by John Kerry
The explosions came thick and fast. Fireball after fireball accompanied by bloodcurdling screams.
Hami held his arm out to the hole in the building. A lightning staff leapt to his hand, he tossed it to Sammy, then he bundled her away around the building.
“Why did you help him?” Sammy shouted as they ran.
“Because the poniard must be protected at all costs. And as corrupted and twisted as Mantis has become, he knows that too. No one can be allowed to possess it. It’s too powerful.”
Too powerful in the wrong hands? Or too powerful for someone like Sammy? “Will Mantis be heading to the portal next to shut it down?”
“I believe so. Which means we need to find Mehrak … so you can say goodbye.”
–FIFTY-FIVE–
UNWELCOME INTRODUCTIONS
They ran through the compound, glancing in through the windows as they went. They found Mehrak and the others in the long hall leading to the black castle.
Sammy ran towards them. Then slowed.
The group that had formerly consisted of three Marzban and Mehrak had expanded. The scientist from the portal chamber was there, her colleagues too, and there were others. A combination of men and women, some plainly dressed in aprons, some in furs.
One of the women was standing close to Mehrak. Too close.
She was heavier than Sammy, curvy with bigger breasts, but sexy with it. She toyed with a plait of hair draped over her shoulder, twirling it around a finger.
Mehrak stiffened when he saw Sammy. He smiled, but it was strained, nervous. “Sammy,” he said. He took a deep breath. “This is Gisouie. Gisouie, this is Sammy.”
Sammy stopped, leant on her staff to maintain balance.
“Is this young girl Sammy?” Gisouie linked her arm in Mehrak’s. She smiled. “Thank you for helping my husband find me,” she said. She didn’t sound particularly thankful.
Sammy’s throat was dry. She didn’t trust herself to talk. She looked at Mehrak, then back to Gisouie.
“And this is my auntie, Kimia,” Mehrak said. He removed himself from Gisouie to approach the scientist that had been working on the portal, the one Mantis had threatened.
“Auntie?” Sammy croaked. It was the only word she could manage.
“We haven’t got time for introductions,” Hami said.
“But my aunt worked on the portal,” Mehrak said. “She knows how to shut it down without killing everyone on the mountain.”
“That’s great, because Mantis is on his way here and we need to do it now.”
“Mantis?” Mehrak shot a glance at his aunt.
His aunt nodded. “The Mantis.”
“There’s no time to explain,” Hami said. “The General is after the golden poniard. The Ahriman too. Perhaps even Mantis. I don’t know, but the portal must be shut down. Now.”
“Mantis knows where the poniard is,” Mehrak said. “My grandfather studied him. There’s information in one of his journals.”
“Mehrak!”
“The journal has the coordinates to Mantis’s base. It’s in Eggie …”
“We don’t have time for this!” Hami barked. “We can track him down later. Right now we have work to do.” He began to usher the crowd towards the end of the corridor.
Sammy found herself watching Gisouie sidle up to Mehrak, and hating the woman for it, even though she’d done nothing wrong. Sammy was the one that had encroached on the relationship. She was the outsider. In their lives and in the realm. In fact, the damage she’d done to Mehrak’s relationship was probably the least of her crimes against Perseopia. It was time to leave, to remove herself from this place. From Gisouie and Mehrak.
Her thoughts crystallised then. The portal was her way out.
Hami wanted her on the other side of it. Mehrak might’ve wanted her to stay, but she wasn’t bedding down in Eggie’s kitchen while Mehrak slept upstairs with his wife. Sammy had overstayed her welcome.
“I wanted to say goodbye before I go,” she said to Mehrak.
Mehrak stopped. “What?” He moved away from Gisouie. “But you’re coming to live in Eggie.” He came closer, lowered his voice. “With me. You’d decided. We’d decided …”
Sammy couldn’t look at him. It would make the decision too hard. She was going to stay strong, but her eyes were filling.
“Sammy, please.”
