“I mean no harm to the village or yourself,” Merlin says. “The shepherdess said there was a plague. I brewed a potion to cure it.”
Greetha bends down to snatch the pot away. Though half my blood is on the ground, I try to stop her. “Let her have it,” Merlin says.
Greetha opens the lid of the pot and sniffs at it. “What dark magic is this?”
“It’s the magic of the forest,” Merlin says. “Just a simple brew of herbs to treat the plague.”
“This is no ordinary brew. You’ve infected it somehow.”
“I’ve done nothing to it. Go on and try it on one of the infected. See what it does.”
“I will do no such thing. You will leave and take this wretch with you. He does not deserve to die here.”
I mutter a curse. Beaux kneels down beside me. “We can’t let him die anywhere. One of you, please, help him.”
“I will not help one in league with an outsider.”
“Marlin is not in league with me. He is my friend.” Merlin bends down. He puts his hand on my midsection. The pain disappears. I look down to see the cut has healed; even the rent in my animal skin is gone. Only the blood on the ground is a reminder that anything’s happened.
Merlin and Beaux help me to my feet. “Take him to rest. Greetha and I will settle this.”
“There’s nothing to settle. You and your minions will leave and never come back. And take your vile potion with you!”
Greetha hurls the pot at Merlin. He holds up a hand. The pot stops in midair. He pulls it out of the air to set on the ground again. Greetha lets out a cry of rage. “You dare to defy me?”
When she reaches beneath the bear pelt I brace for her to take out another dagger. Instead, she takes out some yellowed bones. From the size and thickness, they probably came from a deer. She levels the bones at Merlin and then begins to chant in her strange language.
Nothing happens. She chants louder and then begins a shuffling dance while she does it. Still Merlin stands there, impassive. She hurls the bones at his feet. From inside the pelt she takes out the heavy artillery: a wolf’s skull.
All the chanting and screaming has drawn a crowd. The red boils on some faces indicate those with the plague. They all stare wide-eyed at Greetha, waiting for her to destroy Merlin. Though I always knew Greetha’s “magic” was bollocks, I can’t help but feel a nervous flutter when she raises that wolf’s skull.
With the skull poised over her head, she shrieks some of her nonsense words. She dances within an inch of Merlin’s face. I’m sure she’s getting spit in his beard from all her screaming. He remains impassive, to the point I think he might have turned to stone.
It takes only a flick of his hand to end it. That flick sends Greetha back at least twenty feet, through the flap of the chief’s hut. Merlin says nothing to celebrate his victory. He simply picks up the pot and then carries it over to the nearest infected villager, my old friend Bleeth.
“Take some of this and apply it to your sores,” Merlin says. “In the morning, you will feel better.”
“No!” Greetha roars. “Do not trust him! He’s an outsider!”
She recovers herself, but the head of the bear’s pelt is crooked. She looks smaller to me, her power diminished. She gathers up the bones and skull to continue her chanting, but no one pays her any mind. They flock around the pot to take some of Merlin’s potion.
In the morning, the village is cured and Greetha is gone.
Chapter 6: Darkness Rising
In the land not yet known as Egypt, a beautiful woman rested on a couch and stared into a pool of dark water. She was the most beautiful woman in perhaps the whole world at that point; she certainly thought so. As she looked into the water, she didn’t ask it who was the fairest in the land; she had something much larger on her mind.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a scream. A pair of young men crashed to the stone floor in front of her couch. They quivered there while their attacker stood over them. Their attacker was a man clad in a black loincloth and an equally black headdress in the shape of a dog’s head—the symbol of the god Anubis. On each hand the monster wore a gauntlet made of the paws of a bear, an animal quite exotic for Egypt of the time.
The claws on the gauntlets were even sharper than those of a normal bear; the monster proved this when he sliced open the chest of one man. With the precision of a surgeon, he cut out the man’s heart. The organ was still beating when he presented it to his mistress.
