“The people were supposed to be escorted to the forest. Only they were captured and taken to Hothcar.”
“So they were headed to Hothcar?” he asked.
“Only the elves were. Anyone who didn’t have pointy ears were taken to Anders. It’s a lawless town out in the desert. What happened to them after that I do not know, but I know someone who might. Curtis—he worked as a kettle master here when your sisters were around. The three of them became best of friends while they were here. If anyone knows what happened to them then he would know.”
“But there’s a problem isn’t there,” Vincent said.
Cygnus smirked. “Isn’t there always? He’s being held prisoner inside the Pit of Bones and force to fight in the Blood Arena. I'm truly not surprised he has lasted this long. He is, after all, half-orc and half-giant.”
“Thank you. I’ll be on my way.” When Vincent stood up he felt the world underneath his feet begin to spin. He dropped to one knee and leaned on the table to keep himself from falling to the floor. He looked over at the teacup. “The tea…you bitch…”
He collapsed to the floor. His vision blurred beyond comprehension. Consciousness from him fading as the seconds tick on.
“Don’t worry,” Cygnus said. “It’s just poppy milk. You’ll be fine.” She undressed and mounted on top of Vincent. She whispered in his ear. “Don’t worry. I’ll do all the work. You won’t remember any of this tomorrow.”
And he didn’t. When next Vincent awoke he found himself in an unfamiliar bed. He was inside of an inn and still in Illya. He remembers talking to Cygnus and telling him about his sisters, but after that, everything is just black. He was groggy and still exhausted.
“What the hell happened?” he asked himself. He didn’t expect someone to reply.
“Hungover are we?” the Black Knight asked sitting on the window sill. He began to applaud. “Bravo, Vincent, bravo. I didn’t know you had it in you. Well, you weren’t aware of it, but I was and I must say again---bravo!”
“What the hell happened?”
The Black Knight happened. “What happened? You were…no. No, no, no. I’m not gonna tell you. I’m gonna let this play out.”
With the Black Knight’s laughter in his ear, he disappeared from sight. Vincent was left to wonder what happened last night.
Chapter 17
Vincent set out on his way to Anders early the next day. He wrapped himself in a cloak he found in an alleyway. It smelled but proved to be very helpful against the scorching heat and preventing the sand from pelting his face.
The mile long through the desert was awful. The further in the day it was the hotter it became. He was sweating from everywhere. His lips were chapped and when he took a swig from his water pouch and it tasted like the sand he was walking on.
Vincent climbed to the top of a sand hill. In the distant and threw the heat of the desert, he saw the lawless oasis town of Anders. Upon entering the oasis town, Vincent dunked his head into the nearest well. The water was nice and cold and he didn’t take his head out for about a minute.
When he finally resurfaced, Vincent noticed that something had the covered the sun in his area. The streets became empty. Parents grabbed their children and entered their homes and barricading the door.
“What do you think you are doing, little man?” A deep voice asked. Vincent turned around and looked up. The man behind him was tall. He had copper-like skin. Wore a harnessed the covered one of his breast and wore a kilt. On his back, he carried a rusty clever nearly the size of Vincent. “Who told you that it was okay to drink my water?”
Vincent wiped his mouth. “No one. I was thirsty. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to…”
The man swung his cleaver to prevent Vincent from walking any further. “I think not, little man. You owe me money.”
“Money?” Vincent repeated. “Oh, right, how foolish of me. One second, I know I have some gold in my…” With a mighty punch to the stomach, Vincent dropped the nearly seven-foot man. Blood sprayed from his mouth. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he began to foam at the mouth. Off in the distance, Vincent saw a group of men hiding the shadows. “Do you also have a problem with me drinking water?” They quickly ran away and Vincent went back to drinking water.
Anders truly was a lawless town. The time span of one hour, Vincent had witness three murders, two rapes, and five muggings. It was a good thing that Vincent didn’t have gold on him. At least six children already attempted to rob him and it would be highly unlikely he would be able to catch them. Anders was in no way a horrible looking place. The buildings were clean and fresh, the people weren’t at all what you expect a thief or a murder to be, but it was all just an illusion. Look beyond the wooden building and smiling people and would find the filth just beneath the surface.
Vincent approached the center of Anders. It was their he found the Blood Arena as well as something else——something all too familiar to him. A roaring crowd calling for blood. Vincent oddly enough felt right at home. Only it wasn’t his head they were calling for.
The Blood Arena name wasn’t misleading. There was blood splatter everywhere. Some new, some old, and some still oozing out of the severed limbs of the victims it has claimed. The crowd roared while the two combatants inside the arena fought for their amusement. It was a battle to the death with no rules. One man lived and one man died.
Vincent watched battle after bloody battle. When the last battle was done he waited for the crowd to disperse and began following the prisoner being dragged off by what passed as guards in this lawless town. He kept to the shadows for it seemed as though they did not want to be followed. Where ever the Bone Pit is they seemed determined to keep it a secret.
After about nearly an hour, the group of men entered a rundown house. Vincent waited before following. When he opened the door he saw that it was empty. It was a small room about 10 by 10 feet. Six men and a prisoner could not fit inside here. He was missing something, but just as he was about to search the room he heard the sound of a flintlock pistol click at the back of his head.
