The Hungering Saga Complete

by Heath Pfaff

  I exploded forward, ramming the smaller Knight so hard against the wall that the wood crackled. My right hand held my sword steadily at his throat, my left hand held him pinned against the wall.

  "Go ahead, kill me now, and you'll never find out what happened to little Kaylien." Silent smiled, though blood was trickling from the corner of his mouth. The willpower it took me to drop him was phenomenal. I withdrew my arm, and returned my weapon to its scabbard. I turned from Silent.

  "You were like a brother to me, Silent. You were my only friend when there was no one else." I said softly into the room. Malice still stood, tensed to strike.

  "Perhaps you shouldn't have betrayed us, Noble. You turned your back on me, and everything that was important to me, long before I turned my back on you. Whatever happens to you, you deserve it now. You never cared about anyone but yourself." There was no hesitation in his reply. The rift between Silent and I would never be healed. I knew that fact with a certainty at that moment.

  "Tyvel was working for Lucidil the entire time, then? . . . A sleeper for the resistance movement?" I said, after I'd collected myself enough to go on. I turned back to face the friend who was now my enemy. I knew the answer already.

  "Oh, so you knew about Tyvel's nature? Yes, he was working for Lucidil. There were three artifacts made through which Tyvel could maintain his form. The king had one, you had one, and Lucidil had the third. The king believed he was in possession of Tyvel's body, and therefore was in control of Tyvel, but Lucidil had stolen the body a generation before. The king also believed there were only two artifacts, and that you had the other one. Lucidil was in control the entire time, feeding both you and the king whatever information best suited his agenda." Silent explained.

  I felt tired. Despite the fact that I had done little but sleep for years, these new revelations, and the terrible reality they brought with them, weighed heavily upon me.

  "What of Lace?" It was a question I should have asked long ago, for her fate haunted my worst nightmares. I had promised to do Lucidil's bidding in exchange for her freedom from her life as a sex slave. When I had broken faith with Lucidil, I had forfeited her life. I wanted to believe Lucidil would not kill the girl, a poor child who'd never done anyone a bit of harm, but I needed to know the truth.

  The Broken Sword stared at me blankly for a minute, and then laughed. "Oh, the whore. I'd almost forgotten about her. Lucidil didn't kill her," His smile widened once more, that look of gleeful vengeance lighting it from behind. He was honestly enjoying the way his words stung. Hate could do terrible things to a person. "But he did return her to her previous occupation. She was a camp whore last time I saw her."

  I bowed my head, feeling defeated. Lucidil was cuttingly vindictive. He had taken his revenge for my betrayal, even though it had taken him four years to do so. I had only one more question to ask.

  "Would you take us to Kay, please?" I asked, my voice as even as I could make it.

  Silent's smile did not falter, and there was a terrible sparkle in his eye. "Of course."

  I heard the sound of metal passing over leather, so slight that my sensitive ears could barely capture the whisper of motion, and I realized that Malice was about to cut Silent down. I spoke quickly.

  "If she's hurt, you understand, I will kill everyone even remotely responsible for her death, Silent." I spoke the words firmly, with a conviction born of the heart. Malice's sword stopped in its path. Silent's next words would decide his fate. I would not stay Malice's sword. I had not the will, nor the want, to stand in her way.

  "She is very healthy, Noble. She has grown into a lovely young lady, happy and well provided for." Silent said, with his mocking smile constantly in place. "She is intelligent, and strong. Watching her grow up has been wonderful for all of us." Malice's sword returned to her scabbard with the barest whisper of a breath.

  I breathed deeply, trying to let my tension out with my breath. Something was not right. I didn't believe that Silent was lying about Kay's wellbeing, but something was being left unsaid.

  "But you shouldn't make threats, Noble. We know about your heart. Remember, Tyvel told us everything. You're living on borrowed time, and with how hard you pushed yourself fighting your way out of the castle, I'm guessing that time is even shorter." Silent quipped, his spirits high. "Lucidil wants you alive, but if your heart were to fail you. . ." The black-eyed devil shrugged.

  I kept my mouth shut. I didn't know what had happened to my heart, but it had not given me any trouble in a long while, though it still beat with such ferocity in my chest I feared at times that it might try to leap through my ribs. It always remained constant, however, a beat so steady I could keep time with it.

  "Take us to Kay." Malice said, her voice cold, dangerous. It was the voice of the Knights of Ethan's weapon master, an authoritative threat, and it was not to be ignored.

  "As you wish." Silent replied.

  The basement we had entered through the subterranean cave from the castle was part of a small manor house in one of the central districts of Kreo. The home, if it had ever been well kept, certainly didn't show it any longer. As we crested the stairway leading up from the basement, we were greeted by the cool breeze of the season. The part of the building above ground was a devastated collection of walls, no longer holding up the roof that had once set atop them.

  That led me to wonder who had prepared the room in the basement with such care, even while the rest of the building was left in shambles, for obviously it had been intentionally readied for our arrival. That meant there were either others in service to the king within the city, or Silent had made the preparations himself before coming to get us. I didn't feel like asking our guide at that moment.

