he wasn’t interested in listening, learning, or changing. He demanded money from me instead, and when I tried to explain the error of his ways to him, he charged me. An ogre charge is a fearful thing to behold, right up there with a minotaur, only with more rage sounds and fist swinging. He didn’t even get to within ten feet of me before I stopped him cold. Bucket wouldn’t be preying on anyone again.

  “What an idiot,” a voice said.

  I looked around, but since we were in a respectable part of town, there was no one on the street while I dealt with Bucket. Instead, they all watched through the windows of their homes and shops. The only thing around was a large, black bird, with a heavy beak, scratching at the cobblestones.

  “Umm…did you say something?” I asked, feeling foolish.

  The bird cocked an eye at me and blinked. “I said, ‘what an idiot’.”

  Talking bird. That was a new one, but this was Capital City after all. We had about everything else, so why not a talking bird?

  “Ogres aren’t the smartest,” I said, still glancing around, half expecting to see some joker enjoying himself at my expense, and half hoping that no one noticed me talking to a bird.

  “What makes you think I was talking about him?” the bird said.

  “Cute. Don’t you have somewhere to flap off to?”

  “Could be. But I was enjoying watching you make an ass of yourself. Hee-haw for me, would you?”

  “Scat!” I said and aimed a kick, but the bird simply hopped back away from me, out of range.

  “Stupid and slow. It’s a wonder that woman’s going to hitch her wagon to your star. Headed straight for the gutter, you two are.”

  I glared at it, and it sat staring back at with me jet-black, round eyes.

  “Good comeback,” it said, and issued a harsh caw, which sounded suspiciously like laughter, opened its wings and jumped into the air.

  Too late I remembered the inherent danger of birds on the wing, and jumped back, only to feel the splat of something wet hit the top of my head. I put my hand up to wipe the filth away with an oath, and glared up into the sky. But the bird was al
ready flapping its way over the rooftops, another harsh caw splitting the air behind it.

  I looked down at Bucket, then back into the sky. Stupid bird.

  I don’t mean to say that Lilly laughed at me when I told her what happened, but she did chuckle. She swore it wasn’t at me, and only at the situation.

  “No, I’ve never heard of a talking bird before. But from what you say, it was most definitely still alive, so there’s really no reason I would have. But come on, Duke. Given where we live, is it really that remarkable?”

  “Maybe not, but it was…it was such an…I mean…”

  “Aww, was the birdy bad to you? Being a bird doesn’t mean it couldn’t be a jerk. If you see it again, pluck it. That’ll teach it, when it has to run away from cats on the ground.”

  Lilly has a scary side at times.

  But we had things to do, and after I washed the reminder out of my hair, I forgot about my encounter with the bird. Which goes to show either how weird life can be in this city, or how busy Lilly was keeping me these days. Maybe both.

  I spent the next day running around doing more errands for the wedding, but this time, it was something that I had complete and utter control over, and actually enjoyed doing. Lilly made me responsible for picking the ale that would be served. I was to go to various taverns and choose the one that I thought the largest number of people would enjoy. Now this was a task that I could get behind.

  “There’s a lot of them,” I told her. “And I might get confused as to which is which. I may have to ask for a few samples.”

  “Knock yourself out,” she replied. “As long as you pick a decent one and make the arrangements to have a few barrels delivered to the Rose Petal Room that morning. Mister Charles will handle it from there.”

  Ah yes, Mister Charles. For what we were paying him, you’d think he would go pick the ale up himself and carry it to the Rose Petal Room on his back.

  I was heading to my fourth tavern to get a sense of what they have, when I noticed the bird sitting on a nearby barrel watching me. It was either that same, large, black bird from the day before, or one identical to it.