Darkblade Guardian

by Andy Peloquin

  The Hunter glanced at the trail ahead of them. They were at least an hour from the standing stones at the top, perhaps closer to two if they went at Hailen's pace. He dared not let himself think about what awaited him once they reached the top and crossed the last few hundred paces to reach Enarium. His excitement from the previous day had faded to nervous anticipation. What if She wasn't there? Worse still, what if She was there and didn't remember him? And what of their child? After all this time, he or she would be a child no longer. Would he come face to face with a man or woman that hated him for abandoning them? What could he say? How could words hope to make up for centuries, millennia even, spent apart?

  He pushed the thoughts aside and focused on Hailen. The boy seemed on the verge of tears of exhaustion. He didn't dare take Hailen's hands and risk the bleeding effect, but he couldn't stand to see the boy suffering so.

  "Do you want to ride on my back?" he asked.

  "Yes." Hailen nodded, scrubbing his eyes.

  The Hunter used the rope to form a makeshift harness to carry Hailen. Once he'd situated the boy in place, careful not to let Hailen's skin come in contact with his, he resumed the upward trek. The burning ache in his spine, legs, and shoulders soon returned, and he found himself fighting to keep climbing. The voice in his head grew louder with every step closer to Enarium. The shrieking grew so painful his vision blurred for whole minutes at a time. The voice made it impossible to think of anything beyond gritting his teeth and putting one foot in front of the other.

  "Hardwell." Hailen's voice sounded like it came from a thousand leagues away. "They're coming, Hardwell."

  That snapped the Hunter from his exhausted trance. He glanced down the trail and saw two figures below. His heart stopped as he recognized the heavily-armored figure riding in the lead. Kiara followed Sir Danna. Their horses had somehow survived, and they closed the distance up the hill far faster than he'd like.

  His mind raced. He'd left them on the other side of the cliffs, but Sir Danna had to have known the way through. The way through could have opened at dawn to allow them through. Whatever lead he'd gained was negated by the fact that the Cambionari had horses.

  Keeper curse her to the fiery hell! She would not relent. He had saved her life—inadvertently, in his attempt to save Kiara—yet she remained hell-bent on killing him.

  At that moment, the cool mountain breeze carried a familiar, gut-wrenching smell: the odor of rot and decay. Hope surged within the Hunter. He'd climbed more of the slope than he realized. There, not fifty paces away, at the top of the incline, stood the four massive standing stones.

  He forced himself to climb faster, half-running the last distance to the Dolmenrath. It would end here, one way or another. Sir Danna would die—and Kiara, if necessary. Nothing would stop him from reaching Enarium now.

  The rancid stench of putrescence grew almost unbearable as he crested the incline and staggered into the ring of stones. His eyes darted up the trail beyond toward Enarium in the distance. Just five hundred paces from where he stood, the white marble walls of the Lost City rose high into the morning sky, reflecting the bright sunlight. The gate into Enarium stood open—so close, yet so far. He ached to sprint the last remaining distance to the place where he would be reunited with Her, but he dared not. Not yet.

  He released the rope harness from his back and helped Hailen to sit.

  Hailen flinched back from the obsidian monoliths. "Hardwell, I don't like this place," he whimpered.

  With good reason. The first time he'd been within one of the Dolmenrath, he'd watched the Hunter slaughter more than sixty bandits. His blood had activated the power within the stones. That had been the day Hailen's heritage as Elivasti—as Melechha—had manifested.

  "I know you don't, but this is where we have to be," the Hunter said, crouching before the boy. He drew a small throwing knife and held it out to Hailen. "If anything happens to me, I need you to activate the stones. Do you know how to do that?"

  Hailen nodded. "My blood," he said in a plaintive whisper.

  "The bad people are going to try to hurt me, but I'm counting on you to save me. Can you do that?"

  "Yes." Hailen's lip trembled and tears rimmed his eyes, but he took the dagger anyway. "I can save you, like you saved me."

  The Hunter wanted to embrace the boy, to squeeze his hand, to reassure him that everything would be okay, but he didn't dare. He could only give the boy a silent nod before he stood and turned toward the entrance to the Dolmenrath.