She blinked the tears away.
Gisouie watched them both. Frowned. Then her eyes widened, and the realisation came. Realisation, then anger. Her jaw set.
“If Sammy’s made up her mind,” she said. “Then perhaps she should go back to where she belongs.”
Mehrak glanced over his shoulder at her, then back to Sammy. “You don’t want that, Sammy. You want to come and stay in Golden Egg Cottage to continue our adventure.” Mehrak held out his hand to Gisouie. “You’ll love Sammy. She’s funny and clever …”
“… and pretty.”
Mehrak fell silent.
“There’s plenty of room in the kitchen,” Gisouie said. “I assume I’ll be returning to the bedroom?” She stepped up to Mehrak and put her arms around him. Sammy watched her large breasts squeezing up against him. Jealousy raged inside her. All the time they’d spent together. The closeness that had formed between them.
Mehrak’s eyes were wide. He mouthed the word ‘no’ but Sammy couldn’t bear it any longer. Her head and limbs no longer seemed connected. She’d overloaded her ability to cry or to mourn. She watched Mehrak and Gisouie together, somehow detached from herself. Sammy was an almost-homewrecker. Two years ago she’d forced herself on Mehrak, not the other way around. He didn’t love or need her. Hami didn’t either. Or her mother. Only the magi wanted her and that was to exploit her powers. Hami was right. She should go home. Or wherever the portal took her. It didn’t matter as long as it took her away from here. There would be as much chance of someone caring for her wherever she landed as there would be anywhere else. Maybe she’d go looking for the poniard. The poniard was the ultimate weapon. And it was on the other side of the portal. She could find it for herself, gain its power and return to Perseopia to kill the Ahriman and rule everyone. She’d show Mehrak how he needed her. How they all needed her. And she’d punish those that stood in her way.
“Thank you for helping me with the General,” announced a voice behind Sammy. “But it won’t save you.”
Mantis stood in the hall behind them, a group of armed men in furs on either side of him. He looked to be in bad shape. He was hunched to one side favouring one leg over the other, and he held his left shoulder where the General had wounded him.
Keep behind me, Hami communicated to Sammy. Keep your hood up so they can’t see your hair. Ramaask may have told him to look out for the girl with golden hair.
“We want the same thing you do,” Hami called back.
“I very much doubt that,” Mantis said. “You want to send the girl through the portal. I don’t. Now where is she?” He moved forward, casting his gaze over their group.
Sammy turned away, slunk further behind Hami into the crowd. Her heart was beating hard, adrenaline making her flighty. She’d lost Mehrak, her life was as good as over, but there were worse things than death, and she had no desire to find out what Mantis was capable of. It was her he wanted. She needed to remove herself from the group.
Mantis moved closer. Then two men burst into the room behind him. “The army of the dark lord is here!” one of them shouted. “They’ve reached the base.”
That was Sammy’s cue to run. And she took it.
Mehrak reached for her, his heart stalling. “Wait!” he yelled, but too late. She’d already gone, disappeared around the bend of the corridor. Gisouie put her hand over his and lowered it.
“Stop the magus before he gets to the portal!” Mantis shouted.
Three men split from his group and exited through a side door. The rest charged.
Hami fired his lightning staff into advan
cing men. They scattered, hitting the walls and falling to the floor.
His second shot was for Mantis. The screaming torrent of lightning hit the sorcerer’s outstretched hand and vanished into his palm. Mantis stood his ground as dancing arcs of electricity ran up his arm and dissipated.
“I am familiar with magi practices,” he said. “You’ll have to do better than that to best me.”
It was a standoff. The small number of Mantis’s men that had survived Hami’s lightning blast shakily got to their feet, then remained where they stood, unsure whether to try their luck rushing him a second time.
Leiss pushed his way forward to stand beside Hami.
“Get everyone out of here,” Hami spoke under his breath. “And get that portal shut down.”