  My eyes took in the world around me. It had been four years since I'd laid eyes on Kreo. Beyond the crumbling walls of the fallen manor, everything looked different. All of the buildings were devastated, lying in piles, some of them on fire, but none fitting the image of the city I held in my memory. The sounds of fighting wafted through the streets, carried on every breeze, though no battle was immediately apparent. A great roar filled the air, and I swung my head around to find its source. A massive black shadow, too distant to be clear amidst the haze of smoke and dust from fallen city, lumbered through the ruins, larger than most of the buildings it passed by.

  "Siege Wyrm." Silent said quietly, a strange quavering in his voice. "They're some form of drake, only larger, terrible. The Hungering use them as sea craft, and once on land, as siege engines the likes of which you've never seen. They feed on flesh and wood."

  "How many of them are there?" I asked, still starring after that huge black shape, almost afraid to see what lay behind the haze of ash and dust.

  "Hundreds. At least, last we knew there were hundreds of them. We lost all contact with our scouts at the shore weeks ago. There could be thousands of them now." Silent replied, the last of his previously mocking tone gone from his voice. In the face of such an adversary, it was difficult to feel anything but despair.

  "Which way do we travel to escape this place?" Malice asked, breaking me from my grim considerations.

  Silent swung around, looking in all directions, and considered the question. Whether he was trying to get his bearings, or simply trying to decide which route would be the safest for our escape, I didn't know. After a time, Silent seemed to settle on a direction. He moved wordlessly, drawing his sword and making his way through the rubble of the fallen building around us, until we were on the street in front of the remains of the home we'd recently emerged from.

  Our progress was slow. The streets down which Silent led us were small to begin with, and in places the surrounding structures had fallen, closing off our passage entirely. We were forced to backtrack many times, looking for second, and sometimes even third, routes through an area. Our black-eyed guide was becoming increasingly agitated as the sun began to falter in the sky.

  "They don't like the sun. Once it's gone, they'll be out in force." Silent
muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.

  I had noticed that the volume of fighting around us was increasing. We had managed to avoid it so far, not even coming within sight of those engaged, but Silent was taking increasingly strange and obscure routes. We were headed in a general direction, but as the sounds of fighting increased, our path became less clear. My gaze was constantly drawn to the sky. The sun was sitting just above the horizon, its lower edge already lying atop the distant hills. If night was our time limit, that limit was fast approaching. The city still stretched out far before us. Silent's circumvent route had made our progress too slow.

  "How many of them are still in the city?" Malice asked from beside me. She had noted our dilemma as well.

  "Most have moved in towards the castle, but even out this far, there are a lot of them. I don't know where they are during the day, but once night falls, they crawl out of every crevice in this place." Silent looked on the verge of panic. "Getting in to find you both was hard enough, but getting out. . ."

  "We need to take a more direct route, Silent. Stop trying to avoid all the small skirmishes. Are we not better facing those few, than being here after dark?" Malice reasoned.

  "Yes, that's probably true." Silent said, seeming to consider her words carefully. "A few . . . if we face a few . . . we have to move quickly though." He began to walk at a faster pace, and then he broke into a run. Whether he was simply trying to progress faster, or had descended into a full panic, I couldn't be certain. Malice and I fell in behind him, neither of us familiar with the city's labyrinth like streets.

  Darkness crept closer and closer by the minute, the day fading far more quickly than seemed natural. Malice and I ran with our swords sheathed, unwilling to take the risk of running blades drawn, but Silent's sword stayed wrapped tightly in his fist as he dashed madly down side streets and alleys. My normally strong sense of direction was becoming increasingly confused as night descended and we ran through the curving, maze-like streets.

  Silent lead us down a small alleyway, and suddenly we found ourselves at a dead end.

  "No, no, no, no. . ." Silent rambled quietly to himself, pressing against the wall, tracing it from side to side. "This shouldn't be here. This path should run to the north side of. . ." He turned to face us, accusingly. "We're all turned around because you made me change directions." He shot venomously.

  I did not deem to answer the panicked Broken Sword. Malice, on the other hand, didn't bother to keep her opinion to herself.

  "You are not keeping yourself detached. You're afraid, and it's affecting your actions. It is not Lowin and I who have gotten us lost. We have followed you. You need to bite back your fear, and figure out where we need to go, and you need to do it now." Her voice was calm, but I could hear the edge of anger underlying her words.

  "You don't understand!" Silent shouted, his voice echoing through the area around us with alarming loudness. His outburst seemed to frighten him. His attention darted around; looking for some attacker that he seemed to fear lurked just over his shoulder.

  "You don't understand." He repeated again, more quietly, once he seemed convinced that that walls were not about to descend upon us. "They don't just kill you. The Hungering . . . they eat you. They will eat us, while we're still alive." He virtually spat the last words in a harsh whisper. "We have to get out of here now."

