Pathfinder Tales: Lord of Runes

by Dave Gross

  All I knew was one second I was his bodyguard and the next I was his killer.

  Janneke came back with her helmet full of water. Kazyah had her tip it over the boss’s chest. The water washed away the gore and left a dark purple line. The wound looked like a small thing to end a hundred-year life.

  The thought of his age gave me a shiver. I counted back to the last day I knew the date. I did the arithmetic again. It was right, and I choked on it. That turned into a sob, or a laugh, or something. I sat down and held my arms, shaking like that jerk who can’t stop laughing at his own mother’s funeral.

  “What is it?” said Svannostel. The dragon’s voice still sounded big, but she stayed back to give us room around the table.

  “Hell of a birthday present I gave him.”

  I felt everybody looking at me. After a few seconds, I felt them looking away.

  Kazyah finished blotting the blood from the boss’s body. She straightened his arms and legs and lay the scroll on his stomach. She gave us a look that told us to be quiet. She started to read.

  The words were different from the ones she chanted to call her ancestors and the earth spirits. Reading them made the writing go soft on the page. Flecks of diamond finer than sand glittered in the ink. The magic words floated on the parchment like rotting leaves on a pond. As Kazyah finished her spell, the parchment crumbled away to nothing.

  The boss’s body lay still.

  Kazyah looked down at him. She slapped her hand onto his chest. “Return, Count Varian Jeggare. Don your bones, resume your mantle of flesh, and walk your mortal path again.”

  “Come on, boss.”

  Eando went to the Gluttonous Tome. It lay on the cavern floor beside the Shadowless Sword. It looked the same as it had when the boss held it to his chest. Eando reached down but stopped himself before touching the book.

  “What’s wrong?” said Illyria. “Is the curse preventing his return?”

  “I don’t know,” said Eando. “I thought the book would fall back into three pieces when he died. I just assumed.”

  “You didn’t know?” I yelled. Illyria flinched when I turned to her. “What the hell have you been reading all this time? Your stupid little romance stories?”

  She looked like I’d slapped her. “We thought it would work.”

  “You tricked me into killing the boss on a hunch?”

  “It was more than that, Radovan,” said Eando. When I showed him my teeth, he looked down. “It’s all we had.”

  I turned to Kazyah. “There’s something wrong with the scroll. Try another one.”

  “The scroll worked,” she said. “I cannot force someone to return from death if he does not wish to come.”

  “That’s crazy,” I said. “Why wouldn’t he want to come back?”

  Everybody looked at me, their faces sad and guilty.

  “He can’t think we’d kill him again,” I said. “The whole idea was to get him free from the book.”

  “He may not have understood that in his last moments,” said Svannostel. “There was a madness upon him.”

  “Then ask, why don’t you? You can talk to spirits, can’t you?”

  “Spirits of the earth,” said Kazyah. “Spirits of my ancestors. The oracle might have reached him, but I cannot.”

  “You can’t just give up,” I said. “There’s got to be a way.”

  “He has lived a long life,” said Kazyah. “Longer than mine, I think. There comes a time to rest.”

  “Not for the boss,” I said. “He wasn’t done.”

  Illyria took out her monocle. She looked through it at the boss. She shook her head and turned toward the Tome. “I see no aura connecting them. He ought to be free from the curse.”

  “You said you couldn’t see any aura on the book before.”

  “That’s true.”

  “So what good will it do now?” I yelled. “Why are you messing with that lens? What use are you?”

  “It’s not her fault, Radovan,” said Eando. “Take it easy.”

  “Don’t you tell me to take it easy. You didn’t just kill your best—”

  That was more than I wanted to say to these jerks. Janneke put a hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off, but she held on. When I turned to yell at her, I saw the pain on her face. Maybe it wasn’t like mine, but it was real.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “We won’t stop trying.”

  “He will not come,” Kazyah said.

  “Maybe not now,” said Illyria. “Maybe the curse still affects him. It could be weaker now. Can you lift it with another spell?”

  Kazyah frowned, thinking it over. “Possibly. I am not as powerful as my— as the oracle was.”