  To face Sir Danna one last time.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Sir Danna reined in ten paces down the trail. Even from this distance, the Hunter could see the deep scratches, scuffs, and dents in her once-shining armor. She'd lost her helm, gauntlets, her right vambrace, and her left greave. She sat slumped in her saddle, but her fatigue hadn't dimmed the fire of hatred in eyes.

  "Haven't you had enough, Sir Danna?" the Hunter called down. "Haven't you lost enough men to this foolish quest?"

  "Foolish?" Anger twisted her expression into a snarl. "It is not foolish to seek justice for those who can no longer do it themselves. It is not foolish to hunt down an assassin and murderer." She straightened and reached for her sword.

  "I already told you what happened that night." The Hunter shook his head. "I had no desire to kill any of them, but they forced my hand. They cornered me and would have killed me—"

  "As they were trained to!" Sir Danna's shout caused her horse to shift beneath her. "They answered the Beggar God's call to arms, dedicated their lives in his service."

  "Then they died in his service as well. Isn't that supposed to be your highest calling in life? To lay down your lives following your god's orders?"

  "Trust a demon to twist scripture to suit his needs," Sir Danna spat. "You cannot call your actions 'just' or 'righteous'."

  "Neither can you." The Hunter crossed his arms. "All who followed you are dead. You led them to their graves on your misguided quest for vengeance."

  "Vengeance?" Sir Danna opened her mouth to retort, but the Hunter cut her off.

  "You may pretend it's justice," he said, "but I see the hatred that consumes your heart. I recognize it all too well. Ask Kiara what happened when I let it guide my actions."

  Sir Danna glanced at Kiara, and the woman gave a little nod. "He speaks the truth, Danna."

  "The demons harmed those I cared for," the Hunter said, "and I sought vengeance. But vengeance didn't bring back Farida, and it won't bring Visibos back, either. Don't pretend you're doing this for him."

  "That is exactly why I am doing this!" Sir Danna's voice rose to a shout. "For my dead apprentice, and for every one of my comrades, friends, and…" She swallowed. "…companions you cut down in cold blood."

  "I did not seek out that fight, just as I did not seek out this one." The Hunter bared his teeth in a snarl. "But I will not hesitate to end this, either. If you truly saw what I did in the House of Need, how do you believe you can fare any better here and now? With two swords at your back, when I brought down nearly twenty in Malandria."

  "Because I believe in the strength of my purpose," Sir Danna snarled. "And because it is the Beggar God's will that you die!"

  "Is that so?" The Hunter barked out a laugh. "Did you know that it was your Beggar God who actually pled with the rest of the gods for the Bucelarii to be spared? In The Numeniad, it is written that the Beggar himself told the Bucelarii he would one day call upon us to serve him." A cruel smile spread his lips. "Your Beggar God is nothing more than a shell to house the soul of Kharna, and it is Kharna's will that I live."

  Sir Danna's face went pale, but she tried to brush it off. "You lie, like all of your kind!"

  "This is no lie," the Hunter said. "Kharna is the hand that controls all the demons on Einan. His body lies trapped, but the Devourer of Worlds pulls the strings still. Which is why I travel to Enarium. The Sage seeks to unleash the Destroyer, but I wish to lock him away forever. Every moment you spend hunting me allow
s the true threat to go free. Help me destroy the Sage. You can resume your quest for vengeance once Einan is safe."

  "And I should just trust you?" Sir Danna snapped. "Put myself within killing distance of you again?"

  "Like you did on the road to Malandria?" The Hunter nodded. "I did not threaten or harm you in any way, yet you and your apprentice tried to kill me. If anything, I should be the one seeking vengeance for attempted murder."

  "It is not murder when—"

  "It's a holy mission, yes, I know." The Hunter rolled his eyes. "But that doesn't change the fact that I saved you and Visibos. Twice. Yet you were the ones that poisoned me and threw me into the Chasm of the Lost. What does that say for your 'purity of heart'?"

  Sir Danna flinched as if struck.

  "Father Reverentus, the Cambionari from Voramis, told me that only those of pure, righteous blood are accepted." The Hunter's smile turned mocking. "There's nothing pure about that rage I see burning in your eyes. What would your Beggar God think?"

