Darkblade Guardian

by Andy Peloquin

  "Demonspawn!" A shout rang out behind him. "You cannot escape me!"

  The Hunter's heart stopped. Dread sank like a stone in his gut as he glanced behind him.

  Sir Danna stood at the far entrance to the rocky hollow in the cliffs. Her plate mail glimmered in the early morning, bright steel reflecting the colors of dawn, shining with a brilliance the gods themselves would envy. Even from this distance, he could see the hatred blazing in her eyes, hear the fury in her voice.

  He whirled toward the others. "Ride, now!"

  Without hesitation, he kicked his heels into Elivast's ribs. The chestnut gelding darted forward, Ash a step behind. Hailen cried out in surprise but managed to cling to his desert horse’s mane. The two of them thundered past the stunned Darillon, Rassek, and Evren, charging up the trail without slowing.

  "Bring him down!" Sir Danna's furious cry echoed after him.

  The Hunter risked a single glance over his shoulders as he galloped up the trail. Rassek and Darillon had recovered enough to ride after him, with Evren a few horse-lengths behind. Through the gap in the cliffs, he caught sight of Sir Danna and the white-cloaked Warrior Priests clambering onto their mounts and spurring after him.

  His heart sank. The Cambionari and her company rode horses bred specifically for the mountains, but far larger and stronger than Rassek and Darillon's pack horses or Evren's nag. On flat ground, he knew Ash could outrun any of their pursuers, and Elivast would give his best effort. But here, on a rocky trail with nowhere else to go but up, their chance of evading their pursuers was slim.

  His only hope lay in finding a suitable place to make a stand.

  The demon's shrieking in his head echoed its delight and lust for blood. The curse had corrupted it, reducing it to little more than chaotic cries filled with its desires. The pounding of Elivast's hooves only intensified the throbbing behind his eyes.

  But he didn't slow. He couldn't. He had to get Hailen someplace safe, or at least someplace he could protect the boy from Sir Danna. The Cambionari would want his head, and he couldn't risk the boy being injured or killed in the melee.

  "What the bloody hell is going on?" Darillon shouted.

  The Hunter ignored it. He was too busy trying to maintain his seat in his saddle as Elivast took the twisting, turning trail at breakneck speed. He scanned the path ahead in search of anything he could use to gain an advantage against the Cambionari and her companions. Somewhere he had a chance of surviving the inevitable confrontation.

  The trail ran along the base of a steep cliff, with solid stone on one side and a two-hundred pace drop on the other. But a short distance away, the path led toward a vast chasm that cut a ragged tear in the ground from north to south. Easily twenty paces across, it stretched for as far as the Hunter could see. The only way across was a stone bridge three paces wide. A sliver of hope arose within him.

  It's as good a place as any.

  He galloped across the stone bridge, reined Elivast and Ash in, and leapt from the saddle.

  "Hardwell?" Confusion twisted Hailen's forehead. "What's happening? Who are those people?" Fear filled his eyes. "Are they going to hurt me again?"

  "No." The Hunter gripped Hailen's hand, ignoring the trickle of blood from his fingernails. "I'm not going to let them get close to you."

  Darillon and Rassek pounded up behind them, and Evren appeared around the bend in the trail a few moments later.

  "What the hell is going on, Hardwell?" Darillon demanded, his expression a mixture of suspicion, fury, and fear.

  "There's no time to explain." The Hunter drew his sword and slid Soulhunger from its sheath on Hailen's belt. "I need you to take Hailen and ride up the trail as fast as you can. I will follow as soon as I can."

  "Not before you—" Darillon began.

  "Really, Darillon?" Rassek cut him off. "I may not understand what's goin’ on, but I know that bein’ chased by armed men is low on the list of things I thought I'd be doin’ today, see. Maybe we grill him fer answers after we survive this, eh?"

  Darillon scowled, but he nodded. "Fine." He glared at the Hunter. "But there will be a reckoning, Hardwell."

  The Hunter shrugged. "I'll tell you everything. Just get the boy away from here, now!"

  Rassek collected Ash's reins and tugged on them. He shot the Hunter a nod. "Mistress' luck smile on ye."

  "And you." The Hunter returned the nod. His eyes went to Hailen. "Keep him safe. Please."

