by Heath Pfaff
The bed was soft beneath me, and Malice was warm at my side, her slender and shapely form pressed against me with a welcoming softness I was hard pressed to ignore. She had fallen asleep quickly, as she usually did, and I lay awake, waiting, and wondering whether or not I should move myself away from her. In the end, it was for her sake that I did not. If I left again, she would know, and I would have let her down once more. I would stay the night, and deal with the demons that plagued my mind. I closed my eyes, and forced myself to relax, forced the visions of a naked, welcoming Malice from my mind. It was difficult, but my lusts fled, and eventually sleep took me. I dreamed.
The world grew brighter around me, and I found myself standing in an ancient wood. The trees all about me were burned off, charred and blackened, and the ground was littered with a heavy coat of ash, smothering out any life that might have existed on the forest floor. I spun around, and at my back I saw a lake, the water black from soot, the fish all floating dead upon the surface. I turned slowly, allowing myself to fully take in my surroundings. Everything was burned. Even the sky was gray, as though the smoke had filled the clouds, and clogged them with foul tears. So full were they with sadness, it began to rain.
I held out my hands, and indeed I had two hands again. It seemed strange to see two arms stretched out before me. I closed the fingers of my left hand, and opened them again, marveling at how they responded to my call. I could feel the stretch and pull of the muscles beneath the flesh, and the way the light breeze in the air stirred the fur on arm. The rain struck my skin. It was cold, and left a black streak of soot everywhere it landed. A melody wafted through the air, sad and distant.
I turned my head to capture the strange song, my ears focusing on the source somewhere far within the woods. I began to walk towards it, though I knew not why. I felt compelled by the bitterness of the song. There was a longing in its notes, a yearning for something lost that tugged at the very core of my being. I abandoned my slow pace and began to run, letting the skeletal remains of trees fall away behind me like a vast graveyard of the recently dead. The rain drew trails of bright light through the sky on its decent, as my vision tracked every passing drop of water, obscuring the path ahead of me. Despite the hazard of obscured vision, I did not want to slow down.
I found myself faced with the realization that I knew exactly where I was going, for I had traveled those woods before. They had been different with every visit, but I had a sense of what waited ahead of me. My foreboding grew with every step. I crested a low hill, and waiting before me, as I had anticipated before even seeing it, was a small, rustic cabin. The cabin was little more than a burnt out husk, surprisingly intact for a building that was entirely blackened from fire damage. A figure stood outside the building, obscured partially by the streaking rain.
I saw enough to recognize the beast. It had the upper torso of a bear, and the lower half of a human man. Its fur looked seared, its flesh badly burned. As it noticed my approach, it walked inside of the cabin. The music drew me in closer. As the cabin grew nearer, I began to realize that the music was not coming from inside of it, but from somewhere beyond it. Still, I moved towards that burned out building. My business, I knew, was within its walls. I ignored the call of the song, at least for a time.
It was only as I moved on to the small path, well worn with use, that ran to the front steps of the cabin, that I realized that the building before me was the same one that I had built with my own two hands and the edge of my sword, deep in the woods beyond the lands of men. It was the cabin I had lived in with Malice, Kay, and Wisp. Had my dream cabin always been the same as the cabin I'd built? I rarely forgot details, but here was one that seemed obscured. However, it felt to me as though it always had been the same cabin, and that I had just never noticed it before. I drew nearer the entrance, fearing what lay within, but not wanting to avoid the confrontation I knew awaited me.
No more was I the frightened child who wanted to run from my fears. I was afraid, but I was ready to face whatever might stand before me. I mounted the two steps and crossed the small porch before reaching the open door of the cabin. Inside waited a darkness so pure that even my magical eyes could make no sense of the void. I reached for my sword, out of habit, and found that it was not there. I cursed my dream for leaving me unprepared, but did not let my lack of weapon slow me down. I crossed the threshold.
As I passed beneath the frame of the door to the house that had been a place of relative happiness, I was assailed by memories. I saw, in a bright flash, visions of Kay running through the rooms, chased by a gruff but smiling Malice. I saw an image of Wisp, her hair bedraggled from Kay playing with it, smiling downward. I saw myself, sitting next to Malice, as we watched Wisp carrying Kay on her back, the little girl holding on to Wisp's horns, a gleam of glee in her eyes. Those memories were gone in a second, and then I was merely wrapped in a near total darkness, emptiness taking the place left by the warm visions of better times.
"Welcome home." A voice growled from a dark corner. I centered my eyes on the corner, but I could make out little more than a vague, hulking shape. The music still beckoned from somewhere outside, tempting me to leave the cabin and wander on.
"This place is haunted." I told the creature in the darkness. I did not doubt it was the bear-thing, and when I least expected it, it would try to kill me. I readied myself for such an attack. The creature was moving rhythmically in the darkness, though I could not tell what it was doing. My eyes seemed unable to track the motion.
"No, not this place. . ." It answered. "You, you are haunted."