  “What if the Tome finds another master?” said Eando. “Would that free Jeggare’s spirit?”

  “Jeggare’s oath was to destroy the tome,” said Svannostel, “not to pass it along to another.”

  “Transferring the curse to someone else doesn’t achieve our goal,” said Illyria. “But now that it isn’t linked to a person, can’t we just destroy it?”

  “Svannostel?” said Eando.

  We went back to where the book had fallen in the gallery. We kept well away from it while the dragon opened her jaws and leaned forward. I shut my eyes. Out flashed the lightning, blinding even through my eyelids. The blast left a black scorch mark on the stone floor. Steam rose from the cover of the Tome, but it didn’t look the least bit burned.

  “Anyone know a pious king we could starve for a few weeks?” said Eando.

  “This is no time for jokes,” said Zora.

  “It’s not necessarily a joke, but I admit it sounds ridiculous.”

  “‘Preposterous,’” I said. “That’s the word the boss would have used.”

  Illyria nodded. A smile flickered on her lips before dying. “I was just getting to know him well enough to recognize his little idiosyncrasies.”

  We heard a sound from somewhere deeper in the dragon’s lair. When it came again, I recognized Arni’s bark.

  “He’s found something,” I said.

  “Intruders,” said Svannostel. “Someone powerful enough to bypass my alarms.”

  Arni barked again. He sounded scared.

  “I gotta find him,” I said.

  “The rest of you return to the library,” said Svannostel. “Take the book.”

  “I will go with you.” Kazyah began changing into an earth spirit. Svannostel didn’t object.

  “I’m not touching it,” said Eando, eying the book.

  “It’s only harmful when read,” said Illyria.

  “Like I said, I thought it’d fall into three pieces when Jeggare died. I’m not taking the chance—”

  “All talk, you two.” I snatched up the book. I made sure not even to look at the cover, but if it turned me evil, it’d serve them right. Besides, what else was I good for now?

  Illyria and Eando could cast spells without somebody else making riffle scrolls for them. Zora had a little magic of her own, and Janneke had her crazy crossbow. Arni wouldn’t come near me. And after what I’d done with it, I never wanted to touch the big knife again. I didn’t feel right using the scrolls the boss had made me, either.

  Still, if something was coming for us, it was stupid to get all sentimental. Before heading back to the library, I picked up the knife, wiped it on my tattered sleeve, and made sure there was a riffle scroll in my side pocket. There were only a few left, but I was ready to burn them all. If whatever was coming for us wanted the Tome, it was going to find me and my big knife.

  When we reached the library, I put the book down on the table nearest the boss.

  Thunder echoed back from the lower passages.

  “You think we ought to—?” Before I could finish the question, the cavern shook. Above us, the planets’ gears squealed. A red world crashed to the floor.

  Steam hissed in from the river caverns. Somewhere in the noise, I heard a familiar woof.

  “Where’s Arni?” I said. “I gotta go
get him!”

  “We should stay right here,” said Zora.

  “Agreed,” said Eando. “Besides, he was attacking you before he ran off.”

  I moved toward the clouded passages. “Arni!”

  The big dog came bounding out of the steam, drenched from nose to tail. Amaranthine clung to his shoulders, wings folded so tight she looked like a butterfly trying to get back into its cocoon. Arni ran past me to stand between Eando and Illyria.

  The steam in the river passages thickened. Except for occasional flashes, I couldn’t see anything farther than six or eight feet away.

  “Don’t go in there!” Janneke yelled. “You’ll get scalded.”

  A little heat doesn’t bother me. Still, Arni was back, and I couldn’t see any better than a regular guy in steam. I backed up.

  Illyria and Zora watched the way down to the gallery. Eando and Janneke watched the river passage. Between them, the boss’s corpse lay on the stone table. It wasn’t much of a bier for a count of Cheliax.

  Lightning flashed again. It must have been closer—all my hairs rose up at the electricity pricking the air. The steam muted the sound of the thunder and landslides Svannostel and Kazyah must be throwing at the enemy. I couldn’t hear their voices, only the crashing of air, earth, and water.