She cupped it in her hands to watch it beat. “This is all you bring me? This is hardly worthy of my dogs,” she growled.
“I am sorry, my master,” the monster said. “I will go find others to serve you.”
“No, these will do. I have another use for your talents.”
The monster cut out the second heart while his master devoured the first. She didn’t eat it the way one would eat an apple. Instead, she held the heart up to her mouth, her jaw widening like that of a snake until it was big enough to swallow the heart whole. She let out a sigh as if she’d eaten a joint of mutton.
She motioned to her servant for the second heart. She devoured it in the same way. Then she leaned back on the couch while a couple of slaves scurried in to take the bodies away. They worked quickly and silently so they wouldn’t be next up on the menu.
Once she and the monster were alone, the woman gestured to the pool of water. “Several moons ago we lost something important,” she said.
“Forgive me, master. He was more cunning than I anticipated.”
“Of course he was,” she said. “He was my most gifted student.”
“You wish for me to find him?”
“There’s no need to find him. I know exactly where he is. He’s in a land far to the north. He hopes to avoid my gaze there. The fool doesn’t realize he can’t go anywhere to escape my notice.”
“Then I will go there and kill him.”
“No, you will not kill him. Bring him back to me. But be warned, he’s preparing for your arrival.”
“I won’t fail you again, master.”
“I should hope not.”
The monster bowed to her. “I will make ready to leave at once. If I may be so bold, though, what will you do while I am gone? Who will harvest your sustenance?”
“I can take care of myself for a few moons.” She shook her head. “I hate to have to dirty my hands with this rabble, but it’s necessary.”
“Would it not be easier for you to go to the traitor? With your power, you could be upon him in seconds.”
“Are you questioning my wisdom?”
“Not at all, my master.”
“Good. Now go. Find Merlin and bring him back to me. Let no one stand in your way.”
The monster bowed again and then backed out of the room. He set out on foot to the north, to where Merlin—and me—waited. In her palace, the beautiful woman leaned back on her couch and sighed. She had made a mistake in underestimating Merlin once, but she wasn’t going to make that mistake again. This time she would make certain to destroy him—and anyone else who got in her way.
Chapter 7: Training Camp
Not quite so far south, in what will become France, G’lyna watches her new recruits and sighs. Anybl had warned her the other girls would need guidance; G’lyna had hoped it wouldn’t require this much guidance. The youngest, Syva, is almost feral, to the point she tried to eat a spoon on the first night.
The beautiful Agga on the other hand can’t stop herself from complaining about every little thing. “Why do we have to stand out here in the cold?” she whines.
“In order to learn control, you need to get in touch with the world around you.”
“Can’t I do that in front of the fire?”
“No,” G’lyna snaps. She supposes this is the problem with trying to manage a bunch of teenagers. She wasn’t this bad when she first began to quicken, was she? If she was, it was because she had to fear for her life, until Anybl found her. Girls like Agga were just spoiled br
ats used to having everything their own way.
“Patience,” Anybl whispers in her ear. Her friend has a talent for appearing out of thin air the moment G’lyna needs her. “It’s a big adjustment.”
At that moment there’s a scream. G’lyna turns to see Syva on top of Sofe, the brightest of their recruits. The younger girl shrieks something in her native tongue while trying to claw Sofe’s eyes out. G’lyna is going to intervene until Anybl puts a hand on her shoulder.
A moment later, Syva goes flying and lands at G’lyna’s feet. Sofe stands up, her hands glowing. Anybl hurries over to her to put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right, Sofe. You can relax now. No one will hurt you.”
“You should send that thing back to the woods where it belongs.”
“I want to go home,” Agga whines.
Most of the others seem to share that feeling, all except the stoic Hise, who just stands there with her arms crossed. She hasn’t said more than five words that G’lyna can remember since she arrived from the farthest end of the world a week ago. And yet she’s already the second-best student besides Sofe.