Mehrak glimpsed a flash of staff light, but obscured by Leiss’s large frame. The big Marzban twirled Mehrak on the spot and bundled him along with everyone else in the direction Sammy had gone.
Mehrak held on to Gisouie while he followed everyone around the bend in the corridor and through the large double doors into the black castle.
There was a cry ahead. And the people in front of him stopped.
Mehrak shouldered his way through the crowd to get to the front.
On the far side of the hall, Sammy’s body hit a column and collapsed to the floor.
Standing over her was a giant of a man. Not a large man. A literal giant.
The General. It could be no one else.
He was panting, hunched over. His face was battered and bloody. Gore had soaked through his jerkin to his belt. Yet despite his injuries, the man had no trouble lifting a broadsword the length of a man in a single hand.
He raised the weapon over Sammy’s neck, pausing to make eye contact with Mehrak and his newly arrived audience.
He smiled, a crescent of white in the dripping carnage covering his face. Then he swung down.
–FIFTY-SIX–
THE DARK ARMY ARRIVES
A smoking fireball hit Hami in the chest and knocked him to the floor. Air rushed from his lungs and he couldn’t draw breath. Mantis descended on him in a blanket of smoke, enclosing his throat in his hands.
Hami’s skin burned as his throat was constricted. He opened his mouth, but could force no sound out. Spots formed before his eyes.
“Where is the girl?” The sorcerer enunciated his words slowly, yet they had an indistinct dreamlike quality to them. “I know she’s here. You will bring her to me.”
Hami lit his staff orb, pulsing a shockwave of energy.
They separated. Mantis knocked back, Hami sliding away along the floor. He slowly gained his feet, propping himself on his staff.
Mantis stood his ground. The small number of his men that weren’t unconscious had retreated back to a safe distance.
Hami tensed in anticipation of Mantis’s next move, but none came.
A tremor in the ground vibrated the corridor doors in their frames. Candles on the walls guttered, a few went out.
“The Ahriman’s host is here,” Mantis said, matter of fact. “Soon everyone on this base will be dead, including Sammy. Tell me where she is.”
He’d left off ‘before it’s too late’ but Hami understood the implication. Something in the way the sorcerer had spoken Sammy’s name made Hami want to help him. A softness in his tone akin to genuine concern. And he’d known her name. How?
Hami held his tongue. He was not so easily manipulated. If he could buy Sammy a little more time, it might allow her to escape. If not into the portal, then at least to a safe distance.
A distant scream behind Mantis. The men in furs shuffled nervously. A few glanced back to the outside door, then to Hami, concern clouding their faces.
“No response?” Mantis’s yellow eyes burned fierce. “Then you leave me no choice.”
He snatched a burning orb from the air and drew back his arm, then the door behind him shattered off its hinges and the grey-faced dead of the Ahriman’s army shambled into the building.
–FIFTY-SEVEN–
FATALITY
Mehrak screamed out as the General’s sword came down. He couldn’t watch Sammy die, but he couldn’t look away. He faltered, unprepared to witness her head separated from her body. Yet as the sword neared its mark, she flew backwards as if pulled by an invisible rope.
The sword missed the top of her head and crushed a flagstone beneath it.
Before Mehrak could fully process what had happened, Leiss, Eva and Calven set off running towards her. Mehrak hesitated, unsure whether to go after them or remain with Gisouie.
Sammy staggered to her feet as the men in furs that Mantis had dispatched to intercept her piled into the room through the portal chamber door. The General pulled his sword free from the stone and swung it at them as they came close. They clearly hadn’t expected him to be there and seemed unsure whether to fight him or run. One hesitated longer than the others and lost his head. The headless body remained upright a moment, seemingly as indecisive as its owner, before launching blood into the air and collapsing in a heap.
The other men ran.
Azertash turned his attention back to Sammy and that was the incentive Mehrak needed to spur him into action. He shrugged off Gisouie and sprinted for his companion.