I nodded my answer. It was right. I carried the ghosts of the past with me. Lightning flashed outside, and for just a moment light spilled across the room, streaming through holes in the ceiling. Strangely no water fell through these openings. I caught a partial glimpse of the thing in the corner, just the top half of it. It was not the bear-man.
A throaty, growling chuckle issued from it, though it silenced quickly and again only the sound of the rain and the strange melody filled the darkness, accompanied by the rhythmic motion of the creature in the corner. It was a Fell Beast. More, it was the Fell Beast that I had killed. I had seen the red tips of its ears, those same red caps that I now wore. I felt ill at ease.
"It's calling to us." The creature tore at the words, as though it hated to speak the language of man. "It wants us to come and play its game. It's hungry. More hungry than you or I."
"What is that music?" I asked the creature, for it seemed to know more than I did, and though I was loathe to talk to it, I needed answers. I always needed answers.
"Death, but we need not fear it. Even death may die. We will find it, and we will conquer it, you and I." It replied. "We are strong together. We are unstoppable."
"You are dangerous." I told the black beast in the corner.
"We are dangerous. Embrace me, man, embrace my power and we would make them all cower before us. We would feast upon the flesh of our enemies, and use their bones as our hunting paths! Embrace me, and let us eat, hunt, and breed." It answered, and I could hear the lust for power and pleasure filling its voice. I could see the images it bore in its mind, visions of murder, rape, and gorging on death. Something else exuded from it, some sense of terrible satisfaction.
"I will not give you what you want." I told the black thing, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
It barked with terrible laughter. ". . . but we want the same thing, Lowin Fenly. We want the same thing."
A candle lit in the corner of the room opposite the dark form, and a second later another candle lit, as if by magic, followed by three more. Suddenly the room was bathed in light, and there before me I saw the Fell Beast in all its terrible glory, red banded wrists, and red tipped ears. Its massive jaws were lined with row after row of terrible teeth.
In the new light, I was able to see the rest of the scene that had been hidden up until that point. Malice lay upon the floor, her face locked in a grimace of horror
and pain, tears running silently down her face, as the Fell Beast loomed over her, its massive body pinning her to the ground, it's animal loins pressed between her legs, thrusting violently into her.
"No!" I screamed. I charged the beast, and it stood up from its prey, casting Malice aside like a broken play thing to dash against the wall. The creature wore its foul lust like a trophy, a dripping and pulsating sign of its victory. Rage filled me, and I willed my claws sharper. The beast charged me, and I found myself locked, claw to claw, with the demon.
"You want it too." The creature growled. "She is delicious, her body is supple and. . ."
"Be quiet!" I screamed and pressed back harder, trying desperately to kill the creature, but it matched me stride for stride. I could not get an upper hand. I fought with its fury, and it fought with my technique. I couldn't tell where it stopped and I began. I was horrified.
Suddenly, and alarmingly, the music stopped, and as one, both the Fell Beast and I froze in place, claws wrapped about one another's throat, powerful, sharp claws poised to kill and rend. I still tried to struggle, and I could see behind the creature's eyes that it too was trying to fight, but we could not move. The beast's face went slack and it looked towards the door.
"There is someone here . . . wake up." It snapped, and then the dream melted away from me. As it faded, I saw the broken form of Malice lying upon the ground, far too still.
I awoke in a flurry of violence. Malice screamed, awakened by my sudden thrashing, but I was still moving on instinct. I sprang from the linens and barreled into a figure in the dark, standing poised above the bed, a sword raised. I lashed out with my right claws and felt flesh, bone, and sinew part easily. Banging sounded outside my door. Five more dark figures leapt towards me, weapons at the ready. The world slowed around me as I forced myself faster and faster.
I could see the men clearly in the vortex of speed I'd created. Four of those remaining were dressed as guardsmen, wearing the colors of the kingdom. They were humans, gruff faced and handling their weapons with the finesse of trained killers. The fifth figure was the most startling. It came at me through the slowed world with agility, and deadly intent, dressed in a cloak of Lucidil fabric. I recognized that fifth figure's face immediately. Silent. He had vanished after I took the crown, along with two other Knights of Ethan, leaving our numbers at a scant eleven, since Lucidil's death.
The enemy fell upon me, the humans coming within range before Silent could. To them I dealt out death, ripping through their fragile forms with almost no resistance. From one of the falling men, I stole a sword. The blade wasn't weighted well for my preferred fighting style, but it would be enough. I charged to meet Silent, forcing my body to propel me even faster. My heart pounded upon the inside of my ribs like a drum beat to which I wove a dance of murder. My blade snaked out, and Silent threw himself backwards in the nick of time, barely avoiding the blow that I had intentionally aimed wide, so that if it struck, it would only injure. I could have killed him easily enough, but I still remembered that he had been a friend once. Even though he'd betrayed me before, I still stayed my blade.
A glint of motion behind me caught my attention, and I spun around just in time to see two other Knights of Ethan, Swift and Merciless, two I knew only as the traitors who had left with Silent after Lucidil's fall, rushing towards Malice where she lay curled up in the corner. I traced the line from them to the window, and knew how they had gotten into my room without alerting the guards. It was a long climb, but not an impossible one, especially for a former Knight.
