01 - Thieves of Blood

by Tim Waggoner - (ebook by Undead)

  Onkar stared at the stump where his hand had been, then he looked at Diran with hate-filled eyes. The vampire’s body tensed, and Ghaji knew Onkar was going to attack.

  The half-orc was about to activate his fire axe when Erdis Cai said, “Hold.”

  Onkar’s body jerked backward as if he were a hound and his master had yanked on an invisible leash. He shot Erdis Cai a sullen glare but otherwise didn’t protest.

  “Welcome to Grimwall,” Erdis Cai said to Diran and Ghaji.

  He smiled, showing his fangs, but it was a cold smile devoid of any trace of humanity. His eyes glowed with the smoldering red flame common to all vampires, but beyond it Ghaji saw only a great vast nothingness, and this frightened him more than the fangs and crimson fire ever could. He’d seen similar empty gazes on the battlefield from men and women whose minds had retreated far inside themselves to escape the horrors of war. In Ghaji’s experience, a person with such emptiness inside himself was capable of committing any atrocity without hesitation or remorse, or indeed, without any recognition that he was doing anything unusual at all. It was this emptiness far more than Erdis Cai’s undead state and whatever dark magic he might command that made the vampire lord so very dangerous.

  “I am Erdis Cai. This is my home and these,” he gestured at the crowd, “are my children. Who are you?”

  Before either of them could answer, the raven-haired woman stood. Up close, Ghaji could see that the woman’s beauty was marred by a swollen, bruised jaw, as if she’d been recently struck. “These are Makala’s companions, Diran Bastiaan and Ghaji, a priest and a half-orc warrior.”

  “A priest, eh?” Erdis Cai said. “How amusing.”

  “Where is Makala?” Diran demanded. “What have you done with her?”

  “Up to now, I’ve done very little with her,” Erdis Cai said, “but that’s going to change shortly, for she has a very special role to play tonight.”

  Ghaji’s blood ran cold. Was Makala to be one of the final three sacrifices? He looked at Diran, and he could see his friend was struggling to maintain control of his emotions.

  “We know all about your plan,” Diran said, “and we’re going to stop you.”

  Erdis Cai sounded bored as he replied. “Yes, that’s what I’m going to do, and no, you’re not going to stop me.”

  Erdis Cai flicked his gaze toward Onkar, and though the vampire lord spoke no words, Ghaji sensed a message pass between master and servant.

  Onkar bared his fangs like a serpent about to strike, then he rushed Diran. Ghaji started forward, intending to intercept the vampire before he could reach Diran, but even as he began to move, Ghaji knew he couldn’t match Onkar’s speed. Just before the Black Fleet commander reached Diran, he stopped and shielded his eyes with his remaining hand.

  Diran was holding up the metal arrowhead symbol of the Order of the Silver Flame.

  Onkar hissed in anger, but he continued to shield his eyes as he backed away from Diran. Erdis Cai looked on in amusement, seemingly unaffected by the sight of the holy symbol. Ghaji noticed the vampire lord made no move to get closer to Diran, however.

  “You might have a few tricks priest,” Erdis Cai said, “but what good will they do you and your,” he sneered, “associate against all of my children?” The undead explorer gestured at the crowed that filled the amphitheater and they shouted their support of their master.

  “We didn’t come here to kill them,” Diran said. “We came here to kill you.”

  Erdis Cai’s smiled fell away, and he looked at Diran, his eyes pulsing with inner fire. Ghaji had fought enough vampires during his time with Diran that he knew what was happening: Erdis Cai was attempting to use his hypnotic abilities to dominate Diran and enslave the priest’s will to his own. Ghaji looked away from the vampire lord, lest he be caught by the monster’s mesmeric gaze. Diran scowled, teeth clenched, a line of sweat trickling down the side of his face as he matched wills with Erdis Cai. Then Diran slowly began to raise his hand until he held the silver arrowhead in front of his eyes, blocking the vampire lord’s gaze.

  Erdis Cai snarled and averted his eyes. “So you have a measure of power after all, priest.” The vampire lord turned to face Diran once more, but he looked off to the side, unable to gaze directly at the holy symbol. “Let us see how strong you really are.” He reached for the hilt of his broadsword and steel hissed as he drew the blade from its scabbard, but before he could free his weapon, a shout came from the uppermost level of the amphitheater.

