by Jason Kenyon
A veritable army awaited them at the end of the dust trail, filled to the brim with confused and angry villagers who’d presumably been assembled from Arra. To Archimegadon’s chagrin, they were facing away from the mine entrance, their eyes trained on the dust trail. Bartell had indeed called them to the defence of the mines, poor villagers who were little aware that the deranged man planned only a miserable death for them all. Well, he had little time to plan, so it was time for the first bluff he could think up.
Archimegadon positioned himself in as noble a pose as he could muster, and surveyed the mob. ‘Greetings, sirs and madams!’ he said.
‘What’re you here for?’ one of them demanded, a grizzly looking fellow.
‘I am a companion of his lordship the great Lord Auber Bartell!’ Archimegadon replied. ‘I was a little held up, but he should be waiting for me somewhere around here?’
‘Lord Bartell specifically gave orders that nobody was permitted to pass aside from himself, and his men he had with him,’ replied a man who was actually wearing some mediocre armour, unlike his fellows. ‘Says he had important business that wasn’t to be interrupted. Said nothing about anyone else catching up.’
‘Well heavens, how rude,’ Archimegadon said, feeling some sweat break out as his confidence in his on-the-spot pretence faltered. ‘He does insist on forgetting about me.’
‘Who are you, anyway?’ the guard asked.
‘I, sirs, am…’ Archimegadon began, and then paused, his uncertainty soaring, but fortunately the crowd assumed it was for dramatic effect. ‘I am Sen Delarian!’ He winced as he said it, pretty much sure that at least one of this rabble had run into one of the foremost men who had overseen the mine’s operation.
Obdo and Neurion threw each other bemused looks.
The wind whipped dust up around them, while the army of villagers remained eerily silent.
‘Oh, my lord!’ the guard said. ‘Please, carry on through, I did not realise!’ The army split in two quick as a flash, cowering behind their makeshift weaponry.
‘You have to be joking,’ Obdo muttered.
‘They’re scared of Sen,’ Neurion said with a trace of enjoyment in his voice.
Surprised as Archimegadon was that the crowd had split with such ease, he was even more surprised to see the beginnings of malicious pleasure in the young paladin. Taking a moment to gather himself, he nodded imperiously at the crowd.
‘That’s better!’ he said. ‘Now, you be sure not to let anyone else through. There’s a fellow, Archimegadon, a great, powerful and handsome mage, and he and his adventurers are on their way here. He has a paladin and a fearsome fighter with him, and possibly other allies. Make sure they don’t get through.’
‘As you command, sir,’ the guard said.
‘Onwards, fools,’ Archimegadon said to Neurion and Obdo, sweeping through the crowd like an emperor.
He stared up at the rather unassuming mine entrance, just a wooden gateway stretching into the gloom. Whatever guards lurked within would probably not be so foolish as to fall for the same trick, and certainly when it came to Bartell and his band, there would be no quarter given. But it had to be faced. Without a single glance back, he followed Bartell’s steps and disappeared into darkness.
*
Bartell’s mood had steadily grown darker as he trod the dull path that wound its way through the mountain. How deep these men had dug! And what chance that the meandering path they’d taken had led them straight to an unfound tomb, left with such amazing and great promise. But did it really have to be such a long distance? The further they went, the more he wished they were at his destination. His stomach felt quite bad by this stage, his uncertainty about what lay behind that door he’d visited so long ago dancing about his head like some demonic imp, taunting him with doubts and grim possibilities.
A wall of shimmering rainbow colours bordered the mines and the crystal caverns, a beautiful unspoilt natural wonder. At least, it had been when they’d found it, but now it bore the hole they’d blown into the bottom, which brought them onto a thin trail winding round a mysterious glowing pit. Glittering crystal walls and yawning caverns that dropped into the void surrounded Bartell and his band, making him feel as though he’d stepped into the furthest reaches of the heavens, and whatever darkness there lay beyond them. He’d not liked it the first time, either.
‘You’ll fail, you know,’ Valia said, as they were walking along a blissfully wider track of thick crystal that led out from the wall and directly over the endless nothingness below. ‘An imperfect man couldn’t make a perfect world.’