  His gut tightened as he watched the four of riders continue up the trail. His eyes never left Hailen until they disappeared around a bend in the path.

  The Hunter closed his eyes and let out a long, slow breath. He'd hoped to avoid this confrontation, but there was no way to outrun it now. Sir Danna had caught up with him and she would have her reckoning.

  He turned to face the knight charging up the trail. She slowed her huge black warhorse, Pathfinder, to a walk as she caught sight of the Hunter standing alone on the far side of the stone bridge. The rest of the mounted figures on the path behind her slowed to a halt as well. The Hunter counted thirty—most with the splinted mail and white cloaks of the Warrior Priests, with tattooed faces and shaven heads to match. Five, however, wore either chain mail or plain leather armor. Two wore round-topped metal helms, while two rode bare-headed. The fifth, a slim figure in dull leather lamellar armor, wore a scarf over his face in the style of the raiders of the Advanat Desert. These had to be the Cambionari sent by Father Reverentus. The odds were now firmly stacked against him.

  Sir Danna drew Pathfinder to a halt ten paces away from him and climbed from the saddle. Her plate mail clanked as her boots thumped onto the stone bridge. She turned toward the Hunter and removed her helmet, revealing her strong, beautiful face, now twisted in a grimace filled with vitriol. Hatred blazed in her eyes as she spoke.

  "We meet again, Demonspawn."

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  "Sir Danna," the Hunter replied in a flat, emotionless tone. He gritted his teeth against his demon's shrieks of fury pounding in his mind as his nostrils picked up her unique scent: steel, sweat, leather, and wisteria. "What's a woman like you doing in a place like this?"

  "Hunting you, you vile creature." The knight’s olive-green eyes were hooded in shadow, with heavy, dark bags and deep crow's feet. Lines of anger and loathing hardened her features, a match to the scar running down her square jaw. She seemed to have aged a decade in the space of a few months. Even her long red hair had lost its luster and now hung in tangled braids.

  The Hunter's lip curled into a snarl. "Haven't you tried to kill me enough for one lifetime? Or weren't you satisfied with poisoning me and throwing me into the Chasm of the Lost?"

  "I'll kill you a thousand times over for what you've done!" Sir Danna gripped her sword hilt so tight her knuckles turned white.

  "How priestly of you." The Hunter gave her a mocking grin. "Seems like just the sort of thing a devotee of the Beggar God should not be saying. After all, isn't your god all about humility and servitude? And here I thought the Cambionari were such friendly folk. Oh wait, no, that's my mistake." Anger boiled within the Hunter. "After all, it was the Cambionari who threw me off a cliff, stole my belongings, and tried to kill me when I came to reclaim what was mine."

  "Reclaim what was yours?" The knight let out a barked laugh. "Is that what you call slaughtering twenty Cambionari and cutting down two priests? The others, I can understand, but Father Pietus? Garanis?"

  "Garanis was a demon," the Hunter retorted. "He used the Illusionist's tricks to control Father Pietus. He would have made Pietus kill Hailen if I hadn't intervened."

  Sir Danna rolled her eyes. "Tell me, Demon, do you actually believe your lies? Such convoluted tales may deceive simpler minds, but I have trained my entire life to hunt you and your kind. I have heard too many accounts of the treachery and malice of the Bucelarii to be convinced by anything you say."

  "Yet, how much do you actually know?" The Hunter fixed her with a hard glare. "Were you actually ther
e that night in the House of Need? Did you see what happened?"

  "Worse," the knight snarled. "I saw the carnage you left in your wake. I walked in the blood of men I trained with, men I obeyed, men I…" She swallowed. "…respected. You butchered them like animals."

  "And if you were in my position, would you have done any different?" He stabbed a finger toward her. "You took what belonged to me, and I simply wanted to reclaim it. Your Cambionari gave me no choice but to defend myself. Lord Knight Moradiss attacked me—all I wanted was to leave your Keeper-damned temple in peace."

  "And you consider leaving a man in a vault to starve to death 'self-defense'?" Fury blazed in the knight's eyes. "Is it self-defense to steal an innocent child to have your depraved way with him?"