“Oi!” Leiss shouted as he ran in, waving his sword above his head. The General ignored the diversion and thrust his sword at Sammy.
She moved in a blur and was at the General’s side before he’d finished lunging. Her staff flew from the ground to her hand, ignited, and she swung it into his face. The explosion at the point of impact knocked the big man backwards. He lashed out as he went down, missing Sammy by a hair’s breadth as she calmly ducked beneath the blade.
The three Marzban arrived and descended on the General before he was able to get up.
“Leave him to us, Mehrak,” Calven shouted at him as he caught up. “Just shut down that portal!”
Kimia came in at a sprint, trailing her colleagues behind her. “This way,” she called.
Behind her, Gisouie was on her way across the hall, heading towards them.
“But Sammy …” he began to say. He wasn’t going to leave her again.
Kimia touched his arm. “You can’t fight the General, Mehrak, but you can help me shut down the portal … if you want to stop your friend from leaving.” She spoke the last part under her breath.
Mehrak nodded. He took Gisouie’s hand as she reached him and led her after his aunt and the other scientists, past the fight and into the portal chamber.
Sammy dropped to her knees as the three Marzban took over from her. Their swords hacked and slashed at the General, shredding his clothes. Violent and repeated contact was made, yet the big man wasn’t going down and no blood was spilling.
She watched the fight play out in slow motion as if the fight were taking place under water. It was a thing of beauty, a ballet of thrusts and countermoves, twists and parries.
She glimpsed Mehrak in the background.
He was leaving her. Following his aunt and the other scientists into the portal chamber, holding hands with his wife. The word lodged in her throat. Hopelessness welled up inside and the last vestiges of energy deserted her. Her back ached from where she’d hit the column and she found herself unable to go on. She would remain where she knelt and pray for a quick death.
The General regained his feet. A powerful kick to Leiss’s chest launched him backwards, tumbling him along the floor.
Eva was next. She was swatted away by a brutal backhand. She collapsed, limp and unmoving.
“Eva!” Calven screamed. He thrust his sword into the General’s belly, bending the giant over at the waist.
For a moment there was silence. All eyes were on Azertash.
Then he began laughing.
Calven withdrew the sword clean.
The General raised himself to his full height. A sadistic grin cracked his bloody face and he thrust out hi
s sword. The blade speared Calven through the chest, exiting out of his back.
Azertash raised both Calven and sword together, holding them aloft one-handed. He watched the Marzban spasm and fall still, then he upended the blade and let Calven’s corpse slide off onto the floor where he kicked it away into the shadows.
Leiss was back on his feet again, but he was in no state to fight. His sword was lowered in his right hand, his left arm clutched his chest, and he was struggling to breathe.
The General turned on him.
That was too much for Sammy. Her inaction had allowed Calven’s death. A friend’s life lost because she’d been pining for Mehrak. Heartache and misery threatened to consume her then and she found herself slipping into a chasm of despair.
But she wouldn’t allow another death. There would be no more. She stood, lit the staff and unleashed a column of burning fury into the General.
He roared as he was flung backwards.
She hit him again. And again, sending him back towards the portal chamber. The General dodged the next shot and launched himself at her, swinging his sword down in a wide arc. Sammy caught the blade against the staff orb, igniting it as she did so and detonating an explosion between them.
The General hit the staircase on the outside of the amphitheatre, Sammy was thrown backwards in a wide arc. She latched onto the molecules in her clothes to turn her body and completed a backflip to land in a crouch. She was getting good. A surge of hope bolstered her. Then her eyes fell on Calven’s body and threatened to undo everything. She turned away from it. She couldn’t get distracted. Her job wasn’t done yet.
She regained her feet in time to see the General crest the stairs and dive down the tunnel Hami had taken her along when they’d followed Mantis.
He was heading for the portal.
Hami’s lightning bolts did nothing to slow Mantis’s advance. Each one that he sent in the sorcerer’s direction was sucked into the man’s outstretched hand and absorbed.