  "Nothing at all." The knight spoke barely above a guttural growl. "The Beggar God is a lie. All of it is a lie."

  The words shocked the Hunter far more than Sir Danna's presence. When last he'd seen her, she'd been devout in her worship of the Beggar God. To hear her decrying the god's existence like this, it sounded like something he would have said, but not the words of a priest. Kiara seemed equally stunned.

  Sir Danna continued, not noticing. "When I found Moradiss lying in a pool of his own blood, I wondered at the Beggar God's purpose. When I saw Father Pietus, Garanis, and all the other Cambionari dead at your hands, I questioned why they had died while you, the spawn of demons, went free." Her tone went flat, monotone. "But it wasn't until I found Visibos' emaciated, starved, mutilated corpse in the vault that I came to realize the truth."

  The Hunter raised an eyebrow. "And what truth is that?"

  "The Beggar God is no god at all. None of them are. They are nothing more than figments of our imagination, conceived to give us something to blame for our troubles."

  The Hunter had spoken the exact same words to Father Reverentus in Voramis. Hearing them from her mouth sent a chill down his spine.

  "If the Beggar God truly existed—if any of them did—they would never have allowed such a thing to happen. You would be the one lying dead, and Moradiss would still be alive."

  Something about the way she said the name “Moradiss” sounded…off. It held a note of grief similar to the way she spoke of her apprentice, the same echo of personal loss. He'd heard it in his own mind a thousand times as he thought of Farida's death. He'd loved that little girl—he'd only come to realize it after her death, but he couldn't deny it. Sir Danna had cared for Visibos as a companion, an apprentice, even a dear friend. But Moradiss…he'd been more than that to Sir Danna.

  "You loved him, didn't you?" he asked. "Moradiss."

  Sir Danna's face hardened. "What business of yours is that?"

  "The truth, Sir Danna." The Hunter spoke in a low voice. "That is what this is all about, isn't it? Revenge for my taking Moradiss from you."

  "No," she said, but the words rang hollow. "This is justice for the deaths of—"

  "Not even you believe that," he said, shaking his head. "You hate me because I killed Moradiss, because I killed the man you love. You've come all this way because of that."

  Sir Danna said nothing, but the venom in her eyes spoke volumes.

  "That is a pain I can understand, and a justification I can accept." The Hunter softened his tone. "I have killed hundreds to protect those I love, and I killed hundreds for what was done to others. But the desire for vengeance must be set aside for the sake of Einan. If you cut me down, the Sage wins. Kharna returns."

  "Sir Danna," Kiara interjected, maneuvering her horse up beside the knight, "what if he is right? What if this Sage really is a threat?" She shot the Hunter a glance. "In the brief time I knew the Hunter, I discovered he was many things. A killer without peer, ruthless, merciless. Yet he was never a liar. He told me the truth, even when it meant I would try to kill him."

  Sir Danna shot Kiara a questioning glance.

  "I put a dagger in him," Kiara went on, "but he tried to convince me to help him rather than simply cutting me down, as he had the rest of the Bloody Hand. When the demon would have killed me, the Hunter threw himself in its path to save me. Were it not for him, I would be lying dead in the tunnels beneath Voramis."

  "Can't you see he's using you?" Sir Danna snarled. "Manipulating you for his own ends?"

  "Is that what you call saving your life back there?" Kiara replied simply.

  The knight jerked back, her eyes narrowing.

  "Whether or not you like it, he did save your life back there." Kiara's gaze searched the Hunter's face. "He saved mine, too, even though it gained him nothing. Is that selfless act what a manipulator does? What an evil creature, a monster, does?"

  The Hunter struggled to hide his surprise to hear Kiara defending him. He hadn't intended to save Sir Danna, but his actions had spared her life nonetheless.

  "He could have walked off and left us there to die." Kiara fixed Sir Danna with a hard stare. "Those Stone Guardians would have killed us, but he chose to help us."

  "You think him a hero?" Sir Danna snarled. "Because he saved your life?"