“Don’t move.” The mysterious voice said.
“Look. I do not have time to deal with you. If you wanna to live then I suggest you stop pointing that gun at me and leave. Not many people get that option with me.”
The mysterious person pressed the gun against the back of Vincent’s skull. “Open the passage.”
“What? Look I think you have the wrong person. I don’t know how to open…” Vincent quickly ducked down. When he did the flintlock pistol went off. The blast rang in his ear, but he powered through it and grabbed the person holding the gun by the throat. It was then that he recognized the person holding the gun. In fact, he thought her to be dead but she was impossible to forget. “Marisha?” he asked letting go out her.
Marisha Ray, also known as Captain Kidd, was the Captain of the Saint Maria. A few months ago, Vincent hired her and her crew to sail across the Black Sea to Illya. That ended with the Saint Maria getting destroyed and Vincent getting swept up by a tsunami. He thought Marisha to be dead but apparently he was wrong.
She slowly got to her feet, still trying to catch her breath as Vincent nearly crushed her windpipe. She was surprised to see him. “I thought you were dead.” She said.
“I could say the same. What are you doing here?”
“Long story and one that I can’t explain right now. There is a good chance a whole bunch of guards heard that gunshot and I’m not in a dying mood.”
So Vincent followed Marisha through a series of alleyways and sewer tunnels. She stopped and pulled him to the side. Sure enough, they heard the sound of heavy footsteps racing to where they were. From the sound alone, Vincent counted at least twenty-five armed men.
They waited until nothing but the sound of rats scurrying along could be heard to continue onward. The exited the sewer somewhere on the southeast side of Anders. She led him to a rundown house. When they opened the door two familiar faces greeted them with
swords and guns. Mr.Pink and Slayer.
Mr.Pink held true to his name. His skin was completely pink. A rare birth defect or a possible curse. Who can say? Slayer, who’s true name is unknown, had scars covering nearly seventy percent of her face. Whatever she truly looked like is unknown.
“Easy,” Marisha said. “It’s just me and I brought along a friend.”
Slayer and Mr.Pink smirked when they saw Vincent. “Vincent fucking Valentine. I thought you were dead.” Mr.Pink said.
“I could say the same. What the hell you three doing in Anders? Matter fact, never mind. I just asked a group of pirates what they are doing in a lawless town. This must seem like one big party.”
“Under normal circumstances, you would be right, but that isn’t the case,” Marisha said.
“Then what are you three up to?”
“A prison break on a massive scale. Wanna help us?”
“A prison break?” Vincent repeated. “Why would you wanna cause a prison break?”
The three of them glanced at one another. Vincent took note of that. Marisha took a deep break. “We wanna cause a prison break because we are going to rob this whole place blind. Those men you heard guard a vault holding riches and we wanna get inside of it.”
“She’s lying.” The Black Knight said in his ear. That much was clear even without the Black Knight’s input, but Vincent didn’t care. Their goals aligned and he agreed.
“So how do we get inside?” he asked.
“Now there is the problem,” Mr.Pink said. He grabbed a blueprint of the Bone Pit and unrolled it on the desk. The prison was massive in scope. It almost seemed like a prison within a prison. Detention levels five hundred feet down, solitary confinement cells dangling over a pool of lava a twenty-five thousand feet down. Then finally there was the maximum security ward. Nearly fifty thousand feet bellow the surface of the earth. “We know the entrance to the prison but the only problem is we don’t know how to open it. We were hoping Marisha would kidnap one of the five wardens and force him to tell us.”
“But that’s when I ran into you.” Marisha interrupted. “I was hoping to catch one of them there.”
“So, where are these wardens?”
“We know that at least three stay down in the prison at all times. The other two are guarded by no fewer than a thousand men at all times.”
“Where?”
“Didn’t you hear what I just said? A thousand men between you and the warden. It’s suicide.”
“Yeah but they haven’t met me.”
Chapter 18
The night became cold as so often it does in the desert. A storm was rolling in. No rain as of yet but storm clouds loomed overhead. It was rather ominous. While there was a storm forming outside, inside the warden’s manor, another, albeit not as frightening, a storm was happening.
“Full house!” the warden yelled.
The group of men around the table which consisted of slavers and politicians threw their cards on the table. “That’s five straight hands.”
“Ain’t no man that lucky. I’m starting to think you cheating.”
“No one forced you up the pot.” The warden reminded them as he slid all the gold to him.
Thunder boomed outside so hard that it began to shake the manor.
“What the fuck was that?”
“It was just thunder.”
“No, that was too close to be thunder.”
Thunder boomed once again through the manor. Only this time it was followed by the sound of steel clashing against one another followed by screams of bloody murder. A guard ran into the room where the warden and his guest were playing cards. He was covered in blood from head to toe. “Warden, we have to get you out of here we are under attack!”
“Under attack? By who?”
“By…”
A black hand found it’s way into the guards chest and ripping out his still beating heart. He was tossed like a rag doll on top of the poker table and his heart stopped on by a black metal foot. From out of the shadows emerged the Black Knight. His black armor drenched in blood. The armor itself almost seemed to be absorbing it.