I broke from my fight with Silent and dived back across the room. Swift was reaching for Malice, and I forced myself even faster, a roar escaping my throat as I charged. The two Knights looked up, shock evident in their faces. They were not expecting me, and certainly couldn't hope to get their defenses up in time.
Behind me, even in the density of slowed time, I could hear the splinter of wood as my door caved in. I didn't know who was entering, but I hoped that it was my guards. Silent was chasing after me, but he was not as fast as I. My borrowed blade licked out and caught Swift at the elbow of his outstretched arm. The limb fell away easily, separated in an instant by the sharp blade I wielded, and he jumped back, clutching at the injury. I did not slow my advance. I skidded across the stone floor of my chamber, coming to a rest between the enemy and Malice, interposing my body in front of their target. Why did they want Malice?
They will take her and use her for their pleasures. The fell beast growled inside of me. I heard a snarl escape my lips. She is mine. The beast's voice snapped venomously.
"Mine." I whispered, an echo of the monster's words, in a voice barely recognizable as my own. Rage boiled from within me, radiating out from my being. Swift was retreating, trying to exit through the window, and Merciless had gone pale, holding his sword out before him as he slowly backed towards the exit. Silent, however, was not retreating. He charged in from my side, his blade leading the way. My heart beat like a drum, and I was moving again. Silent seemed to be crawling through the air, his killing intent obvious on his face. My blade snaked down the side of his own, knocking it wide, even as it cut a deep line down the inside of his arm and slid effortlessly into base of his shoulder, splintering bone, and parting muscle as it tore through his body like paper. His blade dropped to the ground. The threat was not ended, however. Seeing me engaged, Merciless was closing the distance that had been between us. I felt his blade point touch my back before I realized that I had left my flank unwatched. I spun and jumped with all the speed I could muster. Instead of piercing my heart his blade passed through my lower chest, below my left lung, and wedged into my rib cage.
My vision blurred with a dominating fury. I released my sword, leaving it in Silent's shoulder, and lashed out with my claws. My hand impacted Merciless's face like an axe striking over ripe fruit. The impact blew his head to pieces, and his body slumped to the ground in a mess of blood.
The world lurched back into regular speed even as my guards, having broken down the door, finally reached Silent. Swift was out the window, climbing down a rope tied there. I didn't bother with him. The two black cloaks that had been guarding my room picked up Silent roughly, for he had slumped to the ground on his knees. My sword still hung from his body.
I took a moment to check on Malice, who sat huddled in the corner sobbing, making sure she was uninjured, before I walked back over to Silent.
"Why, Silent?" I demanded of him, my voice still more the Fell Beast's than my own. "When you left, did I ever send anyone after you? Did I ever do anything that you should hate me so deeply?"
Silent looked at me incredulously, as though I were out of my mind.
"First you ruined my dreams and killed the only man with a vision that could bring peace, and then when I left you behind, you had me hunted endlessly. I have been dodging your assassins for years." The once-Knight spat at my feet. "Yet you would stand here before me and lie about it."
"I never sent anyone after you." I said firmly, my eyes locked on his.
Silent just laughed. "Then you have less control of this country than my resources have led me to believe."
His words cut to the heart of the matter. Obviously someone had indeed been hunting Silent. I could see the feral look in his eyes, and could feel the weight of truth in his words. The country was out of control, and I was unable to rein it in. Though I was the king, I was merely another man along for the ride.
"My King, you are injured." One of my Black Patch Brigade guards said. I looked at him, for a moment not certain what he meant, and then I looked down. A sword point still protruded from my flesh, the hilt, I knew, was sprouting from my back.
"A moment. . ." I told the black cloak. The creature nodded, and resumed his solemn duty of holding the prisoner.
"Who sent you? Under whose orders did you come to kill me?" I asked, forcing myself as calm as possible. My voice, I noticed, had returned to normal.
"I was approached by a beggar in a bar. He h
anded me my orders, and I took them. I do not know who wanted the job done, but the task was not to kill you. We were supposed to kidnap the girl, and kill you only if the opportunity presented itself. We were informed that you left the room almost every night by this time. We didn't expect you to be here." Silent stated simply.
My anger flared once more. What would anyone want with Malice? That they threatened my life I did not care, but that Malice was being put in danger was something I could not abide.
". . . and you do not know who would want such a service? Where were you to take Malice after you'd abducted her?" I asked once more, my voice just shy of the growl of the beast.
Silent chuckled weakly. He was losing blood, and he was not as powerful a healer as was I. "You have enemies everywhere, and friends almost nowhere. Any number of men are awaiting your downfall. As for where we were to take the girl, I'll die before I tell you that."
"I see." I replied coldly. I could have had him tortured, and the truth might have come from him, or he might just lie. I could never be certain, and the time it might take to get anything from him would likely render the information useless.