by AJ Martin
Matthias stepped in front of her and cast his hand in the direction of an empty barrel propped up against a wall. It shook slightly at his attention, and then, with a throwing motion towards the oncoming creature, Matthias sent the barrel careening into it. The wood split against its bulk and the monstrous figure fell in a tangled mess.
“Let’s go!” Matthias yelled. “Thadius?” he called to the man who was struggling to his feet.
“I’m right behind you. Just go!” he yelled, snatching his sword up. Matthias grabbed the Princess’s hand and darted off down the street, Thadius in tow.
They made it through another few streets and alleyways before another creature caught up with them. Grey and hairy with the bulky stature of a gorilla, only twice as large, it rolled its wild, red, poisoned eyes madly about when it spotted them.
Matthias skidded to a halt and released Josephine’s hand. “Go on ahead you two!” he barked as Thadius caught up. “Move! I’ll catch you!”
Thadius nodded, and they ran off, whilst Matthias stood to face the beast. It had a ring in its wrinkled, leathery nose, and chains attached to it trailed off on the ground, probably used to hold the creature back before it had been let loose.
“If you’re a pet then I do not want to meet your owner,” Matthias whispered, as he slipped his staff from beneath a strap on his back and held it tightly. The beast roared, and beat its chest. “Have it your way then,” Matthias said. With cat - like agility he pounced towards it, spun and sailed above its head and landed facing the beast’s behind. He darted for one of the chains trailing along the ground as the creature spun to face him again, grabbing a rusted link tentatively between his fingers. Matthias pulled hard, digging his heels into the gaps between the cobbles, and the beast reared back on itself, its sausage like paws grappling with the wet, cobbled floor. It tugged back, pounding with its muscular back legs for leverage, and Matthias went flying about on the ground, still clutching to the chain. The other swung untamed in the air, and Matthias made for it as the beast paused in the tug of war to turn again for a better position to fight. His palm clamped around the leash and he quickly, methodically wrapped them both around his fists tightly and pulled. The beast slid across the alleyway, landing on its rump with a thud. Seconds later it was pulling at him again and Matthias tottered about the alley like a drunk, thudding into a wall with a force. The links pinched his skin but he held on tight, grunting with the effort of holding the reins, ducking a swipe of a paw and then, as he ducked and weaved another melee attack, a thought struck him. He grinned wickedly as his hands sparked to life and hundreds of volts of electricity coursed through the chains into the creature. It convulsed with the raw power conducted through the metal.
Matthias let go, and it fell, collapsing onto the floor, smoke rising from its silvery skin. He wiped his brow, and then, without remorse, turned and ran, grabbing his staff as he did.
Thadius dragged the princess along the streets so hard that she flopped along behind him like a ragdoll, her shoes flapping from her feet, skirts awhirl. They stumbled through streets and alleyways, faster and faster.
“Are you… sure this is the… right way?” Josephine wheezed as they descended a line of steps.
“I’ve lived in this city… all my life Your Highness! I know where to go!” Thadius puffed, sweat caking his shirt.
They both looked around as they heard a pounding behind them, and Matthias approached them from behind, catching fast. He missed the steps and hurtled through the air, legs whipping along as he landed without stopping and caught up to them.
“Not much further!” he panted, retaking the lead. “Faster! They’re still coming! There’s at least two more!”
Jadin the gatekeeper was standing on guard again as Matthias skidded around the corner. Instinctively, Matthias’s hand dived into his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins from inside his cloak. Jadin spotted him, began to smile and then, seeing the look on Matthias’ face, scowled, confused.
“If it isn’t my good friend again, leaving so soon after he’s arrived!” he said suspiciously. “And in a hurry too!”
Matthias smiled as best he could at him as he bundled the selection of gold and silver into the man’s hand. “I am afraid so. I have urgent business elsewhere,” he panted. “Now if you would kindly open the gate-”
“I’m afraid I can’t open this gate for you,” Jadin said. “The only exit to be used at this time of night is the main gateway.” He shook his head. “Besides, no offence, but you look up to no good.” He sighed. “Maybe I was nai... er... oh what’s the word?”