“Hise, take the others inside to warm up,” G’lyna says. She grabs Syva by the arm. The girl struggles to free herself, but can’t. “Syva and I are going to have a little talk.”
She drags the girl into the forest, where no one else will be able to see or hear them. At first Syva continues to struggle, but eventually she stops and plods along with G’lyna. At a thicket, G’lyna motions to a log. Syva sits down.
G’lyna brushes the wild dark red hair from Syva’s face to look into her green eyes; they’re the eyes of a frightened child, not an animal. With a spell Anybl helped her with, G’lyna speaks in Syva’s native tongue. “You don’t have to be afraid. No one is going to hurt you.”
The girl only grunts at this. G’lyna takes her hand. “What happened? What did Sofe say?”
“She said I was a dirty savage,” Syva says.
“And you thought that was a good reason to kill her?”
“I wasn’t going to kill her. I just wanted to scare her.”
“I understand, but that was wrong. Sofe is your sister and you should never, ever hurt your sister.”
“She’s not my sister. My sisters are back home. I should be with them, not out here.”
Now G’lyna began to understand. Most of them had left family behind when they began to quicken, but for Syva it was different. She had cared for her sisters like a mother, but then she had been forced to leave them behind so they wouldn’t be marked as demons and executed.
G’lyna sat next to Syva on the log. She put an arm around the girl’s shoulder. “I’m sure your sisters will be fine. You taught them to take care of themselves, didn’t you?”
“They’re still so young. Emba is just two summers old. I should be with her.”
“I know, but you can’t. None of us can be with our families. But we have a new family now. We’re all sisters: you, me, and even Sofe. And we have something very important to do.”
“We do?”
“Yes. Anybl and I haven’t told the others yet, but very soon a darkness will descend upon the land. We have been chosen to fight it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, but I do know when the time comes, we will all need to work together. It will take our combined strength to destroy this evil. If we don’t, then it’ll overtake the whole world—including your sisters.”
Syva considers this for a few minutes. She finally nods. “Then I will do what I must to help,” she says.
“Good. You can start by apologizing to Sofe. But first, let’s get you a bath. You do stink a little.”
Syva grins at this and gives G’lyna’s hand a squeeze. Then they go to the stream to wash up. G’lyna helps Syva clean her clothes as well and ties her hair back so it no longer covers her face. “Now you look very pretty,” G’lyna says.
“Thank you,” Syva says. The girl leans against G’lyna as they trudge back to the camp, where their sisters await them.
Chapter 8: Fight & Flee
The two girls battle in the snow. Hise, the older of the two, moves with supernatural grace to duck under the swing of the other girl’s staff. Syva, the youngest of all the girls, curses in her native tongue. She groans when Hise’s stick hits her in the back and sends her tumbling to the ground.
Hise looks down on Syva and bows slightly. “You fight well,” she says, “but you lack patience.”
Syva jumps to her feet. “Let’s do it again.”
“That’s enough,” G’lyna says from up in a tree. She drops to the ground, between the combatants. “Let’s go inside and get some dinner.”
“I don’t need to eat,” Syva insists. “I can beat her.”
“I’m sure you can, but I’m hungry. Let’s go.”
Syva looks ready to argue, but then drops her staff. She follows after G’lyna and Hise into the main hut, where the others await them. It’s a tight squeeze for fifty girls, but they’ve learned to manage over the past six moons.
As if reading her thoughts, Anybl touches G’lyna’s arm. “We need to talk.”
They go outside, back into the cold. Anybl asks, “How are they doing?”
“I’m sure Hise could beat any man and Syva isn’t far behind.”
“Good. We’ll need them soon.”
“How soon?”
“A few days. The Black Demon is almost here.”
“We won’t be ready in a couple of days for something like that.”
“I know, but we don’t have a choice.”
***
Agga, who has the best foresight of any of the girls, keeps track of the Demon’s movements. As Anybl said, he’s coming straight for them, marching through the mountains without pause to rest. He walks even through the night.