  The Hunter gritted his teeth as the demon's fury echoed in his head. Soulhunger throbbed in his hand, eager for blood. The combined voices threatened to overpower his rational mind, as they had in the House of Need. It would be so easy to give in to the rage, let the blood haze overtake him, and slaughter every one of them.

  But he had fought that for too long to give in. Though every fiber of his being ached to leap into battle, he forced his racing heart to slow and his voice to calm.

  "I am sorry about your apprentice," he told the knight. "I truly intended to warn the others that he was in the vault, but your Cambionari gave me—"

  "Save your empty words." Sir Danna spat at his feet. "You are nothing but a bloodthirsty animal. No, worse than an animal. You are a demon." Without breaking their gaze, she motioned for her companions. "Take him."

  At her command, the foremost Warrior Priests dismounted and strode toward him. The Hunter's gut clenched as six white-cloaked priests drew weapons—long swords and daggers, a fighting style that matched his—and crossed the bridge toward him. Their tattooed faces bore a mixture of wary caution and grim determination. The narrowness of the bridge forced them to come at him in pairs, but rather than charging, they moved toward him at a steady pace. These were no undisciplined bodyguards, street toughs, or strong-arms; the Warrior Priests fought with a skill even the Swordsman Adepts would envy.

  "I have no quarrel with you," he told the approaching Warrior Priests.

  "The goddess demands vengeance." Not so much as a facial muscle twitched as the bearded man in the lead spoke. "We are her strong right hand to deliver it." They had no personal enmity toward him, yet were determined to fulfill their holy mission of serving the Lady’s vengeance to the deserving. If they fell in battle, they deemed it a worthy death in service to Derelana.

  The Hunter drew in a deep breath and prepared himself for the attack. He fought down the urge to charge. The width of the bridge would prevent them from surrounding him, but they'd have to come at him in pairs. A quick rush could give him enough of an advantage to take down two or three, but there was a chance they could slip past him. He had to hold his position and keep them from backing him onto solid ground. If they pushed him off the bridge, they could come at him from all sides.

  He reversed his grip on Soulhunger as the pair in the lead stepped forward to attack. He caught the high blow on his sword, and he used Soulhunger to turn aside a thrust at his gut. An iron dagger darted toward his face, forcing him to twist his head. Pain flared down his neck at the sudden movement, and the skin along his cheek crawled at the near-contact with the poisonous iron.

  A quick, practiced flick of his wrist brought his long sword whirling down and across. The slashing attack would never cut through the Warrior Priests' heavy splinted mail, but the tip of his blade sliced through flesh with terrible ease. Blood sprayed as the Warrior Priest dropped his weapons to clutch at the severed artery in his neck.

  The Hunter raised Soulhunger to deflect a chopping blow aimed at his head, ducked the return slash, and brought his long sword swinging around in a powerful strike that crunched into one Warrior Priest's knee. The man cried out as steel cleaved flesh and shattered bone. Yet even as he sagged, he lashed out with his sword. The Hunter leaned back to evade the desperate blow, then whipped his body forward to drive Soulhunger into the side of the Warrior Priest’s neck.

  The man let out a scream of agony and terror. Crimson light flared to life as the Soulhunger fed on the man's life force, and the dagger's voice cried in pleasure. Power surged through the Hunter as the dagger fed on the man's life force. A finger of fire etched a new scar into the flesh of his chest.

  He released his grip on Soulhunger's hilt in time to avoid a slash that would have severed his forearm. Gripping his sword with two hands, he brought it swinging around into the next Warrior Priest's helmet. The blow dazed the man and sent him staggering toward the side of the bridge. The Hunter dropped to a crouch to avoid a high swing, and his left foot whirled around in a low sweep that knocked the stunned Warrior Priest from his feet. The falling man’s steel armor clattered on the rock, the weight dragging him over the edge.

  A cry of fury echoed from the other Warrior Priests as the Hunter hacked down his next opponent. The woman died with a grunt, the Hunter's long blade driven through her neck. The Hunter threw himself into a backward roll to evade downward chops from the two Warrior Priests between him and Sir Danna. He reached out as he came to his feet and ripped Soulhunger free of the dead man's neck. He crouched, weapons ready, blood spattering his face and dripping from his sword blade.