“Naive?” Matthias ventured, in an attempt to hurry things along. He doubled over as his lungs tried to suck in air, and rested his hands on his knees.
“Yer, that’s the one, naive – in thinking you was a good lad earlier, if you is running about like a thief. Who’s chasing you?”
As if on cue, Josephine and Thadius rounded the corner. They slid to a halt inches from crashing into Matthias. Josephine slumped against the wall, her chest heaving. Thadius coughed heavily. His lungs burned like they were on fire.
Jadin spotted Thadius instantly. “Here, Thadius! Look here – I-I stopped him! He’s the one you want!” He nodded to Matthias, who rolled his eyes. “Tried to bribe me as well, he did!” Jadin held out the handful of coin.” His eyes then fell on Josephine.
“What?” Jadin gasped. “Is that-?” Jadin stuttered, pointing to the princess. “Is it?”
“No, it’s not,” Matthias replied, still wheezing. “And they’re not chasing after me! Thadius?”
Thadius stepped up to Jadin. “You are ordered to open this gate, sir,” he commanded forcefully. “On the command of the King’s Guard.”
“Oh, no can do sir, I’m afraid. Rules is rules I’m afraid, no matter who you a-uuungh!”
Thadius had him pinned against the wall with one hand. “Open the door, Jadin!” he barked. “Or when I return I will tell your wife exactly what you did in that tavern the other week! Or should that be who?” The coin in Jadin’s hand scattered to the floor and rolled about the alleyway.
“Alright! Okay, okay!” Jadin spluttered. Thadius released his grip, and the gatekeeper scrambled with his keys, unfastening bolts and latches and locks and threw the door open. “There. It’s open. You can go!”
“That’s the spirit Jadin,” Matthias quipped, winking at the guard as Thadius and Josephine darted through the opening and out into the night beyond. “He’s harmless really.” He patted Jadin on the back and stepped briskly through the gate. “You can keep the change,” he added, nodding to the scattered coin on the floor. “Oh and one more thing.” He dove into his pocket one final time, and threw another gold coin towards the gatekeeper, who caught it clumsily. “Don’t let anyone else through.” He jerked a thumb towards the shadowy outline of Thadius. “He wouldn’t be happy if you did.” He disappeared a moment and then reappeared again one last time. “And keep yourself safe!” With a nod and a final grin at the bemused man, Matthias disappeared with the others into the darkness of the night. The sounds of whispering among the three people dispersed into the distance as Jadin watched them go.
The gatekeeper scratched his head and then, dismissing his musings about the trio with a shake, turned his attentions to the more important matter of the coin at his feet.
“Well, I’ll say one thing for that boy. He is certainly one generous young man.” There was more here than he could earn in a month! Six months perhaps! He closed the gate, re-bolted the many, many locks and sat back down again on his old barrel to keep watch, clinking the money between his hands.
The alley grew silent again and Jadin enjoyed a little snooze on his rickety perch. He pulled his coat tighter around him. There was a chill in the air tonight.
There was a clatter from the shadows, and with a start Jadin lurched up. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled, and his eyes strained as he peered into the shadows. Watching the darkness in front of him, he fumbled behind h
is back until he found the handle of the small, brass oil lamp propped on the crate and gingerly held the light up.
“Hello? Who goes there?” Silence. Jadin took a step forward, and the faint sound of stifled breathing carried across the air. “Come on! Out with you! I’ve had more than enough crap for one night! Jacob, if that’s you mucking around-”
A figure emerged from within the shadows, and it was not Jacob, nor was it anyone the man recognised. Jadin’s breath caught at the sight that lay before him, and his eyes widened in fear. His lip quivered. “Now, now! I don’t want no more trouble. I-”
The figure moved fast. The knife whipped about quickly, expertly, and Jadin’s body fell to the ground. Blood spilled from the wound in Jadin’s throat, and the figure stepped over him and picked up the keys.