The warden grabbed his pistol. Even with shaky hands, he managed to pull the trigger and hit the Black Knight——only to have the bullet ricochet off his armor. He walked in slowly, sword in hand, raised it in the air, and beheaded them——all but one. The warden petrified with fear and with the smell of urine in the air, he back up against the wall. He glanced out from the corner of his eyes. His men were dead. All of them. The sand was caked in blood. Even from here he can see the fear in the eyes of his men as the light from them slowly faded.
Vincent grabbed the warden by his throat and held him out the window.
“Wait!” the warden pleaded. “Please don’t kill me. I’ll do anything! Anything!”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” Electricity channeled through his arm rendering him unconscious.
When the warden next awoke, he was groggy, vision still blurred and he could hear voices.
“Do I even wanna know how you got him?”
“Probably not. Besides, you wanted one of the wardens and now you have one. I don’t see why it matters.”
“Maybe because they just found a thousand men massacred and you don’t have a scratch on you is why.”
“Hey, he’s waking up,” Mr.Pink said.
Marisha dropped the argument she was having with Vincent and quickly ran over. She slapped him a few time across the face to get his attention. “Finally awake I see. Now, I’m going to make this very easy for you. Tell me how to get into the Bone Pit and I’ll let you live.”
The warden spat in her face. “Fuck you, whore.”
Marisha wiped the spit off her face. She smiled and the proceeded to repeatedly punch him in the face. “Tell me how to get into the prison!” she demanded.
The warden spat blood and laugh. “I will tell you this. I have an eight-inch cock. Ride that for about an hour and then maybe I’ll consider telling you.”
Now red with furry, Marisha began her assault upon the warden anew. She didn’t bother asking him about the prison. She wanted to hurt him. His eye was caved in, his nose was broken, and he had cut all over his face. This was personal. If Slayer hadn’t grabbed Marisha by the wrist she was likely to have killed him.
“Unhand me!” she yelled. Vincent couldn’t help but notice the tears swelling in her eyes.
“This is getting us nowhere!” Slayer said. “He won’t tell us anything if he’s dead.”
Marisha knew Slayer was right but she just wanted to hurt him. Slayer suggested that she go outside and calm down. Marisha did go outside and Vincent followed. “What was that all about?” he asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about you nearly killing him. This isn’t about just gold, Marisha. This is something personal.”
She tightly gripped the railing before finally letting out a deep sigh. “We…we washed up on Hothcar after the tsunami. We were going to steal another ship preferably one with a diving bell to go dive for the treasure. That was when I ran into an old contact of mine. He handed me a manifest of all the prisoner in the Bone Pit. A name stuck out to me. Maria Ray——my mother.”
“Your mother’s in that prison? Why?”
“I don’t know. I thought she was dead. Swallowed up by the sea. I haven’t seen her in twenty years. If she’s in that pit then I have to get her out no matter the cost.”
Vincent could respect that motivation. The only problem is she’s too close to this, not like he’s one to talk, but perhaps Vincent has a better way. “Let me take a shot at this. I can be very persuasive.”
He went back inside and told Mr.Pink and Slayer to leave. He needed some privacy and to not come in no matter what. So, they did.
“I already said that I tell you nothing!” he reminded Vincent.
Vincent kicked the chair over sending the warden crashing to the ground. “I heard you. But I’m giving you o
ne chance to reconsider.”
“Fuck you!” the warden said as he spat blood on the ground.
Vincent smirked. “I was hoping you would say that. Tell me something warden, do you know how many bones are in the human body. You probably don’t it’s not something an average person knows off the top of their head. Fortunately for you, I’m not average. There is a grand total of two hundred and six bones in the human body. See warden, I’m not going to kill you. I’m only going to kill half of you.”
Vincent cut his bind but immediately stepped on his back pinning him to the floor. He grabbed the warden’s right arm. “Let’s start with the arm, shall we?” Vincent began breaking his fingers. All the while counting as he did. “Two…three…four…five…” The warden’s screams of pain could wake the dead. “Six…seven…eight…nine.”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
“Just tell me what I wanna know and I can end this.”
“Go…go to hell.”
“Oh now for the fun part.” Vincent turned him over and stepped on his chest. “There is a grand total of twenty-four ribs in the human body. If your luck I just might puncture a lung. Oh, wait, that’s if I’m lucky. You’ll just be in pain and short of breath. Let’s begin, shall we?”
Vincent began putting more and more pressure on the warden’s rib cage using only his foot. He smiled as he relished in the fear plastered on the warden’s face. He pressed on the warden’s chest until he felt the right side of rib cage collapse and shatter like glass.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Another scream of agonizing pain tore through the house like a passing breeze.
Vincent put his boot on the right side of the warden’s face. Blood trickled down the side of his lips as his eyes bulged out of his head from simply imagining what was about to befall him next.
“See, now I have to be careful,” Vincent told him. “I can easily crush part of your brain into a nice paste but that won’t be good for any of us. That is unless you tell me what I want to know.”
The Return of Constantine (The Blackest Knight Series, Book 2) Page 10