  "I would never call the Hunter of Voramis a hero. But neither would I consider him the same as the demons that destroyed our world long ago." She returned her gaze to the Hunter. "I do not know what the rest of his kind were like, but I know the man who stands before me. The man who stands before us not to defend himself, but a boy. A child. One much like the child he sought to protect in Voramis."

  The words brought a lump to the Hunter's throat, and the familiar weight of guilt returned. Shame flashed in Kiara's eyes as well. She hadn't been the one to harm Farida, but she had served the one who did. She had done many despicable things during her years as the Fourth of the Bloody Hand, and she would carry a burden much like his.

  "I am truly sorry for your apprentice," the Hunter said in a quiet voice. "Had I wanted him dead, I would have simply put a dagger in him myself. I would not have left him there to starve to death. It is a cruel fate, and one that I unwittingly condemned him to. As for your Lord Knight…"

  Sir Danna's eyes flashed. "He is not my Lord Knight!" Her expression grew sad, and her voice dropped to a whisper. "He never was, and thanks to you, he never will be."

  "I did not wish him dead," the Hunter continued. "I had no ill-will toward the man. He simply put me in a position where I had to defend myself or die. I gave him a chance to let me walk away, and he refused. He forced my hand. Just as you will force my hand if you continue to pursue me."

  The knight's face hardened.

  "Leave me to my mission, Sir Danna." The Hunter was surprised by the pleading tone of his voice. "Ride back to Malandria and mourn your losses. Better still, join me in my hunt for the Sage. Help me bring him down and save Einan. You could not save Visibos or Lord Knight Moradiss, but there are hundreds of thousands more you could save. Help me put an end to the Sage and lock Kharna away in his prison forever. Is that not the mission you have trained for your entire life? To save the world from the threats no one else even knew existed?"

  For a moment, he thought she would relent. He could see his words taking effect, the doubt in her eyes as the woman she had once been tried to break through the hard, angry exterior she'd donned. A hint of the Sir Danna he'd met on the road shone through as she stared at him.

  Then the moment passed, and the hate reasserted itself. The venom returned to her expression and her face went flat, icy.

  She spoke a single word. "No."

  Chapter Forty

  "Sir Danna, you—" Kiara began.

  Sir Danna spoke in a low growl. "You are either with me, Kiara, or with him. You cannot choose both. Help me bring him down or get the bloody hell out of my way."

  Kiara made no move to draw her sword, but shook her head. "I
cannot stop you, but I will not help you."

  "So be it." The knight's voice held no trace of emotion, simply…emptiness. "Then crawl back into the abyss in which I found you. I have tried to help you—"

  "Help me?" Kiara's voice rose in an angry shout. "You saved me from myself, and for that I will be forever grateful. But I have seen the angry, hate-filled monster you have become over these last months. The ruthlessness as you hunted him down, your callous reaction to the death of every Warrior Priest and Cambionari beside you. We lost nearly a score of men and women that have ridden with us for hundreds of leagues, yet what is your reaction?" She spoke a mocking parody of the knight's voice. "They died in service to Derelana and the Beggar God."

  Kiara kicked her horse toward Sir Danna, and fury flashed in her eyes. "They deserved better than that, Sir Danna. Every last one of them. But you are so consumed by your desire to make him suffer that there are no lines you will not cross, no one you will not sacrifice in service of your quest. I cannot and will not follow someone like that."

  Sir Danna's jaw dropped. She seemed stunned at the tirade, and she stared at Kiara as if for the first time.

  "I will not apologize for what he has done," Kiara stormed. "He has already done that for himself. But what do you have to say for your actions? How many others have died because of you? The things you said you did in the name of justice and holy retribution? From where I'm sitting, your actions are more demonic than those you ascribe to him. You think that you are free of guilt because you wear the armor of the Cambionari or profess to serve a god? The Keeper will judge you for your actions just as the rest of us will be judged. On that day, how do you think you will fare?"

  The Hunter was as shocked as Sir Danna. He'd known Kiara had fire burning within her. He'd seen it when she tried to kill him for what he'd done to her comrades of the Bloody Hand, then helped him kill the First who had caused all the suffering in the first place. But this…this was a new strength he couldn't have imagined.