“The first blood...” the figure voice whispered. “Just as it was foretold.”
Riddles in the Dark
115th Day of the Cycle, 495 N.E. (New Era)
“Do you intend for us to walk the entire journey to Olindia on foot with those creatures in pursuit?” Thadius whispered as they continued to wade quickly through the long, damp grass beyond the gate. The outline of Rina stood tall behind them in the moonlight, in spite of how quickly they moved. They had been out of the city for nearly a half - hour and nothing else had appeared to follow them the way they had come.
“Horses would have attracted too much attention, don’t you think?” Matthias replied. “Besides, there was hardly enough time to breathe let alone get to the stables. I wasn’t going to mess about with saddles and stirrups with a twenty-ton demon breathing down my neck!”
“Well I am just glad that we made it out of there,” Josephine said. “Those creatures were terrible. I have never seen the like.”
“Some call them demons, others call them helspawn,” Matthias advised.
“I know what a helspawn is, ambassasor,” Josephine whispered tersely. “There are very few in Aralia who do not know of them. We share a border, after all, with the wastelands of Helriven. What I was speaking of was their strength and size. The beasts I have seen brought back to Rina on occasion from the abandoned wastelands are emaciated, skeletal creatures. These were very different.”
“They come in all shapes and sizes,” Matthias replied. “Those creatures your people encounter in Helriven are weak from their struggle to survive on scraps of food. These ones are different. They’ve been bred for a purpose, like a pack of hunting dogs.”
“Four hundred years of us slaughtering their kin should have taught them their place,” Thadius growled. “They must be either desperate to be killed or just plain mad.”
“Or afraid of something far more than your king’s armies?” Matthias ventured.
“Who are these people who want me dead, that they could command demons?” Josephine asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine, princess,” Matthias said. “But my people intend to find out. Whatever could cause the gods to be afraid enough to send a seeing stone down to Erithia surely cannot remain hidden in the shadows for long.”
“I wish I hadn’t asked,” Josephine shivered.
They carried on walking in the darkness, stumbling across the grassland. Rina grew smaller as they made their way down the sloping grassland, until the tops of the city disappeared into the dark.
“What exactly did Jadin do in that tavern Thadius?” Matthias asked to make conversation as they continued.
“I don’t feel it would be quite appropriate to tell you with the princess present,” he replied, coughing awkwardly
“I see,” Matthias said, smiling to himself in the darkness.
“My feet are hurting already,” Josephine said, changing the subject. “I am unused to walking in such terrain. How far are we to the nearest-” Josephine was cut off by a surge of flame and a mound of earth exploding from behind. Her legs flew from under her, and she stumbled to her knees.
“Stay down!” Matthias yelled back, and Josephine covered her head with her hands and screamed as flame burst inches from her face and smattered her cheeks with mud. Thadius threw their bags to the ground and took his sword in hand. The blade gleamed in the moonlight. Matthias whirled around as another surge of flame ruptured the ground nearby. Dirt exploded into the sky and covered them.
A figure darted through the grass towards them, bolts of light shooting from his hands. They struck the earth all about them and ruptured the ground, the mud surging into the sky with the force of the impact. Matthias threw an arm forward, palm outstretched, and a fireball began to form, growing larger until it encompassed his entire hand. His arm reeled as he let it fly, hurtling towards the dark figure, who dodged the flame, forward - rolling through the grass, before springing up nimbly and launching towards Matthias.
As he drew close, the attacker’s features were revealed. He was a human man, with knotted, greasy black and grey hair curling down to his shoulders. He wore all - black clothing; muslin breeches were tied up with string and a loose - hanging cotton shirt, open at the collar, clung to his sweaty, skeletal form. He was an almost invisible silhouette in the deep darkness of the night, except for a silvery blade he clutched in his left hand, which he now whirled at Matthias. The wizard deflected it, pulling his staff from his back with seconds to spare and thrusting it into the sword’s path. The moonlight shone off the polished weapon and the man’s face was briefly illuminated off the blade's reflection: his hawked nose jutted out from a thin, emaciated face and a narrow, grinding jaw flanked with high cheekbones. His rotten, yellowed teeth, encrusted with muck, were bared in fury as he swiped savagely at Matthias again and again.