  “My lord!”

  All heads turned to see who had cried out, all heads save Diran’s, that is. He never took his gaze off Erdis Cai.

  Ghaji saw a Black Fleet raider standing on the highest row of seats. The man’s face was ashen, and he clutched his abdomen with blood-slick hands.

  “Grimwall is under attack! Invaders are freeing… the servants…” The man staggered then fell forward, the people seated near him scrambling frantically out of the way as he smacked lifeless onto the stone steps.

  Erdis Cai’s upper lip curled away from his teeth in a bestial sign of displeasure. “Enough of this foolishness.” He raised his voice. “Men and women of the Nightwind’s crew: go see what’s happening with the servants. If you find any invaders, slay them!”

  Several dozen raiders rose from their seats and dashed out of the amphitheater to do as their lord commanded. As Ghaji watched the raiders go, he hoped Yvka and Hinto had already freed the prisoners and gotten them aboard one of the elemental galleons. If not…

  Erdis Cai continued. “Our dark mistress will just have to forgive us for dispensing with the formalities this evening. Jarlain, Onkar, come with me.” He replaced his sword in its scabbard, turned, and began walking across the amphitheater floor away from Diran and Ghaji. Diran raised the hand holding a silver dagger and was about to throw it at Erdis Cai, presumably at the vampire lord’s unprotected neck, when Cai said, “Tear them apart, my children.”

  The crowd roared and rushed forward.

  “Stay close!” Ghaji shouted and activated his fire axe. Flames rose from the weapon, and the half-orc warrior began sweeping the axe in wide arcs in front of him to keep the onrushing citizens of Grimwall at bay. Diran stepped to Ghaji’s side, holy symbol exchanged for another silver dagger. The metal wouldn’t provide any special defense against these men and women since they were mortal, but a sharp blade was a sharp blade, regardless of what substance it was made from.

  “We have to follow Erdis Cai before he can conduct the sacrifices!” Diran shouted.

  Before he kills Makala, Ghaji translated. He nodded, and still wildly sweeping his fire axe with one hand and his mundane axe with the other, as a mob of black-garbed men and woman with clean-shaven heads and bloodlust in their eyes came at them. Erdis Cai’s “children” held back at the sight of the flames trailing from Ghaji’s mystic axe, none of them eager to be set afire.

  Erdis Cai, Onkar, and Jarlain quickly reached the uppermost level of the amphitheater. Erdis Cai gestured over his shoulder, and the ground began to tremble. Immediately the bald cultists backed away, terror in their eyes. A seam appeared as the floor split into two separate sections that began to slide away from each other with a loud rumbling sound. The floor shook as its sections retracted, and it was all Diran and Ghaji could do to maintain their balance.

  Erdis Cai and his two servants were no longer in sight.

  “What’s happening?” Ghaji shouted over the noise.

  “Erdis Cai must’ve activated some sort of trap!” Diran said. “Whatever it is, it’s terrifying our attackers!”

  The black-clad men and women had lost all interesting in fulfilling their master’s command. They turned away from Diran and Ghaji and frantically tried to get off the retracing floor, shoving, hitting, and clawing at one another in their fear. Ghaji and Diran were only a few yards from the edge of one of the sections, and the half-orc could see iron grating being revealed as the two halves of the stone floor pulled back. Then the floor stopped ret
racting with a sudden jerk, knocking many of the fleeing crowd off their feet. Diran grabbed Ghaji’s arm to steady himself, and the half-orc braced his legs and managed to maintain his footing.

  All was silent for a moment, and though many of Erdis Cai’s children continued fleeing, a number stopped, puzzled looks on their faces. The silence was broken by a series of soft snicks, as of latches being released. A rectangular section of the iron grating dropped away and fell to the floor below with a loud clang. A moment later a mottled-fleshed hand with long black claws gripped the edge of the amphitheater’s partially retracted floor. It was followed by many, many more, and then the owners of those hands hauled themselves up and dozens of naked forms with discolored flesh, burning eyes, and froth-flecked fangs scuttled onto the separate sections of the amphitheater’s floor.