‘Idle insults, Valia,’ Bartell said. ‘I know how you like to play. Besides, your idea of perfect does not necessarily match mine. When I’ve succeeded here, what you think won’t matter.’
‘Then kill me here,’ Valia said. ‘I don’t care about your “new world”.’
‘If you didn’t, why did you follow me?’ Bartell asked.
‘To see how it ends,’ Valia replied. ‘That’s all I care about now.’
‘Why toy with her, Auber?’ Akarith asked. ‘Let the girl go.’
‘Valia has the potential to be a good servant for the coming age,’ Bartell replied. ‘There will be those who I need to keep things under control. I am offering her a spot in the new regime.’
‘We’ll see,’ Valia said.
‘I still say you should let her go,’ Akarith said. ‘I don’t feel right treating her like this.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Bartell said. ‘I brought her here to show her the truth of things. To show the glory of our grand work. She should be grateful.’
Valia looked between Bartell and Akarith with a knowing smirk, which went unnoticed by the two former heroes.
‘I’m not convinced,’ Akarith said, glowering. ‘And I’d have been a lot happier if we’d asked Velris to back us up at the mountain entrance rather than leaving the defence to a bunch of brain-dead villagers. I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, Auber.’
‘I’m not interested in your worthless opinion!’ Bartell said. ‘Shut your mouth, and don’t interfere where it’s not needed.’
Akarith looked a bit affronted at this outburst, and then her expression softened a little, looking even a bit sad. ‘Alright, Auber. You go ahead. I’ll guard the back.’ She slipped back from him and crept along behind the band, keeping just out of range of Bartell being able to talk to her.
Bartell glared at the empty space Akarith had left at his side, and cursed his loss of temper at the same time. But Akarith should have understood that Valia had potential to be a good leader when the new regime came in. She’d managed to organise the defeat of Bartell’s forces in Aldrack quite by accident, and yet had no opinion of herself above her station. Perfect for leading material under his command! Akarith was stupid to criticise. And to have the cheek to mention Velris, whose name he did not want to hear, was double the crime.
He chanced a glance back at Akarith, but he couldn’t quite see her since she was shadowed just out of range of him. Blasted caverns and their dim light…
His heart tightened. Shadows…
The crystal walkway wound down slightly and then into a wall of glittering crystal that stretched out in all directions as far as the gloom would allow anyone to see. A golden archway had been erected at the end of the walkway, leading into a smooth, egg-shaped cavern. On the left side of the cavern the floor dropped away into another endless pit, and Bartell cast a worthless grob over the edge. He didn’t hear it hit the bottom. Then as the thought took him, he loosened the string on his moneybag and upended it, letting all his grobs, vallins and relorans pour away into oblivion.
Elsim looked scandalised. ‘My lord..!’
‘What use will money be when I am the god of this land?’ Bartell asked. Just as he turned, he noticed Akarith was much closer now, and her hand was leaving the hilt of her sheathed dagger.
Bartell threw the moneybag over his shoulder and made to rejoin the group. Then
he sidestepped to Akarith and faster than the assassin could react, he’d drawn the black dagger and plunged it into her chest, taking hold of her shoulder to hold her steady for the killing blow, one last bitter embrace. Her eyes widened and she barely even made a sound, the yell of pain cutting off almost instantly. Bartell stared into her eyes and watched as they flicked first in panic, then found his own and looked back. No remorse was in his eyes as she searched his face for some sort of reason.
‘Don’t think I wasn’t aware what you were up to,’ Bartell said. ‘On Sen’s orders, I suppose. You both betrayed me.’
‘I...’ Akarith tried, but she could not muster the strength to speak.
‘I gave you a chance,’ Bartell said. ‘You could have been queen of my world. A goddess. But heaven will never accept whores. Now get away from me.’ He pulled out the dagger and pushed her away savagely, watched her body splay uselessly on the cold crystal floor.
Akarith’s blood seeped through minute cracks in the ground, spreading out like a maze of veins. Nobody wanted to be the first to break the crushing silence that followed Bartell’s act.