Thadius swung at him but the man managed to spin away from the longsword almost inconceivably given his decidedly delicate frame, and let a bolt of energy burst from his palm, striking the soldier in the chest. He went down like a wounded bear. The man turned and flailed at Matthias again but the wizard ducked down, narrowly avoiding a deadly slash at his neck, before bringing his staff back around at the attacker, striking him heavily on the temple. The man fell but before Matthias could pin him he kicked out and caught the wizard on his left shin. Matthias lost his footing, and stumbled to the ground. Throbbing pain seared up his leg. He cursed and grimaced at the man before him, who nodded triumphantly, muttering to himself and fumbling through the grass with his blade towards Matthias again.
Matthias rolled as the blade sliced into the wet soil where his head had been and stuck in the mulch. He outstretched his hand and used the earth power to push the man to the ground, the air groaning with the effort of being manipulated. As the assassin landed on his back with a thud, Matthias sprung himself up using his legs as a counterbalance, and quickly pressed the end of his staff against the man’s neck. There was a sucking noise, and the man’s body seemed to grow rigid. It was over.
“Who are you? Why did you attack us?” Matthias demanded. Thadius came up beside him; a smoky tear burnt into his shirt and stuck his blade next to Matthias’s staff at the man’s neck.
“Answer him, or I’ll cut your throat!” he growled. “Did you send those monsters?”
The man spluttered and coughed, but Matthias didn’t release the pressure of his staff on the man’s neck. The man began to laugh manically. “Cut my throat!” he bubbled. “It will make no difference. You are all dead! We’re all dead!”
Matthias looked down at the man with dazzlingly blue eyes, shimmering like sapphires held against a candle, his face intent. As he did the man’s brow contorted. A thin vein snaked from his hairline to his nose, and it pulsed menacingly.
“I can do far worse than cut your throat, if you force me to. I can make your blood boil beneath your skin.”
Thadius turned his head to Matthias. “You can do that?” he asked, astonished. Matthias ignored him and continued.
“Right now your skin feels as if it is just a little sunburnt and you feel a little sweaty. That’s your blood just slightly raised in temperature. Now, feel the fire coursing through
your veins.” The man began convulsing. “I could cook you from the inside out!”
“What are you doing wizard?” Thadius asked.
“I know what I’m doing,” Matthias said angrily. “Now I ask you again, friend,” he said, as the man’s body shuddered and blood dribbled from his nostrils. “Who the hell are you?”
The man looked at him wildly. “Alright! Stop!” He growled through the pressure on his neck, as his face began to smoke in the cold night air. Matthias released the staff from his neck and his eyes dulled back to hazel. Thadius kept his sword pressed to the man’s neck.
“Speak then,” Matthias commanded.
“My name…” he wheezed “…is Taico Grimm.”
“Taico Grimm,” Matthias repeated, weighing the name out on his tongue.
“An appropriate name for such an unappealing man as yourself!” Josephine sniffed as she approached, brushing grass from her skirt and her hair. “I am fine, by the way,” she snorted at Matthias and Thadius.
Grimm’s face grew soft as he saw her. “You are so... different in the flesh,” he whispered, and his eyes flickered between anger and what appeared sorrow. “You are so beautiful without the blood drenching your hands!”
The princess looked to her palms. “Whatever do you mean?” She asked. “What blood?”
“The blood of thousands of men and women.” He smiled. “The wizard will come and the cycle will start, his intervention will tear the world apart,” Grimm breathed, nodding.
“Answer her properly,” Thadius barked and pressed his sword harder into the man’s throat.
“Burly man with arms of steel: curiosity and heroism will be his heel!” Grimm chimed, his eyes working madly as he stared from one of them to the other. He began to laugh. “Oh you cannot know what terrors await this world now!”