  After a minute, we heard the sounds but didn’t see any more lightning. The steam grew darker.

  Illyria cast a spell and closed her eyes. The spell told her something, and she hissed, “They’re coming.”

  She started to pour a circle of silver dust around us. Eando cast some protection on himself. Zora murmured a prayer to Desna and did the same. I snapped off a riffle scroll to make myself quicker.

  The steam clouds turned the color of iron. Fingers of darkness wriggled out to touch the little stars floating beneath the library ceiling.

  Illyria called out an arcane word and pointed. Where the darkness crept in, her light dispelled it. “Eando!”

  “Got it.” He cast another spot of light where the dark had killed a lamp.

  Janneke shot a bolt into the steam. We heard it strike the cavern wall. She reached into her pack and loaded one of her special bolts.

  Illyria’s light vanished. As she cast another, Eando’s dimmed as well. The darkness crept closer, surrounding us.

  “Night Monarch, protect me.” Zora unfurled her flag. As she swung the banner around her, its flapping edge left a faint blue glow that lingered around Zora. When its magic had set, she held the flag like a spear, ready to slash.

  We kept our backs to the table. Soon we had only a little circle of light around us. The darkness kept pushing in.

  Arnisant growled. Something growled back at him. In the dying light, I saw his hackles rise. “Easy, boy. Wait for them to—”

  Arni charged into the dark. In a second, I heard him fighting something that sounded like another dog, or maybe a wolf.

  “Arni!” I plunged after him. Janneke grabbed for me, but I slipped free.

  I couldn’t see a thing, which meant magic. The mist grew cold. I felt it beading like sweat on my arms. Cold fingers stroked along my neck.

  “Radovan,” whispered a woman’s voice. I could tell by the thin chill of it that the woman wasn’t alive.

  “Leave him to me, sister,” said another cold, flat voice.

  “We leave him to the Master, Otto. See to your dog.” The voice moved past me. I worried where it was going.

  Keeping low, I moved quick back to the boss’s table, expecting to find light. Instead, I bumped into Janneke. She almost cracked me with the butt of her crossbow before I called out her name. “It’s me.”

  Somebody cast another light spell nearby. For a second I saw the shadow of a man throttling Zora as the shadow of a woman pulled at her flag and screamed at its touch. The shadow-woman let go, and the light vanished.

  I dove to where I’d last seen Zora. I caught her by the waist and pulled her back over my hip. Without looking, I stabbed out behind us. The big knife ripped through something like a thin curtain. I thought I’d gotten tangled in Zora’s flag, but the shadow-man cried out, “Kill him, Ada! His Hell-blade tears me!”

  That’s all the encouragement I needed. The second and third stabs earned me two more screams.

  In the dark behind me, Eando howled. Letting go of Zora, I caught what felt like the Pathfinder’s armor. Feeling around, I found a cold spot near his neck. Careful not to cut his throat, I ran the big knife through some filmy material around his face. Another creepy scream.

  Another light came up, this time on the tip of a wand. Amaranthine balanced on Illyria’s upper arm, her stinger lashing but hitting nothing.

  Eando had one hand on his wounded shoulder. In the other, he snaked his short sword back and forth, like he was fanning away a bad smell. On the third or fourth swing, the dark cried out again. Our circle of light grew a couple of feet wider.

  “This is no good,” he said. “We can barely fight what we can barely see.”

  I caught a glimpse of gray Arni fighting a huge dog as black as shadows. I went for it, knife ready to open its guts.

  Something grabbed the back of my jacket and pulled me off the floor. It was too strong and tall to be Janneke, so I kicked back and hit something thick and heavy. It didn’t budge.

  I lashed back with a spur. It hit with a meaty thunk, but it didn’t loosen the grip on my jacket. I slashed the other way with the big knife. The blade sank deep.

  And there it stayed while whatever I’d hit threw me across the dark room.

  I tumbled ass over teakettle until I hit a stone wall. It hurt so bad I didn’t even feel the impact when I fell to the floor.