‘It was her choice,’ Bartell said to nobody in particular, looking down at his feet. ‘Did nobody else see her? She was trying to sneak behind me with her dagger.’
The others stood mutely, none of them sure what to say. Felick in particular looked upset at the death of his former boss. Valia, not that Bartell was looking up to see, actually appeared amused. Elsim cleared his throat first of all of them, and stepped forward.
‘Nothing to worry about, my lord,’ he said, not quite sounding himself. ‘You have done the right thing. She had no place in the coming world. Now, your destiny is waiting for you, Lord Auber Bartell. Come on. We should head further in.’ He gestured at the far side of the room, where a golden doorway glittered enticingly.
Bartell did not see the shadow flicker behind Elsim’s cracked glasses.
‘You are right,’ Auber said, finally looking up. ‘We’ve cleared out the last of the traitors. We’re nearly there.’
‘Sure that’s the last?’ Valia asked.
‘I’m not sure, no,’ Bartell replied, stopping just as he was turning to leave. ‘Very well, Valia, you can prove my faith in you. You stay here and guard this place. Make sure those idiots up top haven’t let anyone past.’
‘Fine, I’ll do it,’ Valia said, nodding. ‘You’d really trust me?’
‘More than I did her,’ Bartell replied, sparing Akarith’s corpse only the slightest of indications with a tilt of his head. ‘You’ve seen what will happen if you do decide to double-cross me.’
Valia gave him another short nod.
‘Let’s move on,’ Bartell said to the rest. ‘There’s nothing worth staying here for.’
*
Archimegadon and the others were quite lost. Bartell’s mines seemed to be quite a large operation, certainly much bigger than he’d expected. Unfortunately, this meant the companions had quite successfully lost themselves in the various tunnels that were, for some reason, empty.
‘We should have asked them up top for a map,’ Obdo said.
‘I assumed that ass Bartell had just dug straight to the tomb,’ Archimegadon said.
‘That sure worked out well for us,’ Obdo said. ‘Glad he was considerate enough to leave out guards.’
‘I’d imagine that, were we on the right path, we’d be swarmed by soldiers,’ Archimegadon said.
‘We must be a few miles south of where we’re supposed to be,’ Obdo said.
‘Have faith, Obdo,’ Neurion said. ‘Master Archimegadon will find a way.’
‘Erm, yes, quite,’ Archimegadon said.
‘Say, Sir Shiny, can’t the Light give us a hand?’ Obdo asked, nudging the paladin, who glared back through the gloom.
‘Well, yes, it can, if you don’t barge me around, necromancer,’ Neurion replied.
‘It can?’ Archimegadon asked with some surprise. ‘This won’t end up with one of us dead, will it?’
‘You can have faith in me, Master Archimegadon,’ Neurion replied.
He drew his sword and the surrounding gloom shrank away quite impressively, Archimegadon felt. Even so, Neurion’s previous ‘success’ gave the Mage for Hire a distinct shiver as the sword began to shake and flash.
‘Er, did you break it?’ Obdo ventured after a moment.
‘Take us to the Tomb!’ Neurion said, ignoring Obdo, and the sword launched off down the tunnel, dragging the hapless paladin after it.
‘Erm, we should probably follow,’ Archimegadon said.
‘Not like we're going to let him go alone, right?’ Obdo asked.
‘Well, he is running off making quite a noise,’ Archimegadon replied. ‘Very well, let’s catch up.’
Just what he needed, here in the realm of his arch-nemesis. Not that it would probably concern Bartell in the slightest if he knew that Archimegadon had followed him all this way. Archimegadon rounded a final corner to find exactly what he’d not wanted in the place he’d been looking for. They were now in a grand chamber that appeared to be full of soldiers and the like, a cavern full of wooden structures where digging and other work was in full swing. Presumably, this was closer to where they needed to go than the pointless tunnels they’d been stuck in before.
However, Neurion had attracted the interest of quite a hefty number of mercenaries, who were drawing their weapons and stumbling their way over rocks and other obstacles to reach the wooden platform Archimegadon and company were standing on. Neurion was struggling to get his sword back under control.