  “Ghouls,” Ghaji said. “If there’s one thing I hate more than vampires, it’s ghouls.”

  Those Grimwall citizens still standing on the floor screamed in abject terror and fled for their lives. The ghouls, nearly forty of them in all, Ghaji judged, shrieked in dark delight and began attacking whatever mortals happened to be nearest, including Diran and Ghaji.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY

  Yvka and Hinto were urging the first of the prisoners through Grimwall’s entrance and onto the dock when they heard shouting behind them.

  “They’re coming!”

  “The raiders!”

  “Erdis Cai knows, he knows!”

  Yvka swore. It seemed the wounded guard who’d gotten away had managed to sound the alarm. She knew they had only seconds before the prisoners’ fear overwhelmed them and they panicked.

  “Hinto, lead the prisoners onto the galleon. I’ll slow down the raiders!” She had no idea if the halfling would be able to maintain control of his emotions long enough to complete the task, but she had no choice but to trust him.

  A flicker of nervousness passed across the halfling’s features, but he nodded and began shouting for the prisoners to follow him. Yvka plunged back through the entrance, shoving through the mass of frightened men, women, and children.

  “Which way are they coming from?” she demanded, and several people pointed to the left-hand branch of the corridor. The elf-woman turned and saw the raiders running toward them, swords drawn, false teeth bared to inspire maximum terror in the prisoners.

  “Go!” Yvka shouted. “Follow the halfling!”

  The prisoners mulled about, uncertain and afraid, and Yvka had to yell at them to go one more time before they finally started moving.

  Yvka stepped forward, placing herself between the fleeing prisoners and the oncoming raiders. She reached into her leather pouch and grabbed hold of a handful of objects. She didn’t have time to select carefully, and she hoped that whatever she brought out would at least be enough to buy the prisoners enough time to get aboard the remaining functional galleon. She pulled her hand out of her pouch and hurled the items she’d grabbed toward the raiders. She caught a glimpse of the items as they flew through the air—crystalline pebbles, a dried cicada husk, tiny rodent bones, and a mummified frog’s leg. Just as the first of the objects was about to hit the floor, Yvka spoke a single word in Elvish and averted her gaze. There was an explosion of light, smoke, fire, and wind, and the raiders cried out in pain and confusion. Though Yvka couldn’t see through the smoke, she guessed that some of the raiders had been injured, though not all.

  “Be careful to hold your breath until you’re outside!” Yvka shouted. “That gas is deadly!”

  It wasn’t, of course, but there was no reason the raiders needed to know that. She turned to check on the prisoners’ progress and saw that the last of them were hurrying through the entrance, perhaps spurred on by her false warning. The elf-woman sprinted after the prisoners, already hearing several raiders shout that it was just a trick and there was no poison gas.

  Once outside Grimwall, Yvka saw a line of prisoners running down the dock and up the gangplank of the elemental galleon that Tresslar had spared. Hinto stood on the ship’s deck, urging the prisoners to move faster. Of Tresslar, Yvka saw no sign. That struck her as ominous, though most likely the artificer was simply hidden from her view at this distance.

  “Go, go, go!” Yvka shouted as she brought up the rear.

  The prisoners, most of whom she guessed hadn’t been outside of Grimwall in a very long time, picked up speed as they tasted the sweet salty air and saw the stars and moons shining down on them. They cried out in delight as they ran, and more than a few had tears of joy streaming down their faces.

  The last of the prisoners reached the gangplank and were pushing and jostling to start climbing when the first of the raiders emerged onto the dock.

  “Hinto, as soon as the last person’s aboard, dislodge the gangplank!” she called.

  She had a few toys left in her pouch. She hoped they’d be enough to slow down the raiders long enough for all the prisoners to board the ship.

  “Miss, are you talking to the halfling?” It was the girl who’d been the first to speak to them through the bars of the gate that had kept the prisoners trapped in their squalid quarters.

  Yvka turned and saw the girl standing at the ship’s railing, looking down at her. “What’s wrong with him?” she shouted back.

  “He’s lying on the deck, shivering as if he’s got a fever, though his forehead’s not warm!”