  For a while, it took all my concentration just to breathe. When I got good enough at that, I tried moving. That didn’t work out so well, so I went to my backup plan and just lay there for a moment, listening.

  Janneke’s bow snapped off several shots, one big cylinder and three or four bolts. The springs on her crossbow squealed as she pulled the launcher back for another shot.

  Zora’s flag snapped. Once or twice I thought I saw a blue square of light in the direction where I heard it move. The darkness swallowed up the glow.

  Illyria spoke and Eando sang a few more spells. Pale green missiles sizzled through a spot of darkness. I could have sworn I saw shreds of shadow floating down like swatches snipped from a cloak.

  I managed a pitiful moan and rocked a little to the side. That hurt like hell, but I did it again. After a few tries, I got back on my knees.

  That’s when the fun began.

  Whatever hit me broke ribs. One of them must have pierced a lung, because every breath made me want to bawl like a baby. My left shoulder was dead as a tree stump, but I could feel the pain of broken fingers. The big knife was gone, probably stuck in whatever had thrown me. The way I felt, it could keep the knife. I wasn’t going back for it.

  But then Arni yelped. With or without a knife, I had to go back for him.

  Standing up, I wailed at all the pain beneath the pain I’d already felt. With my first step, I lost the breath to scream. Something gave under my left arm. I hoped that wasn’t a lung collapsing. In the dark, with only Illyria’s and Eando’s brief lights to guide my way, there was nothing else I could do but hope.

  I staggered toward the sound of Arni’s fight, wondering whether I was going to be any use, fearing I was going to run into whatever had thrown me before I found the dogs.

  The cavern floor rose up beneath me. It didn’t throw me as far as the other thing had, but it dropped me onto Janneke. She would have cushioned my fall, except for all that steel armor. I almost wished I’d hit the stone floor instead. She cursed as her helm was knocked free and went clattering away into the darkness.

  As I got to my feet, Eando added a light on his sword to the one on Illyria’s wand, and I could see a few things nearby. A huge rock spirit had burst up through the floor. That wasn’t all.

  A patchwork giant stood over Janneke. It had one b
rown arm, another sickly green, its naked trunk in three shades of tan. Half a tattoo wound up one shin and disappeared into a shaggy thigh. The brute’s head looked cobbled together from at least three different skulls, one of them from an ogre. Lightning crackled over the staples and pins that held it all together.

  The monster had one foot on Janneke’s crossbow. Her ammo spilled out across the floor. She rolled away, reaching for one of her clubs. The golem switched to her empty helm, pinning it beneath a club foot embedded with spikes. It leaned onto the helmet, crushing it flat.

  Zora slammed her flag into the back of the monster’s knee, but it didn’t budge. The thing reached for her.

  Illyria’s light went out.

  In her stone-spirit body, Kazyah rose up behind the golem, boulder fists swinging together to crush its mismatched skull.

  Eando’s light went out.

  I reached out, not knowing what I’d touch or what I’d do with it. When I caught something, Eando called out, “It’s me! It’s me!”

  “I lost my knife,” I told him.

  “Here.” He pressed the grip of a dagger into my hand.

  Figuring Kazyah’s rock-body would protect her, I followed the smell of rotten meat and slashed. The knife scratched hard flesh. The stink got worse. “I got him!”

  I heard Eando hacking away beside me. A second later came a sickening crunch, a brief yell, and the sound of him landing somewhere across the library. Not eager to take that trip again, I shifted right and ducked. The breeze of the monster’s punch lifted my hair.

  A clatter of stones fell all around us. Kazyah groaned, and I bet she felt what I did: exhaustion falling over me like a thick wet blanket. Just like the dragon did earlier, somebody had hit us with a spell to weigh us down, only this one was worse. I could barely lift my arms, much less escape the monster’s reach. Tensing, I waited for the blow that would put me down for good.

  But it didn’t come. I heard a sucking sound and a clank of metal on the floor. There were some whispers I couldn’t make out, and then heavy footsteps crossed the room, paused, and moved again. Slow at first, they picked up speed as they vanished in the direction of the gallery.