by William King
He turned to Orm and said, “Follow me! We have work still to do in the master’s name.”
He sprinted up the stairs. Orm, face oddly blank and empty of emotion, slammed the door, dropped the bar and followed as quickly as he could.
Swiftly Balthazar inscribed a circle in the ground and gestured for Orm to enter it. He knew that he would need to summon the Umbral while darkness lasted if he was to have any chance of getting out of the Keep.
Beneath him, he could hear Admiral Zamara bellowing orders. In the absence of any other authority figures, the humans below would rally to him. Briefly, he considered sending Orm back down to confuse matters with contradictory orders, but he needed his presence here.
“How shall we escape?” Orm asked. “Jump off the roof. Is that what you are saying? The only way out is death.”
“Show some faith,” Balthazar said. “I shall summon the Umbral, and it will bear us from this place on wings of Shadow.”
Hope dawned on Orm’s face. He knew how Balthazar had arrived. The sound of the door being smashed open rose from below them. The Guardian would soon be here.
“Stand in front of me, shield me while I invoke the spell,” Balthazar said. Orm moved to obey. Balthazar drew on the power within the talisman as he rushed through the invocation of the spell. It had never gone so fluently before. It was as if something in the amulet lent him skill as well as power. Or perhaps he had simply learned from his first casting. He preferred to think of things that way.
As the spell reached its climax, he drove his blade into Orm’s back. The Commander gave one panicked scream as he realised the betrayal and then died. Balthazar felt the Umbral enter the universe and flow into it and then as had happened before the corpse split and flowed towards him, fusing to his flesh, covering him in armour, extending into bat-like wings.
This time, Balthazar knew what to expect, and part of him enjoyed it, at least until he heard the heavy footsteps on the stairs and saw the Guardian emerge onto the roof, dwarf-forged blade held in his hands.
Damn the man, did he never give up?
Kormak forced himself to stride up the last stair and emerged onto the roof. In the moonlight, he faced a bat-winged demon, larger than a man. Its body was covered in an odd carapace of flesh and bone. Its features bore some resemblance to Balthazar’s.
It was all he could do to keep moving. Every bone in his body ached. Every muscle threatened to cramp and stop moving. He was a mass of bruises. His armour seemed to have prevented anything worse, but he was not sure. Nonetheless, he was determined to end this thing now. Behind him, he could hear Rhiana and Zamara and the others moving closer. He was glad. For once, he was not sure whether he could finish this thing on his own.
“Guardian,” the demon thing said. Its voice was Balthazar’s, subtly altered. “I see you have caught up with me at last.”
“Prepare to die,” Kormak said.
“Not yet,” Balthazar said. He took a step forward. He flexed his arms, and his bat-wings unfurled. “I have work to do in this world, and you are in no condition to stop me.”
Kormak took a step forward. He could barely force his battered body to move. He felt dizzy, and all strength seemed to be leaking from him. Balthazar paused as if sensing his weakness and considering a strike. Kormak took another step forward and raised his blade.
Balthazar took a step back and said, “You don’t give up, do you?”
“Not until you are dead,” Kormak stepped forward once more. Balthazar stepped back. The others arrived on the stairs. Kormak heard Zamara gasp at the sight of what they confronted.
Balthazar said, “That won’t happen tonight.”
He turned and vaulted over the battlements. Kormak rushed forward. Balthazar’s body plummeted for a few heartbeats, gathering speed. At the last second, before his body smashed into the rocks around the keep, he snapped open his wings and arched his back. He swept around and began to gather altitude again, moving like a great bat, rising swiftly over the roofs of the city and beginning to flap upwards into the distance. He was far too far away for Kormak to think of throwing his sword.
Kormak turned to see Zamara looking down at his boots in disgust. There was a small puddle of blood on the roof.
“I could have sworn I saw two of them come up here,” said Anders, looking around suspiciously as if he suspected someone was about to spring out in ambush. Kormak wondered if he had missed someone, but he doubted the roof of the tower was large enough unless Orm was hanging over the far side of the battlements or shinnying down the side of the tower.
He limped around checking and found nothing. “It looks like they both got clean away,” Zamara said. Kormak thought about Balthazar’s increased bulk and the magic he must have worked to transform himself.
“I doubt it,” Kormak said. From beneath them came the sounds of chaos and panic rose into the night.
“We’d better restore order down there,” said Zamara. “After that, we can think about pursuing Balthazar.”
“We don’t need to do that,” Kormak said.
The Admiral looked at him in surprise.
“He’s going to the same place we are,” Kormak said. “He’s looking for the same thing.”
“Let’s hope he does not get there first,” said Anders.
“I don’t see how he can fail to,” said Zamara. “He is flying. We’re on foot.”
“Let’s worry about that tomorrow,” Rhiana said.
Kormak stared off into the distance. Something huge and bat-winged passed across the face of the moon, and gaining height headed off towards the west. Balthazar had eluded him again.
He swore that soon there would be a reckoning.
THE END
About the Author
William King lives in Prague, Czech Republic with his lovely wife Radka and his sons Dan and William Karel. He has been a professional author and games developer for over a quarter of a century. He is the creator of Gotrek and Felix for Black Library. He is also the author of the World of Warcraft novel Illidan. Over a million of his books are in print in English.
He has been nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Award. His short fiction has appeared in Year's Best SF and Best of Interzone. He has twice won the Origins Awards For Game Design. His hobbies include role-playing games and MMOs as well as travel.
You can find out more at www.williamking.me
He has been short-listed for the David Gemmell Legend Award. His short fiction has appeared in Year’s Best SF and Best of Interzone. He has twice won the Origins Awards For Game Design. His hobbies include role-playing games and MMOs as well as travel.
His website can be found at: www.williamking.me
He can be contacted at [email protected]
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