  "Enough of this!" the Hunter snarled. "Don't make me kill any more of you than I have to."

  But he saw his words were futile. More of the Warrior Priests dismounted and rushed to join the two facing him on the stone bridge. Sir Danna unsheathed her long sword, and the Cambionari drew weapons as well.

  The Hunter quickly sized up the situation. The ferocity of his attack had surprised the foremost Warrior Priests, but he knew the others wouldn't be brought down so easily. The priests of Derelana trained in every style of bare-handed and armed combat, with every weapon wielded around the continent. Already, he could see the slight adjustments in their stances, a subtle shift in the way they gripped their weapons, as they prepared to match his fighting techniques.

  He had no doubt about his skill, but facing such impossible odds, he knew he was in serious trouble. Every one of the Warrior Priests carried iron daggers, and Sir Danna carried Ildaris, the enormous iron greatsword once wielded by Lord Knight Moradiss. He had little doubt the Cambionari had weapons intended to kill him as well. Even a single scratch from those iron weapons could prove fatal if he couldn't heal himself in time.

  Yet the Hunter couldn't back down. Sir Danna had made her intentions plain; she would hunt him to the ends of Einan. She wouldn’t stop coming until he suffered for what he'd done to her apprentice and Lord Knight Moradiss. He couldn't outrun her, not with Hailen. He had to put an end to her threat once and for all.

  "Sir Danna!" he called. "You want me dead? Come and face me yourself instead of throwing your minions at me."

  The Warrior Priests stiffened, and anger flashed in the eyes of the tattooed men and women facing him.

  "Why?" Sir Danna's voice cut through the tension. "You are a creature without honor, so there is no reason why I should treat you as anything more than a rabid animal to be put down."

  "But do you really want them to be the one to put an end to me?" The Hunter waved Soulhunger at the Warrior Priests arrayed before him. "Don't you want to feel my blood on your hands, get that sense of satisfaction in knowing that you killed me for what I did?" He gave her a vicious grin. "After all, you yourself said you trained your whole life to eradicate my kind. Would it truly be satisfying to let someone else do the deed?"

  The Hunter had no doubt he could bring down one knight, even one as heavily armed and armored as Sir Danna. He'd seen her skill the day he saved her and Visibos from bandits. She was good, easily better than Lord Knight Moradiss had been. But he was the Hunter of Voramis, trained by the last blademaster of the Elivasti. He had slain demons all across Einan, even brought down the Warmaster himself. Iron greatsword or no, a knight would
prove far easier to eliminate.

  She opened her mouth to respond, but the words never came. Her gaze went to something behind him and her eyes flew wide.

  A moment later, an ear-splitting roar thundered through the mountains. The Warrior Priests tensed and gripped their weapons tighter, and more than a few tattooed faces went pale.

  The Hunter whirled, and his eyes flashed upward toward the top of the cliff. There, on a crag overlooking the bridge, crouched an enormous creature. Easily twice the height of a man, the monstrous beast had a reptilian face. Its too-long arms rippled with grotesque strength, and long, curving claws sprouted from six many-jointed fingers on each hand. Massive spikes studded its back, and a long, serpentine tail curled around its bestial leonine legs and hind paws.

  Dread turned the Hunter's ice to blood. The Stone Guardians.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The Hunter froze as the massive creature's eyes—like twin pools of liquid darkness—fixed on him. He'd heard of the Stone Guardians from an alchemist in the city of Aghzaret, but the old man's warning had done little to prepare for the reality.

  For a gut-wrenching moment, silence gripped the mountains. Then, the Stone Guardian opened its mouth, revealing row upon row of razor-sharp fangs, and loosed another roar rumbling through the mountains, crashing into them with the sound of a distant thunderclap. The monster bounded high into the air, straight toward the stone bridge.

  "Move!" Sir Danna roared.

  The Hunter was already racing toward Elivast at top speed before the first of the Warrior Priests moved. The clanking of armor grew louder as the priests pounded across the stone bridge. A heartbeat later, a deafening boom split the air, followed by screams of pain and terror.

  The Hunter vaulted into his saddle, turned Elivast toward the trail, and dug his heels into the horse's side. Elivast leapt into motion, going from stock still to a thundering gallop in the space of a few heartbeats.