  His words did not come as a surprise to me. Though I'd never really seen the creatures feast on flesh, I had always suspected that they possessed a more horrific underlying nature. They were the sort of creatures that could only come from nightmares, and such was the way of demons of dark dreams. I was frightened, maybe even as much as Silent, but I held that fear in check. Like Malice had indicated, we served ourselves best by keeping our minds clear. Letting our fear guide us, could only lead us to our deaths.

  A squealing howl sounded from somewhere nearby, followed by five more from other areas. I drew steel, and Malice followed suit. The time for sheathed swords was passed. We would need to fight if we were to survive.

  "It's more of those monsters from the castle." Malice said. "The six legged beasts. How do they track?" The last she said to Silent.

  The black-eyed warrior was visibly shaking, his sword point down. "They can smell us. They can trace the scent of Knights over great distances. That's their purpose. The squads they lead have been trained to fight us. I've seen many men fall in the face of their onslaught." His clawed hand, wrapped so tightly about his sword hilt, was shaking violently. I felt pity for my lost friend. He had changed in the years since I'd known him, and seemed a shell of the warrior I had once known. What, I wondered, had happened around him to make him so emotionally scarred?

  "We will make it out of this city alive." I said confidently. I believed those words. It had been four years, but I was finally going to see Kay again, if I could just survive long enough to escape the city. I had no intention of dying.

  "We will?" Silent asked, and there was a manic edge to his voice. "We will escape this city that has killed more than half of the Knights of Ethan, and even more of the Broken Swords?" His voice was escalating. "Malice and I, and our crippled companion, whose heart barely supports a run, are going to escape from this pit of death?" He was nearly yelling. "How are we going to do that, Lowin?" Once more, he seemed to hear his own yelling voice, and he glanced around in fear.

  "I've had four years to rest and heal. I may not be as strong as I was at my best, but I'm more than capable of fighting." I answered, unable to keep the agitation from my voice. I did not intend to tell Silent that I felt stronger than I ever had. Since my heart had begun to pound like a drum in my chest, I had felt invigorated, as though I were nearly unstoppable. I made a point of restraining that feeling as much as possible, for I doubted it was accurate, but for some reason my heart seemed to have healed better than it had been before. Apparently I had discovered a way, other than getting a Kaziem Wolf heart, to strengthen myself.

  "I was just supposed to sneak in, and back out. It was going to be easy. There were four of us." He looked at me accusingly. "Four loyal Knights came with me, Lowin, because Lucidil swears that you are still important. The other three died, and I barely escaped with my life. Three more lives lost so that you, who have betrayed our cause, can continue to. . ."

  Malice's voice broke across Silent's. "This is not the time to argue, and certainly not the time hold grudges. We need to find a defensible location, and we need to settle in and try to last until morning. Traveling has become too dangerous, and I guess it will only become worse as night falls around us." She didn't wait for a reply. She turned on her heels and started back tracking down the alleyway. I fell in behind her, and finally Silent fell in after me.

  Malice seemed to have a goal in mind, and I was more than happy to let her take the lead. Of all of us, she seemed the most calm and collected, though I wasn't certain if she was, or if it only seemed that way since Silent was a mess, and I knew how afraid I felt. What terrified me far more than the Hungering was the prospect that I might never see my daughter again if I was unable to make it safely from the city.

  Malice traced our route back to what appeared to be a damaged inn. The building was relatively intact, at least on the first floor. The door was still securely fastened when she tried the handle.

  "This will do." She said, whether to herself or Silent and me, I was unsure. Without another word she returned her sword to her scabbard and sprang upward, grabbing a handhold on a ledge above her head. She pulled herself up the wall with a vigorous grace and dexterity, moving upward almost as nimbly as most people could cover flat ground. As soon as she was clear, I jumped up and followed suit. I did my best to match my movements with those that Malice had used, but I did not climb as easily as she.

  Malice ascended into a small hole torn into the wall of the third floor just as another howl sounded, far closer than the last we'd heard. Multiple other voices raised in answer to the first, even more than had done so at the first howl. I l
ooked down, and saw that Silent was still standing on the ground, his sword drawn. I almost expected to see one of the six legged creatures like the one I'd encountered in the castle come running out of an alley to attack the stunned Knight. Thankfully, it did not happen.

  "Silent, you need to move. They're getting closer." I called down, trying my best to keep my voice low. This seemed to get him into motion. He put his sword away and began to scramble up the wall behind me. He stumbled multiple times, and slipped more than once, but he was moving. I followed Malice's path across the inn's face, across the sign that read, "Traveler's Stew Pot," and through the gap in the wall that Malice had entered. Silent fell through the crack not long after me, drawing his sword the moment his hands were free again, and holding it in front of him like the room itself might attack.

  Malice was looking around our new surroundings. It was a large room, with a single massive bed in the middle. There was plenty of space for the three of us to fight in if we needed to, and the only entrances were the crack in the wall we'd come through, and the door that I guessed lead out into the hallway. Malice was taking this all into consideration as well.