‘Well,’ he said, finally dismissing the Light from his weapon, ‘it got us somewhere.’
‘It’s got us killed from the look of it,’ Archimegadon said.
‘That ain’t who I think it is, is it?’ one of the Breakers asked his fellows.
‘Whoever they are, they ain’t supposed to be here,’ one replied with a grin.
As the Breakers advanced with their jagged cutlasses to the fore, Obdo pushed Archimegadon aside and stood as heroically as he could manage in front of them.
‘Stand back!’ Obdo said, holding up his left hand. He reached into a pocket with his right and drew forth a small cube. ‘You guys might think I don’t bring anything to the party, but just look at what I got from Anjilo!’
He pinched the Handy Cleanser and then hurled it at the floor just ahead of the Breakers, where it exploded with a bright flash. As the light cleared, the Breakers could be seen holding their arms up in front of their faces, standing still.
‘Take that, you bastards!’ Obdo shouted.
‘Erm, Obdo,’ Archimegadon said. ‘That works on undead, not people.’
‘Oh, what, really?’ Obdo asked. Faster than anyone expected of the short farmhand, Obdo fled behind Archimegadon again, nearly dropping his bone club in doing so.
‘Ugh, sod it,’ Archimegadon said as the Breakers realised the cube had done nothing and renewed their charge. ‘Flamebolt!’
He launched a blast that destroyed one of the wooden supports of the platform the mercenaries were advancing across, and with a yell the Breakers fell into the void below.
‘Oh, that was rather more effective than I was expecting,’ Archimegadon said, frowning. He’d not really thought about the implications of knocking out the platform. Had he killed those men?
Obdo noticed Archimegadon pause and grabbed him by the arm. ‘No time for that, Sir Mage,’ he said. ‘There’s more on their way.’
‘Right, right, of course,’ Archimegadon said, shaking his head. ‘Neurion, any clue where to go?’
‘I’ll give it another try,’ Neurion replied, drawing his blade again. ‘Please, stay calm, but show me where to go!’
The sword listened at least to the second request, but it charged off once again, knocking a couple of Breakers flying as it yanked Neurion through their midst. Archimegadon and Obdo blasted or clubbed a couple of other mercenaries aside and charged after their paladin companion into another
gloomy tunnel, no idea whether they’d end up in the right place.
*
Bartell had quite liked the Tomb of Vortagenses. The founder of Valanthas had been an extravagant man, it seemed, to judge from his tomb, and certainly a wielder of powerful magic. The walls and walkways of the tomb were sandy marble, polished to absolute perfection, and it seemed they were quite immune to being scraped or collecting any sort of dust or dirt. Several chambers made up the structure, each leading to the next, and all followed a similar pattern. They were each like angular eights, the walkways leading around the edge of the room, and one walkway that led across the middle from left to right. Above and below the walkways there was no ceiling or floor; instead, Vortagenses or his mages had conjured the impressive illusion of an endless starry sky, so it felt as though the chamber was floating far beyond the heavens, rather than being hidden away deep beneath a mountain.
This time, however, Bartell had no interest in the scenery. In fact, after the events of the previous room, he didn’t much care for anything at all. All he wanted now was to enter the last chamber and bring an end to it all. Valanthas, the King, everything. All his good memories had largely involved Akarith in some way, and now he could not think of a single one. His life, his very self, was something he wanted to forget now.
Felick and the handful of Breakers still with them seemed to have noticed Bartell’s foul demeanour, and were keeping a discreet distance from their liege lord. Elsim, meanwhile, looked quite happy, and was walking along with a straighter back than he’d ever displayed previously.
Besides a number of Knights of Endless Skies, there were Clerics in their sinister blue robes bunched up along some of the walkways, talking animatedly. Bartell pushed these aside even if they weren’t in his way, despising each and every one of them for their connection with any of this. He was sick of the whole foul business. The Light had asked of him a terrible price to save the world, and he saw little reward now that his beloved was dead, by his own hand.
Because she had clearly been looking to betray him, like all the others. He’d not been wrong about that. Not a damned bit.