“If we can lure him into the pass then we can trap him,” says Sofe, the most intelligent of them. She lays out their strategy. Hise and Syva will draw the Demon into the pass, where the others will fire down upon him. G’lyna doesn’t like it, but she can’t argue with the logic either.
“Just one thing,” G’lyna says. “I’m going with Hise and Syva.”
“G’lyna—”
“It’s my decision.”
Anybl looks into her eyes for a moment and then nods. “How soon should he be in the area?”
“By dawn, I think,” Agga says.
“Good. Then let us prepare.”
***
G’lyna huddles with Hise, Syva, and Agga behind an outcropping of rock. Agga has her eyes closed to watch the Demon’s movements. As she foresaw, the Demon will be near the pass in less than an hour, as the sun rises.
Beside G’lyna, Syva sharpens a dagger. “I can’t wait to slit his throat.”
“We’re not to fight him,” G’lyna says.
“But—”
“We won’t fight him except as a last resort. Understand?”
Like a scolded child, Syva looks down at the snow and nods. “I understand.”
The sun is beginning to rise when G’lyna sees the Demon for herself. Despite the cold he’s bare-chested and his legs are mostly bare as well. He wears a black headdress shaped like a dog and a pair of bear paws on his hands. The claws on his hands look much sharper than those of a normal bear.
Before G’lyna can say anything, Syva charges out from hiding. She screams the war cry of her village as she lunges at the Demon. He lets her plunge the dagger into his chest. The dagger shatters in Syva’s hand. Without a word, the Demon backhands Syva with one clawed hand. She slams into a rock and goes limp.
The Demon starts towards her. G’lyna stands up and raises a hand. The snow around the Demon begins to swirl. “Agga, get Syva back to camp. Hise and I will deal with the Demon.”
Agga nods. She vanishes herself across the gap to where Syva lays; with a flash of light, both are gone. Meanwhile, Hise trots towards the Demon with far more caution than Syva. G’lyna continues to swirl the snow around the Demon, n
ot that it seems to faze him.
Hise is the best warrior G’lyna has seen, but even she is no match for the Demon. She ducks under his claws a few times. Unlike Syva, she tries her dagger on the Demon’s left hamstring. Again the dagger shatters. Then he plunges a clawed hand into her right leg. With a scream, Hise collapses.
G’lyna vanishes herself across the gap to scoop Hise up. G’lyna vanishes her and Hise back a few feet. “Come and get us.”
Then she runs.
***
The Demon follows them into the pass without a care. G’lyna plants herself in the middle of the pass with Hise still in her arms. She stares back at the Demon. “It’s time to end this,” she says.
At that moment Anybl and the others reveal themselves on either side of the pass. G’lyna vanishes herself and Hise up to meet them as they begin to rain down ice, static energy, and fireballs at the Demon. He stands in the middle of the pass, absorbing the punishment without flinching.
“It’s not working!” G’lyna says.
Anybl nods. “Then we have to go to the backup plan.”
G’lyna is going to ask what this is, but then she feels the ground tremble. Snow and rock at the end of the pass begin to collapse. Before long, an avalanche descends upon the Demon. Several feet of snow and stone entomb the monster.
G’lyna lets out a sigh of relief, until she sees the snowy tomb shake. A clawed hand appears through the snow, followed by another. Then the dog-shaped headdress bursts through. The Demon glares up at them. “I am not here to trifle with children. Return to your homes and you will be spared.”
“What do we do now?” Sofe asks.
“We retreat,” Anybl says. “I hope Merlin has better luck.”
Chapter 9: The Messenger
After he saved the village from the plague, Merlin could have taken over as chief. Of course he refused that honor. He might have at least consulted me first to see if I wanted to be chief. That would surely have reconciled Beaux and I.
He refuses to even accept a hut in the village. Instead, he goes back to our makeshift hut in the forest with its floor of moss. He does allow the villagers to give us some good pelts to sleep on.
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Call Page 83