  Great. Hinto had picked a most inopportune time to surrender to his fear. “I don’t care who does it, but make sure to push the gangplank away from the ship!”

  “What about you?” the girl asked.

  Yvka didn’t have time to answer, for the raiders came rushing at her then, weapons drawn and eager to use them. Yvka knew that neither acrobatic maneuvers nor what remained in her pouch would be enough to stop all the raiders, but if she could stay alive long enough, she might be able to—

  “Crabs, Miss!” the child cried out. “Hinto says to tell you to remember the crabs!”

  Yvka smiled. Even caught in the throes of his panic, the little pirate hadn’t abandoned them.

  As the first raider drew near, Yvka performed a forward handspring and slammed her heels into the man’s jaw. He stumbled backward, dropping his sword. Yvka landed in a crouch, caught the sword before it could hit the dock, and swept it around in an arc that sliced open the raider’s belly. The man shrieked as blood and intestines spilled out of the wound and splattered onto the dock. Yvka used the sword’s momentum to bring the weapon around for another strike, gripping the hilt with two hands and angling the blade so the flat struck the screaming raider on the shoulder. The man staggered to the edge of the dock, slipped on his own blood, and tumbled into the water with a loud splash.

  The rest of the raiders froze where they stood and stared at the water where their comrade had disappeared. For a moment nothing happened, but then the water erupted in a churning froth as dire crabs began fighting over the remains of the raider Yvka had gutted. Drawn by the blood and bits of viscera smeared on the surface of the dock, a crab climbed out of the water and scuttled toward the nearest tasty morsel, which happened to be another of the raiders. The woman cried out and swung her sword at the advancing crab, but the creature batted away the blade with one of its huge foreclaws and moved in for the kill. The raider screamed in agony as the crab began feeding, and her screams attracted the attention of more crabs. Within seconds the dock was swarming with dire crabs ranging in size from several feet wide to some large as horses. Some raiders fought while others tried to flee, but it was no use. There were simply too many crabs, and soon the dock was covered with blood, scraps of meat, and fragments of splintered bone.

  The crabs didn’t ignore Yvka. They came for the elf-woman too, and she leaped and tumbled to avoid their snapping claws. Yvka started to make her way toward the gangplank just in time to witness a group of prisoners dislodge it and shove it away from the ship. The gangplank bounced against the side of the dock several times, scraping the wood as it fell
half onto the dock and half into the water. Yvka didn’t blame the prisoners. She’d told them to do it, and though they no longer had to worry about the raiders, they couldn’t afford to let any of the crabs scuttle up and onto the ship. That left Yvka with a dilemma: how was she going to get away from these damned crabs and onboard the galleon? She continued dodging snapping claws, but she knew she couldn’t keep doing so for much longer. There were too many crabs and not enough raiders to feed them all. More and more would turn their attention to her, and when that happened she would be overwhelmed.

  She saw the end of the gangplank that was in the water shudder, then a crab surfaced, crawling along the gangplank toward the dock. The crab was too heavy and the wood began to tilt beneath its weight, raising the opposite end into the air. Yvka saw her chance. She leaped into the air and ran across crab shells toward the rising gangplank. She launched herself off the back of a particularly large crab just as a gigantic shape rose forth from the water next to the gangplank. It was another crab, but far larger than any Yvka had seen so far, nearly half the size of a galleon, if not bigger. As Yvka soared toward the top of the rising gangplank, one of the monster crab’s claws swept at her. Yvka’s feet landed on the gangplank’s edge, and she pushed off just as the monstrous claw came for her. She passed between the pinchers just as they snapped together, missing her by only a hair’s breadth.

  She flew toward the ship’s railing, but the wave caused by the gigantic crab’s emergence had caused the rising end of the gangplank to wobble as it sank, throwing off Yvka’s trajectory. She had intended to grab hold of the ship’s railing as she descended, but it was clear that now she was going to fall short. As she drew near the railing, dozens of hands reached out for her, and enough of them caught hold of her hands and forearms to keep her from falling. The prisoners who, thanks to her and Hinto were captives no longer, hauled her over the railing and onto the deck. The discarded gangplank fell into the water, and the monster crab, as if frustrated at losing its snack, tore the gangplank apart with its huge claws.